Greece;1 but the Athenians had a festival in his honour named the Kronia, which was celebrated on the twelfth day of the month Hecatombæón, i.e. in the end of July, and which, as described to us, strongly resembles the Italian Saturnalia.3 2 The only epithet given to Kronos by the elder poets is Crookedcounselled. This probably refers to his art in mutilating his sire. CHAPTER V. THE HOMERIC GODS IN GENERAL. FAMILIARITY, it is known but too well, is productive of indifference, and the greatest charms of nature and art lose most of their attractions in the eyes of those who are long and intimately acquainted with them. This is particularly the case with the beautiful mythology of Greece: we are in general familiar with its legends from an early age, but we view them detached and unconnected, ignorant of their real meaning, and of their place and importance in the system (though a loose one) to which they belong; and they therefore rarely produce their full effect on our minds. But did the Grecian mythology not enter into our literature, and were we to remain unacquainted with it till we should open the volumes of Homer, and peruse works like the present, There was a chapel of Kronos and Rhea at Athens (Paus. i. 18, 7), and sacrifices were made to him on the Kronian hill at Olympia (Id. vi. 20. 1): see also Ceb. Tab. init. 2 Demosth. Timocr. 708. 3 Philochorus (ap. Macrob. i. 10) says: "Saturno et Opi primum in Attica statuisse aram Cecropem......instituisseque ut patres familiarum et frugibus et fructibus jam coactis passim cum servis vescerentur...delectari enim deum honore servorum contemplatu laboris." Macrobius also (i. 7) gives the following lines from the Annals of the old poet Accius : Maxima pars Graium Saturno et maxime Athenæ Quisque suos. Nostrisque itidem est mos traditus illinc Comp. Athen. xiv. 44, 45. It seems, however, hardly credible that so remarkable a festival should be . unnoticed by all the extant Greek writers; and we cannot help thinking that the Greeks of the later times attempted to pass off their Kronia as the origin of the Saturnalia. Surely the vintage was not over in July. When Athénæos (xiv. 639) is enumerating the various festivals which resembled the Saturnalia he makes no mention of the Attic Kronia. 4 • 'Aykuλoμhtns. Nonnos (xxiv. 234) calls him Broad-bearded (cvpvyéveLOS). what a new world would burst on our sight,-how splendid would Olympos and its dwellers then arise to view! To present the gods in their Olympian abode, and exhibit a sketch of their life and occupations, are the objects of the present chapter.1 As has been already stated, the Greeks of the early ages regarded the lofty Thessalian mountain named Olympos as the dwelling of their gods. In the Odyssey, where the deities are of a character far more dignified and elevated than in the Ilias, the place of their abode shares in their exaltation; and it may almost be doubted if the poet who drew the following picture of Olympos could have conceived it to be no more than the summit of a terrestrial mountain. Olympos, where they say the ever-firm Seat of the gods is, by the winds unshaken, On which the happy gods aye dwell in bliss.2 3 We have observed above, that man loves to bestow his own form upon his gods, as being the noblest that he can conceive. Those of Homer are therefore all of the human form, but of far larger dimensions than men ;3 great size being an object of admiration both in men and women in those early and martial ages. Thus when the goddess Athéna ascends as driver the chariot of Diomédés, Loud groan'd the beechen axle with the weight, when in the battle of the gods 5 Arés is struck to the earth by this goddess, he is described as covering seven plethra of ground; the helmet of the goddess herself would, we are told, cover the footmen of a hundred towns; when Héra is about to make an oath she lays one hand on the earth, the other on the sea; the voices of Poseidon and Arés are as loud as the shout of nine or ten thousand men.8 7 The gods can however increase or diminish their size, assume the form of particular men, or of any animals,10 and make them1 Compare Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie, chap. xiv., and Bohlen, Das alte Indien, i. 182 seq. for the analogous ideas of the Scandinavians and Hindús. 