EVANDER

Such were the formidable allies that ranged themselves against

AEneas. It was night, and he lay stretched in sleep on the bank

of the river, under the open heavens. The god of the stream,

Father Tiber, seemed to raise his head above the willows, and to

say, "O goddess-born, destined possessor of the Latin realms,

this is the promised land, here is to be your home, here shall

terminate the hostility of the heavenly powers, if only you

faithfully persevere. There are friends not far distant.

Prepare your boats and row up my stream; I will lead you to

Evander the Arcadian chief. He has long been at strife with

Turnus and the Rutulians, and is prepared to become an ally of

yours. Rise! Offer your vows to Juno, and deprecate her anger.

When you have achieved your victory then think of me." AEneas

woke and paid immediate obedience to the friendly vision. He

sacrificed to Juno, and invoked the god of the river and all its

tributary fountains to lend their aid. Then, for the first time,

a vessel filled with armed warriors floated on the stream of the

Tiber. The river smoothed its waves and bade its current flow

gently, while, impelled by the vigorous strokes of the rowers,

the vessel shot rapidly up the stream.

About the middle of the day they came in sight of the scattered

buildings of the infant town where in after times the proud city

of Rome grew, whose glory reached the skies. By chance the old

king, Evander, was that day celebrating annual solemnities in

honor of Hercules and all the gods. Pallas, his son, and all the

chiefs of the little commonwealth stood by. When they saw the

tall ship gliding onward through the wood, they were alarmed at

the sight, and rose from the tables. But Pallas forbade the

solemnities to be interrupted, and seizing a weapon, stepped

forward to the river's bank. He called aloud, demanding who they

were and what was their object. AEneas, holding forth an olive-

branch, replied, "We are Trojans, friends to you and enemies to

the Rutulians. We seek Evander, and offer to join our arms with

yours." Pallas, in amazement at the sound of so great a name,

invited them to land, and when AEneas touched the shore he seized

his hand and held it long in friendly grasp. Proceeding through

the wood they joined the king and his party, and were most

favorably received. Seats were provided for them at the tables,

and the repast proceeded.

When the solemnities were ended all moved towards the city. The

king, bending with age, walked between his son and AEneas, taking

the arm of one or the other of them, and with much variety of

pleasing talk shortening the way. AEneas looked and listened

with delight, observing all the beauties of the scene, and

learning much of heroes renowned in ancient times. Evander said,

"These extensive groves were once inhabited by fauns and nymphs,

and a rude race of men who sprang from the trees themselves, and

had neither laws nor social culture. They knew not how to yoke

the cattle nor raise a harvest, nor provide from present

abundance for future want; but browsed like beasts upon the leafy

boughs, or fed voraciously on their hunted prey. Such were they

when Saturn, expelled from Olympus by his sons, came among them

and drew together the fierce savages, formed them into society,

and gave them laws. Such peace and plenty ensued that men ever

since have called his reign the golden age; but by degrees far

other times succeeded, and the thirst of gold and the thirst of

blood prevailed. The land was a prey to successive tyrants, till

fortune and resistless destiny brought me hither, an exile from

my native land, Arcadia."

Having thus said, he showed him the Tarpeian rock, and the rude

spot then overgrown with bushes where in after times the Capitol

rose in all its magnificence. He next pointed to some dismantled

walls, and said, "Here stood Janiculum, built by Janus, and there

Saturnia, the town of Saturn." Such discourse brought them to

the cottage of poor Evander, whence they saw the lowing herds

roaming over the plain where now the proud and stately Forum

stands. They entered, and a couch was spread for AEneas, well

stuffed with leaves and covered with the skin of the Libyan bear.

Next morning, awakened by the dawn and the shrill song of birds

beneath the eaves of his low mansion, old Evander rose. Clad in

a tunic, and a panther's skin thrown over his shoulders, with

sandals on his feet, and his good sword girded to his side, he

went forth to seek his guest. Two mastiffs followed him, his

whole retinue and body-guard. He round the hero attended by his

faithful Achates, and, Pallas soon joining them, the old king

spoke thus:

"Illustrious Trojan, it is but little we can do in so great a

cause. Our state is feeble, hemmed in on one side by the river,

on the other by the Rutulians. But I propose to ally you with a

people numerous and rich, to whom fate has brought you at the

propitious moment. The Etruscans hold the country beyond the

river. Mezentius was their king, a monster of cruelty, who

invented unheard-of torments to gratify his vengeance. He would

fasten the dead to the living, hand to hand and face to face, and

leave the wretched victims to die in that dreadful embrace. At

length the people cast him out, him and his house. They burned

his palace and slew his friends. He escaped and took refuge with

Turnus, who protects him with arms. The Etruscans' demand that

he shall be given up to deserved punishment, and would ere now

have attempted to enforce their demand; but their priests

restrain then, telling them that it is the will of heaven that no

native of the land shall guide them to victory, and that their

destined leader must come from across the sea. They have offered

the crown to me, but I am too old to undertake such great

affairs, and my son is native-born, which precludes him from the

choice. You, equally by birth and time of life, and fame in

arms, pointed out by the gods, have but to appear to be hailed as

their leader. With you I will join Pallas, my son, my only hope

and comfort. Under you he shall learn the art of war, and strive

to emulate your great exploits."

Then the king ordered horses to be furnished for the Trojan

chiefs, and AEneas, with a chosen band of followers and Pallas

accompanying, mounted and took the way to the Etruscan city,

having sent back the rest of his party in the ships. AEneas and

his band safely arrived at the Etruscan camp and were received

with open arms by Tarchon, the Etruscan leader, and his

countrymen.

NISUS AND EURYALUS

In the meanwhile Turnus had collected his bands and made all

necessary preparations for the war. Juno sent Iris to him with a

message inciting him to take advantage of the absence of AEneas

and surprise the Trojan camp. Accordingly the attempt was made,

but the Trojans were found on their guard, and having received

strict orders from AEneas not to fight in his absence, they lay

still in their intrenchments, and resisted all the efforts of the

Rutulians to draw them in to the field. Night coming on, the

army of Turnus in high spirits at their fancied superiority,

feasted and enjoyed themselves, and finally stretched themselves

on the field and slept secure.

In the camp of the Trojans things were far otherwise. There all

was watchfulness and anxiety, and impatience for AEneas's return.

Nisus stood guard at the entrance of the camp, and Euryalus, a

youth distinguished above all in the army for graces of person

and fine qualities, was with him. These two were friends and

brothers in arms. Nisus said to his friend, "Do you perceive

what confidence and carelessness the enemy display? Their lights

are few and dim, and the men seem all oppressed with wine or

sleep. You know how anxiously our chiefs wish to send to AEneas,

and to get intelligence from him. Now I am strongly moved to

make my way through the enemy's camp and to go in search of our

chief. If I succeed, the glory of the deed will be enough reward

for me, and if they judge the service deserves anything more, let

them pay it to you."

Euryalus, all on fire with the love of adventure, replied, "Would

you then, Nisus, refuse to share your enterprise with me? And

shall I let you go into such danger alone? Not so my brave

father brought me up, nor so have I planned for myself when I

joined the standard of AEneas, and resolved to hold my life cheap

in comparison with honor." Nisus replied, "I doubt it not, my

friend; but you know the uncertain event of such an undertaking,

and whatever may happen to me, I wish you to be safe. You are

younger than I and have more of life in prospect. Nor can I be

the cause of such grief to your mother, who has chosen to be here

in the camp with you rather than stay and live in peace with the

other matrons in Acestes' city." Euryalus replied, "Say no more.

In vain you seek arguments to dissuade me. I am fixed in the

resolution to go with you. Let us lose no time." They called

the guard, and committing the watch to them, sought the general's

tent. They found the chief officers in consultation,

deliberating how they should send notice to AEneas of their

situation. The offer of the two friends was gladly accepted,

they themselves were loaded with praises and promised the most

liberal rewards in case of success. Iulus especially addressed

Euryalus, assuring him of his lasting friendship. Euryalus

replied, "I have but one boon to ask. My aged mother is with me

in the camp. For me she left the Trojan soil, and would not

stay behind with the other matrons at the city of Acestes. I go

now without taking leave of her. I could not bear her tears nor

set at nought he entreaties. But do thou, I beseech thee,

comfort her in her distress. Promise me that, and I shall go

more boldly into whatever dangers may present themselves." Iulus

and the other chiefs were moved to tears, and promised to do all

his request. "Your mother shall be mine," said Iulus, "and all

that I have promised to you shall be made good to her, if you do

not return to receive it."

The two friends left the camp and plunged at once into the midst

of the enemy. They found no watch, no sentinels posted, but all

about, the sleeping soldiers strewn on the grass and among the

wagons. The laws of war at that early day did not forbid a brave

man to slay a sleeping foe, and the two Trojans slew, as they

passed, such of the enemy as they could without exciting alarm.

In one tent Euryalus made prize of a helmet brilliant with gold

and plumes. They had passed through the enemy's ranks without

being discovered, but now suddenly appeared a troop directly in

front of them, which, under Volscens, their leader, were

approaching the camp. The glittering helmet of Euryalus caught

their attention, and Volscens hailed the two, and demanded who

and whence they were. They made no answer, but plunged into the

wood. The horsemen scattered in all directions to intercept

their flight. Nisus had eluded pursuit and was out of danger,

but Euryalus being missing he turned back to seek him. He again

entered the wood and soon came within sound of voices. Looking

through the thicket he saw the whole band surrounding Euryalus

with noisy questions. What should he do? How extricate the

youth? Or would it be better to die with him?

Raising his eyes to the moon which now shone clear, he said,

"Goddess! Favor my effort!" And aiming his javelin at one of

the leaders of the troop, struck him in the back and stretched

him on the plain with a death-blow. In the midst of their

amazement another weapon flew, and another of the party fell

dead. Volscens, the leader, ignorant whence the darts came,

rushed sword in hand upon Euryalus. "You shall pay the penalty

of both," he said, and would have plunged the sword into his

bosom, when Nisus, who from his concealment saw the peril of his

friend, rushed forward, exclaiming, "'Twas I, 'twas I; turn your

swords against me, Rutulians; I did it; he only followed me as a

friend." While he spoke the sword fell, and pierced the comely

bosom of Euryalus. His head fell over on his shoulder, like a

flower cut down by the plough. Nisus rushed upon Volscens and

plunged his sword into his body, and was himself slain on the

instant by numberless blows.

MEZENTIUS

AEneas, with his Etrurian allies, arrived on the scene of action

in time to rescue his beleaguered camp; and now the two armies

being nearly equal in strength, the war began in good earnest.

We cannot find space for all the details, but must simply record

the fate of the principal characters whom we have introduced to

our readers. The tyrant Mezentius, finding himself engaged

against his revolted subjects, raged like a wild beast. He slew

all who dared to withstand him, and put the multitude to flight

wherever he appeared. At last he encountered AEneas, and the

armies stood still to see the issue. Mezentius threw his spear,

which striking AEneas's shield glanced off and hit Anthor. He

was a Grecian by birth, who had left Argos, his native city, and

followed Evander into Italy. The poet says of him, with simple

pathos which has made the words proverbial, "He fell, unhappy, by

a wound intended for another, looked up to the skies, and dying

remembered sweet Argos." AEneas now in turn hurled his lance.

It pierced the shield of Mezentius, and wounded him in the thigh.

Lausus, his son, could not bear the sight, but rushed forward and

interposed himself, while the followers pressed round Mezentius

and bore him away. AEneas held his sword suspended over Lausus

and delayed to strike, but the furious youth pressed on and he

was compelled to deal the fatal blow. Lausus fell, and AEneas

bent over him in pity. "Hapless youth," he said, "what can I do

for you worthy of your praise? Keep those arms in which you

glory, and fear not but that your body shall be restored to your

friends, and have due funeral honors." So saying, he called the

timid followers, and delivered the body into their hands.

Mezentius meanwhile had been borne to the river-side, and washed

his wound. Soon the news reached him of Lausus's death, and rage

and despair supplied the place of strength. He mounted his horse

and dashed into the thickest of the fight, seeking AEneas.

