The mythology of Greece and Rome, with special reference to its use in art

The German word “sage” (legend) is really only a translation of the Greek word “mythos,” and is often used in that sense. But lately the custom has tacitly sprung up of employing the term “mythos” when speaking of the life or actions of the gods, and “sage” when speaking of those of heroes.

A large proportion of these myths are due to men’s observations of Nature, and her various active and creative forces, which appeared to their lively Southern fancy as manifestations of single supernatural beings. These were regarded, now as friendly, now as hostile, to man; and men therefore strove as eagerly to gain their favour as to appease their wrath. Of the appearance of the deities who thus manifested themselves in the workings of nature, men necessarily formed at first very crude and fantastic ideas. But later, when men emerged from the simple conditions of the early patriarchal epoch, and began to dwell in regular political communities, they gradually ceased to regard the gods as mere personifications of natural forces. They began to regard them as beings acting in accordance with unchangeable moral laws, and endowed with forms similar to those of men (Anthropomorphism). They brought the gods into connection with each other by means of genealogies in a great measure artificial, and built up a vast political system, which has its centre in Zeus, the “father of gods and men.”

Strange to say, however, it was only among the Greeks that this system of development prevailed. The nations of Italy still continued to regard their gods as mere natural forces—that looked down on them in a cold, strange fashion—of whose form and mode of life they had no clear idea. It was only later, when the Romans came into intellectual contact with their Greek neighbours, and began to study their language and literature, that they adopted the popular Greek conceptions concerning the gods. They now transferred existing myths, and fathered them on those of their own gods and goddesses who bore the closest resemblance to the Greek divinities, and harmonised best with their natural interpretation. Thus it was that the Roman Jupiter was identified with the Greek Zeus, Juno with Hera, Minerva with Athene; though for peculiar deities, such as Janus, they could find no Greek prototype.

II.—POPULAR IDEAS CONCERNING THE GODS.

We learn most concerning the conceptions the ancients formed of their gods from the numerous Greek and Roman poets whose works have come down to us, and who contributed so largely to the construction of the myths. First, both in antiquity and importance, are the poems attributed to Homer, in which we find the whole political system of Olympus, with Zeus at its head, already constructed.

Henceforth the gods, in outward appearance at least, are endowed with forms entirely human; more grand and beautiful and majestic, but still not verging on the monstrous or fantastic.

Not only in beauty and grandeur, but also in strength and vigour, do the gods surpass men. Let but Zeus shake his ambrosial locks, and the whole of Olympus trembles. The other deities are also endowed in proportion with great strength. As corporeal, indeed, they are limited in regard to space, and cannot therefore be omnipresent; but this restriction affects them far less than mortals, for they can compass the greatest distances at lightning speed. In a moment Athene drops from the heights of Olympus down to Ithaca; and Poseidon, the ocean-god, passes in three or four steps from Samothrace to Ægæ in Eubœa. Moreover, the gods can see and hear at a much greater distance than men. In regard to hearing, indeed, they seem to have unlimited powers. Prayers ascend to them from every place, irrespective of their personal presence. In the same manner Zeus, from his high throne in Olympus, sees all that passes among men, and, sitting on the highest summit of Mount Ida, he can follow all the events of the battle that rages before Troy.

On the other hand, the gods are subject to the same bodily wants as men. They refresh themselves in the same way with sleep, and have to support themselves with food and drink. Here again, however, they are far less fettered than mortals, for they can hold out much longer without satisfying these wants. Nor is their food so coarse as that of men; they live on ambrosia and nectar. Another natural necessity is clothing, on the tasteful ordering of which the goddesses even bestow extraordinary care, and in this, as in many other respects, greatly resemble the daughters of Eve. Although later art delights in representing some of the deities either slightly clothed or quite naked, yet we cannot justly conclude from this that the popular belief of the ancients conceived thus of those gods.

Gods endowed with frames like those of mortals must necessarily be born in the same way, and develope gradually both in mind and body. But here, again, everything proceeds with the utmost rapidity. For instance, the new-born Hermes rises from his cradle to steal the cattle of Apollo, and, coming into the world in the morning, he is found in the afternoon playing on the lyre, which he has himself invented. The most important point, however, in which they surpass mortals is that, when once in full possession of bodily and intellectual powers, they never grow old, but remain ever young and beautiful, ever free from disease and death. Compared with the race of men, who are subject to need and pain, they are the “happy,” “blessed” gods, the gods “who live at ease,” who can readily gratify every desire. But this does not by any means prevent their suffering occasionally from the pangs of sorrow and grief; they are vulnerable alike in body and soul, and exposed to every kind of painful sensation. So completely did the Greeks subject their gods to human passions.

As regards mental qualifications they are naturally far superior to men. In the first place, they stand higher morally; they shun all that is evil, impure, and unjust, and visit with punishment the impiety and injustice of man. This, again, does not prevent their giving way to every description of vice and folly, such as deceit, lying, hatred, cruelty, jealousy, &c. They are far from holy, therefore, in the sense in which we speak of the Supreme Being. Still less are they conceived as omniscient or omnipotent. Their powers indeed are great, and so is their knowledge. They are able to interrupt the course of nature—to send sudden storms, pestilences, and other evils—to endow themselves or others with any forms they like, and to do many other things, of which we read in fairy tales. But even Zeus, to whom a far greater measure of power is accorded than to other gods, and on whose will the government of the universe depends, is himself subjected to the immutable decrees of fate; whilst the possibility of deceiving and duping him is by no means excluded.