2 Od. vi. 42 seq. comp. Lucret. iii. 18 seq. 3 See Il. xviii. 519. Even in the historic days the gods were in the popular idea of larger size than men: see Hérod. i. 60. Il. iv. 86; xiii. 45, 216. Od. i. 105; ii. 268. 5 Il. xxi. 407. 8 Il. v. 860; xiv. 148. 10 Il. vii. 58; xiv. 290. Od. iii. 371; xxii. 240: comp. Milt. Par. Lost, iv, 196. Heyne, however (on Il. vii. 58), denies these changes. F 3 selves visible and invisible at their pleasure.1 fheir bodies are also of a finer nature than those of men. It is not blood, but a blood-like fluid named ichór, which flows in their veins.2 They are susceptible of injury by mortal weapons: the arrows of Héraklés violate the divine bodies of Héra and Hadés; Diomédés wounds both Aphrodíté and Arés. They require nourishment as men do; their food is called Ambrosia, their drink Nectar. Their mode of life exactly resembles that of the princes and nobles of the heroic ages. In the palace of Zeus on Olympos they feast at the approach of evening, and converse of the affairs of heaven and earth; the nectar is handed round by Hébé (Youth), Apolló delights them with the tones of his lyre, and the Muses in responsive strains pour forth their melodious voices in song; when the sun descends, each god retires to repose in his own dwelling. They frequently partake of the hospitality of men,' travel with them, and share in their wars and battles.9 6 8 With the form, the Homeric gods also partake of the passions of men. They are capricious, jealous, revengeful, will support their favourites through right and wrong, and are implacable toward their enemies, or even those who have slighted them.1o Their power was held to extend very far; men regarded them as the authors of both good and evil; all human ability and success was ascribed to them. They were believed to have power over the thoughts of men, and could imperceptibly suggest such as they pleased." They required of men to honour them with prayer, and the sacrifice of oxen, sheep, goats, lambs and kids, and oblations of wine and corn, and fragrant herbs.12 When offended, they usually remitted their wrath if thus appeased.13 The Homeric gods have all different ranks and offices; Olympos being, in fact, regulated on the model of a Grecian city of the heroic ages. Zeus was king of the region of the air and clouds, which had fallen to him by lot on the dethronement of his father Kronos; the sea was the realm of his brother Poseidón; the underworld fell to Aïdés, in the division of their conquests; Earth and 1 Пl. i. 198. 3 Il. v. 392, 395. 2 Il. v. 340, 416. 5 A passage in the Odyssey (xii. 63) would seem to say that the ambrosia was brought each day by pigeons to Olympos from the shores of Ocean in the blissful West: see Appendix F. It would also appear that the partaking of this food conferred immortality: see Part II. ch. x. Tantalos. 6 Il. i. 601 seq. Il. i. 423. Od. i. 26, 125 seq.; vii. 201 seq. (Nitzsch in loc.) 8 Od. ii. 399 seq. 9 Il. v. 592 seq.; xiii. 43 seq. xiii. 794; xvii. 469. 11 It. i. 55; viii. 218; 12 Il. iv. 49; xxiv. 70. 10 Il. ix. 538. 13 T. ix. 497. Olympos were common property.1 Zeus, however, as eldest brother,2 exercised a supremacy, and his power was the greatest. The other inhabitants of Olympos were Héra the sister and spouse of Zeus, Apolló the god of music and archery, his sister Artemis the goddess of the chase, and their mother Létó, Aphrodíté goddess of love, and her mother Dióné, Arés god of war, Pallas-Athéné goddess of prudence and skill, Themis goddess of justice, Hermeias god of gain, Hébé the attendant of the Olympian king and queen, and Iris their messenger, Héphæstos the celestial artist and Pæéón the physician, and the Muses, the Graces, and the Seasons. Poseidon was frequently there; but Démétér the goddess of agriculture, and Dionysos the god of wine, do not appear among the residents of Olympos. The Nymphs and the River-gods occasionally visited or were summoned to it.3 E'ós, Hélios, and Seléné rose every day out of the Ocean-stream, and drove in their chariots through the air, shedding their cheering beams abroad. Of the residents of Olympos, its king and his son Héphæstos alone knew the pleasures or the pains of the wedded state. Arés and Hermeias intrigued occasionally with mortal women, but the character of Phobos-Apolló was of unstained purity. Of the goddesses, Aphrodíté alone could be charged with breach of chastity;" Artemis, Pallas-Athéné, Hébé, and Iris, were all spotless virgins. 