they are excluded. If, as is perhaps the case, Aidoneus and Persephone
are not there, it is because of the separateness of their work, and the
remoteness of their kingdom. They had servants, guards, and a judge, in
short, a sort of polity of their own. Atlas, Proteus, Calypso, Circe,
and the other purely local deities, so far as we know, are not there;
probably because they do not enter into the national religion, but
are little more than convenient symbols[515] of geographical points
known or conceived through maritime, that is, without doubt, through
Phœnician report. Again, we do not hear in Olympus of Destiny, Sleep,
Night, Dream, Terror, Panic, Uproar, and the rest; probably because
these had not attained to practical impersonation in the religion
of the people, but were merely objects of the poetical faculty. So
likewise with respect to the Winds, who stand as receivers of worship
and sacrifice in Il. xxiii. 195. The different treatment which they
receive in the Iliad and Odyssey, like their non-appearance in the
Great Chapter[516] of Olympus, unless referable to the peculiarities
of the Outer Geography, shows that they had not a developed and
established godhead, but might be dealt with by the Poet at his will.
In these imperfect impersonations, it has been well observed, sometimes
the mere elemental power, sometimes the superinduced personality
prevails. Again, Ἄτη the temptress, and Ἐρινύες the avengers, might
stand excluded, both on the same ground of inadequate impersonation,
and on other grounds. Nereus and the purely elemental deities of the
sea are not summoned to the Assembly, apparently because he too had
his own submarine palace. It answered to Olympus; and here he sat in
state amidst his numerous Court of Nymphs. Even Thetis was fetched from
thence to attend the last Assembly of the gods in the Twenty-Fourth
Iliad. Κρόνος and Ῥέα are not in the divine meetings, firstly, because
he, probably with her as his reflected image, is penally confined in
Tartarus; but secondly, because, the first representing Time, and
the second Matter, they are the primary ideas in the metaphysical
order, which comprehended all others, and from which all others were
derivative. And as they stood in the metaphysical _nexus_ of ideas, so
stood Oceanus and his feminine, Tethys, in the terrestrial order; where
Oceanus was the all-inclosing, all-containing; the Form, within which
every terrestrial existence was cast, and beyond which even Thought
could not pass. Hence the curious and marked exception of him from the
summons of Themis to the Great Assembly of the Twentieth Book[517].
[515] Nägelsbach, ii. 9.
[516] Il. xx. 4-9.
[517] Il. xx. 7.
οὔτε τις οὖν Ποταμῶν ἀπέην, νόσφ’ Ὠκεανοῖο,
οὔτ’ ἄρα Νυμφάων.
He is the father of the rivers, and the feeder of the Sea. Even of
the gods he is the ‘Genesis,’ perhaps as their physical source, or
as affording material for their formation; perhaps as the outer band
of that world to which they belong, as much as we do, and outside of
which there was no attempt to conceive them as existing. Lastly, it is
perhaps because Homer meant to assign to Oceanus and Tethys the actual
first parentage of the gods. This supposition is favoured by the fact
that Juno applies the name μήτηρ[518] to Tethys, in a connection which
may make it equivalent to ‘_our_ Mother Tethys.’
[518] Il. xiv. 201.
It is clearly on a principle that Oceanus is not summoned to Olympus,
and not from mere defect or immaturity of personality. For in
conjunction with his wife Tethys, he took over the infant Juno from
Rhea, at the time when there was trouble between Jupiter and his
father; and afterwards he reared the child in his own domain. He can be
lulled into slumber by Ὕπνος like any other deity: he has a daughter,
Eurynome[519]: and he is capable of conjugal quarrels[520].
[519] Il. xviii. 398.
[520] Il. xiv. 200. seqq. 245.
Again, Ocean is water, and Oceanus is the father of all the Rivers:
but yet he was not included in the great lottery which divided the
world between the Kronid brothers. This shows us afresh, that he is
outside and independent of their rule: he forms the framework of the
visible creation, while they are parts of the picture that is within
the framework.
The same thing is true of Κρόνος and Ῥέα in the metaphysical order.
