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Deity

natural or supernatural god or goddess, divine being
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A deity, god or goddess, is a being, natural, supernatural or preternatural, with superhuman powers or qualities, and who may be thought of as holy, divine, or sacred. Those with faith in the notions and myths about deities may perceive or believe that they can communicate with such beings, which can respond to their entreaties. Some religions and philosophical traditions have only one deity, others have multiple deities of various ranks, and some actively promote skepticism or rejection of many theistic notions and embrace forms of agnosticism or atheism.

His followers called him Mahasamatman and said he was a god. He preferred to drop the Maha- and the -atman, and called himself Sam. He never claimed to be a god. But then, he never claimed not to be a god. ~ Roger Zelazny, Lord of Light

Quotes

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Before the gods that made the gods
Had seen their sunrise pass,
The White Horse of the White Horse Vale
Was cut out of the grass. ~ G. K. Chesterton in The Ballad of the White Horse
 
I don't classify gods as far as their power goes. I classify them as far as their personality goes. Each god, if he used his power right, could defeat another god. If I used my power right I could defeat anyone on Earth if I wanted to. As a man, if I used my physical strength at its best, I could overpower anybody I wanted to. If I did it right. It's the same way with the gods. If they used their super-powers right, they could defeat any other god. ~ Jack Kirby
  • Rememberest the gods, and that they wish not to be flattered, but wish all reasonable beings to be made like themselves
  • Some of the truths, now called “exploded superstitions,” will be discovered to be facts and the relics of ancient knowledge and wisdom. One of such “degrading” beliefs — in the opinion of the all-denying sceptic — is found in the idea that Kosmos, besides its objective planetary inhabitants, its humanities in other inhabited worlds, is full of invisible, intelligent Existences. The so-called Arch-Angels, Angels and Spirits, of the West, copies of their prototypes, the Dhyan-Chohans, the Devas and Pitris, of the East, are no real Beings but fictions. On this point Materialistic Science is inexorable. To support its position, it upsets its own axiomatic law of uniformity in the laws of nature, that of continuity, and all the logical sequence of analogies in the evolution of being. The masses of the profane are asked, and made, to believe that the accumulated testimony of History, which shows even the Atheists of old — such as Epicurus and Democritus — believing in gods, was false; and that philosophers like Socrates and Plato, asserting their existence, were mistaken enthusiasts and fools. If we hold our opinions merely on historical grounds, on the authority of legions of the most eminent Sages, Neo-Platonists, Mystics of all the ages, from Pythagoras down to the eminent Scientists and Professors of the present century, who, if they reject “gods,” believe in “spirits,” shall we consider such authorities as weak-minded and foolish...?
  • Is there no difference between the belief of the peasant and that of the Western heirs to the Rosicrucians and Alchemists of the Middle Ages? Is it the Van Helmonts, the Khunraths, the Paracelsuses and Agrippas, from Roger Bacon down to St. Germain, who were all blind enthusiasts, hysteriacs or cheats, or is it the handful of modern sceptics — the “leaders of thought” — who are struck with the cecity of negation? The latter, we opine. It would be a miracle indeed, quite an abnormal fact in the realm of probabilities and logic, were that handful of negators to be the sole custodians of truth, while the million-strong hosts of believers in gods, angels, and spirits — in Europe and America alone — namely, Greek and Latin Christians, Theosophists, Spiritualists, Mystics, etc., etc., should be no better than deluded fanatics and hallucinated mediums, and often no higher than the victims of deceivers and impostors! However varying in their external presentations and dogmas, beliefs in the Hosts of invisible Intelligences of various grades have all the same foundation. Truth and error are mixed in all. The exact extent, depth, breadth, and length of the mysteries of Nature are to be found only in Eastern esoteric sciences. So vast and so profound are these that hardly a few, a very few of the highest Initiates — those whose very existence is known but to a small number of Adepts — are capable of assimilating the knowledge. Yet it is all there...
  • Men change their gods, and when they have changed them often enough they cease to fear their power.
  • It was lately suggested to me, by a man with longer experience of the gods than I can rightly imagine, that the reason the gods do not show our paths more plainly is that They do not know either. I haven't decided if I find this reassuring or the reverse. It does hint they do not torment us solely for Their amusement, at least.
