[Illustration: LEMNIAN ATHENA]
THE CLASSIC MYTHS
IN ENGLISH LITERATURE
AND IN ART
BASED ORIGINALLY ON BULFINCH'S "AGE OF FABLE" (1855)
ACCOMPANIED BY AN INTERPRETATIVE AND
ILLUSTRATIVE COMMENTARY
BY
CHARLES MILLS GAYLEY, LITT.D., LL.D.
PROFESSOR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
IN THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
_NEW EDITION_
_REVISED AND ENLARGED_
GINN AND COMPANY
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COPYRIGHT, 1893, 1911, BY CHARLES MILLS GAYLEY
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TO THE MUSES
Whether on Ida's shady brow,
Or in the chambers of the East,
The chambers of the sun, that now
From ancient melody have ceas'd;
Whether in Heav'n ye wander fair,
Or the green corners of the earth,
Or the blue regions of the air,
Where the melodious winds have birth;
Whether on crystal rocks ye rove,
Beneath the bosom of the sea,
Wandering in many a coral grove,
Fair Nine, forsaking Poetry;
How have you left the ancient love
That bards of old enjoyed in you!
The languid strings do scarcely move,
The sound is forc'd, the notes are few!
WILLIAM BLAKE
O antique fables! beautiful and bright
And joyous with the joyous youth of yore;
O antique fables! for a little light
Of that which shineth in you evermore,
To cleanse the dimness from our weary eyes,
And bathe our old world with a new surprise
Of golden dawn entrancing sea and shore.
JAMES THOMSON
PREFACE
In this new edition of "The Classic Myths in English Literature" the
former order of materials has been altered in accordance with the
advice of the teachers who have had longest experience with the use of
the book; the old material has been thoroughly revised; and much new
material has been added. Since most people prefer to begin a story at
its beginning, and not with the career of its author and his genealogy,
I have reserved the history of the myths for the conclusion of the
text. Some of the myths have been restated in more careful form. Some
short narratives, before omitted, have been included. The sketches
of the Iliad and the Odyssey have been considerably expanded; and an
outline--which, I hope, will be deemed adequate--of Wagner's version of
the Ring of the Nibelung has been appended to the account of Norse and
German mythology. That version is, of course, not English literature;
but it has come to be received as the classic modern version of the
story; and the story is needed, at some time or other, by every lover
of music. Fresh examples of the employment of myth in English verse
have, where practicable, been incorporated in the text; and some new
references will be found in the Commentary.
I have thoroughly revised the list of illustrative cuts, have
interpreted the more difficult of the ancient figures, and indicated
the sources. The pictures themselves are a decided improvement upon
those in the former edition. In the determination of sources for
reproduction, I have had the valuable assistance of Dr. E. von Mach,
the author of more than one well-known work on ancient art; and to
him I am indebted, in addition, for the section on The Classic Myths
in Art, which is included in my Introduction. With this new equipment
the book should prove more useful to those who here make their first
acquaintance with art, especially the art of the ancients, as well as
to those who have been in the habit of using it as a guide to paintings
and sculptures of mythological subjects in foreign galleries.
Much of our best English poetry lies beyond the imaginative reach of
many readers because of their unfamiliarity with the commonplaces of
literary allusion, reference, and tradition. Of such commonplaces few
are more frequently recurrent than those furnished by the literature of
myth.
In view of this consideration, the Academic Council of the University
of California, some twenty years ago, introduced into its requirements
for entrance in English the subject of Classical Mythology in its
relation to English Literature, and recommended, as a textbook for
preparation, Bulfinch's "Age of Fable." The experience of English and
classical teachers in the schools of the state attested the wisdom of
the requirement; but the demand for some textbook adapted to the needs
of the classroom made necessary the preparation of this volume. For
while "The Age of Fable" offered a tempting collection of Greek, Norse,
and Oriental narratives, it was designed neither as a schoolbook nor as
a systematized presentation and interpretation of the myths that have
most influenced English literature.
At the request of my publishers I undertook at that time such a
revision and rearrangement of the materials of "The Age of Fable" as
might adapt it to the purposes of teacher and pupil, and to the taste
of readers somewhat more advanced in years than those addressed by the
original work or by the edition which bore the name of the Reverend
Edward Everett Hale. But after a year's work I found that half my
material for copy was new, and that the remainder differed in many
important respects from the book upon which it was based. Consequently,
while the obligation to "The Age of Fable" was acknowledged in full,
a different title was selected for the resulting volume. For neither
my publishers nor I desired that the scholarship or the taste of Mr.
Bulfinch should be held accountable for liberties that were taken with
his work.
In "The Classic Myths in English Literature and in Art," Chapters
XXIII-XXVII, containing sketches of the Fall of Troy, the Odyssey,
the Æneid, and of certain Norse lays, are a revision of corresponding
chapters in "The Age of Fable." Chapters VII-XX, and XXII, comprising
Myths of the Greater Divinities of Heaven, Earth, the Underworld, and
the Waters, Myths of the Lesser Divinities of the same regions, Myths
of the Older Heroes and Myths of the Younger Heroes, and the outline of
the Trojan War, represent a total rearrangement and recomposition of
the original material, section by section, and frequently paragraph by
paragraph,--such portions of "The Age of Fable" as have been retained
being abridged or rewritten, and, in places too frequent to enumerate,
supplemented by new and necessary sentences, paragraphs, and sections.
The Introduction, the first six chapters (on the Greek Myths of the
Creation, and the attributes of Greek and Roman divinities), Chapters
XXI and XXVIII-XXXII (on the Houses concerned in the Trojan War, the
Saga of the Volsungs, the Lay of the Nibelungs, Wagner's Ring of the
Nibelung, and on the origin, elements, distribution, and preservation
of myth), the choice of poetic and artistic illustration, the footnotes
referring to sources, and the Commentary are wholly, or essentially, my
own. In fact, there is little but the scaffolding of "The Age of Fable"
now remaining in the book.
Although in the Index of Mythological Subjects and their Sources the
more common myths of some other nations are briefly stated, no myths
save those known to the Greeks, Romans, Norsemen, or Germans have
been included in the body of the text. The scope of selection has
been thus confined for three reasons: first, the regard for necessary
limits; second, the desirability of emphasizing only such myths as
have actually acclimated themselves in English-speaking lands and have
influenced the spirit, form, and habit of English imaginative thought;
third, the necessity of excluding all but the unquestionably classic.
The term _classic_, however, is, of course, not restricted to the
products of Greece and Rome; nor is it employed as synonymous with
Classical or as antithetical to Romantic. From the extreme Classical to
the extreme Romantic is a far cry; but as human life knows no divorce
of necessity from freedom, so genuine art knows neither an unrelieved
Classical nor an unrestrained Romantic. Classical and Romantic are
relative terms. The Classical and the Romantic of one generation
may merit equally to be the classics of the next. Therefore certain
Hellenic myths of romantic spirit or construction have been included in
this work, and certain Norse and German myths have not been excluded.
Whatever is admitted, is admitted as first-class: first-class, because
simple, spontaneous, and beautiful; because fulfilling the requirements
of perennial freshness, of æsthetic potency, and of ideal worth.
In the matter of illustrative English and American poems the principle
of selection has been that the verses shall translate a myth from
the classic original, or exemplify the poetic idealization and
embellishment of the subject, or suggest the spirit and mien of ancient
art. But in each case regard has been had to the æsthetic value of
the poem or the citation. In the search for suitable examples I have
derived valuable assistance from Mr. E.C. Guild's "Bibliography of
Greek Mythology in English Poetry of the Nineteenth Century" (Bowdoin
College, _Library Bulletin No. 1_). The student is also referred to
A.E. Sawtelle's "Sources of Spenser's Mythology," C.G. Osgood's'
"Classical Mythology of Milton," and R.K. Root's "Classical Mythology
in Shakespeare" (Holt, 1896, 1900, and 1903, respectively).
In the Commentary four things have been attempted: first, an
explanation, under each section, of ordinary textual difficulties;
second, an unpretentious exposition of the myth or a brief statement
of the more evident interpretations advanced by philologists or
ethnologists; third, an indication of certain additional poems or
verses that illustrate the myth; fourth, special mention of such
masterpieces of ancient and modern sculpture and painting as may serve
to introduce the student or the general reader to a field of æsthetic
profit neglected by the great mass of our people. For the poetic
conception of most of the myths contained in Chapters I-XXIV, we are
indebted to the Greek imagination; but since this book is intended
for students of English poetry, and since in English poetry Latin
names of mythological characters are much more frequently employed
than Greek, the Latin designations or Latinized forms of Greek names
have been, so far as possible, retained; and such variations as
Jupiter, Jove--Proserpina, Proserpine, freely used. In the chapters,
however, on the attributes of the Greek gods, names exclusively Greek
have been placed in parentheses after the usual Roman equivalents,
Latin appellations, or designations common to both Greek and Roman
usage. In the transliteration of Greek names I have followed, also,
the prevalent practice of our poets, which is, generally speaking,
the practice of the Romans. The diphthong #ei#, for instance, is
transliterated according to the accepted English pronunciation,
which in individual words perpetuates the preference of the Latins
for the _e_ sound or the _i_ sound respectively. So #Atreidês#
becomes Atr[=i]des; #Iphimedeia#, Iphimed[=i]a. But, on the other
hand, #Kythereia# becomes Cyther[=e]a; #Pêneios#, Pen[=e]us; and
#Mêdeia#, Med[=e]a; while owing to purely popular English custom, such
a name as #Pheidias# has become, not Pheidias nor even Ph[=i]dias,
but--_Ph[)i]dias_. A few names of islands, towns, persons, etc., that
even in Latin retain their Greek forms,--such as Delos, Naxos, Argos,
Aglauros, Pandrosos,--have been transferred without modification.
So also has Poseidon, because that is the common English spelling.
In short, the practice aimed at has been not that of scientific
uniformity, but of acknowledged poetic usage. In the titles of the
illustrative cuts, Greek names have been used for works of Greek
origin, Latin for the Roman.
For the benefit of readers who do not know the fundamental rules for
the pronunciation of Greek and Latin proper names in English, a brief
statement of rules is prefixed to the Index; and in the Index of
Mythological Subjects and their Sources names are not only accented,
but, when necessary, diacritically marked.
In the preparation of the Text and Commentary more or less use has
been made of: Roscher's Ausführliches Lexikon der griechischen und
römischen Mythologie (Lieferungen 1-21, Teubner, Leipzig); Preller's
Griechische Mythologie (2 Bde., Berlin, 1861); Max Müller's Chips from
a German Workshop, Science of Religion (London, 1873), Science of
Language (7th ed., 2 vols., London, 1873), Oxford Essays (1856); Sir
G. W. Cox's Mythology of the Aryan Nations (2 vols., London, 1878);
Frazer's Golden Bough; W. Warde Fowler's Roman Festivals (London,
1899); Welcker's Griechische Götterlehre; Baumeister's Denkmäler des
klassischen Alterthums; Murray's Manual of Mythology (New York, 1880);
Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology; Duruy's
Histories of Rome and Greece; Keightley's Greek and Roman Mythology;
Kelsey's Outline of Greek and Roman Mythology (Boston, 1889); Horn's
Geschichte der Literatur des skandinavischen Nordens (Leipzig, 1880);
Cleasby and Vigfusson's Icelandic Dictionary; Lüning's Die Edda
(Zürich, 1859); Vigfusson and Powell's Corpus Poeticum Boreale (2
vols., Oxford, 1883); Paul's Grundriss der germanischen Philologie,
1 Bd., 5 Lfg. (article _Mythologie_, by E. Mogk); Grimm's Teutonic
Mythology (translated by Stallybrass, 3 vols.); Werner Hahn's Das
Nibelungenlied; Lang's Myth, Ritual, and Religion (2 vols., London,
1887), and _Mythology_ (Encyc. Brit., Vol. 9); Tylor's Anthropology
(New York, 1881) and Primitive Culture (2 vols.); J. W. Powell's Annual
Reports of the Bureau of Ethnology (7 vols., beginning 1879-1880,
Washington, D.C.); Keary's Outlines of Primitive Belief; Fiske's Myths
and Myth-makers (Boston); Whitney's Oriental and Linguistic Studies;
W. P. Johnston's The Origin of Myth; and of other works to which due
reference is made in the footnotes and Commentary. The student is also
referred to F. B. Jevons' edition of Plutarch's Romane Questions,
translated by Philemon Holland (London, 1892) (introduction on Roman
Mythology); and to C.G. Leland's Etruscan-Roman Remains in Popular
Tradition (London, 1892). The Maps, furnished by Messrs. Ginn and
Company from other of their publications, have, with the kind consent
of the authors of those works, in some instances been adapted by me to
suit the present purpose.
