As Boreas is the god of the winter storm, so Zephyrus appears as the

welcome messenger of Spring; on which account one of the Horæ was given

him to wife. Zephyrus was called Favonius by the Romans, to intimate the

favourable influence he exercised on the prosperous growth of the

vegetable world.

These, together with the other chief winds, Notus (south wind) and Eurus

(east wind) were sometimes said to reside in separate places; at other

times they were said to dwell together in the Wind-mountain, on the

fabulous island of Æolia, where they were ruled over by King Æolus.

_3. Gods of Birth and Healing._

[Illustration: Fig. 32.—Asclepius. Berlin.]

=1. Asclepius (Æsculapius).=—It was only in later times that the

necessity of having special gods of birth and healing made itself felt;

at all events, Asclepius, or Æsculapius, as he is called by the Romans,

does not appear as a god in Homer. The worship of this deity, who was

said to be the son of Apollo, appears to have originated in Epidaurus,

the seat of his principal shrine, and thence to have become generally

diffused. In Epidaurus his priests erected a large hospital, which

enjoyed a great reputation. The common method of cure consisted in

allowing those who were sick to sleep in the temple, on which occasion,

if they had been zealous in their prayers and offerings, the god

appeared to them in a dream and discovered the necessary remedy.

The worship of this deity was introduced into Rome in the year 291 B.C.,

in consequence of a severe pestilence which for years had depopulated

town and country. The Sibylline books were consulted, and they

recommended that Asclepius of Epidaurus should be brought to Rome. The

story goes that the sacred serpent of the god followed the Roman

ambassadors of its own accord, and chose for its abode the Insula

Tiberina at Rome, where a temple was at once erected to Æsculapius. A

gilded statue was added to the temple in the year 13 B.C. The method

already mentioned of sleeping in the temple was also adopted here.

[Illustration:

Fig. 33.—Head of Asclepius. British Museum.]

In art, Asclepius is represented as a bearded man of ripe years,

with singularly noble features, from which the kindly benevolence of

a benefactor of mankind looks forth. He is generally accompanied by

a serpent, as a symbol of self-renovating vital power, which he is

feeding and caressing, or which is more commonly represented as

creeping up his staff. Such is the conception in the engraving (Fig.

32), which is after a statue preserved at Berlin. As the god of

healing, he has also other attributes—a bowl containing the healing

draught, a bunch of herbs, a pine-apple, or a dog; the latter being

a symbol of the vigilance with which the physician watches disease.

There are numerous extant statues of the god, although the great

statue in gold and ivory of the temple at Epidaurus has been

entirely lost. A fine head of colossal proportions was discovered on

the Isle of Melos, and is now an ornament of the British Museum

(Fig. 33). There is, on the other hand, a very fine statue without a

head in existence at Athens, near the temple of Zeus. There are,

moreover, celebrated statues in Florence, Paris, and Rome (Vatican);

in the last case, of a beardless Æsculapius.

=2. Inferior Deities of Birth and Healing.=—The Greeks also honoured

Ilithyia as a goddess of birth. This appears to have been originally a

surname of Hera, as a deity who succoured women in childbirth. Hygiea

was looked on as a goddess of health, and was described as a daughter of

Asclepius.

The Romans had no need of a special goddess presiding over birth,

although they honoured a deity often identified with Hygiea, whom they

called Strenia, or Salus. As guardian of the chamber of birth, they

honoured Carna, or Cardea, who was supposed to drive away the evil

Striges (screech owls) that came at night to suck the blood of the

new-born child. Carna was further regarded as the protectress of

physical health. Another of these inferior deities, of whom men sought

long life and continued health, bore the name of Anna Perenna (the

circling year).

[Illustration: Fig. 34.—Night and the Fates. From Carstens.]

_4. Deities of Fate._

=1. Mœræ (Parcæ).=—The Mœræ, better known by the Latin name of Parcæ,

really denote that portion of a man’s life and fortune which is

determined from his birth; so that, in this sense, there are as many

Mœræ as individuals. The Greeks, however, who were wont to revere all

such indefinite numbers under the sacred number three, generally

recognised three. These they regarded as the dark and inexplicable

powers of fate, daughters of the night. Their names were Clotho

(spinner), Lachesis (allotter), and Atropos (inevitable).

Only two Parcæ were originally known to the Romans, but a third was

afterwards added to make their own mythology harmonise with that of the

Greeks.

The popular conception of the Parcæ as grave hoary women was not

followed in art, where they always appear as young. In the first

instance, their attributes were all alike, separate functions not

yet having been allotted to them. But at a subsequent period it was

Clotho who spun, Lachesis who held, and Atropos who cut the thread

of life. This arrangement was first adopted by later artists, who

generally give Clotho a spindle, Lachesis a roll of parchment, and

Atropos a balance, or let the last point to the hour of death on a

dial. Such is the case in a talented creation of Carstens, in which

the conception of modern times is brought into harmony with the

ideal of antiquity (Fig. 34).

=2. Nemesis, Tyche (Fortuna), and Agathodæmon (Bonus Eventus).=—Nemesis

really denotes the apportionment of that fate which is justly deserved,

and a consequent repugnance to that which is not. Homer does not

acknowledge Nemesis as a goddess, and so it is probable that her claim

to public veneration dates from a later period. She was regarded as a

goddess of equality, who watches over the equilibrium of the moral

universe, and sees that happiness and misfortune are allotted to man

according to merit. Hence arose, subsequently, the idea of an avenging

deity, who visits with condign punishment the crimes and wickedness of

mankind. In this character she resembles the Furies. The Romans likewise

introduced Nemesis into their system; at least her statue stood on the

Capitol, though popular superstition never regarded her with a friendly

eye.

The various conceptions of Nemesis are again displayed in works of

art. The kindly, gentle goddess, who dispenses what is just, is

depicted as a young woman of grave and thoughtful aspect, holding in

her hand the instruments of measurement and control (cubit, bridle,

and rudder). As the stern avenger of human crimes, she appears with

wings in a chariot drawn by griffins, with a sword or whip in her

hand.

Tyche, the goddess of good fortune, was, according to common accounts,

the daughter of Oceanus and Tethys. She was usually honoured as the

tutelary deity of towns, and as such had temples and statues in many

populous cities of Greece and Asia. In course of time, however, the idea

gained ground that Tyche was the author of evil as well as of good

fortune. She resembled, in this respect, the Fortuna of the Romans, who

was regarded as the source of all that is unexpected in human life.

Servius Tullius was said to have introduced into Rome the worship of

Fortuna, whose favourite he had certainly every reason to regard

himself. He erected a temple to her under the name of Fors Fortuna, and

made the 24th of June the common festival of the goddess. Later, her

worship became still more extensive. Under the most different surnames,

some of which referred to the state (_Fortuna populi Romani_), and

others to every description of private affairs, she had a great number

of temples and chapels erected in her honour. She had also celebrated

temples in Antium and Præneste.

Ancient artists endowed this goddess with various attributes, the

most important of which was the rudder, which she held in her hand

in token of her power to control the fortunes of mankind. She is

also endowed with a sceptre for the same purpose, and with a horn of

plenty as the giver of good fortune; sometimes she is also

represented with the youthful Plutus in her arms. The later

conception of an impartial goddess of fate is apparent in those

art-monuments which depict her standing on a ball or wheel. Among

the larger existing works, we may mention a copy preserved in the

Vatican of a Tyche by Eutychides of Sicyon, which was formerly

exhibited in Antioch. The goddess here wears a mural crown on her

head as the tutelary deity of towns, and has a sheaf of corn in her

right hand.

Besides Fortuna, the Romans honoured a deity called Felicitas as the

goddess of positive good fortune. Lucullus is said to have erected a

temple to her in Rome, which was adorned with the works of art brought

by Mummius from the spoils of Corinth. Even this did not suffice for the

religious needs of the people, and we find that the belief in personal

protecting deities grew rapidly among both Greeks and Romans. These

deities were termed by the Greeks “dæmones,” and by the Romans “genii.”

They were believed to be the invisible counsellors of every individual,

accompanying him from birth to death, through all the stages of life,

with advice and comfort. Offerings of wine, cake, incense, and garlands

were made to them, particularly on birthdays.

II.—THE GODS OF THE SEA AND WATERS.

=1. Poseidon (Neptunus).=—Poseidon, or Neptunus, as he was called by the

Romans, was the son of Cronus and Rhea. Homer calls him the younger

brother of Zeus, in which case his subjection to the latter is only

natural. According to the common account, however, Zeus was the youngest

of the sons of Cronus, but acquired the sovereignty over his brothers by

having overthrown their cruel father. Poseidon was accordingly indebted

to his brother for his dominion over the sea and its deities, and was

therefore subject to him. He usually dwelt, not in Olympus, but at the

bottom of the sea. Here he was supposed to inhabit, with Amphitrite his

wife, a magnificent golden palace in the neighbourhood of Ægæ.

Originally, like Oceanus and Pontus, he was a mere symbol of the watery

element, but he afterwards attained an entirely independent personality.

Even in Homer he no longer appears as the sea itself, but as its mighty

ruler, who with his powerful arms upholds and circumscribes the earth.

He is violent and impetuous, like the element he represents. When he

strikes the sea with his trident, the symbol of his sovereignty, the

waves rise with violence, dash in pieces the ships, and inundate the

land far and wide. Poseidon likewise possesses the power of producing

earthquakes, cleaving rocks, and raising islands in the midst of the

sea. On the other hand, a word or look from him suffices to allay the

wildest tempest. Virgil, in the first book of the _Æneid_, has given a

beautiful description of the taming of the fierce elements by the god.

Poseidon was naturally regarded as the chief god of all the seafaring

classes, such as fishermen, boatmen, and sailors, who esteemed him as

their patron and tutelary deity. To him they addressed their prayers

before entering on a voyage, to him they brought their offerings in

gratitude for their safe return from the perils of the deep.

Poseidon, therefore, enjoyed the highest reputation among the seafaring

Ionians. His temples, altars, and statues were most numerous in the

harbours and seaport towns, and on islands and promontories. Among the

numerous shrines of this deity we may mention that of Corinth, in the

neighbourhood of which were celebrated in his honour the Isthmian games,

which subsequently became a national festival in Greece, Pylus, Athens,

and the islands of Rhodes, Cos, and Tenos.

It was only natural that many legends, local and provincial, should

exist about a god who played such an important part in the lives of

seafaring folk. In the Trojan epos he figures as a violent enemy of

Troy, his indignation having been provoked by the injustice of the

Trojan king, Laomedon. Poseidon had built the walls of Troy at the

king’s request with the aid of Apollo, but Laomedon having cheated him

in the matter of the stipulated reward, Poseidon thereupon sent a

terrible sea-monster, which laid waste the crops and slew the

inhabitants. They had recourse to the oracle, which counselled the

sacrifice of the king’s daughter Hesione. The unhappy maiden was exposed

to the monster, but was rescued by Heracles. The fable of this monster,

which is manifestly a symbol of the inundation of the sea, is repeated

in many succeeding stories (_e.g._, in the story of Perseus, who rescued

in a similar way Andromeda, the daughter of the king of Æthiopia). There

are numberless stories, in which Poseidon appears as the father of the

different national heroes. The most important is, perhaps, the legend of

Theseus, of which we shall speak later on. There was scarcely a Grecian

town or district which did not lay claim to divine origin for the person

of its founder or ancestral hero. Again, the conception of the wild

stormy nature of the sea caused Poseidon to be represented as the father

of various giants and monsters. By the nymph Thoösa he became the father

of the savage Polyphemus, slain by Odysseus, who thus provoked the

implacable enmity of Poseidon. The giant Antæus, who fought with

Heracles, was also said to be a son of Poseidon; besides many other

monsters, such as Procrustes, Cercyon, and the Aloïdæ.