Having found him, he rode round him in a circle, throwing one

javelin after another, while Aeneas stood fenced with his shield,

turning every way to meet them. At last, after Mezentius had

three times made the circuit, AEneas threw his lance directly at

the horse's head. It pierced his temples and he fell, while a

shout from both armies rent the skies. Mezentius asked no mercy,

but only that his body might be spared the insults of his

revolted subjects, and be buried in the same grave with his son.

He received the fatal stroke not unprepared, and poured out his

life and his blood together.

While these things were doing in one part of the field, in

another Turnus encountered the youthful Pallas. The contest

between champions so unequally matched could not be doubtful.

Pallas bore himself bravely, but fell by the lance of Turnus.

The victor almost relented when he saw the brave youth lying dead

at his feet, and spared to use the privilege of a conqueror in

despoiling him of his arms. The belt only, adorned with studs

and carvings of gold, he took and clasped round his own body.

The rest he remitted to the friends of the slain.

After the battle there was a cessation of arms for some days to

allow both armies to bury their dead. In this interval AEneas

challenged Turnus to decide the contest by single combat, but

Turnus evaded the challenge. Another battle ensued, in which

Camilla, the virgin warrior, was chiefly conspicuous. Her deeds

of valor surpassed those of the bravest warriors, and many

Trojans and Etruscans fell pierced with her darts or struck down

by her battle-axe. At last an Etruscan named Aruns, who had

watched her long, seeking for some advantage, observed her

pursuing a flying enemy whose splendid armor offered a tempting

prize. Intent on the chase she observed not her danger, and the

javelin of Aruns struck her and inflicted a fatal wound. She

fell and breathed her last in the arms of her attendant maidens.

But Diana, who beheld her fate, suffered not her slaughter to be

unavenged. Aruns, as he stole away, glad but frightened, was

struck by a secret arrow, launched by one of the nymphs of

Diana's train, and died ignobly and unknown.

At length the final conflict took place between AEneas and

Turnus. Turnus had avoided the contest as long as he could, but

at last impelled by the ill success of his arms, and by the

murmurs of his followers, he braced himself to the conflict. It

could not be doubtful. On the side of AEneas were the expressed

decree of destiny, the aid of his goddess-mother at every

emergency, and impenetrable armor fabricated by Vulcan, at Venus'

request, for her son. Turnus, on the other hand, was deserted by

his celestial allies, Juno having been expressly forbidden by

Jupiter to assist him any longer. Turnus threw his lance, but it

recoiled harmless from the shield of AEneas. The Trojan hero

then threw his, which penetrated the shield of Turnus, and

pierced his thigh. Then Turnus' fortitude forsook him and he

begged for mercy; and AEneas would have given him his life, but

at the instant his eye fell on the belt of Pallas, which Turnus

had taken from the slaughtered youth. Instantly his rage

revived, and exclaiming, "Pallas immolates thee with this blow,"

he thrust him through with his sword.

Here the AEneid closes, but the story goes that AEneas, having

triumphed over his foes, obtained Lavinia as his bride. His son

Iulus founded the city of Alba Longa. He, and his descendants

after him, reigned over the town for many years. At length

Numitor and Amulius, two brothers, quarrelled about the kingdom.

Amulius seized the crown by force, cast out Numitor, and made his

daughter, Rhea Silvia, a Vestal Virgin. The Vestal Virgins, the

priestesses of the goddess Vesta, were sworn to celibacy. But

Rhea Silvia broke her vow, and gave birth, by the god Mars, to

the twins, Romulus and Remus. For this offence she was buried

alive, the usual punishment accorded to unfaithful Vestals, while

the children were exposed on the river Tiber. Romulus and Remus,

however, were rescued by a herdsman, and were educated among the

shepherds in ignorance of their parentage. But chance revealed

it to them. They collected a band of friends, and took revenge

on their granduncle for the murder of their mother. Afterwards

they founded, by the side of the river Tiber, where they had been

exposed in infancy, the city of Rome.

Chapter XXVII

Pythagoras. Egyptian Deities. Oracles

The teachings of Anchises to AEneas, respecting the nature of the

human soul, were in conformity with the doctrines of the

Pythagoreans. Pythagoras (born, perhaps, about five hundred and

forty years B.C.) was a native of the island of Samos, but passed

the chief portion of his life at Crotona in Italy. He is

therefore sometimes called "the Samian," and sometimes "the

philosopher of Crotona." When young he travelled extensively and

is said to have visited Egypt, where he was instructed by the

priests in all their learning, and afterwards journeyed to the

East, and visited the Persian and Chaldean Magi, and the Brahmins

of India.

But Pythagoras left no writings which have been preserved. His

immediate disciples were under a pledge of secrecy. Though he is

referred to by many writers, at times not far distant from his

own, we have no biography of him written earlier than the end of

the second century of our era. In the interval between his life

and this time, every sort of fable collected around what was

really known of his life and teaching.

At Crotona, where he finally established himself, it is said that

his extraordinary qualities collected round him a great number of

disciples. The inhabitants were notorious for luxury and

licentiousness, but the good effects of his influence were soon

visible. Sobriety and temperance succeeded. Six hundred of the

inhabitants became his disciples and enrolled themselves in a

society to aid each other in the pursuit of wisdom; uniting their

property in one common stock, for the benefit of the whole. They

were required to practise the greatest purity and simplicity of

manners. The first lesson they learned was SILENCE; for a time

they were required to be only hearers. "He (Pythagoras) said

so," (Ipse dixit,) was to be held by them as sufficient, without

any proof. It was only the advanced pupils, after years of

patient submission, who were allowed to ask questions and to

state objections.

Pythagoras is said to have considered NUMBERS as the essence and

principle of all things, and attributed to them a real and

distinct existence; so that, in his view, they were the elements

out of which the universe was constructed. How he conceived this

process has never been satisfactorily explained. He traced the

various forms and phenomena of the world to numbers as their

basis and essence. The "Monad," or UNIT, he regarded as the

source of all numbers. The number TWO was imperfect, and the

cause of increase and division. THREE was called the number of

the whole, because it had a beginning, middle, and end; FOUR,

representing the square, is in the highest degree perfect; and

TEN, as it contains the sum of the first three prime numbers

(2+3+5=10. ONE is not counted, as being rather the source of

number than a number itself) comprehends all musical and

arithmetical proportions, and denotes the system of the world.

As the numbers proceed frm the Monad, so he regarded the pure and

simple essence of the Deity as the source of all the forms of

nature. Gods, demons, and heroes are emanations of the Supreme;

and there is a fourth emanation, the human soul. This is

immortal, and when freed from the fetters of the body, passes to

the habitation of the dead, where it remains till it returns to

the world to dwell in some other human or animal body, and at

last, when sufficiently purified, it returns to the source from

which it proceeded. This doctrine of the transmigration of souls

(metempsychosis), which was first Indian and Egyptian, and

connected with the doctrine of reward and punishment of human

actions, was the chief cause why the Pythagoreans killed no

animals. Ovid represents Pythagoras addressing his disciples in

these words: "Souls never die, but always on quitting one abode

pass to another. I myself can remember that in the time of the

Trojan was I was Euphorbus, the son of Panthus, and fell by the

spear of Menelaus. Lately, being in the temple of Juno, at

Argos, I recognized my shield hung up there among the trophies.

All things change, nothing perishes. The soul passes hither and

thither, occupying now this body, now that, passing from the body

of a beast into that of a man, and thence to a beast's again. As

wax is stamped with certain figures, then melted, then stamped

anew with others, yet is always the same wax, so the soul, being

always the same, yet wears at different times different forms.

Therefore, if the love of kindred is not extinct in your bosoms,

forbear, I entreat you, to violate the life of those who may

haply be your own relatives."

Shakespeare, in the Merchant of Venice, makes Gratiano allude to

the metempsychosis, where he says to Shylock:

"Thou almost mak'st me waver in my faith,

To hold opinion with Pythagoras,

That souls of animals infuse themselves

Into the trunks of men; thy currish spirit

Governed a wolf; who hanged for human slaughter

Infused his soul in thee; for thy desires

Are wolfish, bloody, starved, and ravenous."

The relation of the notes of the musical scale to numbers,

whereby harmony results from vibrations in equal times, and

discord from the reverse, led Pythagoras to apply the word

"harmony" to the visible creation, meaning by it the just

adaptation of parts to each other. This is the idea which Dryden

expresses in the beginning of his song for St. Cecilia's Day:

"From harmony, from heavenly harmony

This everlasting frame began;

From harmony to harmony

Through all the compass of the notes it ran,

The Diapason closing full in Man."

In the centre of the universe (as Pythagoras taught) there was a

central fire, the principle of life. The central fire was

surrounded by the earth, the moon, the sun, and the five planets.

The distances of the various heavenly bodies from one another

were conceived to correspond to the proportions of the musical

scale. The heavenly bodies, with the gods who inhabited them,

were supposed to perform a choral dance round the central fire,

"not without song." It is this doctrine which Shakespeare

alludes to when he makes Lorenzo teach astronomy to Jessica in

this fashion:

"Sit, Jessica, look how the floor of heaven

Is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold!

There's not the smallest orb that thou behold'st

But in this motion like an angel sings,

Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubim;

Such harmony is in immortal souls!

But whilst this muddy vesture of decay

Doth grossly close it in we cannot hear it."

Merchant of Venice

The spheres were conceived to be crystalline or glassy fabrics

arranged over one another like a nest of bowls reversed. In the

substance of each sphere one or more of the heavenly bodies was

supposed to be fixed, so as to move with it. As the spheres are

transparent, we look through them, and see the heavenly bodies

which they contain and carry round with them. But as these

spheres cannot move on one another without friction, a sound is

thereby produced which is of exquisite harmony, too fine for

mortal ears to recognize. Milton, in his Hymn to the Nativity,

thus alludes to the music of the spheres:

"Ring out, ye crystal spheres!

Once bless our human ears;

(If ye have power to charm our senses so);

And let your silver chime

Move in melodious time,

And let the base of Heaven's deep organ blow:

And with your nine-fold harmony

Make up full concert with the angelic symphony."

Pythagoras is said to have invented the lyre, of which other

fables give the invention to Mercury. Our own poet, Longfellow,

in Verses to a Child, thus relates the story:

"As great Pythagoras of yore,

Standing beside the blacksmith's door,

And hearing the hammers as they smote

The Anvils with a different note,

Stole from the varying tones that hung

Vibrant on every iron tongue,

The secret of the sounding wire,

A nd formed the seven-chorded lyre."

See also the same poet's Occultation of Orion:

"The Samian's great AEolian lyre."

SYBARIS AND CROTONA

Sybaris, a neighboring city to Crotona, was as celebrated for

luxury and effeminacy as Crotona for the reverse. The name has

become proverbial. Lowell uses it in this sense in his charming

little poem To the Dandelion:

"Not in mild June the golden-cuirassed bee

Feels a more summer-like, warm ravishment

In the white lily's breezy tent,

(His conquered Sybaris) than I when first

From the dark green thy yellow circles burst."

A war arose between the two cities, and Sybaris was conquered and

destroyed. Milo, the celebrated athlete, led the army of

Crotona. Many stories are told of Milo's vast strength, such as

his carrying a heifer of four years old upon his shoulders, and

afterwards eating the whole of it in a single day. The mode of

his death is thus related: As he was passing through a forest he

saw the trunk of a tree which had been partially split open by

wood-cutters, and attempted to rend it further; but the wood

closed upon his hands and held him fast, in which state he was

attacked and devoured by wolves.

Byron, in his Ode to Napoleon Bonaparte, alludes to the story of

Milo:

"He who of old would rend the oak

Deemed not of the rebound;

Chained by the trunk he vainly broke,

Alone, how looked he round!"

EGYPTIAN DEITIES

The remarkable discovery by which Champollion the younger (so

called to distinguish him from his older brother, Champollion

Figeac, who also studied the hieroglyphics)) first opened to

modern times the secret of the Egyptian hieroglyphics, has been

followed up by laborious studies, which tell us more of Egyptian

worship and mythology, with more precision, than we know of any

other ancient religion but that of the Hebrews. We have even

great numbers of copies of the liturgies, or handbooks of

worship, of funeral solemnities, and other rituals, which have

been diligently translated. And we have a sufficient body of the

literature written and used by the priesthood.

