Thus, as time went on, ideas of the divinity were elevated, and Zeus, whose parentage and birth are chronicled as after the manner of men, became, in the general conception, the personification of the world’s government, which was delivered from the fatality of destiny, and from the promptings of caprice.
Destiny, which according to the early mythical representation, it was impossible to escape, is resolved into the will of Zeus, and the other gods, which were at first supposed to be able to oppose him, became his faithful ministers. Such is the teaching of Solon and Epicharmos.
“Be assured that nothing escapes the eyes of the divinities. God watches over us, and to him nothing is impossible.” This impulse of the imaginative faculty combined with the process of reason is most plainly seen in the conceptions of the three great poets of the fifth century, Pindar, Æschylus, and Sophocles. In the words of Pindar: “All things depend on God alone; all which befalls mortals, whether it be good or evil fortune, is due to Zeus; he can draw light from darkness, and can vail the sweet light of day in obscurity. No human action escapes him; happiness is found only in the way which leads to him; virtue and wisdom flow from him alone.”
We need not multiply quotations to show that as the Greeks advanced in civilization the earlier barbaric notions were left for those more elevating, and though mostly polytheists till visited by Christian teachers, their theology, or what was believed respecting the divine beings, was more worthy of them and had in general an elevating influence on their character. Apollo, Artemis, Ares, Hermes, Athene, Poseidon, Hera, Hephaistus, Hestia, Demeter, Aphrodite and Jupiter himself formed the body which in the days of Thucydides was worshiped, and called “the twelve gods of Olympus.”
This ordering or classification is not recognized in the poems of Homer. Hesiod more particularly describes the manner of their birth and the attributes of the Olympic gods, and hence that poem is called a Theogony.
Having mentioned the chief, the others may be briefly noticed in their order. Phœbus Apollo was called Phœbus, as being the god of light; in Homeric phrase the “Far glancing Apollo”—the last name meaning, some say, destroyer, because his rays, when powerful, can destroy the life of animals and plants. At first the name meant the sun, but in later times he was regarded as the god of light who was not confined to his habitation in the sun. “He is called the son of Zeus, because the sun, like Athene, or the dawn, springs in the morning from the sky—and son of Leto because the night, as going before his rising, may be considered as mother of the sun.”
One legendary story of his birth runs as follows: Leto, distressed, wandered through many lands seeking in vain for a resting place. At last she came to Delos (the bright land), and said if she could there find shelter it should become glorious as the birthplace of Phœbus, and that men should come from all parts to enrich his temple with their gifts. Here, then, Phœbus was born; heaven was propitious and the floating Delos, a hard and stony land, was anchored and covered itself with verdure and golden flowers. The nymphs clothed him with a spotless robe, and when Themis fed him with nectar and ambrosia, the food of gods, hating all things impure, he was at once prepared to battle with and drive away the evil powers of darkness.
With his bright arrows he slew the giant Tityus, and the Python, a monster near Delphi, that destroyed both men and cattle.
These and similar myths respecting his matchless conquering power forcibly declare the influence of the sun’s rays in scattering the night and dark gloom of winter. But though Phœbus Apollo thus appears as the foe of all that is evil or impure, other myths represent him as a terrible god of death, sending pestilences and dealing out destruction to men and animals by means of the arrows he scatters abroad.
Remembering the natural significance of the name this is perfectly consistent with the genial influence attributed to him. The sun’s rays do indeed put to flight the darkness of night and the cold of winter, but their intense heat also causes disease and death.