Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- OLYMPUS: OR THE RELIGION OF THE HOMERIC AGE
- SECT. I On the mixed character of the Supernatural System, or Theo-mythology of Homer
- SECT. II The traditive element of the Homeric Theo-mythology
- SECT. III The inventive element of the Homeric Theo-mythology
- SECT. IV The Composition of the Olympian Court; and the classification of the whole supernatural order in Homer
- SECT. V The Olympian Community and its Members considered in themselves
- SECT. VI The Olympian Community and its Members considered in their influence on human society and conduct
- SECT. VII On the traces of an origin abroad for the Olympian Religion
- SECT. VIII The Morals of the Homeric Age
- SECT. IX Woman in the heroic age
SECT. IV - The Composition of the Olympian Court; and the classification of the whole supernatural order in Homer
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 October 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- OLYMPUS: OR THE RELIGION OF THE HOMERIC AGE
- SECT. I On the mixed character of the Supernatural System, or Theo-mythology of Homer
- SECT. II The traditive element of the Homeric Theo-mythology
- SECT. III The inventive element of the Homeric Theo-mythology
- SECT. IV The Composition of the Olympian Court; and the classification of the whole supernatural order in Homer
- SECT. V The Olympian Community and its Members considered in themselves
- SECT. VI The Olympian Community and its Members considered in their influence on human society and conduct
- SECT. VII On the traces of an origin abroad for the Olympian Religion
- SECT. VIII The Morals of the Homeric Age
- SECT. IX Woman in the heroic age
Summary
In the full Olympian Assembly, or Great Chapter of the Immortals, we find a collection of deities, who are respectively the representatives, in the main, of Elemental Powers, of Human Passions or Ideas, and of Historical Traditions, either single or intermixed. Among the simple examples, we may cite the Rivers and Nymphs for the first, Mars and Venus for the second, the goddess Themis for the third, Latona and Iris for the last. In Jupiter, the chief of all, these elements are blended together.
But we must also consider those who do not appear in Olympus, and why they are excluded. If, as is perhaps the case, Aidoneus and Persephone are not there, it is because of the separateness of their work, and the remoteness of their kingdom. They had servants, guards, and a judge, in short, a sort of polity of their own. Atlas, Proteus, Calypso, Circe, and the other purely local deities, so far as we know, are not there ; probably because they do not enter into the national religion, but are little more than convenient symbols of geographical points known or conceived through maritime, that is, without doubt, through Phœnician report. Again, we do not hear in Olympus of Destiny, Sleep, Night, Dream, Terror, Panic, Uproar, and the rest; probably because these had not attained to practical impersonation in the religion of the people, but were merely objects of the poetical faculty. So likewise with respect to the Winds, who stand as receivers of worship and sacrifice in Il. xxiii. 195.
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- Studies on Homer and the Homeric Age , pp. 271 - 323Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010First published in: 1858