Page:Greece from the Coming of the Hellenes to AD. 14.djvu/45

Rh love, and hatred; and yet, on the whole, support the eternal laws of right and wrong. The goddess of justice is the assessor of Zeus. It is from him that kings rule and righteousness is maintained in the world. Though men sin they cannot charge God with their sins, which arise from their own blind presumption,—"to act justly is in every man's power."

The Hellenes, then learnt from Homer, from Hesiod, from a body of "hymns," which, though probably much later, were always called Homeric, thus to think of the gods. They governed and directed the world, and therefore men sought to learn their will by oracles or portents, or from the lips of those who had received the mantic art, either from the gods themselves, or from the traditions of immemorial antiquity. These gods must be propitiated also by prayer and sacrifice, by festival and song. It is possible that much of the ritual which thus arose was originally intended to avert evil rather than to express gladness or festivity. But though there lingered in the rites practised by the Hellenes many traces of this idea, yet the practical result was that the religious festivals celebrated in historical times were for the most part cheerful. There were indeed times of fasting and mourning as well as of feasting and rejoicing. Certain days were set apart to honour or propitiate the dead, as in the Anthesteria at Athens. Nevertheless the prevailing feature in Greek worship was festivity. The cult of a particular god was connected with vintage or harvest, with athletic or musical contests, or with the celebration of national