  • Much of the power of biblical preaching from Moses to the time of the Exile comes from its stark either-or choice between Yahweh and the ‘other gods.” The great ninth-century B.C. contest at Carmel in 1 Kings 18 between Yahweh and Baal regarding control of the rain, hence of deity, contains the challenge of Elijah: “If the Lord is God, follow Him, but if Baal, then follow him.”
    • Idolatry, HarperCollins Bible Dictionary, 1996, Achtemeier Paul J., ed., New York:HarperCollins Publishers, ISBN 0-06-060037-3
  • These are fools that men adore; both their Gods & their men are fools. This verse establishes uncompromisingly that all Gods — G capital, that is to say, 'true Gods' — and all men deified by legend or deceit — that is to say, false gods' — are fools. How come? It is a key. Distinction is clearly made between the two types: one are Gods; the other is men.
  • Between the gods of light and darkness, of Order and Chaos, Elric knew there was little to choose. The capricious nature of immortality and omniscience played little part in the way of character-building. Too much time—and too little with which to fill it—made the Great Ones no less obstreperous and objectionable than a spoiled tavern brat with a bellyfull of cheap ale and an itchy sword-hand. Thus, just as he would strive to avert his gaze from the local folk in the numerous hostelries he came upon during his travels, so, too, did he rarely look into the sky, the distant plateaus beyond which the gods lazed, their milky eyes scouring the land below for any potential amusements.
  • This fellow Paul has convinced and led astray large numbers of people here in Ephesus and in practically the whole province of Asia. He says that man-made gods are no gods at all.
  • I do not know whether there are gods, but there ought to be.
    • Diogenes, as quoted in The Home Book of Quotations, Classical and Modern (1937) by Burton Egbert Stevenson
  • The gods were different, the suffering was the same.
    • Marjory Stoneman Douglas, The Everglades: River of Grass.
  • With ravish'd ears
    The monarch hears,
    Assumes the god,
    Affects to nod,
    And seems to shake the spheres.
  • Philosophy instructs us to pay homage to the gods, not through hope or fear, but from veneration of Their superior nature.
    • Epicurus, as quoted in Ancient and Modern Celebrated Freethinkers (Half-Hours with the Freethinkers) by Charles Bradlaugh, A. Collins, and J. Watts (1877)
  • The heathen in his blindness
    Bows down to wood and stone.
  • Nature loves to hide her secrets, and she does not suffer the hidden truth about the essential nature of the gods to be flung in naked words to the ears of the profane…
    • Emperor Julian, in "Oration VII": "To the Cynic Heracleios", as quoted in The Works of the Emperor Julian (1923) by Wilmer Cave France Wright, p. 105; also in Hidden Wisdom: Esoteric Traditions and the Roots of Christian Mysticism (2005) by Gedaliahu A. G. Stroumsa, p. 25.
  • Choose your friends, then treat them as friends; do not regard them like slaves or servants, but associate with them frankly and simply and generously; not saying one thing of them and thinking something else. See how distrust towards friends has damaged yonder heritor. Love your subjects as we love you. Let respect toward us take precedence of all goods: for we are your benefactors and friends and saviours. … we shall be with you everywhere, I and Athene and Hermes here, and with us all the Gods that are in Olympus, and Gods of the air and of the earth, and all manner of deities everywhere, so long as you are holy toward us, loyal to your friends, kindly to your subjects, ruling and guiding them for their good. Never yield yourself a slave to your own desires or theirs.
  • That swarm of ants that I observed, each one following the one ahead, have every one been Indra in the world of the gods by virtue of their own past action. And now, by virtue of their deeds done in the past, they have gradually fallen to the state of ants.
    • Krsna, Indra and the Ants Indra and the Ants, Classical Hindu Mythology: A Reader in the Sanskrit Puranas, Pg. 321 by Cornelia Dimmitt
  • I don't classify gods as far as their power goes. I classify them as far as their personality goes. Each god, if he used his power right, could defeat another god. If I used my power right I could defeat anyone on Earth if I wanted to. As a man, if I used my physical strength at its best, I could overpower anybody I wanted to. If I did it right. It's the same way with the gods. If they used their super-powers right, they could defeat any other god.
  • If there are gods, they made sheep so wolves could eat mutton, and they made the weak for the strong to play with ... If you can't protect yourself, die and get out of the way of those who can.
