excerpt
Regardless of how events actually unfolded in the sanctuary of
Delphi, it is certain that this solar cult of Apollo had an immense
influence on the formation of the Greek poietic Imaginative. In this
respect, Nietzsche’s study of the problem has remained definitive
down to the present day.
On the other hand, returning to the thread of our discussion,
scholars of the stature of Murray or Bowra consider that the socalled
Homeric religion was by no means a religion in the proper
sense, since the true religious belief of the Greeks prior to the 4th
century BCE has nothing in common with the luminous forms of
Olympus. Thus, Bowra emphasises that the anthropomorphic aspect
of this system, developed by the Homeric individual Imaginative, has
no connection with the actual religion and morality of Greek society
of that time.
In this way, the view of those who claim that there existed a profoundly
anthropomorphic religion of the ancient Greeks–a position
with which we have already disagreed from the outset–proves to be
a profound error.
Likewise, taking into account the research of Dodds and others,
we shall attempt to remove another persistent prejudice concerning
the Greek religion and the Greek human being: namely, their supposed
extreme and exclusive rationality.
But what does the term anthropomorphism actually mean with
respect to the Greek poietic Imaginative in its representation of the
gods?
It does not mean, in any case, that the gods were conceived and
represented according to the image of human beings. On the contrary,
the situation is reversed: the vigor and freshness of the youthful
human body appeared as an image of divinity.
