Karl Otfried Müller

“ Asia, and also Athens, together with Phocis, Thessaly, and the colonies in Sicily and Italy, were all in the hands of tyrants, who doubtless assisted one another, and knew their common interest; and that Sparta alone, in most instances at the instigation of the Delphian oracle, declared against all these rulers a lasting war, and in fact overthrew them all, with the exception of the Sicilian tyrants; it must be confessed, that in this period of Grecian history no contest took place either greater, or, by its extent as well as its principles, of more important political and moral consequences. ”

“ The national hero is represented as everywhere preparing the way for his people and their worship; and as protecting them from other races. Thus he opens a communication between Tempe and Delphi, between the fabulous worshippers of Apollo, the Hyperboreans, and the worshippers of his own age. At the same time his own person is an outward symbol of the national worship; he complies with its rites of expiation for homicide, being himself both the victim and the sacrificer. ”

“ Thus we behold Apollo the representative of the severe, even, and simple music of the Greeks, in contest with that impassioned spirit, alternating between the extremes of fury and apathy, which the professors of an elementary religion sought to represent even in their music; and consequently this fable also harmonizes with the fundamental principles of the religion of Apollo. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Yet we are not to understand that the worship of Apollo and the Doric race were so exactly co-extensive that the presence of the latter always proves either the previous or actual existence of the former. Indeed it is certain that in ancient as well as in modern times the worship of particular gods was not only propagated by migration and conquest, but that religious belief was also extended by peaceful intercourse, and, as it were, by moral contact. ”

“ Apollo was a subject peculiarly adapted for sculpture. Since his connexion with elementary religion was slight, and there was nothing mystic in his character, the sculptors were soon able to fix upon a regular cast of features, to distinguish him from other deities: for Apollo, not only in poetry, but in the fables most nearly connected with his worship, is generally represented as a human god, and in all his actions and sufferings more nearly connected with the heroes than any other divinity. ”

“ The fundamental idea of all the heroic mythology may be pronounced to be a proud consciousness of power innate in man, by which he endeavours to place himself on a level with the gods, not through the influence of a mild and benign destiny, but by labour, misery, and combats. The highest degree of human suffering and courage is attributed to Hercules: his character is as noble as could be conceived in those rude and early times ”

“ Asia, passed from thence into Greece, and was worshipped as the moon, the goddess of the woods, the huntress, the nurse of children, and a nurse of the universe, as well by the choruses of the virgins of Caryæ, as in the dances of the temples;”1514 we will endeavour to ascertain some historical criterion, which may distinguish the worship of Artemis from that of any other deity, and which must not be one of the ideas or symbols of the worship itself, since it is concerning the possibility or impossibility of their connexion that we are to inquire. ”

“ We must first assume that the above oracle of Apollo at Gergis announced to the Trojan Gergithians the re-establishment of their nation under the dominion of the descendants of Æneas. Such a prophecy, in fact, agrees so exactly with the spirit and system of the ancient oracles, that its existence can scarcely be doubted. The hopes, the longing after a restoration of their ancient power, must necessarily have assumed this form among the distressed and conquered Trojans. ”

“ The taste for the arts shown by the wealthy house of the Scopadæ proves no more that such was the disposition of the whole people, than the existence of the same qualities in Archelaus argues their prevalence in Macedonia. This is sufficient to distinguish them from the race of the Greeks, so highly endowed by nature. We are therefore induced to conjecture that this nation, which a short time before the expedition of the Heraclidæ, migrated from Thesprotia, and indeed from the territory of Ephyra (Cichyrus) into the plain of the Peneus, had originally come from Illyria. ”

“ He was therefore always considered as attended with certain beings whose nature was contrary to his own; his character could only be shown in opposition with a system of hostile attributes and powers. As the warring and victorious god, he required enemies to combat and conquer: as the pure and bright god, he implies the existence of a dark and impure side of nature. In this manner the worship of Apollo resembled those religions, such as the ancient Persian, which were [pg 318] founded on the doctrine of two principles, one of good, the other of evil. ”

“ It is remarkable that during this whole time, in which Sparta founded her empire, we read of no serious contest between Dorians and Ionians. For although the border-states, Megara and Ægina (the latter after its revolt from Epidaurus) , carried on a continued war with Athens, the whole race took no part in the contest, and Sparta herself fulfilled the office of an impartial arbitrator between Athens and Megara. ”

“ Before we proceed to consider the heroic mythology of the Dorians, which is chiefly confined to Hercules, we will first attempt to sketch the principal features of the religious character of the Dorians, as seen in the several worships already enumerated. Both in the development of modes of religion peculiar to that race, and in the adoption and alteration of those of other nations, an ideal tendency may be perceived, which considered the deity not so much in reference to the works or objects of nature, as of the actions and thoughts of men. ”

“ There can be no doubt that Hellen was recognised in the most ancient tradition. Now in the fictions of mythology the invention was bound by a sort of fanciful regularity; and in a fabulous genealogy the part was deduced from the whole, the species from the genus, as an inferior and subordinate being: thus in the Theogony the hills are the children of the earth, and the sun and the moon of light.2147 Accordingly the poet (or whoever was his authority) sang of Æolus, Dorus, and Xuthus, the progenitors of nations, being the sons of Hellen, the son of Zeus, or grandson of Prometheus. ”

