A belief in the supernatural has existed in all ages and among all
nations.
To trace the origin of this belief, the causes of the various
modifications it has undergone, and the phases it has assumed, is,
perhaps, one of the most interesting researches to which the mind can be
given,--interesting, inasmuch as we find pervading every part of it the
effects of those passions and affections which are most powerful and
permanent in our nature.
So general is the belief in a supreme and over-ruling Power, possessing
attributes altogether different from and superior to human powers, and
bending these and the forces of nature to its will, that the thought
has been entertained by many that it is inborn in man. Such a doctrine
is, however, refuted by an acquaintance with the inlets and modes of
obtaining knowledge; by the fact that reason is necessary to its
discovery; and by its uselessness.[1] "There are neither innate ideas
nor innate propositions; but there is an innate power of understanding
that shows itself in primitive notions, which, when put into speech, are
expressed in propositions, which propositions, decomposed, produce,
under the influence of abstraction and analysis, distinct ideas."[2]
Others have asserted and maintained that man derives his knowledge of
the existence of Deity, and, consequently, of the supernatural, from the
exercise of reason upon himself and his own powers by self-reflection.
If he reflects upon the wonderful power of liberty and free-will which
he possesses, on his relation to surrounding beings and things, and
particularly on his imperfect, limited, and finite powers, it is argued
that the antithetical proposition of infinite must of necessity be
admitted. "I cannot have the idea of the finite and of imperfection
without having that of perfection and of infinite. These two ideas are
logically correlative."[3] Or if man extends his reasoning powers to the
study or the contemplation "of the beauty, the order, the intelligence,
the wisdom, and the perfection displayed throughout the universe; and as
there must of necessity be in the cause what is witnessed in the effect,
you reason from nature to its author, and from the existence of the
perfection of the one you conclude the existence and perfection of the
other."[4]
But many theologists maintain that the knowledge of a Deity, and of the
existence of supernatural beings, is derived solely from revelation; and
stern and prolonged have been the struggles in this country between the
upholders of the rival tenets.
That no idea of a Deity, such as that which the Christian entertains, is
to be found among the vague and undefined notions of supernatural power
which are contained in the mythologies of pagan nations; that even the
conceptions of Plato are to be summed up in the phrase "the unknown
God;" and that the perfect idea of the Godhead is to be derived solely
from Scripture, can be satisfactorily shown. But the conclusion sought
to be established from this, that all our ideas of the supernatural are
derived from this source, does not necessarily follow.
The postulate that man can derive a knowledge of the supernatural from
the exercise of his mental powers alone, cannot either be affirmed or
denied, but it is not improbable.
Perhaps the nearest approach to correctness which we are as yet capable
of on this subject is as follows:--
After the creation of man, God revealed himself. The perfect knowledge
of the Deity thus obtained, was perpetuated by a fragment of the human
race, notwithstanding the baneful effects of the fall; and at the epoch
of the deluge, the solitary family which escaped that mighty cataclysm,
formed a centre from which anew the attributes and powers of the Godhead
were made known in all their truth and purity. But again sin prevailed,
and with the exception of one race, who alone treasured the true
knowledge of the Deity, mankind lost by degrees the pure faith of their
fathers; and as they receded from the light, the idea of the Godhead
became obscured, and in the progress of time well nigh lost, and the
vague and imperfect ideas of a supernatural Power derived from
tradition, prompted to a terror and awe of some invisible yet mighty
influence, unknown and inexplicable, but which was manifested to man in
the more striking objects and the incomprehensible phenomena of nature,
which were regarded and worshipped as the seats of this unknown Power,
forming the substratum of those wonderful systems of mythology which
have characterised successive eras and races.
"Once," writes Plato, referring to the earlier traditions of the Greeks,
"one God governed the universe; but a great and extraordinary change
taking place in the nature of men and things, infinitely for the worse
(for originally there was perfect virtue and perfect happiness on
earth), the command then devolved on Jupiter, with many inferior deities
to preside over different departments under him."[5]
To state the influence which each of the elements indicated
above--tradition and reason--have had in the development of mythology,
is doubtless impossible.
The existence of the first element, _tradition_, is, to those who admit
the truth of Scripture, undeniable, and it gives a clue to the
elucidation of the leading principle in the belief in those gods,
dæmons, fiends, sprites, &c., which, summed up, have constituted the
objects of worship of different nations.
I. As in the course of generations the pristine revelation of the
Godhead to man became obscured, and a vague and traditionary belief
alone remained,--the conceptions, the thoughts and imaginations of each
generation being implanted in the succeeding one, and influencing it by
the force of habit, education, and authority,--man, impressed with an
imperfect notion of a supernatural Power, and ignorant of the forces of
the material world, on seeking to unfold the source of those changes
which he beheld in the budding forth of spring, the fervid beauty of
summer, the maturity of autumn, and the stern grandeur of winter,
conceived that the wonderful phenomena ever going on around him owed
their origin and effects to the influence of supernatural agency, and
marking their apparent dependence upon the sun and other orbs in space,
he offered adoration to those luminaries. But when he still further
analysed the changes occurring on the surface of the globe, and
comprehended the influence of the more palpable forces and elements, and
the inexhaustible variety and seeming disconnectedness of the phenomena
which he witnessed, incapable of otherwise solving the mysteries which
surrounded him, he deemed each as the work of a potent and indwelling
Spirit.[6]
Thus man concluded that he was surrounded by a world of supernatural
beings, of different powers, attributes, and passions. The sun and moon,
the planets and stars, were conceived to be the abodes of spiritual
existences; and the effects caused by those orbs which more immediately
influence our earth, were considered as the indications of the powers of
their respective deities. So also the air, its clouds and currents; the
ocean, with its mighty progeny of lakes and rivers; and the earth, its
hills, dales, and organic forms, were peopled with incorporeal beings.
