From the earliest times men have sought to explain in one way and
another the common facts of daily life. Sunrise and sunset, seedtime and
harvest, life, death, and the hereafter are some of the mysteries which
have always puzzled the human mind. The primitive races, knowing nothing
of science, looked upon the forces of nature as gigantic personalities,
or gods, who controlled human destiny.
The most refined and imaginative of the ancient nations were the Greeks.
They invented innumerable tales or myths, in which all the changes of
nature and all the affairs of life were attributed to the workings of
the gods. When the sun rose, they said that Apollo had begun to drive
his chariot across the sky. When the wind blew, Zeus was sending his
messenger from the sky to the earth. When a man did a courageous deed,
it was because Athena had whispered to him what to do.
In this way the beliefs gradually took form which made the Greek
religion. Great temples were built for the worship of the gods, and
statues were set up in their honor. The finest works of Greek art were
connected with religious worship.
The gods were conceived as having the same form as human beings, but of
colossal size. They lived in an ideal country called Olympus,
"Olympus, where the gods have made,
So saith tradition, their eternal seat.
The tempest shakes it not, nor is it drenched
By showers, and there the snow doth never fall.
The calm, clear ether is without a cloud,
And in the golden light that lies on all,
Day after day the blessed gods rejoice."[3]
[3] Odyssey, Book vi., lines 54-60 in Bryant's translation.
Here each god had a separate dwelling, and in the midst was the palace
of their supreme ruler, Zeus, known to the Romans as Jupiter or Jove.
Zeus was the sky god, "the father of gods and men," and the ruler of
heaven and earth. He was the "cloud compeller" at whose will the clouds
gathered or scattered across the sky, the "ruler of the storms," the
"thunderer," by whom were hurled the ruddy lightnings. How far he
surpassed all other gods in power is explained in the Iliad in an
address made by Zeus himself to the gods:--
"Suspend from heaven
A golden chain; let all the immortal host
Cling to it from below: ye could not draw,
Strive as ye might, the all-disposing Jove
From heaven to earth. And yet if I should choose
To draw it upward to me, I should lift,
With it and you, the earth itself and sea
Together, and I then would bind the chain
Around the summit of the Olympian mount,
And they should hang aloft."[4]
[4] Iliad, Book viii., lines 21-30 in Bryant's translation.
[Illustration: Alinari, Photo. John Andrew & Son, Sc.