The principal authorities used in the selection of the illustrations of
this new edition are: Baumeister, Denkmäler des klassischen Alterthums
(3 vols., Munich, 1888); Furtwängler, Masterpieces of Greek Sculpture
(London, 1905); Ernest Gardner, Ancient Athens (New York and London,
1902); Percy Gardner, A Grammar of Greek Art (New York and London,
1905); and Sculptured Tombs of Hellas (London, 1896); Percy Gardner
and Jevons, A Manual of Greek Antiquities (London, 1895); Gerhard,
Auserlesene griechische Vasenbilder (1840-1858); Gusman, Pompeii
(London, 1900); Harrison and Maccoll, Greek Vase Paintings (London,
1894); E. von Mach, Handbook of Greek and Roman Sculpture (Boston,
1905); and Greek Sculpture, Its Spirit and Principles (Boston, 1903);
A. S. Murray, Handbook of Greek Archæology (London, 1892); History
of Greek Sculpture (2 vols., London, 1883); and Sculptures of the
Parthenon (London, 1903); A. S. Murray and C. A. Hutton, Greek
Bronzes and Terra Cotta Statuettes (London, 1898); C. O. Müller,
Denkmäler der alten Kunst (Göttingen, 1832); Overbeck, Griechische
Kunstmythologie (1871 ----); Emil Presuhn, Pompeii, 1874-1881 (Leipzig,
1882); Salomon Reinach, Peintures de vases antiques (including the
collections of Millin, 1808, and Millingen, 1813 (Paris, 1891)), and
Apollo (Paris, 1907); H. Roux Ainé, Herculaneum and Pompeii; Roscher,
Ausführliches Lexikon der griechischen und römischen Mythologie
(1884 ----) (Lieferungen 1-17 in Vol. I, 18 on in Vol. II); Anton
Springer, Handbuch der Kunstgeschichte (I _Alterthum_, Leipzig, 1904);
Charles Waldstein, The Argive Heræum (2 vols.); and the archæological
periodicals as cited in the List of Illustrations.
The acknowledgment of assistance made in the former edition is here
renewed.
CHARLES MILLS GAYLEY
CONTENTS
PAGE
INTRODUCTION xxix
PART I
MYTHS OF DIVINITIES AND HEROES
CHAPTER I. GREEK MYTHS OF THE CREATION 1
Purpose of the Study. The Fable and the Myth. Origin of the World.
Origin of the Gods. The Rule of Cronus. The War of the Titans.
The Division of Empire. The Reign of Jupiter. The Origin of Man.
Prometheus, a Creator. The Age of Gold. The Silver Age. Prometheus,
Champion of Man. Pandora. Prometheus Bound. Longfellow's
Prometheus. The Brazen Age. The Iron Age. The Flood. Deucalion and
Pyrrha. The Demigods and Heroes.
CHAPTER II. THE GODS OF HEAVEN 18
Olympus. The Great Gods. Jupiter (Zeus). Conceptions of Jupiter.
Juno (Hera). Minerva (Athene or Athena). Mars (Ares). Vulcan
(Hephæstus). Apollo. Shelley's Hymn of Apollo. Diana (Artemis).
Jonson's Hymn to Cynthia. Venus (Aphrodite). The "Venus of Milo."
Mercury (Hermes). Vesta (Hestia). The Lesser Divinities of Heaven.
CHAPTER III. THE GODS OF EARTH 42
Conception of the World. Ceres (Demeter). Gæa (Ge). Bacchus
(Dionysus). The Lesser Divinities of Earth.
CHAPTER IV. THE GODS OF THE UNDERWORLD 47
The Underworld. Tartarus and the Elysian Fields. The Islands of
the Blest. Pluto (Hades). Proserpina (Persephone). The Lesser
Divinities of the Underworld.
CHAPTER V. THE GODS OF THE WATERS 55
The Older Dynasty. The Younger Dynasty. The Lesser Divinities of
the Waters.
CHAPTER VI. THE ROMAN DIVINITIES 59
Gods Common to Greece and Italy. Italian Gods.
CHAPTER VII. MYTHS OF THE GREAT DIVINITIES OF HEAVEN 64
Myths of Jupiter and Juno. Love Affairs of Jupiter. Io. Callisto.
Europa. Semele. Ægina. Antiope. Jupiter, a Friend of Man. Juno's
Best Gift. Myths of Minerva. Arachne. Myths of Mars. Mars and
Diomede. Mars and Minerva. The Fortunes of Cadmus. Myths of Vulcan.
Myths of Apollo. The Wanderings of Latona. Apollo, the Light
Triumphant. Hyacinthus. Phaëthon. The Plague sent upon the Greeks
before Troy. The Punishment of Niobe. The Lamentation for Linus.
Æsculapius. Apollo in Exile. Lowell's Shepherd of King Admetus.
Admetus and Alcestis. Apollo, the Musician. Apollo, Pan, and Midas.
Shelley's Hymn of Pan. Marsyas. The Loves of Apollo. Daphne.
Marpessa. Clytie. Myths of Diana. The Flight of Arethusa. Shelley's
Arethusa. The Fate of Actæon. The Fortunes and Death of Orion. The
Pleiads. Endymion. Myths of Venus. Adonis. Cupid and Psyche. Keats'
Ode to Psyche. Atalanta's Race. Hero and Leander. Pygmalion and the
Statue. Pyramus and Thisbe. Phaon. The Vengeance of Venus. Myths of
Mercury.
CHAPTER VIII. MYTHS OF THE GREAT DIVINITIES OF EARTH 152
Myths of Bacchus. The Wanderings of Bacchus. The Story of Acetes.
The Choice of King Midas.
CHAPTER IX. FROM THE EARTH TO THE UNDERWORLD 159
Myths of Ceres, Pluto, and Proserpine. The Rape of Proserpine. The
Wanderings of Ceres. Triptolemus and the Eleusinian Mysteries.
Orpheus and Eurydice.
CHAPTER X. MYTHS OF NEPTUNE, RULER OF THE WATERS 169
Lord of the Sea. Lord of Streams and Fountains. Pelops and
Hippodamia.
CHAPTER XI. MYTHS OF THE LESSER DIVINITIES OF HEAVEN 172
Myths of Stars and Winds. Cephalus and Procris. Dobson's The Death
of Procris. Ceyx and Halcyone. Aurora and Tithonus. Tennyson's
Tithonus. Memnon.
CHAPTER XII. MYTHS OF THE LESSER DIVINITIES OF EARTH, ETC. 181
Pan, and the Personification of Nature. Stedman's Pan in Wall
Street. Other Lesser Gods of Earth. Echo and Narcissus. Echo,
Pan, Lyde, and the Satyr. The Naiads. The Dryads, or Hamadryads.
Erysichthon. Dryope. Rh[oe]cus. Pomona and Vertumnus. The Cranes of
Ibycus.
CHAPTER XIII. MYTHS OF LESSER DIVINITIES OF THE WATERS 198
Galatea and Polyphemus. Glaucus and Scylla. Nisus and Scylla.
Leucothea. Proteus and Aristæus. Acheloüs and Hercules. Milton's
Sabrina Fair.
CHAPTER XIV. MYTHS OF THE OLDER HEROES: THE HOUSE OF DANAÜS, AND
ITS CONNECTIONS 206
The Older and the Younger Heroes. The Genealogy of Danaüs. The
Danaïds. The Doom of King Acrisius. Perseus and Medusa. Perseus and
Atlas. Perseus and Andromeda. Bellerophon and the Chimæra. Hercules
(Heracles): His Youth. His Labors. His Later Exploits. The Loss of
Hylas. The Rescue of Daphnis. The Expedition against Laomedon. The
Death of Hercules.
CHAPTER XV. THE FAMILY OF ÆOLUS 229
Descendants of Deucalion. The Quest of the Golden Fleece. The
Return of the Argonauts. Medea and Æson. Pelias.
CHAPTER XVI. THE FAMILY OF ÆTOLUS AND ITS CONNECTIONS 237
The Calydonian Hunt. Merope. Castor and Pollux. The Twin Brethren
among the Romans.
CHAPTER XVII. THE HOUSE OF MINOS 246
Minos of Crete. Dædalus and Icarus.
CHAPTER XVIII. THE HOUSE OF CECROPS AND ERICHTHONIUS 249
From Cecrops to Philomela. Matthew Arnold's Philomela. Theseus.
Theseus and Ariadne. Bacchus and Ariadne. The Amazons. Theseus and
Pirithoüs. Phædra and Hippolytus.
CHAPTER XIX. THE HOUSE OF LABDACUS 261
The Misfortunes of Thebes. [OE]dipus and the Sphinx. [OE]dipus, the
King. [OE]dipus at Colonus.
CHAPTER XX. MYTHS OF THE YOUNGER HEROES: THE SEVEN AGAINST THEBES
265
Their Exploits. The Seven against Thebes. Antigone. The Epigoni.
CHAPTER XXI. HOUSES CONCERNED IN THE TROJAN WAR 269
Three Families. Peleus. Achilles, Son of Peleus. Atreus. Tyndareus.
CHAPTER XXII. THE TROJAN WAR 277
Its Origin. Iphigenia in Aulis. Protesilaüs and Laodamia. Homer's
Iliad. The Wrath of Achilles. The Enlistment of the Gods. Thetis
intercedes for Achilles. Agamemnon calls a Council. Paris plays
the Champion. Helen surveys the Grecian Host. Menelaüs defeats
Paris. The Two Days' Battle. Hector and Andromache. Neptune aids
the Discouraged Greeks. Jupiter inspirits the Trojans. Achilles
and Patroclus. Patroclus in the Armor of Achilles. The Deaths of
Sarpedon and Patroclus. The Remorse of Achilles. The Reconciliation
of Agamemnon and Achilles. The Death of Hector. Achilles drags the
Body of Hector. Priam in the Tent of Achilles.
CHAPTER XXIII. THE FALL OF TROY 307
The Fall of Troy. The Death of Achilles. Contest for the Arms of
Achilles. Paris and [OE]none. The Palladium. The Wooden Horse.
Laocoön and the Serpents. The Death of Priam. The Survivors. Helen,
Menelaüs, and Agamemnon. Electra and Orestes. Orestes pursued by
the Furies. His Purification.
CHAPTER XXIV. THE WANDERINGS OF ULYSSES 318
From Troy to Phæacia. The Lotos-eaters. The Cyclopes. The Bag of
Winds. The Læstrygonians. The Isle of Ææa. Ulysses visits Hades.
The Sirens. Scylla and Charybdis. The Cattle of the Sun. Calypso's
Island. The Land of the Phæacians. Fate of the Suitors. Tennyson's
Ulysses.
CHAPTER XXV. ADVENTURES OF ÆNEAS 346
From Troy to Italy. The Departure from Troy. The Promised Empire.
The Harpies. Epirus. The Cyclopes Again. The Resentment of Juno.
The Sojourn at Carthage. Dido. Palinurus. Italy at Last. The Sibyl
of Cumæ. The Infernal Regions. The Elysian Fields. The Valley of
Oblivion.
CHAPTER XXVI. THE WAR BETWEEN TROJANS AND LATINS 362
The Fulfillment of Prophecy. The Gates of Janus Opened. Camilla.
Alliance with Evander. The Site of Future Rome. Turnus attacks the
Trojan Camp. Nisus and Euryalus. The Death of Mezentius. The Deaths
of Pallas and Camilla. The Final Conflict.
CHAPTER XXVII. MYTHS OF THE NORSE GODS 373
The Creation. Yggdrasil. Odin and his Valhalla. The Valkyries. Thor
and the Other Gods. Loki and his Progeny. The Conflict with the
Mountain Giants. The Recovery of Thor's Hammer. Thor's Visit to
Jötunheim. The Sword of Freyr. The Death of Balder. The Funeral of
Balder. The Elves. Ragnarok.
CHAPTER XXVIII. MYTHS OF NORSE AND OLD GERMAN HEROES 398
The Saga of the Volsungs. The Lay of the Nibelungs.
CHAPTER XXIX. THE RING OF THE NIBELUNG 410
Wagner's Tetralogy. The Rhine-gold. The Valkyrie. Siegfried. The
Twilight of the Gods.
PART II
THE HISTORY OF MYTH
CHAPTER XXX. THE ORIGIN AND ELEMENTS OF MYTH 431
Kinds of Myth. Divisions of Inquiry. Elements of the Myth.
Reasonable Myths. Unreasonable Myths. Theory of Deterioration.
Theory of Progress.
CHAPTER XXXI. THE DISTRIBUTION OF MYTHS 447
Theories of Resemblance.
CHAPTER XXXII. THE PRESERVATION OF MYTHS 450
Traditional History. In Greece. Roman Poets of Mythology. Records
of Norse Mythology. Records of German Mythology. Records of
Oriental Mythology: Egyptian. Indian Records. Persian Records.
COMMENTARY 465
RULES FOR PRONUNCIATION 541
INDEX OF MYTHOLOGICAL SUBJECTS AND SOURCES 543
INDEX OF MODERN AUTHORS AND ARTISTS 582
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
FIGURE PAGE
1. Jupiter surveying the World. Roman Wall Painting, Naples:
_Herculaneum and Pompeii, by H. Roux Ainé_ 3
2. Athena and Giant. Greek Bronze, Mus. Kircherianum:
_Journal of Hellenic Studies, 4, 90_ 7
3. Zeus and Giants. Ancient Gem: _Baumeister 3, 1791_ 8
4. Prometheus making Man. Roman Sarcophagus in the Capitoline:
_Baumeister 3, 1568_ 9
Upper row, from left to right: Oceanus, the Sun-god, Clotho,
Lachesis, etc. Lower row: Cupid and Psyche, Gæa (Tellus),
Prometheus, the newly created Man to whom Minerva gives life
(the butterfly). Death, Cupid with down-turned torch, the first
man dead, Atropos, Mercury.
