DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5253#0171
ARYAN AND SEMITIC ELEMENTS IN GREEK RELIGION. 139
only by the coincidence of names, traditional rites, and conceptions, and the
study of the preserved monuments, that a few kernels of fact have been rescued.
In the religion of these races the higher, more spiritual elements are trace-
able to their old Aryan ancestry, with whom light was the power that brings
life and strength. It was pure and good, and the gods of light were the benefi-
cent protectors of mankind : they fought the storm-clouds and spirits of dark-
ness, and punished man for deeds of darkness. Accordingly, among the
Greeks their peculiar gods, Zeus and Apollo, had in character much in common
with Vedic and Zend-Avesta mythology. So, also, minor spirits first received
their character from the inhospitable steppes of Central Asia, where storm-
clouds battled, and locust-swarms darkened the sky ; and these beings seem to
have been retained, but ennobled and individualized, by the Greeks. The wild
horse, roving in herds, swift as the wind, or fleeting cloud, stimulated the
Aryan fantasy to take him as a chosen symbol in art and religion ; '77 and so,
too, in Greek mythology and art, the centaur, the satyr, the winged Pegasos,
Iris, the Erinys, and the black Demeter of Phigaleia, have at base the equine
idea.'7s
The Pelasgians, according to tradition, worshipped at Dodona one highest
god, Zeus, but without images. Moreover, they brought offerings and prayed
to many "nameless gods." Hesiod tells of thirty thousand immortal watchmen
of Zeus, wandering through the earth, doing his bidding; and it seems most
probable, that in the people's fancy the poet's great ethical host, these "name-
less gods," were polydemoniacal powers lower in grade than Zeus, and inherited
from an Aryan ancestry, but giving rise in time to gods of a higher standing. '79
As these received names, they doubtless became Hermes, Poseidon, the
Dioscuri, Hera, Hestia, Themis, the Charites (Graces), etc. Even Apollo
and Athena must have been later and beautifully individualized members
of this great host; but Aphrodite, we know, was a stranger, imported from
thoroughly foreign shores and peoples. It is, moreover, a significant fact, that,
in the earliest extant monuments, not Zeus, but his symbols alone, such as the
double-headed axe, appear, as well as the animals of daily use dedicated to him,
especially the horse, and beings of composite character, doubtless representing
those numerous lesser powers dreaded by man.
Besides the distinctively Aryan elements in the early religious concep-
tions of Greece, there are others of a Semitic cast. Many such flow from the
strictly physical conception of nature as generative, and are connected with
rites of extreme asceticism and bloody human sacrifice on the one hand,
and unbounded licentiousness on the other. The worship and attributes of
Kybele, of the Ephesian Artemis, and the Cypriote Aphrodite, may be traced
back to the Eastern goddess of fructification, and, doubtless, became known to
the Greeks through Phoenician traders and settlers, as well as through their
neighbors in Asia Minor. Many heroes, such as Adonis and Melikertes, were
only by the coincidence of names, traditional rites, and conceptions, and the
study of the preserved monuments, that a few kernels of fact have been rescued.
In the religion of these races the higher, more spiritual elements are trace-
able to their old Aryan ancestry, with whom light was the power that brings
life and strength. It was pure and good, and the gods of light were the benefi-
cent protectors of mankind : they fought the storm-clouds and spirits of dark-
ness, and punished man for deeds of darkness. Accordingly, among the
Greeks their peculiar gods, Zeus and Apollo, had in character much in common
with Vedic and Zend-Avesta mythology. So, also, minor spirits first received
their character from the inhospitable steppes of Central Asia, where storm-
clouds battled, and locust-swarms darkened the sky ; and these beings seem to
have been retained, but ennobled and individualized, by the Greeks. The wild
horse, roving in herds, swift as the wind, or fleeting cloud, stimulated the
Aryan fantasy to take him as a chosen symbol in art and religion ; '77 and so,
too, in Greek mythology and art, the centaur, the satyr, the winged Pegasos,
Iris, the Erinys, and the black Demeter of Phigaleia, have at base the equine
idea.'7s
The Pelasgians, according to tradition, worshipped at Dodona one highest
god, Zeus, but without images. Moreover, they brought offerings and prayed
to many "nameless gods." Hesiod tells of thirty thousand immortal watchmen
of Zeus, wandering through the earth, doing his bidding; and it seems most
probable, that in the people's fancy the poet's great ethical host, these "name-
less gods," were polydemoniacal powers lower in grade than Zeus, and inherited
from an Aryan ancestry, but giving rise in time to gods of a higher standing. '79
As these received names, they doubtless became Hermes, Poseidon, the
Dioscuri, Hera, Hestia, Themis, the Charites (Graces), etc. Even Apollo
and Athena must have been later and beautifully individualized members
of this great host; but Aphrodite, we know, was a stranger, imported from
thoroughly foreign shores and peoples. It is, moreover, a significant fact, that,
in the earliest extant monuments, not Zeus, but his symbols alone, such as the
double-headed axe, appear, as well as the animals of daily use dedicated to him,
especially the horse, and beings of composite character, doubtless representing
those numerous lesser powers dreaded by man.
Besides the distinctively Aryan elements in the early religious concep-
tions of Greece, there are others of a Semitic cast. Many such flow from the
strictly physical conception of nature as generative, and are connected with
rites of extreme asceticism and bloody human sacrifice on the one hand,
and unbounded licentiousness on the other. The worship and attributes of
Kybele, of the Ephesian Artemis, and the Cypriote Aphrodite, may be traced
back to the Eastern goddess of fructification, and, doubtless, became known to
the Greeks through Phoenician traders and settlers, as well as through their
neighbors in Asia Minor. Many heroes, such as Adonis and Melikertes, were