RELIGIOUS WORSHIP.
Greek Religion--The Functions of the Priest--Forms of Worship,
Prayer, and Sacrifice--Purification--Holy Water--Two Forms of
Sacrifice, Bloody and Bloodless--Libations--Prophecy and
Divinations--The Oracles.
In a description of Greek life it is impossible entirely to pass over
the many customs connected with the worship of the gods, and their
importance in the life of individuals. Greek religion did not appoint
any fixed ceremonies to be observed every day, as the Jewish or
Mahometan religions do; but still it placed a believer in connection
with the Deity, and thus gave occasion for some religious act every day.
There were also some special occasions which led them to turn to their
gods, and it is, therefore, natural that religious worship should have
played a very important part in the life of the Greeks, especially as it
was only in rare cases that they required to resort to the mediatory
help of a priest; as a rule, any Greek might perform the various
religious ceremonies himself. It is a disputed question whether Greek
natural religion in its first beginnings was acquainted with temples,
images of the gods, and priests as a separate class; in any case, in the
oldest literary monument of Greek life, the Homeric poems, worship was
chiefly in the hands of laymen, and service in the temples and
priesthood generally played a very subordinate part in the life of
mankind.
Greek religion was unacquainted with regular worship returning on
certain appointed days, for which priests and laymen assembled together
in the House of God. It is true the temple was regarded as the dwelling
of the god; but the believer, as a rule, only entered it if he had some
special prayer to make, and otherwise performed his religious duties at
home in his own dwelling. This he could generally do without the help of
a priest; the priest existed, in the first place, for the sake of the
god, and only in the second in order to facilitate the intercourse
between god and man. The gods desired worship and sacrifice, and, as it
could not be left to chance whether some one person would supply these,
since there must be no interruption to the worship, it was necessary to
have a class of men whose work in life was the performance of these
duties towards the divinity. It was probably this idea which led them to
appoint a priestly class; and it was only as a consequence of this that
laymen sometimes called upon the help of the priest, especially in
important cases, since these men, who were in constant intercourse with
the gods, were assumed to have the most accurate knowledge of the forms
well-pleasing to the divinities. Consequently, as the development of
civilisation made greater claims on ordinary people in their
professional activity, such as military service, politics, studies,
etc., and thus drew them away from divine things, it became commoner to
make use of the mediatory assistance of the priest, and thus the
influence and importance of the priestly class continued to increase.
There was another reason which led the laymen to make use of the
priests. According to Greek belief, the gods revealed their will to
mankind by various signs and visions; it was not everyone, however, who
knew how to interpret these signs; a deep knowledge of the divine nature
and will, as well as a rich treasure of experience were required, and
it was, therefore, natural that they turned for this purpose to those
who had devoted their whole life to discovering the will of the gods.
These were the seers or interpreters who were closely connected with the
priests, though they must not be identified with them.
When we speak of a priestly class among the Greeks, we must not take it
in the literal sense of the word; the Greek priests did not constitute a
class in our modern sense of the word, since there were no preliminary
studies required for the office. Greek religion possessed no dogmas; the
priest’s duty was only to perform certain rites and ceremonies, and
these were easily learnt. Consequently, the priesthood in Greece was
limited to no age and no sex; boys and girls, youths and maidens, men
and married women could perform priestly functions for a long or short
period. The essential requirement was legitimate birth and participation
in the community in which the priestly functions had to be performed;
bodily purity and moral character were also required; members of ancient
and noble families were especially privileged, and sometimes bodily
strength and beauty were regarded in the choice. Generally speaking,
however, the requirements made differed not only according to the gods
in whose service they were to stand, but also according to local or
other accidental circumstances. Thus sometimes priestesses were required
to be virgins, if not for their whole life, at any rate for the duration
of their priesthood; in other cases, however, married women might
undertake the priestly functions. The same held good for the men.
