Note 203.1 — The Evolution of Religion

We are better informed concerning the style of private prayer in Greece, as also concerning the theory of prayer that gradually commended itself to the highest intelligences. The average private man was certainly capable of praying for blessings other than material. We have the prayer of a potter of Metapontum, of the sixth century B.C., praying to the god that he might “have a good report among men.”203.1 Among the prayers contained in the literature of the fifth century, our interest is arrested by such utterances as Pindar’s, “May I walk, oh God, in the guileless paths of life, and leave behind me a fair name for my children”;203.2 and again, “Oh God that bringest all things to pass, grant me the spirit of reverence for noble things”;203.3 and by this of Euripides, “May the spirit of chastity abide with me, the fairest gift of God.”203.4 To this age may belong the poetical fragment of a banquet song—for the Greeks could pray genially and seriously in the midst of social intercourse—which must have once had much vogue: “Oh Pallas, born of waters, Queen Athena, mayest thou and thy father keep this city and its citizens in prosperity, free from sorrow, civic discord, and untimely deaths.”203.5 The prayers of Xenophon and Plutarch may be taken as typical of the average ethical feeling of their respective periods: the former petitions for “health, bodily strength, good feeling among friends, safety in war, and wealth”;204.1 the latter for “wealth, concord, righteousness in word and deed.”204.2