Excerpt from The Makers of Hellas: A Critical Inquiry Into the Philosophy and Religion of Ancient GreeceThe author of The Makers of Hellas died before the book was in print, before even the manuscript of the work was completed, and left a request that I would prepare it for the press and publish it without revealing the writer's name. Even if the author had lived until the book appeared in print, I believe the book would have been published anonymously or under a nom de plume. The reason for this reticence, or this self-suppression, will not be apparent to those who merely scan the title of the work - The Makers of Hellas - for the title scarcely suggests the dominant thought of the book. The dominant thought and feeling of the whole work is religious. The makers of Hellas are not those who made - and unmade - her politically, nor even the artists and authors who made her what She is in literature and art. They are those through whom the spirit of religion Spoke. At a time, such as the present, when the material monuments of Greece, and the isles of Greece, are claiming an ever-increasing share of the work of classical students and of the attention of the cultured world, when the sun of solar mythology has set, and folklore is absorbing the study both of ritual and belief, it may seem remote from the general trend of thought to consider seriously the religion, rather than the religious monuments or the rites or myths of ancient Greece. On the other hand, to those whose interest in myths, monuments, and rites alike is weak, it may seem excessive even to speak of the religion of a people who undeniably were pagan.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.