Where then are we to seek for the explanation of these apparent inconsistencies? We have already said that the active and creative forces of Nature were personified by the imagination of men. Let us take one of the first conceptions likely to spring up—that of the love of the heaven for the earth, from which all nature is born. Different names will be used in different localities; men will at last forget that they all once meant the same, and out of the simple personification will spring a series of divine marriages; or if one be recognised by the whole nation as the wife, the other brides will sink into mistresses.

So with the everlasting war of the sun with the clouds; we shall not only find several gods of the light in Greece, but almost every tribe had a particular hero, whose great deeds we shall generally find to be those of the sun. Yet in the midst of all this confusion, men had a feeling that there was something above them better and holier than they, to which that which is good and holy alone was pleasing. This idea was more and more attached to Zeus himself, as the notion grew that Zeus was the supreme god, the king of heaven.

PART I.—COSMOGONY AND THEOGONY.

By Cosmogony, we understand the legends relating to the creation of the world; by Theogony, those relating to the origin of the gods. On both points we have to deal with the Greeks alone, since the Romans never indulged in any researches of this kind. All that their poets have to say on the subject is, without exception, borrowed from the Greeks.

According to the common account the world was formed out of Chaos. By this, however, we must not understand a huge and shapeless mass, but merely dark, unbounded space. The accounts of the poets vary very materially as to how the world proceeded from Chaos. The most popular view is that according to which Gæa or Ge (the earth) first issued from Chaos; whereupon Tartarus (the abyss beneath the earth) immediately severed itself, and Eros (the love that forms and binds all things) sprang into existence. Gæa then begot of herself Uranus (heaven), the mountains, and Pontus (the sea).

The first gods who peopled this new world were begotten of the earth partly by Uranus and partly by Pontus. From her union with Uranus sprang the Titans, the Cyclopes, and the Centimanes; from her union with Pontus various sea-deities.

1. The race of Uranus. According to Hesiod there were twelve Titans: six males—Oceanus, Cœus, Crius, Hyperion, Iapetus, and Cronus; and six females—Thia, Rhea, Themis, Mnemosyne, Phœbe, and Tethys. The interpretation of these divinities is somewhat difficult, but they doubtless represented the elementary forces of nature. The Cyclopes were three in number—Brontes (thunder), Steropes (lightning), and Arges (sheet-lightning): these, we can clearly see, refer to the phenomena of the storm. The Centimanes (hundred-handed), again, are three in number—Cottus, Briareus, and Gyes. These, too, represent destructive forces of nature—perhaps the earthquake, the tempestuous sea, and the storm-wind.

2. The race of Pontus. By Pontus Gæa became the mother of the fabulous sea-deities—Nereus, Thaumas, Phorcys, Ceto, and Eurybia. These, again, had numerous descendants. Nereus represents the sea in its quiet state: we shall have to speak of him and his daughters later on. Thaumas represents to us the majesty of the sea. He is the father of Iris (the rainbow), and of the Harpies (storm-winds). Lastly, Phorcys and Ceto, from whose union the frightful Gorgons and Grææ proceeded, typify all the dangers and terrors of the sea.

Many marriages also took place among the Titans themselves. The numerous sea-nymphs are descended from Oceanus and Tethys; from Hyperion and Thia come the deities of the light—Helios (sun), Selene (moon), and Eos (dawn); from Cœus and Phœbe the deities of the night—Leto (dark night) and Asteria (starry night).

The most important of all the Titans, however, are Cronus and Rhea, who pave the way for the universal dominion of their son Zeus.

Uranus, fearing lest his last-born sons, the powerful Cyclopes and Centimanes, might one day seize his power, buried them directly after birth in the deep abyss beneath the earth. This displeased Gæa, their mother, who thereupon prompted the Titans to conspire against their father, and induced Cronus, the youngest and bravest of them, to lay violent hands on Uranus. Uranus was mutilated, cast into chains, and compelled by his sons to abdicate his sovereignty, which now passed to Cronus. But Cronus was not long destined to enjoy the fruits of his crime. The curse of Uranus, who prophesied that he would suffer a like fate at the hands of his own son, was fulfilled. So anxious was he to avert such a catastrophe, that he swallowed his children immediately after their birth. Five had already suffered this fate—Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, and Poseidon. But their mother Rhea, grieved at their lot, determined to rescue her next son, Zeus, by a stratagem. In the place of her child, she gave to her suspicious and cruel husband a stone wrapped in swaddling clothes, which he swallowed without further examination. Zeus, who was thus rescued, was reared by the nymphs in a grotto on Mount Dicte, in Crete. The she-goat Amalthea served as his nurse, whilst the bees brought him honey to eat. In order that the cries of the child might not betray his presence to his suspicious father, the Curetes, or attendant priests of Rhea, drowned his voice in the clashing of their weapons. Zeus remained thus hidden until he had become a mighty though youthful god. He then attacked and overthrew his father Cronus, whom he also compelled, by means of a device of Gæa, to bring forth the children that he had devoured. One part of the Titans—Oceanus, Themis, Mnemosyne, and Hyperion—submitted without hesitation to the dominion of the new ruler of the world. The others, however, refused allegiance; but Zeus, after a contest of ten years, overthrew them, with the help of the Cyclopes and Centimanes. As a punishment, they were cast into Tartarus, which was then closed by Poseidon with brazen gates. Thessaly, the land which bears the clearest traces of natural convulsions, was supposed to have been the scene of this mighty war. Zeus and his adherents fought from Olympus; the Titans from the opposite mountain of Othrys.