OCEANUS, oldest son of Coelus and Terra, or Vesta. He married Tethys,

and besides her had many other wives. He had several sisters, all

Nymphs, each of whom possessed an hundred woods and as many rivers.

Oceanus was esteemed by the ancients as the father both of gods and men,

who were said to have taken their beginning from him, on account of the

ocean's encompassing the earth with its waves, and because he was the

principal of that radical moisture diffused through universal matter,

without which, according to Thales, nothing could either be produced or

subsist.

Homer makes Juno visit Oceanus at the remotest limits of the earth, and

acknowledge him and Tethys as the parents of the gods, adding, that she

herself had been brought up under their tuition. Many of his children

are mentioned in poetical story, whose names it would be endless to

enumerate, and, indeed, they are only the appellations of the principal

rivers of the world. Oceanus was described with a bull's head, to

represent the rage and bellowing of the ocean when agitated by storms.

Oceanus and Tethys are ranked in the highest classes of sea-deities, and

as governors in chief over the whole world of waters.

NEREUS, a sea-deity, was son of Oceanus, by Tethys. Apollodorus gives

him Terra for his mother. His education and authority were in the

waters, and his residence, more particularly, the AEgean seas. He had the

faculty of assuming what form he pleased. He was regarded as a prophet;

and foretold to Paris the war which the rape of Helen would bring upon

his country. When Hercules was ordered to fetch the golden apples of the

Hesperides, he went to the Nymphs inhabiting the grottoes of Eridanus,

to know where he might find them; the Nymphs sent him to Nereus, who, to

elude the inquiry, perpetually varied his form, till Hercules having

seized him, resolved to hold him till he resumed his original shape, on

which he yielded the desired information. Nereus had, by his sister

Doris, fifty daughters called Nereids. Hesiod highly celebrates him as a

mild and peaceful old man, a lover of justice and moderation. Nereus and

Doris, with their descendants the Nereids, or Oceaniads, so called from

Oceanus, are ranked in the third class of water deities.

PALAEMON, _or_ MELICERTES, was son of Athamas, king of Thebes and Ino.

The latter fearing the rage of her husband, who in his madness had

killed his son Learchus, took Melicertes in her arms, and leaped with

him from the rock Molyris into the sea. Neptune received them with open

arms, and gave them a place among the marine gods, only changing their

names, Ino being called Leucothea, or Leucothoe, and Melicertes,

Palaemon. Ino, under the name Leucothea, is supposed, by some, to be the

same with Aurora: the Romans gave her the name of Matuta, she being

reputed the goddess that ushers in the morning; and Palaemon, they called

Portumnus, or Portunnus, and painted him with a key in his hand, to

denote that he was the guardian of harbors. Adorations were paid to him

chiefly at Tenedos, and the sacrifice offered to him was an infant.

Pausanias says that the body of Melicertes was thrown on the Isthmus of

Corinth where Sisyphus, his uncle, who reigned in that city, instituted

the Isthmian games in his honor. For this fable we are indebted to the

fertile invention of the Greeks, Melicertes being no other than the

Melcarthus or the Hercules of Tyre, who, from having been drowned in the

sea, was called a god of it, and from his many voyages, the guardian of

harbors.

GLAUCUS, a sea-deity. His story, which is very fanciful, shows the

extravagance of poetical fiction amongst the ancients. Before his

deification, Glaucus is said to have been a fisherman of Anthedon, who

having one day remarked that the fishes which he laid on a particular

herb revived and threw themselves into the sea, resolved himself to

taste it, and immediately followed their example: the consequence was,

that he became a Triton, and ever after was reputed a marine deity,

attending with the rest on the car of Neptune.

The descent of this deity is exceeding dubious. He is said to have

carried off Ariadne from the island Dia, for which Bacchus bound him

fast with vine-twigs. The ship Argo is said to have been constructed by

him, and he is not only mentioned as commanding her, when Jason fought

with the Tyrrhenians, but as being the only one of her crew that came

off without a wound. He dwelt some time at Delos, and, besides

prophesying with the Nereids, is affirmed to have instructed Apollo in

the art.

SCYLLA was the daughter of Phorcus, or Phorcys, by Ceto. Glaucus, being

passionately fond of Scylla, after vainly endeavoring to gain her

affections, applied to Circe, and besought her, by her art, to induce

her to return his affection. On this, Circe disclosed to him her

passion, but Glaucus remaining inexorable, the enchantress vowed

revenge, and by her magic charms so infected the fountain in which

Scylla bathed, that on entering it, her lower parts were turned into

dogs; at which the nymph, terrified at herself, plunged into the sea,

and there was changed to a rock, notorious for the shipwrecks it

occasioned.

Authors are disagreed as to Scylla's form; some say she retained her

beauty from the neck downwards, but had six dog's heads: others

maintain, that her upper parts continued entire, but that she had below

the body of a wolf, and the tail of a serpent. The rock named Scylla,

lies between Italy and Sicily, and the noise of the waves beating on it

is supposed to have occasioned the fable of the barking of dogs, and

howling of wolves, ascribed to the imaginary monster.

CHARYBDIS was a rapacious woman, a female robber, who, it is said, stole

the oxen of Hercules, for which she was thunder-struck by Jupiter, and

turned into a whirlpool, dangerous to sailors. This whirlpool was

situated opposite the rock Scylla, at the entrance of the Faro from

Messina, and occasioned the proverb of running into one danger to avoid

another. Some affirm that Hercules killed her himself; others, that

Scylla committed this robbery, and was killed for it by Hercules.

CHAPTER VIII.

_Tartarus and its Deities._

TARTARUS _or_ HELL, the region of punishment after death. The whole

imaginary world, which we call Hell, though according to the ancients it

was the receptacle of all departed persons, of the good as well as the

bad, is divided by Virgil into five parts: the first may be called the

previous region; the second is the region of waters, or the river which

they were all to pass; the third is what we may call the gloomy region,

and what the ancients called Erebus; the fourth is Tartarus, or the

region of torments; and the fifth the region of joy and bliss, or what

we still call Elysium.

The first part in it Virgil has stocked with two sorts of beings; first,

with those which make the real misery of mankind upon earth, such as

war, discord, labor, grief, cares, distempers, and old age; and,

secondly, with fancied terrors, and all the most frightful creatures of

our own imagination, such as Gorgons, Harpies, Chimaeras and the like.

The next is the water which all the departed were supposed to pass, to

enter into the other world; this was called Styx, or the hateful

passage: the imaginary personages of this division are the souls of the

departed, who are either passing over, or suing for a passage, and the

master of a vessel who carries them over, one freight after another,

according to his will and pleasure.

The third division begins immediately with the bank on the other side

the river, and was supposed to extend a great way in: it is subdivided

again into several particular districts; the first seems to be the

receptacle for infants. The next for all such as have been put to death

without a cause; next is the place for those who have put a period to

their own lives, a melancholy region, and situated amidst the marshes

made by the overflowings of the Styx, or hateful river, or passage into

the other world: after this are the fields of mourning, full of dark

woods and groves, and inhabited by those who died of love: last of all

spreads an open champaign country, allotted for the souls of departed

warriors; the name of this whole division is Erebus: its several

districts seem to be disposed all in a line, one after the other, but

after this the great line or road divides into two, of which the right

hand road leads to Elysium, or the place of the blessed, and the left

hand road to Tartarus, or the place of the tormented.

The fourth general division of the subterraneous world is this Tartarus,

or the place of torments: there was a city in it, and a prince to

preside over it: within this city was a vast deep pit, in which the

tortures were supposed to be performed: in this horrid part Virgil

places two sorts of souls; first, of such as have shown their impiety

and rebellion toward the gods; and secondly, of such as have been vile

and mischievous among men: those, as he himself says of the latter more

particularly, who hated their brethren, used their parents ill, or

cheated their dependants, who made no use of their riches, who committed

incest, or disturbed the marriage union of others, those who were

rebellious subjects, or knavish servants, who were despisers of justice,

or betrayers of their country, and who made and unmade laws not for the

good of the public, but only to get money for themselves; all these, and

the despisers of the gods, Virgil places in this most horrid division of

his subterraneous world, and in the vast abyss, which was the most

terrible part even of that division.

The fifth division is that of Elysium, or the place of the blessed; here

Virgil places those who died for their country, those of pure lives,

truly inspired poets, the inventors of arts, and all who have done good

to mankind: he does not speak of any particular districts for these, but

supposes that they have the liberty of going where they please in that

delightful region, and conversing with whom they please; he only

mentions one vale, towards the end of it, as appropriated to any

particular use; this is the vale of Lethe or forgetfulness, where many

of the ancient philosophers, and the Platonists in particular, supposed

the souls which had passed through some periods of their trial, were

immersed in the river which gave its name to it, in order to be put into

new bodies, and to fill up the whole course of their probation, in an

upper world.

In each of these three divisions, on the other side of the river Styx,

which perhaps were comprehended under the name of Ades, as all the five

might be under that of Orcus, was a prince or judge: Minos for the

regions of Erebus; Rhadamanthus for Tartarus; and AEacus for Elysium,

Pluto and Proserpine had their palace at the entrance of the road to the

Elysian fields, and presided as sovereigns over the whole subterraneous

world.

PLUTO, son of Saturn and Ops, assisted Jupiter in his wars, and after

victory had crowned their exertions in placing his brother on the

throne, be obtained a share of his father's dominions, which, as some

authors say, was the eastern continent, and lower regions of Asia; but,

according to the common opinion, Pluto's division lay in the west. He

fixed his residence in Spain, and lived in Iberia, near the Pyrrenaean

mountains: Spain being a fertile country, and abounding in minerals and

mines, Pluto was esteemed the god of wealth; for it must be here

observed, that the poets confound Pluto, god of hell, with Plutus, god

of riches, though they were distinct deities, and always so considered

by the ancients.

Pluto's regions being supposed to lie under ground; and as he was the

first who taught men to bury their dead, it was thence inferred that he

was king of the infernal regions, whence sprung a belief, that as all

souls descended to him, so when they were in his possession, he bound

them with inevitable chains, and delivered them to be tried by judges,

after which he dispensed rewards and punishments according to their

several deserts. Pluto was therefore called the infernal Jupiter, and

oblations were made to him by the living, for the souls of their friends

departed.

