CHAPTER VIII

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GREECE.

There, where now, as we’re by sages told, Whirls on high a soulless fiery ball, Helios guided then his car of gold, In his silent majesty o’er all. Oreads then these heights around us filled, Then a dryad dwelt in yonder tree, From the urn of loving naiads rilled Silver streamlets foamingly. FRIEDRICH VON SCHILLER.

The religious system of the Greeks is the embodiment of beauty. No other worship that has ever existed so encouraged the taste for art as this. Its literature, its mythological stories, its idols and its temples still control and, to a great extent, shape the art ideas of the world. Its devotees have above all other people possessed a perception of beauty of form and a fondness for representing it.

The people of Greece appear to have originally come from the north-western part of Asia Minor. They were called the Hellenes. The worship which they brought from Asia was the worship of the “Heaven-Father,” the unseen one who dwells in ether, whose temple is the sky, and whose altar is properly placed upon the mountain-top. The Hindus called the same being Dyaus-pitar; the Romans, Diovis-pater or Jupiter; the Greeks, Zeus-pater. One can readily see the resemblance between these names, and the evidence they bear to the fact that these nations all came originally from one common stock. As the primal Greek race separated into various parts of Greece different forms began to arise. As sailors from other lands arrived on their shores, they brought their own gods with them, and thus many new gods were introduced into Greece.

The lively imagination of the Greeks and the out-door life of their primitive state produced a number of tales and legends about the gods. Some of these were based on the tales with which their forefathers were familiar in their early home in Asia. The people lived in separate villages. Wandering minstrels and merchants carried these tales of gods and heroes from village to village. Poets then caught them up and adorned them with the touches of a livelier fancy. Thus soon a rich and luxuriant system of legendary lore was in possession of the whole people.

Just as is the case with other nations, the beings called gods by the Greeks are but the personifications of the powers and objects of nature, and the legends but represent the courses of nature and its operations. To these primitive notions imagination afterwards added, and poetry clothed the whole with a warm glow. Thus was formed the popular Greek faith.

ORIGIN OF THE WORLD AND OF THE GODS.

According to the ideas of the Homeric and Hesiodic ages, it would seem that the world was a hollow globe, divided into two equal portions by the flat disk of the earth. The external shell of this globe is called by the poets brazen and iron, probably only to express its solidity. The superior hemisphere was named Heaven, the inferior one Tartarus. The length of the diameter of the hollow sphere is given thus by Hesiod. It would take, he says, nine days for an anvil to fall from heaven to earth; and an equal space of time would be occupied by its fall from earth to Tartarus. The luminaries which gave light to gods and men shed their radiance through all the interior of the upper hemisphere; while that of the inferior one was filled with eternal gloom and darkness, and its still air was unmoved by any wind.

The earth filled the centre of the universe in the form of a round flat disk, or rather cylinder, around which the river (the ocean) flowed. Hellas was probably regarded as the centre of the earth; but the poets are silent on this point. They are equally so as to the exact central point, but probably viewed as such Olympus, the abode of the gods. In after times Delphi became practically the _navel of the earth_. The sea divided the terrestial disk into two portions, which we may suppose were regarded as equal. These divisions do not seem to have had any distinctive names in the time of Homer. The northern one was afterwards named Europe; the southern, at first called Asia, alone, was in process of time divided into Asia and Libya, the former comprising all the country between the Phasis and the Nile, the latter all between this river and the western ocean.

In the sea, the Greeks appear to have known, to the west of their own country, southern Italy, Sicily and Spain, though their ideas respecting these countries were probably vague and uncertain. The imagination of the poets, or the tales of voyagers, had placed in the more remote parts of it several islands, such as the Ogygian, the isle of Calypsó; the Æan, that of Kirké; the Æolion, that of Æolos; Scheria, the abode of the Phæakians--islands in all probability as ideal and as fabulous as the isles of Panchaia, Lilliput, or Brobdignag, though both ancients and moderns have endeavored to assign their exact positions. Along its southern coast lay, it would appear, the countries of the Lotus-eaters, the Cyclops, the Giants and the Læstrigonians. These isles and coasts of the western part of the sea were the scenes of most of the wonders of early Grecian fable. There, and on the isles of the ocean, the passage to which was supposed to be closed to the island of Kirké, dwelt the Sirens, the Hesperides, the Græcæ, the Gorgons and the other beings of fable, whose varied deeds make up the ever interesting narratives of the ancient mythology.

