cise that function; they are not immovably identified with the
moral order of the world, but frequently deviate from it themselves.
In the _Odyssey_, it is true, we meet with a deeper feeling. Here
Zeus is a kind of providence, in whom a man may trust when he does
right, and to all whose dispensations it behoves him humbly to
submit. A root of monotheism is present here, as in all the Aryan
religions from the first, and in Greece it is destined to have a
stately growth. The Homeric pantheon, however, as a whole, shows
religion at a stage in which it is rather an external ornament to
life than an inner inspiration. Perhaps there was never a set of real
men who thought of the gods and addressed them according to the
fashion of Homer. If such a religion ever actually existed, it was
not a strong one. These gods, with their caprices and infirmities and
their limited power, could never exercise any strong moral influence
or rouse any passion in their worshippers. They are fair-weather
gods; the religion is one of children, in whom conscience is not yet
awake and the deeper spiritual needs have not yet appeared. What the
mind of the Greek has done up to this stage is to discover that
nature is not above him; the powers of nature are human to him; they
are divine not because they are essentially different from himself,
but because they are matchless ideals of his own qualities. It is a
religion of free men. But the Greek has not yet discovered how
different he himself is from all that is around him; that element of
himself which is above nature will when he discovers it make such a
religion as the Homeric for ever impossible to him.

Omens.--As the godhead is never far away from the Homeric Greek, and
is an active being who takes an interest in human affairs, signs of
his presence are not infrequent. The air is the scene of them; in the
flight of birds, in sudden noises, the gods send messages; lightning
is a sign from Zeus of approaching rain or hail, it may be of
approaching war. There are rules for the interpretation of signs,
which, however, are in many cases of doubtful significance. Dreams
also are a favourite channel for divine communications, but they also
may be interpreted wrongly. There are persons who have a special gift
for knowing the divine will; the seer ([Greek: mantis]) is
enlightened by the deity not by an outward sign but inwardly; he
hears the god's voice, and can declare the divine will directly. This
gi