when it was evening he came to a mountain by the sea from which he
saw a flame of fire ascending, and this showed him where the Chimaera
was. He flew towards the place on the back of Pegasus, and perceived
the horrible form of the monster. Pegasus hovered over her, and
Bellerophon shot an arrow which wounded her in the neck and gave her
great pain; this made her furious, and she stood up on her hind feet
and puffed out her fiery breath into the air, hoping to scorch
Bellerophon to death. But he was so {50} high up that he was not
hurt by it, and he shot her in the back with another arrow, so that
she rolled about in pain, howling horribly, and then he sent a third
arrow into her side. She had now only strength enough to moan, and
in a little while she was dead. Then Bellerophon could come down to
the mountain which was no longer unsafe for people to set foot upon;
he slept there that night, and in the morning he cut off the head of
the Chimaera, and set out upon his way home again.
When Bellerophon stood before Iobates with the head of the Chimaera
in his hand, the king was very much astonished, for he had thought
there was not a chance that he would escape being killed by her. But
he was still desirous of carrying out the wishes of Proetus, and he
therefore sent the hero to fight against a barbarous people on the
outskirts of his kingdom, who lived by plunder and robbery. No one
who had hitherto been sent against them had ever returned alive, but
the gods helped Bellerophon, and he slew a great many of the robbers
and drove away the rest.
A third time the king sent him away, and now it was to fight against
a still stronger people. But after a few days had passed, there came
messengers to tell him that the hero had put the enemy to flight and
was about to return. Then the king chose out the strongest Lycian
youths, and set them in ambush on the road leading to the city. In
the evening, however, Bellerophon entered the palace unhurt. The
king thought he must have come by another road, and he asked him if
he had met nothing on the way. Bellerophon answered, 'Near the city
there were some {51} cowardly knaves lying in ambush, whom I slew.'
Then the king knew that Bellerophon must be under the protection of
the gods, and he laid aside all thoughts of doing him any injury, and
told him that on account of the request of Proetus he had sent him on
these expeditions in order that he might meet his death, but that
from henceforth he would be his friend. He gave him the most
beautiful of all his daughters for his wife, and begged him to stay
with him and take part in the government of the country. The wedding
soon took place, and from that time Bellerophon had a kingly staff
like Iobates, and sat beside him on the throne to give judgment in
all cases of difficulty. The Lycians gave him some of their land for
his own, of which one part consisted of corn-fields, another part was
a wine country, and the third was planted with beautiful fruit trees.
The winged horse Pegasus was well taken care of, and Bellerophon ever
treasured him as one of his dearest friends.
{52}
XV.
DAEDALUS AND ICARUS.
There was once a king of Crete called Minos, who had a great many
ships and soldiers; and there was also a clever artist named
Daedalus, who had built a wonderful house for Minos with such an
immense number of rooms in it that no one who entered it could ever
find his way out again. There lived a monster in the house, and
every year prisoners were taken to it, who wandered about trying in
vain to find their way out again, until at last the monster came and
devoured them. This wonderful house was called the Labyrinth.[1]
The king wanted Daedalus to spend his time and skill in inventing
other wonderful things for him, and when he wished to leave the
island he refused to let him go, and placed soldiers all along the
shore to prevent him from getting to any ship. Then Daedalus said to
himself, 'My art has hitherto served the king,--it shall now serve
me.' So he went into his workshop, and made a pair of large wings
for himself and a pair of small ones for his little son Icarus, and
every night when it was dark they fastened their wings on to their
shoulders with wax, and practised flying like the birds; and they
soon became quite accustomed to using them. When they had {53}
learnt to fly properly, they fastened on their wings early one
morning and set off to fly to the island of Sicily, although that is
a good hundred miles from the island of Crete. On the shore stood
the soldiers whom the king had placed there to prevent them from
leaving, but they could not catch them, and the two flew away
together over the wide sea. At first Icarus was timid, but when a
good stretch of the way lay behind them he became bolder, and began
to think that flying was very pleasant work. At mid-day, however,
the sun came out very hot, and Daedalus, who was flying on in front
to show the way, called out to his child to tell him to beware of the
sun and not go too near it. But Icarus thought, 'The sun looks so
kind, I am sure he will do me no harm.' And he flew higher and
higher, for Daedalus was on in front and did not see him, until the
wax with which his wings were fastened began to melt. He felt the
strokes becoming more feeble, and called to his father for help, but
though Daedalus turned quickly round it was too late,--the boy could
no longer support himself in the air, and he fell into the sea before
his father's eyes. All the great skill of Daedalus was of no avail
now, for Icarus was killed by the great fall, and he could do nothing
to save him, but was obliged to fly on to the end of his journey all
alone.
