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

vn] Relation to Hero-worship 215
Pelops, who was associated with a reconstitution of them on a
grander scale, and will also interpret, instead of rejecting, the
legends about their origin.
The point of general and fundamental interest involved in this
controversy is the significance of hero-worship and its place in the
development of Greek religion—a question which, as has been
remarked already (p. 210), is vital also for the history of the
drama. For the drama and for the games alike the modern
Euhemerist like Professor Ridgeway supposes a funeral origin.
In other words, wherever we find hero-worship or ceremonies more
or less connected with the commemoration of ' heroes,' we are to
suppose that they originated in memorial rites dating from the
actual obsequies of some man or men who died and were buried
(or at least had a cenotaph) on the spot. This view has led
Professor Ridgeway to take up an extreme position with regard to
the whole order of religious development.
'A great principle,' he says 1
, 'is involved in this discussion, since the
evidence shows that whereas it is commonly held that the phenomena of
vegetation spirits and totemism are primary, they are rather to be regarded
as secondary phenomena arising from the great primary principle of the
belief in the existence of the soul after death, and the desirability of
honouring it.
1
Scholars had begun at the wrong end, taking as primary the phenomena
of vegetation spirits, totemism etc., which really were but secondary, arising
almost wholly from the primary element, the belief in the existence of the
soul after the death of the body. As prayer, religion proper, was made to the
dead, religion must be considered antecedent to magic, which is especially
connected with the secondary elements 2.'
Of the extreme view stated in the last sentence the whole of
this book may be taken as a refutation. Prof. Ridgeway's view
was instantly challenged by Dr Frazer 3 , who
'
contended that
totemism, the worship of the dead, and the phenomena of vegeta-
tion spirits should be considered as independent factors, and that
none of the three should be held to be the origin of the others.'
With this denial that ' religion proper,' identified with prayers
to the dead, is prior to magic— the immediate manipulation of
mana— our whole argument is, of course, in agreement. Where
1 Summary of a paper on The Origin of the Great Games of Greece, delivered
before the Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies, May 9, 1911.
2 Report of the same paper in the Athenaewn, May 20, 1911.
3 Athenaeum, loc. cit.