Studies on Homer and the Homeric Age, Vol. 2 of 3 / Olympus; or, the Religion of the Homeric Age

by W. E. Gladstone

OLYMPUS:
OR
THE RELIGION OF THE HOMERIC AGE.

SECT. I.
On the mixed character of the Supernatural System, or Theo-mythology of Homer.
Homer’s method not systematic	Page [1]
Incongruities of his Theo-mythology point to diversity of sources	[2]
Remnants of primitive tradition likely to be found in the Poems	[3]
Extra-judaical relations between God and man	[6]
With tradition it combines invention	[9]
It is a true Theology corrupted	[9]
It has not its basis in nature-worship	[10]
It could not have sprung from invention only	[13]
Sacrifices admitted to be traditional	[15]
Tendency of primitive religion to decay	[17]
Downward course of the idea of God	[18]
Decline closely connected with Polytheism	[20]
Inducements to Nature-worship	[21]
The deterioration of religion progressive	[23]
Paganism in its old age	[25]
The impersonations of Homer	[26]
The nature of the myths of Homer	[29]
Tradition the proper key to many of them	[30]
He exhibits the two systems in active impact	[32]
Steps of the downward process	[33]
Sources of the inventive portions	[35]
Originality of the Olympian system	[37]
SECT. II.
The traditive element of the Homeric Theo-mythology.
The channels of early religious tradition	[39]
Some leading early traditions of Scripture	[40]
As to the Godhead	[42]
As to the Redeemer	[42]
As to the Evil One	[43]
Their defaced counterparts in Homer	[43]
Deities of equivocal position	[46]
Threefold materials of the Greek religion	[48]
Messianic traditions of the Hebrews	[49]
To be learned from three sources	[49]
Attributes ascribed to the Messiah	[51]
The deities of tradition in Homer	[54]
Minerva and Apollo jointly form the key	[55]
Notes of their Olympian rank	[56]
Of their higher antiquity	[57]
The Secondaries of Minerva	[59]
The Secondaries of Apollo	[60]
Argument from the Secondaries	[63]
Picture of human society in Olympus	[64]
Dignity and precedence of Minerva	[66]
Of Apollo	[69]
Minerva’s relations of will and affection with Jupiter	[70]
Those of Apollo	[71]
Apollo the Deliverer of Heaven	[72]
Power of Minerva in the Shades	[73]
These deities are never foiled by others	[74]
The special honour of the Trine Invocation	[78]
They receive universal worship	[79]
They are not localized in any abode	[82]
They are objects together with Jupiter of habitual prayer	[83]
Exempt from appetite and physical limitations	[86]
Their manner of appreciating sacrifice	[88]
Their independent power of punishment	[90]
They handle special attributes of Jupiter	[94]
They exercise dominion over nature	[98]
Relation of Apollo (with Diana) to Death	[101]
Exemption from the use of second causes	[104]
Superiority of their moral standard	[105]
Special relation of Apollo to Diana	[108]
Disintegration of primitive traditions	[108]
The Legend of Alcyone	[111]
Place of Minerva and Apollo in Providential government	[113]
It is frequently ascribed to them	[115]
Especially the inner parts of it to Minerva	[117]
Apollo’s gift of knowledge	[119]
Intimacy of Minerva’s personal relations with man	[121]
Form of their relation to their attributes	[122]
The capacity to attract new ones	[124]
Wide range of their functions	[125]
Tradition of the Sun	[126]
The central wisdom of Minerva	[129]
The three characters of Apollo	[130]
The opposition between two of them	[131]
Minerva and Apollo do not fit into Olympus	[133]
Origin of the Greek names	[133]
Summary of their distinctive traits	[134]
Explanation by Friedreich	[138]
Treatment of Apollo by Müller	[141]
After-course of the traditions	[142]
The Diana of Homer	[143]
Her acts and attributes in the poems	[144]
The Latona of Homer	[147]
Her attributes in the poems	[149]
Her relation to primitive Tradition	[153]
Her acts in the poems	[154]
The Iris of Homer	[156]
The Atè of Homer	[158]
The ἀτασθαλίη of Homer	[162]
Other traditions of the Evil One	[162]
Parallel citations from Holy Scripture	[165]
The Future State in Homer	[167]
Sacrificial tradition in Homer	[171]
He has no sabbatical tradition	[171]
SECT. III.
The inventive element of the Homeric Theo-mythology.
The character of Jupiter	[173]
Its fourfold aspect.—1. Jupiter as Providence	[174]
2. Jupiter as Lord of Air	[178]
Earth why vacant in the Lottery	[179]
3. Jupiter as Head of Olympus	[181]
His want of moral elements	[183]
His strong political spirit	[185]
4. Jupiter as the type of animalism	[186]
Qualified by his parental instincts	[189]
The Juno of Homer	[190]
Juno of the Iliad and Juno of the Odyssey	[191]
Her intense nationality	[192]
