called fetishes; and although it is perhaps wiser to avoid
terms belonging properly to the religion of modern savages in speaking
of ancient Greece, there seems to be an analogy between the beliefs and
customs that are implied. Such sacred stocks or stones were not regarded
merely as symbols of certain deities, but were looked upon as having
certain occult or magic qualities inherent in them, and as being in
themselves potent for good or evil. The ceremonies used in their cult
partook of the nature of magic rather than religion, so far as these
consisted of anointing them with oil or with drink offerings; such
ceremonies might, indeed, be regarded as gratifying to the deity
worshipped under their form, when they were definitely affiliated to the
service of an anthropomorphic god; but in a more primitive stage of
belief the indwelling power probably was not associated with any such
generalisation as is implied in the change from "animism" or
"polydaemonism" to polytheism. We are here concerned not with this
growth of religious feeling, but rather with its influence upon the
sacred things that were objects of worship and with the question how far
their sanctity encouraged their artistic decoration.

It is perhaps easier to realise the feeling of a primitive people about
this matter in the case of a sacred building than in that of the actual
image of a god. A temple does not, indeed--in Greece, at least--belong
to the earliest phase of cult; for it is the dwelling of the god, and
its form, based on that of a human dwelling-house, implies an
anthropomorphic imagination. We find, however, in Homer that the gods
are actually thought of as inhabiting their temples and preferring one
to another, Athena going to Athens and Aphrodite to Paphos as her chosen
abode. It was clearly desirable for every city to gain this special
favour; and an obvious way to do this was to make the dwelling-place
attractive in itself to the deity. This might be done not merely by the
abundance of sacrifices, but also by the architectural beauty of the
building itself, and by the richness of the offerings it contained. Here
was, therefore, a very practical reason for making the dwelling of the
god as sumptuous and beautiful as possible, in order that he might be
attracted to live in it and to give his favour and protection to those
that dwelt around it. Doubtless, as religious ideas advanced and the
conception of the nature of the gods became higher, th