He never prayed to a supreme and eternal deity, but to some special manifestation of deity, fancied or real; and hence his religion was essentially pantheistic, though outwardly polytheistic.  The divinities whom he invoked he celebrated with rites corresponding with those traits which they represented.  Thus, Aphrodite was celebrated with lascivious dances, and Dionysus with drunken revels.  Each deity represented the Grecian ideal,—­of majesty or grace or beauty or strength or virtue or wisdom or madness or folly.  The character of Hera was what the poets supposed should be the attributes of the Queen of heaven; that of Leto, what should distinguish a disinterested housewife; that of Hestia, what should mark the guardian of the fireside; that of Demeter, what should show supreme benevolence and thrift; that of Athene, what would naturally be associated with wisdom, and that of Aphrodite, what would be expected from a sensual beauty.  In the main, Zeus was serene, majestic, and benignant, as became the king of the gods, although he was occasionally faithless to his wife; Poseidon was boisterous, as became the monarch of the seas; Apollo was a devoted son and a bright companion, which one would expect in a gifted poet and wise prophet, beautiful and graceful as a sun-god should be; Hephaestus, the god of fire and smiths, showed naturally the awkwardness to which manual labor leads; Ares was cruel and bloodthirsty, as the god of war should be; Hermes, as the god of trade and business, would of course be sharp and tricky; and Dionysus, the father of the vine, would naturally become noisy and rollicking in his intoxication.

Thus, whatever defects are associated with the principal deities, these are all natural and consistent with the characters they represent, or the duties and business in which they engage.  Drunkenness is not associated with Zeus, or unchastity with Hera or Athene.  The poets make each deity consistent with himself, and in harmony with the interests he represents.  Hence the mythology of the poets is elaborate and interesting.  Who has not devoured the classical dictionary before he has learned to scan the lines of Homer or of Virgil?  As varied and romantic as the “Arabian Nights,” it shines in the beauty of nature.  In the Grecian creations of gods and goddesses there is no insult to the understanding, because these creations are in harmony with Nature, are consistent with humanity.  There is no hatred and no love, no jealousy and no fear, which has not a natural cause.  The poets proved themselves to be great artists in the very characters they gave to their divinities.  They did not aim to excite reverence or stimulate to duty or point out the higher life, but to amuse a worldly, pleasure-seeking, good-natured, joyous, art-loving, poetic people, who lived in the present and for themselves alone.