Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

WHEN CHRIST APPEAREDbuilt a temple to her as the Counsellor. Here hadonly a doorless and roofless temple on the roadto Phalerum; but the god of fire was worshippedin Athens abundantly. Hermes had his peculiarstatues in every street, irreverence to which mightbe fatal even to an Alcibiades, the city's darling ;while Aphrodite had a crowd of temples and shrineswhose unchaste worship found but too many frequenters.Poseidon had to content himself witha single altar in his rival's city, and with gamesin its harbour ; but Dionysos had three temples,with brilliant festivals; Mars was not without one;Hestia was throned in the Prytaneum ; the Earth,Kronos, and Rhea had their temples and festivalsas also the Erinnyes, who were worshipped onlyin two other places in Greece. Here alone in Greecewas a sanctuary and a rite to Prometheus; whilethe Asiatic mother of the gods had a splendid templewhere the archives of the state were kept. Besides,there was the worship of the Hours and the Graces,of Eileithyia, goddess of victory and of birth, of JEs-culapius and Themis, of the Kabirian Anakes, theArcadian Pan, the Thracian Cotytto and Bendis,the Egyptian Serapis. Mercy and Shame, Fameand Endeavour had their altars; and the hero-worshipnumbered Theseus, Codrus, Academus, Solon,1the tyrant - slayers Harmodius and Aristogeiton ;and Hercules, originally a hero, but here and else-where widely honoured as a god. 4From Heidenthum, und Judenthum, pp. 101-2