Читать книгу Five Stages of Greek Religion - Gilbert Murray - Страница 8

1. Professor Émile Durkheim in his famous analysis of the religious emotions argues that when a man feels the belief and the command as something coming from without, superior, authoritative, of infinite import, it is because religion is the work of the tribe and, as such, superior to the individual. The voice of God is the imagined voice of the whole tribe, heard or imagined by him who is going to break its laws. I have some difficulty about the psychology implied in this doctrine: surely the apparent externality of the religious command seems to belong to a fairly common type of experience, in which the personality is divided, so that first one part of it and then another emerges into consciousness. If you forget an engagement, sometimes your peace is disturbed for quite a long time by a vague external annoyance or condemnation, which at last grows to be a distinct judgement—'Heavens! I ought to be at the Committee on So-and-so.' But apart from this criticism, there is obviously much historical truth in Professor Durkheim's theory, and it is not so different as it seems at first sight from the ordinary beliefs of religious men. The tribe to primitive man is not a mere group of human beings. It is his whole world. The savage who is breaking the laws of his tribe has all his world—totems, tabus, earth, sky and all—against him. He cannot be at peace with God.

The position of the hero or martyr who defies his tribe for the sake of what he thinks the truth or the right can easily be thought out on these lines. He defies this false temporary Cosmos in loyalty to the true and permanent Cosmos.

See Durkheim, 'Les Formes élémentaires de la vie religieuse', in Travaux de l'Année Sociologique, 1912; or G. Davy, 'La Sociologie de M. Durkheim', in Rev. Philosophique, xxxvi, pp. 42-71 and 160-85.

2. I suspect that most reforms pass through this stage. A man somehow feels clear that some new course is, for him, right, though he cannot marshal the arguments convincingly in favour of it, and may even admit that the weight of obvious evidence is on the other side. We read of judges in the seventeenth century who believed that witches ought to be burned and that the persons before them were witches, and yet would not burn them—evidently under the influence of vague half-realized feelings. I know a vegetarian who thinks that, as far as he can see, carnivorous habits are not bad for human health and actually tend to increase the happiness of the species of animals eaten—as the adoption of Swift's Modest Proposal would doubtless relieve the economic troubles of the human race, and yet feels clear that for him the ordinary flesh meal (or 'feasting on corpses') would 'partake of the nature of sin'. The path of progress is paved with inconsistencies, though it would be an error to imagine that the people who habitually reject any higher promptings that come to them are really any more consistent.

3. Transactions of the Third International Congress of Religions, Oxford, 1908, pp. 26-7.

4. The Buddhist Dharma, by Mrs. Rhys Davids.

5. See Die Mutaziliten, oder die Freidenker im Islam, von H. Steiner, 1865. This Arab was clearly under the influence of Plotinus or some other Neo-Platonist.

6. Cf. E. Reisch, Entstehung und Wandel griechischer Göttergestalten. Vienna, 1909.

7. Parm. Fr. 8, 3-7 (Diels²).

8. Xen. Fr. 24 (Diels²).

9. Xen. Fr. 15.

10. Aesch. Cho. 60; Eur. Hel. 560; Bac. 284; Soph. O.T. 871. Cf. also ἡ φρόνησις ἁγαθὴ θεὸς μέγας. Soph. Fr. 836, 2 (Nauck).

ὁ πλοῦτος, ἀνθρωπίσκε, τοῖς σοφοῖς θεός. Eur. Cycl. 316.

ὁ νοῦς γὰρ ἡμῶν ἐστιν ἐν ἑκάστῳ θεός. Eur. Fr. 1018.

φθόνος κάκιστος κάδικώτατος θεός. Hippothoön. Fr. 2.

A certain moment of time: ἀρχὴ καὶ θεὸς ἐν ἀνθρώποις ἱδρυμένη σῴζει πάντα. Pl. Leg. 775 e.

τὰ μῶρα γὰρ πάντ' ἐστὶν Ἀφροδίτη βροτοῖς. Eur. Tro. 989.

ἧλθεν δὲ δαὶς θάλεια πρεσβίστη θεῶν. Soph. Fr. 548.

11. See J. E. Harrison, Prolegomena, i, ii, iv; Mommsen, Feste der Stadt Athen, 1898, pp. 308-22 (Thesmophoria), 384-404 (Anthesteria); 421-6 (Diasia). See also Pauly Wissowa, s.v.

12. Prolegomena, p. 15 f.

13. Luc. Icaro-Menippos 24 schol. ad loc.

14. Frequently dual, τὼ Θεσμοφόρω, under the influence of the 'Mother and Maiden' idea; Dittenberger Inscr. Sylloge 628, Ar. Thesm. 84, 296 et passim. The plural αἱ Θεσμοφόροι used in late Greek is not, as one might imagine, a projection from the whole band of worshippers; it is merely due to the disappearance of the dual from Greek. I accept provisionally the derivation of these θεσμοί from θεσ- in θέσσασθαι, θέσφατος, θέσκελος, πολύθεστος, ἀπόθεστος, &c.: cf. A. W. Verrall in J. H. S. xx, p. 114; and Prolegomena, pp. 48 ff., 136 f. But, whatever the derivation, the Thesmoi were the objects carried.

