68 



The Solar Theory of Myths. 



But there slowly came a change. Though the Roman 

 admiral, who cast the sacred fowls into the sea, lost the 

 engagement from the horror and fear with which this pro- 

 ceeding tilled his soldiers, his successor did not the more 

 venerate the holy birds, but took good care that they 

 should be hungry enough to eat with a truly inspired 

 avidity. The Pythia, for the best of reasons, pronounced 

 Philip of Macedon invincible, and Alexander gave Jupiter 

 Ammon the choice of flattering his pretensions, or losing 

 his own divinity. Men became more practical, and, ceasing 

 in a degree the attempt to spy out the future, sought to 

 control it. They neglected Apollo, and, making their own 

 prophecies by reasoning from what had been done, ful- 

 filled them by their own energy and skill. When Hero- 

 dotus and Thucydides stated facts as their standard, and 

 then tried to reconcile the supernatural with them ; when 

 Livy told the time honored traditions of regal Rome, with 

 a critical " J^escio an " as a preface, Olympus was already 

 doomed, and the gods of the bright aether already on their 

 way to all-receiving Dis. Men still shouted *' Great is 

 Diana of Ephesus," but the silversmiths were the only ones 

 who heartily sounded the cry. The responses of Delphi 

 were still prized, but mainly on account of the prices paid 

 for them. The Roman youths and maidens still sang the 

 carmen to Apollo and Dian at the secular games, but their 

 best known chant was written by the most brilliant ot 

 Rome's skeptics. For two thousand years did history 

 steadily encroach upon mythology, till the gods and heroes 

 of the old religions slept in oblivion, or still less fortunate, 

 came down from their celestial thrones to fill the literary 

 stage as the characters of the old-world pantomime. On 

 the other hand, the records of what had been were sought 

 for with an ever increasing avidity. As time unfolded a 

 historic future, men unraveled a historic past ; till, back 

 through the labyrinth of the ages, they followed the slender 

 thread of tradition and stood at the portals of the Mosaical 



