THE RELIGION OF THE ATHENIANS: ITS MYTHOLOGICAL AND SYMBOLICAL ASPECTS.
"That there is one Supreme Deity, both philosophers and poets, and even
the vulgar worshippers of the gods themselves frequently acknowledge;
which because the assertors of gods well understood, they affirm these
gods of theirs to preside over the several parts of the world, yet so
that there is only one chief governor. Whence it follows, that all their
other gods can be no other than ministers and officers which one
greatest God, who is omnipotent, hath variously appointed, and
constituted so as to serve his command."--LACTANTIUS.
The conclusion reached in the previous chapter that the Athenians were
believers in and worshippers of the One Supreme God, has been challenged
with some considerable show of reason and force, on the ground that they
were _Polytheists_ and _Idolaters_.
An objection which presents itself so immediately on the very face of
the sacred narrative, and which is sustained by the unanimous voice of
history, is entitled to the fullest consideration. And as the interests
of truth are infinitely more precious than the maintenance of any
theory, however plausible, we are constrained to accord to this
objection the fullest weight, and give to it the most impartial
consideration. We can not do otherwise than at once admit that the
Athenians were _Polytheists_--they worshipped "many gods" besides "the
unknown God." It is equally true that they were _Idolaters_--they
worshipped images or statues of the gods, which images were also, by an
easy metonymy, called "gods."
But surely no one supposes that this is all that can be said upon the
subject, and that, after such admissions, the discussion must be closed.
On the contrary, we have, as yet, scarce caught a glimpse of the real
character and genius of Grecian polytheistic worship, and we have not
made the first approach towards a philosophy of Grecian mythology.
The assumption that the heathen regarded the images "graven by art and
device of man" as the real creators of the world and man, or as having
any control over the destinies of men, sinks at once under the weight of
its own absurdity. Such hypothesis is repudiated with scorn and
indignation by the heathens themselves. Cotta, in _Cicero_, declares
explicitly: "though it be common and familiar language amongst us to
call corn Ceres, and wine Bacchus, yet who can think any one so mad as
to take that to be really a god that he feeds upon?"[141] And _Plutarch_
condemns the whole practice of giving the names of gods and goddesses to
inanimate objects, as absurd, impious, and atheistical: "they who give
the names of gods to senseless matter and inanimate things, and such as
are destroyed by men in the using, beget most wicked and atheistical
opinions in the minds of men, since it can not be conceived how these
things should be gods, for nothing that is inanimate is a god."[142] And
so also the Hindoo, the Buddhist, the American Indian, the Fijian of
to-day, repel the notion that their visible images are real gods, or
that they worship them instead of the unseen God.
[Footnote 141: Cudworth's "Intell. System," vol. ii. p. 257, Eng. ed.]
[Footnote 142: Quoted in Cudworth's "Intell. System," vol. ii. p. 258,
Eng. ed.]
And furthermore, that even the invisible divinities which these images
were designed to represent, were each independent, self-existent beings,
and that the stories which are told concerning them by Homer and Hesiod
were received in a literal sense, is equally improbable. The earliest
philosophers knew as well as we know, that the Deity, in order to be
Deity, must be either _perfect_ or nothing--that he must be _one_, not
many--without parts and passions; and they were scandalized and shocked
by the religious fables of the ancient mythology as much as we are.
_Xenophanes_, who lived, as we know, before Pythagoras, accuses Homer
and Hesiod of having ascribed to the gods every thing that is
disgraceful amongst men, as stealing, adultery, and deceit. He remarks
"that men seem to have created their gods, and to have given them their
own mind, and voice, and figure." He himself declares that "God is
_one,_ the greatest amongst gods and men, neither in form nor in thought
like unto men." He calls the battles of the Titans and the Giants, and
the Centaurs, "the inventions of former generations," and he demands
that God shall be praised in holy songs and nobler strains.[143]
Diogenes Laertius relates the following of _Pythagoras_, "that when he
descended to the shades below, he saw the soul of Hesiod bound to a
pillar of brass and gnashing his teeth; and that of Homer, as suspended
on a tree, and surrounded by serpents; as a punishment for the things
they had said of the gods."[144] These poets, who had corrupted
theology, _Plato_ proposes to exclude from his ideal Republic; or if
permitted at all, they must be subjected to a rigid expurgation. "We
shall," says he, "have to repudiate a large part of those fables which
are now in vogue; and, especially, of what I call the greater
fables,--the stories which Hesiod and Homer tell us. In these stories
there is a fault which deserves the gravest condemnation; namely, when
an author gives a _bad representation of gods and heroes_. We must
condemn such a poet, as we should condemn a painter, whose pictures bear
no resemblance to the objects which he tries to imitate. For instance,
the poet Hesiod related an ugly story when he told how Uranus acted, and
how Kronos had his revenge upon him. They are offensive stories, and
must not be repeated in our cities. Not yet is it proper to say, in any
case,--what is indeed untrue--that gods wage war against gods, and
intrigue and fight among themselves. Stories like the chaining of Juno
by her son Vulcan, and the flinging of Vulcan out of heaven for trying
to take his mother's part when his father was beating her, and all other
battles of the gods which are found in Homer, must be refused admission
into our state, _whether they are allegorical or not_. For a child can
not discriminate between what is allegorical and what is not; and
whatever is adopted, as a matter of belief, in childhood, has a tendency
to become fixed and indelible; and therefore we ought to esteem it as of
the greatest importance that the fables which children first hear should
be adapted, as far as possible, to promote virtue."[145]
[Footnote 143: Max Muller, "Science of Language," pp. 405, 406.]
[Footnote 144: "Lives," bk. viii. ch. xix. p. 347.]
[Footnote 145: "Republic," bk. ii. ch. xvii.]
If, then, poetic and allegorical representations of divine things are to
be permitted in the ideal republic, then the founders of the state are
to prescribe "the moulds in which the poets are to cast their fictions."
"Now what are these moulds to be in the case of _Theology?_ They may be
described as follows: It is right always to represent God as he really
is, whether the poet describe him in an epic, or a lyric, or a dramatic
poem. Now God is, beyond all else, _good in reality_, and therefore so
to be represented. But nothing that is good is hurtful. That which is
good hurts not; does no evil; is the cause of no evil. That which is
good is beneficial; is the cause of good. And, therefore, that which is
good is not the cause of _all_ which is and happens, but only of that
which is as it should be.... The good things we must ascribe to God,
whilst we must seek elsewhere, and not in him, the causes of evil
things."
We must, then, express our disapprobation of Homer, or any other poet,
who is guilty of such a foolish blunder as to tell us (Iliad, xxiv. 660)
that:
'Fast by the threshold of Jove's court are placed
Two casks--one stored with evil, one with good:'
and that he for whom the Thunderer mingles both--
'He leads a life checkered with good and ill.'
But as for the man to whom he gives the bitter cup unmixed--
'He walks
The blessed earth unbless'd, go where he will.'
And if any one asserts that the violation of oaths and treaties by the
act of Pandarus was brought about by Athené and Zeus (Iliad, ii. 60), we
should refuse our approbation. Nor can we allow it to be said that the
strife and trial of strength between tween the gods (Iliad, xx.) was
instigated by Themis and Zeus.... Such language can not be used without
irreverence; it is both injurious to us, and contradictory in
itself.[146]
Inasmuch as God is perfect to the utmost in beauty and goodness, _he
abides ever the same_, and without any variation in his form. Then let
no poet tell us that (Odyss. xvii. 582)
'In similitude of strangers oft
The Gods, who can with ease all shapes assume,
Repair to populous cities.'
And let no one slander Proteus and Thetis, or introduce in tragedies, or
any other poems, Hera transformed into the guise of a princess
collecting
'Alms for the life-giving children of Inachus, river of Argos,'
not to mention many other falsehoods which we must interdict.[147]
"When a poet holds such language concerning the gods, we shall be angry
with him, and refuse him a chorus. Neither shall we allow our teachers
to use his writings for the instruction of the young, if we would have
our guards grow up to be as god-like and god-fearing as it is possible
for men to be."[148]
We are thus constrained by the statements of the heathens themselves, as
well as by the dictates of common sense, to look beyond the external
drapery and the material forms of Polytheism for some deeper and truer
meaning that shall be more in harmony with the facts of the universal
religious consciousness of our race. The religion of ancient Greece
consisted in something more than the fables of Jupiter and Juno, of
Apollo and Minerva, of Venus and Bacchus. "Through the rank and
poisonous vegetation of mythic phraseology, we may always catch a
glimpse of an original stem round which it creeps and winds itself, and
without which it can not enjoy that parasitical existence which has been
mistaken for independent vitality."[149]
[Footnote 146: "Republic," bk. ii. ch. xix.]
