way all alone, and holding up that never-dying torch, the flame of which
seemed an emblem of the grief and hope that burned together in her heart.
So much did she suffer, that, though her aspect had been quite youthful
when her troubles began, she grew to look like an elderly person in a
very brief time. She cared not how she was dressed, nor had she ever
thought of flinging away the wreath of withered poppies, which she put
on the very morning of Proserpina’s disappearance. She roamed about in
so wild a way, and with her hair so dishevelled, that people took her
for some distracted creature, and never dreamed that this was Mother
Ceres, who had the oversight of every seed which the husbandman planted.
Nowadays, she gave herself no trouble about seed-time nor harvest, but
left the farmers to take care of their own affairs, and the crops to
fade or flourish, as the case might be. There was nothing, now, in which
Ceres seemed to feel an interest unless when she saw children at play, or
gathering flowers along the wayside. Then, indeed, she would stand and
gaze at them with tears in her eyes. The children, too, appeared to have
a sympathy with her grief, and would cluster themselves in a little group
about her knees, and look up wistfully in her face; and Ceres, after
giving them a kiss all round, would lead them to their homes, and advise
their mothers never to let them stray out of sight.
“For if they do,” said she, “it may happen to you, as it has to me, that
the iron-hearted King Pluto will take a liking to your darlings, and
snatch them up in his chariot, and carry them away.”
One day, during her pilgrimage in quest of the entrance to Pluto’s
kingdom, she came to the palace of King Celeus, who reigned at Eleusis.
Ascending a lofty flight of steps, she entered the portal, and found
the royal household in very great alarm about the queen’s baby. The
infant, it seems, was sickly (being troubled with its teeth, I suppose),
and would take no food, and was all the time moaning with pain. The
queen—her name was Metanira—was desirous of finding a nurse; and when
she beheld a woman of matronly aspect coming up the palace steps, she
thought, in her own mind, that here was the very person whom she needed.
So Queen Metanira ran to the door, with the poor wailing baby in her
arms, and besought Ceres to take charge of it, or, at least, to tell her
what would do it good.
“Will you trust the child entirely to me?” asked Ceres.
“Yes, and gladly, too,” answered the queen, “if you will devote all your
time to him. For I can see that you have been a mother.”
“You are right,” said Ceres. “I once had a child of my own. Well; I will
be the nurse of this poor, sickly boy. But beware, I warn you, that you
do not interfere with any kind of treatment which I may judge proper for
him. If you do so, the poor infant must suffer for his mother’s folly.”
Then she kissed the child, and it seemed to do him good; for he smiled
and nestled closely into her bosom.
So Mother Ceres set her torch in a corner (where it kept burning all the
while), and took up her abode in the palace of King Celeus, as nurse to
the little Prince Demophoön. She treated him as if he were her own child,
and allowed neither the king nor the queen to say whether he should be
bathed in warm or cold water, or what he should eat, or how often he
should take the air, or when he should be put to bed. You would hardly
believe me, if I were to tell how quickly the baby prince got rid of his
ailments, and grew fat, and rosy, and strong, and how he had two rows of
ivory teeth in less time than any other little fellow, before or since.
Instead of the palest, and wretchedest, and puniest imp in the world (as
his own mother confessed him to be when Ceres first took him in charge),
he was now a strapping baby, crowing, laughing, kicking up his heels,
and rolling from one end of the room to the other. All the good women
of the neighborhood crowded to the palace, and held up their hands, in
unutterable amazement, at the beauty and wholesomeness of this darling
little prince. Their wonder was the greater, because he was never seen to
taste any food; not even so much as a cup of milk.
“Pray, nurse,” the queen kept saying, “how is it that you make the child
thrive so?”
“I was a mother once,” Ceres always replied; “and having nursed my own
child, I know what other children need.”
But Queen Metanira, as was very natural, had a great curiosity to know
precisely what the nurse did to her child. One night, therefore, she hid
herself in the chamber where Ceres and the little prince were accustomed
to sleep. There was a fire in the chimney, and it had now crumbled into
great coals and embers, which lay glowing on the hearth, with a blaze
flickering up now and then, and flinging a warm and ruddy light upon
the walls. Ceres sat before the hearth with the child in her lap, and
the firelight making her shadow dance upon the ceiling overhead. She
undressed the little prince, and bathed him all over with some fragrant
liquid out of a vase. The next thing she did was to rake back the red
embers, and make a hollow place among them, just where the backlog had
been. At last, while the baby was crowing, and clapping its fat little
hands, and laughing in the nurse’s face (just as you may have seen your
little brother or sister do before going into its warm bath), Ceres
suddenly laid him, all naked as he was, in the hollow among the red-hot
embers. She then raked the ashes over him, and turned quietly away.
