Mosaics of Grecian History Part 7

CHAPTER II.

THE FABULOUS AND LEGENDARY PERIOD OF GRECIAN HISTORY.

I. GRECIAN MYTHOLOGY.

As the Greeks, in common with the Egyptians and other Eastern nations, placed the reign of the G.o.ds anterior to the race of mortals, Grecian mythology--which is a system of myths, or fabulous opinions and doctrines respecting the universe and the deities who were supposed to preside over it--forms the most natural and appropriate introduction to Grecian history.

Our princ.i.p.al knowledge of this system is derived from the works of Homer, He'si-od, and other ancient writers, who have gathered the floating legends of which it consists into tales and epic poems, many of them of great power and beauty. Some of these legends are exceedingly natural and pleasing, while others shock and disgust us by the gross impossibilities and hideous deformities which they reveal. Yet these legends are the spontaneous and the earliest growth of the Grecian mind, and were long accepted by the people as serious realities. They are, therefore, to be viewed as exponents of early Grecian philosophy,--of all that the early Greeks believed, and felt, and conjectured, respecting the universe and its government, and respecting the social relations, duties, and destiny of mankind,--and their influence upon national character was great.

As a Scotch poet and scholar of our own day well remarks,

Old fables these, and fancies old!

But not with hasty pride Let logic cold and reason bold Cast these old dreams aside.

Dreams are not false in all their scope: Oft from the sleepy lair Start giant shapes of fear and hope That, aptly read, declare Our deepest nature. G.o.d in dreams Hath spoken to the wise; And in a people's mythic themes A people's wisdom lies.

--J. STUART BLACKIE.

According to Grecian philosophy, first in the order of time came Cha'os, a heterogeneous ma.s.s, containing all the seeds of nature.

This was formed by the hand of an unknown G.o.d, into "broad-breasted Earth" (the mother of the G.o.ds), who produced U'ra.n.u.s, or Heaven.

Then Earth married Ura.n.u.s, or Heaven; and from this union came a numerous and powerful brood--the Ti'tans, and the Cyclo'pes, and the G.o.ds of the wintry season Kot'-tos, Bria're-us, and Gy'ges, who had each a hundred hands), supposed to be personifications of the hail, the rain, and the snow.

The t.i.tans made war upon their father, Ura.n.u.s, who was wounded by Chro'nos, or Saturn, the youngest and bravest of his sons.

From the drops of blood which flowed from the wound and fell upon the earth sprung the Furies, the Giants, and the Me'lian nymphs; and from those which fell into the sea sprang Venus, the G.o.ddess of love and beauty. Ura.n.u.s being dethroned, Saturn was permitted by his brethren to reign, on condition that he would destroy all his male children. But Rhe'a (his wife), unwilling to see her children perish, concealed from him the birth of Zeus' (or Jupiter), Pos-ei'don (or Neptune), and Pluto.

THE BATTLE OF THE GIANTS.

The t.i.tans, informed that Saturn had saved his children, made war upon him and dethroned him; but he was soon restored by his son Jupiter. Yet Jupiter soon afterward conspired against his father, and after a long war with him and his giant progeny, that lasted full ten years, he drove Saturn from the kingdom, which he held against the repeated a.s.saults of all the G.o.ds, who were finally destroyed or imprisoned by his overmastering power. This contest is termed "the Battle of the Giants," and is very celebrated in Grecian mythology. The description of it which HESIOD has given in his Theogony is considered "one of the most sublime pa.s.sages in cla.s.sical poetry, conceived with great boldness, and executed with a power and force which show a masterly though rugged genius.

It will bear a favorable comparison with Milton's 'Battle of the Angels,' in Paradise Lost." We subjoin the following extracts from it:

The immeasurable sea tremendous dashed With roaring, earth resounded, the broad heaven Groaned, shattering; huge Olympus reeled throughout, Down to its rooted base, beneath the rush Of those immortals. The dark chasm of h.e.l.l Was shaken with the trembling, with the tramp Of hollow footsteps and strong battle-strokes, And measureless uproar of wild pursuit.

