nd these everywhere had the same name,
and had their temple or sanctuary in every place. Each represented one
of the principal forces of nature. These gods common to all the Greeks
were never numerous; if all are included, we have hardly twenty.[53]
We have the bad habit of calling them by the name of a Latin god. The
following are their true names: Zeus (Jupiter), Hera (Juno), Athena
(Minerva), Apollo, Artemis (Diana), Hermes (Mercury), Hephaistos
(Vulcan), Hestia (Vesta), Ares (Mars), Aphrodite (Venus), Poseidon
(Neptune), Amphitrite, Proteus, Kronos (Saturn), Rhea (Cybele),
Demeter (Ceres), Persephone (Proserpina), Hades (Pluto), Dionysos
(Bacchus). It is this little group of gods that men worshipped in all
the temples, that men ordinarily invoked in their prayers.

=Attributes of the Gods.=--Each of these great gods had his form, his
costume, his instruments (which we call his attributes); it is thus
that the faithful imagined him and that the sculptors represented him.
Each has his character which is well known to his worshippers. Each
has his role in the world, performing his determined functions,
ordinarily with the aid of secondary divinities who obey him.

Athena, virgin of clear eye, is represented standing, armed with a
lance, a helmet on the head, and gleaming armor on the breast. She is
the goddess of the clear air, of wisdom, and of invention, a goddess
of dignity and majesty.

Hephaistos, the god of fire, is figured with a hammer and in the form
of a lame and ugly blacksmith. It is he who forges the thunderbolt.

Artemis, shy maiden, armed with bow and quiver, courses the forests
hunting with a troop of nymphs. She is the goddess of the woods, of
the chase, and of death.

Hermes, represented with winged sandals, is the god of the fertile
showers. But he has other offices; he is the god of streets and
squares, the god of commerce, of theft, and of eloquence. He it is who
guides the souls of the dead, the messenger of the gods, the deity
presiding over the breeding of cattle.

Almost always a Greek god has several functions, quite dissimilar to
our eyes, but to the Greeks bearing some relation to one another.

=Olympus and Zeus.=--Each one of these gods is like a king in his own
domain. Still the Greeks had remarked that all the forces of nature do
not operate by chance and that they act in harmony; the same word
served them for the idea of order and of universe. They supposed,
then, that the gods w