Every object of beauty shadowed forth the operations of a beneficent
Spirit; while devastating storms, barren places and deserts, and the
convulsions of nature, betokened the malignancy of dæmons or fiends.
According as a country's surface is harsh, rugged, barren, and
storm-tossed, or clothed with lovely verdure and basking in the rays of
a fervid sun, so do we find the principal characters of its mythology;
stern, gigantic, and fierce gods or dæmons, or spirits more kind towards
man, and full of beauty and grace. The passions and affections of man,
for the same reasons, were considered to be under the sway of
supernatural beings; in short, every operation of nature in the organic
or inorganic, in the mental or physical worlds, was deemed an indication
of the existence of a supernatural Being which ruled and governed it.[7]
These powers in the progress of time were personified and represented as
possessed of passions and propensities similar to those of man; for the
same finite and imperfect reason which had concluded that they dwelt in
the phenomena they were supposed to explain, also deemed, being unable
to conceive any higher type of existence than was seen in man himself,
that they differed simply in degree of power, and were alike subject to
those appetites and passions which characterised humanity.
This source of belief in spiritual existences is found dominant in the
systems of mythology of all nations; and as it arises from causes which
are inherant in man, it can easily be understood why there is so great a
similarity in the primary mythological conceptions of different races.
The mythologies of ancient Greece and Rome furnish a very perfect
illustration of the influence which this cause has exercised in the
development of the belief in supernatural beings, and no better method
of illustration can be adopted, than a sketch of the physical
signification of the principal deities, and classes of deities, of those
countries.
The primitive religion of the Greeks and Romans would appear to have
consisted in the worship of the heavenly bodies (Sabaism):--the Titans
are nearly all personifications of the celestial orbs. Subsequently,
their mythology assumed a more physical character, and the offspring of
Cronos (Saturn, _time_), or the personifications of the firmament,
atmosphere, sea, &c., formed the leading deities of the more developed
system of religion, and the reign of Jupiter commenced.
In this system, the god Jupiter is symbolical of the upper regions of
the atmosphere (_Æther_). Euripides writes:--
"The vast, expanded, boundless sky behold,
See it with soft embrace the earth enfold;
This own the chief of deities above,
And this acknowledge by the name of Jove."[8]
At a later period this god was conceived to represent the soul of the
world, diffused alike through animate and inanimate nature; or, as
Virgil poetically describes it in the Æneid--(Book vi.):
"The heaven and earth's compacted frame,
And flowing waters, and the starry flame,
And both the radiant lights, one common soul
Inspires and feeds, and animates the whole.
This active mind infused through all the space,
Unites and mingles with the mighty mass.
Hence man and beasts the breath of life obtain,
And birds of air, and monsters of the main."
The god Apollo signifies the sun,--his prophetic power being symbolical
of its influence in dispelling darkness; his knowledge of medicine and
healing, signifies the influence of that luminary in revivifying and
restoring the powers of organic life; his skill in music is symbolical
of the central position of the sun among the seven planets, and its
making harmony with them; and the harp upon which this god is depicted
as playing, is furnished with seven strings, in emblem of the seven
planets. _Pan_ represents the universal world, and he is the emblem of
fecundity. Hence this god is depicted in his upper part as a man, in his
lower parts as a beast; "because the superior and celestial part of the
world is beautiful, radiant and glorious, as the face of this god, whose
horns resemble the rays of the sun, and the horns of the moon. The
redness of his face is like the splendour of the sky; and the spotted
skin that he wears is an image of the starry firmament. In his lower
parts he is shagged and deformed, which represents the shrubs, and wild
beasts, and trees of the earth below. His goat's feet signify the
solidity of the earth; and his pipe of seven reeds, that celestial
harmony which is made by the seven planets. He has a shepherd's hook,
crooked at the top, in his hand, which signifies the turning of the year
into itself."[9]
The goddess _Cybele_ was symbolical of the earth; _Juno_, of the
air--the link between earthly and heavenly natures; _Vulcan_, of fire;
_Æolus_, of the winds; _Diana_, of the moon; _Neptune_, of the sea;
_Rusina_, of the country; _Ceres_, of the fruits of the earth;
_Collina_, of the hills; _Vallonia_, of the valleys; _Silvanus_, of the
woods, which teemed also with inferior deities--_satyrs_ and _fauns_;
_Seia_ presided over all seed; _Flora_, flowers; _Proserpina_ cherished
the corn when it had sprung above the earth; _Volasia_ folded the blade
round it ere the beard broke out; _Nodosus_ watched over the joints and
knots of the stalk; _Patelina_ governed the opened ear; _Lactusa_ took
charge when it became milky; _Matura_ guarded and conducted it to
maturity; _Hostilina_ presided over the crop; and _Tutelina_, over the
cutting.
_Nymphs_, goddesses of lovely form, and light and airy beauty, sported
about the earth; a _Dryad_ presided over every tree; a _Hamadryad_ was
born, lived, and died with each oak; _Oreads_ dwelt on the mountains;
_Napëæ_, in the groves and valleys; _Lemoniads_, in the meadows and
fields; _Nereiads_, in the ocean; _Naiads_, at the fountains;
_Fluviales_, by the rivers: and _Lirinades_, by lakes and ponds.