The favourite animal of Poseidon was the horse, which he was supposed to

have created. This may, perhaps, be due to the fact that the imagination

of the Greeks pictured to itself the horses of Poseidon in the rolling

and bounding waves. In Athens the origin of the horse was referred to

the contest between Athene and Poseidon, as to who should make the land

the most useful present. In Corinthian legend Poseidon appears as the

father of the winged horse Pegasus by Medusa. This story is connected

with the taming of the horse, which was ascribed to Poseidon. On account

of his intimate connection with the horse, Poseidon was especially

regarded as the patron of the games, and had, in consequence, an altar

of his own on all race-courses. The competitors, before the races,

solicited his favour with prayers and sacrifices.

[Illustration: Fig. 35.—Poseidon. Dolce Gem.]

The dolphin and the pine-tree were held sacred to Poseidon, the latter

probably because it was so extensively used in shipbuilding. Black

steers, horses, rams, and wild boars were sacrificed to him.

The Romans not being a seafaring people, Neptune never stood in such

high estimation among them as among the Greeks. In Rome his prominent

characteristic was his connection with the horse and the race-course.

These were placed under his special protection, for which reason the

only temple he had in Rome stood in the Circus Flaminius.

The representation of Poseidon, or Neptune, in art harmonises

tolerably well with the descriptions of the poets. He is accordingly

represented as similar to his brother Zeus in size and figure, with

broad deep chest, dark wavy hair, and piercing eyes.

Artists intimated the greater violence of his nature by giving him

more angularity of face, and a more bristling and disordered head of

hair than Zeus. The expression of his countenance is more grave and

severe, and the kindly smile that plays around the mouth of Zeus is

altogether wanting.

Ancient statues of Poseidon are comparatively rare. The Vatican

Museum possesses a fine bust, and also a marble statue of the god.

He is generally distinguished by the trident in his right hand;

sometimes in its place we find a tiller. A band similar to a diadem

denotes his dominion over the sea. Our engraving of the god is after

a beautiful gem of the Dolce collection (Fig. 35).

=2. Amphitrite.=—After Poseidon had attained an almost exclusive

veneration as god of the sea, Amphitrite, one of the Nereids, was given

him to wife. According to the usual account, he carried her away from

Naxos. Others say that she fled to Atlas to avoid the rude wooing of the

god, but Poseidon’s dolphin found her and fetched her back. She had

three children by Poseidon—Triton, Rhode, and Benthesicyme.

In plastic art, Amphitrite is generally depicted as a slim and

beautiful young woman, either nude or half clothed, riding in the

chariot of Poseidon at his side, or by herself. On gems she also

appears enthroned on the back of a mighty Triton, or riding a

seahorse or dolphin. Her hair generally falls loosely about her

shoulders. She is distinguished by the royal insignia of the diadem

and sceptre, at times she also wields the trident of her husband.

The worship of Amphitrite was entirely unknown to the Romans, who

recognised the sea-goddess Salacia as the wife of Neptune.

=3. Triton and the Tritons.=—Triton was the only son of Poseidon and

Amphitrite; he never appears, however, to have enjoyed divine honours.

This perhaps explains how it came to pass that he was subsequently

degraded to the level of a fabulous sea-monster. The poet Apollonius

Rhodius describes him as having a body, the upper parts of which were

those of a man, while the lower parts were those of a dolphin. Such too

is his appearance in works of art. Poets and artists soon revelled in

the conception of a whole race of similar Tritons, who were regarded as

a wanton, mischievous tribe, like the Satyrs on land.

The Tritons, as sea-deities of fantastic form, are of little

importance in higher art, though they were all the more frequently

employed in fountains and water-works. The fore-legs of a horse were

sometimes added to the human body and dolphin’s tail, thus giving

rise to the figure termed the Ichthyocentaur.

=4. Pontus and his Descendants.=—We have already spoken of Pontus and

his race in our account of the Theogony. Here we can only mention those

of his children who either enjoyed divine honours, or are of importance

in art. The eldest among them was Nereus.

_1. Nereus and his Daughters._—Nereus presents to us the calm and

pleasant side of the sea. He appears as a kindly, benevolent old man,

the good spirit of the Ægean sea, where he dwells with his fifty lovely

daughters, the Nereids, ever ready to assist the storm-beaten sailor in

the hour of need. Like all water-spirits, Nereus possessed the gift of

prophecy, though he did not always choose to make use of it. Heracles

sought him on his way to the garden of the Hesperides, in order to learn

how he might get possession of the golden apples. In spite of his urgent

entreaties, Nereus endeavoured to elude him by assuming every kind of

shape, though he was at length vanquished by the persistence of the

hero, who would not let him go until he had obtained the necessary

information.

By his wife Doris, the daughter of Oceanus, he became the father of

fifty, or, according to some, of a hundred daughters, who were all

venerated as kindly, beneficent sea-nymphs. They are a charming, lovely

tribe, who win the hearts of the sailors—now by their merry sports and

dances, now by their timely assistance in the hour of danger. This

joyous band generally forms the train of Poseidon and Amphitrite.

Besides Amphitrite, the chosen bride of Poseidon, we find among them

Thetis, the beautiful mother of Achilles, so celebrated in ancient

poetry, who usually figures as their leader. Her beauty and grace were

so great that Zeus himself became her lover. He surrendered her,

however, to Peleus, son of Æacus, because an oracle had declared that

the son of Thetis should become greater than his father.

In art Nereus generally appears as an old man with thin grey locks.

He is commonly distinguished by a sceptre, or even a trident. The

Nereids were depicted as graceful maidens, in earlier times slightly

clothed, but later entirely nude, riding on dolphins, Tritons, or

other fabulous monsters of the deep.

_2. Thaumas, Phorcys, Ceto._—Whilst Nereus and his daughters represent

the sea in its peaceful aspect, Thaumas, the second son of Pontus,

represents it as the world of wonders. By Electra, a daughter of

Oceanus, he became the father of Iris, the messenger of the gods, and

also of the Harpies. The latter personify the storm-winds. Originally

fair maidens, they were afterwards represented as winged creatures, half

man and half bird; they had the faces of maidens, but their bodies were

covered with vultures’ feathers; they were pale and emaciated in

appearance, and were continually tormented with an insatiable hunger.

They are best known from the story of the Argonauts, where they appear

as the tormentor of the blind king Phineus, whose table they continually

robbed of its viands, which they either devoured or spoiled. They were

regarded by the ancients as the ministers of sudden death, and were said

to be either two or three in number. Phorcys and Ceto, the brother and

sister of Thaumas, present to us the sea under its terrible aspect. This

pair, from whose union sprang the Gorgons, the Grææ, and the dragon of

the Hesperides, typify all the terrors and dangers of the deep. We shall

have more to say concerning the Gorgons and Grææ in the story of

Perseus.

=5. Proteus.=—Proteus is a deity of inferior rank. He is represented as

an old man (the servant of Poseidon) endowed with the gift of prophecy.

He plays the same part in the story of Troy as Nereus does in that of

Heracles. His usual abode was the island of Pharos. It was thither that

Menelaus turned after he had been driven to the coast of Egypt, on his

return from Troy, to seek the advice of the “unerring old man of the

sea.” But Proteus, being in no amiable mood, sought to elude the

importunity of the hero by converting himself into a lion, a dragon, a

panther, a wild boar, and many other forms. At length, however, he was

vanquished by the persistence of Menelaus, and vouchsafed an answer. He

was supposed to be the keeper of the fish who inhabit the depths of the

sea, and of the other marine animals.

In works of art he generally appears like a Triton, i.e., with body

ending in a fish’s tail. He is usually distinguished by a crook.

=6. Glaucus.=—Among the inferior sea-deities, Glaucus deserves mention

as playing a part in the story of the Argonauts. He was really only a

local god of the Anthedonians in Bœotia, and his worship was not

extended to other places in Greece. But though he had no splendid

temples, he stood in very high estimation among the lower classes of

sailors and fishermen; indeed we find universally that the common

people, in all their cares, turned rather to the inferior deities, whom

they supposed to stand closer to them, than to the higher and more

important gods. According to the story, Glaucus was originally a

fisherman of Anthedon, who attained in a wonderful manner the rank of a

god. One day, after having caught some fish, he laid them half dead on

the turf close by. He was astonished to see, however, that on coming in

contact with a certain herb, which was unknown to him, they were

restored to life and sprang back into the sea. He himself now ate of

this wonderful herb, and immediately felt himself penetrated by so

wondrous a sensation of bliss and animation that, in his excitement, he

too sprang into the sea. Oceanus and Thetis hereupon cleansed him from

all his human impurities, and gave him a place among the sea-gods. He

was venerated on many of the islands and coasts of Greece as a friendly

deity, ever ready to assist the shipwrecked sailor or the castaway.

In art he is represented as a Triton, rough and shaggy in

appearance, his body covered with mussels or sea-weed. His hair and

beard show that luxuriance which characterises sea-gods.

=7. Ino Leucothea, and Melicertes.=—Like Glaucus, Ino, the daughter of

Cadmus, attained at once immortality and divine rank by a leap into the

sea. She was a sister of Semele, the mother of Dionysus, and the wife of

Athamas, king of Orchomenus. It was she who, after the unhappy death of

Semele, took charge of the infant Dionysus. Hera, however, avenged

herself by driving Athamas mad, whereupon he dashed Learchus, his eldest

son by Ino, against a rock. He was about to inflict the same fate on

Melicertes, his second son, when in frantic haste the unhappy mother

sought to save her child by flight. Athamas, however, pursued her as far

as the Isthmus, when Ino, seeing no hope of escape, cast herself from

the rock Moluris into the sea. Here she was kindly received by the

Nereids, who converted both her and her son into sea-deities. She

henceforth bore the name of Leucothea, and her son that of Palæmon. They

were both regarded as benevolent deities of the stormy sea, who came to

the assistance of those who were shipwrecked or in other peril. They

appear in this guise in the _Odyssey_, where Odysseus, who saw only

certain death before him, is represented as having been saved by a scarf

thrown to him by Leucothea.

=8. The Sirens.=—The Sirens must also be reckoned among the sea-deities.

They are best known from the story how Odysseus succeeded in passing

them with his companions without being seduced by their song. He had the

prudence to stop the ears of his companions with wax, and to have

himself bound to the mast. The Sirens were regarded as the daughters

either of the river-god Achelous by one of the nymphs, or of Phorcys and

Ceto. Only two Sirens are mentioned in Homer, but three or four were

recognised in later times and introduced into various legends, such as

that of the Argonauts, or the Sicilian story of the rape of Persephone.

Demeter is said to have changed their bodies into those of birds,

because they refused to go to the help of their companion, Persephone,

when she was carried off by the god of the lower world.

In art they are represented, like the Harpies, as young women with

the wings and feet of birds. Sometimes they appear altogether like

birds, only with human faces; at other times with the arms and

bodies of women, in which case they generally hold instruments of

music in their hands. As their songs were death to those who were

seduced by them, they are often depicted on tombs as spirits of

death.

=9. The Race of Oceanus.=—Lastly, we must enumerate among the

water-deities the numerous descendants of Oceanus, viz., the Oceanids,

and also the rivers that are spread over the earth. The latter were

believed to have their common source in the ocean encircling the earth,

and thence to flow beneath the ground until they reached the surface in

springs.

Oceanus himself appears in the myths which treat of the genealogy of the

gods as the eldest son of Uranus and Gæa, and therefore, like his wife

Tethys, a Titan. As he did not take part in the rebellion of the other

Titans against the dominion of Zeus, he did not share their dreadful

fate, but was allowed to remain in undisturbed enjoyment of his ancient

domain. He was supposed to dwell on the most western shores of the

earth, which he never left even to attend the assemblies of the gods.

On account of their great importance to the fertility of the soil, the

river-gods enjoyed a great reputation among the Greeks, although their

worship was entirely of a local nature. Only Achelous, the greatest of

all the Greek rivers, appears to have enjoyed general veneration. The

river-gods were believed to dwell either in the depths of the rivers

themselves, or in rocky grottoes near their sources. They were depicted

either as delicate youths, or as men in their prime, or as old men,

according to the magnitude of the river. They all possess a conformity

with the nature of their element, viz., that power of transformation

which we discover in the other sea-deities. They also appear, like other

water-spirits, to possess the gift of prophecy.

