DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4593#0276
252 THE ISLES AND SHRINES OF GREECE
torations. One may trace too the encircling wall of
the sacred precinct and the plan of the propylsea,
and may find here several epochs of Greek architec-
ture from the earliest period to Roman times. The
lover of details will note some of the exquisite cap-
itals, and that the Doric columns have flat edges
between the channellings, which, if less incisive, are
much more practical than the sharp edges, easily
nicked, at Athens.
But deeper questions absorb us. We are in one
of the most sacred places in Greece. The ruins
of this temple speak in hushed tones of an inner
sanctuary of the Greek religion. The veil of mystery
still hangs over the portals, and no one has as yet pen-
etrated into the dim interior of this secrecy. It does
not follow that esoteric rites and reputed mysteries
are more deeply religious than those which are less
exclusive; but here it would seem that a more per-
sonal dedication of the initiated led to deeper spir-
itual experience. The greatest contribution which
Greece made to religion, however, was not in the
establishment of an exclusive n.ystic cult, not in the
separation of the Church from the world, but in
the diffusion of religion through every department
of life; and whatever Eleusis may have done for the
development of the belief in a future life, it has exer-
cised no such influence on the world as the lofty, un-
concealed argument of Plato based upon the nature
of the human soul. But it is well that Eleusis should
remind us that the Greek religion did not lie wholly
on the surface, and that we have not yet sounded its
depths. Crinagoras of Mitylene, a court poet at
Rome in the age of Augustus, could write: —
torations. One may trace too the encircling wall of
the sacred precinct and the plan of the propylsea,
and may find here several epochs of Greek architec-
ture from the earliest period to Roman times. The
lover of details will note some of the exquisite cap-
itals, and that the Doric columns have flat edges
between the channellings, which, if less incisive, are
much more practical than the sharp edges, easily
nicked, at Athens.
But deeper questions absorb us. We are in one
of the most sacred places in Greece. The ruins
of this temple speak in hushed tones of an inner
sanctuary of the Greek religion. The veil of mystery
still hangs over the portals, and no one has as yet pen-
etrated into the dim interior of this secrecy. It does
not follow that esoteric rites and reputed mysteries
are more deeply religious than those which are less
exclusive; but here it would seem that a more per-
sonal dedication of the initiated led to deeper spir-
itual experience. The greatest contribution which
Greece made to religion, however, was not in the
establishment of an exclusive n.ystic cult, not in the
separation of the Church from the world, but in
the diffusion of religion through every department
of life; and whatever Eleusis may have done for the
development of the belief in a future life, it has exer-
cised no such influence on the world as the lofty, un-
concealed argument of Plato based upon the nature
of the human soul. But it is well that Eleusis should
remind us that the Greek religion did not lie wholly
on the surface, and that we have not yet sounded its
depths. Crinagoras of Mitylene, a court poet at
Rome in the age of Augustus, could write: —