[430] The Dionysian cult fostered art, but not directly morality. In so far as the Attic drama was an elevating moral influence, the cult may be said to have indirectly promoted morals. But the foreign orgiastic god had to be thoroughly converted before he could strengthen others. [431] The pre-Hellenic Oriental cult of Aphrodite had undoubtedly an unfavorable influence on morality. “Some part of this evil character [was] transplanted into Greek legend, but very little into Greek worship.... What we know is that until the declining period of Greek history the cult of Aphrodite, so far as it appears in written or monumental record, was as pure and austere as that of Zeus and Athena” (Farnell, _The Cults of the Greek States_ (1896), vol. ii, pp. 657, 663). [432] Cf. Schmidt, _Die Ethik der alten Griechen_ (1882), Bd. i, S. 165. [433] Farnell, _The Cults of the Greek States_ (1896), vol. i, p. 74, quoting Charondas, the Sicilian legislator. [434] Farnell, _The Cults of the Greek States_ (1896), vol. iv, pp. 177 ff. [435] Hatch, _The Influence of Greek Ideas and Usages upon the Christian Church_, 2d ed., p. 292. [436] _History of Greece_ (1900), pp. 320 f. [437] _Thucyd._ i. 70. [438] For an illuminating comparison of the Greek virtues of fortitude and temperance with the corresponding Christian virtues, see T. H. Green, _Prolegomena to Ethics_, 5th ed., pp. 304 ff. [439] _Ethics_, iii. 10. [440] “But let [each man] know,” says Plato, “how to choose the mean and avoid the extremes on either side, as far as in him lies, not only in this life but in all that which is to come. For this is the way of happiness” (_Republic_, tr. Jowett, x. 619). [441] Socrates, it is true, taught that it is better to suffer wrong than to do wrong, but he was here far in advance of the common Greek conscience. [442] Quoted by Taylor, _Ancient Ideals_ (1896), vol. i, p. 247. [443] _Christian Ethics_ (1873), vol. i, p. 63. [444] _The Greek View of Life_ (1909), p. 205. [445] If we contrast the Greek conception of man’s nature with that of certain systems of Christian theology, we shall better understand the ethical value of such ideas and beliefs. On the occasion of a college commencement one of the speakers, a stout upholder of the doctrines of the fall of man, original sin, and the utter depravity of the natural man, roundly denounced this injunction of Pindar’s. He said to the young people who had chosen as their class motto, “Be what you are,” that that was just what they ought not to be. He then went on to show them that their nature was wholly corrupt, that all their natural inclinations were toward evil continually, and that if they ever hoped for salvation they must become what they were not. [446] “Aristotle may be almost said to have made the difference between Greek and barbarian the basis of his moral code.”--LECKY, _History of European Morals_, 3d ed., vol. i, p. 200. [447] _Politics_, i. 7, sec. 5; 8, sec. 12; vii. 14, sec. 21.