The Greeks of the early ages knew little of any people except those to the east and south of their own country, or near the coast of the Mediterranean. Their imagination, meantime, had peopled the western portion of this sea with giants, monsters and enchantresses; while they placed around the edge of the disk of the earth, which they probably regarded as of no great width, nations enjoying the peculiar favor of the gods, and blessed with happiness and longevity--a notion which continued to prevail even in the historic times.

The entrance to the city or palace of the gods on Olympus was closed by a gate of clouds kept by the goddesses named the “Seasons;” but the cloudy valves opened spontaneously to permit the greater gods to pass to and fro on their visits to the earth, thus linking with earth’s phases the approaches or departures of the gods.

Tartarus was unvisited by the light of day. It was regarded as the prison of the gods, and not as the place of torment for wicked men, being to the gods what Erebus was to men--the abode of those who were driven from the supernal world. The Titans, when conquered, were shut up in it; and in the Ilias, Zeus menaces the subordinate and refractory gods with banishment to its murky regions.

THE GENERATIONS OF THE GODS.

Chaos (void space) was first: then came into being “broad-breasted” Earth, the gloomy Tartarus and Love. Chaos produced Erebus and Night, and this last bore to Erebus Day and Ether.

Earth now produced Uranos (Heaven), of equal extent with herself, to envelop her, and the mountains and Pontos (Sea). She then bore to Uranus a mighty progeny--the Titans; six males and six females. She also bore the three Cyclops and the three-hundred handed ones, Hottos, Briareus and Gyges. These children were hated by their father, who, as soon as they were born, thrust them out of sight in a cavern of mother Earth, who, grieved at his conduct, produced the substance of hoary steel, and, forming from it a sickle, roused her children, the Titans, to rebellion against him; but fear seized on them all except Kronos, who, lying in wait with the sickle with which his mother had armed him, mutilated his unsuspecting sire. The drops which fell to the earth from the wounds gave birth to the Erinnyes, the Giants and the Mehan nymphs; and from what fell into the sea sprang Aphrodité, the goddess of love and beauty.

Earth finally, after the overthrow of the Titans, bore by Tartaros her last offspring, the hundred-headed Typhœus, the father of storms and whirlwinds, whom Zeus precipitated into Tartarus.

Rhea was united to Kronos. Kronos, having learned from his parents, Heaven and Earth, that he was fated to be deprived by one of his sons of the kingdom which he had taken from his father, devoured his children as fast as they were born. Rhea, when about to be delivered of Zeus, besought her parents to teach her how she might save him. Instructed by Earth, she concealed him in a cavern of Crete, and gave a stone in his stead to Kronos. This stone he afterward threw up, and with it the children whom he had devoured. When Zeus was grown up, he and the other children of Kronos made war on their father and the Titans. The scene of the conflict was Thessaly; the former fought from Olympus, the latter from Othrys. During ten entire years the conflict was undecided; at length, by the counsel of Earth, the Kronids released the Hundred-handed and called them to their aid. The war was then resumed with renewed vigor, and the Titans were finally vanquished and imprisoned in Tartarus, under the guard of the Hundred-handed. The Kronids then, by the advice of Earth, gave the supreme power to Zeus, who, in return, distributed honors and dominion among the associates of his victory.

GODS OF THE GRECIANS.

The Greeks of the early ages regarded the lofty Thessalian mountain named Olympus 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 Olympus could have conceived it to be no more than the summit of a terrestrial mountain:

“Olympus, where they say the ever firm Seat of the gods is, by the winds unshaken, Nor ever wet with rain, nor ever showered With snow, but cloudless ether o’er it spreads, And glittering light encircles it around, On which the happy gods aye dwell in bliss.”

Man loves to bestow his own form upon his gods, as being the noblest that he can conceive. Those of Homer are all of the human form, but of far larger dimensions than men; great size being an object of admiration both in men and women in those early and martial ages. Thus, when the goddess Athena ascends as driver the chariot of Diomedes,

Loud groaned the beechen axle with the weight, For a great god and valiant chief it bore;

when in the battle of the gods Arés is struck to the earth by this goddess, he is described as covering seven plethra of ground; the helmet of the goddess herself would, we are told, cover the footmen of a hundred towns; when Hera is about to make an oath she lays one hand on the earth, the other on the sea; the voice of Poseidón and Arés are as loud as the shout of nine or ten thousand men.

