He usually resided on the Carpathian sea, and like the rest of the sea
gods, reposed upon the shore, where those resorted who wished to consult
him to obtain any revelation; but it was necessary to secure him, lest by
taking some unnatural shape, he should elude their vigilance.
[Illustration]
PORTUMNUS, the guardian of doors, was at first known as {143} Melicerta,
and was the son of Athamas and Ino. He was saved by his mother from the
fury of his father, Athamas, who became inflamed by such a sudden fury,
that he took Ino for a Lioness, and her two children for whelps. In this
fit of madness, he dashed one of them against a wall; Ino fled with
Melicerta in her arms, and threw herself into the sea from a high rock, and
was changed into a sea deity, by Neptune, who had compassion on her
misfortunes. It is supposed by many, that the Isthmian games were in honour
of Portumnus.
GLAUCUS was a fisher of Boeotia, and remarking, on one occasion, that the
fish which he threw on the grass, seemed to receive fresh vigour from
touching the ground, he attributed it to the grass, and tasting it, was
seized with a sudden desire to live in the sea.
Upon this, he leapt into the water, and was made a sea deity by Oceanus, at
the request of the marine gods.
[Illustration]
AEOLUS, god of the winds, reigned in the Vulcanean islands, and was under
the power of Neptune, who allowed him to give liberty to the winds, or to
recall them into their caverns at his pleasure.
"Oh many a voice is thine thou wind!
Full many a voice is thine,
From every scene thy wing o'ersweeps
Thou bear'st a sound and sign;
A minstrel wild and strong thou art,
With a mastery all thine own,
And the spirit is thy harp, O wind!
That gives the answering tone.
"Thou hast been across red fields of war,
Where shivered helmets lie,
And thou bringest thence the thrilling note
Of a clarion in the sky:
{144}
A rustling of proud banner folds,
A peal of stormy drums,--
All these are in thy music met,
As when a leader comes.
"Thou hast been o'er solitary seas,
And from their wastes brought back
Each noise of waters that awoke
In the mystery of thy track;
The chime of low, soft southern waves
On some green palmy shore,
The hollow roll of distant surge,
The gathered billows roar.
"Thou art come from forests dark and deep,
Thou mighty, rushing wind!
And thou bearest all their unisons
In one, full swell combined;
The restless pines, the moaning stream,
All hidden things and free,
Of the dim, old sounding wilderness,
Have lent their soul to thee.
"Thou art come from cities lighted up
For the conqueror passing by,
Thou art wafting from their streets, a sound
Of haughty revelry:
The rolling of triumphant wheels,
The harpings in the hall,
The far off shout of multitudes,
Are in thy rise and fall.
"Thou art come from kingly tombs and shrines,
From ancient minsters vast,
Through the dark aisles of a thousand years
Thy lonely wing hath passed;
Thou hast caught the anthem's billowy swell,
The stately dirge's tone;
For a chief, with sword and shield, and helm,
To his place of slumber's gone.
"Thou art come from long forsaken homes,
Wherein our young days flew,
Thou hast found sweet voices lingering there,
The loved, the kind, the true!
Thou callest back those melodies,
Though now all changed and fled,
Be still, be still, and haunt us not
With music from the dead!
"Are all these notes in thee, wild wind?
These many notes in thee?
Far in our own unfathomed souls
Their fount must surely be;
Yes! buried, but unsleeping, there;
Thought watches, memory lies,
From whose deep urn the tones are poured
Through all earth's harmonies."