Greek Mythology
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Abstract
THE task to which the compilers of this Lexicon have set themselves is certainly very heavy, and, however the quality of the different parts of the work may vary, its contributions to the study of Greek and Roman religion, and of the religious and mythological monuments of the two countries, must be very highly estimated. The object of the undertaking as expressed by the editor is to present by means of an equal statement of the literary and monumental evidence a complete account of the facts of the myths and cults. Questions concerning the ' Deutung' or the origin and significance of these facts are to be of secondary importance, and are only to be admitted when the answers are certain or extremely probable. Whether this promise is strictly observed may be noted later. The Lexicon occupies itself with foreign, and particularly with Oriental, myths and forms, only so far as these affect the classical. The work is exclusively a work of German scholarship ; and the names of thirty-seven scholars who have contributed, many of them names of eminence in particular lines of research, are given in the preface, and Roscher himself is the author of some important articles. The editor expresses a hope not only that an exhaustive statement of the material is given, but that his fellow-workers have been able in some articles to solve certain problems and to present certain new and original views. This hope can only be tested by a review of the separate articles in detail; these being distinct monographs containing often distinct principles of interpretation, and displaying different merits and defects of form and statement. Editorial supervision seems to have produced unanimity only in the arrangement. On the whole the Greek articles — with which alone the present notice is concerned—are prepared with characteristic thoroughness and wealth of detail, though generally the account of the literature is more satisfactory than that of the monuments. It was inevitable that the work of so many hands should be somewhat unequal, and one is occasionally obliged to note lacunae in the statement and the irrelevance of certain references to the matter in hand. The plan of most of the longer articles, those on the divinities, for example, is fairly clear, and one does not feel much difficulty in gathering the main points. An attempt is usually made to discover the original and essential conception of the divinity, to enumerate the various functions and aspects of the figure, and to deduce them if possible from that ; then a full mention is usually given of the various local beliefs and centres of worship; lastly of the myths in which the divinity figures. After this follows a detailed account of the monuments, tracing out in historical sequence the changes in the treatment of the type from the archaic to the last period, noting any monumental illustration of special local beliefs and traditions, and collecting and frequently illustrating the various artistic representations of the characteristic and important myths. As a set-off against much that is excellent, one notices sometimes the exaggeration of the principle of reducing to a logical unity or order the manifold characteristics of an Athene, an Artemis, or a Hekate; again, one rarely finds any distinction expressed between the original prehistoric idea and the idea that was present to the mind of a Greek worshipper of a particular period. These are some of the most frequent material defects. The worst formal defect is the defect of style which, except in a few articles, is ultra-professorial. A fearful obscurity hangs upon the structure of the sentences and the marshalling of facts and arguments. The obscurity is generally greatest when the writer is not merely giving materials, but is advancing a special theory of his own. As regards the archaeological side of the work, the chief cause of complaint might be the slight or comparatively slight attention given to the inner quality, the religious or spiritual meaning, the imaginative aspect of the monuments that deal with divine types. A striking technical flaw in the Lexicon is the very inferior execution of the plates, which are far below the level of the engravings in Baumeister's Denkmdler des Classischen Alterthums.