THE GREEKS AND BROWNING 
397 
again he is “the divine Ulysses,” who although divine un¬ 
hesitatingly promises to save the life of the weeping Trojan, 
Dolon, if he but tells correctly why he comes alone from the 
camp towards the fleet. The reply given, Dolon is speedily 
dispatched; promises avail naught, falsehood is in confor¬ 
mity with custom. 
The gods held similar principles, for Agamemnon com¬ 
plains how Zeus, the son of Chronos, entangled him in a 
grievous calamity. He calls him “cruel” for his “plottings” 
and evil “ fraud.” Asius, who was slain by Idomeneus, groaned, 
smiting both his thighs and exclaiming indignantly, “Father 
Zeus, now at least thou hast become utterly deceitful.” 
That Zeus was quite capable of appreciating the inconve¬ 
niences arising from deception is fully depicted by Homer in 
a little scene where Here figures prominently. No doubt some 
such thoughts as these were in the mind of Zeus on that occa¬ 
sion. 
“Womanhood, — ‘the cat-like nature, 
False and fickle, vain and weak,’ — 
What of this sad nomenclature 
Suits my tongue if I must speak.” 
The Truth ideal evolves and announces itself with bolder 
outline as the centuries roll on. But here and there in the 
old Greek literature occur passages suggestive of the coming 
cumulative height of Truth which found full expression in 
Plato and later writers. Hesiod extols the man who is sincere 
with his friend. The eye of Apollo is described as “piercing 
beyond all other eyes.” The sun-god is “the guardian of 
moral life and the expression of moral purity and exaltation.” 
He thus stands for light, enlightenment, the coming of Truth, 
as Orestes says, “For night is the time for thieves, the light 
for Truth.” 
In the early courts of justice the necessity for Truth in 
political and legal life was recognized, and the Heliastic oath 
concluded with these words, “May much good befall me if 
I keep my oath, but if I prove false to it may destruction fall 
upon me and my family.” However, the system of the Heliaea, 
we read, led to much uncertainty in the administration of 
