"The Gods of Greece" ("Die Götter Griechenlandes") is a 1788 poem by the German writer

Friedrich Schiller Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller (, short: ; 10 November 17599 May 1805) was a German playwright, poet, philosopher and historian. Schiller is considered by most Germans to be Germany's most important classical playwright. He was born i ...

. It was first published in Wieland's '' Der Teutsche Merkur'', with a second, shorter version (with much of its controversial content removed) published by Schiller himself in 1800. Schiller's poem proved influential in light of German Philhellenism and seems to have influenced later German thinkers' views on history,

Paganism Paganism (, later 'civilian') is a term first used in the fourth century by early Christians for people in the Roman Empire who practiced polytheism, or ethnic religions other than Christianity, Judaism, and Samaritanism. In the time of the ...

and

myth Myth is a genre of folklore consisting primarily of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society. For scholars, this is very different from the vernacular usage of the term "myth" that refers to a belief that is not true. Instead, the ...

, possibly including

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (27 August 1770 – 14 November 1831) was a 19th-century German idealist. His influence extends across a wide range of topics from metaphysical issues in epistemology and ontology, to political philosophy and t ...

and

Max Weber Maximilian Carl Emil Weber (; ; 21 April 186414 June 1920) was a German Sociology, sociologist, historian, jurist, and political economy, political economist who was one of the central figures in the development of sociology and the social sc ...

Content

The poem describes Schiller's conception of life and nature in antiquity, characterized as a happy and harmonious age, and in turn describes the Christian age as a stage of loss, joylessness, alienation and divisiveness. For Schiller, the reason for this is the replacement of the diversity of the ancient world of gods, which had worked through nature and human life, with a single, comparatively abstract and distant Christian god. He uses the

Greek gods In ancient Greece, deities were regarded as immortal, anthropomorphic, and powerful. They were conceived of as individual persons, rather than abstract concepts or notions, and were described as being similar to humans in appearance, albeit larg ...

as a proxy for the perceived enchantment of nature and the moral-aesthetic values that Schiller associated with this imagined idea of nature. Schiller constructs the poem as a lamentation for myth and enchantment against

mechanical philosophy Mechanism is the belief that natural wholes (principally living things) are similar to complicated machines or artifacts, composed of parts lacking any intrinsic relationship to each other. The doctrine of mechanism in philosophy comes in two diff ...

Reception

Although (or perhaps because) the poem shows Christian Theosophical influences, ''The Gods of Greece'' became controversial when published, as Schiller appeared to defend Paganism against

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion, which states that Jesus in Christianity, Jesus is the Son of God (Christianity), Son of God and Resurrection of Jesus, rose from the dead after his Crucifixion of Jesus, crucifixion, whose ...

. This led to its second publication in a shorter form. Shortly after publication, the poem was criticized as an attack on Christianity, particularly by Friedrich Leopold zu Stolberg-Stolberg. In August 1788, he wrote in Heinrich Christian Boie's magazine ''Deutsches Museum'' : "But a spirit who tries to despise virtue is not a good spirit. I see the poetic merit of this poem, but the ultimate purpose of poetry is not itself." He impressed Schiller enough that Schiller substantially reworked the poem, with the involvement of

Goethe Johann Wolfgang (von) Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German polymath who is widely regarded as the most influential writer in the German language. His work has had a wide-ranging influence on Western literature, literary, Polit ...

. A fragment of this poem was set by

Franz Schubert Franz Peter Schubert (; ; 31 January 179719 November 1828) was an Austrian composer of the late Classical period (music), Classical and early Romantic music, Romantic eras. Despite his short life, Schubert left behind a List of compositions ...

in November 1819 (D677).

References

External links

Text of "The Gods of Greece", trans. E. A. Bowring
from HathiTrust. {{DEFAULTSORT:Gotter Poetry by Friedrich Schiller 1788 poems 18th-century modern paganism Modern pagan poetry Modern paganism in Germany