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THE RELIGIOUS THOUGHTOF THE GREEKS
THE RELIGIOUS THOUGHTOF THE GREEKS
FROM HOMER TO THE TRIUMPH OF CHRISTIANITY BY CLIFFORD HERSCHEL MOORE PROFESSOR OF LATIN IN HARVARD UNIVERSITY CAMBRIDGE HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS LONDON: HUMPHREY MILFORD Oxford University Press 1916 COPYRIGHT, 1916 HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS First impression issued November, 1916 Second impression issued December, 1916 TO MY WIFE...
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PREFACE
PREFACE
In this book eight lectures given before the Lowell Institute in Boston during the late autumn of 1914 are combined with material drawn from a course of lectures delivered the previous spring before the Western Colleges with which Harvard University maintains an annual exchange—Beloit, Carleton, Colorado, Grinnell, and Knox. The lecture form has been kept, even at the cost of occasional repetition. The purpose of these lectures is to present within a moderate compass an historical account of the
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IHOMER AND HESIOD
IHOMER AND HESIOD
“Homer and Hesiod created the generations of the gods for the Greeks; they gave the divinities their names, assigned to them their prerogatives and functions, and made their forms known.” So Herodotus describes the service of these poets to the centuries which followed them. [1] But the modern historian of Greek religion cannot accept the statement of the father of history as wholly satisfactory; he knows that the excavations of the last forty years have revealed to us civilizations of the third
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IIORPHISM, PYTHAGOREANISM, AND THE MYSTERIES
IIORPHISM, PYTHAGOREANISM, AND THE MYSTERIES
The seventh and sixth centuries before Christ were marked by important social, philosophic, and religious movements. Of the many causes which brought about these changes, the most easily traced are those of a political and economic nature. The form of government which is pictured in the Homeric poems is one in which the king and nobles alone have an effective voice. The humbler folk meet to hear the decision of the few, which they are expected to accept without a murmur. On only one occasion doe
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III RELIGION IN THE POETS OF THE SIXTH AND FIFTH CENTURIES B.C.
III RELIGION IN THE POETS OF THE SIXTH AND FIFTH CENTURIES B.C.
In the preceding lecture we considered together various manifestations of the mystic tendencies which developed in Greece during the seventh and sixth centuries b.c. Now we must turn back and ask what evidence we have from the poets of these centuries as to the course of morality and religion. To the epic poetry of Homer and the didactic verse of Hesiod succeeded the elegiac, iambic, and melic poets. The individualism of the age, the spirit of reflection, political changes, personal ambitions an
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IVTHE FIFTH CENTURY AT ATHENS
IVTHE FIFTH CENTURY AT ATHENS
The defeat of the Persians at Salamis in 480 b.c. made Athens the first state in Greece. Not only had she suffered enormous losses in the ruin of her city and lands for the common cause, but she had borne the brunt of the naval fight at Salamis, as ten years before, with the brave men from Plataea, she had driven the Persian hordes from the plain of Marathon into the sea. The Athenians had acquitted themselves well, for they had shown the loftiest patriotism and loyalty to the cause of Hellas; n
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VPLATO AND ARISTOTLE
VPLATO AND ARISTOTLE
Socrates became the father of many philosophic schools. His pupils naturally differed from one another in the emphasis which they gave to this or that side of their master’s teaching and in the ways in which they combined his doctrines with principles laid down by earlier thinkers, but all agreed in this, that they directed their attention to man as the center of thought and inquiry. From this time ethics and religion became the dominant themes of philosophy. Our subject bids us confine our atte
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VILATER RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHIES
VILATER RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHIES
Plato and Aristotle mark the culmination of a great period in Greek thought. After them metaphysical speculation made little if any advance in antiquity. Indeed we are all aware of the fact that the greater part of the thinking world has been divided between Platonists and Aristotelians ever since, although in our own time we are seeing a return by some to the philosophic position of the Sophists and Heraclitus. Now in our discussion of the philosophies of Plato and Aristotle you must have felt
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VIITHE VICTORY OF GREECE OVER ROME
VIITHE VICTORY OF GREECE OVER ROME
By her victory at Zama in 202 b.c. Rome made her position as mistress of the western Mediterranean secure; and in the next century she extended her political dominion over Greece. But the same period saw captured Greece take her captor captive. Nor was this subjugation of the victor by the vanquished any sudden thing—in fact it had begun centuries earlier. The course of that conquest will be the main subject of the present lecture. The story of the sale of the Sibylline Books to King Tarquin is
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VIIIORIENTAL RELIGIONS IN THEWESTERN HALF OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE
VIIIORIENTAL RELIGIONS IN THEWESTERN HALF OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE
In our previous lectures we have had occasion more than once to refer to the effect of the conquests of Alexander in opening up the nearer East to the European West, and in making easy the contact between Greeks and Orientals, especially those of Semitic and Persian stocks. Greece, Egypt, and western Asia were for a brief period united in one great empire; and although that political empire quickly broke into many units, the sway of the Greek language and of Greek ideas was permanently extended
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IXCHRISTIANITY
IXCHRISTIANITY
In the previous lectures we have traced the development of Greek religious thought from the Homeric poems to the third century of our era; we have seen how Greece extended her intellectual dominion over the entire Mediterranean world which the military and political genius of Rome bound into one empire; and we have examined the chief oriental mysteries which spread throughout the same area. We now turn to Christianity. In dealing with this it will be necessary to review at some length the work o
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XCHRISTIANITY AND PAGANISM
XCHRISTIANITY AND PAGANISM
In the last lecture we traced the growth of Christianity through the three stages that are represented in the New Testament, and we saw that when the new religion passed beyond the bounds of Palestine and entered on a campaign for converts among the Gentiles, it came into contact with Greek philosophic thought and perforce began to state its doctrines in terms which should be intelligible to educated men. For in spite of the fact that the majority of its adherents—like those of every other conte
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I
I
T. D. Seymour: Life in the Homeric Age , chaps. xiv-xvi, 1907. Gives the facts with regard to religion in the Iliad and Odyssey. J. Adam: Religious Teachers , pp. 21-83. E. Rohde: Psyche I 3 , pp. 1 ff., 1903. Nägelsbach: Homerische Theologie , 3 ed., 1884. O. Gruppe: Griechische Mythologie , pp. 987-1015. Campbell: Religion in Greek Literature , pp. 53-113. J. Girard: Le sentiment religieux en Grèce d’Homère à Eschyle , 3 ed., pp. 1-133, 1887. P. Waltz: Hésiode et son poème moral , 1906. The mo
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II
II
The Orphic fragments are quoted from the edition by Abel, 1885; the tablets found in graves from Diels: Fragmente der Vorsokratiker , 3 ed., II, pp. 163 ff., 1912. Lobeck: Aglaophamus sive de theologiae mysticae Graecorum causis , 1829. The classic work. Rohde: Psyche , I 3 , pp. 278 ff., on the Mysteries; II 3 , pp. 1 ff., on Dionysiac religion and Orphism. Adam: Religious Teachers , chap. v. Campbell: Religion in Greek Literature , pp. 238-266. Fairbanks: Handbook of Greek Religion , pp. 128-1
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III
III
The fragments of Archilochus, Solon, Theognis, and Simonides are quoted from Bergk: Poetae Lyrici Graeci , 3 ed., II and III; those of Aeschylus and Sophocles from Nauck: Tragicorum Graecorum Fragmenta , 2 ed., 1889. Adam: Religious Teachers , pp. 83-183. Campbell: Religion in Greek Literature , pp. 114-121; 169-180; 195-208; 267-290. Girard: Le sentiment religieux , pp. 135-170; 247-448. Decharme: Critique des traditions religieuses , pp. 91-112. Gruppe: Griechische Mythologie , pp. 1041-1058.
