The Gods and Our religion is much more profound than the Greek; but the latter was much btoader than ours, for it peopled the glens of the mountains and the waves of the sea with an overflowing life human in its forms. Greek religion embodied in art all that stirs the religious feelings of men: the ocean and the river, the rock and the forest, the sun in its splendor, the moon in its gentle romance; and this religious feeling was with the Greek all the time, not merely at church service, prayer-meeting or revivals. The symposium began and ended with prayer. Even gymnastic contests and horse-racing came within the pale of religion. Every side of man found expres sion in religion. Political assemblies began with worship. Marriage and the rearing of children were under the protection of the gods. If men wanted bread, they worshipped Demeter; if wine, Dionysus; health Asdepios; care for sheep, Apollo, Pan or Hermes. If they de sired to know the future, they consulted oracles. The bringing of votive offerings to the gods was in the same spirit as the bringing of trib ute to human rulers. The procession at the festivals was like the triumphal procession with which all students of history are familiar. The use of the common meal as a form of wor ship is not unlike the Lord's Supper, although it was not the sacredness of food that was em phasized so much as the vital bond of union between the god and his worshippers.
When a colony was to be founded, the god at Delphi would be consulted; unfavorable omens would delay a battle; the sick looked to divine guidance for a cure; a sneeze showed the approval of the gods in some undertaking; a dream would deter or encourage.
The gods sometimes revealed themselves to men; but 'nbt to all men do the gods appear visibi? (Odyssey,' III, 375 f). Zeus and Hera, however, remain on Olympus. Iris and Hermes are messengers to men; Apollo and Athena appear occasionally to carry out their plans or the plans of Zeus. When the gods appear in visible presence to men, they usually assume the guise of some particular individual. Thus Aphrodite takes on the form of an old woman on one occasion, Poseidon of Calchas, Athena of Mentor Sometimes the gods came directly to earth in propria per sona: Aphrodite in the 'Iliad,' is wounded by Ares dazed by a blow from Athena.
Learning the Will of the Signs of nature were more important than those ob tained by divination. In the thunder revealed the will of Zeus. Lightning on the right indicated the favor of the king of gods. An eclipse of the moon so affected Nicias that he would not withdraw his army before Syra cuse. At Athens the assembly would adjourn if rain signified that Zeus was unpropitious. Only the superstitious, however, paid much at tention to such signs. The science of astrology had practically no adherents in Greece. In Homer, the chief method of learning the will of the gods was the observance of the flight of birds: The eagle of Zeus, the hawk of Apollo, the heron flying in the night. Prometheus claimed that he taught men divination; ((The animosities, consortings and attachments of birds; and the smooth surface of the viscera and what hue the gall must have for the gods' pleasure and the mottled symmetry of the liver lobe; and the thigh bones, in fat enwrapped, and the long chine I burned and initiated mor tals into the mysteries of an occult art. ()Es chylus, 'Prometheus,' 492 ff:).
The eagle, the vulture and the crow were particularly significant. In the later and greater days of Greece omens from birds be came less important. The chance word, too, was often regarded as a sign. In sacrifice, if the victim comes unwillingly to the altar, if the viscera are deformed or discolored, if the fire does not burn properly, the gods are displeased. If an animal dies on the way to the altar, some terrible calamity impends. The character of the liver was considered most significant.
" Hephaestus's Same Shone not from out the offering; but there oozed Upon the ashes, trickling from the bones, A moisture, and it smouldered, and it spat.
And, to I the gall was scattered to the air.
And forth from out the fat that wrapped them round The thigh bones fell." (Sophocles, ' Antigone,' 1006 f.) The position of the seer in the army was only less important than that of the general. Dreams that come through the gates of ivory are deceitful, those that pass through the gates of polished horn are true. Achilles dreamed that Patroclus urged the burial of his body. In Homer dreams are sent by the greater gods di rectly. In Homer, too, the seer is a man in spired by the gods. It is the favor of the god usually grants this gift. The seer's chief task is to interpret signs, dreams and omens. In later tames, the presence of the seer in the army was important, because some official in terpreter of the divine will lent greater sanc tion. According to Homer, the divine gift runs in families. The kind of inspiration known as °possessed by the god" was recognized, but found small place in actual practice. The °Chresmologist," who possessed a Collection of ancient oracles which it was his business to in terpret, played the part of the prophet. Some times these collections belonged to the state. The seat of the chief oracles were Dodona, Ammon, Branchida, Colophon, Lebadeia, Oro pas, and chief of all, Delphi. At Dodona the signs were from the rustling leaves of the sa cred oak. At Delphi the priestess sat on a tri pod and breathed the exhalations issuing from a chasm beneath till the god inspired her to answer the question. After bathing in the water of Castalia and drinking from the spring Cassotis, she chewed leaves of the laurel and mounted the tripod. An official put the question to the raving priestess and then transcribed her answer in hexameter verse, returning it sealed to the person who was consulting the oracle. Over 200 answers have been preserved, but the authenticity of most of them may be doubted. Herodotus, however, quotes about 50. Many of the .answers were vague, sometimes suscep tible of opposite meanings, but in general they stood for progress in ethics and religion. The church fathers contended that the Inspiration of the Pythian priestess was real, but the work ing of evil spirits. Van Dale (1700) explained the oracles as the result of deception deliber ately practiced by the priests. But the Greeks would not have submitted to such deliberate imposition for so many centuries. The priests i seem to have been inspired by high ideals and a genuine desire for the welfare of Greece. Ac tual corruption was seldom proved, and, when discovered, was punished by the Delphians themselves. Delphi was the °Vatican of an tiquity," a holy city, °a centre of moral teach ing and an authoritative guide in matters of politics as well as in matters of religion." Belief and Mountain tops sug gested the presence of Zeus; caverns, gods from the world below. The gods of Homer dwell on Olympus; but each deity had also a favorite spot on earth. A dense grove might be the dwelling place of a god. In the early period the god was worshipped beside the altar in the open air; later the deity had an abode (the temple). Certain properties, from which an income was derived, belonged to the god. He owned and leased houses, factories, sheep, poultry or rights in fishing. The management and collection of rentals was in the hands of the priest. There were 200 shrines in Athens alone. Athena was worshipped at each of her various scats in a different aspect of her nature. The temple was not a place for congregational worship. Some symbol or image marked the god's presence. The statue itself was not worshipped, but the god himself. To remove forcibly an innocent person from the altar to which he had fled for refuge was sacrilege.