Although, as a rule, priests entered for their whole life, yet it
sometimes happened that their priestly functions were only performed
for a time, as for instance, in the case of boys or girls who entered
the service of the temple until they attained their man or womanhood, or
in other cases where citizens were made priests for one or several
years, and, when the time was up, retired again and let others take
their place.
There were various modes of appointing priests. They were either elected
from among several candidates, in which case the right of election lay
with the citizens or their representatives, or else by lot, or the right
was given from birth. Certain priesthoods were hereditary in families;
either the first-born was appointed as such, or else the lot had to
decide between the various members of a family; sometimes, if disputes
ensued, a legal decision might even be given. Consequently, it is clear
that the priests in Greece did not form a special caste, and as they
very often retired again to private life, their influence was not
extensive or very important.
The duties of the priests consisted, in the first instance, in
performing those acts of worship to the divinity which might also be
performed by any layman--viz., prayers and sacrifices; and in the
second, those which belonged to the worship of the particular divinity,
and recurred at certain fixed periods, and particularly those which they
undertook at the request of others. Besides this, there were various
duties connected with the care of the temple and divine images, the
fulfilment of the various customs connected with the worship of each
divinity, the performance of mysterious dedications and purifications,
guarding of the temple treasure, etc. To this were due various
ordinances concerning their mode of life, food, clothing, etc. Their
persons were regarded as sacred, just as the sanctuary was, and they
also received their share in the adoration paid to the gods, being
regarded, in a measure, as their representatives. Very often they had a
house in the temple domain, and received a share of its income, which
had, in the first instance, to supply the means for performing the
service of the god, erecting necessary buildings, statues, etc., but
which often supplied the priests also with considerable profit; thus,
the skins and certain parts of the sacrificial animals fell to their
lot. In some of the sanctuaries the income derived from the temple
property and the money lent out for interest from the temple treasure,
was very considerable, and far exceeded the means required for the
maintenance of the sanctuary and the service of the god. Another
privilege enjoyed by the priests was the right of occupying places of
honour in the theatre and at public meetings. They were usually
distinguished by their dress from the rest of the citizens; they wore
the long chiton, which had gone out of fashion for ordinary people; it
was generally of white or purple colour, and they had wreaths and
fillets in their long hair, and probably carried a staff as a token of
dignity.
The priests were assisted in their duties in the temples by a large
number of attendants and servants. Some of these only took part
occasionally in a procession or sacrifice, and, as this was regarded as
an honour, they gave their service without return. Some were permanent
temple servants, who either performed for pay certain menial services
connected with the worship and the care of the temple, or else were
slaves and the property of the god. Among these were included the
so-called “temple-sweepers” (νεωκόροι), men and women whose duty it was
to clean and care for the temple. There were also heralds, sacrificial
servants, butchers, bearers of the sacred vessels, singers and
musicians, etc., concerning whom inscriptions give us a good deal of
information. Even these positions, so long as the services to be
performed were not menial but honourable, were an object of ambition to
citizens, or regarded as a valuable privilege inherited by certain
families; thus, for instance, at Olympia, the descendants of Pheidias
had charge of the statue of Zeus, which was the masterpiece of their
ancestor.
The two forms in which the worship of the ancients chiefly consisted
were prayer and sacrifice. Prayer, either to all the gods together or to
some single one, consecrated the beginning and end of the day; combined
with libations, it attended the beginning and end of the meals, and was,
in fact, an essential part of every important action of daily life.
These prayers were, of course, of a general character, but there were
other occasions when special prayers were used, adapted to particular
cases; thus it was a matter of course that in the assemblies of the
people the blessing of the god should be invoked on the discussion. When
they set out to war they called on the help of the god in the coming
fight, and similarly private citizens asked for divine aid in their
undertakings and help in difficulties, though some wiser men--and
especially those who had had a philosophical training--could not
disguise from themselves that it was a foolish hope to expect that their
prayers should necessarily be heard, and they looked upon prayer rather
as a religious consecration of human actions. Kneeling and folding the
hands were unknown to the ancients. In praying they stood and stretched
out their hands to the region which they supposed to be the dwelling of
the godhead invoked; thus, they held them upward when praying to one of
the Olympian deities, forward when praying to a sea god, and down to the
ground if the prayer was addressed to one of the infernal deities, at
the same time trying to attract his attention by stamping on the ground.