So they against each other through the air Hurled intermixed their weapons, scattering groans Where'er they fell.

The voice of armies rose With rallying shout through the starred firmament, And with a mighty war-cry both the hosts Encountering closed. Nor longer then did Jove Curb down his force, but sudden in his soul There grew dilated strength, and it was filled With his omnipotence; his whole of might Broke from him, and the G.o.dhead rushed abroad.

The vaulted sky, the Mount Olympus, flashed With his continual presence, for he pa.s.sed Incessant forth, and lightened where he trod.

Thrown from his nervous grasp the lightnings flew, Reiterated swift; the whirling flash, Cast sacred splendor, and the thunder-bolt Fell. Then on every side the foodful earth Roared in the burning flame, and far and near The trackless depth of forests crashed with fire; Yea, the broad earth burned red, the floods of Nile Glowed, and the desert waters of the sea.

Round and round the t.i.tans' earthy forms Rolled the hot vapor, and on fiery surge Streamed upward, swathing in one boundless blaze The purer air of heaven. Keen rushed the light In quivering splendor from the writhen flash; Strong though they were, intolerable smote Their orbs of sight, and with bedimming glare Scorched up their blasted vision. Through the gulf Of yawning chaos the supernal flame Spread, mingling fire with darkness.

The whirlwinds were abroad, and hollow aroused A shaking and a gathering dark of dust, Crushing the thunders from the clouds of air, Hot thunder-bolts and flames, the fiery darts Of Jove; and in the midst of either host They bore upon their blast the cry confused Of battle, and the shouting. For the din Tumultuous of that sight-appalling strife Rose without bound. Stern strength of hardy proof Wreaked there its deeds, till weary sank the war.

--Trans. by ELTON.

Thus Jupiter, or Jove, became the head of the universe; and to him is ascribed the creation of the subsequent G.o.ds, of man, and of all animal life, and the supreme control and government of all. His supremacy is beautifully sung in the following hymn by the Greek philosopher CLE-AN'THES, said to be the only one of his numerous writings that has been preserved. Like many others of the ancient hymns of adoration, it presents us with high spiritual conceptions of the unity and attributes of Deity; and had it been addressed to Jehovah it would have been deemed a grand tribute to his majesty and a n.o.ble specimen of deep devotional feeling.

Hymn to Jupiter.

Most glorious of th' immortal powers above-- O thou of many names--mysterious Jove!

For evermore almighty! Nature's source, That govern'st all things in their ordered course, All hail to thee! Since, innocent of blame, E'en mortal creatures may address thy name-- For all that breathe and creep the lowly earth Echo thy being with reflected birth-- Thee will I sing, thy strength for aye resound!

The universe that rolls this globe around Moves wheresoe'er thy plastic influence guides, And, ductile, owns the G.o.d whose arm presides.

The lightnings are thy ministers of ire, The double-forked and ever-living fire; In thy unconquerable hand they glow, And at the flash all nature quakes below.

Thus, thunder-armed, thou dost creation draw To one immense, inevitable law; And with the various ma.s.s of breathing souls Thy power is mingled and thy spirit rolls.

Dread genius of creation! all things bow To thee! the universal monarch thou!

Nor aught is done without thy wise control On earth, or sea, or round the ethereal pole, Save when the wicked, in their frenzy blind, Act o'er the follies of a senseless mind.

Thou curb'st th' excess; confusion to thy sight Moves regular; th' unlovely scene is bright.

Thy hand, educing good from evil, brings To one apt harmony the strife of things.

One ever-during law still binds the whole, Though shunned, resisted, by the sinner's soul.

Wretches! while still they course the glittering prize, The law of G.o.d eludes their ears and eyes.

Life then were virtue, did they this obey; But wide from life's chief good they headlong stray.

Now glory's arduous toils the breast inflame; Now avarice thirsts, insensible of shame; Now sloth unnerves them in voluptuous ease, And the sweet pleasures of the body please.

