CHAP. XII. MISTAKEN OPINIONS OF THE GREEKS. iGj 



beyond that, usually entertained by the votaries of 

 a polytheism : and the fabulous existence of the 

 Gods on earth supplied, among the uninstructed, 

 the place of abstract notions, which the initiated 

 were taught to apply to the external forms they 

 worshipped. 



It was this ignorance of the nature of the Gods 

 which led the Greeks to believe their positive ex- 

 istence upon earth in a human form, and to receive 

 all the legendary tales of their actions as literal 

 truths ; bringing down the Deities, as Cicero ob- 

 serves, to the level of men, instead of raising men 

 to the level of the Gods. But we find that Plutarch* 

 was so far acquainted with those secrets, (to a par- 

 ticipation of which he had, in a certain degree, 

 been admitted,) as to deride the idea of the Deities 

 having been once human, or having t lived among 

 men ; and a remark made by the Egyptians them- 

 selves to Herodotus and Hecatasus, shows how ig- 

 norant they considered the Greeks on this subject. 

 " For many," says Origen, " listening to accounts 

 they do not understand, relative to the sacred doc- 



* Plut. dc Is. 22, 23. 



f Ciccro.says : " Quid ubsurdius quam ant res sordidas, atqne dcfor- 

 mcs, deoi'Lim lionore afficere, aut lioiiiines jam luortc deletes rcponere 

 ill Deos, quorum omnis cultus essct futurus in Inctu 'r " — Nat. Deor. i. 

 The only appearance of a man having the character of a deity occurs in 

 the temple built by Thothmes III. at Sannieh, where Osirtasen III. is 

 represented performing tiie same offices as a God, but we do not know 

 how far he was assimilated to a Deity, and he merely wears a roj/a/ cap. 

 Tiiere are also offerings of Kings, as of other persons, to their deceased 

 parents ; but these are only made to them in tlie character they assumed 

 after death, when they received the name of Osiris, from being supi)oscd 

 to return, after a virtuous life, to the great origin from which they were 

 emanations. Sometimes the King even offers to u figure of himself and 

 his Queen, seated on thrones, before whom he stands as an officiating 

 priest. 