The commonest position was towards the east; when they prayed in the
temple they turned towards the altar and the statue of the god, and
sometimes even embraced the altar. In fact, the worship of the temple
statues led to a very sensual conception of prayer; they not only threw
kisses to the god they were worshipping, but even touched or kissed his
statue; while suppliants threw themselves on the ground before the
temple image, or at any rate knelt down before it.
In order to ensure the efficacy of the prayer, those who offered it must
be free from every bodily and moral taint and, therefore, if necessary,
submit to purification. There were a number of occasions which rendered
a man unclean and unfit for intercourse with the deity; such were birth
and death, which required the purification of all those who had come in
contact with the mother or the dead person, not only in order that they
might appear untainted before the deity, but also to prevent their
communicating their impurity to others, and to enable them once more to
enter into intercourse with human beings. Even apart from these special
occasions it was impossible to tell whether some accidental contact
might have produced impurity, and on this account it was usual to
precede the act of prayer by washing, or, at any rate, by a symbolical
purification, such as sprinkling with holy water. For this purpose a
vessel with holy water and a whisk for sprinkling were placed in the
entrance of every temple for the use of those who entered the domain;
similar arrangements were made in private houses, and preference was
given to flowing water, especially sea-water, which was supposed to have
special purifying power; for sprinkling they used a branch of some
sacred tree, such as laurel. This purification was extended not only to
the person of those who approached the divinity, but also to their
garments and the utensils used for prayer and sacrifice, as well as the
dwelling generally; consequently, purification by fire and
smoke--especially by means of burnt sulphur--played an important part
along with the washing. There were also certain plants to which a
purifying power was ascribed; thus, it was customary to hang up a
sea-leek over the house door.
Purification of this kind was, of course, even more necessary when some
actual crime, such as a murder, even if an accidental one, had been
committed, or any other action performed which would render a man unfit
to come into the presence of the deity. In these cases an important part
was also played by sacrifices, for it was an ancient belief--found also
in the Jewish ritual--that sins could be laid on the victim, and in this
way removed from the sinner. Special ceremonies were used on such
occasions, such as purification by the blood of swine, since these
animals were supposed to have a special lustral power. At Athens it was
the custom to sacrifice sucking-pigs before the assembly of the people
was held; the slaughtered animals were carried round the assembly, the
seats sprinkled with their blood, and the bodies thrown into the sea. On
a vase painting representing the purification of Orestes after the
murder of his mother, Apollo himself holds a sucking-pig above the head
of the murderer; a similar proceeding is represented by the vase
painting Fig. 143, where the woman who is performing the lustral
rites--probably a priestess--holds in her right hand a sucking-pig, in
her left a basket with offerings, while three torches stand on the
ground in front of her, the smoke of which also possessed purifying
power. Similar ceremonies were observed by those who, according to a
very common superstition, regarded themselves as bewitched, or who
desired to protect themselves from the injurious influence of philtres
or other witchcraft, or else to cure madness, which was traced to the
wrath of the infernal gods; in these cases, Hecate was the goddess to be
propitiated, and part of the curious ceremony consisted in carrying
about young dogs.
[Illustration: FIG. 143.]