These discoveries give to writers of this generation a much

fuller knowledge of the Egyptian religion, of its forms, and of

the names of its gods, than they had before. It is impossible,

and probably always will be, to state with precision the theology

on which it rested. It is impossible, because that theology was

different in one time and with one school from what it was at

other times. Mr. S. Birch, of the British Museum, says, "The

religion of the Egyptians consisted of an extended polytheism

represented by a system of local groups." But Mr. Pierret says,

"The polytheism of the monuments is but an outward show. The

innumerable gods of the Pantheon are but manifestations of the

One Being in his various capacities. Mariette Bey says, "The one

result is that according to the Egyptians, the universe was God

himself, and that Pantheism formed the foundation of their

religion."

In this book it is not necessary to reconcile views so diverse,

nor indeed to enter on studies so profound as those which should

decide between them. For our purpose here it is enough to know

that the Sun was the older object of worship, and in his various

forms rising, midday, or setting was adored under different

names. Frequently his being and these names were united to the

types of other deities. Mr. Birch believes that the worship of

Osiris prevailed largely beside the worship of the Sun, and is

not to be confounded with it. To Osiris, Set, the Egyptian

devil, was opposed.

The original God, the origin of all things, manifests himself to

men, in lesser forms, according to this mythology, more and more

human and less and less intangible. These forms are generally

triads, and resolve themselves into a male deity, a female deity,

and their child. Triad after triad brings the original Divinity

into forms more and more earthly, till at last we find "that we

have no longer to do with the infinite and intangible God of the

earliest days, but rather with a God of flesh and blood, who

lives upon earth, and has so abased himself as to be no more than

a human king. It is no longer the God of whom no man knew either

the form or the substance: it is Kneph at Esneh, Hathor at

Durderah, Horus, king of the divine dynasty at Edfoo." These

words are M. Maspero's.

The Greek and Latin poets and philosophers, as they made some

very slight acquaintance with Egyptian worship, give Greek or

Latin names to the divinities worshipped. Thus we sometimes hear

Osiris spoken of as the Egyptian Hermes. But such changes of

names are confusing, and are at best but fanciful (In the same

way Plutarch, a Greek writer, says of the Jews' Feast of

Tabernacles, "I know that their God is our Bacchus." This was

merely from the vines, vine leaves and wine used in the

ceremonies.) It would happen sometimes, in later times, that a

fashion of religion would carry the worship of one God or Goddess

to a distance. Thus the worship of Isis became fashionable in

Rome in the time of Nero and Paul, as readers of Bulwer's Last

Days of Pompeii will remember.

The latest modern literature occasionally uses the Egyptian

names, as the last two centuries have disinterred them from the

inscriptions on the monuments, and from the manuscripts in the

tombs. Earlier English writers generally use the names like

Osiris, Anubis, and others found in Latin and Greek writers.

The following statement as to these deities and their names is

from Mr. Birch:

"The deities of ancient Egypt consist of celestial, terrestrial,

and infernal gods, and of many inferior personages, either

representatives of the greater gods or attendants on them. Most

of the gods were connected with the sun, and represented that

luminary through the upper hemisphere or Heaven and the lower

hemisphere or Hades. To the deities of the solar cycle belonged

the great gods of Thebes and Heliopolis. In the local worship of

Egypt the deities were arranged in local triads; thus at Memphis,

Ptah, his wife Merienptah, and their son Nefer Atum, formed a

triad, to which was sometimes added the goddess Bast or Bubastis.

At Abydos the local triad was Osiris, Isis, and Horus, with

Nephthys; at Thebes, Amen Ra or Ammon, Mut and Chons, with Neith;

at Elephantine, Kneph, Anuka, Sati, and Hak. In most instances

the names of the gods are Egyptian; thus, Ptah meant 'the

opener'; Amen, 'the concealed'; Ra, 'the sun or day'; Athor, 'the

house of Horus';' but some few, especially of later times, were

introduced from Semitic sources, as Bal or Baal, Astaruta or

Astarte, Khen or Kiun, Respu or Reseph. Besides the principal

gods, several inferior or parhedral gods, sometimes

personifications of the faculties, senses, and other objects, are

introduced into the religious system, and genii, spirits or

personified souls of deities formed part of the same. At a

period subsequent to their first introduction the gods were

divided into three orders. The first or highest comprised eight

deities, who were different in the Memphian and Theban systems.

They were supposed to have reigned over Egypt before the time of

mortals. The eight gods of the first order at Memphis were 1.

Ptah; 2. Shu; 3. Tefnu; 4. Seb; 5. Nut; 6. Osiris; 7. Isis and

Horus; 8. Athor. Those of Thebes were 1. Amen Ra; 2. Mentu; 3.

Atum; 4. Shu and Tefnu; 5. Seb; 6. Osiris; 7. Set and Nepthys; 8.

Horus and Athor. The gods of the second order were twelve in

number, but the name of one only, an Egyptian Hercules, has been

preserved. The third order is stated to have comprised Osiris,

who, it will be seen, belonged to the first order." GUIDE TO THE

FIRST AND SECOND EGYPTIAN ROOMS, BRITISH MUSEUM. S. Birch

Miss Edwards gives the following convenient register of the names

most familiar among the Egyptian gods (in her very interesting

book, "A Thousand Miles up the Nile").

PHTAH or PTAH: In form a mummy, holding the emblem called by some

the Nilometer, by others the emblem of Stability, called "the

father of the Beginning, the Creator of the Egg of the Sun and

Moon," Chief Deity of Memphis.

KNEPH, KNOUM or KNOUPHIS: Ram-headed, called the Maker of gods

and men, the Soul of the gods. Chief Deity of Elephantine and

the Cataracts.

RA: Hawk-headed, and crowned with the sun-disc, encircled by an

asp. The divine disposer and organizer of the world; adored

throughout Egypt.

AMEN RA: Of human form, crowned with a flat-topped cap and two

long, straight plumes; clothed in the schenti; his flesh

sometimes painted blue. There are various forms of this god

(there were almost as many varieties of Ammon in Egypt as there

are varieties of the Madonna in Italy or Spain), but he is most

generally described as King of the Gods, chief deity of Thebes.

KHEM: Of human form, mummified; wears head-dress of Amen Ra; his

right hand uplifted, holding a flail. The god of productiveness

and generation. Chief deity of Khemmis, or Ekhmeem.

OSIRIS: Of human form, mummified, crowned with a mitre, and

holding the flail and crook. Called the Good; the Lord above

all; the one lord. Was the god of the lower world; judge of the

dead; and representative of the sun below the horizon. Adored

through Egypt. Local deity of Abydos.

NEFER ATUM: Human-headed, and crowned with the pschent. This god

represented the nocturnal sun, or the sun lighting the lower

world. Local deity of Heliopolis.

THOTH: In form a man, ibis-headed, generally depicted with the

pen and palette of a scribe. Was the god of the moon, and of

letters. Local deity of Sesoon, or Hermopolit.

SEB: The "Father of the Gods," and deity of terrestrial

vegetation. In form like a man with a goose upon his head.

SET: Represented by a symbolic animal, with a muzzle and ears

like a jackal, the body of an ass, and an upright tail, like the

tail of a lion. Was originally a warlike god, and became in

later times the symbol of evil and the enemy of Osiris.

KHONS: Hawk-headed, crowned with the sun-disc and horns. Is

sometimes represented as a youth with the side-lock, standing on

a crocodile.

HORUS: Horus appears variously as Horus, Horus Aroeris, and Horus

Harpakhrat (Hippocrates), or Horus the child. Is represented

under the first two forms as a man, hawk-headed, wearing the

double crown of Egypt; in the latter as a child with the side-

lock. Local deity of Edfoo (Apollinopolis Magna).

MAUT: A woman draped, and crowned with the pschent (the pschent

was a double crown, worn by the king at his coronation),

representing a vulture. Adored at Thebes.

NEITH: A woman draped, holding sometimes a bow and arrows,

crowned with the crown of Lower Egypt. She presided over war,

and the loom. Worshipped at Thebes.

ISIS: A woman crowned with the sun-disc surmounted by a throne,

and sometimes enclosed between horns. Adored at Abydos. Her

soul resided in Sothis on the Dog-star.

NUT: A woman so bent that her hands touched the earth. She

represents the vault of heaven, and is the mother of the gods.

HATHOR: Cow-headed, and crowned with the disc and plumes. Deity

of Amenti, or the Egyptian Hades. Worshipped at Denderah.

PASHT: Pasht and Bast appear to be two forms of the same goddess.

As Bast she is represented as a woman, lion-headed, with the disc

and uroeus; as Pasht she is cat-headed, and holds a sistrum.

Adored at Bubastis. Observe the syllable BAST.

The highest visible deity of the Egyptians was Amun Ra, or Amen

Ra, the concealed sun; the word Ra signifying the sun. This name

appears in the Greek and Latin writers as Zeus Ammon and Jupiter

Ammon. When Amun manifests himself by his word, will or spirit,

he is known as Nu, Num, Noub, Nef, Neph, or Kneph, and this

word Kneph through the form Cnuphis is, perhaps, the Anubis of

the Greek and Latin authors. That word has not been found earlier

than the time of Augustus. Anubis was then worshipped as the

guardian god, and represented with a dog's head.

The soul of Osiris was supposed to exist in some way in the

sacred bull Apis, of which Serapis or Sarapis is probably another

name. "Apis," says Herodotus, "is a young bull, whose hair is

black, on his forehead a white triangle, -- on his back an eagle,

with a beetle under his tongue and with the hair of his tail

double." Ovid says he is of various colors. Plutarch says he

has a crescent on his right side. These superstitions varied

from age to age. Apis was worshipped in Memphis.

It must be observed, in general, that the names in the Latin

classics belong to a much later period of the Egyptian religion

than the names found on most of the monuments. It will be found,

that, as in the change from Nu to Anubis, it is difficult to

trace the progress of a name from one to the other. In the cases

where an ox, a ram, or a dog is worshipped with, or as a symbol

of, a god, we probably have the survival of a very early local

idolatry.

Horus or Harpocrates, named above, was the son of Osiris. He is

sometimes represented, seated on a Lotus-flower, with his finger

on his lips, as the god of silence.

In one of Moore's Irish Melodies is an allusion to Harpocrates: -

"Thyself shall, under some rosy bower,

Sit mute, with thy finger on thy lip:

Like him, the boy, who born among

The flowers that on the Nile-stream blush,

Sits over thus, his only song

To Earth and Heaven, "Hush, all, hush!"

MYTH OF OSIRIS AND ISIS

Osiris and Isis were at one time induced to descend to the earth

to bestow gifts and blessings on its inhabitants. Isis showed

them first the use of wheat and barley, and Osiris made the

instruments of agriculture and taught men the use of them, as

well as how to harness the ox to the plough. He then gave men

laws, the institution of marriage, a civil organization, and

taught them how to worship the gods. After he had thus made the

valley of the Nile a happy country, he assembled a host with

which he went to bestow his blessings upon the rest of the world.

He conquered the nations everywhere, but not with weapons, only

with music and eloquence. His brother Typhon (Typhon is supposed

to be the Seth of the monuments) saw this, and filled with envy

and malice sought, during his absence, to usurp his throne. But

Isis, who held the reins of government, frustrated his plans.

Still more embittered, he now resolved to kill his brother. This

he did in the following manner: Having organized a conspiracy of

seventy-two members, he went with them to the feast which was

celebrated in honor of the king's return. He then caused a box

or chest to be brought in, which had been made to fit exactly the

size of Osiris, and declared that he would give that chest of

precious wood to whosoever could get into it. The rest tried in

vain, but no sooner was Osiris in it than Typhon and his

companions closed the lid and flung the chest into the Nile.