_Vesta_ presided over the vital heat of the body; _Janus_ opened the
gate of life to infant man; _Opis_ assisted him when he came into the
world; _Nascio_ presided over the moment of birth; _Cunia_ watched over
the cradle, and while he lay and slept; _Vagitanus_, or _Vaticanus_,
took care while the infant cried; _Rumina_ presided while the child
sucked the breast; _Potina_ guarded the infant drinking; _Educa_ watched
over it while it received food; _Ossilago_ "knit its bones" and hardened
its body; _Carna_ presided over the safety of the inward parts; the
goddess _Nundina_ had charge of the child on the ninth day--the day of
purification; _Statilinus_ taught the infant to stand and walk, and
preserved it from falling; _Fabulinus_ looked after the child when it
began to speak; _Paventia_ preserved it from fright; _Juventus_
protected the beginning of youth; _Agenoria_ excited man to action;
_Strenua_ encouraged him to behave bravely on all occasions; _Stimula_
urged him to extraordinary exertions; _Horta_ exhorted him to noble
actions; _Quis_ gave peace and quietude; _Murcia_ rendered man lazy,
idle, and dull; _Adeona_ protected him in his outgoings and incomings;
_Vibilia_ guarded wanderers; _Vacuna_ protected the lazy and idle;
_Fessonia_ refreshed the weary; _Meditrina_ healed injuries; _Vitula_
presided over and gave mirth; _Volupia_ governed pleasures; _Orbona_ was
a goddess supplicated that she might not leave parents destitute of
children; _Pellonia_ drove away enemies; _Numeria_ endued men with the
power of casting numbers; _Sentia_ gave just and honourable sentiments;
_Augerona_ removed anguish from the mind; and _Consus_ presided over
good counsels.
_Virtue_ also was worshipped as a goddess; and the several species of
virtue were considered each as emanating from some godlike power, and
_Faith_, _Hope_, _Justice_, _Piety_, _Peace_, _Fidelity_, _Liberty_, and
_Money_, were worshipped as good deities; while, on the other hand,
_Envy_, _Contumely_, _Impudence_, _Calumny_, _Fraud_, _Discord_, _Fury_,
_Fame_, _Fortune_, _Fever_, and _Silence_, were supplicated as evil
deities.
_Minerva_ was symbolical of wisdom and chastity; _Mercury_, of
eloquence--speech; _Venus_ of ungovernable passions and desire;
_Saturn_, time; _Momus_, mockery; _Silenus_, jesting; _Mars_, war; and
_Bacchus_, wine. The _Muses_ each represented an accomplishment. Thus,
_Calliope_ presided over epic poetry; _Clio_, history; _Erato_, elegy
and amorous song; _Thalia_, comedy, gay, light, and pleasing song;
_Melpomene_, tragedy; _Terpsichore_, dancing; _Euterpe_, music;
_Polyhymnia_, religious song; and _Urania_, the knowledge of celestial
events.
_Themis_ taught mankind what was honest, just, and right; _Astræa_ was
the goddess of justice; _Nemesis_ punished vice, rewarded virtue, and
taught mankind their duty.
Every action of man, both in his collective and individual
capacity--everything in relation to his household and domestic
affairs--was also conceived to be governed by supernatural powers, which
were classed under the names of _Penates_ and _Lares_.
The _Penates_, as may well be imagined, were almost numberless, but they
may be divided into three classes: 1st, those which presided over
kingdoms and provinces; 2nd, those which presided over cities only; and
3rd, those presiding over houses and families. To instance to what an
extent this belief was carried, a penate named _Ferculus_ looked after
the door; the goddess _Cardua_ after the hinges; and _Limentius_
protected the threshold.
The _Lares_ were of human origin, and they presided also over houses,
streets, and ways. Subsequently their power was extended to the country
and the sea.
To each person was also assigned two deities, termed _genii_. These
spirits were subsidiary to the gods already mentioned, it being one of
their duties to carry the prayers of men to them. The genii differed in
nature and disposition, and were divided into two classes--the _good_
and the _bad_. The _good genius_ excited men to all actions of honour
and virtue; the _evil genius_ excited him to all manner of wickedness.
The Greeks termed these genii _dæmons_, either from the terror and dread
they created when they appeared, or from the wise answer they returned
when consulted as oracles.
The ravages caused by an ever-gnawing conscience and by the effects of
the evil passions, were attributed to three supernatural powers termed
the _Furies_--_Alecto_, _Tisiphone_, and _Megæra_--who became symbolical
of the avengers of wickedness; and lastly, Night, Sleep, and
Death--_Nox_, _Mors_, and _Somnus_--were elevated among the gods.
This brief sketch will serve to show the leading principle entering into
the formation of the Grecian and Roman mythology--a mythology containing
more than 30,000 gods; and it will illustrate how every hidden power of
nature as well in the organic as the inorganic world; and how every
equally inexplicable operation of the human mind was referred, for an
explanation, to the influence of a supernatural power, which in the
progress of time was personified, worshipped, and pourtrayed in such a
form as best set forth the effects it was conceived to produce.
This source of the belief in the supernatural, as we have already
stated, will be found to have prevailed among all nations; hence their
primary mythological conceptions are one and the same, modified by the
difference of climate, habits, &c.