Although Pluto was brother of Jupiter, yet none of the goddesses would

condescend to marry him, owing to the deformity of his person, joined to

the darkness of his mansions. Enraged at this reluctance in the

goddesses, and mortified at his want of issue, Pluto ascended his

chariot, and drove to Sicily, where chancing to discover Proserpine with

her companions gathering flowers in a valley of Enna, near mount AEtna,

the grisly god, struck with her charms, instantly seized her, and

forcing her into his chariot, went rapidly off to the river Chemarus,

through which he opened himself a passage to the realms of night.

Orpheus says, this descent was made through the Cecropian cave in

Attica, not far from Eleusis.

His whole domains are washed with vast and rapid rivers, whose peculiar

qualities strike horror into mortals. Cocytus falls with an impetuous

roaring; Phlegethon rages with a torrent of flames; the Acharusian fen

is dreadful for its stench and filth: nor does Charon, the ferryman, who

wafts souls over, occasion any less horror; Cerberus, the triple-headed

dog, stands ready with open mouths to receive them; and the Furies shake

at them their serpentine locks.

Thus far the common fable; but the following seems the true foundation

of the story which has been so much disguised; Pluto having retired into

Spain, applied himself to the working of the mines of silver and gold,

which in that country, were very common, especially on the side of

Cadiz, where he fixed his abode. Boetica, his residence, was that

province now called Andalusia, and the river Boetis, now Guadalquiver,

gave that name to it. This river formed of old, at its mouth, a small

island, called Tartessus, which was the Tartessus of the ancients, and

whence Tartarus was formed.

It may be remarked, that though Spain be not now fertile in mines, yet

the ancients speak of it as a country where they abounded. Posidonius

says, that its mountains and hills were almost all mountains of gold;

Arienus, that near Tartessus was a mountain of silver; and Aristotle,

that the first Phoenicians who landed there, found such quantities of

gold and of silver, that they made anchors for their ships of those

precious metals. This, doubtless, is what determined Pluto, who was

ingenius in such operations, to fix himself near to Tartessus; and this

making him pass also for a wealthy prince, procured for him the name of

Pluto, instead of that of Agelestus.

The situation of Pluto's kingdom, which was low in respect to Greece,

occasioned him to be looked on as the god of hell; and as he continually

employed laborers for his mines, who chiefly resided in the bowels of

the earth, and there commonly died, Pluto was reputed the king of the

dead. The ocean, likewise, upon whose coasts he reigned, was supposed to

be covered with darkness. These circumstances united, appear to have

been the foundation of the fables afterwards invented concerning Pluto

and his realms of night. It is probable, for example, that the famous

Tartarus, the place so noted in the empire of this god, comes from

Tartessus, near Cadiz: the river Lethe not unlikely from the

Guada-Lethe, which flows over against that city; and the lake Avernus,

or the Acheronian fen, from the word Aharona, importing, _at the

extremities_, a name given to that lake, which is near the ocean.

Pluto was extremely revered both by the Greeks and Romans. He had a

magnificent temple at Pylos. Near the river Corellus, in Boeotia, he had

also an altar, for some mystical reason, in common with Pallas. His

chief festival was in February, and called Charistia, because their

oblations were made for the dead. Black bulls were the victims offered

up, and the ceremonies were performed in the night, it not being lawful

to sacrifice to him in the day time, on account of his aversion to the

light. The cypress tree was sacred to Pluto, boughs of which were

carried at funerals.

He is usually represented in an ebony chariot, drawn by his four black

horses, Orphnaeus, AEthon, Nycteus, and Alastor. As god of the dead, keys

were the ensigns of his authority, because there is no possibility of

returning when the gates of his palace are locked. Sometimes he holds a

sceptre, to denote his power; at other times a wand, with which he

directs the movements of his subject ghosts. Homer speaks of his hemlet

as having the quality of rendering the wearer invisible; and tells us

that Minerva borrowed it when she fought against the Trojans, that she

might not be discovered by Mars. Perseus also used this hemlet when he

cut off Medusa's head.

Mythologists pretend that Pluto is the earth, the natural powers and

faculties of which are under his direction, so that he is monarch not

only of all riches which come from thence, and are at length swallowed

up by it, but likewise of the dead; for as all living things spring from

the earth, so are they resolved into the principles whence they arose.

Proserpine is by them reputed to be the seed or grain of fruits or corn,

which must be taken into the earth, and hid there before it can be

nourished by it.

PLUTUS, the god of riches. Though Plutus be not an infernal god, yet as

his name and office were similar to Pluto's, we shall here distinguish

them, although both were gods of riches. Pluto was born of Saturn and

Ops, or Rhea, and was brother of Jupiter and Neptune; but Plutus, the

god of whom we here speak, was son of Jason or Jasion by Ceres. He is

represented blind and lame, injudicious and fearful. Being lame, he

confers estates but slowly: for want of judgment, his favors are

commonly bestowed on the unworthy; and as he is timorous, so he obliges

rich men to watch their treasures with fear. Plutus is painted with

wings, to signify the swiftness of his retreat, when he takes his

departure. Little more of him remains in story, than that he had a

daughter named Euriboea; unless the comedy of Aristophanes, called by

his name, be taken into the account.

Aristophanes says that this deity, having at first a very clear sight,

bestowed his favors only on the just and good: but that after Jupiter

deprived him of vision, riches fell indifferently to the good and the

bad. A design being formed for the recovery of his sight, Penia or

poverty opposed it, making it appear that poverty is the mistress of

arts, sciences, and virtues, which would be in danger of perishing if

all men were rich; but no credit being given to her remonstrance, Plutus

recovered his sight in the temple of AEsculapius, whence the temples and

altars of other gods, and those of Jupiter himself, were abandoned, the

whole world sacrificing to Plutus alone.

PROSERPINE, the daughter of Jupiter and Ceres, was educated with Minerva

and Di{=a}na. By reason of this familiar intercourse, each chose a place

in the island of Sicily for her particular residence. Minerva look the

parts near Himera; Di{=a}na those about Syracuse; and Proserpine, in

common with her sister goddesses, enjoyed the pleasant fields of Enna.

Near at hand are groves and gardens, surrounded with morasses and a deep

cave, with a passage under ground, opening towards the north. In this

happy retirement was Proserpine situated, when Pluto, passing in his

chariot through the cave, discovered her whilst busy in gathering

flowers, with her attendants, the daughters of Oceanus. Proserpine he

seized, and having placed her in his chariot, carried her to Syracuse,

where the earth opening, they both descended to the infernal regions.

She had not been long there when the fame of her charms induced Theseus

and Pirithous to combine for the purpose of carrying her thence; but in

this they failed. When Ceres, who was disconsolate for the loss of her

daughter, discovered where she was, Jupiter upon her repeated

solicitations, promised that Proserpine should be restored, provided she

had not yet tasted any thing in hell. Ceres joyfully descended, and

Proserpine, full of triumph, prepared for her return, when lo!

Ascalaphus, son of Acheron and Gorgyra, discovered that he saw

Proserpine, as she walked in the garden of Pluto, eat some grains of a

pomegranate, upon which her departure was stopped. At last, by the

repeated importunity of her mother to Jupiter, she extorted as a favor,

in mitigation of her grief, that Proserpine should live half the year in

heaven, and the other half in hell.

Proserpine is represented under the form of a beautiful woman,

enthroned, having something stern and melancholy in her aspect. Statius

has found out a melancholy employment for her, which is, to keep a sort

of register of the dead, and to mark down all that should be added to

that number. The same poet mentions another of her offices of a more

agreeable nature: he says, when any woman dies who had been a remarkably

good wife in this world, Proserpine prepares the spirits of the best

women in the other to make a procession to welcome her into Elysium with

joy, and to strew all the way with flowers where she is to pass.

Some represent Proserpine, Luna, Hec{)a}te, and Di{=a}na, as one; the

same goddess being called Luna in heaven, Di{=a}na on earth, and

Hec{)a}te in hell: and they explain the fable of the moon, which is

hidden from us in the hemisphere of the countries beneath, just so long

as it shines in our own. As Proserpine was to stay six months with her

mother, and six with her husband, she was the emblem of the seed corn,

which lies in the earth during the winter, but in spring sprouts forth,

and in summer bears fruit.

The mythological sense of the fable is this: the name of Proserpine, or

Persephone, among the Egyptians, was used to denote the change produced

in the earth by the deluge, which destroyed its former fertility, and

rendered tillage and agriculture necessary to mankind.

PARCAE, _or_ FATES, were goddesses supposed to preside over the accidents

and events, and to determine the date or period of human life. They were

reckoned by the ancients to be three in number, because all things have

a beginning, progress, and end. They were the daughters of Jupiter and

Themis, and sisters to the Horae, or Hours.

Their names, amongst the Greeks, were Atropos, Clotho, and Lachesis, and

among the Latins, Nona, Decima, Morta. They are called Parcae, because,

as Varro thinks, they distributed to mankind good and bad things at

their birth; or, as the common and received opinion is, because they

spare nobody. They were always of the same mind, so that though

dissensions sometimes arose among the other gods, no difference was ever

known to subsist among these three sisters, whose decrees were

immutable. To them was intrusted the spinning and management of the

thread of life; Clotho held the distaff, Lachesis turned the wheel, and

Atropos cut the thread.

Plutarch tells us they represented the three parts of the world, viz.

the firmament of the fixed stars, the firmament of the planets, and the

space of air between the moon and the earth; Plato says they represented

time past, present, and to come. There were no divinities in the pagan

world who had a more absolute power than the Fates. They were looked

upon as the dispensers of the eternal decrees of Jupiter, and were all

of them sometimes supposed to spin the party-colored thread of each

man's life. Thus are they represented on a medal, each with a distaff in

her hand. The fullest and best description of them in any of the poets,

is in Catullus: he represents them as all spinning, and at the same time

singing, and foretelling the birth and fortunes of Achilles, at Peleus'

wedding.

An ingenious writer, in giving the true mythology of these characters,

apprehends them to have been, originally, nothing more than the mystical

figure or symbols which represented the months of January, February, and

March, among the Egyptians, who depicted them in female dresses, with

the instruments of spinning and weaving, which was the great business

carried on in that season. These images they called _Parc_, which

signifies _linen cloth_, to denote the manufacture produced by this

temporary industry. The Greeks, ever fertile in invention, and knowing

nothing of the true sense of these allegorical figures, gave them a turn

suitable to their genius.

FURIES, EUMENIDES _or_ DIRAE, were the daughters of Nox and Acheron.

Their names were Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone. As many crimes were

committed in secret, which could not be discovered from a deficiency of

proof, it was necessary for the judges to have such officers as by

wonderful and various tortures should force from the criminals a

confession of their guilt. To this end the Furies, being messengers both

of the celestial and terrestrial Jupiter, were always attendant on their

sentence.