Her mythological functions	[193]
Her mythological origin	[197]
The Neptune of Homer	[199]
His threefold aspect	[200]
His traits mixed, but chiefly mythological	[201]
His relation to the Phœnicians	[205]
His relation to the tradition of the Evil One	[206]
His grandeur is material	[209]
The Aidoneus of Homer	[210]
His personality shadowy and feeble	[211]
The Ceres or Demeter of Homer	[212]
Her Pelasgian associations	[213]
Her place in Olympus	[215]
Her mythological origin	[215]
The Proserpine or Persephone of Homer	[217]
Her marked and substantive character	[218]
Her connection with the East	[220]
Her place in Olympus doubtful	[223]
Her associations Hellenic and not Pelasgian	[224]
The Mars of Homer	[225]
His limited worship and attributes	[226]
Mars as yet scarcely Greek	[229]
The Mercury of Homer	[231]
Preeminently the god of increase	[233]
Mercury Hellenic as well as Phœnician	[235]
But apparently recent in Greece	[237]
His Olympian function distinct from that of Iris	[238]
The poems consistent with one another in this point	[241]
The Venus of Homer	[243]
Venus as yet scarcely Greek	[244]
Advance of her worship from the East	[247]
Her Olympian rank and character	[249]
Her extremely limited powers	[249]
Apparently unable to confer beauty	[251]
Homer never by intention makes her attractive	[252]
The Vulcan of Homer	[254]
His Phœnician and Eastern extraction	[255]
His marriage with Venus	[257]
Vulcan in and out of his art	[259]
The Ἠέλιος of Homer	[260]
In the Iliad	[261]
In the Odyssey	[262]
Is of the Olympian court	[263]
His incorporation with Apollo	[264]
The Dionysus or Bacchus of Homer	[266]
His worship recent	[266]
Apparently of Phœnician origin	[267]
He is of the lowest inventive type	[269]
SECT. IV.
The Composition of the Olympian Court; and the classification of the whole supernatural order in Homer.
Principal cases of exclusion from Olympus	[271]
Case of Oceanus	[273]
Together with that of Kronos and Rhea	[274]
The Dî majores of the later tradition	[275]
Number of the Olympian gods in Homer	[275]
What deities are of that rank	[277]
The Hebe and the Paieon of Homer	[278]
The Eris of Homer	[280]
Classification of the twenty Olympian deities	[282]
The remaining supernatural order, in six classes	[283]
Destiny or Fate in Homer	[285]
Under the form of Αἶσα	[286]
Death inexorable to Fate or Deity alike	[287]
Destiny under the form of Μοῖρα	[290]
Under the form of μόρος	[293]
General view of the Homeric Destiny	[294]
Not antagonistic to Divine will	[297]
The minor impersonations of natural powers	[298]
The Ἁρπυῖαι of Homer	[300]
The Erinues of Homer	[302]
Their office is to vindicate the moral order	[305]
Their operation upon the Immortals	[306]
Their connection with Aides and Persephone	[308]
Their relation to Destiny	[310]
Their operation upon man	[310]
Their occasional function as tempters	[312]
The translation of mortals	[313]
The deification of mortals	[314]
Growth of material for its extension	[316]
The kindred of the gods (1) the Cyclopes	[318]
(2) The Læstrygones	[319]
(3) The Phæacians	[320]
(4) Æolus Hippotades	[322]
SECT. V.
The Olympian Community and its Members considered in themselves.
The family order in Olympus	[325]
The political order in Olympus	[326]
Absence of important restraints upon their collective action	[327]
They are influenced by courtesy and intelligence	[328]
Superiority of the Olympian Immortals	[330]
Their unity imperfect	[331]
Their polity works constitutionally	[332]
The system not uniform	[333]
They are inferior in morality to men	[334]
And are governed mainly by force and fraud	[335]
Their dominant and profound selfishness	[337]
The cruelty of Calypso in her love	[339]
Their standard of taste and feeling low	[340]
The Olympian life is a depraved copy of the heroic	[341]
The exemption from death uniform	[342]
The exemption from other limitations partial	[345]
Sometimes based on peculiar grounds	[346]
Divine faculties for the most part an extension from the human	[348]
Their dependence on the eye	[350]
Their powers of locomotion	[352]
Chief heads of superiority to mankind	[353]
Their superiority in stature and beauty	[354]
Their libertinism	[355]
Their keen regard to sacrifice and the ground of it	[357]
Their circumscribed power over nature	[358]
Parts of the body how ascribed to them	[359]
Examples of miracle in Homer	[361]
Mode of their action on the human mind	[363]
They do not discern the thoughts	[365]
SECT. VI.
The Olympian Community and its Members considered in their influence on human society and conduct.
Lack of periodical observances and of a ministering class	[367]
