Page:Modern Greek folklore and ancient Greek religion - a study in survivals.djvu/70

 cannot be celebrated without a large expenditure of gunpowder, the booming of the thunder suggests to some that 'God is marrying his son' or 'God is marrying his daughters,' [Greek: ho Theos pantreuei ton hygio tou], or [Greek: tais thygaterais tou].

Such expressions as these are in daily use among the Greek peasantry: and nothing could reveal more frankly the purely pagan and anthropomorphic conception of God which everywhere prevails. The God of Christendom is indistinguishable from the Zeus of Homer. A line from a Cretan distich, in which God is described as [Greek: ekeinos apou synnephia ki' apobronta kai brechei] , 'He that gathereth the clouds and thundereth and raineth,' exhibits a popular conception of the chief deity unchanged since Zeus first received the epithets [Greek: nephelêgeretês] and [Greek: hypsibremetês], 'cloud-gatherer,' 'thunderer on high.'

But even in the province of the weather God has not undivided control. The winds are often regarded as persons acting at their own will; and of the north wind in particular men speak with respect as Sir Boreas ([Greek: ho kyr Bor[e(]as]), for as in Pindar's time he is still 'king of the winds .' So too the whirlwind is the passing of the Nereids, and the water-spout marks the path of the Lamia of the sea. Even the thunder is not always the work of God, but some say that the prophet Elias is 'driving his chariot,' or 'pursuing the dragon.' The more striking and irregular phenomena in short are governed by the caprice of lesser deities—Christian saints or pagan powers—while God directs the more orderly march of nature.

When however we turn from the external world to the life of man, we find the functions of the supreme God even more closely circumscribed or—to put it in another way—more generally delegated to others. The daily course of human life with all its pursuits and passions is under the joint control of the saints and some of the old Hellenic deities. Of the latter, as I have said, another chapter must treat: but it should be rememberedin [Greek: Parnassos] for 1880, pp. 585-608, 665-678, 762-773, from which some of my examples are taken. I have noted the provenance of the rarer expressions.].]