Page:The Golden verses of Pythagoras (IA cu31924026681076).pdf/56

 this same Greece that she had civilized and to whom she had given her gods, her laws, and even the letters of her alphabet, ignore, deny her benefits, take up arms against her, carry away her colonies from the shores of Italy and of Sicily, and becoming mistress of the islands of the Archipelago, tear from her her sole remaining hope, the empire of the sea. The people of Rhodes were overpowered.

Homer, of Greek nationality although born in Asia, profited by these advantages. He set sail in a vessel, whose patron, Mentes of Leucas, was his friend, wandered over all the possessions of Greece, visited Egypt, and came to settle at Tyre. This was the ancient metropolis of Greece, the source and sacred repository of her mythological traditions. It was there, in this same temple of the Master of the Universe,[A] where twelve centuries before Sanchoniathon had come to study the antiquities of the world, that Homer was able to go back to the origin of Greek cult and fathom the most hidden meanings of its mysteries ; it was there that he chose the first and noblest subject of his chants, that which constitutes the fable of the Iliad. If one must[Footnote: A In Phœnician [Phœn.: **] (Melich-ærtz), in Greek [Greek: Melikertês]: a name given to the Divinity whom the Thracians called Hercules, the Lord of the Universe: from [Phœn.: **] or [Phœn.: **] (harr or shar), excellence, dominance, sovereignty; and [Phœn.: **] (col.), All. Notice that the Teutonic roots are not very different from the Phœnician: Herr signifies lord, and alles, all; so that Herr-alles is, with the exception of the guttural inflection which is effaced, the same word as that of Hercules, used by the Thracians and the Etruscans. The Greeks have made a transposition of letters in [Greek: Hêraklês] (Heracles) so as to evade the guttural harshness without entirely losing it.]*