5 All the dwellings of the gods upon Olympos were of brass or copper (xaλkós), the metal which was in the greatest abundance in Greece. Héphæstos was architect and smith; he formed all the arms, household furniture, chariots, and other articles in use among the Celestials; but their dress, especially that of the goddesses, appears to have been the workmanship of Pallas-Athéné or the Graces.7 The gold which proceeded from the workshop of Héphæstos was filled with automatic power; his statues were endowed with intelligence; his tripods could move of themselves; he made the golden shoes, or rather soles (médiλa)9 with which the 1 Пl. xv. 193. 3 Il. xx. 7. 9 5 We shall give in the sequel some reasons for regarding Il. ix. 559-564, as 6 Od. viii. ut supra. Il. v. 247, 248. an interpolation. 7 Il. v. 735; xiv. 178. 9 8 Il. xviii. 417. Ὑπὸ ποσσὶν ἐδήσατο καλὰ πέδιλα ἀμβρόσια, χρύσεια, τά μιν φέρον ἠμὲν ἐφ' ὑγρὴν, Il. xxiv. 340. Od. i. 96; v. 44. It is upon these verses that Voss founds his favourite theory (of which the idea appears to have been given by Eustathius) of these soles having a magic power, and of the gods being transported by them. But all that seems to be meant by the poet is that the gods, like men, put on their shoes when about to go any gods trod the air and the waters, or strode, with the speed of winds or even of thought,' from mountain to mountain upon the earth, which trembled beneath their weight." The chariots of the gods and their appurtenances were formed of various metals. That of Héra, for example, is thus described: $ Then Hébé quickly to the chariot put The round wheels, eight-spoked, brazen, on the strong And undecaying, but thereon of brass She tied the beauteous golden yoke, and bound 6 These chariots were drawn by horses of celestial breed, which could whirl them to and fro between heaven and earth through the yielding air, or skim with them along the surface of the sea without wetting the axle. They were only used on occasions of taking a long journey, as when Héra professes that she is going to the end of the earth to make up the quarrel between O'keanos and Téthys; or on occasions in which the gods wished to appear with state and magnificence. On ordinary occasions the gods moved by the aid of their golden shoes: when at home in their houses, they, like the men of those ages, went barefoot. The Titans, as we have seen, were twelve in number, six of each In like manner we find twelve Olympians, similarly divided. The gods were Zeus, Poseidón, Héphæstos, Hermés, Apolló, Arés; sex. where on foot. Another notion of his, that the horses of the gods were shod by Héphæstos, is certainly erroneous, for the Greeks did not shoe their horses. 1 Il. xv. 80. 2 Il. xiii. 18. 3 Il. v. 722 seq. The old, now provincial, term streaks (German Striche), signifying the separate pieces of iron which were nailed round the wheels of vehicles, seems exactly to correspond to the Greek níoσwτpa. We can hardly suppose the smiths of Homer's days to have understood the mode of shoeing in a hoop. 5 The earliest instances to be found of any other species of animal drawing the chariot of the gods are in Sapphó's Hymn to Aphrodité, where she describes the chariot of that goddess as drawn by sparrows; and in that of Alkaos to Apolló (below, ch. viii.), where the god has a team of swans. 6 Il. xiv. 300. 7. viii. 41 seq.; xiii. 23 seq. It is worthy of notice that while the chariots of men had sometimes three horses (Il. viii. 80 seq.; xvi. 148 seq.), or perhaps even four (viii. 185), those of the gods had never more than two I. v. 768; viii. 41 seq.; xiii. 23. Od. xxiii. 245. |