[Footnote 147: "Republic," bk. ii. ch. xx. Much more to the same effect
may be seen in ch. ii.]
[Footnote 148: "Republic," bk. ii. ch. xxi.]
[Footnote 149: Max Müller, "Science of Language," 2d series, p. 433.]
It is an obvious truth, attested by the voice of universal consciousness
as revealed in history, that the human mind can never rest satisfied
within the sphere of sensible phenomena. Man is impelled by an inward
necessity to pass, in thought, beyond the boundary-line of sense, and
inquire after causes and entities which his reason assures him must lie
beneath all sensible appearances. He must and will interpret nature
according to the forms of his own personality, or according to the
fundamental ideas of his own reason. In the childlike subjectivity of
the undisciplined mind he will either transfer to nature the phenomena
of his own personality, regarding the world as a living organism which
has within it an informing soul, and thus attain a _pantheistic_
conception of the universe; or else he will fix upon some extraordinary
and inexplicable phenomenon of nature, and, investing it with
_super-natural_ significance, will rise from thence to a religious and
_theocratic_ conception of nature as a whole. An intelligence--a mind
_within_ nature, and inseparable from nature, or else _above_ nature and
governing nature, is, for man, an inevitable thought.
It is equally obvious that humanity can never relegate itself from a
supernatural origin, neither can it ever absolve itself from a permanent
correlation with the Divine. Man feels within him an instinctive
nobility. He did not arise out of the bosom of nature; in some
mysterious way he has descended from an eternal mind, he is "the
offspring of God." And furthermore, a theocratic conception of nature,
associated with a pre-eminent regard for certain apparently supernatural
experiences in the history of humanity, becomes the foundation of
governments, of civil authority, and of laws. Society can not be founded
without the aid of the Deity, and a commonwealth can only be organized
by Divine interposition. "A Ceres must appear and sow the fields with
corn." And a Numa or a Lycurgus must be heralded by the oracle as
"Dear to Jove, and all who sit in the halls of the Olympus."
He must be a "descendant of Zeus," appointed by the gods to rule, and
one who will "prove himself a god." These divinely-appointed rulers were
regarded as the ministers of God, the visible representatives of the
unseen Power which really governs all. The divine government must also
have its invisible agents--its Nemesis, and Themis, and Diké, the
ministers of law, of justice, and of retribution; and its Jupiter, and
Juno, and Neptune, and Pluto, ruling, with delegated powers, in the
heavens, the air, the sea, and the nethermost regions. So that, in fact,
there exists no nation, no commonwealth, no history without a Theophany,
and along with it certain sacred legends detailing the origin of the
people, the government, the country itself, and the world at large. This
is especially true of India, Egypt, Greece, and Rome. Their primitive
history is eminently _mythological_.
Grecian polytheism can not be otherwise regarded than as a
poetico-historical religion of _myth_ and _symbol_ which is under-laid
by a natural Theism; a parasitical growth which winds itself around the
original stem of instinctive faith in a supernatural Power and Presence
which pervades the universe. The myths are oral traditions, floating
down from that dim; twilight of _poetic_ history, which separates real
history, with its fixed chronology, from the unmeasured and unrecorded
eternity--faint echoes from that mystic border-land which divides the
natural from the supernatural, and in which they seem to have been
marvellously commingled. They are the lingering memories of those
manifestations of God to men, in which he or his celestial ministers
came into visible intercourse with our race; the reality of which is
attested by sacred history. In all these myths there is a theogonic and
cosmogonic element. They tell of the generation of the celestial and
aërial divinities--the subordinate agents and ministers of the Divine
government. They attempt an explanation of the genesis of the visible
universe, the origin of humanity, and the development of human society.
In the presence of history, the substance of these myths is preserved by
_symbols_, that is, by means of natural or artificial, real or striking
objects, which, by some analogy or arbitrary association, shall suggest
the _idea_ to the mind. These symbols were designed to represent the
invisible attributes and operations of the Deity; the powers that
vitalize nature, that control the elements, that preside over cities,
that protect the nations: indeed, all the agencies of the physical and
moral government of God. Beneath all the pagan legends of gods, and
underlying all the elaborate mechanism of pagan worship, there are
unquestionably philosophical ideas, and theological conceptions, and
religious sentiments, which give as meaning, and even a mournful
grandeur to the whole.
Whilst the pagan polytheistic worship is, under one aspect, to be
regarded as a departure from God, inasmuch as it takes away the honor
due to God alone, and transfers it to the creature; still, under another
aspect, we can not fail to recognize in it the effort of the human mind
to fill up the chasm that seemed, to the undisciplined mind, to separate
God and man--and to bridge the gulf between the visible and the
invisible, the finite and the infinite. It was unquestionably an attempt
to bring God nearer to the sense and comprehension of man. It had its
origin in that instinctive yearning after the supernatural, the Divine,
which dwells in all human hearts, and which has revealed itself in all
philosophies, mysticisms, and religions.[150] This longing was
stimulated by the contemplation of the living beauty and grandeur of the
visible universe, which, to the lively fancy and deep feeling of the
Greeks, seemed as the living vesture of the Infinite Mind,--the temple
of the eternal Deity. In this visible universe the Divinity was partly
revealed, and partly concealed. The unity of the all-pervading
Intelligence was veiled beneath an apparent diversity of power, and a
manifoldness of operations. They caught some glimpses of this universal
presence in nature, but were more immediately and vividly impressed by
the several manifestations of the divine perfections and divine
operations, as so many separate rays of the Divinity, or so many
subordinate agents and functionaries employed to execute the will and
carry out the purposes of the Supreme Mind.[151] That unseen,
incomprehensible Power and Presence was perceived in the sublimity of
the deep blue sky, the energy of the vitalizing sun, the surging of the
sea, the rushing wind, the roaring thunder, the ripening corn, and the
clustering vine. To these separate manifestations of the Deity they gave
_personal names_, as Jupiter to the heavens, Juno to the air, Neptune to
the sea, Ceres to the corn, and Bacchus to the vine. These personals
denoted, not the things themselves, but the invisible, divine powers
supposed to preside over those several departments of nature. By a kind
of prosopopoeia "they spake of the things in nature, and parts of the
world, as persons--and consequently as so many gods and goddesses--yet
so as the intelligent might easily understand their meaning, _that these
were in reality nothing else but so many names and notions of that one
Numen,--divine force and power which runs through all the world,
multiformly displaying itself._"[152] "Their various deities were but
different names, different conceptions, of that Incomprehensible Being
which no _thought_ can reach, and no _language_ express."[153] Having
given to these several manifestations of the Divinity personal names,
they now sought to represent them to the eye of sense by _visible
forms_, as the symbols or images of the perfections of the unseen, the
incomprehensible, the unknown God. And as the Greeks regarded man as the
first and noblest among the phenomena of nature, they selected the human
form as the highest sensible manifestation of God, the purest symbol of
the Divinity. Grecian polytheism was thus a species of _mythical
anthropomorphism_.
[Footnote 150: The original constitution of man is such that he "seeks
after" God Acts xvii. 27. "All men yearn after the gods" (Homer,
"Odyss." iii. 48).]
[Footnote 151: "Heathenism springs directly from this, that the mind
lays undue stress upon the bare letter in the book of creation; that it
separates and individualizes its objects as far as possible; that it
places the sense of the individual part, in opposition to the sense of
the whole,--to the _analogia fidei_ or _spiritus_ which alone gives
unity to the book of nature, while it dilutes and renders as transitory
as possible the sense of the universal in the whole.... And as it laid
great stress upon the letter in the book of nature, it fell into
polytheism. The particular symbol of the divine, or of the Godhead,
became a myth of some special deity."--Lange's "Bible-work," Genesis, p.
23.]
[Footnote 152: Cudworth, "Intellect. System," vol. i. p. 308.]
[Footnote 153: Max Müller, "Science of Language," p. 431.]
A philosophy of Grecian mythology, such as we have outlined in the
preceding paragraphs, is, in our judgment, perfectly consistent with the
views announced by Paul in his address to the Athenians. He intimates
that the Athenians "thought that the Godhead was _like unto_ (e nai
omoion)--to be imaged or represented by human art--by gold, and silver,
and precious stone graven by art, and device of man;" that is, they
thought the perfections of God could be represented to the eye by an
image, or symbol. The views of Paul are still more articulately
expressed in Romans, i. 23, 25: "They changed the glory of the
incorruptible God into the _similitude of an image_ of corruptible
man,.... and they worshipped and served the thing made, para--_rather_
than, or _more_ than the Creator." Here, then, the apostle intimates,
first, that the heathen _knew_ God,[154] and that they worshipped God.