5. Poseidon (Neptune), Dionysus (Bacchus) and Goddess. East
Frieze, Parthenon, in the British Museum: _Photograph_ 17
6. Two Hours. Greek Vase Painting, St. Petersburg:
_Roscher 1, 2727_ 18
7. Zeus from Dodona. Greek Bronze: _Photograph_ 20
8. Zeus after Phidias. Coin of Elis: _A. S. Murray, Greek
Bronzes, opp. p. 81_ 21
9. Hera of Argos. Greek Marble: _Argive Heræum, 1_ 22
10. Athena Velletri. Ancient Marble in the Louvre:
_Photograph_ 23
11. Ares Ludovisi. Ancient Marble in Rome: _Photograph_ 24
12. Ares (Mars). Painting by Raphael: _Photograph_ 25
13. The Forge of Vulcan. Roman Relief: _Baumeister 3, 1640_ 25
14. Apollo (so-called Adonis). Ancient Marble in the Vatican:
_Photograph_ 26
15. Apollo Belvedere. Ancient Marble in the Vatican:
_Photograph_ 27
16. Apollo. Greek Bronze from Thessaly, British Museum:
_Murray, Greek Bronzes, Fig. 28_ 28
17. Diana. Painting by Correggio: _Photograph_ 29
18. Diana (Artemis) of Versailles. Ancient Marble in the Louvre:
_Photograph_ 30
19. Artemis Knagia. Ancient Silver Medallion from Herculaneum:
_Roscher 1, 566_ 31
20. Hermes Psychopompos. Greek Stele of Myrrhina: _P. Gardner,
Sculptured Tombs, Fig. 72_ 34
Hermes (Mercury) leading to the underworld the spirit of a lady,
Myrrhina, who has just died. From a relief on her tomb.
21. Eros (Cupid). Ancient Marble, Naples: _Photograph_ 36
22. Rape of Ganymede. Ancient Marble in the Vatican:
_Baumeister 2, 891_ 37
23. Polyhymnia. Ancient Marble, Berlin:
_Baumeister 2, 1185_ 37
24. The Three Fates. Painting attributed to Michelangelo, but
recently conjectured to be by Rosso Fiorentino. Florence:
_Photograph_ 38
25. Boreas. Greek Reliefs, Athens: _Baumeister 3, 2370_ 39
26. Zephyros. Greek Reliefs, Athens: _Baumeister 3, 2370_ 39
27. Boreas carrying off Orithyia. Greek Vase Painting, Munich:
_Baumeister 1, 373_ 40
28. Iris carrying Child. Vase Painting: _Gerhard, Auserlesene
Vasenbilder, 2, 83_ 41
29. Demeter of Knidos. Greek Marble in the British Museum: _E.
von Mach, Handbook of Greek and Roman Sculpture,
Plate 247_ 42
30. Ceres. Roman Wall Painting:
_I. Weir, Greek Painting, p. 343_ 43
31. Dionysus and the Vine. Ancient Marble in the British Museum:
_Roscher 1, 292_ 44
32. Pan the Hunter. Ancient Terra Cotta: _Murray and Hutton,
Plate VI_ 45
33. A Satyr with Grafting Materials. Ancient Gem:
_Pine's Virgil_ 46
34. The Greek Underworld. Ancient Vase Painting from Canusium:
_Baumeister 3, 2042 B_ 48
Center: Hades and Persephone. Above, left: Megara, wife of
Heracles, and two of her children, slain by Heracles when mad.
Above, right: a Fury guarding Pirithoüs and Theseus. Middle,
left: Orpheus playing and dancing, and an unknown family group.
Middle, right: the three judges of the dead. Below: Sisyphus, a
Fury, Hermes, Heracles with Cerberus, a Fury, Tantalus.
35. Hermes conducting a Soul to Charon. Ancient Terra Cotta:
_Archäologische Zeitung, Berlin_ 49
36. Hypnos (_Somnus_, Sleep).
_Murray, Greek Bronzes, opp. p. 72_ 50
37. A Fury. Ancient Vase Painting: _Roscher 1, 1334_ 51
38. Hades. Ancient Marble in the Villa Borghese, Rome:
_Baumeister 1, 690_ 53
39. Death, Sleep, and Hermes laying a Body in the Tomb. Ancient
Vase Painting: _P. Gardner, Sculptured Tombs, Fig. 5_ 54
40. Poseidon from Dodona. Greek Bronze in the British Museum:
_Murray, Greek Bronzes, Fig. 32_ 55
41. Wedding of Poseidon and Amphitrite. Ancient Marble Frieze,
Munich: _Baumeister 3, 1744 B_ 56
42. Triton carrying off a Nymph. Ancient Marble in the Vatican:
_Baumeister 3, 1964_ 57
43. Bearded Janus. Roman Coin: _Baumeister 2, 1166 A_ 60
44. Genius Loci. Wall Painting from Herculaneum in the Naples
Museum: _Gusman, Pompeii, p. 107_ 62
45. Ganymede feeding the Eagle. Ancient Relief:
_Pietro Santi Bartoli, Gli. Antichi Sepolcri_ 64
46. Hermes (Mercury) kills Argus in presence of Zeus. Ancient
Vase Painting: _Roscher 2, 279_ 65
47. Io, Argus, and Mercury. Wall Painting from Herculaneum in
the Naples Museum: _Baumeister 1, 802_ 66
48. Europa on the Bull. Greek Vase Painting:
_Harrison-Maccoll, Plate IV_ 69
49. Nereïds on Sea Beasts. Ancient Marble Frieze in Munich:
_Baumeister 3, 1744 A_ 70
50. Youthful Bacchus embracing Semele in presence of Apollo and
a Satyr. Etruscan Mirror, Berlin: _Baumeister 1, 557_ 71
51. Amphion and Zethus. Ancient Relief in the Palazzo Spada,
Rome: _Roscher 2, 311_ 76
52. Contest of Athena and Poseidon for the Supremacy of Athens.
Ancient Vase Painting, St. Petersburg:
_Baumeister 3, 1542_ 83
53. Athena. Ancient Marble in Hope Collection: _Furtwängler,
Masterpieces, Fig. 27_ 85
54. Cadmus slaying the Dragon. Ancient Vase Painting, Naples:
_Baumeister 2, 822_ 87
Athena counseling. Above: river-god Ismenos, fountain-nymph
Krene, and personification of Thebes.
55. Harmonia in Company of Deities. Greek Vase Painting:
_Ephemeris, 1897-1898, Plate X_ 89
Aphrodite, Eros, Harmonia standing, Peitho (Persuasion)
sitting, and Koré, Hebe, Himeros (Desire).
56. The Forge of Vulcan. Painting by Velasquez:
_Photograph_ 90
57. A Sacrifice to Apollo. Greek Vase Painting:
_Gardner-Jevons Manual, p. 249, Fig. 16_ 91
58. Apollo with Hyacinthus. Ancient Marble in Hope Collection:
_Roscher 16-17, 2765_ 93
59. The Fall of Phaëthon. Roman Relief in the Louvre:
_Baumeister 3, 1449_ 97
Upper left-hand corner: Phaëthon making his request of Helios
(Ph[oe]bus). Below: the Heliades turning into trees. Center:
the maddened horses, one chariot wheel, and Phaëthon falling
into the arms of Eridanus. The horsemen left and right of the
four horses are Castor and Pollux. Earth-gods, sea-gods, and
other figures.
60. A Son of Niobe. Ancient Marble in Florence:
_Baumeister 3, 1751_ 100
61. The Children of Niobe. Ancient Relief, St. Petersburg:
_Baumeister 3, 1759_ 101
62. Niobe and her Youngest Daughter. Ancient Marble, Florence:
_Baumeister 3, 1746_ 102
63. Æsculapius (Asklepios). Ancient Marble, Florence:
_Furtwängler, Masterpieces, Fig. 87_ 104
64. Admetus must Die. Wall painting from Herculaneum in Naples:
_Baumeister 1, 53_ 106
65. Heracles. Ancient Marble in Lansdowne House:
_Photograph_ 108
66. The Palatine Apollo. Ancient Marble in Vatican:
_Baumeister 1, 104_ 110
67. Daphne. Ancient Marble:
_Springer, Kunstgeschichte, 1, 336_ 113
68. Artemis (Diana). Ancient Marble, Dresden:
_Furtwängler, Masterpieces, p. 325_ 117
69. Arethusa. Ancient Coin: _Baumeister 2, 1140_ 118
70. A Young River-god. Ancient Bronze Head:
_Roscher 9, 1489_ 119
71. Actæon. Ancient Marble Relief: _Baumeister 1, 41_ 121
72. The Pleiades. Painting by Elihu Vedder: _Photograph_ 123
73. Endymion. Ancient Relief in the Capitoline, Rome: _E. von
Mach, Handbook of Greek and Roman Sculpture, Plate 306_ 124
74. The Death of Adonis. Ancient Marble in the Louvre:
_Baumeister 1, 17_ 127
Right: Adonis leaves Venus. Center: he is wounded. Left: he is
cared for by Venus, Cupid, and attendants.
75. Psyche at the Couch of Cupid. Painting by Thumann:
_Photograph_ 130
76. Psyche and Cupid on Mount Olympus. Painting by Thumann:
_Photograph_ 136
77. Artemis of Gabii. Ancient Marble in the Louvre: _E. von
Mach, Handbook of Greek and Roman Sculpture, Plate 207_ 139
78. Atalanta's Race. Painting by Poynter: _Photograph_ 140
79. Hero and Leander. Painting by Keller: _Photograph_ 144
80. Thisbe. Painting by Edward Burne-Jones: _Photograph_ 148
81. Hermes and Dog disguised as Pig. Ancient Vase Painting,
Vienna: _Harrison-Maccoll, Plate XXXIIIa_ 151
82. Silenus taking Dionysus (Bacchus) to School. Ancient Terra
Cotta: _Murray and Hutton, Fig. 36_ 152
83. Bearded Dionysus on Mule, attended by Satyr. Old Greek
Terra Cotta Relief: _Baumeister 1, 481_ 153
84. Satyr and Mænad with Child Dionysus. Ancient Relief:
_Baumeister 2, 932_ 154
85. Dionysus at Sea. Greek Vase Painting in the Pinakothek,
Munich: _Harrison-Maccoll, Plate I_ 155
86. Bacchic Procession. Greek Vase Painting: _Arch. Zeit._ 156
87. Dionysus visiting a Poet. Ancient Relief, Naples:
_Baumeister 3, 1849_ 157
88. Rape of Proserpina. Ancient Relief:
_Baumeister 1, 461_ 159
89. Hades and Persephone. Ancient Terra Cotta:
_P. Gardner, Sculptured Tombs, Fig. 29_ 161
90. Sacrifice to Demeter and Persephone. Greek Relief in Paris:
_Baumeister 1, 457_ 162
91. Triptolemus and the Eleusinian Deities. Greek Vase Painting:
_Baumeister 3, 1958_ 164
Demeter behind the chariot and Persephone and the nymph Eleusis
in front.
92. Demeter (Ceres), Triptolemus, and Proserpina. Greek Relief:
_E. von Mach, Handbook of Greek and Roman Sculpture,
Plate 178_ 165
93. Orpheus and Eurydice. Painting by Lord Leighton:
_Photograph_ 166
94. Farewell of Orpheus and Eurydice (Mercury ready to lead her
away). Ancient Marble Relief in Villa Albani, Rome:
_Photograph_ 167
95. Isthmian Poseidon. Ancient Marble in Lateran:
_Springer, Kunstgeschichte, 1, Fig. 495_ 169
96. Pelops winning the Race; Hippodamia looking on. Ancient Vase
Painting: _Baumeister 2, 1395_ 171
97. Phosphor, Eos, and Helios (the Sun) rising from the Sea.
Ancient Vase Painting:
_Gerhard, Akademische Abhandlungen_ 172
98. Sun, rising, preceded by Dawn. Painting by Guido Reni:
_Photograph_ 173
99. Sunrise; Eos (Dawn) pursuing Cephalus. Greek Vase Painting:
_P. Gardner, Grammar of Greek Art, Fig. 71_ 174
The young stars descending; to the left, the moon (Selene)
riding over the hills.
