MYTHOLOGY 



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MYTHOLOGY 



The Myths of Sin and Punishment 



early peoples saw evil all about them, 

 and they were at a loss to account for it. If 

 the gods made the world, and made it good, 

 whence came sin and suffering? They answered 

 the question in various ways. 



Greek and Roman. In the Golden Age all 



re innocent, but- they were not to be al- 

 to escape the vengeance of the gods be- 

 hey had learned how to use the most 



wonderful thing the pods themselves possessed 

 fire. So Pandora (see below) was sent with 

 her box. and as a result unhappiness spread 

 through the world. Men became greedy and 

 lustful, hating their brothers, and finally the 

 world became so wicked that Jupiter saw that 

 he must sweep it clean of its inhabitants and 

 give it a new. fair .start. He caused a great rain 

 to fall and a flood to cover thewiiole earth, and 

 when it passed only Deucalion and Pyrrha, vir- 

 tuous servants of the gods, were left. They re- 

 peopled the earth by casting over their shoul- 

 ders the stones which lay on the mountain top 



about them. Is it not strange and interesting 

 to find, in this mythology of the Greeks, a story 

 so very similar to the Biblical account of the 

 Deluge? It is like meeting, in a far-away land 

 where everything is new, one's next-door neigh- 

 bor. 



Norse. Most of the gods were very good and 

 kindly, but there was one, Loki, who took de- 

 light in mischief and wickedness, and it was he. 

 together with the evil giants, who first taught 

 men to sin. They proved apt pupils, and the 

 age of innocence soon passed away, while gods 

 and men had to fight for their very existence 

 with the powers of evil. Some time, the Norse 

 people believed, there should come a dreadful 

 time known as the Twilight of the Gods (Rag- 

 narok), when the evil forces should triumph 

 over the good, and the rule of Odin should 

 come to an end. Out of this destruction, how- 

 ever, a new world was to arise, and innocence 

 and happiness were to prevail again, under the 

 rule of new gods. 



The Gods 



Greek and Roman. The great gods, according 

 to the Greek poets, had their home on Olympus 

 (which see), where they lived in splendor. Jupi- 

 ter was their king, and Juno, his sister and wife, 

 their queen; and the others who had the right 

 to live on this mountain top were Minerva, 

 Apollo, Diana, Venus, Mercury, Mars, Vulcan 

 and Vesta. Ceres, a sister of Jupiter, and the 

 goddess of agriculture, had a home on Olympus, 

 but preferred to live on earth, close to her work. 

 There were many, many other deities, some of 

 them, like Cupid, with considerable power, while 

 others had jurisdiction only over the particular 

 stream or tree or mountain which was their 

 duelling place. (A detailed knowledge of Greek 

 mythology may be gained by reading in these 

 volumes the articles on all the deities named 



above, and on the other titles listed under 

 Related Subjects, subhead Greek and Roman, 

 at the end of this article.) 



Norse. There were, according to the Norse 

 myths, twelve great gods and twenty-four god- 

 desses, and they had their home in a wonderful 

 region above the earth, called Asgard (which 

 see). The rainbow bridge led from Asgard to 

 earth, and the gods crossed it frequently, taking 

 part in the affairs of men. These Norse deities 

 seem to have had far higher morals than those 

 of the Greeks, and the escapades in which they 

 show themselves as licentious and cruel are very 

 few. Besides Odin and Loki, mentioned above, 

 the chief gods and goddesses are Balder, Freya, 

 Frigga, Heimdall, Thor and Tyr, and on most 

 of these there are articles in these volumes. 



Illustrative and Explanatory Myths 



Illustrative Myths. The whole question of 

 myths may be made far clearer by a number 

 of stories. Some of those which follow are from 

 Greek, some from Norse mythology; some are 

 explanatory myths, while others are of that 

 class know r n as aesthetic, which make no at- 

 tempt to explain anything. To each of the na- 

 ture myths a brief paragraph is added, pointing 

 out the part it had in the "science" o.f the an- 



cients; but the stories are worth while just as 

 stories, without any such explanation. 



Explanatory Myths. The change from sum- 

 mer to winter was one of the common happen- 

 ings which puzzled the ancient peoples, and very 

 interesting are their explanations of it. The 

 first one, The Underground Queen, the Greeks 

 invented; the second, The Death oj Balder, 

 came from the Norse peoples. 



