Page:Modern Greek folklore and ancient Greek religion - a study in survivals.djvu/83

 CHAPTER II.

THE SURVIVAL OF PAGAN DEITIES.

§ 1.

Thus far we have considered paganism in its bearing and influence upon modern Greek Christianity. We have seen how the Church, in endeavouring to widen her influence, countenanced many practices and conciliated many prejudices of a people whose temperament needed a multitude of gods and whose piety could pay homage to them all, a people moreover to whom the criterion of divinity was neither moral perfection nor omnipotence. From the ethical standpoint some of the ancient gods were better, some worse than men: in point of power they were superhuman but not almighty. Some indeed claimed that there was no difference in origin between mankind and its deities. 'One is the race of men' sang Pindar 'with the race of gods; for one is the mother that gave to both our breath of life: yet sundered are they by powers wholly diverse, in that mankind is as naught, but heaven is builded of brass that abideth ever unshaken .' One in origin, they are diverse in might. The test of godhead is power sufficing to defy death. Rightly therefore did Homer make 'deathless' and 'everbeing' his constant epithets for the gods. Immortality alone is the quality which distinguishes them in kind and not merely in degree from men, and makes them worthy of worship.

The opening phrase is often, even usually, translated 'one is the race of men, another the race of gods.' Whether [Greek: hen hen] was ever used in Greek for [Greek: allo  allo], I doubt; but even if it be possible, the emphasis [Greek: hen hen  ek mias] must to my mind be an emphasis upon unity, and the first mention of divergence comes equally strongly in [Greek: dieirgei de]]