^.

"

Aberdeen University
No. 32
Studies
:

The

Religious Teachers of Greece

'

of Aberdeen.

University

COMMITTEE ON PUBLICATIONS.
Convener

Professor

James W. H. Trail, F.R.S., Curator of

the University-

Library.

UNIVERSITY STUDIES.
General Editor

1900.

No.

I.

j. Anderson, LL.B., Librarian

and Clerk of the General Council.

P.

Roll of Aluiiiniin Arts of the University

Edited by P. J. Anderson.

and King's

to the

University

College of Aberdeen, 1596-1860.

-Records of Old Aberdeen, 1157-1891. A. M. Munro. F.S.A. Scot. Vol.

-Place Names of West Aberdeenshirt:.
James MacdonaM, F.S.A. Scot.

..

i.

I.

The Family of Burnett of Leys. George Burnett, LL.D., Lyon King of Arms.
-Records of Invercauld, 1547-1828. Rev. J. G. Michie, M.A.
Rectorial Addresses in the Universities of Aberdeen, 1835-1900.
P. J. Anderson.

The Albemarle Papers,

-The House

1746-4^.

Professor C. S. Terry, M.A.

M. Bulloch. M.A.
William Cramond, LL.D.

of Gordon.

Records of Elgin.
-Avogadro and Daiton.

J.

Vol.
Vol.

I.

1.

A. N. Meldrum, D.Sc.

Records of the Sheriff Court of Aberdeenshire.

David Littlejohn, LL.D.

Vol.1

Proceedings of the Anatomical and Anthropological Society, 1902-04.

Professor J. Arthur Thomson, M.A., and others.
Report on Alcyonaria.
Researches in Organic Chemistry. Prof. F. R. Japp, F.R.S., and others.
-Meminisse Juvat : with Appendix of Alakeia. Alexander Shewan, M.A.
-The Blackhalls of that Ilk and Barra. Ale.\ander Moriton, M.D.
-Records of the Scots Colleges. Vol. L P.J.Anderson.
Roll of the Graduates of the University of Aberdeen, 1S60-1900. Colonel William

Johnston, C.B., LL.D.

-Studies in the History and Development of the

University of Aberdeen.

P. J

Anderson and others.

-Studies in the History and Art of the Eastern Provinces of the Roman Empire
Professor Sir W. M. Ramsay, D.C.L., and pupils.
-Stt'.dier. in Pathology.
William Bulloch, M.D., and others.
Proceedings of the Anatomical and Anthropological Society, 1904-06.
-Subject Catalogues of the Science Library and the Law Library. P. J. Anderson.
-Records of the Sheriff Court of .iberdeenshire. David Littlejohn, LL.D. Vol. IL
-Studies on Alcyonarians and Antipatharians. Prof. Thomson, M.A., and others.
-Surgical Instruments in Greek ani Roman Times. J. S. Milne, M.A., M.D.
-Records of the Sheriff Court of Aberdeenshire. David Littlejohn, LL.D. Vol. Ill
-Flosculi Graeci Boreales. Ser. IL Professor John Harrower, M.A.
-Record of the Quatercentenary, igo6. P. J. Anderson.
-The House of Gordon. J. M. Bulloch, M.A. Vol. II.

The Miscellany of the New Spalding Club. Vol. II.

-T e Religious Teachers of Greece. James Adam, Litt.D.

(Gifford Lectures, 1904-06)

/^-/w^?

fu^-C^^^"^^

c/

{^yt^iy\y^

The

Religious Teachers

of Greece
GIFFORD LECTURES DELIVERED AT ABERDEEN
UNIVERSITY,

1904-06

By

James Adam, Litt.D.

Fellow and Senior Tutor of Emmanuel College, Cambridge

Edited, with

by

liis

Memoir,

Wife

Adela Marion

Adam

Aberdeen

Printed for the University

1908

oiiTOL

dWa

air

('tpx'l'^

^pop(p

iro^vra

i^rjTovvTe^

Oeol

6i>)jTola

ecpevplaKovaiv

vTreSet^ai^^
a/jueivov.

Xenophanes.

PREFACE
book

This

Lectures

represents

cleHvered

June and

in

December

the

substance

Aberdeen

1905, and

in

of

the

Giiford

December
June

1904,

The

1906.

author, and proofs were

read and corrected by him down to the end of Lecture
XVII. The MS. of the remaining Lectures was sent to

Lectures were revised

by the

the press about a fortnight before his death, and

proofs

of

this

finally passed the

intended

to

no

portion were seen by him, nor had he

go

sheets of

through

any part of the book. He

the whole again
carefully,

verifying references where he had not already done

so.

This duty and the correction of Lectures XVIII XXII

have devolved upon me, and, as I have verified the
references throughout, the responsibility for

that

may be found

any

errors

in the text or footnotes, rests with me.

small part of the index had been made, and I have

endeavoured to complete it on the same lines.

The author, wlien he thought that he might not
to

finish

his

task

himself,

bade me make known

live

his

He was
misgiving as to the merits of his work.
his
of
conscious
of
difficulties
the
subject, more
acutely
particularly in dealing with Plato's metaphysics, but

may

be said that he set

down

it

nothing, without taking

PREFACE

via

the mosl eainebt pains to weigh contlictiug views, and

to form his own judgment by a careful study of all
materials

was

to

he could

that

collect.

One

of

his last acts

choose the motto from Xenophanes prefixed to

the Lectures.
I wish

acknowledge, with the deepest gratitude,

to

the help given to me, in the correction of the proofs

or the preparation of the Memoir, by tlie Master of

Mr. L. Whibley, and Mr. T.

was
Mr. Giles
K. Glover.
good enough, in addition, to
verify references in books to which I had not access.

Emmanuel, Mr.

Most

Giles,

sincere thanks are also

have entrusted

my

P.

husband's

me

life

with

due to those friends who

letters, or

sent notes concerning

and work.
A. M. A.

Cambridge, March 1908.

CONTENTS
LECTURE

The Place of Poetry akd Philosophy in the Development

OF Greek Religious Thought
PAOK

The feud between Greek

Introduction

Its causes to

pliilosophy and Greek poetry

be sought in differences about reb'gion Evidence

Pliilosophy seldom just to her

in support of this statement

H omer along witli Hesiod represents the "orthodox"

Greek conception of'Tlie divine nature In Avliat sense these
two poets are the ''makers" of the Oi-eelc tlieogony The poet
asirteaclier in ancient Greece
Use of poetry in Greek education
Homer sometimes regarded as an encyclopedia of human

rival

knowledge

Allegorical interpretation of
Practical effect of the

method

Homer

-Later history

theology on
streams of development in Greek rePlan and
ligious thought, the poetical and the philosophical
1-20
scope of the inquiry
of this

Greek

life

poetical

Two main

......

LECTURES

II

AND

III

Homer
" All men have need of Gods "
Fate in
Homeric polytheism
Homer The position of Zeus Homer's anthropomorphism
Inherent dualism of the Homeric theology shown first in the
physical, secondly in the mental, and thirdly in the moral
Are the
attributes of the Gods Tendency to sjDiritualise Zeus
Homeric Gods omnipotent and omniscient ? Homer's inconMoral qualities of tlie Homeric Gods
sistency on this snljject
Here the vein of idealism is nuich less prominent God in
Homer the cause of evil to men Envy of the Gods Quern deus
ruU perdere, priiis dementat Tlie Gods deceive mankind Yet

Religion and theology of Homer

he di%ine omnipresence

CONTENTS
PAGE
are the givers of good and the guardians of justice
AVas
conscious of the antagonistic elements in his theology

Homeric view of

Homer

and prayer

sacrifice

Infatuation

Homer
?

The

The conception of

sin in

Influence of circumstances on character

Punishment of sin Atonement

Homer's psychology What does Homer mean by "self " ? He
means the body rather than the soul Death the separation of
Responsibility

for

sin

the soul from the body

The disembodied

soul a

phantom

of

the living man Homer's view of immortality and the future

world Islands of the blest Pathos of the Homeric view of life
'21-67
Nobility of the Homeric man

....

LECTURE IV
From Hesiod to Bacchylides
The Hesiodic poems

Progress in the Tlieogony from anarchy to law

Successive dynasties of Gods Traces of a still higher Power
The Gods hardly as yet conceived as moral beings The Works

and

Days

virtue,

and

of

Attributes

Hesiodic doctrine of
is

Zeus

daemons

The
Justice,

divine
in

justice

Hesiod,

not merely the punisher of sin

The

rewards

and

Sacrifice

The moral law

Requite evil for evil, good for good

The five ages of the world Hints of a golden age hereafter
Pessimism of Hesiod The origin of evil Immortality in
Hesiod The duty and dignity of labour Remarks on the
prayer

Homeric

Hymns

Hope

of immortality through initiation in

Lyric and elegiac poetry The inferior Gods

more and more overshadowed by Zeus Fate generally identified with the ordinance of Zeus
Religious interpretation of
the mysteries

Destiny Man's dependence on the Gods Can man by searching find out God ? Righteousness of Zeus Sins of the fathers
Hebrew parallels to the perplexity
visited upon the children
of Theoguis about this and similar difficulties Anticipations
in gnomic poetry of the moral and religious doctrine of Greek

The morality of the Gods higher than in Homer Other

68-91
Greek melancholy The future life

drama

noteworthy features

LECTURE y
Orphic Religious Ideas
The Orphic

religious revival in the sixth century

Centres of Orphic-

Organisation of the brotherhoods^ Authorities for

Pantheistic character of Orphic theology The
early Orphism
teaching

CONTENTS

xi

PAOB

body

as the soul's

prison-house or grave

Celestial origin of

"
"
wheel or "circle
the soul Fall of the soul through sin The
"
"
"
and
of generation
Transmigration^" Purity
purification"
in Orphism
Purity to be attained by a particular way of life,
"
and by religious rites and ceremonies The "Orphic life
Rules
of abstinence Ritual of Orphism
Plato's condemnation of

Orphic religious practices Orphic esehatology The intermediate state Reincarnation No absorption of the individual
Orphic pictures of heaven The "restoration of all things"
Contrast between Orphism and the Homeric religion in regard
to their tloctrines of immortality, sin, and the relation of the

human

to the divine

tion of

Orphism by Plato

.....

Deification in

LECTURE

Orphism

Intellectualisa-

92-114

VI

PiNDAK
Connexion between Pindar and Apollo His theology is anthropomorphic,
but he endeavours to purge the legends of their grosser features

Essentially religious character of Pindar's poetry

Passages illustrating the lofty idealism of his conception of

the Godhead No conflict between Zeus and Fate Deification
of the Fates
tributes of the

divine

justice

The goddess "Fortune" in Pindar Various atGods Their omnipotence and omniscience The
rewards

God

virtue

as

well

as

punishes vice

and true To Pindar, though

frankly polytheistic, there is but one divine will determining
the course of events, and that is the will of Zeus The Greek
"
doctrine of the " Envy of the Gods
Pindar's treatment of the
Providence

doctrine

is

faithful

Conception of sin in Pindar

Ever-recurrent warnings

against insolence and pride For the most part Pindar makes
the transgressor himself responsible Punishment of sin The

innocent suffer with the guilty The "melancholy " of Pindar

never sinks to pessimism A characteristic feature of his poetry
is the
emphasis which he lays on aspiration and hope Orphic

and Pythagorean features in his authro[)ology Immortality in

Pindar He bases the belief on the Orphic doctrine of the soul's
Discussion of the eschatological passages and fragdivinity
ments Jletempsychosis Reward and punishment in the future
state

Pindar's interpretation of the fortunatoriim insulue

to Orphism
Pindar and Plato Conclusion
115-137

His debt

CONTENTS

xii

LECTURE

VII

Aeschylus
PAGK

Connexion of Greek tragedy with religion Aeschylus pre-eminently

a religious poet The Promethean trilogy illustrates the substitution of harmony and justice for discord and violence in
the divine government of the world Zeus and Fate
Attributes
of Zeus Aeschylus is not a monotheist, although he believes
in a single all-controlling will
The divine justice a cardinal
feature of Aeschylean drama
Sin in Aeschylus Are the gods

authors

of

infatuation

Doctrine

Alastor or family curse

flict

of duties

The

of

inherited

guilt

The

Tragic conPunishment regarded as a

Responsibility for sin

lex talionis

How

Aeschylus corrects the popular interpretation

"
"
the
Attitude of the poet on the question
Envy of the Gods
of the divine truthfulness and purity
Immortality Alleged
Orphic and Pythagorean features Influence of Homer Judgment and punishment hereafter No Elysium in the underworld
of Aeschylus The leading characteristic of his teaching is the
stress which he lays on the punitive aspect of the divine justice
138-162
Contrast with Sophocles
discipline

.....

LECTURE

VIII

Sophocles

The

serenity of Sophocles as compared with Aeschylus and Euripides

Piety in Sophocles the foundation of virtue Sophocles does

not deliberately break with traditional theology

His doctrine

of an eternal and immutable morality, or prior obligation to

merely human law, illustrated from the Antigone Religious
significance

of this doctrine

Sophocles' view of suffering

Tliough frequently the result of sin, suffering is yet compatible

with moral innocence Can undeserved suffering be reconciled

with the divine justice

The

discipline

of pain

Hope

of

recompense hereafter Individual suffering may subserve the

larger purposes of Providence and contribute to the universal
harmony Resemblance to Heraclitus Is Sophocles a monotheist? True religion, in Sophocles, means purity of heart
His sympathy for human weakness Imitatio Dei The "stnse

Conclusion.

Faith in Zeus forbids despair The

Consideration of the relevant passages

......

of tears" in Sophocles
life in Sophocles

future

163-183

CONTENTS

xiii

LECTURE IX
From Thales to Xenophanes
PAOK
of Thales that "'all things are full of Gods" contains,
perhaps, the germ of the later doctrine of the World-soul

The saying

Anaximander and his concept of the Infinite Justice as a

cosmic power Auaximcncs How the cosmological teaching of
these three thinkers points the way to monotheism
Pythagoras
and his brotherhood
tion

half-religious, half-scientific foundaThe Pythagorean doctrine of the

Relation to Orphism

The pursuit of knowledge in early Pythagorean ism

subordinate and auxiliary to moral salvation Pythagorean
soul

dualism Opposition of Limit and the Unlimited Limit is

apparently the active or formative, the Unlimited the passive
Later writers identify these with God and Matter
principle

Pythagoras the

first

to

make philosophy

way

of

life

Adora-

tion of Pythagoras

by his followers Xenophanes of Colophon

Was he influenced by the Orphic movement ? His theological
fragments Dispute as to his monotheism Evidence for and
against the traditional view
Suggested solution The
Xenophanes is uncreated Virtue and truthfulness of

God of
God

Conception of the Godhead as a moral ideal for humanity the

"
one God of Xenophanes is the World Question of personality
In effect, Xenophanes deifies Nature
184-211
' '

LECTURES X AND XI
Hekaclitus
Heraclitus of Ephesus Life and temperament
the vulyus, tlie poets, and the philosophers

He denounces

alike

His famous book

Character and style of the surviving fragments Proverbial

obscurity of Heraclitus Heraclitus first and foremost a prophet
or seer Regards himself as the vehicle of a new revelation to

mankind The Heraclitean doctrine of Logos Logos not simply

the discourse or treatise of Heraclitus Fragments in which the
Logos is described The Logos eternal a cosmic principle
operating also in man Is it only objective reason or law ?
Indications showing that it is actively intelligent and thinks

apparently the divine reason immanent in Nature and in

Arguments against this view considered The Logos a
unity, omnipresent, rational, and divine
Not, however, an
immaterial essence Identified with Fire Fragments establishIt is

man

CONTENTS

xiv

PACK

Rationality of Fire Evidence of later

Theological fragments of Heraclitus Unity of

ing this identification

authorities

God

No

distinction between

God and Logos

Occasional use

Part plaj'ed by Fire

Deification of Fire
of polytheistic terms
Fire the ever-changing reality of things
in Heracliteanism

transmutation of the elements Is the world, in

?
Discussion of this question Warfare of
Underlying
opposites throughout the world Perpetual flux
harmony of opposites The unity in which all opposites are
Pantheism of Heraclitus not
reconciled is the Logos or God
Ethical doctrine of Heraclitus
irreconcilable with Polytheism
Follow the Universal Obedience to law Evil is inseparable
Ceaseless

Heraclitus, eternal

from good and contributes to the universal harmony Individualism and self-seeking to be eradicated Eschatology of
Heraclitus The relevant fragments betray the influence of
Orphism His great contribution is the doctrine of the Logos

.......

Subsequent history of that doctrine in Plato, Stoicism, Philo,

and St. John
212-240

LECTURE

XII

From Pahmenides to Axaxagokas

Parmenides of Elea

Distinction between the Philosophy of Truth

of Opinion
The Parmenidean concept of

and the Philosophy

Being Attributes of Being Its materiality Antagonism

Ijetween the Heraclitean and Parmenidean points of view
Attempts at reconciliation Empedocles of Agi'igentum His
theory of the elements or roots of things

"movent cause"

Love and Hate

Introduction of the

Love combines and Hate

separates Recurrent cycles in the life of the world Theology

The sphereof Empedocles Denial of anthropomorphism

God

Created Gods Deification of

Spiritualisation of Apollo
Love and Hate are also Gods No real teleology

the elements

The corporeal and spiritual not really distinguished by Him Universal diffusion of intelligence in
Karsten's attribution of pantheism to Empedocles
tilings

in Empedocles

Empedocles' theology not a harmonious Avhole His ethical and

religious teaching mainly Orphic^Anaxagoras of Clazomenae
His theory oi imnspCTinia The primeval mixture The world-

forming Nom Fragments in which it

Anaxagorean Nous a corporeal substance ?
it

to be incorporeal

and supreme

Omniscience of Nous

Creative function of

Nous

is

described

Reasons

Nous

Is the

for believing

is omnipotent
"What led Nous to

CONTENTS

XV
TAOR

create the world

Matter

not

Anaxagoras

touched
Strictures

identify

Nous with

Theism

in the

Conclusiou

Difficulty about

the action

of

Mind on

hy Anaxagoras the teleology of

by Plato and Aristotle Did Anaxagoras

on

the Deity

He

is

the founder of philosophic

.....
?

Western World

His views on immortality

LECTURE

241-264

XIII

The Age of the Sophists

Foreshadowing of humanism in the Nous of Anaxagoras Diogenes
of Aiiollonia materialises No\i,s in the element of Air, combining
Anaxagoreauism with the theory of Anaximenes His pantheism
and teleology Views on immortality Democritus, the highHis physical theory does not require the
priest of materialism
assumption of a creative Mind AUegorism in Democritus
Origin of the belief in Gods Daemonology Criticism of the
belief in immortality
Spread of rationalism in Athens The
AVhat is their place in the moral and
so-called Sophists

Not a philosophical school,

religious development of Greece ?
but a profession of mutually independent teachers Protagoras
The tendency of his instruction was to subvert the political
"
and religious principles of the city-state, for " Man the Measure
means individualism in Ethics, and in Theology he was an
agnostic Gorgias The rationalism of Prodicus and Critias
a form of atheism
Prevalent distrust of oracles and divination
Denial of immortality Hippias of Elis The antithesis of
nature and law operated destructively on the established order,
but at the same time encouraged the development of humanism

The negative and positive consequences

of this antithesis illustrated from the literature of the time

and cosmopolitanism
General

effect of

not to relniild

.....

the Sophistic

Conclusion

movement was

to overthrow but

265-285

LECTURES XIV AND XV

EuniviBES
Euripides as the poetical exponent of the Age of Enlightenment
His iconoclasm illustrated I'rom the Hij>^olytus, the Madness

of Heracles, and other plays Exceptions to this attitude In

denying the Gods of Greece, does he intend to deny the ex-

CONTENTS

xvi

I'AOK

istence of

Gods altogether

Seutimeuts suggestive of atheism

Positive contributions towards a purer theology
?

or agnosticism
contained in the poet's criticisms of the
Goodness essential to the Godhead the
for

mankind

hint of monotheism

Olympian religion
Gods as moral ideals

Self-sufficiency of the

nature

Philosophical theology in
Euripides The
"strange prayer" of Hecuba Parallel from Wordsworth
Nestle's theory that Euripides was a follower of Heraclitus
In
divine

has no uniform or consistent point of view

Views of death and immortality
throughout his poems Re-aljsorptiou in the divine element of
aether The prevailing pessimism of Euripides
Is the Bacchae
intended as a palinode ? The leading motive of the play is to
reality, Euripides

The humanism

of Euripides

exalt enthusiasm above reason

In this consists the religious

of the Bacchae, but the earlier rationalism is
extinct
Influence of Euripides on Greek religious

significance

not yet

thought

.......

286-319

LECTURES XVI AND XVII

Socrates

new chapter

in Greek thought begins with Socrates

Union of
rationalism and transcendentalism in his temperament The
"

' '

He regardshimself as a divinely-appointed
Religious significance of his devotion to
Socrates as a "physician of the soul"
His identifica-

supernatural sign
minister to Athens

Apollo

tion of vice with ignorance, virtue with knowledge

Discussion
of this theory and its implications The Socratic method, considered first on its destructive or cathartic, and second on its
positive or constructive side

"

Know thyself"

Substance of the Socratic teaching

He preaches the Gospel of Nooeracy both

the individual and for the State

for

Pule of conduct as between

man and man

His views on immortality Theology of Socrates

Reason who directs the world Socrates' teleology
is essentially anthropocentric, and its motive is religious rather
than philosophical Practical religion in Socrates " Worship
God according to the law of the State " Lessons conveyed by
this precept
The Socratic conception of sacrifice and prayer
Causes which led to the condemnation of Socrates The
historical significance of his trial and death
320-355

God

as the

CONTENTS

xvii

LECTURE XVIII
The

Plato.

Cosjiological Doctrine
PAQE

Plato's relation
lesson

The

to Socrates

which

it

teaches

Parallels from the

is

simile

The main

of the Cave

the reality of the invisible and eternal

the chains that

New Testament What are

bind the soul? The Timaeus of Plato Platonic dualism

Plato's account of the creation of the body of the world
Principles underlying that account The world as the expression in time and space of mathematical law To what extent
Necessity yields to the Good The Soul of the World in the
Timaeus Why Plato endows the Universe with soul Constituents

of

intelligence

Maker

"

the World-soul
Its attributes of motion and
The world a "perceivable God," the "image of

Comparison of the AVorld-soul with the Logos of

The AVorld-soul a link between the
infinite and the finite
AVhat Plato means by the generation of
the AVorld-soul The Timaeus a "hymn of the universe"
Influence of the dialogue on later religious thought
356-374

its

Heraclitus and of Philo

LECTURE XIX
Plato

{continued).

Elements of Asceticism and of Mysticism

The "created Gods" of the Timaeus

part of

tlie

human

divine,

and

this divine possession

soul

Creation of the rational

by the supreme God

makes him

]Man's reason is
specifically

human

Creation of the body and the "mortal part" of soul by the

subordinate Gods Man a compound of mortality and immortality

The chains by

Avhich the prisoner in the cave

symbolise man's lower nature

During

life

Reason

is

bound

may

either

regain supremacy or still further lose it^Plato's anthropology

compared with that of St. Paul Different ways in which Plato
describes the soul's deliverance

Phacdo
necrosis

Comparison and

The mcditatio mortis of the

conti'ast

with St. Paul's doctrine of

In the

Symposium the deliverance is efi'ected by love

of beauty and goodness
The earlier portion of the dialogue
The speech of Diotima By means of love the soul rises to the
Some
contenijilation of the invisilile and tterual Beauty
points of contact between Platonic and Christian mysticism
of intellectual and religious enthusiasm in Plato
375-397

Union

CONTENTS

xviii

LECTURE XX
Plato

Theory of Education

{continued).

FAOB

Education in the Rc2nihlic

The preliminary discipline Plato's canons for a reformed
theology His own ideal of Poetry and Art Comparison with
Milton The higher or philosophical curriculum Relation of
The philosophical discipline
tlie two schemes to one another
confined to a select class Natural qualifications of the philosopher-king The ascent into the realm of Being Education

Value attached by Plato to education

in Plato presupposes the presence in every man of a divine

element, which it endeavours to turn from darkness to light

New

Testament The different studies in the

Plato the founder of University education
Mathematical science in Plato a revelation of the Godhead,

Parallels from the

Platonic curriculum

.......

hut the soul's deliverance is not complete till it has risen beyond
mathematics to the immediate contemplation of the supreme
Idea of Good
398-421

LECTURES XXI AND XXII

Plato

{concluded).

The Theoky of Ideas

The Theory of Ideas Aristotle's account of the genesis of the Theory

The Ideas, in Plato, stand for the real At once transcendent
and immanent The transcendence of the Ideas Their various
The Idea is
attributes, unity, changelessness, and perfection
the

hypostasised

type,

standard,

objects, in the creations of nature,

and morality

Why the

or

ideal

above

all,

in

manufactured

in the

domain of

of necessity' transcendent
Plato's religion the uplifting of the soul towards this realm of
Virtual deification of the Ideas The Ideal World
perfection
art

Idea

is

Immanence of the
described in the language of the mysteries
Ideas
"Communion," "participation," "presence" The
transcendent immanence of the Idea comparable to the Christian
doctrine of the transcendent
difficulties

involved

in

this

immanence of God

Intellectual

conception Parallel from

of the Idea denotes the

Augustine The "presence"

semblance of the particular to its Idea

St.
re-

Paradeigmatic conception

Cliristian parallels to Plato's way of representing

the relation of Ideas to particulars The Idea of Good, as
described in the Ecpuhlic The Good transcends both Know-

of the Ideas

CONTENTS

xix

Is the Idea of Good

ledge and Reality, and is the cause of l)otli
to be identified with God ?
Arguments in favour of the identi-

fication

The Good

in Plato

not a mere inanimate abstraction

creative aspect inseparable from soul or life

Identical
with the " true and divine mind" Parallel from Dante In-

In

its

ferences to be drawn from the sovereignty of the Good

Nature a revelation of God Teleology in Plato Is evil nothing
but negation ? Dualism not eliminated The Good as the final
cause
Man as co-worker with God against the forces of evil
Does Plato believe in the ultimate triumph of Good ? In the
soul, perhaps, but hardly in the material universe -How we
attain to knowledge of the Ideas The science of Dialectic

may

Comparison with the Christian doctrine

The universe of knowal)les an organic
between the mathematical and dialectical

Hierarchy of Ideas

of celestial hierarchies

whole Contrast
methods Dialectic proceeds through hypotheses to the unhypothetical first principle, which is the Good Permanent
value of this method Plato's dialectic an ideal
Immortality
in Plato
Conclusion
422-460

.....

MEMOIR
James Adam was

on

side from a
His father, who
Adam, worked for some time as
a farm-servant, but had ambitions beyond this calling.
He used to study Latin while following the plough, and
had thoughts of becoming a missionary, though he took
no steps in this direction beyond practising lay-preaching
in his neighbourhood.
At about the age of twenty-six
he went into Aberdeen to learn the trade of a merchant,
or general village shopkeeper and then returning to his
own part of the country he took a small shop at Kinmuck, a hamlet consisting of not more than a dozen
scattered houses, on high ground some three and a half
miles south-east of Inverurie, in the valley of the Don.
To the north and east the country is very bare and
featureless
nothing is to be seen but an expanse of roll"
"
divided with pitiless regularity by
hillside,
dykes
ing

descended

typical stock of rural

was also named James

each

Aberdeenshire.

"

"

(stone walls) into fields of grass, oats, or

neeps (turnips).
"
White rough-cast or " harled homesteads are planted

every few hundred yards but for miles around there is

an absence of any collection of houses compact enough
;

To the south the land slopes down

to be called a village.
to the river Don, and at a short distance uphill, along
the road to Inverurie, the chief glory of the neighbourhood comes into view, the noble hill of Benachie,^ dearly'

The ch

as in the

German Fach.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

II

beloved of the inhabitants of the countryside for its form

and rich colour.
Trees are scarce, except for straggling
lines of

firs

along the roadside

an abundance

but in

summer

broom and wild

of yellow

there

pansies,

is

whose

purple seems here more intense than in less northerly

regions.

James Adam's

venture in shopkeeping prospered.

married
Barbara Anderson, who came from
He presently
a race of small crofters living at the " hill-foot," about

twenty miles away, on the western borders of

Of her early days Mrs. Adam writes
Aberdeenshire.
"
I was the youngest of ten
we were all brought up on
a small farm in the parish of Clatt.
The boys were sent
fifteen or

to school, but

they thought in those days that, if girls

could read and write, it was all that was needful for
tliem.

As soon

away

to earn our

we were able to work, we were sent

own living, as my parents were very

as

poor."

Seven children were born from

this marriage

first

a daughter, next, on April Ttli, 18G0, a son, James, and

then five other daughters, of whom one died in infancy.

Soon after the birth of James the family moved to new

and larger premises close by, consisting of a good-sized
shop for general trade, with dwelling-house and large
garden, and a smaller liousenext door containing a tailor's
The old thatched house, where James Adam
workshop.
the son was born, has now disappeared, and a new farmhouse has been built in

The great ambition

give

all

eldest

his children

its place.

of

James Adam the

father

was to
His

the best education possible.

daughter well remembers hearing him speak of

though she was not more than ten years old

this desire,

died.
A few farmers round about combined
with him to build a small schoolhouse at Kinmuck, and

when he

he helped to maintain the schoolmistress by receiving

her as a boarder at the low rate of five shillings a week.

MEMOIR

He

HI

bought several expensive maps for tlie school, as

was
distressed that the children should learn geohe
In every way he seems to
graphy only out of books.
also

have been a leading

man

in his neighbourhood, ready

to help in all cases of distress, and also active in the

intellectual as well as the commercial and religious life

Essays are

of the district.

still

in

existence,

written

His piety was fervent, so

by him for local societies.
much so that every morning he would retire to spend a
All his life
quarter of an hour alone in private prayer.
Inverurie
at
Church
he attended the Congregational
had
founded by his father, which
begun by meeting in
had
a building of its
time
the Town Hall, but by this
His children used to drive over with him every
own.

Sunday morning.

When

boy Jamie (pronounced in Aberdeenshire

Jeemie) was about seven years old, Professor Black came
to inspect the little school at Kinmuck, and picked out
"
That boy will
the lad as showing special promise.
his

to something yet," he remarked, as he patted him

on the head and the father went home with pride to
Alas the father was not to see how
tell the mother.
was fulfilled, for about a year later,
the
prophecy
amply

come

at

the early age of forty-three, he fell a victim to a

epidemic, and died of pleurisy following typhoid

local

His memory is still cherished in the countryBoth the eldest daughter and Jamie also suffered
from the fever but, though Jamie was a delicate boy,
neither of them seems to have been permanently injured
fever.
side.

After this tragedy Mrs. Adam,

carried on the business
determination,
splendid
the shop, and by her ceaseless efforts brought up

by the serious

illness.

with
of

and started in life her six children.

Long after they
were all grown up she continued the work, with the sole
assistance at last of one daughter, besides the tailor who
was employed on the premises, and it was not till Sep-

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

IV

tember 1906 that she could be prevailed upon

to a house in Inverurie, built by her son-in-law.

to

retire

Shortly before the death of his father the little Jamie

I copy from the
a prize at Kinmuck school

Adam won

inscription in the actual

votes of his schoolfellows

"

volume
for

good

Awarded by the
conduct."

That

night, however, he was sorely distressed, for, while playing at horses during the day, he had acted the part of a

ploughboy driver with too great realism, and had made

use of an unparliamentary expression.
His conscience
pricked him, and he thought the prize had not been

The school building

justly earned.
school no longer exists.

At ten years
to

is still

there, but the

old he begged his mother to send

him

the parish school of Keithhall, about a mile

While he was
prepared a

there, according to his elder sister,

and learnt next to

single lesson,

The master, Mr. Brown, wished him

to begin

away.
he never

nothing.
Latin, but

first night's preparation caused such weeping over

the declensions, that his mother said he might give it up.
He used to march ofi' in the morning, dressed in a suit

the

with a pair of striped fancy moleskin trousers, and armed

with a flask of milk and a " bread and syrup piece."
He would sometimes speak in his later years of his
troubles with the big rough boys at the school.
On one
occasion at least he was made to fight before the
assembled school, and returned home after the ordeal

bearing the marks of the fray.

After two years at Keithhall

school,

Jamie, aged

twelve, and his elder sister were sent to live with an

There
aunt, Mrs. Ewing, and her husband, in Aberdeen.
he attended the Free South Church school under Mr.
This school had considerable fame at the time,
Eamage.
and here Jamie Adam seems to have been fired with a
He worked very hard, and at the end of
desire to excel.
the year carried off all the first prizes
an achievement

MEMOIR
the more remarkable because of
earlier education.

According

V
the mcagreness of his

to his sister's

recollection,

was at this school that his enthusiasm for work began.

But the following year, 1873, he returned home and told
his mother that he was not going back to school, but was
His mother's opinion was that he
going into the shop.
would be the better for another year at school, but he
would not hear of going back, and (I quote Mrs. Adam's
own words) " he began selling but whenever the customer went out, he had his book on the desk, and he

it

After a short time he got tired

off to it at once.
the shop, and said to me that he would stay if I
wanted him to do so, but that he would never be happy

went
of

His mother wisely saw

back of the counter."
would be for the happiness of neither of them, if
he were to be kept at an uncongenial occupation, so she
told him that she would manage the shop, and he might
"
There does not seem, on this
go back to the learning."
occasion, to have been any question of going back to
at the

that

it

school in Aberdeen, and he returned to his old school

at Keithhall, where there was now a new master, Mr.

To
George Kemp, M.A., of Edinburgh University.
Mr. Kemp Adam owed a very great debt, for there is
no doubt that he played an exceedingly large part in
fostering the love of learning that had begun to spring
His mother
up, during the previous year, in Aberdeen.
"
He used to sit with his lesson-book
says of this time
before him, and learn his lessons, and play the Hute at
:

He was a tender-hearted and most

and most persevering everything had
Mr. Kemp, who still (1908) holds
to be well done."
the post of master of Keithhall school, writes as follows
"
Dr. Adam entered with me on the 14th October 1873.
He took very kindly to the work, and made rapid
same

the

time.

affectionate boy,

progress.
about a

He

began the study

of

Latin

week he had got the length

of

de,

novo.

In

the third de-

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

VI

when Professor Christie, examiner for the Milne

The Professor, after
Bequest Trust, visited the school.
testing his proficiency thus far, remarked
Aye, aye
laddie, yo'rc dacin' fine, but you're a lang wye frae the
clensiou,

'

first

bursary.'

On

hearing

from what

this,

my thought was
he goes on as he

the laddie,

of

'

he

may

had seen

take the

In

first

few
bursary,
doing.'
weeks he began Greek.
I am not particularly fond of
Greek
but was rather pleased to have a Greek
In
the
pupil.
report on the inspection of the school
on 11th February 1875 by Dr. Kerr, the following
remark is made regarding the laddie, The most advanced
pupil showed unusually sound drill in Latin, Greek, and
mathematics.'
Although I have some claim to having
if

is

'

led
I

him

tried

to acquire a taste for

to get

him

to

classics, I

must say that

specialise in mathematics.

He,
however, chose the right path, and Professor Geddes led

him

gloriously on."
used often to speak of the extraordinary attrac-

Adam

"
The letters looked
Greek had for him from the first
so nice," he would say, and he would describe how he used
to walk up and down the garden at Kinmuck, devouring the
Greek grammar. He remained at Keithhall school till
July 1875.
During his holidays he often spent several
weeks at his mother's old home at Clatt, with her sister,
Mrs. Cook, and her brother, Mr. Anderson.
There he
would get up at 5.30, breakfast off porridge and milk

tion

(and nothing

else),

go

off to

the heatber with his books,

and come back again

at twelve for a dinner perhaps of

cabljage or kail or milk broth.

His cousin,

the

Eev.

W.

Anderson,

who was

liis

constant companion during these holiday visits, writes

an account of the two boys' long tramps over the hills
to fish in the Gadie and other seldom fished streams,

where they could be sure of getting a bite.

they came home, Jamie Adam would tell highly

When
glorified

MEMOIR

VII

accounts of the day's adventures, for the benefit of the

His extreme fondness for his mother and
family circle.
sisters

whose

is

especially well

remembered by Mr. Anderson,

now aged eighty-eight, recollects how Adam

accompany him to the field to work, and discussed

father,

used to

"

farm problems with all the keenness and discrimination of

an experienced hand."
By this time he had fully resolved to go to college,
and was spurred on by the inspector above mentioned,
Besides
Dr. Kerr,^ who told him that he ought to go.
his school work, he, of his own accord, procured and

worked through a great many Latin and Greek

"

versions

"

{Anglice, prose composition exercises), correcting them by

means of keys. He was wanted at home to give help in

Kinmuck shop during the latter part of 1875, but in

spare moments he was busy with his books, working
One or two of the friends in the neighbourhimself.
by
the

all

hood remonstrated with

his

mother

for letting her

boy

They thought it was his

attempt a University career.
use
his
and
to
powers for the benefit of the
stay
duty
Mrs. Adam, however, was unshaken, seeing
the
stuff that was in her son.
clearly
The next step was to go for a few months to the Old
locality.

Grammar School in Old Aberdeen, in order to supplement

Mr. Kemp's valuable training by the instruction of Dr.
Dey, whose name was one to conjure with among the
would-be holders of bursaries or entrance scholarships to
The competition for these
the University of Aberdeen.
and
was
bursaries
extremely keen,
perhaps a good deal of
best
the blame for overworking her
sons, which is laid to
the charge of the University, should be put
pressure endured before entering her gates.

down

to the

Soon after
Adam had gone to this school a Greek exercise was preHis work was publicly commended, somewhat to
scribed.
^

In Dr. Kerr's Memories Grave and Gay he refers to this without

living the name.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

VIII

the surprise of his companions

and his pride was raised
when Dr. Dey further remarked of the new boy's
;

high

"

and what is more, he has put on all the

That word of praise gave him lifelong pleasure.
The Bursary Competition was held in October 1876, and
he came out third out of some two or three hundred
performance,

accents."

candidates.

The

life of

an Aberdeen student

of those

days was an

Living in lodgings, with no superno care but that of a landlady who might or

over-strenuous one.
vision,

and

might not be competent, the students vied with one another

in the race for prizes and medals to an abnormal degree.

The love

of

knowledge

for

its

own

sake

was strong,

spirit
competition ran unduly high, and was
not checked, but rather fostered by the several professors.
In after life Adam used frequently to say
and the

but the

original

of

dictum

is

attributed to the late Professor Bain

"

All distinguished Aberdonians die before they are

fifty."
Unhappily there is but too much truth in the
statement, as far

On

academic distinction

as

is

concerned.

October 17, 1907, the Camhridge Review contained

obituary notices

of

two

of

graduates. Professor

these

Strachan of Manchester and James

Adam

respectively forty-five and forty-seven

cludes the names of Robertson Smith,

himself, aged

and the

list

in-

Groom Eobertson,
Mr. Neil in Aurora

Neil, and others.

Borealis Academica, p. 30, mentions " that disregard of
simple rules of health and work which has had much to

Minto, E. A.

do with those gaps in the class

lists of

twenty or thirty

years ago, that make them like army lists in time of

war."
It is pathetic to reflect that, two years after this
passage was published, Mr. Neil's death made one of the
largest of these gaps.

At Aberdeen Adam

received, as

he himself says in the

"
opening sentence of his Giffbrd Lectures, the greatest inOf all his teachers none
tellectual impulse of his life."

MEMOIR
exercised an influence over

who then

Professor Geddes,

IX

him comparable
held the Greek

to

that of

and

chair,

afterwards became Sir William Geddes, Principal of the

For him Adam had an enthusiastic admiraand an almost filial affection, which was engendered
by the very unusual interest which the Professor took in his
To his kindness Adam practically owed his
eager pupil.
and he was never tired of referring to
career
subsequent
the stimulus he had received not only in the Greek class,
but also by his intercourse with Professor Geddes at
In later years, whenever he came to
other times.
and
in due course his wife also, were most
Aberdeen, he,
welcomed
by Sir William and Lady Geddes and
warmly
Geddes
still
likes to say that her husband looked
Lady
a son than as a pupil.
Greek was
Adam
more
as
upon
the subject in which Adam, though he did well in all
For
parts of his degree course, outstripped everyone.
or
one
time
had
to
at
his degree he
another,
pass
according to the system of that day, in Latin and Greek,
University.
tion

English, mathematics,

geology,

zoology,

physics,

logic,

In the opinion of Mr. Giles, of

and metaphysics.
Aberdeen and Emmanuel College, Cambridge, the defects
"
were that
of this training, of which he thinks highly,
there was so little supervision, that the examinations
being largely upon work done in the various classes led
to cram, and that the professors were too ready to spur
the willing horse, with the result that it came to be

thought almost a virtue to

sit

up working

to all hours of

the night or morning."

There is no doubt that the work, whatever its merits
may have been, was too heavy and besides this formid;

pass subjects, the better candidates prepared

themselves for Honours in classics, mathematics, or

able

list of

Even the examinations were conducted

philosophy.
Instead of a maximum of
under extra high pressure.
three hours for a paper to which English schools and

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

universities are accustomed,

Aberdeen students had some-

times to endure papers of four hours' length. No wonder

that breaking-down was a common occurrence, or that
the effects of the strain were felt severely in after life.

During part of his course, Adam's letters show that he

had thoughts of taking Honours in philosophy as well as
in classics, but in the end he gave up the philosophy.
He
and
of
Sanskrit
also
German, apparently
speaks
studying
but there are also signs of
solely for his satisfaction
In 1879 he writes to his sister " With
weariness.
;

my

weighty head burdened with care and anxiety as to

what I am to do when I leave College, and wretched
discomfort and corroding disgust and general debility
and what not, I'm afraid I'm going to sink."
The following week he writes, " Wouldn't it have been
nice if we could always have remained wee little creatures,
running about with no thouglit save of pleasure, nothing
to vex ourselves about, and nothing to grind ?
Speaking
of grinding, I confess I feel in a queer sort of humour
I
with regard to that, and have done so for some time.

think

very good to boast about the pleasures and

knowledge and all that, but where is the

it is all

nobilities

of

practical use of

it all

What

is

the use of

filling

our

minds with all sorts of miscellaneous knowledge, most of

which will doubtless never do us any immediate service,
"
It is only fair, however,
and very little indirect good ?
to say that, in this letter, his rebellious mood seems to
"
have been roused by someone who is thumping away at
something which pretends to be a piano," in a way which
"
is
perfectly maddening to one who has a taste for music
like me."

He
In general, however, his spirits were buoyant.
had a genius for making friends, and one and all speak
of his power of alfection, which was perhaps even more
markedly shown in his dealings with his pupils, when he
His
became a College lecturer and tutor at Cambridge.

MEMOIR

XI

class-fellow, the Kev. G. Pittendrigb, writes

.walking tours together.

and

Skye one year

Clyde.

about

"
:

We

went

We

tramped through Koss-shire

another year we went down the

He

men

used to pour forth his soul in talk, not

Even then Plato
or things, but about ideas.

was becoming his teacher and inspiration, and speculation

on the great facts of life and death was his constant
theme but always in a more or less playful mood.
Throufrh even the most serious of our talks there ran a
;

He

dehghted in the intellectual interest

which they afforded.
That, I think, was to him their
In
those
main charm.
days he hardly felt them to be
Of the usual young men's
of
life.
practical problems
ripple of fun.

sports

we had

none.

We

them

did not think of

we

never missed them.

Nothing but walks, with the neverDuring the terms we saw
ending stream of fresh talk.

much

less

of

each

strenuous labour, and

in our books."

These

other.

we

were

months

of

buried ourselves perhaps over

much

In this description of his conversation we

may

trace

the qualities that made his College lectures a source

of delight to hearers from all the Colleges in Cambridge.

The outpouring

of

ideas,

the

enthusiasm for

speculation on the great facts of

never-absent playfulness, and, above all, the
Plato,

the

life,

the

sympathy

with his audience, these were the constant features of

and even when at other times of the
he
would
be
troubled with serious mental depression,
day
his discourses

was always overflowing.

Mr. Giles, who entered the University two years after
him, and followed him first to Caius and then to
in the lecture-room his vitality

Emmanuel
seeing him

at

Cambridge, has a vivid recollection of

first time in front of the chapel at

for the

Adam was pointed out as

King's College, Aberdeen.
the great Greek scholar of the Tertian year." Mr. Giles
was greatly astonished to see a boyish figure, with a fresh

"

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

XII

pink and white complexion, and fair, almost flaxen, hair,

looking not more than fourteen, though in reality he was
nearly nineteen.

men in Greek, but

of
the
examination
were
subjects
prose and verse
among
Professor
a
wider view of
Geddes,
composition.
taking
There was no class for Honours

his duties

than did some of his colleagues, helped his

over such verses as they might

students by looking
write spontaneously.

lation of the passage

which I see before me

^eo(,

KcoTTTjv

r'l

One day Adam presented a transfrom Macbeth, " Is this a dagger

"

beginning

Xfvcrcra)/ fiai' ivavrlov ^i(f)os

Tvporeivov Tf]8e fiesta X^P^j

Professor Geddes was struck by the copy (which he

published in course of time in the collection of verses

by Aberdeen students called Flosadi Graeci Borcalcs),

and he told me, many years afterwards, that it was this

made him

believe in the possibility of his

students competing successfully, in this branch of scholarThe verses
ship, with English public school
boys.

version that

were generously praised and Adam's soul was uplifted,

as it always was, when he met with commendation.
He went out, and marched up and down the seashore at
Old Aberdeen, repeating the lines in ecstasy, especially
the fxwv ivavTiov fi'0o9, which struck his own fancy
;

particularly.

schemes presently began to take

such Aberdeen classical
had gone on to an English University had,
chosen Oxford, always excepting Mr. 11. A.

Professor

practical
students as
as a

rule,

Geddes'

shape.

Hitherto

who took

It is
his degree at Cambridge in 1876.
Professor
that
Neil
was
consulted
Mr.
by
probable
highly
Geddes, and advised that more men should be sent up to

Neil,

Cambridge, more especially

Latin and Greek composition.

if

they should be good at

Anyhow, Professor Geddes

MEMOIR

XIII

recommeuded Adam to go South and try for a scholarAt the end of May
ship at Gonville and Caius College.
1879 Adam was attending a summer class held by Mr.
Eamsay, now

Sir

W. M. Eamsay, the distinguished Latin

who was then assistant to Professor

professor at Aberdeen,

Geddes.
Mr. Eamsay was also of opinion that Adam
should try to transfer himself to Cambridge, as is shown
"Last
by the following letter, dated May 30, 1879.
night I was across dining with Eamsay, and he advises

me to go up to Cambridge and compete on 16 th

March.
This I intend to do, if by any means I can be
back in time for my own examinations here and I
;

think
at

it is

the

with
the

quite possible.

time

was

speaking

any great hopes

number

of

...
of

win, as
chance."

Eamsay

says,

who

of,

go up to Cambridge
I shall not go up

success,

scholarships

almost intinitesimally small.

If I

to

the

more

be

so

that

for

is
competed
But never venture, never

thinks I stand a very good

The idea once mooted held its ground, and was carried
In the interval Adam must have been more busily
In addition to his heavy work for
employed than ever.
the Aberdeen classical Honours, he took a pupil for a few
months in 1879, being recommended by Mr. Eamsay.
On June 10th he writes: " I am in a tremendous hurry
either to get outside or else to stop in and study someout.

thing disgustingly stiff, i.e. the RepuUic of Plato

only I
hope that I shall be able to conquer the allurements of
the weather and prevail on myself to stop in and
grind."

This

uncomplimentary allusion is the first surviving

mention of the work which was to be the main study of
his life.
It does not appear that he had as
yet any
distinct notions as to

his future career.

collesre
O

lad

from the country might naturally be expected to " wag

"
his pow in a poopit
eventually, but the following
extract from a letter in .Tune is not to be taken too

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

XIV

"

You will see the marriage of Harvey Adam's

seriously.
sister in the papers.
I see it is a J. Adam, M.A.,

When

that married her.

will

another Eev.

J.

Adam,

M.A., be performing a wedding ceremony for one of his

"
sisters ?
Later on, he used to wish to be a Bishop

what would

his grandfather, the founder of the Inverurie

and in 1906,
Congregational Church, have said?

while occupying a Dorsetshire Eectory during the LongVacation, he wrote to one of his colleagues, expressing his fervent longing to be a country parson, more,
I am afraid, on
account of the peace and beauty
of

from

the scenery, than

desire

his

benefit

to

parishioners.

The winter

18791880

of

steady work, and

of

venture

"

into

passed in the usual round

March 1880 came the

in

the arena of

the south

great
favourite

"

(a

He went to Cambridge,
phrase of Professor Geddes).
in obtaining a scholarship at Gonville and

was successful

Caius College, and returned to undergo his degree examinations immediately afterwards.
He thus describes his
experiences
"
With exams, without end on one's mind, how can
one attain the degree of composure necessary to write
:

Well, now I am through with

And on the whole I have done
think I am dead certain of the Greek

a long sensible letter

all my examinations.

exceedingly well I
prize and the Latin medal.
;

"

You wish me

Well,

I will,

noon, and reduce

ink and paper.

you an account

to give
it

though

me
On

should take
to

me

of everything.
the whole after-

bankruptcy, through wasting of

Saturday,

March 20, Smith and

p.m. amid a group of

affectionate friends, consisting of some classfellows who
had congregated to bid us God-speed.
Eeached
about
and
had
to
wait
some
minutes,
ten,
Edinburgh
during which I walked up and down the station.
left

Aberdeen station

at

4.5

MEMOIR
Back

to the train autl

XV

out with Geddes' huge mantle

(may all the good divinities bless him for it !), and wrapped
No go. ... Oh
myself up in it, and tried to sleep.

seedy and shivering as the night wore on, and

still more so when the first streaks of
light fell on the
fields that appeared out at the window, and showed
a tremendous coating of hoar-frost
covering the grass
a sight that made me shiver again and
At length
again.
after groaning in the spirit and the flesh
incessantly for
a long time we reached Hitchin,
There we waited two
miserable hours.
Cambridge reached about eleven
I did feel

so

o'clock,

Found the

hired a cab and drove to Cains Colleo-e.

and was taken by him to the tutor, who

rooms
in College.
Felt very squeamish
my
at the idea of being so far from home, and was
very much
inclined to do a weep
in fact, I did drop a tear or two
took

me

porter,

to

over a letter I wrote to mother telling her that I had

got safely housed. Luncheon on cold bacon or something

Dinner in Hall at half-past five

equally execrable.
was the event of the day.
I went down looking very
and
sat
down
amid
the assembly with face
green
In fact I was hungry. ... I went to bed
unabashed.
.

about ten.

Slept beautifully till I heard the bedmaker

all these bedmakers are
I am informed

how ugly

(oh
that the College authorities get
!

them ugly on purpose)

door and informing me that chapel was
Slowly and with deliberation I arose, but I

knocking at
at eight.
didn't go

my

to

chapel.
Monday's experiences were like
Sunday's, except that I got on rather better at dinner.
.

Oh

but on

on Neil, Fellow of Pembroke

College, an Aberdeen man to whom Geddes gave me a letter
of introduction.
He was awfully kind, and I went out a
walk with him he was going to the river to have a row.
!

Monday

I called

He never ceased to retain a grateful recollection of Professor Getldes'

kindness in coming to the station with a big
wrap to keep off the cold
from his favourite pupil.
'

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

XVI
"

Then on Tuesday morning Gardiner

(that was the

other successful candidate) and I breakfasted with Eeid,"
a Fellow of Caius, and then came the examinations as
:

need not tell you that I thought I had done

and
had not the ghost of a chance.
horribly,
"
On Wednesday ... I dined with E. Neil, M.A., Fellow

which

to

Pembroke

of

He

College.

is

a splendid fellow

is

Neil

he was second classic at Cambridge and Craven Scholar,

and it was with reference to him as the only one holder
of that Scholarship who has come from Aberdeen that
Geddes said he had just one other ambition to gratify
before he died, namely, to get another Craven Scholarship
to ^ the University of Aberdeen
meaning my humble
:

'

Eeached Aberdeen
weary and sad at heart
on
from
Keats) at one o'clock on
(quotation
my paper
'

self.

Thursday.
"
I intended to go over to Geddes that afternoon.
So
I did, and he was very fatherly
I
was
not
awfully
hoped
.

tired

and wouldn't catch

made me

cold,

stop tea and

have a long chat with Mrs. Geddes and Miss Geddes.

Mrs. Geddes said, Oh you do look so tired, it almost
makes me sleepy to look at you
"
Next day I was a hero in the class, though I had
the fellows clustered round me,
not heard the result
welcoming me back to Aberdeen, and asking all about
AVhereupon I told them that Aberdeen
Cambridge.
was a musty old hole, and that the only place worth
This, of course, produced an
living at was Cambridge.
'

'

immense impression.
"

know how

thank you for the letters you

I have been working
have sent me during the winter.
hard on the whole and many a time I have been far
I

do not

to

Sic.

It

should be Gardner.

intimate friend of
*

liis

Air.

E. A. Gardner became the most

undergraduate days.
Dr. Reid, now Professor of Ancient History at Cambridge.

Anglice "for."

MEMOIR

XVII

gone in the doldrums, and your letters have cheered me

up immensely. I am getting more and more sensible
the longer I live of all the good that my sisters have
I do not know how I would do without you
done me.

God

grant that I may one day be able to repay

measure.
some
you
"
Remember you must be very particular in putting
M.A. to ^ the back of my letters ... on and after
Saturday, except when I am at Cambridge, and then I
all.

in

am

simply

James Adam,

Esq.,

Scholar of Gonville and Caius

ColleQ;e,

Cambridge.
"

(Excuse
at

my

writing

it

out in

full,

like

to

look

he

tells

it.)

"

heard from the Senior Tutor the other day

me

that I was second in the Examination, but that I

acquitted myself remarkably well, as was indeed shown

He further
(he adds) by the amount of my Scholarship.states that if Gardiner and I go on as well as we have
begun, he has no doubt that our year will be the best
Classical Year that the College has ever had.
Think of
that

By and

income

by, I hope,

if

and then, though

it

do well, to have a good

has been long delayed, I

shall be able to do something for you all.

"
Did I ever write such a long letter ? Never, I believe.

Our Class Supper is on Thursday night (Bursary Night),

and Graduation the day after."
These exciting days, which decided his future career,
and started the two chief friendships of his life
those
with the late Mr. R. A. Neil, and Mr. Ernest Gardner, now
Professor of Archaeology at University College, London,
were followed by further cause for elation the result
;

Aberdeen examination gave him first class classical

Honours, together with the Simpson Greek Prize and the
^70.
Anglict'^oxi."
of the

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

XVIII

Scafield Latin Medal.

It will be

remembered that he

"

"

thought himself dead certain of both these distinctions.

But there was to be no holiday, or very little, that

summer. If he was to go to Cambridge more funds

must be forthcoming, and, according to his own saying,
he never worked so hard as during the summer of 1880

home

Kinmuck), in the hope of winning the

Ferguson Scholarship, open to all the four Scottish UniHe was again successful, and he also won the
versities.
FuUerton Scholarship at Aberdeen.
With these three
had
he
to
scholarships
enough
pay his expenses at
whither
he
in
October, taking up
Cambridge,
proceeded
something like 90 in cash, in his pocket, on the journey.
His letters are scathing in his criticism of undergraduate
(at

his

at

slang, but highly complimentary to the food supplied in

"
"
Hall.
At desert {sic) [spelling was occasionally some"
we have among other
thing of a stumbling-block]

ineffably good things, apple tart, stewed pears, all sorts

of puddings, and many other kinds of tarts
varied with
:

an

occasional

compound of all the

we turn up our noses in a row
but that is beastly,' or Hanged

plum-pudding

or

kitchen- scum at which

and

'

say,

Blowed

but that looks

'

bad.'

"

He

thinks a Cambridge egg

"

shabby thing, of which any Aberdeenshire hen would be

thoroughly ashamed."
By November he considers that
"
that dignity of presence, that loftiness of aspect, and
that refinement of pronunciation, spiced with a little
judicious slang, which characterise a Cambridge man,"
"
are now beginning to adorn him, and
to harmonise
excellently well

"

with his

"

Cambridge moustachio."

He

rapturous over the buildings, but does not like the

"
climate.
but if
stranger would think it fairyland

is

he

had

to

attend

morning-chapel in these freezing

The
mornings he would very soon change his opinion.
frost last night was fsavage
this
awful
perfec'ly
'

'

low-lying place

not a

hill

is

visible all

round

hardly

MEMOTR
much

SO

as

So

frost.

it

XIX

seems very cougeiiial to

it comes
occasionally a
immoderate rain and waters
(the

mole-hillock

a
is

to rain

when

'

'

plague

great

from the English Prayer-Book) floods all the

Cambridge, and substitutes navigation for

is

phrase

of

of

vicinity

But this is rare."

Cambridge as an undergraduate went on as
before in an unbroken course of work
and, though he no
doubt was one of the hardest readers in his College, his
letters show that he thought it a much easier form of
in
fact he sometimes
existence than at Aberdeen
pedestrianism.

His

life at

From notebooks we may see

grumbles at its laziness.
The
the very large amount of reading he got through.
Classical Tripos had been remodelled just before he
up, and in his second year he went in for Part I,

the examination under the

second time.

Two months

new scheme was

came
when

held for the

before the Tripos he writes

"

In the College Exams. I have been bracketed equal

If I do as well in the Tripos, I ought
with Gardner.
When
to get into the second division of the first class."
the time came, he was placed in the first division of the
In Part II, he gained a first class with
class.
first
distinction

The
him

First

in Scholarship, Philosophy and Philology,

Chancellor's Medal for Classics also fell to

and the only time he met with disappointment was

the Craven Scholarship was wrested from him by
a candidate in the year below him.
Mr. Ernest Gardner says of Adam's undergraduate
;

when

work

"
:

During the

earliest

part

of

his

Cambridge

career he was sometimes beaten in the competition for

scholarships or prizes by others whose scholarship was

not so wide and thorough as his own, merely because he

had not gone through the particular form of drill in

these matters which English public schools devote to
But it was
the end of obtaining these distinctions.
he was
that
work
evident to all who knew him and liis

XX

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

day and it
undergraduate career

gaining ground upon his competitors

was no surprise when he ended

his

cverj''

The
as clearly the best classical scholar of his year."
late Dr. B. H. Kennedy wrote, after Adam had taken
"

During the eighteen years in which I have

examined as Greek Professor I have knov/n no instance
in which mental and scholarly growth, during the four
years of study at our University, has been so manifest
and so signal."
At Caius his friendly nature had freer play than at
He writes in an undated letter " I have had
Aberdeen.
and
Gardner to breakfast to-day, and we
Wiseman
I am getting to like both
a
cold
chicken.
consumed
more and more they are certainly far the finest spirits
We form a little transcendental
I have ever known.
circle here in Caius, and we try to look beyond the
shells to the real essence of religion, and we tliere see
Gardner uses
sights which it is not lawful to utter.
the Key of Art to open the door of Heaven, Wiseman
that of the Higher Music, I that of philosophy and we
call our religion variou.?ly by the names of Platonism,
the Higher Life, and the Higher Pantheism, or even the
his degree

Higher

for

Christianity,

we

believe

We

worship God in
and
deeds
of the best men
sayings

identical.

them

Nature,
:

we

all

and

be

to
in

the

cherish a healthy

for theologians, falsely so called, who mistake

the earth for the pure Gold, the letter for the spirit

contempt

nearly time for a new Gospel to be

who have been robbed by the Church
that
those
preached,

and we believe

it is

the priceless pearl of their faith may find it again,

purified and glorified, and so be even happier than before.

of

Such is our faith."

Mr. Wiseman's
given by
this

recollection confirms

this letter of

time.

He

"

says

the impression

Adam's rhapsodising tendencies

at

In his early undergraduate days

he was quite an enthusiastic Platonist, and

his literary

MEMOIR

XXI

were largely determined l>y the Platonic

an author's mind for instance, one of the

sympathies

tendency

of

favourite

poems was Wordsworth's

and
Art

believe he read a paper on

What attracted
Society.^

Ode on Immortality,'
at the Science and
him in the poem was
'

it

the Platonic theory of pre-existence, and he imagined it

was suggested to Wordsworth by the Simile of the

Cave:
birth

him

is

one particular passage he admired was 'Our

but a sleep.'
Eossetti's
Sonnets attracted

for the

same

reason, and

so did

Shorthouse's

'

John

His enthusiasm for philosophy was remarkInglesant.'

I have never seen anything like it
able
and what is
more remarkable, this enthusiasm seems to have been
sustained for a whole lifetime.
When I last saw him at

Cambridge in 1904, in your beautiful house at Emmanuel,

really seemed as though he had changed very little."
Mr. Giles also says " He used to propound very highflown mystical theories in the Science and Art Society
at Caius, and some of the rest of us used to pick them to
it

pieces."

Adam

Wordsworth

"
:

himself writes concerning that paper on

think in all essential points Wordsworth

right, except in this, that we

light as we go on, but get it more
that Love will keep it alive, and so
is

alas

it

often crushes

it

ought not to lose the

and more.

am

sure

ought Eeligion, though,

out."

The influence of Eossetti is clearly shown in the

verses which he used to write often about this time and
for a few years before and after.
In a letter he says

"

have

been

breakfasting with

three

poets,

myself

Some of his sonnets have much beauty

them, and they are generally couched in a strain of
Platonic mysticism.
A few of his poems were published

the fourth."
in

in

the

appealed
his

Camhridge
to

him

temperament
'

poetry of Dante
might be expected from
though he never read Italian

Review.

The

strongly, as
;

and

This paper was ]>iinted in the Cavibridge Review in 1885.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

XXII

of
that
(or for the matter
he absorbed a great deal of Dante's
time he took his Cambridge degree.

easily

French either),
spirit about the

He

returned to

Dante with fresh ardour, some twenty years afterwards,

when he was preparing his Gifford Lectures. With
Shakespeare he had much less sympathy, though he writes
once of Shakespeare in a
an English author who

letter,

that he

"

is

"

glad to find
I think he

is unfathomable
found him too human, and not mystical enough but for
Milton, in his soaring vein, he had the greatest admira:

tion

very

and Goethe

little

German

also appealed to him, though he read

poetry, at any rate after the year

1890.

From

his tutor, the Eev.

E.

S.

Eoberts (now Master

the College), and Dr. Eeid, then classical lecturer,

he met with the utmost kindness.
Mr. Eoberts at one
of

time took him away to Cromer before an examination, and

he was looked on as one of the

in Dr. Eeid's household

Miss Eeid, who was then a little girl, says that

family.
the children took to calling him " Uncle," as he constantly
came to the house with their real uncle, Mr. Ernest
Gardner.

In his intercourse with Dr. Eeid's family we

see for the first time his great love of children.

Miss
Eeid recollects that he nearly always came to play on

Sunday afternoons, and

nearly always once a week

His pleasure in the company of children served
him in good stead in his work as a teacher, for to his own
youthfulness and his sympathy with the youthfulness
of others was largely due his power of arousing and
besides.

He liked to stir up children to a

maintaining interest.
of
excitement, and would then suddenly
high pitch
decamp to his work, demanding absolute quiet, which it
was not always easy for others to enforce at a moment's
In summer vacations of later years, when most
notice.
"
of his literary work was done, a system of
danger
"
was devised to secure his peace.
One handsignals

MEMOIR
kerchief was

XXIII

hung out from the window, and another

outside the door

while these were visible (usually about

but when
eight hours a day), no sound must be heard
he emerged, he took the lead in the riotous reaction that
;

followed.

In his vacations while at Caius, Adam used to go home

Scotland but twice he went to Germany, once to
Gottingen to read on his own account, and again in

to

1884

conduct

to

reading

party

to

Heidelberg.

Towards the end of his time he made two more intimate

friends, Mr. Arthur Piatt, now Professor of Greek at
University College, London, and Mr H. McLeod Innes,
now Senior Bursar of Trinity College. Both were Trinity
men, and both students of ancient philosophy along with
him.
In the autumn of 1884 his mind was not, for once,

He attended with gi^eat interest

wholly given to work.
Professor Colvin's lectures on Michael Angelo, and then
first

learnt that the artist

"

was a

Platonist.

He

also

have taken three private lessons in waltz"

but he aftering, and can waltz pretty fairly now
wards used to say that he turned tail, and fled from the
In an actual ballroom I think
remainder of his course.
he never attempted anything more complicated than a
writes

polka.

Very soon

after his degree

came the next

decisive step

Emmanuel

College, from being a very small

A new
institution, was beginning to rise in numbers.
classical lecturer was wanted, and the Master, Dr. S.
G. Phear, and the tutor, Mr. W. Chawner, now Master
of the College, had their attention turned to the young
man who had just taken (in 1884) a brilliant degree
from Gonville and Caius College.
The present Master

of his

life.

writes as follows as to

College
"

his

introduction to

Emmanuel

had a good deal

to

do with the negotiations which

led to his appointment as lecturer,

and ultimately

to his

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

XXIV

election as a Junior

Fellow on Dec. 12, 1884

but

all

remember clearly is that he was very strongly recommended to us by Dr. Eeid. As tutor, I was commissioned
I

by the College to have an interview with him, before

any invitation was sent, and I went to see him in
I remember the rooms, and the
his rooms at Caius.
A slight figure
made
on
me
impression
by the owner.

A thorough Scot
in
and
also
accent.
and
manner,
Probably
appearance
I did most of the talking, as was natural under the
On his side there was great reserve and
circumstances.
but
he
caution,
practically signified that he would be
very simply (almost poorly) dressed.

in

willing to accept

if

Fellowship,

remember that he made any

which I speak (which seems

to

do

offered.

not

The reserve

conditions.

of

be a universal character-

Scotsmen in presence of an English stranger)

made it difficult for me to form as definite a judgment
as I should have liked, but I saw that he was a youth of
force and character, and my report was favourable."
He was taking several private pupils during the
autumn of 1884, and writes thus with regard to his new
of

istic

"

plans

Next term,

as

you know,

Emmanuel on the Ethics

summer term on the Greek

of

am

Lyric Poets.
I will not take

be a delightful task.
pupils next term, so as to have

term I

to lecture to

Aristotle,

and

in

The

many

more time

the

last will

private

for

work

am

hardly doing anything at all for myself."

The course on the Lyric Poets w^as frequently repeated,

this

and

was

graduate

always

remember an underme in 1885 or 1886

those lectures, when as yet I had

successful.

pleasure in
scarcely seen my future
of

also

of Christ's College telling

his

reappeared

at

husband.

intervals,

various books of Plato, Cicero's

and

Be

Aristotle's
of

other

Finihus, Pindar, and

post-Aristotelian philosophers formed the usual

the last sixteen or seventeen years

Ethics

subjects,

of

his

list.

life

lie

In
did

XXV

MEMOIR

uot often, if ever, uckl an entirely new subject to his

He
stock, but there was never any lack of freshness.
his own account, and every
he
gathered in was utilised to
scrap of material that
It often happens
give new life to a familiar theme.

was constantly

work on

at

man who

has written a book on any subject

is thereby spoiled for vivA voce treatment of that topic.
After his edition of the
It was not so with him.
Bepiiblic came out, he lectured on the book with greater
that the

and brilliancy than ever, to audiences of nearly two

hundred undergraduates and students from the women's
A pupil has told me that some of his friends
colleges.
went twice over to a course of lectures on the Phaedo
zest

them again.
secret of his success lay in his power of enthuHe carried his hearers along with
siasm and affection.

of Plato, for the pleasure of hearing

The

him, making them feel (in the words of an old pupil, the
Eev. C. Creighton, son of the late Bishop of London)
that he did not aim at imparting the stores of his own

them to join with him in a voyage

In his lectures on Plato he seemed to

learning, but invited

"

of

exploration.

come along
it all is
and let us find out what it all means.'
There seemed to be in his mind the same adventurous joy
It was just as
in discovery that we felt in our own."

say to us,
with me,

in

'

Don't you see what fun

his early days,

when he poured out his soul to his

as when his exuberance ran

student friends at Aberdeen

riot in the Science

and Art Society at Caius

and, finally,

when, in his capacity as Gifford Lecturer, he held fast

the interest of a critical audience of his own compatriots.

as

"
he seemed the
expressions as
embodiment of vitality have recurred again and again
in letters from sorrowing friends and pupils, and that

Since

his

death, such

"

"

"

was the keynote of his teaching ^ will be agreed

who have sat in his lecture-room. Though he loved

vitality

by

all

Rev. C. Creighton.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

XXVI

to scale the heavens in his discourses, he would not miss

an opportunity for a merry hit. " The dog is a philosophic
animal," were the words with which a canine intruder on
an exalted Phacdo lecture was politely escorted to the

door.

Another Emmanuel man, Mr. Bernard H. Dobson,

son of Mr. Austin Dobson, writes " I believe

I.C.S.,

he

the

purely utilitarian aspect of lectures

as aids to examinations
though from personal experidespised

ence

in

India

the

Civil Service

examination

tliink

was better able to forecast the lie of the

examiners' minds and he knew well, too, that most of
his pupils were not rich enough to be able to regard the
classics merely as literae humaniores, and had to think
of them for the time being as an aycovia/jLa e? to
I remember
irapa'^prifjia rather than as a Krrjfia e? del.
no

one

the contempt he used to pour upon that sinister society,

it almost matched that

the Civil Service Commissioners

which he reserved for pedantic verbal

the text.

critics,

too ready

hardly necessary to say that

he possessed all the arta of the lecturer in excelsis the
anecdotes were carefully sandwiched in to enable the
to

alter

It

is

men

down

more pithy morsels which

but they were generally so good
as completely to distract the attention of the audience
till
their
effect had subsided.
Like all the best
to

write

preceded and followed

the

humorists, he was most completely in his element when

the audience was appreciative.
By his enthusiasm for
the subject,

'

hands the thing became a trumpet

in his

whence he blew Soul-animating

"

strains, alas

too few.'

not too high praise.

Such lecturers are the
of
need
of
the
our day.
Cambridge
burning
vapdrjKo^
Be
re
Dr. Adam
iravpoi
(f)6pot ixev TToWoL, ^aK'X^OL
I freely admit
was a Bacchant of the Bacchants.
This

is

that

my

notebooks were no sort of

1

Plato, Phaed. 69 C.

index of the real

MEMOIR
value of

his

lectures

to

XXVII

me, but there were passages,

like the closing scenes of the Phaedo or the educational

whose
system of the Republic or the critique of Sappho

name was always

written in large capitals on the blackEven

which can never fade from the memory.
now the philosophy which I learnt from him is part of the
mental apparatus which keeps me jogging on day by day."
The Master says that he made his mark as a teacher

board

at

Emmanuel

and

his

of

immediately, both in teaching composition,

and that " from the first moment

in formal lectures,

he

arrival

identified

thoroughly

himself

with

Emmanuel." At that time Professor (afterwards Bishop)

Creightou was a prominent figure at Emmanuel, and the
Combination Eoom listened to floods of paradoxical talk
both from the Professor and from the Junior Fellow.

He was
and

"

at once

on friendly terms with

his

pupils,

stimulated them to the foundation of the Classical

which he was the life and soul, as well as the

The reading of papers and their subdiscussion
was a valuable supplement to the
sequent
It was of great direct educational
regular teaching.
value, and indirectly brought him into frequent and close
personal contact with his pupils."
It must have been about the time of his first coming
to Emmanuel that his friendship with Mr. Neil of Pembroke, whose kindness to the unformed newcomer from
Aberdeen we have seen, blossomed to its full development.
Writing to me very shortly before our marriage, he says
Society, of

formal President.

"

Whatsoever

down

(or one-third of w^hat) is good in me, put

and the rest to Plato."
to Neil, one-sixth to

Not that he

forgot

what he owed

to

others, but

there

is

no doubt that Mr. Neil exercised over him no common

influence.
He would sometimes groan over his friend's
omnivorous appetite for all kinds of knowledge, which was
very different from his own temperament when his mind
:

From

the Master of

Emmanuel.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

XXVIII

was

full of

grew

one subject, no other seemed attractive, and he

when Mr. Neil pointed out to him the duty

restive,

of being interested in art, in science, in

modern minor poetry, and what not.

French novels,

in

But between the

two men there was a very deep and strong bond of
One was mercurial, the other like a rock of
sympathy.
The custom
defence, and both were absolutely loyal.
grew up that they took luncheon in one another's comThis practice, uninterrupted by
pany every Sunday.
Adam's marriage, which only brought in his wife as an
additional member of the party, went on imtil the first
day of Mr. Neil's last illness in 1901 constrained him
That parting was perhaps the
to break his engagement.
most sore trial of Adam's life. The dedication of his
Republic of
Neil,

with

orav avdi<;

Plato to

the

'yevofievoi,

shows the depth

friend.

the

beautiful

Little

toI<;

memory
motto,

of
et<?

roiovroa

Eobert Alexander
eKelvov

we

^lov,

evrv^co/xev A,07ot?,

of the affection inspired

did

rov

by the departed

we grieved over the

Adam himself must so soon follow,
think, as

untimely loss, that

with his own span of

life shorter by two years.

was probably through Mr. Neil's encouragement
that Adam embarked on the preparation of his first
book, an edition of Plato's Apology for the Pitt Press
This was published in 1887, and very favourSeries.
The Crito was then undertaken as another
received.
ably
volume of the same series, and published in 1888. About
this time the depression of spirits, of which we have seen
signs in his Aberdeen career, came on him with a new
He was especially liable to such troubles if
intensity.
he had any literary work on hand, though only his most
intimate associates were aware of them.
After publica-

It

indeed after the printing of the first sheets, he

all his gaiety.
recover
would
The last year and a half
of the preparation of the Republic, and first the writing,
tion, or

and then again the

revision for the press of the Gifford

MEMOIR

XXIX

It
Lectures, were times of much storm and stress.
seemed as if his capacity for enjoyment must have a

counterbalancing power of suffering.

To his sister he writes in a letter not dated, but from
an allusion to his " booklet," which is to be ready for the
press in a few days, and from other internal evidence to

be placed in 1887 or 1888

"Are you in the doldrums ?
Because / am, fearfully, horribly.
I am in a sort of
:

And

without any real assignable

cause, except homesickness, and, above all, the depressing

waking nightmare

my own

consciousness of

stupidity, ignorance, forgetfulThis oppresses me frightfully at

falling off!
I always feel it particularly
times, but I must endure

ness,

and

the

beginning of

the

hurry and bustle

at
in

Oh

myself.

100

with

term,^
of

for a lodge in

and I can only hope that

work I shall escape from
some quiet country village,

and

Isn't
it
nothing to do!
I
melancholy
young man speak in this way ?
ought to be full of the ardour of knowledge and the
enthusiasm of humanity, but I am a feeble body, so I'm

year

to hear a

not."
"

I wrote one letter already, but it was so

horribly dismal that I tore it up and threw it into the
Now I feel rather better, having
wastepaper basket.

Again

worked
and do

off the

my

mood. ...

best.

shall

don't feel quite equal to

what makes me miserable.

won't be so bad, I hope

am

determined to bear up

have

work hard, only

to

any intellectual labour, that's

However, after this term it
because I

shall

be

quit of

private pupils."

Once more " I am rather

and most horribly homesick

in the

consciousness of
"

What

my own

a bad world

with those we love.

^

dumps again to-day,

with the ever-present

inefficiency

it

Here

is,

we cannot always be
have not a soul who cares
that

trying time to him always, even

when

in the best of health.

XXX

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

who would stick to me if I came a

work
worries me a great deal more than
My
cropper.
it
is all worth.
Some day I shall resign it all, and
I was never
become a clerk, or something of that sort.
meant to be a student or teacher for 1 have no interest

me

for

really, or

in literature at all, as is

proved by the fact that I never

read anything but what I am forced to read.

there is a dreary future in store for me.
.

expect

"

In the Long Vacation, if all is well, I shall either go

Germany and try to read hard, or else read hard up
here.
It is my intense and crass ignorance, not only of
to

ordinary topics, but above all of

Now that I am
distresses me.

my own
M.A.

an

subject, that
I shall be

found out, what an ignoramus I am, for I shall be liable

to be appointed examiner, in frightfully hard subjects,

You

too.

practically

The only

own

see,

since

nothing

result I can

discontent.

took

my

began

show

degree

taking
for

it

is

have

pupils

at

learnt
once.

1000 and my

Let us hope for happier days

but I for

I have to do the
part never hope to be what I was
duties of a man, and I am the merest boy.

my

"

Heigh-ho if the worst comes to the worst, I will

I dislike
and try something entirely different
If we
teaching more and more, the longer I am at it.
only had a little money, I think we should all emigrate
"
but we cannot starve.
It is hard to realise, without a very close knowledge
of Adam's character, that at the time when he was
writing these letters he was the life of the Emmanuel
Parlour (as the Combination Eoom, where the Fellows sit
after dinner, is called), and making for himself a name as
a lecturer of unusual xerve,.
His quick changes of mood
So early as 1885, when
were a marked feature in him.
he
to
Emmanuel,
just coming
speaks of himself as
!

resign

"

"

but his vivacity immediately made

horribly miserable
itself felt both at the high table, and among the under;

MEMOIR
graduates.
largely, I

The

difficulty

with

XXXI

him was
work

think, to his too exacting

that,

owing

at Aherdeen,

he could not, when he was overdone, turn easily to mental

If he was not fit for hard work, he was unrecreation.
able to substitute other occupations, and the more jaded
he felt, the more difficult it was to put away his task.
Cycling, first on a tricycle and then on a bicycle, lawntennis, and for a while real tennis he enjoyed, and later
on he played golf with keenness but physical exercise did
;

not help him much in seasons of depression.

The only
resource then was to get the exhausting piece of work
behind him as soon as possible.
Though he writes that

he dislikes teaching, it was the teaching and the routine

work of the term that kept him from breaking
down.
Work he must, always, through temperament

and ingrained habit

less out of

tions.

but that part of his work took far

the self-imposed labours of vacapeculiarity of his nature was that when he
;

him than

cast down, he accused himself of incompetence in

the very things wherein he excelled, and knew that he
felt

excelled, such as examining, or teaching, or power of

absorbing literature but for all that he never neglected
any duty, whatever might be the cost to himself of
;

carrying

it

through.

In 1885 and 1886 Adam was a candidate first for

the Greek and then for the Latin Professorship at
Aberdeen, to which Professor Harrower and Sir W. M.

Eamsay

respectively were appointed.

In the same term as that in which he started his life

at Emmanuel, he began to teach at Girton College
and
with one or two short interruptions he continued up to
;

the last to take a

little

much

in

interested

work there each

the

College.

He

year, being very

also served for

several years on the Executive Committee of the College.

On January 17, 1885, he writes " I begin work with the
:

Girton young ladies on Wednesday at three, and I go

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

XXXII

and a

thereafter twice a week, in all three

It

is

it,

a formidable task, but

It did not
daresay."

I'll

soon

take

half hours.

steeled

get

him long

to

"

to

get

on February 1 he says " My Girton work

is getting on very nicely.
They are very industrious
and one or
students even when they are not clever
two of them are distinctly good. I no longer feel
I am going to a dance there on Tuesday
afraid of them.
I believe it is almost big enough to be called a
steeled,"

for

ball,

but I will not trip

the

toe,

because

dread a

catastrophe."

Among

his

were Miss A.

1885 and 1889,

Montagu Butler,
and Miss A. M. Kensington,

pupils there, between

F. Eamsay, now Mrs.

wife of the Master of Trinity,

who was

to

become Adam's

the youngest daughter of

who was

wife.

Adela

Marion was

the late Arthur Kensington,

for several years Fellow^

and Tutor

of

Trinity

College, Oxford.

The following letter w^as written after a Tripos examination in 1889

:

"

My

dear Miss Kensington,

Any

words

con-

of

I can only
gratulation will seem cold and inadequate
I
say that I am most delighted with your place.
:

used to say to you ^iXoa-o^ia,

only I construe it thus
:

still,

lady

sc.

passim),

iaTt

philosophy.
<f)i.\ocro(pla<i,

for

is

(for

copula

greatest,

fxeyiarr]

^e'yia-Tr]

I
fxovacKy
say so
= the musical
:

fiova-iKrj sc. ^

i.q.

omitted,
first,

see

my

notes

(j^iXoaocfjta

= in

The sense would be improved by reading

but I do not think there is any necessity

any change.
The only item of personal news I have that will
amuse you is that I am a candidate for Jebb's chair in
.

"

much expect or desire to get it

reached
a iKavov rt in the shape of
once
though having
the A.0709 oTt Bel Kara^alveiv et? rov a'^wva, I refuse
Glasgow.

I don't very

MEMOIR
uTroSetXidv

or

eUi)

(f>vp6ii/

XXXIII

the original \0709 and

its

results.^
"

Hoping that you will with the star of your philosophy

calm the raging billows of Irish discontent
I am, yours
ever sincerely,

J.

Adam."

To the same, January 12, 1890: "As I write there

a duck in Chapman's garden
making the most un-

is

earthly noise, so

if

there are any Pindaric leaps in

put them down

letter,

to her.

gorean school, you

fiovaiKj]

now

only

...

sense.

see),

take

am

i.e.

my

my

glad you are

believe that the BqmUic

I still
going in for the Zmvs.
is the
book
in
the
world
greatest

and that

...

world (Prota-

(j^iXoaoc^ia is the fxeyiar?}

(fnXocrocfiia

in

a very wide

am

getting out the Buthyj^hro, and I will

send you a copy when it comes out, I hope about the
end of the term.
I have got a lot of interesting things
in

it,

think, but (with the

shall judge.

come

off.

Easter too

modest editorial bow) you

hope your expedition to Greece will
Perhaps I may turn up at Athens during
I

but

it is

doubtful."

To the same, March

did you not

1, 1890:
that you are going to lecture at Girton ?
I protest, it is too monstrous to leave me to hear that from
Mr. Dale.
I am very glad of it,
Mr. Rose
though.
tell

"Why

me

mentioned the fact after you had gone, but he was not
it was Girton or Newnham
you were to

sure whether

Tandem vero serio (something must be

prelect at.
allowed to the unfortunate lecturer on Tully's ends
so Innes denotes the Dc
Finibus), I am hoping to reach
.

Greece about next Wednesday or Thursday fortnight.

Probably we shall stay at the Grand Hotel.
Anyhow, if
it
please the gods that we come, I shall hope to come
to see you, should you be in another ttov than to
fieydXo
Innes has been in this evening he has
^evoSo-^eloiv).
:

'

Mr. G. G. A. Murray was appointeJ,

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

XXXIV

and

ideas on IRcp. X,
I

am

As you

adopt them.

waiting to see if you agree, before

if ever I had any puny

said that

(the adjective is mine) work on, you would be glad to

help me in your humble (the adjective is yours) way,
if ever I
get as far as the EepuUic, I am sure you could

me

help
of

ways, and chiefly by scathing criticism

remarks, which, if you should ever care to see

my

them,

in

many

submit to

will

you have

you in
^

any influence with

If
proof.
hjnhe him.
Yours

ever

J.

cerely,

sin-

Adam.

"
t9

TTokipoylrlav

A plan of editing the Re'piMic had by this time

been formed, and a notice had recently been issued of the
scheme as

"

in

Adam came

preparation."

Mr.

to

Athens

Sutherland Black
the Encyand Mr. A. E. Shipley of Christ's
The party invited Miss Kensington's sister,
College.
Mrs. Mylne, and herself to join them in a journey through
the Peloponnesus and to Delphi and Thebes.
When the
whole company reached the middle of Arcadia, James
Adam became engaged to Adela Marion Kensington.
"
From A. M. K.'s journal in Greece, 1890
Mar. 21.

with his friends,

of

J.

clopaedia Britannica

Great expedition up Pentelicus in company with the

Grand Hotel party. We started four inside the carriage
and Mr. Adam on the box, to air his Modern Greek to
the driver,
intelligence.

who
.

appeared, however, to have but small

On the top we ate oranges, read

Herodotus, and surveyed Marathon.

"Mar. 23. At the Academy

an

olive

tree,

while Mr.

Adam

we

sat

down under

read aloud the simile of

the cave, and we fell to talking of our favourite topics,

the Platonic theory of education and the Timaeus.
"

Mar. 24. To Sunium.

From Laurion we proin two carriages.
My companions were Mr.
and j\Ir. Adam.
took the
Mr.
Black, Mr.
,.

ceeded

formidable

critic.

visitor

from the hotel.

XXXV

MEMOIR

opportunity to tell the stoiy of his friend who tumbled

down a hole in the Acropolis and that lasted all the
Black listened with admirable politeness,
]\Ir.
way.
;

covering the sins of the other two.

Thence to the ^ovXrj,^ which amused
"Mar. 25.
us extremely.
gathered that the debate was on a
.

We

a subject which orators on the opposition

The trio^ came in while
seemed to find very emotional.
crtSrjpoSpofio^;,^

bringing seaweed from the tomb of

I have stuck a piece in my Thucydides,
Themistocles.
thereby giving the work a very ancient and fishlike

we were

there,

smell.

Megalopolis to Andritsaena, eight hours'

this time I had discovered that my
horse would go ahead, and I trotted in front most of the
afternoon.
Mr. Black and Mr. Adam followed closely,

"Apr.

riding.

2.

... By

then after a long interval the rest of the company.

"Apr.

To Arachova vid Delphi.

8.

and

J.

I quar-

relled over Pindar.

"

Apr.

9.

The

chief event of the afternoon ride

was a

halt at the field of Chaeronea, where a stirring oration

in fluent Greek was made * to the agogiates, prophesying

that if Tricoupi were not re-elected, Greece might be

The arguonce more enslaved on that self-same spot.

ments were weak, but rhetoric made up for that."

We were married in London in the following July.

in
great sorrow befell Adam just before our marriage,
went straight
the death of a much-loved sister.

We

Adam's
the wedding.
best man was, of course, Mr. Neil, and our eldest child
was named Neil Kensington.
Owing to the scarcity
to

his

home

of houses in

furnished

at

Kinmuck

after

Cambridge at that time, we took

house,

18,

Henry Fawcett, widow

of

'

Greek Parliament.

Messrs. Black, Shipley,

for a year

Brookside, belonging to i\Irs.

Next we
Professor Fawcett.
-

Ai1:ini.

Raihvay.
By J. A.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

XXXVI

ourselves in St. Giles' House, Chesterton

There our three children were born.
In 1900

established

Lane.

changes in College called us to take up residence in

Emmanuel House, in the precincts of the College. We
were reluctant to go, for my husband feared that he
find himself too much in the midst of his work
but when once there, he became devotedly attached to the

would

beautiful house, and its still more beautiful outlook, and

he enjoyed the increased power, that living on the spot
gave him, of free and easy intercourse with colleagues and
He liked to wander out at night, and
undergraduates.

gaze at the beauty of the College paddock by moonlight

or starlight, taking especial delight in the contrast be-

tween the broad white surface of the pond under the

moon's rays and the yellower lights from the College
windows, and also in the dark outline, as seen against
the sky, of the great horse-chestnut tree which grew in
front of the house, and overhung the pond.
At the end of the May term, 1890, Mr. Chawner,
who had been tutor of Emmanuel for fifteen years,

resigned his

had been

office.

During

his

tutorship

in numbers.

steadily growing

the College

This

process

has gone on continuously to so great an extent that

in 1907, the year of Adam's death, the entry of freshmen was equal to the total number of undergraduates

coming to Emmanuel.
two tutors, in consideration of the increased numbers, and chose Mr. W. N.
Shaw (now Director of the Meteorological Office) and

in residence at the time of

The College decided

Adam

to

fill

his

to appoint

the posts.

To A. M. K, June

6, 1890: "To-day Shaw and I

have been appointed tutors.
Every one is very
amiable and if we two are successful as tutors (i.e. you
and me), and make ourselves indispensable, they will
treat us sensibly and well.
I shall try hard to get up
.

the educational system of

the University in the

Long

MEMOIR
Vacation.

XXXVII

I think seriously that it is a

a tutor has far more influence in the

So shall you.

great opportunity
college than

anyone

and we

else,

may

be able to justify

our existence."
"

Shaw
The Master (Mr. Chawner) says of the tutors
was essentially a reformer, with a love of change and of
:

Adam, in everything that conframing new schemes.

cerned the College and the University, was a strong
conservative at heart, though he never would admit the
imputation, and sometimes repudiated it with some
In other respects the two men were very
warmth.
unlike, one scientific, the other literary and emotional,
and the two tutors were in the strictest sense comple-

mentary

Adam

rated very highly the

of classical studies as

compared with mathe-

to one another.

importance
matics or natural science.

own
"

side

In pressing the claims of his

he was avowedly a partisan.

It was
joint tutorship only lasted three years.
into
came
which
a
new
scheme,
operation at
replaced by
scheme was
of
the
The
1893.
Michaelmas,
principle

The

that as far as possible the tutor should be also a teacher

It
the subjects which his pupils were studying.
involved an increase of the number of tutors to four.
of

The change was in the first instance suggested by Shaw,

but at a very early stage he took me into his confidence
I think
and we worked out the details together.
experience has shown that the plan works well.
did not openly oppose, but criticised details, and

Adam
it

was

clear to me at the time that he would have preferred

I attribute this mainly to
not to make the change.
his naturally conservative temperament."
It is perfectly true that Adam's temperament

conservative,

and

in

this

connexion

it is

amusing

was

to see

Party in his Aberdeen days.

He writes thus " I daresay you have found it impossible
to visit Edinburgh and hear Gladstone's eloquent and

his fervour for the

:

Liljeral

XXXVIII

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

powerful orations, than which nothing has been delivered

of recent years more calculated to rouse electors to the
gravity of this unprecedented crisis, and make them
consult at once the dignity and the interests of this
gigantic empire by returning the Liberals to Parliament

(Excuse the statesman-like tone of this letter I fancied

And
that I was Mr. Gladstone writing a post-card)."
in
but
written
before
another
letter
are
undated,
(both
again
;

"

If you
coming to Cambridge), he describes a debate
had only heard how I wired into Tory rule, and evoked
the bursts of Liberal applause, you would have stood
But enough of this methinks the Government
aghast.
:

'

'

will

tremble

in

their

disliked restlessness
is

shoes."

As he grew

older he

he thought, as a rule, that not all

be made, out of things as they are,

made, that might

and that plans of reform are apt to consume energy

which could be better applied.
The one great change
in the University that he wished for was the admission
of

women

to degrees.

His advocacy of his own studies did not arise from

a wish to slight other l)ranches of learning, but his
always inclined him to overstate his case.
His own men were so meritorious that they mu&t be
rewarded, and if there was not enough to go round

eagerness

This
was a pity, but it could not be helped.
came from his affectionate disposition, which was

well, it
trait

at the root of his nature.

In dealing with undergraduates as tutor he was

It was his instinct generally to say
eminently happy.
"
"
no
when privileges were asked for but he con;

trived to soften the disappointment

and

by a merry word

do not think resentment was often

thought any disorder was likely to

for leading men beforehand and

sympathy

in

maintaining discipline
towards the end of

that, especially

arise,

try
;

felt.

If

he

he would send
to

enlist

their

and the result was

his time, there was

MEMOIR
very

XXXIX

He
disciplinary work for the tutor to do.
to see where any trivial relaxation might

little

was very quick

lead to more

serious

harmless

apparently

consequences,

and would

wherein

practices,

stop
lie

might

His

warm-hearted pleasure in the

dangerous germ.
of
his
the
well-doing
pupils met with its own reward
Emmanuel man who wrote from India after his death, " I
feel as if a bright light had suddenly been removed from
my eyes," only expressed the feeling of hundreds of others.
The Eev. C. Creighton says " As tutor, to one who was
idly wasting his time, his attitude would be one of
humorous remonstrance calculated to make him feel
what a source of interest he was missing through neglect
of his studies, rather than of
perfunctory indignation,
which only arouses opposition. And if the sarcasm of
his remarks was sometimes a little more biting than
;

our

youthful arrogance was prepared to accept with

equanimity, this was never resented, when once we had
found out, as it did not take us long to do, that it
arose from the fact that he took a real personal interest
in each one of us, and was disappointed rather than
indignant at our falling short of what he expected of us."
"
Another old pupil writes
Dr. Adam was no
:

sympathiser with arm-chair students

authors.

Hard and

groundwork

of

all

6vet8o(;, depyelr} Se

consistent

labour

prospective success,

of

favourite

his

was

ep'^ov

t ovi8o<i, he once wrote to

be the

to

S'

me

ov'^ev

in

my

I remember he
early and most unregenerate days.
lectured as usual on the morning after Queen Victoria's
'

an act in keeping with the character of

death, as being
that great lady,' but still more, I suspect, with his own."

His criticisms could be stinging as when a copy of

Greek verses, which had cost the writer much labour,
was greeted with the words /3am /xeV,
ov-)^! poBa.
;

dW

A
of

was thus appraised " Very good

the pupil was elated.
Then lie added

piece of composition
its

class

"
;

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

XL
"

Third

class,"

and

pride

had a

He was

fall.

some-

times unmerciful to others besides pupils.

In a friend's
is
there
the
"12
Feb. 1905.
diary
following entry:

Met Adam very

hot on Greek question/ and very

with
intervals
of geniaHty.
I suggested perhaps
peppery,
in view of all ^ I should go to Canada, and he said
*

concluding by saying if my head were equal

heart I should be a great man."
Next day he

yes,'

my

to

and

repented

sent

Fax
make

Canada
ready to

"

post-card

vohiscum,

J.

saying,

Don't

go

He was
He writes

Adam."

the amende honorable.

to

always
to the

same friend thus: "Dec. 10, 1905.

I believe
St. James somewhere says something about the yXcoaaa
as setting on fire the Tpo;^^? of ^eveai<i, and being
It occurred
altogether a sort of disreputable member.
.

me

to

term

yesterday that in the exuberance of the end of

spoke rather wildly, and behaved altogether in a

rude and unwarrantable fashion, not undeserving of the

rebuke which you administered to me and I am writing
;

to

order to

in

you

peccavi.^

Let

me

relieve

my

conscience

by saying
beseech you as a brother to shut
'

'

your eyes to Stoic self-sufficiency and apathy

the rest (though even that is sometimes great
'

non dolet
if

you

the

e'/c

'

hope you don't think that

is

'

and

all

'
:

Paete,

affectation

the situation you won't), and contemplate

yap 761/09 icTfiiv and all that it involves.

realise
croi)

I suppose I should apologise for this

rambling incofrom
Good-bye (ev irpaTretv)
your anything
but apathetic friend,
J. Adam."
His interest in the after-career of his pupils was
To one who was about to become a schoolmaster
lasting.
lie wrote

herence

too.

As to whether Greek should remain compulsory in the Previous

Examination.
His friend declined to take Adam's view of the controvers}'.
The cause of dispute was a difference of opinion about the Stoics.
1

MEMOIR
"

easy

XLI

cannot refrain from a word of advice, for it is not

once exucre tutorem.
(
)
Try to make your

all at

boys like to learn

make

may become

that they

lovers of knowledge).
schools don't set half

learning pleasant to

them

so

(? a\r)dM<i, you know,

no doubt that English
enough value on the love of know<f)iX6-a-o(f)Oi

There

is

The power of the love of truth, regarded only

ledge.
as an instrument of enlarging and deepening the faculties,
has never been sufficiently regarded, either in ancient
or modern education.'
So said Jowett.
And the love
of

knowledge, which every boy has naturally, though his

it out of him, is the love of Truth.
boy's character even is not the best possible unless he

teachers often crush

like to learn.
"

Don't
(2) Keep reading yourself as far as you can.
read drivelling books about education.
Eead and re-read
On the theory of
especially K. L. Nettleship's essay,
'

education in Plato's Republic' if you can get it.

It
gives the best ideal I know of after which a schoolmaster
or teacher should strive, and is admirable in what it says
of the strength and weakness of public schools.
You
won't have much time for reading, and should not waste
it

in

reading

literature
sort

of

third-rate

novels.

You

will

find

good

vastly more refreshing in the end than the

trash which people devour nowadays, and

familiarity with the best authors will make you a stronger

man all round, and help you to forge ahead in your
profession.
"

is a
longer sermon than I meant to write, but
must
make
allowances for me.
I am writing notes
you
on the RepuUic, and words come very easily."
In 1895 Dr. Phear resigned the Mastership of
Emmanuel, and Mr. Chawner was appointed in his stead.
Adam's work was not changed thereby, except that the

This

continual growth of the College increased the pressure

in all departments.
At the end of 1899 Mr. Shaw, the

XLII

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

Senior Tutor, went away, whereupon Adam was made

Senior Tutor, and held the office to the last.
Durincr
time, besides his full College work and outside
examining (of which he did a great deal in early days,
but little after 1895, except when it fell to him to
examine for the Classical Tripos), Adam had always
some work for publication on hand. The Pitt Press

all this

the Euthyphro was published in 1890.

In
studies for the liejjublic led him to

edition of

1891 preliminary

write his treatise on The Nuptial Ntonber of Plato.

Tlie
Press
then
him
to
an
out
University
requested
bring
edition of the Protagoras.
This was published in 18913.

Meanwhile materials were being collected for the Bepuhlic,

and vast numbers of German pamphlets digested.
In
1894, on September 1, he writes: "To-morrow I mean
to finish my Ferguson papers and begin the Bepuhlic."
On September 4 he says " The RepuUic does not
I am gradually coming to the conclusion
progress much.
:

that, although I could produce a creditable school edition,

work is beyond my leisure (thanks chiefly

and
Never mind."
powers.
golf)
September 7
The RepuUic creeps slowly on, but I have got nothing
December 17 (after the appearinteresting as yet."
ance of Jowett and Campbell's edition) " I don't think it

a really big
to
"

is

much good my

would not

sell,

going on to make another edition it

and they deserve success. ... Its con:

servatism in the matter of

wind out
or

of

my

somebody on

the text rather takes the

shall probably consult

the advisability of
dropping
sails.

my

Jackson

my

little

game."

He

decided to continue the work, and by the end of

1895 had finished notes on the first two books. The

time when most of the work was done was the Long
Vacation in each year.

It

was the custom

for a large

family party of his wife's relations to collect at some

country house for about two months in the summer.

MEMOIR

XLIII

The house was always chosen by a

sister-in-law, with a

a study for hira and a nursery for his

special eye
children.
Several large boxes of books used to be deto

spatched in advance, and the books, when unpacked, were

ranged on the top of the empty boxes and on the floor.
In the room thus prepared he sat like Marius on the
ruins of Carthage, usually wearing a straw hat or a cloth
"
"
a very odd engine
to keep the brains in
cap all day,

Sometimes, but not nearly often

purpose.^
would
be
induced to come for whole day
he
enough,
excursions
but, whether he could be decoyed out or no,
the

for

he was happy in the feeling that he was free to do

exactly as he pleased in a congenial company.

In 1 8 9 6 he was very vigorous, and enjoying the work.

He

"

I am developing a great talent for tabletalk of the witty-buffoonery type, and generally send the
children into fits over their meals. ... I am working

writes

hard nearly all day long from 7 o'clock on.

To-day
and yesterday I have done a chapter.
It is most
invigorating, and I get fresh points continually, some
You will see I am much content. I have
very pretty.
the
picked
right books pretty well and am seldom
a
standstill from want of literature.
brought to
.

I call this a real

good

letter to be written currente

work or more."
more chapters, and

after eight hours'

"

says

Six

Book III
is

out.

schools
I will

so that I

It

is

much

hope

to finish

A
I

calamo

few days later he

have ended

shall

IV

before the year

better doing this than examinincr

and unless I feel the pinch of poverty too much,

do no more schools until I have begun to print
;

least.
I still get lots of pretty points, which the
"
I have finished Book III
editors mostly miss."
Again
and hope to finish IV also, or nearly so, before I go

at

The

friend's diary, already quoted, speaks of finding liim

hat turned down

Lectures.

"

all

" with straw

round, sitting on the sofa, busy with his Gifford

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

XLIV
back,

am

if

here a

month

still.

am

getting plenty

There are still a host of German

of interesting points.
I
mnst
I have not been for
that
get hold of.
pamphlets
I stick so to
a single bicycle ride
books.
I

am

my

perfectly well in spite of

it."

In 1897 he was busy preparing a text of the Republic

which the University Press wished to publish separately.
It is interesting to compare this text with the large
edition published five years later, and to note his increasing dislike of emendations, some of his own not excepted.
The commentary advanced at the rate of about two
books a year during 1897 and 1898.
Unfortunately,
by 1899 the strain was beginning to tell upon him, and

autumn

until the

of

was uphill work.

1900, when he finished the

notes,

could not be helped.

Nothing
could make him put aside a task, more especially when
it was becoming irksome, and the only thing to be done
was to try to make the conditions of work as easy as
it

might
of
I

be.
"

tone

hope

The following extracts show the change

am making nothing of my book
I
:

shall get a little

shire."

It

"

It's

dull

here,

'

'

go

and

when I am in Yorkam not making any

making me fat." He was

very much oppressed and out of health, and no remedies

irpoKoirrj,

but the indolence

is

rest or medical treatment seemed to do

His
fear was that his mental powers were
good.
was astonishing to see the change in
but
it
giving way
his spirits, when the first printed sheets began to arrive,
There was no more talk of
towards the end of 1900.
It should be rememfor
some
after
that,
years.
collapse
bered that all this time his vivacity as a teacher was
unchanged, and very few people were aware of the
struggles of mind through which he was passing.
of travel

or

much

When the book came out in the autumn of 1902 it

had an excellent reception.
Shortly before its publication
"
he wrote to Professor Cook Wilson of Oxford
Through:

MEMOIR

XLV

out m}' whole book I have made it my aim to rest everything on the language, and tried not to force it so as
to make Plato consistent with himself."
And again,
Finally, no one has ever helped me so much in
difficulties as you have done, although I was a
''

my

complete

I hope I am no longer
and I hope to
stranger to you
show my gratitude to you by coming again for criticism
and help, when I get into bewilderment on other subjects.
Ever yours gratefully and sincerely, J. Adam." To the
same correspondent he writes after the appearance of the
book " I thank you for your most kind and generous
Such expressions of sympathy and congratulation
letter.
I hunger after them
are, I confess, very pleasing to me
;

to a quite abnormal degree."

Among others who helped
him in the work should be specially mentioned his

former teacher, Dr. Henry Jackson of Trinity College,

now Eegius Professor of Greek. Dr. Jackson not only

found time to read

all

the proofs, but was always ready

showing that interest in the

to discuss doubtful points,

work of a younger man

which has stirred the lively

and friends.
In the original scheme, Adam had intended to write an
introductory volume of essays and a translation but after
he had finished the commentary, he became less and less
gratitude of a long train of pupils

attack this remaining part of the work.

interested in other subjects, particularly in
the connexion of the Stoics with Christianity, and he
inclined

to

He became

that he had said nearly all he had to say about the

It is quite likely,
RepuUic in the notes and Appendixes.
that
he
would
have
his
mind again later
however,
changed
felt

He was

always gathering fresh material, which is

numerous notebooks and large sheets of paper
about three times the size of foolscap, and the day might
very well have come, when he would have wished to make
on.

stored in

use of

it.

In 1898 he had the pleasure of receiving an Honorary

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

XLVI

Degree from his old University of Aberdeen, and in 1903

He prehe took the degree of Litt.D. at Cambridge.
sented his edition of the RepvMic as his thesis.
No sooner was the Bepublic out than a fresh piece of
work was undertaken. At Christmas 1002 he was
appointed Gifford Lecturer to the University of Aberdeen.
According to Lord Giftbrd's will, twenty lectures must be
given by every Gifford Lecturer in the course of two
years, ten lectures in each year, on some subject conIt is usual to make the
nected with Natural Eeligion.

appointments two years beforehand, so as to allow time

for preparing the lectures.
lost no time in setting to

Adam

The Religious Teachers of Greece

it

is

his subject,

unfortunate

new

labour did not come a year or two later.

needed time to lie fallow after the eight years' strain

that this

He

work on

but

but he did not have a single vacation's

His depression attacked
beginning again.

of the Bepuhlic,

rest

before

him once more, almost immediately.

"
I am making no progress
writes

In March 1903 he
at all,

and

am

in a

My

brain won't work,

state approaching abject despair.
I begin to regret
and I
otherwise
this
seedy
morning.
I
that I had anything to do with this business at all.

am

have written to Macmillan and Bowes to order Hastings'

Dictionary to be sent to me at once, to see if it will give
me any hints. I can't even think of words, much less of
ideas, though I am sitting at the table about ten hours a
day. I seriously think I shall have to chuck it." Next day
"
he is better, but he says, privately I think the whole thing
will have to be tremendously rewritten before it is fit to
"
The Giffords don't
publish." A few days later he writes
:

they creep on. No doubt in time

they will get into shape. It is the combination of writing
and accumulating material that is so hard." In September
1903 he writes to his friend, Professor Davidson of
progress much, but

Aberdeen

"
:

still

The subject

is

very vast and very laborious.

MEMOIR
but

am

though
to

uot disconteuted with tbe progress

am

beginning to doubt whether

make them

to

XLVII

do."

have made,

I shall

[the lectures] as interesting as I

month later he writes, also to

manage

had hoped
Professor

"

There is little time for Gif!brdizing

though
I pass through the
a page gets added now and then.
usual throes of despair, which always afflict me when I
have a big job of the kind on, but I must be content, and
I am afraid, must you, if I do the best e'/c TOiv
so,
as Aristotle says. ... I cannot deny myself
evhe')(^oixevoiv,

Davidson

the pleasure of sending you the latest advertisement of

my RepuUic, because I know you will like the gratifying

In the same month, writing to Professor Cook

"
I wrote some lectures on the religious and

reviews."

Wilson, he says

theological ideas of the pre-Sophistic Greek philosophers

In conthis summer, and worked my brain quite dry.

sequence, I

am

If I get safely

rather run down, but better than I was.

through the job I now have on, I think I

shall shut up shop, as far as writing is concerned, and

devote myself to second-rate golf for the rest of my life.
When one is cumbered with tutorial work, it is very hard
to think consecutively."

The preparation of the Lectures was not, however, all

It was the start that was difficult in this
not
the
finish as with the Bejmblic.
From Holmecase,
weariness.

next-the-Sea, in Norfolk, he writes to Mr. T. E. Glover, in

August 1904:
"

It

is

except for

and

no intruders
lovely here
nothing but peace,
I
have
turbulent
finished Socrates
my
offspring.

am now

deep in Plato.

others into cocked hats

Of course he knocks all the

is no one like him, none.

there

It is tremendous how he searches the depths of one's

whole nature.
You really must devote a year or two to

the exclusive study of his works, if you mean to do anything useful for the interpretation of religious thought.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

XLVIII

Occasionally I read Matthew Arnold too, and he is parIf only Paul had been a little
ticularly good over Paul.
more Hellenic quein te, PcluIc, redclidissem
!

"

But enough

Goodbye, from your friend and

of this.

J.

admirer,
"

Bell sounds for dinner

pleasures of the

The
only

may

postscript

written in

the

crKrjuof, etc. etc."

be contrasted with the following,

Neil gave me a very good lunch

Like the De Finibus, that animal dogs my

1893:

DUCK

two young ducklings

the irrLyeiov

adp^

Adam.

'

footsteps everywhere."

When it came
Adam was at his

to the delivery of the Gifford Lectures,

very

best.

The four

visits that

he made

to Aberdeen for the purpose of lecturing were among the

Thanks to the kindness of our
happiest days of his life.

and Miss Davidson, and to the wonderful

and friendliness of the Aberdeen world, every
moment was a pleasure. The interest shown in the
lectures was very great, and many of the audience came
from considerable distances outside the town to hear them.
hosts. Professor

hospitality

All this delighted him.

His punctuality and despatch in matters of business

He had the enviable quality of always
a
piece of work more quickly than he
through
getting
This
was
particularly marked when he was
expected.
find it an effort to finish lookmen
Most
examining.
were remarkable.

ing over the papers of the Classical Tripos, Part I, in the

time allotted
Adam, whenever he examined for the
of
his protestations at the beginning that
in
spite
Tripos,
:

he could not possibly be ready in time, had about a week

to spare, during which he used to exult over his still
Mr. Leonard Whibley, an intimate
toiling colleagues.
friend of

nexion

and

"

also

Adam's

later

years,

remembers

in

this

con-

how quick he was, and how sound his judgment,

how his humour relieved the inevitable pedantry

MEMOIR

XLIX

Examiners' meetings."
Adam himself thoroughly
He did it six times in
enjoyed examining for Part I.
all, and he liked seeing the work of classical men all
of

over the University.

The meetings gave him the
opportunity for much friendly banter, of which I believe
he especially availed himself in the year 1904, when
he acted as Chairman of the Examiners.
"

In conversation," says Mr. Whibley, " he was admirable.

In general company he often let some time pass
before he took an active part
but when he had once
;

he pursued the topic of the moment with a halfI used to think

serious, half-humorous logical method.
he was consciously or unconsciously adopting the Socratic
started,

irony

and

there

was, without

any pedantry or pre-

He liked
tence, a suggestion of the Platonic dialogue.
to sustain a thesis, by arguments consistent, even if
In

absurd.

sympathetic

intimate

conversation

and

interesting

he

interested

was always
and ready

to advise."

When

in a cheerful vein,

and everybody with

native land.

If

we

he was apt to

his gibes, not

travelled to

visit

everything
excepting his beloved
Scotland together by

night, he invariably woke up at Edinburgh, and began

to pour forth a torrent of Aberdeenshire speech, in
which always occurred the words " It's a queer country."
:

One day he

"

is a great country, and

Truly
not
to
liold
a
When I
candle to it.
England
worthy
washed myself in the waiting-room at Aberdeen, I put
on my hat without combing my hair, whereupon the

writes

it

is

man

in attendance said,
'

hairs

No Englishman

'

Arena ye gaun tae redd yer

could possibly have said any"

Next day, however, he says, It's

thing so illuminating."
a very queer country, so odd that it is difficult not to
laugh."
letter

"
:

infinity

Travelling to Scotland once by sea he begins a

is
such thoughts of
very nice on the sea

It

swarm

in

one's

brain

Sometimes the

vessel

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

(6-)(r)/jia)

rocks a

little

of the letter the

much

too

steamer

is

Alas

."

apostrophised as

by the end
"

this shak-

ing, groaning, internal- economy-menacing dam(pf)-boat."

His most hilarious moods were often displayed, when

he went to Eoyston to play golf with Dr. J. E. Tanner,
another of the close friends of his later years.
On one
occasion Dr. Tanner said

"
:

If

you and

had taken Holy

we should undoubtedly have

Orders,

positions in the Church."

moment's hesitation " You
:

of York."

attained the highest

"
Yes," he replied, without a

would have

beeij

Archbishop

delicate situation at a College or Syndicate

often, it is said, brought to a happy ending

Meeting was
by some humorous quip on Adam's part.
"
One characteristic," writes Mr. Whibley, " which
always struck me was, that while he was very slow to
take part in a contest, when he was once involved he
fought with the utmost keenness, resource, and determina-

At

tion.

first

he realised the strength of the opposing

was prepared to compromise or even to give way

but when he saw that there would be a fight, he
seemed to lose his doubts and when he warmed to the
conflict, he became eager and often sanguine about the
result.
In the campaign he was quick and resourceful
and in the strength of his convictions fought hard, but
He
always with good temper and without bitterness.
was quick to see the weak points in the adversary's
arguments he found the right retort, and expressed it
with admirable effect and humour.
"
These characteristics of slowness to eng-aoe and keen-

forces,

ness in tlie engagement appeared in the controversy

about the reform of the Classical Tripos and in the long
struggles over compulsory Greek.^
"

On

away

the question of the Tripos he was at first carried

by the strength of the support given to the scheme

originally

proposed, and gave

^

it

a (no doubt) reluctant

In the Previous Examination.

MEMOIR
^

assent

when

but

the

LI

was

issue

The scheme was

then

Amended

rejected.

and

forward

became

joined, he

convinced that the proposals were wrong (I

he was right), and he fought them hard."

now

believe

proposals were

1000.
These
and
it
is
heartily supported,
generally agreed
that they have worked well.
"
On the Greek question," continues Mr. Whibley, " he
had hesitations and doubts and did not join in tlie
first movements of the
but he soon was in
opposition
the thick of the fray
and no one worked harder or
brought

carried

in

Adam

did better service in defeating the proposals."

good fight seemed to put new life into him, though

he professed to yearn for peace and quiet.
An opponent
has said of him that he made no enemies, though he was
such a hard fighter his good-humoured sallies did
here, as elsewhere, excellent service.

him

To some Emmanuel undergraduates who

congratulate

him on the

wrote

to

success of his side in the con-

troversy in 1905, he answered:

"

My dear Dobson and other (f)t\6\\r]pe<;, It was a

kind thought that prompted your most acceptable letter.
For the present the torch still burns
next time, it
will be yow business to keep it alive.
:

"Meantime,

in the

T?}<?

In

January 1906,

words of St Paul
Ta
ipr]vr]<; SicoKCOfiev."

Adam was

Professorship of

Regius
Sir Eichard Jebb.^

He came

to the suggestion of his friends

strong wish to be elected.

'

He

He

Dr.

for

the

forward, more in response

than because he had any
certainly

had no expecta-

signed the Report recommending the scheme, but afterwards

repented.
-

a candidate

Greek, vacant by the death of

Henry Jackson was appointed.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

LII

tiou

of

being chosen.

It

the custom at Cambridge

is

that candidates for this post should give a prelection or

public lecture before the electors and the University at
large.

Adam welcomed

This ordeal

gave him the chance

with alacrity.

It

mounting a pulpit, and holding

forth in an impassioned strain on the soul and immormember of the
tality to large numljers of his friends.
audience remarked that the Vice-Chancellor should have
of

rung a bell, and reminded the candidate that the vacant

chair was not one of theology.
Before th^ election he
wrote thus to a friend " Thank you also for your good
Zi&v ^aaCkev, ra fjuev icrdXa kol
wishes for myself.
rd 8e Seiva Kal ev'^^ofievoi^
BlBov,
ev'^oixevoL'i a/x/xi
:

dTTciXe^e (cf. PI. Ale.

ii.

142

E).

So say

for

I,

my

friends

as well as myself."

He was

much

given to religious observances, and

did not often go to church in vacation, when the College
But his interest in the great
chapel was closed.
questions of life and also in the relationship between

not

He first
and Christianity was constant.
began to study the affinity of St. Paul to Plato a few
weeks before his marriage, and continued to do so with
immense vigour during his honeymoon. When he came
Hellenism

to write the Gifford Lectures, the storehouse of material

that he then gathered was re-opened, and it was a subject
he would have liked to pursue still further by and by.
"

In July 1906 he gave three lectures on

The Hymn of
"
to some two hundred Presbyterian ministers
Cleanthes

who had come

Theology.

to

for a

Cambridge

Summer

School of

These lectures were very successful.

been said that

many

It

has

unknown to
from hearing him discourse

theological students,

him, have derived inspiration

at one time or another.

comment, overheard and

"

There's matter
reported to the lecturer, delighted him
in that lecture for four sermons."
His earnestness is
:

shown by the underlying and often-quoted

text of nearly

MEMOIR

LI 11

public and College lectures, which was that man

a ^vjov ovK. eyyeiov
oupdviov.
of 1906 he was beginning to
summer
the
During

all his
is

dWa

This year saw

revise his Gifford Lectures for the press.

the last of the family parties that he

loved

so well.

Except that his spirits began once more to flag under

the pressure of work, it was a particularly happy time.
As the autumn and winter went on it was obvious that

work was more burdensome to him than

A
and the lectures weighed heavily on his mind.
"
I
no
illusions
am
under
as
written
he
had
before
year
to their scientific value, but I hope to improve them
his

Collegre
o

usual,

perhaps a
this fact,

When he began the

than he had expected but
he had been in vigorous health,

before publishing."

little

revision, he

found

less to alter

which would,

if

have appeared to him a sign of merit in them, he could

only look upon as an indication of lessening mental
He was induced to seek medical aid soon after
power.
Christmas

and as the symptoms were apparently just

the same as those which had troubled

him many times

before during the last twenty years, it was hoped that,

as soon as the book should be out of hand, he would recover

His chief pleasure during the winter was

his elasticity.
to hear his little daughter read aloud favourite passages

Sunday evenings. As the spring went

be troubled by sleeplessness, which,
began
a more obstinate form than he
assumed
after a while,
from
before.
Still there was nothing
had ever suffered
to rouse suspicion of serious mischief, and he consulted
His work
doctors, who gave him a reassuring report.
went on, though at increasing cost to himself, and those
about him were very anxious, as there did not seem to
be sufficient cause, in the actual amount of work, to
of

on

the Bible on

he

to

account for the failure of his energy.

He went to Winchester towards the end
to

examine

for the

Goddard Scholarship, the

of

July 1907

school's chief

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

LIV

He

had a special interest in the

boy had been there two
years as a Scholar, and a week or two before his visit his
younger boy had been placed Senior (or first) on the
classical

distinction.

school, as

by

this time

his elder

Eoll of Scholars to enter in the following September,

Though he was evidently very far from well, he enjoyed

the work, and was glad to realise, more fully than he
had done before, the charm of the school and all
His last game of golf was played with
belonging to it.
our most kind host, the Headmaster, on July 27.
He returned to Cambridge to give his last lecture, on

July 29, at Newuham College, to an audience consisting

The title of the lecture,
of Vacation Biblical Students.
"
Ancient Greek Views of Suffering and Evil," was, in
the light of after events, pathetically appropriate.
Many
who heard it wrote afterwards, describing the impression

he made on them as they listened to his

dreaded the effort beforehand, but as
"
I should like to
soon as the lecture was over he said,
of vitality that

words.

He had

give another to-morrow."

The next day he started

for his mother's house at

Inverurie, intending
preparing the Gifford
Lectures for the press, and then to join his family in
all hoped
North Wales, for the rest of the holidays.
to

finish

We

book was published, he would take a

and do nothing but routine w^ork perhaps for

that, as soon as the

long

rest,

several years.

He

did send the last batch of his

MS.

to

the printers, as usual in a shorter time than he expected,

and was on the point of coming to Wales, when he was led
to consult a surgeon in

Aberdeen about what he thought

to be a slight local complaint, not connected with his

An incurable malady
sleeplessness and other troubles.

an advanced state was discovered, as his wife learnt

on arriving in Aberdeen on August 2 1 to join him, though
There
he himself did not know till several days later.
his
that
an
was a chance
life.
operation might prolong

in

MEMOIR

LV

The operation was

was decided to take the risk.
Four
of
on
the
morning
August 30, 1907.
performed

and

it

hours afterwards he passed peacefully away.

Those last nine days in Aberdeen were a time of
blessed calm.
By the admirable arrangement of the
installed, I was allowed to
work was done, he was
His
day.
He
he
was
free at last to rest.
and
suffering very little,

uursiucr

home where he was

with

be

him

all

liked to listen to reading aloud, or rather to

dream while my voice went on. Boswell's

a half-

lie in

Tour

to

the

what he chiefly desired to

read St. John xiv before leaving

Hebrides and the Bible were

hear.

Every evening

him for the night, sometimes in English, sometimes in

Our friend. Professor Davidson, came each day
Greek.
for a short visit, for my husband said it gave him
Three sisters, and
courage to see him enter the room.
came, each once beyond that the
When he knew that he was to
time was all our own.
undergo the operation, he wrote and dictated several letters
In one of these he quoted from Theognis
to his friends.

two

friends

other

om he

/jboipa iradelv,

ovn

SeSocKa TraOelv.

He was

buried at Brookwood Cemetery, Woking, on

The memorial services held in
September 3rd.
Cambridoe and Aberdeen on October 19, when both
Universities

had

reassembled, showed

widespread was the grief

best tribute to his nature
left in

the hearts of

all

felt

how deep and

for his departure

but the

the fragrant memory he has

knew him. Amans, amabilis,

is

who

amatus he was throughout his life of forty-seven years

I have
aifXou^ Kol drevrj'i was his motto for himself.
tried to show how faithfully he served his generation,
:

and

may

rest content in

the sure hope ort ovk eariv

^oivrt cure reXevTi'jaavTi.

dvSpl dyadcv kukov ovSev ovre

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS

OF GREECE
LECTURE

THE PLACE OF POETRY AND PHILOSOPHY IN THE

DEVELOPMENT OF GREEK RELIGIOUS THOUGHT

When I accepted the iuvitation to deliver the Gifford

Lectures at the University to which I owe the greatest
intellectual impulse of
inability to rival

my

decessors

in

their

my

life,

some

own

of

was

my

particular

fully sensible of

distinguished prefield.
The studies

which circumstances as well as inclination have led

me

to pursue are concerned with the past rather than with

and I cannot pretend either to criticise
the present
;

of

any existing system

new one

philosophy, or

was room for a series

however imperfectly,

of

to

construct

seemed to me that there

lectures which should attempt,

But

in its place.

it

to reproduce, as far as may be

without prejudice or passion, the kind of answers which
the religious teachers of ancient Greece
that is to say,

poets and
those spiritual

were able to supply to

philosophers
problems which are not of to-day or
There is a profound truth
yesterday, but for all time.
in the ancient saying, nenmiem vere vivere diem praesentem,
dierum praeteritorum memorem.
nisi
In its special
the

application

to

the

history

of

religious

thought,

it

is

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

to exaggerate the significance of this remark.

do not think merely of the historical fact that the
to quote the words of
science of Natural Theology
Professor Case" in its foundation and main principles,
difficult

a development of Greek metaphysics."

would seem to he ample justification

That

is

for

in itself

discussing
of
Gifford

philosophers of Greece in a course

but the particular suggestion which I desire
Lectures
to make is that the religious ideas of Greek philosophy

the

of peculiar importance for the student of early

Christian literature in general, and more especially for

are

the

student
"

Gospel.
Christianis

of

St.

