"I am that which is, was, and shall be: no mortal hath lifted up my veil: the offspring of my power is the sun."
A similar inscription still remains at Capua, on the temple of Isis:
"Thou art one, and from thee all things proceed."
In the above, evident traces are to be seen of the Hebrew term Jehovah. Some of Homer's descriptions have their excellencies; but they all suffer from the fact, that he clothes the deities he describes, not only with human passions, but with human appetites of the most degrading character. And he never seems more satisfied with himself than when he represents them heated for war! "Warring gods," when placed at the foot of Calvary, or contrasted with any just description of the true God, is certainly a revolting idea; and it is still worse to introduce them as does Homer, with the shuddering thought that,
"Gods on gods exert eternal rage!"
And our impressions are scarcely more favorable when he presents us with an unincarnate, and yet "bleeding god," retiring from the field of battle, "pierced with Grecian darts," "though fatal, not to die." The following from this author is singular indeed:
"Of lawless force shall lawless MARS complain?
Of all the most unjust, most odious in our eyes!
In human discord is thy dire delight,
The waste of slaughter, and the rage of fight.
No bound, no law thy fiery temper quells,
And all thy mother in thy soul rebels!"—Illiad, Book 5.
The following is far less exceptionable:
"And know, the Almighty is the God of gods.
League all your forces then, ye powers above,
Join all, and try the omnipotence of Jove;
Let down our golden everlasting chain,
Whose strong embrace holds heaven, and earth and main:
Strive all, of mortal or immortal birth,
To draw, by this, the thunderer down to earth:
Ye strive in vain! If I but stretch this hand,
I heave the gods, the ocean, and the land;
I fix the chain to great Olympus' height,
And the vast world hangs trembling in my sight!
For such I reign unbounded and above;
And such are men, and gods, compared to Jove."—Ill. b. vi.
Some of the above ideas are certainly sublime, and considering the age that produced them, they have no superior but the bible.