Thus, of the gods of the ancient Britons--_Belin_, _Plennyd_, or
_Granwyn_, possessed the attributes of, and was the same with, Apollo;
_Gwydion_, or _Teutath_, had all the attributes of Mercury; _Daronwy_,
_Taranwy_, or _Taranis_, the thunderer, of Jove; _Anras_, or _Andraste_,
of Bellona; _He-us_, _Hesus_, _Hugadarn_, or _Hu-ysgwn_, united the
characters of Bacchus and Mars; _Ked_ and _Keridwen_ answered to Ceres;
_Llenwy_ to Proserpine; _Olwen_ and _Dwynwen_ to Venus; and _Neivion_ to
Neptune.[10]
In the Scandinavian mythology the principal gods are personifications of
physical and mental powers. _Odin_, the most powerful of the three
beings first educed from chaotic confusion, possesses the attributes of
Mercury; and according to Finn Magnusen, _Vili_ is the personification
of light; _Ve_, of fire. The two ravens which are depicted as sitting
constantly upon the shoulders of Odin, represent Mind and Memory; and of
the principal gods, we find that _Thor_ is symbolical of thunder;
_Baldur_ of the sun; _Njord_ rules over the winds, sea, &c.; _Frey_ is
the god of rain, sunshine, and the fruits of the earth; _Tyr_, of war;
_Bragi_, of wisdom and poetry; _Vidar_, of silence; _Forseti_, of law
and justice; _Loki_ is the personification of evil; _Frigga_ is the
goddess of the earth; and night, day, the moon, time, the present, the
past, and the future, healing, chastity, abundance, love, courtesy,
wisdom, and every form and passion and power of nature which the
Scandinavians had separated and distinguished, each had its special and
worshipped god.
The original worship of the Hindoos[11] was directed to the heavenly
bodies, the elements, and natural objects. In the mandras, or prayers,
which form the principal part of the Vedas, or sacred writings, the
firmament, the sun, moon, fire, air, and spirit of the earth, are most
frequently addressed. These writings inculcate the worship of the
elements and planets, and differ from the more recent and legendary
poems which teach the worship of deified heroes and sages. In the
Sanhitâ of the Rig-veda, the invocations which it contains are chiefly
addressed to the deities of fire, the firmament, the winds, the seasons,
the sun, and the moon, who are invited to be present at the sacrifices,
or are appealed to for wealth or for their several beneficial qualities.
The personified attributes of _Brahma_, _Vishnu_, and _Siva_, signifying
respectively creation, preservation, and destruction, are due to a later
and more refined era of Hindoo mythology; and the eight inferior deities
ranking next in order to the _Trimurti_, and termed _Lokapalas_, are all
personifications of natural objects and powers. Thus _Indra_ is the god
of, and is symbolical of the visible heavens, thunder, lightning, storm,
and rain; _Agni_, of fire; _Yama_, of the infernal regions; _Surya_, of
the sun; _Varuna_, of water; _Parana_, of wind; _Kuvera_, of wealth; and
_Soma_, or _Chandra_, of the moon.
The celebrated line which it is enjoined should be repeated without
intermission, and which is the most holy passage in the Vedas, reads
literally, "Let us meditate on the adorable light of Savitri (the
sun--the divine ruler); may it guide our intellects." This, it is
asserted, is addressed to the sun as the symbol of a divine and
all-powerful being, and it is regarded as a proof of the monotheism of
the Vedas. This explanation is, however, considered by some to be far
from satisfactory, and to offer greater difficulties than the text ever
can when taken in a natural light.
The creed of Buddha contains similar traces of elemental worship. The
five Buddhas and the five Bodhisattwas would appear to be
personifications of the principal natural elements and phenomena.
In Persian mythology we find a similar deification of natural phenomena.
In the creed of Zoroaster, which was a modification of pre-existing
beliefs, there is an eternal almighty Being, _Zernane Akherene_
(illimitable, uncreated time), who created _Ormuzd_ (light, goodness);
and _Ahrimann_ (darkness, evil). Ormuzd created the universe, and the
genii, or deities of light, of whom there are three classes.
_1st Class._ The seven _Amshaspands_, including _Ormuzd_ himself. The
remaining are _Bahman_, the genius of the region of light;
_Ardibehesht_, of ethereal fire; _Sharwir_, of metals; _Sarpandomad_, of
fruitfulness; _Khudad_, of time; _Amerdad_, of the vegetable world,
flocks, and herds.
_2nd Class._ The twenty-seven _Izeds_, male and female--the _elementary_
deities: e.g. _Khorsid_, the deity of the sun; _Mah_, of the moon;
_Tashter_, of the dog-star, and of rain; _Rapitan_, the deity of heat,
&c. These deities were probably worshipped before the belief was reduced
to a system.
_3rd Class._ The _Fervers_--the vivifying principles of nature, the
ideal types of the material universe, corresponding in general with the
_ideas_ of Plato. Every one, even Ormuzd, has his Ferver. "An Iranite
has thus constantly by his side his ideal type, or uncorrupted material
image, to guide him through life and preserve him from evil."[12]
The Iranite worships light, fire, and water, as emblems of Ormuzd, in
whom these elements are united; he does not worship the elementary
spirits attached to them.
In China, the state religion--the religious system of
Confucius--embodies the following objects of worship, arranged in three
classes:--
_1st Class._ _Ta sze_, or _great sacrifices_, includes the worship of
the heavens (_Yâng_), and the earth (_Yin_); and while worshipping the
material heaven, they appear to consider that there exists an animating
_intelligence_ (_Tae-keih_) which presides over the world, rewarding
virtue and vice. This class includes also deified sovereigns.
