The History and Antiquities of the Doric Race, Vol. 1 of 2Müller, Karl Otfried
History
The History and Antiquities of the Doric Race, Vol. 1 of 2
Müller, Karl Otfried
Dorians -- History; Greece -- Antiquities, Dorian; Greece -- History -- Dorian Invasions, approximately 1125-1025 B.C.
11. On the other hand, the religion of the northern races (who as being of
Hellenic descent are put in contrast with the Pelasgians) had in early
times taken a more moral turn, to which their political relations had
doubtless contributed. The heroic life (which is no fiction of the poets),
the fondness for vigorous and active exertion, the disinclination to the
harmless occupations of husbandry, which is so remarkably seen in the
conquering race of the Hellenes, necessarily awakened and cherished an
entirely different train of religious feeling. Hence the Zeus Hellanius of
Æacus, the Zeus Laphystius of Athamas, and, finally, the Doric Zeus, whose
son is Apollo, the prophet and warrior,(55) are rather representations of
the moral order and harmony of the universe, after the ancient method,
than of the creative powers of nature. I do not however deny, that there
was a time when these different views had not as yet taken a separate
direction. Thus it may be shown, that the Apollo Lyceus of the Dorians
conveyed nearly the same notions as the Zeus Lycæus of the Arcadians,
although the worship of either deity was developed independently of that
of the other. Thus also certain ancient Arcadian and Doric customs had, in
their main features, a considerable affinity. The points of resemblance in
these different worships can be only perceived by comparison: tradition
presents, at the very first outset, an innumerable collection of
discordant forms of worship belonging to the several races, but without
explaining to us how they came to be thus separated. For these different
rites were not united into a whole until they had been first divided; and
both by the connexion of worships and by the influence of poetry new
combinations were introduced, which differed essentially from those of an
earlier date.
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