Myths and Legends [antikvár]

GODS AND HEROES The ancient Greeks were an amazingly creative people. They looked at the stars and saw pictures—a bear, a lion, a swan, a giant, a bull, a scorpion. They looked at the sun and imagined it to be a fiery chariot driven daily across the sky. They saw the jagged lightning and said: "Zeus the Thunderer is hurling his thunderbolts." Whatever had motion seemed to them to be aUve. There were deathless beings inhabiting the sky and the sea, the rivers and the springs and the quivering groves. In cave and grotto, on mountain top and in the deep interior of the mysterious earth, immortal beings dwelt. Anyone could see them. And nearly everyone did. They saw sea-nymphs rising on the foamy waves, dryads gliding among the trees, naiads sporting in the lakes and streams. The delightful creatures were very near, very familiar. And so were the greater gods. For the Greeks had made them all in their own image. Except that they were more powerful and did not die, the Greek gods and goddesses were scarcely different from themselves. Mortals and /»mortals, that was how the Greeks distinguished between human beings and the gods—men died, the gods lived for ever. The Greeks had many gods. And when after long centuries the Romans met and finally conquered the Greeks, they took their gods over and worshipped them under Roman names. They called the king of the gods Jupiter instead of Zeus. They called the queen of heaven Juno instead of Hera. Poseidon, who ruled the sea, became Neptune. Ares, god of war, became Mars. Aphrodite, goddess of beauty and love, was changed to Venus. Wherever the Romans went as conquerors, they dotted the earth with temples to these gods. Today the gods of the Greeks and Romans do not have a single temple. They do not have a single worshipper. But they are immortal. They cannot die because the Greeks