In heaven they were called Dirae, (_quasi Deorum irae_) or ministers of

divine vengeance, in punishing the guilty after death; on earth

_Furies_, from that madness which attends the consciousness of guilt;

_Erynnis_, from the indignation and perturbations they raise in the

mind; _Eumenides_, from their placability to such as supplicate them, as

in the instance of Orestes, and Argos, upon his following the advice of

Pallas, and in hell, _Stygian dogs_.

The furies were so dreaded that few dared so much as to name them. They

were supposed to be constantly hovering about those who had been guilty

of any enormous crime. Thus Orestes, having murdered his mother

Clytemnestra, was haunted by the Furies. OEdipus, indeed, when blind and

raving, went into their grove, to the astonishment of all the Athenians,

who durst not so much as behold it. The Furies were reputed so

inexorable, that if any person polluted with murder, incest, or any

flagrant impiety, entered the temple which Orestes had dedicated to them

in Cyrenae, a town of Arcadia, he immediately became mad, and was hurried

from place to place, with the most restless and dreadful tortures.

Mythologists have assigned to each of these tormentresses their proper

department. Tisiphone is said to punish the sins arising from hatred and

anger; Megaera those occasioned by envy; and Alecto the crimes of

ambition and lust. The statues of the Furies had nothing in them

originally different from the other divinities. It was the poet AEschylus

who, in one of his tragedies, represented them in that hideous manner

which proved fatal to many of the spectators. The description of these

deities by the poet passed from the theatre to the temple: from that

time they were exhibited as objects of the utmost horror, with Terror,

Rage, Paleness, and Death, for their attendants; and thus seated about

Pluto's throne, whose ministers they were, they awaited his orders with

an impatience congenial to their natures.

The Furies are described with snakes instead of hair, and eyes inflamed

with madness, brandishing in one hand whips and iron chains, and in the

other torches, with a smothering flame. Their robes are black, and their

feet of brass, to show that their pursuit, though slow, is steady and

certain. As they attended at the thrones of the Stygian and celestial

Jupiter, they had wings to accelerate their progress through the air,

when bearing the commands of the gods: they struck terror into mortals,

either by war, famine, pestilence, or the numberless calamities incident

to human life.

NOX, _or_ NIGHT, the oldest of the deities, was held in great esteem

among the ancients. She was even reckoned older than Chaos. Orpheus

ascribes to her the generation of gods and men, and says, that all

things had their beginning from her. Pausanias has left us a description

of a remarkable statue of this goddess. "We see," says he, "a woman

holding in her right hand a white child sleeping, and in her left a

black child likewise asleep, with both its legs distorted; the

inscription tells us what they are, though we might easily guess without

it: the two children are Death and Sleep, and the woman is Night, the

nurse of them both."

The poets fancied her to be drawn in a chariot with two horses, before

which several stars went as harbingers; that she was crowned with

poppies, and her garments were black, with a black veil over her

countenance, and that stars followed in the same manner as they preceded

her; that upon the departure of the day she arose from the ocean, or

rather from Erebus, and encompassed the earth with her sable wings. The

sacrifice offered to Night was a cock because of its enmity to darkness,

and rejoicing at the light.

SOMNUS, _or_ SLEEP, one of the blessings to which the pagans erected

altars, was said to be son of Erebus and, Night, and brother of Death.

Orpheus calls Somnus the happy king of gods and men; and Ovid, who gives

a very beautiful description of his abode, represents him dwelling in a

deep cave in the country of the Cimmerians. Into this cavern the sun

never enters, and a perpetual stillness reigns, no noise being heard but

the soft murmur caused by a stream of the river Lethe, which creeps over

the pebbles, and invites to slumber; at its entrance grow poppies, and

other soporiferous herbs. The drowsy god lies reclined on a bed stuffed

with black plumes, the bedstead is of ebony, the covering is also black,

and his head is surrounded by fantastic visions.

We learn from Statius, that the attendants and guards before the gates

of this palace were Rest, Ease, Indolence, Silence, and Oblivion; as the

ministers or attendants within are a vast multitude of Dreams in

different shapes and attitudes. Ovid teaches us who were the supposed

governors over these, and what their particular districts or offices

were. The three chiefs of all are Morpheus, Phobetor, and Phantasos, who

inspire dreams into great persons only: Morpheus inspires such dreams as

relate to men, Phobetor such as relate to other animals, and Phantasos

such as relate to inanimate things. They have each their particular

legions under them, to inspire the common people with the sort of dreams

which belong to their province.

MINOS was son of Jupiter and Europa, and brother of Rhadamanthus and

Sarpedon. After the death of his father, the Cretans, who thought him

illegitimate, would not admit him as a successor to the kingdom, till he

persuaded them it was the divine pleasure he should reign, by praying

Neptune to give him a sign, which being granted, the god caused a horse

to rise out of the sea, upon which he ascended the throne.

Nothing so much distinguished him as the laws he enacted for the

Cretans, which obtained him the name of one of the greatest legislators

of antiquity. To confer the more authority on these laws, Minos retired

to a cave of Mount Ida, where he feigned that Jupiter, his father,

dictated them to him; and every time he returned thence a new injunction

was promulgated by him. Homer calls him Jupiter's disciple; and Horace

says he was admitted to the secrets of that god. Strabo and Ephorus

contend, that Minos dwelt nine years in retirement in this cave, and

that it was afterwards called the cave of Jupiter.

Antiquity entertained the highest esteem for the institutes of Minos:

and the testimonies of ancient authors on this head are endless. It

will, therefore, suffice to observe that Lycurgus travelled to Crete on

purpose to collect the laws of Minos for the benefit of the

Lacedemonians; and that Josephus, partial as he was to his own nation,

has owned, that Minos was the only one among the ancients who deserved

to be compared to Moses. He was reputed the judge of the supreme court

of Pluto, AEacus judged the Europeans; the Asiatics and Africans fell to

the lot of Rhadamanthus; and Minos, as president of the infernal court,

decided the differences which arose between these two judges. He sat on

a throne by himself, and wielded a golden sceptre.

RHADAMANTHUS was the son of Jupiter and Europa, and brother of Minos. He

was one of the three judges of hell. It is said that Rhadamanthus,

having killed his brother, fled to OEchalia in Boeotia, where he married

Alcmena, widow of Amphitryon. Some make Rhadamanthus a king of Lycia,

who on account of his severity and strict regard to justice, was said to

have been one of the three judges of hell, where his province was to

judge such as died impenitent. It is agreed, that he was the most

temperate man of his time, and was exalted amongst the law-givers of

Crete, who were renowned as good and just men. The division assigned to

Rhadamanthus in the infernal regions was Tartarus.

AEACUS, son of Jupiter and AEgina, was king of OEnopia, which, from his

mother's name, he called AEgina. The inhabitants of that country being

destroyed by a plague, AEacus prayed to his father that by some means he

would repair the loss of his subjects, upon which Jupiter, in compassion

changed all the ants within a hollow tree into men and women, who, from

a Greek word signifying _ants_, were called _Myrmidons_, and actually

were so industrious a people as to become famous for their ships and

navigation.

The meaning of which fable is this: The pirates having destroyed the

inhabitants of the island, excepting a few, who hid themselves in caves

and holes for fear of a like fate, AEacus drew them out of their retreats

and encouraged them to build houses, and sow corn; taught them military

discipline, and how to fit out and navigate fleets, and to appear not

like ants in holes, but on the theatre of the world, like men. His

character for justice was such, that in a time of universal drought he

was nominated by the Delphic oracle to intercede for Greece, and his

prayers were heard. The pagan world also believed that AEacus, on account

of his impartial justice, was chosen by Pluto, with Minos and

Rhadamanthus, one of the three judges of the dead, and that it was his

province to judge the Europeans, in which capacity he held a plain rod

as a badge of his office.

CHAPTER IX.

_The condemned in Hell._

TYPHOEUS, a giant of enormous size, was, according to Hesiod, son of

Erebus, or Tartarus and Terra. His stature was prodigious. With one hand

he touched the east, and with the other the west, while his head reached

to the stars. Hesiod has given him an hundred heads of dragons, uttering

dreadful sounds, and eyes which darted fire; flame proceeded from his

mouths and nostrils, his body was encircled with serpents, and his

thighs and legs were of a serpentine form. When he had almost

discomfited the gods, who fled from him into Egypt, Jupiter alone stood

his ground, and pursued the monster to Mount Caucasus in Syria, where he

wounded him with his thunder; But Typhoeus, turning upon him, took the

god prisoner, and after having cut, with his own sickle, the muscles of

his hands and feet, threw him on his shoulders, carried him into

Cilicia, and there imprisoned him in a cave, whence he was delivered by

Mercury, who restored him to his former vigor. Typhoeus afterwards fled

into Sicily, where the god overwhelmed him with the enormous mass of

mount AEtna.

Historians report, that Typhoeus was brother of Osiris, king of Egypt,

who in the absence of that monarch, formed a conspiracy to dethrone him;

and that having accordingly put Osiris to death, Isis, in revenge of her

husband, raised an army, the command of which she gave to Orus her son,

who vanquished and slew the usurper: hence the Egyptians, in abhorrence

of his memory, painted him under their hieroglyphic characters in so

frightful a manner. The length of his arms signified his power, the

serpents about him denoted his address and cunning, the scales which

covered his body, expressed his cruelty and dissimulation, and the

flight of the gods into Egypt showed the precautions taken by the great

to screen themselves from his fury and resentment. Mythologists take

Typhoeus and the other giants, to have been the winds; especially the

subterraneous, which cause earthquakes to break forth with fire,

occasioned by the sulphur enkindled in the caverns under Campania,

Sicily, and the AEolian islands.

TITYOS, _or_ TITYUS, was son of Jupiter and Elara. He resided in

Panopea, where he became formidable for rapine and cruelty, till Apollo

killed him for offering violence to his mother Latona. After this he was

thrown into Tart{)a}rus, and chained down on his back, his body taking

up such a compass as to cover nine acres. In this posture two vultures

continually preyed upon his liver, which constantly grew with the

increase of the moon, that there might never be wanting matter for

eternal punishment.

PHLEGYAS, son of Mars and Chryse, daughter of Halmus, was king of

Lapithae, a people of Thessaly. Apollo having seduced his daughter

Coronis, Phlegyas, in revenge, set fire to the temple of that god at

Delphi, for which sacrilege the deity killed him with his arrows, and

then cast him into Tart{)a}rus; where he was sentenced to sit under a

huge rock, which threatened him with perpetual destruction.

