84 MYTHOLOGY AND RELIGIOUS RITES. 
tions by periods of 13 days and 13 years. They counted thus always up to 
thirteen and then commenced again a new section of time. 
Pi. 14, fig. 10, is a drawing of an almanac representing the ancient 
Mexican year with its divisions. The middle circle, as will be seen, was 
divided into six sections, each containing three figures; these were the 
signs for the months. 
They commenced their year on the 28th of January, though some authors 
say their new-year came as late as the 26th of February. 
CLASSIC ANTIQUITY. 
I. THE RELIGIOUS SYSTEM OF THE GREEKS. 
Among no people of antiquity do we find mythological poetry so dis- 
tinguished for its fulness and variety as among the Greeks. For this fact 
several causes existed. The great diversity of the tribes, which ultimately 
blended in a good degree, but which still retained certain national peculiar- 
ities ; the vast influence of neighboring and even distant tribes, produced by 
frequent immigrations as well as by the commercial relations in which the 
Greeks stood to other countries; the astonishing perfection which they had 
attained in sciences and arts, particularly in painting, architecture, and 
statuary ; the scholars, philosophers, and poets, whose fame reaches even the 
present time: all these agencies contributed to the evolution and embellish- 
ment of the Greek religious system, and make it an object not less worthy 
of attention than the philosophy and literature of that interesting people. 
As with the inhabitants of Greece, so with their mythology numerous 
alterations naturally took place. No people ever sprang to their highest 
civilization at once, and the same law of progression holds good with the 
religion of a nation. The immigrations also to which we have referred often 
influenced the character of the Greeks, and introduced new elements into 
their religious observances, so that we find several periods of religious and 
mythological cultivation. What may have been their precise origin, when 
and from what source they may have been adopted, and at what period 
the circle of the gods may have been completed: these are questions which 
can be determined with but little certainty. It seems most probable that 
the Pelasgi, the aborigines of Greece, already had gods and a species of 
worship which, receiving additional elements from Egypt, Pheenicia, 
Phrygia, Persia, and other countries, gradually adjusted itself to the new 
principles, and so assimilated all the material constituents as finally to 
evolve a system sufficiently harmonious in all essential points. 
That which principally distinguished the mythology of the Greeks from 
that of other nations was its multiplicity of gods and deified beings. In 
addition to the superior deities adopted from abroad, and modified accord- 
ing to the peculiar ideas and wants of the worshippers, they reverenced 
many others originated by themselves. They recognised gods of the upper 
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