(Scripture Reading Exercise.)

ANCIENT CONCEPTIONS OF GOD.—(Continued.)

SPECIAL TEXT: "Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious. For as I passed by and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, 'To the Unknown God'; whom ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you." (Acts xvii:22, 23.)

NOTES.

1. The Greeks: "The ancient people whom we call Greeks, called themselves Hellenes and their land Hellas. But this term 'Hellas' as used by the ancient Greeks embraced much more than modern Greece. 'Wherever were Hellenes there was Hellas.' Thus the name included not only Greece proper and the islands of the adjoining seas, but also the Hellenic cities in Asia Minor, in Southern Italy, and in Sicily, besides many other Greek settlements scattered up and down the Mediterranean and along the shores of the Hellespont and the Euxine. Yet Greece proper was the real home-land of the Hellenes, and the actual center of Greek life and culture. (Myers' General History, p. 71).

"The historic inhabitants of Greece were called by the Romans Greeks; but * * * * * * they called themselves Hellenes, from their fabled ancestor Hellen (King in Phthia in Thessaly). They were divided into four families or tribes—the Achaeans, the Ionians, the Dorians, and the Aeolians. The primitive inhabitants of Greece are supposed to have been the descendants of Javan, the son of Japhet (son of Noah), and hence Greece was called by the Hebrews, 'Javan.'" (Anderson's General History, p. 34.)

2. The Romans: "There were in early times three chief races in Italy—the Italians, the Etruscans, and the Greeks. The Italians, a branch of the Aryan family, embraced many tribes (Latin, Umbrians, Sabines, Samnites, etc.), that occupied nearly all Central, and a considerable part of Southern Italy. Their life was for the most part that of shepherds and farmers.

"The Etruscans, a wealthy, cultured, and seafaring people of uncertain race and origin, dwelt in Etruria, now called Tuscany after them. Before the rise of the Roman people they were the leading race in the peninsula. Certain elements in their culture lead us to believe that they had learned much from the cities of Magna Graecia. The Etruscans in their turn became the teachers of the early Romans, and imparted to them at least some minor elements of civilization, including hints in the art of building, and various religious ideas and rites. Through the medium of these cultured communities, the Romans were taught the use of letters, and given valuable suggestions in matters of law and constitutional government. Most important of all, the Italian peoples were the Latins, who dwelt in Latium, between the Tiber and the Liris. These people, like all the Italians, were near kindred of the Greeks, and brought with them into Italy those customs, manners, beliefs and institutions which seem to have been the early common possession of the various Aryan-speaking peoples." (Myers' General History, pp. 196-7).

3. Greek and Roman Mythology: "The term mythology comes from mythos, a fable, and logos, a discourse, signifies a fabulous account of things, particularly of such things as regard false gods and their idolatrous worship." (Crabb Mythology of all Nations, Introduction).

"The mythology of the Greeks was, as to the most important particulars, confessedly borrowed from the Egyptians. Their philosophers, Anaxagoras, Phythagoras, Thales, and others, traveled into Egypt, where they gathered all the notions there current concerning the gods, the transmigration of souls, a future state, and other points, which they modeled into a system that was afterwards enlarged and adorned by all the charms and embellishments that poetry and art could furnish."

Thomas Dew, also, in his "Digest of Laws, Customs, Manners and Institutions of Ancient and Modern Nations," says, on the origin of the Greek religion,—"Supposed to have been derived in great measure from the religion of the Egyptians. * * * Still, large portion was of Grecian origin, and that even though taken from Egypt, became Grecian in character." (p. 54.) Burder in his History of All Religions, says (p. 527): "The Greeks are supposed to have derived many of their deities from the Egyptians as well as no small number of their religious ceremonies. The Egyptians, no doubt, at an earlier period, believed in one Deity as supreme, and the Maker and Ruler of all things; but after that they worshipped the sun, moon, and stars, under various forms, as well as living creatures and lifeless things."

4. Religion of Greeks and Romans Identical in Essentials: "The basis of the Roman religious system was the same as that of the Greek. At the head of the pantheon stood Jupiter, identical in all essential attributes with the Hellenic Zeus. He was the special protector of the Roman people. To him, together with Juno and Minerva, was consecrated a magnificent temple upon the summit of the Capitoline hill, overlooking the city.

"Mars, the god of war, was the favorite deity and the fabled father of the Roman race, who were fond of calling themselves the 'Children of Mars.' They proved themselves worthy offspring of the war-god. Martial games and festivals were celebrated in his honor during the first month of the Roman year, which bore, and still bears, in his honor, the name of March.

"Janus was a double-faced deity, to whom the month of January was sacred, as were also all gates and doors. The gates of his temple were always kept open in time of war and shut in time of peace.

