286 Greek Votive Offerings.
but many will sincerely regret that Dr. Rouse has lent his support to the untenable position that in Greek religion the great gods were sometimes developed out of local heroes. In no case can that be proved; in no case is it even fairly probable.[1] Yet from Dr. Rouse's first chapter one would think that man becomes hero, and hero becomes god, much as the undergraduate becomes in turn a bachelor and a master of arts.
In his chapter on "Tithes, Firstfruits, and Kindred Offerings," Dr. Rouse truly remarks that it is Alexandrine literature which, despite its artificiality, best enables us to supplement our scanty knowledge of the Greek farmer and his ways. "There needs a reaction from city life, and the self-conscious art of a later age, to suggest that rustic merrymakings are worth describing" (p. 43.) Hence, throughout his book he has drawn largely and wisely upon such sources as the Palatine Anthology, the Bucolic Poets, the Romance-writers, &c. Equally successful are his references to modern Greek folklore — the mysterious Neraidhes (p. 49), the communion feast of the panegyris (p. 49 f.), the plaited corn-maiden (p. 50), the gilded joints of meat (p. 255), the votive models in silver (pp. 237 f., 257), the binding-spells (p. 340), and so on. Here Dr. Rouse's familiarity with modern Greece stands him in good stead. One could wish for more, e.g. that, when mentioning the belief in the evil eye (p. 44 n. 6), he had also recorded the belief in the good eye; Prof. P. Gardner once gave me some details about it in conversation.
It is perhaps going too far to say that "there is no meaning in dedicating the statue of one god to another, except it be dedicated as a work of art or a thing of value" (p. 64). Dr. Rouse collects examples of such dedications (pp. 391-
' The nearest approach to a probability is reached in the cases of Asclepius and Heracles. But other explanations are here to be preferred; and, even if they were not, these two personages can hardly be said to belong to "the great gods" of Greece.
- ↑ 1
