A HistoryofGreek ReligionA HistoryofGreek ReligionbyMARTIN P. NILSSONProfessor Emeritus of C l ~ s s l c J l Archaeology ~ n dAncient History and sometime Rector ofthe University of LundTranslated from the SwedishbyF. J. FIELDENFormerly Lecturer in the UnIversity of Lund8wmd EditiOffOXFORDAT THE CLARENDON PRESS19+9CONTENTSPAGE1. Minoan-Mycenaean Religion and its Survivalin Greek Religion 9II. Origins of Greek Mythology 38! III. Primitive Belief and Ritual 7uIV. Gods of Nature and of Human Life. 105V. The Homenc Anthropomorphism and Ra-tionalism . 134VI. Legahsm and Mysticlsm. 180VII. The Civic Religion 224VIII. The Religion of the Cultured Classes and theReligion of the Peasants . 263Notes and CorrectionsIndex.ABBREVIATIONSAJ. jahrbuclz des Deutselum areMologtsehen Instituts.AJA. American Journal of Archaeology.AM. Mltteiltmgen des Deutsehm archdologisehe11 ZIt Athfn.ARw. Arehiv fIll' ReligionswissenschajtBSA Annual of the British School at Athens.EA 'Eq,1//kEpls IG Tnscriptiones Graeeae.]HS journal of Hellenic Studies.Njb. Neue ]ahrbucher lilY das klass/sclle Altertmn.MA. Mollttmenti anttchi delta R Aecademia dei Lincel.RGfT Relzgionsgeschtclttlidte Versttehe Ulul Voratbetfeu.RHR. ReVIle de l'histozre des religions.TPC. A. J. Evans, MyeeJlaean Tree and Pillar Cult, jHS, xxi, 191,pp. 99 et seqPREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITIONSINCE the first edition of this book appeared in 1925 Greekrehgion has been treated in many papers and in some largerworks. I mentwn, for example, O. Kern, Die Religion derGriechen, 3 vols., 1926-38; U. v. Wilamowitz, Der Glaube derBellenen, 2 vols., 1931-2; H. J. Rose, Prunitive Culture inGreece, 1925, and A Handbook oj Greell Mythology, 1928 Butunfortunately the stresses of the time have prevented anymajor alteration of the text from the first edition. I think,however, that the views expressed hold good still except forminor changes and modifications. A full documentation anddIScussion wIll be found in my Geschichte der griechtschenRehgion (in Handbuch der Altertumswissenschajt) , of whichthe first volume to the time of Alexander the Great appearedin 1941 and the second to the end of AntiqUIty is m the press.Here I must ask the reader to peruse this preface and call hisattention to the notes appended at the end of the book inwhich addenda, corrections, and references to ancient authorswill be found.The chapter on the prehistoric religion of Greece was basedon the materials collected for my Minoan-Mycenaean Religionand its Survival in Greek Religion, which was published twoyeflrs later in 1927. Since then this age has been treated inmany papers and books, and new finds have been made.I need refer here only to Sir Arthur Evans's Palace of Minos,vols. ii-iv. I reworked the subject briefly in my Gesch. d.griech. ReI., i, pp. 237 et seqq. In the earlier book, since theevidence is monumental, I treated the Minoan and theMycenaean religion as essentially one, but I pointed also tosome differences. Hades, the realm of the shadows, is notMinoan, the shield-carrying goddess on the limestone tabletfrom Mycenae (p. 26), a forerunner of Athena, is a Mycenaeanremodelling of the Minoan house-goddess; the lavish funeralcult of the Mycenaeans contrasts with the poorness of thetombs from the great age of Crete. A fresh example is2 PREFACEprovided by the splendId finds at Midea.1The Swedishexcavations at Asine revealed a ledge with idols and vessels,just as in the Mmoan house chapels, but to these wereadded a great head and a stone axe, perhaps Zeus and hlSthunderbolt. The ledge was placed, not in a small chapel, butin a corner of the megaron, the great living-room.2The cultwas open to the public.A renewed examination of the relations of the religion ofthe Mycenaeans, on the one hand to the Minoan relIgIOn andon the other to Homer, raIsed newproblems. The Mycenaeanswere Greeks and, unlike the peaceful Mmoans, they were awarlike people Many heroic myths and especially the greatmythical cycles come down from the Mycenaean age,3 andwith them those gods who are ~ o closely associated with themyths that they cannot be separated from them. The Stateof the gods, Olympus, b modelled after the pattern of theMycenaean kingdom, a mighty king ruling over sometimesrecalcitrant vassals. The questIOn arose whether the Minoangarb does not cover Mycenaean ideas whichwere verydifferentin character. Such problems are very likely to arise whena less-civilized people takes over the artistic forms of a highlydeveloped culture-the representation of Ahuramazda inthe guise of the god AssnI' provides a typical example. Homerpreserves a heritage from the Mycenaean age. ,are to be found in the Minoan religion, e. g. in the roughlymoulded belt-shaped idols which were worshipped at a datewhen art had long since left these primitive figures behindit, and in the garment of hides worn by the officiatingpriests at the ceremonies of the cult, as seen on the H.Triacla sarcophagus and on gems. On Mount Ida there aretwo cult-caves, at Kamares and at Patso (the famous cave ofIdaean Zeus on the top of the mountain, on the other hand,has only yielded finds from post-Minoan times); the findsfrom the cave at Psychro in Eastern Crete are particularlyabundant, though this is not the Diktaean cave but the caveat Lyktos to which Hesiod makes Rhea carry the new-bornZeus.! An important cave exists in the neighbourhood ofKnossos, and at its seaport town of Amnisos is the cave ofIlithyia. There are also open-air places of the cult, e. g. atPetsofa on the eastern coast, which has yIelded numerousfinds, and again on the top of Mount Juktas near Knossos,where there is also a smaller cave.The finds give no information as to the nature of the cuitor as to the god who was worshipped at these places, but itis otherwise with the numerous objects belopging to thecult found in houses and palaces. At Gournia B and in the Sanctuary of Double Axes at Knossos 3 theseI J. Toutain, RRll, 1911, ii, pp. 277 et seq. Gcurnia, p. 47 and pI. II. 3 BSA, vih, 1902, pp. 93 et seq.Minoan-Mycenaean Religion 13objects were still in their ancient places. The finds are sonumerous that we may probably assume that every palaceand at least every good-sized house had its cult, though therooms devoted to the cult were very small. Among thearticles discovered are tables of libation, horns of tion, and bell-shaped idols. The Gourni'a idol had a snakewound round it, and various fragments of similar idols withsnakes have been found at other places. The snake-goddessis the most in evidence of the Minoan divinities. In twostone cists under the floor of a room in the palace of Knossosobjects from a sanc1.uary of the palace had been packed,including a snake-goddess in faience, another statuette ofa woman with snakes in her hands, presumably a priestess,and models of the garments comprised in the wardrobe ofthe goddess.1The most remarkable single find is an ivorystatuette (now in Boston) of the snake-goddess; the snakesand the edges of the skirt are of gold.2It has been thought that the snake represents the SQul ofthe deceased, and consequently that we have here a goddesswho rules over the lower world, like Persephone. But it isnot explained why the goddess of the lower world shouldhave taken her place in the domestic cult. However, thesnake is not always the representative of the dead; bothancient and modern know it as the protector of thehousehold who brings luck 1.0 the house, and in the Greeceof our day it is still called I the lord of the house' andreceives offerings. There is no need to look any farther foran explanation of the Minoan domestic snake-goddess.Bell-shaped idols have only been discovered among burialofferings upon one occasion, and in this case a room in anold house had been used for the burial, so that it is notabsolutely certain that these idols were burial gifts. Otheridols-apart from votive ones-have been found in gravesor separately. The former is the case with the well-known\ BSA, ix, 1903, pp. 35 et seq. 2 AlA, X\X!, 1915. pIs. 10-16.14 GREEK RELIGIONMycenaean idols and with the naked female idols which areoften regarded as images of a goddess and are compared withthe Oriental Goddess of Fecundity. Images of gods are notas a rule placed in graves, although the two gold platesfrom the TUrd shaft-grave at Mycenae, representing a nakedwoman with birds, are an undoubted example of thepractice. The simplest explanation is to consider thesefemale images in the same light as images of animals andother burial gifts: they were to serve the dead in anotherworld. In regard to the representation of the gods noconclusions can be drawn from them.Among the objects dlscovcled at the places of the cultmentIOned above the so-called horns of consecration, thedouble axe, and tables of offerings of various form!'