Themis, a study of the social origins of Greek ... - Warburg Institute

ch. vn] The Funeral Theory 213
It will be noted that this hypothesis marks an advance upon
what we call the naive view, in that it recognises the religious
character of the games. Athletic feats were performed, not solely
to cheer the spirits of the performers, but as an act of worship, to
* honour and appease ' the spirit of a hero. The theory holds that
the performance originates in funeral games at the barrow of
a dead chief—in the case of Olympia, at the Pelopium—and is
perpetuated because dead warriors like to be remembered by their
survivors and can visit neglect with unpleasant consequences.
Hence it is prudent to honour and appease them.
Dr Frazer 1 brings forward evidence in support of this theory
of the funeral origin. It consists chiefly 2 of instances of games
celebrated at funerals or founded in historic times, either in
Greece or elsewhere, to do honour to famous men, such as
Miltiades, Brasidas, Timoleon, who were worshipped as heroes
with annual sacrifices and games. Dr Frazer concludes that ' we
cannot dismiss as improbable the tradition that the Olympic
Games and perhaps other great Greek games were instituted to
commemorate real men who once lived, died, and were buried on
the spot where the festivals were afterwards held.'
The objection to this apparently simple theory is stated by
Dr Frazer himself, and he feels its force so strongly that he
propounds another hypothesis of his own, which, as we shall later
see (p. 259), is actually inconsistent with the funeral origin. He
remarks that the funeral theory does not explain all the legends
connected with the origin of the Olympic Games. We might
almost go so far as to sa}^ that it does not explain any of the more
ancient legends. The earliest, indeed the only, authority cited by
Dr Frazer for the statement that the games were founded 'in
honour of Pelops ' is Clement of Alexandria 3 . Our older author-
ities, Pindar, for instance, and the sources used by Pausanias, tell
a quite different story. About the death and obsequies of Pelops,
1 Part in. of the Golden Bough, ed. 3, p. 92 ff.
2 The lashing of all the youths in the Peloponnese on the grave of Pelops till
the blood streamed down as a libation to the departed hero, to which Dr Frazer
adduces parallels from savage mourning customs, may perhaps be dismissed as an
unfortunate attempt of the Scholiast on Pindar 01. i. 146 to derive aifiaKovpiai. from
alfia. Kovpwv.
3 Protrept. n. 34, p. 29, ed. Potter. It should be noted that Clement is
advocating a theory of his own, that Games held for the dead, like oracles, were
'mysteries.'