The political career of the Oracle cannot be dealt with here. It may be enough to say that the oracles which have been preserved display no settled policy ; usually, but not always, the Oracle is on the side of constitutional government as against the tyrant, and was nearly always the devoted friend of Sparta, owing much of its great prestige in the 7th and 6th cent. to the support of that State.
In a famous oracle concerning the Spartan plan of Arcadian conquest, Apollo’s voice was on the side of righteousness, but the utterance suggests a quasi-Papal claim to dispose of territory. But with all her influence Delphi was too weak_to menace the liberties of the Greek States. Her best political activity was in the sphere of coloni- zation; the “Oowr have every reason to be con- sidered the best informed agency for emigration that any State has ever possessed. Of course, neither in this nor in any other matter could they dictate ; they merely advised and pointed the route to adventurous spirits ; and they advised very well, so that at last no body of colonists were likely to start without the sanction of Delphi. There is reason for thinking that this colonizing of Apollo began in prehistoric times. The Dorian migration was probably blessed by the Oracle; and, what is still more important, we have good evidence from the legends, of the custom of dedicating to Delphi a tithe of the captives taken by any conquest : these appear to have been sometimes sent forth as a colony of the god’s.
A few last words may be added concerning the part played by the Oracle in Greek religion and morality. In spite of the dark exception mentioned above, its influence, which was certainly great, was often good, and generally innocent. The priests were propagandists of two departments of cult especially : the cult of Dionysos, who was Apollo’s confrére at Delphi, and the cult of heroes. The latter is an interesting feature of Greek religion, for it explains the spread of later saint-worship in the Mediterranean ; and as no departed holy person could be canonized without the sanction of the Pope, so no departed athlete, warrior, or benefactor could be, or was likely to be, the object of public worship without the authorization of Delphi. Usually, the Delphic rule in religion is to encourage each State to maintain the religion and ritual of their fore- fathers.
In the sphere of private morality, in the ethics of the conscience, the Oracle often did good service ; and this short epitome of a large theme may close with a few illustrations of this. Herodotus has
preserved for us the stern and significant words with which the Oracle denounced Glaukos for tempting the god to connive at fraud : the terrified sinner craved forgiveness for his evil thoughts ;
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RELIGION OF GREEC
but the Pythoness told him that God would punish evil intent as well as evil act. This was then almost a new phase in the world of Greek ethics. Again, at a later time the Oracle reveals how far the moral thought of Greece had advanced out of the old bondage to ritual: a brave and good man had slain his own friend by accident while defend- ing him 1m a deadly encounter with robbers ; horror-stricken, with his friend’s blood upon him, he flees to Delphi to ask what atonement or ritual can wash off the sin; but a better voice greets him than might have greeted CEdipus : ‘Thou didst slay thy friend, striving to save his life 3 go hence, thou art purer than thou wert before.’ Akin to the ethical idea embodied here is a Xpnouos THs IlvOlas preserved in the Anthology: ‘Enter the shrine of the pure God, pure in soul, having touched thyself with holy water: lustration is easy for the good; but a sinner cannot be cleansed by all the streams of ocean.” The genuineness of these oracles is a matter of indifference; they prove a rising tide of ethical feeling, which originated in the philo- sophical schools of Greece, and was imputed to Delphi. The conservative Oracle itself came to be regarded as playing its part in freeing men from that ancient heavy burden of ritual that in an older period may have aided certain growths in the moral world, but had long been a clog upon moral advance.
This short exposition of a great chapter in Greek religion puts forth many unproved and undeveloped statements. The present writer hopes to be able to deal more fully and more satisfactorily with doubt- ful and important points in the fourth volume of his Cults of the Greek States.
Lewis R. FARNELL. ]
C. LATER DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGION IN THE GREEK WoRLD.—I. RELIGION IN LITERATURE AND PHILOSOPHY. — The essential inconsistency and self-contradiction involved in the idea of the Hellenic Pantheon was apparent, in a dim way, even to the common mind. Zeus was himself an individual with a history full of faults and selfish- ness. While his rule was often a mere capricious despotism, the other gods were a court surround- ing him, each with his own schemes clashing both with the will of Zeus and with the wish of his fellow-deities. Thus the power of the highest god was limited, and overruling fate then became an inexorable law, before which even he must bow. However unwilling, he must surrender his own son Sarpedon to the death that fate had allotted him.