The fable runs, that Juno, enraged at Jupiter’s bringing forth Pallas
without her assistance, incessantly solicited all the gods and
goddesses, that she might produce without Jupiter; and having by
violence and importunity obtained the grant, she struck the earth, and
thence immediately sprung up Typhon, a huge and dreadful monster, whom
she committed to the nursing of a serpent. As soon as he was grown
up, this monster waged war on Jupiter, and taking him prisoner in the
battle, carried him away on his shoulders, into a remote and obscure
quarter; and there, cutting out the sinews of his hands and feet, he
bore them off, leaving Jupiter behind miserably maimed and mangled.
But Mercury afterwards stole these sinews from Typhon, and restored
them to Jupiter. Hence, recovering his strength, Jupiter again pursues
the monster; first wounds him with a stroke of his thunder, when
serpents arose from the blood of the wound; and now the monster being
dismayed, and taking to flight, Jupiter next darted Mount Ætna upon
him, and crushed him with the weight.
EXPLANATION.—This fable seems designed to express the various fates
of kings, and the turns that rebellions sometimes take, in kingdoms.
For princes may be justly esteemed married to their states, as Jupiter
to Juno; but it sometimes happens, that, being depraved by long
wielding of the sceptre, and growing tyrannical, they would engross
all to themselves, and, slighting the counsel of their senators and
nobles, conceive by themselves; that is, govern according to their own
arbitrary will and pleasure. This inflames the people, and makes them
endeavor to create and set up some head of their own. Such designs
are generally set on foot by the secret motion and instigation of the
peers and nobles, under whose connivance the common sort are prepared
for rising; whence proceeds a swell in the state, which is appositely
denoted by the nursing of Typhon. This growing posture of affairs is
fed by the natural depravity and malignant dispositions of the vulgar,
which to kings is an envenomed serpent. And now the disaffected,
uniting their force, at length break out into open rebellion, which,
producing infinite mischiefs, both to prince and people, is represented
by the horrid and multiplied deformity of Typhon, with his hundred
heads, denoting the divided powers; his flaming mouths, denoting
fire and devastation; his girdles of snakes, denoting sieges and
destruction; his iron hands, slaughter and cruelty; his eagle’s talons,
rapine and plunder; his plumed body, perpetual rumors, contradictory
accounts, &c. And sometimes these rebellions grow so high, that kings
are obliged, as if carried on the backs of the rebels, to quit the
throne, and retire to some remote and obscure part of their dominions,
with the loss of their sinews, both of money and majesty.
But if now they prudently bear this reverse of fortune, they may, in a
short time, by the assistance of Mercury, recover their sinews again;
that is, by becoming moderate and affable; reconciling the minds and
affections of the people to them, by gracious speeches and prudent
proclamations, which will win over the subject cheerfully to afford
new aids and supplies, and add fresh vigor to authority. But prudent
and wary princes here seldom incline to try fortune by a war, yet do
their utmost, by some grand exploit, to crush the reputation of the
rebels; and if the attempt succeeds, the rebels, conscious of the wound
received, and distrustful of their cause, first betake themselves to
broken and empty threats, like the hissings of serpents; and next, when
matters are grown desperate, to flight. And now, when they thus begin
to shrink, it is safe and seasonable for kings to pursue them with
their forces, and the whole strength of the kingdom; thus effectually
quashing and suppressing them, as it were by the weight of a mountain.