The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1882-09-02
EVIL IN GREEK MYTH
0L0GY.
By ELISABETH ROBINS.


only + fter a long pr0tracted struggle
with Titans, in which. indeed, they
were unsuccessful until assisted by
strong allies; who SHE'D tears, and
whose influence ceased during their
sleep; who fought in earthly com-
bats, and who, like mOrtals, could
be wounded-such gods were not
Omuipotent or omniscient. Just as
Odysseus, though able to sabdue the
Cyclops, could not regulate his own
destiny, so the gods, who could
control men, were themselves in
turn governed by a superior force.
The Greeks felt that there was
something greater than divinity
and humanity, something which
caused the mortality of the
one and the immortality of the
other. God and evil, pleasure
and pain, as abstract powers
were not the creations OF Zeus and
Apollo, though these gods could
give their clients concrete forms of
happiness or unhappineSs. ALL
forces, whether natural or super
natural, were based on the law of
necessity, and weighed by the
measures Of cause and effect. Ger
tain actions would inevitably be
followed by certain results, and the
seeds that were s0wn in the begin
ming Of time would bring forth
their own fruit, in spite of men and
gods. re
"TiIl my day Of destiny is come
No man may take my life; and when 1t
comes
Nor brave nor coward can escape that
day"
Hector cried when parting with
Andromache. ThetiS might be-
seeeh Zeus to hinder the success VI
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
shcrtest-hved of mortals. Cresus
consulted the oracle at Delphi only
to he told that it was impossible
even for god TO escape the lot ap
pointed by fate. Notwithstanding
their mysticism, the hymns of Or
pheuS clearly declare fate to be-
greater than gods and celeStia
spheres, and above even the prima
Triad and the One. There was nj
need of a doctrine of original sir
and a redeemer, or the creation oil
hOrdes of demons, for men who be
lieved right and wrong to be inmate
Ill human nature, and order and dis
order inherent in the elements
Physical phenomina and mora
discOTd were not chance work OF
gods and devils, but were Sub
ject to law which mortalS
could not altogether understand,
and which, for want of a better
name, might be called fate. Greek
fatalism had nothing in common
with Eastern pessimism or modern
SO-calIed SchOpenhauerism, nor was
| is strengthened with the sterDess OF
Presbyterian p1edestination. Belief
in fate usually implies hopelessnesS
in struggling against the ills of life
and a sJrODg conviction that misery
must exceed pleasure. TO the
Greeks, it meant confidence in the
suprem acy of order and harmony
for it was the power which insured
the symmetrical sequence of events
Hindu philosophers proclaimed life
to be an evil, and therefore tried
to free themselves from the chains
of the senses by inflicting suffering
upon their bodies. But penanee
and humiliation meant nothing u
the Greeks, who held that their lives
were ruled by law against which
their resistance would have beer
useless. If trouble and sin must be
they felt there was no true wisdom
in thinking only of them, when The
world was still beautiful and human
pleasures were sweet Z
"BecGuse thou must not dream, ihol
needst not thea despair!''