Yet the religion was a real power in life	[368]
The effect of the corruption of the gods was not yet fully felt	[369]
They show little regard to human interests	[371]
A moral tone is occasionally perceptible	[373]
Prevalent belief as to their views of man and life	[374]
It lent considerable support to virtue	[377]
Their course with respect to Troy	[378]
Bearing of the religion on social ties	[380]
And on political relations	[382]
The Oath	[383]
Bearing of the religion on the poems	[385]
As regards Neptune’s wrath in the Odyssey	[387]
As regards the virtue of purity	[388]
As regards poetic effect	[388]
Comparison of its earliest and latest form	[390]
Gloom prevails in Homer’s view of human destiny	[392]
The personal belief of Homer	[394]
SECT. VII.
On the traces of an origin abroad for the Olympian Religion.
The Olympian deities classified according to local extraction	[397]
Their connection as a body with the Æthiopes	[399]
Confirms the hypothesis of Persian origin	[402]
Herodotus on the Scythian religion	[402]
His report from Egypt about the Greek deities	[404]
Four several bases of religious systems	[405]
Anthropophuism in the Olympian religion	[406]
Nature-worship as described in the Book of Wisdom	[406]
Its secondary place in the Olympian religion	[407]
In what sense it follows a prior Nature-worship	[409]
The principle of Brute-worship	[410]
Its traces in the Olympian religion	[411]
Chief vestige: oxen of the Sun	[412]
Xanthus the horse of Achilles	[414]
SECT. VIII.
The Morals of the Homeric Age.
The general type of Greek character in the heroic age	[417]
The moral sense in the heroic age	[418]
Use of the words ἀγαθός and κακός	[421]
Of the word δίκαιος	[423]
Religion and morals were not dissociated	[425]
Moral elements in the practice of sacrifice	[427]
Three main motives to virtue. 1. Regard to the gods	[427]
2. The power of conscience	[428]
3. Regard for the sentiments of mankind	[430]
The force and forms of αἰδὼς	[431]
Other cognate terms	[435]
Homicide in the heroic age	[436]
Eight instances in the poems	[437]
Why viewed with little disfavour	[440]
Piracy in the heroic age	[442]
Its nature as then practised	[443]
Mixed view of it in the poems	[444]
Family feuds in the heroic age	[446]
Temperance in the heroic age	[447]
Self-control in the heroic age	[448]
Absence of the vice of cruelty	[450]
Savage ideas occasionally expressed	[451]
These not unfamiliar to later Greece	[453]
Wrath in Ulysses	[454]
Wrath in Achilles	[455]
Domestic affections in the heroic age	[456]
Relationships close, not wide	[459]
Purity in the heroic age	[460]
Lay of the Net of Vulcan	[461]
Direct evidence of comparative purity	[465]
Treatment of the human form	[466]
Treatment of various characters	[467]
Outline of Greek life in the heroic age	[468]
Its morality, and that of later Greece	[471]
Points of its superiority	[472]
Inferior as to crimes of violence	[475]
Some effects of slavery	[476]
Signs of degeneracy before Homer’s death	[477]
SECT. IX.
Woman in the heroic age.
The place of Woman generally, and in heroic Greece	[479]
Its comparative elevation	[480]
1. State of the law and custom of marriage	[481]
Marriage was uniformly single	[483]
2. Conceived in a spirit of freedom	[483]
Its place in the career of life	[485]
Mode of contraction	[486]
3. Perpetuity of the tie of marriage	[487]
Adultery	[488]
Desertion	[489]
4. Greek ideas of incest	[489]
5. Fidelity in married life	[492]
Treatment of spurious children	[494]
Case of Briseis	[495]
Mode of contracting marriage	[496]
Concubinage of Greek chieftains in Troas	[497]
Dignity of conjugal and feminine manners	[499]
Social position of the wife	[500]
Force of conjugal attachments	[502]
Woman characters of Homer	[503]
The province of Woman well defined	[505]
Argument from the position of the goddesses	[506]
Women admitted to sovereignty	[507]
And to the service of the gods	[509]
Their household employments	[511]
Their service about the bath	[512]
Explanation of the presumed difficulty	[515]
Proof from the case of Ulysses in Scheria	[517]
Subsequent declension of Woman	[518]
SECT. X.
The Office of the Homeric Poems in relation to that of the early Books of Holy Scripture.
Points of literary resemblance	[521]
Providential functions of Greece and Rome	[523]
Of the Early records of Holy Scripture	[524]
The Sacred Books are not mere literary works	[525]
Providential use of the Homeric poems	[527]
They complete the code of primitive instruction	[529]
Human history had no visible centre up to the Advent	[531]
Nor for some time after it	[532]
A purpose served by the whole design	[533]