When Isis heard of the cruel murder she wept and mourned, and

then with her hair shorn, clothed in black and beating her

breast, she sought diligently for the body of her husband. In

this search she was assisted by Anubis, the son of Osiris and

Nephthys. They sought in vain for some time; for when the chest,

carried by the waves to the shores of Byblos, had become

entangled in the reeds that grew at the edge of the water, the

divine power that dwelt in the body of Osiris imparted such

strength to the shrub that it grew into a mighty tree, enclosing

in its trunk the coffin of the god. This tree, with its sacred

deposit, was shortly afterward felled, and erected as a column in

the palace of the king of Phoenicia. But at length, by the aid

of Anubis and the sacred birds, Isis ascertained these facts, and

then went to the royal city. There she offered herself at the

palace as a servant, and being admitted, threw off her disguise

and appeared as the goddess, surrounded with thunder and

lightning. Striking the column with her wand, she caused it to

split open and give up the sacred coffin. This she seized and

returned with it, and concealed it in the depth of a forest, but

Typhon discovered it, and cutting the body into fourteen pieces,

scattered them hither and thither. After a tedious search, Isis

found thirteen pieces, the fishes of the Nile having eaten the

other. This she replaced by an imitation of sycamore wood, and

buried the body at Philoe, which became ever after the great

burying place of the nation, and the spot to which pilgrimages

were made from all parts of the country. A temple of surpassing

magnificence was also erected there in honor of the god, and at

every place where one of his limbs had been found, minor temples

and tombs were built to commemorate the event. Osiris became

after that the tutelar deity of the Egyptians. His soul was

supposed always to inhabit the body of the bull Apis, and at his

death to transfer itself to his successor.

Apis, the Bull of Memphis, was worshipped with the greatest

reverence by the Egyptians. As soon as a bull marked with the

marks which have been described, was found by those sent in

search of him, he was placed in a building facing the east, and

was fed with milk for four months. At the expiration of this

term the priests repaired at new moon with great pomp, to his

habitation, and saluted him Apis. He was placed in a vessel

magnificently decorated and conveyed down the Nile to Memphis,

where a temple, with two chapels and a court for exercise, was

assigned to him. Sacrifices were made to him, and once every

year, about the time when the Nile began to rise, a golden cup

was thrown into the river, and a grand festival was held to

celebrate his birthday. The people believed that during this

festival the crocodiles forgot their natural ferocity and became

harmless. There was however one drawback to his happy lot; he

was not permitted to live beyond a certain period; and if when he

had attained the age of twenty-five years, he still survived, the

priests drowned him in the sacred cistern, and then buried him in

the temple of Serapis. On the death of this bull, whether it

occurred in the course of nature or by violence, the whole land

was filled with sorrow and lamentations, which lasted until his

successor was found.

A new Apis was found as late as the reign of Hadrian. A mummy

made from one of the Sacred Bulls may be seen in the Egyptian

collection of the Historical Society, New York.

Milton, in his Hymn of the Nativity, alludes to the Egyptian

deities, not as imaginary beings, but as real demons put to

flight by the coming of Christ:

"The brutish gods of Nile as fast,

Isis and Horus and the dog Anubis haste.

Nor is Osiris seen

In Memphian grove or green

Trampling the unshowered* grass with lowings loud;

Nor can he be at rest

Within his sacred chest;

Nought but profoundest hell can be his shroud.

In vain with timbrel'd anthems dark

The sable-stoled sorcerers bear his worshipped ark."

*(There being no rain in Egypt, the grass is "unshowered," and

the country depends for its fertility upon the overflowings of

the Nile. The ark alluded to in the last line is shown by

pictures still remaining on the walls of the Egyptian temples to

have been borne by the priests in their religious processions.

It probably represented the chest in which Osiris was placed.)

Isis was represented in statuary with the head veiled, a symbol

of mystery. It is this which Tennyson alludes to in Maud, 0V.8

"For the drift of te Maker is dark, an Isis hid by the veil."

ORACLES

Oracle was the name used to denote the place where answers were

supposed to be given by any of the divinities to those who

consulted them respecting the future. The word was also used to

signify the response which was given.

The most ancient Grecian oracle was that of Jupiter at Dodona.

According to one account it was established in the following

manner. Two black doves took their flight from Thebes in Egypt.

One flew to Dodona in Epirus and alighting in a grove of oaks, it

proclaimed in human language to the inhabitants of the district

that they must establish there an oracle of Jupiter. The other

dove flew to the temple of Jupiter Ammon in the Libyan oasis, and

delivered a similar command there. Another account is, that

they were not doves, but priestesses, who were carried off from

Thebes in Egypt by the Phoenicians, and set up oracles at Oasis

and Dodona. The responses of the oracle were given from the

trees, by the branches rustling in the wind, the sounds being

interpreted by the priests.

But the most celebrated of the Grecian oracles was that of Apollo

at Delphi, a city built on the slopes of Parnassus in Phocis.

It had been observed at a very early period that the goats

feeding on Parnassus were thrown into convulsions when they

approached a certain long deep cleft in the side of the mountain.

This was owing to a peculiar vapor arising out of the cavern, and

one of the goatherds was induced to try its effects upon himself.

Inhaling the intoxicating air he was affected in the same manner

as the cattle had been, and the inhabitants of the surrounding

country, unable to explain the circumstance, imputed the

convulsive ravings to which he gave utterance while under the

power of the exhalations, to a divine inspiration. The fact was

speedily circulated widely, and a temple was erected on the spot.

The prophetic influence was at first variously attributed to the

goddess Earth, to Neptune, Themis, and others, but it was at

length assigned to Apollo, and to him alone. A priestess was

appointed whose office it was to inhale the hallowed air, and who

was named the Pythia. She was prepared for this duty by previous

ablution at the fountain of Castalia, and being crowned with

laurel was seated upon a tripod similarly adorned, which was

placed over the chasm whence the divine afflatus proceeded. Her

inspired words while thus situated were interpreted by the

priests.

ORACLE OF TROPHONIUS

Besides the oracles of Jupiter and Apollo, at Dodona and Delphi,

that of Trophonius in Boeotia was held in high estimation.

Trophonius and Agamedes were brothers. They were distinguished

architechts, and built the temple of Apollo at Delphi, and a

treasury for King Hyrieus. In the wall of the treasury they

placed a stone, in such a manner that it could be taken out; and

by this means from time to time purloined the treasure. This

amazed Hyrieus, for his locks and seals were untouched, and yet

his wealth, continually diminished. At length he set a trap for

the thief and Agamedes was caught. Trophonius unable to

extricate him, and fearing that when found he would be compelled

by torture to discover his accomplice, cut off his head.

Trophonius himself is said to have been shortly afterwards

swallowed up by the earth.

The oracle of Trophonius was at Lebadea in Boeotia. During a

great drought the Boeotians, it is said, were directed by the god

at Delphi to seek aid of Trophonius at Lebadea. They came

thither, but could find no oracle. One of them, however,

happening to see a swarm of bees, followed them to a chasm in the

earth, which proved to be the place sought.

Peculiar ceremonies were to be performed by the person who came

to consult the oracle. After these preliminaries, he descended

into the cave by a narrow passage. This place could be entered

only in the night. The person returned from the cave by the same

narrow passage, but walking backwards. He appeared melancholy

and dejected; and hence the proverb which was applied to a person

low-spirited and gloomy, "He has been consulting the oracle of

Trophonius."

ORACLE OF AESCULAPIUS

There were numerous oracles of Aesculapius, but the most

celebrated one was at Epidaurus. Here the sick sought responses

and the recovry of their health by sleeping in the temple. It

has been inferred from the accounts that have come down to us,

that the treatment of the sick resembled what is now called

Animal Magnetism or Mesmerism.

Serpents were sacred to Aesculapius, probably because of a

superstition that those animals have a faculty of renewing their

youth by a change of skin. The worship of Aesculapius was

introduced into Rome in a time of great sickness, and an embassy

sent to the temple of Epidaurus to entreat the aid of the god.

Aesculapius was propitious, and on the return of the ship

accompanied it in the form of a serpent. Arriving in the river

Tiber, the serpent glided from the vessel and took possession of

an island in the river, and a temple was there erected to his

honor.

ORACLE OF APIS

At Memphis the sacred bull Apis gave answer to those who

consulted him, by the manner in which he received or rejected

what was presented to him. If the bull refused food from the

hand of the inquirer it was considered an unfavorable sign, and

the contrary when he received it.

It has been a question whether oracular responses ought to be

ascribed to mere human contrivance or to the agency of evil

spirits. The latter opinion has been most general in past ages.

A third theory has been advanced since the phenomena of Mesmerism

have attracted attention, that something like the mesmeric trance

was induced in the Pythoness, and the faculty of clairvoyance

really called into action.

Another question is as to the time when the Pagan oracles ceased

to give responses. Ancient Christian writers assert that they

became silent at the birth of Christ, and were heard no more

after that date. Milton adopts this view in his Hymn of the

Nativity, and in lines of solemn and elevated beauty pictures the

consternation of the heathen idols at the advent of the Saviour.

"The oracles are dumb;

No voice or hideous hum

Rings through the arched roof in words deceiving.

Apollo from his shrine

Can no more divine,

With hollow shriek the steep of Delphos leaving.

No nightly trance or breathed spell

Inspires the pale-eyed priest from the prophetic cell."

In Cowper's poem of Yardley Oak there are some beautiful

mythological allusions. The former of the two following is to

the fable of Castor and Pollux; the latter is more appropriate to

our present subject. Addressing the acorn he says,

"Thou fell'st mature; and in the loamy clod,

Swelling with vegetative force instinct,

Didst burst thine egg, as theirs the fabled Twins

Now stars; two lobes protruding, paired exact;

A leaf succeeded and another leaf,

And, all the elements thy puny growth

Fostering propitious, thou becam'st a twig.

Who lived when thou was such? Oh, couldst thou speak

As in Dodona once thy kindred trees

Oracular, I would not curious ask

The future, best unknown, but at thy mouth

Inquisitive, the less ambiguous past."

Tennyson in his Talking Oak alludes to the oaks of Dodona in

these lines:

"And I will work in prose and rhyme,

And praise thee more in both

Than bard has honored beech or lime,

Or that Thessalian growth

In which the swarthy ring-dove sat

And mystic sentence spoke."

Byron alludes to the oracle of Delphi where, speaking of

Rousseau, whose writings he conceives did much to bring on the

French revolution, he says,

"For then he was inspired, and from him came,

As from the Pythian's mystic cave of yore,

Those oracles which set the world in flame,

Nor ceased to burn till kingdoms were no more."

Chapter XXVIII

Origin of Mythology Statues of Gods and Goddesses Poets of

Mythology

Having reached the close of our series of stories of Pagan

mythology, an inquiry suggests itself. "Whence came these

stories? Have they a foundation in truth, or are they simply

dreams of the imagination?" Philosophers have suggested various

theories on the subject of which we shall give three or four.

1. The Scriptural theory; according to which all mythological

legends are derived from the narratives of Scripture, though the

real facts have been disguised and altered. Thus Deucalion is

only another name for Noah, Hercules for Samson, Arion for Jonah,

etc. Sir Walter Raleigh, in his History of the World, says,

"Jubal, Tubal, and Tubal-Cain were Mercury, Vulcan, and Apollo,

inventors of Pasturage, Smithing, and Music. The Dragon which

kept the golden apples was the serpent that beguiled Eve.

Nimrod's tower was the attempt of the Giants against Heaven.

There are doubtless many curious coincidences like these, but the

theory cannot without extravagance be pushed so far as to account

for any great proportion of the stories.

2. The Historical theory; according to which all the persons

mentioned in mythology were once real human beings, and the

legends and fabulous traditions relating to them are merely the

additions and embellishments of later times. Thus the story of

AEolus, the king and god of the winds, is supposed to have risen

from the fact that AEolus was the ruler of some islands in the

Tyrrhenian Sea, where he reigned as a just and pious king, and

taught the natives the use of sails for ships, and how to tell

from the signs of the atmosphere the changes of the weather and

the winds. Cadmus, who, the legend says, sowed the earth with

dragon's teeth, from which sprang a crop of armed men, was in

fact an emigrant from Phoenicia, and brought with him into Greece

the knowledge of the letters of the alphabet, which he taught to

the natives. From these rudiments of learning sprung

civilization, which the poets have always been prone to describe

as a deterioration of man's first estate, the Golden Age of

innocence and simplicity.

3. The Allegorical theory supposes that all the myths of the

ancients were allegorical and symbolical, and contained some

moral, religious, or philosophical truth or historical fact,

under the form of an allegory, but came in process of time to be

understood literally. Thus Saturn, who devours his own children,

is the same power whom the Greeks called Kronos (Time), which may

truly be said to destroy whatever it has brought into existence.

