Achilles's Mother--Prediction concerning the taking of
Troy--Bravery, Armour, Love, and Death of
Achilles--Acrisius's Daughter--Danae and her son
Perseus--Ardea changed into a Bird--Pluto's Invisible
Helmet--Minerva's Buckler--Mercury's Wings--Medusa
deprived of Life--Sea Monster--A Gorgon's Head and its
Virtues--Stheno and Euryale not subject to Old Age or
Death--Minerva's Revenge against Medusa--Serpents in
Africa and Pegasus produced by Medusa's Blood--Tales
by the Daughters of Minyas--Punishment by Bacchus--The
Search of Cadmus for his sister Europa--Halcyon's
Sorrow--Transmigration--Strength and Exploits of
Hercules--Love Potion--Hymen--Jason's
Adventures--Power and Cruelty of Medea--How a
Favourable Wind was procured--Manner in which Orion
came into Existence--False Swearer
punished--Palladium--The Life and Deeds of
Paris--Golden Apple--Marriage of Peleus and
Thetis--Impiety of Pentheus--Rhea and her Sons--Scylla
turned into a Sea Monster.
Achilles's mother being endowed with a prophetic spirit, knew that her
son would lose his life at Troy. She dipped him in the river Styx, by
which he was rendered invulnerable, except in the heel, by which he
was held during the operation. The seer Calchas announced that,
without Achilles, Troy could not be taken. His mother, to keep him
from danger, concealed him among King Lycomedes's daughters, disguised
as a girl; but being discovered by Ulysses, he joined his countrymen,
and sailed for the Trojan coast. After giving many proofs of his
bravery and military prowess, he quarrelled with Agamemnon,
commander-in-chief of the Grecian army, and in disgust withdrew from
the contest. During the absence of Achilles, the Trojans were
victorious; but his friend Patroclus, clad in his armour, having
rashly encountered Hector, fell by the hand of that hero. Achilles, to
revenge his death, resolved instantly to take the field. For this
purpose, Vulcan, at the request of Thetis, made her son a complete
suit of armour and weapons. With these celestial arms, many of the
Trojans were put to death. Achilles, falling in love with Polyxena, a
daughter of the Trojan king, whilst soliciting her hand in the temple
of Minerva, was wounded by her brother Paris in the heel, which caused
his death.
Acrisius, the son of Abas, king of Argos and Ocalea, being informed by
an oracle that he would be put to death by his daughter Danae's son,
confined her in a tower, to prevent her having children; but without
effect, for Jupiter, in a golden shower, entered the chamber of Danae,
and she became the mother of Perseus. She and her infant son were
then, by order of Acrisius, exposed to the sea in a slender bark,
which the wind drifted to Seriphus, where both were taken ashore by
some fishermen and carried to Polydectes, the king of the island. The
king conceived a violent attachment to the mother, but sought the
destruction of the son. Danae and her son left Seriphus and went to
Larissa. Danae built Ardea; and on its being burned, the inhabitants
said it was changed into a bird. Perseus, by the aid of Pluto's
invisible helmet, Minerva's buckler, and Mercury's wings (the
Talaria), and short dagger made of diamonds (called Herpe), deprived
Medusa, one of the Gorgons, of life, and carried off her head in
triumph. He killed the sea monster to which Andromeda was exposed, and
then married her. A memorable battle ensued at their nuptials.
Phineus, the uncle of Andromeda, who passionately loved her, entered
with a band of armed men, and attempted to carry her off by violence.
But Perseus made a brave resistance; and at last, finding himself on
the point of being overpowered, presented the Gorgon's head, which
instantly turned all his enemies to stone in the posture in which they
were then standing. Immediately after this he returned to Seriphus, in
time to protect his mother from the insult of Polydectes, to whom
Perseus showed the Gorgon's head, which converted him into stone also.
