The Greek View of Life | Page 4

path of
suffering.'
"With that he gathered the clouds and troubled the waters of the deep,
grasping his trident in his hands; and he roused all storms of all manner
of winds, and shrouded in clouds the land and sea: and down sped night
from heaven. The East Wind and the South Wind clashed, and the
stormy West, and the North, that is born in the bright air, rolling
onward a great wave." [Footnote: Odyss. v. 282.--Translated by
Butcher and Lang.]
The position of the hero is terrible, it is true, but not with the terror of
despair; for as it is a god that wrecked him, it may also be a god that
will save. If Poseidon is his enemy, Athene, he knows, is his friend;
and all lies, after all, in the hands, or, as the Greeks said, "on the
knees," not of a blind destiny, but of beings accessible to prayer.
Let us take another passage from Homer to illustrate the same point. It
is the place where Achilles is endeavouring to light the funeral pyre of
Patroclus, but because there is no wind the fire will not catch. What is
he to do? What can he do? Nothing, say we, but wait till the wind
comes. But to the Greek the winds are persons, not elements; Achilles
has only to call and to promise, and they will listen to his voice. And so,

we are told, "fleet-footed noble Achilles had a further thought: standing
aside from the pyre he prayed to the two winds of North and West, and
promised them fair offerings, and pouring large libations from a golden
cup besought them to come, that the corpses might blaze up speedily in
the fire, and the wood make haste to be enkindled. Then Iris, when she
heard his prayer, went swiftly with the message to the Winds. They
within the house of the gusty West Wind were feasting all together at
meat, when Iris sped thither, and halted on the threshold of stone. And
when they saw her with their eyes, they sprung up and called to her
every one to sit by him. But she refused to sit, and spake her word: 'No
seat for me; I must go back to the streams of Ocean, to the Ethiopians'
land where they sacrifice hecatombs to the immortal gods, that I too
may feast at their rites. But Achilles is praying the North Wind and the
loud West to come, and promising them fair offerings, that ye may
make the pyre be kindled whereon lieth Patroclos, for whom all the
Achaians are making moan.'
"She having thus said departed, and they arose with a mighty sound,
rolling the clouds before them. And swiftly they came blowing over the
sea, and the wave rose beneath their shrill blast; and they came to
deep-soiled Troy, and fell upon the pile, and loudly roared the mighty
fire. So all night drave they the flame of the pyre together, blowing
shrill; and all night fleet Achilles, holding a two-handled cup, drew
wine from a golden bowl, and poured it forth and drenched the earth,
calling upon the spirit of hapless Patroclos. As a father waileth when he
burneth the bones of his son, new-married, whose death is woe to his
hapless parents, so wailed Achilles as he burnt the bones of his
comrade, going heavily round the burning pile, with many moans.
"But at the hour when the Morning Star goeth forth to herald light upon
the earth, the star that saffron-mantled Dawn cometh after, and
spreadeth over the salt sea, then grew the burning faint, and the flame
died down. And the Winds went back again to betake them home over
the Thracian main, and it roared with a violent swell. Then the son of
Peleus turned away from the burning and lay down wearied, and sweet
sleep leapt on him." [Footnote: Iliad xxiii. p. 193.--Translated by Lang,
Leaf and Myers.]

The exquisite beauty of this passage, even in translation, will escape no
lover of poetry. And it is a beauty which depends on the character of
the Greek religion; on the fact that all that is unintelligible in the world,
all that is alien to man, has been drawn, as it were, from its dark retreat,
clothed in radiant form, and presented to the mind as a glorified image
of itself. Every phenomenon of nature, night and "rosy- fingered" dawn,
earth and sun, winds, rivers, and seas, sleep and death,--all have been
transformed into divine and conscious agents, to be propitiated by
prayer, interpreted by divination, and comprehended by passions and
desires identical with those which stir and control mankind.
Section 3. Greek Religion an Interpretation of the Human Passions.
And as with the external world, so with the world