Page:Philological Museum v2.djvu/180

170 Memnon. Diomede, and others^^ Though I should hesitate very much to deduce the whole of the Greek religion, as some ancient 48 Paus. II. 10. 1. ^aX(JTOv hv ^LKvo^via Xeyovcnv evTa KaToXafSeTu Hpa/cXet (Tcfyd^ W9 ipuii kvayiX^ouTa^' ovkovv ri^iov Spav ovdeu 6 $. tmu auTOjv, dW* w? Oew OOeLv. AchiUes received divine honours at Olbia (at least if Dion. Chr. 11. p. 80, 6 fxeu yap deo^^ is to be taken literally) and at Astypalaea: Cic. De N. D. iii. 18, A- chillem Astypalaeenses insulani Sanctis sime colunt ; qui si deusest, et Orpheus et Rhesus dii sunt, Musa matre nati. At Ilium he seems to have received the honours both of a god and a hero : Philostr. Her. p. 741. The passage is worth transcribing, because it illustrates better perhaps than any other the distinction between the two rites, and is in this respect equally valuable, whatever opinion we may hold as to the writer's authority. He relates that in ancient times before the Persian invasion in compliance with the injunction of the oracle of Dodona, 65 Tpoiav irXeovTa^ dvcLv bora €Tr] TO) 'A)(tXX^t Kal arcfxiTTeLv ^d fxev a)9 6<?^, -ra ^e ais ev fxoipa tcHv Keifxevtav. The Thessalians had every year sent a ship to Troy, with black sails, having on board 14 deujpoLj and two bulls, one white and the other black. The messengers on their arrival at the tomb of Achilles opS/moL^ eppvdfXKTfxivoL^ <yvvi]aXaX^ov ^ dvaKaXouvre^ tov 'A)(tX- Xea, (TT6(pauc6(TavT69 de Trv Kopv(pi]v tou koXwvoVj Kal f^oOpov^ e7r' av^y opv^avTe^y tov Tavpov Toi/ fxiXava cJs TeduewTL ecrcpaTTOv' eKdXovv oe Kal tov TLdTpoKXov kirl Tt|V <5alTa — evTefjLOVTe^ Se Kal evayiaavTCS KaTepaivov eirl tj]u vavv ?J3?/, Kal OvcravTe^ eirl n-ov aiyiaXov tov eTepov Tuiv Tavpcuv 'AxtX-Xel irdXtVy Kavov t€ evap^dfxevoL Kal cnrXdy- X^^v ^'^' €KeLvrj Trj dvcria, edvov ydp tt/z; Qva-tav TavTrfV to? Oew, irepl opdpov dveirXeov dirdyovTe^ to lepeloVy ws yctrj ev Ty 'iroXefxia evuDypXvTo, He then proceeds to relate that these rites having been neglected, and Thessaly in consequence having been af- flicted with a drought, and an oracle bidding them Tifjidv tov 'AxtXXe'a w? Oe/itv, a fxkv 609 ^€(M ivo/niX^ov dcpelXov Twv opoofxevcDV, 6^i]yov/jL€voL TavT7j TO CO? de/uLL^y evijyLX^ov Sk ais TcdvewTL, Compare Heroic, p. 707, and the descriptions of Pausanias, x. 4. 10, in. 19. 3 ; Plutarch Qu. Rom. 34. Xenophanes is said to have been consulted by the people of Elea whether they ought to sacrifice to Leucothea and to bewaQ her: the philosopher advised them et /xkv dedv viroXapL^dvovcTL pn] OpyjveTv, el 0' dvdpwTrov fii] eCeiv. Aristot. Rhet. 11. 23. Plutarch (De Is. et Os. c. 70) places the scene of the story in Egypt, and gives the speech of X. a difl?erent turn : et 0eoi/9 vopiilovai /x)j Qpi^velv^ el oe dptivodan 0eou9 fxv vo^ileLv.— The origin of the confusion above exemplified be- tween divine and heroic honours may in general be accounted for by the weU known fact, that in numberless instances a god was transformed by a legend, which laid hold of one of his epithets as the name of a distinct person, into a mortal hero. (See MueHer Prolegomena z. e. w. M. p. 271. foil.). Whether a hero (before the Mace- donian period) was ever reaHy sublimated by the mere enthusiasm of his adorers into a god, is very doubtful; so that a great part of Cotta's argumentation becomes a mere sciomachy. It must however be admitted, that we find the belief in the general possibility of such an apotheosis prevailing very early among the Greeks. It was per- haps partly founded on the language of the Odyssey (xi. 601 and iv. 561 ), which how- ever admits of a different construction, and partly on the fact that in different places (and sometimes it would seem in the same place) both kinds of rites were actually performed in honour of the same person. Pindar Nem. x. 11. says: ALOfxrioea d' dp,- (SpoTov ^avdd TTOTe rXau/cw7rt9 e0?;/ce Qeov (Compare the quotation from Polemo in the Schol.) This was after the example of Menelaus. Hesiod (Pausan. i. 43. 1), among his other innovations, reported 'l^Lyeveiav ovk dirodavelv, yyw/x?/ Sk 'ApTepaSo^ 'E/ca- T»;i/ elvai. Empedocles indeed speaks of a change from the human to the divine na- ture as the ordinary effect of certain religious observances. But this was manifestly a