IXION was son of Phlegyas, king of the Lapithae in Thessaly. He married

Dia, daughter of Deioneus, whose consent he obtained by magnificent

promises, but, failing afterwards to perform them, Deioneus seized on

his horses. Ixion dissembled his resentment, and inviting Deioneus to a

banquet, received him in an apartment previously prepared, from which,

by withdrawing a door, his father-in-law was thrown into a furnace of

fire. Stung, however, with remorse, and universally despised, Ixion was

overpowered with frenzy, till Jupiter at length re-admitted him to

favor, and not only took him into heaven, but intrusted him also with

his counsels. So ungrateful, notwithstanding, did Ixion become, as to

attempt the chastity of Juno herself. This so incensed Jupiter that the

angry deity hurled him into Tart{)a}rus, and fixed him on a wheel

encompassed with serpents, which was doomed to revolve without

intermission.

SALMONEUS, king of Elis, was son of AEolus, (not he who was king of the

winds, but another of the name) and Anarete. Not satisfied with an

earthly crown, Salmoneus panted after divine honors; and, in order that

the people might esteem him a god, he built a brazen bridge over the

city, and drove his chariot along it, imitating, by this noise,

Jupiter's thunder; at the same time throwing flaming torches among the

spectators below, to represent his lightning, by which many were killed.

Jupiter, in resentment of this insolence, precipitated the ambitious

mortal into hell, where, according to Virgil, AEneas saw him.

SISIPHUS, _or_ SISYPHUS, a descendant of AEolus, married Merope, one of

the Pleiades, who bore him Glaucus. He resided at Ephyra, in

Peloponnesus, and was conspicuous for his craft. Some say he was a

Trojan secretary, who was punished for discovering secrets of state;

whilst others contend that he was a notorious robber killed by Theseus.

However, all the poets agree that he was punished in Tart{)a}rus for his

crimes, by rolling a great stone to the top of a hill, which constantly

recoiling and rolling down again, incessantly renewed his fatigue, and

rendered his labor endless.

Ovid, in one passage, seems to describe Sisyphus as bending under the

weight of a vast stone; "but the more common way of speaking of his

punishment," says the author of Polymetis, "agrees with the fine

description of him in Homer, where we see him laboring to heave the

stone that lies on his shoulders up against the side of a steep

mountain, and which always rolls precipitately down again before he can

get it to rest upon the top. Lucretius makes him only an emblem of the

ambitious; as Horace too seems to make Tant{)a}lus only an emblem of the

covetous."

BELIDES, _or_ DANAIDES: They were the fifty daughters of Dan{)a}us, son

of Belus, surnamed the _ancient_. Some quarrel having arisen between him

and Egyptus his brother, it determined Dan{)a}us on his voyage into

Greece; but Egyptus having fifty sons, proposed a reconciliation, by

marrying them to his brother's daughters. The proposal was agreed to,

and the nuptials were to be celebrated with singular splendor, when

Dan{)a}us, either in resentment of former injuries, or being told by the

oracle that one of his sons-in-law should destroy him, gave to each of

his daughters a dagger, with an injunction to stab her husband. They all

executed the order but Hypermnestra, the eldest, who spared the life of

Lyncaeus. These Bel{)i}des, for their cruelty, were consigned to the

infernal regions, there to draw water in sieves from a well, till they

had filled, by that means, a vessel full of holes.

TANTALUS, king of Phrygia, was the son of Jupiter and Plota. Whether it

was for this cause, the violation of hospitality, or for his pride, his

boasting, his want of secrecy, his insatiable covetousness, his

imparting nectar and ambrosia to mortals, or for all of them together,

since he has been accused of them all, Tant{)a}lus was thrown into

Tart{)a}rus, where the poets have assigned him a variety of torments.

Some represent a great stone as hanging over his head, which he

apprehended to be continually falling, and was ever in motion to avoid

it. Others describe him as afflicted with constant thirst and hunger,

though the most delicious banquets were exposed to his view; one of the

Furies terrifying him with her torch whenever he approached towards

them. Some exhibit him standing to the chin in water, and whenever he

stooped to quench his thirst, the water as constantly eluding his lip.

Others, with fruits luxuriously growing around him, which he no sooner

advanced to touch, than the wind blew them into the clouds.

CHAPTER X.

_Monsters of Hell._

HARPYIAE, _or_ HARPIES, were three in number, their names, Celaeno, Aello,

and Ocyp{)e}te. The ancients looked on them as a sort of Genii, or

Daemons. They had the faces of virgins, the ears of bears, the bodies of

vultures, human arms and feet, and long claws, hooked like the talons of

carnivorous birds. Phineas, king of Arcadia, being a prophet, and

revealing the mysteries of Jupiter to mortals, was by that deity struck

blind, and so tormented by the Harpies that he was ready to perish for

hunger; they devouring whatever was set before him, till the sons of

Boreas, who attended Jason in his expedition to Colchis, delivered the

good old king, and drove these monsters to the islands called

Stroph{)a}des: compelling them to swear never more to return.

The Harpies, according to the ingenious Abbe la Pluche, had their origin

in Egypt. He further observes, in respect to them, that during the

months of April, May, and June, especially the two latter, Egypt being

very subject to tempests, which laid waste their olive grounds, and

carried thither numerous swarms of grasshoppers, and other troublesome

insects from the shores of the Red Sea, the Egyptians gave to their

emblematic figures of these months a female face, with the bodies and

claws of birds, calling them _Harop_, or winged destroyers. This

solution of the fable corresponds with the opinion of Le Clerc, who

takes the harpies to have been a swarm of locusts, the word _Arbi_,

whence Harpy is formed, signifying, in their language, a locust.

GORGONS were three in number, and daughters of Phorcus or Porcys, by his

sister Ceto. Their names were Med{=u}sa, Eury{)a}le, and Stheno, and

they are represented as having scales on their bodies, brazen hands,

golden wings, tusks like boars, and snakes for hair. The last

distinction, however, is confined by Ovid to Med{=u}sa.

According to some mythologists, Perseus having been sent against

Med{=u}sa by the gods, was supplied by Mercury with a falchion, by

Minerva with a mirror, and by Pluto with a helmet, which rendered the

wearer invisible. Thus equipped, through the aid of winged sandals, he

steered his course towards Tartessus, where, finding the object of his

search, by the reflection of his mirror, he was enabled to aim his

weapon, without meeting her eye, (for her look would have turned him to

stone) and at one blow struck off her head. When Perseus had slain

Med{=u}sa, the other sisters pursued him, but he escaped from their

sight by means of his helmet. They were afterwards thrown into hell.

SPHINX was a female monster, daughter of Typhon and Echidna. She had the

head, face, and breasts of a woman, the wings of a bird, the claws of a

lion, and the body of a dog. She lived on mount Sphincius, infested the

country about Thebes, and assaulted passengers, by proposing dark and

enigmatical questions to them, which if they did not explain, she tore

them in pieces. Sphinx made horrible ravages in the neighborhood of

Thebes, till Creon, then king of that city, published an edict over all

Greece, promising that if any one should explain the riddle of Sphinx,

he would give him his own sister Iocasta in marriage.

The riddle was this, "What animal is that which goes upon four feet in

the morning, upon two at noon, and upon three at night?" Many had

endeavored to explain this riddle, but failing in the attempt, were

destroyed by the monster; till OEdipus undertook the solution, and thus

explained it: "The animal is man, who in his infancy creeps, and so may

be said to go on four feet; when he gets into the noon of life, he walks

on two feet; but when he grows old, or declines into the evening of his

days, he uses the support of a staff, and thus may be said to walk on

three feet." The Sphinx being enraged at this explanation, cast herself

headlong from a rock and died.

CHAPTER XI.

_Dii indig{)e}tes, or Heroes who received divine Honors after Death._

HERCULES was the son of Jupiter by Alcmena, wife of Amphitryon, king of

Thebes, and is said to have been born in that city about 1280 years

before the Christian era. During his infancy Juno sent two serpents to

kill him in his cradle, but the undaunted child grasping one in either

hand, immediately strangled them both. As he grew up, he discovered an

uncommon degree of vigor both of body and of mind. Nor were his

extraordinary endowments neglected; for his education was intrusted to

the greatest masters. The tasks imposed on him by Eurystheus, on account

of the danger and difficulty which attended their execution, received

the name of the _Labors of Hercules_, and are commonly reckoned, (at

least the most material of them) to have been twelve.

The first was his engagement with Cleonaean lion, which furious animal,

it is said, fell from the orb of the moon by Juno's direction, and was

invunerable. It infested the woods between Phlius and Cle{=o}ne, and

committed uncommon ravages. The hero attacked it both with his arrows

and club, but in vain, till, perceiving his error, he tore asunder its

jaws with his hands.

The second labor was his conquest of the Lernaean hydra, a formidable

serpent or monster which harbored in the fens of Lerna, and infected the

region of Argos with his poisonous exhalations. This seems to have been

one of the most difficult tasks in which Hercules was ever engaged. The

number of heads assigned the hydra is various; some give him seven, some

nine, others fifty, and Ovid an hundred; but all authors agree that when

one was cut off, another sprung forth in its place, unless the wound was

immediately cauterized. Hercules, not discouraged, attacked him, and

having ordered I{)o}las, his friend and companion, to cut down wood

sufficient for fire-brands, he no sooner had cut off a head than he

applied these brands to the wounds; by which means searing them up, he

obtained a complete victory.

The third labor was to bring alive to Eurystheus an enormous wild boar

which ravaged the forest of Erymanthus in Arcadia, and had been sent to

Phocis by Di{=a}na to punish AEn{=e}as, for neglecting her sacrifices.

Hercules brought him bound to Eurystheus. There is nothing descriptive

of this exploit in any of the Roman poets.

The fourth labor was the capture of the Maenalaean stag. Eurystheus, after

repeated proofs of the strength and valor of Hercules, resolved to try

his agility, and commanded him to take a wild stag that frequented mount

Maen{)a}lus, which had brazen feet and golden horns. As this animal was

sacred to Di{=a}na, Hercules durst not wound him; but though it were no

easy matter to run him down, yet this, after pursuing him on foot for a

year, the hero at last effected.

The fifth labor of Hercules consisted in killing the Stymphal{)i}des,

birds so called from frequenting the lake Stymph{=a}lis in Arcadia,

which preyed upon human flesh, having wings, beaks, and talons of iron.

