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diff --git a/28312-8.txt b/28312-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b9736ce --- /dev/null +++ b/28312-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5515 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Atheism in Pagan Antiquity by A. B. +Drachmann + + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no +restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under +the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or +online at http://www.gutenberg.org/license + + + +Title: Atheism in Pagan Antiquity + +Author: +A. B. Drachmann + + +Release Date: March 11, 2009 [Ebook #28312] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO 8859-1 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ATHEISM IN PAGAN ANTIQUITY*** + + + + + + Atheism In Pagan Antiquity + + By + + A. B. Drachmann + + Professor of Classical Philology in the University of Copenhagen + + Gyldendal + + 11 Hanover Square, London, W.1 + + Copenhagen + + Christiania + + 1922 + + + + + +CONTENTS + + +Preface +Introduction +Chapter I +Chapter II +Chapter III +Chapter IV +Chapter V +Chapter VI +Chapter VII +Chapter VIII +Chapter IX +Notes +Index +Footnotes + + + + + + +PREFACE + + +The present treatise originally appeared in Danish as a University +publication (_Kjoebenhavns Universitets Festskrift_, November 1919). In +submitting it to the English public, I wish to acknowledge my profound +indebtedness to Mr. G. F. Hill of the British Museum, who not only +suggested the English edition, but also with untiring kindness has +subjected the translation, as originally made by Miss Ingeborg Andersen, +M.A. of Copenhagen, to a painstaking and most valuable revision. + +For an account of the previous treatments of the subject, as well as of +the method employed in my investigation, the reader is referred to the +introductory remarks which precede the Notes. + +A. B. DRACHMANN. +CHARLOTTENLUND, +_July 1922_. + + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +The present inquiry is the outcome of a request to write an article on +"Atheism" for a projected dictionary of the religious history of classical +antiquity. On going through the sources I found that the subject might +well deserve a more comprehensive treatment than the scope of a dictionary +would allow. It is such a treatment that I have attempted in the following +pages. + +A difficulty that occurred at the very beginning of the inquiry was how to +define the notion of atheism. Nowadays the term is taken to designate the +attitude which denies every idea of God. Even antiquity sometimes referred +to atheism in this sense; but an inquiry dealing with the history of +religion could not start from a definition of that kind. It would have to +keep in view, not the philosophical notion of God, but the conceptions of +the gods as they appear in the religion of antiquity. Hence I came to +define atheism in Pagan antiquity as the point of view which _denies the +existence of the ancient gods_. It is in this sense that the word will be +used in the following inquiry. + +Even though we disregard philosophical atheism, the definition is somewhat +narrow; for in antiquity mere denial of the existence of the gods of +popular belief was not the only attitude which was designated as atheism. +But it has the advantage of starting from the conception of the ancient +gods that may be said to have finally prevailed. In the sense in which the +word is used here we are nowadays all of us atheists. We do not believe +that the gods whom the Greeks and the Romans worshipped and believed in +exist or have ever existed; we hold them to be productions of the human +imagination to which nothing real corresponds. This view has nowadays +become so ingrained in us and appears so self-evident, that we find it +difficult to imagine that it has not been prevalent through long ages; +nay, it is perhaps a widely diffused assumption that even in antiquity +educated and unbiased persons held the same view of the religion of their +people as we do. In reality both assumptions are erroneous: our "atheism" +in regard to ancient paganism is of recent date, and in antiquity itself +downright denial of the existence of the gods was a comparatively rare +phenomenon. The demonstration of this fact, rather than a consideration of +the various intermediate positions taken up by the thinkers of antiquity +in their desire to avoid a complete rupture with the traditional ideas of +the gods, has been one of the chief purposes of this inquiry. + +Though the definition of atheism set down here might seem to be clear and +unequivocal, and though I have tried to adhere strictly to it, cases have +unavoidably occurred that were difficult to classify. The most +embarrassing are those which involve a reinterpretation of the conception +of the gods, _i.e._ which, while acknowledging that there is some reality +corresponding to the conception, yet define this reality as essentially +different from it. Moreover, the acknowledgment of a certain group of gods +(the celestial bodies, for instance) combined with the rejection of +others, may create difficulties in defining the notion of atheism; in +practice, however, this doctrine generally coincides with the former, by +which the gods are explained away. On the whole it would hardly be just, +in a field of inquiry like the present, to expect or require absolutely +clearly defined boundary-lines; transition forms will always occur. + +The persons of whom it is related that they denied the existence of the +ancient gods are in themselves few, and they all belong to the highest +level of culture; by far the greater part of them are simply professional +philosophers. Hence the inquiry will almost exclusively have to deal with +philosophers and philosophical schools and their doctrines; of religion as +exhibited in the masses, as a social factor, it will only treat by +exception. But in its purpose it is concerned with the history of +religion, not with philosophy; therefore--in accordance with the definition +of its object--it will deal as little as possible with the purely +philosophical notions of God that have nothing to do with popular +religion. What it aims at illustrating is a certain--if you like, the +negative--aspect of ancient religion. But its result, if it can be +sufficiently established, will not be without importance for the +understanding of the positive religious sense of antiquity. If you want to +obtain some idea of the hold a certain religion had on its adherents, it +is not amiss to know something about the extent to which it dominated even +the strata of society most exposed to influences that went against it. + +It might seem more natural, in dealing with atheism in antiquity, to adopt +the definition current among the ancients themselves. That this method +would prove futile the following investigation will, I hope, make +sufficiently evident; antiquity succeeded as little as we moderns in +connecting any clear and unequivocal idea with the words that signify +"denial of God." On the other hand, it is, of course, impossible to begin +at all except from the traditions of antiquity about denial and deniers. +Hence the course of the inquiry will be, first to make clear what +antiquity understood by denial of the gods and what persons it designated +as deniers, and then to examine in how far these persons were atheists in +our sense of the word. + + + + + +CHAPTER I + + +Atheism and atheist are words formed from Greek roots and with Greek +derivative endings. Nevertheless they are not Greek; their formation is +not consonant with Greek usage. In Greek they said _atheos_ and +_atheotes_; to these the English words ungodly and ungodliness correspond +rather closely. In exactly the same way as ungodly, _atheos_ was used as +an expression of severe censure and moral condemnation; this use is an old +one, and the oldest that can be traced. Not till later do we find it +employed to denote a certain philosophical creed; we even meet with +philosophers bearing _atheos_ as a regular surname. We know very little of +the men in question; but it can hardly be doubted that _atheos_, as +applied to them, implied not only a denial of the gods of popular belief, +but a denial of gods in the widest sense of the word, or Atheism as it is +nowadays understood. + +In this case the word is more particularly a philosophical term. But it +was used in a similar sense also in popular language, and corresponds then +closely to the English "denier of God," denoting a person who denies the +gods of his people and State. From the popular point of view the interest, +of course, centred in those only, not in the exponents of philosophical +theology. Thus we find the word employed both of theoretical denial of the +gods (atheism in our sense) and of practical denial of the gods, as in the +case of the adherents of monotheism, Jews and Christians. + +Atheism, in the theoretical as well as the practical sense of the word, +was, according to the ancient conception of law, always a crime; but in +practice it was treated in different ways, which varied both according to +the period in question and according to the more or less dangerous nature +of the threat it offered to established religion. It is only as far as +Athens and Imperial Rome are concerned that we have any definite knowledge +of the law and the judicial procedure on this point; a somewhat detailed +account of the state of things in Athens and Rome cannot be dispensed with +here. + +In the criminal law of Athens we meet with the term _asebeia_--literally: +impiety or disrespect towards the gods. As an established formula of +accusation of _asebeia_ existed, legislation must have dealt with the +subject; but how it was defined we do not know. The word itself conveys +the idea that the law particularly had offences against public worship in +view; and this is confirmed by the fact that a number of such +offences--from the felling of sacred trees to the profanation of the +Eleusinian Mysteries--were treated as _asebeia_. When, in the next place, +towards the close of the fifth century B.C., free-thinking began to assume +forms which seemed dangerous to the religion of the State, theoretical +denial of the gods was also included under _asebeia_. From about the +beginning of the Peloponnesian War to the close of the fourth century +B.C., there are on record a number of prosecutions of philosophers who +were tried and condemned for denial of the gods. The indictment seems in +most cases--the trial of Socrates is the only one of which we know +details--to have been on the charge of _asebeia_, and the procedure proper +thereto seems to have been employed, though there was no proof or +assertion of the accused having offended against public worship; as to +Socrates, we know the opposite to have been the case; he worshipped the +gods like any other good citizen. This extension of the conception of +_asebeia_ to include theoretical denial of the gods no doubt had no +foundation in law; this is amongst other things evident from the fact that +it was necessary, in order to convict Anaxagoras, to pass a special public +resolution in virtue of which his free-thinking theories became +indictable. The law presumably dated from a time when theoretical denial +of the gods lay beyond the horizon of legislation. Nevertheless, in the +trial of Socrates it is simply taken for granted that denial of the gods +is a capital crime, and that not only on the side of the prosecution, but +also on the side of the defence: the trial only turns on a question of +fact, the legal basis is taken for granted. So inveterate, then, at this +time was the conception of the unlawful nature of the denial of the gods +among the people of Athens. + +In the course of the fourth century B.C. several philosophers were accused +of denial of the gods or blasphemy; but after the close of the century we +hear no more of such trials. To be sure, our knowledge of the succeeding +centuries, when Athens was but a provincial town, is far less copious than +of the days of its greatness; nevertheless, it is beyond doubt that the +practice in regard to theoretical denial of the gods was changed. A +philosopher like Carneades, for instance, might, in view of his sceptical +standpoint, just as well have been convicted of _asebeia_ as Protagoras, +who was convicted because he had declared that he did not know whether the +gods existed or not; and as to such a process against Carneades, tradition +would not have remained silent. Instead, we learn that he was employed as +the trusted representative of the State on most important diplomatic +missions. It is evident that Athens had arrived at the point of view that +the theoretical denial of the gods might be tolerated, whereas the law, of +course, continued to protect public worship. + +In Rome they did not possess, as in Athens, a general statute against +religious offences; there were only special provisions, and they were, +moreover, few and insufficient. This defect, however, was remedied by the +vigorous police authority with which the Roman magistrates were invested. +In Rome severe measures were often taken against movements which +threatened the Roman official worship, but it was done at the discretion +of the administration and not according to hard-and-fast rules; hence the +practice was somewhat varying, and a certain arbitrariness inevitable. + +No example is known from Rome of action taken against theoretical denial +of the gods corresponding to the trials of the philosophers in Athens. The +main cause of this was, no doubt, that free-thinking in the fifth century +B.C. invaded Hellas, and specially Athens, like a flood which threatened +to overthrow everything; in Rome, on the other hand, Greek philosophy made +its way in slowly and gradually, and this took place at a time when in the +country of its origin it had long ago found a _modus vivendi_ with popular +religion and was acknowledged as harmless to the established worship. The +more practical outlook of the Romans may perhaps also have had something +to say in the matter: they were rather indifferent to theoretical +speculations, whereas they were not to be trifled with when their national +institutions were concerned. + +In consequence of this point of view the Roman government first came to +deal with denial of the gods as a breach of law when confronted with the +two monotheistic religions which invaded the Empire from the East. That +which distinguished Jews and Christians from Pagans was not that they +denied the existence of the Pagan gods--the Christians, at any rate, did +not do this as a rule--but that they denied that they were gods, and +therefore refused to worship them. They were practical, not theoretical +deniers. The tolerance which the Roman government showed towards all +foreign creeds and the result of which in imperial times was, practically +speaking, freedom of religion over the whole Empire, could not be extended +to the Jews and the Christians; for it was in the last resort based on +reciprocity, on the fact that worship of the Egyptian or Persian gods did +not exclude worship of the Roman ones. Every convert, on the other hand, +won over to Judaism or Christianity was _eo ipso_ an apostate from the +Roman religion, an _atheos_ according to the ancient conception. Hence, as +soon as such religions began to spread, they constituted a serious danger +to the established religion, and the Roman government intervened. Judaism +and Christianity were not treated quite alike; in this connexion details +are of no interest, but certain principal features must be dwelt on as +significant of the attitude of antiquity towards denial of the gods. To +simplify matters I confine myself to Christianity, where things are less +complicated. + +The Christians were generally designated as _atheoi_, as deniers of the +gods, and the objection against them was precisely their denial of the +Pagan gods, not their religion as such. When the Christian, summoned +before the Roman magistrates, agreed to sacrifice to the Pagan gods (among +them, the Emperor) he was acquitted; he was not punished for previously +having attended Christian services, and it seems that he was not even +required to undertake not to do so in future. Only if he refused to +sacrifice, was he punished. We cannot ask for a clearer proof that it is +apostasy as such, denial of the gods, against which action is taken. It is +in keeping with this that, at any rate under the earlier Empire, no +attempt was made to seek out the Christians at their assemblies, to hinder +their services or the like; it was considered sufficient to take steps +when information was laid. + +The punishments meted out were different, in that they were left solely to +the discretion of the magistrates. But they were generally severe: forced +labour in mines and capital punishment were quite common. No +discrimination was made between Roman citizens and others belonging to the +Empire, but all were treated alike; that the Roman citizen could not +undergo capital punishment without appeal to the Emperor does not affect +the principle. This procedure has really no expressly formulated basis in +law; the Roman penal code did not, as mentioned above, take cognizance of +denial of the gods. Nevertheless, the sentences on the Christians were +considered by the Pagans of the earlier time as a matter of course, the +justice of which was not contested, and the procedure of the government +was in principle the same under humane and conscientious rulers like +Trajan and Marcus Aurelius as under tyrants like Nero and Domitian. Here +again it is evident how firmly rooted in the mind of antiquity was the +conviction that denial of the gods was a capital offence. + +To resume what has here been set forth concerning the attitude of ancient +society to atheism: it is, in the first place, evident that the frequently +mentioned tolerance of polytheism was not extended to those who denied its +gods; in fact, it was applied only to those who acknowledged them even if +they worshipped others besides. But the assertion of this principle of +intolerance varied greatly in practice according to whether it was a +question of theoretical denial of the gods--atheism in our sense--or +practical refusal to worship the Pagan gods. Against atheism the community +took action only during a comparatively short period, and, as far as we +know, only in a single place. The latter limitation is probably explained +not only by the defectiveness of tradition, but also by the fact that in +Athens free-thinking made its appearance about the year 400 as a general +phenomenon and therefore attracted the attention of the community. Apart +from this case, the philosophical denier of God was left in peace all +through antiquity, in the same way as the individual citizen was not +interfered with, as a rule, when he, for one reason or another, refrained +from taking part in the worship of the deities. On the other hand, as soon +as practical refusal to believe in the gods, apostasy from the established +religion, assumed dangerous proportions, ruthless severity was exercised +against it. + +The discrimination, however, made in the treatment of the theoretical and +practical denial of the gods is certainly not due merely to consideration +of the more or less isolated occurrence of the phenomenon; it is rooted at +the same time in the very nature of ancient religion. The essence of +ancient polytheism is the worship of the gods, that is, cultus; of a +doctrine of divinity properly speaking, of theology, there were only +slight rudiments, and there was no idea of any elaborate dogmatic system. +Quite different attitudes were accordingly assumed towards the +philosopher, who held his own opinions of the gods, but took part in the +public worship like anybody else; and towards the monotheist, to whom the +whole of the Pagan worship was an abomination, which one should abstain +from at any cost, and which one should prevail on others to give up for +the sake of their own good in this life or the next. + +In the literature of antiquity we meet with sporadic statements to the +effect that certain philosophers bore the epithet _atheos_ as a sort of +surname; and in a few of the later authors of antiquity we even find lists +of men--almost all of them philosophers--who denied the existence of the +gods. Furthermore, we possess information about certain persons--these +also, if Jews and Christians are excluded, are nearly all of them +philosophers--having been accused of, and eventually convicted of, denial +of the gods; some of these are not in our lists. Information of this kind +will, as remarked above, be taken as the point of departure for an +investigation of atheism in antiquity. For practical reasons, however, it +is reasonable to include some philosophers whom antiquity did not +designate as atheists, and who did not come into conflict with official +religion, but of whom it has been maintained in later times that they did +not believe in the existence of the gods of popular belief. Thus we arrive +at the following list, in which those who were denoted as _atheoi_ are +italicised and those who were accused of impiety are marked with an +asterisk: + + Xenophanes. + *Anaxagoras. +_ Diogenes of Apollonia._ +_ Hippo of Rhegium._ + *_Protagoras._ +_ Prodicus._ +_ Critias._ + *_Diagoras of Melos._ + *Socrates. + Antisthenes. + Plato. + *Aristotle. + Theophrastus. + *Stilpo. + *_Theodorus._ + *_Bion._ +_ Epicurus._ +_ Euhemerus._ + +The persons are put down in chronological order. This order will in some +measure be preserved in the following survey; but regard for the +continuity of the tradition of the doctrine will entail certain +deviations. It will, that is to say, be natural to divide the material +into four groups: the pre-Socratic philosophy; the Sophists; Socrates and +the Socratics; Hellenistic philosophy. Each of these groups has a +philosophical character of its own, and it will be seen that this +character also makes itself felt in the relation to the gods of the +popular belief, even though we here meet with phenomena of more isolated +occurrence. The four groups must be supplemented by a fifth, a survey of +the conditions in Imperial Rome. Atheists of this period are not found in +our lists; but a good deal of old Pagan free-thinking survives in the +first centuries of our era, and also the epithet _atheoi_ was bestowed +generally on the Christians and sometimes on the Jews, and if only for +this reason they cannot be altogether passed by in this survey. + + + + + +CHAPTER II + + +The paganism of antiquity is based on a primitive religion, _i.e._ it is +originally in the main homogeneous with the religions nowadays met with in +the so-called primitive peoples. It underwent, however, a long process of +evolution parallel with and conditioned by the development of Greek and +later Roman civilisation. This evolution carried ancient religion far away +from its primitive starting-point; it produced numerous new formations, +above all a huge system of anthropomorphic gods, each with a definite +character and personality of his own. This development is the result of an +interplay of numerous factors: changing social and economical conditions +evoked the desire for new religious ideas; the influence of other peoples +made itself felt; poetry and the fine arts contributed largely to the +moulding of these ideas; conscious reflection, too, arose early and +modified original simplicity. But what is characteristic of the whole +process is the fact that it went on continuously without breaks or sudden +bounds. Nowhere in ancient religion, as far as we can trace it, did a +powerful religious personality strike in with a radical transformation, +with a direct rejection of old ideas and dogmatic accentuation of new +ones. The result of this quiet growth was an exceedingly heterogeneous +organism, in which remains of ancient, highly primitive customs and ideas +were retained along with other elements of a far more advanced character. + +Such a state of things need not in itself trouble the general +consciousness; it is a well-established fact that in religion the most +divergent elements are not incompatible. Nevertheless, among the Greeks, +with their strong proclivity to reflective thought, criticism early arose +against the traditional conceptions of the gods. The typical method of +this criticism is that the higher conceptions of the gods are used against +the lower. From the earliest times the Greek religious sense favoured +absoluteness of definition where the gods are concerned; even in Homer +they are not only eternal and happy, but also all-powerful and +all-knowing. Corresponding expressions of a moral character are hardly to +be found in Homer; but as early as Hesiod and Solon we find, at any rate, +Zeus as the representative of heavenly justice. With such definitions a +large number of customs of public worship and, above all, a number of +stories about the gods, were in violent contradiction; thus we find even +so old and so pious a poet as Pindar occasionally rejecting mythical +stories which he thinks at variance with the sublime nature of the gods. +This form of criticism of popular beliefs is continued through the whole +of antiquity; it is found not only in philosophers and philosophically +educated laymen, but appears spontaneously in everybody of a reflective +mind; its best known representative in earlier times is Euripides. Typical +of its popular form is in the first place its casualness; it is directed +against details which at the moment attract attention, while it leaves +other things alone which in principle are quite as offensive, but either +not very obviously so, or else not relevant to the matter in hand. +Secondly, it is naïve: it takes the gods of the popular belief for granted +essentially as they are; it does not raise the crucial question whether +the popular belief is not quite justified in attributing to these higher +beings all kinds of imperfection, and wrong in attributing perfection to +them, and still less if such beings, whether they are defined as perfect +or imperfect, exist at all. It follows that as a whole this form of +criticism is outside the scope of our inquiry. + +Still, there is one single personality in early Greek thought who seems to +have proceeded still further on the lines of this naïve criticism, namely, +Xenophanes of Colophon. He is generally included amongst the philosophers, +and rightly in so far as he initiated a philosophical speculation which +was of the highest importance in the development of Greek scientific +thought. But in the present connexion it would, nevertheless, be +misleading to place Xenophanes among those philosophers who came into +conflict with the popular belief because their conception of Existence was +based on science. The starting-point for his criticism of the popular +belief is in fact not philosophical, but religious; he ranks with +personalities like Pindar and Euripides--he was also a verse-writer +himself, with considerable poetic gift--and is only distinguished from them +by the greater consistency of his thought. Hence, the correct course is to +deal with him in this place as the only eminent thinker in antiquity about +whom it is known that--starting from popular belief and religious +motives--he reached a standpoint which at any rate with some truth may be +designated as atheism. + +Xenophanes lived in the latter part of the sixth and the beginning of the +fifth centuries B.C. (according to his own statement he reached an age of +more than ninety years). He was an itinerant singer who travelled about +and recited poetry, presumably not merely his own but also that of others. +In his own poems he severely attacked the manner in which Homer and +Hesiod, the most famous poets of Greece, had represented the gods: they +had attributed to them everything which in man's eyes is outrageous and +reprehensible--theft, adultery and deception of one another. Their accounts +of the fights of the gods against Titans and Giants he denounced as +"inventions of the ancients." But he did not stop at that: "Men believe +that the gods are born, are clothed and shaped and speak like themselves"; +"if oxen and horses and lions could draw and paint, they would delineate +their gods in their own image"; "the Negroes believe that their gods are +flat-nosed and black, the Thracians that theirs have blue eyes and red +hair." Thus he attacked directly the popular belief that the gods are +anthropomorphic, and his arguments testify that he clearly realised that +men create their gods in their own image. On another main point, too, he +was in direct opposition to the religious ideas of his time: he rejected +Divination, the belief that the gods imparted the secrets of the future to +men--which was deemed a mainstay of the belief in the existence of the +gods. As a positive counterpart to the anthropomorphic gods, Xenophanes +set up a philosophical conception of God: God must be One, Eternal, +Unchangeable and identical with himself in every way (all sight, all +hearing and all mind). This deity, according to the explicit statements of +our earliest sources, he identified with the universe. + +If we examine more closely the arguments put forth by Xenophanes in +support of his remarkable conception of the deity, we realise that he +everywhere starts from the definitions of the nature of the gods as given +by popular religion; but, be it understood, solely from the absolute +definitions. He takes the existence of the divine, with its absolute +attributes, for granted; it is in fact the basis of all his speculation. +His criticism of the popular ideas of the gods is therefore closely +connected with his philosophical conception of God; the two are the +positive and negative sides of the same thing. Altogether his connexion +with what I call the naïve criticism of the popular religion is +unmistakable. + +It is undoubtedly a remarkable fact that we meet at this early date with +such a consistent representative of this criticism. If we take Xenophanes +at his word we must describe him as an atheist, and atheism in the sixth +century B.C. is a very curious phenomenon indeed. Neither was it +acknowledged in antiquity; no one placed Xenophanes amongst _atheoi_; and +Cicero even says somewhere (according to Greek authority) that Xenophanes +was the only one of those who believed in gods who rejected divination. In +more recent times, too, serious doubt has been expressed whether +Xenophanes actually denied the existence of the gods. Reference has +amongst other things been made to the fact that he speaks in several +places about "gods" where he, according to his view, ought to say "God"; +nay, he has even formulated his fundamental idea in the words: "One God, +the greatest amongst gods and men, neither in shape nor mind like unto any +mortal." To be sure, Xenophanes is not always consistent in his language; +but no weight whatever ought to be attached to this, least of all in the +case of a man who exclusively expressed himself in verse. Another theory +rests on the tradition that Xenophanes regarded his deity and the universe +as identical, consequently was a pantheist. In that case, it is said, he +may very well have considered, for instance, the heavenly bodies as +deities. Sound as this argument is in general, it does not apply to this +case. When a thinker arrives at pantheism, starting from a criticism of +polytheism which is expressly based on the antithesis between the unity +and plurality of the deity--then very valid proofs, indeed, are needed in +order to justify the assumption that he after all believed in a plurality +of gods; and such proofs are wanting in the case of Xenophanes. + +Judging from the material in hand one can hardly arrive at any other +conclusion than that the standpoint of Xenophanes comes under our +definition of atheism. But we must not forget that only fragments of his +writings have been preserved, and that the more extensive of them do not +assist us greatly to the understanding of his religious standpoint. It is +possible that we might have arrived at a different conclusion had we but +possessed his chief philosophical work in its entirety, or at least larger +portions of it. And I must candidly confess that if I were asked whether, +in my heart of hearts, I believed that a Greek of the sixth century B.C. +denied point-blank the existence of his gods, my answer would be in the +negative. + +That Xenophanes was not considered an atheist by the ancients may possibly +be explained by the fact that they objected to fasten this designation on +a man whose reasoning took the deity as a starting-point and whose sole +aim was to define its nature. Perhaps they also had an inkling that he in +reality stood on the ground of popular belief, even if he went beyond it. +Still more curious is the fact that his religious view does not seem to +have influenced the immediately succeeding philosophy at all. His +successors, Parmenides and Zeno, developed his doctrine of unity, but in a +pantheistic direction, and on a logical, not religious line of argument; +about their attitude to popular belief we are told practically nothing. +And Ionic speculation took a quite different direction. Not till a century +later, in Euripides, do we observe a distinct influence of his criticism +of popular belief; but at that time other currents of opinion had +intervened which are not dependent on Xenophanes, but might direct +attention to him. + + + + + +CHAPTER III + + +Ancient Greek naturalism is essentially calculated to collide with the +popular belief. It seeks a natural explanation of the world, first and +foremost of its origin, but in the next place of individual natural +phenomena. As to the genesis of the world, speculations of a mythical kind +had already developed on the basis of the popular belief. They were not, +however, binding on anybody, and, above all, the idea of the gods having +created the world was altogether alien to Greek religion. Thus, without +offence to them it might be maintained that everything originated from a +primary substance or from a mixture of several primary substances, as was +generally maintained by the ancient naturalists. On the other hand, a +conflict arose as soon as the heavenly phenomena, such as lightning and +thunder, were ascribed to natural causes, or when the heavenly bodies were +made out to be natural objects; for to the Greeks it was an established +fact that Zeus sent lightning and thunder, and that the sun and the moon +were gods. A refusal to believe in the latter was especially dangerous +because they were _visible_ gods, and as to the person who did not believe +in their divinity the obvious conclusion would be that he believed still +less in the invisible gods. + +That this inference was drawn will appear before long. But the epithet +"atheist" was very rarely attached to the ancient naturalists; only a few +of the later (and those the least important) were given the nickname +_atheos_. Altogether we hear very little of the relation of these +philosophers to the popular belief, and this very silence is surely +significant. No doubt, most of them bestowed but a scant attention on this +aspect of the matter; they were engrossed in speculations which did not +bring them into conflict with the popular belief, and even their +scientific treatment of the "divine" natural phenomena did not make them +doubt the _existence_ of the gods. This is connected with a peculiarity in +their conception of existence. Tradition tells us of several of them, and +it applies presumably also to those of whom it is not recorded, that they +designated their primary substance or substances as gods; sometimes they +also applied this designation to the world or worlds originating in the +primary substance. This view is deeply rooted in the Greek popular belief +and harmonises with its fundamental view of existence. To these ancient +thinkers the primary substance is at once a living