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William H.
A HANDBOOK
OF
5 1935
'^'tWil^ALStJ^
GREEK RELIGION
BY
ARTHUR FAIRBANKS
3j<<
Copyright, 1910, by
greek religion.
p.
W.
PREFACE
Although
Greek
the mythology of Greece
is
religious antiquities
ligion, as such, is a
comparatively unknown
In the pres-
and
I.
of their
religious significance.
may be
Part
has been
left
more Greek religion will Parts II and III, but Greek mythology, on
are
If too
who
much
laid
and
religion,
it
may be regarded
from the
mind.
thology, an easy subject to handle.
For various reasons Greek religion is not, like Greek myThere is one mytholog)',
many
Greek
many
religion
come
in
authors.
As
to
possible,
it
is
be helpful
in
ARTHUR FAIRBANKS.
April,
1
910.
CONTENTS
PAGE
Introduction
13
Was
local shrine.
What
did religion
The
PART
39
Theophany
in the
Ho-
meric poems. Signs in the ordinary course of nature. Signs in nature birds. Minor signs in nature chance words, etc. DiviInspiration (a) dreams ; nation by means of sacrificial victims.
: :
{d) prophets.
II.
Oracles.
65
Sacred persons;
:
priests
and
(a)
prayers,
hymns,
;
curses,
(c) the
oaths
sacrificial
Worship meal (</) propitiatory sacrifice, purification. Worpanhellenic worship. from the standpoint of the state ship of the individual and the home. The Eleusinian mysteries.
;
III.
138
The nature
of the
gods as individuals.
Gods Gods of
human
IV.
activities
and emotions.
Heroes. 168
Life
Traces of an early worship of the dead. Funeral rites. The worship of souls. The gods of the underworld. Transfiguration of the future life in the worship of Dionysus and of Demeter.
epic conception of the soul.
CONTENTS
PART
CHAPIER
I.
II
189
II.
Religion in the Greek "Middle Ages" Changes in the period 1 100-700 B.C. Religion poems. The theogony of Hesiod.
....
in the
215
Homeric
230
III.
Religion in the Seventh and Sixth Centuries b.c. . Social and political changes literature. Changes in belief and worship. The rise of Dionysus worship. The Orphic move.
ment.
IV.
Religion in the Fifth and Fourth Centuries e.g.; Hellenism AT ITS Height The Persian wars and the exaltation of the Athenian state. The first Athenian empire. The Peloponnesian war. The fourth
century.
249
V.
273
The
influence of
Greek
re-
on Roman
religion.
Greek
religion
and
Christianity.
PART
I.
III
294
II.
....
.
306
III.
322
criticism of religion.
IV.
The
334
The nature of a god in Greece. Sin and the remedy for sin. The conception of the religious life. Appendix I. The Historical Development of a Greek God Appendix II. Table of Religious Festivals at Athens
"Monotheism"
Greece.
.
350
364
Appendix
III.
Bibliography
366
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
FIGURE
1.
PAGE
15
2.
20
97,
fig.
103.
3.
....
, ,
.
.
24
31
4.
5.
45
I,
pi. 35.
6.
7.
.....,,.
.....
... ...
. .
....
48
59
61
8.
9.
Plan of the Precinct of Apollo at Delphi Luckenbach, Olympia unci Delphi, p. 45. View of the Ruins of the Shrine of Apollo at Delphi
62 68
Photograph,
10.
Museum)
11.
Athenian Black-figured Vase Painting (Lekythos, Athens) Jahr. Inst. 6 (1891) 36, fig. 23.
69
70
72
12.
The Great
Altar at Pergamon (restoration) Ei'gebnisse der Aiisgrabungen zu Pergamon, III, pi. 19.
of the Parthenon
2.
13.
Ground Plan
Baumeister, Denknililer,
14.
1172,
fig.
362.
73
73
Photograph.
15.
Coin of Megalopolis (Reign of Caracalla) Imhoof-Blumer and Gardner, Numismatic Commentary on Pausanias, pi. V. vi.
16.
Gem
........
Gemmen,
pi. 49. 12.
74
17.
Athenian
Red-figured Vase
Painting
(Staninos
pi.
in
the
British
Museum)
Gerhard, Auserlesene Vasenhilder,
18.
77
155.
Priest of
Dionysus
in the
Theatre
at
Athens
80
lo
FIGURE
19.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
Relief from the Asclepieum at Athens BtilL Corr. Hell. 2 (1878), pi. 8.
Relief from Thessaly (Thebes)
90
92 93
20.
Daremberg-Saglio,
21.
p. 376, fig.
........
2543.
in
fig.
20.
22.
94
95
23.
24.
Athenian Red-figured V^ase Painting (Staninos Gerhard, Aus. Vas. Taf. 81.
Munich)
99
loi
25.
in
Boston)
From
26.
a drawing.
in
Athenian Red-figured Vase Painting (Kylix Jour. Hell. Stud. 10 (1889), pi. i.
Relief in Thebes Stengel, Griech. Cultusalt. Taf.
Athens)
104
108
27.
..........
I, fig. 2. 2.
28.
no
914,
fig.
988.
in
29.
Athenian Red-figured Vase Painting (Amphora Benndorf, Griech. Sic. Vas. Taf. 9.
Munich)
.
HJ
30.
Scene from Panathenaic Amphora (British Museum) Baumeister, Denkmaler, 2. 1152, fig. 1346.
Plan of the Ruins at Olympia Hachtman, Olympia, 20.
. .
31.
32.
fig.
14.
^^Tf.
i-j
(1892) 229.
at
34.
Kpidaurus
.125
128
35.
lig.
120.
36.
129
37.
Vase with Figures in Relief (St. Petersburg) Baumeister, Denkmaler, i. 4-4, fig. 520.
Marble Funerary Urn (Terme Museum, Rome)
(1879), pi. 2. Fragment of a Small Votive Figure (Eleusis) Ath. Mitth. 17 (1892) 129, fig. 4.
7
. .
130
38.
133
134
Bull.
39.
40.
136
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
FIGURE
41.
ii
PAGE
149
pi. 15. 19.
42.
150
151
43.
44.
^S'
Friedlander-Sallet,
45.
in Berlin,
Coins,
pi. 8.
761.
153
and Roman
pi. 3. 7.
.
Coin of Selinus (about 460 B.C.) Hill, Handbook of Greek and Roman Coins, pi. 6. 47. Athenian Red-figured Vase Painting (St. Petersburg)
46.
1-4
2.
. .
.157
158
Baumeister, Denkmaler,
48.
i.
104,
fig.
no.
fig.
i.
49.
B.C.,
Boston)
160 162
50.
51.
.171
173
175
52.
53.
54.
Tombs
at
Tanagra (Boston)
"177
181
55.
56.
183
2042 B.
at
figs.
57.
198
199
58.
Jahr.
59.
Inst. 13 (1898),
Plan of the Dictaean Cave Brit. School Ann. 6 (1899) 94, pi. 8. 60. The " Shrine of the Double Axes " at Cnossos Brit. School Ann. 8 (1901) 97, fig, 55. 61. Libation Tables and Dishes Brit. School Ann. 6 (1899), pi. ii. 62. Steatite Vase from Hagia Triada Monumenti Antichi^ 13, Tav. i and 3.
200
201
203
.
204
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
FIGURE
63.
PAGE
205
fig.
64.
Gem
from Vaphio
.....
pi.
85.
o
10, 35.
Faience Figure from Cnossos B7'it. School Ann. 9 (1902) 75, fig, 54. 67. Gold Ring from Mycenae Schuchhardt, Schlienianns Aiisgrabungen,
66.
...
206
207
208 209 212
235
68.
69.
Marble Relief from the Peiraeus (Berlin) Harrison, Prolegomena to the .\tU(/j of Greek Religion, 19, fig. Athenian Red-figured Vase Painting (Kylix by Hieron, Berlin)
Boetticher, Bauinkultns, Taf. 42.
2.
70.
71.
....... ........
fig.
246 276
496.
761,
'i\^.
812.
72.
Mon.
73.
Tav.
8. 5.
Coin of Naxos (about 460 B.C.) Hill, Greek and A'oman Coins,
301
pi. 6. i.
74.
302
75.
Mon.
in
inedil.
Tav. 36.
......
.
308 318
76.
Marble Relief
Athens
Photograph.
INTRODUCTION
1.
Was
there
Greek
is
Religion?
The
rich
and varied
mythology of Greece
studied
more composed
with
is
rarely
and it has been studied Homeric poems were but the question whether these gods were worshipped asked. Such a strange condition of affairs is due partly
classics,
religion
is,
partly to the
left
fact
that
dogma and
gods
in
no sacred
writings.
The
picture of the
Greek
myth
so
suggest worship.
And
it
is
not
to
difficult
to see that
myths have
side
become
familiar as quite
overshadow any
religious
Greek poetry, but the poetry of Rome and of every later drawn its inspiration from these myths. The question remains whether worship and the religious
life.
The answer
religion.
to
this
question
depends on our
definition of
in the world, but something more than the world itself, a god whose wisdom and love are manifested with increasing clearness. Moreover religion rests on the revelation of this god to man, and the revelation is stated, however imperfectly, in creeds and dogmas. A god of absolute holiness, the human soul with eternal
possibilities of blessedness or
such, perhaps,
we understand
14
GREEK RELIGION
They were not present in Greece. The gods were not holy, nor That did religion judge human life from the ethical standpoint.
a god should care for
men
as
men
is
There was no
religious
will
religion
is
man and interested in his welfare, if it is the yearning of the human heart for the protection and sympathy of its gods, if prayer
and
it
sacrifice
and the
gods are
religion,
we
find
in
Greece.
Greek
city
worshipped, as few
cities are
men The
our
many
in the year as
Sundays.
When
St.
many
Unknown God,"
erected to
correct any possible omission, he might well call the Athenians a " very religious " people.^ From the earliest effort to win aid from
vaguely conceived
spirits
up
to the ideal of
irregular.
drama, to
we may
And
in rites of feasting
religious
enough
A
that
in
superficial
investigation
is
sufficient
to
establish
the
fact
religious
practices
Greece
as
That
is
religion
rested
for
for
somewhat
lightly
religious rites
were
no reason
It
only remains to
is
sufficient to justify
an
And
not
difficult.
artists,
The
found
greater
in the
refails
No
and our
Acts
17, 23.
INTRODUCTION
15
show how the artist found and interAs Aristotle remarks,^ the name
equivalent to "paternal ruler" and
The
inherent like-
man and
of
god, the
man,
has
clearly than
It
idea of
lies
communion underand
that
in
worship,
grows
like
him.
man We may
that
frankly
acknowledge
by the
people, and
there
is
still
claim that
religion
Greek
this
deserving of study.
Nor was
without
its
religion
continuing polater
tency
It will
in
Europe.
Fig.
I.
appear
later in the
Zeus
is
from Mylasa
(Boston)
discussion that
Greek
life
The head
marble copy
pia by Pheidias.
no phase of
it
if its
religious
side
ideals
which
Further,
will also
appear
Greek
religious rites.
1
Aristotle, Polit
12.
i6
GREEK RELIGION
religion has exercised about as
Greek
much
directly,
on various phases of modern life, as Greek mythology has exercised on modern literature. And if Greek religion is to be studied for the influence it has had on modern life, as well as for its immediate influence on other
phases of Greek
life,
much
in-
creased by
{i.e.
its
compared with
dili-
Christianity).
Rome.
This latter
profit
that in
is
not
conceptions in another
field,
but rather to
Athens
in the fifth
secondly, the
;
main
and
thirdly,
details of religious
worship that ordinarily the usages of Athens alone have been presented
;
it is
imperatively necessary.
is
Mythology and Religion. It has been assumed in the pretliat Greek religion is something quite different from Greek mythology, yet the fact remains that they are often confused. And inasmuch as every reader first becomes acquainted with the Greek gods through myth, it is essential for the student
2.
ceding section
INTRODUCTION
religion
*'
17
and mythology. Myths I have defined elsewhere^ as superhuman beings, often improbable to us,
The beings but believed to be true by those who related them." which appear in myths are inevitably personal, for the myth tells
of their actions
form.
to
life
Some
"
;
and the myth as inevitably assumes the story of the tales appear to us weird, immoral, hardly " true
;
Nor was
it till
become an
ele-
ment of
them.
poetry
:
literature that
to poetry, for
it
is
satisfy the
intelligence
and
who repeated
myth proper
priests.
them.
was never an
of dogma.
Among
In Egypt, for instance, and in India, the stories of the gods bore stamp.
The
however, was such that myths were kept comparatively free from
the
artificial
primarily a matter of
in
worship (such as
includes
It certainly
Greek
belief about
The
differences
(i) Religion and mythology represent the gods from vitally dif1
p. i.
Cp. infra,
p.
76
f.
i8
ferent standpoints.
GREEK RELIGION
Most of the superhuman beings
in
myths are
whom men
is
worship
in
absolutely untram-
The Athena
Iliad)
far
whom Pheidias represented in gold and ivory, that spirit of dom who stood for all that was best in the Athenian people.
the
In
Homeric poems the Apollo worshipped by Chryses {I/iad, 2) and the Apollo wounding Patroclus from behind on the battlefield {Mad, 16) have little in common; nor does Apollo slaying the
whom
in arms suggest the sage spirit of Delphi to Greek world looked for guidance. Mythology is not a peculiar form of theology in poetic guise myths were originally
they
were often incorporated in hymns of worship, but they had little enough to do with worship.
(2)
It appears, further, that the
in
themselves
by no means coincide with the supernatural beings of myth. The greater gods appear in both lists ; in addition mythology includes
all manner of inferior beings, such as nymphs, satyrs, centaurs, which rarely or never are worshipped, and a long list of heroes
very few of
spirits
whom
if
are worshipped.
who
;
receive worship in
or
by myth
the
On the other hand the lesser some one locality, are rarely heeded name appears in myth it may mean a person
At Athens such
radically different
of religion
is
to be explained
by means of mythology.
So
far as
Greece
is
to
be
reversed.
religious
Mythology
ritual,
really derived
much
of
its
content from
ordinarily
come
The gods
identical, a fact
INTRODUCTION
19
seems simple enough when the difference of standpoint is once fully grasped. If there were no other proof that myth is not the religious doctrine of the Greek gods, it would be sufficient to
point out that these two groups of gods do not coincide.
(3)
And where
is
the
nificance
located
(epithet)
at
;
shrines,
in
as universal as the
known
world,
no more than favorite haunts. god are sharply defined and his personal character corresponds to his specific functions the god of worship has widespread power to bless, a power by no means limited to his function in myth. The process by which myths arose has left the gods, some in a non-moral form, some in a form distinctly at variance with human standards of morality. Worship did not always make of them moral beings, but inasmuch as the relation between god and worshippers is of a moral nature, and further, inasmuch as the Greek gods (like men) were members of the moral universe, the tendency in Greece is toward an ultimate union of religion and morality. Finally, mythology exists by making its gods very human, and as it develops into a system the gods acquire definite personal characters. For the worshipper a god
their local relations are
stirs
the emotion of
no
Even
all,
man
is
often
blunted in religious
ritual.
remain gods
at
when
chil-
and Ares,
that the
is
more important gods do appear More than this, there can be no myths were passed on from mouth to mouth at the
festi-
20
vals.
GREEK RELIGION
The
influence of these gatherings would be most
marked on
ii,
that class of
myths which
Much
of the Homeric
hymn
Demeter
(cp. Part
I,
Chap,
p.
and the practices of worship were the influence shaping the myth
as to the origin of the cult.
Fig.
2.
Late
Greek Relief
Apollo
is
from Nike.
the contest of Athena with Poseidon are connected with the worship of the goddess on the Acropolis.
priests
ever had
much
to
demand
from
diff"erent parts
of the country,
till
in
the
The
practice
of
theme
was almost inevitably chosen from the legend of the shrine where
he sang.
At Delphi
it
birth, or his
coming
to Delphi,
INTRODUCTION
or his victory over the dragon
21
perhaps all three themes at once which was celebrated in these contests. In this way a myth might find its way into actual hymns of worship, though here there
to
Zeus
is
apparently
somewhat widely
So the story
festival.
In-
states in poetic
religion.
form an important
fact in the
Greek
myths
to
in
Greece
just
noted
myths which
mark them
two
are not
Again,
to teach
deep
religious
tales of
lessons.
modify
;
own
religious ideas
life
while tragedy
myth.
On
we have no
religion, priests
their province.
ing, its real
Where myth becomes a vehicle of religious teachnature as myth is essentially modified before it can
The
enumerated above (pp. 18-19) affected the conceptions of the worshipper both directly and through the medium of worship. When the Athenians worshipped Athena as Itonia, or and every cult had some such Hippia, or Skiras, or Hygieia,
as
myth
distinctive epithet
^i
GREEK RELIGION
all these forms and who was honored in all the Greek world cannot have been wholly absent from their minds. And it is inconceivable that the idea of gods human enough to sympathize with the needs and desires of men, as they appear in
who embodied
new
was
con-
meaning
its
to ritual.
This
human
;
side of the
affected ritual.
Greek
;
religion
is
excluded
it is,
however, appar-
come
into consideration at
many
and on the
and myth
is
religion
religion, the
concep-
altar) is independent of and the god of each shrine is ordinarily treated as if he were independent of gods worshipped elsewhere. The local nature of Greek religion meant that there were as many religions as there were cities, or rather as many as there were individual shrines all over Greece. The first task of the
various shrines
any other
religious authority,
student
is
to grasp the
meaning of
Greek
We may
the
first
in
connection with
god there worshipped. At the hundreds of points where Athena was worshipped in Greece, the goddess was never twice conceived in exactly the same manner. Even where the epithet attached to her name is the same, we have no assurance that it is really the same goddess. For instance, the Athena Itonia of one shrine is by no means identical with the Athena Itonia of another shrine. At Athens Apollo Pythios, Apollo Patroos, Apollo Agyieus,
Apollo Thargelios, are practically independent beings for worship.
At the one
festival
INTRODUCTION
to
23
as if they
Athena
Polias, to
to
Athena Hygieia,
is
it is
This principle
diametrically opposed
myth, and
by no means easy to
grasp
fundamental for the knowledge of Greek rehgion. Our problem, moreover, is not to determine how the gods of myth
;
yet
it is
were
split into
names and
in
how myth
were made
The same facts may be considered from the standpoint of the city. The cults of any one city or tribe or family belong to that one social unit, and make no appeal to outsiders. In the mind
of her worshippers Hera of Argos
is
almost as independent of
is
as
Trophonius at Lebadeia
indeis
its
earth-spirits.
Each
;
cult centre in
its
Athens
forms of worship,
itself.
priests,
are pecuhar to
few cult
true, are
number have no such connections. The worcomposed of much the same people; the priests are appointed and accounts audited by the same state; myth suggests that much the same gods are found elsewhere. Except for these somewhat external bonds of union, each cult stood alone and by itself. We may go farther and say that each god or goddess was treated in worship much as if no other gods existed. The third book of
by
far
the greater
don there
existence.
is
sacrifice is
At the sacrifice to Poseino thought of any other god and the next day, when offered to Athena, there is no mention of Poseidon's With another sort of animal for the sacrifice and a
;
is
absorbed
1 "
in
another god.
may be
better under-
is one person or two, i.e. Ourania and Pandemos, I do even Zeus, who seems to be one and the same, has many epithets added to his name." Socrates in Xenophon, Symp. 8. 9. 2 Cp. Rohde, Die Religion der Griechen, 8-9. 3 Cp. infra, p. 68.
Whether Aphrodite
;
not
know
for
24
GREEK RELIGION
in the
Supreme Deity
at
is
ob-
So
were mutually exclusive, while they existed amicably side by When Dionysus was worshipped, Athena and Artemis and
Fig.
3.
Section of the
Artemis ?) are represented as " guests " at the Panathenaic festival of Athena.
in prayers;
Poseidon
at
some
tion
festivals
no other gods
belief,
existed.
Without interfering
polytheism of
The connection
1
Compare
frieze.
INTRODUCTION
may
the connection between religion and the state.
say here that the Greeks found
it
25
enough
to
came
to the
Voluntary religious
the
fifth
B.C.
built,
Similarly religious
Thus each local cult maintained the bond and some one point in the world of the gods. A more important result of the facts now under discussion was the absence of any central religious authority for behef or for practice. It is characteristic of Greek religion that its gods were
its
authority.
between the
state
The
ritual
the
who demanded such worship at the different cult centres. Were it not for mythology we .should know little of the gods, but perhaps we should know as much as the Greeks themselves. And it has
already been pointed out that the myths were in no sense theological
dogma.
They contain no
;
any
religious truth
were not a
state-
ment of behef.
It is for this
lines.
Nowhere
else
myths of the gods such pure products of the untrammelled imagination, nowhere else can they be studied simply as artistic productions.
The
fifth
to treat the
gods in
this
manner.
26
GREEK RELIGION
More
exactly there
is
some
effort to purify
myth
that
is
man to it may
always
Yet
this
end
Moreover, a
it is
may have
creator.
binding
not even on
The attempts of philosophy to deal with theological problems belong to a much later date, and have still Religious phenomena were less significance for Greek religion. among the last to receive philosophical criticism it is in the early
its
;
Greek
religion, that
The
absence of
dogma
is
matters.
Where
a priestly
was
own
through the
Or even without conscious interposition by a priestly caste sacred books may gain an authority only to be explained by assuming that they are a direct revelation of the divine will. The
emphasis
laid
on the Bible
made
reader.
But
an authority
That the Greek conception of revelation differed in toto from the conception in priest-religions and in we must book-religions was a necessary result (see Part I, Chap, i)
on
religious
matters.
The
only authority for ritual or for belief in Greece was the traRitual was the habit of
in
any
rules,
but passed on
Alt. 2. 169
f.
cp.
Schoemann, Griech.
and
references.
INTRODUCTION
with the authority of an immemorial antiquity
;
27
similarly, the only theology was the habit of thought about the god of that shrine,
which was developed in its worshippers. A particular form of worship was observed primarily because such had always been the form of worship. If a reason were asked, it was readily found in the statement that what had gratified the god in the past was most likely to gratify him again. And if any change in ritual occurred,
it
could be justified by the claim that the expedient was successin gratifying the
ful
god, for he
;
continued
it
;
to
show
his
favor.
worship as
it
The counterpart
once.
must be stated
at
any change
it
as a
good and
usefid custom.
In the course of time Greek thought of the gods changed, and the
change was gradually reflected in the belief and practice at each shrine where they were worshipped. Quite commonly, however,
these changes consisted in additions to practices already in vogue.
The
result
is
that
we may
detect at
many
strata
The
Greek
religion
is
at
once revealed by
unimportant.
this state
of
affairs.
He
relatively
He
finds
which belong
shall
If he
is
able
which
which
his task
is
accomplished.
The
multiplicity
little
attention which has been given to the subject explain the lack of
agreement as yet
in
regard to
it.
28
GREEK REUCxION
Greek
religion, then,
we must
place
from
In the
first
as
many forms
of religion,
not as
many
different religions, as
It
constant interchange of ideas and even of cult-forms, as worshippers passed from one shrine to another.
From
the interchange of
ideas and practices there gradually arose two general types of sacrifice,
one a glad
feast in
prospered the
state, the
other a solemn
who
dis-
w^hile
some
was a
distinct
tendency toward
common
prac-
and
common
independent author-
some
is
that
it
was only
conse-
by any statement of
its
content, which
;
was not
any one
it
class of the
people
(e.g.
gods as he chose.
Aristophanes might
make
;
made no
At a
differ-
festival
many
tom of
We
shall
not look
among such
a people for
and 105
INTRODUCTION
human
its
29
at every point,
to every
human
ideal
we may note
dogma was
Perhaps
most important
ual
of religion in Greece.
there never was a people with any degree of culture whose spirit-
free
at all peculiar to
was passed on from one generation to another, the interpretation of the rites was easily forgotten. On the one hand a great spiritual force might be quickly dissipated ; on
But as
ritual
the other
hand a new
spiritual
some accretion
to the old
tions regnant in
religion a
each phase of civilization makes the history of most valuable commentary on the development of the
;
Greek people
at the
in
gion
4.
is
rendered peculiarly
did Religion
What
to the significance
mean to the Greeks ? The question as of Greek religion is better asked at the concluan introduction
to
them
the
some consideration of
more intelligible. more necessary because of the emphasis which has often been laid on the investigation of the origin of religion. Perhaps the study of Greek religion has suffered unduly from this trend of modern thought, because matters seemed so clear and simple. With equal confidence the origin of the Greek gods has been assigned to a habit of deifying natural phenomena, and again to a habit of offering worship to the souls of ancestors. The worship of ancestors was a real and widespread element of Greek rehgion, but it
1
iv.
30
GREEK RELIGION
Similarly, the hypothesis
remains to be proved that the worship of any single god did arise
or could have arisen from this source.
that the
Greek gods arose from some habit of deifying natural phenomena neither can be proved nor does it serve to explain
the facts.
It
whether sun or
beings,
seems clear that the Greeks did not worship physical objects, On the conriver or growing tree or any idol.
served to people the world with superhuman
and in their humanity expressing Greek thought of the world and its phenomena. Zeus was both rain came from father of gods and men, and the spirit of the sky
in their nature
;
human
Zeus, the lightning was his weapon, his worship belonged naturally
on high peaks,
his
of the vine, even so that the juice of the grape seemed to be the
all
Yet
visiting
;
one spot
men
his gift
of the wine
Apollo,
who came
to
be associated
as a
shepherd
will,
men
the divine
And
Aphrodite, as rep-
human
of the
human
whom
If
fundamental principle
of the universe.
we
we
find the
in personal,
all
but human,
beings.
The
of the
in trouble.
The
farmer's
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^r
''i^^l
32
like his
GREEK RELIGION
own, whose blessing he
may
gain by worship
And
there are
many
festivals like
life
the Greeks did not lose this spiritual touch with nature.
of nature
in
spiritual
friendly to
man, who were members of that same community to which the human world belonged. To-day the sublime and the
similarly
Hebrew
;
Greek
different,
for in his
work
The
for the
he was an integral
their religion
part.
was not a worship of nature, but a worship of spirits by peopling their world with (almost human spirits) in nature
;
such
fact.
spirits,
they
made
As
frailty
for the
it
aggerated expression
and
sin
on the
The Homeric gods exhibit human same large scale as human virtue and power.
myth.
Not only did myths tell of the presence of gods in the we must go further and say that worship was society of men based on the belief in such a relation as actually existing. The gods of other peoples were now more vague, now more closely bound up with objects in nature, more abstract, more to be none stood dreaded, perhaps more lofty than the Greek gods
gods.
;
in closer
It
is
practically true
that these
man
INTRODUCTION
from
In
his subjects hardly less
33
many
religions the
than the gods differed from men. development of the gods was away from
;
or philosophical ideals
the
more
perfectly expressed
the
human
nature.
fully identi-
earth, as to obscure in
ter.
It is in
Demeter
that
sorrowing but
triumphant.
Hera
each
some human
from
this
may
human
and of morality. As beings intimately related to man, the gods And this means shared the Greek impulse toward the beautiful. not merely that the highest expression of the artist's power was
found in the creation of divine images, and
suitable
in the
erection of
It
homes
for
the
to the
power of a Pheidias
physical
to give
some
It
means
home
We may
even go so
far
unity and
Greek thought as to the character and the rule of the gods. The symmetry of their personality, the graciousness of their nature, the kindly spirit of their relations to each other and to men, are a reflection of that aesthetic ideal which was so dominant in Greek hfe.
And
and the
unity
religion
iSee Part
III,
GREEK RELIGION
34
only in the sense that
istic
GREEK RELIGION
men were
moral beings.
It
was character-
of the Greek
stern
mind not to judge human life and activity by moral standards. The consciousness of right and wrong
human
act.
And
human
enough so
moral law.
embodiment
of moral ideals,
demanded of
god
in
Nowhere does the essentially human nature of the Greek gods, at the same time their relation to the physical world, come out more clearly than in the consideration of the " divine government " of the world. These gods did not create the world out of
and
nothing, for
transfer
man
as
The
assumed
serve
and
it
human
;
ends, so
Athena and Hephaestus taught men the arts and crafts and Demeter showed them how to cultivate the grain. Yet it was
in the social world, in the relations of
men
to
the community, that the rule of the greater gods was most clearly
manifest.
The
in
men came
The
them, were not universal forces, but particular acts which ordinarily
had
relation of the
gods
of
was
some human council, in that the social a council came to express the essential unity of the
members
erned.
in
unity of such
city they gov-
in the
belonged
this
common
goal,
same society with men working together toward and that men might therefore look for the pargods
in every
phase of human
activity,
such
INTRODUCTION
The
general significance of worship in Greece
is
35
quite in h'ne
with what has been said as to the nature of the gods and the character of their rule.
effort to drive
Among
is
the
in the
world
away or to control for good the mysterious forces and the method is ordinarily what we should call
is
spirits.
Greek
gods.
On
Plato ^ to
men and
gods, or as a
right way to ask for what one wants and to give exchange what they want; although one must be blinder than Euthyphro, if he fails to see Plato's satire. Worship,
knowledge of the
the gods in
in truth,
it
was purely
spiritual
adoration.
The
found
is
that the
men live. For Greek Greek gods. That the symposium after the banquet should begin and end with prayer ; that the chief function of religion should be no painful rite, no long and tedious service, no task of the intellect, but a joyous feast on sacrificed flesh ; that comedy and tragedy should develop in conof that
members
same
society in which
worship
is
no
less
human than
the
human
so far
racing should
come
and horseand
all this is
at first to puzzle
is
The key
to the puzzle
man found
expression in this
human
religion.
for the
gods cared
of the gods.
1
Euthyphro, 14
Poliiicus,
290
cp, C./.4.
l-
397 (Kaibel,
Epi^. gmec.
7S2,)'
36
GREEK RELIGION
health, Asclepius
needing care for their For a knowledge of the future With the thought of death before
;
nowhere
is
this
need met
at
members
of the
same
man
worship
it
in the first place for men to pay divine and secondly it was reasonable to seek connection Both in the practice of bringing to the gods votive
intrinsic value,
some
and
much
the
same manner
as
human
rulers.
From
this point of
The
to
the gods
lies
ruler's superiority.
it
makes
fa-
miliar to us.
few extraordinary taxes paid by full citizens were ei(Tcf>opd and Aetrov/oyta, the first a " con" tribution " paid only in the stress of war, the second a " service
for the
in practice)
sufficient property.
second of these words, Xurovpyia (English, /itin-gy), which was at times used as a name for worship. We may say with entire truth,
then, that worship was like that form of taxation with which the
Athenians were
rightly
fimiliar, in that
it
was a voluntary
gift
which was
expected from
this
men on
is
certain occasions.
While
sacrifice.
offerings, the
second idea
predominant
in the
common
type of
INTRODUCTION
consisted
first
37
in
in processions
and secondly
common meal
procession was no whit different from such triumphal processions as have been familiar to European thought from the greater days of Rome on
the present.
The
till
priests
At Athens a great concourse of men, headed by utensils, brought honor both to the city
slowly
and
to its
made
its
way
as a
And
common meal
form of worship
is
not
it is
Only, the point emphasized in Greece was not so much the sacredness of the food as the behef that a common meal renewed the vital bond of union between the god and his worshippers. Among other peoples the effort
for
fanatical
in the
in
religion
is
ordinarily kept
background by the national sense of proportion. The connection with the gods which was secured by worship was primarily
a social matter, the same sort of
persons
in
the
common
pleasure
dance together with food and wine emphasized the belief that the god and his worshippers were united in one society; and
the connection with the gods
experience.
satisfies.
The meaning of a religion depends primarily on the need it It may be essentially spiritual and mystic in its answer
vague longings, or ethical in that
;
to
it
expresses a stern
command
of duty
it
may be
aesthetic, giving
philosophical,
great price.
all,
them
Greek religion. ever, was on the social forces, the Greek sought
in
to
men, how-
side.
facts
for a
found
the
it
as his imagination
at
To use home
in the world."
sB
" All that
its
is
GREEK RELIGION
unintelligible in the world
. .
.
it
were, from
mind as a gloriEvery phenomenon of nature, night and rosy-tingered fied image of itself. dawn,' earth and sun, winds, rivers and seas, sleep and death all have been transformed into divine and conscious agents, to be propitiated by prayer, interpreted by divination, and comprehended by passions and desires iden" There were other tical with those which stir and control mankind." ... powers, equally strange, dwelling in man's own heart. With these too he felt the need to make himself at home, and these too, to satisfy his need, he
dark
retreat, clothed in radiant form,
and presented
like himself.
...
...
Athene wis" at
dom,
in
And
thus religion
made him
home
in the world."
It is
Where we interpret the facts and processes of nature as a mechanical system, the Greek made them part of his social system. Danger was made intelligible,
did not worship natural objects.
solitude filled with consciousness,
human
life
man
might find
his true
1
home.
Life, p. 7, 8.
PART
of
Revelation.
The
in
fundamental
Greek religion and in Christianity lies in the fact that the Greeks, like most other races, assumed the existence of the gods, formed their notions of the divine character by making the gods in their own image, and
difference
When
the
omens
cure
;
for battle
battle
was delayed
means of word Expressed the approval of the gods, while an ominous dream deterred or encouraged the dreamer in his undertakings. Though signs and prophets and oracles
were not regarded as revealing the nature of the gods, they yet
religion.
throw
incidentally
religious nature of
religious antiquities
it is
convenient to divide
;
human
See Introduction,
39
p. 28.
40
to
GREEK RELIGION
one
class, signs
this
difference
is
merely
more important
to note
it
how
the knowledge of
or unsought.
the future
comes sought
and of human
history
is
in
them
it.
in
men can
On
mind
of the
human mind
gains
new
power
signs
to see
Divination by
artificial "
or scientific, in that
Inspiration of
success rested
signs.
prophets was called natural, or " without art," for the results
directly without any intervention of
came
human
learning.
The
history
absence of human science, but because the presupposition as to the working of the gods is different in the two cases.
on sacrifice and worship, the some extent from the data obtained from other authors. The reader should bear in mind that this course is not followed because the Homeric poems are more important than other
this chapter, as in the chapter
Note.
In
poems
are separated to
development of
far
reli-
gion.
more often
influence.
such that data from this source can only be used with
for
some
special
peculiarities.
Under
these
circumstances
2.
Theophany
in the
Homeric Poems.
In
(Plutarch)
2.
De
vita
De
divinatione,
i.
18/34,
49/119;
11/226.
41
''
matter of
for
Greek mind
of the
its
to
the
manifestation
divine
will.
The
epic,
starting
with
the
assumption that
two or three generations, made large use of direct visions of the Granted that Aeneas is the son of Aphrodite, Achilles of gods.
Thetis, Sarpedon of Zeus, granted that the
Hne of Priam
is
in Troy,
Mycenae
to
be traced
"
back
to Zeus,
it
is
no
barrier separated
mortal
men and gods. As gods had so recently favored men and women with their love, so in the time of the siege
warn them of danger or guide them in perplexity.^ to all men do the gods appear visibly,"^ nor do all Zeus and Hera, the gods deign to come so close to men. Iris and Hermes are generally Poseidon, remain on Olympus
"Not
common
messengers to men, while Athena and Apollo appear at In times in order to carry out their plans or the plans of Zeus. the gods date, earlier those parts of the poems assigned to an
The angry
hand of Athena on
just as later
kill
his
him
to
Hector.'^
Each message
is
is
own
is
felt
whom
Aphrodite comes as an old woman, Apollo as Agenor, Poseidon as Calchas ^ in the first books of the Odyssey Athena comes to Telemachus as Mentes, and later as Mentor accompanies
;
him on
his journey.
This type of theophany plays a large part Thirdly, in a few instances, the gods
battlefield
;
come
directly
till
on to the
Aphrodite
is
is
wounded by
Dioraedes
1
dazed by a blow of
Odyssey,
375
f.
UJad,
i.
* Iliad, 3.
42
GREEK RELIGION
may be dismissed
with the statement that the gods
made
ridiculous to
type
alone
is
The study
of
all
this
basis in religion.
men and
them by changing the course of events, it would have been for the poet even to make fun of the gods by bringing them
his song.
into
ordi-
He
rarely tried to
narily
he succeeded
in his effort to
actors
in his story.
The
seen in the
Attic drama, where occasionally the gods are brought on the stage.
3.
Except
in the
phenomena
Someto
of birds.
will
both
side
was
successful
Diomedes stopped his victorious advance."^ Lightning on the right hand signified definitely the flivor of Zeus.^ The only mention of thunder as a sign of approval is when Odysseus's
prayer for a favorable sign was answered by a thunderbolt.^
The
in
attribute
of Zeus, led the epic poets to emphasize this sign of the presence
1
Iliad, 5,
339 478
f.
21.
406
f.
4. 508.
Hjad,
8.
133.
2 Iliad, 7.
* Iliad, 9. 236,
100
f.
43
He
is
The
to
to
Delphi waited
for
lightning from
alludes
other references to
it
are almost
An
eclipse of the
moon
so affected Nicias
Some claimed
that a
At Athens
that Zeus
rain
in
indicated
is
An
earthquake
Delos
war.^
said to have
It is clear that
much
men
Further,
found
little
no place
in Greece.
portents or prodigies
portentous
marvels,
who grew
a beard,
that
leaped in the
frying-pan,
divine
drops of perspiration,
images that
moved
to
or shed
stories
show a
prophesied
Xenophon, Apol. 12
De
superstitione 8, p, 169
,
8 Plutarch, Lysander, 12, p. 439; Diodorus Siculus, 15. 50. ^ Thucydides, 2. 8. 3. Herodotus, 6. 98; Xenophon, Hell. 3. 2. 24.
;
6 Herodotus,
i.
175, 9. 120;
Timoleon,
12, p. 241.
44
GREEK
^
RELIGION'
was not favorable to behef
had grown.
in portents.
4.
Such a
scientific spirit
In the
will
Their freedom from human where lived the gods, the conNot, of course, that
;
gods
all
all
it
Zeus, the
hawk of Apollo,
right
on the
was
enough,
especially
when
its
it
came
right
answer to
prayer.''
The
talons or the
;
signified success
when
it
appeared
on the
when
be taken
in
the
definite
type
of the
event, as
when
Apollo's
hawk
eagle of Zeus
the
geese
hall.*^
Calchas
and
Hahtherses,
who
such
signs,
are
the
to
show
it
on bird-signs
in
them
in fact.
Prometheus,
in
men
Plutarch, Pericles,
6, p. 154.
2 Odyssey, 2. 146;
3 Iliad, 13.
4
15. 525,
821
24.
292;
247;
12.
200
f.
5 Iliad, 2. 308
6 Odyssey, 15.
525
f.
19.
536
f.
45
specially
for
The
any
the
Their appearance
itself favorable.^'
in
toward the
was in
Seers
to have
Fig.
5.
Athenian
Above a
Two
of Apollo.'*
in
The
increasing
reli-
2
3
*
Cp, Plato, Leg. 6, p. 760 D. Sophocles, Ant. 999; Euripides, Bacch. 347. Aeschylus, Again. 114 f.; Pers. 205 f.
46
gioiis practice
GREEK RELIGION
tended to eclipse the simple observance of natural
in
signs.
5.
Minor Signs
flight
Nature
Chance Words,
etc.
Just
as light-
here
human
life
comes
in
and gains
to
in certainty
When Agamem-
non proposed to test the temper of his army by suggesting that they abandon the siege of Troy and return home, it was. Rumor, messenger of Zeus, which urged them to accept his suggestion Athena, in the form of Mentes, bade Telemachus look to Rumor for news of his father so Rumor spread the word that the suitors had been killed.^
;
regarded as a sign.
of
When
for a
comment
for
women
grinding at the
mill.-
It
them
it
to say that
to
Odysseus
seemed that Zeus had first sent the thunderbolt, then had given him the interpretation of its meaning. Such chance words or chance happenings seem always to have influenced superstitious persons in Greece. Cyrus hailed it as an omen when he was told that the watchword- was " Preserver Zeus and victory " the Greeks were encouraged to fight at Mycale by the name of the Samian messenger, Hegesistratus, " Army-leader " and when Alexander forced the Pythian priestess to mount the tripod at an unusual
;
;
all
the
on the
1 -
first
Iliad, 2. 93;
i.
cp. 2. 35;
i. 8.
Xenophon, Anab.
Pausanias,
7. 22.
16;
Herodotus,
9. ^j
Plutarch, Alexander,
14, p. 671.
9. 11. 7.
47
Such an interpretation of chance words does not seem so strange, when one recalls that not many years ago the Bible was used in much the same way to obtain guidance the book was opened at
:
in the last
word on the page was sought a sugAn example of chance events rePlutarch ^ an army advancing to meet
:
enemy were discouraged by the sight of asses laden with parsley, for parsley was used to make crowns for the dead. A sneeze, on the other hand, was favorable as Xenophon spoke of the hope of safety, a soldier sneezed, and the army accepted it as a good
;
omen from
is
Zeus.^
The theory of
may be assumed,
is
definitely religious.
assumed
that
all
nature
under the
and
that the
ing
them some
they
may
rests
still
be
left
;
with
men
men
the sense- of
men by
is
signs in nature.
by
6. Divination by means of Sacrificial Victims. In the fifth and fourth centuries divination from the flight of birds had all but
in
Whether
was develfrom
is
means of divination
whether
it
religious
consciousness, or adopted
it
is
In any case
its
meaning
Xenophon, Anab. 3. 2. 9; cp. Aristophanes, Aves, 720. 3 The word (^uoo-koo? {e.g. Iliad, 24. 221) according to the usage of the epic seems to mean no more than " attendant at the sacrifice."
2
48
GREEK RELIGION
if
they
come
if
deformed or discolored,
it is
then
bad omen,
for the
On
priest,
this
may have
is
prophetic import.
The
sometimes a special
seer,
on the lookout
FiG.
(Gotha)
comes boldly
its
own head
is
even
if
the result
brought
;
about by the
but
for
skill
of the priest,
to die
it is
interpreted in the
altar
same way
an animal
evil.^
forebodes some
dreadful
1
Then
21.
Aeschylus,
Agam.
1.
6, p.
386,
49
liver,
bladder
is
most
significant.
A sound
smooth, of good color, and with well-shaped lobes, means that the sacrifice is acceptable and that the god is ready to grant the wishes
of the worshipper.^
manner
As the sacrifice is burning on the altar, the which the flame envelops the moist meat also indicates the attitude of the gods ; - when
in
offering;
Upon
And,
A moisture,
lo
!
and
it
smouldered, and
it
spat,
air,
And
The
then "
der,
thigh bones
fell,"
evil falls
upon the
State."
The
at the
base of the
tail (oo-<^i!?),
were especially
Many
may be
refer
do not
(OxKria).
Now
now
ple
:
might be needed.^
The
is
very sim-
must
fail
of
its
need only direct the course of events so that the animal was imperfect or the fire did not burn properly, when they desired
to indicate their disapproval of the worshipper or his plans.
What
more
all
the
Before
it
was
possible wrath of
Aeschylus, Pro?n.^c)2>
Virgil,
f-
'<
Xenophon,
Cp.
2
3
Aen.
4. 64.
;
f. and scholion. Plumptre Apollonius Rhodius, Sophocles, Ant. 1009; Schol. on Aristophanes, Pax, 1053. Xenophon, Anab. 2. 2. 3; 5. 5. 3.
f.,
i.
436f.
GREEK RELIGION
50
the gods
GREEK RELIGION
and secure
their special favor (o-<^ayta).^
The marks
of
same
as in
connection
care.
The importance
means of
ascer-
method of
it
The
position of
less
Plataea,
was customary
to suffer
some
send
the soldiers into battle without the belief that the gods were on
their side."
be given up
omens were
favorable.^
Of
;
course
it
he might
it
was
know something
of hieroscopy.'
The
In case
any god or hero were angry with the army or offended by some
neglect, he
sacrifices
disaster.
Accordingly, propitiatory
if
were offered,
help him.
Then
still,
it
is
by
sacrifice in
fifth
century
9.
based on a
f.
;
Herodotus,
41
9.
61
Xenophon, Anab.
Pausanias,
15
6. 5. 21.
9.
Xenophon, Laced,
4. 6. 10.
6.
9.
rep. 13. 3;
3. 11.
6; Herodotus,
33
f.
Xeno-
phon, Hell.
3
4
Herodotus,
Herodotus,
5. 54.
Xenophon, Anab.
5, 6.
6. 4.
17;
Hell.
3. i.
17;
Phitarch, Aristi-
Xenophon, Anab.
29
Cyrop.
i. 6.
2;
A.
51
revelation
Inspiration
will
(a)
Dreams.
of the divine
knowledge of the future that is gained by inspiration. Gods differ from men in that their vision is not necessarily limited by the /lere
human
spirits
when they
with those
explained.
see beyond the Such superhuman gifts, human beings, are naturally connected
men may
of mental
phenomena
wander
that
be closed
less
the
mind seems
to
at liberty
in
Greece no
or
events.
man perhaps
is
some
credited with a
Or, again, the
common
I
crowd.
cover these three types, not because the Greeks had any such
Hebrews that a divinespirit overmastered mind of the prophet, but rather because we have no better word to indicate that we are dealing with a knowledge of the future which is assigned to the mind itself, independent of any
clear-cut belief as the early
the
is
so natural to regard
dreams
as portentous,
because there
is
Homeric poems.
Their value
is
explained
by ascribing them
by saying
gates of
"Twain
are the
shadowy dreams, the one is fashioned of horn and one of ivory. Such dreams as pass through the portals of sawn ivory are deceitful, and bear tidings that are unfulfilled. But the dreams that come
forth through the gates of polished horn bring a true issue,
whoso-
To make dreams
in sleep.
Butcher and Lang.
concrete and
Achilles has a
f.
trans.
52
GREEK RELIGION
body
;
Penelope sees
her sister standing over her and bidding her cease her tears, or,
again, she sees a sign of birds
and hears its explanation.^ In some instances the gods appear to men in dreams, just as they appear to waking men, ordinarily in the form of some friend whose presence is not unexpected.^ Or the dream may take the
form of a
sign,
such as waking
men
is
see
so Penelope
dreams that
In both
laid
went do not come from the gods in general, however, men maintained that some dreams had supernatural meaning. Just as the Homeric poems distinguished true and false dreams, so Aeschylus represents Prometheus as teaching men to distinguish what were true and what false.^ The science of dreams, thus initiated by Prometheus, grew in importance; Lysimachus, nephew of the great Aristeides, was but one of a host and in of men who expounded dreams for the superstitious
state of the
;
body
Aristotle
some of which
the gods with
are
still
extant.^'
men
gifted
by
superhuman
insight,
dreams on the
basis of experience.
sleep.
his
that
struck
house,
it
The mother
of Phalaris
2 3
Iliad, 23. 65 Odyssey, 4. 796 f. 19. 535 f. Cp. the second type of theophany, supra,
;
;
p. 41.
^
f.
Aristotle,
;
De
insomniis, 2.
f.
