CHAPTER XVI.
GRECIAN MYTHES, AS UNDERSTOOD, FELT, AND INTERPRETED BY THE GREEKS THEMSELVES.
The mythes formed the entire mental stock of the early Greeks. — State of mind out of which they arose. — Tendency to universal personification. — Absence of positive knowledge — supplied by personifying faith. — Multitude and variety of quasi-human personages. — What we read as poetical fancies, were to the Greeks serious realities. — The gods and heroes — their chief agency cast back into the past, and embodied in the mythes. — Marked and manifold types of the Homeric gods. — Stimulus which they afforded to the mythopœic faculty. — Easy faith in popular and plausible stories. — Poets — receive their matter from the divine inspiration of the Muse. — Meaning of the word mythe — original — altered. — Matter of actual history — uninteresting to early Greeks. — Mythical faith and religious point of view — paramount in the Homeric age. — Gradual development of the scientific point of view — its opposition to the religious. — Mythopœic age — anterior to this dissent. — Expansive force of Grecian intellect. — Transition towards positive and present fact. — The poet becomes the organ of present time instead of past. — Iambic, elegiac, and lyric poets. — Influence of the opening of Egypt to Grecian commerce, B. C. 660. — Progress — historical, geographical, social — from that period to B. C. 500. — Altered standard of judgment, ethical and intellectual. — Commencement of physical science — Thalês, Xenophanês, Pythagoras. — Impersonal nature conceived as an object of study. — Opposition between scientific method and the religious feeling of the multitude. — How dealt with by different philosophers. — Socratês. — Hippocratês. — Anaxagoras. — Contrasted with Grecian religious belief. — Treatment of Socratês by the Athenians. — Scission between the superior men and the multitude — important in reference to the mythes. — The mythes accommodated to a new tone of feeling and judgment. — The poets and logographers. — Pindar. — Tragic poets. — Æschylus and Sophoklês. — Tendencies of Æschylus in regard to the old legends. — He maintains undiminished the grandeur of the mythical world. — Euripidês — accused of vulgarizing the mythical heroes, and of introducing exaggerated pathos, refinement, and rhetoric. — The logographers — Pherekydês, etc. — Hekatæus — the mythes rationalized. — The historians — Herodotus. — Earnest piety of Herodotus — his mystic reserve. — His views of the mythical world. — His deference for Egypt and Egyptian statements. — His general faith in the mythical heroes and eponyms — yet combined with scepticism as to matters of fact — His remarks upon the miraculous foundation of the oracle at Dôdôna. — His remarks upon Melampus and his prophetic powers. — His remarks upon the Thessalian legend of Tempê. — Allegorical interpretation of the mythes — more and more esteemed and applied. — Divine legends allegorized. — Heroic legends historicized. — Limits to this interpreting process. — Distinction between gods and dæmons — altered and widened by Empedoclês. — Admission of dæmons as partially evil beings — effect of such admission. — Semi-historical interpretation — utmost which it can accomplish. — Some positive certificate indispensable as a constituent of historical proof — mere popular faith insufficient. — Mistake of ascribing to an unrecording age the historical sense of modern times. — Matter of tradition uncertified from the beginning. — Fictitious matter of tradition does not imply fraud or imposture. — Plausible fiction often generated and accredited by the mere force of strong and common sentiment, even in times of instruction. — Allegorical theory of the mythes — traced by some up to an ancient priestly caste. — Real import of the mythes supposed to be preserved in the religious mysteries. — Supposed ancient meaning is really a modern interpretation. — Triple theology of the pagan world. Treatment and use of the mythes according to Plato. — His views as to the necessity and use of fiction. — He deals with the mythes as expressions of feeling and imagination — sustained by religious faith, and not by any positive basis. — Grecian antiquity essentially a religious conception. — Application of chronological calculation divests it of this character. — Mythical genealogies all of one class, and all on a level in respect to evidence. — Grecian and Egyptian genealogies. — Value of each is purely subjective, having especial reference to the faith of the people. — Gods and men undistinguishable in Grecian antiquity. — General recapitulation. — General public of Greece — familiar with their local mythes, careless of recent history. — Religious festivals — their commemorative influence. — Variety and universality of mythical relics. — The mythes in their bearing on Grecian art. — Tendency of works of art to intensify the mythical faith.
CHAPTER XVII.
THE GRECIAN MYTHICAL VEIN COMPARED WITH THAT OF MODERN EUROPE.
Μῦθος — Sage — an universal manifestation of the human mind. — Analogy of the Germans and Celts with the Greeks. — Differences between them. — Grecian poetry matchless. — Grecian progress self-operated. — German progress brought about by violent influences from without. — Operation of the Roman civilization and of Christianity upon the primitive German mythes. — Alteration in the mythical genealogies — Odin and the other gods degraded into men. — Grecian Paganism — what would have been the case, if it had been supplanted by Christianity in 500 B. C. — Saxo Grammaticus and Snorro Sturleson contrasted with Pherekydês and Hellanikus. — Mythopœic tendencies in modern Europe still subsisting, but forced into a new channel: 1. Saintly ideal; 2. Chivalrous ideal. — Legends of the Saints — their analogy with the Homeric theology. — Chivalrous ideal — Romances of Charlemagne and Arthur. — Accepted as realities of the fore-time. — Teutonic and Scandinavian epic — its analogy with the Grecian. — Heroic character and self-expanding subject common to both. — Points of distinction between the two — epic of the Middle Ages neither stood so completely alone, nor was so closely interwoven with religion, as the Grecian. — History of England — how conceived down to the seventeenth century — began with Brute the Trojan. — Earnest and tenacious faith manifested in the defence of this early history. — Judgment of Milton. — Standard of historical evidence — raised in regard to England — not raised in regard to Greece. — Milton’s way of dealing with the British fabulous history objectionable. — Two ways open of dealing with the Grecian mythes: 1, to omit them; or, 2, to recount them as mythes. — Reasons for preferring the latter. — Triple partition of past time by Varro.
HISTORY OF GREECE.