DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.13851#0768
a 3H0RT HISTORY OF GRECIAN LITERATURE.
period when the minds of men are prone to superstition, and more liable to be influ-
enced by it than any rational motive held out to their understandings, it was of the
utmost importance to every legislator to be thoroughly acquainted with it in all its
various forms, as the most powerful engine to work upon the fears and expectations
of the vulgar. Those individuals among the Greeks accordingly, who, by the ad-
vantages of birth or supefior natural endowments, were desirous both of extending
their authority and knowledge, travelled to Egypt, and were there instructed in ma-
ny things both of an historical and mystical nature by the priests, to whom the charge
of acquiring and communicating every branch of science was committed. As they
made use of figures and symbols in communicating their knowledge to others, parti-
cularly regarding the origin and history of tfaeir gods, and all those subjects that were
rather matters of speculation than of observation and experiment, it is no wonder
that they were imitated, and even surpassed by their pupils who returned to Greece,
They published the doctrmes which they had learned from the Egyptians with con-
siderable additions of their own, and accommodated the history of a remote age and
of a distant people to the vague and traditionary memorials of their own countrymen,
Hei'ce a moustrous system ol mythology grew up under their hands, and many ab-
surd add ill digested opinions were propagated, which were considered by the Egyp-
tian priests, according to Herodotus, as the efforts of children to explain and metho-
dise what they did not understand.
The history of every rude nation when transmitted by oral tradition, is extremely
liable to be exaggerated beyond all belief. The exploits of those great men who liv-
ed at a remote period, when matchless strength of body and ferocity of character
were of more avail towards repressing disorder and rapine, than wisdom acting in
conformity to law, were viewed by their countrymen with increasing admiration, as
time obscured the original and genuine features of their actions. Their names were
never pronounced but with reverence and esteem ; and gratitude for their exertions
and services caused them to be invested with a kind of immortality. The transition
from this respect and admiration to deification, was simple and natural. Mankind
are never suffered to live long in a tranquil and undisturbed state. Various changes
are perpetually taking place. Awful convulsions in the heavens and in the earth,
agitate and alarm the world. Ignorant of the natural causes by which these are pro-
duced, superstitious men view them, as indications of wrath from some invisible and
unknown beings, who seem to rule the elements of nature. But, as some notion of
their corporeal existence must, from the ignorance of such men, be always united with
every idea they can form of superior powers, they transferred to them the names and
attributes of those early heroes whose exploits they had been accustomed to admire,
A successful warrior, or the intrepid leader of a colony are always held in admiration
by the descendants of those whom they conducted. The companions of their toils
and victories, the instruments of their authority or pleasures will follow in the train
of their history, as necessary appendages to their greatness. From the exaggerated
idea men formed of beings such as these, were the heavens peopled, and the majesty
of empire committed to him whose fame surpassed that of all the rest. The early
philosophers among the Greeks, finding the popular superstition of their countrymen
something similar to what has just been described, either supported and extended it
by the theological tenets they had learned from the Egyptians, or, as many of them
were poets of considerable eminence, by indulging the reveries of a warm and luxu-
riant imagination, formed a system of mythology from some rude materials, which
spread with the extension of knowledge, and with the reputation of the works in
which it was developed. If we can suppose that they give a faithful picture of the
manners of the age, in which their supposed deities flourished among men, we have
no reason to think they were of the purest kind, especially when we consider the
amours in which they seem to have been all deeply engaged from tho highest to the
lowest; or, if we attribute these descriptions to their own licentious imaginations,
; we must, for the sake of decency and order, heartily concur with Plato, in thinking
that they ought to have been banished from every well constituted government, in
which pubic morals were respected.