5 Iliad, I. 6
63 2. 6 cp. Odyssey, 19. 561 20. 90 Aeschylus, Prom. 485 Hippocrates, i. 633, Dc insomniis ; Artemidorus, Oneir,
; ;
53
image of Hermes
in the house
sign of
Socrates inferred the day of his death of cruelty.^ her son's from the dream of a woman quoting Homer, " on the third day
thou shalt
come
dreams
also foretold
to die.^
by signs
is
to Polycrates
The explanation
Nor
is
by the Greeks
more
he interested
in the
dreams
times.
is
is
alone continues to exist after death, he establishes on the ground that this " alone is from the gods
the limbs of the body are active, but
immortality
sleeps while
it
when they
sleep
gives in
dreams
knowledge of future joys and troubles."^ Plato makes large place for dreams in which man's lower nature, his
clear
is
inactive
is
at
man
in
whom
when
reason
wont
may have
Such became the widely The body is a hindrance or current view of Greek thinkers. In death the limitation to the divine spirit which inhabits it.
soul
moment
of death, the
soul feels this limitation far less, an^ can recall the past or foresee
vision.''
inspiration
on the same
1
basis.
i.
Cicero,
De
divin.
23/46.
3.
2 Plato, Crito,
3
4
44 B; Herodotus,
placitis, 5. 2, p.
;
De
5
6
7
Eum.
i.
104.
fitnaeus, 71
;
D.
divin.
Xenophon, Cyrop.
8. 7.
21
Cicero,
De
30/63.
54
8.
GREEK RELIGION
Inspiration
:
{/))
Prophets.
In
the
Homeric poems
the
prophet or seer
is
man
gift
gifted
Hades
his
prophetic
at the request of
Odysseus he
affairs at Ithaca,
His prophetic
j
power
consists in a "
decrees,"i|
assured, though
prophet's warning.^
future,
is
Such
gift
vision of
what
is
far
away, or in the
it
regarded as a
of the gods.
Just as
Hera put
in the
mind of Agamemnon
so the
,
to stir
immortals
made known
Helenus knew the purpose of the gods and Apollo granted the
gift
;'
of prophecy to Calchas.^
Sometimes
is
this
knowledge comes
it
in
That
it
in
it is
definite,
harmony with the epic conception of these divine rulers that though somewhat limited, is perhaps to be explained
fact that within the general course of events the
by the
gods
left
many
assigned to
to
interpret
To
the ordinary
man
sometimes clear
it
Troy ^
jf
and as a rule the prophet would find more meaning in a sign and expound it with greater authority. For this reason, the army going to Troy had its official seer, Calchas Telemus declared
;
;
in the
house
seer.'*
^ Iliad. 8. 218; 7.
8 Iliad, 2.
44 (and 53J
i.
72 and 385.
4
Cp. Odyssey,
9.
i.
201.
f.
322
f.
Odyssey,
507
f.
22.
318
55
and carpenter are classed together as When prophecy thus becomes a trade pursued
ral
natu-
Odysseus should
fore-
discredit
telling only
It is
only
somewhat elevated conception of the seer which is found in the Homeric poems. Prophecy was a trade, but this is only incidenno doubt ecstatic rites were often practised, but tally mentioned Homer does not allude to them the interpretation of signs rested largely on experience, but the epic lays no stress on this fact; prophecies must have been either vague or often unfulfilled, but The_ic_^ in the poems they show a clear vision of the future. ^conception of prophecy is distinct and__defijqite_i^ the gods gra;
purposes
because he
is
future.
later times
The
seers
and prophets of
(i)
four headings,
The
seers
to interpret signs
mentioned.
were so
as
difficult to discern,
see
Xenophon points out,"* a prophet like more clearly than the general. His superior powers
on experience,^ partly on divine enlightenment. To secure a noted seer like Teisamenus the Spartans made the one exception to their universal rule, granting the prize of Spartan citizenship to him and
1
Odyssey,
i.
415.
cp.
2.
3 Odyssey, 2.
201
i.
Iliad,
i.
106.
158, 170.
Anabasis,
7. 18.
5 Isocrafes (19. 5-6) speaks of the books of the seer Polemaenetus by means of which one Thrasyllus became proficient in the art.
56
to his brother.^
GREEK RELIGION
In
all
;
early kings of
Greece
Teiresias
army.
(2)
The
is
/ to
Olympia.
legend.^
pus.'*
Homer
gift
runs in families
in early
like that of
The Clytiadae of
from Melamthe
Even more
the
in
historic
period were
divination by
offerings
on the great
that
altar of
Zeus at
Such was
its
influence
all
members of
the family
parts of the
Greek world.
To
and
Callias
whom
No
doubt the
lore of generations
family, while
their position
at
in such a to
claim
(3)
The
seers
entirely
/free
.
attribute to possession
(/xavrts
for
prophet
from
fxaLvo/xai, to
Greek
thought makes
full
evOeoL, 6o(f)6pr)TOL,
place for that inspiration which renders men " There is also a madness possessed by a god.
gift
which
is
the special
blessings
among men.
For prophecy
is
is
a madness
and
in
proportion as prophecy
...
is
madness superior
is
only
Herodotus,
9. 33.
Apparently the
291
name
;
is
in ripas, sign.
Oly>?i. 8. 2.
9.
3 Odyssey, 11.
4
7
15.
225
Pindar,
Pausanias,
6. 17. 6.
33
5. 44.
XXX.
57
sandra
is
" frenzied, by
and the priestesses at Dodona Cassome god's might swayed " when " the
gift
dread
with
He-
times used to delude the people into thinking they heard words
inspired of a god.^
The
original Sibyl
known
as
collections
referred to a
more
(4)
In everyday
often they
were
in private
possession."*
Not only
^
men who
prac-
oracle such a
AristO])hanes
successfully
'
more
for these
men who
That
it
practised
prophecy was a trade practised for the money rewards bring, and that oracles were constantly being forged
emergencies and inserted
tinctly recognized.^
1
would;
meet
dis-
Greeks
Even the
seer
who attended
2
the
army must
i.
Herodotus,
62.
3
4
414 E; cp. Philochorus, FtLXg. 192. Herodotus, 5.90; Euripides, Frag. 629; Pausanias, 10. 12. 11; Herodotus,
defect, orac. 9, p.
De
7.6.
Herodotus,
*
7. 141
f.
Herodotus,
8.
20;
8.
96;
9. 43.
Herodotus,
7.
58
GREEK RELIGION
be watched by the general. Such was the inevitable result when men sought from the gods not a revelation of the divine nature,
but some knowledge by which they might secure prosperity for
state.
The wonder
them
is
is
The honor
often accorded to
men
honestly trying
Oracles.
The
men
at
at
Delphi.
Greek
religious worship
The
oracles of Trophonius-
means of
cure, or
where
it
men who
desired other
through dreams.
The
Ammon
signs from
movement
Dodona
were interpreted by
Apollo was the god of inspiramore than one shrine of Apollo his servant was thought to be overcome by the spirit of the god till the answers which came through human lips were in reality from the divine spirit
the official servants of the god.^
;
tion
at
within.
To determine
it
for
Greece,
is
The
nassus were
affected
lowing their example, found that when they breathed these gases
1
Herodotus,
Schol. on
2 Pausanias, 9. 33; Pausanias, 10. 9. 7. Pindar, 0/ym, 6. 119; Diodorus, 17. 50; 0d}'ssgy,
9. 39.
f.
14.
327 (cp.
59
was
built
the
to
answer the
questions of those
ess
who came
The
priest-
in late times
an aged
Fig.
7.
View
in
woman
peasant.-
from the spring Cassotis, she chewed leaves of Apollo's laurel and mounted the tripod.^ To-day there is no cleft beneath the ruins of the temple; a recent German student of Delphi^ has noted
1
De
8.
??ti/fido,
4; Pausanias, 10.
5.
6-7
Plutarch,
Z)*?
Strabo,
419.
De
,
3
4
Lucian, Hermot. 60, p. 801 Bis ace. I, p. 792. Pomtow, Beitrai^e zur Topographic von Delphi (1889) 32
Anm.
2.
6o
GREEK RELIGION
Gas or no
gas, the ritual
currents of ice-cold air with a sharp acid smell issuing from the
earth in the vicinity.
to
would be
sufficient
produce hypnotic
Unwill-
Meantime the questioners had sacrificed to Apollo, lots had determined their order, and the questions in written form were handed Within the shrine the official proto the head official (Trpo^ryxT;?).' pounded the question to the raving priestess, her answer, only partly intelligible, he put into a sort of hexameter verse, and returned it
in writing, sealed, to the questioner.All the
imposing
ritual of
is
very doubtful.
;
Some
fifty
it
of them,
however, are
quoted
in
Herodotus
and of these
priests in
may be
Whether
form of
Natlife.
itself.
by Delphic
the
illustrate
do read how Croesus enquired about his dead son, Halyattes about his illness, Teisamenus as to offspring."* Oftentimes the
answer gave some other information than what was asked, information that in the case of Teisamenus led to its own fulfilment.
We
is
sought,
some moral or
arbitrator
is
religious
some
an
for
political
confusion,
rejected or
9, p.
292
D De
;
437 A; Schol. on
Plutarch,
De
i.
Pyth. orac.
5, p.
396
Suidas,
s.v. to.
rpia.
i
8 " 4
at Delphi," Classical
Journal,
(1906) 37
f.
Herodotus, Herodotus,
19;
5.
9. 33.
4.
82
4.
161
I.
65
6.
52
i.
13
4.
163
5.
67
7,
178
Demosthenes,
21.
52
f.
6i
^^^~
^0 '^
^
\~~^
Mji-fl^W^
LOWER TERR*"
.,-!Z1;'
10
20
50
40
Sp
yiQ,
8. Plan of
iiik
62
GREEK RELIGION
Other oracles deal with external
right
to suggest
The
colonies, to
now predicted
now suggested an
urged moderation
Fig.
9.
View
in victory, or
cess.^
warned of treachery, or
Necessarily very
many
When
Croesus inquired whether he should march against the Persians, he was told that if he crossed the river Halys he should destroy
a great kingdom
fact
this
I
his
own kingdom,
The
remains that they often contained very shrewd advice for reason and because the answers were often such as to cause
Herodotus,
5.
42;
3
4. 150.
2
i.
Herodotus,
;
6.
Herodotus,
53
Aristotle, Rhet. 3. 5.
63
own
found considerable
ethics
and
in
religion.
Glaucus,
said,
even propos-
A
;
late story
of three
men
attacked by robbers
the one
who
tion.^
killed his
companion
Extreme
murder the oracle more shedding of In religion the influence of the oracle was directed blood.'* toward the development of local worship not that it in any way sought to check the worship of the Olympian deities, but its
which led
to pestilence.''
As the penalty
for
advised some
money recompense
instead of
was a more
cults.
on oracles which consist of the interpreted by shrewd In antiquity the shrine had such a reputation that not priests ? only Greece, but Asia Minor, and the Roman world came here to
estimate are
to place
What
we
woman
The
was
real, the
work
of evil
spirits.
One
of the
first
was the
His
purer
Hollander,
conscious
Van
Dale,^
who
for
morals
of such de*'
priestess, the
3
^
prophet,"
6. 139.
8.
Herodotus,
6. 86.
Herodotus, Herodotus,
114.
De
Amsterdam,
1700.
64
GREEK RELIGION
priests
and the
political
by high
ideals
and a
real desire
Greece
recom-
pense
for
questions asked.
When
actual
proven only
in a
to
metrical form to
who put the question to her in giving her answers we can hardly doubt that, however
content of the reply, he
much he was
The
been
fact
it
Aeschines,
3. 130. 6.
Herodotus,
CHAPTER
11
Sacred Places.
in
Olympus
their dwellings
receive
men worshipped
in places
which sug-
spirits
The goddess of
the hearth
dwelt inside the home, gods of the market-place in the busy centre
of trade, so that it was a purely empirical deduction when Xenophon ^ stated that ordinarily a sanctuary should be located " in some conspicuous place, apart from the daily life of men " such a principle, in so far as it was based on fact, would mean that the gods more commonly gave token of their presence in places
;
life
of men.
The assumption
been present,
is
men
come to Homeric
poems.
On
his
way
at every altar
Xenophon, Me7n.
5
GREEK RELIGION
65
66
of Zeus
to
offer
GREEK RELIGION
sacrifices.^
Two
shrines of the
nymphs near
up the worship
altar
to
be determined by the nature of the god worshipped, as in the case of the shrine of Zeus on Mt. Ida, and that of the river god,
Spercheius
;
in
any case
it
was a
When
camp
it
was inside a
it
city,
from intrusion.
parts of each animal killed for food were sacrificed to the gods.'^
it
is
The temples
(or
temple) which Chryses built must have been very simple, perhaps
mere booths used in worship the temples of the Phaeacians, and vowed to Helios by the companions of Odysseus were more substantial however, it was only the temples of Athena and of Apollo on the Trojan acropolis that played any part in the poems.^ In the earlier period of the epic worship was described as taking place beside an altar in the open air but when the poems took final shape, at least in the more important city shrines of Ionia, substantial houses for the god had taken the place of the simple
;
the temple
altar
near a grove.
might cover
Sometimes
it
enter, like
1
Iliad, 8. 238
Homer," The
New
17. 210.
3 Iliad, I. II,
4 Jliad, 2. 305,
5 Iliad, II. 6 Iliad,
I.
39; 16, 604; Odyssey, (^. 197. 506 Odyssey, 6. 162, 291, 321
;
773
39;
2.
400
f.
5.
446-448;
7.
83
67
By
foot of
man
untrod,
Where
again
it
purified,^ or there
such restrictions.
Delphic gods to
contracts
extant
tell
used, the
amount
Greek
income.
houses,
eries.^
Along with the lands, the gods owned and leased now
now
quisites
to
sacrificed,
and
fines
imposed
for failure
obey divine commands, constituted the income of the shrine. The management of the income was in the hands of the priests,*^
though ordinarily the priests were state
In the city of Athens we
shrines
officials.
know
(including altars to
more than two hundred such one god in the precinct of another
of
Speaking generally we
may
his being.'
trans.
f.,
Plumptre.
at
women.
3
4
E.g. for the shrine of Codrus, Neleus, and Basile, C.I.A. IV.
f.
;
p. 66, no.
53 a
16 (1892) 278
,
f.,
and
farther references
C.I.A.
I,
283
II.
1.
817
Altert'iimer von
Pergamon,
8. i, p. 36,
158
f.;
14 (1890) 399
f.
In the case of important shrines a special state commission (at Athens the
XPVI^^'-'''^^'')
^^^
finances.
7
Cp. Introduction,
p. 22.
68
the Acropolis as
GREEK RELIGION
Athena Pohas, guardian of the city, as Athena on the Areopagus she was Athena Areia elsewhere in the city were shrines of Athena Hephaistia, Athena Hippia, Athena Skiras, etc. These different shrines did
Nike, and as Athena Hygieia
; ;
modern
city,
in
and the
goddess of Brauron
another Athenian
to
be offshoots of
cult, established to
Fig. io.
Early
fiute is
(British
Museum)
playing the
altar
is
man
double
of the god.
An
name
of the city,
;
one aspect of a god was all sufficient and further that each god or goddess w^as at the same time one and
to
one shrine
many-fold, one
in
in
worship.
69
to
prove that
were
unseen god,
the
then
later, tables
to receive
where
it
could be burnt.^
No
other explana-
tion has
been offered
depicted in
early vase paintings, than that the higher part represents a seat,
The
men might humbly lay their gifts. made and its form, were
Fig. II.
Athenian
is
(Lekythos, Athens)
animal
seen in the
fire,
determined partly by
received the
its
position
and
use, partly
by local tradition.
tray,
pillar,
heap
Before the
an
altar
sacrifices,
mound
of
earth or stones even a few inches high, were the altars prescribed
by holy tradition
1
at
some
De
;
shrines
article
"Altar"
by Reisch
3 4 5
Pauly-Wissowa, Realencyclopaedie. Apollonius Rhodius, i. 403 2. 695. E.g. the altar of the Chians at Delphi, Herodotus 2. 135. Pausanias, 5. 13. 8; 9. ll. 7; Callimachus, Hyynn to Apollo, 60; Altertiimef
8. i,
von Pergamon,
no. 68.
70
still
GREEK RETJGION
seen the remains of a rock altar a stadium in
length,''
and
Zeus
at
Pergamon.
con-
^0^^^mSme''m
Fig. 12.
The
(restoration)
lower regions.
stone,
it
Whether
type was
made
of earth or
itself.
At the shrine
this
in
Samothrace and
at
the
Kabeirion
near
Thebes,'
hearth
included a covered stone bowl with such an aperture for the blood
to percolate into the earth below.
fat
for the
men assembled
for
worship.
In such a
;
wreaths
i6. 83.
3
valuart,
or
works of
Vesp. 938.
Diodorus,
Aristophanes,
.-Jc/i.
82
71
^
money
and the
utensils of worship
belonged there
at times
made
to the state in
be
sacri-
and occasionally dwellings where sick people could be brought to be healed by the god. All this precinct (re'/xevos) was
sacred.
and, though there was a difference in the rights accorded to different temples, a suppliant of the god was not to be lightly treated.
To remove
he had taken refuge was a sacrilege that stirred the divine anger. The right to shelter any man, innocent or guilty, was accorded only
to a few shrines.^
{TrepLppavTrjpLo) served to
purify those
who approached
The temple
it,
itself ordinarily
Three steps ran around we are told, in order that the worshipper might place the The essential part of the temple right foot on the first and third.^ symbol or image of the god the which stood was the chamber in the word aSvTov is properly applied to an inner room, (ce/Za, vao9
the gods above belonged to the morning.
three,
;
but sometimes
it
is
used
The
simpler form of
temple consisted of a
front
;
cella with
columns
at the front, or at
both
and back in the case of larger buildings one or even two rows of columns ran around the entire building, but the building proper still retained the extra columns at the end, inside the outer
1
in the
temple of Apollo
at
B.C.,
2 Cp. the proposal of the Corinthians to borrow from the temple funds at Delphi and Olympia, Thucydides, i. 121; the temples also received deposits of money, like a modern bank, cp. Posidonius in Athenaeus, 6. 24, p. 233 F; cp. Pausanias
10. 14. 7.
3 4
Strabo
12, p.
575
E.g. the shrine of Athena Alea in Tegea (Xenophon, Hell. 3. 5. 25; Pausanius, 3. 5. 6), and of Zeus Lykaios at Megalopolis (Thucydides, 5. 16).
5
Herodotus,
i.
51
Pollux,
i. 8.
Vitruvius,
3. 4. 4.
72
row.
GREEK RELIGION
The Parthenon
It
;
at
Athens
is
a typical
at
Greek temple of
six
this
second type.
on each
side
more columns
the columns
In the
nade had a
Fig. 13,
Ground
slabs
;
set
between sup-
and
figures.
The
frieze
festival
it
began
at
the
men
on
the
horseback,
sacrifice,
men
in
armor
in
chariots, animals
brought
;
to
utensils
while at
the
contest of the gods and giants, and other contests in which law
and order triumphed over barbarian force. In the east pediment was to be seen the birth of Athena from the head of Zeus, in the
73
west pediment the contest of Athena with Poseidon for the land
The
room
Fig.
14.
Section
its
altar table,
where were kept utensils, votive and other property of the goddess. In early times there was no cult image, properly so called, although perhaps some sacred stone or pillar marked the spot where the god was present for his worshippers. Whether the Homeric jioems
mention
real cult images,
is
a matter of dispute.^
Fig.
wood seem
and
to have
is
offerings,
it
not
lis (Caracalla)
A
offer-
herm-figure
of
Heracles, draped.
became
by any images,
cult
for she
The
but
earher
little
See
74
for in
GREEK RELIGION
many temples they were never replaced, or were preserved By far the commonest form of earlier cult image to persist was the henn (epfxrj'^) or term ; the god Hermes continued to be represented by a square pillar with a head or a mask at the
as relics.^
top, and occasionally other gods, especially Dionysus, were represented by similar " herms." To cleanse the image, perhaps to
decorate
it
was often an
With the great development of plastic and fourth centuries almost every
Fig. i6.
These images were of bronze, of marble, of gold and ivory with a wooden core;^ So the Athena which stood in the Parthenon was a framework Gkm by
covered with delicately tinted plates of ivory
for
AsPAsius
The head
is
of
Athena
apparently cop-
As the
i
Parthenon,
mornmg
door
this
light
Streamed
image seemed
truly
embody
the
fitly
expressed the
To
hardly
did
indeed
image,
represent the
goddess herself
its
gold
the
and
2.
its
ivory
not the
homage
of the Athenians.
Sacred Times.
Just
as
some places
felt
there and he
may be expected
;
some times are sacred i.e. on these his temple, and on these days he may be
his
in
On
this
2. 69.
2
3 4
Cp. Lucian, Gallus, 24; Valerius Maximus i. Ext. Aristophanes, Nub. 615 f. cp. Odyssey, 3. 44.
;
75
mention
is
in the
Homeric poems.
if
The
feast
an indication,
set
any proof be
festi-
days as religious
back
to
early times.^
when men
we have
fuller information, it
much
stress
on sacred times.
becomes There
no traces of anything like the Jewish Sabbath or the Christian Sunday in its stead each state had a series of religious festivals
are
;
which occurred
these caused
at irregular intervals
Many
;
of
little
many,
The Athenians
for public
said,
set aside
more than
fifty
was without
appointed offering to
some
god.^
Certain
first
and seventh
Hermes and
Artemis,
Athena.^
ing in
fifteenth, and twenty- eighth to had a monthly or an annual festival varyimportance with the character of the shrine it might be
the
third,
thirteenth,
Each
shrine
some simple offering shared only by a few people of the neighborhood it might be the Panathenaea or the Eleusinia, national feasts that lasted for days, splendid with processions and sacrifices,
;
Iliad, 9.
534
f.
2 Iliad, 8.
3
238;
402
f.
9.
551
Iliad, 7. 177.
Thucydides,
38 and schol.
Schoemann, Griech.
Alt. 2. 456.
76
GREEK RELIGION
ritual {koprai, wavrjyvpeLs)
will
.^
The
different
in the
be considered
and quadrennial
festivals^ were
pomp
at Delphi,
it is
Oftentimes
why
Agri-
in other in-
The
birth of Artemis
and
;
month
and the twenty-eighth of the month was recognized in worship as the birthday of Athena. At Delphi the return of Apollo in the spring and that of Dionysus in the autumn were the occasion of
special religious rites.
In
all
good
they
when
have
appeared
at their shrines
before,
expected.
priests
Sacred Persons
Although
all
is
are
Homeric poems,
the sacri-
fices
household or by a king.
The
the person
who
presides over
some
and
making such
least in
demands.
;
Such a
priest, at
Theano,
priestess of
;
Hyp-
in the
JMaron, priest
Athens; cp.
In Appendix II
given a
list
of the
festivals of
also A.
2
Mommsen, Die
459
f.
77
of Apollo at Ismarus, dwelt with wife and child in the sacred grove
In virtue of his office the priest was greatly honored For this reaby the people, " honored as a god " the poet says.
enemy;
Fig. 17.
British
Museum)
The
hand
in attitude of
altar,
above which
Nike
spits
flies to
fill
hand
and a
flute player.
Odysseus protected Maron when Ismarus was taken Chryses, trusting in the respect due to his position, entered the camp of
;
the
enemy
to
demand
It
appears from these instances that while the priest was not cut off from the activities of ordinary life, his connection with the god
any powerful
;
ruler.
;
Iliad, 5.
76
f.
6.
I.
298
II
f.
;
f.
16.
604
Odyssey, 9. 197
f.
2 Iliad, 9. 575
Odyssey,
9. 199.
78
GREEK RELIGION
The conception
of the priest as the person in charge of
in
some
later periods.
if
man
"
;
even
that
the state-
ment of
Isocrates
any one
good enough
to
become
qualifica-
Nor was
;
it
such esoteric
knowledge
as
was
needed
office.
Inasmuch
as there
priests
were
free
from
the dangers
of priestcraft.
came under
the direction
The
dif-
men
Tegea where a boy was priest of Athena, and at Thesf^ae where the priestess of Heracles was a young woman." In some places young boys and girls were demanded by the ritual as priests;"^ in some, old men or women; more commonly the priest
was a person
cal beauty,
in the
prime of
for
life.
was necessary
to please the
ill
luck was in
god an " unlucky " man some way connected with the state, the priest must be
;
might be appointed
to the office.
The term
as he
some instances
lasted as long
;
not infrequently
1
The method of
2
filling
the
Isocrates,
2. 6,
p. 16.
2.
Pausanias,
8. 47.
3; 9. 27. 6.
3
4
E.^. Pausanias,
8.
7. 55, p.
300
Dittenberger,
594.
79
When
the
origin, or
for the
where
honor of
money
to that family.^
At
In these cases
some
by
Where no such democracy the people appointed many of the priests.^ Occasionally the right to a priesthood was sold to the highest bidder, in which case only those could buy the At right who conformed to all the requirements of the office.* Athens probably the commonest method of appointment was to cast lots among approved candidates.^ These methods of appointment are further evidence that the priesthood was a sacred office
lot,
when
when
the de-
so simple.
money and
money
addition to
The
prices paid for the priesthoods in the city of Erythrae varied from
The
a year
priestess of
;
Athena Nike
re-
ceived in
1 .-.
money 50 drachmas
part of the
money
gifts to
and
the descendants
Dittenberger
Leg.
4 Inscription 5 Plato,
3 Cp. Dionysius Halicarn. in Herwes, 20 (1885) if. from Erythrae, Dittenberger, Sylloge, 600.
6,
2. 21.
759 C; C.I. A.
II.
567 b, 622.
8o
GREEK RELIGION
fell
Athena Polias
gift to
at
some
shrines a
the priest in
sacrifice.^
In connec-
tion
with the
Oftentimes he had
He
might also
purposes or farmin
temple.
Many
taxes,
priests
were
and
right
all
though
this
demand
self contribute
toward sup-
to
Marble
OF Dionysus in
Athens
at the theatre
Seat for the Priest portance of his shrine. the Theatre at a^l ^^ ^^, .o,.,, ^f Athens very many oi
'
-'
At
tu^ the
priests
and
at public functions
in
some
were named
;
from the
persons
holding an
important priest-
hood at the successful termination of his office a priest might be rewarded by the people with a gold crown or even with a statue.^ That a man should undertake the office of priest from a purely unselfish motive, a desire either to please the god or to ser\-e the people, was a conception that found no place in Greek religion.
Nor
1
is
all
worship
2
is
Dittenberger, Sylloge, 60 }.
I'esp. 695,
261
f.
Thucydides,
2.
2;
C.I.A. II.
477b.
8i
the priest
who
During
title,
his
duties as
priest,
man
often received
a special
Pu7'phoros at
Eleusis
is
the office.
Commonly
with
The
staff
of the
priest,
the
key of the
should be
priestess,
fillet
of the god on
it
their heads,
Still
remembered
The requirements
purity are not fully
matter of ceremonial
like
known.
Every worshipper,
Hector
in
the
Iliad^ must avoid approaching the god with soiled hands or unclean
garment
this
enforced.
Many
priests
might be married
term of
office.
In some instances
at Argos,
Hera
beans and
we know, were
so
isolated
Though
it
little stress
was
laid
intimate than
When
in
they
more came to
make
Athenaeus,
Aelian,
5,
JUad,
;
6.
266.
De
nat.
anhn. 9. 65
C.I.
G. Ins.
I.
789
cp. Plutarch,
Sy77ip. 8. 8. 4, p.
730 D.
GREEK RELIGION
82
GREEK RELIGION
shrine, the
sure that their sacrifice was offered in due form to gratify the god.
demanded by
it
its ritual,
He
directed
personally; and
More-
was the priest who preserved the shrine from impurity, guarded its votive offerings from theft, managed (with the '* treasover
it
urers,"
Ttt/xiat)
whatever properties
it
;
it
possessed.^
When
fugitives
was
his
them
it
as best he could
The man
priest took
up questions
As a matter of fact he did represent the worshippers in the divine presence, and he might speak the will of the god to men, both blessing and cursing ^ his office was distinctly sacred and holy, but it was the peculiarity of Greek religion
of the god.
;
name
man from
the result that the priest was sacred only at such times as he was
acting in his official capacity.
So
far as the
other
officials
we
In
may be
satisfied
which
fell
to them.
earlier times,
and
help he
shrines
needed
in
carrying
on the worship.
of attendants.
demanded
e.g.
a varied
list
performing
duty
it
those whose
was
priests to take
7 (6).
8. 18, p.
Plato,
Z.<?^. 10,
909 D; Aristotle,
Z)tfr<r/i5.
2 3
Foucart,
Mimoire sur
f.
I' affranchisement
Mitth.^ (1879) 25
4 [Lysias] 6. 51, p,
and
seer (/xai'Tis).
5 Aristotle,
De
repub. 7 (6).
8.
18
f.,
p. 1322 b.
83
utensils, the
;
who under
list
the priest
managed
property
the
finances of such
shrines as
.
(tepora/xtat,
KwXaK jeVat)
To
this
to
{e.g. dpprjcfyopoL
and
Kavrj-
at the
Panathenaea).^
priests
In addition to the
of religion
The
at
in particular, cases
on complaint of
established or
priest or citizen.
When
;
new
cult
was to be
the
people voted on
question
their
either the
priest or
and some
special
commission executed
(te/oo7rotot
decision.^
commission of
hieropoioi at Athens
for
Kar' Iviavrov^
some of the
administration of
the temples
appointed regularly
{e.g.
on temple
more
specific functions.'^
Some
of the state
retained the
The
march
sacrificed to
{(TTpar-qyoi)
These
religion
it
due
form the
4.
In the
1
{a) Prayers, hymns, curses, oaths. Forms of Worship Homeric poems a wish is often accompanied by an appeal
;
C.I.G. 2715
Pausanias.
i.
27. 3
2.
2 Aristotle, 3 4 5
Athen. Pol. 30; Schoemann, Griech. Alt. Hermes, 21 (1886) 91, 1. 9; C.I. A. II. 477 b.
433
Alt. 2.
427
f.
and
references,
C.l.A. II. 302.
84
to the greater gods, "
GREEK RELIGION
Father Zeus and Athena and Apollo," " May me power in war," " Lord Zeus, may Telemachus be among men and gain his heart's desire " such simple
;
Athena grant
blessed
may
consist of a joyful
Prayer
appropriate also
the gods or
when one
memnon,
repulse,
the Trojan
tells
Odysseus worn out with swimming or fearing the outthe struggle with the heroes prayed in
come of
worship
at
Nor should
the regular
The choice
of the god to
;
whom
prayer was
made depended on
to
him more frequently than to any other god. The longer and more formal prayers^ included (i) an invocation citing some titles of the god and perhaps mentioning the
sphere of his activity; (2) an alleged ground for answering the prayer former sacrifices to the god, former answers to prayer by
his
god
it
was not
t/o
by mutual
1
gifts.
;
Iliad, 4. 288
Odyssey, 7. 311
4,
2 Iliad, I.
4 Iliad, I. 5
"
473; Odyssey, 37
f.
;
767.
;
13. 356.
6. 115,
240
16.
514
^
f,
Odyssey,
444
f.
20. 98.
Iliad, 16. 227
2.
f.
E.g. Iliad,
I.
39;
I.
451
5.
115;
233
16.
514;
Odyssey,
262.
85
full
recognition that
all
men need
the gods."
When Hector
es-
caped him, Diomedes assumed that he must have prayed to the man who prayed to the Apollo before entering the battle
;
fail with the bow could not prove prayer without made the wall which the Greeks more personal feeling or deeper Any them.^ a protection for and kindly human powerful toward a exhibited would be than Even the striking passage on " Prayers chief is not suggested.
last in
the race or
of penitence
to heal the
harm,"^ out of
prayer opens the way to any intimate spiritual relation with the
gods.
It so
happens that
later literature
many exam-
drama
Men
It
good
things.
was especially
At daybreak
athletic
a prayer was
offered
were offered before exhibitions in the theatre, at the opening of the farmer the assembly, and especially when setting out for war
;
Demosthenes began
his oration
on the crown
Odyssey,
1,48.
3 Iliad, 9.
4
627
f.;
f.
f.
Nub
cp.
Xenophon, Oecon.
^Before a new undertaking, Plato, Tim. 27 C Leg. 712 B; Daybreak, Plato, Symp. 220 D Leg. 887 E; Meals, Diotogenes in Stobaeus, Flor. 43, 130 Xenophon, Hell. 4. 7. 4; Hunt, Arrian, Cyneget, 34; Xenophon, Cyneget, 6. 13; Theatre, Demosthenes, 21. 51-52; Assembly, Aeschines, i. 23; Thucydides, 8. 70; War, Thucydides, 2. 74; 6. 32; Farming, Hesiod, Erga, 336; Diodorus Sic, Exc. 23. 13.
;
;
86
the gods, and
GREEK RELIGION
we
are told that Pericles never spoke without a
^
prayer that he might "utter no unfitting word." In the orators the phrase " pray to the gods " means hardly more than " desir^
"
;
such
is
when
thought of worship.
On
for
the other
good
he thought
fable of Babrius
:
illustrates
ticular things
Nymphs
be
a lion,
in case
his cattle
sacrifices to escape
himself.
may be
free
and
figs
may be abundant,
all good things they have lost, and weapons of war be no longer needed,'" such prayers show a Only a few writers like truer sense of dependence on the gods.
Aeschylus and Pindar and Xenophon give any real spiritual content
to prayer.^
The
matter.
Zeus Boulaios
home.^
Women
ordinarily prayed to
The choruses
city.
156,
men
2
3
Plutarch, Pericles,
3. 18; 18. 89.
8, p.
3. 2.
Inst.
Lacon.
27, p.
239 A. 4 Babrius, 23. 5 Athenaeus, 15, p. 694 C; Aristophanes, Pax, 1320 f; cp. Aves, 878 f. 6 Aeschylus, Suppl. 670; Pindar, Olym. 13. 115; Pyth. i. 29; Nem.
2. 2. 14.
5"
8.
35;
Xenophon, Metn.
8
6.
45; Isaeus,
8. 16.
87
god Apollo.^
to
The
Dodona^
under
show
propounded
to the oracle
for aid
some
special conditions.
to the
gods with
whom
request
sought the god presiding over that special province in which their
fell.
The name of
for
all
so
important
India or at
Rome.
The grounds
the
much
same
as
in
the epic
because the
man was a worshipper of the god, because the god Commonly there was an appeal to remember
was answered. There was no assurance
the sacrifices that had been offered, coupled with vows of special
sacrifices in case the prayer
in the
mind of
his prayer.^
by divine Moreover it was necessary that the man work with the god, if he was to gain his petition the carter whose wagon was stuck in the mud must goad on his oxen and push the wheels before Heracles would help him.^ Thanksgiving rarely went with petition as a part of prayer. When a state was freed from danger a special sacrifice was offered (xapto-rrjptov), and in a few instances this sacrifice was repeated
way.
Some
year after
year.*'
The
god
1
2 ^
pi.
34-36.
Sophocles, Electra,
4
Choeph. 783; Former Warship, Herodotus, i. 87; Future Worship, Aeschylus, Euni. 287 f. Personal
;
Xenophon, Cyrop.
i. 6.
1.6. 6; Hesiod,
Agam.
5
Xenophon, Cyrop.
See
5 infra, p. 92
6
7
349 F.
11.
Anth. Pal.
6.
174
6.
203, etc.
88
giving
is
GREEK RELIGION
:
the prayer is, " Zeus Patroos, described by Xenophon and ye other gods, receive these offerings because ye have granted many favors and as the expression of thanksgiving for
Helios,
granting
Is
me
guidance by omens."
It
;
mere bargain with the gods there is Httle doubt sometimes lay thus in the mind of the worshipper
me, however, that without question a genuine
it
seems
to
commonly
exist, that
gods and the votive offering was something other than mere pay-
ment of a debt incurred. Certainly the prayers for moral guidance and help which occur in Pindar, the prayer of Xenophon's knight^ that he may please the gods and do his duty in thought, word, and deed, and many prayers in the Attic drama, rise far above any
mere bargain with the gods. No sharp line exists between prayer and the prayer-hymn.
The
hymns
(7rpoo-d8ta),
the
No
own ritual hymns.'* The hymns of Isyllus at Epidaurus and the hymns recently found at Delphi are examples of hymns actually used in worship.^ They illustrate how
combined in connection with
sacrifice.
When men
or in extreme need they might grasp the feet of the divine image.*^
cp. 4.
i. 2.
Athenaeus,
6, p.
14, p.
;
619 B.
'2rj\S.
.
4 Aristotle,
5
Pol. 5 (8).
1133
C.I.G.
18 (1894) 345
19 (1895) 393
f.
Bull. Corr. Hell. 17 (1893) 561 f Fairbanks, "The Greek Paean," Cornell Studies,
XII.
6
tudes of Worship
E.g. Sophocles, Elec. 453; Voulli6me, Quomodo vcteres adoraverint ; "Attiin Greece," The Biblical World, 1897, 98 f.
89
in
need he
held out both hands, palm up, as though he would grasp the god
or receive the
gift
he craved.^
for
is
The
though
curse
but for
evil to another,
it
common among
the Hebrews,
pronounced a curse on traitors at on criminals who were beyond the reach of direct punishment by temples were the state, punishment was invoked from the gods protected by curses against any who should desecrate them.- Thus a curse was pronounced by the Eumolpidae on the absent Alci;
The
It
is
characteristic of
Greek
religion
that
Olympian gods were not invoked in these curses, but that the magical element was in the ascendant. Where the appeal for vengeance was made to gods, it was directed to the gods of the lower in order to make regions."* It was not enough to utter the curse it truly effective it was written on lead tablets and buried by the house of the cursed person or in the shrine of some chthonic god.^
;
"
feet, etc.
is
of A. B."
is
common
formula
is
omitted.
con-
enough to puzzle the person against whom it is directed, but clear enough for the gods to understand. A third group includes curses against those who might disturb
1
E.g. Iliad,
5.
174
2 3
23. 97
13.
CJ. G. 2919.
4 Iliad, 9.
5
69; Plutarch, Alcib. 22, p. 202; 33, p. 210. but cp. Odyssey, 17. 494.
in Cnidos, II. 2. 720
f.;
C.I.G. 5773;
Newton, Discoveries
Wiinsch, Defixio7ium
tabellae Atticae.
90
a grave, either to rob
GREEK RELIGION
it
of valuables or to place in
it
the corpse of
one who had no right there. Curses invoking the vengeance of the gods of the dead on those who disturbed the grave are not infrequently found buried with the dead.^
The
oath
is
man
or a group of
men
In the epic
Fig.
19.
kiMiKI'
IKi).\i
The worshipper
at the left
of Asclepius
and
daughter Epione.
Achilles
the truth
Agamemnon
is
jurer if he has
a duel, wine
harmed Briseis when the issue of war is staked on mixed and poured out, and sheep are slain, with a
rivers,
and the
f,
cited.
91
The
ritual
is
symboHc,
added
may
may be poured out like the wine, that he The skill in false swearing which Hermes
The form
power, or one's
life,
or one's
was custom-
more of the
In
common
life
at Athens, if
The oath
of oaths
shrine,
by
countrymen.
at
though to be sure
As the Homeric heroes shed blood and poured out wine with an oath as symbolizing the death that should
to
come
them
if
their oath
who swore
falsely.*
At Athens
who came
As the
officials,
were numerous,
far
more common than in our own day. Perjury, however, was not punished by the state the oath remained a matter of religion, binding only on those who feared the gods.
;
The
ordeal
may be regarded
as a form of oath.^
The guards
in
go through
1
fire,
10.
Odyssey, 19. 396. 321 9. 132; 3. 103 f., 269 f. Sophocles, Track. 1189; Lysias, 12. 10; 32. 13; \jwcnrgns, Leocr.jg.
Iliad, I. 233;
Andocides,
i.
98, 126;
Thucydides,
cp.
5.
23. 68.
5
f.
Dummler, Delphika,
7. 25. 8;
1894.
i.
f.;
Pausanias,
278
f.
92
GREEK RELIGION
drink
the blood of a bull
is
To
mentioned
as a characteristic
Greek
ordeal.^
The
man
submits his case to the gods are few, nor does the practice find
any place
5.
letic
Greek courts of law. Votive offerings, processions, athof Worship {p) offering was a gift to some god, Greek votive contests. The
in
Forms
ordinarily in acknowledg-
ment of
It
special blessing.^
was
often
as
promised Odysseus
gifts
beforehand,
arms of the
ried
Fig. 20.
conquered.^
garment
Relief
from Thessaly
hang
in
to
(Thebes)
the
laid
temple of Athena
it
Two
and
locks of hair
on the knees of
inscription
" Philoinbrotus,
(to)
Apthonetus,
Poseidon,"
(sons) of
Deinomachus,
When Telemachus
"Be
Gar-
ments and gold accompany the thank-offerings of Aegisthus Achilles offers to Patroclus the hair which had been vowed to
Spercheius in case
cultural
he returned
home
in
in safety
a tithe of agri-
products
boar.^'
is
mentioned
Calydonian
1
In a word
men appear
7. 25. 13.
;
See Schoemann, Griech. Alt. 2. 218 f. Reisch, Die griechische Weihgeschenke ; and especially Rouse, Greek Votive Offerings, 1902.
2 3 Iliad, 10. 463, 6
570;
;
7.
81
f. f.
* Iliad, 6.
303.
12.
346
6 Odyssey, 3.
274
9. 534.
93
gift
the purpose
may be
may be
when
the
gift
either
thank-offering, pure
gifts
Such
were offered by
war or delivery
or
first-fruits
from pestilence
tithes
to certain shrines in
At
Demeter
at Eleusis, for
from many Greek and constituted a considerable part of the regular income of the
received regularly
states
shrine.^
The
temple
of
Apollo
at
deliverance
from the
Locust
the
plague.^
The
Fig. 21.
of the
Apollo (assigned
Hermes carrying a An artist is represented at work on an equestrian statue. ram at Tanagra, commemorated special cases of divine favor.'^ The victory at Marathon led the Athenians
Pheidias),
to build a treasure-house for votive offerings at Delphi,
temple of Zeus
spoils of war.^
at
and later to Athena Promachos on the Acropolis.'' The Olympia is said to have been built with the
of the
The arms
in a
up
at
Delphi
Plataea
IV.
is
C.I. A.,
I. 2,
27 b.
Pausanias,
i. 3.
4;
i.
24. 8
9. 22.
i,
Pausanias,
8. 41. 8.
Pausanias,
10. 11. 5;
i. 28. 2.
Pausanias,
5. 10. 2.
i.
Arrian, Anab.
16. 7
94
the
war.^
GREEK RELIGION
Colossus of Rhodes
spoils
of
The
ciple.
prinfirst-
fruits
gods
the hunter
mens of
their
handiwork or
men
gifts
at work,
and occasional
if
of money,
not regular
tithes.illness
Men
expressed
healed
their
from
grati-
member, of a
for the
surgical instru-
temple service.^
soldier
The
a
thirsty
I
^
dedicated
*ir^
how he
t.
J
found water
jj
^yl
^^^'^-^^
Fig, 22.
^'^
'fc^aa^
from
danger;
the
traveller
Marble
his grati-
A man
whose leg has been cured offers a model of the leg to a god of healing.
The
warrior
might
offer to the
taken from the enemy, or the arms in which he had won victory,
or
1
some
relief
battle.^
The
successful
2
4
Herodotus, g. 8o f. Pliny, Na/. Hist. 34. 41. Rouse, Greek Votive Offerings, 39 i. Anthol. Pal. 6, 43 6. 221 Rouse, ibid., 226
;
3
f.
Rouse,
ibid.,
187
f.
Rouse,
ibid.,
98
f.
95
The
officials
The im-
marriage, birth,
The worshippers
sometimes
Rhombos
Kombos
gods
;
sacrificed to the
most shrines are found pj^ Votive sacrifice, models of Frog from
'^"^
Pelopon^"'
worshipped
at the shrine.^
The sword
of Pelops,
"
>
among
the votive
offer-
'^^^
gifts
The
gifts
more
own
experiences.
He
of the god;
his craft,
or worshipper,
the god.
The
were
like
men, ready
to help
indicates the belief that the gods dependent friends and pleased by
in recognition of their help.
3
4
Rouse,
/did.,
idid.,
149
f.
f,
Rouse, Rouse,
idid.,
240
f.
Rouse,
259
idid.,
6 Pausanias, 6. 19. 6; 3. 3. 8
9. 41. 2;
Athenaeus,
11,
274 f. p. 466 E.
96
GREEK RELIGION
While vows and votive gifts in Homer ordinarily accompanied some request, the fundamental meaning of the later offerings was
the recognition of the god's help in
human need
gift in
whether they
took the form of a tax on man's gain (Hke the tithe), or of a pay-
ment
an informal
token of gratitude,
We
men
make
same time a
religious
their
lost
means of honor
to themselves.
statue
became a means of self-glorification. The number, value, and artistic importance of the votive offerings which were accumulated at the greater shrines of Greece made them at the same time treasuries and museums. According to an
inscription of about the year
i8o
B.C.
the island of Delos possessed 1600 vessels of gold and silver, many of them valuable for their inset gems and artistic reliefs as well as
for their weight of precious metal, in addition to rings, necklaces,
crowns or wreaths of gold, tripods, statues, etc.^ The protection and care of these objects brought no small responsibility on the
officials
of the temple.
reli-
The
gious festivals
ings, for
may be mentioned
in
offer-
by these means also the gods were honored in much the same way as human rulers, though in ancient Greece Httle was
religious.
The
religious proces-
not at
all
unfamiliar to-day.
Tokens of worship
are
still
or of joy or again at
church
honors
still
expresses
Thus
the
as a state
in a
its ruler.
At each great
people gathered
At the Panathenaea the new robe for Athena was all, the procession pictured on
Cp.
\ 8,
infra, p. 114.
97
and then on
to the entrance of
and
sacrifices to the
gods with
all
The
also
was a
means of doing honor to human rulers. In the Iliad elaborate games were celebrated by Achilles in honor of his dead friend
Patroclus.^
What pleased
the living
man would
games became
men.
bition of
games became a regular part of the great religious festivals. They were celebrated to Athena at Athens, to Demeter at Eleusis, to Apollo at Delphi; at Olympia they quite eclipsed other elements in the worship of Zeus.^ In the Olympic games contests in wrestling, boxing, running, and throwing dated back to very early times chariot races and races on horseback added to the splendor of the festival as time went on, and the number of contests was
;
In
Isthmus) the prize was simply a wreath from trees sacred to the
god.
finally
The
the
6.
games and of the shrines where they were conducted. That worForms of Worship: (r) The sac7'ificial meal.
ship should consist in killing pigs or bulls with elaborate ceremony, or that blood should have any efficacy in appeasing a god,
totally foreign to
is
Hebrews alone
in
some place
in
reli-
communion meal
f.
men
f.
share
GREEK RELIGION
Cp.
\ 8, infra, p.
117
98
GREEK RELIGION
tory
and mystic
in
Greece consisted
in the sacrifice
;
hymn and
prayer
parts of
it
by the worshippers.
The
word "to
kill
sacrifice" (upeveiv)
regularly used as
meaning "to
for food."
The
sacrifice
Athens of Peri-
cles
some important undertaking, and (2) at any banquet was eaten." The swineherd Eumaeus sacrificed a pig with prayer for his master, that he might have meat to set before
or before
when
flesh
when
some
special
banquet
sacrifice
was successful
in propitiating Apollo,
The
occasions of
harmony with the view of the gods as superior members of society when the gods ate with men, they,
are in
;
Homer
men by
later.
ties
of guest-friendship.
mestic
furnished
special
Plato, Politia,
i,
p.