OLYMPUS,
OR
THE RELIGION OF THE HOMERIC AGE.

SECT. I.
On the Mixed Character of the Supernatural System, or Theo-Mythology, of Homer.

Though the poems of Homer are replete, perhaps beyond any others, with refined and often latent adaptations, yet it may be observed in general of the modes of representation used by him, that they are preeminently the reverse of systematic. Institutions or characters, which are in themselves consistent, probably gain by this method of proceeding, provided the execution be not unworthy of the design. For it secures their exhibition in more, and more varied, points of view, than can possibly be covered by the more didactic process. But the possession of this advantage depends upon the fact, that there is in them a harmony, which is their base, and which we have only to discover. Whereas, if that harmony be wanting, if in lieu of it there be a groundwork of fundamental discrepancy, then the conditions of effect are wholly changed. The multiplied variety of view becomes a multiplication of incongruity; each new aspect offers a new problem: and the more masterly the hand of the artist, the more arduous becomes the attempt to comprehend and present in their mutual bearings the pictures he has drawn, and the suggestions he has conveyed.

Thus it has been with that which, following German example, I have denominated the Theo-mythology of Homer. By that term it seems not improper to designate a mixture of theology and mythology, as these two words are commonly understood. Theology I suppose to mean, a system dealing with the knowledge of God and the unseen world: mythology, a system conversant with the inventions of man concerning them. In the Homeric poems I find both of these largely displayed: but with this difference, that the first was in visible decline, the second in such rapid and prolific development, that, while Homer is undoubtedly a witness to older fable, which had already in his time become settled tradition, he is also in this department himself evidently and largely a Maker and Inventor, and the material of the Greek mythology comes out of his hands far more fully moulded, and far more diversified, than it entered them.

Of the fact that the Homeric religion does not present a consistent and homogeneous whole, we have abundant evidence in the difficulties with which, so soon as the literary age of Greece began, expositors found themselves incumbered; and which drove them sometimes upon allegory as a resource, sometimes, as in the case of Plato, upon censure and repudiation[1].

Extended relations of God to man.