. areespecially prominent. Aform of the last-named, resemblinga small round table with three very short legs and a shallowdepression on the surface, was found on several sites inCrete and at Mycenae also. At Mycenae a stepped base ofa kind similar to that upon which the double axe was erectedwas recently found. These finds are important because theyshow that the cult was carried on upon the Mycenaean main-land in the same manner as in Minoan Crete.The horns of consecration and the double axes occur veryoften in representations of scenes belonging to the cult.The former are two horn-shaped projections pointing up-wards and connected by a stafMike base. Their origin isunknown. They have been compared with the I horns ofthe altar' in the Semitic cult. They often occur upon altarsbut are placed as a detached implement upon them. It hasbeen supposed that they are an abbreviated and conven-tionalized imitation of the boukranion. It is certain, atleast, that the horns are the place of consecration: the holyobjects were placed between them.The double axe is the symbol of the Minoan religion,a symbOl just as characteJ:istic and omnipresent as "theMinoan-Mycenaean ReligionChristian Cross or the Mohammedan Crescent Numerousexamples have been found which could have served nopractical but only a sacral end-richly ornamented doubleaxes of thin sheeted bronze, miniature axes of differentmaterials; very often they. occur on vases and gems andcarved on the stones of the walls and pillars of the palaceof Knossos. But not every double axe, any more thanevery cross, has significance as an object of the cult. Itspurpose is to place the building or the object under a higherprotection or to preserve it from desecration, just as thecross painted on a wall often does in modern Italy.There is a Carian word, labrys, which means double axe '.At Labranda in Caria, Zeus Labrandens, the god with thedouble axe, was worshipped in historical times. Since theoriginal population of Crete and that of Caria were un-doubtedly related, it is a natural supposition that the godwith the double axe was worshipped also in Crete. Hisnature is determined more closely by comparison with theHittite god of the sky, Teshub, who is represented with thedouble aJl:e and the lightning. The double axe is thereforesupposed to be the thunderbolt, like Thor's hammer. Butbefore adopting this generally accepted opinion, we musttest it in the light of the native Minoan material.The double axe occurs often in scenes relating to the cult.The most important representations are those on thesarcophagus from H. Triada.1On one side stand twodouble axes on high pillars wrapped round with green. Oneach double axe a bird has alighted. The sacrifice goes onundemeath-a sacrifice to the gods, not an offering to thedead, apparently. It is undoubtedly tempting to see in thedouble axes objects of the cult, fetishes, symbols of divinity,or whatever they may be called. But this is not certain,for on one side the figure of the god also stands before hisshrine. Some show the double axe in the1 Published by Paribeni, MA, xix. 1.16 GREEK RELIGIONhands of ministers of the cult 1 and the moulding form fromPalaikastro represents a woman holding a double axe ineach of her uplifted hands.2She is perhaps a goddess, butmay also be a priestess. The double axe therefore neveroccurs in the hands of any male god, and this is very re-markable if it represents the thunderbolt, for the god ofthe lightning is always a male deity. Under these circum-stances the possibility of another explanation must beconsidered.The double axe is sometimes represented as standingbetween the horns of consecration, but the common assump-tion that the small double axe found in the so-calledSanctuary of Double Axes in the palace of Knossos stoodbetween the horns of consecration cannot be proved. It isstill more often depicted between the horns of the bou-cranion. The boucranion IS the skull of the animal sacrificedwhich was left on the spot as a memento of the sacrifice andbecame a well-known ornamental motif in Greek art. Theconnexion reminds us that the double axe may be the sacri-ficial axe with which the animal was killed, as in later times.It is conceivable that the principal implement used in thesacrifice acquired an increased importance for the cult.This was the case, e. g., with the double axe with which theTenedians sacrificed their victims to Dionysos; they placeCl,it on their coins as the emblem of the city. In this way theaxe may have become a symbol, even an object, of the cult.A characteristic feature of Minoan art i'3 to be observedas regards both the double axe and the horns of consecra-tion. When a motif has become common, it spreads and iswidely used without any d ~ e p e r meaning. And so we canneither be sure that all the objects and parts of buildingswhich are decorated with the double axe are really of sacral1 JRS, xxii, 1902, p, 78, fig. ;'); MA, xiiI, p. 39, fig. 31. compared 'with BSA, ix, 193. p 60; BSA, viii, 192, fig. 59.llc EA, 1900, pI. 490.Iv!inoan-Mycenaean Religion 17importance nor that all the buildings which bear the hornsof consecration are really temples. But that several of themare temples and altars is shown plainly enough by thevotaries standing in front of them; on gems it is not alwayspossible to distinguish with certainty between temple andaltar.In these representations of scenes pertaining to the cultthe tree takes a prominent place. It stands behind the altaror behind something which is more like an enclosure and isreminiscent of the walls with gateways that surround sacredtrees on certain reliefs belonging to the Alexandrian period.The cult rises to a violent, ecstatic dance, during which thetree is shaken or a branch is broken from it. That we havehere to do with a genuine tree-cult is shown by other gemson which the branches are placed between the horns ofconsecration; daemons water them from libation Jugs andthe characteristic libation jugs often occursurrounded by branches.1On the other hand, it is no longera pure, primitive tree-cult, but one which is connected withthe anthropomorphic gods. Thus, in such scenes of the tree-cult, a bell-shaped idol is seen floating down through theair,2 or a god with spear or shield, or a bird, which last is alsothe form of the gods' appearing. On the famous ring from'the Acropolis treasure of Mycenae sits a woman under a tree-clearly a goddess, since she is receiving the adorationof other women approaching her. Another gem shows apriestess before the altar with the sacred branches, invokingthe divinity by blowing into a shell.We now come to of the representations of theepiphany of the gods. They are not few in number, but thel'ndeniable gain for our understanding of the MinoanJivinities is less than might be expected. One thing isclear: it was supposed that the gods appeared in the shapei MORt of them reproduced in TPC. JRS, Xii, 1892, p. 77, fig 1.2Ml BI8 GREEK RELIGIONof birds. Abird sits on each of the double axes under whichthe 5acrifice on the H. Triada sarcophagus is proceeding.On a terra-cotta from Knossos, representing three columns,a bird sits on each column.! A temple model from theIIIrd shaft-grave at Mycenae is crowned with the horns ofconsecration and birds flock around it. The bird is addedto the figures representing the gods to denote their epiphany.Two gold plates from the same tomb represent a womansurrounded by birds. The idol from the so-called Sanctuaryof Double Axes at Knossos has a bird on its head. It isuseless labour to try to determine the species of the birds, andthe mterpretation of the gold-foil from the IIIrd shaft-graveas Aphrodite with her doves is open to grave doubt. Probablya manifestation of the god was seen in any and every birdwhich happened to fly near at the time of sacrifice.Most commonly the gods are represented as the eye ofimagination sees them, in ordinary human form and dressand with no distinguishing attributes, and even when thefigure does show certain peculiarities their interpretationis uncertain. A ring from Knossos shows a goddess with amirror in her hand, another from Mochios 2 has in the fore-ground a large ship and behind this a sitting woman,doubtless a goddess, since behind her appears the sacredtree within its enclosure. A striking feature, and one towhich attention has often been called, is the predominanceof the female divinities; the male occur far less often andare distinguished by a spear or a shield.There is a tendency to explain these figures along oneparticular line. Evans finds everywhere the great Nature-goddess with her paramour; Dussaud the chthonic goddess,Earth the Mother.s It is tempting thus to reduce theexplanation of the figures to a single formula, but in this1 BSA, vlii, 192, p. 28, fig. 15.2 Revue arcMologique, 1910, ii, p. 32.a Dussaud, op. cit., pp. 250 et seq.Minoan-Mycenaean Religion 19simplification there is a risk of doing violence to the evidence.For it is very pos'3ible that the Minoans had a multitude ofgods-indeed this is likely, to judge by other peoples witha similar or somewhat less developed culture. It is thereforenecessaty to keep the types of divinity separate. Therepresentations of the gods in general are not as a rule verycharacteristic, but two types can be distinguished from therest. One of these is represented on a painted limestoneslab from the Acropolis of Mycenae.1It is a goddess whosebody is almost entirely hidden by the great Mycenaeanshield: the rigid position reminds one of an idoL The otheris a seal-impression from Knossos, showing a goddess witha spear in her hand standing on a heap of stonei' or a moun-tain and guanled by two lions disposed heraldically; onone side is a worshipper, on the other a temple.2Theresemblance to the Great Mother from Asia Minor, whohaunt" the mountains and is accompanied by lions, isobvious.In connexion with this important figure stands a wholeseries of images on gems and seal-impressions.3The heraldicarrangement is prominent, two animals being symmetri-cally placed on either side of a central figure, sometimes risingon their hind-legs, sometimes in another position, lying,standing, or carried. Much more rarely do we find a singleanimal in combination with a human figure, an