You may imagine, if you can, how Queen Metanira shrieked, thinking
nothing less than that her dear child would be burned to a cinder. She
burst forth from her hiding-place, and running to the hearth, raked open
the fire, and snatched up poor little Prince Demophoön out of his bed
of live coals, one of which he was gripping in each of his fists. He
immediately set up a grievous cry, as babies are apt to do when rudely
startled out of a sound sleep. To the queen’s astonishment and joy, she
could perceive no token of the child’s being injured by the hot fire
in which he had lain. She now turned to Mother Ceres, and asked her to
explain the mystery.
“Foolish woman,” answered Ceres, “did you not promise to intrust this
poor infant entirely to me? You little know the mischief you have done
him. Had you left him to my care, he would have grown up like a child of
celestial birth, endowed with superhuman strength and intelligence, and
would have lived forever. Do you imagine that earthly children are to
become immortal without being tempered to it in the fiercest heat of the
fire? But you have ruined your own son. For though he will be a strong
man and a hero in his day, yet, on account of your folly, he will grow
old, and finally die, like the sons of other women. The weak tenderness
of his mother has cost the poor boy an immortality. Farewell.”
Saying these words, she kissed the little prince, Demophoön, and sighed
to think what he had lost, and took her departure without heeding Queen
Metanira, who entreated her to remain, and cover up the child among the
hot embers as often as she pleased. Poor baby! He never slept so warmly
again.
While she dwelt in the king’s palace, Mother Ceres had been so
continually occupied with taking care of the young prince, that her heart
was a little lightened of its grief for Proserpina. But now, having
nothing else to busy herself about, she became just as wretched as
before. At length, in her despair, she came to the dreadful resolution
that not a stalk of grain, nor a blade of grass, not a potato, nor a
turnip, nor any other vegetable that was good for man or beast to eat,
should be suffered to grow until her daughter were restored. She even
forbade the flowers to bloom, lest somebody’s heart should be cheered by
their beauty.
Now, as not so much as a head of asparagus ever presumed to poke itself
out of the ground, without the especial permission of Ceres, you may
conceive what a terrible calamity had here fallen upon the earth. The
husbandmen ploughed and planted as usual; but there lay the rich black
furrows, all as barren as a desert of sand. The pastures looked as brown
in the sweet month of June as ever they did in chill November. The rich
man’s broad acres and the cottager’s small garden-patch were equally
blighted. Every little girl’s flower-bed showed nothing but dry stalks.
The old people shook their white heads, and said that the earth had grown
aged like themselves, and was no longer capable of wearing the warm smile
of summer on its face. It was really piteous to see the poor, starving
cattle and sheep, how they followed behind Ceres, lowing and bleating, as
if their instinct taught them to expect help from her; and everybody that
was acquainted with her power besought her to have mercy on the human
race, and, at all events, to let the grass grow. But Mother Ceres, though
naturally of an affectionate disposition, was now inexorable.
“Never,” said she. “If the earth is ever again to see any verdure, it
must first grow along the path which my daughter will tread in coming
back to me.”
Finally, as there seemed to be no other remedy, our old friend
Quicksilver was sent post haste to King Pluto, in hopes that he might be
persuaded to undo the mischief he had done, and to set everything right
again, by giving up Proserpina. Quicksilver accordingly made the best of
his way to the great gate, took a flying leap right over the three-headed
mastiff, and stood at the door of the palace in an inconceivably short
time. The servants knew him both by his face and garb; for his short
cloak, and his winged cap and shoes, and his snaky staff had often been
seen thereabouts in times gone by. He requested to be shown immediately
into the king’s presence; and Pluto, who heard his voice from the top of
the stairs, and who loved to recreate himself with Quicksilver’s merry
talk, called out to him to come up. And while they settle their business
together, we must inquire what Proserpina has been doing ever since we
saw her last.