Next to prayer, the commonest observance was sacrifice. The
anthropomorphic conception of the gods induced the Greeks to try to win
their favour,
[Illustration: FIG. 144.]
as they would that of powerful princes, by means of gifts, in the belief
that they would be more inclined to fulfil human wishes if they were
propitiated by valuable presents. These gifts consisted in dedicatory
offerings and also in sacrifices, and these had to be regularly offered
in order to preserve the goodwill of the divinities. Generally speaking,
any gift offered to the god might be regarded as a sacrifice; but, as a
rule, this name was only applied to those offerings which were not to be
a lasting possession of the god but were only given for momentary
enjoyment, and must, as a rule, be destroyed, generally by means of
fire. The idea underlying these sacrifices was the participation of the
gods in the material possessions of men. The gifts included under the
heading of offerings were not all of such a nature as to be destroyed at
once; thus, first-fruits of the field, fruit, jars of cooked lentils,
flowers, fillets, and other such things could not be regarded as real
gifts, owing to
[Illustration: FIG. 145.]
their transitory nature; and these were merely laid on the altar of the
god, or else hung up beside it; sometimes there was a special table near
the altar to receive these gifts. On the vase painting (Fig. 144) a
table of this kind is represented near the altar; behind it we perceive
the antiquated statue of Dionysus, on one side stands a woman with a
goat destined for sacrifice, and on the right another woman is
approaching carrying a flat dish, probably containing cakes. The
offerings represented in Figs. 145 and 146 were probably also destined
for Dionysus. A satyr, carrying in his left hand a branch, in his right
a dish, probably containing cakes, is approaching an altar, on which
similar gifts have already been placed; on the other side, near the
table for offerings, on which lie fruit and cakes, a woman, probably a
Maenad, is seated, holding in her right hand a branch, in her left a
flat basket with little dedicatory offerings. Although these gifts were
not immediately destroyed by fire, they were of so transitory a nature
that they could not be counted among those destined to be a lasting
possession of the gods. The Greeks called these gifts fireless
sacrifices.
[Illustration: FIG. 146.]
Sacrifices wore usually divided into two classes--bloody and bloodless.
The bloodless seem to be the most ancient; they consisted chiefly in the
first-fruits of the field and cakes, usually made of honey, which were
regarded as a specially welcome gift by some of the gods. Very often
cakes were used as a substitute for animals, since poor people, who
could not afford the considerable expense of sacrificing real animals,
fashioned the dough into the shape of oxen, swine, sheep, goats, geese,
etc. In this class we may include smoke offerings. The custom of burning
sweet-scented woods and spices probably came to Greece from Asia, where
it had long prevailed. At first they made use of the products of the
country, especially cedar wood; afterwards frankincense, storax, and
other fragrant substances were introduced from foreign countries. These
smoke offerings were often connected with animal sacrifices, since
grains of incense were cast into the flames of the altar on which the
flesh of the animal was burnt, in order to overpower the smell of
burning meat. Libations, too, may be included among bloodless
sacrifices. Just as the gods required a portion of the food of men, they
desired also to share in their drink, for they were supposed to require
food and drink as men did. Libations were therefore offered before
partaking of wine after a meal, or drinking any other draught, and
Socrates even wished to offer some of his hemlock to the gods. On other
occasions too libations were offered, as for instance before public
speeches, on the occasion of sacrifices for the dead, invocation of the
gods for especial purposes, etc. The part of the wine or other liquid
destined for the god was poured from a flat cup either on to the ground
or into the flame of the altar, and words of consecration were spoken
meantime. It was most usual to use unmixed wine, but there were some
gods to whom no wine might be offered, in particular the Erinnys, the
infernal deities, nymphs, Muses, etc.; to these they dedicated libations
of honey, milk, or oil, either separately or mixed together, or with
water. On these occasions there were certain fixed ceremonies to be
observed, but these were not the same in all parts of Greece.
