The Seventy's Course in Theology, Third Year / The Doctrine of Deity

by B. H. Roberts

(j) Cupid: "Cupid, the son of Venus, and god of love, was represented as a beautiful boy, with wings, a bow and arrows, and generally with a bandage over his eyes. He had wings, to show his caprice and desire of change. He is described as blind, because we are apt to shut our eyes to the faults of those we love.

(k) Ceres: "Ceres was the goddess of corn and harvests, and the daughter of Saturn and Vesta. The most celebrated festivals in honor of Ceres were held at Eleusis. They were called the Eleusinian Mysteries, on account of the secrecy with which they were conducted. Those who were admitted to these solemn assemblies were called the initiated." (Burder's History of All Religions, pp. 528-533).

4. The Greek Pantheon: "At the head of the Greek pantheon there was a council of twelve members, comprising six gods and as many goddesses. The male deities were Zeus, the father of gods and men; Poseidon, ruler of the sea; Apollo, or Phoebus, the god of light, of music, and of prophecy; Ares, the god of war; Hephaestus, the deformed god of fire, and the forger of the thunderbolts of Zeus; Hermes, the wing-footed herald of the celestials, the god of invention and commerce.

"The female divinities were Hera, the proud and jealous queen of Zeus; Athena, or Pallas,—who sprang full-grown from the forehead of Zeus,—the goddess of wisdom and the patroness of the domestic arts; Artemis, the goddess of the chase; Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty born of the white sea foam; Hestia, the goddess of the hearth; Demeter the earth mother, the goddess of grains and harvests.

"These great deities were simply magnified human beings. They surpassed mortals rather in power than in size of body. Their abode was Mount Olympus and the airy regions above the earth." (Myers' General History, p. 86).

5. The Delphian Oracle: "The most precious part, perhaps, of the religious heritage of the historic Greeks, from the misty Hellenic foretime, was the oracle of Apollo at Delphi. The Greeks believed that in the early ages the gods were wont to visit the earth and mingle with men. But even in Homer's time, this familiar intercourse was a thing of the past—a tradition of a golden age that had passed away. In historic times, though the gods often revealed their will and intentions through signs and portents, still they granted a more special communication of counsel through what were known as oracles. These communications, it was believed, were made sometimes by Zeus, but more commonly by Apollo. Not everywhere, but only in chosen places, did these gods manifest their presence and communicate the divine will. These favored spots were called oracles, as were also the responses there received.

"The most renowned of the Greek oracles, as we have intimated, was that at Delphi, in Phocis. Here, from a deep fissure in the rocks, arose stupefying vapors, which were thought to be the inspiring breath of Apollo. Over this spot was erected a temple in honor of the Revealer. The communication was generally received by the Pythia, or priestess, seated upon a tripod placed above the orifice. As she became overpowered by the vapors, she uttered the message of the god. These mutterings of the Pythia were taken down by attendant priests, interpreted, and written in hexameter verse. Some of the responses of the oracle contained plain and wholesome advice; but very many of them, particularly those that implied a knowledge of the future, were made obscure and ingeniously ambiguous, so that they might correspond with the event, however affairs should turn.

"The Oracle of Delphi gained a celebrity wide as the world. It was often consulted by the monarchs of Asia and the people of Rome in times of extreme danger and perplexity. Among the Greeks, scarcely any undertaking was entered upon without the will and sanction of the Oracle being first sought." (Myers' General History, pp. 86, 87).

6. Oracles and Divination Among the Romans: "There were no true oracles at Rome. The Romans, therefore, often had recourse to those among the Greeks. Particularly in great emergencies did they seek advice from the celebrated Oracle of Apollo at Delphi. From Etruria was introduced the art of the haruspices, or sooth-sayers, which consisted in discovering the will of the gods by the appearance of the entrails of victims slain for the sacrifice." (Myers' General History, p. 204).

7. Worships and Temples: "In the first ages of the world, men had neither temples nor statues for their gods, but worshipped in the open air, in the shady grove, or on the summit of the lofty mountains, whose apparent proximity to the heavens seemed to render them peculiarly appropriate for religious purposes. Ignorantly transferring to the works of the Supreme Being that homage which is only due to their Author, they adored the sun as a god, who, riding on his chariot of fire, diffused light and heat through the world; the moon, as a mild and beneficent divinity, who presided over night and silence, consoling her worshippers for the departure of the more brilliant light of day.