Fiends, Ghosts, and Sprites / Including an Account of the Origin and Nature of Belief in the Supernatural

by John Netten Radcliffe

Every action of man, both in his collective and individual capacity—everything in relation to his household and domestic affairs—was also conceived to be governed by supernatural powers, which were classed under the names of Penates and Lares.

The Penates, as may well be imagined, were almost numberless, but they may be divided into three classes: 1st, those which presided over kingdoms and provinces; 2nd, those which presided over cities only; and 3rd, those presiding over houses and families. To instance to what an extent this belief was carried, a penate named Ferculus looked after the door; the goddess Cardua after the hinges; and Limentius protected the threshold.

The Lares were of human origin, and they presided also over houses, streets, and ways. Subsequently their power was extended to the country and the sea.

To each person was also assigned two deities, termed genii. These spirits were subsidiary to the gods already mentioned, it being one of their duties to carry the prayers of men to them. The genii differed in nature and disposition, and were divided into two classes—the good and the bad. The good genius excited men to all actions of honour and virtue; the evil genius excited him to all manner of wickedness. The Greeks termed these genii dæmons, either from the terror and dread they created when they appeared, or from the wise answer they returned when consulted as oracles.

The ravages caused by an ever-gnawing conscience and by the effects of the evil passions, were attributed to three supernatural powers termed the Furies—Alecto, Tisiphone, and Megæra—who became symbolical of the avengers of wickedness; and lastly, Night, Sleep, and Death—Nox, Mors, and Somnus—were elevated among the gods.

This brief sketch will serve to show the leading principle entering into the formation of the Grecian and Roman mythology—a mythology containing more than 30,000 gods; and it will illustrate how every hidden power of nature as well in the organic as the inorganic world; and how every equally inexplicable operation of the human mind was referred, for an explanation, to the influence of a supernatural power, which in the progress of time was personified, worshipped, and pourtrayed in such a form as best set forth the effects it was conceived to produce.

This source of the belief in the supernatural, as we have already stated, will be found to have prevailed among all nations; hence their primary mythological conceptions are one and the same, modified by the difference of climate, habits, &c.

Thus, of the gods of the ancient Britons—Belin, Plennyd, or Granwyn, possessed the attributes of, and was the same with, Apollo; Gwydion, or Teutath, had all the attributes of Mercury; Daronwy, Taranwy, or Taranis, the thunderer, of Jove; Anras, or Andraste, of Bellona; He-us, Hesus, Hugadarn, or Hu-ysgwn, united the characters of Bacchus and Mars; Ked and Keridwen answered to Ceres; Llenwy to Proserpine; Olwen and Dwynwen to Venus; and Neivion to Neptune.[10]

In the Scandinavian mythology the principal gods are personifications of physical and mental powers. Odin, the most powerful of the three beings first educed from chaotic confusion, possesses the attributes of Mercury; and according to Finn Magnusen, Vili is the personification of light; Ve, of fire. The two ravens which are depicted as sitting constantly upon the shoulders of Odin, represent Mind and Memory; and of the principal gods, we find that Thor is symbolical of thunder; Baldur of the sun; Njord rules over the winds, sea, &c.; Frey is the god of rain, sunshine, and the fruits of the earth; Tyr, of war; Bragi, of wisdom and poetry; Vidar, of silence; Forseti, of law and justice; Loki is the personification of evil; Frigga is the goddess of the earth; and night, day, the moon, time, the present, the past, and the future, healing, chastity, abundance, love, courtesy, wisdom, and every form and passion and power of nature which the Scandinavians had separated and distinguished, each had its special and worshipped god.

The original worship of the Hindoos[11] was directed to the heavenly bodies, the elements, and natural objects. In the mandras, or prayers, which form the principal part of the Vedas, or sacred writings, the firmament, the sun, moon, fire, air, and spirit of the earth, are most frequently addressed. These writings inculcate the worship of the elements and planets, and differ from the more recent and legendary poems which teach the worship of deified heroes and sages. In the Sanhitâ of the Rig-veda, the invocations which it contains are chiefly addressed to the deities of fire, the firmament, the winds, the seasons, the sun, and the moon, who are invited to be present at the sacrifices, or are appealed to for wealth or for their several beneficial qualities. The personified attributes of Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva, signifying respectively creation, preservation, and destruction, are due to a later and more refined era of Hindoo mythology; and the eight inferior deities ranking next in order to the Trimurti, and termed Lokapalas, are all personifications of natural objects and powers. Thus Indra is the god of, and is symbolical of the visible heavens, thunder, lightning, storm, and rain; Agni, of fire; Yama, of the infernal regions; Surya, of the sun; Varuna, of water; Parana, of wind; Kuvera, of wealth; and Soma, or Chandra, of the moon.