328
Athenaeus,
14, p.
P- 253.
2
"The
i r.
Homeric Poems,"
f.
;
The
8
New
Eg,
World, 1898.
Iliad, 2.
402
f.
772.
551.
jUad,
2.
305
2.
402
f.
5 Iliad, I.
457
Odyssey,
9.
99
to
home.
When
vow was
be
the
god
to
whom
the
the state, sacrifices of this type were offered at each shrine yearly
Fig. 24,
-AiiiLMVN
Ri D-riGURLJ) Va^k
;
Paimkng
(Stamnos, Munich)
bull
is
the sacrifice.
force.
tant undertaking
was begun
was
if
or the state received other special marks of divine care, a thankoffering of this type
in place.^
made
before
killed,- in
which
Thucydides,
8.
70;
Xenophon, Hell.
f.
7. 2. 2
loo
GREEK RELIGION
vow would be a great sacrificial meal of The hekatomb (" hundred oxen ") early became
a general designation for the great sacrifices offered by the state. In a word the communion meal, the " meat offering " of our Old
Testament,
all
is
clearly
are angry,
man
the gods.
life,
men worshipped
communion
It
meal,
it
was necessary
first
the flock
must be a domestic animal, from or herd raised by human hand, and a perfect specimen
At some shrines the
offered, while
sex, age,
e.g.
of
its
kind.
the Panathenaic
bull.
cows were
wood
in sacrialtar,
and
if
became
fire
must be procured,
it
might be from a
at Delphi.^
Then
those
who were
on
festal array,
;
white garments,
heads
rated with garlands and sometimes the horns of oxen were cov-
The
ritual
of sacrifice was
somewhat
as follows
Under
the
from
left
to right.^
it
it,
thrusting into
their
and a bowl of water were borne around the altar After the water had been consecrated by a brand from the altar, the worshippers dipped
and
;
hands
in
it
was sprinkled on
;
altar, victim,
and
offerer.
Pausanias,
C.I. A.
5, 14. 2
////.
Odyssey, 4. 759-766;
Aeschines,
3. -jj;
Aristophanes,
447
f.
Odyssey,
3.
426;
3
IV.
I. 2,
p. 59, no. 27 b.
f.
;
f.
Lys. 1129;
Odyssey,
3.
441
f.
lOI
From
unbound before
libation
rites
and burned,
and
nary
The
prelimi-
After silence had been proclaimed, the music of flutes began, and the animal was slain.' The larger animals were felled with
%-
t/
'-
"!
I02
altar
GREEK RELIGION
with
incense, -the
If the
entrails
the gods.^
men
wrapped the thigh pieces (fxripui) in fat and burned them on the altar; later the end of the back and tail (oo-^v?), along with other bones on which more or less meat had been left, were burned
with a libation.
Then came
the roasted meat, while music and dance expressed men's joy in
the service of the god.
At some great
festivals,
we ask
flesh with
may be
given.-
as
though the gods were hungry wolves diverted from attacking men
to
While references
in the
to the
Greek
is
men who
There
no
So Poseidon
left
the gods
To burn
up
to the gods,
because they liked the food, and because they liked to be honored
with splendid ceremonial and abundant victims.
larger the sacrifices
In general the
more one might count on the divine favor to be gained by means of them irrespective of the righteousOnly rarely does some Greek writer ness of the worshipper.' speak of the spirit of the worshippers as more important than the
the
1
See Chap,
i,
^^
6, p. 49.
in the
Homeric Poems,"
^
T/ig
N^ew World,
i.
549.
Odyssey,
;
i.
22; Iliad,
423.
5.
6 Plato, Politia, 2, p.
362
Iliad,
i.
65
Odyssey, 3. 273
cp.
Xenophon, Anab.
7-32.
103
number of animals offered/ Mention is made of the spirit of some meat on the bones that are burned on the altar, as compared with the mean habit of scraping the bones clean. In origin, it would seem that the life of each animal was
brought to the altar
{i.e.
Prac-
men
commun-
in this
meal
men
sacrifice, fruit
on the
gods might
mals, while at the Diasia in Athens these were the only sacrifices
permitted.^
later eaten
by the
To
and
offer as a sac-
in the worship of the home, fruit and seem to have been the regular offering.'' With this gift of fruit and flowers should be mentioned the use of incense it was burned with the burnt sacrifice on the altar, and it was offered in
flowers
censers
(dviJLLaTYJpta) in
The
and
at the
banquet a libation
made
before drinking.
Isocrates,
2.
20;
F (Menander).
;
Pollux,
i.
I.
30; Suidas,
;
s.v. ^oiis
e^do/ios
Thucydides,
1.
126. 6,
and
schol.
Pau-
sanias
i
26. 5
8. 2. 3. 8.
Pausanias,
37. 7
Xenophon, Anad.
5. 3.
630.
5
Von
Fritze, Die Rauchopfer bei den Griechett, 1894. K. Bernhaidi, Das Trankopfer bei Homer, 1885.
I04
GREEK RELIGION
or prayer
is
vow
is
more
effective if
it
is
attended with a
if
gift
of wine
to the
gods
a burnt sacrifice
freshly
the
banquet
not so
as in
inis
often
mentioned
the epic.
stances
In these
the libation
the
wine
unmixed.^
offered
The Athenians
a
mixture
of
milk,
Muse Mnemosyne,
Fig. 26.
Eos,
the
Athenian
Painting
Helios,
Selene,
Red-figured Vase
Nymphs, and
dite
to x\phro-
(Kylix, Athens)
youth with kylix and pitcher pours a libation on an altar; inscription, " Athenodotos Kalos."
In some
when
to the
in
other instances
it
may be due
made
angry.
E.^. Thucydides,
6. 32. i.
105
To
7.
Forms
of
Worship
communion meal
little
There
is
doubt that
history.
human
it is
sacrifice
in
Greek
When
Creon
the Greeks set out for Troy, story describes the sacrifice
said to
have sacrificed
his
own
life
to save
Epimenides is reported to have a youth when he purified Athens from the plague.
These cases are mythical, but they represent the principle that when the lives of many are in danger from war or plague, the voluntary sacrifice of some man may turn aside the anger of gods. If the story could be traced to some earlier authority than Plutarch,
we might
in
In the worship of
Zeus Lykaios
human
it
sacrifice is said to
strictly
was
criminal
in the
condemned
to death,
his
death
evil.^
In actual practice the propitiatory sacrifices before a battle or a voyage were of animals, sometimes said to be substituted for
men.
in cults
human
if
beings,
some of the
propitia-
i-rrcfjdbv
QprjKiwv
dTj/uLOLTiov,
f.
2
3 4
f.
Lycurgus, Leocr. 86
9.
Pausanias,
Pausanias,
8. 2.
and
Harpocration,
s.v.
(papfxaKos.
i,
9. 8.
2; Aelian,
De
p. 402.
io6
stitution of animals
GREEK RELIGION
would hold good
principle, however,
where men had once been sacrificed ; the in an extremely small num-
As
mentioned
to the
in the epic,^
They
consequenUy there
fact that
was no occasion
mentioning them.
The fundamental
religion, the
Greek
worship of
and propitiatory
rites,
connection.^
The ordinary sacrifice of propitiatory character differed from communion meal in occasion, in ritual, and in the gods to whom it was offered. The communion-meal offering assumed that the gods were favorable, whether it was offered when they had already signalized their favor or before some important undertakthe
ing.
felt
On
meant
that
men
already on them
or again
when
it
battle or
to pacify
was intended
The
it
ritual
was
different. to a
its
was brought
;
low
mound
regular altar
liead
of
evil
were mainly
^
;
most important of
all it
utter destruction.^
No
libations
sacrifice, /^iad,
i.
447
f.
8
4
1. 8.
15; 4. 3. 17.
6 Schol.
and schol. Kaibel, Epigrayn. graec. 1034on Sophocles, Oed. Col. 42.
107
gods above.
men
cake or porridge (TreAavos) was made of meal, honey, and sometimes poppy seed this was never tasted, but burned on the low altar of the spirits of the deep.^ For this ritual, a series of words was used entirely different from those used
a
peculiar
;
for the
communion meal
And
They
rich blessings
were easily angered, dangerous to approach even when they had many times the fearful evidence they to bestow
;
had given of their anger was the occasion for these sacrifices. In this group of divinities were included (i) the dead, and those gods
who were
rulers of souls;
heroes,
who
were regarded in
tural deities
;
much the same way as the dead and (4) many gods of the sea, river
(3) agricul-
some had old nature deity when some especially gods, Olympian of the become merged with a god of Olympus. So far as the souls of the dead are concerned, their worship will
winds.
be considered in connection with the rites of burial. The chthonic gods, gods who have to do with souls and the world below, include Hades and Persephone, Hermes conductor of souls, Hecate, the
Eumenides,
etc.
To
Hermes
is
di-
Persians of Aeschylus.
or Erinyes seem to have have been wronged that dead men been originally the spirits of These their wrath. to avert sacrifices propitiatory they receive chthonic gods normally received propitiatory sacrifice, though
The Eumenides
sometimes the communion-meal offering was appropriate. The worship of heroes, local spirits supposed to be souls of the dead with peculiar powers and associations, is an interesting phase
of Greek religion.
They seem
to
1 Hermes, 29 (1884) 281, 625; Aeschylus, Pers. 203; Aristophanes, and schol. ^See "The Chthonic Gods of Greek Religion," Am. Jour. Phil.
21 (1900)
241
f.
io8
GREEK RELIGION
;
their
of
as
ritual,
uneaten
sacrifice
propitiatory
was ordinarily
places
not
differenti-
the
Fic;.
At the
left
fore a
worshippers at
The
uncertainty of the
is
and a
libation.
crops
understood to
mean
gods are easily provoked to wrath.
that agricultural
wards
off pestilence
flocks,
;
who we
the
communion-meal
offerings
propitiation here
commonly
easily
is
of the type
described
below as
Artemis,
moved to anger also receive propitiawho stood so close to nature, was worbattle
;
shipped in
this
way before
of the sea, the Winds, never to be depended on, the River gods,
now
1
bringing
fertility
fury,
'Hpa/cXe? <T0as ws
2.
rjpoii
ivayl^ovras
10.
ws
Oeip dvetv,
Pausanias,
2. 10.
i;
Herodotus,
44; Isocrates,
63
109
when men
offer-
Although propitiatory
ing, has
communion-meal
less
ritual,
it
been reduced
to
one more or
period
with the
probably
Only
clear,
seems
gift
welcome
ness.
blood
sometimes
human blood
which
could be so
was
The body of
it
to treat
in
who were
or might be angry, a
all
that
made
to the
harmless.
Greeks
hoped
;
to avoid
by
inflicting
on himself the
loss
seem
to
me
many
other peoples.
in
Still
any form, a
which incapaci-
men
to
Childbirth also
demands
lustration.
in the mysteries
at certain
seasons
and
needs purification
is
Herodotus,
3. 41.
no
possible presence of
GREEK RELIGION
which the
In the
some
case of murder
it is it
murderer
until
is
appeased
con-
needed.
of
purification
were
originally
spirits
^
;
rites
of
riddance by which
effectually driven
of evil were
away
to
nition
same
the
came
be understood as
means of removing
some
taint
Scene
daughters
on a
of
Greek Gem
The
three
is
lampus (?) are being puripig and prayer is offered ; " libations fied from their insanity by a bearded priest, who holds without wine accompany the ceremony above them a young pig and and cakes are burned on the altar. a branch for sprinkling; at Under some circumstances sea water the right is a young attendant, or spring water, clay, sulphur, etc., find at the left possibly Artemis The skin of a place in the ceremony. standing beside a column.
a
KwSiov)
ram sacrificed
to
The mur-
by their friends
to
only
when
is
a city or a people
1
is
8
4
Pausanias,
Herodotus,
i.
35; Aeschylus,
Bum.
835,
and
schol.;
Dittenberger, Sylloge,
653- 68.
iii
Epimenides
first
The
the
step
who had died Then black and white sheep were brought to
sacrilege
meantime.
let
own
lie
course,
down. add that a youth also was sacrificed. In time of plague Tanagra was purified by Hermes himself who bore a ram on his shoulders around the walls of the city;- the evil spirits
to
Some
writers
" entered into " the ram, as into the swine of Gadara, and were
borne away.
regular purifications had to do mainly with agriculture. At Thesmophoria pigs were thrown into a hole in the ground as later the decayed rea sacrifice to Eubouleus and Persephone mains of the flesh were mixed with seed by superstitious persons.^
The
the
the
taint
damage summer
mals,
two
men
{cfiapixaKot)
were
city
to
gather up
try,
all taint
of
evil
The meaning
directions.
of the
rites
felt
of purification
is
to
be sought
in
two
;
First,
men
;
the murderer must leave the country, before either he or the country
can be purified
rites
an animal or a
man
proper
is
may
2 Pausanias, 9, 22. i. Diogenes Laer. i. no; Aristotle, Af^en. Pol. i. Rhein. Mus. 25 (1870) 549 cp. Lasaulx, Studien des classischen Altertums, 262
;
f,
Harpocration,
s.v.
(pap^aKos.
112
the
evil.
GREEK RELIGION
But secondly,
in explaining tiie use
is
of pigs* blood,
it
Demeis
When
a temple of Aphro-
dite
is
;
used
dog sacred
for the
to
Hecate
ter the
worshipper
Demesame
used
purpose.^
came
8.
to be used
Worship.
The
the
State
described in the
of the state and in the religion of the individual and the home.
had
its
religious side.
The
larger family
the ancestral
god or hero
(^cbs TraTpaJo?)
its
;
whom
descent was
claimed
-'
the local
deme had
own
festivals,
the pohtical
were
built
upon a
common
The
:
worship
phratry
first
had
its
religious festival,
known
as the
Apatouria
on the
in a
common
sacrificial
them
in the phratry
list
and
offering a sacri-
for the
members of
the
phratry.'^
On
their children of
school age to show what progress they had made, and prizes were
1 Bull. Corr. Hell. 13 (1889) 163; Schol. Aristophanes, Pax, 277; Scliol. Aristophanes, Ran. 338; Aelian, De nat. anim. 10. 16. 2 Aristotle, Athen. Pol. 21. 6.
3 C.I. A.
II,
841
1)
113
It
mem-
to
sacrificial
The
every
worship
shrine,
as
at
we
so far
as
the
benefits to be derived
from
it
were
the
conregular
cerned,
as a whole, as well as
in
behalf of individIt
uals.
has
been
all
pointed out
shrines
last
that
in
were
the
instance
adminstate
Fig. 29.
istered
by the
the
through
priests.
the
meeting of
At the
right a
athenaic
and a
votive tablet.
were offered by
In time of plague, the
rites
city,
under
guidance of the
to free itself
of purification
from the
At most shrines the worship centred about one annual festival, and in a few instances we read of temples which were closed all
the rest of the year.
1
regular
Plato, Tim. 21 B.
GREEK RELIGION
See Part
II,
Chap.
iii.
114
not
GREEK RELIGION
uncommon,
for
while
we must assume
;
that
open
vals
cially
were annual,
be espe-
The Panathenaea
was
at
Athens
with every
celebrated
special
pomp
to
fourth year.
In
order
get
clearer conception
of
the
city
festival,
we
may
describe
briefly
the Panathenaea.
The
the
arrangements
festival
for in
were
for
charge
ap-
of a
commission
the
pointed
pose.
purfourth
In
the
the
century
FK..
^S'J-
greater
Panathenaea
nastic
began which
before
1'
Athena
is
reads "
advancing as into battle; the inscription I am one of the prizes from Athens."
On
a
relay
the
night
which that
in
series
of
runners
still
was
victorious
which
goal.
first
succeeded
bringing
its
torch
burning to the
the
Next morning
early,
for the
goddess and embroidered with scenes from the battle of the gods
and
giants.
become a
was stretched
of Athens,
be borne
up through the
officials
There followed in the procession the citizens religious and secular, old men chosen for their
115
utensils of
who bore
priests
cattle
to be offered
to
and marshals directing the procession. At the great altar before the temple of Athena the animals were sacrificed, that all the people of the city might share the great banquet in
the goddess,
honor of the
city's
goddess.
On
came
a boat race at
to her city
through
its
Among
and
foot race, in
which
from
man
{aTro^dT-rj^)
to leap
games
oil
(e.g. at
said that
Homeric poems
For these
gifts
recited
same
policy in adding
was a gold or
silver wreath,
with
of
money
In honor of Athena
and of Apollo musical contests were as important as athletic games. From local festivals of somewhat this type, we may assume that
the Panhellenic festivals were developed.
Common
language and
common
the
Greek
one nation
military genius
and power
was almost the only force tending toward one Greek nation.
gress of states
settling
The
meeting
at
minor disputes, or
some
principles of inter-
state law.
far
The games
at
more the games celebrated at Olympia, for the time they were Greek states in one enthusiasm for what
ii6
GREEK RELIGION
BEID OF THE
CLADEUS
RETAINING WALL
Fkj.
117
fifth
Elis
offered daily sacrifice, the old temple of Hera, the shrine of the
feasted, the
trained,
the
stadium
where
the races were held, the treasure-houses for the votive offerings of
many remains
In late
summer every
peace
as early as
participants
and spectators
to the scene.
First
came
on
be held.
artist
;
by
their art
crowds
(till it
was forbidden
all
in
393
a.d.)
common
The
life
to Zeus, in
festival was devoted to the great sacrifice whose honor the games were held, and to the necessary preliminaries. Judges {Hellanodikai) and contestants appeared before Zeus Horkios, the former to swear that they would act with
first
day of the
would
refrain
The
judges then
made up
whom
the applicants,
and arranging the contests of youths so as to preThe second day saw the running and wrestand boxing of the youths under twenty, those only excepted
convenient presentation of the subject
is
seine
Festspiele, 1899.
iig
GREEK RELIGION
strong enough to
entirely
men,
On
oil,
entered the
waved their arms vigorously in their efforts to cover such a course. The Olympic period was named for the victor in the single course This of about 200 yards (600 Greek feet =192.27 metres).
single course
The
celebrated
times
their
The
till
skill
of
one ac-
The
pankration, was
and most
might participate.
On
came the horse races, the pentathlon, and The hippodrome is said to have provided
At one end
of the central dividing wall was a statue of Hippodameia crowning Pelops, victor in the chariot race.
east
On
car, a
either side
and
at the
affair
end
Each
low two-wheeled
its
own
compartment
to begin
;
at
the west
end
The
courses
if
about
1 1
of speed.
At Delphi on one occasion no less than 41 cars took such scenes of confusion as Sophocles
;
and horses
in
most immi-
119
inelee,
to the excite-
The
awarded not
who had
horses.
The
a peculiarly
Greek contest
athletics.
in that
it
tended
the
forms of
only those
who came up
to a high
standard in the early contests, entered the wrestling, and the victor
here was victor in the series.
The
race of
men
in
armor, a double
who had
last day.
The
prizes
fifth
and
Wreaths of wild
of Zeus
^
due ceremony from the tree desighad been lying in the temple before the image
now the judges placed them on the brows of the victors and heralds proclaimed name and state of the victors to the applauding crowd. After the victors had sacrificed to Zeus, the
embassies from the different states joined in a magnificent procession from
one
altar to another.
The people
home
in triumph, their
home, and they received substantial tokens of their countrymen's favor. At Olympia also, the victor might dedicate a statue to the god, though only to him who had
principal temple at
won three victories was a portrait Not even the war with Persia,
statue permitted.
that great struggle to vindicate
Greek freedom against what claimed to be a world power, united the different states of Greece as they were united in the Panhellenic
games.
Men
skill as
strength and
1
Greece,
Pindar, Pyth.
5.
Pindar, Olym.
3.
5. 20. i
cp. Lucian,
Anach.
15.
I20
GREEK RELIGION
state
and every
9.
accepted
this
worship as the
common
inheritance
of one people.
Worship
of the Individual
The variety of
in
the home.
The goddess
of the
home
as
Her round
wound
with white
fillets
stood in the main room {dvSpiov), for the hearth had from earliest
home
fire
life.^
The
city also
had
its
central
Every
sacrifice
said to have
In the
home
sacrifices of animals
were offered
Hestia.
to the
Every day
all
to
And on
home
departing on a
birth,
her at meals.
coming of new
first
slaves
on
all
dess of the
At Athens the
in the
This was at the same time altar and symbol of the god. Apollo the Guardian
the
Here
to
;
men prayed
to
in
worship here
this altar.-
on receipt of good
fire for their
new
home.
worship
city,
The patron
had
their
main
hall.
The goddess
of the
in
fact
men
brought to their
homes
god
in
not
De nat. deor. 28 Diodorus Sic. 5. 68 the material is gathered (but handled) bv Petersen, Der Hausgottesdienst der alten Cn-iechen, 1851. ^Sophocles, Elec. 637; Track. 209; Aeschylus, Again. 1080 f Aristophanes,
1
Cornutus,
critically
Vesp. 875.
in the court
may
he was worProbably
home
bedroom of husband
and
wife.
in the
good fortune found their place home. Zeus Ktesios was worshipped here to safeguard health and wealth.'' His presence is said to have been symbolized
Finally gods of property and of
;
by a two-handled vessel
for
wound
Plutus,
and
fruits
of
all
kinds.
good fortune, Agathodaemon (success), and Hermes, god of trade, seem to have been worshipped occasionally with Zeus Ktesios. that of Apollo Agyieus at the door, of These different shrines Hestia in the main room {androii), of the gods of the family and
chamber
all
The worship
It
events of family
life.
The
for the
new-born
child.
The
olive
at the birth of a
impure.
won by the man, warned visitors from a house ceremonially The ceremony of purification, the Amphidromia, is said
birth,
by some authors to have taken place on the fifth day after though it seems ordinarily to have been combined with the
1
'^
birth-
i.
lo.
i,
p.
328 C.
(Anticleides).
3 Is^eus, 8. 16; 4
Athenaeus,
f.
;
11, p.
473
Frag. 178.
122
GREEK RELIGION
feast
day
on the tenth
day.^
been
purified, the
women
and ran around the hearth carrying the young child. The gifts which were brought consisted mainly of delicacies for the feast that followed; one was never missing, the special cake (x^/ato-tos)
which the
slaves of the
household prepared
-
The
who
Artemis.^
The
feast itself
;
was peculiar
late
in that the
women
of the
according to
the
abounded, games like the coitahiis were shared even by women, and the festivities were prolonged far into the night.
of the young child as a
The enrolment
was not unusual
service of
member
of the phratry
it
At
least in the
Hellenistic age
Demeter
It
at
girls
When
mode
man
began
of
life
to
citizenship, the
religion.''
change
in his
The
the young
men
we read
also of a
festivities
on
this
occasion.
rite (re'Ao?),
wife, but
new home.'
s.v.
Suidas,
s.v. diui(pi8p6iJ.ia;
;
Hesychius,
5po/xid0toi' ^/xap.
2 3
4
"
Euripides, /on, 653 Aristophanes, Aves, 494. 5 Suida^, sv. ApKTos, dpKTevaai. Schoemann, Opusc. 2. 227.
C./.A. III. 809, 828
f.
etc.
Hesychius, olvLarripia.
f.
123
gods of marriage
FiG. 32.
Athenian
A bride
is
being led toward her new home; the central figures are Apollo and Artemis as gods of marriage.
mis,
and
at
Athens, Athena.
The
To avert
^
evil
both bride
with
and groom
baths in
special
took purificatory
water
rites.
brought
The
wedding
house of the
bride's
fices
father
included sacri-
to
the
household
gods
of the
new home.
in
The wedthe
early
ding procession
Hymen,
the
god of marriage.
ing their
On
reach-
new home
wife
the husat
Fig. 33.
band and
its
worshipped
in
r)
different shrines,
ending with
Relief
is
in
Athens
the
V
gods
1
1
of marriao"e
1
the An attendant
I.-
bridal
-J
chamber
Boeotia,
man
in the
38
and 43
124
the
GREEK RELIGION
new
wife in the
name
of the goddess
the
mysteries of marriage.^
In sickness
men
warriors of
Homer
The
all
had some
in dealing with
descent.
not
Later Greek medicine was intimately connected with the worship of Asclepius.
The
is
in
The
sick
man
had
his choice
between
visiting a
place,^ or calling in a
man
of some education
who
practised for
money, or going
is
Although
^
;
at
such shrines healing virtues were ascribed to the god alone, there
no question
were versed
in
medical lore
many
of the cures which patients believed were due to the touch of the
priests.
hand can only have been due to surgical operations by the The most famous shrine of healing was the temple of Asclepius at Epidaurus, with which the worship of the same god The at Tricca, Cos, Pergamon, and Athens was closely related.
divine
These may have been due in a measure to the healthy location, the waters, and the wise advice of priests who inherited the knowl1
Athenaeus,
7, p.
309
;
B
;
Preller,
Demeter and
;
19.
457
Iliad,
4
i.
456.
tions," Gaillard's
125
126
GREEK RELIGION
The
central feature of the treatment was
(cyKot/Ar/o-ts),
edge of generations.
the incubatio
god appeared
rectly
to the patients in a
to give
by divine touch or
dream either to heal them dithem medical advice/ Arisaccount of the way Plutus, god of
all
The order of
ance of the
eased parts
priest,
all
method
rites
home
be
we must consider
state,
i.e.
the worship
independent of the
6/3yea)j/e';).'^
some god played Greek life after the fifth century for the most part they may be grouped in two classes associations formed for the worship of some foreign god, and clubs or societies formed for
Associations under the patronage of
;
a large part in
In both
much
the
elected to
membership paid an
all
initiation
members were on
the society
the same democratic by " decrees," imposing fines or in much the same manner as was
It
done
in the
assembly of the
state.
slaves
were admitted on
i.
i.
570.
Plutus, 653
f.
127
The biographer
of Sophocles states^
the Muses.
cities
The
had associations
We
read of a society of
sixty
Athens, whose
banquets
enough
Macedon
Heracles
Even
priest
and temple
and paid funeral expenses, '' trades-unions" of artisans in the same occupation, literary and philosophical clubs, as well as those formed for purely social ends. Just as each group in the state
had
its
some god
or hero, so each
club, whatever
The
cities.
consisted primarily of
foreigners
who united
in the
its
home
In the days of
No
own manner.*
when
the
It
to build a
temple
was needed.
the
For example,
brought before
action.'^
Occasionally one of
that
of Artemis
Bendis, was
Athenian
state.
For Athenian
worship of these strange gods was not unusual, although it was Demosthenes's account of such private regarded as discreditable.
1
Vita Soph.
\ 6.
Athenaeus,
14, p.
614
6, p.
260 B.
Ath. Mittk. 18 (1893) 21 f. 4Cp. Plato, PoUtia, i. p. 327 and schol.; Dittenberger, Sylloge, 633.
5
128
worship^
GREEK RELIGION
may
fairly
all
the state.
neglect of
recently discovered
in
inscription describes
detail
the
organization of the
association
lobakchoi,^
carried
after
an
the
true
which
on
the
Bacchus
above
worship
Athenian manner
the
in a
state
temple built
shrine
fact
old
of
re-
Dionysus
mains that
the
state
Lenaios.
in the best
The
days of Greece
family,
and the
rather
than
the priv^ate
association,
were
The
Fig.
cults of
adherents
selves,
Greeks them-
appeal they met a need which the and splendid ceremony of the state cults did not even recognize it is, then, no mere chance that so-called mysteries became a large factor in Greek religion. The public worship of the state was so bound up with the political and social conception of the state that it meant little for the individual. And when these stateideals began to break down, when the personality of the individual in its strength and in its weakness began to be more clearly recognized, men sought some more immediate personal relation with a god. That the worship of Sabazius,'^ for example, gained a hold
inherited ritual
;
Demosthenes,
i8. 260.
Maas, Orpheus,
18
f.
Cp.
p. 241.
129
proof of
this
tendency
in
religion.
What
might better be
Fig. 36.
V'iew^
community of Demeter worshippers governed by priests of Demeter. Only after bitter conflict with the developing power of Athens, was
this agricultural priest-state
in
its
conquered
worship of the
it
gradually
Delphi in
Roman
days.
Excavations
on the
site
of the shrine
have brought striking testimony to the development of these " mysteries." Because this worship furnished the appeal of religion to the individual and the assurance of a real
life
after death,
GREEK RELIGION
I30
GREEK RELIGION
it
to
an old and
its
rapid growth
The
shrine of
Demeter
at Eleusis
bay of Salamis and not far from the water. In Roman days one entered the precinct through a larger and a smaller gateway just
;
where the rape of Persephone was said to have taken place a little farther on was the temple of Demeter herself. The main building, the Telesterion, differed from other Greek religious houses in that it was a place of
assembly large enough to accommodate the crowds of worship-
FiG. 37.
Vase
with
P^igures in Relief
(St.
Petersburg)
The
Eleusinian
officials are
home
sides
for
some god.
The lower
;
story,
once
surrounded on
by some twelve steps on which the of the second initiated might sit or stand, remains in part to-day The lower hall was so story only the entrance platform is left.
all
131
celebrated
rites
must have been seriously obstructed the upper hall is said to have had similar rows of seats about it and in the centre a stage, open to the sky and surrounded with columns.'
there
The
selected for
The name
indicates that
was
and explain
The dadouchos
for hfe
These
officials
sacrifices, purifications,
and other ritual; while the archon basileus more civic commissions exercised super-
name
of the state.
confusion on this subject has been due to a misunderstanding of the word " mysteries." If there had been any
large
Much
body of
secret doctrine,
some
traces of
it
would certainly
We
S/aw/xem
to other
koX
ra
Greek
after
cults
at
purification of Apollo
killing
the
dragon was
represented
by the worshippers
once
in eight years.
more
secret,
At more
Eleusis the
sacred.
ritual-drama, beheld
In the
fifth
The
as
Agrae early
eligible
in
March served
only those
a preparation for
the
rites at Eleusis, in
that
who
had
first
been
initiated
It
here were
"greater mysteries."
was
in
March
rite at this
of th^
Pausanias,
2.
37. 3
f.
(at
Lerna)
3. 22.
2 (to Dionysus).
132
festival at
GREEK RELIGION
Agrae we know hardly more than that Persephone and
were preceded by a truce between the
for initiation
it
The
Greek
thither unmolested.^
Candidates
obtained a director
to advise
was
them
guide
as to the
them meaning
whole
of the
ritual,
and
to
serve
as
their
during
{i.e.
the
ceremony.
On
the fifteenth of
fast
Boedromion
the beginning
which was
rigidly
observed during
The
and
made by
Porch
the hierophant
dadouchos
(o-roa KoiKikt]),
warning
away
the
the impure
inviting
others to share
worship of Demeter.
aXaSe
/a 'o-rat
the
mysteries
bathed
near
to sacrifice)
at x^thens
in the sea
Two
in sacrifices to
Demeter and
been purified
[ixiCiv)?
{to. 'ETriSavpta
The ceremonies
to to
at
Athens ended
nineteenth
at
with
the
procession
Eleusis on
the
of Boedromion.
in
who were
share
the
worship
Eleusis, early
the
Way
into
the
Eleusinian worship)
lepa),
together with
to
Though
the distance
is
at different shrines
may be
that this initiation might take the place of initiation in the lesser
mysteries
3
in the
spring; see
8.
Mommsen,
ibid.y p.
220.
Herodotus,
65.
133
night
slowly
moving multitude
until
it
was
late
at
before
they arrived.
at
During the next three days (and nights, irawtx^Se^) the worship Eleusis included (i) sacrifices on the different altars of the
which included
as to
sacri-
purifications,
the
rites
they
the
first
time,
Fig, 38.
Marble
At the right the initiate is sacrificing; in the center the purification is represented, and at the left he sees the vision of the goddesses. Demeter and Persephone.
proper.
The
a
latter consisted of
two
parts,
was reserved
once
the
in
the
stage at least
spent in torch-dances
and visits to the spots made sacred by Demeter legend the fast of the previous nine days was ended by taking a peculiar drink, the kykeon {KVKewv, made from barley meal, mint, and water), and symbols kept from profane view were exhibited to the mystae or handled by them. Perhaps also some sacred formulae were then for the first time imparted
to the initiates.^
1
2. 21)
in
the
form
evrfarevaa,
cttiov
rbv
KVKewva, eXa^ov
els
iK
Klarrjs,
KlaTTjv.
that the
cista.
55.
i34
GREEK RELIGION
their
On
to
second
visit
to Eleusis
all,
the the
the
crowning
ceremony of
hall
visions "
(J.iroTrTua).
Gathered
in the great
of the mysteries
(jf-XearripLov)
they
saw scenes representing Demeter's joy in the recovery of her daughter, representing the underworld where this same Persephone
is
queen, representing
Eleusis,
and
the
among men
of Demeter.
suggests
the grain
To
call
these scenes a
drama
something
ceding
better
Fig. 39.
night
receive
might
that
Fragment
Figure
name.
of a Small Votive
(Eleusis)
In these "vis-
ions "
symbols
to
were
sufficient
suggest
Persephone stands by the seated Demeter, perhaps in the form in which the reunion of the two goddesses was exhibited to the worshippers at Eleusis.
Story,
while
images
in
and Persephone reunited with her mother. Apparently the rites ended with this blessing by the hierophant " Dread and reverend are the goddesses most blessed of men on the earth he
:
whom
home,
they truly love; speedily they are his escorts to the great
to Plutus
who grants abundance to mortal men."^ The "Homeric hymn" to Demeter contains the cult legend
1
Homeric Hymn
to
Demeter, 487
f.
135
Persephone, pluck-
ing flowers with her attendant maidens, was seized by the king of
realm below.
over sea and
of an
Demeter, who
beneath
land for nine
the
surface of the
earth, hurried
Demeter came
to Eleusis in the
old
woman,
sitting
by the Par-
to
break her
divinity
still
fast
and come
At length her
rites,
but
The hymn
grain and
mysteries.
to
Demeter, they
drama of
in
things divine.
Men
goddess
and
bond uniting
gods
To
be able to claim
friends,
who
this,
"We
new knowledge, was what men gained at Eleusis. alone have the sun and its gracious light, we who have
136
GREEK RELIGION
initiated in the mysteries
been
in
and have
lived a pious
life
toward
strangers
and toward our own people," sings Aristophanes's chorus Again, in the words the flowery meadows of the lower world.
^
of Sophocles,
''
Thrice
blessed they of
men
who
rites
before
they go
realm.
life
to
Hades's
The mony
ture
of Greek
teaches
us
that
the
most
important
was
this clear
life
hope of
a real
All
after death.
Greeks believed in
continued
of
the
exist-
the
ence
hardly
soul,
the
infelt
name
Fic. 40.
"
The
Marble
itiated for
at
Eleusis
themselves
the
Demeter
favor
of Persephone,
dead accepted
care
their
Moreover
they saw Hades in the "visions," and they found out for them1
f.
Plato, Phaedo, 69
C;
137
fit
Homer
but the
for
con-
Demeter's daughter.^
Nor was
this
hope
themselves
The worshippers shared the pangs of Demeter's sorrow when Hades carried off her daughter, they shared the love that demanded the return of Persephone, and they shared the joy of the goddess when that love won back its object even from death. Could the mother or husband or brother from some bereaved home have shared these experiences without feeling that his
alone.
love too
would sometime be
satisfied again,
that in the
life
after
ones
life,
he had lost?
while at the
the
Because
EJeusinian
same time
ancient Greece.
1
Plutarch,
De
def. orac.
422 C.
CHAPTER
The Gods
himself,
III
in their
According
the
to
the
Hebrew conception
and animals,
Greeks ex-
man
The gods
in the
same sense
men were
Men
originally sprang
some
said
were
The gods
for the
Heaven and Earth (Ouranos and Gaia) from which came the The three generations of the gods, marking
successively the rule of force, the rule of cunning, and the rule
by Greek mythology
Greek
religion
started with
the
men
at
work
;
in the world
human
Both
subject
will,
has
explained
indeed,
it
is
for scientist or
child or primitive
1
man
;
wholly to avoid
Grace.
in
wor-
[Pindar], Frag.
84,
f.
711;
cp.
The whole
treated in
Cp. Introduction,
p, 30.
139
his
each of them
of men and gods, many gods, man) working from some one point or within
made up
some
these
definite sphere.
use,
expression in
Greek gods. Such a belief enables a man to handle evil hke a human enemy, to seek blessing as from human benefactors all that affects him is part of the intelligent society to which he
himself belongs.
The
fire,
;
as useful as
it
is
treacherous,
is
the
province of Hephaestus
all
an Artemis
is
there
make
;
Hermes
spirits
Athena
Hermes
even the
may be
In a word the Greek gods are in the world, not above the world,
superior beings
enter into
in personal
form
all
Such
is
is
made
to identify the
nature.
Helios, Selene,
and Eos belonged to the poetry of myth But the Zeus of Olympia and Dodona was
not the sky, even though one hears the expression, " Zeus rains."
Apollo at Delphi was not the sun, nor did the Artemis of Delos
wear a crescent
Poseidon was
In each
ever
made manifest in the fact or process of the natural world. The epic was the first attempt to treat these gods as rulers of the whole known world.^ The account of them is interesting in that it lays down the lines of later belief for worship almost as much as for myth. Because the epic statement furnished the
background
1
it
is
all
important for
our attempt to understand the Greek view of the rule of the gods.
Mythology of Greece and Rome, Part
I,
Chap,
i,
"
The Gods
in
Homer."
I40
GREEK RELIGION
far greater
a royal family in Olympus, in which power than any other individual though
him.
at the
for
The
Once
in the
moned
It is
a popular assembly of
all
the divine
spirits, like
bly at which
men, Zeus
to
whom
the
epic heroes
So long as
own
them.
Nature
is
Athena sends a
the sun
is
Zeus
plan,
is
Achilles's anger
and Troy
falls
as
The events of history are guided by and the story of the Iliad are part of his he had purposed. Whatever the individual
or does
may be
the
made
in the
in
exchanging
his
armor.
poem, however, Zeus cannot always follow his personal desires ; when Sarpedon is hard pressed by Patroclus, Zeus questions whether to let his friend die or snatch him away to his home in Lycia, till Hera reminds him that it is Sarpedon's lot
As an actor
to die at this time.^
" Neither
men
or
is
it
off,
when
Is this lot or
bound
obey?^
The
his
ques-
That which
befalls
life
these
3, i.
man,
good
constif.
1-42; Iliad,
1,
559.
3
4
Odyssey, 3. 236.
For the
47
f.
141
The
lot
v-rrkp
man does not control his own included an " ought " which he might disobey
/xopov, virkp ala-av), as well as
the inevitable to
characteristics
life
With
all
the other
human
also
transferred to the gods, this belief in a " lot " governing man's
The gods
were sometimes
which he
was any
ject
;
felt
binding on himself.
We
due to that
makes
its
gods so human.
of later thought.
All-
The
Zeus
at their
lines
is
referred directly to
evil results
of
poor
and morality
The good
their
divine rule.
The crops
for success,
men
on the
other hand
we read
gods and
men work
together in
all
the events of
human
history
side, the
con-
quered refer
vaguely
called
Oelov).'^
The
f.
142
GREEK RELIGION
of any real goal toward which history was tending,
was quite absent from popular belief. The power man recognized outside himself was called *' the gods," or sometimes "god";
each
city
it
was
left for
At the same time there was a strange lack of definiteness as to the relation of the gods to each other in the government of the world.
The
is
amounted
to this, that
if
man
It
no isolated case when Xenophon asked of the oracle to what god he should look if he wished to prosper on the exAs in worship one god was supreme at pedition with Cyrus.^ one festival, another at another, and there was no priesthood to
make an
men were
con-
how
2.
it
The Nature
Gods as Individuals.
If the worshipper
ever asked himself what sort of a being the god was, his answer to
this
true
for all
later thought.
the gods as
The Homeric account of the nature of individuals may be very briefly stated as follows
:
spirits
akin to man,
flesh
it
remained
were, to clothe
them with
and blood.
The
less
and the greatest men in that the gods possess faculties far limited than men, the gods are free from the difficulties and
tresses of
dis-
human
is
life,
Though
Hephaestus
usage
is
purely poetic
metonymy
in the
Hephaestus
poems
phenomena. Everything is in human moulds. The gods have their homes on Olympus, where they live and eat and sleep, like men
1
Xenophon,
.Inai). 3. i. 6.
f.
143
no comparison
to man's.
Most of
only
the gods
move from
place to
in
to the battle
;
Zeus rules from Ida, watching the course of events and controlling
men by
his messages.
The gods
and
much
farther
than
man
in
they are
far wiser
human wisdom comes from them. It is in their feelings that they The hatred of Poseidon for Odysseus, the are most like men.
quick anger of Zeus with Athena and with Hera, the boasts and
threats
pity
for
the
Greeks,
her
mortal
women
these
in
are
the
essentially
human
Only
as did the
Greek
in lays
The
that the Apollo or Poseidon of the epic was not exactly the Apollo
The
result, this
most human
in their nature,
;
it
was
and indirectly
his
now
the reader will change his point of view from that of the
It is
of these gods,
grew up.
it
in
when one remembers the circumstances under which the poems demanded amusement from the bard, nor was Demodocus, for example any mood to criticise religious conceptions.
An
after-dinner audience
{Odyssey, 8. 266
to meet the wishes of his audience; other and the gods of Homer are the resuU of this conatmosphere, only tempered by the Greek sense of beauty.
f.),
144
GREEK RELIGION
in their
is
will
prove
of the
The
differences
may be found
will
men
less
for in thus
That theophanies and divine guidance come primarily to the individual in whom the god has a personal interest, as Athena is interested in Diomedes and in Odysseus, may be regarded as part of the economy of
carrying out their plans as rulers of the world.
the
poems
still
was included
of
in the heritage
which
The
deceitfulness of signs
human
signs, prophets,
and oracles
it
leaves
no place
in signs
by the god.
is
The
personal element
strikingly absent
it
god
lay
is
supposed
such guidance.
The
spirit
of Apollo
priestess
true, a
the
human mind
heavens
is
a peculiarly impersonal,
is
The
is
the reason
from
this
source as to what
i.e.
men
In worship proper,
men
Cp. Chap,
i,
supra.
145
work to determine men's thought of the gods. Here the contrast between the epic point of view and the point of view natural to the
worship at these shrines was very marked, although the differences were more or less blunted in the Athens of the fifth century B.C.
In the first place, as was pointed out in the Introduction (p. 22 f.), worship was carried on at countless particular shrines, at each of which a peculiar phase of one god to the exclusion of all other
gods
for the
time being
sacred
rites.
At
we know
of Artemis
In each cult of Artemis she has a different and the origin of each cult is different in some instances the Artemis of one cult is extremely like that of a second, or
epithet,
;
Athena worship.^
may appear
in
of worship than
of Artemis
How
functions became fused into one cannot be explained in detail. The process began many hundreds of years before Homer the
;
rise
and
fall
of
cities,
tribes,
in
it;
last
The
while
to
fact
all
work
The
;
unity of the
god
nected with the particular shrine was marked by the added epithet
name,
e.g.
Agrotera or Mounychia
So
The
in
religion of
nature, which
the
god or
GREEK RELIGION
lO
Athen.
146
grf:ek religion
Imitative rites in
and
his worshippers,
free
from mysticism.
On
his prophets to see the future was rather a gift from outside than " inspiration " in the strict sense of the term. In the state worship
at
to a
minimum
in other words,
man
were as personal as the relations of one man to another. Further, it is clear that there was no worship of evil beings.
When
evil
came from
the gods,
it
When
it
did not
come from
the gods,
it
might be referred to
evil spirits,
of religion
about them, they are so definitely magic and not worship, that
they hardly require our consideration.
attributed to an angry god.
situation
Ordinarily evil
for
is
to
be
the
The
it
ritual
rites
to
change
The
essentially
They have
their favor
great.
is
and
suffering to be
At times
this fickle
anger was specially feared were not more holy than the Olympian
rulers,
nor
less
accessible to
man human
;
The
list
includes gods
of agriculture, gods of the winds and the sea, and gods like the
Eumenides or the
souls of the dead.
local heroes,
worshippers
See Chap,
ii,
p.
147
The normal
hymns,
its
its
votive gifts
and
ties
festal
sacrifices/
rulers,
human
his
by the
of social relationship.
hope that
his prayer
the discussion
of prayer
former
worship of the god and former favors received from the god, both
of which are tokens of the personal relation existing between the
and the
In
Homer
there are
many
worshipper.
ship, that
is,
;
is
found
later in the
community wor-
community they find pleasure in the homage of their worshippers and gladly grant these men their favor and protection. It is true
that
Homer
has
much
and
of sacrifice.
But while
this
for
The
recog-
pleasure of the gods in worship was thus like the keenest pleasure
human
fully
The
The
its
gods.
the epic, and finds a relatively small place in the later worship of
the state.
The
is
as absent
sacrifice
The Greek
idea
communion meal keeps, though somewhat vaguely, the of gods who cement social bonds of friendship by feasting
^
See Chap,
ii,
^^ 5-6
p.
90
f.
148
GREEK RELIGION
On
such gods the family or the state
to care for
may depend
them, so long as they keep up the worThese gods are not too far off, or too holy, or
They
enough
it
potent a factor as
community which worships them. enough to make religion so might be in Greek life. In a word, the ordioff or holy
nary worship of the state presupposes gods to have the power and
the wish to prosper the state because they are gratified
by
its
for
human
by no
means
absolute.
later
The
When
its
this
temple statue,
lost
all
They
poses of art and poetry, because even in worship they were beings
as clear-cut
3.
and
definite as the
men who
For
practical pur-
poses
in three
groups
the
gods
associated with
some
phase of nature, and (3) the gods who stand for human emotions and activities.^ The five gods treated in the present section are
so varied in their functions
and
at the
same time
so important that
they
may
Olympian gods.
get as near
(a)
Zeus.
The important
to the to the
seats of
Zeus.
The
;
mariner prayed
for a
prosperous voyage
encourage
when
the gods of myth; references to the Greek and Latin sources are given quite fully
in the notes of that
book
so that
it
is
list
of the
more important
pendix
II.
149
;
One
of the most
on Mt. Lycaeus
god of
light
it
When
the crops
fell
the
needed
rain.
On
in the
summer
rites
of purifi-
in the
at the Diasia
^.
'
.
m
.
Fig.
41.
Coin
(Hadrian)
of Elis
tect
the
fields
from
dangerous storms.
The Zeus
of Pheidias.
The
festival
of the
Diasia
was peculiar
god of storms
cake
in
offerings to appease the he who could not afford an animal brought a the form of a pig or a sheep. The legend of the birth
;
life
"mother-earth";
the din
his father
made by
god was suggested by the orgiastic worship of the priests. The many myths of Zeus's amours had historic basis in the fact that the heaven god was worshipped with one wife in one place, with
gods," Zeus became god of the family and of all social institutions. The stranger and the suppliant were under his protection, for there was no god greater or more universal to whom they could appeal. Just
the
men and
were often
less
im-
ISO
GREEK RELIGION
{b) Hera is the wife and queen among the gods. She, too, was worshipped on mountain tops and the phenomena of the heavens
Men
worshipped her,
e.g. at
the
Heraeum and
in
myth
Ares.
she was the mother of As goddess of marriage she was worshipped by women with imithat
tative rites.
twigs, and the ceremony of marriage performed. At Athens the bride's parents sacrificed to Hera Teleia for blessing on their daughter's marriage. The island of Samos was the
Athena.
