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MANUAL OF MYTHOLOGY.
Frontispiece.
M ^L N TJ A.
OF
MYTHOLOGY
GREEK AND ROMAN, NORSE, AND OLD GERMAN, HINDOO AND EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY.
BY
ALEXANDER
S.
MURRAY,
M.
LONDON
BKDFOKI) STREET,
1874.
ASHER AND
13,
CO.,
COVENT GARDEN,
Watson
&
Hatell, Printers.
PREFACE.
THE
first
edition
of-
"
THE MANUAL OF
ffcrttc* favour,
is
MYTHOLOGY
was so
signal
an assurance of
now
called
made
to render
it
efficient
as
standard
The
the
been
added,
in
smaller
art
type,
in
an
account
most
was
memorable
represented.
works of
or
Among
the
legends
Greek
heroes,
enlarged.
The
chapters
on
the
Eastern
and
fur
made more
illustrations.
new
VI
PREFACE.
With these
alterations,
it
is
hoped
a
that the
MANUAL
and
will
now
justify
its
claim
to be
trustworthy
it
complete
claim
:
class-book
to
for
Mythology.
This much
as
may
also
be no longer described
Preller,
less
Petiscus,
it
and
the
Welcker.
splendid
it
Not
that
in
its
new form
and
owes
to
researches
of
Preller
Welcker.
them,
On
the
contrary,
owes more
than
ever to
as
masters
it
whose works
have rather
is
CONTENTS.
INTRODUCTION
.22
26
)emigods or Heroes
.... ....
.
.
.129
.
200
309
-337
.341
-353
LIST
OF PLATES.
AMAZON
A
xxxiii.,
:
268.
CUPID.
See EROS.
:
ANDRO.MKDA
i
xxxii., 216.
:
DEMETER (CERES)
DIONYSOS
109.
vi.,
:
56.
1 1
n RODITE
(VENUS)
88.
viii., ix.,
DIANA OF EPHESUS
xv.,
:
5.
(BACCHUS)
xiv.,
APOLLO
xi.,
ARES (MARS):
75,
1
viii.,
xxviii.,
DIOSKURI
xxxiii.,
:
268.
167.
68.
xvi.,
Eos (AURORA)
120.
xxvii.,
ARIADNE:
ERATO
ERINYS
xv., 160.
:
xxix., 189.
:
EROS (CUPID)
168, 189.
xxviii.,
xxix.,
AIHKNE (MINERVA):
88, 94.
xi., xii.,
EUTERPE
FENRIS
:
xxiv., 159.
xl.,
320.
AURORA.
BACCHUS.
FLORA.
See CHLORIS.
See TYCHE.
FORTUNA.
FREIJA:
:
BELLEROPHON
BRAHMA,
CF.RES.
xxxii., 216.
xxxvii., 314.
with
SARASWATI
FREYR
FRIC.G
(i
:
xxxix., 317.
xlii.,337.
xxxvi., 315.
:
See DEMETER.
:
ANY MI .DKs
xxviii.,
68.
CHI.OKIS (FLORA)
xxi.,
151.
HADES.
SeePLum.
LIST OF PLATES.
MERCURY.
MINERVA.
88.
:
See HERMES.
See ATHENE.
:
HELIOS (SoL)
75, 121.
:
xi.,
MUSES, MOTHER OF
viii
xxiii..
HEPH^ESTOS (VULCAN)
x.,
158.
NEPTUNE.
iv., v.,
See POSEIDON.
:
HERA QUNO)
200.
46, 50
HERAKLES (HERCULES):
xxx.
HERMES (MERCURY)
121, 132.
:
x., xvii.
NIKE (VICTORIA) xxx., NILE GOD xliv., 347. NIOBE xiii., 100. ODIN: xxxv., 313.
:
200.
OXf/xTTO?.
Frontispiece,
OSIRIS
xliv.,
347.
PAN
xix.,
:
136,
xxi.,
HYGIEA
PEGASOS
151.
xxxii.,
HYMEN
INDRA
IRIS
Isis
:
:
PERSEUS:
216.
xxxi.,
178,
xli.,
329.
xxvi., 162.
xlv.,
:
PLUTO
vi.,
56.
xxiv., 159.
:
350.
132.
POLYHYMNIA:
JANUS
JUNO.
xvii.,
v.,
50.
JUPITER:
PSYCHE
189.
xxviii.,
xxix.,
168,
KALLIOPE
xxiii.,
:
158.
KAMADEVA
KLIO
:
xliii.,
339.
RHEA
SATYR
SIREN
SIVA:
SOL.
153.
i.,
ii.,
29, 33.
xxii.,
:
157.
29.-
xix., 136.
:
i.,
SERAPIS
:
xlv.,
350.
vii.,
70.
xx., 149.
xxxiv., 283.
xliii.,
339.
See LETO.
:
See HELIOS.
:
xxv., 160.
157.
153.
268. 157.
THEMIS:
xviii.,
:
THESEUS
xxxiv., 283.
OF PLATES.
\i
THOR
xxxviii., 315.
VESTA.
See HESTIA.
See NIKK.
xlii.,
TKIMURRTI
NITY)
:
(HINDOO
329.
TRI
VICTORIA.
xli.,
:
TRITONS
xx., 149.
:
VISHNU VULCAN.
337.
HEPH.K>I">.
See
TYCHE (FORTUNA) xxi., 151. URANIA xxiv., 159. VENU& See APHRODITE.
:
ZEUS (JUPITER)
35-
ii.,
iii.,
33,
INTRODUCTION.
is
a charm in the
name
of ancient Greece
;
there
J-
is
glory in
there
is
a fas
and a sense of un
is a spell in approachable beauty in her works of art; there We her climate still, and a strange attraction in her ruins. our poets arc familiar with the praises of her beautiful. islands
;
There
is
not in
all
the land a
that mountain, plain, or river, nor a fountain, grove, or wood, The names of tale. is not hallowed by some legend or poetic her artists, Pheidias, Praxiteles, Apelles, and Zeuxis ; of her
Homer, Pindar, yEschylus, Sophocles, Euripides of her the names of her states philosophers, Socrates, Plato, Epicurus
poets,
;
men and
orators, Pericles
and Demosthenes
;
of her historians,
of her mathematicians,
Archimedes and Euclid, are familiar to us as household words. We look back over a period of more than two thousand years with feelings of wonder at her achievements on the battle-field
and
We
in
emulate her in
many
ways, but
emu
we
are
still
ready
How
far
we may
INTRODUCTION.
remains to be seen.
rate find
But which
ever
way
it
be,
we
it
shall at
any
abundant evidence of
had upon the great mass of the people, and of it was calculated to exercise on their
it
For
was
husbandman sowed
growth
;
his seed,
vicissitudes of
life
its
and
and property to the capricious sea. The mechanic traced the skill and handicraft which grew uncon
sciously
upon him by
and poets
Daily
same superior
cause.
life,
were duly acknowledged as coming from the Everywhere in nature was felt the presence
:
its
luminaries and
;
on the
sea, with
its
man himself, and everything around him, was upheld by Divine power ; that his career was marked out for him by a rigid fate which even the gods could not alter, should they wish it on occasion. He was indeed free to act, but the con
sequences of
all his
These
trusted
deities
to
whom
we
en
were,
it
in their existence, as
when we come
to read the
legends
even concerning a story of the death of Zeus, his tomb being pointed out ;
their
and, further, the fact that the gods were believed to sustain their existence by means of nectar and ambrosia, is sufficient
INTRODUCTION.
were next, as a consequence, Being immortal, they be omnipotent and omniscient. Their physical supposed to the earth shaking sometimes under strength was extraordinary,
their
of age.
tread
They
moved
time.
They
of a moment of through space almost without the loss knew all things, saw and heard all things with rare
exceptions.
to
They were
wise,
and communicated
strict
their
wisdom
men.
it is true crime rigorously, and rewarded noble actions, though Their punish the latter. that they were less conspicuous for till as a rule ; but even if late, even if not ments came
quickly,
still
fail.
The
it
sinner
in the
who escaped
;
retribution in this
was sure
to obtain
unrewarded enjoyed the lower world while the good who died To many this did next life. fruit of their good actions in the human affairs, and a way of managing not
satisfactory appear the absolute justi.v hence there frequently arose doubts as to even the sanctity of their lives. These doul of the gods, and
>ts
men like which, to the indignation of or that one of the gods as the poet Pindar, represented this believed to offence or other, such as they were guilty of some these stories, to explain Philosophers endeavoured punish. as allegories under fictions of the brain, others ae as mere mass of the people which lay a profound meaning. But the and nevertheless believed in the accepted them as they came, wickedthe gods, being satisfied that human perfect sanctity of was detested and punished by them.
were reflected in
stories,
whole of man Whether the gods were supposed to love the It would lives, is not certain. kind, or only such as led good
of offering s* rificc m, however, from the universal practice that they were beand expiation on the occasior of any wrong,
INTRODUCTION.
endowed with some deep feeling of general love, which even sinners could touch by means of atonement. At
lieved to be
all
They hated
into sin.
in the
excessive prosperity
among
them
and wrong
There were
personal
among men, taking part in battles, and appearing They were conceived to possess the form of human
to be, like
beings,
and
men, by the highest qualities and grandest form that could be To produce statues of them that would equal this imagined.
terized
subject to love
and
high ideal was the chief ambition of artists ; and in presence of statues in which such success had been attained, the popular
mind
felt
an aw
this
as
if
in
some way
But while
was the case with regard to the renowned of art, such as the statue of Zeus at Olympia, by examples Pheidias, it was equally true with regard to those very ancient
have
fallen
rude figures of deities which were believed to from heaven, and were on that account most
carefully pre served in temples, the removal or loss of such a figure being considered an equivalent to the loss of the favour of the
deity
time,
whose image
owing
it
was.
At the same
statues
to the vast
of gods, there gradually arose a feeling of the deification of man, and a struggle to become more and more like these beings of nobler human form and divine For it is one of the presence.
advantages of having gods possessed of kind can look up to them with the
human form
that
man
feeling of having
something
INTRODUCTION.
in
common, and
and favour.
This was a
religion, and led more than any other to the extraordinary piety of the Greek race, in spite of all the awkward stories which we are accustomed to ridicule.
powerful element
Greek
It
at
any rate
what actually existed, their chief thoughts being concentrated in the changes that took place in what existed and directly
affected their interests.
as only
In this
spirit
order and
Hence
it
who
who presided
in particular depart
ments
in
the
management
of the world.
to polytheism
further aggravated
much
plausibility that a
number of
much
tribes of the
Greek
race,
names and
though
worship.
in the
It
is
common
while
others,
who
in after times, as
in
positions,
may have
originally
first
order.
INTRODUCTION.
At
of Greece,
though
its
was spread also in colonies over the and Mediterranean, along the coasts
Sea, in the Crimea,
of Asia
on the north
In
coast of Africa,
many
of
its
features the
coast, very
sea.
England, both having the same comparatively vast extent of sea few parts of the country being out of sight of the
Both are well supplied with mountains that invigorate the In both cases it may climate, and stir the spirit of adventure.
be that
this
yond
its
desire of
commerce and
distant colonization.
At any
rate, the
made
deep impression on the people and colonists, wherever they spread, retained the warmest recollection of them of snow-clad
;
Olympos, where the gods lived; of the lovely vale of Tempe; of the smiling banks of the Peneios; of the sacred grove at Delphi;
of peaceful Arcadia, with
its
pastoral
life
Olympia, with
its
innumerable temples,
;
and
treasureits flag
of Corinth, with
its
ancient cita
We
the
propose
by Cadmus of Eleusis, and many other places. now to examine more particularly the religious
Greeks and Romans, with the view of preparing gods individually.
all
belief of the
way
But
first
of
let
us
explain
the
INTRODUCTION.
from the Greek According to its derivation and logos, an account, it would mean an account
"
"
mythology."
mythos, a
tale,
of
tales,"
to the origin,
of the ancient gods, to the origin character, and functions of the visible world. condition of
try to
must endeavour stances under which they were invented, and of a nation in to comprehend the condition and circumstances
the early stage of
its
existence.
For
this
can purpose we
com
of the to the gods of other nations, pare the early tales relating other ; or we the Indian on the one hand and the German on
may
also
civilized
races at present in an un compare the condition of the From these, sources it would seem that state.
at like that of an individual, is the period youth of a nation, is greatest in pro which the activity of imagination and fancy The mystery of surrounding is least. as
portion
knowledge
its
phenomena on
the senses.
There
is
a feeling of alarm
when thunder
terror in the darkness of gladness in the warm light of day, of The darkness of death. of night, and of a strange dread at the and repel the rest of accidents of daily life bind men together,
human
superiority
soon
becomes known.
they
Men
else.
learn to
as yet
know nothing
They know
own
passions
and
in-
stin. ts.
palms,
feet, paces, They measure everything by themselves, by fathom or measure the and ells and when they seek to
;
,
the
at
phenomena
no standard
it
to
employ
imagine
hand, except themselves. They mi-ht, form of the cause of the thunder under the
;
is
true,
in
great
visible lion
but
in that
commune moved to
with and
do.
He
INTRODUCTION.
like a
man, endowed
and
qualities
higher.
pealed
to the
seems probable that the first phenomena that ap mind were those of the change of weather, of
year.
At any
rate,
those
who
We
seem
mankind
and
in a primitive
stage of
might
arise,
the course of
light,
human
life
and departing
but only to
commence another day of happy life that the name of the highest god of the
"light
elsewhere.
We know
of the
world,"
in a literal sense.
ceptive faculties expanded, and the wants of men multiplied, the other phenomena of the world became the subject of inquiry,
and were,
The
is,
that having,
the
powerful god, they did not simply extend his functions to all the departments of nature, instead of finding a new god to preside
It may be that the apparent conflict frequently over each. observed between the elements of nature was hostile to such an
idea, while
on the contrary nothing was more readily imaginable than a quarrel among different gods as the cause of such pheno mena. By a similar process the combination of different ele
ments,
as, for
example, warmth and moisture, was appropriately human point of view as a prolific union or
INTRODUCTION.
marriage of t\vo
brother and
sister.
deities.
called
is,
that the
religions
it
god
belief
suc h a belief,
is
said,
being as natural to
this earliest
man
as the
But
became, they
in the existence of
many gods, originating in such a method of as we have described. c-xplaining the phenomena of nature On the other hand, the oldest religious records we know of
in the speak of hosts of divine beings; while American Indians the Great Spirit is primitive religion of the surrounded by a crowd of lesser spirits, who represent the
the
Yedas
various
phenomena
of nature.
it
It
opposed
till
to the other
and
false gods,
of Greece, no doubt,
thinking
men acknowledged
but one
of other gods as supreme being, and looked on the crowd and in no sense really different from our merely his servants,
idea of angels.
In due time the religion of the ancients became a polytheism and ; every phase of nature, sky, sea,
phase of
human
life, its
habits, accidents,
and im
a special guardian and controlling pulses, being provided with In all the varying circumstances of life men turned to
deity.
one or other of these divine persons in gratitude or for help. were erected to them everywhere, iples, sanctuaries, altars,
another being worshipped with special favour here, and one with special favour at one season of the year, another there of them were only known and worat another season.
