Note 75 — Chapter XIII · THE RELATION OF THE STOIC PHILOSOPHY TO RELIGION.

Far more plausible is the explanation given of the dialogue of Athene with Achilles, and of Hermes with Ulysses. These dialogues are stated to be simply soliloquies of the two heroes respectively.75 But the Stoic skill in interpretation appears in its fullest glory in supplying the etymological meanings of the various names and epithets which are attributed to Athene.76 We learn, for instance, that the name Τριτογένεια refers to the three divisions of philosophy.77 Heraclitus discovers the same divisions in the three heads of Cerberus.78 Chrysippus, in a diffuse manner, proves that the coming forth of the Goddess from the head of Zeus is not at variance with his view of the seat of reason.79 It has been already observed that Dionysus means wine, and Demeter fruit;80 but, just as the latter was taken to represent the earth and its nutritious powers,81 so Dionysus was further supposed to stand for the principle of natural life, the productive and sustaining breath of life;82 and since this breath comes from the sun, according to Cleanthes, it was not difficult to find the sun represented by the God of wine.83 Moreover, the stories of the birth of Dionysus, his being torn to pieces by Titans, his followers,84 no less than the rape of Proserpine,85 and the institution of agriculture,86 and the names of the respective Gods, afforded ample material for the interpreting tastes of the Stoics.