Some say Hercules destroyed these birds with his arrows, others that

Pallas sent him brazen rattles, made by Vulcan, the sound of which so

terrified them, that they took shelter in the island of Aretia. There

are authors who suppose these birds called Stymphal{)i}des, to have been

a gang of desperate banditti who had their haunts near the lake

Stymph{=a}lis.

The sixth labor was his cleansing the stable of Augeas. This Augeas,

king of Elis, had a stable intolerable from the stench occasioned by the

filth it contained, which may be readily imagined from the fact that it

sheltered three thousand oxen, and had not been cleansed for thirty

years. This place Eurystheus ordered Hercules to clear in one day, and

Augeas promised, if he performed the task, to give him a tenth part of

the cattle. Hercules, by turning the course of the river Alph{=e}us

through the stable, executed his design, which Augeas seeing, refused to

fulfil his promise. The hero, to punish his perfidy, slew Augeas with

his arrows, and gave his kingdom to his son Phyleus, who abhorred his

father's treachery.

The seventh labor was the capture of the Cretan bull. Minos, king of

Crete, having acquired the dominion of the Grecian seas, paid no greater

honor to Neptune than to the other gods, wherefore the deity, in

resentment of this ingratitude, sent a bull, which breathed fire from

his nostrils, to destroy the people of Crete. Hercules took this furious

animal, and brought him to Eurystheus, who, because the bull was sacred,

let him loose into the country of Marathon, where he was afterwards

slain by Theseus.

The eighth labor of Hercules, was the killing of Diom{=e}des and his

horses. That infamous tyrant was king of Thrace, and son of Mars and

Cyr{=e}ne. Among other things he is said to have driven in his

war-chariot four furious horses, which, to render the more impetuous, he

used to feed on the flesh and blood of his subjects. Hercules is said to

have freed the world from this barbarous prince, and to have killed both

him and his horses, as is signified in some drawings, and said expressly

by some of the poets. Some report that the tyrant was given by Hercules

as a prey to his own horses.

The ninth labor of Hercules was his combat with Geryon, king of Spain.

Geryon is generally represented with three bodies agreeable to the

expressions used of him by the poets, and sometimes with three heads. He

had a breed of oxen of a purple color, (which devoured all strangers

cast to them) guarded by a dog with two heads, a dragon with seven,

besides a very watchful and severe keeper. Hercules, however, killed the

monarch and all his guards, and carried the oxen to Gades, whence he

brought them to Eurystheus. Some mythologists explain this fable by

saying that Geryon was king of three islands, now called Majorca,

Minorca, and Ivica, on which account he was fabled to be triple bodied

and headed.

The tenth labor of Hercules was his conquest of Hippolyte queen of the

Amazons. His eleventh labor consisted in dragging Cerebus from the

infernal regions into day. The twelfth and last was killing the serpent,

and gaining the golden fruit in the gardens of the Hesperides.

Hercules, after his conquests in Spain, having made himself famous in

the country of the Celtae or Gauls, is said to have there founded a large

and populous city, which he called Alesia. His favorite wife was

Dejanira, whose jealousy most fatally occasioned his death. Hercules

having subdued OEchalia and killed Eurytus the king, carried off the

fair I{)o}le, his daughter, with whom Dejanira suspecting him to be in

love, sent him the garment of Nessus, the Centaur, as a remedy to

recover his affections; this garment, however, having been pierced with

an arrow dipped in the blood of the Lernaean hydra, whilst worn by

Nessus, contracted a poison from his blood incurable by art. No sooner,

therefore, was it put on by Hercules than he was seized with a delirious

fever, attended with the most excruciating torments. Unable to support

his pains, he retired to mount OEta, where, raising a pile, and setting

it on fire, he threw himself upon it, and was consumed in the flames,

after having killed in his phrenzy Lycus his friend. His arrows he

bequeathed to Philoct{=e}tes, who interred his remains.

After his death he was deified by his father Jupiter. Di{=o}dorus

Siculus relates that he was no sooner ranked amongst the gods than Juno,

who had so violently persecuted him whilst on earth, adopted him for her

son, and loved him with the tenderness of a mother. Hercules was

afterwards married to Hebe, goddess of youth, his half sister, with all

the splendor of a celestial wedding; but he refused the honor which

Jupiter designed him, of being ranked with the twelve gods, alleging

there was no vacancy; and that it would be unreasonable to degrade any

other god for the purpose of admitting him.

Both the Greeks and Romans honored him as a god, and as such erected to

him temples. His victims were bulls and lambs, on account of his

preserving the flocks from wolves; that is, delivering men from tyrants

and robbers. He was worshipped by the ancient Latins under the name of

Dius, or Divus Fidius, that is, the guarantee or protector of faith

promised or sworn. They had a custom of calling this deity to witness by

a sort of oath expressed in these terms, _Me Dius Fidius!_ that is, so

help me the god Fidius! or Hercules.

PERSEUS was the son of Jupiter and Dan{)a}e, daughter of Acrisius king

of Argos. When Perseus was grown up, Polydectes, who was enamored of his

mother, finding him an obstacle to their union, contrived to send him on

an exploit, which he hoped would be fatal to him. This was to bring him

the head of Med{=u}sa, one of the Gorgons. In his expedition Perseus was

favored by the gods; Mercury equipped him with a scymetar, and the wings

from his heels; Pallas lent him a shield which reflected objects like a

mirror; and Pluto granted him his helmet, which rendered him invisible.

In this manner he flew to Tartessus in Spain, where, directed by the

reflection of Med{=u}sa in his mirror, he cut off her head, and brought

it to Pallas. From the blood arose the winged horse Peg{)a}sus.

After this the hero passed into Mauritania, where repairing to the court

of Atlas, that monarch ordered him to retire, with menaces, in case of

disobedience; but Perseus, presenting his shield, with the dreadful head

of Med{=u}sa, changed him into the mountain which still bears his name.

In his return to Greece he visited Ethiopia, mounted on Peg{)a}sus, and

delivered Androm{)e}da, daughter of Cepheus, (who was exposed on a rock

of that coast to be devoured by a monster of the deep) on condition he

might make her his wife: but Phineas, her uncle, sought to prevent him,

by attempting, with a party, to carry off the bride. The attempt,

notwithstanding, was rendered abortive; for the hero, by showing them

the head of the Gorgon, at once turned them to stone.

Perseus having completed these exploits, was desirous of revisiting

home, and accordingly set off for that purpose with his wife and his

mother. Arriving on the coast of Peloponnesus, and learning that

Teutamias, king of Larissa, was then celebrating games in honor of his

father, Perseus, wishing to exhibit his skill at the quoit, of which he

has been deemed the inventor, resolved to go thither. In this contest,

however, he was so unfortunate as to kill Acrisius, the father of his

mother, who, on the report that Perseus was returning to the place of

his nativity, had fled to the court of Teutamias his friend, to avoid

the denunciation of the oracle, which had induced him to exercise such

cruelty on his offspring. At what time Perseus died is unknown; but all

agree that divine honors were paid him. He had statues at Myc{=e}nae and

in Seriphos. A temple was erected to him in Athens, and an altar in it

consecrated to Dictys.

[Illustration:

HECTOR'S BODY DRAGGED AT THE CAR OF ACHILLES.

Pl. 8.]

ACHILLES was the offspring of a goddess. Thetis bore him to Peleus, king

of Thessaly, and was so fond of him, that she charged herself with his

education. By day she fed him with ambrosia, and by night covered him

with celestial fire, to render him immortal. She also dipped him in the

waters of Styx, by which his whole body became invulnerable, except that

part of his heel by which she held him. He was afterwards committed to

the care of Chiron the Centaur, who fed him with honey, and the marrow

of lions and wild boars; whence he obtained that strength of body and

greatness of soul which qualified him for martial toil.

When the Greeks undertook the siege of Troy, Calchas the diviner, and

priest of Apollo, foretold that the city should not be taken without the

help of Achilles. Thetis, his mother, who knew that Achilles, if he went

to the siege of Troy, would never return, clothed him in female apparel,

and concealed him among the maidens at the court of Lycom{=e}des, king

of the island of Scyros. But this stratagem proved ineffectual; for

Calchas having informed the Greeks where Achilles lay in disguise, they

sent Ulysses to the court of Lycom{=e}des, where, under the appearance

of a merchant, he was introduced to the king's daughters, and while they

were studiously intent on viewing his toys, Achilles employed himself in

examining an helmet, which the cunning politician had thrown in his way.

Achilles thus detected, was prevailed on to go to Troy, after Thetis had

furnished him with impenetrable armor made by Vulcan. Thither he led the

troops of Thessaly, in fifty ships, and distinguished himself by a

number of heroic actions; but being disgusted with Agamemnon for the

loss of Briseis, he retired from the camp, and resolved to have no

further concern in the war. In this resolution he continued inexorable,

till news was brought him that Hector had killed his friend

Patr{=o}clus; to avenge his death he not only slew Hector, but fastened

the corpse to his chariot, dragged it round the walls of Troy, offered

many indignities to it, and sold it at last to Priam his father.

Authors are much divided on the manner of Achilles' death; some relate

that he was slain by Apollo, or that this god enabled Paris to kill him,

by directing the arrow to his heel, the only part in which he was

vulnerable. Others again say, that Paris murdered him treacherously, in

the temple of Apollo, whilst treating about his marriage with

Polyx{)e}na, daughter to king Priam.

Though this tradition concerning his death be commonly received, yet

Homer plainly enough insinuates that Achilles died fighting for his

country, and represents the Greeks as maintaining a bloody battle about

his body, which lasted a whole day. Achilles having been lamented by

Thetis, the Nereids, and the Muses, was buried on the promontory of

Sigaeum; and after Troy was captured, the Greeks endeavored to appease

his manes by sacrificing Polyx{)e}na, on his tomb, as his ghost had

requested.

The oracle at Dod{=o}na decreed him divine honors, and ordered annual

victims to be offered at the place of his sepulture. In pursuance of

this, the Thessalians brought hither yearly two bulls, one black, the

other white, crowned with wreaths of flowers, and water from the river

Sperchius. It is said that Alexander, seeing his tomb, honored it by

placing a crown upon it, at the same time crying out "that Achilles was

happy in having, during his life, such a friend as Patr{=o}clus, and

after his death, a poet like Homer."