They represent anterior conditions of thought and of existence to all
other Beings, human and divine. Their personality is established; but
it is, even more than that of Oceanus, in abeyance: for Oceanus is at
least ever-flowing, while Time, and Space, or Matter, are with Homer
wholly passionless, mute, and still. When once the Kronid family has
been brought into existence, and the attempt of Time to impose the law
of death on Deity has been put down by Jupiter, then the impersonations
are virtually withdrawn from him and his partner, and they relapse into
the torpid state of purely abstract ideas.
The Elemental Powers have nowhere what may be called a strong position
in Homer, except in the invocations of solemn swearing; where they give
force to the Oath, because they are the avengers of perjury. Thus their
connection is not with deity in general, but with that nether world,
which the ideas of mankind have always associated with the lower parts
of the Earth[521].
[521] Il. iii. 276-8. xix. 258-60.
Even on grounds larger than those derived from a particular phrase,
it may be probable, that we ought to consider Oceanus as the Homeric
parent of all the deities, Κρόνος and Ῥέα included. To a state of
the human mind not yet familiar with abstractions, Time and Place,
imperfectly conceived, might be more limited, less comprehensive, than
the great all-infolding Ocean, which encircled and wrapped in the
world. And in this conception there may lie hid the embryo of what
afterwards grew into the aquarian cosmogony, a system which appears not
to be without support from other passages of the poem, especially from
the very curious verse (Il. vii. 99),
ἀλλ’ ὑμεῖς μὲν πάντες ὕδωρ καὶ γαῖα γένοισθε.
If, however, this idea was really in the mind of the Poet, still we
should consider it as having been with him an instinct rather than a
theory.
~_Dî majores of the later tradition._~
The Olympian deities of Pagan antiquity are commonly represented as
twelve in number; and the names are
1. Jupiter.
2. Juno.
3. Neptune.
4. Minerva, or Pallas Athene.
5. Phœbus Apollo.
6. Diana.
7. Mercury.
8. Histie, or Vesta.
9. Mars.
10. Venus.
11. Vulcan.
12. Ceres.
But Homer knows nothing of this number or arrangement of the gods;
or of the distinction between _Dii majores_ and _Dii minores_. Nor
does he enable us with precision to substitute any other number for
it. He gives us, however, his idea, at least by approximation, of the
number of the Olympian gods. For when Thetis visits Vulcan, to obtain
new armour for Achilles, she finds the deity at work upon twenty
τρίποδες[522], to stand round the wall of the well-built hall, which he
is carefully fitting with wheels, in order that they may automatically
take their places in the assembly of the gods. Whatever these τρίποδες
be, the number is probably meant to correspond with that of the
ordinary Olympian meeting for festivity or deliberation. They are
commonly supposed to be bowls or vessels for wine set on three-legged
stands; but there are two reasons, suggested by the language of the
passage, which seem to recommend our understanding the word to mean
seats, such as that of the priestess of Apollo at Delphi: one is,
their being intended to stand around the apartment, along the wall:
and the other is, that they were to place themselves for the divine
assembly[523];
[522] Il. xviii. 373.
[523] Il. xviii. 376.
ὄφρα οἱ αὐτόματοι θεῖον δυσαίατ’ ἀγῶνα,
ἠδ’ αὖτις πρὸς δῶμα νεοίατο.
This idea of the great bowls placing themselves, one apparently for
each deity to draw from, does not correspond with the classical
representation of the cupbearer filling the cup of each, as he moves
from the left towards the right. Nor does the word ἄγων seem to be
suitable for a merely convivial meeting: and we ought, I presume, to
consider the meetings on Olympus as in theory political councils for
the government of the world, only relieved by meat and drink. If we
take τρίποδες as signifying the seats, it has of course a reference
to the number of gods who constituted the ordinary Olympian family;
a reference which indeed it may probably have, even if the other
signification be preferred.
And the text of the poems affords sufficient evidence, that twenty was
about the number of the Olympian gods of Jupiter.
~_Deities of Olympian rank in Homer._~
Of the Olympian twelve recognised in later times, all, except Vesta
and Ceres, must at once and indubitably be pronounced Olympian in
Homer. For all take part in the Trojan war, and likewise make their
appearance in Olympus. Thus we have ten Olympian deities of Homer
already ascertained. And there are several others whom we can have no
doubt in adding to the list. These we will proceed to consider:
1. Latona is clearly Olympian; from her great dignity as an
unquestioned wife of Jupiter (ἄλοχος Διὸς, Il. xxi. 499); and from the
fact that her position entitled her to take a side in the Trojan war,
where none but Olympian deities were engaged, with the single exception
of the formidable local power, Xanthus or Scamander. Another reason is,
because the title of Dione, as we shall see, is clear; who is a deity
in some respects similar, but decidedly inferior, to Latona.