The story of Io is interpreted in a similar manner. Io is the

moon, and Argus the starry sky, which, as it were, keeps

sleepless watch over her. The fabulous wanderings of Io

represent the continual revolutions of the moon, which also

suggested to Milton the same idea.

"To behold the wandering moon

Riding near her highest noon,

Like one that had been led astray

In the heaven's wide, pathless way."

Il Penseroso

4. The Astronomical theory supposes that the different stories

are corrupted versions of astronomical statements, of which the

true meaning was forgotten. This theory is pushed to its extreme

by Dupuis, in his treatise "Sur tous les cultes."

5. The Physical theory, according to which the elements of air,

fire, and water, were originally the objects of religious

adoration, and the principal deities were personifications of the

powers of nature. The transition was easy from a personification

of the elements to the notion of supernatural beings presiding

over and governing the different objects of nature. The Greeks,

whose imagination was lively, peopled all nature with invisible

beings, and supposed that every object, from the sun and sea to

the smallest fountain and rivulet, was under the care of some

particular divinity. Wordsworth, in his Excursion, has

beautifully developed this view of Grecian mythology.

"In that fair clime the lonely herdsman, stretched

On the soft grass through half a summer's day,

With music lulled his indolent repose;

And, in some fit of weariness, if he,

When his own breath was silent, chanced to hear

A distant strain far sweeter than the sounds

Which his poor skill could make, his fancy fetched

Even from the blazing chariot of the sun

A beardless youth who touched a golden lute,

And filled the illumined groves with ravishment.

The mighty hunter, lifting up his eyes

Toward the crescent Moon, with grateful heart

Called on the lovely Wanderer who bestowed

That timely light to share his joyous sport;

And hence a beaming goddess with her nymphs

Across the lawn and through the darksome grove

(Not unaccompanied with tuneful notes

By echo multiplied from rock or cave)

Swept in the storm of chase, as moon and stars

Glance rapidly along the clouded heaven

When winds are blowing strong. The traveller slaked

His thirst from rill or gushing fount, and thanked

The Naiad. Sunbeams upon distant hills

Gliding apace with shadows in their train,

Might with small help from fancy, be transformed

Into fleet Oreads sporting visibly.

The Zephyrs, fanning, as they passed, their wings,

Lacked not for love fair objects whom they wooed

With gentle whisper. Withered boughs grotesque,

Stripped of their leaves and twigs by hoary age,

From depth of shaggy covert peeping forth

In the low vale, or on steep mountain side;

And sometimes intermixed with stirring horns

Of the live deer, or goat's depending beard;

These were the lurking Satyrs, a wild brood

Of gamesome deities; or Pan himself,

The simple shepherd's awe-inspiring god."

All the theories which have bene mentioned are true to a certain

extent. It would therefore be more correct to say that the

mythology of a nation has sprung from all these sources combined

than from any one in particular. We may add also that there are

many myths which have risen from the desire of man to account for

those natural phenomena which he cannot understand; and not a few

have had their rise from a similar desire of giving a reason for

the names of places and persons.

STATUES OF THE GODS

Adequately to represent to the eye the ideas intended to be

conveyed to the mind under the several names of deities, was a

task which called into exercise the highest powers of genius and

art. Of the many attempts FOUR have been most celebrated, the

first two known to us only by the descriptions of the ancients,

and by copies on gems, which are still preserved; the other two

still extant and the acknowledged masterpieces of the sculptor's

art.

THE OLYMPIAN JUPITER

The statue of the Olympian Jupiter by Phidias was considered the

highest achievement of this department of Grecian art. It was of

colossal dimensions, and was what the ancients called

"chryselephantine;" that is, composed of ivory and gold; the

parts representing flesh being of ivory laid on a core of wood or

stone, while the drapery and other ornaments were of gold. The

height of the figure was forty feet, on a pedestal twelve feet

high. The god was represented seated on this throne. His brows

were crowned with a wreath of olive, and he held in his right

hand a sceptre, and in his left a statue of Victory. The throne

was of cedar, adorned with gold and precious stones.

The idea which the artist essayed to embody was that of the

supreme deity of the Hellenic (Grecian) nation, enthroned as a

conqueror, in perfect majesty and repose, and ruling with a nod

the subject world. Phidias avowed that he took his idea from the

representation which Homer gives in the first book of the Iliad,

in the passage thus translated by Pope:

"He spoke and awful bends his sable brows,

Shakes his ambrosial curls and gives the nod,

The stamp of fate and sanction of the god.

High heaven with reverence the dread signal took,

A nd all Olympus to the centre shook."

(Cowper's version is less elegant, but truer to the original.

"He ceased, and under his dark brows the nod

Vouchsafed of confirmation. All around

The sovereign's everlasting head his curls

Ambrosial shook, and the huge mountain reeled."

It may interest our readers to see how this passage appears in

another famous version, that which was issued under the name of

Tickell, contemporaneously with Pope's, and which, being by many

attributed to Addison, led to the quarrel which ensued between

Addison and Pope.

"This said, his kingly brow the sire inclined;

The large black curls fell awful from behind,

Thick shadowing the stern forehead of the god;

Olympus trembled at the almighty nod.")

THE MINERVA OF THE PARTHENON

This was also the work of Phidias. It stood in the Parthenon, or

temple of Minera at Athens. The goddess was represented

standing. In one hand she held a spear, in the other a statue of

Victory. Her helmet, highly decorated, was surmounted by a

Sphinx. The statue was forty feet in height, and, like the

Jupiter, composed of ivory and gold. The eyes were of marble,

and probably painted to represent the iris and pupil. The

Parthenon in which this statue stood was also constructed under

the direction and superintendence of Phidias. Its exterior was

enriched with sculptures, many of them from the hand of Phidias.

The Elgin marbles now in the British Museum are a part of them.

Both the Jupiter and Minerva of Phidias are lost, but there is

good ground to believe that we have, in several extant statues

and busts, the artist's conceptions of the countenances of both.

They are characterized by grave and dignified beauty, and freedom

from any transient expression, which in the language of art is

called REPOSE.

THE VENUS DE' MEDICI

The Venus of the Medici is so called from its having been in the

possession of the princes of that name in Rome when it first

attracted attention, about two hundred years ago. An inscription

on the base records it to be the work of Cleomenes, an Athenian

sculptor of 200 B.C., but the authenticity of the inscription is

doubtful. There is a story that the artist was employed by

public authority to make a statue exhibiting the perfection of

female beauty, and to aid him in his task, the most perfect forms

the city could supply were furnished him for models. It is this

which Thomson alludes to in his Summer.

"So stands the statue that enchants the world;

So bending tries to veil the matchless boast,

The mingled beauties of exulting Greece."

Byron also alludes to this statue. Speaking of the Florence

Museum, he says:

"There too the goddess loves in stone, and fills

The air around with beauty;"

And in the next stanza,

"Blood, pulse, and breast confirm the Dardan shepherd's prize."

This last allusion is explained in Chapter XX.

THE APOLLO BELVEDERE

The most highly esteemed of all the remains of ancient sculpture

is the statue of Apollo, called the Belvedere, from the name of

the apartment of the Pope's palace at Rome, in which it is

placed. The artist is unknown. It is supposed to be a work of

Roman art, of about the first century of our era. It is a

standing figure, in marble, more than seven feet high, naked

except for the cloak which is fastened around the neck and hangs

over the extended left arm. It is supposed to represent the god

in the moment when he has shot the arrow to destroy the monster

Python (See Chapter II). The victorious divinity is in the act

of stepping forward. The left arm which seems to have held the

bow is outstretched, and the head is turned in the same

direction. In attitude and proportion the graceful majesty of

the figure is unsurpassed. The effect is completed by the

countenance, where, on the perfection of youthful godlike beauty

there dwells the consciousness of triumphant power.

THE DIANA A LA BICHE

The Diana of the hind, in the palace of the Louvre, may be

considered the counterpart to the Apollo Belvedere. The attitude

much resembles that of the Apollo, the sizes correspond and also

the style of execution. It is a work of the highest order,

though by no means equal to the Apollo. The attitude is that of

hurried and eager motion, the face that of a huntress in the

excitement of the chase. The left hand is extended over the

forehead of the Hind which runs by her side, the right arm

reaches backward over the shoulder to draw an arrow from the

quiver.

THE VENUS OF MELOS

Of the Venus of Melos, perhaps the most famous of our statues of

mythology, very little is known. There are many indeed who

believe that it is not a statue of Venus at all.

It was found in the year 1820 in the Island of Melos by a

peasant, who sold it to the French consul at the place. The

statue was standing in the theatre, which had been filled up with

rubbish in the course of centuries, and when discovered was

broken in several places, and some of the pieces were gone.

These missing pieces, notably the two arms, have been restored in

various ways by modern artists. As has been said above, there is

a controversy as to whether the statue represents Venus or some

other goddess. Much has been written on each side, but the

question still remains unsettled. The general opinion of those

who contend that it is not Venus is that it is a statue or Nike

or Victory.

THE POETS OF MYTHOLOGY

Homer, from whose poems of the Iliad and Odyssey we have taken

the chief part of our chapters of the Trojan war and the return

of the Grecians, is almost as mythical a personage as the heroes

he celebrates. The traditionary story is that he was a wandering

minstrel, blind and old, who travelled from place to place

singing his lays to the music of his harp, in the courts of

princes or the cottages of peasants, and dependent upon the

voluntary offerings of his hearers for support. Byron calls him

"The blind old man of Scio's rocky isle," and a well-known

epigram, alluding to the uncertainty of the fact of his

birthplace, says,

"Seven wealthy towns contend for Homer dead,

Through which the living Homer begged his bread."

An older version is,

"Seven cities warred for Homer being dead,

Who living had no roof to shroud his head."

These lines are by Thomas Heywood; the others are ascribed to

Thomas Seward.

These seven cities were Smyrna, Scio, Rhodes, Colophon, Salamis,

Argos, and Athens.

Modern scholars have doubted whether the Homeric poems are the

work of any single mind. This arises from the difficulty of

believing that poems of such length could have been committed to

writing at so early an age as that usually assigned to these, an

age earlier than the date of any remaining inscriptions or coins,

and when no materials, capable of containing such long

productions were yet introduced into use. On the other hand it

is asked how poems of such length could have been handed down

from age to age by means of the memory alone. This is answered

by the statement that there was a professional body of men,

called Rhapsodists, who recited the poems of others, and whose

business it was to commit to memory and rehearse for pay the

national and patriotic legends.

The prevailing opinion of the learned, at this time, seems to be

that the framework and much of the structure of the poems belong

to Homer, but that there are numerous interpolations and

additions by other hands.

The date assigned to Homer, on the authority of Herodotus, is 850

B.C., but a range of two or three centuries must be given for the

various conjectures of critics.

VIRGIL

Virgil, called also by his surname, Maro, from whose poem of the

AEneid we have taken the story of AEneas, was one of the great

poets who made the reign of the Roman emperor, Augustus, so

celebrated, under the name of the Augustan age. Virgil was born

in Mantua in the year 70 B.C. His great poem is ranked next to

those of Homer, in the highest class of poetical composition, the

Epic. Virgil is far inferior to Homer in originality and

invention, but superior to him in correctness and elegance. To

critics of English lineage Milton alone of modern poets seems

worthy to be classed with these illustrious ancients. His poem

of Paradise Lost, from which we have borrowed so many

illustrations, is in many respects equal, in some superior, to

either of the great works of antiquity. The following epigram of

Dryden characterizes the three poets with as much truth as it is

usual to find in such pointed criticism:

ON MILTON

"Three poets in three different ages born.

Greece, Italy, and England did adorn.

The first in loftiness of soul surpassed,

The next in majesty, in both the last.

The force of nature could no further go;

To make a third she joined the other two."

From Cowper's Table Talk:

"Ages elapsed ere Homer's lamp appeared,

And ages ere the Mantuan swan was heard.

To carry nature lengths unknown before,

To give a Milton birth, asked ages more.