_2nd Class._ _Choong-sze_, _medium sacrifices_, includes the worship of
gods of the land and grain, the sun and moon, genii, sages, gods of
letters, inventors of agriculture, manufacturers, and useful arts.
_3rd Class._ _Seaon-sze_, or _lesser sacrifices_, includes the worship
of the ancient patron of the healing art; innumerable spirits of
deceased statesmen, eminent scholars, martyrs to virtue, &c.; the
principal phenomena of nature, as the clouds, rain, wind, thunder, each
of which has its presiding god; the military banners (like the Romans);
the god of war; _Loong-wang_, the dragon-king; the gods of rain and the
watery elements; and _Tien-how_, the queen of heaven and goddess of the
weather. The Chinese also believe in good and evil genii, and in tutelar
spirits presiding over families, houses, and towns.[13]
In Africa, the mythology of its different nations is based on natural
objects and phenomena. The natives of Ashanti and the neighbouring
districts worship water, lakes, rivers, mountains, rocks and stones,
leopards, panthers, wolves, crocodiles, &c., all of which are more or
less powerful "fetishes;" and the Nubian worships the moon. The natives
of Tahiti and the islands of the South Sea also derive their principal
ideas of supernatural beings from material objects. In Mangareva, the
largest of the Gambier Islands, the gods adored by the natives were
principally personifications of natural objects. A god named _Tea_ was
the deity and creator of the sun, wind, and water; _Rongo_ was the god
of rain; _Tairi_, of thunder; _Arikitenow_, of the ocean; _A-nghi_, of
storms and famine; _Napitoiti_, of death, &c. The Tahitan conceives also
that animals, trees, stones, &c., possess souls which, like his own,
after destruction will have a subsequent existence. On the vast
continent of South America we find numerous traces of elemental and
natural worship. The aborigines of Paraguay supplicate the sun, moon,
stars, thunder, lightning, groves, &c. In the district bounded by the
Orinoco, the Atabapo, the Rio Negro, and the Cassequiare, including an
extent of about 8000 square miles, and scattered also over a still
greater extent of this continent, are found rocks covered with colossal
symbolical figures of crocodiles and tigers, household utensils, and of
the sun and moon,--doubtless objects of adoration to nations of whose
existence even tradition has not preserved a trace. It is also probable
that the rocks thus engraved were regarded as sacred; for the Macusi
Indians, inhabiting one portion of the districts where these sculptures
are found, have the tradition that "the sole survivor of a general
deluge repeopled the earth by changing stones into human beings."[14]
The Incas of Peru--the children of the sun--built magnificent temples,
and adored that luminary; and the sculptures on the walls of the
colossal temples and buildings of the Aztecs, the ancient inhabitants of
Mexico, as well as the remains of the pyramids of the sun and moon at
Teotihuacan, teach the same lesson with regard to that extinct race. The
Pueblo Indians of New Mexico still perpetuate the holy fire "by the side
of which the Aztecan kept a continual watch for the return to earth of
Quetzalcoatl, the god of air." In a solitary cave of the mountains is
preserved the undying fire, and its dim light is seen by the hunter if,
by chance, led by the chase, he passes near to this lonely temple.[15]
Among the tribes which inhabit the more northerly parts of the American
continent, we find also similar traces of the important influence which
natural phenomena have exercised in the development of their ideas of
supernatural existences.
We could not well close this sketch without allusion to the Shaman
religion, which is diffused throughout the principal nations of Asiatic
Russia, a great part of the Tartars, the Eins, Samoiedes, Ostiaks,
Mandshurs, Burats, and Tungsees; and it is even professed among the
Coriaks and Techuks, and people of the eastern islands. This system of
religion is essentially founded upon the observation of natural
phenomena: it teaches that the gods (_Burchans_) arose from the general
mass of matter and spirit; and while inculcating the existence of a
spiritual world, it instils the belief in the self-existence of matter.
These remarks will sufficiently show the important influence which the
observation of natural phenomena has had in the development of the
belief in the Supernatural of most nations; and it will fully indicate
the primary reason of the correspondence of their principal mythological
conceptions. A consideration of the different habits, degree of
civilization, locality, &c., will also indicate the principal reason of
the various modifications which the same mythological conception is
found to present among different nations.
There was one Jupiter for Europe, and another for Africa; and the varied
forms under which this god was worshipped, derived from the locality,
habits, and other peculiarities of his worshippers, were very numerous.
At Athens, the great Jupiter was the Olympian; at Rome, the Capitoline.
There was the mild and the thundering Jupiter, the Jupiter Nicephorus,
Opitulus, Fulminator, &c., all differing in some subordinate characters.
Ammon, of Egypt; Belus, of the Babylonians; Ibis, of the Phœnicians;
Allah, of the Arabians; Beel, Baal, Beelphagor, Beelzebub, Beelzemer,
&c., all possess the attributes of Jupiter, and are the same with that
god.
The Buddha of India; Fohi, of the Chinese; Odin, or Woden, of the
Scandinavians; and Gwydion, of the Ancient Britons, correspond with
Mercury.
Vishnu, Brahma, Siva, and Krishna, the latter both of the Irish and
Sanscrit, correspond with Apollo; whilst Arun, of the Irish and Hindoo
superstitions, corresponds with the Aurora of the Greeks.
