The Rise of Greek Civilization - Part II

The History of Western Philosophy
Bertrand Russell
1972

Chapter 1 - The Rise of Greek Civilization

Greek civilization took an enormous step by adopting and adapting the Phoenician alphabet. The Greeks took it and added vowels to suit their needs.

The first "notable product of the Hellenic civilization was Homer" (Russell, 10). Homer was probably a series of poets and his masterpieces The Iliad and the Odyssey probably took about 200 years from 750 BC - 550 BC to crystalize into current form. Homeric poems arrived in Athens between 560 - 527 BC. Homer became the chief education of any Athenian youth.

"It must be admitted that religion, in Homer, is not very religious" (Russell, 11). The gods are exactly like men, but immortal and more powerful. The only genuine religious feeling found in Homer is directed at the Fate. The gods of Homer were a conquering aristocracy, not a band of useful fertility gods looking out for mankind.

The Olympian gods of Homer were not the only religious entities in ancient Greece. There were fertility cults, ritualistic and barbaric religions that offered human sacrifice and practiced cannibalism as a rite, and the religion of Pan managed to combine both of these elements into its worship. There was also the religion that surrounded Dionysus (Bacchus). Dionysus was originally a Thracian god. In Thrace, Bacchus was honored as being the inventor of beer because it gave divine intoxication. He was even more praised when they discovered wine. The religion migrated from Thrace to Greece, and in spite of being opposed by the religious orthodoxy it established itself in Greece and continued to develop into a mystical religion.

Civilization becomes coherent by the use of forethought. Forethought in society leads to laws, customs and religion. In Greece this manifested itself as a desire for prudence and moderation. The invasion of Bacchic religion from Thrace resulted in popularity for the religion partly because much of the non-aristocratic classes saw it as a way to react against an increasingly restrictive prudence being imposed upon them by the upper class.

"Without the Bacchic element, life would be uninteresting; with it, it is dangerous. Prudence versus passion is a conflict that runs through history. It is not a conflict in which we ought to side wholly with either party" (Russell, 16).

The influence that Bacchus has on the philosophical traditions does not come from the primitive and savage form of the religion, but from the mystical reworking of the religion done through Orpheus and the Orphics. The Orphics believed in a transmigration of souls, an afterlife based on works during this life and a wish to become one with the Bacchus through purification rituals and abstaining from certain things.

The primitive religious elements involved recreating the Bacchic myth by tearing animals limb to limb in sacrifice. This brought about intoxication through eating the flesh as it symbolized Bacchus (a god) entering into the earth-born (originally the Titans, but now the practitioners). Thus, the man who practices this Bacchic rite becomes at once, both man and god.

The most direct route that Bacchic religion had on philosophy began with Orpheus' reformation. Then Pythagoras reformed Orpheus' reformation and Pythagoras had a major influence on Plato who influenced the whole of western philosophy.

The Greeks themselves were a combination of the orthodoxy that rejected the Bacchic influence and the revelers in the rites of Dionysus. They believed in everything in moderation but practiced excess in all walks of life. They were at the same time religious and mystical, empirical and scientific. They were passionate and sensible simultaneously.