;
Many
10
INTRODUCTION.
shipped
in particular localities
marine deities
number of minor
deities
;
attributes
have
come down
to our times
common
for a belief in the superior order of property of the whole nation, whether
The mys
;
the
them
in
Zeus at Olympia.
power
Hades, that Hera was the wife of Zeus, that Athene was his
daughter, that Aphrodite was the goddess of love, Artemis of the moon, and Ares the god of war.
was believed that these higher deities inhabited Olympos, living together in a social state which was but a magnified
It
on
earth.
mutual assistance, and such incidents as characterize human It must however be borne in mind life, were ascribed to them.
that these human attributes, and the stories connected with them, whether they represent admirable qualities or the reverse, were
not in the
first
make
their
resemblance to
man more
over which they were supposed to preside, of conceiving and representing the combination or conflict of elements visible in
nature as the result of the combination or conflict of invisible beings of
human
form.
greater refinement,
tions of natural
when
phenomena was
many
of these
INTRODUCTION.
1 l
stories
came
to
be viewed as disgraceful, and by being made ridicule in plays tended largely to uproot
them
as allegories.
Others,
who
way
popular
faith in
them
But we who
having
no need of a
since passed away, and de religion that has long and deep its origin and the source of its long siring only to trace
influence
mood.
on a great nation, may look at them in a calmer and not to It is our part to admire as far as possible,
first
condemn without
circumstance.
and ceremonies by which the Greeks on and Romans expressed their belief in and entire dependence call attention first to the offering of sacri the gods, we would These were of two kinds, one consisting of fruits, cakes, fices.
Turning now to the
rites
altar and wine; the other of animals, which were led to the decked with garlands and ribbons, after various ceremonies
slain,
flesh
smell of
being supposed for this purpose should necessary that the animals selected
the be spotless and healthy, that the persons participating in tor no and in mind inony should be cleanly in person to the costliness could make the offering of a sinner acceptable
;
gods.
The
colour, age,
to the deity for whom it by the feeling of appropriateness The time chosen for the ceremony was the morning slain.
of the the case of trie gods of heaven, the evening in the CESC To these latter deities the victim WAS da Of the lower world.
it
|.os>ible
that they
altar
could share
in a feast in
company
ith
men. The
lire
on the
12
INTRODUCTION.
was considered holy, and special care was taken that it should be fed with wood that gave a pure flame. In early times it would seem that even human beings were offered as sacrifices to
victims in such cases gods, being occasionally, to judge from the instance of Iphigenia, closely connected by ties of blood and affection with the person to make the sacrifice.
certain
the
required
But these were, perhaps, mostly cases in which the will of the gods was specially communicated through a seer or prophet whereas sacrifice generally was a spontaneous gift to the gods,
;
either for the purpose of expressing gratitude for the blessings bestowed by them, or of atoning for some sin of which the person sacrificing was conscious. Sacrifices were not
presented
intermittently
offered,
and
at
mere
when occasion
as at harvest time,
gave part of his gain, and the soldier a share of his in war. The gods to whom all prosperity booty
when the fruits of the fields and The herdsman sacrificed the firstlings
and worldly blessings were due expected such offerings, thought, and punished every instance of neglect.
it
was
There was, however, another class of sacrifices, springing from a different motive, and with a different object in view ; for ex
ample, to obtain by means of an examination of the entrails of an animal an augury as to the issue of some enterprise, a form of sacrifice which was held of great importance at the commence
ment of a
battle
some important bargain between man and man or to obtain purification for some crime. In this last case it was supposed that the victim took the sin upon its own head, and that both perished together. Hence no part of such victims was eaten.
How
share of
sacrifices allotted to
them
is
not always
clear,
though
in the case
INTRODUCTION.
13
may be imagined
air,
to
have been
satisfied
and
With regard
it
to the sacrifices in
honour of the
seems
to
have been
if
be acceptably ground, would sink down to them, and In the same hole, or near by, were buried the ashes received.
the
that
remained on the
altar
The
It
portions assigned to
deep water.
was the duty of the
priests to
of
offering
up the
sacrifices
were.
The
first
part of the
service they
some
corn,
and perhaps
also flowers,
and
to pass
it,
altar
from
left
The
it.
brought the sacrifice taking a handful of corn from the basket, scattered
Thereupon the people who had sprinkled themselves and the altar, and
it
on the
it
approached.
The
and
distri
fire,
buting
it
among
the bystanders to
nminanded
silence,
The
and the
entrails,
placed upon
the
The
strung
feelings
of piety,
gratitude,
rise to
dependence,
or
un
all
14
INTRODUCTION.
at
the
beginning of
meals, at the
opening of business in the courts of justice and public assem blies, a prayer was offered up, now to one god, now to
or, if no particular deity
another,
for
appeared to be an appropriate guardian the time and occasion, to the gods generally. There was
Greek prayers, which we must not omit on a deity by his usual name a
from any possible dis
;
clause was
added
name employed
?
for
how
could
man
know
have an example of such a in ^schylus prayer Zeus, whoever thou art, and by what ever name it please thee to be named, I call on thee and pray."
"
the true
name of a god
:
We
the hands
it was the custom of the Greeks and turn the face towards the east of the
;
Romans,
hands towards the sea, and a suppliant of the gods of the lower world beat the earth with his hands.
When
a prayer was offered up in a temple the rule was to turn towards the sacred In cases of great distress the image.
suppliant would
twined round
image,
it,
carry an olive branch, or a rod with wool throw himself on the ground before the sacred
its feet. Pythagoras, the philosopher, taught his followers to pray with a loud voice ; but loud prayers do not appear to have been On the contrary, it customary. happened not unfrequently that the prayers were written on tablets, sealed and deposited beside the image of the god, that no human being might be aware of the request contained in
and embrace
them.
Here
"
is
usual form
whether we ask
us,
of thee or not
it
whatever
is
evil
keep
far
good, from
even
if
we ask
of
thee."
INIKODUCTION.
15
is
still
another class of
cremon ies,
:
in
Oreeks
first,
which we recognise the deep piety of the the custom of consulting oracles, especially that
;
and secondly,
the universal
practice,
in
cases
of
less
or
more sudden
emergency, of trying to interpret the will of the gods by means Sometimes of augury or divination in t a vast variety of ways. the augury was taken from the direction in which birds were
observed to
fly
overhead.
who
At other enterprise in question ; if to the left, the reverse. times an animal was slain, and its entrails carefully examined,
the propitiousness of the gods being supposed to
depend on
the
healthy and normal condition of these were also believed to communicate their
parts.
will to
men
in
dreams,
by sending thunder and lightning, comets, meteors, eclipses, earthquakes, prodigies in nature, and the thousands of unex
pected incidents that occur to men.
able
employment
for
who made
this their
particular business.
Finally,
we must not
forget to
spread religious feeling of the Greeks the national festivals, or games, as they are called, established and maintained in honour
of certain gods.
were being celebrated it was necessary to suspend whatever war might be going on between separate states, and to permit visitors to pass unmo
festivals
While these
These
festivals
were four
number
and Isthmian.
The
of Olympia, in
It
occurred every
fifth
year,
INTRODUCTION.
method of reckoning time was according to its re-occurrence, by Olympiads, as we say. The games with which it was cele
brated consisted of running, wrestling, boxing, a combination of the two latter, horse-racing, either with chariots or only with
riders.
The
prize of victory
it.
the races,
their
and counted a victory among the highest honours of lives. The fellow-townsmen of a victorious athlete would
Occasionally writers, as
we
are
countrymen
to read to
them
The
Pythian games were held in honour of Apollo, in the neighbour hood of Delphi, and occurred every fifth year, there being com
athletics. The prize was a At the Nemean games, which were held in honour of Zeus, the prize was a wreath of ivy. The Isthmian games were held in honour of Poseidon, on the Isthmus of
petitions
in
music as well as in
wreath of
laurel.
Corinth,
third year
of pine.
remarkable and surprising that, with all the piety and religious ceremonies of the ancients, there existed among
It
is
mass of the
whom
There was, indeed, a regular priesthood, they worshipped. whose duty it was to conduct the public ceremonies, to offer
up sacrifices, and to perform other offices peculiar to the god in whose service they were. But there their duties ceased. These ceremonies had been handed down from time immemorial,
and
that
was perhaps
sufficient
make
INTRODUCTION.
At any
explicit
rate,
this
assiduity
is
public instruction.
whatever unanimity
first
due
in
the
instance to the
Homer and
Delphi.
The
in the
know whether there was one Aphrodite wondered why Zeus, who was believed to be one
many names. The preceding remarks,
it
for
and do not
extend to that of the Romans, except so far as they refer to the most primitive class of myths, such as those concerning the
origin of the world. logies
races,
For the practice of identifying the mytho Both of those two nations has no foundation in fact.
true,
it is
the
human
belonged to one and the same great branch of family, and from that source derived a common
But before
this kernel
had developed
far the two nations parted, and formed for themselves distinct and isolated settlements in Europe. In the long period of
common seed
which both started grew up, was propagated under quite ent circumstances, and assumed a very different aspect.
The
Romans
of
in
cultural, simple,
and more or
less united
people
had no need
cessary, scattered
into a variety of
l8
INTRODUCTION.
From
this,
among
other causes,
it
To
conflict
his
his father,
No
quarrels
among
ment of
we may add
and
With regard
to the ceremonies
which
accompanied the worship of certain gods, we observe the same great difference between the two nations, and would cite as an
example the wild unrestrained conduct of those who took part
Dionysos, remarking that when in later times of luxury a festival of this kind was introduced into Italy in honour of Bacchus, the Roman equivalent for the Greek Dio
in the festivals of
new festival was forbidden, and those who took part in it were viewed as persons of unbridled desires. Nor did Mercury ever obtain the wide-spread worship and honour paid to Hermes in Greece and even Saturnus, in
nysos or Bakchos, the
;
spite of the
Roman
poets,
was a very
different
Greek Kronos.
At
the time
to write,
Greece
Greek literature captured was leading her captor captive." was the usual means of education ; Greek philosophy, Greek
art,
everything pertaining
to
the Greeks,
constituted
the
own language
Poets, construct
ing their
poems
INTRODUCTION.
some similarity of char by names of native deities possessing a Greek story of a native Italian god ; or, acter, and told
At Latin form. employed the Greek name in a of the two the same time no real adaptation or coalescence
failing such,
religious
and forms of worship remained for the most part distinct from the Greek, and peculiar to the race. In modern times, however,
the literature (especially the poetry) of the ancient Romans was more familiarly known than the facts relating to their
It
known than
the latter, the
the literature
of
upon
modern notions
our
Roman
poets,
Hence
those
a confusion
which
own
especially
To meet
equivalent
confusion
we
Roman
by
between them. point out as far as possible the differences confined to the mytho Thus far our observations have been
the Greeks and logy and religious ceremonies of
pecially of the
Romans,
say
es
former.
We
have had
little
to
of the
in their Romans, because, though equal perhaps to the Greeks in the gods, they appear to have been very piety and trust
deficient
in
that quality
invent
some divine
personification
As, however,
if
it
is
our intention
even
may be
well to
now
these
races
human
family sprung from the same stock to which he Greeks and Romans belonged, and
are
common
or
20
INTRODUCTION.
common
to the mythologies of
From
this
it
is
were arrived
Germanic
distinct
family,
as
it
is
called,
and
its
development into
and
historical times.
traces of a
as we find it at the dawn of From the Ganges to Iceland we meet with common early belief that the wild features of the isolated nations,
earth
flict
whom, though
obeyed.
invisible,
the stormy
elements of nature
within these limits
We
find that
everywhere,
among
to phenomena and darkness, to heat and cold, to rain and drought, to light storms and peacefulness, and the same readiness and power
men
the
same
sensitiveness to the
of nature,
human
To these beings cause of these phenomena. actions and habits of life were ascribed, such as were sug
gested by the
trol
to
con
should be borne in mind, was any case, ; of morality or immorality intended to be conveyed. feeling
in
and
For instance, when we find the natural process by which the clouds pour out their rain upon the earth, and are again filled
from the
sea, described as
Hermes (the god of rain) stealing we cannot attach to the story the
Similar interpre
it
at first suggests.
tations we must be prepared to seek throughout the mytholo gies of the Indo-Germanic races.
It
may now be
is this
To
this
and
J
INTRODUCTION.
21
others, to
countrymen was a and whose writings have survived to subject of great importance, the representations of gods our times in the second place, from
whom
exist,
whether
in the
form of statues
in
marble and
and without becoming These are the sources of our knowledge, to under it is perhaps impossible more or less familiar with them and contrariwise, stand fully the spirit of these ancient myths at its real worth the beauty of ancient to be able to
;
art, it is
necessary to
become
and the religious spirit which acquainted with the mythology if that be not sufficient temptation and guided their authors; various deities and heroes of to follow our descriptions of the
ancient times,
we can
still
appeal to this
works of art can only be our grandest modern poetry and those who know the ancient mythology. intelligible to as we are now, to the details of our subject,
We
fore
we have endeavoured
We
do with a system of would also repeat that its apparent or real shortcoming whatever religious belief which, education exercised enormous influence on the
we have here
to
may have
been,
most
Greeks
for the
most
part,
it
satisfied
f*
*
by the poet Hesiod, that in the beginning the world was a great shapeless mass or chaos, out of which was fashioned first the spirit of love, Eros (Cupid), and
with~ the explanation given
%e
broad-chested earth,
night.
s k Vj
Gaea
then
Erebos,
darknqss,
and
Nyx,
L~
From a union
ancj
the c i ear
The earth, by virtue of the day. power by which it was fashioned, produced in turn, Uranos, firmament which covered her with its vault of brass, as the
Hemera,
poets called
it,
to describe
its
began
these
to
Pontos, the unfruitful sea. Thereupon oldest and at the same time the youngest of the gods, agitate the earth and all things on it, bringing them
together,
and making pairs of them. First in importance of were Uranos and Gaea, heaven and earth, who pairs
peopled the earth with a host of beings, Titans, Giants, and Kyklopes, of far greater physical frame and energy than the
races
It is
making order out of chaos, bringing opposite elements and preparing a world to receive mankind.
that expressed
to
Another apparently older and certainly obscure notion, is by Homer, which ascribes the origin of the world
Okeanos,
the ocean.
How
the earth
23
as co-existing with from him, or whether they were conceived not told. The numerous ancient we are him from the
beginning, after which new generations however, concerning floods, stories, the innumerable fertilizing of men sprang up, and the fact that from the of the earth were believed to come rivers and streams
river to return to it, and that all the ocean, as they were seen of Okeanos, suggest the pre the offspring gods were accounted to the origin of the valence of such a form of belief with regard are told that the ocean world in times previous to Hesiod. We and was a region of encircled the earth with a great stream,
wonders of
all
kinds
that
Okeanos
Tethys
and ambrosia on which of the gods, the sources of the nectar Within this circle of water the earth lay spread lived. the
gods
from it, and the vault of out like a disc with mountains rising This all round. heaven appearing to rest on its outer edge so that the water outer edge was supposed to be slightly raised, The space between not rush in and overflow the land.
might
was seen to be occu the surface of the earth and the heavens and above the clouds was supposed t pied by air and clouds, and stars moved. The be ether, in which the sun, moon,
>
pure tinsun rising in the eastern sky in the morning, traversing at evening in the celestial arch during the day, and sinking
is
into Okeanos. drawn by four splendid horses. After sinking he took ship and sailed during the night was supposed that a new day. round t the east, so as to be ready to be-in In the region of
air
moved
the higher
I
council or inter ttd when, for the sake of order oi was the summit of one ot they met together, the meeting place in the clouds, but those lofty mountains whose heads were hid
24
chief of
all,
Olympos
in Thessaly.
