I 



64 QUEEN'S QUARTERLY. 



abstractions dwell in a particular place? The erection of temples 

 only comes through the later influence of the Etrucsans, yet not for 

 all. Silvanus could never be induced to live in a temple. Still less 

 could there be the anthropomorphic representation of them m the 

 shape of statues. Even when later through contact with the G^eek 

 religion of South Italy we do find statues, yet the most Roman of 

 religious conceptions, Vesta, remains unchanged, so that Ovid says, 

 Fasti VI, 257, 



Esse diu stultus Vestae simulacra putavi : 

 Mox didici curvo nulla subesse tholo. 



Ignis inextinctus templo celatur in illo; 

 Effigiem nullam Vesta nee ignis habent. * 



Cf. Varro, who says in the true spirit of Roman religion that " those 

 who introduced representations took away fear and brought in false- 

 hood." 



Similarly the very Greek belief in oracles has no counterpart in 

 early Rome; the Sibylline books came from Magna Graecia much 

 later. There being no personal gods, it was obviously impossible for 

 men to consult them or to receive advice and prophecy from them : 

 we have not as yet reached so advanced a stage in the conception of 

 the relation between man and the deities, nor indeed of the deities 

 themselves. 



A last point that flows from the impersonality of these divini- 

 ties is, that of true Roman Mythology there was none, until the 

 fashion was set by the rich stores of myths of the imaginative 

 Greeks. Since they are not conceived of as distinct personalities, 

 they have no lineage, no father or mother, no relationship between 

 them, no connection and no subordination. Jupiter, the sky god, for 

 instance, has no jurisdiction over the fire god. Saturnus, the god of 

 sowing, can lay no command on the various divinities I mentioned 

 as guarding the growth of corn in its various stages. 



It is clear, then, that the identification of the Greek and Roman 

 gods is a great mistake. It is, of course, true that in course of time 

 all these features -were added, adopted from the Greeks, but they 

 were never properly assimilated or used together : the old religion of 

 Numa was early arrested in its growth and survived for many a 

 century, accompanied by many a new element borrowed from else- 

 where, but it is never very difficult to disentangle the old form from 



* Once I thought in my folly that there were statues of Vesta; but I have 

 learnt that none of these repose 'neath her rounded dome. Fire that never 

 dieth is hid within that shrine. Nor Vesta nor fire hath any figure. 