[1] For more about the Labyrinth, see p. 186.
{54}
XVI.
EUROPA AND CADMUS.
In the land of Phenicia which lies in Asia, there was once a king who
had a son named Cadmus and a daughter named Europa, and he was both
fond and proud of his children, for Cadmus was brave, and Europa was
beautiful. One day Europa was by the sea in a meadow full of lovely
flowers, when there came a stately bull, who walked round and round
her. It was Zeus, who had changed himself into a bull in order to
carry off the beautiful maiden to be his wife. At first Europa was
afraid of the bull, but he had such nice soft eyes that she could not
help being kind to him. She stroked him and made friends with him,
and then she gathered some flowers and twined them into a wreath, and
when the bull stretched himself on the ground, she climbed on to his
back and placed the beautiful wreath round his horns. But he
instantly sprang up, and ran away with her so fast that she did not
venture to jump off, but could only hold on to his horns and scream
with all her might. The people in the field heard her cries, and
soon they saw the bull run into the sea with her and swim away. They
went and told the old king, and he at once sent off a ship in
pursuit, but though it sailed about in all directions, it came {55}
back in the evening without having been able to find any trace of
Europa. The old king was very much troubled and would neither eat
nor drink, and on the third day he called his son Cadmus and
commanded him to set out in search of his sister and not to turn back
until he had found her.
Cadmus chose companions for his journey, and they launched a ship and
sailed away. They passed through many lands inquiring for the
beautiful Europa and the bull, but nobody had seen them. At last
they came into the land of Greece, and when Cadmus again inquired for
his sister, the people told him that he had better go to Delphi and
ask the priestess of Apollo about her. The city of Delphi was on
Mount Parnassus, the centre of the earth, and there was a temple of
Apollo there which was an Oracle or prophetic temple. If anyone
wished to know something past or future which he could not find out
in any other way, he went to the temple of Apollo and asked the
priestess, who was called the Pythia, about it. There was a narrow
opening in the floor of the temple which had not been made by man,
and which went deep down into the earth. A wonderful odour ascended
from the crevice, and a golden three-legged stool, called a Tripod,
was placed over the opening. When anyone came to ask a question, the
Pythia seated herself upon the Tripod and became inspired by the
odour, and the god Apollo directed what she should say in answer, so
that her predictions were divine utterances. These predictions were
called Oracles.
Cadmus accordingly went to Delphi, and took with him a beautiful
golden cup as a present for the god, that {56} he might answer him
graciously. There were many costly vessels of gold and silver and
other similar things in the temple, which had been given in this way
as presents. Cadmus asked the Pythia where Europa had gone, and she
answered that it was Zeus who in the form of the bull had carried her
away and had hidden her from all men, and that Cadmus was no longer
to seek for her, but to follow the white cow and to found a city in
the place where she should lie down. She also told him that his
father was dead and that a stranger had taken possession of his
kingdom.
Cadmus did not understand which was the cow he was to follow, but he
left the temple, and when he came outside he saw a spotless white cow
who looked at him as if she had been waiting for him. She started
off along the road, and he followed her. They walked on all day and
all night, and in the morning they found themselves on a beautiful
hill with a fertile country all round, and there the cow lay down.
Cadmus desired to sacrifice the cow to the gods, and he sent one of
his companions to some bushy ground near at hand where he heard a
spring bubbling, to draw some water for the sacrifice. But the
companion did not come back, so Cadmus sent another, but he did not
come back either. Then he went himself, and found a hideous dragon
keeping watch by the spring, who had devoured his two companions.
The dragon started up with the intention of devouring him also, but
Cadmus drew a sharp sword, and thrust it into the neck of the monster
with such force that a great stream of blood gushed out and he died.