Among the Romans all flowing waters were held sacred. Fontus, the son of

Janus, was especially esteemed as the god of springs and fountains in

general; but, as among the Greeks, each river had its special deity. The

most important of these was Tiberinus. The springs were popularly

supposed to be inhabited by nymphs gifted with the powers of prophecy

and magic, who sometimes honoured mortals with their favours, as Egeria

did King Numa.

In art the river-gods were commonly represented in the guise of

those animals whose forms they were most in the habit of assuming.

They thus appear as serpents, bulls, or even as men with bulls’

heads. They were also portrayed, however, in purely human guise,

with the exception of having small horns on either side of the head.

Their attributes consist of urns and horns of plenty, symbols of the

blessings that proceed from them.

III.—THE GODS OF THE EARTH AND LOWER WORLD.

We now come to a class of deities who stand in the most decided contrast

to the gods of the heaven and the sea, whom we have previously

described. It consists of those deities whose power is incessantly

exerted either on the surface or in the depths of the earth, and who are

accordingly brought into the closest connection with the life of man.

The worship of these deities assumed among the Greeks a passionate and

excited character, at first entirely strange to the Romans, though it

gradually crept in here also.

Though the ancients saw in the earth, on the one hand, the fruitful

source of all life in nature, they did not seek to disguise the fact

that it is, on the other hand, also the open sepulchre into which all

earthly existence sinks when its time is over. The worship of these

deities was therefore celebrated with festivals of joy and mirth at the

season of the revival of nature, and with mournful solemnities at the

season of its decay. The devotees manifested both their mirth and

mourning in a loud, noisy, passionate manner, usually designated

orgiastic. An element of mystery never failed to introduce itself into

the worship of these deities, who, in virtue of their dwellings, were

able to inspire a greater feeling of awe than the bright forms of the

gods of heaven. Their wrath also, which manifested itself in the

sterility of the soil, was the subject of especial fear. Mysteries

proper, or secret rites, existed only among the Greeks, but never found

their way into the religious systems of Italy. We shall enumerate first

the deities of the upper world, who preside over the growth of flocks

and the fruits of the earth, and then those who inhabit the lower world.

=1. Gæa (Tellus).=—First among them is Gæa, or Mother Earth herself.

This deity appears in the Cosmogony (or myths relating to the formation

of the universe) as one of the primeval creative forces, having herself

proceeded immediately from Chaos. In later times she acquired a more

personal and plastic character, although she never attained any real

importance in the religious system of the Greeks, owing to the existence

of more definite and substantial deities, such as Rhea, Hestia, Demeter,

and Themis. The worship of Tellus in Rome was more important, although

here, too, it was somewhat thrown into the shade by the worship of Ceres

and kindred deities.

The chief significance of Gæa lies in the fact that she is the source of

all life and increase in nature. She is hence regarded as a mother who

tends with loving care all her children. Under this aspect her praises

are sung by Hesiod, and also in an ancient Dodonaic hymn. Like Demeter

and other deities who dispense prosperity and abundance, she appears as

tending and nourishing the young, and is often represented thus on

ancient monuments.

At the same time Gæa is the common grave of mankind, and draws all

things, with inexorable severity, down into her dark womb. She thus

becomes a goddess of death and the lower world, and was on this account

invoked, together with the Manes, as a witness of all solemn compacts

and oaths.

A very ancient shrine of this goddess existed at Delphi, and the oracle

there had once, said the Delphians, belonged to her.

In Rome, where she was also venerated as a goddess of marriage, her

temple stood on the site of the house of Spurius Cassius. Festive

offerings were made to her before and after seed-time. On the occasion

of the Paganalia, she and Ceres were propitiated by the sacrifice of a

pregnant sow, which was supposed to promote the prosperity of the coming

year.

=2. Rhea Cybele (Magna Mater Idæa).=—Rhea is well known as the daughter

of Uranus and Gæa, and the wife of Cronus, by whom she became the mother

of Zeus and the other Cronidæ. She seems to have enjoyed only a limited

measure of divine honours, until she was identified with the Phrygian

goddess Cybele, who, like the Egyptian Isis, was an Asiatic symbol of

fertility. She was worshipped throughout Lydia and Phrygia under the

appellation of the “Mighty Mother.” Thence her worship, which was of a

peculiarly noisy character, made its way through the Greek colonies into

Greece itself, and towards the end of the second Punic war was, at the

instance of the Sibylline books, introduced into Rome. Attalus, king of

Pergamus, was on this occasion good enough to present the Romans with a

sacred stone, which was regarded by the inhabitants of Pessinus as the

great mother herself. After its arrival at Ostia, this stone was carried

to Rome amid a solemn procession of Roman matrons. The day of its

arrival (10th April) was ever afterwards kept as a festival, at which

games were celebrated under the superintendence of the prætor. The

worship of Cybele, however, never seems to have become naturalised in

Rome, perhaps because Romans were not allowed to officiate as her

priests.

The true home of the worship of Cybele was the district of Pessinus, a

rough and rocky mountain land. It was here that she made her noisy

processions, seated in a chariot drawn by lions or panthers, amid the

boisterous music of her weird attendants, the Corybantes and Curetes.

The myths that relate to the goddess bear a wild, fantastic character,

similar to that of her rites. The best known among them is the story of

her favourite, Attis, or Atys. He was a Phrygian youth of a beauty so

exceptional that the great mother of the gods chose him for her husband.

At first he returned her affection, but afterwards he proved faithless,

and was about to marry a daughter of the king of Pessinus. But the

vengeance of the angry goddess overtook him, for when the wedding guests

were assembled at the festive banquet the goddess appeared in their

midst, and filled those present with panic fear, and troubled their

minds. Atys fled to the mountains, where he slew himself in a fit of

frenzy. Afterwards, the goddess instituted a great mourning in memory of

him, which took place about the time of the vernal equinox. The priests

of the goddess marched, amid the loud noise of kettle-drums and fifes,

to the mountains, in order to search for the lost youth; and when at

length he, or an image representing him, was found, the priests, in an

ecstasy of joy, danced about in wild excitement, gashing themselves with

knives.

Representations of Rhea Cybele are rare. A statue representing her

seated on a throne is shown in the Vatican. Her usual attribute is a

kettle-drum.

=3. Dionysus, or Bacchus (Liber).=—Dionysus, or Bacchus, was regarded by

Greeks and Romans alike as the god of wine and vineyards. In his more

extended meaning he represents the blessings of the autumn. It is he who

causes the fruits to ripen for the use of man; it is likewise he who

dispenses to mankind all the advantages of civilisation and refinement,

and of well-ordered political affairs.

Thebes was described as the birthplace of the god. His mother was

Semele, the daughter of Cadmus, whom Zeus, the great god of heaven,

honoured with his love. This very love, however, proved fatal to Semele,

for the ever-jealous Hera came to her in the guise of her nurse, Beroë,

and succeeded in exciting her suspicions as to the truth of her lover’s

divinity. She insidiously persuaded Semele to make her lover swear to do

what she desired, and then to put him to the test. Semele did so, and

then besought Zeus to appear to her in the full majesty of his divine

form. In vain did Zeus adjure her to take back her foolish request; she

insisted on its fulfilment, and perished miserably, being burnt to ashes

by the flame of Zeus, who approached her in a flash of lightning. Her

unborn child was preserved by Zeus, who ordered Hermes to carry it to

the nymphs of Nysa to be brought up. A later legend makes Ino, the

sister of Semele, the foster-mother of Dionysus. The locality of this

Nysa is somewhat uncertain, but it is generally supposed to be a

district of Mount Pangæus in Thrace.

Dionysus, after growing up amid the solitude of the forest and

strengthening himself by his contests with its wild beasts, at length

planted the vine. Both the god and his attendants soon became

intoxicated with its juice; after which, crowned with wreaths of laurel

and ivy, and accompanied by a crowd of nymphs, satyrs, and fauns, he

ranged the woods, which resounded with the loud and joyful cries of his

inspired worshippers. The legend says that his education was then

completed by Silenus, the son of Pan. In company with his preceptor and

the rest of his train, he then set forth to spread his worship and the

cultivation of the vine among the nations of the earth. He did not

confine himself to mere vine-planting, however, but proved a real

benefactor of mankind by founding cities, and by introducing more

civilised manners and a more pleasant and sociable mode of life among

men. On such as refused his favours his wrath fell with dreadful effect.

Agave, the mother of the Theban king Pentheus, who had refused to

receive him, and the rest of the Theban women, were driven mad by him;

and in their frenzy they mistook the king for a wild boar and tore him

to pieces.

[Illustration: Fig. 36.—Dionysus and Lion. From the Monument of

Lysicrates.]

The most celebrated among the myths which testify to the wondrous power

of Dionysus is the story of the punishment of the Tyrrhenian pirates. On

the occasion of his passage from Icaria to Naxos, these pirates put

Dionysus in chains, purposing to take him to Italy, and there sell him

as a slave. At a nod from the youthful god the chains fell from his

limbs; he appeared as a lion, while a bear was seen at the other end of

the ship. Vines and ivy tendrils wound themselves round the mast and

sails of the ship, which stood still, whilst the strains of the nymphs

burst forth. The sailors, terrified by the transformation of the god,

leaped overboard, and were changed into dolphins. A fine representation,

in relief, of this scene still exists on the monument of Lysicrates, at

Athens. The most beautiful feature in it is the figure of the god

playing with his lion in the most joyous unconsciousness (Fig. 36). With

the name of Naxos, which was a chief seat of his worship, is connected

the celebrated story of his marriage with Ariadne, the daughter of

Minos, king of Crete. The Attic hero, Theseus, after escaping the

dangers of the Labyrinth by her means, had taken her away with him from

Crete in order to marry her. He deserted her, however, whilst asleep on

the island of Naxos, either of his own accord or because warned of the

god in a dream. The indescribable anguish and consternation of Ariadne,

on awaking to find herself alone and deserted on a foreign strand, was

only equalled by her joyous surprise when Bacchus, returning from his

travels in India, found her and made her his bride. The poets, indeed,

do not relate that Zeus then bestowed on her that immortality which he

had already given his son on account of his glorious achievements and

extraordinary merit toward mankind; but such appears to have been the

popular tradition. At Athens a sort of harvest thanksgiving was

celebrated in honour of both Dionysus and his bride, at which vines with

the grapes on them were borne in solemn procession through the streets

of the city.

The worship of Dionysus extended not only over the whole of Greece, but

also to Italy, Asia Minor, Thrace, and Macedonia, and to every place

where the vine was cultivated by the Greeks. The god was extolled as

Lyæus, the deliverer from care, and great festivals were instituted in

his honour, which were of a disorderly character, but very popular among

the common people. At the time of the winter solstice there was

mourning, because at this season the vine seemed to die away, and the

god was believed to be suffering persecution at the hands of the evil

spirits of winter, and obliged to flee in consequence to the sea or

lower world. It was, therefore, thought right to suffer with him, and

people manifested their grief at his disappearance by every kind of wild

gesture. At the winter festivals of Dionysus, which were celebrated

every other year, only women and girls took part. The festivals of the

god at the beginning of spring, when the new wine was tasted for the

first time, were purely festivals of gladness, like the greater Dionysia

at Athens. On these occasions the reawakening of nature was celebrated

with boundless joy and boisterous mirth. All kinds of jokes and

mischievous pranks were indulged in, and festive processions and

theatrical performances followed each other in quick succession.

The following festivals were celebrated at Athens in honour of

Dionysus:—

1. The _Lesser_ or _Rural Dionysia_. This was the vintage festival

proper, which did not take place in Attica till the end of November or

beginning of December, because they liked to let the grapes hang as long

as possible. A he-goat was first solemnly sacrificed to the god; this

was followed by a festive procession bearing the sacred things, and the

festival concluded with all kinds of country amusements, dancing,

masquerading, and revelling. The chief amusement of the young men was

dancing on the leather bag. Out of the skin of the slaughtered goat was

made a leather bag, which was inflated and smeared with oil: the young

men then attempted to dance on it.