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 Herakles violate the divine bodies of Hera and Hades. Diomedes wounds both Aphrodite and Arés. They require nourishment as men do; their food is called Ambrosia, their drink Nectar. Their mode of life exactly resembles that of the princes and nobles of the heroic ages. In the palace of Zeus, on Olympus, 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, pour forth their melodious voices in song. When the sun descends each god retires to repose in his own dwelling. They frequently partake of the hospitality of men, travel with them, and share in their wars and battles.

With the form of men the Homeric gods also partake of their passions. They are capricious, jealous, revengeful, will support their favorites through right and wrong, and are implacable toward their enemies or even those who have slighted them. Their power was held to extend very far; men regarded them 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 honor them with prayer, and the sacrifice of oxen, goats, sheep, lambs and kids, and oblations of wine and corn, and fragrant herbs. When offended, they usually remitted their wrath when thus appeased.

The Homeric gods have all different ranks and offices; Olympus 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 Poseidón; the under-world fell to Hades in the division of their conquests; earth and Olympus were common property. Zeus, however, as eldest brother, exercised a supremacy, and his power was the greatest. The other inhabitants of Olympus were Hera, sister and spouse of Zeus; Apollo, the god of music and archery; his sister Artemis, the goddess of the chase, and their mother Leto; Aphrodite, goddess of love, and her mother Dione; Arés, god of war; Pallas-Athene, goddess of prudence and skill; Themis, goddess of justice; Hermoias, god of grain; Hebe, the attendant of the Olympian king and queen and Isis, their messenger; Hephæstos, the celestial artist, and Pæeon, the physician; and the Muses, the Graces and the Seasons. Poseidón was frequently there; but Demeter, the goddess of agriculture, and Dionysius, the god of wine, do not appear among the residents of Olympus. The Nymphs and the River-gods occasionally visited or were summoned to it. Eos, Helios and Selene, rose every day out of the ocean-stream, and drove in their chariots through the air, shedding their cheering beams abroad.

All the dwellings of the gods upon Olympus were of brass or copper, the metal which was in the greatest abundance in Greece. Hephæstos was architect and smith; he formed all the arms, household furniture, chariots and other articles in use among the Celestials; but their dress, especially that of the goddesses, appears to have been the workmanship of Pallas-Athene or of the Graces. The gold which proceeded from the work-shop of Hephæstos was filled with automatic power; his statues were endowed with intelligence; his tripods could move of themselves; he made the golden shoes, or rather soles, with which the gods trod the air and the waters, or strode with the speed of winds, or even of thought, from mountain to mountain upon the earth which trembled beneath their weight. The chariots of the gods and their appurtenances were formed of various metals. That of Hera, for example, is thus described:

“Then Hebe quickly to the chariot put The round wheels, eight-spoked, brazen, strong Axle of iron. Gold their fellies were, And undecaying, but thereon of brass The tires, well-fitting, wondrous to behold. Of silver was the rounded nave of each; The body was hung by gold and silver cords, And two curved sides encompassed it about. The pole was silver, and upon its end She tied the beauteous golden yoke, and bound On it the golden braces fair; the steeds, Swift-footed then beneath the yoke were led By Hera, eager for the war and strife.”

These chariots were drawn by horses of celestial breed, which could whirl them to and fro between heaven and earth, through the yielding air, or skim with them along the surface of the sea, without wetting the axle. They were only used on occasions of taking a long journey, as when Hera professes that she is going to the end of the earth to make up the quarrel between Okeanos and Tethys; or on occasions in which the gods wished to appear with state and magnificence. On ordinary occasions the gods moved by the aid of their golden shoes; when at home in their houses, they, like the men of those ages, went bare-foot.

The Greeks tell almost innumerable stories of their gods, and their adventures, love-escapades and wars. Some are wonderfully beautiful, others humble or grotesque. Their heroes come in for a share of the honors paid the gods. We can compare these stories with the legends of other nations, and see the wondrous resemblance between them.

SPECIMEN STORIES FROM GREEK MYTHOLOGY.