2. Dione the mother of Venus is in the same order. For she receives
her child, when she repairs wounded to Olympus, and in her speech of
consolation distinctly describes herself as one of the Ὀλύμπια δώματ’
ἔχοντες, Il. v. 383. She is called in this passage δῖα θεάων: a title
twice given to Minerva, but also, sometimes, to very secondary deities,
such as Calypso and Circe. Either as insignificant, or possibly as
being foreign and not sufficiently naturalized, she finds no place in
the Catalogue of Mothers in the Fourteenth Iliad.
3. Iris, the messenger-goddess. The grounds of her title may be found
among the remarks upon this deity[524].
[524] See sup. p. 156.
4. Themis, although not a party in the war, has the office of
Pursuivant or Summoner to the Olympian Assembly: and her ordinary
presence there is distinctly proved by the Fifteenth Iliad, where she
is the first to welcome Juno on her entrance into the circle.
5. It will be seen from a brief statement elsewhere relating to
Aidoneus or Aides, that he is clearly of Olympian rank and character.
6. Next to Aidoneus, we may take the claim of Hebe. She is not indeed
an important, nor a very prominent, person in the poems: but there is
no room for doubt as to her Olympian dignity. We find her officiating
as cupbearer in the Olympian Court of the Fourth Iliad. Her connection
with Olympus is further established by her assisting Juno in the
preparation of her chariot: and by her assisting Mars in the bath,
when that deity has betaken himself into the presence of Jupiter, to
complain of his wound. Again, her personality is quite clear. Nor can
her divinity be questioned. She is pronounced in the Eleventh Odyssey
to be the daughter of Jupiter and Here. The verse is suspected; but
the suspicion itself may be suspected in its turn. Further, the case
rests not on the particular account given of her parentage, but, in
connection with the context, on her appearing as the wife of Hercules
at all. Nor is she anywhere connected with the idea of a mortal
origin[525].
[525] Il. iv. 2. v. 721, 905. Od. xi. 603.
7. A second divinity of somewhat similar rank is Paieon. On two
occasions, he heals in Olympus the wounds of deities; first of
Aidoneus, then of Mars. He is summoned to the exercise of his function
as a person within call, and habitually present there. After the rebuke
of Jupiter to Mars, the line that follows is[526],
[526] Il. v. 899.
ὣς φάτο, καὶ Παιήον’ ἀνώγει ἰήσασθαι.
There is no doubt therefore either of his personal, or of his Olympian
character; and none but divine persons are capable of bearing the
Olympian offices. Ganymede, for instance, though carried up to dwell
among the Immortals in order to pour out wine, has no function assigned
to him in the poems. The Egyptians, indeed, are stated to be of the
race of Paieon[527]; but we must probably understand this with respect
to their royal family, just as the same thing is said of the Phæacians
with respect to Neptune, because their kingly house had sprung from
him[528]. In the later mythology he appears to be absorbed, like the
Sun, in Apollo; but in the Homeric poems there is no confusion, or
approach to confusion, of the persons. Paieon has the relation to
Apollo with respect to surgery or medicine, which Vulcan has to Minerva
with respect to manual art: and, apparently by a mixture of distinct
traditions, he is also connected with Apollo, by being the synonyme for
the hymn of victory, of which Apollo is doubtless supposed to be in a
peculiar manner the giver.
[527] Od. iv. 232.
[528] Od. xiii. 130.
To all these deities the poems appear to give a title to seats in
Olympus, unquestionable as well as direct. By a somewhat less clear and
simple process, we may, I think, arrive at a similar conclusion as to
the views of Homer regarding two other deities.
8. The first of these is Demeter, or Ceres, whose Olympian rank is
considered, and I think established, in the remarks elsewhere upon her
individual divinity[529].
[529] See sup. sect. iii. p. 215.