Thus genius rose and set at ordered times,

And shot a dayspring into distant climes,

Ennobling every region that he chose;

He sunk in Greece, in Italy he rose,

And, tedious years of Gothic darkness past,

Emerged all splendor in our isle at last.

Thus lovely halcyons dive into the main,

Then show far off their shining plumes again."

OVID

Often alluded to in poetry by his other name of Naso, was born in

the year 43 B.C. He was educated for public life and held some

offices of considerable dignity, but poetry was his delight, and

he early resolved to devote himself to it. He accordingly sought

the society of the contemporary poets, and was acquainted with

Horace and saw Virgil, though the latter died when Ovid was yet

too young and undistinguished to have formed his acquaintance.

Ovid spent an easy life at Rome in the enjoyment of a competent

income. He was intimate with the family of Augustus, the

emperor, and it is supposed that some serious offence given to

some member of that family was the cause of an event which

reversed the poet's happy circumstances and clouded all the

latter portion of his life. At the age of fifty he was banished

from Rome, and ordered to betake himself to Tomi, on the borders

of the Black Sea. Here, among the barbarous people and in a

severe climate, the poet, who had been accustomed to all the

pleasures of a luxurious capital and the society of his most

distinguished contemporaries, spent the last ten years of his

life, worn out with grief and anxiety. His only consolation in

exile was to address his wife and absent friends, and his letters

were all poetical. Though these poems (The Tristia and Letters

from Pontus) have no other topic than the poet's sorrows, his

exquisite taste and fruitful invention have redeemed them from

the charge of being tedious, and they are read with pleasure and

even with sympathy.

The two great works of Ovid are his Metamorphoses and his Fasti.

They are both mythological poems, and from the former we have

taken most of our stories of Grecian and Roman mythology. A late

writer thus characterizes these poems:

"The rich mythology of Greece furnished Ovid, as it may

still furnish the poet, the painter, and the sculptor, with

materials for his art. With exquisite taste, simplicity, and

pathos he has narrated the fabulous traditions of early ages, and

given to them that appearance of reality which only a master-hand

could impart. His pictures of nature are striking and true; he

selects with care that which is appropriate; he rejects the

superfluous; and when he has completed his work, it is neither

defective nor redundant. The Metamorphoses are read with

pleasure by youth, and are re-read in more advanced age with

still greater delight. The poet ventured to predict that his

poem would survive him, and be read wherever the Roman name was

known."

The prediction above alluded to is contained in the closing lines

of the Metamorphoses, of which we give a literal translation

below:

"And now I close my work, which not the ire

Of Jove, nor tooth of time, nor sword, nor fire

Shall bring to nought. Come when it will that day

Which o'er the body, not the mind, has sway,

A nd snatch the remnant of my life away,

My better part above the stars shall soar,

And my renown endure for evermore.

Where'er the Roman arms and arts shall spread,

There by the people shall my book be read;

And, if aught true in poet's visions be,

My name and fame have immortality."

Chapter XXIX

Modern Monsters: The Phoenix Basilisk Unicorn Salamander

There is a set of imaginary beings which seem to have been the

successors of the "Gorgons, Hydras, and Chimeras dire" of the old

superstitions, and, having no connection with the false gods of

Paganism, to have continued to enjoy an existence in the popular

belief after Paganism was superseded by Christianity. They are

mentioned perhaps by the classical writers, but their chief

popularity and currency seem to have been in more modern times.

We seek our accounts of them not so much in the poetry of the

ancients, as in the old natural history books and narrations of

travellers. The accounts which we are about to give are taken

chiefly from the Penny Cyclopedia.

THE PHOENIX

Ovid tells the story of the Phoenix as follows: "Most beings

spring from other individuals; but there is a certain kind which

reproduces itself. The Assyrians call it the Phoenix. It does

not live on fruit or flowers, but on frankincense and odoriferous

gums. When it has lived five hundred years, it builds itself a

nest in the branches of an oak, or on the top of a palm-tree. In

this it collects cinnamon, and spikenard, and myrrh, and of these

materials builds a pile on which it deposits itself, and dying,

breathes out its last breath amidst odors. From the body of the

parent bird a young Phoenix issues forth, destined to live as

long a life as its predecessor. When this has grown up and

gained sufficient strength, it lifts its nest from the tree (its

own cradle and its parent's sepulchre) and carries it to the city

of Heliopolis in Egypt, and deposits it in the temple of the

Sun."

Such is the account given by a poet. Now let us see that of a

philosophic historian. Tacitus says, "In the consulship of

Paulus Fabius (A.D. 34), the miraculous bird known to the world

by the name of Phoenix, after disappearing for a series of ages,

revisited Egypt. It was attended in its flight by a group of

various birds, all attracted by the novelty, and gazing with

wonder at so beautiful an appearance." He then gives an account

of the bird, not varying materially from the preceding, but

adding some details. "The first care of the young bird as soon

as fledged and able to trust to his wings is to perform the

obsequies of his father. But this duty is not undertaken rashly.

He collects a quantity of myrrh, and to try his strength makes

frequent excursions with a load on his back. When he has gained

sufficient confidence in his own vigor, he takes up the body of

his father and flies with it to the altar of the Sun, where he

leaves it to be consumed in flames of fragrance." Other writers

add a few particulars. The myrrh is compacted in the form of an

egg, in which the dead Phoenix is enclosed. From the mouldering

flesh of the dead bird a worm springs, and this worm, when grown

large, is transformed into a bird. Herodotus DESCRIBES the bird,

though he says, "I have not seen it myself, except in a picture.

Part of his plumage is gold-colored, and part crimson; and he is

for the most part very much like an eagle in outline and bulk."

The first writer who disclaimed a belief in the existence of the

Phoenix was Sir Thomas Browne, in his Vulgar Errors, published in

1646. He was replied to a few years later by Alexander Ross, who

says, in answer to the objection of the Phoenix so seldom making

his appearance, "His instinct teaches him to keep out of the way

of the tyrant of the creation, MAN, for if he were to be got at

some wealthy glutton would surely devour him, though there were

no more in the world."

Dryden, in one of his early poems, has this allusion to the

Phoenix:

"So when the new-born Phoenix first is seen,

Her feathered subjects all adore their queen,

And while she makes her progress through the East,

From every grove her numerous train's increased;

Each poet of the air her glory sings,

And round him the pleased audience clap their wings."

Milton, in Paradise lost, Book V, compares the angel Raphael

descending to earth to a Phoenix:

"Down thither, prone in flight

He speeds, and through the vast ethereal sky

Sails between worlds and worlds, with steady wing,

Now on the polar winds, then with quick fan

Winnows the buxom air; till within soar

Of towering eagles, to all the fowls he seems

A Phoenix, gazed by all; as that sole bird

When, to enshrine his relics in the Sun's

Bright temple, to Egyptian Thebes he flies."

THE COCKATRICE, OR BASILISK

This animal was called the king of the serpents. In confirmation

of his royalty, he was said to be endowed with a crest or comb

upon the head, constituting a crown. He was supposed to be

produced from the egg of a cock hatched under toads or serpents.

There were several species of this animal. One species burned up

whatever they approached; a second were a kind of wandering

Medusa's heads, and their look caused an instant horror, which

was immediately followed by death. In Shakespeare's play of

Richard the Third, Lady Anne, in answer to Richard's compliment

on her eyes, says, "Would they were basilisk's, to strike thee

dead!"

The basilisks were called kings of serpents because all other

serpents and snakes, behaving like good subjects, and wisely not

wishing to be burned up or struck dead, fled the moment they

heard the distant hiss of their king, although they might be in

full feed upon the most delicious prey, leaving the sole

enjoyment of the banquet to the royal monster.

The Roman naturalist Pliny thus describes him: "He does not impel

his body like other serpents, by a multiplied flexion, but

advances lofty and upright. He kills the shrubs, not only by

contact but by breathing on them, and splits the rocks, such

power of evil is there in him. It was formally believed that if

killed by a spear from on horseback the power of the poison

conducted through the weapon killed not only the rider but the

horse also. To this Lucan alludes in these lines:

"What though the Moor the basilisk hath slain,

And pinned him lifeless to the sandy plain,

Up through the spear the subtle venom flies,

The hand imbibes it, and the victor dies."

Such a prodigy was not likely to be passed over in the legends of

the saints. Accordingly we find it recorded that a certain holy

man going to a fountain in the desert suddenly beheld a basilisk.

He immediately raised his eyes to heaven, and with a pious appeal

to the Deity, laid the monster dead at his feet.

These wonderful powers of the basilisk are attested by a host of

learned persons, such as Galen, Avicenna, Scaliger, and others.

Occasionally one would demur to some part of the tale while he

admitted the rest. Jonston, a learned physician, sagely remarks,

"I would scarcely believe that it kills with its look, for who

could have seen it and lived to tell the story?" The worthy sage

was not aware that those who went to hunt the basilisk of this

sort, took with them a mirror, which reflected back the deadly

glare upon its author, and by a kind of poetical justice slew the

basilisk with his own weapon.

But what was to attack this terrible and unapproachable monster?

There is an old saying that "everything has its enemy," and the

cockatrice quailed before the weasel. The basilisk might look

daggers, the weasel cared not, but advanced boldly to the

conflict. When bitten, the weasel retired for a moment to eat

some rue, which was the only plant the basilisks could not

wither, returned with renewed strength and soundness to the

charge, and never left the enemy till he was stretched dead on

the plain. The monster, too, as if conscious of the irregular

way in which he came into the world, was supposed to have a great

antipathy to a cock; and well he might, for as soon as he heard

the cock crow he expired.

The basilisk was of some use after death. Thus we read that its

carcass was suspended in the temple of Apollo, and in private

houses, as a sovereign remedy against spiders, and that it was

also hung up in the temple of Diana, for which reason no swallow

ever dared enter the sacred place.

The reader will, we apprehend, by this time have had enough of

absurdities, but still he may be interested to know that these

details come from the work of one who was considered in his time

an able and valuable writer on Natural History. Ulysses

Aldrovandus was a celebrated naturalist of the sixteenth century,

and his work on natural history, in thirteen folio volumes,

contains with much that is valuable a large proportion of fables

and inutilities. In particular he is so ample on the subject of

the cock and the bull, that from his practice all rambling,

gossiping tales of doubtful credibility are called COCK AND BULL

STORIES. Still he is to be remembered with respect as the

founder of a botanic garden, and one of the leaders in the modern

habit of making scientific collections for research and inquiry.

Shelley, in his Ode to Naples, full of the enthusiasm excited by

the intelligence of the proclamation of a Constitutional

Government at Naples, in 1820, thus uses an allusion to the

basilisk:

"What though Cimmerian anarchs dare blaspheme

Freedom and thee? A new Actaeon's error

Shall theirs have been, devoured by their own bounds!

Be thou like the imperial basilisk,

Killing thy foe with unapparent wounds!

Gaze on oppression, till at that dread risk,

Aghast she pass from the earth's disk.

Fear not, but gaze, for freemen mightier grow,

And slaves more feeble, gazing on their foe."

THE UNICORN

Pliny, the Roman naturalist, out of whose account of the unicorn

most of the modern unicorns have been described and figured,

records it as "a very ferocious beast, similar in the rest of its

body to a horse, with the head of a deer, the feet of an

elephant, the tail of a boar, a deep bellowing voice, and a

single black horn, two cubits in length, standing out in the

middle of its forehead." He adds that "it cannot be taken

alive;" and some such excuse may have been necessary in those

days for not producing the living animal upon the arena of the

amphitheatre.

The unicorn seems to have been a sad puzzle to the hunters, who

hardly knew how to come at so valuable a piece of game. Some

described the horn as moveable at the will of the animal, a kind

of small sword in short, with which ho hunter who was not

exceedingly cunning in fence could have a chance. Others

maintained that all the animal's strength lay in its horn, and

that when hard pressed in pursuit, it would throw itself from the

pinnacle of the highest rocks horn foremost, so as to pitch upon

it, and then quietly march off not a whit the worse for its fall.

But it seems they found out how to circumvent the poor unicorn at

last. They discovered that it was a great lover of purity and

innocence, so they took the field with a young VIRGIN, who was

placed in the unsuspecting admirer's way. When the unicorn spied

her, he approached with all reverence, couched beside her, and

laying his head in her lap, fell asleep. The treacherous virgin

then gave a signal, and the hunters made in and captured the

simple beast.