ATLAS was son of Jap{)e}tus and Clym{)e}ne, and brother of Prometheus,

according to most authors; or, as others relate, son of Jap{)e}tus by

Asia, daughter of Oce{)a}nus. He had many children. Of his sons, the

most famous were Hesp{)e}rus (whom some call his brother) and Hyas. By

his wife Pleione he had seven daughters, who went by the general names

of Atlant{)i}des, or Plei{)a}des; and by his wife AEthra he had also

seven other daughters, who bore the common appellation of the Hy{)a}des.

According to Hyg{=i}nus, Atlas having assisted the giants in their war

against Jupiter, was doomed by the victorious god, as a punishment, to

sustain the weight of the heavens. Ovid, however, represents him as a

powerful and wealthy monarch, proprietor of the gardens of the

Hesper{)i}des, which bore golden fruit; but that being warned by the

oracle of Themis that he should suffer some great injury from a son of

Jupiter, he strictly forbade all foreigners access to his presence.

Perseus, however, having the courage to appear before him, was ordered

to retire, with strong menaces in case of disobedience; but the hero

presenting his shield, with the dreadful head of Med{=u}sa, turned him

into the mountain which still bears his name.

The Abbe la Pluche has given a very clear and ingenious explication of

this fable. Of all nations the Egyptians had, with the greatest

assiduity, cultivated astronomy. To point out the difficulties attending

the study of this science, they represented it by an image bearing a

globe or sphere on its back, which they called _Atlas_, a word

signifying _great toil or labor_; but the word also signifying

_support_, the Phoenicians, led by the representation, took it in this

sense, and in their voyages to Mauritania, seeing the high mountains of

that country covered with snow, and losing their tops in the clouds,

gave them the name of _Atlas_, and thus produced the fable by which the

symbol of astronomy used among the Egyptians became a Mauritanian king,

transformed into a mountain, whose head supports the heavens.

The rest of the fable is equally obvious to explanation. The annual

inundations of the Nile obliged the Egyptians to be very exact in

observing the motions of the heavenly bodies. The Hyades, or Huades,

took their name from the figure V, which they form in the head of

Taurus. The Pleiades were a remarkable constellation and of great use to

the Egyptians in regulating the seasons: hence they became the daughters

of Atlas; and Orion, who arose just as they set, was called their lover.

By the golden apples that grew in the gardens of the Hesperides, the

Phoenicians expressed the rich and beneficial commerce they had in the

Mediterranean, which being carried on during three months only of the

year, gave rise to the fable of the Hesperian sisters. The most usual

way of representing Atlas, among the ancient artists, was as supporting

a globe; for the old poets commonly refer to this attitude in speaking

of him.

PROMETHEUS was son of Jap{)e}tus, but it is doubtful whether his mother

were Asia, or Themis. Having incurred the displeasure of Jupiter, either

for stealing some of the celestial fire, or for forming a man of clay,

Jupiter, in resentment, commanded Vulcan to make a woman of clay, which,

when finished, was introduced into the assembly of the gods, each of

whom bestowed on her some additional charm or perfection. Venus gave her

beauty, Pallas wisdom, Juno riches, Mercury taught her eloquence, and

Apollo music. From all these accomplishments she was styled Pand{=o}ra,

that is, loaded with gifts and accomplishments, and was the first of her

sex.

Jupiter, to complete his designs, presented her a box, in which he had

enclosed age, disease, war, famine, pestilence, discord, envy, calumny,

and, in short, all the evils and vices with which he intended to afflict

the world. Thus equipped, Pand{=o}ra was sent to Prometheus, who, being

on his guard against the mischief designed him, declined accepting the

box; but Epimetheus, his brother, though forewarned of the danger, had

less resolution; for, being enamored of the beauty of Pand{=o}ra, he

married her, and opened the fatal treasure, when immediately flew abroad

the contents, which soon overspread the world, hope only remaining at

the bottom.

Prometheus escaping the evil which the god designed him, and Jupiter not

being appeased, Mercury and Vulcan were despatched by him to seize

Prometheus, and chain him on Mount Caucasus, where a vulture, the

offspring of Typhon and Echidna, was commissioned to prey upon his

liver, which, that his torment might be endless, was constantly renewed

by night in proportion to its increase by day; but the vulture being

soon destroyed by Hercules, Prometheus was released. Others say, that

Jupiter restored Prometheus to freedom, for discovering the conspiracy

of Saturn, his father, and dissuading his intended marriage with Thetis.

Nicander, to this fable, offers an additional one. He tells us, that

when mankind had received the fire from Prometheus, some ungrateful men

discovered the theft to Jupiter, who rewarded them with the gift of

_perpetual youth_. This present they put on the back of an ass, which

stopping at a fountain to quench his thirst, was prevented by a

water-snake which would not suffer him to drink till he gave him his

burden; hence the serpent renews his youth upon changing his skin.

Prometheus was esteemed the inventor of many useful arts. He made man of

the mixture and temperament of all the elements, gave him strength of

body, vigor of mind, and the peculiar qualities of all creatures, as the

craft of the fox, the courage of the lion, &c. He had an altar in the

academy of Athens in common with Vulcan and Pallas. In his statues he

holds a sceptre in the right hand.

Several explanations have been given of this fable. Prometheus, whose

name is derived from a Greek word, signifying foresight and providence,

was conspicuous for that quality; and because he reduced mankind, before

rude and savage, to a state of culture and improvement, he was feigned

to have made them from clay: being a diligent observer of the motions of

the heavenly bodies from Mount Caucasus, it was fabled that he was

chained there: having discovered the method of striking fire from the

flint, or perhaps, the nature of lightning, it was pretended that he

stole fire from the gods: and, because he applied himself to study with

intenseness, they imagined that a vulture preyed continually on his

liver.

There is another solution of this fable, analogous to the preceding.

According to Pliny, Prometheus was the first who instituted sacrifices.

Being expelled his dominions by Jupiter, he fled to Scythia, where he

retired to Mount Caucasus, either to make astronomical calculations or

to indulge his melancholy for the loss of his dominions, which

occasioned the fable of the vulture or eagle feeding on his liver. As he

was the first inventor of forging metals by fire, he was said to have

stolen that element from heaven; and, as the first introduction of

agriculture and navigation had been ascribed to him, he was celebrated

as forming a living man from an inanimate substance.

AMPHION, king of Thebes, son of Jupiter and Anti{)o}pe, was instructed

in the use of the lyre by Mercury, and became so great a proficient,

that he is reported to have built the walls of Thebes by the power of

his harmony, which caused the listening stones to ascend voluntarily. He

married Ni{)o}be, daughter of Tant{)a}lus, whose insult to Di{=a}na

occasioned the loss of their children by the arrows of Apollo and

Di{=a}na. The unhappy father, attempting to revenge himself by the

destruction of the temple of Apollo, was punished with the loss of his

sight and skill, and thrown into the infernal regions.

ORPHEUS, son of Apollo by the Muse Calli{)o}pe, was born in Thrace, and

resided near Mount Rhod{)o}pe, where he married Eurydice, a princess of

that country. Aristaeus, a neighboring prince, fell desperately in love

with her, but she flying from his violence, was killed by the bite of a

serpent. Her disconsolate husband was so affected at his loss, that he

descended by the way of Taen{)a}rus to hell, in order to recover his

beloved wife. As music and poetry were to Orpheus hereditary talents, he

exerted them so powerfully in the infernal regions, that Pluto and

Proserpine, touched with compassion, restored to him his consort on

condition that he should not look back upon her till they came to the

light of the world. His impatience, however, prevailing, he broke the

condition, and lost Eurydice forever.

Whilst Orpheus was among the shades, he sang the praises of all the gods

but Bacchus, whom he accidentally omitted; to revenge this affront,

Bacchus inspired the Maen{)a}des, his priestesses, with such fury, that

they tore Orpheus to pieces, and scattered his limbs about the fields.

His head was cast into the river Hebrus, and (together with his harp)

was carried by the tide to Lesbos, where it afterwards delivered

oracles. The harp, with seven strings, representing the seven planets,

which had been given him by Apollo, was taken up into heaven, and graced

with nine stars by the nine Muses. Orpheus himself was changed into a

swan. He left a son called Methon, who founded in Thrace a city of his

own name.

It is certain that Orpheus may be placed as the earliest poet of Greece,

where he first introduced astronomy, divinity, music and poetry; all

which he had learned in Egypt. He introduced also the rites of Bacchus,

which from him were called Orphica. He was a person of most consummate

knowledge, and the wisest, as well as the most diligent scholar of

Linus.

If we search for the origin of this fable, we must again have recourse

to Egypt, the mother-country of fiction. In July, when the sun entered

Leo, the Nile overflowed all the plains. To denote the public joy at

seeing the inundation rise to its due height, the Egyptians exhibited a

youth playing on the lyre, or the sistrum, and sitting by a tame lion.

When the waters did not increase as they should, the Horus was

represented stretched on the back of a lion, as dead. This symbol they

called Oreph, or Orpheus, (from _oreph_, the back part of the head) to

signify that agriculture was then quite unseasonable and dormant.

The songs with which the people amused themselves during this period of

inactivity, for want of exercise, were called the hymns of Orpheus; and

as husbandry revived immediately after, it gave rise to the fable of

Orpheus's returning from hell. The Isis placed near this Horus, they

called Eurydice, (from _eri_, a _lion_, and _daca_, _tamed_, is formed

_Eridica_, _Eurydice_, or the lion tamed, _i.e._ the violence of the

inundation overcome), and as the Greeks took all these figures in the

literal, not in the emblematical sense, they made Eurydice the wife of

Orpheus.

OSIRIS, son of Jupiter and Ni{)o}be, was king of the Argives many years;

but, being instigated by the desire of glory, he left his kingdom to his

brother AEgi{)a}lus, and went into Egypt, in search of a new name and

kingdom there. The Egyptians were not so much overcome by the valor of

Os{=i}ris, as obliged to him for his kindness towards them. Having

conferred the greatest benefits on his subjects, by civilizing their

manners, and instructing them in husbandry and other useful arts, he

made the necessary disposition of his affairs, committed the regency to

Isis, and set out with a body of forces in order to civilize the rest of

mankind. This he performed more by the power of persuasion, and the

soothing arts of music and poetry, than by the terror of his arms.

In his absence, Typhoeus, the giant, whom historians call the brother of

Os{=i}ris, formed a conspiracy to dethrone him; for which end, at the

return of Os{=i}ris into Egypt, he invited him to a feast, at the

conclusion of which a chest of exquisite workmanship was brought in, and

offered to him who, when laid down in it, should be found to fit it the

best. Os{=i}ris, not suspecting a trick to be played him, got into the

chest, and the cover being immediately shut upon him, this good but

unfortunate prince was thus thrown into the Nile.

