Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 15.djvu/655

 THE STUDY OF HOMERIC RELIGION

ALBERT G. KELLER Yale University

The study of Homeric religion cannot well be disassociated from the study of Homeric society in general. Scarcely another factor in societal life is so all-pervasive in its influence as is the system of beliefs that develop out of man's relations with his "imaginary environment"; no religion can be studied to much purpose apart from the scrutiny of its setting in the general societal order. Further, a good many of the points upon which I shall touch apply just as aptly to the general study of Homer as they do to the specific topic of Homeric religion. These con- siderations must serve as an apology, if one is thought to be needed, for the fact that this essay seems largely to ignore the precise theme set before it. What I have found myself writing — after the end is reached and the time has come to think of a beginning — is a series of reflections upon the study of Homer, chiefly with reference to Homeric religion, and never, I trust, without some evident applicability to it.

It should also be said, by way of preliminary, that Homeric evidence, so far as this essay is concerned, means the evidence of the Iliad and the Odyssey. The whole matter of the time- relation as between the data of classical archaeology and those of the epics is dubious enough to give the discreet layman pause. And the "Homeric Age" of the Homeric poems is a sufficiently rich and definite culture-epoch to reward any effort that soci- ologists may choose to put upon it.

There are a number of reasons why the study of Homer is profitable to the real scientist whose interest lies in the life and evolution of human society^and it is, in any case, an enticing study by reason of the character of its materials. Perhaps it is a little outside of the scientific order to reveal a weakness for data presented in attractive form; but if the mood of the investi-

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