Neque

Paul's

Epistles

and

the

Fourth

Graecis Christianae, neque sine

litterae recte aut
aut
intellegi

sine

Graecae

The early Fathers of the Church

aestimari possunt."
were conscious of the spiritual connexion between Greek
philosophy and Christianity when they spoke of philosophy as the preparation or propaedeutic
irpoirapaaKevi)

and it is from
on account of the bearing of
the subject upon Natural Theology and Theism, that I
invite you to consider the development of religious ideas
in Greek philosophy and poetry from Homer down to
or TrpoTracSeta

for the

Christian faith

this point of view, as well as

Plato.

Let us begin by endeavouring to form a general idea

the relative position of poetry and philosophy in
Greek religious development. In a well-known passage of

of

the Republic^ it is said by Plato that between philosophy

and poetry there was an ancient and hereditary feud.
By way of illustrating and enforcing his assertion,
Plato cites a number of poetical fragments in which
Philosophy and her votaries are satirised by the followers
Philosophy, one of the poets says, is but
"
a clamorous hound, baying at her master
the philo"
"
"
in the vain
great
only
sopher, says another, is
of

the Muses.

"

X.

607 B.

POETRY AND PHILOSOPHY

babblements of fools

"

a tliiid speaks of the

rabblewhile another ridicules the poverty
"
of
these threadbare thinkers."
This

rout of wiseacres

and destitution

"

"

deep-seated antagonism, which continually meets us in

Greek literatm-e, is not sufficiently explained by a refer-

ence to the familiar antithesis between the philosophic

and the artistic temperaments for whether that antithesis
;

true or false in

modern

is subject to essential
before
we
can
it
to Greek antiquity,
qualifications
apply
in which the provinces of the poet and
philosopher
continually overlap.
Nearly all the greatest Greek
is

philosophy

is

life, it

coloured by poetical imagery and

ideas

and, conversely, there are few of the great Greek poets

in whom we do not meet with reflections indicative of a
It is enough at
decidedly philosophical habit of mind.
present to mention Heraclitus among philosophers, and

Aeschylus and Euripides among poets.

And, as we

shall

afterwards see, it is precisely in Plato, who more than

any other Greek author unites the poet and the philosopher, that this hostility to Greek poetry is most

marked.
then, are

What,

we

to

suppose

to

have

been the

From a passage
originating cause of the antagonism ?
in the Laws} it appears that the first of the four quotaselected by Plato to exemplify the feud between
poetry and philosophy has reference to the atheistical
views of Anaxagoras and his disciples on the subject of
tions

the heavenly bodies.

The ordinary Greek believed the
sun and moon to be Gods Anaxagoras robbed them of
:

and maintained that the sun was nothing

but a red-hot mass of stone while the moon, according to
him, contained hills and ravines, and was inhabited like
the planet on which we live.^
In thus rebelling against
the national religion and its deities, philosophy resembles
a dog barking at its master.
This is the meaning and
their divinitv,

'

967 C, D.

Diog_ Lacrt.

ii.

8.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

application of the first of the passages cited by Plato

aud as the others refer to more accidental and superficial

occasions of dislike,

we

are led to conjecture that the

betw^n

quarrel
poetry and philosophy originated in
differences about theology and religion.
The conjecture
becomes a certainty as soon as we study the other side of

the

picture.

It will

be observed that the quotations

which Plato gives serve only to illustrate the attitude of

Greek poetry to Greek philosophy.
If we are fully to
understand the meaning of the quarrel, and appreciate its
true significance in the history of religion and religious
development, we must also consider some of the attacks
of early Greek philosophy on the poetry of Homer and
Hesiod.
By so doing we shall be enabled once for all to
conclude that the most potent cause of strife was the
antagonism between poetry and philosophy on the subject of the attributes of the

Godhead and

his relations

with mankind.
the pre-Socratic philosophers
expressly protested against the

Among
have

who appear
Homeric

to

and

Hesiodic theology, three names stand out above

all others

Pythagoras, Xenophanes, and Heraclitus.

There are

traces of similar protests also in Empedocles,^ although

are not mentioned in his survivino;

Homer and Hesiod

fragments and we may infer from the general tone and

attitude of other pre-Socratic writers on philosophy that
they did not sympathise with the Homeric representations
of the divine nature, although they may not have given
;

public expression to their dislike.

"
apocalypses or descents into Hades

In
"

of

one

of

those

which we find
seems to have

traces in early Pythagorean legends,- it

been related of Pythagoras that in his sojourn in the
"
lower world he saw the soul of Hesiod, bound to a brazen
pillar and crying out, together with the soul of Homer,

suspended from a
^

tree,

and surrounded by snakes,

Diels, poet. phil. frag. p. 160

f.

"Dieterich,

Nekyia

p. 129.

in

POETRY AND PHILOSOPHY

return for what they said about the Gods." ^ The story is in
keeping with the pervading spirit of Pythagorean theology

and

ethics,

and may well preserve an echo

Pythagoras' own
there

sayings.

of

some

of

In the fragments of Heraclitus,

a contemptuous allusion to poets in general,^ as

the leaders and guides of the populace, along with severe
is

animadversions upon Homer and Hesiod in particular,^

the former of whom, he says, " is worthy to be cast out of
the arena and scourged, ay, and Archilochus along with
him."

But we have

to look to

Xenophanes, himself a

poet as well as a theologian and philosopher, for the

strongest and most emphatic protest in Greek literature
against the Homeric conception of the divine nature, at
all events until we reach the time of Plato.
Xenophanes

proclaims his dissent from the anthropomorphism of the

Olympian theology in the famous lines preserved for us
"

There is one God, greatest both among

by Clement.
Gods and men, resembling mortals neither in form nor in
"
But mortals think that Gods are born, and
thought."
have dress and voice and form like their own." " But if
oxen or lions had hands, or could draw with their hands
and make works of art like men, horses would draw
figures of Gods like horses, oxen figures of Gods like oxen,
giving them bodies like the form which they themselves
"
The Ethiopians say their Gods are black
possessed."
and flat-nosed the Thracians make theirs fair-eyed and
with red hair."*
The satirist Timon, author of the
famous aiXXoL or satirical verses on Greek philosophers,
"
describes Xenophanes as
the reprover of Homer's lies," ^
and in other fragments of Xenophanes' writings we meet
witli strictures on both Homer and Hesiod for falsely
"
"
Homer and Hesiod
attributing immorality to the Gods.
"
these are his words
ascribed to the Gods every;

Diog. Laert. viii. 21.

"fr. Ill By water.
=*/'

ix. 1.

35,

43

cf.

Diog.

p.

Laert.

Diols, /rag. d. Vomokratikcr-

49

ff.

V-

"jO

Diels.

i.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

is a disgrace and shame among men, theft,

The old legends
and mutual deception." ^
imputing discord and strife to the divine nature, such as
the stories about theomachies, and battles between Gods
and giants, are summarily dismissed as " figments of the

thing which
adultery,

ancients."

These and similar invectives, which in reality foreshadow from afar the early patristic diatribes against
Paganism, make it sufficiently clear that the feud
between philosophy and poetry, of which Plato speaks,
On the
was mainly inspired by the odium theologicum.
one hand we have poetry, as a German writer has well
"

said,

immortalising in imperishable creations the tradiand on the other hand philosophy, "just on

tional faith,"

account of that

"^

same time
more elevated conception

at the

condemning those creations," and

we may add providing materials for

faith,

purer and

nature.

What

is

the

historical

of

divine

the

significance

of

this

What is its
between philosophy and poetry ?
It will
on
the
of
the
world
?
bearing
religious history
be one of the objects of these lectures to furnish some
conflict

indirect contributions to the solution of this question by

expounding, with occasional references to later religious

thought, some of the principal conceptions entertained

by Greek philosophers and poets about God and

Nature.

Our review

Man and

of the religious teaching of

Greek

""poetry will show, of course, that the philosophers are seldom

they fix their attention too
altogether just to their rival
:

exclusively on the naturalistic features of the poetical

theology, and tend to ignore the elements of spirituality
and idealism which are inherent in it from the very first,
But
and become more and more active as time goes on.
at present we are concerned only with the nature of
the quarrel, and its cause and in order that we may
;

the better understand the circumstances by which the

'/'

U,

12.

"fr. 1. 22.

Krolm, der Plat. Staat

p. 262.

POETRY AND PHILOSOPHY

antagonism was produced,
to consider the character

it

is

necessary at this stage

of the authority and

and extent

by the poetical religion and theology

And when
and
the
life
thought of ancient Greece.
upon
I say the poetical theology, I mean first and foremost
influence exercised

the

theology

Homer and

of

protagonists on behalf
have spoken.

To speak

of

of

Hesiod, the two great

poetry in the feud of which I
like

anything

dogmatic orthodoxy or

heterodoxy in connexion with ancient

of course, to use words somewhat freely

Greek religion is,

and inaccurately
;

was comparatively little persecution for religious

beliefs in Greek antiquity.
Eeligious institutions and ceremonies were carefully guarded but in respect of dogma
We may infer
the limits of toleration were very wide.
from a remark of the Platonic Socrates that the Athenians
in general cared little what a man believed, so long as he
for there

It
did not attempt to proselytise.^
of
the
to say that certain views

versions

of

the

legends

about

the

is

nevertheless true

Deity, and certain

Gods and

heroes,

enjoyed an exceptional authority such as may justify us

in designating them as orthodox, in a certain qualified
and in this restricted meaning of the
sense of the term
;

Homer and Hesiod who are tlie

Greek orthodoxy. As such, we shall

word,

it is

representatives

see, they were

almost universally regarded by the Greeks themselves,

of

by those who dissented from

by those who, like Euthyphro
accepted

it

their teaching, as well as

in the dialogue of Plato,

without reserve.

The ordinary well-educated Greek looked upon Homer

and Hesiod as the founders of the national, that is, the

We

are expressly
Panhellenic or Olympian, theology.
told by Herodotus that it was Hesiod and Homer who
"

made

the Greek theogony, assigned to the Gods their

appellations, distinguished their provinces

1

Euthyphro 3 C.

and

arts,

and

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

The Olympian theology

did not, of course, spring self-created from the imagination
of Homer and Hesiod, like Athena from the head of

indicated their various forms."

Zeus

nor does Herodotus imagine anything of the kind.

of absolute genesis or creation out of nothing is

The idea

always foreign to G-reek thought, and the poet, who is

universally regarded by the Greeks as a maker, may be
"
"
said to
make a theogony when he reduces theological
discord and chaos into

harmony and

order, just as the

Creator himself, according to Plato, created or made the

universe by imprinting definite mathematical forms on

In this sense of
indeterminate and shapeless matter.
the term, Herodotus is not improbably right when he
asserts that

Homer

and

Hesiod

"

made

"

the Greek

theogony
although the elements of the Homeric
are
pantheon
pre- Homeric, in the Iliad and Odyssey
for
the
first time they are combined into a more
perhaps
;

for

"We may well

coherent and organic whole.
is
of
that
it
the
the
suppose
poet which has to a
genius
of
extent
order
out
the chaos of prelarge
brought
and
that
is
belief
it
the universalising
existing legends

or

less

of poetry which has apprehended and transthe

universal element in the particular cults,
figured
out
of local and provincial deities the awecreating

instinct

inspiring figures of a single Zeus, a single Apollo, a single

Poseidon, and so on, and thus establishing what

truly be called a national or Panhellenic theology.
in

any case, the important point for us to grasp

is

may
But
that

Herodotus attributes to Homer and Hesiod something of

the authority which the adherents of a religious system
ascribe to the founders of their faith.
That Homer was
regarded in antiquity as primarily responsible for the
Hellenic theology is apparent from many other indications in Greek literature, and especially from the fact
that

it

is

Homer whom

Plato chiefly quotes to illustrate

1

ii.

.^53.

POETRY AND PHILOSOPHY

the false and unworthy notions of the
against which he protests in the Rcimllic.

We may
Hesiod

as

divine nature

therefore regard the poems of

the chief literary monuments

Homer and
of

Greek

orthodoxy, according to the conception of orthodoxy that

Greek
prevailed in the most flourishing period of
As Professor Butcher has remarked,
intellectual life.
"

Greeks, like the Jews, had their sacred volume.

in the seventh century B.C., at the Delian
festival and in many other parts of the Hellenic world,
they assembled to hear their minstrels recite the
the

Already

Homeric poems. At Athens, from the sixth century

onward, a public recitation of Homer was held every
It was analogous
fourth year at the Panathenaic festival.
to the Jewish provision that once in every seven years
the law was to be read at the Feast of Tabernacles in the
of

hearing

accustomed

Israel."

all

look on

to

modern reader

The

Homer

is

so

as a poet and nothing

to realise that Homer

more, that it is difficult for him

also a great religious teacher, whose representations
of the Godhead and his attributes had a practical influence

was

on the

lives

and conduct

of

But

Greeks.

the

if

we

transport ourselves into the atmosphere of ancient Greek

we shall see that it was not only natural but
life,

Homer should exercise an authority of

For one thing, the Greeks almost invariably

inevitable that
this kind.

"
conceived of the poet as a teacher.
Poets," says Plato
"
fathers
intellectual
our
as
it
were
are
in the Lysis,

and guides."-

Aristophanes'

ideal

of

the

essentially the same, although his practice

fell

poet was
short of

the Frogs he passes the following

judgment on certain features of ancient realism which
frequently meet us in what we may perhaps call the

In

his profession.

problem-plays

Phaedra
'

of

"

Euripides

and Hippolytus
Harvard Lectures

p. 105.

is

No

true

doubt the story

but it is not a
-

214 A.

of
tit

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

lo

subject for dramatic treatment.

It

the duty of the

is

poet
suppress what is evil, and not exhibit it upon
the stage.
For just as children have a schoolmaster
to

to direct them, so poets are the schoolmasters of grown

men." ^
There is an echo of Aristophanes' sentiment in

the second book of Plato's EepuUic, where the philosopher

that little children must be taught by their

insists

teachers only those fables and legends which are morally

pure and wholesome, and that poetry must be required
to make tales of a similar character for them as they

grow
and
the

It is the conception of the poet as a moral

religious teacher that explains in some degree
lofty prophetic tone of writers like Pindar and
older.2

Nor should we omit

Aeschylus.

notice

to

underlying presumption of the whole

that

the

of Plato's attack

is that poetry was the universally

The head and front of
recognised teacher of Greece.
his indictment is not that poetry does not teach, but that
are too often
so Plato at least believed
her doctrines

upon Greek poetry

demoralising and degrading.

have seen that Aristophanes and Plato speak of
poets as the teachers or schoolmasters of adult Greece

We

but in another and more

teachers

of

the young.

they were also the

soon as children have

literal sense
"

As

"

and
read," says the Platonic Protagoras,
are likely to understand what is written, their teachers
set before them the good poets to read as they sit upon
learnt

how

to

the benches, and compel them to commit the poems to

memory for these poems contain many exhortations,
;

many

descriptive passages,

The

the heroes of old.

many
object

eulogies
of

this

and encomia

of

to kindle

is

emulation and induce the boy to imitate these

The orator
heroes and aspire to become like them."^
spirit of

Aeschines declares that

poets
1

we study

our youth in order

in

1052

"

fl'.

cf.

1032

ff.

that

378 C, D.

maxims of the
we may use them

the

Prot. 325 E.

POETRY AND PHILOSOPHY

when we have grown

to

We

manhood."

ll

learn from

another passage of Plato that poetic anthologies were

sometimes made with the object of instilling the wisdom
of the poets into the youthful

anthology

of this kind, the

owe many
The poets

of the finest

the young

mind

it is

to a later

of Stobaeus, that

anthology

fragments

and

of the

we

Greek dramatists.

wlio played the chief role in the education of

were Homer, Hesiod, and the so-called gnomic

How thoroughly they

particularly Theognis.
were assimilated may be seen from the frequency with
which these poets, and especially Homer, are quoted and
alluded to throughout the whole history of Greek
"
literature.
Most men who had an opinion to defend,"
poets,

"

says Grote,

rejoiced to be able to support or enforce it

of Homer, well or ill-explained
^just

by some passages

as texts of the Bible are quoted in modern times." ^

With regard to Homer in particular, we have a
considerable body of evidence showing that the most

extravagant claims were advanced on his behalf about

the time of Plato by those votaries of Homer who were
called

"

Homeridae."

in general

Not content

terms as the educator

witli

describing

him

Greece, they some-

of

times went so far as to maintain that

all

the lessons of

statesmanship, war, religion, and morality were to be

found in Homer, and that the sole and indispensable
requisite for living well was to know this poet thoroughly.^
The contention in fact was that the Iliad and Odyssey

sum of human knowledge, and were a

kind of inspired revelation of the whole duty of man, in
every department of human life. Just as Tertullian sug-

contained the

gests that the Christian revelation in the

New

Testament

legitimate curiosity, and supersedes the

of
further
necessity
inquiry, so also, in the view of these
enthusiasts, if we may trust the description of tliem
satisfies

all

In Cksipk. 13 J.
811 A.

Laws

^
*

pi^i^

Pkto,

p_ 455,
Eei). x. (iOG E.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

12

which Plato

whatever

gives,

is

not in Homer,

is

either

The exposition of the ethical and

superfluous or untrue.
religious doctrine of the Homeric poems occupied the
In those
energies of many writers in the time of Plato.
cases where the plain and literal meaning of Homer's
text appeared to convey an undesirable lesson, recourse

was had to the hypothesis of a hidden or cryptic meaning {virovota), in order to save the character of Homer as
a teacher of religion and morality for " assuredly," as
;

Heraclides afterwards

"
said,^

Homer was an

person, or else he spoke in allegories."

impious
This allegorical

method of interpretation was, however, by no means

confined to passages in which a literal exegesis would
have imputed falsehood and immorality to the Gods
;

and in course
reading into

and

time

of

it

became the instrument

Homer whatever

even

for

ethical, political, religious,

were believed by
metaphysical
"
At one moment," says Seneca, " they
make Homer a Stoic, at another an Epicurean, at
another a Peripatetic, at another an Academician." doctrines

his expositors.

Homer allegorically is an
to
the
half-sacred
character of the
interesting testimony
Iliad and Odyssey for sooner or later there is nearly
The habit

of interpreting

always a tendency to allegorism in the exposition of

The
writings to which a peculiar sanctity is attached.

method began very early in Greek literary criticism.

It
was practised in the end of the sixth century B.C. by
Theagenes of Ehegium, who is said to have been the
first to write a book on Homer.^
In the fifth century,
Anaxagoras, we are

told,

asserted

that

the subject

of

Homer's poetry is in reality virtue or righteousness ^

and the same method underwent a new development in
the hands of his pupil Metrodorus of Lampsacus, who
;

'

Alleg. Horn, ad iiiit.

Ejiist. 88. 5 (quoted
Plato i, p. 455).
~

by Grote,

Diels, frag,

d,

Vorsokratiker,

p. 510.
*

Diog. Laert.

ii.

11.

POETRY AND PHILOSOPHY

13

anticipated the Stoics by interpreting the Homeric Hera,

Athene, and Zeus as physical principles, and seems to

have conceived

of the different

symbolical representations of

Homeric heroes as purely

physical and other ideas.^

said, means the aether, Achilles the

Helen
the
earth, Alexander the air, and Hector the
sun,
moon.
The Goddess Demeter is an allegorical representation of the liver, while the spleen and the bile are
Democritus also
symbolised by Dionysus and Apollo.wrote a book called Tptroyiveta, in which the Homeric
Pallas was identified with wisdom, because she is the
mother of the three component elements on which all
the prosperity of mankind depends
good reasoning, good
Other pre-Socratic writers and
style, and right action.^
teachers of less importance were addicted to the same
method and even so rationalistic a thinker as Socrates

Agamemnon, he

himself occasionally employs this weapon of interpretation,

though only in a vein of mingled playfulness and earnest.'*
Among the immediate pupils of Socrates, Antisthenes,

founder

the

upon

Homer

of

Cynicism,

wrote

in

which

seems

to

he

series

works
an

of

have

given

to various episodes of
the
allegorical interpretation
Odyssey, as for example those of Circe and the Cyclops.''
In the Second Aleibiades of Plato we have an excellent

description

me

of

the

allegorical theory of

"

poetry.

Let

says the Platonic Socrates, not

you,
good
"
without a touch of his usual irony, Homer is in the

my

tell

sir,"

habit of speaking in riddles, and not only Homer, but

For the whole of the
nearly all the other poets too.

enigmatic from its very nature, and it isn't

the man in the street to understand the
of
a
poet moreover, in addition to the naturally
meaning
of poetry, it sometimes happens that
character
enigmatic

poetic art

is

possible for

'

p.

See Zeller, Fhil, d. Griechen^

1019.
Diels- i. p. 326,
4.
Zeller, I.e. p.

930

n. 4.

i.

Xen. Mem.

i.

3.

3. 6.
5

Djog, Laeit.

vi.

17

f.

cf.

Symp.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

14

the

Muse

position,

lays hold of a

and anxious
instead

to

man who
conceal

of

it

is

his
to

of a

grudging

dis-

wisdom as far
us, and then it

as

is
possible
revealing
found to be a task of quite portentous difficulty to make
It is clear that we
out the idea in the poet's mind." ^

dealing with a theory of literary criticism which

requires us to suppose, not only that Homer is inspired,
but that a measure of inspiration is necessary also to his
are

interpreters, if they are to fathom his true meaning

and here again we are struck by the remarkable analogy
presented by the history of Christianity and Christian
Such a theory of inspiration is actually outdogma.
It is suggested in that
lined by Plato in the Ion?
his
that
Homer,
interpreter, and the audience
dialogue
are as it were a chain of magnetic rings, the first of
which is the poet, the second the rhapsodist, and the
third the listener.
By means of these rings, says Plato,
"
the God draws men's souls wherever he lists, communiOne
cating his power from link to link of the chain.
to
one
is
attached
another
to
another
and
we
Muse,
poet
:

call the

The
forms

^possession or

inspiration^

later history of the allegorical method of criticism

an instructive chapter in the history of human

thought.
Stoics,

phenomenon

A great

impetus was communicated to

who made an attempt

to

it Ijy

the

show that the Homeric

and legends were only symbolical expressions of the

truths of ethics, natural philosophy, and metaphysics.
In
the hands of the Jewish Hellenists, and especially of Philo

deities

the Jew, the same method

is

applied to the interpretaof which Philo con-

Old Testament, much

tion of the

strues as a cryptic or esoteric presentation of Platonism,

or rather of that eclectic fusion of Plato with Stoicism
so great an influence on the development of
Allegorical expositions of the
early Christian doctrine.
Old Testament are found also in the Epistles of St. Paul,

which had

147

ff.

533

ff.

POETRY AND PHILOSOPHY

15

The
example in the Epistle to the Galatians.^
method afterwards became a favourite weapon
among the early apologists of Christianity, by whom it
as for

allegorical

constantly used in the elucidation of sacred as well as

It was to a large extent by means
profane literature.
is

of this arbitrary and elastic

principle of interpretation
that they endeavoured to establish their favourite thesis
"
that Plato is only Mcoi/o-f;? aTTiArt^eoi;
Moses

speaking

in Attic Greek."

The Neoplatonists,

too, for their part,

never weary of seeking allegories in the works

not only of Homer, but also of Plato; both in the
myths, where we expect to encounter a veil of symbolism,
are

and even more eagerly and indefatigably

abstractions

Parmenides.

of

his

With

dialectical

in the sterner

dialogues,

such

the single exception of

as

the

the Penta-

it may be doubted whether

any body of Mterature
has suffered so severely at the hands of the professional
allegoriser as the dialogues of Plato, in spite of the fact
that Plato himself rarely alludes to this mode of criticism

teuch,

without some degree of irony, and has actually furnished

us in the Protagoras with a long and elaborate satire
on the violent and arbitrary canons of interpretation

employed by writers of this school.^

But it is time to return to Homer. The evidence
which I have adduced will enable us to form some idea
of the moral and religious influence of
poetical literature
in ancient Greece, and especially of the Homeric
poems
;

but in order to realise the practical effect of the

writings
of Homer and Hesiod on the lives of men, it
may be well

some of those passages in Greek literature in

which the teaching of these poets is appealed to in recommendation or defence of some particular line of
to consider

conduct.
1

iv.

In the Eumenides of Aeschylus, after

Apollo

21-31.

-339 A ff. GLPhacdrus 229 CS.

For an interesting account of the
allegorical method of interpreta-

tion in antiquity, the reader may

be referred to Stewart's Myths of

Plato pp. 230-258.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

l6

has urged that Orestes had slain his mother in obedience

to the commands of Zeus, the Furies reply
"Accord:

ing to thy words, Zeus hath regard to a father's doom

howbeit he put in chains his own aged father, Cronus."

The murder

of Orestes' father is excused or palliated

the

of

Zeus

himself.

example
Athenian Euthyphro, who

In

like

by
the

manner,

is represented
by Plato as
the impersonation of consistent and self-satisfied orthodoxy, defends his own unfilial conduct to his father by

citing the treatment of

structive illustration is

One

Cronus by Zeus.
A more
furnished by the Clouds

of the scenes of that

in-

of

drama

repreAristophanes.
sents a contest between the Just and Unjust Arguments,
which are brought upon the stage and hold a debate on

the rival claims of Kighteousuess and Unrighteousness to

"
Where is Justice ? " asks
the allegiance of mankind.
"

Her seat is in heaven,"

the Unrighteous Argument.
"
How comes it then, if Justice exists, that
is the reply.
Zeus has not been put to death for imprisoning his
father

"

And

Unjust Argument

in a later passage of the same play the

formulates this rule of life " Follow
:

the impulses of nature

sider nothing shameful

be frolicsome and laugh

for

if

con-

you are caught in adultery,

you can plead that you have committed no sin you

can appeal to the example of Zeus, and point out that
he too is the slave of love and woman and how can
;

you, that are but a mortal, be stronger than a God

This is just the motive to wliich the Nurse

" ^

in

Euripides' Hippolytus appeals when she encourages her

mistress to sin
and, indeed, Euripides is always insisting
;

on the incentive to immorality which

is

furnished by

It may be desirable to quote

the example of the Gods.
a single illustration, perhaps the most vigorous of all the

many vigorous attacks upon the Gods contained in the

The
writings of the most iconoclastic of Greek poets.
i643ff.

-903ff.

M 078

if.

POETRY AND PHILOSOPHY

youthful Ion in the play which bears his
expostulates with Apollo

17

name thus

"Yet must
With Phoebus

what

ails

him

He

plead

ravisheth

Maids, and forsakes begetteth babes by stealth

heeds not, though they die. Do thou not so
:

And

For what man soe'er

Transgresseth, the Gods visit this on him.
How were it just then that ye shoukl enact
For men laws, and yourselves work lawlessness?
For if it could not be, yet put it so
Ye should pay mulct to men for lawless lust,
Thou, the Sea-king, and Zeus the lord of heaven,
Being strong, be righteous.

Paying for wrongs should make your temples void.

For, following pleasure past all wisdom's bounds,

Ye work unrighteousness. Unjust it were

To call men vile, if we but imitate
The

sins of

Gods:

they are vile which teach us this."i

More than any other Greek poet Euripides

modes
and it

many

reflects the

thought and feeling current in his generation

is therefore reasonable to
suppose that there were
of the Greeks who
The
argued in this way.

of

orthodox view, indeed, as we shall afterwards

required the Gods to teach by precept only, and not
also by example
and hence it is the Unjust Argument
strictly
see,

which

in the play of Aristophanes

appeals to the conduct
of the Gods as an excuse for
immorality but as soon
;

as

men began

to reflect

on

the ethical significance of

be sure that it began to influence

their theology, we may

their lives.
If such legends

had been purely otiose and

Plato would never have
Euripides
attacked them with so much vehemence.
In point of
fact, it is precisely on the ground that the Homeric
theology exercised a corrupting and degrading influence

and

inoperative,

upon character that Plato falls foul of it in the RcpuUic

and elsewhere.
Plato declares that there is no possible
1

436

ff, tr.

Way.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

l8

"

It
alternative except to reject such stories altogether.
"
the
actions
committed
that Uranus
is not true," he says,

him by Hesiod it
thus avenged himself upon his

attributed to

is

not true that Cronus

father

and as for the

the hands of his
;

deeds of Cronus and his sufferings at

son, I would not have them told in this light-hearted
way to the young and foolish even if they were true.
.

We

a youthful listener that if he commits

the greatest crimes he will be doing nothing new or
but only what the first and greatest of the
strange,

must not
.

tell

Gods has done before him." ^ In the same way Plato

proscribes the Homeric and Hesiodic stories of feuds and
battles

between the

they should encourage the

think lightly of quarrelling

Grods, lest

citizens of his Kepublic to

The theory of a deeper or hidden

for even if Homer
not
help us here
meaning
cannot distinguish
in
children,
Plato,
says
parables,
spoke
between fact and allegory.
They inevitably take the
with one another.
will

symbol

for the truth.^

According

object of all true religion is

"

to Plato himself, the

assimilation to God, so far

^
It is therefore an essential
possible for man."
of
the
divine
nature that it should
of
his
conception
part
The theology of
furnish an ethical ideal for mankind.

as

it is

in his opinion, provided no such ideal,

therefore be discarded.

Homer,

After what has

now been

and must

said, it will readily

be con-

between philosophy on the one

old
Homeric
and Hesiodic religious ideas
and
the
hand,
on the other hand, is one of the most striking features
in Greek religious development.
Eegarded from this
of
of
the
evolution
view,
theological and religious
point
for us in the
is
embodied
in
as
it
Greece,
thought
feud

ceded that the

works
result

of
of

Greek
the

literature,

action

may

and interaction
and dissent.

principles of orthodoxy
1

i2ejj. ii.

377

ff.

be

378 D.

regarded as the
the two rival

of

We
^

must beware,

Tlieact. 176 B.

POETRY AND PHILOSOPHY

19

however, of supposing that the poetical theology itself

remained stationary.
The truth is rather that there
are two main streams of development, the poetical and
the

which

most part pursue a

independent course until the time of
On the one hand the poets, especially
Euripides.
Pindar, Aeschylus, and Sophocles, without abandoning
philosophical,

for

the

separate and

the old Homeric anthropomorphism, gradually purified

spiritualised the elements of religious idealism already

and

contained

the

in

the

allowing
Hesiodic

Homeric poems,

grosser

features

of

same time
Homeric and

the

at
tlie

to recede into the background,

theologies
It is
without, however, entirely vanishing from view.
Sophocles who represents the climax of this movement

on

the part of Greek poetry

more than any other
Greek poet he seems to lay hold of whatever there is
of divine and imperishable in the traditional faith of
Greece, and consecrates it for all time in those incomparable dramas, which are the most perfect embodiment
of

Hellenic

the

the

hand,

genius

pre-Socratic

at

its

On

best.

philosophers

were

the

more

other

and

more led by
of

their physical speculations towards a view

universe in which no room was left for the

the

Homeric Gods, and began to express

very early period of Greek thought.
development

culminates

in

their dissent at a

Sophocles,

As
so

the poetical
the philo-

speak at present only of pre - Socratic

culminates
in Anaxagoras, whose doctrine
philosophy
of a world-forming Nom contained the
promise of a
sophical

teleological interpretation of Nature, such as Plato and

Aristotle afterwards developed.
In Euripides, whom the
ancients were fond of calling " the philosopher upon the
stage,"

there

is

the two concurrent streams converge and meet

hardly a single idea of first-rate importance in

pre-Euripidcan

theology

poetical, or philosophical,

and ethics, whether popular,

which is not re-echoed some-

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

20

where
the

in the writings of that extraordinary

of the Euripidean drama upon

effect

was

main destructive

man.

But

traditional

and in a survey of
he
should
be considered in
religious development
connexion with the so-called epoch of Illumination,
beliefs

in the

Greek

whose poetical interpreter he was.

With Socrates a
new era begins, and from this point onwards the advance-

ment

religious thought in Greece is effected by

philosophy alone.
Such, in brief outline, is the course which our inquiry
will pursue.
shall first consider the poetical deof

We

velopment from Homer to Sophocles, and afterwards the

The teaching
philosophical from Thales to Anaxagoras.
of the Sophists and of Euripides will claim our attention
next and the remainder of the lectures will be devoted
to Socrates and Plato.
;

LECTURES

II

AND

III

HOMER
In accordance with the plan proposed at the end of the
preceding lecture, we have now to consider the chief
features of the

Homeric rehgion.

Eecent archaeological

investigation has shown, of course, that Homer, instead

of standing at the commencement of Greek history,
but as it is the
belongs to a comparatively late period
;

evolution of religion within the limits of Greek literature

with which these lectures are to deal, I will not attempt

beyond the epoch represented for us by the

Homeric poems.
The three main questions which we shall attempt to
answer are these
First, what is the Homeric representation of the divine nature ?
Secondly, what is
And
Homer's conception of man's duty to the Gods ?
to penetrate

thirdly,

how

does

Homer

conceive of the future

life

God, man's obligations to God, and immortality

are the three great corner-stones of religious belief,
will consider them in this order.

these

and

All men, says Homer, have need of Gods Traj/re? Be

In this profound and memorable
:

Oeoiv '^uTeova avOpcoiroi}

sentence, on
dwell,

which Melanchthon among others loved

it was the most beautiful verse

he used to say

Homer,

the

universality of

foundation

on

poet gives expression not only to

the religious instinct, but also to

which religion everywhere

rests,

to

in

the

the

man's

consciousness of dependence on a personality or person'

Od. 3. 48.
21

22
alities

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

For the

higher than his own.

religion of

Homer

regarded as an
for by far the most striking
and characteristic feature in his faith is the extent to

should

in

particular, this saying

authoritative text or motto

be

which both man and nature are conceived as dependent

on the heavenly powers.
Turn where he may, man, in
Homer, finds himself in contact with the Godhead, for
"
the Gods are everywhere
irdvra ifKripr] dewv,
all
^
as Thales said
and nothing
things are full of Gods,"
appears to Homer more reasonable and obvious than that
he should ascribe all the activities of human life and
history, and all the phenomena of external nature, to the
"
direct and immediate agency of the divine.
The period,"
"
C.
0.
from
which
we
have
the
inherited
Mliller,
says
;

popular religions of antiquity, together with the poetry

which grew upon the soil which they provided, a period

into which we can transport ourselves only by a sudden
leap of the imagination, is distinguished from the age
in which we live by one conspicuous feature.
It reform
of
in
intellectual
life
itself
life, nay,
garded every
all its forms, as the unintermittent operation not of
individual forces and causes, but of higher supernatural
powers, and viewed man for the most part as only the

focus

in

which

these

powers meet and reveal

active

themselves to mankind."

We may perhaps illustrate the difference between

Homer's attitude and our own by comparing the effect
produced upon the Homeric and the modern mind by the
contemplation of the sea in storm and calm.
Except in
moments

of

deep religious feeling, prompted by gratitude

from imminent peril, or by a sense of the

for deliverance

weakness

of

man

in

the face of

the

mighty

forces

we do not

of

ordinarily hear the voice of God in the

we
tempest, or see his hand in the stilling of the wave
think of secondary and subsidiary causes and even when

nature,

Arist. dc

An.

i.

5.

411^

8.

HOMER

23

the religious consciousness rises from nature to nature's

God, the Deity still remains apart, rousing and assuaging
the waves by his almighty will, but not, except by a
poetical figure, present in his own person amid the

tumult which he sways.

In the view of Homer, on the

other hand, the atmospheric conditions are not in any

true sense the cause of storm
secondary and subsidiary
;

the one and only cause is

causes he scarcely recognises
of
the
action
the personal
deity whom winds and waves
:

"

Now

saw
the lord, the shaker of the earth
and
was
the
he
over
deep
yet
Odysseus as he sailed
more angered in spirit, and shaking his head he comobey.

muned with

own heart
him far enough

his

'
.

Methinks, that even

in the path of suffering.'

yet I will drive

With that he fathered the clouds and troubled the waters
of the deep, grasping his trident

hands

and he

manner of winds, and shrouded

and down sped night from
clouds the land and sea

roused
in

in his

all

storms of

all

heaven."

When
"

the Christian poet sings

He plants liis footsteps iu the

And rides upon the storm,"

sea

take another instance,

or, to

" His chariots of wrath the

deep thunderclouds form
And dark is his path on the wings of the storm,"

the language is felt to be metaphorical, not only by the

or at all events, it is much
reader, but even by the poet
;

more nearly metaphorical than any such language would

To Homer, such a description would be
be in Homer.
true in a literal and not merely in a poetical and figurative
for in Homer, truth is poetry and poetry is truth.
sense
"
Thus Poseidon has his famous palace in the deeps of
;

mere, his glistering golden mansions builded, im"

he is the immanent, indwelling
perishable for ever
the

Od.

5.

282

If,

tr.

Butcher ami Laug.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

24

monarch of the sea and when he mounted his chariot,

and rode upon the waves, " the sea-beasts frolicked beneath
^
And what we
liim, for well they knew their lord."
have said of the sea is equally true of earth and air and
The entire framework of the universe is penetrated
sky.
and quickened throughout all its parts by the multi;

tiidinous presence of the divine, revealing itself not only

in the uniform and regular sequence of natural phenomena,

but also from time to time in those exceptional and

arbitrary suspensions of natural law which later ages

pronounce

be miraculous.

to

In a certain sense

Vv^e

may

Homer

the age of miracles, so far from being

is
even
hardly
past,
begun for the distinction of natural
and supernatural, which the conception of miracles

say that in

appears to presuppose, is scarcely existent in a world

On
where every natural phenomenon is a theophany.
this

When
his

of Homer seem even

modern reader altogether natural and right.
the horse of Achilles bows his head and addresses

account the greatest miracles

the

to

master,

we

are

satisfied,

because

armed goddess Hera who gave him

Se re irdvra

hvvavTat

dawn by Athene ^

nor

does

the

it

is

the white-

speech,^

and 6eo\

delaying of

the

more amazement it is
felt to be in perfect harmony with the Homeric point
of view.
We are much more sensible of the miraculous,
when we read in the Old Testament that Jehovah
"
hearkened unto the voice of a man," " and the sun stayed
in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down about
a whole day."
The truth

fill

us with

is

that the ubiquity and nearness of the

are hardly less conspicuous in Homer than in

the Psalms of the Old Testament.
As far as appertains

Godhead

to this doctrine,

the

Homeric Greek might have

said,

with the author of the hundred and thirty-ninth psalm,

1
II. 13. 21 ff. Laug.
2//. 19. 404 ff.

3
^

Qd^ 23. 243 ff.

Josh. X. 13, 14.

HOMER
"

If

25

asceud up into heaven, tliou are there

if

make

my bed in Sheol, behold, thou art there." But Homer's

conception of the divine omnipresence assumes a totally
and

different

far less spiritual character

Instead of

polytheism.

whom

"

by reason

all-embracing

single

his

of

Deity,

heavens cannot contain," we

separate personalities, each with his

even the heaven

find a multitude of

a
of

peculiar province, attributes, and rights, and each pursuing

There is, as we shall see,

aims and objects of his own.

a certain unity or identity of nature in these several

deities
but the Homeric polytheism is otherwise frank
;

and unrestrained.
It

true, of

is

sometimes

is

or

Destiny
"

course, that the will of a particular

thwarted

Fate,

Ah woe

to

by
which

the

inexorable

even

Zeus

God

decrees

himself

of

must

"

for that it is
me," cries Zeus,
fated that Sarpedon, the best-beloved of men to me,
" ^
shall be subdued under Patroklos son of Menoitios
yield.

is

he bows to the inevitable, " he shed bloody

raindrops on the earth, honouring his dear son, that
Patroklos was about to slay in the deep-soiled land of

And when

from his own country." ^

But the conception of Fate is so far from clear in Homer, that in
other places he does not separate it from the dispensation of Zeus himself ^ and even where Destiny is a
power above the Gods, it remains an implacable
ordinance or law, with none of the divine attributes
Troia, far off

except omnipotence.
It is therefore inadmissible to attribute a monotheistic
value
that

to

the

notion

we can say

is

of

that

Fate

in

Homer.

the Homeric

The most

conception

of

Destiny, regarded as a power to which Gods and men

alike must bow, is a kind of unconscious tribute to
that instinct for unification which often asserts itself in
^

II. 16.

438

11. 16. 4.59

f.

Lang.
Lang.

ff.

Aios

a.T.(ja.,

Ai6s fioTpa, etc.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

26

After Homer,

polytheistic religions.

theistic interpretation of

we meet with

the

Destiny now and then in poetry,

not at all common in Greek thought before the

There is more to be said in favour of the view
which finds an approximation to monotheism in the
The celestial
position occupied by the Homeric Zeus.
kingdom is no anarchy, but a well-ordered common-

but

it is

Stoics.

wealth or

state, in

wealths on whose

which, as in the terrestrial commonmodel it was framed, the king is

himself supreme.
The king of Heaven, like his earthly
takes
counsel
with his peers, but is in no way
prototype,

bound by

their opinion

the final decision

is

own, and the other Gods, whether they like

and frequently they do not
mvist acquiesce.
says Hermes,

entirely his
it or not
"

Surely,"
in no wise possible for another god
or to make void the purpose of Zeus, lord
"

to go beyond
of the aegis."

it

is

And even Poseidon, who claims to be

Zeus in honour, " left the host of the Achaians,
and passed to the sea, and sank," ^ when Zeus commanded
^

equal to

him

"

to cease

from the battle and war, and go among the

tribes of the gods, or into the bright sea." ^

that in the sovereignty of the Homeric

It

is

obvious

Zeus,

based

on might and not on right,

though
we have already the germ which is capable of developing
for the conception of an
into a species of monotheism
a single ruler is in all
world
of
Gods
under
organised
"
a
kind
of
on
station
the
way from polytheism
religions
In point of fact, the Homeric conto monotheism." ^
"
"
father of Gods and men
is gradually
ception of the
purified and elevated by poetry and philosophy until the
"
thought of Zeus, the most glorious of immortals, called
by many names, for aye omnipotent, maker and lord of
Nature, ruling all things by law," calls forth from the
in the last resort

it is

Od.

103
218
15. 100
5.

"'11. 15.
^

//.

ff.
f.
f.

B. and L.

Lang.
Lang.

"

Hoffding,
p. 156.

P/nVo."*.

of Religion

HOMER
Clefmthes the Stoic what

of

lips

27

tribute

of

adoration

religious

The

ancient literature.
in the

same

effect

of the

direction.

influence of religious art tended

is impossible to estimate the

famous statue

supreme embodiment
in purifying the
calm
Greece.

He who
"

who
Chrysostom,
and sorrows in his

perhaps the nohlest

whole range of

the

It

of

divine

of

"

is

in

Zeus at Olympia

the

beauty, benignity, and

religious

sentiment

of

ancient

heavy-laden in soul," writes Dio

has experienced many misfortunes
is

life, and from whom sweet sleep has

even he, I think, if he stood before this image,
would forget all the calamities and troubles that befall

fled,

human

But in Homer, Zeus, although he is

king of Gods and men, rarely interferes with the jurisdiction of the lesser Gods, and even within Olympus his
so that the most which
authority is not unchallenged
in

life."

can with propriety be affirmed is that the Homeric Zeus

provides a nucleus out of which something analogous to
monotheism was afterwards evolved in the religious con-

Greek thinkers.

sciousness of later

We

should accordingly conceive of the Homeric world

as peopled with a nmltitude of deities, who are not
merely, as the Stoics in a later age contended, different
aspects or manifestations of the one divine essence, but
individuals in the

fullest

sense

the word, free and

of

independent, except in so far as their liberty is circumscribed by Zeus and Tate.

Let us now proceed to con"

sider the question,

What
nature, regarded in itself ?

Homer's idea of the divine

does he understand by
"
the name of God ?
No better answer can be given
than in the words which Lucian puts into the mouth of
"
Heraclitus
What are men ? Mortal Gods.
What
are Gods ?
Immortal men." It is a trite, but true
saying, that just as man, in the Old Testament, is made
'

is

What

'

in

the image of God, so God, in Homer,

^

Or.

xii.

51 (von Arnini).

is

made

Vitaru.in audio

in the

14.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

28

of

The Homeric polytheism

man.

is pre-eminently
have already seen that the political
organisation of Olympus is the divine and heavenly
counterpart of the human commonwealth on earth and

image

We

humanistic.^

true of the totality of Gods, is even more

The Gods
conspicuously true of the individual deity.
are indeed immortal, with all that immortality implies

that which

is

of eternal youth and beauty, of ideal majesty and power

but even this immortality, from the standpoint of later
for they are created in
thought, is open to question

almost an axiom of Greek philosophy

from Xenophanes onwards that time will at last destroy
time,

and

what

it

it

is

And

creates.

in other respects the anthropo-

Homeric Gods is unusually naive and

morphism
literal.
When the Old Testament " speaks of the hand,
arm, mouth, lips, and eyes of God when He makes bare
His holy arm, lifts up a signal to the nations, is seen at
the head of the Medes mustering His hosts, and His
of

the

military shout is heard, all this," according to Professor

"
A. B. Davidson, is but vivid conception of His being,
His intelligence. His activity and universal power over

whom He

The language only

directs.
warmth and intensity of the religious
^
Whatever may be true of
feelings of the writers."
Hebrew representations of the Deity, we are not at
the nations

testifies

to

the

liberty to interpret the anthropomorphism of the Iliad

and Odyssey as only a fashion of speech dictated by

Even in a later age,

religious or poetical enthusiasm.
a
more
after
spiritual conception of the Godhead had
long been taught by philosophers and poets, it was the
prevailing habit to assign corporeal shape and form to

God.
Plato

Speaking of the popular notion

observes

in

the

Phaedrus,

^
See on tliis subject E. Caird,
The Evolution of Religion i. p.
264 ff.

of a divine being,

"

although

we have

-Article "God" in
Dictio^iary of the Bible

Hastings'
ii.

p.

198.

HOMER
neither
ceived

99

seeu him with our eyes, nor adequately conhim with our minds, we imagine a God as an

immortal animal, possessed of soul, and possessed of body,

combined into an indissoluble union of these two elements
throughout

time."

all

And

the anthropomorphic view of

to

Homer,

God was

in

particular,

inevitable,

owing

to his peculiar conception of personality, in which, as

will afterwards be seen, body played a hardly less im-

The alternative
to sacrifice
portant part than soul.
the personality of God
would have seemed to Homer,
as

it

has seemed to others, only atheism.

But although there

hardly any limit to the degree

human nature are reproduced
in the Homeric Gods, we shall do less than justice to
Homer if we fail to remark that the grosser tendencies
in

is

which the attributes

of

anthropomorphism are frequently counterbalanced and

counteracted throughout the Iliad and Odyssey by a
It is
powerful current of moral and religious idealism.
the presence of this struggle between the ideal and the
of

the religious

actual,

consciousness for

ever striving to

escape from the bondage of materialism into a freer and

more spiritual atmosphere, which has occasioned the
"

Homer's men think better of the Gods than

There is a sense in which this saying is
profoundly true only we must beware of supposing that
the higher and purer conception of the Deity to which

remark that

they deserve."

the

human

reflected in

every age aspires,

is

not

the Homeric poems, as well

as

the lower

heart

in

itself

The Zeus who sends

conception, to which it is opposed.
the lying dream to Agamemnon ^ was certainly not the
God to whom the Homeric heroes prayed for deliverance
in times

of distress

and danger

but along with such

impersonations
Deity, Homer sets
before us the diviner figure of the son of Cronus, strong
"
to save, who
stretches out his hand to shield in battle." ^

malevolent

246 C.

of

iZ. 2. 1

)X.

the

Qd, 14. 184.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

30

The interaction
naturalism and

may

be traced in

lesser,

two opposing currents of

and spiritualism,
the physical, the mental, and in a

perhaps, but

still,

moral characteristics
not,

of

course,

these

of

idealism, materialism

of

I think, appreciable degree, the

the Homeric Gods.
ought

We

ascribe

to

Homer any

to

conscious

discrimination between these three kinds of attributes

even

in

the

Socratic

the moral and

age

intellectual

constituents of personality were scarcely distinguished

but for the sake of clearness and convenience of
:

exposition it is necessary for us to study the different

attributes in isolation, even at the risk of obtruding a
later

and more

critical

standpoint upon Homer.

With

this proviso, I will review in

order, as briefly as may be

the
characteristics
of the divine nature,
possible,
principal
and
as
moral,
physical, intellectual,
they are portrayed in

the poems of Homer, distinguishing the grosser features

his theology from those loftier and purer elements
which also find a place in the Homeric conception of God.
of

the Homeric
them as resembling
outward form and features, but

According to the
Gods, we have to

less spiritual aspect of

humanity not only

in

conceive

of

and limitations
from
existence.
Like
inseparable
corporeal
material
nourishment
and
men, they require
sleep, and
"
rejoice in the light of the sun, as he leaves the
lovely

also in respect of those physical necessities

which

are

mere, speeding to the brazen heaven, to give light to the

immortals and to mortal men on the earth." ^ Like men,

though in a less degree, they are subject to the

exigencies of space, and have a local habitation, residing
in Olympus, or in the case of those deities who, like
too,

Poseidon,

rule

an

allotted

portion

of

the

universe,

At
dwelling in the actual element whicli they control.
other times they visit their temples, or meet together in
solemn conclave at Olympus, the capital of the celestial
1

Od.

3. 1

ff.

B. and L.

HOMER

31

"

commonwealth, where they have each his fair mansion,"

"
his palace built with cunning device by renowned
"
In respect of
Hephaestus in the folds of the mountain.^
and
are
far
authority
power, they
superior to mortals
but Homer does not, as a rule, make them omnipotent,
and they suffer at times discomfiture and pain.
On the other hand, there is an element of superhuman
what Wordsworth calls " the
grandeur and sublimity
"
about the Homeric
presence and the power of greatness
;

Gods, which is calculated to inspire religious veneration,

and even perhaps diffuse a sense of tranquillity and peace,
making us for the moment almost forget the grosser and
more material parts of the conception and sometimes
the physical attributes of the Godhead retire into the
background, and we are conscious only of the spiritual
;

not only that the invisibility of the

Gods would seem to imply that their bodies are made of
side of Zeus.

finer stuff,

It

is

reminding us

of the inrlucidi pcrfldbiles dei

of

it is not only that ichor and not

blood flows in their veins, that they live on nectar and
ambrosia, that they excel mankind in beauty and stature
and strength, and are sometimes said to be omnipotent

Epicurean theology

6eol

8e re irdvra Svvavrat.^

city

which

in

they

Nor
like

dwell,

is

it

the

merely that the

intcrmmidia of

who copies the Homeric picture of Olympus,

a centre of serenity and calm, the thought of which
might serve to soothe and tranquillise the heart in
Lucretius,

is

moments
"

of anxiety

So spake, and

Where men

and

pain.

Olympus Grey-eyed Athene passed,

the House of the Godfolk for ever firm and fust

fortli to

say

is

And by no wind

shaken, nor wet by the rainy drift,

Nor the snow comes ever anigh it but the utter cloudless
;

lift

and white splendour runs through it everywhere;

therein the Gods, the Happy, all days in gladness wear." ^

Is spread o'er all,

And

is it

II. 11. 76 f.,

Od. 10. 306
;

1.

607.

cf. 4.

237 and 14. 445.

'

Od.

6.

41-46 Morris.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

32

To the Homeric Greek," says Hoffding, " Olympus

stood amid the pains and struggles of this life in eternal
clarity, unmoving and unmoved. ... In this brilliant
picture the Greeks saw the expression of the eternal
reality of the valuable, and in its splendour they forgot
or they accepted in
the shadow of their own life
contrast between the
sadness and resignation the
Olympian and the terrestrial as something that had to
be." ^
We have here the same kind of opposition as
"
"
of
supra-celestial region
appears in Plato between the
and
Ideas and the world of generation and decay
the desire for an
essentially the same religious need
"

"

"

It
finds satisfaction in both cases.
abiding city
should also be remarked that if a particular God can

only be in one place at a time, both space and time

are almost annihilated by the rapidity of his movements.
Hera lashes her horses, and " they nothing
loth

on

flew
as

far

distance

As
between earth and starry heaven.
seeth with his eyes into the haze of
he sitteth on a place of outlook and

man
as

gazeth over the wine-dark sea, so far leap the loudly

These and other
horses of the ffods." ^
neicjhincp
passages of a similar nature are in themselves a testimony to the idealism which tends to neutralise the

the Olympian theology, but they

do not attempt to spiritualise the Deity and in view
of later theological developments in Greece, it is more
important to observe that there are places in which

grosser elements of

mind

Zeus operates at a distance

without employing any corporeal instrument or vehicle
The Zeus who strikes the bow from the
whatever.
hands of Teucer is not merely unseen, but far away ^
the

or purpose

of

and in two other

equally remote,
>

it

instances,
is

the

"

where the God himself

mind
"

Philosophy

230.

of

Religion

p.
^

E.
n.

is

of aegis-bearing Zeus,"
5.

768

15. 461

ff.

ff.

Leaf;

cf.

15. 80

fl'.

HOMER

33

which alone produces the effect.^

In this involuntary
for it is
tendency to spiritualise the conception of Zeus
only the king of Gods and men who is thus depicted

we may

the beginnings of that loftier

almighty Father with which we meet in
"
Secure it falls, not prostrate on its back,

already detect

view of the

Aeschylus.
whate'er is decreed to fulfilment by the nod of Zeus.
Through thicket and through shade lead the pathways
of his mind
no thought can spy them out.
From their
:

uses no

armed

men to destruction, but

God knows not toil seated

he hurls

high-towering hopes

violence.

above upon his holy throne he worketh his will from

thence by ways unknown." ^

We

antagonism between the lower and

find a similar

higher representations of the Deity if we pass from the

The attribute of
physical to the intellectual sphere.
that which primarily concerns us in this
Ideally, as we have seen, the Gods in Homer

omniscience

is

connexion.

are all-powerful
but the poet is unable to maintain his
at
so
theology
high a level, and their omnipotence is
belied by many of the incidents which he narrates.
In
;

like

manner, from the ideal point

omniscient

is

of

Godhead
Not only past

view, the

BeoX Se re rrdvra ccra<nv.^

and present, but the future falls within his ken he

"
knoweth utterly All things that are doomed and undoomed for men on earth that die," * and sometimes
:

forewarns

mankind

of

fate.^

coming

As Nagelsbach

acutely observes, the prophetic faculty which Homer

ascribes to the seer, bears witness to the power of the

Gods to see into the future

for,
according to the
Homeric view, afterwards more fully developed by later
Greek thinkers, and especially by the Stoics, the seer
:

an

is

v6eo<;

avrjp,

a living oracle of God,

II. 15. 242

Od. 24. 164.
Suppl. 95-109.
Od. 4. 379, 4GS.

2
3

who

Od. 20. 75 f. Morris.

Od, 1. 37 ff.

derives

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

34

from no other source than the indwelling

be sure, I think, that it was this allpowerful and all-knowing God, and none of the maimed
and deformed embodiments of the divine nature, that
his prescience

We may

Deity.

awakened the deepest religious feelings of the Homeric

Greek but it is none the less true that the Eiad and
Odyssey abound in episodes which cannot be reconciled
with the omniscience of the Godhead and no small part
;

of the

energy

immortals

of the

is

in fact devoted to out-

The episode of the beguiling of Zeus by

witting Zeus.
Hera, which Plato cites to illustrate the licentiousness
of

Homeric
^
and

the

niscience

tells equally against their ommust certainly be allowed that the

Gods,
it

prevailing conception of the divine intelligence in Homer

below the level to which it afterwards attained

falls far

in Pindar,

when he thus sang

knowest the appointed end

"

of

Apollo

Thou that

things, and all the

the
leaves
all
that
thereto
Earth
puts forth in
paths
number
of
of
and
the
sand
in sea and
grains
spring,
and
fro
to
waves
and
tossed
blasts
of wind,
rivers,
by
and discernest well the future, and whence it shall come
of all

to be."

The preceding observations may serve perhaps to

some degree the antithetical elements in
Homer's religion, as far as concerns the physical and
and we have now to
intellectual attributes of his Gods
of
lower
and higher views
a
similar
witness
antagonism
in connexion with those qualities which belong to the
illustrate in

In this department
sphere of divine morality or ethics.
I
have
as
of our subject,
already hinted, the vein of
idealism is much less apparent.
If

we have regard

in

the

first

instance to the more

degrading vices connected with the lower

human
1

iii.

nature,

II. 14.

390 B,

294

ff.,

we must
and Plato,

confess that the

-

ReiJ.

Pyth.

9.

43

appetites of

Homeric poems
ff,

HOMER
are

the

to

justly exposed

Justin

in

that the conception of

censure of those wlio, like

many other critics of

and

Martyr, Tertullian,

Olympian theology

35

the early Christian era, demanded

God shoiild be such as to furnish

a moral standard to mankind.

that

It

is

of notice

worthy

Homer

hardly ever betrays any consciousness of the

There is, I think,
paradigmatic aspect of the Deity.
one
be
to
in which a
hereafter,
only
quoted
passage,

recommended because it
was apparently Xenoon this idea in Greek thought.

particular course of conduct

is

is

exemplified by the Gods.

It

phanes who first laid stress

The kind of criticism to which Homer exposes himself
on this account may be illustrated from Tertullian's

who

imagine,

"

on Pagan

attack

violent

theology.
represented the

has

subject to the conditions of

human

It

divine

is

Homer,

majesty

as

nature, attributing to

Gods the misfortunes and passions

of

humanity

they

take sides according to their several sympathies, and he

pits them against one another like gladiators in the arena
:

Venus he wounds with an arrow from the hand of a

mortal Mars he keeps in chains for thirteen months,
:

with the fear of death before his eyes Jupiter he parades

as having all but suffered the same indignity from the
:

celestial

or

proletariat,

from

draws tears

his

eyes

at

Sarpedon's fate or he represents him in shameful dalliance

with Juno after advocating his passion by an enumera;

tion of his

indignation,"
liomines esse

"

mistresses."

Is

"

asks

Tertullian,

non deheant

"

a case for laughter or

it

deos credi, qucdes

fact is that the lower

talcs

The

as well as the higher instincts of humanity not only

reappear in the Gods of Homer, but actually seem to be
intensified and strengthened before they are transferred
to the divine nature

in

Homer

nor

is

there apparently any trace

of those attributes of holiness

are features so prominent in the

*

Ad

Nationes

i.

10,

and purity which

Hebrew conception
ii.

7.

of

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

36

God.

In respect of their lower as well as of their higher

the Homeric Gods are magnified men.

(jualities,

scarcely less inadequate apprehension of the divine

character sometimes reveals itself in Homer's account of

Can God be good, and

the dealings of God with man.
nevertheless the cause of physical suffering and evil to
mankind ? Tlie question is for the first time explicitly
by Plato/ whose treatment of the origin of evil
touched upon in a later lecture.
In the meantime, accepthig the Platonic axiom that nothing which is
altogether good can be the cause of that which is in itself
and absolutely evil, we must allow that, tried by this
standard, the Homeric Gods fall short of ideal goodness and
for the Iliad and Odyssey abound in episodes
beneficence
where misfortune and calamity are due to the innnediate
agency of Gods, without, so far as we can see, any moral
raised

will be

justification or

any prospect

of redress either

now

or in the

"Father Zeus," says Philoetius in the

world to come.
"
none
other
Odyssey,
god is more baneful than thou thou
hast no compassion on men, that are of thine own begetting,
:

but makest them to have fellowship with evil and with

In Homer's view, Zeus is the " steward
bitter pains."
of things evil as well as of things
stand upon the floor of Zeus filled

one with blessings.

"

"
^
for
two urns
good
with his evil gifts, and
:

To whomsoever Zeus whose joy

the lightning dealeth a mingled

lot,

that

man

is

in

chanceth

and now again on good, but to whom he

but
of
the bad kind him he bringeth to scorn,
giveth
and evil famine chaseth him over the goodly earth, and
he is a wanderer honoured of neither gods nor men." *
The ordinary solutions by which philosophers and theologians, both in Greece and in Christendom, have attempted
to reconcile the existence of pain and sorrow in the world
with the moral goodness and omnipotence of God, are

now upon

Rep.

ii.

20. 201

ill

379
fF.

B.

ff,

and L.

.^p
^

ii. 379 E.
527-532 Myers.

pj^to, Rep.

11. 24.

HOMER

37

and
alien to the simple realism of the Homeric age
on the whole it may fairly be said tliat in their dealings
both with one another and with mankind the Olympian
Gods are true to the golden rule of Paganism, " Love your
friends, and hate your enemies."
The lower ingredients in Homer's conception of God,
so far as his activity atTects the happiness and virtue of
human beings, may be illustrated from two sister
doctrines which begin with Homer, although their full
development belongs to a later period of Greek literature.
;

I refer in the first place to the widely-spread belief in

the envy of the Gods," a belief which is characteristic

"

of

still

certain

stratum

survives in some

Christianity itself

of

religious

and

development,

interpretations even of
and, secondly, to the idea expressed

popular

"
by Aeschylus when he wrote, God engenders guilt in
mortal men, when he is minded utterly to destroy their

A parallel to the former belief may perhaps

be found in the story of the Tower of Babel, and in the

house."

punishment inflicted on the unoffending Israelites when

David was moved by Satan, or according to the other
account, by God himself, to number the hosts of Israel.It is obvious that neither of these two doctrines, at least
in their crudest and most primitive form, can easily be
harmonised with the belief in a supremely good and
and on this account, as we shall afterbeneficent God
;

they were finally rejected by Plato along with

"
"
In Homer the " envy of the Gods
other poetic lies."

wards

see,

apt to be aroused Ijy any tiling which tends to disturb

the balance of power between Gods and men, such as the

is

and a mortal, or when a man

and
unbroken
and
course of prosperity
a
enjoys
long
down
how* is the balance restored ?
Simply by casting

alliance between a Goddess

the mighty from their seats, without any suggestion, such

we afterwards meet with in Aeschylus, tliat the

as

ap. Plato, llcp.

ii.

380 A.

Chrou. xxi.

ff.

2 Sam. xxiv.

1.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

38

victim

punished for his

is

and not

sins,

for his success.

"

Hard are ye gods and jealous exceeding," says Calypso,

"
who ever grudge goddesses openly to mate with
Even so when rosy-fingered Dawn took Orion
men.
for her lover, ye Gods that live at ease were jealous
.

thereof, till chaste Artemis, of the golden throne, slew

^
iiim in Ortygia with the visitation of her gentle shafts."

When

Bellerophon incurred the hatred of the Gods, and

"
alone in the Aleian plain, devourto wander

was driven

^
ing his soul, and avoiding tlie pathways of men," there
is no implication that he had sinned, unless prosperity
itself be sinful
and the reason why Poseidon is jealous of
;

the Phaeacians

men

to all

"

"

because they invariably give safe escort

ovveKa tto^ttoI airrjfxovh elfiev airdvrayv?
is

In later Greek literature, more especially the drama,

"
"
the doctrine of the
envy of the Gods is sometimes
brought into connexion with the still more tragic idea
that the sins of erring mortals are directly due to the

Gods

quern dens vult perdere prius

dementat and the germs of this idea, as I have already
It is true that in
stated, are also to be found in Homer.
of

inspiration

the

remarkable passage the Homeric Zeus protests

"
Lo you now," says
against so injurious an imputation.
"
how
Zeus, revolving in his mind the fate of Aegisthus,
one

For of us they
vainly mortal men do blame the gods
say comes evil, whereas they even of themselves, through
the blindness of their own hearts, have sorrows beyond
!

that which

is

ordained."

But there are many instances

in wliich the responsibility for sin is laid at the door of

the Gods, and one of Homer's regular formulae for that

principle of

Greek
Zev<i
1

Od.

5.

"

Jl. 6.
=*

Od.

Ate or Infatuation from which, according

tragedy, sin
"
blinded was

takes
I,

cf.

rise,

is

also 23. 209

OcL

V.f/.
ff.

1.

n.

32

ff.

of

B.

19. 137.

my

and

to

i^eXero

(j)p6va<;

and Zeus deprived me

118 IT. B. and L.

200 ff.

8. 5(JtJ

its

L.

wits."

HOMER
"

What

last

who
who
for

"

could I do

cries

39

Agamemnon, when he
"

made

is

conscious of his criminal folly

it is
Eldest daughter of Zeus is
accomplisheth all.
;

at

God
Ate

a power of bane
delicate are her feet,
upon earth she goeth, but walketh over the

blindeth

not

all,

heads of men, making men to fall and entangleth this

one or that." ^
We are not at liberty to regard such
passages as merely a dramatic expression of the innate
;

tendency of

man

to

blame the Gods or Fate

for sins of his

own

choosing, in spite of the language which Homer puts

into the mouth of Zeus
for the violation of the treaty
;

between Trojans and Greeks in the fourth book of the

Iliad is ascribed by the poet himself to the immediate
"
Forthwith he
instigation of the almighty Father.
Betake thee with all
spake to Athene winged words
speed to the host, to the midst of Trojans and Achaians,
and essay that the Trojans may first take upon them to
do violence to the Achaians in their triumph, despite the
'

oaths.'

"

only a

We

should remember that man, in Homer, is

a plaything or puppet in the
irai'yvLov decov

hands of the Gods " he dwells but in their sight, and

works but what their will is."
On this account it is,
and must be, the Gods who are in the last analysis
;

responsible for the sins

of mankind.
In other

moral dualism

of the

as

well

words,

as

for

we may

Homeric Gods

is

the sufferings
say that the

a necessary and

inevitable consequence of their all but unlimited control

of human character and fate.
In Homer there is no
devil to bear the blame.
It remains to say something of another and not less
unfavourable feature in Homer's conception of the Deity,
I mean the way in which he represents the Gods as

As
beguiling mankind by false appearances and lies.
with the doctrine of the " envy of the Gods," so also
here, we can find numerous parallels in other early races
^

//.

19. 90

ft".

Mypi-s.

n.

-1.

69

ff.

Leaf.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

40

whose ideas of God have not as yet been transformed

and spiritualised by a nobler and profounder estimate of
man and it is easy to detect survivals of this crude
belief in theologies of a purer and more elevated type, such
"
as, for example, the
lying spirit" which Jehovah put in
:

mouth

the

But

in

deceives

of

the prophets who prophesied to Ahab.^

the instances in which the Deity

Homer
men to

Testament,

hurt

their

sporadic

and

are

exceptional

the Old

in

not, as

nor

will

the

Homeric critic be disposed to borrow the weapons of

some modern theologians and vainly try to reconcile
such passages with those in which the more developed
religious consciousness of Greece, as it is exemplified in
Pindar, for example, and in Plato, attributes perfect

truthfulness to God.

The

classic

example

malevolent

of

falsehood on the part of the Homeric Gods

dream which Zeus despatches

to

Agamemnon

is

the lying

but there

where by their
unlimited power of self-transformation the Gods mislead
men to their doom. Perhaps the most pathetic instance
is where Athene, in the crisis of Hector's fate, takes
other not

are

less

diabolical episodes,

her stand by the side of the hero, in the guise of his

brother Deiphobus, in order to lure him by the hope of
fraternal succour to destruction, and vanishes as soon as

he

is

at the

mercy

of his

"

foe.

Then Hector knew the

truth in his heart, and spake and said

Ay me, now
I deemed
verily the gods have summoned me to death.
'

the warrior Deiphobos was by my side, but he

the wall, and it was Athene who played me

We

make a grave mistake

if

we regard

is

within
'

false.

" ^

these and similar

delineations of the di\ane nature in the

Homeric poems

It is part of
as having only a poetic or dramatic value.
the tragedy of Homeric life that they were believed to

Homer's theology in this respect lags far

true.
behind the teaching of Plato, to whom, as to St. James,
be

Kings

xxii.

22

"-

ff.

II. 2. 1

ff.

11. 22.

296

ff.

Jtyers.

HOMER
God

"

the

is

Father of

lights,

41

with

whom

is

no variation,

neither shadow of turning."

We

must admit,

I think, that Tertullian's unqualified

condemnation of Homer's theology would be justified, if

we had no other passages to rely upon except those
which I have just quoted.
But here, as elsewhere in

Homer, there are not wanting

of

conceptions

regarded

in

traces of higher

the Godhead, and

any impartial
If

and purer

these should also be

of
Homer's
Homeric Gods are givers

appreciation

the

religious standpoint.
of evil, they are also givers of good.

"

It

is

Olympian

Zeus himself that dispenses happiness to men,

good and to the evil, to each according to his
Everything that makes

life

of thinking a revelation of

the Gods to

whom we owe

desirable

in

is

to

the

will."

Homer's way

the divine beneficence

it is

not only the goods of body

and external goods, beauty and health, prosperity and

fame and wealth, but also the goods of soul, courage and
wisdom and righteousness there is, in short, no blessing
of which they are not the cause.
If they violate the
moral law themselves, and sometimes lead mortals into
sin, Homer nevertheless regards them as the appointed
guardians of morality in general and of justice in par"
"
ill
ticular
deeds do not prosper
for the Gods
"
honour justice and the righteous acts of men." ^
From
;

this point of

view the entire Odyssey

one great drama by the

"

first

may

of tragic
"
to man

be regarded as
^
intended

poets

to justify the ways of God

by
is in the end triumphant over Sin

showing how

Justice

fs TeXos (^eXdovcra' iraOiov Se re

vijttios

That Homer himself was not insensible

moral aspect of the final catastrophe
1

Od.
Od.

6.

188

8.

329, 14. 84.

f.

e'-yvcoA

of the profoundly
in

the Odifssey

Plato, Rep. x. G07 A.

Hesiod, 0. D. 217

f.

is

42

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

clearly

shown by the words

of

Odysseus as he stands

among the bodies of the dead, stained with blood and

"
soil of battle
These hath the destiny of the gods
:

overcome, and their own cruel deeds, for they honoured

none of earthly men, neither the good nor yet the bad,
that came among them.
Wherefore they have met a

shameful death through their oiim infatuate deeds."

Homer

these lines of
is

already sounded

In

the immemorial tale."

We

the keynote of Aeschylean drama

"
so speaks
the doer must suffer

now

rapid and
imperfect survey of Homer's representation of the Deity
and his attributes.
In his conception of the divine

nature

and

have

the

two

finished

our

conspicuous

and
that which

anthropomorphism

necessarily

are

features
in

connexion

polytheism
with the

is
chiefly deserving of
extraordinary union of naturalism and
idealism, revealing itself not only in the physical, but
also in the moral and intellectual qualities attributed by

divine

attributes,

notice

is

Homer

the

his

to

In whatever

Gods.

way

this

dualism

should be explained, whether an originally purer conception of the divine nature has become contaminated

by

later

accretions,

or

whether, as

is

more generally

believed, the higher view has been engrafted on a stock

of primeval superstition, Homer leaves the two opposing
factors side

by

side,

without any attempt to reconcile

them.

That Homer was wholly unconscious of a contradiction

which obtrudes itself upon the most casual and unintelligent reader of the Iliad and Odyssey is an assertion
which no one will make who has adequately realised the
intellectual as well as the poetical endowments necessary
and here
to the composition of so great masterpieces
and there positive indications show that he was not
Like Euripides,
altogether unaware of the antagonism.
;

Od. 22. 413

tr.

B.

and L.

Uhoeph. 312

f.

HOMER
and other writers

of a

more

43

reflective age, the

Homeric

men

heroes frequently upbraid the father of Gods and

for cruelty, treachery, and
of the Iliad, Menelaus

deceit

and in one passage

indignantly points the contrast

the ideal conception of Zeus as the all-wise

between
ruler, and
"

in

actual

his

wisdom

others, both

all

things are from thee.

human

administration of

father Zeus, verily they say

that thou

affairs.

dost excel

gods and men, and

these

all

How

wondrously dost thou rein

men
of
even
the Trojans, whose might
joice
violence,
is ever
nor
can
iniquitous,
they have their fill of the din
of equal war."

and thinkers

The attitude adopted by

in

view

of this inherent

later

Greek poets

dualism of Homeric

but
theology, will claim our attention in due course
at present we must turn to the second division of our
;

and endeavour to explain, as briefly as may be

possible, what is Homer's view of the duty of man to
the higher powers by which he is on every side en-

subject,

compassed.

be

general terms, that the duty which

man,
Homer, owes to God, is that he should recognise
and acknowledge his dependence on the divine authority
It

may

said, in

in

in every circumstance of life.

This recognition is expressed chiefly in two ways, by means of religious
observances or cult, and by adherence to certain divinely-

The religious obserappointed principles of conduct.

vances by which the Homeric heroes testify to their
dependence on the Gods are chiefly sacrifice and prayer
in this connexion it is worthy of note that the

and

Platonic Euthyphro, who is represented by Plato as the

incarnation of Homeric orthodoxy, defines piety itself as

how to sacrifice and how to pray.^

Homer it is the sign of a God-fearing spirit to
many hecatombs to Zeus.^ From the standpoint

the knowledge of

In
offer

of

the Gods, the Homeric sacrifice

*

//. 13.

631

ir.

Lan.'.

Eidh. \A B

is

a kind of tribute
^

II'

Od. 19. 365

f.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

44

which the givers

of

all

good demand as their right

^
and any intermission of the

TO <^ap \a'^o\xev ^epa<i rifMeU

"

Artemis
payment is severely visited.
throne had brought a plague upon them,

of

the

golden

in wrath that

Oineus offered her not the harvest first-fruits on the fat

his garden land
for all the other gods had their

of

and only to the daughter of great

Zeus offered he not, whether he forgat or marked it not
and therein sinned he sore in his heart." ^ From the

feast of hecatombs,

standpoint of humanity, sacrifice is intended to express

not so much a sentiment of gratitude for past favours,
as the hope of favours to come
and hence it is a
;

common formula

Homeric prayers to remind the God

of former gifts and oblations.
Thus Chryses prays to
"
Hearken to me, Lord of the silver bow
Apollo
in

ever I built a temple acceptable unto thee, or

if

if

ever

I burnt to thee fat flesh of thighs of bulls or goats, do

thou accomplish this

my

desire."

and similar oblations

The Homeric view

deeply engrained in
Greek thought " gifts," says Hesiod, " prevail over Gods
and reverend kings," ^ and there was an ancient proverb

of sacrifice

is

to

the same

ireidei Scopa

effect^

koX

6eov<iJ^

Plato unre-

servedly condemns the doctrine, holding that it reduces

worship to a sort of i/x'TropiKT] Te')(y7} or art of merchandise

between Gods and men, and emphatically protesting that

God cannot be " seduced by presents like a villainous
^
He will have nothing to do with the
money-lender."
"
man who declares that the Gods are always lenient to
if
they divide the spoil with
wolves were to toss a portion of their prey

the doers of unjust acts,

them.

As

if

to the dogs, and they, mollified by the gift, suffered them

to tear the flocks."
But Homer's conception of sacrifice
"'

susceptible of a

is
1

49 al.
2
II. 9. 533 fl". Leaf.
II. 1. 37 ir.
*fr. 180 GocttliDg.
II. 4.

somewhat higher interpretation than

^
'"

Cf. Eur. 3Ied. 964.

EiUh. 14

Laws 906 D

Ale.

ii.

Jowett.

149 E.

HOMER

45

and ought not to be at once dismissed as irreligious.

upon the familiar Greek idea that Gods and men
form a single organised society, with mutual rights and
there must be pictas in heaven if there is
obligations
We must admit, however, that
to be pietas on earth.
there is little or no hint of the importance of true
devotion on the part of the worshipper, such as Socrates

this,

It rests

afterwards inculcates

religious level,

higher

from which

do justice and judgment

than sacrifice." ^

Homer

does

less

still

it

is

more acceptable

is

rise

to the

seen that
to the

"

to

Lord

Homer's conception of prayer, although in some

more spiritual and refined than his view of
sacrifice, involves a somewhat similar theory of the
relation between Gods and men.
The suppliant does
not bow the knee or veil the head, but stands erect,
frankly and fearlessly to heaven.
raising his hands
Unconscious of unworthiness and sin, he claims an
answer, not so much as an act of grace, but as a return
for services which he has rendered or will hereafter
"
And lifting their hands to all the
render to the God.
did
man
each
pray vehemently, and chiefly prayed
gods
Gerenian Nestor, the Warden of the Achaians, stretching
father Zeus,
his hand towards the starry heaven
respects

'

any one

us

Argos did
and
sheep,
prayed
that ho might return, and thou didst promise and
assent thereto, of these things be thou mindful, and
avert, Olympian, the pitiless day, nor suffer the Trojans
"
This is the usual
thus to overcome the Achaians.' ^
of
a
Homeric
but
there
are not wanting
type
prayer
instances in which a higher note is struck, and God is

if

ever

burn

to

of

in

thee fat thighs of

wheat-bearing

bull or

appealed to not as the recipient, but as the giver of

"
benefits and blessings in the past.
Hearken to me,

god

of

the silver
1

Prov. xxi,

bow
3.

even as erst thou heardest

-

//.

15.

368

ff.

Lang.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

46

me honour

prayer, and didst

my
me

my

this

desire."

"God

the

of our Fathers, be the

Of their succeeding

Hear me,"

cries

Zeus,

aegis-bearing

kindly mood thou

of

even so now

basis

fulfil

of

the

is

appeal

"

Sometimes

stoodest

by

"

hear me, daughter of

If
ever in

maiden

my

father in the heat

even so now be thou likewise kind to me,

And there is at least one passage in which

battle,

Atliene."

Diomede,
unwearied

God

race."

suggested that obedience to the will of God ensures

"
the readiest answer to prayer
whosoever obeyeth the
"
^
To obey is
Gods, to him they gladly hearken."

it is

better than

sacrifice,

For the

rams."

and

to

hearken than the

*

rest,

Niigelsbach

fat of

has observed that

prayers, in Homer, seldom express the language of

praise or thanksgiving
they are nearly always petitions
the
to
rising
lips spontaneously at seasons of stress and
:

"

danger,

good to uplift the hands to Zeus, if

^
have
We are told by Plato
may
pity."

for it is

be he

so

that at the

commencement of every undertaking, " be

all who participate in virtue, to the

small or great,

it

conspicuously true of the

is

prayer

we

as

invoke a God."

least degree, invariably

Homeric

This statement

heroes, with

whom

a necessary prelude to successful endeavour,

may see from the remark of Antilochus on his
is

"

He ought to have prayed to the

immortals, and then he would not have come in last
At a later stage of Greek religious
in the race."
defeated

rival,

'''

development, the object prayed for by the worshipper

was sometimes a particular attitude

soul

of
1

2
=5

11.

1.

7/. 5.

II. 1.

451
115

resignation,
ff.

ff.

let

say,
s

Leaf.
Leaf.

e
7

218.

Homerische Theologie,

us

p.

212

f.

of

mind

or

virtue.

j;_ 24. 301.

Tim. 27
7/,

C.

23. 546.

or

state

Thus

HOMER

47
"

pray for power to

Xenoplianes, for example, l)ids men
do that which is right," ^ and the whole Socratic ideal
life and conduct is comprised in the prayer with
which Plato ends the Phaedrus :" "0 beloved Pan and
other gods here present, grant me to become fair
Let my outward possessions be such as are
within.
favourable to my inward life.
May I think the wise
man rich. Give me so much gold as only the tem-

of

man

It is hardly necessary
can bear or carry."
to
such
a prayer as this we
for
that
to say
parallels
and not to Homer.
Testament
the
New
look
to
should

perate

The objects for which a Homeric suppliant entreats the

Gods are generally such as we should expect in the
society of the Homeric age, the pleasures of revenge
and victory, or deliverance from toil and danger, not yet
purity of heart and life.

We

may

conclude this part of our subject by quoting

the famous allegory, unique in Homer, where in spite

of an implicit attribution of men's sinfulness to the

agency

Zeus, the poet sets before us a more truly

of

in any other passage

religious view of prayer than
"
his poems.
Prayers of penitence are daughters

of

of

and of eyes askance,

great Zeus, halting and wrinkled
"
that have their task withal to go in the steps of Sin
"

For Sin is strong and fleet of foot, wherefore

she far outrunneth all prayers, and goeth before them
over all the earth making men fall, and Prayers follow

(Ate).

behind to heal the harm.

Now

whosoever reverenceth

him they greatly

but when one denieth
and hear his petitions
them and stiffly refuseth, then depart they and make
prayer xmto Zeus the son of Kronos that sin may come
upon such an one, that he may fall and pay the
^
Here, no doubt, the reference primarily is
price."
to the supplications addressed by one man to another

Zeus' daughters

when they draw

bless

near,

V-

1-

15

f.

279 B.

Jl. 9.

502

ff.

Leaf.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

48
])nt

if

we

precedes/
of prayers

the allegory in connexion with what

are equally at liberty to understand it

read

we
made

to the Gods.

So much, then, by way of explaining the spirit

which seems to animate all those religious observances
through whiclj, in Homer,
dependence on the Gods.

man expresses his

From what I have

sense of
said

you

period of Greek religious

development, is chiefly, though not perhaps exclusively,
In spite of the fatherhood
concerned with externals.
see

will

that piety, at

this

on which Homer dwells so frequently and

Father Zeus, thou that rulest from Ida, most
" ^
there is little suggestion
glorious and most great
in the Homeric poems of any spiritual relationship
between God and man, such as finds expression in
of

Zeus,

"

fondly

yidas nihil aliud est

Dei
parentis agnitio.^
quam
We have already seen that the Homeric Gods are the
official guardians of justice, and in their ex cathedra
capacity take cognisance of good and evil deeds among
In a famous passage of the Odyssey we are
mankind.
"
the gods, in the likeness of strangers from
told that
Lactantius' definition of true piety

far countries, put

the

through

all

manner

to express

of shapes,

the

and wander
and the

violence

beholding
men." *
It is therefore necessary for

cities,

righteousness of

man

on

his recognition of the divine authority

and government, not merely by the services of sacrifice

and prayer, but through his life and conduct.
Perhaps
we shall most readily comprehend this aspect of man's
duty towards the Gods,
negative side, and

its

we approach the question on

endeavour to understand the

if

Homeric view of sin. At first sight it may seem,

"
"
in
sin
perhaps, an anachronism to use the term
with
Greek
literature.
We
are
connexion
frequently
1

499-501.

"

11. 24.

308.

^
^

iii. 9 ad fiu.
485 C. and L.

Div. Inst.
Oil. 17.

HOMER
told that

"

sin

Christian idea

"
is
;

and

49

a peculiarly Christian, or Jewish and

it is an
oft-repeated statement that

the notion was altogether foreign to the ancient Greek

world.
But when such an assertion is made, the

The
unprejudiced inquirer will pause and discriminate.
conception of sin, he will say, appears to have two

On

aspects, a subjective and an objective.

sin involves an
side, our idea of

its

subjective

element

of

self-

consciousness, a

haunting sense of moral imperfection

and alienation from God on its objective side, it consists
in a breach of morality or law, or in the state of mind
from which such transgression takes its rise.
It may be
;

admitted that what

paratively seldom

we

the sense

call

found

something analogous to
dramas of Aeschylus, and

Greek

in
it

may

of

sin

literature,

be

is

com-

although

detected

in

the

perhaps, in the moral and

To the halfreligious doctrine of the Phacclo of Plato.
exotic religious fraternities of the Orphic and Pythaalso,

gorean type the consciousness of sin was probably familiar

enough

and Stoicism, at

least

in

some

of

its

later

But
developments, was no stranger to the feeling.
neither the reflections nor the actions of the Homeric
heroes warrant us in attributing to them any such

may fairly be called by this name they all

to
the
class of souls which Professor James has
belong
"
"
"
christened
or
once-born."
If we
healthy-minded

affection as

have regard, however, to the objective usage of the word,

we are quite at liberty to speak of sin as having a place
in the moral universe of Homer
and a brief examination
of its origin and nature will throw
light on the poet's
;

some of the greatest questions of human life

and destiny.
In what, then, according to the view of
does
sin
consist ?
We may reply, perhaps, that
Homer,

attitude to

the sphere of ambition open to the individual is strictly

Hmited in Homer by the rights of his fellow-men and
of the

Gods
4

and

sin consists in the

attempt to overstep

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

so

the limits thus prescribed.

The essence of sin is irXeove^la,
or
self-assertion
it is accompanied
self-seeking,
by over:

"
weening arrogance and pride, and recks not either of
the Gods that hold the wide heaven, or of men's indignation in after days." ^
The last stage is reached when

the

sinner

his

in

blind

self-confidence

becomes, like

Mezentius in the Aeneid of Virgil, a contemptor divum.

"And so would he have fled his doom, albeit hated by
Athene, had he not let a proud word fall in the fatal

He said that in the gods'

darkening of his heart.
and
despite he had escaped the great gulf of the sea
;

Poseidon heard his loud

boasting
in twain,

and smote the

rock Gyraean and cleft it

And the rock
bore him down into the vast and heaving deep so there
he perished when he had drunk of the salt sea water." ^
.

Here, as elsewhere, we can recognise in Homer the germs

of moral and religious ideas which are afterwards more

developed by elegiac and dramatic poetry, in

particular the doctrine which bids us remember our
fully

mortality and cherish only mortal aspirations but they

are only the germs, and it is vain, of course, to look for
;

anything further in the Homeric poems.

In its essential nature, therefore, according to the
sin would appear to be a breach of the
law
of
moderation.
What are we to suppose to
golden
And with whom does the
be its immediate cause ?

Homeric view,

It is characteristic of the
ultimate responsibility rest ?
intellectual
character
of Greek morality that
prevailingly
with
later
in
common
Greek
thinkers, should
Homer,

attribute the origin of sin to infatuation rather than to

is a fool or a

The sinner
a depraved condition of the will.
a
knave
his
than
rather
intellect
madman,
:

and he

falls.

Nor, as a rule,

is

is darkened,
the sinner himself con-

sidered to be primarily responsible for his destruction

he is merely the involuntary victim of circumstance, or

Od. 22. 39

f.

Qj_

4_

502

ff.

B.

and L.

HOMER

51

The iutiuence of outward enviroumeut

upon morality is a favourite topic of Greek writers, who
frequently show an inclination to regard affliction as
demoralising, and prosperity as tending to improve the

Ate, or Zeus.

character, in contrast with the

we

of suftering

we may

are

made

Christian view that out

By way

strong.

of illustration,

words like irovripo^ and

^jLoyQrjpo^i, the original meaning of which would seem
"
"
to have been
toilworn,"
afflicted," whereas in classical
Greek they more commonly mean " depraved "
and
refer to the history of

"
do
conversely, the double signification of eS Tj-pdrreiv,
"
"
well
and
fare well," was thought by some of the

Greeks to be significant of the intimate connexion

between prosperity and virtue.^
According to Simonides,
who in this as in other respects is a trustworthy exponent
of popular Greek morality, "a man cannot but
prove
evil, if hopeless calamity overthrow him.
Every man
if
he has fared well is good evil, if ill and for the
most part, best are they whom the Gods love." ^
The
:

principle that underlies this view is as old as Homer,

who expresses it in words which are often echoed in

Greek

later

literature

"
:

the

mind

of

men upon

the

even as the day, that is brought upon them by

the father of Gods and men."^
We find a pathetic
earth

is

illustration of the

Odyssey, where
of a

him,*

the

it

sentiment in another passage of the

said that Zeus takes away the half

is

man's virtue, when the day of slavery lays hold on

Elsewhere, as we have already seen. Homer is in

habit of

laying the responsibility for the sin of

mortals
at the door of Ate, eldest daughter of
erring
"
or
Zeus
I could not be unmindful of
himself.
Zeus,
Ate," says
.

Agamemnon, "who blinded me

Blinded was

I,

and Zeus bereft

have dealt with this .subject

in notes on Plato, Crilo 47 E,
Euthyphr. 3 A, Prot. 333 D.
^ap. PI. Prot. 344 C, E, 345 C.

me

at the
of

my

"

Od. 18. 136 f.

Od. 17. 322.
II. 19.

136

ff.

Myers.

first.

wit."^

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

52

But
is

Homer, not

less

the Gods or Fate

who

in

than in Aeschylus, although

are

the fons

et

origo mali,

it

it is

who pays the penalty and the tragic irony

doom is all the greater tliat it comes from the
very Gods who are ultimately responsible for his transWhen, for example, Pandarus shoots the
gression.
the sinner
of

his

arrow at Menelaus, in defiance

lately sworn between the rival
suggestion of Zeus,

who

is

of the solemn treaty

armies, he obeys the
himself the guardian of oaths

and treaties but Agamemnon is assured that the selfsame God will hereafter take vengeance on the Trojans.
"
Zeus, the son of Kronos enthroned on high, that
;

dwelleth in the heaven, himself shall brandish over them

his

all

aegis, in indignation at this deceit."

not less profoundly convinced than Aeschylus
whatever its originating cause may be, disturbs

lo wring

Homer

is

that sin,

the moral equilibrium of the universe

the Gods, as upholders of justice,

of

and the business

to restore the

is

balance by punishing the sinner.

It matters not that
the Gods demand a higher standard from men than they
impose upon themselves their duty is to punish mortals
:

which they are always setting the example.^

In so far as we can speak of a Homeric doctrine
of
punishment at all, it is the retributory theory
which meets us in his poems
his favourite phrase
for the divine vengeance upon sin is avTira epya,
"
"
deeds of requital,"
acts of recompense."
We do
for excesses of

not expect to find so early as

Homer any

hint of the

Platonic view, that punishment is a remedial agency

intended to cure the sinner of his vice, although the
of the God is occasionally represented by
the poet as remedial, or rather deterrent, in respect of
its influence upon others
for example, in the prayer
"
of Menelaus before the duel with Paris
King Zeus,

vengeance

grant
1

me

II. 4.

revenge

166

ff.

Leaf.

on

him
-

that was

Cf. A.

first

Lang, Hovu

to

Hymns

do
p. 29.

me

HOMER
wrong ...

so

many an one

tliat

may shudder

be hereafter

shown him

to

that

shall

his host that hath

wrong

action

the

said that

already

men

of

kindness."

have

53

of

Iliad

tlie

the law that

of atonement

and Odyssey, regarded as a whole, fulfils

"
but the possibility
the doer must suffer
The Homeric Gods are not
for sin is not excluded.
"
their hearts by incense and reverent vows
implacable
and drink-otfering and burnt-offering men turn with
^
If
prayer, so oft as any transgresseth and doeth sin."
the sinner makes good what he has done amiss, and
"

offers sacrifice

Gods, he

to the offended

may

perchance

regain their favour and escape the graver consequences

of his transgression.
In such a piacular offering there

no suggestion of a transference of guilt from the

sinner to the victim, no hint that the animal is a
vicarious sufferer
all such conceptions imply a degree
of consciousness of sin which is alien from the religious

is

sentiment
offering,

of

Homeric

the

other forms

like

a gift
Plato would call
the shape of a meal or

In
age.
of sacrifice,
a

it

Homer

bribe

banquet

the sin-

conceived as

is

the Gods

to

designed

to

in

change

"

the fragrant
their hostility into a friendlier attitude
"
fire-distilled essence
or Kvlaa ascends to heaven and
:

"

the

savour

sweet

"

turns

away

But

wrath.

their

although the sinner pleads, there is no assurance that

his sacrifice will be accepted
and of the many features
;

which cast a shade

this

is

not

the
"

Nagelsbach,

Gods

will

Sin

least
is

punish

the

of

passing mood,
and is uncertain.

melancholy over Homeric life,

In the words of
significant.

certain,

sin

the

but

and certain
forgiveness

Human

77. 3.

351

ff.

Jl. 9.

499

ff.

Leaf.
Leaf.

in

life

without the certainty of grace."

-

temper

fleeting

it

is

that the

depends

upon

the

gods,

of

Homer

is

life

ffomerische Theologie p. 355.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

54

So much for the leading features of Homer's theology,

it
It
imposes upon man.

and the obligations which

remains for us to consider

the

attitude

of

in regard to the question of immortality.

The details of Homeric psychology and

been

liave
is

much

it

is

that

still

discussed in recent

years,

poet

eschatology
but there

remains uncertain and obscure

and

improbable, I might even say incredible,

authors of the Iliad and Odyssey formed a

'priori

the

that

often

the

or consistent theory either of the soul itself or

existence which awaits it in the other world.

lucid
of

the

In

its

belief

broader
of

outlines,

the Homeric

however,

poems

is

the

eschatological

and it
enough
its
apprehend
general
clear

the more necessary for us to

character, because there is archaeological as well as
literary evidence to show that in spite of the prevalence

is

Orphic and Pythagorean views, the orthodox Greek

conception of the underworld even in the fourth

of

B.C.
was still in the main derived from
Homer.^
In the Homeric poems, and indeed in Greek literature

century

generally, the living

indivisible substance,

man
but

regarded not as a single

rather as a union of two

is

and separable entities, one of which is the

and
the other the soul.
To the question, which
body,
of these two component factors, soul and body, constitutes what may be called the personality or ego, it

distinct

not altogether easy to give a satisfactory or conclusive

answer.
According to one group of passages, it would
is

seem that the actual self, the auro^, descends into

Hades at death and as it is usually the soul or '^v)(ti']
which is said by Homer to pass into the unseen world,
;

we

are

In

other

tempted to identify the ego with the soul.and more remarkable instances, where the

^
P. Gardner, New Chajders in
Greek History p. 331.

See Rohde, Psyche"^

i.

p. 5.

HOMER

expressly contrasted with the soul, the epithet

the deadly
definitely applied to the body

is

body
"

self

"

is

wrath of the son

stalwart

of Peleus

souls of
"

their

"all

55

long

night

be

to

bodies,

the

despatched

and

heroes,

gave
to

prey

soul

of

Hades many

to

themselves, that
"

dogs

hapless

and

Patroclus

is,

again,

stood

over me, wailing and lamenting, and wondrous like it

was unto himself." - Eelying on these two diverse

modes

of

as

expression,

well

on

as

other

evidence,

supplied in part from comparative folk-lore, Eohde has

attributed to Homer the belief in a double personality,
the yjrvxv being a kind of " alter ego," " ein anderes ich,"

present like an invisible guest in the living and visible

and companion " ego."

we are awake and conscious,

body, which

constitutes another

During

so

"

the

life,

long as
"

alter

but when

the body is
and
often
reveals to
sleep,
us in visions of the night that which is denied to us
in our waking moments.
This interesting theory lies
laid

the

at

shall

is

ego

the

to

root

have

quiescent

ancient

of

recur to

to

reason for

shall find

awakes

soul

it

views

of

divination,

and

again in later lectures.

it

connecting

with

we

We

Orphic and
than
with

ways of thought, rather

Pythagorean
Greek
culture
but in the meantime it
indigenous
must be said that, although such a view was certainly
;

familiar to Pindar, Aeschylus, and Plato, not to speak

of Aristotle and the Stoics, the evidence for ascribinoit

to

Homer

is

very

slight.

If

we

desire to arrive at

Homer's conception of the respective shares of body

and soul in producing what we may call the true self or
personality of the individual, we ought to assign most
weight to those places in which the body and soul
are

contrasted with one another

have seen,

it

"

designated
^

II.

is

self."
\.

"i

tr.

and

in these, as

we

the body, and not the soul, which is

That Homer is sometimes inconsistent
-//. 23. IOC

(r.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

56

merely shows that he was after

iu his phraseology,

a poet and not a psychologist.

may take it, then, and the fact

We

is

all

of great import-

intelligent appreciation of the Homeric

eschatology, that in the union of soul and body which

ance for

the

we

call life, the body, rather

the element of personality or

clusion

somewhat too

appears
it

perhaps

the

for

is,

than the
"

self."

soul,
if

Or,

supplies
this con-

and

precise, as
standpoint of so

definite

psychological

primitive an age, we may, I think, at least affirm

that Homer regards the body as more essential to
the personality than the soul.
With the development
of self - consciousness and
the progress of reflective

thought in Greece,

was only natural that the conshould be modified and in the

it

ception of personality
pliilosophy

of

the

always

or

soul

and

(t'oO?)

not

will

as

Plato,

afterwards

rather,

the

us

let

which

body,

it

appear,
say, the

is

mind

constitutes

the

we

call

man.

But

to return

to

Homer.

If

that

which

the union of soul and body, that which we call

death is their separation.
The soul may leave the body

life is

for which the later Greek

^
animo
but at death the
linqui
\i'Ko-<i^v')(fiv
is
which is
dissolved.
The
partnership
finally
-ylrv^v,

a time, as

for

word

in

fainting,

is

a material substance
issues

says

of

the

nature of

breath

or

air,

man's soul,
the mouth or the wound
"
when once it hath
Homer, returneth not again,
out of

^
and elsewhere, " the
passed the barrier of his teeth,"
soul through the stricken wound sped hastily away,
and darkness enveloped his eyes." ^ In shape, it is

as it were
the living man
dream, a vapour of smoke.
The soul of Patroclus appeared to Achilles in a vision

an eidolon or phantom
a shadow, a

vision

So in Homer, top

//. 5.

696.

d'

in

of

^Xiwe ^vxv,

'

I^- ^J/.

409.

14. 518.

HOMER
of the iiioht

"

in

all

57

things like the

man

himself,

in

and fair eyes and voice, and the raiment on

"
reached forth
Achilles
was the same." ^
for like a vapour
his hands, but grasped him not
the soul was gone beneath the earth with a faint
stature
his

body

shriek."

According to Homer,

this image, that survives

it

and wdiere

lead,

is

it

what kind

only this phantom,

of existence does

In the answer to these questions

we have Homer's whole conception of

As soon as the last rites are fulfilled,

immortality.
the soul crosses

the river, Oceanus, it may be, or Styx, which

land of the living from that of the dead.^
the
separates
Till then, it retains, apparently, some shred of substantial

once for

all

semi-corporeal existence, hovering uneasily between the

The
gate of the nether world and the body it has left.

realm of shades, known to

Homer

as Erebus, lies in the

and the entrance thereto is far in

depths
the west, beyond the Ocean stream and the city of the
Cimmerians, on which the sun never shines, but a pall
of the earth

Hard by the entrance

"a waste shore and the groves of Persephone, even
tall poplar trees and willows that shed their fruit before

of deadly night broods evermore.*

is

the season," ^ features indicative to the Greeks of barrenThe kingdom of the dead itself is ruled
ness and gloom.

over by Hades,
"

dread

and

"

"

most loathly
In

it

of

all

we read

Persephone.^
gruesome, the abomination

of

the Gods," and

of dwellings

the

dank

very gods,

deot Trep,
evpooevra, rd re crrvyeovai,
and meadows of asphodel, the dreariest of plants,
together with the rivers that play so large a part in

a/xepSaXe,

Greek

of

the

Pyriphlegethon, Cocytus, and

underworld, Acheron,
Styx, names which, as

Plato

of

later

testifies

'TZ. 23. 66
"

II. 23.

99

*//. 23. 73.

pictures
in

his

censure

rkl. 11. 13ff.

ff-.
'

tr.

Homer's eschatology,

Od. 10. 508

"//.

9.

tf.

B. and L.

159, 457.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

58
"

Greek

IK)

Above

hear

could

and

all,

without

of

thrill

horror."

the ancient Greek this was perhaps

kingdom of Hades was a

to

the most appalling feature, the

land of perpetual night " a land of thick darkness, as

darkness itself a land of the shadow of death, where
:

the light is as darkness."

The existence which Homer assigns to the disembodied
shades is if possible still more terrible than the land in

which they dwell or at

to a nation endowed with
;

as

Homer

Eohde

Greeks.

the

only a

it is

so

abounding a sense of vitality

puts the case well when he

so

we do wrong

observes that

must have appeared

least it

little

to

speak of a future life in

life than that of our

more

Themselves only shadows or images

glass.^
the living, breathing man, the departed spirits lead
not life, but only a pale and ineffectual shadow of life.

image in a
of

Their very utterance

which we

voice

call

timorous

{Tp'i^eiv),

is

Homer, when

it

issues

but the shadow or ghost of that

is a shrill attenuated shriek
it
inarticulate

cry, compared by
from many ghostly throats at

squeaking of a flock of bats when it is

disturbed, and to the clamour of fowls Hying terrified in
all directions.^
The souls of the dead are d/u.evrjva
once, to the

"

Kaprjva,
sive,

strengthless heads," wholly intangible and eluilesh, without diaphragm or ^peve<i,

without bones and

and therefore destitute

as

Homer

says

of intelligence or sense, a(f)pa8ee^,

for it is the diaphragm which is the

In the

physical seat of intelligence in the living man.'^

Nekyia of the Odyssey, which, though doubtless later

than the bulk of the poem, represents at least a very
early stage of Greek behef about the future life, the
ghost of the seer Teiresias alone retains something of the
"
the other
substantiaHty of actual physical existence
:

20.

//.

r.l.Sff.

65

PI. Uep.

Psyche-

i.

Oil.
iii.

p. 10.

24.

.387 C.

13,

10.

=
*

Od. 24. 6ff., 11.

Od. 11. 29, 476

GO.^.
;

//.

f.

23. 104.

HOMER
souls

and

to

flit

them

for

fro like shadows."

moment

59

to

In order to recall

consciousness, the

poet avails
himself of a device that puts their unhappy situation in
"
a singularly vivid light.
took
Odysseus, he tells us,
the sheep and cut their throats over the trench, and the
dark blood flowed forth, and lo, the spirits of the dead

be departed gathered them from out of Erebos.

Brides and youths unwed, and old men of many and

that

evil

and tender maidens w^ith grief yet fresh at

and many there were, wounded with bronze-shod

days,

heart

men
And

spears,

them.

slain in fight

these

many

with their bloody mail about

ghosts flocked together from

^
The
every side about the trench with a wondrous cry."
with
which
flock
to
drink
the
eagerness
they
life-giving

a pathetic indication of the source of all their

They are both alive and dead but though alive
is

draught
woe.

enough
they are dead, they are hardly dead
to
enough
forget they are alive.
In other respects the life of the departed spirit is for
to feel that

the most part only a spectral copy of its life on earth.

The ghostly Minos, seated on a throne, gives judgment
as of yore, and Orion pursues along the meadows of
asphodel the very beasts he had slain upon the lonely

Of retribution in the lower world for sins

committed upon earth there is but little trace in Homer.
The only evidence which might be supposed to point to
hills.^

a penitentiary hell for mortals is in the Iliad, where we

read of certain Powers, called in one place the Erinyes,

who
has

take vengeance on the souls of the forsworn.^

It
been plausibly conjectured by Rohde^ that the

reason

why

after death

perjurer
^

"

perjury seemed to necessitate punishment

on account of the penalties invoked by the

upon himself

Od. 10. 493

ff.

35 If. B. and L.
Od. 11. 569 fl".
0(1. 11.

'^

is

in

the event of proving false to

II. 3. 278
Psyche- i.

tl'.,

19.

p. Go.

259

fi'.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

6o

his oath

and

as

if

this is so,

we must regard

doom

the

of

The

punishments of Tityos,
^
Tantahis, and Sisyphus are faniilar from the Odyssey
but these are half-heroic figures, whose crimes against
the Gods deserve and meet with everlasting torment
perjury

exceptional.

and we are certainly not justified in regarding them as

typical examples of the fate in store for desire and
avarice and pride in the mass of human kind.
As for
Tartarus, the prototype of the Miltonic hell, with its
iron gates and brazen threshold, lying as far beneath the
earth as the earth is beneath the heaven, that is ap-

the generation of Gods whom Zeus deAmong the ghostly dwellers in the realm of
to

propriated
throned.^

Hades, the distinctions of rank and honour prevailing in

the upper world are indeed maintained
but it cannot
;

be said that the

lot of the

majority

by the good or evil of their

monotonous shadowy spectre
reserved for

life

of

in

any way affected

on earth.
The same
is

unsubstantial

life

is

all.

It is manifest that the

men

Homeric picture

of the destiny

one of totally unrelieved gloom.

awaiting
An apparent exception has sometimes been found in the
hereafter

is

single passage of the Odyssey where Homer supplies the

"
germ of the later Greek belief in islands of the blest."

The

old

man

of the

shall escape the

Menelaus that he

seas reveals to

common doom

of mortals

"To

thee

it shall

not come

In the horse-kind land of Argos to meet thy death and doom.

But unto the fields Elysian and the wide world's utmost end,

Where dwells tawny Rhadamanthus,

the

Deathless thee shall

send,

Wherein

are the softest life-days that

No snow and

no

men may

ever gain

weather, nor any drift of rain

But Ocean ever wafteth the wind of the shrilly west,

On menfolk
11. 576

ill

ever breathing, to give them might and

2
ff.

ji^ 3^

13

ff

478

g-_

q^_

4_

559

rest."''

|f_

Morris.

HOMER
Beautiful a

this

picture

6I

and importaut

is,

on the eschatology
considerations which show that

Pindar, there

of

influence

ought not

it

for its

are two

to affect our

general conception of the Homeric view of immortality.

In the first place, the life of which the poet here speaks
is

life

on earth

and those

to

whom

it

is

vouchsafed

alive in the ordinary Homeric meaning of the

The
word, being possessed of body as well as of soul.

are

still

is an earthly paradise, peopled by

some few happy individuals who are exempt from that
which we call death.
And, in the second place, admission

Elysian plain, in short,

to this blissful region

by merit, but

not, so far as

is

only by grace of

we can

see,

obtained

the immortals.

Like

Enoch, the dwellers in Elysium are not, because God takes

The reason why Menelaus is translated, according
them.
to the poet, is that, as the husband of Helen, he was
the son-in-law of

Zeus

and although the proverbial

Ehadamanthus may have counted for something,

The resemblance between
he had Zeus for his father.
Homer's description of Elysium and his description of
Olympus, the home of the Gods, untroubled by wind or

justice of

and bathed in everlasting sunlight, is by

no rdeans accidental, but seems to show that the poet
conceived of Elysium as a kind of inferior heaven, whose
denizens are raised to the rank of Gods by the spontaneous
and unearned gift of immortality and everlasting youth.
rain or snow,

Inasmuch

as

the

gates

this

of

happy kingdom are

unlocked by favour and not by merit, there is no more

religious import in the Homeric Elysium than can justly
be attributed to the Epicurean heaven,
I have now placed before you what I take to be the

most

characteristic

and

important

contained in the Homeric poems.

religious

ideas

My object has been

to recreate, as far as possible, the kind of religious
atmosphere which the authority of Homer tended to
1

Oil. 4.

569.

62

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

diffuse

among

we may be

the Greeks, in order that

the

and appreciate the nature and

better able to understand

extent of the philosophic revolt, as well as the progress

With this object in view,

by later Greek poetry.
have abstained from touching on what is known as the
Homeric question. Whether the Iliad and the Odyssey are
by the same author or not, and if not, by what processes or
in what different hands the poems assumed their present
these and similar questions do not concern us
shape
effected
I

here, since it is generally agreed that the Greeks of

the age of Thucydides, and probably still earlier, read
their Homer in essentially the shape in which we read

him now, and assigned both poems

For

the same hand.

to

have

ignored the points of

difference between the religion of the Iliad and that
of the Odyssey.
There is little or no indication that
similar

reason

Homer

they were noticed by readers of

fourth

centuries

Christ

before

and

in the

fifth

and

in

point of fact,
although we find divergencies of detail, and the distance
between Gods and men grows somewhat greater in the
Odyssey, leading in the later

poem

to a

somewhat more

Godhead, the general religious

spiritual conception of the

standpoint

not changed.

is

There remains, however, a further question as to the

relation between the Homeric religion and the Homeric
view of life.
The strain of melancholy running through
the Iliad and Odyssey has often been remarked upon.
A
note of sadness is heard in nearly all the reflective
"

passages.

man among
earth."

upon

tlie

Surely there

is

nothing more pitiable than a

things that breathe and creep upon the

"
Of all the creatures that breathe and creep
^
earth, man is the feeblest that eartli nourishes."
all

multitude of passages might be quoted in illustration

In Homer, of course, unlike
of such sentiments as these.
the poets of the Greek anthology, the pathetic vein
1

II.

17.

446

f.

Od. 18. 130

f.

is

HOMER
free

63

from every element of self-aualysis or alTectatioii.

is
Homer's melancholy a natural or

To what extent
necessary

consequence

of

Homeric

the

faith

It

impossible, of course, to distinguish between cause

effect in any inquiry of this kind
but no one

is

and

who

how

entirely man, in Homer, is dependent on the

Gods, will deny that Homer's ideas of the Godhead and
of immortality are closely connected with his
general
The actual
conception of human life and destiny.

realises

services of religion, indeed, in the Homeric poems, are for

the most part associated with sentiments of joy and

gladness.
Perhaps there is no more beautiful and
characteristic expression of this phase of Greek
feeling
than in the hymn to Apollo, where the poet tells how
"

"

the long-robed lonians gather

in honour of the God of
"
with
children
and
shame-fast
wives.
Who so
Delos,
.

then encountered them at the gathering of the lonians,

would say that they are exempt from eld and death,
beholding these so gracious, and would be glad at heart,
looking on the men and fair-girdled women, and their

much

wealth,

Iliad

we read

and their swift

And

galleys."

the

in

"

that

the livelong day they propitiated the

God with song, chanting the beautiful paean, the sons of
the Achaeans, singing to the Far-darter
and his heart
;

hear."

rejoiced to

Even

such passages as
sometimes struck.

in

these,

"
Thus
however, an ominous note is
she spake praying but Pallas Athene averted her face." ^
"
I offered him up to Zeus, even to the sou of Cronos,
who dwells in the dark clouds, and is lord of all.
;

Bid he heeded not the scLcrificc, but was devising how my

decked ships and my dear company might perish utterly." ^

And

we

if

consider the theoretical side of

religion,

we

shall

current

of

sadness

147

"

1-

ff.

472

tr.
ir.

Lang.

find

in

Homer's

no lack of reasons for the under-liis

poems.
^11.
4

Q^i

6.
9_

The existence
311.

551

j{-

23_

^^^ l_

of

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

64

physical evil and suffering is accepted by Homer as a fact

from which there is no escape, and ascribed, as we have
"

This
already seen, to the immediate agency of the Gods.
is the lot the gods have spun for miserable men, that they
^
It
yet themselves are sorrowless."
gives additional bitterness to the cup of human misery
that the sufferer is uniformly represented as one who is

should live in pain

hated by the very Gods who are responsible for his

calamities ^ nor can he who has incurred the hatred of
;

Heaven expect the sympathy of man. It is true that the

Gods are givers of good as well as of evil but on the floor
;

Zeus there are two urns

of

of evil to

one of good.

They

control the destinies of individuals and nations, and even,

it

woidd seem,

of

in general

humanity

but whatever the

principle of their administration may be, and it often

varies with the mood or passion of the moment, their

primary concern is not the good or happiness of those

whom they direct. Sometimes, indeed, they speak as if
it were unworthy of the blessed Gods to vex themselves
"
about the creatures of a day.
Shaker of the earth,"
"
sound
mind wouldst thou
to
of
no
Poseidon,
says Apollo
repute

me

if

I should

pitiful mortals,

who

fight

like

against thee for the sake of

now live in glowing

unto leaves

and now again pine

from combat,
cease
speed
and let them do battle by themselves." ^ At other times
there is nothing to which they will not stoop on behalf of

life,

consuming the

fruit of the earth,

Let us with

into death.

their favourites

all

but their sympathies are usually deter-

mined by motives of self-interest and self-regard, and

even where his religious idealism soars highest. Homer is
far removed from the Socratic belief in a providence
overruling all things for the good of man nor indeed was
such a conception possible for him without an entire
;

transformation of his idea of God.

1

II. 24. 52.5

e.g.

f.

Myers.

Od. 10. 74.

11.

21. 462

ff.

Myers.

HOMER
With regard

moral

to

evil,

65

wliich

Homer

accepts as an indisputable reality, the case

for though the Gods are the appointed

similarly

is still

worse

guardians of
champions of the moral order of the

justice, the ex officio

universe, they deliberately lead men into sin, are themselves the slaves of sensuahty, envious, lying, and
revengeful in one word, as I have
already said, guilty of all the
:

excesses which they punish in their inferiors.

That it is
a function of the Godhead to serve as a moral ideal to
is a belief of which there is
only, I think, one
solitary indication in the Homeric poems. Phoenix implores
Achilles to relent on the ground that even the Gods are

mankind,

moved

by

prayer

crrpeTrrol

Se

re

koI

avTol}

Seal

any one who practised the Pythagorean

maxim "Follow God," taking Homer's Gods for his
example, would have been scouted both by Gods and
men in the Homeric age. The mainspring of Homeric
morahty is not the imitatio Dei, but that which Homer
calls alSax;, a word which combines the
meanings of
"
"
noble shame or pudor with regard for the opinion of
one's fellow-men, and possibly also fear of the divine
In point of

fact,

It is the voice of al8w<i

vengeance.
speaking in the
heart of man that tells him what is right and what is

wrong.
in

further point to be noticed

their official capacity the

is

that although

Gods rarely leave wicked-

unpunished, we seldom hear of their rewarding

There is, indeed, one well-known passage of the
where
the poet tells of " the blameless king who
Odyssey
feareth the Gods and upholdeth justice; and the black

ness

virtue.

earth yields

him wheat and

heavy with

and

fruit,

his

barley, and the trees are

flocks and herds grow and

multiply, and the sea provides fish, by reason of his good

But this
guidance and the people prosper under him."
;

and it
nearly, if not quite, unique in Homer
characteristic of the whole stratum of
religious ideas

passage
is

is

11. 9.

497.

M9.

109

ff.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

66

which he represents that the punishment of sin is considered far more necessary than the recompense of virtue.
For the most part, virtue, in Homer, is its own reward.
Nor is there any prospect that the inequahties and evils
of

this present

life will

On

be redressed hereafter.

the

contrary, of all the visions of futurity which the imagination of man has conjured up, none, perhaps, is more

There
and hopelessly sad than that of Homer.
of pathos in the lament of the dead Achilles

utterly

a world

is

"

Speak

Sooner

not consolingly of death to me,

great Odysseus
would I be the slave of another, in the house
!

of a penniless wight who had no great livelihood, than

^
And thus, as it is said by Gruppe,
king of all the dead."
"
behind the woe, in which he deems himself to live, the
Homeric Greek beholds a greater, never-ending woe to

come.

If I have dwelt, perhaps at disproportionate length, on

the darker features of the Homeric religion, it is in order

we may the more readily understand and appreciate

But
the motives which prompted the philosophic revolt.
there is another aspect of the picture, to which I have

that

and that is the moral

In this respect Homer
grandeur
to a large extent deserved to be, what we have already
His poems
seen that he was, the teacher of Greece.
abound in lessons of piety, moderation, and truth the
virtues of family, social, and political life, friendship
and charity, consideration for the rights of others,
chivalry and courage, are embodied in many imperishhardly

yet

referred

of the

at

all

Homeric man.

Nor does the so-called melancholy of

able examples.
Homer ever degenerate into the inert and hopeless
pessimism that bewails with folded hands the miseries
of

human

life.

compared with
in

Nothing

in

his

poems can

the pessimistic cry that

Greek poetry from Theognis onwards

1

Od. 11. 488

"
fr.

is

"
:

Gnech. Myth.

fairly

be

often heard

Best

it is

p. 1010.

not

HOMER
be born

to

and next

as possible."
tion of the

On

67

being born, to die as soon

it is just the considera-

best,

tbe contrary,

weakness and
and uncertainty of human
heroes to their greatest

of man, the brevity

which rouses Homer's

frailty
life,

efforts.

"

"

Ah

Sarpedon

friend,"

once escaped from this

Glaucus,
to
be
for
ever
we
were
battle,
ageless and immortal,
neither would I fight myself in the foremost ranks, nor
would I send thee into the war that giveth men renown,
for assuredly ten thousand fates of death do
but now

makes appeal

to

every way beset

now
nor avoid

us,
let

if

and these no mortal may escape

forward, whether we shall

us go

"

^
Here," as
give glory to other men, or others to us."
"
has
the
dark
Butcher
Professor
said,
destiny of man

Down
the very motive which prompts to heroism," ^
Achilles
was
the ideal of Greek
to the latest times,

is

and it is just this motive that determined

chivalry
Achilles to choose a brief and strenuous life in preference
;

to unlaborious length of days at

And

home.

everywhere

the same upward impulse, the same indomitable

desire to climb the rough and steep ascent of the hill
there

is

excellence

of

alkv apiareveLv

koI

vT7elpo-)(pv

e/x/jbevai

That Greek philosophy had reason to fall foul

but it may be
of the Homeric Gods, is only too true
doubted whether Plato, when he condemns the educator
of Greece, allows sufficient weight to the great and abiding
influence of Homer's idealisation of man.

akXcov.

'

Theog. 425
II. 12. 322

ff.

tr.

Laug.

^
Aspects of the Greek Genius p.
176.

LECTURE

IV

FROM HESIOD TO BACCHYLIDES

In the present

we have

lecture,

examine

to

first

the

theology of Hesiocl and afterwards we shall endeavour

to see how the principal religious ideas of Homer and
;

Hesiod were further developed and expanded in lyric,

elegiac, and iambic poetry from Archilochus down to
Bacchylides.
Although Pindar falls within the period

we

are about to discuss, his importance is so great that

he must be reserved for separate treatment hereafter.
The poems of Hesiod which require to be considered

Works and Days and the Theogony.

are the

That the

bulk of the Works and Days is from the hand of Hesiod,

may be taken as generally admitted. Pausanias, indeed,
informs us that it was the only Hesiodic work which
the

Boeotians

of

Helicon

conceded

be

to

genuine.^

more doubt.
In his
About the Theogony there
Histoire de la litUrature Grccque,^ M. Croiset maintains
is

that the

poem

is

from the Hesiodic

later than Hesiod,

school

he

is

though emanating

inclined

to

assign

it

the early part of the seventh century B.C., whereas

Hesiod belongs, he thinks, to the first half of the eighth.
to

Other

historians

of

Greek

literature,

for

example,

Wilhelm

Christ, while admitting the presence of interpolated passages, consider that far the larger portion of
the poem is by Hesiod and with the exception of the
;

testimony already quoted from Pausanias, it would seem

never seriously
that the Hesiodic authorship was
1

ix. 31. 4.

i.

68

p.

509

IT.

FROM HESIOD

TO BACCHYLIDES

69

There is, moreover, every

questioned in antiquity.
reason to believe that both the WorJcs and Days and
the

Theof/oni/

century
so that

read

the

by

Greeks

of

the

fifth

nearly the form which they now present

may use each of the two poems indifferently

we

order

in

were

B.C. in

to

illustrate

the

ancients associated with the

religious ideas which

name of Hesiod.

the

Whether

or not the Thcogony is later in point of date,

no doubt that it represents an earlier
stratum of religious thought than we meet with in the

can

there

be

Works and Days.

The poem

is

at once a

cosmogony and

a theogony; but as the primitive cosmological causes

are deified, it has the appearance
Chaos, Earth, and Eros

Many, if not most, of

theogony from first to last.
the genealogies and legends were doubtless borrowed from
of a

and in some cases pre-Homeric hymns. The poet

sift and simplify the mass of current mythological detail, and embody it in a kind of imperfectly
co-ordinated system.
Here and there we seem to have
a purely aetiological myth ^ and a few of the deities are
In following
little more than poetical personifications.
earlier

attempts to

the successive generations of the Gods, as described by

we are sensible of a gradual progress from anarchy
and violence to order and law but it would be too much

Hesiod,

to say that this is the dominating idea of the poem, since

the writer is for tlie most part satisfied to narrate his

without

story,

any

passage,^

betraying, except perhaps in a single

consciousness of its ethical or religious

import.

TThe

doctrine which concerns us chiefiy in the Theogony

separate dynasties of Gods succeeding one

order of time
the dynasties of Uranus,
The poet of the Theogony is the first
Cronus, and Zeus.^
Greek writer who gives full and definite expression to
that

is

of

another

this idea.
'

e.g.

in

In

535-557.

