Page:History of Greece Vol IV.djvu/214

196 HISTORY O? O m cases of extreme incomprehensibility ; and it is difficult clearly to determine (as in the case of some complicated political consti- tutions) where the Greeks conceived sovereign power to reside, in respect to the government of the world. But here the sover- eignty of the Moene, and the subordinate agency of the gods, are ancquivocally set forth. 1 Yet the gods are still extremely pow- 1 In the oracle reported in Herodot. vii, 141, as delivered by the Pythian priestess to Athens on occasion of the approach of Xerxes, Zeus is repre- sented in the same supreme position as the present oracle assigns to the Mcerse, or Fates : Pallas in vain attempts to propitiate him in favor of Athens, just as. in this case, Apollo tries to mitigate the Mceros in respect to Croesus Oil divarai Ila/l/luf At' 'Q^vfiKiov E^i^aaaa^a', A.iaao[iivri no^otai /loyoif Kal fiyridi irvKvy, etc. Compare also viii, 109, and ix, 16. O. Miiller (Dissertation on the Eumenides of JEschylus, p. 222, Ting. Transl.) says : " On no occasion does Zeus Soter exert his influence di rectly, like Apollo, Minerva, and the Erinnyes ; but whereas Apollo is prophet and exegetes by virtue of wisdom derived from him, and Minerva (s indebted to him for her sway over states and assemblies, hay, the very Erinnyes exercise their functions in his name, this Zeus stands always in the background, and has in reality only to settle a conflict existing within nimself. For with -^Eschylus, as with all men of profound feeling among <hc Greeks from the earliest times. Jupiter is the only real god, in the higher sense of the word. Although he is, in the spirit of ancient theology, a gcn- 4rated god, arisen out of an imperfect state of things, and not produced till the third stage of a development of nature, still he is, at the time we are speaking of, the spirit that pervades and governs the universe." To the same purpose Klausen expresses-himself (Theologumcna JEschyli, pp. 6-69). It is perfectly true that many passages may be produced from Greek authors which ascribe to Zeus the supreme power here noted. But it is equally true that this conception is not uniformly adhered to, and that sometimes the Fates, or Mcerae, are represented as supreme ; occasionally represented as the stronger and Zeus as the weaker (Prometheus, 515). The whole tenor of that tragedy, in fact, brings out the concepticn of a Zeus Tvpavvog, whose power is not supreme, even for the time; and is not destined to continue permanently, even at its existing height. The ex- planations given by Klausen of this drama appear to me incorrect ; nor c<> 1 understand how it is to be reconciled with the above passage quoted from O. Muller. The two oracles here cited from Herodotus exhibit plainly the fluctua- tion of Greek opinion on this subject : in the one, the supreme determina- tion, and the inexorability which accompanies it, arc ascribed to Zeus, in