They worshipped the creature besides or even more than God, but still
they also worshipped God. And, secondly, they represented the
perfections of God by an image, and under this, as a "_likeness_" or
symbol, they indirectly worshipped God. Their religious system was,
then, even to the eye of Paul, a _symbolic_ worship--that is, the
objects of their devotion were the _omoiômata_--the similitudes, the
likenesses, the images of the perfections of the invisible God.
[Footnote 154: Verse 21.]
It is at once conceded by us, that the "sensus numinis," the natural
intuition of a Supreme Mind, whose power and presence are revealed in
nature, can not maintain itself, as an influential, and vivifying, and
regulative belief amongst men, without the continual supernatural
interposition of God; that is, without a succession of Divine
revelations. And further, we grant that, instead of this symbolic mode
of worship deepening and vitalizing the sense of God as a living power
and presence, there is great danger that the symbol shall at length
unconsciously take the place of God, and be worshipped instead of Him.
From the purest form of symbolism which prevailed in the earliest ages,
there may be an inevitable descent to the rudest form of false worship,
with its accompanying darkness, and abominations, and crimes; but, at
the same time, let us do justice to the religions of the ancient
world--the childhood stammerings of religious life--which were something
more than the inventions of designing men, or the mere creations of
human fancy; they were, in the words of Paul, "a _seeking after God_, if
haply they might feel after him, and find him, who is not far from any
one of us." It can not be denied that the more thoughtful and
intelligent Greeks regarded the visible objects of their devotion as
mere symbols of the perfections and operations of the unseen God, and of
the invisible powers and subordinate agencies which are employed by him
in his providential and moral government of the world. And whatever
there was of misapprehension and of "ignorance" in the popular mind, we
have the assurance of Paul that it was "_overlooked_" by God.
The views here presented will, we venture to believe, be found most in
harmony with a true philosophy of the human mind; with the religious
phenomena of the world; and, as we shall subsequently see, with the
writings of those poets and philosophers who may be fairly regarded as
representing the sentiments and opinions of the ancient world. At the
same time, we have no desire to conceal the fact that this whole
question as to the origin, and character, and philosophy of the
mythology and symbolism of the religions of the ancient world has been a
subject of earnest controversy from Patristic times down to the present
hour, and that even to-day there exists a wide diversity of opinion
among philosophers, as well as theologians.
The principal theories offered may be classed as the _ethical_, the
_physical_, and the _historical_, according to the different objects the
framers of the myths are supposed to have had in view. Some have
regarded the myths as invented by the priests and wise men of old for
the improvement and government of society, as designed to give authority
to laws, and maintain social order.[155] Others have regarded them as
intended to be allegorical interpretations of physical phenomena--the
poetic embodiment of the natural philosophy of the primitive races of
men;[156] whilst others have looked upon them as historical legends,
having a substratum of fact, and, when stripped of the supernatural and
miraculous drapery which accompanies fable, as containing the history of
primitive times.[157] Some of the latter class have imagined they could
recognize in Grecian mythology traces of sacred personages, as well as
profane; in fact, a dimmed image of the patriarchal traditions which are
preserved in the Old Testament scriptures.[158]
It is beyond our design to discuss all the various theories presented,
or even to give a history of opinions entertained.[159] We are fully
convinced that the hypothesis we have presented in the preceding pages,
viz., _that Grecian mythology was a grand symbolic representation of the
Divine as manifested in nature and providence_, is the only hypothesis
which meets and harmonizes all the facts of the case. This is the theory
of Plato, of Cudworth, Baumgarten, Max Müller, and many other
distinguished scholars.
[Footnote 155: Empedocles, Metrodorus.]
[Footnote 156: Aristotle.]
[Footnote 157: Hecatæus, Herodotus, some of the early Fathers, Niebuhr,
J.H. Voss, Arnold.]
[Footnote 158: Bochart, G.J. Vossius, Faber, Gladstone.]
[Footnote 159: To the English reader who desires an extended and
accurate acquaintance with the classic and patristic literature of this
deeply interesting subject, we commend the careful study of Cudworth's
"Intellectual System of the Universe," especially ch. iv. The style of
Cudworth is perplexingly involved, and his great work is unmethodical in
its arrangement and discussion. Nevertheless, the patient and
persevering student will be amply rewarded for his pains. A work of more
profound research into the doctrine of antiquity concerning God, and
into the real import of the religious systems of the ancient world, is,
probably, not extant in any language.]
There are two fundamental propositions laid down by Cudworth which
constitute the basis of this hypothesis.
1. _No well-authenticated instance can be furnished from among the Greek
Polytheists of one who taught the existence of a multiplicity of
independenty uncreated, self-existent deities; they almost universally_
_believed in the existence of_ ONE SUPREME, UNCREATED, ETERNAL GOD,
"_The Maker of all things_"--"_the Father of gods and men_,"--"_the
sole Monarch and Ruler of the world_."
2. _The Greek Polytheists taught a plurality of_"GENERATED DEITIES,"
_who owe their existence to the power and will of the Supreme God, who
are by Him invested with delegated powers, and who, as the agents of his
universal providence, preside over different departments of the created
universe_.
The evidence presented by Cudworth in support of his theses is so varied
and so voluminous, that it defies all attempts at condensation. His
volumes exhibit an extent of reading, of patient research, and of varied
learning, which is truly amazing. The discussion of these propositions
involves, in fact, nothing less than a complete and exhaustive survey of
the entire field of ancient literature, a careful study of the Greek and
Latin poets, of the Oriental, Greek, and Alexandrian philosophers, and a
review of the statements and criticisms of Rabbinical and Patristic
writers in regard to the religions of the pagan world. An adequate
conception of the varied and weighty evidence which is collected by our
author from these fields, in support of his views, could only be
conveyed by transcribing to our pages the larger portion of his
memorable _fourth_ chapter. But inasmuch as Grecian polytheism is, in
fact, the culmination of all the mythological systems of the ancient
world, the fully-developed flower and ripened fruit of the cosmical and
theological conceptions of the childhood-condition of humanity, we
propose to epitomize the results of his inquiry as to the _theological_,
opinions of the Greeks, supplying additional confirmation of his views
from other sources.
And first, he proves most conclusively that Orpheus, Homer, and
Hesiod,[160] who are usually designated "the theologians" of Greece, but
who were in fact the depravers and corrupters of pagan theology, do not
teach the existence of a multitude of _unmade, self-existent, and
independent deities_. Even they believed in the existence of _one_
uncreated and eternal mind, _one Supreme God_, anterior and superior to
all the gods of their mythology. They had some intuition, some
apperception of the _Divine_, even before they had attached to it a
sacred name. The gods of their mythology had all, save one, a temporal
origin; they were generated of Chaos and Night, by an active principle
called _Love_. "One might suspect," says Aristotle, that Hesiod, and if
there be any other who made _love_ or _desire_ a principle of things,
aimed at these very things (viz., the designation of the efficient cause
of the world); for Parmenides, describing the generation of the
universe, says:
'First of all the gods planned he _love_;'
and further, Hesiod:
'First of all was Chaos, afterwards Earth,
With her spacious bosom,
And _Love_, who is pre-eminent among all the immortals;'
as intimating here that in entities there should exist some _cause_ that
will impart motion, and hold bodies in union together. But how, in
regard to these, one ought to distribute them, as to the order of
priority, can be decided afterwards.[161]
[Footnote 160: We do not concern ourselves with the chronological
antecedence of these ancient Greek poets. It is of little consequence to
us whether Homer preceded Orpheus, or Orpheus Homer. They were not the
real creators of the mythology of ancient Greece. The myths were a
spontaneous growth of the earliest human thought even before the
separation of the Aryan family into its varied branches.
The study of Comparative Mythology, as well as of Comparative Language,
assures us that the myths had an origin much earlier than the times of
Homer and Orpheus. They floated down from ages on the tide of oral
tradition before they were systematized, embellished, and committed to
writing by Homer, and Orpheus, and Hesiod. And between the systems of
these three poets a perceptible difference is recognizable, which
reflects the changes that verbal recitations necessarily and
imperceptibly undergo.]
[Footnote 161: "Metaphysics," bk. i. ch. iv.]
Now whether this "first principle," called "_Love_," "the cause of
motion and of union" in the universe, was regarded as a personal Being,
and whether, as the ancient scholiast taught, Hesiod's love was "the
heavenly Love, which is also God, that other love that was born of Venus
being junior," is just now of no moment to the argument. The more
important inference is, that amongst the gods of Pagan theology but
_one_ is self-existent, or else none are. Because the Hesiodian gods,
which are, in fact, all the gods of the Greek mythology, "were either
all of them derived from chaos, love itself likewise being generated out
of it; or else love was supposed to be distinct from chaos, and the
active principle of the universe, from whence, together with chaos, all
the theogony and cosmogony was derived."[162] Hence it is evident the
poets did not teach the existence of a multiplicity of unmade,
self-existent, independent deities.
