The Greek View of LifeDickinson, G. Lowes (Goldsworthy Lowes)
Religion
The Greek View of Life
Dickinson, G. Lowes (Goldsworthy Lowes)
Greece -- Civilization
But this orgy of the senses was not the only form which the worship of
Dionysus took in Greece. In connection with one of his legends, the myth
of Dionysus Zagreus, we find traces of an esoteric doctrine, taught by
what were known as the orphic sects, very curiously opposed, one would
have said, to the general trend of Greek conceptions. According to the
story, Zagreus was the son of Zeus and Persephone. Hera, in her
jealousy, sent the Titans to destroy him; after a struggle, they managed
to kill him, cut him up and devoured all but the heart, which was saved
by Athene and carried to Zeus. Zeus swallowed it, and produced therefrom
a second Dionysus. The Titans he destroyed by lightning, and from their
ashes created Man. Man is thus composed of two elements, one bad, the
Titanic, the other good, the Dionysiac; the latter being derived from
the body of Dionysus, which the Titans had devoured. This fundamental
dualism, according to the doctrine founded on the myth, is the perpetual
tragedy of man's existence; and his perpetual struggle is to purify
himself of the Titanic element. The process extends over many
incarnations, but an ultimate deliverance is promised by the aid of the
redeemer Dionysus Lysius.
The belief thus briefly described was not part of the popular religion
of the Greeks, but it was a normal growth of their consciousness, and it
is mentioned here as a further indication that even in what we call the
classical age there were not wanting traces of the more mystic and
spiritual side of religion. Here, in the tenets of these orphic sects,
we have the doctrine of "original sin," the conception of life as a
struggle between two opposing principles, and the promise of an ultimate
redemption by the help of the divine power. And if this be taken in
connection with the universal and popular belief in inspiration as
possession by the god, we shall see that our original statement that the
relation of man to the gods was mechanical and external in the Greek
conception, must at least be so far modified that it must be taken only
as an expression of the central or dominant point of view, not as
excluding other and even contradictory standpoints.
Still, broadly speaking and admitting the limitations, the statement may
stand. If the Greek popular religion be compared with that of the
Christian world, the great distinction certainly emerges, that in the
one the relation of God to man is conceived as mechanical and external,
in the other as inward and spiritual. The point has been sufficiently
illustrated, and we may turn to another division of our subject.
Section 11. The Greek View of Death and a Future Life.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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