2. The _Lenæa_, or feast of the wine-press, was celebrated in the month

of January at Athens, in the place where, according to an old tradition,

the first wine-press had stood. Here stood the Lenæon, one of the two

chief temples of the god. The chief feature of the festival was a

magnificent procession with the sacred symbols of the god. This was

followed by a great banquet, the viands for which were furnished by the

city of Athens. The new wine which was drunk on these occasions did not

tend to diminish the hilarity of the worshippers, so that all kinds of

mischievous jokes were perpetrated.

[Illustration:

Fig. 37.—The so-called Sardanapalus in the Vatican.]

3. The _Anthesteria_ were celebrated in February, on the 11th, 12th, and

13th days of the month Anthesterion. They were supposed to commemorate

the return of Dionysus from the lower world, or, in other words, the

reawakening of nature from the sleep of winter. The first day was called

πιθοιγία (cask-opening), because on this day the new wine was first

broached. The second and chief day of the festival was called χόες

(cups). A procession and a great banquet took place, at which the guests

were crowned with flowers. Many liberties were permitted to the slaves

on this occasion, as at the Roman Saturnalia. The third day was called

χύτροι (pots), because vessels were displayed filled with all kinds of

boiled vegetables. These were regarded in the light of offerings for the

souls of the dead, who were popularly supposed to revisit the upper

world on this occasion.

[Illustration:

Fig. 38.—Youthful Dionysus. From the Chateau Richelieu, now in the

Louvre.]

4. The _Greater_ or _City Dionysia_ formed the chief festival of the

god, and the proper spring-feast of the Athenians. It was celebrated

with extraordinary splendour in the month of March, and lasted several

days, bringing together a vast concourse of strangers from all parts.

The city, renowned alike for the refined artistic taste and the keen wit

of its inhabitants, then donned its holiday garb, and innumerable merry

antics were played by the crowds assembled in the streets and squares.

The chief feature of the festival was a solemn procession, in which an

old wooden statue of the god was borne through the streets. There were

likewise banquets and comic processions in masks, and grand

representations of new comedies and tragedies. The proceedings concluded

with the presentation of prizes to the successful competitors.

The Italian nationalities likewise celebrated a festival on the 17th of

March, called the Liberalia, in honour of Liber, or Liber Pater, the

Italian god of the vine. It was distinguished throughout by the simple

countrified character of the proceedings, and resembled the Lesser

Dionysia of the inhabitants of Attica. People amused themselves with all

kinds of jokes and antics, and with masquerades, the masks for which

were cut from the bark of trees. The chief object of the festival was to

pray for the fertility of the vines. These innocent festivals had

nothing to do with the voluptuous Bacchanalia which were afterwards

introduced into Rome in imitation of the Greek mysteries, and which the

most rigorous interference of the authorities was unable to suppress.

If we try to conceive briefly the significance of the worship of

Dionysus in the religion of the ancients, we shall find that in his

primitive character the god was a personification of the active,

productive power of nature. As Demeter was supposed to give corn and the

other fruits of the field, so Dionysus was supposed to give the fruits

of trees, and especially of the vine. He was likewise regarded as the

author of the blessings of civilisation, so that, on this point, he

supplements the idea of the great culture-goddess Demeter, with whom,

both among the Greeks and Romans, he had many temples and festivals in

common. Looking at his character from another side, we find him coming

into contact with Apollo, since he was supposed not only to endow men

with a kindly, cheerful disposition, but also to inspire them with a

love of music, on which account he was honoured with Apollo as the

friend and leader of the Muses.

[Illustration:

Fig. 39.—Marble Head of Youthful Dionysus at Leyden.]

Artistic representations of Dionysus have come down to us on

numerous monuments. In earlier art he was generally depicted as

majestic and grave, and on that account represented with a beard. We

have given an instance of this earlier conception in the so-called

Sardanapalus of the Vatican (Fig. 37). In later art he became more

youthful, and was characterised by a delicate roundness of form. The

statues of this period are distinguished by the almost feminine

expression of face with which they endow the god, as well as by the

rounded limbs and the graceful ease of every attitude. The statue of

a youthful Dionysus in the Louvre at Paris is an instance of this

later mode of conception (Fig. 38). So likewise is the head of

Dionysus at Leyden, which is distinguished by a sweet expression of

reverie. His soft hair, which falls about his shoulders in delicate

ringlets, is generally intertwined with a garland of vine leaves or

ivy (Fig. 39). The other attributes of the god are the thyrsus, or

Bacchic wand, the diadem, the skin of a wild beast falling across

his chest, which often forms his sole clothing, and the drinking-cup

in his hand. He is generally accompanied by lions, tigers, or

panthers; and the bull and ram, as the symbols of fertility, were

held sacred to him, while the latter was also his usual sacrifice.

Among plants, besides the vine and the ivy, the laurel was held

sacred to him on account of its powers of inspiration.

[Illustration: Fig. 40.—Sleeping Ariadne. Vatican.]

[Illustration: Fig. 41.—Dannecker’s Ariadne. Frankfort-on-the-Main.]

Of all the prominent personages in the stories of Dionysus, Ariadne

has received most attention at the hands of the sculptor. The most

celebrated of such ancient monuments is a marble figure of great

beauty, larger than life, representing the sleeping Ariadne. It is

now preserved in the Vatican Museum at Rome (Fig. 40). Among the

productions of modern sculptors, the Ariadne of Dannecker, at

Frankfort-on-the-Main, which represents her as the bride of Theseus,

riding on a panther, justly enjoys a very high reputation (Fig. 41).

=4. The Nymphs.=—We now come to a class of inferior terrestrial

divinities who are often found in the train of Bacchus. The most

numerous and important of these are the Nymphs. They personify the

restless activity and energy of nature, over the whole of which their

power extends. They manifest their presence in the murmuring, rippling

streams and brooks, as well as in the sprouting vegetation of wood and

meadow. They are tender, graceful maidens, who, though kindly disposed

towards men, yet avoid human habitations, and prefer the peaceful

solitude of the woods and mountains, where they lead a merry, joyous

life among the clefts and grottoes.

Sometimes they devote themselves to useful pursuits, and spin and weave;

sometimes they engage in graceful dances, and sing merry songs, or bathe

their delicate limbs in the white spray of lonely brooks. They gladly

join the train of those superior deities supposed to preside in the

realms of nature. Thus we see them joining in the Bacchic revelry with

Dionysus, or figuring in the train of Aphrodite, or ranging field and

wood as they hunt in the company of Artemis.

According to the divisions of nature, over which the Nymphs were

supposed to preside, we may distinguish the following classes:—

1. The _Water-Nymphs_, to whom, in their wider signification, the

Oceanids and Nereids also belong. Here, however, we have only to deal

with the water-nymphs of the brooks and fountains of the land, who are

distinguished by the name of _Naiads_. As the kindly nourishers of

plants, and as thereby ministering indirectly to the sustenance of both

man and beast, they enjoyed a large measure of veneration among the

ancients, although, being inferior deities, they could claim no temples

of their own. Like the sea-nymphs, they possessed the gift of prophecy,

and appear as the patrons of poetry and song.

_2. Nymphs of the Mountains_, or _Oreads_, to whom belong the nymphs of

the valleys and glens (Napææ). These were very numerous, and received

special names from the particular mountains or districts they inhabited.

The most celebrated among them was the Bœotian nymph Echo. She was

consumed by love for the beautiful youth Narcissus, a son of the

river-god Cephisus, and finding that he did not reciprocate her

affection, she pined away in ever-increasing grief, until at length her

emaciated frame was changed into rock, and nothing but her voice

remained. But Aphrodite avenged this injury to her sex on Narcissus, who

had in his vain self-love thus contemned the beautiful nymph. As he was

hunting one day on Mount Helicon, he bent down to quench his thirst from

a spring clear as crystal, and the goddess caused him to fall in love

with his own shadow, which was reflected in the water. The object of his

desires being unattainable, he too pined away from grief, and the flower

named after him has ever since continued an emblem of heartless beauty.

3. The _Dryads_, or _Hamadryads_ (wood-nymphs). These appear to have

been a conception of later times. It was supposed that their existence

depended on that of the trees they inhabited, so that when the latter

were destroyed the nymphs also perished. Not sharing immortality,

therefore, they cannot properly be reckoned among the gods.

The veneration of nymphs was very ancient in Greece, and was thence

transferred to Rome. Goats, lambs, milk, and oil were offered to them.

In art they are depicted as lovely maidens, generally only slightly

clad, and adorned with flowers and garlands. The Naiads are also

represented as drawing water, or with attributes relating to their

element.

=5. The Satyrs.=—In contrast to the Nymphs, or female personifications

of the life of Nature, we find a number of inferior wood and

water-deities of the male sex, called Satyrs, Sileni, and Panes, between

whom it is difficult to distinguish clearly. Generally by Satyrs (Fauni)

we understand the wood and mountain-spirits proper, who are inseparably

connected with Dionysus, whose attendant train they form. Coarse

sensuality and a wanton spirit of mischief are the leading features of

their character. On account of their animal propensities they were

fabled to be only half human in appearance, with blunt noses and

otherwise ignoble features, bristling hair, goat-like ears, and a goat’s

tail. Like the Muses, they love music and dancing, their instruments

being the Syrinx and the flute, together with cymbals and castanets.

Like their master, they were passionately addicted to excessive

indulgence in wine; but whereas in the former this produced only a

rapturous enthusiasm and an exalted frame of mind, with them its effects

were purely sensual, and excited them to insane and unseemly pranks of

all kinds.

[Illustration:

Fig. 42.—Head of Satyr. Munich Sculpture Gallery.]

The Satyrs were not an uncommon subject of representation among

ancient artists. The conception was based on the original hideous

half-man, half-animal type; and in art, as well as in poetry, the

blunt nose, the pointed ears, and the goat’s tail form their

characteristic features. The Bacchic insignia of a band round the

brow and an ivy garland also belong to them. There are some

particularly fine antique statues of satyrs in the art-collections

of Munich and Rome.

The engraving (Fig. 42) shows the highly-expressive face of a satyr

in the Munich collection.

=6. Silenus.=—Silenus, according to the common tradition, was an old

satyr who tended and brought up Dionysus, and afterwards became the

faithful companion of his wanderings. He is depicted by the poets as a

somewhat elderly man, with blunt nose and bald head, hairy chest and

thighs, and a stomach so large that he can scarcely walk. He generally

appears riding on an ass in front of the Bacchic company, with a satyr

on either side supporting his half-drunken form.

The artists of antiquity seem to have devoted themselves frequently

to the subject of Silenus. They either represented him as the nurse

and preceptor of the youthful Bacchus, holding the child in his arms

and regarding him with a look of affection, in which the comic

element is entirely lacking, or they present him to us as the

insatiable but good-natured wine-bibber. His standing attribute is

the wine-skin, besides which, like other members of the Bacchic

train, he bears a thyrsus and ivy garland.

Besides Silenus, who was celebrated as the preceptor of Dionysus, there

was a whole tribe of Sileni. Whether this is due to the fact that the

older satyrs were called Sileni, or whether they form a special class of

deities presiding over the flowing, gushing water, cannot be determined

with any certainty.

Among the Sileni were two personages who play a part in the story of

Dionysus. These were Marsyas and Midas. The former, like all satyrs, was

an accomplished master of the flute, and challenged Apollo to a trial of

skill which proved fatal to him. The conditions of the contest were that

he who was vanquished should put himself entirely in the power of his

adversary. Apollo won, and made a cruel use of his victory by hanging

Marsyas on a pine tree and flaying him alive.