100. The God of Sleep. Ancient Relief: _Baumeister 1, 770_ 176
101. The Death of Memnon (Aurora lifting his body). Greek Vase
Painting in the Louvre: _Harrison-Maccoll, Plate XVIII_ 180
102. Pan blowing his Pipe, Echo answering. Ancient Earthenware
Lamp: _Baumeister 1, 514_ 182
103. The Music Lesson (Pan teaching a Boy). Ancient Marble,
Florence: _Baumeister 2, 1340_ 184
104. Bacchic Dance (Nymph and Satyrs). Ancient Relief:
_Baumeister 3, 1931_ 184
105. Silenus. From an ancient candelabrum in Munich:
_Baumeister 2, 895_ 185
106. Satyr (Marble Faun). Ancient Marble in the Capitoline, Rome:
_Photograph_ 186
107. Satyr swinging Maiden. Greek Vase Painting in Berlin:
_Harrison-Maccoll, Plate XXXII_ 186
108. Satyr drinking from Amphora. Ancient Vase Painting in
Baltimore: _Harrison-Maccoll, Plate IX_ 187
109. Narcissus gazing at his Reflection. Wall Painting from
Pompeii, Naples: _Baumeister 2, 1213_ 188
110. A Rustic. Wall Painting from Herculaneum 195
111. A Rustic. Wall Painting from Herculaneum 196
112. Galatea and Polyphemus. Wall Painting in House of
Germanicus, Rome: _Roscher 9, 1587_ 199
113. A Sea-god, perhaps Glaucus. Ancient Marble in Vatican:
_Baumeister 2, 987_ 200
114. Nereïds and Sea Monsters. Ancient Relief:
_Baumeister 2, 1216_ 204
115. The Danaïds. Ancient Marble Relief in Vatican:
_Roscher 6, 951_ 207
116. Danaë and Perseus and the Chest. Greek Vase Painting in St.
Petersburg: _Harrison-Maccoll, Plate XXXIV_ 208
117. Medusa Rondanini (Front View). Ancient Marble in Munich:
_Furtwängler, Masterpieces, Fig. 63_ 209
118. Medusa Rondanini (Profile). Ancient Marble in Munich:
_Furtwängler, Masterpieces, Fig. 63_ 209
119. Perseus. Marble by Cellini in Florence: _Photograph_ 210
120. Perseus with the Head of Medusa. Ancient Vase Painting:
_Gerhard_ 211
121. Perseus finds Andromeda. Ancient Vase Painting in Museum,
Berlin: _Jahrbuch des D. Arch. Instituts XI (1896),
Plate II_ 212
Right: Aphrodite holding wreath over Perseus' head. Left:
Cepheus seated, Hermes with his wand, and an Æthiopian
inhabitant.
122. Bellerophon and Pegasus. Ancient Relief:
_Baumeister 1, 317_ 215
123. Heracles strangling the Nemean Lion. Greek Vase Painting in
British Museum: _Baumeister 1, 722_ 217
Left: Iolaiis and the local nymph Nemea. Right: Athena and
Hermes.
124. Heracles killing the Hydra (behind him Athena and Iolaiis).
Greek Vase Painting: _Baumeister 1, 724_ 217
125. Heracles bringing Home the Boar (Eurystheus hiding in a
wine jar). Greek Vase Painting: _Harrison-Maccoll,
Plate XII_ 218
126. Heracles with the Bull: Metope of the Temple of Zeus at
Olympia: _Baumeister 2, 1285_ 219
127. Heracles and Cerberus. Greek Vase Painting:
_Baumeister 1, 730_ 220
Left: Athena and Hermes. Right: Goddess of the Underworld.
128. Heracles and Antæus. Greek Vase Painting in Athens:
_Harrison-Maccoll, Plate XXIV_ 221
129. Hercules and Nessus (Dejanira in Chariot). Wall Painting
from Pompeii: _Baumeister 1, 733_ 226
130. The Building of the Argo, Athene directing. Ancient Terra
Cotta Relief in the British Museum: _Baumeister 1, 127_ 229
131. Jason conquers the Bulls and steals the Fleece. Ancient
Relief in Vienna: _Baumeister 2, 981_ 231
Center: Æetes seated. Right: Medea assists her lover.
132. Medea deliberating upon the Murder of her Children. Wall
Painting from Herculaneum: _Baumeister 2, 948_ 234
133. Medea and Daughters of Pelias preparing the Caldron. Ancient
Marble Relief, Berlin: _Photograph_ 235
134. Meleager on the Boar Hunt. Roman Relief:
_Baumeister 2, 990_ 238
Atalanta appears twice,--as before the hunt to the left of the
central figures, as during the hunt in front of Meleager, and
shooting an arrow into the boar.
135. The Death of Meleager. Roman Sarcophagus in the Louvre:
_Baumeister 2, 991_ 241
Right: the contest between Meleager and his uncles. Left:
Althæa putting the fateful brand into the fire; behind her
a Fury whose torch has lighted the fire. Center: the dying
Meleager, and Atalanta seated mourning.
136, 137. Castor and Pollux capturing the Giant Talus. Ancient
Vase Painting: _Baumeister 3, 1804_ 244, 245
Pollux on foot in front of Medea. Seated Deities on right,
Poseidon and Amphitrite.
138. Dædalus and Icarus. Ancient Relief in the Villa Albani,
Rome: _Roscher 6, 934_ 247
139. So-called Theseus. Greek Marble in the Parthenon:
_Baumeister 2, 1370_ 249
140. Æthra caresses Theseus and sends him forth with his
Father's Sword. Greek Vase Painting, St. Petersburg:
_Harrison-Maccoll, Plate XXII_ 251
141. Theseus receiving Thanks from the Rescued after killing the
Minotaur. Campanian Wall Painting in Naples:
_Baumeister 3, 1876_ 252
142. The Sleeping Ariadne. Ancient Marble in Vatican:
_Baumeister 1, 130_ 254
143. Head of Dionysus. Ancient Marble, Leyden:
_Roscher 7, 1128_ 256
144. The Revels of Bacchus and Ariadne. Roman Sarcophagus:
_Baumeister 1, 492_ 257
Large figures from left to right: Priest, Satyr, Mænad,
Mercury, Bacchus and Ariadne seated, Satyr, Mænad, priest.
Small figures: Desire (Himeros) and Love leading Pan captive,
followed by Silenus.
145. Lapith and Centaur fighting. Greek Metope from the
Parthenon, British Museum: _Photograph_ 259
146. [OE]dipus and the Sphinx. Greek Vase Painting:
_P. Gardner, Grammar of Greek Art, Fig. 70_ 261
147. Eteocles and Polynices kill each other. Etruscan Relief,
Florence: _Baumeister 3, 1841_ 266
148. The Gods bring Wedding Gifts. Ancient Relief from the Villa
Albani, Rome: _Baumeister 1, 759_ 271
From right to left, married couple, Vulcan, Minerva, the four
seasons (Winter, Spring, Summer, Autumn) Hymen with torch, Comus,
Amor pushing jealous deity away.
149. Map of the Troad and the Hellespont 273
150. Helen persuaded by Aphrodite; Paris (Alexander) held by
Love. Ancient Relief in Naples:
_E. von Mach, Handbook, Plate 312_ 277
151. Achilles taken from Scyros by Ulysses (to the right) and
Diomedes (to the left). Pompeian Wall Painting, Naples:
_Roscher 1, 27_ 279
152. The Sacrifice of Iphigenia. Pompeian Wall Painting, Naples:
_Baumeister 1, 807_ 281
153. The Surrender of Briseïs. Relief by Thorwaldsen:
_Photograph_ 284
154. Hector's Farewell. Relief by Thorwaldsen: _Photograph_ 291
155, 156. The Embassy to Achilles. Greek Vase Painting:
_P. Gardner, Grammar of Greek Art, Fig. 72_ 294, 295
Left section: Briseïs is led away. Right section: Ajax and
Ulysses, leaning on staff, plead with Achilles; at the right,
Ph[oe]nix.
157. The Battle by the Ships. Greek Vase Painting:
_Baumeister 1, 783_ 296
Perhaps the moment when Ajax retreats. Hector presses upon him
followed by a youth with a torch. At the extreme right, Paris
drawing a bow.
158. Supposed Menelaüs with the Body of Patroclus. Ancient
Marble, Florence: _Baumeister 1, 785_ 298
159. Contest of Achilles and Hector. Ancient Vase Painting:
_Baumeister 1, 788_ 302
Left: Athene. Right: Apollo.
160. Achilles over the Body of Hector at the Tomb of Patroclus
(whose shade is running above the tomb). Greek Vase
Painting: _P. Gardner, Sculptured Tombs, Fig. 40_ 303
161. Priam's Visit to Achilles (under whose couch lies the body
of Hector). Greek Vase Painting: _Baumeister 1, 791_ 304
Achilles has been taking his dinner. Servants bear gifts behind
Priam.
162. Achilles and the Amazon Penthesilea. Greek Vase Painting:
_Baumeister 3, 2123_ 307
163. [OE]none warning Paris not to sail for Greece. Ancient
Relief, in the Villa Ludovisi, Rome:
_Baumeister 2, 1360_ 309
164. The Wooden Horse. Ancient Gem: _Baumeister 1, 794_ 310
165, 166. The Sack of Troy. Greek Vase Painting, Naples:
_Baumeister 1, 795_ 312, 313
Priam on altar, Astyanax on his lap, and Polites, whom Pyrrhus
has just killed, at his feet. Pyrrhus is about to strike Priam.
Behind him rushes Andromache to strike a kneeling soldier.
Below, under the palm tree, sits Hecuba facing the statue of
Minerva (a Palladium) behind which Helen is seen to cower. In
front Cassandra clings to the statue, while Ajax, striding
over the body of her dead lover, tries to drag her away by the
hair. To the left, Æneas, with Anchises in his arms, and little
Ascanius are hastening away.
167. Orestes and Electra at the Tomb of Agamemnon. Greek Vase
Painting: _Baumeister 3, 1939_ 315
168. Orestes pursued by Furies. Greek Vase Painting:
_Baumeister 2, 1313_ 316
169. Orestes and Pylades before the King of the Tauri (Iphigenia
as a priestess on the steps of the temple). Wall Painting
from Pompeii, Naples: _Springer,
Kunstgeschichte, 1, 529_ 316
170. Ulysses offering the Cyclops Wine. Ancient Statuette in the
Vatican: _Baumeister 2, 1251_ 318
171. Boring out the Cyclops' Eye. From an Attic Vase:
_P. Gardner, Grammar of Greek Art, p. 225_ 322
172. Ulysses and Two Companions under the Rams. Greek Vase
Painting: _Harrison-Maccoll, Plate XXIX_ 323
173. The Castle of Circe. Sicilian Vase Painting:
_Baumeister 2, 839_ 325
174. Ulysses and the Sirens. Greek Vase Painting in the British
Museum: _P. Gardner, Grammar of Greek Art, p. 227,
Fig. 78_ 329
175. Ulysses and Scylla. Etruscan Relief:
_Baumeister 3, 1762_ 330
176. Penelope at the Loom, and Telemachus. Greek Vase Painting in
Museum, Chiusi: _Harrison-Maccoll, Plate XLI_ 339
177. Ulysses recognized by Euryclea (behind him Eumæus). Ancient
Terra Cotta Relief: _Baumeister 2, 1257_ 341
178, 179. Ulysses kills the Suitors. Greek Vase Painting, Berlin:
_Baumeister 3, 2139_ 342, 343
It will be seen that the suitors are defending themselves.
180. The Nike (Victory) of Samothrace. Greek Statue in the
Louvre: _Von Mach, Greek Sculpture, Plate facing p. 30_ 345
181. Æneas, Anchises, and Iulus. Ancient Gem, Uffizi, Florence 347
182. Scylla (carved end of ancient table). _Chefs d'[OE]uvres
de l'Art Antique_, Paris, 1867 349
183. The Cumæan Sibyl. Painting by Michelangelo in the Vatican:
_Photograph_ 353
184. Ixion on the wheel. Ancient Vase Painting, Berlin:
_Baumeister 1, Fig. 821_ 358
Below, right: Vulcan looking at his handiwork; a Fury and
Hermes. Above: winged forms, perhaps the Hours, to see that the
motion is perpetual. One is even now shoving the wheel; the
other has just taken off her hand to point "your turn."
185. Amazon. Ancient Marble Statue: _Guhl and Koner_ 364
186. Valkyrie bearing a Hero to Valhalla. Painting by Dielitz:
_Photograph_ 375
187. Loki and Siguna. Painting by Gebhardt: _Photograph_ 393
188. Gunther and Brunhild. Fresco by Julius Schnorr von
Carolsfeld: _Photograph_ 406
189. Siegfried and Kriemhild. Fresco by Julius Schnorr von
Carolsfeld: _Photograph_ 407
FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS AND MAPS
PAGE
Lemnian Athena Frontispiece
Statue, possibly after Phidias, reconstructed by Furtwängler
from torso in Dresden and head in Bologna: _Photograph_.
Hera of the Vatican 22
Ancient Marble in the Vatican: _Photograph_.
Venus (Aphrodite) of Melos 32
Greek Marble in the Louvre: _Photograph_.
Greece in the Fifth Century B.C. 64
The Farnese Bull Group: Amphion, Zethus, Dirce, and Antiope 74
Ancient Marble in Naples: _E. von Mach, Handbook, Fig. 44_.