As might be expected
worshipped
all
Athena was
Hera
dess of war.
cult
which
centred
this aspect
Thessaly.
At
Athens
Athena Itonia, but in the characteristic Athenian cult of Athena The Nike whose worship formed a part of the Panathenaea. war-dance (pyrrich) at the Panathenaea indicated that Athena Why Polias, goddess of the city, was also a goddess of war. Athena was ''Triton-born" (water-born) and was worshipped in
many
parts of
Greece
as the
goddess of
rivers
and
springs,
it
is
Nedousia, and other river goddesses was merged with the worship
151
Greeks
generally.
be identical with the most important goddess of the The goddess born
she granted
women
the
art
skill in
weaving and
embroidery
The
olive
gift to
the Athenian
people and
awaited
forms
;
of agriculture
her blessing
At the Panathenaic
glory in war,
its
festival
(cp.
p.
114)
facture,
and
its
political
skill in manuwisdom for in the Athena of the city, Athena Polias, all these
technical
was wor-
Fig. 4j.
liKo.N/.K
OF
SIAT-
UETTE
"Athena
(Boston)
Promachos"
in
Coin
of crops.
At the Thargelia
May
the
first fruits
Croton
Apollo
ing
is
were offered
j^ his
were held
corn
.
represented
-^
special rites in
^ might not
order that
^u
i.
i.u
the
ripening
suffer
from
^^^
his
anger.
The Smini.
stands in front of
the
Minor {Hind,
:^
39) kept
omphalos
in
^^^j^^
^^^^^
the centre.
&
'
^^ i
jl^
Parnopios i
kept
more
and prosper
Apollo,
the
152
GREEK RELIGION
gym-
The best-known form of Apollo was the his sacred precincts. god of Delphi, patron of prophecy, music, and the healing art. In the Pythian games alone athletic contests were second to
contests in singing and playing and rhythmic dancing.
many ways the feminine counterpart of her Maidens offered to her before marriage their girlhood dress and toys, for she was the ideal of chaste maidenhood. Mothers also looked to her for protection in childbirth. In strange contrast with the goddess who was sister of Apollo, Artemis was worshipped both in Greece and in Asia Minor as
(e)
Artemis
is
in
brother Apollo.
the
embodiment of
the
untamed
To Artemis
cows or sheep.
under her protection and she herself chase were claimed preeminence as a huntress. Oftentimes Hecate, goddess Images of Hecate, of magic arts, was identified with Artemis.
thought to be
now
carrying a torch,
now
in triple form,
were
set
up by gates
and doors.
secret ritual
;
Her
special worship
was carried on
at night with
food was set out for her at the cross roads, often to
moon
Earth,
as Apollo
Heavens. {a)
4.
Gods
associated
with
the
the
Waters,
and
the
of the whole family of the gods in myth, she was rarely worshipped. At Athens men sacrificed to her as the abode of the dead, at Delphi and Olympia the earth was honored because gases from it were a source of inspiration. But generally the mother-goddess
this
it
and received
emphasis
in the case
of
is
Rhea and
of Cybele.
153
Rhea
in Crete,
The worship
;
many
points of
In the
as
fertile plains
Demeter
try,
of cities
but her
proper
region
home was
mountain
forests.
orgiastic worship.
Dindymon was
vegetable
in the spring
and mourned
Firs
its
here
too was the grave of Attis, beloved of Cybele, whose death was
wreathed with
violets
were
The worship
gladness of spring and love, the gloom of the dying life of the Corybantes and " Metagyrtes " stirred the worshippers world.
wnth flute and cymbals and wild cries to a high pitch of frenzy,
till
they
felt
The
spirits
of risers
and springs
where they
gods.
were
identified
with
one
of these
The importance of
in
The Asopus
the
in
fig. 45.
Coinm)fGela
b.c.)
is
Boeotia,
the
,
Achelous
e c .-T^ fertility
in Aetolia,
(about 485
Spercheius in
,.
Thessaly,-
the
Alpheius
Lv.
river-god
as a ^^^^
represented
Elis
were gods of
in
the
-1
soil,
ot
human-headed
growth
ing
man and
animals, and in
some
instances of healing.
The
spirits
of springs were
nymphs
bride
bless-
fertility.
Water from
before
certain
springs was
important
purification;
in
marriage
both
and
groom bathed
water fetched from a sacred spring, in Athens the spring Callirhoe, for by such purification the favor of the gods was secured and children might be expected. The account of the
1
Attis,
and
Osiris.
Cp.
23. 142.
154
shrine of the
GREEK RELIGION
nymphs
at
this beautiful
simple worship of
Ithaca {Odyssey, 13. 349 f.) illustrates the embodiment of nature life.
(c) Poseidon alone among the sea gods was one of the Olympian council. Glaucus (the shimmering sea) was worshipped on the straits of Euboea, Palaemon at Corinth, Ino-
Leucothea
at
cults
Poseidon,
god of shipping, of fishing, and of trade by sea. At Mycale in Asia Minor his
worship was the political centre of a group
of Ionian
FiG. 46.
cities
;
the great
games
at the
Coin
of SeliB.C.)
is
were celebrated
the
The
fore
river-god
Selinus
;
pouring a libation
the
;
be-
altar
stands a
group of
cities,
includ-
cock behind the god is a selinon leaf above the statue of a bull.
ing Athens.
bull, often a
His favorite
black
sacrifice
was a
Posei-
nature was
violent
and
don was
away from the sea especially in the Peloponnesus he was honored as the god of fertility of the soil. The shepherds prayed to him to bless their flocks, but the rearing of horses was his special care. At Mantinea in Arcadia,
at Athens, particularly in Thessaly,
of horse-raising, of
in war.
(yd)
skill in
in
Greece.
On
horses were sacrificed to him by being plunged and the Halieia was a splendid festival in his honor. At Corinth and at various points in the Peloponnesus he was
an important god
flocks.
The maintenance
of holy flocks and herds tended by priests was a part of his wor-
155
The moon determined the seasons of worship but was Nor were the stars worshipped. The dog-days, however, marked by the early rising of Sirius, who was known as the dog of the hunter Orion {I/iad, 22. 29), were the season of peculiar rites. To ward off the evil effects of the
not herself worshipped.
dog-day heat
sacrifices
northern Greece.
The
a ritual of this
same season,
Minor from a Semitic source (a'Aivoi/ = ai lenu, "woe to us"). At Argos Linus was worshipped as the son of Apollo and the nymph Psamathe ("sand-spring"); according to the story this child
was exposed and grew up with the lambs of the flock,
tore
till
the dogs
him
in pieces.
At
his
tomb
in
women
and children performed a ritual of mourning and suppHcation. The festival was called Arneides (" Lamb-days ") and on one day (Kynophontis, "dog-killing ") all dogs found on the streets were The purpose of this worship was to ward off the put to death.
evil effects
men and
flocks.
Similar rites
The whids,
were subject
Asses
were offered to the winds at Tarentum, horses on Mt. Taygetus, even human sacrifice is said to libations without wine at Athens
;
These were propitiatory winds. It was Athena, or the of violence the check sacrifices to Poseidon, or Zeus who sent fair winds to bring the sailor on his way. The gods Human Activities and Emotions. 5. Gods of
have been performed in their worship.
who
and flocks, gods of trade and manufacture, the goddess of and the god of war.
156
{a)
GREEK RELIGION
Demcter was no doubt originally the " mother-earth," but In in worship she has become primarily a goddess of the grain. the rich valleys of the Peloponnese, in Crete and Asia Minor, in
Sicily,
to the world.
Demeter Chloe
the slope of
;
the Acropolis, cared for the fresh green of the sprouting grain
from drought
harvest festivals
{e.g.
Demeter Himalis was worshipped by millers, and Demeter Megalomazos by bakers. The most widespread festival of Demeter was the Thesmophoria, in the first instance a festival of seed-sowing, the ritual of which was intended to secure good crops to farmers and children to the family. It was Demeter Thesmophoros, the goddess of sowing,
family
life
who
taught
men
the principles of
and
agricultural
life.
women
of
citizen descent
and blameless
festival,
and that
festival,
On
day of the
underground
chambers
On
the last day, Kalligeneia (" Fair offspring "), dances and contests were
women
furnished.
p.
128
f.),
At the time when seed was sown Persephone departed to her husband in the lower world when the grain sprouted she returned At Megara and at many points in the Peloponnese to her mother. (for example at Hermione) the mother and daughter were primarily goddesses of souls, worshipped at points where some cavern seemed to furnish an entrance to the lower world.
;
157
In
Attica and on
"
of the fertile Aegean god of wine. In Decemof Attica he was worshipped with
;
many
rustic jollity
;
the
emblem of
fertility
was car-
This
last
and dolls or masks were hung on the custom was explained by the myth of Erigone,
who hung
when wine
Fig. 47.
Athenian
on
(St.
Petersburg)
Apollo and
was
first
An
dramatic representations.
old cult
The
the
city Dionysia
came
March.
Athens
;
An
each year
this
Academy
temple
fices,
Sacri-
new
tragedies
the
See
158
GREEK RELIGION
Meantime the Anthesteria (flower
festival)
Athenian calendar.
On
and
the
first
together.
At the
was
public
(named
a
man who
Every
first
emptied
pitcher.
one
wore
At
this
time Persephone
was
underworld
tation.
of the
married
of the
bond
uniting
this
god
to
the Attic
state,
while
the
people
in-
dulged
third
filled
in
wild
gayety.
On
the
day
with
(" Pots,"
x^'^P^'-)
P^^s
cooked
fruits
were
souls.
Meantime
for
the temples of
Hermes
fore a
wand
stands be-
walk the earth on "unclean" days. The feast of" all-souls " ended with the cry "Away, ye souls, the Anthesteria " then men might safely take up their ordinary tasks is past once more. In this festival Dionysus was the god of souls, the wine god who showed men that souls were of the same substance as the god by filling them with Bacchic inspiration and he was
small winged " souls."
pMos
were
free
these
59
as well as the
was found
in
summer
belonged to Apollo, the winter to Dionysus. At Delphi men told they showed his grave of the " sufferings " of this god of plant life
;
women from
all
cries.
Though
this
Hermes^ even more than Apollo, was the god of flocks and and manners. His worship was especially prominent in the land of his birth, Arcadia, and in Thrace.
(c)
was the god of flocks who once saved Tanagra from pestilence
all
by carrying a ram
rite
sacrificing
it,
In general
the young.
The
came
to
pillar, in
as
it
pro-
shipped as
Hermes Agoraios
on
after death,
the market-place
and he was
Argos)
worshipped
{e.g. at
honored
in
at Eleusis, the
god by whose
youth, honored as
at
Hermes Agonios
gymnasiums.
The Hermaia
Athens consisted mainly of athletic contests by youths and boys. Pati, the son of Hermes, was another Arcadian god of shepherds
and goatherds.
spirit
With
life
of that wild
He
too
wooded
dells,
springs
and nymphs of
i6o
springs, the
tain tops,
GREEK RELIGION
dances and music of the goatherd. Caves, mounand high oaks were sacred to Pan music and choral
;
dance belonged
honor.
to his
worship
After the " panic " terror, by which Pan helped the Athe-
a grotto
near the
entrance
to
the
Acropolis.
Such caves
^^ and
grottoes were
commonly
the
{d)
Aphrodite.
The
ready
sympathy with which the Greeks adopted the worship of the gods
of animal and vegetable
life
has
been seen
dite
in the
case of Rhea-
AphroSemitic
was
perhaps
of
goddess of
creative
life
in
plants
and
anixAsia
mals.
Fig.
49.
Handle of a Greek Minor her worship was carried (Fourth Century to the Aegean islands and norB.C., Boston) thern Greece from Cythera it Aphrodite with an Eros on each worked northward through the shoulder. Peloponnese to Corinth. At Paphos in Cyprus (lepoK-rjiria) as at x-\thens her fane was surrounded by gardens which were filled with springing life when
Bronze Mirror
One form
planting seeds
in
potsherds with a
earth
the plants
sprouted quickly, quickly foded, and then were thrown into water.
These so-called " gardens of Adonis " symbolized the beautiful youth who was born each spring for Aphrodite to love, and was
killed a little later
1
Strabo, 14,
i6i
At by sharing her deepest emotions of love and grief. Corinth as in Semitic countries licentious rites were prominent in
dess
Aphrodite's worship.
as the
goddess of
apple placed in
More commonly in Greece she was honored human love, of marriage and the family. 'I'he the hand of her statues symbolized human love
of the
Pheidias represented her with her foot on a tortoise, which symbolized the retired
life
woman
to
in the
;
home.
Aphrodite Hera
at Sparta
in Attica
Aphrodite Kolias
for all
Aphrodite
in her
women prayed
feminine charms.
Greek shipping
So
sailors
known
as
many
points where
Italy.
legend
made
the
Finally,
An
Aphrodite Areia
in
armor was
also to
be
at
Corinth and at
Ares.
As
many
love, so
Thrace was the home of the god and the centre of his worship was among its wild tribes. At Athens the court for cases of murder, the Areopagus, originally met on
wild forces of the battlefield.
the rocky " Mars'
hill
The
In
the Acropolis.
many
points
human
were reported ; in Elis Ares Hippios, god of horses, was honored as father of the cruel Oenomaus who slew his comsacrifice
II
62
GREEK RELIGION
In the Homeric pantheon the lame He(/) Gods of Fire. phaestus was the god of fire and the smith's art, with his home on
the island of
Lemnos.
Each
year
all
purified,
and
fire
was brought
Fig, 50.
Athenian
Rri)
Contestants
in the
commemoration of
fire
was a
gift
Athens, the
was primarily a
festival of
time the
women
Athena
work with appropriate ceremonies. xAt the Apatouria Hephaestus was honored as a god of the hearth fire and The Hephaesteia the home by means of torch-light processions.
Polias began
their
1
163
was also an important festival at Athens. On this occasion as at the Panathenaea and the Prometheia the Athenians instituted
a
torch-race from
the
Academy
to the
Ceramicus.^
Torches
in his
fitted
torch
burning.
In the west
in
the
To one
it
;
was customary
for them.-
men
to
in Attica
and of that
civilization
which
fire
made
possible.
The
best-
known
in the
feature of his worship was the torch race from his temple
Academy
to the city.
fire,
home
state
and of family
had a
state
life.'^
Other
The community
in the
and the
at
common
home
Officials of the
Prytaneum
had
Athens,
and
in this
common
at
hearth and
Finally, at
ship.
common
Tegea.
Olympia and
all
Delphi
fire
all
many
who came
worshipped
at her hearth
fication
while those
special tribute
no doubt others beside Orestes came there for puriwho sang in honor of the Pythian god paid Because she was so closely conto this Hestia.
fire
was prominent
{g)
in worship.
Gods of Healing.
8.
The power
and
was one of
Herodotus,
s.v. Xafiirds.
Callimachus,
Hymn
to Artemis, 46,
schol.
ApoUonius Rhod.
4. 761,
and
schol.
3
Cp. supra,
p. 120.
164
GREEK RELIGION
more commonly it was exercised by The Asclepiads of Tricca in Thessaly From this early shrine his worship epic.
to
were mentioned
in the
Pergamon
in
the
Rome
and Cyrene
remain
in the west.
Of
daurus traces
still
and
for
and buildings
into
and of Dionysus.
On
the
first
And on one
god of had been initiated into the mysteries at this time, so other newcomers might be initiated furthermore the presence of the healing god was then specially manifest to the sick
sinian mysteries there were large sacrifices of cattle to the
Epidaurus
as Asclepius
who
The manner
in
which
his healing
section
on private worship
The
who presided
cult.
over childbirth.
to Apollo
On
and Artemis,
had a special
In her
shrine at Athens
been brought
The
attendants of Aphrodite
women
time of their
need.
etc.,
Eileithyia.
6.
Greek
ple
The
and
in
one
locality or
another
many
of these heroes
were worshipped
in later
time.
From
the
Greek standpoint a
165
the soul of
some powerful man which gains added power The people found adequate proof that such was
relics
the
case
in
the
of a
at
hero's
lifetime
they
could
see
the sceptre of
Agamemnon
Glance
summoned
so
many heroes
*
to the
at Corinth,^ the
rock at Troezen
under
which Theseus had found the sword and shield destined for his use, the house of Cadmus at Thebes or of Menelaus at Sparta.
These men had sprung directly or god and a mortal woman or nymph
their
of worship, for the divine part of their nature did not die
from
The myths of these heroes helped make them real and to extend their worship. The facts of hero worship are fairly plain to the student
Greek
far
to
of
problem of
it
their interpretation
is
more,
The worship
his grave,
spirit
and
was sought
beHef that
his
powerful
resided not in
Hades but
in
grave.
The
by an enclosit
or a grove
planted near
it,
home
near
by were
In trenches
by the grave or on a low mound (eVxa/oa) near by, sacrifices were whole burnt offerings (evayt'o-^ara) such as were offered to gods of souls and of agriculture, though at some hero
offered, ordinarily
god.^
men shared a communion meal with the hero as with a This worship involved the belief that the hero was a being powerful to send unusual good or unusual evil within the somewhat
shrines
He
cruelly
avenged neglect or
if
Pausanias,
^
*
Pausanias,
Pausanias,
;
2. 3. 6. 2. 32. 7.
Pausanias,
47. 2.
Cp. supra,
p. 108;
and
e.^.
Pausanias,
2. 10. i
10. 4. 10.
i66
GREEK RELIGION
obtain such aid the bones of Orestes were brought to Sparta,
against enemies, stop pestilence, heal the sick, foretell the future.
To
Indeed,
it
remedy
for
any
worship was
century
B.C.
The worship
before the
ably later.
fifth
of
men
is
death
is
not attested
considercults of
was not
common
for
till
There
the
no reason
bore.
to
heroes were
princes
outgrowth of funeral
the kings
fact to
and
be
of
that
many
often their
names
this
and Artemis
regarded as
is
Amphiaraus
Zeus Amphiaraus,
;
he
is
Zeus
Erechtheus
is
local Poseidon,
and Dictynna and Britomartis are local forms of Artemis, Harthe list might be extended to monia is a Theban Aphrodite, include more than half the names of cult-heroes which have come
down
to us.
came
to
be worshipped as such.
In some instances
we seem
to
who was later idenmyth while she continued to be worshipped In other instances we seem in the original locality as a '* hero." to find the same process as in the worship of Nike, namely first the worship of the god with an epithet added to the name
ancient god, for example a Dictynna in Crete,
tified
with Artemis in
as the
name
an independent
local deity.
1
Pausanias,
7;
3. 11. 10.
167
often
associated with
the
shipped in
the dead.
much
some greater god, who was worsame manner as the dead and the gods of
in
the
market-
and worshipped as local heroes. It is a wellattested fact that Miltiades began to be worshipped in the Chersonese, and Brasidas in Amphipolis, immediately after their death. Gelo was worshipped as the second founder of Syracuse,
are told,
we
The wor-
their honor.
The
fol-
which came to be a
sort of
hero worship.
The how
man might
spoken of
Athens
this
was
this
paved the way for the deification of kings in the Alexandrian age, and eventually led to the practice of worshipping the Roman
emperors even during their
1 /.
lifetime.
330
;
G. Ins.
3.
Diog. Laer.
lo. i8.
CHAPTER
IV
of
the SouL
The
contrast
already
Homer and
If we pass over the twentybook of the Iliad and the eleventh book of the Odyssey, with a few scattered allusions, the view of death and the soul in
tices of burial
third
the epic
is
consistent.
It
is
my
purpose to
all
but contradictory
With
death.
all
its
life,
a pessimistic
vein runs through the epic, and this vein controls the allusions to
Death
is
hateful, evil,
For Achilles
be dreaded
;
the gates of
Hades
most
to
Hades esteems
soul "
;
Whenever
the
word "
{\\iv^yj)
is
used
ence to death
is
intended
in other
" has
no
the
as
the man dies. It is said to fly out of the mouth, wound, or the limbs." On the one hand the soul is described an etSwAoi/, an image of the living man on the other hand it
;
Hades when
"
f.
The Conception
341
;
;
Homer."
;
Amer.Jour.
Theol. i (1897)
741
Iliad, 3. 173
3.
454
9. 159.
467
14.
518
16. 856.
168
169
all
With the exception of the be discussed below, there is no clear and definite
is.
In
one instance
it
is
poetically described as
vigor.-
mourning
its
departure
The
poems, however,
its
is
Real
"
life
with
to
activities
die "
to
Hades
means "
no
place in these
2.
poems of
is
In
hall.
later
;
Greek
almost
belief the
often
dead are worshipped on the ground that they have superhuman power to bless and to curse. So general in early religion is the dread of souls and the effort to
universally the souls of the
Greece
and
in
fact the
p.
199)
is
that the
scrupulous
in
care.
Ervvin
Rohde
has
The
soul
dream to his friend Achilles, is the image of the dead man with none of his substantial being. At the same time it differs from the normal epic idea of the soul
in that it
future.
body.
Such appearance
in
dreams
is
to understand,
the fact remains that here the soul has a reality and conscious-
ness and
superhuman knowledge.
Just before
death
the
in
soul
may
foretell
lips, as
the
The power
^
of souls to appear
f.
Iliad, 23. 66
Psyche, 14
22. 362.
^ Hicid, 16.
851
22. 358.
lyo
in
GREEK RELIGION
their
dreams and
to
this
power
to
foretell
due
same
ritual.
with careful
be divine,
it
may be worshipped
to secure favor
and blessing
for its
surviving relatives.
method of dealing with the fearing the supernatural power of the soul for evil, he situation burned the body of the dead in order to cut off any point of contact with this world which it might have. The epic treats
also devised
;
man
a very different
the souls of the dead as unreal images, but souls must be carefully
laid
to
rest
else
The
the
sacrifice
of cattle and of dogs that used to eat beneath the dead man's
table,
in particular
are
funeral
when men offered sacrifice and other worship to and when souls were thought to take some real satisfaction
is
in the offerings.
an
in
and the new, the survival of early making the soul an unsubstantial
at
shadow.
The
rites
souls
^)
to
The
the dead,
the
a
cow
to all the
dead and
to Teiresias, the
these
no mere poetic imagery. In the account of the interview of Odysseus with Teiresias and with his mother, which follows these rites, the souls are mere shades. They come and go in troops, they fly and cheep like bats they differ from the souls described
;
1 I
Samuel
28. 7
f.
LIFE
i.e.
171
for the
poems only
in that
in their
principle,
and
and his prophetic powers in Hades, apparently because the very power of prophecy removes him from the ranks of men one
Fig. 51.
Athenian
(Krater, Paris)
the account of
degree of consciousness and some knowledge of the future. From them Odysseus learned of what was going on in Ithaca and of
later,
fate
172
of their
GREEK RELIGION
own
sons.
Ajax
in Hades was still under the mastery of which had caused his death Agamemnon
; ;
was attended by those with whom he used to fight Achilles was still a king, little pleasure though it brought him. It is much this same view which appears again in the earlier part of book twentyfour.
The
life
is
to
be found partly
developed.
The
early
Greeks, so
The
colonists
weakened by migration, and cremation proved more By this means the souls of the dead were convenient than burial. " sent to Hades," and the worship at the tomb had no longer any
these ties
The
we may assume
that the
in
pantheon of Olympian
this
divinities
the background.
would
temporarily tend to
the epic in
its
make
And
from worship
ground
gloom of death was simply the backthe gods became actors in life the story, souls became mere shades. In the same ratio as the gods were greater and happier than men, so life in this world was more joyful and more real than life in Hades. It is only as an
to story
the
we
as
who
The
life
is
not limited to
LIFE
lyric
173
with
its
where
it
seems
to
have
arisen.
The Greek
when
Plato
makes
(the
is
One
Greek
religion
its
was that
it
tended
to free the
minds of
all
So the
banishment of souls from the tomb to a distant shadowy realm tended to bring to an end all fear of ghosts. And with the belief in universal gods, the way was opened for the introduction of
l-'u;. 5-:.
Aliii.MAN
\\lllll-:
Li:K\lli()S
m
(X'lrmui)
Prothesis scene
rests the
body of
the dead.
3.
Funeral Rites.
Funeral
found religious
basis.-
home
(Trpd^eo-t?),
the dead.
1
The
eyes and mouth of the dead were closed, the face was
C-E.
2
Apo/., 40
Supra, p. 136.
174
GREEK RELIGION
relatives rather than by hired couch spread with sprays of pungent herbs the body, clad in white garments and wreathed with
On
a liigh
was
laid
flowers, while
about
it
on such occasions."
By ancient
custom the
borne
out.^
feet
was spent
in
The day during which the body was thus exposed lamentation. Members of the family, the slaves,
;
near relatives and friends, and often some hired singers conducted
the ritual of mourning
until
it
women
and
were accustomed
The lamentation
which
all
joined.^
mourning.
in
The
the
Athenians,
who
often carried
money
in the
mouth, placed
mouth of
for
the dead a two-obol piece for Charon, the ferryman of the Styx
Cer-
Meantime a
who
left
The
couch on which the body had lain served as the bier before it went the male relatives, behind near female relatives, with hair cut short and dressed in black (or gray).^ The law of Ceos
prescribed silence
;
at
In
;
many
De
^
4
L.ucian,
JUad,
19. 212.
p. 800
E; Lucian, De
315
24.
719
f.
Lucian,
;
De
Wachsmuth, Das
schol.
;
alte
Gruchenland im neuen^
118
7 8
and
Nub.
c^oj.
Euripides, Ale. 98
f.
Pollux,
8. 65.
Demosthenes,
43. 62.
^75
176
GREEK RELIGION
at the grave
;
in
Ceos, for instance, the law limited the amount of wine to three
oil
it
At Athens the
sacri-
For those
at
Athenians
made
in
a public funeral,
triotic virtues
games
man were
It
is
said to be a cause
is
burial
their due, a
any worship of the gods."* In war there were truces for the burial of the dead, and the victors buried their enemies as well as their
friends.
The
traveller
place
at least
as a ceremonial burial.^
lies in
The
Antigone
human king
Greek
been
Both burial
practised from
in the
earth
to have
early times.*^
and more
natural, cremation
more imposing
more convenient
when
in
it
a foreign land.
The
souls of
those
brought to them.
and again
3
^
formed
f.
2 5
Sophocles, Ant. 255, and schol. See Hermann-Bliininer, Lehrbuch der griechischen A7itiquitdten,
;
^-
LIFE
177
off souls from this encouraged the idea of a realm of Hades from which none could return. The two conceptions were so blended, however, that no difference between
ideas.
world more or
and
souls of the
(Boston)
it
is
outcome should be obliterated. In either case, objects used by the dead man were placed beside the corpse. Jewelry, toilet articles, armor, pottery, and vessels of metal were placed in graves of the Mycenaean period, as though the dead man \vould still need them as during his lifenatural that the difference in the
time
only
much
leaf, for
it
was
to
be
used by shades.^
The same
principle held
good
later,
but pottery
predominated.
At Athens the lekythoi manufactured for use at tombs in large numbers. From early
Ibid., 4.
Hermann-Bliimner,
f-
379
f.
GREEK RELIGION
12
178
GREEK RELIGION
dead under the protection of these gods. were a survival of this interesting
The
beautiful
Tanagra
figurines
practice.
body had been buried or burned and a last *' farewell " had been uttered, the mourners returned to the house for a memorial banquet in honor of the deceased (TreplSetTrvov) Both the persons and the house were first purified, and wreaths, discarded since the death had occurred, were resumed for this occasion.
After the
.
Women
ceased
;
relatives as well as
men
were present
at this
banquet.
The purpose
for
of
this
it
was to
recall
The
soul of the
to
be
last
banquet
in his honor.^
The Worship
of Souls.
Though many of
it is
no question that the grave monument originally marked a sacred spot where worship was carried on. Plants and trees were placed about tombs as about temples to
prove the point.
There
is
From
ground
the
city gates,
the
dying were
away from the shrines of Asclepius, and Delos was purified by removing all graves that it might be an island sacred to Apollo.^ But for the family the tombs of its dead were important shrines. There are some indications that in early days the Greeks buried their dead within the house, as in many Dorian cities they continued to bury them inside the city walls then the cult of ancestors would be the central element in the worship of the family.^ In Athens members of the family brought food to the tomb on
;
the third day and the ninth day after the funeral,^ a custom
still
Cicero, de leg.
2.
25/63.
6; Herodotus,
i.
8
4
64; Thucydides, 3. 104. Plutarch, Lycurgus, 27, p. 56; Pausanias, i. 43. 3.; Polybius, Aristophanes, Lys. 612, and schol. Isaeus, 8. 39; Aeschines,
Pausanias,
2. 27.
225.
179
to
when
it
offer-
At Argos
;
this
was
in
honor of
Hermes, Conductor of souls in Sparta a similar offering at the end of the mourning was made to Demeter perhaps the god of souls was worshipped with the thought that after the mourning the soul went to Hades and returned to the tomb only on occa;
sions of worship.
sion
tomb (yeveam),
life
as
though
the
life
the birthday.-
At a
festival
in early
autumn
(the city
month
tombs of
their
respective families.^
Dionyfree to
dead were
upper world.
The temples
souls
pitch
were brought
to
Hermes, Conductor of
sacrifices
The worship
at the grave
and
libations such as
The
sacrifice of
animals at the
though
in
many
and burned
(ivayi^caBai).''
man
1
wanted.*^
On
Pollux
i.
66, Bekker,
f. f.
3
4
Feste der Stadt Athen, 172; Rohde, Psyche, 215 Cp. Ath. Mitth. 18 (1893) 151, T55, etc.
Mommsen,
Apollonius Rhod.
Pindar, Olym.
i.
i.
587,
and schol.
i8o
GREEK RELIGION
When
for
The commonest The libations, offering was the libation (callcil xo>/, not arrov^).^ consisting of honey mixed with water, of unmixed wine, and of The olive oil, were poured into a trench dug beside the grave.
may be
introduction of wine.
honey mixture was perhaps an old drink, in use before the general Oil was brought to the dead not to drink,
man
So
regularly
in"
used
after
his
body.
some
tomb
for the
use of
souls.'*
All
these
the living
man
was
needed them.'
ants.*^
If they
were provided
On most
is
No
animal sacrifice
men
flat
tomb
and
fruits,
of the dead.
in
some
making music
1
'-^
6 (795)
45 (324).
De
3 Iliad, 23.
Aeschylus, Choepli. 15
14 (1899) 103
f.
f.
Eu-
483
6
7
f.
39 (1880) 378 f. Jahr. Philol. 135 (1887) 653 Lucian, De luctu, 9, p. 926.
;
f.;
Aeschylus, Choeph.
Aeschylus, Choeph.
<^-^;
Benndorf, Griech.
f.
Sicil,
f.
Lekythoi, 346
LIFE
i8i
brought to the
amuse the dead. Most commonly of all the mourners hang wreaths on the monument, or fasten ribbons (taeniae) about the shaft. These practices all grow out of the belief
that the soul of the dead
is
the
man had
enjoyed be-
fore he died.
At Athens,
The worship
of
souls
Greek
the
worship
of
chthonic
gods,
an
all-important
Fig. 55.
gods.
It
a duck, and a
basket (for
A man
felt
that
his
own
or adopted, to
It is
state.
and
gratified
by the
harm and
i82
GREEK RELIGION
was sought by
its
survivors,
is
plain.
It
seems
plain,
also, that
men
An
unquestioning faith
after death,
in the
was the
worship of
Along
with
the
popular
winged beings
fluttering
about the
tomb, there existed from early days the thought of a realm where
the souls were gathered.
earth,
as the
Whether it was placed beneath the body was buried beneath the earth's surface, or
it
whether
men
located
it
in the
extreme west, as
It
in the
Odyssey,
the conception of
Hades was called Polydegmon and Pankoinos, for he received all who came, IsodaiThat the lot of the good tes, for he assigned them equal lots.^
at
men
man
lot
of the bad,
is
a thought that
Tantalus, Sisyphus, etc., punished for crimes against the gods, are
in germ.^
spots
The chasm
Aides.
8 Odyssey, 11.
f.
;
2 Odyssey, 4.
4
Pausanias,
5
i.
II,
948-950.
Pausanias,
35. 10.
183
c.
i84
GREEK RELIGION
is
up Cerberus from
Strabo^ says
Acherousian lake."
it
Hermione thought
for
their
own
land, instead of separating the land of the living from the place
At Eleusis,
at
Pheneos in Arcadia,
At HierapoHs
in
at
Lerna, and in
carried off
Hades
Persephone to be
an oracular cave under the temple of Apollo, filled with gases from below which only the initiated could breathe. Other " Charoneia " or "Plutonia" in Asia Minor are mentioned by Strabo.*
Herodotus^ tells of a soul-oracle (veK/oo/xavretov) on the river Acheron in Thesprotia. At Taenaron also was an entrance to the lower world where souls could be evoked and consulted. The worship of the underworld gods was pretty closely limited to these spots where physical conditions suggested that the world below
was directly accessible.
In the epic " mighty
"
were
rulers
of this gloomy world, as Zeus and Hera were rulers of the world
above.
The
made
the
on the earth.
men
"Persephone" Hke "Tisiphone" suggested pursuing punishment, anything but the Daughter who was worshipped with the Grain Mother at Eleusis. The transing vengeance on an enemy.'
Hades
god of wealth,
is
fully solved.
There
is
the earth, riches of mineral wealth and riches gained from the
1
Strabo,
8, p.
373.
38. 5
;
Pausanias,
Strabo,
i.
2. 36.
Diodorus,
4
Sic. 5. 3
p. 917 F.
3
13, p. 629.
13.
629
14. 649.
Herodotus,
5. 92. 7.
185
by means of
localities.
agriculture,
in certain
He
Ge
would be,
and
This god
may
with the
later
myth
who
And
of explanation as to
queen.
Demeter
is
Greek
god it is must make the conand the growing corn. Peran underworld
;
belief
haps the sowing of the seed and the sprouting of the grain itself made the daughter of Demeter the underworld goddess for part
of the year, a goddess
souls.
queen of
The
in
ture
to
and
some measure on
;
religious belief.
Hades continued
;
mean death
it
who could
confidently look to
The
religion
In the
mother Clytemnestra, even though this was vengeance prescribed by the Delphic x^pollo.'^ The "Erinyes of Clytemnestra" who avenged the mother's blood, however rightly shed, were the spirits
of the family, perhaps the souls of ancestors.'*
(or Furies) were worshipped they
When
the Erinyes
were called Eumenides (Kindly), Semnai (Revered), Potniai (Queenly), as though men would flatter them by such names. They did, however, have another side to
their nature in that, like
desses of agriculture.
1
3
4
2 Odyssey, 14.
57
i86
6.
GREEK RELIGION
Transfiguration of the Future Life in the Worship of Dionysus
of
and
Demeter.
We
is
in
the
Homeric poems
themselves there
nothing but shades to the belief that these shades retain consciousness.
for
it
This consciousness
it
is
brings with
no
joy.
them
certain powers
and against human welfare; it brings them nearer to men and makes them dependent on the gifts brought to them in worship ; yet men do not look forward to any joy in the The contrast is most striking worship of their souls after death.
for
" Blessed he
;
he
he knows
its
Zeus-given beginning."
It is
new thought of
its
the future
life
obtains a
The
are
considered
Part
II
(Chap.
iii).
In Thrace
the
wor-
In
men were
gifted with
divine foresight, the Thracians reaHzed their belief that the soul
The
by
revival
which brought
this
re-
god made
presence
felt
his worshippers.
The Greeks
too
yielded to his
in personal ex-
perience that the soul of the worshipper was of the same nature
as the
From
divinity
for the
Greek
man
is
of divine
dead continues
its
Homeric
standards.
prog-
LIFE
;
187
uncompromising claims its practices were modified to correspond with the habits of Greek thought. But though the " revival " lost much of its vitality, though the worship of Dionysus .was reduced to a state cult in which religious experience gave way
to
its
its
to splendid forms,
for
its
die.
The
longing
a real future
life
and
its
in
the worship
Demeter
at Eleusis the
a congenial soil
The
The
which sprang from the earth, were not sharply distinguished, but
purpose of the
rites
first
crops.
state
We may
to
make good
It
worship.^
them
some two
in their
making a place
B.C. all the
In the
fifth
century
life
emphasis
in
who had been initiated. The source of this hope was no new dogma. The universal belief that souls persisted after death was now a belief that they persisted with some degree of consciousness
;
at Eleusis this
belief
of
initiation, the
1
Cp.
supra., p. 128,
Supra, p. 129
f.
i88
cruel to those
GREEK RELIGION
who seek him
rightly, the
chus, the reborn Dionysus, was only the symbol for that religion
The Eleusinian
the
rites
initiation,
gods of the
lower world.
of Peisistratus
nian state
local,
lie
and
at
state religion to
meet
re-
the
new demand
NeverthelesSj
and immortal
in the
days
of Pericles death was (i) departure from this world of reality and
and
(2)
not uncomfortable so
if
meant also (3) a life of real blessedThus Socrates ness in the presence of Persephone and Hades. could anticipate meeting just judges and the great meii of past
he were initiated
at Eleusis
it
and brothers whom Persephone had received among the dead " and Isocrates could say " those who share this initiation, have ^ sweet hopes both for the end of life and for all future time."
''
;
1 Plato,
Apol. 41
f.
;
A-C;
f.
nes,
Ran. 380
PART
II
GREECE
CHAPTER
The
which
early history of
Greek
in
During the
last
remarkable discoveries
Greece and Crete have added new and striking chapters to our knowledge of Greek history. Incomplete as are the data in regard
to the religion of
it
is
now
possible to
speak tentatively of
in the
Mycenaean
age.
Coming down
to interpret
to the
difficult
Homeric poems, we
relation to religious
and practice
in the
focussed on
movement connected
and of Demeter, of which the Orphic sect was but one expression. Accordingly the main topics to be considered in a sketch of the history of Greek religion will be the following
:
I.
The Beginnings
of Greek Religion.
II.
The
epic
189
I90
III.
GREEK RELIGION
Religion in the Seventh and Sixth Centuries,
of Demeter and Dionysus worship.
B.C.
:
The
rise
IV.
ReHgion
at
its
in the Fifth
B.C.
Hellenism
height.
:
V. The Outcome
The
influ-
Roman
civihzation
and on
may be
In the
obtained,
it is
dealing with
general topic.
itself.
first
studied by
It is
broader
The epochs of
Greek people.
The
and
social
and moral
ideals,
much
to contribute
Greek
of social institutions
few examples
will illustrate
We
form of Zeus.
split
The
in greater or less degree from any other question whether one " sky god " has been
up
be
the
merged
into
is
fundamental.
original,
The long-accepted
is
development more or
less acci-
dental, neglects the historic fact that the conscious unity of the
191
Greek
civilization.
If
it
is
found on
for
would
still
be necessary to look
Cretan
Once more, the two main types munion meal and the piacular
nitely
of sacrifice in Greece
sacrifice
cannot
the com-
periods in the history of religion, until each form has been defi-
The
cal basis.
Such
nomad
life
precedes
to a higher stage
of society
still,
god
is
as
that
localities
The
285
f.)
discussion
illustrates
The
The
interpretation of a worship
;
more than any other department of human may change and imposing
still
they have been handed down, means by which the divine power may be propitiated. The flexibility of myth stands in striking contrast with the relatively fixed character of worship. Even when
myth stood in much closer relation when it furnished the theme of lyric
to
belief
ready
Confor the
On
the other
hand worship
is
something so
meaning
As does
192
GREEK RELIGION
demands some new type of
is
practices
to
be found material
Greek
religion
be pursued,
(i)
The
first
definite
effort
to
The
method would
to
parative
political,
the
to
development of the
who spoke
these languages
demands
At the same time the fact that and practice do not follow exactly the same lines of development as do social or political institutions, is a warning
to caution.
When one
its
land,
sometimes the
institutions
and the language of the conquerors they have won, or on the other hand the
may
in
Greece under
Roman
domination.
In the
first
may
in the
own gods
with them
in the
may
spirit
it
Moreover,
it
is
more than
can
practice
of religious
RELIGIOiN
in these
193
forms which
makes
(2)
it
difficult to
study of religion.
relations existing
get, with
early Greece and Egypt it is possible to some assurance, an approximate date for these remains.
Aegean between
islands,
and
iri'
Crete.
The
difficulty
is
to
determine
what objects
tain just
have religious significance, and then to asceris. The only safe principle is to monuments the religious meaning of
what
by
their relation
it
among
related peoples.
Even
then,
may be
ments
for early
(3) Thirdly,
practices
of later worship.
Many
the
time conform
to
Other practices,
the religious
there
still
in themselves older,
development
be referred to
may
fairly
an
this
earlier period.
method, some
obtained by
may be
accepted, espe-
cially
when they
are in
investigation.
(4)
light
Again some
historical data
on the special history of religion. A study of the cults in colonies, the founding of which may be approximately dated,
furnishes evidence as to the cults in the
mother
cities.
Similarly
Aegean
to
Asia Minor,
is
GREEK RELIGION
194
GREEK RELIGION
There can be no doubt that the people
this
from Greece.
originally a
It is
fairly well
it
at the
many
migration southward.
(5)
Another
line of historical
names of
that
is
There
no question
study of language throws some light on the epoch names were formed, and historical data occasionally For example, the use indicate when they came into general use. of the names of the Olympian gods without change as names for persons is known to be late the formation of adjectives from these Olympian names to be used as names for persons or places was not common in early times on the other hand such forms
worship.
when
these
The
method, wherever
it
is
available,
are that
is
mentioned and
dated.
may be approximately
and
The Type
of
The
common
Greek
Greece.
The
objects
and processes of nature, in so far as they endowed with a life not unlike his
these spirits were
is
own
was
(animism), a
full
life
of
spirits.
it
What
again
hard to define
sometimes
sentient
to deal.
would seem that they were the souls of the dead, not
rest,
it is
properly laid to
life
not so
much
full
souls in objects as a
we have
neces-
If
we may say
of spirits,
it is
195
add
were important to
man.
the
Only such
processes in
nature which
affected
him
good or
evil,
demanded
his attention.
to
win over by
;
his worship, or to
banish
by his arts
his
gain.
Among
the
gods we may assume a heaven god, the source of light and warmth
and
a
rain
fertilized
by the rain
Hestia.
game were
also worshipped.
In a word,
it
gods were generally worshipped, and some " departmental " gods. The contrast between these communities based on the family as
the
primary
unit
very striking.
We
and
in partic-
of nature.
and of reaping,
The forms
life
of
rise to
and were
half-
More than
men
thought by
to
animals, growth
ideas
in plants and animals. The presence of these and practices both in later Greece and among other IndoEuropean races indicates that they date back to a very early
period.
Particular cases of cult survival cannot be traced
Cults located
on mountain
no
doubt, date back to some early worship of the heaven god, cults
in
caves, to
196
receives the
GREEK RELIGION
dead and gives
these
cults
birth to vegetation.
The
the
reason for
assigning to
an
early
later
date
is
that
developed
in
Mycenaean
of worship.
the
civilization,
Hke
civilization
which centred
fire,
may be
sur-
practice.^
That
altogether probable.
rificial
The
meal of a clan on
its
kindred animal,
is
''
nowhere attested
symbols " of the
for
Greece.
On
Olympian
originated as
mere symbols
their
and
it is
movements and
brown
clothing,
(apKTOi),
may be
preceding paragraph are correct, we must assume that a worship of " tendance," which aimed to secure
If the views presented in the
the favor of real gods, always existed in Greece along with the worship of " aversion " by which men sought to drive away evil
spirits
and
them.
or in later language to
was unquestionably
definitely fixed
later
;
rise of the
it
which
Homer
pictures, than
was
belong
Greek
religion,
them as
torical,
seems
to
me unhislater
and
unjustified by
in its favor.
To
this earliest
period
we
religion, not
other
rather
we
:
gods
were developed
1
many forms
in different
26. 6;
Polemon
in
i,
Plato,
l^eg.b, p. 782 C.
2
Cp. su^ra,
p. 122,
197
later
who became
Zeus, an
earth goddess
who appears
no two
just ahke,
and countless
spirits
many
of which
must be avoided and even averted by special rites. 3. Early Religion in the light of Archaeological Remains. The excavations of Schliemann at Mycenae shed the first light
on a period
in
Greek
history,
which
till
known
Later discoveries
among
on the coast of Asia Minor, and in Crete. The remains marked a distinct type of civilization, often called Mycenaean because Mycenae was one of its most important The pottery and utensils were of a type so centres of influence.
Aegean
islands,
marked
The
was
at
its
height about
Egyptian objects in
progress in
east
art, in
That 1500-1200 B.C. is shown by dated Mycenaean tombs and by Mycenaean objects
Although the impulse to
the
and south, there is little doubt that this civiHzation belonged to an essentially Greek people. In Crete alone do we learn much of the earlier periods and the civilization out of which the Mycenaean civilization probably
developed.
The
excavations of the
last
seem
to indicate three
which
is
main periods of development, only the connected with what has been called Mycenaean.
third of
These
periods are, for convenience, called by the names assigned by Mr. Arthur Evans, " Early Minoan," " Middle Minoan," and " Late
Roman
numerals I-III.^
The
third
of the
in
Burrows,
198
earlier periods
GREEK RELIGION
we can only
Minor,
if
found
first
in Asia
It is clear that
the
this race
that
centred in Crete
and
that
it
Fig. 57.
Section
(Tholos)
at Mycenae
" Myce-
which
naean
race
left its
mark
Minos.
The name
"
civilization
which
had
its
main centres
it
the
Aegean
islands
and
in
Greece proper.
by
itself.
adopted so
much from
So
in
all
almost impos-
far as religion is
concerned,
it is
these earlier ages there was a real belief in the future Hfe,
199
Cretan tombs
The
utensils
found
in early
and
can
as
same wants
shape
structures
as the living.
mean that the dead had the The later domed tombs of " bee-hive "
only
were
for
elaborate
erected
the
/W^
homes Over an
grave
dead.
" shaft
earlier
at
Mycenae
altar
was
found an
with ashes
here
and
mals
elsewhere
both the
ani-
bones of
sacrificed
and
the
objects
wor-
of tendance, so far as
we
The
dance
gest,
at
Mycenae
that
sug-
perhaps,
the
dead
were
shades
who
and
;
Fig. 58.
ornaments
Utensils as living
men
yet
the bronze vessels, the pottery, and the armor are such as living
men
used.
The
at the
tomb
after the
ceremony of
burial
was
finished,
cannot be
answered absokitely.
in
to the
dead
in a
200
ponnesian war
;
GREEK RELIGION
^
if
the inference
is
accepted,
it
means continued
rites in
honor
they imply a belief in beings themselves potent to send good and evil to the worshippers, may receive different answers. If the
spirits
of the dead were not banished from this world, but tended
with kindly offices, we
lllii/'!'i"Mili|
||
|iilllPi|lililll'li
real
the
been
palace
the
The
Cretan
cave
on
the
Minoan
"
large
stone
Plan
altar,
small
libation
with
attest
its
impor-
no
Tradition and myth connect the birth of Zeus with Mt. Dicte as
well as with Mt. Ida;
we only know
Dorians
"^
in
Crete
the
the
pre-
14 (1899) 103
f.
