284 The Origin of Monotheism.
kings, and these have now been proved to have a literal meaning. " None of these epithets," says Mr. Foucart of Egyptian kings, " should be regarded (as they too often are) as arising from vanity or grandiloquence, for each corresponds theologically to a very precise definition of a function or force belonging to one or other of the great gods of Egypt." This warning should be remembered in dealing with Greece or any other country. The Homeric king was descended from gods [diotrephes], he was a priest, and a good king " caused the black earth to bring forth wheat and barley, the trees to be loaded with fruit, the flocks to multiply, and the sea to yield fish." ^ All these attributes are very symptomatic of divine kingship. -
It is a pity that our Hebrew chronicles are coloured by late theology ; yet we can find in them traces of divine kingship, or shall we say chieftainship } The Judges were certainly vicars of God or gods ; they were not hereditary, but heredity is not a necessary, though a usual feature of this institution ; it is quite possible that in its earliest form it was not hereditary. The phrase " And the Spirit of the Lord came upon him," which is used of Othniel, Jephthah, and Samson (Judges iii. 10 ; xi. 29 ; xiii. 25) ought, I think, to be taken literally. The story of Samson suggests that originally he was thought to have been begotten by the deity, a point left vague by later compilers.
Scholars declare that there is no trace of divine kingship in the Vedic hymns ; it does not follow that divine kingship was then unknown. The Vedas are not a treatise on manners and customs, but allusive lyrics, which assume in the hearer a considerable knowledge of the traditions of the wise men, to say nothing of those fundamental institutions which were familiar to the most ignorant. The island of Rotuma, north of Fiji, possesses hymns of a
1 Golden Bough, i. 156; Odyssey, xix. 109-114.
- E.g. in Fiji and Polynesia. " Chieftainship in the Pacific,"
American Anthropologist.
