Psyche
The Cult of Souls and Belief in Immortality among the Greeks
By
ERWIN ROHDE
LONDON KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRUBNER & CO., LTD. NEW YORK: HARCOURT, BRACE & COMPANY, INC. 1925
Translated from the eighth edition by
W. B. HILLIS. M.A.
Printed in Great Britain by Stephen Austin & Sons, Ltd., Hertford.
CONTENTS
PAGE.
PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . VII PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . XI PRELIMINARY NOTE TO THE SEVENTH AND EIGHTH EDITION XIII TRANSLATOR'S NOTE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . XV
PART I
CHAP. I. BELIEFS ABOUT THE SOUL AND CULT OF SOULS IN THE HOMERIC POEMS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 II. ISLANDS OF THE BLEST. Translation . . . . . . . . . 55 III. CAVE DEITIES. SUBTERRANEAN Translation . . . . . . 88 IV. HEROES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115 V. THE CULT OF SOULS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156 I. Cult of Chthonic Deities . . . . . . . . . . . 158 II. Funeral ceremonies and worship of the dead . . 162 III. Traces of the Cult of Souls in the Blood Feud and Satisfaction for murder . . . . . . . 174 VI. THE ELEUSINIAN MYSTERIES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217 VII. IDEAS OF THE FUTURE LIFE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236
PART II
VIII. ORIGINS OF THE BELIEF IN IMMORTALITY. THE THRACIAN WORSHIP OF DIONYSOS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253 IX. DIONYSIAC RELIGION IN GREECE. ITS AMALGAMATION WITH APOLLINE RELIGION. ECSTATIC PROPHECY. RITUAL PURIFICATION AND EXORCISM. ASCETICISM . . . . . . . . 282 X. THE ORPHICS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335 XI. THE PHILOSOPHERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 362 XII. THE LAY AUTHORS (LYRIC POETS--PINDAR--THE TRAGEDIANS) . . 411 {vi} XIII. PLATO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 463 XIV. THE LATER AGE OF THE GREEK WORLD . . . . . . . . . . . . . 490 I. Philosophy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 490 II. Popular Belief . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 524
APPENDIX I. Consecration of persons struck by lightning . . . . . . . 581 II. ~maschalismo/s~ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 582 III. ~amu/êtoi, a/gamoi~, Danaids in the lower world . . . . . 586 IV. The Tetralogies of Antiphon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 588 V. Ritual Purification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 588 VI. Hekate and the ~Hekatika\ pha/smata~ . . . . . . . . . . . 590 VII. The Hosts of Hekate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 593 VIII. Disintegration of Consciousness and Reduplication of Personality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 595 IX. The Great Orphic Theogony . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 596 X. Previous Lives of Pythagoras. His Descent to Hades . . . . 598 XI. Initiation considered as Adoption by the god . . . . . . . 601 XII. Magical Exorcisms of the Dead . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 603
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