unsymme-trical arrangement. therefore. The animals are of all kinds-lions, bulls, goats, birds, and imaginary creatures,sphinxes and griffins. The central figure is very often ahuman being, man or woman, shown grasping the necks orlegs of the animals to express power over them; this is thetype that was later called < Mistress of Animals' (UOTVIa1 The best reproduction in AM, xxxvii, 1912, pI. 8.2 BSA, vii, 191, p. 29, fig. 9.3 Mostly reproduced in TPC ane] FUl'twangler, A'lItike Gemmen,vol. hi, pIs. 2 and 3.B220 GREEK RELIGION01JpWlJ), of which the best examples are two seal-stonesrecently found durmg the excavations of the British Schoolat Mycenae. On either side of the goddess is a rampant lion,and above her head is a curious object composed of threewavy lines (snakes?) and the double axe. But in theMinoan-Mycenaean world there also appears a 'Master ofAnimals'. Quite often the central figure is not a humanbeing but a tree or a pUlar or merely an altar upon whichthe animals rest their fore-feet. These instances are adducedas proof of a tree- and pillar-cult, but the evidence is notconvincing. Just as the beasts guard the goddess, so theymay guard and defend her sacred tree, her temple, or altar.For the pillar has an architectural use and upholds thebeams of the roof-the best-known example is the reliefabove the Lion Gate at Mycenae-and the same is true ofthe pillars of the cult which are supposed to exist in thepalace of Knossos. We may compare the winged genii andfabulous creatures which guard the entrances to theAssyrian palaces.In place of the animals animal-shaped genii (daimones)now and again appear, but the central figure may alsobe one of these daemons subjugating the beasts. The figureis animal-shaped although upright like a man; there canbe no question of its being a human figure disguised asan animal. The head and legs are those of an animal,though of what species it is impossible to say. It is saferto refrain from the description lion daemons' frequentlyadopted. A typical and curious feature is what appearsto be a loose skin or other covering extending over theback from the crown of the head downwards, and belowthe waist suggesting the body of a wasp. It is oftenprovided with patterns and has a dorsal comb of bristles or hairs. Apart from small and unimportantvariations; the type is fixed. These daemons appear asservants of the gods with libation jugs and other vessels in Religion 21their hands; they water the sacred branches. Sometimesthey are dragging dead animals, presumably sacrificialanimals.The umformity of the type is apparent upon comparisonwith the few representations of other animal-shaped genii.A sculptured shell-plate from Phaistos,lwhich undoubtedlyreveals Babylonian illfluellce,2 shows a procession of fOUfanimal-headed figures in long garments; the first threehave heads of mammals, the last has a bird's head. A seal-impression from Zakro is of interest.3A woman with up-lifted arms is standing opposite an animal-shaped figurewhich is sitting on the ground like a dog and also has upliftedarms. The difficulty is to say which is the worshipper andwhich the worshipped. Still more interesting is the so-calledMinotaur seal-impression from Knossos.4On a folding-stoolsits a creature with human legs and trunk but with hoofs,tail, and the hornless head of (apparently) a calf: facinghim stands a man with lowered arms and therefore nota worshipper. Upon this mysterious image really dependsthe question whether there actually was a bull-cult in Crete,as is often stated under the influence of the stories of Europaand the Minotaur. For, often though bull-fights and huntsare represented, there is not the slightest indication thatthese had any religious significance. We must require moredefinite evidence.The above-mentioned purely formal extension of thecarved or painted motif is nowhere so strongly shown as inrelation to the fantastic hybrid creatures. Starting withthese daemons and with the figures of the sphinx and griffinborrowed from the East, Minoan art created a whole seriesI MA, xu, pI. 8, I. Compare, for instance, t.he so-called Hades relief, often repro-duced, e. g. in Jeremias, HatldbflGn del" altoriMltalischetl Geisteskleltur,p, 68, or the amulet, Roscher, Lexikon dey Mythologie, iv, p. 1494,tig. 55. 3 lHS. xxii, 1902, p. 78,:fig 4.4 BSA, Vii, Ig01, p. 18, fig 7a.22 GREEK RELIGIONof fantastic combinations of human and animal limbs andparts of the body. Sealimpressions from Zakro 1 showa motley collection of these products of an absolutely un-bridled fancy, which have no counterpart anywhere in theworld and seem to be due to the fevered imagination ofan over-heated brain. They have naturally no religioussignificance.In the second millennium the Greeks migrated into thecountry that was to be theirs and settled down among thenative populatlOn. The latter did not vanish, but becamemerged in the Greek people. It is disputed whether themasters of the Mycenaean fortresses of the mainland werecolonists from Crete or, as I consider certam, Greeks whohad adopted the Minoan culture.:! In the latter case, withthe Minoan culture they adopted to a very wide extent theMinoan religion; if the former supposition be true, the Cretanoverlords must still more stIongly have influenced the s u b ~ordinate, undeveloped Grpcian people, not least in religiousmatters,Natural religion is associated with the soil. Lands maychange in respect of population and language, but theimmigrants do not refuse their homage to the old gods ofthe country. The latter do not entirely disappear, eventhough they are supplanted and transformed. This was inall proba.bility what occurred in the change of religionwhich took place in Greece in prehistoric times, and it istherefore our duty to seek for traces of the Minoan-Mycenaeanreligion in the Greek, even though the circumstances aresuch as to oblige us to make considerable assumptions.The Change of religion did not, however, take place withoutCOnflicts between the old and the new gods. It has been1 fIlS, ::ocii, 192, pIs. 6-w. Compare my es.'l is one of the great points of difference-owing chieflyto the rationalizing tendency already mentioned; and theprocess of elimination was carried farther when the talebecame a nlyth, was associated with the gods, was relatedbefore highly civilized audiences of warriors and princes,and was admitted into literature. Such ideas may becom'eniently described as possessing a magical character.Just as the Greek gods, unlike those of many other peoples,lll'e not concerned with magic, so the Greek myth, unlike thefolk-tale, has no magical ingredients. Magic first returnswhen the genuine Greek spirit vanishes in the great trans-formation of philosophy and religion which began during theHellenistic period.And so Wli! miss the witch who is so common in our own there are two exceptions, Medea and Circe, butOrigins of Oreek Mythology 53sigmficantly enough they are foreign women. Medea atleast is Asiatic, from Colchis, but Circe too is genealogicallyconnected with the same country. It is suggestive thatCIrce appears in the Odyssey. This epic, reflecting life andlegends from the Ionian merchant-cities, has much more ofthe folk-tale in our sense of the term than the chivalric Iliad,which moves withm the circles of the royal courts. Theideas of taboo, which play so great a part in folk-tales, arealso rare in the Greek myth. A certain word must not bementioned, a room must not be entered, and the trans-gression of this command forms the turning-point of thetale. There is an example, however, in the Psyche story,where Psyche must not look upon her bridegroom by day-light. No less common in the folk-tale are the magicalobjects, wIshing-objects, such as the table t Serve-up', 01the donkey Kick-out', wonderful rings, weapons, clothes,and numerous other articles whose magical power is ableto rescue in time of greatest need. These have at leastleft traces in the Greek myth. When Perseus set out toslay the Gorgon, he had from the gods his magical equip-ment-the helmet of Hades which made the wearer invisible,the winged sandals which bore him through the aIr, andthe wallet. 