Page:The Ancient City- A Study on the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome.djvu/294

 288 THE CITY. BOOK III. Xenoplioii deciaves that the Athenians had more religious festivals than any other Greek people.' "How many victims offered to the gods!" says Aristophanes,' " how many temples ! how many statues ! how many sacred processions! At every moment of the year we see religious feasts and crowned victims." The city of Athens and its territory are covered with temples and chapels. Some are for the city worship, others for the tribes and denies, and still others for family wor- ship. Every house is itself a temple, and in every field there is a sacred tomb. The Athenian whom we picture to ourselves as so inconstant, so capricious, such a free-thinker, has, on the contrary, a singular respect for ancient traditions and ancient rites. His principal religion — that vhich secures his most fervent devotion — is the worship of ancestors and heroes. He worships the dead and fears them. One of his laws obliges him to offer them yearly the first fruits of his harvest; another forbids him to pronounce a single Avord that can call down their an- ger. Whatever relates to antiquity is sacred to the Athenian. He has old collections, in ■which are record- ed his rites, from which he never departs. If a priest introduces the slightest innovation into the worship, he is punished with death. The strangest rites are observed from age to age. One day in the year the Athenians offer a sacrifice in honor of Ariadne; and because it was said that the beloved of Theseus died in childbirth, they ai-e compelled to imitate the cries and movements of a woman in travail. They cele- brate another festival, called Oschophoria, which is a ' Xenophon, Gov. of the Athenians, III. 2. ' Aristophanes, Clouds.