  • Who knows not Circe,
    The daughter of the Sun, whose charmed cup
    Whoever tasted, lost his upright shape,
    And downward fell into a groveling swine?
  • That moly
    That Hermes once to wise Ulysses gave.
  • Le seigneur Jupiter sait dorer la pilule.
    • My lord Jupiter knows how to gild the pill.
    • Molière, Amphitryon (1690), III. 11.
  • Nevertheless they could never be imagined save in the most radiant bloom of youth. For the Hellenic idea of god this is very significant and serves as a symbol of their peculiar essence. Other peoples have felt no compunction in thinking of their deity as old, indeed as very ancient; no image could more forcefully suggest the venerable wisdom they possessed. But for the Greek his inmost feelings resisted such a notion. For him old age was a condition of the weariness, impoverishment, and darkening of nature, that vital and holy nature from which he could never at all separate the spirit. Even the highest wisdom must belong not to a region beyond life but to life's most buoyant energy, and knowledge must dwell not on the hoary countenance turned away from the world but on the bright and youthful brow and the blooming lips of Apollo.
  • Concerning the gods, I have no means of knowing whether they exist or not or of what sort they may be, because of the obscurity of the subject, and the brevity of human life.
  • The basest horn of his hoof is more musical than the pipe of Hermes.
  • This senior-junior, giant-dwarf, Dan Cupid:
    Regent of love-rhymes, lord of folded arms,
    The anointed sovereign of sighs and groans,
    Liege of all loiterers and malcontents.
  • And now I will try to defend myself against them: these new accusers must also have their affidavit read. What do they say? Something of this sort: — That Socrates is a doer of evil, and corrupter of the youth, and he does not believe in the gods of the state, and has other new divinities of his own.
  • I will obey the god rather than you, and as long as I draw breath and am able, I shall not cease to practice philosophy.
  • A person should steadfastly proclaim the exaltedness of his god. A young man should devoutly praise the words of his god; the people living in the righteous Land should unravel them like a thread. May the balaj singer assuage the spirit of his neighbour and friend. ... Let his mouth shaping a lament soothe the heart of his god, for a man without a god does not obtain food.
  • Volente Deo.
  • Incessu patuit Dea.
    • By her gait the goddess was known.
    • Virgil, Æneid (29-19 BC), I. 405.
  • Heu nihil invitis fas quemquam fidere divis.
    • Alas! it is not well for anyone to be confident when the gods are adverse.
    • Virgil, Æneid (29-19 BC), II. 402.
  • Jamque dies, ni fallor adest quem semper acerbum
    Semper honoratum (sic dii voluistis) habeo.
    • That day I shall always recollect with grief; with reverence also, for the gods so willed it.
    • Virgil, Æneid (29-19 BC), V. 49.
  • Vocat in certamina Divos.
    • He calls the gods to arms.
    • Virgil, Æneid (29-19 BC), VI. 172.
  • Habitarunt Di quoque sylvas.
    • The gods also dwelt in the woods.
    • Virgil, Eclogues (c. 37 BC), II. 60.
  • Oh, meet is the reverence unto Bacchus paid!
    We will praise him still in the songs of our fatherland,
    We will pour the sacred wine, the chargers lade,
    And the victim kid shall unresisting stand,
    Led by his horns to the altar, where we turn
    The hazel spits while the dripping entrails burn.
    • Virgil, Georgics (c. 29 BC), Book II, Stanza 17, line 31. H. W. Preston's translation.
  • His followers called him Mahasamatman and said he was a god. He preferred to drop the Maha- and the -atman, and called himself Sam. He never claimed to be a god. But then, he never claimed not to be a god. Circumstances being what they were, neither admission could be of any benefit. Silence, though, could.

Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations

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Quotes reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 321-25.
 
The arts of prophecy and of healing, which are part of the cosmos, come of the good providence of the gods. ~ Sallustius
  • Great is Diana of the Ephesians.
    • Acts, XIX. 28.
  • The Ethiop gods have Ethiop lips,
    Bronze cheeks, and woolly hair;
    The Grecian gods are like the Greeks,
    As keen-eyed, cold and fair.
  • Speak of the gods as they are.
  • And that dismal cry rose slowly
    And sank slowly through the air,
    Full of spirit's melancholy
    And eternity's despair!
    And they heard the words it said—
    Pan is dead! great Pan is dead!
