rms part of the obscure philosophy of hate--a
philosophy which has never yet been written, because it is everywhere
the _pudendum_ that every one feels.

131

The pan-Hellenic Homer finds his delight in the frivolity of the gods;
but it is astounding how he can also give them dignity again. This
amazing ability to raise one's self again, however, is Greek.

132

What, then, is the origin of the envy of the gods? people did not
believe in a calm, quiet happiness, but only in an exuberant one. This
must have caused some displeasure to the Greeks; for their soul was only
too easily wounded: it embittered them to see a happy man. That is
Greek. If a man of distinguished talent appeared, the flock of envious
people must have become astonishingly large. If any one met with a
misfortune, they would say of him: "Ah! no wonder! he was too frivolous
and too well off." And every one of them would have behaved exuberantly
if he had possessed the requisite talent, and would willingly have
played the role of the god who sent the unhappiness to men.

133

The Greek gods did not demand any complete changes of character, and
were, generally speaking, by no means burdensome or importunate . it was
thus possible to take them seriously and to believe in them. At the time
of Homer, indeed, the nature of the Greek was formed . flippancy of
images and imagination was necessary to lighten the weight of its
passionate disposition and to set it free.

134

Every religion has for its highest images an analogon in the spiritual
condition of those who profess it. The God of Mohammed . the
solitariness of the desert, the distant roar of the lion, the vision of
a formidable warrior. The God of the Christians . everything that men
and women think of when they hear the word "love". The God of the
Greeks: a beautiful apparition in a dream.

135

A great deal of intelligence must have gone to the making up of a Greek
polytheism . the expenditure of intelligence is much less lavish when
people have only _one_ God.

136

Greek morality is not based on religion, but on the _polis_.

There were only priests of the individual gods; not representatives of
the whole religion . _i.e._, no guild of priests. Likewise no Holy Writ.

137

The "lighthearted" gods . this is the highest adornment which has ever
been bestowed upon the world--with the feeling, How difficult it is to
live!

138

If the Greeks let their "reason" spe