Midas was the mythic founder of the kingdom of Phrygia, in Asia Minor,

whither he had emigrated from Macedonia. Tradition makes him a son of

Cybele, and, as her favourite, endowed with fabulous wealth. But, like

many of the sons of men in the present day, the richer he grew the

greater was his thirst for gold, until it betrayed him at length into an

act of great folly. One day, the drunken Silenus strayed from the

company of Bacchus into the garden of Midas. The latter received him

with great hospitality, and after entertaining him sumptuously for ten

days brought him to Bacchus. Pleased with his kindness, the god rewarded

him with the gratification of any wish he might make. Midas now wished

that everything he touched might turn to gold. Naturally the

gratification of this wish well-nigh proved his ruin; and he only

escaped by washing, at the command of the god, in the river Pactolus,

which has ever since washed down gold in its sands. A later fable makes

Midas the judge in the rivalry of Apollo and Pan, on which occasion he

decided in favour of the latter, for which the god changed his ears into

those of an ass. Modern criticism has seen in the rich Midas one of the

many personifications of the sun, who, as he rises over the earth, turns

all things to gold.

=7. Greek and Roman Wood-Spirits.=—_1. Pan._—Pan was a very ancient god

of the woods and meadows. He was at first honoured only by the

inhabitants of the mountain-land of Arcadia and by other pastoral

tribes. Subsequently his divinity was more generally acknowledged and

more highly esteemed. Common accounts make him the son of Hermes by the

nymph Penelope, a daughter of Dryops. His mother was not a little

terrified at his birth, since he was hairy all over, and had horns and

goat’s feet. His father wrapped him in a hare-skin, and bore him to

Olympus, where the assembled gods showed no small pleasure at the sight

of the strange little wood-demon. From time immemorial Pan was regarded

by the shepherds of Greece as their most doughty protector; for which

reason the mountain caves in which they gathered their herds together at

night, or in threatening weather, were held sacred to him. There were

many such caves of Pan in the mountains of Arcadia, and also one at the

foot of the Acropolis at Athens, besides others on Mount Parnassus in

Bœotia, and elsewhere. Pan was esteemed a god of great cheerfulness and

activity of character, who loved to range the woods as a huntsman, and

was on this account regarded with little less veneration by huntsmen

than by shepherds. He was also looked on as the patron of fishing and

bee-keeping.

As the god of shepherds, Pan was also a lover of music, and on returning

in the evening from the chase, says the Homeric story, he was wont to

play sweet tunes on his pan-pipe (Syrinx), whilst the Oreads, or

mountain-nymphs, sang the praises of the gods and led off their spirited

dances. The poets have founded a story on his discovery of the Syrinx.

They invented a fabulous nymph called Syrinx, with whom Pan was supposed

to have fallen violently in love. The nymph, however, did not return his

affection, and fled from his embraces. Pan pursued her, and in her

extremity she sought the aid of Gæa, who transformed her into a reed.

Out of this reed Pan, by joining seven pieces together, made an

instrument which he called the Syrinx, after the nymph.

Pan was as passionately fond of dancing as of music. According to

Pindar, he was the most accomplished dancer among the gods. His

favourite amusement was to dance in company with the mountain-nymphs, on

which occasions he regaled them with every kind of droll leap, in the

performance of which his goat’s feet stood him in good stead.

As a wood-deity, Pan also possessed the gift of prophecy; indeed,

according to some, it was he who first imparted this gift to Apollo. He

certainly had a very ancient oracle at Acacesium in Arcadia.

Wild mountainous country and the thick untrodden forest are both alike

apt to impress the lonely traveller with feelings of awe. All such

sensations of sudden and unaccountable fear were ascribed to Pan

(Panic). He was also said to delight in terrifying travellers with all

kinds of strange noises. Hence, at a later period, arose the story that

in the contest with the Titans he rendered good service to Zeus by

blowing on a shell trumpet which he had invented, whereupon the Titans

were seized with a sudden terror. This, however, is only another version

of Triton’s services at the battle with the giants. It is well known

that the Athenians introduced the worship of Pan, to which they had been

hitherto strangers, into their city after the battle of Marathon, in

consequence of the assistance which they believed they had received from

the god.

Such are the more ancient and simple features of the character of Pan.

He assumed a higher significance when men began to regard him as the

companion of the “Mighty Mother,” and assigned him a place in the

Bacchic circle. Men now saw in him a productive force of nature like the

Phrygian Attis; indeed, in consequence of a misinterpretation of his

name, he was made the creator and god of the universe. He seems to have

originally signified the “purifying” breeze, which at one time whistled

through the reeds, or at another moaned dismally in the forest,

frightening the belated traveller.

After he had once been introduced into the company of Dionysus, poets

and artists alike set themselves to work to invent a number of Panes and

little Pans (Panisci), who were easily confounded with the Satyrs and

Sileni.

The chief shrine of Pan was at Acacesium in Arcadia. Cows, goats, and

sheep were sacrificed to him, besides offerings of milk, honey, and new

wine.

[Illustration: Fig. 43.—Pan. From a Mural Painting at Herculaneum.]

In art we must distinguish the earlier and later types of the god.

In the former, which dates from the best days of Greek art, he is

conceived as entirely human in appearance, with the exception of two

sprouting horns on either side of the forehead. Later, he was

depicted with larger horns, a long goat’s beard, and goat’s feet. We

give an engraving of this later conception (Fig. 43), which is taken

from a mural painting at Naples. The usual attributes of Pan are a

Syrinx and shepherd’s crook, sometimes also a pine garland.

_2. Silvanus._—Among the Roman wood-deities, Silvanus occupies a

position most akin to that of Pan, although they are not exactly

identical. His name, derived from _silva_ (wood), points him out as the

god of the forest, where he was supposed to dwell, a deity kindly

disposed towards mankind, and propitious to the welfare of trees,

plants, and cattle. At times, however, he appears, like Pan, as a

mischievous sprite, who delights to trick and terrify the lonely

traveller. His sphere of activity was not confined to the woods, since

he was also regarded as the author of fruitfulness in gardens and

orchards. In this character Silvanus bears a close resemblance to

Terminus, the god of boundaries and landed property, inasmuch as he

preserves fields, gardens, and houses from harm. The first of the fruits

of the field were offered to him. He had two shrines in Rome, one on the

Viminal and another on the Aventine.

Artists and poets agree in representing Silvanus as an old man with

a rustic head-gear, scattering blooming lilies and other flowers. He

is usually distinguished by a pruning-knife.

_3. Faunus and Fauna._—Closely resembling Silvanus is another deity

called Faunus, one of the most ancient national gods of Italy. He

appears as the good spirit of the mountains, pastures, and plains. He

was regarded by the shepherds as their best protector, since he made

their cattle fruitful and drove off noxious beasts of prey. In the

former character he was also called Inuus (the fertiliser); in the

latter Lupercus (the warder-off of wolves).

Like Pan, he appears to have his seat in the woods, whence he sometimes

terrifies and annoys travellers. At night, too, he creeps into men’s

houses, and torments them with evil dreams and horrible apparitions

(Incubus).

Like Pan, too, Faunus possessed the gift of prophecy, and answered both

by direct revelations and by dreams. In this character he was called

Fatuus, and had a celebrated oracle in the grove at Tibur, on the spring

Albunea.

Having once invented a number of Fauns, the poets soon began to identify

them with the Satyrs of the Greeks.

In honour of this decidedly national deity, different festivals were

celebrated, at which rams were sacrificed and libations of wine and milk

made. The Faunalia were celebrated on the Nones of December, on which

occasion the guests at the festive board surrendered themselves to the

most unrestrained mirth, and granted many liberties also to their

slaves. The Lupercalia, however, formed the proper expiatory festival of

Faunus. This festival was celebrated on the 15th of February, and was

remarkable for the number of ancient customs which were observed. The

chief of these was the course of the Luperci, or priests of Faunus, who,

after making their offering, ran from the shrine of the god (Lupercal),

on the Palatine, through the streets of Rome, their only clothing being

an apron cut from the skin of the slaughtered animal. They struck all

whom they met with thongs, also cut from the same blood-stained skin.

Barren women placed themselves in the way of the Luperci, believing that

by means of the strokes the reproach of barrenness would be taken away

from them. As a day of atonement, this day was termed _dies februatus_

(from _februare_, to purify), whence the name of the month.

The feminine counterpart of Faunus, though not his wife, was Fauna, a

propitious, kindly goddess of the plains. She is also called Maia, or

Bona Dea. The women made an offering to her every year at night, on

which occasion males were strictly excluded.

In art Faunus bears exactly the same appearance as Pan, with whom,

indeed, he was often identified.

=8. Priapus.=—The worship of Priapus, the god of fields and gardens,

appears to have been long of a purely local character, confined

principally to the districts on the Hellespont, since he is not even

mentioned by earlier writers. He was the son of Dionysus and Aphrodite,

and presided over the exuberant fertility of nature. He was supposed to

exercise influence over the fruitfulness of flocks and herds, whilst

fishing and the rearing of bees were also placed under his protection.

His special sphere, however, was the protection of gardens and

vineyards. Asses were sacrificed to him, a fact which gave rise to all

sorts of comical stories relating to the hostility of Priapus to this

animal. Besides this, he received the first fruits of the garden and

field and drink-offerings of milk and honey. The worship of Priapus was

introduced into Italy at the same time as that of Aphrodite, and he was

identified with the native Mutunus.

This deity was scarcely noticed in higher art. In the gardens of

Italy, however, rough-hewn pillars of wood, similar to those of

Hermes, were erected in his honour. He is usually distinguished by a

pruning-knife and club.

=9. Saturnus and Ops.=—Before passing to Demeter, or Ceres, the great

goddess of civilisation, to whom by Greeks and Romans alike the

blessings of the harvest were ascribed, and who forms the best link

between the gods of the upper and lower worlds, we must pause to

consider some gods of agriculture and cattle-rearing peculiar to the

Romans. Among them are Saturn and Ops, who belong to the most ancient

national deities of Italy. To Saturn was ascribed the introduction of

agriculture, together with the cultivation of the vine and other fruits.

He was, therefore, venerated as the great benefactor of mankind, who not

only promoted the physical welfare of men, but who also introduced a

higher standard of civilisation. After the Romans had become acquainted

with the mythology of the Greeks, they identified him with Cronus. In

consequence of this, the story arose that, after his dethronement by

Jupiter, Saturn fled to Italy, where he was hospitably received by

Janus. There he is said to have brought together the inhabitants, who

had hitherto wandered about without any fixed homes, and to have united

them in regular political communities, over which he himself ruled. This

was the golden age. In remembrance of the happy age when men were not

yet troubled by sorrow or need, the Saturnalia were celebrated during

three days, beginning from the 17th of December. This festival, which

with changed meaning still continues in the Carnival of the present day,

was celebrated in Rome with particularly great splendour. Unbounded

festivity reigned throughout the whole town, and vented itself in every

description of joke and prank. The distinctions of class were suspended,

the courts and schools kept holiday, and the shops were closed. The

chief day was the 19th of December, which was especially a festive day

for the slaves, for on this day there were practically no slaves in

Rome. No services were required of them, and they were allowed to don

the clothes of their masters and to eat and drink as much as they liked,

whilst their masters waited on them at table. And this custom allowed a

class, otherwise subject to so many afflictions, to forget their sorrows

for at least one day in a year. Wealthy Romans generally kept open house

on this day, and vied with each other in the splendour of their

hospitalities; and of course a solemn sacrifice was made to Saturn. The

woollen bandages which, during the greater part of the year, enveloped

the feet of his statue in order that he might not depart without

vouchsafing a blessing, were on this day unloosed, and throughout the

night the temple was illuminated with wax tapers. This festival, which

was extremely popular among the Romans, was also celebrated with games

in the circus.

The chief temple of Saturn, which was begun by Tarquinius Superbus and

finished in the first years of the Republic, was situated on the ascent

to the Capitol from the Forum. Beneath it was a vault containing the

state treasury, or _ærarium_, the guardianship of the state treasures

being committed to this god as the dispenser of every blessing.

Regarded as the wife of Saturn, and therefore identified with Rhea, Ops

was the goddess of the seed-time and harvest. On this account her

worship was closely connected with that of Saturn, and she had a place

in his temple on the Capitoline. A festival was celebrated in honour of

her on the 25th of August, when the newly-gathered corn was threshed.

