GREEK RELIGION AND THE ORACLES
The city-dwellers in Greece lived in the plains separated from their
neighbours by mountains, and this caused the development of a large
number of separate communities, quite independent of each other, each
having its own laws and government, but there were three things which
all Greeks had in common wherever they lived: they spoke the same
language, they believed in the same gods, and they celebrated
together as Greeks their great national games.
The Greeks called themselves Hellenes and their land Hellas. Like
the Hebrews and the Babylonians, they believed that there had been a
time when men had grown so wicked that the gods determined to destroy
the old race of man and to create a new one. A terrible flood
overwhelmed the earth, until nothing of it was left visible but the
top of Mount Parnassus, and here, the old legend tells us, a refuge
was found by two people, Deucalion and his wife Pyrrha, who alone had
been saved on account of their righteous lives. Slowly the waters
abated, until the earth was once more dry and habitable, but
Deucalion and Pyrrha were alone and did not {43} know what they
should do. So they prayed to the gods and received as an answer to
their prayer the strange command: "Depart, and cast behind you the
bones of your mother." At first they could not understand what was
meant, but at length Deucalion thought of an explanation. He said to
Pyrrha: "The earth is the great mother of all; the stones are her
bones, and perhaps it is these we must cast behind us." So they took
up the stones that were lying about and cast them behind them, and as
they did so a strange thing happened! The stones thrown by Deucalion
became men, and those thrown by Pyrrha became women, and this race of
men peopled the land of Greece anew. The son of Deucalion and Pyrrha
was called Hellen, and as the Greeks looked upon him as the legendary
founder of their race, they called themselves and their land by his
name.
These earliest Greeks had very strange ideas as to the shape of the
world. They thought it was flat and circular, and that Greece lay in
the very middle of it, with Mount Olympus, or as some maintained,
Delphi, as the central point of the whole world. This world was
believed to be cut in two by the Sea and to be entirely surrounded by
the River Ocean, from which the Sea and all the rivers and lakes on
the earth received their waters.
In the north of this world, were supposed to live the Hyperboreans.
They were the people who lived beyond the North winds, whose home was
in the caverns in the mountains to the North of Greece. The
Hyperboreans were a happy race of beings who {44} knew neither
disease nor old age, and who, living in a land of everlasting spring,
were free from all toil and labour.
Far away in the south, on the banks of the River Ocean, lived another
happy people, the Aethiopians. They were so happy and led such
blissful lives, that the gods used sometimes to leave their home in
Olympus and go and join the Aethiopians in their feasts and banquets.
On the western edge of the earth and close to the River Ocean were
the Elysian Fields, sometimes called the Fortunate Fields and the
Isles of the Blessed. It was to this blissful place that mortals who
were specially loved by the gods were transported without first
tasting of death, and there they lived forever, set free from all the
sorrows and sufferings of earth, it was a land--
Where falls not hail, or rain, or any snow,
Nor ever wind blows loudly; but it lies
Deep-meadow'd, happy----.
The Sun and the Moon and the Rosy-fingered Dawn were thought of as
gods who rose out of the River Ocean and drove in their chariots
through the air, giving light to both gods and men.
What kind of religion did the Greeks have? Now _religion_ may be
explained in many different ways, and there have been many different
religions in the world, but there has never been a nation that has
had no religion. From the earliest times men have realized that
there were things in the world that {45} they could not understand,
and these mysteries showed them that there must be some Being greater
than man who had himself been created; and it is by what is called
religion that men have sought to come into relationship with this
Being greater than themselves.
The Egyptians in their religious beliefs had been very much occupied
with the idea of the life after death, but at first the Greeks
thought of this very little. They believed that proper burial was
necessary for the future happiness of the soul, and want of this was
looked upon as a very serious disaster, but beyond the insisting on
due and fitting burial ceremonies their thoughts were not much
occupied with the future. The reason of this was probably because
the Greeks found this life so delightful. They were filled with the
joy of being alive and were keenly interested in everything
concerning life; they felt at home in the world. The gods in whom
the Greeks believed were not supposed to have created the world, but
they were themselves part of it, and every phase of this life that
was so full of interest and adventure was represented by the
personality of a god. First, it was the outside life, nature with
all its mysteries, and then all the outward activities of man.
Later, men found other things difficult to explain, the passions
within them, love and hatred, gentleness and anger, and gradually
they gave personalities to all these emotions and thought of each as
inspired by a god. These gods were thought of as very near to man;
men and women in the Heroic Age had claimed descent from them, and
they were supposed to come {46} down to earth and to hold frequent
converse with man. The Greeks trusted their gods and looked to them
for protection and assistance in all their affairs, but these gods
were too human and not holy enough to be a real inspiration or to
influence very much the conduct of those who believed in them.
