GREECE, RELIGION OF.
1. Greek Worship: Local Institutions.
The earlier history of Greek worship discloses a point of view decidedly different' from that of the Christian church, especially in its Protestant branches. \Ve have not uncommonly suffered the idea of the religious community to fall into the background, in the emphasis that we have laid on the salvation of the individual. The earlier established worship of Greece was wholly a mat ter for the local community, or for such social groups as the family, the phratry, or the state. And when an individual sought help for his own needs, he naturally turned to the god of some local sanctuary—the sanctuary where he might be, if away from home; if at home, the sanctuary of the family or state to which he belonged. Thus all worship centered about particular localities at which particular gods were thought to be present. When one race displaced another, it brought the worship of its patron gods to the new locality, but at the same time it adopted from its fore runners there the shrines where they had wor shiped. Each local shrine had its own forms of worship, its own priesthood, its own tradi tions of the gods there honored. Such local cults were thc starting-point of Greek religion ; they continued through all its growth to be the ground in which it was rooted; and when Christianity was introduced, some of these local gods were transformed into Christian saints, still to be wor shiped under a new title.
The different stages in the history of Greek religion may best be understood from this stand point'. It began in the worship by wandering had arisen thus, so that they were e_xposed to the criticism both of philosophy and of a developed religious sense. Greek religion could not rise out, of itself. It brought to the religion which sup planted it a philosophy about God that reached far beyond any Greek god, and a sense of religious need that no Greek worship could satisfy.
The local shrine was very simple in its origin. In the Odyssey (1X., .197) we read of Ahron, priest of Apollo, who frequented lsmaros, dwell ing with his wife and child in the wooded grove of the god. Chryses (Iliad, i :36-42) served elpof lo Smintheus, building temples to please him, and burning fat thighs of bulls and goats on his well built altar at Chrysc. The oldest localities of worship were sacred spots, marked by an altar and often by a grove where a god was wont to tribes of their patron gods; and as soon as a tribe became attached to any locality, the wor ship of its gods was also localized there. As
intercourse developed between the different Greek tribes or races, these gods became more wide ly known. It was the province of civilization to unify the culture of all the elements which entered into it. Politically it was attended by the rise of larger political groups, the early kingdoms of Greece; it tended to bring the gods also, as well as men, into one world—e.g., to, bring together heaven-gods into a Zeus, and herd-gods into an Apollo, the son of Zezes—so that the way was paved for the creation of the pantheon which appears in the Homeric poems. The life of his toric Greece found expression in city-states, and the religious cults of a city shared all its progress and glory. Athena became, as we have seen, the exponent of the highest culture of Athens. and to her worship pilgrims gathered from all the Greek world. There remained. however, many heterogeneous elements in the nature of gods that be worshiped. The only priests mentioned in the Homeric poems conducted the worship at such local shrines.
In the historic period sacred precincts varied greatly in size and character. The whole Krissaean plain near Delphi was sacred to Artemis, Leto, and Athena Pronaia, and its cultivation was en tirely forbidden. Or, again, the spot of sacred ground was scarcely more than large enough for a small chapel. Entrance into the sanc tuary was forbidden to those who had not com plied with the local requirements, and some places were entirely closed. The more sa cred spots were carefully marked, and often enclosed by a wall of stone. Rarely the sacred land was kept from cultivation ; commonly it was cultivated and the rent derived from its use was devoted to the maintenance of the temple and its worship. Such leases were very carefully drawn up, and describe in detail the manner of cultivating the sacred land, of car ing for its forest ground, and of keeping the sacred herds of cattle. From these sources, from tithes and other taxes levied by the state, and from gifts consecrated to the gods, the income of a shrine might become very large.