But the idea of Hellenic unity became a political force, founded on a religious basis and strengthened in the literary development of the country. This unity was merely ideal, and never became a politi- cal reality : it was a power which exerted a certain influence on events: it was an end which some persons saw dimly before them in the distance. The Delphic Oracle was to some extent guided by that ideal in the leading which it gave to the Greek States when they consulted it; but its influence was never directed to modify the char- acter of local or tribal religion. It always sup-
orted the established customs of each State.
ut it favoured uniformity by introducing new gods (v8éxpnoro) into almost every city of Greece : e.g. Aphrodite, Dionysos, Demeter, and Kora were all introduced at Erythre by oracles from Delphi. Thus the local religions tended towards a common type by adopting each other’s gods. *
Political or social unity, to the ancient mind, could exist only through common religion. Those who worshipped different gods and practised hostile religious rites could have no unity. Therefore, as a Hellenic ideal unity grew, the varying religions of the various States composing that unity could not be felt as essentially different from or really hostile to one another. If there was an ideal unity in the political sphere, there must necessarily be an ideal unity in the religious sphere; and the gods of one Hellenic State were recognized as gods by the others. Those gods quarrelled with one another, as brothers and sisters quarrel, or as the Hellenic States warred with one another. But the States met in the common recognition of the Hellenic deities. Especially the four great Pan-
* youos worews, Xen. Mem. iv. 3.16; Dem. Mid. § 51.
Hellenic games— Olympian, Pythian, Nemean, and Isthmian—formed peaceful meeting-places for all Hellenes, where religion kept the peace and all celebrants felt the benign influence of the Hellenic gods.
3 (4) Formation of the Hellenic Pantheon.—But when all the various gods who obtained Pan- Hellenic recognition were thus set side by side, the religious consciousness demanded some theory of the relation between them. Various theories, in which a religious system was built up, came into existence. But out of these the great unifying forces, literature and the Delphic Oracle, formed a generally recognized Pantheon. No two ex- pressions of that system are precisely the same. Different writers conceived it with slight varia- tions, but the general type is clear. The concep- tion of a household, as it were, consisting of twelve great deities is found in several parts of Greece ; but it was far from being universal, and the twelve selected were not everywhere the same. Again, in no district did the Hellenic Pantheon corre- spond exactly to the actual popular religion.
Everywhere both literary and popular concep- tions tended towards a common form, which had its root in the popular mind and the popular ideas. It was the great poets who most of all gave shape to it, and made it familiar over the whole country and in the Greek colonies. Hence the popular Greek idea that the Hellenic religion was the creation of Homer and Hesiod had a certain truth. They beyond all others gave ex- pression to the popular tendencies, and were the chief instruments in moulding the recognized, or, as one might almost call it, the ‘ orthodox’ Greek Pantheon.
(5) The Hellenic Religion an ideal.—This common religion, which we shall continue to term the Hellenic religion, must be carefully distinguished from the actual religion of any single Hellenic State. Like the political unity which originated along with it, the Hellenic religion was much more an ideal than an actual, realized fact. Its centre and crowning idea is the supremacy and almighty power of Zeus; but very seldom do we find that Zeus is in actual worship the most important god of any State. In Athens, ¢.g., Athenaia was the great divinity and tutelary goddess of the State; and her festivals were celebrated with greater magnificence and public interest than any others. The honour and safety of the State were bound up with her worship, not with that of Zeus. Zeus, at least so far as actual ritual is concerned, occupied quite a secondary position.
But under this local diversity it is clear that a general likeness existed. We can hardly con- sider that men who merely performed stated cere- monies had a religion. ‘That term we can use only with reference to men who thought about the ideas involved in these rites; and it was the approximation to a general Hellenic type in their local religion that engaged general attention. Though they spent most care and most money on the festival of Athenaia, of Hera, or of Poseidon, their thought was concerned most with Zeus as the god, and with Athenaia or the others only as his representatives. Especially is this common or Hellenic religion the religion of the literature ta which the most thoughtful men gave shape. But a national literature, though it be in advance of the prevalent standard of thought, is not in opposition to it. Homer and Plato only gave clearer form to the thoughts that were present in all educated minds. This common character, this Hellenic religion, is the true line in which the actual religion of Greece tended to develop. All intercourse of Greek with Greek, all education,