In the Homeric poems there is no evidence for this hero-worship. Indeed these poems contain few traces of a cult of the manes at all, except in funeral ceremonies and in connection with the necromantic sacrifice of Odysseus. This fact has been connected with the Homeric doctrine of immortality[623], and in view of the Northern evidence (cf. p. [397] ff.) there can be little doubt that the true explanation is to be found herein. The method used in the disposal of the dead is cremation, and, as in the North, it was believed that this sent the spirit away from the body to a place of the dead—not a separate place for each particular family or community but a common home for the souls of the whole Greek race. In Il. XXIII 65 ff. the spirit of Patroclos comes and exhorts Achilles to pay him the last rites: "Never again shall I return from Hades, when ye have allotted me the due of fire" (V. 75 f.). So also when Odysseus visits the home of Hades the first spirit he meets is that of his follower Elpenor, who reproaches him with not attending to his obsequies and begs him, when he returns to Circe's island, to "burn him up with his arms, all that he possesses." The idea is clearly the same as in Ynglinga Saga, cap. 8. The honourable way therefore to treat a fallen foe is not to strip him but to burn him with his armour, as in Il. VI 417 ff.[624] Even at the beginning of the historical period this belief seems not to have entirely died out. According to the story told by Herodotus (v. 92), when Periandros sent to consult the spirit of his wife Melissa, she complained that the clothes which he had given her at her funeral were of no use because they had not been burnt.
It has already been mentioned (p. [261]) that this story seems to show that at one time the home of the dead was located in a definite, though probably not very well known, region; and the vague indications given as to the hero's wanderings in the Odyssey can hardly be regarded as evidence to the contrary. If this is correct the home of Hades is in one respect probably a more primitive conception than Valhalla, just as Olympos is more primitive than Ásgarðr. A reasonable explanation would be offered if we had evidence that part of the population of Greece was believed to have come from that region[625]. An idea of this kind was certainly in Snorri's mind when he wrote the Ynglinga Saga; but unfortunately the account which he has given is obviously, at least to a large extent, of scholastic origin.
In other respects however the Homeric conception of immortality appears to be less simple than the doctrine of Valhalla, as we find it in certain Northern records. The use of the verbs θάπτειν and ταρχύσουσι is probably capable of a different explanation; but there are certain other words and expressions, e.g. κατῆλθεν, ἔνεροι, Ζεὺς καταχθόνιος (Hades; cf. also Il. XX 61 ff.), which seem to point to a belief that the world of the dead was beneath the earth. That is the conception implied in certain local beliefs which we meet with in later times, at Hermione and elsewhere, where a deep cavern or lake was supposed to lead thither. More important however is the fact that the home of Hades is totally devoid of the attractiveness of Valhalla; the gloomy picture which is drawn of it accords rather with the Northern home of Hel. The burning of the body, together with armour and funeral sacrifices, appears to procure little real advantage to the soul; it is regarded, as in Beowulf, rather in the nature of an honour due to the deceased. Yet in view of the parallels which we possess, both from the North and elsewhere[626], we can scarcely doubt that the custom had its origin in a much stronger motive, the force of which was scarcely appreciated in later times. For a change of feeling, if not of actual faith, positive evidence is supplied by the reprobation expressed in Il. XXIII 176—a passage as significant in its way as the homiletic verses which follow the reference to heathen sacrifices in Beow. 175 ff. (cf. p. [53]).
In the course of this chapter we have noticed a considerable number of features common to Greek and Teutonic religion. Many of them are to be found in other religions also, and these we need not discuss further. Here we are concerned only to determine what may be regarded as characteristic of the Heroic Age. In this category we may probably include the following features.
1. The religion was predominantly a worship of gods, rather than of spirits. Herein lies the chief contrast with the religion of later times in both regions[627]. In Classical Greece chthonic worship and hero worship seem on the whole to be more prominent than that of the gods. The same is true of Scandinavian countries in the latest heathen period, though Thor is still prominent and hero worship is scarcely distinguished from manes worship. In Germany and England, where Christianity was adopted during the Heroic Age or soon afterwards, the gods disappear at once, while forms of chthonic worship survive for centuries.
2. The same gods were, to a large extent at least, recognised everywhere. Whether by borrowing or by identification of cults they had ceased to be merely tribal deities. How far back this feature goes in Greece we cannot tell. Among the Teutonic peoples we can trace it in part back to Tacitus' time; but it was probably intensified during the Heroic Age.
3. The conception of the gods was definitely anthropomorphic. For the Teutonic Heroic Age this is made clear by the Langobardic story. There is no absolutely conclusive proof that the gods in general were regarded as forming a regularly organised community, as in the Edda and the Homeric poems; but all the evidence which we have (cf. p. [407] f.) points in this direction.
4. The relations between gods and human beings are of a somewhat peculiar character both in Teutonic poetry and in the Homeric poems; but they are almost identical in the two cases. The gods are not treated with any very great reverence. The conduct attributed to them is not unfrequently reprehensible, their purposes can often be thwarted by the help of other gods, and the bravest warriors are sometimes even ready to attack them openly. Yet the human and the divine are not confused; a man is not a god, though many heroes, both Teutonic and Greek, are sprung from gods. It should be observed that the deity from whom most English princes claimed descent is Woden, a universal and not a tribal god. This belief must be regarded as an anti-tribal force.