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Character Of The Greek And The Roman Mythology.
The Greek and the Roman Mythology, though often confused, should be kept distinct. Both Greeks and Romans no doubt inherited from the Indo-European parent-folk a common fund of mythological conceptions. But these took shape in accordance with the peculiar genius, surroundings, and development of each people, with results widely different.
The Greek was by nature highly imaginative, speculative, versatile, and poetic. He had, above all, an inborn feeling for symmetry, for perfect proportion in parts and relations. The early life of the Greek race lay in regions where the diversity and striking character of the natural phenomena must continually have aroused a feeling of wonder and have stimulated the fancy. The lands about the Aegean Sea present every variety of landscape. Rugged mountain ranges alternate with narrow valleys and rolling plains. The extended coast-line is everywhere indented by inlets, with islands in the distance or near by. These conditions produce an endless variety of atmospheric changes. Here one finds dawn and twilight, hazy vistas and storm-scenes, of matchless beauty and impressiveness. Endowed with such a genius, and placed amid such surroundings, the Greeks naturally developed a highly poetic mythology.
The earliest literary embodiment of the Greek myths is in the poems of Homer and Hesiod. Here they appear in their simplest and most naive form. The gods are believed in as real existences, of unwearied activity, having intimate relations with the life of man. In the most flourishing period of Greek history — the century after the Persian wars — the myths were still accepted, but began to lose their hold upon the educated classes. Men of culture treated them reverently, but often gave them a rationalistic or allegorical interpretation. Nevertheless, they were intimately connected with the beliefs of the national religion. Being thus an essential part of the national thought and life, they permeated literature, and furnished ideals for the noblest sculpture that the world has ever seen. Afterwards they were more and more discredited, and sometimes ridiculed. Though certain forms and ceremonies of religion tended still to lend to them an air of credence, they were treated in literature chiefly as stock material for poetry.
The Greek mythology stands alone among all as the fullest, richest, most poetic, and most suggestive. It also reveals more clearly the national traits of the people which developed it than any other system. From a very early time the commercial and political relations of Greeks with orientals had tended to introduce foreign mythological conceptions, some of which, in a modified form, at last gained acceptance. Yet, as a whole, the Greek mythology is of indigenous growth, — a monument of the inherent constructive and artistic power of the Greek race. Its influence in literature has been greater than that of any other body of myths. First, it dominated the thought of the Greeks, and found expression also in their immortal art. Then it became the heritage of Rome. Finally, inwrought in the literatures of all European and western nations, it remains a treasured and imperishable possession of mankind.
The early Roman presented in all respects a contrast with the Greek. Unimaginative, practical, narrow, and conservative, he viewed the beauties of nature with no kindling enthusiasm, and contemplated her mysteries with comparative indifference. His surroundings were less calculated to inspire poetic emotion than were those of the Greek. The landscapes were less rugged and impressive, the coast-line monotonous. In accordance with his practical tendencies, he gave more thought to devising and practising methods of propitiating his gods, than to imagining what their relations were with one another or with himself. In a word, the Roman's notions of the Divine took the direction of worship rather than of myth-making. The same is true of the other ancient Italian peoples of the same stock as the Romans.
The native Roman mythology, therefore, is scanty. Compared with the Greek, it is matter-of-fact and barren. Its place was taken in the people's thought by minute ritualistic regulations, with numberless prayers and incantations adapted to all occasions. Every part of the body, every act and incident of daily life, was supposed to be under the supervision of a special divinity; but the very multiplicity and limited province of the deities retarded the development of myths. For the same reasons, also, the Romans produced no great folk-epic, like the Iliad or the Niebelungen Lied.
In Mythology, as in literature and the arts, the Romans borrowed freely from other nations. At an early time they were no doubt much influenced by contact with the neighboring Etruscans. In the Republican period their relations with the Greeks became close, first through the Greek colonies in Magna Graecia, then through commercial and political connections with the cities of Asia Minor and Greece. The worship of many Greek divinities was introduced. With these came the whole body of Greek mythology. In many instances a Greek god was identified with a Roman and the myths of the one ascribed to the other. As educated Romans became saturated with the Greek culture, the Greek myths came to be as familiar to them as their own, and consequently occupy as prominent a place in the Roman literature as in the Greek.
The old gods remained too firmly intrenched in the affections of the common folk to be replaced by foreign deities; but only occasionally did Roman authors attempt to treat the native myths, as Varro did in prose, and Ovid in his 'Calendar,' to some extent also in the last two books of the 'Metamorphoses.' In later times, especially after the commencement of the Christian era, the Romans turned to the worship of Egyptian and other strange divinities.
The early Roman no doubt believed devoutly in his gods and what was said of them. But with the Greek mythology came also the seeds of unbelief. The forms of the state religion at Rome were kept up, as a matter of policy, for several centuries after the majority of those belonging to the higher classes of society had ceased to believe in their efficacy. The Roman writers, like those of the later Greek literature, found their chief interest in the myths as material for poetic treatment.
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