ment; and in this capacity he is married to his sister Juno, who represented the air, and had Iris, the rainbow, for her attendant and messenger. According to another account Jupiter was the sun of Saturn, or Time, and Rhea, the earth. Cretans were accustomed to show the grotto on Mount Ida where he was born, and the sepulcher where he was buried. But these traditions excited the ridicule and indignation of other Greeks. All this is fiction,' exclaims Callimachus, 'for thou, O Father, livest forever.'" Further on the same authoress continues: "The old Brahmanical idea that every sin must have its prescribed amount of punishment, and that the gods would accept the life of .one person as atonement for the sins of others, prevailed also in Greece and Rome; but there it mainly took the form of heroic self-sacrifice for the public good. Cicero says, 'The force of religion was so great among our ancestors that some of their commanders have, with their faces veiled, and with the strongest expressions of sincerity, sacrificed themselves to the immortal gods to save their country.' An oracle having declared that the Athenians would overcome the Thracians if the daughter of the king was sacrificed to the gods, she cheerfully offered to die. Afterward his three other daughters volunteered themselves as victims to avert a pestilence supposed to be sent in punishment for the sins of the people. The plague was stayed, and the public testified gratitude by erecting a temple to their memory. In times of calamity it was common in some parts of the country for a young man to offer himself as an expiatory sacrifice to Apollo. He was very richly dressed, and after various religious ceremonies ran full speed to a precipice, whence he threw himself into the sea. Codrus, the last king of Athens, sought death in the fore-front of the battle because an oracle had declared that they whose general should be slain would gain the victory." "In primitive ages, when men lived mostly on vegetables, they offered only water, grain, salt, fruit, and flowers to the gods to propitiate them, and thereby obtain temporal blessings. But when they began to eat meat and spices and drink wine they offered the same, naturally supposing the deities would be pleased with whatever was useful or agreeable to them selves. They imagined that some gods were partial to human victims, some to animals, others to fruits and flowers. To the celestial gods they offered white victims at sunrise or in open day. To the Manes and infernal deities they sacrificed black animals in the night. Each god had some creature peculiarly devoted to his worship. They sacrificed a bull to Mars, a dove to Venus, and to Minerva a heifer without blemish, which had never been put to the yoke. If a man was too poor to sacrifice a living animal, he offered an image of one made with bread. The temples were filled with votive offerings, such as garlands, crowns, vases, and golden cups. In the temples of Esculapius were a multitude of eyes, ears, hands, feet, and other members of the human body, made of wax, silver, or gold, and presented by those whom the god had cured of blindness, deafness, and other diseases. Sailors carried small ships to Neptune, in token of gratitude for being saved from shipwreck. Fishermen suspended nets in honor of the Nereids. Groves consecrated to Pan were hung with pipes and garlands by shepherds, thankful for the multiplication of their flocks and herds. Sometimes tablets were affixed to the walls of the temples, explaining the cause of the offerings. In solemn promises and contracts men invoked the gods and women the goddesses. They swore by the Manes of ancestors, by the spirits of sun, moon, stars, earth, and rivers; but they deemed it irreverent to do so on slight occasions. Before every undertaking, great or small, all classes invoked the assistance of the gods. They burned incense or poured libations of wine on the altars, with prayers, before they started on a journey or entertained a stranger or retired to sleep. At the rising or setting of the sun or moon, people throughout Greece might be seen prostrating themselves and uttering invocations to the deities. Humble dependence on the gods and frequent prayers were everywhere strictly inculcated. Mortals were taught to expect divine assistance in the hour of need in proportion to the number and value of their offerings. Some carried their devotional feelings to such an extreme degree that they spent nearly all their time in offerings, prayers, and sacrifices. The most universal and earnest entreaty was that their children might survive them, it being considered a great misfortune to leave no one in the world who would consider it a sacred duty to perform religious ceremonies for their departed souls. The Spartans never used but one form of prayer, and that was very laconic: 'May the gods grant whatever is honorable and good for us, and enable us to endure misfortunes.' In every part of Greece the hearth-stone was sacred to Vesta, goddess of fire. If any wanderer took refuge there, though he might be the most deadly enemy, he was safe from hostility, and had his wants supplied. They not only scrupulously observed all the religious rites handed down by their ancestors, but in Athens they kept a solemn feast every new moon in honor of all the gods, including those of other nations with whom they were connected by commerce. So fearful were they of omitting any, they even erected altars to unknown gods. The welfare of individuals and the prosperity of the