The child had declared, as you may remember, that she would not taste a
mouthful of food as long as she should be compelled to remain in King
Pluto’s palace. How she contrived to maintain her resolution, and at
the same time to keep herself tolerably plump and rosy, is more than I
can explain; but some young ladies, I am given to understand, possess
the faculty of living on air, and Proserpina seems to have possessed
it, too. At any rate, it was now six months since she left the outside
of the earth; and not a morsel, so far as the attendants were able to
testify, had yet passed between her teeth. This was the more creditable
to Proserpina, inasmuch as King Pluto had caused her to be tempted, day
after day, with all manner of sweetmeats, and richly preserved fruits,
and delicacies of every sort, such as young people are generally most
fond of. But her good mother had often told her of the hurtfulness of
these things; and for that reason alone, if there had been no other, she
would have resolutely refused to taste them.
All this time, being of a cheerful and active disposition, the little
damsel was not quite so unhappy as you may have supposed. The immense
palace had a thousand rooms, and was full of beautiful and wonderful
objects. There was a never-ceasing gloom, it is true, which half hid
itself among the innumerable pillars, gliding before the child as she
wandered among them, and treading stealthily behind her in the echo of
her footsteps. Neither was all the dazzle of the precious stones, which
flamed with their own light, worth one gleam of natural sunshine; nor
could the most brilliant of the many-colored gems, which Proserpina had
for playthings, vie with the simple beauty of the flowers she used to
gather. But, still wherever the girl went, among those gilded halls and
chambers, it seemed as if she carried nature and sunshine along with her,
and as if she scattered dewy blossoms on her right hand and on her left.
After Proserpina came, the palace was no longer the same abode of stately
artifice and dismal magnificence that it had before been. The inhabitants
all felt this, and King Pluto more than any of them.
“My own little Proserpina,” he used to say, “I wish you could like me a
little better. We gloomy and cloudy-natured persons have often as warm
hearts at bottom, as those of a more cheerful character. If you would
only stay with me of your own accord, it would make me happier than the
possession of a hundred such palaces as this.”
“Ah,” said Proserpina, “you should have tried to make me like you before
carrying me off. And the best thing you can do now is, to let me go
again. Then I might remember you sometimes, and think that you were as
kind as you knew how to be. Perhaps, too, one day or other, I might come
back, and pay you a visit.”
[Illustration: PARIS CARRIED HER TO TROY—page 238
_From the painting by R. von Deutsch_]
“No, no,” answered Pluto, with his gloomy smile, “I will not trust you
for that. You are too fond of living in the broad daylight, and gathering
flowers. What an idle and childish taste that is! Are not these gems,
which I have ordered to be dug for you, and which are richer than any in
my crown—are they not prettier than a violet?”
“Not half so pretty,” said Proserpina, snatching the gems from Pluto’s
hand, and flinging them to the other end of the hall. “Oh my sweet
violets, shall I never see you again?”
And then she burst into tears. But young people’s tears have very little
saltness or acidity in them, and do not inflame the eyes so much as those
of grown persons; so that it is not to be wondered at if, a few moments
afterwards, Proserpina was sporting through the hall almost as merrily
as she and the four sea-nymphs had sported along the edge of the surf
wave. King Pluto gazed after her, and wished that he, too, was a child.
And little Proserpina, when she turned about, and beheld this great king
standing in his splendid hall, and looking so grand, and so melancholy,
and so lonesome, was smitten with a kind of pity. She ran back to him,
and, for the first time in all her life, put her small soft hand in his.
“I love you a little,” whispered she, looking up in his face.
“Do you, indeed, my dear child!” cried Pluto, bending his dark face down
to kiss her; but Proserpina shrank away from the kiss, for though his
features were noble, they were very dusky and grim. “Well, I have not
deserved it of you, after keeping you a prisoner for so many months, and
starving you besides. Are you not terribly hungry? Is there nothing which
I can get you to eat?”
In asking this question, the king of the mines had a very cunning
purpose; for, you will recollect, if Proserpina tasted a morsel of food
in his dominions, she would never afterwards be at liberty to quit them.
“No, indeed,” said Proserpina. “Your head cook is always baking, and
stewing, and roasting, and rolling out paste, and contriving one dish
or another, which he imagines may be to my liking. But he might just as
well save himself the trouble, poor, fat little man that he is. I have no
appetite for anything in the world, unless it were a slice of bread of my
mother’s own baking, or a little fruit out of her garden.”
