Morning journal and courier., 1882-08-29
Greek Thought of Evil.

Elizabeth Robbins In the Feptemoer Atlantlcl
 Gods who obtained their power only after q long-protracted struggle with Titans, in
 which, indeed, they were unsuccessful until l assisted by strong allies who shed tears, and | whose influence ceased during their sleep;
 ~ho fought in earthly combats, and who, | ike nortals, could be wounded such gods l not omni potent or omnlsclent Just as l Odysseus, though able to subdue the Cyclops, | could not regulate his own destiny, the l gods, who could control men, were them | selves in turn governed by superior force, | The Greeks felt that there something 1 greater than divinity and humanity some l ching which caused the mortality of the one | and the immortality of the other. Good and l evil pleasure and pain, as abstract powers | xero not the creations of Zeus and Apollo, l though these gods could give their clients l concrete forms of happiness unhappiness | All forces whether n4tural supernatural | were based on the law of necessity and weighed by the measure of cause and effect Certain actions would inevitably be followed by certain results and the seeds that were sown in the beginning of time would bring forth their own fruit, in spite of men and gods.
 s'TiIl my day of destipy is come
 No man may take my life; and when it comes
 No brave nor coward can escape that day"
 Hector cried when parting with Andromache. rhetis might beseech Zeus to hinder the suc- cess of the Greeks, but she would not ask
 him to prolong the life of Achilles, since fate decreed that if he stayed at Troy he must be the shortest lived of mortals. Cree sus consulted the oracle at Delphi, only to | be told that it was impossible even for god to escape the lot appointed by fate. Not withstandiug their mysticism, the hymns of Orpheus clearly declare fate to be greater l than gods and celestial spheres, and above | even the primal Triad and the One. There 1 was no need of doctrine of original sin and | a redeemer, the creation of hordes of de mons, for men who believed right and wrong ! to be innate in human nature, and order and | disorder inherent in the elements. Physical | phenomena and moral discord were not l chance work of gods and devils. but were l subject to q law which mortals could not al | together understand, and which, for want of l better name, might be called fate. Greek l fataism had nothing in common with eastern 1 peshimisn or modern so called Schopenhauer- ! ism, nor was it strengthened with the stern | ness of Presbyterian predestination Belief 1 in fate usually implies hopelessneSs in strug- | Xling against the ills of life, and strong | con viction that misery must exceed pleasure. l To the Greeks it meant confidence in the SUI l prenacy of order and harmony, for 1t was | the power which insured the symmetrical SC
 uuence of events Hindu philosophers pro
 claimed life to be an evil and therefore tried
 to free themselves from the chains of the l senses by intiicting suffering upon their bod i ies But penanoe and humiliation meant
 nothing to the Greeks, who held that their
 lives were ruled by law against which their ! renaissance would have been useless. If
 trouble and sin must be, they felt there was
 no true wisdom in thinking only of them,
 when the world still beautiful and hu-
 man pleasures were sweet
 'Because thou not dream, thou needst not then | despair
 The analysis of evil in Greek mythology 1 bears an important relation to the science of
 ethics. It supplies a substantial proof to the
 modern argument that morality per SC is a growth apart from religion, though the two
 have often seemed identical. In Greece it
 may be said that morality grew in spite of | religion. The yilest actions and lowest pas sio1s were attributed to the gods; and when
 we remember the peculiar rites held in honor = of Hermes, Dionyslus or Aphrodlte we must confess that, while art would have lost i'm neasurably had the early myths been forgot ten, morality might have gained thereby.
 If the conception of divinity purified,
 and the sense of right and wrong made more definite, 1t was not owing to priest, ritual or
 dogma, but because of philosophers, poets and artists. It was no learned Brahman or
 angelic doctor who declared Zeus to be the creator of heaven and earth, the god of jus tice the omnipotent, the lord of all. These l were the words of Eschylns, of Plndar, of } Therpander and Phidias was the divinely inspired, who by bis chisel, taught the peo 5 ole that the qualities which are truly godllke
 are strength, wisdom and benevolence The
 fact that it is impossible to draw a distinct line of separation between the good and evi powers in their mythology gives us the ke, ! to Greek culture. Their religion was never
 more than a collection of traditions, Mys s tics introduced strange doctrines from Asit B and Egypt, endeavoring to turn men r thoughts to the future life, and philosopher e threw doubts upon the truth of old myth l and beliefs. But the number of the initiated
 was never very large, and schools of philoso y phy were formed only to give way to ney ones. The popular religion, however, stil E lived on it was dear to the people, becaus a it's legends of gods and goddesses were inex n tricably blended with the early history o @ Helas All the thoughts and hopes of tn } Greeks were centered upon Hellas and upo it the present Their religious philosophy ma