came with its
flowers. Each of their own activities also had its unseen genius.
Each enclosure for flocks had its Apollo, "him of the sheepfold," who
protected the flock and the shepherd; and each boundary stone its
Hermes, "him of the boundary," who also watched over flocks and took
charge of marches and of paths.

Growth of Greek Gods.--Such beings, however, are something less than
gods; and the Greeks, long before we know them, had made the step
which the Romans scarcely made at all, from the spirit to the god,
from the vague unseen power behind an object or an act, to the free
being conceived with human attributes and feelings, who can be the
patron of a community, and afford help in all its concerns. Not all
the spirits rise into gods; it depends on circumstances which of them
are selected for that advance; but the choice once made, their rise
was rapid. As the gods grew into personality and definite character,
though the function out of which they first sprang was not forgotten,
other functions were added to them; and as a god grew in power and
consideration, his worship was set up in new places, where other
titles and attributes awaited him. The local god might be identified
with the great god from a distance. The god of a powerful community,
as Athene ("she of Athens"), might be adopted wherever the influence
of that community extended; thus new gods arose and old ones took
local form. When a change took place in the habits of the people, it
was followed by a corresponding change in the character of their
gods. When agriculture comes in, the gods have to take notice of it,
the pastoral god turns agricultural, and even the huntress Artemis
becomes an encourager of fertility. When navigation rises in
importance, a number of the gods, Poseidon at their head, become
sea-gods.

Stones, Animals, Trees.--In Greece the worship of the gods soon
superseded that of objects not possessing any human character. Traces
of such lower worships survive, it is true, in the later religion in
great abundance, but they have no influence in its development; they
only tell their story of the otherwise forgotten past. Stones were
worshipped in early Greece. Not to speak of the cromlechs and
dolmens, which are found there as in all parts of Asia and Europe,
and the meaning of which is so little understood, stones were
preserved as sacred objects in various places, even to late times,
and had no doubt originally been worshipped. The g