Homer
-

there are only a few faint traces

881-885.

=*

154

ff.,

459

fl'.,

617

Ef.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

70

the doctrine.
The Iliad speaks of Cronns as overthrown by Zeus and imprisoned in Tartarus " below the
earth and the unharvested sea." ^
But Homer says
about
a
of
Gods
antecedent
to Cronus
nothing
dynasty
and under the sw^ay of Uranus and, as Mr. Leaf remarks,
"
the whole question of these dynasties before Zeus, as
they are presented in Homer, is too vague to admit of
a certain solution when we come to Hesiod we find
that Greek belief has passed into quite another stage,
that of harmonizing the incoherent and inconsistent
legends handed down, probably from sources differing
^
Does the
by wide distances both of race and place."

of

author of the Theogony recognise any principle or power

above and beyond these transitory Gods, and determining
their

succession

We

shall

afterwards

see

that

this

indirectly touched upon by Aeschylus, who

appears to find such a principle in Destiny or Fate and
in Hesiod, too, there are one or two suggestions of this

question

is

For the rest, it should be noted that the Theogony,

was inevitable from the subject of which it treats, is
full of those grossly naturalistic
legends to which Greek
idea.^

as

took just exception.

From the later or
ethical point of view, Hesiod's theology in this poem is
incomparably cruder than that of the Ilictcl and Odyssey.

philosophy

"

"

in the
violence and rudeness," says Grote,
Homeric gods, but the great genius of Grecian Epic is
no way accountable for the stories of Uranos and Kronos

There

the

is

reproach

standing

Pagan

against

legendary

Throughout the whole poem the conception

of the Gods as moral beings scarcely appears at all
the
assessors even of Zeus himself are Violence and Force
rather than Justice
and the only ethical powers, strictly
so called, would seem to be the Molpai or Fates, who
narrative."

''

'

14.
n.

204
on 11.

cf. 8.

8.

464, ovveKa

iraidl

dauvvaL

479

ff.

479.
ol

cf.

Tr^irpuTo e(2 inrb

475, 894

"

Hlstoru of Greece i. p. 13.

385 tf.
cf. 551 f. (hostility of
;

Zeus to humankind).

FROM HESIOD TO BACCHYLIDES

71

"

visiting the transgressions of men and Gods never cease

from their dread wrath, until they have inflicted dire
retribution on him who has sinned." ^

now

Turning

reflects

fully

author

to

than

the

work

that no

I think,

the

of

moral

Works

the

second

we may

poem,

say,

ancient literature more faith-

and religious
and Days of

beliefs

Hesiod.

of

its

The

simplicity and sincerity of tone leave no doubt that

here at least the poet is speaking " true things." As
in the Iliad, so also in the Works and Days, man is

wholly dependent on the Gods in every relation of life.^

Zeus, the king of the immortals, is also the supreme
his eye is all-seeing, his mind allgovernor of men
:

rravra ISoiu

knowing

/li6<i 6cf)$a\/xo<i

koI iravra iwr]aa<i:^

but we can with difficulty spy out his thought ^ " there
is no
prophet among men upon the earth who shall know
:

the

mind

of aegis-bearing Zeus."

Among

the attributes

of Zeus, the poet chiefly insists

It is from
upon Justice.
The
Zeus, he says, that straight judgments proceed.'''
maiden Justice is " daughter of Zeus, glorified and
honoured by the Gods who dwell in Olympus.
And
whensoever one doeth her an injury with wrongful

chiding, straightway she takes her seat by the side of

father Zeus, the son of Cronus, and tells him the thoughts
of unjust

men, that the people may pay for the infatuawho with baneful thoughts turn aside

tion of princes,

from the straight path through wrongful judgments." ^

In his capacity as guardian of Justice, Zeus is served by
"
a host of invisible daemons or messengers.
Thrice ten
thousand are the servants of Zeus upon the all-sustaining
earth, immortal, watchers of men that are doomed to die ;

who watch deeds

1

220

of the
-

ff.

Gods

cf.

793

ff.

(punishment

for perjury).
Thcog. 28.

669.
267.

of justice

and works
^

wickedness

484.

s/;-.
7

177 Goettling.

35

of

256

flf.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

72

^
passing to and fro upon the earth in a garment of mist."
Hesiod is the first Greek writer in whom we find the

notion of daemons, or beings intermediate between Gods

and men.
In Homer it is not the daemons but the Gods

themselves

"

who

in

the

hkeness

of

another country roam throughout the

"
the insolence and righteousness of men.

between the two poets in

several indications
felt to

from

strangers
cities,
^

The

surveying
difference

one among
respect
that in Hesiod's time the Gods were

be more distant from

this

is

men than

in the heroic age

"O^

though he believes in a common origin for Gods and

men,* it is of the golden age that he is thinking when
in a fragment preserved by Origen he speaks of the
"
common feasts and common meeting-places of immortal

Gods and men that are subject unto death."

We may

regard the Hesiodic conception as the earliest symptom

of a tendency that afterwards became prominent in Greek
the tendency to remove the
thought
from
and immediate participation
direct
Supreme Being
in human affairs, by the hypothesis of an intermediate

philosophical

order of beings

who

are as

it

were the vehicles of comBut in Hesiod these

munication between God and man.*^

daemons are
popular

We

still

no more than the

invisible police of

They resemble the recording angel of later Greek

Zeus.'^

belief.^

have seen that in Homer the justice

chiefly shown
On this topic

of

Zeus

insolence or

in the punishment of
Hesiod also lays the greatest stress

is

sin.
^
:

in

one place he enumerates among

take the country of evil men, famine and pestilence,
barrenness, destruction of armies and walls and ships.^
the calamities that over-

252

Od. 17. 485

Cf. 484,

ff.

cf.

122

fF.

ff.

and/r. 177.

lOS.

V^. 187 Goettliut;.

"See, e.g., Vlsiio, Symi). 202 E.
The Hesiodic doctrine was adopted

see von Arnim,

by the Stoics
Stoicorum vet. frag. ii. p. 320 f.
See, however, p. 76.
Eurip./r. 500 Nauck^.
238 ff., 242 ff., 284 ff., 320 ff,
327 ff.
'"
242 ff.
:

"^

FROM HESIOD TO BACCHYLIDES

73

Though Justice may delay her coming, she comes at

last ^ and others besides the
guilty individual may be
involved in the catastrophe.^
But Hesiod dwells more
fondly than Homer on the converse of this doctrine and
;

he regards the prosperity vouchsafed to the virtuous as

Peace, the nurturer
descending also to their sons.^
of youth, makes her home in the city whose rulers
are just
the inhabitants are free from the scourge
of famine and sin-engendered woe, and enjoy abundance of good cheer " the earth yields them plentiful
:

on the mountains the oak-tree bears them

acorns on its topmost branches, and in its trunk bees
make their home and fleecy sheep are laden with wool.
subsistence

Wives bear children who resemble

flourish

sea

on

fruit."

in

continual

ships,

illustrate

This

prosperity

their parents.

nor

do

they

They
go

to

the grain-giving earth yields them

one of the passages selected by Plato to

for
is

what he considers the immorality

of

Greek

poetry virtue should be praised, he argues, not for its

must allow that Hesiod
results, but for itself.^
:

We

generally points
consequences as a sufficient
motive for choosing virtue and rejecting vice but the
same criticism might, of course, be applied to popular
to

their

teachers of morality in general, and particularly to

parts of the Old Testament.^

The observances by which

in

Hesiod

men

many

are to ex-

press their obligations to the heavenly powers are the

same as in Homer libation, sacrifice, and prayer but
;

the sentiment

them hardly attains so

The most characteristic

associated with

high a level of religious feeling.

embodiment of the poet's view of worship is contained in
a passage that clearly indicates the self -regarding nature
"
of Hesiodic
Offer sacrifice to the immortal
morality.
^

213-218, 333 f.
240 f., 261 f., 284 f.
'285: of. P.s. XXV. 13,
seed shall inherit the land."

"His

225

ff.

363

Re,K

ii.

cry.

Lev.

xxviii. 1

11'.

(T.

xxvi.

11'.;

Dent,

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

74

Gods according

to thine ability,

with pure heart and hand

{a<^vw^ Koi Kadapo)';), and burn withal the goodly fat of

thighs at other times propitiate them with libations and
:

when thou retirest to rest and when the

dawn has come, that they may have a heart and

incense, both

sacred

soul propitiate unto thee

neighbour's lot of land,

that so thou mayest buy thy

and not he

thine."

As between man and man,

the divinely appointed rule

be just."
This is the ever-recurring exhortation throughout the poem.^
It is justice, in Hesiod's
in
as
that
of
the
Platonic
view,
Protagoras,^ which is the
feature
man and the lower
between
distinguishing
of conduct

"

This law hath the son

and wild beasts and winged

animals
fishes

"

is

of

Cronus ordained

for

birds, that they should

devour one another, for there is no justice among them

but unto men he hath given justice, which is far the

best."

we

If

see in

it

which man

is

may

press this sentiment for all it is worth, we

a conception of the universe according to
placed in the world not to conspire with,

but to fight against the law of brute force that prevails

It is a conthroughout the rest of the animal kingdom.
"

demnation in advance of the " cannibal morality sometimes advocated in the age of the Sophists and Hesiod
:

indeed expressly inveighs against the '^eipoSUaL of his

own times, men whose principle of conduct is that " might
^

is

Among

right."

on kindness
respect

positive duties, the poet lays stress

suppliants, strangers, and orphans,

parents and the marriage-tie, and

to

for

hospitality to friends.

While praising

riches,

if

on
on

justly

acquired, he applauds contented poverty, and disapproves

of the mad pursuit of wealth.*^
multitude of additional

precepts
*

336
e.g.

is

contained in the poem, some of them relating

of the hawk
nightingale, 203 ff.
6
327-332, 342, 313,
40 f., 686.

apologue

ft".

213

ff.,

275.

322Aff.

^275ff.

M89, 192;

cf.

197

ff.,

and the

and the
320-326,

FROM HESIOD TO BACCHYLIDES

75

and reminding us frequently of

^
but the only other point
Pythagorean symbola
which it concerns us to notice is that Hesiod regards it
as hardly less incumbent on the virtuous man to requite
to ceremonial obligations,

the

evil for evil

than

"

If thy
good for good.
do thee an unkindness either in

to return

comrade is the first to

word or in deed, forget not to requite him twofold
howbeit, if he would lead thee again into friendship, and
^
is willing to make
restitution, do not say him nay."
We have here what is perhaps the first expression
in Greek literature of the sentiment sometimes held
to bo the most distinctive mark of Pagan morality,
"
Love your friends and hate your enemies." ^ This
]

ma.\;im

is

but

however, exclusively Pagan,

not,

char-

few
general
historical
from
the
be
quoted
might
In Greek literature it is
books of the Old Testament.^
of

acteristic

illustrations

but

all

primitive

of

although,

we

down

the

to

time

not

of

trust our authorities, there

one famous Greek

who

To Pittacus

assent.

it

universal
if

in

ethics

Socrates,

was at

least

at an early period withheld his

of Mitylene were ascribed the

"

Forgiveness is better than revenge," and

^
no
evil of a friend, or even of an enemy."
Speak
We have hitherto considered the moral and religious
teaching of the Works and Days without regard to
sayings,
"

general view of the course of human affairs.

contained in the legend of five successive ages of
mankind.*'
Whatever the immediate sources of the

Hesiod's

This

is

legend

may have

tendency

been,

it

has

to glorify the past,

its roots in man's innate

and the underlying notion

that of a progressive though not altogether uninterrupted deterioration from a primitive state of innocence
is

353-382, 715 tf.

709 ff. cf. 354.
;

large collection of instances

will
be
found in
Niigelsbach,
Nachliom. Thcol. p. 246 If.

"

See Westermarck,

The Origin

and Dcvelopinent of Moral Ideas

73

ff.
'^

Diog. Laeit.
109-201.

i.

76, 78.

p.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

76

and

bliss.
In each of these respects the myth offers a
curious contrast to the Theogony, in which order gradually
prevails over chaos.

The main

features of the golden

age,

which Hesiod

places in the reign of Cronus, are such as we find in

Men and Gods
later descriptions of the same period.^

a far closer harmony than now," and

"
Like Gods, they lived
pain and sorrow were unknown.
nor did pitiable old age
with hearts void of care
come upon them, but with hands like feet, and feet like

were united in

(7roSa9 Kai %et/9a9 6/jloloc)

they had joy in
banquets evermore, beyond the reach of woe and they
died as though subdued by sleep."
The earth spontane-

hands

and vegetarianism
all manner of fruits
was universal.^ After death, the men of the golden age
become " good daemons above the ground, givers of
ously yielded

to mortal

wealtli

men

"

apparently a different order of

The obscure
spirits from those already mentioned.^
words which I have italicised receive perhaps some light
from the burlesque account in Plato's SymiJosiuni of the
structure of

women

the

human frame before the creation of

man, we are told, was androgynous

in those days

and round, with four hands and four feet, constructed, it

would seem, on the same plan, and rendering it easy to
travel rapidly from place to place by a series of
somersaults.-'"'

In

any

women were unknown

with women evil came
mother

of

case, it is tolerably clear that

for
in the Hesiodic golden age
and Pandora, the
into the world
:

womankind, was created

Cronus, but of Zeus.^

We should stray too
described

the

far

three races

in

subject if we
intervene between the

from

that

our

period of gold and the period of iron

'

See esp. Plato, Pol. 271

ff.

-Cf./r. 187 Goettliiig.

109-120.
*
vv. 124 f. are probably spurious.

the reign not of

M89

still

less

can we

E.

70-98;

and Paus.

cf.
i.

Theoy.

24. 7.

571-590,

FROM HESIOD TO BACCHYIJDES

77

here attempt to discuss the many unsolved problems in

Hesiod's account of the silver and bronze races.
It

must

suffice to say that the age of heroes, which the poet

interposes between the bronze age and the iron, is a
reversion to a higher type, prompted by the almost
universal impulse of Greek writers to ideahse the life

As for the ultimate

depicted in the Homeric poems.
fate of the heroes, some, says Hesiod, were exempted from
death, and transported by Zeus to the farthest lindts of
the world
where they " dwell with hearts free from
;

care, in

the islands

of

Ocean stream, blessed

the blest, by the deep-eddying

whom the grain-giving

heroes, for

earth yields sweet fruit abundantly three times a year." ^

Last conies the age of iron, in which the poet laments

own unhappy
never lived among the
that his

lot is cast.
fifth

"

Would

that I had

race of men, but had either

For now it is the iron

nor
shall
ever
cease
from
weariness and woe
they
age
nor
from
destruction
by day,
by night but the Gods will
died before or heen horn later

Yet even

send cruel cares.

them

shall good be mixed

with evil.
But Zeus will destroy even this race of
In
mortals, when men have grey hairs at their hirth."
for

point of morality, mankind will reach the lowest depth

the bonds of friendship and family life will be dissolved

there will be no respect for parents and Gods, no regard

for truth and justice
might is right, and the workers
:

deeds

alone are honoured, until at last Aides

and Nemesis, folding their white robes about them,
leave the world and seek refuge with the immortals. of

evil

Some have
hope

But

asserted that Greek literature holds out no

of a golden age in the future as well as in the past.

it is clear from the words in italics that Hesiod

believes the iron age to be not less transient than the

others, and anticipates a happier period after the present

era

is

The end

fulfilled.
1

170

ff.

will come, according to

M 74-201.

the

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

78

poet,

when

children are l)orn grey-headed.

Now

Testament quoted by Dr. James in his discussion

in

of the

Revelation of Peter ^ we are told that among the signs of

"
children whose appearance shall be as
the end shall be
of those

advanced in years

for they that are born shall

according to the myth of the

And

be white-haired."

between which and the Hesiodic form

Politicus,

of the

now under

consideration there are several points

legend
of contact, the golden age returns just when disorder is
and in the golden age, instead of being
at its worst
;

born young and growing old, men are born from the
earth with grey hairs, and pass through middle age to
In view of
youth and childhood, till they fade away.^
these and other parallels,^ it seems highly probable that
the Hesiodic story of five ages is part of a general theory
of recurrent cycles in the life of the universe,

such as

we

In any case it contains, as

meet with in Empedocles.
a
hint
which
is fulfilled in the later
we have seen,
doctrine

the

of

or

airoKardaTaaL'i

restoration

of

all

things.^

The pessimism which shows

tion

the

of

iron

age

of

his

characteristics
"

of

full

is

and

evils,

is

one

itself in

the

of

Hesiod's descrip-

most noteworthy

"

The earth," he says,

poetry.
so is the sea
trkeiT} fiev yap

Se Oakaaaa
by day and night
unbidden, bearing evils to mortals,
for Zeus, the lord of counsel, hath denied
silently
them speech." ^ What is the origin of all this woe ?
The answer of Hesiod is given in the legends of

ryata

kukwv,

diseases

visit

TrXeir]

men

In the days when the Gods

Prometheus and Pandora.
were at strife with mortals, Prometheus, the champion
of humanity, attempted to deceive the king of heaven
1

p. 56.

Fol. 270

3 Referred
in
to
Plato's Eepublic, vol.
4

Cf. Virgil,

Ed.

Cuiuaei venit iam carmiiiis aetas ;

ah
sacclorum
integro
oiascitur ordo."

Magnus

(T.

4. 4

my
ii.

ed.

p.

"

f.

of

296 f.
Ultima

MOl

ff.

FROM HESIOD TO BACCHYLIDES

matter

the

iu

cognisant of
science

is

"

of

tlio

sacrificial

Though

offerings.

observe

fraud,

how

79

fully

the divine omni-

Zeus allowed himself to be

again implied/

he was

brooding evil against men, evil

In revenge, he deprived
that should be accomplished."
cheated,

for

human race of fire but Prometheus stole it back.

Thereupon Zeus bound his enemy with indissoluble
fetters and sent an eagle to prey upon his liver, till
in the fulness of time came Heracles, who with the
consent of Zeus slew the eagle and released Prometheus.
Mankind was punished by the creation of woman. Out
of earth and water Hephaestus compacted a female
shape, which the Gods and Goddesses invested with every
the

charm

and Epimetheus or Afterthought received her

from the hands of Hermes, forgetful that his brother
Prometheus had forbidden him in advance to accept
The woman opened the casket of
any gift from Zeus.
evil,^ and did not replace the lid until all the calamities
of
human life, Hope only excepted,^ had streamed
;

forth.4

The legend of Prometheus is one into which an

amount of meaning can be read. The quarrel
between God and man, the appearance of Prometheus
on behalf of mortals and his sufferings for their sake,
his ultimate deliverance by the son of Zeus and the
consequent reconciliation between man and God these
But Hesiod
are topics on which much might be said.
was probably quite unconscious of the deeper religious
infinite

ideas which the story

is

to

fitted

As

suggest.

for the

Pandora myth, though in part, perhaps, an allegory, it

seems clearly to imply that the creation of woman was
later than that of maij,^ and initiated his misfortunes.
1

See p. 71.
For parallels
See above p. 64.
to this conceptiou, see Frazer on
Pausauias i. 24. 7.
^

On

i^TTls

as an

evil

in

Greek

thought, see Butcher, Asjwds of

Greek Genius p. 160.
*
0. D. 47-105
Theog. r)12-.')89.
Cf. Plato, Pol. 271 E, Tim.
90 E f.

the

'^

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

8o

The

of

strain

misogynism

Greek

in

literature

begins

with Hesiod.^

In Hesiod, as httle as in Homer, are the miseries

human

of

by the prospect of a happier

The earthly paradise of which
existence after death.
we read in the Works and Days the so-called " islands
alleviated

life

"

is inaccessible to ordinary mortals,

being
reserved for a few divine favourites of the heroic age.^

of the blest

We have seen that the departed spirits of the golden

^
those of the silver
ase become daemons on the earth
somewhat
similar
a
position in the underage occupy
:

Of the men

world.*

were no more

they too

that

bronze era

it

is

said that

'^

men

future state of the

is

of the

"

the dank halls of chill Hades, and

known."
Hesiod is silent as to the

they descended to

enter

but the presumption

In the
all-receiving Hades.
of

iron

we read

of the dog Cerberus, pitiless gatehouse

of Death, who fawns on those who
keeper
"
suffers them not to leave
dismal
the
enter
abode, but
strict
watch
devours any whom he
again but keeping

Theojony,

of the

catches trying to go outside the gates of mighty

Hades

and dread Persephone."^

The only way of mitigating the ills of life, according
It is vain
to Hesiod, is by stern and unremitting toil.
to sit idle and hope
Hope is ever a deceiver we
must be up and doing. Nothing is more characteristic
The
of the Works and Bays than exhortations to work.^
'^

inherent dignity of labour finds apt expression in the

verse, epyov 8' ovSev 6vet,So<;, aepyetr] Se t' 6Vei8o9.^

famous

Heracles,

the

type

of

irov7]p6raTo<i Kal apiaro'i,

men."
1

2
^
*

^^

the
"

().

Cf. Plato, Eep. v. 469 A.

D. 141

153.

life,

is

called

In Hesiod the duty of work, hke the other

Theog. 590-612.
0. D. 166-173.
p. 76.

strenuous

the best and most laborious of

"
f.

759 ff_
0. D. 498-501.
298-316, 388 ff., 410-413, 498
311.

^V^- 95 Goettlicg.

f.

FROM HESIOD TO BACCHYLIDES

duty on which he
derives

insists so

sanction

its

from

much

that of being just

ordinance

divine

the

8l

and

"

Unto Wickedness men

prize
for the road
attain with ease, and in large numbers
But in front of
is short, and she dwells very near.
Virtue the immortals have set labour and the sweat
of the brow
the path is long and steep, and rough at
the first
but when the summit is reached, the way,
Virtue

the

is

of

toil.

though hard before, is thenceforth

reminded of the Christian sentiment,
and broad is the way, that leadeth

many

be they that enter

in

We

easy."
"

Wide

are

the gate,

is

and
For narrow is

to

destruction,

thereby.

the gate, and straitened the way, that leadeth unto

and few be they that find it." -

life,

So much, then, for the moral and religious teaching

The main difference between

of the poetry of Hesiod.

Homeric and Hesiodic poetry

predominantly

ideal, the

is

latter

that

former

the

is

predominantly practical

and realistic and it is just this presence of idealism

which gives to the Iliad and Odyssey a higher religious
;

as well as poetical value than

the Works and Days can claim.

Before

ment

in

either the

proceeding to consider the

gnomic poetry of the ideas

Thcogony or

further

we have

develophitherto

examined, a word or two must be said in passing about

known as the Homeric Hymns, the

which probably date from the period intervening between the Works and Days and the rise of
The best known and perhaps the earliest
gnomic poetry.
the body of poems

oldest

of

these

of

which

hymns

in

with a

is

the

and

later

inferior

Delphi, the production,

of the Hesiodic school.^

of

poem
it

0. T>.

287

ff.

Matt.

vii.

13

f.

the

we have
in

Delian Apollo,

is combined
honour of Apollo
it

would seem,

In the

first

of

of a

writer

these two

See the edition by Sikes and

Allen, pp. 59-69.
'

'

to

hymn

the form in which

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

82

poems occurs the

already quoted description of the

at
Delos, whither the lonians gathered
Apollo
"
"
their children and shame - fast wives
to do

festival of

with

honour to the God.^

Apollo in the hymn stands next
in dignity to Zens, and is the prophet of his unerring
counsel to mankind.
The whole poem is pervaded hy
the sense of abounding vitality and joy which the worship
The
Apollo usually inspired among the Greeks.

of

hymn, which relates the slaying of the Pythian

dragoness by Apollo, and the founding of the Delphian
oracle, contains a curious passage in which the sufferings of humanity are represented as furnishing a theme
later

the immortals.
When Apollo plays the
the assembled Olympians, " all the Muses
together with sweet voice in antiphonal chant replying, sing of the imperishable gifts of the Gods, and
the sufferings of men, all that they endure from the
of

song to

lyre

before

hands

men

of

the undying Gods, lives witless and helpless,

to find remecle for death or buckler

unavailing

against old age."

Of the other Homeric

Hermes and Aphrodite

hymns, those that

celebrate

exhibit the divine nature in a far

from favourable light but the hymn to Demeter is of quite

another kind and the story of the Goddess seeking for
her lost child is told by the poet with a tenderness and
purity of feeling seldom surpassed in ancient literature.
In the history of Greek religious thought the poem is
chiefly remarkable as the earliest literary document in
which the promise is made of a happier lot hereafter to
those who have been initiated.
When Demeter's anger
:

appeased by the restoration of her daughter for two

parts of the year, she revealed to Eumolpus and Celeus

is

"

manner

and taught them her goodly

mysteries, holy mysteries which none may violate, or
the

See p. 63.

of her rites,

"-

21.

189
462

Cf.

Homer,

ff.

Lang.

ff.

(sw^rrap. G4).

II.

FROM HESIOD

TO BACCHYLIDES

83

search into, or noise abroad, for the great curse from the
God restrains the voice. Happy is he among deathly-

men who hath

uninitiate,

behold

these

and hath no

lot in

in death beneath

And

things.

he that

them, hath never equal

is

lot

Whether or not
the Eleusinian mysteries expressly taught the doctrine
of immortality,
and the prevailing view since Lobeck is
that they taught no positive doctrines at all,
it is clearly
the

murky

gloom."

established by the testimony of the ancients themselves

that initiation was believed to be a passport to
happiness
in the future world.^

Turning now from epic to

us endeavour to see

and Hesiod was

how

built

lyric

and

elegiac poetry, let

the foundation laid by

upon

by

their

Homer

successors

from

Archilochus in the seventh to Bacchylides in the fifth

Our material is in most cases too scanty
century B.C.
to permit us to frame a theory of
development, and
assign

each particular poet a definite place in the

evolution of religious thought.
On this
I will take the important
topics singly, and

to

historical

account

them from the period as a whole. One general

may be made in advance the connexion
between religion and morality is not less close in the
illustrate

statement

poets w^e are about to consider than

Hesiod.
The moral law still derives

in

Homer and

it

is

its

binding force, not,

indeed, from the example, but from the ordinances of Zeus,

notable feature in the theology of these poets

the

is

way

obscures

in

which the

figure

of

Zeus

dwarfs

and

the other divine personalities.

Whereas in
Homer the inferior Gods play a large part in the economy
of the universe, and are frequently in
opposition to the
all

will of the

supreme God, there is now hardly any trace

\\\
Olympus, and we hear compara-

of divided counsels
'

474

Cf. Pindar, fr.

Lang.
p. 137 n. 1.
See the pajiouges referred to by
fT.

137, infra
^

Sikes and Allen in their note on

line 480.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

84

the divine working

tively little of the secondary deities
in nature and especially in human affairs is generally
"
associated with the name of Zeus.
Zeus, the loud
:

thunderer, controls the issues of

them according
leader of

to his will

the

all,"

uniformly

^
:

he

and disposes
the source of all, the

all things,
"

is

all-ruler," the

and

{fjLe^LaTOTTcnwp),

was

"

"

so

on.^

represented

as

"

"

father most high

assert that Zeus

To
more

powerful

than

on this subject
Destiny, would doubtless be incorrect
Greek thinkers were seldom quite consistent with themselves.
But in early lyric and elegiac poetry there are,
I think, no examples of conflict or antagonism between
the two powers and beyond doubt the prevailing rule
is to identify Fate with the ordinance or law of Zeus
and the immortals.
Like Homer, Solon also speaks of the
alaa Aio^, the destiny that proceeds from Zeus,^ and
treats the dispensations of Fate (fiolpa) as equivalent
to the gifts of the immortals from which there is no
In Bacchylides, too, we meet with expressions
escape.^
:

"

the destined ordinance of Zeus," the " all-powerful

Fate that cometh from the Gods."*^
Here and there,
like

where

Zeus

distinguished from the Fates, the same

which Zeus himself inspires is offered

is

religious veneration
to his ministers.

A remarkable fragment of a prayer by

an unknown author, who lived, perhaps, in the time of
Aisa, Clotho, and
Bacchylides, furnishes a case in point.
Gods to the throne of Zeus,
the powers who ratify his will, are invoked to send down
the blessings of law and justice and peace upon the
There is also, perhaps, a touch of halfpoet's country.'^
Lachesis, nearest of all the

religious resignation in
"

Theognis
I

Sem.

1. 1

f.

"
3

f.

6eov noipa,

5.

7.

104.

30

12. 63.
3. 25. 16. 24.

199.

Cf. ee(iv /aorpa, 12.

Sem.

the curiously Stoic language of

what Fate has decreed

suffer

ed. Bcrgk-Hiller.

Terp. 1.
Bacchyl. 16. 66,
2. 1

must

All

Cf.

Theog.
" the
fnfed gifts of the Gods."
'
80
fr.
adesp.

1033,

FROM HESIOD TO BACCHYLIDES

what

but

Fate

has

We may

fear."

will

decreed,

85

without

suffer

compare the words of Cleanthes the

"

Lead me,
Zeus, and thou too, Fate, wherever
I will follow fearlessly
me
have
to go.
ye
appointed
or if I play the coward and refuse, I needs must follow
Stoic

just the same."

The complete dependence

of lyric and

common theme

"

says Theognis,
divine agency."

is

happy

And

man upon

of

the Gods
"

is

No

man,"
elegiac poetry.
or poor or bad or good without
"
in Simonides we read
Unto
:

excellence none attaineth, neither city nor mortal, without

the Gods." * The language in which we are bidden to put

our trust in them

"Pray

feeling.

surely without

men."

is

not unfrequently steeped in religious

Gods: with the Gods is might,

to the

the

Gods

neither

is

"

Toi9 ^eot9 rideiv airavra

many a time they lift from

who lie on the black earth." ^

evil

nor

good to

trust all to the

out

their

Gods

troubles those

Tyrtaeus encourages the

"
Zeus hath not yet
Spartans by reminding them that
" ^
bowed down his neck
the Lord God still reigneth.
At
:

same time, we feel that there is now a greater

distance between the Godhead and mankind than in the
Homeric age.
Can man by searching find out God ?
Solon's reply is in the negative
the mind of the
"
immortals is altogether hidden from men.^
All our
"
and we have no
thoughts are vain," cries Theognis,
but the Gods accomplish all according to
knowledge
the

their will."

As
Zeus

in

Homer and

is

above

6'tt(

5^

quatrain of

striking
^

Hesiod, so also in the elegiac poets,

things the dispenser of justice.

all

/j.oipa TraOelv,

Archilochus represents him as the

oOn SiSoiKa

TraOeif, 818.

^fr. 91 Pearson.
^

*
^

165

Arch. 53
oCwaj

9. 2.
8

f.

44.

Theog. 171

"
^

16.

141
f.

cf.

355

ff.,

556.

cf.

71.

Zevs avxiva \o^bv

Cf. Soph. El. 174.
f.

^x^'*

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

86

rewarder of right and the avenger of wrong not only

"
among men, but also among the lower animals.
father Zeus, thine

is

the dominion of heaven

men's deeds of wickedness and right

thou seest

thou regardest the

As usual, however,
insolence and justice of beasts." ^
the punishment of sin is dwelt upon more often than the
Both Solon and Theognis declare that
reward of virtue.

Wealth,

if

justly acquired, stands

sure

decidedly most emphasis on the converse

ill-gotten gain leads to destruction.^
"
to Solon,
though she keep silence,

what hath been, and surely comes

but they lay

principle, that

"

Justice," according

knows what
to

take her

is

and

fill

of

In a highly poetical passage he

of
Zeus to a wind that springs
the
compares
vengeance
devastation
on sea and land, till
up suddenly, spreading

vengeance at the last."

rising to heaven it scatters the clouds, and the sun again

shines forth.
God " is not a man, that he should be

quick to anger at each offence yet he will not always

One
ignore the sinner, but will reveal him in the end.
;

pays the penalty now, another afterwards.

escape, and the doom ordained of Heaven
themselves,
suffer

for

it

will surely fall hereafter

If the guilty
fall

not upon

the innocent will

the guilty, their children, perhaps, or later

*

generations."
just quoted is the more deserving of our
attention, because in the literature of Greece it is one of

The passage

the earliest passages in which the sins of the fathers are

The
to be visited on the children.
explicitly said
a

particular stage in the

^
and you will
development of the moral consciousness
form
it is emphatically
remember that in its Hebrew

doctrine

is

characteristic

of

condemned by Jeremiah and Ezekiel. " In those days

they shall say no more. The fathers have eaten sour
=^

84. Cf. Aesch.

Sol. 12. 7 11". ;
2.

15

f.

Ag. 55 ff.
Theog. 197

ff.

12. 17 ff.
See Westermarck, Origin
Development etc. p. 49 tf.

and

FROM HESIOD TO BACCHYLIDES

and the childreu's teeth are

grapes,

own

every one shall die for his

set

011

But
More than

edge.

iniquity."

any other of the elegiac poets, Theognis

and he,
the moral chaos of the world

is

87

afflicted

by

condemns,
not indeed the doctrine, but the stern reality which it
"
When the children of an unjust father
expresses.
;

too,

after justice in thought and act, dreading thy

son of Cronus, loving righteousness from the
wrath,
first among their fellow-citizens, let them not pay for the

follow

transgressions of their sires

As

it is,

the doer escapes,

The same poet elsewhere

punished."^
remonstrates with Zeus for treating the righteous and
"
Dear Zeus, I wonder at thee
the unrighteous alike.
thou art the lord of all thou hast great power and
honour, and knowest well the thoughts of each man's

and another

is

How

heart.

deal the

then, son of Cronus, dost thou think fit to

to sinful and just, careless whether

same measure

their hearts are turned to

moderation or to insolence

" ^

more, the wicked prosper, and the righteous are

*
forsaken why then should we reverence the Gods ?
been
has
felt
This is the familiar difficulty which
always

Nay

by those who would

"

fain believe in the justice of God.

Lord
thou,
yet would I reason

Eighteous art

the cause with thee

wherefore doth

the

of

way

the

Wherefore are all they at ease that

wicked prosper ?
"
deal very treacherously ? ^
It is plain from these extracts that the moral and
religious problems which occupied tlie mind of Aeschylus
were already beginning to be raised
before

The

Christ.

truth

characteristic doctrines of

is

in the sixth

that

century

several

Greek tragedy appear

of

the

in the

Thus, for example, Theognis tells of the

gnomic poets.
daemon that leads men into sin, making evil seem to them
1

Jer.

xxxi.

737

29

f.

cf.

Ezek.
*

xviii.

^
tr.

373 fT.
743-752.
Jer. xii. 1.

Cf.

Solon 14.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

88

good, aud good evil

aud the conception of the origin

and nature of sin which we meet with in the fragments
aUke of Solon and Theoguis has many parallels in
;

Undue prosperity or wealth (6X^o<i) proAeschylus.

duces Kopo<i, that is, fulness, satiety, or pride
from
;

comes

Acopo?

v^pi<i,

showing

itself

in

want

of moderation,

mean and the child of v^pi^

Although an attempt is sometimes
made to distinguish between God-given riches and the
wealth to which the unrighteous by themselves attain,
in neglect of the golden
"

is ar?;,

other

at

times

the

attributed

equally

is

responsibility

destruction."

to

prosperity that leads to sin is

the Gods
so that the final
:

with God, and not with man.

Hybris,

and greatest evil and God is

its author.^
So long as the Gods maintained their
position in Greek thought as the sole and universal
causes, it was inevitable that the sins of mankind should
continue to be laid at their door.
At the same time,
this view is not, of
course, consistently maintained
is

Theognis says,

the

first

throughout the period we are

now discussing.

Bacchylides,

Homeric Zeus, makes man himself responsible

and its consequences " Zeus, who rules on high

like the
for sin

and beholds

not the author of grievous woes

for mortals.
all men is the path that
before
No, open
leads to unswerving Justice, attendant of holy Eunomia
all things, is

and prudent Themis

happy the land whose sons take

her to dwell with them."

The view

Theognis, that the Gods deliberately lead

in
astray, is,
principle at least, as old as Homer.^
Other unfavourable features of the Homeric theology
of

men

seem
^

401

to be less

if.

cf.

133

prominent
ft'.,

151

in the poets of this time.

Solon

Solon 12. 11, 16, 75 2. 7 ft".,

35 f.
4. 3 f.
Theog. 153 f.,
In Solon and
605, 693, 1103 f.
;

of.

Theognis

destruction.
see Sol.

12. 75.

(LTri

generally

means

7,

ov

15

])ra,ise

Supra

p. 38.

of rb fxirpov,

Theog. 220, 331,

335, 401.
151
gj; ^33 ff_
*
14. 51 ft"., tr. Jebb.
.

It

FROM HESIOD TO BACCHYLIDES

89

that the fragments of Greek elegiac

seldom
or
never impute the grosser immoralities
poetry
to the Gods.
Occasionally tliey are said to be de-

remarkable

is

and envious ^ perhaps the

is
also to some extent implied
overmuch prosperity is fatal. So
ceitful

Godhead appears

"

envy

the

in

belief

we can

far as

Gods

the

of

"

that

the

see,

omnipotent and

to be regarded as both

omniscient.^

One or two other points may be briefly mentioned.

The conception of prayer and sacrifice throughout this
period is still in the main Homeric,^ though the lyric
As for
poets sometimes strike a more spiritual note.^
the rule of conduct between man and man, we have
"

do good to friends
repeated illustrations of the precept
^
and evil to enemies," with little that is suggestive of a
more generous spirit.^ In Homer we noted a tendency

upon wickedness as a condition of the intelthan of the will.'^

The same tendency
^
and the other Homeric maxim,
appears in Solon
that character depends upon environment, is echoed by
to look

rather

lect

Archilochus.^

remains to say a word about the view of

It only

and death

reflected in the

poetry of

this

time.

life

The
Of

shade of melancholy has, if anything, grown deeper.^*^

all the gnomic poets, Solon is perhaps the least inclined to
^^
and it
pessimism
is happy, but all on
;

able."
life

We

^-

hear

is

Solon

whom

wrote,
the sun looks

much about

and happiness,^^ the rapid

Sim. 25

Corinna 3a.

"

who

No

mortal

down

the instability of
flight

of

man

are miser-

human

youth and

its

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

90

^
and tbe
pleasures/ the evils of poverty and old age,^
"
of
the
is
death.'*
Small
sure approach of
man,"
strength
"
and his cares are irremediable toil
writes Simonides,
:

upon toil in life's brief span, and the shadow of inevitable

for good and bad have equal
death hanging over all
:

Theognis pathetically laments that the

Gods have not revealed to man the road which he must
The
follow in order to find favour in their eyes.<^
chaos
of
his
contemplation of the moral and political
share in death."

own times/ added

general

misery

man's

of

"

Best
him a feeling of despair
and next best, when you are
pass the gates of Hades as soon as pos-

existence, produces in
not to be born
it
is
to

born,

the

to

sible." ^

generally enforced

is

caiye

^^

diem

antidote the duty of resignation

sometimes the lesson drawn

of

By way

is

^
;

nowhere

do we

the hope held

find

Heroic
compensation
^^
but
deeds are rewarded by an immortality of fame
"
all men, heroes and cowards alike, pass to the
shadowy
abode of the dead," whose "dark gates enclose the
out

hereafter.

redress

or

of

souls against

their will."

forgetfulness

to

^^

mortal

There "Persephone giveth

men,

"

depriving
"

As soon

them

of

as the earth

thought {^Xdirrovaa v6olo)P

covers him, and he descends into Erebus, the home of
Persephone, no man rejoices in the strain of the lyre
or flute-player, or in quaffing the gifts of Dionysus."

iMimnermus

1.

2.

4-10,

1-lG

Mimn.

2. 12ff.,

Theoguis,
351 ff'., 383

^Mimn.
527
*

Sim

f.,

1007

Mimn.

e.g.
ff'.,

4,
ff.,

2.

and

especially

267
173 ft".,
621 f., 649 ff.
5.

3 f

ff.,

1131 f.
Anacreoii
7
;

7
8

"Sim.

32

12^30,

84,

168

ff.

85; Bacchyl. 3. 90,

cf. Theog. 237 ff.,
;

867.
^-

19.

381 f.
1135 ff.
Cf. Bacchyl.
425 ff.

12.

Tlieog.

Theog. 708 ff. cf. Anacr. 32.

Sim. 19 Bacchyl. 5. 63
;

20.
6

Arch. 9. 5 ff
Tlieog. 591 ff.,
1029 ff., llG2ff., 1178.
^o
Alcaeus, 17; Theog. 567 ff.,
877 ff., 983 ff., 1191 f.; Sim. 69.
.

Theog. 985ff.

^*

ff.

ff'.

fr. 87 adesp.
'^

5.

160

ft'.

Theog. 705.

''Theog. 973

ff.

FROM HESIOD

TO BACCHYLIDES

91

pathetic fragment of the poetess Erinua tells of the

8'
ev
and darkness of the underworld
cri'ya

silence

veKueaari, to 8e aKoro^i

respects
still

what

oaae Kuraypel}

the poetical conception of

it

was

in

Homer.

In
the

all

essential

future

life

is

LECTURE V
ORPHIC RELIGIOUS IDEAS
Except, perhaps, in the Theogony of Hesiod, we have
been concerned, so far, with religious and theological
conceptions of which the germ, at least, is usually to be
found in the Homeric poems.
With Pindar, as we shall
see,

the case

somewhat different
The eschatological
some extent derived not from Homer,

is

ideas of Pindar are to

but from a non-Homeric, or rather, perhaps, an anti-

Homeric source I mean from the Orphic teaching

the nature and destiny of the human soul.
To
subject I will therefore invite

The

extraordinary

Orphism made
century

B.C.

Dieterich,

its

It

Gruppe,

this

your attention to-day.

religious
appearance in

is

as to

movement

known

as

Greece during the sixth

the researches of Eohde,

due to
Miss Harrison,

and

many

other

investigators during recent years, following in the path

marked out by Lobeck, that we are now enabled to form

a more or less consistent picture of the

In

its

main

it

phenomenon

in

presents the appear-

features,
question.
ance of a religious awakening or revival but it was by
no means destitute of dogmatic significance and value,
and a considerable part of the Orphic teaching about the
;

was

afterwards assimilated, not only by Pindar,

by the philosophers, particularly Pythagoras,
Where the movement originated,
Empedocles, and Plato.
or whether it arose in several centres independently, and
by what social, political, and economic circumstances it
was fostered and promoted, are questions which do not
soul

but

also

92

ORPHIC RELIGIOUS IDEAS

93

One of the
as yet, perhaps, admit of a final answer.
most active centres of early Orphism was the powerful
city of Croton in Italy, afterwards the home of the
Otto Gruppe, indeed, believes

Pythagorean brotherhood.
to be probable that

it

mysticism makes

its

the districts where Orphic

appearance in the course of the
in

all

sixth century, the influence of the Orphic community at

In Athens we hear of three
Croton was at work.^

representatives of Orphism living at the court of

Pisistratus
Onomacritus, known to history in connexion with the alleged Pisistratean recension of Homer,

Zopyrus

of

Heraclea, and a certain Orpheus of Croton,

who may possibly,

summoned from his

conjectures, have been

city in order to transplant
the Orphic doctrine to the soil of Attica.^
It is at all
events certain that vast quantities of Orphic literature
as

Gruppe

native

were in circulation at Athens during the next century

and the impulse to its manufacture may well have been
given by Onomacritus and his associates.

'^

There

is,

show how

unhappily, no contemporary evidence to

the Orphic communities were organised

which we are now concerned.

The analogy of similar confederations at a later period
of Greek history makes it probable that the Orphic
during the period with

votaries,

who

in Plato's

time were

known

as the saints

or holy ones (oo-iol),* formed themselves into religious

associations or Oiaaoi, the constitution of which was

copied from that of the city in which they

were established.
These associations were independent
of one another, so far as appertained to matters of
government and administration Ijut it may be taken
usually

as

certain

that

the eschatological

which they professed

*

Griech. Myth, in
1034.
\>.

Handbuch

were

Iwan Muller's

and

other doctrines

fundamentally
^
*

See infra p. 103.

Jicp. li. 363 C.

the

same.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

94

In some respects the position which the Orphic believers

occupied towards the State religion must have been

analogous to that of modern dissenters but while on

the one hand the theoretical cleavage between them
;

and the established form of religion was much greater,

on the other hand there is little or no indication that
they abstained from taking part in the religious festivals
and so long as
and services which the city ordained
;

its

part,

Greek
in

their duty in this respect, the State, for

with the characteristic toleration of ancient

fulfilled

they

life, left

the

case
to

attempted

them

of

alone, unless, of course, as

early Pythagorean society, they

use their religious organisation for the

furtherance of political ends.

Our knowledge of the history and

Orphism

is

not

certainty at what
into vogue.
is

to describe

Orphic

doctrine

to

sufficient

enable

development of
to say with

us

particular time particular doctrines

The most that I can attempt to

came
do

happened

the

some
as

of

was

it

the leading features of the

in the fifth and fourth

In the absence of contemporary

documents, we must of necessity be content to reconstruct
centuries before Christ.

for

ourselves

the

general

character

of

sixth

century

Orphism from what we know of it in the two following

The two authorities on whom we shall
centuries.
As for
principally rely are Empedocles and Plato,
the Orphic fragments, they undoubtedly contain much
that descends from a remote antiquity, but they have
not as yet been adequately sifted and it may perhaps
;

be

doubted whether so

difficult

and

delicate

task

On this account
will ever be successfully accomplished.
^
it is seldom safe to make use of Abel's collection
except
by way

of illustrating

such conclusions as

may

be drawn

from authorities whose date we know.

Even in Plato,
allusions to Orpheus and his followers are not very
1

Orphica, 1885.

ORPHIC RELIGIOUS IDEAS

common

but

some

is

compensation

95

afforded

by an

archaeological discovery, which throws a good deal of

light on the Orphic conception of the soul and its
In the neighbourhood
destiny in the future world.

famous rival city of Croton,

the probable headquarters, as we have seen, of Orphism
in the Hellenic world, six inscribed tablets of thin
of the ancient Sybaris, the

gold have been discovered in tombs and besides these,

there is one from Crete and one from the vicinity of
;

Rome.

I quote from Miss Harrison's

Greek Belijion, in which they are fully

All these tablets

Prolegomena

to

described and illustrated

"

have

this

much

in

common

buried with the dead they contain instructions for his

conduct in the w^orld below, exhortations to the soul,
repeated, confessions of faith and
performed, and the like."
They supply, in
In
short, a kind of vacle tnecum to the lower world.

formularies
of

to

be

ritual

treating of the Orphic eschatology, I shall make frequent

use of these inscriptions, the most important of which
probably belong to the fourth century before Christ,

although the doctrine they embody is much older.

Before, however, we proceed to deal with the eschatology of the Orphics, a word or two must be said

about

This was contained

theological doctrine.
numerous and often grotesque theogonies, which

their

in the

represented the successive stages in the evolution of the

world under the figure of successive dynasties of Gods.^

The only point which it concerns us to notice here is
the element of pantheism in these theogonical poems.

One of the fragments celebrates Zeus as "first and last, the

"
head and middle, out of whom all things are created

Zevs TTpoiTOS yepero, Zevs vcrraTOS, apyiKepavvos,

Zfiis Kf(paKri, Zevs fieaaa, Aios 8' eV navTa TfrvKTai*
^
pp. 573-600, with the critical
appendix of Mr. Gilbert Murray,

pp. 660-674.
2
p. 573.

Fiaguients in Abel, 0?y/t. pp.

156-209.
123 Abel.
Cf. Oiyh. hymn.

V-

11.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

96

The legend ran that the universe with

was fashioned within the frame of Zeus,
swallowed
great

Phanes, in
all

world-egg,

The

present.^

rest

whom,
the

the

of

the

as

or

seeds

all

its

parts

he had

after

the

of

offspring

"

"

were

potencies
describes

the

fragment

world itself as nothing but the body of the God the

heavens are his head, the sun and tlie moon his eyes,
and so on his mind is the aether.^ Whether the
:

whole

of this

fragment

is

early,

but the line in which Zeus

is

may

well be doubted

said

to

"

be the

head

"

and middle of all things was certainly known to Plato

"
and he speaks of the doctrine as " an ancient story
a phrase which he elsewhere applies to primitive
"We shall afterwards find an example
Orphic beliefs.^
of the same kind of pantheism in Aeschylus, and possibly
;

also in Pindar.

Far more important in its influence on subsequent

Greek thought is the Orphic conception of the origin and

human soul. A passage in the Cratylus

Plato will form a convenient starting-point for our

history of the
of

inquiry.

Among

the

words whose derivation

discussed by

is

Three suggestions
Socrates in that dialogue, crSifjia is one.
The first is that aw/ia comes from arj/xa, it
are made.
being held by some, says Socrates, that the body is in
The second
aoy/jia o-Tj/xa.
reality the grave of the soul
proposal also connects the two words, but takes aijfia in
"
"
"
or
the sense of sign
index," and regards the body as
that by means of which the soul as

it

were

signifies or

Socrates himself
indicates whatever she desires to say.
is disposed, he tells us, to favour a third explanation.
He would ascribe the invention of the word acofia to

Orpheus and
reason

why

his

followers (ol

they called the

\fr. 121, 122, 123 Abel.

Reading vovs dipevdi^s in

body by
=*

1.

19.

aficpl

Laws,

70 C.

'Opcfiea)

this
715

and the

name
E

cf.

is

that,
Phaed.

ORPHIC RELIGIOUS IDEAS

97

accordiug to their belief, the soul is coiidoniueil lu

incarnation on account of her sins, and the bodyserves as the enclosure (7rep//3o\o9) or prison-house (Seo-In this way Socrates
fxcoTi'jpiou) which holds her fast.

from (tw^u), without, as he triumphantly

the change of a single letter.^
The second of
these derivations does not concern us
but the theories
derives

a-oofxa

asserts,

that underlie the

one another

and

first
it is

the incarceration of

and third are

closely related

not unreasonable to infer that

the soul during her

life

to
if

on earth

was a tenet of the Orpines, they sometimes expressed

what is after all essentially the same belief in a more
"

the body is a tomb."

emphatic way by saying that
This inference is supported by the well-known passage
of the Gorgias in which Plato gives his fullest
exposition
of the (Twixa

a-ij/na

"

"

I should not be surprised,"

Euripides speaks truly when he says,

knows whether life is death, and death life ?
So

writes Plato,
'

doctrine.

Who

if

'

that in reality, perhaps,

we

are in a state of death.

myself once heard one of the wise

men

say that in the

we

are dead, and the body is our tomb." ^

There is reason to believe that the representatives
of the Orphic way of
thinking in the fifth and fourth
life

present

centuries before Christ were sometimes described as the

"

men

wise

that Plato

"

or

is

"

"

sages

thinking

^
;

of

and
the

therefore probable
Orphic doctrine in this
it

is

passage.
If Plato is to be trusted,

we may consequently suppose

that the conception of the body as the prison-house, and

even perhaps the grave, of the soul was entertained in

Orphic

circles,

and that the cause

of her

the body was believed to be ante-natal

theologians and
1

"
^

Cmt. 400 C
492
I

fr. 221 Abel.

f.

luive cited

seers," says

"

The ancient

Clement, quoting a fragment

this

statement in

Plato,

the evidence for

imprisonment in

sin.

llejj.

vol.

ii.

my

edition

p. 379.

of

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

98

"

bear witness that owing to certain sins

yoked with and buried in the body as in a
tomb." ^
It is this belief which appears to have supplied
the original motive or starting-point of the Orphic reof

Philolaiis,

the soul

is

Like

discipline.

ligious

Buddhism

and

Christianity,

Orphism was a

religion of deliverance (Xyo-i?), of salvation

the cry of the believer, like that of St. Paul, was, "

Who

me from

"

body of death ?
We shall frequently have occasion to return to this
characteristically Orphic idea of the body as the sepulchre
or prison of the soul, and I hope to show you hereshall deliver

how

after

this

made

Plato

it

the basis of that profoundly

religious view of the ethical end which he puts before

us in the Phaedo but in the meantime let us endeavour
;

to understand its connexion

have

to

what

is

with the rest of the Orphic

The most important questions with which we

doctrine.

deal are three in number.

In the

first

place,

the teaching of Orphism about the soul before

her incarnation ?
Secondly, by what means, if any, is

her

final deliverance

from the prison-house

what

of

body

to be

the destiny that awaits

And, thirdly,
the soul after she has escaped from her prison ?
I will
endeavour to answer these questions, so far as an answer
effected

is

by sketching in outline the life-history of an

Orphic soul; but while on the one hand many details
are necessarily wanting, on the other hand it would be
rash to affirm for certain that everything which I shall
put before you had a place in the Orphic religion so
is

possible,

It is none the less true

early as the sixth century B.C.
that the family resemblance between the different ideas

to

which

I shall call

your attention

common

is sufficient to

justify

ancestry and in this case we

must be content to infer the character of the parent from
tliat of the children.
their claim to a

The

first

point to be noticed
1

is

that the soul, according

Diels^'i. p. 245.

ORPHIC RELIGIOUS IDEAS

and

to the Orpliic view, is of celestial origin

a particula divinae aurar, a

empyrean substance or aether.

is

particle
"

99

divine.

the

of

From heaven

It

pure

my

is

"

such is the
yourselves knovs^ also
soul
in
which
the
addresses
the Gods
departed
language
and again, " for I, too, claim to be
of the lower world
as

descent,

ye

your
starry heaven

Man

race."

blest

of

"

"

is

child

of

and

earth

the earth, but his soul,

body
"
rooted in the
as a late Orphic line expresses it, is
"
air
celestial
element
Before
ai6epo<;
eppi^coTat."
his

entering for the

of

is

time into a corporeal tabernacle,

first

each particular soul would seem to have lived in the

society of Gods, and was in fact a God.
Empedocles
as daemons compelled by
wander from the abode of the
"
an exile and a wanderer
himself, he says,

incarnate

souls

of

speaks

decree to

necessity's

he is
"
from heaven ((f}vya<i OeoOev koL a\r}Tr}<i).^
In what way the Orphics conceived of the descent
blessed

into

the

they pictured

process

as

According to Gruppe,*
something physical and

particles

of

the

the

Some

material.

not

is

body

clear.

divine

aether

sink

downwards
earth, where they become clothed,
"
in a strange garment of flesh."
as Empedocles says,
Aristotle
that in the so-called Orphic
We are told by
verses the soul was said to be carried to and fro by
the winds, and drawn into the body by respiration."
the

to

'*

this

If

birth,

refers, as
it

enter with the

apparently

seem

would

first

that

breath

the

does, to

it

the

soul

we draw

was
so

moment

of

believed

to

that

we have

here an early example of the theory which has sometimes been called panspermismus, soul-seeds swarming

everywhere, ready to rush into the body as soon as

But however this may be, the
respiration begins.

]).

Diels p. 495. 3

Quoted

l.y

f.,

13.

Gruppe, Gr. Myth.

1035.
^fr. 115Diels.2

"
'>

I.e. p. 1035.
^
fr. 126 Diels.

Dc An. A
241 Abel,

5.

410b

27fr.

cf./r.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

lOO

originating

cause of

the

descent was sin

soul's

and

imprisonment in the body has a penitentiary purpose.

To one who is fresh from the spacious atmosphere of
heaven, the world in which we live appears an avrpov
its

a cave roofed over by the sky

an expreswhich appears to foreshadow the simile of the Cave
"
I wept and I wailed," says Empedocles,
in Plato.^
vTTocTTe'yov

sion
"

when

I beheld the unfamiliar place, the joyless region

where Murder and Wrath and troops of other Dooms

and loathsome diseases and putrefactions and running
sores wander this way and that throughout the meadow
of

Ate"

As soon
the

at the doors of the prison-house close round

has

entered

upon what

the Orphics
"
wheel of generation
"
and the circle of Necessity," a long and weary circuit
of birth and death which must be traversed before we
can return to the place from whence we came.^
The

her,

soul

variously called the

"

circle

"

"

or

normal duration of this circuit, according to Empedocles,

with whose account the myth in the Phaedrus of Plato
appears to agree, is thrice ten thousand seasons, by
which, in

all

Of

years.*

probability, the poet means ten thousand

appalling vicissitudes the poet gives a

its

"

The exile
wanders from the home
graphic picture.
of the blessed, being born into all kinds of mortal
forms, passing from one laborious path of life to another.
For the mighty Air chases him into the Sea, and the
Sea spits him forth upon the dry land, and Earth casts

him
hurls

light of the blazing Sun, and

into the eddies of Air.
One takes

into the

him

the other, and he

of

these,
^

Emp.

//-.

is

an exile

hated of them

rpoxos

rrjs

I also

all.

am

one

and a wanderer from the Gods."

120 Diels^

"fr. 118, 121 Diels^.

1040. The phrase

yevicrews occurs also (with

=*'Gi-uppe, I.e. p.

the Sun
him from
^

a different meaning) in St. James

iii.

see

Emp.

Mayor ad

fr. 115. 6

248 E.

V-

115. 6

ff.

loc.

Plato, Phacdr.

ORPHIC RELIGIOUS IDEAS

her various incarnations, the soul,

111

if

loi

we may

trust

the riotous imagination of the poet, leaves no realm of

nature unvisited
she drees her weird in earth and
:

Ere now," the poet says, " I too liave

been a boy, a girl, a bush, a bird, and a scaly fish in
sky and

"

sea,

the sea."^

While present

in the body,

the

soul

is

therefore

fallen angel doing penance for her sins.

Her ultimate
aim is to be released from her chains, and recover the

inheritance she has

be removed

we cannot hope
In

away.

How

lost.

As we

to regain

are the

prison-bars to

our freedom through

lost

until

it

Orphic language, the

the stain

sin, so

is

purged

must be made

soul

"

"

The notion of " purity

and " purification
is
one of the commonest and most characteristic ideas in
and when we meet with the conOrphic literature

'pure.

ception in Plato, as we often do, particularly in the

Phaedo, there is generally reason to believe that he
is building on an understructure of Orphism.
I have

mentioned

already

Thus

two

in

the

spoken,
these words
the

"

or

pure
of

the

dwellers

Pure

"

Orphic believers
"
holy ones (Kadapoi,

Italian

departed
"
:

the

that

"

designated the

spirit

tablets of

which

were
oacoi).

have

addresses

Persephone in
queen of
no
have
right to

come from the pure,

underground."

We

was only an external and ceremonial

assume that
purity to which the devouter followers of the Orphic
it

according to the principles of their

emancipation was possible without the
inward cleansing of the soul from the pollution of the
As Miss Harrison has said, " Consecration
body.
faith aspired
school,

no

for,

final

perfect purity issuing in divinity is the keynote of Orphic faith, the goal of Orphic ritual." ^
One of the ways by which the Orphics endeavoured to
{6ai6T7j<i),

make themselves
\/>. 117.

"

"

pure

was through the observance

Diels p. 495,

I.e. p.

478.

of

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

I02

a particular
calls it/

mode

of

The

life.

"

Orphic

was distinguished by several

life,"

as Plato

rules of abstinence,

such as the rule against partaking of animal food,^ except

on certain sacramental festivals like the Omophagia or
"

Feast of raw

flesh."

Empedocles elevates

this precept

into a law of universal obligation,* resembling the eternal

ordinances of which we read in Sophocles and he also
;

connexion with the Orphic doctrine of

"
Do ye not see that in the thoughtmetempsychosis.
" ^
lessness of your hearts ye are devouring one another ?
into

it

brings

We

hear of various other taboos in the Orphic religion,

among them the prohibition against beans, of which all

The
kinds of interpretations were current in antiquity.
and
we
of
seems
have
been
forbidden
also
to
eating
eggs
:

by Herodotus that it was unlawful for the

In
to
Orphics
bury the dead in woollen garments."
in
Greece
it
is
that
asceticism
clear
general, however,
never attained to anything like the same proportions as in
India, even among those of the Orphic and Pythagorean

are

told

school of thought.
Among the Orphics, as Eohde has
pointed out, the ascetic life, if such it may be called, is
largely

ruled

by

An

symbolism.

artificial

value

is

to certain
usages and objects, which
unbeliever would pronounce to be indifferent and from
these the believer abstains, because they are held to be

the

attached

"

impure," and consequently tend to retard the deliverance

he

seeks.'^

In addition to the rules

of

life

by obedience

to

which

"

the Orphic brotherhoods sought after purity," there was

also a great variety of rites and ceremonies designed
accelerate

to

To some such ceremony

this end.

purificatory nature allusion

1

Laws 782

-PI.

I.e.

''

C.

fr.

Eur. Hip-p.

9.52,

and

elsewhere.
3

.See

Miss Harrison,

*fr. 135.

ii.

125

ji.

I.e. p.

479

fl'.

of

seems to be made in the

509
^

136
81.
f.

cf.

ff.

Rohde,

137.

See Rohde. Psyche" ii

Miss Harrison, I.e. p
/.c.

ORPHIC RELIGIOUS IDEAS

103

formula occurring in more than one of the tablets already

"
^
In connexion with
mentioned, A kid I fell into milk."
this

phase of Orphism we hear of various classes of

time of Plato
6vr^7ro\iKd or

religious literature in the

sacrificial

liturgies, absolutions,

incantations, initiations,

and so forth, the existence of which points to an elaborate

and complicated ritual.- Eohde has called attention to an
Orphic fragment which implies that souls in purgatory
can be helped by ceremonies performed on earth but it
may be doubted whether this is not a later development.^
That so much ceremonial may have tended to hide from
;

the

Orphic worshippers the inner significance

is

religion,

probable

No Greek

enough.

their

of

thinker had

more sympathy than Plato with the spiritual side of

but he feels nothing but indignation and
Orphism
for
the degrading superstitions and practices
contempt
;

connected with the Orphic

In the BepuUic he

ritual.

the effect upon the minds of the young

complains
by fostering the idea that sin can be expiated and
redemption attained by such purely ceremonial and
of

external

methods.

"

"

j\Iendicant

priests

and

sooth-

the gates of the rich, and

have
them
that
they
acquired from the Gods
persuade
and
charms
the power to heal
means
of
sacrifices
by
sayers," he observes,

visit

with pleasures and festal

committed by a man

rites

whatever

liimself or

by

sin

has been

his ancestors.

They
provide us with a heap of books, bearing the
names of Musaeus and Orpheus, sons, we are assured, of
also

Moon and

the Muses, liturgies by which they sacrifice,

persuading not only private individuals, but also cities,
that there are ways of absolution and purification from
the

by means of sacrifices and joyous pleasures, both

during life, and also after death, through what they call
sin

'

Discussed by Miss Harrison, Ac.

595 ff.
PI. 7vVy7. ii. 364 E.
Cf. Phacd.
108 A.

p.

]i.
^fr. 208 Abel (Rohilc, I.e.
The passages wliicli llobde
128).
cites from Plato do not necessarily,
I tliink, involve this lielief.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

I04

the

mystic rites, which deliver us from the wrath to

but dreadful is the doom awaiting those who have

come

not sacrificed."

The

professional priest or friar of

whom

Plato here speaks, was a familiar figure in the fourth and

third centuries before Christ.
Theophrastus mentions it
as one of the characteristics of the superstitious man, that
he is careful to pay a monthly visit to the Orpheotelestae

company with

in

wise engaged, in
their nurse.^

It

his wife, or

his wife should be other-

if

company with his

is difficult

little

children and

believe that the ecstatic

to

extravagances which the Orphic mysteries sometimes induced could have been otherwise than detrimental to
religion and morality, although there were doubtless many
to whom these mysteries brought spiritual consolation

and hope.^
So much then for the means by which purification was
On leaving the body, the soul enters
sought during life.
In
on an intermediate state of rewards or punishments.
the eschatological

of

myth

the Republic, the duration of

human life being

reckoned at a hundred, and the underlying idea being
that every good or evil action of our life is expiated or
this period is given as a

thousand years,

rewarded ten times, a calculation in which Pythagorean

is clearly to be traced.*
That the early Orphic
and Pythagorean eschatologies were equally precise, it

influence

would be rash to affirm but as we meet again with the

"
"
wheel of a thousand years in Virgil,^ whose picture of
the lower world is derived in part at least from Orphic
sources, it is not unlikely that we have here a relic of
some early Orphic apocalypse. The investigations of
Dieterich and others have shown that there was a considerable amount of apocalyptic literature in Greece
We hear in particular of an
before the time of Plato.
;

364 B ff.
Char. 16.
Foi' a more favourable view, see
Mi'^s Harrison, I.e. n. 479 ff.
1

^
*

ii.

Plato, Rep. x. 615

Aencid vi. 748.

f.

ORPHIC RELIGIOUS IDEAS

105

early eschatological poem, the KaTa^acn<i eh'Aihov, or

"
Descent into Hades," in which the pseudo-Orpheus

seems to have related what he saw in his pilgrimage to

In this or other writings of the
the unseen world.^

same stamp, many of the features which appear in

later Greek apocalypses were certainly described, such
as the judgment of the dead, the rivers and lakes of
the nether world, the fountains of Memory and Forgetfulness, the abodes of the blessed on the right and of the
wicked on the left, together with the different rewards
and punishments meted out to souls in Hades.

With regard

the happiness awaiting

to

the just,

apparently an early Orphic poem

"
declares that
they who are pious in their life beneath
the rays of the sun enjoy a gentler lot when they
have died, in the beautiful meadow around deep-flowing
This refers, presumably, to the intermediate
Acheron." ^

fragment

state,

what

of

is

with the divine which

and not to that reunion

the ultimate goal of Orphic aspiration

is

most part
descriptions

understood
final

been

more

of

of

the

dwelt

intermediate

but for the

upon

wicked

the

of

or

condition

As usual

the soul.

misery
at

of

the

in

apocalyptic
appears to have
and with much

greater length
imagination than the happiness of
The feature of the Orphic purgatory most
of

fertility

the

to

difficult

the

of

triumph

writings,

whether

the Orphic
say
the bliss in store for virtue should be

is

it

good.
often mentioned in

Greek literature is the ever-flowing

The unholy and unjust," says Plato, not
"
without a touch of scorn, they bury deep in something
which they call mud." ^ Without attempting to pursue
the subject into detail, it must suffice to say in general
"

sea of mud.

terms, that so far as

1

Dietericli,

Nekyia

Abel, //. 153 ff.

fr. 154 Abel.

p.

we can
128

see,

the object of punish-

Rej).

al.

ii.

363

Phaed. 69

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

io6

ment

was

hereafter

to

promote

the

Orphics kept steadily in view through

from the flesh. ^

end
life

which

the

purification

With the exception of those souls who, having reached

the end of their journey, are happily exempt from further
incarnation, and possibly also of some incurable sinners

who remain

Tartarus as warnings to the

in

rest,^

the

others return again into bodies at the appointed time.

Whether the early Orphic eschatologies did or did not

admit a

"

choice of lives," such as Plato describes in the

we can scarcely doubt that the mode of

existence allotted to the soul at each new stage of her

Befublic,^

"

was determined by the degree of " purity

or holiness which she possessed at the moment of recareer on earth

incarnation.

From

a comparison of passages in Pindar,

Plato,^ it would seem probable tliat the

Empedocles, and

Orphics arranged the various kinds of life in a graduated

"
measure of their purity."

series or scale, according to the

Empedocles held that among the lower animals, the lion

occupies the highest place, and among plants, the laurel.^
Another fragment describes how those who are ap"
proaching the hour of their deliverance become prophets
and singers and physicians and chieftains among men
from whence they arise up Gods,
upon the earth
in
honour, sharing the same hearth and table
supreme
with the other immortals, exempt from doom and hurt," ^
Empedocles himself combined most of these professions
and in the opening lines of his Purifications he claims to
"
be no longer a mortal, but an immortal God." ^
When the wheel of birth and death has run its course,
the soul, delivered at last, resumes the inheritance she
"
I have escaped from the lamentable
lost through sin.
:

224 Abel.
See below, p. 135.
Cf. /r.

^617

^fr. 127.
146, 147 (reading aTrbK-qpoi).
'/' 112.

Dft'.

Phaedr. 248 D.
below, p. 133.

For Pindar,

see

ORPHIC RELIGIOUS IDEAS

and cruel

107

I have set my eager feet within the

circle
I have passed to the bosom of the
longed-for ring.
Mistress and Queen of the underworld." ^
Such is the
:

language in which the triumphant soul announces her

redemption in the tablets to which I have already so

In reply, she is thus addressed "

happy
"
and blessed one, thou sbalt be a God instead of a mortal
"
thou art become a
Hail, for thy sufferings are past
God from having been a man
hail, hail, thou that
often referred.

farest

the

to

right,

through the sacred meadows and

You will observe that there is

groves of Persephone."
nothing in these lines to suggest that the soul loses her
To the
personal existence in the sea of universal being.

and preclassical period, with their

and individualism, the
idea of absorption was never very congenial.
There are
of
contact
between
the
many points
Orphic and the
Buddhist systems, but the Orphic heaven, at least, is not
Greeks

of the classical

strong attachment

to individuality

Nirvana.

It is rather a state of blissful consciousness in

which the

soul,

the

life of

We may

no longer encumbered by the body, leads

in company with Gods.
perhaps form an idea of the notion of heaven

God

entertained by the better class of Orphic believers, if we

look at the description given in the pseudo-Platonic
Axioch'us, a dialogue which admittedly owes much to

Orphic

inspiration.

Matthew Arnold

In

Literature cmd Dogma,

what he conceives to be

his

illustrates

the popular English idea of the future state by a quota"

from the Vision of Mirza
Persons dressed in

tion

habits

glorious
among the trees,

on beds

of

^Diels

]i.

amid a confused harmony of singing

waters, human voices, and musical instru-

flowers,

birds, falling

495. 16ff.

jjerhajis the
circle which lies
is

garlands on their heads, passing

lying down by the fountains, or resting

with

The o-r^^aj/os

imaginary ring or
around the hajiii}'

land
\k

(Dieterich, dc

hymnis Orph.

'^'"O-

Diels

\).

495. 19, 34

H".

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

io8

ments."

The Axiochus holds out the promise

of

the

sort of peaceful and idyllic life, with a few mildly

intellectual and religious pleasures superadded.
read of a happy land of everlasting spring, free from

same

We

extremes of heat and cold, bathed in the sun's soft

with

fruitful

light,

pure water, flowery meadows, and ever

For entertainments the inhabitants have

rivers of
trees.

philosophical discussions, theatres, cyclic choruses and

and the
concerts, well-ordered banquets, and the like
;

religious services which they loved on earth are renewed

in heaven.^
Mutatis mutandis, it is much the same
"

kind of picture which we find in

Home

Jerusalem

"

my Happy

"0
O

happy harbour of the Saints I^

sweet and pleasant soil
In thee no sorrow may be found,

No

grief,

no

care,

no

toil.'*

There lust and lucre cannot dwell,

There envy bears no sway
There is no hunger, heat, nor cold,
But pleasure every way.'^
;

gardens and thy gallant walks

Continually are green.
There grows such sweet and pleasant flowers

Thy

As nowhere

else are seen.^

Quite through the

The

streets,

with silver sound,

flood of Life doth flow

Upon whose banks on

The wood

^
;

every side

of Life doth grow."

In Plato himself, however, we have a very different

After censuring Homer and Hesiod because they
story.
^

223 (ed. 1900).

Axioch. 371 C f
Cr. the Orpliic oaioi, evaye'is.
The aXvirla of Axioch. 371 C

iyylyverai, d\X' eiVparos aijp kt\.

p.

'

/.c.
"

*
'*

f.

dKTjpaTos dXinrla Kai 'i]0ia diaiTO.'

oOre yap x^'A'* c<podp6v oiire 66.\Troi

TravToloL St \(i/xu>ves dvOeai ttoi-

tciXois iapL^S/j-evoi., I.e.

'
Trriyal o^ i'ddrui' Kadapwv piovffL,
I.e.

ORPHIC RELIGIOUS IDEAS

commend

109

virtue not for itself but only for its rewards, he

"
Still more heroic are the blessings which

thus continues

Musaeus and

his son bestow

upon the righteous from the

They conduct them into Hades, and lay them on

couches, and establish a kind of symposium of saints,
Gods.

set garlands on their heads, and make them live for

ever in a state of intoxication, esteeming the fairest
"
reward of virtue to be an eternity of drunkenness

and

aloiVLo^}

ixedt]

pracfervidum

After making every allowance for the

mgenium of Plato, who is never half-

hearted either in praise or in blame,

that the picture is drawn from life.
his account
practices.

doctrine

The

we must

still

believe

It is of a piece

with

the Orphic friars and their degenerate

The purer form of the Orphic eschatological

may

of

be inferred from the Axiochus.

soul has

now

returned to the harbour from which

the end ?
May not
about
the circumstances that brought
her exile at the

she

set

sail.

Is

this,

after

all,

first recur again and yet again ?

The doctrine of the
"
"
restoration of all things
diroKaTaaTaac; iravraiv or
is certainly Pythagorean, and in view of the close con-

nexion

between Pythagoreanism and Orphism, it may

it appears to have had in

well have had a place in early, as

Eudemus, the pupil of Aristotle,

later, Orphic doctrine.^
observed in one of his lectures that if the Pythagoreans
were to be trusted, his audience would have the privilege
"
You will be sitting
hearing him again next aeon.
there and I shall be telling you my story with this little
stick in my hand, and everything else will be the same." ^
should infer from this that in course of time the

of

We

soul

must begin her wanderings anew, and traverse and

retraverse the revolving

"

wheel

of generation

"

through-

The apparently hopeless and appalling

eternity.
fatalism of such a doctrine is not of itself a sufficient

out

ii. 363 C.
Rohde, Psyche-

Diels=

Rep.

ii.

p. 123, n. 2.

i.

p. 277,

34.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

no

refusing to attribute it to a religious sect.

the Stoics successfully combined the
theoretical dogma with an eminently religious con-

reason

At a
same

for

later period,

and experience has

ception of Iniman life and duty
often shown that religion can grow and flourish on a
;

soil of fatalism.^

That some such ideas about the origin and destiny of

the soul began to take root in the Hellenic world during
the sixth century B.C., no longer admits of doubt and it
is equally clear that they must have tended to weaken
;

In
the authority and prestige of the old Homeric faith.
all fundamental respects, indeed, the Homeric and Orphic
Whereas in
views of life are opposed to one another.

Homer

the centre of interest

is

this present world,

with

manifold joys and sorrows, and the existence awaiting

the disembodied soul is shadowy, cold, and comfortless,

its

the follower of Orpheus fixes his eyes upon the future,

and looks upon what we call death as the door by which

he

prison and

escape from

may

the

ultimately rejoin

In Homer and Hesiod, life is often

society of Gods.
"
The land," says Hesiod,
painted in sombre colours.
"

and so
and not death and

is full of

is life,

strenuous
comes.

troubles,

in

Homer,

it

the very difficulties it overthe Orphics, the Homeric melancholy,

Among

is

concerned, assumes a deeper hue for

no longer life, but death the true
;

the body is
lies before and after.

life in

after all

at least, a life of

effort, rejoicing in

so far as this life

life

But

the sea."

is

For the first time in Greece, again, the doctrine of

the immortality of the soul is made use of as a moral
Our destiny in the intermediate state depends
motive.

upon our character and conduct now

and in
and righteousness rewarded
:

1
The Greek doctrine of the
"restoration of all things" is connectefl with the astronomical theory

sin is

the

punished
successive

of a Great Year, on which see MS.

RcpuUtc of Plato vol. ii. p. 302 fl',

ORPHIC RELIGIOUS IDEAS

incarnations which have to
circle

the

is

fullilled,

scale

we have

of purity

therefore

is

and

we

but

to

according

attained.

cleanse

to

ceremonies,

be

undergone before the

apparently rise and fall in

existences

of

III

his
still

Tlic

aim

soul

not

more

by

"

of

the degree
the believer

only

by

"

rites

from

fasting

If he should become
(vrjaTevaac KaKOTriTo<>;)}
exceptionally pure from the defilement of the body, he
has, it would seem, some ground to hope that the circle

sin

of generation will be abbreviated in his case.

In general,

we

saw, the cycle was supposed to occupy, perhaps,

ten thousand years, in which, according at least to the

as

Platonic

ten

view,

or

those

who

in

thrice

lives were included, each

appropriate period of reward
in the myth of the Phaedrus,
succession have chosen the life

separate

them followed by
But
punishment.^

of

its

"

true philosophy," return to the place from which

^
and with Pindar
they came in three thousand years
"
three times on either
also, to have abstained from sin
of

"

side of death

is

The agreement
would seem to

a passport to the islands of the blest.*

these two writers on such a point
indicate an early Orphic belief that

of

Herodotus
exceptional piety was rewarded in this way.
seems to imply that a cycle of three thousand years

also

had a place in Orphism.^

The Orphic conception of sin is not less different from
that of the Homeric poems.
In the Iliad and Odyssey,
I
as
have
sin,
already pointed out, is always objectively
regarded, being identified with the spirit of insolence or
pride that seeks to transgress the golden law of moderation and encroach upon the rights of others, be it our

the

fellow-creatures or
^

Emp.

fr. 144.

Cf.

Gods.

the second

of the

Logia discovered in 1897,

"except ye fast from the world"

etc.
liov).

{4av

/jltj

vriareva-qTe

rhv

k6(X'

It

is

an error

of

the

Phacdr. 248 E, compared with

Rep. x. 615 A.
*
Phaedr. 249 A.
*
See below, p. 135.
6
cf. 81.
ii_ 123
;

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

112

intellect

rather than of the

will

it
springs from
and the ultimate

for

intellectual blindness or infatuation

responsibility is usually laid at the door of the Gods.

In the Orphic religion, on the other hand, the subjective
It is on account
aspect of sin becomes more prominent.
of

are

defilement contracted in our prenatal state that we

and the soul,
exiled from the society of Heaven
;

while present in the body,

fully conscious of this fact.

There is no attempt to shift the responsibility elsewhere
the guilt is our own, and we alone must expiate it. " I have
so speaks the soul,
paid the penalty for deeds unjust,"
is

"

and now I am
she has finished her pilgrimage,
come as a suppliant unto noble Persephone, beseeching
her to be gracious, and to send me into the abodes of the

when

pious."

But the Orphic doctrine that had the greatest influence

on Greek thought is that of the celestial origin and
nature of the soul.
It was adopted, as we shall see, by
in
form or another it runs through
and
one
Pindar,
the
of
Greek philosophy from this time
whole
nearly
in
man's affinity to God was by no
onwards.
The belief
means alien to the religious consciousness of Homer and
Hesiod.
Not only is Zeus the father of Gods and men,
but

it

is

implied in the very nature of anthropomorphic

God resembles man, man in his

theology that since

turn resembles God.

involves theomorphism.

Anthropomorphism, in a word,
But the Orphic interpretation
to God gives an entirely new

of man's relationship
significance to the idea because of the emphasis it lays
It is the soul alone which is divine
as
upon the soul.
;

for the body, that is only the

self is

dungeon, in which the true

imprisoned. The nerveless, shadowy phantom which

the soul is beginning to disappear, and in its

Homer called
place

which

we have
the

a divine ethereal essence, by the side of

perishable
1

body

is

of

DieLs p. 495. 25

ff.

comparatively slight

ORPHIC RELIGIOUS IDEAS

The Orphic doctrine

accouut.

of the

113

of

divinity

the

soul not only introduces a new and more spiritual cona basis
ception both of God and man it also provides
afterwards
we
shall
as
for the belief in immortality,
;

see.^

Nor

is

the ethical significance of the

dogma

less note-

Greek poetry is always repeating the exhortaworthy.

"
"
remember that thou art a mortal," cherish only
tion
:

mortal aspirations."
According to the Orphic religion,
on the other hand, the soul is herself, though fallen,
and the whole aim and object of the Orphic
still a God
;

to rid the soul of those impurities and

incrustations that besmirch and hide her essential nature.

discipline

was

"
seek not to become a God."
says Pindar,
"
seek
Already thou art a God," is the Orphic precept
The full significance of
to be reunited with the Gods."

"

Beware,"

"

"-

the contrast between these two ideals of life and duty

"
Plato, when he said, that
envy has

was apprehended by

The famous words of

no place in the celestial quire."
"
put on the
Aristotle, e^' oaov kv^k'^e-rai ddavaTc^eiv,
immortal, as far as in thee

lies,"

express

it

for all time.'^

The Orphic religion undoubtedly contained much that

was superstitious and degrading. Even the doctrine of
man's celestial origin was encumbered with a mass of
mythology always fantastic and sometimes grotesque.
The wicked Titans so the story ran fell upon Dionysus
him in pieces
Zagreus, son of Zeus and Persephone, tore
and devoured him whereupon Zeus destroyed tliem with
his thunderbolt, and from their ashes sprang the human
;

It

race.*

is

for

this reason

that our nature

is

a blend

we

derive the lower ingredients

from the Titans, the higher from the God whom they
devoured. The sacraments and other religious ceremonies,
of the divine

p. 131.

Cf.

and brutal

Miss Harrison,

I.e.

p.

477

f.

"

PI.

Nic. x.

Phaab: 247 A
7.

1177b 33.

Rohde,

I.e. p.

119.

Arist. Eth.

114

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

again,

by means

of

themselves with

which the Orphics sought

to

unify

such as the Omophagia,^

Nor is it
were sometimes brutalising in the last degree.
by any means clear that the Orphics always escaped
the moral dangers which accompany religious ecstasy.
the

divine,

Yet

in spite of these defects, it is not easy to overestimate the significance of the central doctrine of their
I mean the doctrine that the human soul is
faith

originally

and

corollary, that
affinity
to

full

essentially divine, together with its practical

we must strive even now to realise our

with God.

Before this great idea could attain

dcA^elopment, it had still to be freed from the

of ritual and mythology, and elevated from

In one word, it
the emotional to the intellectual plane.
had to be intellectualised.
The intellectualisation of this

entanglement

belief, as

we

shall afterwards see,

'

See Miss Harrison,

I.e.

was
p.

effected

479

ff.

by Plato.

LECTURE

VI

PINDAR
Resuming our consideration of the poets, we have now
to deal with Pindar.
With the exception, perhaps, of
Sophocles, it may be doubted whether there is any
other Greek poet, the spirit of whose writings is more
In part, no doubt, this distinctive
essentially religious.
of
Pindar's
odes is due to the occasion which
peculiarity

The great Panhellenic games of Olympia

they celebrate.
and Delphi were in their origin and nature festivals in
honour of Zeus and Apollo; and a poem composed to
celebrate a victory at the games was neccessarily in
some sense a hymn of praise to the God who presided
over the festival.
But the religious sentiments of Pindar
are not the

merely conventional

fessional writer of epinikian odes.

from

the heart

note about

and

many

of

there

is

them which

utterances of

They come

a prostraight

a distinctively personal
absent from the odes

is

That his birth coincided with a celebra^

games seemed to the poet a happy
omen of the intimate relationship which was to subsist
between him and the God whose chosen minister and
The
prophet he always considered himself to be.
of Bacchylides.

tion of the Pythian

Delphic

tradition

continued

to

associate

Pindar

and

be inferred from more than one legend.

Pausanias relates that Pindar used to visit Delphi and

Apollo, as

sing

may

hymns

for his use

to Apollo in an iron chair specially reserved

and in the life of Pindar we read that Apollo

'A- 193

BerE^k.
116

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

Il6

SO loved the poet that he allowed him to participate in

the offerings made to himself, the officiating priest on
"
the day of the sacrifice calling out in a loud voice, Come,
^
Pindar, and join the banquet of the God."
The keynote of Pindar's religious doctrine is struck

in the opening verses of the sixth Nemean ode.

the race of men and Gods, and from one mother

derive the breath of

diverse

for

the

life

race

but in power

of

man

we

"

One is
we both

are altogether

nought, whereas the

is

brazen heaven abides, a dwelling-place unshaken for ever.

Howbeit we bear some likeness to the immortals, in lofty

mind, perchance, or in bodily nature, although we know

not what course our master Fate hath mapped out for us
^
by day or in the watches of the night."
We shall have to touch upon this passage again in
dealing with the Pindaric doctrine of the celestial origin
and nature of the soul but at present it concerns us
only to observe that Pindar still in the main adheres to
the anthropomorphic conception of the Crods, which is
everywhere characteristic of the national Greek religion.
The Gods are immortal, and stronger than men but,

to run, either

like us, they are children of Earth, the universal mother,

and resemble us in body and in mind.
The myths

incorporated in the Pindaric odes freely represent the

Gods as subject to those desires and necessities which
are inseparable from bodily existence.
They partake of
food and drink, take pleasure in dance and song, and
are

by no means exempt even from the lower passions

incident to

human

nature.

At
all

the same time, Pindar

the grosser features of

is

from acquiescing

far

the

traditional

in

anthropo-

Sometimes he pointedly ignores whatever

of
a
portion
myth he deems unworthy, true to liis principle
"
that which is unpleasing to Zeus, I am fain to bury
in oblivion." ^
At other times he openly protests against
morphism.

Paus. X. 24. 5

vit.

Find.

p.

xv Christ.

Nem.

6.

1-7.

^/r. 81.

PINDAR

117

certain legends, on the gronnd tliat they are irreligious

The current form of the myth of Tantalus

and profane.

made the hero slay his son Pelops and serve his flesh
From this part
at a banquet given to the immortals.
"
It is meet
of the story Pindar emphatically dissents.

man

for a

to

speak honourable things about the Gods

And of thee,
for the reproach is less.
than those
otherwise
I
will
speak

son of Tantalus,
that have gone

call any of the blessed Gods a

The Pindaric correction of the myth need
not detain us, the less so that from the modern point

before.

...

cannibal."

of

view

is

that

I dare not

it is

scarcely an
a legend

improvement

when

appears

discredit on the Gods, he alters

in

own

harmony with his

it

we need note

all

Pindar

to

into

religious

to

reflect

something more

Another

feelings.

by a famous passage in the ninth

refuses to accept the Homeric
Pindar
where
Olym'pian,
"
and Hesiodic legends about the Gods.
my tongue,
illustration is provided

flinsj

this tale

from thee

it is

a hateful cleverness that

slanders Gods, and untimely boasting chimes in unison

with madness.

from the

far

Away

with such foolish words

immortals war and battle

"

Keep

{ea 7r6\efiov

fMa^av Te iraaav ^wpfi aOavdrcov)?

In such ways as these does Pindar seek to purify the
On its positive side,
traditional theology of Greece.
his teaching brings into
ideal features of the
"

know not

prominence the nobler and more

The Gods
have
escaped
they

Homeric pantheon.

disease nor age nor toil

the

loud-roaring gulf of
blessed ones who live in

Acheron."
"

They are

the

"

the

symbols of
world.
and
troubled
a transient
eternity and calm
and
Nature
In respect of power, they are omnipotent
knows no parallel to the speed with which they
"
The power of the Gods," says
accomplish their design.
"
the poet,
lightly brings to pass that which exceeds

Olympus

in

01.

i.

35

'=

tf.

35

fl'.

'^fr.

143.

*fr. 87.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

ii8

oath aud expectation." ^

that is wrought by Gods."

"

judge no marvel incredible

"

It

is

in the

of

power

God

out of black night to call forth the stainless light of day,

and to shroud the day's pure gleam in cloudy dark"
Swift is the achievement, and short the ways
ness." ^

Gods when they are eager to achieve their end." ^

Perhaps the most famous of the poet's sentiments about
"
the Godhead is in the second Pythian
God accomplishes
of

God, who overevery end according to his expectation

taketh even the winged eagle and outstrippeth the dolphin
of the sea, and bringeth many a proud man low, vouch^
safing to others renown that grows not old."
;

Pindar never wearies

reminding his readers that the

whatsoever good or evil happens
Zeus giveth this and that Zeus the lord

Gods are the authors

"

mankind.

to

"

God," the poet says,

for
mortal
men."
things

of all."
all

"

of

of

It

is

who accomplishes

"*

"

God's is the only armoury

Doth man's weak will with power for good supply.
Wisdom from His completeness,
And strength of arm and fleetness
He gives, and sjjeech's sweetness." ^

Pindaric fragment preserved by Clement identifies

"
"
ti ^eo? ; o ri to irdv.^
If the words
the all

God with

are genuine, it is hardly likely that they were intended to

suggest the kind of poetical pantheism which they would
To Pindar
have expressed in the mouth of Euripides.

they probably meant no more than that

God

is

the universal

cause.^

The philosophical question

the relationship between

of

Fate and the Deity does not perplex the poet.

1

01. 13.83.
Fyth. 10. 49.

V*

^
*

C I

''fr.

good and

1.

41

f.,

tr.

W.

^^

5.

52

law

"

R. Paton

cf./r. 108.
^fr. 140.

9. 67.

Pyth.
49 flP.
Isthm.

"

141.

Fyth.

142.

The

f.

evil."

rd re Koi rd

They may, however, be inspired

by Orphic pantheism see above, p.
;

96.

PINDAR

119
"

he says in one of the fragments that it is king

^
has been by some
of all, mortals and immortals alike,"
to
which
the
Gods themselves
a
Power
interpreted as
of wliicli

only a certain rule of conduct

so Pindar here suggests
by Gods
universally observed
on
the
and men.
Pindar often insists
inevitability

must

yield

but

of Fate, so far as

is

it

human

"

creatures are concerned.

The
"

destiny (to fiopacixov) none can escape

"
"
"
as
destiny (fiolpa) leads the race of mortal men
for me, whatsoever excellence our master Fate (Tror/io?)
decrees

of

hath

well

given,

will bring

to

it

know

fulfilment."

the march of time

But Pindar seldom, I

that
"^

^
think, implies that Fate can override the will of Zeus
and there are passages in which the will of Zeus is itself
;

conceived as Fate.

We

read

"

of

"

the fated decree of

It is also
fate ordained of God," and so on.
Zeus," the
in keeping with the religious interpretation of Destiny

the poet prays to Clotho, Lachesis, and Fortune

(Tvxn) as unto benignant and not unyielding Goddesses.
"
1 call upon high-throned Clotho and her sister Fates

when

hearken

to

Or again

"
:

the instant prayers of my friend." ^

I beseech thee, daughter of Zeus the deliverer,

unto

saviour
keep watch over Himera's broad domain,
Fortune for by thee swift ships are piloted upon the
sea, and upon land thou art the guide of impetuous wars
and meetings of councillors."^ A German scholar has
justly remarked on the difference between this conception
of the Goddess Fortune and that which prevailed in later
times, when she was represented as a wholly arbitrary
and irresponsible power, dispensing her gifts blindfold.'^
"
The deiT) tv-^tj or " divine chance of which Herodotus
:

V'-- 169. See Plato, Oorg. 484 B.

2
Ncm. 11. 42,
Pyth. 12. 30
4. 41 tf.
^
One such instance in Isthm. 8.
;

33

cf. Hesiod, Theog. 88611'.

rb fiSpaifiov AioOev iveirpufxlvov,

ff.

Nem.
cf.

4.

61

Beov ixolpa, 01. 2. 21

01. 9. 26, 28.

Pyth. 5. 76
isthm. 6. 16

5
"
^

01. 12. 1

WeltanPind. unci Aesch. f. 15.

Buchliolz,

schauung

d.

ff.

ff.

Sittliche

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

I20

sometimes speaks,

is

parallel

conception to

that of

Pindar.^

We may

take

it,

supreme control

of

then, that according to Pindar the

the universe and man belongs not

a blind or implacable fate, but to certain personal

whom he calls by the name of Gods. Let us

to

beings

now

inquire what attributes, other than that of power, of

which we have already spoken, he ascribes to these beings.

In

the

first

they

place,

On

omnipotent.

this

"
If a man
emphatic.
when he doeth aught, he
"

knowing mind
"

as

well

as

Apollo,

mistaken."

is

we read

in

The

"

all-

another place,

God nor mortal can

deceive in act or in design." ^

addressed in these words " Thou that knowest

neither

Apollo

of

omniscient

are

Pindar i? especially
point
thinks to elude the eye of God

is

the appointed end of all things, and all the paths thereto
all the leaves that earth puts forth in spring, and the

number

of grains of sand whirled to and fro by waves

and roaring winds and discernest well the future and
whence it shall be." ^ Although Homer also attributes
omniscience to the Gods, some of the episodes in the
:

Uiad
this

In
are wholly inconsistent with such a view.^
in
of
as
the
Pindar
others,
respect,
many
theology

marks a

distinct advance.

Secondly, the Gods are just, and manifest their justice

by rewarding virtue and punishing vice, both here and
I will touch on this subject presently
hereafter.
but
;

meantime it may be noted that the justice of God,

when shown in the recompense of virtue, sometimes appears
in the

as

a kind

According

of

to

Providence watching over the righteous.

Pindar, the just are the objects of God's
^

"

surely the great mind of Zeus pilots

The
the
destiny of those whom he loves."''
(Kv^epva)
especial care

e.g.
^
3

i.

126.

See Stein on

Pyth.
9.

3.

44

29

i.

62.

^
*'

01. 1. 64.

Hh.

f.

86/j.epoL,
">

ff.

See above, p. 33.

/xdXa iikv dpSpQv SiKaiuv TrepiKa-

Nem.

Pyth.

5.

10. 54.

122

f.

PINDAR

121

is elsewhere employed by the poet to

the
express
guidance of communities or states by God.
"
It is an easy thing even for the weak to shake a city ;

sauie

metaphor

but to

stabliish it

in its

God suddenly take

unless

place again, is difficult indeed,

the helm (Kv^epvaTijp yevrjrai)

We shall afterwards find that

and aid the rulers." ^
Heraclitus had already described the operation of the
"
There is but
divine intelligence by means of this figure
"
one wisdom," he says, to know the intelligence by which
:

are

all

things

to

what we

all."

{Kv^epvuTaC) through
piloted
In both cases the idea in the mind of the writers
call

Providence

Providence

but whereas

is

akin

Heraclitus

a philosophical principle,
the
realm of nature as well
in
its
jurisdiction
embracing
as of mankind, to the poet it is a narrower, more

conceives

of

as

for that very reason, perhaps, more religious

be compared with the view of the Platonic
to
conception,
"
for the good man there is no evil either
that
Socrates,

personal,

and

nor are his interests neglected by the

gods {ovhe afxeKeLTaL vtto 6ewv ra tovtov Trpdy/jiaTa).^
Pindar lays stress, in the third place, upon the truthTruth is the daughter of Zeus
fulness of the Godhead.

in life or after death

"

Ovydrrip 'AXddeia Jio^}

Gods."

"

Faithful

is

the race of

in particular, we read that

It was the more natural for

Of Apollo,

no part in

lies."

the Gods, since there

One
which he more highly values in men.
fragments makes Truth the foundation of
to ascribe this quality to

wvaacr

dpX^
duty

A\d6eia

"

"

the

he has
Pindar
is

of

none
the

virtue

and

the

yueyaXa? dperd^,
truthfulness is enjoined by Pindar in public as
:

of

well as

in

private

life,

"

In every commonwealth he

in a despotism, or when
the impetuous multitude hold sway, or when wise men
Hem. 10. 54.
Pyth. 4. 272 ff.
"
xf/evS^wv 5' oi'^x dTTTerai, Pi/tJi. 3.
'/r. 19 By water.

that

is

straight of speech

is

best

'^

Ap. 41 D.

01. 10. 3f.

29.
'^205.

122

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

guard

In

city."

capable of deception,

refusing

God

believe that

to

and approximates to the theology of Plato.

The divine nature is consequently possessed
attributes

of

It

truth.

omniscience,

omnipotence,

Gods who

the

is

is

Pindar parts company with Homer,

of

justice,

the

and

human

are the arbiters of

destiny, exercising a providential care over the lives

and fortunes of the righteous, and punishing the wicked
for their sins.
Are there any suggestions of monotheism
?
It is urged by some that his frequent use
the singular ^eo?, haificov, and so on, when speaking
of the supernatural, though it does not imply a belief
in one God, is at all events a step in the direction

in

Pindar

of

of

We may

monotheism.

such an idiom

admit that

involuntarily recognises the existence of certain common

attributes by which the divine is always distinguished

from
the

which

"

but

is

in

it

numerically

no

way

one,

in

implies that
the sense in

for
seems
to
have
example,
and Pindar's polytheism
unity of God
candid and sincere than that of Homer.

Xenophanes,
the

asserted

not

is

human

the

Godhead

less

Nearly every ode," as Gildersleeve remarks,^

of

of

Pindar,

gods."

tendency

philosophical
as particular

knows

course,
to

construe

nothing
the

"

is

of

inferior

full

the

Gods

names or aspects of the one supreme Being.

At the same time, that which Plato regarded as a
of

consequence

interests

and the clash

different Gods,^

is

polytheism, the

diversity of
wills
contending
among the
to
found
in
I
be
Pindar.
scarcely

necessary

of

have already pointed out that he definitely rejects the

traditional legends of theomachies as derogatory to the
divine

He

dignity.

clearly

holds

that

there

is

but

one divine
purpose
the

purpose shaping the course of events, the

"
of
Zeus.
With thee,
Father Zeus, is

fulfilment
1

Pyth.

2.

86

of
ff.

all

deeds
-p. xxix.

"
:

irav
=

he

Teko<i

Euthyphro

iv
ff.

rlv

PINDAR

123
"

deep-mouthed lord of
we
are bidden to paythat
of
thunders
and
lightnings
^
to find
is
Pindar's
and
honour
aspiration
highest
It is accordingly to the

epycov.^

"

favour in his sight

etr] Zed, tIv elr} avhavetv.^
What is the attitude of Pindar towards the doctrine
of the

envy

Gods

of the

Before attempting to answer

necessary to explain a little more

question,
form of that doctrine, as we
traditional
the
precisely
this

find

is

it

above

it,

all

other

writers,

The

Herodotus.

in

subject is the speech which

upon
the historian puts into the mouth of Artabanus, when
seeking to dissuade his nephew Xerxes from invading

locus

the

classiciis

"Thou

Greece.

seest

thunderbolts the

them

how

tallest

the

animals,

God

with

smites

and

his

allow

not

does

to exalt themselves, whereas the smaller animals

thou seest how he ever hurls

highest buildings and trees, for the
God is wont to cut down whatever exceeds in point
of greatness (0tXeet <ydp 6 6eo<; ra v'irepe')(ovra iravra

in

no way

stir his

wrath

the

his shafts at

Thus a mighty host may be destroyed by a

small one, when the God, becoming envious, smites them
with panic or with lightning, so that they perish in
for the God will
a manner unworthily of themselves
KoKoveLv).

*
not suffer any but himself to think high thoughts."
The idea of Herodotus is not that excessive prosperity

engenders
is

it

and

sin,

sin

God

simply that

provokes
is

the

jealous, as

Gods

to

though

anger

his

own

Exactly the same conception

position were endangered.
In the warning
of
underlies the story
Polycrates,
Amasis
occur
these words
to
him
letter addressed
by
:

"

Your great

successes

do not please me, knowing

as

I would prefer
I do that the divine nature is jealous.
that I myself and those I care for should be success-

ful

some

in
^

things

Nem.

10.

Pyth.

6. 23,fl'.

29

and

unsuccessful
"^

f.

"

in

ib. 1. 29.
vii. 10.

others,

ex-

THE RELIGTOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

124

periencing through life alternate good and evil fortune,

rather than that they should invariably succeed.
For
I have never yet heard of any one who was successful
everything, without perishing miserably, root and
Therefore hearken to me, and in
branch, at the last.
view of the successes you have gained, act thus.
Con-

in

on what object you set the highest value, what it

grieve you most to lose, and take and throw it
^
In
away, so that it shall never return among men."
sider
will

the sequel, of course, the remedy failed

but it is clear
from the nature of the remedy proposed that Amasis
;

attributes no

moral

proper

to

obliquity

that

his

He

friend.

in-

much

prosperity exceeds the

limit or measure prescribed by the Gods for

stinctively feels

human kind

it is

so

a violation

of the /irjSev

ayav

and

the

way to correct the error is for Polycrates to bring

himself again within the limits by a voluntary sacrifice
what he holds most dear.^
Such would seem to be the doctrine of the (f)66vo<i
OeCiv as it was popularly believed among the Greeks.

of

We

shall

find

ethical

that

Aeschylus

sometimes

gives

an

the

to

meaning
superstition, by representing
"
of the Gods as their just resentment at
envy
the violation of the moral law by man and the question
which suggests itself is whether the Pindaric form of
the doctrine is more allied to the ordinary view or to
that of Aeschylus.
The passages in which Pindar
on
touches
this
expressly
subject are three in number.^
tlie

"

In
of

the

thirteenth

Corinth,
"

Olympia

he
not

let

such laudatory words

d(f)d6vr]T0<i
'

iii.

to

appeals
to

7reacriv^

his

virar

46 ad Jin.

31,

32

vii.

the

sovereign lord
"
"
be awakened
envy

evpvavdacrwv^

3
i.

praising

"

the

yivoio ^povov diravra,

40.

See also Hdt.

after

Olympian,

ft".

by

^0Xv/ji7ri,a<i,

Zev

cf. also 01. 1. 60-G4.

24

city
of

'Trdrep*

PINDAR
much

To

same

the

125

he

effect

the

in

prays

tenth

Pythian that the family of the Aleuadae may continue

to
prosper without incurring the divine displeasure.
"

Of the joyous things of Hellas they have received

no scanty portion I pray that they meet with no
reverses from the envious Gods." ^
And finally, in
:

remarkable

passage of the seventh Isth^nian, the

"
thus
writes
of himself
I will set flowers upon
poet
hair
and
but
let
not
the
my
sing
envy of the immortals
:

bring on

me

confusion

Whatsoever

(f>66vo'i.

ddavdrcov

8'

offered

is

joy

serenely I will follow and o'ertake,

and the appointed term of life.

firj

day
old

till

For we

OpaaaeTco

by

day,

age come,
alike

all

although our lot in life is different (Saificov 8'

howbeit, if any lift a covetous eye to that
dlao<;)
which is afar, yet is he too weak to attain unto the
die,

Thus winged Pegasus threw

was fain to come to

bronze-paved seat of Gods.

Bellerophon, when he
habitations of heaven and

lord

his

the
Zeus.

In

Bitter

the

first

that

goes beyond the

of the Gods as we find
is

true

of

the

join

company

of

the end that awaits unrighteous joy." ^

of these three passages there is nothing
is

the

ordinary
it

in

which

second, unless,

of the envy
and the same

version

Herodotus

is

perhaps

the

case, the prayer of the poet conveys a covert warning

to the Aleuadae against insolence and pride.
But

with the third passage

it is
otherwise.
The sequence
mind is plainly this let me escape
"
Gods
by avoiding presumptuous
unrighteous joys are doomed to end in sorrow.

of ideas in the poet's

"
the
envy of the
sin,

for

In

just

this

way Aeschylus

reinterpret the belief.

Pindar's conception of

with the

views

poetry.

Sin

is
1

sin

his

for

is

in

part

egoism,

self-seeking,
-

flf.

to

general agreement

we have already met with

19

tries

39

in

Greek

irXeove^ia

tlie

tf.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

126

overstepping of the limits appointed for the individual

in his relations both to his fellow-men and to the Gods.

The duty of self-repression and the dangers of arrogance

and pride are themes upon which the poet continually
In nearly all his eulogies there is heard a note
"
Seek not to become Zeus if these high
fall
to thee, thou hast already all.
Mortal

dilates.

of warning.

honours

"

Ovara 6varolaiv nrpeirei}

Eethings befit a mortal
member that thou art mortal seek not to be as God
;

the perpetual

this is
"

But

refrain of

Pindar's exhortations.^

any one shall possess wealth, and excel others

in beauty, and have won distinction by display of strength
in

if

let

games,

him not

forget that his raiment is on mortal

shall be his garment at the

limbs, and that the earth

And so on through a great variety of formulae,

sometimes of a half-oracular or prophetic kind, such as
the oft-repeated warning not to sail beyond the pillars
"
of Heracles.
By their manly prowess they have touched
last." ^

the pillars of Heracles, at the limits of the world.

them seek for no further excellence." *

that I bid

thoroughly Greek

is

He

as one

Lampon

praises

in his

Beyond
Pindar

the

of

/nrjSev ayav.
advocacy
"
with his mind pursues

who

the mean, and cleaves thereto in act

BicoKcov, fierpa Se Koi KaTC'^oiv.^

"
/jbirpa fxev yv(o/jLa

The question as to the ultimate responsibility for sin

not directly raised by Pindar but he generally seems
to lay the blame upon the transgressor himself, and not

is

upon Zeus

Thus

or Fate.

in his account of Ixion

it is

"

wlien he gat a pleasant life in the house of

Cronus' gracious children, he could not endure his great

said that

but Pride (v^pa) drave him

prosperity (6X^o<;)
howinto exceeding folly (blindness, infatuation, "Attj)
beit soon he suffered his deserts, finding a misery
.

2
3

Isthm.

r>.

01. 5. 24

Ncm.

14

ff.

Pyth.
11. 13 tf.
;

3.

61

f.

al.

Isthm. 4. 11
3. 20 f.

ff.

Nem.
5

jsiji^^ 6. 71.

cf.

01. 3.

43

f.

PINDAR
^

Here there

unique."

origo mali

ct

127

is

is nothing to suggest that the foiis

a malignant power from outside, although

a deeper analysis might perhaps make Zeus responsible

whence sin is born. In Pindar, 6\^o<;

for the prosperity

is the mother of

destruction

our

v^pi<i, v^pi^ of K6po<i,^ and K6po<; of

but he clearly implies that we have it in
to resist the temptations of wealth and

power
"

affluence.

If

any man

to

whom

Fortune has given

glorious prizes or might of wealth represses in his heart

dire insolence {alavrj Kopov), worthy is he to receive
the praises of his fellow-citizens." ^
Occasionally, howfind a suggestion of the popular belief that man
beguiled into sin by a supernatural power or daemon.^

we

ever,
is

According to Buchholz,^ Pindar may have conceived of

the whole matter in some such way as this.
Man is a
free moral agent, with the power of building up his own
character.
Of his own free will he commits an act of
iz/S/Oi?,

and

in

so doing
After the

vengeance.
intervene and smite the

exposes himself to the divine

transgression, the Gods

initial

offender with blindness or in-

fatuation {aTTJ), in consequence of which he plunges more

and more deeply into sin, until at last he is destroyed.
This, as we shall afterwards see, is the theory of

Aeschylus

but the evidence

hardly enough to justify

is

the conclusion that Pindar entertained so

definite

and

precise a view.
I

have already said that the justice or righteousness

Gods is manifested, according to Pindar, both in

the punishment of evil-doers and in the rewards bestowed
upon the virtuous. On the subject of punishment for
of the

sin,

Pindar's views are in

It is possible,
Pyth. 2. 25fr.
however, that av&Tav here means
no more than calamity, as elsewhere
in Pindar, f.<j. Nem. 9. 21
0/. 1.
56 //. 42.

harmony with the teaching

quotedby Hdt.
93).

p.

Greek
"

OL

13. 10.

So also in an oracle

eleo^^ {supra, p. 88).

Isthm/'i.

8. 77 (Buchholz, /.c.
Contrast the doctrine of

Pyth.
I.e. p.

3.

1 ff.

34

92.

f.

of.

01. 7. 30

f.,

45

ff.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

128

Greek

he speaks of punishment
That the innocent sometimes
suffer with the guilty in this world, he recognises as a
truth attested by experience, without touching on the
of

elegy, except that

hereafter as well as here.

problem as to how our

be reconciled with

the divine justice can

Coronis had
dispensation.

belief in

such

"

in
sinned against Apollo, and the God sent his sister
"
"
the fury of invincible wrath to take vengeance.
Many
of the neighbours shared her doom, and were destroyed
together with her, as a fire that from one seed has leapt
^
upon a mountain lays waste an ample tract of wood."
You will remember that Theognis in a somewhat similar
case impugns the moral government of the universe, on

the ground that the sins of the fathers cannot justly be

upon their innocent children but to Pindar such

visited

protests

would have seemed

to savour of impiety.

In

general, I think, the poet contemplates with more satisfaction the rewards of virtue than the punishments of

vice

we

are told that

the pious,^ and that

reverence Zeus.^

God hearkens

lasting

to the prayers of
prosperity is theirs who

The religious standpoint of a writer may be supposed to

be reflected not only in his sentiments about God and the
dealings of God with man, but also in his general outlook
upon

If

life.

we

consider the

Pindar from this

of

poems

point of view, we are struck by the prominence given to

The uncertainty
the sad and sombre aspects of man's lot.
of the future, the fickleness of Fortune, and the inevitthese are the famiHar notes of

ability of death

called

Greek melancholy

and Pindar

what

is

is

always sounding
them in our ears. We know not, says the poet, whether
we shall bring a single day peacefully to its close with
"
this way and that run currents
imcorroded bliss
;

bringing joy or sorrow unto men."

1

Pilth. 3.
01. 8. 8.

32

ff.

2
*

"*

Isthm.
01. 2.

"

Around the minds

3.

32

ff.

f.

PINDAR
of

men hang

and

the

at

innumerable

follies

what

to discover

is

"

down upon

up and

any one

never hath

and

man

best for a

last."

129

The hopes
waves

the
of

men upon

impossible

win both now

men

of

of

is

it

to

vain

are

tossed

deceit

and

the earth received

from God a sure token of that which shall be here"

but the revelations of the future are blind

after
Tiiiv

is

Se fxeWovTcav reTvcjjXcovraL (ppaSair

And there
besides to the same effect, reflections on the

much

between aspiration and

and so on.
Even the old
"
two evils to one good "finds a
Homeric formula
"
Thou knowest," he says, addressing
place in Pindar.
of

frailty

man, the

contrast

attainment, the brevity of

life,

"

his patron Hiero,

thou knowest, taught by men of
old, that for one blessing the immortals divide to mortal

men two

sorrows."

The whole matter

"

the famous and often-quoted words,

is summed
up in
Man's happiness

grows up quickly, and quickly falls to the ground,

shaken by a doom adverse.
Creatures of a day what
is man, what not ?
Man is the phantom of a shade
!

"

"*

aKid<i

ovap

av0p(O7ro<i."

We

but

are

of

yesterday,

and know nothing, because our days upon earth are a

shadow."
If

we should

tone of Pindar

No Greek
in

life

is

But

pessimistic.

our

confine

attention

these

to

and

we might be

similar passages,

is

led to suppose that the

predominantly melancholy, or even

in

reality

the

opposite

is

the case.

more keenly

poet
the praises of

alive to the joyous things

youtli and manly prowess, of

wealth, good fortune, and fame, of all that is sublime and

beautiful in nature and in art, are continually on his lips.
And even where his reflections are pitched in a minor
key, the poet often strikes a happier note before the end.
'

'

24

ff.

01. 12. 5

ff.

01. 7.

3
;

cf.

fr.

Gl,

"

It is

impossible witli mortal mind to

discover the purposes of the Gods."

p,^^J^

2.

Pyih.

8.

Job

80
92

viii. 9.

if.
ff.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

130

Man

but the phantom of a shade

"

howbeit," Pindar
glory cometh from the Gods, we are
crowned with the bright halo of a life serene." ^ Above

adds,

all,

is

"

when

the Pindaric odes of victory are full of the joy which

"
If toil there
difficulties faced and overcome.

born of

is

was, so

much

el TTovo'i rjp,

the greater is the joy that follows after

TO repirvov ifKeov nrehep'^erai." ^ As in Homer,
:

the certainty
"

Forasmuch

becomes

death

of

we must

as

die,

the dark, nursing an old age

"
part or lot in noble deeds ?

an

itself

inspiration.
sit idly in

should one

why

unknown

to fame, without

The man who has done

great deeds forgets death.'*

There is, indeed, nothing

more characteristic of Pindar,

the
warnings against presumption which are so
despite
in
his poetry, than the conviction that we are
frequent

impelled by the very constitution of our nature to wrestle

"
From Zeus there is
and strive towards perfection.

vouchsafed no sure sign to mortals but none the less

deeds of high emprise, and meditate
for our bodies are enthralled by
achievements
many
;

we embark on

the

insatiable hope, although

from our foreknowledge."

tides

It

is

of

life

are

hidden

to

connect

tempting

this distinctive feature of Pindar's poetry with his belief

"

One is the
in the divine origin and affinity of man.
race of men and Gods, and from one mother we both
derive the breath of

we

If

life."

human

nature

is

essentially

and purpose of our

divine,
to
realise
the
existence by striving
heritage which is ours
no
There
is, however,
authority for attributing
by birth.
of
to
Pindar.
The descent of the
such a train
thought
soul from God, as we have seen, was a cardinal point of
the Orphic creed and Pindar, in all probability, derived
But whereas among
the doctrine from that source.
*o the
shall best attain the end

^
3

Pyth.

8.

96

Ncm.

7.

74.

01. 1.

82

ff.

Cf. 01. 2. 19

ff.

cf.

p. 64

sv;ju?-a.

ff.

01. 8. 72.

Nem.

11. 43

ff.

PINDAR

131

Orphics the ultimate goal is reunion with the divine,

"
Pindar's oft-repeated warning is,
Seek not to be as
"
If he borrows the
Seek not to become a God."
Zeus,"
the

irpe-rrei

about man's celestial origin, he stops short

to which it led.
duara OvarolaLV

belief

Orphic
of

conclusions
"

mortal thou art

"

Desire

tions."

not

cherish only mortal aspira-

thou

immortal

my

life,

soul."

is that we should let our thoughts aspire, but

within
the limits prescribed by the ordinances of
only
Heaven and in this respect he is true to the funda-

His counsel

Greek ethics.
an examination of what is by far the
most remarkable and distinctive portion of Pindar's
His conception of immortality is
religious doctrine.
from
that of earlier Greek poets.
difi'erent
altogether
Let us first inquire what grounds he alleges for the
mental principles

now

I pass

of ordinary

to

belief in a future existence.

We are here concerned
with a fragment of exceptional interest, which may be

thus translated
"

The bodies of all men Death the all-conquering follow and die
But alive there reniaineth Life's image for that is alone from
:

on high.
the limbs are
dream of the night

When

astir,

It reveals to the sleeper a

and

it

is

sleeping

many

judgment, bringing visions of pain

curious and characteristic fusion

is

But

Homeric and

By

"

Life's

living

man, Pindar means

he

in

is

agreement

with

the passage is totally unare told that the soul is asleep when the
the

We

of

observable in these lines.

image," the image of the

the soul
and thus far

Homeric.

but iu

delight."

Orphic ideas

Homer.

rest

of

and conversely, when the body is asleep,

the soul awakes, and, by reason of her affinity with the
divine, foresees the judgment that shall be hereafter,

body

is

awake

Pyth.

3.

61.

-fr. 131.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

132

To the same

one of his fragments,

alone and by herself in
sleep, she recovers her proper nature," that is, of course,
"
and divines and prophesies the
her heavenly nature,
It is obvious that the body is here regarded
future." ^
Aristotle, in

effect

"

asserts that

when

the soul

is

as to a certain extent the sepulchre of the soul, from

which Sleep, Death's twin brother, brings a kind of semiresurrection

so that

we

are clearly on Orphic ground.

But what concerns us more particularly now

that the soul

is

is

to observe

said to be immortal because of her divine

In Pindar, therefore,
origin {to yap eari fiovov e'/c Oeoiv).
in
on the Orphic
rests
as sometimes
Plato, immortality
conception of man's relationship with God.^
What, then, is the kind of immortality foretold by
I will take as my text the famous picture in
Pindar ?
the second Olympian of the destinies reserved for the good
"
The guilty souls
for the evil in the world to come.

and

"

the dead," says Pindar, straightway pay the penalty

here on earth and the sins committed in tliis kingdom
of

Zeus are judged by One beneath the ground, hateful

But ever
Necessity enforcing the doom he speaks.
of

through nights and ever through days the same, the good
receive an unlaborious life beneath the sunshine.
They

vex not with might

the

sea

lionoured

for

food

Gods,

of

such

enjoy a tearless

oaths

hand the earth

that

satisfieth

as
life

or the waters of

not, but

among

the

had
;

pleasure in keeping of
but the others have pain

Howbeit they who thrice on

either side of death liave stood fast and wholly refrained their souls from deeds unjust, journey on tlie
road of Zeus to the tower of Cronus, where the oceanbreezes blow around the island of the blest, and flowers
gleam bright with gold, some on trees of glory on
fearful to behold.

too

12.

^/r.

571
^

Cf.

Plato,

Rej).

ix.

ff.

have discussed and illustrated

the Piiularic fragment at greater

length in Camhridcje Praeledioiis,
lyOtJ, pp. "29-07.

PINDAR

133

the land, while others the water feeds

whereof
heads."

entwine

they

arms

their

with wreaths

and

crown

their

From whatever

source or

sources Pindar draws the

materials for this picture, there is no mistaking the fact

that it is altogether unlike the ordinary Greek conception
If we endeavour to reconstruct the
of the other world.

kind

of eschatological

we may say perhaps

his mind.

The

first

background of the poet's description,

that there are three leading ideas in
is metempsychosis, or rather, let us

the second, retribution and \

say, rebirth {iraXL'yyevea-La)
reward and the third would seem to be the prospect of
;

ultimate deliverance from the circle of

incarnation by-^
I will conclude this
removal to the islands of the blest.
lecture by some remarks upon each of tliese three
doctrines as they appear in Pindar.
First, then,
is

most clearly expressed

Plato.2

"

This doctrine

with regard to TraXcyyevea-ia.

The

souls of

in

fragment preserved by

them from whom Persephone has

accepted atonement for an ancient woe, she restores in

the ninth year to the light of the sun above the earth.
And from these souls come glorious kings and such as

and throughare strong and swift and excel in wisdom

called
out all future time they are
holy heroes by
;

It should be noted that the reward consists

mankind."
not in restoration to the upper earth from the darkness
of the underworld, but in the kind of life which is

assigned to the purified souls when they return again

into the body.
They become kings and princes in the
It has already been pointed out that, according to
land.

Empedocles, the souls about to be freed from the circle

become " prophets and singers and pliysi-

of generation

The
among men upon the earth."
it
makes
the
two
between
highly
passages
similarity
on Orphic and
prol)able that Pindar is here dependent
"
1
Meno 81 B
01. 2. 57 ff.
fr. 133 Bergk.
cians and princes

f.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

134

Pythagorean

Pindar's conception of

traditions.^

metem-

psychosis presents at least one interesting and apparently

In common, perhaps, with Empedocles,
novel feature.
Plato,^ he regards the human soul
as continually traversing the circumference of a circle,
and
one half of which is life and the other death

and certainly with

the evil

we do

expiated
converse

in

when

in

semicircle

the

But

the other semicircle.

holds

good

also

the

separate from the body

on earth.

representing

evil

in

life

is

Pindar the

done by the soul

expiated during her life

explanation of the words,

is

This is Mezger's
the guilty souls of the dead straightway pay the penalty
"
and no other explanation that I know
here on earth

"

In this way, to
does equal justice to the Greek.^
of
Earth
and Hades
the
Gildersleeve,
quote
phrase

of

"

or rather, perhaps, mutual

become " mutual Hells
Hells and mutual Heavens for if our present miseries
are the punishment of sins committed in the intermediate
;

state,

the

is

we may
reward

equally suppose that our present happiness

of ante-natal merit.
According to the

Orphics, the soul, before her expulsion from heaven, left

the paths of virtue and was punished by incarceration
This Orphic belief would seem to have
in the flesh.*

suggested the Pindaric idea that in each successive incarnation we suffier for sins committed in the other world.

During the interval between two incarnations the soul

makes atonement for the evil she has wrought above
the ground.^
Nowhere, in his extant works, does Pindar
describe the punishment as purgatorial
but he probably
in
of
it
this
conceived
find, however, clear
way.
:

We

traces of an Inferno in
rivers

languid
darkness^ seem
^

See p. 106.

Phacd. 72

some

of the

poems

of Pindar.

The

black

night belching forth infinite

to belong to the Inferno.
As examples

of

eorpis (Karipudi in 01. 2. 68 favours

fi'.

different view

Rolide,Ps2/c/ic-ii.

is

taken by

p.208,.3.

But

Mezger's interpretation.
*
See p. 97 f.

V-

133.

^fr.lZdadfm.

PINDAR

135

sinners/ the poet, in agreement

to
refers
the
with
Tantalus, Ixion, Sisyphus, and
Odyssey^
"
a
endure
all
of
whom
hopeless life of neverTityos,
of the incurable class of

"

crimes.^
ending woe in recompense for their egregious
is no
there
for
some
also
For these, and possibly
others,*
as
service
a
useful
irapaSeLyfxara,
hope but they perform
;

or warning examples to
hopeless than their own.

those whose condition

is

less

"

By comthis
mand of the Gods, men say, Ixion proclaims
message
to mortals as round and round he spins upon his winged
wheel Him that is thy hcnefador, visit and requite with
^
The idea that the incurably wicked
gracious recompense."
we

Of Ixion

read

punishment in order to provide a warning

the rank and file, occurs also in the myths of Plato

sufier eternal

for

and
all

in Virgil.*'
three cases

We may
to

with probability ascribe it in

the influence of early Orphic

eschatologies.

