Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XII.djvu/127

 MYTHOLOGY 119 irascible and hard-hearted, and at times sedu- cers of human beings. They were truly divine, for they knew no age, and were immortal. They could foretell what would befall a per- son; but otherwise much must have been hidden from them, for even Jupiter could be deceived, and the other gods could deceive each other. They sometimes moved among men in any form they chose, and visibly or in- visibly. They could send signs and messages, such as were announced by the oracles of Dodo- na, Delos, and Delphi, or by the cries, chirping, eating, or flight of birds, or by thunder and lightning, or by the peculiar formation of the entrails of certain animals. They maintained their bodily and spiritual faculties in their ori- ginal youth and strength by living on ambrosia and nectar. Certain animals and plants were their emblems or sacred to them. They were worshipped in images of wood, bronze, or mar- ble, placed on hills and mountains, or in groves and forests, and generally removed from the thoroughfares of daily life. Only the lares and penates were household gods. The wor- ship consisted in prayer, vows, or sacrifices. Prayer was commonly offered standing, the head covered, and the hands extended upward, or laid on the mouth, or touching the altars of the gods or the knees of their images. When the gods of the upper region were to be propi- tiated, the people dressed in white, and the cere- monial consisted partly in bathing and wash- ing, and raising the hands toward heaven. When the divinities of the lower regions were invoked, the dress was black, the hands were pointed downward, and only black animals were sacrificed. Bloody sacrifices, which took place in the earliest times of Greek history, were resorted to only in propitiation for a whole tribe or people. They consisted sometimes of hu- man beings, and in such cases one commonly suffered death for all ; but generally they con- sisted of eatable domestic animals. The blood of the slaughtered animal was poured upon the altar, the portion designed for the god was burned upon it, and the remainder was dis- tributed among the priests and sacrificers. Other sacrifices consisted mainly in libations, as wine, honey, milk, and oil, and the burning of frankincense, and fruits and sweets. The myths or mythical traditions, and the heroes or demigods who figure in them, are an im- portant element in the mythology of the Greeks and Romans. The myths may be di- vided into three groups : those with one hero, those with entire generations of heroes, and those which recount tribal or national expedi- tions. The principal myths relating to single heroes are those of Prometheus, Deucalion, and Tantalus. Among those of heroic races or fam- ilies are the Corinthian myths of Sisyphus and Bellerophon; the Argive myths of Inachus, Danatis, Danae, Perseus, and Hercules; the At- tic myths of Cecrops and Theseus; and the Theban myths of Cadmus and (Edipus. The myths of national expeditions are the Argonau- tic, the two Theban wars, and the Trojan war. The myths of Evander, JEneas, and Romulus are Roman. The heroes or demigods were of both divine and human descent, or rather hu- man beings elevated to the rank and honor of gods. The masses generally looked upon them as having been the great men of primitive times, and paid homage to them only as such. In order to facilitate the understanding of the great deeds which the myths ascribed to them, they were imagined as having been persons of superhuman strength. They all differ from the gods in that they were mortal, though a few were permitted to continue for a while their existence in Elysium. Hercules is the only one who becomes immortal. The wor- ship of heroes consisted in offerings of hon- ey, wine, oil, and milk. Animals also were sacrificed to them, but with the caution of twisting the heads downward, and making the blood flow into a ditch. Further, the meat was not eaten, but burned ; and only the tombs of the heroes could be used for their worship. The mythology of the Scandina- vian or Norse races, preserved mainly in the literature of Iceland, accounts for the exis- tence of the world by placing in the begin- ning a Ginungagap, an empty space, with a Niflheim, a region of mist, ice, and snow, to the north, and a Muspelheim, a region of warmth and sunlight, to the south. The ice melting and dropping into Ginungagap, there came to be an accumulation of matter, out of which arose Ymir, the giant, who brought forth Reimthursen, the frost. His nurse was Audhumla, the cow, which lived by licking the ice, and in consequence of her licking ap- peared the form of Buri, the father of Burr, the father of Odin. Yili and Ve, Odin's brothers, overthrew the dynasty of Ymir and Reim- thursen. Ymir's flesh, blood, and bones be- came the earth, sea, and mountains, and his skull and brains the heavens and the clouds. In Jotunheim were the giants, and Ymir's eye- brows served as a wall between them and the inhabitants of the earth. The clouds and the wind were subject to Odin, the god of war, and the father of Saga, the goddess of poetry. On his shoulders sat the ravens Herginn and Muninn, which he sent out to bring him news of passing events. At his side sat Frigga, his favorite, who controls all nature. Freyja, the custodian of the dead, claimed half the heroes slain in battle^ Both were also goddesses of love, and at different times the one or the other was considered the wife of Odin. Thor, Odin's son, the god of thunder and lightning, held a hammer as a symbol of his authority, and threw down from his abode in heaven thunderbolts made by the black elves that dwelt in the interior of the earth. He. presided also over the domestic hearth and the fruitfulness of wedlock. Bal- dur or Baldr, the sun, the father of daylight, had been made invulnerable except by the mis- tletoe, and Loki, son of the giant Farbauti and