Page:A History of Ancient Greek Literature.djvu/92

 68 LITERATURE OF ANCIENT GREECE the existence of an Orphic missionary tale.^ The eternal punishment of the sinners in A, seems Orphic ; so does the curious fact that the hero saw none of the blest. He could not, because he was not initiated. The Homeric preludes to Ares, to Athena, and perhaps that to Poseidon, show some traces of the movement. Among the early epics the AlcvKsSnis* dealt largely with purifi- cation, and contained a prayer to 'Zagreus, all-highest of all gods.' The Corinthian epics of Eumelus show a similar strain. Eumelus was of the clan Bacchiadae, his Europia* was about Dionysus, and he treated the Orphic subjects of Medea and the Titan War. Several epics, like the Minyas* contained apocalyptic accounts of Hades. The important fact is that the mystical and out its apostles in Greece, though the main current of speculation, as directed by Athens, set steadily contrari- wise, in the line of getting bit by bit at the meaning of things through hard thinking. 1 z., 132 f.
 * enthusiastic ' explanation of the world was never with-