E.R. Dodds' "The Greeks and the Irrational" is based a series of lectures the author gave at Berkeley in 1949 and by his admission "reproduced here substantially as they were composed." I have a fervent wish other scholars in the last half-century have followed up on his work, although as of this writing I'm unaware of the extent to which they've done so.



Through a style and format that could use a little polish, Mr. Dodds annihilates one idea (the ancient Greeks were primarily philosophical purveyors of reason) and strongly suggests another (later-arriving Christianity borrowed liberally from the Greek mystical tradition). Both of these views, I suspect, stunned even receptive academic listeners at this early date.



Consider the origins of gods as agents of justice--an idea strongly favored in Judaism (in a monotheistic setting, and later extended by Christians). Dodds clearly shows the Greeks far ahead with their jealous deities, but adds "religion and morals were not initially interdependent, in Greece or elsewhere." Or try on the notion that "in the Archaic Age the mills of God ground so slowly ... in order to sustain the belief that they moved at all, *it was necessary to get rid of the natural time-limit set by death*". (Italics mine.) So before we get out of the second chapter the good professor (in 1949!) has introduced us to the idea that the Greeks set religious precedents in attributing justice to their gods (fear would be added later) and extending deistic dominion to the afterlife.



Beyond unearthing a treasure-trove of religious antecedents, Mr. Dodds daringly devotes an entire chapter ("The Blessings of Madness") to the rich history of the uncomfortably close association (for some) between supernatural beliefs and ... mental illness. As a reference Julian Jaynes' seminal work "The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind" (1976) also provides a wealth of fascinating data in this area. Indeed, both Dodds and Jaynes raise the non-intuitive yet strangely attractive thesis that schizophrenics (who obviously hear "second voices") might have attained priestly status in many ancient societies.



These ideas and many others (e.g., the application of dreams, the non-originality of afterlife rewards and punishment, and the toxic introduction of a mind ["soul"]/body dichotomy), had me not only furiously underlining, but also footnoting (which Dodds also provides, almost to the point of annoyance) and questioning. As a springboard for digging into other ancient religion sources, "The Greeks and the Irrational" has few rivals even in the present--Joseph Campbell, perhaps, excepted.



Dodds' scope and insights also unintentionally contribute to the book's two minor failings: a lack of full development for many of his ideas and a non-linear and anti-climactic chapter organization. The professor glumly admits these shortcomings in his preface, attributing both to the material's original lecture source.



But these are trifles. As a wonderfully rich vein of ancient religious ideas--culled from the history of a stereotyped "rational" culture--this book is first-rate. That the author points out a myriad of ideas that continue to be claimed as "original" by modern religions was an unexpected and fascinating bonus.

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