    Pan, Pan is dead!
  • The Graces, three erewhile, are three no more;
    A fourth is come with perfume sprinkled o'er.
    'Tis Berenice blest and fair; were she
    Away the Graces would no Graces be.
  • Two goddesses now must Cyprus adore;
    The Muses are ten, and the Graces are four;
    Stella's wit is so charming, so sweet her fair face,
    She shines a new Venus, a Muse, and a Grace.
  • Omnia fanda, nefanda, malo permista furore,
    Justificam nobis mentem avertere deorum.
    • The confounding of all right and wrong, in wild fury, has averted from us the gracious favor of the gods.
    • Catullus, Carmina, LXIV. 406.
  • O dii immortales! ubinam gentium sumus?
    • Ye immortal gods! where in the world are we?
    • Cicero, In Catilinam, I, 4.
  • Never, believe me,
    Appear the Immortals,
    Never alone.
  • Nature's self's thy Ganymede.
  • Creator Venus, genial power of love,
    The bliss of men below, and gods above!
    Beneath the sliding sun thou runn'st thy race,
    Dost fairest shine, and best become thy place;
    For thee the winds their eastern blasts forbear,
    Thy mouth reveals the spring, and opens all the year;
    Thee, goddess, thee, the storms of winter fly,
    Earth smiles with flowers renewing, laughs the sky.
  • Cupid is a casuist, a mystic, and a cabalist,—
    Can your lurking thought surprise,
    And interpret your device,
    * * * * *
    All things wait for and divine him,—
    How shall I dare to malign him?
  • Either Zeus came to earth to shew his form to thee,
    Phidias, or thou to heaven hast gone the god to see.
    • In Greek Anthology.
  • I, Phœbus, song those songs that gained so much renown
    I, Phœbus, sang them; Homer only wrote them down.
    • In Greek Anthology.
  • Say, Bacchus, why so placid? What can there be
    In commune held by Pallas and by thee?
    Her pleasure is in darts and battles; thine
    In joyous feasts and draughts of rosy wine.
    • In Greek Anthology.
  • Some thoughtlessly proclaim the Muses nine:
    A tenth is Sappho, maid divine.
    • In Greek Anthology.
  • Though men determine, the gods do dispose.
  • There's a one-eyed yellow idol to the north of Khatmandu,
    There's a little marble cross below the town,
    There's a broken-hearted woman tends the grave of Mad Carew,
    And the yellow god forever gazes down.
  • Who hearkens to the gods, the gods give ear.
    • Homer, The Iliad, Book I, line 280. Bryant's translation.
  • The son of Saturn gave
    The nod with his dark brows. The ambrosial curls
    Upon the Sovereign One's immortal head
    Were shaken, and with them the mighty mount,
    Olympus trembled.
    • Homer, The Iliad, Book I, line 666. Bryant's translation.
  • Shakes his ambrosial curls, and gives the nod,
    The stamp of fate, and sanction of the god.
    • Homer, The Iliad, Book I, line 684. Pope's translation.
  • The ox-eyed awful Juno.
    • Homer, The Iliad, Book III, line 144, also, Book VII, line 10;, Book XVIII, line 40.
  • Yet verily these issues lie on the lap of the gods.
    • Homer, The Iliad, Book XVII. 514. Odyssey. I. 267. Butcher and Lang's translation. That lies in the laps of the gods. (Nearest to the original, which is "in" not "on.") Other translations are: "But these things in the God's Knees are repos'd. / And yet the period of these designes, lye in the Knees of Gods. / It lies in the lap of the Norns. [Fates.]" From the Scandinavian.
  • Where'er he moves, the goddess shone before.
    • Homer, The Iliad, Book XX, line 127. Pope's translation.
  • The matchless Ganymede, divinely fair.
    • Homer, The Iliad, Book XX, line 278. Pope's translation.
  • Jove weighs affairs of earth in dubious scales,
    And the good suffers while the bad prevails.
    • Homer, The Odyssey, Book VI, line 229. Pope's translation.
  • Nec deus intersit nisi dignus vindice nodus.
    • Nor let a god come in, unless the difficulty be worthy of such an intervention.
    • Horace, Ars Poetica (18 BC), CXCI.
  • Junctæque Nymphis Gratiæ decentes.
    • And joined with the Nymphs the lovely Graces.
