When once such a system was begun, it was quite natural that it should
increase. Every man of lively imagination could invent a god or a
goddess, and the people were likely to adopt them, as fast as they
could be manufactured. The priests and poets had both an interest in
carrying on this business, for they either got a living by it, or
gained freedom, fame and consequence among the people.
The Greeks, for many ages after they settled their country, which took
place above three thousand seven hundred years ago, held constant
communication with Egypt. To this country they went for education and
for the arts. They not only imitated their buildings, furniture and
curtains, but they adopted the Egyptian religion also. The Greeks were,
however, a people of a great deal of genius. Beginning with Egyptian
arts and customs, they modified or changed them, by the suggestions of
their own taste and fancy. Thus, in time, they soon became superior, in
many things, to the Egyptians, who were their schoolmasters.
The mythology of the Egyptians was soon changed, in the hands of the
lively and inventive Greeks; and, indeed, it became so different, that
it got the name at last of the Grecian mythology. A large part of the
poetry and literature of the Greeks was filled with the achievements of
their gods and goddesses. Men of the greatest genius, such as Homer,
Hesiod, Anacreon, and others, wrote splendid pieces about the fabulous
deities; and the people believed them all to be true.
According to these poets, Jupiter or Jove was the greatest of the gods.
He was represented in the temples, as sitting on a throne, with the
eagle, the most powerful of birds, at his side, as an emblem of his
superiority. In his hand, he held thunderbolts, ready to hurl them
forth upon his enemies. He was supposed to reside chiefly upon Olympus,
a tall mountain of Greece, where he held councils with his deities.
The early history of Jupiter, as told by the poets, is droll enough.
The ancients knew very little about astronomy or geography. So they
divided the universe into three great kingdoms――the heavens, the earth,
and the infernal regions. Titan, a powerful king, gave Saturn the
kingdom of the earth, upon condition that he should kill all his male
children. Saturn married a woman by the name of Ops. They had several
children, but as soon as a boy was born, Saturn always ate him up.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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