The chief gods dwelt on Mount Olympus in Thessaly and were called the
Olympians; others had dwellings on the earth, in the water, or in the
underworld. Heaven, the water and the underworld were each under the
particular sovereignty of a great overlord amongst the gods.
Three brethren are we [said Poseidon], Zeus and myself and Hades
is the third, the ruler of the folk in the underworld. And in
three lots are all things divided, and each drew a domain of his
own, and to me fell the hoary sea, to be my habitation for ever,
when we shook the lots; and Hades drew the murky darkness, and
Zeus the wide heaven, in clear air and clouds, but the earth and
high Olympus are common to all.[1]
Zeus was the greatest of the gods. He was the Father of gods and
men, the lord of the lightning and of the storm-cloud, whose joy was
in the thunder. But he was also the lord of counsel and ruler of
heaven and earth, and he was in particular the protector of all who
were in any kind of need or distress, and he was the guardian of the
home. The court of every house had an altar to Zeus, the Protector
of the Hearth. A great statue of Zeus stood in the temple at
Olympia. It was the work of Pheidias {47} and was considered one of
the Seven Wonders of the ancient world.[2] This statue was destroyed
more than a thousand years ago by an earthquake, but a visitor to
Olympia in ancient times tells us how perfectly it expressed the
character of the god:
His power and kingship are displayed by the strength and majesty
of the whole image, his fatherly care for men by the mildness and
lovingkindness in the face; the solemn austerity of the work
marks the god of the city and the law--he seems like to one
giving and bestowing blessings.[3]
Hera was the wife of Zeus. She was "golden-throned Hera, an immortal
queen, the bride of loud-thundering Zeus, the lady renowned, whom all
the Blessed throughout high Olympus honour and revere no less than
Zeus whose delight is the thunder."[4]
Poseidon went to Olympus when he was summoned by Zeus, but he was the
God of the Sea, and he preferred its depths as his home. His symbol
was the trident, and he was often represented as driving over the
waves in a chariot drawn by foaming white horses. All sailors looked
to him for protection and they sang to him: "Hail, Prince, thou
Girdler of the Earth, thou dark-haired God, and with kindly heart, O
blessed one, do thou befriend the mariners."[5]
Athena, the grey-eyed Goddess, was the Guardian of Athens, and she
stood to all the Greeks, but especially to the Athenians, as the
symbol of three {48} things: she was the Warrior Goddess, "the
saviour of cities who with Ares takes keep of the works of war, and
of falling cities and the battle din."[6] She it was who led their
armies out to war and brought them home victorious. She was Athena
Polias, the Guardian of the city and the home, to whom was committed
the planting and care of the olive trees and who had taught women the
art of weaving and given them wisdom in all fair handiwork; she was
the wise goddess, rich in counsel, who inspired the Athenians with
good statesmanship and showed them how to rule well and justly; and
she was Athena Parthenos, the Queen whose victories were won, and who
was the symbol of all that was true and beautiful and good.
Apollo, the Far Darter, the Lord of the silver bow, was the god who
inspired all poetry and music. He went about playing upon his lyre,
clad in divine garments; and at his touch the lyre gave forth sweet,
music. To him
everywhere have fallen all the ranges of song, both on the
mainland and among the isles: to him all the cliffs are dear, and
the steep mountain crests and rivers running onward to the salt
sea, and beaches sloping to the foam, and havens of the deep.
When Apollo the Far Darter "fares through the hall of Zeus, the Gods
tremble, yea, rise up all from their thrones as he draws near with
his shining bended bow."[7] Apollo was also worshipped as Phoebus
the {49} Sun, the God of Light, and like the sun, he was supposed to
purify and illumine all things.
Following Apollo as their lord were the Muses, nine daughters of
Zeus, who dwelt on Mount Parnassus. We are told that their hearts
were set on song and that their souls knew no sorrow. It was the
Muses and Apollo who gave to man the gift of song, and he whom they
loved was held to be blessed. "It is from the Muses and far-darting
Apollo that minstrels and harpers are upon the earth. Fortunate is
he whomsoever the Muses love, and sweet flows his voice from his
lips."[8] The Muse who inspired man with the imagination to
understand history aright was called Clio.
The huntress Artemis, the sister of Apollo, was goddess of the moon
as her brother was god of the sun. She loved life in the open air
and roamed over the hills and in the valleys, through the forests and
by the streams. She was the
Goddess of the loud chase, a maiden revered, the slayer of stags,
the archer, very sister of Apollo of the golden blade. She
through the shadowy hills and the windy headlands rejoicing in
the chase draws her golden bow, sending forth shafts of sorrow.