Round
the
highest point of
which he
i.
sat in
those of Thetis
(Iliad 498) when she came to plead for her son. On plateaus or in ravines lower down were the mansions of the other gods,
and
all
that
earth.
The
do
deities
who
We
same
number composed
of the
may be
Zeus (Jupiter), Hera (Juno), Poseidon (Neptune), Demeter (Ceres), Apollo, Artemis (Diana), Hephaestos (Vulcan), Pallas, Athene (Minerva), 0^res (Mars), Aphro
dite
(Venus),
allied to
Hermes
(Mercury),
and Hestia
(Vesta).
each other by various degrees of relationship, Though and worshipped in many places at altars dedicated to them as a united body, they did not always act together in harmony,
a most memorable instance of their discord being that (Iliad viii. 13-27) in which Zeus threatened to hurl the others into Tartaros,
to
themselves
might.
down
their
he
said,
he could
easily
draw them
up with earth and sea to the bargain, fasten the chain to the The name top of Olympos, and let the whole hang in mid air.
of
it
earliest, as
times
it
title,
less
mountains
if
appears to have been regarded as an occasional meeting place, not a permanent seat of the gods. Finally, the word was
25
used to designate a region above the visible sky, from which, anvil fell to express its height, it was said that once a brazen
At nine days and nine nights before it reached the earth. earth was Tartaros, an equal distance beneath the surface of the
a
vast
in with brass,
lived in banishment.
no place
in
on earth where they Mympos, were restricted to the localities or Nymphs exercised their as, for instance, the Naiads,
powers
of fountains, to the neighbourhood of fountains and springs ; the Oreads, or mountain Nymphs, to the mountains and hills ;
to trees, to trees. With regard heroes or semi-divine beings after the place of residence of the their translation from earth, there existed considerable variety
of opinion, of which
we
shall afterwards
assembled in Olympos for a particular Representations of the deities /.eus-occur at the l.irth of Athene from the head of her father ion
This was the subject chosen not unfrcriucntly on the (Ireek painted vases. in one of the pediments of the Parthenon by hcidias for the sculptures The loss, however, of many of the now in the liritMi Museum. now who were the deities he to it lender,
1
figure,
impossible
say
whether he even adhered to the usual number of twelve. one end of the pediment the sun rises in his chariot from the At The event must therefore the other the moon rides away. at
ed,
or
The same fact is to be observed at the break of day. scene at the birth of Aphrodite, in presence of the as>embled deities with which I heidias adorned the base of his statue of Xeus at Olympia, and At one end ausanias (v. 403). hich we have still the description in
I
the
Sun stepping
<?,
next to
him
Xeiis
In the cent.. and Charis, then Hermes and Hestia. eitho crowning -he rUd from the Mft, and .-.in- Aphrodite then Apollo and Artemis next Athene and Hei.ikle-, then Aphrodite The idOfl and Amphitrite, and lastly the Moon (Selene) riding away. of male and female, those of greater mi deities are thus grouped in
Hrphaestos
pair>
DEITIES OF
IS
a personification of the sky as the ancients saw and under stood its phenomena, and with him, according to the ver
With regard
world,
we should
Uranos
warmth and moisture pro life and ducing Kronos, his vegetation everywhere on it the god of harvest, who also ripened and successor, being
as
earth,
;
husband of the
and by
life
name
and
as
and
perfectly wise
the universe.
Uranos,
(the
son of
fruit
Gaea
earth),
whom
Hekatoncheires,
each with a
The Hekatoncheires,
or
Centimani,
:
beings
hundred hands, were three in number Kottos, Gyges or Gyes, and Briareus, and represented the frightful crashing
URANUS.
27
of waves
and
its
number: Brontes with his The Kyklopes with his lightning, and Arges with his thunder, Steropes stream of light. They were represented as having only one
also were three in
eye,
It
at the juncture
were personifications of the storm-cloud, with its flashes of From a similarity destructive lightning and peals of thunder.
was usually supposed that the Kyklopes the heart of burning mountains, above all, in Mount
it
of Hephaestos Ktna, in Sicily, where theyacted as apprentices him to make thunderbolts for Zeus, and (Vulcan), assisting in other works. Uranos, it was said, alarmed at their promise of fierceness
and
strength,
had
cast the
Hekatoncheires and
of the earth from
into the Kyklopes at their birth back which they had sprung.
womb
The Titans
and grouped
for the
most part
in pairs
Koios and Hyperion and Theia, Kreios and Eurybia, Instead Phoebe, Kronosand Rhea, Japetos and Themis.
of Kurybia
we
find
frequently
Mnemosyne.
show
Their names,
that they were
though
of those primary elements and forces of nature con to the operations of which, in the first ages, the present While Themis, of the earth was supposed to be due.
personifications
figuration
out as personifications mosyne, and Japetos may be singled force in the nature of things, and as conspicuous of a civilizing
for
having offspring
endowed with
the
same
character,
the
other Titans appear to represent wild, powerful, and obstructive In keeping with this character we find them risinforce*.
28
in rebellion
first
Zeus.
Uranos,
them
as
we
into
them bound.
But Gaea,
his wife,
Kronos,
to
made wound
irremediably.
free,
The
and begat a numer ous family of divine beings, while others of the same class sprang from the blood of the wound of Uranos as it fell to the
Titans were set
married their
sisters,
ground.
Of
;
legs
formed
of serpents
the
Melian nymphs,
nymphs
of the oaks,
;
and the
or Furiae, as the
Tisiphone,
it
whose function
blood.
was
origi
Their form
women, with
hair of snakes
and
girdles of vipers.
They were a terror to criminals, whom they pursued with un The whole of these divine beings, however, with relenting fury.
the exception of the
at
Athens
venerable
deities,"
mytho
later
among they were unknown and even then were only introduced as poetic times, with no hold upon the religious belief of the people.
the
Romans
till
fictions,
I.
Kronos.
Hhea.
KRONOS.
29
K R O N O
(PLATE
i.,)
S,
The
to
was, as
we have already
is
re
Roman
deity,
Saturnus,
a mistake
shall
set right,
and accordingly we
Uranos, devote a separate chapter to each. of the gods, was succeeded by Kronos, the throne
married his
deposed from
who
own sister Rhea, a daughter of Gaea, who bore Hestia him Pluto, Poseidon (Neptune),and Zeus (Jupiter),
(Vesta),
Demeter
(Ceres),
and
Hera
(Juno).
To
prevent
communicated to the fulfilment of a prophecy which had been be de him by his parents, that, like his father, he too would his first five throned by his youngest born, Kronos swallowed But when each came into the world. as
children apparently
it,
him a stone and succeeded in duping her husband by giving into the figure of an infant) wrapped in (perhaps rudely hewn which he swallowed, believing he had got
swaddling clothes,
rid
of another danger.
Zeus, While the husband was being deceived in this fashion, to the island of Crete, and the newly-born child, was conveyed The nymphs Adthere concealed in a cave on Mount Ida. and Ida tended and nursed him, the goat Amalthea
rastea
bees gathered honey for him, and in supplied him with milk, the ears of lest his infantile cries should reach
the meantime,
Kronos, Rhea
servants, the
to
and din in the neighbourhood by keep up a continual noise and clashing their swords and shields. dancing
3<D
DEITIES OF
When
of
or perhaps of Metis, in persuading Kronos to back into the light the sons whom he had swallowed and yield the stone which had been given him in deceit. The stone was
Gaea,
The liberated placed at Delphi as a memorial for all time. their brethren in a league to drive their father gods joined
from the throne and set Zeus in
his place.
but the change of government, though acquiesced in by the principal deities, was not to be brooked by the Titans, who with
Okeanos proceeded to war. The seat of war was Thessaly, with its wild natural features suggestive of a con flict in which huge rocks had been torn from mountain sides and shattered by the violence with which they had been thrown
the exception of
in
combat.
The
its
position on
Mount
Olympos, the Titans on Mount Othrys. The struggle lasted years, all the might which the Olympians could bring to bear being useless until, on the advice of Gaea, Zeus set free the
many
whom
thunderbolts for him, while the latter advanced on his side with
down
to lowest Tartaros as
an earthquake. The earth trembled Zeus now appeared with his terrible
his
in the sea.
The
rocks and
consumed, and partly hurled into deep chasms, with hills reeling after them, and consigning them to a life
The cause
of Kronos was
thus lost for ever, and the right of Zeus to rule established for
all
time.
The
dawned
island
earlier
of Crete, where
SATUK-
31
was of the secret up-bringing of Zeus was made the most of, centre of the worship of Kronos. Here, however, the
principal
and
was
in Attica,
it
his children that grim god who had devoured than as the maturer and ripener, the god he was worshipped
less as the
of harvest,
ness.
who sends
it
riches
and
blessings, prosperity
and glad
So
happened
Kronia,
and the corresponding Saturnalia in Italy, were of that class which imposed no restraint on the mirth and pleasures of those like a reminiscence of an age when under present, and seemed
Kronos there had been a perpetual harvest time on resem earth. As the devourer of his children Kronos bears some blance to the Phoenician Moloch, and it is highly probable that
the rule of
in Crete, where the in phase of his character originated Phoenician settlers had been felt from very remote fluence of It is also to be noted that his wife Rhea enjoyed a times.
this
The
scene where
as
Rhea
husband
he
sits
on
his throne,
to her presents the stone carefully wrapped up was the subject of a sculpture executed for
ix.
2, 7),
is
from which
now
in
the
Museum, Rome.
head,
left
The
seem
thoughtful
to
attitude
ol
of
harvest,
and
at the
wrought upon his father Uranos. was superseded in popular estimation as early as the time of Kuripides by the Gigantomachia, or war of Giants, which will be described in connection
with Zeus.
Artists following the popular taste neglected the former alto
hand is same time a memorial of the deed he The war with the Titans (Titanomachia)
indicate
SATURNUS,
made his According to the popular belief of the Romans, a time when Janus was reigning first appearance in Italy at
32
DEITIES OF
king of the
fertile
Tiber on either
side.
in
agriculture,
gardening,
:
arts
then
quite
unknown
to
them
as, for
train
and
and how
to
tend and
cultivate
fruit-trees.
people from a rude and comparatively barbarous condition to one of order and
at length raised the
By such means he
in course of time
was selected
him the government of the kingdom, by Janus which thereupon assumed the name of Saturnia, a land The period of Saturn s government was of seed and fruit.
in later times
and cares of
sung of by poets as a happy time when sorrows life were unknown, when innocence, freedom,
land,
in such a
degree
title
Greek mythology
golden age,
to
reign
of
Kronos, and
perhaps,
The
held
name of Saturn s wife was Ops. Once a year, in the month of December,
five to
all
the
Romans
It
lasted from
kinds.
seven days, and was accompanied by amusements of During those days the ordinary distinctions were
done away with between master and servant or slave. No affairs, and no punish ments for crime were inflicted. Servants or slaves went about
assemblies were held to discuss public
dressed like
presents.
their masters,
costly
II.
Ehea.
Zeus, or Jupiter.
RHEA.
%
33
of a gaudy type, presents of pictures, probably the street where the picture dealers lived.
purchased
in
in
Rome,
his feet itoline Hill, containing a figure of him with of woollen cloth, which could only wrapped round with pieces
Saturnalia.
In one
how
and
In
this
RHEA.
(PI. VI i.S
I.
AM)
II.)
Aj Uranos, the representative of the fertilizing force in nature, was superseded by Kronos the representative of a ripening
so Gaea, the primitive goddess of the earth with its to Rhea, a goddess of the earth productive plains gave way Gaea had been the mother of with its mountains and forests.
force,
the
powerful
Titans.
Rhea was
the
mother of gods
:
less
-iven to feats
of strength,
Poseidon,
Her
titles
and Zeus,
as for
Pluto, Hestia.
Dindumene
I
were derived
in
for the
most part from the names of mountain^ those of hrygia and I.ydia, her
intimat
idled
worship
having been
oi
with
the
early
civili/.ation
these countries.
also,
or
Kybebe, which
from
her sanctuaries ^Kybela) in caves or mountain sides, points to her character as a mountain goddess.
3
34
The lofty hills of Asia Minor, while sheltering on their cavernous sides wild animals, such as the panther and lion, which it was her delight to tame, also looked down on
many
flourishing cities
which
it
to protect.
In
Mater
turrita.
civilization,
But though herself identified with peaceful her worship was always distinguished by wild and
at
the
woods
night
other,
with
torches
wounding each
sible
and producing all the din that was pos from the clashing of cymbals, the shrill notes of pipes, and the frantic voice of song. To account for this peculiarity
worship,
of her
been intended
to
com
memorate some great sorrow, the story was told of how she had loved the young Phrygian shepherd, Attis, whose extra
ordinary beauty had also
of Pessinus
;
won
daughter
how he was
how
sternation
among the marriage guests. Attis escaped to mountains, maimed himself, and died beside a pine tree,
which
his
soul
transmigrated,
violets like a
granted that his body should never decay, that his hair should
little
The
pine was a symbol of winter and sadness, the spring and its hopeful beauty.
violet of
The
the
first
priests
of
Korybantes, for
first
whom
it
Rhea-Kybele were the Kuretes and was also claimed that they had been
beings of mere
appeared on the
111.
Zeus, or Jupiter.
ZEUS OR JUPITFR.
35
like
trees.
The
Mount Dindymon,
on which was a cave containing what was believed to be the Within this sanctuary was the tomb oldest of her sanctuaries.
of Attis, and an ancient image of the goddess in the shape of a which was said to have fallen from heaven. The first
it was said, by King temple at Pessinus had been erected, of Phrygia maintained and endowed Successive rulers Midas. it so liberally that it continued to be a place of importance
stone,
Spreading from
first
this
in the
neigh
bouring towns of Sardis, Magnesia, Smyrna, Ephesus, Lampthence to Athens, and in later times to sakos, and Kyzikos the mountainous district of Arcadia, where it was locally
;
believed that Zeus had been born and that the creation of
man
T.
her lap.
01
y.Kt s
OR JIMTIT.K.
KS
II.
AND
III.)
THIRI>
and
last
sat
Zeus.
a later
The
Mount Olympos
in Thessaly.
B.it
and more
was supposed
36
DEITIES OF
to be.
He
light
name
implies,
had control of
ingly
the
phenomena of
the heavens,
and accord
more than
felt as
sudden changes of weather, the gathering of clouds, and, all, the burst of a thunderstorm made his presence
a supernatural being interested in the
titles
affairs
of mankind.
Hence such
as
cloud- gatherer,
god
of the
murky cloud,
thunderer/ and
mighty thunderer,
On
and boundless extent of the sky over which he ruled, combined with the never-failing recurrence of day, led him to be regarded
as
an everlasting god
is
and
shall be.
was styled Kronides or Kronion, a title which, though apparently derived from his father Kronos, must have assumed even at a very early time a
indicate this feature of his character he
special significance; otherwise
To
we should expect
to find
it
The
eagle soaring
to Zeus,
approach
to benefit
by
its
as sacred to him.
their
Similarly high
nearness to the region of light, and were everywhere in Greece associated with his worship, many of them furnishing titles by
which he was
title
locally
derived from
for instance,
Sicily, or
Aetnaeos,
a mountain in Rhodes.
erected on
hill
tops, to reach
and then
to
see the earth spread out small beneath, was perhaps the best
trast
In con preparation for approaching him in a proper spirit. with this, and as testimony to the saying of Hesiod that
in the
pure
air
Dodona
ZEUS OR JUPITER.
