84 The Religion of the Veda.

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and man about town. Too finished pcr'sonificztticm causes the breakdown Of Greek mythdlhgy (Nun from the artistic: Slt’ltl‘. The same pmts in wlmm we: praise ahdvc all alvm‘sion to everything" uxmwivu m" mmlstrmm, tlmsu (haul: pacts who in tgnrzutml {army and any just cmmgh, hut uht tut: much, run it alum; race with the mast extravagant famuiua hf sumimivih ifécd pcflplcfi in the tlcsacriptirm hf thtrir‘ prhuuvztl gods. Uranus was maimed by his (mm. sun, Iimrms; Kronos, the unnatural 5011, is also an unnatural father. For ht: swallows his own childmn. and, altar years of tentative but unsuccessful digestion, vomits forth the whole: brood. Fair I’lmchuh Aptillii) hangs Marsyas cm a tree and {lays him alive... ilm'hicidt: without and, parricida and murder of (:1inde are the: stock events of their mythology. No wonder that Plato banished even the Homeric 13001113 frmu his ideal republic. And Epicurus had to say: ” Thu gods are indeed, but they are not as 1112111): believe them to be. Not he is an infidel who denies the gods of the many, but he that fastens upon the gods the opinions of the many.” Nothing so much as the complete humanisation of Greek mythology paved the way for the rapid spread of that Shcmitic religion, deeply ethical in its teachings, Judmzt)w Christianity, among the Indo—European peoples. You may remember how skilfully Kingsley’a novel,