and a superhuman power; +and any living power which transcended that of man was divine to the +Greeks. Hylozoism (the theory that matter is alive) consequently, when it +allies itself with popular belief, leads straight to pantheism, whereas it +excludes monotheism, which presupposes a distinction between god and +matter. Now it is a matter of experience that, while monotheism is the +hereditary foe of polytheism, polytheism and pantheism go very well +together. The universe being divine, there is no reason to doubt that +beings of a higher order than man exist, nor any reason to refuse to +bestow on them the predicate "divine"; and with this we find ourselves in +principle on the standpoint of polytheistic popular belief. There is +nothing surprising, then, in the tradition that Thales identified God with +the mind of the universe and believed the universe to be animated, and +filled with "demons." The first statement is in this form probably +influenced by later ideas and hardly a correct expression of the view of +Thales; the rest bears the very stamp of genuineness, and similar ideas +recur, more or less completely and variously refracted, in the succeeding +philosophers. + +To follow these variations in detail is outside the scope of this +investigation; but it may be of interest to see the form they take in one +of the latest and most advanced representatives of Ionian naturalism. In +Democritus's conception of the universe, personal gods would seem excluded +_a priori_. He works with but three premises: the atoms, their movements, +and empty space. From this everything is derived according to strict +causality. Such phenomena also as thunder and lightning, comets and +eclipses, which were generally ascribed to the gods, are according to his +opinion due to natural causes, whereas people in the olden days were +afraid of them because they believed they were due to the gods. +Nevertheless, he seems, in the first place, to have designated Fire, which +he at the same time recognised as a "soul-substance," as divine, the +cosmic fire being the soul of the world; and secondly, he thought that +there was something real underlying the popular conception of the gods. He +was led to this from a consideration of dreams, which he thought were +images of real objects which entered into the sleeper through the pores of +the body. Now, since gods might be seen in dreams, they must be real +beings. He did actually say that the gods had more senses than the +ordinary five. When he who of all the Greek philosophers went furthest in +a purely mechanical conception of nature took up such an attitude to the +religion of his people, one cannot expect the others, who were less +advanced, to discard it. + +Nevertheless, there is a certain probability that some of the later Ionian +naturalists went further in their criticism of the gods of popular belief. +One of them actually came into conflict with popular religion; it will be +natural to begin with him. + +Shortly before the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War, Anaxagoras of +Clazomenae was accused of impiety and had to leave Athens, where he had +taken up his abode. The object of the accusation was in reality political; +the idea being to hit Pericles through his friend the naturalist. What +Anaxagoras was charged with was that he had assumed that the heavenly +bodies were natural objects; he had taught that the sun was a red-hot +mass, and that the moon was earth and larger than Peloponnese. To base an +accusation of impiety on this, it was necessary first to carry a public +resolution, giving power to prosecute those who gave natural explanations +of heavenly phenomena. + +As to Anaxagoras's attitude to popular belief, we hear next to nothing +apart from this. There is a story of a ram's head being found with one +horn in the middle of the forehead; it was brought to Pericles, and the +soothsayer Lampon explained the portent to the effect that, of the two +men, Pericles and Thucydides, who contended for the leadership of Athens, +one should prove victorious. Anaxagoras, on the other hand, had the ram's +head cut open and showed that the brain did not fill up the cranium, but +was egg-shaped and lay gathered together at the point where the horn grew +out. He evidently thought that abortions also, which otherwise were +generally considered as signs from the gods, were due to natural causes. +Beyond this, nothing is said of any attack on the popular belief on the +part of Anaxagoras, and in his philosophy nothing occurred which logically +entailed a denial of the existence of the gods. Add to this that it was +necessary to create a new judicial basis for the accusation against +Anaxagoras, and it can be taken as certain that neither in his writings +nor in any other way did he come forward in public as a denier of the +gods. + +It is somewhat different when we consider the purely personal point of +view of Anaxagoras. The very fact that no expression of his opinion +concerning the gods has been transmitted affords food for thought. +Presumably there was none; but this very fact is notable when we bear in +mind that the earlier naturalists show no such reticence. Add to this +that, if there is any place and any time in which we might expect a +complete emancipation from popular belief, combined with a decided +disinclination to give expression to it, it is Athens under Pericles. Men +like Pericles and his friends represent a high level, perhaps the zenith, +in Hellenic culture. That they were critical of many of the religious +conceptions of their time we may take for granted; as to Pericles himself, +this is actually stated as a fact, and the accusations of impiety directed +against Aspasia and Pheidias prove that orthodox circles were very well +aware of it. But the accusations prove, moreover, that Pericles and those +who shared his views were so much in advance of their time that they could +not afford to let their free-thinking attitude become a matter of public +knowledge without endangering their political position certainly, and +possibly even more than that. To be sure, considerations of that kind did +not weigh with Anaxagoras; but he was--and that we know on good authority--a +quiet scholar whose ideal of life was to devote himself to problems of +natural science, and he can hardly have wished to be disturbed in this +occupation by affairs in which he took no sort of interest. The question +is then only how far men like Pericles and himself may have ventured in +their criticism. Though all direct tradition is wanting, we have at any +rate circumstantial evidence possessing a certain degree of probability. + +To begin with, the attempt to give a natural explanation of prodigies is +not in itself without interest. The mantic art, _i.e._ the ability to +predict the future by signs from the gods or direct divine inspiration, +was throughout antiquity considered one of the surest proofs of the +existence of the gods. Now, it by no means follows that a person who was +not impressed by a deformed ram's head would deny, _e.g._, the ability of +the Delphic Oracle to predict the future, especially not so when the +person in question was a naturalist. But that there was at this time a +general tendency to reject the art of divination is evident from the fact +that Herodotus as well as Sophocles, both of them contemporaries of +Pericles and Anaxagoras, expressly contend against attempts in that +direction, and, be it remarked, as if the theory they attack was commonly +held. Sophocles is in this connexion so far the more interesting of the +two, as, on one hand, he criticises private divination but defends the +Delphic oracle vigorously, while he, on the other hand, identifies denial +of the oracle with denial of the gods. And he does this in such a way as +to make it evident that he has a definite object in mind. That in this +polemic he may have been aiming precisely at Anaxagoras is indicated by +the fact that Diopeithes, who carried the resolution concerning the +accusation of the philosopher, was a soothsayer by profession. + +The strongest evidence as to the free-thinking of the Periclean age is, +however, to be met with in the historical writing of Thucydides. In his +work on the Peloponnesian War, Thucydides completely eliminated the +supernatural element; not only did he throughout ignore omens and +divinations, except in so far as they played a part as a psychological +factor, but he also completely omitted any reference to the gods in his +narrative. Such a procedure was at this time unprecedented, and contrasts +sharply with that of his immediate forerunner Herodotus, who constantly +lays stress on the intervention of the gods. That is hardly conceivable +except in a man who had altogether emancipated himself from the religious +views of his time. Now, Thucydides is not only a fellow-countryman and +younger contemporary of Pericles, but he also sees in Pericles his ideal +not only as a politician but evidently also as a man. Hence, when +everything is considered, it is not improbable that Pericles and his +friends went to all lengths in their criticism of popular belief, +although, of course, it remains impossible to state anything definite as +to particular persons' individual views. Curiously enough, even in +antiquity this connexion was observed; in a biography of Thucydides it is +said that he was a disciple of Anaxagoras and _accordingly_ was also +considered something of an atheist. + +While Anaxagoras, his trial notwithstanding, is not generally designated +an atheist, probably because there was nothing in his writings to which he +might be pinned down, that fate befell two of his contemporaries, Hippo of +Rhegium and Diogenes of Apollonia. Very little, however, is known of them. +Hippo, who is said to have been a Pythagorean, taught that water and fire +were the origin of everything; as to the reason why he earned the nickname +_atheos_, it is said that he taught that Water was the primal cause of +all, as well as that he maintained that nothing existed but what could be +perceived by the senses. There is also quoted a (fictitious) inscription, +which he is said to have caused to be put on his tomb, to the effect that +Death has made him the equal of the immortal gods (in that he now exists +no more than they). Otherwise we know nothing special of Hippo; Aristotle +refers to him as shallow. As to Diogenes, we learn that he was influenced +by Anaximenes and Anaxagoras; in agreement with the former he regarded Air +as the primary substance, and like Anaxagoras he attributed reason to his +primary substance. Of his doctrine we have extensive accounts, and also +some not inconsiderable fragments of his treatise _On Nature_; but they +are almost all of them of purely scientific, mostly of an anatomical and +physiological character. In especial, as to his relation to popular +belief, it is recorded that he identified Zeus with the air. Indirectly, +however, we are able to demonstrate, by the aid of an almost contemporary +witness, that there must have been some foundation for the accusation of +"atheism." For in _The Clouds_, where Aristophanes wants to represent +Socrates as an atheist, he puts in his mouth scraps of the naturalism of +Diogenes; that he would hardly have done, if Diogenes had not already been +decried as an atheist. + +It is of course impossible to base any statement of the relation of the +two philosophers to popular belief on such a foundation. But it is, +nevertheless, worth noticing that while not a single one of the earlier +naturalists acquired the designation atheist, it was applied to two of the +latest and otherwise little-known representatives of the school. Take this +in combination with what has been said above of Anaxagoras, and we get at +any rate a suspicion that Greek naturalism gradually led its adherents +beyond the naïve stage where many individual phenomena were indeed +ascribed to natural causes, even if they had formerly been regarded as +caused by divine intervention, but where the foundations of the popular +belief were left untouched. Once this path has been entered on, a point +will be arrived at where the final conclusion is drawn and the existence +of the supernatural completely denied. It is probable that this happened +towards the close of the naturalistic period. If so early a philosopher as +Anaxagoras took this point of view, his personal contribution as a member +of the Periclean circle may have been more significant in the religious +field than one would conjecture from the character of his work. + +Before we proceed to mention the sophists, there is one person on our list +who must be examined though the result will be negative, namely, Diagoras +of Melos. As he appears in our records, he falls outside the +classification adopted here; but as he must have lived, at any rate, about +the middle of the fifth century (he is said to have "flourished" in 464) +he may most fitly be placed on the boundary line between the Ionian +philosophy and Sophistic. + +For later antiquity Diagoras is the typical atheist; he heads our lists of +atheists, and round his person a whole series of myths have been formed. +He is said to have been a poet and a pious man like others; but then a +colleague once stole an ode from him, escaped by taking an oath that he +was innocent, and afterwards made a hit with the stolen work. So Diagoras +lost his faith in the gods and wrote a treatise under the title of +_apopyrgizontes logoi_ (literally, destructive considerations) in which he +attacked the belief in the gods. + +This looks very plausible, and is interesting in so far as it, if correct, +affords an instance of atheism arising in a layman from actual experience, +not in a philosopher from speculation. If we ask, however, what is known +historically about Diagoras, we are told a different tale. There existed +in Athens, engraved on a bronze tablet and set up on the Acropolis, a +decree of the people offering a reward of one talent to him who should +kill Diagoras of Melos, and of two talents to him who should bring him +alive to Athens. The reason given was that he had scoffed at the +Eleusinian Mysteries and divulged what took place at them. The date of +this decree is given by a historian as 415 B.C.; that this is correct is +seen from a passage in Aristophanes's contemporary drama, _The Birds_. +Furthermore, one of the disciples of Aristotle, the literary historian +Aristoxenus, states that no trace of impiety was to be found in the works +of the dithyrambic poet Diagoras, and that, in fact, they contained +definite opinions to the contrary. A remark to the effect that Diagoras +was instrumental in drawing up the laws of Mantinea is probably due to the +same source. The context shows that the reference is to the earlier +constitution of Mantinea, which was a mixture of aristocracy and +democracy, and is praised for its excellence. It is inconceivable that, in +a Peloponnesian city during the course of, nay, presumably even before the +middle of the fifth century, a notorious atheist should have been invited +to advise on the revision of its constitution. It is more probable that +Aristoxenus adduced this fact as an additional disproof of Diagoras's +atheism, in which he evidently did not believe. + +The above information explains the origin of the legend. Two fixed points +were in existence: the pious poet of _c._ 460 and the atheist who was +outlawed in 415; a bridge was constructed between them by the story of the +stolen ode. This disposes of the whole supposition of atheism growing out +of a basis of experience. But, furthermore, it must be admitted that it is +doubtful whether the poet and the atheist are one and the same person. The +interval of time between them is itself suspicious, for the poet, +according to the ancient system of calculation, must have been about forty +years old in 464, consequently between eighty and ninety in 415. (There is +general agreement that the treatise, the title of which has been quoted, +must have been a later forgery.) If, in spite of all, I dare not +absolutely deny the identity of the two Diagorases of tradition, the +reason is that Aristophanes, where he mentions the decree concerning +Diagoras, seems to suggest that his attack on the Mysteries was an old +story which was raked up again in 415. But for our purpose, at any rate, +nothing remains of the copious mass of legend but the fact that one +Diagoras of Melos in 415 was outlawed in Athens on the ground of his +attack on the Mysteries. Such an attack may have been the outcome of +atheism; there was no lack of impiety in Athens at the end of the fifth +century. But whether this was the case or not we cannot possibly tell; and +to throw light on free-thinking tendencies in Athens at this time, we have +other and richer sources than the historical notice of Diagoras. + + + + + +CHAPTER IV + + +With the movement in Greek thought which is generally known as sophistic, +a new view of popular belief appears. The criticism of the sophists was +directed against the entire tradition on which Greek society was based, +and principally against the moral conceptions which hitherto had been +unquestioned: good and evil, right and wrong. The criticism was +essentially negative; that which hitherto had been imagined as absolute +was demonstrated to be relative, and the relative was identified with the +invalid. Thus they could not help running up against the popular ideas of +the gods, and treating them in the same way. A leading part was here +played by the sophistic distinction between _nomos_ and _physis_, Law and +Nature, _i.e._ that which is based on human convention, and that which is +founded on the nature of things. The sophists could not help seeing that +the whole public worship and the ideas associated with it belonged to the +former--to the domain of "the law." Not only did the worship and the +conceptions of the gods vary from place to place in the hundreds of small +independent communities into which Hellas was divided--a fact which the +sophists had special opportunity of observing when travelling from town to +town to teach; but it was even officially admitted that the whole +ritual--which, popularly speaking, was almost identical with religion--was +based on convention. If a Greek was asked why a god was to be worshipped +in such and such a way, generally the only answer was: because it is the +law of the State (or the convention; the word _nomos_ expresses both +things). Hence it followed in principle that religion came under the +domain of "the law," being consequently the work of man; and hence again +the obvious conclusion, according to sophistic reasoning, was that it was +nothing but human imagination, and that there was no _physis_, no reality, +behind it at all. In the case of the naturalists, it was the positive +foundation of their system, their conception of nature as a whole, that +led them to criticise the popular belief. Hence their criticism was in the +main only directed against those particular ideas in the popular belief +which were at variance with the results of their investigations. To be +sure, the sophists were not above making use of the results of natural +science in their criticism of the popular belief; it was their general aim +to impart the highest education of their time, and of a liberal education +natural science formed a rather important part. But their starting-point +was quite different from that of the naturalists. Their whole interest was +concentrated on man as a member of the community, and it was from +consideration of this relation that they were brought into collision with +the established religion. Hence their attack was far more dangerous than +that of the naturalists; no longer was it directed against details, it +laid bare the psychological basis itself of popular belief and clearly +revealed its unstable character. Their criticism was fundamental and +central, not casual and circumstantial. + +From a purely practical point of view also, the criticism of the sophists +was far more dangerous than that of the old philosophers. They were not +theorists themselves, but practitioners; their business was to impart the +higher education to the more mature youth. It was therefore part of their +profession to disseminate their views not by means of learned professional +writings, but by the persuasive eloquence of oral discourse. And in their +criticism of the existing state of things they did not start with special +results which only science could prove, and the correctness of which the +layman need not recognise; they operated with facts and principles known +and acknowledged by everybody. It is not to be wondered at that such +efforts evoked a vigorous reaction on the part of established society, the +more so as in any case the result of sophistic criticism--though not +consciously its object--was to liquefy the moral principles on which the +social order was based. + +Such, in principle, appeared to be the state of things. In practice, here +as elsewhere, the devil proved not so black as he was painted. First, not +all the sophists--hardly even the majority of them--drew the logical +conclusions from their views in respect of either morals or religion. They +were teachers of rhetoric, and as such they taught, for instance, all the +tricks by which a bad cause might be defended; that was part of the trade. +But it must be supposed that Gorgias, the most distinguished of them, +expressly insisted that rhetoric, just like any other art the aim of which +was to defeat an opponent, should only be used for good ends. Similarly +many of them may have stopped short in their criticism of popular belief +at some arbitrary point, so that it was possible for them to respect at +any rate something of the established religion, and so, of course, first +and foremost the very belief in the existence of the gods. That they did +not as a rule interfere with public worship, we may be sure; that was +based firmly on "the Law." But, in addition, even sophists who personally +took an attitude radically contradictory to popular belief had the most +important reasons for being careful in advancing such a view. They had to +live by being the teachers of youth; they had no fixed appointment, they +travelled about as lecturers and enlisted disciples by means of their +lectures. For such men it would have been a very serious thing to attack +the established order in its tenderest place, religion, and above all they +had to beware of coming into conflict with the penal laws. This risk they +did not incur while confining themselves to theoretical discussions about +right and wrong, nor by the practical application of them in their +teaching of rhetoric; but they might very easily incur it if attacking +religion. This being the case, it is not to be wondered at that we do not +find many direct statements of undoubtedly atheistical character handed +down from the more eminent sophists, and that trials for impiety are rare +in their case. But, nevertheless, a few such cases are met with, and from +these as our starting-point we will now proceed. + +As to Protagoras of Abdera, one of the earliest and most famous of all the +sophists, it is stated that he began a pamphlet treating of the gods with +the words: "Concerning the gods I can say nothing, neither that they exist +nor that they do not exist, nor of what form they are; because there are +many things which prevent one from knowing that, namely, both the +uncertainty of the matter and the shortness of man's life." On this +account, it is said, he was charged with impiety at Athens and was +outlawed, and his works were publicly burned. The date of this trial is +not known for certain; but it is reasonably supposed to have coincided +with that of Diagoras, namely, in 415. At any rate it must have taken +place after 423-421, as we know that Protagoras was at that time staying +in Athens. As he must have been born about 485, the charge overtook him +when old and famous; according to one account, his work on the gods seems +to belong to his earlier writings. + +To doubt the correctness of this tradition would require stronger reasons +than we possess, although it is rather strange that the condemnation of +Protagoras is mentioned neither in our historical sources nor in +Aristophanes, and that Plato, who mentions Protagoras rather frequently as +dead, never alludes to it. At any rate, the quotation from the work on the +gods is certainly authentic, for Plato himself referred to it. Hence it is +certain that Protagoras directly stated the problem as to the existence of +the gods and regarded it as an open question. But beyond that nothing much +can be deduced from the short quotation; and as to the rest of the book on +the gods we know nothing. The meagre reasons for scepticism adduced +probably do not imply any more than that the difficulties are objective as +well as subjective. If, in the latter respect, the brevity of life is +specially mentioned it may be supposed that Protagoras had in mind a +definite proof of the existence of the gods which was rendered difficult +by the fact that life is so brief; prediction of the future may be guessed +at, but nothing certain can be stated. + +Protagoras is the only one of the sophists of whom tradition says that he +was the object of persecution owing to his religious views. The trial of +Socrates, however, really belongs to the same category when looked at from +the accusers' point of view; Socrates was accused as a sophist. But as his +own attitude towards popular religion differed essentially from that of +the sophists, we cannot consider him in this connexion. Protagoras's trial +itself is partly determined by special circumstances. In all probability +it took place at a moment when a violent religious reaction had set in at +Athens owing to some grave offences against the public worship and +sanctuaries of the State (violation of the Mysteries and mutilation of the +Hermae). The work on the gods had presumably been in existence and known +long before this without causing scandal to anybody. But, nevertheless, +the trial, like those of Anaxagoras and Socrates, plainly bears witness to +the animosity with which the modern free-thought was regarded in Athens. +This animosity did not easily manifest itself publicly without special +reasons; but it was always there and might always be used in case of +provocation. + +As to Protagoras's personal attitude to the question of the existence of +the gods, much may be guessed and much has been guessed; but nothing can +be stated for certain. However, judging from the man's profession and his +general habit of life as it appears in tradition, we may take for granted +that he did not give offence in his outward behaviour by taking a hostile +attitude to public worship or attacking its foundations; had that been so, +he would not for forty years have been the most distinguished teacher of +Hellas, but would simply not have been tolerated. An eminent modern +scholar has therefore advanced the conjecture that Protagoras +distinguished between belief and knowledge, and that his work on the gods +only aimed at showing that the existence of the gods could not be +scientifically demonstrated. Now such a distinction probably, if +conceived as a conscious principle, is alien to ancient thought, at any +rate at the time of Protagoras; and yet it may contain a grain of truth. +When it is borne in mind that the incriminated passage represents the very +exordium of the work of Protagoras, the impression cannot be avoided that +he himself did not intend his work to disturb the established religion, +but that he quite naïvely took up the existence of the gods as a subject, +as good as any other, for dialectic discussion. All that he was concerned +with was theory and theorising; religion was practice and ritual; and he +had no more intention of interfering with that than the other earlier +sophists of assailing the legal system of the community in their +speculation as to relativity of right and wrong. + +All this, however, does not alter the fact that the work of Protagoras +posed the very question of the existence of the gods as a problem which +might possibly be solved in the negative. He seems to have been the first +to do this. That it could be done is significant of the age to which +Protagoras belongs; that it was done was undoubtedly of great importance +for the development of thought in wide circles. + +Prodicus of Ceos, also one of the most famous sophists, advanced the idea +that the conceptions of the gods were originally associated with those +things which were of use to humanity: sun and moon, rivers and springs, +the products of the earth and the elements; therefore bread was identified +with Demeter, wine with Dionysus, water with Poseidon, fire with +Hephaestus. As a special instance he mentioned the worship of the Nile by +the Egyptians. + +In Democritus, who was a slightly elder contemporary of Prodicus, we have +already met with investigation into the origin of the conceptions of the +gods. There is a close parallel between his handling of the subject and +that of Prodicus, but at the same time a characteristic difference. +Democritus was a naturalist, hence he took as his starting-point the +natural phenomena commonly ascribed to the influence of the gods. +Prodicus, on the other hand, started from the intellectual life of man. We +learn that he had commenced to study synonyms, and that he was interested +in the interpretation of the poets. Now he found that Homer occasionally +simply substituted the name of Hephaestus for fire, and that other poets +went even further on the same lines. Furthermore, while it was common +knowledge to every Greek that certain natural objects, such as the +heavenly bodies and the rivers, were regarded as divine and had names in +common with their gods, this to Prodicus would be a specially attractive +subject for speculation. It is plainly shown by his instances that it is +linguistic observations of this kind which were the starting-point of his +theory concerning the origin of the conceptions of the gods. + +In the accounts of Prodicus it is taken for granted that he denied the +existence of the gods, and in later times he is classed as _atheos_. +Nevertheless we have every reason to doubt the correctness of this +opinion. The case of Democritus already shows that a philosopher might +very well derive the conceptions of the gods from an incorrect +interpretation of certain phenomena without throwing doubt on their +existence. As far as Prodicus is concerned it may be assumed that he did +not believe that Bread, Wine or Fire were gods, any more than Democritus +imagined that Zeus sent thunder and lightning; nor, presumably, did he +ever believe that rivers were gods. But he need not therefore have denied +the existence of Demeter, Dionysus and Hephaestus, much less the divinity +of the sun and the moon. And if we consider his theory more closely it +points in quite a different direction from that of atheism. To Prodicus it +was evidently the conception of utility that mattered: if these objects +came to be regarded as gods it was because they "benefited humanity." This +too is a genuinely sophistic view, characteristically deviating from that +of the naturalist Democritus in its limitation to the human and social +aspect of the question. Such a point of view, if confronted with the +question of the existence of the gods, may very well, according to +sophistic methods of reasoning, lead to the conclusion that primitive man +was right in so far as the useful, _i.e._ that which "benefits humanity," +really is an essential feature of the gods, and wrong only in so far as he +identified the individual useful objects with the gods. Whether Prodicus +adopted this point of view, we cannot possibly tell; but the general body +of tradition concerning the man, which does not in any way suggest +religious radicalism, indicates as most probable that he did not connect +the question of the origin of the conceptions of the gods with that of the +existence of the gods, which to him was taken for granted, and that it was +only later philosophers who, in their researches into the ideas of earlier +philosophers about the gods, inferred his atheism from his speculations on +the history of religion. + +Critias, the well-known reactionary politician, the chief of the Thirty +Tyrants, is placed amongst the atheists on the strength of a passage in a +satyric drama, _Sisyphus_. The drama is lost, but our authority quotes the +objectionable passage _in extenso_; it is a piece of no less than forty +lines. The passage argues that human life in its origins knew no social +order, that might ruled supreme. Then men conceived the idea of making +laws in order that right might rule instead of might. The result of this +was, it is true, that wrong was not done openly; but it was done secretly +instead. Then a wise man bethought himself of making men believe that +there existed gods who saw and heard everything which men did, nay even +knew their innermost thoughts. And, in order that men might stand in +proper awe of the gods, he said that they lived in the sky, out of which +comes that which makes men afraid, such as lightning and thunder, but also +that which benefits them, sunshine and rain, and the stars, those fair +ornaments by whose course men measure time. Thus he succeeded in bringing +lawlessness to an end. It is expressly stated that it was all a cunning +fraud: "by such talk he made his teaching most acceptable, veiling truth +with false words." + +In antiquity it was disputed whether the drama _Sisyphus_ was by Critias +or Euripides; nowadays all agree in attributing it to Critias; nor does +the style of the long fragment resemble that of Euripides. The question +is, however, of no consequence in this connexion: whether the drama is by +Critias or Euripides it is wrong to attribute to an author opinions which +he has put into the mouth of a character in a drama. Moreover, _Sisyphus_ +was a satyric play, _i.e._ it belonged to a class of poetry the liberty of +which was nearly as great as in comedy, and the speech was delivered by +Sisyphus himself, who, according to the legend, is a type of the crafty +criminal whose forte is to do evil and elude punishment. There is, in +fact, nothing in that which we otherwise hear of Critias to suggest that +he cherished free-thinking views. He was--or in his later years became--a +fanatical adversary of the Attic democracy, and he was, when he held +power, unscrupulous in his choice of the means with which he opposed it +and the men who stood in the path of his reactionary policy; but in our +earlier sources he is never accused of impiety in the theoretical sense. +And yet there had been an excellent opportunity of bringing forward such +an accusation; for in his youth Critias had been a companion of Socrates, +and his later conduct was used as a proof that Socrates corrupted his +surroundings. But it is always Critias's political crimes which are +adduced in this connexion, not his irreligion. On the other hand, +posterity looked upon him as the pure type of tyrant, and the label +atheist therefore suggested itself on the slightest provocation. + +But, even if the _Sisyphus_ fragment cannot be used to characterise its +author as an atheist, it is, nevertheless, of the greatest interest in +this connexion, and therefore demands closer analysis. + +The introductory idea, that mankind has evolved from an animal state into +higher stages, is at variance with the earlier Greek conception, namely, +that history begins with a golden age from which there is a continual +decline. The theory of the fragment is expressed by a series of authors +from the same and the immediately succeeding period. It occurs in +Euripides; a later and otherwise little-known tragedian, Moschion, +developed it in detail in a still extant fragment; Plato accepted it and +made it the basis of his presentation of the origin of the State; +Aristotle takes it for granted. Its source, too, has been