When the news of this transaction reached Coptus, where Isis his wife

then was, she cut her hair, and in deep mourning went every where in

search of the dead body. This was at length discovered, and concealed by

her at Butus; but Typhoeus, while hunting by moonlight, having found it

there, tore it into many pieces, which he scattered abroad. Isis then

traversed the lakes and watery places in a boat made of the _papyrus_,

seeking the mangled parts of Os{=i}ris, and where she found any, there

she buried them; hence the many tombs ascribed to Os{=i}ris.

Plutarch seems evidently to prove that the Egyptians worshipped the Sun

under the name of Os{=i}ris. His reasons are: 1. Because the images of

Os{=i}ris were always clothed in a shining garment, to represent the

rays and light of the sun. 2. In their hymns, composed in honor of

Os{=i}ris, they prayed to him who reposes himself in the bosom of the

sun. 3. After the autumnal equinox, they celebrated a feast called, _The

disappearing of Os{=i}ris_, by which is plainly meant the absence and

distance of the sun. 4. In the month of November they led a cow seven

times round the temple of Os{=i}ris, intimating thereby, that in seven

months the sun would return to the summer solstice.

He is represented sitting upon a throne, crowned with a mitre full of

small orbs, to intimate his superiority over all the globe. The gourd

upon the mitre implies his action and influence upon moisture, which,

and the Nile particularly, was termed by the Egyptians, the efflux of

Os{=i}ris. The lower part of his habit is made up of descending rays,

and his body is surrounded with orbs. His right hand is extended in a

commanding attitude, and his left holds a _thyrsus_ or staff of the

_papyrus_, pointing out the principle of humidity, and the fertility

thence flowing, under his direction.

AESCULAPIUS. The name of AEsculapius, whom the Greeks called {Asklepios},

appears to have been foreign, and derived from the oriental languages.

Being honored as a god in Phoenicia and Egypt, his worship passed into

Greece, and was established, first at Epidaurus, a city of Peloponnesus,

bordering on the sea, where, probably, some colonies first settled; a

circumstance sufficient for the Greeks to give out that this god was a

native of Greece.

Not to mention all we are told of his parents, it will be enough to

observe, that the opinion generally received in Greece, made him the son

of Apollo by Cor{=o}nis, daughter of Phlegyas; and indeed the

Messenians, who consulted the oracle of Delphi to know where AEsculapius

was born, and of what parents, were told by the oracle, or more properly

Apollo, that he himself was his father; that Cor{=o}nis was his mother,

and that their son was born at Epidaurus.

Phlegyas, the most warlike man of his age, having gone into Peloponnesus

under pretence of travelling, but, in truth, to spy into the condition

of the country, carried his daughter Cor{=o}nis thither, who, to conceal

her situation from her father, went to Epidaurus: there she was

delivered of a son, whom she exposed upon a mountain, called to this day

Mount Titthion, or _of the breast_; but before this adventure, Myrthion,

from the myrtles that grew upon it.

The reason of this change of name was, that the child, having been here

abandoned, was suckled by one of those goats of the mountain, which the

dog of Aristh{)e}nes the goat-herd guarded. When Aristh{)e}nes came to

review his flock, he found a she-goat and his dog missing, and going in

search of them discovered the child. Upon approaching to lift him from

the earth, he perceived his head encircled with fiery rays, which made

him believe the child to be of divine origin.

As {Korone} in the Greek language signifies a crow, hence another fable

arose importing, as we see in Lucian, that AEsculapius had sprung from an

egg of a bird, under the figure of a serpent. Whatever these fictions

may mean, AEsculapius being removed from the mount on which he was

exposed, was nursed by Trigo or Trigone, who was probably the wife of

the goat-herd that found him; and when he was capable of improving by

Chiron, Phlegyas (to whom he had doubtless been returned) put him under

the Centaur's tuition.

Being of a quick and lively genius, he made such progress as soon to

become not only a great physician, but at length to be reckoned the god

and inventor of medicine; though the Greeks, not very consistent in the

history of those early ages, gave to Apis, son of Phoroneus, the glory

of having discovered the healing art. AEsculapius accompanied Jason in

his expedition to Colchis, and in his medical capacity was of great

service to the Argonauts. Within a short time after his death he was

deified, and received divine honors: some add, that he formed the

celestial sign, Serpentarius.

As the Greeks always carried the encomiums of their great men beyond the

truth, they feigned that AEsculapius was so expert in medicine, as not

only to cure the sick, but even to raise the dead. Ovid says he did this

by Hippol{)i}tus, and Julian says the same of Tynd{)a}rus: that Pluto

cited him before the tribunal of Jupiter, and complained that his empire

was considerably diminished and in danger of becoming desolate, from the

cures AEsculapius performed; so that Jupiter in wrath slew AEsculapius

with a thunder-bolt; to which they added that Apollo, enraged at the

death of his son, killed the Cyclops who forged Jupiter's thunder-bolts:

a fiction which obviously signifies only, that AEsculapius had carried

his art very far, and that he cured diseases believed to be desperate.

AEsculapius is always represented under the figure of a grave old man

wrapped up in a cloak, having sometimes upon his head the _cal{)a}thus_

of Ser{=a}pis, with a staff in his hand, which is commonly wreathed

about with a serpent; sometimes again with a serpent in one hand, and a

_pat{)e}ra_ in the other; sometimes leaning upon a pillar, round which a

serpent also twines. The cock, a bird consecrated to this god, whose

vigilance represents that quality which physicians ought to have, is

sometimes at the feet of his statues. Socrates, we know, when dying,

said to those who stood around him in his last moments, "We owe a cock

to AEsculapius; give it without delay."

ULYSSES, king of Ith{)a}ca, was the son of Laertes, or Laertius and

Anticl{=e}a. His wife Penel{)o}pe, daughter of Icarius brother of

Tynd{)a}rus king of Sparta, was highly famed for her prudence and

virtue; and being unwilling that the Trojan war should part them,

Ulysses to avoid the expedition, pretended to be mad, and not only

joined different beasts to the same plough, but sowed also the furrows

with salt.

Palam{=e}des, however, suspecting the frenzy to be assumed, threw

Telemachus, then an infant, in the way of the plough, to try if his

father would alter its course. This stratagem succeeded; for when

Ulysses came to the child he turned off from the spot, in consequence of

which Palam{=e}des compelled him to take part in the war. He accordingly

sailed with twelve ships, and was signally serviceable to the Greeks.

To him the capture of Troy is chiefly to be ascribed, since by him the

obstacles were removed, which had so long prevented it. For as Ulysses

himself was detected by Palam{=e}des, so he in his turn detected

Achilles, who, to avoid engaging in the same war, had concealed himself

in the habits of a woman, at the court of Lycom{=e}des, king of Scyros.

Ulysses there discovered him, and as it had been foretold that without

Achilles Troy could not be taken, thence drew him to the siege.

He also obtained the arrows of Hercules, from Philoct{=e}tes, and

carried off that hero from the scene of his retreat. He brought away

also the ashes of Laom{)e}don, which were preserved in Troy on the

Scoean gate. By him the Palladium was stolen from the same city; Rhesus,

king of Thrace, killed, and his horses taken before they had drank of

the Xanthus. These exploits involved in them the destiny of Troy; for

had the Trojans preserved them, their city could never have been

conquered.

Ulysses contended afterwards with Telamonian Ajax, the stoutest of all

the Grecians, except Achilles, for the arms of that hero, which were

awarded to him by the judges, who were won by the charms of his

eloquence. His other enterprises before Troy were numerous and

brilliant, and are particularly related in the Iliad. When Ulysses

departed for Greece, he sailed backwards and forwards for twenty years,

contrary winds and severe weather opposing his return to Ith{)a}ca.

During this period, he extinguished, with a firebrand, the eye of

Polyph{=e}mus; then sailing to AEolia, he obtained from AE{)o}lus all the

winds which were contrary to him, and put them into leathern bags; his

companions, however, believing these bags to be full of money, entered

into a plot to rob him, and accordingly, when they came on the coast of

Ith{)a}ca, untied the bags, upon which the wind rushing out, he was

again blown back to AEolia.

When Circe had turned his companions into swine and other brutes, he

first fortified himself against her charms with the herb Moly, an

antidote Mercury had given him; and then rushing into her cave with his

drawn sword, compelled her to restore his associates to their original

shape.

He is said to have gone down into hell, to know his future fortune, from

the prophet Tiresias. When he sailed to the islands of the Sirens, he

stopped the ears of his companions, and bound himself with strong ropes

to the ship's mast, that he might secure himself against the snares into

which, by their charming voices, passengers were habitually allured.

Lastly, after his ship was wrecked, he escaped by swimming, and came

naked and alone, to the port of Phaeacia, in the island of Corcyra, where

Nausic{)a}a, daughter of king Alcin{)o}us, found him in a profound

sleep, into which he was thrown by the indulgence of Minerva.

When his companions were found, and his ship refitted, he bent his

course toward Ith{)a}ca, where arriving, and having put on the habit of

a beggar, he went to his neatherds, with whom he found his son

Telemachus, and with them went home in disguise. After having received

several affronts from the suitors of Penel{)o}pe, with the assistance of

his son Telemachus and the neatherds, to whom he had discovered himself,

he killed Antin{)o}us, and the other princes who were competitors for

her favor. After reigning some time, he resigned the government of his

kingdom to Telemachus.

CASTOR and POLLUX were the twin sons of Jupiter and Leda. These brothers

entered into an inviolable friendship, and when they grew up, cleared

the Archipelago of pirates, on which account they were esteemed deities

of the sea, and accordingly were invoked by mariners in tempests. They

went with the other noble youths of Greece in the expedition to Colchis,

in search of the golden fleece, and on all occasions signalized

themselves by their courage.

In this expedition Pollux slew Amycus, son of Neptune, and king of

Bebrycia, who had challenged all the Argonauts to box with him. This

victory, and that which he gained afterwards at the Olympic games which

Hercules celebrated in Elis, caused him to be considered the hero and

patron of wrestlers, while his brother Castor distinguished himself in

the race, and in the management of horses.

Cicero relates a wonderful judgment which happened to one Scopas, who

had spoken disrespectfully of these divinities: he was crushed to death

by the fall of a chamber, whilst Simon{)i}des, who was in the same room,

was rescued from the danger, being called out a little before, by two

persons unknown, supposed to be Castor and Pollux.

