Chapter 2

Such hostile attitude breeds now and then a rebellious spirit in men, which breaks out in promethean defiance and threats, or even takes a violent practical turn (see Suppl.). Herodotus 4, 94 says of the Thracians: outoi oi autoi qrhikej kai proj bronthn te kai astraphn toxeuontej anw proj ton onranon, apeileusi tw qew. If the god denied the assistance prayed for, his statue was flung into the river by the people, immersed in water, or beaten. In the Carolingian romances we repeatedly come upon the incident of Charles threatening the Deity, that if he deny his aid, he will throw down his altars, and make the churches with all their priests to cease from the land of the Franks; e.g. Ferabr. 1211, 1428, &c. So dame Breide too threatens to uncover the altar and break the holy relics; Orendel 2395; and Marsilies actually, after losing the battle, has the houses of his gods pulled down; Rol. 246, 30. If the vintage failed, the statue of Urban was thrown into a bath or the river. (17)The Arcadians would scourge their Pan with squills (skillaij), when they returned bootless from the chase (Theocr. 7, 106). The Greeks imputed to their gods not only anger and hate, but envy, love of mischief, nemesij.

EPITHETS OF GOD (see Suppl.). In our modern speech: der liebe, liebste, gnädige, (18) grosse, gute, allmächtige [[beloved, most beloved, merciful, great, good, almighty]]. In our older tongue: hêrre got der guote [[lord god the good]]: Reinh. 1296. Gute frau, 276. hêrro the gôdo [[lord the good]]; Hel. 78, 3. 90, 6. frô min the gôdo [[my lord the good]]; 143, 7. gnædeger trehtin [[merciful drightin]]; Reinh. 1309.---Freg. the rich God: thie rîkeo Christ [[the rich (powerful) christ]]; Hel. 1, 2. rîki god [[rich god]]; Hel. 195, 9. rîki drohtin [[rich drightin]]; Hel. 114, 22. der rîche got von himele [[the rich god from heaven]]; Roth. 4971. got der rîche [[god the rich]]; Nib. 1793, 3. Trist. 2492. durch den rîchen got von himel [[through the rich god from heaven]], Morolt 3526. der rîche got mich ie gesach [[the rich god always saw me]]; V.d. wibe list 114. (19)---Cot almahtico, cot heilac [[almighty god, holy god]]; Wessobrunn. Gebet. mahtig drohtin [[mighty drightin]]; Hel. 2, 2. freá ælmihtig [[lord almighty]]; Cædm. 1, 9. 10, 1. se ælmihtiga wealdend [[the almighty ruler]]; Thorpe's anal. 83. mannô miltisto (largissimus) [[mildest (i.e. most merciful) man]]; Wessobr. Geb. vil milter Christ [[very mild christ]]; Cod. pal. 350, 56.---The AS. has freq.: êce dryhten, æternus [[eternal drightin]]; Cædm. 246, 11. Beow. 3382. 3555. 4655. Also: witig god, sapiens [[witty (i.e. wise) god]]; Beow. 1364, 2105. Cædm. 182, 24. witig dryhten [[witty drightin]]; Beow. 3101. 