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Let us then observe closely this distinction and discrimination of words in greater and more serious matters, and let us begin with the gods, in teaching the young that when the poets employ the names of the gods, sometimes they apprehend in their conception the gods themselves, and at other times they give the same appellation to certain faculties of which gods are the givers and authors. To take an obvious example, it is clear that Archilochus, when he says in his prayer, Hear my praver, O Lord Hephaestus, and propitious Lend thy aid, and bestow what thy mercy bestows,Bergk, Poet. Lyr. Gr. ii. p. 703. is calling on the god himself; but when, lamenting his sister’s husband who was lost at sea and received no formal burial, he says that he could have borne the calamity with greater moderation, If upon his head and his body so fair, All in garments clean, Hephaestus had done his office, Ibid. p. 687. it is fire that he called by this name and not the god. And again when Euripides Phoenissae, 1006. said in an oath, By Zeus amidst the stars and Ares murderous, he named the gods themselves; but when Sophocles Nauck, Trag.Graec. Frag., Sophocles, No. 574; again cited by Plutarch, Moralia, 757 B. says, Blind and unseeing Ares, worthy dames, With snout like that of swine upturns all ills, the name is to be understood as meaning war; just as again it suggests weapons of bronze in the passage where Homer Homer, Il. vii. 329. says, Dark red blood of these men by the fair-flowing river Scamander Keen-edged Ares has shed. Since, then, many words are used in this way, it is necessary to know and to remember that under the name Zeus also (or Zen) the poets address sometimes the god, sometimes Fortune, and oftentimes Fate. For when they say, Father Zeus, enthroned on Ida, most glorious and mighty, Grant to Ajax victory,Homer, Il. iii. 276, vii. 202, xxiv. 308. and O Zeus! who boasts to be more wise than thou? Nauck, Trag.Graec. Frag., Adesp., No. 351. they mean the god himself; but when they apply the name of Zeus to the causes of all that happens, and say, Many valiant souls it sent to the realm of Hades, Goodly men, and their bodies gave to the dogs as ravin And to birds a feast—the design of Zeus in fulfilment,Homer, Il. i. 3. they mean Fate. For the poet does not imagine that it is the god who contrives evils for mankind, but by the name he rightly implies the compelling force of circumstances, that States and armies and leaders, if they show self-control, are destined to succeed and to prevail over their enemies, but if they fall into passions and errors, if they disagree and quarrel among themselves, as these heroes did, then are they destined to act discreditably and to become disorganized and to come to a bad end, as Sophocles says Nauck, Trag.Graec. Frag., Adesp., No. 352.: For fated is it that from evil plans An evil recompense shall mortals reap; and certainly Hesiod Hesiod, Works and Days, 86. in representing Prometheus as exhorting Epimetheus Never to welcome Any gifts from Zeus of Olympus, but always return them, employs the name of Zeus as a synonym for the power of Fortune. For he has given the name of gifts of Zeus to the blessings of Fortune, such as wealth, marriage, office, and, in a word, all outward things, the possession of which is unprofitable to those who cannot make good use of them. Wherefore he thinks that Epimetheus, who is a worthless man and a fool, ought to be on his guard against any piece of good fortune, and be fearful of it, as he is likely to be injured and corrupted by it. And again when the poet says, Never dare to reproach any man for accursed and woeful Poverty, gift of the blessed gods whose life is for ever,Hesiod, Works and Days, 717. he now speaks of what happens by chance as godgiven, with the suggestion that it is not meet to impugn those who are poor through misfortune, but to reproach the penury that is accompanied by laziness, soft living, and extravagance, since then it is disgraceful and reprehensible. For at a time when men did not as yet use the name Fortune, but knew the force of causation as it traverses its irregular and indeterminate course, so strong, so impossible for human reason to guard against, they tried to express this by the names of the gods, exactly as we are wont to call deeds and characters, and in fact even words and men, divine and godlike. In this manner, then, a corrective is to be found for most of the seemingly unjustifiable statements regarding Zeus, among which are the following: Fixed on Zeus’ floor two massive urns stand ever, Filled with happy lives the one, the other with sorrows,The quotation follows Plato, Republic, 379 D, and not Homer, Il. xxiv. 528. The original, however, is quoted in the Moralia, 105 C. and Cronos’ son, enthroned on high, hath made naught of our pledges, But for both our hosts with evil thought is planning,Homer, Il. vii. 69. and Then rolled forth the beginning of trouble Both on Trojans and Greeks through designs of Zeus the almighty.Homer, Od. viii. 81. These are to be interpreted as referring to Fortune or Fate, in which guise are denoted those phases of causation which baffle our logic, and are, in a word, beyond us. But wherever there is appropriateness, reason, and probability in the use of the name, let us believe that there the god himself is meant, as in the following: But he ranged to and fro ’gainst the lines of the rest of the fighters; Only with Ajax, Telamon’s son, he avoided a conflict, Seeing that Zeus was wroth if he fight with a man far better,Homer, Il. xi. 540, 542. The third line is not found in the MSS. of Homer, but on the authority of this passage and 36 A and Aristotle, Rhetoric, ii. 9, and the life of Homer ascribed to Plutarch, it has commonly been printed as line 542 in the editions of Homer. and For Zeus takes thought for mortals’ greatest weal; The little things he leaves to other gods.Nauck, Trag.Graec. Frag., Adesp., No. 353.