Medusa, it will be remembered, was the only one of the three Gorgons
who was mortal. Her sisters, Stheno and Euryale, were neither subject
to old age nor death. She greatly surpassed the other two in elegance
of figure and comeliness of face; but in nothing was her superiority
more remarkable than in the beauty of her locks. Minerva, provoked
either because her temple had been profaned, or because her personal
charms had been slighted by Medusa, who had preferred her own beauty
to that of the goddess, turned her fine hair, of which she boasted
greatly, into serpents, and gave to her eyes the power of converting
to stone all at whom she looked. The blood which fell from Medusa's
head when Perseus carried it over Africa in his flight, was supposed
to produce the numerous serpents which infest that country, and also
the winged horse Pegasus.
But to return to Acrisius. Let us see whether the prediction of the
Oracle, that foretold he would be put to death by his daughter's son,
was fulfilled. The fame of his grandson, after his remarkable
adventures, having reached the ears of Acrisius, he went to Larissa to
see him, at the time Teutamis was celebrating funereal games in honour
of his father. To this city Perseus had repaired with the view of
distinguishing himself among the combatants. Here he accidentally
killed, with a quoit, an old man, who was found to be his grandfather
Acrisius, and thus verified the oracular prediction.
Alcithoe and her sisters denied the divinity of Bacchus, and refused
to join in his worship. Whilst the Theban women were employed
celebrating the orgies of that god, the daughters of Minyas (for that
was their father's name) continued at their looms. To enliven their
hours of labour, one of them proposed that each in her turn should
relate some amusing tale, to which, the other sisters agreeing, she
with whom the idea originated was requested to begin. After hesitating
for some time which of her numerous collections would be most
agreeable--whether Babylonian Dercetis changed to a fish or her
daughter to a dove, or Naias, who by magic transformed young men to
fishes, or the tree the berries of which were formerly white, but
turned to purple by being stained with blood--she preferred the last
in consequence of its being little known. She then narrates the simple
but beautiful and affecting fable of Pyramus and Thisbe. Leuconoe
next, after mentioning the exposure of Mars and Venus, relates the
history of Leucothoe, with whom Apollo fell in love, and afterwards
turned into a rod of frankincense. To this she adds the fiction of
Clytie, whom the same god changed into a sunflower. Alcithoe being
then requested by her sisters to tell a story--despising as too common
the fables of Daphnis, a shepherd on Mount Ida, who, for violating his
marriage promise, was transformed to stone; of Scython, who changed
his sex; of Celemis, a nurse of Jupiter, converted to adamant; and of
the nymph Similax, and her lover Crocus, turned into flowers--prefers
the history of the fountain Salmacis, who conceived a violent
attachment for Hermaphroditus, the son of Mercury and Venus. These
sisters, having discontinued their narrating, remained still obstinate
in their contempt of Bacchus, who, in revenge, changed their
implements into vines and ivy, and themselves into bats.
Cadmus, a son of Agenor, king of Ph[oe]nicia, and Telephassa or
Agriope, was ordered by his father to go in search of his sister
Europa, whom Jupiter had carried away, and not to return unless he
found her. His search being unsuccessful, he is said to have consulted
the oracle of Apollo, by which he was commanded to build a city where
he saw a heifer standing on the grass, and call the country B[oe]otia.
Having found the heifer, he sent his men to a fountain for water,
which was at no great distance, that he might offer a sacrifice in
gratitude to the god. But the spring being sacred to Mars, a dragon
guarded it, which devoured all his men. By the art of Minerva, he
overcame the dragon, and sowed its teeth, which grew up armed men,
who, on his throwing a stone amongst them, began to fight, and all
were killed except five, who assisted him in building Thebes. Hence
Pentheus, in addressing the Thebans, calls them Anguigenae, serpent or
snake-descended. The ferocity of the petty tribes who inhabit that
part of Greece, and Cadmus's plan of subduing the natives by artfully
exciting them to fight against each other until the strength and
resources of the contending parties were quite exhausted,
satisfactorily explain the tale of the dragon, the armed men that
sprang from his teeth, and the stone which he threw among them. He
afterwards married Harmonia or Harmonie, the daughter of Mars and
Venus, by whom he had one son and four daughters. In advanced life,
oppressed with sorrow at the fate of his daughter Ino and her two
sons, he fled from Thebes to Illyricum, where he was changed into a
dragon.