3679. Cædm. 179, 8. witig wuldorcyning [[witty glory-king]]; Cædm. 242, 30. ----Waltant got [[ruling god]]; Hild. waldindinger got [[ruling god]]; Roth. 213. 523. 1009. 2332. 4031. waltant Krist [[ruling christ]]: OV. 25, 91. Gudr. 2243. (AS.) wealdend [[ruler]]; Cædm. 17, 15. þeoda wealdend. fæder alwealda [[ruler of tribes, father all-ruling]]; Beow. 630. (OS.) waldand [[ruler]]; Hel. 4,5. 6, 6. waldand god [[ruling god]] 3, 17. waldand drohtin [[ruling drightin]] 1, 19. alowaldo [[all-ruler]] 4, 8. 5, 20. 8, 2. 69, 23. This epithet is not found in the Edda. The notion of 'wielding', dominari, regere, is further applied to the Supreme Being in the phrase es walten [[grant it (lit. 'rule it')]], Parz. 568, 1. En. 7299. 10165. 13225. So our gottwalt's! M. Dut. godwods! [[god grant it!]] Huyd. op St. 2, 548. Our acc. in 'das walt Gott!' is a blunder; Agricola 596. Praet. weltb. 2, 50.---God is occasionally called the Old: der alte Gott lebt noch [[the old god lives yet]], i.e. the same as ever. A.S. eald metod [[old measurer (i.e. creator)]]. MGH. hât got sîn alt gemüete [[god has his old mood]]; Wh. 66, 20. der alde got [[the old god]]; Roth. 4401. popul. 'der alte Vater' [[the old father]]. In a Servian song (Vuk 2, 244. Montenegro 101), bôgh is named 'stari krvnik', the old bloodshedder, killer; and in Frauenlob MS. 2, 214 der alte friedel (sweetheart) [[the old sweetheart]]. The 13th century poets sometimes use the Lat. epithet altissimus, Wh. 216, 5. 434, 23. Geo. 90, 401; with which may be compared the MHG. diu hôhste hant [[the highest hand]], Parz. 484, 6. 487, 20. 568, 8. Wh. 134, 7. 150, 14. and the OHG. zi waltanteru henti [[to the ruling hand(s?)]], OV. 25, 91.---The 'all-wielding' God is at the same time the all-seeing, all-knowing, all-remembering; hence it is said of fortunate men, that God saw them, and of unfortunate, that God forgot them: (OHG.) kesah tih kot! [[god saw thee!]] = O te felicem! N. Boeth. 145. (MHG.) gesach in got! [[god saw him!]] = happy he! Altd. bl. 1, 347. sô mir got ergaz [[god forgot me so]]; Troj. kr. 14072. sô hât got min vergezzen [[god has forgotten me so]]; Nib. 2256, 3. wie gar iuwer got vergaz (how utterly God forgot you); Iw. 6254. got min vergaz [[god forgot me]]; Ecke 209. got hæte sin vergezzen [[god had forgotten him]]; Trist. 9243. genædelicher trehtin, wie vergæze dû ie mîn sô? [[gracious drightin, how do you always forget me so?]] Trist. 12483. For other examples, see Gramm. 4, 175.---God, by regarding, guards: daz si got iemer shouwe! [[that god always look upon her!]] Iw. 794. O. Engl. God you see! God keep you in his sight!

