ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. 147 
‘ground and holding a short staff resembling a club is supposed to be one 
of the initiated dressed as Dionysos. The wreath in the panel shows that 
‘the transaction occurred in a covered place. 
The Oracles of Greece were very celebrated, and constituted a leading 
object in their religious institutions. They were regarded as the channels 
through which the gods revealed their will and the events of the future. 
The oracle of Apollo at Delphi was most frequented (pl. 17, jig. 30). 
Pythia, a priestess, sat upon a tripod, and being inspired by the vapor 
which issued from a fissure in the ground, uttered her strange incoherent 
words, which were recorded by the prophets, versified by the temple poets, 
and expounded by the interpreters. Inquirers flocked to this oracle not only 
from all parts of Greece, but from foreign countries, and the presents with 
which they endowed the temple made it the wealthiest of antiquity. 
The guardians and administrators of the temples were the priests (pl. 19, 
jig. 17) and the priestesses (fig. 18). They also took charge of the gifts, 
superintended the solemn festivals, and adorned the temples for that pur- 
pose; and while some performed the sacrifices, others pronounced the 
prescribed prayers. The Grecian priests, however, never constituted a dis- 
tinct and independent class, but were subordinate and responsible to other 
authorities. Besides the priests, the Greeks had their astrologers, dream- 
interpreters, soothsayers, and augurs, the latter foretelling events by the 
flight and singing of birds. 
If. THE RELIGIOUS SYSTEM OF THE ROMANS. 
The primitive religion of the Romans was remarkably simple, being 
destitute both of temples and images of the gods. Romulus, however, by 
the erection of a temple to Jupiter Stator, laid the foundation of the subse- 
quent mythological system. His successor, Numa Pompilius, introduced 
material improvements, taking the Etruscan system as his model, and even 
incorporating several Etruscan elements into Roman worship. As the 
Roman dominion extended, the principal gods of the conquered nations 
were gradually received into the mythology of the conquerors, the latter 
regarding this policy the most effective in permanently attaching a subju- 
gated people to their masters. In this way the deities of the old Asiatic 
countries, and of Greece itself, at last found a place in the Roman system. 
In order therefore to obtain a clear and comprehensive view of Roman 
Mythology, we propose to examine briefly some of the sources from which 
it borrowed. As already intimated, it drew largely from the nations of 
ancient Italy; sometimes adopting a god with no change except the name, 
and in some instances retaining even that with the slightest alteration. In 
this connexion none of the old Italians stand forth so prominently as the 
Etruscans, or Htrurians, who, prior to the founding of Rome, possessed a 
finely developed religious system, and exhibited a religious life intimately 
blended with their political institutions. Their principal god was Zina, the 
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