Modern zoologists, disgusted as they well may be with such fables

as these, disbelieve generally the existence of the unicorn. Yet

there are animals bearing on their heads a bony protuberance more

or less like a horn, which may have given rise to the story. The

rhinoceros horn, as it is called, is such a protuberance, though

it does not exceed a few inches in height, and is far from

agreeing with the descriptions of the horn of the unicorn. The

nearest approach to a horn in the middle of the forehead is

exhibited in the bony protuberance on the forehead of the

giraffe; but this also is short and blunt, and is not the only

horn of the animal, but a third horn standing in front of the two

others. In fine, though it would be presumptuous to deny the

existence of a one-horned quadruped other than the rhinoceros, it

may be safely stated that the insertion of a long and solid horn

in the living forehead of a horse-like or deer-like animal, is as

near an impossibility as any thing can be.

THE SALAMANDER

The following is from the Life of Benvenuto Cellini, an Italian

artist of the sixteenth century, written by himself, "When I was

about five years of age, my father happening to be in a little

room in which they had been washing, and where there was a good

fire of oak burning, looked into the flames and saw a little

animal resembling a lizard, which could live in the hottest part

of that element. Instantly perceiving what it was he called for

my sister and me, and after he had shown us the creature, he gave

me a box on the ear. I fell a crying, while he, soothing me with

caresses, spoke these words: 'My dear child, I do not give you

that blow for any fault you have committed, but that you may

recollect that the little creature you see in the fire is a

salamander; such a one as never was beheld before to my

knowledge.' So saying he embraced me, and gave me some money."

It seems unreasonable to doubt a story of which signor Cellini

was both an eye and ear witness. Add to which the authority of

numerous sage philosophers, at the head of whom are Aristotle and

Pliny, affirms this power of the salamander. According to them,

the animal not only resists fire, but extinguishes it, and when

he sees the flame, charges it as an enemy which he well knows how

to vanquish.

That the skin of an animal which could resist the action of fire

should be considered proof against that element, is not to be

wondered at. We accordingly find that a cloth made of the skins

of salamanders (for there really is such an animal, a kind of

lizard) was incombustible, and very valuable for wrapping up such

articles as were too precious to be intrusted to any other

envelopes. These fire-proof cloths were actually produced, said

to be made of salamander's wool, though the knowing ones detected

that the substance of which they were composed was Asbestos, a

mineral, which is in fine filaments capable of being woven into a

flexible cloth.

The foundation of the above fables is supposed to be the fact

that the salamander really does secrete from the pores of his

body a milky juice, which, when he is irritated, is produced in

considerable quantity, and would doubtless, for a few moments,

defend the body from fire. Then it is a hibernating animal, and

in winter retires to some hollow tree or other cavity, where it

coils itself up and remains in a torpid state till the spring

again calls it forth. It may therefore sometimes be carried with

the fuel to the fire, and wake up only time enough to put forth

all its faculties for its defence. Its viscous juice would do

good service, and all who profess to have seen it acknowledge

that it got out of the fire as fast as its legs could carry it;

indeed too fast for them ever to make prize of one, except in one

instance, and in that one, the animal's feet and some parts of

its body were badly burned.

Dr. Young, in the Night Thoughts, with more quaintness than good

taste, compares the sceptic who can remain unmoved in the

contemplation of the starry heavens, to a salamander unwarmed in

the fire:

"An undevout astronomer is mad!

* * * * * *

Oh, what a genius must inform the skies!

And is Lorenzo's salamander-heart

Cold and untouched amid these sacred fires?"

Chapter XXX

Eastern Mythology Zoroaster Hindu Mythology Castes Buddha

Grand Lama

During the last fifty years new attention has been paid to the

systems of religion of the Eastern world, especially to that of

Zoroaster among the Persians, and that which is called Brahmanism

and the rival system known as Buddhism in the nations farther

east. Especial interest belongs to these inquiries for us,

because these religions are religions of the great Aryan race to

which we belong. The people among whom they were introduced all

used some dialect of the family of language to which our own

belongs. Even young readers will take an interest in such books

as Clarke's Great Religions and Johnson's Oriental Religions,

which are devoted to careful studies of them.

Our knowledge of the religion of the ancient Persians is

principally derived from the Zendavesta, or sacred books of that

people. Zoroaster was the founder of their religion, or rather

the reformer of the religion which preceded him. The time when he

lived is doubtful, but it is certain that his system became the

dominant religion of Western Asia from the time of Cyrus (550

B.C.) to the conquest of Persia by Alexander the Great. Under

the Macedonian monarchy the doctrines of Zoroaster appear to have

been considerably corrupted by the introduction of foreign

opinions, but they afterwards recovered their ascendancy.

Zoroaster taught the existence of a supreme being, who created

two other mighty beings, and imparted to them so much of his own

nature as seemed good to him. Of these, Ormuzd (called by the

Greeks Oromasdes) remained faithful to his creator, and was

regarded as the source of all good, while Ahriman (Arimanes)

rebelled, and became the author of all evil upon the earth.

Ormuzd created man, and supplied him with all the materials of

happiness; but Ahriman marred this happiness by introducing evil

into the world, and creating savage beasts and poisonous reptiles

and plants. In consequence of this, evil and good are now

mingled together in every part of the world, and the followers of

good and evil the adherents of Ormuzd and Ahriman carry on

incessant war. But this state of things will not last forever.

The time will come when the adherents of Ormuzd shall everywhere

be victorious, and Ahriman and his followers be consigned to

darkness forever.

The religious rites of the ancient Persians were exceedingly

simple. They used neither temples, altars, nor statues, and

performed their sacrifices on the tops of mountains. They adored

fire, light, and the sun, as emblems of Ormuzd, the source of all

light and purity, but did not regard them as independent deities.

The religious rites and ceremonies were regulated by the priests,

who were called Magi. The learning of the Magi was connected

with astrology and enchantment, in which they were so celebrated

that their name was applied to all orders of magicians and

enchanters.

"As to the age of the books of the Zendavesta, and the period at

which Zoroaster lived, there is the greatest difference of

opinion. He is mentioned by Plato, who speaks of 'the magic (or

religious doctrines) of Zoroaster the Ormazdian.' As Plato

speaks of his religion as something established in the form of

Magism, or the system of the Medes in West Iran, which the Avesta

appears to have originated in Bactria, or East Iran, this already

carries the age of Zoroaster back to at least the sixth or

seventh century before Christ.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

"Professor Whitney of New Haven places the epoch of Zoroaster at

'least B.C. 1000,' and adds that all attempts to reconstruct

Persian chronology or history prior to the reign of the first

Sassanid have been relinquished as futile. Dollinger thinks he

may have been 'somewhat later than Moses, perhaps about B.C.

1300,' but says 'it is impossible to fix precisely' when he

lived. Rawlinson merely remarks that Berosus places him anterior

to B.C. 2234. Haug is inclined to date the Gathas, the oldest

songs of the Avesta, as early as the time of Moses. Rapp, after

a thorough comparison of ancient writers, concludes that

Zoroaster lived B.C. 1200 or 1300. In this he agrees with

Duncker, who, as we have seen, decided upon the same date. It is

not far from the period given by the oldest Greek writer who

speaks of Zoroaster, Xanthus of Sardis, a contemporary of

Darius. It is the period given by Cephalion, a writer of the

second century, who takes it from three independent sources. We

have no sources now open to us which enable us to come nearer

than this to the time in which he lived.

"Nor is anything known with certainty of the place where he

lived, or the events of his life. Most modern writers suppose

that he resided in Bactria. Haug maintains that the language of

the Zend books is Bactrian. A highly mythological and fabulous

life of Zoroaster, translated by Anquetil du Perron, called the

Zartrisht-Namah, describes him as going to Iran in his thirtieth

year, spending twenty years in the desert, working miracles

during ten years, and giving lessons of philosophy in Babylon,

with Pythagoras as his pupil. All this is based on the theory

(now proved to be false) of his living in the time of Darius.

'The language of the Avesta,' says Max Muller, 'is so much more

primitive than the inscriptions of Darius, that many centuries

must have passed between the two periods represented by these two

strata of language. These inscriptions are in the Achaemenian

dialect, which is the Zend in a later stage of linguistic

growth.;"

J. Freeman Clarke - Ten Great Religions

Wordsworth thus alludes to the worship of the Persians:

"the Persian, zealous to reject

Altar and Image, and the inclusive walls

And roofs of temples built by human hands,

The loftiest heights ascending from their tops,

With myrtle-wreathed Tiara on his brows,

Presented sacrifice to Moon and Stars

And to the Winds and mother Elements,

And the whole circle of the Heavens, for him

A sensitive existence and a God."

Excursion, Book IV

In Childe Harold, Byron speaks thus of the Persian worship:

"Not gainly did the early Persian make

His altar the high places and the peak

Of earth o'ergazing mountains, and thus take

A fit and unwalled temple, there to seek

The Spirit, in whose honor shrines are weak,

Upreared of human hands. Come and compare

Columns and idol-dwellings, Goth or Greek,

With Nature's realms of worship, earth and air,

Nor fix on fond abodes to circumscribe thy prayer."

III., 91.

The religion of Zoroaster continued to flourish even after the

introduction of Christianity, and in the third century was the

dominant faith of the East, till the rise of the Mahometan power

and the conquest of Persia by the Arabs in the seventh century,

who compelled the greater number of the Persians to renounce

their ancient faith. Those who refused to abandon the religion

of their ancestors fled to the deserts of Kerman and to

Hindustan, where they still exist under the name of Parsees, a

name derived from Pars, the ancient name of Persia. The Arabs

call them Guebers, from an Arabic word signifying unbelievers.

At Bombay the Parsees are at this day a very active, intelligent,

and wealthy class. For purity of life, honesty, and conciliatory

manners, they are favorably distinguished. They have numerous

temples to Fire, which they adore as the symbol of the divinity.

The Persian religion makes the subject of the finest tale in

Moore's Lalla Rookh, the Fire Worshippers. The Gueber chief

says:

"Yes! I am of that impious race,

Those slaves of Fire, that moan and even

Hail their creator's dwelling place

Among the living lights of heaven;

Yes! I am of that outcast crew

To lean and to vengeance true,

Who curse the hour your Arabs came

To desecrate our shrines of flame,

And swear before God's burning eye,

To break our country's chains or die."

HINDU MYTHOLOGY

The religion of the Hindus is professedly founded on the Vedas.

To these books of their scripture they attach the greatest

sanctity, and state that Brahma himself composed them at the

creation. But the present arrangement of the Vedas is attributed

to the sage Vyasa, about five thousand years ago.

The Vedas undoubtedly teach the belief of one supreme God. The

name of this deity is Brahma. His attributes are represented by

the three personified powers of CREATION, PRESERVATION, and

DESTRUCTION, which, under the respective names of Brahma, Vishnu,

and Siva, form the TRIMURTI or triad of principal Hindu gods. Of

the inferior gods the most important are, 1. Indra, the god of

heaven, of thunder, lightning, storm, and rain; 2. Agni, the god

of fire; 3. Yana, the god of the infernal regions; 4. Surya, the

god of the sun.

Brahma is the creator of the universe, and the source from which

all the individual deities have sprung, and into which all will

ultimately be absorbed. "As milk changes to curd, and water to

ice, so is Brahma variously transformed and diversified, without

aid of exterior means of any sort. The human soul, according to

the Vedas, is a portion of the supreme ruler, as a spark is of

the fire.

"BRAHMA, at first a word meaning prayer and devotion, becomes in

the laws of Manu the primal God, first-born of the creation, from

the self-existent being, in the form of a golden egg. He became

the creator of all things by the power of prayer. In the

struggle for ascendancy, which took place between the priests and

the warriors, Brahma naturally became the deity of the former.

But, meantime, as we have seen, the worship or Vishnu had been

extending itself in one region, and that of Siva in another.

Then took place those mysterious wars between the kings of the

Solar and Lunar races, of which the great epics contain all that

we know. And at the close of these wars a compromise was

apparently accepted, by which Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva were

united in one supreme God, as creator, preserver, and destroyer,

all in one.