demonstrated: it +was presumably Democritus who first advanced it. Nevertheless the author +of the fragment has hardly got it direct from Democritus, who at this time +was little known at Athens, but from an intermediary. This intermediary is +probably Protagoras, of whom it is said that he composed a treatise, _The +Original State, i.e._ the primary state of mankind. Protagoras was a +fellow-townsman of Democritus, and recorded by tradition as one of his +direct disciples. + +In another point also the fragment seems to betray the influence of +Democritus. When it is said that the wise inventors of the gods made them +dwell in the skies, because from the skies come those natural phenomena +which frighten men, it is highly suggestive of Democritus's criticism of +the divine explanation of thunder and lightning and the like. In this case +also Protagoras may have been the intermediary. In his work on the gods he +had every opportunity of discussing the question in detail. But here we +have the theory of Democritus combined with that of Prodicus in that it is +maintained that from the skies come also those things that benefit men, +and that they are on this account also a suitable dwelling-place for the +gods. It is obvious that the author of the fragment (or his source) was +versed in the most modern wisdom. + +All this erudition, however, is made to serve a certain tendency: the +well-known tendency to represent religion as a political invention having +as its object the policing of society. It is a theory which in +antiquity--to its honour be it said--is but of rare occurrence. There is a +vague indication of it in Euripides, a more definite one in Aristotle, and +an elaborate application of it in Polybius; and that is in reality all. +(That many people in more enlightened ages upheld religion as a means of +keeping the masses in check, is a different matter.) However, it is an +interesting fact that the Critias fragment is not only the first evidence +of the existence of the theory known to us, but also presumably the +earliest and probably the best known to later antiquity. Otherwise we +should not find reference for the theory made to a fragment of a farce, +but to a quotation from a philosopher. + +This might lead us to conclude that the theory was Critias's own +invention, though, of course, it would not follow that he himself adhered +to it. But it is more probable that it was a ready-made modern theory +which Critias put into the mouth of Sisyphus. Not only does the whole +character of the fragment and its scene of action favour this supposition, +but there is also another factor which corroborates it. + +In the _Gorgias_ Plato makes one of the characters, Callicles--a man of +whom we otherwise know nothing--profess a doctrine which up to a certain +point is almost identical with that of the fragment. According to +Callicles, the natural state (and the right state; on this point he is at +variance with the fragment) is that right belongs to the strong. This +state has been corrupted by legislation; the laws are inventions of the +weak, who are also the majority, and their aim is to hinder the +encroachment of the strong. If this theory is carried to its conclusion, +it is obvious that religion must be added to the laws; if the former is +not also regarded as an invention for the policing of society, the whole +theory is upset. Now in the _Gorgias_ the question as to the attitude of +the gods towards the problem of what is right and what is wrong is +carefully avoided in the discussion. Not till the close of the dialogue, +where Plato substitutes myth for scientific research, does he draw the +conclusion in respect of religion. He does this in a positive form, as a +consequence of _his_ point of view: after death the gods reward the just +and punish the unjust; but he expressly assumes that Callicles will regard +it all as an old wives' tale. + +In Callicles an attempt has been made to see a pseudonym for Critias. That +is certainly wrong. Critias was a kinsman of Plato, is introduced by name +in several dialogues, nay, one dialogue even bears his name, and he is +everywhere treated with respect and sympathy. Nowadays, therefore, it is +generally acknowledged that Callicles is a real person, merely unknown to +us as such. However that may be, Plato would never have let a leading +character in one of his longer dialogues advance (and Socrates refute) a +view which had no better authority than a passage in a satyric drama. On +the other hand, there is, as shown above, difficulty in supposing that the +doctrine of the fragment was stated in the writings of an eminent sophist; +so we come to the conclusion that it was developed and diffused in +sophistic circles by oral teaching, and that it became known to Critias +and Plato in this way. Its originator we do not know. We might think of +the sophist Thrasymachus, who in the first book of Plato's _Republic_ +maintains a point of view corresponding to that of Callicles in _Gorgias_. +But what we otherwise learn of Thrasymachus is not suggestive of interest +in religion, and the only statement of his as to that kind of thing which +has come down to us tends to the denial of a providence, not denial of the +gods. Quite recently Diagoras of Melos has been guessed at; this is empty +talk, resulting at best in substituting _x_ (or _NN_) for _y_. + +If I have dwelt in such detail on the _Sisyphus_ fragment, it is because +it is our first direct and unmistakable evidence of ancient atheism. Here +for the first time we meet with the direct statement which we have +searched for in vain among all the preceding authors: that the gods of +popular belief are fabrication pure and simple and without any +corresponding reality, however remote. The nature of our tradition +precludes our ascertaining whether such a statement might have been made +earlier; but the probability is _a priori_ that it was not. The whole +development of ancient reasoning on religious questions, as far as we are +able to survey it, leads in reality to the conclusion that atheism as an +expressed (though perhaps not publicly expressed) confession of faith did +not appear till the age of the sophists. + +With the Critias fragment we have also brought to an end the inquiry into +the direct statements of atheistic tendency which have come down to us +from the age of the sophists. The result is, as we see, rather meagre. But +it may be supplemented with indirect testimonies which prove that there +was more of the thing than the direct tradition would lead us to +conjecture, and that the denial of the existence of the gods must have +penetrated very wide circles. + +The fullest expression of Attic free-thought at the end of the fifth +century is to be found in the tragedies of Euripides. They are leavened +with reflections on all possible moral and religious problems, and +criticism of the traditional conceptions of the gods plays a leading part +in them. We shall, however, have some difficulty in using Euripides as a +source of what people really thought at this period, partly because he is +a very pronounced personality and by no means a mere mouthpiece for the +ideas of his contemporaries--during his lifetime he was an object of the +most violent animosity owing, among other things, to his free-thinking +views--partly because he, as a dramatist, was obliged to put his ideas into +the mouths of his characters, so that in many cases it is difficult to +decide how much is due to dramatic considerations and how much to the +personal opinion of the poet. Even to this day the religious standpoint of +Euripides is matter of dispute. In the most recent detailed treatment of +the question he is characterised as an atheist, whereas others regard him +merely as a dialectician who debates problems without having any real +standpoint of his own. + +I do not believe that Euripides personally denied the existence of the +gods; there is too much that tells against that theory, and, in fact, +nothing that tells directly in favour of it, though he did not quite +escape the charge of atheism even in his own day. To prove the correctness +of this view would, however, lead too far afield in this connexion. On the +other hand, a short characterisation of Euripides's manner of reasoning +about religious problems is unavoidable as a background for the treatment +of those--very rare--passages where he has put actually atheistic +reflections into the mouths of his characters. + +As a Greek dramatist Euripides had to derive his subjects from the heroic +legends, which at the same time were legends of the gods in so far as they +were interwoven with tales of the gods' direct intervention in affairs. It +is precisely against this intervention that the criticism of Euripides is +primarily directed. Again and again he makes his characters protest +against the manner in which they are treated by the gods or in which the +gods generally behave. It is characteristic of Euripides that his +starting-point in this connexion is always the moral one. So far he is a +typical representative of that tendency which, in earlier times, was +represented by Xenophanes and a little later by Pindar; in no other Greek +poet has the method of using the higher conceptions of the gods against +the lower found more complete expression than in Euripides. And in so far, +too, he is still entirely on the ground of popular belief. But at the same +time it is characteristic of him that he is familiar with and highly +influenced by Greek science. He knows the most eminent representatives of +Ionian naturalism (with the exception of Democritus), and he is fond of +displaying his knowledge. Nevertheless, it cannot be said that he uses it +in a contentious spirit against popular belief; on the contrary, he is +inclined in agreement with the old philosophers to identify the gods of +popular belief with the elements. Towards sophistic he takes a similar, +but less sympathetic attitude. Sophistic was not in vogue till he was a +man of mature age; he made acquaintance with it, and he made use of +it--there are reflections in his dramas which carry distinct evidence of +sophistic influence; but in his treatment of religious problems he is not +a disciple of the sophists, and on this subject, as on others, he +occasionally attacked them. + +It is against this background that we must set the reflections with an +atheistic tone that we find in Euripides. They are, as already mentioned, +rare; indeed, strictly speaking there is only one case in which a +character openly denies the existence of the gods. The passage is a +fragment of the drama _Bellerophon_; it is, despite its isolation, so +typical of the manner of Euripides that it deserves to be quoted in full. + +"And then to say that there are gods in the heavens! Nay, there are none +there; if you are not foolish enough to be seduced by the old talk. Think +for yourselves about the matter, and do not be influenced by my words. I +contend that the tyrants kill the people wholesale, take their money and +destroy cities in spite of their oaths; and although they do all this they +are happier than people who, in peace and quietness, lead god-fearing +lives. And I know small states which honour the gods, but must obey +greater states, which are less pious, because their spearmen are fewer in +number. And I believe that you, if a slothful man just prayed to the gods +and did not earn his bread by the work of his hands--" Here the sense is +interrupted; but there remains one more line: "That which builds the +castle of the gods is in part the unfortunate happenings ..." The +continuation is missing. + +The argumentation here is characteristic of Euripides. From the injustice +of life he infers the non-existence of the gods. The conclusion evidently +only holds good on the assumption that the gods must be just; and this is +precisely one of the postulates of popular belief. The reasoning is not +sophistic; on the contrary, in their attacks the sophists took up a +position outside the foundation of popular belief and attacked the +foundation itself. This reasoning, on the other hand, is closely allied to +the earlier religious thinking of the Greeks; it only proceeds further +than the latter, where it results in rank denial. + +The drama of _Bellerophon_ is lost, and reconstruction is out of the +question; if only for that reason it is unwarrantable to draw any +conclusions from the detached fragment as to the poet's personal attitude +towards the existence of the gods. But, nevertheless, the fragment is of +interest in this connexion. It would never have occurred to Sophocles or +Aeschylus to put such a speech in the mouth of one of his characters. When +Euripides does that it is a proof that the question of the existence of +the gods has begun to present itself to the popular consciousness at this +time. Viewed in this light other statements of his which are not in +themselves atheistic become significant. When it is said: "If the gods act +in a shameful way, they are not gods"--that indeed is not atheism in our +sense, but it is very near to it. Interesting is also the introduction to +the drama _Melanippe_: "Zeus, whoever Zeus may be; for of that I only know +what is told." Aeschylus begins a strophe in one of his most famous choral +odes with almost the same words: "Zeus, whoe'er he be; for if he desire so +to be called, I will address him by this name." In him it is an expression +of genuine antique piety, which excludes all human impertinence towards +the gods to such a degree that it even forgoes knowing their real names. +In Euripides the same idea becomes an expression of doubt; but in this +case also the doubt is raised on the foundation of popular belief. + +It is not surprising that so prominent and sustained a criticism of +popular belief as that of Euripides, produced, moreover, on the stage, +called forth a reaction from the defenders of the established faith, and +that charges of impiety were not wanting. It is more to be wondered at +that these charges on the whole are so few and slight, and that Euripides +did not become the object of any actual prosecution. We know of a private +trial in which the accuser incidentally charged Euripides with impiety on +the strength of a quotation from one of his tragedies, Euripides's answer +being a protest against dragging his poetry into the affair; the verdict +on that belonged to another court. Aristophanes, who is always severe on +Euripides, has only one passage directly charging him with being a +propagator of atheism; but the accusation is hardly meant to be taken +seriously. In _The Frogs_, where he had every opportunity of emphasising +this view, there is hardly an indication of it. In _The Clouds_, where the +main attack is directed against modern free-thought, Euripides, to be +sure, is sneered at as being the fashionable poet of the corrupted youth, +but he is not drawn into the charge of impiety. Even when Plato wrote his +_Republic_, Euripides was generally considered the "wisest of all +tragedians." This would have been impossible if he had been considered an +atheist. In spite of all, the general feeling must undoubtedly have been +that Euripides ultimately took his stand on the ground of popular belief. +It was a similar instinctive judgment in regard to religion which +prevented antiquity from placing Xenophanes amongst the atheists. Later +times no doubt judged differently; the quotation from _Melanippe_ is in +fact cited as a proof that Euripides was an atheist in his heart of +hearts. + +In Aristophanes we meet with the first observations concerning the change +in the religious conditions of Athens during the Peloponnesian War. In one +of his plays, _The Clouds_, he actually set himself the task of taking up +arms against modern unbelief, and he characterises it directly as atheism. +If only for that reason the play deserves somewhat fuller consideration. + +It is well known that Aristophanes chose Socrates as a representative of +the modern movement. In him he embodies all the faults with which he +wished to pick a quarrel in the fashionable philosophy of the day. On the +other hand, the essence of Socratic teaching is entirely absent from +Aristophanes's representation; of that he had hardly any understanding, +and even if he had he would at any rate not have been able to make use of +it in his drama. We need not then in this connexion consider Socrates +himself at all; on the other hand, the play gives a good idea of the +popular idea of sophistic. Here we find all the features of the school, +grotesquely mixed up and distorted by the farce, it is true, but +nevertheless easily recognisable: rhetoric as an end in itself, of course, +with emphasis on its immoral aspect; empty and hair-splitting dialectics; +linguistic researches; Ionic naturalism; and first and last, as the focus +of all, denial of the gods. That Aristophanes was well informed on certain +points, at any rate, is clear from the fact that the majority of the +scientific explanations which he puts into the mouth of Socrates actually +represent the latest results of science at that time--which in all +probability did not prevent his Athenians from considering them as +exceedingly absurd and ridiculous. + +What matters here, however, is only the accusation of atheism which he +made against Socrates. It is a little difficult to handle, in so far as +Aristophanes, for dramatic reasons, has equipped Socrates with a whole set +of deities. There are the clouds themselves, which are of Aristophanes's +own invention; there is also the air, which he has got from Diogenes of +Apollonia, and finally a "vortex" which is supposed to be derived from the +same source, and which at any rate has cast Zeus down from his throne. All +this we must ignore, as it is only conditioned partly by technical +reasons--Aristophanes had to have a chorus and chose the clouds for the +purpose--and partially by the desire to ridicule Ionic naturalism. But +enough is left over. In the beginning of the play Socrates expressly +declares that no gods exist. Similar statements are repeated in several +places. Zeus is sometimes substituted for the gods, but it comes to the +same thing. And at the end of the play, where the honest Athenian, who has +ventured on the ticklish ground of sophistic, admits his delusion, it is +expressly said: + +"Oh, what a fool I am! Nay, I must have been mad indeed when I thought of +throwing the gods away for Socrates's sake!" + +Even in the verses with which the chorus conclude the play it is insisted +that the worst crime of the sophists is their insult to the gods. + +The inference to be drawn from all this is simply that the popular +Athenian opinion--for we may rest assured that this and the view of +Aristophanes are identical--was that the sophists were atheists. That says +but little. For popular opinion always works with broad categories, and +the probability is that in this case, as demonstrated above, it was in the +wrong, for, as a rule, the sophists were hardly conscious deniers of the +gods. But, at the same time, at the back of the onslaught of Aristophanes +there lies the idea that the teaching of the sophists led to denial of the +gods; that atheism was the natural outcome of their doctrine and way of +reasoning. And that there was some truth therein is proved by other +evidence which can hardly be rejected. + +In the indictment of Socrates it is said that he "offended by not +believing in the gods in which the State believed." In the two apologies +for Socrates which have come down to us under Xenophon's name, the author +treats this accusation entirely under the aspect of atheism, and tries to +refute it by positive proofs of the piety of Socrates. But not one word is +said about there being, in and for itself, anything remarkable or +improbable in the charge. In Plato's _Apology_, Plato makes Socrates ask +the accuser point-blank whether he is of the opinion that he, Socrates, +does not believe in the gods at all and accordingly is a downright denier +of the gods, or whether he merely means to say that he believes in other +gods than those of the State. He makes the accuser answer that the +assertion is that Socrates does not believe in any gods at all. In Plato +Socrates refutes the accusation indirectly, using a line of argument +entirely differing from that of Xenophon. But in Plato, too, the +accusation is treated as being in no way extraordinary. In my opinion, +Plato's _Apology_ cannot be used as historical evidence for details unless +special reasons can be given proving their historical value beyond the +fact that they occur in the _Apology_. But in this connexion the question +is not what was said or not said at Socrates's trial. The decisive point +is that we possess two quite independent and unambiguous depositions by +two fully competent witnesses of the beginning of the fourth century which +both treat of the charge of atheism as something which is neither strange +nor surprising at their time. It is therefore permissible to conclude that +in Athens at this time there really existed circles or at any rate not a +few individuals who had given up the belief in the popular gods. + +A dialogue between Socrates and a young man by name Aristodemus, given in +Xenophon's _Memorabilia_, makes the same impression. Of Aristodemus it is +said that he does not sacrifice to the gods, does not consult the Oracle +and ridicules those who do so. When he is called to account for this +behaviour he maintains that he does not despise "the divine," but is of +the opinion that it is too exalted to need his worship. Moreover, he +contends that the gods do not trouble themselves about mankind. This is, +of course, not atheism in our sense; but Aristodemus's attitude is, +nevertheless, extremely eccentric in a community like that of Athens in +the fifth century. And yet it is not mentioned as anything isolated and +extraordinary, but as if it were something which, to be sure, was out of +the common, but not unheard of. + +It is further to be observed that at the end of the fifth century we often +hear of active sacrilegious outrages. An example is the historic trial of +Alcibiades for profanation of the Mysteries. But this was not an isolated +occurrence; there were more of the same kind at the time. Of the +dithyrambic poet Cinesias it is said that he profaned holy things in an +obscene manner. But the greatest stress of all must be laid on the +well-known mutilation of the Hermae at Athens in 415, just before the +expedition to Sicily. All the tales about the outrages of the Mysteries +_may_ have been fictitious, but it is a fact that the Hermae were +mutilated. The motive was probably political: the members of a secret +society intended to pledge themselves to each other by all committing a +capital crime. But that they chose just this form of crime shows quite +clearly that respect for the State religion had greatly declined in these +circles. + +What has so far been adduced as proof that the belief in the gods had +begun to waver in Athens at the end of the fifth century is, in my +opinion, conclusive in itself to anybody who is familiar with the more +ancient Greek modes of thought and expression on this point, and can not +only hear what is said, but also understand how it is said and what is +passed over in silence. Of course it can always be objected that the +proofs are partly the assertions of a comic poet who certainly was not +particular about accusations of impiety, partly deductions _ex silentio_, +partly actions the motives for which are uncertain. Fortunately, however, +we have--from a slightly later period, it is true--a positive utterance +which confirms our conclusion and which comes from a man who was not in +the habit of talking idly and who had the best opportunities of knowing +the circumstances. + +In the tenth book of his _Laws_, written shortly before his death, _i.e._ +about the middle of the fourth century, Plato gives a detailed account of +the question of irreligion seen from the point of view of penal +legislation. He distinguishes here between three forms, namely, denial of +the existence of the gods, denial of the divine providence (whereas the +existence of the gods is admitted), and finally the assumption that the +gods exist and exercise providence, but that they allow themselves to be +influenced by sacrifices and prayers. Of these three categories the last +is evidently directed against ancient popular belief itself; it does not +therefore interest us in this connexion. The second view, the denial of a +providence, we have already met with in Xenophon in the character of +Aristodemus, and in the sophist Thrasymachus; Euripides, too, sometimes +alludes to it, though it was far from being his own opinion. Whether it +amounted to denial of the gods or not was, in ancient times, the cause of +much dispute; it is, of course, not atheism in our sense, but it is +certainly evidence that belief in the gods is shaken. The first view, on +the other hand, is sheer atheism. Plato consequently reckons with this as +a serious danger to the community; he mentions it as a widespread view +among the youth of his time, and in his legislation he sentences to death +those who fail to be converted. It would seem certain, therefore, that +there was, in reality, something in it after all. + +Plato does not confine himself to defining atheism and laying down the +penalty for it; he at the same time, in accordance with a principle which +he generally follows in the _Laws_, discusses it and tries to disprove it. +In this way he happens to give us information--which is of special interest +to us--of the proofs which were adduced by its followers. + +The argument is a twofold one. First comes the naturalistic proof; the +heavenly bodies, according to the general (and Plato's own) view the most +certain deities, are inanimate natural objects. It is interesting to note +that in speaking of this doctrine in detail reference is clearly made to +Anaxagoras; this confirms our afore-mentioned conjectures as to the +character of his work. Plato was quite in a position to deal with +Anaxagoras on the strength not only of what he said, but of what he passed +over in silence. The second argument is the well-known sophistic one, that +the gods are _nomôi_, not _physei_, they depend upon convention, which has +nothing to do with reality. In this connexion the argument adds that what +applies to the gods, applies also to right and wrong; _i.e._ we find here +in the _Laws_ the view with which we are familiar from Callicles in the +_Gorgias_, but with the missing link supplied. And Plato's development of +this theme shows clearly just what a general historical consideration +might lead us to expect, namely, that it was naturalism and sophistic that +jointly undermined the belief in the old gods. + + + + + +CHAPTER V + + +With Socrates and his successors the whole question of the relation of +Greek thought to popular belief enters upon a new phase. The Socratic +philosophy is in many ways a continuation of sophistic. This is involved +already in the fact that the same questions form the central interest in +the two schools of thought, so that the problems stated by the sophists +became the decisive factor in the content of Socratic and Platonic +thought. The Socratic schools at the same time took over the actual +programme of the sophists, namely, the education of adolescence in the +highest culture. But, on the other hand, the Socratic philosophy was in +the opposite camp to sophistic; on many points it represents a reaction +against it, a recollection of the valuable elements contained in earlier +Greek thought on life, especially human life, values which sophistic +regarded with indifference or even hostility, and which were threatened +with destruction if it should carry the day. This reactionary tendency in +Socratic philosophy appears nowhere more plainly than in the field of +religion. + +Under these circumstances it is a peculiar irony of fate that the very +originator of the new trend in Greek thought was charged with and +sentenced for impiety. We have already mentioned the singular prelude to +the indictment afforded by the comedy of Aristophanes. We have also +remarked upon the futility of looking therein for any actual enlightenment +on the Socratic point of view. And Plato makes Socrates state this with +all necessary sharpness in the _Apology_. Hence what we may infer from the +attack of Aristophanes is merely this, that the general public lumped +Socrates together with the sophists and more especially regarded him as a +godless fellow. Unless this had been so, Aristophanes could not have +introduced him as the chief character in his travesty. And without doubt +it was this popular point of view which his accusers relied on when they +actually included atheism as a count in their bill of indictment. It will, +nevertheless, be necessary to dwell for a moment on this bill of +indictment and the defence. + +The charge of impiety was a twofold one, partly for not believing in the +gods the State believed in, partly for introducing new "demonic things." +This latter act was directly punishable according to Attic law. What his +accusers alluded to was the _daimonion_ of Socrates. That they should have +had any idea of what that was must be regarded as utterly out of the +question, and whatever it may have been--and of this we shall have a word +to say later--it had at any rate nothing whatever to do with atheism. As to +the charge of not believing in the gods of the State, Plato makes the +accuser prefer it in the form that Socrates did not believe in any gods at +all, after which it becomes an easy matter for Socrates to show that it is +directly incompatible with the charge of introducing new deities. As +ground for his accusation the accuser states--in Plato, as before--that +Socrates taught the same doctrine about the sun and moon as Anaxagoras. +The whole of the passage in the _Apology_ in which the question of the +denial of gods is dealt with--a short dialogue between Socrates and the +accuser, quite in the Socratic manner--historically speaking, carries +little conviction, and we therefore dare not take it for granted that the +charge either of atheism or of false doctrine about the sun and moon was +put forward in that form. But that something about this latter point was +mentioned during the trial must be regarded as probable, when we consider +that Xenophon, too, defends Socrates at some length against the charge of +concerning himself with speculations on Nature. That he did not do so must +be taken for certain, not only from the express evidence of Xenophon and +Plato, but from the whole nature of the case. The accusation on this point +was assuredly pure fabrication. There remains only what was no doubt also +the main point, namely, the assertion of the pernicious influence of +Socrates on the young, and the inference of irreligion to be drawn from +it--an argument which it would be absurd to waste any words upon. + +The attack, then, affords no information about Socrates's personal point +of view as regards belief in the gods, and the defence only very little. +Both Xenophon and Plato give an account of Socrates's _daimonion_, but +this point has so little relation to the charge of atheism that it is not +worth examination. For the rest Plato's defence is indirect. He makes +Socrates refute his opponent, but does not let him say a word about his +own point of view. Xenophon is more positive, in so far as in the first +place he asserts that Socrates worshipped the gods like any other good +citizen, and more especially that he advised his friends to use the +Oracle; in the second place, that, though he lived in full publicity, no +one ever saw him do or heard him say anything of an impious nature. All +these assertions are assuredly correct, and they render it highly +improbable that Socrates should have secretly abandoned the popular faith, +but they tell us little that is positive about his views. Fortunately we +possess other means of getting to closer grips with the question; the way +must be through a consideration of Socrates's whole conduct and his mode +of thought. + +Here we at once come to the interesting negative fact that there is +nothing in tradition to indicate that Socrates ever occupied himself with +theological questions. To be sure, Xenophon has twice put into his mouth a +whole theodicy expressing an elaborate teleological view of nature. But +that we dare not base anything upon this is now, I think, universally +acknowledged. Plato, in the dialogue _Euthyphron_, makes him subject the +popular notion of piety to a devastating criticism; but this, again, will +not nowadays be regarded as historical by anybody. Everything we are told +about Socrates which bears the stamp of historical truth indicates that he +restricted himself to ethics and left theology alone. But this very fact +is not without significance. It indicates that Socrates's aim was not to +alter the religious views of his contemporaries. Since he did not do so we +may reasonably believe it was because they did not inconvenience him in +what was most important to him, _i.e._ ethics. + +We may, however, perhaps go even a step farther. We may venture, I think, +to maintain that so far from contemporary religion being a hindrance to +Socrates in his occupation as a teacher of ethics, it was, on the +contrary, an indispensable support to him, nay, an integral component of +his fundamental ethical view. The object of Socrates in his relations with +his fellow-men was, on his own showing--for on this important point I think +we can confidently rely upon Plato's _Apology_--to make clear to them that +they knew nothing. And when he was asked to say in what he himself +differed from other people, he could mention only one thing, namely, that +he was aware of his own ignorance. But his ignorance is not an ignorance +of this thing or that, it is a radical ignorance, something involved in +the essence of man as man. That is, in other words, it is determined by +religion. In order to be at all intelligible and ethically applicable, it +presupposes the conception of beings of whom the essence is knowledge. For +Socrates and his contemporaries the popular belief supplied such beings in +the gods. The institution of the Oracle itself is an expression of the +recognition of the superiority of the gods to man in knowledge. But the +dogma had long been stated even in its absolute form when Homer said: "The +gods know everything." To Socrates, who always took his starting-point +quite popularly from notions that were universally accepted, this basis +was simply indispensable. And so far from inconveniencing Socrates, the +multiplicity and anthropomorphism of the gods seemed an advantage to +him--the more they were like man in all but the essential qualification, +the better. + +The Socratic ignorance has an ethical bearing. Its complement is his +assertion that virtue is knowledge. Here again the gods are the necessary +presupposition and determination. That the gods were good, or, as it was +preferred to express it, "just" (the Greek word comprises more than the +English word), was no less a popular dogma than the notion that they +possessed knowledge. Now all Socrates's efforts were directed towards +goodness as an end in view, towards the ethical development of mankind. +Here again popular belief was his best ally. To the people to whom he +talked, virtue (the Greek word is at once both wider and narrower in sense +than the English term) was no mere abstract notion; it was a living +reality to them, embodied in beings that were like themselves, human +beings, but perfect human beings. + +If we correlate this with the negative circumstance that Socrates was no +theologian but a teacher of ethics, we can easily understand a point of +view which accepted popular belief as it was and employed it for working +purposes in the service of moral teaching. Such a point of view, moreover, +gained extraordinary strength by the fact that it preserved continuity +with earlier Greek religious thought. This latter, too, had been ethical +in its bearing; it, too, had employed the gods in the service of its +ethical aim. But its central idea was felicity, not virtue; its +starting-point was the popular dogma of the felicity of the gods, not +their justice. In this way it had come to lay stress on a virtue which +might be termed modesty, but in a religious sense, _i.e._ man must +recognise his difference from the gods as a limited being, subject to the +vicissitudes of an existence above which the gods are raised. Socrates +says just the same, only that he puts knowledge or virtue, which to him +was the same thing, in the place of felicity. From a religious point of +view the result is exactly the same, namely, the doctrine of the gods as +the terminus and ideal, and the insistence on the gulf separating man from +them. We are tempted to say that, had Socrates turned with hostile intent +against a religion which thus played into his hands, the more fool he. But +this is putting the problem the wrong way up--Socrates never stood +critically outside popular belief and traditional religious thought +speculating as to whether he should use it or reject it. No, his thought +grew out of it as from the bosom of the earth. Hence its mighty religious +power, its inevitable victory over a school of thought which had severed +all connexion with tradition. + +That such a point of view should be so badly misunderstood as it was in +Athens seems incomprehensible. The explanation is no doubt that the whole +story of Socrates's denial of the gods was only included by his accusers +for the sake of completeness, and did not play any great part in the final +issue. This seems confirmed by the fact that they found it convenient to +support their charge of atheism by one of introducing foreign gods, this +being punishable by Attic law. They thus obtained some slight hold for +their accusation. But both charges must be presumed to have been so +signally refuted during the trial that it is hardly possible that any +great number of the judges were influenced by them. It was quite different +and far weightier matters which brought about the conviction of Socrates, +questions on which there was really a deep and vital difference of opinion +between him and his contemporaries. That Socrates's attitude towards +popular belief was at any rate fully understood elsewhere is testified by +the answer of the Delphic Oracle, that declared Socrates to be the wisest +of all men. However remarkable such a pronouncement from such a place may +appear, it seems impossible to reject the accounts of it as unhistorical; +on the other hand, it does not seem impossible to explain how the Oracle +came to declare itself as reported. Earlier Greek thought, which insisted +upon the gulf separating gods and men, was from olden times intimately +connected with the Delphic Oracle. It hardly sprang from there; more +probably it arose spontaneously in various parts of Hellas. But it would +naturally feel attracted toward the Oracle, which was one of the religious +centres of Hellas, and it was recognised as legitimate by the Oracle. +Above all, the honour shown by the Oracle to Pindar, one of the chief +representatives of the earlier thought, testifies to this. Hence there is +nothing incredible in the assumption that Socrates attracted notice at +Delphi as a defender of the old-fashioned religious views approved by the +Oracle, precisely in virtue of his opposition to the ideas then in vogue. + +If we accept this explanation we are, however, excluded from taking +literally Plato's account of the answer of the Delphic Oracle and +Socrates's attitude towards it. Plato presents the case as if the Oracle +were the starting-point of Socrates's philosophy and of the peculiar mode +of life which was indissolubly bound up with it. This presentation cannot +be correct if we are to regard the Oracle as historical and understand it +as we have understood it. The Oracle presupposes the Socrates we know: a +man with a religious message and a mode of life which was bound to attract +notice to him as an exception from the general rule. It cannot, therefore, +have been the cause of Socrates's finding himself. On the other hand, it +is difficult to imagine a man choosing a mode of life like that of +Socrates without a definite inducement, without some fact or other that +would lead him to conceive himself as an exception from the rule. If we +look for such a fact in the life of Socrates, we shall look in vain as +regards externals. Apart from his activities as a religious and ethical +personality, his life was that of any other Attic citizen. But in his +spiritual life there was certainly one point, but only one, on which he +deviated from the normal, namely, his _daimonion_. If we examine the +accounts of this more closely the only thing we can make of them is--or so +at least it seems to me--that we are here in the presence of a +form--peculiar, no doubt, and highly developed--of the phenomena which are +nowadays classed under the concept of clairvoyance. Now Plato makes +Socrates himself say that the power of avoiding what would harm him, in +great things and little, by virtue of a direct perception (a "voice"), +which is what constituted his _daimonion_, was given him from childhood. +That it was regarded as something singular both by himself and others is +evident, and likewise that he himself regarded it as something +supernatural; the designation _daimonion_ itself seems to be his own. I +think that we must seek for the origin of Socrates's peculiar mode of life +in this direction, strange as it may be that a purely mystic element +should have given the impulse to the most rationalistic philosophy the +world has ever produced. It is impossible to enter more deeply into this +problem here; but, if my conjecture is correct, we have an additional +explanation of the fact that Socrates was disposed to anything rather than +an attack on the established religion. + +A view of popular religion such as I have here sketched bore in itself the +germ of a further development which must lead in other directions. A +personality like Socrates might perhaps manage throughout a lifetime to +keep that balance on a razor's edge which is involved in utilising to the +utmost in the service of ethics the popular dogmas of the perfection of +the gods, while disregarding all irrelevant tales, all myths and all +notions of too human a tenor about them. This demanded concentration on +the one thing needful, in conjunction with deep piety of the most genuine +antique kind, with the most profound religious modesty, a combination +which it was assuredly given to but one man to attain. Socrates's +successors had it not. Starting precisely from a Socratic foundation they +entered upon theological speculations which carried them away from the +Socratic point of view. + +For the Cynics, who set up virtue as the only good, the popular notions of +the gods would seem to have been just as convenient as for Socrates. And +we know that Antisthenes, the founder of the school, made ample use of +them in his ethical teaching. He represented Heracles as the Cynical ideal +and occupied himself largely with allegorical interpretation of the myths. +On the other hand, there is a tradition that he maintained that "according +to nature" there was only one god, but "according to the law" several--a +purely sophistic view. He inveighed against the worship of images, too, +and maintained that god "did not resemble any thing," and we know that his +school rejected all worship of the gods because the gods "were in need of +nothing." This conception, too, is presumably traceable to Antisthenes. In +all this the theological interest is evident. As soon as this interest +sets in, the harmonious relation to the popular faith is upset, the +discord between its higher and lower ideas becomes manifest, and criticism +begins to assert itself. In the case of Antisthenes, if we may believe +tradition, it seems to have led to monotheism, in itself a most remarkable +phenomenon in the history of Greek religion, but the material is too +slight for us to make anything of it. The later Cynics afford interesting +features in illustration of atheism in antiquity, but this is best left to +a later chapter. + +About the relations of the Megarians to the popular faith we know next to +nothing. One of them, Stilpo, was charged with impiety on account of a bad +joke about Athene, and convicted, although he tried to save himself by +another bad joke. As his point of view was that of a downright sceptic, he +was no doubt an atheist according to the notions of antiquity; in our day +he would be called an agnostic, but the information that we have about his +religious standpoint is too slight to repay dwelling on him. + +As to the relation of the Cyrenaic school to the popular faith, the +general proposition has been handed down to us that the wise man could not +be "deisidaimon," _i.e._ superstitious or god-fearing; the Greek word can +have both senses. This does not speak for piety at any rate, but then the +relationship of the Cyrenaics to the gods of popular belief was different +from that of the other followers of Socrates. As they set up pleasure--the +momentary, isolated feeling of pleasure--as the supreme good, they had no +use for the popular conceptions of the gods in their ethics, nay, these +conceptions were even a hindrance to them in so far as the fear of the +gods might prove a restriction where it ought not to. In these +circumstances we cannot wonder at finding a member of the school in the +list of _atheoi_. This is Theodorus of Cyrene, who lived about the year +300. He really seems to have been a downright denier of the gods; he wrote +a work _On the Gods_ containing a searching criticism of theology, which +is said to have exposed him to unpleasantness during a stay at Athens, but +the then ruler of the city, Demetrius of Phalerum, protected him. There is +nothing strange in a manifestation of downright atheism at this time and +from this quarter. More remarkable is that interest in theology which we +must assume Theodorus to have had, since he wrote at length upon the +subject. Unfortunately it is not evident from the account whether his +criticism was directed mostly against popular religion or against the +theology of the philosophers. As it was asserted in antiquity that +Epicurus used his book largely, the latter is more probable. + +Whereas in the case of the "imperfect Socratics" as well as of all the +earlier philosophers we must content ourselves with more or less casual +notes, and at the best with fragments, and for Socrates with second-hand +information, when we come to Plato we find ourselves for the first time in +the presence of full and authentic information. Plato belongs to those few +among the ancient authors of whom everything that their contemporaries +possessed has been preserved to our own day. There would, however, be no +cause to speak about Plato in an investigation of atheism in antiquity, +had not so eminent a scholar as Zeller roundly asserted that Plato did not +believe in the Greek gods--with the exception of the heavenly bodies, in +the case of which the facts are obvious. On the other hand, it is +impossible here to enter upon a close discussion of so large a question; I +must content myself with giving my views in their main lines, with a brief +statement of my reasons for holding them. + +In the mythical portions of his dialogues Plato uses the gods as a given +poetic motive and treats them with poetic licence. Otherwise they play a +very inferior part in the greater portion of his works. In the +_Euthyphron_ he gives a sharp criticism of the popular conception of +piety, and in reality at the same time very seriously questions the +importance and value of the existing form of worship. In his chief ethical +work, the _Gorgias_, he subjects the fundamental problems of individual +ethics to a close discussion without saying one word of their relation to +religion; if we except the mythic part at the end the gods scarcely appear +in the dialogue. Finally, in his _Republic_ he no doubt gives a detailed +criticism of popular mythology as an element of education, and in the +course of this also some positive definitions of the idea of God, but +throughout the construction of his ideal community he entirely disregards +religion and worship, even if he occasionally takes it for granted that a +cult of some sort exists, and in one place quite casually refers to the +Oracle at Delphi as authority for its organisation in details. To this may +further be added the negative point that he never in any of his works made +Socrates define his position in regard to the sophistic treatment of the +popular religion. + +In Plato's later works the case is different. In the construction of the +universe described in the _Timaeus_ the gods have a definite and +significant place, and in the _Laws_, Plato's last work, they play a +leading part. Here he not only gives elaborate rules for the organisation +of the worship which permeate the whole life of the community, but even in +the argument of the dialogue the gods are everywhere in evidence in a way +which strongly suggests bigotry. Finally, Plato gives the above-mentioned +definitions of impiety and fixes the severest punishment for it--for +downright denial of the gods, when all attempts at conversion have failed, +the penalty of death. + +On this evidence we are tempted to take the view that Plato in his earlier +years took up a critical attitude in regard to the gods of popular belief, +perhaps even denied them altogether, that he gradually grew more +conservative, and ended by being a confirmed bigot. And we might look for +a corroboration of this in a peculiar observation in the _Laws_. Plato +opens his admonition to the young against atheism by reminding them that +they are young, and that false opinion concerning the gods is a common +disease among the young, but that utter denial of their existence is not +wont to endure to old age. In this we might see an expression of personal +religious experience. + +Nevertheless I do not think such a construction of Plato's religious +development feasible. A decisive objection is his exposition of the +Socratic point of view in so early a work as the _Apology_. I at any rate +regard it as psychologically impossible that a downright atheist, be he +ever so great a poet, should be able to draw such a picture of a deeply +religious personality, and draw it with so much sympathy and such +convincing force. Add to this other facts of secondary moment. Even the +close criticism to which Plato subjects the popular notions of the gods in +his _Republic_ does not indicate denial of the gods as such; moreover, it +is built on a positive foundation, on the idea of the goodness of the gods +and their truth (which for Plato manifests itself in immutability). +Finally, Plato at all times vigorously advocated the belief in providence. +In the _Laws_ he stamps unbelief in divine providence as impiety; in the +_Republic_ he insists in a prominent passage that the gods love the just +man and order everything for him in the best way. And he puts the same +thought into Socrates's mouth in the _Apology_, though it is hardly +Socratic in the strict sense of the word, _i.e._ as a main point in +Socrates's conception of existence. All this should warn us not to +exaggerate the significance of the difference which may be pointed out +between the religious standpoints of the younger and the older Plato. But +the difference itself cannot, I think, be denied; there can hardly be any +doubt that Plato was much more critical of popular belief in his youth and +prime than towards the close of his life. + +Even in Plato's later works there is, in spite of their conservative +attitude, a very peculiar reservation in regard to the anthropomorphic +gods of popular belief. It shows itself in the _Laws_ in the fact that +where he sets out to _prove_ the existence of the gods he contents himself +with proving the divinity of the heavenly bodies and quite disregards the +other gods. It appears still more plainly in the _Timaeus_, where he gives +a philosophical explanation of how the divine heavenly bodies came into +existence, but says expressly of the other gods that such an explanation +is impossible, and that we must abide by what the old theologians said on +this subject; they being partly the children of gods would know best where +their parents came from. It is observations of this kind that induced +Zeller to believe that Plato altogether denied the gods of popular belief; +he also contends that the gods have no place in Plato's system. This +latter contention is perfectly correct; Plato never identified the gods +with the ideas (although he comes very near to it in the _Republic_, where +he attributes to them immutability, the quality which determines the +essence of the ideas), and in the _Timaeus_ he distinguishes sharply +between them. No doubt his doctrine of ideas led up to a kind of divinity, +the idea of the good, as the crown of the system, but the direct inference +from this conception would be pure monotheism and so exclude polytheism. +This inference Plato did not draw, though his treatment of the gods in the +_Laws_ and _Timaeus_ certainly shows that he was quite clear that the gods +of the popular faith were an irrational element in his conception of the +universe. The two passages do not entitle us to go further and conclude +that he utterly rejected them, and in the _Timaeus_, where Plato makes +both classes of gods, both the heavenly bodies and the others, take part +in the creation of man, this is plainly precluded. The playful turn with +which he evades inquiry into the origin of the gods thus receives its +proper limitation; it is entirely confined to their origin. + +Such, according to my view, is the state of the case. It is of fundamental +importance to emphasise the fact that we cannot conclude, because the gods +of popular belief do not fit into the system of a philosopher, that he +denies their existence. In what follows we shall have occasion to point +out a case in which, as all are now agreed, a philosophical school has +adopted and stubbornly held to the belief in the existence of gods though +this assumption was directly opposed to a fundamental proposition in its +system of doctrine. The case of Plato is particularly interesting because +he himself was aware and has pointed out that here was a point on which +the consistent scientific application of his conception of the universe +must fail. It is the outcome--one of many--of what is perhaps his finest +quality as a philosopher, namely, his intellectual honesty. + +An indirect testimony to the correctness of the view here stated will be +found in the way in which Plato's faithful disciple Xenocrates developed +his theology, for it shows that Xenocrates presupposed the existence of +the gods of popular belief as given by Plato. Xenocrates made it his +general task to systematise Plato's philosophy (which had never been set +forth publicly by himself as a whole), and to secure it against attack. In +the course of this work he was bound to discover that the conception of +the gods of popular belief was a particularly weak point in Plato's +system, and he attempted to mend matters by a peculiar theory which became +of the greatest importance for later times. Xenocrates set up as gods, in +the first place, the heavenly bodies. Next he gave his highest principles +(pure abstracts such as oneness and twoness) and the elements of his +universe (air, water and earth) the names of some of the highest +divinities in popular belief (Zeus, Hades, Poseidon, Demeter). These gods, +however, did not enter into direct communication with men, but only +through some intermediate agent. The intermediate agents were the +"demons," a class of beings who were higher than man yet not perfect like +the gods. They were, it seems, immortal; they were invisible and far more +powerful than human beings; but they were subject to human passions and +were of highly differing grades of moral perfection. These are the beings +that are the objects of the greater part of the existing cult, especially +such usages as rest on the assumption that the gods can do harm and are +directed towards averting it, or which are in other ways objectionable; +and with them are connected the myths which Plato subjected to so severe a +criticism. Xenocrates found a basis for this system in Plato, who in the +_Symposium_ sets up the demons as a class of beings between gods and men, +and makes them carriers of the prayers and wishes of men to the gods. But +what was a passing thought with Plato serving only a poetical purpose was +taken seriously and systematised by Xenocrates. + +It can hardly be said that Xenocrates has gained much recognition among +modern writers on the history of philosophy for his theory of demons. And +yet I cannot see that there was any other possible solution of the problem +which ancient popular belief set ancient philosophy, if, be it understood, +we hold fast by two hypotheses: the first, that the popular belief and +worship of the ancients was based throughout on a foundation of reality; +and second, that moral perfection is an essential factor in the conception +of God. The only inconsistency which we may perhaps bring home to +Xenocrates is that he retained certain of the popular names of the gods as +designations for gods in his sense; but this inconsistency was, as we +shall see, subsequently removed. In favour of this estimate of +Xenocrates's doctrine of demons may further be adduced that it actually +was the last word of ancient philosophy on the matter. The doctrine was +adopted by the Stoics, the Neo-Pythagoreans, and the Neo-Platonists. Only +the Epicureans went another way, but their doctrine died out before the +close of antiquity. And so the doctrine of demons became the ground on +which Jewish-Christian monotheism managed to come to terms with ancient +paganism, to conquer it in theory, as it were. + +This implies, however, that the doctrine of demons, though it arose out of +an honest attempt to save popular belief philosophically, in reality +brings out its incompatibility with philosophy. The religion and worship +of the ancients could dispense with neither the higher nor the lower +conceptions of its gods. If the former were done away with, recognition, +however full, of the existence of the gods was no good; in the long run +the inference could not be avoided that they were immoral powers and so +ought not to be worshipped. This was the inference drawn by Christianity +in theory and enforced in practice, ultimately by main force. + +Aristotle is among the philosophers who were prosecuted for impiety. When +the anti-Macedonian party came into power in Athens after the death of +Alexander, there broke out a persecution against his adherents, and this +was also directed against Aristotle. The basis of the charge against him +was that he had shown divine honour after his death to the tyrant Hermias, +whose guest he had been during a prolonged stay in Asia Minor. This seems +to have been a fabrication, and at any rate has nothing to do with +atheism. In the writings of Aristotle, as they were then generally known, +it would assuredly have been impossible to find any ground for a charge of +atheism. + +Nevertheless, Aristotle is one of the philosophers about whose faith in +the gods of popular religion well-founded doubts may be raised. Like +Plato, he acknowledged the divinity of the heavenly bodies on the ground +that they must have a soul since they had independent motion. Further, he +has a kind of supreme god who, himself unmoved, is the cause of all +movement, and whose constituent quality is reason. As regards the gods of +popular belief, in his _Ethics_ and his _Politics_ he assumes public +worship to be a necessary constituent of the life of the individual and +the community. He gave no grounds for this assumption--on the contrary, he +expressly declared that it was a question which ought not to be discussed +at all: he who stirs up doubts whether honour should be paid to the gods +is in need not of teaching but of punishment. (That he himself took part +in worship is evident from his will.) Further, in his ethical works he +used the conceptions of the gods almost in the same way as we have assumed +that Socrates did, _i.e._ as the ethical ideal and determining the limits +of the human. He never entered upon any elaborate criticism of the lower +elements of popular religion such as Plato gave. So far everything is in +admirable order. But if we look more closely at things there is +nevertheless nearly always a little "but" in Aristotle's utterances about +the gods. Where he operates with popular notions he prefers to speak +hypothetically or to refer to what is generally assumed; or he is content +to use only definitions which will also agree with his own philosophical +conception of God. But he goes further; in a few places in his writings +there are utterances which it seems can only be interpreted as a radical +denial of the popular religion. The most important of them deserves to be +quoted _in extenso_: + + + "A tradition has been handed down from the ancients and from the + most primitive times, and left to later ages in the form of myth, + that these substances (_i.e._ sky and heavenly bodies) are gods + and that the divine embraces all nature. The rest consists in + legendary additions intended to impress the multitude and serve + the purposes of legislation and the common weal; for these gods + are said to have human shape or resemble certain other beings + (animals), and they say other things which follow from this and + are of a similar kind to those already mentioned. But if we + disregard all this and restrict ourselves to the first point, that + they thought that the first substances were gods, we must + acknowledge that it is a divinely inspired saying. And as, in all + probability, every art and science has been discovered many times, + as far as it is possible, and has perished again, so these + notions, too, may have been preserved till now as relics of those + times. To this extent only can we have any idea of the opinion + which was held by our fathers and has come down from the beginning + of things." + + +The last sentences, expressing Aristotle's idea of a life-cycle and +periods of civilisation which repeat themselves, have only been included +in the quotation for the sake of completeness. If we disregard them, the +passage plainly enough states the view that the only element of truth in +the traditional notions about the gods was the divinity of the sky and the +heavenly bodies; the rest is myth. Aristotle has nowhere else expressed +himself with such distinctness and in such length, but then the passage in +question has a place of its own. It comes in his _Metaphysics_ directly +after the exposition of his philosophical conception of God--a position +marked by profound earnestness and as it were irradiated by a quiet inner +fervour. We feel that we are here approaching the _sanctum sanctorum_ of +the thinker. In this connexion, and only here, he wished for once to state +his opinion about the religion of his time without reserve. What he says +here is a precise formulation of the result arrived at by the best Greek +thinkers as regards the religion of the Greek people. It was not, they +thought, pure fabrication. It contained an element of truth of the +greatest value. But most of it consisted of human inventions without any +reality behind them. + +A point of view like that of Aristotle would, I suppose, hardly have been +called atheism among the ancients, if only because the heavenly bodies +were acknowledged as divine. But according to our definition it is +atheism. The "sky"-gods of Aristotle have nothing in common with the gods +of popular belief, not even their names, for Aristotle never names them. +And the rest, the whole crowd of Greek anthropomorphic gods, exist only in +the human imagination. + +Aristotle's successors offer little of interest to our inquiry. +Theophrastus was charged with impiety, but the charge broke down +completely. His theological standpoint was certainly the same as +Aristotle's. Of Strato, the most independent of the Peripatetics, we know +that in his view of nature he laid greater stress on the material causes +than Aristotle did, and so arrived at a different conception of the +supreme deity. Aristotle had severed the deity from Nature and placed it +outside the latter as an incorporeal being whose chief determining factor +was reason. In Strato's view the deity was identical with Nature and, like +the latter, was without consciousness; consciousness was only found in +organic nature. Consequently we cannot suppose him to have believed in the +divinity of the heavenly bodies in Aristotle's sense, though no direct +statement on this subject has come down to us. About his attitude towards +popular belief we hear nothing. A denial of the popular gods is not +necessarily implied in Strato's theory, but seems reasonable in itself and +is further rendered probable by the fact that all writers seem to take it +for granted that Strato knew no god other than the whole of Nature. + +We designated Socratic philosophy, in its relation to popular belief, as a +reaction against the radical free-thought of the sophistic movement. It +may seem peculiar that with Aristotle it develops into a view which we can +only describe as atheism. There is, however, an important difference +between the standpoints of the sophists and of Aristotle. Radical as the +latter is at bottom, it is not, however, openly opposed to popular +belief--on the contrary, to any one who did not examine it more closely it +must have had the appearance of accepting popular belief. The very +assumption that the heavenly bodies were divine would contribute to that +effect; this, as we have seen, was a point on which the popular view laid +great stress. If we add to this that Aristotle never made the existence of +the popular gods matter of debate; that he expressly acknowledged the +established worship; and that he consistently made use of certain +fundamental notions of popular belief in his philosophy--we can hardly +avoid the conclusion that, notwithstanding his personal emancipation from +the existing religion, he is a true representative of the Socratic +reaction against sophistic. But we see, too, that there is a reservation +in this reaction. In continuity with earlier Greek thought on religion, it +proceeded from the absolute definitions of the divine offered by popular +belief, but when criticising anthropomorphism on this basis it did not +after all avoid falling out with popular belief. How far each philosopher +went in his antagonism was a matter of discretion, as also was the means +chosen to reconcile the philosophical with the popular view. The theology +of the Socratic schools thus suffered from a certain half-heartedness; in +the main it has the character of a compromise. It would not give up the +popular notions of the gods, and yet they were continually getting in the +way. This dualism governs the whole of the succeeding Greek philosophy. + + + + + +CHAPTER VI + + +During the three or four centuries which passed between the downfall of +free Hellas and the beginning of the Roman Empire, great social and +political changes took place in the ancient world, involving also vital +changes in religion. The chief phenomenon in this field, the invasion of +foreign, especially oriental, religions into Hellas, does not come within +the scope of this investigation. On the one hand, it is an expression of +dissatisfaction with the old gods; on the other, the intrusion of new gods +would contribute to the ousting of the old ones. There is no question of +atheism here; it is only a change within polytheism. But apart from this +change there is evidence that the old faith had lost its hold on men's +minds to no inconsiderable extent. Here, too, there is hardly any question +of atheism properly speaking, but as a background to the--not very +numerous--evidences of such atheism in our period, we cannot well ignore +the decline of the popular faith. Our investigation is rendered difficult +on this point, and generally within this period, by the lack of direct +evidence. Of the rich Hellenistic literature almost everything has been +lost, and we are restricted to reports and fragments. + +In order to gain a concrete starting-point we will begin with a quotation +from the historian Polybius--so to speak the only Greek prose author of the +earlier Hellenistic period of whose works considerable and connected +portions are preserved. Polybius wrote in the latter half of the second +century a history of the world in which Rome took the dominant place. Here +he gave, among other things, a detailed description of the Roman +constitution and thus came to touch upon the state of religion in Rome as +compared with that in Greece. He says on this subject: + +"The greatest advantage of the Roman constitution seems to me to lie in +its conception of the gods, and I believe that what among other peoples is +despised is what holds together the Roman power--I mean superstition. For +this feature has by them been developed so far in the direction of the +'horrible,' and has so permeated both private and public life, that it is +quite unique. Many will perhaps find this strange, but I think they have +acted so with an eye to the mass of the people. For if it were possible to +compose a state of reasonable people such a procedure would no doubt be +unnecessary, but as every people regarded as a mass is easily impressed +and full of criminal instincts, unreasonable violence, and fierce passion, +there is nothing to be done but to keep the masses under by vague fears +and such-like hocus-pocus. Therefore it is my opinion that it was not +without good reason or by mere chance that the ancients imparted to the +masses the notions of the gods and the underworld, but rather is it +thoughtless and irrational when nowadays we seek to destroy them." + +As a proof of this last statement follows a comparison between the state +of public morals in Greece and in Rome. In Greece you cannot trust a man +with a few hundred pounds without ten notaries and as many seals and +double the number of witnesses; in Rome great public treasure is +administered with honesty merely under the safeguard of an oath. + +As we see, this passage contains direct evidence that in the second +century in Hellas--in contradistinction to Rome--there was an attempt to +break down the belief in the gods. By his "we" Polybius evidently referred +especially to the leading political circles. He knew these circles from +personal experience, and his testimony has all the more weight because he +does not come forward in the rôle of the orthodox man complaining in the +usual way of the impiety of his contemporaries; on the contrary, he speaks +as the educated and enlightened man to whom it is a matter of course that +all this talk about the gods and the underworld is a myth which nobody +among the better classes takes seriously. This is a tone we have not heard +before, and it is a strong indirect testimony to the fact that Polybius is +not wrong when he speaks of disbelief among the upper classes of Greece. + +In this connexion the work of Polybius has a certain interest on another +point. Where earlier--and later--authors would speak of the intervention of +the gods in the march of history, he operates as a rule with an idea which +he calls Tyche. The word is untranslatable when used in this way. It is +something between chance, fortune and fate. It is more comprehensive and +more personal than chance; it has not the immutable, the "lawbound" +character of fate; rather it denotes the incalculability, the +capriciousness associated, especially in earlier usage, with the word +fortune, but without the tendency of this word to be