The Religious Thought of the Greeks, from Homer to the Triumph of ChristianityMoore, Clifford Herschel
Religion
The Religious Thought of the Greeks, from Homer to the Triumph of Christianity
Moore, Clifford Herschel
Greece -- Religion; Philosophy, Ancient; Religious thought -- Greece; Religious thought -- To 600
Less valuable in itself, but not less persistent, as we can still
see in our own Christian church, was the notion that only the
initiates, who by purificatory rites had been received into the sacred
association, could hope for salvation. Union with the divine nature
and future blessedness were thus made to depend on sacraments rather
than on virtue. Indeed, we need not suppose that here any more than
in the mysteries at Eleusis there was originally any requirement of
a virtuous life. But reason and an awakened ethical sense among the
Greeks began early to demand of the initiates compliance with the
recognized standards of morality, as the passages already quoted
show; and there can be no doubt that in due time most of the various
mysteries contributed to the ethical life. Yet the inevitable tendency
in the opposite direction made itself felt and there were many Orphic
charlatans and quacks who promised salvation to all who would undergo
the cheap rites of their initiations.
* * * * *
We must now glance at a contemporaneous and related movement—I mean
Pythagoreanism, which will have sprung into the thoughts of many of you
already.
Whether Orphism learned from Pythagoras or Pythagoras from Orphism
cannot be determined; but it seems probable that Croton was already an
Orphic center when about 530 B.C. Pythagoras of Samos after
long travels established there an association which combined in a
way hitherto unknown religious and philosophic aims. Pythagoras may
have attached himself to some group of Orphics already in existence
and have inspired it with his political and philosophic interests. In
any case his society, which was opposed to the democratic temper of
Croton, became in time important enough to be regarded with suspicion
and forced to move to Metapontum; ultimately the members were dispersed
carrying their doctrines with them throughout the Greek world.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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