Four Stages of Greek Religion: Studies Based on a Course of Lectures Delivered in April 1912 at Columbia University |
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Page 29
... sacred objects , a fast followed by a rejoicing , a disappearance of life below the earth , and a rising again of life above it ; but it is hard to find definite traces of any personal goddess . The Olympian Demeter and Persephone ...
... sacred objects , a fast followed by a rejoicing , a disappearance of life below the earth , and a rising again of life above it ; but it is hard to find definite traces of any personal goddess . The Olympian Demeter and Persephone ...
Page 30
... sacred snake . Is there any similar divine animal in the Thesmophoria ? Alas , yes . Both here , and still more markedly in the mysteries of Demeter and Persephone at Eleusis , we regularly find the most lovely of all goddesses ...
... sacred snake . Is there any similar divine animal in the Thesmophoria ? Alas , yes . Both here , and still more markedly in the mysteries of Demeter and Persephone at Eleusis , we regularly find the most lovely of all goddesses ...
Page 31
... Sacred Marriage . For , why do you suppose the dead are summoned at all ? What use to the tribe is the presence of all these dead ancestors ? They have come , I suspect , to be born again , to begin a new life at the great Spring ...
... Sacred Marriage . For , why do you suppose the dead are summoned at all ? What use to the tribe is the presence of all these dead ancestors ? They have come , I suspect , to be born again , to begin a new life at the great Spring ...
Page 32
... Sacred King , and the imaginary god.1 Whatever reality there ever was in the ceremony has apparently by classical times faded away . But the place where the god received his bride is curious . It was called the Boukolion , or Bull's ...
... Sacred King , and the imaginary god.1 Whatever reality there ever was in the ceremony has apparently by classical times faded away . But the place where the god received his bride is curious . It was called the Boukolion , or Bull's ...
Page 33
... sacred animal . In the Diasia we find the old super- human snake , who reappears so ubiquitously throughout Greece ... sacred swine , and the reason given by the ancients is no doubt the right one . The sow is sacred because of its ...
... sacred animal . In the Diasia we find the old super- human snake , who reappears so ubiquitously throughout Greece ... sacred swine , and the reason given by the ancients is no doubt the right one . The sow is sacred because of its ...
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Common terms and phrases
A. B. Cook Achaioi Aeschylus allegory ancient animals Anthesteria anthropomorphic Apollo appears Athena Athenian beautiful believe body bull called century Christian Chrysippus classical conception conquered course creed dead death destroyed Diasia Diels Dionysus divine doctrine early earth elements emotion Epicurus essay eternal evil exist explained expurgation father feel Gnostic goddess Greece Greek religion happen heaven Hellenes Hellenistic Hermes Hesiod holy Homer human ideal imagination initiation Ionian Julian kings Korê Kouretes Kouros literature living means Meilichios mind Mithras mysticism mythology myths nature needs never oracle Pagan Pelasgian perhaps philosophers planets Plato Poseidon Posidonius primitive reason Refutatio Omnium Haeresium religious rise rites ritual sacred sacrifice Sallustius Saviour seems sometimes soul spirit stars Stoics superstition tabu Themis Thessaly things thought tion tradition tribal tribe truth virtue whole word worship Zeus δὲ ἐν καὶ
Popular passages
Page 83 - It is a rise of asceticism, of mysticism, in a sense, of pessimism; a loss of selfconfidence, of hope in this life and of faith in normal human effort; a despair of patient inquiry, a cry for infallible revelation; an indifference to the welfare of the state, a conversion of the soul to God.
Page 133 - As far as knowledge and conscious reason will go, we should follow resolutely their austere guidance. When they cease, as cease they must, we must use as best we can those fainter powers of apprehension and surmise and sensitiveness by which, after all, most high truth has been reached as well as most high art and poetry...
Page 43 - ... YearDaemon, as it seems to be reflected in Tragedy, is generally a story of Pride and Punishment. Each Year arrives, waxes great, commits the sin of Hubris, and then is slain. The death is deserved; but the slaying is a sin: hence comes the next Year as Avenger, or as the Wronged One re-risen. 'All things pay retribution for their injustice one to another according to the ordinance of time.
Page 158 - I escape uninjured and without the need of hurting him. May I love, seek, and attain only that which is good. May I wish for all men's happiness and envy none.
Page 83 - ANY one who turns from the great writers of classical Athens, say Sophocles or Aristotle, to those of the Christian era must be conscious of a great difference in tone. There is a change in the whole relation of the writer to the world about him.
Page 43 - The extraordinary security of our modern life in times of peace makes it hard for us to realize, except by a definite effort of the imagination, the constant precariousness, the frightful proximity of death, that was usual in these weak ancient communities.
Page 78 - Sky, greater than time and eternity and all the flow of being, is unnamable by any lawgiver, unutterable by any voice, not to be seen by any eye. But we, being unable to apprehend His essence, use the help of sounds and names and pictures, of beaten gold and ivory and silver, of plants and rivers...
Page 78 - God Himself, the father and fashioner of all that is, older than the Sun or the Sky, greater than time and eternity and all the flow of being, is unnameable by any lawgiver, unutterable by any voice, not to be seen by any eye.
Page 92 - It is worth remembering that the best seed-ground for superstition is a society in which the fortunes of men seem to bear practically no relation to their merits and efforts. A stable and well-governed society does tend, speaking roughly, to ensure that the Virtuous and Industrious Apprentice shall succeed in life, while the Wicked and Idle Apprentice fails.
Page 17 - Paul calls moris or faith : that is, some attitude not of the conscious intellect but of the whole being, using all its powers of sensitiveness, all its feeblest and most inarticulate feelers and tentacles, in the effort somehow to touch by these that which cannot be grasped by the definite senses or analysed by the conscious reason.