used in a good sense. + +This Tyche-religion--if we may use this expression--was not new in Hellas. +Quite early we find Tyche worshipped as a goddess among the other deities, +and it is an old notion that the gods send good fortune, a notion which +set its mark on a series of established phrases in private and public +life. But what is of interest here is that shifting of religious ideas in +the course of which Tyche drives the gods into the background. We find +indications of it as early as Thucydides. In his view of history he lays +the main stress, certainly, on human initiative, and not least on rational +calculation, as the cause of events. But where he is obliged to reckon +with an element independent of human efforts, he calls it Tyche and not +"the immortal gods." A somewhat similar view we find in another great +political author of the stage of transition to our period, namely, +Demosthenes. Demosthenes of course employs the official apparatus of gods: +he invokes them on solemn occasions; he quotes their authority in support +of his assertions (once he even reported a revelation which he had in a +dream); he calls his opponents enemies of the gods, etc. But in his +political considerations the gods play a negligible part. The factors with +which he reckons as a rule are merely political forces. Where he is +compelled to bring forward elements which man cannot control, he shows a +preference for Tyche. He certainly occasionally identifies her with the +favour of the gods, but in such a way as to give the impression that it is +only a _façon de parler_. Direct pronouncements of a free-thinking kind +one would not expect from an orator and statesman, and yet Demosthenes was +once bold enough to say that Pythia, the mouthpiece of the Delphic Oracle, +was a partisan of Macedonia, an utterance which his opponent Aeschines, +who liked to parade his orthodoxy, did not omit to cast in his teeth. On +the whole, Aeschines liked to represent Demosthenes as a godless fellow, +and it is not perhaps without significance that the latter never directly +replied to such attacks, or indirectly did anything to impair their force. + +During the violent revolutions that took place in Hellas under Alexander +the Great and his successors, and the instability of social and political +conditions consequent thereon, the Tyche-religion received a fresh +impetus. With one stroke Hellas was flung into world politics. Everything +grew to colossal proportions in comparison with earlier conditions. The +small Hellenic city-states that had hitherto been each for itself a world +shrank into nothing. It is as if the old gods could not keep pace with +this violent process of expansion. Men felt a craving for a wider and more +comprehensive religious concept to answer to the changed conditions, and +such an idea was found in the idea of Tyche. Thoughtful men, such as +Demetrius of Phalerum, wrote whole books about it; states built temples to +Tyche; in private religion also it played a great part. No one reflected +much on the relation of Tyche to the old gods. It must be remembered that +Tyche is a real layman's notion, and that Hellenistic philosophy regarded +it as its task precisely to render man independent of the whims of fate. +Sometimes, however, we find a positive statement of the view that Tyche +ruled over the gods also. It is characteristic of the state of affairs; +men did not want to relinquish the old gods, but could not any longer +allow them the leading place. + +If we return for a moment to Polybius, we shall find that his conception +of Tyche strikingly illustrates the distance between him and Thucydides. +In the introduction to his work, on its first page, he points out that the +universally acknowledged task of historical writing is partly to educate +people for political activities, partly to teach them to bear the +vicissitudes of fortune with fortitude by reminding them of the lot of +others. And subsequently, when he passes on to his main theme, the +foundation of the Roman world-empire, after having explained the plan of +his work, he says: "So far then our plan. But the _co-operation of +fortune_ is still needed if my life is to be long enough for me to +accomplish my purpose." An earlier--or a later--author would here either +have left the higher powers out of the game altogether or would have used +an expression showing more submission to the gods of the popular faith. + +In a later author, Pliny the Elder, we again find a characteristic +utterance throwing light upon the significance of the Tyche-religion. +After a very free-thinking survey of the popular notions regarding the +gods, Pliny says: "As an intermediate position between these two views +(that there is a divine providence and that there is none) men have +themselves invented another divine power, in order that speculation about +the deity might become still more uncertain. Throughout the world, in +every place, at every hour of the day, Fortune alone is invoked and named +by every mouth; she alone is accused, she bears the guilt of everything; +of her only do we think, to her is all praise, to her all blame. And she +is worshipped with railing words--she is deemed inconstant, by many even +blind; she is fickle, unstable, uncertain, changeable; giving her favours +to the unworthy. To her is imputed every loss, every gain; in all the +accounts of life she alone fills up both the debit and the credit side, +and we are so subject to chance that Chance itself becomes our god, and +again proves the incertitude of the deity." Even if a great deal of this +may be put down to rhetoric, by which Pliny was easily carried away, the +solid fact itself remains that he felt justified in speaking as if Dame +Fortune had dethroned all the old gods. + +That this view of life must have persisted very tenaciously even down to a +time when a strong reaction in the direction of positive religious feeling +had set in, is proved by the romances of the time. The novels of the +ancients were in general poor productions. Most of them are made after the +recipe of a little misfortune in each chapter and great happiness in the +last. The two lovers meet, fall in love, part, and suffer a series of +troubles individually until they are finally united. The power that +governs their fates and shapes everything according to this pattern is +regularly Tyche, never the gods. The testimony of the novels is of special +significance because they were read by the general mass of the educated +classes, not by the select who had philosophy to guide them. + +Another testimony to the weakening of popular faith in the Hellenistic age +is the decay of the institution of the Oracle. This, also, is of early +date; as early as the fifth and fourth century we hear much less of the +interference of the oracles in political matters than in earlier times. +The most important of them all, the Delphic Oracle, was dealt a terrible +blow in the Holy War (356-346 B.C.), when the Phocians seized it and used +the treasures which had been accumulated in it during centuries to hire +mercenaries and carry on war. Such proceedings would assuredly have been +impossible a century earlier; no soldiers could have been hired with money +acquired in such a way, or, if they could have been procured, all Hellas +would have risen in arms against the robbers of the Temple, whereas in the +Holy War most of the states were indifferent, and several even sided with +the Phocians. In the succeeding years, after Philip of Macedonia had put +an end to the Phocian scandal, the Oracle was in reality in his hands--it +was during this period that Demosthenes stigmatised it as the mouthpiece +of Philip. In the succeeding centuries, too, it was dependent on the +various rulers of Hellas and undoubtedly lost all public authority. During +this period we hear very little of the oracles of Hellas until the time +before and after the birth of Christ provides us with definite evidence of +their complete decay. + +Thus Strabo, who wrote during the reign of Augustus, says that the +ancients attached more importance to divination generally and oracles more +particularly, whereas people in his day were quite indifferent to these +things. He gives as the reason that the Romans were content to use the +Sibylline books and their own system of divination. His remark is made _a +propos_ of the Oracle in Libya, which was formerly in great repute, but +was almost extinct in his time. He is undoubtedly correct as to the fact, +but the decline of the oracular system cannot be explained by the +indifference of the Romans. Plutarch, in a monograph on the discontinuance +of the oracles, furnishes us with more detailed information. From this it +appears that not only the Oracle of Ammon but also the numerous oracles of +Boeotia had ceased to exist, with one exception, while even for the Oracle +at Delphi, which had formerly employed three priestesses, a single one +amply sufficed. We also note the remark that the questions submitted to +the Oracle were mostly unworthy or of no importance. + +The want of consideration sometimes shown to sacred places and things +during the wars of the Hellenistic period may no doubt also be regarded as +the result of a weakening of interest in the old gods. We have detailed +information on this point from the war between Philip of Macedonia and the +Aetolians in 220-217 B.C. The Aetolians began by destroying the temples at +Dium and Dodona, whereupon Philip retaliated by totally wrecking the +federal sanctuary of the Aetolians at Thermon. Of Philip's admiral +Dicaearchus we are told by Polybius that wherever he landed he erected +altars to "godlessness and lawlessness" and offered up sacrifice on them. +Judging by the way he was hated, his practice must have answered to his +theory. + +One more phenomenon must be mentioned in this context, though it falls +outside the limits within which we have hitherto moved, and though its +connexion with free-thought and religious enlightenment will no doubt, on +closer examination, prove disputable. This is the decay of the established +worship of the Roman State in the later years of the Republic. + +In the preceding pages there has been no occasion to include conditions in +Rome in our investigation, simply because nothing has come down to us +about atheism in the earlier days of Rome, and we may presume that it did +not exist. Of any religious thought at Rome corresponding to that of the +Greeks we hear nothing, nor did the Romans produce any philosophy. +Whatever knowledge of philosophy there was at Rome was simply borrowed +from the Greeks. The Greek influence was not seriously felt until the +second century B.C., even though as early as about the middle of the third +century the Romans, through the performance of plays translated from the +Greek, made acquaintance with Greek dramatic poetry and the religious +thought contained therein. Neither the latter, nor the heresies of the +philosophers, seem to have made any deep impression upon them. Ennius, +their most important poet of the second century, was no doubt strongly +influenced by Greek free-thinking, but this was evidently an isolated +phenomenon. Also, by birth Ennius was not a native of Rome but half a +Greek. The testimony of Polybius (from the close of the second century) to +Roman religious conservatism is emphatic enough. Its causes are doubtless +of a complex nature, but as one of them the peculiar character of the +Roman religion itself stands out prominently. However much it resembled +Greek religion in externals--a resemblance which was strengthened by +numerous loans both of religious rites and of deities--it is decidedly +distinct from it in being restricted still more to cultus and, above all, +in being entirely devoid of mythology. The Roman gods were powers about +the rites of whose worship the most accurate details were known or could +be ascertained if need were, but they had little personality, and about +their personal relations people knew little and cared less. This was, +aesthetically, a great defect. The Roman gods afforded no good theme for +poetry and art, and when they were to be used as such they were invariably +replaced by loans from the Greeks. But, as in the face of Greek +free-thought and Greek criticism of religion, they had the advantage that +the vital point for attack was lacking. All the objectionable tales of the +exploits of the gods and the associated ideas about their nature which had +prompted the Greek attack on the popular faith simply did not exist in +Roman religion. On the other hand, its rites were in many points more +primitive than the Greek ones, but Greek philosophy had been very reserved +in its criticism of ritual. We may thus no doubt take it for granted, +though we have no direct evidence to that effect, that even Romans with a +Greek education long regarded the Greek criticism of religion as something +foreign which was none of their concern. + +That a time came when all this was changed; that towards the end of the +Republic great scepticism concerning the established religion of Rome was +found among the upper classes, is beyond doubt, and we shall subsequently +find occasion to consider this more closely. In this connexion another +circumstance demands attention, one which, moreover, has by some been +associated with Greek influence among the upper classes, namely, the decay +of the established worship of the Roman State during the last years of the +Republic. Of the actual facts there can hardly be any doubt, though we +know very little about them. The decisive symptoms are: that Augustus, +after having taken over the government, had to repair some eighty +dilapidated temples in Rome and reinstitute a series of religious rites +and priesthoods which had ceased to function. Among them was one of the +most important, that of the priest of Jupiter, an office which had been +vacant for more than seventy-five years (87-11 B.C.), because it excluded +the holder from a political career. Further, that complaints were made of +private persons encroaching on places that were reserved for religious +worship; and that Varro, when writing his great work on the Roman +religion, in many cases was unable to discover what god was the object of +an existing cult; and generally, according to his own statement he wrote +his work, among other things, in order to save great portions of the old +Roman religion from falling into utter oblivion on account of the +indifference of the Romans themselves. It is obvious that such a state of +affairs would have been impossible in a community where the traditional +religion was a living power, not only formally acknowledged by everybody, +but felt to be a necessary of life, the spiritual daily bread, as it were, +of the nation. + +To hold, however, that the main cause of the decay of the established +religion of Rome was the invasion of Greek culture, together with the fact +that the members of the Roman aristocracy, from whom the priests were +recruited and who superintended the cult, had become indifferent to the +traditional religion through this influence, this, I think, is to go +altogether astray. We may take it for granted that the governing classes +in Rome would not have ventured to let the cult decay if there had been +any serious interest in it among the masses of the population; and it is +equally certain that Greek philosophy and religious criticism did not +penetrate to these masses. When they became indifferent to the national +religion, this was due to causes that had nothing to do with free-thought. +The old Roman religion was adapted for a small, narrow and homogeneous +community whose main constituent and real core consisted of the farmers, +large and small, and minor artisans. In the last centuries of the Republic +the social development had occasioned the complete decay of the Roman +peasantry, and the free artisans had fared little better. In the place of +the old Rome had arisen the capital of an empire, inhabited by a +population of a million and of extraordinarily mixed composition. Not only +did this population comprise a number of immigrant foreigners, but, in +consequence of the peculiar Roman rule that every slave on being set free +attained citizenship, a large percentage of the citizens must of necessity +have been of foreign origin. Only certain portions of the Roman religion, +more especially the cult of the great central deities of the State +religion, can have kept pace with these changed conditions; the remainder +had in reality lost all hold on Roman society as it had developed in +process of time, and was only kept alive by force of habit. To this must +be added the peculiar Roman mixture of mobility and conservatism in +religious matters. The Roman superstition and uncertainty in regard to the +gods led on the one hand to a continual setting up of new cults and new +sanctuaries, and on the other hand to a fear of letting any of the old +cults die out. In consequence thereof a great deal of dead and worthless +ritual material must have accumulated in Rome in the course of centuries, +and was of course in the way during the rapid development of the city in +the last century of the Republic. Things must gradually have come to such +a pass that a thorough reform, above all a reduction, of the whole cult +had become a necessity. To introduce such a reform the republican +government was just as unsuited as it was to carry out all the other tasks +imposed by the development of the empire and the capital at that time. On +this point, however, it must not be forgotten that the governing class not +only lacked ability, for political reasons, to carry out serious reforms, +but also the will to do so, on account of religious indifference, and so +let things go altogether to the bad. The consequence was anarchy, in this +as in all other spheres at that time; but at the same time the tendency +towards the only sensible issue, a restriction of the old Roman +State-cult, is plainly evident. The simultaneous strong infusion of +foreign religions was unavoidable in the mixed population of the capital. +That these influences also affected the lower classes of the citizens is +at any rate a proof that they were not indifferent to religion. + +In its main outlines this is all the information that I have been able to +glean about the general decline of the belief in the gods during the +Hellenistic period. Judging from such information we should expect to find +strong tendencies to atheism in the philosophy of the period. These +anticipations are, however, doomed to disappointment. The ruling +philosophical schools on the whole preserved a friendly attitude towards +the gods of the popular faith and especially towards their worship, +although they only accepted the existing religion with strict reservation. + +Most characteristic but least consistent and original was the attitude of +the Stoic school. The Stoics were pantheists. Their deity was a substance +which they designated as fire, but which, it must be admitted, differed +greatly from fire as an element. It permeated the entire world. It had +produced the world out of itself, and it absorbed it again, and this +process was repeated to eternity. The divine fire was also reason, and as +such the cause of the harmony of the world-order. What of conscious reason +was found in the world was part of the divine reason. + +Though in this scheme of things there was in the abstract plenty of room +for the gods of popular belief, nevertheless the Stoics did not in reality +acknowledge them. In principle their standpoint was the same as +Aristotle's. They supposed the heavenly bodies to be divine, but all the +rest, namely, the anthropomorphic gods, were nothing to them. + +In their explanation of the origin of the gods they went beyond Aristotle, +but their doctrine was not always the same on this point. The earlier +Stoics regarded mythology and all theology as human inventions, but not +arbitrary inventions. Mythology, they thought, should be understood +allegorically; it was the naïve expression partly of a correct conception +of Nature, partly of ethical and metaphysical truths. Strictly speaking, +men had always been Stoics, though in an imperfect way. This point of view +was elaborated in detail by the first Stoics, who took their stand partly +on the earlier naturalism which had already broken the ground in this +direction, and partly on sophistic, so that they even brought into vogue +again the theory of Prodicus, that the gods were a hypostasis of the +benefits of civilisation. Such a standpoint could not of course be +maintained without arbitrariness and absurdities which exposed it to +embarrassing criticism. This seems to have been the reason why the later +Stoics, and especially Poseidonius, took another road. They adopted the +doctrine of Xenocrates with regard to demons and developed it in fantastic +forms. The earlier method was not, however, given up, and at the time of +Cicero we find both views represented in the doctrine of the school. + +Such is the appearance of the theory. In both its forms it is evidently an +attempt to meet popular belief half-way from a standpoint which is really +beyond it. This tendency is seen even more plainly in the practice of the +Stoics. They recognised public worship and insisted on its advantages; in +their moral reflections they employed the gods as ideals in the Socratic +manner, regardless of the fact that in their theory they did not really +allow for gods who were ideal men; nay, they even went the length of +giving to their philosophical deity, the "universal reason," the name of +Zeus by preference, though it had nothing but the name in common with the +Olympian ruler of gods and men. This pervading ambiguity brought much +well-deserved reproof on the Stoics even in ancient times; but, however +unattractive it may seem to us, it is of significance as a manifestation +of the great hold popular belief continued to have even on the minds of +the upper classes, for it was to these that the Stoics appealed. + +Far more original and consistent is the Epicurean attitude towards the +popular faith. Epicurus unreservedly acknowledged its foundation, _i.e._ +the existence of anthropomorphic beings of a higher order than man. His +gods had human shape but they were eternal and blessed. In the latter +definition was included, according to the ethical ideal of Epicurus, the +idea that the gods were free from every care, including taking an interest +in nature or in human affairs. They were entirely outside the world, a +fact to which Epicurus gave expression by placing them in the empty spaces +between the infinite number of spherical worlds which he assumed. There +his gods lived in bliss like ideal Epicureans. Lucretius, the only poet of +this school, extolled them in splendid verse whose motif he borrowed from +Homer's description of Olympus. In this way Epicurus also managed to +uphold public worship itself. It could not, of course, have any practical +aim, but it was justified as an expression of the respect man owed to +beings whose existence expressed the human ideal. + +The reasons why Epicurus assumed this attitude towards popular belief are +simple enough. He maintained that the evidence of sensual perception was +the basis of all knowledge, and he thought that the senses (through +dreams) gave evidence of the existence of the gods. And in the popular +ideas of the bliss of the gods he found his ethical ideal directly +confirmed. As regards their eternity the case was more difficult. The +basis of his system was the theory that everything was made of atoms and +that only the atoms as such, not the bodies composed of the atoms, were +eternal. He conceived the gods, too, as made of atoms, nevertheless he +held that they were eternal. Any rational explanation of this postulate is +not possible on Epicurus's hypotheses, and the criticism of his theology +was therefore especially directed against this point. + +Epicurus was the Greek philosopher who most consistently took the course +of emphasising the popular dogma of the perfection of the gods in order to +preserve the popular notions about them. And he was the philosopher to +whom this would seem the most obvious course, because his ethical +ideal--quietism--agreed with the oldest popular ideal of divine existence. +In this way Epicureanism became the most orthodox of all Greek +philosophical schools. If nevertheless Epicurus did not escape the charge +of atheism the sole reason is that his whole theology was denounced +off-hand as hypocrisy. It was assumed to be set up by him only to shield +himself against a charge of impiety, not to be his actual belief. This +accusation is now universally acknowledged to be unjustified, and the +Epicureans had no difficulty in rebutting it with interest. They took +special delight in pointing out that the theology of the other schools was +much more remote from popular belief than theirs, nay, in spite of +recognition of the existing religion, was in truth fundamentally at +variance with it. But in reality their own was in no better case: gods who +did not trouble in the least about human affairs were beings for whom +popular belief had no use. It made no difference that Epicurus's +definition of the nature of the gods was the direct outcome of a +fundamental doctrine of popular belief. Popular religion will not tolerate +pedantry. + +In this connexion we cannot well pass over a third philosophical school +which played no inconspicuous rôle in the latter half of our period, +namely, Scepticism. The Sceptic philosophy as such dates from Socrates, +from whom the so-called Megarian school took its origin, but it did not +reach its greatest importance until the second century, when the Academic +school became Sceptic. It was especially the famous philosopher Carneades, +a brilliant master of logic and dialectic, who made a success by his +searching negative criticism of the doctrines of the other philosophical +schools (the Dogmatics). For such criticism the theology of the +philosophers was a grateful subject, and Carneades did not spare it. Here +as in all the investigations of the Sceptics the theoretical result was +that no scientific certainty could be attained: it was equally wrong to +assert or to deny the existence of the gods. But in practice the attitude +of the Sceptics was quite different. Just as they behaved like other +people, acting upon their immediate impressions and experience, though +they did not believe that anything could be scientifically proved, _e.g._ +not even the reality of the world of the senses, so also did they +acknowledge the existing cult and lived generally like good heathens. +Characteristic though Scepticism be of a period of Greek spiritual life in +which Greek thought lost its belief in itself, it was, however, very far +from supporting atheism. On the contrary, according to the correct Sceptic +doctrine atheism was a dogmatic contention which theoretically was as +objectionable as its antithesis, and in practice was to be utterly +discountenanced. + +A more radical standpoint than this as regards the gods of the popular +faith is not found during the Hellenistic period except among the less +noted schools, and in the beginning of the period. We have already +mentioned such thinkers as Strato, Theodorus, and Stilpo; chronologically +they belong to the Hellenistic Age, but in virtue of their connexion with +the Socratic philosophy they were dealt with in the last chapter. A +definite polemical attitude towards the popular faith is also a +characteristic of the Cynic school, hence, though our information is very +meagre, we must speak of it a little more fully. + +The Cynics continued the tendency of Antisthenes, but the school +comparatively soon lost its importance. After the third century we hear no +more about the Cynics until they crop up again about the year A.D. 100. +But in the fourth and third centuries the school had important +representatives. The most famous is Diogenes; his life, to be sure, is +entangled in such a web of legend that it is difficult to arrive at a true +picture of his personality. Of his attitude towards popular belief we know +one thing, that he did not take part in the worship of the gods. This was +a general principle of the Cynics; their argument was that the gods were +"in need of nothing" (cf. above, pp. 60 and 41). If we find him accused of +atheism, in an anecdote of very doubtful value, it may, if there is +anything in it, be due to his rejection of worship. Of one of his +successors, however, Bion of Borysthenes, we have authentic information +that he denied the existence of the gods, with the edifying legend +attached that he was converted before his death. But we also hear of Bion +that he was a disciple of the atheist Theodorus, and other facts go to +suggest that Bion united Cynic and Hedonistic principles in his mode of +life--a compromise that was not so unlikely as might be supposed. Bion's +attitude cannot therefore be taken as typical of Cynicism. Another Cynic +of about the same period (the beginning of the third century) was Menippus +of Gadara (in northern Palestine). He wrote tales and dialogues in a +mixture of prose and verse. The contents were satirical, the satire being +directed against the contemporary philosophers and their doctrines, and +against the popular notions of the gods. Menippus availed himself partly +of the old criticism of mythology and partly of the philosophical attacks +on the popular conception of the gods. The only novelty was the facetious +form in which he concealed the sting of serious criticism. It is +impossible to decide whether he positively denied the existence of the +gods, but his satire on the popular notions and its success among his +contemporaries at least testifies to the weakening of the popular faith +among the educated classes. In Hellas itself he seems to have gone out of +fashion very early; but the Romans took him up again; Varro and Seneca +imitated him, and Lucian made his name famous again in the Greek world in +the second century after Christ. It is chiefly due to Lucian that we can +form an idea of Menippus's literary work, hence we shall return to Cynic +satire in our chapter on the age of the Roman Empire. + +During our survey of Greek philosophical thought in the Hellenistic period +we have only met with a few cases of atheism in the strict sense, and they +all occur about and immediately after 300, though there does not seem to +be any internal connexion between them. About the same time there appeared +a writer, outside the circle of philosophers, who is regularly listed +among the _atheoi_, and who has given a name to a peculiar theory about +the origin of the idea of the gods, namely, Euhemerus. He is said to have +travelled extensively in the service of King Cassander of Macedonia. At +any rate he published his theological views in the shape of a book of +travel which was, however, wholly fiction. He relates how he came to an +island, Panchaia, in the Indian Ocean, and in a temple there found a +lengthy inscription in which Uranos, Kronos, Zeus and other gods recorded +their exploits. The substance of the tale was that these gods had once +been men, great kings and rulers, who had bestowed on their peoples all +sorts of improvements in civilisation and had thus got themselves +worshipped as gods. It appears from the accounts that Euhemerus supposed +the heavenly bodies to be real and eternal gods--he thought that Uranos had +first taught men to worship them; further, as his theory is generally +understood, it must be assumed that in his opinion the other gods had +ceased to exist as such after their death. This accords with the fact that +Euhemerus was generally characterised as an atheist. + +The theory that the gods were at first men was not originated by +Euhemerus, though it takes its name (Euhemerism) from him. The theory had +some support in the popular faith which recognised gods (Heracles, +Asclepius) who had lived as men on earth; and the opinion which was +fundamental to Greek religion, that the gods had _come into existence_, +and had not existed from eternity, would favour this theory. Moreover, +Euhemerus had had an immediate precursor in the slightly earlier Hecataeus +of Abdera, who had set forth a similar theory, with the difference, +however, that he took the view that all excellent men became real gods. +But Euhemerus's theory appeared just at the right moment and fell on +fertile soil. Alexander the Great and his successors had adopted the +Oriental policy by which the ruler was worshipped as a god, and were +supported in this by a tendency which had already made itself felt +occasionally among the Greeks in the East. Euhemerus only inverted +matters--if the rulers were gods, it was an obvious inference that the gods +were rulers. No wonder that his theory gained a large following. Its great +influence is seen from numerous similar attempts in the Hellenistic world. +At Rome, in the second century, Ennius translated his works into Latin, +and as late as the time of Augustus an author such as Diodorus, in his +popular history of the world, served up Euhemerism as the best scientific +explanation of the origin of religion. It is characteristic, too, that +both Jews and Christians, in their attacks on Paganism, reckoned with +Euhemerism as a well-established theory. As every one knows, it has +survived to our day; Carlyle, I suppose, being its last prominent +exponent. + +It is characteristic of Euhemerism in its most radical form that it +assumed that the gods of polytheism did not exist; so far it is atheism. +But it is no less characteristic that it made the concession to popular +belief that its gods had once existed. Hereby it takes its place, in spite +of its greater radicalism, on the same plane with most other ancient +theories about the origin of men's notions about the gods. The gods of +popular belief could not survive in the light of ancient thought, which in +its essence was free-thought, not tied down by dogmas. But the +philosophers of old could not but believe that a psychological fact of +such enormous dimensions as ancient polytheism must have something +answering to it in the objective world. Ancient philosophy never got clear +of this dilemma; hence Plato's open recognition of the absurdity; hence +Aristotle's delight at being able to meet the popular faith half-way in +his assumption of the divinity of the heavenly bodies; hence Xenocrates's +demons, the allegories of the Stoics, the ideal Epicureans of Epicurus, +Euhemerus's early benefactors of mankind. And we may say that the more the +Greeks got to know of the world about them the more they were confirmed in +their view, for in the varied multiplicity of polytheism they found the +same principle everywhere, the same belief in a multitude of beings of a +higher order than man. + +Euhemerus's theory is no doubt the last serious attempt in the old pagan +world to give an explanation of the popular faith which may be called +genuine atheism. We will not, however, leave the Hellenistic period +without casting a glance at some personalities about whom we have +information enough to form an idea at first hand of their religious +standpoint, and whose attitude towards popular belief at any rate comes +very near to atheism pure and simple. + +One of them is Polybius. In the above-cited passage referring to the +decline of the popular faith in the Hellenistic period, Polybius also +gives his own theory of the origin of men's notions regarding the gods. It +is not new. It is the theory known from the Critias fragment, what may be +called the political theory. In the fragment it appears as atheism pure +and simple, and it seems obvious to understand it in the same way in +Polybius. That he shows a leaning towards Euhemerism in another passage +where he speaks about the origin of religious ideas, is in itself not +against this--the two theories are closely related and might very well be +combined. But we have a series of passages in which Polybius expressed +himself in a way that seems quite irreconcilable with a purely atheistic +standpoint. He expressly acknowledged divination and worship as justified; +in several places he refers to disasters that have befallen individuals or +a whole people as being sent by the gods, or even as a punishment for +impiety; and towards the close of his work he actually, in marked contrast +to the tone of its beginning, offers up a prayer to the gods to grant him +a happy ending to his long life. It would seem as if Polybius at a certain +period of his life came under the influence of Stoicism and in consequence +greatly modified his earlier views. That these were of an atheistic +character seems, however, beyond doubt, and that is the decisive point in +this connexion. + +Cicero's philosophical standpoint was that of an Academic, _i.e._ a +Sceptic. But--in accord, for the rest, with the doctrines of the school +just at this period--he employed his liberty as a Sceptic to favour such +philosophical doctrines as seemed to him more reasonable than others, +regardless of the school from which they were derived. In his philosophy +of religion he was more especially a Stoic. He himself expressly insisted +on this point of view in the closing words of his work on the _Nature of +the Gods_. As he was not, and made no pretence of being, a philosopher, +his philosophical expositions have no importance for us; they are +throughout second-hand, mostly mere translations from Greek sources. That +we have employed them in the foregoing pages to throw light on the +theology of the earlier, more especially the Hellenistic, philosophy, goes +without saying. But his personal religious standpoint is not without +interest. + +As orator and statesman Cicero took his stand wholly on the side of the +established Roman religion, operating with the "immortal gods," with +Jupiter Optimus Maximus, etc., at his convenience. In his works on the +_State_ and the _Laws_ he adheres decidedly to the established religion. +But all this is mere politics. Personally Cicero had no religion other +than philosophy. Philosophy was his consolation in adversity, or he +attempted to make it so, for the result was often indifferent; and he +looked to philosophy to guide him in ethical questions. We never find any +indication in his writings that the gods of popular belief meant anything +to him in these respects. And what is more--he assumed this off-hand to be +the standpoint of everybody else, and evidently he was justified. A great +number of letters from him to his circle, and not a few from his friends +and acquaintances to him, have been preserved; and in his philosophical +writings he often introduces contemporary Romans as characters in the +dialogue. But in all this literature there is never the faintest +indication that a Roman of the better class entertained, or could even be +supposed to entertain, an orthodox view with regard to the State religion. +To Cicero and his circle the popular faith did not exist as an element of +their personal religion. + +Such a standpoint is of course, practically speaking, atheism, and in this +sense atheism was widely spread among the higher classes of the +Graeco-Roman society about the time of the birth of Christ. But from this +to theoretical atheism there is still a good step. Cicero himself affords +an amusing example of how easily people, who have apparently quite +emancipated themselves from the official religion of their community, may +backslide. When his beloved daughter Tullia died in the year 45 B.C., it +became evident that Cicero, in the first violence of his grief, which was +the more overwhelming because he was excluded from political activity +during Cæsar's dictatorship, could not console himself with philosophy +alone. He wanted something more tangible to take hold on, and so he hit +upon the idea of having Tullia exalted among the gods. He thought of +building a temple and instituting a cult in her honour. He moved heaven +and earth to arrange the matter, sought to buy ground in a prominent place +in Rome, and was willing to make the greatest pecuniary sacrifices to get +a conspicuous result. Nothing came of it all, however; Cicero's friends, +who were to help him to put the matter through, were perhaps hardly so +eager as he; time assuaged his own grief, and finally he contented himself +with publishing a consolatory epistle written by himself, or, correctly +speaking, translated from a famous Greek work and adapted to the occasion. +So far he ended where he should, _i.e._ in philosophy; but the little +incident is significant, not least because it shows what practical ends +Euhemerism could be brought to serve and how doubtful was its atheistic +character after all. For not only was the contemplated apotheosis of +Tullia in itself a Euhemeristic idea, but Cicero also expressly defended +it with Euhemeristic arguments, though speaking as if the departed who +were worshipped as gods really had become gods. + +The attitude of Cicero and his contemporaries towards popular belief was +still the general attitude in the first days of the Empire. It was of no +avail that Augustus re-established the decayed State cult in all its +splendour and variety, or that the poets during his reign, when they +wished to express themselves in harmony with the spirit of the new régime, +directly or indirectly extolled the revived orthodoxy. Wherever we find +personal religious feeling expressed by men of that time, in the Epistles +of Horace, in Virgil's posthumous minor poems or in such passages in his +greater works where he expresses his own ideals, it is philosophy that is +predominant and the official religion ignored. Virgil was an Epicurean; +Horace an Eclectic, now an Epicurean, then a Stoic; Augustus had a +domestic philosopher. Ovid employed his genius in writing travesties of +the old mythology while at the same time he composed a poem, serious for +him, on the Roman cult; and when disaster befell him and he was cast out +from the society of the capital, which was the breath of life to him, he +was abandoned not only by men, but also by the gods--he had not even a +philosophy with which to console himself. It is only in inferior writers +such as Valerius Maximus, who wrote a work on great deeds--good and +evil--under Tiberius, that we find a different spirit. + +Direct utterances about men's relationship to the gods, from which +conclusions can be drawn, are seldom met with during this period. The +whole question was so remote from the thoughts of these people that they +never mentioned it except when they assumed an orthodox air for political +or aesthetic reasons. Still, here and there we come across something. One +of the most significant pronouncements is that of Pliny the Elder, from +whom we quoted the passage about the worship of Fortune. Pliny opens his +scientific encyclopedia by explaining the structure of the universe in its +broad features; this he does on the lines of the physics of the Stoics, +hence he designates the universe as God. Next comes a survey of special +theology. It is introduced as follows: "I therefore deem it a sign of +human weakness to ask about the shape and form of God. Whoever God is, if +any other god (than the universe) exists at all, and in whatever part of +the world he is, he is all perception, all sight, all hearing, all soul, +all reason, all self." The popular notions of the gods are then reviewed, +in the most supercilious tone, and their absurdities pointed out. A polite +bow is made to the worship of the Emperors and its motives, the rest is +little but persiflage. Not even Providence, which was recognised by the +Stoics, is acknowledged by Pliny. The conclusion is like the beginning: +"To imperfect human nature it is a special consolation that God also is +not omnipotent (he can neither put himself to death, even if he would, +though he has given man that power and it is his choicest gift in this +punishment which is life; nor can he give immortality to mortals or call +the dead to life; nor can he bring it to pass that those who have lived +have not lived, or that he who has held honourable offices did not hold +them); and that he has no other power over the past than that of oblivion; +and that (in order that we may also give a jesting proof of our +partnership with God) he cannot bring it about that twice ten is not +twenty, and more of the same sort--by all which the power of Nature is +clearly revealed, and that it is this we call God." + +An opinion like that expressed here must without doubt be designated as +atheism, even though it is nothing but the Stoic pantheism logically +carried out. As we have said before, we rarely meet it so directly +expressed, but there can hardly be any doubt that even in the time of +Pliny it was quite common in Rome. At this point, then, had the educated +classes of the ancient world arrived under the influence of Hellenistic +philosophy. + + + + + +CHAPTER VII + + +Though the foundation of the Empire in many ways inaugurated a new era for +the antique world, it is, of course, impossible, in an inquiry which is +not confined to political history in the narrowest sense of the word, to +operate with anything but the loosest chronological divisions. Accordingly +in the last chapter we had to include phenomena from the early days of the +Empire in order not to separate things which naturally belonged together. +From the point of view of religious history the dividing line cannot +possibly be drawn at the Emperor Augustus, in spite of his restoration of +worship and the orthodox reaction in the official Augustan poetry, but +rather at about the beginning of the second century. The enthusiasm of the +Augustan Age for the good old times was never much more than affectation. +It quickly evaporated when the promised millennium was not forthcoming, +and was replaced by a reserve which developed into cynicism--but, be it +understood, in the upper circles of the capital only. In the empire at +large the development took its natural tranquil course, unaffected by the +manner in which the old Roman nobility was effacing itself; and this +development did not tend towards atheism. + +The reaction towards positive religious feeling, which becomes clearly +manifest in the second century after Christ, though the preparation for it +is undoubtedly of earlier date, is perhaps the most remarkable phenomenon +in the religious history of antiquity. This is not the place to inquire +into its causes, which still remain largely unexplained; there is even no +reason to enter more closely into its outer manifestations, as the thing +itself is doubted by nobody. It is sufficient to mention as instances +authors like Suetonius, with his naïve belief in miracles, and the +rhetorician Aristides, with his Asclepius-cult and general +sanctimoniousness; or a minor figure such as Aelian, who wrote whole books +of a pronounced, nay even fanatical, devotionalism; or within the sphere +of philosophy movements like Neo-Pythagoreanism and Neo-Platonism, both of +which are as much in the nature of mystic theology as attempts at a +scientific explanation of the universe. It is characteristic, too, that an +essentially anti-religious school like that of the Epicureans actually +dies out at this time. Under these conditions our task in this chapter +must be to bring out the comparatively few and weak traces of other +currents which still made themselves felt. + +Of the earlier philosophical schools Stoicism flowered afresh in the +second century; the Emperor Marcus Aurelius himself was a prominent +adherent of the creed. This later Stoicism differs, however, somewhat from +the earlier. It limits the scientific apparatus which the early Stoics had +operated with to a minimum, and is almost exclusively concerned with +practical ethics on a religious basis. Its religion is that of ordinary +Stoicism: Pantheism and belief in Providence. But, on the whole, it takes +up a more sympathetic attitude towards popular religion than early +Stoicism had done. Of the bitter criticism of the absurdities of the +worship of the gods and of mythology which is still to be met with as late +as Seneca, nothing remains. On the contrary, participation in public +worship is still enjoined as being a duty; nay, more: attacks on belief in +the gods--in the plain popular sense of the word--are denounced as +pernicious and reprehensible. Perhaps no clearer proof could be adduced of +the revolution which had taken place in the attitude of the educated +classes towards popular religion than this change of front on the part of +Stoicism. + +Contrary to this was the attitude of another school which was in vogue at +the same time as the Stoic, namely, the Cynic. Between Cynicism and +popular belief strained relations had existed since early times. It is +true, the Cynics did not altogether deny the existence of the gods; but +they rejected worship on the ground that the gods were not in need of +anything, and they denied categorically the majority of the popular ideas +about the gods. For the latter were, in fact, popular and traditional, and +the whole aim of the Cynics was to antagonise the current estimate of +values. A characteristic instance of their manner is provided by this very +period in the fragments of the work of Oenomaus. The work was entitled +_The Swindlers Unmasked_, and it contained a violent attack on oracles. +Its tone is exceedingly pungent. In the extant fragments Oenomaus +addresses the god in Delphi and overwhelms him with insults. But we are +expressly told--and one utterance of Oenomaus himself verifies it--that the +attack was not really directed against the god, but against the men who +gave oracles in his name. In his opinion the whole thing was a priestly +fraud--a view which otherwise was rather unfamiliar to the ancients, but +played an important part later. Incidentally there is a violent attack on +idolatry. The work is not without acuteness of thought and a certain +coarse wit of the true Cynical kind; but it is entirely uncritical +(oracles are used which are evidently inventions of later times) and of no +great significance. It is even difficult to avoid the impression that the +author's aim is in some degree to create a sensation. Cynics of that day +were not strangers to that kind of thing. But it is at any rate a proof of +the fact that there were at the time tendencies opposed to the religious +reaction. + +A more significant phenomenon of the same kind is to be found in the +writings of Lucian. Lucian was by education a rhetorician, by profession +an itinerant lecturer and essayist. At a certain stage of his life he +became acquainted with the Cynic philosophy and for some time felt much +attracted to it. From that he evidently acquired a sincere contempt of the +vulgar superstition which flourished in his time, even in circles of which +one might have expected something better. In writings which for the +greater part belong to his later period, he pilloried individuals who +traded (or seemed to trade) in the religious ferment of the time, as well +as satirised superstition as such. In this way he made an important +contribution to the spiritual history of the age. But simultaneously he +produced, for the entertainment of his public, a series of writings the +aim of which is to make fun of the Olympian gods. In this work also he +leant on the literature of the Cynics, but substituted for their grave and +biting satire light causeries or slight dramatic sketches, in which his +wit--for Lucian was really witty--had full scope. As an instance of his +manner I shall quote a short passage from the dialogue _Timon_. It is Zeus +who speaks; he has given Hermes orders to send the god of wealth to Timon, +who has wasted his fortune by his liberality and is now abandoned by his +false friends. Then he goes on: "As to the flatterers you speak of and +their ingratitude, I shall deal with them another time, and they will meet +with their due punishment as soon as I have had my thunderbolt repaired. +The two largest darts of it were broken and blunted the other day when I +got in a rage and flung it at the sophist Anaxagoras, who was trying to +make his disciples believe that we gods do not exist at all. However, I +missed him, for Pericles held his hand over him, but the bolt struck the +temple of the Dioscuri and set fire to it, and the bolt itself was nearly +destroyed when it struck the rock." This sort of thing abounds in Lucian, +even if it is not always equally amusing and to the point. Now there is +nothing strange in the fact that a witty man for once should feel inclined +to make game of the old mythology; this might have happened almost at any +time, once the critical spirit had been awakened. But that a man, and +moreover an essayist, who had to live by the approval of his public, +should make it his trade, as it were, and that at a time of vigorous +religious reaction, seems more difficult to account for. Lucian's +controversial pamphlets against superstition cannot be classed off-hand +with his _Dialogues of the Gods_; the latter are of a quite different and +far more harmless character. The fact is rather that mythology at this +time was fair game. It was cut off from its connexion with religion--a +connexion which in historical times was never very intimate and was now +entirely severed. This had been brought about in part by centuries of +criticism of the most varied kind, in part precisely as a result of the +religious reaction which had now set in. If people turned during this time +to the old gods--who, however, had been considerably contaminated with new +elements--it was because they had nothing else to turn to; but what they +now looked for was something quite different from the old religion. The +powerful tradition which had bound members of each small community--we +should say, of each township--to its familiar gods, with all that belonged +to them, was now in process of dissolution; in the larger cities of the +world-empire with their mixed populations it had entirely disappeared. +Religion was no longer primarily a concern of society; it was a personal +matter. In the face of the enormous selection of gods which ancient +paganism came gradually to proffer, the individual was free to choose, as +individual or as a member of a communion based upon religious, not +political, sympathy. Under these circumstances the existence of the gods +and their power and will to help their worshippers was the only thing of +interest; all the old tales about them were more than ever myths of no +religious value. On closer inspection Lucian indeed proves to have +exercised a certain selection in his satire. Gods like Asclepius and +Serapis, who were popular in his day, he prefers to say nothing about; and +even with a phenomenon like Christianity he deals cautiously; he sticks to +the old Olympian gods. Thus his derision of these constitutes an indirect +proof that they had gone out of vogue, and his forbearance on other points +is a proof of the power of the current religion over contemporary minds. +As to ascribing any deeper religious conviction to Lucian--were it even of +a purely negative kind--that is, in view of the whole character of his +work, out of the question. To be sure, his polemical pamphlets against +superstition show clearly, like those of Oenomaus, that the religious +reaction did not run its course without criticism from certain sides; but +even here it is significant that the criticism comes from a professional +jester and not from a serious religious thinker. + +A few words remain to be said about the two monotheistic religions which +in the days of the Roman Empire came to play a great, one of them indeed a +decisive, part. I have already referred to pagan society's attitude +towards Judaism and Christianity, and pointed out that the adherents of +both were designated and treated as atheists--the Jews only occasionally +and with certain reservations, the Christians nearly always and +unconditionally. The question here is, how far this designation was +justified according to the definition of atheism which is the basis of our +inquiry. + +In the preceding pages we have several times referred to the fact that the +real enemy of Polytheism is not the philosophical theology, which +generally tends more or less towards Pantheism, but Monotheism. It is in +keeping with this that the Jews and the Christians in practice are +downright deniers of the pagan gods: they would not worship them; whereas +the Greek philosophers as a rule respected worship, however far they went +in their criticism of men's ideas of the gods. We shall not dwell here on +this aspect of the matter; we are concerned with the theory only. Detailed +expositions of it occur in numerous writings, from the passages in the Old +Testament where heathenism is attacked, to the defences of Christianity by +the latest Fathers of the Church. + +The original Jewish view, according to which the heathen gods are real +beings just as much as the God of the Jews themselves--only Jews must not +worship them--is in the later portions of the Old Testament superseded by +the view that the gods are only images made of wood, stone or metal, and +incapable of doing either good or evil. This point of view is taken over +by later Jewish authors and completely dominates them. In those acquainted +with Greek thought it is combined with Euhemeristic ideas: the images +represent dead men. The theory that the gods are really natural +objects--elements or heavenly bodies--is occasionally taken into account +too. Alongside of these opinions there appears also the view that the +pagan gods are evil spirits (demons). It is already found in a few places +in the Old Testament, and after that sporadically and quite incidentally +in later Jewish writings; in one place it is combined with the Old +Testament's account of the fallen angels. The demon-theory is not an +instrument of Jewish apologetics proper, not even of Philo, though he has +a complete demonology and can hardly have been ignorant of the +Platonic-Stoic doctrine of demons. + +Apart from the few and, as it were, incidental utterances concerning +demons, the Jewish view of the pagan gods impresses one as decidedly +atheistic. The god is identical with the idol, and the idol is a dead +object, the work of men's hands, or the god is identical with a natural +object, made by God to be sure, but without soul or, at any rate, without +divinity. It is remarkable that no Jewish controversialist seriously +envisaged the problem of the real view of the gods embodied in the popular +belief of the ancients, namely, that they are personal beings of a higher +order than man. It is inconceivable that men like Philo, Josephus and the +author of the Wisdom of Solomon should have been ignorant of it. I know +nothing to account for this curious phenomenon; and till some light has +been thrown upon the matter, I should hesitate to assert that the Jewish +conception of Polytheism was purely atheistic, however much appearance it +may have of being so. + +It was otherwise with Christian polemical writing. As early as St. Paul +the demon-theory appears distinctly, though side by side with utterances +of seemingly atheistic character. Other New Testament authors, too, +designate the gods as demons. The subsequent apologists, excepting the +earliest, Aristides, lay the main stress on demonology, but include for +the sake of completeness idolatry and the like, sometimes without caring +about or trying to conciliate the contradictions. In the long run +demonology is victorious; in St. Augustine, the foremost among Christian +apologists, there is hardly any other point of view that counts. + +To trace the Christian demonology in detail and give an account of its +various aspects is outside the scope of this essay. Its origin is a +twofold one, partly the Jewish demonology, which just at the commencement +of our era had received a great impetus, partly the theory of the Greek +philosophers, which we have characterised above when speaking of +Xenocrates. The Christian doctrine regarding demons differs from the +latter, especially by the fact that it does not acknowledge good demons; +they were all evil. This was the indispensable basis for the interdict +against the worship of demons; in its further development the Christians, +following Jewish tradition, pointed to an origin in the fallen angels, and +thus effected a connexion with the Old Testament. While they at the same +time retained its angelology they had to distinguish good and evil beings +intermediate between god and man; but they carefully avoided designating +the angels as demons, and kept them distinct from the pagan gods, who were +all demons and evil. + +The application of demonology to the pagan worship caused certain +difficulties in detail. To be sure, it was possible to identify a given +pagan god with a certain demon, and this was often done; but it was +impossible to identify the Pagans' conceptions of their gods with the +Christians' conceptions of demons. The Pagans, in fact, ascribed to their +gods not only demoniac (diabolical) but also divine qualities, which the +Christians absolutely denied them. Consequently they had to recognise that +pagan worship to a great extent rested on a delusion, on a misconception +of the essential character of the gods which were worshipped. This view +was corroborated by the dogma of the fallen angels, which was altogether +alien to paganism. By identifying them with the evil spirits of the Bible, +demon-names were even obtained which differed from those of the pagan gods +and, of course, were the correct ones; were they not given in Holy Writ? +In general, the Christians, who possessed an authentic revelation of the +matter, were of course much better informed about the nature of the pagan +gods than the Pagans themselves, who were groping in the dark. Euhemerism, +which plays a great part in the apologists, helped in the same direction: +the supposition that the idols were originally men existed among the +Pagans themselves, and it was too much in harmony with the tendency of the +apologists to be left unemployed. It was reconciled with demonology by the +supposition that the demons had assumed the masks of dead heroes; they had +beguiled mankind to worship them in order to possess themselves of the +sacrifices, which they always coveted, and by this deception to be able to +rule and corrupt men. The Christians also could not avoid recognising that +part of the pagan worship was worship of natural objects, in particular of +the heavenly bodies; and this error of worshipping the "creation instead +of the creator" was so obvious that the Christians were not inclined to +resort to demonology for an explanation of this phenomenon, the less so as +they could not identify the sun or the moon with a demon. The conflict of +these different points of view accounts for the peculiar vacillation in +the Christian conception of paganism. On one hand, we meet with crude +conceptions, according to which the pagan gods are just like so many +demons; they are specially prominent when pagan miracles and prophecies +are to be explained. On the other hand, there is a train of thought which +carried to its logical conclusion would lead to conceiving paganism as a +whole as a huge delusion of humanity, but a delusion caused indeed by +supernatural agencies. This conclusion hardly presented itself to the +early Church; later, however, it was drawn and caused a not inconsiderable +shifting in men's views and explanations of paganism. + +Demonology is to such a degree the ruling point of view in Christian +apologetics that it would be absurd to make a collection from these +writings of utterances with an atheistic ring. Such utterances are to be +found in most of them; they appear spontaneously, for instance, wherever +idolatry is attacked. But one cannot attach any importance to them when +they appear in this connexion, not even in apologists in whose works the +demon theory is lacking. No Christian theologian in antiquity advanced, +much less sustained, the view that the pagan gods were mere phantoms of +human imagination without any corresponding reality. + +Remarkable as this state of things may appear to us moderns, it is really +quite simple, nay even a matter of course, when regarded historically. +Christianity had from its very beginning a decidedly dualistic character. +The contrast between this world and the world to come was identical with +the contrast between the kingdom of the Devil and the kingdom of God. As +soon as the new religion came into contact with paganism, the latter was +necessarily regarded as belonging to the kingdom of the Devil; thus the +conception of the gods as demons was a foregone conclusion. In the minds +of the later apologists, who became acquainted with Greek philosophy, this +conception received additional confirmation; did it not indeed agree in +the main with Platonic and Stoic theory? Details were added: the +Christians could not deny the pagan miracles without throwing a doubt on +their own, for miracles cannot be done away with at all except by a denial +on principle; neither could they explain paganism--that gigantic, +millennial aberration of humanity--by merely human causes, much less lay +the blame on God alone. But ultimately all this rests on one and the same +thing--the supernatural and dualistic hypothesis. Consequently demonology +is the kernel of the Christian conception of paganism: it is not merely a +natural result of the hypotheses, it is the one and only correct +expression of the way in which the new religion understood the old. + + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + + +In the preceding inquiry we took as our starting-point not the ancient +conception of atheism but the modern view of the nature of the pagan gods. +It proved that this view was, upon the whole, feebly represented during +antiquity, and that it was another view (demonology) which was transmitted +to later ages from the closing years of antiquity. The inquiry will +therefore find its natural conclusion in a demonstration of the time and +manner in which the conception handed down from antiquity of the nature of +paganism was superseded and displaced by the modern view. + +This question is, however, more difficult to answer than one would perhaps +think. After ancient paganism had ceased to exist as a living religion, it +had lost its practical interest, and theoretically the Middle Ages were +occupied with quite other problems than the nature of paganism. At the +revival of the study of ancient literature, during the Renaissance, people +certainly again came into the most intimate contact with ancient religion +itself, but systematic investigations of its nature do not seem to have +been taken up in real earnest until after the middle of the sixteenth +century. It is therefore difficult to ascertain in what light paganism was +regarded during the thousand years which had then passed since its final +extinction. From the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, on the other +hand, the material is extraordinarily plentiful, though but slightly +investigated. Previous works in this field seem to be entirely wanting; at +any rate it has not been possible for me to find any collective treatment +of the subject, nor even any contributions worth mentioning towards the +solution of the numerous individual problems which arise when we enter +upon what might be called "the history of the history of religion."(1) In +this essay I must therefore restrict myself to a few aphoristic remarks +which may perhaps give occasion for this subject, in itself not devoid of +interest, to receive more detailed treatment at some future time. + +Milton, in the beginning of _Paradise Lost_, which appeared in 1667, makes +Satan assemble all his angels for continued battle against God. Among the +demons there enumerated, ancient gods also appear; they are, then, plainly +regarded as devils. Now Milton was not only a poet, but also a sound +scholar and an orthodox theologian; we may therefore rest assured that his +conception of the pagan gods was dogmatically correct and in accord with +the prevailing views of his time. In him, therefore, we have found a fixed +point from which we can look forwards and backwards; as late as after the +middle of the seventeenth century the early Christian view of the nature +of paganism evidently persisted in leading circles. + +We seldom find definite heathen gods so precisely designated as demons as +in Milton, but no doubt seems possible that the general principle was +accepted by contemporary and earlier authors. The chief work of the +seventeenth century on ancient religion is the _De Theologia Gentili_ of +G. I. Voss; he operates entirely with the traditional view. It may be +traced back through a succession of writings of the seventeenth and +sixteenth centuries. They are all, or almost all, agreed that antique +paganism was the work of the devil, and that idolatry was, at any rate in +part, a worship of demons. From the Middle Ages I can adduce a pregnant +expression of the same view from Thomas Aquinas; in his treatment of +idolatry and also of false prophecy he definitely accepts the demonology +of the early Church. On this point he appeals to Augustine, and with +perfect right; from this it may presumably be assumed that the Schoolmen +in general had the same view, Augustine being, as we know, an authority +for Catholic theologians. + +In mediaeval poets also we occasionally find the same view expressed. As +far as I have been able to ascertain, Dante has no ancient gods among his +devils, and the degree to which he had dissociated himself from ancient +paganism may be gauged by the fact that in one of the most impassioned +passages of his poem he addresses the Christian God as "Great Jupiter." +But he allows figures of ancient mythology such as Charon, Minos and +Geryon to appear in his infernal world, and when he designates the pagan +gods as "false and _untruthful_," demonology is evidently at the back of +his mind. The mediaeval epic poets who dealt with antique subjects took +over the pagan gods more or less. Sometimes, as in the Romance of Troy, +the Christian veneer is so thick that the pagan groundwork is but slightly +apparent; in other poems, such as the adaptation of the _Aeneid_, it is +more in evidence. In so far as the gods are not eliminated they seem as a +rule to be taken over quite naïvely from the source without further +comment; but occasionally the poet expresses his view of their nature. +Thus the French adapter of Statius's _Thebaïs_, in whose work the +Christian element is otherwise not prominent, cautiously remarks that +Jupiter and Tisiphone, by whom his heroes swear, are in reality only +devils. Generally speaking, the gods of antiquity are often designated as +devils in mediaeval poetry, but at times the opinion that they are +departed human beings crops up. Thus, as we might expect, the theories of +ancient times still survive and retain their sway. + +There is a domain in which we might expect to find distinct traces of the +survival of the ancient gods in the mediaeval popular consciousness, +namely, that of magic. There does not, however, seem to be much in it; the +forms of mediaeval magic often go back to antiquity, but the beings it +operates with are pre-eminently the Christian devils, if we may venture to +employ the term, and the evil spirits of popular belief. There is, +however, extant a collection of magic formulae against various ailments in +which pagan gods appear: Hercules and Juno Regina, Juno and Jupiter, the +nymphs, Luna Jovis filia, Sol invictus. The collection is transmitted in a +manuscript of the ninth century; the formulae mostly convey the impression +of dating from a much earlier period, but the fact that they were copied +in the Middle Ages suggests that they were intended for practical +application. + +A problem, the closer investigation of which would no doubt yield an +interesting result, but which does not seem to have been much noticed, is +the European conception of the heathen religions with which the explorers +came into contact on their great voyages of discovery. Primitive +heathenism as a living reality had lain rather beyond the horizon of the +Middle Ages; when it was met with in America, it evidently awakened +considerable interest. There is a description of the religion of Peru and +Mexico, written by the Jesuit Acosta at the close of the sixteenth +century, which gives us a clear insight into the orthodox view of +heathenism during the Renaissance. According to Acosta, heathenism is as a +whole the work of the Devil; he has seduced men to idolatry in order that +he himself may be worshipped instead of the true God. All worship of idols +is in reality worship of Satan. The individual idols, however, are not +identified with individual devils; Acosta distinguishes between the +worship of nature (heavenly bodies, natural objects of the earth, right +down to trees, etc.), the worship of the dead, and the worship of images, +but says nothing about the worship of demons. At one point only is there a +direct intervention of the evil powers, namely, in magic, and particularly +in oracles; and here then we find, as an exception, mention of individual +devils which must be imagined to inhabit the idols. The same conception is +found again as late as the seventeenth century in a story told by G. I. +Voss of the time of the Dutch wars in Brazil. Arcissewski, a Polish +officer serving in the Dutch army, had witnessed the conjuring of a devil +among the Tapuis. The demon made his appearance all right, but proved to +be a native well known to Arcissewski. As he, however, made some true +prognostications, Voss, as it seems at variance with Arcissewski, thinks +that there must have been some supernatural powers concerned in the game. + +An exceptional place is occupied by the attempt made during the +Renaissance at an actual revival of ancient paganism and the worship of +its gods. It proceeded from Plethon, the head of the Florentine Academy, +and seems to have spread thence to the Roman Academy. The whole movement +must be viewed more particularly as an outcome of the enthusiasm during +the Renaissance for the culture of antiquity and more especially for its +philosophy rather than its religion; the gods worshipped were given a new +and strongly philosophical interpretation. But it is not improbable that +the traditional theory of the reality of the ancient deities may have had +something to do with it. + +Simultaneously with demonology, and while it was still acknowledged in +principle, there flourished more naturalistic conceptions of paganism, +both in the Middle Ages and during the Renaissance. As remarked above, the +way was already prepared for them during antiquity. In Thomas Aquinas we +find a lucid explanation of the origin of idolatry with a reference to the +ancient theory. Here we meet with the familiar elements: the worship of +the stars and the cult of the dead. According to Thomas, man has a natural +disposition towards this error, but it only comes into play when he is led +astray by demons. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the Devil is +mentioned oftener than the demons (compare Acosta's view of the heathenism +of the American Indians); evidently the conception of the nature of evil +had undergone a change in the direction of monotheism. In this way more +scope was given for the adoption of naturalistic views in regard to the +individual forms in which paganism manifested itself than when dealing +with a multiplicity of demons that answered individually to the pagan +gods, and we meet with systematic attempts to explain the origin of +idolatry by natural means, though still with the Devil in the background. + +One of these systems, which played a prominent part, especially in the +seventeenth century, is the so-called Hebraism, _i.e._ the attempt to +derive the whole of paganism from Judaism. This fashion, for which the way +had already been prepared by Jewish and Christian apologists, reaches its +climax, I think, with Abbot Huet, who derived all the gods of antiquity +(and not only Greek and Roman antiquity) from Moses, and all the goddesses +from his sister; according to him the knowledge of these two persons had +spread from the Jews to other peoples, who had woven about them a web of +"fables." Alongside of Hebraism, which is Euhemeristic in principle, +allegorical methods of interpretation were put forward. The chief +representative of this tendency in earlier times is Natalis Comes (Noël du +Comte), the author of the first handbook of mythology; he directly set +himself the task of allegorising all the myths. The allegories are mostly +moral, but also physical; Euhemeristic interpretations are not rejected +either, and in several places the author gives all three explanations side +by side without choosing between them. In the footsteps of du Comte +follows Bacon, in his _De Sapientia Veterum_; to the moral and physical +allegories he adds political ones, as when Jove's struggle with Typhoeus +is made to symbolise a wise ruler's treatment of a rebellion. While these +attempts at interpretation, both the Euhemeristic and the allegorical, are +in principle a direct continuation of those of antiquity, another method +points plainly in the direction of the fantastic notions of the Middle +Ages. As early as the sixteenth century the idea arose of connecting the +theology of the ancients with alchemy. The idea seemed obvious because the +metals were designated by the names of the planets, which are also the +names of the gods. It found acceptance, and in the seventeenth century we +have a series of writings in which ancient mythology is explained as the +symbolical language of chemical processes. + +Within the limits of the supernatural explanation the interest centred +more and more in a single point: the oracles. As far back as in Aquinas, +"false prophecy" is a main section in the chapter on demons, whose power +to foretell the future he expressly acknowledges. In the sixteenth and +seventeenth centuries, when the interest in the prediction of the future +was so strong, the ancient accounts of true prognostications were the real +prop of demonology. Hence demons generally play a great part in these +explanations, even though in other cases the Devil fills the bill. Thus +Acosta in his account of the American religions; thus Voss and numerous +other writers of the seventeenth century; and it is hardly a mere +accident, one would think, when Milton specially mentions Dodona and +Delphi as the seats of worship of the Greek demons. Among a few of the +humanists we certainly find an attempt to apply the natural explanation +even here; thus Caelius Rhodiginus asserted that a great part (but not +all!) of the oracular system might be explained as priestly imposture, and +his slightly younger contemporary Caelius Calcagninus, in his dialogue on +oracles, seems to go still further and to deny the power of predicting the +future to any other being than the true God. An exceptional position is +occupied by Pomponazzi, who in his little pamphlet _De Incantationibus_ +seems to wish to derive all magic, including the oracles, from natural +causes, though ultimately he formally acknowledges demonology as the +authoritative explanation. But these advances did not find acceptance; we +find even Voss combating the view on which they were founded. It is +characteristic of the power of demonology in this domain that in support +of his point of view he can quote no less a writer than Machiavelli. + +The author who opened battle in real earnest against demonology was a +Dutch scholar, one van Dale, otherwise little known. In a couple of +treatises written about the close of the seventeenth century he tried to +show that the whole of idolatry (as well as the oracles in particular) was +not dependent on the intervention of supernatural beings, but was solely +due to imposture on the part of the priests. Van Dale was a Protestant, so +he easily got over the unanimous recognition of demonology by the Fathers +of the Church. The accounts of demons in the Old and New Testaments proved +more difficult to deal with; it is interesting to see how he wriggles +about to get round them--and it illustrates most instructively the degree +to which demonology affords the only reasonable and natural explanation of +paganism on the basis of early Christian belief. + +Van Dale's books are learned works written in Latin, full of quotations in +Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, and moreover confused and obscure in exposition, +as is often the case with Dutch writings of that time. But a clever +Frenchman, Fontenelle, took upon himself the task of rendering his work on +the oracles into French in a popular and attractive form. His book called +forth an answering pamphlet from a Jesuit advocating the traditional view; +the little controversy seems to have made some stir in France about the +year 1700. At any rate Banier, who, in the beginning of the eighteenth +century, treated ancient mythology from a Euhemeristic point of view, gave +some consideration to it. His own conclusion is--in 1738!--that demonology +cannot be dispensed with for the explanation of the oracles. He gives his +grounds for this in a very sensible criticism of van Dale's priestly fraud +theory, the absurdity of which he exposes with sound arguments. + +Banier is the last author to whom I can point for the demon-theory applied +as an explanation of a phenomenon in ancient religion; I have not found it +in any other mythologist of the eighteenth century, and even in Banier, +with the exception of this single point, everything is explained quite +naturally according to the best Euhemeristic models. But in the positive +understanding of the nature of ancient paganism no very considerable +advance had actually been made withal. A characteristic example of this is +the treatment of ancient religion by such an eminent intellect as +Giambattista Vico. In his _Scienza Nuova_, which appeared in 1725, as the +foundation of his exposition of the religion of antiquity he gives a +characterisation of the mode of thought of primitive mankind, which is so +pertinent and psychologically so correct that it anticipates the results +of more than a hundred years of research. Of any supernatural explanation +no trace is found in him, though otherwise he speaks as a good Catholic. +But when he proceeds to explain the nature of the ancient ideas of the +gods in detail, all that it comes to is a series of allegories, among +which the politico-social play a main part. Vico sees the earliest history +of mankind in the light of the traditions about Rome; the Graeco-Roman +gods, then, and the myths about them, become to him largely an expression +of struggles between the "patricians and plebeians" of remote antiquity. + +Most of the mythology of the eighteenth century is like this. The +Euhemeristic school gradually gave up the hypothesis of the Jewish +religion as the origin of paganism; Banier, the chief representative of +the school, still argues at length against Hebraism. In its place, +Phoenicians, Assyrians, Persians and, above all, Egyptians, are brought +into play, or, as in the case of the Englishman Bryant, the whole of +mythology is explained as reminiscences of the exploits of an aboriginal +race, the Cuthites, which never existed. The allegorist school gradually +rallied round the idea of the cult of the heavenly bodies as the origin of +the pagan religions; as late as the days of the French Revolution, Dupuis, +in a voluminous work, tried to trace the whole of ancient religion and +mythology back to astronomy. On the whole the movement diverged more and +more from Euhemerism towards the conception of Greek religion as a kind of +cult of nature; when the sudden awakening to a more correct understanding +came towards the close of the century, Euhemerism was evidently already an +antiquated view. Thus, since the Renaissance, by a slow and very devious +process of development, a gradual approach had been made to a more correct +view of the nature of ancient religion. After the Devil had more or less +taken the place of the demons, the rest of demonology, the moral allegory, +Hebraism and Euhemerism were eliminated by successive stages, and +nature-symbolism was reached as the final stage. + +We know now that even this is not the correct explanation of the nature +and origin of the conception of the gods prevailing among the ancients. +Recent investigations have shown that the Greek gods, in spite of their +apparent simplicity and clarity, are highly complex organisms, the +products of a long process of development to which the most diverse +factors have contributed. In order to arrive at this result another +century of work, with many attempts in the wrong direction, has been +required. The idea that the Greek gods were nature-gods really dominated +research through almost the whole of the nineteenth century. If it has now +been dethroned or reduced to the measure of truth it contains--for +undoubtedly a natural object enters as a component into the essence of +some Greek deities--this is in the first place due to the intensive study +of the religions of primitive peoples, living or obsolete; and the results +of this study were only applied to Greek religion during the last decade +of the century. But the starting-point of modern history of religion lies +much farther back: its beginnings date from the great revival of +historical research which was inaugurated by Rousseau and continued by +Herder. Henceforward the unhistorical methods of the age of enlightenment +were abolished, and attention directed in real earnest towards the earlier +stages of human civilisation. + +This, however, carries us a step beyond the point of time at which this +sketch should, strictly speaking, stop. For by the beginning of the +eighteenth century--but not before--the negative fact which is all important +in this connexion had won recognition: namely, that there existed no +supernatural beings latent behind the Greek ideas of their gods, and +corresponding at any rate in some degree to them; but that these ideas +must be regarded and explained as entirely inventions of the human +imagination. + + + + + +CHAPTER IX + + +At the very beginning of this inquiry it was emphasised that its theme +would in the main be the religious views of the upper class, and within +this sphere again especially the views of those circles which were in +close touch with philosophy. The reason for this is of course in the first +place that only in such circles can we expect to find expressed a point of +view approaching to positive atheism. But we may assuredly go further than +this. We shall hardly be too bold in asserting that the free-thinking of +philosophically educated men in reality had very slight influence on the +great mass of the population. Philosophy did not penetrate so far, and +whatever degree of perception we estimate the masses to have had of the +fact that the upper layer of society regarded the popular faith with +critical eyes--and in the long run it could not be concealed--we cannot fail +to recognise that religious development among the ancients did not tend +towards atheism. Important changes took place in ancient religion during +the Hellenistic Age and the time of the Roman Empire, but their causes +were of a social and national kind, and, if we confine ourselves to +paganism, they only led to certain gods going out of fashion and others +coming in. The utmost we can assert is that a certain weakening of the +religious life may have been widely prevalent during the time of +transition between the two ages--the transition falls at somewhat different +dates in the eastern and western part of the Empire--but that weakening was +soon overcome. + +Now the peculiar result of this investigation of the state of religion +among the upper classes seems to me to be this: the curve of intensity of +religious feeling which conjecture leads us to draw through the spiritual +life of the ancients as a whole, that same curve, but more distinct and +sharply accentuated, is found again in the relations of the upper classes +to the popular faith. Towards the close of the fifth century it looks as +if the cultured classes that formed the centre of Greek intellectual life +were outgrowing the ancient religion. The reaction which set in with +Socrates and Plato certainly checked this movement, but it did not stop +it. Cynics, Peripatetics, Stoics, Epicureans and Sceptics, in spite of +their widely differing points of view, were all entirely unable to share +the religious ideas of their countrymen in the form in which they were +cast in the national religion. However many allowances they made, their +attitude towards the popular faith was critical, and on important points +they denied it. It is against the background thus resulting from ancient +philosophy's treatment of ancient religion that we must view such +phenomena as Polybius, Cicero, and Pliny the Elder, if we wish to +understand their full significance. + +On the other hand, it is certain that this was not the view that conquered +in the end among the educated classes in antiquity. The lower we come down +in the Empire the more evident does the positive relation of the upper +class to the gods of the popular faith become. Some few examples have +already been mentioned in the preceding pages. In philosophy the whole +movement finds its typical expression in demonology, which during the +later Empire reigned undisputed in the one or two schools that still +retained any vitality. It is significant that its source was the earlier +Platonism, with its very conservative attitude towards popular belief, and +that it was taken over by the later Stoic school, which inaugurated the +general religious reaction in philosophy. And it is no less significant +that demonology was swallowed whole by the monotheistic religion which +superseded ancient paganism, and for more than a thousand years was the +recognised explanation of the nature thereof. + +In accordance with the line of development here sketched, the inquiry has +of necessity been focused on two main points: Sophistic and the +Hellenistic Age. Now it is of peculiar interest to note what small traces +of pure atheism can after all be found here, in spite of all criticism of +the popular faith. We have surmised its presence among a few prominent +personalities in fifth-century Athens; we have found evidence of its +extension in the same place in the period immediately following; and in +the time of transition between the fourth and third centuries we have +thought it likely that it existed among a very few philosophers, of whom +none are in the first rank. Everywhere else we find adjustments, in part +very serious and real concessions, to popular belief. Not to mention the +attitude towards worship, which was only hostile in one sect of slight +importance: the assumption of the divinity of the heavenly bodies which +was common to the Academics, Peripatetics, and Stoics is really in +principle an acknowledgement of the popular faith, whose conception of the +gods was actually borrowed and applied, not to some philosophical +abstraction, but to individual and concrete natural objects. The +anthropomorphic gods of the Epicureans point in the same direction. In +spite of their profound difference from the beings that were worshipped +and believed in by the ordinary Greek, they are in complete harmony with +the opinion on which all polytheism is based: that there are individual +beings of a higher order than man. And though the Stoics in theory +confined their acknowledgment of this doctrine to the heavenly bodies, in +practice--even if we disregard demonology--they consistently brought it to +bear upon the anthropomorphic gods, in direct continuation of the Socratic +reaction against the atheistic tendencies of Sophistic. + +If now we ask ourselves what may be the cause of this peculiar dualism in +the relationship of ancient thought to religion, though admitting the +highly complex nature of the problem, we can scarcely avoid recognising a +certain principle. Ancient thought outgrew the ancient popular faith; that +is beyond doubt. Hence its critical attitude. But it never outgrew that +supernaturalist view which was the foundation of the popular faith. Hence +its concessions to the popular faith, even when it was most critical, and +its final surrender thereunto. And that it never outgrew the foundation of +the popular faith is connected with its whole conception of nature and +especially with its conception of the universe. We cannot indeed deny that +the ancients had a certain feeling that nature was regulated by laws, but +they only made imperfect attempts at a mechanical theory of nature in +which this regulation of the world by law was carried through in +principle, and with one brilliant exception they adhered implicitly to the +geocentric conception of the universe. We may, I think, venture to assert +with good reason that on such assumptions the philosophers of antiquity +could not advance further than they did. In other words, on the given +hypotheses the supernaturalist view was the correct one, the one that was +most probable, and therefore that on which people finally agreed. A few +chosen spirits may at any time by intuition, without any strictly +scientific foundation, emancipate themselves entirely from religious +errors; this also happened among the ancients, and on the first occasion +was not unconnected with an enormous advance in the conception of nature. +But it is certain that the views of an entire age are always decisively +conditioned by its knowledge and interpretation of the universe +surrounding it, and cannot in principle be emancipated therefrom. + +Seen from this point of view, our brief sketch of the attitude of +posterity towards the religion of the pagan world will also not be without +interest. If, after isolated advances during the mighty awakening of the +Renaissance, it is not until the transition from the seventeenth to the +eighteenth century that we find the modern atheistic conception of the +nature of the gods of the ancients established in principle and +consistently applied, we can scarcely avoid connecting this fact with the +advance of natural science in the seventeenth century, and not least with +the victory of the heliocentric system. After the close of antiquity the +pagan gods had receded to a distance, practically speaking, because they +were not worshipped any more. No one troubled himself about them. But in +theory one had got no further, _i.e._ no advance had been made on the +ancients, and no advance could be made as long as supernaturalism was +adhered to in connexion with the ancient view of the universe. Through +monotheism the notions of the divinity of the sun, moon and planets had +certainly been got rid of, but not so the notion of the world--_i.e._ the +globe enclosed within the firmament--as filled with personal beings of a +higher order than man; and even the duty of turning the spheres to which +the heavenly bodies were believed to be fastened was--quite +consistently--assigned to some of these beings. As long as such notions +were in operation, not only were there no grounds for denying the reality +of the pagan gods, but there was every reason to assume it. So far we may +rightly say that it was Copernicus, Galileo, Giordano Bruno, Kepler and +Newton that did away with the traditional conception of ancient paganism. + +Natural science, however, furnishes only the negative result that the gods +of polytheism are not what they are said to be: real beings of a higher +order than man. To reveal what they are, other knowledge is required. This +was not attained until long after the revival of natural science in the +sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The vacillation in the eighteenth +century between various theories of the explanation of the nature of +ancient polytheism--theories which were all false, though not equally +false--is in this respect significant enough; likewise the gradual progress +which characterises research in the nineteenth century, and which may be +indicated by such names as Heyne, Buttmann, K. O. Müller, Lobeck, +Mannhardt, Rohde, and Usener, to mention only some of the most important +and omitting those still alive. Viewed in this light the development +sketched here within a narrowly restricted field is typical of the course +of European intellectual history from antiquity down to our day. + + + + + +NOTES + + +Of Atheism in Antiquity as defined here no treatment is known to me; but +there exist an older and a newer book that deal with the question within a +wider compass. The first of these is Krische, _Die theologischen Lehren +der griechischen Denker_ (Göttingen, 1840); it is chiefly concerned with +the philosophical conceptions of deity, but it touches also on the +relations of philosophers to popular religion. The second is Decharme, _La +critique des traditions religieuses chez les Grecs_ (Paris, 1904); it is +not fertile in new points of view, but it has suggested several details +which I might else have overlooked. Such books as Caird, _The Evolution of +Theology in the Greek Philosophers_ (Glasgow, 1904), or Moon, _Religious +Thought of the Greeks_ (Cambridge, Mass., 1919), barely touch on the +relation to popular belief; of Louis, _Les doctrines religieuses des +philosophes grecs_, I have not been able to make use. I regret that Poul +Helms, _The Conception of God in Greek Philosophy_ (Danish, in _Studier +for Sprog-og Oldtidsforskning_, No. 115), was not published until my essay +was already in the press. General works on Atheism are indicated in +Aveling's article, "Atheism," in the _Catholic Encyclopædia_, vol. ii., +but none of them seem to be found at Copenhagen. In the _Dictionary of +Religion and Ethics_, ii., there is a detailed article on Atheism in its +relation to different religions; the section treating of Antiquity is +written by Pearson, but is meagre. Works like Zeller, _Philosophie der +Griechen_, and Gomperz, _Griechische Denker_, contain accounts of the +attitude of philosophers (Gomperz also includes others) towards popular +belief; of these books I have of course made use throughout, but they are +not referred to in the following notes except on special occasion. +Scattered remarks and small monographs on details are naturally to be +found in plenty. Where I have met with such and found something useful in +them, or where I express dissent from them, I have noticed it; but I have +not aimed at exhausting the literature on my subject. On the other hand I +have tried to make myself completely acquainted with the first-hand +material, wherever it gave a direct support for assuming Atheism, and to +take my own view of it. In many cases, however, the argumentation has had +to be indirect: it has been necessary to draw inferences from what an +author does not say in a certain connexion when he might be expected to +say it, or what he generally and throughout avoids mentioning, or from his +general manner and peculiarities in his way of speaking of the gods. In +such cases I have often had to be content with my previous knowledge and +my general impression of the facts; but then I have as a rule made use of +the important modern literature on the subject. In working out the sketch +of the ideas after the end of Antiquity, I have been almost without any +guidance in modern literature. I have accordingly had to try, on the basis +of a superficial acquaintance with some of the chief types, to form for +myself, as best I might, some idea of the course of the evolution; but I +have not been able to go systematically through the immense material, +however fruitful such a research appeared to be. In the meantime, between +the publication of my Danish essay and this translation, there has +appeared a work by Mr. Gruppe, _Geschichte der klassischen Mythologie und +Religionsgeschichte_ (Leipzig, 1921). My task in writing my last chapters +would have been much easier if I could have made use of Mr. Gruppe's +learned and comprehensive treatment of the subject; but it would not have +been superfluous, for Mr. Gruppe deals principally with the history of +classical mythology, not with the history of the belief in the gods of +antiquity. So I have ventured to let my sketch stand as it is, only +reducing some of the notes (which I had on purpose made rather full, to +aid others who might pursue the subject) by referring to Mr. Gruppe +instead of to the sources themselves. + +For kindly helping me to find my bearings in out-of-the-way parts of my +subject, I am indebted to my colleagues F. Buhl, I.L. Heiberg, I.C. +Jacobsen and Kr. Nyrop, as well as to Prof. Martin P. Nilsson in Lund. + +P. 1. Definition of Atheism: see the article in the _Catholic Encycl._ +vol. ii. + +P. 5. Atheism: see Murray, _New Engl. Dict._, under Atheism and -ism. The +word seems to have come up in the Renaissance. + +P. 6. Criminal Law at Athens: see Lipsius, _Das attische Recht und +Rechtsverfahren_, i. p. 358.--The definition in Aristotle, _de virt. et +vit._ 7, p. 1251_a_, has, I think, no legal foundation. + +P. 9. On the legal foundation for the trials of Christians, see Mommsen, +_Der Religionsfreuel nach römischem Recht_ (_Ges. Schr._ iii. p. +389).--Mommsen goes too far, I think, in supposing a legal foundation for +the trials of Christians; above all, I do not believe that the defection +from the Roman religion was ever considered as maiestas in the technical +sense of the word, the more so as it is certain that, after the earliest +period, no difference was made in the treatment of citizens and aliens. + +P. 13. Lists of atheists: Cicero, _de nat. deor._ 1. 1, 2 (comp. 1. 23, +26). Sext. Emp. _hypotyp._ 3. 213; _adv. math._ 9. 50. Aelian, _v.h._ 2. +31; _de nat. an._ 6. 40.--The predicate _atheos_ is once applied to +Anaxagoras by a Christian author (Irenaeus: see Diels, _Vorsokr._ 46, A +113; compare also Marcellinus, _vit. Thuc._, see below, note on p. 29). Of +such isolated cases I have taken no account. + +P. 16. On the dualism in the Greek conception of the nature of gods see +Nägelsbach, _Hom. Theol._ p. 11.--Pindar: _Ol._ 1. 28, 9. 35; _Pyth._ 3. +27. + +P. 17. Xenophanes: Einhorn, _Zeit- und Streitfragen der modernen +Xenophanesforschung_ (_Arch. f. Gesch. d. Philos._ xxxi.). + +P. 18. Xenophanes's age: Diels, _Vorsokr._ 11, B 8.--His criticism of Homer +and Hesiod: _ibid._ 11, 12.--Titans and Giants: _ibid._ 1. 22.--Criticism of +Anthropomorphism: _ibid._ 14-16.--Divination: Cic. _de div._ 1. 3, 5. + +P. 19. On Xenophanes's conception of God, comp. _Vorsokr._ 11, B 23-26; on +the identification of God with the universe: _Vorsokr._ 11, A 30, 31, +33-36.--Cicero: _de div._ 1. 3, 5. + +P. 21. For Xenophanes's theology, comp. Freudenthal, _Arch. f. Gesch. d. +Philos._ i. p. 322, and Zeller's criticism, _ibid._ p. 524. Agreeing with +Freudenthal: Decharme, p. 46; Campbell, _Religion in Greek Literature_, p. +293. + +P. 21. Parmenides does not even appear to have designated his "Being" as +God (Zeller, i. p. 563). + +P. 23. In the eighteenth century people discussed diffusely the question +whether Thales was an atheist (of course in the sense in which the word +was taken at that time); comp. Tennemann, _Gesch. d. Philos._ i. pp. 62 +and 422. Tennemann remarks quite truly that the question is put wrongly. + +P. 24. Thales: Diels, _Vorsokr._ 1, A 22-23.--Attitude of Democritus +towards popular belief: _Vorsokr._ 55, A 74-79; comp. 116, 117; B 166, and +also B 30. Diels, _Ueber den Dämonenglauben des D._ (_Arch. f. Gesch. d. +Philos._ 1894, p. 154). + +P. 25. Trial of Anaxagoras: _Vorsokr._ 46, A 1, 17, 18, 19. + +P. 26. Ram's head: _Vorsokr._ 46, A 16. + +P. 27. Geffcken (in _Hermes_, 42, p. 127) has tried to make out something +about a criticism of popular belief by Anaxagoras from some passages in +Aristophanes (_Nub._ 398) and Lucian (_Tim._ 10, etc.), but I do not think +he has succeeded.--Pericles a free-thinker: Plut. _Pericl._ 6 and 38; comp. +Decharme, p. 160.--Personality of Anaxagoras: _Vorsokr._ 46, A 30 +(Aristotle, _Eud. Ethics_, A 4, p. 1215_b_, 6). + +P. 28. Herodotus: 8, 77.--Sophocles: _Oed. rex._ 498, 863.--Diopeithes: +Plut. _Pericl._ 32 (_Vorsokr._ 46, A 17).--Thucydides: Classen in the +preface to his 3rd ed., p. lvii. + +P. 29. Thucydides, a disciple of Anaxagoras: Marcellinus, _vit. Thuc._ +22.--Generally Thucydides is thought to have been more conservative in his +religious opinions than I consider probable; see Classen, _loc. cit._; +Decharme, p. 83; Gertz in his preface to the Danish translation of +Thucydides, p. xxvii.--Hippo: _Vorsokr._ 26, A 4, 6, 8, 9; B 2, 3. + +P. 30. Aristotle: _Vorsokr._ 26, A 7.--Diogenes an atheist: Aelian, _v.h._ +2, 31.--The air his god: _Vorsokr._ 51, A 8 (he thought that Homer +identified Zeus with the air, and approved of this as {~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER UPSILON WITH PSILI~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER MU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER UPSILON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER THETA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER KAPPA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMEGA WITH PERISPOMENI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA~}, {~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA WITH PSILI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMDA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMDA~}{~GREEK KORONIS~} +{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA WITH PSILI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMDA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ETA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER THETA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMEGA WITH PERISPOMENI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA WITH PSILI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER RHO~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ETA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER MU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~}); B 5, 7, 8.--Allusions to his doctrines by Aristophanes: +_Nub._ 225, 828 (_Vorsokr._ 51, C 1, 2). + +P. 31. A chief representative of the naïvely critical view of natural +phenomena is for us Herodotus. The _locus classicus_ is vii. 129; comp. +Gomperz, _Griech. Denker_, i. p. 208; Heiberg, _Festskrift til Ussing_ +(Copenhagen, 1900), p. 91; Decharme, p. 69.--Principal passages about +Diagoras: Sext. Emp. _adv. math._ 9, 53; Suidas, art. _Diagoras II._; +schol. Aristoph. _Nub._ 830 (the legend); Suidas, art. _Diagoras I._; +Aristoph. _Av._ 1071 with schol.; schol. Aristoph. _Ran._ 320; [Lysias] +vi. 17; Diod. xiii. 16 (the decree); Philodem. _de piet._ p. 89 Gomp. +(comments of Aristoxenus); Aelian, _v.h._ ii. 22 (legislation at +Mantinea).--Wilamowitz (_Textgesch. d. Lyr._ p. 80) has tried to save the +tradition by supposing that the _acme_ of Diagoras has been put too early. +Comp. also his remarks, _Griech. Verskunst._ p. 426, where he has taken up +the question again with reference to my treatment of it. As he has now +conceded the possibility of referring the legislation to the earlier date, +the difference between us is really very slight, and it is of course +possible, perhaps even probable, that the acme of the poet has been +antedated.--Aristoph. _Av._ 1071: "On this very day it is made public, that +if one of you kills Diagoras from Melos, he shall have a talent, and if +one kills one of the dead tyrants, he shall have a talent." The parallel +between the two decrees, of which the latter is of course an invention of +Aristophanes, would be without point if the decree against Diagoras was +not as futile as the decree against the tyrants (_i.e._ the sons of +Peisistratus, who had been dead some three-quarters of a century), that +is, if it did not come many years too late.