[Footnote 162: "Cudworth," vol. i. p. 287.]
The careful reader of Cudworth will also learn another truth of the
utmost importance in this connection, viz., _that the theogony of the
Greek poets was, in fact, a cosmogony_, the generation of the gods
being, in reality, the generation of the heavens, the sun, the moon, the
stars, and all the various powers and phenomena of nature. This is dimly
shadowed forth in the very names which are given to some of these
divinities. Thus Helios is the sun, Selena is the moon, Zeus the
sky--the deep blue heaven, Eos the dawn, and Ersê the dew. It is
rendered still more evident by the opening lines of Hesiod's
"Theogonia," in which he invokes the muses:
"Hail ye daughters of Jupiter! Grant a delightsome song.
Tell of the race of immortal gods, always existing,
Who are the offspring of the earth, of the starry sky,
And of the gloomy night, whom also the ocean nourisheth.
Tell how the gods and the earth at first were made,
And the rivers, and the mighty deep, boiling with waves,
And the glowing stars, and the broad heavens above,
And the gods, givers of good, born of these."
Where we see plainly that the generation of the gods is the generation
of the earth, the heaven, the stars, the seas, the rivers, and other
things produced by them. "But immediately after invocation of the Muses
the poet begins with Chaos, and Tartara, and Love, as the first
principles, and then proceeds to the production of the earth and of
night out of chaos; of the ether and of day, from night; of the starry
heavens, mountains, and seas. All which generation of gods is really
nothing but a poetic description of the cosmogonia; as through the
sequel of the poem all seems to be physiology veiled under fiction and
allegory.... Hesiod's gods are thus not only the animated parts of the
world, but also the other things of nature personified and deified, or
abusively called gods and goddesses."[163] The same is true both of the
Orphic and Homeric gods. "Their generation of the gods is the same with
the generation or creation of the world, both of them having, in all
probability, derived it from the Mosaic cabala, or tradition."[164]
But in spite of all this mythological obscuration, the belief in one
Supreme God is here and there most clearly recognizable. "That Zeus was
originally to the Greeks the Supreme God, the true God--nay, at some
time their only God--can be perceived in spite of the haze which
mythology has raised around his name."[165] True, they sometimes used
the word "Zeus" in a physical sense to denote the deep expanse of
heaven, and sometimes in a historic sense, to designate a hero or
deified man said to have been born in Crete. It is also true that the
Homeric Zeus is full of contradictions. He is "all-seeing," yet he is
cheated; he is "omnipotent," yet he is defied; he is "eternal," yet he
has a father; he is "just," yet he is guilty of crime. Now, as Müller
very justly remarks, these contradictions may teach us a lesson. If all
the conceptions of Zeus had sprung from one origin, these contradictions
could not have existed. If Zeus had simply and only meant the Supreme
God, he could not have been the son of Kronos (Time). If, on the other
hand, Zeus had been a mere mythological personage, as Eos, the dawn, and
Helios, the sun, he could never have been addressed as he is addressed
in the famous prayer of Achilles (Iliad, bk. xxi.).[166]
[Footnote 163: Cudworth, vol. i. pp. 321, 332.]
[Footnote 164: Id., ib., vol. i. p. 478.]
[Footnote 165: Max Müller, "Science of Language," p. 457.]
[Footnote 166: Id., ib., p. 458.]
In Homer there is a perpetual blending of the natural and the
supernatural, the human and divine. The _Iliad_ is an incongruous medley
of theology, physics, and history. In its gorgeous scenic
representations, nature, humanity, and deity are mingled in inextricable
confusion. The gods are sometimes supernatural and superhuman
personages; sometimes the things and powers of nature personified; and
sometimes they are deified men. And yet there are passages, even in
Homer, which clearly distinguish Zeus from all the other divinities, and
mark him out as the Supreme. He is "the highest, first of Gods" (bk.
xix. 284); "most great, most glorious Jove" (bk. ii. 474). He is "the
universal Lord" (bk. xi. 229); "of mortals and immortals king supreme,"
(bk. xii. 263); "over all the immortal gods he reigns in unapproached
pre-eminence of power" (bk. xv. 125). He is "the King of kings" (bk.
viii. 35), whose "will is sovereign" (bk. iv. 65), and his "power
invincible" (bk. viii. 35). He is the "eternal Father" (bk. viii. 77).
He "excels in wisdom gods and men; all human things from him proceed"
(bk. xiii. 708-10); "the Lord of counsel" (bk. i. 208), "the all-seeing
Jove" (bk. xiii. 824). Indeed the mere expression "Father of gods and
men" (bk. i. 639), so often applied to Zeus, and him _alone_, is proof
sufficient that, in spite of all the legendary stories of gods and
heroes, the idea of Zeus as the Supreme God, the maker of the world, the
Father of gods and men, the monarch and ruler of the world, was not
obliterated from the Greek mind.[167]
[Footnote 167: "In the order of legendary chronology Zeus comes after
Kronos and Uranos, but in the order of Grecian conception Zeus is the
prominent person, and Kronos and Uranos are inferior and introductory
precursors, set up in order to be overthrown, and to serve as mementos
of the powers of their conqueror. To Homer and Hesiod, as well as to the
Greeks universally, Zeus is the great, the predominant God, 'the Father
of gods and men,' whose power none of the gods can hope to resist, or
even deliberately think of questioning. All the other gods have their
specific potency, and peculiar sphere of action and duty, with which
Zeus does not usually interfere; but it is he who maintains the
lineaments of a providential government, as well over the phenomena of
Olympus as over the earth."--Grote, "Hist. of Greece," vol. i. p. 3.
Zeus is not only lord of heaven but likewise the ruler of the lower
world, and the master of the sea.--Welcher, "Griechische Götterlehre,"
vol. i. p. 164. The Zeus of the Greek poets is unquestionably the god of
whom Paul declared: In him we live and move, and have our being, as
certain of your own poets have also said--
"'For we are his offspring.'"
Now whether this be a quotation from Aratus or Cleanthes, the language
of the poets is, "We are the offspring of Zeus;" consequently the Zeus
of the poets and the God of Christianity are the same God.
"The father of gods and men in Homer is, of course, the Universal Father
of the Scriptures."--Tyler, "Theology of Greek Poets," p. 171.]
"When Homer introduces Eumaios, the swineherd, speaking of this life and
the higher powers that rule it, he knows only of just gods 'who hate
cruel deeds, but honor justice and the righteous works of men' (Od. xiv.
83). His whole life is built up on a complete trust in the divine
government of the world without any artificial helps, as the Erinys, the
Nemesis, or Moira. 'Eat,' says the swineherd, 'and enjoy what is here,
for _God_[168] will grant one thing, but another he will refuse,
whatever he will in his mind, for he can do all things' (Od. xiv. 444;
x. 306). This surely is religion, and it is religion untainted by
mythology. Again, the prayer of the female slave, grinding corn in the
house of Ulysses is religious in the truest sense--'Father Zeus, thou
who rulest over gods and men, surely thou hast just thundered in the
starry sky, and there is no cloud anywhere. Thou showest this as a sign
to some one. Fulfill now, even to me, miserable wretch, the prayer which
I now offer'" (Od. xx. 141-150).[169]
[Footnote 168: No sound reason can be assigned for translating _Theos_
by "_a_ god" as some have proposed, rather than "_God_." But even if it
were translated "a god," this god must certainly be understood as Zeus.
Plato tells us that Zeus is the most appropriate name for God. "For in
reality the name Zeus is, as it were, a sentence; and persons dividing
it in two parts, some of us make use of one part, and some of another;
for some call him Zên, and some Dis. But these parts, collected together
into one, exhibit the nature of the God;... for there is no one who is
more the cause of living, both to us and everything else, than he who is
the ruler and king of all. It follows, therefore, that this god is
rightly named, through whom _life_ is present in all living
beings."--Cratylus, § 28.
Theos was usually employed, says Cudworth, to designate _God_ by way of
pre-eminence, Theoi to designate inferior divinities.]
[Footnote 169: Müller, "Science of Language," p. 434.]