When taken together, Saturn and Ops were regarded as deities who

presided over marriage and the education of children, it being an easy

step from the deity of the sprouting, ripening seed, to that of the

budding, thriving season of human life.

Saturn is always represented as an old man, and is generally

distinguished by a pruning-knife or sickle.

=10. Vertumnus and Pomona.=—Vertumnus and Pomona much resemble Saturn

and Ops, the only difference being that the former exert their influence

solely on the growth and welfare of the fruits of the garden and

orchard. Vertumnus properly signifies the self-changing one; referring,

probably, to the manifold changes which the fruit undergoes from the

time of its first appearance in blossom to that of its maturity. For the

same reason the god was said to possess the faculty of assuming any

shape he liked. The first of the flowers and fruits were offered to him.

Pomona, as her name signifies, was the goddess of the fruit harvest, and

called by the poets the wife of Vertumnus. Each deity had a special

priest (flamen), though the latter naturally held only an inferior

position.

In art Vertumnus generally appears as a beautiful youth, his head

crowned with a garland of ears of corn or laurel, with a horn of

plenty, as a symbol of the blessings he bestows, in his right hand.

He is sometimes distinguished by a dish filled with fruit, or a

pruning-knife. Pomona is generally represented as the season of

Autumn, a beautiful maiden with boughs of fruit-trees in her hand.

=11. Flora.=—Among the inferior deities of the plain was Flora, the

goddess of blossoms and flowers, who was held in great honour by the

Sabines, and everywhere in the interior of Italy. Her worship is said to

have been introduced into Rome by Numa, who assigned the goddess a

priest of her own. She attained a higher significance by becoming a

goddess of maternity, whom women invoked before their confinement. Her

festival was celebrated with great rejoicings from the 28th of April to

the 1st of May (Floralia). The doors of the houses were adorned with

flowers, and wreaths were worn in the hair. After the first Punic war,

the festival, which was remarkable throughout for its merry and

tumultuous character, was also celebrated with games, hares and deer

being hunted in the circus.

Artists appear to have represented Flora as the season of Spring, in

the guise of a beautiful girl crowned with flowers. There is a fine

marble statue of this kind, larger than life, in the museum at

Naples, called the Farnese Flora.

=12. Pales.=—Pales was the ancient pastoral goddess of the Italian

tribes, from whom the name Palatine, which originally meant nothing but

a pastoral colony, was derived. She was especially venerated by the

shepherds, who besought her to send fruitfulness and health to their

flocks. A festival in her honour was celebrated on the 21st of April,

the anniversary of the foundation of the city (Palilia), at which very

ancient rustic customs were observed. The most remarkable of these was

the kindling of a large straw fire, through which the shepherds rushed

with their flocks, thinking thus to purify themselves from their sins.

Milk and baked millet-cakes were offered to the goddess. There is no

statue of her now in existence.

=13. Terminus.=—Terminus, although he had nothing to do either with the

welfare of the crops or the fruitfulness of the flocks, may yet be

reckoned among the field deities, as the god who specially presided over

boundaries. All landmarks were held sacred to him, and their erection

was attended with religious ceremonies. In order that his people might

fully appreciate the sanctity of boundaries, King Numa instituted a

special festival in honour of the god, called the Terminalia, and

annually celebrated on the 23rd of February. The proprietors of lands

bordering on each other were wont on this occasion to crown the boundary

stone with garlands, and to make an offering of a flat cake to the god.

In his wider signification Terminus was regarded as the god under whose

protection the boundaries of the state reposed, and in this character he

had a chapel in the temple of Minerva on the Capitol. A statue of the

god also stood in the midst of the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, which

is explained by the following story:—After Tarquinius had conceived the

plan of building the great temple of Jupiter on the Capitol, the limited

space necessitated the removal of several existing shrines, which could

only occur with the consent of the deities themselves. They all

expressed by means of auguries their readiness to make way for the

highest god of heaven, except Terminus, who refused, and whose shrine

had therefore to be included in the temple of Jupiter.

Statues of Terminus are exactly like the Hermæ of the Greeks, and

have no importance in art.

=14. Demeter (Ceres).=—Demeter was a daughter of Cronus and Rhea. Her

name signifies Mother Earth, and she is, therefore, an expression of the

ancient conception of the earth-goddess, with a special reference to

nature and human civilisation. She was also named Deo, and by comparison

of these two words, her name has been interpreted as Dawn-Mother, from

the same root as Zeus, the sky. The thriving of the crops was ascribed

to her influence; she was further regarded as the patroness of all those

arts which are more or less intimately connected with agriculture, and

which men first learned from her. Demeter thus rises to the rank of a

goddess of civilisation. She rescued men by means of agriculture from

the lower grades of hunters and shepherds, and brought their former rude

and barbarous manners into subjection to law and morality. She thus

becomes that “bountiful daughter of Heaven,” who, as Schiller sings in

his _Lay of the Bell_,

“of old

Called the wild man from waste and wold,

And, in his hut thy presence stealing,

Roused each familiar household feeling;

And, best of all the happy ties,

The centre of the social band,—

The instinct of the Fatherland.”

Regarded in this light, she comes into contact with Dionysus, whose

beneficial influence on human civilisation and manners we have already

described. This accounts for the intimate connection of these two

deities in the Eleusinian mysteries, where Dionysus-Iacchus even appears

as the son of Demeter and the husband of Cora-Persephone. Owing to the

important part she played in the institution of law and order among

mankind, she was venerated as the goddess of marriage, marriage being

the necessary foundation of civil society. She was also regarded as the

tutelary goddess of national assemblies.

Of the numerous legends which are linked with the name of this goddess,

none perhaps is more celebrated, or more pregnant with meaning in regard

to her worship, than the rape of her daughter Persephone, or Cora. The

latter was once playing with the daughters of Oceanus in a flowery

meadow, where they were picking flowers and making garlands. Persephone

happened to quit her companions for a moment to pluck a narcissus she

had perceived, when suddenly the ground opened at her feet, and Pluto,

or Hades, the god of the infernal regions, appeared in a chariot drawn

by snorting horses. Swift as the wind he seized and carried off the

terrified maiden in spite of her struggles, and vanished again into the

regions of darkness before her companions were aware of the catastrophe.

All this occurred, however, with the knowledge of Zeus, who had, unknown

to Demeter, promised her daughter to Pluto. When Demeter missed her

darling child, and none could tell her where she had gone, she kindled

torches, and during many days and nights wandered in anxiety through all

the countries of the earth, not even resting for food or sleep. At

length Helios, who sees and hears everything, told Demeter what had

happened, not disguising, however, that it had occurred with the consent

of Zeus. Full of wrath and grief, the goddess now withdrew from the

society of the other gods into the deepest solitude. Meanwhile all the

fruits of the earth ceased, and a general famine threatened to

extinguish the human race. In vain Zeus sent one messenger after

another, beseeching the angry goddess to return to Olympus. Demeter

swore that she would neither return nor allow the fruits of the earth to

grow until her daughter was restored to her. At length Zeus was fain to

consent, and despatched Hermes to the lower world to bring Persephone

back. Persephone joyfully prepared to obey this command, but as she was

about to depart Hades gave her a pomegranate-seed to eat, whereupon she

found herself bound to him and unable to return. By means of Zeus,

however, a compact was made by which Persephone was to spend two-thirds

of the year in the upper world with her mother, and the remaining

portion with her husband. And thus every year at springtide she ascends

from her subterraneous kingdom to enjoy herself in her mother’s company,

but returns again late in autumn to the regions of darkness and death.

It is not difficult to discover the meaning of this myth. It is simply

an allegorical representation of the spectacle that is annually renewed

before our eyes—the dying away and coming to life again of the vegetable

world. Whilst Cora is dwelling during the winter months in the realms of

Hades, Nature appears to wear a garb of mourning for her lost daughter.

In the Eleusinian mysteries this inevitable decease and resurrection of

the vegetable world was conceived as a symbol of higher meaning, setting

forth the immortality of the soul. Every living being shares the fate of

Cora; every life becomes the prey of cold, inexorable death, only to

arise from the darkness of the grave more beautiful and glorious than

before.

Closely connected with this beautiful and expressive myth is another

which refers to the institution of the Eleusinian mysteries. When

Demeter, after the loss of her daughter, was wandering over the earth in

the guise of a poor old woman, she came to Eleusis. The daughters of

Celeüs, the king of the city, found her sitting on a stone by the

Maidens’ Well as they came thither to draw water, and offered the old

woman service in their father’s house as nurse to their youngest brother

Demophon. The goddess consented, and was kindly received in the house of

Celeüs, where she was at once installed as nurse to the young prince.

She became so fond of the child that she resolved to make him immortal

by anointing him with ambrosia, and then laying him at night in the glow

of the fire. She was discovered at her work, however, by the mother of

the child, whose cries disturbed her, and thus prevented her from

fulfilling her benevolent intention. She now revealed herself to Celeüs,

and commanded him to build her a temple in Eleusis. When it had been

hastily completed, with the help of the goddess, she initiated Celeüs

and some other princes of Eleusis—Triptolemus, Eumolpus, and Diocles—in

the solemn rites of her service. On Triptolemus, who is called the son

of Celeüs, she imposed the task of disseminating a knowledge of

agriculture and of her own worship throughout the earth, and for this

purpose lent him her own chariot and dragons. On this he travelled

through the countries of the earth, making known everywhere the

blessings of agriculture, and uniting men in regular political

communities. He was not well received in all places, and the goddess had

sometimes to step in and punish those who contemned her benefits. Such

was the case with the Scythian king Lynceus and the Thessalian prince

Erysichthon; but at length her cause triumphed, and the worship of the

bountiful goddess spread itself over the whole world.

The chief seat of her worship was the city of Eleusis, which was

beautifully situated on the bay of Salamis. It retained this honour even

after it had lost its independence and come into the possession of the

Athenians. The Eleusinian mysteries were celebrated both here and at

Athens, in honour of Demeter and the deities associated with her. They

probably contained a symbolical history of Cora.

There was a distinction between the greater and lesser mysteries. The

latter were celebrated at Athens in the month of Anthesterion

(February), and were a kind of preparation for the greater mysteries,

which took place in September, and were celebrated during nine days,

partly at Athens and partly at Eleusis. In these secret rites only those

could take part who had been initiated. The chief feature of the

festival was a great and solemn procession on the sixth day from Athens

to Eleusis, a distance of about twelve miles. All those who took part in

it—often as many as 30,000—were crowned with myrtle, and bore torches in

their hands, as the procession started from Athens at the earliest dawn.

The festival of the Thesmophoria, which was celebrated at the beginning

of November, in honour of Demeter in her character of lawgiver and

goddess of marriage, was less important than the Eleusinia. It lasted

for five days, and only married women were allowed to take part in it.

[Illustration: Fig. 44.—Demeter Enthroned. Painting from Pompeii.

Naples.]

The Ceres of the Romans, though undoubtedly an ancient Italian goddess,

was the very counterpart of the Greek Demeter, with whom, after the

successful introduction of her worship during the first years of the

Republic, she was entirely identified.

The chief festival of Ceres and her associate deities, Liber and Libera,

fell on the 19th of April, which, as the proper spring month, was

especially dedicated by the inhabitants of Italy to deities presiding

over agriculture. The Cerealia were opened by a grand procession, in

which every one was clothed in white. It was further celebrated with

solemn sacrifices and games in the circus, the management of which lay

with the plebeian ædiles.

The usual sacrifice, both among Greeks and Romans, was the sow (the

symbol of fruitfulness), but, besides this, cows and the first fruits of

the trees and hives were offered to her.

In the representations of the goddess an expression of lofty dignity

is blended with condescending benevolence and gentleness. Her

principal attributes are a torch, a sheaf of corn, a garland of ears

of corn interwoven in her hair, and a basket filled with flowers at

her side. Among the few antique statues, a large marble figure in

the Capitoline Museum at Rome deserves especial mention. The

engraving (Fig. 44), which is after a Pompeian painting, depicts

Demeter as the bountiful goddess of agriculture. She is seated on a

throne, and holds a torch consisting of two calices in her right

hand, and a bunch of corn in her left.

