. The eastern nations and Greece. surpassing beauty and grace §158] THE DELPHIC ORACLE J45 These great deities were simply magnified human beings. Theygive way to fits of anger and jealousy. All the celestial council, atthe sight of Hephaestus limping across the palace floor, burst into inextinguishable laughter; and Aphrodite, weeping, moves all totears. They surpass mortals rather in power than in size of can render themselves visible or invisible to human food is am-brosia and nectar;their movementsare swift as may sufferpain; but deathcan never come tothem,
. The eastern nations and Greece. surpassing beauty and grace §158] THE DELPHIC ORACLE J45 These great deities were simply magnified human beings. Theygive way to fits of anger and jealousy. All the celestial council, atthe sight of Hephaestus limping across the palace floor, burst into inextinguishable laughter; and Aphrodite, weeping, moves all totears. They surpass mortals rather in power than in size of can render themselves visible or invisible to human food is am-brosia and nectar;their movementsare swift as may sufferpain; but deathcan never come tothem, for they areimmortal. Theirabode is MountOlympus and theairy regions abovethe earth. 158. The DelphicOracle and its In-fluence on GreekLife and most precious part, perhaps, of the religious heritage of the historic Greeks fromthe misty Hellenic foretime was the oracle of Apollo at Delphi. The Greeks believed that in the early ages the gods were wont tovisit the earth and mingle with men. But even in Homers time this. innimiiiuuiiiuiiHounnn Fig. 90. The Carrying off of Persephone byHades to the Underworld; her Leave-takingof her Mother Demeter. (After a vase painting) In accordance with the animistic ideas of primitive man,the souls of plants were thought to descend to the under-world in the winter and to return to the upper world in thespring. Out of this conception grew the beautiful myth ofDemeter and Persephone, who as goddesses of the corncame to be personifications of the yearly death and revivalof vegetation, and then by analogy as symbols (in the Eleu-sinian mysteries) of mans renewed life after death human nor divine. Hades ruled over the lower realms; Dionysus was the god of wine ;Eros, of love; Iris was the goddess of the rainbow, and the special messenger of Zeus;Hebe (goddess) was the cupbearer of the celestials; the goddess Nemesis was thepunisher of crime, and particularly the queller of the proud and arrogant; /Eolus wasthe ruler of the winds, which
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