On
Hagia Triada one scene is interpreted the dead man in front of the tomb; Lagrange,
La
fig.
35.
201
STEATITE
.
DOUBLE
DOUBLE
AX
RESTORED ON HEAD
HOLDING
i-'Zy^-.
DOVE
TTT
TRIPOD
CEMENTED DOWN
LOWER
..V. STEP
SHRINE OF DOUBLE AX
SECTION
a
MALE VOTARY
HOLDING DOVE
-
SMALL / 'DOUBLE AX
SOCKET FOR \ J^qOOq AX SHAFT
I
VOTARY
I
FIGURE
CYLINDRICAL
OF STEATITE >^
4-
BELOW
no
CLAY VESSELS-
Ceniitnetres\.
Metre.
"
Fig.
6o. The
"
at Cnossos
202
eminence, and that
the heavens.
GREEK RELIGION
this
for
of these
is
the
Cnossos (Late
section as
;
Minoan
III).^
It
is
a small
room about
level.
by a difference of
In the
first
one enters were found several amphorae and other vases in the second section, which is slightly higher, a low tripod basin of
plaster stood in the centre
and about
it
of pottery
ably higher,
may be
and
in
will
plaster,
These objects
demand
consideration
later.
On
in
Mycenaean
palace at Tiryns
assuming that
in these palaces
(and perhaps
in the
Cretan
megaron opening
Among
handle
The
summon
basin.
The
altar itself
or again,
it
of a pedestal with the sides cut back between the top and bottom.
1
Wide
247
f.
Lagrange,
La
piece.
203
offer-
not clear whether the altar was actually used for burnt
ings or whether they were burned (if they were burned at all)
on
open
is
air.
been applied
to
what
Two monuments
Triada,
is
representing
worship
a
actually
in
progress
The
first,
sarcophagus
from
Hagia
On
one
of
side
a
:
scene
sacrifice
two
a
women and
blowing the
man
stand
flute
behind
table
on
from
which
blood
lies
a bull with
flowing
below
basket
then follows a
holding
of
fruits
priestess
a
or
cakes
base,
above
upright
low
Fig. 6i.
Libation
double
axes with
a black bird
is
which a plant
growing.
On
and placed
in a jar
at the right
and a bowl (or boat) are brought by persons in a peculiar dress toward a tree and a stiff figure (the dead?) standsmall calves
ing before a high structure (the tomb?).
is
man
ornamented
as a religious act.
There is no evidence that idols in the proper sense of the term, anthropomorphic images which exemplified a god to his wor1
68.
204
GREEK RELIGION
;
in fact
none of the
if
figurines found
in-
they are to be
terpreted as gods,
it is
may be
pointed out
:Lr
Fig. 62.
Steatite
as to
Among
line.
the
commonest symbols
horns
consecration," two
or prongs
connected by a depressed
terra cotta altar
of
altar,
from
the Cnossos
"Temple
ibid., 83, fig.
Repositories,"^
steatite
Lagrange,
62;
Brit. School
Ann. 9 (1902).
Cp. the
Hebrew
"
horns of the
altar,"
Exodus
27. 2.
205
men
The motive
is
on representations of an architectural fagade which suggests a temple, in remains both from Crete and Mycenae.^ With it are
often associated a
pillar,
The only
tion that
interpretais
yet suggested
these
horns are
of
sacrificed
scenes
this
of
worship in
well
period
later
as
in
times.
There
are
many
indications that
One
monest
this
of
the
comin
symbols
period was
the
Fig. 63.
That
Steatite
"
Offertory Scene
this
was often
religious
used with
significance
Two
on which are
It
horns of consecration."
Cnossos
many
in
axes
some miniature
Dictaean caves
;
shields
the
is
later
a double axe
en gems;
it is
Brit. School
Ann. 9 (1902)
fig.
129.
2 Ibid.
7 (1900)
2o6
with
the
GREEK RELIGION
representation of a bull's head with horns.
The
use has
No
trace has
for actual
been found
in
Crete of a
;
use as a weapon
it
is
heavens,
who was
at the
On
rests
is
on a
While
it
is
purely
more probable
gion
it had some meaning for rehsome rooms of the Cnossos palace may also have had some religious signifiThe evidence for sacred pillars cance.
that
is slight.
That sacred
trees
had a place
in the
cannot be disputed.
found
at
fragment of a
horns
steatite vase
fig tree in
Cnossos- shows a
with
FiG. 64.
an enclosure
of consecration
and
wor-
Gem
from
shippers.
On gems
^|^^^ ^^/^^^
,
a tree or branches
^''^*'"^^
^^^
.
Again,
.
,
on
from "horns of
side
consecration
on
either
the - heraldic
gemS
we
posite creature
holding
^f ^
tween the two creatures a tree instead human figure in one interesting
;
upapicie.
It
is
possible
tree.'^
sacred
The
half
question
of animal
"symbols"
is
complicated by the
ani-
man, and
in several instances
mals.
1
to indicate worshippers, or
-
rather
Cp. supra,
207
able
in that
human beings or minor The last explanation seems to be the more probcase we should regard these curious creatures as the
of lesser spirits whose function
it
embodiment
forms
is
to
keep up the
That
spirits
may be due
no clear evidence of totemism and no great probability that existed in Crete or in Greece
at this time.
Except
for the
serpent, the
the
dove, which
is
again
on
female
While no
real
idols
have
in
painting,
and
Fig. 65.
figures
which may
small
divinities.
The
Mycenae
Several pairs of horns and three double
abundance on Mycenaean
significance.
sites
columns are seen in the facade, above which are two doves.
They
represent a
woman,
in
hands
few figures of a
use was
woman
found.
What
made
of these figures
not clear.
In a
somewhat
Tiryns and
Mycenae
double axe,
and the
them
in actual worship.
A dove
2o8
GREEK RELIGION
in the shrine at Gournia,
At Cnossos,
bodice and
the body.
and elsewhere
in Crete,
in tight
flounced
skirt,
It
dove or serpent
desses,
as
god-
while
others
worshipall
Probably
are
for
votive
offerings,
is
there
no reason why
figures of the
god
as
well
as
of
the
wor-
impressions
include
both
divine
beings.
call
it
and
human
can but
We
with
shrine
at the left,
Fig. 66.
and a worthe
is
Faience
shipper at
right.
Probably
dess with a lion, and a god with a lioness on
it
a god-
two impressions
found a Httle
later.is
;
On
little
tree
is
a goddess
her attendants
may be nymphs
human
and
beings.
same gem with double spear, which also occurs in a wall painting at Mycenae, regard as a god, possibly the god of the heavens as
The
figure
on
this
shield
I
can only
a w\ir-god.
Finally,
1
the figure of a
Brit. School
woman
29.
Ann. 7 (1900)
9 (1902) 59.
209
in other
forms of representa-
doubtless
a goddess, the
is
slight.
The important
connected with the earth by her snake, with the heavens by her dove. So soon as we begin to deal with a Hellenic race it is fair
to
compare her with the Cretan Rhea (the Mother, perhaps Mother Earth). The dove, even at
this early day, may suggest Aphrodite. The goddess of wild animals would,
for
the
patron of hunters.
god (perhaps the god of the double axe) would of course be the god of
,
Fig. 67.
The
such as to
Cretan deities would be received by invading Greeks and worshipped under their Greek names.
4.
argument with reference to gion would proceed backward from the known
second main from cult survivals back to
religious
Greek relito the unknown, earher types of worship, and from later
early
to
their
it is
conceptions back
probable
sources.
In the
age, or to wandering
a Mycenaean age, to an Greek tribes. Rites which may go back to nomad tribes
civilization
;
unquestionably with
the
development of
increasing
was
laid
opment of
must have been reflected in the forms of religion. In particular, the spirits of plant life and the ritual of sowing and reaping, which
GREEK RELIGION
I4
2IO
GREEK RELIGION
absolutely neglects, can be no
Homer
new
following
Homer
This
line of
argument,
when we take into account the Homeric poems. we assume as the generally accepted position that our Iliad
for the
was
B.C. in
Asia
Olympian
deities are a
ThessaHan prod-
form
is
B.C.
But
marks a
The
Mycenaean epoch. on the general conception of religion and man's attitude toward the gods and on his ideas of particular deities can hardly be overestimated. Yet it seems clear that the epic lays did not themselves create Zeus and Athena and
which ends rather
later than the close of the
Poseidon
So we must assume
northern Greece
such a process
this belief.
for the
We
shall
war-god as a divine
of the
ruler,
human
king.
whose nature came to reflect the ideal Each community had worshipped its heaven;
now
as the
communities of Thessaly
into larger units, these
as
the ruler
and
his
court
god as the ruler among the gods. Even apart from archaeological remains,
its
the
with
who
is
the
211
ferent localities.
into
we need not be surprised that she develops differently in difAs the communities of one region are brought closer touch with each other, and as their civilization is en-
from outside, the form of Rhea appears in Crete, the form of Hera
the queen in the Argive plain, while other forms of the goddess
From goddesses as numerous as the communiwhich worshipped them, but of one general type, there de-
many-sided personaHty.
Sometimes
doubt sometimes
goddesses of
this
the
exemplification of chastity
community, himself once a shepherd, protecting the sheep from wolves (Apollo Lykeios), patron of the music and the games that shepherds loved. Each community recognized a god of fire, the
patron of smiths, though here again some regions contributed
much more
Aphrodite of
than others
later
to
the
making of Hephaestus.
The
sometimes included elements that came from the old mother goddess doubtless many of the early
religion
;
communities recognized
over
in
addition
now
a spirit
life,
who presided
human
love,
now
;
a goddess of family
myth
whose
as distinct
resistless
some of these remained in local worship and in beings, more were fused in Poseidon, the god
sea.
Of
trace
;
is
212
GREEK RELIGION
it
The
nature of the
much
range of ideas,
Famihes and same stage of culture, and with much the same make their way down into Greece. In the Mycenaean age larger
politi^J
^^
cal
cial
and
social
commer-
richer
'^iM0.
as
it
from
sources
^^
within
country.
we
the
must
spirits,
assume
of
conception
nature-
partmental gods
of
the
chase,
(gods
the
of
was
originally
for
much
the
same
different
that
in
the larger
civili-
zation
Fio. 68.
which
richer
developed
type
Marbi,f, Relief
from the
the
gods
of each
Peiraeus
(in Berlin)
grew
varied
and
more
with
elements
outside of (yreece.
In this sense the Zeus or the Poseidon of the epic was a ''composite photograph " of earlier Zeuses and Poseidons. The process was one of synthesis or of " condensation," to
But
if
the Zeus of
2. 96,
Homer was
213
composite photograph of earlier forms of the god, this is only Each cult of Zeus continued to emphasize those half the story.
peculiar characteristics of the
god which
it
that the Zeus of each cult remained individual and was known in worship by an added individual name. Zeus Lykaios worshipped with human sacrifice in Arcadia, Zeus Trophonios worshipped in a
now
in
human
form,
now
Each
influence
the
god of each
local cult
was more or
less
it
Finally,
should be noted that there were some local gods which were never
brought under any of the general Greek gods, and others, hke the Zeus Amphiaraus of Oropus, who were thought of as distinct beings more often than as forms of Zeus. The " heroes " were often
local
natural to bring
souls
It
it was more them under the category of chthonic gods and than to connect them with any of the Olympian rulers.^ has been pointed out that almost every god in worship has
first
is
ordinarily
series,
more individual name." So far as the history of geographical names and names of persons in Greece has been carried, it appears that a large percentage of these names had once some religious significance. It is clear that names derived from the divine names in use in the epic (Apollonios, Athenaios,
Dionysios) are relatively
late, usually far later in
their formation
itself.
On
names
of persons
and
places whose formation points to an earlier epoch are many of them connected with the " epithet names " of the gods, the second
e.g.
mione).
1
The
inference
p. 165
f.
is,
Cp. supra,
214
older than the
GREEK RELIGION
names used in the epic, but that many epithet names do go back to the earhest period in Greek rehgion of which we have any trace, and that at this time they were the personal names of the local gods. That epithet names were always so important in prayer, points in the same direction.
Although the processes which
going on
in
I
are important only for the earlier epochs and in particular for the
Mycenaean
to put an
age.
fix
its
stand-
ards tended to
end
to that
been under discussion. So far as forms of worship are concerned, However, the possible range the same influences were at work.
of original variation was
less,
and the
final unification
was never so
In dis-
marked
important.
will
find
no
at night to chthonic
this
gods)
nor
is
it
clear that
the
worship of
The
to
subject
may be
(2) that
munion-meal
ried the
some measure a
could be adopted
Olympian gods
it
Harrison, Prolegoincna
to
f.
CHAPTER
II
Changes
is
in the Period
1100-700 B.C.
The
name "middle
ages"
decay of an older
scribes the period
and the
rise
fairly
de-
civilization
and the
rise
of that
new
life
which we may
parallel,
call Hellenic.
The
European
by a
shifting of races
which brought rude, vigorous peoples into contact with the wornout remnants of the earlier civilization
within, rather than attack
;
change.
tribes
In
think
that
mountain
way
a resulting
and eastward
The evidence
for
this
change
mark
till
independence
while
in
Attica the
people claimed to be
autochthonous.
The connection
in
of the
southern
Greek
cities
Asia
The
first
result of these
and a
loss of
many of
the
2i6
old and the
to the
GREEK RELIGION
new elements
in the parties.
advantage of both
first
Out of
came
ill
flocks
and
The development of trade, and that in Greek hands, brought with it the rise of such cities as Chalcis and Corinth. According to the Homeric picture of Ithaca the
" princes " gathered frequently in the capital
in other regions, the control of the country in
city.
In Attica, as
one
city.
In
this
period also
we find trading cities sending out commerce as far as the Black Sea in the
With
art;
one splendid exception the age is barren of literature and the Greek epic is a product of the Greek middle ages.
The
history
of religion
reflects
these
social
changes.
shifting of population
to increase the
cursory glance at a
cult centres
worship belonging
This process in itself would help the spread of the Olympian " gods, the gods of epic, for the elements of this phase of religion no doubt belonged with the name Olympus in Thessaly and in general, names brought from the north would be commonly recognized names which the wandering epic bards would find adapted to their purposes. At the same time many less important names would be cut off" from worship by this very shifting, celebrated names that remained in myth at the disposal of the poet. The gods of agriculture, on the other hand, remained as gods of the
;
land,
locality,
With
comnerce by
sea,
Poseidon gained
their patron
his earlier
217
Two
and the
in
religious "
Amphic-
The
through
this period,
centres of population
they were not chosen for the convenience of men, but where
by
felt
men
for
luxuriant vegetation
about
it,
in
men
some manifestation of
city
life,
who came
tant cults in
The purpose
gods
even more
in
still
So we find
in
the
mis of Brauron, to the Demeter of Eleusis, not to mention important instances of the process in question.
Again,
we
find so-called
who
unite in worship at
some important
The
Tetrapolis
Along the east coast of Greece from Prasiae in Laconia north to Athens and Orchomenos, the cities joined in the worship of Poseidon on the island of Calauria ; in Boeotia another group of towns worshipped Poseidon at Onchestos ; and the temple of Poseidon at Mycale was the centre of a similar group of twelve
cities in
first
Asia Minor.
for the
near Cnidos.
Messene
all
in the worship of
Zeus
at
Olympia.
Most important of
in
this
period
2i8
GREEK RELIGION
Greece which centred about the worship of Demeter at Anthela in the Pass of Thermopylae. Some of these rehgious groups lost their significance later ; others, like the Amphictyony which met at Thermopylae, and the Delian worship of Apollo, became vital
factors in the history of Greece.
The
it
on forms of worship
is
evident
in at least
one
direction.
From
we
it
was
the practice of the Dorian tribes to eat the principal meal of the
day together rather than separately by families. Naturally the meal was the centre of any worship which involved animal sacrifice for food. The Dorian practice would necessarily help to extend
this
common
meal.
It
was,
moreover, a type of
poet
;
communion
meal.
Thus, although the local forms of worship ordinarily persisted at each cult centre, the common meal, which became for religion the
communion
2.
The
its
;
one monument of
civilization,
is
found
in the
Homeric poems.
B.C.,
The
Iliad
is
ninth century
the
and the verse, if not the picture of social and political life, are the outcome of a long process of development. If the poems were for the most part completed in somewhat their present form by 700 B.C., the beginning of epic poetry must be sought in the later days of Mycenaean
culture, or early in the "
poems recognizes
still felt
in
many
localities.
The account
is
The
epic
includes no
"manufactured"
it is
it is
so consistent that
difficult
219
any evolution
all
in
assumed
strata of the
it
poem
it
be understood
was
difficult
for those
came to who
We
includes no absolutely
is
new
all
crea-
that
it
its
consistency
due
conscious
art
that
over
On
this
assumption
it
might
fairly
it is
language
is
not the language of conversation at any paris in one sense an artifical product, so same sense artificial. But it is historic in
is
epic religion
in
that
the
same sense
historic.
In the
first
place,
and combines (we may add, unconsciously) are every one of them drawn from actual worship and belief. Secondly, it is the product of a long period in which the epic was in actual touch with real religion, modifying that religion and being modified by it. Nor should it ever be forgotten that
the elements which
selects
it
making the
Greece.
The
offers.
The
The elements
with which the epic picture of religion began, the main lines in
account of the gods and of worship, date back at least to the end of the Mycenaean epoch. We have already pointed out that
its
Olympian gods, before the migrations to Asia Minor. The communion-meal sacrifice and the libation to the gods undoubtedly
existed as forms of worship from very early times, though their
universality
may be
questioned.
520
GREEK RELIGION
birds,
it is
omens from
other hand,
was adopted, not invented, by bards. On the were countless forms of divination
rites,
And
is
during which
political
and
religious
The
migrations
Minor had deprived religious practices of the strong support which their proper locality always lends; to this extent religious practice in Asia Minor was much more amenable to epic
influence than language.
It lay in
draw a picture of
life
started, all
men would
when
" princes,"
soil.
The banquet
more
its
;
occasion
less
serious,
picturesque,
more
free
in
its
treatment of rehgion
and
life
conception of
and standards of those whose tastes the bards sought to satisfy. It was this poetry of the feudal banquet hall which was shaping and universaHzing
by the
religious belief, not to say religious practice,
all
human
middle ages.
Some account
of the
reason that
reli-
these poetic conceptions were real forces determining later gious history.^
it is
my
purpose to point
more in detail the influence of epic poetry in the process by which these conceptions were shaped. (i) The gods of Homer, those superhuman persons whose agency men constantly feel, are conceived in human moulds. In
1
Cp. supra,
p.
139
f.
221
modes of
men
than by men.
effect,
Men do
not live in a
what they do not themselves cause, is caused by the gods, and what the gods cause is accomplished in a manner all but human. Such a belief involves a multiplicity of gods, yet the important gods of the epic are very few Zeus, Apollo, and Athena
;
take the
first
rank, then
Ares, Aphrodite,
come Poseidon and Hera Hephaestus, and many others, are in the background.
;
In contrast with such gods, the gods of worship had been and
less vague powers, limited to the region where they were worshipped and without a sharply defined funcThe poets who made tion to which their activity was confined.
continued to be more or
the greater gods actors iu the story limited their functions at the
same time
sphere.
definite local
It
gods the epic poets performed a greater task than in depicting the character of men. It was a double task, to emphasize the
human
heaven
it
and
to give
them
and per-
sonality.
relation
The
nature of the
The
intrigues
among
the
lameness of
Hephaestus, the
efforts of
to deceive Zeus,
battlefield
would
amuse an
far
after-dinner
less
awe, though
for
man,
Under
Cp, supra,
p. 140
f.
222
GREEK RELIGION
in their
reach and
far
more human
men,
is
in
a belief
due
in large
measure
In a word, the early bards found some gods, more widely recognized than others, about
long been gathering
to
;
whom
make them
d?-amatis personae.
The
god-heroes was shaped to gratify and amuse the banquet audiences of feudal " princes," on the principle that gods are
the image of man.
the humanity of these divine beings
factor for later belief in the gods.
(2)
made
in
made
Worship.
Homeric
and prayer
or locality.
curring festival,
in the
poems.
mentioned two or three times, but plays no part Instead of numerous forms of sacrifice with differ-
ent intent, never twice exactly alike at different shrines, epic sacrifice is
The
sacrifice
swineherd
is
pigs,
whenever
flesh is
wanted
the animal
altar
The
of worship, both at the banquet and at other times in connection with prayer,
is
gods.
Its
meaning
as simple as its
;
form
the gods
man may
drink without
fear.
Ordinary
to
in
may
simi-
man
his
enjoyment
much
common
with
f.
human
Cp. Intioduction,
p.
36
f.
RKLI(;iON IN
rulers.
223
some undertaking
desire for
in the future.
Yet even in the epic the gods are somewhat more than
rulers
;
human
are not
the sense of
;
communion
and in so far as Zeus or Apollo or Athena is a god, more than the payment of a tax. Moreover the other forms of worship, which may be traced back, some of them to the seventh century r.c, have little or nothing to do with this idea of a divine tax on human ])ossessions and pleasures. We may conclude that the Homeric banquet-sacrifice and libation are selected from various forms of worship and brought into line with
wholly absent
is
sacrifice
Turning
same time we may fairly ask whether the connection of the individual with the god to whom he prays is not represented as something more intimate than that between subject and king. There
is
this relation
is
emphasized
in
many forms
what
lines
was
this
In the
could
make Odysseus now old, now young in appearance by a touch of her wand is not magic, but divine power. The changes
home of
epic heroes.
rationalistic
view of
the
Olympian gods
absorb.
would be universally intelligible to the neglect of all that was local and peculiar. In fact, the more religious side of local worship
more simple,
led to this
224
GREEK RELIGION
poems sung from
place
many
different audiences.
Thirdly, the
to gratify those
for a banquet.
religious worship
mood
of the hearers.
is
meaning assigned
to the
Olympian gods.
and prayer
who
supreme.
The gods
the gods have favorite haunts there are local centres of worship.
The gods are divine rulers meeting to feast with Zeus, as human princes met to feast with IMenelaus at Sparta or with Agamemnon before Troy worship is conceived as homage paid to divine rulers. The happy life of the gods is reflected in the joyousness of worship. The rites of riddance, practised to drive away evil
;
or dangerous
spirits,
under the rule of these beneficent gods. (3) The same principle may be more
of divination. In a world where
all
that occurs
Dreams
all
come from
dreams through the ivory gate, true dreams through the gate of horn.^ Chance words or the casting of lots are determined by the
gods.
Special emphasis
etc.,
thunder, lightning,
is laid on the phenomena of the heavens, and on the flight of birds, for these belong
human
reach.
In a world where
for individuals,
the
interpretation of signs
depends on men
gift.
to
whom
There
is
and interpreted
it
in
of the universe.
1
Cp. supra,
p. 51.
225
The conception
Why
Why were
Homer
souls
after
were worshipped?
are found in
allusions.
dead and in a few scattered The practice of cremation undoubtedly favored the
traces of an earlier worship of the
The
some of
idea that the souls were finally laid to rest in a world cut off from
living
lost
man.
came
Olympian gods
fit
As
different views
sacrifice, a
by their whole committed to the constant service of the supernatural powers." At first sight the light manner of treating the gods and the emphasis on their foibles would lead to a view directly
intensely religious people,
philosophy of
opposite to
ciled
to
this.
The two
standpoints are in a
manner recon-
by assuming that the early Greeks were sincerely devoted the worship of their gods, but that the gods of the epic, detached
from
local centres of worship,
entirely
exceed;
and
direct.
Men
the
in
human rulers, love the festal meal and delight men bring. The effort of men to adapt themselves
is
to
on the whole
successful.
With
all
the sad-
Cp. supra, p. 168 f. Cp. " The Homeric View of the Future Life
Keller, Hotneric Society, 138
i (1897)
741
3
f.
GREEK RELIGION
I5
Schoemann, Griech.
Alt. 2. 134.
226
ness inevitable to
GREEK
human
life,
RELICxION
religion
is
no added burden
the
atmosphere of
social pleasure,
and successful human activity it belongs with the banquet hall in which the epic was sung. During the Greek " middle ages " the influence of the epic conception of religion produced very different results according to the Wherever the epic came in contact nature of each local worship.
with a worship at
all
in
harmony with
its
its
own
positive influence.
Heaven-
gods were identified with Zeus more widely than before, sea-gods
x'\pollo.
tended to be more
like the
Seers of the Calchas type found their power increased, and more
We
must believe
that
more reasonable; particularly in the developing worship of the new Greek cities the epic religion found an opportunity to mould religious belief and practice in harmony with these ideals.
In the case of worship which was out of line with these conceptions, the
eff"ect
Miss Harrison^
some
earlier,
which
Again,
is
in
new type of worship harmony with the nature of these gods. It would be
in
idle to
producing
this result.
we
;
find
from
These cannot
all
be explained as impor-
By
sway of
its
human
which
tended
to destroy that
rites.
phy of
life
is
presupposed by magic
was
for
Prolegomena
to the
f.
227
it
rites
ideals, or
ban.
It
is
would
Greek
the
worship.
various
the
form
is
god or hero
epic tended
whom
it is
in view.
The
sacrifice
which
it
had selected
at the
same time
these gods and the local gods (including heroes), and helped to
make
communion meal
sacrifice
to
Olympian
and
all
other worship.
easily angered, purificatory rites, the worship of heroes, the worship of the dead, the " mysteries," were bound to persist, but they per-
gods
The
was
to
empha-
3. The Theogony of Hesiod. An examination of the poetry which has come down under the name of Hesiod only confirms the above account of religion in this period.^ From the poems we
Cyme
in Asia
till
Minor
to Ascra in Boeotia,
where
he
Muses themselves.
The connection
with Asia Minor explains the epic form of the poems, while the new environment accounts for the different world which they reveal. Peasants take the place of princes, the
poems move on the plane of fact and moral tale replace dramatic
homely adage
reli-
The
crossing of
How much
1
does Hesiod
of
find,
The poems
228
It is
GREEK RELIGION
probable that the idea of a theogony
is
a primitive factor in
Greek
ant
The
superstition
common
^
life
no doubt practical rules and moral adages come from the same source it has been shown that the account of the five ages rests on an ancestor worship still practised in Boeotia in a much the place assigned to Eros in the cosmogony cannot later period
;
far
from Ascra.
"
ages, of Pandora, of
an all-important question for religious history. These sections, loosely joined to the poem, are not invented by
is
hymns,
not
the poet
they contain old material which had not yet passed out
The work
effort to
is
seen in the
sys-
tem.
For the
fit
in
a critical spirit
what
did not
duced
to
fill
Old
scheme
The
quakes,
is
a principle which
finds
The
is
moral, in that the order which gradually prevails is a moral order the Erinyes punish crime, countless " watchers " are on the lookout to detect
the
first
evil.
Wisdom and
Justice (Metis
wives of Zeus.
mankind as the ages advance, the reign of law and reason has been making progress in the person of the gods. The gods of Hesiod are of much the same type as those of Homer, gods detached from worship and assigned some definite
function in a universal divine world.
Rohde,
Psyc/ie, 85
f.
229
is
passed by in silence.
Dem-
and Dionysus of the peasant faith are beginning to claim Yet these same Olympian recognition in the Olympian world. divinities are simpler here, and more abstract in their nature.
'I'he brief
sonality of the divine actors as does the dramatic story of the epic.
Genuine myth
finds a
much
Homer
The
as the
Hesiod became a
sort of
relation of
norm of
local story
and
The
testi-
mony
ancestors was important, and (3) that other forms of worship, the existence of which we must assume, might safely be neglected by
the poets.
CHAPTER
III
B.C.
Social
Literature.
Though
the
development of Greece continue without marked change through the eighth and the seventh centuries, and
political
and the
the epoch
now
to
fruition of influthis
The
;
Olympian deities rites of popular worship were imbued with spiritual meaning and gained new importance the Orphic
the
;
;
among
movement
need.
new sense
of religious
The connection
trade routes
became
the pre-
ceding
centuries.
The
money about
700
ing in
train results
slave labor
proved the
valu-
compete with the aristocracy of birth. To a poet of the old order like Theognis the love of money seemed the root of all the evils about him, the insolence of " upformed
in trade arose to
starts," the
all
that
to
made
rise
life
beautiful.
an individual opportunity to
to
as the gifted
man might
into debt
fall
231
was
in this
city
became
the centre of
Hfe,
a large
surrounding territory.
Greek These
city-states
commerce.
The
new
leaders of
results of the
commerce and with the masses. One of the new conditions was the demand for a uniform
When
the
the aristocracy,
rule as a tyrant.
became acute, some individual, often one of might make himself a leader of the people and The word " tyrant " means simply that his power
It
was unconstitutional.
city with
commerce by improving
to furnish the
good water-supply,
people
and
introduced, the tyrant might rule with iron rod for the gain of none
but himself.
religion.
Wherever
it
left
its
mark on
and in the west conWherever trade routes opened the way to some inviting region, whenever there were bold leaders (perhaps nobles disappointed in their schemes at home) and adventurous spirits to follow, a colony was established. At this time the oracle at Delphi had become the power that suggested the foundation of colonies and directed their leaders. The cessation of this movement in the sixth century is more difficult to explain than its origin, though no doubt the development of larger states at home, and the crystallization of society along more definite lines, tended to check it. The most important result of these political and economic
of colonies in the east
The establishment
changes
for the
new importance of
The
232
to develop
;
GREEK RELIGION
with
it
came
in the epic,
The
rise of lyric
society
by the recognition of a personality over against and not absolutely bound by social tradition. That the
the epic was transferred from the
recital of
homes of
a feudal
and an audience of the people, was a direct result of the changed conditions. A state made up of many citizens had replaced the group of a few knights led by a king and attended by their retainers, and all the splendor which
aristocracy to the market-place
city, its
temples,
and
its
It is
most clearly seen. The so-called Homeric hymns are probably prooemiums with which the rhapsode began his recital of the epic
at public festivals of the gods.
The occasion
is
choice of some local story, such as the birth of Apollo, and the
cast.
;
It explains, too,
hymns
the calm dignity of the gods and the cheerfulness of the festival
still
the gods of
Homer, human,
environment
The of Demeter
front.
makes
brought to the
for
these
students of
Greek
religion.
first
from
The
and Tyrtaeus
But elegy was
Tyrtaeus
and the
soldier's death.
and
who founded
in
faith in
especially the
inspired Solon to
new
social order;
233
The
light raillery
and
satire
it
on
religious themes,
though
was
in the peasant
worship
of Demeter.
but occasionally, as
in
the perfect
hymn
religious feehng.
lyric
The passion of Archilochus found its lasting expression in hymns to Demeter and Heracles and Dionysus; the story of Apollo was the worthiest theme for the muse of Alcaeus while the later Dorian lyric became the handmaid of
highest
themes.
religion.
Its
the
temple
ritual,
all
many
the gods
human
passions and
human
to beautify
the
The one
is
found not
was true
religious feeling
which prompted him to sing, '' God is one, supreme among gods and men, not like mortals in body or in mind "; "but if cattle or lions had hands, so as to paint with their hands and produce works of art as men do, they would paint their gods and give them bodies Just in form like their own, horses hke horses, cattle like cattle."
at the
end of the
to
gods
This
began
hymns.
be criticised
way by
Stesichorus.
" arranger of choruses" rewrote the old stories of the gods in his
The
introduction of moral
motives
;
into the
story of
Agamemnon
he
made Heracles
;
evil
he held that
234
GREEK RELIGION
Artemis threw a stagskin over Actaeon instead of transforming him From the same standpoint he criticised the conduct into a stag.
of Helen in going to Troy with Paris, but
with bUndness, he wrote a
when he was
his
stricken
paHnode
retracting
statements.
While
the
Hesiod had
first
to
fit
them
now
for
time
in
literature the
on the coast of Asia Minor, then in southern Italy, the century saw the beginning of Greek philosophy. The phrase
full
"
all
things are
of gods "
is
The
air,
question
it
" what
is
has
been asked
two centuries.
this reality
Reality
is
water, or
or
fire
;
phenomena of
earth
and sky
as
compared with
men
in
its
larger sig-
or heroes are
{frag. 130)
walls of a house
bacchanalian
the death of gods {frag. 130 a), purifications with blood {frag.
130),
these he
human
stupidity;
;
yet he would find in religion "cures" for the soul {frag. 129)
in a
word he recognizes something divine in the order of the universe, and he believes that there are divinities who watch over men. Of Pythagoras I shall speak in connection with the Orphic movement. The successors of these early thinkers in the fifth century preserved the same attitude toward religion, either neglecting
it
or criticising
its
its
truth.
For
the period
now under
new
most
that
2.
prolific in
it
provoked no
real opposition
epic,
universal, super-
235
type, continued
down through
its
power became dominant, and its work was in a sense completed. The rude symbols which often had marked the presence of a divinity began to be replaced with carved images in human form, or the sacred pillar was draped
during
this
epoch
quiet
Fig. 69.
Athenian
Maenads
and a draped
pillar with
Dionysus mask
(herm).
human
these
face
only
the
gods.
Even
is
anthropomorphism.
supplanted the old
The
epic
names which stood for the unigod in some measure names of worship. Even the
236
GREEK RELIGION
not enough to say that the gods were more generally con-
ceived in definite
perfect expression of
passionate in
ruler
human form their character became a more human ideals. All that was beautiful and human love was embodied in Aphrodite. Zeus the
;
all
as ritual
at
the best
each
state.
justice
epoch
to destroy the
distinct personality
The
led to
evils
theodicy.
In the
and
social confusion
felt
many pessimistic
life
expressions
Mimnermus had
that the
more than balanced the good, and Theognis had said much of the prevalent injustice yet the same Theognis kept a
of
;
This
was based on the general run of events, while apparent exceptions were explained as due to a delay of punishment. In
the cardinal sin was the effort to overstep
the limits of
human
life
overbear-
ing conduct (u^pt?) was punished, contentment with what the gods
The
But while
called
lyric
by Solon
55. 5
;
{fmg.
"god" {frag. i. 5), by Callinus and Where it is assigned to any one 12). 9 god, naturally that god is Zeus (Terpander, frag, i Mimnermus, Archilochus, frag. 6). From this standpoint frag. 2 and 5
29
;
33), by Semonides
t.
"fate" {frag.
237
an agent
fulfilling
in a
world-order inevitably tends to undermine the individual personThe criticism of popular belief by Xenophanes ahty of the gods.
and Stesichorus has already been mentioned. From this time on the discrepancy between moral and religious ideals on the one hand, ritual and popular belief on the other, cuts at the very root
of Greek religion.
But while criticism of the gods from the standpoint of religion as yet affected only the few, a more widespread
the
religion
sense of lack in
Olympian gods was life. As ideal beings who belonged in the heavens, gods untouched by the sorrows and sins of humanity, they were praised by the poets and pictured by the artist the splendid ritual of their worship
of the old
to their increasing separation
from everyday
served
of
but
the
very
perfection
not
fully
meet
their
needs.
The
increasing
The on whose sympathy the worshipper could reckon. same demand for gods not too far off from men was one reason,
along with others to be considered
of Demeter and Dionysus worship.
later,
for the
rapid
growth
The gods of corn and wine, the Olympian deities, did included among were even when they not lose their hold on human life. If now we turn from the gods to the consideration of worship,
the increasing control of worship by the state,
of worship
early tribes
to
the
needs of the
state, is
significant.
make
238
GREEK RELIGION
rise
Only the
cities
of the
cities
and of
city
larger
states
centring
in
made
possible
a
in
union of
" church
and
state "
again.
The
controlling
power
each
city, as
much
by splendid
themselves.
The adoption by
step was the
was the
first
The second
in the temples.
Even
in the
statues in
human form
represent
the
for
"fetiches"
and sacred
pillars
was
not unusual.
relief
to
common,
in
that
it
other words
elaborate
structures as dwelling
human
art
to
make
city,
its
a statue
in
The
wealth of the
which
fortified
now devoted
tyrant like
people both
city,
by
Athena and Dionysus and other gods. The importance of religion as a state institution is indicated by the fact that temples were the first public buildings to be built
in
enduring form.
With the erection of temples by the city-state there came the adoption and transformation of religious festivals.^ Up to
this
time
ritual
local shrines
It
too poor to
for
make
remained
Splendid
festivals
state.
Cp. supra,
p. 112.
239
devotion to them
of worship
at
the
Panathenaea
athletic
the people.
The
state.
final
same time a pan-Hellenic worship rose to prominence, and Zeus were universal Greek gods. Athletic contests, which once had been celebrated at funerals of kings and nobles, now became a possession of the people. In local festivals, but
At
this
for Apollo
mus
(to Zeus),
all
Greece.
right to be
Its
guidance
for colonies
changes in ritual or worship, as well was held to be essential in particular the as changes in government, were ratified by it
;
and the new demand for purification were directed by Apollo.^ With the victory of Apollo over that old nature god, later identified with Dionysus, whose tomb was
development of
local worship
marked by a mound
Greek
religion.
for
One
do with
of purification.
who
slew Thersites,
blood,
need
to
be purified.
It
may be
and
helped to
gods demanded
purity.
Certainly
we
find a deephis
man pursued
f.
murderer
Cp. supra,
p,
60
240
in relentless
GREEK RELIGION
anger until
it
of divine justice was seen in the fact that the taint of blood brought
upon a community the anger of the gods. The laws by which Greek states at this period controlled vengeance by relatives of the murdered man are based on the double belief in the anger Even in of the murdered man's soul and in the anger of gods.
case the relatives were satisfied,
to appease the soul of the dead,
itself
it
was necessary
for the
for the
murderer
to purify
and
community
from
evil.
It
demand for purification was developed and directed. In his worship men imitated the rites of purification which, they believed,
the
originally
;
performed
after killing
even such
an
character of the
soul
rites,
above.^
same
in principle, rites to
taint of
With the
into promi-
rise of other
come
nence
at
rites.
The Rise
of
Dionysus Worship.
to
The most
its
striking feature
explanation in the
just
new
been
made.
The worship
The
and
gods who
give
five
and work
sickle,
in nature,
who
suffer as
is
man
suffers
their joy,
whose worship
the seventh
Cp. supra,
p. 105
fo
241
tier
Demeter,
tlie
grain goddess,
made good
it
right to
potent in
about
whom
spirit
the
same
own farming
class.
is
The evidence
myths of
his
that Dionysus
found in the
coming
from
Homer on
fundamental difference
between his worship and that of the other Olympian gods.^ In Thrace the prototype of the Greek Dionysus was the chief divinity Sabazius was one of his names, perhaps Dionysus was another.
Groups of
his
women, found
;
way
till
on the mountains
to the
the music of
and
their whirling
;
god induced a
religious frenzy
human
ivy,
mothers,
now torn in pieces and eaten raw. The fawnwand tipped with a fir cone and wreathed in
sometimes horns attached to the head, recalled the god to whose service they were devoted. What was the purpose of these wild practices, ending in dizziness and exhaustion? The habit of calling the worshippers by the name of the god, Saboi (Sabazius), B issaroi (Bassareus), Bakchoi (Bakchos), indicates the primary
purpose, namely, the identification of the worshippers and the
god.
The
felt
him-
self free
material world.
The
Under
man
its
himself (the soul) with the divine being, was here realized in
crudest form.
1
1882
Cp. Rapp, Die Beziehungen des Dionysoskultiis zu Thrakien iind Kleinasien, and the article by Voigt in Roscher's Lexikon.
;
GREEK RELIGION
242
GREEK RELIGION
The man who
had experienced a union with the god could not but beheve that his soul was of divine stuff and therefore immortal. The ultimate
purpose of the worship, however,
nature of the god.
of
is
perhaps to be found
in
the
By wild rites of similar character the peoples northern Europe wakened the dormant spirits and made the
seeds sprout ; their frenzied dances quickened the life of vegetation by " sympathetic magic." ^ Dionysus also was a god of life in
plants
life.
The
new
who was
himself the
of
life.
Olympian which we associate with Greece. Yet there are traces enough in Greek religion of the influence of the processes in nature, traces enough that the spirit of life in vegetation and animals was recognized by the Greek as divine. Thracian triljes who had gained a footAll
this orgiastic
the
religion of the
Greek
and
ing on
since
made
It
god.
has
belonged to the
in the spring
vegetation
to birth
by
orgiastic rites
in
on the mountain peak above, and whose grave was the sanctuary itself. The coming of the Thracian god was
of
religion
wholly
all
new;
his
worship
not
of them, have to do with Sometimes he was graciously received, as by Icarus in Attica more often his strange nature and strange companions provoked opposition. In both cases
all
there occurred
1
in
an
243
slain
Icarus
by
his
among
a victim to the
Pentheus who opposed him the women women who joined in this worship, women
led
by
his
own mother.
;
The
of his worship
of the vine.
as the
In both
in-
home-coming
The
his
facts of the
coming
to
revival of religion in
The
in praise of
wine confirm
this interpretation.
The Dionysus
cants
No
doubt
;
intoxifor
helped
the
frenzy of his
Thracian worshippers
the
Greeks wine was the very essence of the god, the immediate
occasion of a divine frenzy in men.
The
lage as
parallel to the
Dionysus
revival,
madness seized the people, which broke all the bonds of social convention, and overcame the bitterest opposition, The until the new god had made good his place on Olympus. inspired madness of his worshippers gave to Greek as to Thracian divine " visions," and for a time sibyls and similar prophets were
divine
common
divinity
in
Greece.
Greek, as
v/ell
as
Thracian, learned
his
the
experience
Above
all,
religion
was
made
Greek
this
movement
and
for
culture.
One
of
its
lasting results
The
force
;
first
244
GREEK RELIGION
;
Epimenides and Melampus modified the wilder practices yet movement remained to bear fruit in the Attic
that
it
I refer
to the
in
Orphic
The
an extremely
late form,
From
this influence
we
infer
an
rites,
and Orphic apostles who sought to spread the new form of Most of the great religions of the world have passed through a theological stage in which doctrine was fixed by the priests the Orphic movement in Greece was a start in this direcstart soon checked by political, social, and religious forces tion, a yet the Orphic sect remained a power in Athens from the sixth
religion.
:
century on.
'^
who
to
is
difficult
ascertain
Apparently
sect.
rites
The
Demeter and
of Dionysus sought
in strange rites
from outside.
some adequate expression, and found it only The source of these ideas also was
this child
Orpheus.
Through
came
it
as a
clearly the
man
was
Orphism
Greek
product.
245
this
successors,
it
transformed what
it
accepted from
:
unity of the gods and the world in one divine being, and (2)
presence of
the Orphic
this divine
nature in the
human
The
soul.
The form of
partly
by the Hesiodic
(fiery
literature, partly
is
found
in
matter).
the world-
and
life
Phanes was the father of Night and Heaven and Earth and the Gods, the creator of sun and moon, of men and animals. By the help of Night Zeus swallowed
father of Athena,
Hesiod he swallowed Metis) thus he became the and thus also the nature of Phanes filled his entire being till he was the complete godhead. From Zeus and Persephone was born Dionysus-Zagreus, who as a child was made
Phanes
(as in
;
beguiled the boy from his nurse with toys, tore him in pieces, and
ate all but the heart,
The
Titans
who
had eaten Dionysus-Zagreus were destroyed by the thunderbolt of Zeus and their ashes scattered over the world. These ashes were the source of the double nature of man, who was divine, for the
life-power of Zagreus was in
stroyed Zagreus.
literature
had dewhich the Orphic expressed the thought that the world and man found
;
them
evil,
fantastic
form
their
fundamental unity
"Zeus
is
head,
Zeus
worshippers as
Through
man had
;
principle of evil
the divine
and immortal
246
soul was
GREEK RELIGION
bound
It
in a
its
prison,
now
its
grave.
of
man
same world of
sin
and
evil.
men
initia-
by which the chain of rebirths might be broken and the This goal desoul might reach its true freedom with the gods. manded both the initiations and a hfe ritually pure; "many are
wandbearers, few Bakchoi,"
in living
for
not
many
learn,
up
The
initiations, so far as
we can
were
rites
adopted from
Fig. 70.
Terra
Scene of
initiation in
Dionysiac mysteries
liknon or
the figure at
tlie left
carries the
winnowing basket.
rites
savage in their
By
eating the
raw
life
so in Orphic initiations
f.
Harrison, Prolego7ne7ia
247
the revolting rite was revived to symbolize most vividly the union
all life.
taint of evil
the winnow-
from
its
physical husk
all
some
ritual
;
reason
more-
The pure
life
initiation
was not
so
much
though
this
was included, as
developed into a
real asceticism in
Greece.
Such a
religion,
might on more favorable ground have developed into a power controlling social life
by
its
priests
votaries at Athens
and
in
Greece yielded
to Christianity.
Like every
esoteric religion,
it
men who
used
its
own
gain
miracle-workers
we must
truths,
believe that
Yet
to
its
existence finds
its
ground
;
in
one
name be used
(2) the
and
ciple that in the possibility of restoring the soul to union with the
godhead
is
The
relation of Pythagoras to
the Orphic
is
not
entirely clear.
the divine nature of the soul and the duty of developing in the soul
its
own
Cp.
infra, p. 271.
248
GREEK RELIGION
it
mony.
sought to realize
state.
its
ethico-religious
an oligarchic
The
doctrines of Pythagoras
the
and
in a life
determined by
its
past deeds,
to the
gods as
ultimate goal
be-
came the basis of a political constitution. Along with ethical demands (mainly negative in character), the avoidance of animal
food, of beans, of woollen garments, etc., was
imposed
of
as
the
means of
cal
salvation.
Although
this
the
personality
Pythagoras
politi-
power of Pythagoreanism soon came to a disastrous end. The very appearance of such a movement, however, bears witness to
the mystic spirit of the age.
CHAPTER
HELLENISM AT
1.
IV
B.C.;
HEIGHT
the Athenian
in society dur-
State.
The Persian Wars and the Exaltation of The same forces which had been at work
it
ing
the
sixth
century
increasing clearness
The
had been supplanted by an aristocracy of wealth, mainIn Athens it was losing tained itself as one party in each state. tyrants it met its deaththirty of the overthrow the until in ground blow ; and in the fourth century x'\thens represents what a real where
democracy could accomplish on Greek people had obtained undisputed control secured the just administration of law and
ual initiative.
soil.
Long before
the
in
full
freedom of individ-
Meantime, commerce continued to gain in imporWith the growth of the Athenian empire the commercial tance. supremacy of Athens was placed on such a firm basis that it was not broken by the Peloponnesian War ; and for Athens commercial
supremacy was the concomitant of intellectual supremacy. At the end of the sixth century in Athens the state worship of the Olympian gods had been made rich and imposing by the These Athenian gods were closely united Peisistratid rulers.
with the political power of the Athenian state
the
cults
of each
locality
and
in
the city of
Athens, quite
much
to
now
be
considered
Greek
religion
249
250
lines
;
GREEK RELIGION
first
it
front as
one current of development, then another, came was favored by social and intellectual conditions.
first
to the
With
Athenian confederacy
it
was the
state ideal
highest development.
