FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142  
143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   >>   >|  
ed fruit of the cosmical and theological conceptions of the childhood-condition of humanity, we propose to epitomize the results of his inquiry as to the _theological_, opinions of the Greeks, supplying additional confirmation of his views from other sources. And first, he proves most conclusively that Orpheus, Homer, and Hesiod,[160] who are usually designated "the theologians" of Greece, but who were in fact the depravers and corrupters of pagan theology, do not teach the existence of a multitude of _unmade, self-existent, and independent deities_. Even they believed in the existence of _one_ uncreated and eternal mind, _one Supreme God_, anterior and superior to all the gods of their mythology. They had some intuition, some apperception of the _Divine_, even before they had attached to it a sacred name. The gods of their mythology had all, save one, a temporal origin; they were generated of Chaos and Night, by an active principle called _Love_. "One might suspect," says Aristotle, that Hesiod, and if there be any other who made _love_ or _desire_ a principle of things, aimed at these very things (viz., the designation of the efficient cause of the world); for Parmenides, describing the generation of the universe, says: 'First of all the gods planned he _love_;' and further, Hesiod: 'First of all was Chaos, afterwards Earth, With her spacious bosom, And _Love_, who is pre-eminent among all the immortals;' as intimating here that in entities there should exist some _cause_ that will impart motion, and hold bodies in union together. But how, in regard to these, one ought to distribute them, as to the order of priority, can be decided afterwards.[161] [Footnote 160: We do not concern ourselves with the chronological antecedence of these ancient Greek poets. It is of little consequence to us whether Homer preceded Orpheus, or Orpheus Homer. They were not the real creators of the mythology of ancient Greece. The myths were a spontaneous growth of the earliest human thought even before the separation of the Aryan family into its varied branches. The study of Comparative Mythology, as well as of Comparative Language, assures us that the myths had an origin much earlier than the times of Homer and Orpheus. They floated down from ages on the tide of oral tradition before they were systematized, embellished, and committed to writing by Homer, and Orpheus, and Hesiod. And between the systems o
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142  
143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
Orpheus
 

Hesiod

 

mythology

 

existence

 

things

 
ancient
 
Comparative
 

origin

 
principle
 

Greece


theological

 

Footnote

 
priority
 

decided

 
antecedence
 

chronological

 
concern
 
intimating
 

entities

 

immortals


conceptions

 

eminent

 

regard

 

consequence

 

impart

 

motion

 

bodies

 

distribute

 

preceded

 

floated


earlier

 
Language
 

assures

 

writing

 

systems

 
committed
 

embellished

 
tradition
 

systematized

 
Mythology

spontaneous
 

growth

 
earliest
 
creators
 

spacious

 

thought

 
separation
 

branches

 
varied
 

family