It is almost certain that this Hindoo Triad was the result of an

ingenious and successful attempt, on the part of the Brahmans, to

unite all classes of worshippers in India against the Buddhists.

In this sense the Brahmans edited anew the Mahabharata, inserting

in that epic passages extolling Vishnu in the form of Krishna.

The Greek accounts of India which followed the invasion of

Alexander speak of the worship of Hercules as prevalent in the

East, and by Hercules they apparently mean the god Krishna. The

struggle between the Brahmans and Buddhists lasted during nine

centuries (from A.D. 500 to A.D. 1400), ending with the total

expulsion of Buddhism and the triumphant establishment of the

Triad as the worship of India.

"Before this Triad or Trimurti (of Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva)

there seems to have been another, consisting of Agni, Indra, and

Surya. This may have given the hint of the second Triad, which

distributed among the three gods the attributes or Creation,

Destruction, and Renovation. Of these Brahma, the creator,

ceased soon to be popular, and the worship of Siva and Vishnu as

Krishna remain as the popular religion of India. . . ..

"But all the efforts of Brahmanism could not arrest the natural

development of the system. It passed on into polytheism and

idolatry. The worship of India for many centuries has been

divided into a multitude of sects. While the majority of the

Brahmans still profess to recognize the equal divinity of Brahma,

Vishnu, and Siva, the mass of the people worship Krishna, Rama,

the Singam, and many other gods and idols. There are Hindoo

Atheists, who revile the Vedas; there are the Kabirs, who are a

sort of Hindoo Quakers, and oppose all worship; the RAMANUJAS, an

ancient sect of Vishnu worshippers; the RAMAVATS, living in

monasteries; the PANTHIS, who oppose all austerities; the

MAHARAJAS, whose religion consists with great licentiousness.

Most of these are worshippers of Vishnu or of Siva, for Brahma-

worship has wholly disappeared." J. Freeman Clarke. TEN GREAT

RELIGIONS.

VISHNU

Vishnu occupies the second place in the triad of the Hindus, and

is the personification of the preserving principle. To protect

the world in various epochs of danger, Vishnu descended to the

earth in different incarnations, or bodily forms, which descents

are called Avatars. They are very numerous, but ten are more

particularly specified. The first Avatar was as Matsya, the

Fish, under which form Vishnu preserved Manu, the ancestor of the

human race, during a universal deluge. The second Avatar was in

the form of a Tortoise, which form he assumed to support the

earth when the gods were churning the sea for the beverage of

immortality, Amrita.

We may omit the other Avatars, which were of the same general

character, that is, interpositions to protect the right or to

punish wrong-doers, and come to the ninth, which is the most

celebrated of the Avatars of Vishnu, in which he appeared in the

human form of Krishna, an invincible warrior, who by his exploits

relieved the earth from the tyrants who oppressed it.

Buddha is by the followers of the Brahmanical religion regarded

as a delusive incarnation of Vishnu, assumed by him in order to

induce the Asuras, opponents of the gods, to abandon the sacred

ordinances of the Vedas, by which means they lost their strength

and supremacy.

Kalki is the name of the TENTH Avatar, in which Vishnu will

appear at the end of the present age of the world to destroy all

vice and wickedness, and to restore mankind to virtue and purity.

SIVA

Siva is the third person of the Hindu triad. He is the

personification of the destroying principle. Though the third

named, he is, in respect to the number of his worshippers and the

extension of his worship, before either of the others. In the

Puranas (the scriptures of the modern Hindu religion) no allusion

is made to the original power of this god as a destroyer; as that

power is not to be called into exercise till after the expiration

of twelve millions of years, or when the universe will come to an

end; and Mahadeva (another name for Siva) is rather the

representative of regeneration than of destruction.

The worshippers of Vishnu and Siva form two sects, each of which

proclaims the superiority of its favorite deity, denying the

claims of the other, and Brahma, the creator, having finished his

work, seems to be regarded as no longer active, and has now only

one temple in India, while Mahadeva and Vishnu have many. The

worshippers of Vishnu are generally distinguished by a greater

tenderness for life and consequent abstinence from animal food,

and a worship less cruel than that of the followers of Siva.

JUGGERNAUT

Whether the worshippers of Juggernaut are to be reckoned among

the followers of Vishnu or Siva, our authorities differ. The

temple stands near the shore, about three hundred miles southwest

of Calcutta. The idol is a carved block of wood, with a hideous

face, painted black, and a distended blood-red mouth. On

festival days the throne of the image is placed on a tower sixty

feet high, moving on wheels. Six long ropes are attached to the

tower, by which the people draw it along. The priests and their

attendants stand round the throne on the tower, and occasionally

turn to the worshippers with songs and gestures. While the tower

moves along numbers of the devout worshippers throw themselves on

the ground, in order to be crushed by the wheels, and the

multitude shout in approbation of the act, as a pleasing

sacrifice to the idol. Every year, particularly at two great

festivals in March and July, pilgrims flock in crowds to the

temple. Not less than seventy or eighty thousand people are said

to visit the place on these occasions, when all castes eat

together.

CASTES

The division of the Hindus into classes or castes, with fixed

occupations, existed from the earliest times. It is supposed by

some to have been founded upon conquest, the first three castes

being composed of a foreign race, who subdued the natives of the

country and reduced them to an inferior caste. Others trace it

to the fondness of perpetuating, by descent from father to son,

certain offices or occupations.

The Hindu tradition gives the following account of the origin of

the various castes. At the creation Brahma resolved to give the

earth inhabitants who should be direct emanations from his own

body. Accordingly from his mouth came forth the eldest born,

Brahma (the priest), to whom he confided the four Vedas; from his

right arm issued Shatriya (the warrior), and from his left, the

warrior's wife. His thighs produced Vaissyas, male and female

(agriculturists and traders), and lastly from his feet sprang

Sudras (mechanics and laborers).

The four sons of Brahma, so significantly brought into the world,

became the fathers of the human race, and heads of their

respective castes. They were commanded to regard the four Vedas

as containing all the rules of their faith, and all that was

necessary to guide them in their religious ceremonies. They were

also commanded to take rank in the order of their birth, the

Brahmans uppermost, as having sprung from the head of Brahma.

A strong line of demarcation is drawn between the first three

castes and the Sudras. The former are allowed to receive

instruction from the Vedas, which is not permitted to the Sudras.

The Brahmans possess the privilege of teaching the Vedas, and

were in former times in exclusive possession of all knowledge.

Though the sovereign of the country was chosen from the Shatriya

class, also called Rajputs, the Brahmans possessed the real

power, and were the royal counsellors, the judges and magistrates

of the country; their persons and property were inviolable; and

though they committed the greatest crimes, they could only be

banished from the kingdom. They were to be treated by sovereigns

with the greatest respect, for "a Brahman, whether learned or

ignorant, is a powerful divinity."

When the Brahman arrives at years of maturity it becomes his duty

to marry. He ought to be supported by the contributions of the

rich, and not to be obliged to gain his subsistence by any

laborious or productive occupation. But as all the Brahmans

could not he maintained by the working classes of the community,

it was found necessary to allow them to engage in productive

employments.

We need say little of the two intermediate classes, whose rank

and privileges may be readily inferred from their occupations.

The Sudras or fourth class are bound to servile attendance on the

higher classes, especially the Brahmans, but they may follow

mechanical occupations and practical arts, as painting and

writing, or become traders or husbandmen. Consequently they

sometimes grow rich, and it will also sometimes happen that

Brahmans become poor. That fact works its usual consequence, and

rich Sudras sometimes employ poor Brahmans in menial occupations.

There is another class lower even than the Sudras, for it is not

one of the original pure classes, but springs from an

unauthorized union of individuals of different castes. These are

the Pariahs, who are employed in the lowest services and treated

with the utmost severity. They are compelled to do what no one

else can do without pollution. They are not only considered

unclean themselves, but they render unclean every thing they

touch. They are deprived of all civil rights, and stigmatized by

particular laws, regulating their mode of life, their houses and

their furniture. They are not allowed to visit the pagodas or

temples of the other castes, but have their own pagodas and

religious exercises. They are not suffered to enter the houses

of the other castes; if it is done incautiously or from

necessity, the place must be purified by religious ceremonies.

They must not appear at public markets, and are confined to the

use of particular wells, which they are obliged to surround with

bones of animals, to warn others against using them. They dwell

in miserable hovels, distant from cities and villages, and are

under no restrictions in regard to food, which last is not a

privilege, but a mark of ignominy, as if they were so degraded

that nothing could pollute them. The three higher castes are

prohibited entirely the use of flesh. The fourth is allowed to

eat all kinds except beef, but only the lowest caste is allowed

every kind of food without restrictions.

BUDDHA

Buddha, whom the Vedas represent as a delusive incarnation of

Vishnu, is said by his followers to have been a mortal sage,

whose name was Gautama, called also by the complimentary epithets

of Sakyasinha, the Lion, and Buddha, the Sage.

By a comparison of the various epochs assigned to his birth, it

is inferred that he lived about one thousand years before Christ.

He was the son of a king; and when in conformity to the usage of

the country he was, a few days after his birth, presented before

the altar of a deity, the image is said to have inclined its

head, as a presage of the future greatness of the new-born

prophet. The child soon developed faculties of the first order,

and became equally distinguished by the uncommon beauty of his

person. No sooner had he grown to years of maturity than he

began to reflect deeply on the depravity and misery of mankind,

and he conceived the idea of retiring from society and devoting

himself to meditation. His father in vain opposed this design.

Buddha escaped the vigilance of his guards, and having found a

secure retreat, lived for six years undisturbed in his devout

contemplations. At the expiration of that period he came forward

at Benares as a religious teacher. At first some who heard him

doubted of the soundness of his mind; but his doctrines soon

gained credit, and were propagated so rapidly that Buddha himself

lived to see them spread all over India.

The young prince distinguished himself by his personal and

intellectual qualities, but still more by his early piety. It

appears from the laws of Manu that it was not unusual, in the

earliest periods of Brahmanism, for those seeking a superior

piety to turn hermits, and to live alone in the forest, engaged

in acts of prayer, meditation, abstinence, and the study of the

Vedas. This practice, however, seems to have been confined to

the Brahmans. It was, therefore, a grief to the king, when his

son, in the flower of his youth and highly accomplished in every

kingly faculty of body and mind, began to turn his thoughts

toward the life of an anchorite.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

He first visited the Brahmans, and listened to their doctrines,

but found no satisfaction therein. The wisest among them could

not teach him true peace, that profound inward rest, which was

already called Nirvana. He was twenty-nine years old. Although

disapproving of the Brahmanic austerities as an end, he practised

them during six years, in order to subdue the senses. He then

became satisfied that the path to perfection did not lie that

way. He therefore resumed his former diet and a more comfortable

mode of life, and so lost many disciples who had been attracted

by his amazing austerity. Alone in his hermitage, he came at

last to that solid conviction, that KNOWLEDGE never to be shaken,

of the laws of things, which had seemed to him the only

foundation of a truly free life. The spot where, after a week of

constant meditation, he at last arrived at this beatific vision,

became one of the most sacred places in India. He was seated

under a tree, his face to the east, not having moved for a day

and night, when he attained the triple science, which was to

rescue mankind from its woes. Twelve hundred years after the

death of the Buddha, a Chinese pilgrim was shown what then passed

for the sacred tree.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Having attained this inward certainty of vision, he decided to

teach the world his truth. He knew well what it would bring him,

what opposition, insult, neglect, scorn. But he thought of

three classes of men: those who were already on the way to the

truth and did not need him; those who were fixed in error and

whom he could not help; and the poor doubters, uncertain of their

way. It was to help these last, the doubters, that the Buddha

went forth to preach. On his way to the holy city of India,

Benares, a serious difficulty arrested him at the Ganges, namely,

his having no money to pay the boatman for his passage. At

Benares he made his first converts, "turning the wheel of the

law" for the first time. His discourses are contained in the

sacred books of the Buddhists. He converted great numbers, his

father among the rest, but met with fierce opposition from the

Hindu Scribes and Pharisees, the leading Brahmans. So he lived

and taught, and died at the age of eighty years.