Hitherto in Greek
"

we have

literature, as
"

seen, the

appropriated to certain
favourites of the Gods, on whom the hand of death has
"
In Pindar all this is changed.
not fallen.
They who
"
that is, during three
thrice on either side of death
islands

the

of

blest

are

successive incarnations together with the corresponding

"
have refrained their souls
periods in the other world

from wickedness, travel on the road of Zeus'^ to the

tower of Cronus,^ where the ocean breezes blow around

who have

Plato's

future
1

Phaedo,
time,"

01 avi6.TU)%

There, presumably, like the

"
in
themselves
by philosophy
purified
"
for all
bodies
without
dwell
they

the blest."

the island of
souls

"

delivered

at

ixovT^h riato, Phaed.

p. CO.
01. 1. 55 ff.

525
;

Pyth.

2.

21

ff.

vwb ^1/7X019 a.<p'uKTOis KaKCiv,

fr. 132; but the fragment is probably spurious. Sec Rolide, Psyche
ii.

p. 213, n. 3.

=
6

113 E.
2
See
*

last

from
21

the

"

wheel of

Pyth.

2.

Plato,

Rep. X. 616 A, Gorg.

Virg. Aen. 6. 618 ff.
cf. Plato, Phacdr.
68
;

If.

01. 2.

ff.

tl".

246 E.
Cf.

Kpovos

Hesiod,

0.

^/a^acrtXei'et.

"114 C.

D.

1G9, Toiaiv

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

136

Besides

generation."

another exquisite picture of

the

life

fragment preserved by Plutarch

"For them

Apollonius:'^
of the

sun while in our world

shade of

the

And some
dice,

and

below

the

them thriveth

fair

all

strength

night, and the space

before their city is full of

and

of fruits of gold.
in bodily feats, and some in

and among
and fragrance

in harp-playing have delight

-

to

is

it

frankincense-trees,

in horses,

and some

Consolation

his

in

shineth

crimson-flowered meadows

of

Oltjminan, we have
of the blessed in a

second

the

flowering bliss

streameth ever through the lovely land, as they mingle

^
It is
incense of every kind upon the altars of the gods."
the same kind of picture as appears in the pseudo-Platonic
Axiochus, a dialogue admittedly full of Orphic ideas.^

need only be remarked that Pindar, in

what
we know from Aristotle to have
with
agreement
been a widely diffused belief in Greece,* attributes to the

For the

rest, it

departed souls some interest, slight though

their descendants upon earth.

fortunes of

it

"

be, in the

Even the

"
have part in sacrifices duly offered
dead," says Pindar,
and the dust hides not from them the goodly glories of

"

Perchance, with such intelligence as

beneath the ground, they hear of his mighty
prowess sprinkled witli song's soft dew beneath the
outpoured hymn of praise, wherefore they rejoice in
common with their son Arcesilas at the triumph he

their

kindred."

there

is

hath justly won."

Much

of

what

about the Gods

this poet-prophet sings

only a purer and more

but
his predecessors
of
of
the
version
teaching
spiritual
almost
is
his conception of
unique in
immortality
For it is Plato who
literature until we come to Plato.

and

their relation to

mankind

is

in this respect the true successor of the poet

is

c.

35

tr.

See

//. 129 Bergk.

Myers.
p. 108.

"

Elh.

OL

Mc.

8.

77

i.

IL

c.
;

we have

11,

Pyth.

5.

98

ff.

PINDAR

We

been considering.

137

must turn

to the Platonic

myths

to the supra-celestial world of the Phacdrus, and the

in order to find a
earthly paradise of the Phacclo

parallel to Pindar's representation of

store for virtue in the life to come.

the happiness in
ought not to

We

other religious teachers,

"
Pindar uses sensuous imagery to awaken transcendental
No one will ever determine exactly how much
feeling."
insist

of

upon the

details

like

what he says the poet himself believed, and how

For us the relevant conis only poetic fancy.

much

sideration

is

that

these

ideas,

from

whatever

source

Homeric, Orphic, or Eleusinian,^ and

however incompatible with one another they may be,
are present in the poetry of Pindar, and exercised an
they were taken

In a fragment preserved
"
poet tells how sweet hope cherishes the
soul of him who has lived in piety and justice, the nurse
^
of his declining years and the companion of his life."
influence

on Greek tliought.

by Plato,

tlic

The poetry
one of

its

of

Pindar

sources

is

is

full of

this

"

sweet hope

"

and

the hope of immortality.

V^- 137, "Blessed is lie who

having seen those rites shall pass
beneath the ground. He knoweth

life, yea, aud its celestial

origin {5l6<t5otov dpxo-v)."
214.
; //.
Eep. i. 331

the end of

LECTURE

VII

AESCHYLUS
and throughout the most flourisliing
was intimately
The seed from
wliich tragedy sprang was the dithyramb or choral
hymn in honour of Dionysus and after the tragic art
had attained to its ]naturity in Athens, it was still
only at the solemn festivals of Dionysus that plays
The representation of a tragedy was
were exhibited.
thus in a true and proper sense an act of public worship

Alike

in its origin,

period of its history, Greek drama

associated witli the services of religion.

rendered by the State to one

of

its

Gods.^

the

If

Greek drama is pre-eminently religious, it is

spirit
therefore no more tlian v/e should expect from a conBut in the case
sideration of its origin and history.
more particularly of Aeschylus, we may well suppose
that the circumstances of his childhood and youth
of

contributed

mind.

to

give

Born about

strongly

525

B.C.,

religious
scion

the

to

bias
of

his

noble

family belonging to Eleusis, he lived for a time in

the immediate precincts of the temple which, next to
that of Apollo at Delphi, was the most widely honoured
of all

Greek temples

that of

Demeter and Core, the

In early
patron Goddesses of the Eleusinian mysteries.
manhood he witnessed the tide of barbarism rolled

back from Greece by the heroic efforts of Athens and

he himself fought at Marathon, Salamis, and Plataea.
;

that in so great a deliverance Aeschylus

It is natural
'

Cioiset, LilUrature Grecque

138

iii.

p. 52.

AESCHYLUS

139

should have seen the liaud of the Gods; and Ihc Fcrsac
remains as a memorial to show that the defeat of
Xerxes was interpreted by the poet as an example on
a gigantic scale of the law of righteousness by which
God rules the world.

The lofty prophetical tone characteristic, as we have

seen, of Pindar, is not less characteristic of Aeschylus

combined with a greater

intensity of moral purpose, and a far profounder treatment of moral and religious problems, than either the
but in the

it

tragedian

is

subject of Pindar's odes, or the peculiar quality of his

The conception which lies in the
genius, allowed.
background of Aeschylus' theology is the old Ilesiodic

story of successive dynasties of Gods.

This conception

appears from time to time throughout the other plays,^

and is, in particular, the pivot on which the action of
In that tragedy, Cronus
the Prometheus Bound revolves.
and his allies are engulfed in the abyss of Tartarus, and
except for one possibility of danger, it would seem that
Zeus is firmly and for ever seated on his throne.
Prometheus, who has incurred the wrath of Zeus on

account of his friendship

the

keeping

secret

for

alone

that

humanity, holds in his

can save the newly-

established tyrant from suffering

the

fate

of

his

pre-

decessors.
"

Yea verily shall

Be humbled yet

Zeus, thougli stuliboni-soulcd,

such marriage he prepares

Wliich from his throne of power to nothiu-^ness
Shall hurl him down so shall be all fulfilled
His father Kronos' curse, which erst he spake
What time he fell from liis primeval throne.
From such disasters none of all the gods
To Zeus escape can show, save I alone
;

'

A(i.

Zeus)

know

it

and the wav."-

178 (]'., (Uranus, Cronus,

E^vm, 644 al. Wecklein.

939

wick.

fl".,

tr.

Miss Anna Swan-

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

I40

It is

the

because Prometheus stubbornly refuses to yield

that

secret

he

is

subjected

to

torture.

age-long

But even

in pronouncing sentence, the divine messenger

holds out the hope of ultimate deliverance
:

"

But

of such

Some

pangs look for no term, until

god, successor of thy

toils, appear,
"Willing to Hades' rayless gloom to wend,
And to the murky depths of Tartaros." ^

In the sequel, as seems to have been related in the

Delivered,^ Heracles, the son of Zeus, in

Prometheus

accordance with the decree of Destiny, and by his father's

will, released the hero.
Prometheus, taught perliaps
by suffering,^ discloses the secret, with the result tliat a
reconciliation

is

effected,

and Zeus escapes the danger

by which he was threatened.

Such, in broad outline, is the Aeschylean version of
the old legend.
To a modern reader, the interest

but if
centres chiefly round the figure of Prometheus
the other two members of the trilogy survived, we
;

should probably see that the idea which gives unity

to the whole is the
substitution of Harmony and

Discord and

Violence in the government

According to the Orphic anthropology,
man is a composite creature, half - bestial and halfdivine, combining something of the Titan and something

Justice
of

for

the world.

of the God
and the path of progress lies in starving
the Titanic element and nurturing and developing the
divine.
The Promethean trilogy, so far as its theo;

seems to be inspired by a
That which the Orphic
conception.
as
an
ideal
for the individual is
religion represented
here represented as having happened in the dynasty
of heaven.
The Titans whom Zeus overthrew were
logical ideas are concerned,

somewhat

'

1058

similar

A. Swanwick.
206 ff.

ff., tr.

Cf. P. V.

cf. line

528

f.

with Ag. 186

(Miss Swanwick, p. 363).

ff.

AESCHYLUS

141

deified impersonatious of the reign of

With the accession of Zeus, a new

and

force

era

terror.

about

is

to

which wisdom and justice will take the place of

It is true that the Zeus of the Prometheus
blind force.
begin, in

Bound

exhibits

many

cliaracteristics

of

the

previous

Might and he
had conceived the design of destroying humanity and
But even in this
fouudincj a new race of mortals.
His servants are Violence and

era.

play there are not wanting indications of an ulterior

The nymph
purpose seeking to bring good out of evil.
after her wanderings are ended, is to be restored
Zeus
to human form, and become the foundress of
by
a race whence Heracles should arise to free Prometheus
lo,

and confer inestimable good upon mankind.^ And we

must remember that the Prometheus Bound represents
After
only the transition from the old era to the new.
the empire of Zeus was finally established by a reconciliation wdth Prometheus, Justice and not Force became
the sceptre of his rule.
In the Prometheus it
is

strono-er
o
"

is

implied throughout that Fate

than Zeus.

ordained that fate

but by myriad pangs
And tortures bent, so shall I 'scape these bonds
Art than necessity is weaker far.'
'Who then is helmsman of necessity?'
'The triform Fates and ever-mindful Furies.'
'Is Zeus in might less absolute than these?'
'

Not yet nor thus

is it

These things shall compass

"^
'E'en he the fore-ordained cannot escape.'

We may

passage that Aeschylus sometranscendent principle, at once

the sucsuperior and prior to the Gods, and determining
Tlie Theorjony
cession and duration of their dynasties.
of Hesiod, as we have already seen, contains the same
times

infer

from

conceived

of

i787fr., 874ff.

tliis

5e7ff., tv. A. S.
'

Vr
/

'^

'

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

142

But except in the

though in a less explicit form.
is
more
consistent
than his
Prometheus, Aeschylus
hardly
of
on
the
the
relation
between
Zeus
subject
predecessors
and Fate. Though he frequently distinguishes between
the two powers, and sometimes brings them into
idea,

yet the tendency of his drama as a whole is

undoubtedly to exalt the authority of Zeus, and to
make Destiny either his coadjutor or simply that which

collision,^

At

he decrees.

the close of the Enmenides,

"

Zeus and Fate are in perfect harmony

out the whole of the Siqjidiants, Destiny

"

all-seeing

and through-

is

nothing but

the will of Zeus.

" Whate'er

The

is

fated that

must sure befal

will of Zeus, almighty, absolute,

None may

transgress."'*

The predominance

of Zeus is indeed one of the great

of Aeschylean theology.
features
Zeus is
distinguishing
"
of
most
blessed
the
the king
blessed, of
among
kings,

perfect

powers

most

powerful father,"
things

"

"

all-seeing,"

cause and accomplisher of

the

{iravairio<;,

the

perfect,"

7rav6py6T7]<i,

iravreky'j'i,

all-

all

riXeiO'i),^

without whose will nothing either good or evil happens

Many other epithets and sentiments might be

to man.^

quoted from nearly

all the plays, to illustrate man's

dependence upon the Almighty Father in the different
but it is perhaps in the Suppliants
relationships of life
one of the most truly religious poems in ancient literature
that Aeschylus' conception of Zeus reaches the highest
point.
Nothing can convey to us a more vivid impression
;

of the religious sentiment of

1

e.g.fr. 199

Eum.

305

cf.

104G

f.

Eum. 173
Cf.

the poet than the choruses

^

f.

C'/toe^jA.

Suppl. 5.33

Ag.

1487;

964.

tr.

1058 ff., tr. A. S. Cf. 681, 829 ff.

Pers. 103 {ee6eev /xoTpa)
Ag.lQlO f.
'

Ag. 1488

f.

ff.,

145

Se2Jt.

Earn. 919.

Ill;

Ag.

AESCHYLUS
in that play

and

I will

143

venture to put before you Mr.

Morshead's admirable version of two typical passages

"Justly his deed was done,

Unto what other

one,
the gods, should I for justice turn
From him our race did spring

Of

all

Creator he and King,

Ancient of days and wisdom he, and might.
As bark before the wind,
So, wafted by his mind,

Moves every

No

counsel, each device aright.

Beneath no stronger hand

Holds he a weak command.
throne doth he abase him to adore
Swift as a word, his deed

Acts out what stands decreed

In counsels of his heart, for evermore."

"Though

the deep will of Zeus be hard to track,

it flame and glance,

Yet doth

beacon in the dark, 'mid clouds of chance

That wrap mankind.

Yea, though the counsel fall, undone it shall not lie,
Whate'er be shaped and fixed within Zeus' ruling mind
Dark as a solemn grove, with sombre leafage shaded.

His paths of purpose wind,

A marvel to men's eye.
Smitten by him, from towering hopes degraded,
Mortals lie low and still
Tireless and effortless, works forth its will
:

The arm divine

God from his holy seat,
Brings forth the deed at

in cahn of
its

unarmed power,

appointed hour

"

In these two poems, as well as elsewhere throughout

the dramas, the poet clearly assumes the essential unity
of the divine purpose as manifested in the world.
It

would nevertheless be an error

is

in

to suppose that

Aeschylus

any proper sense of the term a monotheist.

constantly recognises a plurality of Gods

'

598

ir.

88

tr.

He

and nowhere

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

144

There
does he contend against the prevailing polytheism.
indeed, one fragment which appears to deny the exist-

is,

"

ence of more Gods than one.

Zeus is aether, Zeus is

Zeus is heaven Zeus, in truth, is all things and
more than all."^ We have here an interesting anticipaearth,

tion

of

which
of

the half-poetical, half-philosophical pantheism

among ancient poets is characteristic chiefly

and among

Virgil,

modern,

Wordsworth

of

and

Tennyson.

"The

the

sun,

moon, the

stars,

the

seas,

the

hills,

and the

I^lains,

Are not

these,

Soul, the Vision of

Him who

reigns

" ^

But no other passage in Aeschylus strikes exactly this

and the fragment, if genuine, probably refers to
some pantheistic doctrine of the Orphic type.^
The most that we can fairly say on the subject of
Aeschylean monotheism is that in Aeschylus the
note

personality of Zeus overshadows that of all the inferior

Gods to a much greater extent than formerly and that
;

which Zeus belongs, there is

but a single purpose, a single ruling will, the will of Zeus
himself.
Hence it is to Zeus that the thoughts of the
chorus spontaneously rise in seasons of perplexity and
in the dynasty of

danger

Gods

to

"Zeus, whoe'er he be, this

name

If it pleaseth him to claim.

This to him will I address ;
all, no power I know
Save only Zeus, if I aside would throw
In sooth as vain this burthen of distress

Weighing

Who
To Zeus
1

uplifts, true

fr. 70.

-Tennyson,
theism.

the victor-strain

wisdom

The

Hvjher

Fan-

shall obtain."*

See p. 95.
yi(/. 170 If.,

tr.

A. S.

AESCHYLUS
Of

145

divine attributes, there

all Llic

is

none upon which

Justice is the
Aeschylus lays so much stress as Justice.
/J t'a,
daughter of Zeus
rightly so named from J to?
^
and everywhere in Aeschylus, Zeus is her
Kopa
:

The poet by no means ignores

If Zeus is the punisher
the beneficent aspect of Justice.
of sin, he is also the rewarder of virtue, distriliuting
champion and avenger.

"

blessing to the good,

KaKol^, oata

fjuev

say the

But

and

to the

wicked bale

The seed

S' iuv6fioi<;.^

Chorus in the Agamemnon,

for one passage

aScKa

the righteous,
shall be blessed.^
of

kind in Aeschylus, there

this

of

"

are probably ten or more which proclaim the penalties

of sin
and that which gives its great distinguishing
feature to Aeschylean drama is the unique and almost
;

appalling emphasis with which the poet dwells upon this

theme.
He is above all things the prophet of retributive
for
justice, calling to his fellows to be just and pious
:

human
by

action

irrevocable, and

is

sin

must ever be expiated

suffering.

What

view of Aeschylus as to the nature,

and
This matter is put
development,
history of sin ?
in
a
the
shade of Darius
very briefly
couplet spoken by
the

is

in the Persae

v(ipi
<"iTr]S,

yap i^av6ov(T (Kc'ipTraxre crraxw

odev TrnyKXavTov f^npa depos.

"For bursting

into Ijlossom, Insolence

Its harvest-ear, Delusion, ripenetli

And
Sin
itself

overweening pride or insolence, showing

outwardly
attempt to encroach on the rights
is

i//9pi<?,

in the

of others or the

hold
1

^
=

538

Gods.

It

so

is

Aeschylus appears to

a kind of disease or madness,^ which fastens on

Choeph. 948
Suppl. 409.
Ay. 758 f. ;
ff.

reaps most tearful fruit."*

al.

10

cf.

Sept. 649.

cf.

767

f.

E%im.

823

f.,

tr.

A. S.

voffos <ppfvQi', Pers. 752.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

146

the sinner, confounding his intelhgence so

that he can no longer discriminate between right and
The sinner is yu-arato?, the slave of idle deluwrong.
like a child pursuing a winged bird, so he vainly
sions
strives to attain the unattainable.^
Aeschylus portrays

the soul of

the development and consequences of sin in

many

extraordinary vehemence and power.

suffice to quote a single example

of

passages

must here

It

" Child of
designing Ate's deadly womb,
The wretch Temptation drives him to his doom.
is all in vain.
The vice he wears
cannot hide sinister gleam declares
His mischief as base metal at the touch
And trial of the stone, he showeth smutch

Then cure

He

(This fond man like a child a-chase of wings),

the awful taint on all his people brings

And

not an ear in Heaven one frown

All conversant with such calls guilty and pulls down."-

To prayers

is

Here, and in other passages of the kind, there is little

that goes beyond the teaching of Solon, though in Aeschylus
we have more elaboration and prophetic fire. But the
question which

it

concerns

us

chiefly

consider

to

is

whether Aeschylus believed that the original seed or

germ of sin is implanted in the individual by his own
spontaneous act, or by a supernatural agency beyond his
A number of passages might be quoted from
control.
the plays to support the view that the individual is not
in this matter a free agent, but is led astray by some

The opening chorus of the Persac contains

divine power.
a clear expression of this belief
:

"

But ah

A
Who
Ate
^

Eum. 338

'

Ag. 396

al.

ff.,

what mortal bafHe may

god's deep-plotted snare,may o'er leap with foot so light

at first, with semblance fair,

;
Jg. 404.
Dr. Headlam's

(Cambridge
tr.

\\ 103).

Praehctioiis,

Cf. esp.

Eum.

5.52

1906,
ff.

AESCHYLUS
Into her

ia;j

toils allures lier prey,

Whence no mere mortal wight

May

And

elsewhere

break away."

we hear

of

an

evil

daemon

or Alastor

confounding men's senses and hounding them on to ruin.^

fragment of the Niobe, as we have already seen,^ declares

"
many words that God engenders guilt in mortal
men, when he is minded utterly to destroy their house."
But in the case of a dramatic poet, we cannot determine

in so

"*

a question of this kind by an enumeration of isolated

sentiments, many of which are spoken by characters

whom

We

the poet clearly means us to condemn.

have regard to the general

must

drift of

Aeschylus' teaching,
as shown in the catastrophe of his plays, and formulated
from time to time by those speakers who, like the chorus
in the Agamemnon, and Darius in the Persae,
point the

moral of the dramatic situation.

criterion,

If

we adopt such

we

Aeschylus

shall conclude, I think, that the position of

with reference to this matter was analogous

"
Jewish theology.
It has been said that
in
no part of the Old Testament is God represented as the
primary author of evil thoughts or actions in men if

to that of

He

instigate

them

to evil,

it

in

is

punishment or aggra-

vation of evil they have already committed." ^

statement applies to the drama of Aeschylus.

similar

The idea

that sin

is
originated by divine agency he found deeply
rooted in antecedent and contemporary thought.*'
With
this idea he does not entirely break
but he distinguishes
;

two moments or stages

when he commits the

in

the career of the sinner

one

transgression, and the other

when he persists in his wickedness. It is in the power
of the individual to refrain from
taking the initial step
first

94

A. S.
-e.g. Pers. 356 f., 726.
"
See J). 37.
ir., tr.

/;. 156.

Hastings' Diet, of the

Bilh,

i.

p. 96''.
"

For examples, see

Niigelsbaeh,
65 tt'.

Nachhom,

p.

88

Theol.

and
p.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

148

but, as soon as he has transgressed, infatuation follows

This is the
from the Gods, and his doom is sealed.
of

meaning

the

which

in

line

moralises on the Persian downfall

auTo?,

^09

%ft)

^vvciTTTeTaL

the

aW

when

our

of

of

ghost
orav

Darius

o-irevhr] ti<;

own

free will

As
himself becomes our ally.^
"
It is the dark converse of God
Professor Butcher says,
" ^
In Aristotle's
helps those who help themselves.'
we rush

into

God

sin,

'

Ethics

we

find a

this conception.

noteworthy parallel to

The philosopher admits that one who is fairly embarked

But
on a career of vice cannot any longer be virtuous.
he contends that the original acts which generated the

own power

the man's

vicious habit were

entirely

and on

this account

we must pronounce him

agent,

even though
"

does.

in

a voluntary
cannot act otherwise than he

he

True, you cannot alter

character

your

now

was open to you at first not to become wicked:

Moral
and you are therefore voluntarily wicked." ^
foundathe
same
has
in
freedom,
apparently
Aeschylus,
but

it

tion.

have confined myself, so

far, to

Aeschylus' view of

but the
sin as it appears in the life of the individual
is
the
theme of his most powerful tragedies
history of sin
;

as

it

reveals

the successive

in

itself

generations of

The legends connected with two

crime-stained family.
royal houses, the Labdacidae and the Pleisthenidae, supply
In the case
the poet with materials for this subject.
of

drr])

was

the repeated

warnings

without

unholy

issue

banquet

1
"^

Pers.

Thches
744

f.

Laius'

wilful

crime

disobedience

Apollo, that he
the Pleisthenidae,

of

among

to

should

die

was

the

it

which

offered to Thyestes.

against

primary infatuation or

Labdacidae, the

the

{7rp(iiTap')(p<;

Atreus, Agamemnon's father,

In the trilogy of which the Seven

was

the

Of. fr. 22, 395.

Aspectsof the Greek Genius,

p.

118.

concluding

Nk.

Eth.

Ag. 1191.

play,
iii.

7.

Aeschylus
1114^ 19.

AESCHYLUS
with

149

trenieudous

power the appalling conseThe son begotten by

quences
transgression.
Laius in defiance of Apollo's warning slew his father and
paiuted

Laius'

of

married with his motlior

of

the ancestral

crime.

this

recrudescence

tlie first

is

When

the

awful

truth

was

a frenzy of despair, put out his

and
abdicated
in favour of his two sons,
eyes,
finally
Eteocles and Polyneices.
In course of time, stung by the
revealed, Oedipus, in

ignominies put upon him by his children, Oedipus prayed

that they might fall in battle by one another's hands.

The fulfilment

of

this

prayer forms the subject of the

and throughout the whole play we

are conscious that eacli new development is only, as it
were, a fresh shoot thrown out by the parent stock of sin.
The Oresteian trilogy is dominated throughout by the
same idea. Tlie primal curse brought upon the family
by Atreus breaks forth anew in the murder of Agamemnon
by Clytaemuestra, and in that of Clytaemnestra by
Orestes
and only by the intervention of Apollo and
Athena is the spectre finally laid.
In the last chorus
of
the Choephori the whole tragic history is thus
Seven against Thehes

summed up
" Now
:

ill

Mycenae's royal

halls,

The storm, o'er Atreus' race that lowers,

Pamning its course, for the third time hath burst.
Child-devouring horror

Brooded

first,

o'er these walls

Next a monarch's deadly bale,

When the chief whom we bewail,
War-leader to Achaia's martial powers,
In the bath lay dead.

Now, behold

a third

is

come,

Saviour, shall I say, or

From what

quarter sped

doom ?
?

Full-accomplished, when sliall Fate,

Lulled to rest, her stormy ire abate
1

1063

if., tv.

A. S.

"

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

ISO

In such a network of calamity, it is difficult to see

for moral choice.
Whether the original

any room

was voluntary or involuntary, there appears

hope for those in the second generation.
It is true that Aeschylus invariably makes the victim of
ancestral guilt a sinner also on his own account.
The
familiar characteristics of a sinful frame of mind
are attributed to
stubbornness, self-will, and impiety
Agamemnon as soon as he consents to the sacrifice of his
transgression

to be

no

real

daughter.
o
"

Then harnessed

in Necessity's stern yoke

impious change-wind in his bosom woke,
Profane, unhallowed, with dire evil fraught,
His soul perverting to all daring thought." ^

An

And

manner

in like

Eteocles, at the crisis of his fate,

overcome by impetuous and unreasoning passion.^ But

this very passion is itself a sign that the avenging

is

daemooi of the family is at work.

Sin, we read in the
Agamemnon, does not die childless, but begets a numerous
"

progeny.
when the

In the hearts
appointed

evil

men, sooner or
the

arrives,

old

later,

Insolence

a young Insolence in the likeness of

(v^pt'i) begets

an

progenitors,

of

hour

avenging

spirit

(Sai/xova),

working

its

in

darkness,^ irresistible, unconquerable, unholy Eecklessness

^
{dpdao<i), bringing black destruction upon the house."

We
right

cannot but
not

to

feel

that the responsibility belongs of

tlie deed, but to the never-

the doer of

sleeping Alastor or Erinys that haunts the crime-stained

race from the moment the first seed of guilt was sown.

Over the body

of the

murdered Agamemnon the Chorus

see in fancy the evil genius of the household chanting its

ill-omened strain of triumph.^
Clytaemnestra, too, after
1

Ag. 228

Sei)t.
^

ff., tr.

679

A. S.

ir.

Reading ^advaKorov (with Dr.

Headlam).

"

Ag. 760

Eum. 935
"^

1473

ff.

ff.

ff.

of.

718

ff.,

and

AESCHYLUS

151

transports of revenge have subsided,

disclaim all responsibility for her deed of blood

the

first

" Dost boast as mine this deed

not so

Of

this

dead monarch's queen,

fiend of Atreus dealt the blow

Requiting his grim feast.

For the slain babes, as priest.
The full-grown victim now he layeth low."

The

justice of the plea is half -admitted

in their reply

fain to

Then wrongly thou dost read,

To count me Agamemnon's wife
Appearing in the mien
The ancient

is

by the Chorus

"That thou

art guiltless of this blood

will attest?
Yet by thy side,
Haply, as thy accomplice, stood

Who

The Fury who doth here

But even

if

doer

the

still

preside."

the responsibility rests with Fate,

suffer.
It is in vain

it

who must

is

that

Clytaemnestra, as she shrinks from the avenging sword,

exclaims
:

17

fioipa TovToiv,

my

"Fate,

The reply

oi

child,

TiKvov, TrapaiTia.

must share the blame

of Orestes leaves

thereof."

no loophole of escape

Kol rdi'Se To'ivvv poip' inopcrvvev popov.

" This fatal
doom, then, it is Fate that sends."

Situations of this kind,

sufficiently tragic

it

will be allowed, are already

but the tragedy

is

not unfrequently

heightened by representing the oflence committed by the

individual as in itself the fulfilment of a moral obligation.
"
is not
has been said that the true tragic conflict
between right and wrong, but between right and right."

It

Ag. 1498

fT.,

tr.

A. S.

"^

^506

ff.,

tr.

A.

S.

Ch. 909

f.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

152

The remark holds good of Aeschyhis. When Agamemnon

is called upon to slay his daughter, he has to choose
that which he owes to
between two conflicting duties
family, and that which he owes to country.^ In fulfilling
the one, he necessarily violates the other and which;

ever alternative he selects, calamity is certain.

At tlie
close of the Seven against Thebes, Antigone is placed
in a similar dilemma.
She must either defy the edict of
the State, or disobey the still higher law which enjoins
that the rite of burial shall be accorded to the dead.- But

and Eumenides that this warfare of

contending obligations appeals most powerfully, if not
in the Choeplwri

it is

to the ancients, at least

duty

of

to

On

us.

his father's death

avenging
on the other

by Apollo

to a mother.

the one hand, the

laid upon Orestes
the reverence due
is

who pursue

Furies

the

vengeance
kindred blood.

side, there is

he obeys Apollo, he

If

of

is

In the event

of

exposed to the
shedder of

the

disobedience, torments

At the
even more terrible are threatened by the God.
he
hesitates
but
moment
command
supreme
Apollo's
;

prevails.^

The question may be asked Does Aeschylus provide

Does he anywhere
any solution of this dark problem ?
succeed in reconciling the claims of Justice with what
would appear to be due to the individual, if we are to
assume the moral government of the world ?
:

do not think that the ethical difficulty is ever solved

In the case of Orestes, it is true, the

by the poet.
Eumenides

offers,

explanation.

not so

The

much

fugitive

is

a solution, as a kind of
tried before the Areopagus

Apollo, representing the newer and more benign

theocracy, becomes his champion against the vengeful

court.

Furies,

who belong

Gods

of
1

and

See esp. Ag. 215

Sept. 1017 tf.

to the older, less

humane generation

by the intervention
ff.

c/?.

898

of
ff.

Athena, he

is

AESCHYLUS

153

At the same
acquitted aud delivered from tlie curse.
time, the Furies are propitiated by receiving a shrine in
Athens, and

take

supporters of the

their

dynasty

henceforward

place

of Zeus.

It

is

as

loyal

obvious that

we

have here a mythological rather than an ethical solution.

The collision of moral principles is referred to the
antagonism between the Chthonian and the Olympian
powers, and as soon as they are reconciled, it disappears.
"

It is Aeschylus's conviction," w'rites C. 0. Miiller,

"

that

the contiict between those ancient orders and the powers

that sway the present world is merely transient, existing
for a certain epoch, a crisis preparatory only to a higher
With him the world of Olympian Gods is
development.

with the original powers, and, as

in perfect unison

it

were,

^
This
nothing more than an improvement upon them."
is undoubtedly correct
but it must be remembered that
the matricide by which Orestes incurred the vengeance
of the Furies was enjoined upon him by Apollo
and
;

from the ethical point of view, his ultimate acquittal

affords no adequate compensation for the torments he
In other cases, Aeschylus apparently offers no
endured.
solution

at

Eteocles

all.

against his brother, or

over which he rules.^

fail

must
in

The

either

take

the

field

duty to the kingdom

claims of honour and

his

patriotism prevail, although, as I have already pointed

out, Aeschylus contrives to make it appear that he is
also

swayed by passion

Oedipus
brothers.

is fulfilled

with the result that the curse of

through the mutual slaughter of the

In like manner the

Agamemnon,

sacrifice of Iphigeneia by
duty from which he could not escape

except by surrendering every title to command the

Grecian fleet, is represented as a contributory cause of
It is perhaps the function of the tragic
his destruction.
poet

it

certainly was the favourite field in which Greek

to utilise such situations for the purpose

tragedy worked
^

Dissertations

on

the Euni. p. 184.

Sept. 660

f.,

670, 70^.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

154

emotions of pity and fear rather than to

a
sohition
by which the rights of the individual
suggest
but
as well as the demands of J ustice shall be satisfied
of purifying our

we cannot,

maintain that Aeschylus

any
has solved the mighty problems which he raises.
Enough has now been said to enable us to understand
case

in

I think,

the Aeschylean conception of sin, in its effect upon the

both of the individual and of the family and I proceed to consider the law of punishment as expounded by

life

the poet.

In Greek literature, as elsewhere,^, we find two

conceptions
remedial.

of

punishment,

The

principle

retributory and the

the former theory is
el' Ke.
irdOoL to. t epe^e,

the
of

expressed in the Hesiodic line

IQela ryevonor
It is simply the jus talionis
Slki] k
the doer must suffer in his own person that which he
:

The remedial view

has done to others.

of

punishment

It conceives of
appears at a later stage of civilisation.
sin as a kind of spiritual disease, for which punishment is
In Aeschylus, of course, punishment
the appointed cure.

part retributory.
Again and again
the
Oresteia he proclaims this principle in
throughout
emphatic tones

is

for

the most

" Let
tongue of Hatred pay back tongue of Hate
Thus with her mighty utt'rance Justice cries,
;

Due penalty

exacting for each deed.

Let murder on the murderous stroke await

Doer of wrong must suffer. Tliis sage

Tradition utters, trebly hoar."^

lore,

" For law

it is, when on the plain

Blood hath been shed, new blood must
Carnage doth to the Fury call

fall.

Avenger of the earlier slain,

She comes, new Ruin leading
iSee Westermarck, Origin and
Moral Ideas ^. SO
fr. 217 Goettling.
3
of. Ag.
Ch. 308 ff., tr. A. S.

Develop, of

in her train."

1317 fl"., 1322 ff., 1337 ff.,

1561 ff.
Ch. 144; Eum.
264 f. Pers. 815 f.
*
Ch. 399 ft"., tr. A. S.
537

f.,

1431,

AESCHYLUS

155

The blood of Ipliigcueia calls fioui the ground for

Agamemnon's death and it is the murdered Agamemnon
who drives home the sword of Orestes in Clytaemnestra's
:

In the Chocphori no element is wanting to

By the side of the dead
complete the tragic parallel.
and
her
Orestes places the net
paramour,
Clytaemnestra
in which his father was entangled and slain, to justify
bosom.^

himself before the

"

all- seeing

sun

Mark

this device, my wretched father's snare,

His hands which fettered and his feet which yoked.
Unfold it, form a ring, and, standing near.

Display the Hero's death-robe, that the Sire,

Not mine, but He who all these woes surveys,
Helios, my mother's impious deeds may mark

my trial, at some future time.

He by my side may stand, and witness
So in

That justly

My

mother."

bear

did prosecute to death

I
2

In none of these passages is there any hint that the

divine justice has regard to the interests of the criminal
but the poet more than once expresses the milder and

more Sophoclean

God

leads

men

belief, that sitfiering is

"

"

"

ing

{iraOo'i fxado'i),

such

is

"

It

is

the

way by which

We

into knowledge.

"Wisdom cometh

learn by suffer" ^
by constraint

the language in which this thought is clothed.

Zeus who guideth mortals on the road to

wisdom, who hath

appointed the sure ordinance

hy
learn.
In sleep the anguish of
suffering
remembered suffering breaks out before the heart, and
thou

shall

wisdom cometh

to mortals in their

have exactly the same

"

own

despite."
sentiment in the Book of

We
Job

once, yea twice, though man regardeth it

In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep
falleth upon men, in slumberings upon the bed

God speaketh

not.

sleep
1

Ch. 926.

Ch. 978

tr.,

tr.

A. S.

Sum. 523

"

Ag. 186

fF.

f.
;

cf.

261

f.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

156

he openeth the ears of men, and sealeth their

instruction, that he may withdraw man from his purpose,
theu

and hide pride from man."

observed

that
Zeus.

to

/Liddo<i

It

is

ascribes

iVeschylus
The retributive

particularly to be
the law of irdOa

Spdaavri

principle,

immemorial precept,
we
than
the
older,
Olympian dynasty."
may presume,
Its champions, in Aeschylus, are the Furies and the
a

is

iradelv,

an

ixvOa,

rpc^yepoov

Fates.

We

have next

how

consider

to

the traditional doctrine of the

"

envy

Aeschyli^s interprets
It has

of the Gods."

already been remarked that, according to the usual Greek

view, the divine jealousy is awakened by a man's success,

without the imputation of sinful action or desire and

also seen that it may be averted by the
:

we have

voluntary sacrifice of some highly-valued possession.^

One of the choruses in the Agamemnon contains a

There

reminiscence of the second of these ideas.

is

no

the poet says, to the pursuit of prosperity

but
misfortune is close neighbour to success.
when
Suddenly,
holding a straight course, we strike upon a hidden reef
limit,

and then,

if

whole

fear casts out part of the cargo, the

house does not sink by reason of the calamitous freight,

"

Too much
engulfed in the sea.*
"
is
we
read
the
mountain
elsewhere,
praise,"
dangerous
^
are
blasted
the
of
Zeus."
The
peaks
by
eyes
messenger
nor

the vessel

is

who

relates

"

envy
to

the defeat of

the Gods

of

different

"

^
:

cause
"

"

Xerxes attributes

it

the

to

but Darius assigns the disaster

the anger of Zeus at Xerxes'

and this is, of course, the poet's

overweening thoughts
own view. That Aeschylus disbelieved in the popular
"^

"

"

interpretation of the
envy of the Gods is evident not
from
the
only
pervading spirit of his drama, but also from
^

33. 14
Cf.

See

Ag. 993

p.'

ff.

Ag. 1563

^fy_
7

124.
ff.

Cf. Sept. 754

ff.

474

f_

cf.

912, 937.

Pers. 365.

[OectxLov -^ap).

pg,.5_

29

f,

Cf.

Ag. 136

ff.

AESCHYLUS

i57

the
protest which he uiiikes cagainst
doctrine in one of those relatively few places where he
expressly challenges traditional beliefs.

the

deliberale

" Lives
among men this saw, voiced long ago
Success consummate breeds apace,

Nor childless dies, hut to

From prosperous Fortune
Apart

hold

my

the race

springeth cureless Woe.

solitary creed.

Prolific truly is the impious deed ;

Like to the evil stock, the evil seed

But

fate ordains that righteous

homes

shall aye

Kejoice in goodly progeny."^

According to Aeschylus, the resentment has for its

so that the "envy of
object not the prosperity, but the sin
"
is only an expression for the divine Nemesis
the Gods
;

against those in whom prosperity has

In the Prometheus Bound, it is true,
engendered pride.
Zeus is represented as jealous of the whole human race.-

when

But

directed

in other respects, the Prometheus stands

this, as

in

We may

apart.
conciliation

sure

that

the

re-

subsequent

champion and Zeus was

reconciliation between Zeus and

man's

same time a

the

at

be

Ijetween

man.
Does Aeschylus attribute untrutlifulness

to the divine

Plato severely censures him for making Thetis

accuse Apollo of deception.
Apollo, at the marriage of

nature

the Goddess, had

" Dwelt on her
happy motherhood to be,
Diseaseless lives, crowned with long happy years.

Fondly

deemed that Phoebus' voice divine

Stooped not to lies, rich in prophetic skill.

But he that at the banquet sang of joys
To come, he that foretold these blissful days,
Even he with his own hand hath slain my child."
'

Ag. 749

fl'.,

tr.

A. S.

11, 28

ff.

and pasmn.

ap. PI. Rep.

ii.

SbS B.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

158

obvious that this passage has only a dramatic

In the Prometheus, on the other hand, we read
value.
"
that
the voice of Zeus cannot speak falsely, but he shall
" ^
and in the Seven against Thches,
fulfil every word

But

it is

keep silence or to speak truly.^

On the other hand, Hermes, as usual, is still in Aeschylus
the God of guile ^ and according to two fragments, God

Apollo

said either to

is

is

not averse to

"

It is clear that truth-

just deception."

a necessary part of the conception of Zeus which

we find in most of the Aeschylean choruses but it is not
nor did he
a feature on which the poet specially insists
fulness

is

on those ancient stories of divine

employ
transformations which Plato ranks in the same category
with the legends ascribing to them deceitfulness and
his art

disdain to

lies.^

The same may be said with

myths which represent the Gods
desires.

does

Aeschylus

reference
as

those

to

subject to

carnal

any more than Pindar,

not,

But he draws a veil over whatdiscard such legends.

ever of grossness they contain and in the Supiiliants^
Zeus' passion for lo furnishes the theme of a chorus
;

which

second

is

of

purity

none

to

Aeschylus for depth and

I

feeling.

religious

Morshead's version

in

of

"Whose hand was

the

poem

laid at last

will

give

you

Mr.

on

lo,

thus forlorn,

"With many roamings worn?

bade the harassed maiden's peace return?
Zeus, lord of time eterne.

Who

Yea, by his breath divine, by his unscathing strength,

She lays aside her bane,

And

softened back to

womanhood

at length

Sheds human tears again.

Then quickened with Zeus' veritable seed,

1064

606.

618

progenj' she bare,

(^fi-

Cf.

Ch. 557.

Pers. 802

if.

Enm.

'

80S

h:

301, 302.
See, e.g.,fr. 99. Cf. Suppl. 305.

AESCHYLUS

stainless babe, a child of

Of
His

life

Who

else

Her

heavenly breed,

and fortune
so all

is the life of life

His is
had power

159

fair.

men

say,
the seed of Zeus.

stern Hera's craft to stay,

" ^
venrjeful curse to loose ?

lu the bauds of Aeschylus the legeud is half-spiritualised

into a kind of symbolical expression of that union

between the divine and human which, as will afterwards

be shown, is one of the fundamental ideas of Platonism,
and lies at the root of Christianity itself.

The
is

last

of

the topics with which

Aeschylus

immortality.

"

never-ending

sleep,"

pains and sorrows of

runs thus

speaks

the

life.

great

we have

of

to

deal

as

the

from

the

death

deliverer

fragment of the Fhilodetes

"

healing Death, hear then my prayer and

Sole cure art thou of woes incurable ;

come

For Pain lays not her hand upon the dead."^

Sentiments of

this

kind are easily compatible with

a belief in immortality and Aeschylus makes frequent

"
allusion to a future state.
Child," say the Chorus in
;

the

"

ChoepJiori,

Fire's

ravening jaw

doth

not

subdue

We

the spirit of the dead." *

have seen that Pindar
believes the soul to be divine and therefore imperishable.^

Aeschylus, too, in more than one passage shows himself

acquainted with the Orphic and Pythagorean doctrine
the divinity of the soul.
When he says that
the eye of the mind sees clearly during sleep, but in
the day men cannot look into the future,** we are

of

entitled to suppose, in view of tlie Pindaric parallel,'^

that the soul foresees the future through her affinity
^

*
*

580
Ag.

ff.

14.'>2.

fr. 2.55.

322

f.

s
6
7

See p. 132.
^,^_ 104 f.
See p. 131.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

i6o

The
some

with God.
also

is

to

extent implied

God

are taught of

in the divine origin of the soul

in the idea that we

belief

moments

awake, in

The importance attached

and visions of the night - points
and even when the body is

in sleep.^

by Aeschylus to dreams
in the same direction

of

ecstasy, such as he
in those ominous

prophetic

depicts in the person of Cassandra,

and

forebodings which

oppress the Argive elders, the soul

But
betray her kinship with the Gods.
appears
into
doctrine
the
does
like
not,
Pindar, bring
Aeschylus
to

with

relationship

picture

We

read

Sometimes

immortality.

underworld resembles

the

of

"

Charon's

of

Aeschylus'

that

black-sailed

of

galley,

Homer.
sunless,

untrodden

by Apollo, that leads to the invisible, all^

The ghost of Darius says grimly
receiving shore."
that the powers beneath the ground are more skilled
^
nor is there a single ray of
to seize than to let go
hope in the words he utters before returning to the
:

realm

Hades

of

"

But

I to

Yet
For

although

depart.
ills

surroimd,

your souls give joyance, day by day,

^
to the dead no profit is in wealth."
to

we

Elsewhere

now

nether darkness

Farewell, ye elders

find

mention

of

"

the

dead,"
sapless
pleasure and to pain, in whom is
"
no vigour nor veins that flow with blood." ^
Aeschylus
also makes reference to degrees of rank in Hades.''
insensible alike

to

the poet admits several un-Homeric

Throughout the Oresteia, the dead are no longer
"
they retain feeling, intelliphantoms of men outworn
to
and
are
able
and
will,
help or harm the living.^
gence,

At

other

times

features.
"

'

521
=*

179

fl'.,

521

f.

Ch.

Pers. 841

ff.,

A. S.

tr.

229, 230, 266.

Pers. 693
Ch. 355 ff.
*
Bum. 94
Ch. 39, 322 f.
cf. Pers. 223 ff.
'^fr.
'

ff.

842
Pers. 691
Si.pt.

See p. 155.

^e.g. Pers.

ff.
f.

ff.

AESCHYLUS
The shade

of

is
invoked to co-operate
Electra in exacting vengeance from
But the most important difference

Agamemnon

with Orestes and

murderers.^

his

l6l

between Homer and Aeschyhis in regard to eschatology

is that
Aeschylus, hke Pindar and tlie Orphics, recognises
a judgment and penalties hereafter.
" There thou shalt see in
durance drear,
'Gainst god or guest or parents dear,

Like thee

who

sinned, receiving their due meed.

of the nether sphere,

For Hades, ruler

Exactest auditor of

human

kind.

Graved on the tablet of his mind

Doth every trespass read." -

Headlam has also pointed out an allusion

But there is
Aeschylus to a sort of Purgatory.^
apparently no trace whatever in his plays of an Elysium
and the consequence is that his eschafor the just
tology is steeped in an atmosphere of totally unrelieved
Dr.

in

gloom.
If,

of

we ask what

in conclusion,
to

Aeschylus

teacher,

religious

be
our

reply,

the peculiar claim

is

as

regarded

great

think,

moral

must

be,

and
that

more emphatically, perhaps, than any other ancient

writer, he proclaims the government of the world by
"

justice.

This

is

Justice

guides

all

their

goal."

the one great lesson which he draws from the

history alike of families, individuals,

is
it
chiefly the punitive side of

on which he

insists

and

nations.

the divine

That
justice

be due in part to the nature

selects for treatment.
But it is

may

subjects he
impossible to study

the

of

to

things

the

drama

of

Aeschylus without

forming the impression that the poet himself was far

more profoundly convinced of the retribution awaiting
1

Gh. 130

Eum. 269

Sujypl.

236
II

ff.

f.,

of.

S., tr.

421.

477 ff.
A. S.

'
;

cf.

340

In Gh. 61.

p. 348.
*

Aij. 773.

See Gl. Rev. xvi.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

I62

the rewards in store for

than of

sin

To

virtue.

call

Aeschylus a pessimist would be a ludicrous perversion

His characters indulge, of course,
of
the truth.
the
usual Greek commonplaces about
in
occasionally,
the

frailty

the

man and

of

But the poet

sees

administration

the troubles

hand

the

the

of

of

world

of

Zeus
to

human

too

life.-^

clearly

in

himself

permit

to despair.
all, no power I know,
Save only Zeus, if I aside would throw
In sooth as vain this burthen of distress."

"Weighing

none

the

true that Aeschylus' constant

the problems of sin and suffering
deprives his teaching of that serene tranquillity which
characterises his great successor, of whom a sympathetic
It

is

less

preoccupation with

has

writer

well

said

that

"

the

undertone

of

divine

vengeance running through the dramas of Aeschylus

seems in Sophocles to pass away into an echo of divine
compassion, and we move from the gloom of sin and
'

sorrow

'

strength
1

e.g.

fr. 401.

towards the dawning of a brighter day in which

^
is made perfect in weakness."

Ag. 1326

tf.

Ch. 1016

"
ff.

;
=*

Ag. 173

flf.,

tr.

A.

S.

E. Alibott, Hellcnica p. 66.

LECTURE

VIII

SOPHOCLES
In passing from Aeschylus to Sophocles, we are sensible

change has come over the spirit of Greek

The predominant feature of Aeschylean tragedy
was the extraordinary power displayed by the poet in
grappling with the deepest problems of religion and life,
such as the origin and propagation of sin, together with
its eftects on the individual, the family, and the State.

at once that a

drama.

More

effectively, perhaps, than any other ancient poet

except Euripides, he makes us realise the contending
forces that determine the destiny of man
and his own
profound belief in the righteousness of Zeus hardly
;

to dispel in us the doubts which he awakens.

In Sophocles, on the other hand, though he is by no
means unconscious of the discordant elements in human

suffices

and destiny, the prevailing note is one of reconciliain a word, eu^T^/i/a.

It is this
harmony, and peace
which distinguishes his poetry from the storm and stress
of Aeschylean drama on the one hand, and on the other
hand from the drama of Euripides, in whom the apparent
contradictions in the divine administration of the world
have engendered a strong current, if not of irreligion, at
life

tion,

least of hostility to the traditional faith of Greece.

All that

we know

of the life

and character

of Sophocles

In a comedy
in keeping with the spirit of his Muse.
a
after
he
had
died,
contemporary poet thus
produced just

is

"

writes his epitaph

Happy was Sophocles. He died
after a long life, blest by the gods and skilful in his art,
:

163

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

i64

He suffered
having composed many beautiful tragedies.
no evil, and his end was peace." ^
Aristophanes, in a
well-known

on

as

kingdom

describes

line,

earth."

him

"

as

cheerfid

According

Hades'

in

the

to

life

of

Sophocles, the charm of his character was such that all

men everywhere loved him, and he was dear to the
Gods beyond all other men
^eo^tX?^?, 609 ovk. aSXo^?
"

It

was

his

look around

"
to
temperament," says Sir Kichard Jebb,
for elements of conciliation, to evoke

him

gentle and mediating influences, rather than to

on the forces which he regarded as sinister

make war
it

be said of him, as of a person in one of his

might

own

plays,
ovTOL crvvk'ydeiv^ aXKa avfi(f)iXeiv e(f)V." ^
I have said in a former lecture that of all the great

Greek

poets, Sophocles is, perhaps, the most religious.

In ordinary Greek ethics, as we have often seen, the
most fundamental concept is that of moderation or self-

With Sophocles it is rather piety

As Dronke has observed, he gives a higher
to human virtue by connecting it with reli-

control (aroxppocrvvr]).
{vae/3eLa).

consecration

and fountain from which, as he

gion, the source

It is the

all virtue springs.^

believes,

duty of reverence (evae^elv

ra 7rpo9 ^eou?) which the deified Heracles declares

supreme above all other duties.
"

The gods

all tilings

my

to

be

Revere

father Zeus to this

Counts second. Piety dies not with men

But, whether they live or die, yet it endures."
;

Let us endeavour,
in

the

drama

of

religious character
1

Phrynichus,

3Iusae

if

possible, to discover those

Sophocles

would seem
1

Mein-

eke.
^

Frogs 82.

39 ff. Dindorf.
Preface to 0. T. p. xxvii.
Ant. 523, '"Tis not my nature to
4

to

which
to

elements

distinctively

be due.

join in
(Jebb).
^

its

but

hating,

in

loving"

Die

relig. u. sittlichen Vorstcll.

d. Aesch. u. Sophokles p. 66.

Phil.
Cf,

1441 ff., tr. Wliitelaw.

Ant. 1348 ff.
Aj. 127 ff.
;

SOPHOCLES

We

165

note at the outset that Sophocles

not disposed

is

to reject the orthodox representations of the divine nature.

He is in no sense of the term an iconoclast, like Euripides

nor does he definitely break with any of those conceptions

of the Godhead which, however unworthy they might be,

had

a sanction in the religious consciousness of his

Once or twice he seems to criticise
age and nation.
In Sophocles, the omnipotent
them, but that is all.^
still

Gods are

still

the givers of evil as well as of good

^
:

he

does not ascribe to them moral purity, any more than

^
and he is not concerned to deny
Aeschylus or Pindar
;

the truth of the old adage that the Gods make evil seem
It is
good to one whom they are minded to destroy.*
in harmony with the whole attitude of Sophocles that he
allows these and similarly crude ideas to maintain their
position by the side of purer and more enlightened views,
without, as a rule, attempting to refine or spiritualise

them
part

into something higher.

These conceptions formed
the national religion, from which he had no

of

desire to cut himself adrift

and he does not scruple to
It is another
employ them throughout his dramas.
question whether Sophocles himself really believed in
all the lower elements of the traditional theology.
Such
a question would have to be considered in the light of
his religious teaching as a whole, and the answer would
But however this may be,
probably be in the negative.
for the truly characteristic and essential features of
Sophocles' religion we must look elsewhere.
One of the most noteworthy and fundamental of the
religious ideas to be found in Sophocles is that of an
immutable moral order or law, the origin and sanction of
which are alike divine.
The clearest affirmation of this
;

doctrine

VV. 103
446
-

a chorus of

is

in

(if

genuine)

cf.

Phil.

^.y.
4

ff.

Tr. 1266

the Oedipus the King, thus

ff.

Tr. 500

Ant. 621

'.

f.

Ant. 944

fl".

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

166

translated by Professor Jebb

"

May destiny still find

the praise of reverent purity in all words
and deeds sanctioned by those laws of range sublime
:

me winning

called into life throughout the high clear heaven, whose

their parent was no race of
father is Olympus alone
;

mortal men, no, nor shall oblivion ever lay them to sleep
the god is mighty in them, and he grows not old {ixe^a<i
;

ev TOVTOi'i 6eo<i, ovSe lyripacTKet)}

These divinely-appointed

are

principles

represented

prior obligation
by Sophocles
every human
law and he has illustrated and enforced their paramount
claims on our allegiance in what is perhaps the most
beautiful and affecting of all his plays, the Antigone.
The whole action of that drama turns upon the idea
of a conflict between the law of God and the law of
The rival principles come into the sharpest
man.
as

to

of

possible collision, with tragic consequences to the chief

but the poet leaves us in no
actors on both sides
;

doubt as to the path where Duty points.

In a notable

Augustine declares that

when God directs anything to be done against the
law or compact of any State, even if it has never been

passage of his Confessions,

St.

"

done there, it is to be done if it were discontinued,

if it had
never been ordered, it
is to be resumed
The play of Sophocles is an
be ordered." ^
is
to
;

it

On

excellent illustration of this remark.

the one side

stands Antigone, the champion of those unwritten laws

whose origin is from on high on the other side, Creon,
;

principle on which the stability of

depends, that of subordination to authority,

representing
civic

life

the

and unquestioning obedience to the laws and ordinances

of the State.
Antigone does not deny that in sprinkling
a handful of dust upon the body of her brother she had
knowingly and deliberately transgressed against the
1
863 ff. Cf. El. 1093
1130 f., 1313 f.

ff.

Aj.

Book

iii.

e.

S, ? 2, tr.

Bigg.

SOPHOCLES

167

but she justifies herself on the ground

royal edict
that otherwise she must have disobeyed the higher law
;

ordained by Zeus himself.

"

Nowise from Zeus,

nietliought, this edict came,

Justice, that abides among the gods
Hades, who ordained these laws for men.

Nor
In

Nor did

deem

edicts of such force

tJiine,

That they, a mortal's bidding, should o'erride

Unwritten laws, eternal in the heavens.

Not
But

of to-day or yesterday are these,

live

They

from everlasting, and from whence

sprang, none knoweth."

The subsequent course

of the

drama makes

certain

it

Antigone here expresses the poet's own belief,

and not merely a sentiment in keeping with the situation
It has frequently, indeed, been
in which she is placed.
that

not intend to represent

The authority of
the
right.
Antigone
civic law deserves recognition as well as the higher
so that
principle of obedience to the law of God
that

thought

did

Sophocles

as altogether in

the

doom which overtakes Antigone might seem

to

be

a vindication of the lower, as the punishment of Creon

But as we shall
is a vindication of the higher law.^

afterwards

see,

necessarily

the Aeschylean

presupposes

and

Sir

guilt

Eichard

Sophocles
that Antigone would have
;

doctrine that
is

no

suffering

held

longer

Jebb has made

it

liy

clear

been pronounced guiltless,

It is
both by the poet himself and by his audience.
true that the Chorus of Theban elders, although they
disapprove the edict of Creon, are at first disposed to
censure Antigone for having disobeyed it.
"

To

furthest l)rink of boldness thou didst stray,

stumbling there, at foot of Justice' throne,

And
1

Ant. 450

ff.

Whitelaw.

ggg, e.q.,

Studies in

Mr. Chnrton Collins,

S/iakes^je.arc.

\<.

10].

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

i6S

Full heavily,

daughter, hast thou fallen.

ni}'

Eeligion prompts the reverent deed

But power, to whomso power belongs,
Must nowise be transgressed and thee
^
self-willed temper hath o'erthrown."
:

Chorus undergoes a complete

and it is
of the play
not their earlier view, which we must take

Bvit the attitude of the

transformation in the
their later,

course

own judgment of his heroine.^

The Athenian spectators would have agreed with the
For, on the one hand, Creon would seem to
poet.

to represent the poet's

them an unconstitutional
claim on the

obedience

ruler or tyrant, with no real

his subjects
and, on the

of

"

other hand, they would feel that Antigone was fulfilling

one of the most sacred and the most imperative duties
To leave the dead
known to Greek religion." ^

not only on them,

be
sure, I think, that
may
when Antigone claims to be " sinless in her crime,"
she is expressing what every
o(jia iravovp'yrjaaa-a^
the
well
as
poet himself, believed to be
spectator, as

unburied was to

inflict

but also on the Gods.^

dishonour

We

true.

accordingly seem that in the view of

Sophocles there is a law eternal in the heavens, beyond
He affirms the
and above all transitory human laws.
It

would

conscience
right and even the duty of the individual
whenever
to rebel against the law of the State,
they

We

must
deadly conflict w'ith each other.
This is just the principle
obey God rather than man.
It should also be observed
for which Socrates died.^

come

into

that what the poet calls the eternal ordinance of Zeus,

"
There
becomes in philosophy the ordinance of Nature.
'

852 tf., 872 ff. Whitela\v.

1091 ff., 1270, 1349 W.
Jebh p. XXV.

Ant. 76 f. cf. Aj. 1129, 1343 f.

See Jebb pp. xxii-xxvii.
74.
;

Plato,

Ap.

?,7

E.

SOPHOCLES
"

says Aristotle,

exists,"

or

"

Sophocles
it

is

bition

right

the law in

but from

none

that

it

question

is

'not

time

all

knoweth.'

that

the

law,

appealing

and

of

is

in

"

You

(0

of

authority
or

community

spite

the

prohi-

nature

hj/

to-day
was
see from

the

than

that

declares
of

it

will

to

she

right

doctrine of

directly

higher

is

when

and

Sophoclean

particular

right
fiavrevovral ti
what the Antigone of

bury Polyneices

means

she

natural

this

mean, when

to

appears
to

"

he adds,

This,"

'rrdvre'i).

right

"

all

apprehended by

instinctively

universal

men have made no compact

themselves, and

among

bargain

is

natural and

and wrong, even where

169

or
first

for

yesterday,
revealed

this

passage

divinely -appointed
individual conscience

the

decrees

State, belongs

of

to

any

type of

thought which has played a great part in subsequent

It

theology.
natural

in fact, the

is,

"

for

religion,"

revelation written

it

by God

basis

what

of

the

involves
or

Nature

in

called

is

idea

of

the heart of

man.^

The

peculiarly religious

character

of

the

drama

of

Sophocles will appear, I think, from the view' he takes

of the place of suffering in human life.
We have seen
that Aeschylus invariably represented suffering as due
to sin, thereby saving, in the words of a distinguished
"

the justice of God at the expense of facts." ^

With Sophocles a more reasonable attitude prevails.
He recognises, of course, like all the poets, that sin
critic,

one

is

of

the

most frequent and

fertile

sources

of

Thus it is the presumptuous pride and

calamity.
self-confidence of Ajax that brings about his downfall.
"
Others may triumph with the help of Gods
as
;

for me,"
1

Rhet.

i,

cries Ajax,
13.

1373b G

Cf. St, Paul,

Rom.

"

am

Sanday

fl".

ii.

strong

l.^>,

witli

enough
and

stand

to

Headlam's

58-60.
E. iVbbott, Ifdlenica

Coni-

iiiPiitary pp.
*

p. Cij.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

170

alone."

words

Atliena points the moral to Odysseus iu these

" So
having eyes to see, keep thou thy lips,
And of the gods speak never a boastful word

And show no

swelling port, because thy hand

Is heavier than another's, or than his

Deeper the soundings of thy hoarded gold.

For a day lays low, and a day restores
All human things and humbleness the gods
^
Love, but all evil-doers they abhor."
:

Iu like manner the doom that

falls

upon Creon and

his

household in the Antigone is the immediate consequence

But
of his sin against the unwritten laws of Heaven.
at other times

the poet makes

it

clear that the

grievous sufferings are compatible with the

of the victim.
Antigone, as we have seen,

most

innocence
is

wholly
furnished
even more striking example
by tlie story of Deianeira, perhaps the most touching
The
and pathetic figure in the whole of Greek drama.

An

innocent.

destruction

which she involves both Heracles and

not result from loyalty to a divinely-

in

does

herself

is

established

law,

as

in

the

case

of

Antigone.

The

motive which impels Deianeira is something tenderer

the desire to reclaim the love of a
and more human
but none the less does Sophocles
faithless husband
;

acquit her
"
ixwixevrj

so

of blame.

This

is

Hyllus pleads,

himself believed.

who

"Airav to xprjfi' rj^apre '^prjo-Ta

"

^
sum she erred, intending well
and so, we may be sure, the dramatist
"
In one of the fragments we read, No

the

"

(cikcov S' a/xaproDV ovrt^

The
error as well as the
KaK6<i)}
involuntary
avdpooTTwv
deliberate transgression is sometimes fraught with far-

one

sins unwillingly is evil

but for
reaching consequences of suffering and woe
these consequences the agent is not, in the view of
;

Aj. 767
Aj. 127

=^

ff.
If.

Wliitelaw.

Tr. 1136.
*fr. 604.

SOPHOCLES
Sopliocles, to be held
lesson may be learnt

171

The same

responsible.
of

nioially

from the history

dramatised by the poet in Oedijms the

Oedipus as
King and Ocdipris

Some have supposed

that Sophocles intended

as
contracted a moral as
Oedipus
having
represent
well as a ceremonial stain through the terrible deeds
which he committed but Dronke has succeeded, I think,
The
in proving that the poet had no such purpose.^
at Colonics.

to

hero

the

of

self-reproaches

the

at

of

close

King, and the cruel penalty which he

the

Oedipus

inflicts

upon

himself, do not justify us in attributing to him moral

they rather bear witness to his piety, indicative
guilt
:

as they are of the horror which a religious nature would

feel at having been the unconscious instrument of such

unholy

But

acts.

it is

to the Oedipus at Colonus that

we

must look

In that
for a full solution of this question.
in
of
his
innocence
now
assured
is
finally
play, Oedipus
the eyes of Heaven.
He is a man more sinned against

than sinning
BeSpuKora
has come

^
:

ra

nay

'

7' ep'^a fiov

earl /moXXov

TreirovOor

more, as Sir Eichard

Jebb remarks,

"

rf

he

to look upon himself as a person set apart by

as sacred." ^ It is in this
the Gods to illustrate their will,
aspect that Sophocles represents him throughout the

greater part of the play, and

when he makes

"

more particularly

On

in the scene

from the world.

his mysterious departure

the silence fell

who .summoned, and

its sound
sudden fear the hair of all
for the god called, and called again,

voice of one

Stiffened with

Who

heard

'Oedipus, Oedipus,

why

With

these so long

But by what manner

No man
1
J).

on

p.

can

tell,

'tis

thou
time that we were gone.'

tarriest

of death died Oedipus,

but Theseus, he alone.

72 flF. of the monograph cited

1G4 n. 5 above.

0. 0. 266

p. xxi.

f.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

172

For it was not any firebolt, swift from heaven,

Despatched him, no, nor a whirlwind from the sea
Kose in a minute and cauglit him from our sight
But either the gods took him, or the earth
AVas kind, and opened for him her cavernous jaws.
For nowise lamentably he passed, nor slain
;

By

a marvel,
sickness, pitiably
like was never." '

how

Whose

We may

therefore conclude that sulfering did not to

But
necessity imply the presence of sin.

of

Sophocles
is obvious that this brings us face to faqe with a new
How is one to reconcile the justice of the
difficulty.
it

Gods with the calamities which they sometimes permit

That the problem sometimes
to fall upon the innocent ?
exercised the mind of Sophocles, we cannot but believe
and we have all the more reason for thinking that it
;

because

did,

that

Aeschylus

Justice

not

is

Sophocles

sits

by

convinced

less

the

throne

of

than
God.^

Even when there is no more help in man, the thought

that God is just and will yet avenge the righteous inspires new hope and courage, as when the Chorus comfort
Oapaei, reKvov eVt
^
oupava> Zev<i, 09 i<f>opa irdvra Kal Kparvvet
in
my child, courage great Zeus still reigns

Electra with these words

ddpaet

/xot,

'

/jLe<ya<;

"

Courage,
Wliat are
heaven, who sees and croverns all."
say, then, about the sufferings of the innocent ?
:

we

to

Does

the drama of Sophocles suggest any explanation of

undeserved calamity ?
We have seen that in Aeschylus suffering is sometimes
[

regarded
irddo^

as

fj,d6o<;.

been taught

"

discipline.

We

In like manner,
l)y

sulfering

and

"

learn

by

suffering
Oedipus claims to have
time * and in spite of

the scene in which he spurns his suppliant son,^ we feel

that Oedipus at Colonus is a different being from Oedipus
1

1623

0. C. 1382

274

ff.

0. C.

Whitelaw.
El. 1064
273 ff., 1536 ff.
;

^
M. 174 f ; cf. 0. T. 881, Oebv
ov Xtj^w wore TrpoaTdrai' t'xcoy.
=
*
1348 II'.
O. C. 7.
.

cf.
;

0. T.

fr. 11.

SOPHOCLES
at Thobes.

173

not softened, he is at least chastened and

Much is revealed to the soul that is

If
"

enlightened.^

cradled in calamity." Colonus has been called

The Theseus

of the Oedipus cd
"
in
the one perfect character
"
for
all
of
time
the
ideal
the
perfect gentleSophocles,
man, a companion portrait to Shakespeare's Henry v,
"

"

^
and it is in the school
but of infinitely liner temper
of adversity that he has learnt the lesson of charity and
:

human

At other times a hope is expressed

kindness.*
that the balance may be
no more than a hope
redressed hereafter.
Antigone would fain believe that the
Gods for whose unwritten law^s she offers up her life will
In Hades, perhaps, her
do her justice in another world.
deed is accounted holy and longer is the time she must
please the Gods below than the Gods on earth.^
is

it

"But

a good hope I cherish, that, come there,

me, yea and thine,

and thy welcome, brother dear
Since, when ye died, I with mine own hands laved
And dressed your limbs, and poured upon your graves
Libations and like service done to thee

My
My

father's love will greet

mother

Hath brought me,

But

the

for

Polyneices,

most

part

now

and

spirit of his

essentially religious
Sophocles seems to invite us to
of

the

suffering
ulterior purpose
fulfil.

As

individual

it

is

drama

*'

here
is

that the

best seen

our eyes from the

consideration of the

lift

to

to this."

which Providence is thereby seeking to

the action of the Trachiniac unfolds itself, we

are led to see that Deianeira's involuntary error, with all

tragic consequences, was the appointed means by

its

which Heracles should be delivered from a

1

Butcher, Aspects of the Greek

Genius Tp. 128.
"fr. COO.
*

Churton

Shakespeare

Collins,
p. 167.

Studies

in

0. C. 560
Ant. 74 tf., 521.
897 ff. Whitelaw.
tl".

life of

toil,

T^HR

174

RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

and attain to immortality, in accordance with the will of

The long martyrdom of Philoctetes is represented
Zeus.^
by the Gods,

as foreordained

not

fall

before due

order that Troy might

in

subserves the larger puradministration.

Neoptolemus sees

time

it

poses of the divine

the hand of Providence
ordinance,

if

"

throughout.
such as I may judge, those

came on him from

By heavenly

first

sufferings

Chryse and the woes that

now he bears, with none to tend him, surely he bears by
the providence of some god, that so he should not bend
relentless

against Troy the resistless shafts divine, till the time be

when, as men say, Troy is fated by those shafts
And at the close of the play, when Philoctetes
to fall." 2

fulfilled

about to embark for home, leaving his high destiny

now deified Heracles appears from
unfulfilled, the

is

heaven

to

warn him

that,

by the counsel

of

Zeus, he

is

overthrowal of Troy.
The sufferings he has endured will serve but to enhance
ordained for the

the instrument

his future glory

"Yea, and know well, this debt is thine

Through suffering to make glorious thy

to pay,
life."'^

position of Sophocles with regard to the place of

suffering in human life is to a certain extent anticipated,
I think, by Heraclitus.
According to the Heraclitean

The

"
God accomplishes all things for the harmony of
view,
"
"
the whole."
Men," Heraclitus says, deem some things
but to God all things are
right and others wrong
;

I do not, of course,
beautiful and good and right."*
suggest that Sophocles borrowed the idea from Heraclitus
:

is an idea to which many religious thinkers have inI merely say that the Heraclitean
dependently attained.
to express what Sophocles teaches
seems
already
fragment
it

1
cf.
1270 (with
Tr. 1159 ff. ;
Jebb's note) and Phil. 1418 (f.

Phil. 192

ff.,

tr. .Tcbb.

1421
'

fr.

f.,

tr.

Whitelaw.

61 Bywater,

SOPHOCLES

175

Since
about the providential government of the world.
Matthew Arnold wrote his sonnet, it has been a common"
he saw life
place to say of the Athenian dramatist that

saw

and

steadily,

approved,
"

it

whole."

For, what

we

would have

Sophocles

think, of the lines of

Browning

men on earth,
achievements here.

call this life of

This sequence of the

soul's

Being, as I find much reason to conceive.

Intended to be viewed eventiially

As a great whole, not analysed

But each part having reference

How

shall a certain part,

to parts,
to all,

pronounced complete.

Endure effacement by another part 1 "

it is not only the life of the individual that the poet

He seems to have extended his outlook
thus regards.
to the whole movement of human destiny, and to have
seen therein the fulfilment of a single harmonious

But

purpose, which is none other than the will of Zeus.

Heraclitus, as w^ill afterwards be pointed out, maintains
that the harmony of the universe not only permits, but

founded in, discord.

Sophocles would
but
of
a view
short
so
extreme
have
stopped
certainly
at the same time he seems to recognise that the universal
harmony is not incompatible with partial dissonances,

is

actually

these, apparently, we are to reckon the

None
calamities that sometimes overtake the innocent.

and among

the less he would have said, I think, that if only we

&vih
could see things from the universal point of view
that
it were
we
should
as
aeternitatis,
perceive
specie
even these dissonances promote the harmony of God.
"

Undeserved

suffering," says Professor Butcher,

it is exhibited in Sophocles under various lights,

"

while

always
appears as part of the permitted evil which is a condition
^
of a just and harmoniously ordered universe."
^

Clean,

Aspects of the Greek Genius p. 127.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

176

further question naturally suggests itself in connexion with Sophocles' l.ielief in a single all-embracing
plan or purpose according to which the world is ruled.
If there is a unity of purpose, must there not also be a
In more than one of the early
unity of power ?
Christian apologists, we meet with a fragment, attributed
to Sophocles, in which the unity of God is emphatically

"

affirmed.

There

is in

truth but one God,

who

fashioned

the heavens and the great earth and the sea's dark gulf
and the mighty winds. But in the error of our hearts

we mortal men have often set up in solace of our woes

Gods in stone or wood, or images fashioned in
and we deem ourselves pious when we
gold or ivory
statues of

them, and in their honour hold unmeaning

this fragment has long been recognised

offer sacrifices to

festivals."

But

It is of a piece with another fragment

as spurious.
ascribed to Sophocles by Justin Martyr, embodying the
Stoic and Christian idea of the dissolution of the world

Each

fire.^

by

of

these

two passages belongs,

probability, to the not inconsiderable

number

in all

of forgeries

made about

this period with the object of establishing

the favourite patristic notion that Greek philosophy and
More recently,
poetry prepared the way for the Gospel.
and with more reason, it has been contended that the
"
if not
polytheism of Sophocles was
nominally, at least
"
In
the
monotheism,"
Essay on
practically
Sophocles
and Shakespeare," to which I have already referred,

Mr. Churton Collins remarks

the

poet

has

sublimated

Law

"

What

him

concerns us

"

"
{ix.

Zeus)

is

that

into

the

eternal, immutable upholder of

Justice and Eighteousness and Purity, with Apollo

Father

of

the

Pythius for his prophet

with

all

other deities as his

symbolized functions or his symbolized ministers

^

fr. 1025 (reading, with Justin

re koX ^vXuiv for t) xaX/c^w:',

etc.,

and

rei^xoi'res for ffricpovTes).

-1027,
'

that he

SOPHOCLES
has become irdpjapj^O'i

Lord
Lord

177

the All-ruling

6eoiv, iravo'irra'i

Heaven, the all-seeing One, King

of

of

kings and

of lords, Aristotle's ro Oelov irtpiexov rrjv o\r]v <f)V(Ttu

the Divine Power containing the whole of nature.

Thus

'

the Gods

'

and

'

God

'

become synonymous

the polytheism of Sophocles becomes,

at

least
"

if

thus

not nominally,
"

kind of
prepractically monotheism."
for monotheism has also been found in the

paration
such
variety of epithets which the poet applies to Zeus,
"
"
God of the homestead," lKecno<; protector
as epKeio<i
"
of suppliants," rpoTralo^
stayer of the fight," and so on,
all of

of the
significant of particular aspects
between
relations
or
of
particular
Being,

them

Supreme
and mankind.

But

in

this

usage

peculiarly Sophoclean
the Gods (other than Zeus) of
;

there

and the point rather

whom

is

is

one

him

nothing

whether

the poet speaks

and all the most important members of the Homeric

"
are only
Pantheon appear in Sophocles
symbolized
"
"
"
of Zeus and nothing more.
ministers
or
functions

To me

seems that, with the exception, perhaps, of

Aphrodite, whom Sophocles in one of the most remarkable of his fragments,- appears to rationalise into the
nature like
principle of passion pervading the whole of
it

genctrix of Lucretius, the Sophoclean Gods

as
are still
personal beings, with special
their
characteristics of
own, in addition to those which

the

Aeneadum

conceived

belong

to

the

Godhead

as

such.

The one

essential

difference between the polytheism of Homer and the

polytheism of Sophocles is that in Sophocles there is no
the
longer any conflict of wills in the celestial hierarchy
:

authority of Zeus

To

is

not only supreme, but unquestioned.

no doubt, the theology of Sophocles points

towards monotheism, and monotheism is perhaps its
"
for
where there is no discord, plurality
logical result
this extent,

Studies in Shakespeare p. 158.

12

855.
Some crilics, liowever,
assign this fragment to Euripides.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

178

But we must still believe that

a form of unity."
Apollo, Athena, and the rest were believed l)y the poet to
be distinct and separate individualities, unless we are to
suppose him capable of the kind of conscious allegorisa-

is

tion

which was afterwards practised by the

Stoics.

Writers on Sophocles have sometimes laid stress on

the distinctively spiritual character of his religious sentiment,^ as compared with that of earlier Greek poetry.
True religion, he seems to suggest, does not consist in
It
outward deeds, but in purity and loyalty of soul.
which is acceptable
the loyal heart
is the '^vyr] evvov<i
to the Gods.
The most noteworthy expression of this
sentiment is when Oedipus asks one of his two daughters
to make an offering on his behalf to the Eumenides,
at whose shrine he is about to lay down the burden of
'

"

I cannot go
for I am disabled by lack of
But let one of
and
lack
of
sight, evils twain.
strength
For
I
think
that one
and
do
two
these
you
things.
go
soul suffices to pay this debt for ten thousand, if it come
"
The
with good will to the shrine
r]v evvou<; irapfj."
avrl
and
beautiful
fivpiwv filav ylrv)(^i]v,
phrase,
touching
"
one soul in place of ten thousand," from its resemblance
"
a ransom for
to the Christian Xvrpov avrl ttoWcov,
^
animae
a
testimonium
cited
as
has
been
frequently
many,"

his

life.

naturaliter Christianae.

No intelligent reader of Sophocles can fail to be struck

with at least one obvious contrast between liim and his
great predecessor

human weakness

mean

the

makes

itself

that

note

of

for

sympathy

heard throughout his

"
All men," says Teiresias, are prone to error"
'irdcn
iari rov^afiapTaveiv
kolvov
uvdpdoTTOiaL f/ap rot?
"
has
been
liut when an error
made, that man is no longer
"

poetry.

'

ill-advised

which
1

he

or unblest,

has

fallen,

who
and

Dionke, I.e. y. 85 ff.

0. C. 495 If., tr. Jebb. Cf./?\ 97.

tries

to

remains

the

heal

into

immovable."

not

Matt. xx. 28
Ant. 1023 ff.

evil

M:irk

x. 45.

SOPHOCLES
The duty

forgiveness, like all

of

179

other

duties,

has

for Mercy as well as Justice sits by

religious sanction
^
that
I have already pointed out
the throne of Zeus.
the example set by the Gods is rarely appealed to by
:

"

assimilation
Greek moralists before Plato, with whom
to God" becomes for the first time the ethical end.
There is, however, a touching instance in the Oediyus,
"
But forasmuch as Zeus himself in all his
at Colonus.
for the partner of his throne, shall
" ^
For a
she not also find a place by thee, my father ?
Christian parallel, we have the exhortation of St. Paul

works hath Mercy

"Be ye kind one

to

another, tender-hearted, forgiving

^
each other, even as God also in Christ forgave you."
The sufferings as well as the sins of human life move

Sophocles
different,

to

The melancholy

pity.

think, from

that

of

of

other

though it clothes itself in similar language

and more subdued, more like the pathos of
with

whom

other respects

in

Sophocles

is

Sophocles

Greek

writers,

is

quieter

it

Virgil, a poet
has much in

"

Sunt lacrimae rerum et mentem mortalia

common.
is but a breath, a shadow
Man
jrvev/xa Kal
tanirunt."
^
from
trouble
are
free
Gods
the
(TKia fiovov.^
Only
:

all men sorrow and joy alternate come,

Revolving, as in heaven
The twisting courses of the Bear.""

"To

In more than one passage the poet cites the old Greek
"
^
The climax
Call no man happy till he dies."
proverb,
reached in a chorus of the Oedipus at Colonus

is

"

Not

to be

And,

Who,

born

is

past disputing best

p. 65,

1267
Eph.

Cf. lloni. //. 9. 497.

860.

Tr. 129 Whitelaw.

Tr. Iff.; 0. T. 1529

''

588.

iv. 32.

fr. 12, 859.

Vr.

whence he came."^
"

above.

ff.

after this, his lot transcends,

seen on earth for briefest while,

Tliither returns from

Cf. Aj.

125

f.

1225

ff.

Whitelaw.

f.

fr.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

l8o

But against these sombre reflections, the last of which is

wrung from the Chorus by the spectacle of Oedipus still
buffeted by fortune, should be placed the

hymn

man

to

Antigone, the larger part of which is a song of

triumph celebrating man's conquest of reluctant nature.
in the

u.'Kopo'i

ovSev

eir

'

ep')(eTai

to jxeKkov

"
:

resourceless he

"

what must come

against Death alone he
vaiu.^
The melancholy of Euripides sometimes

ne'er faces

fights in
sinks into

but in Sophocles the sentiment is

despair
chastened and subdued by faith in the Providence that
Even in the darkest hour, the conshapes our lives.
;

sciousness that

God

still

never far away

is

reigns

en

"

Set thine eyes upon the Gods,

fieya^ ovpavcp
and should they bid thee travel beyond the right {e^w
for nought to which the
SUrjii), thither thou must go
Zev<i.

Gods lead

is

base {ala-^pov jap

ovSev

wv

v(f)r]'yovvraL

OeoCy

Finally,

we have

to consider the attitude of Sophoclean

drama on the question of immortality.

This is a
views
have
been
mainon
which
different
subject
very
tained

scholars.

According to Dronke,
crown
and coping-stone of
immortality
the religion of Sophocles, and we are therefore bound
Mr. Churton Collins,
to attribute the belief to him.^
in Sophocles, as in
that
declares
on the other hand,
"
is
it
quite impossible to say on which
Shakespeare,
*
of
side the balance
probability really inclines," whether
for or
against the view that he believed in im-

by

different
is

the

natural

mortality.
If

we examine

allusion to death

that they

spoken

of

fall

332

into

its

"

shall find, I

In the

way

the giver of eternal sleep,"

^

flf.

-fr. 226.

we

sequel,

three classes.

in the usual conventional

6 TrayKoira^,
1

the passages in which Sophocles makes

and

'*

first,

think,

death

is

as 6 alevvTrva,
"

the

God who

88 ft'.
Studies in Shakesjieare

I.e. p.

p. 171.

SOPHOCLES

i8l

^
It is needless to say that no
gives sleep to all."
inference can legitimately be drawn from these and
similar epithets.
The second group of passages describe
what is virtually the Homeric Hades. The land of

the dead, like Homer's Erebos, lies far in the west,^ or

beneath the ground,^ a night-enshrouded kingdom ^ under
the rule of Hades and his bride Persephone.^
Other

Epic features are the lake of Acheron,^ and Cerberus, the

untameable watch-dog of Hades, lying crouched before
the gates of the Stygian
in

his

capacity

Sophocles

still

is

the

of

To

halls.'^
^

yjrvxoTro/x'iro'i

this land

Hermes

conducts the shades.

on Homeric ground when he describes

and when he attributes to the

tortures of Ixion,^
prophet Amphiaraus a

more substantial existence than

the other shades enjoy.^

To the third category we may
assign those passages which carry us beyond the Homeric

Of these by far the most

futurity.
where Antigone expresses the hope that
her kinsmen will receive her with loving welcome in the
conception

of

remarkable

is

other world
"

But a good hope

My

come

cherish, that,

there,

me, yea and thine,

and thy welcome, brother dear.''^^

father's love will greet

M}' mother

Nowhere else, I think, in speaking of the future life,

does the poet strike so individual and personal a note.
To the rest of his utterances on the subject, parallels can
It is repeatedly
always be found in earlier Greek poetry.
in
the
Eledra
that
the
of
the departed
implied
spirits

might say, both Bvvafii<i and <pp6vi]ac<;,

to affect the fortunes of the living, and intelligence

retain, as Plato

power
1

1578

Ant. 804.
518.
0. T. 177.
0. C. 1563.
*
Ant. 879. Hades as
dva^, 0. C. 1559.
^
El. 110; Ant. 893 f.
0. C.

1173 and

El. 138

Cf. Tr.
7

fr.

^
9

=*

iwvxlf^v

i"

Ant. 812
1563 ff.
EI. Ill, 1395 f.
Phil. 676 if.
;

fr. 480.

q_ q_

El. 841,

" Ant. 897

TrdiJ.\f/irx,os
ll.

dvdaati.

Whitelaw.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

82

to unclerstaDcl the

them by

prayers and invocations addressed to

This is no more than we

their descendants.^

constantly find in the Oresteia of Aeschylus and Pindar

has anticipated the fragment referring to the mysteries
;

"

Of mortal men

Thrice blessed they, who, having seen these rites,

Pass to the realm of Hades they alone
Live yonder with the rest all evil dwells." ^
:

The mysteries alluded

to are, of course, the Eleusinian,

and not those unauthorised and unofficial mysteries which

were associated with the name of Orpheus.
Here, as
elsewhere,

if

we except

the fragment that speaks of a

drama pure
judgment
There is, I
from Orphic and Pythagorean elements.
think, no certain allusion in his plays or fragments to
the familiar features of Orphic ethics and eschatology
the entombment of the soul in the body, metempsychosis
and the circle of births, together with purgatorial punishment in the intervening state.
These, then, are the most characteristic and important
after death,^ Sophocles keeps his

If
references to a future state in Sophoclean drama.
and
of
dramatic
nature
conditions
to
the
we have regard

poetry, we shall be slow to attribute to Sophocles a sure

belief in immortality on the strength of isolated passages
of this kind.

Nor do

think

it

can be said that such a

doctrine is necessarily involved in the dramatic action or

in the denouement of any of the plays.
Dronke, indeed,

maintains that the Sophoclean conception of Providence

must of necessity have carried with it the belief in a
future existence capable of redressing the inequalities and
I do not think we
disproportions of this present life.*
M17ff.,453, 459, 482, 1066. Cf.
Ant. 65 f., 89
ff., 787 ff.
Tr. 1201 f. etal.
^fr. 753; cf./r. 805, and above,
p. 137 n. 1.
n. C. 91

=703; cf. 480 (lamentation on

the shores of Acheron).
^
I.e.
p. 88 ff.

SOPHOCLES

183

need suppose that the poet developed his ideas with so

consistency; and in point of fact the notion of recom-

much

pense hereafter
in

is

much

less

prominent in Sophocles than

But the question what Sophocles himself

Pindar.

believed on this subject is as irrelevant as it is impossible

The relevant consideration here, as elseanswer.

to

is
that he gives expression in his poetry to
certain ideas which have a value in themselves, whether

where,

We

can

events, that the thought of immortality

was

they spring from any dogmatic creed or not.

say, at all

often present to the mind of Sophocles, and that once, at

least, in the speech of Antigone, it is clothed in a new

and, as

it

would seem, characteristic form.

Hardly

less

characteristic, perhaps, is the suggestion of immortality

in the lines which more than any other single passage
express the religious teaching of Sophoclean drama
:

"

Eemember

that ye show piety to the Gods.

things our father Zeus counts second to this
whether they live or die,
dies not with men
:

for ever."
oil

Kav

yap rjvae^fia avvdvj'iaKei ^poTois'

Kav ddyucrii', ovk uTToXkvTai.^

^(ocri

Phil. 1440

flf.

All other
:

for piety
it

endures

LECTURE

IX

FROM THALES TO XENOPHANES

We

have already seen that the gradual evolution of

theological and rehgious thought in Greece, so far as it
is
reflected in Greek literature down to the time of
Euripides, follows two for the most part distinct and
On the one hand, we have the
independent paths.
development, culminating in the drama of
Sophocles and, on the other hand, there is the philo-

poetical

sophical development, which reaches, perhaps,

point in the Anaxagorean doctrine of Nous.
present,

the

we have

poets

but

its

Up

highest
to the

confined ourselves almost exclusively to

we must now desert the Muses for

Philosophy.

The

first

three thinkers of

whom

w^e

have

to treat are

Thales, Anaximander, and Anaximenes, who flourished

With
at Miletus in the sixth century before Christ.

the

character

sreneral

their

of

doctrine

we

are

not

remind you that they each

attempted to explain the universe from a single cosmowith water,
gonical principle, which Thales identified
"
"
or
Anaximander with the " boundless
Infinite," a
material substance of infinite extent, and Anaximenes
with air.
They do not touch on ethical questions at all
and such subjects as the moral being and attributes of
concerned

it

will suffice to

God

lie

outside

they

are

nevertheless credited with certain

the

range
184

of

their

inquiries.

But

theological

FROM THALER

TO

XENOPHANES

185

which deserve attention

quasi-theological beliefs,
own sakes, and also because tliey
their
for

or

both

appear in some iustfinces to anticipate or foreshadow

and these, or
later and more advanced conceptions
the most important of them, it is now our duty to
;

examine.

The solitary theological

Let us begin with Thales.
doctrine which we seem to be justified in ascribing to
"
All things are full of
Thales, is expressed in the words,
Gods."

Unfortunately,

it

is

not possible to decide for

saying has any relation to Thales'

^
or
cosmolosical views,
wdiether, as Professor Burnet and

certain whether

M. Bovet

this

suppose,

is

it

"

"

only a

mere apophthegm

of

common type,"
passing expression
connexion with
religious sentiment," without any organic
It bears a
of
the
the physical doctrine
philosopher.
the

of

Thales'

curious resemblance to the remark attributed to Heraclitus

when
was

some

inviting
"

sitting

friends to enter the

Even

"

here," said he,

room where he
^

there are Gods."

for it is a

According to the conjecture of Aristotle,^

Thales had in his mind
conjecture and nothing more,
the philosophical conception of an indwelling soul,
mingled with the structure of the universe and this
conjecture receives perhaps a little support from another
;

passage of the de Aiiima, in which Aristotle mentions

"
The magnetic
that Thales was believed to have said,
stone

is

possessed of a soul, because

it

moves the

iron."

Aristotle's conjecture is correct, the germs of the

Platonic and Stoic belief in a World-soul, sustaining and
movins; all that is, are as old as Thales and we find the
If

maturest form

of

the doctrine ascribed

to

Thales

by

"
Thales believed that God
Stobaeus, where he says
that the universe
the intellect (yoO?) of the w^orld
:

is
is

An.

411^

Arist. dc

'

Early Greek Philosophy p.

Le Die a de Platan p. 88.

i.

5.

de part. An. i.
Cf. Diog. Laert. ix.

Arist.

8.

45.

17

ff.

de
i,

An.

I.e.

2. 405>^ 19ff.

5.

7.

645^

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

86

and

at once alive

full of spirits

and that a divine power

permeates the elementary moisture and communicates to

^
That Stoic influence is here at work, no
it motion."
one will deny

somewhat

but the conjectvire of Aristotle stands on

different

footing

and

if

it

Thales ascribed a soul to the magnet, he

have

believed,

that

movement

Nor

is

it

character

Aristotle

as

in general

supposed

is

he

a result of

true

is

may

possibly

did
life

that

believe,

or

soul.-

otherwise than in harmony with the general

of early Ionic hylozoism to conceive of the

universe as alive, because the original elements, water,

air, and so on, out of which the hylozoists construct the
universe, perform the function of efficient as well as of

material causes, and are therefore in a certain sense

But it must
themselves endowed with energy and life.

be allowed that the words of Thales, taken by themselves, and apart from the explanation of Aristotle,

appear to be only a pious sentiment

philosophy
to

at

now

are

and historians

most

the

for

of

disinclined

part
the dictum any philosophical significance

attach to
all.

The

diTeipov or

"

Infinite

"

of

Anaximander is, primarily

speaking, a physical concept, being nothing but the infinite

or boundless matter which he regarded as the elementary
The first
substance out of which the world is produced.
step towards the formation of a cosmos is when certain
pairs of opposites, the hot and the cold, the dry and the

have been separated out from the aireipov?

of matter Anaximander had in
"
view when speaking of the
Infinite," we are nowhere
told by the philosopher himself; and many different
All that can with certainty
theories have been advanced.'*
moist

What

etc.,

particular kind

be affirmed
^

Diels,

is

that he did not identify the

Doxographi

Graeci

Cf. Plato,

Infinite

Diels, /. d. Vorsolr.-

i.

\).

"

13,

9, 10.

301b.
-

p.

"

Laws 899

B.

See Burnet, Early Greek Philosophy p. 52 H'.

FROM THALES TO XENOPHANES

with auy of the foui' elements.
concerns us in these lectures

187

The only question which

is

whether Auaximander's

concept has any relations with theology.

In the

first

no mere dead matter, but a living

place,
substance, possessed of eternal motion, and indebted to
itself alone for that process of separation which brings
it

then,

is

the cosmos into being and, in the second place, Anaximander described it as " immortal and imperishable,"
;

"

and

eternal

"

ageless,"

"

encompassing

things,"

member

encompassing and steering

all

we

re-

the

all

worlds."

If

Anaximander represents the

ultimate cause, and that immortality was always believed
by the Greeks to be an attribute of the Godliead, we
that the Infinite to

be disposed

shall

tendency

see

to

these

in

to identify the Infinite

characterisations

with God

evidently holds that Auaximander's Infinite

"
"
of fact the same as
the divine
(to Qdov)?to

tliis

interpretation,

we must

attribute to

and Aristotle
is

in

point

According

Anaximander

the same pantheistic conception of the universe which

Aristotle, whether rightly or wrongly, attributed, as we

saw, to Thales and I think we can support this conclusion by some further evidence.
In a passage of the
de Natura Deorum, which has been much discussed in
;

connexion with
"

It

is

the theology of Anaximander, Cicero

the opinion of Anaximander that there are

says
created Gods, rising and disappearing at long intervals,
and that these are the innumerable worlds."^ The
:

"

innumerable worlds," as Professor Burnet has in

my

opinion proved, are coexistent, or partially coexistent,

and not a series or chain of worlds rushing in swift
succession

"

suggestion

from creation
that

long

intervals

space and not of time, appears to

'

Diels,- I.e.
11.
^

Diels

I.e.

i.

p. 14,

1.^)

Professor Burnet's

to decay."

"

the

p. 13,

"

me

are

intervals of

to be supported

^
i.
25.
Cicero is apparently
following Pliilodcnius or the authority on which he relied. See Diel.s,
Box. p. 121 ir., 531.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

i88

by a passage in
had considered
tances between
we are more
doctrine

of

Stobaeus, which shows that Anaximander

the subject of the intermundia or dis-

But the point with which

particularly concerned relates to this
"
a doctrine which, in a
created Gods,"
the worlds.^

again in the Timaeus of Plato.

"
are so called in contrast
created Gods

different shape, recurs

"

In Plato the

to the one and uncreated God, who is their father

and begetter and we can hardly avoid the conclusion
had a similar contrast in his
that Anaximander
mind when he called the innumerable worlds begotten
;

or

created

Where then

Gods.

Anaximander's

uncreated

Deity

we

are
?

The

look

to

only

for

possible

reply is, to the Infinite or boundless, out of which the

created Gods arise, and into which they return again at
death.

It is therefore probable, to
"
Infinite."
deified the

say the

least, that

Anaximander

only be remarked that

Heraclitus
by representing
anticipates
"
At
Justice in the light of a cosmic agency or power.

For

the

rest,

it

need

Anaximander

death things pass into that from which they were born,
according to what is ordained for they make reparation
and recompense to one another for their injustice at the
;

^
The notion, you will observe, is that
appointed time."
"
which
have been separated out of the
the
opposites,"

ciiretpov,

are apt to encroach

on one another's

sphere,

and pay the penalty by being reabsorbed.

Anaximenes differs from Anaximander, and resembles
Thales, in so far as he derives the world from one of the
The primary matter he declared to be
four elements.
in
infinite
air,
quantity and possessed of eternal motion
or life, by means of which it is transformed into a cosmos
through the agency of rarefaction and condensation.^
^

Diels, Dox. p. 329^

^Diels^i. p. 13,
29.

9.

1 ff.

Cf.

Her./r.

Diels^

i,

p. 18,

5.

FROM THALES TO XENOPHANES

We

189

by Cicero that Anaximenes pronounced air

^
and the statement is
{aera deum statuit)
the ancients
all the more credible, if Anaximenes, as
of
Anaximander.
or
associate
was
a
believed,
pupil
Towards the end of the fifth century before Christ, the
physical theory of Anaximenes was revived by Diogenes
are told

God

to be a

who

certainly deified the element of air

hardly permissible to reason from the later to
the earlier thinker, because in this, as in other parts of

of Apollonia,

Ijut it is

may have been

his philosophy, Diogenes

influenced

by

the Anaxagorean concept of a world-forming and worldThe argument from the doctrine of
upholding Nous.
"

created Gods," however, is one that applies to Anaxifor Anaximenes also

as well as to Anaximander

menes

held this doctrine.^

is

One of the surviving fragments of Anaximenes' book

remarkable as the earliest example in Greek philosophy

the favourite argument from man to the universe.

The fragment runs thus " Even as our soul, which is
air, holds us together, so breath (Trvev/j-a) and air encompass
The world, you will observe, is
the whole universe." ^
of

conceived of as a living, breathing whole, like the human

frame and just as we inhale from outside the breath
;

that constitutes our soul, so also the world respires into

the surrounding air.
The substance as well as the

method

Anaximenes' argument deserves to be carefully

of

for the philosopher has clearly in view something

akin to the later conception of a soul of the world.*

noted

At

this point I will invite

you

to

pause and take a

As we survey the somewhat barren landscape

retrospect.
over which we have travelled, two features appear to
In the

arrest our attention.

three

thinkers

derives

'

dc Nat. Dear. i. 26
Dox. 3021^ 5 531^ 2.

Diels=

'^fr.

i.

p. 19,

2Diels2.

10.

cf.

first

place, each of these

the world from

*

DieLs,

With

irepiixei-

.single,

we may perhaps

compare Plato, Tim. 36 E

\v^f/a.aa).

self-

[TrepiKa-

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

igo

both uncreated and imperishable, at once

material and spiritual, or rather, let us say, possessed of
life
and, in the second place, there is a disposition to
sufficient cause,

statements
Bovet,

with

cause

this

identify

The

God.

latter

of

these

emphatically contradicted by M.
maintains that " the idea of God had,

has

who

been

properly speaking, no place in any philosophical system

It is obvious that everyanterior to that of Plato." ^
here depends

thing

on what

is

The positive evidence

Anaximander and Anaximenes, not
speaking."

thinkers,

pre-Platonic

conceived

principles as divine, appears to

consideration
but in any case
;

"

meant by

of

for
to

properly

holding

that

of

later

speak
their

elementary

me

deserving of
and for us this

more
is

the

all-important point
they certainly assign to their elementary substances a variety of attributes and functions
which were afterwards ascribed to the Deity.
The
belief in a single world - creating principle, itself un-

and immortal, to a certain extent foreshadows

the conception of God as the one creative and eternal
Being, not, indeed, transcendent, but immanent in the
created

The

world.

development of this idea is still to

important to observe that Greek
from the first some elements which
contained
philosophy
were bound to bring it into conflict with Greek polytheism,
and which were at the same time capable of developing
into a more comprehensive and profound theology than

come

but

anything

full

it

that

is

the

so-called

"

Bible

of

the

Greeks

"

provided.

The way

for

such a revolt against the authority of

Homer was
of

already being prepared by the dissemination

Orphic religious ideas during the second half of the

I have dealt with this subject in

sixth century B.C.
a former lecture, and need only remind you now tliat
nearly all the distinguishing features of the Orphic
1

Le Dieu de Platon

p. 177.

FROM THALES TO XENOPHANES

191

of Homer,
discipliue were irreconcilable with the religion
such as the more or less explicit pantheism, the depreciation of the body in comparison with the soul, the
of gravity from the present
shifting of the ethical centre
in
world
future
to the
consequence of a new conception

of immortality, together with

longing

for

the sense of sin and the

and

purification

In

deliverance.

soil

would

as
seem, prepared by Orphism,
Pythagoras planted that remarkable union of philosophy
He
and religion which we associate with liis name.
in
con530
about
but
was a native of Samos
B.C.,
he
perhaps, of the tyranny of Polycrates,
it

already,

sequence,

emigrated to Croton, where the Orphic discipline appears

It is a plausible
to have been bv this time established.
himself in
he
attached
that
conjecture, if nothing more,
to

his adopted country

may

have

thus

However

this

some Orphic
the

furnished

may

be,

association,

which

nucleus of his school.^

he became the founder

of

a half-

relicfious, half-scientific brotherhood, which in course

and when
time began to play a part in politics

of
it

ultimately obtained the supreme

ruled in the aristocratic interest
revolution

in

the

Although
Pythagoreanism

the

half

latter

of

direction
till

of

foundation
original
and the
still lived
;

affairs,

overthrown by a
the

fifth

was

century.

suppressed,

dispersion of

tlie

Order effectually spread its

Southern Italy and Sicily,
not
through
only
principles
but also on the mainland of Greece.
lamblichus and others have described with much detail
surviving members

of

the

organisation of the
hood, as well as the daily

the

early

brother-

Pythagorean

life of its

members

";

but for

historical purposes their picturesque and circumstantial

The tendency to idealise
narratives are of little value.
1

Ion of Chios said that Pytha"

goras manufactured some "Orphic

jjocms (Diog. Laert. viii. 8).

See Iambi,

vit.

Tyth. 96-9P.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

192

both
fable

of
the society and the original
called into existence a vast amount of

founder

the

foundation

itself,

and romance that almost entirely conceals from

It is
view the beginnings of Pythagoreanism in Greece.
"
clear, however, that what Plato calls the
Pythagorean
" ^
bore a general resemblance to the Orphic,
way of life
so far as concerned those rules of abstinence by which it

was sought to facilitate the deliverance of the soul.The few authenticated fragments that remain of primitive
In
Pythagorean psychology belong to the same type.
the opinion of certain Pythagoreans, says Aristotle, the
motes that we see dancing in the sunlight are souls ^
and elsewhere the philosopher complains that in the
:

"

"

Pythagorean myths the connexion between a particular

body and a particular soul is arbitrary and accidental
^
"
A third passage
any soul may enter any body."

informs us that the object of thunder, according to the

This curious
Pythagoreans, was to terrify those in hell.^

Pythagorean eschatology seems to have

suggested to Plato one of the incidents in the myth of
Er the bellowing of Tartarus whenever any of the
of

bit

early

sinners expected to be allowed to pass out.*^

these isolated observations are in

incurable

It is manifest that all

On
agreement, so far as they go, with Orphic views.'^
the strength of a passage in the Phaedo, where the
"
"
that
secret doctrine
Platonic Socrates refers to the
man

has no right to unbolt the door of his prison-house

suicide,^ the

early Pythagoreans are usually supposed

have shared the Orphic conception of the body as
and Pythagoras is probably
the dungeon of the soul

by
to

one of
soul
1

is

those
as

Re:p. X.

Details

it

primitive theologians who held that the

were buried in the body by reason of her

600 B.
are

given Ly
Psyche^ \\. p. 163 ff.
404^
i.
2.
17 ff.
'^deAn.
*
de An. i. 3. 4071= 20 ff.

Rolide,

Anal.

"

Rep. x. 615 E,
See p. 105 ff.
62 B.

'
>*

post.

ii.

11. 94>^ 33

ff.

FROM THALES TO XENOPHANES

"
is

necessity

"

circle of
transmigration and the
one that may without doubt be ascribed to

The doctrine

sins.^

193

of

The

Pythagoras himself.

and

oldest

most picturesque

piece of evidence to this effect is due to Xenophanes, for

he alludes in the satirical
it is Pythagoras to

whom

lines

"

to pity
so men say
Seeing a dog rough-handled by the way.
'Forbear thy hand: housed in yon cur doth

Once he was moved

friend of

mine:

knew him by

lie

his cry.'"-

Finally, as we have already seen, in the time of Eudemus,

at all events, if not earlier, the Pythagoreans believed in
"
restoration of all things," as it was
the doctrine of the

afterwards understood by the Stoics.^

If this were all that could be

affirmed

of

early

Pythagoreanism, we should have

offshoot
in

is

to regard it as only
But
discipline and creed.

from the Orphic

the

highest

degree

probable

that

the

an
it

original

Pythagorean society combined to a certain extent the

love of knowledge with devotion to their founder's rule of
life.

The evidence

direction

for in his

of

Heraclitus clearly points in this

contemptuous allusion to Pythagoras

he selects

for special mention, not the religious enthusiasm

of the prophet, but the learning of the philosopher
In all probabihty, as Doring has attempted
{iroX.vfiadir})}

we should

conceive of the matter in some such

The
way
great aim of the original Pythagorean
brotherhood was identical with that of the Orphic
to show,^

as this.

moral salvation or "release"

commimities
But whereas the Orphics endeavoured
to
this

object

ceremonial

principally
rites,

knowledge might
1

by means

Pythagoras held

of

ii.

123,

attain

abstinence

that the

also contribute to spiritual

See p.

(Xuo-t?).

and

pursuit

of

emancipa-

Cf. Emp.
*/'/. IG, 17 By water.
//. 129, and Hdt. iv. 9y.
*
Archiv f. Gesch. d. Phil. v. p.

503

ff .

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

194

At

tion.

amor

a later time, the power of

intellectualis to

transform the moral as well as the intellectual nature

was

it
fully recognised by Plato
spring of his educational theory.
scientific energy thus engendered

in

is,

fact,

the main-

As time went
the

in

grew stronger and stronger, until the

school

on, the

Pythagorean
original

motive was in many cases lost sight of, and the desire
for moral salvation insensibly became a quest for intellectual truth.

What

then was the scientific doctrine of Pythagoras ?

one or two points in Aristotle's

brief consideration of

account of Pythagorean physics

enable us to give

may

conjectural answer to the question.

Pythagoreans, Aristotle says, reared as they were
at

least

mathematical

that

the

elements

imagined
mathematical existences are also the elements
studies,

Now

The
on
of

the

of

"

"

and simplest form

naturally first
and the elements
of mathematical existence is number
universe.

the

number

of
is

"

are the odd and the even, whereof the former

limited" and the latter

"

On what

unlimited."

grounds

the Pythagoreans declared the odd to be limited and

the even unlimited, we need not at present inquire ^ it
is enough for our purposes to note that having once
:

apparently in this way, at the conception of

Limit and the Unlimited, they proceeded to evolve the
Their cosmology
universe from these two principles.

arrived,

was therefore out and out

dualistic

nor does Aristotle

lend any support to the monistic interpretation of Pytha-

On
goreanism with which we meet in later writers.
the contrary, he expressly states that the Pythagoreans
ravavrla ap-)(al twv
derived the world from opposites
II

OVTWV.

On

the one hand, therefore, we have the principle of

Limit, and on the other the principle of the Unlimited
^

p.

See Zeller, PhU. d. Gricchen^

351 n. 2.

i.

jj/g^_

5_

985b 23-986^

3.

FROM THALES

TO XENOPHANES

195

By what means

are they brought

?
Aristotle
another
into connexion with one
complains
that the Pythagoreans threw no real light upon this
"
"
They tell us nothing," he says, aljout how
subject.

Tre/aa?

and

airetpov.

Limit and the Unhmited, or the Odd and the Even, their
or how,
only ultimate principles, are to be set in motion,
and
destruction
without motion and change, generation
^
or the movements of the heavenly bodies can arise."
that in the Pythagorean
the
Unit was composed
nearest parts of the Unhmited immediately began to be
drawn in and limited by Limit." ^ The Unit which
Aristotle here mentions is probably to be identified with
the central fire of the Universe, which according to the

Elsewhere

us

informs

he

"

cosmogony,

as soon as the

Pythagoreans was the first object to take shape in the

the cosmos ^ but the point which alone
concerns us is that, according to this passage, Limit

evolution of

appears to play the part of an active or formative

attracted
principle, whereas the Unlimited, being merely

We
something purely passive.
an
of
extended
infinitely
apparently,

and defined by Limit,

are

to

conceive,

is

substance, on which, at a particular point of time, the

principle of Limit, which is itself eternal like the other,

begins to work, exactly how or why, the Pythagoreans

More and more of the
did not attempt to explain.

Unlimited is gradually brought beneath the sway of

Limit, and the cosmos is complete as soon as that
particular portion of the Unlimited which is destined to

form the world has been reduced into

Unlimited, true to

name,

still

order.

stretches

But the
to infinity

and the early Pythagoreans sometimes

as the air or breath which the Universe

outside the world

it

its

represented
In this conception, the analogy between the
inhales.^
1

2
3

Met.
Met.

8. 990=1 8

3.

Zeller

ff.

lOar^ 15

I.e. p.

412.

*
Arist. j-ihys. iii. 4. 203=' 7
Act.
Plac. ii. 9. 1 (Diels, Dox. p. 338).
;

ff.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

196

Macrocosm and the Microcosm, which we already found

in

Anaximenes,

is

emphatically reaffirmed.^

It is obvious that the

Pythagorean principle

of

Limit,

regarded as the creative agency which forms the universe

out of the Unlimited, readily lends itself to a theological
interpretation but it was not interpreted in any such way
Later writers were in
after the time of Aristotle.
;

till

the habit of describing the fundamental antinomy as God

and Matter, or Unity and the Indefinite Dyad.
Thus in
the Placita we are told that Pythagoras believed in two
"

the monad, God, or the Good, the

original principles,
essential nature of the One, Nous alone and by itself and
;

on the other hand the indefinite dyad, the Evil Spirit or

"
Evil, with which is bound up materiality and multitude
(to vXiKov

Others,

TrkrjOo'i)?'

it

would seem, refusing

to

acquiesce in so rigid a dualism, postulated a higher unity

from which the opposing principles were to be derived,
"

and called it " the Supreme God

{tov virepdvw Oeov).^
But all this, as I have said, is later than Aristotle, who
invariably regards

the

Pythagoreans as thoroughgoing

dualists.

Aristotle

sophy

to

speaks
account

of

nowhere attributes the Pythagorean philo-

Pythagoras
"

for

in

this

connexion he invariably

But
Pythagoreans."
the pervading dualism

the

is

it

difficult

to

of

subsequent
Pythagorean speculation unless we suppose that in some
form or another Pythagoras was himself a dualist.
Possibly, as has been conjectured, he was intiuenced by
Anaximander's doctrine of the warfare of opposites after
"
^
For us,
they have been separated out of the Infinite."
however, the real importance of Pythagoras

lies,

not in

he ever possessed one, but rather

his physical theory,
of
in the new conception
philosophy which he introduced
if

"
3

See p. 189.
Dox. p. 302a 6 tf.
Simplic. Phys. 181. 10.

(Kitter

and Preiler^

70).

''See

above,
(T.

Diels

Burnet,
p. 188).

l.r.

p.

lOG,

and

FROM THALES TO XENOPHANES

197

His philosophical predecessors

into tho Greek world.
limited themselves to speculations about nature, without,

we can

attempting in any way to regulate

Pythagoras, on the other hand, not
made
only
philosophy into a way of life, but established
a brotherhood to be the living embodiment of his
so far as

see,

the lives of men.

Whether he
principles, known and read of all men.
of
his
followers
the
his
sanction
to
poKtical activity
gave
or not, we cannot tell.
If he did, we must suppose that
he claimed
policy
dividual

philosophy the right to determine the

State as well as the conduct of the in-

for

of the

but in any case the rule of the Pythagorean

brotherhood in Croton is the earliest instance in Greek
;

between pliilosophy and poKtics

which Plato afterwards declared to be the only hope of
union

history of that

The truth is that philosophy,

interpreted by Pythagoras, exercised many of the
functions which w^e are in the habit of ascribing to
salvation for the world.

as

and the Pythagorean brotherhood should therereligion

fore be regarded as a kind of quasi-religious community
or church.
It is only from this point of view that we
;

can understand the veneration in which the name of

Pythagoras was held among his followers. In a specimen
of Pythagorean classification which lamblichus quotes

from Aristotle, it is said that the genus " rational

"
animal contains three varieties, Gods, men, and the likes
of Pythagoras.^
Later writers describe Pythagoras as of
divine origin, the son of Apollo, or even the Hyperborean
Apollo himself, and attribute to him diverse prophetic

and miraculous powers,

which are easily intelligible

he was the inspired and
half-divine exponent of a new religion, and not merely
the discoverer of new truths about the origin and conif

we

all of

realise that to his disciples

stitution of the world.

I

have next

to invite
'

vit.

your attention to one of the

ryth. 31 (Diels2

i.

p. 24).

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

198

most

though not one of the greatest, figures

Greek
philosophy, Xenophanes of ^1!olophon.
early
is the first Greek philosopher of whose perXenophanes
sonality we are able to form a distinct and vivid impresBorn about 570 B.C., in the Ionian colony of
sion.
Colophon in Asia Minor, he appears to have remained
in Asia until the subjugation of the Greek colonies by
and
Persia in 545.
Thereupon he went to Sicily
finally, as it would seem, after diverse wanderings through
Greece, in the course of which he supported himself by
reciting his own poems,^ he settled in the Phocaean
colony of Elea in Italy, where he became the founder of
the Eleatic school of thought.^
He lived to an advanced
age one account makes him more than a hundred years
old when he died.^
In a famous autobiographical fragment Xenophanes
seems to imply that he had X3ublished at the age of
twenty-five a work which afterwards became well known
interesting,

in

"

"
(he
by this time
throughout Greece
thoughts have been circulating up and down
Hellas for threescore years and seven and
were five and twenty years from my birth, if
:

"

says)

my

the land of

then there
I

know how

*
If this is what the
truly on the matter."
be
w^e
can
means,
hardly
wrong in supposing
fragment
that the work in question was an attack on the theology

to speak

of Homer and Hesiod.

It has been suggested that the
luxurious self-indulgence of his Ionian fellow-citizens, and
the readiness with which they and most of the neigh-

bouring Greek colonies submitted to the Persian yoke, led

Xenophanes to scrutinise the religious and moral founda-

Greek

and that the iconoclastic spirit thus

engendered grew stronger and more intense as he learnt
tions of

3
*

Diog. Laert.
Zeller,

Dielsfr. S.

think,

life,

ix. 18.

pp. 522, 554 nn.

7.
p. 35,

I.e.
i.

The word
as

0/)ovri5a refers,
tu

Bergk imagined,

some

Cf. witli tbe

literary work.
fragment in general Tlieog. 19-22
and esp. 247 {ko-S' 'EWaoa ^fyv
ar pij}<f>wfiev os r}0 ava v-qaovi).

FROM THALES TO XENOPHANES

more

199

contemporary standards and ideals in the course

through Greece.^ The suggestion is
but whatever inspired his
interesting, and may be right
of

of his peregrinations

iconoclasm, no reader of the fragments will question

Nor is
sincerity and depth.
the lash of his invective falls.
his

upon

own
"

market-place

Asiatic
in

it

only

He

is

fellow-citizens,

garments

of

its

Homer upon whom

hardly less severe
who go to the

purple, proud at heart,

glorying in their fair locks, reeking with exquisite per" ^

and he protests against the popular preference
fumes
;

words that strangely

anticipate the claim of Socrates to be supported at the
public expense on the ground that he is infinitely more
of athletic to intellectual prowess, in

State than any prizeman of Olympia.^

does
not, indeed, like Heraclitus, stand aloof
Xenophanes
from life and fulminate at human folly from the
useful

to

the

mountain-tops of thought but his prevailing attitude is

and that he
nevertheless one of protest and opposition
should have escaped persecution throughout so long a life,
;

an eloquent testimony to the simple and unaffected

nobility of the man, as well as to the toleration of his
is

contemporaries.
It is difficult

affected

how far Xenophanes was

movement which we have already

to estimate

by the Orphic

discussed.
His theological doctrine presents some remarkable points of affinity with Orphic pantheism, as
Freudenthal has pointed out."^
The Orphic conception of
Zeus as the Divine Unity, in whom all things exist, bears
an obvious resemblance to Xenophanes' " one God," W'ho

But although Orphism doubtless paved the

Xenophanes' teaching, and more especially for

the All.^

is

way

for

his revolt against the authority of Homer, there is the

less reason to suppose that he derived his theology from
^

p.

Gomperz,
157

2/''- 3.
2.

V-

Greek

Thinkers

i.

f.

Vbcr die Theologie des Xcno2)hams (1886) p. 29.

*

See
Of. Plato, A2).

36

ff.

p. 95.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

200

source, because

this

respects he manifests

in other

no

sympathy with Orphic and Pythagorean ideas. We have

seen that he poured contempt upon Pythagoras for
and he is said also to
believing in metempsychosis
;

have

foul

fallen

of

Epimenides, one of

the

greatest

the precursors of the Orphic purifying priests.^

Orphic asceticism could hardly have appealed to the
genial writer who in his classic picture of a well-ordered

among

"

with pious tales

banquet bids the guests praise God
and pure words," and then drink as much as they can
"
unless," he considerately
carry home without a guide
"

you are very old."

Xenophanes is the earhest Greek philosopher of
whose works a sufficient number of fragments remain

adds,

enable

to

us

ascertain his

opinions at first hand.

before
by putting
you the principal fragments about the being and attributes of God, and afterto

I will begin

wards proceed

to discuss

the doctrine which they seem

to express.
"
is

Homer and Hesiod have attributed to the Gods everything that

among men, theft and adultery and mutual

a shame and reproach

deception."
"

Homer and Hesiod "recounted many lawless deeds

and adultery and mutual deception."*
" But
mortals think that Gods are begotten, and have dress and
voice and form like their own." ^
"
But if oxen or lions had hands and could draw with their hands
and make works of art as men do, horses would draw forms of Gods
like horses, and oxen like oxen,
giving them bodies after the fashion
For they"

of Gods, theft

of their

"

own."

"

The Ethiopians represent

their

Gods as

flat-nosed

the Thracians say theirs have blue eyes and red hair."

and black

These are the polemical or destructive fragments

let us
^

take the constructive.

Diog. Laert.

ix.

18.

''

now

FROM THALES TO XENOPHANES

20l

" One
God, greatest among both Gods and men, resembling
mortals neither in form nor in thought.'' ^
"

God"

He"

i.e.

oi^Xof Se

I'oft,

is all

eye, all thought, all hearing" {pvkosopa.,

oi'Xoy Se r' aKOVii)"

"

Evermore doth he abide in the same place, moving not at all

^
it beseem him to go about now this way and now that."
"
But without toil he rules all things by the purpose of his
;

nor doth

mind."*

Let US

now examine

the

most important doctrines

affirmed or apparently implied in these fragments.

"

One God, greatest among Gods and men." Is this

a profession of monotheism ?
So the line was understood
1.

hy Clement
ment and
;

scholar

till

to

of Alexandria,^

whom we owe

the frag-

has been interpreted by nearly every

In 1886,
within the last twenty years.

so

it

however, a powerful attack upon the traditional view

was made by Freudenthal, in the monograph to which I
have already referred and although he failed to convince
;

Zeller or Diels, he has found a strong supporter in one

the greatest of

of

modern

Gomperz maintains that

Xenophanes is at once and

Theodor Gomperz.
alleged monotheism of

scholars,
"

the

finally confuted

by the

single

verse el? ^eo? eV re deolat koI avOpoyiroLai fMe'yiaTO'i"

which he thus translates, not (as it appears to me) quite

"
Ein Gott ist der grosste, so unter Gottern
accurately
als Menschen." ^
The presence of the plural Oeoiav in
the very line which is supposed to affirm the unity of
:

"
We
God proves (he thinks) the supposition false.
"
much prefer," says Gomperz, to recognize the reference
here to a supreme god who is hardly less superior to
a greatest god among gods as
well as among men" (^.c- p. 158).

'/r. 23.
-//. 24.
^fr. 26.

is

25 (reading Kparvvei with

Freudenthal.
Of. Orjih. hymn. 3.
'*/).

11

;
''

64. 8).

Strom.

V. p. 714.

Greek Th I iikcrs \. p. 551.

P. 130 of the German edition.
Tlie English translation has "there
^

This rendering entirely ignores eh.

Gomperz translates the eh, but
seems to me wrong in construing
eh debs eari fiiyiaros ktK., and not
ets<^tVTt></eds, /jl^jkttos kt\. The
latter, I think, is the proper construction of Xenopliancs' words.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

202

the lower gods than to mankind."

On

this interpre-

tation, Xenophanes becomes, not a monotheist, but a

"
"
that is, according to Freudenthal's use of
henotheist

the word, a believer in

highest

God, who

is

Gods, depending on a single

consequently apt to be regarded

many

simply as the Godhead.^

The question thus raised

is clearly of importance for

our investigation.
In the fragments of Xenophanes, we
find the name ^eo? three times in the singular number,^
besides three other passages in which it is the subject to

be supplied to a singular verb,^ making six places in all

Two of
which prima facie support the unity of God.
these six instances have to be discounted as belonging to

a category in which Greek linguistic usage permits either

the singular or the plural.^
There remain, in addition
to the
"

fragment beginning eh

6e6'i, etc.,

these three cases

"

evermore doth
he abide in the same place, moving not at all, nor doth
it beseem him to
go now this way and now that," and
"
without toil he directs all things by the purpose of
his mind."
You will observe that each of these statehe

is all

eye, all thought, all hearing,"

ments, like so

much

deliberately aimed

Gods frequently

fall

belongs

theoretically

besides that

at the

Xenophanes wrote, is
Homeric theology. Homer's

short
to

omniscience wliich

the

of

them

they are not

entirely

exempt from toil and suffering they are far from being
immovable or unchangeable nor do they abide in one
locality, but constantly pass to and fro from heaven to
"
in the likeness of strangers from far counearth, and
on
all manner of shapes, and wander through
tries, put
the cities, beholding the violence and the righteousness
;

men."^

of

In like manner, we are bound, I think, to

"
"
about the
one God
by the

interpret the expression

1

p. .551.