The Greek tragedians were the great religious instructors of the
Athenian people. "Greek tragedy grew up in connection with religious
worship, and constituted not only a popular but a sacred element in the
festivals of the gods.... In short, strange as it may sound to modern
ears, the Greek stage was, more nearly than any thing else, the Greek
pulpit.[170] With a priesthood that offered sacrifice, but did not
preach, with few books of any kind, the people were, in a great measure,
dependent on oral instruction for knowledge; and as they learned their
rights and duties as citizens from their orators, so they hung on the
lips of the 'lofty, grave tragedians' for instruction touching their
origin, duty, and destiny as mortal and immortal beings.... Greek
tragedy is essentially didactic, ethical, mythological, and
religious."[171]
[Footnote 170: Pulpitum, a stage.]
[Footnote 171: Tyler, "Theology of Greek Poets," pp. 205, 206.]
Now it is unquestionable that, with the tragedians, Zeus is the Supreme
God. Æschylus is pre-eminently the theological poet of Greece. The great
problems which lie at the foundation of religious faith and practice are
the main staple of nearly all his tragedies. Homer, Hesiod, the sacred
poets, had looked at these questions in their purely poetic aspects. The
subsequent philosophers, Plato and Aristotle, developed them more fully
by their didactic method. Æschylus stands on the dividing-line between
them, no less poetic than the former, scarcely less philosophical than
the latter, but more intensely practical, personal, and _theological_
than either. The character of the Supreme Divinity, as represented in
his tragedies, approaches more nearly to the Christian idea of God. He
is the Universal Father--Father of gods and men; the Universal Cause
(panaitios, Agamem. 1485); the All-seer and All-doer (pantopiês,
panergetês, ibid, and Sup. 139); the All-wise and All-controlling
(pankratês, Sup. 813); the Just and the Executor of justice (dikêphoros,
Agamem. 525); true and incapable of falsehood (Prom. 1031);
pseudêgorein gar ouk epistatai stoma
to dion, alla pan epos telei,--
holy (agnos, Sup. 650); merciful (preumenês, ibid. 139); the God
especially of the suppliant and the stranger (Supplices, passim); the
most high and perfect One (teleion upsiston, Eumen. 28); King of kings,
of the happy, most happy, of the perfect, most perfect power, blessed
Zeus (Sup. 522).[172] Such are some of the titles by which Zeus is most
frequently addressed; such the attributes commonly ascribed to him in
Æschylus.
Sophocles was the great master who carried Greek tragedy to its highest
perfection. Only seven out of more than a hundred of his tragedies have
come down to us. There are passages cited by Justin Martyr, Clemens
Alexandrinus, and others which are not found in those tragedies now
extant. The most famous and extensively quoted passage is given by
Cudworth.[173]
Eis tais alêtheiaisin, eis estin Theos,
Os ouranon t' eteuxe kai gaian makran,
Poniou te karapon oidma, kanêmôn bian, k. t. l.[174]
This "one only God" is Zeus, who is the God of justice, and reigns
supreme:
"Still in yon starry heaven supreme,
Jove, all-beholding, all-directing, dwells--
To him commit thy vengeance."--"Electra," p. 174 sqq.
This description of the unsleeping, undecaying power and dominion of
Zeus is worthy of some Hebrew prophet--
"Spurning the power of age, enthroned in might,
Thou dwell'st mid heaven's broad light;
This was in ages past thy firm decree,
Is now, and shall forever be:
That none of mortal race on earth shall know
A life of joy serene, a course unmarked by woe."
"Antigone," pp. 606-614.[175]
[Footnote 172: Tyler, "Theology of Greek Poets," pp. 213, 214.]
[Footnote 173: "Intellectual Syst.," vol. i. p. 483.]
[Footnote 174: "There is, in truth, one only God, who made heaven and
earth, the sea, air, and winds," etc.]
[Footnote 175: "Theology of Greek Poets," p. 322.]
Whether we regard the poets as the principal theological teachers of the
ancient Greeks, or as the compilers, systematizers, and artistic
embellishers of the theological traditions and myths which were afloat
in the primitive Hellenic families, we can not resist the conclusion
that, for the masses of the people Zeus was the Supreme God, "the God of
gods" as Plato calls him. Whilst all other deities in Greece are more or
less local and tribal gods, Zeus was known in every village and to every
clan. "He is at home on Ida,[176] on Olympus, at Dodona.[177] While
Poseidon drew to himself the Æolian family, Apollo the Dorian, Athene
the Ionian, there was one powerful God for all the sons of
Hellen--Dorians, Æolians, Ionians, Achæans, viz., the Panhellenic
Zeus."[178] Zeus was the name invoked in their solemn nuncupations of
vows--
"O Zeus, father, O Zeus, king."
In moments of deepest sorrow, of immediate urgency and need, of greatest
stress and danger, they had recourse to Zeus.
"Courage, courage, my child!
There is still in heaven the great Zeus;
He watches over all things, and he rules.
Commit thy exceeding bitter griefs to him,
And be not angry against thine enemies,
Nor forget them."[179]
[Footnote 176: "Iliad," bk. iii. 324.]
[Footnote 177: Bk. xvi. 268.]
[Footnote 178: Müller, p. 452.]
[Footnote 179: Sophocles, "Electra," v. 188.]
He was supplicated, as the God who reigns on high, in the prayer of the
Athenian--
"Rain, rain, O dear Zeus, on the land of the Athenians and on their
fields."
It has been urged that, as Zeus means the sky, therefore he is no more
than the deep concave of heaven personified and deified, and that
consequently Zeus is not the true, the only God. This argument is only
equalled in feebleness by that of the materialist, who argues that
"spiritus" means simply breath, therefore the breath is the soul. Even
if the Greeks remembered that, originally, Zeus meant the sky, that
would have no more perplexed their minds than the remembrance that
"thymos"--mind--meant originally blast. "The fathers of Greek theology
gave to that Supreme Intelligence, which they instinctively recognized
as above and ruling over the universe, the name of Zeus; but in doing
so, they knew well that by Zeus they meant more than the sky. The
unfathomable depth, the everlasting calm of the ethereal sky was to
their minds an image of that Infinite Presence which overshadows all,
and looks down on all. As the question perpetually recurred to their
minds, 'Where is he who abideth forever?' they lifted up their eyes, and
saw, as they thought, beyond sun, and moon, and stars, and all which
changes, and will change, the clear blue sky, the boundless firmament of
heaven. That never changed, that was always the same. The clouds and
storms rolled far below it, and all the bustle of this noisy world; but
there the sky was still, as bright and calm as ever. The Almighty Father
must be there, unchangeable in the unchangeable heaven; bright, and
pure, and boundless like the heavens, and like the heavens, too, afar
off."[180] So they named him after the sky, _Zeus_, the God who lives in
the clear heaven--the heavenly Father.
[Footnote 180: Kingsley, "Good News from God," p. 237, Am. ed.]
The high and brilliant sky has, in many languages and many religions,
been regarded as the dwelling-place of God. Indeed, to all of us in
Christian times "God is above;" he is "the God of heaven;" "his throne
is in the heavens;" "he reigns on high." Now, without doing any violence
to thought, the name of the abode might be transferred to him who dwells
in heaven. So that in our own language "heaven" may still be used as a
synonym for "God." The prodigal son is still represented as saying, I
have sinned against "_heaven_." And a Christian poet has taught us to
sing--
"High _heaven_, that heard my solemn vow,
That vow renewed shall daily hear," etc.
Whenever, therefore, we find the name of heaven thus used to designate
also the Deity, we must bear in mind that those by whom it was
originally employed were simply transferring that name from an object
visible to the eye of sense to another object perceived by the eye of
reason. They who at first called God "_Heaven_" had some conception
within them they wished to name--the growing image of a God, and they
fixed upon the vastest, grandest, purest object in nature, the deep blue
concave of heaven, overshadowing all, and embracing all, as the symbol
of the Deity. Those who at a later period called heaven "_God_" had
forgotten that they were predicating of heaven something more which was
vastly higher than the heaven.[181]
[Footnote 181: See "Science of Language," p. 457.]
Notwithstanding, then, that the instinctive, native faith of humanity in
the existence of one supreme God was overlaid and almost buried beneath
the rank and luxuriant vegetation of Grecian mythology, we can still
catch glimpses here and there of the solid trunk of native faith, around
which this parasitic growth of fancy is entwined. Above all the
phantasmata of gods and goddesses who descended to the plains of Troy,
and mingled in the din and strife of battle, we can recognize an
overshadowing, all-embracing Power and Providence that dwells on high,
which never descends into the battle-field, and is never seen by mortal
eyes--_the Universal King and Father,--the "God of gods_."