    • Horace, Carmina, I. 4. 6.
  • Di me tuentur.
    • The gods my protectors.
    • Horace, Carmina, I. 17. 13.
  • Neque semper arcum
    Tendit Apollo.
    • Nor does Apollo keep his bow continually drawn.
    • Horace, Carmina, II. 10.
  • Quanto quisque sibi plura negaverit,
    A dis plura feret.
    • The more we deny ourselves, the more the gods supply our wants.
    • Horace, Carmina, III. 16. 21.
  • Scire, deos quoniam propius contingis, oportet.
    • Thou oughtest to know, since thou livest near the gods.
    • Horace, Satires, XXI. 6. 52.
  • Of Pan we sing, the best of leaders Pan,
    That leads the Naiads and the Dryads forth;
    And to their dances more than Hermes can,
    Hear, O you groves, and hills resound his worth.
  • Nam pro jucundis aptissima quæque dabunt di,
    Carior est illis homo quam sibi.
    • For the gods, instead of what is most pleasing, will give what is most proper. Man is dearer to them than he is to himself.
    • Juvenal, Satires (early 2nd century), X. 349.
  • High in the home of the summers, the seats of the happy immortals,
    Shrouded in knee-deep blaze, unapproachable; there ever youthful
    Hebé, Harmonié, and the daughter of Jove, Aphrodité,
    Whirled in the white-linked dance, with the gold-crowned Hours and Graces.
  • Le trident de Neptune est le sceptre du monde.
    • The trident of Neptune is the sceptre of the world.
    • Lemierre
  • Janus am I; oldest of potentates!
    Forward I look and backward and below
    I count—as god of avenues and gates—
    The years that through my portals come and go.
    I block the roads and drift the fields with snow,
    I chase the wild-fowl from the frozen fen;
    My frosts congeal the rivers in their flow,
    My fires light up the hearths and hearts of men.
  • Estne Dei sedes nisi terra, et pontus, et aer,
    Et cœlum, et virtus? Superos quid quærimus ultra?
    Jupiter est, quodcunque vides, quodcunque moveris.
    • Has God any habitation except earth, and sea, and air, and heaven, and virtue? Why do we seek the highest beyond these? Jupiter is wheresoever you look, wheresoever you move.
    • Lucanus, Pharsalia, Book IX. 578.
  • A boy of five years old serene and gay,
    Unpitying Hades hurried me away.Mbr<Yet weep not for Callimachus: if few
    The days I lived, few were my sorrows too.
    • Lucian, reported in Greek Anthology.
  • Apparet divom numen, sedesque quietæ;
    Quas neque concutiunt ventei, nec nubila nimbeis.
    Aspergunt, neque nix acri concreta pruina
    Cana cadens violat; semper sine nubibus æther
    Integer, et large diffuso lumine ridet.
    • The gods and their tranquil abodes appear, which no winds disturb, nor clouds bedew with showers, nor does the white snow, hardened by frost, annoy them; the heaven, always pure, is without clouds, and smiles with pleasant light diffused.
    • Lucretius, De Rerum Natura, III. 18.
  • No wonder Cupid is a murderous boy;
    A fiery archer making pain his joy.
    His dam, while fond of Mars, is Vulcan's wife,
    And thus 'twixt fire and sword divides her life.
  • Deus ex machina.
    • A god from a machine (artificial or mechanical contrivance).
    • Menander (From the Greek) Theop. 5. Lucan—Hermo. Plato—Bratylus. 425. Quoted by Socrates.
  • Man is certainly stark mad; he cannot make a flea, and yet he will be making gods by dozens.
  • To be a god
    First I must be a god-maker:
    We are what we create.
  • Expedit esse deos: et, ut expedit, esse putemus.
    • It is expedient there should be gods, and as it is expedient, let us believe them to exist.
    • Ovid, Ars Amatoria, Book I, line 637. According to Tertullian—Ad Nationes, Book II, Chapter 2, Diogenes said, "I do not know, only there ought to be gods".
  • Vilia miretur vulgus; mihi flavus Apollo
    Pocula Castalia plena ministret aqua.
    • Let the crowd delight in things of no value; to me let the golden-haired Apollo minister full cups from the Castalian spring (the fountain of Parnassus).
    • Ovid, Amorum (16 BC), Book I. 15. 35. Motto on title-page of Shakespeare's "Venus and Adonis." Another reading: "Castaliæ aquæ," of the Castalian spring.