Later
meet
philosophical
first
And thirdly, the phase of rehgion was developed among thinkers who
state religion failed to satisfy.
attempted to give a complete rational account of the universe. in Athens all through
each one successively
is
It
has already been assumed that during this period the atten-
on Athens.
life is
The
position of
in
Greek
other one cause, to the fact that the resistance to the attack of
It
king,
and,
if
we may
trust
on Greece proper was levelled primarily at Athens. In the effort to meet this attack and repulse it, Athens became conscious of her
position as the leading city in Greece.
The very
political
devastation of
suc-
it
was by
and material
Greek
of Greece.
had reached
out of the best in each local centre, and in each of these lines
What was
true
religion,
though
in a
somewhat
degree.
Certainly
it is
251
was made
were devoted
to the
honor of the
state
second
citizens.
Commerce
flicts
for the
the con_
were
by larger demands
among
all
appealed to
ing position.
men
commandhad
of the
new
made
One
particular phase
its
The most
interesting devel-
opment of
religion at
fifth
century
B.C.
Greek
cities
power
states
is
in the history of
religion.
of organized mysticism.
the
from Persian menace furnished the antidote to the spread Thereafter no church ever threatened
state.
supremacy of the
2.
During the
fifty
years which
motion by the Persian wars. The two important facts for the history of religion were (i) the supremacy of Athens, and (2) the ideal of the state which came to control
252
GREEK RELIGION
The
first
point
may be
dismissed
with
the
different
Moreover, when
art
was an
gods.
dedicated
for these
The supremlines.
literary
religious in
origin,
in
its
themes, and
in
its
perin
Nor
is
it
enough
to say that
Athenian supremacy
The
political
embodied
in the
and
its
The second
as such,
ligion.
It
is
state
re-
on Greek
Mycenaean
ruler with
its
gods
later
by the
now a group of nobles who owed their power to birth or wealth, now some tyrant who had succeeded in wresting control from the nobles. The conception that the state
the ruling power might be,
was the people, that devotion to the state was something more
than loyalty to a
to
man
ception of democracy
was
man
of their choice
the
con-
Though
the leaders
whom
the
men from
old
families,
more power for themselves. And came responsibility with the successful exercise of power the demands of the state on the individual were more widely recognized. The older devotion to a ruling person or
;
253
which we
call
During
this
throw of
political
The
more
its
life.
demands on men and its ready response made life seem to be splendidly worth living.
opening
for
human
effort,
There was no
of to-day with
left
The
its
life
brightness,
its
wonderful opportunities,
quick rewards,
little
In
day we look
has already been pointed out that the victories over Persia
in
Greece.
To
sympathetic individuals
doctrines
art
still
appealed.
and
mysticism.
and science was on the whole antagonistic to any form of The state ideal found no answering harmony in the
Orphic conception of
ful activity
religion
by these
More than anything else, the successmade men insusceptible to such a phase of something more tangible and more virile was demanded men of action. It is true that old forms of worship,
life.
of the age
in tone,
were retained
but ordi-
at least a
Thus the worship of Demeter at and the usual forms of state w^orship were in some degree welded on to the older rites. Dionysus worship also was adopted by the state, when the Athenian drama had developed out of the earlier choruses in honor of the wine god. Moreover, it seems that the syncretism of the Orphic theology
Olympian
religion of the state.
Eleusis was
made
a state cult,
254
left
its
GREEK RELIGION
mark on the Olympian
divinities of
the state.
Though
the thinker and the poet could not escape the belief that the unity
of divine rule
demanded some
real unity
Yet after
all
made
Orphic
of
fact
little
remains that
this
current
first
Athenian
confederacy.
The emphasis on
human
activity
The
divine rulers.
on the whole happy and successful, under was the great monument to the tendency of the
gods universal beings whose
will
Greeks
state
to
make
their
was maniruling
fested in
The Olympian
state ideal
which was
Athenians
to their
being developed
Athens.
new conception
education,
of
brought up on the
The fact that the youth of the city were Homeric poems as the central element in their
life.
made
lines.
first
it
along these
In the
morphic
trine
of their divine
obtained a
new and
different hold.
The doc-
which Theognis and Solon had uttered in their poems became the general philosophy of life, accepted ahke by the thinker,
Through the epic much the the politician, the military man. same doctrine had made the gods more definitely persons and thus more human. That now it tended to remove the gods further away from human reach and human sympathy, that it made of
worship a splendid tribute to such august powers, that religion
became
a matter for the state rather than for the individual, were
255
the
same
conditions
in
which
made
the
gods Olympian
developed a belief
On
Homer governed
their divine
any more
century
human
rulers.
fifth
demanded
up with
inflexible justice.
And
religion
Earlier ages
had usually
tales
this
aside as "untrue."
pri-
human
moral-
must be predicated
this
in a literal
manner.
Again
demanded
same
Not
made any
its
special difference
To
on doubts
would be
would be an act of
treason.
the prosecutions
from
this standpoint.
The
period
religion.
particular
is
gods
now
that
it
greatness by
in
its
worship.
was used
and navy,
in part
it
was devoted
justified
256
state.
GREEK RELIGION
The Parthenon was erected and
it,
for
Other temples were erected, images were dedicated, and votive offerings brought to the gods, for the successes of the state were
the direct manifestation of divine favor.
sacrifices in
The
processions and
;
athletic
added to the ancient ritual of the festivals ; Apollo and Zeus, Demeter and Athena, simply received what was their proper due when the state they had made strong and wealthy returned this tribute to its divine rulers. And when the drama became the highest tribute of the Athenians
contests and musical contests were
to their gods, Dionysus took
rulers.
his
divine
reli-
In
fact it
is
difficult to
gion during this epoch which was not due to this state ideal and
its
state gods.
During the
fifth
dominant
religious
to the
honor of the
meaning of the Olympian worship and to harmonize highest standards of ethical and rehgious thought. The extant odes of Pindar were written to honor individuals
religious
it
with the
They breathe
in the gods.
that
is
Zeus
is
each man his destiny his mighty mind guides men he loves success he sends to those who approach him reverently. Or again it is god who " accomplisheth all things according to his wish god who overtaketh even the winged eagle, and outstrippeth the dolphin of the sea, who layeth low many a mortal in his haughtiness, while to others he
which
allots to
257
on Apollo, god of
and musical harmony, " the most righteous partner " of father Zeus.^ Along
light
and
with these lofty conceptions of the gods, the poet retained myth,
i.e.
But
his
tradition.
Irre-
myths he
authority of myths
on
their
his age.
Polydeuces,
who
day
his right to
immortality
that he might enjoy the society of his mortal brother Castor in the
such
And
are the
themes
all
through them
men
With
all
gods
of Olympus, Pindar
life
life
is
The
yet
its
after
death
;
is
fraught with
good or
evil
according to man's
here
body
true desdny
it is
akin.
As Pindar honored
success, so Aeschylus
true freedom.
"
whom
in
honored the
state
check
injustice
my
it,
counsel."'
Behind the
cause of
all,
state,
guarding
it,
working
all."*
through
is
God "the
the
!
" May God good issue give And yet the will of Zeus is hard
to scan
Through
all it
brightly gleams,
Pyth.
2. 49.
3 4
f.
2 Pyth. 3. 28.
Agam.
1485.
GREEK RELIGION
258
GREEK RELIGION
All that
Gods work
is
effortless
and calm
He
Apollo
works
is the mouthpiece of this Zeus, Athena his embodied wisdom; in all the conflict of hfe the divine plan works itself For Aeschylus, as for Pindar, myth is a sacred history which out.
He
freely
its
far-
reaching
toil
and suffering are the essential doctrines which the poet presents by means of myth.
view of Hfe
Much
a
the
same
more
graciously
He
is
said to have
been
sent,
man
omens they
(Dexion).
things,"^
receiving the
in
his
house and so
himself
worshipped
after
as
the
For whose
yet in heaven, he
who
its
directs
all
things."
:
"*
All ethical
it
law has
lot to
"
May
!
be
my
keep
their father
feeble."^
God And in
.
Olympus them nor yet does he the government of the world the
is
great in
is
an Antigone be crushed
in the process.
The
sin
of Clytaemnestra,
evil in its
wake.
But
in
man
that he
all
may
is
serve as an instrument of
said about the purity of
But with
that
myth on an
Aeschylus,
Su/>/>/.
85
f.
trans. Plumptre.
A^am.
67
f.
^ :^^c.
5 Oed. Tyr.
864
f.
259
pose.
And
while
is
fast
to
principles, he
basis.
gods
the
Inspiration
he
is
very ready to
and revelation from the divine powers accept. In particular there is an evident
dramas to
exalt the function of Apollo at
purpose
in his extant
The
to
oracles of the
failed, the
god
have
chorus
failure leads to
an
many
other points,
Herodotus
is
Herodotus
human
life,
myth
for in religion as in
geography and
reality
facts
Judging by the
human
Hfe,
he
is
man and by
and the
facts suggest to
just.
to
be determined by the
account
of Croesus, of Polycrates, of Candaules, of Miltiades, illustrates the same principle. " You see how divine lightning strikes very great
animals and
God
do not
is
and thunder-
and
tall
.
trees
.
for
God
loves to
excessive
any but
1
treatment
Herodotus,
7. 10. 5.
26o
of religious
GREEK RELIGION
phenomena Herodotus shows his critical instinct by some to a Pelasgic source, others to
an Egyptian source.
or to explain
And
with
all
his curiosity
and credulity he
griffins, for
does not hesitate to reject what does not seem to him natural
The
existence of
Dodona he explains as priestesses who had come from Egypt, and who were called doves because their words were at first unintelligible.-^ Herodotus felt the deepest interest in the great shrines of Greece and the mysterious doctrines of their priests, but he was often deterred by awe from imparting what he learned. At Delphi it seems that he obtained much material for his history, and in the
earlier part of his
work he appears
claims of the
3.
oracle.^'
The
its
latter part
of the
fifth
its
cen-
social
and
in
political
developments.
The
states-
men had
in the
Democracy in the city now some scheme for expedition, now some sudden
;
impulse of resentment, as
at
in
the
Arginusae, proved
for social
schemes
independent of and including both gods and men, the idea of natural law as distinct from any personal will, the thought
which might well be questioned such were some of the main problems which gradually attracted the attention of thinking people. As mysticism earlier had been driven into the background by
1
Herodotus,
2.
55.
2 "
at Delphi," Classical
Journal,
(1906) 37
f.
261
and the Olympian religion, so now the state phase of religion was threatened by the rising current of intellectualism. What may be termed rationalism, or better intellectualism, in religious matters was not a new development at the end of the it was only its reach and its grasp that were new.^ fifth century
;
Up
tion
to this time
it
had appeared
in
and
in a reflec-
religious conceptions to
and philosophical
Aeschylus.
It
principles.
The
amounted
to
not merely
its
Among
the historians,
same standards to religion as to other matters, and rejected many myths on the ground of imAmong the earlier philosophers, Empedocles made probability. he followed Xenophanes a real place for the gods in his system
;
reverence of
his
God
much
age
its
This line of
effort
accomplished a
little
in
much
later
The
the
tion
work of the
The
absurdities of supersti-
made
it
an easy mark
some of
fact,
their successors
reference
to religion.
The conception
and of law as a fixed natural process, seemed to leave little It was possible, however, to admit the existfor evil.
good or
man who influenced him for some such way Democritus admitted a place for religion, even while he explained away many myths as illusions caused by phenomena of the heavens.
ence in nature of beings superior to
In
1
GREEK RELIGION
after the
middle of the
fifth
century,
it
was
rather the negative phase of philosophy which attracted the attenVisiting sophists were beginning to
show them
how
was to refute not only so-called philosophical systems, but also the demands of custom, of morals, and of law. As law
easy
it
to
is
useful in
so,
they
afraid to
The
law belonged
to social
realities
of
among
and custom and law were so radically different. Man, the individual man, is the measure of all things, declared Protagoras. These doctrines tended to develop individualism as over against all social
authority
;
and
reli-
state
reli-
fifth
century
B.C.,
public attacks on
The avowed
demned by
of charges of impiety.
Diagoras,
who mocked
set
at the mysteries
and divulged
their secrets,
of Cinesias and of
made me
tempt.
like
the
the names Hippon who wrote the epitaph, " Death has gods," were handed down as objects of con-
had a price
on
his
head
in
Greek
history thinking
men were
Anax-
agoras was driven from Athens for teaching that the sun was (not a god but)
an incandescent stone.
same charge because he had placed his own likeness and that of Pericles on the shield of his Athena Parthenos. Socrates was condemned to death "because he did not recognize the gods of
the state, but introduced
new
-
divinities,
still
Others
Leg.
lo, p.
889 E.
2 piato, Apol. 19
B.
263
The charge
of impiety brought
against
Alcibiades, the
ties
of
Overt acts of
man
to
punishment, while
brief period.
trials
in the
fifth
Its
Had
not the state ideal in society and the state phase of religion
now
its
at
work.
The new
to patriotism and the demands of democracy resented the limitations of the constitution and from outside the very existence of the state was threatened by the war. Yet the state ideal had developed strength enough to weather the attacks from without and from within. And with the state ideal the state religion remained in control of the
first results,
was a menace
the state;
a crude
;
Men
but
when he went
too
far, his
bold-
The
on
as before, the
So
far as the
its
tions for
draw men's thoughts away from spiritual things or satisfy their aspirations in a more immediate manner. The gods of the state no longer showed their favor to every undertakWhen ing, but oftentimes they were tried and found wanting. siege and defeat and pestilence made this world look dark, the
activity did not
demand
for "
264
generally
felt.^
;
GREEK RELIGION
The wandering oracle-vender found a ready sale who promised blessings by means of his was welcomed among those who felt the woes of life
the priest,
sacrifices
and
festivals
in the
did not
worship of
by such innovations.
the writers of this period Euripides deserves
his
first menwork begins with the Peloponnesian war, but He rebecause he anticipated the spirit which then prevailed. jected some of the old myths, e.g. the story of Leda and the swan and of Erichthonius's birth from the soil, not on moral and religious grounds like Aeschylus, but because they seemed to him im-
Among
tion, not
because
probable.
his tone
And when he
critical rather
did
condenm
was
than religious.
Writing
at Athens,
alive
to
human made
in his
Athens
great,
tragedies.
who knows
comes from the gods worshipped at Athens? its destiny, beyond the fact that
reward
sounds
in this present
like the critical
-
"
The
scepticism of a sophist.
as Necessity, or to
To
interpret Zeus
now as
Intelligence,
now
make
Such sug-
when
prove
far,
influence.
Even
in the
The outcome
2 Orest.
of his
Plato, Pohtia,
2,
p. 364 B.
418.
265
gods
are, let us
The
old
bow comedy
to
them."
represented by Aristophanes was
as
much
Religious
Homer
on.
audience.
Not simply
and the
vender of oracles, but the priest of the state religion also was held
up
to ridicule.
free
Nor was
Demeter
Yet
in Aristophanes there
felt
by
his
audience to
On
work
In
religion.
vade
hymns
to the gods.
He
is
first
of
all
a comedian, but
In fact
ritual universally
accepted, and (2) a general belief in the actual power and pres-
Whatever
his
own
views
may have
his
been, the
witfifth
made
comedies a
people
the
Much the same conclusion as to the hold of religion on the may be drawn from the history of Thucydides and from
orations
of
Antiphon.
Thucydides
contrasts
sharply
the
Delphic Apollo
'
while
condemning the
superstitions of a Nicias,
one of the
to the epic
evils
produced by the Peloponnesian war-; he refers and some particular myths with no note of criticism.
his
own
2.
part,
53.
Thucydides,
2.
54; cp.
5.
103. 2; 5. 26. 3.
2 Jbid., 3. 82.
6; cp.
266
QREEK RELIGION
Athens.
he clearly recognizes the importance of religion as it existed at So Antiphon continually bases his argument on popular belief in a divine justice which punishes the guilty, and in a divine
evil.
purity which turns away from a man or a city polluted with These statements might be mere rhetoric, but they would
their value as rhetoric
lose
addressed to a people
century
religiously inclined.
4.
With
fifth
we may almost
;
ended none of the later changes can be regarded as new movements of primary importance, and on the whole the later history of religion in Greece is concerned with the degeneration and disappearance of the forces which
at this
said
its last
word on matters of
was to become
religion
little
more
The
of the
place was
spirit.
marked by
teaching
The
had been accepted by relatively few persons, but the centrifugal forces set in motion at the time of the
Peloponnesian war had a
f^ir
When men
for the good of the and protection, it was difficult to enforce the demands of patriotism. Moreover the loss of political power had for Athens a surprisingly small effect on her commerce, or on her intellectual and artistic prestige. Naturally the thought of the state as such gave way before the thought of the larger Hellenic world a cosmopolitan spirit began to prevail, which made the claims of society rest lightly as compared with
began
to ask
The spread
The
self-development which
267
community,
on the
training of his
he was inclined to
own powers
The spread
symptom
to
of individualism.
which the
fifth
century
had devoted
The productions
of great
painters
and
sculptors,
because so often they were used for mere adornment and private
pleasure, were often created with
no higher end
in view.
The
great works in literature were not poetry but prose, not dramas for
they were not grand and imposing but rather were finished with
delicate grace.
The
Greece was
it
all
the
more baneful
It is
because
was not
satisfied
in a barbaric or oriental
manner.
this
but looking at
in
the
Not simply
patriotism,
;
honor
also,
and
military
prizes,
The
had given to
life its
tone,
now
as
and melancholy.
age
is
In other phases of
life
The change
frieze,
The gods on
the Parthenon
the statue
great
for
these gods, too, stood for high ideals and for the energy which
made
gods
Wealth has
rightly
of the
Demosthenes,
3. 25.
268
following century.
Praxiteles
GREEK RELIGION
The Aphrodite unrobing
for her
for the bath,
which
Cnidian temple, was the goddess of a people devoted to the love of beauty and grace. And the Her-
made
at
mes found
Olympia
still
repeats
its
found
self-conscious
their perfect
development.
to
Such changes
gods were
have
The
and
and
their wor-
The
orators of the
to conjure
fourth century not only use the gods to swear by by, they refer again
for Athens,
and again
gods
and
gods they
find
hope
for the
Devotion to the
state
to
tended
common
political
bonds
among
the people.
Philippic^
at
Demosthenes complains
charge of religious
funds are devoted
It
remain
home
to take
would not be
fair to
view.
The
festivals
state.
So
Demosthenes
is
concerned,
it is
no evidence of deep
If
on the part of
Demosthenes
is
more
religious individual
4.
we can hardly
Demosthenes,
26 and 35.
269
same meaning
beginning of
in
rehgion as did
those
who hstened
fine
to Antiphon.
In the
passage
on
the
the
sacred
war
persuaded
his
its
consequences
were a dread
these delegates
by the
political speaker,
but even under the shadow of the Delphic oracle the most solemn
plain.
form of devotion had not checked the cultivation of the sacred The Greek gods were made for man, not man for the
Difficult as
gods.
it is
simple.
There
is
state
kept up
their magnificence.
in
That
life,
gods was
human
or
and satisfied by this worship, we find no proof in the extant works of the orators. But Athenian gods had made* Athens great, and in the struggles
that genuine religious emotions
were
stirred
were loyally
maintained.
The changes
individuals.
in
worship during
this
The presence
Xenophon.
of this
practical
religious
matters at
attitude of
century
seen in the
to the
forms of religion.
his fear
to
gods,
and
his
Such devotion
on
relif.
Aeschines,
3.
107
f.
Xenophon, Hipparch.
i. i
Cyneget.
i. i
27
gious practice
GREEK RELIGION
among
the people.
what was otherwise outside power; just because rehgion had a practical value, the soldier and the merchant could not afford to neglect it.
practical possibilities in controlling
his
The same
prayer of the sick for healing in Attica, but no hero had ever
come
disease.
bers to Epidaurus
His reputation had brought invalids in great numthe shrine had assumed the form of a great
;
its
success
men who
ing.
Now
of the god
made more
at
at
religious hospital
Athens.
private
houses Asclepius
The
south
medical purpose of
sacred spring, and
its
this
The
ruins of
its
temples,
still
its
attest
gain
when
it
offered
worshippers.
itself also in
future by
The
revival of the
Orphic
movement, to which Plato if not Demosthenes bears witness, was due quite as much to the desire for higher potencies to control The Orphic one's destiny as to any real effort for spiritual ends.
conception of
in another
life
to
some because
it
human
;
phase of existence.
And
there was
much about
his
271
soul, its
his
and
its
destiny
Plato's allusions to
of such religious
Orphic
''
else
in
Because the
priests
and hereafter
to their adherents,
seemed
life,
this
type of religion had a wider influence than at any time during the
fifth
century.
the
Much
same
influences were at
work
they
had
settled,
mainly in the
That Athenian
first
citizens
No
rites
practi-
this
Because the
state religion
form, great as was the respect in which this form was held,
did
a practical
need.
Over against the old forms of worship and the new more superstitious
phase of
The
relation
of philosophy
and
religion
is
to
may be
an abrupt
criti-
immediate
eff"ect
was harmless,
broader view
supra, p. 127.
to take a
f.
Plato, Politia,
2,
p.
364 B
Demosthenes,
18.
259
2 Q^).
272
GREEK RELIGION
In his Republic Plato did not discuss
them
The name
"
God,"
hypothetical being
would be meaningless except as these thinkers recognized some deep reality in the religious
which
their systems culminated,
While religion
as such
had
little
directly
by no means
end of the
fifth
century,
now both
positive
and
idealistic.
Just in so far
the
the great
and found
by individuals
and by society the most important realities of life, the path was open for philosophy to become the handmaid of religion. The immediate results of a deeper philosophy were never very large for Greek religion, for it had no vitality to assimilate the fruits of thought it is only in the history of Christianity that the meaning of Greek philosophy for religion came to be realized.
;
1 Plato, Politia, 4, p.
427 B.
CHAPTER V
THE OUTCOME OF GREEK RELIGION
1.
With
the conquests of
all
but ceased,
and history
scene
is
is
concerned with
its
external
development.
The
shifted
and
for this
lan-
in
common medium
ment ^
Homer
children of
Greek civihzation there can be no doubt. " Greek culture alone had the capacity to embrace and interpret
the
rest
all
of the world
art,
its
spirit
made
a universal
in
appeal
through poetry,
the hands of
history of reli-
Alexander
this influence
is
became
operative.
The
So
far as
Greece
is
way
for the
The decay
of sectional patriot-
GREEK RELIGION
273
274
GREEK RELIGION
own
particular city-state, inevitably
meant
Greece the end of patriotism as a determining ideal in human The ; for cosmopolitanism was merely devotion to no state.
was twofold.
result
On
men
On
the other
hand a
religion
its
much
of
hold on
its
men who no
pomp and
power
totle.
meet a genuine
spirit
religious need.
The
first
of these results
For
scientific investigation
was that
Greeks to see in their own gods other forms of the gods worshipped in Egypt and in the East a "theocrasy " which had no mean importance as a factor in the spread of Greek culture, for
it
had an
effect
which was
deep and
Already
far
need of a
religion
more
real
From
nized this need, and their followers had been inspired quite as
much by
for
Now with
city-state
connected
with
it,
men
phy
little
to satisfy
men
his
somewhat
275
Greek
peri-
nature.
The
has at
many
human
history driven
men
to luxury
and
selfish pleasure or
again to asceticism or to superstitious rites ; in later Greece, as in these days, it produced " Ethical Culture " societies.
The
is
Greek gods
strong
illustrates the
Only the
who introduced
system.
who had a system of thought included the gods in this The Epicureans followed the founder of that school in
in
between
men and
ultimate
(divine)
in
So
far,
Greek
ties
religion
is
concerned, phi-
more ready
to identify
Greek gods with gods from other nations. changes in religion due to cosmopohtanism
and to an ethical idealism, the introduction of foreign cults into Greece had never been Greece itself made some further change;: hospitable to foreign worships, but it had always been susceptible,
at times strangely susceptible, to their influence.
An
examination
intro-
of the evidence
fails
to
duction of foreign worship in this period, except in the case of the worship of Isis. The " Mother of the Gods " from Asia Minor
in
fifth
century
this
make much of
were frequently
276
GREEK RELIGION
Attis,
who was
worshipped
^
at
;
the
Pei-
raeus
and
at Patras
but Attis
as
into
religion
at
fifth
century
B.C.,
but
made
little
till
progress
later.-
It
was not
that the
worship of Mithras
Rome.
The worship
of
Isis,
won
in
Greece
epoch.
in
the
Hellenistic
The
ancient Egyptian
Isis,
all
things
and
in
Fig. 71.
Kk.l RK
WITH
SiSTRON
riched by the rites of Serapis.
and
333
C.I. A. II.
622; Pausanias,
2
3
18, p. 200.
277
under the Ptolemies Athenian citizens welcomed the new worship and there remains abundant evidence of the hold it obtained. A
shrine of Serapis near the Prytaneum, an altar in the precinct of
Asclepius, a shrine of Isis on the south slope of the Acropolis, votive
offerings to these coins,
priests,
and
women
In the Aegean islands the inand of the Isis religion was even more marked. At Tithorea there was an important centre of the Isis mysteries where only those were received to whom the goddess had revealed herself in a dream.^ In the rest of Boeotia, in the
fluence of the Ptolemies
vicinity of Corinth,
and
at
many
worship of
Isis
Occasionally
sometimes she was recognized as Hera, the ; queen of the gods, or as Hygieia, the goddess of health; among
Selene or with lo
her functions was the protection of women in childbirth and the power to stir the heart with love, functions which to the Greek meant Aphrodite but more commonly she was a goddess of the mysteries, an Egyptian form of Demeter. The reception of Isis as a form of Demeter was the more natural because the two goddesses
;
Isis, like Demeter, had become a goddess and of the grain which it produced Isis and Serapis were gods of the world of souls and the symbols of Demeter, cista and basket and torches and serpents, early had found a place in the worship of Isis. Near Hermione, an old centre of Demeter worship, it is said that the mysteries of Demeter were
touched
of the
at
many
points.
fertile
earth
Apuleius
describes
much
1
as he
deems
Jour,
8 (1883) 26.
2.
Pausanias,
Pausanias,
34. 10.
Metamorphoses,
16
f.
278
Isis.
GREEK RELIGION
The bath by
the priests with prayers to the goddess, the in-
meat and
of the candidate
with a mystic robe and crown of palm leaves, the vision of the
Isis which only the initiated might see, and the "birthday feast" with which the ceremonies ended all were imposing rites calculated to impress an age which demanded some new and
image of
more effective means of coming into connection with the divine. The higher mysteries of Isis were the more esteemed because they
were not,
society
cation,
;
mysteries,
open
to every class in
men
The
hold which they rapidly gained was no doubt due mainly to the
nature of this personal appeal.
Isis religion,
The
the contents of
in
other forms of worship and the other gods, was a second factor
its
success.
new
religion.
These
at the
end of the
third
Orphic movement. But the Greece of the and second centuries B.C. quite lacked the nascent life of Greece in the sixth century and the religion of Isis never attained either the direct or the indirect influence which must be assigned Still it was an important element in religion through to Orphism.^ all the Greek world for several centuries it was the most important competitor of Christianity in Egypt and in Rome; and through the Gnostic sect it made its power felt by Christianity.
;
The
internal changes in
Greek rehgion
at this time, as
we have
many
On
in
279
did not
satisfy.
which Greece learned to prize the more as men saw was prized by other peoples. The spread of Greek religion throughout the eastern world was largely an outcome of the same
how
it
causes which produced these changes, while at the same time the
new,
its
extension.
To
avowed policy of many of his successors, the continued importance of the old rehgion may be attributed. The accounts of Alexander represent him as devoted to all the forms of Greek religion no less than Xenophon himself^ His
marvellous escapes in battle he assigned to special divine protection (to Oelov)
.
The
a battle
and thank-offerings after special successes, are repeatedly mentioned by Arrian. Alexander's realistic belief in the world of
is
myth
At Ilium
his
armor
for ancient
weapons
to the goddess
and thereafter
battle.^
Mt.
Mercs near Nysa, the supposed scene of Dionysus's birth, he ascended with his companions to engage in Bacchic rites on this holy soil.^ In every foreign country he engaged in the local worWhen he ship and caused the temples to be preserved or rebuilt.
founded Alexandria
in
worship.
One
of the
striking
scenes in his career was the great banquet at Opis,^ where Macedonians, Persians, and representatives of other nations, nine thouall, joined in one great libation under the guidance of Greek seers, while Alexander prayed for every good and harmony and a peaceful rule by Greeks and Persians together. The reli-
sand in
8 Arrian, 5. 2. *
2 Arrian,
11,
f.
5 f. Arrian, 7. 11. 8.
28o
GREEK RELIGION
is
in sacrifices, to
"
for
all
he understands
wont
to perform,
man who
his
.As Philip had protected Delphi, and recognized the place of the Greek religion in the common inheritance of Greece, so it was this same religion which Alexander carried with him and planted wherever
he went.
with varying interest.
his successors, though Egypt kept up most friendly relations with the ancient temples and their priests, but without committing themselves to any reactionary movement. On the other hand, the international worship of Adonis at Alexandria,
The
by
The Ptolemies
in
To
this
epoch
(Sarapis)\
A dream
The image of a god of the underworld (Pluto, accompanied by Cerberus and a serpent) was fetched from Sinope on the Pontus, only to be identified with Serapis (a form of Osiris) and worshipped with Isis. The earlier temple of Isis and Serapis was torn down to make way for a splendid Serapeum, and Serapis became the most important god of Alexandria.
tion of this cult.
The
was
less consistent,
Athenaeus,
14. 78, p.
659 F.
Osiris-apis.
Cp.
Plutarcli,
p. 276.
8Cp.
281
Greek philosophy, and Greek rhetoric, an Olympian festival was introduced into Antioch and the worship of the Greek gods was The Greek myth of enforced, e.g. by Antiochus Epiphanes.
and where-
rites
already existing.
came about that Greek rehgion, which was essentially The unilocal by nature, came to be almost a " world-religion." Delphi versalizing influence of myth was a necessary prerequisite
Thus
it
;
the old local and and Olympia had helped toward this end national ties had been weakened ; and when a power that was only half Greek became the mediator between Hellenism and the
;
much
a part of
Greek culture
It is
that they too were widely distributed through that world. true that the worship of the gods kept
much
characteristic.
cult
Whenever an
it
old cult
newly established,
for a rather brief
stood indeshrines in
reli-
The
fact
remains that
period the
gion of the eastern world was (at least nominally) Greek religion.
It
ity
was the power of Rome and soon the power of early Christianwhich completely ended the forces that had produced this state Yet no great factor in
later world.
civilization, least of all the reh-
of
affairs.
away and
dif-
no mark on the
religion
Through
its
effect
its
on the
influence on
Roman
tianity,
and through
had
its
more
subtle influence
on Chrisstill
Greek
religion
set in
operative.
2.
Greek Religion on Roman Religion. In the preceding section the outcome of Greek religion has been
The Influence
1
of
Libanius, p. 364.
282
traced, as
GREEK RELIGION
it
ward through
der's empire.
felt at
The
influence of
Greek
it
was
in
much
it
was not
B.C. that
began to dominate
religious
belief
and practice
The religion of the Roman empire was quite as much Greek as Roman, and through Rome the Greek gods became an integral factor of later European civilization. Again, the
Rome
itself.
influence of
Greek
religion directly
and
in
indirectly
on Christianity
ritual,
Of
development of Christianity
matters of
of the-
and of organization, probably no one was more important than Greek religion, nor can any return to primitive Christianity, so-called pure Christianity, entirely cut out elements from this
ology,
source.
The concluding
sections
of
this
historical
sketch of
Greek
to
felt
of Greek influence in
Rome
period of the later kings and the earlier years of the Republic.^
At a
some of the Greek gods had come to be and when the worship of Hercules in Rome by people from Tibur, or the worship of the Dioscuri by people from Tusculum, won recognition as part of the worship of
earlier date
the
foreign.
felt
to be Greek, nor
even
books
With the new duties assigned to the plcbs came some new privileges, and over against the old worship
were
to
be foreign.
which
of the
all members of the state had a larger part. The story Cumaean Sibyl who off"ered Tarquin nine books of oracles,
then
1
six,
and
finally sold
Cp. Wissowa, Religion und Kultus der R'dmer, Aust, Die Religion der Romer, 1899.
Miiller's
Handbuch ; and
283
familiar to
all.
Apparently the
Cumae
at the
end of the
though
his first
temple
in the
not erected
till
433
at
b.c.
The worship
was established
and
their
temple
in the
To the same set of erected in 493 b.c. influences was due the worship of Hermes as Mercury (from
mercari), the god of trade, to
whom
495
B.C.,
cults of
None
of these cults were admitted within the pornerium, and the forms
of worship were
to
be foreign
Apollo)
Greek.
marked, nor
is
it
influences should be
During the fifth and fourth centuries B.C. we hear of no more Greek cults estabhshed in Rome ; yet again and again, in time of calamity, the state had recourse to the Greek ritual of the lecfisterniiwi
under the direction of the Sibylline books. ^ Processions city crowned with the laurel of Apollo, great sac-
were offered, the temples, ordinarily accessible only to priests, were thrown open to the public, and a banquet was spread
to three pairs of
Neptune).
wooden
figures, reclining
at the
banquet pre-
l)ared for
them.
During
period, also,
erected to the older and the newer gods, while games, dances,
to
But while Greek influence, no doubt, affected the worship of the old Roman gods, a sharp line was drawn between the native gods
cities
the
locality
of the
the
worship
284
GREEK RELIGION
ritual
of
worship
cults
Rome,
Ara
Ditis et
still
Campus
Martins), and
later
These
calamity,
relief
such means of
During the
in art,
in philosophy,
Roman
traditions
it.
men
like Cato,
help broke
down
all
barriers
;
Greek
rites
of propitiation were
gods, as to gods
to the old
Roman
offered in the
Greek manin
Such a change was possible only because the hold of the ancient religion was gone the fact remains
if
one way
not in another.
that, to a considerable
planted
itself.
Roman
forms of worship to
Roman
gods and
not
in
Rome
in
result
measure
for
Roman
worship could
have
been
life
changed
had continued
of the people.
The demand
Greek
work
in
Greek
art
and Greek
in
literature
had
the
Greek gods
285
which Pheidias and Praxiteles had represented them for their countrymen, without involuntarily replacing the old Roman idea From Livius Andronicus of their nature with the Greek idea." ^
in
on, the
poetry,
Roman gods were endowed with Greek myths in Latin and the drama made these conceptions familiar to the At the same time Roman temples were furnished with people.
Greek images of the gods. Naturally, the old line of division between Greek ritual and Roman ritual could no longer be
kept up.
Consequently when Julius Caesar encouraged the worship of the it was not the Venus of Ardea, but a
to
Greek Venus
whom
he erected a temple.
The patron
of the
empire of Augustus, the Palatine Apollo, was the Greek god who for nearly five centuries had been worshipped at Rome outside the
pomeriu7?i.
to revive
the old
Roman
that
it
was quite
was so shot through with Greek threads much a Greek as a Roman religion which he
encouraged.
3.
The influence of Greek more complex and many sided than its In this sketch one can only influence on the religion of Rome. suggest (i) the persistence of Greek gods and Greek rites in Eastern Christianity, (2) the direct influence of Greek theological
Greek Religion and Christianity.
religion
on Christianity
is
thought on Christian
belief,
and
none the
less
on the very
plastic ritual of
That
in
Greece
1
itself
Zeller, Vortr'dge
105.
286
the
GREEK RELIGION
new
religion,
and
as Christian saints,
is
was not so
difficult to
make
church when the virgin goddess of wisdom was supplanted first by a St. Sophia (Wisdom), then by the Virgin Mary. Similarly Apollo
St.
George, Poseidon by
St.
St.
Asclepius by
Michael and
St.
Damian, and
suggested
in
grottoes where
church dedicated to
ship of Eileithyia
childbirth.;
in
any case
women
Where
re-
garded the thunderbolt as the weapon of Zeus, to-day men say, *' God rains," and speak of the thunderbolt as his weapon.^ That
Dionysus should reappear as
St.
Naxos, that Paul should take the place of Heracles as the person who freed Crete from noxious beasts, that Cretan legend even tells
of a Christian Bellerophon,
St.
Niketas,
is
who
But
to
rite
been celebrated by Christian priests, the persistence of the old religion is most vividly presented. Along with the bread and wine of the communion service, there may be found at times a KoXv/Sa^ a cake specially prepared from different kinds of grain, which is
brought to the church and eaten with greetings from each
his
man
to
altar rail.^
The
at the
7ravo-7rep/xax is
made
and eaten
1
B. Schmidt,
Das
ings, 37-38.
2
4
Rouse,
ibid. 237, n.
i.
Schmidt,
ibid. 33.
287
strikIt is
is still
some
Charon
Fig. 72.
Athenian
is
The
loutrophoros
pictured as a grave
monument on
placed in the mouth of the dead, and that a century ago the practice
was widespread.
1
is
buried
2 B.
Schmidt,
ibid.
288
GREEK RELIGION
is
of an unmarried
at the grave, and the corpse wedding crown to-day, just as in ancient Athens the marriage to Hades was symboHzed by the louti-ophoros (the vase in which the wedding bath was fetched). How far the modern processions and festivals (TravT^y^^/ota) are the
broken
girl
receives the
outcome of Greek
iravYiyvpi
festivals
it is
some
there
is
being
perpetuated.
serve the spirit
Certainly the
if
Greek Easter
festival
seems to preIn
the joy
And
;
to-day the
realistically
then at mid-
that Christ
risen
companions and on to candles throughout the crowd, guns and firecrackers are discharged, and as they prepare to break their Lenten fast the multitude drop all restraint in the expression of
wild joy.
in that
more important effect of Greek religion on Christianity, was by no means limited to Greece or to the Eastern Church, was due to the direct influence of Greek philosophy on
far
it
Christian belief.^
This
the standpoint of
Greek
come
into
my
purpose
fruit in
Greek
religious ideas
bore new
B. Schmidt, ibid. 54
f.
Wachsmuth, Das
alte Griecheriland
I,
im neuen,
2,(i f.
v, vii
f.
289
It is perhaps necessary to note first that Greek philosophy produced a remarkable and far-reaching change in the concept of what Christianity was. For Christianity came into the world not
as
as
new
principle of conduct.
The
life
as
well as from
Philippi,
ence to a person. In the words of Paul to the frightened jailer at it said, " Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt
^
Greek world,
in
it
came
environment
totally different
from that
laying
tice
later
Palestine.
and
down
be shown
carefully elaborated
and of the
it
world of
human conduct.
if
it
Now
in
such an atmosphere
was
inevitable,
Christianity was to
world, that
should be recast in a
new mould.
The
first effect
^f G reek philosophy on
new
religion,
and the
consequent habit of regarding speculative creeds as the real test to determine the genuine adherents of Christianity. This most
momentous change in all the history of Christianity might have taken place if Greek philosophy had never busied itself at all with
matters of religion
;
There
is
this
change took
been devoted
idea of
In a word, the
God
in Christian
God formed by Greek thought as to the Greek The Greek conception of the nature of God at this time
his personality,
2 Part III,
and
iii.
his
good-
^Aas
16. 31.
GREEK RELIGION
I9
Chap.
290
ness.
GREEK RELIGION
The human,
or superhuman, personahty of the gods was
clearly grasped
nowhere more
of the people.
sponding unity
taught.
God,
The
;
Homer
it
to identify
God
when philosophy
undertook to unify the moral ground of the universe with the source of all real existence. Such was the range of ideas which
went
to
make up
the definition of
God
in Christian theology.
God
and
to
mind
fate
Two
fundamental
facts,
on the one hand, the providence of gods on the other, had always been recognized. The philosophical conception of
evil,
as to the relation
of
it
God
is.
to that process
being and the world of sense, lesser spiritual beings, active divine
ideas or a mediating Logos, were
extremes.
To
of a good God,
all-controlling,
now
or,
again,
it
was accredited
to
human freedom.
hand ready
God
in his
The
in the main a develGreek idea of God that had been worked out by philosophy became fruitful for actual religion.
opment of
in the
same time being developed new religion. And here again the forces at work were mainly Greek ; only that here there was no such intermediary as
Thirdly, an elaborate ritual was at the
291
make
way across a
the baptismal
religion,
common meal
blessing
men commemorated
By
the
fifth
century
this
had
ritual.
Baptism took
made
of
new
if
life.
They came
feet, the
women
in Jerusa-
The water
Holy
with
was
Then
they
came
to the
mass they received a mixture of honey and milk to drink instead of wine. Baptism was called the " dress of immortaUty," ^ in that
it
was supposed
to confer
life
consequently
it
until late in
the next
more
covered by
Thus
teries,
it
was
assure
Its
direct
result
Das
Cp. Hatch, Hibhert Lectures (1888), Lecture X; and particularly Anrichs, autike Mysterienwesen in seinem Einfiuss auf das Christentum, 1894.
2 Basil,
(32, 1033),
292
evil
GREEK RELIGION
and the introduction
of a better nature.
like the
The
preparation for
which
with
from
evil spirits,
played an
important part.
And
much
in
common
its
thing like ornament, the veiled face, then the white linen garments
the and crowns and torches with the drink of honey and milk rite had become for the Greek an initiation, and it was frequently
The
the unbaptized catechumens, for " eternal guilt " attached to those
who partook of the Lord's Supper without due initiation there came to be degrees among the initiated themselves,
the
later
as in
Greek mysteries.
ixvarripia.
for
the Christian
priests,
but
complete.-
indeed,
came
Its
to
death,"
'^
a "viaticum mortis."
life
resurrection
was shared by
those
who took
Both
had come to
religion.
and the means for securing this purpose be very much the same as in the mysteries of Greek
ICp. Hatch, Ilibbcrt Lectures (1888), 296. -Cp. Dionysius Areop. Eccles. Ilier. 3. i,
Lectures (1888), p. 304.
i,
p. 187
3
f.,
Ignatius,
Ad Ephes.
20. 2.
293
life-
when
all
the time a
and-death struggle was going on between the old and the new It is suffireligion is a question that does not concern us here.
cient to point out that
and
that
it
could only have taken place on the unconscious assumption that " religion " meant the rites and conceptions which had been
familiar
religion"
fact for
the Greek mind for centuries, while " Christian meant a new content in the old form. The important the student of Greek religion is that this religion was not
to
On
life it
had was perpetuated in Christianity, since the conquering religion had adopted many of its forms and some of the old content in these In the centuries which followed much of this Greek eleforms.
ment
still
in Christianity
yet
much
remains, a permanent contribution to what claimed to be a " .^ world religion, " where there is neither Jew nor Greek.
.
.
^Ep. Colossians
2,.
ii.
PART
IN
III
GREECE
I
CHAPTER
to art
losophy
and literature in Greece, to morals and government, to phiand in conclusion one may ask again how far Greek
;
be regarded as a form of
religion.
From
further
some
New England
at the
one
extreme, nor in ancient Greece at the other, can rehgion and art
They
it
are in
world in which he
As by science he interprets
is
in terms
interpreting
it
in
beauty
and
it
is
this
Among
relation to science
for beauty.
now by ethical demands, now and philosophy, rather than by the sense In Greece art and literature were the means by which
largely determined,
294
295
them
for the
was some
human
art its
life,
which gave to
meaning.
The
effort
of the
in contrast
with
the attempt of religion to deal directly with the spiritual and the
ideal.
But where, as
in Greece, art
ideal,
it
fullest
expression
for
religious thought
and
practice.
make
beautiful, carried
on with
all
the
hands of
art, it is
guish between the appreciation of beauty and the feeling of gious devotion.
It
was not
between the
two emotions
festival
The
supremely beautiful.
The house in and the dance, were an actual part of worship. which the spirit of the god found a home, its painted and sculptured ornaments, the
votive
offerings,
the
At
demand on the worshipper. Little wonenjoyment of the beautiful was so blended with If pious devotion that no line can be drawn to separate them. this is what is meant by a " worship of beauty," that somewhat ambiguous phrase might be applied to Greek religion.^ The fact remains that the Greeks did not directly worship any
ment made
its
imperative
history of
It
its development was determined by aesthetic influences. was inevitable that the forms of worship should be modified in accordance with the nature of the worshippers to satisfy the spirit1
In the same sense Hebrew religion might be termed a " worship of holiness."
296
ual
GREEK RELIGION
need which they
felt.
;
Objects of worship,
also,
were brought
century
B.C.
felt
assumed
in
The
fifth
century in
had not
Up
vague and
ual forces
gods became
for
It
human
whom men
for
touch of reason.
2.
The
In
the
evi-
dence of contemporary
literature
was considered
history.
at
each step, on
The testimony of
it
is
historical
art
and on
I.
development. The influence of religion on may be considered from three points of view.
first
literature
In the
The conception
and
in story,
of the
was the
greatest conceivable
details,
theme
for
the sculptor;
he could modify
it
was
worshippers a
stories
Zeus
or,
it
297
some such
local
myth
For
literature
from
Homer
is
on,
as
The
divine world
is
of Odysseus at Ithaca.
more than
is
all
in the
drama, the
theme
is
religious
in large
measure derived
from the
which had grown up around gods and heroes. 2. Again, religious worship furnished the occasion which demanded the aid of art and literature. It was the religious festival
stories
for
which called
very
still
lyric
poetry to
much
is
known
altar
and
his priest,
comedy
to that
Greek demand
it
enrichment of worship by
Nor
should
this
tests
same
making
This
it
drama
those of Dionysus.
demand on
more a directing
tially
was
in
felt
the need
of noble buildings.
concerned
of
for the
human
beings,
made,
to
be sure,
some mastery of
and
political
gods were
made
religious impulse.
298
3.
GREEK RELIGION
Thirdly, the influence of religion on art and literature was
it
important in that
acteristic of the
was char-
Greek
life
artist that
truths of
human
in his achievements.
method
it
of expression, directly in
its
and relations,
that Zeus
is
indirectly in
its
Sometimes
love.
appears almost that the gods are the abstract ideals themselves,
justice,
In
and public buildings, in the great paintings which include the gods, on gems and painted vases with religious scenes, the subject is rightly termed '' religious " yet the underlying meaning of the artist's work is some principle of human
decorative sculpture on temples
;
life
which
in these instances
of the gods.
taken up into
The
and
men
human plane
;
the
problems of human
life
the aims,
human
a different standpoint.
sort of
proper setting,
its
evanes-
cence and
its
greatness.
Elsewhere
than
in
Greece the
at the cost
supreme
been emphasized
life
or again the
shadowed the divine world in Greece gods and men were wonIt is natural then that in derfully blended in one social universe. life should be presented by Greece the same fundamental truths of now from the standmen, standpoint now from the of the artist
point of the gods.
It is natural that
effective expression.
299
The Influence
of
If
now we
turn to the other side of the question and consider the influence
is
no
less apparent.^
and
for his
and practices which had universal meaning, whatever influence he had was exerted to mould singular or local types of religion in the In less degree lyric poetry and the direction of one general type.
written for
it
adopted
in a
measure
The
it
Yet since
in its
art to grasp
theme, even
in a statue or a painting
made
arts, like
gems,
seal-
embossed metal decoration, or painted inevitably religious pottery, were not made for any one locality subjects were given a general treatment, in which form they were The Athena head on coins of Corinth or of Athens, circulated.
metal
utensils,
;
the head of
Hera on
figure of Apollo
over Greece
of art and
became
a national possession.
influence
is
In connection with
literature
in religion
this
universalizing
the
unpleasing
is
purely
local in
its
meaning.
the
As
for
myth,
it
is
revolting yield
is
the
demands of
aesthetic
sense.