Besides the direct evidence, which is furnished by the poets and
mythologists, of the presence of this universal faith in "_the heavenly
Father_," there is also a large amount of collateral testimony that this
idea of one Supreme God was generally entertained by the Greek pagans,
whether learned or unlearned.[182] Dio Chrysostomus says that "all the
poets call the first and greatest God the Father, universally, of all
rational kind, as also the King thereof. Agreeably with which doctrine
of the poets do mankind erect altars to Jupiter-King (Dios Basileôs) and
hesitate not to call him Father in their devotions" (Orat. xxxvi.). And
Maximus Tyrius declares that both the learned and the unlearned
throughout the pagan world universally agree in this; that there is one
Supreme God, the Father of gods and men. "If," says he, "there were a
meeting called of all the several trades and professions,... and all
were required to declare their sense concerning God, do you think that
the painter would say one thing, the sculptor another, the poet another,
and the philosopher another? No; nor the Scythian neither, nor the
Greek, nor the hyperborean. In regard to other things, we find men
speaking discordantly one to another, all men, as it were, differing
from all men... Nevertheless, on this subject, you may find universally
throughout the world one agreeing law and opinion; _that there is one
God, the King and Father of all, and many gods, the sons of God,
co-reigners together with God_"(Diss. i. p. 450).
[Footnote 182: Cudworth, vol. i. pp. 593, 594.]
From the poets we now pass to the philosophers. The former we have
regarded as reflecting the traditional beliefs of the unreasoning
multitude. The philosophers unquestionably represent the reflective
spirit, the speculative thought, of the educated classes of Greek
society. Turning to the writings of the philosophers, we may therefore
reasonably expect that, instead of the dim, undefined, and nebulous form
in which the religious sentiment revealed itself amongst the
unreflecting portions of the Greek populations, we shall find their
theological ideas distinctly and articulately expressed, and that we
shall consequently be able to determine their religious opinions with
considerable accuracy.
Now that Thales, Pythagoras, Xenophanes, Anaxagoras, Empedocles,
Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle were all believers in the existence of
one supreme, uncreated, eternal God, has been, we think, clearly shown
by Cudworth.[183]
[Footnote 183: Vol. i. pp. 491-554.]
In subsequent chapters on "_the Philosophers of Athens_," we shall enter
more fully into the discussion of this question. Meantime we assume
that, with few exceptions, the Greek philosophers were "genuine
Theists."
The point, however, with which we are now concerned is, _that whilst
they believed in one supreme, uncreated, eternal God, they at the same
time recognized the existence of a plurality of generated deities who
owe their existence to the power and will of the Supreme God, and who,
as the agents and ministers of His universal providence, preside over
different departments of the created universe_. They are at once
Monotheists and Polytheists--believers in "one God" and "many gods."
This is a peculiarity, an anomaly which challenges our attention, and
demands an explanation, if we would vindicate for these philosophers a
rational Theism.
Now that there can be but one infinite and absolutely perfect Being--one
supreme, uncreated, eternal God--is self-evident; therefore a
multiplicity of such gods is a contradiction and an impossibility. The
early philosophers knew this as well as the modern. The Deity, in order
to be Deity, must be one and not many: must be perfect or nothing. If,
therefore, we would do justice to these old Greeks, we must inquire what
explanations they have offered in regard to "the many gods" of which
they speak. We must ascertain whether they regarded these "gods" as
created or uncreated beings, dependent or independent, temporal or
eternal We must inquire in what sense the term "god" is applied to these
lesser divinities,--whether it is not applied in an accommodated and
therefore allowable sense, as in the sacred Scriptures it is applied to
kings and magistrates, and those who are appointed by God as the
teachers and rulers of men. "_They are called gods_ to whom the word of
God came."[184] And if it shall be found that all the gods of which they
speak, save _one_, are "generated deities"--dependent beings--creatures
and subjects of the one eternal King and Father, and that the name of
"god" is applied to them in an accommodated sense, then we have
vindicated for the old Greek philosophers a consistent and rational
Theism. In what relation, then, do the philosophers place "_the gods_"
to the one Supreme Being?
_Thales_, one of the most ancient of the Greek philosophers, taught the
existence of a plurality of gods, as is evident from that saying of his,
preserved by Diogenes Laertius, "The world has life, and is full of
gods."[185] At the same time he asserts his belief in one supreme,
uncreated Deity; "God is the oldest of all things, because he is unmade,
or ungenerated."[186] All the other gods must therefore have been
"generated deities," since there is but one unmade God, one only that
had "no beginning."[187]
[Footnote 184: See John x. 35.]
[Footnote 185: "Lives," bk. i.; see also Aristotle's "De Anima," bk. i.
ch. viii. panta Thiôn plêrê.]
[Footnote 186: "Lives," bk. i.]
[Footnote 187: "Lives," bk. i.]
_Xenophanes_ was also an assertor of many gods, and one God; but his one
God is unquestionably supreme. "There is one God, the greatest amongst
gods and men;" or, "God is one, the greatest amongst gods and men."[188]
_Empedocles_ also believed in one Supreme God, who "is wholly and
perfectly mind, ineffable, holy, with rapid and swift-glancing thought
pervading the whole world," and from whom all things else are
derived,--"all things that are upon the earth, and in the air and water,
may be truly called the works of God, who ruleth over the world, out of
whom, according to Empedocles, proceed all things, plants, men, beasts,
and _gods_."[189] The minor deities are therefore _made_ by God. It will
not be denied that _Socrates_ was a devout and earnest Theist. He taught
that "there is a Being whose eye pierces throughout all nature, and
whose ear is open to every sound; extending through all time, extended
to all places; and whose bounty and care can know no other bounds than
those fixed by his own creation."[190] And yet he also recognized the
existence of a plurality of gods, and in his last moments expressed his
belief that "it is lawful and right to pray to the gods that his
departure hence may be happy."[191] We see, however, in his words
addressed to Euthydemus, a marked distinction between these subordinate
deities and "Him who raised this whole universe, and still upholds the
mighty frame, who perfected every part of it in beauty and in goodness,
suffering none of these parts to decay through age, but renewing them
daily with unfading vigor;... even he, _the Supreme God_, still holds
himself invisible, and it is only in his works that we are capable of
admiring him."[192]
[Footnote 188: Clem. Alex., "Stromat." bk. v.]
[Footnote 189: Aristotle, "De Mundo," ch. vi.]
[Footnote 190: Xenophon's "Memorabilia," i. 4.]
[Footnote 191: "Phædo," § 152.]
[Footnote 192: "Memorabilia," iv. 3.]
It were needless to attempt the proof that _Plato_ believed in one
Supreme God, and _only_ one. This one Being is, with him, "the first
God;" "the greatest of the gods;" "the God over all;" "the sole
Principle of the universe." He is "the Immutable;" "the All-perfect;"
"the eternal Being." He is "the Architect of the world; "the Maker of
the universe; the Father of gods and men; the sovereign Mind which
orders all things, and passes through all things; the sole Monarch and
Ruler of the world.[193]
And yet remarkable as these expressions are, sounding, as they do, so
like the language of inspiration,[194] there can be no doubt that Plato
was also a sincere believer in a plurality of gods, of which, indeed,
any one may assure himself by reading the _tenth_ book of "the Laws."
[Footnote 193: See chap. xi.]
[Footnote 194: Some writers have supposed that Plato must have had
access through some medium to "the Oracles of God." See Butler, vol. ii.
p. 41.]
And, now that we have in Plato the culmination of Grecian speculative
thought, we may learn from him the mature and final judgment of the
ancients in regard to the gods of pagan mythology. We open the _Timæus_,
and here we find his views most definitely expressed. After giving an
account of the "generation" of the sun, and moon, and planets, which are
by him designated as "visible gods," he then proceeds "to speak
concerning the other divinities:" "We must on this subject assent to
those who in former times have spoken thereon; who were, as they said,
the offspring of the gods, and who doubtless were well acquainted with
their own ancestors..... Let then the genealogy of the gods be, and be
acknowledged to be, that which they deliver. Of Earth and Heaven the
children were Oceanus and Tethys; and of these the children were
Phorcys, and Kronos, and Rhea, and all that followed these; and from
these were born Zeus and Hera, and those who are regarded as brothers
and sisters of these, and others their offspring.
"When, then, _all the gods were brought into existence_, both those
which move around in manifest courses [the stars and planets], and those
which appear when it pleases them [the mythological deities], the
Creator of the Universe thus addressed them: 'Gods, and sons of gods, of
whom I am the father and the author, produced by me, ye are
indestructible because I will.... Now inasmuch as you have been
_generated_, you are hence _not_ immortal, nor wholly indissoluble; yet
you shall never be dissolved nor become subject to the fatality of
death, because _so I have willed_.... Learn, therefore, my commands.
Three races of mortals yet remain to be created. Unless these be
created, the universe will be imperfect, for it will not contain within
it every kind of animal.... In order that these mortal creatures may be,
and that this world may be really a cosmos, do you apply yourselves to
the creation of animals, imitating the exercises of my power in
_creating_ you.'"[195]
[Footnote 195: "Timæus," ch. xv.]