=15. Persephone (Proserpina).=—In Persephone, the goddess of the lower

world, whom the Athenians preferred to call by her mystic name of Cora,

two distinct conceptions are embodied. On the one hand she appears as

the wife of the dark god of the lower world—like him, a gloomy,

awe-inspiring deity, who pitilessly drags down all that lives into the

hidden depths of the earth; whence the grave is called the chamber of

Persephone. Such is the view of her taken by Homer and later epic poets.

These represent her as sitting enthroned at the side of her grim lord,

the joyless queen of the infernal regions, to dwell in which were worse

than to be a slave on earth. On the other hand she appears as Cora, the

lovely daughter of the all-bountiful Mother Earth; a personification, in

fact, of that never-dying force of nature which, year by year, causes

the most luxuriant vegetation to spring up before our eyes, only,

however, to die away again in the autumn. In a somewhat narrower sense

Persephone may be regarded as a type of the grain, which long remains in

the ground where it has been sown as though dead, but afterwards breaks

forth into new life. It was only natural to associate with this last

conception ideas of the immortality of the soul, of which, in the secret

doctrines of the mysteries, Persephone was a symbol. Though we know but

little concerning the details of the mysteries, we are yet aware that

their chief object was to disseminate better and purer ideas of a future

life than the popular faith of the Greeks afforded. It was commonly

believed that the souls of men after death led a dull, miserable

existence in the world of shadows. Those initiated in the mysteries,

however, were taught that death was only a resurrection of the soul to a

brighter and better life, on the condition, of course, that a man had

fully pleased the gods and rendered himself worthy of such a happy lot.

Persephone, or Proserpina, as she is called in Latin, was a deity

originally entirely strange to the Romans, who borrowed all their ideas

of the lower world from the Greeks. Nevertheless, they identified her

with Libera, an ancient rustic goddess of fertility, the feminine

counterpart of Liber, under which name she signifies the same as the

Greek Cora. Black, barren cows were sacrificed to Persephone as an

infernal goddess, but she does not appear to have had any temples of her

own.

[Illustration: Fig. 45.—Persephone Enthroned. Painting from Pompeii.

Naples.]

Persephone is of no great importance in art, and statues of her are

rare. She is represented either as the fair daughter of Demeter, or

as the grave, severe queen of the world of shadows. In the latter

character she may generally be recognised by her sceptre and diadem.

Her other attributes are ears of corn, a poppy, and a torch, as a

symbol of her connection with the Eleusinian mysteries, besides the

pomegranate and narcissus. The engraving (Fig. 45), after a painting

in the Naples Museum, represents her as the Stygian queen.

=16. Hades (Pluto).=—The same twofold nature which we meet with in

Persephone may be observed also in her husband, Hades, or Aïdoneus (the

invisible), as he is called by the epic poets, on account of the

mysterious gloom in which his kingdom as well as his person was

enveloped. He first appears as the unrelenting, inexorable foe of human

life, on whom one cannot even think without fear and trembling. For this

reason, says Homer, “he is of all the gods the most detested among

mortals.” This conception, however, was subsequently supplanted by one

of a less dismal nature, in which the other side of his character is

brought into prominence. From this point of view he is represented not

only as sending nourishment to plants from the deep bosom of the earth,

but also as offering unbounded riches to mankind in the shape of the

precious metals which lie in his subterraneous passages and chambers. In

this sense he was also called Pluto, or Pluteus—that is, the god of

riches.

Hades belonged to the earliest deities of Greece, being, like Poseidon,

a brother of Zeus. When the three brothers partitioned the universe

among themselves, Hades received the dark regions of the earth as his

exclusive kingdom, the portals of which he was said to keep closed, in

order that no soul might return to the upper world without his consent.

He was also termed Polydectes (the receiver of many), from the fact of

his seizing on all men, without distinction, at their appointed time,

and conveying them to his dismal realms. The ideas which men first

entertained, as to the mode in which Hades exercised his power over

mortals, exactly corresponded with their grim conception of the god. He

was looked on as a powerful and dreaded robber, who, as in the case of

Persephone, seizes on his prey and carries it off with his swift horses.

Later, a milder conception of the god was introduced. The task of

carrying the souls of the dead to the lower world was delegated to

Hermes, who thus became a servant of Pluto, the Zeus of the infernal

regions, just as he was otherwise a servant of the Zeus of heaven. But

though the original dismal conception of this deity as the inexorable

god of death was much diminished in course of time, yet Hades,

nevertheless, always conveyed an idea of something grim and mysterious

to the Greek mind; which is perhaps the reason why so few myths, beyond

that of the rape of Proserpina, were circulated concerning him. He can,

in fact, scarcely be said to have had a place in the public worship of

the Greeks.

[Illustration:

Fig. 46.—Head of Hades. Palazzo Chigi. Rome.]

The Roman conception of this deity differed little from that of the

Greeks, having been, in fact, borrowed entirely from a Greek source. By

them he was called Pluto, or Pater Dis. He had no temple in Rome, but

had, in common with Proserpina, a subterranean altar in the Campus

Martius, which was uncovered and used once a-year. Only black animals

were sacrificed to him.

Artists naturally hesitated to portray a being whose very name they

feared to pronounce, and consequently antique statues of Hades are

very rare. His characteristic features—a grim expression of

countenance, tightly-closed lips, and long tangled hair—are embodied

in a marble head, in the possession of Prince Chigi at Rome, of

which we give an engraving (Fig. 46). His principal attributes are a

sceptre, a votive bowl, and sometimes a two-pronged fork, or a key.

=17. The Lower World.=—To our consideration of Hades we must add some

remarks on the ideas which the ancient Greeks and Romans had of the

other life and of the abodes of the dead. It may be well to remark, at

the outset, that the Romans do not originally appear to have believed in

a kingdom of the dead in the interior of the earth, and that all their

ideas on this subject were borrowed from the writings of the Greeks.

Neither do their ideas on this subject, nor even those of the Greeks,

appear to have been invariably the same at all times. Even in the poetry

of Homer we come across two very different views as to the situation of

the realms of the dead. According to that which we find in the _Iliad_,

it was situated beneath the disc-shaped earth, only a thin layer

separating it from the upper world. This is made evident on the occasion

of the great battle of the gods in the 20th book, where we read—

“Pluto, the infernal monarch, heard alarmed,

And, springing from his throne, cried out in fear,

Lest Neptune, breaking through the solid earth,

To mortals and immortals should lay bare

His dark and drear abode of gods abhorred.”

According to another view which prevails in the _Odyssey_, the world of

shadows was not situated beneath the earth, but lay far to the westward,

on the other side of Oceanus, or on an island in the same; so indefinite

and vague were men’s ideas as to the locality of the kingdom of death in

the time of Homer, and so undeveloped were their conceptions as to the

lives of departed souls. The lower world appears as a desolate, dismal

region, where departed spirits lead a shadowy, dreamy existence, to

reach which is no happiness. There is no difference in their lots; for

we as yet hear nothing of the judgment of the dead. The Elysian fields,

to which the special favourites of the gods were transferred, form no

part of the lower world in Homer, but were supposed to lie in an

entirely distinct region in the far West (the isles of the blest). Later

on, the outlines of the lower world become more clearly defined. It was

now supposed to be a region in the centre of the earth, with several

passages to and from the upper world. Through it flowed several

rivers—Cocytus, Pyriphlegethon, Acheron, and Styx. The last of these

encompassed the lower world several times, and could only be crossed by

the aid of Charon, the ferryman, who was depicted as a sullen old man

with a bristling beard. The Greeks therefore used to place an obolus

(small copper coin) in the mouths of their dead, in order that the soul

might not be turned back by Charon for lack of money. On the farther

side of the river the portals were watched by the dreadful hell-hound

Cerberus, a three-headed monster, who refused no one entrance, but

allowed none to leave the house of Pluto. All souls, on reaching the

lower world, had to appear before the tribunal of Minos, Rhadamanthus,

and Æacus. Those whose lives had been upright were then permitted to

enter Elysium, where they led a life of uninterrupted bliss; whilst

those who on earth had been criminal and wicked were consigned to

Tartarus, where they were tormented by the Furies and other evil

spirits. Those whose lives had not been distinctly good or bad remained

in the asphodel meadow, where as dim shadows they passed a dull, joyless

existence.

The punishments of great criminals in the infernal regions were a

fruitful theme for the imagination of the poets. The most celebrated

criminals were Tityus, Tantalus, Sisyphus, Ixion, and the Danaids. We

have said that the idea of the judgment of the dead is not found in the

earliest legends. Hence we must expect to find, in some cases, that the

crimes supposed to have drawn down the wrath of the gods were either

later inventions, or had very little connection with the punishment

inflicted. Thus to take the case of Tantalus, the original idea appears

to have been the burning sun looking upon sweet fruits and streams of

water, and drying them up instead of being able to enjoy them. It is

possible that another part of the legend, the offering of his children

for the gods of heaven to eat, may have a similar origin. So the story

of Sisyphus seems to point to the sun daily toiling up the steep hill of

heaven, yet ever obliged to recommence his weary task. So the name Ixion

seems to be derived from a word meaning wheel, and to be yet another

allusion to the orb of day. As men began to forget the reality

underlying these words, and to think that some real person suffered

these woes, it was only natural that they should try to find a reason.

Generally, perhaps always, some point in the story could be twisted into

a crime deserving of punishment (compare the legend of Œdipus). The

punishment of Tityus, who had offered violence to Leto, consisted in

being chained to the earth, whilst two vultures continually gnawed at

his ever-growing liver. Tantalus, the ancestor of the Atridæ, Agamemnon

and Menelaus, had been deemed worthy to hold intercourse with the gods,

until he thought fit to put their omniscience to the test by setting

before them the flesh of his son Pelops. This crime he was condemned to

expiate by the torments of continual hunger and thirst. Above his head

were suspended the most beautiful fruits; but when he attempted to

snatch them, a gust of wind blew them beyond his reach. At his feet

flowed a stream of the purest water; but when he tried to quench his

thirst, it suddenly vanished into the ground. Sisyphus, formerly king of

Corinth, had provoked the wrath of the gods by his numerous crimes, and

was condemned, in consequence, to roll a block of stone up a high

mountain, which, on reaching the top, always rolled down again to the

plain. Ixion, a not less insolent offender, was bound hand and foot to

an ever-revolving wheel. Lastly, the Danaids, or daughters of Danaus,

who, at their father’s command, had slain their husbands on the wedding

night, were condemned to pour water continually into a cask full of

holes, which could never be filled.

=18. The Erinyes (Furiæ).=—The Erinyes, or Furies, were denizens of the

lower world, who executed the commands of Hades and Persephone. They

were ultimately three in number, and their names were Tisiphone, Alecto,

and Megæra; and this number, like that of the Graces, the Fates, and

others, is due to the fact that the Greeks expressed any undefined

number by the sacred numeral three. In their original signification they

appear as the avengers of every violation, either on the part of gods or

men, of the moral laws of the universe. When, at a later period, the

idea of an avenging Nemesis had become more and more developed, the

significance of the Erinyes diminished, and their avenging duties were

confined to the family.

As the inexorable pursuers of every injury done to the sacred ties of

blood—especially the murder of kindred—they received a much greater

degree of attention at the hands of the Greek tragic poets, by whom they

were frequently brought on the stage. The pictures thus drawn of the

relentless activity of the Erinyes are both powerful and striking.

Nothing can equal the keen scent with which they trace the crime, or the

untiring speed with which they pursue the criminal. As a symbol of this

latter quality, the poets have endowed them with brazen feet. Their

appearance is wan and Gorgon-like; wild lust for blood is written in

their features, and the serpents which twine round their heads in the

place of hair deal out destruction and death on their unhappy victims.

Flight avails them nought, for there is no region whither the avenging

Furies cannot follow, no distance that they cannot compass. With torch

swung on high they dog the steps of the unhappy wretch, like swift

huntresses following in the track of their hard-pressed game, and never

rest until they have driven him to madness and death.