“ Thus, if we except the purifying and propitiatory rites, the festivals of Apollo bore the character of a serene and joyful mind, every other attribute of the deity being lost in those of victory and mercy. ”

“ The situation of the temple of Apollo at Thebes is a most convincing proof that his worship was totally distinct from any other. Those of the ancient national gods were built on the citadel of Cadmeia, whilst Apollo was not only not worshipped in the citadel, but even without the gates, in the temple of Ismene,1018 which, according to Pausanias, must have been situated opposite to the temple of Hercules and the house of Amphitryon. ”

“ And in fact there is no doubt that most of the ancient religions of Greece owed their origin to this race. The Zeus and Dione of Dodona; Zeus and Heré of Argos; Hephæstus and Athené of Athens; Demeter and Cora of Eleusis; Hermes and Artemis of Arcadia, together with Cadmus and the Cabiri of Thebes, cannot properly be referred to any other origin. We must therefore attribute to that nation an excessive readiness in creating and metamorphosing objects of religious worship, so that the same fundamental conceptions were variously developed in different places ”

“ The Spartans would not have bestowed so much attention as they did on women of a different race; and all the domestic institutions of the Dorians would have been formed in a manner very unlike that which really obtained. This circumstance alone completely distinguishes the migration of the Dorians from that of the Ionians, who having, according to Herodotus, sailed from Attica without any women, took native Carian women for wives, or rather for slaves, who, according to the same writer, did not even dare to address their husbands by their proper names. ”

“ The custom of a woman giving utterance to the decrees of the god originated partly from the peculiar estimation in which women were held by the Dorians, and partly from the natural tendency of the female sex (so often remarked by the ancients) to fits of ecstasy. Prophetesses were elsewhere also frequently connected with temples of Apollo; as, for instance, Manto, during the fabulous age, with the Ismenian and Clarian temples, and Cassandra with that of Thymbra, whose nature was nearly allied to that of the sibyls, who likewise were always connected with temples of the same god. ”

“ It is not however necessary to esteem the Athenian tradition as altogether groundless, and purposely invented: it was probably founded on some actual event, and afterwards modified and embellished. The connecting link was without doubt the temple of Hercules in Attica. It was natural that, if the Athenians worshipped that hero, they should wish to have had the merit of protecting his descendants. ”

“ But as the pure deity was himself supposed to be stained with blood, so might the minds of his worshippers become tainted with sin, and lose their internal quiet. When in this state, being as it were under the influence of a fiendlike and corrupting power (Ἄτη) , the mind naturally wishes to put an end to its unhappy condition by some specific and definite act. This is effected by the solemn expiation and purification of the religion of Apollo. Expiatory rites were thus introduced into the regular system of worship, and formed a part of the ancient jus sacrum. ”

“ Physical Structure of Arcadia. § 3. Of Laconia. § 4. Of Argolis. § 5. Of Achaia and Elis. § 6. Improvement of the Soil by artificial means. § 7. Early Cultivation of the Soil by the Pelasgians and Leleges. § 8. Numbers of the Doric Invaders. § 9. Mode by which they conquered Peloponnesus. 1. So wonderful is the physical organization of Greece, that each of its parts has received its peculiar destination and a distinct character; it is like a body whose members are different in form, but between which a mutual connexion and dependence necessarily exists. ”

“ The worship of the sun was practised in the Acropolis of Corinth, at Rhodes, Athens, and in earlier times also at Calauria and Tænarum; but in none of these places was it connected with the rites of Apollo.1208
6. This naturally leads us to inquire how any ideal connexion between Apollo and the sun, if it really existed, should have been entirely overlooked for so many centuries; how was it that these deities were not identified till the Grecian mythology had ceased to have any influence upon the ideas and feelings of mankind? ”

“ There is hardly any part of the traditional history of Greece whose real sources are so little known to us as the expedition of the Heraclidæ. No one can fail to perceive that it possesses the same mythical character as the Trojan war ”

“ Sparta, on the other hand, must have been of very slight importance before the Doric migration; by which event alone it was enabled to become the ruler of all the surrounding states. For, in the first place, Sparta was not built in the same manner as Mycenæ, Tiryns, and other ruling cities founded before the Doric invasion; the Acropolis is a hill of inconsiderable height, and easy of ascent, without any trace of ancient fortifications or walls. ”

“ The worship of Apollo, which can in almost every case be shown to have been the real motive which actuated the Dorians, was wholly foreign to the Argives. If then an Achæan tribe did arrive amongst the Dorians, bringing with it the story of Hercules, or a hero so called, this latter people must have applied and developed his mythology in a manner wholly different from those to whom they owed it. ”

“ It would have been less difficult to explain by what superiority the Dorians conquered Peloponnesus, had they gained it in open battle. For, since it appears, that Homer describes the mode of combat in use among the ancient Achæans, the method of fighting with lines of heavy armed men, drawn up in close and regular order, must have been introduced into Peloponnesus by the Dorians; amongst whom Tyrtæus describes it as established. And it is evident that the chariots and darts of the Homeric heroes could never have prevailed against the charge of a deep and compact body armed with long lances. ”