With eager haste they rush the gulf within, And their whole souls are centred in their sin.

But oh, great Jove! by whom all good is given-- Dweller with lightnings and the clouds of heaven-- Save from their dreadful error lost mankind!

Father, disperse these shadows of the mind!

Give them thy pure and righteous law to know, Wherewith thy justice governs all below.

Thus honored by the knowledge of thy way, Shall men that honor to thyself repay, And bid thy mighty works in praises ring, As well befits a mortal's lips to sing; More blest nor men nor heavenly powers can be Than when their songs are of thy law and thee.

--Trans, by ELTON.

Jupiter is said to have divided the dominion of the universe between himself and his two brothers, Neptune and Pluto, taking heaven as his own portion, and having his throne and holding his court on Mount Olympus, in Thessaly, while he a.s.signed the dominion of the sea to Neptune, and to Pluto the lower regions--the abodes of the dead. Jupiter had several wives, both G.o.ddesses and mortals; but last of all he married his sister Juno, who maintained permanently the dignity of queen of the G.o.ds. The offspring of Jupiter were numerous, comprising both celestial and terrestrial divinities. The most noted of the former were Mars, the G.o.d of war; Vulcan, the G.o.d of fire (the Olympian artist who forged the thunder-bolts of Jupiter and the arms of all the G.o.ds); and Apollo, the G.o.d of archery, prophecy, music, and medicine.

"Mine is the invention of the charming lyre; Sweet notes, and heavenly numbers I inspire.

Med'cine is mine: what herbs and simples grow In fields and forests, all their powers I know, And am the great physician called below."

--Apollo to Daphne, in OVID'S Metam. PRYDEN'S Trans.

Then come Mercury, the winged messenger, interpreter and amba.s.sador of the G.o.ds; Diana, queen of the woods and G.o.ddess of hunting, and hence the counterpart of her brother Apollo; and finally, Minerva, the G.o.ddess of wisdom and skill, who is said to have Sprung full-armed from the brain of Jupiter.

Besides these divinities there were many others--as Ceres, the G.o.ddess of grain and harvests; and Vesta, the G.o.ddess of home joys and comforts, who presided over the sanct.i.ty of the domestic hearth. There were also inferior G.o.ds and G.o.ddesses innumerable--such as deities of the woods and the mountains, the meadows and the rivers--some terrestrial, others celestial, according to the places over which they were supposed to preside, and rising in importance in proportion to the powers they manifested. Even the Muses, the Fates, and the Graces were numbered among Grecian deities.

But while, undoubtedly, the great ma.s.s of the Grecian people believed that their divinities were real persons, who presided over the affairs of men, their philosophers, while encouraging this belief as the best adapted to the understanding of the people, took quite a different view of them, and explained the mythological legends as allegorical representations of general physical and moral truths. Thus, while Jupiter, to the vulgar mind, was the G.o.d or the upper regions, "who dwelt on the Summits of the highest mountains, gathered the clouds about him, shook the air with his thunder, and wielded the lightning as the instrument of his wrath,"

yet in all this he was but the symbol of the ether or atmosphere which surrounds the earth; and hence, the numerous fables of this monarch of the G.o.ds may be considered merely as "allegories which typify the great generative power of the universe, displaying itself in a variety of ways, and under the greatest diversity of forms."

So, also, Apollo was, in all likelihood, originally the sun-G.o.d of the Asiatic nations; displaying all the attributes of that luminary; and because fire is "the great agent in reducing and working the metals, Vulcan, the fire-G.o.d, naturally became an artist, and is represented as working with hammer and tongs at his anvil. Thus the Greeks, instead of worshipping Nature, worshipped the Powers of Nature, as personified in the almost infinite number of their deities.

The process by which the beings of Grecian mythology came into existence, among an ardent and superst.i.tious people, is beautifully described by the poet WORDSWORTH as very naturally arising out of the

Teeming Fancies of the Greek Mind.

