8S0 G R E 
holding the Athenian prince a voluntary captive. Mi¬ 
nos treated him with affedlionate regard ; gave him his 
daughter Ariadne in marriage ; and declared the Athe¬ 
nians from thenceforth free. Thefeus reaped immortal 
glory from this tranfaftion ; and the velTel in which he 
failed continued to be annually fent, for more than eight 
centuries afterwards, to return thanks to Apollo in his 
favourite ifland of Delos. 
From the HEROIC AGE, to the FALL of 
TROY, AND INSTITUTION of the OLYMPIC 
GAMES. 
Tlie ancient Greeks had flrongly imbibed an opinion, 
that the country in which they lived was fo peculiarly 
favourable to the dignity of human nature, as to ailimi- 
late tlieir heroes with the immortality of the gods. 
The voluptuous climates of Afia produced invention 
and ingenuity, but foftened the toupers of men into a 
fitnefs for fervitude. The rigorous feverity of Euro¬ 
pean Ikies gave Itrength to the limbs, and boldnefs to 
the mind; but chilled the fancy, and benumbed tlie 
finer feelings of the foul. The inhabitants of the eaft 
and loath were degraded below the condition of huma¬ 
nity, by an unfortunate abufe of power; while the tur¬ 
bulent fons of the north and weft were incapable, from 
ignorance and indocility, of fubmitting to any regular 
fyftem of government. The Greeks alone, poifelling 
an intermediate fituation between the extremes of cold 
and heat, united both courage and capacity ; tempered 
the ftern and manly with the gentler virtues ; and en¬ 
joyed the double advantage of liberty and laws. Thofe 
who would reprefs the ebullitions of Grecian vanity, 
advert to the generous fpirit of the ancient Germans ; 
their military glory, impartial juftice, and manly infti- 
tutions, as painted by the exprelhve pencil of Tacitus, 
fcarcely inferior to the boalted cuftoms of the heroic 
age.—See the article Germany, p. 464 of this volume. 
■—Yet there is one material circumftance wanting in the 
German, which adds peculiar beauty to the Grecian 
charaiter. Among the rude inhabitants of ancient 
Germany, the offices of prieft and king were not united 
in the fame perfon. The rites of religion were admi- 
niftered by a particular order of men, wiiofe minds were 
of a dark and gloomy caft, recommending principally 
the'' practice of courage, the only virtue which there 
was not any occafion to recommend ; and promiling, as 
the reward of what was deemed the highelt excellence 
in lite, the enjoyment of an infamous paradife of im¬ 
mortal drtinkennefs after death. But the mythology of 
the Greeks was of a more elevated and ufeful nature. 
The feeptre, which denoted the connedfion of civil 
power with lacred protediion, was conferred on thofe 
only who were appointed to be the chief guardians of 
the people. The fame voice that fummoned the war¬ 
riors to arms, or that decided in time of peace their do- 
mertic contentions, condubfed the order of their reli¬ 
gious worlhip. The fubmillion of fubjebfs to their 
prince, the duty of a prince to preferve inviolate the 
rights of his fubjefts, the obedience of children to their 
parents, the refpedt of the young for the aged, the fa- 
cred laws ol truth, juftice, honour, and decency, W’ere 
inculcated and maintained by the Grecian heroes, in 
common with the rights of peace and of war. As the 
reward of religion and virtue, of heroifm and fidelity, 
were to be derived from the gods ; fo the puniffiment 
of irreligionand vice, of injultice and rapine, failed not 
to be vifited upon them, even to the third and fourth 
generation, by fome manifeft vengeance of their offended 
deities. 
Such was the fimple creed of the ancient Grecians. 