state were supposed to be hazarded by any neglect of the established worship." "On some great national occasions they sacrificed a hundred or even a thousand animals at a time. All persons admitted to solemn sacrifices were required to abstain from sensual pleasures for several days previcus, and perform ceremonies of purification with water brought from fresh, flowing streams. In the vestibule of temples stood a marble vase filled with holy water, with which all who were admitted to the interior were sprinkled as they passed. Water consecrated by priests was considered efficacious as a preservative from evil and to cleanse from all pollution. It was called lustral water, from a word signifying to purify. It was used to sprinkle the mar kets, the fountains, and the streets of cities in times of pestilence, and was always employed at funerals, the presence of death being regarded as contaminating. "The priests wore rich robes, of colors suited to the occasion, and not bound by any girdle. They sacrificed to Ceres in white, to the celestial gods in purple, and to the infernal ones in black. If they had touched a dead body or a diseased person, or their garments had in any way been polluted, it was unlawful for them to officiate. Sometimes they wore a miter, and were always crowned with laurel and other gar lands. While they prayed they held green branches in their hands, usually of laurel or olive. If doubtful whether their petitions would be granted, they touched the knees of the statues with these boughs; if hopeful, they touched the right hand, but never the left, because that was deemed unlucky. Sometimes, in extreme humility of supplication, they kissed the feet of the statue, and knelt or prostrated themselves on the ground. They prayed to the celestial gods with hands uplifted toward heaven or the image of him they addressed, and concluded by kissing their right hand to the statue; but when they invoked the subterranean deities they turned their hands downward. The animals to be sacrificed having been examined by the priests and pronounced unblemished, were led to the temple covered with garlands. Sometimes, on occasion of solemn thanksgiving, their horns were gilded The altar was three times sprinkled by dipping a laurel branch in holy water, and the people assembled round it were three times sprinkled also. Frankincense was taken from the censer with three fingers, and strewed upon the altar three times, that number being scrupulously observed in most religious ceremonies, because an oracle had declared that all sacred things ought to be in threes. Before the sacrifice the chief priest called upon the assembly to unite with him in prayer that the gods would accept their offerings, and grant them health and happiness. He then took a cup of wine, and having tasted it himself he caused the people to do the same, and poured the remainder between the horns of the victim. If the beast escaped the sacrificing stroke, or struggled or bel lowed, it was thought an unlucky omen. Portions were reserved for the priests and servitors of the temple, and the remainder was burned with frankincense and wine. When the ceremonies were all completed, they had a great feast. They used awful forms of imprecation to invoke the infernal deities. The curses of parents, kings, priests, or prophets were peculiarly dreaded, it being thought there was no possible way to avoid the effects. Homer thus describes a woman whose son had killed his uncle: "She beat the ground, and called the powers beneath "Alcibiades, being accused of mutilating the statues of Hermes, and imitating the mysteries of Ceres, was sentenced to exile from Athens, and to be cursed by all the priests and priestesses. They all obeyed except Theano, who said she was appointed to the priesthood to bless, not to curse. It was a common opinion that prayers were more efficacious in an ancient tongue, because gods better liked the primitive language of men, as being nearer to nature. Hence it was usual for magicians to pronounce their incantations in words unknown to the people. "The religious festivals of Greece were very numerous and some of them exceedingly magnificent. They had flowery. processions in the spring-time, and processions with sheafofferings in the autumn. The days observed in the honor of deities and heroes were innumerable. It was a law that during any of their great religious festivals no person should be insulted or slandered. The most solemn of them all were the mysteries of Isis, introduced from Egypt, and called by the Greeks the Eleusinian Mysteries, sacred to Ceres. The men and women initiated into these mysteries were thought to be peculiarly under the care of the gods in this life, and secure of the best places in Elysium Not to observe them was a reproach to any public man. The enemies of Socrates brought it as a heavy charge against him. No foreigner was admitted, and if any uninitiated person happened to be present by mistake he was put to death. If a member divulged any portion of the secrets, he was condemned to die; and it was deemed unsafe to remain under the same roof with him, for fear of some divine judgment, The poet Eschylus was in danger of losing his life because he was suspected of having alluded to the mysteries in one of his dramas. No person who had accidentally killed another, or been guilty of any crime, or convicted of witchcraft, was allowed to enter. To some of the interior mysteries none but priests were ever admitted. The high-priest who officiated on these occasions |