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The History of the Manners and Customs of Ancient Greece, Volume 1 (of 3)

Note 993 — Chapter XI · SPIRIT OF THE GRECIAN RELIGION.

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Cf. Diog. Laert. Pr. iii. 4. Ἀρχαῖος μὲν οὖν τις λόγος καὶ πάτριος ἐστὶ πᾶσιν ἀνθρώποις, ὡς ἐκ θεοῦ τὰ πάντα, καὶ διὰ θεοῦ ἡμῖν συνέστηκεν.—Aristot. de Mund. c. 6. In c. 7. we have a curious list of the various epithets of Zeus, whose name the Pseudo-Aristotle conceives to signify the root of all existence: ὡς κᾄν εἰ λέγοιμεν, δἰ ὅν ζῶμεν. This thought St. Paul expresses by the well-known words—"in whom we live and move and have our being." The author of the Treatise De Mundo then quotes from the Orphic fragments a passage, the doctrine of which strongly resembles the Pantheism of Pope:

Ζεὺς πρῶτος γένετα, Ζεὺς ὕστατος ἀρχικέραυνος·

Ζεὺς κεφαλὴ, Ζεὺς μέσσα· Διὸς δ᾽ ἐκ πάντα τέτυκται·

Ζεὺς πυθμὴν γαίης τε καὶ οὐρανοῦ ἀστερόεντος·

Ζεὺς ἄρσην γένετο, Ζεὺς ἄμβροτος ἔπλετο, νύμφη·

Ζεὺς πνοιὴ πάντων, Ζεὺς ἀκαμάτου πυρὸς ὁρμή·

Ζεὺς πόντου ῥίζα· Ζεὺς ἥλιος, ἠδὲ σελήνη·

Ζεὺς βασιλεὺς· Ζεὺς ἀρχὸς ἁπάντων ἀρχικέραυνος·

Πάντας γὰρ κρύψας αὖτις φάος ἐς πολυγηθὲς

Ἐξ ἱερῆς κραδίης ἀνενέγκατο μέρμερα ῥέζων.

Cf. Orphic. fragm. 6. p. 138.

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