Apollo and Daphne 112
Marble Group by Bernini, Villa Borghese, Rome: _Photograph_.
Aphrodite (Petworth Head) 126
Ancient Marble in London: _Furtwängler, Masterpieces, Plate
XVII_.
Eros with Bow 136
Ancient Marble in the Capitoline Museum: _Baumeister 1, 539_.
Hermes of Praxiteles 150
Greek Marble in Olympia: _Photograph_.
Perseus freeing Andromeda 212
Ancient Relief in the Capitoline Museum: _Roscher 2, 346_.
The Wedding of Hercules and Hebe 226
Ancient Apulian Vase Painting in Berlin: _Baumeister 1, 700_.
Amazon 306
Ancient Marble in Lansdowne House: _Photograph_.
Laocoön 310
Greek Marble in the Vatican: _Photograph_.
The Outer Geography of the Odyssey 318
Flying Mercury 330
Statue by Giovanni di Bologna in Florence: _Photograph_.
Italy before the Growth of the Roman Empire 346
The Victory (Nike) of Brescia 372
Ancient Bronze Statue: _E. von Mach, Greek Sculpture, Plate
XXXV, No. 4_.
INTRODUCTION
THE STUDY OF MYTHOLOGY IN CONNECTION WITH ENGLISH POETRY AND WITH ART
Our American educational methods too frequently seek to produce the
effect of polish upon a kind of sandstone information that will
not stand polishing. With such fatuity many of our teachers in the
secondary schools exercise their pupils in the study of English
masterpieces and in the critical estimate of æsthetic qualities
before acquainting them with the commonplace facts and fables that,
transmitted through generations, are the material of much of our poetry
because the material of daily converse, imagination, and thought. These
commonplaces of tradition are to be found largely in the literature
of mythology. Of course the evil would be neither so widespread nor
so dangerous if more of the guardians and instructors of our youth
were at home even among the Greek and Latin classics. But for various
reasons,--some valid, as, for instance, the importance of increased
attention to the modern languages and the natural sciences; others
worthless, as the so-called utilitarian protest against the cultivation
of "dead" languages,--for various reasons the study of the classics
is at present considerably impaired. It is, therefore, incumbent upon
our universities and schools, recognizing this fact and deploring it,
to abate so far as possible the unfortunate consequences that proceed
therefrom, until, by a readjustment of subjects of instruction and
of the periods allotted them, the Greek and Latin classics shall be
reinstated in their proper place as a means of discipline, a humanizing
influence, the historic background against which our present appears.
For, cut off from the intellectual and imaginative sources of Greece
and Rome, the state and statesmanship, legislation and law, society
and manners, philosophy, religion, literature, art, and even artistic
appreciation, run readily shallow and soon dry.
Now, one evident means of tempering the consequence of this neglect
of the classics is the study of them through translations and
summaries. Such secondhand study must indeed be ever a makeshift; for
the literature of a people inheres in its language, and loses its
seeming and often its characteristic when caparisoned in the trappings
of another speech,--an utterance totally dissimilar, the outcome
of diverse conditions of physical environment, history, social and
intellectual tradition. But in dealing with the purely imaginative
products of antiquity, the inefficacy of translation may be somewhat
offset if those products be reproduced, so far as possible, not in the
prosaic but in the poetic atmosphere and in the imaginative garb of
art. For though the phenomena of plastic art are not the same in one
continent as in another, or from one century to the next, and though
the fashion of poetry itself varies from age to age and from clime
to clime, the genesis of imagination is universal, its products are
akin, and its process is continuous. For this reason the study of the
imaginative thought of the ancients through the artistic creations
of the moderns is commended to students and readers as feasible and
profitable.
The study of the classic myths stimulates to creative production,
prepares for the appreciation of poetry and other kinds of art, and
furnishes a clew to the spiritual development of the race.
1. Classic mythology has been for succeeding poetry, sculpture, and
painting, a treasure house replete with golden tales and glimmering
thoughts, passions in the rough and smooth, and fancies rich bejeweled.
Like Virgil's Shadows that flit by the Lethean stream until at beck
of Fate they revisit upper day and the ever-tranquil stars, these
ghosts of "far-off things and battles long ago," peopling the murmurous
glades of myth, await the artist who shall bestow on each his new and
predetermined form and restore them, purified and breathing of Elysian
air, to the world of life and ever-young mankind.
2. For the reader the study of mythology does, in this respect, as
much as for poet, sculptor, or painter. It assists him to thrid the
labyrinth of art, not merely with the clew of tradition, but with a
thread of surer knowledge whose surest strand is sympathy.
The knowledge of mythic lore has led men in the past broadly to
appreciate the motives and conditions of ancient art and literature,
and the uniform and ordered evolution of the æsthetic sense. And,
beside enriching us with heirlooms of fiction and pointing us to the
sources of imaginative joy from which early poets of Hellenic verse,
or Norse, or English, drank, the classic myths quicken the imaginative
and emotional faculties to-day, just as of old. How many a man held
by the sorrows of the Labdacidæ or the love of Alcestis, by some
curious wonder in Pausanias, or some woe in Hyginus, has waked to the
consciousness of artistic fancy and creative force within himself!
How many, indifferent to the well-known round, the trivial task, the
nearest care of home, have read the Farewell to Andromache and lived a
new sympathy, an unselfish thrill, a purified delight! And not only as
an impulse toward artistic output, or patriotic devotion, or domestic
altruism, but as a restraining influence, a chastener of æsthetic
excess, a moderator of the "unchartered freedom" that knows no mean
between idolatry and loathing, of the foolish frenzy that affects new
things, abnormal and sensational, in literature, music, and the plastic
arts,--as such a tutor and governor is the study of beautiful myths
invaluable. Long familiarity with the sweet simplicity, the orderly
restraint, the severe regard, the filial awe that pervade the myths
of Greece and Rome,--or with the newness of life and fullness and
wonder of it, the naïveté and the romance, of Eddic lore,--cannot but
graciously temper our modern estimate of artistic worth.
The study, when illustrated by masterpieces of literature and art,
should lead to the appreciation of concrete artistic productions of
both these kinds.
It goes without saying that a rational series of somewhat consecutive
stories is more serviceable to the reader than a congeries of data
acquired by spasmodic consultation of the classical dictionary,--a
mass of information bolted, as it were, but by no means digested. If,
moreover, these stories are narrated in genealogical and realistic
sequence and are illustrated by lyric, narrative, and descriptive
passages of modern literature, there is furnished not only that
material of allusion and reference for which the student nowadays
trusts to meager and disjointed textbook notes, but a potentiality
that should render the general reading of _belles-lettres_ more
profitable. For a previous acquaintance with the material of literary
tradition heightens the appreciation of each allusive passage as it is
encountered; it enables the reader to sympathize with the mood and to
enter into the purpose of the poet, the essayist, the novelist, the
orator; it expands the intellectual lungs for the atmosphere breathed
by the artist, at any rate for a literary and social atmosphere
less asthmatic than that to which so many of us are unconsciously
habituated. Of course all this advantage would far better result
from the first-hand nutriment and discipline of the Greek and Latin
classics; of course direct familiarity with the writers of Greece
and Rome is the _sine qua non_ of level-headed criticism and broad
evaluation of modern literature; and, of course, a sympathy with the
imaginings of old is the best incentive to an æsthetic estimate not
only of art but of nature to-day; but if our American pupils and many
of their teachers cannot quaff Massic and Falernian, they do well
to scent the bouquet. In time a sense of flavor may perchance be
stimulated, and ultimately a desire for nearer acquaintance with the
literatures that we inherit.
The study of these ancient tales serves, then, much more than the
purpose of special information. It refines the æsthetic judgment in
general, and heightens the enjoyment of such works of literature
as, not treating of mythical or classical subjects, still possess
the characteristics of the classic: the unconscious simplicity,
the inevitable charm, and the noble ideality. The Lycidas, the
Adonais, the Thyrsis, the In Memoriam, the Ode to Duty, the Bothie of
Tober-na-Vuolich, the Hymn of Man, Love is Enough, Prospice, Festus,
the Ode of Life, the Dream of Gerontius, Lying in the Grass, and
Simmenthal must mean little to one devoid of the spirit of classicism.
In respect of art a similar inspiration, aid, instruction, are afforded
by the study. This volume is liberally supplied with cuts of famous
paintings and sculptures of mythical subjects. Familiarity with
specimens of ancient art, even through the medium of photography and
engraving, must not only cultivate the historic sense but stimulate
the æsthetic. The cruder efforts of the ancients, no less than the
more refined, are windows through which we view the ancient mind.
The frequent contemplation of their nobler efforts and of the modern
masterpieces here reproduced may avail to lift some from the level of
apathy or provinciality in matters of imagination; some it may spur to
a study of the originals, some to artistic creation. A public which,
from year to year, displays a deeper interest in the art of foreign
lands will despise no auxiliary to a more intelligent appreciation of
that art. A country whose future in artistic achievement cannot be
prophesied in a paragraph will more and more truly recognize the value
of a study that is an introduction to much that is best in art as it
exists.
3. Furthermore, it must be borne in mind that the myths of the
ancients, as the earliest literary crystallization of social order and
religious fear, record the incipient history of religious ideals and
of moral conduct. For though ethnologists may insist that to search
for truth _in_ mythology is vain, the best of them will grant that to
search for truth _through_ mythology is wise and profitable. If we
accept the statement (often stretched beyond its proper limit) that
mythology is primitive philosophy, and the other statement that an
ancient philosophy never dies, but by process of internal growth, of
modification, and of accretion acquires a purer spirit and a new and
higher form,--then, since truth was never yet conceived of error (_ex
nihilo nihil fit_), the truth now recognized, while it did not exist
in that fraction of myth which happens to be irrational, existed as an
archetypal impulse,--set the myth in motion, and, as a process refining
the mind of man, tended steadily to eliminate from primitive philosophy
(that is, from the myths that embodied primitive philosophy) the
savage, ephemeral, and irrational element. For all myths spring from
the universal and inalienable desire to know, to enjoy, to teach. These
impulses of knowledge, of imaginative relaxation, of conduct, are the
throbbing of the heart of reason; the first or the second is the primal
pulse of every myth, and to the life of every myth each impulse may be,
at some period, contributory. This study has led men to trace soberly
the progress of their kind from the twilight of gray conjecture to the
dawn of spiritual conviction and rational individuality; to discern a
continuity of thought, an outward reach of imagination, an upward lift
of moral and religious ideas; to confess the brotherhood of humanity
and an inspiring purpose which holds good for every race and through
all time.
SUGGESTIONS TO TEACHERS
1. _Of the Classic Myths in their Relation to Literature._ It is
essential that the teacher of mythology, no matter what textbook
or system he uses or what classic epic he proposes to present,
should first make himself acquainted with the meaning of myth, its
origin and elements; the difference between myth and fable, between
myths explanatory and myths æsthetic, myths reasonable and myths
unreasonable, the theories of myth-making as a process of deterioration
or as a process of development. He should also inform himself
concerning the ways in which the leading myths have been disseminated,
and how the survivors have been preserved. Materials for this
preparation he will find in Chapters XXX-XXXII of this book as readily,
perhaps, as elsewhere; but no matter where he obtains this information
he should in a simple and interesting talk pass on the cream of it
to the pupils about to begin the study of the stories themselves. He
will in that way bring them to a reasonable appreciation of the value
of myths and their relation to our civilization, and awaken in them
anticipatory interest in the proposed reading. It is a great mistake to
plunge students of high-school age, without preliminary orientation and
a justification of the study, into a world which may otherwise appear
to them unreasonable in conception and unrelated in experience. Pupils
may, if time permits, read these concluding chapters, and so obtain
a systematic outlook upon the subject, during a brief review in the
senior year, but not earlier.
This book should be studied for its materials and the inspiration
that it affords,--not word by word for its style, or as a dictionary
or scientific authority; nor paragraph by paragraph with a painful
committing to memory of each myth and each episode in the myth.
Discrimination must be made. Some of these myths, and especially the
episodes from the epics (Chapters XXII-XXIX), are to be read rapidly
and in large assignments, sometimes at home with reports in class,
sometimes in class and at sight, but always for the enjoyment. Others
are to be studied in detail, but solely when they are of special and
vital significance, historically, morally, or æsthetically. Emphasis
should be laid only occasionally and sparingly upon interpretations of
mythical materials. What both teacher and student should aim at is the
picture--manners, morals, ideals, heroic figures, epic events, broad
and vivid against the canvas of antiquity: that, and the reality of
classic order, grandeur, and restraint.
The myths are here presented in a logical and genealogical arrangement;
and they should be studied in this order, so that the pupil may carry
away, not a jumble of sporadic recollections, but some conception
of the systems of creative imagination which obtained in earlier
civilizations. The knowledge of the myths and the proper perspective
of their relation, one to another, may further be fixed by the study
of the family ties that motivate many of the incidents of mythical
adventure, and that must have been commonplaces of information to the
inventors and narrators of these stories.