What, then, was the origin of the belief in these dreadful beings? Two

explanations have been given, and in each case we shall see in them the

powers of nature. Whether we are to look upon them as the storm-clouds

darting lightnings upon the criminal, or as the bright dawn rising over

the earth and pointing out his hiding-place, we must recognise the idea

of the punishment of sin, inflicted by the powers of heaven. If, as

seems most probable (_cf._ the genealogy given them by Æschylus and

Sophocles), we are to take the latter explanation, we shall have some

reason for the names of “kindly” and “venerable,” applied to them by the

Greeks, partly, no doubt, owing to the ancient custom of avoiding words

of ill-omen. Yet poetical mythology treated this as a transformation of

their nature, and associated it with a special event, namely, the

institution of the Areopagus at Athens, and the purification of the

matricide Orestes effected by this venerable court. The story relates

that Orestes, after having slain his mother Clytæmnestra and her

infamous paramour Ægisthus, in revenge for the murder of his father

Agamemnon, wandered for a long time about the earth in a state bordering

on madness, owing to the persecution of the Erinyes. At length, however,

he was befriended by Apollo and Athene, the kindly deities of the

luminous Æther. Apollo first purified him before his own altar at

Delphi, and then defended him before the court of the Areopagus, which

had been founded by Athene. Orestes was here acquitted, for Athene, when

the votes for and against him were equal, declared that then and in all

future time the criminal should have the benefit of the doubt. The

Furies, indeed, were at first very wroth, and threatened the land with

barrenness both of women and soil; but Athene succeeded in pacifying

them, by promising that a shrine should be erected to them on the hill

of the Areopagus. After they had taken possession of this sanctuary,

they were thenceforth venerated by the Athenians, under the names of

Semnæ (venerable), or Eumenides (benevolent), as propitious deities who,

though they still continued to punish crimes, were ever ready to grant

mercy to the repentant sinner, and to give succour to all good men.

There were different traditions concerning the origin of the Erinyes.

According to Hesiod, they owed their existence to the first execrable

crime committed since the beginning of the world, for they were the

daughters of Earth, and sprang from the drops of blood that fell from

the mangled body of Uranus. They here appear, therefore, as an

embodiment of the curses which the angry father invoked on the head of

his unnatural son. Sophocles, on the other hand, calls them the

daughters of Gæa and Scotos (darkness of night). Æschylus simply terms

them the daughters of the Night. Besides the shrine in Athens already

mentioned, they had another near the city, a sacred grove in Colonus,

which was celebrated as the last refuge of the unfortunate Œdipus. In

Athens they had an annual festival, at which libations of milk and honey

were made to them.

In art the Erinyes are represented as swift huntresses, armed with

spear, bow, and quiver. Torches, scourges, or snakes were also put

in their hands. They were, moreover, provided with wings on their

shoulders or head as a token of their swiftness.

=19. Hecate.=—Among the mystic deities of the lower world we must not

omit to mention Hecate. By the Romans, indeed, she was never publicly

venerated, though she was not exactly unknown to them. Common tradition

made her a daughter of the Titan Perseus and Asteria. She ruled

principally over the secret forces of Nature, which perhaps explains the

spectral and awe-inspiring form which this goddess assumed. She was

supposed to preside over all nocturnal horrors, and not only to haunt

the tombs and cross-roads herself in company with the spirits of the

dead, but also to send nightly phantoms from the lower world, such as

the man-eating spectre Empusa, and other fabulous goblins.

As her name seems to signify, Hecate (far-striking) was originally a

moon-goddess, not like either Artemis or Selene, but representing the

new moon in its invisible phase. The ancients not being able to account

for the different phases of the moon, naturally came to the conclusion

that, when invisible, it was tarrying in the lower world. The public

worship of the goddess was not very extensive, but her importance in

connection with the mysteries was all the greater. Men were wont to

affix small pictures of her to houses and city gates, which were

supposed to prevent any bad spells from affecting the town or house. On

the last day of every month her image on the house doors was crowned

with garlands, and viands were set before it in her honour, which were

afterwards eaten by the poor, and termed the meals of Hecate. Wooden

images of the goddess with three faces were generally set up where three

roads met, and here dogs were sacrificed to her as sin-offerings for the

dead. This usually took place on the thirtieth day after death. As in

the case of other infernal deities, black lambs were sacrificed to her,

besides libations of milk and honey.

[Illustration:

Fig. 47.—Three-formed Hecate. Capitoline Museum.]

Hecate was generally represented as three-formed (_triformis_),

which probably has some connection with the appearance of the full,

half, and new moon. In order to explain more clearly the nature of

such a representation, we give an engraving (Fig. 47) after a bronze

statuette in the Capitoline Museum at Rome. The figure facing us

holds in her hands a key and a rope, which point her out as the

portress of the lower world; over her brow is a disc, representing,

probably, the dark surface of the new moon. The figure on the right

holds in either hand a torch, in virtue of her character as a mystic

goddess, whilst on her brow is a half-moon and a lotus-flower.

Lastly, the third figure bears, as a symbol of the full moon, a

Phrygian cap with a radiant diadem fastened on it, which gives forth

seven rays; in her right hand is a knife, in her left the tail of a

serpent, of which no satisfactory interpretation has hitherto been

discovered.

=20. Sleep and Death.=—Sleep and Death were conceived by the ancients as

twin brothers. According to Hesiod, they were children of Night alone.

They dwelt in the lower world, whence they visited the earth to steal

over mortals; the former a kindly benevolent spirit, the latter grim and

cruel. Apart from this conception, which was especially developed by

later poets and artists, Death was sometimes depicted as quite distinct

from Sleep, and in a still less amiable guise. The different forms of

violent death were personified as female deities of formidable aspect,

called the Ceres; or Apollo and Artemis among the inhabitants of heaven,

and Pluto and Persephone among those of the lower world, were

represented, as the deities of death. The Romans had a personal god of

death, whom they called Orcus; he was represented as an armed warrior

dealing out mortal wounds among mankind. But none of these special gods

of death had any great importance, either in religion or art. Artists,

indeed, laboured sedulously to diminish the dreadful appearance of

Thanatus (death), and to render him more and more like his brother

Hypnus (sleep).

Thanatus and Hypnus often appear in company, either sleeping or

standing; the former usually bears a reversed torch, the latter a

poppy-stalk or a horn, out of which he is pouring some liquid. They

are both generally represented in the bloom of youth. In Fig. 34,

which is after a drawing of Asmus Carstens, they appear as the

children of Night, and are here brought into immediate connection

with the other powers, Nemesis and the Parcæ, who control the

destinies of man.

Besides Sleep and Death, Hesiod also mentions Dreams as the children of

Night. Other writers, however, call them the sons of Sleep, who dwell in

the far West, close to the realms of Hades. This house of dreams has, in

Homer’s well-known description, two gates—one of ivory, through which

pass flattering, deceptive dreams, and one of horn, whence the true

dreams proceed. Morpheus was made the special god of dreams by the

poets, and termed the son of Hypnus.

IV.—ROMAN DEITIES OF THE HOUSE AND FAMILY.

Before passing to the heroic legends, some remarks are necessary

concerning the inferior deities, who played such an important part in

the domestic worship of the Romans. We have already incidentally

remarked that the people of Italy generally passed by the greater gods

of the heaven and earth in anxious awe. Their invocation and adoration

was left to public worship, whilst, in their less important domestic

concerns, men had recourse to certain inferior deities, whom they

thought nearer to them; just as in the present day, in Italy, the common

people prefer to communicate their prayers and wishes to their patron

saints rather than to the Almighty himself.

=1. The Penates.=—The Penates were the kindly domestic deities of the

Romans—the guardians of the household, who especially provided for its

daily wants. Of their name, number, and sex nothing is known—not because

the facts have been lost to us, but because the Romans themselves were

content with this indefinite conception. Similar good spirits, exerting

an active influence in the household, were recognised by popular German

superstition, without experiencing any necessity of having distinct

names for them. The shrine of the Penates consisted of the hearth, the

central point of the house, which not only served for the preparation of

meals, but was also especially dedicated to religious purposes. It stood

in the “atrium,” the only large room in the Roman house, where the

family met for meals and received visitors. On the hearth, a fire was

continually kept burning in honour of Vesta and the Penates. Around it,

after the introduction of images of the gods, were placed the statues of

the Penates. These were generally small and puppet-like, and, among the

poorer classes, were only roughly cut out of wood. There was no domestic

occurrence, either of joy or mourning, in which the Penates did not take

part. Like the Lares, of whom we shall speak presently, they

participated in the daily meal, portions being set on certain plates for

that purpose before the images. There were also State Penates, the

ancients regarding the state as nothing but an extended family. The

temple of Vesta was to the state what the hearth was to the household.

Here was the seat of their worship, and here it was that the Roman

Pontifex Maximus brought those offerings which, in private households,

were the part of the head of the family. In the innermost sanctuary of

the temple of Vesta there were statues of these Penates, of great

sanctity, since Æneas was reported to have brought them with him from

Troy. We have no trustworthy information as to their number or

appearance, for, with the exception of the Pontifex and the Vestal

Virgins, none ever entered the holy place. It is scarcely necessary to

add that they were believed to exercise an especial influence on the

welfare and prosperity of the state and people of Rome.

=2. The Lares.=—The Lares, like the Penates, were the tutelary deities

of the house and family, and on that account often confounded with them.

They were commonly supposed to be the glorified spirits of ancestors,

who, as guardian deities, strove to promote the welfare of the family.

The seat of their worship was also the family hearth in the atrium,

where their images of wood or wax were generally preserved in a separate

shrine of their own (Lararium). The Lares received an especial degree of

veneration on the first day of every month; but, like the Penates, they

took part in all the domestic occurrences, whether of joy or sorrow.

Like the Penates, they also received their share at every meal on

particular dishes, and were crowned with garlands on the occasion of

every family rejoicing. When a son assumed the _toga virilis_ (came of

age), he dedicated his _bulla_[5] to the Lares, amid prayers and

libations and burning of incense. When the father of the house started

on a journey or returned in safety, the Lares were again addressed, and

their statues crowned with wreaths, flowers and garlands being their

favourite offerings.

Footnote 5:

A gold or silver ornament, like a medal, which was worn round the neck

during childhood.

The same conception which pervades the domestic Lares may be perceived

in a more extensive form in the Lares of the Gens, the city, and the

state itself. The Lares do not appear, in fact, to have differed in many

respects from the heroes worshipped by the Greeks. At all events,

Romulus and Remus, the mythical founders of the city, were regarded as

its Lares, and, in the time of Augustus, the genius of the emperor was

associated with them.

=3. Larvæ, Lemures, and Manes.=—Just as the Lares were regarded as the

good and happy spirits of ancestors, the souls of others were supposed

to wander about in the guise of evil demons and spectres, giving rise to

weird terrors, and casting bad spells on the senses of those whom they

met. Such was especially believed to be the fate of those who had not

received burial, or in whose case the prescribed ceremonies had been

neglected, and who being, in consequence, unable to find rest, were

doomed to flit about the earth. Such spirits were called Larvæ, or

Lemures. The propitiatory festival of the Lemuria, or Lemuralia, which

was said to have been instituted in memory of the murdered Remus, was

celebrated annually in their honour on the 9th, 11th, and 13th of May.

Every paterfamilias was supposed during these days to perform certain

midnight ceremonies, and to repeat certain forms, which had the effect

of banishing any evil spirits.

In contrast to the Lares and Larvæ, the souls of the dead were also

commonly venerated as Manes, or good spirits. These were believed after

burial to have been converted into beings of a higher order, who dwelt,

indeed, in the interior of the earth, but exercised, notwithstanding, a

considerable influence on the affairs of the upper world. It was

possible to summon them from the lower world by means of sacrifices. A

general festival of the dead took place in February, when the Manes were

propitiated with offerings and libations. These offerings were placed on

the tombs of the deceased, and, of course, varied extremely, according

to the means of the donors.

[Illustration]