TRANSLATOR’S NOTE
ROHDE is very unsystematic in his mode of quoting from ancient authorities: he has, for example, four different ways of referring to the Iliad and the Odyssey, two of referring to Demosthenes and the Orators, etc. In quoting from the lesser authorities he sometimes used editions which have since become antiquated. (He even goes so far as to quote Clem. Alex. by the page and letter of Heinsius’ re-edition of Sylburg.) I have made an attempt to reduce the number of inconsistencies and to give references where possible to modern editions. In these and other small ways I have tried to make the notes—the text I hope is intelligible enough—more accessible to English readers. I have given references to English translations of German works (where I have been able to find them); but I have refrained from adding references to the modern literature of the subject: most readers of the book will prefer to do that for themselves. In order to save space I have used abbreviation pretty freely in quoting names of authors and titles of books. The abbreviated forms agree generally with those given in Liddell and Scott (supplemented by the list drawn up for the new edition of the Lexicon): most of the following may be noted:—
| A. (or Aesch.) | = Aeschylus. |
| Amm. | = Ammonius. |
| AP. | = Anthologia Palatina. |
| Apollod. | = Ps.-Apollodorus, Bibiotheca (unless Epit. is added). |
| A. R. | = Apollonius Rhodius. |
| Ath. Mitth. | = Mittheilungen d. deutsch. arch. Inst. zu Athen. |
| Aug. | = Augustine. |
| D. (or Dem.) | = Demosthenes. |
| D. C. | = Dio Cassius. |
| D. Chr. | = Dio Chrysostom. |
| D. H. | = Dionysius of Halicarnassus (i.e. Rom. Antiq. unless otherwise indicated) |
| D. L. | = Diogenes Laertius. |
| D. P. | = Dionysius Periegetes. |
| D. S. | = Diodorus Siculus. |
| E. (or Eur.) | = Euripides. |
| Epigr. Gr. | = Kaibel, Epigrammata Graeca. |
| Eun. | = Eunapius Vitae Sophistarum. [xvi] |
| Gal. | = Galen (vol. and page of Kühn). |
| GDI. | = Collitz, Griechische Dialektinschriften. |
| Gp. | = Geoponica. |
| Grimm | = Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie transl. as Teutonic Mythology, by J. S. Stallybrass, Lond., 1880. |
| Heraclid. Pol. | = Heraclides Ponticus, Politica. |
| Him. | = Himerius. |
| Hipp. | = Hippolytus. |
| Hp. | = Hippokrates. |
| Hsch. | = Hesychius. |
| H. Smyrn. | = Hermippus of Smyrna. |
| Homer is quoted by the majuscules of the Greek alphabet for the books of the Iliad, by the minuscules for the Odyssey. | |
| Inscr. Perg. | = Inschriften von Pergamon ed. Fraenkel. |
| IPE. | = Inscriptiones Ponti Euxini ed. Latyschev. |
| Is. | = Isaeus. |
| J. M. | = Justin Martyr. |
| Leg. Sacr. | = von Prott and Ziehen, Leges Graecorum Sacrae. |
| Pall. | = Palladius, de Re Rustica. |
| Phld. | = Philodemus. |
| Pi. | = Pindar. |
| Pl. | = Plato. |
| PLG. | = Bergk, Poetae Lyrici Graeci ed. 4. |
| Plot. | = Plotinus. |
| Plu. | = Plutarch. |
| PMagPar. | = Paris Magical Papyrus ed. Wessely. |
| Rh. Mus. | = Rheinisches Museum. |
| S. (or Soph.) | = Sophokles. |
| S. E. | = Sextus Empiricus. |
| SIG. | = Dittenberger, Sylloge Inscriptionum Graecarum ed. 2 (unless otherwise stated). |
| Str. | = Strabo (Casaubon's page). |
| Tab. Defix. | = Tabellae Defixionum ed. Wünsch (Appendix to CIA.). |
| Thphr. | = Theophrastus (Ch. = Characters ed. Jebb). |
| Tylor | = E. B. Tylor, Primitive Culture ed. 4. |
| Tz. | = Tzetzes. |
| Vg. | = Vergil. |
| Vors. | = Diels, Fragmente der Vorsokratiker ed. 4 (vol. i unless otherwise indicated). |
| X. (or Xen.) | = Xenophon historicus. |
| Znb. | = Zenobius. |
I take this opportunity of thanking my friend Mr. R. Burn, of Glasgow University, for his invaluable help in these matters.
W. B. HILLIS.
PART I
CHAPTER I
ΒELIEFS ABOUT THE SOUL AND CULT OF SOULS IN THE HOMERIC POEMS
I
§ 1
To the immediate understanding of mankind nothing seems so self-evident, nothing so little in need of explanation, as the phenomenon of Life itself, the fact of man’s own existence. On the other hand, the cessation of this so self-evident existence, whenever it obtrudes itself upon his notice, arouses man’s ever-renewed astonishment. There are primitive peoples to whom death whenever it occurs seems an arbitrary abbreviation of life: if it is not due to visible forces, then some invisible magic must have caused it. So difficult is it for such peoples to grasp the idea that the present state of being alive and conscious can come to an end of its own accord.
Once reflection on such problems is aroused, life itself, standing as it does on the threshold of all sensation and experience, soon begins to appear no less mysterious than death—that kingdom into which no experience reaches. It may even come about that when they are regarded too long and too hard, light and darkness seem to change places. It was to a Greek poet that the question suggested itself: “Who knows then whether Life be not Death, and what we here call Death be called Life there below?”