Page:Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion volume 2.djvu/247

 The Lycian Apollo has a direct connection with light, and the ideas connected with him come from Asia Minor: in the East the natural element, light, gets greater prominence. Phœbus decrees the pestilence in the Greek camp, and this is immediately connected with the sun. Pestilence is the effect of the hot summer, of the heat of the sun. The representations, too, of Phœbus have attributes and symbols that are closely connected with the sun.

The same divinities that were at an earlier stage Titanic and natural appear afterwards possessed of a fundamental characteristic which is spiritual and which is the ruling one, and in fact there has been a dispute as to whether there was any natural element left at all in Apollo. In Homer Helios is undoubtedly the Sun, but is at the same time brightness as well, the spiritual element which irradiates and illumines everything. But even at a later period, Apollo still has something of his natural element left, for he was represented with a nimbus round his head.

This is what we find to be the case generally, though it may not be particularly noticeable in the case of the individual gods. Perfect consistency is, however, not to be found here. An element appears at one time in a stronger and more pronounced form, and at another in a weaker form. In the Eumenides of Æschylus the first scenes are laid before the temple of Apollo. There we have the summons to worship, and first of all the worshippers are invited to adore the oracle-giver (Γαῖα), the principle of Nature, then Θέμις, already a spiritual power, though, like Dike, belonging to the ancient gods; next comes Night and then Phœbus—the oracle has passed over to the new gods. Pindar too speaks of a similar succession in reference to the oracle. He makes Night the first oraclegiver, then comes Themis, and next Phœbus. We thus have here the transition from natural forms to the new gods. In the sphere of Poetry, where these doctrines