. The history of the devil and the idea of evil; from the earliest times to the present day . thous. Venturing down to Hades for the purpose of bringing up Persephone, thedaughter of Ceres, they are made prisoners and bound by an Erinys. Theseus isat last rescued by Hercules. Pluto holds in his hand a scepter on the top of whichsits the dismal owl as an avisfunebris. Persephone carries two cross-torches. (From an Etruscan Vase. Baumeister, Dcnkmiilcr dcs class. Allcriums.) The Greek idea of salvation is mirrored in the le-gends of Hercules, Bellerophon, Theseus, Dionysus, andother myths, which
. The history of the devil and the idea of evil; from the earliest times to the present day . thous. Venturing down to Hades for the purpose of bringing up Persephone, thedaughter of Ceres, they are made prisoners and bound by an Erinys. Theseus isat last rescued by Hercules. Pluto holds in his hand a scepter on the top of whichsits the dismal owl as an avisfunebris. Persephone carries two cross-torches. (From an Etruscan Vase. Baumeister, Dcnkmiilcr dcs class. Allcriums.) The Greek idea of salvation is mirrored in the le-gends of Hercules, Bellerophon, Theseus, Dionysus, andother myths, which had become dear to the Greek mindthrough the tales of poets and the works of artists. The powers of evil which Hercules overcomes arerepresented as a lion, a dragon, a wild boar, harpy-like 204 THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. birds, and a bull. In addition be captures the swift bindof Arcadia, be cleanses tbe stables of Augeas, tames tbeman-eating mares of Diomedes, conquers H3^polyte, tbequeen of tbe Amazons, brings tbe oxen of Geryon fromtbe far West, and carries Cerberus to tbe upper Perseus With the Head of the Decapitated Medusa. The soul of the latter is represented as a small figure leaving the body and still trying to retain the head. (Terra cotta from Melos. Baumeister, Dcnkmalcr dcs class. AlUrtums.) Tbe poet Peisander (wlio lived about 650 B. C.)wrote an apotbeosis of Hercules, called the Hciachy^which contributed much toward idealising the hero. GREECE AND ITALY 205 Later Greek philosophers, such men as Xenophon andthe sophist Prodicus/ regarded him as the realisation ofdivine perfection, and now it became customary to look
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