When Pluto heard this, he began to see that he had mistaken the best
method of tempting Proserpina to eat. The cook’s made dishes and
artificial dainties were not half so delicious, in the good child’s
opinion, as the simple fare to which Mother Ceres had accustomed her.
Wondering that he had never thought of it before, the king now sent one
of his trusty attendants, with a large basket, to get some of the finest
and juiciest pears, peaches, and plums which could anywhere be found in
the upper world. Unfortunately, however, this was during the time when
Ceres had forbidden any fruits or vegetables to grow; and, after seeking
all over the earth, King Pluto’s servant found only a single pomegranate,
and that so dried up as to be not worth eating. Nevertheless, since there
was no better to be had, he brought this dry, old withered pomegranate
home to the palace, put it on a magnificent golden salver, and carried it
up to Proserpina. Now it happened, curiously enough, that, just as the
servant was bringing the pomegranate into the back door of the palace,
our friend Quicksilver had gone up the front steps, on his errand to get
Proserpina away from King Pluto.
As soon as Proserpina saw the pomegranate on the golden salver, she told
the servant he had better take it away again.
“I shall not touch it, I assure you,” said she. “If I were ever so
hungry, I should never think of eating such a miserable, dry pomegranate
as that.”
“It is the only one in the world,” said the servant.
He set down the golden salver, with the wizened pomegranate upon it, and
left the room. When he was gone, Proserpina could not help coming close
to the table, and looking at this poor specimen of dried fruit with a
great deal of eagerness; for, to say the truth, on seeing something that
suited her taste, she felt all the six months’ appetite taking possession
of her at once. To be sure, it was a very wretched-looking pomegranate,
and seemed to have no more juice in it than an oyster-shell. But there
was no choice of such things in King Pluto’s palace. This was the first
fruit she had seen there, and the last she was ever likely to see; and
unless she ate it up immediately, it would grow drier than it already
was, and be wholly unfit to eat.
“At least, I may smell it,” thought Proserpina. So she took up the
pomegranate, and applied it to her nose; and, somehow or other, being in
such close neighborhood to her mouth, the fruit found its way into that
little red cave. Dear me! what an everlasting pity! Before Proserpina
knew what she was about, her teeth had actually bitten it, of their
own accord. Just as this fatal deed was done, the door of the apartment
opened, and in came King Pluto, followed by Quicksilver, who had been
urging him to let his little prisoner go. At the first noise of their
entrance, Proserpina withdrew the pomegranate from her mouth. But
Quicksilver (whose eyes were very keen, and his wits the sharpest that
ever anybody had) perceived that the child was a little confused; and
seeing the empty salver, he suspected that she had been taking a sly
nibble of something or other. As for honest Pluto, he never guessed at
the secret.
“My little Proserpina,” said the king, sitting down, and affectionately
drawing her between his knees, “here is Quicksilver, who tells me that
a great many misfortunes have befallen innocent people on account of my
detaining you in my dominions. To confess the truth, I myself had already
reflected that it was an unjustifiable act to take you away from your
good mother. But, then, you must consider, my dear child, that this vast
palace is apt to be gloomy (although the precious stones certainly shine
very bright), and that I am not of the most cheerful disposition, and
that therefore it was a natural thing enough to seek for the society of
some merrier creature than myself. I hoped you would take my crown for a
plaything, and me—ah, you laugh, naughty Proserpina—me, grim as I am, for
a playmate. It was a silly expectation.”
“Not so extremely silly,” whispered Proserpina. “You have really amused
me very much, sometimes.”
“Thank you,” said King Pluto, rather dryly. “But I can see, plainly
enough, that you think my palace a dusky prison, and me the iron-hearted
keeper of it. And an iron heart I should surely have, if I could detain
you here any longer, my poor child, when it is now six months since you
tasted food. I give you your liberty. Go with Quicksilver. Hasten home to
your dear mother.”
Now, although you may not have supposed it, Proserpina found it
impossible to take leave of poor King Pluto without some regrets, and
a good ideal of compunction for not telling him about the pomegranate.
She even shed a tear or two, thinking how lonely and cheerless the great
palace would seem to him, with all its ugly glare of artificial light,
after she herself—his one little ray of natural sunshine, whom he had
stolen, to be sure, but only because he valued her so much—after she
should have departed. I know not how many kind things she might have said
to the disconsolate king of the mines, had not Quicksilver hurried her
away.
