TALES OF THE GODS AND HEROES. INTRODUCTION. “Οσιον προτιμᾶν τὴν ἀλήθειαν. THE Mythology of the Greeks presents, at first tion of Greek heroic age. sight, as mysterious a problem as any that may perplex and bewilder even the soundest judgment. Their earliest extant literature Condiexhibits a state of society which has long society in since emerged from mere brutishness and barbarism. It has its fixed order and its recognised gradations, a system of law with judges to administer it, and a public opinion which sets itself against some faults and vices not amenable to legal penalties. It brings before us men who, if they retain, in their occasional ferocity, treachery, and malice, characteristics which belong to the savage, yet recognise the majesty of law and submit themselves to its government-who are obedient, yet not servile-who care for other B 1 than mere brute forces, who recognise the value of wise words and prudent counsels, and in the right of uttering them give the earnest of a yet higher and more developed freedom. It shows to us men who, if they regard all as enemies till by an outward covenant they have been made their friends, yet own the sanctity of an oath, and acknowledge the duty of executing true judgment between man and man-who, if they are fierce in fight, yet abhor mutilation, torture, and unseemly insult, and are willing to recognise merit in an enemy not less readily than in a friend. Above all, it tells us of men who in their home life are honest and truthful, who make no It cannot, of course, be maintained that this freedom was more than in its germ. The king has his Boulê or Council, where he listens to the chieftains whose judgment nevertheless he can override. There is also the Agora, where the people hear the determination at which their rulers have arrived, and in which justice is administered. The case of Thersites would imply a scanty right of opposition, while the complaints of Hesiod show that an unjust verdict could easily be obtained. But it was everything that a people should acknowledge Zeus to be the author of law, and allow the force of mind over matter even in their chieftains. Mr. Grote has brought out the imperfections of the Homeric society both in discussion and administration of justice (History of Greece, vol. ii. pp. 90-101). Mr. Gladstone presents the picture in a more favourable light (Homer and the Homeric Age, vol. ii. p. 122 &c.) profession of despising human sympathy and setting lightly by kindness, gentleness, and love. If here and there we get glimpses of a charity which seeks a wider range,' yet the love of wife and children and brethren is the rule and not the exception; and everywhere, in striking contrast with Athenian society in the days of Pericles and Aspasia, we see men and women mingling together in equal and pure companionship, free alike from the arrogance and servility of Oriental empires, and from the horrible vices which, if even then in germ, were not matured till the heroic ages had long passed away." Character of Homeric mythology. But these epic poems tell us also of gods, some of whom at least had all the vices and few of the virtues of their worshippers. They tell us of a supreme ruler and father of gods and men who had not always sat upon his throne, of other gods deposed and smitten down to dark and desolate regions, of feuds and factions, of lying 1 It is the praise of Axylos (who is slain by Diomedes) that φίλος ἦν ἀνθρώποισιν· πάντας γὰρ φιλέεσκεν ὁδῷ ἔπι οἰκία ναίων. Il. vi. 14. 2 To this more than to any other cause were owing even the political disasters of later Greek history. It may perhaps be said with truth that the evil did not exist in the Homeric age, but the canker had eaten very deeply into the heart of society before the days of Thucydides and Socrates. For its results see Thirlwall's History of Greece, vol. viii. ch. lxvi. p. 462 &c. and perjury, of ferocious cruelty and unmeasured revenge. They tell us of gods who delight in sensual enjoyments and care for little more than the fat of rams and goats, of gods who own no check to their passions, and recognise no law against impurity and lust. And even those gods who rise to a far higher ideal, exhibit characters the most variable and actions the most inconsistent. The same being is at different times, nay almost at the same time, just and iniquitous, truthful and false, temperate and debauched. And over all, whether good or bad, hangs the doom which shall one day be accomplished; for the Olympian king, whose power had its beginning, is not to reign for ever. between gical and religious belief. The contrast is very marked between the character of the people and that of their theology, Contrast if in any sense the latter deserves the mytholo name; nor can it be said that they were unconscious of the contrast. It is impossible for us to determine the extent to which that theology was believed, because it is not in our power to throw ourselves back wholly into their condition of thought; but if the absence of all doubt or reflection constitute faith, then their faith was given to the whole cycle of fables which made up the chronicles of their gods. But if we look to its influence on their practice, we can scarcely say that this huge fabric of mythology |