Öfversigt af Finska Vetenskaps-Societetens Förhandlingar, 

 XLIX. 1906—1907. N:o 1. 



Studies in primitive Greek religion. 



by 

 Rafael Karsten. 



lutroduction. 



However much has been published on the field of Greek 

 religion, it is scarcely too much to say that the scientific study 

 of it is still in embryo. As long as students in this field began 

 their studies from the purely philological or mythological side 

 and not, as should be done, from the psychological, no real un- 

 derstanding of the phenomena met with was possible. Thus, 

 whereas plenty of material relating to the religions beliefs and 

 cults of the ancient Greeks had been brought into light from 

 the treasury of their literature, there was lacking the psycho- 

 logical view of the subject as well as the insight into the na- 

 ture of lower religion in general b}^ which alone this mäss of 

 evidence could be arranged and put into a system. 



If the historic Greek religion presents many problems 

 which as yet are awaiting their solution, we are, of course, 

 on still more uncertain ground with regard to its character 

 in prehistoric times. The methods by which comparative 

 linguistics and comparative mythology years ago attempted to 

 trace the origin of the Aryan divinities in the common primeval 

 home as well as their devolopment among the difiPerent Indo- 

 European tribes, are in our days almost entirely abandoned 

 as being fundamentally erroneous. Nor does prehistoric archaeo- 

 logy help US much in trying to find an answer to the question 

 what was the original character of Greek religion. The excava- 

 tions at Mycenai, Tiryns, Troy, and Crete have brought into 

 light much which reveals the general culture of these pre- 

 historic Greeks, but about their religion — save their worship 

 of the dead — they tell us very little iudeed, and, besides, the 



