The book of the ancient Greeks: An introduction to the history and civilization of Greece from the coming of the Greeks to the conquest of Corinth by Rome in 146 B.C. — John Stuart Mill — John Shaqi
The book of the ancient Greeks: An introduction to the history and civilization of Greece from the coming of the Greeks to the conquest of Corinth by Rome in 146 B.C.
John Stuart Mill · en
The Egyptians in their religious beliefs had been very much occupied
with the idea of the life after death, but at first the Greeks
thought of this very little. They believed that proper burial was
necessary for the future happiness of the soul, and want of this was
looked upon as a very serious disaster, but beyond the insisting on
due and fitting burial ceremonies their thoughts were not much
occupied with the future. The reason of this was probably because
the Greeks found this life so delightful. They were filled with the
joy of being alive and were keenly interested in everything
concerning life; they felt at home in the world. The gods in whom
the Greeks believed were not supposed to have created the world, but
they were themselves part of it, and every phase of this life that
was so full of interest and adventure was represented by the
personality of a god. First, it was the outside life, nature with
all its mysteries, and then all the outward activities of man.
Later, men found other things difficult to explain, the passions
within them, love and hatred, gentleness and anger, and gradually
they gave personalities to all these emotions and thought of each as
inspired by a god. These gods were thought of as very near to man;
men and women in the Heroic Age had claimed descent from them, and
they were supposed to come {46} down to earth and to hold frequent
converse with man. The Greeks trusted their gods and looked to them
for protection and assistance in all their affairs, but these gods
were too human and not holy enough to be a real inspiration or to
influence very much the conduct of those who believed in them.
The chief gods dwelt on Mount Olympus in Thessaly and were called the
Olympians; others had dwellings on the earth, in the water, or in the
underworld. Heaven, the water and the underworld were each under the
particular sovereignty of a great overlord amongst the gods.
Three brethren are we [said Poseidon], Zeus and myself and Hades
is the third, the ruler of the folk in the underworld. And in
three lots are all things divided, and each drew a domain of his
own, and to me fell the hoary sea, to be my habitation for ever,
when we shook the lots; and Hades drew the murky darkness, and
Zeus the wide heaven, in clear air and clouds, but the earth and
high Olympus are common to all.[1]