In religious rites and ceremonies Greece was re- markably conservative. Pausanias [Description of Greece [ed. J. G. Frazer, 6 vols., London, 1898J) records (passim) that as he went through tiie country in the 2nd cent, of our era he found the primitive worsliips faithfully maintained in every city and village by the simple, unquestioning natives. And the great religious festivals — Olym- pic, Isthmian, Pj'thian — never failed to attract crowds. It is a familiar fact that religious beliefs which science has discredited may still have a long life before them. Ever since the days of Plato the traditional religion of Greece had been 'a bankrupt concern ' (Gilbert Murray, Four Stages of Greek Religion, 1912, p. 107). And among those who not only doubted or denied the existence of the Olympian gods, but turned in weariness and disappointment from Stoic, Epicurean, and Aca- demic systems alike, there was a thirst for some ileeper satisfaction of the soul's wants. When Alexander's emjjire extended the bounds of know- ledge, attention began to be directed to foreign faiths, and Oriental mysteries gradually came into vogue. Sacrifice and prayer to Hera or Athene
were replaced by the orgiastic worship of Cybele or the mystic rites of Isis. The Eleusinian Mysteries — the cult of Demeter and Cora — constitute ' the one great attempt made by the Hellenic genius to construct for itself a religion that should keep pace with the growth of thought and civilization in Greece' (W. M. Ramsay, EBr^ xvii. [1884J 126). The only native gods of Greece who could hold their own against foreign rivals were the mystery- deities, Dionysus and Hecate. The cult of Isis secured a foothold in the yEgean islands, spread to Attica in the 8rd cent. B. C. , to Rome in the 1st, and ultimately established itself throughout the wide Roman Empire, as the adoration of the Madonna has done in the Catholic Avorld. ' The great power of Isis "of myriad names" was that, transfigured by Greek influences, she appealed to many orders of intellect, and satisfied many religious needs or fancies' (S. D'lW, Roman Society/ from Nero to Marcus Atirelitis, 1904, p. 569). Christianity was preached in some of the leading cities of Greece soon after the middle of the 1st cent, (see Athens and Corinth), but made slow progress throughout the country, where paganism, in one form or another, maintained itself till about A.D. 600.
Ionia (Javan) was known to the later Hebrew prophets (Ezk 27'^, Is 66i9), and the Jews of the 2nd cent. B.C. came into touch with Greece proper. References to Athenians and Spartans occur in 1 Mac 12-14, 2 Mac 6' 9'" ; a long list of Greek cities is found in 1 Mac 15^^ ; and, according to 1 Mac 12^, Jonathan the Hasmoneean greeted the Spartans as brethren and sought an alliance with them against Syria. During the Maccabsean conflict the term ' Greek ' came to be used by strict Jews as synonymous with anti-Jewish or heathen (2 Mac 410. 'Is 09 iiJ4j^ an^ 'Hellenism' as identical with heathenism (4'"). See Hellenism.
LiTERATtTRB. — A. Holtn, Eistovy of Greece, Eng. tr., London, 1894-98 ; J. P. MahafFy, A Sxtrvey of Greek Civilisation, do. 1897, Rambles and Studies in Greece^, do. 1897, and Proiiress of Hellenism in Alexander's Empire, do. 1905; J. G. Frazer, Pausanias and Other Greek Sketches, do. 1900 ; J. A. Symonds, Sketches and Studies in Italy and Greece, do. 1S98 ; L. R. Farnell, The Cults of the Greek States, 5 vols., Oxford, 1896- 1909, The Higher Aspects of Greek Religion, London, 1912 ; artt. 'Graecia' in Smith's DGRG, 'Greece 'in HDB, EBi, 'Griechen- land • in iJG?G. JAMES STKAHAN.
GRIEF (ir6vos, SdivT}, Xiirrj, irivdos, and cognate forms). — In addition to the common vexations of life (Ac 4^ ; cf. 16'*) and the griefs arising from mis- fortune (2 Co 12'') and human mutability (deaths and partings, Ac 20^), there are certain cases of mental distress recognized in the NT, which are significant of the life and thought of the early Church.
(1) To the sorrows of transgression the Church is naturally sensitive. Sin reaps grief among its sad harvest. Esau's carelessness is followed by un- availing tears (He 12^'). Those lustful after riches pierce themselves with many sorrows (1 Ti 6'"). Proud Babylon despises God ; a day of sorrow and mourning is at hand for her (Rev 18). The wide- spread pain caused by transgression is illustrated by the case of the incestuous member of the Corinthian Church (2 Co 2^-''). First, St. Paul, as a spiritual father of the Church, has been com- pelled to write with tears, in deep sufi'ering and depression of spirits (2 Co 2* : OX'i'pis Kal crwoxv Kapdias), to admonish the careless Church which has allowed the outrage to pass unrebuked (1 Co 5^); then the Church itself, realizing its shame, is plunged into sorrow (2 Co 2' ; cf. 7** ") ; and the actual oflender is in danger of being driven to despair by his excess of grief (v.^). Such distress has, however, a redeeming feature, inasmuch as it leads to repentance (7"-)- There is a worldly sorrow (toO K6<r/iov \virri) which, embittering and
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hardening instead of chastening (He 12'"", 2 Co 7^), worketh death (2 Co V^).
(2) But the Christian life has its oivn set of mental distresses. The anguish of persecution at the hands of the world (Ro 8^5 ; of. 1 P 2^^) is but one of the sorrows of the Christian's Via Dolorosa ; his in- creasing moral sensitiveness enlarges the possibility of mental pain. The spiritual life is one of travail (Ko 8^2-26^ 2 Co 52-4; see art. GROANING). The richer soul also bears the cross of a wide human sympathy (2 Co IF", Ph 2^^'^^); and a conscientious ministry is one of sufi'ering, anxiety, and tears (Ac 20i«- 3', 2 Co 2^-\ Ro 9- ; cf. He 13").