Freudenthal,
M. 13 ; 23. 1

I.e.
;

p. 33 n. 2.

38. 1.

"

24. 1

25. 1

26.

13 38.' 1.
Od. 17. 485 ff.,

1.

1, 2.

tr.

B. aud L.

FROM THALES TO XENOPHANES

203

theology which Xenophanes would fain

"
neither
demolish, especially as in the very next line
"
he definitely
in body nor in mind resembling man
the

of

light

attacks the second great feature of the Homeric religion,

namely, anthropomorphism.

Now

according to Gomperz' explanation of the line,

no real difference between Homer and Xenophanes
as far as concerns the position of the supreme God.
Homer would be the first to agree that there is " a
there

is

God among gods

men

"

the phrase,
What he
the
Zeus.
describes
Homeric
indeed, exactly
never would or could admit is the existence of only one
And if we have
God, greatest in heaven and in earth.
greatest

as well as

regard to linguistic considerations, we cannot but feel that

The
el? and not ixe.'yLcrTo<^ is the really emphatic word.
metrical ictus combines with the sentence-accent to force

God upon

the unity of

the reader's attention

and with

for it is here that Homer profoundly

Just as the Jews in their daily repetition of
"
the words,
Hear,
Israel, the Lord our God is one

reason,

good

disagrees.

Lord,"
"

"

one

so in

mark

according to Professor Sanday, on

the contrast to the gods of the heathen," ^

6eo<;

ev

laid
to

"

et?

stress,

re

deolat

koX

avdpcoiroiat

Xenophanes must have intended the

el?,

so

as

to

emphasise

the

fjLe<ytaTO<;,

stress to fall

difference

between

on
his

own

conception of the Godhead and that of Homer.

"
then
greatest ajuong
are_we to explain the phrase
"
Gods as well as men ? I have already anticipated the
most reasonable answer by describing the God of

How

"

The
greatest in heaven and in earth."
a popular expression of the idea that God is
" ^
the absolutely greatest
nowhere in all the universe
as

Xenophanes
words are

"

there any like unto him.

They are only a petrified
formula or idiom, to which the defenders of the view I
is

"

"

1
Art.
God in Hastings' Did.
0/ the Bible ii. p. 206.

Zellcr,

I.e. p.

530.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

204

have

advocate

Homer and

collected

number

of

from

parallels

We

other Greek writers.^

cannot assign a
distributive value to the expression without imputing to
Xenophanes the insipid statement that there is a God

To suppose that Xeno"greatest among men."

in
a
of
Gods
believed
merely because he
plurality
phanes
uses such a phrase, would be hardly less absurd than to
accuse a man of polytheism in the present day when he
"
invokes his Maker as God of Gods, and Lord of Lords." ^

who

is

For these reasons

I believe that

Xenophanes

God

intended to affirm the unity of

definitely
in opposition to the

Some confirmatory evidence has

Homeric polytheism.

been found in a remarkable statement preserved by

Eusebius, the ultimate source of which is Theophrastus'
work " On the Opinions of the Natural Philosophers."
"
Xenophanes declared that there is no hegemony among
the Gods

for

it

is

unholy to suppose that any

them

of

and no God has need of anything

subject to a master
at all." ^
That the statement is authoritative, no one, so
is

know, denies and we may note in passing that

"
"
cannot be reconciled with Freudenthal's henotheistic

far as I
it

"

"

The one greatest God

interpretation of Xenophanes.
must surely exercise dominion over all the other Gods.

But in point of fact, as Zeller has shown,^ Xenophanes'

denial of a hegemony in the celestial commonwealth is
tantamount to a denial

for
of polytheism altogether
multitude of wholly independent Gods without any
degrees of rank would have been inconceivable to the
;

Greek mind.

It

is

incredible that

Xenophanes

of

all

men

should have discarded the only element of order

which we meet with in Greek polytheism.

There

which

however, other passages in

mentions
a plurality of Gods.
philosopher
'

are,

Zeller, ^.r.n. 3.
Gr. p. 42.

Cf. Diels, ^Joei.

2
'''

Zeller, I.e. p. 532 ^. 1.

Diels, Dox. p. 580. 14

Zeller,

^.c. p.

526

the sentiment in

2}hil.

*
ff.

cf.

I.e.

f.

the

Sometimes,
Euripides echoes
F. 1341 ff.

//.

FROM THALES TO XENOPHANES

205

he is referring merely to the Gods of Homer,

and
the profanum vulgus} against whose theology
Hesiod,
he protests but three of the examples are of a different
of course,

"

kind.

It is

good to fear the Gods alway

"

"
;

not

all

things have the Gods revealed to mortals at the begin" this is manifestly the language of polytheism.
ning
How are we to reconcile such language with the monodoctrine which

theistic

the philosopher elsewhere pro-

and last of this type of

"
an
answer.
There never was,
passages may suggest
and never shall be, any man, who has sure and certain
Knowledge concerning what I say about Gods and all
for however much he may hit the mark by
things
but Opinion
accident, yet he himself has no Knowledge
fesses

the

Perhaps

third

and muchtwo
are
in
debated fragment
points
my judgment clear.
One is that Knowledge and Opinion are opposed the
"
about the
other, that whatever Xenophanes has said
"
Gods and all things is declared by him to be matter of
No one, he says, and the
Opinion and not Knowledge.
statement must apply to himself as well as to others,
ever will have knowledge on these questions
only
Turn now for a moment to
opinion, and nothing more.
Parmenides, who was regarded in antiquity as the pupil
The same opposition between Knowof Xenophanes.*
ledge and Opinion divides the philosophy of Parmenides
into two sharply contrasted and mutually antagonistic
presides over all things."

In this

difficult

"

parts.

learn

and

It is necessary,"

he says,

"

that thou shouldest

both the unshaken heart of persuasive Truth,

the opinions of mortal men, wherein is no sure
all,

"

and thereafter he proceeds to unfold in the

place his philosophy of Truth, and afterwards his
"
philosophy of Opinion in what he calls a deceitful array
belief

first

11. 1

12. 1

24

18. 1.

1.

fr. 34.

With

rai, cf. PI. Er.p.

14. 1

15. 4.

"

See Dials" i. p. 107,

G.
1- 28
(reading e.Vei^^os).

ViirX

irdai rirvK-

511 E, 534 A.

11'.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

2o6

of verses."

Parmenides' philosophy of Truth substitutes

for the theological uuity of Xenophanes a metaphysical

unity, that of Being, in which polytheism and monotheism
are alike excluded; his philosophy of Opinion, which he

pronounces to be deceptive, offers a physical

explanation of the origin of the world, in the course of
which Parmenides spoke of a plurality of Gods.^ Now

himself

it so happens that Xenophanes has also a physical theory,

according to which everything that exists originated from
All things
two material elements, earth and water.
'^

come from earth and all things pass into earth." " All
things that come to birth and grow are earth and water.'
"
For we have all sprung from earth and water." ^ This
theory cannot be reconciled with Xenophanes' belief in a
single unchangeable God any more than the physical

Parmenides can be reconciled with his

metaphysical concept of Being and it is clear that to
Xenophanes also his physical speculations were only
"
"
"
When he says that
Opinion and not Knowledge."
"
all things,"
is 4)ossible about his theory of
alone
opinion
hypothesis of

I believe the reference

is

to his physical theory that

"

all

things which come to birth and grow are earth and

His statements on this subject, as we may infer
water."
"
from another line, are only
opinions resembling the
And similarly, when he declares that what he
truth." ^
that is, about a iilurality of Gods, for
says about Gods
cannot be known, but only
is
the plural
significant
indicates
that polytheism is no part
he
think
I
opined,

Theology of Truth, any more than the polytheism

"
"
of Parmenides'
belongs to his Philosophy
lying verses
We
conclude, tlierefore, that Xenophanes'
I of Truth.
of his

"

"

true theology

"

one God," who

contained in his description of the

neither in body nor in mind resembles

is

"

Iman"; and that when he uses

V^.

8. 52.

=//

13.

polytheistic language, he
^fr. 27, 29, 33.
V'-- 35.

FROM THALES

TO

XENOPHANES

207

but
speaking from the standpoint, not of Knowledge,

is

of Opinion.
Tiie second theological doctrine implied in the frag-

2.

Xenophanes is that God is uncreated. We

may fairly draw this inference from the line in which he
ridicules his countrymen for believing in begotten Gods.
Aristotle has preserved an obiter dictum of the philo"
Those who attribute birth
sopher to the same effect.
less
not
to the Gods are
impious than those who say
case that at some time
in
either
they die for it follows

ments

of

Gods are

or other the

not."

Xenophanes completes as

it

circle of the eternity of thje

were the already half-drawn

Godhead, repudiating by implication all those primitive
that filled so large
theogonies, whether Hesiodic or Orphic,
a space in the theological literature of Greece, together
stories of
with the unedifying legends they contained
cannibalism, mutilation, and theomachies of every kind
:

such relics of primeval superstition are proscribed by

They
Xenophanes, when he denies that Gods are born.

all

"

are

only

figments

of

the

men

of

old

"

(TrXdafiaTU

TOiv irpoTepcov).^

The

third point to be observed

is that Xenophanes
and truthfulness of God.
He reprobates Homer and Hesiod for ascribing to the
Gods whatever is a shame and reproach among men,
"
In specifytheft and adultery and mutual deception."
no
of
the
he
doubt,
Hermes,
thinks,
theft,
patroning
God of stealing and forswearing,^ himself, as depicted in
"
of many a quirk, wily in
the Homeric Hymn, a God

3.

implicitly affirms the morality

counsel, a robber, a cattle-driver, a captain of thieves, a

^
The second
night-watcher, a lurker by the gates."

count in Xenophanes' indictment might be freely illusand of the third we have a

trated from Epic poetry
;

E/ict.

1400^ 5
2

1.

ii.

23.

U99^>

Off.;

cf.

30^^.19.396.
*

fH.

22.

13

tr.

(reading ijyyropa (pupuiv).

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

2o8

notorious example in the Jto9 aTraTt], the heguiling of

Whatever the original intention of this
Zeus by Hera.^

may have

story

been, there can be little doubt that

it

and not a symbolical meaning to the

Homer's
readers in the time of Xenophanes.
of
majority
But the principle which underlies Xenophanes' censure
is more important than the censure itself.
He clearly
takes it for granted that the character and conduct of
the Deity should be such as to furnish an ethical
"
It is unnatural and wrong," he
standard to mankind.
"
seems to say, that the Gods should be morally inferior
had

literal

to ourselves

they ought to surpass us in virtue as mucli

and by following their

the praise, and not the reproaches of our fellow-men." Xenophanes is, I believe,
the earliest Greek writer who demands that the Gods
as

they

us

excel

in

power

example, we should merit

by example, and not merely by precept.^

The fourth proposition which Xenophanes makes
about God is that he " neither in body nor in mind
It is clear from this and other frasresembles man."
ments that Xenophanes entirely rejected all anthroposhall teach
4.

pathic as well as anthropomorphic representations of the

divine nature.
It

unnecessary to dwell upon the revolutionary

To a Greek it would have

is

character of such a protest.

seemed, I think, at least as revolutionary as the monotheistic doctrine we have seen reason to ascribe to the
If

philosopher.

we

to question the traditional

in the unity of God.
5.

The

7/. 14.

See p. 65.

of this

which in
have violated the religious

fully realise the extent to

this respect Xenophanes must

sentiment of his countrymen,

we shall be less disposed

view that he was a believer

positive counterpart of Xenophanes' negation of

294

iiieut

ft'.

For the significance

demand

in

tlie

develop-

of

religion,

consult Tiele,

Elements of the Science of Beligion

i.
p. 105
ft'.

FROM THALES TO XENOPHANES

antliiopouiorphism
"

He

is

209

contained in the last three fragments.

"

"

evermore
eye,
thought, all hearing
doth he abide in the same place, moving not at all nor
"
doth it beseem him to go now this way and now that
"
but without toil he directs all things by the purpose
is

all

all

Taken

of his mind."

in their full

and

the words of the philosopher imply that

literal

God

is

meaning,
extended

he abides, we are

told, immovably in one spot,

and
thinking throughout all his frame,
hearing, seeing,
instead of moving hither and thither and having his
cognitive and perceptive faculties restricted to special
The doxographical
organs, as is the case with man.
tradition adds some fresh points which enable us to
define Xenophanes' conception more precisely.
We are

in space

"

by Hippolytus that according to Xenophanes, God

eternal, and one, and alike in every direction, and
" ^
finite and spherical, and percipient in all his parts
and in Diogenes Laertius we have this account " The
being of God is spherical, and bears no resemblance to
man he sees all over and hears all over, hut does not
The majority of scholars are agreed that
respire."
Xenophanes is here expressing dissent from the Pythagorean doctrine that the Universe is always inhaling and
exhaling the infinite breath or void which surrounds
It follows that Xenophanes' " one
it on every side.^
God, greatest in heaven and in earth," is just the world
in which we live.
As Aristotle puts it, he turned his
"
The one is God.V *
eyes upon the Universe, and said,
To Xenophanes, the World is therefore a visible,
incarnate God, beside whom there is none other.
Did
told

is

he conceive

of this

God

as a personal being

Whatever personality may

that

Dox.

p.
ix. 19.

14

is

not synonymous

and we must beware of supposXenophanes denied the personality of God

with anthropomorphism
ing

be, it

565. 25

IT.
*

See p. 195.
Mel. A 5. 'J86b 24.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

2IO

simply because he rejected the anthropomorphic elements

There are many expressions in
of the popular religion.

poems which appear to attribute personality to the

World-God. Even when he is combating the theology
his

Homer, Xenophanes never speaks of God as a philo"

"
sophical abstraction, like the
Being of Parmenides, but
as a living person, in the fullest sense of the word, possessed of a body as well as a soul, seeing, hearing, thinkof

and directing all things by the purpose of his mind.

In the face of such language, which might well have
exposed the philosopher to the very charge of anthropomorphism which he brought against the poets, it seems
ing,

me hazardous to deny that his one and only God was

Xenophanes a personal God, in whatever light he may
The truth is that the tendency to
appear to us.
the
manifold
forces of nature was so deeply
personify
to

to

ingrained, in the Hellenic

temperament, that we need

not be surprised if Xenophanes connected the idea of

personality with that concept of a single all-embracing,
all-controlling Power in which he appears to have found
the true and essential unity of
Greek polytheism was, in part at
natural forces, so the monotheism
effect a deification of
"

Nature.

Por just as

things.

God

least,

of
is

a deification of
is

Xenophanes
him the

in

to

End, and Iteginniug of each thing that growes

selfe no end, nor yet beginning knowes
That hath no eyes to see, nor ears to heare
Yet sees, and heares, and is all-eye, all-eare."

Whose

Xenophanes anticipates

to

certain

limited

extent

curiously personal
pantheism which we
and
afterwards meet with in the hymn of Cleauthes
his
with
Greek
this, together
polemic against
polytheism,

the

kind

of

constitutes his chief claim to be regarded as a religious

His poems contain little or
teacher of the Greeks.
^

Giles Fletcher (quoted

by Harrison, Platonism in Eivjlish Poetry p.

02).

FROM THALES TO XENOTHANES

nothing about the relation of God to man.
of divination, it is said, he totally denied
funditus sustulit}
his

philosophical

As

to

prayer,

fragments

but

we
in

211

The
:

find

the

efficacy

divinationem

nothing in
Banquet, he

makes a suggestion about the proper objects of prayer

which is unhke anything in (Ireek literature before his

We

time.

should

pray,

Xenophanes

says, not, as

we

may suppose the antithesis to be, for worldly honours

and prosperity, but merely for " power to do that which
^

is

The note which Xenophanes here

right."

strikes

and
Xenophanes a sentiment

often heard in the religious teaching of Socrates

is

Finally, we
in its special

Plato.

owe

to

which
apphcation to religious history
unconsciously foreshadows the conception of a gradual
or progressive revelation, through which man's continual
after God will be rewarded by a deeper
"
Not all things
knowledge of his attributes and person.
have the Gods revealed to mortals at the first but in

searching

course

way.
1

of

time

-^

Cic. de Div,
1.

by searching men

15

f.

i.

5.

'^fr.

18.

find

out

better

LECTURES X AND XI
HERACLITUS
Heraclitus

of

remarkable

figure

among
we come to

thinkers until

unquestionably the most

the
Greek pliilosophical

is

Ephesus

Socrates

and

his

supposed

connexion with early Christian

medium

upon us

We

detail.

about
his

his

and

Stoicism

of

incuml^ent

know

mind and

to

consider

little

or about

life,

theology, through the

Philo the Jew, makes it

character,

that

his

doctrine in

is

certainly
influences that

some

authentic

moulded
what
be
inferred
beyond
may
the

He belonged,
from the extant portions of his book.
it would seem, to an ancient and honourable family, the
members of which claimed descent from the founder
entrusted with the duty of
of Ephesus, and were
of Demeter in their native
rites
the
superintending
The
senior
town.^
representative of the house appears
"
titular distinction of
the
to have enjoyed
king," in all
probability a religious designation, like the rex sacrorum
This title, with its accompanying privileges
at Eome.
and duties, Heraclitus is said to have surrendered to
his

brother

and

Diogenes

mentions the

illustration of the lofty disdain for

fact as an
which the philosopher

was noted.^
of the fragments bear witness to the scornantipathy Heraclitus seems to have felt for his
Like Plato, he disliked the principle of
fellow-men.

Many

ful

Diog. Laert.

with Strabo xiv.

ix.

6,

compared

1. 3.

212

ix. 6.

HERACLITUS
iu general

democracy

ten thousand,
the Ephesian

if

"

me," he says,

to

213

he be the best

"

^
;

"

oue

man

is

and he objurgates

democracy in particular for the banish"

Hermodorus.
The Ephesians ought
to hang themselves, every grown man of them, and
forasmuch as
bequeath their city to beardless boys
the
worthiest
of them
have
Hermodorus,
they
expelled
all, saying, Let there be none among us who is worthiest,
or if such there be, let him be so elsewhere and among

ment

of his friend

'

others.'

the

"

But Heraclitus' misanthropy extends beyond

"-

circle

of

fellow

his

countrymen.

Like

Bias

of

Priene, the only one of his predecessors to whom he

is in the least polite,
Bias, he says, had more of the

Logo8 than other men,^

"

mostly bad

"

Heraclitus holds that

stuff

men

are

themselves like beasts of the

they
they are fools and blind, knowing neither how to
like dogs, they bark at those
listen nor how to speak
know
like
do
not
asses, they prefer rubbish to
they
The
gold.*
religious usages of his countrymen he strongly
field

condemns, such as the worship of images and purification

Nor does he treat the poets and the
through blood.^
philosophers with more consideration than the profanum
mdgus. Homer and Archilochus, we read in one fragment,
deserve to be scourged and cast out of the arena.^
To

Hesiod, Xenophanes, and Pythagoras he allows the posses"

sion of learning, but not of knowledge.'^
Hesiod," he
"
is
most
men's
teacher.
Men
think
he knew a
says,
l)ut he
great deal
are one."^
The
;

knew not even day and

wisdom

of

night.

They

Pythagoras he declares to

"
have been thoroughly mischievous.
Pythagoras, son of
Mnesarchus, practised investigation more than any other
man, and constructed a wisdom of his own," a private
and particular wisdom, you will observe, not the universal

V-

113 Bywater.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

214

"

mass of learning and a mass of mischief." ^

Heraclitiis acknowledges no obligations to any previous
he claims to have arrived at the truth by
thinker
a

Logos

We

iBt^rjaafMrju efieoovrovr
may
investigating himself
7ioli foras ire,
of
St.
the
exhortation
Augustine
compare
in te ij)sniii redi ; in interiore homine habitat Veritas.^
:

The book in which the Ephesian philosopher embodied

the results of his self-examination was written probably
in the first decade of the fifth

was known

It

survived

at

till

very few

to

least

Hippolytus, bishop
extracts from
Noetus was a

it,

the

of

century before
the ancients

Christ.'*

but

third

it

when

century
Tortus Eomanus, made copious
in order to show that the heretic
A.D.,

of

follower

of

Heraclitus

rather

than of

consider the fragments for a moment

without regard to their doctrinal relationship with one
another, we must admit that they are almost unique
in ancient literature for impressiveness and strength.

we

If

Christ.^

"
Professor Diels has truly said that he who once hears
the sayings of Heraclitus never forgets them for the rest

The secret of their power depends partly

on the thought, but also to some extent on the style.

of his life."**

one of those prophetic spirits who aspire

"
As Gomperz
contemplate all time and all existence."
"
he
is
for
ever
admirably says,
building bridges between
Heraclitus

is

to

the natural and the spiritual

life,"

always constructing

"

realms of human
generalisations comprising both
it
a
were, with
knowledge, as
mighty bow," and, we
">

may

add, embracing past, present, and future in a single

The style of the surviving
glance.

comprehensive
fragments

is

not

less

remarkable.

Asyndeton

and

brevity, elaborate balance of clauses, a preference for

half -oracular expressions and words, antithesis, oxymoron,
^fr. 17
80.
\fr.
^
*

cf.

de vera relig. xxxix. 72.

Diels, Herakl. von Ephesos p. Wi.

See Bernays, Ges. Abhaiul.

74 ff.
Herakl. p. vii.
Greek Thinkers i. p. 63.

''

16.
p.

"
''

i.

HERACT.TTUS
and paronomasia, frequent

215

tiashes of

caustic irony

and

these are some of its principal features

biting sarcasm
but the one peculiarity which above all others lends

distinction

to the style of Heraclitus

is

his constant use

and suggestive comparisons, metaphors, and

which
are none the less imposing because they
images,
of powerful

are occasionally obscure.

For in spite of the verdict of Professor Diels, who
"
the philosophy of Heraclitus the obscure
declares that

by no means so obscure as antiquity and modern times

^
unanimously complain," it must be confessed that he is
Even Socrates,
only too often enigmatical and dark.
we are told, was bafHed by the book. Euripides had
lent him a copy, and desired one day to know what he
"
The parts I underSocrates replied
thought of it.
stood were splendid and I suppose what I failed to
understand was splendid too only it would need a Delian
The obscurity of Heraclitus has
diver to fathom it." Some have
been accounted for on various grounds.
is

thought that he deliberately tried to conceal his meaning

from the ignorant multitude, whom he so heartily
despised others, that the resources of the Greek language
did not as yet allow him to express his ideas in simpler
and less figurative prose.
third consideration is, I
;

think, of

more importance than either

of these two.

For a

correct appreciation of the Ephesian sage it is of primary

importance to bear in mind that he always regards
The
himself in the light of a preacher and a prophet.

fragments recalls his own description

with frenzied mouth, uttering words
unsmiling, imadorned, and unanointed, reaches with her
voice throughout a thousand years by reason of the
tone of
of the

God."

many

Sibyl,

of the

who

"

This firm belief in his prophetic vocation leads

him, half-consciously, perhaps, but also half-unconsciously,
^

I.e. p.

3/r. 12.

iii.

Diog. Laert.

ii.

22.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

216

and hierophantic garb.

"
The
In one of the fragments he thus writes of Apollo
neither
utters
nor
oracle
at
the
is
wliose
Delphi,
Lord,

to clothe his conceptions in oracular

conceals

yet

{(Ti-iixaivei)

loves

to

hide

Heraclitus

his
speaks by signs"
meaning, but
"
Nature
and elsewhere he remarks that
herself."

intends,

no

these

By

to

doubt,

examples

august

justify

the

veil

of

symbolism that half conceals and half reveals the message

he

charged with to mankind.

particular kind of condemnation

is

The

passed

by

Heraclitus on his fellow-men, philosophers and laity alike,

implies that he was himself, according to his own belief,
the possessor of some hitherto unsuspected truth, the halfinspired vehicle, we might almost say, of a new revelation

about

man and

nature, a

revelation, too,

which mere

investigation and research are powerless both to discover

It is said that Heraclitus in his
and to comprehend.
youth professed to know nothing, but declared himself
If the story is true,
omniscient after he became a man.^
and Heraclitus invariably speaks with an air of conscious

and assured omniscience, it would seem to point to a

sudden intellectual discovery or illumination, analogous to
those moral and religious illuminations of which Professor
James, in his Varieties of Religious Ex2)erience, has collected
so
many curious examples. In any case, whether
Heraclitus saw the truth in a sudden flash of inspiration
or otherwise, he is profoundly convinced that he has seen
it

and

of this

truth,

whatever

it

may have

been, he

claims to be the prophet.

The exordium of Heraclitus' book has been preserved,

and forms the natural starting-point of our discussion.
The first sentence is as follows
:

"

Having hearkened not unto me, but

confess that all things are one."

i/r. 11.
^fr, 10.

to the Logos,

it

is

wise to

Diog. Laert. ix. .5.

1.
Xoyov is Bernays' uni-

*/?'.

HERACLITUS
The second

to

is

tliis

effect

217

" This
Logos is always existent, but men fail to understand it both
before they liave heard it and when they have heard it for the first

For although all things hajjpen through this Logos, men

if they had no acquaintance with it when they make
acquaintance with such works and words as I expound, dividing
each thing according to its nature, and explaining how it really is.
time.

seem

as

mankind " that is, presumably, all except Heraclitus

"are unconscious of what they do when awake, just as they forget
what they do when asleep." ^

The

rest of

What

which HeracHtus here and elseThat is the first and most important
You will observe,
question with which we have to deal.
is

this Logos of

where speaks
to

that

begin with,

between the

Zor/os

Heraclitus

expressly
"

and himself
"

to me, but to the Logos," i.e.

it is not
in
or
but
the
Logos
through me
speak,

piece of the Logos, and that

is

why

distinguishes

having hearkened not

I,

I call

Heraclitus,

am

who

the mouth-

on you to hear,

has, however, been maintained by

some distinguished scholars that the Logos, here and elsewhere in Heraclitus, is nothing but the philosopher's own

not me, but

argument,

it."

It

So far as concerns the

treatise, or discourse.

the fragments, this interpretation would in my

There is no real opposiopinion yield a false antithesis.
tion between an author and his work
and " listen not
first

of

me

but to

my

'

'

"

'

argument,' discourse,' or treatise,'

would therefore be a singularly weak and vapid intro-

to

duction to a book.

But the second fragment makes

it

think, that although Heraclitus professes to be

to
expound the Logos, yet the Logos itself is one
going
and
his exposition of it another.
He asserts in
thing,
clear, I

the

first

"
place that the Logos
always

is."

On

the theory
"

discourse, this is supposed to mean

versally accepted emendation for
given by Patiii, Ueraklits Einluits-

that Logos

means

doy/j-aros, a post-Herac!itean word.

I agree with Bywater in placing

this fragment

first, for the reasons

lehre p. 64
'/r. 2.

11'.

my

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

2i8

discourse

is

always true,"

"

is

true evermore

irrespective of time, and it

waste his words.
The natural
is

that the Logos

end

and

so

it

is

"

of the phrase is

meaning

eternal, without beginning

Hymn

the sentiment in his

l)y

to

but truth

not like Heraclitus to

is

was understood

^
;

Cleanthes,

Zeus}

and without

who

echoes

Consider in the

second place the substance of Heraclitus' reproof to his

fellow-men.
When they " make trial of his words," they

behave as if they had no experience

(direipoLat, eoLKaa-C) of

the Logos by which all things come to pass.

The writer
clearly implies that his readers have already had an

opportunity of learning the Logos by experience, and that

is why he blames them for not
understanding the Logos
"
hefore they have heard of it from him.
They fail to
it both before they have heard it and when
It would be
they have heard it for the first time."
absurd to make this a matter of reproach if the Logos is

understand

merely the philosopher's own discourse and indeed the

whole of the second fragment makes it plain that the
;

Logos reveals
spoken word.

in other

itself

as well as through the

ways

The

lesson, Heraclitus seems to say, is

in
our
present
daily life and conversation, and he who
runs may read it but men are sunk in spiritual and
;

are doing
in sleep."

"

know as little of what they

when awake as they remember what they do
As he elsewhere complains, " the multitude

intellectual slumber

they

do not understand the things with which they meet, nor

are taught, do they have knowledge of them,

when they

although they think they have."

short, to interpret their

They are unable, in

"
experience for
eyes and

own

who have barbarian souls." ^

when he mentions the Logos,

ears are bad witnesses to those

The view that

Heraclitus,

thinking only of his

is
^

own

See Burnet, Early Greek Philosophy p. 133 n. 13.

'
&<t9' eva yiyveadai Trdvrojv \6you
alii'

iovTa, v. 21.

discourse, will be found

^/r. 5 (reading
*fr. 4.

oi

ttoWoI).

still

HERACLITUS

219

applicable to other two passages where the uame

occurs in what appears to be its technical Heraclitean
"
are at
read in one fragment that men
sense.

less

We

variance with the Lorjos which

^

and

is

their

most constant

another, for our purposes perhaps

companion,"
"
the most important of them all, although the Logos is
universal {jov \6<yov 8' e6vT0<; ^wov), most men live as if
in

It is
they had a private intelligence of their own."
clear that in the last of these passages X6709 cannot
This is so
possibly mean the discourse of Herachtus.

strongly felt by one of the supporters of that identification that he pronounces Xoyov to be spurious, and replaces

by (ppoveeiv but the text is beyond suspicion, and we

shall afterwards find that the universality of the Logos is
a fundamental doctrine of Heraclitus.

it

The

positive content of the fragments we have hitherto

may be expressed in three propositions. The

discussed

both pre-existent and

that the Logos is eternal
of
World-God
hke
the
Xenophanes. Secondly,
everlasting,
that is to say, giving
all things happen through the Logos
first is

word

"

"

its full significance, all things both in

Its authority is
the material and in the spiritual world.
not confined to the sphere of human activities, but it is

to the

all

"

"

or
also a cosmic principle, common
in
of
the
thu^d
the
And,
duty
place,

"

universal

man

"

(fwo?).

to

obey this
universal Logos and so to place himself in harmony with
but most men, though in daily
the rest of nature
converse with the universal, neither see nor hear it, and
is

behave as if they had a private intelHgence, a sort of

individual Logos, of their own, distinct and separate from
that which rules the world.
The sentiment, "
ought

We

to follow the universal,"

Heraclitus

may

is

certainly Heraclitean, though

not have used the exact words.^

i/r. 93 (reading 6^iX^ou(rt \67<fj,

with Diels, Herakl. fr. 72, p. 18).
'fr. 92.
^
*
Set eirecrOai ry ^wi^.
CLfr. 92.

Patiu, Z.c. p. 83, is disposed to assign

the actual words to Heraclitus. Cf.
fr. 91, 93.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

220

Are we

to suppose, then, that the Loijo& of Heraclitus

only a

sovereign ordinance or
invariably obeys, and which man
is

he

to play

is

the world

which
also

Nature

follow,

if

part in the economy of

virtually the interpretation given
instructive treatise on the Logos

his appointed

This

law,

must

is

by Heinze, in his
doctrine in Greek philosophy.^

It will be remembered,
however, that in one of the passages already discussed,
Heraclitus opposes the universal Logos to a sort of
"

private

intelligence

most men act as

From

own."

though the Logos is universal,

they had an intelligence of their

if

marked an

so

antithesis

ally infer that the Heraclitean Logos

we may

is itself

provision-

intelligent

and the inference is supported by two other fragments,

in which the allusion to the Logos is too obvious to
"

be mistaken.
the knowledge
all."

through

through

There

all

knowledge that

follows

The second

of the
"

"

Intelligence
all

things.

(^vv

vocp)

by which all things are steered

Logos, we have seen, is the power
things come to pass, and consequently

The

which

it

but one wisdom, to understand

{^vwfjirjv)

identical with the

which

is

that

Logos

two fragments

{to

"

(ppoveeiv)

who

Those

must

strongly

much

'^l^'^voxtku,

common
with

speak
cleave

by the one divine

it will, and suffices

from

knows."

not less conclusive.

is

is

common to all things, even as

and much more strongly. For
nurtured

steers all things

"

the

to

(^vvov)

to

understanding
that

which

is

a city cleaves to law,

all human laws are

law

for

this

prevails

and has something

over." ^
It is clear that the one divine law is identical
with that which is common to all things, and that which
as

as

p.

Die Lehre
28 ff.

vom Logos

(1872)

KaTd,fr.

2.

The paronomasia ^w

voip, ^vvqi
is

suggests that rationality

" the common."

itself

-ft: 19.
^

for all

Cf. Kar' ipLvJr. 62.

"Epis, in Heraclitus, is certainly

active force.

an

V-

91-

HERACLITUS
common

is

to

all

we

that

so

is

Logos
nay,

is

bound

are

we have

as

things,

And further,
Logos.
according to this passage, is
the

is

to

221

seen,

"

not merely

already

intelligence which,
common to all things
conclude that Heraclitus'
is

it

objective reason,"
itself intelligence, and thinks.

but possesses,

We

shall

meet

with ample confirmation of this view in later writers

meantime let me add one further point. Since the
;

"

law

one divine

may

"

with

identical

is

that

suppose

Heraclitus

the

Logos,

we

regarded

the

Logos

to

the

ipsissima

as

divine.

have

confined

hitherto

myself

verha of Heraclitus, in order,

possible, to escape

if

the

suspicion of having contaminated the Heraclitean doctrine

The result, so far, of our
with elements of Stoicism.

inquiry is that the Logos of Heraclitus is

the divine reason, immanent in nature and

Against this view it has sometimes been

X070S" never in early Greek means reason

virtually
in man.

urged that
but surely

something of a petitio princip)ii in the objection.

not
the introduction of the usage be due to
Might
The only way of determining
Heraclitus himself ?
there

is

he

whether

used the word

actually so

or

not, is

by

such a comparative study of the fragments as I have

attempted, and from this it appears that the Heraclitean
is

not

if

^,0709,

whose

something

intelligence,

or

It

thought.

what English equivalent we

a word so full of meaning.
that
shall
Diels,
"

we

if

do

well

and

Reason."

lation.

are

In

forced
to

speak

Two
the
'

to

follow
of

nature

essential

"

"

with

synonymous

exactly

is

reason,"
rationality,

another

is

question by
should attempt to render
I

am

select

the

disposed
a

latest

The Word

"

to

think

term, we
editor. Professor
rather than of

single

advantages are gained by this transplace it suggests to an

The phrase of Heinze, I.e. p. 28.
first

English

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

222

reader the historical fact of the continuity of the Logosdoctrine throughout its whole history on Grecian soil

from Heraclitus down

And,

Martyr.

"

translation

at

St.

Philo,

Word "

does in point of fact bring out

important feature in Heraclitus' repre-

one

least

sentation

John, and Justin

second place, I think that the

to

the

in

the

of

He

Logos.

seems to conceive

Word which

universal

for

who have
own

those

audible both in nature and in their

is

it

being which speaks

from within
the

as the rational principle, power, or

to
men both from without and

hear

of

ears

to

hearts,^

"

Hearken not unto

the voice, in short, of the divine.
me but to the Logos, and confess that all things are
impossible in such a use of
for thought
as Heraclitus
had already been represented by Homer as the language
But whatever may be the most appropriate
of the soul."^

There

one."

the term

is

nothing
so

A.0709

early

rendering of the word in English, the extant fragments

of Heraclitus make it clear, I think, that his Logos
"
From
is a unity, omnipresent, rational, and divine.
"

we may perchance
says Clement,
the
from
but
not
or, in the words
intelligible
escape
how can one escape from that which
of Heraclitus,

the

visible

light,"

'

never sets

We

'

"

have

{to

Bvvov irore irw^

fir)

next

to

the Logos of Heraclitus

a material substance

The

thought.

the

of

Logos

in

that

as

far

consistent, so
;

purely spiritual

they

from

but

Heraclitus'

with the incorporeality

go,

other

fragments
the

philosophy

He

yet separated from the material.

in

fullest sense,

tlie
Cf.

Ephesus
-

11.

(piKos

Schuster,
19 ft'.

Heraklit

although he
von

=^

,u.oi

ravra

it

spiritual

is

is

clear

not

a hylozoist
leaves the Milesian
is

still

See Her. /r. 27, with

note.

p.

11. 407, dXXd tIi]

SteXe^aro 6vfj.6s

essence,

endowed with the property

fragments hitherto examined are

or
of

is

\d6ot ;)^
question whether

civ Tt<i

the

consider

By water's

HERACLITUS
thinkers

or

not

with

merely

The

thought.

when

behind

far

substance

particular

were the body

223

the

invests

lie

with

but

life,

kind

matter

of

primal

rationality

forming

the Logos, Heraclitus believes

to be Fire.
It is easy to establish the identification
by comparing some of the fragments in which he
as

it

treats
Fire,

and

with

Fire

of

he

tells

be

shall

us,
"

others

fire,

(olaKL^ec)

the

describe

Logos.

"

always was, is,

"
a semithunderbolt

ever-living,"

the

"

afterwards borrowed by Cleanthes ^

all
Just so we have
things.^

found that the Logos

all."

that

"

is

and

oracular word for

steers

of

is

eternal,

and

"

pilots all things

"

The word

steers,"
olaKL^et,
suggests
through
an intelligent helmsman, as we have seen that Logos
is
and the connexion of intelligence with the dry
warm element of fire is attested by the most familiar
"
of all the
Heraclitean fragments,
the dry soul is
"
"
It is a joy," he says,
for souls
wisest and best." ^
*
that
it
is better
to become wet,"
plainly implying
"
a
is
led by
to be dry
man, when he gets drunk,
;

a beardless boy, stumbling, understanding not the way

These observations
he goes, because his soul is wet."^
Heraclitus are in favour

of

of

attributing

intelligence

world-forming Fire and later authorities unI w^ill ask your attention
animously take this view.
more especially to a very remarkable passage in Sextus,
to

his

"

where the rationality of the " surrounding element ^

is declared to have been a dogma of
Heraclitus, and
the identity of the Logos with this element is clearly
shown.
" It

'

the opinion of the pliilosopher that what surrounds us

is

rational

and possessed

JIi/7)i,t V.

10.

-ft: 20, 28.

'
fr. 74.
*'fr. 72.

of intelligence {(j)pfviip(s).

is

According to

5/y, 73.
''

fne.

i.e.

(according to

Heraclitus)

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

224

Heraclitus, when by means of respiration we draw in this divine

reason {ddov Xuyov), our mind begins to act {voepol yivofieOa). In
sleep we are sunk in forgetfulness, but intelligence returns when we

awake. For during sleep, when the sensory avenues are closed, the
mind within us is separated from its connexion with the surrounding element, except that the union by means of respiration is

when

preserved as a sort of root ; and the mind

separated loses the power of memory which

it

has thus been

previously had. But

when we are awake, the mind peeps out again through the avenues
of sense, as if through windows, and coming into contact with the
surrounding element, puts on the power of reason (KoyiKXjv evBverai
it

Accordingly, just as embers change and become red-hot,

placed near the fire, but when separated therefrom, are extinguished, so in like manner the portion of the surrounding element
8vvafiiv).^

when

which

quartered in our body, becomes

is

all

but irrational when

it is

separated, while on the other hand it is rendered homogeneous with

the whole by being connected therewith through the majority of

avenues."

It does not appear that Sextus was himself acquainted

with the work of Heraclitus and here he is following
;

given by Aenesidemus
flourished about the Christian era.
the account

the

Sceptic,

Some

who

the ideas

of

contained in the extract are certainly later than Herbut the simile of the glowing embers has an

aclitus

unmistakeably Heraclitean ring

ingless,

if

we

and the simile

is

mean-

refuse to allow that the surrounding element

The

we breathe must

be permanently
thought sufficient to
kindle our smouldering reason into a flame and thus it
"
"
"
can only be the universal Lofjos" the one divine law
rational.

is

fire

maintained at a level

of

active

which

suffices for all

and has something over."

We
its

conclude, therefore, that the Logos, regarded on

material or corporeal side, is Fire, and that Fire,

regarded on
'

i.<'.

its spiritual

or intellectual side,

mind becomes active. Witli

508 E.
It is
127 ff.
-Sextus Emp.
worth while to contrast with this
passage the fragment of Pindar discussed on p. 131.
oivaixLv, cf. PI. Reii. vi.
vii.

^fr. 91.
*
Cf. Heiiize,

is

I.e.

the Zogos.^

p.

24,

"er

ist

materiell gefasst das Ecuer, iind das

"
Feuer vergeistigt ist der Logos.

HERACLITUS

225

Bearing in mind the identity or interchangeability of

these two conceptions, let us now attempt to determine
the relationship between the Logos and the Godhead.
The following are the most important of Heraclitus'
theological fragments

" There

It wills aud yet wills not to be called

is but one Wisdom.
^
by the name of Zeus."
"This world-order, the same in all things, no one of Gods
but it always was, is, and shall be everor men has made
living fire, kindled in due measure and extinguished in due
;

measure." " God is

day and night, winter and summer, war and peace, satiety
and hunger. But he is changed, just as fire, when mingled with
kinds of incense,

diff'erent

is

named

after the flavour of each."

To these fragments should be added the remarks of a

schohast on a line of the Iliad, where the Gods are said
pledge one another in golden goblets as they gaze

to

upon Troy.^
"

Men

unseemly that the sight of wars should please the

for noble deeds give pleasure.
not unseemly
Besides, wars and battles appear terrible to us, but to God even
these are not terrible. For God accomplishes all things with a view
say

But

Gods.

to the

it is

it

is

harmony

of the whole, dispensing

what

is

expedient there-

unto, even as Hei-aclitus says that to God all things are beautiful and
*
good and right, but men consider some things wrong and others right."

From

these four passages, some of which have given rise

to a vast

amount

of controversy,

we seem

to be justified

The first is, that

drawing at least three conclusions.
God is one the second, that he is identical with what
from one point of view is the Logos, and from another,
in

and the third conclusion is that God

which all opposites are reconciled.

Fire
in

V-

65.

^fr. 20.
^/r. 36, reading oKuaTrepK^irvp'^
with Diels, Herakl, p. 16.

Yi

15

II.

V.

4. 4.

61.

is

the unity

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

226

That God

is

one,

inferred from the

The

"

one

Wisdom

and identical with the

Logos,

may

be

the fragments I have quoted.

"
"
manifestly is the Logos, the thought
first

of

"

by which

it wills
things are steered through all
to be called Zeus, because it is the true objective reality

all

which men ignorantly worship under that name

on
the other hand, it rejects the title for the reasons that
prompted Heraclitus to fall foul of Homer.^ The Logos
;

has none of the anthropomorphic attributes belonging to

the Homeric Zeus.
At the same time, Heraclitus does
not refrain from the use of polytheistic language

One as
afterwards be shown that
since he regards the

^
;

and

necessarily also many, it will

his very conception of the

divine Unity involves a species of polytheism.

Clement of Alexandria affirms that " Heraclitus the

Ephesian believed Fire

to be

God."^

Fire, as

we have

seen,
just the Logos conceived as something material
so that the statement is doubtless true.
To M. Bovet,
of
deification
Fire
seems
the
to
be only a
indeed,
is

metaphor

^
;

but historians of philosophy for the most

It is therefore incumbent upon

part take it seriously.
a
little
the part which is played in
us to consider for
In the second
Heracliteanism by the concept of Fire.
of

the fragments cited above, Heraclitus identifies the

"
this element.
This Cosmos
always

Cosmos with
was, is, and
measure and
strictly,

When

of course, these

Fire

ceases to be,

is

be ever-living Fire, kindled in due

Taken
extinguished in due measure."

shall

words involve a contradiction.

it must cease to be
and if it

extinguished,

we cannot justly

saying that Fire

is

say that it always is. But in

extinguished, Heraclitus means only that

passes into something else and we must suppose that

the other substances into which Fire passes were declared

it

by Heraclitus

to be themselves particular forms or

119.
V'". 20, 44, 102, 126

'/

cf.

11.

p. 55 Potter.
Dieii de Platon p. 102.

Protreptka

Le

mani-

HERACrJTUS

227

In other words, HeracHtus

festations of that element.

maintained that all thinsrs are Fire because Fire is transformed into all things.^ Fire, according to Heraclitus,
is the
ever-changing substance to which alone reality
"
change he calls the way up and
Fire sinks through water into earth
and earth

The path

belongs.
^

down."

of

"

It is death to
again through water into Fire.^
souls to become water ; it is death to water to become

rises

earth

yet from earth is water born, and from water,

In this way the different substances
fire,

soul."

for Heraclitus seems not to recognise

water, and earth
a distinctive element of air^
are always consuming and
;

consumed

being

by

one

What

another.

modern

physicist asserts to be the most important lesson taught

"
by the discovery of radium, namely, the
mutability of
"

"

and the

transmutation of elements," ^ is a
fundamental principle of Heracliteanism.
The theory of
immutable elements was for the first time formulated

matter

on the other hand, the

elementary substances are for ever passing into each

by Empedocles
other,

in Heraclitus,

and upon

their perpetual interchange

life of the Universe.

Eest

only a

is

depends the
for death
the world would

name

mixture or posset, we are told,

decompose if it were not continually stirred.'^
like a

not, however,

imagine that there

ever-oscillating

elementary
measure.

sea.

Fire

It

is

all

is

We

any tumult

order

or

must

in this

cosmos

the

and

kindled

extinguished in due
The observation of Heraclitus about the Sun
is

be applied to all the warring elements " the Sun

will not exceed his measures
or if he does, the Erinyes,
who are the ministers of Justice, will find him out." ^

may

i/r. 22.
-fr. 69.
^

For

details, consult Burnet,

I.e.

Soul

*fr. 68.
5

cf.

is

Zeller,

The mention

here a
I.e.

synonym

p. 676.

of air in fr. 25

falsification

see Diels, I.e. p. 18 n.

^
Sir Oliver Lodge in a lecture

Eadium and

p. IftSfT.

tor Fire

probably a Stoic

is

its

on

meaniiuj, reported
in the Times, 6th January 1904.
fr. 84.
">

V-

'-9-

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

228

The

all

but unanimous testimony of the ancients from

Aristotle onwards attributes to Heraclitus the doctrine

a final conflagration, in which the element of Fire

intervals a
at
certain periodic
sole and

of

exercises

universal sway, only to pass once

ward path and forge another link

We

of worlds.

more upon the downin the endless chain

are told that Heraclitus

to define the precise duration of the

end of which all things return again

our

authorities

differ

as

18,000 and some 10,800

years.^

to

so far as

Fire, although

figures,

some giving

How much truth

whether there

in these assertions, or

is

the

to

went

Great Year at the

is

there

any truth

at

It must, I think, be
a keenly debated question.
allowed that most of the Heraclitean fragments which
all, is

have been thought to refer to a periodic conflagration,

regarded simply by themselves and apart from what the
ancients said about them, are ambiguous and inconclusive.
By the kindling and extinction of the everliving Fire,^ Heraclitus probably meant the circulation of
the elements in the existing world and the same may
;

be

said

of

the

sentence,

exchanged, and Fire for

"

For Fire all things are

things, even as wares are

all

for wares."
A third
exchanged
"
is
states
that
the
sea
out
and
poured
fragment
measured by the same tale
e? rov avrov \6yov
as
" ^
that is to say, according to
before it became earth
for

gold and gold

Zeller's interpretation,^

when

the time

is

approaching for

the earth to return into Fire, there is an intermediate

stage at which it is resolved into precisely the same
amount of water as it came from when the world began.

explanation is correct, the matter is decided once

but here again the reference may be to the
for
of
in the ordinary course of
earth into water
passage
If this

all

'^

cle

Diels, Dox. p. 364^ 5

die nat. 18. 11.
2/r. 20.
^fr. 22.

ff.

Cens,

*/r. 23.
^

I.e. p. 690 n. 1.
8
Heraclitus uses
"water'' ;cf.//-. 21.

"sea"

for

HERACLITUS

229

Another interpretation of the fragment is,

Perhaps Herachtus meant to say
"
that
the sea is pom'ed out and measured into the same
"
"
which it was before being
{i.e. the same Fire),
Logos
^
created."
According to this view, which appears to me
nature.

however,

possible.

very plausible, the philosopher is almost certainly alludA fourth passage " upon
ing to the end of the world.
" all things Fire shall come and judge and seize them
is

supposed by Gomperz

to be decisive

and the future

certainly appears to refer to a catastrophe still

to come.
are further told by Hippolytus that the

tense

We

"

"

"

and satiety,"
craving
were applied by Heraclitus, the one to the formation of
the world, and the other to its dissolution in Fire.* It is
words

also,

y^prja-fioavvr}

and

think, probable
"

"

bear

hunger

K6po<;,

that the words

same meaning

the

"

"

satiety

and

in the theological

Nor are there wanting

already quoted.^
in
the
rest
of
Heraclitus'
doctrine to the notion
analogies
of worlds succeeding one another through eternity.
He
fragment

new sun is created every morning.^

he means
not a mere symbolical expression
that yesterday's sun is extinguished at night, and a new

maintains that a
This

is

sun lighted to-day.

Why

then sliould not that which

happens in the case of the sun take place in the history

of the world itself ?
It seems to me quite possible that
the imao-ination of Heraclitus soared to a heis^ht from

which the entire universe, as we see

appeared

to

it

him only a speck upon the

change, just as every particle which

it

now,

may have

eternal ocean of

contains

is

always

The world-creating spirit,

passing into something else.
alcov Trai'i eart Trat'^wv
lie says, is but a child at play
:

rreaaevwv

'rrai8o<;

1)

Omittiug 7^ (with Eusebius).

This is Heinze's explanation {I.e.
p. 25 f,).
Greek Thiitkcrs

i.

p. 536.

spite of the

word

*fr. 24, with Bywatev's uote.

^

See p.
fr. 32.

~fr. 79.

-/,: 26.
*

In

^acriXiiii-}?

225.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

230

ireaaevcov,

it

difficult

is

when he wrote

this

not to believe that Heraclitus,

sentence,

was thinking

of

Homer's

delightful picture of the child building and pulling down

Just so, perhaps, the Eternal
sand castles on the shore.^
Spirit makes and unmakes the world.
It is clear, I think, that some of these passages are
difficult to

explain unless on the hypothesis that Heraclitus,

like the Stoics, believed in the periodic dissolution of the

When he declares the present cosmos

world by Fire.
to be uncreated, and therefore by implication eternal,
we should understand what he says in the light of
identification

his

"

of

cosmos with the

the

"

ever-living

so that the world, notwithstanding the ckpyrosis,

remains eternal for if it is Fire now, it will certainly be

Fire

But the
the ekpyrosis has arrived.
main reason for ascribing this doctrine to Heraclitus is

not less Fire

when

that nearly all our ancient authorities do so, in particular

the Stoics, who are not in the least likely to have
invented the doctrine for themselves, and can hardly

have derived it from any other source but Heraclitus.

It has been argued that the periodical triumph of Fire
"
kindled
is incompatible with the statement that Fire is
In such a case Fire
and extinguished in due measure."
clearly takes more than his share, and we should expect
the ministers of Justice to
ing to Heraclitus,

"

him

find

out."

But, accord-

encroachments of the elements on one

another are always possible, provided that, as Professor

Burnet says, " an encroachment in one direction is
compensated by a subsequent encroachment in the

And

other."

if

this

is

so,

why

should

not

Fire

periodically prevail altogether, so long as its undivided

rule is preceded or followed by the sole dominion of one

the

of
*

II. 15.

Ges.

Ahh.

elements

other
362
i.

ff.

So also Bernays,

p. 58.

'fr, 20.
^

I.e.

p.

162.

Professor Burnet

theory
himself

of

this

sort

was

argues strongly against

ascribing the ekpyrosis doctrine
to Heraclitus.

HERACLITUS

231

apparently held by those Stoics who asserted that the

world is destroyed at certain intervals by water as well
as

fire

by

^
;

and Heraclitus may have looked on the uni-

versal conflagration itself as a compensatory encroachment

of Fire for the previous encroachment on the
"
way up and down,"
part of water, which, according to the
must necessarily precede the universal conflagration.^

on the part

we

If

accept this view, the Godhead in Heraclitus

Power

is

which at definite
intervals evolves itself into a world, and in course of
So long as the world
time absorbs all things again.
the

creative

Substance

or

endures, the ceaseless rotation of the elements is always

reproducing in detail throughout the whole domain of

nature identically the process by which the world as a

The universe itself, as
is created and destroyed.

whole

must traverse the

But the upward and
downward road, Heraclitus insists, is one and the same
^
and we have finally to
{Qho<i avoi Karci) fita koI Qyvrrj)
consider the Godhead as the ultimate harmony transcending this and every other opposition.
To Heraclitus, the world is one gigantic battle-field of
"
Thou
adverse powers for ever waging internecine feud.
"
"
that war is universal
shouldest know," he says,
"
"
"
war is the
everything happens through strife
Homer is to be
father of all and the king of all."*
well as each

"

individual part

upward and downward

of

it,

road."

censured for praying that Strife might perish from among

Gods and men for without it the universe would pass
;

away.^

The doctrine

iravra pel
is only another
Nowhere
universal warfare.

of flux

of

expressing this
there anything that abides
sea of never-ending motion.

way

is

day."
^

"

"

See Pearson on Cleanthes, //.

ci.fr. 23, p. 228, above.

tJ9-

The Sun

is

is

one vast

new every

Into the same river you cannot step twice."

2-1.
"

V.

the world

'

fr. 62, 46, 44.

/r. 43, and By water
/'' 32.

ap. PI.

Cat. 402 A.

ad

loc.

"^

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

232

The influence

of

doctrine

this

may

be traced in most

of antiquity after Heraclitus

of the great thinkers

and

to the popular imagination it appealed much more than

It is the earliest
any other part of his philosophy.

had

which

doctrine

philosophical

the

honour

be

to

In Heraclitus himself,
parodied upon the comic stage.^
however, the last word is not multiplicity or discord, but
unity and harmony.
noteworthy passage of Philo

represents the unity of opposites as the corner-stone of

"
That which is made up of both the
Heracliteanism.
opposites

is

one,

and when

opposites are brought

to

one

this

is

Is not

light.

the

dissected

what the

this

Greeks say their great and celebrated Heraclitus put in

the front of his philosophy as its sum and substance, and

new discovery." ^ Opposites, says Professor

"
are
in
the two faces of
Heraclitus nothing but
Burnet,
the fire which is the thought that rules the world." ^
boasted of as a

would seem

This, then,

Heraclitus

considered

virtually announces
"

book
is

it

be the revelation of

to

himself

the

prophet

which
and he

opening sentence of his

having hearkened not to me, but to the Logos,

wise to

it

confess

in

the

"

The
things are one."
*
visible."
better than the

that

all

hidden harmony," he says, " is

Men do not perceive this harmony, and hence they go
"
astray.
They do not understand how that which is
discordant

is

concordant with

itself

as with the

bow and

the lyre, so with the world

it is the tension of opposing
"
forces that makes the structure one." ^
Opposition," we
;

are told,
fairest

"

"

is

harmony

no higher and lower notes

1

"

the
{to avri^ovv av/Mcfjepet)
"
"
were there
results from differences

cooperation

Epicharmus, fr. 170. 12-18

See the extremely inter-

Kaibel.

esting discussion in Bernays, Oes.

Abh. i. p. 109 if.

Quis rer. div. haer. 43 (quotcil
by Bywater on fr. 2).

music, there could be no

in
^

i^, p. 145.
*fr. 47.
^/r. 45 (reading TraXivrovos)

56.

cf.

HERACLITUS
^

233

The interchange

opposites with
one another is itself a proof that they are only different
The gist of the
manifestations of the same thing.^

harmony

at all."

of

whole matter is contained in the sentence " Join together

that which is whole and that which is not whole, that
which agrees and that which disagrees, the concordant
and the discordant from all comes, one and from one
:

Now what
same time many ? What
is
this Harmony which
comprehends all opposites ?
Heraclitns himself gives the answer clearly in two of

comes all
this

is

(e'/c

irdvTcov ev Kal e^ ev6<i Trdvra).^

One which

is

at the

"
the fragments already quoted.
It is God who is day
and night, winter and summer, war and peace, satiety
and huno-er." * " To God all thino-s are beautiful and

good and right but men consider some things wrong,

and others right." ^
In his Intellectual System of the
"
Universe, Cudworth speaks of God as
reconciling all the
Variety and Contrariety of things in the Universe into
One most Admirable and Lovely Harmony."
This is
of the
what
is
in
view
involved
Heraclitus'
precisely
Godhead.
To sum up. In Heraclitus the three conceptions. Logos,
Fire, and God, are fundamentally the same.
Eegarded
as the Logos, God is tlie omnipresent Wisdom by which
;

"^

things are steered

regarded in his physical or
material aspect, that is to say, as Fire, he is the substance
which creates, sustains, and in the end perhaps reabsorbs

all

and in both of these aspects at

the ever-changing and yet for ever changeless
e/c Trdvrcov ev
unity in which all multiplicity inheres,
"
Kal i^ evo'i TrdvTa
the One is All and the All is one."

into himself the world

once, he

is

It is usual to call Heraclitus a pantheist

doubt, he was.

But pantheism

V'"- 46, 43.

-fr. 78, p. 237, helow.
*/' 59.

and

so,

no

is

a notoriously elastic

'On

the meaning of nbpoi and

above, p. 229.

Xi/t6s see

Vp.

61.

207.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

234

word

and the pantheism of Heraclitus is altogether

The World-God of
from that of Xenophanes.
Xenophanes we saw to have been a wholly unmoved
and undifferentiated One.
To Heraclitus, on the other
hand, multiplicity and motion are essential to the very
idea of the Unity which he identifies with God.
The
;

different

consequence is that his pantheism is everywhere full of

and animation it is, in fact, a kind of panzoism.
He

life
is

said to have declared that

"

"

all

things are full of souls

In the theology of Heraclitus

and spirits {Batfiove^)}
it would seem as if the divinity that belongs to the
eternal being is distributed among the kaleidoscopic succession of ever-fleeting forms in which that being reveals
itself to

Ancient Greek pantheism frequently

our senses.

make room for the Gods of the popular

religion by regarding them as different aspects of the
World-God but the multiplicity in unity, which is the
contrived to

most characteristic feature

of Heracliteanism,

seems not

only to sanction, but to necessitate a plurality of potencies,

each of which is only a passing form of the eternal One.

Some such

doctrine

is

apparently contained in the obscure

and much debated sentence

as

fire,

when mingled with

named according

to

"

God is
changed, just
different kinds of incense, is
.

the flavour of each."

It

was a

favourite theory of the Stoics that mimina sunt nomina

God is called by various names according to the different

The fragment
kinds of matter through which he passes.
it
that
makes
here, as elsewhere.
just quoted
probable
Stoicism was indebted to Heraclitus.

So much, then,

for

the

doctrine of the Logos as

it

It remains to
appears in the philosophy of its founder.
consider the ethical and eschatological ideas to which

Heraclitus gives expression in the surviving fragments of

his book.
The theoretical basis of Heraclitean ethics is
^
Diog. Laert. ix. 7
above.

cf. p.

185,

-fr. 36, p. 225, above,

HERACLirUS
the doctrine that man's soul

235

naturally one with the uni-

is

versal Zo^os.
The Logos, \NQ have seen, is the divine Fire
and in the human soul, to quote the words of Zeller, " the

divine Fire has preserved itself in its purer form.

The purer this Fire, the more perfect the soul." ^ Sextus
.

Empiricus, in the passage already quoted,^ brings out

very clearly the connexion between the human and the
divine reason

and

it

more

is still

definitely affirmed in

a remarkable couplet attributed to Epicharmus, though

in reality dating from the end of the fifth century B.C.
"

Man

has reason, and so too has God but man's reason

from the divine." ^
The famous saying of
;

derived

is

Heraclitus,
"

mean

7;^o?

av6pco7ra>

man's character

often

Salfxwv,

supposed to
an asser-

his fate," is probably

is

tion of the divinity of the soul * and that which makes

the soul divine is just its unity with the Logos.
In
action, therefore, as well as in thought and word, our aim
;

should be to recognise and

it

ignore

their own.^

versal

fulfil

Most men

this unity.

and follow an imaginary wisdom of

In a word, our duty is to follow the uni-

altogether,

Sec eireaOai rco Pvv(o.^

form a rough idea of the

have applied this principle

It is possible, perhaps, to
way in which Heraclitus may

We

have frequently seen that the adminiLogos throughout the world is always
to
measure
or law.
The ever-living Fire is
according
kindled and extinguished in due measure and the Sun

in

detail.

stration of the

may

not exceed

his

Heraclitus holds, should rule

private and in public
"
violation of measure,
I.e.
^
-

See

-p.

"

'"'

life.

that

Hyhris

is,

the

must be extinguished more than

704 L

p. 223.

Diels-' i. p. 98,
57.
This is
perhaps the oklest refei'euce in
Greek literatxire to Heraclitus' doetriue of the Logos.
121. For ^doi cf. //. 96, and

V-

The same principle,

among mankind both in

measures.

foroatVw,//-. 5)7. riutavch understood the words in this sense ; see

By water atHor,
^

fr. 92.

"See

p.

219.

gorean precept

Cf.

tlie

Pj'tha" follow God."

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

236

Human laws are nourished by the

a conflagration." ^
law divine and hence " the people should fight for the
law as for a tower." ^ But the Logos does not merely set
;

the example of moderation and law-abidingness it is also

in itself a harmony, and what is more, a harmony that
:

results

from

From

discord.

perhaps be said

to

"

follow

we may
when we

this point of view,

"

universal

the

pain and evil are the necessary and

a state
of good in human life
concomitants
inseparable
that

recognise

of

mind productive

and

of patience

"

resignation.

It is

Sickness
not good for men to get all that they desire.
makes health pleasant and good, hunger satiety, weariness
rest." ^
Heraclitus would have agreed with the words of

Browning
"
Type needs antitype
day, as shine needs shade, so good
:

As night needs
Needs

evil

how were

Unless by pain

We

pity understood

" *

remember that from the highest standpoint

"
To God all
there is nothing but order and beauty.
" "
God accomthings are beautiful and good and right
are to

plishes all things with a view to the

harmony

of the

have already pointed out how this profoundly

sentiment is illustrated by the drama of
religious
but the highest expression of it in Greek
Sophocles
literature is the Hymn to Zeus which Cleanthes composed
whole."

under the immediate inspiration

"

of Heraclitus' book,

Nay, but thou knowest to make crooked straight

Chaos to thee is order in thine eyes
The unloved is lovely, who didst harmonise
Things evil with tilings good, that there should be
;

One Word through

^
fr. 103.
^fr. 100.
^
/>. 104.

all

things everlastingly."

''

Fraticis Furini.
V.

18

ff.

HERACLITUS

237

Nothing could be more characteristically Heraclitean than

But perhaps the chief significance of
lines.

these

Heraclitus' exhortation to

"

follow the universal

"

lies in

the protest which it makes against individualism of every

"
In the w^ords of Alois Patin, there is no such
kind.

human soul,
thing as a permanent ego in Heraclitus. The
as a portion of the one rational life, without any
independent existence of its own, is exposed to the
And thus it appears as if
universal process of change.
Heraclitus, with his characteristic tendency to express a
indicate
variety of meanings by a single word, desired to

the irreconcilable antagonism between himself and all

other teachers, the entire idiosyncrasy of his doctrine, in
other words, his denial of the

which he begins
the Logos

The

ovk

book

his

efxev,

'
:

erjo,

by the very words with

Listen not unto me, but to

aXka tov

"

\o<yov.'

eschatological fragments of Heraclitus are,

if

any-

and have been interthing, more obscure than the others,

"
Like a light in
of
infinite
in
an
ways.^
variety
preted
"
is
kindled and
man
Heraclitus
the night- season,"
says,
^

extinguished."

Several of the fragments seem, neverand

still exists after death

theless, to imply that the soul

of these the majority have a

prima facie connexion with

"
and
the
The living
dead, the waking and the
Orphism.
for the latter
the same
old
are
sleeping, the young and the
and
the former
when they have changed are the former,
;

when they have changed are

the latter."

This

is

the view

which Plato afterwards developed in his so-called cyclical

^
and one of the analogies on which
proof of immortality
Plato relies, that of sleeping and waking, is apparently
The theory that the living are
suggested by Heraclitus.
born from the dead Plato describes as an old-world story
;

"

I.e.

p. 100.

Some

of the different interprcta-

tions are enumerated

FhU.

by

Scliiifcr,

Hcraldit von Ephesus,

(1902) p. 109 fF,
d.

Die
etc.

^fr. 77.
*/r. 78.
^

Phaed. 71

ff.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

23S

(iraXaio';

X0709)/ a phrase by which he sometimes refers

nor is there any doubt that the

to the Orphic doctrines

The curious statement about souls

Orphictheory
of
the
sense
smell in Hades ^ probably comes
retaining
from the same source.
According to Plato, some
"
"
are
and
others
Most of the
pure,"
pleasures
impure."
is

bodily

he

pleasures,

pleasures

of smell

but

maintains, are impure,

belong to the other class.
"

the

Now we

"

and " impurity are character^

istically Orphic ideas; and I have elsewhere conjectured
that Plato's whole theory of pure and impure pleasures
is suggested by the Orphic belief that whatever is conhave seen that

"

purity

taminated by the body

reason

why

"

is

If

impure.

Hades

souls smell in

"

this

is

so,

the

because they are

Pure souls may be

is

no longer imprisoned in the body.

Another fragment
expected to enjoy pure pleasures.
seems to connect the final conflagration with the Orphic
In the enigmatical
immortal mortals, mortal immortals, living the
saying,
immortals' death, and dying the immortals' life," ^ we
may recognise, perhaps, the familiar conception of the

doctrine of

a judgment hereafter.^

"

Some of the ancients,

Ijody as the sepulchre of the soul.
at least, understood the fragment in this sense
for it is
;

'"

Both living and dying are

thus paraphrased by Sextus
present in our life and in our death for when we live,
:

our souls are dead and buried in

our souls revive and

us,

and when we

die,

There remains the prediction

that certain of those who have died will arise acjain to
be " guardians of the quick and the dead." ^
Hippolytus,
more suo, sees in this an obvious reference to the doctrine
live."

'^

but Heraclitus is no doubt

a bodily resurrection
thinking of the departed spirits of the golden age who are
Accordsaid by Hesiod to keep watch over mortal men.
of

"
^

^fr. 2G

Phaed. 70 C.
See p. 106.
/v. 38.
Plato, Pep. ix. 584

'

Pyrrh.

n.

cf.

perliaps 118, 122.

67.

V''- 123.

in. 2?,0.

Cf.

/"/.

77 Diels.

HERACLITUS
ing to Professor Diels, however, there
to the ritual of the Orphic mysteries.^
If

these

239

is

an aUusion

also

fragments express what Heraclitus himself

not rather certain views which he is

and

believed,

combating,'^

we must

think, that

allow, I

his

eschato-

logical beliefs can hardly be reconciled with the rest of

his philosophy.
To the recurrent cycle of life and death

a certain analogy might possibly be found in the lifehistory of the world, alternating between the evolution
things from fire and their resolution into fire again.
But for the doctrine of individual immortality there is no
room in Heraclitus, seeing that he virtually denies the
Nor do
"persistence of the individual even during life.
of

we

find any other indications throughout the fragments

sympathy with Orphism. On the contrary, Heraclitus

of

with

contempt

"

of

night-roamers, magians,
bacchanals, wine-vat priestesses and initiates," and declares
"
men are sacrilegiously initiated into the mysteries
that

speaks

But in any case, whether

that prevail among them." ^
Heraclitus believed in immortality or not, his importance
in the history of religion depends entirely on his doctrine
of the Lotjos.
In Heraclitus the Logos, as we have seen,
is

God, and identical with the ever-living Fire which

the world.
Logos

was

By

the

further

is

the Heraclitean concept of

the elements of
elaborated, but
Stoics

pantheism and materialism

still

remained.

From

the

Stoics the doctrine passed to Philo, who under Platonic

influence clearly separates the Logos from the supreme

At the
God, letting pantheism give place to theism.
same time the L^ogos is frequently personified and de"
scribed in terms which, as Mr. Purves remarks,
often

New

bear striking resemblance to

To (\\\o\>e a few
of Christ." *
'

Hemkl.

Vr.

124,

\k ItJ n.

Cf. Patin,

I.e.

12.-).

o/jiolomon 12. 4

p. 13 ff.
Cf. The
14. 23.

Testament descriptions
among many such charac-

Wmhm

Did. of the Bible,

\\ in."^.

art.

"

Logos,"

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

240

terisations, the Logos, in

son

first-born

Philo,

is

the Divine Word, the

God, the image of God, God's vice-

of

the world, his prophet and interpreter, the

high-priest who intercedes with God for the whole world,
the intermediary between God and man, himself partakin

gerent

ing at once of the nature of both.^

decisive step, for which the

Then came the great

and

Aristotelian

philosophy

the way, by

its

the ethical ideal.

in

teaching

Greece had

of

itself

post-

prepared

ever-increasing disposition to personify

The link between Greek philosophy

and Christian thought was once

established

for all

by

the author of the Fourth Gospel when he proclaimed that

the Logos had become incarnate in Jesus Christ. 6 \6<yo^
crap^

kol

iyevero

"

iv

eaKi^vwaev

rjfxcp

the

Word

and dwelt among us." ^ In his lectures on

Christian mysticism, Mr. Inge, on the strength of a
passage of Amelius quoted in Eusebius,^ hazards the

became

flesh

"

the apostle, writing at Ephesus,'"' de"

liberately refers in his prologue to the
lofty doctrine
of the great Ephesian idealist." ^
can hardly make
suggestion that

We

sure of this

but at

all

events

it is

Heraclitus' doctrine

the Logos which made him be counted among the

"
"
Christians before Christ."
They who have lived
of

company with Logos

in

"

{fiera

\6yov),"

says

Justin

they were accounted

such, among the Greeks, were Socrates

Martyr,

are Christians,

atheists.

And

even

if

and Heraclitus."^
1

Heinze,
St.

I.e.

John

i.

Pracp. Ev.

pp. 204-297.
14.
xi. 19.

p.

47 n.

Kunstprosa
^

Apol.

i.

Cf.

ii.

Norden, AiUiks

p. 473.

46.

LECTURE

XII

FROM PARMENIDES TO ANAXAGORAS

Parmenides of Elea
we have to discuss

is

the

first of

to-day.

the philosophers

According

to

whom

what appears

be the trustworthy evidence of Plato, he lived from

about 515 to 449 B.C. or later.^
By the ancients he
to

was said

have been the disciple of Xenophanes and

is most
readily understood as a meta-

to

his philosophy

physical development of Xenophanes' doctrine of the one

God, who is the world.

The poem
nature

falls
"

which Parmenides unfolds his theory of

two divisions, the former of which he

in

into

calls the

trustworthy discourse, the thought about truth,"^

whereas the latter is a " wholly untrustworthy road," ^
"

containing the
opinions of mortals, wherein is no true
belief." *
Historians of philosophy are far from agreed as
to the value which
"
"
of Opinion

Way

statements

Parmenides himself attached

;

to

his

but in the face of such emphatic

seems impossible to regard it as otherwise than illusory and false, whatever may have been
"
his motive in building a house
From
upon the sands.
this point onwards," he
when
about
to
says,
pass to
the second section of his poem, " learn the opinions
of mortals,

verses."

and give ear

to

so-called

"Philosophy

See the discussion in Burnet,

l-c. p.

the deceptive array of

my

The
'

it

180.

-fr. 8. 50

i6

f.

cf. 4. 4

1.

29.

of

Opinion,"

which

6 (reading irauaweie^a).
30
cf. 8. 51 f.
8. 51 f.

*//-. 4.
*fr. 1.

5>-

in

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

2^2

Parmenides traced the origin of things to Light and

Darkness, was by no means destitute of theological con-

We

ceptions.

Daemon throned

read of a Goddess or

the centre of the world and

"

in

steering the course of all

"

This Daemon, whom

ZaljMwv fj irdvra Kv^epva}
Parmenides called variously " Justice," " Necessity," and
"
the
Key-bearer," is the mother of Eros, the oldest of
"
the Gods, and
sends souls at one time out of the visible
into the invisible, and at another time back again from
the invisible into the visible."

It

obvious that

is

we

are

here on Orphic and Pythagorean ground and indeed one

of the theories about the second part of Parmenides' poem
;

that

"

nothing but a summary of contemporary

^
However this may be, if we
Pythagorean cosmology."
would understand what Parmenides himself believed, we
is

must

"

it

is

restrain our thoughts from this

way

of inquiry,"

considering only the path of Knowledge, which alone can

guide us to the Truth.
"
According to the
Way of Truth," the belief in
generation, multiplicity, and change is but a delusive
road on which " mortals that know nothing wander to
and fro, facing both ways at once for utter helpless;

ness

directs

the

wandering thought in their

breasts

deaf at once and blind, they are swept along in stupefied bewilderment, undiscriminating tribes who think
that 'to be

'

and

not to be

'

are the same and not the

"

same, and that everything returns upon

Be iraKlvTpoTTo<i
iaTi KeXevOo';).^
In

itself

(iravrayv

such

vigorous
Heraclitean

Parmenides denounce the

"
upward and downward path on which
all things are for ever
In the view of
travelling.
"
"
is not, for
that
which
he
calls
Parmenides,
not-being
it can neither be
nor
named
thought
generation and
does

language

doctrine of the

"

"

V''- 12. 3.
2

14

Diels2
;

10.

(5)

i.
;

]).

Ill,

37 (cf./r.

also/r. 13.

1.

Burnet,

I.e.

*fr.

1.

33.

V-

6.

ff.

p. 197.

(readiug TrXasovTai).

FROM PARMENIDES

TO

ANAXAGORAS

243

movement and change,

are empty words

none but Being.^
Being, according to Parmenides, is a single uncreated
and imperishable whole, immovable and changeless. It
never was nor shall be, but only is"
Parmenides'
destruction,

reality there

further

specifications
regarded Being as a

it

to

is

of
the concept show that he
material substance.
He declares

be continuous and indivisible

for

throughout, and there is no more of

than in another, but everything is full
is

everywhere
and not

finite

in

contact with

side,

sphere.^

Several

of

these

of
of

it,

It

one

part

and Being

is,

characterisations

have been suggested by Xenophanes'

"
World-god, ever abiding in the same
"
not at all
but it is important to
menides nowhere assigns to Being any
or

of

itself.

uniform

is

in

moreover,

infinite, equally poised from the centre

resembling the mass of a w^ell-rounded

on every

attribute

it

it

function.
"

appear to

description of the

place and moving

observe that Par-

kind of psychical

Compared with the World-god

Xenophanes, all-eye, all-mind, all-hearing," the Being

Parmenides appears to be only a " motionless corporeal

It has consequently been held that, so far

jdemim."
from being the " father of idealism," Parmenides may
more truly be called the " father of materialism," since
"

all

At

materialism depends upon his view of reality." ^

the same time, though the reality in which he

believes

is

clearly something material,

hended by the

it

not appre-

is

senses, but only

it is the
by thought
changeless unity which is hidden from us by the deTo this
ceptive appearance of plurality and change.
extent the philosophy of Parmenides has affinities with
idealism
nor would Plato have venerated him so highly
if he had been a materialist in tlie same sense as, for
;

1
8. 8
fr. 4. :> IT.
'fr. 8. 3 ft-.
*fr. 2 ; 8. 22-49.
;

f.,

38

tV.

Burnet, I.e.
1. 35 ff.

"fr.

p.
;

194

cf. 8.

f.

34.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

244

For the student of theological

example, Democritus.
however, Parmenides and his successors in the
Eleatic school are of little or no importance.
The con-

ideas,

cept of

On

God disappears for them in that of Being.

the one hand, therefore, we have Heraclitus and

who emphatically assert that the real is

and, on the other hand, Parmenides
always changing
proclaims with not less vehemence that the real is always
his followers,

This is the fundamental antithesis

immutably the same.
pre-Empedoclean philosophy in Greece; and almost
every philosophical system after Parmenides may be
regarded as an endeavour to adjust or reconcile the two
The solution that first recomopposing points of view.
mended itself to Greek thinkers may be thus expressed.
They agree with Parmenides that Being, in the strict
of

sense of the word,

and

changeless

is

necessarily uncreated, indestructible,

they explain Becoming as the

and

combination and separation of those eternal and changeless elements which they identify with Being.
There is

no

out

creation

the

of

nothing,

elements

and

no

into

dissolution

merely unite and fall asunder.

nothing
In the words of Empedocles, whom we now proceed to
"
consider, nothing is born or dies
mingling and separa:

tion of the

that

mingled

is

all

birth

but a name

is

men

^
give to these."
of
Empedocles,
Acragas

early

part

of

the

in

Sicily,

unnecessary to dwell

was born

before

fifth

Christ.

century
upon the reputation he

in
It

the
is

enjoyed
during his lifetime, or upon the manifold legends that
were afterwards associated with his name nor are we
;

concerned

with

the

details

of

his

physical

doctrine,

except in so far as they are connected with his theology.

"
"
of the
roots
According to Empedocles, the four

Universe

are

Air

Eire,

Aether), Water, and

Vr. 8;

cf.

(or,

Earth.^

11, 12.

he generally calls it,

These elements are un-

as

^fr.Q.

FROM PARMENWES

TO ANAXAGORAS

245

so
created, imperishable, and in themselves unmoved
if
are
to
a
it
can
combine and form
that,
cosmos,
they
,

only be by the operation of some moving power distinct

and separate from themselves.
As soon as philosophy
abandoned the standpoint of monism, a distinction
between the i'(/>' ov and the e'f ov, the efficient and the
material cause, became inevitable
and Empedocles is
the first of the Greek philosophers in whom this distinc;

tion, so

as

important in the history of theological as well

of

philosophical thought, begins to appear.

inasmuch as the elements not only unite with

another in

so-called

asunder in

"

single

birth

or

generation, but

But
one

also fall

death," Empedocles is not content with a

cause.
Two causes, he believes, are

moving

necessary, the one to account for the combination, and

the other to account for the separation of the elements.
To suppose that one and the same agent performs both

functions would be to sacrifice

its uniformity and changeand therefore its reality or being for changelessness, as Parmenides had taught, is an essential attribute
of that which is.
The power that combines the elements
"
"
"
into things Empedocles calls " Love
or
Friendship

lessness,

the opposite or disintegrating power he designates by

"
"
the name of " Strife
or
Hatred."
These two rival
forces contend with one another throughout the whole
"
of nature.
At one time," says Empedocles, " all the

members that

fall

to

the lot of the body are united

through Love, and then

life's bloom is at its height

hateful
strife, they wander apart
by
"
where
the
waves
of life are breaking
themselves,
by
"
It is the same with shrubs, with
{irepl prjyfiiVL ^loto).

at another, severed

fishes in their

watery

halls,

with wild beasts that couch

and with birds that move on wing."

in the mountains,

Love and Strife are of course eternal, like the elements

which they move so that Empedocles in reality affirms
;

V>-

20.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

246

the

existence

uncreated

six

of

Fire,

principles,

Air,

In
Water, and Earth, together with Love and Hatred.^
"
these and these only are
his own words,
but, running
through each other, they appear as different things at
different times, although they are always the same." ^
The phenomena which we call birth and death,
generation and destruction, are therefore, according to
Empedocles, nothing but the union and separation of fire,
air, water, and earth under the action respectively of
Love and of Hatred.
He believes, further, that each of
these two powers alternately prevails over the other.
The life of the world, as imagined by Empedocles,
follows a circular course, in which there are four well;

marked

stages.

In the circle

ABCD,

the point

A may

be taken to represent the period when the four elements,

together with Love, are mingled in one indistinguishable

A = Period of
C = Period

Unity.

of Separation.

AC = Transition to Period of Separation.

CA = Transition to Period of Unity.
"

Therein
whole, which Empedocles calls the Sphere.
are distinguished neither the Sun's swift limbs, nor yet
the shaggy strength of Earth, nor the Sea so firmly
;

bound
1

IC

in

Harmony's

Arist. de Gen. et
f.

Con:

i.

close
1.

314^

canopy stands the rounded

-//. 17. 34
3ff.

f.

cf.

21.

13

f.

26,

FROM PARMENIDES TO ANAXAGORAS

247

^
While the
Sphere, rejoicing in exultant loneliness."
elements are so completely blended, there can be no
individual existences of any kind
nothing but the
;

One.

solitary all-embracing

It

is

in

this

period that

Love holds undisputed sway, the rival principle being

But in due time Hatred waxes
temporarily subdued.
"
within
limbs of the Sphere," ^ and a
the
strong again
struggle ensues, in the course of which Strife gradually

tremor ran through the mighty

gains the upper hand.
"
mass
all the limbs of the God," Empedocles says,
"

"

^
and then the elements began
For a time Love is still sufficiently power-

in succession

quaked

to separate.

The result
keep the disintegration within limits.
the conflict between Harmony and Strife is in the

ful to
of

and when the point

apparently a drawn one, and
the Universe in its prime.
At this stage dissolution and
set
in
more and more upon
Hatred
encroaches
decay
first

instance to create the cosmos

reached, the battle

is

is

Love, until at the point

the separation of the elements

complete, and Love in turn has yielded the sceptre

is

her

to

ceases

rival.

for

the

Here, again, all individual existence

In the
elements refuse to combine.

C to
the process is reversed, Love
gaining upon Strife until unity is once more reached
in the Sphere.
Such, according to Empedocles, is the
history of the universe, and it repeats itself at intervals
return journey from

Love and Hatred, he says, " were

throughout eternity.
aforetime and shall be hereafter nor ever, I think, shall
infinite time be emptied of those twain.
They prevail
;

alternately as the circle comes round, disappearing before

each other, and waxing again in their appointed
turn."

In this rapid sketch of Empedocles' physical theory I

^fr.21

Sim

is

Harmony

(rea.(imp,TrepiyqeiC).
synonym for Fire,

for

'^fr. 30. 1.

Love.

The

and

26.

fr.

2,1.

110-113 Stein; Diels- /r. 16,

1 f.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

248

have introduced only the minimum of detail which

seemed to be necessary in order that we may understand
but the
what he has to say about the Godhead
Empedoclean doctrine of cycles is itself of no little
In the
interest in connexion with religious thought.
same
of
it
involves
the
kind
first
apparently
place,
;

belief

"
of
or
restoration
an
aTro^aTao-Tacrt?
with which we have already met in the

in
"

all

things

we may

for

fairly conjecture that,

the world again pursues
exactly the same course as in the former aeon at all
events, Empedocles says nothing to indicate that there

Orphic

religion

when the

circle is

once

fulfilled,

any change. And, in the second place, inasmuch as

Empedocles deifies the Sphere,^ we may say that, according
is

theory, all individual existences are ultimately,

though only for a time, absorbed in God, much as the
divine Fire in Heraclitus resumes all things into itself at
his

to

the expiration of each successive period in the history

of the world.

We

are

now

in a position to consider the theology of

striking of the theological frag-

The most

Empedocles.
ments are the following

" We cannot
bring God nigli to us, that we should see him with
our eyes nor can we lay hold on him with our hands the two
"
highways by which faith enters into the heart of man."
" For he is not
his
limbs two
head
with
a
human
upon
provided
branches do not spring from his shoulders he has no feet, no swift
knees, no hairy members he is only a sacred and unutterable mind
shooting with swift thoughts through all the world {aXKa (pprjv upf)
Koi adecrcfiaTos eVXrro fiovvov,
(ppoi'TLat Koaiiov anavra KaraLcrcrovcra
;

'

The second of these remarkable fragments appears to

"
one God,"
be inspired by Xenophanes' account of the
>

See p. 109.

-/'

31.

'^fr.

V>-

133.
134.

FROM FARMENIDES TO ANAXAGORAS

249

neither in body nor in mind resembling man, ruling the

universe merely by thought and we are tempted to
suppose that Empedocles is here thinking of the Sphere;

God, the nearest parallel in his philosophy to the WorldThis explanation has been
Clod of the Colophouian.

modern times ^ but the

a sacred and ineffable mind shooting

offered both in antiquity

last

two verses

"

and

in

"

cannot easily
with swift thoughts through all the world
be understood of that temporary union of the elements
which is necessarily dissolved in the formation of the

We

cosmos.

the

of

longer

are told by Ammonius, to

the two fragments, that

whom we owe
the

poet

was

also to
referring primarily to Apollo, though secondarily
the divine nature as a whole and this interpretation,
;

which Zeller and Diels uphold, appears more hkely to be

Greek religious thought, as we have already
correct.^
seen,

naturally

Empedocles

this

tended

to

spiritualise

may

impulse

In

Apollo.

have been exceptionally

was firmly assured of his prophetic

At all
and
vocation,
Apollo was the God of prophecy.
events we have in these lines a more explicit assertion
of the spiritual nature of God than we have hitherto
strong

for

he

found in Greek philosophy.

Among
certain

"

long-lived Gods

perishable,

we hear

other compounds of the elements

destined

to

"

{6eo\ t)o\iyamve<i)^ created

suffer dissolution at the

of

and
end

every Great Year, when the elements are fused or

In Anaximander, as I
separated by Love or Strife.
of

"

"

are to be
created Gods
have already remarked, the
" *
"
but the
innumerable worlds
identified with the
"
"
those of
seem
to
be
Gods
of
Empedocles
long-lived
;

ordinary Greek polytheism,^ interpreted in the light of

1
29
and cf.
See
Diels, fr.
Karsten, Emji. Carmina p. SOf),
and Burnet, I.e. p. 269.
;

Diels, I.e. and i. ji. 157,

Zeller = i. 2. p. Slf. n. 1.

-See
23

"/r. 21. 12 ;
See p. 187.
=

of.

23. S.

Cf. Zeller, I.e. y. 813.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

250

his physical theory.

Elsewhere Empedocles calls upon
"
the Muse to aid him while he reveals a good discourse

about the blessed Gods."

From

this it is clear not only

theology at some length, but also

that he set himself to reform and purify the prevailing

that

lie

treated of

conception of the Godhead, as in the passage already

Nowhere, however, does he
quoted about Apollo.
maintain, like Xenophanes, that God is one and a belief
;

in

the divine unity cannot well be reconciled with the

pluralism of his physics.

In addition to the Sphere-God and to the created Gods,
Empedocles also deified the four elements, together with
the two efficient causes.^
Some of his Ionic predecessors
had already conceived of their elementary substances as
divine
but since Empedocles for the first time tries to
separate the moving cause from that which is moved, it
is necessary to inquire whether any new theological idea
is involved when he ascribes divinity to Love and Hatred.
In the judgment of Aristotle, the conception at which
;

Empedocles
expression,

is
is

aiming, though he fails to give it adequate

that Friendship is the cause of good, and

Strife the cause of evil

first to

so that in a sense

he was the

recognise the Good and the Evil as independent

for the cause of good must be the Good, and

principles

To Empedocles, Love is
Evil.^
and Hatred the malevolent power
he tells of " the gentle immortal onrush of blameless
"
"
*
accursed
Love," whereas his epithets for Strife are
" ^
and in the golden age, we are told. Love
and " deadly
At the same time, although Love may
reigned alone.
be regarded as a benignant Deity who makes war upon
the principle of Evil, no real or lasting progress is
for whatever ground Love gains in her struggle
effected
the cause of evil the
clearly the beneficent,

V'-. 131. 4.
Cf./r. 132.
fr. 59. 1, with Arist. cle Gen. et
Corr. B 6. 333*^ 12.
2

^
^

Met.

fr. 35.

4. 985'' 4ff.

13

^fr. 20. 4

cf.

17. 23.

17. 19.

FROM PARMENIDES TO ANAXAGORAS

251

with Hatred, she must surrender in course of time to her

In these circumstances, a teleological interpretarival.
nor does Empedocles appear
tion of nature is impossible
;

have recognised any trace of design

structure of the world or in the evolution

either

to

of

in the

animal

life.^

have said that Empedocles, for the first time in the

history of Greek philosophy, makes an attempt to separate
the efficient from the material cause, or, as we ought
rather to say, the moving principle from that which is
But the separation which he succeeds in effectmoved.
On the one hand, he
ing is very far from complete.
as corporeal, and puts
Hatred
still conceives of Love and
them in this respect on the same plane with the four
I

"

roots

of

Some

things."

his

of

expressions

clearly

imply that the moving principles are physically present

^
and others prove
in the compounds which they create
not less clearly that Loth Friendship and Strife are
Aristotle consequently blames
extended in space.*
Empedocles for treating Friendship as if it were not
;

only an

but also a material cause

eflficient

"

"

he makes

of the mixture."
And, on the
part," says Aristotle,
other hand, each of the four elements, as well as Love

it

and Hatred, are, according to Empedocles, endowed with

"
With earth we see
perceptive and cognitive power.
earth, with water, water, with air, bright air, with fire,
devastating fire, with Love, love, and strife with baneful
Strife."

It

amounts

that

declares
"

"

the

to the

blood

same thing when Empedocles

about

the

heart

is

man's

the blood, as he supposes, that

thought
These conthe elements are most completely mingled.^
;

siderations

for it is in

make

it

to break with the

that Empedocles was unable

hylozoism of his Ionic predecessors
clear

'/r. 59 virtually denies design.

^fr. 17. 27 f.
^
fr. 17. 22f. ; and esp. fr. 109.
*'l7. 19f.
s
Met. A 10. 1075" 3 f.
-

/r. 109.
\fr. 105. 3.
**

Theophrastus, de Sensu 10

//. 98. 5.

cf.

RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

TFIE

252

even the imperfect distiuction which he draws

between the active and the passive constituents in the
formation of the world is a step towards the dualism
but

of

Anaxagoras.

Empedocles believes that the mind is entirely dependent upon the material substances out of which it is
We learn from Theophrastus that he took
composed.^
no small pains to devise appropriate physical explanations
Those
for the various types of mental constitution.
in
whom
the
are
blended
for
elements
example,
persons,
in equal or nearly equal proportions, without being too
far apart, too small, or too large, he held to be the wisest,
''
This is that
and so on.^
proportion," or A.0709 t?}?

as to which Aristotle pertinently asks wdiether

Empedocles meant it to be his explanation of soul or

ix(^ea)<i,

But the truth

is that Empedocles has no philothe

soul as distinct from the body
sophical theory
and inasmuch as he thought the elements could them-

not.^

of

must have supposed that any kind of

mixture would have resulted in a soul of some sort or
In point of fact, he not only attributed to plants
other.
intelligence, desire, and feeling, but declared in so many
selves perceive, he

"

words that
*

all

If

things have

we develop

wisdom and

participate in

this idea to its logical conclu-

thought."
the same time remembering that the elements
and some have
are divine, it will land us in pantheism
sion, at

maintained

that

Empedocles

was

really

pantheist.

an expression
Karsten considers
Sphere-god
identical
with the
of
the
for the harmony
universe,
"
mind
with
swift
sacred and unutterable
shooting
thoughts through all the world," and he interprets the
to be only

tlie

elements and moving principles as only particular aspects

embodiments of the universal mind. By this means

or

fr.

105,

106,

Farm. /r. 16
Opinion").

(in

108, 109.
the

"Way

Cf.

of

Theopbr. de

"

de An.

Seam

11.

i. 4.QS'' 20.

-"Diels-i. p. 164,

70; /r. 110.10.

FROM PARMENIDES

ANAXAGORAS

TO

253

he arrives at the condusion that Empedocles' system is

"
an apotheosis of nature
est, ut ita dicam, naturae
diroOecoa-i'^

"^

to be

compared with

tlie

poetical pantheism

of Virgil
"

deum iiamqne ire per omues

terrasque tractusque maris caelumque profunduu)."

It is obvious that there arc pantheistic elements in

the philosophy of Empedocles, but Karsten's view cannot
be upheld unless we are prepared to regard tlic poem

On Nature as an allegory throughout and we have no

reason to suppose that it was anything of the kind.
The
truth is rather that Empedocles, though he has Hashes
;

of insight

and

inspiration, fails to

make

his doctrine into

a consistent and harmonious whole.

The

and ethical teaching of Empedocles has

been
touched
upon in connexion with Orphism.
already
In the fragments of the poem called Purifications we
religious

meet with most of the leading Orphic doctrines such

exile from Heaven in consequence of sin, metempsychosis, the duty of abstaining from animal food, and
as

finally,

when

the Gods.

It

the purification is complete, reunion with

cannot be affirmed that Empedocles did

anything to clarify or intellectualise the Orphic rehgion

nor is it possible to reconcile his religious belief in personal

immortality

and

pre-existence

doctrine

the

combination

of

with

and

his

philosophical
of the

separation

elements through Love and Strife.

We have next to examine the

views

of

more

robust and powerful thinker, Anaxagoras of Clazomenae,

about whom Aristotle says that, in declaring Nous to
be the cause of the cosmos, he is sobriety itself by the
side

of

the

rambling

Though somewhat
1

Emp. Cann.

503-506.

[>.

391.

utterances

older
Cf.

of

his

predecessors.^

than Empedocles, Anaxagoras

-

pp.
^

Geor,j. iv.

Met.

221

f.

3. 984''

15

ff.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

254

appears to have written and published his book after

With
Empedocles' poem was already before the world.^

name

Anaxagoras are associated two principal

of an infinity of original particles or
and
the
far
more famous doctrine of a worldseeds,
It is
and
creating
world-ruling intelligence or Nous.
the second of these conceptions which is of importance
for the student of theology
and I will touch upon
the

of

that

doctrines

only in so far as may be necessary to enable

us to understand the doctrine of Nous,.
the

first

Anaxagoras agrees with Empedocles

'yevea-L'i

"

out

creation

or

in

denying
"

of

aTrX?}

The Greeks,"

nothing.

words wrongly when they sjjeak of

for nothing is generated
and
destruction
generation
or destroyed, but there is mingling and separation of
"
things that are.
They would be right," he adds, if
they called generation mingling, and destruction separation." 2
What, then, are the uncreated and indestructible
substances out of which things are formed ? Empedocles,
as we have seen, identified them with the four elements
and accounted for the
earth
fire, air, water, and

he

says,

use

variety of things by saying that the proportion of the

mixture, the X0709 t^? /x/^eco?, differs in different

Bone, for example, is composed of two parts of

while
fire, one of water, and one of air

cases.

earth, four of

apparently consists of each of the four elements in

equal amounts.^ Anaxagoras, on the other hand, regards
the qualitatively determined bodies as the more original,
flesh

and the Empedoclean elements as not less composite

and he accordingly postulates an
than anything else
;

infinite

as

number

he

calls

of infinitely various elements, or

them,

"

us

Let

seeds."

Empedocles and Anaxagoras are attempting

for
1

example,
Met.

-fr. 17.

3. 984^'

the
11

of

composition
^

f.

i.

E^p,

p. 166,

piece

y^..

gg

78.

rather,

suppose

that

to explain,
of timber.
see

also

Diels^

FROM PARMENIDES

TO

ANAXAGORAS

255

Enipedocles would say that timber is one particular comwhile Anaxagoras

bination of fire, air, water, and earth
;

would say that

results

it

from the union

of a

number

but at the same time

seeds or particles of timber
and this is the further point which requires to be
he would take care to add that the piece of
noticed
of

wood contains

only of wood, but also of

it wood, that is only

particles not

If
every other object.
because the particles of

we

call

wood

in

it

predominate

as

soon as the particles of fire within it prevail, we call

it fire
but in fire, too, there are particles of wood, and
;

indeed of

You

whatsoever.

other things

all

see

will

that, according to this theory, every particular object

in the universe is itself a kind of world in miniature.
"
In everything there is a portion of everything except

Such,

briefly

matter.

expressed,

is

Without stopping

hypothesis,

us endeavour

let

Anaxagoras'

to

criticise

to

see

so

how

it

theory

of

fantastic

is

related

In the present condition of

theory of mind.
all these infinitely numerous and infinitely
various particles are distributed throughout the different
to

his

the world

organic and inorganic compounds which make up the

But in the period before
ordered universe or cosmos.
the world began they were completely intermingled
of spurious unity, which
the Anaxagorean equivalent of Empedocles' Sphere.
"
"
were together
All things," writes the philosopher,
infinite both in number and
(Hiov iravTa y^p-q^aTa tjv,

with one another in a kind

is

in

smallness

when

for

the

small was

also

things were together, none of

^
tinguishable by reason of its smallness."
all

infinite.

them was

And
dis-

This primeval
"
"
mixture or chaos is absolutely motionless, and cannot
In order that it may do
of itself become a cosmos.

VV.

12 ad fin.
11; cf.//-.

^fr.
4.

1.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

256

SO,

finds

moving cause
in

making

and this Anaxagoras

required
the time arrived for the

is

When

Eeason.

of the world,

movement

Eeason stepped

in

and originated

one particular point of the

rotatory
as
has
been
mixture, possibly,
conjectured, at the point
a

at

corresponding to that which in the completed universe

we call the pole.^ The gradual extension of

ment in course of time brought the cosmos
by a succession

of

steps

which

it

is

this

move-

into being,

unnecessary for our

purposes to enumerate.

In this way, then, Anaxagoras' doctrine of Nous is

and it remains
connected with his physical theory
;

for us to

examine in

detail his

the theological significance of

most celebrated concept,

which will appear as we

proceed.
The relevant fragments are as follows

" In
everything there is a portion of everything except Nons^
and there are some things in which there is also Novs.~
"All other things partake in everything, whereas Nous has no
part in anything," owns no master but itself {avroKpares), is mixed
with nothing, but is alone, itself by itself. For if it were not by
itself, but were mixed with aught else, it would partake in all
for in everything there is
things, if it were mixed with anything
a portion of everything, as I have already said
and the things
mixed with it would prevent it from having power over anything
in the way it has, seeing it is alone and by itself.
For Nous is the
subtlest and purest of all things, and moreover has all knowledge
about everything, and the greatest strength. And over all things
that have life, both greater and less. Nous has power. And Nous
had power over the whole revolution,'' so that it began to revolve.
And the revolution began from a small beginning, but is now more
extensive, and will be more extensive still. And Nous knows all
the things that are mingled and separated off and severed. And
jVous set in order all the things that were to be, and that formerly
;

'

i.

So Dilthey, quoted by Zcller

1001 71. 1.

2. p.

2. i>. 992 n. 1 suggests either aixoipov,

or preferably airXbov (of. Arist. de

-fr. 11.

An.

awecpov means, perhaps, Hireipov

Zeller^ i.
iravTos, expcrs omnium.

i.

sc.

2.

405^ 16).

which generated the world.

FROM PARMENIDES TO ANAXAGORAS

were but now are not, and whatsoever

tilings are

now; and

257
it

set in

order this revolution wherein the stars now revolve and the sun
and the moon and the air and the aether which are separated off.

And

and that
this revolution was the cause of the separating
which is dense is separated from that which is rare, and the warm
from the cold, the bright from the dark, and the dry from the
But there are many portions in many things and no one
moist.
thing is altogether separated or severed from another except Nous.
And all Nous is alike, both the greater and the less but nothing
else is like anything else, but each particular thing is and was
most clearly that whereof it has most in it." ^
"And when No^ts began to set things in motion, from all that was
moved separation took place, and all that Nuus set in motion was
severed
and as things were set in motion and severed, the revolu;

them
"Nous, which

tion caused

to be severed

much

more."

eternal,
assuredly present even now where
the other things are, in the surrounding mass, as well as in the
things that have been separated olf and that are being separated
is

is

all

oflF."

Not a few distinguished writers have maintained that

the Nous of Anaxagoras, so far from being a spiritual and
incorporeal essence, is in reality only a particular form of
Professor Windelband, indeed, goes

matter.

so far

in

this direction as to suggest that the proper translation

"
Mind " or " Thought,"
of the word in Anaxagoras is not

but

"

Thought-stuff" {Denkstoffy

It

is

quite true that

on a severely literal interpretation of Anaxagoras' own

words, he appears to conceive of Nous as something
We are led to suppose that Noiis admits of
corporeal.
"
"
all Nous," he says,
is
quantitative differentiation
"
it seems to be
alike, both the greater and the smaller
:

present in the mixture which

articulates into a world, as well as in what is separated

extended in space, for

it

off;
"

it

is

means

and purest

clear

^
/r. 12.
^/r. 13.
^/r. 14 (reading

17

we

Nous is the
it
But
is by no
things."
that these expressions were meant to be

and, in the third place,

subtlest

of

are told that

all

TTpocTKpideifft

and

diroKpivo/x^vois for

dwoKeKpifi^vois).
diroKptOe'icTi

for

'*

Gesch. d. alien Phil. p. 165.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

2S8

understood in a
describe what

is

As soon

literal sense.

as

we attempt

to

other than purely negative

spiritual in

we

are almost inevitably thrown back on more

or less figurative terms of speech, even at the risk of

language,

appearing to ascribe to

spirit

the attributes that belong

of the soul is a case in

The Platonic account

to body.

Just as Anaxagoras recognises a greater and a

Eeasou, meaning, no doubt, the world-forming
Nqu8, and Nous as it appears in animals and plants, so
Plato recognises different degrees of reason.
The Gods,
point.

smaller

he says, participate in reason and so also do men, but

the latter only to a small extent.^
The soul of the
world in the Timceus of Plato is certainly incorporeal, and
;

yet the language in which

for God
spatial extension

it is
is

described attributes to

said to stretch

it

it

throughout the entire body of the Universe and wrap it like a

The later history of theological
mantle round the world.^
;

furnishes

thought

"

of

examples

Are we

to

language.
"
writer on Anaxagoras,
that

disability

German

many

of

this

inherent

suppose," asks a
believed in

Anselm

the corporeality of God because he describes Him as

"
id quo mains cogitari nequit ? ^
According to Descartes,
there are two forms of extension, vei^a cxtensio and extensio

per analogiam

mind

the

first

belongs to body, the second to

and although in respect of his essence or

no
God
has
relation to space, yet in virtue of his
being
he
is
in
If this distinction
every place at once.^
poiver
had been propounded to Anaxagoras, and he were invited
to say in which of the two senses he considered Nous to
be present in the mixture which it separates, I think he
would have pronounced in favour of the extensio per
In Anaxagoras Nous is always that wliich
analogiam.
"
has power it has power over all things that have life,"
or spirit

Tim. 51 E.
Tim. 34 B.

Arleth in

Philos.

viii. p.
Arleth, I.e.

ArcMv f.
461.
p. 462.

Gcsch. d.

FROM PARMENIDES TO ANAXAGORAS

and

"

it

259

had power over the whole revohition," which

called the cosmos into existence out of chaos.

The

"

Nous

that

statement

"

the

is

subtlest

"

"

and

cannot be
purest of all tilings
readily explained, on the assumption that Nons is
As regards the word 'x^pijfiara, there is
incorporeal.

iXe.-KTOTa'rov)

so

no

real difficulty

than

less

material

in Greek, as in English, spiritual no

"
entities could be called
thins-s."

And inasmuch

as Nous has already been said to be

absolutely alone and by itself, unmixed with anything
"
"
whatsoever, the expression
purest of all things
may
"

mean

fairly

that

absolutely pure,"

from every foreign ingredient.

acknowledged that the attribute
is

suggestive of

parallels

It

of thinness (XeirroTarov)
this argument,

To meet

corporeality.

Homer and

have been adduced from

who speak

of a

"

absolutely free

is,

must, however, be

subtle wit," a

"

subtle

Euripides,

mind

"

(keTrrrj

and so forth.
Another solution of the
No Greek thinker
difficulty is perhaps more probable.
had hitherto attempted to distinguish mind and matter
and there was consequently no recognised philosophical
terminology by means of which the distinction could be

firjTL<i,

XeTTTo?

vovs:),

formulated.
to his readers,

make

In trying to

the

new

idea intelligible

Anaxagoras had no alternative but

to use

the materialistic language of his day.

Heraclitus had
taken
what
the
ancients
to
held
be the rarest
already

and endowed it with

and if Anaxagoras really
desired to separate matter and mind, I doubt whether it
was easy for him, at the time in which he wrote, to
make his purpose clearer than by implicitly denying
that Nous is identical even with fire, and asserting that
of

the

elements, namely,
intelligence or
thought

fire,

in point of subtlety or rareness it transcends all other

It is worthy of notice that Aristotle
things whatsoever.

himself
(to

sometimes

Xeinov)

with

associates

the

incorporeality.

idea

He

of

"

thinness

remarks,

"

for

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

26o

is thinner
than water and more in"
and that " fire is the thinnest
(XevTo/xepe"
and most incorporeal of the elements." ^
To
(TTaTov)
"
thinnest and
Anaxagoras' contemporaries the phrase
"
would probably have conveyed the
purest of all things
notion of the immaterial more nearly than any other
words he could have used.
Let us now consider the question from another point

instance, that air

corporeal,

of view.

Supposing for the sake

of argument that the

and
really
truly is, as, Grote mainone substance, or form of matter among the rest,

Anaxagorean Nous
"

tains,

all of them, thinner than even fire

with what particular form of matter should it
be identified ?
This curious Dcnkstoff must have been

but thinner than

^

or air,"

wholly different from every other kind of substance, not

only in respect of its attributes, among which omnipotence
and omniscience are included, but also in respect of its
for it is absolutely pure and unmixed, whereas
in all other substances there is a portion of everything.
What, then, can it have been ? Gomperz talks vaguely

nature

"

"

of
an
reasoning fluid,"
" ^
but there
refined and mobile materiality
of

curious

extremely
is

nothing
the fragments to justify such a view, and Aristotle
clearly implies that Anaxagoras considered his Nous to
;

in

be unmoved as well as pure.*

In a famous passage of
the Phacdo, Plato complains of Anaxagoras because he
made little or no use of his great principle in explaining
the constitution of the world, but had recourse to " airs
and tethers and waters and many other such absurdities." ^

The contrast which Plato here draws between Nous

on

the

one

hand, and

show
the Anaxagorean Nous
other,

seems

to

2.

Phys. iv. 8. 215'' 5

405^ 6.
2
Plato i. p. 57.

dc An.

material substances

upon the

he at least considered
to have been incorporeal.
By
that

i.

Greek Thinkers i. p. 216

Phys. viii. 5. 256^ 24.
Phaecl. 98 B f.

f.

TO ANAXAGORAS

FROM PARMENIDES

261

Aristotle as well as Plato, Anaxagoras' doctrine of Nous

was regarded as a landmark in the history of Greek

This

philosophy.

it

was

certainly

not,

Nous

if

species of matter endowed with thought

already seen that the ever-living fire of

is

only a

we have

for

Heraclitus

is

Or shall we say that Anaxagoras

intelligent and thinks.
merely replaced the Ionic hylozoism by two forms of
matter, the one irrational and dead, and the other alive
and rational ?
Such a frankly materialistic dualism
would hardly have seemed
constitute a real advance.
as

seems

it

to

Plato and Aristotle to

to

It

certainly a simpler and,

reasonable hypothesis to

is

me, a more
Heraclitean

unity was resolved by

Anaxagoras into a duality in which Mind and Matter
stand over ag-ainst one another as two distinct and

suppose that the

mutually exclusive principles.^

On these grounds I am disposed to agree with Heinze,

Arleth, and others in holding that the Nous of Anaxagoras was a spiritual and not a material substance.
now examine

various attributes, and the part

and administration of the world.
"
It
has
In the first place, then, Nous is omniscient.
"
"
knows all the
all knowledge about everything
it
things that are mingled and separated off and severed."

Let us

it

its

plays in the formation

Anaxagoras maintains, in opposition to Empedocles, that

It
is known by unlike, and not like by like.^
follows that universal knowledge could not belong to
Nous if it were in the least like other things so tliat
the omniscience of Nous is yet another indication of its
unlike

incorporeality.

Secondly, Nous would seem to be at once omnipotent

"
and supreme.
It
owns no master but itself," and is
"
"
"
the
in
has power over all
it
greatest
strength
"
had
that
have
and
it
life,"
power over the whole
things
:

revolution
^

"

that

made the

world.
"

Cf. Arleth,

I.e.

p. 67.

Diels^

i.

p. 310,

92.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

262

Thirdly, Nou?, is the creator of the Universe, in the

sense that it called the cosmos into being out of chaos.

We

have already seen that it initiated the cosmogonical

and Anaxagoras adds that it " set in order
revolution
;

things that were to be, and that formerly were but

now are not, and whatever things are now." Anaxagoras
all

appears to have assigned no special motive for the creation of the world other than is implied in the epithet

Mind

avT0KpaT6<;.

rotatory motion

own master, and originates the

own free will.^ Neither did it

is its

of

its

him to ask in what way Nous, though itself

unmoved, communicates motion to the primeval chaos.
"
The Aristotelian " first unmoved mover is the cause of
occur to

motion, as being the object of the world's desire KLvel &><?

Of this conception there is no hint in Anaxaipdofjievov.
:

he was probably content to suppose that the creamind moves and rules the universe, just as the human
mind moves and rules the body but how the immaterial

goras

tive

mind, whether human or cosmic, can act on matter at all

with this fundamental difficulty of every dualistic system
of philosophy it is

What

improbable that he ever grappled.

part,
any, did Anaxagoras attribute to Nous
In itself, as
after the creative motion has once begun ?
if

Plato and Aristotle discerned, the Anaxagorean conception involves a teleological view of Nature such as we

meet with

two greatest philosophers of antiquity.

knowledge and the greatest
Nous
well
be
power.
may
supposed to be always working
with a definite purpose throughout the entire domain of
And it would seem that Anaxagoras did, in
Nature.
point of fact, sometimes express himself to this effect.^
It is, however, clear from the strictures passed on him
^
by Plato and Aristotle that Anaxagoras rarely made use
in the

Possessed as

Cf. Arleth,

Arist. de

DielsM.

p.

it is

I.e.

An.

p.

of universal

80

'^

f.

404^ 1 f.
318, lines 16 C, 21
i.

Cf.

2.

f.

PI.

Phaed. 98

4. dSb'^

18

ff.

ff.

Arist. Met.

FROM PARMENIDES TO ANAXAGORAS

of

N0U8

in

his detailed account of

At most he had

recourse to

mind

263

natural phenomena.
as a sort of dcus ex

machina in cases where a purely physical explanation

was dilUcult to invent.^
For the most part he was
"
concontent to look for what Plato would have called
comitant

causes

"

(avvanca), without endeavouring

show how each particular phenomenon

fulfils

the ultimate designer of the world

of

to

the purpose

but in reply to

fairly have said that these

in
causes
are
reality the instruments by which
secondary
iVoMS works, and that in the long run we shall learn

he might

Plato's criticisms

more about the creative mind by a patient study of the

laws of Nature than by resorting to premature and a
priori teleological hypotheses.
Anaxagoras occupies, in
man of science
the
of
a
orthodox
fact,
position
tolerably

who

of the present day,

holds that without the postulate

omnipotent and omniscient Deity the origin and

continuance of the cosmos are alike inexplicable, and who,

of an

having once affirmed this principle, thenceforward pursues

his scientific inquiries without any theological bias whatsoever.
It is interesting in this connexion to observe
that

almost

same

the

the Greek

objections

which

Plato

brings

were afterwards urged

against Descartes and Newton, and on practically the

against

philosopher

same grounds.^
The doxographical

asserts that

tradition

Anaxagoras
judgment of M.
Bovet, on the other hand, God has no place in the
*
and it is quite true that in his
system of Anaxagoras
surviving fragments there is no mention either of God
or of Gods.
It is obvious, however, that we have no
right to dogmatise about the contents of a book by far
the larger part of which has perished and even if the
name of God did not once occur from beginning to end

identified

Noits

with

God.^

In

the

Aiist.
-

I.e.

See Grote, Plato

ii.

p.

177

*
?i.

302'' 11.
Platoii p. lOiJ.

i^iei^,^ 2)o.r. p.

Le Dieu de

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

264

of the work, the statement of

my

M. Bovet would
Por the

opinion, be calculated to mislead.

still,

in

histori-

cally important point is not whether Anaxagoras called

Nou8 God or not it is rather to what extent he ascribed
to Nous those attributes and functions which, according
:

We

to the theology of later times,

belong to the Deity.

have seen that this uncreated and imperishable mind is

a spiritual and not a corporeal essence, that it is omniscient and omnipotent, and creates the world, not indeed
ex nihilo, but out of
pre-existent chaop, in virtue,

And as these are

apparently, of its absolute freedom.
the
most
in
factors
the theistic conamong
important
we are fully justified in mainwith
Heinze^
and
taining,
Arleth,^ that Anaxagoras is
the founder of theism in the western world, whether he
expressly identified his No^is with God or not.
There is but little evidence to show what Anaxagoras
believed on the subject of
He is said to
immortality.
ception of the Godhead,

have declared that Nature provides us with two objectlessons on death

one is the time before we are born,
and the other is sleep.^ This remark, if it is authentic,
:

clearly denies the survival of consciousness after death.

Still

more

explicit

is

the statement in the Placita that

Anaxagoras believed the separation of soul and body to

involve the death not only of the body but also of the
soul {etvai he kol
ddvarov rov Siaxci^piafMov) * and
'yfrv^rjs;
obvious that for anything like individual immortality
the system of Anaxagoras leaves no room.
The unique
;

it is

importance of this thinker for the student

lies in his

for
'

doctrine of Nous

having treated
Tiber

den

4T.
^l.c. p. 205.

vovs

des

and that

is

my

of

theology

justification

of the subject at so
great length.

Anax.

p.

stobaeus ap. Diels

34.
*

Dox.

p. 437. 11.

i.

p.

300,

LECTURE

XIII

THE AGE OF THE SOPHISTS

The

principal subject which engaged our attention in the

preceding lecture was the Anaxagorean concept of Nous.

We

saw that Reason, as conceived by Anaxagoras, is

Anaxagoras is not
primarily a cosmic agency or power.
as
it
with
Season
concerned
appears in human
yet
before himself is
which
he
sets
for
the
object
beings
than
rather
Nature
to explain
man, in agreement, of
of
trend
with
the
course,
pre-Sophistic Greek
general
It is nevertheless probable that he arrived
philosophy.
at the conception of a cosmic mind from a consideration
If mind
of the part mind plays in the affairs of man.
to
he
seems
is the principle of order in the Microcosm,
in
the
have argued, it must also be the cause of order
Macrocosm indeed, he expressly states that all mind is
"
both the greater and the less," that is to say, the
alike,
From this point of view, therecosmic and the human.
fore, Anaxagoras' famous doctrine may be regarded as
foreshadowing to some extent the now departure PhiloBut before we proceed
sophy was soon about to make.
to deal with the rise of humanism and the philosophical
regeneration which it effected, it is desirable to complete
;

our survey of pre-Platonic natural philosophy by glancing

at

two thinkers

of widely different calibre

and culture

Apollonia, who appears to have lived at

Diogenes
Athens in the latter part of the fifth century B.C., and
of

Democritus

of

Abdera, a far more celebrated name.

265

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

266

Diogenes begins by laying

it

down that

all

the different

objects in the universe are in reality forms of one and

otherwise it would be impossible,
the same substance
:

he

thinks,

to

explain

mixture, interaction, and

This primary substance he conthe

generation of things.^
ceives to be what men call Air

Air transforms

itself

and condensation.^
upon Anaximenes

and he supposes that

into things by means of rarefaction
Thus far, he is dependent chiefly

but

influence

the

of

Anaxagoras
"

We

now

are told that Air is great

begins to appear.
and strong and eternal and immortal and possessed of

much

By

is

able

knoivledge."

element of Air

virtue
"

to

of

intelligence, the
measures of

its

the

preserve

things, winter and summer, night and day, rains

and winds and sunny weather: and anyone," he adds,

all

"

who

chooses to

reflect, will

find that all other things

It is by
disposed in the best possible manner."^
"
^
are steered,
all things
Air, according to Diogenes, that

are

For this very thing

and over all things Air has power.
seems to me God,'^ and I believe that it reaches to everything and disposes everything and is present in everyand there is nothing which does not partake of
thing
it.
Still, no one thing partakes of it in the same way
as another, but there are many modes both of Air itself
for Air is modified in many
and also of intelligence
drier or moister, more
warmer
or
colder,
ways, being
;

stationary or in more rapid motion.

all living creatures is the same,
.

And

the soul

Air that is
warmer than the air outside us, in the midst of which
we live, but much colder than the air about the sun.
But this warmth is not alike in any two kinds of
is
it
always
animals, nor indeed in any two men
but
I
not
allow,
different,
just so far
greatly different,
of

viz.

V.

2.

'fr.

4, 5.

Diels

*fr. 8.

\fr. 3.
-

p. 329,

"

5.

''

Reading ivavTa (with Schorn).

ee6s is Usener's correction for

t'^os.

THE AGE OF THE SOPHISTS

as

267

compatible with their resemblance to each other.

which are differentiated can become

is

None

of the things

exactly like another without becoming identical therewith.

And as differentiation is of many kinds, there
are

many

kinds of

living creatures,

many

in

number,

resembling one another neither in appearance nor in

way of life, nor in intelligence, owing to the multitude
differentiations
but yet they all live and see and
hear by virtue of the same element, and all of them,
^
too, derive their intelligence from the same soui'ce."
of

have translated the larger part

because

it

illustrates

of

this fragment,

the

so well

thoroughgoing panIn this respect he is like a Stoic

theism of Diogenes.
born out of due time.
It is further noteworthy that the
reason Diogenes assigns for attributing intelligence to his
"
primary substance is that all things are disposed in the
best possible

manner

"

an expression in which we seem

to recognise a clearer affirmation of design in nature than

we have hitherto found in Greek philosophy. But we

know

too little about his physics to permit us to decide

whether he carried out this principle in detail, or whether
he restricted himself, like Anaxagoras, to a purely
mechanical explanation of natural phenomena.
There
is
at least no trace of
in
the
teleology
fragment

describing the

We

human

veins.^

doxographical testimony to show that

It
Diogenes pronounced the soul to be imperishable.^
is not difficult to conjecture in what sense he must have

have

The air constituting our souls

that
part
all-pervading element which Diogenes
"
identifies with God
in fact a
is
fragment of the
intended this statement.
of

is

Godhead
shares

"
(/jLiKpov

fiopiov

rov 6eov)* and consequently

the

immortality that belongs to the divine.

In a noteworthy passage of Euripides, to be afterwards
in

^/r. 5.

V-.

"

6-

];)ieii,_

Dox.

j)^^.

p 392

p. 511. 13.

a<\ fiu.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

268

we meet with

discussed/

the idea of reabsorption after

death into the all-embracing element which Euripides

sometimes calls by the name of Zeus.
Here, as well as
elsewhere in his speculations, the poet appears to be
influenced by Diogenes.
It was related by Aristoxenus that Plato

once ex-

pressed a wish to collect the extant copies of Democritus'

works and burn them.^ The story, whether apocryphal

shows that in antiquity Democritus was regarded

the high-priest of materialism.
He was above all
a
man
of
science
he
is
said
to
have declared that
things
or not,

as

he would sooner discover a single link in the chain of

causes than become monarch of the East.^
The few
an
or
to him
tiideas
attributed
theological
theological
need not detain us long.
According to Democritus, Mind iyov'i) and Soul
he made
so Aristotle affirms
(i/^f;)^^), between which
no distinction, consist of material atoms, resembling the

atoms of fire.^ According to the measure in which these

atoms are distributed throughout its frame, the Universe
is
animated by soul.
Cicero asserts that Democritus
of
the
mentis
or atoms of mind as Gods ^
spoke
principia
while the doxographers sometimes ascribe to him the
;

doctrine of a single world-soul or Deity, identical, as it

would seem, with the aggregate of fiery atoms in the
world.^
of

tlie

But, as Zeller points out,

divine in this connexion at

meant a

if

Democritus spoke
he cannot have

all,

"

personal being, or even any single being at

he means, not a soul, but only soul-stuff, fire-atoms
which produce life and motion, and where they are

all

congregated in larger masses, reason also

different

altogether

Universe
1

2
^

like

the

from

V-

118-

single

but this

4=

Arist, de

An.

Nat. Dear.
i.^ 2. p. 908 f.
^
Diels, Dox.

i.

is

moving the

force

Anaxagoreau vov^ or the

See p. 309.
D. L. ix. 40.
ap. Euseb. Pr. Ev. xiv. 27.

Diels

i.

Platonic

2. 405'^ 9

120.

p. 302.

fif.