Cadmus was still standing looking at the dragon when the goddess
Athene appeared to him and told {57} him that he must take out the
dragon's teeth and sow them in the ground, and that from this strange
seed there would spring warriors who would help him to build a city
and would be his subjects. Then the goddess disappeared, and Cadmus
took out the teeth, of which there were a great many, and put them
into his helmet; and as he turned away from the spring, he saw a
plough standing in the field with two bulls yoked to it. Cadmus
drove the plough up and down, and dropped the teeth one by one into
the furrows which it had made. For a short time they remained just
where he had placed them, but presently they began to disturb the
soil by their movements and to rise above it by degrees. First there
appeared a row of brazen helmets, and then a row of bearded faces
underneath the helmets, and then followed glittering coats of mail,
and when the warriors got their arms free, they were able to help
themselves completely out, and brushed off the dust that was clinging
to them. They were clothed in brass from head to foot, and each held
in his right hand a spear, and in his left a shield. Cadmus was
afraid of the armed band, and thought of a plan for making them
quarrel with one another. He took up a number of little stones and
threw them at the newly-born warriors from behind a bush, and as they
could not see where the stones came from, each of them thought that
his neighbour had struck him, and hit him back again, so that there
was soon a fierce battle raging among them, and man after man was
killed. When there were only five left, Cadmus stepped forward and
proclaimed peace, and said, 'The gods have given you to me as my
subjects; let us build a city.' They agreed to do as {58} he said,
and built a city on the hill which they called the Cadmea, after
Cadmus their king, and by degrees many people came to settle in it.
The five warriors who had sprung from the dragon's teeth were called
Sparti or Sown Men, and they were the next in power to the king. The
gods loved Cadmus, and they gave him a beautiful wife called
Harmonia, who was the daughter of Ares, the god of war, and of
Aphrodite, the goddess of beauty. All the gods gave costly wedding
gifts, and when the marriage was celebrated in the Cadmea, the
guests, both gods and men, feasted together.
Zeus had carried Europa across the Mediterranean Sea to the land
which lies opposite to Asia, and all the country on this side of the
Mediterranean Sea has ever since that time been called Europe.
{59}
XVII.
THE BUILDING OF THEBES.
After the death of Cadmus many more people came to live in the
Cadmea, and when there was no more room on the hill, they established
themselves in the plain round it and built more and more houses, till
there came to be a great city to which they gave the name of Thebes.
The Cadmea then became the castle or citadel of Thebes; the king's
palace was inside it, and it was fortified with very strong walls, so
that it the city were besieged by enemies, the inhabitants could take
shelter in the citadel and hurl darts and javelins at their enemies
from its walls.
There was once a king of Thebes named Amphion, who could sing most
beautifully, and also play upon the lyre. When he sang, it was
impossible for anyone to resist stopping to listen, however great a
hurry he might be in, and even the very stones would detach
themselves from their places in order to come nearer to him. Amphion
knew this, and one day he said to himself, 'Since I have such power
over the stones, I will make them serve me.' So he sat down in the
middle of the city, and began to sing in a loud voice which was
echoed by the distant hills. Then there was a sound of rumbling and
scuffling, for every stone {60} that heard the song, no matter how
far off it was, came rushing towards Amphion, and they heaped
themselves one upon the other till at last a great stone wall was
built up all round the city; and the Thebans took hatchets and
crowbars and broke open seven spaces in it, where they erected seven
great gates.
{61}
XVIII.
SEMELE.
Cadmus and Harmonia had two daughters, one of whom was a very
beautiful maiden named Semele. Zeus loved Semele and made her his
wife secretly, and she was so happy that she wished for nothing else
than that the king of the gods should always continue to love her as
he did then. But Hera was very angry about it, and she took the form
of an old nurse to whom Semele told all her secrets, and came one day
into the palace when the nurse had gone to the river to wash clothes.
She was the only person who knew that Zeus was the husband of Semele,
and Hera, who had taken her form, pretended that she had come back in
order to give her some advice about it. She told her that she ought
to make trial of Zeus, and beg him to come to her, if it were only
for once, in all the glory and splendour with which he surrounded
'himself when he was with Hera, and that if he refused to do so, it
would prove that he was not really Zeus, but some mortal who had
deceived her. She said this in order to make Semele suspicious and
distrustful, and because she wanted to bring about her destruction;
and when she had finished talking she went quickly back to Mount
Olympus, and no one knew that she had been in the Cadmea.
