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

216 The Origin of the Olympic Games [ch. IH.
we go beyond Dr Frazer's pronouncement is in attempting to
show how the three factors he calls ' independent ' are related to
one another.
What is now clear is that behind the theory of the funeral
origin of the Games and of the drama, as advocated by Professor
Ridgeway, lies the view that the primary religious phenomenon is
prayer, or other rites, addressed to one or more individuals, whether
dead men or gods, with the purpose of ' honouring and appeasing
them, and thereby securing the benefits, especially the food-supply,
which they can give or withold. The do ut des principle is taken
as primary and ultimate. Further, since dead men are most
suitably appeased by commemoration of their exploits, the
primitive rite is essentially commemorative, only secondarily
designed to secure tangible benefits.
Against this general view of religious development it has
already been argued (p. 13 4) that the do ut des principle is not
early, but late ; and that magic—the magic which immediately
controls the food-supply and the natural phenomena on which it
depends—was carried on before there were any gods at all, and
can be carried on by direct mimetic methods, without any prayerful
appeals to dead ancestors. The special topic of hero-worship and
the detailed analysis of the term ' hero ' are reserved for the next
chapter. Our object here is to state a theory of the origin of the
Great Games which will not rest on the foundations, in our
opinion false, which support Professor Ridgeway's funeral hypo-
thesis.
According to the view which we shall put forward, the Games
are to be regarded as originally and essentially a New Year's
festival—the inauguration of a ' Year.' If it can be shown that
the legends can be interpreted as reflecting rites appropriate
to such a festival, the hypothesis will have some claim to
acceptance.
Our simplest course will be to examine the myths about the
origin of the Games, contained in Pindar's first Olympian, and to
disentangle the separable factors in this complex legend. We
shall begin with the story of the so-called chariot-race, in which
Pelops defeated the wicked king Oinomaos, and won the hand
of his daughter Hippodameia and with it the succession to the
'