Then tremble the crests of the lofty mountains, and terribly the
dark woodland rings with din of beasts, and the earth shudders,
and the teeming sea.[9]
Hermes is best known to us as the messenger of the gods. When he
started out to do their bidding,
{50} beneath his feet he bound on his fair sandals, golden,
divine, that bare him over the waters of the sea and over the
boundless land with the breathings of the wind. And he took up
his wand, wherewith he entranceth the eyes of such men as he
will, while others again he awaketh out of sleep.[10]
Hermes was the protector of travellers, and he was the god who took
special delight in the life of the market place. But there was
another side to his character, he was skilful in all matters of
cunning and trickery, and legend delighted in telling of his
exploits. He began early. "Born in the dawn," we are told, "by
midday well he harped and in the evening stole the cattle of Apollo
the Far Darter."[11]
Hephaestus was the God of Fire, the divine metal-worker. He was said
to have first discovered the art of working iron, brass, silver and
gold and all other metals that require forging by fire. His workshop
was on Mount Olympus and here he used to do all kinds of work for the
gods. Perhaps his most famous piece was the divine armour and above
all the shield he made for Achilles. Some great quarrel in which he
was concerned arose in Olympus, and Zeus, in rage, threw him out of
heaven. All day he fell until, as the sun was setting, he dropped
upon the isle of Lemnos.
Athena and Hephaestus were always regarded as benefactors to mankind,
for they taught man many useful arts.
[Illustration: THE BIRTH OF APHRODITE. Early 5th Century B.C. Museo
delle Terme, Rome.]
{51}
Sing, Muse, of Hephaestus renowned in craft, who with grey-eyed
Athena taught goodly works to men on earth, even to men who
before were wont to dwell in mountain caves like beasts; but now,
being instructed in craft by the renowned craftsman Hephaestus,
lightly the whole year through they dwell, happily in their own
homes.[12]
Hestia, the Goddess of the Hearth, played an important part in the
life of the Greeks. Her altar stood in every house and in every
public building, and no act of any importance was ever performed,
until an offering of wine had been poured on her altar.
Laughter-loving, golden Aphrodite was the Goddess of Love and Beauty.
She rose from the sea born in the soft white foam. "She gives sweet
gifts to mortals and ever on her lovely face is a winsome smile."[13]
To the ancient Greeks the woods and streams, the hills and rocky
crags of their beautiful land were dwelt in by gods and nymphs and
spirits of the wild. Chief of such spirits was Pan,
the goat-footed, the two-horned, the lover of the din of the
revel, who haunts the wooded dells with dancing nymphs that tread
the crests of the steep cliffs, calling upon Pan. Lord is he of
every snowy crest and mountain peak and rocky path. Hither and
thither he goes, through the thick copses, sometimes being drawn
to the still waters, and sometimes faring through the lofty crags
{52} he climbs the highest peaks whence the flocks are seen
below; ever he ranges over the high white hills and at evening
returns piping from the chase breathing sweet strains on the
reeds.[14]
These were the chief gods in whom the Greeks believed. How did they
worship them? The centre of their worship was the altar, but the
altars were not in the temples, but outside. They were also found in
houses and in the chief public buildings of the city. The temple was
looked upon as the home of the god, and the temple enclosure was a
very sacred place. A man accused of a crime could flee there and
take refuge, and once within the temple, he was safe. It was looked
upon as a very dreadful thing to remove him by force, for it was
believed that to do so would bring down the wrath of the god upon
those who had violated the right of sanctuary.
In the houses the altars were those sacred to Hestia, to Apollo and
to Zeus. The altar of Hestia stood in the chief room of the house, a
libation was poured out to her before meals, and special sacrifices
were offered on special occasions; always before setting out on a
journey and on the return from it, and at the time of a birth or of a
death in the house. The altar of Apollo stood just outside the door.
Special prayers and sacrifices were offered at this altar in times of
trouble, but Apollo was not forgotten in the time of joy: those who
had travelled far from home stopped to worship on their return; when
good news came to the house sweet-smelling {53} herbs were burnt on
his altar, and a bride took sacred fire from it to offer to Apollo in
her new home.
The Greeks had no stated day every week sacred to the gods, but
during the year different days were looked upon as belonging
specially to particular gods. Some of these days were greater than
others and were honoured by public holidays. Others caused no
interruption in the every-day life.