37
wind where direct communion was to be enjoyed with him. A heard to rustle in the branches of a sacred oak when the
to make, the task of interpreting it god had any communication A spring rose at the called Selli. devolving on a priesthood
story
powers
and sacred pigeons rested among its leaves, the drawn attention to the oracular being that they had first It should here be noted that the real of the tree.
this
importance of
worship of Zeus at
Dodona belonged
to ex
that in the primitive religion of the ceedingly early times, and nations the oak was regarded with Italian, German, and Celtic
similar reverence.
preserver
and throughout Greece worshipped as of gods and men. the ruler and such, he was styled the father He was believed to be possessed of world. of the
As
with wisdom, and in his dominion every form of power, endued over the human race partial to justice, and with no limit to his
goodness and
Zeus orders the alternation of day and his command, the winds obey niuht, the seasons succeed at now scatters the clouds, and bids Un him, now he gathers, rain fall to fertilize the fields and meadows. He watches
love.
gentle
r
in the exercise of their majesty to kings, and protects them He observes attentively the general intercom-st sovereignty.
kindness; everywhere As the wrong, falseness, faithlessness, and cruelty. punishing eternal father of men, he was believed to be kindly at the call
faithfulness,
and
of the
his
and delighted to reward pity and sympathy. To rule on earth we would here give a familiar story.
DEITIES OF
full
in their
when
Zeus,
who
men, paid a on such a journey, to these through Phrygia poor old people, and was received by them very kindly as a weary traveller, which he pretended to be. Bidding him
visit,
welcome
the only
left,
when Zeus
for
he was touched
by their kindliness and genuine piety, and that all the more because he had observed among the other inhabitants of the
district
To punish this conduct he proaching and despising the gods. determined to visit the country with a destroying flood, but to save from it Philemon and Baukis, the and good aged
couple,
to
To
this
end he revealed
himself to them before opening the gates of the great flood, transformed their poor cottage on the hill into a splendid temple, installed the aged pair as his priest and priestess, and
granted their prayer that they might both die together. after many years death overtook them they were
When
two
trees,
that
in the
Greeks appears on the whole in a character worthy of admira tion, it will be seen that many other narratives represent him as labouring under human weaknesses and error. The first wife of
Okeanos.
Zeus was Metis (Cleverness), a daughter of the friendly Titan But as Fate, a dark and omniscient being, had
ZEUS OR JUPITER.
39
who should
surpass
father in power, Zeus followed in a manner the example of father Kronos, by swallowing Metis before she was delivered
said,
Themis
Horae.
the father of
Astraea and
for
the
however, always
Hera
a time, at length gave way, and the divine marriage took place amid great rejoicing, not on
the part of the gods of heaven alone, for those other deities also, to whom the management of the world had been in various
mother of Hebe, Ares (Mars), and Zeus did not, however, remain con Hephaestos (Vulcan). stant and true to the marriage with his sister, but secretly
Hera became
the
indulged a passion for other goddesses, and often, under the disguise of various forms and shapes, approached even the
Hera gave way to indignation when she daughters of men. From secret intercourse of this kind found out such doings.
Demeter
Leto
(Ceres)
bore
him Persephone
(Proserpina)
(Latona) became the mother of Apollo and Artemis (Venus); (Diana); Dione, the mother of Aphrodite Mnemosyne, of the Muses; Eurynome, of the Charites
(traces);
Semele,
Hermes
(Mercury);
^everal of the
Dionysos (Bacchus); Maia, of Alkmene, of Herakles (Hercules); demigods, of whom we shall afterwards speak
of
;i
;
being sons of Zeus by other and different mothers. -e numerous love passages of Zeus (and other gods
as well), related by ancient poets, appear to us,
if
is
known they
men amongst
the ancients
universe.
;
them
unbecoming of the great ruler of the wonder is how such stones came into existence
this
The
unless indeed
accepted as a satisfactory explanation of their origin, that they are simply the different versions of one great myth of
the marriage of Zeus, peculiar in early times to the different districts of Greece, each version representing him as having
be
but one wife, and being constant to her. Her name and the stories connected with their married life would be more or less
different in
each case.
In
after-times,
when
one people, and the various that had sprung up myths independently concerning Zeus came, through the influence of poets and by other means, to be known
into
to the
of the Greeks
became united
presented
whole nation, we may imagine that the only way that itself of them all into one consistent narrative uniting
all
was by degrading
It is, however, unfortunate that we temporary acquaintances. cannot now trace every one of his acquaintances of this sort
import
At the same
time,
enough
known
ciple of interpretation, not only with regard to the apparent improprieties in the conduct of Zeus, but also of the other
deities
one
wherever they occur. Properly Zeus could have but wife, such being the limit of marriage among the Greeks.
the
several
localities
Greece where the worship of Zeus was conducted with unusual ceremony and devotion, the two most deserving of attention are Athens and Olympia. In Athens the change of season acting on the temperament of the people seemed to produce a change in their feelings towards the god. For from early spring and throughout the
in
Of
summer they
called
him the
friendly
ZEUS OR JUPITER.
But as the approach of winter high festival in his honour. made itself felt, thoughts of his anger returned, he was called the
cruel
to
pia.
was made god (Zeus Maemaktes), and an endeavour a festival called Maemakteria. At Olympropitiate him by which from an early period had assumed in Klis. a
festival,
national importance,
[uly
was held
in his
honour
in the
month of
(Hekatombaeon)
commencing with
which the deputies from the various states, with their splendid of competi retinues, took part. This ceremony over, a series
tions took place in foot-racing, leaping from a raised platform in the hands to give impetus, throwwith
weights
(/la/trrcs]
thongs 811).), boxing sometimes with metal rings in the hands, horse-racing, chariotracing with two or four horses, and, lastly,
about in- the disk (a circular plate of metal or stone weighing twisted round the arm and with leather
a competition of
all
The
lists
were open to
free-born
\<vpt
had entailed
such as had been convicted of crime, or such in former contests the penalty of a fine and
it.
had gone through a proper course decision of the they would abide by the
forbidden.
of married
women was
was
in
The The
entire
management
of the festival
own number by
where
this
Ohmpu.
is
now
waste
but
still
description of
Pausanias of
magnificent temple
and the
42
DEITIES OF
vast
number
of statues
studded
the
sacred
grove.
Within the temple was a statue of the god, in gold and ivory,
work of Pheidias, the most renowned of ancient sculptors. forty feet in height, and for its beauty and grandeur was reckoneit one of the Seven Wonders* of the ancient
the
It
was
world.
it,
these
by Zeus himself to commemorate his victory over the Titans, and even the gods in early times are said to have taken part
in
the
contests.
The people
had been founded by Pelops, while others ascribed that honour to Herakles. The usual method of reckoning time was by the interval between these festivals, one
festival
Olym
to four years.
The
first festival
from which
the reckoning started, as ours does from the birth of Christ, occurred in the year 776 B.C.
The
birth
and
and
early
fierce
after a long
life of Zeus, up to the period when, war around Olympos, he defeated the
father
Titans and established his right to reign in the place of his has already been related. Kronos, That his two
brothers, to
greatly indebted
dimensions.
stupendous In statues of gold and ivory, such as that of Zeus at Olym pia, and many others, the face and nude parts- of the body were made of ivory, while the hair and in drapery were
The seven wonders of the ancient world were (i) The Pyramids of (2) The Walls of Babylon (3) The Hanging Gardens of Baby lon (4) The Temple of Diana at Ephesus (5) The Statue of Zeus at Olympia; (6) The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus (7) The Colossus at Rhodes all monuments of art of extraordinary beauty or
Egypt
;
reproduced
gold,
obtain an idea of the expense of such splendid statues, from the statement that a single lock of the hair of Zeus at Olympia cost about ^250 of our money.
worked
We
richly
ZEUS OR JUPITER.
43
have a share in the management of the during the war, might the were cast and to Poseidon fell the control of
world, lots
;
sea
and
rivers,
while
Hades obtained
on the part Opposition, however, and the new of the kindred of Kronos had not yet ceased, war to encounter a fresh outbreak of dynasty of gods had had been that of the Titans, the than
world under the earth.
even more
terrible
enemy being
from
the
position
blood
of Uranos.
The
Giants
is
took
up
their
separated from
Their king and leader Mount Olympos by a bay. Porphyrion, their most powerful combatant, Alkyoneus,
against
was
whom
in vain.
Their
all
the mother Earth had made the Giants proof against the weapons of weapons of the gods not, however, against Athene brought Herakles on the mortals; and knowing this ceased to shine at the command of Sun and moon scene. the and the herb was cut down which had furnished
/,cus,
The huge Alkyoneus, Giants with a charm against wounds. the who had hurled great rocks at the Olympians, fell by and Porphyrion, while in the act of arrows of Herakles
;
seizing Hera,
was overpowered.
Of
the others,
Pallas and
Enkelados
tied,
while
Dionysos, Ephialtes had to yield to Apollo, To the popular or Hephaestos. and Klytios to Hecate the mind this war with the Giants had a greater interest than
Rhoetos
to
Titanomochia.
each other.
These wars
44
DEITIES OF
the Silver
Age
on
earth.
Men
and lived in plenty wanted the innocence and contentment which they
;
while living in luxury and delicacy, they became overbearing in their manners to the highest degree,
were never satisfied, and forgot the gods, to whom, in their confidence of prosperity and comfort, they denied the rever ence they owed. To punish them, and as a warning against such habits, Zeus swept them away, and concealed them under the earth, where they continued to live as daemons or spirits,
not so powerful as the spirits of the men of the Golden Age, but yet respected by those who came after them.
Then
followed
the
Bronze Age,
a period of constant
quarrelling and deeds of violence. Instead of cultivated lands and a life of peaceful occupations and
orderly habits,
;
came a day when everywhere might was and men, right big and powerful as they were, became physically worn out,
there
and sank into the lower world without leaving a having existed, and without a claim to a future
Finally
trace of their
life.
spiritual
came
the
Iron Age,
in
had
on
gain, did
their best to
Dike
or Astraea,
the
goddess of justice and good faith, modesty and truth, turned her back on such scenes, and retired to Olympos, while Zeus determined to destroy the human race a flood. The
by
great
whole of Greece lay under water, and none but Deukalion and his wife Pyrrha were saved. Leaving the summit of Parnassos, where they had escaped the flood, were
they
commanded by the gods to become race of men that is, the present race.
the founders of a
new
said,
To
this end,
it is
ZEUS OR JUPITER.
45
as they advanced stones, which presently they cast around them assumed the forms of men, who, when the flood had quite
disappeared,
commenced
all
to
cultivate
;
the
land
little
again
and
spread themselves in
the race that
the
directions
but being
better than
Among
(1
had been destroyed, they, too, often drew down and suffered at his hands. displeasure of Zeus the Romans Jupiter held a place of honour cor
among
the
His favourite
name
the
being of the
his function as
god
His title was Optimus Maximus. same derivation as that of Zeus, indicates of the broad light of day and armed with
weapon of
lightning.
Temples and
altars
were erected
for the
festivals
statues were raised, and public purposes of his worship, As to sacrifice, both he and Zeus held in his honour.
To
were sacred.
of religious feeling preeecles the development of artistic the preman, and accordingly we find that in the earliest ages In the -.enee of a god was symbol i/ed only by some natural object. it was, case of Xeus this was an oak-tree, while in the case of Rhca-Kybele we have seen, a stone which \\as believed to have fallen from heaven.
The growth
faculty in
a>
he
first
artistic
efforts to
pillar
called reproduce the image of a god were seen rudely -haped like a human figure
a distance,
thi>
Of
of
to
<,f
the artist s attention being mostly directed to the head. .abrundeus as represented on the kind was the figure of the figure of Xeus with three eyes at Argos, and the figure aria,
/eu>
I
(.
him without
be retained
ears at Crete.
till
iety
m
to
become equal
The gold and ivory statue of /eus at the pnxluetion of imposing figures. of which mention has already been made, represented him seated Olympia, from what is ,,n his throne, and some small idea may still be gained of it
The bust on plate iii., known no doubt a copy of it on the coins of Klis. the /eus of Otricoli, is perhaps the best existing example of the f.i The attributes of /eus are the /eus as conceived by the Greek sculptors.
:i-
46
DEITIES OF
image
an axe.
represented sometimes with Hera by his side, sometimes with Athene, or with both, or with Athene and Herakles. When he leaves his throne it is generally to rise in might against an enemy such as the Giants, and in these cases he is armed with the thunderbolt,
is
He
always
and
either stands in the act of hurling it, or drives in a chariot attended by other gods, as he is frequently to be seen on the ancient painted vases.
head of Zeus.
Plate
vii.
Another favourite subject on these vases is the birth of Athene from the In works of art no distinction is made between Zeus and
Rome had no
own.
HERA,
OR
i
JUNO,
(PLATES
WAS
v.
AND
v.),
may be
power of the heavens that is, the atmosphere, with its fickle and yet fertilizing properties while Zeus represented those
;
be of a male
order.
To
their marriage
was traced
as
all
on Mount Ida
up around them.
tree with
golden
apples grew up at their marriage feast, and streams of ambrosia flowed past their couch in the happy island of the west. That
it
was believed,
in spring,
and
at
keep up a recollection of
season
in
it,
an annual
festival
was held
that
her honour.
storms, however, which in certain seasons break the peacefulness of the sky of Greece, the meetings of this divine pair often resulted in temporary quarrels and wrangling, the blame
Hera
poets,
and most of
all
Homer,
IV.
Hera, or Juno.
48
DEITIES OF
part, running with their hair the judges on the streaming down, and wearing short dresses, occasion being sixteen married women.
The character, however, in which Hera was most generall) viewed was that of queen of heaven, and as the faithful wife of Zeus claiming the highest conceivable respect and honour.
Herself the ideal of womanly virtues, she
made
it
a principal
duty to protect them among mortals, punishing with severity all trespassers against her moral law but, naturally, none so
much
tions
as those
s affec
Semele,
to
Alkmene,
re
most part
to the
:
various stages of
in a different light
Parthenia; others as a wife, with the title of Gamelia, Zygia or Teleia and others again in the character of Eileithyia, as helpful at child-birth. Of these
;
some
phases of her
the
life
that of bride
phenomena of
when
the
affec
tionate gaiety and the blooming of new life. As queen of heaven and wife of Zeus she will be found, in connection with
neighbourhood, possessed, from motives of jealousy, of a hatred towards the nocturnal pheno
its
and
mena
of the sky, and especially the moon, as personified by whom she placed under the surveillance of
Argos, a being with innumerable eyes, and apparently a per sonification of the starry system.
The town
betray
of Argos, with
its
some powerful sensitiveness to the phenomena of light, was the oldest and always the chief centre of this worship of
\.
OK JUNO.
49
Hera.