'The knife of Peleus ' was a proverbial expressiondenoting rescue from the direst peril. The myth only saysthat Peleus had his kmfe from Hephaistos and with itdefended himself against the WIld beasts, when he wastreacherously abandoned in the forests of Pelion. Theproverb seems to show that this is Ktcsios; besidcb Zeus Meilichios we have BEat jmAtXLOl,, the gentle gods I. AU thebe gods received theoxenia. thatis, a meal set aside for them on a table; the householddeities received their food no less than the goblin or brownieof later days.The central point of the household and of its cult was thefixed hearth in the midst of the large room where the familylived, the EtrrLa. The cult was not one of any image but ofthe hearth itself and of the fire burning upon it. Conse-quently Hestia has often been only incompletely anthropomOl'phized; the original conception shows clearly through.The new-born chIld was received into the bosom of thefamily by being carried round the hearth. Every mealbegan and ended with a libation to Hestia, that is to 'lay,upon the hc of the household were performed. It was uedicatedto Zeus Herkcios anfl if, often mentioned by Homer and inthe myths. It is pointed out as rspecially terrible thatPriam was killed by Ncoptolemus at the aliar of ZeusHCl'kf'ios. The obvious presumption is that a similar altarw a ~ found in every house. On the Acropolis at Athens thealtar of Zeus Herkeios stood west of the Erechtheion in thePandroseion, under the sacred olive-tree in the court ofthe old Mycenaean royal palace, and accordingly the samename is with justice given to the altar which stands in thecourtyard of the palace at Tlryns. When the houses werecrowded together in the towns the courtyards becamecontracted, and the conditions of life also changed. Thealtar of Zeus Herkeios is therefore mentioned less frequentlyin later times. Other gods protected the house: the hetmeon the street, the stone pillar of Apollo Agyieus, and Hekate'striple image, warded off witchcraft. Above the entrancewas written: 'Here dwells the son of Zeus, Heracles thevictor: no evil may come in.'In a passage in Sophocles' Antigone Zeus Herkeios appearsas the god of blood-relationship,_ It is quite natural that thegod of the household and of the family should also becomethe god of the gens. Greek society was based upon thepatriarchal family and the idea of consanguinity, and thisidea had also to receive expression in the cult. Universalgods of kinship such as Zeus Patroas and Apollo PatrO(l$are a later development, induced by the tendency touniversalize deities. Originally every gens had its own godsGREEK RELIGIONand cults as distinct from those of others. Every gens toolived in its own district, so that its gods were often, thoughfar from invariably, local gods. The cult was the propertyof the family, the members of which might. admit. stranger:;if they wished, hut also had it in their power to excludethem. The Greek cults were to a very great extent originallyhereditary; they were the property of the gens. We needonly look at the gt('at Attic families 1 to see this, beginningwith the Eleusinian priestly families whose private cultthe mysteries once were and to a certain extent alwaysremained. From the family of the Boutadai was chosenthe priestess of Hephaistos and Athena Polias on theAcropolis, the Bouzygai carried out the sacred ploughing,the Lycomidai owned the mysteries at Phlya, the Euneidaithe cult of Dionysos Melpomenos, and so on. Even as lateas the end of the third century B. C., when Euryc1eidesfounded a shrine to Demos and the Graces, the priesthoodbecame hereditary in his family. Hence the knowledge ofthe cult came to rest with the great families. and the inter-preters of the sacral laws (the exegetes) were therefore alwayschosen from the nobility. It is noteworthy that ephebeswere permitted to appear personally in legal cases only inmatters relating to inheritance and to a priesthood per-taining to the family. Herodotus says of Isagoras that hedoes not know his lineage but that his relatives sacrifice toZeus Kanos. The cult was a badge of the gens. Inscriptionsshow that the case was the same everywhere. not onlythroughout AthfJ1s. Nor must we forget the cult of ances-tors. w h o s ~ importance for the holding together of thefamily .is obvious.Ancient society was built up on the family and wasintimately associated with the cult. Relics of this systemwere left even when the conquering democracy had brokenthe power of the great families and levelled their distinctions.t J, Toepffer. Attisr.he Gel'leatogir,Gods of Nature a1td of H'umall Life 127Just as the family originated from a common ancestor andworshipped a hero as its source, so ancestors were createdfor the state as a whole; every town had its eponym. Eventhe new tribes which Cleisthenes created on a geographicalprinciple were named after heroes. It was a ruling ideathroughout antiquity t.hat a community was composed ofconsanguineous groups of people, even though the ship might be only fictitious, and the cults in which anysocial idea was expressed were therefore modelled upon thecult of the family. As every house had its saCred hearth,so now had every town, situated in the building where thegoverning body had its seat and where its members assembledfor their common meal (the Prytaneion). Hestia thereforebecame a city-goddess with the epithets' of the Prytaneion 'and of the Council' (,Eurla 1rpVrallf{a, l3ovXcda). On thehearth burned the sacred fire of the state, and when a colonywas sent out it took with it fire from the hearth of the mother-city to be transferred to the hearth in the foreign land whichwas to be the centre of the new city. Far on into the futureit was the custom to establish a common hearth as the idealcentre for a confederation of states; examples are thecommon hearth of the Arcadians at Tegea and Hestia'saltar in the temple of Zeus Amarios at Aegion for theAchaean League.Hestia remained attached to the hearth; she waS onlyincompletely anthropomorphized into a goddess. Zeusis of even greater importance than she in the domesticcult, and in the life of the state with its higher demandsbe was bo1.lnd to appear with still greater prominence. Justas the father of the household is Zeus' priest, so l..eus himselfin the patriarchal monarchy of earlier tinles is the specialprotector of the king and hence the supreme custodian ofthe social order. TIlus in Homer Agamemnon is under thespecial protection of Zeus. The god was not dethronedwith the fall of the monarchy. As Zeus Polleus he is therzR GREEK H.ELIGIONdivine overlord of the city-state. Alongside of him appearedthe old Mycenaean city-goddess Athena, who received thesame epithet Polias. Zeus Polieus and Athena Polias stand by fiid(\ in a great many cities. So closely connectedw(:rc they and sO similar were their functions that it wasbut nattmll for an age given to thinking in genealogies tocxpreHs the relationship between them genealogically, andAth('ua IJccame Zeus' daughter. These two divinities safe-guard the existence 'tnd freedom of th' city and Zeus istherefore oftIm called saviour' and liberator'(EXwOepto,). But they are universal deities, in contra-distinction, for imtance, to the Semitic tribal gods. InHomer, certa.inly, Athena and Ares march out at the headof the army; in the civil warfare between the Greek citiesthey could not do so, for often Zeus Polieus and AthenaPolias had their seats also upon the acropolis of the enemy'scity, and the feeling for identity was so strong that itforbade, for example, Athena in Athens and Athena inThebes to appear as each other's foes. On the contrary thetendency to universality showed its strength in the fact thatthe Athena ousted other city-goddesses, suchas Alea and ltonia. But men need divine patrons andchampions in battle who will take thf'ir part against all theirtoes. This place was filled in Greece by t.he The city 11eeds protection not only for its political butalso for its material cxiand Aphrodite may have onginally been, they repr.esentfor the Greeks hardly more than two powerful instincts.Their cults are few. especially in the case of Ares. Theirmutual relationship has found expression in the lnythabout their amours.Two great gods are absent from this survey, their nameshave been mentioned only in passing-Apollo2and Dionyso'\Both are immigrants and both came into Greece in pre-Homeric times. Their importance lies upon a higher planethan the simple religion of needs which we have beenfollowing in this chapter, and appears in all its individualityin the greatest crisis through which the Greek religionpassed, the rise of legalism and mysticism in the archaicperiod. We presently try to estimate their contribu-tion by the merits of the new religious values which they"vere tht' of introducing. It is a religious movement 0. KriJ'tsrhmer, C;/"tla, Xl, 1921, PP 195 ct seq. Wil.lI'J1(lWitz's throry that Apollo otiginMerl In Asia Minor(JIeY1rw$, nxvill, tl)I)1, pp. 575 et !lCll.. ltnd Greek ]fistiWical WrlfmgalM2 .'i pallo) is RUpptll'tltd by dl!tails c01lnccletl with the f"st! v,lIs(lICe IJmc1: p. 102) a.nd the thne-reckonll1g (see myP"imlttvliJ Timg-yeckoning, pp. :Jou et seq). It. is signtficant th;lt thefi(.llneric bound to contribute tothe elevation of the deities which had a more generalsigniflCance. In their new dwelling-places the people foundgods which they recognized and worshipped according tothe principles of polytheism: Guilts regio eilts r would translate: 'To the goel who dwells in the countrythe worship is dlie.' Among them were both local anduniversal deities. Rites and forms of belief which theimmigrants brought with them and others which theylearnt became associated, as circumstances directed, withone gad or another. Thus the Greek pantheon was formedby a fusion of the gods of two peoples, whose respectiveshares in the fmal result we can only very incompletely andunccriamly distinguish.VTHE HOMERIC ANTHROPOMORPHISMAND RATIONALISMTUE Homeric question is one of those which cannot besolved but only brought nearer to their solution: the meansat our arc not sufficient. Yet the discussion hasnot been in vain. So much is clear, that the Homeric poemscontain portions which origmated at widely separated from the Mycenaean Age down to the seventhcentury at least. Whether the creator of Homer as we have from obvious addltions-was a mere editor ora poet of genius is of less interest for the history of religion:what is of importance is that even if he was a creative poethe worked upon the basis of a rich and lengthy earlier epictradition, which, as is proved by archaeological evidencein the poems, must have had its origin in the Mycenaean Age.When we seek to trace the origin and earlier stages of thisepic poetry through the centuries of its course, it is notas though we could reach the earlier core by merely peelingoff the outer covermgs; the more correct metaphor wouldbe that of a mixture of various ingredients, in which oldand new have become kneaded together and intermingled.!The Homeric religion, like all other religions, grew upby a slow development, and it is to be presumed that tracesof the intervening are to be discerned in Homer.But they cannot be demonstrated from external criteria;l K 1", N said of Athena in one passage, in which she appearsundisguised, that she was like a tall and fair woman. Thegods form the highest anthropomorphic class; they arerecogniJ:ed hy their appearance and behaviour, just asa prince OT nobleman is recognized, When they appear indisg\lbt\ they preserve, like a disguised prince, something o{their f,wperiolity, and though they are easily recognized asthey disappear, it is only then that the person to whom theyshow themselves realiz(.'S that there was anything peculiarHomeric Anthropomorphism and Rationalism 145about them or their appearance. Since tallnc'qs of staturewas a mark of aristocratic beauty which the poet seldomomits to assign to his characters, and especially to women,it is given to the gods in a still higher degree. Thus, too, thenaive art of earlier times makes the god., larger than men.With a certain inconsistency, which yet is not di!l1cult tounrler:;tand, Athcl1i1 in one place unveils the CY('$ of Diomcdci'iso tlwt he !'