4. A peculiar dignity, in the nature of precedence, is accorded especially to Minerva.
5. We have next noted the singular union of Apollo with Jupiter in will and affection, and the relation of both to him, as the proper and regular ministers of the supreme dispensations of heaven, apart from the partial and individual action of particular gods.
6. The defence of heaven against rebellion is dimly recorded to have been the act of Apollo; and indispensable assistance was also rendered on another occasion to Jupiter by Minerva.
7. These great divinities are never baffled, disgraced, or worsted in any transaction between themselves and any other deity; nor ever exhibited by the Poet in a disadvantageous or disparaging position.
II. Points of distinction in their terrestrial relations and their conditions of physical existence.
1. They were known by men to be entitled, either alone, or in common with Jupiter only, to a peculiar reverence or honour.
2. They were the objects of worship in all parts of the Homeric world.
3. Neither of them are bound to any local residence in particular; and for Apollo there is no trace of any such residence at all.
4. They are both the objects, Minerva more particularly, of general invocation and prayer, irrespective of place and circumstances.
5. They are exempted from the chief physical limitations, as of time, place, and perceptive organs, which are generally imposed upon the deities of invention.