The Project Gutenberg EBook of Ancient Art and Ritual, by Jane Ellen Harrison

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Title: Ancient Art and Ritual

Author: Jane Ellen Harrison

Release Date: November 18, 2005 [EBook #17087]

Language: English

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_Ancient Art and Ritual_

JANE ELLEN HARRISON

_Geoffrey Cumberlege_
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
LONDON NEW YORK TORONTO

_First published in 1913, and reprinted in 1918 (revised), 1919, 1927,
1935 and 1948_

PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN

PREFATORY NOTE

It may be well at the outset to say clearly what is the aim of the
present volume. The title is _Ancient Art and Ritual_, but the reader
will find in it no general summary or even outline of the facts of
either ancient art or ancient ritual. These facts are easily accessible
in handbooks. The point of my title and the real gist of my argument lie
perhaps in the word "_and_"--that is, in the intimate connection which I
have tried to show exists between ritual and art. This connection has, I
believe, an important bearing on questions vital to-day, as, for
example, the question of the place of art in our modern civilization,
its relation to and its difference from religion and morality; in a
word, on the whole enquiry as to what the nature of art is and how it
can help or hinder spiritual life.

* * * * *

I have taken Greek drama as a typical instance, because in it we have
the clear historical case of a great art, which arose out of a very
primitive and almost world-wide ritual. The rise of the Indian drama, or
the mediaeval and from it the modern stage, would have told us the same
tale and served the like purpose. But Greece is nearer to us to-day than
either India or the Middle Ages.