Page:The Ancient City- A Study on the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome.djvu/286

 280 THE CITY. BOOK III. CHAPTER XVI. The Roman. The Athenian. This same religion which had founded society, and which had governed it for a long time, also gave the human mind its direction, and man his character. By its dogmas and its practices it gave to the Greek and the Roman a certain manner of thinking and acting,^ and certain habits of which they were a long time in divesting themselves. It showed men gods every- We will only remark here that tlicy Avere as much religious as political associations. There was not one of them that had not a common worship and a sanctuary. That of the Boeotians wor- shipped Athene Itonia, that of the Achaeans Demeter Panachaea, the god of the lonians in Asia Minor was Poseidon Ilelliconius^ as that of the Dorian Pentapolis was Apollo Triopicus. The confederation of the Cyclades offered a common sacrifice in the isle of Delos, the cities of Argolis at Calauria. The Amphic- tyony of Thermopylae was an association of the same nature. All their meetings took place in temples, and were principally for offering sacrifices. Each of the confederate cities sent citizens clothed for the time with a sacerdotal character, and called iheori, to take part in these meetings. A victim was slain in honor of the god of the association, and the flesh, cooked upoa the altar, was sliared among the representatives of the cities. The common meal, with the songs, prayers, and sacred plays that accompanied them, formed the bond of the confederatiiin. The same usage existed in Italy. The cities of Latium had the feriae Latinae, in which they shared the flesh of a victim. It was the same with the Etruscan cities. Besides, in all these amphictyonies, the political bond was always weaker than the religious one. The confederate cities preserved perfect inde- pendence. They might even make war against each other, provided they observed a truce during the federal festival.