HISTORY 323 



Demosthenes ; but for an account of Greek art and 

 literature the reader must have recourse to special 

 treatises. The reader should also seek elsewhere for 

 a description of Greek religion and philosophy, though 

 a few words on each of these subjects must here be 

 said. 



The religion of a very large part indeed of the human 

 race has had its origin in the propitiation and worship 

 of deified ancestors, though such marvellous natural 

 objects as the sun, moon, and stars, doubtless in many 

 instances received a self-suggested worship. Animals 

 with their wonderful instincts, especially when taken in 

 connection with human ancestors named after them, 

 have been widely venerated, notably in Egypt, where 

 bulls and crocodiles, cats and other animals, received 

 divine honours in different localities. Even plants have 

 not been altogether neglected, and, indeed, amidst tribes 

 dwelling in almost treeless plains, such an object as a 

 tree, self sustaining and spreading abroad on all sides 

 vast arms which give rise to, shed and renew, a multi- 

 tude of leaves, may well seem the expression of some 

 mysterious divine energy within it. 



But the Greeks, with all the other divisions of the 

 great Aryan family of nations, reverenced various 

 powers of Nature as distinct divinities, whose names in 

 different languages are akin. Thus, that of the old 

 English god Tue (whence Tuesday) resembles Zeus, the 

 great " cloud-compelling " god of the sky. The special 

 god of the Greeks was indeed the sun, revered and 

 worshipped as Apollo, who had, at Delphi, a world- 

 renowned temple. The moon, the sun, and the dawn, 

 had each their divine representatives ; but such objects 

 did not suffice to satisfy the Greek religious feeling. 

 The actions of men, their passions and desires, were also 



