The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v1.c11.s4.9

v1.c11.s4.9

Difficulties are also presented by the theory of Prof. Murray which admits that the Achaeans at one time were the possessors of an inferior form of religion, so that there is no question of the introduction of a high type of Indo-European religion, but that, in the course of their journeys from the north to Greece, they had laid aside much of this primitive barbarism. But, once we admit that they at one time were addicted to this lower religion, it becomes very difficult to distinguish between the remnants of this former state which they brought with them, and the results of contact with the same primitive religion in an unchanged condition. The problem is rendered more easy for Prof. Murray in that he accepts the view that the Homeric poems were made refined and freed from the primitive beliefs which they at one time evinced by deliberate remodelling in the sixth century B. C. and subsequently, but this wild theory can hardly be taken seriously.