until finally the term dæmon became synonymous throughout the world with devil, or evil spirit.

From this degeneracy many learned investigators have inferred that the dæmons as well as the gods of the Heathen were human beings deified after their death; and it cannot be denied that they can adduce cogent arguments in support of that view. Hesiod may be regarded as the most ancient profane authority on the religious faith of Pagan antiquity, and there is no subject on which he writes more plainly or more authoritatively than on this. In his famous description of the Ages of the world, he speaks of the Golden Age as follows: "After their death the men of that epoch became beneficent dæmons, living on earth as the guardians of mortals, observing the works of justice and the works of injustice. Veiled in a thick cloud, they passed through the earth dispensing benefits; such is the royal privilege conferred on them."

At this time dæmon and god were synonymous terms, and they continued such for centuries after.* In the time of Plato a considerable change had taken place; the philosopher frequently mentions the dæmon as an inferior deity.† He says in the Banquet that "Dæmons are intermediate between God and mortals; their function is to interpret and convey to the gods what comes from men, and to men what comes from the gods; the prayers and offerings of the one, and the commands of the others. These dæmons are the source of all prophecy, and of the art of the priests, in relation to sacrifices, consecrations, conjurations, &c. ; for God has no immediate intercourse with men but all the intercourse and conversation between the gods and mortals are carried on by means of the dæmons, both in waking and sleeping. There are many kinds of such dæmons, or spirits.”

Throughout the Homeric poems the dæmon is regarded in the same light; and the poet assigns him duties in accordance with his inferiority. Nor is it alone the inferior gods. Homer treats in this manner; he frequently assigns corre

"We must not," says Menander, "think any dæmon to be evil or hurtful to life, but every god to be good."

↑ Cratylus. See also Apuleius, de Deo Socrato.

sponding duties to the goddesses, as, for example, when he makes Minerva wash the face of Penelope.* But however inferior the dæmons may be, he everywhere describes them as the protectors of the good and just.†

Thales the Milesian divided all spiritual beings into three classes; the gods who govern the universe, the dæmons who are partly celestial and partly terrestial, and the heroes whom he describes as human souls separated from the body. ‡ And nearly the same faith was professed by Pythagoras.

In the time of Eschylus and Euripides; the dæmons had greatly degenerated; thus Atossa is made to say in the Persians, "Prince, an envious dæmon has caused all the mischief." And the same poet speaks in his Seven Chiefs before Thebes, of the dæmon of hatred (v. 711.) Yet it is evident from the testimony of various authors that many still adhered to the old doctrine; we have proof of it in the curious fact that while in one tragedy Eschylus designates the Furies as black and repulsive dæmons, in another he describes them as chaste goddesses, the powerful and respectable daughters of the Night. ||

Before the time of Eschylus, both painters and poets represented the infernal as well as the celestial divinities as beautiful in form; few made any distinction in this respect, the reason being that both kinds of divinities were regarded as belonging to the same family. In short there is abundant evidence that the hideous forms in which the dæmons are painted at the present day, is a modern idea. Pausanias informs us (Ch. 1, p. 29,) that it was not until after the time of Eschylus that even Furies, or Pluto were represented as in any manner repulsive in their features or appearance, and his testimony is confirmed in many ancient sculptures and paintings. Thus, for example, there are seven vases in the gallery of the Louvre in Paris, each of which represents one of the infernal deities; and all would be much more likely to be taken for guardian angels, accord

Od. xviii. v. 190 et seq.

↑ Od. xvii., v. 473.

Legatio qro Christianis, Athenagor.

$ V. 333-3.

Eum-nil, v. 1038 et seq.

ing to the modern idea, than for any mischievous or malignant beings. A still more striking example may be seen at the Museum of Florence, where a Fury appears on a bass-relief, representing the abduction of Helen. The features of the infernal divinity far from being hideous or repulsive, have an expression of nobleness, beauty and calm dignity, which the modern painters of saints and madonnas might well emulate.