There are numerous indications in legends which show that the Greeks
were not originally unacquainted with the custom of human sacrifices;
but these are no longer heard of in the historic period, and wherever
they had formerly existed their place was taken by symbolic actions, or
the sacrifice of animals instead of human beings. The commonest victims
were animals, and the choice of the particular victim depended on the
god to whom the sacrifice was offered. Here, as in the case of the
bloodless sacrifices, some gods rejected gifts which were well-pleasing
to others, and special animals were offered to particular gods. It is
not always easy to trace the origin of this choice, though in some cases
it can be done; thus, for instance, goats were offered to Dionysus
because they destroyed the vineyards, and swine to Demeter because they
injured the corn-fields. Oxen and sheep were the commonest victims next
to goats and swine, and very often several animals were offered in a
common sacrifice. Horses were offered to Poseidon and Helios, dogs to
Hecate, asses to Apollo, etc. Birds, too, were sacrificed; for instance,
geese, doves, fowls, and, in particular, cocks to Aesculapius. Game and
fish were very seldom employed for the purpose, probably because they
were not much used for food in ancient times; for in most cases the
standard of eating decided which animals should be used, though there
were exceptions, too, among the classes already named.
It was originally the custom to burn the whole animal, with skin and
hair, but though this extravagant mode of sacrificing was sometimes in
use in later times, it became common to burn only the thigh bones and
certain flesh parts of the animal, and to use the rest for a festive
banquet. In consequence the number of victims was often calculated
according to the number of persons invited to the banquet; in other
cases it depended on the importance of the occasion, or the fortune of
the sacrificers, and even in historical times it was not unusual for
whole communities or very rich private citizens to offer a hecatomb (a
sacrifice of a hundred oxen), or even several, on which occasions the
sacrifice only supplied the opportunity for entertaining the people on a
magnificent scale. As a rule, the animals sacrificed must be sound and
healthy in every respect; but at Sparta, which was often reproached with
excessive economy in sacrifices, diseased cattle were sometimes used.
There were several other necessary conditions to be observed; thus, the
animals must never have been in the service of man; the ox that drew the
plough might not be sacrificed. The sex of the victim generally
corresponded to that of the deity to whom it was offered. Even the
colour was of importance; white animals were usually offered to the gods
of light, black to the infernal gods. There do not seem to have been any
fixed regulations with regard to age, except that the animals must have
attained a certain maturity.
The ceremony observed at sacrifices was much the same throughout the
whole of antiquity, and remained such as it is described by Homer. The
victim which had been dedicated to the god, was adorned with wreaths and
fillets, and led to the altar by servants or attendants; Homer speaks of
gilding the horns of bulls, and this was customary afterwards. If
possible, they tried to induce the animal to go forward of its own free
will, since violent struggling was regarded as an unpropitious omen, and
sometimes led to the rejection of the victim. It was even customary to
require the animal to give a sort of consent, by nodding its head; this
consent of the victim was, of course, produced by artificial means, such
as pouring water into the ears, etc. Hereupon all the participants in
the solemn action were prepared by sprinkling with holy water, which was
sanctified by dipping into it a firebrand taken from the altar, and
they were exhorted to keep unbroken silence. The actual sacrifice then
began by strewing roasted barleycorns, as the oldest food of their
ancestors, on the animal, and in token of dedication they cut a bundle
of hairs from its forehead and threw it into the fire, which was already
burning on the altar. In heroic ages, the princes, as high priests,
themselves killed the animals; afterwards this duty was undertaken by
priests or attendants. They gave the animal a blow on its forehead with
a club or axe, and then cut its throat with a sacrificial knife, and
sprinkled the altar with the blood; in so doing they usually bent the
head backwards; or, if sacrificing to the infernal gods, or the shades
of the departed, they pressed it down to the ground. When the victim
fell, the women who stood round uttered a low cry, and in the ages after
Homer it was very usual to accompany the whole ceremony by the sound of
the flute. Experienced attendants then flayed the animals and cut up the
bodies, whereupon the parts destined for the gods, especially the thigh
bones surrounded with fat, were burnt in the flames of the altar with
incense and sacrificial cakes, and at the same time libations were
poured out; the flesh was held in the fire by means of long forks. This
is very often represented on ancient works of art. In the vase painting
in Fig. 147 we see an altar on which wood appears to be regularly piled
up; parts of the sacrifice are recognised in the flames. An attendant
wearing a short garment round his loins kneels in front, holding a piece
of flesh in the flames on a long pole or spit; on his left a man holds a
cup for libations, into which a goddess of victory, flying over the
altar, pours the liquid; on the right stands Apollo, with lyre and
plectrum.