\\c
There was her principal temple, and within it a statue in grandeur goddess, by Polykleitos, which almost rivalled
.ind
Next
her
caim>
with
its
splendid temple
erected
for
by
Poly-
krates.
in
and even
Juno,
the
Roman
iuently styled
Lucina,
Temples
festivals held
her honour
chief. It
of the festivals
Matronalia
being the
year, and could only be participated in who went with girdles loose, and on the occasion by women,
st
of
March of each
lovers, or
friends,
making
guarded
The
spirits
that
women were
The image
\
i
Junones.
first
of
in
Hera
is
of a long
pillar, as
of a plank, and to have assumed a human form The statue of her by Polykleitos, in comparatively late times. It reprementioned above, was of gold and ivory and of colossal size.
s^os,
and
Samos
>nly
d her seated
l.ol
r
on a throne, holding
in
!ie;>d
of marriage, and in the other a sceptre on which sat a cuckoo. was a crown ornamented with figures of the Charites (Graces)
lorae.
.
We
can
still
in
some measure
as the
known
-<>ms
ty.
Praxiteles
>
of Ar^os, and from -.cveral made a colo-^.d rtfttae of her in the character of the
of marriage rites,
recall the appearance of the Juno Ludovisi (on plate iv.), from ancient heads in marble of great
iclx-
landing beside
her.
is
and also a group of her seated, with Athene On the painted vases the scene in which
that
where
sh--
DEITIES OF
POSEIDON, OR NEPTUNE.
(PLATE
v.)
IT has already been told how, when all the resources had failed which the Titans could bring to bear for the restoration of
Krorios
to
the
throne,
the
divided by lot
among
Hades.
trol
To Zeus
fell,
;
of the heavens
besides a general supremacy, the con and we have seen how he and his consort
Hera, representing the phenomena of that region, were con ceived as divine persons possessed of a character and perform ing actions such as were suggested those To
by
phenomena.
Poseidon
like
fell
manner
the control of the element of water, and he in was conceived as a god, in whose character and
phenomena of that element, whether as the broad navigable sea, or as the cloud which gives fertility to the earth, growth to the grain and vine, or as the fountain which refreshes man, cattle, and horses. suitable
his power, therefore,
compares
sea.
"
know him
for
chariot," sings Homer in the Iliad, with feet of brass and manes of steeds, gold, and himself, clad in gold, drives over the waves. The beasts of the sea sport round him, leaving their lurking places, for they
He
yokes to the
his
swift
to
be their
lord.
The
him.
lightly,
the brazen
It
to illustrate
encroach in
show the
V,
Hera, or Juno.
Poseidon, or Neptune
POSEIDON, OR NEPTUNE.
51
the myth importance attached to a good supply of water, that between Poseidon and originated which tells us of the dispute
Athene
To
settle
it was agreed by the gods that whichever of the two should perform the greatest wonder, and at the same time confer the most useful gift on the land, should be entitled to rule over it. With a stroke of his trident Poseidon caused a
the dispute,
brackish spring to well up on the Acropolis of Athens, a * and previously altogether without water. But 400 feet
high,
Athene
in
same bare
first olive tree to grow from the was deemed the greatest benefit
case his indignation took the opposite Other incidents of the course of causing a perpetual drought. same nature were his disputes with Helios for the possession
Argos.
But
in
this
of Corinth, with
Zeus
Dionysos
for
Naxos,
for Delphi.
illustrations,
however, of the encroaching tendency of the sea are the mon sters which Poseidon sent to lay waste coast lands, such as
those which
were offered
to
appe
In the Iliad Poseidon appears only in his capacity of ruler of the sea, inhabiting a brilliant palace in its depths, traversmin a chariot, or stirring the powerful billows til! the its surf K.
earth
This limitation
remarkable
among
in
those
52
DEITIES OF
which he
is
and
valleys.
district
caused three springs to well up for love of Amymone, whom he found in distress, because she could not obtain the water
Danaos
to fetch.
In Thessaly
had broken through the high mountains, which formerly shut in the whole country and caused it to be frequently flooded with water* By that stroke he formed the
a stroke of his trident
pleasant vale of
from the
hills
Tempe, through which the water collecting might flow away. A district well supplied with
came
to
way
the horse
be doubly
the land.
his symbol, as
god
and on
In Arcadia, with
land and fine streams and valleys, he was worshipped side by side with Demeter, with whom, it was
mountainous
Arion.
In
Boeotia,
winged and wonderfully fleet horse where he was also worshipped, the
to
to
whom
he
he
had appeared
in the
form of a horse.
With
Medusa
became
watered at springs by Nymphs, and appeared to poets as the symbol of poetic inspiration. And again, as an instance of
double capacity as god of the sea and pasture streams, the ram, with the golden fleece for which the Argonauts sailed,
his
was said
by Theophane, who had been changed into a lamb. Chief among his other offspring were, on the one hand, the giant Antaeos, who derived
to
have been
his offspring
from
cible,
his
till
mother Earth a
Herakles
lifting
strength which
made him
invin
him
in
;
Polyphemos
POSEIDON, OR NEPTUNK.
53
who
sent
out
the
Argonauts,
and
Neleus
the
father
of
Nestor.
To
on the part
conclusion of the war appears that after the a disagreement arose between him and Zc with the Giants
of Poseidon,
the result of which was that Poseidon was suspended for the
of the sea, and was further period of a year from the control with Apollo, Laomeobliged during the time to serve, along don the King of Troy, and to help to build the walls of that Some say that the building of the walls was voluntary on the part of both gods, and was done to test the character of Laomedon, who afterwards refused to give Poseidon the
the reward agreed upon. Angry at this, the god devastated land by a flood, and sent a sea-monster, to appease which
medon was
the-
Hesione
free
as a
monster.
maiden
and slew
his
relented
none of
have done them indignation towards the Trojans, and would in after times, when they were at war with the much
injury
unshipped
it
was
in
was displayed the seaport towns that the most remarkable and to obtain his favour. Temples in his honour, sanctuaries, met with in Thessaly, Iteotia. public rejoicings were to be
Ar<
Aegae, and
!os in
Helikc, on
Samos,
at Corinth,
Nauplia,
;m<]
roe/en, in
and on the Isthmus Tenos, at Mycale, Taenarum, Athens, tluthat belt of land which connects Peloponnesos with
Greece.
held
in
his
the cha
54
DEITIES OF
racter of a physician. People crowded to the festival from neighbouring islands, and spent the time in banquets, sacrifice,
But chief of
all
autumn,
by Theseus, and in reputation stood next to the Olympian games, like them also serving the purpose of maintaining
among
The Corinthians had the right of arranging origin. and managing them, the Athenians having also certain privi It was in his double leges. capacity of ruler of the sea and
as the
first
common
to train
festival
and employ horses that the honours of this His temple, with other sanctuaries,
stood in a pine grove, a wreath from which was the prize awarded to the victors. The prize had originally been a wreath
of parsley.
In
this
Argonauts,
dedicated to
Argo, Poseidon as a
memorial of the earliest enterprise at sea; and there also stood the colossal bronze statue of the god, which the Greeks raised to commemorate the naval victory gained over splendid
the Persians at Salamis.
Horses and
bulls
were sacrificed to
him, the
method of performing
It
them
some memento of
their safety in
one
The Romans,
times,
it
had
little
living mostly as herdsmen and farmers in early occasion to propitiate the god of the sea, and
therefore, rather as the father of streams that
was probably,
they erected a temple to Neptunus in the Campus Martius, and held a festival in his honour attended with games,
feasting,
and enjoyment
AMPHITK!
55
of art, such Between Zeus and Poseidon there is, in works But Poseidon is by far the would be expected between two brothers. that of Herakles, more powerful of the two physically his build, like
1
of a god, not of an athlete. attitudes and especially his head, are those but bis hair, instead of Hi. features, one by one, resemble those of Zeus, and is falls in thick masses over the temples, his
expressing the
But,
is
and dolphin.
Possibly
him seated on a throne, temples represented But in the colossal statues of him erected chiton. and clad in the Ionian he was always ntories and in harbours, to secure his favour, him
in his
which concealed none of his powerful ing wearing only a slight scarf, and the trident in his right hand, often form, holding out a dolphin in his left, In works of art not conon the prow of a vessel. with one foot raised
on plate v.) traversing nccted directly with his worship he was figured (as creatures of the a car drawn by Hippocamps, or other fabulous the sea in the dispute between rum In one of the pediments of the Parthenon
Athene was represented.
AMPHITRITE,
THK
hurl
of rightful wife
its
and
She was a daughter of them against rocks and cliffs. of Okeanos and Tethys, or, according to another report, she was represented with flowNereus and Doris. Usually
in- hair
and the toes of a crab protruding from her temples dimes seated on the back of a triton or other creature
;
among
sea-animals
and seaweed, or ac
She may be compared with the seacompanying Poseidon. Venilia. of the Romans, Salacia, Neverita, and
i
HADES, OR PLUTO.
(PLATE
vi.)
have seen how Zeus, Hera, and Poseidon came to be con ceived as the three great deities who between them controlled the elements of the heavens, sky, and sea, and how a character came to be ascribed to each of them such as was most
suggested by the
WE
phenomena of
they respectively ruled. But there still remained a re gion which could not escape the observation of people like the Greeks, gifted with so keen a sense of the various operations of nature. That region was, however, itself invisible, being under the surface of the earth. The growth of vegetation was seen
if impelled by some divine force below. metals which experience showed to be most precious to mankind could only be obtained by digging into that dark re gion under the earth. Thither returned, after its on earth
which
to be steadily upward, as
The
day
life.
In conceiving a god
region,
it
who should
first, as the source of all the treasures and wealth of the earth, as expressed in his name Pluton ; and secondly, as monarch of the dark realm inhabited by the invisible shades of the dead, as expressed in his name
:
was necessary
of
Aides.
While by virtue of
his power of giving fertility to vegetation. of swelling the seed cast into the furrows of the earth, and of yielding treasures of precious metal, he was justly viewed as a benevolent deity and a true friend of man, there was another and very grim side to his in which he character, appears as the implacable, relentless god, whom no cost of sacrifice could pet
VI.
Demeter, or Ceres.
Hestia, or Vesta
HADES, OR PLUTO.
57
For this reason, to die, to go to Hades house, to pass out of sight, to be lost fn the darkness of the lower world, was
fate awaiting all
men.
life thus claimed by him had been originally his gift, as were means of comfort and pleasure in life thus cut off. In later came more times, when the benevolent side of his character
life hopes arose concerning a future happy the that robbed death of its terrors. To impart such hopes was
purpose of the Eleusinian Mysteries. It seems to have been to make this union of two such oppo
the person of one god more explicit that myth concerning his marriage with Persephone originated, she being, as we shall afterwards see, a personification of young
site
powers
in the
blooming
a
life.
the young goddess full of life. But no new life issues from when her Yet she loved him, it would seem ; for marriage. Demeter (Ceres), implored her to come back to earth, mother,
her answer was that she had accepted from her husband the half
of a pomegranate, or apple of love as
it
was
called,
and had
eaten
it.
It is
Hades
works of
art
holding each a
Hades,
after the
being a son of
Rhea
entitled,
dethronement
two brothers,
the world.
management
of
They
and
to
Hades
The importance
the fact of
its
"Zeus
With regard
be looked
for
to the region
to
we
some
representing
crust of the
it
that
is,
under the
Okeanos, where were the gloomy groves of It was entered Persephone. from the upper world by any spot of sufficiently sombre or wild
natural aspect, particularly chasms with dark waters such as in
spire terror.
earth,
in
The most
Lake
Avernus, at Cumae in Italy, of which it was said, as of the Dead Sea, that no bird tried to fly across it but fell lifeless in its
waters.
all
comers had to
Beyond these entrances was an open gate through which pass, and having passed could not as a rule
Exceptions to the rule were made in favour of Herakles and Orpheus, who were permitted home of the dead, and return alive. The entrance
retrace a step.
heroes such as
to visit the
was guarded by the dog of Hades, the dreaded Cerberus, a monster with three heads and a serpent s tail, fawning on those
who
who
tried
to pass out.
But besides by
this
ated from the upper world by rivers with impetuous torrents, of which the most famous was the Styx, a stream of such terrible
aspect that even the highest gods invoked it as witness of the truth of their oaths. Across this river the departed were con
veyed by an aged ferryman appointed by the gods, and called Charon, but not until their bodies had been buried in the
earth above with
all
of affection.
to
Till this
listlessly
due ceremony of sacrifice and marks was done, the souls of the departed had
about the farther bank of the Styx, a
wander
For the
Charon exacted a
toll
(naulon\ to
money
HAHKS, OR
LUTO.
The
that
is,
named Acheron,
the
"eternal
woe";
Pyriphlegethon,
river of "weeping
later
stream of
wailing."
and
To
"
these
added, by a
"so
river
of
called because
who
drank of them
in
former circumstances
purport of this myth was to explain and establish the idea that the dead could not take with them into the realm of everlasting peace the consciousness of the
the upper world.
The
pains
and sorrows of
their lot
on
earth.
In the waters of
Lethe they drank a happy oblivion of all past suffering, wants, and troubles, an idea of the means of forgetting sorrow which
later
poets have
made
frequent use
of.
In the last
conceived as small winged beings, are described as being con ducted to the realm of Hades by Hermes in his capacity of
Psychopompos
(see
Plate VI).
The way
is
dark and
They pass the streams of Okeanos, the white rock, gloomy. the gates of Helios, the people of dreams, and at last reach the inhabit subAsphodel meadow, where the spirits of the dead
neous caves.
With regard to the condition of the dead under the do minion of Hades, the belief was that they led a shadowy sort
of apparent
-.elves,
tinct
<n
they consciousness, to perform the labours and carry on the h on earth. -upations to which they had been accustomed
ily
which, as mere reflections of their former continued as in a dream, at any rate without dis
life,
in
Theban
seer,
Teire-
have more to say afterwards, that the privi was granted. Such was the sad of complete conscious u lege
sias, of
whom we
6o
from
the
"
complaint
of
I would rather toil as a day.-labourer on the earth than reign here a of dead multitudes." prince Occasionally the shades of the dead were permitted to appear to their friends;
Odyssey
earth. It was also possible to summon them by a sacrifice, the blood of which, when they had drunk of it, restored con sciousness and speech, so as to enable them to communicate
on
We must, however, clearly distinguish between this under world as the abiding place of the great mass of the dead, and
two other regions where spirits of the departed were to be the one Elysion found, with the islands (the Elysian
Fields),
Tartaros.
The former
region was
latter as
most commonly placed in the remotest West, and the far below the earth as the heavens are above it. In
it
early times-
the happy and good than for There, under the sovereignty of
Elysion and
Kronos, they lived again a kind of second golden age of per petual duration. But in later times there spread more and more the belief in a happy immortality reserved for all the good, and particularly for those who had been initiated into the EleuTartaros, on the other hand, was the region where those were condemned to punishment who had committed any crime against the gods while on earth.
the misery of their condition we shall be able to from the following account of a few of the best known of judge those condemned to such punishment, as Tantalos, Ixion,
sinian Mysteries (see below).
What was
Sisyphos, Tityos, and the Danaides. Tantalos, once a king of Phrygia, had given
offence to
HADES, OR 1M.UTO.
