136

Greek morality is not based on religion, but on the _polis_.

There were only priests of the individual gods; not representatives of
the whole religion . _i.e._, no guild of priests. Likewise no Holy Writ.


137

The "lighthearted" gods · this is the highest adornment which has ever
been bestowed upon the world--with the feeling, How difficult it is to
live!


138

If the Greeks let their "reason" speak, their life seems to them bitter
and terrible. They are not deceived. But they play round life with lies:
Simonides advises them to treat life as they would a play; earnestness
was only too well known to them in the form of pain. The misery of men
is a pleasure to the gods when they hear the poets singing of it. Well
did the Greeks know that only through art could even misery itself
become a source of pleasure, _vide tragoediam_.


139

It is quite untrue to say that the Greeks only took _this_ life into
their consideration--they suffered also from thoughts of death and Hell.