Halcyone's husband, Ceyx, a king of Trachinia, was drowned while
attempting to cross to Claros to consult the Oracle. Disconsolate in
consequence of his departure, she incessantly implored the gods for
his safe return. Juno, moved by her constant prayers for her husband
after his death, and compassionating the violence of her sorrow,
entreated Somnus to send Morpheus, who, assuming the form and voice of
Ceyx, appeared in a dream, and informed her of his fate. Frantic with
grief, she ran to the beach, and, according to her dream, found the
body of Ceyx floating lifeless to the shore. The queen of Trachinia
was changed into a bird, in her attempt to reach by a bound the body
of her husband, which she no sooner touched than it underwent the same
transformation. Their mutual attachments remaining, they continue to
live together as birds, distinguished by the same tenderness and
affection which had marked their conjugal state when in the human
form.
Hercules was possessed of the greatest physical strength. He had a
great enemy in Hera, who, knowing that the child who should be born
that day was fated to rule over all the descendants of Perseus,
contrived to delay the birth of Hercules and hasten that of
Eurystheus. Eurystheus thus, by decree of fate, became chief of the
Perseidae. While yet in the cradle, Hercules showed his divine origin
by strangling two serpents sent by Hera to destroy him. In course of
time Eurystheus summoned Hercules to appear before him, and ordered
him to perform the labours which, by priority of birth, he was
empowered to impose on him. Hercules, unwilling to obey, went to
Delphi to consult the Oracle, and was informed that he must perform
ten labours imposed on him by Eurystheus, after which he should attain
to immortality. The first labour imposed on him was to destroy the
lion that haunted the forests of Nemea and Cleonae, and could not be
wounded by the arrows of a mortal. Hercules boldly attacked the lion
and strangled him. The second was to destroy the Learnaean hydra, which
he accomplished with the aid of Iolaus; but because he obtained
assistance in his work, Eurystheus refused to reckon it. Hercules's
third labour was to catch the hind of Diana, famous for its swiftness,
its golden horns, and brazen feet. The fourth was to bring alive to
Eurystheus a wild boar, which ravaged the neighbourhood of Erymanthus.
The fifth was to cleanse the stables of Augeas, king of Elis, where
three thousand oxen had been confined for many years; which task he
accomplished in one day, by turning the rivers Alpheus and Peneus
through the stables. For certain reasons this exploit was not counted.
His sixth was to destroy the carnivorous birds, with brazen wings,
beaks, and claws, which ravaged the country near the lake Stymphalis,
in Arcadia. The seventh was to bring alive to Peloponnesus a bull,
remarkable for its beauty and strength, which Poseidon had given to
Minos, king of Crete, in order that he might sacrifice it; which
Minos refusing to do, Poseidon made the bull mad, and it laid waste
the island. Hercules brought the bull on his shoulders to Eurystheus,
who set it at liberty. The eighth labour was to obtain the mares of
Diomedes, king of the Bistones, in Thrace, which fed upon human flesh.
The ninth was to bring the girdle of Hippolyta, queen of the Amazons.
The tenth was to kill the monster Geryon, and bring his herds to
Argos. These were all the labours originally imposed on Hercules; but
as Eurystheus acknowledged only eight of them, Hercules was commanded
to perform two more. The eleventh labour was to obtain the golden
apples from the garden of the Hesperides. Atlas, who knew where to
find the apples, brought them to Hercules, who meantime supported the
vault of heaven. The last labour was to bring from the infernal
regions the three-headed dog Cerberus. When Hercules brought the dog
to Eurystheus, the latter, pale with fright, ordered him to be set at
liberty, whereupon Cerberus immediately sank into the earth.
Hercules's servitude was now ended, but his great performances were
not. He fought with the centaurs and giants. When his period of
slavery had ended, he married Dejanira; with her he went to Trachinia.
