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

xi] Themis and Doom 483
function, but to ' range about all over,' fetching up gods and demi-
gods, is no more a mark of supremacy. The solution of this
obvious difficulty will give us a clue not only to the nature of
Themis herself but to the source and mainspring of Greek, and
incidentally of every other, primitive religion.
The Greek word Themis and the English word Doom are,
philology tells us, one and the same ; and it is curious to note that
their development moves on exactly parallel lines. Doom is the
thing set, fixed, settled ; it begins in convention, the stress of
public opinion ; it ends in statutory judgment. Your private doom
is your private opinion, but that is weak and ineffective. It is the
collective doom, public opinion, that, for man's common convenience,
crystallizes into Law. Themis like Doom begins on earth and ends
in heaven. On earth we have our Doomsday, which, projected
into high heaven, becomes the Crack of Doom, the Last Judgment.
We have seen that Themis at Trozen was worshipped in the
plural, that there was an altar to the Themides. Out of many
dooms, many public opinions, many judgments, arose the figure
of the one goddess. Out of many themistes arose Themis.
These themistes, these fixed conventions, stood to the Greek for all
he held civilized. They were the bases alike of his kingship and of
his democracy. These themistes are the ordinances of what must
be done, what society compels ; they are also, because what must
be will be, the prophecies of what shall be in the future ; they are
also the dues, the rites, the prerogatives of a king, whatever
custom assigns to him or any official.
The Greek attitude towards Themis and the themistes comes
out very vividly in the account of the Cyclopes'. The Cyclopes are
the typical barbarians, and how do they show it ? They are not
irreligious, far from it, they are notably pious, trusting entirely in
the divine mercy and not tilling the earth.
A people proud to whom no law is known,
And, trusting to the deathless Gods alone,
They plant not and they plough not, but the earth
Bears all they need, unfurrowed and unsown :
1 Horn. Od. ix. 106
traus. Mackail.
KvK\