Here, then, we see that Plato carefully distinguishes between the sole
Eternal Author of the universe, on one hand, and the "souls," vital and
intelligent, which he attaches to the heavenly orbs, and diffuses
through all nature, on the other. These subordinate powers or agents are
all created, "_generated_ deities," who owe their continued existence to
the _will_ of God; and though intrusted with a sort of deputed creation,
and a subsequent direction and government of created things, they are
still only the _servants_ and the _deputies_ of the Supreme Creator, and
Director, and Ruler of all things. These subordinate agents and
ministers employed in the creation and providential government of the
world appear, in the estimation of Plato, to have been needed--
1. _To satisfy the demands of the popular faith_, which presented its
facts to be explained no less than those of external nature. Plato had
evidently a great veneration for antiquity, a peculiar regard for
"tradition venerable through ancient report," and "doctrines hoary with
years."[196] He aspired after supernatural light and guidance; he longed
for some intercourse with, some communication from, the Deity. And
whilst he found many things in the ancient legends which revolted his
moral sense, and which his reason rejected, yet the sentiment and the
lesson which pervades the whole of Grecian mythology, viz., that the
gods are in ceaseless intercourse with the human race, and if men will
do right the gods will protect and help them, was one which commended
itself to his heart.
[Footnote 196: Ibid., ch. v.]
2. These intermediate agents seem to have been demanded to _satisfy the
disposition and tendency which has revealed itself in all systems, of
interposing some scale of ascent between the material creation and the
infinite Creator_.
The mechanical theory of the universe has interposed its long series of
secondary causes--the qualities, properties, laws, forces of nature; the
vital theory which attaches a separate "soul" to the various parts of
nature as the cause and intelligent director of its movements. Of these
"souls" or gods, there were different orders and degrees--deified men or
heroes, aërial, terrestrial, and celestial divinities, ascending from
nature up to God. And this tendency to supply some scale of ascent
towards the Deity, or at least to people the vast territory which seems
to swell between the world and God, finds some countenance in "the
angels and archangels," "the thrones, and dominions, and principalities,
and powers" of the Christian scriptures.[197]
3. These inferior ministers also seemed to Plato to _increase the
stately grandeur and imperial majesty of the Divine government._ They
swell the retinue of the Deity in his grand "circuit through the highest
arch of heaven."[198] They wait to execute the Divine commands. They are
the agents of Divine providence, "the messengers of God" to men.
[Footnote 197: "The gods of the Platonic system answer, in office and
conception, to the angels of Christian Theology."--Butler, vol. i. p.
225.]
[Footnote 198: "Phædrus," § 56,7.]
4. And, finally, the host of inferior deities interposed between the
material sensible world and God seemed to Plato as _needful in order to
explain the apparent defects and disorders of sublunary affairs_. Plato
was jealous of the Divine honor. "All good must be ascribed to God, and
nothing but good. We must find evil, disorder, suffering, in some other
cause."[199] He therefore commits to the junior deities the task of
creating animals, and of forming "the mortal part of man," because the
mortal part is "possessed of certain dire and necessary passions."[200]
[Footnote 199: "Republic," bk. ii. p.18.]
[Footnote 200: "Timæus," xliv.]
Aristotle seems to have regarded the popular polytheism of Greece as a
perverted relic of a deeper and purer "Theology" which he conceives to
have been, in all probability, perfected in the distant past, and then
comparatively lost. He says--"The tradition has come down from very
ancient times, being left in a mythical garb to succeeding generations,
that these (the heavenly bodies) are gods, and that the Divinity
_encompasses the whole of nature_. There have been made, however, to
these certain fabulous additions for the purpose of winning the belief
of the multitude, and thus securing their obedience to the laws, and
their co-operation towards advancing the general welfare of the state.
These additions have been to the effect that these gods were of the same
form as men, and even that some of them were in appearance similar to
certain others amongst the rest of the animal creation. The wise course,
however, would be for the philosopher to disengage from these traditions
the false element, and to embrace that which is true; and the truth lies
in that portion of this ancient doctrine which regards the first and
deepest ground of all existence to be the _Divine_, and this he may
regard as a divine utterance. In all probability, every art, and
science, and philosophy has been over and over again discovered to the
farthest extent possible, and then again lost; and we may conceive these
opinions to have been preserved to us as a sort of fragment of these
lost philosophers. We see, then, to some extent the relation of the
popular belief to these ancient opinions."[201] This conception of a
deep Divine ground of all existence (for the immateriality and unity of
which he elsewhere earnestly contends)[202] is thus regarded by
Aristotle as underlying the popular polytheism of Greece.
[Footnote 201: "Metaph.," xi. 8.]
[Footnote 202: Bk. xi. ch. ii. § 4.]
The views of the educated and philosophic mind of Greece in regard to
the mythological deities may, in conclusion, be thus briefly stated--
I. _They are all created beings_--"GENERATED DEITIES," _who are
dependent on, and subject to, the will of one supreme God_.
II. _They are the_ AGENTS _employed by God in the creation of, at least
some parts of, the universe, and in the movement and direction of the
entire cosmos; and they are also the_ MINISTERS _and_ MESSENGERS _of
that universal providence which he exercises over the human race_.
These subordinate deities are, 1. the greater parts of the visible
mundane system animated by intelligent souls, and called "_sensible
gods_"--the sun, the moon, the stars, and even the earth itself, and
known by the names Helios, Selena, Kronos, Hermes, etc.
2. Some are _invisible powers_, having peculiar offices and functions
and presiding over special places provinces and departments of the
universe;--one ruling in the heavens (Zeus), another in the air (Juno),
another in the sea (Neptune), another in the subterranean regions
(Pluto); one god presiding over learning and wisdom (Minerva), another
over poetry, music, and religion (Apollo), another over justice and
political order (Themis), another over war (Mars), another over corn
(Ceres), and another the vine (Bacchus).
3. Others, again, are _ethereal_ and _aërial_ beings, who have the
guardianship of individual persons and things, and are called _demons,
genii_, and _lares_; superior indeed to men, but inferior to the gods
above named.
"Wherefore, since there were no other gods among the Pagans besides
those above enumerated, unless their images, statues, and symbols should
be accounted such (because they were also sometimes abusively called
'gods'), which could not be supposed by them to have been unmade or
without beginning, they being the workmanship of their own hands, we
conclude, universally, that all that multiplicity of Pagan gods which
make so great a show and noise was really either nothing but several
names and notions of one supreme Deity, according to his different
manifestations, gifts, and effects upon the world personated, or else
many inferior understanding beings, generated or created by one supreme:
so that one unmade, self-existent Deity, and no more, was acknowledged
by the more intelligent Pagans, and, consequently, the Pagan Polytheism
(or idolatry) consisted not in worshipping a multiplicity of unmade
minds, deities, and creators, self-existent from eternity, and
independent upon one Supreme, but in mingling and blending some way or
other, unduly, creature-worship with the worship of the Creator."[203]
[Footnote 203: Cudworth, "Intellectual System," vol. i. p. 311.]
That the heathen regard the one Supreme Being as the first and chief
object of worship is evident from the apologies which they offered for
worshipping, besides Him, many inferior divinities.
1. They claimed to worship them _only_ as inferior beings, and that
therefore they were not guilty of giving them that honor which belonged
to the Supreme. They claimed to worship the supreme God incomparably
above all. 2. That this honor which is bestowed upon the inferior
divinities does ultimately redound to the supreme God, and aggrandize
his state and majesty, they being all his ministers and attendants. 3.
That as demons are mediators between the celestial gods and men, so
those celestial gods are also mediators between men and the supreme God,
and, as it were, convenient steps by which we ought with reverence to
approach him. 4. That demons or angels being appointed to preside over
kingdoms, cities, and persons, and being many ways benefactors to us,
thanks ought to be returned to them by sacrifice. 5. Lastly, that it can
not be thought that the Supreme Being will envy those inferior beings
that worship or honor which is bestowed upon them; nor suspect that any
of these inferior deities will factiously go about to set up themselves
against the Supreme God.
The Pagans, furthermore, apologized for worshipping God in images,
statues, and symbols, on the ground that these were only schetically
worshipped by them, the honor passing from them to the prototype. And
since we live in bodies, and can scarcely, conceive of any thing without
having some image or phantasm, we may therefore be indulged in this
infirmity of human nature (at least in the vulgar) to worship God under
a corporeal image, as a means of preventing men from falling into
Atheism.
