Page:The Ancient City- A Study on the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome.djvu/51

 <:;hap. IV. domestic religion. 45 inaii n god appears to us the reverse of religion. It is almost as difficult for us to comprehend the ancient creeds of these men as it would have been for them to understand ours. But, if we reflect that the ancients had no idea of creation, we shall see that the mystery of generation was for them what the mystery of crea- tion is for us. The generator appeared to them to be a divine being ; and they adored their ancestor. This sentiment must have been very natural and very strong, for it appears as a principle of religion in the origin of almost all human societies. We find it among the Cliinese as well as among the ancient Getae and Scyth- ians, among the tribes of Africa as well as among those of the new world.* The sacred fire, which was so intimately associated with the worship of the dead, belonged, in its essential character, properly to each family. It represented the ancestors ; it was the providence of a family, and had nothing in common with the fire of a neighboring family, which was another providence.' Every fire pro- tected its own and repulsed the stranger. The whole of this religion was enclosed within the walls of each house. The worship was not public. All the cere- monies, on the contrary, were kept strictly secret.' Performed in the midst of the family alone, they were concealed from every stranger. The hearth was never placed either outside the house or even near the outer • Among the Etruscans and the Romans it was a custom for •every religious family to keep the images of its ancestors ranged around the atrium. Were these images simple family portraits, or were they idols? ^ 'Earlu nuTQwa, focus pairius. So in the Vedas Agiii is sometimes invoked as a domestic god. » Isaeus, VIII. 17, 18.