CHAP. XII. GODS OF THE GREEKS. 183 



sixth was composed of the minor Archontes, whose 

 power extended over the gross and terrestrial mat- 

 ter. Heroes formed the seventh ; and the souls of 

 men admitted to the order of Gods, occupied the 

 eighth and last class. Other philosophers of the 

 same sect included all the Deities, or we may say, 

 all the Genii, in two classes: those called auAo<, 

 immaterial, and u7>.ajo/, material, occupying the first ; 

 and the mundane and supra-mundane, the second. 



** Mercury, or Hermes Trismegistus, is said to 

 have admitted three classes of Gods. In the first 

 were those whom he called heavenly ; in the 

 second, the empyrean ; and in the third, the ethe- 

 rean. 



*' The Gods were also divided into public and 

 private : the former being those whose worship was 

 established and authorised by law ; the latter, those 

 who were chosen by individuals to be the peculiar 

 object of their worship, as the gods Lares, the Pe- 

 nates *, and the souls of ancestors. 



** The most general division is that which classed 

 the Gods under the two heads of the natural and 

 the living Deities : the former consistiniir of the 

 stars and other physical objects ; the latter, of men 

 who had received divine honours. But these did 

 not comprehend all the Deities, since the genii of 

 different kinds were there omitted. Finally, the 



* This word might be derived from Pi-noute, " the God," but tliat 

 we have a difficult}' in accountinf: for the use of an Egyptian name at 

 llonic. The origin of the pcnatcs is doubtful ; some attributing their 

 introduction to iEneas, which is an idle fable : and a difl'erence of 

 opinion exists about their names ; some supposing them to be Neptune 

 and Apollo ; others, Jove, Juno, and Minerva ; and others, Coelus and 

 Terra. 



N 4 



