named Zeus, in all things the opposite of his grim sire; whence the people, delighted with his virtues, named him Father, and finally placed him on the throne. Kronos, aided by the other Titans, sought to recover his dominion; but the new monarch defeated him, and then ruled, the lord of the whole world and the benefactor of mankind. After his death he was deified by his grateful subjects.

We will not pursue any further these dreams of the mythographer, for the tasteless system never seems to have gained general credit. We therefore proceed to relate the further course of the Grecian mythology.

As we have already observed, the allegoric system of interpretation prevailed at the same time with the historic. This mode of exposition had begun to appear even before the Persian war ; it was employed by the sophists, and occasionally by Sókratés and Plató; but its greatest cultivators were the philosophers of the Stóic sect. It was chiefly physical truths that they deduced from the ancient mythes, and they generally regarded the gods in the light of personifications of the powers of nature. There were some, however, such as Anaxagoras and Antisthenés, who discovered moral ideas under the envelope of the mythe.

When the Romans became acquainted with Grecian literature, they identified the gods of Greece with such of their own deities as had a resemblance to them. Thus Hermés became Mercurius, Aphrodité Venus, and the mythes of the former were by the poets, and perhaps in the popular creed, applied to the latter. As in Greece, some believed, some disbelieved in the popular deities, and the former sought the solution of the mythes in the schools of philosophy or the temples of the mysteries. The valuable work of Cicero, On the Nature of the Gods, shows in an agreeable manner the ideas entertained on this subject by the most accomplished Romans of his time.

After the conflict had commenced between Heathenism and Christianity, the allegorising principle was applied to the former with still greater assiduity than heretofore. The New Platonists endeavoured by its aid, in union with Oriental mysticism, to show, that the ancient religion contained all that was required to satisfy the utmost needs of the human soul. The Fathers of the Church laid hold on the weapons thus presented to them, to defend the new and attack the old religion. By the aid of the principles of Euhémeros they robbed the gods of Greece of their divinity; by that of the allegorising principle of the Stoics they extracted truth from the legends of Greek theology, and discovered mystery in the simplest narratives and precepts of the Hebrew Scriptures.

Unfortunately in this process many of the mythes and practices of Heathenism became incorporated with the pure religion of the Gospel,' and Christianity also had soon a mythology of its own to display. On the final overthrow of Heathenism its mythology slept along with its history and literature the sleep of the dark ages; but at the revival of learning it was eagerly laid hold on by poets and artists, and it attracted the attention of antiquaries and philosophers. The various theories by which it was sought to reduce it to system, which we have already enumerated, were then revived or devised; and mythology forms at present an important branch of learning and philosophy.

Of late years the mythology of Greece has in the hands of men of genius and learning, especially in Germany, resumed the simple and elegant attire which it wore in the days of Homer and Hésiod, and in which the following pages will attempt to present it to the reader.

Literature of the Grecian Mythology.

A brief view of the literature of the Grecian mythology, or of the works whence our knowledge of it has been derived, seems a necessary supplement to the preceding sketch of its history.

The Ilias and the Odyssey, as the two great heroic poems which are regarded as the works of Homer are named, are the earliest occidental literary compositions now extant; yielding, however, in antiquity, to some parts of the Hebrew Scriptures and to the sacred books and epics of India. Their origin is enveloped in the deepest obscurity, and the questions whether they are the production of one or of many minds, whether they were originally written, or were orally transmitted for centuries, have for some years engaged the pens of critics. It seems to be now generally agreed that the two poems are the productions of different minds, and that in both there are interpolations, some of which are of no small magnitude, but that notwithstanding they may be regarded as faithful pictures of the manners and opinions of the Achæans or Greeks of the early ages. Beside the Ilias and the Odyssey, the ancients possessed some other narrative poems, which were ascribed, but falsely, to the same author. All these poems, however, have long since perished.

3

The age of Hésiod is equally uncertain with that of Homer. Three only of the poems ascribed to him have come down to us, viz. the didactic poem named Works and Days, the Theogony, and

1 Thus the popular idea of Hell is much more like the Tartaros of Plató and Vergil than the Gehenna of the New Testament.

2 The earliest modern work on this subject is Boccaccio's Genealogia Deorum, written in the fourteenth century.

3 Our own theory respecting the poems will be found in the Appendix.

the Shield of Héraklés. Hésiod was also said to be the author of a poem in four books named the Catalogues, or Eœæ,1 which related the histories of the heroines or distinguished women of the mythic ages; but of this also a few fragments have been preserved. The same is the case with the poems named the Melampodia, the Ægimios, and the Wedding of Kéyx, likewise ascribed to this ancient bard.

Homer and Hésiod were succeeded by a crowd of poets, who sang all the events of the mythic ages. The chief of these were Stasínos of Kypros, Arktínos of Milétos, Leschés of Lesbos, Kynæthos of Chios, Eumélos of Corinth, Agias of Trœzén, and Eugammón of Kyréné. Their poems were the Kypria, the Ethiopis, the Little Ilias, the Iliupersis or Taking of Ilion, the Nosta or Returns of the Chiefs, the Télegonia, or Death of Odysseus, &c. There were also Hérakleiæ, or poems on the subject of Héraklés, by Peisander, Panyasis, and other poets, a Théséis on the adventures of Théseus, poems on the wars of Thébes,2 a Titanomachia, an Amazonia, a Danaïs, a Phorónis, &c.