9. The second is Ἠέλιος, the Sun. His share in the episode of Mars and
Venus[530] does not indeed absolutely imply his residing on Olympus.
But this is clearly involved in the account of his receiving the
intelligence, that his oxen had been consumed by the companions of
Ulysses. For, upon hearing it, he instantly proceeds to address the
company of the Immortals assembled there[531], and is answered by
Jupiter. He must therefore unquestionably stand as one of the Olympian
gods of Homer.
[530] Od. viii. 270, 302.
[531] Od. xii. 374-88.
There are but three other personages named in Homer, with respect to
whom there is room for the supposition, that he may have intended
them to rank as Olympian deities. They are Dionysus, Persephone, and
Eris. For Histie, or Vesta, is so entirely wanting in personality,
that she cannot possibly belong to that order. She is invoked indeed
in company with Jupiter; but with these two is likewise combined the
ξενίη τράπεζα, the table of hospitality. In the hymn to Venus[532] she
has become fully personified, and is celebrated as the eldest of the
daughters of Κρόνος. But this imagery probably belongs to a different
stage of Greek society and Greek poetry.
[532] Hymn. v. 22.
1. 2. The case of Dionysus and that of Persephone, very different, but
both on this point doubtful, have been stated elsewhere[533].
[533] See sect. iii. pp. 269, and 223.
~_The Eris of Homer._~
3. The case of Eris is different. She is the sister and also the
mistress of Mars[534]. And in the fierce battle of the Eleventh Book,
Eris alone is present to enjoy it, while all the other deities,
inhibited from action by Jupiter, have betaken themselves to their
several abodes on Olympus.
[534] Il. iv. 440.
Again, Jupiter sends her down to the camp at the beginning of the
Eleventh Iliad, where she stands on the ship of Ulysses, and raises a
mighty shout to stir up the Greeks for the contest[535]. The word is,
indeed, the common and established word for strife in Homer, and it is
applied even to the conflict of the gods[536], θεῶν ἔριδι ξυνιόντων.
But this use of it is probably to be compared with that of Ἄρης for a
spear, and of Ἀφροδίτη (in later Greek) for the sensual function of
that deity. She is, on the whole, less a figure than a person, though
standing upon the border between the two respectively; and though, as
she never actually performs what may be called a personal action, she
is only by a few degrees removed from the family of Terror, Din, Panic,
and the rest. The first of these, Φόβος, as he is the son of Mars[537],
and attends him in fight against the Ephyri, is as distinctly
personified as Eris in one passage; but the effect of it is neutralized
by others, where he passes into sheer figure. She rejoices in seeing
the slaughter[538] wrought in battle: and an intense eagerness is
imputed to her[539], of course meaning an eagerness for blood.
[535] Il. xi. 3.
[536] Il. xx. 66.
[537] Il. xiii. 299.
[538] Il. xi. 74.
[539] Il. iv. 440.
But another form of this deity is probably exhibited to us under
another name, that of the πτολίπορθος Ἐνύω. Enuo is mentioned together
with Pallas as being a warlike deity, in contrast with the effeminate
Venus[540]: and she leads the Trojans to the fight in concert with
Mars: but while he has a huge spear in his hands, she holds or leads,
instead, another form more shadowy than her own, that of Κύδοιμος or
Tumult. Yet the mode in which she is joined with Pallas proves her
impersonation. The fundamental identity of her name with Ἐνυάλιος, the
second name of Mars, and her joining him in leading on the Trojans,
place her in some very close relation to him: and that close relation
cannot well be other than the twofold one of sister and mistress, which
had been assigned to Ἔρις.
[540] Il. v. 333, 592.
When it is said, that ‘she alone of the gods was present, as the others
had retired to their respective mansions on Olympus,’ the most natural
inference certainly is, that she too is meant to be described as
belonging to the Olympian Court.
Upon the whole, it seems pretty clear, that if the Poet intended to
limit absolutely the number of the Olympian Court or Minor Assembly
to the exact figure twenty, then the choice for the twentieth place
will more justly fall on his Eris, than either his Dionysus, or even
his Persephone. It appears to me, however, that so strict a numerical
precision is not in the manner of Homer; that he intended the twenty
tripods to be a general indication of the number of the Court, and
that with this indication the facts of the poems substantially, though
indeterminately, agree.
