Page:History of the Literature of Ancient Greece (Müller) 2ed.djvu/252

230 230 HISTORY OP THE to the description in the Odyssey, all the dead, even the most renowned heroes, lead a shadowy existence in the infernal regions (Aides), where, like phantoms, they continue the same pursuits as on earth, though without will or understanding. On the other hand, Pindar, in his sublime ode of consolation to Theron*, says that all misdeeds of this world are severely judged in the infernal regions, hut that a happy life in eternal sunshine, without care for subsistence, is the portion of the good ; " while those who, through a threefold existence in the upper and lower worlds, have kept their souls pure from all sin, ascend the path of Zeus to the citadel of Cronust, where the Islands of the Blessed are refreshed by the breezes of Ocean, and golden flowers glitter." In this passage the Islands of the Blessed are described as a reward for the highest virtue, whilst in Homer only a few favourites of the gods (Menelaus, for example, because his wife was a daughter of Zeus) reach the Elysian Field on the border of the ocean. In his threnes, or laments for the dead, Pindar more distinctly developed his ideas about immortality, and spoke of the tranquil life of the blessed, in perpetual sunshine, among fragrant groves, at festal games and sacrifices ; and of the torments of the wretched in eternal night. In these, too, he explained himself more fully as to the existence alter- nating between the upper and lower world, by which lofty spirits rise to a still higher state. He saysj — " Those from whom Persephone receives an atonement for their former guilt, their souls she sends, in the ninth year, to the sun of heaven. From them spring great kings and men mighty in power and renowned for wisdom, whom posterity cal's sacred heroes among men§." § 2. It is manifest that between the periods of Homer and Pindar a great change of opinions took place, which could not have been ef- fected at once, but must have been produced by the efforts of many sa»es and poets. All the Greek religious poetry treating of death and the world beyond the grave refers to the deities whose influence was supposed to be exercised in the dark region at the centre of the earth, and who were thought to have little connexion with the political and social relations of human life. These deities formed a class apart from the gods of Olympus, and were comprehended under the name of the Chthonian cjods. The mysteries of the Greeks were connected with the worship of these gods alone. That the love of immortality first f That is, the way which Zeus himself takes when he visits his dethroned father Cronus (now reconciled with him. and become the ruler of the departed spirits in bliss), in order to advise with him on the destiny of mankind. % Thren. fr. 4, ed. Boeckh. § In order to understand this passage it is to be observed that, according to the ancient law, a person who had committed homicide must expiate his offence by an exile or even servitude of eight years before his guilt was removed. see ch. ii. § 5.
 * 01. ii. 57 (105).
 * Concerning this distinction, the most important in the Greek religious system,