The myths may well be reproduced as exercises in narration, comparison,
description; and they may be regarded as stimulus for imaginative
invention concerning local wonders and beauties of nature. Pupils
may also be encouraged to consider, and to comment upon, the moral
qualities of the heroes and heroines of mythology. Thus they may be led
to recognize the difference between ancient and modern standards of
right and wrong. To this end, and for the supply of further nutriment,
it is important that teachers collect from their reading of the
classic originals, or from translations of the Iliad, the Odyssey,
the Greek dramatists, the Æneid, the Metamorphoses, etc., material
supplementary to the text, and give it freely to their classes. To
facilitate this practice the sources of the myths have been indicated
in the footnotes of this volume, and a few of the best translations
have been mentioned in the Commentary. Instructors should also read to
the classes illustrative English poems, or portions of them based upon
the myths under consideration; and they should encourage the pupils to
collect from their English reading additional examples of the literary
survival or adaptation of ancient story. For this purpose special
sections of the Commentary have been prepared, indicating some of the
best known literary applications of each myth.
The Commentary is numbered in sections corresponding to those of the
text. The Textual Notes should be studied in connection with each
lesson, the Interpretative more sparingly, as I have said. They should
not be suffered to spoil the interest in the stories as such. They
are of interest in themselves only to maturer minds. Allusions and
interpretations which the younger pupil does not appreciate will, if
the book is used for purposes of reference in his further English,
Latin, or Greek studies, be clear before the end of his course.
From the outset care should be taken that pupils give to the classical
names their proper accent, and that they anglicize both vowels and
consonants according to the recognized rules laid down in the Latin
grammars, the English dictionaries, and the pages preceding the Index
of this book.
Mythological and classical geography should not be neglected. The maps
accompanying this volume will be serviceable; but there should be
in the classroom one of Kiepert's maps of the World as Known to the
Ancients (Orbis Veteribus Notus), or maps of Ancient Italy, Greece,
and Asia Minor. The teacher will find the International Atlas (G.
P. Putnam's Sons, New York), A. Keith Johnston's School and College
Atlas of Ancient Geography, or the new edition of the same by James
Cranstoun, issued as Ginn and Company's Classical Atlas, indispensable
in the prosecution of general reading.
When it is the intention to study, in connection with the book,
an Homeric epic or a portion of it, the teacher should first make
sure that the class has an adequate preliminary training in general
mythology (such, for instance, as may be provided by the first
twenty-one chapters); he should then outline rapidly and entertainingly
the epic as a whole, emphasizing its position in the literature of the
world and its relation to the world of its own times, before proceeding
to read it in detail with the class. Excellent suggestions as to this
method of study are offered in the Introduction to Maxwell & Chubb's
Pope's Homer's Iliad, Books I, VI, XXII, and XXIV (Longmans), and in
the Introduction to the Riverside Edition of the Odyssey: Ulysses among
the Phæacians (Houghton Mifflin Company).
The more important myths and the best illustrative poems should provide
not only nutriment for thought, but material for memory. Our youth in
the push for hasty achievement bolt their meals; they masticate little,
swallow everything, digest nothing,--and having agonized, forget. If
fewer things were dispatched, especially in the study of literature,
and if more were intrusted to the memory, there would be something to
assimilate and time to assimilate it; there would be less dyspepsia and
more muscle. Teachers and parents are over-considerate, nowadays, of
the memory in children: they approach it gingerly; they have feared so
much to wring its withers that in most children the memory has grown
too soft for saddling. In our apprehension lest pupils may turn out
parrots, we have too often turned them out loons. It is better that a
few of the facts in their heads be wrong than that no facts be there
at all. With all our study of children and our gabble about methods
of teaching them, while we insist, properly enough, that youth is the
seedtime of observation, we seem to have forgotten that it is also the
harvest-time of memory. It is easy for children to remember what they
learn, it is a delight for them to commit to memory; we act criminally
when we send them forth with hardly a fact or a date or a glorious
verse in the memory of one out of ten of them. Such, unfortunately,
is the case in many of our schools; and such was not the case in the
day of our fathers. Pupils should be encouraged to recite _memoriter_
the best poems and verses that accompany the myths here given; and
they should not be allowed to pass allusions already explained without
recalling verses that contain them.
But above all things should be cultivated, by means of this study, the
spiritual capabilities of our youth. _Pabulum_ for thought, accurate
habits of memory, critical judgment, simplicity and directness of oral
and written expression, may all be furnished or developed by other
educative agencies; but what stimulus to fancy, to poetic sensitiveness
and reflection, to a near kinship with the spirit of nature humanized,
can be found more cogent than the contemplation of the poetic
traditions that abide in verse? Mythology, fraught with the fire of
imagination, kindles the present from the past.
In this new world of ours, shall slopes and mountains, gorges, cañons,
flowery fields and forests, rivers, bays, Titanic lakes, and shoreless
reach of ocean be seen of eyes that lack insight, be known of men for
whom nature does not live? Surely the age of myth is not wholly past;
surely the beauties and the wonders of nature are a fable of things
never fully revealed; surely this new republic of ours, no less than
her prototypes by Tyrrhenian and Ægean seas, utters, in her queenly
form and flowing robes, a spirit, a truth, a potential poetry, and a
beauty of art, the grace of which we Americans, with deeper imaginative
training and sympathy and awe, may yet more highly value and more
clearly comprehend.
2. _Of the Classic Myths in their Relation to Art._[1] The illustration
of a book on ancient mythology offers great difficulties, because
the modern reader expects one thing and the ancient artist, on whose
works one must rely, intentionally offers a very different thing. We
have grown to be a reading people, forming our ideas largely on the
written word, while in antiquity the spoken word opened the door to
understanding. A story which has been committed to writing is fixed
for all time, having lost its power of growth; whereas a tale that
passes from mouth to mouth, with no record by which to check its
accuracy in particulars, is free to expand. It changes with the moods
of those who tell it, and the intellectual and moral standards of those
who listen. People to-day are unimaginative and literal. They also
expect that the pictures which illustrate their books shall follow
the individual conceptions of the author closely. When the story is
dramatized a certain latitude is granted to the actor; the artist,
however, who illustrates the book has no such freedom. He is expected
to take precisely the author's view of a fictitious character, and,
consequently, his individuality may show itself only in the technique.
In antiquity there were no standard books of fiction or of myths.
When writing came into use with the sixth century before Christ, the
individual versions of this or that great epic poem or drama were
preserved; but the great mass of the people knew them, not because they
had read the manuscripts, but because they had heard them acted or
recited. Book illustrations, therefore, were unknown. Yet so powerful
was the impression which the myths made on the people that most of
the artists drew their inspiration from them. Artists and poets alike
wished to make real the powerful characters of Greek tradition. To make
a literally true illustration of any one version of a great myth was
not the aim of a classic artist.
Another difficulty is found in the fact that few ancient myths
continued to be equally interesting to the people all the time. It is
therefore necessary for us, in choosing illustrations, to draw on all
periods of ancient art, the crude beginning and the decline as well as
the brief span of fine art. The comparatively meager store of genuinely
classic works of art acts as one of the greatest obstacles to the
compilation of a continuous record of classic myths in classic art.
To give such a record, however, rather than to _illustrate_ his book,
must be the aim of the author who publishes to-day a version of ancient
mythology together with such pictures or reliefs or statues as are
preserved. The modern reader of such a book should therefore appreciate
this fact: he must make allowance for the gradual development of
ancient art. The picture is not there for the sake of strengthening
the written work, but for its own sake. It often offers an independent
version of the myth which he reads, and at all times may give him an
insight into the mental make-up of the classic people.
Sculpture was the finest art of the Greeks, if one may judge by the
remains. In this province the artists worked according to the best
principles of art, making their appeal directly to the nobler side
of man. Before an ancient statue one feels the power of an idea
immediately, and not by the circuitous route of remembering a sequence
of words which may have aimed to suggest a similar idea. The Greeks
were the least literal in their sculpture. Their marbles, therefore,
cannot yield _illustrations_ which the modern editor can use, except
when they embody, like the Demeter of Knidos (Fig. 29) or the Athena
of Velletri (Fig. 10), a well-defined character-conception. The modern
reader, on the other hand, cannot fail to notice that this conception
never does justice to the character of the goddess as it appears in
all the myths, and very rarely even to that characteristic which may
dominate the particular version of any one myth. If such pictures,
however, were entirely omitted from the book, the best means of
appreciating the essential nobility of the Greek mind would be lost.
None of the Greek masterpieces of painting are extant. Their attenuated
influence, however, may be traced in the Italian wall paintings from
Pompeii and elsewhere. Painting permits greater literalness than
sculpture. The picture from Herculaneum, for instance,--Io, Argus,
and Mercury (Fig. 47),--tells a definite story and one which is also
told by the poets. But the painter has considered the making of a
pleasing picture first, and given only a secondary thought to accuracy
of tradition. This must be so; for while we may without displeasure
listen to the description of a monster, we cannot see his actual
representation without discomfort. When we hear how the companions
of Ulysses were turned into swine, the tragic note is never lost. To
paint this scene, however, and not to border on the ridiculous or
the burlesque is given only to the greatest artist--if it is at all
possible.
Fortunately for our purposes of illustration, there was a class of
secondary artists in Greece which did not always shrink from selecting
subjects ill adapted for art, and from rendering them with slight
variations so that they are neither bad to look at nor altogether
untrue. These were the painters of vases. Some of them were masters of
their craft (cf. Fig. 116), others were of only mediocre skill. All,
however, like their nobler brethren, were primarily concerned with the
decorative and technical side of their art and but secondarily with
their subject. If the story, for instance, called for four persons and
their space for five, they unhesitatingly added the fifth person, and,
vice versa, removed one without compunction if they had place for fewer
figures than the story demanded. Being, moreover, commercial people,
they painted according to fashion. Whatever version of a myth happened
to be popular, that they selected, so that it has been possible to
trace by their vases the changes which several myths underwent from the
sixth century onward.
A careful student notices the similarity of types in many of these
pictures and realizes that the ancient painter of vases started out
with a certain stock-in-trade which he altered as little as possible,
adding something new only where it was absolutely necessary.
From these observations it is clear that the works of men who were
least gifted artistically are the best adapted for the purposes of book
illustrations; for a painter is literal in the inverse ratio of his
worth as artist. Nothing, therefore, could be less fair than to judge
Greek vase painting by the collection of pictures here offered. Only
paintings like Figures 85 and 101, for instance, can give a hint of the
best that these men produced.
Going gradually down the scale of artists one finally comes to the
level of the makers of Roman sarcophagi, in whose honor it can only be
said that to descend lower is impossible. Several myths, however,--the
story of the fall of Phaëthon (Fig. 59), for instance,--are not
illustrated in art before the decadent period of imperial Roman
sculpture. It is therefore necessary to draw also upon this source.
Of course unity of art or school or excellence cannot be preserved in
a set of pictures which groups the Demeter of Knidos (Fig. 29), the
blinding of Polyphemus (Fig. 171), and the fall of Phaëthon (Fig. 59).
But individually the pictures help to fix in memory the particular
stories that they are chosen to illustrate; and collectively they
show how strongly the myths here retold influenced the noblest fancy
of the great artists as well as the receptive minds of mediocre
artisans. The suggestive power of classic myths, moreover, was not
confined to antiquity. When learning and culture returned to the world
in the Renaissance, this power also returned. Raphael (see Fig. 12)
and Michelangelo (see Fig. 183) were under its sway, and so are many
modern artists (see Figs. 72 and 154). They did not all understand the
classic spirit equally, therefore some of their pictures are modern
in everything save the title, while others have caught the truth with
singular accuracy and are modern only in technique. Adding these
Italian and more recent pictures to the collection further destroys
mere unity, but it insures, on the other hand, a full appreciation of
the abiding and ennobling power of ancient mythology.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] See Preface.
THE CLASSIC MYTHS
PART I
MYTHS OF DIVINITIES AND HEROES
CHAPTER I
GREEK MYTHS OF THE CREATION
=1. Purpose of the Study.= Interwoven with the fabric of our English
literature, of our epics, dramas, lyrics, and novels, of our essays
and orations, like a golden warp where the woof is only too often of
silver, are the myths of certain ancient nations. It is the purpose of
this work to relate some of these myths, and to illustrate the uses to
which they have been put in English literature, and, incidentally, in
art.
=2. The Fable and the Myth.= Careful discrimination must be made
between the fable and the myth. A fable is a story, like that of
King Log, or the Fox and the Grapes, in which characters and plot,
neither pretending to reality nor demanding credence, are fabricated
confessedly as the vehicle of moral or didactic instruction. Dr.
Johnson narrows still further the scope of the fable: "It seems to
be, in its genuine state, a narrative in which _beings_ _irrational,
and sometimes inanimate_, are, for the purpose of moral instruction,
feigned to act and speak with human interests and passions." Myths,
on the other hand, are stories of anonymous origin, prevalent among
primitive peoples and by them accepted as true, concerning supernatural
beings and events, or natural beings and events influenced by
supernatural agencies. Fables are made by individuals; they may be told
in any stage of a nation's history,--by a Jotham when the Israelites
were still under the Judges, 1200 years before Christ, or by Christ
himself in the days of the most critical Jewish scholarship; by a
Menenius when Rome was still involved in petty squabbles of plebeians
and patricians, or by Phædrus and Horace in the Augustan age of Roman
imperialism and Roman letters; by an Æsop, well-nigh fabulous, to
fabled fellow-slaves and Athenian tyrants, or by La Fontaine to the
Grand Monarch and the most highly civilized race of seventeenth-century
Europe.
