Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 15.djvu/668

 654 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

that both parties, in defiance of their own knowledge as to who was the guilty party could pray: "Whoever brought on these woes, let him die!" And the outcome of the appeal to divine justice is made a just one — Menelaus had Paris at his mercy — even though a piece of divine favoritism is allowed to perturb the absolute consummation of justice. But in other cases the persistence of the old and irrational is not so strong. Of this phase of evolution a few instances must suffice: take as a case the attitude evinced toward dreams and omens. The Greeks could distinguish between the dream that signified nothing — a mere dream (ovap) — and the one which was portentous, and they even had a word for the latter ( virap). Further, they would, on some occasions, express indifference or even contempt for omens. "Many are the birds," says Eurymachus, "that fly about beneath the rays of the sun ; but all are not portentous."^® And Hector, in patriotic ardor, can go farther, and exclaim in a curiously modern-sounding passage: "Thou dost bid obedience to the long-pinioned birds, but I care not one whit for them, nor

regard them One bird of omen is the best — to defend the

fatherland."^ ^ Similarly with prophecies; not all were regarded as of vital significance. But right here comes in one of the most telling cases of inference as to the mores of the day respecting these matters : the poet, enjoying the privilege of "prophecy after the act," is in a position to make these disregarded omens and prophecies come true or not, just as he pleases — and he has chosen invariably, so far as I know, to impress through the sequel that it is a most unwise thing to disregard anything that looks like a hint from the gods. Relying upon such instances and the implied criticism passed upon even incipient rationalization, it is not hard to reconstruct the actual spiritual status of the time respecting such accessories of the religious system. Some forms of rationalization are not so surprising, as, for instance, that visible wounds should be treated with concrete and sometimes well-adapted physical remedies, while hidden ailments should be regularly referred to a supernatural origin and must be healed by supernatural means; but it seems to me rather striking that

^Odyssey, II, i8i, 182. "//tod, XII, 237-338, 343.