[Illustration: FIG. 147.]
The flesh of the animals which was not used for the sacrifice was
usually consumed at the feast which followed the ceremony; this custom
was only departed from in the case of sacrifices to the shades of the
dead or for purposes of propitiation, and then the flesh which was not
burnt was buried or destroyed in some other way, and, in fact, on these
occasions many of the ceremonies were of a different kind.
As a rule, another purpose was combined with the sacrifice; it was
necessary not only to win the favour of the gods, or atone for some
crime, but also to discover the will of the gods by interpretation of
signs. Although prayer was called for from all men--from labourer as
well as from priest--and sacrifices, though usually offered by priests,
could also be performed by others, the interpretation of omens was an
art which depended on ancient traditions and knowledge of ritual, and
was almost entirely confined to the priests, though, in the nature of
things, it could be undertaken by anyone. This mode of prophecy had
existed in various forms since the most ancient times. The commonest,
though unknown in the time of Homer, was the examination of the
entrails, in which the structure, that is, colour, form, and integrity
of the inner parts of the victim, especially the liver, gall, etc., were
regarded as of fortunate or unfortunate omen. Some anatomical knowledge
of the inner parts of animals was therefore indispensable, and in
consequence it is natural that this branch of knowledge was kept in the
hands of the priests. The older kind of prophecy described in Homer was
of a different nature, since it depended on all manner of phenomena
appearing during the sacrifice; whether the flame attacked the victim
quickly or slowly, whether it burnt clearly, whether it rose upwards,
whether it was not put out until the whole animal was consumed, whether
the wood crackled loudly, what shape was assumed by the ashes of the
victim and of the wood, etc.
Apart from sacrifices, prophecy and divination played a great part in
the life and religion of the Greeks. A distinction made by the ancients
themselves was between prophecy by art and without art. Prophecy without
art was regarded as inspiration of a human being by the divine spirit,
and was not dependent on external signs or on the interpretation of an
experienced person. There were three kinds: ecstasy, in which the gift
of prophecy was communicated to a human being without his own assistance
by divine strength and power; dreams, in which the gods revealed
directly to men their will or coming events; and thirdly, the oracles,
which were of a somewhat different character, being connected with
professional prophecy. They were also regarded as direct revelations of
the will of the god, so the mode in which this was expressed differed a
good deal according to the various oracles; but the questioner was not
immediately inspired, as in ecstasy and dreams, but required a mediator,
one who was alone able to interpret the revelations of the gods.
Of these three classes, the least important during the historic period
is ecstasy; the seers in the real sense of the word, whom we so often
meet with in legends, had no importance later on. The second kind, the
dream oracle, is of far greater importance. The idea that dreams were
communications from the gods, no less than other oracles and signs, was
so universally adopted that it not only took firm root in the popular
belief, but was shared by educated men, even by those who had more or
less discarded the old belief in the gods. The ancient writers give us
numerous accounts of portentous dreams; unlucky dreams were averted by
religious ceremonies, sacrifices to the gods who could turn away ill
fortune, sprinkling with holy water, etc. It was usual to pray for
prophetic dreams, and, as we have already seen, these were specially
produced by sleeping in the temple of Aesculapius, though they often
required interpretation afterwards at the hands of the priests. It is a
very old belief that dreams reveal the will of the gods, not directly
and immediately, but in the form of parables or images, which require
special comprehension and secret knowledge, and thus the interpretation
of dreams became an especial art, which led to a whole literature of
dream-books (remains of which have been preserved to us; in particular
the dream-book of Artemidorus, dating from the second century A.D.), and
to the profession of interpreters, who, although not held in especial
honour, were yet greatly sought after by all classes of the community.