"The fire upon the household hearth was regarded as the symbol of the goddess Vesta. Her worship was a favorite one with the Romans. The nation, too, as a single great family, had a common national hearth in the temple of Vesta where the sacred fires were kept burning from generation to generation by six virgins, daughters of the Roman state." (Myers' General History, pp. 203-4).

"The Greeks and Romans had many deities in common, particularly the superior gods, arising partly from adoption, on one side or the other, but more especially from the circumstance that the two countries were peopled by different branches of the same family, descended from one common ancestor, Japhet. At the same time it is evident, from the difference in the names of the Greek and Roman deities, and in their primary attributes, that they drew their mythology from different sources, which may be easily imagined, when it is considered that they were cut off from all intercourse with each other on their first settlement, and mingled with different tribes in the course of their migration. The Tuscans or Etrurians had, as is generally admitted, their mythology as well as their language, from their Pelasgian ancestors, long before the Grecians and Romans were known to each other; but in after ages, when the intercourse between these two people became intimate, the Romans, without doubt, borrowed many of the fables of the Greeks, to which their poets and historians, who are very ample in their descriptions of the gods, added much of their own invention." (Crabb's Mythology, p. 6.)

5. The Action and Reaction Involved in the Roman Conquest of Greece: The fact of there being much in common in the religion and worship of the Greeks and the Romans, while accounted for in part by a large infusion of Hellenes into the south part of Italy and the Island of Sicily—by reason of which the ruder Latin tribes of the north were brought into contact with Greek culture and civilization—still there was a larger cause for this identity of religion and worship; and that cause arises out of the reaction of Greek learning upon the Roman conquerors of Greece. The Roman conquests in Western Europe was the subjugation of peoples in a low state of civilization "and destitute of any element of strength in their social and national life;" and their conquerors treated them, for the most part, as inferiors. "But in the East the case was different. There the Romans met with a civilization more advanced than their own which they had already learned to respect, and an elaborate system of civil government and social usages, which could not be set aside without undermining the whole fabric of society. Hence the Greeks, while subjected to the Roman administration, were allowed to retain a great part of their institutions, together with their property and private rights, and, from their superiority to the other conquered peoples, remained the dominant power in the East. Even in Asia the despotism of Rome was much modified by the municipal system of the Greek colonies and by the influence of Greek culture. Thus it came to pass that, while the Western nations were assimilated to Rome, in the East the Roman empire became Greek, though the Greek nation in name became Roman. The effects of this are visible at every turn in the subsequent history, and to this cause must be referred many anomalies which are traceable at the present day in the condition of Eastern Europe." (Encyclopaedia Britannica).

6. The Classification of Greek and Roman Deities: "The Greek and Roman deities are distinguished into three classes; namely, the Superior Gods, the Inferior Gods, and the Demi-gods.

"The Superior Gods otherwise called Dii Majorum Gentium, that is, gods of the superior houses or families, answering to the patricians or nobility of Rome, were so named because they were believed to be more eminently employed in the government of the world. They were also styled the 'Select Gods,' of whom twelve were admitted into the council of Jupiter, and on that account denominated 'Consentes.'

"The images of these twelve gods were fixed in the Forum of Rome, six of them being males, and six females; their names are given in the following distich by the poet Ennius:

'Juno, Vesta, Minerva, Ceres, Diana, Mars, Mercurius, Jove, Neptunus, Volcanus, Apollo.'

"These twelve gods were supposed to preside over the twelve months; to each of them was allotted a month: January to Juno, February to Neptune, March to Minerva, April to Venus, May to Apollo, June to Mercury, July to Jupiter, August to Ceres, September to Vulcan, October to Mars, November to Diana, December to Vesta. They likewise presided over the twelve celestial signs. If to these twelve be added the eight following, namely, Janus, Saturnus, Genius, Sol, Pluto, Bacchus, Terra, and Luna, there will be twenty of the first class, or superior gods. These superior gods were likewise distinguished, from their usual place of residence, into Celestial, Terrestrial, Marine, and Infernal gods.

"The Inferior Gods comprehended what Ovid called the 'Celestial Populace,' answering to the plebeians among the Romans, who had no place in heaven, as the Penates, Lares—rural-deities, etc.

"The third class, or Demigods, was composed of such as derived their origin from a god or goddess and a mortal, or such as by their valor and exploits had raised themselves to the rank of immortals. Of this class was Hercules, Aesculapius, Castor, Pollux, Achilles, etc.

"To the list of the Roman gods, might be added a fourth class, called 'novensiles,' which the Sabines brought to Rome by the command of King Tatius. They were so named because, as some suppose, they were the last of all that were reckoned among the gods. Of this class also were the deities by whose help and means, as Cicero says, men are advanced to heaven, and obtain a place among the gods, namely, the moral virtues, as mercy, chastity, piety, etc." (Crabb's Mythology, pp. 6, 7).