Читать книгу The Mythology of Greece and Rome, With Special Reference to Its Use in Art онлайн

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On the other hand, the gods are subject to the same bodily wants as men. They refresh themselves in the same way with sleep, and have to support themselves with food and drink. Here again, however, they are far less fettered than mortals, for they can hold out much longer without satisfying these wants. Nor is their food so coarse as that of men; they live on ambrosia and nectar. Another natural necessity is clothing, on the tasteful ordering of which the goddesses even bestow extraordinary care, and in this, as in many other respects, greatly resemble the daughters of Eve. Although later art delights in representing some of the deities either slightly clothed or quite naked, yet we cannot justly conclude from this that the popular belief of the ancients conceived thus of those gods.

Gods endowed with frames like those of mortals must necessarily be born in the same way, and develope gradually both in mind and body. But here, again, everything proceeds with the utmost rapidity. For instance, the new-born Hermes rises from his cradle to steal the cattle of Apollo, and, coming into the world in the morning, he is found in the afternoon playing on the lyre, which he has himself invented. The most important point, however, in which they surpass mortals is that, when once in full possession of bodily and intellectual powers, they never grow old, but remain ever young and beautiful, ever free from disease and death. Compared with the race of men, who are subject to need and pain, they are the “happy,” “blessed” gods, the gods “who live at ease,” who can readily gratify every desire. But this does not by any means prevent their suffering occasionally from the pangs of sorrow and grief; they are vulnerable alike in body and soul, and exposed to every kind of painful sensation. So completely did the Greeks subject their gods to human passions.