The influence of the oracles was even more important. In Greece and Asia
Minor there were several hundred places where oracles were given; this
much is common to all of them, that it was not a divinely-inspired human
being, but the god himself who announced his will by special tokens,
while the priests were only the interpreters of the god’s will; the
signs and methods of interpretation differed considerably. The oracles
of Apollo were far the most celebrated, since he was specially the god
of prophecy; among these, the oracle of Delphi surpassed all others in
importance. Here the medium through which the god revealed his will to
mankind was the holy priestess called Pythia; a vapour which rose from
a cleft in the earth produced ecstasy in the Pythia, who had previously
purified herself by chewing laurel leaves and drinking from the sacred
spring, and clad in rich garments with a golden head-dress, long flowing
robes, and buskins, and had taken her place on a tripod over the cleft.
In this condition she uttered the oracles, which were, as a rule,
incomprehensible to ordinary people. It was then the duty of the priests
who were present during the ecstasy with the questioners, to discover
the real meaning and sense of the senseless sounds, and arrange the
answer in poetic form, usually in hexameters, which were, as a rule,
cunningly arranged so as to have a two-fold meaning. At first this took
place only once a year, but when the reputation of the oracle increased,
and thousands of people came every year to Delphi, or sent messengers
with questions to the temple, it became the custom to supply answers all
the year round, and, in consequence of the great numbers, two Pythiae
had to mount the tripod alternately, while a third was at hand to take
their place occasionally. Only a few days in the year were regarded as
unlucky, and then no oracles were given. At the time of the Empire, when
the influence of the Delphic oracle had considerably diminished, it was
only accessible once a year. The order in which the suppliants were to
enter was generally decided by lot; in some few cases it may have been
determined by rank. Prayer and sacrifice of course preceded the sacred
ceremony; goats were chiefly offered, because, according to the legends,
the discovery of this miraculous vapour was due to a goat.
At the other oracles of Apollo the proceedings were different: at
Hysiae, in Boeotia, the prophet sought his inspiration in a well; at
Argos, in the blood of a victim; at the Clarian temple of Apollo, at
Colophon, a priest descended into the sacred cave and drank holy water,
whereupon the gift of prophecy was granted to him; at the sanctuary of
the Branchidae, at Didymae, near Miletus, the oracles were given by a
priestess, who moistened the hem of her garment and her feet at a well,
and then let the rising vapour act upon her. At other oracles the god
revealed his will or the events of the future by signs instead of words,
which the priest then had to interpret. This was the case with the
oldest and most sacred of all the Greek oracles--that of Zeus, at Dodona
in Epirus. These signs were of various kinds: sometimes it was the
rustling of the branches in the sacred oak, sometimes the murmuring of
the spring at its foot, sometimes the sound given by a brass bowl. The
excavations lately undertaken at Dodona have supplied some information
about the nature and variety of the questions, though not about the mode
in which the oracle was given. Those who desired an oracular answer had
to hand in their question in writing, usually on a tablet of lead, on
which it was scratched. This was laid in a vessel and placed in the
sanctuary, so that the priestess might learn what the question was; the
answer was then given on a similar tablet, sometimes the same on which
the question had been written. The examples found of these tablets show
that these questions were not always of political import, and sent by
whole communities or princes, but that even private affairs were
sometimes made the subject of a question. Thus, on the tablet
represented in Fig. 148, a certain Lysanias inquires whether the child
which his wife is about to bear him is really his own; another inquires
whether
[Illustration: FIG. 148.]