See Zeller,

THE AGE OF THE SOPHISTS

269

To Democritus, as to other materialists,

"
call mind or spirit is only the
most
" ^
he assigns to it no peculiar
perfect form of matter
part or province in the creation or government of the
world, and we arc told that he expressly disputed
world-soul."

that which

we

He himself has no need to

Auaxagoras' doctrine.^
in order to account for the
a
principle
special
postulate
world-producing motion, because movement is an inherent
and inalienable property of his atomic bodies.
It would seem, then, that the physical theory of
Democritus is complete without the hypothesis of a Mind
by which the course of nature is directed and controlled.
Following a not uncommon practice of the age in which
he lived, he sometimes represented the national Gods as

only allegorical expressions of ethical or physical ideas.^

Or, like some of the Sophists, he would ascribe the
religion to
phenomena of nature

origin

of

man's terror at the awe-inspiring

the sun and so forth.*

lightning and thunder, eclipses of

Nevertheless, like his follower

Epicurus in later times, Democritus himself seems really

to have believed in the existence, if not of Gods, at least
We know from
of
something analogous to Gods.
Sextus that he spoke of certain anthropomorphic

e'l'^oaXa

or images present in the atmosphere, figures of gigantic

size, not indestructible, though slow to perish, like the

These images, he said,

long-lived Gods of Empedocles.
on which
are of two kinds, beneficent and the reverse
;

Democritus prayed that he might meet with

"kindly images." When he remarks that they occasionally
appear to men and foretell the future, he is doubtless
account

thinking of the common Greek belief in revelation by

means of dreams. According to Sextus, these images
were the only Gods admitted by Democritus.^
The
1

'

>

ZcUer, I.e. pp. 907, 909.

See D. L. ix. 35.

3Diels-/>'fr. 30.

'^\

'-f-

fr-

'

25 ami

Dio.ls'' p. 365,
75.
Sextus, adv. Math.

ix. 19, 42.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

270

but there is much to be

subject is a very obscure one
"
"
said for Zeller's view that the
images in question stand
for the ordinary Greek daemons, which were long-lived
;

but not immortal.

If

Zeller
"

that Democritus was the

often

followed

in

is

first

right,

times, that

later

we must suppose

to enter

upon the path

of

so

degrading the

of Polytheism into daemons." ^

Democritus wrote a book " On Hades,"

Gods

collected

and,

numerous

we

may
current

fables

suscitation of the dead.

contained,

presume,

also

in

which he
the

criticised

antiquity about the reWhat else the book may have

in

we do not know

but the probability

is

that

it dealt adversely with popular conceptions of the future

In a remarkable fragment attributed by Stobaeus
life.

Democritus we are told that " Some men who do not

understand the dissolution of our mortal nature, but are
to

conscious of the misery in

human

life,

painfully spend

their allotted period of life in confusion and fear, inventing

^
lies about the time after they are dead."
Democritus

expressly maintained that the atoms composing the soul

are scattered asvmder at the moment of death.*
He is

the

first

Greek thinker who

immortality of the

The

life of

century

known

B.C.,

as

in so

many words

denied the

soul.^

Democritus extended well into the fourth

and more than covered the period usually

the "

Age

of

"

Illumination

or

"

Enlightennotable passage of the Bcjmhlic may serve

to suggest to us tlie leading characteristics of that age.
Plato draws a vivid picture of the effect sometimes

ment."

produced on the individual when he begins to scrutinise

jjeliefs by the light of reason.
"We have
all of us, he says, certain opinions or beliefs,
forming,
as it were, our intellectual parentage, under whose care
his inherited

Zeller,

^.i-.

p.

939

ff.

wfpi Twv ev"Ai.5ov, Dicls-/r.

V''- 297.

0'^.

Stob.

Anth.

i.

p.

384.

Wachsmuth.
5

Rohde, PsycJie^

ii.

p. 192,

18

THE AGE OF THE SOPHISTS

we have grown to youth
we discover, perhaps,

or manhood.

271

In course of time

cannot be
on rational grounds
dialectic may show that
what we have been taught to consider honourable and
those

tliai

justified

just

is

beliefs

more honourable than

than unjust
and then there is
our moral constitution should be underare apt to rush to the conclusion that

in certain circumstances not

more

base, not

lest

danger
mined.

We

just

and authority, law and convention are only

devices for checking the legitimate impulses
and rights of the natural man, and we become tainted

tradition
artificial

with antinomianism.i

The phenomenon

thus describes in connexion

dividual was

with

the

which

life

of

Plato

the in-

now beginning

to happen in the corporate

"
"
Athenian people.
I say
beginning
for it is quite clear that in the end of the fifth
century
even later, there was still a large body of
B.C., and
Athenians who clung to the political, educational, and
religious ideals of the past, and obstinately set themselves
to stem the advancing tide of rationalism.
It is enough
to mention Nicias among statesmen, Xenophon
among
men of letters, and Aristophanes among poets. That
the Athenian demos had not yet discarded the old
beliefs is plain from the condemnation
passed upon
But although
Anaxagoras, Protagoras, and Socrates.
the rationalistic movement was by no means universal,
it is a testimony to its
strength and influence that it

history of

the

aroused such

bitter hostility in a society conspicuous

for the virtue of toleration
and what is of primary
;

importance, nearly
spirit

were

all

powerfully

the younger
affected

men

by the

of

ability

new

and

impulse.

Borrowing a Platonic figure, we may say that the

yoimg men of the period loved to rend and tear with
the fangs of dialectic the political and religious
principles
on which their fathers had been reared.
To an orthodox
vii.

537 D-539 A.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

272

conservative of the type of Nicias it must have seemed

as if the foundations of the city-state were being shaken,
when men began openly to express their disbehef in
divination and even in the very existence of the Gods.
The future seemed to be in the hands of the iconoclasts.
at this crisis in the history of the Athenian
"
"
What
the so-called
that
Sophists
appeared.
people
effect had the method and teaching of the Sophists on
What
the moral and religious development of Greece ?

was

It

position did they take up in that contest between faith

and rationalism which we have already noted as a distinguishing feature of the period in which they lived ?

In

we

the only question

question
these lectures are concerned

this

discussing

which

in

with
it

is

be on our guard against attributing any

necessary
of
doctrine to the various representatives
community
Down to the time of Grote, the Sophists
of the class.
to

were generally treated as a kind

sect

or

they

set

school, holding
a more or less immoral

certain

of quasi-philosophical
principles of

common

character, by means of which

undermine the foundations of
and any anti-social or antinomian

themselves to

society and the state

doctrine ascribed by
;

Plato, rightly

or

wrongly, to

Sophist was promptly fathered upon the

particular
whole school, who were accordingly denounced in
unmeasured terms as responsible for that alleged
deterioration in the Athenian character which Grote
Whether the Athenians
for his part absolutely denies.^

degenerated or not in the latter part of the fifth century,

but it is now
is a question we need not here examine
;

universally agreed that the Sophists were not in any

sense of the word a sect or school, united by community

but only a profession of mutually independent

teachers called into existence by the growing demand

of creed,

for

hisher
^

education

History of Greece

througliout
cli.

67

(es]),

Greece

and

vol. viii. p. 174).

more

THE AGE OF THE SOPHISTS

273

In the Protagoras and elsewhere

especially in Athens.
Plato makes it clear not only that the Sophists taught
different

subjects, but

rivalries

and

of

the

observes, "illegitimate,
sophistic mind,
"
and so forth

the

is
if

consequently, as Gomperz
not absurd, to speak of a

sophistic morality,
^
:

of

was no lack of
between the different members

also that there

jealousies
It
profession.

we must take

individual

and

Sophists,

sophistic

scepticism,

the relevant fratjments

examine

them

inde-

themselves, before attempting to form

an estimate of the kind of influence which these re-

pendently

l)y

markable men exerted on the course of Greek thoudit.

The earliest and perhaps the most distinguished of all
the Sophists was Protagoras of Abdera.
In the Platonic
dialogue called by his name, we have what is probably a
true account of the subject he professed to teach. "
By be"
coming my pupil," Protagoras says, Hippocrates will learn

how to deliberate wisely about his private affairs as well

as about the af!airs of the state.
I will teach him how to
his house in the best

way, and he will become fully

"
both
to
and
to
act in public life."
Do
qualified
speak

manage

"

"

I suppose you mean the

says Socrates.
art of politics, and that you promise to make men
good
"
"
citizens ?
Yes, that is exactly the profession I make." I follow

you

Protagoras had confined his energies within these

we might almost have passed him over, although
it would
still
have to be noted that the method by
which he taught the "art of words" must inevitably
If

limits,

have fostered the impulse towards iconoclasm in his

He was the first to declare that every possible
pupils.
argument on every conceivable subject could be met by
another ^ and if Aristotle is to be trusted, he
expressly
undertook to show men how to "make the weaker
;

argument prevail" {rov

an accusation afterwards
'

^<---

V- 415.

18

Jjttw

\6yov KpetTTw

freely levelled at the

318

f.

^D.

iroieiv)

Sophists

L. ix. 51.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

274

But

iu

general.^
of the youth

I'rotagoras was not merely a teacher

he wrote numerous treatises, among them
"
On Truth " and
the Gods," and another

work " On
the two most celebrated of his literary fragments express
a habit of mind which could not fail to obtrude itself
a

even in the exercise

The

of his profession as a teacher.

these fragments is the notorious homo
"
Man is the measure of all things of that

first

me7isura.

which

of

which is not, that it

certain modern critics, the word

that

is,

it is

According to

of that

is

"

not."

man

"

should here be understood generically, the reference being

not to " this or that specimen of the genus, not any
individual

or Harry,

Tom, Dick,

If this explanation

is

correct,

but universal man."

we have

before us only a

that anthropocentric view of the

was rapidly coming to the front in the

vigorous assertion of

world which

time of Protagoras.
But the ancients understood the
in
another
sense.
Without exception, they
saying
quite
"
"
individual
and not the genus.
man
as
the
interpreted
Protagoras meant, says Plato, that as things appear to
me, so they are to mo, and to you they are as they
appear to you since you and I are both included under
:

"

man."

In other words, there

absolute truth

and

misnomer,
"

is

no such thing

or, rather the expression

"
"
for
true
we ought in

"

truth

"
is

as

strictness to

"

true-to-you," and so on. Unless,

follow the Platonic explanation of the text, we must
suppose that throughout a large part of the Theaetetus

substitute

true-to-me,"

we

Plato
that

is

all

fighting a

shadow

and we must further believe

the ancients from Plato and Aristotle

down

to

Sextus Empiricus either misunderstood or deliberately

I
therefore
traduced the doctrine of Protagoras.^

cannot but agree with Zeller and others in upholding the

An excellent criticism of the
Arist. nhct.. 1102--^ 23 ff.
1

'

-//. 1 Diels.
^

Goniperz, I.e. p. 453.

Tlicad. 152 A.

view advocated by Gompcrz will

bo found iu Nestle, Euripides p.
406 ?i. 12.

THE AGE OF THE SOPHISTS

275

traditional interpretation, according to which Protagoras

meant tliat each man is to himself the standard of what
is

true or false.

that in

its

It

ethical

theory would

of

is

and

seem to

more importance

observe

to

such

a
applications
of
and
subversive
morality

political

be

a legitimate inference from the maxim

of Protagoras that every one may do what is right in his
own eyes and in a notorious line of Euripides the
civic

It

life.

is

inference

is

rt 6'

"

The

plainly stated
alaxpov,

Nought's

fjv

fir]

Toltrt )(pa>ii4vois Sokjj

sliamei'ul,

save

it

seem so

to the doer."

story runs that Plato retorted with the line

al(rxpov TO y alcrxpov, ki]v 8okjj

"

Shameful

is

shameful, seem

8ok[].

kiji/ p,r)

it

so or not."

Nothing could illustrate more clearly the opposition

between the Platonic and the Protagorean standpoints.^
The second of the two fragments in question occurred
the earliest
at the beginning of the treatise on the Gods
"
About the Gods I cannot
of Greek agnostic writings.

know
for

either that they do exist or that they do not exist

many

me from

things prevent
and the shortness of

knowing, the obscurity

^

of the subject

life."
Protagoras is
the
house
of Euripides,
said to have read the pamphlet at
in
similar
sentiments.
whose plays, as we shall see, abound

An
in

interesting anticipation of Protagoras' attitude appears

a story told by Cicero about the poet Simonides.

Hiero, tyrant of Syracuse, requested Simonides on one

occasion to explain to him the being and nature of the
The poet begged for a day to reflect, and when
Deity.

the question was repeated on the morrow, he asked two

additional days, and afterwards four, and so on, doubling
the

number
1

of days

again and again until the tyrant

Eur.//'. 19, with Nauck's note.

j)

l_

jj..

oi.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

276

When

of waiting.

grew weary

invited to give a reason

"

The longer I
said,
strange
^
deliberate, the greater obscurity I find."
Protagoras'
He confesses himself
agnosticism is more explicit.
his

for

behaviour,

he

unable either to affirm or to deny the very existence of

the Gods, and places the sentiment in the forefront of

How he developed it in the sequel, we do

but that the general tendency of his book
was thought to be hostile to religion, may be inferred
his treatise.

not

know

from the well-authenticated story that it was publicly

burnt, while the author had to leave Athens in order to
escape a prosecution for impiety.^
Gorgias of Leontini is important chiefly in connexion
Alliteration and assonance,
with the history of style.
balanced
and sometimes
clauses,
carefully
striking
fantastic metaphors, together with antitheses that please
the ear but upon examination prove unsound
these are

the distinguishing features of his diction.

Plato
an eloquent passage of the Beiniblic condemns such

among
in

because they encourage men to acquiesce in

and it is difficult to read Isocrates, the most

artifices

shams

^
;

eminent
the

of Gorgias' literary disciples, without endorsing

In his treatise " On the nonverdict of Plato.

Gorgias endeavoured to

existent,"

positions

first,

that

establish

exists

notliing

three prothat if

second,

anything does exist, it is unknowable and finally, that

even if something exists and can be known, yet the
knowledge thereof cannot be communicated by one man
;

The

to another.^

down

investigation
discover the

object of

physical and metaphysical

to the time of

underlying

reality

Gorgias had been to

of

things

and

it

is

probably this ultra-phenomenal reality or existence which

As a practical rhetorician,
Gorgias intends to deny.^
1

Nat. Deor.
Cicero,
vi.

I.e.

498 E.

i.

60.

63.

fr. 3 Diels.
Cf. E. Pfleideier, Sokratcs
Plato p. 12.

und

THE AGE OF THE SOPHISTS

277

concerned with the preparation of pupils for a practical

career, Gorgias has no sympathy with the a iiriori
of the
former epoch.
Although the
threefold thesis of Gorgias does not directly bear upon
theology, it is obvious that his categories of the nonexistent and unknowable would have included the

hallucinations

the

philosophic as well as

himself

a cautious agnosticism

to

the

popular conception of

Godhead.
We have seen that Protagoras

for his part confined

but others of the
;

Sophists appear to have rationalised the Gods out of

Foremost among these stands
existence altogether.

Prodicus of

known

Ceos, best

morally unexceptionable

As

cross roads.^

in

later

at

the
to a

apologue

Cicero remarks,

it

times for the

was tantamount

of

Heracles

complete denial of religion when Prodicus declared that

the so-called Gods were only personifications of those
objects which experience had found beneficial to the life
man.-

of

Demeter (he

affirms)

is

only bread, Dionysus

We

wine, Poseidon water, Hephaestus fire, and so on.

are reminded of the allegorising rationalism of Democritus

and other pre- Sophistic philosophers but the particular

aim of Prodicus is to explain the origin of the belief in
;

Gods, on the assumption that the belief is erroneous.

"
Primitive man," he says,
deified the sun and moon,

"

rivers

our

and fountains,
on account

life,

whatsoever things benefit

the services they render, just as

in a word,
of

the Egyptians deify the Nile."

A similar motive inspires

another remarkable and highly characteristic fragment of

the period of Illumination.
The author is the notorious
Critias,

than

whom we

with the iconoclastic

began, he

tells

'

Xen. Mem.

Nat. Dcor.

religionem reliquit

no one more deeply imbued

Before civilisation

brute force reigned supreme.

1. 21 fF.
118, quam, taiideTn

ii.
i.

us,

find

spirit of the age.

^.p.

Then

Sext. adv. Math. ix. 18.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

278

followed
social

the

order

discovery of

the

beginnings of

law, thougli it could repress open

to prevent secret crime.
Thereupon,

failed

injustice,

law, and

but

continues Critias, some wise man came to the rescue,

and conceived the idea of certain all-hearing, all-seeing,

and all-knowing powers, whom he called Gods. He

placed them in the heavens, in order that the celestial
phenomena, which men already so much feared, might
seem to be their work. The Gods are therefore only
a shrewd device of some prehistoric statesman who
"
"
darkened the truth by a lie
(yjrevSel Tv^\(oaa<; rrjv
akr}det,av Xoiyw)}

few other relics of the earlier Sophistic literature

deserve a passing mention.
The Sophist Antiphon, when
asked for a definition of the prophetic art (/xaz/Tt/c?^), replied:
"

It is the conjecture of a sagacious

"

Euripides supplies a parallel.

man."

Best seer

is

Here again
he,

who doth

^
distrust of oracles and divination
conjecture well."
was one of the features of the time, at least in educated
"
circles.
Thrasymachus complains that the Gods do not

affairs of men
otherwise they would not have
overlooked the greatest of human goods, viz. righteousfor we see that some men do not practise it." *
ness

behold the

In the pseudo-Platonic Axiochus a remark is quoted

from Prodicus to the effect that death cannot touch
either the living or the dead

are

still

to

the living, because they

and the dead, because they have ceased

The form of the sentence bears a sus-

alive,

exist.^

picious resemblance to the favourite Epicurean paregoric

"
when we are, death is
against the fear of death
:

and when death is, we are not " ^ but it can

hardly be doubted that Prodicus and the other Sophists
whom I have named were agnostics on the subject of

not

"

Critias, fr. 1. 2G

Diels

p. 5.^2,

^fr. 973 Nanck^.

Nauck=

9.

]).

771.

'^fr.
5

8 Diels.

359 g.
D. L. x. 125.

THE AGE OF THE SOPHTSTS

Nothing is known of the tract on Hades

which Protagoras is said to have

immortality.
Ttepi

TMv

279

"AiSov

fcV

written.

The

last

of the

vSophists

whom we

need mention

is

perhaps the most versatile and accomHis acquirements included Philology,

plished of tliem all.

Hippias of

Elis,

Mythology, History, Archaeology, and Literature, in

"
^
addition to the so-called
Arts,"
namely, Arithmetic,
and
Music,
Geometry,
Astronomy he was also the
;

author of a system of mnemonics, and a

in

the

epic,

and dithyrambic

tragic,

prolific versifier

styles

and

his

acquaintance with the mechanical arts was so extensive

"
that
on one occasion he appeared at the Olympic
gathering in garments every part of which, from the
sandals on his feet to the plaited girdle round his wiast,
and the very rings on his fingers, had been manufactured
by his own hand."
Perhaps he wished to enter a
practical protest against the principle of specialisation
characteristic of civilised communities
for he appears
;

have been entirely on Nature's side in the favourite

controversy as to the relative merits of Nature and
to

About

Convention.

nothing

his

that of

(f)vai,<i

and

v6fio<;

first to

we know

have just spoken

played so important a part

in the literature of the period that

little more in detail.

The

views,

theological

but the antithesis of which

we must

apply the opposition of

consider

v6fxo<;

and

it

<pvaL<i

in the sphere of ethical conceptions was Archelaus, the

so we are told
pupil of Anaxagoras, and the teacher

Socrates.
Archelaus declared that right and wrong
have no existence in nature, but only through convention
to BUaiov elvat koL to ala^pov ov cfivaei, dXka
or law
We do not know the reasons that led him to this
vofia.^
of

vi.

See Plato, Frot. 318 E,

511 C.

^Gomperz,

I.e.

p.

431:

Eep.
cf.

Plato, Hipp. Minor 368 Bff., and

Hipp. Maior 285 B IF.

D. L.

ii.

Ifi.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

28o

conclusion, ])ut

it

not difficult to surmise what they

is

literary as well as the political activity of the

Periclean age had familiarised the Greeks with many

The

were.

peculiarities of

there

is

foreign

institutions

and manners

men were

evidence to show that

and

beginning to

on the extreme diversity, and even antagonism

between different races in their standards of morality
and taste.^ We may fairly suppose that Archelaus
was impressed by the same phenomenon when he

reflect

declared that ethical conceptions in general owe their

for the natural,
existence and authority not to nature
but only to fashion,
in Greek thought, is the universal
or

convention,

law

Pindar

applauded

(1^0/^09).

for

had already

Herodotus

saying

that

1^0/^09

is

lord

of

all.2

Now

is obvious that this theory of an inherent

natural and positive law must have
between
opposition
it

tended to weaken the authority of established institutions

and beliefs, by assigning to them a merely local and
transient value in contrast with the eternal and universal
Let us hear what Plato has to say
ordinance of Nature.
"

These people," we read in the Laics,

upon the subject.
would say that the Gods exist not by nature, but by
in
art, and by the laws of states, which are different

"

agreement of those who

make them and that the honourable is one thing by
nature and another thing by law, and that the principles
of justice have no existence at all in nature, but that
mankind are always disputing about them and altering

different places, according to the

;

and that the alterations which are made by art

and by law have no basis in nature, but are of authority
for the moment and at the time at which they are made.
These, my friends, are the sayings of wise men, poets and
minds of youth.
prose writers, which find a way into the
... In this way the young fall into impieties, under

them

gee, e.g., Herod,

iii.

38.

"-

l.c

THE AGE OF THE SOPHISTS

281

the idea that the Gods are not such as the law bids them
imagine."

On

therefore, the doctrine of an

between
Nature and Law must have
antagonism
contributed not a little to the moral and religious unIn
settlement of the period we are now discussing.
its

negative

side,

essential

respect of

we

point

of

positive content, the doctrine suggests that

And in
follow Nature rather than Law.

its

sliould

fact

the

desire

for

"

return to nature

"
is

The
frequently expressed in the literature of this time.^
moral value of such an ideal will depend, of course, on

We

the interpretation we give to the word Nature.

"
may conceive of Nature as red in tooth and claw with
ravine
of all
"

"

or

we may think of her as the beneficent mother

If we adopt the first of these views, the

mankind.

"

"

cannibal
according to nature will lead us to the
"
"
embodied
in
such
as
is
might
morality
sayings
right,"
life

"

That they should take who have the power, And they
should keep who can."
On the second interpretation, we
shall think little about distinctions of race and nationality,
our efibrts will be
creed and colour and social position
directed towards a realisation of the brotherhood of man,
:

the federation of the world.

Each

of these divergent interpretations of the natural-

seems to have found supporters at the time of

which we are speaking.
Thrasymachus in the Repullic
and Callicles in the Gorgias of Plato powerfully advocate
"
the anti-social view that " Might is Eight
and " Justice
"
the interest of the stronger
and Plato is careful to
"
I
point out that they were not alone in their opinion.
"
hear the same story on every side," says Glauco, from
Thrasymachus and innumerable others and my ears are
istic ideal

ringing with
1
Lmcs 889 E
-

it."
fl'.,

tr.

As

a rule or principle of government,

Jowett.

have cited some illustrations

in The Republic of I'latu, vol. i. p,
354

f.

p^j^^

^i

353 c.

and Oorg. 482 E

ff.

Cf.

i,

343

tt",

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

282

was constantly exemplified by the conduct of Athens

allies.
The speakers in Thucydides make

it

towards her

We

"
frequent reference to the doctrine
regard it as
an eternal law that the weaker should be coerced by
:

In the famous dialogue

the stronger," ^ and so forth.
between the Melian and Athenian representatives, after
Melians

the

have

expressed

confident

that

hope

Heaven
"

will defend the right, the Athenians thus reply

believe that the Gods, as far as we can judge, and

We

we

that men, from what

of Nature, by inflexibly

obey an imperious laio

maintaining their dominion
see,

wherever they have power.

Wc did not make this
nor were we the first to take advantage of its
we found it established, and likely, when we
sanction
law,

leave

behind

it

avail ourselves of

and

others,

too."

"

came

it, it is

we
you

and

your power equalled ours, would do so

if

In this

Nature

to
it

if

in the conviction that

continue for ever

to

us,

now

the

"

definition of justice according

(pva-ec opo<; rov hiKaiov, as Plato calls

way

to provide a theoretical justification of abso-

lutism, as manifested in the Athenian empire.

other

argument was

it

possible

even

to

By no

attempt

to

justify the imperial rule of Athens in the eyes of a

nation which regarded the independent city-state as the

The Athenian empire,

only legitimate form of polity.
from the Greek point of view, was in fact a tyranny
and the institution of tyranny itself was sometimes

defended on exactly the same grounds.

It was main"
"
relation between one human
tained that the natural
"

"
law is only an
being and another is that of warfare
artificial covenant or compact, which no one will observe
This thoroughly
who is strong enough to defy it.*
:

anti
1

i.

doctrine

social

is

emphatically
*

76. 2.

Plato, Rej).

V. 105, tr.

Latos 714 C.

Wilkins.

626 A.

proclaimed
ii.

358

ff.

by
Laws

THE AGE OF THE SOPHISTS

28,^

Nature herself, we
Callicles in the Gorgias of Plato.
are told, declares that it is right for the strong to have
more than the weak for hy this principle the wliole
:

charms
and enslave the strong but
when a man appears upon the scene, he " shakes off and
rends asunder and escapes from all these chains, tramples
under foot our formularies and juggleries and charms
and laws that bid defiance to Nature, till suddenly the
quondam slave reveals himself our master and then it
animal kingdom

and

Civilisation with its

ruled.

is

sorceries seeks to fetter

that Nature's justice shines forth." ^

Of the other and more humane conception of Nature,

is

according to which men are naturally not enemies, but

kinsmen, we have an interesting glimpse in the sentiment which Plato in the Protagoras puts into the mouth
"
I think that we are all of us kinsmen
Hippias
and friends and fellow-citizens by nature, not by law

of

but law, the tyrant of

naturally akin to like
^
and
is
mankind, uses constraint,
opposed to nature."
The words are addressed to an assembly of Sophists, and

for like

is

do not convey the idea

the

rather

notion

of

is

among men

brotherhood

learning and culture, analogous in

Stoic community of wise men.

which they express

brotherhood, but

universal

of

of

some degree to the

But the sentiment

at least a step in the direction

which the Stoics also incorporated

at
the same time giving to it a

the wider ideal

of

in

their

system,

on the universal fatherhood

Aristotle that
of

the

condemned on that

institution of

score.*
"

author of the saying,

^

483
337

We

God.^

of

slavery was by some

"

contemporaries declared to be

his

ff.

f.

of man
know from

by basing the brotherhood

religious significance

unnatural

"

and

pupil of Gorgias was the

God intended
*

in the

e.g.

{iK ffov
*

men

all

yap

Pol.

i.

to be free

Hymn

of Clcanthes

7^j'os ifffxiv).
3.

1253*^ 21

11".

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

284

Nature

made

has

no

one

slave."

The grounds

alleged for this attack on slavery belong to the circle

of ideas witli which we are now familiar
and it is
;

not unlikely that the attack

age of the Sophists.

We

itself

reaches back to the

have now reviewed the principal ideas

of

which

necessary for us to take cognisance in connexion

with the ethical and religious speculations of the socalled Sophists.
Some of these ideas will require our
it

is

attention again, when we speak of Euripides

but in
the meantime let us endeavour to see whether there
;

a common tendency
we have seen
no actual community of doctrine
in the
different theories we have enumerated.
It may safely
is

not

at

that there

least

is

be affirmed, I think, that the Sophists agreed for the

part in refusing blindly to acquiesce in the

most

traditional
religion.
istic

of

principles of Greek morality, politics, and

certain degree of rationalism is character-

them

all.

In the sphere of

religion, it manifests

sometimes as agnosticism, sometimes, in the case

of Prodicus for example, as virtual atheism
in the
of
and
it
either
in
ethics,
politics
sphere
appears
the shape of an individualism so extreme as to strike

itself

society, or in the form of the

not less anti-social doctrine that Might is Eight, or else
it involuntarily tends to substitute for the old
conception

at the foundations of

dream not merely of a Panhellenic

but of a universal commonwealth.
With the exception
of the city-state the

cosmopolitan and

ideal, which was

dimly conceived, perhaps, by Hippias, there is hardly
anything constructive in the teaching of the Sophists
did not, to any great extent,
tliey destroyed, but
If the average Athenian citizen of the older
rebuild.

of

this

humanistic

school

looked upon them as corrupters of the youth,

allow that from liis point of view something

we must

Schol. on Arist. Rhet. IS/S"^ 18.

THE AGE OF THE SOPHISTS

285

But in tlic
could bo said in support of the charge.
light of later philosophical development, the movement
which we associate with the name of the Sophists is
necessary stage through which
had to pass in order to reach a
philosophy at once more rational and more spiritual
than any which had yet appeared.
To quote the words
"
of Zeller
The fermentation of the time to which the
Sophists belong brought many turbid and impure substances to the surface, but it was necessary that the
Greek mind should pass through this fermentation
seen

the

have been a

to

human

intellect

before

it

attained

the

clarified

stage

of

the

Socratic

wisdom
and as the Germans would scarcely have
had a Kant without the Auflddmivjsperiodc, so the
Greeks would scarcely have had a Socrates and a
;

Socratic philosophy without the Sophists."

1

I.e. p.

1156

E. T.

ii.

p. 506.

LECTURES XIV AND XV

EURIPIDES

A
to

RECENT Grerman investigator,

ehicidate

affirms that

that

women

philosophical

done much

has

in

Euripides,

is

and during

before

not
"

Enlightenment
of

his

and

it

of which
His men and

lifetime,
^

account."

take

speak the

constantly

interpreter

who

element

hardly a single important problem

his age, hardly a single theory in Greek

there

does

Euripides
"

"

stirred

philosophy

of

the

language
is

of

the

period

chiefly as the poetical

Sophists that Eurij)ides

the age of the

in a survey of Greek religious

demands our attention

thought.
Let us

first attempt to answer the question

What
take
does
with
reference
Euripides usually
position
up
to the recognised Gods of Greece ?
:

Perhaps the best way of approaching this subject

to consider the part played by the Gods in one or
two of Euripides' most characteristic plays.
The
is

Hiiypolyhis

purpose

and

best.

upon the stage

Mad

the

The
in

first

429

of

B.C.

Heracles
these

will

serve

The date

of

the second

but scholars are agreed that it

later
than
the Hipj^olytus, though not
siderably
of
the
latest
the
poet's dramas.
is

uncertain

our

tragedies was put

is

con-

among

The

subject of the Hiypolytus is the vengeance which

the Goddess Aphrodite exacts from the hero after wliom

the play
'

is

named.

Nestle, Untersuch.

In the prologue, Aphrodite

'lib.

d. ])Mlos. Qicellen des

286

Eur.

p. 560.

tells

EURIPIDES

how

the chaste Hippolytus has

287

sli,2;hted

her in word and

deed, and declares her intention of revenging herself by

a plot involving Phaedra's destruction as well as his.

Presently Phaedra comes upon the stage, a great and

noble character, torn with shame and remorse on account
passion which by Aphrodite's designs she has
involuntarily conceived for her stepson. The nurse, after
eliciting her mistress' secret, proceeds to tempt her by
of

the

appealing to the example of the Gods.

"Whoso have

scrolls writ in the ancient days,

still themselves by paths of song,

And wander

They know how Zeus of yore desired the embrace

Of Semele they know how radiant Dawn
\

to the

Up
And

Gods snatched Kephalus of yore,

love yet these in Heaven their home

all for

Dwell, neither do they

It

more than

is

(v0pi<;),

she

folly,

mortals

for

Phaedra remains

to

firm

the face of Gods."^

flee

urges,

resist,

it

is

positive sin

where immortals

yield.^

but her temptress, uttering

prayer to Aphrodite, quits the stage, and, having first

pledged him to secrecy, betrays the truth to Hippolytus.

Overcome

indignation and horror, the youth

publish the scandal, regardless of the

with

threatens at

first to

oath he has sworn

^
;

but in the sequel he submits to

and death, without proving

exile

false to his plighted

her secret has been betrayed,
In the next act, Theseus, who
has been on a pilgrimage to the seat of Apollo, the God
of joy, arrives upon the scene, and is greeted with the

On

word.

hearing that
Phaedra resolves to die.

news

of his wife's suicide.

in the

hand

of the

Presently he espies a tablet

it is part of the divine

dead Phaedra

purpose that Pliaedra should falsely accuse her stepson

father's bed.
He seizes it eagerly
himself with horror, Theseus appeals
Poseidon to fulfil upon the head of Hippolytus

of disloyalty to

and

reads,

to the
1

God

451

fr.,

liis

lieside

tr.

Way.

473

ff

cjg.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

288

one

of the three curses

he had promised him of

lu

old.

the following scene, Hippolytus protests his innocence,

he is condemned
The end soon comes.

but without avail

to perpetual exile

by

Poseidon frightens
the hero's steeds by a monster sent miraculously from

his father.

and the mangled Hippolytus is carried home

Before his arrival, Artemis appears, the virgin
Goddess to whom Hippolytus had consecrated his life

the sea
to

die.

and the truth

made known

is

The

to Theseus.

scenes are full of an infinite pathos.

to Artemis
forgives his father
;

two

last

The dying Hippolytus

he

faithful

is

unto

death.

"Ah, perfume-breath celestial! 'mid my pains

I feel thee, and mine anguish is assuaged." ^

But he

is

keenly conscious of the injustice of his

"

Lo,

how am

Unto Hades,

to

fate.

I thrust

hide

My life in the dust!

All vainly I reverenced God, and in vain unto onan was I just."
Whatever may be the leading idea

of

this

powerful

play, it will scarcely be denied that the author intends

Towards
to represent the Gods in an unfavourable light.

the end, indeed, Euripides

covertly impugns

the

prin-

on which he suggests that the entire Olympic

A great French critic has truly said
pantheon is based.
"
that
the presence of Artemis by the side of the dying
Hippolytus, desirous to weep and regretting that

ciple

divinity prevents her, gives to the closing scene

a character of ideal nobility and religious elevation
The religious difficulty nevernot elsewhere found." ^

her

theless remains.

did
'

she
1391
1366

f.

tr.

Why,

not interpose
Way.
Way.

if

to

Artemis so loved Hippolytus,

him

save
'"

The point did

Decharme,

theatre p. 388

Earipide
f.

el

son

EURIPIDES
not escape Euripides

Artemis give
"

and here

is

289

the answer he makes

For Kypris willed that

all this

should befall

To glut her spite. And this the Gods' wont is

None doth presume to thwart the fixed design
Willed by his fellow still aloof we stand.

Else be thou sure that, but for dread of Zeus,

I never would have known this depth of shame,
To suffer one, of all men best beloved

Of me,

to die."i

on which Olympus
Such
wonder that things go wrong.

If this is the principle

little

is

organised,

is

the moral

There is a world
Euripides probably intended to suggest.
between the spirit of these lines and the eVt

of difference

"

Courage, my child,
ovpavw Zev'i of Sophocles
"
still great in heaven is Zeus, who sees and governs all
In the Madness of Heracles, we have the story of
:

iikr^a^

Before setting out

Hera's persecution of her stepson.
for the underworld to bring up Cerberus, the hero had
entrusted Amphitryon, his reputed father, as well as his
wife and children, to the protection of his father-in-law,
Creon, king of Thebes.
During Heracles' al^sence, Lycus
of

Euboea invaded Thebes, slew Creon, and usurped the

after which, believing Heracles to be lost, and

throne

the sons of

lest

fearing

Heracles should grow up to

avenge the murder of their grandfather, he purposed to

destroy them, together with Megara their mother, and
At this point the action of the play
Amphitryon.
Amphitryon and the others have taken refuge
begins.
at the altar of Zeus Soter, relying on him to save the
It is unnecessary for us to dwell
offspring of his son.

on the

half of the play,

characteristic passage in which
first

beyond referring

to

the

Amphitryon expostulates

with Zeus, after Megara and her children have left the
altar to array themselves in the robes of death. ^
The
1

19

1327

ff.

Way.

23390-

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

290

apparently providential arrival of Heracles shows, however, that these reproaches are either undeserved or
The usurper is slain and the Chorus sing
premature.
;

a song of thanksgiving for the deliverance wrought by

For one brief moment all seems well
Zeus.
but
;

suddenly the dreadful spectre of Lyssa (Frenzy) appears

above the palace, accompanied by Iris, the messenger of
Now that Heracles' labours are fulfilled, Zeus
Heaven.

withdraws his protection, and Hera is permitted to work

In a paroxysm of homicidal madness, the
her will.
father

so Iris

has just saved.

for
"

mercy

is

explains
It is

to massacre the children

he

in vain that Lyssa herself appeals

the only answer vouchsafed by Iris

is

Dare not with thine admonitions trammel Hera's schemes and

mine " ^
!

In the messenger's speech describing Heracles' madness and the fate of his unhappy wife and children, the
poet displays even more than his accustomed power

but

for us the interest begins again at the point where the

hero awakes out of the sleep into which he has been cast

by the merciful intervention of

Goddess from whom Euripides
hand.

On

hearing the

full

Pallas-

^almost the only

refrains his

extent

of

sacrilegious
his misfortune,

but before there is

Heracles has thoughts of suicide
time to execute his purpose, Theseus, king of Athens,
Overwhelmed by despair, and
arrives upon the scene.
;

apprehensive of communicating pollution to his friend,

Heracles sits cowering in silence amid the ruin he has
At last, with touching words of encouragement
caused.

and

consolation, he

won from

his purpose of
to the
Theseus
accompany
of
land
there
to
of
the
stain
be
Athens,
purged
hospitable
of blood and honoured as a hero for all time to come.

self-destruction,

is

gradually

and induced

to

Tantaene animis caelestibus irae

1

855 Way.

This

is

the reflection

EURIPIDES

291

forced upon our minds throughout the play whose action

The poet reminds us at every stage
I have summarised.
of the

drama that

it

is

the so-called Goddess Hera

who

solely responsible for the unmerited sufferings of the

There is no attempt to
great benefactor of humanity.

is

purify the legend, such as Pindar or Aeschylus might

It is set before us in all its naked foulness,

have made.

we are expected to draw ?

Greek mythology is no true God,
and has no claim on the adoration of mankind.
and what

is

the inference

Hera

Simply that the

of

" To such a Goddess

pray now

JFlio shall

who, for a woman's sake

Jealous of Zeus, from Hellas hath cut off

Her

benefactors, guiltless

though they were

" ^
!

nor does the

It is equally impossible to acquit Zeus
poet attempt to do so indeed, there are several passages
in the play which reflect upon the King of Heaven.:

That the poet frankly disbelieved in the legendary Zeus

and in short in the

as well as in the legendary Hera,

whole

circle

legends imputing immorality and impermay be inferred from a memorable

of

fection to the Gods,

speech of Heracles in the dialogue with which the play

ends.
Theseus has been trying to restore the self-respect

by pointing out that even the Gods have

But Heracles will have none of
sinned and suffered.^
of his friend,

this consolation

and why

Because

all

these legends

are wholly false.

" I

deem not that the Gods for spousals craA'e

Unhallowed tales of Gods' hands manacled
Ever I scorned, nor ever will believe,
:

that one God is born another's lord.

For God hath need if God indeed he be
these be the minstrels' sorry tales."
Of nought

Nor

1307 Way.
212 S., 339

1265.

=*

ff.,

498

ff.,

1127,

1314
1341

ff.

ff.

Way.

THE RELFGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

292

No

one will dispute that Euripides himself speaks

here.
it

Although
poet brings

is

home

perhaps in these two plays that the

us most forcibly by means of the

to

dramatic situation the malevolence of the Gods, most

(though not all) of the other dramas exhibit them from
time to time in an obnoxious light.
Apollo in the Ion
appears as a liar and seducer, and is roundly rated for
the example he sets to men.^
The Andromache relates a
It was Apollo
and in an agony
of grief and indignation Neoptolemus had gone to Delphi
and demanded satisfaction for his father's death.
Years
afterwards, he visited the shrine again in order to seek

signal instance of Apollo's implacability.

who guided the shaft that slew Achilles
;

but Apollo suffers

forgiveness for his presumptuous sin
him to be murdered while in the very act of supplication.'^
;

The comment

of the

Messenger who

the usual Euripidean strain

"

Thus he that giveth

He

that

is

judge to

tells

the story

oracles to the world,

men of the right,

In the Eledra and

the

in

all

Hath wreaked revenge upon Achilles' son,

Yea, hath remembered, like some evil man,
An old, old feud How then shall he be wise

responsibility for

is

" ^
!

more in the Orestes, the entire

murder of Clytemnestra and its

still

laid at the door of Apollo.*

It is
the dramatic entanglement is complete,
but neither
Apollo himself appears and cuts the knot
here nor elsewhere does Euripides attempt by his favourite

consequences
true that

is

when

device of the deus ex machina to solve the moral and

The
religious difficulties he so often raises in his plays.
God for the most part merely pronounces the epilogue of
the piece by foretelling what awaits the characters in the
1

436
1112

"

ft'.

ff.

1161 ff. Way.

EL 1190
et
ft",

al.

Or. 591

ff.

EURIPIDES

293

prologue generally narrates their

as is needful for the proper
If he happens to remark
understanding of the action.^
on the conduct of his fellow-Gods, the unfavourable
future, just

previous

the

as

so

history

far

to form is usually
are presented with so perfunctory a
defence that no one can suppose Euripides to have meant

judgment which the poet wishes us

upheld

it

we

or else

Thus Artemis

seriously.

Castor and Pollux

the

in

in

Hippolytus^ and
endorse the poet's

the

Electra,^

condemnation, in the one case of Aphrodite, and in the

other of Apollo
and Athena's professional apology for
in
Ion
the
has the ettect of making Apollo seem
Apollo
:

ridiculous as well as base.*

unnecessary to illustrate at greater length the preattitude

of Euripides towards the Gods of Greek
vailing
but
we must endeavour to understand the
mythology
It

is

full

He

extent of his iconoclasm.

Aeschylus and

is

not content, like

minimise the

or

to

Sophocles,
ignore
grosser features of the Olympian religion,

and develop
that Gods
and
he
maintains
elements
higher
purer
who do aught base are not Gods at all el Oeoi rt Spmctlv
its

aia^pov, ovK elalv

This notorious verse, as Nestle

the Grundgcdanke of Euripides'

OeolJ'

points out,*^ contains

wJiole attack upon Greek polytheism;

and the contrast

between him and his predecessor cannot be more vividh'
expressed than by setting over against this line the line of
Sophocles

ala'^pov

"

yap ovSev wv

which the Gods lead men

v(^rj<yovvrai, deoi,
"

"

nothing

assumed
"
and
both
that
God
the
German
critic,
by
poets," says
this
sin are mutually exclusive
from
But
terms.
draw
assumption they
Sophocles
opposite conclusions.
infers
It follows that everything the Gods do is
and in order that there may be no remaining
good
to

is

base."

It

'

'

'

See Decharnie.

-'

1327.

^
^

13012 ul.
l.'iSSfr.

/.c.

p.

3S4

fl.

'^/r.
'

292.

7.

Euripides p. 126.
See p. 180.

is

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

294

even when they bid us go beyond what

In that
Euripides' conchision is different

doubt, he adds

'

'

is

right.'

case

the

existent.'

Gods

sinful
"

of

Greek mythology

Nothing that has hitherto been said

is

course, to suggest that Euripides invariably

atically falls foul of the established religion.

dramas

his

are

non-

there

little

is

intended, of

and systemIn some of

or nothing of a subversive

the Alcestis, for example, and particularly the

tendency,
Suppliants.

Any

one, moreover,

who

desired to

make an

Greek

anthology
religious sentiments would
find plenty of material even in the rest of the poet's
It is unnecessary to suppose
plays and in the fragments.
of ordinary

that Euripides himself would always have disavowed these

sentiments when spoken by the characters which he creates.

There were doubtless moments when he fully recognised

the purer aspects of Greek religion nor have we in any
;

case the right to attribute to a poet

dramatic poet
that

is

now

least of all to a

All
consistency in matters of this kind.
maintained is that the really distinctive

the feature which differenfeature of Euripidean drama

tiates it in the religious point of view from the drama of
is just this iconoclastic spirit
Aeschylus and Sophocles
for the dominant mood of the poet himself we

and that

should look not to what he has in

dramatists, but to

That the conservative section

upon Euripides

common with

the other

what distinguishes him from them.

of

the Athenians looked

as a disbeliever, does not admit of doubt.

Aristophanes represents him as a proselytising atheist.

In an amusing scene of the Thesmophoriazusae, he brings

upon the stage a widow who blames Euripides for having

she was a maker of
deprived her of her livelihood
by persuading people in his tragedies
garlands
that there are no Gods.^
sacrificial

For the purpose

1

Nestle,

of
I.e.

these lectures, however, the im-

443

IT.

EURIPIDES

29s

"
What, if any, contributions
portant question is this
"
towards a reformed theology do we find in Euripides ?
In denying tlie Gods of Greece, does he deny the
:

existence of divine powers altogether

Or

he merely

is

Or, finally, has he any

Protagoras
on
his
own account ?
to
make
positive suggestions
in
the
are
There
plays and fragments of
passages
to
deny or call in question, not
Euripides which appear

an agnostic,

like

only the Gods of Greek mythology, but even the existThe most notorious of these is
ence of any Deity at all.
a passage quoted by Justin Martyr from the Bcllcrophon.
do not know the situation, but in themselves the

We

words are sufficiently emphatic.

"Doth any

say that there are Gods in heaven

Nay, there are none."^

We

are told that Diagoras of Melos, in the time of

Euripides, became an atheist by reflecting on how the

The
wicked prosper and calamities befall the righteous.
similar
reflecatheism of this fragment was prompted by
tions
and I have already pointed out that Theognis had
;

long ago been troubled by the same difficulty, although

Elsewhere we
he did not draw the same conclusion.^
perplexity and
Full many a

meet with many sentiments expressing

doubt, rather than positive disbelief.
time the thought lias crossed my mind
or

some power divine that

"
:

man's

sways

is

it

lot

Fortune
Like

Protagoras, the poet confesses himself baffled by the

obscurity that surrounds every question connected with
The Chorus in the
the existence and nature of the Gods.

Helena complain that no one has ever discovered wliat

God, or what is not God, or that which lies between
o Tt

1//-.
2

6eo<i,

i)

/XT)

^609,

>7

TO

28G.

Cf. also Em-.

p. 87.
583 t\,fr. 434, 832.

See

f.

fxeaov.'^

EL

/V.

similar agnosticism

901.

*'US7

is

fl".

Cf. Hcc.

488

ff.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

296

"

the formula Zeu?, ocrTi? 6 Z^v<i

Zeus,
whoever Zeus may be," ^ and in the highly characteristic
betrays

itself in

line
"

That

The Gods'

God's ways

we

thralls are

are

Euripidean thought.^

past

vain

it

is

finding out

I see,

to

a favourite

full of lies.

thirt

dream that birds may help mankind."

Nor is there any other sure and

we can discover the will of God.
Eefiections of

the

of seers.

how

Sheer folly

Eveu

is

Divination cannot reveal him

"the lore

How

whatsoe'er Gods be."

means whereby

certain

type which

have thus

briefly

incomparably more frequent in Euripides

than in either of his two great predecessors on the tragic
and what is more important, they are in harmony
stage
with the general impression which is left upon our minds
Without
after reading some of his most powerful plays.

illustrated are

doing violence to the canons of dramatic poetry, we

may

reasonably, I think, suppose that Euripides was sometimes

disposed to doubt not merely the traditional Greek

conception of the divine nature, but even, perhaps, the

providential government of the world in any sense of the

At all events, these and similar passages contain

no positive suggestions capable of developing into something higher than the theology which Euripides attacked.
Let us see whether any such ideas meet us elsewhere in
term.

his plays.

At the outset, then, we observe that Euripides'

ment of the Gods of Greece itself proceeds on

indict-

certain

Of

assumptions as to the true nature of the Godhead.

1

H. F. 1203

2T
Way.

iroT

dalv

cf./r. 480.
ol eeol.
Or. 418.

e.g.
"^

H. F.

HeL 744

957,

and

/>.

62, /. T. 476
Way. Cf.

ff.

795, 973.

ff.

/.

A.

EURIPIDES
these by far the most important
to the divine nature.

must belong
of

this

principle

has

Madness of Hercules
speaking

Iphigeneia,
priestess she
"

^
;

297

that moral goodness

emphatic assertion

is

An

already been quoted from the

in the Iphigeneia in Tauris,

and
of

Tauric

the

Artemis,

had perforce become, exclaims

whose

It cannot be tluit Zeus' bride Leto bare

Such

Nay, I hold unworthy credence

folly.
The banquet given of Tantalus to the Gods,
As though the Gods could savour a child's flesh
Even so, this folk, themselves man-murderers,
Charge on the Goddess their own sin, I ween
For I believe that none of Gods is vile."^

The notion that men

attribute their

own

vices to the

Gods

further in the Daughters of Troy, where

more than hinted that Aphrodite is nothing but

is

carried

it

is

still

man's apotheosis of his own folly.^

But Euripides does
not usually trouble about the origin of such degraded
conceptions

of

the

divine

what concerns him

is

to

countrymen that they are false and in this

function he continues the work which Xeuophanes began,
and Plato carried to completion.
In yet another respect
persuade his

he

is

the successor of Xenophanes

for he insists that
must teach by example and not merely by
;

the Gods
precept.

"How

were it just then that ye should enact

For men laws, and yourselves work lawlessness ?
Unjust it were
To call men vile, if we but imitate
The sins of Gods
they are vile which teach us
:

this."

No one can fail to see that in requiring the Gods to

furnish a moral standard for humanity, Euripides prepares
'

See
385

p.
fi.

291.

Way.

Troad. 987

d<ppoffiJvr],
*

ff.

'A4>po5[rv

989.

Imi 442

ff.

Wsv.

from

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

298

the

way

Two

end
Kara
dem
to
{o^oiwai^;
SuvaTov).^

for the Platonic doctrine of the ethical

assimilation to

God

other points are deserving of notice in the speech

of Heracles.
"

Ever

I scorned,

Tales of Gods' hands manacled

nor ever will believe,

Nor

that one God is born another's lord.

For God hath need if God indeed he be

Of nought

these be the minstrels' sorry tales."

In other words, there is no hegemony among the Gods

and the Divine nature is self-sufficient. The first of these
two doctrines, as we have already seen, probably comes
from Xenophanes.^
It clearly points in the direction
of monotheism
for no one will suppose that Euripides,
any more than Xenophanes, could have found fault with
Greek polytheism on the ground that it was not pure and
undiluted anarchy. The doctrine that God, if he is really
God, has need of nothing, is one about which much might
be said.
It is almost a commonplace of Greek religious
from
this time onwards, and forms one of the
theory
numerous reminiscences of Hellenic thought in the
a speech which
speech of St. Paul before the Areopagus
in reality, perhaps, laid the foundation of the view
that Greek literature prepared the way for Christianity.
"
Neither is he served by men's hands, as though he
needed anything." ^
It may here be noted that another

interesting parallel to this speech occurs in a fragment

quoted from Euripides by Clement of Alexandria.

"What manner
]\Iay

of house by hands of craftsmen framed

" *
compass with its walls the form divine ?

In the Acts we read

made with

hands."
"

spurious
1

Theaet. 176
See p. 204.

"
:

He

dwelleth not in temples

the fragment as

Nauck condemns

Christianus poeta haec scribere

15.

='

Acts

potuit,

xvii. 25.

*/r. 1130,

tr.

Way.

non

EURIPIDES

299

In point of Greek and versification,

potuit Euripides."
and that the sentiment is
the lines are free from fault
;

one which Euripides might well have expressed, will

appear from the passages we shall presently discuss.^
So much for the positive contributions to religions
thought which seem to be involved in Euripides' attack
upon Greek polytheism.
Browning, you will remember,

makes Euripides

say,

"
" I incline to
poetize philosophy

we

and

have

next

to

consider

certain

noteworthy
examples
tendency
appears in connexion
with the religious ideas of the poet.
Let us take as the
"
"
so Menelaus
text of our discussion that strange prayer
which Euripides puts into the mouth of Hecuba
calls it
of

as

this

it

The words

in the Daughters of Troy.

these

of

the prayer are

"

Earth's Uj^bearer, thou whose throne is Earth,

Whoe'er thou be, O past our finding out,
Zeus, be thou Nature's Law, or mind of man,
To thee I pray for, treading soundless paths,
In justice dost thou guide all mortal things !";

Euripides'

Hecuba has been

we examine what

if

in

we

the

and

shall see that she has

The whole

learned her lesson well.

Athens

at school in

she says,

of

the prayer

of

is

will

steeped
philosophy
Euripides' age.
endeavour to expound and illustrate the several topics
in the order in which they are mentioned.

We

have

first

the identification of Zeus with

of all

that which at once upholds and rests upon the earth.

Now, according

to

Anaximenes,

"

even as our

soul,

which

air, holds us together, so breath and air encompass

the whole universe." ^
so
And, further, the Earth

is

The

fra<,'ment

genuine by
also

by

Way (ii.

is

as

and

treated

p. xxxvii),

Nestle, Euripides p. 118.

884-888 Way.
Sec p. 189.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

300

Anaximenes

also maintained

rw

air
"

{kiToy^elrai
Earth's Upbearer,

upborne by the
Presumably, then, by

is

aept)}

itself

upon the Earth," EuriAir

it
matters little which
or
Aether
means
pides
term we use, for the words were not always clearly
throned

It is not, however, to
distinguished about this time.^
but
rather
to
Anaximenes,
Diogenes of Apollonia that

We

have already
the poet is here immediately indebted.
seen that Diogenes deified Air, and spoke of it as omni"

"

present
just this," he said,
appears to me God, and
I believe that it reaches to everything and disposes all
^
Nor is this the
present in everything."
a
pantheistic interonly passage where Euripides gives
Several of the fragments are to the
pretation to Zeus.

things and

is

same effect.
of them all

It will suffice to quote the

most celebrated

"Seest thou the boundless ether there on high,

That folds the earth around with dewy arms ?
This deem thou Zeus, this reckon one with God."'"*
It

is

not

that

so clear

Euripides had any definite

philosophical theory in view when he suggested that this

Zeus or Aether is perhaps to be regarded as dvd'yKr]

Nature's

<^ua-o<;

Necessity

or

He

Law.

may

be

thinking, peihaps, of the Atomists, who ascribed all the

operations of Nature to the working of Necessity, although,
of course, they did not for a moment dream of deifying

that

principle.-''*

But the second

of the

two clauses
"

"

takes
Zeus, be thou Nature's Law, or mind of man
In the view of Diogenes,
us back again to Diogenes.
the element of Air, which he affirms to be God, constitutes
the soul and
tures
1

^
:

.See

-Cf.

Diels2

i.

See

p. 18,

Rohde, Psyche"

n. 2.
=

mind

"^v^rj

so that the

p. 266.

"

mind

6.
\i.

koI vo'qcns
of

of

living crea-

man " is a " little

V- 941. tr. Way
;

p.

257

839,487.
'
Leucippus,
^fr.

4.

//".

cf.

2 Diels.

portion
also 877,

EUR ITIDES

301

we may suppose

that the two apparently

be thou Nature's Law, or mind
"
of man
-are not really intended to exclude one another
(and in a passage of this kind it would be pedantic to
suppose that the poet held them to be incompatible), we

God."

of

If

"

alternative suggestions

may perhaps express the general

tenor of these speculations

by saying that they represent the Deity as an infinite,

all-embracing and all-pervading substance, revealing itself
in Nature as Law, and in man as Mind.
The Euripidean
conception has affinities with the half -poetical, half- philosophical kind of pantheism of which we have already

found a trace in Aescliylus,^ and

with Wordsworth's
"something

Whose dwelling

And
And

far

may

also be

more deeply

compared

interfused,

the light of setting suns,

the round ocean and the living air,
is

the blue sky, and in the mind of man,

motion and a spirit, that impels
All thinking things, all objects of all thought,

And

rolls

through

all things.""

Mr.
lines

Way does well to bring into connexion with these

the beautiful fragment of Euripides in praise of

the world-pervading reason.

"

Thee, self-begotten, who, in ether rolled

Ceaselessly round, by mystic links dost blend
The nature of all things, whom veils enfold

Of light, of dark night flecked with gleams of gold,

Of star-hosts dancing
'D round thee without end."*

But the point upon which the Euripidean Hecuba lays

most stress is this Whatever Zeus may be, and how:

ever our faculties

we may

may

fall

in accordance with justice

1

"
*

short of comprehending hmi,

at least be sure that he guides all

See p. 267.
See p. 144.
Tint em Abbey.

mortal things

Kaja SIktjv ra

6vi]r

ayeL<;.

I agree with
\fr. 593, tr. Way.
in attributing this fragment

Nauck

to Euripides,

and

not to Critias.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

302

It is accordingly in the concept of a world-ruling Justice

that one of the ablest and most learned of recent writers

on Euripides conceives himself to have discovered what

In the opinion
the poet really believed about the Deity.
Justice as a quasior
not tranthe
Weltgeist
Weltvernunft,
personal being,
scendent but immanent, operating in the spiritual as well

of Nestle/ Euripides hypostasises

man no

as in the material sphere, in

less

than in nature.

Eegarded on its physical side, the principle in question

in respect
is nothing but the all-encompassing Aether
of its spiritual attributes, it is, like the Air of Diogenes,
omniscient and omnipotent and here, if anywhere, we
;

Let us consider for a

the Euripidean Godhead.
little what is involved in this theory, and whether it
deserves to be accepted.

have

The concept of Justice certainly plays an important

Among the many
part in the drama of Euripides.
memorable sentiments about Justice scattered throughout the plays and fragments, none is, perhaps, more
striking than the denial of the widely-spread belief that
men's sins are written by some recording angel in

The truth

the book of Zeus.

that Justice
"

is

present with

is

us,

rather, says Euripides,

here and

now

Think you that deeds of wrong spring to the gods

On wings, and then some one, on Zeus' book,
Writes them, and Zeus beholding the record
Gives judgment

Nay,

tlie

whole expanse of heaven

Would not sufhce if Zeus wrote there man's

Nor could he send to each his punishment
From such review. Justice is on the earth,
Is here, is by us, if men will but see."^

The eye of Justice, we are

and though she may tarry
^

Euripides

p.

145

ff.

-/r. 506, tr. Westcott; cf./?\ 151,

255.
On this belief as it appears

told, sees

sins

even in the dark

never
;

long, in the end she

aud
the Greeks
ancient races, see Nestle,

among
452 n.

12.

other
I.e.

p.

EURIPIDES

fails.^

303

remarkal)le passage of the Heciiba seems at

sight to personify Law as the one

whom Gods and men alike obey
first

supreme

ruler,

" Yet are the Gods

strong, and their ruler strong,

Even Law

And

live,

for by this Law we know Gods are,

and make division of wrong and right."
;

Here, however, it may be doubted whether the poet is

not rather thinking of the Sophistic opposition of z^o/ao?
^uo-i?

the last line

and

"

"

and " nature

certainly
distinguishes between Justice and Nomos,
"

and

convention

(after the fashion of

former from the

latter.

certain

Sophists

^)

derives the

But whatever the explanation

of this particular passage may be, Euripides, like the

other tragic poets, has much to say on the working of
in the life both of
Justice
especially punitive justice
the individual and of the family.
"

On

the other hand, the belief that Justice guides all

"
is not nearly so characteristic
of
things to their goal

Euripides as
to

his

He was

far

too

whether we have regard

of Aeschylus,

it is

or

sententiae

to

much

the
of

denouement of
realist,

his

and had

plays.
far too

much sympathy with his fellow-creatures, to suppose

moment that suffering is always a punishment for

for a

and prosperity always the reward of virtue.

Is it
possible, then, to reconcile in any way the apparently
unmerited sufferings of the individual with the existence
of an all-knowing and all-powerful Justice directing the
course of human destiny and of the world at large ?
To
this question Nestle replies that Euripides was in reality
a Heraclitean.
In the view of Heraclitus, " the whole
world, both material and moral, consists in the reciprocal
sin,

play of opposites, which, however, for this very reason

If we could survey things
value."'*

have no absolute
555,

!/'

954
-

flf.

223,

et al.

799

ir.

Way.

979,

835; El.

^
*

See Plato,
Nestle,

I.e.

iZc;?. ii.

p. 151.

358E

If.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

304

from the highest standpoint, we should see that what

from our finite point of view we call evil contributes to
the

universal

Euripides

harmony,

prefers

Dike,

Heraclitus,

to
"

which

call

it,

the

is

in

this,

Logos,
too,

or,

as

following

Justice."

would

seem, therefore, if Nestle is right, that

found
a solution of life's riddle in the Heraclitean
Euripides
"
sentiment, God accomplishes all things with a view to
the harmony of the whole."
We have found reason to
believe that some such conviction pervades the drama of
It

Sophocles

but in reading Euripides we are much more

than of the universal

sensible of the partial discords

Certain it is that in
harmony.

many

of his

plays

the

and the Madness of Heracles he

the Gods in their treatment of the

Hi])polytus, for instance,

impugns the

justice of

individual without suggesting any solution of this kind.

For my own part, I cannot but think that the poet
reveals himself more truly in the following passage from

one of the choruses in the Hippolytiis

"

When

faith

overfloweth

embracing
Banisheth griefs
hnoto

No

my

but when

mind,

God's

providence

doubt whispereth,

'

Ah

all-

but to

'
!

clue through the tangle I find of fate

and of

life for

my

tracing
There is ever a change and many a change,
And the mutable fortune of men evermore sways to and fro
:

Over

Much

limitless range."

has been written and said about the

"

humanism

of

"

It reveals itself in many ways

in
Euripides.
sympathy for the poor and lowly, in his lofty ideal of
womanhood, and in occasional suggestions of something
like world-citizenship and the brotherhood of man.^
The humanism of the Stoics was based upon the halfphilosophical, half-religious doctrine of the immanence
1

1102

ff.

Way.

e.g.

fr. 777, 902, 1047.

EURIPIDES

<Tov

yap

some

is

Cleanthes

spring," as

reason

being of a portion of the divine mind

"
for we are
thine offiafjuev,
yevo'i

human

in every
e'/c

305

said/
"

"

fragment

traces

of

of

similar

We

doctrine

in

know, does he bring

nowhere, so far as I

it

human

the

meaning that

the divine.

have found

Euripides

but

into connexion

human brotherhood and human

In so far as this sentiment has any bearing on

with the sentiment of

pity.

Euripides'

weapon

standpoint,
attacking the Gods.

religious

for

rather

it

serves

as

There are not a few

passages in which he appears deliberately to contrast the

kindness of man with the malevolence of the Gods.

Aphrodite in the Hippolytus is unforgiving, and Artemis

cold
as a Goddess, she may not weep, or wait for the
;

closing scene

" Farewell

I may not gaze upon the dead,

Nor may with dying gasps pollute my sight

And now

How

I see that

different are the

"

Hi2)p.
"
Thes.

thou art near the end."

human

actors in the tragedy

More than myself I mourn thee for thine error."

"
"Would God I could but die for thee, my son "
!

In the Madness of Heracles, we have a not less vivid conbetween the callous indifference of the Gods and the

trast

When Heracles is forsaken by

brotherly love of man.
Zeus, it is a human friend who, with manly yet gentle
Unlike
words of consolation, alleviates his despair.
Artemis in the Hippolytus, Theseus, the merely human
friend, fears no pollution
:

"No

haunting curse can pass from friend to

Hyvm of ClemUhes,

1437

ff.

20

Way.

4.

1409

f.

^Vay.
M 23 4 Way.

friend."''

3o6

to

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

The truth

is

humanity

itself

that Euripides would seem to have looked

for the ideal which he could not find

His dramas furnish from time to time ideal

types of men, and still more frequently, perhaps, of
women.
The Euripidean Theseus is the type of chivalrous
courage linked with courtesy and human kindness,
in the Gods.

Hippolytus of stainless purity, Alcestis of conjugal

devotion and motherly love
while of patriotism and
self-sacrifice consenting unto death we have a galaxy of
;

illustrious examples, Menoeceus, Macaria, Iphigeneia and

Polyxena, besides others in the plays of which only
fragments survive.
Perhaps the poet rendered some

service to religion
of

by

his

humanity.
In the account which

new and deeper

I

interpretation

have so far given

of

the

religious teaching of Euripides, I have made no reference

to the Bacchae.
The explanation, of course, is that the

play in question has often been supposed to occupy an

altogether unique position among the poet's works.

Written at the close of his life, in a totally different

atmosphere from that of Athens, it seems to breathe a
more religious spirit than most of the earlier dramas
and many scholars have interpreted it as a recantation
;

of the sceptical opinions so freely uttered by the poet

The apparently exceptional character of
in the past.
the Bacchae makes it desirable that we should briefly

consider

the

religious

teaching

of

that

extraordinary

drama by itself but before proceeding to do so, let us

first examine the different ideas about immortality with
which we meet in Euripides.
Here, as elsewhere, the poet puts before us a number
Sometimes
of constantly shifting and dissolving views.
;

he recognises that the problem

" If better life

The darkness

is

insoluble

beyond be found,
veils, clouds wrap

Therefore infatuatc-fond to this

it

round

EURIPIDES
AVc cling
Xouf^ht

on

drift

eaith'a poor sunshine-gleani

of the life to come,

Lliitj

know we

no voices from the tomb

Tiiere speak

We

307

shadowy stream."

fable's

'

It is only our ignorance, Euripides says, that makes

"
know what life is, but of death we
us fear death.

We

and that is why all men fear

Yet there is comfort in
the thought that death, whatever it may be, is not a
"
violation, but a fulfilment of Nature's law.
Why lament
over that which Nature requires us to pass through
have had no experience

to leave the light of the sun."

"

Nothing that men mus>t suffer is really to be feared

There is a
(Setvbv yap ouSev twv dvayKaicou (Spuroh).^
almost

touch of

Sophoclean serenity and resignation

Elsewhere we have the conventional
view of death as a dreamless sleep, a return to the

about these words.

nothingness of the time

garded

in

this

who

light,

cures all

physician
ourselves of the fear that

How much

better

Greek tragedy
the

to

Ee-

born.-*
is

unhappy,

the

And yet we cannot rid

death may not be the end.

ill.-'^

were

it

the

doubt

anvthino- in

if

more pathetic than the speech

is

virgin-martyr

thought

if

we were

before

death,

Macaria

gives

in

expression

which

to

this

"I have

failed

you nought,

Have

My

stood your champion, for mine house have died.

treasure this shall be, for babes unborn,

Spousals foregone

if

in the grave aught be

But ah

that nought might be

for if there too
mortals who must die shall yet have
cares,
I know not whither one shall turn
since death
!

We

For sorrows

is

accounted chiefest balm."

"

Like other Greek poets, again, Euripides sometimes

paints the future world in the usual
1

Hipp. 192

il'.

'fr. 816. 10 f,
^/r. 757. 7 f.

Way.

Homeric

Troad. 631.
833

colours, as

Cf. p. 264, al.ovc.

fy_

^^Hrracl. 588

ff.

Way.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

3o8

In other passages
a joyless laud of everlasting uigbt.^
the spirits of the dead are supposed to sympathise and
a conception we
co-operate with their surviving kinsmen

have already found in the two older dramatists.^

Of
somewhat greater interest is the well-known fragment
"
Who knows whether life is death, and death in the
"
world below is accounted life ? ^
Here, of course,
:

Euripides alludes to the Orphic doctrine that the soul

It
lies buried in the body until death sets her free.

would have been strange if so suggestive a view of

immortality had escaped the notice of the poet but it is
only one of his many reflections on tlie subject, and
whatever Euripides may have been, he was certainly not
a whole-hearted follower of Orpheus.*
To the Eleusinian
seldom
refers.^
mysteries Euripides
So far, there is little or nothing in the escliatological
ideas of Euripides to which parallels might not be
It remains to conadduced from earlier Greek poets.
;

sider a small

group of passages showing the characteristic

of philosophy and poetry.
One of
Euripidean
these passages occurs in the most orthodox of Euripides'
fusion

plays
"

mean

the Suppliants

now

the dead be hidden in the earth,

each part, whence it came forth to the light,
Thither return, the breath unto the air,
To earth the body for we hold it not

Let

And

In

fee,

but only to pass

life therein.'"'

Considered in and by themselves, no doubt, these verses

merely reproduce the sentiment expressed in the fifth
century epitaph over the Athenians who died fighting
"
Aether received their souls, and earth
at Potidaea
:

their bodies
1

2
3

by the gates

cji.fr. 533.

677, Or. 1231 al.

fr. 638 ; of. 833.
'See Nestle, I.e. p. 145.

of Potidaea
^

H.
531

lil.

''

C.

they were

slain."

''

F. 613, Hipp. 25.

ff.

/.

Way.
A.

i.

442.

Cf, Epichar-

raus (?),/r. 245, 265 Kaibel.

EURIPIDES

309

Bub when we remember that Euripides,

in agreement,
Diogenes of Apollonia, sometimes
identifies the all-pervading Air or Aether with the im-

as

we have

seen, with

manent and omnipresent Godhead, the words of the

poet suggest to us something like the return of the
human soul at death to tlie universal soul or mind
from which it came.
Such a doctrine is clearly affirmed
in a remarkable passage of the Helena, the authenticity
of which
some critics have
unfairly, as I think
disputed

"Albeit the mind

Of the dead
Still

hath

live not, deathless consciousness

it when in deathless aether merged."^

The general conception underlying these lines may

perhaps be expressed in some such way as this.
The human soul, or rather, perhaps, the reason present
in the soul,
for in the Helena vov<;, and not ^/^f^?;,
is
the word employed,
the human reason, then, is a
or
of
the
portion
heavenly aether,- and when
fragment
death comes and the body returns to the earth from
which it came, the reason is in like manner reunited
with the aetherial element, which is its source and
rational part of man is
separation from the body
consciousness or knowledge ^ but it

fountain.

In this

immortal,

and

enjoys undying
does not live, in

the

word

that

the

its

the
is,

existence, but only,

immortality, such as

and

the

way

after

Stoics.

commonly accepted meaning

presumably,

it

has

no

of

individual

we may suppose, a kind of cosmic

we sometimes read of in Aristotle
have

elsewhere

ventured

to

con-

jecture that one of the most extraordinary of the poet's

fragments is inspired by the same thought of ultimate

reunion with the divine

^

1014

fr.

"
" (Way's
mind

substituting
^
See p. 99.

"
:

translation,
lor

"

soul.")

Upon my back
'*

yv^ixrjv.

The

sprout golden
correction

/j.vt^/j.tjv

which Euripides would hardly have asseuted.

introduces an

itU^a

to

THE REUGTOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

310

wings

my

the Sirens
to

feet are

and

unite with Zeus."

Euripides

soar to the aetherial firmament

It

means

here

with the winged sandals of

fitted

I shall

is

the

not unlikely that by Zeus

"
immortal aether
with

"

which he sometimes appears to identify the God.^

I have now enumerated the principal ideas on the
subject of immortality contained in the plays and
The view with which the
fragments of Euripides.
had
himself
most
sympathy is probably that
poet
which we have just considered
but it would be an
that
his
error to suppose
eschatological opinions were
His reflections on immortality
ever fixed or definite.
reveal the same spirit of openmindedness and vacillation which we have already witnessed in connexion
with his theology.
Neither in the one case nor in
the other does he appear to have attained to any
permanent and assured conviction, capable of satisfying
not only his moral and religious aspirations, but also
;

demands of
which

the

his

of

sometimes

pessimism,

darkens so

intellect.

And

it

is

this

explains, in part at least, the

sideration

many

of

his

on

bordering

dramas

con-

shadow

despair,

that

notably the Hecuba,

Andromache, the Daughters of Troy, and The Madness

The all-pervading gloom is hardly relieved
of Heracles.
of light, except the heroism and resignaa
ray
single
by
tion of humanity in its unequal contest with the Gods

tlie

and

The

Fate.

pessimism might
those sententiae

He

sincerity

and

be illustrated

depth

of

Euripides'

large number of
dramas are studded.

by a

which his
and again nearly all the convenGreek melancholy, and adds some
not altogether new in Greek literature,

with

reiterates again
tional sentiments of

others, which,

were new, at
Attic stage.
tribe

were

i/r. 911.

in

if

least, so far as one can see, upon the

Herodotus relates that a certain Thracian

the habit of
-

singing
Cambridge

dirge

over

the

Prcceledions, 1906, p. 47.

EURIPIDES
made merry

newly-born, but

on

funeral, reflecting

the miseries from wbich death sets

all

the same effect

"

at

311

we

To

free.^

read in a fragment of Euripides

With tears in mournful throng the newborn babe

meet we welcome to a life of woe
But him whom death releases from his toil,
With songs of gladness speed upon his way."^

'Tis

We
of

need not, however, multiply examples of a strain

"
"
of
most tragic
thought so characteristic of the

Greek

I would only remark that the pessimism

cannot be entirely due to the political and
social convulsions of the period in which he lived,

poets.

of Euripides

which Thucydides,

for example, paints in his reflections

on the revolutions at Corcyra.^
Sophocles lived through
the same events, and yet the iron never entered into
his soul
and Socrates, too, was all through life an
;

indomitable optimist.
Each of these two thinkers was
sustained by belief in a Providence that shapes our

rough-hew them how we may.

occasional glimpses of the thought that
ends,

"

o'er falsehood,

was not given

so

high

already

level

stated,

is

surely sphered,

beams beauty,"

O'er ugliness
it

truth

Euripides had

If

to

of

the

him permanently
faith

religious

strong

to

continue at

and, as

current

of

have

pessimism

in

It is
Euripidean drama is partly due to this cause.
at all events a noteworthy fact that the most genuinely

the play in which Theseus

optimistic of his plays
denies the old Greek saying that evil outnumbers good

human

in

life

from sceptical

is almost entirely free

by two to one
and irreligious sentiments and insinua-

tions.

It
'

only

V. 4.

''A- 449.

remains

for

us

to
3

consider
iii.

82

Supjil.

ff.

195

fr.

the

problem

312

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

presented

by the Bacchac

of

Euripides.

This wonder-

ful tragedy, the latest, or almost the latest, of the poet's

at the
court of Archelaus, king of
plays, written

and originally intended for production in

that country, did not appear upon the Athenian stage
until after its author's deatli.
With its transcendent
Macedon,

The Bdcchae
poetical merits we are not here concerned.
imique in classical Greek literature for a certain

is

passionate enthusiasm of thought and language, born

of an ecstatic sense of man's affinity with
Nature.

For the student of religious ideas, however, the interest

of the drama centres in the much-delmted question
whether it represents a reaction towards orthodoxy, a
sort of recantation, or, if not a recantation, at least an
eirenicon, an attempt on the part of the poet to put
himself right with public opinion before he died.
There
is

a certain a priori attractiveness in the theory that the

of ancient poets returned in his closing

most speculative

years to the faith from which he had departed ev ev(^riiMia

reXevrdv
we should die, as Plato says, not in storm
-X^pr)
:

and tumult, but in calm.^ The subject is nevertheless

one about which opposite views have been and still are
held by writers of acknowledged authority.
According to
Mr. Pater, for example, " Euripides has said, or seemed
to say, many things concerning Greek religion at variance with received opinion and now, in the end of life,
he desires to make his peace
what shall at any rate
be peace with men.
He is in the mood for acquiescence,
In the judgment of Mr. Gilbert
or even for a palinode." ;

"

Murray, on the other hand, to say that the Bacchac is

a reactionary manifesto in favour of orthodoxy, is a view
which hardly merits refutation." ^ Let us briefly consider the religious significance of the play.
1

Phaed. 117 E.
See Tyrrell's edition p.
Goniperz, Grcclc Thinkers
^

Ivi.
ii.

Cf.

p. 14.

3
g,.gg^ Literature p. 272.
also Nestle, I.e.. p. 74 If.

See

EURIPIDES
The theory which

(iuds

313

the

in

Bacchae

sort of

retractation of the poet's heresies, is supported chiefly

by the utterances of the chorus of Bacchanalian women

who have

homes

their

left

new God

the

follow

to

Dionysus in his missionary progress through the world.

Tlie choral odes repeatedly inveigh against rationalism.
"

'Tis the life of quiet breath,

'Tis the simple and the true,

Storm nor earthquake

phattereth,

Nor shall auLrht the house undo

Where they dwelL For, far away.
Hidden from the eyes of day,
Watchers are there in the skies.
That can see man's life, and prize
Deeds well done by things of clay.
But the world's Wise are not wise.
^
Claiming more than mortal may."

The moral teaching

many

other

of

these

lines

and there are

the

same

effect

to

passages

Greek

is

as

Pindar

or
anything
to
3'
ov
In
the
words
Sophocles.
particular,
aoj>ov
ao^la
"
"
the world's Wise are not wise
sound like a

characteristically

renunciation

of

that

in

and

proportion

piety and unquestioning

"

in

It

profane.
as knowledge

faith are praised

The simple nameless herd

Hath deeds and faith that

The development

as

inquiry

speculative

essentially irreligious

able

as

of the

of

something

is

also notice-

is

depreciated,

Humanity

are truth enough for

me

"^
!

dramatic action to a certain

extent conveys the same lesson.

It is true that Pentlieus
gradually alienates our sympathies by his violence and
self-will
but he is nevertheless the champion of
;

reason and
1

388

fr.,

-e.g. 427

tr.
H'.,

rationalism,
Murray.
883 tf., 1005

not only in
s

ff.

430

f.,

the stand
tr.

Murray.

which

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

314

he makes against the Dionysiac cult, but also when he

declines to admit that Dionysus is a God at all,
maintaining that his mother deliberate!}- sought to
screen her frailty by fathering the offspring of an
illicit

amour upon Zeus.^ After Pentheus' destruction,

Cadmus points the moral in these words

the aged

" If

any man there be that scorns the Gods,

let him note, and so believe."

This man's death

On

the

other

testations against

himself

"

hand, in spite of the Chorus' proto ao^ov, the poet's conception of

rationalistic.

For

who,
what, in the view of Euripides, is this new God,
whom the Chorus so passionately extol ? Is he a
personal God, or only the personification of a principle ?

Dionysus

is

frankly

or

That Dionysus in the Bacchae was not really conceived

by Euripides as a personal God at all, may be inferred,

I think, from the lines which the poet puts into the

mouth of the prophet Teiresias when trying to overcome the opposition of Pentheus.
"Two chief est Powers,
Prince, among men there are divine Demeter
:

name her by which name thou wilt

She upon dry food nurtureth mortal men
Then followeth Semele's Son to match her gift
The cluster's flowing draught he found, and gave
To mortals, which gives rest from grief to men.

Earth

is

she,

He

is the Gods' lihation, though a God,

So that through him do men obtain good things."

Some

writers

have

here express his

drama, generally

supposed that Euripides does not

opinion but Teiresias, in Greek

own

speaks with authority, and what is

more important, the view represented in the prophet's
speech appears to throw light upon the problem with

which the whole play

J

243

tf.

deals.

1326

f.

Way.

The Sophist Prodicus, as

^

274

ff.

Way.

EURIPIDES

315

we have

already seeu, maintained that Dionysus was

only the apotheosis of wine, as Demeter of corn, Poseidon
of water, and so forth.^
In the lines just quoted,
Teiresias takes the

same view

but from the rest of the

speech, as well as from other indications in the play, it

is clear that to the poet himself Dionysus is the embodi-

ment not merely

of alcoholic

enthusiasm, but

of

the

principle of enthusiasm in general, the principle which

Plato has described so powerfully in the Phaedrus.

The Platonic Socrates in that dialogue draws a distinction between two forms of madness
the salutarv
Of the salutary madness he
and the pernicious.
enumerates four

namely, love, prophecy, the

varieties,

inspiration which through purifications and

mysteries opens out a way of deliverance from sin, and,
"
finally, the madness that
lays hold upon a tender and
"
untrodden soul, and rousing it to bacchanalian frenzy
species of

eK^aK-^evovaa

With

measures."

gives birth to
the first of these

and

lyrical

other

the enthusiasm of

the lover, as portrayed by Plato in the Symposium

Euripides is not here concerned but he recognises its
connexion with Dionysus in the lines
;

" \Yhen

wine is no more found, then Love

Nor any joy beside is left to men." "

To the other
does

full

not.

"

"

the poet
salutary madness
the
There
is
no
throughout
play.

varieties of

justice

is

Greek poem which illustrates so well as the Bacchae

what Plato means by the poetical frenzy none in which
the writer

is

himself

madness, again,
the God.^

is

As

so

"

truly
possessed."
Prophetic
definitely associated by Teiresias with

for the

religious

form

of

"

possession,"

the chorus of Bacchanals, and

illustrated
in
the
choral odes.
Out of many
constantly
that

'

is

represented by

See p. 277.
Phaedr. 244

tf.

773
298

f.

ff.

AVay.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

3l6

possible examples, I

will

put before you Mr. Murray's

exquisite rendering of part of the opening

"

hymn

Oh, blessed he in all wise,

Who hath drunk the Living Fountain,
Whose life no folly staineth,
And liis soul is near to God
;

Whose sins are lifted, pall-wise,

As he worships on the Mountain,

And where

Cybele ordaineth,

Our Mother, he has

trod

His head with ivy laden

And

his thyrsus tossing high.

lifts his cry

For our God he

'

Up, O Bacchae, wife and maiden.

Come,
ye Bacchae, come
Oh, bring the Joy-bestower,
God-seed of God the Sower,
Bring Bromios in his power
From Phrygia's mountain dome
To street and town and tower.
" ^
Oh, brinot
'o ve Bromios home
;

'

would

It

Bacchae

is

God, but

accordingly seem that Dionysus in the

the intention of the poet, a personal
stands for the spirit of enthusiasm in the
not, in

And if so, the

ancient Greek meaning of the word.
main problem which the action of the play suggests is
It
wider than it has sometimes been supposed to be.
much a question of orthodoxy versus unbelief
rather a question of the relative value of reason

is

not so

it

is

and enthusiasm in human life. Euripides, when he

wrote the Bacchae, was plainly on the side of enthusiasm.
TO

ao(f)ov

S'

01)

Wisdom bought
drama.

There

reason in the

"

ao(f)ia~-"
-

is

that

is

Ah, not with knowledge

is

the principal lesson of the

something stronger and greater than

man.
No doubt some weight should

life of

circumstances in which the

Macedonia was the home of the

be allowed to the special

play was composed.
1

7'2 ff.

395

T^Yay.

EURIPIDES

317

Diouysiac cult and iiotbiug could be more natural than

in a play intended for a Macedonian audience
Euripides should have selected for poetic treatment the
;

that

But tlie poet writes throughout

profoundly what he so rapturously says.
The greater part of the play is pervaded by the kind
of joyous exaltation which accompanies a new discovery
worship
as if he

of

Dionysus.

felt

Euripides had just escaped from the

scene of his lifelong battle against Athenian conservatism
in matters of religion and art, and he writes as if the
or illumination.

spirit of the

of his soul.

Macedonian mountains had taken possession

No other ancient poem shows so rapturous
The
the kinship between man and nature.

a feeling of
very hills are

"

thrilled with ecstasy

the frenzied votaries of the God.^

"

in

sympathy with

We feel that

Dionysus

has become a power pulsating throughout the whole of

nature, both inorganic and organic, making the universe

and
into a living, breathing whole
a new sense of unification with
;

surrounds
religion

Professor

us.

is

to

ought to take

James

mean anything
it

as

we

are stirred with

the

has

mystery
said

definite for us,

that

that
"

if

... we

meaning this added dimension of

temper of espousal, in regions

emotion, this enthusiastic

where morality strictly so called can at best but bow

It ought to mean nothing short
its head and acquiesce.
of this new reach of freedom for us, with the strviggle
over, the keynote of the universe sounding in our ears,

and everlasting possession spread before our eyes." ^ It

seems to me that in the Bacchae of Euripides we have
"
this
added dimension of emotion," this " new reach of
"
freedom
and if religion really docs mean this, we may
;

the Bacchae

is a religious drama, though

manifesto
in favour of orthodoxy."
reactionary
should remember, too, that the Athenian drama was

fairly say that

"

not a

We

ostensibly an act of
^

726.

homage rendered
^

to the

God Dionysus.

Varieties of Ecligious Experience \k 48.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

3l8

It

is

that the poet should

titting

close

his

own

God

interpretation of the
service he had spent so strenuous a life.

giving us his

Our general
motive

of

Dionysus

conclusion, therefore,

the Bacchae
represents

is

career
in

by
whose

that the leading

and that

praise of Dionysus,

is

the

principle

enthusiasm

of

or

As compared
inspiration both in nature and in man.
with enthusiasm, reason and rationalism are relegated to
Whether the new impulse
a subordinate position.
would have proved permanent, is another matter but
;

we have

the less reason to suppose that it would, because

here Euripides, towards the close of the play,

even

relapses again

into

the old iconoclastic manner.

colloquy between Agave and Dionysus

The

quite in the
of rationalism

is

vein of that peculiarly Euripidean sort

which we have already met with in the Ion and else-

where.
"

Dionysus,
Ag.
D. Too late ye

we have sinned.
we beseecli thee
know me, who knew not in your hour.
!

Ag. We know it but thy vengeance passeth bounds.

D. I am a God
ye did desi^ite to me.
Ag. It fits not that in wrath Gods be as men.
D. Long since my father Zeus ordained this so."i
:

If,

in

conclusion,

we

try to estimate

the

effect

of

Euripides on the development of religion and religious

thought, we must distinguish between the negative and

On its critical or
the positive aspects of his teaching.
drama
of
the
destructive side,
Euripides gave a most
powerful impulse to that dissolution of the old Homeric
faith which the attacks of Xenophanes had long ago
foreshadowed, and which was now being rapidly effected
by the many iconoclastic currents of thought at work in
Athens during the latter part of the fifth century before
Christ.

No

other Greek writer, Plato alone excepted,

1

1345

flf.

Way.

EURIPIDES
did

much

so

iu

so

without,

we
I

can

see,

any single dominating

As compared with

principle.

think,

as

far

direction.
On the positive or
find a multitude of suggestions,

this

reconstructive side,

319

that

Euripides

Sophocles,
never achieved

we may
a

say, I

and

final

complete unification of his moral and intellectual nature.

To borrow a Platonic expression, he was at no time altogether el? eV itoXkwv} But it is just this peculiarity which
renders the writings of Euripides of such pre-eminent
value for the student of religious thought.
He raises
nearly all the fundamental questions which men will

always

ask

and

Pericles that

never

his

fully answer.

always

oratory

behind in those who heard

be applied to Euripides.

of

The same remark may

it.

He

was said

It

a spur or sting

left

is

one of those

who

(in the

"

phrase of Matthew Arnold)

seasonably disconcert man"
kind in their worship of machinery. No one can read

any

more powerful dramas without being made to

and it is as a stimulative or maieutic force, rather

of his

think

than on account

any positive doctrine, that this great

greater poet deserves to be reckoned
the religious teachers of Greece.
No sooner had

thinker and

among

of

still

he died than Aristophanes declared that his poetry had

died along with him.
Never was there a more absurd
miscalculation.
In antiquity, he soon became the most
widely known and loved of

all

the dramatists

and

at

the present day he is to many the object of an admiration

so enthusiastic that it may almost be called a cult.
'

i?cp. iv.

443 E.

-Culture

and

edition) p. 69.

Anarchy

(1901

LECTURES XVI AND XVII

SOCRATES
In the foregoing lectures we have witnessed the stream

of

pre-Socratic rehgious thought as it pursues its way in

two concurrent channels, that of Philosophy and that of
From this point onwards we are concerned with
Poetry.

Philosophy alone for no poet after Euripides has any

appreciable claim to be called a religious teacher of
;

The period upon which we

the Greeks.
enter
to

the

lectual
chiefly
had in

one

is

of

student

and

the
of

spiritual

utmost

Socrates and Plato

begins

whom

mind when they spoke

of

with

are about to

and importance

thought.

religious

era

interest

new

Socrates.

intel-

It

is

the Christian Fathers

Greek philosophy as a

and

our investigation of
Socratic and Platonic thought will tend, I think, to show
The fundathat to a certain extent this view is right.
for

preparation

the

Gospel

mental religious ideas of Platonism, in particular, as will

afterwards be seen, have much in common with those of
Christianity.

James has characteristically said that " when

a superior intellect and a psychopathic temperament
in the endless permutations and comas
coalesce
binations of human faculty they are bound to coalesce
in the same individual, we have the
often enough
Professor

best possible condition for the kind of effective genius

^
If for the
that gets into tlie liographical dictionaries."
]

somewhat

sinister adjective
1

"

"

psychopathic

Varieties of Religious Experience p. 23

we
f.

substitute

SOCRATES

321

"

transcendental," the sentence just quoted gives a fair

description of the two apparently opposite poles in the
On the one hand, a fixed and
character of Socrates.

unalterable

conviction

relation

the

to

divine mission

that

he

stood

Godhead, and was

to

his

countrymen

in

peculiar

entrusted
and, on

with

the

other

hand, a singularly clear and penetrating intellect, which

refused to acquiesce in anything that reason could not

two predominant characteristics

of prophet and rationalist is so
man.
rare in our experience, that writers on Socrates have
often unduly emphasised one of the two sides of his
these are the

justify
of the

The union

character at the expense of the other.

ago, the tendency

much more

not

opposite

extreme.

German

scholar,

was

now

In
for

century or so
regard him as a preacher and
the pendulum has swung to the

to

the

view

example,

of
a
distinguished
Socrates abstained from

positive exhortations altogether, and was content to try

and purge men's minds of the false persuasion of knowBut we must insist that each of these two aspects
ledge.^

the personality of Socrates is attested by each of our

two principal authorities, Xenophon and Plato, although
Xenophon, as we shoJild expect from his distinctively
religious type of mind, lays more stress upon the one,
and Plato, in his dialogues at all events, upon the other.
"What I have ventured to call the vein of transcendentalism in Socrates reveals itself most of all in connexion
with a peculiarity which he shared in common with not a
few of those who have believed themselves entrusted with
some divine communication to their fellow-men.
I refer,
of

"

of course, to his SaifMovtov ar^fxelov or

supernatural sign."
"
"
In the dialogues of Plato, the divine sign is represented
"
"

which Socrates heard frequently throughout

from childhood onwards.
Its operation, according
it
never positively
Plato, was always inhibitory

as a

voice

his life
to

'

21

Schanz

in his edition of Plato's

Apology

p.

104

ff.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

322

suggested or enjoined any particular course of conduct

a rule, it interfered only in cases where the
;

and, as

intended action would have been harmful or inexpedient,

Yet in at least one instance
rather than morally wrong.
of which Plato speaks, its timely warning enabled Socrates
to

perform a religious duty he

We are

neglected.^

made

may
was

itself heard on very trivial occasions

but, if Plato
be trusted, the effect of its repeated inhibitions
not trivial for we read in one place that the
;

in

taking part
indicated to

divine sign prevented Socrates from

politics, and in another that the voice

the

of

opposition

of

would otherwise have

further told that the voice sometimes

him whom he should admit

associates, and whom he should

his

important a part
have played in the

this
life of

mysterious
Socrates

is

into the circle

How

refuse.^

messenger must
evident from the

concluding chapters of Plato's Apology.

Socrates condemned, than his thoughts

No

sooner

revert

to

is

the

inward monitor, from whose approving silence from first

to last throughout the trial he draws the inference that
The daemonium,
death is for him no evil, but a good.^
as Plato depicts it, is, in short, a kind of internal oracle,
possessor believed to have been almost, if not
"
of mankind.
It has
altogether, unique in the history

which

its

"

to few or
been granted," says the Platonic Socrates,
none of those who have lived before me." * The testimony
is in general agreement with that of Plato,
attributes to the daemonium positive as
he
that
except
well as negative commands, and otherwise enlarges the

of

Xenophon

sphere

of

its

activity,

representing

it

sometimes as a

prophetic faculty or gift exercised by Socrates on behalf

"
He was
not only of himself, but also of his friends.
to

do

this,

Phaedr. 242

Ap. 31

"

Xenophon, of advising his associates

or refrain from doing that, on the authority

in the habit," writes

=*

f.

Tluaet. 151 A.

"

Ap. 40 A-C.
496 C.

licp. vi.

SOCRA TES

j-'j

Those who obeyed would prosper

had
reason to regret their indifferdisobeyed
ence." ^
It need only be added that when Plato calls the
"
"
phenomenon a voice {cfxovi]), the word should probably
be understood in a literal and not in a metaphorical
of the divine sign.

those

We

sense.

was

who

are to suppose, in other words, that Socrates

what is called a hallucination of the sense

subject to
"

seemed to hear a voice," he says in the

on the dacmonium have quoted
many examples tending to show that similar hallucinaof hearing.

tions

are

respects

ment

Writers

riiaedrus}

with

compatible

perfect

rationality in other
familiar accompani-

and they
abnormal religious conditions.
are, of course, a

of

Du

Prel,

who

in

his Mystik der alien Griechen discusses the dacmonium

of Socrates as a problem in transcendental psychology,
finds a curious parallel in the voice which Campanella,

according to his

anything
"

evil

am

own

"

account, so often heard.

presents itself to me," writes

in the habit, whether asleep or

When

Campa-

awake,
which calls out quite clearly, CamSometimes I hear other words
panella, Campanella
and though I attend to the matter at once, I can
also
nella,

'

of hearing a voice,

'

see nothing, nor can I discover who it is.

Assuredly, if
no Angel, it must at least be a Daemon or Spirit, or

it is

a Genius like that which accompanied Socrates." ^

The question as to the actual psychological basis of
this

remarkable phenomenon

is

one of

much

interest,

has frequently been discussed in recent times.

broadly and generally,

we may

say, perhaps,

and

Speaking
that

the

explanations ottered fall into two classes, according as

"
they ascribe the phenomenon to ordinary psychological
causes," or represent

supernormal,
1
Mem. i. 1. 4.
-

'

242 C.
Quoted by

lf)3.

if

it

and
abnormal and psycliopathic*

as something transcendental

not, indeed,

on the one hand Riddell,

of Plato ji. 114, and on
the other liaiul 5lyeis, IFuman
Personality xi. pj). 96, 103.
See

e.g.

A'pnlofiy

Du

rivl,

I.e.

p.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

324

For

however, in trying to understand the character

important point is not what the daemonium

US,

of Socrates, the

really was, but rather

what Socrates himself believed

it

to

There can be no question that Socrates regarded it

as a special and all but unique revelation from the Gods.
Nor are there lacking other peculiarities about Socrates
from which we can see that although no one ever served
the cause of reason better, he was not by any means
a rationalist pure and simple.
According to the testibe.

Xenophon, he had a high regard fpr oracles and

we may infer from Plato that

of

mony

divination in general, and

he

attached

frequently

supernatural

significance to

dreams and visions of the night.^

That Socrates conceived himself as a divinelyappointed minister to Athens is clear from the A2)ology
The Apology, in purpose and effect, is a
of Plato.
representation of the historical Socrates as he appeared
to the one disciple who by opportunity, sympathy, and
insight was fully qualified to understand his master;
and throughout the whole of that noble speech there
breathes the consciousness of a mission from on high.
"

It is the God,"

says Socrates,

"

who has

laid this

duty

upon me, by means of oracles and dreams and every way

"
^
Now,
whereby God manifests his will to man."

men

Athens, so far from pleading my own

be
supposed, I am pleading yours, lest
might
me
ye should sin in the matter of God's
by condemning

therefore,

of

cause, as

gift to you.

But perhaps ye will obey Anytus, and

death, and then sleep away the rest

me

to

lightly put
of your lives, unless the

God

you sends
And again " Some one
you some other missionary."
Can you not go away, Socrates, and
perhaps may say
dwell in another city, keeping silence and living a quiet
in his love for

'

'

life ?
1

60

Alas

Ajx 33

ef.

C,

it

is

so difficult to persuade

Crito 44 A, Phaed.

Xen. Mem.

iv.

3.

12

a^.

*
=*

33 c.
30 d

ff.

you on

this

SOCRATES

325

For if I say that to do this would be to disobey

the God, you will not believe me, but think I speak
"
^
Men of Athens, I should be guilty of
ironically."
point.

a crime indeed,
thing

am

if

else whatever, I

through fear of death or anyshould desert the post to which

God

assigned by the

for the

I should follow after loisdom

others."

God

ordains

that

and examine myself and

This special relationship to Apollo

for Apollo is the
servant Socrates here and elsewhere claims

God whose
to be

is

not without significance

in

connexion with

the general character and tendency of Socratic teaching.

"
It is not merely that the precept <^vw6l aeavTov,
learn
to know thyself," which Socrates made the basis of his

was engraved on the walls of Apollo's temple

only that his attitude on questions of religious
cult and ceremony was in harmony with the large and
tolerant spirit which dictated
the Pythian priestess'
advice to " worship the Gods according to the custom
of your city."'*
Socrates was Apollo's minister in yet
another sense.
The oracle of Delphi was not the
exclusive possession of any one Greek city, or even of
the whole of Hellas in the words of Livy, it was the
"
commune humani generis oraculum " ^ a kind of redoctrine,

nor

is it

mankind, barbarian as well as Greek.

certain that Socrates' life and teaching led the

ligious centre for all

And

it is

way to a more perfect realisation

human brotherhood than had

of
of

of the religious aspect

hitherto been dreamed

by Greek thinkers.
In attempting to describe how Socrates

mission, I

will

begin

by reminding you

fulfilled

of

his

the words

"
which Plato attributes to liim in the Apology.
I do
nothing but go to and fro, endeavouring to persuade you

^
'

37 E.
28 E.
See esp. Phacd. 84

If.

Xen. Mem.

xxxviii. 48. 2.

i.

3. 1

iv. 3. 16.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

326

both young and old, not to care about the body or

how to
riches, but first and foremost about the soul

all,

make
is

I tell you that virtue

the soul as good as possible.
and so with
of
virtue
not the child of riches, but riches
;

every other good that

in public life."
"

What

men

The words

possess, alike in private and

are strangely like the text,

he shall gain the whole

but I quote them now
world, and lose his own soul ?
because they furnish a convenient point of view from
shall

it

profit

a man,

if

" ^

It is
which to study the missionary work of Socrates.
the physician or
primarily as the laTpo<i t?}? "^vxy^
His object
that he regards himself.^
healer of the soul
"
make their souls as good as
is to help the Athenians to

Let us see

possible."

The

how he

set

about the task.

a physician manifestly is to discover

duty
Now we have seen that in the
the cause of the disease.
of

first

age of Socrates there was a widespread disposition to call

in question the moral and religious principles of the past.
Eeason had begun to weaken the authority of faith, but
too weak to rule the kingdom she would
and the consequences of this inward sedition
were
so, at
least, it seemed to Socrates and Plato
life of
and
in
the
social
manifest
too
political
only

was

herself

claim

Athens.

It

might

accordingly

appear

reasonable

to

body politic to the prevailing

the conservative section of public opinion

attribute the disease of the

scepticism

and

Socrates diagnosed otherundoubtedly took this view.

In his opinion, the lack of knowledge, and not
the lack of faith, was responsible for the evils which
wise.

he saw around him.

What

considerations led Socrates

first place, he found, or

of a society which
section
he
found, nearly every
thought
seemed to him unsound pervaded by the disease of
the conceit of knowledge
in its worst form
ignorance
O'

to

conclusion

this

30

Mark

In

the

^
f.

viii.

36.

Of.

IdcraTO.

PJiaed.

89 A,

il's

ev

i]fJ.S.s

SOCJiA TES

327

He observed, moreover, that in the

witliout the reality.
sphere of the industrial arts, carpentry, shoemaking, and
so forth, riglit action

action from ignorance

must hold good

of

from knowledge, wrong

and he inferred that the same
But these and
the art of life.
springs

probably counted for less than the

Whether
unconscious testimony of his own character.
in his early years Socrates passed through a period of
struggle for self-mastery, we do not know for certain.
similar arguments

is not improbable that a nature so full and

had
strong
experienced the power of passion and there
A certain Zopyrus,
is some slight evidence to this effect.
who prided himself on reading the mind's construction
in the face, is said to have once enlarged on the vices

In

itself, it

reflected in the

present
is

right

them."

physiognomy

of those

Socrates, however, remarked

disagreed
the vices are there
;

Most

of Socrates.

"
:

He

only reason has dethroned

But whether this anecdote be true or false, every one

must allow that in the maturer Socrates of whom we read
in Xenophon and Plato, desire and will were completely
under the sway of reason.
We are told by Xenophon
"
that he was
so self-controlled, so temperate, that he
never at any time chose the sweeter in place of the better."
"
His self-restraint shone forth even more in his acts than

Xot only was he master over the pleafrom the body, but of those also which
are fed by riches." ^ With Socrates, to know his duty was
and what was true of himself, he expected
to perform it
would prove true of others also.
Moral perversity, in the view of Socrates, is therefore
due to ignorance nay more, he went so far as to maintain
in his language.
sures which flow

This is the
ignorance, and ignorance vice.
and we must now
principle of Socratic doctrine

that vice
first

is

'

Cicero, r((sc.

Z'is/7. iv.

80.

-Mem.
Dak^'iis.

iv.

8.

11;

i.

5.

0,

tr.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

328

attempt to understand

its

significance

and value

as a

contribution to theoretical and practical ethics.

are struck in the first place by the excessive

We

the theory,

intellectualism of

who was

perhaps, in one
human nature.

so

all

the more remarkable,

fully in touch with concrete

It has already been pointed out that the

Greeks were from the first disposed to recognise a strongly
intellectual element in morality.
The prevailing concep-

Homer and

tion of sin in

the drama, treats

aberration.
of

Greek

it

as a

Herodotus, in lyric poetry and

form

mental bhndness or

of

By Socrates, however, this inherent tendency

thought is carried to what appears to us a

paradoxical extreme.

Not only does he reduce

all

the

specific virtues to varieties of knowledge, but he constantly speaks as if there were no irrational part of soul

at

all.

To

Socrates, the proverbial video nidiora prohoqiie,

deteriora scquor,

knows what
said.

is

would be altogether meaningless he who

right, does it, and there is no more to be
:

Aristotle declares that the identification of virtue

with knowledge amounts to a denial

incontinence

the

better,

criticism

is

the possibility of

of

mind which, knowing

is,
chooses
worse ^ and the
the
deliberately
fair enough.
But on a closer scrutiny, the
the state of

that

Socratic thesis is less paradoxical than it appears, on

account of Socrates' peculiar conception of knowledge.
What the word " knowledge " meant to Socrates, will be

we contrast his view with that of an

prelate, who in a recent address to an assembly

clearly seen

eminent

if

material

we

"

reported to have said that as to the

wanted turned out at our public schools, he

of schoolboys

is

placed straightness of character first, unselfishness of

character second, courage and perseverance to stand up
for the faith next, and knowledge last."
Here, presumably, knowledge is conceived of as having little
or

no relation

to
1

character and
Etli.

Nic.

vii. 3.

conduct

1145'' 25

f.

otherwise

it

SOCRATES

329

would hardly be placed last and lowest in the scale.

The speaker is obviously thinking of the accumulation
Now this
of facts within the mind, and nothing more.
is
not at all what Socrates meant by knowledge.
With what we may call pure science, he had little
"

no sympathy.

or

Up

to

the

limit

set

by

utility,"

"

says Xenophon, he was ready to join in any investigation, and to follow out an argument with those who were
with him
but there he stopped." ^
Geometry, in its
"
"
he
of
land-measurement
original meaning
(yeco/jLerpia),
;

regarded as a useful aid to life but he emphatically condemned what he used to call the " study of unintelligible
;

^
His attitude towards astronomy and physics
diagrams."
be
might
expressed in the words of Cowper
:

"

that man should

human wisdom." ^

God never meant

By

strides of

scale the

Heavens

The truth is that knowledge, as understood by Socrates,

has the closest possible relation to the character.
It is
a certain overmastering principle or power that lays hold
primarily indeed of the intellect, but through the intellect
of the entire personality, moulding and disciplining the

and the emotions into absolute unison with itself, a

principle from which courage, temperance, justice, and
every other virtue inevitably flow. It seemed to Socrates
a monstrous thing, says Aristotle, that a man who
possesses knowledge should be overcome and dragged
this way and that by any other impulse like a slave.^

will

conception of knowledge is the intellectual

counterpart of the Christian conception of faith inasmuch
as knowledge must necessarily
bear fruit
so he thought
Socrates'

in the

We may

life.

be sure that Socrates would have

denied the possession of knowledge to one whose actions

'

Mem.
Mem.

iv. 7.
I.e.

8
3.

Dakyns.

Task

Eth. Nic.

iii.

vii. 3.

1145" 23

f.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

330

"
were immoral or unjust.
By their fruits ye shall know
them," and by nothing else.
Seen from tliis point of view, the identification of

virtue and knowledge ceases to be a paradox, and becomes

the expression of an ideal. It is, in effect, an exhortation
to inward unity all the different elements of the soul are
:

to be brought into

human

faculties,

harmony with

reason, the highest of

and Plato.
This,

according to Socrates

I believe, is the full and proper

meaning of the doctrine
and in this sense, as I have already indicated, Socrates
was himself a living example of what he taught.
But
the doctrine that vice is ignorance, however one-sided it
may at first appear, conveys yet another lesson which we
are sometimes in danger of forgetting.
A larger proportion of human wickedness and misery than stern-voiced
moralists are sometimes apt to suppose, is undoubtedly
the offspring of ignorance.
The temptation of organised
communities is to ignore this fact, because it appears to
raise the difficult question of the moral responsibility

of

the

individual.

If

deliberate

nothing but ignorance,

might be argued, is non-

vice
it

is

wrong-doing,
ovSeU eKOiv afxapTcivet, as Socrates used to say
so that we have no right to inflict punishment upon the
existent

This difficulty
whether real or apparent,
wrong-doer.
we need not at present inquire Socrates seems not to
have considered but it was certainly present to the mind
;

of Plato,

and the solution which he

harmony with the

men

offers

is

entirely in

spirit of his master's teaching.

Because

through ignorance, it by no means follows, according to Plato, that we should dispense with punishment
the proper inference is that punishment should in its aim
sin

and character

be

educative

"

or

remedial,

rather

than

"

In chastising the wicked,"

our object should always be to make him

vindictive or retributory.

Plato says,
"
better
tov kukov ael SeZ KoXd^eiv,
:

Laivs 944 D.

'iv

aixelvwv i)}

The

SOCRATES

331

judge, in the true or ideal meaning of the word, is a

one whose duty is to heal the soul
spiritual physician

We

of the disease of wickedness.^

this

of

anticipations

have met with several

humane conception

relatively

of

punishment in earlier Greek literature, for example in

"
Aeschylus, where he teaches that through suffering men
"
learn (Tra^o? ^ddosi) and from the history of words like
"
SiKaiovv and acocppovi^etv, signifying at first make just,"
"
"
make temperate," and afterwards chastise," it is plain
that such a view was not unfamiliar to the ordinary
Greek consciousness, though seldom recognised in the
;

But the remedial theory

penal legislation of antiquity.
of punishment, when it occurs in Plato, is probably a
deliberate and conscious inference from the Socratic
and vice.
more noteworthy in connexion with Socrates'
virtue and vice than the faith which it

identification of ignorance
is

Nothing
doctrine

of

exhibits in the essential goodness of

man

human

nature.

If

he errs involuntarily, through ignorance so

that even in the very act of sinning, he is fain not to
In other words, all men always and everywhere
sin.
desire (/3ov\ovTai) the good
a sentiment than w^hich
a

none

errs,

is

precisely
Socrates ?

more
did

characteristic

the

To us

the

of

word

What

Socraticism.

mean

sentiment

in

the

mouth

"

"

to

of

be

appears
good
ambiguous did Socrates understand hj it the morally
The
good and right, or only the useful and expedient ?
answer is that he understood the word in both senses at
:

once

for,

according to his view, the morally right

is

that

"

in this
which is useful (oocfyeXifxov) only by " useful
connexion lie invariably meant what is useful or salubrious
:

to the soul, virtue being conceived of as the health of the

"

"

ignorance
Substituting only tlie word
for
Socrates
sin,"
might have applietl to humanity at
"
The good which I
large what St. Paul says of himself

inward man.
"

Bej).

iii.

409

tf.

Gorg. 478

D al.

332

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

would

do not

But

practise.

more

I that

ovSeU

what

eKfov

would

"

that

no

one

me."

in

The

willingly evil
the presence in

"

is

recognises

7rovr]p6<i

no

not, that I do, it is

but sin which dwelleth

it,

doctrine

Socratic

men

do

but the evil which I would not, that I

if

all

a hunger and thirst after righteousness, which it

thus becomes the duty and privilege of the teacher both
of

and to assuage.
In such a creed there is
no room for despair nor in his life and doctrine did

to stimulate

Socrates ever show the smallest trace of pessimism.

It
is not the least of his claims to be
as
the
regarded

prophet of a new evangel, that every word he utters is

indomitable courage and steadfast hope.
It remains to inquire how this physician of the soul

full of

men on

endeavoured to direct

And

first of all

we

the

way

are concerned with the

to

knowledge.

method rather

than with the substance of his teaching.

Plato, in the Repuhlic, declares

that a good teacher

the

will begin by a cleansing or cathartic process,^ and

historical Socrates invariably observed this rule.

mind
the

of the learner is

contrary,

it

is

seldom or never a tabula rasa

nearly

always

of

full

The
:

on

erroneous

sentiments and prejudices which must be discarded before

The aggregate of these
any true progress can be made.
prejudices Socrates was in the habit of calling the
"

conceit of knowledge without the reality."

How did he
endeavour to remove this obstacle ?
By means of the
"

negative

arm

of

the

elenchus

refutative dialectic of which

in

the

so-called

Socratic

"

the

we have
dialogues

so
of

destructive

or

many examples
Plato.

It

is

dwell on this preliminary stage in the

unnecessary
Socratic method, further than to remind you of its
to

An apparently casual conversation

general character.
leads to the emergence of one of those familiar ethical
concepts whose meaning
1
Rom. vii. 19 f.

we

generally take for granted

^

j7g^_ yi_

501 a.

SOCRATES

333

and Socrates invites bis companion to define the concept.

When at last an attempt is made, Socrates proceeds to
quote individual cases to which the definition will not
apply other definitions follow, only to suft'er the same
fate, and in the end the unfortunate victim of the
:

elenchus generally contradicts himself out of his own

mouth.
It is obvious, of course, that the effect of this

which Socrates, true to his principle that

life is not worth living," practised in
season and out of season, on all sorts and conditions of men,
must inevitably have varied according to the character of
those on whom it was exercised.
In the case of men
swollen with self-esteem and still further iniiated by the
applause of others, the Socratic cross-examination must
have been all the more exasperating when they noticed
that their discomfiture provided both Socrates and his
disciples witli a measure of enjoyment which the latter at
least made no attempt to conceal,
eo-jt fyap ovk drjSe^
interrogatory,

"

the unexamined

"
it really is a source of
says Socrates in the Ajjology
"
satisfaction
to witness the exposure of men who think

themselves wise when they are

doubtless were whose

hostility

and

less self -regarding motives.

type of mind that hates and

foolish.^

Others there

was inspired by deeper

There is in every age a
fears

discussion,

partly,

perhaps, from intellectual impotence, and partly from a

"
sincere and sometimes just alarm lest it should " corrupt

the young.

Athens, men

Even
of

in the sceptical atmosphere of Periclean

this

stamp were common, conservatives

without exception, and sometimes patriots, of sufficient

intelligence to understand the destructive power of the
Socratic elenchus, but unable to appreciate its positive or
reconstructive side.
From these two classes Socrates

might provoke animosity and opposition, but he could

not expect to do them good.
With all the greater zeal
did lie tlu'ow himself into his true vocation, that of an
133

c.

334

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

apostle to
conceit of

young men.
knowledge

Nowhere, perhaps,
so

but at no other period

is

common
it

as in

amenable

so

is

that

the false

quarter

to treatment,

provided the physician is a man of skill. And there

never was a greater master of the art of dealing with the
Socrates.
He possessed in a unique degree
that indefinable, half -magnetic power whicli attracts even

young than

when it puzzles and bewilders and in spite of, or rather,

perhaps, because of, his characteristic elpcoveia or selfdepreciation, he seldom failed to leave the impression
;

hand which dealt the wound could also heal.

But the immediate effect which the preliminary and
that the

purgatorial dialectic of Socrates produced in those who

were destined to profit by his teaching was one of extreme
a necessary stage, as it seemed to
perplexity and distress
Of this state of
Socrates, upon the road to knowledge.
mind, which in the Socratic school was called airopla, we
have several pictures from the pen of Plato, and one at
least from Xenophon.
After a somewhat drastic applicaelenchus, Euthydemus in the Memorahilia
"
himself
in these words
expresses
By heaven, Socrates,
I used emphatically to consider myself a student of the
tion of

the

I thought most likely to teach me

suitable
for one who would fain be a good
everything
and lionourable man but imagine
despair when, in

knowledge which

my

spite of all my former labours, I find that I cannot so

much as answer a question about things which a man
all to know, and have no other way to go,
become better." ^ To a similar effect, but
more powerful and impressive, is the confession

ought most of
in order to
infinitely

Symposium puts into the mouth of

hear any other speaker, even a
very good one, he produces absolutely no effect upon us,
or not much, whereas the mere fragments of you and
your words, even at second-hand, and however imperfectly
which Plato

Alcibiades.

in

"

the

When we

iv. 2. 23,

SOCRATES

335

amaze and possess the souls of every man,

woman, and child who comes within hearing of them.
than that of
leaps within nie more
]\Iy heart
any Corybantian reveller, and my eyes rain tears when
repeated,

hear them.

And

observe

that

many

others are

I have heard Pericles and

same manner.
other great orators, and I thought that they spoke well,
but I never had any similar feeling my soul was not
stirred by them, nor was I angry at the thought of my
own slavish state. But this Marsyas has often brought

affected in the

me

I have felt as if I could hardly

which I am leading (this, Socrates, you
and I am conscious that if I did not shut
will admit)
ears
against him, and fly as from the voice of the
my
he would
siren, my fate would be like that of others,
transfix me, and I should grow old sitting at his feet.
For he makes me confess that I ought not to live as I
do, neglecting the wants of my own soul, and busying
myself with the concerns of the Athenians therefore I
hold my ears and tear myself away from him.
Many a time have I wished that he were dead, and yet I
know that I should be much more sorry than glad if he

to

such a pass, that

endure the

life

were to die so that I am at my wits' end." ^

It is from testimony of this kind, even more than
from the records of his actual conversations, that we can
best understand the extraordinary power which Socrates
:

What chiefly concerns us at

wielded over his disciples.
is
understand
to
the exact nature of
present, however,
that (iTTopla which the purgatorial exercise of the

We have seen that

elenchus was designed to produce.
was
the
Socratic
ignorance
equivalent of sin, and knowledge in some respects the Socratic equivalent of faith
and in this condition of perplexity, which Alcibiades so

powerfully describes, we have the intellectual counterpart of the kind of moral and spiritual awakening which
J

Symp. 215

ff.

.lowctt.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

336

I say the
SO often proves the prelude to a better life.
"
intellectual counterpart," because here it is the intellect
is primarily affected, whereas in religious experiences
rather the emotions and the will but the Socratic

which
it is

aiTopia

me

was moral as well as

intellectual.

"

He made

"

as though I could hardly

says Alcibiades,
"
endure the life which I am living
7roX\.dKi<i Srj ovtw
Sieredrjv wcrre /ulol So^ai /irj ^iwrov e7vac e-x^ovrt ct)? e'^co.
feel,"

we

Before
Socrates'

consider the second or positive stage

method, it is necessary that

dialectical

in

we

should clearly understand the limits within which he

It has already been pointed out that he will
worked.
have nothing to do with mathematical or physical studies.

As regards the latter, he justified his attitude by sarcastic

observations on the mutually destructive theories of
Socrates concerned
pre-Socratic cosmological inquiry.^
himself exclusively with man, considered as an individual,
as a member of the community or state, and in his

and this, of course, is what

to the Gods
means by saying that he called Philosophy down
But even within the sphere of
from heaven to earth.
interests
and concerns, he drew a sharp
human
strictly
distinction between what he called things hidden or
obscure (ra dBtjXa), and certain other matters with
which our reason is both qualified and called upon to
To the first of these categories belong questions
deal.
into which an element of uncertainty must always enter

relation

Cicero

by reason
success

to the future,

their reference

of

or

of

failure

any

particular

such as the

enterprise

or

human

and so
life,
undertaking,
Let us hear what Socrates himself says on the
forth.
"
Let a man sow field or plant farm never so
subject.
the

well, yet

another

he cannot

may

he knows not

build

who

vicissitudes

of

foretell who
him a house

will gather in the fruits

of fairest proportion, yet

will inhabit
^

Xen. Mem.

i.

Neither can a general

it.
1.

13

ff.

SOCRA TES

337

il will proliL him to conthict a campaign,

nor a politician be certain whether his leadership will
turn to evil or to good. ... To suppose that all these

foresee wliether

matters lay within the scope of human judgment, to the

exclusion of the preternatural, was preternatural folly." ^
The whole of this side of things, Socrates believed, the
for themselves, and denied to human
are not on that account to leave it out

Gods had reserved

reason

but

we

of consideration altogether.

Our duty

in such matters

is

to consult the Gods through

appointed channels of
that is, l>y means of oracles and the
communication
tlie

diviner's

"

About things which are hidden," he

we ought to inquire of the Gods by
for the Gods grant signs to those to whom
"
It follows that
no one who
gracious."

art.

"

would

say,

divination

they are
wishes to manage a house or city with success no one
aspiring to guide the helm of state aright, can afford to
:

^
Here, as well as
dispense with aid from above."
elsewhere, it has sometimes been supposed that Xenophon

unjustly ascribes his

own extreme

religiosity to Socrates

but surely this distinction between two spheres, the one

accessible to reason,

and the other suprarational,

is

the

natural result of that peculiar combination of rationalism

and transcendentalism which we have already found to

At the same time, after

Socrates turns
discriminated
the
two
departments,
having
with enthusiasm to that in which, as it seems to him,
lieason and not Eevelation is our appointed guide.
On
be characteristic of the man.

questions of morality and conduct, he deemed it not less

absurd to consult the Gods than to refrain from consulting
them in the cases I have described. Our business is to

such questions by the exercise of reason,

determine

all

and reason

alone."*

then, did Socrates set himself to establish in his

How,
^

Mevb.

i.

1.

Mem.

i.

1.

9.

22

f.

Dakyns.

^
*

Mem.
Mem.

i.

1. 7

i.

1.

9.

Dakyiis.

338

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

followers a positive foundation for morality ?

Aristotle
observes that two discoveries may justly be ascribed to
It
him, inductive reasoning and the art of definition.^

would lead us too far to illustrate the use which Socrates

of these two weapons in his conversations
and it
must suffice to say in general terms that his object
invariably was to arrive at some \0709 or principle
acceptable to the reason, and afterwards to apply this
principle in particular cases as a criterion of what ought
or ought not to be done.
By this method he directed all
his own actions ^ and he could conceive of no better
rule for his disciples.
There is nothing mystical or

made

transcendental about the Socratic Logos with that of

it has nothing in common except the name.
;

Heraclitus

It is simply the general idea, definition, or concept, let

us say of justice, or courage, or temperance, arrived at
by the comparison of instances not always representative,

and

sometimes

chosen

such

in

as

way

to

suggest that Socrates, like other preachers of morality,

occasionally framed his premises to suit a preconceived
conclusion.

One noteworthy
extent to which
of

everyday

It

life.

him by some of
saying the same

feature in Socratic induction

materials were

its

is

the

drawn from the scenes

was made a matter

of reproach to

his contemporaries that he was always

thing, and always in the same style
"

shoemakers and fullers and

continually harping on
cooks and doctors," says Callicles in the Gorgias of Plato.^
Those who knew Socrates better could not fail to be

by the contrast between his plebeian illustrait

tions, and the lessons they were meant to impart
contrast
between
the
almost
was like the
grotesque
exterior of the man himself and the soul which it
attracted

concealed.
1

"

His words," says

4. 1078>' 27
Plato, Crito 4G B.

Met.

f.

tlie

491 A.

Platonic Alcibiades,
Cf.

Xen. Mem.

i.

2. 37.

SOCRATES
"

339

are like the images of Sileuus which open

they arc
when you first hear them he clothes himself
;

ridiculous

in language that is like the skin of the wanton satyr

for his talk is of pack-asses and smiths and cobblers and
curriers, and he is always repeating the same things in

the same words, so that any ignorant or inexperienced

person might feel disposed to laugh at him but he who

opens the bust and sees what is within will find that they
are the only words which have a meaning in them, and
also the most divine, abounding in fair images of virtue,
;

and

of the widest comprehension, or rather extending to

^
the whole duty of a good and honourable man."

Another characteristic mark

of

Socrates'

method

of

He
deserving of particular notice.
of
and
to
disclaims
title
the
teacher,
prefers
expressly
in
a
a
as
himself
fellow-inquirer,
companion
represent

instruction

is

search

the

knowledge and the virtuous

for

life.

