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

514 Themis [oh.
side fell away and came even to be regarded as a forbidden evil,
a denial of the new life of Mnemosyne 1 .
The evidence then, not only of the rites of the Kouretes but
also of such rites as the Hybristika and the oracular rites of
Trophonios, shows us clearly that some primitive conceptions of
Greek religion, and hence inevitably of Greek philosophy, were
based on group-institutions, the social structure of which was of the
matrilinear type. We return to the point from which we set out,
the rites and representation of the Palaiokastro Hymn. We shall
find there to our surprise and satisfaction that this dominance of
social structure is not only evident but even strongly emphasized.
Themis, Dike and the Horae.
Our first chapter was devoted to the consideration of the
Hymn of the Kouretes. We noted then that in subject as in
structure the Hymn fell into three parts, (1) The Invocation,
(2) the Aetiological Myth, (3) the Resultant Blessings. The first
and second parts we considered in detail. We saw how the
Kouros invoked was a projection of his worshippers the Kouretes,
and we noted that he was invoked for the year, that he was in
fact the vehicle and incarnation of the fruits and blessings of the
year. His growth to maturity, his entry on the status of ephebos 2
caused the growth and maturity of the natural year.
We then passed to the consideration of the aetiological myth
and saw that in it was reflected and projected that matrilinear
structure of society in which the Mother and the Son, the Son
grown to maturity, were the prominent facts. The third factor,
the Resultant Blessings, had to be held over till the figure of
Themis had been discussed, and now awaits consideration.
After the birth of the Kouros and that yearly coming which
reflects his yearly re- birth the Hymn tells us 3
1 This notion of Mnemosyne, of Death and Resurrection, is almost like a dim
imaginative forecast of modern philosophical speculation. Prof. Bergson has
shown us that Consciousness 'signifies above all memory,' 'all consciousness is
memory; all consciousness (what he elsewhere calls duree) is a preservation and
accumulation of the past in the present,' and again 'all consciousness is an
anticipation of the future,' 'consciousness is above all a hyphen, a tie between the
past and future.' See Life and Consciousness in Hibbert Journal, Oct. 1911,
pp. 27 and 28.
2 Too late for incorporation in chapter i., I find that, if we may trust the
Etymologicwm Magnum (s.v. AIktv), there was at Dikte a Aids &ya\/j.a ayeveiov,
obviously the image of Zeus as Kouros.
3 Supra, p. 8.
,