mother could not be assigned him than the nymph Lyrelovinga. It is highly probable that the whole history of this god was originally merely a philosophical mythe. Kronos evidently signifies time: he is the son of Heaven, by the motion of whose luminaries time is measured; he is married to Rhea (péa, flowingly), and time flows; he devours his own children, and time destroys what it has brought into existence. Perhaps, as has been ingeniously conjectured, Zeus, the god of the heaven, was poetically named Kroniôn, that is the Son of Time, and this led to the giving a separate and distinct existence to this deity. Kronos was in after times confounded with the grim deity Moloch, to whom the Tyrians and Carthaginians offered their children in sacrifice. The slight analogy of this practice with the legend of Kronos devouring his children, may have sufficed for the Greeks to infer an identity of their ancient deity with the object of Phoenician worship. It was not improbably the circumstance of both gods being armed with a sickle, which led to the inference of Kronos being the same with the Saturnus of the Latins. The fabled flight of this last from Olympos to Hesperia, and his there establishing the golden age, may have been indebted for its origin to the legend of the reign of Kronos over the Islands of the Blest in the western stream of Ocean. There were no temples of Kronos in Greece; but the Athenians had a festival in his honour named the Kronia, which was celebrated on the twelfth day of the month Hecatombæôn, i. e. in the end of Julyf, and which, as described to us, strongly resembles the Italian Saturnalia. a Þúpa, quasi piλíλvpa. Welcker, Nachtrag zur Tril. 53. note. * There is scarcely any difference between Κρόνος and χρόνος. “ Χρόνος ὁ TáνTOV пατÝр." Pind. Ol. ii. 32. Hermann renders Kronos Perficus, from кpaivш. © Welcker, Tril. 96. We cannot, however, agree with this critic that Rhea is equivalent to Gæa, Earth. See below, Mythology of Italy, Saturnus; and Buttmann, Ueber den Kronos oder Saturnus, Mytholog. ii. 28. seq. 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.) f Demosth. Timocr. 708. Philochorus ap. Macrob. i. 10. "Ut patres familiarum et frugibus et fruc The only epithet given to Kronos by the elder poets is Crooked-counselleda. This probably refers to his art in mutilating his sire. tibus jam coactis passim cum servis vescerentur...delectari enim deum honore servorum contemplatu laboris." Macrobius also gives the following lines from the Annals of the old poet Accius. Maxima pars Graium Saturno et maxime Athenæ Conficiunt sacra quæ Cronia esse iterantur ab illis : Quisque suos. Nostrisque itidem est mos traditus illinc It seems 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. See Böttiger, Kunst-Myth. i. 222. 1'Aуkvλoμńτns. Nonnus (xxv. 234.) calls him Broad-bearded (cvpvyévelos). CHAPTER V. THE HOMERIC GODS IN GENERAL. FAMILIARITY 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 place and importance in the system (though a loose one) to which they belong; 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, 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. 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. 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 men2; great size being an object of admiration both in men and women in those early and martial ages. Thus when the goddess Athenab ascends as driver the chariot of Diomedes, Loud groan'd the beechen axle with the weight, For a great god and valiant chief it bore. When in the battle of the gods Ares is struck to the earth by Athena, he is described as covering seven plethra of ground, and the helmet of the goddess herself would, we are toldd, cover the footmen of a hundred towns. The voices of Poseidon and Ares are as loud as the shout of nine or ten thousand mene. The gods can however increase or diminish their size, assume the form of particular men, or of any animals, and make themselves visible and invisible at their pleasure. Their 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. They are susceptible of injury by mortal weapons: the arrows of Hercules violate the divine bodies of Hera and Hadesk; Diomedes wounds both Aphrodite and Ares1. They require nourishment as men do; their food is called Ambrosia, their drink Nectarm. 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 Hebe (Youth), Apollo delights them with the tones of his lyre, and the Muses in responsive strains * Even in the historic days the gods were in the popular idea of larger size than men. See Herod. i. 60. b Il. v. 837. See Hom. Hymn iv. 173. Il. v. 744. Heyne, in loc. Il. iv. 86; xiii. 45, 216. Od. i. 105; ii. 268. II. xxi. 407. e II. v. 860; xiv. 148. Il. vii. 58; xiv. 290. Od. iii. 371. Heyne however (on Il. vii. 58.) denies these changes. Il. i. 198. i Il. v. 340. 416. II. v. 335. 855. * II. v. 392. 395. 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.). pour forth their melodious voices in song. When the sun descends, each god retires to repose in his own dwellinga. They frequently partake of the hospitality of men, travel with them, and share in their wars and battles. 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 theme. 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 herbss. When offended, they usually remitted their wrath if thus appeased. 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 Poseidôn; the under-world fell to Aïdes, in the division of their conquests; Earth and Olympos were common propertyi. Zeus however, as eldest brotherk, exercised a supremacy, and his power was the greatest. The other inhabitants of Olympos were Hera the sister and spouse of Zeus, Apollo the god of music and archery, his sister Artemis the goddess of the chace, and their mother Leto, Aphrodite goddess of love, and her mother Dione, Ares god of war, Pallas Athene goddess of prudence and skill, Themis goddess of justice, Hermeias god of gain, Hebe the attendant of the Olympian king and queen, and Iris their messenger, Hephaestos the celestial artist and Paeon the physician, and the Muses, the |