As both the Grecian philosophers and poets derived much of their knowledge from
Egypt, it will not be surprising that their doctrines, and the subjects of their poems
should have turned so much upon natural religion. They began with the rise of
things, their vicissitudes and transformations, and endeavoured to account for every
/thing they observed by tracing their analogy to human actions. By degrees, when
the office and character of a. bard came to be held in respect and veneration, they in-
termingled descriptions of family feuds and revolutions, the exploits of some noted
period when the minds of men are prone to superstition, and more liable to be influ-
enced by it than any rational motive held out to their understandings, it was of the
utmost importance to every legislator to be thoroughly acquainted with it in all its
various forms, as the most powerful engine to work upon the fears and expectations
of the vulgar. Those individuals among the Greeks accordingly, who, by the ad-
vantages of birth or supefior natural endowments, were desirous both of extending
their authority and knowledge, travelled to Egypt, and were there instructed in ma-
ny things both of an historical and mystical nature by the priests, to whom the charge
of acquiring and communicating every branch of science was committed. As they
made use of figures and symbols in communicating their knowledge to others, parti-
cularly regarding the origin and history of tfaeir gods, and all those subjects that were
rather matters of speculation than of observation and experiment, it is no wonder
that they were imitated, and even surpassed by their pupils who returned to Greece,
They published the doctrmes which they had learned from the Egyptians with con-
siderable additions of their own, and accommodated the history of a remote age and
of a distant people to the vague and traditionary memorials of their own countrymen,
Hei'ce a moustrous system ol mythology grew up under their hands, and many ab-
surd add ill digested opinions were propagated, which were considered by the Egyp-
tian priests, according to Herodotus, as the efforts of children to explain and metho-
dise what they did not understand.
The history of every rude nation when transmitted by oral tradition, is extremely
liable to be exaggerated beyond all belief. The exploits of those great men who liv-
ed at a remote period, when matchless strength of body and ferocity of character
were of more avail towards repressing disorder and rapine, than wisdom acting in
conformity to law, were viewed by their countrymen with increasing admiration, as
time obscured the original and genuine features of their actions. Their names were
never pronounced but with reverence and esteem ; and gratitude for their exertions
and services caused them to be invested with a kind of immortality. The transition
from this respect and admiration to deification, was simple and natural. Mankind
are never suffered to live long in a tranquil and undisturbed state. Various changes
are perpetually taking place. Awful convulsions in the heavens and in the earth,
agitate and alarm the world. Ignorant of the natural causes by which these are pro-
duced, superstitious men view them, as indications of wrath from some invisible and
unknown beings, who seem to rule the elements of nature. But, as some notion of
their corporeal existence must, from the ignorance of such men, be always united with
every idea they can form of superior powers, they transferred to them the names and
attributes of those early heroes whose exploits they had been accustomed to admire,
A successful warrior, or the intrepid leader of a colony are always held in admiration
by the descendants of those whom they conducted. The companions of their toils
and victories, the instruments of their authority or pleasures will follow in the train
of their history, as necessary appendages to their greatness. From the exaggerated
idea men formed of beings such as these, were the heavens peopled, and the majesty
of empire committed to him whose fame surpassed that of all the rest. The early
philosophers among the Greeks, finding the popular superstition of their countrymen
something similar to what has just been described, either supported and extended it
by the theological tenets they had learned from the Egyptians, or, as many of them
were poets of considerable eminence, by indulging the reveries of a warm and luxu-
riant imagination, formed a system of mythology from some rude materials, which
spread with the extension of knowledge, and with the reputation of the works in
which it was developed. If we can suppose that they give a faithful picture of the
manners of the age, in which their supposed deities flourished among men, we have
no reason to think they were of the purest kind, especially when we consider the
amours in which they seem to have been all deeply engaged from tho highest to the
lowest; or, if we attribute these descriptions to their own licentious imaginations,
; we must, for the sake of decency and order, heartily concur with Plato, in thinking
that they ought to have been banished from every well constituted government, in
which pubic morals were respected.
As both the Grecian philosophers and poets derived much of their knowledge from
Egypt, it will not be surprising that their doctrines, and the subjects of their poems
should have turned so much upon natural religion. They began with the rise of
things, their vicissitudes and transformations, and endeavoured to account for every
/thing they observed by tracing their analogy to human actions. By degrees, when
the office and character of a. bard came to be held in respect and veneration, they in-
termingled descriptions of family feuds and revolutions, the exploits of some noted