Note 50 — THE CRYSTAL PALACE.[44]

The “devotion”—the estimation in which the Athenians held their gods, at the very time of their building magnificent temples, and of their highest perfection in art, we may fairly gather from their dramatic performances. If Zeus himself was treated with little reverence, other deities to whom they erected statues fared worse. Bacchus is exhibited on the stage as a coward—Hercules as a glutton.—Vide Aristophanes and Euripides. So much for the motives invented for the Athenians by Mr Jones. Had such motives been appealed to, not a drachma would have been obtained.