61
the ^ods by his overbearing and treachery, as well as by For this he his own son. cruelty which he had practised on
loomed
1
to Tartaros,
and there
to suffer
from an unceasing
[,
of being crushed by a great rock that hung above his he the while standing up to the throat in water, yet
essed of a terrible thirst which he could never quench, and in vain to allay with the iwing hunger which he tried but withdrew at every -mpting fruits that hung over his head
approach he made. Ixion, once a sovereign of Thessaly, had, like Tantalos, sentenced to Tar outraged the gods, and was in consequence
taros,
stroiii;
h utility
wind drove continually round and round. Sisyphos, once king of Corinth, had by treachery and of the gods in a high degree, and incurred the
anger stone up a punished in Tartaros by having to roll a huge of his utmost Jit, which he had no sooner done, by means
tion,
than
it
rolled
Tityos, a giant
in
and Arte (the mother of Apollo ;igth to outrage /eus to Tartaros, where two mis), and was condemned by enormous vultures gnawed continually his liver, which always
Leto
v again.
whom
their
of Danaos, king of Argos (of were sentenced to Tartaros for the murder of see below),
prescribed for them was it into a broken cistern or y water, and continue to pour
husbands.
The punishment
to
1C,
and going on for ever. however, were not only ruU-rs but were also believed to exer
after
mankind
K-ath.
In thistaskj
62
DEITIES OF
who
justice,
Minos, Rhadaman-
worship was wide-spread, and the honours In paid him great. Greece his principal temples were at Pylos, Athens, and OlymThe cypress, narcissus, and boxwood were sa pia in Elis. cred to him. In Rome a great festival was held in his honour
being also, apart from this, the gate-keeper of the lower region, according to a later opinion. Both among the Greeks and Romans the of Pluton-
last
Hades
month of February, at which sacrifices (februationes} of black bulls and goats were offered, and the officiating priests wore wreaths of cypress, the whole ceremony extending over twelve nights. The Saecular Games, which were held once in a century, were in his honour, and as a tribute to the dead.
in the
In works of art Hades is represented as having inherited the same type of face as his brothers Zeus and Poseidon, differing only in a certain His hair shades his brow in grimness of expression. In heavy masses. attitude he is either seated on a throne with Persephone by his side (as on plate vi.,) or standing in a chariot and carrying her off. His attributes are a sceptre like that of Zeus, and a helmet, which, like the cloud cap of
is
Siegfried in German mythology, made its wearer invisible. His attendant the three-headed dog Cerberus. On the painted vases scenes of
torment
water into the broken vase, or Ixion bound to the wheel, or Sisyphos Herakles carrying off Cerberus, and Orpheus on his memorable visit to bring back Eurydike, are also represented on the vases.
PERSEPHONE,
OR
PROSERPINA,
vi.,)
(PLATE
Persephoneia, also called Kora by the Greeks, and by the Romans Libera, was a daughter of Zeus and Demeter, and the wife of Aides, the marriage being childless.
Or
PERSEPHONE, Ol
Struck with the charms of her virgin beauty,
sanction of his brother
IMA.
63
Zeus to carry her off by force the and for this purpose, as the myth relates, he suddenly rose up from a dark hole in the earth near to where she was wandering
in a
flowery
meadow
Sicily,
plucking and
made
horses,
Hermes
Persephone
;
resisted, beg.
pass.
daughter, traversing every land, or, as other myths say, pursu of winged serpents, till ing the escaped Hades with her yoke from the all-seeing and allshe learned what had taken place
Then she
and
this
they promised to do
in
the under-world.
But by the time that Hermes, who had been sent by Zeus to ascertain this, reached the under-world, she had eaten the half
of a pomegranate which
of love,
l-
as an expression
She must remain the wife world for good became impossible. An arrangement was however come to, by which of Hades.
she was to be allowed to stay with her mother half the year on earth and among the gods of Olympos, while the other half of
the year was to be spent with her
husband below.
daughter of Zeus, the
rain
In this
myth
of
Persephone-Kora,
which by
their
of the heavens,
fertility,
warmth and
produce
earth,
and of Demeter, the maternal goddess of the fertile we see that .she was conceived as a divine personifies
in
summer appearing
beside her
dis-
mother
in the light
autumn
64
DEITIES OF
appearing, and in winter passing her time, like the seed, under the earth with the god of the lower world. The decay observed
modern
life
;
new
life,
and
that
men
for ever
least
remain
This at
appears
we have remarked
human
existence,
and of
an eternal
As queen of
various dreaded
that of the
Sirens, was
to beguile
men
Erinys
to
base crimes.
She shared
the honours paid to her husband in Greece, lower Italy, especially in the island of Sicily. Temples of great
and
were erected
Propontis.
at
in
The
principal
in the
held
Greece occurred
autumn or
in spring,
former appearing dressed in mourning to commemorate her being carried off by Pluto, while at the spring festival all wore
holiday garments to
commemorate her
return.
There remains, however, the important phase of her charac ter in which she returns to the upper world and is associated
with her mother Demeter.
But
this
it
will
be more convenient
Dl.MKTI.R,
IK
65
to
consider
in
The
attributes
of Per.-e
phone werj ears of corn and poppies. wife of Hades was a pomegranate; her
.
Her
attribute as the
sacrifice consisted of
mother Demeter.
is
though the
name
clearly the
same
Persephone, appears to
of the
religious
belief
Roman
nation,
Libitina, or Lubentina.
DEMETER,
(PLATE
OR CERES,
vi.,)
A
eat
daughter of
tti
in its capacity of
the
all-
all the divine being who watched nourishing mother, and above the growth of grain, and the various products of vegeta
;
tion
most important to man. The first and grand thought in her worship was the mysterious evolution of life out of the seed which is cast into the ground and suffered to rot a. process of
St.
Paul
(i
St.
John
with the attainment of a new life through (xii. 24) compare The seed left to rot in the ground was in the keeping Christ.
of her daughter Persephone, the goddess of the lower world, the new life which sprang from it was the gift of Demeter her
view the two goddesses, mother anil two in They were regarded as daughter, were inseparable.
self
;
and from
this point of
"
one,"
and styled
.1
"
in the grain being conceived as the cause of growth came to be looked on as having first introduced Demeter nex-t
66
DEITIES OF
the art of agriculture, and as being the source of the wealth and
blessings
When Hades
with a mother
s
sorrow,
lit
young loved daughter, Demeter, her torch, and mounting her car
drawn by winged snakes, drove through all lands searching for her, leaving, wherever she rested and was hospitably received,
traces of her blessing in the form of instruction in the art of
agriculture.
But nowhere
in
for there
Keleos, of
from Athens, had received her with most cordial hospitality. In return for this she taught him the
use of the plough, and before departing presented to his son, Triptolemos, whom she had nursed, the seed of the barley
car, in
lands, teaching
by
the
sow and
to
faithfully,
sower of grain, to
to
whom
name
of
be a personification of the wealth de rived from the cultivation of grain. In Thessaly there was a
legend of her hostility to a hero sometimes called Erysichton, the earth upturner or the ploughman, and sometimes
Aethon,
a personification of famine.
Again we find a
refer
ence to her function as goddess of agriculture in the story that once, when Poseidon threatened with his superior strength to
fled
from him
but the god, taking the same shape, pursued and overtook her, the result being that she afterwards bore him
;
I.KMETER,
OR CERES.
like a
67
gifted
with intelligence
and speech
man.
Pain and
shame at the birth of such a creature drove her to hide for a at last she was purified by a bath in long time in a cave, till the river Ladon, and again appeared among the other deities. of From the necessities of originated the custom
agriculture
It
living in settled
communities.
interest in
first
inspired
mankind with an
land,
property and
the ownership of
who
The
rvext
prominence
which came into phase of her character was that when the bare stubble fields re at harvest time,
the loss of her daughter Persephone.
festivals
one kind
called
Haloa
or
we know
that
it
was held from the 9th to the i3th of October each year,
could only be participated in by married women, that
that
at
it
one stage of the proceedings Demeter was hailed as the mother of the beautiful child, and that this joy afterwards gave
at her loss of her expressions of the deepest grief were held at which mysterious At night orgies daughter. monies were mixed with boisterous amusement of all sorts.
way
to
The Thesmui
of
or
institutions
title
\Ve have no
life. Thesmophoros appear to have referred to married means of knowing to what extent the ancient
Creeks based
their belief in a
life
from the seed rotting in the ground, which the early Christians adopted as an illustration of the lint that the od change to which they looked forward.
mysterious evolution of
myth of
gloomy
<.
68
cheerful
return,
is
originated
clear
in
from the
Demeter and Persephone always retained the character of seed goddesses, side by side with their more
conspicuous character as deities in whose story were reflected the various scenes through which those mortals would have to
pass
who were
rites
initiated
into the
Mysteries of Eleusis.
by Demeter
in,
instituted
herself,
and
may have
testimony of
men
like
found
future.
how
to act to
be
in elaborate
and
acts
place at night,
and
it
vantage was taken of the darkness to make lower world more hideous and impressive.
representations were reserved for the
Probably these
or persons in
Epoptae
Those
were
Mystae.
and under the name of Jacchos. But at what time took place, whether it was due to some affinity in the
Attica as god of the vine,
is
this first
orgiastic
not known.
Two
The
latter
occupied
IKTER,
OR CERES.
69
nine days,
commencing on
light procession.
Though
the night of the 20th with a torch similar festivals existed in various
Italy,
parts of
like national
importance, and
to take part
them, were
among
the principal attractions of Athens. The were vested in the family of Eumol-
had whose ancestor Eumolpos, according to one account, Demeter herself. The festival been installed in the office by was that of was brought to a close by games, among which
bull-baiting.
on the Eleusinian Mysteries and honour of in conducted in the Greek manner was held or Liber and Libera as they Bacchus and Ceres,
In Italy a festival founded
(ailed.
It
same respect
vi>ited
as the original.
For we
find
initiated at Kleusis, re Greece, and like Cicero been to sec the Kleusinian ceremonies turning with a strong desire that the Rome. Altogether it is probable transplanted to a weak counterpart of the Greek Ceres was but
Roman
I
)cmeter.
The
were
ears of corn
and poppies
of the earth.
Her
cows and
l>c
pigs.
.
of her head.
al,,,
are very assigned to Demeter Caidus and now in the IJritMi Mu by far being that found* and with a veil fallin- IV..MI the fetch rcpceseati her letted, draped, which she neither the BOdilU nor the CTOWO her head On
ifl
<
>n
the j.aim
liritNi
however, figures of
h(
in the
in
Museum
ihc
Rppean
bid
<
Hi a;
70
DEITIES OF
the Eleusinian Mysteries. In the centre is Triptolemos seated in the car ; before him Persephone (here called Pherophatta, a more ancient form of
behind him Demeter and name), and a figure called Eleusis Eumolpos on the other side of the vase are Zeus, Dionysos, Poseidon, and Amphitrite. A marble relief, found at Eleusis, represents, it is
her
;
believed, Demeter,
HECATE,
(PLATE
vii.,)
Though, properly speaking, not one of the supreme order of deities, is entitled to be placed here on account of a resem
blance to Persephone in her mysterious functions both in the upper and lower world. She is a goddess of Titanic origin,
Tartaros and Night, or of Perses and Asteria (Starry-Night), the sister of Leto, according to other accounts. The stories current among the ancients concerning her vary
daughter of
greatly,
deities, especially
Selene
or
Luna,
moon, while standing to Persephone in the relation of servant or companion. She belongs to the class of torch-bearing deities,
like
moon, and a huntress who knew her way also in the realm of All the secret powers of Nature were at her command, spirits.
it was thought. She had a control over birth, life, and death, and enjoyed great honour among the gods of Olympos as well
To express her power in the three of nature, heaven, earth, and the under-world, she was regions
as in the under-world.
named Triformis.
Dogs
Her
HESTIA,
OR
that
VI
mysterious deity,
it
happened
her to her gloomy and appalling given in the conception of of chief function being held to be that of goddess features, her and darkness, mistress of all the witch the nether world, of night much in antiquity craft and black arts which were believed in as
as in the
night,
at middle ages. Accordingly her festivals were held of black and sacrifices worship was paid her by torchlight,
Her presence iambs presented with many strange ceremonies. the at lonely cross-roads, whence she derived was mostly felt
name of Trivia. A mysterious festival was held
the island of
in her
in
^gina,
Avernus,
in
lower
Italy,
HESTIA, OR VESTA.
(PLATE
Sister of
vi.,)
and Rhea, was Demetcr, and daughter of Kronos Greeks and Romans as the goddess of the worshipped both by
home-fire, or hearth,
the
name
of which was
identical with
her own.
life
;
being
daily
She was properly, therefore, the guardian of family house her altars were everywhere, the hearth of every and when the family gathered round it her
sanctuary,
it
was
with- feelings
fire
of regard
at
home
common enjoyments
of family
for that goddess. Every revived a grateful sense of In every building of life.
;
and in the shape of a fire public resort she had a sanctuary when in Greece a body of colonists were about to emi-rate to
new and
distant
homes one
in
for
tb<
DEITIES OF
Hestia
central point
and
thus,
to their
new
homes a portion of
colony retained
affairs
the
fire
from that
its interest and participation in the public of their parent state. No enterprise was commenced without sacrifice and prayer at her altar and when the fire of
;
one of those holy places chanced to be extinguished, only be rekindled by a light from some other
it
could
sanctuary, not
fire.
Hestia despised love, consent both by Poseidon and though pressed Apollo, obtained from Zeus the privilege she prayed for, of
the goddess of a pure element,
to
As
and,
Her spotless purity remaining in a single state. peculiarly to be the guardian of virgin modesty. Though
no temple as we have
together.
specially
fitted
her
said, by the
devoted to her. Her proper sanctuary was, fire of every house where people gathered
in all the sacrifices offered at the
temples of other gods, and at every burnt-offering her presence was recognised as goddess of the sacred hearth and altar flame,
as
it
was also
and
oil,
and
in the
At
the
to
remain
Vesta
that
had
was of a round shape, Pompilius. and contained in its centre her symbol of an altar, with a fire that was never allowed to go out. This temple, which stood open by day but was closed by night, contained, besides other old
been
built
by
Numa
It
very
Palladium, a
small
wooden image of
Ill
-TIA,
OR
Vl>
\.
Minerva
nally
fell
to the myth, 01 (Pallas-Athene), which, according the citadel of Troy, and was carried from heaven upon
Rome.
Her
Upon
the pre
Roman
empire.
priestesses,
six in
virgins, their
to
present sacrifices
this office
and
To
they were
maximus. chosen by the high-priest, who was styled Pontifex with a fillet round the hair, and a y wore robes of white,
veil,
It
girls
permitted period they was viewed with pleasure by the though neither proceeding de the goddess to whom they had been public, who feared While engaged in the case. voted miuht take offence in either esteem services of the temple the vestal virgins enjoyed great and important privileges. Their person was inviolable, they of disposing free from paternal control, and had the right
of their
a and ten years of age, and that they should take After vow of chastity, and serve in the temple for thirty years. to leave it, and even to marry, were that
between
six
own
who
I
property.
In their
festal
streets of
justice),
Rome
they were
preceded by
carried with
them
the/^-<vy,
number of
as a
of Rome WCK them, only the consuls or highest magistrates course of the procession, should they And in the entitled to.
symbol
out of which an axe projected together into a bundle, an honour which, besides of sovereign power,
meet a criminal on
his
way
by death, they
had the prerogative of ordering him to be With all this respect and esteem, they were very severely
set tree.
