Myth, Ritual and Religion, Vol. 1 (of 2)Lang, Andrew
Religion
Myth, Ritual and Religion, Vol. 1 (of 2)
Lang, Andrew
Myth; Mythology; Religion; Rites and ceremonies
We have now attempted to establish that in Greek law and ritual many
savage customs and usages did undeniably survive. We have seen that both
philosophical and popular opinion in Greece believed in a past age of
savagery. In law, in religion, in religious art, in custom, in human
sacrifice, in relics of totemism, and in the mysteries, we have seen
that the Greeks retained plenty of the usages now found among the
remotest and most backward races. We have urged against the suggestion
of borrowing from Egypt or Asia that these survivals are constantly
found in local and tribal religion and rituals, and that consequently
they probably date from that remote prehistoric past when the Greeks
lived in village settlements. It may still doubtless be urged that all
these things are Pelasgic, and were the customs of a race settled in
Hellas before the arrival of the Homeric Achaeans, and Dorians, and
Argives, who, on this hypothesis, adopted and kept up the old savage
Pelasgian ways and superstitions. It is impossible to prove or disprove
this belief, nor does it affect our argument. We allege that all Greek
life below the surface was rich in institutions now found among the most
barbaric peoples. These institutions, whether borrowed or inherited,
would still be part of the legacy left by savages to cultivated peoples.
As this legacy is so large in custom and ritual, it is not unfair to
argue that portions of it will also be found in myths. It is now time to
discuss Greek myths of the origin of things, and decide whether they are
or are not analogous in ideas to the myths which spring from the wild
and ignorant fancy of Australians, Cahrocs, Nootkas and Bushmen.
CHAPTER X. GREEK COSMOGONIC MYTHS.
Nature of the evidence--Traditions of origin of the world and
man--Homeric, Hesiodic and Orphic myths--Later evidence of historians,
dramatists, commentators--The Homeric story comparatively pure--The
story in Hesiod, and its savage analogues--The explanations of the
myth of Cronus, modern and ancient--The Orphic cosmogony--Phanes and
Prajapati--Greek myths of the origin of man--Their savage analogues.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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