The Greek religion differs from many other religions also in having no one great founder or restorer, in having no sacred books and no priestly caste.  It was not established by the labors of a Zoroaster, Gautama, Confucius, or Mohammed.  It has no Avesta, no Vedas, no Koran.  Every religion which we have thus far considered has its sacred books, but that of Greece has none, unless we accept the works of Homer and Hesiod as its Bible.  Still more remarkable is the fact of its having no priestly caste.  Brahmanism and Egypt have an hereditary priesthood; and in all other religions, though the priesthood might not be hereditary, it always constituted a distinct caste.  But in Greece kings and generals and common people offer sacrifices and prayers, as well as the priests.  Priests obtained their office, not by inheritance, but by appointment or election; and they were often chosen for a limited time.

Another peculiarity of the Greek religion was that its gods were not manifestations of a supreme spirit, but were natural growths.  They did not come down from above, but came up from below.  They did not emanate, they were evolved.  The Greek Pantheon is a gradual and steady development of the national mind.  And it is still more remarkable that it has three distinct sources,—­the poets, the artists, and the philosophers.  Jupiter, or Zeus in Homer, is oftenest a man of immense strength, so strong that if he has hold of one end of a chain and all the gods hold the other, with the earth fastened to it beside, he will be able to move them all.  Far more grand is the conception of Jupiter as it came from the chisel of Phidias, of which Quintilian says that it added a new religious sentiment to the religion of Greece.  Then came the philosophers and gave an entirely different and higher view of the gods.  Jupiter becomes with them the Supreme Being, father of gods and of men, omnipotent and omnipresent.

One striking consequence of the absence of sacred books, of a sacred priesthood, and an inspired founder of their religion, was the extreme freedom of the whole system.  The religion of Hellas was hardly a restraint either to the mind or to the conscience.  It allowed the Greeks to think what they would and to do what they chose.  They made their gods to suit themselves, and regarded them rather as companions than as objects of reverence.  The gods lived close to them on Olympus, a precipitous and snow-capped range full of vast cliffs, deep glens, and extensive forests, less than ten thousand feet in height, though covered with snow on the top even in the middle of July.

According to the Jewish religion, man was made in the image of God; but according to the Greek religion the gods were made in the image of men.  Heraclitus says, “Men are mortal gods, and the gods immortal men.”  The Greek fancied the gods to be close to him on the summit of the mountain which he saw among the clouds, often mingling in disguise with mankind; a race of stronger and brighter Greeks, but