('cognizu'i the god" in the hattl('.Nevcrthel('",,, it wa;; "OllwtllUC'> dWicult for the popL to k\:cphis SCUbC of the supcriorit y of the god" within bounds Thl'old id(;'a of the epiphany of tl\(' /iods in thf> form of birdslived OU, and, therefore, the rapid arrival or dbappeamnceof a god is oftcll compared with the flight of a bIrd. It 15doubtless in accordanr.e with the same idea that the tipsof the branches of trees quiver under the feet of Hera andHypllos, and that Hera glides over the hIghest mountam-tops without touching the earth with her feet. In otherplaces we have instances of sheer poetic hyperbole, as whenOlympus is shaken when Zeus nods or Hera moves upon herthrone, Or when Ares and Poseidon 111 battle cry out liketen or twelve thousand men. Here, as also when Ares, in the fight, covers seven roods, an almostburlesque touch is introduced. This last instance is an old motif which the poet found useful and did notcorrect. The captive Tityos in the underworld covers nineroods.From the beginning Zeus was the principal deity of theimmigrating Greeks, and the immigration exalted him byletting other gods disappear or faU mto the haqlcground.The immigrants found tle\V gods in Greece and took overboth the gods of the country and others which come tothem from without; they wcr(' all regarded as subordinateto Zeus. So Zeus, by reason of his original import.ance andof his development, became the foremo'it deity of all, theking of the gods. In Homer he takes an absohltely a141 KGREEK RRLIGIONdominating position. This fact was of less importance inthf' cult, where the god who is being worshipped at thatmoment has an almost exclusive preponderance. Mand1rects his attention to one particular god, and the othersam not immediately present to the mind. In the cult,thprdon', there can scarcely be any question of rclativrsllpllriority or inferiority among the gods. It is in poetry, where the gods appear aIongqide of (lIlt'allOtlwr npol1 the same plane and as patrons of oppositec,unph. ITere tIle consequences of anthropomorphbm,tpp0ar, which were concealed in the cult. The world of thegods is equipped with every human frailty. This point wasreached hy gradual stages during the development of theepic. The very working up of separate poems into one greatepic mllst have involved a pronounced tendency in thisdirection. It has been said, perhaps not without reason,that the gods in the older portions of Homer are moreindependen.t of each other and that the divine community\vith its royal stronghold Olympus is a. creation of the poet ofthe Iliad t But our acceptance of this view will dependupon how much we are willing to ascribe to the creator ofour present Iliad.The divine comml.mity is a copy of the conditions of theage of chivalry. The seat of the gods is, therefore, anacropolis with' its royal stronghold, Olympus. So muchremains of the physical conception of Zeus'. cloud-cappedmountain that the top is represented as rising into space the cloud$. There Zeus sits when he wishes to bealone, as he sat before; there he summons the council of thegod$, down lies the city of the gods, and all otherhuildings in it are outshone by Zeus' palace, the floor ofwhich is laid with plates of gold. There the gods sit upontheir thrones and drink wine like the Phaeacian princes atthe house of Alcinoiis. TIle palace is surrounded by shining1 Fmslcr. Of!. dr" PP 277 ct Sl.'y'.Homeric A'1lchYapomoYj>hism und Rationalism I47walls, against which rest the chariots of the gods. Theirhorses eat ambrosia out of their mangers. Zeus and Herahave each their own thalamus just as Tclemachus has.Round about stand the dwellings of the rest of the gods.Hephaistos, who has built all this splendour, has his work-shop there. Th" city must he surrounded by a wall, since\V(J of the gatns which open of tlwmlJip ofZeus to that f)f the other gods, thO;'(1 who in l'lycemlean tUllC::'were sef'l1 to f('veal themselvf:"i as birth The attention wa::,probably directed melc1y to the fact of their coming, nolto the chrectlOn from whkh they came. Fmally anthropo-morplnsm collected all the gods upon Olympus.This does not prevent the gods from also having theirseparate dwelling-places; Zt:us rules from Ida, where he hada shrine and an ultar. Poseidon lives in the depths of thesea, where he has his palace at Aigai; Apollo dwelb inLykia or at his ilhl'ines at Chryse, Killa, and Tenedos. Arcsand Phobos come from Thracc, the land of the Berserkers,and Boreas and Zephyrus also return to Thrace, the landfrom which they blow.For simple people, who themselves spend their lives inthf; same place, the localIzation of the gods presents noproblem. It is OhVIOUS to such people that the gods arcto be found where they them in the cult, and equallyobvious that they are not to be found in other place'). Butwhen tlw COnSC(1\lCUCC'1 of anthropomorphism are pressed as b tlw l,; seen to bea human failing in the Thetis cannot go at once toZeus on hel' crnmd, for Zt:U$ amI all the gods havetravelled the day before to Ethiopia. to a banquet. Poseidonagain is with the. Ethiopians when the council of the godsis held at which the homeward joumey of Odysseus is sanc-tioned. As the god returns he bas u distant Sight of OdysseusGREEK RELIGIONfrom the mountains of t.he Solymoi. Zeus from Ida a view of the battle-field at Troy, and Poseidon from thetop of Samothrake. The gods must, therefore, go frOIu placeto place, and here Homer employs a poet's licence. Poseidonrequires fOUf strides to go from Samothrake to Algai and1.h $;hip far out upon the sea. The omniscient Proteus dnesnvt susped that Meuelaos and his men have hidden selves under so that they may seize him and forcelurn to reveal his wisdom. Lampctie has to inform theaU-seeing Helios that Odysseus' men have seized his herds.Here the influence of the folk-talel whose structure makesno out thatnot even Poseidon, the giant's fatller, can restore t.heCyclops' eye. The standpoint is subjective and vadesaccording to the side from which the phenomena arc gardcd. The fancies of the fotk-tale care (1':> little for theorder of Nature as for consistency. For them it is a simplematter to stop the sun and moan in their COI.lr&C. Anthropo--morphism, which inserts the sun-god a.mong the otherdivinities, abo nnds it quite natural thai Athena GREER RELIGIONprevent the appearance of Eos in order to prolong the nightfor the reunited husband and wife, and that Hera duringtil(' battle over the dead body of Patroklos should sendHelro'> below the horison against his wilLOf aU the numerous characteristics which the gods carriedwith themfrom their primitive originon their journey tOward5a higher nJigioub plane, chamcterbtics to which the Homericanthropomorphism gave such clearness and prominence,nonc was more fateful than their lack of any connexion ""ithmorality. Power, knowledge, presence were not yet con-ceiveu in their absbact absoluteness, the power of the gods,and not Its limitatlOns, was present to the religious oon-s d o u s n e ~ s . The absence of mot ality preyed upon the vitalnerve of religiou&. feeling. In proportion as the gods areNature-gods, they have nothing to do with morals. Therain falls alike upon the just and upon the unjust. Animismimplants in the' gods human will and feeling, passions andcaprices. At the earliest stage man's object is not to upholdmorality bllt to obtain from the gods the fulfilment of hisown desires-Autolykos had learned from Hermes to surpassall others in thievishness and false oaths-and this naivepoint of view never disappears, even though man graduallylearns that there are certain desires with which he cannotfittingly approach the gods. He seeks an authority for thepractices in which the life of society has taken form, and hefinds it in the gods. Public opinion then forces these customsupon the individual, even when they are at variance withhis own desires.The Homeric man has travelled some distance along thispath. The bonds of society were weak, but the sanctity of~ the unwritten laws determining the mutual relationships of.uen was all the greater. Passions and will were of anintractable violence which often drove men to disregardthese laws, but tile transgression was severely judged as allact of wolence and presumption {iJ{3pLr, J.Tcd themselvesnot only to the judgement of their fellows, to which theoppressor ought to submit, but also to the gods who enforcethe unwritten law. Transgression of the latter brings downthe divine indignation The suitors did not re-member that their aGtions would incur the resentment ofmen, and Helen complall1t'; that Paris had no sense of thisresentment. Submbsion to tho ordinary moral code Iscalled shame, modeGty It urges on even the timidin the da.ngels of battk The cummitting of outrage anda Viaus dispo&ition, in:,olencc and law-ahidmg conduct(b{3PI0"'Nl.t-1/6os ft{3p,,,--l2fJt'o(ltl1) are placed inopposition to each other as contranes of which the gods arecognizant. But it is significant that these passages occurin the Odyssey. There is, however, a remarkable in the Iliad, In a simile, and, therefore, in one of the newestparts. We are there told how Zeus drives the autumnrain-storms over the earth in his anger with man, whopronounces viciou!