THE RELIGIOUS THOUGHT
OF THE GREEKS
FROM HOMER TO THE TRIUMPH
OF CHRISTIANITY
BY
CLIFFORD HERSCHEL MOORE
PROFESSOR OF LATIN IN HARVARD UNIVERSITY
CAMBRIDGE
HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS
LONDON: HUMPHREY MILFORD
Oxford University Press
1916
COPYRIGHT, 1916
HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS
First impression issued November, 1916
Second impression issued December, 1916
TO MY WIFE
PREFACE
In this book eight lectures given before the Lowell Institute inBoston during the late autumn of 1914 are combined with material drawnfrom a course of lectures delivered the previous spring before theWestern Colleges with which Harvard University maintains an annualexchange—Beloit, Carleton, Colorado, Grinnell, and Knox. The lectureform has been kept, even at the cost of occasional repetition.
The purpose of these lectures is to present within a moderate compassan historical account of the progress of Greek religious thoughtthrough something over a thousand years. No attempt has been madeto give a general treatment of Greek religion, or to deal withpre-Hellenic origins, with religious antiquities, or with mythology.The discussions are confined rather to the Greeks’ ideas about thenature of the gods, and to their concepts of the relations betweengods and men and of men’s obligations toward the divine. The lecturestherefore deal with the higher ranges of Greek thought and at timeshave much to do with philosophy and theology.
Yet I have felt free to interpret my subject liberally, and, sofar as space allowed, I have touched on whatever seemed to me mostsignificant. Ethics has been included without hesitation, for theGreeks themselves, certainly from the fifth century b.c.,regarded morals as closely connected with religion. A treatment of the[vi]oriental religions seemed desirable, since the first two centuries anda half of our era cannot be understood if these religions are left outof account. Still more necessary was it to include Christianity. In myhandling of this I have discussed the teachings of Jesus and of Paulwith comparative fullness, in order to set forth clearly the materialwhich later under the influence of secular thought was transformed intoa philosophic system. Origen and Plotinus represent the culmination ofGreek religious philosophy.
Such a book as this can be nothing more than a sketch; in it thescholar will miss many topics which might well have been included. Ofsuch omissions I am fully conscious; but limitations of subject and ofspace forced me to select those themes which seemed most significant inthe development of the religious ideas of the ancient world.
It is not possible for me to acknowledge all my obligations to others.I wish, however, to express here my gratitude to Professor C. P.Parker, who has shared his knowledge of Plato with me; to Professor J.H. Ropes, who has helped me on many points in my last two lectures,where I especially needed an expert’s aid; and