Conservative as
religious
demand
that beauty
Cp.
in the
f.
300
exerts a constant
GREEK RELIOION
pressure on the traditional forms of worship.
the
The development of
ideal.
drama
is
taste
gradually
more
beautiful
tions
And
the concep-
sense, throwing into the background or cutting out elements of barbarism, ever pursues the natural conservatism of religious
thought.
The
result
is
forms of religion
remain in a
is
city like
attached to them.
Apart from the somewhat general points thus far considered, the effect of art and literature on religion in the case of a
people sensitive to their influence was inevitably so to modify
religion
that
it
should
make
a strong
several
aesthetic
different
appeal.
lines.
This
In the
tendency may be
first
its
traced along
worship,
is
aesthetic influences
The transformation
of the vague
powers once worshipped into actual gods, followed different lines among different nations. In Greece art and literature combined
to define the
gods as
human
in
their
nature
their
greatness
their
was limited
to
demand for concrete form, and the human. The humanizing of the gods repreinevitably form was sents that same victory of human intelligence over natural forces The poet and the artist which was so emphasized in myth. saw in man something of the universal, the spiritual, the divine
;
medium than
the gods.
When
the
to
in
make
the
human
At times
history
of humanity religious
thought
301
it
as
unworthy of attention
human
type,
appeal of nature was utilized for religion in the person of the gods.^
And because
the relation of
god and man was so human, the forms moulded by man's sense of the beautiful.
lines over against religious conservatism,
it
art, in
conceptions.^
However
sharply
from
in
religion,
by an influence primarily aesthetic rather than ethical, was fully recognized by Plato when he proposed to exclude the poets
from
his
ideal
state.
Much
as
it
might be
deprecated by
mained
ing
as a
most
strik-
characteristic
religion.
of
Greek
tors
Nor
poets
behind the
before
in this work.
Painting
brought
men's
Fig. 73.
Coin
of Naxos
wine cup.
Head
Satyr with
connected with myth. True as it is that gods of myth rather than of worship were
thus represented, the worshipper could not but feel the influence of
That Dionysus in the sixth as a bearded man, in the fourth century as youth that Athena was rarely represented of armor that the artist emphasized the
these pictures.
;
;
an almost effeminate
without some piece
mother
in
Demeter,
1 '* In Greece, we may truly say, man pressed on through the dawn-gate of Beauty into the Land of Knowledge." Gruppe, Griechische Mythologie, 972. 2 Welcker, Gotterlehre, 2. iii and 120.
302
GREEK RELIGION
the wife in his treatment of Hera,
pictorial imagi-
of the
worshipper followed
lines.
When
sculpto
inits
made
the
gods
visible
habitin the
form of the gold and ivory image which stood in the Parthenon is
clearly
ucts
of
So
closely
was the
god
as part
of the worship
who
Hermes was
image
;^
whispered
fear of
MaR1!1.1-,
SlAlLE OF
the Persians
in Siris^ is said to
have closed
the
it
its
eyes
when
suppliants
were taken
How
far
god and
is
diffi-
men
them."*
Pausanias,
7. 22.
2-3.
Herodotus,
7. 140.
3 Strabo, 6, p. 264.
The representations of Athena on Athenian reliefs furnish an excellent example of the manner in which a temple statue (the. Athena Parthenos of Pheidias) determined the visible form of a goddess for her worshippers.
303
the facts thus far considered, the fact that art and Htera-
human
and the
and
visualized religious
conceptions,
we
power which
gion.
and
uplift reli-
On
the one
hand a people
its
sensitive to beauty
were mould-
ing religion
and organizing
hand the
it
moulded and
had to move its hearers was exerted Olympian world all the power of tragedy over an Athenian audience was bringing home to the
power
to enforce
its
picture of the
dance were
the
fifth
utilized
by
gods
in the sixth
made
the
gods more
real
visitor for
restful
worship.
and a sense of
mind was the more ready had to teach. His mind thus
open to religious influence, the visitor might stand in the doorway of the later temple of Dionysus at Athens, and see before him the gold and ivory statue of the god by Alcamenes. Inevitably
the ability of the artist to express the god's nature produced an
it
was
The temple and the statue at Athens were but part of a larger movement which aimed directly to utilize art in making religion more splendid. The aim of Peisistratus, or later of Pericles, was not primarily religious. The worship of Athena and of Dionysus
was enriched by
all
command
of the statesman
to create a
by splendid pageant,'
The outcome
of this
movement,
304
union.
GREEK RELIGION
The
content of religion was given a beautiful form which
feel
;
men
made
command
art,
of the
artist.
was
The
because he was an
artist,
became
The
from
of man.
The
painter
beauty in
line
color.
The
sculptor learned
to the public.
each different
life in
line
he was
interpreting
ideals of
for
The
larger facts
and
was
human
life,
which are
in
essentially religious,
he was stating
it
an aesthetic people
an aesthetic form.
In a word,
not the philosopher, not the preacher of moral lessons, but rather
the artist,
who
in the capacity of
artist
reli-
a statement
which had
;
far
more influence
in
in
Greece up
to
not
difficult to
understand
work
as a
prophet of religion.
Each
was thereby a step of religious progress. The true and the good were more and more clearly stated in terms of beauty. The artist
was the
first,
reli-
men what
he had learned.
305
message
to the
world
in the writings of
Pindar
we may
life
century,
we have abundant
relifeel.
testimony that they showed an insight into the nature of the gods
not previously gained, while at the same time they put their
gious message in an aesthetic form which every one might
Chrysostom^ that the revelation of the gods came to the Greeks not only through man's own nature and through the state, but also, though less directly,
to
come over
is
religion in
Athens dur-
fifth
century
from
this
standpoint of
finite,
art.
ideas in purely
human
lines.
The
its
rationalistic
philosophy pointed
human
gods.
human and
for
So soon as
thetic, so
art
and
religion
were blended
made
manner
human
down rehgion
rather than to
build
spirit,
The Hermes of Praxiteles is the type of this new up. Hermes only because this god had represented an ideal type of youth, in reality the embodiment of Athenian young mana
hood
as Praxiteles
saw
it.
GREEK
RELK;I()N
20
CHAPTER
II
If
it
create a living
tial reality
man
lives,
there can be no
absolute
division
organization of social
life
between religion on the one hand and the life on the other. The organization of social
social sanction.
activities,
In
nor the
religion.
in
and ethics
Greece
is
little
to grasp
For us ethics means the ideals of right conduct and judgment of conduct by this standard conscience is not a Greek idea, and the realization of " the good " received more emphasis than the avoidance of what is not " right." Even the Greek conception of justice (or righteousness) had far more of
somewhat.
the
;
It is
wrong" as a law of conduct should attract more attention and seem far more strenuous than " do what counts toward filling your place in society." So far as the conception of religion among the Greeks is concerned, the absence of dogma works with this different ethical standpoint to make it seem more foreign to out
view.
If
we
follow the
as religious
are glaring.
common ])ractice and treat Greek mythology dogma, the contradictions between morals and religion There is good reason for excluding the poets from
306
307
teller
and
for
branding the
of
myth
ideals
No
effort
of Pindar or
in the
Homeric poems
reli-
as really
recognized as
it is
unobtrusively handled.
And
if
we
turn from
myth
and worship.
Human
sacrifice
seems to have been but slowly eradicated from certain rituals; licentious practices in worship were unusual and perhaps of foreign
origin, yet in
strict etiquette for woman was somewhat demands of worship it cannot be disputed that temperateness gave way to license at some religious festivals. Evidently any attempt to identify moral and religious demands
Athens the
in
is
doomed
to failure.
when
first
their essential
recognized.
To
concerned with
a man's relation to his god, morals with his relation to his neighbor, or rather to the social
group of which he
is
a member.
The
the courage of
community on the individual. Whatever strengthened the state and helped to make it lasting was crystaUized into an ethical requirement.
The
right to
On
the other hand the care of orphans and the protection of weaker
members of
sympathy which
reli-
Temperance,
ethics
is
One
great interest of
Greek
that
it
developed
ir
Orat.
II.
38-40.
3o8
GREEK RELIGION
had no cause
to express
moral
sentiments, for
it
aimed
And when
the
Homeric poems
still
remained as
kings.
much
human
Fig. 75.
Athenian
Kings ought
to rule justly
in so far
as they
were on a different
demands of
ethnic religions generally, that the earlier stages were quite inde-
in so
the self-preservation of
Not enough
is
known
f.;
FoUHa,
2, p.
378 B.
309
is
this
connection
under way,
for justice,
right, so far as
men
are concerned.^
It is rather
fact,
however, that the earlier religious expression of moral demands should not be in the gods of civic worship, but in beings quite
Olympian world. Granted that Dike and Themis embodying man's sense of justice, allegory would hardly be called on to express this ideal if it had already found adequate expression in Zeus and Athena and
apart from the
are purely allegorical figures Apollo.
anything, but
allegorical
figures.
Rooted
the idea that the souls of the dead pursued in vengeance those
in particular that
when
a child killed
murdered person was relentless in its In the Homeric poems the Erinyes
avenge crimes against the family and the social order generally.
Telemachus dares not drive his mother from the house for fear of them^; they protect the rights of the elder brother^; the just curse of a father or mother they bring to fulfilment ^ ; they protect the suppliant beggar,^ they punish perjury and rash self-confidence,^ In Homer,* as in later they uphold the order of the universe." writers, their work of vengeance is not Hmited to this world, but
continues in the underworld.
like
of the universe.
If the
to
Zeller, Vortr'dge
und Abhandlungen,
;
2. 55,
Odyssey,
2. 135.
4 Iliad, 9. 454,
571
Odyssey,
2.
135
11.
5
7
^ Iliad, 19.
259; Hesiod, Erga, 803; Iliad, 19. 87. Frag. 29; Sophocles, Track. 808; Ajax, 1389.
3IO
avenging
spirits
;
GREEK RELIGION
at the
same
indicated the
demands of
hu-
One
human standard
found
in the
would be truer
it
As men
v-nkp fxopov, so
the gods feel under obhgation to uphold the moral order of the
its
gods human,
it
endows
From
of the sort seems to have been intended by the bards themselves. That the same process should go on, that the gods should come
to
rulers,
process for a
people which laid more emphasis than the Greeks on the ethical
standpoint.
rather than
their
In
by
ethics, only
demanded
that
outcome
The
and of
made
may be from
we
assign to
them
to-day.
The
in
and
in the
moral world.
At what point
in
the history of
is
Cp.
Iliad, 3. 279;
16. 386;
311
it
in the
Homeric poems
ol Ocol
;
in the
in the
it
tragedians
it
is
quite
that,
and
uni-
on certain well-defined
verse
is
come the " unwritten, not-to-be-shaken laws of no commands of human origin can supersede." ^
Perhaps the strongest force
philosophic
in
demand
for unity in
standards.
Where
oath
the respect which was shown to the oath grew out of a belief in
it
afforded, for the state did not punish perrefer not infrequently to hospitality as
own
city or state.
When
he went abroad, he
in order to secure
with hosts
who honored
the gods
The
was
an extra-legal
right,
man
we can
learn,
was administered
to secure jus-
it.
for purification
foreign state.
state,
f.
312
GREEK RELIGION
The conception that all wrong-doing was rooted in a state of mind known as v/3pL<i, i.e. a reckless self-assertion with no respect for the demands of propriety and decency, was perhaps the focus
for the religious sanction of
morality.
it
in the
end.
It
failure to recognize
It
any
social or religious
none the
gods
it
less
it
rule of the
man who
all
yielded to
summed up
social
man's tendencies
the state
;
to
wrong.
It
it
;
by the
it
con-
sciousness
real force as a
worked out
own retribution. The question has often been asked whether religion in Athens tended to make a man more pure, more true and genuine, more courageous, more just.^ Probably its influence in this direction
was neither strong nor consistent.
starting quite independently,
in the
came
many
points;
minds of some great thinkers the lines between the two were all but removed ; for the people the conception of right never blended with the conce})tion of religion. It is evident that myth
remained quite outside the pale of morality, and that worship was
never necessarily moral.
The
fact
under
his
own
2.
313
in
descent from a
common
who shared
same
Whether the
it
unit
were a small
getis or
were
really
based on blood
relationship or rather
of occupations,
it
same locality or on similarity same framework i.e. a comworship was developed, and some god or hero
on
life
in the
was
fitted into
the
if
members of
the group.
there was doubtless so:ne foundation in fact for the belief that
in
;
coxintcimg gen tes into phratn'es, and phratries into tribes (f^vXai)
it
common
new
phratries
its
and
tribes of Cleisthenes,
its
dis-
was a natural
groups adopted
much
The The
The
discussion of
has
shown how
husband and
wife
was devoutly sought and the family group had its own worship. The sanction of religion was even more important for the relation between children and parents than for the relation of husband and wife. Injustice
blessing of the gods for this union, however,
itself
was an essential
to his ancestors.
man
to offer respect
and worship
and
it
was
at length
recognized as a
member
of the family,
So much did
Part
I,
Chap,
ii,
p.
120
f.
314
GREEK RELIGION
in
the
same way.
The
men
at the palaestra
;
worshipping the
some foreign city was a religious associagod of their fathers; merchants uniting for
on a religious
trade, artisans
The
as
inasmuch
its
ordinarily
own
in its
tended
to
make
the
The
great force in
more
The
as they
from place
is
to place.
The
Greeks
all
The
was
alike,
and by tradition as to the circle no doubt, further, that the emphasis on the individual in religion, which has been discussed in previous chapters,- was in large measure due to the emphasis on the individual in the commercial world. It remained true that the circle of worshippers in any cult was strictly and definitely limited. It might be a wide circle, as in the worship of Zeus at Olympia the cult might be hospitable to all Greeks, as in the worship of Demeter at Eleusis or again it might be strictly limited to the few who lived in the same locality
types, separated only by place
mon
of worshippers.
There
is
Cp. supra,
p. 127
f.
f.,
266.
315
principle
The
of worshippers
fact
a religious basis.
3.
units
same
tribe or the
from one divine ancestor, so the Athenians traced their descent from Ion or from an earth-born king
people claimed
;
whole Greek
common
Nor was
(religious)
this
mere
it
was regarded as a
fact to
form of a
ties
adoption
of
common
blood
and
common
worship.
it
unity
brings the gods into one family, but rather in the state which
Aside from the few cults which were hands of some section of the state rather than of the state as a whole, each shrine was a sacred spot where the state concontrols these separate cults.
in the
ducted worship
god who could best be approached at that spot. The Greek state seems ordinarily to have developed through a union of many small communities ((Tui/otKto-/xd?) as this process went on, the cults
;
of each
and
if
was offered
ship,
in the
name
of the state.
who
1
238.
3i6
It
is
GREEK RELIGION
evident that the
be
The
state
was
itself the
worshipper
of the gods.
within
states
;
The
state
;
its
borders
the
in the
same way
There was no " statechurch," for the reason that religious worship was itself a function of the state from the time when the palace was the central sanctain relations
down through
all
the history of
Greece.
state
When
to
state
the
homage of
it
was an appeal
Athena Nike on the Acropolis was revived and her temple built, it was done by a state decree which
the worship of
is still
when
extant
when
The appointment of
were determined
and
their privi;
leges,
state,
in general
its
by
religious
to
traditions
the
power
that were
state, to
deemed
best,
for the
priests
perform
its
worship
down from
Funds
like
to the gods.
temple
when
necessary,
of state courts.
hermae
Herodotus,
6.
105
cp. 7. 189.
3 C.I. A. II.
Schoemann, Grieck.
Alt. 2. 170
'^E.g. C./..II.354.
317
revive
religion
at
will.
The
between established
emphasize the
state.
reli;
the
civil
hands of the
authorities
in
religion
further in the case of shrines the influence of which was not confined
all-inclu-
same.
Where
is
is
a poHtical unit
there
formed
to carry
on the
no such thing
as a
amphictyony.
For the
its
meant the
blessing
of the gods on
requirements.
in other
words a divine
e.g.
was claimed
office,
The
oath,
the oath
on taking
was an appeal
for
divine sanction.
Treaties
same basis, since the curse of the gods was invoked on the state which broke the treaty, and the records were set up in some important shrine. In Athens the temple of Athena on
rested on the
the Acropolis was the state treasury
trate the identity of
1
;
illus-
church and
p.
state, or the
Cp. supra,
65^
3i8
GREEK RELIGION
this practice
by which
On
the
Greek coins
to place the
symbol of the
Fk;. 76.
Marble
Relief in Athens
Athena representing Athens, and Hera representing Samos, clasp hands above a tablet on which the treaty is inscribed.
and Corinth, Hera on coins of Argos, Zeus on coins of Arcadia and Elis. The representation of the god or of his symbol was practically intended to mean that the god, and the state that worshipped this god, gunranteed the money standard. Nor was it only on coins that the god stood for the state. On the top of the
tablet recording a treaty
319
to
When
the
god
it
is
no wonder that
an attack on behef and worship should occasion the charge of political treason no wonder, on the other hand, that Athenian
;
bhnd confidence
gods
for
their city.
To go
obtaining
favorable
omens was thought sacrilegious, even though men like Demosthenes were said to neglect this precaution.^ Important matters, such as relief from pestilence or the means of meeting the Persian invasion, were referred to the oracle at Delphi. The state which honored its gods could but expect their guiding and
In later Greek thought
protective favor.
much
stress
was
laid
on religion
as a
inflicted before
and
after death
up
(Seio-tSat/xona), insti-
men
in subjection to
It
was
Tradition,
munity.
ical
Though
religion
was
no clever device of ancient law-makers, all the power of religious conservatism was exerted to uphold the state which was in har-
Inasmuch
as
on worship
Aeschines,3. 131.
9. 2.
f.
17
f.;
Cicero,
De
Welcker,
Griechische Goiterlehre,
45
320
GREEK RELIGION
to the
in
redounded
at
honor of the
fifth
state itself.
Athens
the
erected
for the
gods,
in
monuments which must have evoked the pride of Athenians their city. The reorganization of worship, which enriched it
Common
state.
Beauty
the state
and magnificence
a
religious influence,
were
means
to
develop
pride,
in
if
not
real
patriotism.
For religion
than
it
this
less
important
was
for the
begot no
spirit
new
factors
not difficult to
to
raise
same sense
for
beauty aided
by wealth and
which
it
civic pride
birth.
spiritual forces to
had given
;
God
and
the
mammon
it
Greek world.
The
some
state,
social
unit within
individualism in religion.
The
and his punishment is due from the state rather than from god himself. Thus piety becomes a part of civic duty instead of an individual relation with the gods. The sense of personal sin,
the
faith
in a
god which
Where
this
of mystic
communion with
religion.
development of individualism worked in two ways it encouraged those forms of worship which did not have the sanction of the state, and in the end it tended to deprive the state worship of any
321
its
When
for
it
by the natural
ment
At
state
in Greece.
its
best the
produced noble
any
selfish
individual.
Greek conception of religion as a function of the results. It meant that religion could not be matter, for it benefited primarily the state and not the It meant that religion did not occupy any small seclife,
tion of a man's
for
it
on Sunday,
it
Moreover,
served to
;
combine and express all that was ideal in human nature patriotism and sympathy, love of the beautiful in art and literature and music, the sense for right and reverence for what is noble in so
best.
The
relation
for
;
state,
such
the
development of individualism
in
GREEK RELIGION
21
CHAPTER
RELIGIOxN
1.
III
AND PHILOSOPHY
of
Religion.
Where
reHgion
might expect to find the priests exercising the ultimate power in government and demanding conformity to the statement of belief which they formulated. Nothing could be further from the truth. The priests were but citizens who might be called on for public duty, one at one religious shrine, another at another. As for a
creed, the notable absence of anything of the sort was pointed out in
f.).
The
only
norm of worship
or of belief
its
vd/xi/xov)
by the
test of
long experience.
The absence
of creed or
dogma
mean
if
the
such a
fitted in
It
is
which stamped
it
as efficacious.
statement of
this belief.
which
it
is
the counterpart.^
now remains
to con-
in
is
described as out of
touch with
Such a state of affairs is hardly conceivable. The truth is tliat of the gods are somewhat out of touch with the belief implied in the
322
account of worship.
323
One
;
philosophy was
its
and
phy.
justify
rehgion
does not
fall
The two questions which must be considered are (i) the debt of philosophy to religion, and (2) the reaction of philosophic thought on popular belief and
In the Homeric poems there
is little
worship.
or
no
trace of philosophy
life
proper,
little
or no conscious reflection on
human
and on the
At the same time the attitude of man toward the world, as pictured by the poet, is full of promise for the future
universe at large.
development of philosophy.^
as a
this
The
is
treated
the account of
sanity
left
and simplicity;
stamp on the
its
whole picture.
of divine
The world and human life beings. The unity of the world is
and "natural law" is dimly suggested by the conception of Moira.^ These gods of Homer are not objects they represent rather the idea of fancy nor mere physical powers
unity of the divine rule,
;
man
in their
Homer)
Thales in the statement that Oceanus and Tethys were the parents
of the gods.
another direction,
philosophy in
its
Homeric poems is far more important in as showing how myth paved the way for 1 The fundamental conceprelation to religion.
viz.
\
and of an
ideal back-
ground
for nature
and human
of the gods.
1
Cp.
Zeller, Philosophie
der Griechen,
i. 2,
8 Aristotle,
Metaph.
p.
324
In the
T/!r(\i^(vn'
GREEK RKLIGION
much
is
from
pose
the
of Hesiod totally different subjects are handled same standpoint. The jioet's acknowledged purthe origin of
tiie
to explain
is
It is
a philosophical motive
and
will
the
same
;
as those
which
method of treatment remains, as for Homer, primarily mythological. That the beginning of things is "Chaos," that the active princij^le in development is Eros, that the development of
losopher
the
the world
is
crises, that
Nemesis, Themis,
to indicate
Dike) appear
that the
in
the
list
of divinities^
would seem
poem
includes
some
in
These
results are
not directly
line
same time they are. in no way opposed to it, and indeed the terms in which they are stated are terms of religious thought. Almost the same thing may be said of the later theogonies, for they too
use religious terms for ideas that are on the verge of philosophy,
That
reflection
sphere
it is
for
in Ionia the
problems
reli-
much more
abstract manner.
There
is
the
same
to
is
result
fir^,
discover the fundamental unity of the world, but the attained by positing some " first principle " water, or
some more fundamental substance still out of which is developed the world as we know it. The same interest in the
or
process of development continues, only it is now treated as a development from this one fundamental being to the complex
1
Supra, p. 228
f.
325
And
more
with worship.
The advent
of this
new type
in
ply that the search for causes, which had been satisfied
by an
is
answer from
religion,
a different direction, or
Thales
re-
phenomena of nature
earthquakes,
to
is
full
movements of the
in
terms of a
If
do
Anaximander accepted the gods as beings who lived far longer than men, or Anaximenes said that his first principle (air) was a
god,- these statements were quite apart from their explanation of
the world, for which gods were not needed. Although Heracleitus and Empedocles made much of religion, the gods of public worship were not the ultimate principles that underlie the universe
;
for
in the
realm of opinion,
or no place for
not in the realm of pure being; Anaxagoras perhaps did not di-
had
little
the gods.
in his
Even Democritus, the contemporary of Socrates and far-reaching studies the precursor of Aristotle, has no differFor him,
a
as for
Em-
good or
evil
of man, spirits
development than has man himself. Popular belief was allowed to remain as a thing apart from philosophy,
tant place in cosmic
while
its foundations were completely undermined. Three of these early thinkers took a positive attitude toward mythology and popular religion. Xenophanes with unsparing irony
Aristotle,
De
a?i!ina,
i. 5,
p.
411
a. 7.
Cicero,
De
nat. deor.
i.
10/26.
326
GREEK RELIGION
snub-nosed race would picture in their own image, gods that were born and could weep, gods that the poets described as immoral.
Heracleitus with equal vehemence makes fun of popular superstition
both
in belief
and
in worship.
of thought.
It
was reserved
for
Empedocles
system as beings
far greater
Just
how much of
it
it
is
who
practice for
his followers in
had
nothing to do
(xod
to return to
dominated by
his system.
such were
should be
the principles of
By
its
its
well as
by
Greek world, and in the course of time some ideas which it had included became fundamental for the philosophical account of religion.
In Athens itself philosophic discussion found small lodgement
fifth
century
b.c.
been shown,- there was a tendency on the part of poets in Athens (as elsewhere) to criticise religious concei)tions from the
standpoint of ethics.
Although
conscious reflection on
enough
the
first
to be
termed philosophical.
criticism of religion
came
as
itself.
not connected with any popular interest in the study of philosophical problems.
1
Cp. supra,
p. 247.
* Supra, p. 256
f.
327
first
fifth
century.
(known
as
his
gods in
connec-
myth) without serious challenge, had it not been for That he was impugned as an tion with Pericles.
obliged to leave Athens
is
atheist
and
Up
to the
middle of the
fifth
century
B.C.
religion with
gained
little
But about
this
time
The
welcome
community a considerable
in
politics,
party of intellectual
men were
new thought
body of
still
enough
to rally a strong
supporters
made a
is
was impossible
to
;
know
Thrasymachus went so
man
exist.
that
as
if
gods were
B.C.).
A more
men
to
make men
is
fear
hidden crime
"useful
lie."
Such an
opinion
and
detail only to
Cp. supra,
p.
262
f.
Diog. Laer.
9. 18. 51.
Nauck, Tra^.graec.frag,
p. 771.
328
find a
GREEK RELIGION
most conventional overthrow
to
at
the end.
The
contrast
to
nature
(<^i.'cret)
humanly imposed principles (vd^uco) was fundamental with the it only remained to class religion with conventions Sophists devised and imposed by man, to bring it under condemnation. This last step was taken covertly by Critias/ more openly by the " atheists," such as Diagoras and Hippo. When philosophic thinkers explained away the reality of religion
;
for a
by a
was absolutely
necessary to
impossible.
In
it
the
is
of cases
with impiety,-
protect from attack the practices of public worship, and that public
So long as philosophy
;
neglected religion,
its
had aroused
little
or no opposition
when
followers arrayed
gion.
piety by a people that saw only the negative side of his work, laid
mental principles of
dience to a divine
religion.
and with a
As
for
and that
it
is
people?
The
and
faith
To
Reputed an
Cp. supra,
Andocides,
De
myst. 47
1. 16. I.
p. 262.
329
understood
in the light
of religion.
However
phy which had neglected or attacked existing religion. It need therefore be no surprise that Plato so frankly accepted traditional worship, and even religious teaching from many sources, however sharply he criticised the mythology of the poets. The picture of Cephalus in his home, sacrificing to Zeus,^ stands in sharp contrast with the attacks on religion by the later Sophists and their followers. In the Republic- questions of worship are
respectfully referred to the oracle at Delphi
;
is
found in the
Laws^ though
tre
of the city
;
each
tribe
and each
class of citizens
is
to have
its
;
god
no day
will
be without sacrifices
it
to the
Much
or
little
as this
may mean,
evidently
means
that
He
of the " atheism " which had had a certain vogue in the Athens of
his earlier years.^
Perhaps
as
it is
fair to
is
quite
much
theological
and even
sociological,
as
it
is
distinctly
religious.
He
is
myth
is
his
theological
on the imagination of the poets, most of all on ideas connected with actual worship. In the second and third books of the Republic Plato develops this conception of God, as over against the
'^
Pohtia,
I,
p.
328
C
;
"^Politia, 4, p.
427 B.
3
4
Leg.
8, p.
828
A
B
5, p.
8,
Leg.
5, p.
745
2, p.
738 B, C. p. 828 C 8,
;
p.
828 D,
E and
6, p.
758 E.
Cp. Leg.
653
and
5, p.
738 D.
f.
6Cp. Leg.
10,
330
representation
GREEK RELIGION
of the
poets
:
(a)
God
is
absolutely
;
good,
and
evil
is
sometimes
concealed good, as
in
punishment, or else
deceive men.
it
;
God
(^)
God
is
He
immoderate
in
appetite or passion
contrary to the
very idea of
by
if,
gifts
or
God as conceived by Plato. Gods who can be bribed moved by incense and petition are no more gods than
to
be conceived as absolutely
is
indif-
ferent to
human
needs.^
In this theology he
simply carrying
out in a consistent way what poets like Pindar and Aeschylus had
attempted before
poetic myths.
yet Plato's
method
is
God
It is definitely
and used
The theology
tive
purpose,
viz.,
errors.
this
is
In so far as
we can speak of
is
conception of God
Good which
pure Being, the ultimate source of the world of thought and the
world of things.
Whatever
reality
is
may be
assigned to gods of
popular
faith,
a question which
it
had
little
and
itself
reality
and
the religion
The
philosophy of Aristotle.
1
Even
B ff.
;
as a sociological
4, p.
phenomenon
909 B.
it
Politia, 2, p.
364
Leg.
717 A;
10, p.
331
much
less attention
At
the
same time
name
of
God
ligent First
Being which
Aristotle
world of things.
first
Like
Plato,
necessary to assume a
principle,
and
in
this
The
God's existence,
viz.,
mands a
first
cause,
only to be
explained
by assuming that the first cause acts with intelligent purpose, have been passed on to Christian theology in much the form that
Aristotle gave them.
The
later
little
that
is
new on
is
the point
now under
Belief in the
gods
rarely
who The
for
gods
the
to interfere
None
less,
Epicurus
of finest
and
his followers
spirits
who are untroubled by thought of man or any That men should fear them or bring petitions to them
matter
other care.
involves a
consists
in
importance of religion,
that
far from denying the worship of the " wise man " stood in
such sharp contrast with the old worship practised by the people,
some antagonism
Stoics alone
necessarily developed.
The
among
made
relation
to religion.
the Stoics, as by
and explained
;
man, which
E.g. Carneades
Sextus
;
9.
137
f.
2 Lucretius, 3. 18
f.
5.
147
Diog. Laer.
10.
123
f.
332
GREEK RELIGION
in the theory of the universe.
Myths
nature.^
different
as
allegories that
in
moral
lessons
about
processes
The
religion
of the
philosopher, however,
was on a
plane.
The fundamental
theistic materialism
The world
air
fire to
fire.
and the universe we know, and again from this universe back to The divinity was none other than material fire but the
;
presence of consciousness
in
man proved
conscious, while the perfect beauty of the world and the perfect
was inteUigent.
ultimate
all,
it
source of
all
things,
and the
intelligent force
present in
the philosopher to
away or denied,
The
the
reality of
know and to worship. Evil was explained the immanent God was perfectly good. religious sentiment among the Stoics is evinced by
for
Hymn
to
Zeus (for
this
pantheistic
God
is
called Zeus) of
Cleanthes.-
Later dev^elopments
effort
of Greek
philosophy,
in
particular
the
against Christianity,
may be passed
over here.
Though
the forms
war
had
fully
mands by assigning to the older gods some minor place in his system. The importance of the movement here under discussion,
as
is
to be found not in
itself
had enough
reality
and
vitality to persist
in forms of worship
1
to the
present day;
Quoted
i. 2, p.
30.
333
still
in-
combined with the fearless freedom of Greek thought which produced this heritage for a later civilization.
CHAPTER
IV
Until recently
writers
who have
Greek literaGreek religion for itself. In the present volume this course has been avoided ; the effort has been rather to treat Greek worship and belief from the Greek point of view. In conclusion perhaps we may fairly ask again whether the word *' religion " has been rightly used, whether the phenomena under Many of them do not discussion do satisfy our idea of religion.
ordinarily sought for evidence of Christian ideas in ture instead of studying
these,
lected.
may
for the
moment be
neg-
and ideas of the people at large are for the most part crude enough ; here again we are justified in turning away for the moment from the majority to the few in
religious practices
The
whom
religion found
its
higher expression.
Though
these few
by which to judge the meaning of Greek rehgion, nevertheless it is most unfair in art or Hterature,
persons are not a
fair
test
attained.
religious
In this section
shall
conceptions
Greece,
in their rela-
developed.
In the
first
place
it
may be
is
and
its
nature,
and
interis
not
335
rather
it is
a divine pres-
ence which
manifested
now
in
in the
community
by
of the gods.
No
doubt
this
being was
suggested
From Homer
in
some
particular god)
terfering to
nature
^
;
nor does
this
impress
men
is
part of that
human environment
divine had the
is
manifested.
And
the
same unity which was attributed to nature. At the same time this divine being was no doubt suggested also by the consideration of human experience and conduct. Again beginning
with
Homer we
law.
is
frankly
and
The action of the Homeric poems rests on the belief Troy must fall because Paris had abused the hospitality of Menelaus, and in the Odyssey that the insolence of Penelope's suitors is to bring destruction on their heads. The same belief in the moral government of the world is the keynote of much of
that
Man's
social
environment
is
conceived as a
is
the
life
fully
ship,
though
it
is
name
" Zeus."
From
this point
"god"
1
Homer "god"
on.
Affairs
prosper when
is
men "god" or
Theologie,
Homer
is
49
f.
;
2 Cp. supra, p. 256; Naegelsbach, Homerische Theologie, 317 f. L. Schmidt, Ethik der alien Griechen, i. 47 f. Tyler, Theology of the Greek Poets, 226 f. 3 L. Schmidt, ibid. i. 48-50.
;
4 Iliad, 9.
49
24.
430
cp. Sophocles,
AJax, 765.
336
Zeus to
GREEK RELIGION
whom
a particular event
is
referred.^
;
The
phrases to Oeiov
and
tus
Oeo?,
Oeta Tvxi]
do not occur
in
Homer
in
and
to refer to
Greek
literature
used as an alternative to the word same thing." In a word, all through the divine power back of human life and the
much
the
physical universe
or the Divine.
is
recognized, whether
it
is
called Zeus or
God
Perhaps
rise to
it
is
Greek
monotheism.
The
exclusive recognition of
one god at a time in worship has tended to strengthen the theory. At the same time it is quite clear that the belief in one divine power is by no means primitive in Greece rather, the conscious;
ness of
it
among
the
the people.
Philosophic thought
public
at
large
this
divine
power
found
ship.
its
expression
From
is
some
truth in Schmidt's as
.^
we make
As
it
was
who sought
communion with a god in worship, so it was easy to think of the divine now as manifested in a group of gods, now in a particular god. The unity of the divine became finally a necessity of human
thought, but
it
was
far
more natural
for the
Greeks than
it
would
note
After these gods and their worship have been studied, it is how clearly the Greeks recognized that the " horizon
of
1
human
2
and 183;
8.
176;
3.
228
and
231.
Herodotus,
i.
32:
3.
108;
4.
Sophocles, PhiU
1326; etc.
3 Zeller,
4
Vortr'dge
und Abhandlungen,
i. i
f.
i.
60.
DISTINCTIVE NATURE OF
2.
GREEK RELIGION
337
The fact that this " divine," The Nature of a God in Greece. world, centred or focussed in individual is the ruling power in the
gods
Greek
most
was so
That
in the
his
environment which
;
man might
exercise was
world was outside the divine, the gods were necessarily limited by As persons the very fact that they were many and were persons.
in the world they possessed that reality for
man and
that
sympathy
felt in
Greece.
has already been pointed out that the Greek gods reflect
every phase of
human
life.
Not only
and with adversity. With each considerable change munity the nature of the gods is modified. And
whatever
is
com-
in particular
human
is
one or an-
members of human
society.
That the
gods so constantly are acting with reference to man seems at first childish or not, this view is inevitable for a childish conception
;
demands of
their
The most
rulers
is
that of rulers,
their
who should be
and merciful
in
deahng with
subjects,
It
faults or vices.
who were
rulers.
The thought
GREEK RELIGION
22
SsS
love for
GREEK RELIGION
men ^
;
may be
citizens.
for-
Greek thought
later
we
assign to the
generally recognized,
to
though
ideals
hesitate
find
its
moral
impersonated
is
The
that
gods, however,
in response to
completely.
The account
Greek worship
Chap,
ii)
has, I
f.)
that
The homage
;
may be
in the
form of
tribute, of processions
and pageants, of banquets shared by gods and worshippers whatever its form it is essentially homage, intended to express the grateful submission of the subject to his ruler, and more especially
the desire of the subject for such blessings as
pathetic and beneficent ruler.
come from
a sym-
The
general object
of worship
was
and perhaps
is
angry deities.
This
last
type of worship
for
special effort
It
may be
of friendliness.
some
cultural
so that special
are
remove possible causes of anger. The purpose of these rites is not essentially different from that of other rites to cultivate the social connection of god and worpractised from time to time to
shipper.
Inasmuch
it
is
necessary to
Schoemann, Griech,
Alt. 2. 148
f.
DISTINCTIVE NATURE OF
GREEK RELIGION
339
seek elsewhere the causes of mischief and evil, except when they can be interpreted as due to just anger of the gods. Such spirits of evil occupy a remarkably small place in Greek religion, but
their presence
line
is
The
rather sharp
this
between these
phase of
Men
sought social
of escape from
evil
in disaster they
that they
away
spirits
this
The conception
it
is,
an undercurrent of
Nor
is
The
sharp limits
;
some
divine influence
may be
felt
as existing in the
;
sacrificial
man
himself
may
be pos-
Knowledge of the
;
future
may be gained
it
may
also
seers
of the Python at
originally,
however
was understood
later.
The
ecstatic
wor-
The purpose
divine.
to create in actual
Religion thus
human experience the sense of union with the became the means of breaking the bonds soul of man apart ft-om God, in order that it might
340
find
its
GREEK RELIGION
true
home
Greek view of
it
hfe.
spread or controHing
that
existed at
human
life
in relation to the
world
and
3.
to the
gods
is
in religious matters.
Remedy
for Sin.
Much
of Christian theology
sin
has centred
;
about the
and
its
remedy Semitic religion, also, laid stress on rites of expiation and atonement while these ideas and the rites associated with them necessarily formed a part of Greek religion, they remained
;
The
in
gods as
like
human
rulers
checked
the moral
demand
for
the requirement that man should aim at a similar ideal. From the Greek point of view the facts are distinct enough trangression of moral law calls for punishment by divine rulers, and consequently what is most evidently sin against it may be regarded as " sin "
:
the gods
is
undue self-reliance finally the thought of sin as pollution which must be purified in order to restore a right relation between god and worshipper is common in ritual. These three points of view
are not clearly distinguished, nor
is
remedy) ever sharply defined. The Greek " theodicy " is absolutely simple. the suffering and misfortune which follows in
(and
its
Sin
its
is
known by
train.
A man
suffers
may
own
sins
community
because some
member
of
it
Of
may
comhas
as a
reviled the
and Troy
must
fall
because Paris
341
of an
The presumption
Creon or Pentheus brings swift punishment.^ In these matters myth is but the prototype for the Greek interpretation
individual like
of daily experience.
The
error
in
Greek
re-
literature.^
Humanity
sin, like
all
is
frail
and ever
liable
to
err."*
Though
and
else in
human
life, is
is
not infrequently
man.
in
man on from
word
and
to ultimate disaster,
the
Homeric poems.^
meaning
later,
the cause of
intellectual blindness
aster, is still
fundamental
and perversion of the will which end in disLaius disregarded in Greek thought.^
;
his
all
his
high
and pure
ideals, in
anger killed a
his
to be his father,
mother
to the sons
till
and daughters
came
sin
and
suffering
The
by
pulses of
astray.^
tion of
Not only passion, but also other imhuman nature, like envy and the love of gain, lead men The Greeks summed up the whole matter in the concepv(3pL<;, or presumption, which may be stated as follows
its
Prosperity leads to an undue self-confidence which forgets moderation or even divine warning in carrying out
own plans.^
Blind
3
4 5
2 Odyssey, 4. 502; Sophocles, Ant. passim. Herodotus, 2. 120. Schmidt, Ethik der alien Griechen, i. 230. Sophocles, Ant. 1023; Thucydides. 3. 45. 3; Pindar, Olym. 7. 24-25. Plato, Politia, 2, p. 380 A, and quotation from Iliad, 4. 86 f.; Odyssey, 4. 261
;
Aeschylus.
6 Iliad, 19.
8
91
f.;
Odyssey,
i.
32.
i.
'>
f.;
Pindar, Pyth.
9
872
Pindar, Olym.
13.
10
f,
Isthm.
4.
342
folly
it
GREEK RELKUON
(At^)
is
because
makes man presumptuous any wrong-doing is really sin against the gods because it means a presumptuous disregard of divine law. The remedy for sin, in so far as any remedy is possible, depends on the nature of sin. When it is transgression of law, law which is divinely appointed,^ nothing can be done to avert the inevitable penalty. That Aegisthus can atone for his sin in marrying Clytaemnestra by means of sacrifice and votive offerings, or that the followers of Odysseus can allay Helios's anger by similar means
when they have disregarded the warning not to slay his cattle, are suggestions condemned by Homer as clearly as by Plato.Ultimate escape is hardly won by Orestes, even though it was Apollo himself who bade him slay the guilty Clytaemnestra;^ All that can be done by way of remedy is concerned, not with avoidance of the direct penalty for transgression, but with the
of presumption which
is
spirit
wrong-doing.
Again, in so far as sin
part of the sinner,
possible,
it
is
the expression of a
may be remedied
to gain
(a) by
anew the
is
worship.
The
the remedy,
is
"healed."^
and
that of the
for
Greek
hosts to
of gods
failure
to
Athena are beyond cure the anger make sacrifice may be appeased even
;
of Apollo's priest
f.;
may be
suffers,"
set right
Aeschylus,
1 Sophocles, .4nf. 604 f.; Oed. Tyr. 865 Choeph. 306; Xenophon, Mem. 4. 4. 19.
"The doer
2, p.
f.
Plato, Politia,
364 B,
f.
* Herodotus,
i.
167
343
by making amends and by sacrifice.^ It was an insult to Apollo when Croesus tested the truthfulness of the Delphic oracle, but
the gifts of Croesus were accepted by the god as an atonement.^
More
than once
a plague
hermae
at
Athens, although
it
was an act
;
ac-
Any form of
purpose in that
it
may somelike
self-
sin.
Anything
imposed penance
that suffering
is
absolutely foreign to
spirit,^
may
teach a better
" the
Greek thought.
ence of
his
power of sin, are ideas familiar to As the death of a murderer " looses " the influfor evil,^ so suffering
deed
may
in the
end overcome
may be regarded
the
relying
in
on
his
own powers
will
in the
sin,
man
of the gods.
is
From
remedy
tion
its
found
in
rites
of purification.
to
and
;
purifica-
do with
sin
probably
Odyssey, 4. 503
3.
143
f.
4.
472
Iliad, 9.
533
f.
i.
94
3
f.
cp. 9.
497
8.
f. f.
2
4
Xenophon, Cyrop.
7. 2. 19.
;
Pausanias,
42. 5
cp.
Herodotus,
i.
f.
207
Plato,
Symp. 222 B.
Cp. supra,
p.
no
f.
344
GREEK RELIGION
originally to quite a different range of ideas
evil also
away belongs
moral
tion
is
comes
to
thought to give
In the
relief
worshipper.
first
from an evil which separates god and book of the Iliad (i. 313 f.) the plague,
at
Agamemnon's
suitors.^
sin,
made
puri-
similarly, the
When
Cylon were
purification
who
of
rites
city could
favor of
its
on the need of
ritual purity
There
in
is
some evidence
in other
that the
demanded,
words that
in
men sought
is
relief
In
any case
of sin
it
{^b)
came
to be regarded as a pollution
purification.
In general the
Greek conception of
the Christian conception, because Greek religion laid comparatively little stress
is
Wrongdoing
on holiness and on the idea of divine love. power which governs the
it is
world righteously
The
tion
at
one
worked out
brought together
2 6. 91.
3
4
Thucydides,
i.
126; Herodotus,
E.g. Tertullian,
De
;
praescripf. 40;
Plato, Politia,
Diodorus Siculus,
364 E.
5. 49.
on
2, p.
DISTINCTIVE NATURE OF
4.
GREEK RELIGION
345
the
The Conception
of the
life
Religious Life.
In Christianity
its
nature have
faith in a
The
controlling divine presence has not failed, nor has the sense of
;
to
be
means by which
been
meaning except as this goodness was thought to be At other times the motive has seemed to be a social one in that religious men have aimed to do good rather the means has been the service of others in the than to be good community; "salvation" has been recognized in the freedom from selfish purpose or desire thus attained. Between these two
had
little
pleasing to God.
life.
do good
we
find in
The
general ideal of
religion.
meant
to avoid
impiety
Acts of
man was
belief.
to avoid impiety
meant simply
The
in the
external
mark of
performance of religious
ip.307.
346
GREEK RELIGION
;
in later days at
room
what a pious
man might do
if
of piety
As
for
man
doubtless
felt
it
his
worship, while
motives.
state
the
was
no more fair then than it is now to define the pious man as one who was scrupulous about sacrificing regularly to the gods,- but then as now it was the outward mark of piety. give as one definition of piety that it Plato makes Euthyphro is "doing what pleases the gods," a definition that proves unsat''
isfactory because
as piety.
in turn to
be defined
is
The conception of piety which involved in the requirement to join the community in worship perhaps broader than appears at first sight. The state worship
for the
honor
state
whatever contributed to
this
end would
demanded
and good
gods.
in
life,
in
man be
human
life,
these
We
Plato, Politia,
2 Plato,
4. 6.
2&
DISTINCTIVE NATURE OF
have seen that
art
GREEK RELIGION
347
human
ideals could
like
but
lead-,
to
an
effort to
the gods.
To
that
gods be pictured as
etc.,
true,
unchanging, not
subject to
weak emotion,
gious
man
be
who wor-
may
acquire.^
is
The
so non-religious that
art.
underlies the religious life had in do with freedom from evil than with positive benefits that were desired. Homer's phrase "all men need the gods "^ seems to mean that men need those blessings which come from beneficent divine rulers. Other nations might be oppressed with the evils of life religion for them might be a grievous task to secure freedom from this burden kindly gods and a joyous worship were the birthright of the Greeks. To sin against these gods brought terrible penalties indeed ; on the other hand sin and evil were not ever present facts, nor was self-imposed penance the method of securing relief when they were present. There were rites to deal with circumstances where special help was needed help in sickness, knowledge of the future, help in time of drought or mildew for the crops. At the same time the point of view was that the gods were by nature ready to bless not gods who yielded
Greece
rites
such as
Rome
used in
Not
become the effort to obtain salvation from evil. The sense of human dependence on the gods was
1
in
no degree
Pindar, Pyth.
5.
Odyssey, 3. 48.
348
GREEK RELIGION
sin
weakened because
seek divine help.
and
evil
men
to
obedience
in the
form of
as he
to maintain his
to gratify his
vengeance by keeping
spirit
and the
of Achilles pre-
among
the
later
Greeks.^
To
Yet
trustful
When Agamemnon
it
to the gods,^
Troy with divine favor (crw ^eaJ). The omens that his army might Whoever was convinced that his cause obtain this confidence. was right, believed that the power of the gods was with him, for no one doubted the justice of the gods.^ In fact this attitude of
the Greeks had
to
come
for favorable
trustful
group.
easily
state in one social must have often met with disappointment was explained on the ground that men had in some way failed
That
to
do
their part.
evil
And when
appeared
as
resignation.
perish, they
Though
still
it
is
the
will
of Zeus
that
many Greeks
pare for the
cable
;
go
to the sacrificial
battle.'"'