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IV
IV
The fragments of the pre-Socratic philosophers are quoted from Diels: Fragmente der Vorsokratiker , 2 vols., 3 ed., 1912; those of Euripides from Nauck: Tragicorum Graecorum Fragmenta , 2 ed., 1889. Adam: Religious Teachers , pp. 184-355. Campbell: Religion in Greek Literature , pp. 291-337. Zeller: Philosophie der Griechen , I, 1 5 , pp. 521-552; I, 2 5 , pp. 623-837; 968-1164; English translation, Pre-Socratic Philosophy , II, pp. 1-206; 321-516. Socrates and the Socratic Schools , pp. 39-236.
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V
V
Adam: Religious Teachers , pp. 356-460. On Plato by one of the best of recent English Platonists. Zeller: Philosophie der Griechen , II, 1 4 , pp. 389-982; II, 2 3 , pp. 1-806; English translation, Plato and the Older Academy , pp. 1-552; Aristotle and the Early Peripatetics , I-II, pp. 1-347. Gomperz: Griechische Denker , II 2 , pp. 203-533; III 2 , entire; English translation, II, pp. 249-397, III and IV, entire. Burnet: Greek Philosophy : I, pp. 205-350. Benn: Greek Philosophers , pp. 144-326
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VI
VI
The fragments of the early Stoics are quoted from von Arnim: Stoicorum Veterum Fragmenta , I-III, 1903-05 ( S V F ). Benn: Greek Philosophers , pp. 326-364; 452-473; 523-588. Caird: Theology in Greek Philosophers : II, pp. 31-316. Louis: Doctrines religieuses , pp. 199-343. Decharme: Critique des traditions religieuses , pp. 259-501. Zeller: Philosophie der Griechen : III, 1 4 , pp. I-373; III, 2 4 , pp. 82-218; 254-735. The English volume: Stoics, Epicureans, and Sceptics , includes no more tha
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VII
VII
For the political relations of Italy to Greece and the East reference should be had to the standard histories of Rome; the following books deal primarily with religion. G. Wissowa: Religion und Kultus der Römer , 2 ed., 1912. The Standard book on the subject; a comprehensive work of sound learning. Marquardt: Römische Staatsverwaltung , III, 2 ed., 1885. W. Warde Fowler: The Religious Experience of the Roman People from the Earliest Times to the Age of Augustus , 1911. The best book for the peri
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VIII
VIII
Dill: Roman Society from Nero to Marcus Aurelius , pp. 547-626. Glover: The Conflict of Religions in the Early Empire , 3 ed., 1909. Benn: Greek Philosophers , pp. 487-522. J. Reville: La religion à Rome sous les Sévères , 1886. F. Cumont: Textes et monuments relatifs aux mystères de Mithra , 2 vols., 1894-1900. The only treatment of any of the oriental religions which takes fully into account the monumental, epigraphical, and literary evidence. Id.: Les mystères de Mithra , 2 ed., 1902; English
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IX-X
IX-X
Many of the pertinent articles in Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible and Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics , in the Encyclopaedia Britannica , 11 ed., and in similar works are written by specialists and are valuable. A. Harnack: Lehrbuch der Dogmengeschichte , I, 4 ed., 1909; English translation from the third German edition, I and II, 1901. The most valuable book on the subject. F. Loofs: Leitfaden zum Studium der Dogmengeschichte , 4 ed., Halle, 1906. The opening chapters cover the early per
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APPENDIX IISPECIMEN OF A ROMAN CALENDAR
APPENDIX IISPECIMEN OF A ROMAN CALENDAR
Taken from the Fasti Praenestini , which were composed between 4 and 10 a.d. The letters of the first column show the eight days of the Roman nundinae , which are repeated for the successive nundinal periods; the second column gives the number of days before the Calends, Nones, or Ides as the case may be; in the third column the character of the day is indicated by C = comitialis , F = fastus , N and NP = nefastus , and the oldest festivals are given: VIN = Vinalia , ROB = Robigalia , etc.; the
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