15. Frazer, Golden Bough, ii. 44 ff.; A. B. Cook, J. H. S. xiv, pp. 153-4; J. E. Harrison, Themis, p. 5. See also A. Lang, Homeric Hymns, 1899, p. 63.

16. Feste der Stadt Athen, p. 390 f. On Seed Jars, Wine Jars and Funeral Jars, see Themis, pp. 276-88, and Warde Fowler, 'Mundus Patet,' in Journ. Roman Studies, ii, pp. 25 ff. Cf. below, p. 28 f.

17. Dieterich, Muttererde, 1905, p. 48 f.

18. Dr. Frazer, The Magic Art, ii. 137, thinks it not certain that the γάμος took place during the Anthesteria, at the same time as the oath of the γεραιραί. Without the γάμος, however, it is hard to see what the βασίλιννα and γεραιραί had to do in the festival; and this is the view of Mommsen, Feste der Stadt Athen, pp. 391-3; Gruppe in Iwan Müller, Mythologie und Religionsgeschichte, i. 33; Farnell, Cults, v. 217.

19. One might perhaps say, in all three. Ἀνθίστηρος τοῦ Πυθοχρηστοῦ κοινόν is the name of a society of worshippers in the island of Thera, I. G. I. iii. 329. This gives a god Anthister, who is clearly identified with Dionysus, and seems to be a projection of a feast Anthisteria = Anthesteria. The inscription is of the second century b. c. and it seems likely that Anthister-Anthisteria, with their clear derivation from ἀνθίζειν, are corruptions of the earlier and difficult forms Ἀνθέστηρ-Ἀνθεστήρια. It is noteworthy that Thera, an island lying rather outside the main channels of civilization, kept up throughout its history a tendency to treat the 'epithet' as a full person. Hikesios and Koures come very early; also Polieus and Stoichaios without the name Zeus; Delphinios, Karneios, Aiglatas, and Aguieus without Apollo.

See Hiller von Gaertringen in the Festschrift für O. Benndorff, p. 228. Also Nilsson, Griechische Feste, 1906, p. 267, n. 5.

20. Miss Harrison, 'Bird and Pillar Worship in relation to Ouranian Divinities', Transactions of the Third International Congress for the History of Religion, Oxford, 1908, vol. ii, p. 154; Farnell, Greece and Babylon, 1911, pp. 66 ff.

21. First published by R. Paribeni, 'Il Sarcofago dipinto di Hagia Triada', in Monumenti antichi della R. Accademia dei Lincei, xix, 1908, p. 6, T. i-iii. See also Themis, pp. 158 ff.

22. Ar. Equites, 82-4—or possibly of apotheosis. See Themis, p. 154, n. 2.

23. Themis, p. 145, fig. 25; and p. 152, fig. 28 b.

24. O. Kern, Inschriften v. Magnesia, No. 98, discussed by O. Kern, Arch. Anz. 1894, p. 78, and Nilsson, Griechische Feste, p. 23.

25. Religion of the Semites, 1901, p. 338; Reuterskiold, in Archiv f. Relig. xv. 1-23.

26. Nili Opera, Narrat. iii. 28.

27. See Aristophanes' Birds, e. g. 685-736: cf. the practice of augury from birds, and the art-types of Winged Kêres, Victories and Angels.

28. Romans, i. 25; viii. 20-3.

29. Lang, Myth, Ritual, and Religion, 1906, ii. 284; ibid., 130; Moret, Caractère religieux de la Monarchie Égyptienne; Dieterich, Mithrasliturgie, 1903.

30. A. B. Cook in J. H. S. 1894, 'Animal Worship in the Mycenaean Age'. See also Hogarth on the 'Zakro Sealings', J. H. S. 1902; these seals show a riot of fancy in the way of mixed monsters, starting in all probability from the simpler form. See the quotation from Robertson Smith in Hogarth, p. 91.

31. Feste der Stadt Athen, p. 416.

32. Anthropology and the Classics, 1908, pp. 77, 78.

33. A. B. Cook, Class. Rev. xvii, pp. 275 ff.; A. J. Reinach, Rev. de l'Hist. des Religions, lx, p. 178; S. Reinach, Cultes, Mythes, &c., ii. 160-6.

34. One may suggest in passing that this explains the enormous families attributed to many sacred kings of Greek legend: why Priam or Danaus have their fifty children, and Heracles, most prolific of all, his several hundred. The particular numbers chosen, however, are probably due to other causes, e. g. the fifty moon-months of the Penteteris.

