n. When Alexander made his conquering journey to
India and afterwards was created a god, it was impossible not to reflect
that almost exactly the same story was related in myth about Dionysus.
Dionysus had started from India and travelled in the other direction:
that was the only difference. A flood of light seemed to be thrown on
all the traditional mythology, which, of course, had always been a
puzzle to thoughtful men. It was impossible to believe it as it stood,
and yet hard--in an age which had not the conception of any science of
mythology--to think it was all a mass of falsehood, and the great Homer
and Hesiod no better than liars. But the generation which witnessed the
official deification of the various Seleucidae and Ptolemies seemed
suddenly to see light. The traditional gods, from Heracles and Dionysus
up to Zeus and Cronos and even Ouranos, were simply old-world rulers and
benefactors of mankind, who had, by their own insistence or the
gratitude of their subjects, been transferred to the ranks of heaven.
For that is the exact meaning of making them divine: they are classed
among the true immortals, the Sun and Moon and Stars and Corn and Wine,
and the everlasting elements.

The philosophic romance of Euhemerus, published early in the third
century B. C., had instantaneous success and enormous influence.[160:1]
It was one of the first Greek books translated into Latin, and became
long afterwards a favourite weapon of the Christian fathers in their
polemics against polytheism. 'Euhemerism' was, on the face of it, a very
brilliant theory; and it had, as we have noticed, a special appeal for
the Romans.

Yet, if such a conception might please the leisure of a statesman, it
could hardly satisfy the serious thought of a philosopher or a religious
man. If man's soul really holds a fragment of God and is itself a divine
being, its godhead cannot depend on the possession of great riches and
armies and organized subordinates. If 'the helping of man by man is
God', the help in question cannot be material help. The religion which
ends in deifying only kings and millionaires may be vulgarly popular but
is self-condemned.

As a matter of fact the whole tendency of Greek philosophy after Plato,
with some illustrious exceptions, especially among the Romanizing
Stoics, was away from the outer world towards the world of the soul. We
find in the religious writings of this period that the real Saviour of
men is not he who p