  • The god we now behold with opened eyes,
    A herd of spotted panthers round him lies
    In glaring forms; the grapy clusters spread
    On his fair brows, and dangle on his head.
    • Ovid, Metamorphoses, Book III, line 789. Addison's translation.
  • Jocos et Dii amant.
    • Even the gods love jokes.
    • Plato, Cratylus. (Translation from Greek).
  • The Graces sought some holy ground,
    Whose sight should ever please;
    And in their search the soul they found
    Of Aristophanes.
  • Di nos quasi pilas homines habent.
    • The gods play games with men as balls.
    • Plautus, Captivi Prologue, XXII.
  • Cui homini dii propitii sunt aliquid objiciunt lucri.
    • The gods give that man some profit to whom they are propitious.
    • Plautus, Persa, IV. 3. 1.
  • Miris modis Di ludos faciunt hominibus.
    • In wondrous ways do the gods make sport with men.
    • Plautus, Rudens, Act III. 1. 1; Mercator, Act II.
  • Keep what goods the Gods provide you.
    • Plautus, Rudens, Act IV, scene 8. Riley's translation.
  • Dum homo est infirmus, tunc deos, tunc hominem esse se meminit: invidet nemini, neminem miratur, neminem despicit, ac ne sermonibus quidem malignis aut attendit, aut alitur.
    • When a man is laboring under the pain of any distemper, it is then that he recollects there are gods, and that he himself is but a man; no mortal is then the object of his envy, his admiration, or his contempt, and having no malice to gratify, the tales of slander excite not his attention.
    • Pliny the Younger, Epistles, VII. 26.
  • Themistocles told the Adrians that he brought two gods with him, Persuasion and Force. They replied: "We also, have two gods on our side, Poverty and Despair."
  • Thamus … uttered with a loud voice his message, "The great Pan is dead."
    • Plutarch, Why the Oracles cease to give Answers.
  • Or ask of yonder argent fields above
    Why Jove's satellites are less than Jove.
  • Of the Gods some are of the world, cosmic, and some above the world, hypercosmic. By the cosmic I mean those who make the cosmos. Of the hypercosmic Gods some create essence, some mind, and some soul.
    • Sallustius, On the Gods and the Cosmos (c. 360), VI. On Gods Cosmic and Hypercosmic.
  • The arts of prophecy and of healing, which are part of the cosmos, come of the good providence of the gods.
    • Sallustius, On the Gods and the Cosmos (c. 360), IX. On Providence, Fate, and Fortune.
  • Mundus est ingens deorum omnium templum.
  • Me goatfoot Pan of Arcady—the Median fear,
    The Athenian's friend, Miltiades placed here.
  • A glimpse of Breidablick, whose walls are light
    As e'en the silver on the cliff it shone;
    Of dark blue steel its columns azure height
    And the big altar was one agate stone.
    It seemed as if the air upheld alone
    Its dome, unless supporting spirits bore it,
    Studded with stars Odin's spangled throne,
    A light inscrutable burned fiercely o'er it;
    In sky-blue mantles,
    Sat the gold-crowned gods before it.
  • Speak to Him, thou, for He hears, and Spirit with Spirit can meet;
    Closer is He than breathing, and nearer than hands and feet.
  • But a bevy of Eroses apple-cheeked
    In a shallop of crystal ivory-beaked.
  • Or sweet Europa's mantle blew unclasped
    From off her shoulder backward borne;
    From one hand drooped a crocus: one hand grasped
    The mild bull's golden horn.
  • Or else flushed Ganymede, his rosy thigh
    Half buried in the Eagle's down,
    Sole as a flying star, shot thro' the sky,
    Above the pillared town.
  • Atlas, we read in ancient song,
    Was so exceeding tall and strong,
    He bore the skies upon his back,
    Just as the pedler does his pack;
    But, as the pedler overpress'd
    Unloads upon a stall to rest,
    Or, when he can no longer stand,
    Desires a friend to lend a hand,
    So Atlas, lest the ponderous spheres
    Should sink, and fall about his ears,
    Got Hercules to bear the pile,
    That he might sit and rest awhile.

See also

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Wikipedia
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Wiktionary
Look up gods in Wiktionary, the free dictionary
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Idea 2
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