Page:History of Greece Vol V.djvu/233

 SICILIAN AFFAIRS. - GELO AND HIS DYNASTY. 209 tainly honorable, and probably lucrative, connected with the avToii ipo(pui>Tai tCiv d^euv eaovrai : compare a previous passage of this history, vol. i, chap, i, p. 26. It appears from Pindar, that Hiero exercised this hereditary priesthood (Olymp. vi, 160 (95), with the Scholia ad loc. and Scholia ad Pindar. Pyth. ii, 27). About the story of Phye personifying Athene at Athens, see above, vol. iv of this history, chap, xxx, p. 105. The ancient religious worship addressed itself more to the eye than to the ear; the words spoken were of less importance than tlie things ex- hibited, the persons performing, and the actions done. The vague sense of the Greek and Latin neuter, lepu, or sacra, includes the entire ceremony, and is difficult to translate into a modern language : but the verbs con- nected with it, ex^^^t KeKrr/aT&ai, ko/iI^elv, ^aiveiv, Itpa — if/J0^avr;?c, etc., relate to exhibition and action. This was particularly the case with the mysteries (or solemnities not thrown open to the general public but acces- sible only to those who went through certain preliminary forms, and under certain restrictions) in honor of Deraeter and Persephone, as well as of other deities in different parts of Greece. The Xeyofxeva, or things said on these occasions, were of less importance than the Spu/xefa and SeiKvi'fiEva, or matters shown and things done (see Pausanias, ii, 37, 3). Herodotus says, about the lake of Sais in Egypt, 'Ev 6e t^ "^'i-iJ-vri rai'Ti) TO. 6eiK7}2,a ruv na^eov avrov (of Osiris) vvnTbg Toievai, Tu KaXiovai fivcriipia Alyvn-ioi : he proceeds to state that the Thesmo- phoria celebrated in honor of Demeter in Greece were of the same nature, and gives his opinion that they were imported into Greece fron? Egypt. Homer (Hymn. Cerer. 476) : compare Pausan. ii, 14, 2. A el^ev TpiTTTOASfiG) re, AioKAet te Tz'Arj^iTrni^ Aprjafxoavvriv lepuv Kal ETritfpadEV opyia Traiel IlpEajSvTipTjg KeXeoio '0?.,3<of, Of r a (5' ottutzev lkix'^ovIuv uv&pcjTvoyv, etc. <Jompare Euripid. Hippolyt. 25 ; Pindar, Fragm. xcvi ; Sophocl. Frag. Iviii, ed. Branck ; Plutarch, De Profect. in Yirtute, c. 10, p. 81 : De Isid. et Osir. p. 353, c. 3. wf yap oi TEXovfiEvoi. Kar' upxac £V -^opi'lSu Kal [Soj) rrpbc iiXkTi7.ovq u^ovfiEVOL ovviaai, dpufisvuv eJe Kal ^EiKVVfievuv tuv ie p uv, TT-poffixovaiv f/dr} fiExa (pojiov Kal at6)T/;f : and Isokrates, Pane- gyric, c. 6, about Eleusis, ra lEpu Kal vvv SeIkw/iev ku^' tKaarov eviavTov. These mysteries consisted thus chiefly of exhibition and action addressed to the eyes of the communicants, and Clemens Alexandrinus calls them a mystic drama — AtjCj Kal Koprj dpuuc iyEVEG'&r^v fivariKdv, Kal ^^v Tv'kdvTjv Kal ~fjv up-ayr/v Kal to ttev&oc i] 'EAei'crtf 6a6ovxel. The word opyta is originally nothing more than a consecrated expression for Epya — lepiL Epya (see Pausanias, iv, 1, 4, 5), though it comes afterwards to desig- nate the whole ceremony, matters shown as well as matters done — rci VOL. V. Hoc