At the river Evenus he encountered the centaur Nessus. Nessus, under
pretence of carrying Dejanira over, attempted to offer her violence,
which caused Hercules to slay him with a poisoned arrow. Nessus,
before expiring, instructed Dejanira how to prepare a love potion for
Hercules. He erected an altar to Zeus Kenaeos. In order to celebrate
the rite with due solemnity, he sent Lichas to Trachis for a white
garment. Dejanira, being jealous, anointed the robe with the philter
she had received from Nessus. Hercules put it on, and immediately the
poison penetrated his bones. Maddened by the pain, he seized Lichas by
the feet and flung him into the sea. He tore off the dress, but it
stuck to his flesh, which was thus torn from his bones. Dejanira,
being informed of what had taken place, destroyed herself. Hercules
repaired to Mount [OE]ta, where he erected a funeral pile, and,
ascending it, commanded that it should be set on fire. The pile was
suddenly surrounded by a dark cloud, in which, amid thunder and
lightning, he was carried up to heaven.
Hymen, the god of marriage, attended the celebration of marriage, and
the ancients believed the parties would be miserable during the
remainder of their lives unless he attended.
Jason was a famous hero of antiquity. No sooner had he finished his
education under the centaur Chiron, than he went boldly to Pelias, who
had banished him, and mounted the throne, and demanded the kingdom.
Pelias, for various reasons, durst not appeal to arms, but, to
accomplish the warlike youth's ruin, advised him to undertake an
expedition against AEetes, king of Colchis, who had murdered their
relation Phryxus, and, on his return, promised to resign to him the
crown. To this proposal Jason agreed, and undertook the voyage to
obtain the golden fleece, so celebrated in history under the name of
the Argonautic Expedition. After a series of wonderful adventures he
arrived at Colchis; and by the assistance of Medea, the king's
daughter, whom he promised to marry, he fulfilled the hard terms on
which he was to accomplish the object of his voyage. By her aid and
directions, he was enabled to tame the bulls with horns and feet of
brass, which breathed nothing but fire, and to plough with them a
certain field; to kill a huge serpent, from whose teeth sprang up
armed men; to destroy a dreadful dragon, which watched continually at
the foot of the tree on which the golden fleece was suspended; and
then to carry off the prize in the presence of all the Colchians, who
were equally confounded at his intrepidity and success. He returned to
Thessaly in great triumph, but his future life was rendered miserable
by his infidelity, and the barbarous mode of revenge adopted by
Medea, whom he married according to promise and carried to Greece.
After many years' happiness, it may be remembered, he most
iniquitously divorced her. But she severely revenged his ingratitude
by causing the death of his favourite Glauce, and the ruin of her
family. Not satisfied with these acts of cruelty, she put two of
Jason's sons to death before his eyes, and then fled through the air
in a chariot drawn by winged dragons. Having visited Corinth, she
settled at Athens. Other barbarous actions again forced her to have
recourse to her chariot. She returned to Colchis, where a
reconciliation took place between her and Jason.
When the princes of Greece had, in fulfilment of their oaths, taken up
arms to revenge the criminal conduct of Paris, Agamemnon, on account
of his military talents, and being the brother of Menelaus, was
appointed commander-in-chief of the combined forces. After the army
had assembled in the port of Aulis, Diana, provoked at his having
killed one of her favourite stags, prevented by contrary winds their
sailing for Troy. On consulting the Oracle, the Greeks were informed
that Iphigenia, daughter of Agamemnon, must be sacrificed to appease
the enraged goddess, otherwise they must remain in harbour. Struck
with horror at this awful response, Agamemnon sternly refused to give
up his daughter, and ordered the princes to return home with their
troops. But the winning eloquence of Ulysses and the urgent
remonstrances of the other chiefs at last prevailed, and paternal
affection yielded to military fame. Ulysses was then sent to Mycenae,
to carry the beautiful Iphigenia to bleed on the altar of Diana. The
innocent victim's blood procured a favourable wind to the Grecian
fleet.