It is peculiarly interesting to mark in the writings of classic authors
the earlier traces of a correct explanation of the causes operating in
the changes observed in nature, and their influence in modifying the
mythological ideas of the period. Socrates penetrated so far in the
interpretation of certain physical phenomena as to discover that they
might be explained without having recourse to the idea of supernatural
agency. This is most interestingly shown in Aristophanes' comedy of "The
Clouds" (B.C. 440). In this comedy, written for the purpose of throwing
ridicule and contempt on the sophistical philosophy of Socrates,
Strepsiades, an aged and ignorant man, is represented as suffering from
the excesses and expenses of his son Phidippides. He conceives the idea
of studying logic, in order, by mere subtle reasoning, to overcome and
cheat his creditors. He enrols himself as a pupil of Socrates, and in
Act I, Scene 2, the following scene occurs:--
_Str._ Is not Olympian Jupiter our God?
_Soc._ What Jupiter? nay, jest not--there is none.
_Str._ How say'st thou? who then rains?--this first of all
Declare to me.
_Soc._ Why these (_the clouds_): by mighty signs
This I will prove to thee. Hast ever seen
Jove raining without clouds?--if it were so,
Through the clear fields of ether must he rain,
While these were far away.
_Str._ Now by Apollo,
Full well hast thou discours'd upon this point;
Till now, in truth, I thought 'twas Jupiter,
Distilling through a sieve. But tell me next,
Who is the thunderer?--this awakes my dread.
_Soc._ They thunder as they roll.
_Str._ But how, I pray?
Say, thou who darest all.
_Soc._ When they are fill'd
With water, and perforce impell'd along,
Driven precipitate, all full of rain,
They meet together, bursting with a crash.
_Str._ But who compels them thus to move along?
Is not this Jove?
_Soc._ No, but th'ætherial whirl.
In a subsequent part of the comedy (Act III, Scene 1) Strepsiades is
represented as speaking of this idea of a whirlwind as a deified being,
thus admirably showing the tendency of man to consider that which he
could not comprehend as the result of supernatural agency, and to
personify it.
_Str._ Thou swearest now, by Jove.
_Phid._ I do.
_Str._ Thou see'st how good it is to learn,
There is no Jove, Phidippides.
_Phid._ Who then?
_Str._ A whirlwind reigns; having driven him, Jove, away.
It would seem, also, that Socrates himself was subject to the influence
of this feeling; for a passage in Act V, Scene 1,[16] has led to the
conclusion "that in the school of Socrates was placed an earthen image
(δῖνος, the name of an earthen vessel as well as of the
_whirlwind_, who has usurped the honours and attributes of Jove). (See
Schol. ad Vesp. 617.) This, probably, was done by the philosopher as a
sort of compensation for having expelled Jupiter (τὸν Διά)
from his mythological system."[17]
II. But the ideas derived from the contemplation of natural phenomena
were not the sole sources of mythology, such as we have received it.
Other and most powerful causes operated, and of those next in degree of
importance were those feelings which prompted to the deification of men.
Persæus, a disciple of Zeno, "says, that they who have made discoveries
advantageous to the life of man, should be esteemed as gods; and the
very things, he says, which are healthful and beneficial, should have
divine appellations; so that he thinks it not sufficient to call them
the discoverers of gods, but that they themselves should be deemed
divine."[18]
The author of the "Book of Wisdom" in the Apocrypha, details other
causes which tended to the same result. He writes, (Chapter xiv, v.
15-21):--
"Thus, some parent mourning bitterly for a son who hath been taken from
him, makes an image of his child: and him who before was _to his family_
as a dead man, they now begin to worship as a god; rites and sacrifices
being instituted, to be observed by his dependents. And in process of
time, custom having established these as a law, an image set up by an
impious tyrant receives divine honours. A man being unable to render
such respect in their presence to those who dwelt remote from them, and
having received their likeness, brought from far, they have proceeded to
make a conspicuous image of any king to whom they inclined to pay divine
honours, by which means, though absent, the ruler receives their
solicitous homage, as though present with them. The exquisite pains
bestowed by the artist has likewise contributed to this worship of the
absent by ignorant men; for being willing to give perfect satisfaction
to him for whom he doth it, he avails himself of all the resources of
his art to produce a perfect resemblance. Thus the multitude, allured by
the beauty of the statue, come to regard as a god him whom before they
honoured but as a man. And this hath been the great delusion of
humanity, that out of affection for the dead, or subserviency to their
rulers, men have given to stocks and stones the incommunicable name of
God."
Most systems of mythology contain examples of deities which have been
derived from this source.
"It has been a general custom, likewise," writes Cicero,[19] "that men
who have done important service to the public should be exalted to
heaven by fame and universal consent. Thus Hercules, Castor and Pollux,
Æsculapius and Liber, became gods; * * * thus, likewise, Romulus, or
Quirinus--for they are thought to be the same--became a god. They are
justly esteemed as deities, since their souls subsist and enjoy
eternity, from whence they are perfect and immortal beings."
The Chinese, at the present day, deify and adore their deceased
emperors, as well as the spirits of eminent statesmen, scholars, martyrs
to virtue, &c.
