STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM. 109 



Zeus weighs and measures all the actions of good and 

 evil men, as well as those of animals. He is, said 

 Terpandros somewhat later, the source and ruler of 

 all things. According to Sinionides of Amorgos, the 

 principle of all created things rests with him, and he 

 rules the universe by his will. Thus, as time went 

 on, Zeus became, in the general conception, the per- 

 sonification of the world's government, which was 

 delivered from the fatality of destiny and from the 

 promptings of caprice. Destiny which, according to 

 the early mythical representation, it was impossible 

 to escape, is resolved into the will of Zeus, and the 

 other gods which were at first supposed to be able 

 to oppose him, become his faithful ministers. Such 

 is the teaching of Solon and of Epicharmos. " Be 

 assured that nothing escapes the eyes of the divinity ; 

 God watches over us, and to him nothing is im- 

 possible." 



This impulse of the imaginative faculty combined 

 with the process of reason is most plainly seen in the 

 conceptions of the three great poets of the fifth century, 

 Pindar, ^JEschylus, and Sophocles. In the words of 

 Pindar: "All things depend on God alone; all which 

 befalls mortals, whether it be good or evil fortune, is 

 due to Zeus : he can draw light from darkness, and 

 can veil the sweet light of day in obscurity. No 

 human action escapes him : happiness is found only 

 in the way which leads to him ; virtue and wisdom 

 flow from him alone." 



