lineage. After the attempt to enslave Greece, which led to the Persian wars, the hostility of Greeks to barbarians became a traditional sentiment. Greeks might hold one another in slavery, but captive Greeks might not be sold to barbarians. There was a deeper apprehension of sin in the post-Homeric era. Sin was conceived of, not only as an infraction of the moral order, but as a rebellion against the gods,—as practical atheism, or ungodliness. Nor do the gods any longer tempt the innocent to sin. It is only those who have sinned whom they entice onward to the commission of further iniquities, by which their retribution is rendered more severe. This agency of the deities, by which sin is made itself a divine judgment, and the transgressor is made to wade deeper and deeper in the mire of guilt and suffering, is quite prominent in the post-Homeric writers. 4. That human life is replete with trouble and sorrow continues to be the subject of plaintive remark. It is an undertone in the literature of the most brilliant period of Grecian history. The chorus in Edipus Tyrannus thus exclaims : "Ah, race of mortal men, How as a thing of naught Than just a little while To seem to prosper well, And, having seemed, to fall ?" i Ajax, in his wretchedness, looking on his child, says: 1 ἰὼ γενεαὶ βροτῶν, ὡς ὑμᾶς ἴσα καὶ τὸ μηδέν ζῶσας ἐναριθμῶ. τίς γὰρ, τίς ἀνὴρ πλέον τᾶς εὐδαιμονίας φέρει ἢ τοσοῦτον ὅσον δοκεῖν καὶ δόξαντ' ἀποκλίναι ?-Ed. Rex, 1186-1192. -"Sweetest life is found In those unconscious years ere yet thou know Pindar sings: "But o'er men's hearts unnumbered errors hang; The flowery path untrod by woe, Or find the day's delight, that brings no sorrow's pang." And again: That " death" ""Tis not given for man to know When pale death shall strike the blow, The sun's brief child, shall pass away Unclouded as it rose. The waves Of life with ceaseless changes flow, Bring triumph or disaster, weal or woe." 3 2 no man is to be thought happy until after his was one of the most familiar of proverbs, to illustrate the mutable lot of humanity. Hades continued to be a region of gloom. It came to be considered a scene of trial and judgment, and of rewards, as well as of sufferings. The soul was no longer so identified with the body, as in Homer. Yet seldom is any bright 1 ἐν τῷ φρονεῖν γὰρ μηδὲν ἥδιστος βίος, Ajax, 554-555. 2 ήτοι βροτῶν γε κέκριται πεῖρας ὂν τι θανάτου, οὐδ ̓ ἀσύχιμον ἡμέραν ὁπότε, παῖδ ̓ ἁλίου, ἀτειρεῖ σὺν ἀγαθῷ τελευτάσομεν· ῥοαὶ δ ̓ ἄλλοτ ̓ ἄλλαί, εὐθυμιᾶν τε μετὰ καὶ πόνων ἐς ἀνδρες ἔβαν. Olymp. ii. Ant. ii. 3 ἀμφὶ δ' ἀνθρώπων φασὶν ἀμπλακίαι ἀναρίθμητοι κρέμανται· τοῦτο δ' ἀμάχανον εὑρεῖν, ὅτι νῦν ἐν καὶ τελευτᾷ φέρτατον ἀνδρὶ τυχεῖν. Olymp. vii., Str. ii. anticipation connected with death. The enthusiasm of Edipus seems to intimate a happy hereafter; yet there we find no definite suggestion of such a prospect.1 On occasions where we might look for some glowing expression of hope in reference to the departed, as in the funeral oration of Pericles for the fallen patriots, there is an ominous silence. The consciousness of guilt left a sting in death. The Orphic and Eleusinian mysteries were a means of purifying the conscience, and of awakening more joyful hopes for the future. Underlying the former was the Pythagorean tenet of transmigration. The aim was to cleanse the soul from sin and guilt, and thus to give peace to the conscience, and a better hope. The Eleusinian ceremonies, acting principally upon the feelings, served to dispel the gloomy dread of the grave, and to infuse a more glad belief and anticipation respecting the destiny of the soul, The hopes thus engendered find expression in Pindar. In passages, which Plutarch cites in the "Consolation to Apollonius," the Poet describes the abode of the righteous, where there is no night, where grow the fairest blossoms and the most fragrant plants, and trees inhaling the sweetest perfume: "Death doth its efforts on the body spend, But the aspiring soul doth upward tend. Nothing can damp that bright and subtile flame In the second Olympic Ode, the lot of the good, whose souls have thrice stood a trial on earth, and are now in the Happy Isle, among gentle breezes and "blooms of gold," is contrasted with the doom of the bad. In the tragic 8 1Ed at Col., 1611 seq. 2 Thucyd., ii. 35-46. Consol. ad Apoll. xxxv. 4 σῶμα μὲν πάντων έπεται θανάτῳ περισθενεῖ, ζῶν δὲ λείπεται αἰῶνος εἴδωλον· [τὸ] γὰρ μόνον ἐστίν ἐκ θεῶν. poets, it is only the select few, like Agamemnon, who, being raised in the under world to the rank of heroes, and even invoked, have a blessed lot. But apart from the influence of the mysteries upon the initiated class, and as regards the mass of the people, it is probable that the Homeric notions still prevailed, and were the foundation of the popular beliefs respecting the dead. With the cultivated, with the exception of a select band of philosophers, the desire of posthumous fame took the place of the faith in a future, immortal existence of the soul. CHAPTER IV. THE POPULAR RELIGION OF THE GREEKS AND ROMANS AND ITS DECLINE. IT is natural to ask how the Greeks could ever have given credence to the myths which attributed gross immorality to the gods, and at the same time have continued to venerate them. How could men adore, and laud as just and good, beings to whom they imputed deeds of treachery, lust, and cruelty, such as, when done by men, they abhorred? In the history of religion it is often found that incongruous conceptions may abide in the mind without jostling each other. The myths in question might be credited, in an unreflecting age, without prompting to such an induction relative to the general character of the gods, as these stories would logically warrant. These exalted beings might be thought to stand on a different plane as to moral responsibility, and to enjoy a license not the privilege of mortals. Some might be content to leave the crimes and infirmities of the gods in the twilight of mystery, not allowing their general habit of reverence to be disturbed by their inability to solve difficulties. The ambition of the leading families in Greece to trace their descendants to the gods tended to multiply the tales relative to the amours of Jove, and of his Olympian companions. The combination of myths having a separate origin-the identification of deities having different names-had the same effect. Not an impure fancy chiefly, but circumstances attending the |