Priests were attached to the temples, but sacrifices on the altars in
the city or in the home were presented by the king or chief
magistrate and by the head of the household. The Greeks did not
kneel when they prayed, but stood with bared heads. Their prayers
were chiefly for help in their undertakings. They prayed before
everything they did: before athletic contests, before performances in
the theatre, before the opening of the assembly. The sailor prayed
before setting out to sea, the farmer before he ploughed and the
whole nation before going forth to war. Pericles, the great Athenian
statesman, never spoke in public without a prayer that he might
"utter no unfitting word."
As time went on, the gods of Olympus seemed less near to mortal men,
and they gradually became less personalities than symbols of virtues,
and as such they influenced the conduct of men more than they had
done before. Athena, for example, became for all Greeks the symbol
of self-control, of steadfast courage and of dignified restraint;
Apollo of purity; and Zeus of wise counsels and righteous judgments.
A particular form of worship specially practised by the Athenians was
that known as the Sacred {54} Mysteries, which were celebrated every
autumn and lasted nine days. This worship centred round Demeter and
was celebrated in her temple at Eleusis near Athens. Demeter was the
Corn-Goddess and it was the story of her daughter Persephone who was
carried off by Hades, lord of the realm of the dead, that was
commemorated in the Sacred Mysteries.
Her daughter was playing and gathering flowers, roses and
crocuses and fair violets in the soft meadow, and lilies and
hyacinths, and the narcissus. Wondrously bloomed the flower, a
marvel for all to see, whether deathless gods or deathly men.
From its root grew forth a hundred blossoms, and with its
fragrant odour the wide heaven above and the whole earth laughed,
and the salt wave of the sea. Then the maiden marvelled and
stretched forth both her hands to seize the fair plaything, but
the wide earth gaped, and up rushed the Prince, the host of many
guests, the son of Cronos, with his immortal horses. Against her
will he seized her and drove her off weeping and right sore
against her will, in his golden chariot, but she cried aloud,
calling on the highest of gods and the best ... and the mountain
peaks and the depths of the sea rang to her immortal voice.[15]
Demeter heard the cry, but could not save her daughter, and she went
up and down the world seeking her. She reached Attica and was kindly
treated, though the people did not at first know she was a goddess.
When she had revealed herself to them, she commanded them to build
her a temple {55} at Eleusis. But still her daughter did not return
to her, and the gods of Olympus took no heed of her lamenting. Then
she put forth her power as Goddess of the Corn, and she caused it to
stop growing over all the earth. A fearful famine followed, and Zeus
tried to persuade her to relent. But she declared that "she would no
more forever enter on fragrant Olympus, and no more allow the earth
to bear her fruit until her eyes should behold her fair-faced
daughter."[16]
At last Zeus consented to interfere and sent Hermes to bring
Persephone back to the earth. When Persephone saw the messenger,
"joyously and swiftly she arose and she climbed up into the golden
chariot and drove forth from the halls; nor sea, nor rivers, nor
grassy glades, nor cliffs could stay the rush of the deathless
horses,"[17] until they reached the temple where dwelt Demeter, who
when she beheld them rushed forth to greet her daughter. But before
leaving Hades, the God had given Persephone a sweet pomegranate seed
to eat, a charm to prevent her wishing to dwell forever with Demeter,
and it was then arranged that Persephone should dwell with Hades, the
lord of the realm of the dead, for one-third of the year, and for the
other two-thirds with her mother and the gods of Olympus.
This was the story round which centred the worship of the Sacred
Mysteries at Eleusis. There came a time when the worship of the gods
of Olympus did not satisfy the longings of the Greeks for some
assurance that the soul was immortal and that there {56} was a life
after the death of the body. Demeter grew to be a symbol to the
Greeks of the power of the gods to heal and save and to grant
immortality. Her story became an allegory of the disappearance of
the corn and fruit and flowers in the winter and of their return in
the spring, bringing with them gifts to men of hope and life. At the
festival of Eleusis, a kind of mystery play on the whole legend was
acted. All those who attended the festival were required to prepare
for it by a certain ritual of fasting and sacrifice, and it was
believed that in the life after death all would be well with those
who had taken part in the festival with pure hearts and pure hands.