--Wilamowitz (_Griech. +Verskunst, loc. cit._) takes the sense to be: "You will not get hold of +Diagoras any more than you did of the tyrants." But this, besides being +somewhat pointless, does not agree so well as my explanation with the +introductory words: "On this very day." On the other hand, I never meant +to imply that Diagoras was dead in 415, but only that his offence was an +old one--just as that of Protagoras probably was (see p. 39). + +P. 39. Trial of Protagoras: _Vorsokr._ 74, A 1-4, 23; the passage +referring to the gods: _ibid._ B 4.--Plato: _Theaet._ p. 162_d_ (_Vorsokr._ +74, A 23). + +P. 41. Distinction between belief and knowledge by Protagoras: Gomperz, +_Griech. Denker_, i. p. 359. + +P. 42. Prodicus: _Vorsokr._ 77, B 5. Comp. Norvin, _Allegorien i den +græske Philosophi_ (_Edda_, 1919), p. 82. I cannot, however, quite adopt +Norvin's view of the theory of Protagoras. + +P. 44. Critias: _Vorsokr._ 81, B 25.--W. Nestle, _Jahrbb. f. Philol._ xi. +(1903), pp. 81 and 178, gives an exhaustive treatment of the subject, but +I cannot share his view of it. + +P. 46. Euripides: _Suppl._ 201.--Moschion: _Trag. Fragm._ ed. Nauck (2nd +ed.), p. 813.--Plato: _Rep._ ii. 369b. + +P. 47. Democritus: Reinhardt in _Hermes_, xlvii (1912), p. 503 In spite of +Wilamowitz's objections (in his _Platon_, ii. p. 214), I still consider it +probable that Plato alludes to a philosophical theory.--Protagoras on the +original state: _Vorsokr._ 74, B 8_b_. + +P. 48. Euripides: _Electra, 737_ (Euripides does not believe in the tale +that the sun reversed its course on account of Thyestes's fraud against +Atreus, and then adds: "Fables that terrify men are a profit to the +worship of the gods").--Aristotle: _Metaph._ A 8, 1074_b_; see text, p. +85.--Polybius: vi. 56; see text pp. 90 and 114.--Plato's _Gorgias_, p. 482 +and foll. + +P. 49.--Callicles: see _e.g._ Wilamowitz, _Platon_, i. p. 208. + +P. 50.--Thrasymachus: Plato, _Rep._ i. pp. 338_c_, 343_a_; comp. also ii. +p. 358_b_. His remark on Providence (_Vorsokr._ 78, B 8) runs thus: "The +gods do not see the things that are done among men; if they did, they +would not overlook the greatest human good, justice. For we find that men +do not follow it." Comp. text, p. 61.--Diagoras as Critias's source: +Nestle, _Jahrbb._, 1903, p. 101. + +P. 51. Euripides: see W. Nestle, _Euripides_ (Stuttgart, 1901) pp. 51-152. +Here, too, the material is set forth exhaustively; the results seem to me +inadmissible. Browning's theory (_The Ring and the Book_, x. 1661 foll.) +that Euripides did believe in the existence of the gods, but did not +believe them to be perfect, is a possible, perhaps even a probable, +explanation of many of his utterances; but it will hardly fit all of them. +I have examined the question in an essay, "Browning om Euripides" in my +_Udvalgte Afhandlinger_, p. 55. + +P. 52. Gods identified with the Elements: _Bacch._ 274; fragm. 839. 877, +941 (Nestle, p. 153). + +P. 53. Polemic against sophists: Nestle, p. 206.--_Bellerophon_: fragm. +286. + +P. 54. "If the gods----": fragm. 292, 7. + +P. 55. _Melanippe_: fragm. 480. The words are said to have given offence +at the rehearsal, so that Euripides altered them at the production of the +play (Plut. _Amat._ ch. 13).--Aeschylus: _Agam._ 160.--Aristophanes: +_Thesmoph._ 450.--In the _Frogs_, 892, Euripides prays to the Ether and +other abstractions, not to the gods.--_Clouds_: 1371. + +P. 56. Plato: _Republ._ viii. p. 568a.--Quotation from _Melanippe_: Plut. +_Amat._ 13. + +P. 57. Aristophanes and Naturalism: see note to p. 30. + +P. 58. Denial of the gods in the _Clouds_, 247, 367, 380, 423, 627, 817, +825, 1232.--Moral of the piece: 1452-1510.--In Aristophanes's own travesties +of the gods, scholars have found evidence for a weakening of popular +belief, but this is certainly wrong; comp. Decharme, p. 109.--Words like +"believe" and "belief" do not cover the Greek word {~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER MU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA WITH OXIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ZETA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~}, which +signifies at once "believe" and "be in the habit," "use habitually," so +that it covers both belief and worship--an ambiguity that is characteristic +of Greek religion.--Xenophon: _Memorab._ i. 1; _Apol. Socr._ 10 and foll. + +P. 59. Plato: _Apol._ p. 24_b_ (the indictment); 26_b_ (the refutation). + +P. 60. Aristodemus: Xenoph. _Memor._ i. 4.--Cinesias: Decharme, p. 135.--The +Hermocopidae: Decharme, p. 152. Beloch, _Hist. of Greece_, ii. 1, p. 360, +has another explanation. To my argument it is of no consequence what +special motive is assigned for the crime, as long as it is a political +one. + +P. 61. Plato on impiety: _Laws_, x. p. 886b; comp. xii. p. 967_a_. +Curiously enough, the same tripartition of the wrong attitude towards the +gods occurs already in the _Republic_, ii. p. 365_d_, where it is +introduced incidentally as well known and a matter of course. + +P. 62. Euripides: _e.g._ _Hecuba_, 488; _Suppl._ 608.--Reference to +Anaxagoras: _Laws_, x. p. 886_d_; to Sophistic, 889_b_. + +P. 65. Plato in the _Apology_: p. 19_c_.--Socrates's _daimonion_ a proof of +_asebeia_: Xenoph. _Memorab._ i. 1, 2; _Apol_. _Socr._ 12; Plato, _Apol._ +p. 31_d_. + +P. 66. Accusation of teaching the doctrine of Anaxagoras: Plato, _Apol._ +p. 26_d_; comp. Xenoph. _Memor._ i. 1, 10.--Plato's defence of Socrates: +_Apol._ p. 27_a_. + +P. 67. Xenophon's defence of Socrates: _Memor._ i. 1, 2; 6 foll., 10 +foll.--Teleological view of nature: Xenoph. _Memor._ i. 4; iv. 3.--On the +religious standpoint of Socrates, comp. my _Udvalgte Afhandlinger_, p. 38. + +P. 68. Plato's _Apology_, p. 21_d_, 23_a_ and _f_, etc.--The gods +all-knowing: _Odyss._ iv. 379 and 468; comp. Nägelsbach, _Hom. Theol._ p. +18; _Nachhom. Theol._ p. 23. + +P. 69. The gods just: Nägelsbach, _Hom. Theol._ p. 297; _Nachhom. Theol._ +p. 27. + +P. 71. The relation between early religious thought and Delphi has been +explained correctly by Sam Wide, _Einleit. in die Altertumswissensch._, +ii. p. 221; comp. also I. L. Heiberg in _Tilskueren_, 1919, ii. p. +44.--Honours shown to Pindar at Delphi: schol. Pind. ed. Drachm. i. p. 2, +14; 5, 6. Pausan, x. 24. 5. + +P. 72. Plato on the Delphic Oracle: _Apol._ p. 20_e_. On the following +comp. I. L. Heiberg, _loc. cit._ p. 45.--Socrates on his _daimonion_: +Plato, _Apol._ p. 31_c_. + +P. 74. Antisthenes: Ritter, _Hist. philos. Gr.__9_ 285.--On the later +Cynics, especially Diogenes, see Diog. Laert. vi. 105 (the gods are in +need of nothing); Julian, _Or._ vi. p. 199_b_ (Diogenes did not worship +the gods). + +P. 75. Cyrenaics: Diog. Laert. ii. 91.--Date of Theodorus: Diog. Laert. ii. +101, 103; his book on the gods: Diog. Laert. ii. 97, Sext. Emp. _adv. +math._ ix. 55; his trial: Diog. Laert. ii. 101. + +P. 76. Theodorus's book used by Epicurus: Diog. Laert. ii. 97.--Zeller: +_Philos. d. Griechen_, ii. 1, p. 925.--Euthyphron: see especially p. 14_b_ +foll. + +P. 77. Criticism of Mythology in the _Republic_: ii. p. 377_b_ foll.; +worship presupposed: _e.g._ iii. p. 415_e_; v. p. 459_e_, 461_a_, 468_d_, +469_a_, 470_a_; vii. p. 540_b_; reference to the Oracle: iv. p. +427_b_.--_Timaeus_: p. 40_d_ foll.--_Laws_, rules of worship: vi. p. 759_a_, +vii. p. 967_a_ and elsewhere, x. p. 909_d_; capital punishment for +atheists: x. p. 909_a_. Comp. above, on p. 61. + +P. 78. Atheism a sin of youth: _Laws_, x. p. 888_a_.--Goodness and truth of +the gods: _Republ._ ii. p. 379_a_, 380_d_, 382_a_.--Belief in Providence: +_Laws_, x. p. 885_c_, etc.; _Republ._ x. p. 612_e_; _Apol._ p. 41_d_. + +P. 79. _Laws_, x. p. 888_d_, 893_b_ foll., especially 899_c-d_; comp. also +xii. p. 967_a-c._--_Timaeus_: p. 40_d-f_. Comp. _Laws_, xii. p. 948_b_. + +P. 80. The gods in the _Republic_, ii. p. 380_d_. This passage, taken +together with Plato's general treatment of popular belief, might lead to +the hypothesis that it was Plato's doctrine of ideas rather than the +rationalism of his youth that brought about strained relations between his +thought and popular belief. I incline to think that such is the case; but +there is a long step even from such a state of things to downright +atheism, and the stress Plato always laid on the belief in Providence is a +strong argument in favour of his belief in the gods, for he could never +make his ideas act in the capacity of Providence.--The gods as creators of +mankind: _Timaeus_, p. 41_a_ foll. + +P. 81. Xenocrates: the exposition of his doctrine given in the text is +based upon Heinze's _Xenokrates_ (Leipzig, 1892). + +P. 83. Trial of Aristotle: Diog. Laert. v. 5; Athen. xv. p. 696.--The +writings of Aristotle that have come down to us are almost all of them +compositions for the use of his disciples, and were not accessible to the +general public during his lifetime. + +P. 84. On the religious views of Aristotle see in general Zeller, ii. 2, +p. 787 (Engl. transl. ii. p. 325); where the references to his writings +are given in full. In the following I indicate only a few passages of +special interest.--Discussion of worship precluded: _Top._ A, xi. p. +105_a_, 5.--Aristotle's Will: _Diog_. Laert. v. 15.--The gods as determining +the limits of the human: _e.g._ _Nic. Eth._ K, viii. p. 1178b, 33: "(the +wise) will also be in need of outward prosperity, as he is (only) a +man."--Reservations in speaking of the gods, _e.g._ _Nic. Eth._ K, ix. p. +1179_a_, 13: "he who is active in accordance with reason ... must also be +supposed to be the most beloved of the gods; for if the gods trouble +themselves about human affairs--_and that they do so is generally taken for +granted_--it must be probable that they take pleasure in what is best and +most nearly related to themselves (_and that must be the reason_), and +that they reward those who love and honour this most highly," etc. The +passage is typical both of the hypothetical way of speaking, and of the +twist in the direction of Aristotle's own conception of the deity (whose +essence is reason); also of the Socratic manner of dealing with the gods. + +P. 85. The passage quoted is from the _Metaphysics_, A viii. p. 1074_a_, +38. Comp. _Metaph._ B, ii. p. 997_b_, 8; iv. p. 1000_a_, 9. + +P. 86. Theophrastus: Diog. Laert. v. 37. + +P. 87. Strato: Diels, _Ueber das physikal. System des S., Sitzungsber. d. +Berl. Akad._, 1893, p. 101.--His god the same as nature: _Cic. de nat. +deor._ i. 35. + +P. 89. On the history of Hellenistic religion, see Wendland, _Die +hellenistisch-römische Kultur in ihren Beziehungen z. Judentum u. +Christentum_ (Tübingen, 1907). + +P. 90. The passage quoted is Polyb. vi. 56, 6. + +P. 92. On the Tyche-Religion, see Nägelsbach, _Nachhom. Theologie_, p. +153; Lehrs, _Populäre Aufsätze_, p. 153; Rohde, _Griech. Roman_, p. 267 +(1st ed.); Wendland, p. 59.--Thucydides: see Classen in the introduction to +his (3rd) edition, pp. lvii-lix, where all the material is collected. A +conclusive passage is vii. 36, 6, where Thuc. makes the bigoted Nicias +before a decisive battle express the hope that "Fortune" will favour the +Athenians.--Demosthenes's dream: _Aeschin._ iii. 77.--Demosthenes on Tyche: +_Olynth._ ii. 22; _de cor._ 252. + +P. 93. Demosthenes and the Pythia: _Aesch._ iii. 130. Comp. _ibid._ 68, +131, 152; Plutarch, _Dem._ 20.--Demetrius of Phalerum: Polyb. xxix. +21.--Temples of Tyche: Roscher, _Mythol. Lex._, art. _Fortuna_. + +P. 94. Tyche mistress of the gods: _Trag. adesp. fragm._ 506, Nauck; [Dio +Chrys.] lxiv. p. 331 R.--Polybius: i. 1; iii. 5, 7.--The reservations +against Tyche as a principle for the explaining of historical facts, and +the twisting of the notion in the direction of Providence found in certain +passages in Polybius, do not concern us here; they are probably due to the +Stoic influence he underwent during his stay at Rome. Comp. below, on p. +114, and see Cuntz, _Polybios_ (Leipzig, 1902), p. 43.--Pliny: ii. 22 foll. + +P. 95. Tyche in the novels: Rohde, _Griech. Rom._ p. 280. + +P. 97. Strabo: xvii. p. 813.--Plutarch: _de def. or._ 5 and 7. + +P. 98. The Aetolians at Dium: Polyb. iv. 62; at Dodona, iv. 67; Philip at +Thermon, v. 9; Dicaearchus, xviii. 54.--Decay of Roman worship: Wissowa, +_Religion u. Kultus d. Römer_, p. 70 (2nd ed.). To this work I must refer +for indications of the sources; but the polemic in the text is chiefly +directed against Wissowa. + +P. 99. Ennius: comp. below, p. 112. + +P. 100. Varro: in Augustine, _de civ. Dei_, vi. 2. + +P. 103. Theology of the Stoics: Zeller, iii. 1, p. 309-45. + +P. 104. Demonology of the Stoics: Heinze, _Xenokrates_, p. 96. + +P. 105. Epicurus's theology: Zeller, iii. 1, pp. 427-38. Comp. Schwartz, +_Charakterköpfe_, ii. p. 43. + +P. 106. Epicurus's doctrine of the eternity of the gods criticised: Cic. +_de nat. deor._ i. 68 foll. + +P. 107. The Sceptics: Zeller, iii. 1, pp. 507 and 521. + +P. 109. Diogenes: see note on p. 74.--Bion: Diog. Laert. iv. 52 and 54. + +P. 110. Menippos: R. Helm, _Lukian u. Menipp_ (Leipzig and Berlin, 1906). + +P. 111. Euhemerus: Jacoby in Pauly-Wissowa's _Realencyclop._, art. +"Euemeros"; Wendland, _Hellenist. Kultur_, p. 70.--Euhemerism before +Euhemerus: Lobeck, _Aglaophamus_, p. 9; Wendland, p. 67. + +P. 112. A Danish scholar, Dr. J. P. Jacobsen (_Afhandlinger og Artikler_, +p. 490), seems to think that Euhemerus's theory was influenced by the +worship of heroes. But there is nothing to show that Euhemerus supposed +his gods to have continued their existence after their death, though this +would have been in accordance with Greek belief even in the Hellenistic +period; he seems rather to have insisted that they were worshipped as gods +during their lifetime (comp. Jacoby, _loc. cit._). + +P. 114. Euhemerism in Polybius: xxxiv. 2; comp. x. 10, 11.--Relapse into +orthodoxy: xxxvii. 9 (the decisive passage); xxxix. 19, 2 (concluding +prayer to the gods); xviii. 54, 7-10; xxiii. 10, 14 (the gods punish +impiety; comp. xxxvii. 9, 16). There is a marked contrast between such +passages and the way Polybius speaks of Philip's destruction of the +sanctuary at Thermon; he blames it severely, but merely on political, not +on religious grounds (v. 9-12). Orthodox utterances in the older portions +of the work (i. 84, 10; x. 2, 7) may be due to that accommodation to +popular belief which Polybius himself acknowledges as justifiable (xvi. +12, 9), but also to later revision.--Influence of Stoicism: Hirzel, +_Untersuchungen zu Ciceros philos. Schriften_, ii. p. 841. + +P. 115. Cicero's Stoicism in his philosophy of religion: _de nat. deor._ +iii. 40, 95. + +P. 116. Sanctuary to Tullia: Cic. _ad Att._ xii. 18 foll.; several of the +letters (23, 25, 35, 36) show that Atticus disapproved of the idea, and +that Cicero himself was conscious that it was unworthy of him. + +P. 117. Euhemeristic defence: _fragm. consol._ 14, 15.--Augustus's +reorganisation of the cults: Wissowa, _Religion u. Kultus d. Römer_, p. +73. Recent scholars, especially when treating of Virgil (Heinze, _Vergils +ep. Technik_, 3rd ed. p. 291; Norden, _Aeneis_, vi. 2nd ed. pp. 314, 318, +362), speak of the reform of Augustus as if it involved a real revulsion +of feeling in his contemporaries. This is in my opinion a complete +misunderstanding of the facts. Virgil's religious views: _Catal. v., +Georgics_, ii. 458. + +P. 118. Pliny: _hist. nat._ ii. 1-27. The passages translated are §§ 14 +and 27. + +P. 122. Seneca: fragm. 31-39, Haase.--Stoic polemic against atheism: +Epictetus, _diss._ ii. 20, 21; comp. Marcus Aurelius, vi. 44.--Later +Cynicism: Zeller, iii. 1, p. 763.--Oenomaus: only preserved in excerpts by +Euseb. _praep. evang._ 5-6 (a separate edition is wanted).--His polemic +directed against the priests: Euseb. 5, p. 213_c_; comp. Oenomaus himself, +_ibid._ 6, p. 256_d_. + +P. 123. Lucian: see Christ, _Gesch. d. griech. Litt._ ii. 2, p. 550 (5th +ed.), and R. Helm, _Lukian u. Menipp_ (see note to p. 110). + +P. 124. Timon: ch. x. + +P. 126. On Lucian's caution in attacking the really popular gods, see +Wilamowitz, in _Kultur d. Gegenwart_, i. 8, p. 248.--The Jews atheists: +Harnack, _Der Vorwurf d. Atheismus in den 3 ersten Jahrh_. (_Texte u. +Unters._, N.F., xiii. 4), p. 3. + +P. 127. I have met with no comprehensive treatment of Jewish and Christian +polemic against Paganism; Geffcken, _Zwei griech. Apologeten_ (Leipzig, +1907), is chiefly concerned with investigations into the sources. I shall +therefore indicate the principal passages on which my treatment is +based.--Polemic against images in the Old Testament: Isaiah 44.10 etc.; in +later literature: Epistle of Jeremiah; Wisdom of Solomon 13 foll.; Philo, +_de decal._ 65 foll., etc.--Euhemerism: Wisdom of Solomon 14.15; Epistle of +Aristeas, 135; Sibyll. iii. 547, 554, 723.--Elements and celestial bodies: +Wisdom of Solomon 13; Philo, _de decal._ 52 foll.--The tenacity of +tradition is apparent from the fact that even Maimonides in his treatise +of idolatry deals only with star-worship and image-worship. I know the +treatise only from the Latin translation by D. Voss (in G. I. Voss's +_Opera_, vol. v.).--Demons: Deuteron. 32.17; Psalms 106.37; add (according +to LXX.) Isaiah 65.11; Psalms 96.5. Later writers: Enoch 19.99, 7; Baruch +4.7. Such passages as Jub. 22, 17 or Sibyll. prooem. 22 are possibly +Euhemeristic.--Fallen angels: Enoch, 19.--Philo's demonology: _de gig._ +6-18, etc. + +P. 128. St. Paul: 1 Cor. 10.20; comp. 8.4 and Rom. 1.23. + +P. 129. Image-worship and demon-worship not conciliated: _e.g._ Tertull. +_Apologet._ 10-15 and 22-23, comp. 27.--Jewish demonology: Bousset, +_Religion d. Judentums_, p. 326 (1st ed.).--Fallen angels: _e.g._ Athenag. +24 foll.; Augustine, _Enchir._ 9, 28 foll.; _de civ. Dei_, viii. 22. + +P. 130. Euhemerism in the Apologists: _e.g._ Augustine, _de civ. Dei_, ii. +10; vi. 7; vii. 18 and 33; viii. 26.--Euhemerism and demonology combined: +_e.g._ Augustine, _de civ. Dei_, ii. 10; vii. 35; comp. vii. 28 +fin.--Worship of the heavenly bodies: _e.g._ Aristid. 3 foll.; Augustine, +_de civ. Dei_, vii. 29 foll. + +P. 131. Paganism a delusion caused by demons: Thomas Aq. _Summa theol._ P. +ii. 2, Q. 94, art. 4; comp. below, note on p. 135. + +P. 133. For the following sketch I have found valuable material in +Gedike's essay, _Ueber die mannigfaltigen Hypothesen z. Erklärung d. +Mythologie_ (_Verm. Schriften_, Berlin, 1801, p. 61). + +P. 134. Milton: _Paradise Lost_, i. 506. The theory that the pagan oracles +fell mute at the rise of Christianity is also found in Milton, _Hymn on +the Morning of Christ's Nativity_, st. xviii. foll. + +P. 135. G. I. Voss; _De Theologia Gentili_, lib. i. (published, +1642)--Voss's view is in the main that idolatry as a whole is the work of +the Devil. What is worshipped is partly the heavenly bodies, partly +demons, partly (and principally) dead men; most of the ancient gods are +identified with persons from the Old Testament. Demon-worship is dealt +with in ch. 6; it is proved among other things by the true predictions of +the oracles. Individual Greek deities are identified with demons in ch. 7, +in a context where oracles are dealt with. On older works of the same +tendency, see below, note on p. 140; on Natalis Comes, _ibid._ A fuller +treatment of Voss's theories is found in Gruppe's work, § 25.--Thomas +Aquinas: _Summa theol._ P. ii. 2, Q. 94, art. 4; comp. also Q. 122, art. +2.--Dante: Sommo Giove for God, _Purg._ vi. 118; his devils: Charon, _Inf._ +iii. 82 (109 expressly designated as "dimonio"); Minos, _Inf._ v. 4; +Geryon, _Inf._ xviii. (there are more of the same kind).--"Dei falsi e +bugiardi": _Inf._ i. 72. (Plutus, who appears as a devil in _Inf._ vii. +was probably taken by Dante for an antique god; but the name may also be a +classicising translation of Mammon.) + +P. 136. Mediaeval epic poets: Nyrop, _Den oldfranske Heltedigtning_, p. +255 and 260; Dernedde, _Ueber die den altfranzös. Dichtern bekannten +Stoffe aus dem Altertum_ (Diss. Götting. 1887).--Confusion of ancient and +Christian elements: Dernedde, p. 10; the gods are devils: Dernedde, pp. +85, 88.--Euhemerism: Dernedde, p. 4.--I have tried to get a first-hand +impression of the way the gods are treated by the old French epic poets, +but the material is too large, and indexes suited to the purpose are +wanting. The paganism of the original is taken over naïvely, _e.g._, by +Veldeke, _Eneidt_, i. 45, 169.--On magic I have consulted Horst's +_Dämonomagie_ (Frankf. 1818); and his _Zauber-Bibliothek_ (Mainz, +1821-26); Schindler, _Der Aberglaube des Mittelalters_ (Breslau, 1858); +Maury, _La magie et l'astrologie dans l'antiquité et au moyen âge_ (Paris, +1860). These authors all agree that mediaeval magic is dependent on +antiquity, but that the pagan gods are superseded by devils (or the +Devil). The connexion in substance with antiquity, on which Maury +specially insists, is certain enough, but does not concern us here, where +the question is about the theory. In the _Zauber-Bibl._ i. p. 137 (in the +treatise _Pneumatologia vera et occulta_), the snake Python is put down +among the demons, with the remark that Apollo was called after it.--Magic +formulae with antique gods: Heim, _Incantamenta magica_ (in the _Neue +Jahrbb. f. Philologie_, Suppl. xix. 1893, p. 557; I owe this reference to +the kindness of my colleague, Prof. Groenbeck). Pradel, _Religionsgesch. +Vers. u. __ Vorarb._ iii., has collected prayers and magic formulae from +Italy and Greece; they do not contain names of antique gods. + +P. 137. Acosta: Joseph de Acosta, _Historia naturale e morale delle +Indie_, Venice, 1596. I have used this Italian translation; the original +work appeared in 1590.--Demons at work in oracles: bk. v. ch. 9; in magic: +ch. 25. + +P. 138. Demon in Brazil: Voss, _Theol. Gent._ i. ch. 8.--Pagan worship in +the Florentine and Roman Academies: Voigt, _Wiederbelebung d. klass. +Altertums_, ii. p. 239 (2nd ed.); Hettner, _Ital. Studien_, p. 174.--On the +conception of the antique gods in the earlier Middle Ages, see Gruppe, § +4.--Thomas Aquinas: _Summa theol._ P. ii. 2, Q. 94, art. 4.--Curious and +typical of the mediaeval way of reasoning is the idea of seeking +prototypes of the Christian history of salvation in pagan mythology. See +v. Eicken, _Gesch. u. System d. mittelalt. Weltanschauung_ (Stuttg. 1887), +p. 648, and (with more detail) F. Piper, _Mythologie u. Symbolik d. +christl. Kunst_ (Weimar, 1847-51), i. p. 143; comp. also Gruppe, § 8 foll. +Good instances are the myths in the _Speculum humanae salvationis_, chs. 3 +and 24. + +P. 139. On Hebraism in general, see Gruppe, § 19 and § 24 foll.; on Huet, +§ 28. Nevertheless, Huet operates with demonology in connexion with the +oracles (_Dem. evang._ ii. 9, 34, 4). + +P. 140. On Natalis Comes, see Gruppe, § 19. In bk. i. ch. 7, Natalis Comes +gives an account of the origin of antiquity's conceptions of the gods; it +has quite a naturalistic turn. Nevertheless, we find in ch. 16 a remark +which shows that he embraced demonology in its crudest form; compare also +the theory set forth in ch. 10. His interpretations of myths are collected +in bk. x.--On Bacon, see Gruppe, § 22. Typhoeus-myth: introduct. to _De +sapientia veterum._--Alchemistic interpretations: Gedike, _Verm. +Schriften_, p. 78; Gruppe, § 30. Of the works quoted by Gedike, I have +consulted Faber's _Panchymicum_ (Frankf. 1651) and Toll's Fortuita +(Amsterd. 1687). Faber has only some remarks on the matter in bk. i. ch. +5; by Toll the alchemistic interpretation is carried through. Gedike +quotes, moreover, a work by Suarez de Salazar, which must date from the +sixteenth century; according to Jöcher (iv. 1913) it only exists in MS., +and I do not know where Gedike got his reference.--Thomas: _Summa_, P. ii. +2, Q. 172, arts. 5 and 6. + +P. 141. Demonology as explanation of the oracles: see van Dale, _De +oraculis_, p. 430 (Amsterd. 1700); he quotes numerous treatises from the +sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. I have glanced at Moebius, _De +oraculorum ethnicorum origine_, etc. (Leipzig, 1656).--Caelius Rhodiginus: +_Lectionum antiq._ (Leyden, 1516), lib. ii. cap. 12; comp. Gruppe, § +15.--Caelius Calcagninus: _Oraculorum liber_ (in his _Opera_, Basle, 1544, +p. 640). The little dialogue is not very easy to understand; it is +evidently a satire on contemporary credulity; but that Caelius completely +rejected divination seems to be assumed also by G. I. Voss, _Theol. Gent._ +i. 6.--Machiavelli: _Discorsi_, i. 56.--Van Dale: _De oraculis gentilium_ +(1st ed. Amsterd. 1683); _De idololatria_ (Amsterd. 1696). Difficulties +with the biblical accounts of demons: _De idol._, dedication.--Fontenelle: +_Histoire des oracles_ (Paris, 1687). The little book has an amusing +preface, in which Fontenelle with naïve complacency (and with a sharp eye +for van Dale's deficiencies of style) gives an account of his +popularisation of the learned work. On Fontenelle and the answer by the +Jesuit, Balthus, see for further details Banier, _La mythologie et les +fables expliquées par l'histoire_ (Paris, 1738), bk. iii. ch. 1. Van +Dale's book itself had called forth an answer by Moebius (included in the +edition of 1690 of his work, _de orac. ethn. orig._).--On the influence +exercised by van Dale and Fontenelle on the succeeding mythologists, see +Gruppe, § 34.--Banier: see Gruppe, § 35. + +P. 143. Vico: _Scienza nuova_ (Milan, 1853), p. 168 (bk. ii. in the +section, Della metafisica poetica); political allegories, _e.g._ p. 309 +(in the Canone mitologico). Comp. Gruppe, § 44.--Banier: in the work +indicated above, bk. i. ch. 5. + +P. 144. On the mythological theories of the eighteenth century, comp. +Gruppe, § 36 foll.; on Bryant, § 40; on Dupuis, § 41.--Polemic against +Euhemerism from the standpoint of nature-symbolism: de la Barre, _Mémoires +pour servir à l'histoire de la religion en Grèce_, in _Mém. de l'Acad. des +Inscr._ xxiv. (1749; the treatise had already been communicated in 1737 +and 1738); a posthumous continuation in _Mém._ xxix. (1770) gives an idea +of de la Barre's own point of view, which was not a little in advance of +his time. Comp. Gruppe, § 37. + +P. 145. A good survey of modern investigations in the field of the history +of ancient religion is given by Sam Wide in the _Einleit. in die +Altertumswissensch._ ii.; here also remarks on the mythology of older +times. The later part of Gruppe's work contains a very full treatment of +the subject. + + + + + +INDEX + + +Absolute definitions of the divine, 16, 19, 68, 69, 82, 88. + +Academics, 149. + +Academy, later, 108, 114. + +Acosta, 137, 139, 141. + +Aelian, 121. + +Aeneid (mediaeval), 136. + +Aeschines, 93. + +Aeschylus, 54, 55. + +Aetolians, 97, 98. + +Alchemistic explanation of Paganism, 140. + +Alcibiades, 60. + +Alexander the Great, 93, 112. + +Allegorical interpretation, 104, 113, 139, 140, 143, 144. + +American Paganism, 137, 139, 141. + +Anaxagoras of Clazomenae, 7, 13, 25-29, 30, 31, 40, 62, 63, 66, 124. + +Anaximenes, 30. + +Angelology, 129. + +Anthropomorphism, 14, 18, 19, 69. + +Antisthenes, 13, 74, 109. + +Apologists, 128, 130, 132, 139. + +Arcissewsky, 138. + +Aristides the Apologist, 129. + +Aristides Rhetor, 121. + +Aristodemus, 60, 62. + +Aristophanes, 30, 32, 33, 39, 55, 56-58, 65. + _Birds_, 32. + _Clouds_, 30, 55, 56-58 + _Frogs_, 55. + +Aristotle, 13, 30, 32, 46, 83-87, 104, 113. + _Ethics_, 84. + _Metaphysics_, 85-86. + _Politics_, 84. + +Aristoxenus, 32, 33. + +Asclepius, 111, 121, 126. + +_Asebeia_, 6, 7, 8. + +Aspasia, 27. + +Atheism (and Atheist) defined, 1; + rare in antiquity, 2, 133; + of recent origin, 2, 143; + origin of the words, 5; + lists of atheists, 13; + punishable by death in Plato's _Laws_, 77; + sin of youth, 78. + +Athene, 74. + +Athens, its treatment of atheism, 6-8, 9, 12, 25, 39, 65 foll., 74, 75, + 83, 86; + its view of sophistic, 58-59. + +_Atheos_ (_atheoi_), 2, 10, 13, 14, 19, 23, 29, 43, 75, 110. + +_Atheotes_, 2. + +Augustine, St., 129, 135. + +Augustus, 117; + religious reaction of, 100, 113, 117, 120. + +Aurelius, Marcus, 11, 121. + +Bacon, Francis (_De Sap. Vet._) 140. + +Banier, 142, 143. + +Bible, 130, 142. + +Bion, 13, 109. + +Brazil, 138. + +Bruno, Giordano, 151. + +Bryant, 144. + +Buttmann, 152. + +Caelius Calcagninus, 141. + +Caelius Rhodiginus, 141. + +Callicles, 48 foll., 63. + +Carlyle, 112. + +Carneades, 8, 108. + +Cassander of Macedonia, 111. + +Charon, 135. + +Christianity, 126, 128-32. + +Christians, their atheism, 9; + prosecutions of, 10; + demonology, 83. + +Cicero, 19, 105, 114-17, 147. + _Nature of the Gods_, 115. + _On the State_, 115. + _On the Laws_, 115. + _De consolatione_, 116. + +Cinesias, 60. + +Copernicus, 151. + +Critias, 13, 44-50. + _Sisyphus_, 44 f., 114. + +Criticism of popular religion, 16, 17, 19, 35 foll., 74, 78, 82, 84, 88, + 90, 99, 104, 109, 110, 122, 124-26. + +Cuthites, 144. + +Cynics, 74, 109-10, 122, 124, 147. + +Cyrenaics, 75. + +_Daimonion_ of Socrates, 65, 66, 72-73. + +van Dale, 141-42. + +Dante, 135. + +Deisidaimon, 75. + +Demeter, 42, 43, 81. + +Demetrius of Phalerum, 75, 93. + _On Tyche_, 93. + +Democritus, 24, 42, 43, 44, 47, 52. + +Demonology, 81-83, 105, 113, 127-32, 134-42, 148, 149. + +Demosthenes, 92-93, 96. + +Devil, 132, 137, 139, 141, 144. + +Diagoras of Melos, 13, 31-34, 39, 50. + _Apopyrgizontes logoi_, 32, 33. + +Dicaearchus, 98. + +Diodorus Siculus, 112. + +Diogenes of Apollonia, 13, 29-30, 57. + +Diogenes the Cynic, 109. + +Dionysus, 42, 43. + +Diopeithes, 28. + +Dioscuri, 124. + +Dium, 98. + +Divination, 18, 20, 26, 27, 28, 40, 97, 114, 131, 135, 137, 140-42. + Comp. Oracle. + +Dodona, 98, 141. + +Dogmatics, 108. + +Domitian, 11. + +Dupuis, 144. + +Elements, divine, 23, 24, 30, 52 foll., 57, 81, 103, 127. + +Eleusinian Mysteries, 32, 33, 40, 60. + +Ennius, 99, 112. + +Epicureans, Epicurus, 13, 76, 80, 83, 105-7, 113, 147, 149. + +Euhemerus, Euhemerism, 13, 110-12, 113, 114, 117, 127, 130, 136, 137, 139, + 140, 142, 143, 144. + +Euripides, 16, 17, 21, 45, 46, 48, 51-56, 62. + _Bellerophon_, 53. + _Melanippe_, 55, 56. + +Fallen angels, 128, 129, 130. + +Florentine Academy, 138. + +Foreign gods, 70, 89, 103. + +Fontenelle, 142. + +Geocentric view, 150. + +Geryon, 135. + +Giants, 18. + +Gorgias, 37. + +Hades, 81. + +Heavenly bodies, 2, 20, 22, 25, 43, 62, 66, 79, 80, 81, 84, 87, 104, 127, + 128, 130, 137, 139, 144, 149, 151. + +Heavenly phenomena, 22. + +Hebraism, 139, 143, 144. + +Hecataeus of Abdera, 112. + +Heliocentric view, 151. + +Hellenistic philosophy, 94, 103-10, 119. + +Hephaestus, 42, 43. + +Heracles, 74, 111. + +Hercules, 136. + +Herder, 145. + +Hermae, 40, 60. + +Hermes, 124. + +Hermias, 83. + +Herodotus, 28, 29. + +Hesiod, 16, 18. + +Heyne, 152. + +Hippo of Rhegium, 13, 29-30. + +Holy War, 96. + +Homer, 16, 18, 43, 68, 106. + +Horace, 117. + +Huet, 139. + +Hylozoism, 23. + +Ideas, Platonic, 80. + +Idolatry attacked, 123. + See also Image Worship. + +Ignorance, Socratic, 68. + +Image Worship, 127, 128, 131-37. + +Jews, their atheism, 9, 126. + +Josephus, 128. + +Judaism, 126, 127-28, 129. + +Juno Regina, 136. + +Jupiter (in Dante), 135; + (in the Thebaïs,) 136. + +Jupiter-priest, 100. + +Kepler, 151. + +Kronos, 111. + +Lampon, 26. + +Lobeck, 152. + +Lucian, 110, 123-26. + _Timon_, 124. + _Dialogues of the Gods_, 125. + +Lucretius, 106. + +Luna Jovis filia, 136. + +Macedonia, 93. + +Machiavelli, 141. + +Magic, 136-37. + +Mannhardt, 152. + +Mantinea, constitution of, 32. + +Marcus Aurelius, 11, 121. + +Mediaeval epic poets, 136. + +Megarians, 74, 107. + +Menippus of Gadara, 110. + +Mexico, 137. + +Middle Ages, 133, 135-39. + +Milton (_Paradise Lost_), 134, 135, 141. + +Minos, 135. + +Miracles, pagan, 131, 132. + +Modesty, religions, 55, 70, 73. + +Moschion, 46. + +Moses and his sister, 139. + +Monotheism, 9, 12, 23, 74, 80, 83, 127 foll., 139, 148, 151. + +Müller, K. O., 152. + +Natalis Comes, 139 foll. + +Naturalism, Ionian, 21, 22-25, 30-31, 52, 57. + +Negroes, 18. + +Neo-Platonists, 83, 121. + +Neo-Pythagoreans, 83, 121. + +Nero, 11. + +Newton, 151. + +Nile, 42. + +_Nomos_ (and _Physis_), 35, 36, 38, 63, 74. + +Nymphs, 136. + +Oenomaus (_The Swindlers Unmasked_), 122-23, 126. + +Old Testament, 127, 129. + +Oracle of Ammon, 97; oracles of Boeotia, 97; + Delphic Oracle, 28, 60, 67, 68, 71, 72, 77, 93, 96, 97, 123, 141; + decay of oracles, 96-97; + oracles explained by priestly fraud, 123, 141-42. + Ovid, 117. + +Paganism of Antiquity, its character, 15. + +Panchaia, 111. + +Parmenides, 21. + +Pantheism, 20, 23, 103, 119, 122, 127. + +Paul, St., 128. + +Pericles, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 31, 124. + +Peripatetics, 147, 149. + +Peru, 137. + +Pheidias, 27. + +Philip III. of Macedonia, 96. + +Philip V. of Macedonia, 97-98. + +Philo, 128. + +Phocians, 96. + +_Physis_ (and _Nomos_), 35, 36, 63, 74. + +Pindar, 16, 17, 52, 71. + +Plato, 13, 39, 48, 49, 50, 56, 59, 61-63, 65, 66, 72, 76-81, 82, 84, 113, + 147. + _Apology_, 59, 65, 66, 68, 72, 78, 79. + _Euthyphron_, 67, 76. + _Gorgias_, 48 foll., 63, 77. + _Laws_, 61 foll., 77, 78, 79, 80. + _Republic_, 50, 56, 77, 78. + _Symposium_, 82. + _Timaeus_, 77, 79, 80. + +Platonism, 148. + +Plethon, 138. + +Pliny the Elder, 94, 95, 118, 147. + +Plutarch (_de def. orac._), 97. + +Polybius, 48, 90-91, 94, 99, 113-14, 147; + Stoicism in P., 114. + +Pomponazzi (_De Incantat._), 141. + +Poseidon, 42, 81. + +Poseidonius, 104. + +Prodicus of Ceos, 13, 42-44, 104. + +Protagoras of Abdera, 13, 39-42, 47. + _On the Gods_, 39 foll. + _Original State_, 47. + +Providence, 60, 61, 78, 105, 118, 122. + +Pythia, 93. + +Reaction, religious, of second century, 120-21, 125; + of Augustus, see Augustus. + +Reinterpretation of the conceptions of the gods, 2. + See also Allegorical interpretation. + +Religion a political invention, 47, 114. + +Religious thought, early, of Greece, 16-17, 52, 54, 55, 69-70, 71, 84, 88, + 98, 107. + +Renaissance, 133, 138, 139 foll., 141. + +Rohde, 152. + +Roman Academy, 138. + +Roman religion, 90, 99-100, 101-2. + +Roman State-worship, decay of, 98-103. + +Romance of Troy, 136. + +Romances, 95-96. + +Rome's treatment of atheism, 8-11. + +Rousseau, 145. + +Scepticism, 107-8, 114, 147. + +Schoolmen, 135. + +Seneca, 110, 122. + +Sibylline books, 97. + +Sisyphus, 45, 48. + +Socrates, 7, 13, 40, 46, 49, 56, 58, 64-73, 84, 107, 147. See also + _Daimonion_ of S. + +Socratic philosophy, 64, 87, 149. + +Socratic Schools, 73, 87-88. + +Sol invictus, 136. + +Solon, 16. + +Sophistic, 35-38, 57, 64, 87, 104, 148, 149. + +Sophocles, 28, 54. + +Stilpo, 13, 74, 108. + +Stoics, 83, 103-5, 113, 118, 119, 121-22, 147, 148, 149. + +Strabo, 97. + +Strato, 87, 108. + +Suetonius, 121. + +Supernaturalism, 149-51. + +Superstition, 75, 90, 102, 123, 126. + +Tapuis, 138. + +Thales, 24. + +Thebaïs (mediaeval), 136. + +Theodicy (Socratic), 67. + +Theodoras, 13, 75-76, 108, 109. + _On the Gods_, 75. + +Theophrastus, 13, 86. + +Thermon, 98. + +Thomas Aquinas, 131, 135, 138, 139, 140. + +Thracians, 18. + +Thrasymachus, 50, 62. + +Thucydides (the historian), 28-29, 92, 94. + +Thucydides (the statesman), 26. + +Tiberius, 118. + +Tisiphone, 136. + +Titans, 18. + +Tolerance in antiquity, 9, 11. + +Trajan, 11. + +Tullia, 116. + +Tyche, 91-96, 118. + +Typhoeus, 140. + +Uranos, 111. + +Usener, 152. + +Valerius Maximus, 118. + +Varro, 100, 110. + +Vico (_Scienza Nuova_), 143. + +Violation of sanctuaries, 40, 60, 97, 100. + +Virgil, 117. + +Voss, G. I., 135, 138, 141. + +Wisdom of Solomon, 128. + +Worship rejected, 9-13, 60, 74, 77, 84, 109, 123, 125. + +Xenocrates, 81-82, 105, 113, 129. + +Xenophanes of Colophon, 13, 17-21, +52, 56. + +Xenophon, 58, 59, 62, 66, 67. + _Memorab._ 58, 60. + _Apology_, 58. + +Zeller, 76, 79. + +Zeno of Elea, 21. + +Zeus, 16, 22, 30, 43, 55, 57, 58, 81, 105, 111, 124. + + + + + + +FOOTNOTES + + + 1 This was written before the appearance of Mr. Gruppe's work, + _Geschichte der klassischen Mythologie und Religionsgeschichte_. + Compare _infra_, p. 154. + + + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ATHEISM IN PAGAN ANTIQUITY*** + + + +CREDITS + + +March 11, 2009 + + Project Gutenberg TEI edition 1 + Produced by Marilynda Fraser-Cunliffe, J.P.W. 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