Jane Ellen Harrison Quotes & Sayings

Greek writers of the fifth century B.C. have a way of speaking of, an attitude towards, religion, as though it were wholly a thing of joyful confidence, a friendly fellowship with the gods, whose service is but a high festival for man. In Homer sacrifice is but, as it were, the signal for a banquet of abundant roast flesh and sweet wine; we hear nothing of fasting, of cleansing, and atonement. This we might perhaps explain as part of the general splendid unreality of the heroic saga, but sober historians of the fifth century B.C. express the same spirit. Thucydides is assuredly by nature no reveller, yet religion is to him in the main 'a rest from toil.' He makes Pericles say: 'Moreover we have provided for our spirit very many opportunities of recreation, by the celebration of games and sacrifices throughout the year. — Jane Ellen Harrison

But it is equally clear and certain that the Dionysos of Greek worship and of the drama was not a babe in the cradle. — Jane Ellen Harrison

Paganism is the worship of life itself in its supreme mysteries of ecstasy and love. — Jane Ellen Harrison

To be a heretic to-day is almost a human obligation. — Jane Ellen Harrison