The counsels of
none the
less
the gods were often inexpliwhat the gods sent must be accepted, for
man hnd no
be expected after
Pessimistic as the
are, litde as
Iliad,
I.
4. 3. 17.
2 Iliad, 16.
388;
2. 53, 4.
3
I,
Xenophon,
Atiab. 2. 3, 22
5.
Me)>i.
i. 4.
19
Antiphon, Tetral.
12; Aeschines,
50; Isocrates,
4 Iliad, 2.
116
f.
16.
233;
9. 49.
f.
349
who
community and
as man's
them.
The conception
of a father's
love for his children does not find very frequent mention in literature,
nor does
it
come
men.
his
It is potentially
of Zeus.
On
the other
lies at
hand the
social
worshippers
Again and again we have had occasion to point out that worship
and belief grew naturally out of this conception. "companionship" suggests too much the relation of
is
word
it
equals, yet
name
for a social
connection so enduring,
human
facts
personality.
When human
ideals,
and
forces of
difficult
It
it is
not
life.
was
the
city, that
assembly met;
;
her weaving
Hermes was
with the trader in the market, Poseidon with the sailor in his
but
it
was
of divine
companionship
vital matter.
It is
in
life
fifth
religion
for
many
its
Athenians
we know too
counter-
yet
we can hardly
religious
life
a mere name.
APPENDIX
ARTEMIS
ship
briefly treated.
clearer, if
even
more or
hypothetical in
For
this
purpose
have
Both
in
myth and
in
And
while
much remains
to
be
well established.
The Artemis of myth is a definite from the Homeric poems on. The
all its
personality in story
ideal of
and
in art
in
young womanhood
purity
and
nymphs
is
in the chase as
god of
do with
a goddess of hunting
who
The connecisland of
on the
The Artemis
literature.
is
mark on
our European
is
But
if
we turn
neither so
same person.
350
APPENDIX
tice
is
351
is first
problem
to coordinate
possible,
the
influences
that
later
belief.
2.
We may
the vicinity of
At Agrae, south from the Acropolis, was the shrine of Artemis Agrotera, that goddess of the hunt to whom before the battle of Marathon the Athenian general vowed a sacrifice of goats.
Athens.
On
received the
names Chitone and Lysizonos, for young women dedicated to her garments and girdles before marriage. Again, Artemis was identified in worship with Hecate, the goddess of uncanny rites performed at night Artemis Hecate presided over the entrance to the Athenian acropolis. Near the market place of Athens was
;
goddess of
political
fair
fame
another shrine of the goddess of political wisdom, Artemis Aristoboule, was situated in the
Acropolis.
In the
deme of Melite to the southwest- of the Academy just out of the city was a shrine of
The name
of Artemis was also
Artemis with statues of Ariste and Kalliste ("Best" and " Fairest"),
apparently forms of the goddess.
applied to some foreign goddesses whose worship was introduced
into Athens, to the goddess of Pherae in Thessaly,
whose proper
name seems
to
we know
in
is,
something of ten or
Artemis worship
The many-sided
352
3.
GREEK RELIGION
If this survey
is
result
is
much
By
makes
it
possible to
cults of the goddess under certain general headings. most widespread phase of Artemis worship connects her /\t Athens one of the months was with hunting and wild animals. and there are some refernamed Elaphebolion (''Stag-hunt")
group the
far the
this
state.
Among some
Dorian peoples
was called Laphrios from the widespread worship of Artemis Laphria. The month-name is an indication that this is an early type of Artemis, and a goddess of hunting goes with a relaPhocis
tively early type of social
life.
The goddess
herself receives
some
Ar-
names
Artemis Kolainis
;
When Xenophon
from Ephesus
goddess.
bull fights and bull hunts of early Greece, and perhaps the torches which she carried had primary reference In a word, the normal to the use of torches in hunting at night.
as a huntress
seems
to be based
on
is
the "
Queen of
and paintings of early date represent her holding up an animal in each hand (the so-called Persian Artemis).
In different localities the stag, the bear, the wild boar, the wild
goat, the wolf, the quail (Ortygia), are connected with her worship.
As CaUisto
in
story
for unchastity, so
APPENDIX
;
353
Taygete was changed into a stag each is the mother of a people, and each is apparently a form of the goddess herself. Artemis Laphria, worshipped by hunters, was essentially a goddess of wild
animal Ufe
who
Artemis Lyaia
Artemis;
the
Artemis of Syracuse
on the island of Aegina Aphaia was a goddess of wild animals who became Artemis Aphaia. For us the goddess of hunters is perhaps hardly consistent with the goddess who protects wild animals and cares for their young ;^ the Greeks felt no such inconsistency. This goddess of wild animals was most at home in Aetolia, whence the In Asia Minor also a worship of Laphria was carried to Patrae. " Mother of Life " not dissimilar was very widely worshipped and
often identified with Artemis by the Greeks.
4.
which
fertility
fertilizes
This
is
who
held so im-
In Laconia
its
as of child
pruning knife was the prize for victory in the games, belongs under
this
heading.
trees, the
included dances, probably intended to increase the crops and the productiveness of flocks. Artemis Apanchomene, the goddess " who
tree,
from which
were suspended.
received sacks of
in her
1
all fruits
to
;
Xenophon,
6,
Agam.
135
f,
and
Pau-
sanias, 3. 19.
GREEK RELIGION
23
2,
354
GREEK RELIGION
swamps
Issoria,
rivers
in Patrae
and
Are-
festival in
called Tithenidia (" Nurse festival "), for a part was played by small
evil,
And quite
of chaste
nymphs
in their origin
From such
Greeks
later
It
;
indeed,
it
is
this
position
among
the later
Demeter
should
also
tector of
also protect
young children.
;
In
this function
is
Eileithyia
;
now
girls
were"
and dedicated
to Artemis
Iphigeneia and
names
Of
moon,
we shall speak later the two seem to be the basis out of which
,
mean
APPENDIX
but only of a primitive type
;
355
nor does
it
mean
cussed
later
later are inevitably late in origin, but rather that they exhibit
early worship.
5.
The
interesting
fact as
to the
cults
discussed
above
is
quite alike.
Clearly
and worship had become different in different locaHties, or we might assume different goddesses who were gradually merged into the one Artemis of behef and myth while certain peculiarities were
retained at local shrines.
objections.
To
the
first
What
is
Surely
not the moon, as the Stoics assumed, or the night, as Claus suggested
well
;
the
moon
until
on
count the
and
and
treats
and more
vital
Nor
is it
one because a certain likeness between them was detected.^ The forces at work in the late identifications such as that of Artemis
with Brimo, could hardly have existed in the same form in early
days.
may be regarded
(1.
as distinctly early.
Wernicke
from early days," and from this one goddess he explains most of the later forms of Artemis by a process of differentiation from
the general to the specific.
1
Perhaps
;
it is
simply a difference of
I,
3.
23/58
560 C
8 In Pauly-Wissowa, Realencyclopaedie^
1339
356
GREEK RELIGION
me
type
to lie deeper, to
in
is
be found
is
a type
:
The
fairly definite
principle in nature,
more
closely connected
in
Boeotia
and Aetolia, but never quite limited to either sphere. At the same time the type is fairly broad, and no one would deny a tendency to
define
it
more complex
This
state.
last
tendency or process
communities
becomes a
city-state like
on this basis develops the Athenian confederacy or the Spartan hegemony. It is seen in commerce, first in the increasing trade of one city, Chalcis or Aegina or Athens, later in the increasing commercial unity of the Mediterranean world. It is seen in ethical ideals and social institutions, till in the fifth century the two different standards of Athens and Sparta are dominant all through the Greek world. It is seen in language, where one finds
a great variety of dialects to be classified under certain types, then
at
work
And
for a particular
like
myth)
merge
in
one personality.
A double name
unity, the
like
More
stated as follows
APPENDIX
of Greek race which
for long periods
357
into the land
made
their
way down
which
by the character of the region to which they came, As Queen of worshipped each some goddess of wild nature-Ufe.
the Wild her
flourished
in
their
haunts.
Hunters
worshipped her that she might favor them in the pursuit of game
with the return of vegetable
the cold of winter,
thetic worship "
this divine
;
men
life after the drought of summer or sought to help the process by " sympa-
in
blessing of
mother that they might bear strong children. From one point of view these goddesses were as separate as the comEven when one name came to munities which worshipped them.
be used for the same idea in different communities,
not
this
name
did
These forms of the goddess were all different, yet the conditions which gave rise to the worship were so similar that the type was the same. This statement is hypothesis, but it is difficult to imagine any other hypothesis if we recognize (i) the multiplicity and variety of the later cults of Artemis, and (2) the fact that social development is from many small simple units to a few larger and more complex units.
quite the
in
mean
same
any two.
possibility
need be considered,
viz.
that the
some one
We
quite as
much
it
On
this basis
becomes
relatively
name Artemis
names
I
cannot but
undue stress on the connection between the name and the complex personality of the goddess, real as this is, and that the second alternative is truer
feel that the first alternative lays
The
early history of
Artemis, then,
may be
That
it
358
GREEK RELIGION
lines, that it
state decrees
craft, that
came
to
be clearly
even before myth and poetry did much to make her personality more real, we can hardly doubt. But with the general acceptance of the name Artemis, one stage in the process was finally completed and the embelHshment of myth then served to make the name and the person of the goddess familiar throughout
Greece.^
6.
It
were
first
at
work
in
may be
described as
social.
And The
with
in general make for social and intellectual unifiwe may therefore expect that particular social changes, their new activities and new needs, would leave their mark on
the goddess.
We
hood.
As
and herds,
on game,
of the flocks.
Artemis Knakalesia,
in
Artemis
name
god of
change
in the
conception of
Artemis.
1 Various " heroines " and nymphs in the train of Artemis may be regarded as a by-product of this process, either because an old goddess-name was too strongly rooted to permit its disappearance in an epithet of Artemis, or because it had already found a place for itself in story. Iphigenia was such an Artemis " heroine,"
worshipped
while at
ently
at Megara in her own name (Pausanius, i. 43. 3) and prominent in myth, Hermione there was a worship of Artemis Iphigenia. Atalante was appara form of Artemis, who later became a heroine of myth. And the nymphs
APPENDIX
easily
359
have transformed Artemis the goddess of fertility into a goddess of the grain, had not Demeter and Persephone been the
first
widely
may be prospered
places to the needs
city life the
adapted
in
many
of an agricultural people.
earlier
with vegetable
might naturally
tion as protector of
women
in childbirth
would remain.
protection of
community
is
under the
of the city,
seen even in
been the
ties
combined
At Patrae, Artemis Triklaria seems to have whose name and worship different communiIn Euboea, the pan-Ionic establish the city.
league met at the temple of Artemis Amarysia under the sanctioning protection of the goddess.
counsel,
political significance
may probably be
In various
cities
Artemis
at
Olympia refers to a connection with trade. It involved no great change to transform the hunting goddess into a war goddess. The epithets Aristoboule, Eukleia, and Soteira are doubtless to be explained by the counsel, fair fame, and safety which Artemis
granted in war.
It is not unnatural, then, that goats
were offered
at Salamis
was celebrated
nichia.
The
Mother of
name and
some important
places.
36o
7.
GREEK RELIGION
Another important
its
Artemis
belief
was
religious in
and
and in worship. I refer particularly to the relation with Apollo which was fixed before the time of the Homeric poems, and to the relation witli Hecate which was fully recognized in the fifth ceniury, though
tended to modify the idea of Artemis
religious influence
all
Greek
literature,
may be detected at various other points. In and at many centres of worship, Artemis was
In consequence
young manhood the orgiastic dances of the goddess in some places transformed to beautiful dances of the goddess of moischaste nymphs led by a goddess of music ture and springs was recognized as the goddess of healing at springs (for example, Artemis Thermaia); it was easier to associate Artemis with the moon inasmuch as Apollo was associated
the ideal of
fertility
;
of
were
to Apollo.^
One might
lyre
The
origin
involved in obscurity. It is more than probable, as Farnell points out,- that " the place where the
deities
were
first
closely associated,
.
. .
in their
The important
Apollo.
fact
not
The connection with Hecate is even more intimate, though efl"ective at so many points. The name Hecate seems to mean " Far-worker," a conception which appears also in the name Hekaerge at Delos and in poetic epithets of Apollo and Artemis
:
2 Farnell, Cults
APPENDIX
361
myth and
as god-
of worship
is
not to be discovered.
We
learn of
Hecate
and of weird and uncanny rites connected with darkness she is the goddess of entrances and of divided roads where a new road is entered she is goddess of the moon and
dess of the night
; ;
women
^
that this
goddess who found her way into Greece, where she came into connection with the Greek goddess of
fertility
and of hunting.
like
We
may
like
fertility
far
more
Hecate than
Artemis the
of Apollo.
It is
on the one hand the Olympian Artemis became the ideal of maidenhood in all its purity, that on the other hand weird and half magical rites gathered about an Artemis Hecate who came to be more and more a goddess of the night,
relation with Apollo, that
all
that
was uncanny.
Certainly
Hecate stands in relation with the more primitive type of Artemis, and if she be a foreign goddess, her influence on Artemis was to
preserve and develop this more primitive type. Relations with other gods, Aphrodite, Demeter, Dionysus, Her-
mes,
etc.,
Moresupra,
Olympian worship
(v.
rites in
honor
all
of a goddess of
though
in
many
hymn, the
stately procession,
and the
sacrificial
The
tion of Artemis
found
in
myth and
literature
and
plastic art.
Farnell, Cults
of the Greek
States, 2. 509.
362
GREEK RELIGION
in
dance and
in hunting.
The myths
Yet
it
remains
in its drama. The personality myth and poetry could but exercise a constant shaping influence on the belief of the worshipper. The poet's work was supplemented by that of the painter and the sculptor. Early vases depict the Queen of the Wild later she is pictured as sister of Apollo, or in some scene from an Artemis
ing
them
real persons
and actors
myth.
On
is
seen
great
drawn by
stags.
The
temple
statues,
however, statues
like the
Dionysus of Alcamenes
Praxiteles,
If
it
make
men
their
own
9.
ters,
religious experience.
To resume
i\fter
The
of the
epic on.
to
meaning of the goddess for her worshipper. Before the rise of the epic, and in a measure later, religious influences were profoundly modifying the conception of Artemis and the forms of her
worship.
But
in
which
shaped the conception of the goddess were the same forces which were at work in all phases of social development.
really
it
to
hypothesis that the later complex Artemis was the result of a partial
fusion of simpler
1
similar in
Cp.
f.
and
pi. lo.
APPENDIX
type,
363
widely by the early small
communities of Greece.
unifying power that
less
possibility
to
some
foreign im-
would require strong evidence to prove that the goddess was not essentially Greek in origin and
in development.
APPENDIX
II
APPENDIX
II
365
(Con /imigd)
APPENDIX
BIBLIOGRAPHY
General works.
III
G?'iec/icft, in
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on the subject up
Special
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cited at the
The
Gruppe,
O.,
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The
and
of
I.
v. Miiller's
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897-1 906.
The literature is fully cited at the beginning of each section. This is the most comprehensive work on the subject and the references in the footnotes are quite exhaustive it may perhaps be criticised because of the emphasis it lays on the author's individual views of early Greek history.
;
Preller-Robert,
Many
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Roscher, W.
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366
APPENDIX
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An
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GREEK RELIGION
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UsENER,
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Farnell,
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Frazer, /.
NiLSSON, M.
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von
Aus-
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its
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GREEK RELIGION
24
370
GREEK RELIGION
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GiRARD,
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Greek
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1886.
1898.
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Packard, L. R., Studies in Greek Thought. Campbell, L., Religion ift Greek Literature.
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i, ''
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MuLLER, K.
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LuBKER, F., Die sophokleische Theologie 7ind Ethik. 1851, 1855. V ERR ALL, A. W., Euripides the Rationalist. HoFFMEiSTER, SittUchreligiose Lebensafisicht des Herodotos. 1832.
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Hermann, K.
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371
II.
"Got-
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1888.
brief
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references
many
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Meursius,
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Thesaurus^ VII.
Herrmann, M.
Farnell,
1896, 1907.
References to accounts of local worship are given at the end of the discussion of each god.
Preller-Robert,
See Index
Griechische Mythologie.
Register der Cultorte."
I.
1894.
II, "
Mommsen,
a., Heortologie.
1864.
Second
sacris.
edition, Feste
der Stadt
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Pfuhl,
im
A Iterturn.
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E.,
De Atheniensium pompis
1900.
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F.,
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\i.^
Gilbert, O., Die Festzeit der attischen Dionysien. 1872. NiLSSON, M. P., Studia de Dionysiis atticis. 1900. FouCART, P., Le culte de Dionysos en Attique. 1904.
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atti-^
schen Dionysos
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1
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III
373
DiTTENBERGERj G., De sacris Rhodioruin. 1886, 1887. Wide, S., De sacfis Troezeniomun^ Hermionensimn, Epidaitriorum.
1888.
Lakonische Kulte.
1893.
1891.
Immerwahr, W., Die Kulte und Myt/ien Arkadiejts, Odelberg, p., Sacra Cormthia, Sicyojiia, Phliasia.
Part
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Chap.
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VAN Dale,
1700.
A.,
De
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einer
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HuLLMAN, K. D., Wurdigung des delphischen 0?'akels. 1837. Hixzpeter, G., De vi ac natiira graecoruni oraculoriivi. 1850. Eh linger, De Apolline et oraado ejus deiphico. 1870. Doehler, E., Die Orakel. iSy2. Hendess, R., Oraada graeca. 1877.
An
edition of the oracles quoted
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POMTOW,
1881. J. R., Quaestionum de oraadis caput selectum. Stutzle, Das griecliische Orakelivesen und besonders die Orakelstdtte
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Nissen, H.,
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:
INDEX
Achelous, 153. Acheron, 184.
Adonis, 160; worship of, 276, 280, Aeacus, 182. Aegean Islands, worship of Isis in, 277. Aegina, 353.
Antiochus Epiphanes, 281. Antiphon, 265 f 268. Antisthenes (the Cynic), 327. Apatouria, the, 112, 162. Aphrodite, cults of, 160 f nature of, 30, 160; origin, 160, 211; Ourania, 104; symbols
,
Aegospotami,
43.
of, 161.
at Gela,
Aesculapius, v. Asclepius. Aetna, cult of Hephaestus at, 163, Aetolian League, the, 317.
Agamemnon,
Agathodaemon,
Apollo: Agyieus, 121; associated with Artemis, 360 f cults of, 151 f., 217; feast of, at Ithaca, 75; god of flocks, 151, 211 god; of hea ing, 164; Locust Apollo, the, 93; Lykeios, 211; nature of, 30, 151 f., 211, 236, 257; oracle at Delphi, 152, 259; purification, 240; the Averter, 93; the Guardian, 120; spread of worship, 216; worship of,
;
240
f.,
338,353.
agricultural festivals, 76, 156, 195. agricultural worship, 85,93, io3> 240, 359-
m>
i5i> 209,
Apuleius, 277. Arcadia, (.ults in, 159, 163. archaeological discoveries, 193, 197 Archilochus, 233, 236.
f.
Alcamenes,
362.
;
Alexander, conquests
,
devoutness
of,
Areopagus, the, 161, 182. Ares, worship of, 161. Arethusa, 354. Argos, cults of, 150, 155,
Aristaeus, 155.
164,
Aristophanes, 265.
Aristotle, 52, 53, 272, 274, 323, 330
f.
Alpheius, 153. altar, forms of, 69 f 202; earth altar, io6; hearth altar, 70; mound altar, 165; pit altar, 202: trench altar, 165, 170.
,
Arrian, 279.
and religion, 148, 267 f., 294 f., 347, 362; development of, 250 f at Rome, 284 f. Artemis, as goddess of hunting, 352 f. as
art.
. ;
;
Ammon,
oracle
Amphiaraus,
Amphidromia,
the 121.
36^; associated with Apollo, 360 f associated with Hecate, 360; Bendis, 127, 351; cults of, 68, 14=;, 166, 349, myths of. 361 f. nature of, 33, 152 351 f " Persian," the, 209, origin of, 211, 350 f 352; protector of maidens, 122; worship of,
152.
moon goddess,
;
AmphiTytus, 57. Anaxagoras, 43, 262, 325, 327. Anaximander, 325. Anaximenes, 325. ancestors, worship of, 112, 181,
as Erinyes, 185.
195, 228
f.,
313;
Asclepiads of Tricca. the, 164. Asclepius, associated with the mysteries at Eleusis, 132, 164; oracles of, 58; worshi of, 124 f., 164; at Athens, 124, 270; at
>
Rome,
284.
animals, sacrifice of black, 106, in, 154, 170, 179; dying on the way to altar, 45; early
worship of, 19^., 206; for sacrifice, 48, 100; pet, brought to grave, 181: sacred to individual gods, 112, ig6; substituted for men, 105; wild, used for sacrifice, 152, associated with Artemis, 352 f.
aninn'sm, 194.
Aiithela, worship of Demeter at, 218. Anthesteria, the, 158, 179. anthropomorphism, 235, 254; \.gods,
Asia Minor, migrations to, 220; effect on poetry of Hesiod. 227; rise of philosophy in, 234; rites adopted from, 246. Asopus, 153. Aspasia, 262. asses, used for sacrifice, 47, 155.
associations, religious, v. thiasoi, astrology, 43. Atalante, 352. Ate. 341. " atheists, the," 327, 228 Athena, birtli of, 20; birthday, 76; contest with Poseidon, 20; cults of, 21 f., 23 note,
hutnan-
at, 281.
377
378
INDEX
68, 150, 162, 351; nature of, 150; Nike, 150,166,316; worship at Athens, 251 f.,349. Athens, supremacy of, 250 f.
athletic contests.
to, 104;
worship
of,
96
f.,
114, 117
f.,
159, 239,
Cimon,
53.
Babrius, 86. Bakchoi, 241. banquets, occasion of the epic, 220, 224. baptism, a Christian " initiation," 291. barley-corns, used at sacrifice, 100. Bassaroi, 241. bear-goddess, 196, and v. Artemis. Bendis, 127, 271, and v. Artemis, cults
benefit clubs, religious side of, 127. Bible, the, as oracle, 47. birds, divination by, 42, 44, 220, 224
45-
of.
development of, 216 f., 226, 231 f. Claus, theory of, 355. Clay, used in purification, no, 247. Cleanthes, hymn of, 332. Cleisthenes, 313. Clytaemnestra, 258, 342. Clytiadae, 56. Cnidos, 217. Cnossos, 202, 206 f. Codrus, 105. coins, introduction of, 230; representation of gods on, 299, 318.
cities,
of prey,
Black Sea, the, 216. blood, desire of souls for, 171, 179; use of in
sacrifice, 98, loi, 103, 109, 112, 146.
colonies, cults in, 193; spread of, 216, 231. Colophon, oracle at, 58. Colossus of Rhodes, the, 94. coming of age, 122, 152. commerce, development of, 230, 249, 314. communion meal, 97 f., 102, 147, 214, 218 226 f., 283.
at, 277.
f.,
blood vengeance, 240. Boeotia, religion in, 227 f., 277. bones, divination by, 49. boys, worship by, 159, and v. comitig of age Branchidae, oracle at, 58.
Brasidas, worship
of, 167.
Brimo,
Corybantes, 153. Cos, worship at, 124, 156. cosmogony, 138 f. (v. creation of world) of Hesiod, 228, 324; of the Orphic sect, 245
;
3515.
effect
on
religion,
246; bull
274.
Couretes, the, 149. creation of world, 34, 138. cremation, 171, 176!"., 225.
Creon, 105, 258, 341. Crete, Christian legends in, 286; cult of Dictynna, 166, 352; cult of Eileithyia, 164;
discoveries in, i8q, 193, 197 f.; influence on Greece, 191, 244, 246; religion of early inhabitants, 198 f.
Cassandra,
57.
Crisaean plain, the, 67. Critias, 327. Croesus, 60, 343. Cronus, 138; Uranus, 228. Croton, 248.
crow, 45.
curse, 89.
Cato, 284. caves, as entrances to lower world, 182; as places of worship, 156, 160, 195, 200, 217. Cecrops, 112. Ceres, 283. Chalchas, 44, 54. Chalkeia, the, 162.
Cybele, 153. Cyclades, the, 287. Cylonidae, the, in. Cyprus, cult of Aphrodite
at, 276.
at,
Charon, 174, 184, 287. childbirth, rites connected with, 109, 112, 121,
161, 164, 354. children, e.\posure of, 307; initiated in Eleusinian mysteries, 122. Christianity, and art, 295; and Greek religion, 39, 281 f., 285!.; and Greek philosophy, 288 f., 332; and Isis worship, 278.
.
van Dale, 63. Danaus, daughters of, 239. dance, the, as form of worship, 160, 283, 353, 360
Daphne, myth
of, 281.
\.
Christian 286 f.
funeral
rites;
f.;
saints,
supplanting
Greek gods,
199,
(modern) 287
prophetic powers
of,
INDEX
199; worship of, 107, 146, 165, 167, 169, 199, 225, 227. deification of emperors, 167. Delos, 96, 162, 360; Apollo worship at, 217; cult of Eileithyia at, 164. Delphi, congress of states at, 115; festivals, 76; games, 97, 115, 152, 239; worship of Dionysus, 159; worship of Hestia, 163. Delphic oracle, the, corruption of, 64; genuineness of, 60, 63, 259; influence for progress, 63, 64, 231; origin of, 242; quoted by Herodotus, 60; subjects of, 62, 239. Demeter, Chthonia, 166; cults of, 156;
379
of, 263,
education, development
266
f.
Egypt, 193,
197.
Eileithyia, 164, 354; and St. Eleutherius, 286 Elaphebolia, 352. Eleusis, 93; the mysteries at, 128 f., 156; mysteries, officials of, 131; origin of, 187.
Eleutherae, 157.
f.
134 - Isis, 277 myth of, 135; nature of, 33, 156; patron of bakers and millers, 156; worship of, 108, 129 f., 156, 229, 237, 241 , 253 worship at Rome, 283. democracy, the Athenian, 249, 252 f.
to,
;
Homeric hymn
epic, the, and Greek philosophy, 323; contrasted with actual belief, 144, 221; date of, 210, 216, 218 f. influence of, 42, 139, 210, 214, 220 f., 234 f., 254, 362; joyfulness of,
;
pessimism
226;
of,
168;
tendency
of,
sacrifice in,
Demosthenes,
Epicteta, honors after death, 167. Epicureans, the, 275, 331. Epicurus, honors after death, 167. Epidaurus, 124 f., 164, 270.
Epimenides, in,
epithet
226, 240.
235, 356;
244.
names of gods,
358 n.
equinox, 195. Erechtheus, 112. Erigone, 157. Erinyes (Eumenides), 104, 107, 146, 185, 228,
264 origin of, 107, 309. Eros, 228, 324. ethical philosophy and religion, 274 f. Etruscans, Greek cults among the, 282.
;
305.
Dionysia, the, 157, 164, 268. Dionysus, associated with Demeter at Eleusis,
132 f., 243; cults of, 157 f., 162; god of souls, 158; myths of, 242 f.; second birth, 21; spirit of growth, 30: types of in art, 301;
Eubouleus, in.
worship of, 105, 107, 132, 237, 240 f., 251, 316, 339; worship at Rome, 283: worship introduced in Greece, 186 f., 229, 230, 241 f. Zagreus, 245. Dioscuri, worshipped at Tusculum, 282
Euhemerus, 327. Eumaeus, 98. Eumenides, v. Erinyes. Eumolpidae, the, 79, 89,
Euripides, 263 f Evans, Arthur, 197.
evil spirits, 146, 196. expiation for sin, 343.
131.
50;
by
sacrificial
and
v.
home, wor-
"divine government,"
natural law, 311. Dodona, oracle of,58, 87 dog days, 155.
34,
;
141,236,335; and
ship
of.
dogma, absence
;
fasting, 132, 156. fate, 54, 140, 310. festivals, religious, 96, 112 f., 157 f., 295, and v. especially Pt. I, chap, iii and App.
361; used
in
i8i; use of at the Dionysia, 157. Dorians, the, 194, 200, 215, 218. double axes, shrine of, 202, 205; a sacred symbol, 205. doves, 44, 112, 205, 207. drama as worship, the, 97, 157 f 252, 256,
,
76, 156; in early times, 75, political importance of, 114, 232, 238, torch, 160. feudalism, 216, 220. fire, for sacrifice, 100; gods of, 162 f., 211. first fruits, offering of, 85, 93. flocks, gods of, 36, 151, 154, 159, 353. 358.
agricultural,
195; 268;
flowers used in worship, 69, 103, 158. food, offered to the dead, 179. foreign gods, brought by immigration, 216; worship of, 127, 128, 192, 266, 271, 275 f.,
316, 351.
fruits,
.
dreams, 51, 54, 144, 224, 269; "gates of," 51; gods appear in, 52; interpretation of, 52 f.
treatises on, 52;
dream
oracles, 58.
funeral rites, 166, 173 f., banquet, 178; laws controlling, 176. future life, 186 f. early belief in, 198; epic view of, 171; Socrates's view of, 173.
;
and
v.
motherGaia (Ge),
138, 152, 184; nature of, 33; worship, 152 f
goddess.
Easter, the Greek, 288.
38o
Galen, 124, gall bladder, divination by, 49.
INDEX
Hera, marriage
100.
of, 21; nature of, 33, 150; identified with Isis, 277. Heracleitus, 234, 261, 325 f. Heracles, 127, 194, 239. Hercules, worship at Rome, 282 f. Hermaia, the, 159 Hermes, iii, 121, 159; as chthonic god, 107; as Mercury, 283; conductor of souls, 158 f., 179; functions of, 159, 349; of Praxiteles,
Glauce, 165. Glaucus, 63, 154. Gnostic sect, the, 278. goats, used in sacrifice, 99, 105. gods, the, as ideals of beauty, 33; as individuals, 142 f.; as righteous rulers, 34, 232, 310, 348; assembly of, 140; blood kinship with men, 41, 257, 313; fickleness of, 146;
held up to ridicule, 42, 221, 265; humaaness of, 19, 32, 141, 147, 221 f., 235 f 300, 337; limitations of, 143; moral nature of, I9> 255, 264, 308 f., 337; not the forces of nature, 139, 323; of myth and of worship, philosophical interpretation of, 18, 211 f. relations to one 325; providence of, 140 f. another, 34, 142; social relations with men, 34 r, 9S, 349. goose, 44.
,
;
;
305-.
Hermione, worship
at,
156, 277;
precinct of
Pluto at, 184. herms, 159; mutilation Herodotus, 259 f., 336.
heroes, relics heron, 44.
of, 165.
f.,
;
181, 213,
227,
of,
165 f
f.,
perpetuation
Hesiod, writings
324-
of,
227
Gournia, 202, 206, 208. grain goddess (v. De meter), 156, 187, 354. Greeks, the, a religious people, 14; as idealists, 32, 304; religious needs of, 37, 347 f. Greek religion, a matter of daily life, 30, 35, 337; and Christianity, 39, 282, 285 f 345; at Rome, 282 f attitude toward nature, 32, 138 f.; influence on later thought, 15; mnny
,
. ;
Hippo,
328.
Hippocrates, 124.
Hippodameia, shrine of, 67 note. Hippon, 262. Hipponax, 233. home, the, worship of, 103, i2of., 313;
of, 162, 163.
deities
sided, 35; methods of investigation, 192: origin of, 29, 212: periods of, 188 f. spread of in the East, 281.
;
20.
in libations,
Greek mysteries,
291.
Hides, 107,
172, 182.
(and v. Pint us) cult at Rome, 284; " marriage to," 288; realm of,
135, 136
;
horns of consecration. 202, 204 f. horses, used for sacrifice, 154, 155. horsemanship, gods of, 154, 161.
Hagia Triada,
hair,
human
sacrifice,
105, 109,
.
no,
an offering, 122,
Haloia, the, 156. Halyattes, 60. Harrison, J. E., 226. harvest festivals, 156; v. agricultural /estz7>als.
-.213.. 307Hygieia, 151; as Isis, 277. Hymen, 123 hymns in worship, 84, 132, 233.
hawk,
44, 45.
; ,
lamidae,
56.
healing, gods of, 163 f. rites of, 124. heaven-god, 195, 196, 209 f and v. Zeus. heavenly bodies, the worship of, 154 f. Hebrew religion, 97; meat offering, 100.
laso, 126. Icarus, 243. Ida, Mt., shrine on, 66, 200.
Hecabe,
92.
f.;
worship
of,
152.
Heienus, 54. Helios, anger of, 342 daily cults of, 154 worship of, 85 offerings to, 104 temple of,
;
;
66.
Hellen, 315.
f.,
281
f.
in
patron of
idealism in Greece, 32. Iliad, date of. 210; and v. epic. Ilium, Alexander al, 279. images of the gods, 70, 120, 132, 134, 150, 158, 164. 283; and the development of art, 296; cult images, 73 f., 157; identified with the gods themselves, 302; in the Mycenaean age, 207 imitative rites, 146, 150, 159, 196, 339. immortality, 53, 129, 136, 169, 186 f.; early belief in, 182. 198 impiety, charges of, 262 f., and v. sacrilege. incantation, 170. incense, 103. individualism, 262, 266 f., 314, 320; rise of,
230 f.
INDEX
initiations, Elcusinian, 132; mysteries of Isis, 278.
381
Orphic, 246; to
Ino. 257.
Ino-Leucothea,
;
154.
inspiration, 40, 51, 144, 146; frenzied, 56, varieties of, 51. 241 f. intellectualism at Athens, 261 f. interpretation of religious rites, 28; of signs,
47, 54lo, 277.
Lycurgus, 317. lyric contests, 164. lyric poetry, pessimism of, 236; rise of, 232, 297. Lysimachus, 52.
Machaon,
124.
maenads, 159. magic, 35, 89, 124, 146, 155, 195, 223, 226.
lobakchoi, 128.
Ion, 315. Ionia, burial in, 172; philosophy poetry of, 233 religion of, 194. lonians, 215. Iphigeneia, 105, 354. Isis, worship of, 275 f. Isocrates, 188, 307.
;
82.
324:
marriage, gods of, 35, 121, 123, 150, 161; rites connected with, 109, no, 113, 120, 12a f.,
153, 352, 354-
Marseilles, 216.
100.
Isthmus, games
Italy, 254;
Melampus,
56, 244.
Greek
of, 257.
Meros, Mt., Alexander at, 279. Metagyrtes, 153. meteorological phenomena, 42. Metis, 228. middle ages, the Greek, 215 f. migrations, the great, 193, 212, 215, 357.
Miltiades, worship of, 167.
Kerykes,
79.
Kottyto, 271.
Mimnermus, 236. Minoan civilization, 197, 200C Minoan female divinity, 209.
Minos, 182, 198. Mithras, worship
of, 276.
Mnemosyne,
104.
Moira, 141, 323; v. fate. monotheism, 254, 256, 290, 326, 334 f. moon-goddess, 360, 361. moral ideals, Greek conception of, 306
growth
337
f.
of,
236
f.,
255
f.;
Lemnos,
Lenaea,
Leucas, worship
Libanius, 105. libation, 103 f.,
moral order of world, 308 f. mother-goddess, the, 152, 209, 355, 359; various forms of, 211. mother of the gods, the, 103, 127, 275 f. mountain tops, as seats of worship, 195, 217. mourning customs, 174, 179. murder, penalty for, 307; purification for,
109,
no, 120, 219; at a sacrifice, loi; atOpis, 279; in the epic, 222; of milk, 104; to the dead, 180; wineless, 161, 196. Liber, 283. Libera, 283. lightning, v. thunderbolt. Lindos, shrine on, 81.
no,
239,
3n,
344.
muses, the, 87, 127. music at sacrifice, loi. musical contests, at religious
festivals,
20,
Linus song, the, 155, lions, 208. literature, decay of, 267. liver, divination by the, 49.
Livius Andronicus, 285
local cults,22f., 145, 166, 191, 210 f., 315,351 f. affected by migration, 216, 357; "condensation" of, 212, 226, 356 f. established at
;
115. 256. 46, 154, 217. Mycenaean age, the; burial in, 177; civilization of, 196 f; definition of, 198; religion in, 169. Myconos, 185. mysteries, tl.e, 227; name, meaning of, 131. mysteries at Eleusis, 122, 128 f.; initiation for,
"4,
Mycale,
24.
local shrines, the, 22, 65; independence of, 23; influence of Delphi on, 63 logos, the, 290. Lord's Suoper, the, a " mystery," 292. lots, casting of, 224.
132; origin of, 187; preparation for, 132; significance of, 135 f.; the "lesser mysteries," 131 f. mysteries of Isis, 278. mysteries perpetuated in Christianity, 290 f, mysticism, 145 f., 223, 244 f., 250, 263,
339-
mythology and religion, 13 f., 16, 143, 185, 191, 301: and the poets, 265 f., 298; and
the spread of Gr< ek religion, 281; ai
285.
of, 57.
Rome,
382
myths, and dogma,
:
INDEX
Parthenon, 72, 256; a Christian church, 286.
Patrae, 359. patriotism, 236, 253; decay of, 266 f., 274. Patroclus, the soul of, 169. patron deities, of clubs, 127; of the cities, 359.
and 17, 21, 306, 322 philosophy, 17; at religious festivals, 19 f.; contrasted with worship, 221, 307, 322, 351; criticism of, 228, 233 f., 256 f., 259, 326; definition of, 17; derived from ritual, 18, 21, 149 f., 157, 161; explaining local rites, 20;
flexibility of, 191
;
v.
agricultural
modifying
worship.
Peiraeus, the, foreign cults at, 271, 275.
Peisistratus, 188, 238, 255, 303,
362.
names,
Pelopidas, 43.
natural phenomena, deification of, 29; worship of, 30. nature, attitude of Greeks toward, 32, 138 f.; spiritual forces in, 30, 195, 242 under direction of gods, 47, 140, 310.
;
Peloponnesian War, the, 260 f, Penelope, 52. Pentheus, 243. Pergamon, altar at, 70; worship of Asclepius
at, 164.
Nemea, games
Nemesis, 324.
perjury, 91.
Neptune,
Nike,
ship
V.
283.
Nicias, 43.
Persephone, 107, in, 131, 156, 184; associated with Demeter, v. tnysteries ; myth of, 135; nature of, 184; worshipped at Rome,
283.
Athena Nike.
of, 66.
Phanes, 245.
Pheidias, 262; gods of, 33. Phigaleia. temple at, 93, 362. Philip, religious policy of, 280. Philoctetes, 258.
Olympias, 280. Olympic games, 97, 115, iiyf., 239. omens, 39, 54, 102, 219 f., 226, 269, 319 (and
V. signs). omphalos, the, 239. Onchestos, 217.
philosophy, Greek, antagonism with religion, 271 f.; at Athens, 250 f 263, 326 f. defining the nature of God, 289 f., 326; influence on Christianity, 288 f., 330; of religion, 142, rise of, 232, 234 f. 250, 328 f Phocis, 352. Phrygia, 244, 246.
,
;
ders of, 264 f. orators, of 4th century, 268 f. ordeal, the, 91. Orestes, worshipped as a hero, 166. organization of religion, 45. orgiastic worship, 153, 159, 186, 241 f. origin of man, 138, 245. Oropus, 213; oracle at, 58. Orpheus, 244. Orphic sect, the, 189 230, 244 f., 249, 251 revival of, 270 f. Orphic writings, the, 244.
pigs, used in sacrifice, 98, no, in, 112, 132, 156. pillars, sacred, 73, 205, 206, 235 (and v. herms) Pindar, 21, 53, 186, 256, 307, 347. plague, the, 105, 124, 343; purification from, III. Plataea, battle of, 50. Plato, and the poets, 307, 347; belief in dreams, 53; belief in immortality, 187; doctrine of the Supreme Being, 272, 330; influ-
f.
enced by Orphic doctrines, 271; philosophy worshipped, 167. of, 328 f ploughing, sacred, 156. Pluto-Hades, 184 f.; Pluto-Serapis, 280.
;
Ouranos,
owl, 196.
138.
Polemaenetus, 55 note.
Polycrates, 53, 109.
Paieon, 124. Paionia, the, 151. palace shrine, 66, 200, 202
Palaemon,
154.
Pan, worship of, 159, 316. Panaceia, 126. Panathenaea, the, 24 (fig-)> 96, 100, 114
239, 268.
f.,
150,
portents, stories of, 43. Erechtheus, Poseidon, cults of, 154, 217; 166; nature of, 30, 211; patron of horsemanship, 154; worship of, 100, 108. prayer, 83 f. at meals, 84; in literature, 85; instances of, 86, no, 269, 279, 348; in the epic, 223.
88.
pre-Mycena^an age,
189, 198.
INDEX
priesthood, not organized, 78, 322
278. priests, 76 f., 110;
; ;
3^3
graves, 66, 165. pillars, \. pillars.
places, 65. times, 74 f. and v. seasons 0/ worship. animals used for, 100; at Rome,
of Isis,
79, 316;
appointment
of,
;
of,
sacrifice,
processions, 96, 114, 157, 218, 283. Prodicus, 327. Proerosia, the, 287.
Prometheia, the, 163. Prometheus, 44, 52, 163. prophecy, a trade, 55, 57;
of,
283; banquet sacrifice (sacrificial meal), v. cofumufiion meal ; before battle, 98; Greek theory of, 102; household, 98; in time of danger, 49; occasions of, 98; purificatory', v. propitiatory rites; religious motive of,
102; ritual of, 100 f. to heroes, 165 types 191; victims, rites of slaughter, 98, loi without blood, 196; wood used for, 100. sacrilege, cases of, in, 255, 316.
; ;
epic conception
of, 28,
;
55-
prophets, 54. propitiatory rites, 50, 105!., 227; not menoccasion of, 106, tioned in the epic, 106 146, 239; origin of, 109; ritual of, 106 f Protagoras, 327. Proteus, 223.
;
sailors,
god
Salamis,
Artemis
251
worship
of
salvation, 345.
Samos,
150.
in,
343.
Pythagoras, 247 f 326. Pythian games, v. Delphi. Pythian priestess, the, 46, 57, 59, 339.
rain-god, v. Zens, thf sky-god.
science, at Athens, 263. Scillus, worship of Artemis at, 352. sculpture, 252, 296 f. (v. art). sea-gods, 107, 146, 154, 211. seasons of worship, 113, 157 f, 195, and v. festivals. seers, 50, 226, 339; families of, 56; of the
army,
55.
ram, used in purification, no, 159. rationalistic tendencies, 41, 223, 225 f., 261, 264, 305. religion, and beauty, 33, 295, 304, 320; and ethics, 306 f. ; and morality, 33, 307 f. ; and
and poetry. philisophy, 271 f., 274, 322 f 232, 256 f 304 and the state, 25, 238, 250 f., 315 f.; comparative, 16; is there a Greek? 13, 349; of gladness, 14, 35, 225; personal vs. state, 128; relation to other phases of civilization, 190, 238, 250 f., 267, 294 f., ultimate factors to356 f. study of, 27 day, 13; what it meant to the Greek, 29,
.
222, 294, 338. 345 f. religious r tual, purpose of, 35 retribution after death, 182, 257. revelation, Greek conception of, 39, 144. revival of religion in seventh century, 186,
230
f.
Rhadamanthus,
182.
Rhea, 138, 149, 152, 209; Rhea-Cybele, Rheneia, 360. Rhodes, worship at, 105, 154, 276.
153.
riddance, rites of, 100, 170, 196, 224, 338. ritual, persistence of, 191, 227, 286 f. river gods, 107, 108, 150, 153, 354. roads, god of, 159, 361. Roman gods, worshipped with Greek rites,
284.
gods. Socrates, 86, 173, 188, 262, 328. Solon, 232, 236, 254, 310, 317.
solstice,
worship
266,
Roman
religion, influenced
of,
281
rise of, 260. 327 f introduced worship of AsSophocles, 258 f clepius, 164; view of future life, 187 f. soul, the, Greek conception of, 181, 186, 225; immortality of, 53, 129, 136, 169 f., 242; Orphic doctrine of, 245, 247; transmigration
; ;
384
INDEX
Thrasymachus,
327.
46, 52, 148.
soul oracles, 184. souls, epic conception of, 168, 225: gods of, 156, 158, 179, 182; power for evil, 170; return of, 158; worship of, 107, 146,165, 169 f., 178 f. ; and v. dead, ivorshzp of.
sparrow,
44.
Sparta, 218, 232, 352; cult of Eileithyia at, 164. Spercheius, 66, 153. springs, worship at, 153, 196, 354, 360. state control of religion, 25, 82, 238, 250, 254 f.,
263, 315
state,
f-.
Tithorea, Isis cult at, 277. torch festivals, 160, 163, 352.
totemism, 196, 207. trade, gods of, 159, 283, 349, 359.
tradition, power of, 26, 29 treaties, sacredness of, 317. trees, sacred, 160, 196, 206, 353.
f.,
147
f.,
249, 346.
Stesichorus, 233.
Stoics, the, 40, 275, 331
Styx, the, 91. suicide, epidemic of, 243. sulphur, used in purification, superstition, 269, 339, 349; 173; in Boeotia, 228. surgical operations, 124.
no.
absence
of,
Triptolemus, 134. Troezen, 165. Trophonius, 23; a form of Zeus, 213; oracle
43,
of, 58.
Typhoeus,
as, 196.
v. local
228.
condensation "
266, 356;
of.
Taenaron,
ventriloquism, 57.
Venus, cults
159.
at
Rome,
285;
Erj'cina,
163.
284.
Tarentum,
155.
Taygete, 353 Taygetus, Mt., 155. Tegea, cults at, 78, 163, 164.
Teiresias, 45, 54, 56, 170.
126, 208;
modern,
vow,
temples, 70 f., 238, 252; and the development of architecture, 297 as treasuries, 71, 317 f. at Rome, 283; income of, 67; officials of, 82; property of, 67, 96, 316; statue in, 238.
;
Tethys, 323.
Tetrapolis, the, 217.
words, as omens, 46, 224. wcrship, attitudes of, 88 f. early forms of, 193; Greek conception of, 36; of tendance, regarded as tax, or barter, 35, 36, 196, 199 f.
; ;
99.
309, 324. Theognis, 230, 233, 236, 254, 310. theology, and philosophy, 26; Christian, 289 f., 340; in Greek religion, 17; of Plato, 329 f.; of the Orphic sect, 244; of the poets, 26;
theophany,
types
in the
144;
of, 41.
Thermopylae, Demeter
Theseus, 165, 166. Thesmophoria, the, in, 156. Thespiae, 78; cult of Eros at, 228. Thessalian cults, 194, 210. 216.
thiasoi, 126
187, 314. Thrace, 159, i6i, 244; 186, 241. Thrasyllus, 55 note.
f.,
196; the supreme deity, 140, 224, 245, 256 f. Zeus, special forms of: Amphiaraos, 166, Astrapaios, 43; Boulaios, 86; 213; .HorCronus, 228; Herkeios, 121;
Dionysus worship
in,
f.
Phratrios, 112.