74
DEITIES OF
dealt with
the
when guilty of neglect of duty, such as permitting sacred flame of the altar of Vesta to die out, which
of the sun.
up
to the rays
priestess
guilty of this
was
condemned
high-priest
of the goddess to
a dark
For the crime of forfeiting flogged. her chastity she was to a place called the Campus conveyed Sceleratus, or "criminals field/ and there placed in a sub terranean chamber provided with a bed, a lighted lamp, and
water.
the earth
thrown over
The chamber was then closed upon it and made smooth, and the
unfortunate priestess
left to die a most Her agonising death. seducer was publicly scourged to death. The whole city was
sorrowful,
and
sacrifice
offered
up
the
The
up
procession, in which
condemned
litter,
priestess
was carried
down
on a
and so
closely covered
could not be heard, was a spectacle that raised a shudder, and caused that day to be remembered as one of the greatest pain and grief throughout the city. At first there were only two vestal virgins, this number being afterwards increased to four, and Servius to six. again by
King
If
Rome
be
even
city,
Rhea Sylvia
and
fire
it,
laurel
shaded
of
March
of each
year;
paired.
on the i5th of June her temple was cleaned and re But previous to this, on the 9th of a festival
June,
VIII.
Hephaestos, or Vulcan.
Ares, or Mars.
Aphrodite, or Venus.
ARES,
OR MARS.
was held
in
women
in the
being admitted to the temple, and these barefooted, and character of pilgrims.
ARES, OR MARS,
(PLATES vin. AND xxvin.,)
son of Zeus and Hera, according to the belief of the Greeks, was originally god of the storm and tempest, and more
hurricane;
particularly of the
was
lost
more completely
of the
"god
"god
human
Of
all
affairs,"
"
in other words,
of dreadful
war,"
or
more
correctly,
and
strife
of
battle."
fierce
and
terrible,
In this respect he forms a striking contrast to PallasAthene, the goddess of well-matched chivalrous fights, whom
we
often find
opposed
to
him
in
mythical narratives.
When
victor
while Ares being not only god of battle but also a per
its
was sometimes wounded, and even taken prisoner. When -ting the Trojans in their war with the Greeks, in the course
of which he took under his
!
special protection
their
leader,
tor, he was wounded by the Greek hero Diomedes, aided the goddess Athene. He fell so Homer describes the by e\ent in the Iliad (v. 853) with a thundering crash to the
i
<
ground,
in battle.
Again
(Iliad xxi.
76
DEITIES OF
and
fall
fell,
his
armour clanking, and his body covering with his an obvious reference to the roar
and destruction attending a great storm. He was once captured by Otos and Ephialtes, the giant sons of Aloeus the planter, and
thirteen
kept imprisoned in a great bronze vase (Iliad v. 385) for months a space of time which, when we remember
that the
names of
seems
to indicate a
Like
himself, his
delight in strife
as,
for
example,
M eleager,
prowess or
the prince of
;
who speared the Kalydonian boar (see below) Kyknos, whom Herakles slew, and for this would have been
Kalydon,
conflict of his
two
Parthenopaeos,
expression,
"a
Oenomaeos, and
Ares,"
others.
The
son or offshoot of
scendants.
Eris, the personification of fatal strife, was usually by his side, Dread and Alarm (Deimos and Phobos) attended on his steps. On the other hand we find him, even in the Iliad (v. 355 and xxi. 416), where his general character is that of a huge fierce
In
Odyssey
when
266) the story is told of his secret visit to he was detected by Helios, who informed Hephaes(viii.
whereupon the latter devised a cunning net, and catching the two together under it exhibited them to the gods of Olympos, and called upon Zeus to bring them to trial.
tos of the fact,
ARES,
OR MARS.
^^
as
proper wife in Thebes, indicates very probably the peace and rest that follow the turmoil of war.
liis
It is true that
"Mars
held a court of justice for the decision of cases involving life and death, derived its name from him, the story being that he
it
in a
The
the
who had
a very ancient
temple
in
whom Alkamenes
contemporary and rival of Pheidias, made a statue of him, and the Kleans, all worshipped him with more or less But the real home and centre of his worship was Thrace, xeal.
sculptor, a
with
sky.
its
its
its
stormy tempestuous
conquests and pride
It
was
in
name
to
of
Mars
be actual
of
Romulus and
In
their father
Rome
"
named
the
Field of
Mars/ where
tions, called
place, athletic
were summoned to consider important questions of the The racecourse and the temples of the god were there
there every
(
and
and muster of
iti/.ens
liable
On
this
a bull, a ram,
slain,
were led
three times round the assembled crowd, while during the cere mony a prayer was offered up that the immortal gods
still
Roman
state.
as
it
was expressed
and endurance
to the
Roman
March and
in
October
Mars the
won
the race
was called
"
being
performed
the
at the latter.
In the
"
Field of Mars
was dedicated
booty brought back from campaigns, and no Roman general went to war without first proceeding to the temple of
"
!"
was king of Rome, and, like the Palladium in the temple of Both it and a sacred Vesta, was looked on with veneration.
spear were preserved in the temple of Mars, under the custody of priests, who were called Salii, and whose duty it was every year to celebrate a festival of thanksgiving for this important
present from the gods.
offered to
prisoners in battle
this
custom was abandoned, and horses, rams, dogs, and a portion of the booty captured from enemies, offered instead. Besides these animals, the wolf, cock, and woodpecker were sacred to
him.
The
attributes of Ares
when
they advanced to give the sign of battle to opposing armies. The animals chosen as his symbols were the and the
dog
X.
Hepliaestos, or Vulcan.
Hermes, or Mercury.
HKl HAESTOS,
OR VULCAN.
79
In works of
I
art
Arcs
i>
M. \\crful
build,
represented generally as of a youthful but very At oilier times he shield, and spear.
favourite subject
was
his
meeting with
Aphrodite, as on plate
xxviii.
HEPHAESTOS,
OR
VULCAN,
(PLATE vin.,)
\Y;is
fire
earth
and bursts
which has no
connection with the sun or the lightning of heaven ; and such being his character, we can readily understand the mutual
dislike
of heaven.
which existed between him and the god of the light He was indeed the son of Zeus and Hera, the
deities of
supreme
heaven
but he was
bom
to
be a cause of
quarrel between them, and alternately at enmity with both. -e, when he took his mother s part, /ens seized him by the
(
)n<
heels
the air
and tossed him out of Olympos (Iliad i. 560). Through lie fell for one whole day ; at evening, as the sun went
down, reaching the island of Lemnos, where he was found by some Sintian people, and taken under friendly care. The place
where he was found, and where in after times was the principal centre of his worship, was the neighbourhood of the burning
mountain Mosychlos.
it
that
Hera, ashamed
of
him
own hands from Olympos. Falling into the sea, he was picked up by Thetis and Eurynome, was cared for by
them, remained for nine years
in
his whereabouts,
many
may be
8o
mountains
the
to the sea-shore,
and the
fact of
modern
by volcanic
Among
palace of the sea-gods was a cunningly devised throne, which he presented to Hera, as a punishment for casting him out of
down on
it
she would be
his
locked within
its
no power but
This happened, and Ares went to bring him force to her assistance, but was compelled to retreat in fear by At last of the fire brand with which Hephaestos assailed him.
could free her.
Dionysos,
speech in restoring friendship between mother and son, and her bonds were forthwith undone. Perhaps it is from this
intimacy with Dionysos that he
as cup-bearer in
is
It seems to be the un limping from couch to couch. flicker of flame that is represented in the lameness of steady the fire-god, and it may have been the genial influence of the
hearth which was the source of the quaint stories about him.
god of fire, Hephaestos naturally developed into god of those arts and industries dependent on He arts of pottery and working in metal. fire, especially the
originally
From being
was the
artist
heart of burning
to gods and to dazzling beauty, which he gave freely away For Zeus he made the dreaded aegis and a favourite heroes.
sceptre
self
for
Achilles and
Memnon
assist
their
armour
for
him
living
;
two
him
as he
walked
and
HKPHAKSms, OR
VI M.I
"AN.
8I
any bron/e work of great beauty, his highest praise is always that it was the work of Hephaestos. The throne which he made for Hera, and the net in winch he
to describe
c.uight
From being god of the warmth within the earth tire, Hephaestos came also, when the fertility of a became known by experience, to be looked on
aided the spread of vegetation,
this
one who
nised most in the spread of the vine, which thrives and bears
on volcanic soil. It was from knowledge of this no doubt, that the idea arose of the close friendship fact, between him and the wine-god Dionysos, which we find
its
best fruit
and partly
in
of
how Dionysos
led
-s
his different
His worship was traceable back to the earliest times, l.enmos There, at the being always the place most sacred to him.
foot of the burning
extinct,
spot,
it
where
Prometheus
heavenly
fire,
and
for
nailed alive to
y
away among the Caucasus mountains, there a rock by Hephaestos, and compelled to suffer
to gnaw his liver, which daily somewhat gloomy ceremony of expiating this
in
grew
theft of lire
the island,
all
fires
being
put out,
that
and forbidden
be
relit
to
fetch nevv
Then,
after
and
in
workshops were
lekind..
by the
new
flame.
8o
DEITIES OF
fact of
whole
islands, like
Santorin, being suddenly thrown up from the sea by volcanic force. Among the works which he fashioned in the palace of the sea-gods was a cunningly devised throne, which
modern
for casting
him out of
heaven, knowing that when she sat down on it she would be locked within its secret chains so firmly that no power but his
This happened, and Ares went to bring him by force to her assistance, but was compelled to retreat in fear At last of the fire brand with which Hephaestos assailed him.
could free her.
Dionysos,
speech
in restoring friendship
son,
and
this
forthwith undone.
that
is
from
he
is
seems to be the un
is
the fire-god, and it may have been the genial influence of the hearth which was the source of the quaint stories about him.
From being
developed into
originally
god of
fire,
Hephaestos naturally
god of those arts and industries dependent on He the arts of pottery and working in metal. fire, especially artist god who worked in a smoky smithy down in the was the
and produced clever works of dazzling beauty, which he gave freely away to gods and to For Zeus he made the dreaded aegis and a favourite heroes.
heart of burning mountains,
sceptre
self
;
for
Achilles and
Memnon
assist
their
armour
for
him
living
two
beings,
him
as he
walked
and
HKPHAKSTOS, OR VULCAN.
81
any bronze work of great beauty, his highest praise is always that it was the work of Hephaestos. The throne which he made for Hera, and the net in which he
to describe
Yom
tire,
being god of the warmth within the earth of volcanic Hephaestos came also, when the fertility of a volcanic soil
to
this
and bears
this
best fruit
on volcanic
soil.
It
fact, no doubt, that the idea arose of the close friendship between him and the wine-god Dionysos, which we find
and partly
in
of
how Dionysos
led
his differences
His worship was traceable back to the earliest times, .enmos There, at the being always the place most sacred to him.
1
is
now
extinct,
a very ancient temple of the god on the very spot, it was said, where Prometheus stole the heavenly fire, and for the theft was taken away among the Caucasus mountains, there
nailed alive to a rock by Hephaestos,
gnaw
afresh.
took place annually in the island, all fires being and forbidden to be relit until the return of the ship put out, that had been despat< lu-d to the sacred island of Delos to
theft of fire
fetch nevv
fire.
Then,
alter
all
the
fires
in
dwelling-houses and
82
DEITIES OF
perhaps the most important seat of his worship was Athens, where the unusually large number of persons employed in the potteries and in metal-working recog
nised
as their patron god, and associating him with held annually in October a festival called Chalkeia, in honour of both. In the same month occurred the festival
Next
to Lermmos,
him
Athene,
by the side of Zeus and Athene a pro minent place was assigned to Hephaestos in his capacity of god of the hearth, and protector of the domestic life which gathered
Apaturia,
at which,
round
it.
On
this
offered
at
the
in
hearth, and a public procession took place of men clad festival garments, carrying lighted torches and singing songs
his praise.
in
Again, the torch race, which formed part of the Panathenaic games, was intended to commemorate the theft of
fire
by Prometheus.
of worship existing between Athene and Hephaestos at Athens, it was said that he once endeavoured to obtain the love of the
goddess, and that even though this failed she had devoted special care to Erichthonios, the offspring of his intercourse with
Gaea,
Mount Etna, which was watched by dogs possessed of the faculty of distinguishing the pious from the impious and profane, whose approach they His worship had also, spread to lower fiercely resisted.
Italy
said that
Vulcan had
in fact,
a temple as early
it
Romulus, who,
the
festival
caused
to
and
instituted
to
called
Vulcanalia,
wont
be held on the 23rd of August, the ceremony con of a sacrifice for the purpose of sisting averting all the mishaps that arise from the use of fire and lights for the days were
;
IX.
Aphrodite, or Venus.
APHRODITE, OR VKNUS.
then beginning to be noticeably shorter, and the necessity of
light to
work by
wife of
in the
evenings to be
felt.
The
Hephaestos r according
to the Iliac],
was Charis,
plac<
Aphrodite.
In
By
art
works of
serious
with
furrowejl
man,
or
exon-
mark of workmen
an
or fishermen (which
at
On
Lemnos he appears
hi of the favourite subjects both of poets ami artists was of his catching Herain the throne which he gave her, the ludicrou story On a painted of it making it an attractive subject for the ancient comedy.
One
n the British
1
Museum
is
a scene from a
comedy
in
which lleraaj
on the throne, while Ares and Hephaestos are engaged in combat Another scene which frequently OCIMIIS on the painted before her. which Hephaestos appears on his way back to Olympos in a. is that in on a mule, or walking, and accompanied by state of intoxication,
riding
At the birth of Athene it was he wh Dionysos, Sileni, and nymphs. the goddess come forth, and in th p open the head of Zeus to let split on th- VftMl he appears hami of this fre.uient representations At other times \vc find him fashioning the armour of Achil! hand.
MOM
APHRODITK,
(PI.ATKS
VIII.,
IX.,
OR
VKNUS,
XXVIII.,)
AND
Was
in
word which
early times
embraced also
the love
of
to be the cause
in
throughout nature.
Accordingly we find
and noble, much that is by side with what is beautiful In the best times of (Greece the refined and unworthy.
itiful
both
84
in
poetry
and
art
but
these,
when
times
of luxury suc
kinds.
way many awakened by observing the productive power of nature had, it would seem, given rise to a divine personifi
ceeded, had
to give
to impurities of
The
feelings
among
the nations of
The
The early Greeks coming in con and obtaining from them a knowledge of coinage, weights, measures, and other necessaries of com merce and trade including, it is said, a system of writing
ranean, and on to Italy.
tact with these traders,
function
The
earliest
known Greek
coins
those of ^Egina
How much
may have
to say.
to
be worshipped in Cyprus, Cytherea, Corinth, Carthage, Sicily, and wherever in early times the Phoenicians had made
settlements,
may
besides
the
The
previous
character
to
is
the
described as a daughter of
Zeus
(Iliad v.
312)
and Dione, and through her mother was associated with the ancient worship at Dodona.
the
other hand,
is
described
APHRODITE, OR VENUS.
188-206) as the offspring of
sea,
first
85
(Hesiod, Theogany,
Uranos,
in
stepping on land
"
Anadyomene,
the
title
or
she
who came
out of
Under
of
Urania
personification of that
to power of love which was thought and sea into one harmonious system, and as
Aphrodite Pandemos,
the per
foam of the
sea,
of the
to be held in veneration by
Hence it smiling sea, and the cause of prosperous voyages. in the island of ^Rgina to follow up the was the custom
and banquet in honour of Poseidon with a festival of In excitement in honour of Aphrodite. great rejoicing and of the Knidos she was styled and worshipped as goddess a character which is symbolized by the dolphin peaceful sea
sacrifice
;
The
of her
island of Cytherea
titles,
Cythere, the (Cerigo) derived there before landing on belief being that she had appeared
Cyprus.
