DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9187#0069
42
BELIEFS AS TO THE FUTURE LIFE
men : to regard the views of Plato and Epicurus as ordinary
Greek opinions would of course be as absurd as to regard
John Stuart Mill or Herbert Spencer as representatives of
the ordinary Englishman.
In ordinary Greek belief, then, we find abundant traces of
the eternal conflict between the priest and the prophet, between
ritual and ethics. There was a general feeling that those
who died nobly or after a well-spent life were sure of a friendly
reception in Hades. Xenophon says of Agesilaus1, 'He ever
feared the gods, being of opinion that those who lived nobly
were not yet happy, but that those who had died with good
name were at once among the blessed.' The chorus in the
Alcestis speak of their mistress immediately after her death
as a blessed spirit. And a multitude of epitaphs2 express
the conviction that those who had lived nobly were sure of
a favourable reception from Persephone. Beside this ethical
view we find the opinion of the sacerdotal party that initiation
in the Mysteries or attachment to the cultus of some deity
was necessary for the attainment of future bliss. This was
especially the view of the Orphists, and as such it is ridiculed
by Plato in the Republic : ' They persuade not individuals
merely, but whole cities also, that men may be absolved and
purified from crimes, both while they are still alive and even
after their decease, by means of certain sacrifices and pleasure-
able amusements which they call Mysteries: which deliver
us from the torments of the other world, while the neglect
of them is punished by an awful doom.' We have seen that
Polygnotus gives some countenance to those who regarded
the Mysteries as the gate of future happiness. And there
was certainly in Greece a generally spread conviction, which
may be well traced in the Frogs of Aristophanes, that initiation
was, if not a passport to future happiness, at least a safeguard
1 Agesilaus, xi. 8. 2 See Chap. XI.
3 II. p. 364 e (translation of Davies and Vaughan).
BELIEFS AS TO THE FUTURE LIFE
men : to regard the views of Plato and Epicurus as ordinary
Greek opinions would of course be as absurd as to regard
John Stuart Mill or Herbert Spencer as representatives of
the ordinary Englishman.
In ordinary Greek belief, then, we find abundant traces of
the eternal conflict between the priest and the prophet, between
ritual and ethics. There was a general feeling that those
who died nobly or after a well-spent life were sure of a friendly
reception in Hades. Xenophon says of Agesilaus1, 'He ever
feared the gods, being of opinion that those who lived nobly
were not yet happy, but that those who had died with good
name were at once among the blessed.' The chorus in the
Alcestis speak of their mistress immediately after her death
as a blessed spirit. And a multitude of epitaphs2 express
the conviction that those who had lived nobly were sure of
a favourable reception from Persephone. Beside this ethical
view we find the opinion of the sacerdotal party that initiation
in the Mysteries or attachment to the cultus of some deity
was necessary for the attainment of future bliss. This was
especially the view of the Orphists, and as such it is ridiculed
by Plato in the Republic : ' They persuade not individuals
merely, but whole cities also, that men may be absolved and
purified from crimes, both while they are still alive and even
after their decease, by means of certain sacrifices and pleasure-
able amusements which they call Mysteries: which deliver
us from the torments of the other world, while the neglect
of them is punished by an awful doom.' We have seen that
Polygnotus gives some countenance to those who regarded
the Mysteries as the gate of future happiness. And there
was certainly in Greece a generally spread conviction, which
may be well traced in the Frogs of Aristophanes, that initiation
was, if not a passport to future happiness, at least a safeguard
1 Agesilaus, xi. 8. 2 See Chap. XI.
3 II. p. 364 e (translation of Davies and Vaughan).