Christianity and Greek Philosophy Part 51

[Footnote 933: Tyler, "Theology of the Greek Poets," pp. 174, 175.]

"Oft hath this matter been by Greeks discussed, And I their frequent censure have incurred: Yet was not I the cause; but Jove, and Fate, And gloomy Erinnys, who combined to throw A strong delusion o'er my mind, that day I robb'd Achilles of his lawful prize.

What could I do? a G.o.ddess all o'erruled, Daughter of Jove, dread Ate, baleful power Misleading all; with light step she moves, Not on the earth, but o'er the heads of men.

With blighting touch, and many hath caused to err."[934]

And yet, though Agamemnon here attempts to shuffle off the guilt of his transgression upon Ate, Jove, and Fate, yet at other times he confesses his folly and wrong, and makes no attempt to cast the responsibility on the G.o.ds.[935] Though misled by a "baleful power," he was not compelled.

Though tempted by an evil G.o.ddess, he yet followed his own sinful pa.s.sions, and therefore he owns himself responsible.

To satisfy the demands of divine justice, to show its hatred of sin, and to deter others from transgression, sin is punished. Punishment is the penalty due to sin; in the language of Homer, it is the payment of a debt incurred by sin. When the transgressor is punished he is said to "pay off," or "pay back" his crimes; in other words, to expatiate or atone for them.

"If not at once, Yet soon or late will Jove a.s.sert their claim, And heavy penalty the perjured pay With their own blood, their children's, and their wives'."[936]

At the same time the belief is expressed that the G.o.ds may be, and often are, propitiated by prayers and sacrifices, and thus the penalty is remitted.

"The G.o.ds themselves, in virtue, honor, strength, Excelling thee, may yet be mollified; For they when mortals have transgressed, or fail'd To do aright, by sacrifice and pray'r, Libations and burnt-off'rings, may be sooth'd."[937]

[Footnote 934: "Iliad," bk. xix. l. 91-101 (Lord Derby's translation).]

[Footnote 935: Ibid., bk. ix. l. 132-136.]

[Footnote 936: Ibid., bk. iv. l. 185-188.]

[Footnote 937: Ibid., bk. ix. l. 581-585.]

Polytheism, then, as Dr. Schaff has remarked, had the voice of conscience, and a sense, however obscure, of sin. It felt the need of reconciliation with deity, and sought that reconciliation by prayer, penance, and sacrifice.[938]

The sense of the exceeding sinfulness of sin, and the absolute need of expiation, is determined with increasing clearness and definiteness in the tragic poets.

The first great law which the Tragedians recognize, as a law written on the heart, is "that the sinner must suffer for his sins." The connection between sin and suffering is constantly recognized as a natural and necessary connection, like that between sowing and reaping.

A haughty spirit, blossoming, bears a crop Of woe, and reaps a harvest of despair.[939]

"l.u.s.t and violence beget l.u.s.t and violence, and vengeance too, at the appointed time."[940] "Impiety multiplies and perpetuates itself."[941]

"The sinner pays the debt he contracted, ends the career that he begins,"[942] "and drinks to the dregs the cup of cursing which he himself had filled."[943] Conscience is the instrument in the hands of Justice and Vengeance by which the Most High inflicts punishment. The retributions of sin are "wrought out by G.o.d."

The consequences of great crimes, especially in high places, extend to every person and every thing connected with them. "The country and the country's G.o.ds are polluted."[944] "The army and the people share in the curse."[945] "The earth itself is polluted with the shedding of blood,"[946] "and even the innocent and the virtuous who share the enterprises of the wicked may be involved in their ruin, as the pious man must sink with the unG.o.dly when he embarks in the same ship."[947]

[Footnote 938: Tyler, "Theology of the Greek Poets," p. 258.]

[Footnote 938: aeschylus, "Persae," l. 821.]

[Footnote 940: "Agamemnon," l. 763.]

[Footnote 941: Ibid., l. 788.]

[Footnote 942: Ibid., l. 1529.]

[Footnote 943: Ibid., l. 1397.]

[Footnote 944: Ibid., l. 1645.]

[Footnote 945: "Persae," _pa.s.sim._]

[Footnote 946: "Sup.," 265.]

[Footnote 947: "Theb.," p. 602.]