Fables are vessels made to order into which a lesson may be poured.
Myths are born, not made. They are born in the infancy of a people.
They owe their features not to any one historic individual, but to
the imaginative efforts of generations of story-tellers. The myth
of Pandora, the first woman, endowed by the immortals with heavenly
graces, and of Prometheus, who stole fire from heaven for the use of
man; the myth of the earthborn giants that in the beginning contested
with the gods the sovereignty of the universe; of the moon-goddess who,
with her buskined nymphs, pursues the chase across the azure of the
heavens, or descending to earth cherishes the youth Endymion,--these
myths, germinating in some quaint and childish interpretation of
natural events or in some fireside fancy, have put forth unconsciously,
under the nurture of the simple folk that conceived and tended them,
luxuriant branches and leaves of narrative, and blossoms of poetic
comeliness and form.
The myths that we shall relate present wonderful accounts of the
creation, histories of numerous divine beings, adventures of heroes
in which magical and ghostly agencies play a part, and where animals
and inanimate nature don the attributes of men and gods. Many of these
myths treat of divinities once worshiped by the Greeks and the Romans,
and by our Norse and German forefathers in the dark ages. Myths, more
or less like these, may be found in the literatures of nearly all
nations; many are in the memories and mouths of savage races at this
time existent. But the stories here narrated are no longer believed by
any one. The so-called divinities of Olympus and of Asgard have not a
single worshiper among men. They dwell only in the realm of memory and
imagination; they are enthroned in the palace of art.
The stories of Greek, Roman, Norse, and German mythology that have
most influenced our English literature will follow in the order
named. The Romans, being by nature a practical, not a poetic, people,
incorporated in their literature the mythology of the Greeks. We shall,
however, append to our description of the Greek gods a brief account
of the native Latin divinities that retained an individuality in Roman
literature.
[Illustration: FIG. 1. JUPITER SURVEYING THE WORLD]
=3. Origin of the World.=[2] There were among the Greeks several
accounts of the beginning of things. Homer tells us that River Ocean,
a deep and mighty flood, encircling land and sea like a serpent with
its tail in its mouth, was the source of all. According to other myths
Night and Darkness were the prime elements of Nature, and from them
sprang Light. Still a third theory, attributed to Orpheus, asserts
that Time was in the beginning, but had himself no beginning; that
from him proceeded Chaos, a yawning abyss wherein brooded Night and
Mist and fiery air, or Æther; that Time caused the mist to spin round
the central fiery air till the mass, assuming the form of a huge world
egg, flew, by reason of its rapid rotation, into halves. Of these, one
was Heaven, the other Earth. From the center of the egg proceeded Eros
(Love) and other wondrous beings.
But the most consistent account of the origin of the world and of the
gods is given by the poet Hesiod, who tells us that Chaos, the yawning
abyss, composed of Void, Mass, and Darkness in confusion, preceded all
things else. Next came into being broad-bosomed Earth, and beautiful
Love who should rule the hearts of gods and men. But from Chaos itself
issued Erebus,[3] the mysterious darkness that is under Earth,--and
Night, dwelling in the remote regions of sunset.
From Mother Earth proceeded first the starry vault of Heaven, durable
as brass or iron, where the gods were to take up their abode. Earth
brought forth next the mountains and fertile fields, the stony plains,
the sea, and the plants and animals that possess them.
=4. Origin of the Gods.= So far we have a history of the throes and
changes of the physical world; now begins the history of gods and
of men. For in the heart of creation Love begins to stir, making of
material things creatures male and female, and bringing them together
by instinctive affinity. First Erebus and Night, the children of Chaos,
are wedded, and from them spring Light and Day; then _Uranus_, the
personified Heaven, takes _Gæa_, the Earth, to wife, and from their
union issue Titans and hundred-handed monsters and Cyclopes.
The _Titans_[4] appear to be the personification of mighty convulsions
of the physical world, of volcanic eruptions and earthquakes. They
played a quarrelsome part in mythical history; they were instigators of
hatred and strife. Homer mentions specially two of them, Iapetus and
Cronus; but Hesiod enumerates thirteen. Of these, the more important
are Oceanus and Tethys, Hyperion and Thea, Cronus and Rhea, Iapetus,
Themis, and Mnemosyne. The three _Cyclopes_ represented the terrors
of rolling thunder, of the lightning-flash, and of the thunderbolt;
and, probably, for this reason, one fiery eye was deemed enough for
each. The hundred-handed monsters, or _Hecatonchires_, were also three
in number. In them, probably, the Greeks imaged the sea with its
multitudinous waves, its roar, and its breakers that seem to shake the
earth. These lightning-eyed, these hundred-handed monsters, their
father Uranus feared, and attempted to destroy by thrusting them into
Tartarus, the profound abysm of the earth. Whereupon Mother Earth, or
Gæa, indignant, called for help upon her elder children, the Titans.
None dared espouse her cause save Cronus, the crafty. With an iron
sickle he lay in wait for his sire, fell upon him, and drove him,
grievously wounded, from the encounter. From the blood of the mutilated
Uranus leaped into being the Furies, whose heads writhe with serpents;
the Giants, a novel race of monsters; and the Melic Nymphs, invidious
maidens of the ashen spear.
=5. The Rule of Cronus.= Now follows the reign of Cronus, lord of
Heaven and Earth. He is, from the beginning, of incalculable years. In
works of art his head is veiled, to typify his cunning and his reserve;
he bears the sickle not only as memento of the means by which he
brought his father's tyranny to end, but as symbol of the new period of
growth and golden harvests that he ushered in.
For unknown ages Cronus and Rhea, his sister-queen, governed Heaven
and Earth. To them were born three daughters, Vesta, Ceres, and Juno,
and three sons, Pluto, Neptune, and Jupiter. Cronus, however, having
learned from his parents that he should be dethroned by one of his own
children, conceived the well-intentioned but ill-considered device
of swallowing each as it was born. His queen, naturally desirous of
discouraging the practice,--when it came to the turn of her sixth
child, palmed off on the insatiable Cronus a stone carefully enveloped
in swaddling clothes. Jupiter (or Zeus), the rescued infant, was
concealed in the island of Crete, where, nurtured by the nymphs
Adrastea and Ida, and fed on the milk of the goat Amalthea, he in due
season attained maturity. Then, assisted by his grandmother Gæa, he
constrained Cronus to disgorge the burden of his cannibal repasts.
First came to light the memorable stone, which was placed in safe
keeping at Delphi; then the five brothers and sisters of Jupiter,
ardent to avenge themselves upon the unnatural author of their
existence and their captivity.
=6. The War of the Titans.= In the war which ensued Iapetus and all
the Titans, except Oceanus, ranged themselves on the side of their
brother Cronus against Jupiter and his recently recovered kinsfolk.
Jupiter and his hosts held Mount Olympus. For ages victory wavered in
the balance. Finally Jupiter, acting again under the advice of Gæa,
released from Tartarus, where Uranus had confined them, the Cyclopes
and the Hecatonchires. Instantly they hastened to the battle-field
of Thessaly, the Cyclopes to support Jupiter with their thunders
and lightnings, the hundred-handed monsters with the shock of the
earthquake. Provided with such artillery, shaking earth and sea,
Jupiter issued to the onslaught. With the gleam of the lightning the
Titans were blinded, by the earthquake they were laid low, with the
flames they were well-nigh consumed: overpowered and fettered by the
hands of the Hecatonchires, they were consigned to the yawning cave of
Tartarus. Atlas, the son of Iapetus, was doomed to bear the heavens on
his shoulders. But a more famous son of the same Titan, Prometheus, who
had espoused the cause of Jove, acquired dignity hereafter to be set
forth.
=7. The Division of Empire.= In the council of the gods that succeeded,
Jupiter was chosen Sovereign of the World. He delegated to his brother
Neptune (or Poseidon) the kingdom of the sea and of all the waters; to
his brother Pluto (or Hades), the government of the underworld, dark,
unseen, mysterious, where the spirits of the dead should dwell, and
of Tartarus, wherein were held the fallen Titans. For himself Jupiter
retained Earth and the Heaven, into whose broad and sunny regions
towered Olympus, the favored mountain of the greater gods.[5]
=8. The Reign of Jupiter.= New conflicts, however, awaited this new
dynasty of Heaven--conflicts, the subject of many a tale among the
ancients. Gæa, though she had aided her grandson Jupiter in the war
against Cronus, was soon seized with compunctions of conscience; and
contemplating the cruel fate of her sons the Titans, she conceived
schemes of vengeance upon their conqueror. Another son was born to
her--_Typhon_, a monster more awful than his predecessors--whose
destiny it was to dispute the sway of the almighty Zeus. From the neck
of Typhon dispread themselves a hundred dragon-heads; his eyes shot
fire, and from his black-tongued chaps proceeded the hissing of snakes,
the bellowing of bulls, the roaring of lions, the barking of dogs,
pipings and screams, and, at times, the voice and utterance of the gods
themselves. Against Heaven this horror lifted himself; but quailing
before the thunderbolt of Jove, he too descended to Tartarus, his own
place and the abode of his brethren. To this day, however, he grumbles
and hisses, thrusts upward a fiery tongue through the crater of a
volcano, or, breathing siroccos, scorches trees and men.
[Illustration: FIG. 2. ATHENA AND GIANT]
Later still, the _Giants_, offspring of the blood that fell from the
wounded Uranus, renewed the revolt against the Olympian gods. They were
creatures nearer akin to men than were the Titans, or the Cyclopes,
or Typhon. They clothed themselves in the skins of beasts, and armed
themselves with rocks and trunks of trees. Their bodies and lower
limbs were of snakes. They were awful to encounter or to look upon.
They were named, like men, the _earthborn_; and their characteristics
would suggest some prehistoric brutish race, hotheaded, not amenable
to reason.[6] Of the Giants, the more mighty were Alcyoneus of the
winter storms and icebergs, Pallas, and Enceladus, and Porphyrion
the fire-king,--leader of the crew. In the war against them, Juno
and Minerva, divinities of the new dynasty of Heaven, took active
part,--and Hercules, an earthly son of Jupiter, whose arrows aided
in their defeat. It was from the overthrow of Pallas that Athena (or
Minerva) derived, according to certain records, her proud designation
of Pallas-Athena.[7] In due course, like the Titans and Typhon, the
Giants were buried in the abyss of eternal darkness. What other outcome
can be expected when mere physical or brute force joins issue with the
enlightened and embattled hosts of heaven?
[Illustration: FIG. 3. ZEUS AND GIANTS]
=9. The Origin of Man= was a question which the Greeks did not settle
so easily as the Hebrews. Greek traditions do not trace all mankind
to an original pair. On the contrary, the generally received opinion
was that men grew out of trees and stones, or were produced by the
rivers or the sea. Some said that men and gods were both derived from
Mother Earth, hence both _autochthonous_; and some, indeed, claimed
an antiquity for the human race equal to that of the divinities. All
narratives, however, agree in one statement,--that the gods maintained
intimate relations with men until, because of the growing sinfulness
and arrogance of mankind, it became necessary for the immortals to
withdraw their favor.
=10. Prometheus, a Creator.= There is a story which attributes the
making of man to Prometheus, whose father Iapetus had, with Cronus,
opposed the sovereignty of Jupiter. In that conflict, Prometheus,
gifted with prophetic wisdom, had adopted the cause of the Olympian
deities. To him and his brother Epimetheus was now committed the
office of making man and providing him and all other animals with the
faculties necessary for their preservation. Prometheus was to overlook
the work of Epimetheus. Epimetheus proceeded to bestow upon the
different animals the various gifts of courage, strength, swiftness,
sagacity; wings to one, claws to another, a shelly covering to a third.
But Prometheus himself made a nobler animal than these. Taking some
earth and kneading it with water, he made man in the image of the gods.
He gave him an upright stature, so that while other animals turn their
faces toward the earth, man gazes on the stars. Then since Epimetheus,
always rash, and thoughtful when too late, had been so prodigal of his
gifts to other animals that no blessing was left worth conferring upon
the noblest of creatures, Prometheus ascended to heaven, lighted his
torch at the chariot of the sun, and brought down fire. With fire in
his possession man would be able to win her secrets and treasures from
the earth, to develop commerce, science, and the arts.
[Illustration: FIG. 4. PROMETHEUS MAKING MAN]
=11. The Age of Gold.= Whether in this or in other ways the world was
furnished with inhabitants, the first age was an age of innocence and
happiness. Truth and right prevailed, though not enforced by law, nor
was there any in authority to threaten or to punish. The forest had
not yet been robbed of its trees to yield timbers for vessels, nor
had men built fortifications round their towns. There were no such
things as swords, spears, or helmets. The earth brought forth all
things necessary for man, without his labor in plowing or sowing.