In Euripides the demons had degenerated still more. All cruel spirits were now ranked as dæmons, such as the Furies, the Poenae, the Alastors, Nimesis, &c., who were represented as the implacable enemies of mankind, and at the same time the unswerving instruments of divine vengeance against crime of all kinds. They are represented as inflicting great miseries on mortals, though not without their being deserved. An interesting example of this will be found in the tragedy of the Phenicians in which Antigone speaks of the Alastor (dæmon) who causes incendiaries, murders and strifes.*

It is clear that the changes which had thus taken place excited considerable comment in the time of Plutarch, for the philosopher refers to them in several of his works. "Certain philosophers, he says, admitting the same changes in the soul which take place in the body, believe that earth changes into water, water into air, and air into fire, nature always tending to subtilize herself; on the same principle those among human souls who are most virtuous become heroes; the heroes are changed into dæmons, and some-a small number-entirely purified by a long exercise of the virtues, are elevated to the divine nature. Upon the other hand there are those who, incapable of restraining their desires, degenerate to such an extent as to plunge themselves again into mortal bodies to eke out in a gloomy atmosphere an obscure and miserable existence."+

But Plutarch does not condemn the dæmons, or regard them as malignant beings; he tells us that there are dæmons of whom the gods make use as ministers and servants, and to whom the care of fêtes and mysteries is consecrated. There

*V. 1550-1551.

† Opinion. philosoph. lib. 1. c. 8.

are others, he adds, who are charged with travelling through the earth for the purpose of punishing evil-doers for their crimes; while a third class are the dispensers of rewards to the virtuous and good.* In Plutarch's time, as well as at the present day, there were those who regarded the belief in dæmons as mere superstition; but it is equally true that good men regarded it as favorable to virtue, and therefore forbore to sneer at it even when their private opinions were opposed to it. Few would venture to assert that so learned and wise a man as Plutarch was superstitious, yet the philosopher does not hesitate to warn his readers that those who deny the existence of dæmons destroy all intercourse between the gods and men.†

The Romans borrowed their dæmons as well as their gods from the Greeks; they merely changed the names of the former as they did those of the latter. In proof of this we have the testimony of the most reliable of the Roman writers. "Those whom the Greeks call demons, says Cicero, are in my opinion the same whom we call lares." The Romans made a distinction between the good and the bad; the latter they called larves; but both were regarded as the souls of the dead and were known by the general appellation of lemures.$

+

It was not until the time of Numa that the Greek or oriental deities were formally introduced among the Romans, for this prince was the great religious reformer of his time. One of the first decrees which he issued was the following: "Let all honor the ancient gods of heaven and those whose merits have carried them thither; such as Hercules, Bachus, Esculapius, Castor, Pollux and Jurinus." The deities "carried thither" are supposed, with good reason, to be those brought by Eneis into Italy. Be this as it may it is certain that those whose worship was thus established by law included the good, and the bad, and that those who

*Plutarch De Is. et Osiris.

Plutarch, Treatise on the Cessation of Oracles.

Graeci dainoras appellant, nostri, opiner, lares, De Univers.

were worshiped as good and beneficent at one time, were sought to be propitiated at another as malignant and revengeful. Among all the ancient nations we find evidence of these transitions. Is it strange then that there is scarcely one of the ancient philosophers who did not regard all the heathen deities as beings that had once been mortals. According to Cicero "even the gods of the superior order were originally natives of the lower world, &c."*

But it is not merely the Pagan authors who give this testimony; the most learned and pious of the Fathers of the church fully confirm it. "You can hardly find," says St. Augustine, "in all the writings of the heathen any gods but such as had been men; nevertheless to all of them they pay divine honors as if they never belonged to the human race."+ Indeed no one, competent to judge, so well acquainted with Greek mythology as St. Augustine, could have arrived at any different conclusion.

All that we read in ancient authors of the greatest of the Greek deities proves them to be human. This is eminently true even of Zeus "the father of gods and men;" nor is it less true of Juno his "wife and sister." No mortal husband and wife, who had no pretensions to divinity, quarrelled more, or were guilty of more scandalous conduct; and there was scarcely one of the numerous progeny of the Olympian deity, whose conduct was not nearly as bad as his own. Although Homer represents Jupiter as the source of all earthly authority, as the supreme king, from whom all other monarchs receive their power, he represents him at the same time as living in his palace on Olympus like a Grecian prince. From what we learn of him in the Iliad we must believe that if any other prince had more indecent altercations in his family, or was guilty of more shameful intrigues with the wives and daughters of his princely, or unprincely neighbours, his morals must have been very defective indeed.

All the beautiful celestial goddesses of his time were not sufficient to gratify the amorous propensities of Jupiter; he

Tusc. Disp. L, 1, c. 12.

† St. Aug. Civ. Dei. L. 1, c. 42.

# II. 2, 197.