{62}
Semele did not for a moment believe that her husband was any other
than Zeus, but she was dazzled with the thought that she might
persuade her lover to come to her surrounded with the glory of the
gods, and so she took Hera's advice, and next time that Zeus came to
see her, she begged him to swear by the Styx that he would grant her
the request she was about to make. Hera had advised her to make him
swear by the Styx, because that was the oath which the gods could
never break if they bound themselves by it. Zeus swore without any
misgiving, for he expected her to wish that suddenly beautiful
flowers should spring up all round the Cadmea, or that he should fly
with her through the air, or perform some other such miracle; but
when Semele begged that he would come to her that evening exactly as
if he were coming to Hera, he regretted that he had sworn so rashly,
and told her that the fulfilment of such a wish as that, would cost
her her life. But Semele thought that he despised her, and did not
care to show himself to her in all his godlike splendour, and she
persisted in her request; and as he had sworn by the Styx, Zeus was
obliged to submit to her foolish will. When the evening came, a
terrible rumbling sound was heard in the air, and it thundered and
lightened, and Zeus came down from Mount Olympus in the chariot of
the gods. He entered the Cadmea, and Semele beheld his countenance
glowing with unspeakable beauty and majesty, but the splendour and
glory that surrounded him was a sight which no mortal could bear, and
she was struck dead by that one look.
{63}
XIX.
DIONYSUS.
Dionysus was the son of Zeus and of Semele, and Hera hated him as she
had hated his mother, and would have killed him if she could; so as
soon as he was born, Zeus commanded Hermes to take him away secretly
to a king called Athamas, that Hera might not know where he was.
Athamas promised to take care of him, and the queen, whose name was
Ino, told everyone that he was her own child, and brought him up with
her two little boys. But Hera found out where the little Dionysus
was, and she was so angry with King Athamas for having consented to
hide him from her, that she punished him by making him quite mad.
She falsified his sight so that everything seemed to him quite
different from what it really was, and one day when he was coming
home from hunting and saw Ino sitting on the grass in front of the
house with her two little boys by her side, he thought she was a doe
with two little fawns, and he took an arrow and shot one of the
children right through the heart, so that he was killed instantly.
Ino saw that her husband was mad, and she immediately snatched up the
other child and fled away with it, but Athamas pursued her with
another arrow on his bow-string till they came to the {64} sea, and
then, as Ino could flee no farther, she rushed into the sea with her
little boy, and they were both drowned. They were scarcely dead when
Athamas regained his right senses and knew what he had done, and he
was so grieved and shocked that he left his country altogether, and
wandered for a long time in strange lands, till at last he settled
down again, as you will hear in another story.[1]
Meanwhile Hera was looking everywhere for the little Dionysus, but
she could not find him, for she did not know that a young heifer who
was grazing in front of the house was the form into which Zeus had
changed the child to hide him from her. In the night Hermes came and
took the heifer up into his arms, and it became a child again. Then
he took the boy a long, long journey, almost to the end of the world,
till at last he reached a lonely region where seven nymphs lived by a
beautiful river far from the dwellings of men, and he gave him into
the charge of the nymphs, who promised to bring him up and take great
care of him. Hera was seated on Mount Olympus, the throne of the
gods, and she cast her eyes all round the world to see what had
become of Dionysus, but as she expected to find him again in the
charge of some king, she did not think of looking for him in the
country of the nymphs.
When Dionysus grew up to be a young man, he was very beautiful, and
Zeus loved him so much that he gifted him with the might of a god.
Immediately his face gained a new expression, and his eyes glowed
with a fire that is never seen in the eyes of men. {65} Dionysus
thought he would like to give proof of his new power by bestowing
some precious gift upon men, and he resolved that he would create out
of water and sunshine a sweet drink that should give them courage and
cheerfulness, and that a beautiful plant should be the means of
producing this drink. So he created the Vine with its purple grapes,
in which, ever since that time, the sun has every year brewed the
drink bestowed upon men by the god Dionysus.