Among substantive epithets are several which God has in common with earthly rulers (see Suppl.):---Gothic fráuja OS. frôho, frô, AS. freâ; which name I shall treat of more fully by and by. ----OHG. truhtîn, MHG. trehtîn, OS. drohtin, AS. dryhten, ON. drôttinn [[king, chieftain]].---OHG. hêriro, MHG. hêrre, which however, when used of God, is never contracted into her, any more than Dominus into the Romance domnus, don.---Conspicuous above all is the name Father (see Suppl.). In the Edda, alföðr. (Sæm. 46 88 154. Sn. 3. 11. 17), herfaðir, herja faðir, valfaðir are applied to Oðinn as the father of all gods, men and created things. Such compounds are not found in other dialects, they may have sounded heathenish; though the AS. could use fæder alwealda, [[father all-ruler]] Beow. 630, and the idea of God as Father became more familiar to the christians than to heathens. The OHG. altfatar = grandfather, [[oldfather]] O. i. 3, 6. AS. ealdfæder, [[oldfather]] Beow. 743. 1883, I have nowhere seen applied to God. As the Greeks coupled together Zeuj pathr, esp. in the voc. Zeu pater, and the Romans Jupiter, Diespiter, Dispiter, Mars pater, (20)as well as Dhmthr, Damathr, Terra mater, so the Lettons bestow on almost every goddess the epithet mahte, mahmina = mater, matercula (Büttner 244. Bergmann 142), on which we shall have more to say hereafter. To all appearance, father Goth. fadr is connected with faþs lord, as pater pathr is with potij, posij , Lith. pats.---The AS. meotod, metod, [[measurer ('creator')]] Cædn. 233, 14. eald metod, [[old measurer]] Beow. 1883. sóð metod, [[true measurer]] Beow. 3222. OS. metod, [[measurer]] Hel. 4, 13. 15, 17. 66, 19, an expression which likewise appears in the Edda, miötuðr Sæm. 226 241, seems to signify Creator, as verbally it bears the sense of mensor, moderator, finitor. The full meaning of metod [[creator, measurer]] will not be disclosed, till we have a more exact knowledge of the relation between the Goth. mitan (to mete) and máitan (to cut), the OHG. mëzan and meizan; in the Lat. metiri and metere, besides there being no shifting of consonant (d for t), the quantity is inverted. The ON. miötuðr [[despesser of fate, ruler or judge; also bane, death]] appears to be also sector, messor; in Snorri 104. 105, the wolf's head with which Heimdall was killed is called 'miötuðr Heimðallar,' and the sword is 'mans miötuðr'; so in Fornald. sög. p. 441, 'manna miötuðr' (see Suppl.). In MHG. too, the poets use mezzan of exquisite symmetry in creating: dô sin (Wunsch's) gewalt ir bilde maz [[there his (Wish's) power measured her appearance]]; Troj. 19626. got selb in richen fröuden was, dô er ir lip als ebene maz [[god himself was in great joy, when he measured her body so evenly]]; Misc. 2, 186. er sol ze rehte lange mezzen, der an si sô ebene maz, daz er au si zer werlte nie nâch vollem wunsche weder des noch des vergaz [[he should have measured rightly, he who measured her so evenly, so that he (had made) the world like her, and, according to his full wish, never forgotten either this or that]]; MS. 1, 154. got der was in fröiden, dô er dich als ebene maz [[god he was in joy, when he measured you so evely]]; MS. 1, 22 wer kunde in sô gemezzen [[(he) who knew how to measure him so]], Tit. 130. 1. anders denne got uns maz, dô er ze werke über mich gesaz [[(someone) other than god measured us, when he sat at work over me]], Parz. 518, 21. 'ein bilde mezzen' [[to measure an image]] is therefore the same thing as 'ein bilde schaffen' to create [[an image]] (Troj. 19805), or giezen to cast, mould (Walth. 45, 25. MS. 1, 195. 2, 226); and in Suchenwirt 24, 154 it says: 'got het gegozzen ûf ir vel, ir mündel rôt und wiz ir kel' [[god had cast upon her skin, her red little mouth and her white neck]]; which throws a significant light on the Gothic tribal name Gáuts, A.S. Geát OHG. Kôz (see Suppl.).---AS. scippend [[shaper]], creator, OHG. scefo, scephio [[shaper]], MHG. schepfære [[shaper]], Wh. 1, 3. NHG. shöpfer.---Some of these names can be strung together, or they can be intensified by composition: drohtin god [[chief god]], Hel. 2. 13. waldand frô min [[my ruling lord]], Hel. 148, 14. 153, 8. freá dryhten [[lord chief]], Beow. 62. 186. lîf-freá [[life-lord]], Cædm. 2, 9. 108, 18. 195, 3. 240, 33. Beow. 4. The earthly cunning [[king]] with a prefix can be used of God: wuldorcyning, king of glory, Cædm. 10, 32. hevancuning [[heaven-king]], Hel. 3, 12, 18. 4, 14. 5, 11. and synonymously with these, rodora weard [[firmaments' ward]], Cædm. 11, 2. or the epic amplification, irminögot obana ab hevane [[great god above in heaven]], Hild. got von himele [[god from heaven]], Nib. 2090, 4. 2114, 1. 2132, 1. 2136, 1.



ENDNOTES:

18. Where God is, there is grace and peace; of a solemn spot it is said: Here dwells der liebe Gott! And, to drive den lieben Gott from a person's room (Lessing 1, 243), means to disturb a solitary in his sanctum.  (back)

19. OHG. rîhhi [[rich]] dives [[wealthy]], potens [[powerful]], also beatus [[happy]]; and dives is near akin to Divus, as Dis, Ditis springs out of divit. From the Slav. bôgh is derived boghât (dives), Lith. bagotas; compare ops, in-ops (Russ. u-bôghiy), opulentus with Ops, the Bona Dea. Conf. Diefenb. celt. 1, 196.  (back)

20. Jane pater! Cato 134: but what can Dissunapiter mean in the remarkable conjuring spell, Cato 160?  (back)