35. See Primitive Traits in Religious Revivals, by F. M. Davenport. New York, 1906.

36. E. Doutté, Magie et religion dans l'Afrique du Nord, 1909, p. 601.

37. Cicero, de Nat. Deorum, ii. 2; iii. 5, 6; Florus, ii. 12.

38. Plut. Theseus, 35; Paus. i. 32. 5. Herodotus only mentions a bearded and gigantic figure who struck Epizelos blind (vi. 117).

39. Eusebius, Vit. Constant., l. i, cc. 28, 29, 30; Nazarius inter Panegyr. Vet. x. 14. 15.

40. Aesch. Suppl. 1, cf. 478 Ζεὺς ἱκτήρ. Rise of the Greek Epic³, p. 275 n. Adjectival phrases like Ζεὺς Ἱκεσιος, Ἱκετήςιος, Ἱκταῖος are common and call for no remark.

41. Hymn of the Kouretes, Themis, passim.

42. See in general I. King, The Development of Religion, 1910; E. J. Payne, History of the New World, 1892, p. 414. Also Dieterich, Muttererde, esp. pp. 37-58.

43. See Dieterich, Muttererde, J. E. Harrison, Prolegomena, chap. vi, 'The Making of a Goddess'; Themis, chap. vi, 'The Spring Drômenon'. As to the prehistoric art-type of this goddess technically called 'steatopygous', I cannot refrain from suggesting that it may be derived from a mountain Δ turned into a human figure, as the palladion or figure-8 type came from two round shields. See p. 52.

44. Hymn Orph. 8, 10 ὡροτρόφε κοῦρε.

45. For the order in which men generally proceed in worship, turning their attention to (1) the momentary incidents of weather, rain, sunshine, thunder, &c.; (2) the Moon; (3) the Sun and stars, see Payne, History of the New World called America, vol. i, p. 474, cited by Miss Harrison, Themis, p. 390.

46. On the subject of Initiations see Webster, Primitive Secret Societies, New York, 1908; Schurtz, Altersklassen und Männerbunde, Berlin, 1902; Van Gennep, Rites de Passage, Paris, 1909; Nilsson, Grundlage des Spartanischen Lebens in Klio xii (1912), pp. 308-40; Themis, p. 337, n. 1. Since the above, Rivers, Social Organization, 1924.

47. Cf. Dr. Rivers on mate, 'Primitive Conception of Death', Hibbert Journal, January 1912, p. 393.

48. Cf. Cardinal Virtues, Pindar, Nem. iii. 72:

ἐν παισὶ νέοισι παῖς, ἐν ἀνδράσιν ἀνήρ, τρίτον

ἐν παλαιτέροισι μέρος, ἕκαστον οἶον ἔχομεν

βρότεον ἔθνος. ἐλᾶ δὲ καὶ τέσσαρας ἀρετὰς

ὁ θνατὸς αἰών,

also Pindar, Pyth. iv. 281.

49. See Woodward in B. S. A. xiv, 83. Nikagoras won four (successive?) victories as μικκιχιζόμενος, πρόπαις, παῖς, and μελλείρην, i. e. from his tenth to fifteenth year. He would then at 14 or 15 become an iran. Plut. Lyc. 17 gives the age of an iran as 20. This agrees with the age of an ἔφηβος at Athens as '15-20', '14-21', 'about 16'; see authorities in Stephanus s. v. ἔφηβος. Such variations in the date of 'puberty ceremonies' are common.

50. See Rise of the Greek Epic, Appendix on Hym. Dem.; and W. R. Halliday, C. R. xxv, 8. Nilsson's valuable article has appeared since the above was written (see note 1, p. 31).

51. Anaximander apud Simplic. phys. 24, 13; Diels, Fragmente der Vorsokratiker, i. 13. See especially F. M. Cornford, From Religion to Philosophy (Cambridge, 1912), i; also my article on English and Greek Tragedy in Essays of the Oxford English School, 1912. This explanation of the τρίτος σωτήρ is my conjecture.

52. 1 Cor. xv. 36; Rom. vi. generally, 3-11.

53. Il. M. 326 f. μυρίαι, ἃς οὐκ ἔστι φυγεῖν, βροτὸν οὐδ' ὑπαλύξαι.

54. Frg. Ap. Plut. Consol. ad Apoll. xxvi . . . ὅτι "πλείη μὲν γαῖα κακῶν πλείη δὲ θάλασσα" καὶ "τοιάδε θνητοῖσι κακὰ κακῶν ἀμφί τε κῆρες εἰλεῦνται, κενεὴ δ' εἴσδυσις οὐδ' ἀθέρι" (MS. αἰθέρι).

55. Frazer, Lectures on the Early History of the Kingship, 267; F. Cumont, 'Les Actes de S. Dasius', in Analecta Bollandiana, xvi. 5-16: cf. especially what St. Augustine says about the disreputable hordes of would-be martyrs called Circumcelliones. See Index to Augustine, vol. xi in Migne: some passages collected in Seeck, Gesch. d. Untergangs der antiken Welt, vol. iii, Anhang, pp. 503 ff.