"It is thought that the Greeks received from the Egyptians the custom of building temples, which were erected, some in valleys, some in woods, and others by the brink of a river, or fountain, according to the deity who was destined to inhabit them; for the ancients ascribed the management of every particular affair to some particular god, and appropriated to each a peculiar form of building, according to his or her peculiar character and attributes. But when temples were first erected, the ancients still continued to worship their gods, without any statue or visible representation of the divinity.
"It is supposed that the worship of idols was introduced among the Greeks in the time of Cecrops, the founder of Athens, in the year 1556 B. C. At first these idols were formed of rude blocks of wood or stone, until, when the art of graving, or carving, was invented, these rough masses were changed into figures resembling living creatures. Afterwards, marble, and ivory, or precious stones, were used in their formation, and lastly, gold, silver, brass, and other metals. At length, in the refined ages of Greece, all the genius of the sculptor was employed in the creation of these exquisite statutes, which no modern workmanship has yet surpassed. Temples, statues, and altars, were considered sacred, and to many of them was granted the privilege of protecting offenders." (Burder's History of All Religions, pp. 227-8).
LESSON XVIII.
(Scripture Reading Exercise.)
ANCIENT CONCEPTIONS OF GOD.—(Continued.)
ANALYSIS. | REFERENCES. |
XIII. The Greek and Roman Religion. | Outlines of Ecclesiastical Hist., (Roberts), Sec. ii, pp. 22-25. "The World's Worship" (Dobbins), Chs. viii, ix. Notes 1 and 2. Moral and Metaphysical Philosophy (Maurice), Vol. I, Chs. vi and vii. Myers' "General Hist.," Chs. xxiii. Dr. Smith's "History of Greece," Ch. xiii. "Mormon Doctrine of Deity," Ch. iv. Cicero's Tusculan Disputations (Yonge's Translation), pp. 209-355. "Intellectual Development of Europe" (Draper), Chs. v and vi. |
XIV. Roman and Greek Schools of Philosophy. 1. Stoics. 2. Epicureans. 3. Academics. |
SPECIAL TEXT: "Behold, the Lord doth grant unto all nations, of their own nation and tongue, to teach His word; yea, in wisdom, all that He seeth fit that they should have; therefore we see that the Lord doth counsel in wisdom, according to that which is just and true." (Book of Alma, Ch. xxix:8.)
NOTES.
1. Religion of the Greeks: General View: "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 of representing it.
"The people of Greece appear to have originally come from the northwestern 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.