But it is not within the limits of this treatife to difplay 
tlie mythological tenets of Greece, or the imaginaiy 
offices of their numerous divinities. By the dim light 
of etymology and tradition, thrown on the deceitful 
glare of legend and fable, inquifitive men have endea- 
E C E. 
voured to trace the corrupted ftreams of Pagan worlhip 
to the pure fountain of the Jewilh difpenfation. But 
the majefty of Jehovah is very feebly reprefented by 
the united power of Homer’s divinities; and'the my. 
thology of the Greeks is of fuch a peculiar texture, 
that whencefoever originally derived, it muft have un¬ 
dergone a particular modification in the Grecian foil ; 
nor is it eafy to concur with the opinion of writers wlio 
bring it either from Egypt, Chaldea, or Leffer Alia, 
when we conlider that there is not tlie fmalleft veftige 
in Homer of the judicial aftrology which prevailed fo 
ftrongly in the two firft, or of the worlhipping of idols, 
which almoft univerfally predominated in tlie laft. It 
would perhaps be more confonant to truth and reafon, 
were we to attribute their tenets and mythology to the; 
powers of the mind, opprelfed or alarmed by the ter¬ 
rors of fuperftition. P-ven among poliftied nations, the 
power of reafoning and philofophy, however highly it 
may be extolled when the gentle current of life flows 
with placid tranquillity, always proves too feeble to re- 
fift the mountain torrent and the ftorm of winter. Un¬ 
der the preffure'of fudden or inextricable calamity, all 
thofe, who are not more or lefs than men, haverecourfe 
to the immediate aftiftance of fome invifible agency ; 
and in the fplendid abodes of wealth and power, as well 
as in the American village or Tartar horde, the era of a 
famine, a peftilence, or an earthquake, is marked by 
fincere expreffions of faith, and commemorated by fignal 
monuments of piety. 
The great pillar of fuperftition raifed by the anxious 
paffions of men, feems to have been fortified in Greece 
by a circumftance incidental to all nations, at a certain 
ftage of their political progrefs. There is a period 
when nations emerging from barbarity, but not yet cor¬ 
rupted by the narrow purfuits of avarice, nor foftened 
by the pleal'ures of luxury, enjoy a peculiar fenfibility 
of charafter, which exerts itfelf in the ardour of focial 
affeftion, and ftrengthens, by a thoufand affociations, 
their belief of invifible and intelligent beings. To men 
thus difpofed to fuperftition, whatever dazzles the ima¬ 
gination announces the prefence of a deity ; dreams and 
celeftial phenomena are deemed facred and infallible 
admonitions ; the filence and thick Ihade of a foreft fills 
the foul with religious awe ; and perfons, diftinguiftied 
by juftice and piety, eaftly perfuade themfelves and 
otheis, that, as the beloved favourites of heaven, they 
are frequently honoured with holy infpirations, and 
fometimes indulged with the vifible prefence and happy 
intercourfe of their divine protedfors. Not only the re¬ 
ligion, but the ancient language and manners, of Greece, 
fufficiently atteft the exiftence of this exceffive fenfibi- 
lity, which, in thofe early times, gave an eafy victory 
to the indulgent powers of fancy over the feverer dic¬ 
tates of reafon. The nature, the charadlers, and the 
occupations, of the gods, were hence fuggefted by the 
lively feelings of an ardent, rather than by the regular 
invention of a cultivated, mind. Thefe celeftial beings 
were yet fubjedt to the blind paffions which govern un¬ 
happy mortals. Their wants, as well as rfieir defires, 
were fimilar to thofe of men. , They required not the 
grofs nourilhment of meat and wine, but they had oc¬ 
cafion to repair the wafte of their ethereal bodies by 
nedlar and ambrofia ; and they delighted in the fleam of 
the facrifices, which equally gratified their fenfes, and 
flattered their vanity. The refreftiment of fleep was 
neceffary to reftore their exhaufted ftrength ; and, With 
the addition of a fuperior but limited degree of power, 
and wifdom, and goodnefs, the gods of the heroic ages 
were nothing more than immortal men. What was 
wanting in the dignity and perfedlion, was liipplied by 
the number, of tlie gods. Homer only deferibes the 
principal and reigning divinities ; but Heftod, who gives 
the genealogical hillory of this fanciful hierarchy, makes' 
the whole number amount to thirty thoufand. Among 
thefe, every virtue had its proteitor, every quality of 
1 extenfive 
