Identifier: storyofgreatestn02elli (find matches)
Title: The story of the greatest nations, from the dawn of history to the twentieth century : a comprehensive history, founded upon the leading authorities, including a complete chronology of the world, and a pronouncing vocabulary of each nation
Year: 1900 (1900s)
Authors: Ellis, Edward Sylvester, 1840-1916 Horne, Charles F. (Charles Francis), 1870-1942
Subjects: World history
Publisher: New York : F.R. Niglutsch
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Internet Archive

View Book Page: Book Viewer
About This Book: Catalog Entry
View All Images: All Images From Book
Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book.

Text Appearing Before Image:
to live " for two whole years in his own hired house." It is not known posi-
tively whether he ever left the city or not, but it is believed that he obtained
his liberty about a.d. 64, made journeys both to the east and to the west, and
carried out his longing to preach the gospel in Spain. He and the evangelist
St. John, and those of the apostles who still survived, appointed bishops of the
cities. Dionysius of Athens was set over Corinth, and Titus became bishop of
Crete. Christianity had taken root in Greece, and the divine work of the evan-
gelization of the world began, to continue until all nations shall acknowledge
the true God.
In the midst of Paul's labors occurred the burning of Rome, of which the
diabolical Nero was guilty. He threw the blame on the Christians, of whom
there were many in the city, and in consequence they suffered the most fright-
ful persecution. One of those who perished was Paul, whose death, according
to tradition, took place in a.d. 67.
The rapid spread of Christianity was due partly at least to the waning of all
Text Appearing After Image:

PSYCHE

Greece—Athens the Centre of Art 265

belief in the old gods. Both art and literature had begun to treat them lightly.
Writers invented new legends concerning them, and told these as our own wri-
ters tell stories, without any pretence that they were true. Thus a Latin author,
Ovid, wrote his "Metamorphoses," in which he represents the gods as chang-
ing men into beasts for mere caprice. And Apuleius wrote the legend of Psy-
che, one of the most beautiful bits of classic mythology. It has been quoted as
displaying the first yearnings of the pagan mind toward Christianity. Psyche
represents the soul. She is wedded to Cupid or divine love, but loses him
through lack of faith. She then seeks him through all the sorrows of the world,
and even penetrates Hades in her wanderings, whence she brings, like Pandora,
a box of sorrows back to earth.
From the time of the Peloponnesian war, the character of Grecian art had
naturally been undergoing change with that of the people themselves. In
sculpture marble was more frequently used, and the serene majesty of the

Note About Images