CHAPTER XL - THE RELIGION AND MYTHOLOGY OF THE GREEKS

Summary

THE FORMATION OF GREEK RELIGION

There is something anomalous in writing of Greek religion down to the time of Homer. The Homeric poems are the earliest literary documents of Greece which we possess, and more fitted for a starting-point than a conclusion. Many of the characteristic features of Greek religion belong to a later age, and to discuss, for example, Athena without the background of Athenian democracy, the Parthenon and the Panathenaea may seem a curious proceeding. The limitations of this chapter make it inappropriate to begin, as would otherwise be natural in writing an account of the religion of a particular people, by noting some of its general features, the typical marks by which it is distinguished from the religions of other peoples and periods, before going on to fill in the details of the picture. We are indeed scarcely concerned with Greek religion as we ordinarily and rightly regard it, but only with an early stage in its formation. This must not of course be exaggerated. Homer represents one of the finest achievements of the distinctively Greek genius. Yet in the religion of the classical period Homer, though still a dominant influence, was only one element out of many. By dividing up Greek religion as the plan of this work demands, we are confined to a very strict interpretation of the historical method.

It is usual to start a historic account of Greek religion from the undoubted fact that the Greeks were immigrants to Greece, speaking an Indo-European tongue, who entered the peninsula and the adjacent islands in a series of waves, mainly between about 2000 and 1000 B.C.