Page:The Ancient City- A Study on the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome.djvu/161

 CHAP. I. THE PHRATEV AND THE CURY. 155 divinities. But he could not have contented himself long with these gods so much below what his intelli- gence might attain. If many centuries were required for him to ariive at the idea of God as a being unique, incomparable, infinite, he must at any rate have insen- sibly approached this ideal, by enlarging his conception from age to age, and by extending little by little the horizon whose line separated for him the divine Being from the things of this world. The religious idea and human society went on, there- fore, expanding at the same time. The domestic religion forbade two families to mingle and unite; but it was possible tor several families, without sacrificing anything of their special religions, to join, at least, for the celebration of another worship which might have been common to all of tliem. And this is what happened. A certain number of families formed a group, called, in the Greek language, a phra- tria, in the Latin, a curia.' Did there exist tiie tie of birth between the families of the same group ? This cannot be affirmed. It is clear, however, that this new association was not formed without a certain enlarge- ment of religious ideas. Even at the moment Vthen they united, these families conceived the idea of a divinity superior to that of the household, one who was common to all, and who watched over the entire group. They raised an altar to him, lighted a sacred fire, and founded a worship. There was no cury or phratry that had not its altar > Ilomcr, Iliad, II. SC2. Demosthenes, in Macart. Isedus, 111. 37; VI. 10; IX. S3. Phratries at Thebes, Pindar, Isihm., VII. 18, and Scholiast. Phrairia and curia are two terms that were translated the one by the other. Dion, of Halic, II. 86; Dion Cassius,/r. 14.