"Revivals" everywhere have this among other consequences. But we may share Lobeck's scepticism as to the wholesale charges of iniquity (ἔρωτες ἄτοποι καὶ παίδων ὕβρεις καὶ γάμων διαφθοραὶ) brought by the Fathers. Doubtless there were survivals of barbaric license, and of performances like those of the Zunis in their snake-feast; but it is certain that even if there had been no debauchery, the Fathers would have invented it and maligned the mysteries of their opponents, exactly as the opponents maligned the mysteries of Christianity.
In spite of survivals and slanders, the religion of Demeter was among the most natural, beautiful, and touching of Greek beliefs. The wild element was not lacking; but a pious contemporary of Plato, when he bathed in the sea with his pig before beholding the mystery-play, probably made up his mind to blink the barbaric and licentious part of the performances.
Conclusion.
This brief review of Greek divine myths does not of course aim at exhausting the subject. We do not pretend to examine the legends of all the Olympians. But enough has been said to illustrate the method of interpretation, and to give specimens of the method at work. It has been seen that there is only agreement among philologists as to the origin and meaning of two out of nearly a dozen divine names. Zeus is admitted to be connected with Dyaus, and to have originally
