Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

THE GODS OF THE NATIONSthe brilliant Athens, Greece's eye, the world'suniversity. First of all ruled in her the worshipof Pallas-Athene : she was the lady of the land ,who had won it for her own after a hard contestwith Poseidon.Her chief sanctuaries were thetemple of Athene, guardian of the city, with itsold statue fallen down from heaven on the Acropolis.On the Acropolis likewise the Parthenon ,built expressly for the gorgeous Panathenaic festival; and in the lower city the Palladium withthe statue of the goddess supposed to have beenbrought from Troy. Yet the worship of the "highgoddesses," Demeter and Persephone, was alsorichly endowed with shrines and festivals, andaffected scarcely less the feelings of the Athenians.Then Jupiter, as " supreme," was honoured withunbloody offering before the Erechtheium, dedicatedto Athene : whilst as" Olympian" he hadthe colossal temple begun by Peisistratus and finishedafter many hundred years by Hadrian, and9as "guardian of the city" distinct festivals. Yetmore manifold was the invocation of Apollo, asthe Pythian, the Delphic, the Lycian, as the an-cestral god of the lonians. The multiform Artemishad her temples and worshippers as the Tby the name Brauronia ; as the port-goddess, bythe name M unychia ; as the goddess of the hunt,by the name Agrotera, who had the credit of thetory won at Marathon ; as presiding over birth,was cae tone, while Themistocles had