In all her aspect and functions she is the double of the great Minoan
mother-goddess described already, whose familiar animals are the lion
and the serpent, who claims worship from the mountain-top, and whose
character is wholly that of a great earth goddess with power doubtless
reaching down to the lower world of the dead. Only from Crete we have
evidence which is lacking in pre-Aryan Phrygia of the presence of a
thunder or sky-god by her side.[109.4]
{110}
Turning our attention now to the early Hellenic world, and to that
part of its religion which we may call Nature-worship, we discern
certain general traits that place it on the same plane in some
respects with the Mesopotamian. Certain of the higher deities show
their power in certain elemental spheres, Poseidon mainly in the
water, Demeter in the land, Zeus in the air. But of none of these is
the power wholly limited to that element: and each has acquired, like
the high gods of Assyria and Babylon and Jahwé of Israel, a complex
anthropomorphic character that cannot be derived, though the old
generation of scholars wearily attempted to derive it, from the
elemental nature-phenomenon. Again, other leading divinities, such as
Apollo, Artemis, Athena, are already in the pre-Homeric period, as far
as we can discern, pure real personalities like Nebo and Asshur,
having no discoverable nature-significance at all. Besides these
higher cults, we discern a vast number of popular local cults of
winds, springs, rivers, at first animistically and then
anthropomorphically imagined. So in Mesopotamia we find direct worship
of canals and the river. Finally, we discern in early Hellas a
multitude of special “functional” divinities or heroes,
“Sondergötter,” like Eunostos, the hero of the harvest: and it may be
possible to find their counterparts in the valley of the
Euphrates.[110.1] We have also the nameless groups of divine
potencies in Hellas, such as the Πραξιδίκαι, Μειλίχιοι, these being
more frequent in the Hellenic than in the Mesopotamian religion, which
presents such parallels as the Annunaki and the Igigi, nameless
daimones of the lower and upper world: and {111} these in both regions
may be regarded as products of animism not yet developed into theism.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account