"Thus, some parent mourning bitterly for a son who hath been taken from him, makes an image of his child: and him who before was to his family as a dead man, they now begin to worship as a god; rites and sacrifices being instituted, to be observed by his dependents. And in process of time, custom having established these as a law, an image set up by an impious tyrant receives divine honours. A man being unable to render such respect in their presence to those who dwelt remote from them, and having received their likeness, brought from far, they have proceeded to make a conspicuous image of any king to whom they inclined to pay divine honours, by which means, though absent, the ruler receives their solicitous homage, as though present with them. The exquisite pains bestowed by the artist has likewise contributed to this worship of the absent by ignorant men; for being willing to give perfect satisfaction to him for whom he doth it, he avails himself of all the resources of his art to produce a perfect resemblance. Thus the multitude, allured by the beauty of the statue, come to regard as a god him whom before they honoured but as a man. And this hath been the great delusion of humanity, that out of affection for the dead, or subserviency to their rulers, men have given to stocks and stones the incommunicable name of God."
Most systems of mythology contain examples of deities which have been derived from this source.
"It has been a general custom, likewise," writes Cicero,[19] "that men who have done important service to the public should be exalted to heaven by fame and universal consent. Thus Hercules, Castor and Pollux, Æsculapius and Liber, became gods; * * * thus, likewise, Romulus, or Quirinus—for they are thought to be the same—became a god. They are justly esteemed as deities, since their souls subsist and enjoy eternity, from whence they are perfect and immortal beings."
The Chinese, at the present day, deify and adore their deceased emperors, as well as the spirits of eminent statesmen, scholars, martyrs to virtue, &c.
It has occasionally happened that some great sage, on his apotheosis, had attributed to him that which he had simply expounded during life, and thus became the personification of the religious ideas he had entertained. Buddha, who lived, as nearly as can be ascertained, about 1000 years before Christ, attempted to reform Brahminical India. After death he was deified by his converts, and became the embodiment of the principles he had advocated when on earth; and his name, with various modifications, was applied to the system of cosmogony and religion which he had advocated. The Grand Lamas (Chaberons) of Thibet are regarded as incarnations (avatars) of Buddha, and as such are adored by the Thibetians and the various tribes of Tartars who roam over the vast district which extends from the banks of the Volga to Corea, in the Sea of Japan.
After the persecution which terminated in the expulsion of the followers of Buddha from Hindostan, the Hindoos, not content with their celestial gods or heroes, extended their adoration to various living individuals, particularly to the Brahmins and priests. Daughters under eight years of age are worshipped by them as forms of the goddess Bhavani (Venus); and at certain seasons of the year the Brahmin is worshipped by his wife, and the wives of Brahmins by other men.
Some writers have thought that all the gods of the ancients consisted of deified men. This is, however, an error; for the deification of men was an act second in order to the worship of natural objects and phenomena. The chronological position of this element of mythology has, among other reasons, led Bonomi to arrive at some interesting conclusions on the respective ages of the palaces of Nineveh.
On the walls of the palace at Khorsabad are found sculptured the winged and human-headed bulls, emblems of wisdom or the sun, the four-winged figures, typical of Ibis or Cronos, eagle-headed divinities, and other figures, which are conceived to be symbolical of constellations, and of astronomical phenomena. From these nobler and simpler ideas of Divinity it is inferred, that when this palace was built the worship of the Assyrians was comparatively pure. But on the walls of Nimroud, in addition to the symbolical representations found at Khorsabad, there are also indications of an increased number of divinities, from the presence of deified men; hence a reason for the belief in the degeneracy of the system of religion at the period when this palace was built, and consequently its more recent date.[20]
III. Another element has also exercised a considerable influence upon the mythologies of some nations, namely, Scriptural narrative and traditions. It is not improbable that several of the heathen myths have been derived from this source. Many, indeed, believe that all mythology arises from corrupted Scripture, and it is asserted that Deucalion is merely another name for Noah; Hercules for Samson; Arion for Jonah, and Bacchus is either Nimrod or Moses—for the former supposition the similarity of name being assigned; for the latter, among others, one of the names and some of the actions of this God. Thus, Bacchus was named Bicornis, double-horned; and the face of Moses appeared double-horned when he came down from the mountain where he had spoken to God,—the rays of glory darting from his brow having the semblance of radiant horns. The Bacchæ drew waters from the rocks by striking them with their thyrsi; and wherever they went, the land flowed with milk, honey, and wine. Bacchus caused the rivers Orontes and Hydaspes to dry up, by striking them with his thyrsus, and passed through them dry-shod,—an action similar to that of Moses at the passage of the Red Sea, &c. That Scripture narrative has had an important influence in determining the formation of mythology, is highly probable; and we have already shown that the primary revelation of a Godhead at the creation of man supplied an important initial excitement to that development of the belief in the supernatural which occurred subsequent to the fall of man. The influence of Scriptural traditions on the myths of various nations it is probably impossible to unravel satisfactorily.
IV. Again, it has been supposed that the myths of the ancients, and of modern pagan nations, were allegorical; and that they were designed to represent a philosophical, moral, or religious truth under a fabulous form. Thus, the myth of the giant Typhon cutting away and carrying off the sinews of Jupiter, and that they were afterwards stolen from him by Mercury, and restored to Jupiter, is supposed to refer to powerful rebellions, by which the sinews of kings—their revenue and authority—are cut off; but by mildness of address, and wisdom of edicts, influencing the people, as it were, in a stolen manner, they recover their power and reconcile their subjects. And in the myth of the expedition of the gods against the giants, when the ass Silenus became of great service in dispersing them, on account of the terror excited by his braying, it is considered to be an allegory of those vast projects of rebels, which are mostly dissipated by light rumours and vain consternation. Minerva was fabled to have been born out of the head of Jupiter, because it was deemed that man did not in himself possess wisdom, but he derived it from divine inspiration; and this goddess was born armed, because a wise man clothed in wisdom and virtue is fortified against all the harms of life.