It will be possible to introduce but a few of the very many Greek legends and myths. We choose to give a few fully, rather than to give many imperfectly.

HERMES AND APOLLO.

Hermes was born of the mountain-nymph, Maia, in a cavern of Mount Kylléné, in Arcadia. He had scarcely been laid in his cradle, when he got up and set off for Pieria, to steal cows from Apollo. As he was going out he met a tortoise, which he caught up and carried back to the cave; when, quick as thought, he killed the animal, took out the flesh, adapted reeds and strings to the shell, and formed from it the Phormin or Lyre, on which he immediately played with perfect skill. He then laid it up in his cradle, and resumed his journey.

He arrived by sunset in Pieria, where the oxen of the gods fed under the care of Apollo. He forthwith separated fifty cows from the herd and drove them away, contriving to make them go backwards; and throwing away his sandals, bound branches of myrtle and tamarisk under his feet, that the herdsman-god might have no clew by which to trace his cattle. As he passed by Onchéstos in Bæotia, he saw an old man engaged in planting his vineyard, whom he strictly charged not to tell what he had seen. He then pursued his way by shady hills, resounding vales and flowery plains, and as the moon was rising arrived with his booty on the banks of the Alpheios in the Peloponnése. He there fed and stalled his kine, made a fire, killed, cut up, and dressed two of them, and even made black puddings of their blood, and then thriftily spread their skins to dry on a rock. He burned the heads and feet, and put out the fire, effacing all signs of it, and flung his twig-sandals into the river. With daybreak he slank home and stole into his cradle, not unobserved by his mother, who reproached him with his deeds; but he replied that he was resolved by his actions to procure admission for her and himself to the assembly of the gods.

In the morning Apollo missed his kine; he set out in search of them, and met the old man, who informed him of his having seen a child driving cows along. He comes to Pylos, where he sees the traces of his cattle, but is amazed at the strange foot-prints of their driver. He proceeds to the fragrant cave of the nymphs, and Hermes on seeing him gathers himself up under the clothes, afraid of the god. Apollo takes the key, opens and searches the three closets where the nymph kept her clothes, ornaments and food, but to no purpose. He then threatens the child that he will fling him into Tartarus unless he tells him where the cows are; but Hermes stoutly denies all knowledge of them, and even very innocently asks what cows are. Apollo pulls him out of the cradle and they agree to go and argue the matter before Zeus. Arrived in Olympus, Apollo relates the theft, and tells what reasons he had for suspecting the baby of being the thief. All this is, to the great amusement of the Celestials, stoutly denied and its absurdity shown by the little fellow, who still has his cradle clothes about him. Zeus, however, gives judgment against Hermes, and the two brothers are sent in search of the missing kine. They come to Pylos, and Hermes drives the cattle out of the cave. Apollo misses two of them; to his amazement he sees their skins on a rock, and is still more surprised, when, on going to drive the others on, he finds the art of Hermes had rooted their feet to the ground. Hermes then begins to play on his lyre, the tones of which so ravish Apollo that he offers him the cows for it. The young god gives him the lyre, and receives the cattle. The divine herdsman also gives him his whip, and instructs him in the management of the herds.

THE LOTUS-EATERS AND THE CYCLOPS.

Odysseus when on his return from Troy, encountered a violent north-east wind, which drove him for nine days, until he reached the country of the Lotus-eaters. He sent three of his men to see who the inhabitants were. These men on coming among the Lotus-eaters were kindly entertained by them, and given some of their own food, the Lotus plant, to eat. The effect of this plant was such, that those who tasted it lost all thoughts of home and wished to remain in that country. It was by main force that Odysseus dragged these men away, and he was even obliged to tie them under the benches of his ship.

Then he sailed to the westward and came to the land of the Cyclops. These were a rude, lawless people, who neither planted nor sowed, but whose land was so fertile as spontaneously to produce for them wheat, barley and grapes. They dwelt in caves, and each without regard to others governed his wife and children.