Such is the composition of the Olympian Court, or smaller Assembly.
~_Classification of the Supernatural Order._~
The Deities who, in virtue of belonging to that Court, may be most
properly called Olympian, may be divided into the following classes:
I. Deities having their basis, and the general outline of their
attributes and character, from tradition.
1. Pallas Athene, or Minerva.
2. Phœbus Apollo.
3. Latona.
4. Iris.
II. Deities of traditional basis, but with development principally
mythological or inventive.
1. Jupiter.
2. Neptune.
3. Aidoneus, or Pluto.
4. Diana.
5. Persephone.*
III. Deities of invention, or mythology proper.
1. Juno.
2. Mars.
3. Mercury.
4. Vulcan.
5. Venus.
6. Demeter.
7. Themis.
8. Ἠέλιος.
9. Paieon.
10. Dione.
11. Hebe.
12. Eris, or Enuo.*
13. Dionysus.*
Those three names, which are marked with an asterisk, appear to have
only a more or less disputable title to a seat in Olympus.
Outside, so to speak, of Olympus and its Court, we may classify the
superhuman intelligences of Homer as follows: observing, however,
that the minor deities who represent natural powers, if thoroughly
personified, give their attendance in Olympus on high occasions, and
help to form its great Chapter or Parliament.
They may be thrown into the six following classes:
1. The greater impersonations of natural powers, and of ideas; with
their reflections, where such have been formed, in the feminine. These
are
Oceanus and Tethys.
Κρόνος and Ῥέα.
Ouranos and Gaia (not Earth, but rather Land).
Nereus and Amphitrite.
We are not authorized by Homer to associate either of these last
couples as husband and wife. We have to add:
Destiny, (which also has a place in the fifth class,) Dream, Sleep,
Death, Terror, Panic, Rumour, Din, Uproar.
The process of impersonation is with some of these fully developed,
with others scarcely begun, and wholly poetical; therefore as yet in
no degree mythological. In one place, Il. xiii. 299, Φόβος is the son
of Mars, in another Φόβος and Δεῖμος are his horses (xiii. 119.); and
in a third they appear along with Ἔρις, in a shape hovering between
personality and allegory. Ἔρις herself, at times fully personified,
in one passage is simply a figure on the Ægis of Minerva, perhaps,
however, as an animated work of art, Il. v. 740. In all these cases we
see the work of poetical fabrication actually going on.
Perhaps the best example of a merely poetical, as distinguished from a
religious or practical impersonation, is to be found in Æschylus, who
makes Dust the brother of Mud[541].
[541] Æsch. Ag. 480.
This class was greatly augmented in the later Theogonies, beginning
with Hesiod.
2. The minor impersonations of natural powers, such as
(1) The Winds.
(2) The Rivers.
(3) The Nymphs of meadows.
(4) The Nymphs of fountains.
(5) The Nymphs of groves.
(6) The Nymphs of hills.
(7) The Sea Nymphs.
3. I place in a different class all those deities, who appear in Homer
as the subjects of foreign fable not fully naturalized. These are
they who dwell in the Outer sphere of the marvellous Geography in the
Odyssey, and with whom Menelaus and Ulysses are brought into contact.
They are wholly exterior to the system of Homer, and we cannot safely
give them a position implying any defined relation to it. But there
are certain links supplied by the Poet himself, as when he makes Circe
child of the Sun, and Mercury presumptively nephew of Calypso: by these
he shows us the connection of the Greek mythology with Eastern sources,
and the partial assimilation of the materials they supplied.
These deities are:
1. Proteus.
2. Leucothee.
3. Æolus (perhaps).
4. The Sirens.
5. Calypso.
6. Atlas.
7. Circe.
8. Œetes.
9. Maias.
10. Perse.
11. Eidothee.
And several Nymphs[542].
[542] Od. i. 71. xii. 132, 3.
4. Those impersonations which represent, each in its several part,
or its peculiar aspect, the tradition of the Evil One, have been
considered along with the deities of tradition.
5. Of ministers of doom or justice, real or reputed, and less than
divine, yet belonging to the metaphysical or moral order, we have in
Homer:
1. The Fates, Κῆρες, who fall within the range of ideas described by
his Αἶσα and his Μοῖρα.
