Page:Greek and Roman Mythology.djvu/105

 THE GREEK GODS 91 evil consequences of such presumption by these signs of self-abasement. As the goddess who will requite in the world to come she was adored at Athens at the feast of the Nemeseia; but she enjoyed real worship only at Rhamnus in Attica. (Concerning her identification with Leda see 135.) 120. The latest of those personifications which gradu- ally destroyed the old belief in the gods was Tyche ( ( the lucky accident/ Lat. Fortuna). She was indeed already personified by the earlier lyric poets, but did not enjoy any general adoration as a divine being until faith in the power of the older gods began to wane. In those times of unbelief she was first considered the dis- penser of fruitfulness and wealth, as well as the disposer of human destiny, and the rescuer from the dangers of sea and war. Then in many cases she came to be regarded also as the protecting divinity of cities. As attributes she had the cornucopia and rudder, also a rolling wheel or a ball, to indicate the mutability of fortune. 121. The worship of such a goddess of chance, how- ever, signifies properly nothing further than the denial of all actual divine power. So, after the destruction of the old positive faith in gods that were consciously and benignly guiding the world and human destiny, the Grecian world was preparing itself for the reception of the new doctrine of salvation emanating from Palestine. For though philosophy for a while tried to revivify the old dead forms by filling them with ethical ideas, it never could afford a really comforting, steadfast belief in a continued life after death, and in a justice that com- pensates for the defects of this earthly existence.