In front of one of their harbors lay a beautiful island, well-stocked with goats. Leaving his fleet at this island, Odysseus went with one ship to the mainland. Here he entered the cave of a Cyclops, Polyphemus by name. When Polyphemus returned in the evening with his flocks and found strangers there, he asked who they were. Odysseus said that they had been shipwrecked, and appealed to his mercy and reverence for the gods. Polyphemus cared for neither and he seized and killed and devoured two young Greeks. The door of the cave was closed with an immense rock, so that, if they killed Polyphemus, they could not have escaped, for they could not move the rock. The next night, though, when Polyphemus was in a drunken sleep, they took his staff, which was as large as a mast, heated it in the fire, and put out his one eye. When the giant roared out with pain, the other Cyclops came to see what was the matter. Odysseus had told him that his name was _Nobody_. So when he called out that Nobody was killing him, they thought him dreaming. Next morning when Polyphemus turned out his sheep and goats, which were of great size, the Greeks fastened themselves beneath their bellies and so escaped. After they had put out to sea a little way, Odysseus called out his true name, and the angry Cyclops hurled great stones at him, and nearly destroyed his ship.

HERCULES’ TWELVE TASKS.

In obedience to the god Zeus, Hercules was made to serve Eurystheus, who gave him twelve tasks to perform. The first task was to bring the skin of an unconquerable lion, the Nemean. Hercules choked the lion. The second task was to destroy the nine-headed hydra, or water-snake. He cut off the heads, but two sprang up where one was cut off. Then his companion with a torch burned the necks where the heads were cut off by Hercules the second time. The third task was to bring the golden-horned hind alive. He wounded and then caught her. The fourth task was to bring an immense wild boar alive. The fifth task was to cleanse the immense stables of King Augeas in one day. This he did by mining the rivers Penios and Alpheios. The sixth task was to drive away the stymphalid water-fowl. A goddess gave him brazen clappers, the beating of which made the birds rise from their hiding-places, when Hercules destroyed them with his arrows. The seventh task was to fetch the wild and furious Cretan bull. The eighth task was to bring the Centaurs of Thrace. The Centaurs were horses with the heads and upper half of the human body. The ninth was to bring the girdle of the mighty queen of the Amazons. The tenth was to bring the purple-headed oxen of the Ruddy-isle. The eleventh was to bring the apples of the Hesperides. After meeting with various adventures he reached the place where they were, and while he upheld the heavens Atlas plucked the apples, which Hercules, by a cute device, secured from him. The twelfth task was to bring Cerberus from the under-world. All his tasks were accomplished. The whole story of the hero Hercules is intensely interesting.

THE PHIDIAN JUPITER.

Zeus--the Jupiter of the Romans--the chief, was the earliest of the national gods. The great place of his worship was at Olympia. Here was the magnificent statue of Jupiter, made by the famous Phidias. This statue was sixty-five feet high. The frame-work, of cedar and olive wood, was covered with ivory and gold. His throne was of cedar wood, inlaid with ivory and precious-stones. In his right hand he held a statue of victory, and in his left a sceptre surmounted by the eagle. The footstool was supported by sphinxes, and the throne was of cedar wood, inlaid with ivory, the ebony pedestal was covered with sculptured scenes of his life and adventures. Probably no idol of ancient or modern times exceeds this in its majestic, massive beauty. Neither ivory nor gold were plentiful in Greece, yet so devoted were the people that they provided the immense quantity for this idol readily. The gold plates were one-eighth of an inch thick, and were worth then over $600,000, equal to an immense sum in our days. At Olympia, as at the Isthmus of Corinth, games were held at the yearly religious festivals. From these games the apostle Paul derived many of the metaphors so frequent in his writings.

[Illustration: IMAGE OF JUPITER, MADE BY THE CELEBRATED SCULPTOR, PHIDIAS.]

GRECIAN TEMPLES AND WORSHIP OF PAUL’S DAY.

Paul, the Christian Missionary, came into contact with the heathenism of both Greece and Rome. In Athens, Corinth and Ephesus especially he was brought face to face with idols and temples. The story of his visit to these places as told by Luke (Acts xvii., xviii. and xix.), and by Paul (in his letters to the Corinthians and Ephesians) presents a vivid picture of the condition of the Greek religion in its latest development. Soon the whole system was to lie in ruins, its temples were to be forsaken, its idols destroyed, its worship forgotten. This mighty change was to be produced by the power of God working through one weak man, belonging to what was everywhere regarded as a narrow-minded race, and without any backing of pomp, or power, or wealth.

THE CITY CROWDED WITH IDOLS.