The greatest religious influence in Greece was probably that of the
Oracle. This was the belief that at certain shrines specially sacred
to certain gods, the worshipper could receive answers to questions
put to the god. In very early times signs seen in the world of
nature were held to have special meanings: the rustling of leaves in
the oak-tree, the flight of birds, thunder and lightning, eclipses of
both the sun and moon or earthquakes. It is easy to understand how
this belief arose. A man, perplexed and troubled by some important
decision he had to make, would leave the city with its bustle and
noise, and go out into the country where he could think out his
difficulty alone and undisturbed. Perhaps he would sit under a tree,
and as he sat and thought, the rustling of the leaves in the breeze
would soothe his troubled mind and slowly his duty would become clear
to him, and it would seem to {57} him that his questions were
answered. Looking up to the sky he would give thanks to Zeus for
thus inspiring him with understanding. On his return home he would
speak of how he had heard the voice of Zeus speaking to him in the
rustling of the leaves, and so the place would gradually become
associated with Zeus, and others would go there and seek answers to
their difficulties, hoping to meet with the same experience, until at
last the spot would become sacred and a shrine would be built there,
and it would at length become known from far and near as an Oracle.
Plato said of these beginnings of the oracles that "for the men of
that time, since they were not so wise as ye are nowadays, it was
enough in their simplicity to listen to oak or rock, if only these
told them true." Other places would in the same way become
associated with other gods, until seeking answers at Oracles became a
well-established custom in Greece.
The great oracles of Zeus were at Olympia, where the answers were
given from signs observed in the sacrifices offered, and at Dodona,
where they were given from the sound of the rustling of the leaves in
the sacred oak-tree. But the greatest oracle in all Greece was that
of Apollo at Delphi. It was at Delphi that Apollo had fought with
and slain the Python, and it was thought that he specially delighted
to dwell there, and had himself chosen it as the place where he would
make known his will.
Here methinketh to stablish a right fair temple, to be a place of
oracle to men, both they that dwell in rich {58} Peloponnesus and
they of the mainland and sea-girt isles, seeking here the word of
wisdom; to them all shall I speak the decree unerring, rendering
oracles within my wealthy shrine.[18]
Delphi had been sacred to Apollo ever since these legendary days, and
a great shrine and temple was built there in his honour.
When a Greek came to consult Apollo, he had first to offer certain
sacrifices, and he always brought with him the richest gifts he could
afford which were placed in the treasury of the god. Then he entered
the temple and placed his request in the hands of a priest, who took
it into the innermost sanctuary and gave it to the prophetess, whose
duty it was to present the petition to the god himself and receive
the answer. In ancient times it was believed that a mysterious
vapour arose in this sanctuary through a cleft in the rocky floor,
and that this vapour, enveloping the prophetess, filled her with a
kind of frenzy in the midst of which she uttered the words of the
answer given her by Apollo. This answer was written down by the
priests and often turned into verse by them and then taken out to the
enquirer. Sometimes these answers were quite plain and
straightforward, such as the one which has remained true through all
the ages. It was the oracle from Apollo at Delphi which said of the
poet Homer: "He shall be deathless and ageless for aye." But
sometimes the answers were like a riddle that required much thinking
over to understand, and {59} sometimes they were so worded that they
might mean either of two things, each the opposite of the other! The
oracle at Delphi was frequently consulted by the Greeks at great
crises of their history, and it had great influence. It was the
priests who in writing down the answer really determined its nature.
They were men who were in constant touch with distant places, they
had had much experience with human nature, and they were well fitted
to give guidance and advice in all kinds of difficult matters. The
oracle at Delphi was thus a power in the worldly affairs of the
Greeks, but it was more than that, it was also a source of moral
inspiration. It encouraged all manner of civilization and the
virtues of gentleness and self-control, it marked the great reformers
with its approval, it upheld the sanctity of oaths, it encouraged
respect and reverence for women. On one of the temples were
inscribed the sayings "Know thyself" and "Nothing in excess." It was
said that these had been placed there by the ancient sages, and in
later times they became famous as maxims in the teaching of the great
philosophers.
The oracle was not always right in its interpretations; it sometimes
failed in seizing the highest opportunities that lay before it, but
as Greek history unfolds itself before us, we can see a gradual
raising of moral standards, which was due in great measure to the
influence of the oracle of Apollo at Delphi.
[1] Iliad, XV.
[2] See p. 64.
[3] Dion Chrysostom.
[4] Homeric Hymn to Hera.
[5] Homeric Hymn to Poseidon.
[6] Homeric Hymn to Athena.
[7] Homeric Hymn to Apollo.
[8] Homeric Hymn to Apollo.
[9] Homeric Hymn to Artemis,
[10] Odyssey, V.
[11] Homeric Hymn to Hermes.
[12] Homeric Hymn to Hephaestus.
[13] Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite.
[14] Homeric Hymn to Pan.
[15] Homeric Hymn to Demeter.
[16] Homeric Hymn to Demeter.
[17] Ibid.
[18] Homeric Hymn to Apollo.
{60}