Thus religion continued to be a sort of completion of public law. Where the latter was insufficient or inapplicable, or beyond the reach of the sufferer, the religious sanction was invoked in the form of a curse. Especially, international obligations were guarded by little more than the religious sanction. Any idea of Hellenic unity which existed had been the creation of religion ; and the rights of even the Greek stranger or traveller, much more of the non: Greek, were almost wholly left to religion. Law was mostly confined to the relations between one citizen and another ; and in the cases where (as in Athens) it touched the relation of a resident stranger to citizens, the stranger must be repre- sented by a citizen, and could not himself have any standing before the law. Similarly, the traveller was under the protection of the gods of the road.
III. THE ELEMENTS OF HELLENIC RELIGION.— Beyond other traceable but less important influ- ences, three forces pre-eminently are to be distin- guished in the history and formation of Hellenic religion. There was, first, that above-described pre-Hellenic cultus in the Greek lands, to which we may, like the Greeks themselves, apply the name Pelasgian: that cultus had certainly a very strong resemblance to the primitive Anatolian worship, and we have freely used certain obviously primitive ceremonies of the Greek lands as evidence of the character of the old Anatolian religion.
* Iliad, ix. 454, 567, xv. 204; Odyss. xiv. 57 compared with xvii. 475, The names of the Hrinnyes as personal beings are of later origin : the very plural is a development.
t Op. 802; Theog. 221.
t xoivol vis“ BAdacdos vouor: vouSousvee “HAAyos 3 zoe sav Errtvey vousece OY dixon 5 cf. Thue. iil. 59, iv. 97, ete.
§ cey-poegar vapens, deyrparree vousun, Soph, Ant. 454,
i
RELIGION OF GREECE
Into the question whether it spread from Anatolia into Greece, as so many later religious impulses did, we shall not enter, though it may be pointed out that the Greeks believed themselves to have derived some very characteristic early forms of Greek cult from Crete, which in its turn was certainly connected with and influenced by Asia Minor.
There was, in the second place, the influence exercised by surrounding nations on early Greek history and religion. Only one side of this influ- ence can be considered here, viz. the Oriental. Under the name of Oriental may be included all influence which came from Asia Minor during the period commonly called historical, as well as all traces of Phcenician or other strictly Asiatic in- fluence. There was certainly great importance attaching to this influence ; yet its true character must be noted. It did not make Greek ideas, but was simply the raw material out of which the Greek mind drew part of its growth. The Greek mind, with its eager, ardent curiosity, learned from all its neighbours, and most of all from the most advanced neighbours.
In the third place, there was that special quality and tendency of the Hellenic mind, a unique and exquisitely delicate element, which selected and moulded, moderated and regulated, mixed and added life to, the food which it absorbed from the experience and the acquirements of various other nations. That spirit of Hellenism stood in such obvious relations to the peculiar geographical and other external conditions of Greece, that some writers regard it as absolutely produced by them.
But, in our view, there was a certain innate in- tellectual character in the formed Greek mind, which enabled them to see in nature what no other race could see, and to use opportunities as no other race could haveused them. Thespirit of Hellenism, it is true, was fostered by the geographical condi- tions, and could have acquired strength in no other land. It needed just those peculiar relations of sea and land to foster and strengthen it; it was, like the most delicate and exquisite of Hellenic god- desses, born on the sea, not on the land; but that sea must be the AXgean, the path and the roadway of the Greek peoples, which united the Greek lands instead of estranging and separating them (as other seas seemed to do).
One of the most noteworthy forms in which the strong Hellenic appreciation of individual person- ality and rights (without much feeling of individual duty) showed itself was the love of competition and prizes. The individual Hellene trained himself to the highest pitch attainable in competition with his fellows, and his eagerness was stimulated by the prize of victory. The prize, in the true Hellenic idea, was simply the victor’s garland, the recognition by his peers that he had won the victory. In the early stages of Hellenism the mere honour of victory was hardly sufficient to tempt the competitive ardour without prizes of value; and when in later times the Hellenic games were introduced in the Asiatic cities, it was the custom there to give valuable prizes (¢uara) ; while even the Hellenic contests in that later time were made practically valuable by privileges and money rewards from the victor’s own State. Only in the fullest bloom of the Hellenic spirit were the honour and crown sufficient to attract all Hellenes.
Many religious ceremonies were modified or de- veloped by the introduction of such competitions. While the barbarism of primitive funeral rites was developed by the Romans into gladiatorial com- bats, it was developed among the Greeks into the system of funeral sports and prizes. The crown of wild olive, which originally was simply the garland of the foliage sacred to the god, worn by