It has occasionally happened that some great sage, on his apotheosis,
had attributed to him that which he had simply expounded during life,
and thus became the personification of the religious ideas he had
entertained. Buddha, who lived, as nearly as can be ascertained, about
1000 years before Christ, attempted to reform Brahminical India. After
death he was deified by his converts, and became the embodiment of the
principles he had advocated when on earth; and his name, with various
modifications, was applied to the system of cosmogony and religion which
he had advocated. The Grand Lamas (_Chaberons_) of Thibet are regarded
as incarnations (_avatars_) of Buddha, and as such are adored by the
Thibetians and the various tribes of Tartars who roam over the vast
district which extends from the banks of the Volga to Corea, in the Sea
of Japan.
After the persecution which terminated in the expulsion of the followers
of Buddha from Hindostan, the Hindoos, not content with their celestial
gods or heroes, extended their adoration to various living individuals,
particularly to the Brahmins and priests. Daughters under eight years of
age are worshipped by them as forms of the goddess Bhavani (_Venus_);
and at certain seasons of the year the Brahmin is worshipped by his
wife, and the wives of Brahmins by other men.
Some writers have thought that all the gods of the ancients consisted of
deified men. This is, however, an error; for the deification of men was
an act second in order to the worship of natural objects and phenomena.
The chronological position of this element of mythology has, among other
reasons, led Bonomi to arrive at some interesting conclusions on the
respective ages of the palaces of Nineveh.
On the walls of the palace at Khorsabad are found sculptured the winged
and human-headed bulls, emblems of wisdom or the sun, the four-winged
figures, typical of Ibis or Cronos, eagle-headed divinities, and other
figures, which are conceived to be symbolical of constellations, and of
astronomical phenomena. From these nobler and simpler ideas of Divinity
it is inferred, that when this palace was built the worship of the
Assyrians was comparatively pure. But on the walls of Nimroud, in
addition to the symbolical representations found at Khorsabad, there are
also indications of an increased number of divinities, from the presence
of deified men; hence a reason for the belief in the degeneracy of the
system of religion at the period when this palace was built, and
consequently its more recent date.[20]
III. Another element has also exercised a considerable influence upon
the mythologies of some nations, namely, _Scriptural narrative and
traditions_. It is not improbable that several of the heathen myths have
been derived from this source. Many, indeed, believe that all mythology
arises from corrupted Scripture, and it is asserted that Deucalion is
merely another name for Noah; Hercules for Samson; Arion for Jonah, and
Bacchus is either Nimrod or Moses--for the former supposition the
similarity of name being assigned; for the latter, among others, one of
the names and some of the actions of this God. Thus, Bacchus was named
_Bicornis, double-horned_; and the face of Moses appeared double-horned
when he came down from the mountain where he had spoken to God,--the
rays of glory darting from his brow having the semblance of radiant
horns. The Bacchæ drew waters from the rocks by striking them with their
thyrsi; and wherever they went, the land flowed with milk, honey, and
wine. Bacchus caused the rivers Orontes and Hydaspes to dry up, by
striking them with his thyrsus, and passed through them dry-shod,--an
action similar to that of Moses at the passage of the Red Sea, &c. That
Scripture narrative has had an important influence in determining the
formation of mythology, is highly probable; and we have already shown
that the primary revelation of a Godhead at the creation of man supplied
an important initial excitement to that development of the belief in the
supernatural which occurred subsequent to the fall of man. The influence
of Scriptural traditions on the myths of various nations it is probably
impossible to unravel satisfactorily.
IV. Again, it has been supposed that the myths of the ancients, and of
modern pagan nations, were allegorical; and that they were designed to
represent a philosophical, moral, or religious truth under a fabulous
form. Thus, the myth of the giant Typhon cutting away and carrying off
the sinews of Jupiter, and that they were afterwards stolen from him by
Mercury, and restored to Jupiter, is supposed to refer to powerful
rebellions, by which the sinews of kings--their revenue and
authority--are cut off; but by mildness of address, and wisdom of
edicts, influencing the people, as it were, in a stolen manner, they
recover their power and reconcile their subjects. And in the myth of the
expedition of the gods against the giants, when the ass Silenus became
of great service in dispersing them, on account of the terror excited by
his braying, it is considered to be an allegory of those vast projects
of rebels, which are mostly dissipated by light rumours and vain
consternation. Minerva was fabled to have been born out of the head of
Jupiter, because it was deemed that man did not in himself possess
wisdom, but he derived it from divine inspiration; and this goddess was
born armed, because a wise man clothed in wisdom and virtue is fortified
against all the harms of life.
This element has undoubtedly had an important influence in the formation
of the various myths, but it refers rather to an advanced stage in
mythology, and to that period of development when a nation has made some
progress in arts and literature.
These elements, and doubtless also others of which the effects are less
easily unfolded, _e.g._ intercourse between various nations, dispersion
of tribes, &c., have all exercised a greater or less degree of influence
on the development and formation of the mythologies of different
nations.
If we contemplate a race in the earlier phases of its existence, or one
degraded in the scale of being, we find that its ideas of the
supernatural are confined to the deification and worship of the simplest
and most striking of the objects and phenomena of nature: as it has
increased in civilization and learning, those deities have been
represented in symbolical forms; and as civilization and the cultivation
of the mind advances, and the knowledge of surrounding nature has become
increased, so have the number of deities been multiplied by the
deification of the less evident powers of nature, of kings, and of
distinguished men, and then also allegory has come into play. Every
variation in the character of a nation, and every era, has impressed
more or less distinct marks on its mythology; and mythology, as we
receive it now, is the sum of all those changes which have been
impressed upon it from its earliest formation.