As Paul entered the gate-way of the Piræus at Athens, he was met immediately with the proofs of the intense devotion of the Athenians to their worship. Before him stood Minerva’s temple and the image of Neptune, her rival, seated on horseback, holding his trident. Passing on he came, after a little, to the temple of Ceres with the images sculptured by the far-famed Praxiteles. A little further on his eyes must have fell upon Bacchus’s temple and the images of Zeus, Minerva, Apollo, Mercury and the Muses. All around him are temples, statues, altars and shrines, and the news-seeking Athenians gather about him. Every public place and building was accounted sacred. The market-place (the Agora) and the Acropolis were crowded with temples and altars to the gods, and even to deified virtues. There were altars to Fame, to Modesty, to Persuasion and to Pity. And, lest they should by any chance leave out any god or being who might help or injure them, they built an altar to _An Unknown God_. With all their worship they had not found the true God.

The magnificent Parthenon--the Virgin’s House--was the glorious temple erected to Minerva’s honor. Within it was the colossal statue of ivory and gold, made by the famous Phidias, rivaled only by the same artist’s statue of Jupiter. In the midst of all this idolatry, what thought was in the mind of Paul? “His spirit was stirred within him when he saw the city crowded with idols.” It was said in those days that it was easier to find an idol in Athens than a man.

The Athenians led Paul away to the Areopagus. Here the judges sat in the open air, upon seats hewn out of the rock. A temple of Mars crowned the height. Before Paul’s view the whole city with its maze of temples, shrines and statues, was spread out. The intensely earnest Christian Apostle stood before the frivolous heathen crowd. He is alone, yet not alone. His Master is with him. He quails not, he minces no matters, he speaks boldly, fearlessly. He recognizes their intense religiousness (if we may so call it). He declares the truth that the Deity does not dwell in temples made with hands, even with the hundreds of temples before him. With the recollection of Phidias’s famous statues fresh in mind and the countless idols before his view he declares that the Deity is not to be likened to forms in gold, silver or stone, graven by art and man’s device. The city is, apparently, scarcely moved, but the leaven has been put in, and soon the whole lump will be leavened. A few years pass by and the worship of Athens is only a remembrance. Close by Athens was one city which Paul visited and where he founded one of the strongest Christian churches. This city was held in bad repute in all the world on account of its licentiousness. It was not only the seat of wealth and splendor, but also a den of vice. “To Corinthianize” meant to play the wanton. The worship in the temple of Venus was of the most shameful character. To the north-east of Corinth was the temple of Neptune, where the celebrated Isthmian games were celebrated.

[Illustration: BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF THE TEMPLE OF DIANA AT EPHESUS.]

DIANA OF THE EPHESIANS.

Ephesus was the central city of Asia Minor. One of its buildings ranked in importance above all others--the Temple of Diana. This was reckoned as one of the wonders of the world, and the Ephesians were wont to speak of Diana as the goddess whom all the world worshiped. The temple had been once destroyed, and then rebuilt with great magnificence. The ladies of Ephesus, at its rebuilding, had given their jewelry. Alexander offered immense riches to the Ephesians, if they would but permit him to have his name inscribed on its walls; but they would not consent. This was the rallying-point of heathenism in Paul’s day. The temple was 425 feet long, 220 broad, and its columns were 60 feet high. There were 127 columns, each the gift of a king. Only a part of it was roofed over, and this was with cedar. The remaining parts were rich with statuary and columns. “It is probable that there was no building in the world in which was concentrated a greater amount of admiration, enthusiasm and superstition.”

[Illustration: MEDAL OF DIANA.]

The first statue of Diana of Ephesus was a shapeless black stone--an aerolite--which had fallen from the sky. Afterwards her images were made of wood. She is covered with breasts and with the heads of animals. She is supposed to represent the natural fertility of the earth.

Diana was not worshiped in the temple only. Numberless little shrines, containing models of Diana in silver or gold, or even wood, were made to be carried about one’s person, to be set up on household altars or carried in processions. There was carried on at Ephesus an extensive trade in these. The worship of Diana, in all its parts and in all places, was conducted with great magnificence.

The Greek language and literature and their temples and statues, have been for centuries the models of the world; but their conceptions of the gods and their myths are no more thought of, and no longer regarded as of authority in religious affairs. They are emphatically dead as powers over the morals of men.

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