His

has been said, was docendo discimus truth is

to
light, not by solitary meditation, but rather
brought
contact of mind with mind.
The practical
the
through

motto,

it

was to establish an intimate

him and his disciples, a
between
personal relationship
which
Platonic
the
Socrates playfully
relationship

result

of

this

attitude

language borrowed from the vocabulary of

In
Plato
this conception appears in the form
passion.
familiar to English readers from the platonising poets of
describes in

the Elizabethan age

as a kind of spiritual union between
two souls for the generation of lofty thoughts and noble
"
deeds, what Shakespeare calls the
marriage of true

The germ of the idea was, however, transmitted

by Plato and the same may probably be said

minds."

to Socrates
of another

and kindred notion which plays a great part

the educational theory of the greatest of Socrates'

In the Thcaetetics^ Plato describes the uTropia
disciples.
in

or

"

"

perplexity
1

S'tjmp.

221

of

f.

which
Jowetl.

have

spoken as a form
=

149

ff.

340

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

of intellectual parturition
so that the teacher becomes
as it were an obstetrician who brinc^s to lio:ht those
;

thoughts and intuitions with which the mind of the

is in labour.
He does not so much attempt to

pupil
instil

from

knowledge

within.

to educe it from
view of education arc

as

of this

significance, but it would be premature

for it was not Socrates, but Plato,
;

of far-reaching

to discuss

without

The consequences

them now

who

elaborated the conception, and gave it, as we shall

a yet deeper meaning by the doctrine that the soul
in its essential and uncorrupted nature is divine.
see,

From what

has hitherto been

form some idea

the

said,

we may perhaps

peculiarities of the
Socratic method, and more especially of the way in which
it was calculated to produce a moral as well as an inof

distinctive

what Plato for his part calls a

tellectual regeneration
of the entire soul.
or
revolution
have
irepia'yoi'yr)

We

next to consider the substance or content of Socrates'

As already indicated, he deals exclusively, or

doctrine.
almost exclusively, with man and even within the sphere
of human activities he confines himself for the most part
:

to questions which have a practical bearing on life and

conduct.
The object of nearly all his disputations was
"
"
how we ought to live (ttw? ^tooreov)
to determine
:

great principle, on which he constantly

"
was
the
insisted,
Delphic maxim, <yvo}di aeavTov, Learn to
"
Tell me, Euthydemus," we read in the
know thyself."
"
"
"
Twice."
have
Memorabilia,
you ever been to Delphi ?
"And did you observe the inscription on the temple,

and the

first

Learn to know thyself?"

did you pay no heed to

it

and try to examine and

"
"
are ?
No, I did not.
enough already

for

if

find
I

did."

"Well, now,
you attend thereto
out who and what you
I knew that well
know my own self, I

thought

did not

should indeed be ignorant."

1

"I

or did

iv. 2. 24.

Let us consider for a

SOCRATES

He did not
Socrates interpreted this text.
summons to the exercise of self-examination,

moment how
it

regard

341

as a

as practised, for example, by the later Pythagoreans, who

at the close of the day were in the habit of asking them"

selves,

How

have

sinned

"

undone

Self-scrutiny

What
such

of

duty have I left

kind would have

Still less
appeared to Socrates irrational and morbid.
hint
of the
did he find in the Delphic exhortation any
the
in
of
one
deep religious significance attaching to it
"
have
where
we
Sayings of Jesus,"
recently discovered

a notable example of the way in which Ch-eek ideas were

absorbed into Christianity at a comparatively early date.
"
"
I follow Grenfell and Hunt's
The kingdom of heaven
"

restoration

within you

is

himself shall find

selves,

and ye

(almighty
might be
scarcely

?)

illustrated

from

knowledge

"

and whoever

(Strive therefore

it.

shall be

Father."

?)

to

shall

know

know

your-

aware that ye are the sons of the

The teaching of this fragment
from Plato and Cleanthes," but
"

the

selfphrase
In
is doubtless ultimately due to him.
meant
of Socrates the Delphic precept

Socrates,

although

mouth
more than " Learn to take the measure of
"
The
your own capacities, proclivities, and powers."
"
man who has self knowledge," Socrates said, knows
what is suited to himself, distinguishes between what
he can and what he cannot do, and by doing what
he knows, acquires what he needs, and so does well
the

nothing

while, on the other hand, by refraining

{ev ITparr ova iv)
from what he does not know, he makes no blunders, and
;

"

It is
avoids ill-doing
(8ia(f)V'yovat to KaKOi<i irpaTTeiv)?
obvious that the Socratic doctrine of self-knowledge has
1

New

Sayings

of

Jesus,

etc.

(1904) p. 15,
"

Hymn

K iToO yap y4voi ^(X/j^v,

ofCleanthi'sA. P'or Plato, see p. 356,
and c.L Ale. i. 133 B 11'.
^
Mem. iv. 2. 2G. Here as often

in Greek literature, eC irpdrTeiv

combines the two ideas of right or
virtuous action and liapjnness. Cf.
Plato, Charm. 173 D, and Arist.
Elh. Nic. i. 8. lO^S,^ 20
1".

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

342

nothing metaphysical or recondite about it, but is just an

eminently practical assertion of a principle the truth of

which men often learn by sad experience.

If one were invited to express the sum and substance
of Socrates' teaching in a single word, it would be
"
difficult to find a better than
As far as
Noocracy."
concerns the relation of the individual to himself, I have
already stated that he tried to establish a perfect harmony
of all the powers and faculties of the soul under the
government of reason, and that he inculcated this ideal

We must beware,
however, of supposing that Socrates had any sympathy
with the kind of asceticism by means of which his
by example as well as by precept.

followers the Cynics endeavoured to exemplify, as they

The inward
imagined, the rule of reason in their lives.
freedom which Socrates desired for himself and others

was that which comes not from self-abnegation, but from

"
"
it would
self-reverence, self-knowledge, self-control
;

be

quite in the spirit of his teaching to hold that

asceticism is a sign of weakness rather than of strength.
Alcibiades in the Symposium of Plato relates how Socrates,

when
in

serving in the army, far excelled his fellow-soldiers

power to endure the miseries incidental to a campaign,

hunger, cold, and the like, and yet at a banquet he

seemed the only person capable of enjoying himself he
did not wish to drink, but when compelled to do so, no
;

one could keep pace with him, although no one ever saw

him

intoxicated.^

clear that the noocratical ideal

It is

permit him to renounce the

Monasticism would have seemed to him a form
In its political appliindolence, or even of betrayal.

of Socrates did not require or

world.
of

cation, the

form
direct

of a

we

principle

demand

for

are

now

considering takes the

an aristocracv

and conscious antagonism

to

of

the

rance, which, in the opinion of Socrates,

1

220 A.

cf.

223 C.

knowledge, in
rule

of

igno-

was the most

SOCK A TES

343

dangerous feature of Athenian democracy.

tires of reiterating that government is not

an art or science, like the art

and so on and tlie ruthless

inspiration, but

He

never

happy

of steering,

logic with
which he exposed the pretensions of self-seeking politicians, as well as his outspoken denunciations of some of
the most cherished institutions of the Athenian state,

making

made

shoes,

for

him many powerful enemies,

in spite of his

How perfect that

unfailing loyalty to the existing laws.
On one
loyalty was, there is ample evidence to show.
famous occasion he had stood forth as the champion of
the laws against the fury of the people
on another,
and at the end of his
against the tyranny of the Thirty
;

though recognising to the full the injustice of his

condemnation, he refused the offer of escape, lest he
should violate what Plato calls the law requiring judicial
life,

be

sentences to

enforced.^

however much the teaching

It
of

must be allowed
Socrates

may

that

have in-

voluntarily tended to subvert the purely Hellenic ideal,

in
never had a better
least, Athens
practice at
citizen.

We

seen that popular Greek morality

a duty to requite evil with evil, no less
than good with good.
What was the position of Socrates
on this subject ?
In the first book of Plato's Repuhlic^

have

considered

often

it

the ordinary Greek view

arguments

as the historical
is

for the first time assailed by

form and in substance, are such
Socrates might well have employed.
It
a
human
circumunder
injure
any
being
is

which, alike in

urged that to

is to make him worse in

point of human
excellence or virtue, just as by injuring a horse or a dog
we make them less serviceable for the work in which

stances whatever

fitted to excel
and from hence
drawn that the good man never does
harm to any one, whether friend or foe. The Gorgias
Crilo 50 B.
335 A
Plato, Ap. 32 B

they for their part are

the conclusion

is

f.

IF.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

344

and Grito teach the same

such a doctrine
"

belief.

is

Though

exclaims in the
{eyd)

eh

aoL

directly opposed

the world agree with you," Socrates

"
"
I, one
man, do not agree
Gorgias,
"

ov-^
"

read in the Grito,

^

at his hand."

the usual Greek

to

all

cov

or to inflict evil

knows well that

Plato

lesson.

ofjudXoyc!))}

It

is

wrong,"

to requite injustice with

we

injustice,

upon any man, whatever we may suffer

No one who fully understands what is

involved in this sentence will deny that it opens up a

new conception, not only of human duty, but also of

humanity itself essentially the same conception, indeed,

which Christ proclaimed in the Sermon on the Mount.
Some have doubted whether the new departure was really
the work of Socrates, and not rather of his disciple Plato.
To me it seems clearly due to Socrates for by this principle
Socrates invariably regulated his life, both in public and
"
To the state," says Xenophon, " he was
in private.
:

neither disaster in war, nor

never the cause of any evil
faction, nor treason, nor any other mischief whatsoever.

And
his

if

his

life

public

He

private.

was

from

free

never hurt

offence, so

all

was

single soul either by

or infliction of evil, nor did he ever

deprivation of good
^
lie under the imputation of any of those misdoings."
And at the close of the Apology, Plato makes him forgive
"

his judges.
voted for

my

am

not angry," he says,

death."

"

with those

who

On the question of the immortality of the soul it is

not altogether easy to determine what Socrates believed.
There

is,

of course, a strong

gave some

consideration

"

observes,

it

may

religious interest of

be fairly urged

ignored by one

who
oracle,

472 B.

49 C.

an

that

the

greatest

mankind could not have been wholly

commands

of

a priori probability that he

As Jowett
the subject.

to

passed

his

life

in

fulfilling

the

and who recognized a Divine plan

^

Mem.

"

41 D.

i.

2.

63 Dakyns.

SOCRATES

man and

345

One thing at least is clear In

the prosecution of his mission, Socrates did not dwell
upon the hope of immortality as a motive for piety and
otherwise we should certainly
virtue in this present life

in

nature."

have found some traces

The only hint which

ment that the soul
(tou

Oelov

human

of the doctrine in the Memorabilia.

I can find
of

jxere'^eL).-

and

soul

the

is

contained in the state-

man

participates in the divine

the kinship between the
divine that forms the ultimate
It

is

foundation of Plato's belief in immortality.

But nowhere
in the Memorabilia is the suggestion worked out.
The
Cyropa^dia, however, contains a notable passage, where
Xenophon makes the dying Cyrus express an inclination
to hold that man's vov<; or reason survives

the

moment

and when freed from the body and

encumbrances, attains to a measure of intelligence
of

its

dissolution,

far

The
greater than during its imprisonment in the tlesh.^
the
between
of
and
one
or
argument
parallel
Xenophon
two passages

of Plato's

Phaedo

is

so close, that

we may

fairly suppose their common master sometimes reasoned

in this way.*
At the same time Cyrus refrains from

dogmatising on the subject his last words are,

be in safety, beyond the reach of evil, whether I

"

God

{roi) Oelov), or whether I no longer exist."

I shall

am
^

with
This

just the position which the Platonic Socrates takes up

in the Apology, except that it is not the absence of evil,
but the positive presence of good, which is the leading
is

feature of the immortality which he there conceives as

possible, or, perhaps we should rather say, as probable.
In the Ajiology it is said that there are two possibilities,

and no

other.

another form of
observe
1

"

how

Plato

ii.

iv. 3.

14

Death must either be annihilation, or

life
and each of these alternatives

p. 191.
;

Socrates herein reveals his lifelong optimism

of.

i.

4. 8.

Phaed. G6 A-67 E, 79
ix. 572 A, x. 611 E.

Rep.
*

C'vr. viii. 7.

27.

f.

cf.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

346

is good.
sleep that

In the one case, rest from labour, a dreamless

knows no waking in the other, fellowship

with the mighty dead, Orpheus and Musaeus and Hesiod
and Homer. What greater happiness than to continue
in the other world the service to which God had called
him here, examining the heroes of old, Agamemnon, or
Odysseus, or Sisyphus, to see which of them is wise and
which

though

foolish,

missionary, as

it

wise

in

own

his

esteem

were, to the spirits in prison

But the

no
dhrjXov Travrl irXrjv rj tw dew
the
month
which
During
elapsed
between the condemnation and the death of Socrates, his

last

word

is

non

liquet

one knows but God.^

hope of immortality, perhaps, grew stronger there may

be more historical foundation for the Phaedo of Plato
than is commonly supposed.
Of one thing, however,
:

The soul may

according to Socrates, we may be sure.
or
it
survive
but
for
the
perish,
may
good man neither
;

nor death has any terrors his interests are safe with
"
God.2
Our times are in His hand trust God, nor be

life

afraid."

Our consideration of Socrates' views on immortality

has brought us by natural stages to the last division of
our subject.
What did Socrates teach about the Gods,
and man's duty towards the Gods ?
I cannot here
attempt to discuss the critical questions that have lately
been raised with reference to those passages of the
Memorabilia which profess to give an account of Socrates'
theological opinions.
in agreement with

It

must

Gomperz

suffice

to say that while

them to have

believe

really been

written by Xenophon, I go further than

Gomperz, and hold that Xenophon is in all probability
reproducing some of the actual conversations of his
master.
The tendency of some recent works has been to
look upon Aristotle, rather than Xenophon, as our primary
and most trustworthy source for the doctrine of the
1

Ap. 40 C

'
ff.

Apol. 41 D.

Cf.

Rom.

viii. 28.

SOCRATES

347

But the clfect of this assuinptiou

more than an assumption it cannot well be called is

historical Socrates.^

to

man himself in
represent not only the teacher, but also the
a different light from that in which he appeared to those
To them Socrates
with whom he lived in daily converse.
was not in the

first

instance what he was to Aristotle, the

"

inductive reasoning and definition," but rather,

as we have already seen from many testimonies, a spiritual
And, in point of fact, the
guide, philosopher, and friend.

founder of

particular form which Socrates' theology took,

is to

if

Xenophon

be believed, was just what we should expect from the

One who consistently preached the

rest of his teaching.
and the state, might well
individual
rule of Eeason in the

God

Eeason that rules the world.

To Socrates the whole of Nature appeared to bear the
Anticipating in scope and purpose,
impress of design.
conceive of

as the

"

"

though not, of course, in detail, the Anatomist's Hymn

of Oliver Wendell Holmes, he enlarges on the adaptation
of means to ends discernible in the structure of the
human body, arguing that it cannot be the work of
chance, but only of a wise artificer,
creatures he has made (o-otpov TLvo<i
j)L\o^oiov)}

The same

clearly taught

lesson,

by a study

who

loves

the

Brffiiovpyov

koI

he maintains, is even more

man's psychical nature.

of

Those involuntary instincts which ensure the safety of

the individual and the species, the reproductive impulse,
the love of parents for their children, our natural love of

and hatred of death the faculty of speech, by which

alone society, civilisation, and law are rendered possible
how are they all to be accounted for, except on the
life

hypothesis of a Being who deliberately planned the

Consider again the
existence and happiness of man ?
Man is the
religious endowment of the human race.
^

See, for example, JoL'l's learned

treatise, Der echtc

and exhaustive

und

clcr

Xenojyhontischc Sofcrates,

1893-1901.
^

Mem.

i.

4. 7.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

34S

only animal who can apprehend the existence of Gods,

the only creature who is privileged to do them service.
faculty of reason, by which we draw
what we perceive and devise contrivances
enjoying the good and repelling the evil.
Surely in

Or consider the
conclusions from
for
all

we have

this

intelligence

And

the

deliberating

strongest proof of a creative

for the interests of mankind.

man to outward nature, the spectacle

Socrates expatiates on the movements
of the heavenly bodies, on the blessed gift of sunlight,
on the silence of the nocturnal hours designed as if to
is

if

we

turn from

just the same.

he points to the earth yielding her fruit

due season, to the beneficent operation of the other
elements, and insists so powerfully on the adaptation of
invite repose

in

universal

disposed

nature to
to

human

doubt whether

needs, that Euthydemus is

the Gods have any other

occupation except to minister to man, till he remembers

that the other animals also partake in many of these
benefits.
True, replies Socrates but the lower animals
;

are themselves created for the sake of man, to supply

him with food and labour and so on. And finally, in

matters appertaining to the future, where

human

reason

avail, the Gods are ready and willing to help,

The
through the medium of oracles and divination.
inference which Socrates draws from all these apparent
is of

no

instances of design

is

that in nature, as in man, there

an indwelling intelligence or mind,

77

is

ev roG ttuvtI ^povqa-i'i,

and omnibenevolent,
but
need
nothing,
always working on behalf
of human creatures, both individually and collectively.
invisible, omnipresent, omniscient,

itself in

This

is

of

the Socratic conception of God, as described by

and Socrates further suggests that the

Xenophon
human mind is itself only an efflux or fragment of the
a theory which we have
universal or cosmic mind
already met with in Greek thought.^
;

Mem.

i.

4.

8.

SOCRATES
The

two

conversations

349

thus

suniniarised

In'ieliy

primitive and rudimentary form the

represent
so great
physico-theological argument which has played
a

in

It is doubtless correct
a part in the history of theism.
to look upon Socrates as tlie originator of this proof, in

the sense that he was the

first

who

deliberately

employed

the a posteriori traces of design in nature with a view to

establish the existence of a rational and beneficent Deity

a supreme intelligence controlling

things was not of course a new one.

but the doctrine of

and

directing^

all

By the poets, especially Pindar, Aeschylus, and Sophocles,

we are constantly reminded that Zeus is the universal
ruler, and one of his attributes is Eeason.
Among the
philosophers,
"

ruling all

as
Xenophanes speaks of the World-God
"
mind
the
his
of
the
purpose
things by
:

omnipresent Logos

of

Heraclitus

we have

divine and rational

and, according
ultimate cause of the World-order is Nous.
to

seen

to

be

Anaxagoras, the

The teleology

an imperfect attempt
but
to develop the pregnant suggestion of Anaxagoras

of Socrates looks at first sight like

the reasoning is much too anthropocentric to deserve

to be regarded as an adequate interpretation of the

For that we must look to Plato,

Anaxagorean concept.
Socrates' discourses
and still more, perhaps, to Aristotle.
on this subject should rather be compared with a noteworthy passage of Herodotus, where it is remarked as an
indication of the divine providence {tov Oelov ?; irpovocT))
that timorous and edible animals, such as the hare, have

been created
to

man and

prolific,

whereas those which are dangerous

and winged

unfit for food, like lions, vipers,

Or we may compare the

which Euripides, inspired, perhaps, by Socrates
himself, enumerates tlie blessings we owe to the God
"who shaped in order's mould
serpents, breed very sparingly.^
in

lines

Ouv
1

Mem.

lives
i.

redeemed from chaos and the brute,"

4 aud

"

iv. 3.

iii.

108.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

3SO

dwelling successively on the gift of reason, the faculty of

speech, the bountiful produce of the earth, and so on,
concluding, just like Socrates, with a reference to the
art of divination by which the Gods disclose what human

The truth clearly is, that in its

see.^
aim
and
immediate
purpose the theology of Socrates is
At the same time,
hortatory rather than philosophical.
by representing God as the immanent reason of the
world, as well as by insisting, however narrowly, on the
adaptation of means to ends in nature, he exercised a
cannot

reason

influence

considerable
as

on

later

theological
thought,
Cicero's de

be seen from the second book of

may

Natura Deorum}
It

remains

teaching on

consider

to

briefly

Socrates'

religious

Plato in the Eutliyphro

makes him say that every blessing we enjoy is the gift
of Heaven,^
Hence the object of worship, according to
Socrates,

is

its practical

side.

not to win the favour or appease the anger

If it
but simply to express our gratitude.

of the Gods,

urged that the Gods are too exalted to require our

is

"

The greater the power that

homage, Socrates replies,
tends us, the more we are bound to do it honour." *
How then are we to honour the Gods ? So far as

we should
God according to

external forms and ceremonies are concerned,

obey the oracle of Delphi, and worship

the law or custom of our country

(v6fi(p

7r6X,e&)<?).^

assures us that Socrates invariably enforced

and Plato's
this principle by example as well as precept

Xenophon

evidence

to a similar effect.^

is

conceive

"

worship God according to the

injunction to
"
It
a twofold implication.
carries
your city
1

Sup'pl.
esp.

201
73

f.

Way.

ti'.

this
Scholiast on
passage cites the parallel, "Every
good gift and every perfect boon is
3

14 E.

from above"

(St.

James

i.

17).

Mem.

Mem.
Mem.

i.

i.
i.

118 A, and

that

the

custom of
seems to

4. 10.
3, 1.

Cf. Plato, Pliaed.

3. 1.
Itej). i.

327 A.

SOCRATES

351

suggest on the one hand that all men everywhere worship

the same God, though under different names and with

and ceremonies.

forms

different

doctrine

similar

lesson

eternal laws

is

or

by the
implanted by the Gods themselves in the
consciences of all mankind, without distinction of
and we may infer from Xenonationality or race
taught

indirectly

of

principles,

phon that Socrates was one

those

of

who

entertained

In the second place, the Delphic command

appears to imply that the essence of true religion does not
It is of comparatively
consist in observances and rites.
slight importance how or with what ritual we worship
this belief.^

we should

acquiesce in the form of religion appointed by

the State, and give ourselves no further anxiety on that
What really matters is the spirit the inward
score.
character of

mind and

Speaking

pray.

soul

with which we

sacrifice

Socrates' view of sacrifice,

of

and

Xenophon

"

If with scant means he offered but small

he believed that he was in no wise inferior to
others who make frequent and large sacrifices from an
It were ill surely for the very gods themampler store.

thus writes

sacrifices,

they take delight in large sacrifices rather

than in small, else oftentimes must the offerings of bad
men be found acceptable rather than of good nor from
the point of view of men themselves would life be worth
living if the offerings of a villain rather than of a
selves, could

righteous
belief

man

found favour in the sight of Heaven.

was that the joy

tion to the holiness of the giver,

admirer

of that line of

"'According

As

we

J/fj/i. iv. 4.

Mem.

O.Z). 336.

i.

3.

Cf,

19
3

ff.

do

sacrifice to the ininioi-tal gods.'"

are told by

See

p. 1

Dakyus.

and he was ever an

Hesiod which says,

to thine .ability

for prayer,

His

of the gods is greater in propor-

6."> IT.

Hes.

" He
Eur. /r. 916,

Xenophon that Socrates

who with
lice,

])ioiis heart doth sacriSmall thougli the oH'eriug l)c,

salvation wins."

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

352

"

is good, without further

that
Gods best know what is
the
specification, believing
^
of
In
the
second
the
two Platonic dialogues
jfood."

used to pray for that wliich

named

an
old Lacedaemonian prayer
us,
King Zeus, what
and avert from
is good, whether we pray for it or not
^
if
In its perfect
we pray for it."
us the evil, even
faith and self-suppression, the Socratic formula of prayer
is more Christian than Greek.
I have dwelt so long upon the doctrine of tSocratcs,
after Alcibiades, Socrates quotes with approval
"

Give

that

we may be

the secret

what
Lest

of

danger, perhaps, of forgetting that

influence over his disciples lay in

in

his

was even more

he

we should

into

fall

than
this

in

what he

error,

let

taught.

me remind

words with which Xenophon ends the

"
To lue, personally, he was what I have
myself endeavoured to describe so pious and devoutly
religious that he would take no step apart from the will
of heaven
so just and upright that he never did even a

you

the

of

Memorabilia

so self-controlled, so
injury to any living soul
that
he
never
at
time
chose the sweeter
temperate,
any
trifling

in place of the better

so sensible and wise and prudent
that in distinguishing the better from the worse he never
;

erred

nor had he need of any helper, but for the knowjudgment was at once infallible

ledge of these matters, his

and self-sufficing.
Capable of reasonably setting forth
and defining moral questions, he was also able to test
others, and where they erred, to cross-examine and convict them, and so to impel and guide them in the path
of virtue and noble manhood.
With these characteristics,
he seemed to be the very impersonation of human perfection and happiness."^
This obviously sincere and heartfelt testimony will show us what the living Socrates was
to his followers
^

Mem.

Ale.

i.

ii.

3. 2.

143 A.

but there

is

something
^

Mem.

still

iv. 8.

to be said.

11 Dakyns.

SOCRATES
Great as was the influence

353

of his

life,

tlie

exercised through his death was not less great.

power he
That the

most truly moral and religious of tlie Greeks should liave

been condemned on the double charge of corrupting the
youth and introducing new Gods, cannot l)ut appear a

And yet it is not

understand the causes which brought about

signal instance of the irony of Fate.

difficult

to

Some part, no doubt, was

the martyrdom of Socrates.
and
rancour
we are told in
hostility
played by personal
;

the Apology that he had

made not

a few enemies in the

The repeated attacks of the

comedians, culminating in the Clouds of Aristophanes,
may also have done something to instil and foster in the

exercise of his vocation.^

a prejudice against one whom they invariably represented as the leading champion of the so-called
But these two causes, if such they may
sophistic culture.

public

mind

be called, were at most subsidiary otherwise Socrates

could hardly have escaped persecution for so long.
It is indeed a remarkable testimony to the toleration
;

countrymen, that so outspoken a critic of Athenian

democracy and statesmen should have made his first
of his

acquaintance with a law court at the age of seventy."

We must therefore look for circumstances of a more
special character to explain why he
that particular time.
The date was
after

the restoration of

the

was put on

at

trial

399

B.C., four years

democracv.
Although a

formal amnesty had been proclaimed, the rule of the

Thirty had left bitter memories which it was not easy to
efface.
Socrates himself had taken no part in any of the
revolutions by which Athens had been convulsed
could not be forgotten that the majority
associates

that

he

were

himself,

demned the
utterance
1

23

men

other
f.

but
of

it

his

oligarchical sympathies, and

in his actions, con-

however loyal

institution of

to
22

of

the

lot,

sentiments of

and frequently gave

an anti-democratical
-

Apol. 17 D.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

354

nature.

Above

all,

the hated Critias had once belonged

and both
so, too, had Alci blades

to the Socratic circle

them had inflicted irreparable harm upon their country.

It was beyond doubt this early intimacy with AlcilDiades
and Critias that was the most powerful factor in the trial
The orator Aeschines
and condemnation of Socrates.
of

expressly says that the Athenians put Socrates to death

because he had taught CritiaSj one of the Thirty who had

overthrown the constitution.^ Mingled with this motive,

there was also, no doubt, a feeling of apprehension for
What had happened already might happen
the future.
for
Socrates'
power over the young was in no way
again
;

diminished, and he
Thus it
words."

continued to practise the " art of

little wonder that in the strong

still
is

republican reaction that had

now

set in, Socrates

should

have been regarded by some as a source of danger to the

and in point of fact, the most dangerous of his
state
three accusers was Anytus, a prominent politician of the
day, one of those who had co-operated with Thrasybulus
;

in the re-establishment of the democracy.

But if the immediate cause of Socrates'

was

On

condemnation

political, the issues involved were infinitely greater.

the day when Socrates was tried, two ideals of life,

two conceptions of religion, stood forth as rivals for the

The one was the old Hellenic
allegiance of mankind.
conception of the city-state, strong in its self-centred
exclusiveness and isolation, strong in its narrow patriotism

and devotion to the Gods of one particular nationality

the other was humanism and the worship of a God who
knows no distinction between bond and free, barbarian
and Greek, but exercises his providential care over the
The old ideal had already been
whole human race.
undermined by the teaching of Euripides and the
It was
the future was clearly with the new.
Sophists
:

long

before

the

new

ideal
1

V//

triumphed

Tim. 173.

perhaps,

nay

SOCRATES

355

certainly, it has not achieved its final triumph even now

but the death of Socrates, so far from impeding its
:

In the Apology,
it fresh life and vigour.
Socrates warns the Athenians that others would arise to

progress, gave

"

If by putting men
carry on the work he had begun.
to death you hope to prevent others from reproaching

you because you do not live aright, you are mistaken.

Such a way of escape is neither possible nor honourable
the easiest and the noblest way is not to coerce others,
"
The
but to make yourselves as good as possible. ^
in
a
far
sense
than
was
fulfilled
Socrates,
deeper
prophecy
if
he used these words, could have anticipated.
The
ideal of which Socrates was the half-conscious prophet
and the earliest martyr was never afterwards lost sight
of by Greek thinkers.
More than any other of the
:

Greeks, Plato prepared the

way

for its partial realisation

and without the life and death of

Christianity
we
should
Socrates,
hardly have had the Republic and the
Fhaedo.
It was something, too, that having taught his
followers how to live, Socrates should have been perin

mitted also to teach them

how

to die.

"

No

one," says

Xenophon, "within the memory of man, it is admitted,

ever bowed his head to death more nobly.
After the
sentence he must needs live for thirty days, since it was
the month of the Delia,' and the law does not suffer any
'

man

to die

the

sacred

by the hand of the public executioner until

embassy return from Delos,
During the

whole of that period (as his acquaintances without exception can testify) his life proceeded as usual.
There was
nothing to mark a difference between now and formerly
in the even tenour of its courage
and it was a life which
at all times had been a marvel of cheerfulness and calm
;

content."

'

39 D.

'

Mem.

iv. 8.

Dakyns.

LECTURE XVIII
PLATO
The Cosmological Docteine;
Passing over the minor Socratic

schools,

who

arc

of

importance in connection with the

comparatively
snbject of our inquiry, I propose to devote the remaining
lectures to Plato.
little

by Diogenes Laertius that on the night

met Plato for the first time, he dreamt
that a young swan rested for a moment on his knees, and
then suddenly grew wings and flew aloft, uttering a sweet
The story is admirably devised to illustrate not
cry.^
It

is

related

before Socrates

only the peculiar character of Plato's genius, but also

the relation in which he stood to the master whom he
so

and honoured.
and moral impulse of

greatly loved

intellectual

The most powerful

was com-

Plato's life

municated to him by Socrates but although he started

from a basis of Socraticism, he soared to heights of
religious and poetical idealism which Socrates never
In another way, too, Plato differs from
contemplated.
We have seen that Socrates
the teacher of his youtli.
;

was interested only in man

physical speculations he
so-called
exact
sciences appeared to
the
and
abjured,
him worse than useless. Plato's intellectual horizon is
He was acquainted with all the
incomparably wider.
culture of his own and previous generations.
Although
a liumanist, and always prone to
first and foremost
:

iii.

356

5.

THE COSMOLOGICAL DOCTRINE

357

interpret nature in the light of anthropology, he nevertheless aspired to construct a system of pliilosophy which

should afford an explanation both of man himself and

The spirit of
also of the imi verse in which he lives.
that philosophy

endeavour

to

is

principal doctrines.
its

marked degree religious, as I will

by a consideration of some of its
So vast a subject would require for

in a

show

adequate treatment at least a course of lectures to

but so far as my powers and opportunities extend,

itself,

try to explain the general

will

religious

significance

of Plato's thought.
shall find, I

We

think, that the famous allegory of

the Cave in the RcpuUic is a convenient starting-point
for our investigation.
At the end of the sixth book,
Plato draws a sharp distinction between the objects of

sense-perception and opinion on the one hand, and the

or reason on the other.

invisible objects of knowledge

The simile of the Cave, with

which the seventh book

make

us realise more clearly the

opens,
relation wiiich Plato l)elieves to exist between the visible
is

intended to

and the

invisible.
The proportion by which the simile
should be interpreted is this as the Cave stands to tlie
world of visibles, so the visible world stands to that
:

which

We

is

unseen and eternal.

are

prisoners

first

invited

immured

in

subterranean chamber.

to

conceive

of

number

of

long and gradually sloping

They are so firmly bound that

they cannot move head or limb they see nothing either

one another, the necessity of their
;

of themselves or of

situation compelling them always to direct their gaze on

the wall in which the cave ends.
At some distance

above and behind the prisoners, a fire is burning, and

between them and the fire is a transverse path, flanked
by a low wall.
Along this roadway carriers are constantly passing, witli all kinds of manufactured implements and images upon their heads, statuettes of men

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

3S8

and other animals, wrought in wood and stone and every

sort of material.
The wall skirting the pathway interof
the
shadows of the carriers, but the
course,
cepts,
objects they carry overtop the wall, and are reflected by
the light of the fire upon the end wall of the dungeon.
Thus it happens that the prisoners see only a constant
"
succession of
shadow-shapes that come and go," and
having

never

suppose these

seen

anything

besides,

they

naturally

to be the sole realities.

moving phantoms

They have no conception of the images by which the

shadows are cast, still less of the originals from which
"
these images themselves are copied.
Truly a strange
"
similitude and strange prisoners
Glauco.
'O/jlolov^
says
!

r]ixiv, is

The next

"

^
they are like ourselves."
division of
the simile deals

the reply

with the
from bondage.
When the chains are
unloosed, and he is suddenly compelled to stand erect,
and turn round, and walk, and raise his eyes towards
the light, he is at first dazzled and perplexed (uTropet),
and in his bewilderment would fain still cherish the
delusion that after all there is more light and truth
in the shadows he formerly saw, than in the originals
he now beholds.
Finally, his guide succeeds in dragging

prisoner's release

"

him

forth into the upper world, away from the

sun"
illumined lantern
into the actual sunlight.
Slowly
his eyes become accustomed to the brightness.
At
first

we

he discerns only the shadows and images of what

real
afterwards he is able to

in this world call

look upon the originals from which they come, and so

on progressively from higher to yet higher, until at last

he endures to gaze upon the Sun and see him as he is
"
in his own domain.
And then," says Plato, " he will
concerning the Sun, concluding that
he who causes the seasons and years, and is the
steward (eTnTpoireixov) of everything in the visible sphere,
begin to reason
it

is

.515

A.

THE COSMOLOGICAL DOCTRINE

and

the cause of

iu a certain sense

all

^
fellow-prisoners formerly beheld."
It would be
premature at the

formulate

to

attempt

the

359

that he and his

present stage to
contained in this

doctrine

we shall understand it better as our exposiallegory

In the meantime, let us concentrate
tion advances.
:

our attention on the main

which the allegory

means that just as the

lesson

Plato

intended to teach.

is

Cave is an image of the visible world, so the visible

The prisoners see only
an image of the invisible.
shadows of images produced by a light which is itself
In
no more than an image, compared with the Sun.
like manner that which we see around us is the visible
is

it is
created by the Sun
image of invisible reality
the
and the Sun himself in turn is but an image
^
of
or
of
the
Father
Plato
cK'yovo^
says
offspring,
To
Plato
that
the
Good.
the
true
all,
is,
reality
that which is
is the invisible, the perfect, the eternal
the world of sense and opinion is transitory and
rwv
imperfect, consisting at best only of avTirvm-a
;

"

akTjOivMP,
things that

mirror
as

it

that

/SXeiro/xev

is

said

Plato

like

things
reveal

to

in

us

yap apri

^
pattern to the true,"
the truth darkly, as in

by St. Paul.*
drew his inspiration
"

We

iaoirrpov ev alvlyixari,
It was from the invisible

hi

with

St.

Paul,

he

things which
for the
are seen, but at the things which are not seen
things which are seen are temporal, but the things

might have

said,

look not

the

at

which are not seen are

Plato's

message

to

accurately expressed

world

than

could

The substance of
hardly be more

the words

in

of

St.

Paul

^i]TCT, TO, dvco (^povelre^ fir) ra eVi tj]? 'yPj<i

Seek the things that are above, set your mind on

TO.

"

the

eternal."

avo)

'

516 B.

'

507A

f.

'

Hcb.

ix. 24.

Cor.

2 Cor.

xiii. 12.

iv.

8.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

36o

the thiugs that are above, not on the things that arc
^
At the end of the BcpiMic he says,
upon the earth."
"
will ever cleave to the upward road (t?79 av(o
oSov del
and follow after righteousness
e^o/jieda),

We

and

wisdom."

to

make

us

from

ivOevhe

the

The
seen

things

that

eKelae^

of

object

look

soul

to

we

philosophy

is

opdv), to lead
unseen
diro roiv

(avco

things
"

may

and divine."^
quote these parallels from the
things

his

all

upward

immortal

our

set

have

New

minds

on

ventured

to

Testament, partly

circle of Plato's own writings it

impossible to find language better suited to convey
his meaning, and partly also with the
subsidiary object
of calling attention to the real
kinship of thought

because outside the

is

illuminating, I think, so far as

and St. Paul.

it

goes

between Plato

Eeturning now to our simile, we have to distinguish

three different stages in the career of the prisoner who
is
There
ultimately brought out of darkness into light.
first of all the
next in
period before he is released
order comes the release itself and subsequent journey
"
"
up the rough and steep ascent into the light of day

is

the goal is attained.

By explaining and
from
the
of
Plato
each of these
illustrating
dialogues
three stages in their natural order, we shall be able to
and,

finally,

form some idea

First, then,

of the religious affinities of Platonism.

we have

to study the

position of the soul

are the chains

What

while she

is

still

by which,
bound ?

in

her

unregenerate

prisoner.

condition,

the

soul

is

Perhaps we shall most readily arrive at the answer to

question by taking the Timaeus as our guide
and a brief investigation of the leading philosophical and
this

Col.

621 C.
Bej). 529 A.

iii.

1, 2.

>

(f)povlv

90 C.

aOavaTa kol

Oela,

Tim.

THE COSMOLOGICAL DOCTRINE

361

is necessary also on its

In the Timacus, Plato furnishes us with an
account of the creation of the world and the creation of

religious ideas of that dialogue

own account.

Whether the whole or any part of

mythical, and what part, if any, should be
man.

this account is

so regarded,

is

one of those perennial questions which beset the student

of Plato on every side.
It is a question which will never,
perhaps, be
differently

fancy,

finally

that

settled,

"

mere

because

men

what one man takes

investiture," as

figurative

made

are

for

so

mere poetic

Zeller

calls

it,

another will suppose to be literal.

Similar difficulties
of
in
connection
with
the interpretation
arise,
course,
the Old Testament

of

For

my own

and other writings

of

the kind.

think that Plato's emphatic statement

about the creation of the world
by which, of course, he
part, I

means the introduction

to be understood

of order into

literally,

chaos

intended

is

and not figuratively

but the

the exposition are mythical in the Platonic

sense of the word
an etVco? fMv6o<i,^ that is to say,
details of

we may

from the PJiacdo, a story al^out

be said, " This or something like it is true." ^
The business of a critic of the Timaeus should therefore be
as

which

it

learn, perhaps,

may

the underlying principles or ideas from the

and so far
particular form in which they are expressed
as concerns the subject of these lectures, I will endeavour,
to separate

however imperfectly, to perform this task.

"
The World," says Plato, " is a mixed creation,
resulting from a combination of Necessity and Eeason."
According to the account in the Timacus, the Deity is
inevitably hampered by the intractaljle nature of the
material on which he has to work.
When speaking of
the Creator's efforts to make the world beautiful and
*

good, Plato constantly introduces a qualifying phrase.

In one passage we read, " God, desirous that all things
'

Tim. 28 B
Tim. 29 D.

cf.

53 B.
*

See Phord. 114

Tim. 47 E f.

L).

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

362

should be good, and that, s,o far as possible {Kara hvva^uv),

In another, it is said
there should be nothing evil," etc.^
"
that God introduced into this material substance as many

And simiproportions as it ivas possible for it to receive.^

a caveat
with
meet
we
cases
in
other
nearly
always
larly
exsuch
ra
or
some
oTt
irXelaTa,
fxakicna,
fxaXia-ra,
:

That these phrases are not otiose, but point to

the existence of a Necessity not belonging to God's own
nature, we are bound to infer from the attribute of

pression.^

goodness which Plato invariably ascribes to God. Already

in the Republic, Plato had emphasised the essential
*
so
antagonism between the necessary and the good
;

that the principle of Necessity, which plays so prominent

a part in the Timaeus, must be something altogether
otherwise the unity of the
distinct from the Deity
:

It is true, of course, that

impaired.
to
the
teaching of the Timaeus, is to
Necessity, according
a considerable extent submissive to the will of God.

Divine nature

is

"

Eeason
the process of creation,
ruled Necessity by persuading her to guide the majority
^
of things created to the best end."
But, as Jowett has
"
is
still subject to a
Plato
in
Creator
the
observed,

Thus we read that

remnant

in

of Necessity

which he cannot wholly overcome."

Plato expressly declares that God made the world perfect

only in so far as Necessity, willingly, and having yielded
And elsewhere we read that
allowed^
to
persuasion,

"

can never perish

but of necessity
in heaven
evil

and

nor yet can it be situated

it haunts our mortal nature

this present world.^

It

would seem,

this is another of

therefore, althougli

disputed questions of Platonic scholarship, that

the cosmology of the Timaeus is dualistic.
Anaxagoras
the

many

had

said,

"
=*

"

All things were together

Tim. 30 A.
Tim. 69 B.
e.g. 29 E,
vi. 493 C.

30 D, 32 D, 48 A.

'
"^

48 A.
Plato

then Eeason came

iii.

p.

391.

Tim. 56 C.

Theaet. 176 A.

THE COSMOLOGICAL DOCTRINE

363

To much the same ehect, only

set them in order."
with a characteristic expansion of the teleological idea,
"
Plato writes
Having taken over all that was visible,

and

not in a condition of

rest,

and order, God brought

it

but moving without harmony

out of its disorder into order,

thinking that this condition was in every way a better

"
"
Divine Child
In itself, the Qdov 'yevvqTov or
one." ^
-

ReimMic Plato designates the Universe

the
human child, of a body and a soul.
consists, like
Plato begins by describing the generation of the body
The Creator takes in hand the primeval
of the world.
for so in the

matter, and fashions

accordance with the

The

of

details

it,

as

perfect
narrative

the

as Necessity allows, in

far

model

in

his

own mind.

do not concern us

they

But
poetical, or fanciful.
from
nevertheless pervaded
begin-

are almost entirely a priori,

Plato's cosmology is
ning to end by one great idea, the importance of which
every physicist must recognise, namely, that the world

constructed

is

on

mathematical

principles.

It

is

by

"

forms and numbers," that is to say, mathematical forms and mathematical numbers, that the Creator,
who, according to the famous Platonic text preserved by

means

of

^eo 9
playing the mathematician
The
brought order out of chaos.^
four elements, from which God makes the body of the
world, result from the union between certain portions of

Plutarch,
(ie\

is

always

yeoi/iieTpel

the

undetermined

original

mathematical forms which

the Creator.'^

On

its

substance

and the

specific

imprinted on them

are

and rehgious

poetical

side,

by

as I

have elsewhere

pointed out,^ the Platonic conception

should be compared with the famous passage in Isaiah
"
Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his
:

hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and com1
Tim. 30 A.
rim. I.e. and 53 C ff.
*

viii.

546 B.

Plut.

viii. 2,
p.

''

Qucestimies

718

Conviviales,
Tim. 53 B.

The Eejntblic of Plato,

p. 163.

vol.

ii.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

364

the

prehended

the

weighed

"

balance

which

dust of

the

mountains

in

earth
scales,

Or we may compare the

Isaiah, perhaps, inspired

"

Him

in

and

measure, and
the hills in a
of Milton,

lines

all his train

Followed in bright procession, to behold

Creation, and the wonders of his might.
the fervid wheels, and in his hand
took the golden compasses, prepared
In God's eternal store, to circumscribe
This Universe, and all created things.
One foot he centred, and the other turned

Then stayed

He

Round through

And

'

said,

the vast profundity obscure.

far extend, thus far thy bounds

Thus

This be thy just circumference,

The

scientific

World

import of Plato's notion

is

" -

'

precisely ex-

pressed by a modern writer, who describes the Laws of

"
three Laws of divine working in Nature,
Kepler as
a statement which, apart from
I imagine, be accepted by
would,
theological setting,
shall afterwards see how this conmen of science.

discovered by Kepler,"
its

We

mathematics as the instrument by which God

works in Nature, helps to explain the great importance
If the
which Plato attaches to mathematical studies.
Universe is constructed by God in accordance with

ception of

mathematical laws,
stand

it

and

its

it

is

Maker

clear
is

that the

way

to under-

We
study mathematics.
this was one of the reasons
to

may fairly suppose that

why on the gate of Plato's Academy were
the words

'A<y60)fieTpr)To<i

fjbi]

inscribed

elcrira).

Besides this fundamental principle, the germ of which

was already present in pre-Platonic Pythagoreanism, there

another point deserving of particular notice in conI have spoken of

nection with the cosmology of Plato.
which
is
as
the
responsible for the evil
power
Necessity

is

xl. 12.

Paradise Lost

vii.

221

ff.

THE COSMOLOGICAL DOCTRINE

and imperfection

But we must carefully

the world.

in

365

observe that, in proportion as Necessity yields to the

persuasion of the Deity, lier maleficent inlluence is
held

check.

in

another

to

Or,

the

put

same

statement in

primeval chaos submits

to be mathematically determined, its inherent ugliness

and
have

so

form,

evil

are

far

as

controlled.

noticed,

already

the

It

that

is

true,

of

course, as

we

sometimes
always cleaves even

Necessity

is

obdurate, and that imperfection

to the fairest of created things.
With the pracfervidum
ingenium characteristic of the idealist, Plato in one

remarkable passage
heavens.

It

is

of the Eepiihlic disparages the starry

he says, to imagine that the

absurd,

and stars, possessed as they are of visible and

material bodies, can possil^ly be uniform or flawless in
sun

their

movements.

with the visible

most he

at

will

The genuine astronomer

to. iv rw
ovpavw
use them only as a kind
stars,

the purpose of illustrating those

perfect

will dispense
id(To/j,v,

or

of orrery for

mathematical

movements which they imperfectly reproduce, and with

which alone the true science of astronomy is concerned.^
At the same time, when Plato lets his mind drink in
the grandeur of the heavens, when he thinks of the
harmonious and well-ordered movements of the celestial
bodies in contrast with the life of man upon the earth,
he is capable of writing with equal or even greater
enthusiasm to the opposite effect, particularly in his
latest works, the Timaeus and the Laws.
In the Laws
he declares that the very name of planet or " wandering
"

and in the Timaeus God is said

have bestowed on us the gift of sight, expressly in

star

to

is

a blasphemy

order that

we might behold

the

movements

of Pteason

in the sky, and assimilate thereto the kindred movements

of our own intelligences.^
No ancient writer has a
'

Rep. vii. 529 C-530 C.

vii. 821 C ff.

47

f.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

366

and magnificence of the

again and again throughout the
Platonic writings, more especially in the myths of the
PhaedriLs, the Phaedo, and the Bepublic but all the beauty,

livelier

sense

Universe

it

the beauty

of

shows

itself

all the

foul

beneficence

of

is

God

whatever

is

malignant and

comes from Necessity.

These, I think, are the principal points requiring to

be noticed in connection with Plato's account of the way

which God creates the body of the World.

Far more
in
on
our
its
is
his
important
subject
theory of
bearing
in

the World-soul.

Plato

is

careful to point out that soul

in reality older than body, although in his narrative

"
he describes the creation of body first.
In birth and

is

excellence," he says,

"

God made

soul prior to

than the body, to be the mistress and ruler

and older

whom

the

^
It is interesting to observe how
body should obey."
the Platonic doctrine of a soul that animates the World

analogy between the macrocosm and the

but the reason assigned by Plato for the

revives the old

microcosm

existence of the World-soul

and nothing

is

just the divine goodness,

else,

"God was good: and no

one who is good can ever be jealous

aught at any time so l)eing free from jealousy he desired that
" To
all things should be niade as like as possible unto himself." ^
the best it never was and never is permitted to do aught but that
which is most beautiful. So the Creator bethought himself and
found that of the things which are by nature visible, nothing
destitute of Eeason, taken as a whole, would ever be fairer than
what is possessed of Eeason taken as a whole, and that without
soul Reason could not be present in anything.
Arguing in this
way, when he framed the Universe, he set Reason in soul, and
soul in body, in order that he might be the author of a work that
in its nature should be as beautiful and good as possible." ^
of

Thus the world, according to Plato, lives because of

but out of wh^t elements did
the divine excellence
;

1
-

Thn. 34 C.
Tim. 29 E.

Tim. 30

f.

THE COSMOLOGICAL DOCTRINE

God

fashion

tributes

On

and what

soul,

are

its

at-

the

detail.

cosmic

this

367

first

It will

of these

to

suffice

questions we need not go into

say that the elements of the

World-soul are three in number- Sameness, Otherness,

and the substance which is formed by l)lending the
These three ingredients are
Other with the Same.^

combined by the Creator into a unity or whole,

which he afterwards divides and recombines in accordance with certain numerical proportions borrowed
or adapted from Pythagorean systems of astronomy and

first

harmonics.
the

of

In fashioning the soul as well as the body

Universe, the Deity, you will observe,

is

still

The next and

ael

mathematician
<^e<o^ieTpei.
substance of the
penultimate stage is to redivide the
and
halves
two
into
World-soul
finally, by means of
not
here describe, one of
we
need
which
manipulations
^eo?

the two halves

that

is

to say,

made into the

the movement of
is

outer or exterior motion,

the circle of fixed stars,

while the other, having been differentiated into seven

separate circles, furnishes the motion of the sun, moon,
The outermost circle, revolving daily from
and planets.

East to West, Plato calls the circle of the Same while

the seven inner circles, representing the movement of the
form the circle of
planets from West to East, collectively
;

"

"
the Other, but are also
comprehended by the movement of the Same which is Plato's method of accounting
for the apparent daily movements of the planetary bodies
;

along with the celestial sphere from East to West.^

The attributes belonging to the cosmic soul are motion

and

intelligence.

On

the

first of

these attributes I have

movealready touched, so far as it is manifested, in the

ments of the planets but one or two further points
;

regard Sameness and Other-

ness as virtually synonymous with

the "indivisible" and the "divisible"(r/m. 35 A).

For

made

to

details,

reference may be
of the Bejmhiic

my edition

of Plato, vol.

ii.

\\ 44811'.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

368

be

to

require

in

pounded

KLvelv Kivi]cn<i

noted.

to

According

definition

pro-

the Laios, soul is r] Swa/xiutj avTrj avrrjv

"
the species of motion which is able to

move itself." ^
The essential quality
movement movement derived from no

of

soul

is

self-

external source

whatever, but spontaneously originated from within.It is further to be observed that soul not only

moves

but

itself,

and

not

locomotion

and

separation

name

these

in

solution,

the

of

species

only

of

movement in all
"
"
movement

of

the word

to

much

more comprehensive
In the Latos he enumermotion, among which are included
a

meaning than we usually

ates ten

cause

the

is

other things that move

Plato gives
(KivT}ai<i),

do.

its

various

forms,

but

also

combination,

growth,

decay,

and

dis-

in

word everything comprehended under

Of each and all of
physical change.^
so

movements, therefore,

as they take place

far

throughout the physical world, we may suppose that

the World-soul is the cause.
The entire life and energy

Universe proceed from it.'*

to the second attribute, that of intelligence
or Eeason, if we understand the word in its strictest

of the

With regard

possible

sense,

we must

hold,

think,

coextensive with the element of the

position

of

the

World-soul

for

Same

that

this

in the

is

com-

Eeason, according to

and uniform, Kke that which

it cognises.
What then are we to suppose to have
been the significance of the two remaining ingredients,
namely. Otherness and the mixture of Otherness and
The quality of Otherness belongs to the
Sameness ?
world of sense and opinion for Otherness is the principle of multiplicity and change, just as Sameness is
the principle of unity and permanence.
In virtue,
is

Plato,

always

stable

therefore, of its element

1

Laws
Of.

X. 896 A.
Phaedr. 245 C.

of

Otherness, the World-soul

^
*

x.

Cf.

893

B if.

Laws

x.

896 Eff.

THE COSMOLOGICAL DOCTRINE

will

apprehend the

of

sphere

one passage of the Tiviaeus,

it is

careful to point out that its

is

free

from

admixture

every

sensibles;

369

and

this,

hi

only Plato
are
and
beliefs
opinions
said to do

of

error,

and in

so

far,

find
perhaps, we may call them rational.^
of
function
that Plato himself anywhere explains the
of
Otherness
the mixture
the intermediate element
I

cannot

and Sameness in the constitution of the World-soul.

Symmetry would seem to demand that this ingredient
should

enable

to

it

objects whicli
Other.
Perhaps

certain

apprehend

are at once, in a sense, both Same and

the realities of mathematics, as they were conceived by
It should be premised
Plato, supply what is required.
perfect triangles, circles, squares, etc., which
true objects of mathematical study, as distinguished from the figures we draw upon the board,

the

that

are

the

by Plato with a substantial

They are the instruments by means of which, as we have already seen, the
Deity introduces limit into the unlimited in His creation
Now these mathematical realities ra
of the world.
would appear
fjLad7]fiaTi,Kd is Aristotle's name for them
to participate at once in Sameness and in Otherness.
were apparently invested

existence on their

By

own

account.

reason of their quality of Sameness, they are eternal

and unchangeable, like the transcendent Ideas between

which and phenomena they form the connecting link
but to the element of Otherness we must ascribe the
plurality which they share in common with the visible
world
for Plato, if I understand him rightly, holds
;

that although
"

there

think,

deny

his master.^
1

is

but
"

mathematical

triangles
that Aristotle
If

this

Ideal

Triangle,

many

nor

does

anyone,

attributes

such

conjecture

37 B. Contrast the aXo7os ai'o-^T/crts of the human soul, 69 D.

This subject is discussed more
fully in my edition of the Rejmblic
'^

one

exist

is

admitted,

view to

we must

It is
pp. 159-162.
right, however, to say that niauy
distinguished critics deny that
Plato himself regarded fiad-qfutriKo.

of Plato, vol.

ii.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

370

World-soul, through its three component elements, Otherness, Otherness mixed with
Sameness, and Sameness itself, apprehends the three

suppose that the

successive

of

stages

truth,

namely,

Mathe-

Sensibles,

matical realities, and Ideas.

It need only be added
that the World-soul, as described in the Tiniaeus, has

nothing analogous to the principles of anger and desire,

which, according to
6vfioeLS<; and iTrcOvfirjTiKov,
Plato, constitute so large and turbulent a portion of
the

human

In this negative sense, therefore, as

soul.

well as by virtue of

World
The
pleted,

its

intelligence, the

soul

of

the

rational.

is

and body

soul

of

World being now com-

the

God

"set the soul in the centre of the body and drew

whole framework, yea, and wrapped the whole

it

through the

body with a

covering of soul, and made it a sphere revolving in a circle, one

only Universe in lonely splendour, but able by reason of its
excellence to be

its

own companion, and needing none

suthcient unto itself for acquaintance

Let us

now

and

friend."

other, being

briefly consider the theological significance

of the World-soul.
It is to be ob-

of Plato's account

served, in the first place, that he calls the

"
Tov TTotijTov, fjuovoyevi]';,
the image of its

The

begotten."
and Son.-

God

alaOrjToq or

of

had finished

own
he

nature,"
retired

between them

is

elKcov

Maker, onlythat of Father

In the second place, the World

deo'i

World-God

relation

World

"

itself

is

like

the

perceivable God,"
Further, when the Creator
Xenophanes.^
"
his task,
he abode," says Plato, " in his

to

or,

according to the

his

watch-tower,^ having

between Ideas and

for example, E.
Sensibles
see,
Caird, The Evolution of Theology
in the Greek Philosoplurs i. p. 164,
and J. Cook Wilson, Classical
The view
Eevicw xviii. p. 251
developed above is like that of
as intevmediate
:

of the Foliticus,

myth

delegated, ap-

Ueberweg-Heiuze, Gesch.
sophie
^

^
^

fl'.

i.

p. 180.

Tim. 34
Tim. 92
Tim. 92
Tim. 42
272 E.

B.

C
C.

E.

cf.

37 C.

d.

Philo-

THE COSMOLOGICAL DOCTRINE

parently, his provideuUal functions to the
From this point of view,
had begotten.

371

God whom he
we may look

upon the World-soul as the steward or vicegerent

of the

Creator or Highest God, always present in the Universe.

The Timaetis draws a clear distinction between the two
deities,

a distinction which

we

shall apprehend, perhaps,

most readily if we compare the World-soul of Plato with

what would seem to be its most noteworthy parallel in
We
early Greek philosophy, the Logos of Heraclitus.
have found reason for believing that Heraclitus conceives
he identifies it, in
of the Logos as rational and divine
with
the
immanent,
short,
onmipreseut Godhead and so
;

far it corresponds to

the Tlatonic World-soul, although

the Heraclitean Logos is something material, whereas

Plato distinguishes between the soul and the body of the
But the important point to notice is that in the
world.

Timaeus there

are, if the expression

may

be allowed, two

persons in the Godhead, whereas in Heraclitus there is

The Platonic Creator is transcendent, and
but one.

resembles the world-ordering Nous of Anaxagoras, which

we found to be mainly, though not perhaps exclusively,

transcendent

the Platonic World-soul

is

immanent, and

Logos, but also the

Socratic conception of God as 77 ev rw iravrl (f)p6vrja-c<i,
"
The distinction
the Wisdom residing in the universe."
recalls

not

only the

Heraclitean

which Plato here introduces into the being of the GodNot a

head prepared the way for the theology of Philo.
few of the epithets which Philo applies to the Logos are
"
taken from Plato, such as elKOiv Oeov, the image of God."
When he calls the Logos a SevTepo^; 6e6<; or " second God,"
he exactly reproduces the meaning, if not the actual
At the same time, Plato
words, of the Timaeus.
in
recognises a unity in ditlerence, as well as a difference
a
of
and
is
itself
World
divine,
possessed
unity for the
this
God.
In
soul that proceeds from the supreme
;

conception of the divine nature as a differentiated unity

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

372

we may

perceive, with Baur, a certain resemblance to the

Christian doctrine of the Trinity, without, of course,
endorsing the extravagant speculations of the Cambridge

seventeenth-century Platonists on

the

subject

of

the

"Trinity in Plato."

One

interesting and significant feature in the theology

Timaeus

of the

is

the extent to which

distinctively Neoplatonic tendency

God by an
"

infinite

to discover

he be declared

to all

of this Universe," Plato says,

nor,

men."

existence,

it

Good above both know-

regarding it as the
This belief in the transcendence

though

ultimate cause of both.

"

he were discovered, could

In like manner Plato in

if

the BcjmUic exalts the Idea of

ledge and

foreshadows the

distance from the world and man.

The maker and father

is difficult

it

to separate the highest

still

or v-jrepovaLOTTjfi of the Highest rendered it necessary to

postulate one or more mediating links between the
infinite

and the

finite

and

of these links the

World-soul

in Plato the most important.

It contributes, as Dr.
Caird has said, " a kind of bridge to connect two terms

is

which

it is

Plato

mean by

impossible really to unite."

Before we leave the subject of the World-soul, it is
"
necessary to touch upon the difficult question, What does
"

It should be
describing it as created ?
observed that the reason assigned for holding that the
Universe is generated, namely, that it is visible, corporeal,

and

tangible,'* does not apply to the soul, but only to

the body of the world.
Assuming, however, that we are
right in supposing the body of the UniA'^erse to have been
^

in

Baur, "Sokrates und Christus"

Drei Abhandlungcn zur Gcsch.

d. alien Philos., cd. Zeller (1876),

As

to the so-called
Plato," see Cassar
An Investigation of the
Trinity of Plato and of Philo
/iic^aezis, re-edited by Holden, 1853.
The Trinity of Plotinus is exp.

301

ff.

"Trinity
Morgan,

of

i^ounded by E. Caird, Evolution (if

See also
Theology ii. p. 258 ff.
Harrison, Phitonism in English
Poetry p. 16711'.
Tim. 28 C.
^
Evohition of Theology, etc. ii.
p. 266.
*

Tim. 28 B.

THE COSMOLOG/CAL DOCTRINE

373

constructed by the Creator at the comnienccnient of time,

we can hardly escape the conchision that its soul was
also in

some sense or other created or

"

"

begotten

and

But in what
Plato certainly speaks of it in this way.
There seems to be no alternative except to
sense ?
"

"

regard the World-soul as a kind of power or emanation

On this hypothesis we should
from the creative mind.^
At
conceive of the whole matter in the following way.

the beginning

of

Time,

God

created the Universe.

went forth from him, and inhabited the

which
he
redeemed from chaos by imprinting
iDody
mathematical forms on primordial matter.
spirit or

soul

From

the strictly philosophical or scientific point of

the
view,
cosmology of the Timaeus is full of difficulties, but
so is every other religious or poetical cosmology
unless,
indeed,

we

take refuge in the type of allegorical exegesis

which Alexandrian Hellenism applied to the first chapter

of Genesis
and even then we only exchange one set of
The true view of the Timaeus is
difficulties for another.
that which was expressed by the rhetorician Menander,
when he described it as a " hymn of the Universe." ^
;

Considered as a contribution to physical science, it errs

by neglecting the maxim laid down by a Platonist of the
third

centmy

we should

before Christ

not lay

"
:

in physical investigation,

down
^

laws, but rather search out the

But it is difficult to overestimate

things of nature."
the influence which the dialogue exercised on religious
thought and speculation during the last century and a

the birth of Christ, and also in the early

centuries of the Christian era.
The Timaeus did more
half

before

any other literary masterpiece to facilitate and

promote that fusion of Hellenism and Hebraism out of

than

This use of the word dvvafni,

be foreappears to
shadowcil ill at least one i)assagc of
^

"power,"

the Timaeus:

diivaixiv irepl t^]v v/xeTipau

41 C.
See Grotc, F/afo
*

/j.iiJ.ov/xevoi

t7]v

i/xijv

p.

Attinis, quoted

270

n.

iii.

yivecrii',

p. 245.

by Grote,

I.e.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

374

which SO much

This
of Christian theology has sprung.
the surpassing interest and importance of the dialogue
The way in which
to the student of religious history.
it contributed to this great movement is thus described

is

"

Though the idea of a pre-kosmic Demiurgus

among the Grecian schools of philoit was greatly welcomed
era
the
Christian
before
sophy,
at
Jews
the
Alexandria, from
Hellenising
among
It formed
Aristobulus (about B.C. 150) down to Philo.
the suitable point of conjunction between Hellenic and
The marked distinction drawn by
Judaic speculation.
by Grote.

found

little

favour

between the Demiurgus, and the constructed or

provided
generated Kosmos, with its in-dwelling Gods
Plato

place for the Supreme God of the Jews,

The Timaeus
degrading the Pagan Gods in comparison.
from
which it
of
was compared with the book
Genesis,
He
received
was even affirmed that Plato had copied.

suitable

the

denomination

the

of

atticising

Moses

Moses

It was thus that the Platonic

writing in Attic Greek.
Timaeus became the medium of transition, from the

Polytheistic theology which served as philosophy among

the early ages of Greece, to the omnipotent Monotheism
to

which

philosophy

Christian era."

became

subordinated

^
1

I.e.

p. 284.

after

the

LECTURE XIX
FLATO

continued

Elements of Asceticism and of Mysticism

The

subject which principally occupied our attention in the

"
was Plato's " probable story of the creation of

last lecture

the world.
To-day we pass from the Macrocosm to the
Here again the
Microcosm from the Universe to Man.
Timaeus provides the most convenient point of departure
but we must first retrace our steps a little, and briefly
examine what is said about the minor or created Gods, to
whom is entrusted the task of framing the human body, and

also,

except in the one essential part of it, the

have seen that the Demiurgus or

human

We

soul.

Creator

is

Timaeus as the first or highest God,

the universal Father, and the World as his divine son,
Besides the
standing second to him in rank and honour.
represented in the

World
"

itself,

Plato

created Gods."

Planets,

who

definition of

may

recognises
First in order

several

subordinate

are jointly the creators of Time.

Plato's
"
"
as the
of
moving image
Eternity

Time

be illustrated by the lines of

Henry Vaughan

"I

saw Eternity the other night.

Like a great ring of pure and endless

light,

was bright
And round beneath it, Time, in hours, days, years.
Driven by the spheres,
Like a vast shadow moved in which the World
And all her train were hurl'd." ^
All calm, as

it

or

come the Sun, Moon, and

The World; quoted by Harrison,

375

I.e. p.

208.

7 HE

376

RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

We may

say, perhaps, that Time, in Platonism, has the

relation to Eternity as the particular has to the

same

The

next of the created

mentions are the fixed stars and
Idea.

Gods whom
finally,

Plato

with ironical

acquiescence, he admits into his Pantheon the Gods of

the poetical cosmologies, Earth and Heaven with all their

nmltitudinous descendants from Oceanus

downwards.!
In making room for the

and

Tethys

these
three classes, Plato has in view the
and
Socratic
Delphic
precept to worship God according to the usage of the
State ^ but his tone is that of a disbeliever.
With
last

of

regard to the first and second classes, on the other hand,

there is little doubt that, in common with the rest of his

countrymen, he really looked on the heavenly bodies as

"
"
visible gods
and it is worthy of notice that some of
;

the early Christian Fathers appear to have shared this

belief.^

What

concerns

us

chiefly in connection

with these

minor deities is the office they fulfil in the making of

mankind.
These are the words in which the Demiurgus
appoints their task.
"

Three kinds of mortal beings have still to be created " (viz. the
animals that dwell on land, in water, and in the air). " Without
these the Universe will be incomjilete
for it will not have within
;

kinds of living creatures, as it must have, if it is to be complete.

Howbeit, if these were created by me and received their life
from me, they would be made equal to Gods.'* In order, then, that
they may be mortal, and that this All may truly be all, do ye
it all

according to nature apply yourselves to the creation of living

Suck
creatures, imitating ray power as shown in generating you.
fart of them as is worthy to share the name of the immortals, the fart
that is called divine and
governs in those who are tvilling alv:ays to
follow justice and you of this I will sow the seed and then ye shall
take over the work I have begun. For the rest, weaving
mortality

with immortality, do ye make and beget living creatures, and give

\
-

Tim. 37 C-41 A.
iiroixivovi

ruvofna, 40 E.

3
^g^ Origen. See Inge, Christian Mysticism p. 29 w.
*
Cf.'Gen. iii. 4, 22.

ELEMENTS OF ASCETICISM AND MYSTICISM

377

that they may grow, and receive them back again at

Having thus spoken, again into the same cup in which he
had blended and mingled the soul of the Universe the Creator
poured what was left of the elemeuls, mingling them in much the
same manner, yet no longer so pure as before, but one or two
degrees less pure. And when he had made the whole comjiound,
he divided it into souls equal in number to the stars, and assigned
each soul to a star, and jilacing them in the stars as in a chariot,
he showed them the nature of the Universe, and told them Ihe
laws of Fate how that their first birth would be ordained the
same for all, lest any should suffer wrong at his hands and how,
after being sown into the instruments of time, each into that
appropriate to it, they must be born the most God fearing of

them fuod
death.

animals."

The inaiu idea

human

every

whicli Plato here expresses

soul there

is

an

element

of

is

that in

the divine,

We

have
proceeding from the supreme God himself.
repeatedly met with the doctrine of the soul's celestial
birth

and kinship

Pythagorean views

Greek

in

those writers

among

who

literature,

but in Plato

only the rational part

of

more

are influenced

the

it

is

soul,

especially

by Orphic and

not the soul, but

in the
is

which

"

As concerning the sovereign

within us, that which we say, and say truly,
dwells at the top of the body and raises us from earth

strictest

sense

divine.

part of soul

towards our heavenly kindred, forasmuch as we are a

^vtov ovk eyyeiov,
heavenly and not an earthly plant,

aW

we ought to believe that God has given it

ovpdviov,
to each of us as a daemon "a kind of genius or guardian
for
the
direction
of
our
In the BejmUic,
lives.
angel
"
"
Plato speaks of Eeason as the
eye of soul," akin to
^
the divine and immortal and ever-existent."
The

Phaedo
belief

from beginning to end pervaded by the same

and indeed it is on this conviction, far more

is
*

than on any positive

arguments, that Plato's faith in

Tim. 41 B-42 A.
Tim. 90 A.
vii. 518 C, 540 A, 611 E.

Soe more especial! v 70 A ff.,

80 A, B, and of. Lau-s''x. 899 D.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

378

Not only does he intellectualise

immortality is based.
this ancient doctrine, by endeavouring to confine the
attribute of divinity, strictly understood, to Non^ or
KeasoD, but he furtlier implies in more than one passage
of the

BeimUic that

it is

just the presence of this divine

element which makes us truly and specifically human.^

He

and

true

of immortality,

life

of

own

may

us
to

our duty rather

is,

enter on our heritage

be,

ivSe'^erai, adavari^eiv.
But to return to the Timaeus.

follows

in

so that

to be false to ourselves,

is

reason, to

so far as

best

is

essential nature

follow sense and sensual things

to lead a life that is not our

by leading the

what

that

believed

emphatically

constitutes our

even now

The

e^^

oaov

story proceeds as

"
Having ordained for his creatures all these laws, that so he
mifrht be puiltlessof the evil there should hereafter be in them, God

sowed some in the

earth,

some in the moon, and some in the other

instruments of time. And the sequel to the sowing he committed

to the younger Gods, that they should fashion mortal bodies, and
having wrought all the remainder of the human soul that had still
to be added, and everything in harmony therewith, should rule

and guide the mortal creature

except in so far as

The duty

of

it

as well

brought evil on

the

created

and nobly

as they could,

itself." ^

Gods

is

thus twofold

to

fashion the perishable body and the perishable or mortal

soul
of
dvrjTov
t?}9
<yevo<i)?
{to
-<^v')(ri^
species

from the body of the universe portions of

earth, water, air and fire, on the understanding that they
should be returned again, they welded them into mortal
bodies for the reception of the immortal principle

Borrowing

created

and

handed

over

to

them

by

"

the

Father.
"

(says
Imitating the spherical shape of the Universe
"
they imprisoned the two divine revolutions in
Plato),
1

vi. 501 P.,

42 D, E.

ix.

589 A-D.

Tim. 69 E.

ELEMENTS OF ASCETICISM AND MYSTICISM

379

a globe-shaped body, tbuL which we uow call the head,

The rest
the divinest part and lord of all within us." ^
of the body they made the vehicle or chariot {o^tjixo)
of the immortal element;^ and at the same time they
"
built into the body anotlier kind of soul, tliat which is

mortal, having within itself dire and irresistible affections,

next, pain, averter
first, pleasure, evil's most alluring bait
;

moreover, and fear, two foolish

hard
to assuage, and hope, that leads
counsellors
anger,
these
irresistible
laws, having mingled with
astray
by
of

good

rashness,

reasonless sensations

mortal

soul."

In

higher and a lower

and all-daring

love,

they framed the

soul there

inferior

this

is

again a

The

higher, situated, according

the breast, is what in the Repuhlic
Plato calls 0vfioei,8e<;, the source of anger, ambition, and
In the nobler type of man this element allies
courage.
to the Timacus,

itself

of

part.

in

with the reason against the third and lowest part

the

namely,

soul,

which is the source

below the diaphragm.'*

concupiscent

or

iindv/jiTjTiKov,

situated in the region

It will be noticed that according

of

desire,

to the Tiviaeus the perishable soul is

an accompaniment

body, and does not exist until the circle

of incarnation begins but although Plato calls it mortal,
we are not to suppose that it necessarily perishes in each
of life in the

several

dissolution

immortal part

whence
I

to

it

of

only that it must die before the

the soul returns to the place from
:

came.^

have told the story as Plato

consider

without stopping
significance he would

tells

how much dogmatic

it,

have attached

to the various details.

In view, however,
certain pre-sophistic anthropological speculations, it
appears to me more probable than not that he believed

of

there was once a time

1

"
=>

Tim.

69 C.
69 C, D.

when human

D.
"'

creatures did not yet

69 E-70 A.
cf. Phaed. 81

ff.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

J 80

and if the World-soul should be regarded as an

emanation from the divine mind, there is no further
difficulty in supposing that each particular immortal
soul was conceived by Plato to have afterwards emanated
from the same source.
But for the correct appreciation
of Plato's moral and religious teaching, the question

exist

whether his

account of

the soul's creation

should be

understood as mythical or otherwise, is of little importance what really matters is that we should apprehend
the nature and meaning of the dualism which afiects
;

the soul while present in the body.

Ignoring for the
"
"
the intermediate or
spirited
part of soul

moment
(to

we have

Ov/jboeiSe'i),

on

hand

one

the

reason,

linking us to the immortal and divine, and on the other

hand, all those irrational passions and desires which
Plato attributes sometimes to the concupiscent part,

sometimes, as in the Fhaedo, directly to the body, and

which we share in common with the lower or bestial
creation.
In this way man, according to Plato, is a
compound of mortality and immortahty
"

With

one hand touching heaV'n, with

th'

From what

has

now been

th'

said, it will

other earth."

be obvious that

the chains by which the prisoner in the cave is bound,

are intended to symbolise the lower irrational or animal

nature

man.

in
-

implies

demands

the
of

In

childhood

and

Pieason

activity of

is

so Plato
youth
checked by the

the appetitive element

but as we advance
if reinforced
by education, may recover
;

in years, Eeason,
her true place.

It has often been pointed out that

Plato inverts the relation which Wordsworth and other

Platonisiug poets are fain to establish between childhood

and maturity.
He does not believe that " Heaven lies
"

our infancy
when manhood
still less,
"
comes, does he make the glory die away and fade into

about us
*

in

George Herbert, Man's Medley.

Tim. 43

ff.

ELEMENTS OF ASCETICISM AND MYSTICISM

381

Oil tiic contrary, in Plato'y

comniou day."
to
we
be nearer to Heaven in
ought
way
thinking,
manhood than in youth for only as we grow older
does Eeason lift the veil which has descended on the

the light

ui'

of

pre-natal

vision.

But,

of

course, in

many

fetters of the soul, instead of being loosened

the

cases

and removed

still more tirmly riveted by acts

"We read in
and
perverted ambition.
self-indulgence
Timacus
when
a
man
is
the
that
always burrowing about
ambition
and
the objects of
desire, he must needs lose all

as years advance, are

of

be lost of immortality, forasmuch as he has

In the
cherished only the mortal part of his nature.^
that can

Rqmllic, Plato compares the lower impulses of humanity to

leaden weights, which through gluttony and other sensual
indulgences become as it were incorporate with the soul,

and turn her vision downward.- And besides the vicious

influences that come from within, there is also the corrupting effect of bad government, bad education, and evil
principles enunciated in private and public life, so that it
is little wonder if the efforts of Philosophy to bring about
the soul's deliverance are only too often frustrated.^
Before proceeding to the next division of our subject,

we must

in which the
and led upwards
to the light, it may be permitted to draw attention to
the parallel between Plato and St. Paul in respect of
their conception of man.
Under the name of irvevfjua

which

in

imprisoned soul

is

treat

the

of

way

released from chains

"

St. Paul, as is well known, recognised in

nature an element corresponding to the Divine
Spirit and fitted to be the sphere of His operations.*
"
This highest part of us, the nrvevixa, is what it is by

or

spirit,"

human

virtue
'

Cf.

90 B.
vii. 519
also

S3
=*

of

vii.

its

affinity

witli

f.

"

''

and

so

far

it

Swete in Hastings' Diet, of the

611 C fF.
533 D, and Phacd.

Tivi. 87 B.

God

f.,

cf.

X.

Bible
^

ii.

p. 409.

Sanday and Headlani, Rmiians

p. 196.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

382

correspouds to Nous, in Platoiiism, though, of course, the

"
Platonic Nous is primarily " intellect
rather than
"
St.
is
not
more
Paul, however,
spirit."
rigid in his
than
Plato
and
he
terminology
occasionally designates
;

the higher principle by the Platonic term for vom in

"
St. Paul would seem to be
the irvevixa
nothing but
as
a
of
directed
toward
operative
faculty
knowledge
:

Divine things."

"

I see a different

law in
"

my

members,

warring against the law of my mind

{rov vo6<; fiov).
"I myself with the mind {tw /xev vol) serve the law
of

God

but with the flesh the law of

sin."

further

analogy reveals itself when we examine St. Paul's conception of the lower side of human nature.
Usually it

by him

"

"

in a few passages,
(a-dp^)
where he speaks of the opposition between the " spiritual "
and the " natural man "
the Trvev/xartKoi; and the '^vy^tKO'i
is

called

the flesh

it appears as
that is, the existence w^hich we
yfrv-^i],
share in common with the beast, the merely animal life,

with the further implication of carnality and sensualism.

In the Fhacdo of Plato, although a-ebfia, and not adp^, is
the word employed, the opposition between the body and
is not less
striking than the antagonism of flesh

reason

and

"The flesh," says the apostle,

spirit in St. Paul.
lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the
flesh for these are contrary the one to the other." ^
This
"

sentence might serve as a motto for the ethical part of

"
"
"
the Phaedo, if we substituted " mind
and
for
spirit
"
"
for flesh.
In like manner, the Pauline use of
body
yJrv'x^tKO';,

when

contrasted

with

TrvevfiariKo^;,

cannot

but suggest to the student of Clreek philosophy, Plato's

so-called mortal part of soul, lietween which, or rather
between the lower portion of wliich, and reason, there is

an internecine feud.
The different ways in which the
two thinkers develop their dualism should not be
^

Findlay in Hastings,

720^

"

I.e. iii.

p.

Rom.

vii. 23, 25.

Gal. V, 17.

ELEMENTS OF ASCETICISM AND MYSTICISM

allowed to blind us to what
of

3S3

after all a real aftiuity

is

thought.

We

have next to consider the means by which the

"

How are we to move

accomplished.
upw^ard, working out the beast, and let the ape and tiger
die."
I will not endeavour to force into a co-ordinated

prisoner's release

is

all that Plato says upon the subject

apprehend his meaning if we successively
examine the most characteristic aspects in which he
The
depicts the soul's ascent into the realm of Being.^
three discourses with which we have chiefly to deal are
the Phaedo, the Symposium, and the Rcpuhlic.

dogmatic theory

we

shall better

Throughout the Phaedo, Plato attributes evil to the

body, rather than to the lower part of soul, and indeed
yjrv^^, in that dialogue, is virtually a synonym for vov<i,
the celestial element in man.
In harmony with Orphic
and Pythagorean views, the body appears as a prisonhouse in which the soul is immured.Out of this

dungeon Philosophy tried to set her free (Xveiv i7rL)(^et.pei),

"
by showing that what delights the sense is false and
"
weak," and by exhorting her to be gathered and concentrated within herself and trust none other, believing
only in that which by herself alone she grasps through the
power of Eeason, even as the object of knowledge is likewise self-existent."

Nothing

is

to

be considered true

except what the

soul apprehends by herself without the

aid of the senses
in other words, only the intelligible

and invisible.
The aim of Philosophy is thus to lead us
from the seen to the unseen, from the temporal to tlie
eternal
and perceiving this, " the soul of him who truly
loves Wisdom withholds herself from pleasures and desires
and pains and fears as far as she can," knowing that every
new indulgence wall add to the chains from which she
desires to be released.^
Thus the true philosopher is one
;

ToO

oi'Tos eTrdrodov,

^v

or} (piXocro-

(piav a.\r)drj (p-qaofiev dvai, vii.

521 C.

'

Pkacd. 62 B, 82 E.
Phaed. 83 A fF.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

384

who

mortifies

entire hfe

is

sake of the soul

the body for the

indeed a /xeXeTi] Bavdrov

his

a study, or rather

rehearsal, of death.

Let us see

how

develops this famous idea, to

Plato

precisely parallel in Greek

literature before his time, although it is closely related to
the Orphic doctrine of the body as the sepulchre of the

which

there

is

nothing

"

"

Psychology," says a recent writer, has effectually disposed of what Professor James calls the whole
classic platonising Sunday-school conception of the soul
soul.^

'

'

as two separate things, of which the body

^
necessary to the soul only in this world of sense."
Be this as it may. Professor James' description applies

and body
is

exactly to the Phaedo, throughout which dialogue the

temporary union of a particular soul with a particular

body

is

held to constitute

while death

life,

is

the separa-

two elements (X.vai,<; Kal '^^copia/xo'i yjrvxv'i

"
The word " death bears this meaning
(Toci/jbaTo<i).^

tion of the
aiTo

in Plato's

death."

definition

The lover

of

of

Philosophy as a

Wisdom

"

rehearsal of
"

"

as far
separate
with the body,^ by

tries to

as possible his soul from communion

holding aloof from corporeal pleasures

and from the

and
delusive
distracting
representations of the senses
whence it may truly be said that he dies every day he
To call the philosophic life a process of Kd6ap(n<i,
lives.
"
or
purification," is only another method of conveying
the same lesson for, according to Plato, the true meaning of this ancient watchword is that we should keep
ourselves pure from the contamination of the body, until

God

shall finally accomplish our deliverance.^

The Platonic meditatio mortis

theoretical dogma, but a practical

the apostle Paul,

we

are to

See p. 97 above.
H. Mellone, Hibhert Journal,
July, 1904, vol. ii. p. 733 f.
-

S.

"

is

therefore

riile of

die daily
'

*
^

no mere
Like

conduct.
"

67 D al.
Phacd. 64 E.
67 A f., 69 C

die,

ff.,

82

that

ff.

is,

ELEMENTS OF ASCETICISM AND MYSTICISM

385

But

the

body with

the

to

and

aftections

its

lusts.

precept acquires a new significance, when we consider

it in the Hght of the doctrine that the body is the tomb
the soul

of

If

arj/Ma).

(o-coyLta

life

the body

in

is

the

death of the soul, and the death of the body the life of
the soul,^ the fieXerr] Oavdrov of which Plato speaks ceases
to be a consuctudo moriendi, and becomes rather a consuetudo Vivendi, the practice or habitude of life in the
truest meaning of the word, that is to say, spiritual, or
as Plato would rather say, noetic life, the life of the

and

immortal

divine

our

of

part

according to tlie aoy/xa

nature.

aijfia theory,

Death may be regarded

as

it

is

Further,
obvious that

the resurrection of the soul.

It follows that the meditatio mortis of the true philosopher

in reality a

is

means

a beginning

of spiritual resurrection during life

complete deliverance from the

that

of

bodily tomb which the

Let us turn

now

soul hopes to attain at death.

to the Pauline Epistles, and see what

analogies they furnish to the doctrine of the Phacdo.

The apostle sometimes appears to represent the body

He

as virtually a kind of prison.

"
in
house of our tabernacle

burdened

calls it

which

"

we

"

the earthly

groan, being-

"
{(TTevdi^ofjbev Bapoufiei'Oi).^

The Platonic

ixeXerrj

Oavdrov

exhortations in

is

also strikingly parallel

Paul.

"

Mortify therefore
"
veKpcoaare ovv
your members which are upon the earth
"
I buffet my body and
TO. fieXr] v/j.(t)v ra iirl r?}? 7779.^

many

to

St.

into bondage."
for
live after the tlesh

bring

it

die

(to,';

but

if

by the

TT/ja^et?

Cf. Gorcj.

spirit

We are debtors, not to the tlesh,

rov croofMaTo^ davarovre), ye shall live."

493 A, quoted above,

p. 97.

Mucli more
2 Cor. V. 1-4.
Platonic, however, is the sentence
here
to have
Paul
seems
whicli St.
in mind (pOapTov yap (rQ/xa apvvei
-

25

to

ye live after the flesh, ye must

ye mortify the deeds of the body

if

V^i'X'?". ^'^^^ ^piOei to yeQdes (XKiivo

vovv iro\v<pp6vTLSa. (Wisd. ix. 15).
Cf. Rom. vii. 24.
Col. iii. 0.
1 Cor. ix. 27.
*

Rom.

viii. 12, 13,

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

386

It will scarcely be denied that in point of doctrine as

well as phraseology, these passages naturally recall to ns
the teaching of the Phaedo but among other points of
;

Pauline conception of Necrosis involves a

new and distinctive element, which at once differentiates
the religion from the philosophy.
The sum and substance
difference, the

new element cannot be expressed more clearly

"
concisely than in tlie words of Matthew Arnold
of this

die loith Christ to the

law

of the
^

flesli,

or
to

to live with Christ

same writer has re"

"
marked that in St. Paul the words " life and " death
"
often mean sometliing different from
the ordinary
to

the

law

of

the mind."

Tlie

Death, for him, is living after

physical life and death.
life is mortifying by the
the flesh, obedience to sin
the
of
the
obedience
to righteousness.
deeds
flesh,
spirit
;

Eesurrection, in

essential sense, is therefore for Paul

its

the rising, within the sphere of our visible earthly existence, from death in this sense to life in this sense."

have pointed out that the Platonic meditatio mortis,

when interpreted by the light of the aco/xa arj^a doctrine,
I

contains the

germ

of this idea of a spiritual resurrection

but Platonism lacks, of course, the motive power

divine yet

human

dying unto
and esteem

sin.
;

of

personality in whose life we live by

Socrates inspired boundless friendship
but the inspiration of reason and conscience
"

the one inspiration which comes from him, and which

impels us to live righteously as he did.
penetrating

is

enthusiasm of love, sympathy, pity, adoration, reinforcing

the inspiration of reason and duty, does not belong to
Socrates.
With Jesus it is different. On this point it
needless to argue
From the Phaedo

is

^
history has proved."
we now pass to the Symposium.

The

Symposium describes the prisoner's release positively rather

than negatively, laying stress not upon asceticism and
'

St.

Paul and Protestantism

51, eJ. 1889.

p.
^

I.e.

p. 57.

Matthew Arnold,

Lc. p. 53.

ELEMENTS OF ASCETICISM AND MYSTICISM

self-suppression, but upon the love of Beauty
ness as the ladder by whicli we are to climb

387

and Goodfrom earth

the Phaeclo represents the quasi-ascetic

side of Platonism, the SymiJosium, more than any other
to

heaven.

If

more even than the Phacdrus, represents

dialogue,

imaginative and

artistic,

perhaps we

may

its

say, its nuptial

side.

We

may find a point of union between the Phaeclo and

"
the Symjjosium in the saying that
Philosophy is the
Music

liighest
its

"

intellectual

fieyLarrj
"

(f)t\o(TO(f)ia

wider sense, the word

culture, or

"

In

/xovaLKt'}}

Music

meant

rather the

culture,

Greek

to a

not merely

the intellect, but of the character also

and it is in
this extended signification that Plato here employs the
of

term.

What

the sentiment precisely means, we may learn

"
it is said that
musical education

from the Pepuhlic, where

should culminate in the love of the beautiful

ra

1T0V reXevrdv

This

is

/xovaiKO.

dominant

the

ei?

idea

ra rov Kokov

in

the

to

is

in detail.

praise of the

we must

and

in

succeeds

regaining the freedom she forfeited at birth.

Let us consider the doctrine of the Symposium a

more

Be

ipwrLKu,.'^

stage

last

Set

Symposium

by gradually rising from stage

pursuit of Beauty that the Soul at

it

"

the
in

little

God

succession of speeches is delivered in

Love.
For the kernel of the dialogue,

look, of course, to

the conversation which the

Platonic Socrates professes to have had with Diotima

but some of the earlier speeches contain ideas and
suggestions that prepare the way for Diotima's rhapsody.
;

Phaedrus, with whose discourse the dialogue proper

begins. Love is represented primarily as the passionate
sentiment of devotion awakened by the sight of physical

By

At

beauty.

emphasises
'

is

same time, that which he

the power of this sentiment to

tlie

Phaed. 61 A.

-'

iii.

403 C.

chieHy
inspire

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

388

US to deeds of heroism and self-sacrifice

so that

Love

is

"
The God Love," says
idealised from the very first.
"
not
and
is
the
oldest
most honoured of
Phaedrus,
only
but
also
the
most
the Gods,
powerful agent in imparting

excellence and happiness to human beings both in life

and after death." ^
Pausanias, who follows Phaedrus,

blames his predecessor for treating of Love as a single

He maintains that there are two
undifferentiated notion.

Gods called by the name of Eros, the earthly

One of the distinguishing characterand the heavenly.

different

istics of

the heavenly Eros

of soul

more than beauty

is

that

of

its

body

votaries love beauty

so that a kind of

intellectual union is created for the cultivation of virtue,

analogous to the relation which the historical Socrates

desired to establish between the teachers and the taught.

Love has been regarded as a principle

human
nature, but Eryxiniachus enlarges
only
affecting
and Love now becomes a
the connotation of the word

Up

to this point.

universal

or

two cosmic

cosmic

or

principle,

principles,

one

the

rather
evil

it

represents

and the other

for the two kinds of Love are still kept separate.

The idea underlying the extravagant and truly Aristophanic speech of Aristophanes is that Love effects a
temporary return to the state of bliss in which man

good

overweening ambition brought about his fall.

Aristophanes' discourse is a kind of anticipatory burlesque

lived

till

in a grossly materialistic vein of the spiritual conception

of Eros which Diotima afterwards unfolds in her dialo2;ue

with Socrates.

The speech

of

Agathon

is

an elegant

scholastic exercise after the style of Prodicus, without

any philosophical

significance

and we may now turn

to

the speech of Diotima.

The

prophetess begins by protesting against the

Since Love
ordinary Greek view, that Eros is a God.
is desire of the beautiful, he cannot, she says, be himself
^

Symii. 180 B.

ELEMENTS OF ASCETICISM AND MYSTICISM

389

and conpossessed of that Beauty which he desires

for the
sequently he is not, strictly speaking, divine
divine is always beautiful.
Nor yet, on the other hand,
;

The
Love endowed with a merely mortal nature.
is that he stands midway between the mortal and

is

truth

the immortal.

He

belongs to the category of daemons,

angels, as we should say, or spirits, whose function it

is to act as messengers between Gods and men, conveying

men's prayers and sacrifices to heaven, and bringing back

from heaven the commands and recompenses of the Gods,

were spanning the distance which separates the

the divine.^
Love may therefore be
regarded as a kind of golden chain linking the finite

as

it

human from

the infinite.

to

In like manner. Love is neither altogether wise nor

altogether foolish, but occupies an intermediate position

between knowledge and ignorance.

Were he a God, and
not merely a daemon, he would be already wise.
As it
"
is
a
For
seeker
after
Wisdom.
is, he
(jiL\.6ao(po<;

Wisdom
Love

is

"

"

is a thing most beautiful

and
(Plato says)
love of the beautiful
so that Love must needs
;

be a philosopher or lover of Wisdom." In this way

Plato identifies Love with the philosophic impulse
the Drang nach Wahrheit which he holds to be part of
the original endowment of the soul.
may compare
one of the many Platonising passages in the Wisdom of

We

"

Her I loved and sought out from my youtli,

and I sought to take her for my bride, and / became
enamoured of her hcauty
ipaarr)<i iyev6fj,r)v rod /caWou?
Solomon

avT7]^.

From another point of view, Love (continues Diotima)

the desire of immortality.
All men desire to possess
the good, and not only so, but to possess it for ever so

is

that immortality, taking the

1

Si/mp. 201 E-203 A.

203 E-204 B.

word

in its strict etymological

y^i

2.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

390

sense of exemption from death,

which Love aspires.

death and longing

It

for

in

is

is

among the

objects to
instinctive hatred of

this

Hfe

innate

this

yearning

of

that Diotima finds the key

to the extraordinary power of Love throughout the
whole domain of Nature.
Mortal creatures cannot,

mortality for immortality

but they
indeed, become immortal in their own persons
can attain to immortality through generation for the
father still lives in his children and children's children.
;

however, another and higher form of immortality

which comes from the begetting of spiritual
children, that is to say, deeds of high emprise and words
and thoughts of virtue, such as bring an immortahty of
fame and influence among contemporaries and posterity.

There

is,

that

As

represented by Diotima, these children are the

of a kind of spiritual union between two

offspring

minds

a glorified

and transfigured form

notion of teacher and pupil united in a

for truth and virtue.^

of the Socratic

common

search

to this point, we have described what Diotima

by implication the lesser mysteries, now we enter
on the higher.
The keynote of this portion of Diotima's
speech may be expressed in the words of Milton

Up

calls

"

By which

to heavenlj'

Love ... is the scale

Love thou may'st ascend."^

I will translate the sections

with which we are chietiy

concerned.
"
He who would proceed correctly in this matter," that is, in the
pursuit of the beautiful, "should commence in youth by paying
court to beautiful bodies. And first, if his guide directs him
rightly, he will love a single body out of all the number, and

make

it

the mother of beautiful discourses

KoXovs).*
'

TOKOS ev KaXo;, 206 B.

206 A-207 A.

"

{IvravQa ytwav Xoyovs

Thereafter he will of himself discover that the beauty

Paradise Lost

iv,

viii.

589

tf.

evTavda

210

^f totutw.

tokos iv

ry

Cf. riKTeiv
ko.\u,,

206 E.

ELEMENTS OF ASCETICISM AND MYSTICISM

391

any particular body ia sister to the beauty in another, and tliat

he is to pursue the beautiful in form, it is the height of folly not
to believe in the unity and idontit}' of all physical beauty.
"When
he has observed this truth, lie will become a lover of all beautiful
bodies, and abate his consuming passion for one, as something
trivial and unworthy
after whicli he will consider the beauty of the
soul more precious than that of the body, and be satisfied with one
whose soul is virtuous, altliough his bloom of body be but small
and he will love him and cherish him, and search out and bring to
birth such words and thoughts as shall improve the young, that he
may be constiained to rise yet higher and contemplate the beautiful
in institutions and in laws, and ^^erceive that it is all of one
family with itself, and so may consider bodily beauty a trivial
And after he has surveyed institutions, he will be led to
thing.
the sciences, that he may now perceive the beauty of knowledge,
and looking at last on the fulness of beauty may no more be an
unworthy trifler, no more enslaved like a menial to beauty dwelling
in a single object
but facing the full sea of the beautiful and
gazing thereon, may by bountiful Philosophy become the father of
many words and thoughts full of beauty and scope sublime. And
when he has gained strength and stature here, he will descry a
^
single science, such as treats of the Beauty I shall next describe."
in
if

At

this

stage of the exposition a strict adherence to

for the Beauty of

our plan would require us to desist

which Diotima proceeds to speak is the transcendental

idea of Beauty
and we have reserved the ideas for
But we can hardly understand
subsequent treatment.
;

the

religious

grounds

it

is

we

follow

desirable
of

preliminary survey
travelling.

"He who

the upward progress here

and on other
to the end

significance of

described unless

it

that

the

we should now make

land

to

Diotima thus continues

which the soul

a
is

has been thus far instructed in Love's mysteries, be-

holding things beautiful in proper sequence and after the right

method, on approaching the end of his initiation will suddenly
descry a wondrous Beauty, even that for the sake of which all his
former toils were undertaken. The Beauty in the first place ia
ever-existent, uncreated and imperishable, knowing neither increase
1

Symji. 210

A-210

I).

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

392

nor decay in the second place, it is not beautiful in one way and
ugly in another, or beautiful at one time and ugly at another, or in
one relation beautiful and in another ugly, or beautiful here and
ugly there, as if beautiful in some men's eyes, and ugly in the eyes
of others.
Nor will he imagine that the Ideal Beauty is like unto
a face or hands or any other portion of the body, or any discourse
or science, or that it dwells somewhere in something other than
itself, as, for example, in an animal, or in earth or heaven, or in
aught else, but rather that it is separate and self-existent, simple
and everlasting, while all other beautiful objects participate therein,
yet in such a manner that although beautiful particulars are
generated and perish, the Ideal Beauty neither waxes nor wanes,
and changes not in any way.^
Suppose it were permitted to
one to behold the Beautiful itself, clear and pure and unalloyed,
not tainted by human flesh or colours or any of the manifold
varieties of mortal existence, but the divine Beauty as it really is
in its simplicity, do you think it would be an ignoble life that one
should gaze thereon and ever contemplate that Beauty and hold
communion therewith ? Do you not rather believe that in this
comiannion only will it be possible for a man, beholding the
Beautiful with the organ by which alone it can be seen, to beget,
not images of virtue, but realities, for that which he embraces is
not an image but the truth, and having begotten and nourished true
;

virtue, to

become the friend

ever mortal has attained

111

"

God and

of

attain to immortality,

if

" ^

his recent Gifforcl Lectures, Dr. Caird has said that

we

if

we can

look to the development of thought after Plotinus,

see that it was mainly through him, and through

Augustine as influenced by him, that Mysticism passed

St.

into Christian Theology and became an important element

in the religion of the Middle Ages and of the modern

world."

'^

This statement

is,

no doubt, historically true

but the passage which I have just translated contains a

number of ideas to which close parallels occitr in Christian
mysticism, and to some of
briefly call
^

your

parallels

will

now

etc.

ii.

p.

am

largely indebted to Mr.

Inge's Banipton Lectures, and also
to Mr. Harrison's Platonism in

that

'

English Poetnj.
In what follows

210 E-211 B.
211 D-212 A.
Evolution of Tlieologij

210.
*

these

attention.*

it will

be seen

ELEMENTS OF ASCETICISM AND MYSTICISM

393

be observed, in the first place, that according

the Divine or Ideal Beauty is not only
transcendent, but also immanent in the world for it is
It will

Plato

to

"

"

in the Idea of Beauty, in other

participating
"
"
words, by the presence of Ideal Beauty in them, that

by
all

The form
things beautiful are rendered beautiful.
this doctrine appears in Christian thinkers may

which

in

be illustrated by the remark of St. Augustine, that " all

that is beautiful comes from the highest Beauty, which
In a poem entitled " Seraphic Love," by
John Norris, one of the last of the Cambridge seventeentliGod."

is

century Platonists,
"

and God

is

it is

said that

All mortal beauty's but a ray

Of His bright, ever-shining day

"
;

expressly identified with

"the light archetypal,
Beauty in the original."

Here, as elsewhere,

it is

that Platonism

clear

is

being

grafted upon Christianity.

further point of contact between the Symposium
and Christian mysticism is the notion of a ladder or

which the soul must travel in order

with the divine which is the ultimate
the mystic.
As Mr. Inge has pointed out,^

scala perfectionis up
to attain that union

goal
St.

of

Augustine, following Plotinus, distinguishes in the

ascending
spiritual,

scale

and

three

divine."

grades

The

"

of

corporeal,
Beauty,
Platonic classification is

first beauty of body, next beauty of

virtually the same
soul and spiritual things, and, finally, the divine or Ideal
"
our guide
Beauty.
According to the Christian view,

on the upward path, the true hierophaut of the mysteries

of God, is love." "
There is, of course, a world of difference
'

Quoted

Mysticism

Ijy

p. 130.

luge,

Christian

I.e.

\).

Inge,

129.
I.e.

p. 8.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

394

between the

New

Eros of Plato

Testament conception of love and the

but in this instance we should look for

not to the earlier Christian teachers, but rather

Michael Angelo, and to the Platonising
poets of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in our
parallels,

to the sonnets of

"
"
country, more especially Spenser, whose
Hymnes
"
have truly been called the most comprehensive exposi-

own

tion of love in the light of Platonic

theory in English."
"

Love

Her

fits

the soul with wings, and Ijids her win

nor e'er to earth decline

flight aloft

'Tis the first step that leads

Of Him who

We have seen

her to the sWine

slakes the thirst that burns within."

that Love, in Plato, is not only ^CkoKoko^,

a seeker after Wisdom {ao^la or

but also ^iKodo^o'^

in

later
religious thought, the
frequently personified as the object of
man's passionate adoration and love.
I have already
cited one example from the Wisdom
It
of Solomon.^

Similarly,

4)p6vT)(Ti<;).

Divine

Wisdom

is

was the vision

of this celestial Wisdom that

inspired the
mystic Suso in the fourteenth century ^ and Spenser
devotes a part of his " Hymne of Heavenly Beautie " to
;

celebrating her praises in language which sometimes

The figure
suggests that lie is thinking of the Logos.
of Una in the
allegory of the Faerie Queene is also, as

Mr. Harrison has pointed

out,^

a kind of hypostatised

Platonic Wisdom.
to

The same writer has drawn attention

another interesting though somewhat fanciful applica-

tion

by Spenser

of a doctrine contained in the

Sym^Josinm.

God with

the Highest Beauty, and at the

same time combining the Clnistian conception of the
Godhead as Love with the Platonic view that Love is the
Identifying

"

Harrison, Lr.

p. 122.

Michael Angelo, Sonnet 53, tr.

"
Symonds. Cf. Spenser's
Hyninea
in lionour of

Heavenly Love and

Heavenly Beautie," passim.

g^g p_ 339^
See Inge, I.e. p. 172
I.e. p.

2.

ft'.

ELEMENTS OF ASCETICISM AND MYSTICISM

desire of fatherliooil in the beautiful

eV

(too9

tw

395

kuXo)),

"

High Eternall Powre," through love

of His own beauty, beget, first the Son, afterwards the
But the most important
Angels, and finally Man.^
and
Christian
Platonic
between
mysticism relates
analogy
Spenser makes the

to the final

stage in which the soul

is

united with the

divine.

In Plato the Nous or rational part of soul, itself, as

"
draws
seen, of heavenly origin and nature,

we have

nigh unto and marries

"

the ultimate object

of

desire

and thought, called in the Eejmhlic Being,^ and in the

Symposium Beauty. Then only does the soul find life
true life and nourishment.^
Already in St. Paul the
of marriage is once or twice employed to express
but for
the relation of the believer's soul to the divine

symbol

'^

the most part he makes use of this figure only when

speaking of the mystical union between Christ and the
Later Cliristian mysticism often recognised
Church.^
the
three main stages in the progress of the soul
purgative, the illuminative,

and the unitive

^
:

the last of

sometimes represented as a kind of spiritual

marriage between the soul and God, more especially in
Mr.
the devotional poetry of the seventeenth century.

which

is

disposed to think that the metaphor in question

was introduced into Christian thought from the mysteries,
is

Inge

through the medium, perhaps, of Alexandrian Judaism.'^

It seems to me not unlikely that the influence of Plato
also operative to some extent, although here, as in
other parts of his religious symbolism, Plato himself no

was

doubt owed something to the Eleusinian

Taking a retrospective view of tlie
^

"Hymue

Heaveuly Love,"

See Inge,
Inge,

ff.

'
2

vi.

490

Hep.
1

15

of

'

29

Cor.

(cf.

I.e.

vi.

'

I.e. p.

See

ff.

Cf. Syinp. 211 I) W.

17

riKTeiv iv,

perhaps also
210 D).

Si/iii}}-

iv.

I.e.

rites.^

k'ind of

I.e.,

p.

360.

p. 430.

\)

spiritual

Appendix D.
tt'.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

396

ascent described in the Symposium, we can hardly fail

to note that it combines two features not altogether easy

The speech of Diotima

with one another.
a
the
one
on
hand,
reveals,
strong bias towards intellecThe Love of which she speaks is primarily an
tualism.
to reconcile

intellect ludis, and aims at accomplishing a union

between Nous and the highest of its objects, a union
whose offspring are Truth and Eeason, or rather, the
active exercise of Eeason, Eeason actualised into vorjai^,
together with true virtue, by which Plato means the
virtue which is based on knowledge, and not upon

amoT

"

"

In the very climax of her

or belief.^
Diotima
is
careful
to point out that the Ideal
rhapsody,
Beauty is to be learnt by means of a certain science, that
and the
be seen. Dialectic
as will afterwards
is,
opinion

proximate stage to the discovery of the Highest Beauty

So far, therefore, we
is the beauty of the sciences.

have only a kind of overwhelming zeal for

"
knowledge, and nothing more, the sort of passion of the
"
which may perhaps, as Jowett says, belong to
reason
"
one or two in a whole generation, in whom the light

seem

to

of truth

may

not lack the

warmth

of desire."

On

the

hand, we cannot but feel that the enthusiasm

which animates Diotima springs from religious at least
It is not without
as much as scientific inspiration.

other

reason that Plato makes Diotima a prophetess, and puts

the kernel of her discourse into a framework borrowed

from

the

The instantaneous
mysteries.
illumination, the beatific vision itself,

Eleusinian

character of

tlie

the mystical union with changeless and Eternal Beauty

whence arises the virtue by which we become the friends

God and attain to immortality

we should call religious rather than

of

But the truth

at
1

bottom
Eep.

vi.

490

is

no

all

these are what

scientific conceptions.

that from Plato's point of view there is

fundamental difference between the

Symp. 212 A.

The Dialogues of Plato

i.

p. 533.

ELEMENTS OF ASCETICISM AND MYSTICISM

enthusiasm

The

and

of religion

tlie

397

enthusiasm of science.

or love of knowledge, on which Plato so

constantly insists, is of necessity and from the first a
religious aspiration, because of the way in which lie
(f)i\oao(f)La,

not

organ, but

the object of
the
knowledge.
twilight land
which lies between the darkness of Not-Being and the
regards

only

the

The realm

light of
"

there
"

can never be known

is

opinion
the eternal, the divine
;

also

sensibles

of the seen and

no knowledge, but only, at best,
that which alone we can know, is the unseen,

Being

temporal

of

in the last resort, as

Good

we

shall

In this way
the lover of knowledge in Plato inevitably becomes a
seeker after God.

afterwards

see,

the Idea of

or God.

LECTURE XX
PLATO

continued

Theory of Education
In the p?*eceding lecture we were principally occupied
the ascetic, and partly with the mystical

partly with

elements of

Platonism.

We

saw that

the

mcditatio

mortis of the Phaedo and the intelledualis

amor of the
Symposium are inspired by one and the same idea. The
ultimate object is to reach those eternal and unseen
realities to which the soul, or, strictly speaking, the
rational part of the soul, is itself akin.
The scheme
of education which Plato in the Republic devises for the
guardians of his ideal city is directed towards the same
end, and on this account it requires to be considered in
to understand the position of the Platonic
in
the history of religious thought.
philosophy
To nothing, perhaps, does Plato assign so much im-

any attempt

It was to the practical worlc

portance as to education.
an educator that he devoted the larger share of his

of

energies throughout an unusually long and laborious life.

The Academy which he founded is the earliest example
of what we should call a College or University, the type
and model of all the philosophical schools that followed
"
"
it.
Among his contemporaries," says Grote, he must
liave exorcised greater influence through his school than
^
Prom the well-known passage
through his writings."

of the

Phaedrus where written discourse

1

r/afo

i.

398

p. 216.

is

depreciated

THEORY OF EDUCATION

399

word, we may reasonably

considered his literary productions of less importance than the work he endeavoured to
The development of the intelaccomplish ae a teacher.

comparison with the

in

livin^-

infer that Plato himself

and concomitantly also of the character by means of

and debate, the mind of the teacher acting
directly upon the mind of the pupil, without any intermediate vehicle such as deaf and speechless books supply
lect

oral discussion

this,

according to the Phacdrus,

of the educator.

The writing

the primary business

books may be useful

is

of

an innocent pastime, or to preserve the records of oral

discussion against the forgetfulness of age, or by way of
guidance to those who may afterwards pursue the same
as

track

but literature

is

much

less

efficient

means

of

education than the spoken word.^

So

much

appeared necessary to say with the view

guarding against the idea that on educational questions
Plato was merely a theorist and nothing more.
We
should remember that the principal work of his life was to
it

of

Academy and that he had

by experiment many of the theories
on education with which we meet throughout his writings.
Let us now proceed to consider Plato's doctrine of
educate the students of the

probably already tested

education, as

it is

unfolded in the RcpiMic.

The licpuUic contains two discourses

or treatises on

education, the one concerned with the preliminary training of the character in boyhood and youth, the other witli
tlie

training, primarily of the

intellect,

but secondarily,

and as a consequence, also of the character, in youth and

It is the second of these two treatises
early manhood.
that chieily demands our attention
but inasmuch as the
earlier scheme is intended to lead up to the later, and
itself comprises not a few ideas which are of importance
for Plato's moral and religious teaching, we must give
;

to this also the consideration whicli

275 D-277 A.

it

deserves.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

400

"

"

musical
education
subject of
the
first
with
the
uuder two main heads,
content,
dealing
and the second with the form of what is to be taught.
Plato

discusses

the

enough if we consider the leading principles

to light in the course of the discussion, so far
bears upon the subject of our lectures.

It will be

come

that
as

it

Concerning the being of the Godhead, the fundamental

by Plato for the guidance of teachers of
the young is that God must always be represented as He
rule prescribed

and since
in the first place, God is good
good can never be the cause of evil, whatever there is of evil in the world must be assigned to
The view here taken
another cause and not to God.
really

is.^

that which

is

in

Now,

is

harmony with the dualism

the Timaeus and the

of

one case to Necessity,

and in the other to a malevolent World-soul - but in
the Eepicblic, Plato is more concerned to affirm the negaLaius,

where

evil is attributed, in the

tive position that evil does not come from God, than to
the nature of the principle from which it
As regards the problem of suffering,
comes.
actually

determine

Sufferhowever, an alternative explanation is admitted.

a
of
chastisement
as
form
also
be
regarded
ing may

designed by God to improve and benefit the sufferer.^

The doctrine of the divine goodness, which in the

an

as

article

of

Plato would inculcate

education

preliminary stages of

belief,

the

prepares

way

for

that

intellectual apprehension of tlie metaphysical Idea

good, to which, when correct opinion is replaced

knowledge, the guardians of

finally to attain.

changelessness

by

city are

expected
similar remark holds good of the

second doctrine on which

the

Plato's

of

of

Plato

God

here

for

insists

the

Idea

that of
is

itself

It is particularly
essentially uniform and changeless.
Plato
the
that
makes
be
observed
to
immutability of
1

Hep. ii. 379 A.

Seep. 362 f., and

Rri,.

Lawsx. 896

Dfi".

449

f.

ii.

379 A-3S0 C.

Cf.

p.

THEORY OF EDUCATION
God

a result of

his

(!od should suifer

If

perfection.

must be

we

are told, the operating cause

change,
something external to himself, or his

The former

alternative

shows that things are

as they are evil, and

own

inadmissible

is

liable

to

God

in

401

in

change

tlicrc

for

no

is

either

free

will.

analogy

proportion
at

evil

all.

inasmuch
change
as the only possiliility of change for that which is the
and no one, whether God
best is towards the worse
Neither

he

will

to

desire

himself,

man, deliberately chooses to make himself worse

Our conclusion, therefore, is that
than he was before.
"
God " ever abides immutably in his own form

or

tiet

yukvei

uTrXw'i

ev

rrj

eavrou

Nor can

fiop(f)f)}

be supposed that tlie Godhead, while himself remaining

immutable, is nevertheless prone to beguile mankind by

it

false

and unreal appearances or

of a

lie

expressed

by means
absolutely no

visions, or

There

words.

in

is

taint of falsehood in the divine nature.^

the goodness and the unchangeformulated by Plato in the

These two dogmas

ableness

God

of

arc

course of a severe and

frequently unfair attack upon

The feud between
the religious teaching of the poets.
and
kindled
by Xenophanes, breaks
Poetry,
Philosophy

out afresh in the Bepiihlic, and rages with more violence

In Plato's criticism of the poetical theology
than ever.
the dominating idea is that the character of the God-

head must necessarily be such as to

standard to mankind
ethical

end, as

God
Homer

"

to

for his

we have

o/iotft)o-t?

is

already seen,

T(p

He

Oeai.'^

"

moral

furnish

own conception

of

the

assimilation

points

out

that

continually represents the Gods and heroes as

lacldug the virtue of self-control, prone to insubordinalustful,

tion,

mean.
1

ii.
ii.

The

avaricious,

inevitable

381 C.
380 D-383 C.

26

revengeful, gluttonous, and

so Plato maintains

eftect

See

p.

18

Tlwaef. ITii B,

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

402

of these

same

and similar representations

No

the young.

vices in

is

to

one, he

encourage the
says, will be

otherwise than indulgent to his own iniquities, if he

that the Gods and their kinsmen set the

believes

of immorality.^
For this reason, as well as
because they are impious and untrue, all such legends
ought to be proscribed.

example

So

much,

then,

Plato desires to

the

for

into

instil

theological
his

beliefs

which

during the
It is obvious

guardians

period of childhood and adolescence.

that they are more in harmony with Christian thought
than with the traditional theology of Greece.
Pro-

ceeding in the next place to consider the form of the

imparted to the young, Plato again
his
own
views by an attack upon Greek
develops
instruction to be

Without pursuing the subject into detail, we

poetry.
must be content to apprehend the nature of Plato's
own conception of what Poetry and Art should be.
According to the Platonic theory, the two antagonistic
principles of beauty and ugliness, good and evil, surround us on every side they reveal themselves in the
works alike of nature and of man, and we can discern
tliem also in human character and
conduct.
The
;

business of

the

artist,

whether

or architect, or whether he

poet,

painter, sculptor,

devotes himself to any of

the subordinate departments of imitation, is wholly to

ignore whatever is unbeautiful and base, and, searching

out the beautiful and good, to embody this and this

Thus it
the material on which he works.

alone in

"

dwelling as it were in a healthful

will imbibe good inlluences
citizens
our
youthful
region,
from every quarter, whencesoever from fair works of

comes

to pass that,

smites upon their eyes or ears as it were a

health-bringing breath from goodly places, unconsciously
leadiugr them from earliest childhood into likeness and
art there

iii.

391 E.

THEORY OF EDUCATION

403

and harmony with the beauty of reason." ^

"
mansion for all
way the mind becomes a

friendship

In

this

the

forms,"

lovely

"

memory

dwelling-place

for

all

But the ultimate end

sweet sounds and harmonies."

of musical education has not

been

reached

until

we

are able to recognise the beautiful and good, not only

in the works of imitative art, but also in the originals
copied.
Poetry and Art
to apprehend, and in

from which these works are

youthful mind

the

should lead

apprehending to assimilate, the principles of beauty and

goodness wherever they manifest themselves, either in
the physical world or in the lives of human beings.
Musical education, according to Plato,
the means whereby

we

its

object

an

have conceived
the

is

only

is

read in

then

attained

the

for

passion
meaning attached

abiding

comprehensive
KoKov in ancient Greece

consequently
the moral

to

learn

"

world
in

"

to

when we
beautiful

the

word

moral and

spiritual beauty,
as well as the beauty of material objects.^

Mr. Nettleship has pointed out that the Platonic

conception of the true office and function of Poetry in
a well-ordered commonwealth has been affirmed by no
one in statelier or more impressive language than by
Milton, in the famous passage where he expresses on
his

own

written

to

let
"

die."

it

the

behalf
after

hope

times,

The

as

poet's

"

of

leaving
they should
abilities,

something

so

not willingly

Milton

declares,

wheresoever they be found, are the inspired gift of

God, rarely bestowed, but yet to some (though most

and are of power, beside the

abuse) in every nation
office of a pulpit, to imbreed and cherish in a great
people the seeds of virtue and public civility, to allay
;

the perturbations of the mind, and set the affections

to celebrate in glorious and lofty hymns

in right tune

the

throne
1

Rc^.

iii.

and
401 C.

equipage

of

God's
-

almightiness,
401 A-403 C.

iJc^J. iii.

and

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

404

what he works.
holy and sublime,
.

Lastly, whatsoever in religion is

virtue amiable or grave, whator admiration in all the changes

in

soever hath

passion
that w^hich is called

of

subtleties

wily
within

these

all

fortune

and refluxes
things

of

with

from without, or the

man's thoughts from
a

solid

and treatable

In all essential
smoothness to paint out and describe." ^
of
this
is
Plato's
view
what
features,
just
Poetry ought to be.

was stated

It

at the outset of this lecture that the

ultimate aim of education, as conceived by Plato, was to

raise the soul out of the temporal and visible into the

sphere of that invisible and eternal Being to which she

herself,

by right

of birth, belongs.

But the preliminary discipline, regarded in and by

does not and cannot bring the soul into immedi-

itself,

with

contact

ate

We

reality.

shall

best

understand

general character and efificacy, as well as the relation

in which it stands to the intellectual discipline that
its

follows,

the

if

we

line, to

consider for a

which

that I should

now

little

the Platonic simile of

desirable also on other grounds

direct your attention.
it

is

At

the end of the sixth book of the RcpuUic, Plato

offers a classification of what (for want of a better word)

we may perhaps

call

"

apprehensibles," meaning thereby

the entire contents both of the phenomenal and of the
ideal worlds, arranged in
to highest, according to

an ascending scale from lowest

the

degree

of

luminosity or

which they possess.

We are to take the line
AB and divide it into two unequal parts at C after
which each of the two parts, AC and CB, is to be subtruth

divided in the ratio of the original sections, so that

is

to

DC

and

CE

is

to

EB

as

AC

is

to

AD

What may

CB.

'

1""^'

A D
liave
^

been the object of Plato in dwelling on these par-

The Reason of Church Government urged against Prelaty, Bk.

2.

THEORY OF EDUCATION
we need not now inquire
we understand what

ticular proportions,

our

for

it is

the

if

purpose

enough

different

the line are intended to symbolise.

AC represents the class of

of

segments

405

Of the two larger sections,

things wliich we apprehend

by sense-perception and
while
stands
for
the
CB
opinion,
objects of knowledge,
which it is the province of Eeason or the ratiocinative
Here, as elsewhere, between the
and
the Kingdom of Knowledge, Plato
Kingdom
will
draws, you
observe, a clear and sharp demarcation.
To the first of the two segments in the sphere of sense
to

faculty

grasp.

of kSense

or

opinion, namely,

AD,

belong

or

dKove-i

"

images,"
the category in which there is least of light and truth.
The example which Plato gives, shadows, reiiections in

water and the

AC

world

like,

are

all

of

them taken from the

but inasmuch as he repeatedly speaks of

as containing the objects, not only of sense, but also

visible

of opinion,

and elsewhere uses the word

denote canons or standards

of

"

"

opinions
taste,

morality,

and

to
so

scientific

by habituation or authority without

knowledge of the rational grounds on which

they

we

forth,

instilled

rest,

of the line

as

well

are justified in finding in the lowest section

shadows, reflections or imitations of opinables

as

Now among

sensibles.

the

shadows

of

sensibles there should be no doubt that Plato included

the

products of
the Platonic

so-called

imitative

art

for,

according

theory, painting and sculpture copy

imitate the visible and tangible
directly from the life,
things which men ignorantly call real,
forgetting that
to

these are themselves but imitations of the invisible and

intangible Essence which is the sole and ultimate reality.

Where then are we to look for the shadows or reflections
of opinables ?
Presumably these are notliing but the
canons or opinions expressed or embodied in the writings

and speeches

of

poets,

rhetoricians, etc.,

these canons or opinions

reflect

in

so

far

as

and imitate the actual

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

406

the

of

beliefs
"

multitude

or

other

any

beliefs

and

"

whatsoever, be they right or be they

appearances
Poetry, not less than Art, is regarded by
wrong.^
Plato as an imitation of that which is itself in turn an
imitation of the truth
rights,

if,

Platonic

among
of

in

the

arc well within our

Nettleship and other

the creations of Poetry
appropriated to the lowest division

with

we include
"

"

we

so that

agreement

students,

the

images

The mental condition

line.

or state

which

is

correlated with this class of apprehensibles is called by

Plato ecKacTLa, a word which ordinarily in Greek means
"

this
conjectare," but which in
particular passage
receives a new and quasi-technical meaning, being used
with a play on et/coye?, " images," to denote the con-

mind which acquiesces in images and accepts

the
them as
only truth, the lowest of all the intellectual
states, as its objects are the lowest of those to which the
dition of

human mind

can be directed.

The second

section

of

the

line,

DC,

consists of the

Here
which are copied or reflected in the first.
again the instances cited by Plato belong to the sphere
of sensibles
he speaks chiefly of living creatures and
the other works of Nature, together with manufactured
originals

But, as before, so now, we are

objects of every kind.
viewing this category also as embracing not

justified in

only sensibles, but also opinables and, thus regarded,

it will of course embrace the originals of those reflected
;

opinions which we have already found reason to assign

in other words, it will
to the lowest of the four grades
contain the canons or standards exemplified in the
;

words and deeds

of

those

who

live

not by the light

but in obedience to authority or unconscious

habit, canons which are reflected, as we have seen,
in Poetry and other forms of imitation, through the

of Keason,

medium
^

of language.

Plato's

name

for the

See ray edition of the Rcpuhlic of Plato, vol.

ii.

mental conp. 158.

THEORY OF EDUCATION
takes

that

ditiou

the

and

visible

407

opinable

for

true,

refusing to penetrate into the region of the invisible, is

the word which was destined to play so momentous a

the word

part in later religious thought

or

"

With

faith."

