DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.803#0054
4B TffiE BRITISH MUSEUM. ■
It would perhaps be too much to contend that every
various form of worship which a country possesses,
is a proof of the intermixture of so many different
nations; but still there is no other hypothesis which ;
will account for the endless variety of subordinate j
religious forms in such a town as Athens, than that of
supposing a union of various families and peoples,
many of them no doubt closely related, who succes-
sjyely added to the population of the city of Athena.
This is in strict conformity with the notion which;
Thucydides had of the gradual growth of the Athe-.
nian community. Each district, however small, would
have its genuine local deity, and it would have only
one; on the union of the Attic demi in one civil
community each would still preserve its former guar-
dian power, though all would submit to the warrior
virgin under whose auspices the new system was I
established by the least disputed of all titles, that of
conquest. In this way by the accession of the rural
deities of the province, and the foreign deities at various I
periods introduced into the system, there sprung up;
at Athens, as in many other cities, those almost inmK
merable temples and religious rites, which while they,
mark a general system of toleration in the Greek
cities are the most indisputable proof of the inter-'
mixture of the various branches of the nation. Any.
large commercial city of modern Europe exhibits the
same phenomena in its motley population, and i's
various places of worship.
It is of some importance for the student of Athenian
art to form a clear conception of the religious system
under which it was fostered, and for whose embellish-
ment it was specially intended. Unfortunately the .
ordinary books to which he may refer on this subject,
only tend to confuse him; nor is the subject itself!
free from difficulties, as Pausanias himself by his ovvH\
confession often admits. But of this we may be sural
It would perhaps be too much to contend that every
various form of worship which a country possesses,
is a proof of the intermixture of so many different
nations; but still there is no other hypothesis which ;
will account for the endless variety of subordinate j
religious forms in such a town as Athens, than that of
supposing a union of various families and peoples,
many of them no doubt closely related, who succes-
sjyely added to the population of the city of Athena.
This is in strict conformity with the notion which;
Thucydides had of the gradual growth of the Athe-.
nian community. Each district, however small, would
have its genuine local deity, and it would have only
one; on the union of the Attic demi in one civil
community each would still preserve its former guar-
dian power, though all would submit to the warrior
virgin under whose auspices the new system was I
established by the least disputed of all titles, that of
conquest. In this way by the accession of the rural
deities of the province, and the foreign deities at various I
periods introduced into the system, there sprung up;
at Athens, as in many other cities, those almost inmK
merable temples and religious rites, which while they,
mark a general system of toleration in the Greek
cities are the most indisputable proof of the inter-'
mixture of the various branches of the nation. Any.
large commercial city of modern Europe exhibits the
same phenomena in its motley population, and i's
various places of worship.
It is of some importance for the student of Athenian
art to form a clear conception of the religious system
under which it was fostered, and for whose embellish-
ment it was specially intended. Unfortunately the .
ordinary books to which he may refer on this subject,
only tend to confuse him; nor is the subject itself!
free from difficulties, as Pausanias himself by his ovvH\
confession often admits. But of this we may be sural