In other cases this worship of men reached a pitch which was a matter of shame to the later Greeks; thus Demetrius Poliorcetes, when he gave Athens back her freedom, was welcomed at the city with divine honours.

Even hymns were composed in his honour, of which we find specimens preserved.[7] After welcoming his advent at the same time as that of Demeter, the poet addresses him thus:--"Other gods are either far away, or they have no ears, or they exist not, or have no care for us.

But we see thee, a present deity, not of wood or stone, but real; therefore we pray to thee." It is true that such materialistic and atheistic expressions were probably reprobated by many at the time, as well as by later writers; but the mere possibility of their public enunciation shows how far the Athenians had gone from their old religious beliefs.
[Footnote 7: Athen., VI, 63.] Allegorical impersonations, such as that of Antioch, are religious conceptions of a high order compared to this.

Nevertheless, one feels that such impersonations can have no separate divine existence apart from the city or the people whom they represent.

They are on a different plane of religious belief from Athena, for example, as the goddess of the city.