> jUdgements, distorts the right, and doesnot respect the gods-a cry from the depths which announcesHesiod.We are here in the presence of the still unwritten law.Elsewhere certain obligations appear, precisely those whichmake social life possible and are ihc foundation of thesociety of the da.y: offences against the gods, against parents,elder brothers, and refugees (naturally not upon the field) are condemned, as well as pel jury and breach ofcompact. Even the beggar, it is said, has his Erinyes.The story of the duel behvccn 1) is the cloud or darknesswhich is always at hand when a god wic;hes to appear amongmen or to help and save one of his fuvo\l1'1i.es. The gods situpon the wall of Troy and descend to the fight hidden ina cloud. They withdraw heroes from the contolf alludes on one occasion. On the other handthis expression serves to free the gods from the bility for lul1nan misfortunes and to lay it upon men selves.Man is most ready to look for the intervention of a higherpower when his plans ate crossed and misfortune over takeshim. This again is his share of human life, his lot, his moira.Homeric A1tthropo'morphism and Rationalism 169The same circumstances arc at one momc'nt regarcltld \,('n the gods can avert it.Death projects his decp hlack shadow upon the life ofmen; the Homeric man is sdzed with lcuor when con-fronted with the empty nothingness of tht; kingdom of thedead. Therefore the idea of death a!> the certain lot of allthe living, predetermined and assigned simultaneou::Jy withbirth, grips him with violence. From this thought fatalism Iarises; its root is the inevitability of death. Death is man's,,17 GREEK RELIGIONportion, but he has also another portion III life. As soon asthe portion appears as the due and regular share-and thisis lrnplied in the very word mmra-fatalism spreads fartherand brings the whole of human Me under its sway. Homerhas already set out upon this path. He has got so far thatmen are sometimes relieved ot the responsibIlity of theiraction:;.Here, however, we find once again the idea of the univcr:oalr power', evrn though in a disguised form, developed bythe increasing tendency to reflection upon the destinies ofhuman life. For the different events in life have not eacha ~ e p a r a t e moira as they have a separate dal11wn. Just asthe word is one, so also are events manifestations of onemoim. The word is nowhere found in the plural except inone late passage, in which personification has already takenplace.This circle of ideas moreover was exposed to the influenceof mythological conceptions, which in part contributed toanthropomorphize moira and in part to develop fatalism.Just as the moira of death is assigned upon the day of birth,so the idea arises that the whole course of life is predeter-mined at birth. We see it in the well-known image of thedestinies that the gods or the powers spin and wind formen, as the spun thread is wound upon the distaff, destinies,that 15 to say, which the gods allow to come upon thenl.Thh, predetermination arises f(om the folk-tale motif of t b ~gifts which the gods bring men on their birthdays or wedding-days, gifts which are to serve them in life. The myths ofMcleager and Hcrakles are examples of this motif, Thedeveloping id(:'a of the portion, moira, laid hold upon it, andthus arose the notion that fate, the course of life, is deter-mined at birth.Moira and the daimcmes upon one side, and the gods uponthe other represent two stages in religious evolution. Thecme i!> earlier and less definite, but bas developed in a laterHomeric A11tlzropomorpltism and Rationalism 171awl peculiar manner; the other is younger and is terized by individual and highly anthropomorphicfigures. The latter are therefore incapable of appearing asthe causes of all the emotions, all the events in which manfeels the working of a higher power. The Homeric godswere obliged on account. of their special character to leaveone sphere of activity to ' power' and ' the powels '. Asthey themselves were to a great extent Kature-god::;, this::'1'11ore became fil::.,t and foremo:5t the life of man in so faras it is not det.ermined hy Nature. The limits arc neitherfixed nor clearly drawn. The wonl daimon also includes. god', and' god' can also hI; used indefinitely or collectivelyto denote' power'. As soon as r power) had to its' particular expression. Ate (Blind Folly) isQue, but there are several: Strife (Ens), Fear (Deimos,Phobos), Uproar (Kydoimos), in iact perhaps even Ares (theDestroyer) himself, all belong to the same company. Thesepowers are written with capital letters and are called gods,but they are without personality and individuality becausethey are each nothing but a power of a certain kind. Theyare personifications. Personification is not an abstractionbelonging to a late and far advanced period, as is oftensaid; it is the bastard descendant of ' power' and the god.I n its train followed allegory, and of this too there areelaborate examples in Homer. In regard to religiousproblems, he left a rich and fatal inheritance to later ages,both positively and negatively.A few words finally as to the myths. It is a common ideathat they form the principal contents of the Homericpoems. To a certain extent this is incorrect: it depends howmuch is included in the term 'myth'. I have alreadyseveral times pointed out that anthropomorphism has oneor its main roots in the folk-tale. In the folk-tale thesupernatural beings playa great part; they are there upona level with the human figures. So long as the tale is afolk-tale. merely and confines itself to what we call thelower figures of popular belief, pre5erving its innate fantasticcharacter, the contradiction involved in placing the super-Homeric Anthropomorphism and Ratiol1alism 173natural on a level with the human passes without remark.But this contradiction makes itself felt when polytheism isdeveloped, the supernatural beings of popular belief areexalted into gods, and the gods enter in place of t11esepopular beings into the folk-tale, which now begins todevelop into the myth. The myths are, as Professor Wundthas pointC'rl 011t, a creation of the' heroic age after thepattern of its own conditions. There is added in the case ofthe Greek!> the inborn ratwnalism which swept away thefantastic and magical elements inherent in the folktale,By this removal the anthropomorphic character of themyths was heightened and made still more prominent. Wedo not know what was the pre-Humelic form of the myths,otherwise than by uncertain and subjective conclusions fromlater versions which seem to us unlike Homer. We are,therefore, restricted to an examination of Homer himself inorder to judge of the effect which the Homeric lines ofthollght had upon the mythology.In the case of the myths also there is a difference betweenthe passages in which the poet himself is speaking and thosewhich are put into the mouths of his characters. When thepoet speaks in his own person myths arc as a rule absent;the mythological allusions are limited to a brief citation ofnames in the genealogical trees of the heroes. The g e n e a ~logies would seem to present an opportunity ready-madefor mythological digressions; yet only one such digression isfound in the Iliad in the poet's own mouth, that of theorigin of the two Thessalian heroes Mencsthcus and Eudow'S.In the Odyssey digressions seem to be lesg rare, the mostnoteworthy being that relating to the :,cer Theoklymeno!'iand his family, and there are two oihers, but in such dos!.'connexlon with the subject that they can hardly be reckonedhere, one about the ~ c a r which Odysseus had received whilehunting the boar and which leads to hh recognition, andthe other about his bow, the gift of Iphitos. Othl!'rwise all174 GREEK RELIGIONthe mythological digressions, for instance, the stories of thefates which befell the heroes on their way home, are put intothe mouths of the personages introduced by the poet; eventhe myth of the love-affairs of Ares and Aphrodite is,attributed to the singer Demodokos.Mythological stories, even mythological allusions wherethey convey something more than mere names, are put intothe months of the persons appearing in the poems. They most often adduccd as examples, warning or excusing.comforting or exhorting, or else they serve to embellish tll!'genealogy. In prayers they arc intloduced as a reason forthe granting of the prayer. When Nestor so readily relatesthe story of his youthful CXplO1ts this is not only a strokeof characterization but 15 meant as an example to incitethe young. The fact is really curious, for opportunities formythological digressions were not wanting in the epic poem.Instead, Homer loves to talk in similes. Only once does hetake a detailed simile from mythology, when Odysseuscompares Nausicaa to the virgin Artemis. The similes,which are for us one of the most prominent characteristicsof epic style, arc really somethmg new; they reveal another,far more advanced side of life than the heroic portions.!Astonishing as it may appear, it is a fact that the mythologywas regarded as almost out of date by the Homeric singers.It was an old inheritance which they took over, but theirinterest was beginning to follow other paths.If we compare Homer's own presentation of his heroesand gods with the mytholugy elsewhere, it becomes apparentthat he has modified tlw myths in an anthropomorphicihreciion. The contest between the gods in Books XXIand XXII of the Iliad comes to nothing--Ares alone isstrock down by At.hena-notwithstanding the solemnproclamation and the magniloquent opet)ing. The poet no A. :l?1att, Homer's (Journal oj Philolog)', xxiv, 189&. zS et seq.