Perpetual spring reigned, flowers sprang up without seed, the rivers
flowed with milk and wine, and yellow honey distilled from the oaks.
This Golden Age had begun in the reign of Cronus.[8] And when these
heroes fell asleep in death, they were translated in a pleasant dream
to a spiritual existence, in which, unseen by mortal eyes, they still
attended men as monitors and guardians.
=12. The Silver Age= came next, inferior to the golden. Jupiter
shortened the spring, and divided the year into seasons. Then,
first, men suffered the extremes of heat and cold, and houses became
necessary. Caves were their dwellings,--and leafy coverts of the woods,
and huts woven of twigs. Crops would no longer grow without planting.
The farmer was constrained to sow the seed, and the ox to draw the
plow. This was a race of manly men, but insolent and impious. And when
they died, Jupiter made them ghosts of the underworld, but withheld the
privilege of immortal life.
=13. Prometheus, Champion of Man.= During this age when, as Hesiod
says, the altars of the blessed were neglected, and the gods were
denied their due, Prometheus stood forth--the champion of man against
the Olympians.[9] For the son of Cronus had grudged mortals the use
of fire, and was, in fact, contemplating their annihilation and the
creation of a new race. Therefore, once upon a time, when gods and
men were in dispute at Sicyon concerning the prerogatives of each,
Prometheus, by an ingenious trick, attempted to settle the question
in favor of man. Dividing into two portions a sacrificial bull, he
wrapped all the eatable parts in the skin, cunningly surmounted with
uninviting entrails; but the bones he garnished with a plausible
mass of fat. He then offered Jupiter his choice. The king of Heaven,
although he perceived the intended fraud, took the heap of bones and
fat, and, forthwith availing himself of this insult as an excuse for
punishing mankind, deprived the race of fire. But Prometheus regained
the treasure, stealing it from Heaven in a hollow tube.
=14. Pandora.= Doubly enraged, Jupiter, in his turn, had recourse
to stratagem. He is declared to have planned for man a curse in the
shape of woman. How the race had persisted hitherto without woman is a
mystery; but that it had done so, with no slight degree of happiness,
the experience of the Golden Age would seem to prove. However, the
bewitching evil was fashioned,--in Heaven, properly enough,--and every
god and goddess contributed something to her perfection. One gave her
beauty, another persuasive charm, a third the faculty of music. And
they named her Pandora, "the gift of all the gods." Thus equipped,
she was conveyed to earth and presented to Epimetheus, who, without
hesitation, accepted the gift, though cautioned by his brother to
beware of Jupiter and all his ways. And the caution was not groundless.
In the hand of Pandora had been placed by the immortals a casket or
vase which she was forbidden to open. Overcome by an unaccountable
curiosity to know what this vessel contained, she one day lifted the
cover and looked in. Forthwith there escaped a multitude of plagues for
hapless man--gout, rheumatism, and colic for his body; envy, spite, and
revenge for his mind--and scattered themselves far and wide. Pandora
hastened to replace the lid; but one thing only remained in the casket,
and that was _hope_.
=15. Prometheus Bound.= Because of his unselfish devotion to the cause
of humanity, Prometheus drew down on himself the anger of Olympian
Jove, by whose order he was chained to a rock on Mount Caucasus, and
subjected to the attack of an eagle (or a vulture) which, for ages,
preyed upon his liver, yet succeeded not in consuming it. This state of
torment might have been brought to an end at any time by Prometheus,
if he had been willing to submit to his oppressor; for he possessed
a secret which involved the stability of Jove's throne. This was
that by a certain woman Jove would beget a son who should displace
him and end the sway of the Olympians. The god naturally desired more
accurate information of this decree of Fate. But to reveal the secret
Prometheus disdained. In this steadfastness the Titan was supported by
the knowledge that in the thirteenth generation there should arrive a
hero,--sprung from Jove himself,--to release him.[10] And in fullness
of time the hero did arrive: none other than the mighty Hercules
desirous of rendering the highest service to mankind. No higher
service, thinks this radiant and masterful personage,--who, as we shall
see, had already cleared the world of many a monster,--remains to be
performed than to free the champion of mankind, suffering through the
ages because he had brought light into the world. "The soul of man,"
says Hercules to the Titan--
The soul of man can never be enslaved
Save by its own infirmities, nor freed
Save by its very strength and own resolve
And constant vision and supreme endeavor!
You will be free? Then, courage, O my brother!
O let the soul stand in the open door
Of life and death and knowledge and desire
And see the peaks of thought kindle with sunrise!
Then shall the soul return to rest no more,
Nor harvest dreams in the dark field of sleep--
Rather the soul shall go with great resolve
To dwell at last upon the shining mountains
In liberal converse with the eternal stars.[11]
And he kills the vulture; and sets Jove's victim free.
By his demeanor Prometheus has become the ensample of magnanimous
endurance, and of resistance to oppression.
Titan! to whose immortal eyes
The sufferings of mortality,
Seen in their sad reality,
Were not as things that gods despise,
What was thy pity's recompense?
A silent suffering, and intense;
The rock, the vulture, and the chain,
All that the proud can feel of pain,
The agony they do not show,
The suffocating sense of woe,
Which speaks but in its loneliness,
And then is jealous lest the sky
Should have a listener, nor will sigh
Until its voice is echoless....
Thy godlike crime was to be kind,
To render with thy precepts less
The sum of human wretchedness,
And strengthen man with his own mind.
But, baffled as thou wert from high,
Still, in thy patient energy,
In the endurance and repulse
Of thine impenetrable spirit,
Which earth and heaven could not convulse,
A mighty lesson we inherit[12]....
=16. Longfellow's Prometheus.= A happy application of the story of
Prometheus is made by Longfellow in the following verses:[13]
Of Prometheus, how undaunted
On Olympus' shining bastions
His audacious foot he planted,
Myths are told, and songs are chanted,
Full of promptings and suggestions.
Beautiful is the tradition
Of that flight through heavenly portals,
The old classic superstition
Of the theft and the transmission
Of the fire of the Immortals!
First the deed of noble daring,
Born of heavenward aspiration,
Then the fire with mortals sharing,
Then the vulture,--the despairing
Cry of pain on crags Caucasian.
All is but a symbol painted
Of the Poet, Prophet, Seer;
Only those are crowned and sainted
Who with grief have been acquainted,
Making nations nobler, freer.
In their feverish exultations,
In their triumph and their yearning,
In their passionate pulsations,
In their words among the nations,
The Promethean fire is burning.
Shall it, then, be unavailing,
All this toil for human culture?
Through the cloud-rack, dark and trailing,
Must they see above them sailing
O'er life's barren crags the vulture?
Such a fate as this was Dante's,
By defeat and exile maddened;
Thus were Milton and Cervantes,
Nature's priests and Corybantes,
By affliction touched and saddened.
But the glories so transcendent
That around their memories cluster,
And, on all their steps attendant,
Make their darkened lives resplendent
With such gleams of inward lustre!
All the melodies mysterious,
Through the dreary darkness chanted;
Thoughts in attitudes imperious,
Voices soft, and deep, and serious,
Words that whispered, songs that haunted!
All the soul in rapt suspension,
All the quivering, palpitating
Chords of life in utmost tension,
With the fervor of invention,
With the rapture of creating!
Ah, Prometheus! heaven-scaling!
In such hours of exultation
Even the faintest heart, unquailing,
Might behold the vulture sailing
Round the cloudy crags Caucasian!
Though to all there is not given
Strength for such sublime endeavor,
Thus to scale the walls of heaven,
And to leaven with fiery leaven
All the hearts of men forever;
Yet all bards, whose hearts unblighted
Honor and believe the presage,
Hold aloft their torches lighted,
Gleaming through the realms benighted,
As they onward bear the message!
=17. The Brazen Age.= Next to the Age of Silver came that of brass,[14]
more savage of temper and readier for the strife of arms, yet not
altogether wicked.
=18. The Iron Age.= Last came the hardest age and worst,--of iron.
Crime burst in like a flood; modesty, truth, and honor fled. The gifts
of the earth were put only to nefarious uses. Fraud, violence, war at
home and abroad were rife. The world was wet with slaughter; and the
gods, one by one, abandoned it, Astræa, following last, goddess of
innocence and purity.
=19. The Flood.= Jupiter, observing the condition of things, burned
with anger. He summoned the gods to council. Obeying the call, they
traveled the Milky Way to the palace of Heaven. There, Jupiter set
forth to the assembly the frightful condition of the earth, and
announced his intention of destroying its inhabitants, and providing a
new race, unlike the present, which should be worthier of life and more
reverent toward the gods. Fearing lest a conflagration might set Heaven
itself on fire, he proceeded to drown the world. Not satisfied with his
own waters, he called his brother Neptune to his aid. Speedily the race
of men, and their possessions, were swept away by the deluge.
=20. Deucalion and Pyrrha.= Parnassus alone, of the mountains,
overtopped the waves; and there Deucalion, son of Prometheus, and
his wife Pyrrha, daughter of Epimetheus, found refuge--he a just man
and she a faithful worshiper of the gods. Jupiter, remembering the
harmless lives and pious demeanor of this pair, caused the waters to
recede,--the sea to return to its shores, and the rivers to their
channels. Then Deucalion and Pyrrha, entering a temple defaced with
slime, approached the unkindled altar and, falling prostrate, prayed
for guidance and aid. The oracle[15] answered, "Depart from the temple
with head veiled and garments unbound, and cast behind you the bones
of your mother." They heard the words with astonishment. Pyrrha first
broke silence: "We cannot obey; we dare not profane the remains of
our parents." They sought the woods, and revolved the oracle in their
minds. At last Deucalion spoke: "Either my wit fails me or the command
is one we may obey without impiety. The earth is the great parent of
all; the stones are her bones; these we may cast behind us; this, I
think, the oracle means. At least, to try will harm us not." They
veiled their faces, unbound their garments, and, picking up stones,
cast them behind them. The stones began to grow soft and to assume
shape. By degrees they put on a rude resemblance to the human form.
Those thrown by Deucalion became men; those by Pyrrha, women. It was a
hard race that sprang up, and well adapted to labor.
=21. The Demigods and Heroes.= As preceding the Age of Iron, Hesiod
mentions an _Age of Demigods and Heroes_. Since, however, these
demigods and heroes were, many of them, reputed to have been directly
descended from Deucalion, their epoch must be regarded as subsequent
to the deluge. The hero, Hellen, son of Deucalion and Pyrrha, became
the ancestor of the Hellenes, or Greeks. The Æolians and Dorians were,
according to legend, descended from his sons Æolus and Dorus; from his
son Xuthus, the Achæans and Ionians derived their origin.
Another great division of the Greek people, the Pelasgic, resident in
the Peloponnesus or southern portion of the peninsula, was said to have
sprung from a different stock of heroes, that of Pelasgus, son of
Phoroneus of Argos and grandson of the river-god Inachus.
The demigods and heroes were of matchless worth and valor. Their
adventures form the subject of many of the succeeding chapters. The
Older Heroes, especially, were endowed with godlike qualities, which
they devoted to the service of mankind in the destruction of monsters,
the founding of cities, or the introduction of civilization. Such were
Perseus, the hero of Argos and his descendant Hercules, who came to be
worshiped as the national hero of the Greeks. Such, too, Cadmus, the
founder of Thebes, and Cecrops of Athens, and one of his successors,
Theseus, a "second Hercules." Each city of Greece had its patron hero,
to whom it accorded the honors of divinity. The Younger Heroes were
chieftains in the Theban and the Trojan wars and in numerous other
military or predatory expeditions.
[Illustration: FIG. 5. POSEIDON, DIONYSUS, AND GODDESS]
FOOTNOTES:
[2] Supplementary information concerning many of the myths may be found
in the corresponding sections of the Commentary. For the pronunciation
of names see Index, and Rules preceding the Index.
[3] So far as possible, Latin designations, or Latinized forms of Greek
names, are used.
[4] On the Titans, etc., Preller's Griech. Mythol. 1, 37.
[5] On signification of Uranus, Cronus, Zeus, see Preller, 1, 37, 38,
and Commentary, §§ 4, 24.
[6] Roscher, Ausf. Lex., Article _Giganten_ [J. Ilberg].
[7] The name more probably signifies Brandisher [of the Lance].
[8] Consequently the creation of these men could not be assigned to
Prometheus,--unless they were made by him before the war of the Titans.
[9] There is uncertainty as to the mythical period of these events. The
order here given seems to me well grounded. Hes. Works and Days, 180;
Theog. 790-910.
[10] §§ 156, 161, 191 and Commentary, § 10.
[11] From Herakles, a drama by George Cabot Lodge.
[12] From Byron's Prometheus. See also his translation from the
Prometheus Vinctus of Æschylus, and his Ode to Napoleon Buonaparte.
[13] Prometheus, or The Poet's Forethought. See Commentary.
[14] Compare Byron's political satire, The Age of Bronze.
[15] Oracles, see §§ 24, 30, and Commentary.