2. The Ἁρπυῖαι.
3. The Ἐρινύες.
6. Besides all these, we have yet another class with subdivisions of
its own, composed of beings who stand within the interval between Deity
and Humanity.
There are some observations to be made on several of these classes.
~_Destiny or Fate in Homer._~
It is much easier to obtain a just perception of the manner in which
Homer handles the subject of Destiny or Fate, than to represent it in a
system. The conflict which it involves, either of ideas, or at least of
the words denoting them, was certain to give occasion to argument and
difference of opinion in a case where a poet is of necessity called to
take his trial at the bar of philosophy[543].
[543] The subject has been treated with great ability by Nägelsbach,
Hom. Theol., Abschnitt iii.
Besides the θέσφατον, on which I shall make a remark hereafter, there
are five forms of speech which are employed by Homer to express the
idea of Destiny; they are, Κατακλῶθες, Κήρ, Μοῖρα, Μόρος, and Αἶσα:
the two last in the singular number only, the two preceding it in the
singular or plural, and the Κατακλῶθες only in the plural.
Of these, the Κῆρες and the Κατακλῶθες have undergone the most
effective process of personification; but, brought more distinctly into
the sphere of life and action, these phrases have a much less profound
root in the order of ideas, and scarcely touch the great questions,
whether destiny is a power separate from the human will, separate from
the Divine will, and superior to either or to both.
The fundamental idea both of Μοῖρα and Αἶσα, traced from their original
source, is not a part merely, but rather a portion or share allotted
according to some rule or law. But, though of similar origin, some
distinctions obtain between the uses of the two words. And first as to
Αἶσα.
~_Under the form of Αἶσα._~
We have in Il. xviii. 327, ληΐδος αἶσα; in Od. xix. 24, ἐλπίδος αἶσα;
in Il. ix. 378, τίω δέ μιν ἐν καρὸς αἴσῃ. In all these cases it is
plain, that the word means not a mere part, but a part assigned upon
some given principle. Hence it comes to mean either the whole share or
lot assigned to a man, or the law according to which it is assigned,
that is, the law under which the moral government of human life, and
the distribution of good and evil, are conducted. Accordingly, we have
these several senses in which it is employed.
1. The αἶσα, as the entire destiny, of an individual man, Il. i. 416.
Ἐπεί νύ τοι αἶσα μίνυνθά περ, οὔτι μάλα δήν.
2. A notable part of that destiny, as his death: Τῷ οἱ ἀπεμνήσαντο καὶ
ἐν θανάτοιό περ αἴσῃ. Il. xxiv. 428.
3. The moral law for the government of conduct, as in Ἕκτορ, ἐπεί με
κατ’ αἶσαν ἐνίπαπες, οὐδ’ ὑπὲρ αἶσαν. Il. iii. 59.
4. That moral law as it is supposed to proceed from Jupiter; the Διὸς
αἶσα, or dispensation of Jupiter; the δαίμονος αἶσα, or dispensation of
Providence.
5. That same law, as it is supposed to proceed from some other source,
or to speak more correctly, for Homer, as the power which administers
it is separately personified. This we have in the passage ἅσσα οἱ Αἶσα
γεινομένῳ ἐπένησε λίνῳ, ὅτε μιν τέκε Μήτηρ, Il. xx. 127; or, again, as
in Od. vii. 197; where Αἶσα is assisted in the spinning process by the
Κατακλῶθες βαρεῖαι, as if it was felt that she was not strong enough to
make a Destiny.
Upon the whole it appears to me that there is in the word Αἶσα only the
minutest savour of the proper idea of Fate. For Fate involves these
things: 1. a power dominant over man: 2. a power independent of the
divinity: and 3. a power standing ideally apart from right.
Now αἶσα does not fully answer even to the first of these conceptions,
since αἶσα, even when it is backed by the gods, may be overcome by the
energies of man. Jupiter in the Iliad[544] ordained glory to Hector and
success to the Trojans until the sunset of the day when the battle of
the ships was fought: yet just before the death of Patroclus the Greeks
prevailed, Il. xvi. 780.
[544] Il. xi. 192-4 and xviii. 455.
καὶ τότε δή ῥ’ ὑπὲρ αἶσαν Ἀχαιοὶ φέρτεροι ἦσαν.