The lively Grecian, in a land of hills, Rivers, and fertile plains, and sounding sh.o.r.es, Under a copse of variegated sky, Could find commodious place for every G.o.d.

In that fair clime the lonely herdsman, stretched On the soft gra.s.s through half a summer's day, With music lulled his indolent repose; And in some fit of weariness, if he, When his own breath was silent, chanced to hear A distant strain, far sweeter than the sounds Which his poor skill could make, his fancy fetch'd Even from the blazing chariot of the sun A beardless youth, who touched a golden lute, And filled the illumined groves with ravishment.

The night hunter, lifting a bright eye Up toward the crescent moon, with grateful heart Called on the lovely wanderer who bestow'd That timely light to share his joyous sport.

And hence a beaming G.o.ddess, with her nymphs, Across the lawn, and through the darksome grove (Not unaccompanied with tuneful notes, By echo multiplied from rock or cave), Swept in the storm of chase, as moon and stars Glance rapidly along the clouded heaven When winds are blowing strong. The traveller slacked His thirst from rill or gushing fount, and thank'd The Naiad. Sunbeams, upon distant hills Gliding apace, with shadows in their train, Might, with small help from fancy, be transformed Into fleet Oreads sporting visibly.

The Zephyrs fanning, as they pa.s.sed, their wings, Lacked not for love fair objects, whom they wooed With gentle whisper. Withered boughs grotesque, Stripped of their leaves and twigs by h.o.a.ry age, From depth of s.h.a.ggy covert peeping forth In the low vale, or on steep mountain side-- And sometimes intermixed with stirring horns Of the live deer, or goat's depending beard-- These were the lurking Satyrs, a wild brood Of gamesome deities; or Pan himself, The simple shepherd's awe-inspiring G.o.d.

Similar ideas are expressed in an article on the Nature of Early History, by a celebrated English scholar, [Footnote: Henry George Liddell, D. D., Dean of Christchurch College, Oxford.] who says: "The legends, or mythic fables, of the Greeks are chiefly connected with religious ideas, and may mostly be traced to that sort of awe or wonder with which simple and uneducated minds regard the changes and movements of the natural world. The direct and easy way in which the imagination of such persons accounts for marvelous phenomena, is to refer them to the operation of Persons. When the attention is excited by the regular movements of sun, and moon, and stars, by the alternations of day and night, by the recurrence of the seasons, by the rising and falling of the seas, by the ceaseless flow of rivers, by the gathering of clouds, the rolling of thunder, and the flashing of lightning, by the operations of life in the vegetable and animal worlds--in short, by any exhibition of an active and motive power--it is natural for uninstructed minds to consider such changes and movements as the work of divine Persons. In this manner the early Greek legends a.s.sociate themselves with personifications of the powers of Nature. All attempts to account for the marvels which surround us are foregone; everything is referred to the immediate operation of a G.o.d. 'Cloud-compelling Zeus' is the author of the phenomenon of the air; 'Earth-shaking Pos-ei'don,' of all that happens in the water under the earth; Nymphs are attached to every spring or tree; De-me'ter, or Mother Earth, for six months rejoices in the presence of Proserpine, [Footnote: In some legends Proserpine is regarded as the daughter of Mother Earth, or Ceres, and a personification of the growing corn.] the green herb, her daughter, and for six months regrets her absence in dark abodes beneath the earth.

"This tendency to deify the powers of Nature is due partly to a clear atmosphere and sunny climate, which incline a people to live much in the open air in close communion with all that Nature offers to charm the senses and excite the imagination; partly to the character of the people, and partly to the poets who in early times wrought these legendary tales into works which are read with increased delight in ages when science and method have banished the simple faith which procured acceptance for these legends.

"Among the Greeks all these conditions were found existing. They lived, so to say, out-of-doors; their powers of observation were extremely quick, and their imagination singularly vivid; and their ancient poems are the most n.o.ble specimens of the old legendary tales that have been preserved in any country."