Nor must it be supposed that this phase of the Greek religion was a
superstition confined to individuals; on the contrary, it was fully
recognised by the state. No important public act could be undertaken
without a previous consultation of omens. More than once, in the
clearest and most brilliant period of the Greek civilisation, we hear of
military expeditions being abandoned because the sacrifices were
unfavourable; and at the time of the Persian invasion, at the most
critical moment of the history of Greece, the Lacedaemonians, we are
told, came too late to be present at the battle of Marathon, because
they thought it unlucky to start until the moon was full.

In all this we have a suggestion of the sort of relation in which the
Greek conceived himself to stand to the gods. It is a relation, as we
said, external and mechanical. The gods were superior beings who knew,
it might be presumed, what was going to happen; man didn't know, but
perhaps he could find out. How could he find out? that was the problem;
and it was answered in the way we have seen. There was no question,
clearly, of a spiritual relation; all is external; and a similar
externality pervades, on the whole, the Greek view of sacrifice and of
sin. Let us turn now to consider this point.


Section 8. Sacrifice and Atonement.

In Homer, we find that sacrifice is frankly conceived as a sort of
present to the gods, for which they were in fairness bound to an
equivalent return; and the nature of the bargain is fully recognised by
the gods themselves.