Orion sprang from Jupiter and Mercury. These gods promised to Hyricus,
a B[oe]otian peasant, who had entertained them hospitably, whatever he
would ask. Having no child, his wife being dead, and he being bound
by promise not to marry again, requested a son. The gods then put
water into the hide of a bull, which Hyricus had offered to them in
sacrifice on discovering their divinity, and ordered him to bury it in
the earth for nine months. At the end of that time, taking it out, he
found a lively boy.
Palici, twin brothers, were sons of Jupiter and Thalia or AEtna, a
daughter of Vulcan, who during her pregnancy prayed to be saved from
the fury of Juno, by being concealed in the bowels of the earth. Her
request was granted, and Tellus at the proper time brought to light
the two boys. They were worshipped with great solemnity by the
Sicilians. Their temple stood near the lakes or springs, strongly
impregnated with sulphur, to which those who wished to put an end to
quarrels by oath used to repair. False swearers were punished there in
a miraculous manner, whilst the innocent escaped without injury. Some
suppose that the perjured persons were destroyed by secret fire, while
others think they were drowned.
Palladium was a statue of the goddess Pallas or Minerva, said to have
fallen from heaven, near the tent of the king of Troy, when he was
building the Citadel. An ancient oracle declared that, so long as the
Palladium remained within the walls, Troy could not be taken. On that
account it was kept with great care. The Greeks, aware of this
prediction, sent Diomedes and Ulysses to carry it away during the
night--a feat which they accomplished.
Paris was a son of Priam, king of Troy. His father ordered him to be
put to death at his birth, in consequence of his mother having dreamt
that she was delivered of a firebrand which reduced the city to ashes,
and the augurs interpreting the dream to portend that the child would
occasion the destruction of Troy. The persons appointed to despatch
the child, contented themselves with exposing him on Mount Ida, where
he was brought up by the shepherds. On account of his extraordinary
strength and courage in defending the flocks from ravenous beasts and
repelling the attacks of robbers, he was called Alexander. There he
passed the early part of his life, and, whilst engaged tending his
flock, gave judgment in the appeal of the three goddesses, Venus,
Juno, and Minerva, who contended for the golden apple. Each
endeavoured to bribe him: Juno promised him a kingdom, Minerva
military glory, and Venus the most beautiful woman in the world for
his wife. Upon the mind of the noble shepherd the promise made by
Venus produced the deepest impression, and he adjudged the golden
apple to her. The decision of Paris, which gave great offence to the
other two goddesses, provoked their wrath against the empire and
nation, and caused the Trojan War, and all the evils and calamities to
which that memorable struggle gave rise. His father subsequently
received him at court, and treated him as his son. After spending some
time in his native city among the Trojan princes, Paris set out for
the court of Menelaus, king of Sparta, with a view to carry off his
wife Helena, the most beautiful woman in the world, as the reward of
the judgment which he had pronounced in favour of Venus. The young
Trojan met with a most welcome reception at the Spartan court; but he
abused the laws of hospitality by prevailing on the queen to elope
with him. Though demanded back by all the princes who had sworn to
protect her, and threatened with the vengeance of the combined forces
of Greece, he persisted in refusing their request. His father, on
account of Ajax carrying off his sister Hesione, encouraged him in his
obstinacy and guilt. In consequence of this outrage, the Greeks
immediately commenced hostilities, which ended in the total
destruction of the city and kingdom of Troy.
To bring out more fully the story of the apple adjudged by Paris to
Venus, it is necessary to notice what happened at the marriage of
Peleus and Thetis. At the celebration of the nuptials, all the gods
and goddesses were present except the goddess of discord, who,
exasperated at not being invited, threw into the assembly a golden
apple with the inscription, "Detur Pulchriori." At first all the
female deities asserted their right to the apple; but subsequently it
was claimed by Juno, Minerva, and Venus only. These three agreed to
refer the matter to Jupiter. But the sovereign of Olympus, knowing
that it could not justly be given to Juno, and dreading the effects of
her anger were it awarded to either of the other goddesses, advised
them to plead their cause before Paris. The decision of Paris, and the
serious results thereof; are already known.