3

In the reign of Ptolemy Philadelphus, king of Egypt, the critic Zenodotos of Ephesos united several of these poems with the Ilias and Odyssey into one whole, commencing with the marriage of Heaven and Earth, and ending with the death of Odysseus. This was named the Epic Cycle, and it continued to be read during some centuries of the Christian æra. Of this, however, the Homéric portion alone has come down to us: for our knowledge of the events contained in the remainder of the Cycle we are chiefly indebted to the works of the later poets Quintus Smyrnæus, Koluthos, and Tryphiodóros, and to the various scholiasts or commentators and compilers.

The lyric succeeded the epic poets. Mythic legends were necessarily their principal materials, as their verses were mostly dedicated to the worship of the gods, or the praise of victors in the public games, or were sung at banquets or in funeral processions. These too have disappeared, excepting a portion of those of Pindar. It is much to be lamented, in a mythologic view, that so little remains of Stésichoros of Himera.

The tragedians followed: they took their subjects from the epic poems, and their remaining works preserve much mythic lore.

1 'Holai from the words oin or such as, with which each narrative began. See the commencement of the Shield.

2 The Thébaïs was ascribed to Homer. In the opinion of Pausanias (ix. 9, 5.) it was next in merit to the Ilias and Odyssey. There was another Thébaïs by Antimachos, but written at a much later period.

By far the best account of the Epic Cycle, its authors and contents, will be found in Welcker's excellent work, Der epische Cyclus (Bonn, 1853).

After the epic poetry had ceased, and writing, by means of the Egyptian papyrus, was become more common in Greece, a set of writers arose who related in succinct prose narratives, arranged in historic order, the various mythic legends which formed the Epic Cycle, the Eœæ, and other poems of the same nature. The principal of these writers were Pherekýdés, Akusiláos, and Hellaníkos; of their works also only fragments remain.

The historians, Hérodotos, Thukydidés and their followers, occasionally took notice of the mythic legends. Ephoros and Theopompos were those who devoted most attention to them, as their fragments still remaining show.

The sophists and philosophers employed the mythic form as the vehicle of their peculiar systems and ideas. Such was Prodikos' beautiful fiction of the Choice of Héraklés, and Protagoras' story of Prométheus and his brother.1

We are now arrived at the Alexandrian period. In this the mythes were treated in two different ways. Lykophrón, Euphorión, Apollónios, Kallimachos, and the remainder of the Pleias, as they were named, formed poems from them; while Apollodóros, following Pherekýdés, and adding the fictions of the tragedians, framed a continuous narrative of which an epitome alone has come down to us; and Kratés, Aristarchos, and the other editors of the ancient poets gave the legends a place in their commentaries.

The latin poets of the Augustan age drew largely on the Alexandrian writers, after whom chiefly they related in their verses the mythic tales of Greece, in general pure and unaltered, as appears from the Metamorphoses of Ovid, of whose legends the Greek originals can, with few exceptions, be pointed out.2

The summaries of Parthenius, Antoninus Liberalis and others contain numerous mythic legends, as also do the Scholia, or notes on the classic writers of Greece, especially those on Homer, Pindar, Apollónios, and Theokritos; those of Tzetzés on Hésiod and Lykophrón, and the tedious commentary of Eustathius on Homer. The notes of Servius on Vergil are also very valuable in this respect as likewise are the collections which go under the name of Julius Hyginus and the Violet-bed 3 of the empress Eudokia. It would be tedious to particularise all the other sources of information, for in fact there is hardly a classic writer in either language who does not relate or refer to some of the mythic legends of Greece; even the Fathers of the Church contribute to augment 1 Plato, Protagoras, p. 320.

2 As we proceed we shall be careful to do so whenever they can be discovered. 3 'Iwvid or Violarium. It forms the first volume of Villoison's Anecdota Græca.

our knowledge of the mythic tales of the religion against which their literary artillery was directed.

There is one author of a peculiar character, and whose work is of the most interesting nature, we mean Pausanias, who travelled in Greece in the second century of the Christian æra, and gathered on the spot the legends of the temples and the traditions of the people. He has thus preserved a number of mythic narratives unnoticed by preceding writers, which had probably been transmitted from father to son from the most remote times.

If to the sources already enumerated we add the long poem of Nonnos on the adventures of Dionýsos, we shall have given the principal authorities for the contents of the following pages. We have been thus succinct on the present occasion, as it is our intention to notice the literature of each of the mythic cycles in its proper place.1

CHAPTER III.

MYTHIC VIEWS OF THE WORLD AND ITS ORIGIN.

Mythic Cosmology.

For the due understanding of the mythology of a people, a knowledge of their cosmology, or views of the world, its nature, extent, and divisions, is absolutely requisite. Without it we shall be for ever falling into error; and by applying to the productions of the remote and infantile periods of society the just conceptions of the present day in geography and astronomy, give to them a degree of folly and inconsistency with which they cannot justly be charged.2 The earliest view of Grecian cosmology that we possess, is that contained in the poems of Homer. Next in antiquity is that of the poems of Hésiod, who flourished somewhat later, for he displays a much more extended knowledge of the earth than Homer appears to have possessed.

As navigation and the intercourse with foreign countries increased, just ideas respecting the more distant regions became more common among the Greeks, and districts were continually reclaimed from fable, and brought into the circuit of truth and knowledge. Not to speak of the philosophers and historians, we may discern in the poets of each succeeding age the progressively 1 On the subject of this section see Müller, Proleg. 81 seq.

2 We recommend the excellent works of Völcker on the Homeric and Mythic Geographies; and also that of Ukert on the Geography of the Greeks and Romans.