86 MYTHOLOGY AND RELIGIOUS RITES. 
similar to men, though of course much their superiors in every respect. 
While according to them omniscience, omnipotence, sanctity, and a high. 
degree of felicity, they nevertheless associated the idea of these qualities 
with that of human bodies, human feelings, inclinations, and passions. 
They even endowed them with organs of sense, and imagined them capable 
of vice and crime. These apparent contradictions can only be explained 
by the fact (so often noticed by historians) that the Greeks were at the 
same time a most intelligent and a most sensual people. The most educated 
among them, as among other nations, were accustomed to consider much 
of the popular faith as merely symbolical or really fabulous, whilst they 
secretly cherished their own opinions ; and this was the cause from which 
sprang the well known mysteries. Whatever the philosophers and the 
educated may have really thought concerning the truthfulness of their 
religion and the appropriateness of its rites and ceremonies, yet, finding 
them of importance in the preservation and improvement of civil society, 
they rendered them a hearty public support. 
CosMOGONIES AND THEOGONTES, OR THE ORIGIN OF THE WoRLD 
AND OF THE Gops. 
In no part of Grecian mythology do we encounter so much variation, 
obscurity, and contradiction as in the legends concerning the creation of 
the universe. Closely connected with this inquiry and not less puzzling 
are the fictions relating to the origin and genealogy of the gods. No one 
of the Cosmogonies and Theogonies has ever obtained universal credit, and 
perhaps no one can be said to possess superior claims upon general confi- 
dence. We give a condensed account of the three theories which have 
existed the longest, and have received the widest acceptation. 
According to the first, Water was the primordial germ of all things. 
The water engendered from itself Slime. The combined energies of the 
water and the slime produced a Serpent or Dragon with three heads ; the first 
that of a Bull, the second of a Leon, the third of a God. The serpent 
thus produced brought forth an “gg, which divided itself into two equal 
parts; the upper division constituting heaven (Uranos), the lower, earth 
(Gea). From these two proceeded the primitive forces of nature. 
According to the second theory, the origin of all things was Zime (Cronos), 
who begot Chaos and Ether. The conjunction of chaos with ether formed 
a brilliant white egg, the mundane egg, which included, in some mysterious 
manner, the vitality of the world. This egg was fructified by the moving 
ether (winds), and from it emerged Hos, with glittering golden wings. Eros, 
now, as the creative spirit, called forth the gods by his smiles, while the 
wretched race of mortals sprang from his tears. He is also known as 
Phanes, an Orphic term signifying the first principles of the world, and 
is doubtless the same as 4on occurring in other mythologies equivalent to 
Time as eternal power. The lion’s head of on (pl. 16, fig. 10) is emblem- 
atical of strength. The wings and birds indicate his fleetness ; the serpent 
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