Pentheus foolishly refused to acknowledge the divinity of Bacchus. To
complete his impiety, the Theban king sent his servants to bring the
god in chains before him. Assuming the appearance of one of his
attendants, Bacchus allowed himself to be taken prisoner, and to be
carried into the presence of the king, to whom, under the character of
Ac[oe]tes, he related the transformation of the Tuscan sailors.
Despising the narrative, Pentheus ordered him to be put to death.
Loaded with fetters, the attendants of that prince shut him up in
prison, from which he miraculously escaped. Pentheus then went out to
see the Bacchanals, and to learn their mysteries; but, approaching too
near, he was torn in pieces.
Quirinus, son of Rhea Sylvia, sometimes called Ilia, a vestal virgin,
the daughter of Numitor, king of Alba Longa, was the twin brother of
Remus. This princess, to extenuate her guilt, and to give divinity to
her sons, declared that Mars, the god of war, was their father.
Amulius, who had dispossessed his brother Numitor, killed the sons of
the latter, and made Rhea a vestal, and, to secure the crown to
himself and his descendants, ordered his niece to be burnt alive, and
her infants thrown into the Tiber. The river at that time being
swollen above its banks, the persons appointed to dispose of the
children could not reach the main current. The cradle in which the
twins were exposed floated to a place of safety on dry ground; and the
infants were suckled by a wolf until found by Faustulus, the king's
shepherd, who carried them to his house, where they were brought up as
his own children. Their youthful years were spent in feeding cattle.
After they were grown up, Remus being taken prisoner by the servants
of Amulius, Faustulus, anxious to preserve the captive, disclosed to
Romulus the truth respecting their birth. He, with the assistance of a
few daring and resolute young men, killed Amulius, delivered his
brother, and restored their grandfather to the throne.
After this event, the two brothers formed a design of building a city
on the mountains where they had spent the early part of their life.
From its being unknown which of them was the elder, they had recourse
to augury to decide which of them should have the honour of founding
and governing the new city. To Remus six ravens appeared, and to
Romulus twelve. The former claimed the sovereignty from the priority
of his omen, and the latter from the greater number of the birds. Each
being saluted king by his own party, a battle ensued, in which Remus
was killed. Others say that he was killed by Romulus, because he had,
in contempt, leapt over the wall the latter was building when founding
the city of Rome. The measures which Romulus adopted to increase the
number of his subjects, the plans he formed for the regulations of the
city, and the laws he enacted, discovered a surprising degree of
political knowledge. His military talents were still more remarkable.
He conquered every nation which declared war against him. The Sabines
and Romans having for a considerable time fought with great ferocity,
and victory inclining to neither side, they coalesced, and Tatius, the
king, was appointed joint sovereign of Rome with Romulus. After the
death of Tatius, Romulus found himself sole master of the city. His
prosperity rendered him insolent and tyrannical. When reviewing his
army, the senators, taking advantage of a storm that suddenly arose,
tore him in pieces, and reported that he had been translated to
heaven. The Romans, believing the story, deemed Romulus worthy of
divine honours, and accordingly ranked him among their gods under the
name of Quirinus.
Scylla, a daughter of Phorcys, was turned by Circe into a sea-monster
of a most hideous form, either from jealousy, because she was a
greater favourite with Glaucus, or at the request of that deity.
According to some, she retained her original form and beauty down to
the waist; but others say she had six heads and as many throats, and
instead of hands had two claws. Her middle was compassed by dogs,
which never ceased barking. The lower part of her body terminated in a
large fish with a forked tail.
There was another Scylla, the daughter of Nisus, king of Megara, who
conceived a violent passion for Minos when he was besieging her
father's capital. To ensure the fall of the city, she cut off from her
father's head, whilst he slept, a hair of purple colour, on which his
good fortune depended, and presented it to her lover. Possessed of
this charm, Minos soon carried the place, but he punished the perfidy
of Scylla: she was thrown into the sea, and changed, according to one
account, into a fish, and, if we can believe another narrative, her
form became that of a bird.
MYTHOLOGY OF GERMANY, GREAT BRITAIN, SCANDINAVIA, ETC.