}.Homeric /11lthro,homorphism aud Ratio1talism 17.1longer dares to follow the myth and let the gods ('om(' toblows with one another. Even a contest between gods andmen is rare, notwithstanding the upposed. The tragic?oets as a mle take their mythological material from otherquarters than Horner. The legacy beqneathed by Homerto tragedy is the humanizing of the myths, the creation of-cal suffering and feeling men and women, instead of thelUteal princes and supermen of the legends.The fables of the Odyssey, the storie.." of the adventuresof Odysseus, stand upon a different plane. Thn folk-tale ishere seen once more breaking ou't, although it is a folk-tale)f a different kind from the old, which had already become Life in the Ionian seaside towns} the first: voyages of discovery, as one might welt canhose first bold sea-voyages} indicated a means of satisfying, 11.' GREEK RELIGIONthe ot'"ire for stories. Otlt there in far-off fabulou,; land'5there was room for the element of fable which anthropo-morphism could not endure.Tho Homeric age inherited gods with the weaknesses ofprimitive gods and myths with the fantastic and incan-s{lqnent Chill' ddiveretl theGretks. They could hrlll:eforth of tlidr own accurd and IJythdr own CH01 ts fll1,ork wastherefore involved in the general fate of the Greek rdigion.VI AND MYSTICISMTHE Homeric nobility, governing a rural population whichW'l>, in great measure of foreign extractlOn, developed a of fldf-Qsteem which was al,;o directed against tIH"gud:.; in the poems we can see the demand of the Greektempelament for persplCuity and a rationally compte-hensible presentation of phenomena. When the light ofhistory begins to dawn npon the mother country. we findpowerful religwlls movements of an entirely differentcharacter, having associations with ideas and practiceswhich the Homeric world had outgrown. In Greece itselfthe development had not been broken off; there it wasattached by all its roots, and not merely by a few fibres, tothe old traditions. But the mother country. too. waspassing through a period of unrest and transformation.These changes were principally political and social. Thenobility had overthrown the old monarchy and taken theauthority into its own hands. Most of the land. and thebest part of it, belonged to the nObility, and when tradebegan and money was invented to fonn a basis for beginnings of capitalism the aristocracy was able to takeadvantage of this also. The humbler population founditself politically nnd economically in an oppressive state ofdependence rendered still more vexatious by economicdistresS. TIle land seems to a very large extent to havebeen portioned out in lots so small that one of them couldnot even provide a scanty living for a single family; debtsincreased and crushed the common people, while the lawsof debt were pitiless. A remedy offered itself in vigorousemigration-tbis was the time when the Mediterran'an wasLegatism and :vlysticism 1Hzencircled by Greek colonies- but it brought only an al1evia-Han, not a complete cure. The demand of the people formore reasonable laws and a share in political power wabbeginning to make itself lward, but the populace itself wasstill too little developed to take the power into its own hamh.Ib; leaders accordingly exalted into tyrants. buttyranny could only be a tramitional stage, until the politicalcondition'> at the c!O&C of the archaic period wero consolidatedunder democratic (Jr mono mildly uristoeratic fmms.It is against thih politit:al and sodal backgwl1ud that themighty reIibriot1'l mov('ments of the period !->hould b(' viewed.1Dist1'es:; drives man into the arm" of religion. It increase;the tenderness of his conscience in regard to offences againstthe gods and transgression of their commands. In theheightening of religions fee1mg he Reeks oblivion of themiserit:s of life and the ,\ornes of tht> day. These are thetwo main currents in the tide of relIgious feeling whichdominated the early historical period. For the first of themwe have contemporary testimony of the greatest value inthe Works and Days of HeslOd. All that we now read illthat poem is not due to Hesiod: certain portions werein!:>erted later, especially the collections of maxims and tabooordinances and the ruks about lucky and unlucky dayswhich form the conclusion These are for us of the greatestl chid wnrk un this penod I" RlJhde'" !'s}cht', bitt It Lleo.lswith only the OM Side of the: j;ubjecL, ViI, l'cstasy, mystiCIsm, lmd not wnh the lega.lmfn wInch cmnpletc... the picture ofthE) penod. The published book (1 A ie (;rcekNellgllm to the 7'lmt' of ]{cslOd, has not rc,v.;hcIl me. A::I to themystfl'irs and Orphicil>lll the ground ww. dean:d by ('. A. Lobeck.AgltUij>luarilU$, ). vols, 1829. A perCl'ptibl{'l WUllt 1s the absent.a ofany full account of the rcligiou'> history of Delphi; T. Dempsey,The Delphic Oracle, is good, but sUlumary acconnt A nl;'ces.sarypre1iroinary. which has not yet heeJl wouh! be thecollection of the many ora.cles, even though only a. small part ofthem be uf value. An excellent source for the Idstory (Jf rcligKl!t, aswen as for other ma.ttcfll, 11:1. H. L>le1s, J)I/! FmgmeMe der nmohrafJ!ll".182 GREEK RELIGIONimportance. Though slightly later, they date from thei'illTIe period-the Appendix of the Days is already quotedby Hcrakkltos 1-and they were assimilated with Hesiod'!'>poem on account of their affinity to it.H(' trau claim to bethe plOphet of the truthfull\Iuses.LIke all primitive cosmogony, that of proceedsun the as:,umptlOl1 that there was :,omething existing fromthe beginning. The world wa;:; not made ant of nothing,but creation consisted in the mouldIng of the primitivesub:;,tance mto definite forms. Accordingly Chao;, is placedat the beginmng, after which mose Gaia, Tartaros, andEros (Love). It is commonly said that He::liod, withoutfollowing it up, has propounded a deep thought, that ofEros as the generating principle, the driving force in develop-ment. The truth is that Eros is described by the ordinaryHomeric epithets, while everything that follows IS but aseries of physical conceptivtl!;. The ue:.cription of thedevelopment of the univer:;,e by the methud of generation.the only form of dewlopmeut comprl."hen:.ible tv the poet'sage, shows clearly enough what Hcsiod by the he has ljiVerl to 1'os. In the trace of a cosmogcmy which to be found in. Homer it seems tu water. Okeanos. thati::) the first and this agrees with the ideas of manypeoplcb. Hesiod goes farther back, but his first principlesare very largely ::;pGculative phuosophical conceptions,186 GREEK RELIGIONnotwithstanding the fact thai they are now written withcapital letters as though they were personified. From Chaosarose Darkness and Night; of these were born Ether andDay. Gaia gave birth spontaneously to Heaven, thehigh Mountains, and the Sea, and with Heaven she gavebirth to Okeanos. Resiod has now reached the point atwhich Homer began The mythological names are a tran!).parent covtJdng for the first natural philosophy. Thela.tter has it:" origin in the mythical cosmogony and long thu mythological names for Its principles. '1'1115is lilt' case in Phcrckycles and even far later in Empcdocles,who calls his four elements Zeus, Hera, Aidoncus, andNesUs, and gives to the driving forces of development thenames of Love and Strife. Here Greek rationalism has donethe work that was to be expected of it. The mythologicalexplanation of the universe was transferred to the realm ofphilosophy and finally compelled even to discard its mytho-logical dress. Mythology was once more relegated to itsproper sphere. Resiod, however, is still chiefly a mytholo-gist: he relates in detai.l the crudely primitive cosmogonicstory of the mutilation of Uranus, and gives long lists of Ker (Fate), :Momos (Blame), 01ZyS(Dhtrcss), &c.