(6) Lhe worship of living men as deities.—The deification of living men was not in itself alien to the spirit of Hellenism, but, on the contrary, was quite in harmony with the Hellenic satisfaction
* Compare, for example, Pausanias, ii. 34. 2 (at. Methana in Argolis), vill. 88. 4 (at the spring ‘Hagno on the Arcadian mountain Lyceeus),
t See Wuensch in Corpus Inscript. Att., Appendix,
and delight in human beauty and nobility. The worship of the dead as heroes was developed by Hellenism in a way that tended in that direction, as when the dead freebooter Philip was wor- shipped as a hero by the people of the Greek colony of Segesta (whom he had wantonly attacked in piratic fashion), simply on account of his per- sonal beauty.* It was an easy step to identify the man of surpassing excellence, physical or mental, with a god either after his death or during his lifetime, when the perfection of human nature was regarded as Divine. Thus Pythagoras after death was worshipped under the form of Apollo Hyperboreios, Lycurgus as a god, Sophocles as Asklepios-Dexion. Sacrifices were offered to Brasidas and Hippocrates, and the term @ew, which properly denotes the offering to a god as distinguished from a hero, is used about them. According to Plutarch, the first man to whom worship was paid as a god during his lifetime was Lysander (Lys. 18). It is significant that this first step was made among the Asiatic Greek cities. While there was nothing essentially non-Hellenic in such deification of human nature, yet the Hel- lenic sense of order and measure and grace long shrank instinctively from such a step as an ex- cess ; but, in Asia, Hellenism never was so pure as in Europe.
The Thasians honoured Agesilaos in a similar way. From the time of Alexander the deification of kings was customary, as a mere recognition of ‘divine right.? Roman generals were often honoured by Greek cities with festivals and games, which implied deification.t Every Roman emperor in succession was worshipped ; and it was inscribed on the coins and the engraved decrees ‘of the greatest Greek cities as a special honour that they were temple-wardens (vewxépot) of the emperors.
IV. RELIGION OF THE GRACO-ASIATIC CITIES. —In the Hellenized cities of Asia Minor, which had such importance in the early history of Chris- tianity, all these forms of religious thought and act were busy simultaneously. The old Anatolian superstition retained no vestige of its early sim- plicity and its original adaptation to the needs of a primitive people, and had been brutalized and degraded by the exaggeration of its worst features and the importation of barbarian superstitions ; but it was still strong, especially in the cities of the inner country. ‘The Hellenic religion in its decaying forms was introduced and talked about by the Hellenes of the cities. Greek or Greeco- Asiatic philosophy exercised a considerable influ- ence on the thought of the educated classes in those cities, and many sayings and principles and scraps from it had passed into the popular lan- guage and conversation of society; but it had little influence on life, except in the way of pro- ducing disbelief in current religions and contempt for the most vulgar kinds of superstition. But on the great mass of the population all kinds of super- stition and magic exercised a very strong influ- ence, and were on the whole in harmony with the Hee of the Anatolian religion in its modern
orm.
As to the philosophic speculation current in those cities, in spite of its many faults and its obvious weakness as a practical force, the account given in § [makes it easy to understand how and why philosophy, though so depreciated and scouted by St. Paul, was, after all, his ally in a certain degree against the gross forms of vulgar super- stition which were the only active religious force
* Herod. v. 47.
+ The distinction, however, was not strictly maintained: Ovovoer were offered to Philip at Segesta.
t Cicero in Verr. ii. 21, 51, ad Q. Fv. i, 1, 26, ad Att. v. 21, 7; Plutarch, Lucull. 23, Flam. 16.
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RELIGION OF GREECE
RELIGION OF GREECE 155
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in the cities. One can also readily understand why, to the educated observer in contemporary Greeco-Roman society, such as Sergius Paulus in Paphos, or the Stoic and Epicurean philosophers in Athens, he seemed to be a new teacher of philo- sophy, more or less impressive in himself, but not essentially different in type from scores of other lecturers who were striving to catch the ear of the educated world.
V. DrecAy AND DEATH oF THE HELLENIC RELIGION. — While the religion of the country ceased to satisfy the wants of the people, the out- ward show became greater and greater. The Scholiast on Aristophanes (Vesp. 661) says that the year consisted really of only ten months, as two were occupied by festivals ; and Strabo (vi. p. 429) says that finally at Tarentum there were more feasts than days in the year. But the spirit in which the rites had once been performed was now lost; people tolerated the duties as traditional ceremonial, and enjoyed the festivals merely as fine shows. The word ddociodcdar, ‘to discharge oneself of what is due to the gods,’ came to denote careless and perfunctory performance. The duty of performing the public sacrifices was hired out to the lowest bidder. Zeus had to mourn the neglect into which he had fallen compared with the more recent gods (Lucian, Icarom. 24).