ves of men. One of them,
Zeus, was regarded as the supreme "father of gods and men," who delegated
specific duties to others; Ares was the god of battles, Hermes was the
messenger, Athena implanted wisdom in the minds of men, and Poseidon ruled
the sea. The gods were very human to the Greek mind, living in Olympus as
men do upon earth, and even visiting the mortals. Their worship involved
propitiatory sacrifices and rites as well as thanksgiving offerings when
favors were bestowed. But although they were immortal, they did not allow
the immortal souls of human beings to join them in their elysium, but
compelled the disembodied shades to wander unhappily among the tombs and
about their earthly abodes.

Roman theology and religion comprise almost identical forms of the three
fundamental elements. The names are changed, and Zeus becomes Jove, his
wife Hera is Juno, Ares is Mars, and Hermes is called Mercury. In all
other respects, however, the two systems are as much alike as the Greek
and Roman languages and Greek and Roman physique.

The religions of savagery are far less analytical, and much more naive in
their reference of natural happenings to the direct interposition of
malevolent and benevolent spirits. Their gods are numerous as in Greek
religion, and likewise one of them is usually set up as the superior
deity, to be the Tirawa of the Indian, the greater Atua of Polynesia, and
the Mumbo Jumbo of a West African negro. There is no centralization of the
supernatural powers, as in the Jehovah of Judaism and the still subtler
Brahma of the Asian. Then, too, the gods must be concretely materialized
for purposes of worship and sacrifice; consequently idols are made, to be
regarded as the actual spirits themselves permanently or for the time
being, and not viewed as representations of an ideal, like the statues of
more advanced peoples. The immortal state is described in low religions in
various ways that seem to be determined by what the believer himself most
desires. The spirit of an American Indian goes to the happy
hunting-grounds, where it mounts a spirit pony and forever pursues the
ghosts of bison which it kills with spirit bow and arrows; to provide these
necessaries his earthly possessions are laid beside his dead body. The
Norseman was conducted to Valhalla and, attended by the Valkyrie as
handmaidens, he eternally drank mead from the skull of an enemy and
gloried over his mundane prowess in battle. It is unnece