Psyche: The Cult of Souls and Belief in Immortality among the GreeksRohde, Erwin
Religion
Psyche: The Cult of Souls and Belief in Immortality among the Greeks
Rohde, Erwin
Greece -- Religion
[27\6: The privileged position of the initiated is exhibited with
striking vigour in the well-known outburst of Diogenes: ~ti/
le/geis, e/phê, krei/ttona moi=ran he/xei Pataiki/ôn ho kle/ptês
apothanô\n ê\ Epameinô/ndas, ho/ti memu/êtai?~ Plu., _Aud. Poet._
iv, p. 21 F; D.L. vi, 39; Jul., _Or._ vii, 238 A (p. 308 Hert.).--A
homiletic application of Diogenes' saying is made by Philo, _Vict.
Off._ 12, ii, p. 261 M. ~sumbai/nei polla/kis tô=n me\n agathô=n
andrô=n mêde/na muei=sthai, lê|sta\s de\ e/stin ho/te kai\
katapontista\s kai\ gunaikô=n thia/sous bdeluktô=n kai\ akola/stôn,
epa\n argu/rion para/schôsi toi=s teloi=si kai\ hierophantou=si~.
Cf. _Spec. Leg._ 3, 7, i, p. 306 M.]
[28\6: Of this nature were the ~hiera/~ which the hierophant
"showed" and the other things that were employed in the festival:
pictures of gods, relics, and paraphernalia of all sorts (e.g. the
~ki/stê~ and the ~ka/lathos~: O. Jahn, _Hermes_, 3, 327 f.): see
Lob., _Agl._ 51-62.]
[29\6: Preller, for example (stimulated by K. O. Müller), is fond of
dwelling on the special character and meaning of the worship of the
chthonic deities as something quite distinct from other Greek
worships of the gods. An example may be found in Pauly-Wissowa^1,
s.v. _Eleusis_, iii, p. 108: "The department of religion to which
the Eleusinian cult belongs is that of the chthonic deities, which
had been indigenous in Greece from the earliest times and was a
widely popular cultus. In this cultus ideas of the generous
fruitfulness of the earth's soil and of the fruitfulness of
death--whose seat seems to be beneath the earth like the Old
Testament Sheol--were interwoven in a mysteriously suggestive way: a
way which essentially resisted all efforts at clear and distinct
comprehension, and could not help leading to mystical or occult
suggestions and obscure symbolistic expression." This and further
amplifications in the same sense all rest upon the unprovable axiom
that the activities of the ~chtho/nioi~ as gods of the soil and as
gods of the kingdom of the souls were "interwoven": the suggestive
haze of the rest follows naturally. But what in all this is Greek?]
[30\6: ~hê kru/psis hê mustikê\ tô=n hierô=n semnopoiei= to\
thei=on, mimoume/nê tê\n phu/sin autou= pheu/gousan hêmô=n tê\n
ai/sthêsin~. Str. 467.] {235}
[31\6: In fact the ancient allegorical interpretations of the
mysteries differed widely among themselves: Lob., _Agl._
136-40.--Even Galen attributed an allegorical sense to the mysteries
of Eleusis, but he thinks ~_amudra\_ ekei=na pro\s e/ndeixin hô=n
speu/dei dida/skein~ (iv, p. 361 K.). This cannot have been true of
the assurances given to the Mystai of a blessed future in Hades.]
[32\6: Such proclamations may have occurred in the ~hieropha/ntou
rhê/seis~ (Sop. ~diai/r. zêt.~ Walz, viii, 123, 29; cf. Lob., _Agl._
189).]
[33\6: Lob., _Agl._ 52, 58 f.]
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