Plato,

"
7rtcrTt9,

Knowledge and not Faith

belief
is

"

"

the
"

assurance of things hoped for, the test of things not seen

The Platonic
TTpajfidTCiiv eXe7^o<> ou /SXeTTOfievcov}

concerned with the visible and opinable,

is still

7r/o-Ti<?

although
possesses a somewhat higher degree of clearness
"
than eUaala or Conjecture," just as its objects contain
it

more

light

the above exposition

If

the

and truth than the

preliminary scheme

is

of

"

"

images
correct,

of

Poetry and Art.

manifest that

is

it

education in the

Republic

deals from beginning to end with the objects included

The aim of that
in the two lower sections of the line.
to

is

discipline

produce correct

"

"

opinion

or

"

belief,"

not yet knowledge, although in the case of the guardians

correct opinion will prove, of course, a stepping-stone to
Our pupils, Plato says, must first be
knowledge.

moulded
Eeason,

welcome
her.2

harmony with the beauty of

when Eeason comes, they may

into unconscious
in

order that,

her

with joy, in virtue of their affinity to

of a purified form of Art

Under the guidance

and Poetry, the student who has assimilated the earlier

discipline becomes able at last, by a kind of instinctive
and unreasoning sense, to discriminate between right and
wrong, fair and foul, as they show themselves in the
world of nature and of man but he is still concerned
"
with the visible and opinable region of
becoming," not
the virtue
and
yet with the invisible realm of Being
;

he has acquired is only (Plato says) an viroypacf)^ or

"
"
adumbration
of the true or philosophic virtue, in"
asmuch as it rests on a foundation of " correct opinion

and not knowledge.^

Heb.
-

Hep.

xi. ].
iii.

402 A.

It follows that
^

L'ep. vi.

if

education

504 D.

is

to

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

4o8

its true and final purpose

if we are to raise
our eyes from shadows to reahties, from darkness to

achieve

a further disciphne

hght

is

necessary

and

this further

discipline is represented by the remaining sections of

the line (CE, EB).
The soul does not desist from her

has scaled the topmost summit

tlie Idea of Good.

journey until

she

tlie intelligible

land and beheld

Mr. Adamson has said, " Plato's theory

ends where it began, with a revelation

education

of

the

of

of

As

divine

being."

We

remark, in

the

place, that

first

the

course of training described in the Eepublic

to a small minority of those who received
intellectualism, but

spirit

of

many

persons are
"

correct

section
rulers

we

incapable

to

opinion
knowledge.
the Guardians, that is
the

of

city,

are about to

ing

naturally

of

the

confined

the earlier

The others are excluded, not in any narrow

from the conviction tliat

education.

"

secondary
is

more

have

discuss.

access

of

Only
to
to

rising

the

say, the

the

from

highest
future

curriculum

begins by enumeratnatural qualifications of

Plato

distinctively

The keynote of the philosophic

philosopher-king.
he
declares
to be tlie love of Wisdom
temperament

his

or Truth, not of this or that portion of Truth, but of

The philosopher
Truth, everywhere and always.
one who aspires to contemplate " all time and all
"
existence
unable to acquiesce in the partial or parhis
unwearied mind is ever soaring towards
ticular,

all
is

the

ever strives to grasp the totality of

both
human
and divine^ rov 6\ov koL 7ravro<i,
things,
delov re koI avOpwirlvov}
From this consuming passion
for truth and knowledge spring all the moral virtues
universal,

which

Plato

courage
^

Edncatioji

p. 246.

ascribes

and
in

to

the truly philosophic nature

liigh-mindedness,

Plato's Eepublic

Pep.

temperance,
vi.

486 A.

justice,

THEORY OF EDUCATION

409

and the rest.^

Here, as elsewhere in his
draws a portrait of what, in his opinion,
human character slinuld be and indeed the philosopherkindness,

dialogues,- he

king of the BepuUic is expressly intended as a picture

of the perfectly just and righteous man.
The tendency
to describe the intellectual and moral ideal under the

form

an

of

would seem

or sage,

to

known

afterwards

imaginary personality,

"

the post- Aristotelian schools as the

among

wise

man

"

have originated with Plato.

endowed, continues Plato, that

It is to characters thus

we shall entrust the government of our State, after we

How
have made them perfect by means of education.^
"
then is one to lead them upwards into the light, even
as some are said to have ascended out of Hades into
Heaven

"

The general character

of Plato's intellectual

determined partly by his conception of the

discipline
toward
which the mind must travel, and partly
goal
his
view
The
of the nature of the mind itself.
by
is

goal, of course, is the Idea, and ultimately the Idea

of Good.
It is the Idea of Good which, to borrow

the phrase

of Nettleship, is

knowledge

and

Platonic

"

the

polestar

the

"

at once the keystone of

of

Of

conduct."

the

Ideas,
colourless,
formless, intangible
^
Essence, visible only to Nous, the pilot of the soul,"
I will speak in a subsequent lecture
meantime let
;

me remind you
with Plato's

some cardinal points in connection

doctrine of Nous.
We have seen that
of

Notts, according to

which

is

Plato,
related to God

makes us

distinctively

us

essentially divine.*^
Nous so Plato aflirms

being

=*

from the

485 A-486 E.
173
Rci). vi. 487 A.
Cf. Theaet.

first.

the part of

is

fl.

nature

this

which

And
is

It

is

the

further,
in

present

constitutes

"

521 C.
I'haedr. 2A1 C.

See

p.

377

1".

by making
faculty

every

the

Rcqi. vii.

human

nay more,
and truly human
it

of

human

eye of soul

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

4IO

{ofi^a
lose

and the eye

yjrv^rjf;),

its

of

power

seeing.

of

soul can never

wholly

affinity with
in the body,

its

Through

Eeason, even when present

an upward impulse, feels still a natural and
spontaneous yearning toward the fountain of its being.
But until education has come to the rescue, our spiritual

God,

man's

retains

insight is
in which

clouded by the darkness of the prison-house

we live. The eye of the soul is turned

unnaturally
earth,

earthy

downwards,
;

than a shadow
"

at

best,

seeing
it

of the truth.

what

only

gazes on what

And

is

of

the

no better

is

thus the soul, though

heavenly and not an earthly

sustenance from earth, and not, as
do, from heaven.
a

draws

plant,"
it

has a right

its

to

Let us now see how these considerations about the

nature and condition of the soul determine Plato's view
of the scope and method of education.
It will follow
(says Plato) that
not at all what certain of its professors declare it to
us that they put Knowledge into an empty soul, as
though one should put sight into blind eyes. Our theory is of
This faculty of Reason, present in every
quite another kind.

"education
be.

They

is

tell

human

soul, this organ wherewith each man learns

must, along
with the entire soul, be turned round from the sphere of Becoming
until it can endure to gaze upon Being, and the brightest part of
Education is therefore the art of conbeing, that is, the Good.
verting {ttjs Trepiayayrjs) the Reason in the easiest and most
effectual way.
It is not the art of putting sight into the soul's
.

eye believing, on the other hand, that sight

in the soul, but turned in the wrong direction
:

wrong

things, it endeavours to

remedy

is

already present
at the

and looking

this defect."

Thus, according to the Platonic view, education does

not consist in filling the soul with a mass of uncorrelated
fact and dogma
it has
nothing to do with what is
;

popularly

known

as

"

method which Plato

cram

"

the travesty of educational

some of the professional

ascribes to
1

Mej). vii.

518 B-D.

THEORY OF EDUCATION
of

sophists

own

his

Adamson has

day.
"

well

said,

On

the

That

it

a,\\

contrary, as Mr.
the business of

is

education to mature and develop something given, the

germ of a personality, rather than impress it from
without,
'

ing.

is

the very keynote and spirit of Plato's teachis a faculty

residing in the soul of each

There

'

an organ whose preservation is

The
than
a thousand eyes.'
importance
teacher must be content to efface himself, to stand aside.

person,'
of more

he

tells

us,

His business is to superintend the presentation of material

and to guide his pupils to an orderly assimilation of it.
But it is emphatically not his business to impress his
modes of thought so that tliey become a second
nature in his pupils.
Every bit of knowledge worth
'

'

name

the

bears the private

mark

who

of the individual

has acquired it." ^

These are the words of a practical
teacher who has tested by experience the value of Plato's
the earlier stages of mental and moral
have
elsewhere attempted to explain the
discipline.
essential meaning of the Platonic conception by an illustration from the history of sculpture.
Michael Angelo,
in
both
and
in
himself,
poetry
statuary an exponent
principles in

of the great Platonic

the lines
"

thought which he

expresses in

Heaven-born, the soul a heav'n-ward course must

Beyond the visible world she soars to seek
(For what delights the sense is false and weak)
Ideal form, the universal mould -

hold,

"

used to say that every block of marble

contained a statue, and that the sculptor l)rings it to
light by cutting away the encumbrances by which the

Michael Angelo

'

human

face divine

'

is

concealed.

In like manner, accord-

ing to Plato, it is the business of the teacher to prune

the soul of his pupil of those unnatural excrescences and
^

Education in

pp. 78-81.

"

PlcUai's

Bepuhlic

AVordsworth's translation

412

THE RETJGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

incrustations which hide

its

true nature, until the

soul divine stands out in all its pristine

Some of the figurative expressions

gmce and

human
^

pui'ity."

employed by Plato

to emphasise the distinctive character of his educational

theory are of considerable interest and importance in

connection with later religious thought.

At one time
the process is pictured as an e7rdvo8o<; or ascent of the
soul into the realm of Being, a lifting of the eyes on
high,
a dea rwv dvoi, " contemplation of that which is above." ^

The

didactic art appears

purification or purgation

from the defilement

other times as a kind

at

body and

of the

of

effect is to cleanse the soul

its

its senses, to

lighten

the soul of those leaden weights that drag it downwards

to the earth.^
Or, again, it is a mode of deliverance
or a quickening and
(Xvat<i), a release from chains
;

To
rekindling {dva^wTrvpelcrOat) of the spiritual vision.
several of these expressions interesting parallels occur in
the New Testament
but the most striking analogy is
;

furnished by Plato's description of the educational process

"
"
as a Trepiaycoyr] or conversion
of the soul.
The eye of

the soul, Plato implies, must be turned from darkness

to light (tt/oo? to (j)avov Ik tov (ncorwhovi),^ must
pass

from a day which

vvKTepivrj'i

(e/c

is

but

Ttvo<i

et?

rj/j,epa<i

merely the intellect

revolution
the character
is

it

into

night
whicli

day

Nor

dXrjOLvrjv).^

participates

also involved

is

"

the true

in

for

this

Plato

expressly says that the revolution extends to the whole

soul

As with St. Paul, so also

{^vv oXr] rfj y^rv^y).^
conversion is the birth " of a new intel-

with Plato

lectual consciousness

the source of a
The Republic

'

1>.

which

new moral

of Plato, vol.

ii.

98.
-

iii.

is

The whole personality

xxvi.
els

1, 2 (see p. 359 f.).

*
Cf. Heb. xii. 1, ojkov awoQiixevoi
iravTa, laying aside every -weight.
*
518 C.
vii.
Acts
Cf.
Fu'p.

Cf. Col.

transforms the will and

life." ^

18,

eTna-Tpf\pai

dtro

(Tkotovs

(/)u3s.
'

''

"

i>21 C.

518 C.

The

([uotation

aud Headlam,

is

from Samlay

i?owia/is p. 165.

THEORY OF EDUCATION
of I/he pupil

transfoniied, to be reborn

to be

is

413
^
;

as the

"

the inward
light of truth shines ever clearer in his soul,
"
6
would
is
man
as Plato
kvTo<i avBpwiro';,
say

renewed unto knowledge after the idea

of

Good

or God,

human

nature admits, the assimilation is

complete {o^iolwai^ Oeco Kara to Svvarov).^
But it is time for us to consider the actual curriuntil, so far as

culum

by means

of studies

of

which Plato hoped

to lead

his guardians out of the darkness of the visible into the

Eeverting to the
brightness of the intelligible world.
simile of the line, we have to ask what are the

contents of CE, the section that

and the realm of Ideas.

of sense

question

is

lies

between the realm

answer to this

Plato's

introduced by a somewhat elaborate discussion

explaining the principle of the curriculum described in

this part of the Bcpublic.
The originating cause of reflection or thought

is

declared to be the self-contradictory

character of certain sense-perceptions. Thus, for example,

w^e perceive one and the same object as both heavy and
light, that

in

is,

heavy in comparison with a lighter, light

with a heavier object.
The contradic-

comparison

tion produces a feeling of perplexity {airopla

the old
Socratic term) which the senses are powerless to assuage
and the intellect is consequently summoned to their aid.

Observe now the way in which the intellect sets to work,

when thus invoked by the senses. After disintegrating
"

the impression into its component parts, the " heavy

and the " light," it abstracts each of these two qualities

from the material suljstance in which they inhere, and

studies

them

as

what we should

call

general notions or

conceptions, apart from every element of sense-perception

and corporeality. The question has ceased to be, " Is this
particular object heavy or light?" and
'

Cf.

yepofjLevoi

Tpov

Thract.

168 A,

dTraWayuiaL

tCjv

iV 6.\\ol
oi

irp6-

22

'-Rep. ix. '.89 A.

;
Eph. iii. 16.
Theact. 176 B,

r](Tav.

we have entered
Cf.

Rom.

vii.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

414

on a purely intellectual
nature

essential

of

inquiry as to the
heaviness and lightness.

ovaia,

or

Such an
lead us farther and

inquiry when once fairly started will

farther from the visible world, and nearer to the invisible Ideas which in Plato's way of
thinking furnish the

and every other problem.^

then are the particular studies prescribed by

solution of this

What
Plato

Pirst

in

comes apt6/j,7]TLKJ], or the theory

so Plato holds,
the
Here, if anywhere,
stimulated by the shock of self-contradictory
order

numbers.

of

intellect is

for number is an aggregate of units, and

we perceive
unity is never seen apart from multiplicity
one wood, for example, but many trees one tree, but
many branches, and so on. But the stimulus of

perceptions

perceptual contradictions can hardly count

the intellect is thoroughly aroused

after

important

view of

in

point,

for

much

and the
towards which
;

the goal
that we should realise

the

soul is travelling, is
the
nature of the numbers with which the Platonic science
of arithmetic professes to deal.
The true arithmetician,

according to Plato, although he may employ by way of

concrete numbers, such as one horse, two
tables, three chairs and so on, is not really studying these
illustration

numbers at all it is only with the abstract

numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, etc., that he is
To these mathematical numbers, following
concerned.
material

mathematical
the

usual

bias

ascribed
existence.
"

an
which

"

his

substantial,

When

thought, Plato seems to have

and not merely a conceptual

the arithmetician defines his units as

and equal each

to each," he is not speaking

but
of
real
existences, compared with
Unding,"

indivisible

of

of

visible
counterparts are imperfect and
no
two
material and concrete units being ever
illusory
either
indivisible or
exactly equal to one another.

their
;

vii.

523 A-524 C.

THEORY OF EDUCATION

415

Mathematical nuinbcrs, as well as mathematical forms,

"

imitations of the
appear to be included among those
eternal existences, monlded from them in a mysterious

which we read in the Timaeus ^

they form, apparently, a kind of intermediate link
between the visible numl)crs in DC, and the ideas of
On the one liand, they resemble
numliers in EB.
that
visibles inasmuch as they are many and not one

and wondrous way,"

of

for
to say, there
is,
example, a multiplicity of
With the
mathematical units, but only one Ideal unit.
share
the
attributes
of
on
other
the
liand, they
Ideas,

is

changelessness and eternity.^

The study

of

Number, according

to Plato,

if

prosecuted

on these lines, will insensibly lead the soul on high, away

from the region of sense into the region of knowledge.
Next in sequence follows Geometry. The geometrician,
it is said, deals with to ael 6v, that which always is,
In word, no doubt, ho
eternal and necessary truth.
speaks of the visible and perishable

triangle

which he

draws upon the board but all the time he is thinking

of the true mathematical triangle, and it is this whose
If I understand
properties he endeavours to explain.^
mathematical
that
riato rightly, he believes
triangles,
circles, squares, etc., have a real or substantial existence,
and occupy an intermediate position between the Ideas in
whose likeness they are framed and the visible forms of
;

which they are themselves the models.

reason,
"

that

It

is

for this

the

study of Geometry
the soul to turn towards the region where

among

compels

others,

tlie most blessed part of Being, which above all

things she must behold.""* But Geometry will have no such
result unless it be pursued on exclusively theoretical lines
and we are told that Tlato strongly deprecated tlie use of

dwells

50 C.

llcp.

however,

='

524 C-52G C.
369 it.

vii.

p.

Sec,

Rep.

vii.

Jlep. vii.

526 C-527 C.
526 E.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

41 6

He is said to have
instruments and models.
and
this
others
for
Eudoxus
fault, maintaining
reproved
"
forfeited all the good of Geometry by allowing
that they
it to fall back upon sensibles rather than soar aloft and
lay hold upon those eternal and incorporeal images upon
which God by reason of his Godhead is evermore intent." ^

ffGoinetrical

riato's

distrust

of

sense-perception

enough, so long as we are dealing with

for we must
remember that he is

mathematics

as

an

educative

is

intelligiljle

Plane Geometry
concerned with

discipline,

means

of

forcing the pupil to use his reasoning faculties and think,

Neither is it difficult
instead of depending on the eye.

how the problems of Solid Geometry miglit

on
similar lines, though here, perhaps, tlie
be treated
At
cannot
so easily dispense with visible aids.
student
understand

to

the time

when Plato wrote

the Republic, the study of

Geometry appears to have suddenly become popular

He speaks of it as a singularly
Academy.

Solid

the

in

and assigns to it the tliird place

But when we leave the region of
pure mathematics and come to the concrete sciences
of Astronomy and Harmonics, which form the last of
the five preliminary studies, we must allow that Plato's
Each of these two
attitude is more difficult to justify.
subjects is treated by him almost wholly from the standAs regards the first, he insinuates,
point of Geometry.
fascinating subject,
in his curriculum.

perhaps with justice, that the astronomy of his own day

was

Plato himself Hies to tlie opposite

far too empirical.
Kef using to allow that any study can lift the

extreme.

and real,
astronomy are not
"
movethe celestial movements which we see, but the
ment wherewith essential speed and essential slowness, in
true and genuine number and in all true forms, are moved

soul

he

'

on high unless

insists

it

deals with the invisible

that the objects of

Plntarcli, Quacst. Conr. viii. 2.

The last clause has rclcr-

718 F.

true

once to

tlie

del yeuficTpei.

Platonic saying, Oehs

THEORY OF EDUCATION
in

relation

each

to

41"

other and therewithal

them

move

make

that

which is
which are apprehended by reason and the mathematical
^
The language of this
intelhgence, 'out not by sight."
minds
the
in
our
sentence calls up
picture of a trantranscendental
to
the
firmament
scendental
analogous
essentially in

to

the true adornments,

It follows that just as the visible

triangle in Geometry.
the
geometrician for purposes of
triangle is utilised by

and nothing more, so also the visible heavens

should be employed as a moving diagram or orrery to
facilitate our apprehension of the supra- celestial moveThe true astronomer will
ments w^hich they imitate.
"
"
{ra kv too ovpavw
dispense with the starry heavens
of
cultivate
and
astronomy by means
idaofMev),
and the
only in this way, Plato adds
problems
remark is highly significant of the aim and object
illustration

of

his

can he

whole curriculum

"

make

natural

the

intelligence of his soul useful, and not useless, as it

"
"
was before." ^ This is the only kind of utility which
the RepuUic admits.
Here, as elsewhere in Book VII.,
Plato's

aversion

to

profoundly real nor

in Platonism Truth
;

the

lies

and

senses

could

it

well

yonder, in

their

be

objects

is

otherwise,

for

the realm of

the

Ideas.

Astronomy was looked upon by the Pythagoreans

the sister-science to Music or Harmonics.
Plato concurs

as

In this view

but his conception of Harmonics

differs

of the Pythagoreans, and is in every

There
his conception of Astronomy.
to
respect analogous
in
time
of
the
schools
to
have
been
two
musical
appear

from that

toto caelo

Plato,

the

so-called

who,

fiovaiKol,

as

Mr.

Monro

"

remarks, measured all intervals as multiples or fractions

of the Tone,"^ selecting as their unit of measurement
the quarter-tone
'

Rep.
Rep.

vii.
vii.

27

529 C.
530 C.

or Sieai?

and
*

the

Pythagorean

Smith's Did. of Ant.

ii.

p.

or
193.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

4i8

mathematical school, who investigated the mathematical

The first
ratios determining consonance and dissonance.
these two classes Plato

dismisses with contempt as

"
mere empiricists who persecute and torture the strings,
^
For the second or
racking them upon the pegs."
Pythagorean school of theorists he has more respect but
they too are guilty of a fundamental error, inasmuch as
it is only audible consonances whose ratios they examine
whereas they ought to have recourse to problems, inquiring which members are really concordant or discordant,
It is difficult to
and what is the reason in each case.
of

follow

out

Plato's

conception

in

detail

but

we can

clearly see that he regards certain mathematical ratios as

possessing in themselves the quality of consonance, audible

consonances being only sensible and therefore inadequate

embodiments of these transcendental ratios, and, like the
visible

movements

of

the stars, useful merely for illus-

The true musician,

trative purposes and nothing more.
"
is
one
who
the
to
Plato,
penetrates into
according
world of harmony beyond."
So much, then, for the five preliminary studies forming the eVaz^oSo? rov 6Vto9, or ascent into the realm
of Being.

have enumerated them

in the order of their

Number, Geometry, Stereometry,

theory
inception
and
but we are not to
theory of Music
Astronomy,
of

suppose that each preceding study is relinquished as

It will be observed that the
soon as a new one begins.
increases
as
we
advance, except at the last
complexity
for the science of Harmonics does not seem to be more
:

complex than Astronomy

the truth

is

rather that they

are two complementary sides of the same subject, namely,

the intelligible counterpart of movement, in the one
case of visible

movement, and

in

the other of audible.^

In the theory of Number, we are presumably dealing

with one dimension. Number in antiquity being often
1

Rep.

vii.

531 B.

Rep.

vii.

530 D.

THEORY OF EDUCATION

419

represented by a line Geometry adds a second dimenand in Astronomy there is

Stereometry a third
:

sion,

The demand upon the

becomes correspondingly greater at each stage,
particularly as all these sciences arc to be treated from a
the further element of motion.

intellect

purely abstract, perhaps we should rather say a transcendental, point of view.

It is deserving of notice that
studies

for

Stereometry

may

Plato's qitaclrivium of

be viewed as a department

Geometry is the historical prototype of liberal

There is some reason to believe
education in Europe.
that the Pythagoreans had already established a course of
of

embracing Arithmetic, Music, Geometry, and

Astronomy, and we have already seen that, towards the
end of the fifth century B.C., the sophist Hippias taught
"
these four subjects under the name of
Arts," which is
study

also the

An

name

applied by Plato to his propaedeutic studies.

"
the education established in

allusion in Isocrates to

our day

"

has reference to

the same curriculum.

If

not unlikely, owed something in this matter

to his predecessors, he was probably the first to arrange

Plato, as

is

the subjects according to a clearly conceived plan, and

he certainly gave his own interpretation

Nor can there be any doubt that when he
"
"
Arts
along with Dialectic in his own
for such it really was
he
University

to

them

all.

installed the

Academy
became

or

the

virtual founder of University education throughout the

Middle Ages.

The quadrivium

of the Middle Ages conwhich

subjects,
together with the
and
trivium, Grammar, Dialectic,
Phetoric, made up the
seven libcrales ao'tes, proficiency in which was rewarded
bv the dci^ree of artium baccalaureiis.
To the student of language, the very name of " mathe"
matics speaks of Plato.
It was in consequence of the
which
he
to
them in his Academy that
assigned
position

sisted of these four

>

Panath. 26.

THE RE/JGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

420

mathematical pursuits came to be known in a special and

peculiar sense as

"

studies

"

or ixaOijixara

Thus

them.

indeed, repeatedly so calls

^
he writes
of the Laws

Plato himself,
in a passage

tow i\ev6epoi.<; eari rpia

"
there are three studies suitable for freemen
:

"

fiad/jfiuTa,

other words,

in

studies

the

"
:

one of them

measurement

and

we should

as

depth

second

Plane

Geometry

(yecofxerpia),
treats of the revolutions

third

relations to one another."

mathematical

and

"

use

mathematics

of
"
is

"

three

liberal

Calculation and Arithmetic

is

{jxerp'qTLKrj)
"

the

is

say,

By

of

he

length,

superficies,

means,

of

and
of

the

course,

"and the

Solid:

in

stars

their

the time of Aristotle the

/jbaOij/xaTa

is

fully

established

only a literal translation

of

"

"

in
learning
narrower and more restricted meaning of the word.
close are the links that bind our education to
fxaOrj/jbarcKa,

the

subject-matter

of

ra
the

So
the

past.

In conclusion,

would ask you

to

remember

that, in

making his preparatory discipline consist of mathematics,

Plato is true to the principles expounded in the Timaetis.
According to that dialogue, the Creator, who, in Plato's
opinion, is always geometrising, constructs the soul and
body alike of the Universe and man by means of matheIn a certain sense mathematical ratios and forms.
matical science, from Plato's point of view, is thus a
But the pupil must not be
revelation of the Deity.
in
it as final.
His teacher must
allowed to acquiesce

never lose sight of the something beyond which alone

gives meaning and value to the period of preparation.
When, after years of patient effort, we finally attain an
elevation from which

road

by which we

different

we can take
have

studies in their

a synoptic view of the

apprehending the

travelled,

mutual relationship and

cerning the continuity of our progress from

1

vii.

817 E.

dis-

first to last,

THEORY OF EDUCATION

421

we are in a position to enter on the study of the Ideas

but the ultimate goal, the Idea of the Good, is still far
distant.
All that we have hitherto learnt, says Plato, is
:

only the prelude to the song of

dialectic.

It will be our

duty in the remaining lectures to endeavour to interpret

the music of that song.

LECTURES XXI AND XXII

PLATO

concluded

The Theory of Ideas

The

educational discipline which occupied our attention

during the last lecture was intended by Plato to prepare
"
that which is best in
the soul for the contemplation of
the world of Being," in other words, the Idea of the Good.

with this highest and final stage of the

we are concerned to-day.

It is

soul's initia-

tion that

We

shall

place

ourselves

in

the

l^est

position

for

understanding what Plato meant by his Theory of Ideas,

if we start from the passage in which Aristotle describes
what he conceives to have been the strictly philosophical
significance

of

the

doctrine.

According to Aristotle's

Ideas was generated out

account, the Theory

union of Socraticism with Heracliteanism.
of

From

first to last

of

the

Plato, according to Aristotle, agreed

with Heraclitus in holding that

all

perceivable things

"

ceaselessly flowing," and consequently incapable of

being known for the object of knowledge, he assumed,

are

At the same
and unchanging.
Socrates was right in the importance he attached to definition and the universals,
What then is this
with which definition is concerned.
universal or constant element which the general term

necessarily constant
time, he believed that

is

endeavours to express

ceiva])le, for perceivables

changing.

Just because

It cannot be something perare never constant, Init always

it

is
422

permanent and

universal,

THE THEORY OF IDEAS

it

423

entirely disparate from sensibles.

Plato arrived at his doctrine of Ideas or

must be something

In this

way

Forms, which are simply the objective correlates of our

and lie further declared that every
general notions
of
is
sensibles
group
separate from its Idea, while at the
same time participating in it and called by its name.^
;

The reasoning which Aristotle thus drily summarises

was known in antiquity as the "argument from know-

You will
ledge" ipl \o<^oi ol eic roiv iTrtarrjfxwv).
observe that, according to this argument, the Theory of
Ideas is simply Plato's answer to the question which had
occupied Greek thinkers from the time of Parmenides.
Heraclitus was the champion of multiplicity and

they
change, Parmenides of permanence and unity
stood at the opposite poles of thought, the one denying
emphatically what the other no less emphatically affirmed.
:

Their successors, Empedocles, Anaxagoras, and Democritus,

recognising that each of these views contained a measm'e
of truth,

endeavoured to

effect a reconciliation

by

identi-

principle
fying
change with combination and
and
the
element
of unity or permanence
dissolution,
with certain changeless though corporeal substances, the

the

of

four elementary bodies, or the homoeomeries,

or, finally,

in the case of Democritus, individua corpora or atoms.

In the view of Aristotle, Plato unreservedly accepts the

Heraclitean doctrine of flux so far as concerns the visible

the same time he does justice to the
principle by elevating the Socratic universals

world, while at

opposite
into certain incorporeal and unchangeable realities which

he

The

"

"

argument from knowledge is, I

formal
the
think,
only
argument in defence of the Ideal
which
with
we
meet in the writings of Plato
theory
calls

Ideas.

Throughout the Platonic dialogues, those with

Socrates converses are for the most part ready and

himself.-

whom

even eager to accept without demur the existence of the

D ff.
Met. A 0. 9S7''20-''10.
Cf. Tim.
Rep. v. 47G A
'

If.

.^.1

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

424

Ideas as an unquestionable truth, somewhat more eager,

than Socrates himself appears to be.

in fact,

For

the

evidence

present

Aristotle

of

will

only

ask
in

you
so

consider

to

as

far

it

helps

the
to

The
explain, and not to justify, the Theory of Ideas.
first point which Aristotle makes clear is that Plato
hypostasised the Socratic universals, giving to them not
merely a conceptual, but a substantial existence on their

own account

in the second place,

at
once
transcendent and
Ideas are
;

we

learn

that

immanent,

the

at once

for when
separate from, and yet present in particulars
of
sensibles
Aristotle says that every group
partakes in
its Idea, he only repeats what Plato expresses sometimes
:

nomena

and sometimes by the formula

of Trapovaia,
the Idea, Plato says, is present in the pheThis union of transcendwhich bear its name.

in this way,
or presence

ence and immanence constitutes the great intellectual

paradox of the Ideal Theory. About the significance of the

paradox I will speak presently but in the meantime let us
examine the Ideas first of all in their transcendental aspect.
;

That Plato should have attributed a separate existence

to his Ideas, independently alike of sensi1;)le particulars
and of the knowing mind this at first sight extra-

ordinary phenomenon has often proved a stumblingblock in the path of those who approach the study of
Platonism from the side of philosophy pure and simple.
The philosophical difficulty, involved in the apparent disruption

of

the

Universe into two mutually exclusive

hemispheres, has been so seriously felt that not a few

interpreters have regarded the transcendence of the Ideas
as no real part of Platonism at all, but only a misconception arising from a narrow and unsympathetic, not

mechanical and pedantic, study of the dialogues.

For my own part, I think that Plato's actual statements leave us no alternative except to believe that he
to say

looked upon the Ideas as transcendent

nor does any-

THE THEORY OF IDEAS

425

one deny that Aristotle attributed this dogma, from which

The
he himself profoundly disagreed, to his master/

would seem to be
to understand
and
endeavour
word,
the motives that impelled him to have recourse to such
duty

of a

commentator

in such a case

to take Plato at his

a hypothesis.

Aristotle, for his part, represents the Ideal

in an attempt to find a sure

as originating

Theory

foundation for knowledge and knowledge only but when

we read the dialogues of Plato himself, we cannot but
;

other and hardly less powerful

and we may perhaps conjecture what
these impulses were if we examine some of the different
attributes which he assigns to his Ideas.

feel

there were

that

work

impulses at

It

is

harmony with Plato's separation of the

from the sensible world that his description

in

intelligible

former is generally conveyed in language which, by

implied antithesis, at once suggests the fundamental
contrast between the two spheres.
This is not, however,
of the

its

equivalent to saying that he describes the Ideas in terms

of mere negation
on the contrary, since phenomena are
:

in themselves less real

than the Ideas, there

is

more

far

what Plato would have

of

of the

phenomenal

first place,

called negation in his account

In the
than of the Ideal World.

then, each Idea

is

one,

and not many

there

example, be two Ideas of the Beautiful,

otherwise we should have to postulate a still higher Idea
cannot, for

common element in these two and

would be the higher Idea and neither
the two lower that would constitute the really existent

to account

for the

such a case

in

of

Beautiful.2

it

By

virtue

of

this

attribute of unity, the

Platonic Idea furnishes a kind of answer to the imperious

demand of human nature for some haven of refuge from

the sea of multiplicity on which

'

it

Profe8sor

Gomperz pronounces
"

"a monstrous

that
supposition
have been "mis-

Plato should
understood liy Aristotle in regard

we

are tossed.

to his principal doctrine"

2'hinkers iii. p. 328).
"
Jirp. x. 597 C.

[Greek

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

426

In

second place, the

the

On

eternal.

two

these

Ideas are changeless and

of the Ideal

characteristics

World, Plato never wearies of insisting

they are
involved in his description of the Idea as that which
"
"
and " never becomes," as well as in the frealways is
:

quently recurring phrase aet Kara ravra waavToo'i exovra,

ever immutably the same."
Applying to all the other
Ideas what is predicated of the Idea of Beauty in the

"

Symposium, we may say that each Idea is ever-existent,

and imperishable it is what it is always
and everywhere and in all relations and respects it is,
alike uncreated

in short, avro KaO' avro, jxeO^ avrov fiovoecBe'i ael 6v, alone

and by
is

by

its

simple and everlasting and while the Idea

"
"
in the particulars called
present

itself,

same time

at the

name, yet

"

"

this

very

presence

of

is

such a kind

that, although the particulars come into being and perish,

the Idea nevertheless suffers no diminution nor increase

nor change of any kind at

and

this

similar

dominating motive

the

of

obvious that in

It is

all.^

pictures

Ideal

World,

the

not to provide a severely rational

foundation for a theory of knowledge
it is rather to
"
an abiding
satisfy the instinctive longing of the mind for
is

a ^aalXeia aaaXevro';, or " kingdom that cannot

the
of
which we
shaken," in
contemplation

city,"

be

may

find

rest

amid

the

change and decay of things

terrestrial.

The

third attribute of the Ideas, and that which seems

throw the greatest light on Plato's reasons for placing
them in a world apart, is their perfection. Whereas the
to

Socratic definition expresses only those qualities of the

object defined which we have learned by means of an

induction that at best

Idea

is

characteristics

know them

is

always incomplete, the Platonic

sum and substance

the

or

of

the
not,

thing

and
'

Cf.

in

of

all

the

essential

question, whether

consequently represents
1).

433

iT.

we
the

THE THEORY OF IDEAS

427

perfect and complete reality of which our general notions

In this way the
may be only an imperfect copy.

becomes

Idea

the

absolute

standard

or

for

the

particular group
phenomena over which it presides.
It
must be admitted, however, that the different
of

examples

by

Absolutes,

or,

set

up

which Plato enforces his theory of

"
models
he sometimes names them,

as

in nature,"

are not all equally persuasive.

to follow him when

find it difficult, for instance,

speaks

of the really existent

carpenter looks
which we use

Bed

We
he

or Table at which the

when manufacturing the beds or

and ancient as well as modern

have sometimes doubted whether, in the case

tables
critics

of artificial

objects, Plato seriously intended to assert the existence of

a transcendental Form.
Yet even here we feel that the

never fully
manufactured object is always imperfect
and entirely is what it fain would be.
We are conscious
of a similar sentiment in connection with the creations of
the ideal type, wc
nature, both organic and inorganic
:

feel, is

never wholly realised.

"That type

of Perfect in his

mind

In Natui'e can he nowhere find."

The thought which Tennyson expresses in these lines ^

was thoroughly congenial to Plato. When we look upon
visible and material things he points out in the Phacdo,

we

are
"

ideal.

frequently sensible that they fall short of the

This thing, which I now see, would fain be like

that other, but

falls
"

short,

and cannot attain

thereto,

All these equals which I see aspire

But it is in
to absolute equality, but do not reach it."*

but

is

inferior."

the domain of art and morality that the Platonic conception of an absolute and unchanging standard appeals
1

Farm. 132

"

Bep.

389

ff.

X.

I).

596

ff.

Cf.

Crat.

'

Tin Two
PJiaed. 74

Voices.

IL

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

428

most powerfully to the

and has exercised by

human

impulses of mankind,
the greatest influence upon

idealistic

far

thought.
"

Who

sayes that fictions onely and false hair

verse ? Is there in truth no beautie

Become a

good structure in a winding stair ?

no lines passe, except they do their dutie
Not to a true, but painted chair ? " ^

Is all

May

It will be allowed that

George Herbert, the author

of

these verses, gives expression in them to a feeling which,

whether it be justifiable or not, is at all events deeply
are so constituted that we
rooted in om* nature.

We

refuse

the

of

indeed.

who

in

to

acquiesce
beautiful and

Art

hold

criticism

purely

ugly

on

becomes
in

the

subjective standard
a hypothesis,

such

impossible, and those

theory, are apt in

hypothesis
when others differ from them on a

practice to beUe

it,

It is also a historical fact that Plato's

point of taste.
"
vision of a transcendent standard of Beauty,
everywhere

and always and

in all relations beautiful," has fired the

imagination of artists in more than one generation, and

was in particular the inspiring motive of the art of

Michael Angelo, in whose lifetime the famous Academy

And if in
Florence made Platonism live again.
questions of aesthetics we feel that there is and must
be something more than a merely subjective or conven-

at

standard of right and wrong, the feeling is even

Inasmuch
stronger in matters appertaining to morality.
as Socrates concerned himself almost exclusively with
tional

it is not unlikely, as Mr. Waddell appears

in his edition of the Parmenides^ that the

ethical notions,
to

suQ;g;est

Theory

of

Ideas

itself

Justice, Goodness,
its

and

began with the hypostasisation of

so forth,

and afterwards enlarged

scope so as to include the other inhabitants of

'
P. xxix.
Jordan.

the

THE THEORY OF IDEAS

429

In any case, Llie need for asserting the

objective reality of the moral standard may well have
seemed to Plato all the greater on account of the teachIdeal sphere.

We

have already seen that one of

ing of the Sophists.
the prevailing tendencies of the age of Illumination was
to look upon Justice and other ethical concepts as
determined, according to the usual formula, not by
Oeaei, not cjjvaeL
nature, but by convention
they
are merely matters of agreement between man and man,
:

and correspond
realities

at

no objective or

to

all.

Protagoras,

if

so-called

"

natural

"

we adopt the ancient

maxim, went even further, and

interpretation
maintained that the individual, alone and by himself,
"
"
measure or standard of
is for and to himself the only
all things.
Against this extreme development of subin
morals, Plato's theory of Ideas is an emphatic
jectivity
counterblast.

of

his

It

is

Protagoras

whom

he

is

trying

to

refute, when, in the Cratylus, he declares that the Ideas

have a stable existence of their own, not relative to us,

nor dragged to and fro by us according to our fancy, but

independent, and relative only to their own essence with
that relation which Nature, and not (as we may presume
the antithesis to be) Convention, has ordained.^

In view

the three attributes which

of

we have now

considered, unity, changelessness, and perfection, it ought

to be easy for us to appreciate, at least in some degree,
"
"
his Ideas
the motives which led Plato to
separate

from the region

of

sense,

and assign

to

them a

tran-

In the world of space

no unity without multiplicity, nothing

scendent existence of their own.

and time there

is

that abides, nothing that is perfect in its kind, although

everything speaks to us of a perfection not its own.

Just as the inheritance for which the Christian looks,

"
the inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth
not away,"

is

of

iu)t
'

this world, so

Crat. 386 E.

the eternal and un-

Cf. p. 426.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

430

changeable realities which, according to' Plato, the Soul

in her past history beheld, and which she hopes to behold
are

hereafter,

again

"

"

necessarily

yonder

If

(eVet).

they were only immanent and not transcendent, they

would cease to be what they are, that is, an Ideal for
;

an ideal must always be beyond

"

world above man's head, to let him see

boundless might his soul's horizons be.

How
How

vast, yet of

what

clear transparency

"

Thus far, then, it would seem that the Ideas of Plato

constitute a world of transcendental models or archetypes,
the truly existent reality corresponding to all our dreams
of perfection, in the spheres alike of nature, art, morality,

and knowledge.

Plato's religion consists in the passionate

uplifting of the mind towards this realm of perfection, to
which the Soul in her true nature is akin.
It has often

been pointed out that St. Paul and St. Peter laid the
mysteries under contribution, for imagery in which to

shadow forth the spiritual realities of the Christian faith.

In exactly the same way the mysteries of Eleusis provide metaphors and phrases for Plato's description of the
Ideal world.
The account of the " region above the
^

heavens," in the Fhacdrus, is steeped in the atmosphere

of the Eleusinian rites.
The framework in which the
a pilgrimage of Gods and souls as yet
narrative is set
uufallen, ending in a sacrament-

along

the

Demeter

we can

at

reveals the procession

way from Athens to

and in many details
Eleusis

sacred

the temple of
the picture

of

detect a reference to the actual celebrations of

the festival.

The conception of the Idea as the food or

employment of expressions refer-

the
rpoc^i] of the soul
of
to
the
ceremony
ring
:

initiation

rekerd, for example,

/xveladai, dpTiTeX'>]<;, dT6\7]<i, i^eoreX?;?, eTrorrreveiv, reXeiof,

^

Matthew Arnold,

Nigld.

A Summer

The

?A7 C.

vtrepoupdvios t^ttoj, Pltacdr.

THE THEORY OF IDEAS

431

the use of words like fiuKap,

pei'ha])s 6x6K\i]po<i
evhaifKov, euiraOelv, to describe the rapture of tlie beatific
and the allusion to the avyrj KaOapd, the blaze
vision

and

of

light

amid which the sacred

in each and all

cfxlafiaTa

were exhibited

of

these

may easily recognise the source of Plato's

No one who understands the part

or

emblems

we

features

inspiration.'^

played by the
mysteries in Greek life will deny that such a description
of the Ideal World was intended to arouse religious as
well

as

philosophical

enthusiasm.

more than

a figure of
the divine

something

It

is

speech

consequently
when Plato

model or TrapdSecyfxa
the Idea divine
The
which human institutions should be framed.^
eternal and invisible Forms are in very truth the Platonic
and from this point of view Mr.
equivalent of Gods
calls

after

Pater

is

justified in describing the Ideal

Theory as a

sort

"

recrudescence of polytheism in that abstract world." ^

In the words of the same writer, the Ideas seem to

of

become

"

Plato

for

but

not

merely

little

short

as persons are
a system of affinities,

made

themselves,

known
ofiolw,

that

like

to

common,

substantial

things-iu-

living persons, to
known to each other,
of

on the

old

Eleatic

rule,

be

by

ofiocov

these persons constituting together

like

eternal, intellectual world, a sort of divine

family or hierarchy, with which the mind of the individual, so far as

communion

it

is

reasonable, or really knows,

Up to the present stage,

transcendence of the Ideas.
the

reason

particulars

is

in

or correspondence."*

why
is

transcendent

Plato

that

we have

considered only the

have tried to suggest that

"
makes them " separate
from
I

the Ideal or Type must always be

by nature nor by man is it ever

neither

To this aspect of the Ideas we have

wholly realised.
found a religious parallel in the Christian conception of
'

Phaedr. 246 A
Rep. vi. 500 E.

ff., esji.

250.

pi^^i^

lb. p. 138.

^nd Platonism

p. 153.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

432

a heaven

"

above

this world and beyond time, not

^
but
the ultimate
supramundane,"
only superterrestrial
our
of
all
after
aspirations
goal
spiritual beauty, goodness,

and

truth.

that

We

is

have next

to

examine the relation which

Plato conceives to exist between the region of perfect

Forms and the world in which we live. One of the
objects of the Ideal Theory is to enable us to understand

and it is obvious that the creation

things as they are
"
of a second universe, a kind of archetypal
museum,"
as it has been called, so far from having any such result,
;

only multiplies the phenomena to be explained, unless it

brought into some kind of causal and necessary connection with the world of space and time.
The relation
is

between the Idea and the particular

is

a topic on which

Plato frequently dwells

but it is characteristic of his
that
was
far
he
more
anxious to insist on the
genius
;

reality of the Universal, than to develop a consistent

At the same
theory of its union with individual things.
time we shall, I think, discover that for the student of
religious, not of philosophical thought, no little interest
attaches to Plato's general conception of the way in which
the Infinite comes into contact with the finite, as well

as to the terminology which he employs in treating of

the subject.
will

be convenient to take as the basis of our

discussion

part of the famous passage of the Phaedo

the Platonic Socrates tells the story of his

It

in

which

intellectual development.
After describing how he had
found no rest or satisfaction for his mind in the study
of

mere secondary

follows

causes,

he

proceeds

somewhat

as

" Let
I

me now try to show you the sort of cause that interests me.
will return to the old and well-worn story, and begin with the

Ideas, postulating a self-existent Beautiful, Good, Great, and so on.

If you grant me these, I hope to make you understand what I mean
S.

D. F. Salniond in Hastings' Did. of the Bible,

ii.

p.

323^

THE THEORY OF IDEAS

by causation. ...

hold

a thing is beautiful, it is so for no

partakes in the Ideal Beauty (fierexfianyonc tells me that such and such

lliat if

other reason than because

Kivov Tov KaXoO). ...

433

it

If

beautiful, because it has the bloom of colour or form or

it merely confuses me
of the sort, I neglect all that
else
anytliing
and to this one point, simply and artlessly perhaps you will think

a thing

is

my own

cleave fast in

foolishly

mind, that nothing makes an

object beautiful except the presence {irapova-ia) of Ideal Beauty, or

their communion {Koivwvia) with eacli other, or the advent of the

Idea in whatsoever way ' for upon the mode of the connection I
but only that it is the Idea of Beauty by which
insist
:

do not

beautifuls are

made

Communion

beautiful."

(Koivavia), participation

{^ieTe')(eLv, /j,eOe^i<;,

fieraXa/x^dveLv,
/jbjd\T]'\jn<;),
presence
{nrapovcria)
these, then, are the usual terms employed by Plato to

shadow

forth

existent

Idea and the

the

relation

between

the

particulars

eternal

self-

which, whatever

of

be the exact character of the relationship, Plato

profoundly convinced that the Idea and nothinj^

may
is

else is the

Now,

cause.

with or partakes
entitled

the particular communicates

Idea, we are just as much

if

the

say that the particular

Idea is in the particular.

to

the

that

of

two ways of
finite and the

the language of religion offers

but Plato confines himself exclusively,

Infinite

parallels
think, to the second formula.

"

"

The Idea

"

"

is

present

the particular.
It is
of notice, as indicating the religious affinities of
conception, that in common with the rest of the

or

in

the Idea as

in

To each of these
expressing the communion between the
^

many

is

possesses

(/caTe;^e4)

worthy
the

Greeks, Plato attributed

the

also

the inspiring God.

is a
God within

of

there
^

Reading (with the MSS.)

yevofiivT],
2

Phaedo 100

28

B (T

phenomenon

of

in-

He who

the presence, namely,

is inspired is eV^eo?

him

he

spiration to irapovaia or presence

or

e.g.

Trpocr-

is

possessed by a

"Abide

in

Me, and

you."
*

e.g.

Phaed. 104 D.

in

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

434

God

faculty

the rational

man

element in
of
"

In the same way, as

{KaTOKW)(rj).

converse

the

is,

according

we have

Plato, the

to

seen,

divine

but I find no trace in the dialogues

notion that the human soul can be
"

to
although the phrase fxeracry^dv 6eov,
partake in God," occurs in the Fhaedrus}
It appears, therefore, that the Idea, which we have
in

God,"

found to be transcendent, is at the same time immanent

and, as I have already stated, it is just this transcendent
;

immanence
of

the
so

of

the Idea which constitutes the paradox

No one knew better than Plato

Plato's Idealism.
difficulties

long as

it

inherent in such a conception, at least

is

interpreted

in

any narrow

spirit

of

In the Farmenidcs he puts into the mouth

of the veteran Eleatic philosopher the most trenchant
criticism which the theory of Ideas has ever received,

literalism.

and a considerable part of that criticism is directed to

Are we to suppose, asks Parmenides,
this very point.
that the whole of the Idea is present in each particular,
One of the two alternatives must
or only part of it ?
In either case, we
Idea
if the whole

be true.
Idea

thing,

for

Idea

the

is

sacrifice

inheres

the unity of the

in each several

no longer one, but many

and

if

particular has only part of the Idea, then the

And
Idea is divisible whereas Unity is indivisible.^
so on through a series of objections not less relevant

each

and pointed

objections which

(so

far

as

can see)

Plato never succeeded in refuting, though to the last

he seems to have upheld the transcendence as well as

In spite of the theoretical

apparently convinced that the

the immanence of the Ideas.

difficulty,

Plato

was

at once above and beyond the finite

same time present in the finite and
here again we are struck by the resemblance between
Platonism and Christian theology, which maintains
Infinite

and yet

must be
at

the

253 A.

130

ff.

THE THEORY OF IDEAS

*'

with

equal

firmness

God in the world, and

of God above the world."
holds

the

field,

them has been

Plato.

Each
the

although
felt

the

in

belief

a belief in

435

immanence

the

two doctrines

of these

difficulty

of

reconciling

by Christian thinkers not

Thus, for example,

of

transcendence

less

than

by
Augustine, speaking of
the divine immanence, observes, in language that reminds
us forcibly of the Parmenides "But when Thou fillest
St.

Or
things, dost Thou fill them with all Thyself?
because all things cannot contain the. whole of Thee,
do they receive a part of Thee, and do all receive

all

the same part at the same time ?

Or does each receive
own part, greater things a greater part, lesser things
a lesser ?
Then is one part of Thee greater, another
its

less.

Or

art

Thou wholly everywhere, though naught

"

receives the whole of

Thee

What, then,
may be asked, does Plato wish to
when
he
express,
speaks of the transcendent idea as at the
same time present in the particulars of which it is the
it

?
Perhaps we shall best understand his meaning
we take two examples, let us say the Beautiful and
the Just, and consider what this notion of Trapovata or

cause
if

It is
presence would signify in connexion with them.
clear that the perfect Ideal of Beauty can be said to
reside in a beautiful picture only in proportion as that

picture resembles the Ideal which, on Platonic principles,

the cause why it is beautiful
and in like manner

is

"
Ideal Justice or Piighteousness is " present in a human
soul just to the extent to which that soul
participates
in the perfection at which it aims.
In other words, the
"

"

of the Idea in the

presence
particular means the
resemblance of the particular to its Idea and in point
of fact, Plato constantly expresses the
relationship in
;

this
1

way, not only in the

Chase, Credibility of the Acta

p. 227.

later

dialogues,

Confessions,

tr.

when

Bigg,

i.

the

c. iii.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

436

paradeiginatic conception of the Idea predominates, but

Phacdo and the Bepuhlic, side by side with the

also in the

theory of participation or immanence, on which, indeed,

the theory of hkeness is only a kind of explanatory gloss.^
The view that the Ideas are TrapaSeij/jLara or types in

which phenomena participate is condemned by Aristotle

a poetical metaphor and nothing more
Keuokoyelv

as

earl koX /xera(popa<i Xejetv iroLijTCKd'i ^ nor does Plato

himself suppose that it provides a satisfactory philosophical account of the relation between the finite
:

and the Infinite.

But if we would understand the religious potentialities
of the doctrine, we must turn, as before, to the New
In St. John's Gospel and the Epistles
Testament.
of St. Paul, Ideal Eighteousness, which Plato, we must
remember, speaks of as divine,^ has become incarnate
"
in Jesus Christ
the Word became flesh and dwelt
"
us
hence
we may fairly say that in these
among
two writers the person of Christ occupies the same
:

relative position as is occupied by the Idea of EightIt is consequently more than a

eousness in Plato.

merely verbal or superficial analogy when the relationship between the believer's soul and Christ is described
in the New Testament by the formula of participation or

communion

"

"

partakers of the divine nature

(^ei'a?
"
the fellowship {Koivwvla) of Jesus
Koivwvol (pvaewi),
"
our fellowship {Koivcovla) is with the
Christ our Lord,"
:

Father and with His Son,"

"

fellow-partakers {avfXfxeToxa)
"
the promise in Christ Jesus,"
partakers of the Holy
"
*
of
the
Ghost," partakers (fiiro'^oi)
heavenly calling."
of

And
"

of

if

the idea of Koivwvla or fellowship

immanence
"

irapovaia,

"
is

even more

is

No

so.

common, that

doubt the word

presence," by which Plato generally expresses

See Farm. 132 D.

Met. A. 9. 991^^21
Thsaet. 176 E al.

*
f.

i.

iii.

2 Pet.

1.

i,

Eph.

1 Cor.

iii.

i.

Heb.

John

vi.

4,

THE THEORY OF IDEAS

the

has

relationship,

sense

diil'erent

437

New

the

in

Testament, where it refers with few exceptions to the

second coming of our Lord and the fulhhuent of the
reign of righteousness ah-eady hegun upon the earth.
Parousia, in Plato, means partial, incomplete attainment
in Christianity, for the most part, it signifies the final

That

consunmiation.

the obvious difference, so far as

is

but it is not a mere question of

language is concerned
words the point is rather that the doctrine of Parousia
;

as the presence of the Infinite in the finite underlies the

deepest religious teaching of St. Paul's Epistles, as well

as the Gospel and Epistles of St. John, having attained,

of course, to new vitality and power by the embodiment
of the divine Idea in a divine yet human personality.
Plato professes himself unable to conceive of any cause
except the immanent Idea it is the Idea of Eigliteous;

and nothing else whatever, that

In exactly the same way, according

ness, present in the soul,

makes us
to the

righteous.

New

Testament, the indwelling Christ,

produces
Other cause there

of

life."

My

am

Greater

that eateth

you."
the world."

"

in
is

or

Christ in

Christ-like

character.

"

the bread

and can be none.

My

flesh

am

and drinketh

"
and / in him"
Ye shall
Father, and ye in Me, and 1 in

Me

abideth in

that I
"

is

... "He

blood

know

Christian

the

you,"

"

My

He

that

is

in you than he that

is

in

Sanctify in your hearts Christ as Lord."

"

"
Christ in you, the hope of glory."
It is God which
worketh in you both to will and to work, for His good
"
No longer I, but Christ liveth in me."
pleasure."

"

little children, of whom I am again in travail until

Christ be formed in you." ^
Nor does the living and

My

life-giving principle which the Apostles identify

Christ reside merely in the soul of the believer.

Plato the universe of Ideas, afterwards

1

St.

John

John
iv.

vi.
;

48, 56, xiv.

Pet.

iii.

15

20

Col.

i.

27

iv. 19.

Phil.

with

As

in

summed up by
ii.

13

Gal.

ii.

20,

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

438

concept of Logos, constitutes the

immanent reality of the world, so in the Fourth Gospel
and in St. Paul, Christ is the inherent life and truth of
Philo

the

in

single

a cosmic power as well as an influence that

The author of St. John's Gospel
works in human lives.
all

that

is,

"

intended to suggest this great idea when he wrote, That

"
which hath been made was life in him (o <ye<yovev, iv
avTU)

^oii] rjv)

lives in Christ.

the entire universe, organic and inorganic,

"
The world is the poem of the Word to

the glory of the Father in it, and by means of it, He

displays in time all the riches which God has eternally
:

put within Him."

We

meet with the same conception

"
In him were all things

in the Epistle to the Colossians

created, in the heavens and
visible

consist

and things
"

invisible.

{to. TTcivTa iv

avrw

upon the earth, things

and in Him all things
.

a-vveajrjKev).^

So much, then, for the religious significance of Plato's

doctrine of Parousia.
Eeverting for a moment to the
general question of the transcendent immanence of the
Idea, we may sum the matter up by saying that just as
by virtue of its transcendence the Idea is never wholly
realised in the particular, but stands apart, an object of
ceaseless
aspiration and desire, so by virtue of its

immanence, the Idea

is

same time always being

at the

realised, in proportion as the particular approximates to it.

have next to inquire whether in the Ideal World

We

itself

It has been
is
any unifying principle.
out that each individual Idea constitutes the

there

pointed

which it
and conothing
ordinate the several Ideas among themselves, no still
call it by what name
higher Being, Potency, or Power

essential unity of the group of

inheres

but

if

there

to

^
So in one of the Login
i.
3.
published in 1897 Jesus saith
'Raise the stone, and there thou
cleave the wood,
shalt find Me
:

and there am

I.

phenomena

is

in

connect

Christian Mysticism

Inge,

p.

47.
^

66.

Col.

i.

16.

Cf.

Inge,

I.e.

p.

THE THEORY OF IDEAS

by whicli

you

will

it is

obvious that

after

tlicy in Lheir

439

Luni arc comprehended

we do

not really escape from multiplicity

Such a supreme and ultimate Unity Plato

all.

Idea

finds in the

of

Good

and

tins

conception

the

a
philosophy
coping-stone
of
full
of
than
not
less
philosophical
conception
religious
it is now our duty to examine.
import

Qpf^Ko^

By

or

of

his

entire

the time of Plato, owing chiefly to the influence of

and teaching, the question, " What is the

Socrates' life
"

had already become the central problem of

and as such it appears again and again in
the minor Socratic dialogues which are usually supposed
to be earher than
For an admirable
the RepuUic.
account of the doctrine of these and other dialogues,
regarded as a preparation for the more comprehensive
good

Ethics

treatment of the subject in the Bepuhlic, I may refer you

Mr. Nettleship's Lectures and Remains ^ but as

to

the Republic gives by far the fullest description of the

metaphysical and religious aspect of the Good, it is with
the discussion in that dialogue that w^e are principally
concerned.

The Idea

of Good, says the Platonic Socrates, is King

the intelligible sphere, as the Sun is of the visible.To describe the supreme Idea in itself he will not venture

of

the Father and

Maker

of all,

we read

in the Timaeus,^

is

hard to discover, and after he is discovered, impossible to

declare unto all.
We must be content to apprehend the

Good by means of its Kyovo<;, or offspring, that is to

Sun for as the Sun in the visible world stands
to sight and its objects, so the Good in the intelligible
say, the

world stands to Eeason and the objects Eeason knows.

In brief, the Good is, as it were, the Sun of the Ideal

World
whole
1

Vol.
vi.

this is the leading

thought running through the

of Plato's exposition."*
i.

pp. 237-336.

509 P.

28 C.
vi. 506

fT.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

440

In the passage which I have just summarised, you will

observe that something of the adoration with which Plato
regards the supreme Idea is extended also to its offspring

realm of

in the

There are traces of sun-worship

visibles.

Greek religion generally ^ but here it is

as the symbol and vicegerent of the Idea of Good that
"
"
the
clear God and patron of all light
inspires religious
"
"
It is probable," says Mr. G. E. Benson,
that
feeling.
Plato felt it was no accident that made this imagery

in Plato, as in

available for him.

speak,

was part

it

of

He

probably thought that, so to

the function of the sun thus to

^
similar conception
type of the good."
in
occurs
the
of
Thus in the
works
Dante.
frequently
"
we
read
There
is
no
sensible
Banquet
thing in all the
world more worthy to be an image of God than the sun,

present

which with its sensible light illumines first itself, and

then all celestial and elementary bodies so God first
illumines Himself with intellectual light, and then the
celestial and other intelligences." ^
;

Let

us

how

see

Plato

The Sun, he

comparison.

by means

of light enables

of

to

sight

nothing

be seen.

part develops the

the Lord of light, and

his
is

our sight to see and the objects

Where no

but where there

for

says,

is

light,

light

we

shines,
see.

we

see

Similarly,

Good

is the Lord of Truth,

the spiritual analogue of
and by means of Truth enables Eeason, the eye of
When the Eeason is firmly stayed (uTrepeisoul, to know.
arjTai) on that whereon Truth shines, it is roused into
but when it looks on the darkness
activity and knows
of the phenomenal world, where things arise and pass
away, it knows nothing, but merely opines, and is carried
to and fro by every wind of doctrine.
There is no rest

the

light,

for the soul

1

mains
2

till it is

Tim. 40

anchored in the Truth.*

Syvip. 220 D.
Nettleship's Lectures and Ree.g.

iii.

ii.

c.

p.

235 n.

12,

K. Hillard

Purg. 7. 26 (I'alto Sol che tu

Par. 9. 8, 15. 76 al.
;
Pep. vi. 508 A-D.

disiri)
*

2.

4, tr.

cf.

THE THEORY OF IDEAS

441

The Good is therefore, according to Plato, the ultimate

it is that which enahles all
cause of Knowledge
the
Good
is
other Ideas to be known.
Secondly, the
of
for
the
likewise the ultimate cause
just as
Being
;

Sun provides the

objects
sight not only with the
capacity of being seen, but also with generation, increase,
and nourishment, so also the Good furnishes the objects
of

of Knowledge not merely with the power to be known,

but also with ovaia or Existence.
It is that by reason

which every other Idea

of

is}

In this way the Idea of Good becomes in Plato the

source at once of Knowledge and of Existence.
Plato is
careful to point out that, although
is not identical with, the Good,

Knowledge resembles,
any more than sight
should be identified with the Sun.
The Good, he says,
is something higher than
Knowledge, and even more
it

beautiful.-

which

of

It

ovaria<i^

T?}?

substantial,"

it

is

also

above
is

to

irreKeiva
higher than Existence
beyond all the other Ideas

and

the

use

cause,

the

virepovaLov

name by which

or

"

the

supertran-

scendence of the Highest was sometimes described in

later philosophical and religious thought.
As the source
of Knowledge, the Good, dwelHng itself, as one might
in light inaccessible (^oi? ol/cCov arrpoaiTov)} is
"
that which gives hght to all
(to Traat ^w? irape'xpv)
so that from hence proceeds, not only Knowledge, but
also whatever light or truth still lingers in those inferior

say,
"

''

grades of intellectual or quasi-intellectual apprehension

enumerated in the simile of the line.
Considered, again,
as the source of Being, the Good is the author of all

which is but a special

and through them of the realities

the subordinate

Ideas, each of

determination of

itself,

mathematics, as well as of that reflection or semblance

of
1

vi.

509 B.

E.

-'

vi. f)08

Tim.

Fup.

vi. \6.

vii.

540 A.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

442

reality which belongs to the world of geueration

decay, in each of its two categories, material things
of

and
and

In short, as Aristotle might have said, it is the

on
which the Universe and Nature hang the
principle

shadows.

apyr]

d(f)

rj^i

r)pr7]TaL o ovpavo<i

Kol

(f)V(TL<;.^

t)

Throughout the foregoing discussion, I have occasionally used language which implies that the Idea of Good
stands for Plato's philosophical conception of God.
has often been challenged
but

identification

The
the

involved in any other hypothesis appear to

If we deny the equation, while still
be insuperable.
difficulties

believing that Plato did not exclude the concept of God

from his philosophy, we must take up one of three
positions.

We

must maintain that the Idea

of

Good

God, or, conversely, that God is

subordinate to the Idea of Good, or else that they are
wholly independent of one another, the Idea being as
it were
a model or TrapaSeiyfia, after whose likeness
is

subordinate

to

the Creator fashions the Universe, so far as Necessity

The first of these solutions is inconsistent with

permits.

the sovereignty of the Good, on which Plato emphatically

insists, and tlie second cannot be reconciled with the
"
Maker and Father of all in
representation of the
the Timaeus, nor indeed with the suggestion in the
Bepuhlic that God is the author of the secondary or
"

The third hypothesis, though held by

and at first sight supported by
the Timaeus, denies to the Idea of Good that creative
function which is expressly assigned to it in the Bepuhlic.
Or are we to adopt a fourth solution, and say that
"
religion and the Gods on the one hand, philosophy and
the Ideas on the other, are two conceptions of the world,
which, answering to two different needs of men, are
derivative Ideas.^

some distinguished

critics,

1
See Met. A 7. 1072i'14.
Cf.
Dante's account of the Deity (Par.

28. 41
il

f.)

oielo, e
X. 597

"

da quel pnnto Depende

tutta la natura.
B.

THE THEORY OF

WE AS

443

elaborated ly two distinct faculties of the mind," and

"
a religious person and believed in
that while Plato was

the Gods like the respectable people of his day, yet in his
philosophy, as long as the Ideal Theory held the field, he
'

might have said with Laplace, I have never felt the

"
This is the theory which
want of that hypothesis ?
M. Bovet has advanced in his treatise on " Le Dieu
de Platon," ^ but such a separation between religion
and philosophy would assuredly have been repudiated
by Plato, when he wrote the Rcpuhlic, not less emphatically
The
than when he wrote the Timaeus and the Lavjs.
doctrine that reason, and not sentiment, is the divine
element in man, as it were the link uniting him to God,
belongs to the so-called middle as well as to the later
Platonism and no one holding this belief could have
kept his religion and his philosophy in two watertight
To impute anything of the sort to Plato
compartments.
I
cannot
but think, an entire misconception
involves,
of what Platonism really means.
Consider, in the second place, some of the positive
To begin with, it estabreasons for the identification.
lishes between the earlier and later books of the Repuhlic
The
precisely the kind of harmony we should expect.
first and most important of the canons which Plato, in
'

the second book, prescribed for the religious instruction

young was that God is good. Now we have

of the

already seen that the preliminary scheme of education

was intended to pave the way for the later and more
advanced, by inculcating in a categoric or dogmatic form,
as it were, the reflection of philosophical truths which
are

to be apprehended in themselves by
and not by faith.
It would accordingly

afterwards

ratiocination

of Good is the philosophical fulfilment

the divine goodness already imparted
at an earlier stage of intellectual development.

seem that the Idea

of the doctrine of

P. 76.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

444

reason for equating the two conceptions,

the Idea of Good, is to be found in the analogy

further

God and

Ijetween the position of the Good in the Republic, and

The same characterthat of the Creator in the Timaewi.

and

istics

activities are assigned

"

In

by Plato to both.
"

^
in the
Godhead is called the best
"
roU
Good
is
to
iv
the
the
best
ovatv,
Bciniblic
cipiarov
^
that
are."
The
to
the
Creator, according
among things
is
hard
and
when
difficult
to discover,
discovered,
Timaeus,
In exactly the same spirit
to reveal unto all men.^

the Timaeus the

Socrates

in

describe

the

and

it

the

Repuhlic

professes

worth remembering, by way

is

imable to

himself

Good otherwise than through an image

of

^
:

confirmatory

evidence, that Greek writers not infrequently represent

the Highest God as the inscrutable one, whose name is

Of the Idea of Good we read

not lightly to be spoken.^
"
that it is ap-)^r) rov Travro'i, the beginning or source of
the universe,^ the creator or parent of the visible sun,
In like
and through it of the world in which we live."
"
maker and Father
manner, God in the Timaeus is the
"
of all
and Plato expressly attributes to him the
"
creation of the sun and the other
heavenly Gods."
In contradistinction with Necessity, the Creator, himself
'^

supremely good, is the sole cause of whatever is good in

the world which he creates,^ making it, as far as may
like

be,

unto himself.

assured in the Republic

everything the cause of

To
all

same purpose we are

the

that

Idea of

the

that

is

Good

right and

is

to

beautiful.^

These are some

of the parallels which, may be quoted

of the Timaeus is only a kind of
whole
the
but, indeed,
elucidation of one of the functions which the Re/public
1

29 A, E, 37 A. Throughout
paragraph I have closely
followed Biehl, Die Idee des GiUen
this

p. "65.
vii.
3
*

^
Eur. Troad.
Euthyphr. 12 A.
^
vi. 511 B.
7
28 C.

532 C.

28 C.
vi. 506 E.

68 E
517 C.

Ti7)i.
s

vii.

al.

885.

Cf.

Plato,

THE THEORY OF IDEAS

assigns to tlie
creative cause.

Yet

another

be

argument may

derived

Book X.

exposition of the Ideal theory in

Plato

the

Idea, that of

supreme

445

efficieut

from

or

the

of the Republic.

attempting to explain the grounds of his belief

is twice removed from the Idea.
We

is

that imitative art

have here,

let

us say, the picture of a bed made by the

in the scale of
reality

One degree higher

painter.

comes the so-called actual or concrete bed, which the

carpenter makes, and the painter copies.
Highest of all
the avTo o eari kXlvt], that

is

"

model

in nature,"

set

is,

and

the

"

Idea of Bed," the

its turn is the

this in

up
which the carpenter produces a more or

original of

Who

then

is

the

maker

less

the
imperfect
"
Idea ?
I suppose we shall say God." ^
Socrates replies,
On the strength of this passage, we are justified, I think,
likeness.

of

holding that the Platonic Socrates would have

the origin of any and all of the subordinate
or derivative Ideas to the same cause
and if so, God is
in

ascribed

a synonym for the Supreme Idea, the Good, which in the

sixth book of the Repuhlic is held to be the author of
It should be noticed, too, that just as the
third
from reality, so also the painter is said
picture
"
Plato
to
be
third from King and Truth." ^
In this
by
all

the

rest.2
is

"

"
Truth
refers, of course, to the Idea
phrase
"
which the painter copies at two removes, and " King

difficult

must consequently stand for God, the author of the Idea.

It will be remembered that in Book VI. the Idea of Good
"

appears as

some

"

King

of

the intelligible world.^^

These

the reasons which appear to justify us in

identifying Plato's Idea of the Good with his conception
of the Godhead.
The chief difficulty which a modern
are

reader

perhaps
1

of

likely to feel

is

be

597 B.
509 B.

X.

thus

about

expressed.

tlio

How
3

identiiication

597 E.
509 D.
X.

may

can an apparently

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

446

and impersonal principle

abstract
"

"

Good

the

the Deity

like

"

"

Goodness

or

be equated with so personal a concept as

brief consideration

own

desirable for its

and

of

this difficulty

is

throw

will incidentally

sake,
light on Plato's doctrine of the Good.
as
really correct to say that the Idea of Good,

some further
It

is

portrayed in the RepuUic,

and

is

Taken by

abstract.

something purely impersonal

no doubt, the expression

itself,

At the
TO a^aQov carries no suggestion of personality.
is
the
same time,
frequently personified and
principle
Plato speaks
becomes the object of religious emotion.
"
^
visible
in
the
and
of it as father
sphere
parent
king,"
of light and the lord of light, and in the intelligible
of truth and
sphere, where it is itself the lord, author
to
all,^ the brightest
knowledge,^ that which gives light

and most blessed part

the beatific
of which
at last

rest

finds

^
!

Being,* in the contemplation

the soul
vision, one might say

of

In

all

these

we

expressions

sensible of a certain admixture of religious feeling.

is

it

when we

consider

are

But

the functions of the sovereign

Idea that we find ourselves compelled to suppose that

Plato himself regarded the Good as something more than
Wo have seen that the
a mere inanimate abstraction.
the supreme creative principle alike in the world
and in the world of thought. As sach, it
that self -moving
cannot be separated from soul or life

Good
of

is

sense

motion which communicates

that lives.^

And

soul, in its

life

and movement to all

and most essential

truest

was believed by Plato to be Noils'^ so that the

Keason must belong to the supreme Idea.
The very perfection of the Good points to the same
nature,

attribute of

conclusion
1

2
-

for the rational, in Plato's

506 E, 509 D.
517 C.
vii. 540 A.
vii. 518 C, 526 E.
vi.

vii.

way

of

thinking,

vii.
Cf. 525 A, 532 B, C, E,
540 A.
"
See Phaedr. 245 C
Lmvs, x.
895 E f.
7
See Ecp. x. 611 B.
'

THE THEORY OF IDEAS

447

(Ju
always better than what is destitute of Eeasou.
he
in
declares
the
that
Sophid
perfect Being
ground
{to 7rai/TeXco9 ov)
by which, of course, he means the
Ideas
cannot be destitiiteof life and soul and intelligence.^

is

this

And

at

in

one

least

of

passage

his

writings

Plato

supreme Good
koX cWtjOlvov
Odov
{rov
If
it
have
no right to
be objected that we
vovv)?
interpret the RepvMic by means of the later dialogues,
we may reply that the same identification is implicitly
the

definitely suggests

with the

"

true

identity of

and divine mind

the

"

in one of the dialogues almost universally

allowed to belong to the same period as the RcpuUic.
Socrates in the Phaedo welcomes the Anaxagorean

involved

doctrine of a world-creating Eeason as equivalent to the

doctrine that there is no real cause except the Good

and

it

is

Anaxagoras did not develop

just because

his

epoch-making discovery to this conclusion, but contented

"
himself instead with a host of secondary causes," falsely
so called, that Plato pronounces him untrue to his own
Finally,

principles.

it

may

we have an

be noted that

obvious literary parallel in Dante, to whom the Good is

at once the object of universal desire, originating and

maintaining

means

of

the

all

the

love

and movement of the world by

which it awakens, and also tlie

life

sovereign Intelligence or
for the best.^

We may take

it,

Mind who

disposes all things

and unchanging
BepuUic calls
"
the Timaeus the
maker and

then, that this eternal

principle of Goodness, which Plato in the

the Idea of Good, and in

supreme above all that is, the source

knowledge and of existence, the Alpha and
*
of
Omega
every good
represents the Platonic concep"
tion of the highest God
one God and father of all,
father of all,"

alike of

'

^
^i

249 A.
Fhil. 22 C.

See

Pa;-. 8.

ben
97

ff.,

24. 13011".

Dante, Par.
si

terniina c

8.
s'

87, la 've ogni

inizia.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

448

over al], and tlirough all, and in all": et?

is
Kai TraTrjp ttuvtcov, o eVt ttovtcov koX Sea TTavTWv
Kal iv Tracnv}

who
^0?

now endeavour

the most
and
religious, that
important consequences, philosophical
would seem to follow from tlie doctrine we have been

us

Let

understand

to

considering.
If the

Good

is

the sole cause of Being,

it

will follow,

in the first place, that the whole of Nature, so far as it

This is the thought
really exists, is a revelation of God.

which Plato endeavours to work out in the Timaeus,

where he represents the world as a divine child, the
"
image of its maker, a perceivable God, most mighty
and good, most beautiful and perfect." ^ The Creator,
being altogether free from envy, desired that everything should be made as like as possible unto himself.^

The student

consequently a seeker after

God, provided he endeavours to trace, in the phenomena
which he investigates, the operation of the Good.
of

nature

is

We

have seen

inculcate piety by
that Socrates tried
dwelling on the adaptation of nature exclusively to
The teleology of Plato is no longer
the needs of man.
to

anthropocentric.

organism has

its

He

that

believes

each

particular

appointed function to perform, and

is

good just in proportion as it fulfils the purpose and

attains the end for which it was created by the divine
But at the same time all these different ends
mind.
conspire togetlier for the good of the whole, which is

The most emphatic

the ultimate or perfect end.
assertion of this thoroughly Platonic doctrine occurs in
"
The ruler of the
a famous passage of the Laws.
universe has

part,
'

as

Eph.

292

c.

ordered

and

excellence

far

iv. 5.

as

all

with

things
of

preservation
may be, has

an
==

29 E.

view to the

whole, and each

action and passion

the

THE THEORY OF IDEAS

449

For every physician and every

appropriate to it.
skilled artist does all things for the sake of the whole,
directing his effort towards the common good, executing
.

the part for the sake of the whole, and not the whole
^
for the sake of the part."

In the second place,

if

would seem

it

existence,

the

Good
be

to

the only cause of

necessary inference

is

That
it is good.
which we call e\al or imperfection v/ill therefore be
Such a view of evil is
pure and absolute negation.

that nothing exists save in so far as

apparently

involved

in

where Plato

Rejniblic,

passage of the
the world of sensibles

another

yet

describes

and opinables as intermediate between Being and notThe element of Being which it possesses
Being.the rest, which we
comes from the immanent Idea
call
it
is
that
the
since
evil,
by which the world
may
falls short
of
is
the
absolutely non existent
good,
means
of
this
somewhat
scholastic
{(XT) op).
way
By
;

of reasoning, a case

might be made out

for attributing

and
system, not of dvialism, but of monism
be allowed that in his treatment of the Good

to Plato a

may

it

he comes nearer

in the Bepublic

to

a monistic view of

the universe than anywhere else throughout his dialogues.

At the same time, unless there is still some hidden
the Good, it is impossible
of the particular to
resemblance
explain why
for we cannot
the Idea should always be imperfect

power that

offers resistance to

the

to

attribute this imperfection to the Good without sacrificing

iu that degree its essential quality of goodness.
If we
that
Idea
can
never
as
is
sometimes
the
said,
say,
fully
realise

itself

in

space

and time, that

more or less inherent

may
matter and can never be totally
be, is

it

of

"

is
1

X.
V.

an inevitable accompaniment
903
477

in, tr.

Ail".

29

Jowett.

"

"
evil,

whatever

the very nature

abolished," that it

in

of

finite

existence,^

See Archer-Hind's Timaeus of

riato\\ 92.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

450

and so on, we
in

in

up a

set

reality

the

rival to

Good

this

very principle of inevitability to which, so far,

it has to yield.
The truth would seem to be that
Plato was too profoundly convinced of the effects of
both physical and moral, in the world as

evil,

to acquiesce in a

is,

He

tells

more

us

than good in

pantheistic denial of
than once that there

human

life

it

now

existence.

its

is more evil
and no one can read the

extraordinarily powerful description in the BepuUic of

the tyrannical man,^ the living embodiment of active
maleficence and vice, without feeling that moral evil
at all events

was something more

to Plato

than merely

the absence or privation of good.

Hitherto I have spoken of the Supreme Idea as the
efficient or creative cause
but in Plato it is represented
;

also

the

as

final

ov ra irdvra.

cause

the

cause

ht

well

as

as

with this conception of the Good

that Plato begins his account of the subject
and I
think he regarded it as more fundamental than any
hi

It

is

The Good, he says,

pursues, and with a view
other.

divining

its

existence

is

that

to

it

"

which every soul

performs

{aTro/xavTevofMevr]

all

rt

actions,

elvat),

but

'
perplexed and unable adequately to grasp its nature."
Towards this highest end, indeed, not man alone, but
the whole of Nature ceaselessly aspires
arva-revd^ec kuI
"
and
travails
in
<7vv(o8lvi,
groans
together
pain," to borrow
the strangely Platonic language of St. Paul ^ but in
a special sense, it is the goal of human action and
endeavour, the ideal to which man should aim at assimi;

lating himself as well as the institutions he may be called

The guardians of the perfect city, after
upon to frame.
have
fulfilled the necessary period of training, are
they
"

to

lift

up the radiant orb

of their souls

y7l A-580 A.
vi. 505 E.
Cf. Dante, Purg.
17. 127
"'Everyone confusedly
apprehends a good in which the
'

i.x.

fl'.

"

mind may be

rrjv r/}? \/rii^^9

at rest,

and which

it

desires wherefore every one strives

"
to attain it
(tr. Xorton).
Rom. viii. 22.
;

''

THE THEORY OF IDEAS

451

"

and look upon that which givoth light to

and having seen the Good itself, thereafter to order
their country, their fellow-citizens, and themselves, in

ayry'if
all,

that great exemplar." ^

consider the Idea of the Good, no longer

the

of

likeness

If,

in

again, wc
its tran-

scendent, but in its immanent aspect, we may regard

as the power for ever working in the world against
so that man has the
the forces that make for evil

it

become a co-worker with God in the

opportunity
a kingdom of heaven both within
to
establish
attempt
To this idea Plato gives
himself and upon the earth.
to

religious expression in a striking

"
For
thus translated by Jowett
the
Lcvws,
passage
as we acknowledge the world to be full of many goods

characteristically
of

and also

of

we

as

is,

which

us,

and of more evils than goods, there

an immortal conflict going on among
and in
marvellous watchfulness
requires
evils,

affirm,

"

Gods and demigods are our allies

deoi re a^a kol 8aifiov<;
8e
r^ilv
^vyuyua'^oi
"
It is worthy of notice
and we are their property

that conflict the

"

'^

dualism thus affords a solid foundation

The guise under which morality is here

Platonic

that

for morality.

presented is that of warfare and it is just the existence of evil that makes the warfare possible.
We must recognise that the evil is there in order
;

that

it

may

be overcome.

This

is

"

the true

"

Olympian
"

ever to
of which Plato sometimes speaks
victory
cleave to the upward path and follow after righteousness and wisdom by every means in our power, that

we may be

dear

while remaining

to

and to the Gods, both

and when, like victors in the

ourselves

here,

collecting their rewards, we receive the prizes

*
And so far at least as concerns
in store for virtue."

games

TV
-

vii.

540 A.

deCi).
X.'

906 A.

Cf.

]>.

401 {duolwais

''

R'/>. v. 46.')
X. 621

Hqj.

D.
0.

Gf.

{>.

412.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

452

the individual, there

The

prevail.

final

hope that the Good will ultimately

"
assimilation
the perfect
triumph

is

God " which Plato makes the

we may suppose to be at
tion

goal of human aspiralast attained by those

to

whom

"

having thoroughly cleansed

themselves by philosophy, they live without bodies for
"
even more beautiful ^
all future time in mansions
of

he

says

that

I
than the earthly paradise described in the Phaedo.
not think, however, that Plato contemplates the
ultimate victory of the principle of Goodness in the

do

It is true that in
world as well as in the individual.
the Latvs God is said to have disposed the several parts

Universe in such a way as to secure as far as

possible the defeat of evil and the triumph of Goodness
of the

But there

in the whole.^

ultimate

the

elimination
"

qualifying phrase

is

nothing here to suggest

evil

of

as far as

altogether
"

the

precludes such

possible

and in the Theaetetus we are told that evil

can never perish, but necessarily haunts our mortal
Platonism furnishes
nature and this present world.*
no real analogy to that cosmic regeneration which is
an idea

foretold
it

is

in

easy

St.

to

Paul's

see

how

^
nor
Epistle to the Eomans
such a hope was possible for
;

Plato, so long as he held that evil

up with the visible and material.

is

inseparably bound

"
There remains the question, By what means do we
"
attain to knowledge, complete or partial, of the Good ?
"
When invited
Plato's answer is, By means of dialectic."
and
character
of
the
an
account
to
Glauco
give
by
content of the science, Socrates hesitates and some have
;

But
ventured to affirm that he had no answer ready.
the suggestions contained in the BepuUic do, in point of
fact,
^
-

enable us to form a tolerably clear conception of the

Phaed. 114 C.
X. 903 B.
Cf. 897 C.
As Ackerman seems to

pose (Das Cliristliche in Plato p.

320).

176 A.

.sup^

viii.

21.

THE THEORY OF IDEAS

453

general scope and character of the study, as it was understood by Plato when he wrote his greatest dialogue.
It will conduce to clearness if, before attempting to
describe the nature of dialectic, we revert for a little to
the subject of the hierarchy that prevails in the Ideal

World.

In the simile

cave

of the

it

said that after

is

prisoner has emerged from the underworld and

fulfilled
a
period of habituation which apparently

the

symbolises the higher stages of the propaedeutic journey,

he will begin by looking upon human creatures and

other concrete things, after which he will lift his eyes to
heaven by night, and see the moon and stars, till finally

he is able to behold the sun and then he will consider

and understand that the sun is the steward (eTnTpoTrevcov)
of all things visible, and in a certain sense the cause
even of the shadows and images within the cave.^
By
the successive objects to which the now emancipated
prisoner directs his gaze, first terrestrial things, and
:

afterwards things celestial, Plato intends to suggest that

there is a gradation of Ideas in the supra-celestial sphere.
It

be noted by the

may

that the conception of a

way

scale or ladder of Ideas leading upwards to the sovereign

form of Good bears a general resemblance to patristic

and mediaeval theories of those heavenly " dominions,

"
to which St. Paul refers in
principalities, and powers
"
the Colossians.2
In Origen," says Lightfoot,^ " we have
five classes, which are given in an ascending scale in this
order:

(1)

angels

princedoms

powers
Opovou)

(principahis,

(5)

speculation
1

vii.
i.

51 G A, n.

16.

note ad

ap'x^cKi],

(2)

dp^ai);

(3)

(4) thrones (throni vcl sedes,

dominations
is

Convito

Hillard's

loc.

ayyeXcKij)

(dominationes, KvpLorr^re^)."
greatly elaborated in later Christian
*
thus, for example, in Dante we find three

The conception

Svvafii^

{potcstates, i^ovacai)
;

a7igeli, rd^i'i

{sancti

ii.

c.

6 (p. 76 of K.
See also

translation).
Paradiso 28. 98 ti".

THE REIJGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

454

distinct hierarchies of spiritual beings, each with three

"
orders, rising to the
supreme edifice of the Universe, in

the world is included, and beyond which is

the
tenth or Empyrean heaven, " the abode of
nothing,"
that Supreme Deity who alone doth perfectly behold

which

all

"

These orders," says Dante, " are all upward

gazing, and downward prevail, so that toward God they
^
Plato might have
all are drawn, and they all draw."
Himself."

said the

same

Ideas

of his

the Idea which

to

it

for every particular aspires

resembles, and each Idea in turn
;

derives its being from the Good or God.

the arrangement of Plato's hierarchy,

With regard to
we can readily

general principles by which it must have

determined.
may presume that each of the

understand

tlie

We

been

higher ideas has a wider scope than the next below it,
and is also more excellent, since it is nearer to the Good

but Plato nowhere attempts a systematic treatment of

the

subject,

classification

perhaps

for

and

interdependence

reason

the

of intelligibles

in

that

complete

their varying degrees of

would

precedence

have

been

day, as indeed it must always be

premature, until there is nothing left for man to discover.
The important point for us to observe is that Plato,

premature, in his

though unable, of course, to justify his belief by the

only method whereby it can be finally established, that
induction which leaves no part of nature
is, by an
unexplored, did nevertheless emphatically hold that the
universe of knowables constitutes a single organic whole,
every part of which is related to every other in such
a

way

"

Do you

that to

know one

think

it

thing perfectly is to know all.

possible," he asks in one passage,

"

adequately to comprehend
"
from universal nature ? ^
read in the Meno,
'
"^

"

is

the
"

nature

The whole

to itself akin."

Conviton. c. 4, pp. 65, 66 En?,

Par. 28. 127 H"., tr. Norton.

tr.

=<

of

Phardr. 270 C.
81 C.

soul apart

of nature,"

we

THE THEORY OF IDEAS

455

Let US now endeavour to understand the method by

which Plato would have the rulers of his perfect city
scale the successive heights of the Ideal World.
They
have learnt by this time to take a comprehensive and
synoptic view of the different mathematical studies
included in the propaedeutic curriculum
and this in
itself forms a useful proposition for dialectic, since the
dialectician is above all things gwotttiko'^, one who is
"
"
and reducing inany
capable of
seeing things together
scattered and apparently isolated phenomena under a
a single point of view.^
But in other respects they have
been satisfied with mathematical methods and further
;

progress is impossible until mathematical methods have

been discarded.
The mathematician begins with a series
of

circle, triangle, etc.

square,

does not
proof

soon

and

definitions

of

of these hypotheses

he

so-called

mathematician, indeed, cannot

must accept them, if at all, on

offer

qiiA

we

his

comprising

hypotheses,

as

trust.

As
the

are

his

any

hypotheses
granted, again,
mathematician proceeds by purely deductive ratiocination
with the aid of sensible images or diagrams, downwards,
as Plato would say, to a conclusion which in reality
expresses nothing that was
the liypotheses
nor does
;

not
he,

implicitly involved in
in

the

course

of

the

argument, ever bring the subject-matter of his study into

connection with any other department of thought.

Now

this

is

what Plato

not

calls

"

knowledge,"

in

the proper meaning of the word.

The mathematician
"
"
and " when a
renders no account
of his principles
;

man's

something which

he does not
know, while the conclusion and the intervening steps
depend on what he does not know, how is it possible
first

for such a

How

principle

is

harmony ever

to

become knowledge

then does the dialectician proceed ?

is to
apprehend the world of

we remember,
'

Rep.

vii.

537

Vhacdr. 265

"

His

Rtp.

object,

intelligibles,

"
ff.

vii. 53?.

C.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

456

and the world

is au organic system of
by a perfectly
ascending
graduated scale to the supreme Idea of Good, on which
Like the student of mathematics, the
they all depend.

of

intelligibles

related

mutually

Ideas,

from a hypothesis; but he does

ultimate on the contrary,
to him it is
sometliing wholly provisional, only a
re Kal
to
some(e7r//3ao-t9
stepping stone
opfjur})
Hence no sooner is the hypothesis
thing higher.
propounded, than he proceeds at once to test it by the
"
If these conclusions
conclusions to which it leads.

dialectician also starts

not treat his hypothesis as

the original hypothesis is cancelled or

(avaipeiTat), and a new suggestion takes its
The process is
only to suffer the same fate.

are untenable,

annulled
place,

repeated again and again, until at last we reach an apx'n

The
or principle which will withstand every test." ^
dialectician
it

must not

were in a

rest

battle,

futation, striving

to

satisfied

"

until, says Plato,

as

of

re-

exhausting every weapon

liis view not
by that which

test

seems, but by that which is, he comes safely to the end

"
^
Thus each
reasoning that never stumbles."

with

successive hypothesis serves as an additional step in the

stair by which we ascend, and is useful to the dialectician just because

In

he

is

willing to leave

the

dialectic

it and mount
which Plato

completed
adumbrates in Books VI. and VII., we are invited to
suppose that the whole kingdom of know^ables, in the
higher.

spheres alike of Nature and of Man, has been surveyed

The result is
and mapped out by this method.
.

number

and irrefragable principles, apprehended

not only in their mutual coherence and interdependence,
but also in their relationship to the supreme Idea, which
is itself, when we have climbed to the summit, no longer
a hypothesis, but an
unhypothetical first principle,'
a

of true

'

^
See my edition of the
of Plato, vol. ii. p. 176.

Repuhlk

Re}}.

A'ii.

534 C.

THE THEORY OF IDEAS

457

because the exhaustive scrutiny of all intelligible.s has

demonstrated that the Universe of thought and things
derives all its reality from the Good," ^
In this simimary description of Plato's dialectic there

two points

one or

are

that

call

for

and

explanation

remark.

The
this

the

question which seems to suggest itself is

is
the relation between the hypotheses of

first

What

and the

dialectician

seem

to be

Ideas

The answer would

that, while

the provisional, imperfect, or it

be
erroneous
may
wholly
hypotheses which the dialectician
has to discard, correspond only imperfectly or not at all
to the Ideal

Forms, those that

and irrefragable principles

"

of

finally survive, the

which

"

true

have spoken, are

perfect counterparts of the Ideas, provided, of course, that

the dialectician has completed his ascent and finally

adjusted

them

in the light of the Good.

They are
and adjustment up to the last, like

all

subject to alteration

the

of

changing figures
mountain.

In the second place,

scientific value of this

The

let

as

landscape

we ascend a

us consider for a

method

little

the

of procedure

by hypotheses.
condition of progress, according to Plato,
should be willing and eager to surrender our

essential

that

is

we

If we
hypothesis as soon as it is proved inadequate.
think of it, this is the principle on which any discussion
or debate, having for its one and only object the dis-

Just
covery of truth, must necessarily be conducted.
such a debate Plato intended the majority of his
dialogues to represent

and throughout

his writings

we

the process which

constantly meet with illustrations of

he calls to avaipelv ra^ {i7ro6eaei<i,
of hypotheses."
shall see that
^

See

my

of Plato,

And

the

edition of the

v<il.

ii.

\>.

17<J.

if

we take

renunciation
EepiMic

"

the cancelling
a wider survey, we
of hypotheses is a

lb. vol.

ii.

p.

177.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

458

principle essential

human

to

In

inquiry.

with a collection of
visional

progress in every department of

our investigations, we begin

all

isolated

facts,

and frame a

pro-

or

hypothesis to account for

them in the light of new facts our generalisation is
found to be imperfect or erroneous, and we discard it in
favour of another, and so on, our hypothesis increasing
generalisation

and content as the liorizon of facts expands

is no finality, until the
phenomena have all
been collated and arranged.
The moment we acquiesce
in range

but there

in

any

liypothesis

we become

as final,

dogmatists,

no

"

seekers after truth," and progress

longer philosophers or
is at an end.
The history of investigation and discovery

whatever sphere

thought affords abundant evidence

On the one hand,
the road by which science has always travelled is strewn
with, nay rather is built out of, the wrecks of premature
And, on the other hand, the periods of
generalisations.
in

of

of this too frequently forgotten fact.

greatest stagnation in discovery have been those in which

powerful organisations and commanding thinkers have

become, as

it

were, themselves ultimate hypotheses beyond

is unwilling or afraid to travel.
The

which speculation

paralysing influence exerted upon the scientific life of the

Middle Ages by the union of ecclesiasticism and Aristotel-

ianism

is

Both these hypotheses had

a case in point.

to be discarded,

or at

least

Eenaissance might begin.

revised, in

And

so

it

order that the

must always be

in

the intellectual as in the moral progress alike of the individual and of the race
we must always " rise on
stepping-stones of our dead selves to higher things."
Plato speaks hopefully as though he believed
possible for his guardians to

the

it

Good by the method which

have

knowledge

it

of

briefly indicated

clear that his dialectic, like the objects which

seeks to comprehend, is in reality an Ideal.
As such,

but

it

attain to a

it is

has a value of

its

own, because of

its

emphatic affirma-

THE THEORY OF IDEAS

459

the essential unity of knowledge, and as foreshadowing the general lines on which knowledge has
tion

of

subsequently advanced.

But
two

so far as the individual investigator is concerned,

considerations deserve to be taken into

further

Inasmuch as, according to Plato, the human

akin to the di\dne, we may suppose that intuition
comes to the aid of the analytical or discursive intellect

account.

mind

is

which the dialectician employs throughout his investigations.

And, further, Plato's doctrine of immortality
contains the suggestion of a continuous growth in knowlives, until the goal is at
"
read in the Phaedo that
the soul

throughout successive

ledge

last attained.

We

takes

with

nothing

her

into

Hades except her edu-

cation."

In conclusion,

may

it

be well to indicate in a few

sentences what would seem to have been

the

sum and

substance of Plato's theory of immortality.

He believed,
I think, that except in the case of some whose crimes
are

men who have done

unpardonable

God

irremediable

the soul that came forth from

their fellows

to

wrong

him again, after her wanderings are

and her purification accomplished.
One might,

returns to

fulfilled

perhaps, argue that such a reunion with the universal

involves the absorption or transmutation of the

mind

individual

into

self

the

which Euripides describes

kind of cosmic

consciousness

in the lines

"Albeit the mind

Of the dead
hath

Still

Our

position

the view
"

on

it,

live not, deathless consciousness

when

this

in deathless aether merged."

matter will necessarily depend on

"

which constitutes the " self or

seems clear that Plato at least would have

we take

"

of that

but it
ego
held that our essential personality
;

'

107 D.

is
-

See

not extinguished
p.

309.

THE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS OF GREECE

46o

by reuniou with the divine and it is noticeable that

the conckision which he draws from nearly all his
attempted proofs of immortality in the Phaedo and else;

where, has reference to the individual

soul

and

essential

nature,

my
"

soul.
"
is

ego

what he

hold that

According

calls

by

human

soul,

Plato, the true

your

and

the rational and spiritual part of our

we do not

individuality

to

Nous

and he would consequently

but rather regain, our perfect
with the all - embracing, all;

lose,

union

sustaining mind or spirit

and move and have our

in

which even now we

live

Such,
conceive, is
being.
Plato's view of the ultimate destiny of the soul
and
;

other philosophers have maintained a somewhat similar

In this way immortality, according to Plato,

becomes the crown and consummation of the religious
theory.^

life.
^

Cf. P/iaef?.

64

(!'.

^
Professor
See,
e.(]..
Royce's
Ingersoll Lecture on Imniortalit}'.

INDEX
Absolution from sin, 103.
Absorption of soul, 107, 309.
Aeschylus, 138-162 contrasted witli
Sophocles, 162 f. teaching of, sum-

Aristotle,

marised, 161

147, 150, 156 f.

of Illumination

192, 194-197
for
207, 209
;

144

f.,

or

Enlighten-

five,

ment, 270-272, 286, 429.

Ages of mankind, the

425.

75-78.

of
Agnosticism of Protagoras, 275
of Euripides, 295 f.
Gorgias, 276

Arithmetic, 414

Aidos, 65.
^Zccs^i's of Euripides, 294.

f.

Art and Poetry,

Plato's views on,

402-404.
Asceticism in Greece, 102 in Plato,
378-386.
Assimilation to God as ethical end,
;

"All men have need of Gods," 21.

"All things are full of Gods," 22.
Allegorical interpretation as practised
by the Greeks, 12-14 ; later history
of the method, 14 f.
Allegory, a Homeric, 47.
Amor intellectual is, 194, 396.
Anaxagoras, 253-264 his theory of
;

18, 401, 413, 452.

Astronomy, Plato's view

Athens,

condition

Socrates, 326

of,

of,

365, 416

time

in

f.

of

f.

Atoms of Democritus, 268-270,

Atonement for sin, 53,

423.

f.

Bacchae of Euripides, 306, 312-318.

Anaximander, 184, 186-188.

Auaximenes, 184, 188 f.

Andromache

Pythagoreans,

for

Aeschylus,

Age

matter, 254

for

Xenophaues,
Empedocles, 250, 252 for Anaxalor Demogoras, 253, 260, 262
for Protagoras, 273
critus, 268
for Socrates, 329, 346, 349
his
criticisms on Plato,
369, 422-

f.

of

authority for Thales,

Anaximander, 186 f.

f.

for

Agamemnon

as

185

of

Euripides,

Bacchylides, 84, 88.

Beauty, Idea of. See Idea.

292,

310.

Becoming, 244, 407, 410.

Being, Parmenides' doctrine

Anthropomorphism, 27-31, 112, 116 ;

criticisms of, by Greek poetry and
philosophy, 5 f., 116 f., 208-210.
^?i<jgroc of Sophocles, 166-170, 180
Antiphon, 278.

Apprehensibles,
Plato, 404-408.

of,

Body, as source of
or

Aristophanes, just and unjust arguments in, 16 attacks Euripides,

294 attacks Socrates, 353.
;

f.

evil,

383

prison-house of soul,

as

tomb

96-101,

132, 383, 385.

Brotherhood, universal, 283.

in

Archclans, pujiil of Anaxagoras, 279.

Archilochus, 85, 89.

243

Bellerophon, 125.
Bcllcrophon of Euripides, 295.

f.

Apocalypses, early Greek, 4, 104 f.

Appetitive element in soul, 379 f.
classification

of,

See also Idea.

Belief.
See Faith.

"Cannibal morality," 74, 281.

Causation, Homer's conception of,
22 f. See also Efficient cause and
Teleology.

461

INDEX

462

Cave, simile of the, 357-359 Orphic

anticipation of, 100.
Cerberus, 80.
Children punished for sins of parents,

Democritus, 268-270.
See Fate.
Destiny.

86

Diagoras of Melos, 295.

f.
;

Chobphori of Aeschylus,

149,

152,

155, 159.

Choice of lives in Orphic eschatology,

314-318.

Dionysus Zagreus, 113.

106.

Christianity and Greek philosophy

and poetry, 2, 14, 37, 51, 81, 176,
179, 240, 298, 331 f., 341, 352,
359 f., 373 f., 381-383, 385 f., 392,
395, 412, 429-432, 435, 436-438,

450

of Socrates, 332-340 ; of
Plato, 396, 421, 452-459.
Diogenes of Apollonia, 264-268.
Dionysus, concept of, in Euripides,

Dialectic,

Divination, ancient views of, 55.

Divinity of the soul, 98 f., 107, 112 f.,
116, 130, 132, 377.
Drama, religious character of the

Greek, 138.

'

Dualism, of Pythagoreans, 194-196

of Empedocles, 252
of Anaxagoras, 262; of Plato, 361 f., 400,
of Plato and St. Paul
449-452,

f.

Circle

of

or

generation

Necessit}',

100, 109, 111, 135.

Cleanthes, 85, 210, 218.

223, 305,

compared, 381 f.
Dynasties of Gods, 69

341.

Community

of

Gods and men,

45,
[

72, 116.

139

f.,

f.

Concupiscent element in

soul.

See

Conversion

of

education

soul,

preliminary or "musical," 399404 intellectual, 404-460 scojic

and method of, 410-412.

as,

Creation out of nothing denied, by

;

produces

for,

Sophists, 272 Socrates' view of,

339 f.
Plato's theory of, 398-421

412.

Empedocles, 244

demand

Education,

Appetitive do.
Conflagration, universal, 228-231.
Conjecture, Platonic, 406.

Efficient cause, in

Empedocles, 245,
251 in Anaxagoras, 256 ; in Plato,
446-450.
of EuriMect7-a, of Sophocles, 181
pides, 292 f.
See
Lyric and
Elegiac
poetry.

by Anaxagoras,

254.
Creator.
See God and Demuorgus.
Creon.
See Lahdacidae.
a
centre
of early Orphism, 93.
Croton,

'

elegiac 2)oetry.

Daemon,

the, leading

men

into sin,
'

87, 127, 147 f., 150; central,_ in

Parmenides, 242, soul as guardian,
in Plato, 377.
See also Gods.
Daemonium of Socrates, 321-324.
Daemons, doctrine of, in Greek
identified
thought, 71 f., 76, 99
by Zeller with images of Demo-

335.

Eleusinian

ity, 51, 89, 402.

critus, 270.

Platonic

447, 453

rites.
See Mysteries.
Empedocles, 244-253 connexion of,
with Orphism, 99, 106, 253.
Enthusiasm, spirit of, ;)15-318.
Environment, effect of, upon moral;

Dante,

Elements, the fom-, 244, 423.

Elenchus, negative ami of the, 332-

elements

in,

440,

Envy, the divine, 37,

156

f.

89,

123-125,

f.

Daughters

of Troy,
297, 299, 310.

of

Euripides,

Death, nature of, according to Homer,

56
as separation of body and
;

soul, 384.

Erebus, 57.
Erinna, 90.
Eros.
See Love.

Eschatology Homer, 56-61 Hesiod,

80
Hymn to Demeter, 82 f.
Lyric and elegiac poetry, 90 f.
Empedocles,
Orphism, 104-110
106 Pindar, 131-137 Aeschylus,
180-183
159-161
Sophocles,
Heraclitus, 237-239 Anaxagoras,
:

Deceitfulness of the Gods, 39 f., 89

See also Gods.
DeUuition, Socratic, 338 f., 422.
Deianeira, 170

f.

Demiurgus, the, 374, 376.

INDEX
264

Diogenes of ApoUonia, 267

Socrates, 344t'.

Euripides, 306-310
347 Plato, 459 f.

463

of Euripides towards, 288, 304

nmst possess moral goodness, 297

no hegemony among, 298

Eternal punishment, 60, 106, 135.

See Idea and God.
Eumenides of Aeschylus, 15 f., 142,

Eternity.
152.

self-

sufficiency of, in Euripides, 298

attitude of Socrates towards, 346352 the created, in Anaximander,
188 in Plato, 375 f., 378,
(lolden Age, the, 76.
;

fusion of philoEuripides, 2S6-319

sophj' and poetry in, 19, 299304, 308-310; contrasted with
looked on
Sophocles, 293 f., 310
as disbeliever by Athenians, 204
;

Good, the Gods as givers of, 41, 118

Idea of, see Idea of Good.
Gorgias, 276 f.

his connexion with Heraclitus,303;

his teaching summarised, 318 f.
Evil, attributed to the Gods, 36,
64 f., 118
origin of, according to
;

derived from
Hesiod, 78
See also Dualism.
;

body,

383.

Faith, 407.

Fasting from sin, 111.

Fatalism and religion, 110.
Fate, position

of,

Homer, 25

in

in

other Greek poets, 70 (Hesiod),

84 (lyi'ic and elegiac poets), 118 f.
(Pindar), 141 f. (Aeschylus),
Final cause.
See Teleology.
Fire as cosmological principle, 223235, 239 f.
Flesh, St. Paul's use of word, 382.
Flux, universal, 231 f., 423.
Fortune, the Goddess, 119.
Friar, the Orphic, 104.
Friendship in Empedocles. See Love.

Hades. See Erehus and Eschatology.

Harmonics, 417 f.
Harmony, universal, 173-175, 236,
304; of opposites, 232 f.
Hatred, in Empedocles, 245-247,
250 f.
Heaven, the Orphic conception of,
107-109.

Hecnha of Euripides, 303, 310.

Helena of Euripides, 295, 309.
views of, on
Heraclitus, 212-240
;

misanthropy of,
ob214 f.
212-214
style of,
connexion of,
scurity of, 215 f.
with Orphism, 237-239.
;

Heroes, the age of, 77.

Hesiod, the religion of, 68-81.
Hippias, 279.
16 f.,
of
Hippolytus
Euripides,
286-289, 293, 304 f.
Homer and the Homeric religion,
21-67.

denounced

legends,

Euripides and Plato, 17

401 f.

f.,

291

l)y
f.',

poems as sacred volume

of the Greeks, 9-11.
Homeridae, the, 11.
Homo Mensura, 274.
Homoeomeries of Anaxagoras, 254,
423.
Hope often conceived of as an evil

Homeric

universe.

Gnomic

f.,

Homeric
Geometry, plane and solid, 415 f.
See also Mathematical law of

174

suffering,

poets, 83-91.

God, in Xenophanes, 200-209 unin Heraclitus, 225created, 207

in
234 in Empedocles, 248-251
Anaxagoras, 263 f. in Plato, 361transcendence of,
374, 400-402
;

See also Idea.

Gods, example of the, used to enforce
a particular line of conduct, 1518
their nature and attributes,
27-42, 64 f., 71-73, 83-89, 116mislead
129, 139-159, 176-178
men, 38-41, dynasties of, 69 f.,
139
existence of, denied by Deattitude of Promocritus, 269
372,

by the Greeks, 79

f.

Humanism

of Euripides, 304-306,
Hylozoism, 184-190, 222, 251.
Hymns, the Homeric, 81-83.

Hypotheses, Platonic, 455-458.

tagoras towards, 275 rationalisation of, by Prodicus, 277; attitude

;

Idea, Platonic, transcendence of, 424

immanence
425

of,

424

lessness of, 426 ;

relation of
426
;

immutability and

unity of,
change-

perfection
particular

of,
to,

INDEX

464

stronger, 281 f.
concept of, in
302-304
Socrates'
Euripides,

432-438; as type, 431, 43(5; relation of hypothesis to, 457.

Idea of Beauty, 391-395.
Idea of Good, 408 f., 439-452; as
source of knowledge and existence,
as Sun of Ideal World,
441 f.
identified
with God,
439-441
442-452 with Nous, 446.
Idealism, element of, in the poetical
theology of Greece, 6, 29-42, 117 f.

view

hierarchy of, 438 f., 453 f.

origin of
theory of, 422-459 ;
theory of, 422-424 criticisms of,
;

434.

Ignorance identified with vice, 326332.

in
Images, in Democritus, 269
Plato, 405.
Imitativ3 art, VieAvs of Plato on, 402,
445.
;

of,

the
of
poetical
Inconsistency
theology, 29-41, 42 f.
Individualism, Heraclitus' protest
against, 237.
Induction, Socratic, 338 f.
Infatuation, 50, 87 f., 126
Inferno, Pindar's, 134 f.

the

Intelligibles,

of

Plato's

fication of,

Intermediate

453

two

last

line,

41-3-421,

sections
classi-

f.

state, the,

104-106.

Islandsofthehlest, 60

f.,

falionis.

See

Lex

the brevity of, a reason

strenuous endeavour, 67, 130.
Life according to nature, 281.
Limit of Pythagoreans, 194-196,
Line, simile of the, 404-408.
Life,

for

Logos, in Heraclitus, 216-225, 233in Stoics, Philo,

235, 239 f., 371
and N.T., 239 f., 371, 438; Soc;

ratic,

338

f.,

423

f.

289-29f, 297, 304 f., 310.

Maieutic art of Socrates, 339 f.
Man, his duty to the Gods, 43-54,
73 nobility of the Homeric, 66 f.
"Man is the measure of all things,"
274.

ilathematical law of universe, 364.

367, 420.

Mathematical

f.

stady,

objects

of,

in educaaccording to Plato, 369

tional curriculum, 414-420.
Meditatio mortis, 384 f.

77,80,135 f

Ixion, 126, 135.

Jvs

Lex- taliouis, 42, 52, 154.

Ion of Euripides, 292.

Iphicjenia in Tauris of Euripides, 297.
Iron, the age of, 77.
Irony of Socrates, 334.
Irrational element in man, 380

nature, antithesis between,

279-284, 303.

Macrocosm and Microcosm, 366, 375.

Madness of Heracles of Euripides,

327-332, 407-409.

as

human, 165-16?.

Law and

enemies," 37, 75, 89, 343 f.

Lyric and elegiac poety, religious
ideas of, 83-91.

Inspiration, nature of, 14, 33 f., 433.

Intellectual character of Greek morality, 50, 89,

Labdacidae, legend of the, 148-150,

166-173.
Labour, the duty of, preached by
Hesiod, 80.
Law, conflict between divine and

Love, in Empedocles. 245-247, 250 f. ;

Plato's doctrine of, 387-397.
"Love your friends and hate your

f.

with

suffer
the,
guilty, 73, 128.
See Pride.
Insolence.

Innocent,

Immortality.
Incarnation,
99-101.

f.

opposed to
opinion,
205 f.
way of, 242 identified
with virtue, 327-332
Socrates'
329 f.
Plato's
of,
conception
conception of, 441, 455-459.

See Eschatology.
doctrine
Orphic

343

Knowledge

Ideas,

of,

fAilionis.

Justice, the divine, shown in punishment of sin, 41 f., 52, 71-75, 85 f.,
120, 127 f., 145; in the reward

of virtue, 65, 73, 86, 127 f., 145

74 ; concept of,
the duty of,
in Sophocles, 172 ; as interest of
;

Melancholy, Greek, 53, 62-66, 78,

89 f., 110, 128 f., 179 f., 310 f.
Memory and Forgetfulness, the
fountains

of,

105.

Metempsychosis, 101 f.. 106, 133 f.

"Might is right," 281-283.
Mind, in Anaxagoras. See Novs.

INDEX
and

Miracles

Homer,

miraculous

the

in

24.

Misogynism, 76, 79 f.
Monism, Plato's approach to, 449.
Monotheism, traces of, real or
alleged, in Greek poetry, 25-27,
143 f., 176-178; of Xeno12-i,
phancs, 200-211. See also God.
Motion, as physical change, 368.

Movent

See Efficient cause.

cause.

Music.
See
and
Harmonics
Education.
Mysteries, the Eleusinian, 82 f., 137,
138 ; influence of, on Plato, 395 f.,
430 Orphic mysteries, 102-104.
;

Natural and supernatural, not yet

distinguished in Homer, 24.

Natural theology, a development of

Greek metaphysics, 2.
Naturalism and Idealism in the
religion of

279-284, 303.
quid nimis, 124, 126, 131.
doctrine
in
the
of,
Necessity,
Timacus, 361 f., 364 f., 444.
St.
Paul's
doctrine of, 386.
Necrosis,
New Testament, analogies to. See

Ne

and Greek

j^hilosophy

and poetry.
of Aeschylus, 147.
Noocracy, as substance of Socrates'

iYi'oJe

teaching, 342.
in
Anaxagoras, 254-264
as fragment of
Democritus, 268 f.
in Plato, 361 f.
as
aether, 309
links man to
eye of soul, 377
unites with Being
God, 380 f.
or Beauty, 395
apprehends third
and fourth sections of Line, 405,

Nous,

in

413-421.
Oedipus, legend of house of. See
Lahdacidae.
Oedipus at Colonvs of Sophocles,
171-173, 178 f.
the

Oedipus
165

f.,

King

of

Sophocles,

171.

to, 24 f.,
28, 37, 40, 75, 86 f., 155 f., 203.
Homer
and
Olympian theology.
Hesiod as founders of, 7.
Olympus, 31 f.

30

Omophagia, 102, 114.

Opinables, 406-408, 449.
Opinion, opposed to
knowledge,
205 f. ; apprehends the first two
sections of the Line, 405 ; correct,
407.

harmony

Opi)osites,

31, 89, 117.

See

of.

ilo,rmony.
Orcsteia, the, 148-156, 160
Orestes of Euripides, 292.
Orpheotelestae, 104.

Orphic conmiunities, 93

"Orphic

f.

f.

life," the, 102.

ideas,
Orphic
religious
absence of, in Sophocles,

92-114

82.

Orphism, literature of, 93-95, 103.

Orthodoxy, ancient Greek, 7.
Otherness and Sameness, 367-370.
f.

Panspermismus, 99.
Pantheism, 98 f, 118,

144,

210,

233 f., 252, 300.

Parmenides, 241-244.
Parousia.
Sec Idea, immanence
See Idea,
Participation.
See Idea.
Particulars.

of.

Pelops, 117.

Pcrsac of Aeschylus, 145-148, 156.

Personality, Homer's conception of,

54-56 Plato's view of, 56

of God, 210, 446-448.
Pessimism.
See Melancholy.
Phaedo of Plato discussed, 383-386.
29,

Phanes, 96.
Philoctetes of Aeschylus, 159.
PAz7oc<cfes of Sophocles, 174.

Philosopher, the true, 396 f., 408.

Philosophy, aim of, 383; as "rehearsal of death," 384 ; as the
highest music, 387.
Pindar, 115-137.
Pittacus of Mitylene, 75.
Plato, his relationship to

356

f.

and

383, 385

f.,

St. Paul,

Socrates,

359

f.,

381-

395, 412, 436-438, 450,

436-438

and St. John,

453
his concosmology of, 361-374
ception of God, 361-374, 442-446
;

Old Testament, analogies

Omnipotenceof theGods,

Omni[)resence, the divine, 24.

Omniscience, the divine, 33, 89, 120.

Pandora, 7S

Homer, 29-42.

Nature and law, antithesis between,

Christianity

465

called

"the

atticising" Moses, 15,

psychology of, 377-381 ; his
.'^98-421 ; his
of
education,
theory

374

views on Poetry and Art, 402-404

INDEX

466
his

theory

of

422-459;

Ideas,

teleology of, 448-451.

Poet, the, conceived of as a teacher
by the Greeks, 9-11.
Poetical theology of Greece, protests
against the, 4-6
purification of,
;

after

Homer,

19.

Poetry, influence of, in Greek life and

true function of,
thought, 7-18

Restoration of

all

the,

things,

78,

109, 248.

Retribution and reward hereafter,

59 f., 104-111, 134-136.

Return to nature, desire for, 281.

Rites and ceremonies of Orphism,
102 f.
Rivers of the underworld, 57.

403

f.

Poetry and Philosophy, place of, in

Greek religious development, 1-20
their
mutual antagonism, and
its cause, 2-6, 401 f.
fusion of,
in Euripides, 19, 299-303, 308-310.

Politicus,

myth

of the, 78.

Polytheism, Greek, 25, 122 ; attacks

of Xenophanes on, 201 f.
do. of
Euripides, 293 f.
Prayer, 45-48, 89, 352.
Pride, 126 f., 145, 150.
Prodicus, 277 f.
the legend of,
Prometheus,
79,
139-141.
;

Prometheus Bound

of Aeschylus,
139-142, 157 f.
Protagoras, 273-276.
Providence, 120 f., 349 f.
Psychology. See Soxil.
Purgatory, 105, 134.
Purity, notion of, in Orphism, 101,
106 religious, in Sophocles, 178.
Punishment, the law of, 52, 135 ;
;

retributory and remedial, 154-156

remedial, 330 f. See also Suffering.

Pythagoreanism, 190-197 connexion

scienof, with Orphism, 190-193
tific doctrine of, 194-197.
;

Quadrivium, 419.
Quern deus vult
inentat, 38

f.,

jterdere,

87

prius de-

literature, 72.

Remonstrances, examples of, addressed to the Gods, 43, 87.

Republic of Plato, the, theory of
education in, 399-421, (dialectic)
452-459 theory of Ideas in, 439452 views on poetry and art in,
401-404, 407.
;

St.

f.,

89, 351.

and Plato, 436-438.

Paul and Plato, 359 f., 381-383,

385

395, 412, 436-438, 450, 453.

f.,

Sameness and Otherness, 367-370.

Sense perception, Plato's distrust of,
See also Opinion.
365, 413-431.
Sensibles as lowest stage of truth,
370, 405-408, 449.

Seven against

Lab-

See

Thebes.

dacidae.

Seven against Thebes of Aeschylus,

149 f., 152 f.
Simonides, 90, 275 f.
Sin, origin and nature of, as depicted
in Greek poetry, 48-52, 87 f., 125127, 145-154 possibility of atonement for, 53 ante-natal sin, in
;

Orphism, 97 f. Orphic conception

of sin in general. 111 f.
Sin-offering, nature of, in Homer, 53.
;

Sisyphus, 135.
Slavery, attacks on, 283 f.
Socrates, 320-355 ; introduces

new

intellectual and spiritual era, 320 ;

his character,321-327,342 f. 352 f.
his
daemonium of,
321-324
;

mission to Athenians, 324-328

servant of Apollo, 325 identifies
virtue with knowledge and vice

327-332 ; his
ignorance,
conception of knowledge, 329 his
optimism, 332 ; method of teaching,
332-340 his irony, 334 produces
man
334
studies
perplexity,
336 f.
method of
exclusively,
induction and definition (logos),
338 f. ; uses plebeian illustrations,
338 f.
relationship to disciples,
339 f. ; substance of his teaching,
with

f.

Rationalism of Euripides, 318.

Rationalistic movement in Athens,
271 f.
Reason.
See Logos and Nous.
Recording angel, the, in Greek

43-45, 73

Sacrifice,
St. John

effect of his teaching,

.340-355
his doctrine of self-know334 f.
forbids requital of evil
ledge, 342
;

with

evil,

343

his views

on im-

mortality, 344-347 ; his teleology,

347-350 his views on worship and
;

INDEX
350

f.
on prayer, 352 his
condemnation, 353-355.

sacrifice,
trial and

as professional
Sophists, 272-285
teachers, 272 f.
Sophocles, 163-183
piety of 164
;

contrasted with Aeschylus, 162 f. ;

with Euripides, 293 f., 319.
Soul, Homer's view of the, 56 Orphic
doctrine of its origin and history,
96-114 the Pindaric do., 131-137
;

Empedocles' do., 252 immortality

of, denied by Democritus, 268
divine origin of, in Plato, 377
;

in Plato, 379,

of,

also

Eschatology
World-soid.

381.

See

Nous and

and

Sphere-god of Empedocles, 246 f.

Spirit, St. Paul's use of word, 381 f.
Spirited part of soul, 379 f.
Spirits of the departed affect fortunes
of the living, 160 f., 182.
of the Godhead,
Spiritualisation
32

See also

f.

Strife, universal,

as

moving image

of eternity,

375.

Timon

Solon, 84-88.

parts

Time

467

God and

the satirist, 5.
Tityos, 135.
Trachiniae of Sophocles, 170, 173 f.
Trinity, resemblance in Plato to tlie
doctrine of the, 371 f.
Trin'icm, 419.
Truth, the foundation of virtue, 121 ;
way of, 242 off'spring of iVbits
and Beauty, 396.
Truthfulness, the divine, 121, 1571'.,
;

207

f.

"Two

one good," 36 f., 64,

denied by Euripides, 311.
Tyrannical man, the, 450.
Tyrtaeus, 85.
129

evils to

Unity of God. See Monotheism.

See Logos and Ideas,
Universals.
Theory

of.

Unlimited, the, in Pythagoreanism,

194-196.

Upward and downward

Gods.

231 in Empedocles,
;

road,

in

Heraclitus, 231.

see Hatred.

Suffering, the

problem of, 73, 86 f.,

due to sin, 154, 169 f.
as road to knowledge, 155 f., 172169-175

175, 400.

Taboos, 102.
Tantalus, 117, 135.
Tartarus, 60, 70, 106, 139.
Teleology of Diogenes of ApoUouia,
267 ; of Anaxagoras, 262 f. ; of Socrates, 347-350; of Plato, 448-451.
Thales, 184-186.

Theognis, 85-88, 295.

Theogony, the, of Hesiod, 68-71.

Thrasymachus, 278.
Timacus of Plato, cosmology of, 360374 dualism in, 361 f. doctrine
of Necessity and Reason in, 361 f.,
;

f.

account of

332.
Virtue, rewarded by prosperity, 51,
attained by toil, 81
73, 128
;

Sun, as offspring of Idea of Good,

439-441,
142 f.,
Suppliants of
Aeschylus,
158 f.
of Euripides, 294, 308.
of
Plato discussed,
Syinposium,
386-397.
view
of
studies, 420, 455.
Synoptic

364

Vice identified with ignorance, 326-

human

376-379; as
"hymn
Universe,'" 373; influence
Hellenising Jews, 373

f.

soul in
of
the

of,

among

identified with

knowledge, 327-332.

Wheel of generation. See Circle of do.

See Nous.
Wisdom, divine.
" Wise men " or
"sages," 97.

Women,

creation

of,

76, 79.

Word, the. See Logos.

Works and Days, the,

of Hesiod,
71-81.
AVorld as incarnate God, 209, 363-374.
World-soul, theory of, in Plato, 366373.

Xenophancs, 198-211 his connexion

with Orphism, 199 f.
Xenophon, religious disposition of,
and Aristotle concern321, 337
;

ing Socrates, 346.

Zagreus, 113.
Zeus, the Homeric, 26 f. ,32, 38-40, 48
the Hesiodic, 71-73 ; in lyric and

elegiac poetry, 8^3 f. ; in Orphism,

95; in Pindar, 119, 122 f. ; the

Aeschvlean Zeus, 141, 142-145.

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