“Come along quickly,” whispered he in her ear, “or his Majesty may change
his royal mind. And take care, above all things, that you say nothing of
what was brought you on the golden salver.”
In a very short time, they had passed the great gateway (leaving the
three-headed Cerberus barking, and yelping, and growling, with threefold
din, behind them), and emerged upon the surface of the earth. It was
delightful to behold, as Proserpina hastened along, how the path grew
verdant behind and on either side of her. Wherever she set her blessed
foot, there was at once a dewy flower. The violets gushed up along the
wayside. The grass and the grain began to sprout with tenfold vigor and
luxuriance, to make up for the dreary months that had been wasted in
barrenness. The starved cattle immediately set to work grazing, after
their long fast, and ate enormously all day, and got up at midnight
to eat more. But I can assure you it was a busy time of year with the
farmers, when they found the summer coming upon them with such a rush.
Nor must I forget to say that all the birds in the whole world hopped
about upon the newly blossoming trees, and sang together in a prodigious
ecstasy of joy.
Mother Ceres had returned to her deserted home, and was sitting
disconsolately on the doorstep, with her torch burning in her hand. She
had been idly watching the flame for some moments past, when, all at
once, it flickered and went out.
“What does this mean?” thought she. “It was an enchanted torch, and
should have kept burning till my child came back.”
Lifting her eyes, she was surprised to see a sudden verdure flashing over
the brown and barren fields, exactly as you may have observed a golden
hue gleaming far and wide across the landscape, from the just risen sun.
“Does the earth disobey me?” exclaimed Mother Ceres, indignantly. “Does
it presume to be green, when I have bidden it be barren, until my
daughter shall be restored to my arms?”
“Then open your arms, dear mother,” cried a well-known voice, “and take
your little daughter into them.”
And Proserpina came running, and flung herself upon her mother’s bosom.
Their mutual transport is not to be described. The grief of their
separation had caused both of them to shed a great many tears; and now
they shed a great many more, because their joy could not so well express
itself in any other way.
When their hearts had grown a little more quiet, Mother Ceres looked
anxiously at Proserpina.
“My child,” said she, “did you taste any food while you were in King
Pluto’s palace?”
“Dearest mother,” answered Proserpina, “I will tell you the whole truth.
Until this very morning, not a morsel of food had passed my lips. But
to-day, they brought me a pomegranate (a very dry one it was, and all
shrivelled up, till there was little left of it but seeds and skin), and
having seen no fruit for so long a time, and being faint with hunger,
I was tempted just to bite it. The instant I tasted it, King Pluto and
Quicksilver came into the room. I had not swallowed a morsel; but—dear
mother, I hope it was no harm—but six of the pomegranate seeds, I am
afraid, remained in my mouth.”
“Ah, unfortunate child, and miserable me!” exclaimed Ceres. “For each of
those six pomegranate seeds you must spend one month of every year in
King Pluto’s palace. You are but half restored to your mother. Only six
months with me, and six with that good-for-nothing King of Darkness!”
“Do not speak so harshly of poor King Pluto,” said Proserpina, kissing
her mother. “He has some very good qualities; and I really think I can
bear to spend six months in his palace, if he will only let me spend the
other six with you. He certainly did very wrong to carry me off; but
then, as he says, it was but a dismal sort of life for him, to live in
that great gloomy place, all alone; and it has made a wonderful change
in his spirits to have a little girl to run up stairs and down. There
is some comfort in making him so happy; and so, upon the whole, dearest
mother, let us be thankful that he is not to keep me the whole year
round.”
TALES OF THE TROJAN WAR
FROM HOMER
THE TROJAN WAR
By Thomas Bulfinch
Minerva was the goddess of Wisdom, but on one occasion she did a very
foolish thing; she entered into competition with Juno and Venus for the
prize of beauty.
At the marriage of Peleus and Thetis all the gods and goddesses were
invited with the exception of Eris, or Discord. Enraged at her exclusion,
the goddess threw a golden apple among the guests, with the inscription,
“For the fairest,” Thereupon Juno, Venus, and Minerva each claimed the
apple.
Jupiter, not willing to decide in so delicate a matter, sent the
goddesses to Mount Ida, where the beautiful shepherd Paris was tending
his flocks, and to him was committed the decision. The goddesses
accordingly appeared before him. Juno promised him power and riches,
Minerva glory and renown in war, and Venus the fairest of women for his
wife, each attempting to bias his decision in her own favor.