To the Christian conscience the above reasons assigned furnish no real
justification of Polytheism and Idolatry; but they are certainly a tacit
confession of their belief in the one Supreme God, and their conviction
that, notwithstanding their idolatry, He only ought to be worshipped.
The heathen polytheists are therefore justly condemned in Scripture, and
pronounced to be "_inexcusable_." They had the knowledge of the true
God--" they _knew God_" and yet "they glorified him not as God." "They
changed the glory of the incorruptible God into a likeness of
corruptible man." And, finally, they ended in "worshipping and serving
the creature _more_ than the Creator."[204]
[Footnote 204: Romans i. 21, 25.]
It can not, then, with justice be denied that the Athenians had some
knowledge of the true God, and some just and worthy conceptions of his
character. It is equally certain that a powerful and influential
religious sentiment pervaded the Athenian mind. Their extreme
"carefulness in religion" must be conceded by us, and, in some sense,
commended by us, as it was by Paul in his address on Mars' Hill. At the
same time it must also be admitted and deplored that the purer theology
of primitive times was corrupted by offensive legends, and encrusted by
polluting myths, though not utterly defaced.[205] The Homeric gods were
for the most part idealized, human personalities, with all the passions
and weaknesses of humanity. They had their favorites and their enemies;
sometimes they fought in one camp, sometimes in another. They were
susceptible of hatred, jealousy, sensual passion. It would be strange
indeed if their worshippers were not like unto them. The conduct of the
Homeric heroes was, however, better than their creed. And there is this
strange incongruity and inconsistency in the conduct of the Homeric
gods,--they punish mortals for crimes of which they themselves are
guilty, and reward virtues in men which they do not themselves always
practise. "They punish with especial severity social and political
crimes, such as perjury (Iliad, iii. 279), oppression of the poor (Od.
xvii. 475), and unjust judgment in courts of justice (Iliad, xvi. 386)."
Jupiter is the god of justice, and of the domestic hearth; he is the
protector of the exile, the avenger of the poor, and the vigilant
guardian of hospitality. "And with all the imperfections of society,
government, and religion, the poem presents a remarkable picture of
primitive simplicity, chastity, justice, and practical piety, under the
three-fold influence of moral feeling, mutual respect, and fear of the
divine displeasure; such, at least, are the motives to which Telemachus
makes his appeal when he endeavors to rouse the assembled people of
Ithaca to the performance of their duty (Od. ii. 64)."[206]
[Footnote 205: "There was always a double current of religious ideas in
Greece; one spiritualist, the other tainted with impure
legends."--Pressensé.]
[Footnote 206: Tyler, "Theology of Greek Poets," pp. 167, 168;
Pressensé, "Religion before Christ," p. 77.]
The influence of the religious dramas of Æschylus and Sophocles on the
Athenian mind must not be overlooked. No writer of pagan antiquity made
the voice of conscience speak with the same power and authority that
Æschylus did. "Crime," he says, "never dies without posterity." "Blood
that has been shed congeals on the ground, crying out for an avenger."
The old poet made himself the echo of what he called "the lyreless hymn
of the Furies," who, with him, represented severe Justice striking the
guilty when his hour comes, and giving warning beforehand by the terrors
which haunt him. His dramas are characterized by deep religious feeling.
Reverence for the gods, the recognition of an inflexible moral order,
resignation to the decisions of Heaven, an abiding presentiment of a
future state of reward and punishment, are strikingly predominant.
Whilst Æschylus reveals to us the sombre, terror-stricken side of
conscience, Sophocles shows us the divine and luminous side. No one has
ever spoken with nobler eloquence than he of moral obligation--of this
immortal, inflexible law, in which dwells a God that never grows old--
"Oh be the lot forever mine
Unsullied to maintain,
In act and word, with awe divine,
What potent laws ordain.
"Laws spring from purer realms above:
Their father is the Olympian Jove.
Ne'er shall oblivion veil their front sublime,
Th' indwelling god is great, nor fears the wastes of time."[207]
The religious inspiration that animates Sophocles breaks out with
incomparable beauty in the last words of oedipus, when the old banished
king sees through the darkness of death a mysterious light dawn, which
illumines his blind eyes, and which brings to him the assurance of a
blessed immortality.[208]
[Footnote 207: "oedipus Tyran.," pp. 863-872.]
[Footnote 208: Pressensé, "Religion before Christ," pp. 85-87.]
Such a theology could not have been utterly powerless. The influence of
truth, in every measure and degree, must be salutary, and especially of
truth in relation to God, to duty, and to immortality. The religion of
the Athenians must have had some wholesome and conserving influence of
the social and political life of Athens.[209] Those who resign the
government of this lower world almost exclusively to Satan, may see, in
the religion of the Greeks, a simple creation of Satanic powers. But he
who believes that the entire progress of humanity has been under the
control and direction of a benignant Providence, must suppose that, in
the purposes of God, even Ethnicism has fulfilled some end, or it would
not have been permitted to live. God has "_never left himself without a
witness_" in any nation under heaven. And some preparatory office has
been fulfilled by Heathenism which, at least, repealed the _want_, and
prepared the mind for, the advent of Christianity.
[Footnote 209: The practice, so common with some theological writers, of
drawing dark pictures of heathenism, in which not one luminous spot is
visible, in order to exalt the revelations given to the Jews, is
exceedingly unfortunate, and highly reprehensible. It is unfortunate,
because the skeptical scholar knows that there were some elements of
truth and excellence, and even of grandeur, in the religion and
civilization of the republics of Greece and Rome; and it is
reprehensible, because it is a one-sided and unjust procedure, in so far
as it withholds part of the truth. This species of argument is a
two-edged sword which cuts both ways. The prevalence of murder, and
slavery, and treachery, and polygamy, in Greece and Rome, is no more a
proof that "the religions of the pagan nations were destructive of
morality" (Watson, vol. i. p. 59), than the polygamy of the Hebrews, the
falsehoods and impositions of Mediaeval Christianity, the persecutions
and martyrdoms of Catholic Christianity, the oppressions and wrongs of
Christian England, and the slavery of Protestant America, are proofs
that the Christian religion is "destructive of morality." What a fearful
picture of the history of Christian nations might be drawn to-day, if
all the lines of light, and goodness, and charity were left out, and the
crimes, and wrongs, and cruelties of the Christian nations were alone
exhibited!
How much more convincing a proof of the truth of Christianity to find in
the religions of the ancient world a latent sympathy with, and an
unconscious preparation for, the religion of Christ. "The history of
religions of human origin is the most striking evidence of the agreement
of revealed religion with the soul of man--for each of these forms of
worship is the expression of the wants of conscience, its eternal thirst
for pardon and restoration--rather let us say, its thirst for
God."--Pressensé, p. 6.]
The religion of the Athenians was unable to deliver them from the guilt
of sin, redeem them from its power, and make them pure and holy. It gave
the Athenian no victory over himself, and, practically, brought him no
nearer to the living God. But it awakened and educated the conscience,
it developed more fully the sense of sin and guilt, and it made man
conscious of his inability to save himself from sin and guilt; and "the
day that humanity awakens to the want of something more than mere
embellishment and culture, that day it feels the need of being saved and
restored from the consequences of sin" by a higher power. Æsthetic taste
had found its fullest gratification in Athens; poetry, sculpture,
architecture, had been carried to the highest perfection; a noble
civilization had been reached; but "the need of something deeper and
truer was written on the very stones." The highest consummation of
Paganism was an altar to "the unknown God," the knowledge of whom it
needed, as the source of purity and peace.
The strength and the weakness of Grecian mythology consisted in the
contradictory character of its divinities. It was a strange blending of
the natural and the supernatural, the human and the divine. Zeus, the
eternal Father,--the immortal King, whose will is sovereign, and whose
power is invincible,--the All-seeing Jove, has some of the weaknesses
and passions of humanity. God and man are thus, in some mysterious way,
united. And here that deepest longing of the human heart is met--the
unconquerable desire to bring God nearer to the human apprehension, and
closer to the human heart. Hence the hold which Polytheism had upon the
Grecian mind. But in this human aspect was also found its weakness, for
when philosophic thought is brought into contact with, and permitted
critically to test mythology, it dethrones the false gods. The age of
spontaneous religious sentiment must necessarily be succeeded by the age
of reflective thought. Popular theological faiths must be placed in the
hot crucible of dialectic analysis, that the false and the frivolous may
be separated from the pure and the true. The reason of man demands to be
satisfied, as well as the heart. Faith in God must have a logical basis,
it must be grounded on demonstration and proof. Or, at any rate, the
question must be answered, _whether God is cognizable by human reason_?
If this can be achieved, then a deeper foundation is laid in the mind of
humanity, upon which Christianity can rear its higher and nobler truths.