-which he inserts in his genealogies.The: portions of Resiod's Works tmd Days which are lateradditions sho'w how the demand for the observance ofjustice if" extended from the relationships of men with oneam,ther to their relationships with the gods. Piety if,inculcated. Men should sacrifice according to their ability,and :"hould pray and pour out lIbations both at rising andat Even in the farmers' rules we find the directionto pray tQ Zeus and Demeter when the hand is luid to theplQugl1 to begin the work of, autumn, Religious devotiontakes possession of daily lite in a fashion which is otherwiseunknown in Greece.'fhi::; condition of mind helps to explain the superslitiQusLegalism a1td Mysticism contained in the concluding pari of the work.Some arc purificatory Hiles concerrnng Dexllal life a.nd theperforming of the natural functions, which arc alway5c:,pecially associated with taboo. The prohibitlOn againstpouring libations with unwashed hands is as old as Homer.Reverence for the rivers, which filled an important place inthe Greek cult, is incu1catt.. d by further commands. tlgain embody popular Ideas of tahoo, for which parallelscan be found both among- pl'itmtivt' peoples and in modernfolk-lore.lThe finger-nails mnst not I,c parcel at a l>Ltcrificl',just as IS now forhidden on a Sunday; tiH' ladle mu!-,t notbe placed acrObS the ju:,t as it b still con-'iidcred unlucky to crot'll-! knife amI 1)1 k. Children, who arcparticularly susceptiblc to eVil influences, must not Sit upona tombstone; a man mU5t not bathe in a woman's bath, &c.The strict observance of these ritual ordinances was takenup by men who considered themselves to be sornctlungbetter ihan others. We arc accustomed to regard thePythagoreans as a phllosophical school, but they are justas much a rehgious sect. Several of Hcsiod's taboo nances arc found again among the so-called Pythagoreanprecept;;; their nnmber Was augmented by uthers, but the5c,too, are dcnved from popular ldeas of taboo,2 for the prohibition agaim,t breaking bread, against picking upcrumbs which have fallen under the table, agaiu'5t over a broom or the beam of a balance. Others refer to thecult: a shrine mllst be entered from the right and quittedfrom the left, the worshipper must he dressed in a deang,trment in which no one has slept, at he mU;:,t bebarefoot, he must not blink when pouring a liba.tion, mustnot pluck the leaves from a wreath, must not even kill alouse within the sacreu precincts. More peculiar to the E. E. Sikes, Folk-turt!! itf the I Works and n'lys ' (/f l?c'uiew, vii, 1$93. Pl? 389 et setl.}'J F. lkIhm, Dc symbolis D1Sl3Cl'talivll, Bl;xlin, 1sing a river, certain occaSIons whensexual intercourse is forbidden-in short, legalism bids fairto Scll':C upon human life. The great mass of the peoplewere (';{wnpt from these bonds, while the Pythof legalIsm would have been fastened on the whole of life.But it is to the esteem of men and not to the gods thatHc::.iod looks for the enforcing of hb precepts. The anthro-pomorphic gods of the Greeks did them the service of nottlollbHng about the minor affairs of life provided that thesimple and easy demands of the cult were complied with.Nevertheless the ritual law \vas not far off,Further evidence for this is given in the very last part ofHesiod, the Days. All peoples have observed the varyingphases of the moon and have reckoned in month!;, and soalso did the Greeks. During this period the Greek time-reckoning was regulated, by the aid of Delphi, in accordancewith lunar months.1The observance of oertain days oft h t ~ month thereby acquired increased weight, the oldfestivals becoming associated with certain fixed days of themonth. In particular they were assigned to the days offull moon, which are everywhere considered the most lucky.1 ~ e my Die Entstehung ltml sakraJe Eedetttlmg des griecMscllfmKaJendiJrs (Lumls Universmts rJrsskrijt. xlv, 1918, no. ,21), pp. 43!,It seq.Legalism and Mysticism r89The penple took kindly to tl11R (rgulation by tllf' 'jtlcralcalenrlar; it agreed with popnlar belief that everythingwhich was to grow and increase should be carriecl out underthe waxing moon, while that whIch Was done when themoon was on the wane should dimimsh and declme. Thetwelfth day of the moon-month is the best for generalbU'iiness UR well as lor Hence arose a long listof lucky and unlucky clays for varioll'> ta.omt', the Delphic oracle revealed the laws toLycmglls, in Spttrta it was suid that he got them from The latter is lhe more scientific explanation, whichis bat->cd on the great resemblance between social conditionsin Sparta and in Crete. Tyrtaeu5 does not know Lycurgmas the founder of the Spartan order of society, but for him,too, it i.;; derived from the god at Delphi. Dcmonax ofMantinett was sent by the oracle to Cyrene as a lawgiver;according to another story he went to Delphi beforebeginning his ,vork.1The legislative activity in Athens is the best known.The connexioll with Delphi is here less prominent, but thereare nevertheless unmistakable and very real signs of it.Draco instituted laws dealing with murder and homicide;that these did not come into existence without the co-opera-tlon of Delphi is clear. We shall return to this pomt fartheron, Agam, when Cleisthenes overthrew the old basis of$tate organization by establishing his ten phylae, the oraclewas called upon to choose the ancestral heroes of the newphylae. Solon's conncxions with Delphi are mere anecdotes;b\\t notwithstanding this we arc un firm ground in regardto the 'iar'!';),l legislation. Tlw ancient accounts divide his1 The a:mtrrwersics as to the existence of Lycurglls and the datea!,; whlrh Tyrtt as Xcnophon, whenhe \vac; about to join in l'xpr;ditioll of Cyrus, a"kcdApollo to ,,,hid! god,; he "hnuld sactificc in order to ClImesafely back. The culb of the new city hac! to be arranged.The cmii,'Tants took some gods with them from the mothercountry, others they found in their new home.,;. I aminclined to think t.hat herein lies the of thatundeniably great and much discussed influence of Delphiupon the Greek colonization.1When the Phocaeans, forinstance, set off to found Massilia, they Were advised to takeEphesian Artemis as their guide, and her cult consequentlybecame the most important in the new city. Men hadalways been accustomed to inqmre of the gods, even inregard to their own purely worldly concerns, and it was onlynatural that those who hoped to :find new dwelling-placesin foreign lands should do the same. Apollo could givegood advice; for into Delphi poured people from all quartersof the Greek world, as well as It om foreib"l1 lands to whichGreek influence had !t'i\c1ll'd-Lydia, Etrur1the part of religion which perishes most easily in religiouschanges. Instead, they had certa,in sacred acts, whicharoused religious feeling and into which every age cou1. The Orphics praised Zeus as the beginning,middle, and end, but Zeus had acquired his greatness bydevouring Erekapaios, Just as he devoured Metis. Beclaimed his place as ruler, but he belonged to a later genclation of divinities. So the old folk-tale motif was used. alldhe was made to incorporate the creator of the world withhimself. All this is but a further development of old andwell-known cosmogonic motifs; the only original feature isthat Time is made the first prmciple. Whether this ideaoriginated among the Persians, as somc have mamtained.1I am not able to judge.In the myths and also in Hesiod there are only feebleattempts at inventing an anthropogony in addition to thetheogony. It is here that the Orphics made their mostoriginal contribution to mystical rehgious speculation. ByPersephone, the queen of the lower world, Zeus had a son,Dionysos-Za.grells. Zeus intended the child to have dominionQver the world. but the Titans lured it to them with toys,feU upon it, tore it to pieces, and devoured its limbs, butAthena saved the heart and brought it to Zeus, who ate it,and out of this was afterwards born a new Dionysos, theson of Semele. The Titans wele struck by Zeus' avenginglightning, which burned them to ashes. From the ashes manwas formed. and he therefore contains within himselfsomething of the divine, coming from Dionysos, and something of the opposite, commg from his enemies, the Titans.In its essential features this myth goes back to the shethcentury. An old epic, the Alkmaionis, already calls1 R. Eisler, Weltertma.ntel lmd Himmelmlt, pp. 39Z et seq.Legalism and Jvlyst'icism 217Zagreus the highest of all the gods; Aeschylus calls himthe son of Hades; Onomacritus had already mentioned theTitans as the authors of the crime against Dionysos. Platospeaks of ' the TItan nature' much as we do of 'the oldAdam ',in a way which clearly points to the Orphic teaching.The aphorism of Herakleitos: . TIme is a child who playsand moves the pieces, the lordship is to the child,' firstbecomes fuIIy comprehensible in the light of this teaching.The myth of the Titans' crime against Zagreus might betaken as an aetlological tale intended to explain the centralrite in the Dionysiac orgies, the teanng to pieces and devour-ing of the god pcrsomtied in an animal, but with this riteOrphicism indissolubly uf:>sociates the myth of man's onginfrom the ashes of the TItans, in whIch partIcles of the dIvineZagreus were also present. Man h a ~ a twofold nature,good and eVIl; this is the necessary basis for the doctrinewhich is built upon it. for this, as for everything onginal,it is difficult to find a genetic explanation. We may suggestthat the feeling for justice generated the sense of gUllt whenthe demands of justice were applied to the individualhimself; we may suggest that the religIOus ecstasy, thesense that the god made his dwelling with man, dividedman's nature into a divine and a human part; or finallywe may point to the doctrine of the transmigration of souls,and the tendency to asceticism which it brought with it.All this gives the environment in which this idea mIght beborn, but does not explain its buth. It was the creation ofa religious genius, but it took place among a people whosepsychology permitted them to react very lIttle to