Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 23, 1912.djvu/418

 394 Revieivs.

Themis. A Study of the Social Origins of Greek Religion. By Jane Ellen Harrison. With an Excursus on the Ritual Forms preserved in Greek Tragedy by Prof. Gilbert Murray, and a Chapter on the Origin of the Olympic Games by Mr. F. M. Cornford. Cambridge : Univ. Press, igi2. 8vo, pp. xxxii + 559. 111.

It is with a feeling of bewilderment coupled with admiration that we rise from the study of this, the latest attempt to solve the problems of Greek beliefs, — the word "religion" on the title-page might, I venture to think, be abandoned until we can agree on some definition which will include all those quaint survivals which Miss Harrison has unearthed from the byways of literature and archaeology. To compare, for instance, this book with Mr. Farnell's last Hibbert Lectures, The Higher Aspects of Greek Religion, is to enter a new world, to seek our way through regions as yet incompletely charted. Every page bears witness to her learning and acumen, and, even as a collection of long-forgotten facts admirably classified and provided with a long series of excellent illustrations and a good index, it will not easily be superseded. The new Cambridge school represented by the writer, with her allies Mr. F. M. Cornford and Mr. A. B. Cook, aided by Professor Gilbert Murray, in whose hands the history and literature of ancient Greece have gained new significance and interest, — whatever may be the ultimate result of their work, — has introduced a new spirit of enthusiasm and imagination, an unaf- fected delight in the discovery of some fresh link in the chain of evidence. But the discovery of the Minoan culture opens a field of study as yet imperfectly occupied, and, as Miss Harrison frankly admits her inability to utilize the methods of the anthro- pologist, the exploration of the origins of Greek beliefs has now reached a stage when it can no longer be confined to experts in the language, and must claim and will receive assistance from a wider body of investigators.

The book starts with an attempt to explain a ritual hymn recently discovered at Palaiokastro in Crete, which commemorates the birth of the infant Zeus, in which the poet addresses the god as " Kouros most great," greatest of grown-up youths. From this