When Christianity dawned upon the world, its effect was not the
immediate eradication or dispersion of the superstitious beliefs and
observances then entertained: it induced a change in the form and
nature of those beliefs.
At the commencement of the Christian era, certain men, inspired by the
Holy Ghost, were enabled to cast aside all those thoughts and feelings
derived from habit, education, and authority, and to receive at once, in
all its purity and fulness, the light of the gospel--perhaps the most
wonderful of all the miracles of Holy Writ. Such was not the case,
however, with the majority of the earlier Christians. They did not thus
throw off the superstitious beliefs of pagan origin, but modified them
so as to concur, as they thought, with Scripture.
Thus, the Scriptures enunciated the doctrine of one sole, omnipotent,
and omniscient God; and it fully defined a power of evil, and denounced
idolatry. Hence the early Christian fathers were led to conceive, and
teach, that the gods of the heathen were devils; and further, that their
history, attributes, and worship, had been taught to mankind by the
devils themselves.
"Powers that erst in heaven sat on thrones;
Though of their names in heavenly records now
Be no memorial,--blotted out and razed,
By their rebellion from the book of life,--
... wandering o'er the earth,
Through God's high sufferance for the trial of man,
By falsities and lies the greatest part
Of mankind they corrupted, to forsake
God their Creator, and the invisible
Glory of Him that made them to transform
Oft to the image of a brute adorn'd
With gay religions, full of pomp and gold,
And devils to adore for deities;
Then were they known to man by various names,
And various idols through the heathen world."[21]
This phase being given to the existing superstitions, it will readily be
understood how, under the form of devils, most of the principal classes
of deities in pagan mythology were retained and believed in. Thus the
elemental and primary gods of paganism were perpetuated under the name
of _fiends_, _dæmons_, _genii_, &c.; and the terms _salamanders_,
_undines_, &c., expressed certain spirits of fire and of water; in the
form of _fairies_, _elves_, _sylphs_, &c., were retained the graceful
Nymphs--Oreads, Dryads, &c.--of antiquity,--
"The light militia of the lower sky;"
the hidden parts of the earth were peopled with _dwarfs_, and other
spirits of a more powerful nature; and spectral apparitions frighted the
midnight hours of the watcher.
It is, therefore, to the retention of certain pagan superstitions in a
modified form, that we are to attribute the origin of the belief in
those unnumbered spirits, which, under the names of fiends, dæmons,
genii, fairies, fays, elves, sylphs, sprites, &c., have been supposed to
surround us, and have hampered the imaginations of all Christian
nations, and of which, to use the words of Pope--
"Some in the fields of purest æther play,
And bask and whiten in the blaze of day;
Some guide the course of wandering orbs on high,
Or roll the planets through the boundless sky;
Some, less refined, beneath the moon's pale light,
Pursue the stars that shoot athwart the night,
Or suck the mists in grosser air below,
Or dip their pinions in the painted bow,
Or brew fierce tempests on the wintry main,
Or o'er the glebe distil the kindly rain;
Others on earth o'er human race preside,
Watch all their ways, and all their actions guide."[22]
The belief that the heathen deities were devils, naturally led to the
further conclusion, that the priests who sacrificed to those gods, and
who were regarded as the medium of communication between the gods and
man, held immediate converse with devils,--a belief subsequently
extended to idolators in general, and to all those practising magic and
sorcery. Instances of the natural alliance of a mythological idea to a
Christian belief might be multiplied.
The power of evil, enunciated by the Scriptures, and spoken of as the
"_Devil_," was early reputed to have appeared in a visible form,
assuming the aspect of the god Pan, or of a faun or satyr, that is, a
horned figure, with hirsute frame, and the lower extremities of a goat,
which indeed, until recently, was considered to be the most orthodox
form of visibility for his Satanic Majesty. The connection of the power
of evil with the gods of the most gloomy and hidden parts of nature is
obvious: Pan, indeed, was the god of terror.
Frequently, also, Satan appeared under the form of a goat. The goat is
an emblem of the sin-offering, and of the wicked at the day of judgment;
hence it became symbolical of the Prince of Darkness, and in this form
the devil most commonly appeared to the Jews, according to the Rabbins.
In Leviticus (xvii. 7), where it is written "they shall no more offer
sacrifices to devils," it is literally, to "hairy-ones"--goats. The
symbol of the goat prompted to the nature of the form given to Pan in
the Grecian and Roman mythology. Indeed, the Greeks derived their
worship of that god from Egypt, where he was adored under the form of a
goat; and it is fabled that he captivated Diana under the aspect of a
white goat.
A singular superstition of the connection of the goat with Satan is
entertained in some districts of this island. It is asserted that a goat
is never visible for twenty-four hours consecutively, as once in that
time it must visit Satan to have its beard combed![23]
Another example of the wedding of a pagan myth to the Christian religion
is this:--Most heathen nations believed in the existence of deities
whose especial duty was to guard the threshold of the house, and prevent
the entrance of evil spirits.
The Grecians and Romans had their Penates and Lars, and the Genoese
retain the superstition at the present day.
The Lars (_familiares_) were the souls of men, who lingered about the
dwellings and places they had formerly inhabited and frequented. They
were represented by small images resembling monkeys, and covered with
dog's skin; and these images were placed in a niche behind the door, or
around the hearth. At the feet of the Lar was placed the figure of a
dog, to intimate vigilance; and special festivals were devoted to them
in the month of May, when offerings of fruit were presented, and the
images were crowned with flowers.