Dionysus did not wish to live in concealment any longer, for Hera had
no power to injure him now that he had become a god, and he desired
to be known and honoured like the other gods. He determined
therefore to travel through the whole world, and Zeus gave him a
train of men and women to follow and serve him who were called
Bacchantes, or followers of Bacchus, which is another name for
Dionysus. He set out on his pleasure-journey, driving in a golden
chariot drawn by two tame spotted panthers which he guided with a
golden rein, and round him danced the Bacchantes, holding in their
hands wands twined round with ivy, and with ivy wreaths on their
heads. Cups of the most delicious wine were passed from mouth to
mouth, and the whole air was filled with the sounds of singing and
flute-playing. There was an old man named Silenus, who had formerly
lived with the nymphs, and had been accustomed to play with Dionysus
when he was a child, and dance him on his knees. He now joined in
the procession, and he was so fond of the wine that he was always
intoxicated. His body became bloated with drinking so much wine, so
that he could not walk steadily, but was obliged to ride on an ass,
and {66} often in his drunken condition, he sate facing the wrong way
and holding the tail of the ass in his hands as a bridle.
Wherever Dionysus went he caused the vine to grow, and he was good to
those who honoured him, but he punished all who disobeyed him. One
day, while he was on his journey through the world, he halted at
mid-day in a cool wood near the sea, and when the Bacchantes had
given the thirsty panthers some sweet wine to drink, the whole train
of followers lay down under the trees and went to sleep. Dionysus,
however, was filled with a desire to visit the island of Naxos, which
he loved above all other lands, and he went down to the shore where
there was just then a ship sailing by, and asked the ship-men if they
would carry him to Naxos; and they said 'Yes,' and sailed up to the
land and took him in. They did not know who he was, but supposed him
to be a mortal youth, and seeing that he was so beautiful, they made
up their minds to sell him for a slave, for they were not good men,
but thieves. Dionysus lay down in the ship and went to sleep. When
he awoke, they had already sailed past the island, so he begged them
to turn back and set him on shore at Naxos, but they laughed and told
him they were going to sell him for a slave. Dionysus had only
wanted to make trial of them, and now the ship suddenly stood still,
and though they tried with all their might to row on farther, it was
as immovable as if it had been fastened to the bottom of the sea with
a hundred chains. And vines and ivy-bushes sprang up and covered the
sides of the ship with green foliage, and a spray of ivy twined
itself round the mast {67} right up to the top, so that the ship
looked like a beautiful garden in the middle of the sea. But the
sight of it gave no pleasure to the ship-men; their flesh began to
creep, and they were seized with an irresistible desire to jump into
the sea. And as they jumped they were changed into dolphins, and for
the rest of their lives they swam about in the sea, thieving fishes
as they had been thieving men. Then Dionysus clapped his hands, and
the panther-drawn chariot came over the sea to him followed by the
Bacchantes, the sea making a pathway for them so that they scarcely
wetted their feet. Dionysus got into his chariot and guided it to
Naxos, and the Bacchantes followed it, skipping along on the crests
of the waves.
After Dionysus had travelled over the whole world, it was fitting
that he should take up his abode on Mount Olympus with the other
gods, and Hera did not make any difficulty about it. But before he
did so, he brought his mother Semele from out of the Lower World, and
Zeus made her immortal, so that she also had a place among the gods,
and Hera no longer bore her any ill-will.
[1] See page 150.
{68}
XX.
MELAMPUS AND BIAS.
In the city of Pylos there lived a man named Melampus, who was very
rich, and had a great deal of land and many servants. One day, as
the servants were coming home from their work in the fields, they
found a nest of snakes in a hollow oak, and they drove out the snakes
and began to beat them to death with their sticks and cudgels. Just
then Melampus came by, and when he saw what the servants were doing,
he let them kill the old snakes, but finding among them two young
ones less than a foot long, he took them up and carried them home.
The little snakes were now very well off, for Melampus made them a
bed of leaves and gave them plenty of food to eat. They were not
poisonous snakes, but nice harmless little creatures, and when they
grew older they had a great wish to do Melampus some service, as a
return to him for having saved their lives and taken such care of
them. So one day, when he was asleep, the snakes crept up to him,
one on each side, and licked his ears with their fine sharp little
tongues, and when he awoke he found he could understand what the
birds and insects said, and he was ever afterwards able to discover
things that were hidden from other men, because the birds told him
about them.
{69}