Chapter II: Mythology

The Notion of a Systematic Pantheon.--Homer and
Hesiod.--Mythology before Homer.--Supposed Conditions of the
Mythopoeic Age.--Vico.--The Childhood of the World.--Goethe's
Boyhood.--Mythology is a Body of Rudimentary Thought,
Penetrated with the Spirit of the Nation.--Different
Views of the Greek Myths.--Grote.--Relics of a Primitive
Revelation.--The Symbolic Hypothesis.--Rationalism and
Euhemerus.--Fetichism.--Poetic Theory.--The Linguistic
Theory.--Comparative Philology.--Solar Theory.--The
Myth of Herakles: its Solar Interpretation--its Ethical
Significance.--Summary of the Points Suggested with
Regard to Mythology.--Mediæval Myths.--The Action of
the Greek Intelligence upon Mythology: in Art--in
Philosophy.--Persistence of the National Polytheism.--Homer
Allegorized at Alexandria.--Triumph of Christianity.--The Greek
Pantheon in the Middle Ages.--Greek Mythology Recovers Poetic
and Artistic Value in the Renaissance Page 51

CHAPTER III.

_ACHILLES._

Unity of _Iliad_.--Character of Achilles.--Structure of
the whole Poem.--Comparison with other Epics.--Energy
Dividing into Anger and Love.--Personality of
Achilles.--The Quarrel with Agamemnon.--Pallas Athene.--The
Embassy.--Achilles' Foreknowledge of his Death.--The Message
of Antilochus.--Interview with Thetis.--The Shouting
in the Trench.--The Speech of Xanthus.--The Pæan over
Hector's Corpse.--The Ghost of Patroclus.--The Funeral
Obsequies of Patroclus.--Achilles and Priam.--Achilles in
Hades.--Achilles Considered as a Greek Ideal.--Friendship
among the Greeks.--Heroism and Knighthood: Ancient and Modern
Chivalry.--The _Myrmidones_ of Æschylus.--Achilles and
Hector.--Alexander the Great.--The Dæmonic Nature of Achilles
Page 91

CHAPTER IV.

_THE WOMEN OF HOMER._

Helen of Troy--Her Eternal Youth--Variety of Legends
connected with her.--Stesichorus.--Helen in the
_Iliad_.--Helen in the _Odyssey_.--The Treatment of Helen
by Æschylus.--Euripidean Handling of her Romance.--Helen
in Greek Art.--Quintus Smyrnæus.--Apollonius of Tyana and
the Ghost of Achilles.--Helen in the Faust Legend.--Marlowe
and Goethe.--Penelope--Her Home-love.--Calypso and
the Isle Ogygia.--Circe.--The Homeric and the Modern
Circe.--Nausicaa--Her Perfect Girlishness.--Briseis and
Andromache.--The Sense of Proportion and of Relative Distance
in Homer's Pictures.--Andromache and Astyanax.--The Cult of
Heroes and Heroines in Greece.--Artistic Presentation of
Homeric Persons.--Philostratus Page 124

CHAPTER V.

_HESIOD._

The Difference between the Homeric and the Hesiodic
Spirit.--The Personality of Hesiod more Distinct than that of
Homer.--What we Know about his Life.--Perses.--The Hesiodic
Rhapsodes.--_Theogony_ and _Works and Days_.--Didactic
Poetry.--The Story of Prometheus.--Greek and Hebrew Myths
of the Fall.--The Allegorical Element in the Promethean
Legend.--The Titans.--The Canto of the Four Ages.--Hesiodic
Ethics.--The Golden Age.--Flaxman's Illustrations.--Justice
and Virtue.--Labor.--Bourgeois Tone of Hesiod.--Marriage and
Women.--The Gnomic Importance of Hesiod for the Early Greeks
Page 161

CHAPTER VI.

_PARMENIDES._

Greek Philosophical Poetry.--The Emergence of
Philosophy from Mythology.--The Ionian Sages.--The
Pythagoreans.--Anaxagoras.--Democritus.--The
Eleatics.--Heraclitus.--Xenophanes of Colophon.--His
Critique of the Myths.--Assertion of Monotheism.--Fragments
of his Poem on Nature.--Parmenides of Elea.--His Political
Importance.--Parmenides in the Dialogues of Plato.--His
Metaphysic of Being.--His Natural Philosophy.--The Logic
Deduced from him by Zeno and Melissus.--Translation of
the Fragments of his Poem.--The Dualism of Truth and
Opinion.--Impossibility of Obtaining Absolute Knowledge Page 185

CHAPTER VII.

_EMPEDOCLES._

The Grandeur of his Fame.--His Versatility of Genius.--His
Mysticism.--His Supposed Miracles.--Legends about his
Death.--His Political Action.--His Poems.--Estimation in which
the Ancients held them.--Their Prophetic Fervor.--Belief in
Metempsychosis.--Purifying Rites.--Contempt for the Knowledge
of the Senses.--Physical Theories.--The Poem on Nature.--The
Four Elements.--The Sphærus.--Love and Discord.--The
Eclecticism of Empedocles Page 207

CHAPTER VIII.

_THE GNOMIC POETS._

Definition of the Term Gnomic.--The Elegiac Metre.--The
Age of the Despots in Greece.--Three Periods in
Elegiac Poetry: the Martial, the Erotic, the
Gnomic.--Callinus.--Tyrtæus.--Mimnermus.--His Epicurean
Philosophy of Life.--Solon.--The Salaminian Verses.--Doctrine
of Hereditary Guilt.--Greek Melancholy.--Phocylides.--His
Bourgeois Intellect.--Xenophanes.--Theognis.--The Politics
of Megara.--Cyrnus.--Precepts upon Education and Conduct in
Public and Private Life.--The Biography of Theognis.--Dorian
Clubs.--Lamentations over the Decay of Youth and Beauty Page 236

CHAPTER IX.

_THE SATIRISTS._

Invention of the Iambic Metre.--Archilochus.--His Parentage
and Life.--His Fame among the Ancients.--Ancient and Modern
Modes of Judging Artists.--The Originality of Archilochus as a
Poet.--Simonides of Amorgos.--His Satire on Women.--The Ionian
Contempt for Women.--Hipponax.--Limping Iambics.--Differences
between the Satire of the Greeks and Romans Page 274

CHAPTER X.

_THE LYRIC POETS._

The Æsthetic Instinct of the Greeks in their
Choice of Metres.--Different Species of
Lyrical Poetry.--The Fragments in Bergk's
Collection.--Proemia.--Prosodia.--Parthenia.--Pæan.--Hyporchem.--
Dithyramb.--Phallic Hymn.--Epinikia.--Threnoi.--Scolia.--Æolian
and Dorian Lyrists.--The Flourishing Period of
Lesbos.--Sappho.--Alcæus.--Anacreon.--Nationality
of the Dorian Lyrists.--Spartan
Education.--Alcman.--Arion.--Stesichorus.--Ibycus.--Simonides.--Greek
Troubadours.--Style of Simonides.--Pindar.--Later Literary Odes
Page 287

CHAPTER XI.

_PINDAR._

His Life.--Legends connected with him.--The Qualities of
his Poetry.--The Olympic Games.--Pindar's Professional
Character.--His Morality.--His Religious Belief.--Doctrine of a
Future State.--Rewards and Punishments.--The Structure of his
Odes.--The Proemia to his Odes.--His Difficulty and Tumidity of
Style Page 340