The Greek and Roman histories are full of the miraculous appearance of

these brethren; particularly we are told they were seen fighting upon

two white horses, at the head of the Roman army, in the battle between

the Romans and Latins, near the lake Regillus, and brought the news of

the decisive victory of Paulus AEmilius to Rome, the very day it was

obtained.

Frequent representations of these deities occur on ancient monuments,

and particularly on consular medals. They are exhibited together, each

having a helmet, out of which issues a flame, and each a pike in one

hand, and in the other a horse held by the bridle: sometimes they are

represented as two beautiful youths, completely armed, and riding on

white horses, with stars over their helmets.

AJAX, son of Tel{)a}mon, king of Sal{)a}mis, by Beriboea, was, next to

Achilles, the most valiant among the Greeks at the seige of Troy. He

commanded the troops of Sal{)a}mis in that expedition, and performed the

various heroic actions mentioned by Homer, and Ovid, in the speech of

Ajax contending for the armor of Achilles. This armor, however, being

adjudged to his competitor Ulysses, his disappointment so enraged him,

that he immediately became mad, and rushed furiously upon a flock of

sheep, imagining he was killing those who had offended him: but at

length perceiving his mistake, he became still more furious, and stabbed

himself with the fatal sword he had received from Hector, with whom he

had fought. Ajax resembled Achilles in several respects; like him he was

violent, and impatient of contradiction; and, like him, invulnerable in

every part of the body except one.

He has been charged with impiety; not that he denied the gods a very

extensive power, but he imagined that, as the greatest cowards might

conquer through their assistance, there was no glory in conquering by

such aids; and scorned to owe his victory to aught but his own prowess.

Accordingly, we are told that when he was setting out for Troy, his

father recommended him always to join the assistance of the gods to his

own valor; to which Ajax replied, that cowards themselves were often

victorious by such helps, but for his own part he would make no reliance

of the kind, being assured he should be able to conquer without.

It is further added, upon the head of his irreligion, that to Minerva,

who once offered him her advice, he replied with indignation: "Trouble

not yourself about my conduct; of that I shall give a good account; you

have nothing to do but reserve your favor and assistance for the other

Greeks." Another time she offered to guide his chariot in the battle,

but he would not suffer her. Nay, he even defaced the owl, her favorite

bird, which was engraven on his shield, lest that figure should be

considered as an act of reverence to Minerva, and hence as indicating

distrust in himself.

Homer, however, does not represent him in this light, for though he does

not pray to Jupiter himself when he prepares to engage the valiant

Hector, yet he desires others to pray for him, either in a low voice,

lest the Trojans should hear, or louder if they pleased; for, says he, I

fear no person in the world.

The poets give to Ajax the same commendation that the holy scripture

gives to king Saul, with regard to his stature. He has been the subject

of several tragedies, as well in Greek as Latin; and it is related that

the famous comedian, AEsop, refused to act that part. The Greeks paid

great honor to him after his death, and erected to him a noble monument

upon the promontory of Rhoeteum, which was one of those Alexander

desired to see and honor.

JASON was son of AEson, king of Thessaly, and Alcim{)e}de. He was an

infant when Pelias, his uncle, who was left his guardian, sought to

destroy him; but being, to avoid the danger, conveyed by his relations

to a cave, he was there instructed by Chiron in the art of physic;

whence he took the name of Jason, or the healer, his former name being

Diom{=e}des. Arriving at years of maturity, he returned to his uncle,

who, probably with no favorable intention to Jason, inspired him with

the notion of the Colchian expedition and agreeably flattered his

ambition with the hopes of acquiring the golden fleece.

Jason having resolved on the voyage, built a vessel at Iolchos in

Thessaly, for the expedition, under the inspection, of Argos, a famous

workman, which, from him, was called Argo: it was said to have been

executed by the advice of Pallas, who pointed out a tree in the Dodonaean

forest for a mast, which was vocal, and had the gift of prophecy.

The fame of the vessel, the largest that had ever been heard of, but

particularly the design itself, soon induced the bravest and most

distinguished youths of Greece to become adventurers in it, and brought

together about fifty of the most accomplished young persons of the age

to accompany Jason in this expedition; authors, however, are not agreed

on the precise names or numbers of the Argonauts; some state them to

have been forty-nine; others more, and amongst them several were of

divine origin.

On his arrival at Colchis he repaired to the court of AE{=e}tes, from

whom he demanded the golden fleece. The monarch acceded to his request,

provided he could overcome the difficulties which lay in his way, and

which appeared not easily surmountable; these were bulls with brazen

feet, whose nostrils breathed fire, and a dragon which guarded the

fleece. The teeth of the latter, when killed, Jason was enjoined to sow,

and, after they had sprung up into armed men, to destroy them.

Though success attended the enterprise, it was less owing to valor, than

to the assistance of Med{=e}a, daughter of AE{=e}tes, who, by her

enchantments, laid asleep the dragon, taught Jason to subdue the bulls,

and when he had obtained the prize, accompanied him in the night time,

unknown to her brother.

The return of the Argonauts is variously related; some contend it was by

the track in which they came, and say that the brother of Med{=e}a

pursued them as far as the Adriatic, and was overcome by Jason; which

occasioned the story that his sister had cut him in pieces, and strewed

his limbs in the way, that her father, from solicitude to collect them,

might be delayed in the pursuit.

CHAPTER XII.

_Other fabulous personages._

GRACES _or_ CHARITES. Among the multitude of ancient divinities, none

had more votaries that the Graces. Particular nations and countries had

appropriate and local deities, but their empire was universal. To their

influence was ascribed all that could please in nature and in art; and

to them every rank and profession concurred in offering their vows.

Their number was generally limited, by the ancient poets, to three:

_Euphrosyne_, _Thal{=i}a_, and _Aglaia_; but they differed concerning

their origin. Some suppose them to have been the offspring of Jupiter

and Eunomia, daughter of Oce{)a}nus; but the most prevalent opinion is,

that they were descended from Bacchus and Venus. According to Homer,

Aglaia, the youngest, was married to Vulcan, and another of them to the

god of Sleep. The Graces were companions of _Mercury_, _Venus_, and the

_Muses_.

Festivals were celebrated in honor of them throughout the whole year.

They were esteemed the dispensers of liberality, eloquence, and wisdom;

and from them were derived simplicity of manners, a graceful deportment,

and gaiety of disposition. From their inspiring acts of gratitude and

mutual kindness they were described as uniting hand in hand with each

other. The ancients partook of but few repasts without invoking them, as

well as the Muses.

SIRENS were a kind of fabulous beings represented by some as

sea-monsters, with the faces of women and the tails of fishes, answering

the description of mermaids; and by others said to have the upper parts

of a woman, and the under parts of a bird. Their number is not

determined; Homer reckons only two; others five, namely, Leucosia,

Ligeia, Parthen{)o}pe, Agla{)o}phon, and Molpe; others admit only the

three first.

The poets represent them as beautiful women inhabiting the rocks on the

sea-shore, whither having allured passengers by the sweetness of their

voices, they put them to death. Virgil places them on rocks where

vessels are in danger of shipwreck; Pliny makes them inhabit the

promontory of Minerva, near the island Capreae; others fix them in

Sicily, near cape Pel{=o}rus.

Claudian says they inhabited harmonious rocks, that they were charming

monsters, and that sailors were wrecked on their coasts without regret,

and even expired in rapture. This description is doubtless founded on a

literal explication of the fable, that the Sirens were women who

inhabited the shores of Sicily, and who, by the allurements of pleasure,

stopped passengers, and made them forget their course.

Ovid says they accompanied Proserpine when she was carried off, and that

the gods granted them wings to go in quest of that goddess. Homer places

the Sirens in the midst of a meadow drenched in blood, and tells us that

fate had permitted them to reign till some person should over-reach

them; that the wise Ulysses accomplished their destiny, having escaped

their snares, by stopping the ears of his companions with wax, and

causing himself to be fastened to the mast of his ship, which, he adds,

plunged them into so deep despair, that they drowned themselves in the

sea, where they were transformed into fishes from the waist downwards.

Others, who do not look for so much mystery in this fable, maintain that

the Sirens were nothing but certain straits in the sea, where the waves

whirling furiously around seized and swallowed up vessels that

approached them. Lastly, some hold the Sirens to have been certain

shores and promontories, where the winds, by various reverberations and

echoes, cause a kind of harmony that surprises and stops passengers.

This probably might be the origin of the Sirens' song, and the occasion

of giving the name of Sirens to those rocks.

Some interpreters of the ancient fables contend, that the number and

names of the three Sirens were taken from the triple pleasure of the

senses, wine, love, and music, which are the three most powerful means

of seducing mankind; and hence so many exhortations to avoid the Sirens'

fatal song; and probably it was hence that the Greeks obtained their

etymology of Siren from a Greek word signifying a _chain_, as if there

were no getting free from their enticement.

But if in tracing this fable to its source, we take Servius as our

guide, he tells us that it derived its origin from certain princesses

who reigned of old upon the coasts of the Tuscan sea, near Pel{=o}rus

and Caprea, or in three small islands of Sicily which Aristotle calls

the isles of the Sirens. These women were very debauched, and by their

charms allured strangers, who were ruined in their court, by pleasure

and prodigality.

This seems evidently the foundation of all that Homer says of the

Sirens, in the twelfth book of the Odyssey; that they bewitched those

who unfortunately listened to their songs; that they detained them in

capacious meadows, where nothing was to be seen but bones and carcasses

withering in the sun; that none who visit them ever again enjoy the

embraces and congratulations of their wives and children; and that all

who dote upon their charms are doomed to perish. What Solomon says in

the ninth chapter of Proverbs, of the miseries to which those are

exposed who abandon themselves to sensual pleasures, well justifies the

idea given us of the Sirens by the Greek poets, and by Virgil's

commentator.

[Transcriber's Note:

Certain non-ASCII characters have been marked per the following.

The HTML and UTF-8 text files properly display these characters.

{)a} a breve

{)e} e breve

{)i} i breve

{)o} o breve

{=a} a macron

{=e} e macron

{=i} i macron

{=o} o macron

{=u} u macron

{=y} y macron

oe|OE are recorded as oe in the Latin-1 and ASCII texts. ae|AE

ligatures have been unpacked as ae for and ASCII. Greek words have

been transliterated and are marked with {word} form.

Corrected typographical errors. The typographic error and

its corresponding line are listed.

honoraable

The office of the legati was very dignified and honorable

desposited

collected and deposited in an urn, to be kept in the mausoleum

feats

Trimalchio, in his ridiculous feasts described by Petronius,

End of Notes.]