it would be profitable for him to rear sheep; a third asks who has
stolen the cushions he has lost. These questions on leaden tablets were
also in use at other places. At the oracle of Apollo-Coropaeus, in the
Peninsula Magnesia, in Thessaly, the questioners had to give their names
to the temple scribe to be written on the tablet; they were then called
in turn and conducted to the sanctuary, where the leaden tablets were
handed them. On these they wrote their questions; the tablets were then
collected and placed in a vessel, which was sealed with the official
seal of the temporal and spiritual officials, and left for the night in
the sanctuary. Next morning the seals were broken, the names of the
questioners called according to the list, and the tablets given back
with the answers. Among oracles we must mention that of Zeus Ammon, in
the Libyan Desert, which enjoyed a great reputation in Greece even in
early times; that of Zeus Trophonius, at Lebadia, in Boeotia; that of
Amphiaraus, at Oropus, which last was included among the dream oracles,
since the mediation of the priests was not required here, and the
questioners received their revelation direct from the god. It would be
impossible to enumerate all the oracles and the customs observed there;
throughout the whole of Greek antiquity they played a very important
part in the life of the nation and the individual, and were often
decisive in political matters, as well as in trivial details of daily
life.
Of no less importance than the modes of prophecy already mentioned are
those which may be called professional, and which did not depend on a
direct revelation of the will of the god, so much as on the observation
and interpretation of certain apparently fortuitous signs, which were,
however, supposed to proceed from the divinity. Of course, many oracles
were very closely connected with these professional prophecies. Here,
too, we may distinguish several different kinds. In the first place,
there is interpretation of signs which appear though unsought for. The
number of these is, of course, countless, since the whole realm of
nature and life affords scope for them. Signs of the sky, atmospheric
phenomena, change in the course of rivers, earthquakes, clefts in the
ground, abnormal births, all which are frequently mentioned in ancient
history, may be included in this class, as also the flight of birds, to
which particular attention was given, though the proceedings of other
animals were also watched, or the mere fact of their appearance was
supposed to announce good or evil fortune. Then there were phenomena
relating to human beings, such as sneezing, singing in the ears, words
spoken by chance, etc., and the place where these things occur is of
great importance, as, for instance, whether on the right or the left
hand. The second class of professional prophecy is that in which man
seeks for the signs and calls upon the god to grant him a token of his
presence and will. In this class we may include prophecy from sacrifice
and also some of the oracles, but in particular the private oracles--if
we may use this expression--by means of which individuals procured signs
by any means whatever, and either interpreted them themselves or got
some skilled prophet to do it for them. This closely resembles our
modern fashion of telling fortunes from cards, and in these cases it was
not usually a priest, but some cheat or conjurer who interpreted the
prophecy; thus dice and sieves were used for prophesying, and fortunes
were told from physiognomy, or the lines of the hand, as they still are
at the present day.
The interpreters of prophecy and signs, whether belonging to the class
of priests or laymen, naturally represented their art as coming direct
from the gods, and loved to envelop it in the veil of mystery, though in
other respects Greek religion aimed at publicity and universal
comprehension. There were, however, some ceremonies which were closely
concealed from the world without; and those who took part in them were
required to observe absolute secrecy, and were subject to a gradual
initiation, passing through several stages before they attained the
final one. We refer to the mysteries which were universally known
throughout Greece, and, owing to the great number of those who sought
initiation, played an important part in the life of the ancient Greeks.
Our knowledge of these secret doctrines is very small, as is natural
under the circumstances, and, consequently, the most recent
investigations have led to very different hypotheses. Still, the latest
discoveries enable us to feel sure that these mysteries were not, as
was formerly supposed, remains of ancient revealed wisdom containing
purer and better doctrines than were known to the popular religion; nor
were they, as Voss supposes, merely priestly trickery. They represented
the religious myths, and their form corresponded to the ordinary
religious worship; the mystery was due simply to the fact that in the
myth the symbolic and allegorical elements prevailed, and in the worship
the purifications and expiations had a specially important place; while
the other ceremonies connected therewith, such as sacrifices, signs,
dances, etc., bore a strongly orgiastic and ecstatic character. There
were also dramatic or pantomimic representations of the mythical
actions, and a great number of artistic and decorative means were used
to dispose the mind of the initiated to a condition suited for solemn
and mysterious doctrines. There were no really deep secrets hidden
behind these mysteries, which were so numerous that almost each god had
his own; and indeed, the initiation was not a difficult one, and was
open to every free and blameless Greek.