The pollution and curse of sin, when once contracted by an individual, or entailed upon a family, will rest upon them and pursue them till the polluted individual or the hated and accursed race is extinct, unless in some way the sin can be expiated, or some G.o.d interpose to arrest the penalty. The criminal must die by the hand of justice, and even in Hades vengeance will still pursue him.[948] Others may in time be washed away by ablutions, worn away by exile and pilgrimage, and expiated by offerings of blood.[949] But great crimes can not be washed away; "For what expiation is there for blood when once it has fallen on the ground."[950] Thus the law (_[Greek: ????]_)--for so it is expressly called--as from an Attic Sinai, rolls its reverberating thunders, and p.r.o.nounces its curses upon sin, from act to act and from chorus to chorus of that grand trilogy--the "Agamemnon," the "Choephoroe," and the "Eumenides."

[Footnote 948: "Sup.," l. 227.]

[Footnote 949: "Eum.," l. 445 seq.]

[Footnote 950: "Choeph.," l. 47.]

But after the law comes the gospel. First the controversy, then the reconciliation. A dim consciousness of sin and retribution as a fact, and of reconciliation as a _want_, seems to have revealed itself even in the darkest periods of history. This consciousness underlies not a few of the Greek tragedies. "The 'Prometheus Bound' was followed by the 'Prometheus Unbound,' reconciled and restored through the intervention of Jove's son. The 'dipus Tyrannus' of Sophocles was completed by the 'dipus Colonus,' where he dies in peace amid tokens of divine favor.

And so the 'Agamemnon' and 'Choephoroe' reach their consummation only in the 'Eumenides,' where the Erinyes themselves are appeased, and the Furies become the gracious ones. This is not, however, without a special divine interposition, and then only after a severe struggle between the powers that cry for justice and those that plead for mercy."

The office and work which, in this trilogy, is a.s.signed to Jove's son, Apollo, must strike every reader as at least a remarkable resemblance, if not a foreshadowing of the Christian doctrine of _reconciliation_.

"This becomes yet more striking when we bring into view the relation in which this reconciling work stands to [Greek: ?e?? S?t??], Jupiter Saviour--[Greek: ?e?? t??t??], Jupiter the third, who, in connection with Apollo and Athena, consummates the reconciliation. Not only is Apollo a [Greek: S?t??], a Saviour, who, having himself been exiled from heaven among men, will pity the poor and needy;[951] not only does Athena sympathize with the defendant at her tribunal, and, uniting the office of advocate and judge, persuade the avenging deities to be appeased;[952] but Zeus is the beginning and end of the whole process.

Apollo appears as the advocate of Orestes only at her bidding;[953]

Athena inclines to the side of the accused, as the offspring of the brain of Zeus, and of like mind with him."[954] Orestes, after his acquittal, says that he obtained it

"By means of Pallas and of Loxias And the third Saviour who doth all things sway."[955]

Platonism reveals a still closer affinity with Christianity in its doctrine of sin, and its sense of the need of salvation. Plato is sacredly jealous for the honor and purity of the divine character, and rejects with indignation every hypothesis which would make G.o.d the author of sin. "G.o.d, inasmuch as he is good, can not be the cause of all things, as the common doctrine represents him to be. On the contrary, he is the author of only a small part of human affairs; of the larger part he is not the author; for our evil things far outnumber our good things.

The good things we must ascribe to G.o.d, whilst we must seek elsewhere, and not in him, the causes of evil."[956] The doctrine of the poets, which would in some way charge on the G.o.ds the errors of men, he sternly resists. We must express our disapprobation of Homer, or any other poet, if guilty of such foolish blunders about the G.o.ds as to tell us[957]

'Fast by the threshold of Jove's court are placed Two casks, one stored with evil, one with good,'

And that he for whom the Thunderer mingles both

'He leads a life checker'd with good and ill.'

[Footnote 951: "Sup.," l. 214.]

[Footnote 952: "Eum.," l. 970.]

[Footnote 953: Ibid., l. 616.]

[Footnote 954: Ibid., l. 664, 737.]

[Footnote 955: Tyler's "Theology of the Greek Poets," especially ch. v., from which the above materials are drawn.]

[Footnote 956: "Republic," bk. ii. ch. xviii.]

[Footnote 957: "Iliad," xxiv., l. 660.]

Nor can we let our young people know that, in the words of aeschylus--