The
she
is
earlier
and pure Greek phase of her character, in which a called a daughter of Zeus and Dione, was that of
;
human love she is described as goddess who presides over or Cupid), the accompanied by her son Eros (Amor
Charites
of love),
(Graces), the
Horse,
Himeros (God
of the desire
Pothos (God
Peitho
her grief at young rosy shepherd Adonis which was caused by a wild boar, being so great
the
that she
,>ild
lifeless
body
to be taken
nght
DEITIES OF
during the spring and summer, while she might spend the other half with him earth, in the lower world, beside Persephone (Proserpina); a reference to the change of seasons, which finds its explanation
continue to
on the
in
and
flowers.
in winter.
Her presence
in
nature was
felt in spring,
her absence
and celebrated by a
of which a figure of
burial,
honour of Adonis, in the course him was produced, and the ceremony of with weeping and songs of after wailing, gone through
;
"
which a joyful shout was raised, "Adonis lives, and is risen She was called Adonaia and Adonias, with again
!
reference
favourite
to
this
love
passage.
Next
to
him her
chief
was Anchises, to whom she bore -ffineas, who through his son Ascanius, or Julus, became, as story goes,
the founder of the great Julian family in
the story of
to
Pygmalion,
the
life
as in the alternate
life
same meaning is intended to be conveyed and death of Adonis that is, the alter
nate fervour and coldness of love, or the alternate bloom and frost of nature.
The husband
company
of
Ares has already been related. Among her children, but not by Hephaestos, were Eros (Amor), and Anteros, Hymen,
for
and proved
this spirit
slew
on Polyphonic, whom she changed into an owl on Arsinoe whom she turned to stone and Myrrha, whom she
;
APHRODITE, OR VKNUS.
87
transformed into
with
a.
myrtle tree.
Of her
strife
and competition
later on,
Hera
prince, Paris,
in
awarded
to her,
we
shall give
an account
Asa
to
result of her
power
to unite
by means of love
all
beings,
in blackest Tartaros,
she
life
came
and
be viewed
She had a number marriage ceremonies. island of Cyprus, but none of them so splendidly decorated a that in the town of Paphos, whither thousands of visitors
,
of temples in the
streamed to take part in the annual festival and rejoicings in her There also she had an oracle, and, as Urania, was honour.
latter fact showing flipped jointly with Ares (Mars); the that her connection with this god was founded in the religious
belief of the
people.
in
At
times,
and
ancient sanctuary
:os,
the island of
ied.
The worship
till
Venus
did
i.ot
later times.
festival, called
honour every year, a great part of the ceremony consisting of nocturnal dances and passionate enjoyment in gardens and blooming arbours. She had a temple on the Capitol,
>ng
and one of the Colline gates was consecrated to her. The month of April was held sacred to her, for then the flowers bud shoot or, as the Greek myth expresses it, Adonis
!
plants
the under-world.
The symbols
I
tree, swan, and tortoise, with the rose as a flower, the myrtle various and fruits of other beautiful plants, the app
1
kit;
88
was
Tn Paphos the earliest form or image under which she was worshipped that of a ball or a pyramid, surrounded with burning torches or
is
candelabra, as
to
advanced, she took a finer form, fresh charms being continually added, till all the resources of expressing imperious overpowering beauty were
exhausted.
art
and
in various attitudes.
she was always represented draped, The scene of her birth from
the sea was represented by Pheidias, on the base of the statue of Zeus at Olympia, as taking place in presence of the gods of Olympos, she being
first by Eros, who elsewhere is called her son. One of the most famous pictures of Apelles represented her as rising out of the sea. To indicate her connection with Ares she was represented as Venus Victrix,
received
standing with one foot on a helmet and with both arms raising a shield. Of this type are the Venus of Capua and the Venus of Milo. In a
temple erected to her as Euploia or goddess of prosperous voyages, in Knidos, was a statue of her by Praxiteles, which was celebrated above all her other statues in ancient times and of which the so-called Medicean
;
Venus
is
PALLAS-ATHENE,
(PLATES
Called
also
xi.
OR
MINERVA,
xn.,)
AND
Tritogeneia
fully
all
or
is
sprung into
life,
armed, from the head of Zeus, with its heaven and earth shaking mean while, the sea
Zeus,
it
was
said,
his wife
Metis
The opera
forth,
might come
or,
according to
is,
Prometheus. There
however,
another myth, which ascribes her origin to a connection _of Poseidon "(Neptune) with the nymph Tritonis, adding that
""-
Pallas-Athene, or Minerva.
Apollo.
Helios, or Sol.
89
Hut this M-ems to merely adopted her as his daughter. in the general belief of the people, and have had no foundation
-
to
have been only an invention of later times, when her name, had become unintelligible. Tritogeneia, or Tritonia,
whether deity or mortal, being connected with the earth, had a part in her birth. She was altogether the issue only of
No
her father, the god of heaven, who, as the myth very plainly characterizes it, brought her into being out of the black
i
Her the roar and crash of a storm. pest-cloud, and amidst as forming in some way a character must therefore be regarded The purpose for which she was brought to his.
complement
into existence
and impartial god, could not carry out. plan, but as the supreme once fearful and powerful as a storm, and, in turn, -entle She is at and pure as the warmth of the sky when a storm has sunk to i\st and an air of new life moves over the freshened fields...
terrible and sides of her character express both these she had the with open, gentle, and pure ir.ighty as compared name of Pallas- Athene the former was applied to double
To
she
who
And
further,
she
,vi
.me the goddess of battle valiant, conquering, frightening the sight of her aegis whole crowds of heroes when they
her,
<-d
ning spear.
e
and even driving Ares before her with her light time the soft, gentle, and heavenly At^the same
oddess of from het fimctipj and massacre which V, that desire of confused slaughter hed Ares, and formed the contrast we have ali
of her character took
,
Pallas
and
pres
battl
iry,
but
-e
only
to
lead
on
to
victor),
through
to pea
and prosperity.
DEITIES OF
lished which
and that peace estab be amid the political life of nations here on earth, or whether it be amid the passions of individual
whether
it
When
men
the
is
it
is
that
goddess
Athene
reigns
in
all
gentleness
and
purity,
in
teaching mankind to
all
enjoy peace,
human
life,
If
of her character, the inseparable union of both, and their action and reaction upon each other, we shall see that this
is
a being into whose hands ceptions of a deep religious feeling the pious Greek could, with due reverence, commit his keeping.
The mutual
sufficiently
relation of these
is
The we must
obvious in the various myths relating to the goddess. principal of these we shall proceed to narrate. But,
call
first,
attention
to
this
point, that
Athene
is
repre
sented in the myths as for ever remaining a virgin, scorning the affections which are said to have been frequently offered to her. Instead of suggesting her liability, in the smallest
degree, to earthly passions and foibles, the myth shows admir ably that she was a divine personification of mind, always unfettered in its movements ; a personification, at the same
time, of the origin
of
Divine Being
female order,
independent power at work throughout the whole of nature. In the course of the war with the Giants Pallas rendered
to Zeus,
Herakles,
rebels.
I...
\S-ATHKNK, OR MINERVA.
91
Enkelados
;_
but
when Zeus
rule was^atjast
and protecting thejask of assisting and found engaged in destroying the grim creatures ^hoirTshe friend In this capacity she was the constant monsters upon it. his hardships and adventures (see below), :-akles ;n all whom she helped to slay the Gorgon Medusa, and of
Perseus,
head
>he
aegis,
and
or
for this
Gorgophone,
"protected
Gorgon
which
Along with
to
Hera she
was
the
Argonauts,
with
while
her
assistance
due
the
success
Theseus (see below) overcame and slew monsters of all She stood by the Greeks in their war against Troy, kinds. scheme which we s lail describe afterwards, and devised the
it was brought to a close. by which, affr ten years duration, as goddess in all kinds Hut, in tunes of peace, her power clearness like that of the sky, and of of skill and
handicraft,
was uniformly exercised, as has been said, The arts of spinning for the general good and prosperityShe jnd weaving were described as of her invention. and nurse newly-born infants; and even how to tend
of mental activity,
taught
,,1111-
art
The
flute,
it
too,
of war,
,,
of
to
war chariot
task
which we
for
the story of
Bellero;
phon,
in
whom
PegaSOS
first
and
the
story of
v/lio
at Athens, the
mortal
horses to chario!
all
protectress
of
persons employed
it
m
to
art
and
industry, of those
whose business
was on earth
92
- instruct
DEITIES OF
The
Attica,
principal
that
her
influence
and
actions
to
was
the
district
of
Greece
which,
according
myth
liar
of the sea.
all
Poseidon, the god There her worship and honour surpassed that of other deities, and from her was named the chief town of
province, after a contest for
with
the land.
proof and testimony of her guardian ship of Attica was the olive on the Acropolis of Athens, which she created in the contest with Poseidon, and from
visible
all
The
the
olive
trees of Attica
Ancient writers relate a touching olive tree on the Acropolis, which reveals
how
firmly
was rooted
in
the
When
is
said that
Athene
for
:
and begged
But
fate
Athens must
might
rise
and nobler
city
from
ruins,
The Athenians
city,
took to their
fleet,
which the
fire
and
But,
in its
city
even
ruins, there
new
sprang suddenly from the root which remained a which, with wonderful quickness, grew to a length shoot,
of three yards, and was looked on as an emblem of the re With the aid of their goddess the generation of the city.
PALLASATHENE, OR MINERVA.
Athenians fought foremost of
fight that
93
all
ensued
at Salamis, in
though
was wholly destroyed, while the vastly superior in numbers, were compelled to escape with shame troops on the mainland and immense losses from Greece. of her titles, some derived from her the
Among
great variety
imictions as a goddess,
localities
where her
on the people, we find Athene at worship had a special hold of her care over the Klis mother," in consequence
"
styled
nursing
of
children; in
"protectress
"blue-eyed
Polias, the
Soteira, the
"
saviour";
"the
Glaukopis,
;
goddess";
Parthenos,
vir-
of
horses";
Ergane,
and
"mistress
ot
"victorious";
Kvery year a festival lasting at Athens, to rolled Panathenaea, was held in her honour she had taken in the war against the commemorate the
part
Giants:
current
Olympiad
is
that is, every third year of the every fourth year celebrated with redoubled splendour. it was
said to have
This
festival
been
,tto
have
first
derived
its
Festal
processions
sacrifices and were formed, games were held, while all the Athenians, whether a large scale place on banquets to the privilege of taking at home or abroad in colonies, having
>k
]>art.
The
pri/cs in the
filled
games consisted
ire
.,1
with pure olive oil, the product of lh tree Of these vases a small number have been red to Athene. On one side is painted a li-ure ed down to our times. forward in the attitude of hurling her
vases
si.lc
94
DEITIES OF
course.
On
is
But perhaps the chief attraction was the procession in which a new robe or peplos,
for the
in
In this procession
appears as
if
of Attica took part, the youth of the nobility on horseback or in chariots, the soldiery in arms, and the burgesses with their
attire.
destined for the very ancient statue of Athene which was pre
This custom
drapery on statues appears to have been handed down from remote times, when the art of sculpture was unequal to the task
of imitating the
that the figure, and it is not improbable which we are speaking, dated from that The magistrates of Athens offered sacrifices to her
human
statue of Athene, of
early time.
at the
commencement
of spring.
The
In
Rome
the worship of
much
zeal as that of
Romans.
of their arts
and
industries,
ning and weaving and embroidering, just as she was among the In Rome she had several temples, one of the oldest Greeks.
A festival which lasted of them being that on the Capitol. from March iQth to 23rd was annually held in her honour. But the object connected with her, which the Romans venerated
above
all
Palladium,
or ancient figure or
PALLAS-ATHENE, OR MINERVA.
the goddess, the story of which
95
was
that
it
had
originally fallen
from
tin
heaven,
become
the
property of
of it being from that royal family of Troy, the possession time always considered an assurance of the safety of that city. Hut
it
in
and Trojans
by which followed the capture of the town by means of the wooden Another version of the story has it that ^Eneas took horse.
in
Diomedes
him when he
>istency
fled
from the
it
city
and
in
in
consequence
of
in the story
happened
city
as, for
Where-
was believed
that the
endurance of the
nd BO
it
city
the
happened afterwards
in a
.similar
importance
and when,
we hear of the
that
lost.
lladiurn of
Freedom being
carried
off,
we understand
The symbols
rce.
of
ksofart Athene generally appears as a virgin of serious aspect, shield, and spear, wearing long full -ir.-.pery, and on
.-.
itli
Medusa
in
the
Of
the
many
statues of
IK-
;lor Pheidias
in antiquity as works of art wert those by the the one of gold and ivory stood in her j/--e:it temple ai Some idea is given of it by Plate XII., which on.
tion
I
h-
oihei
was of bron/e
Plate
I. ),
eolos.a] in
food on the
temple just named, the cre^t of her Inline! and point of her spear being visible from the away as 11 attitude ,vas that of southern point ot Attie.i. Suni im, thei
mo>t
DEITIES OF
or
preparing to hurl her spear, and the title she bore, that of Promachos, "Van of Battle." A representation of the statue is to be seen on
the
coins of Athens
The
375
last
A. D.,
on which a view of the Acropolis is given. record we have of the statue of gold and ivory how and when it perished remaining still a
the
is
in the year
mystery.
several
The
small
in
attitude of
statuettes, of
bronze statue
is
exists,
it
is
believed,
in
which there
one
in the British
representations of her birth, of her contest with the Giants, of her assisting heroes, such as Perseus and
Athens.
On
we
find
many
Herakles, in their exploits. The subjects of the sculptures, now in the British Museum, which decorated the pediments of the Parthenon, were, in the front, her birth, and at the back, her contest with Poseidon. In the Erechtheum at Athens was an ancient figure of the goddess, believed,
to
have
fallen
from heaven;
called,
while another
the
was preserved in the city under the care of a It also was believed to have priestly family named Byzigi. fallen from heaven. In its presence was held a court for the trial of cases of bloodshed.
Palladium properly so
OR SOL.
From
the
comes our physical light, but same time an emblem of all mental
and
right,
the sun
that
light
is
at
illumination, of
;
know
ledge, truth,
of
all
moral purity
it
and
in this respect
a distinction was
made between
as a mental
and a physical
phenomenon
on
one
side
Phcebos-Apollo
Accordingly
light
and
is
Helios
the
on
the
other.
oracular
god
who throws
the oracle
at
on
that
monster
of
Python,
Delphi
inaccessible. He is the god of music and song, which are only heard where light and security reign, and the possession of herds is free from danger. Helios, on the other hand, is the physical phenomenon of light, the orb of the sun, which,
summer and
winter, rises
and
His power o
Pallas-Athene, by
Pheidi;i>
PHCEBOS-APOLLO AND
HKI.lns,
OR
SOL.
97
The myth
oldest in the
of
Apollo
is,
like that
of
Aphrodite, one
of the
is
Greek system,
which
at
a pure growth of
the
Greek mind.
No
deities of the
sun and of
similar
in
some
points to
Apollo, but this only proves the simple fact that they viewed the movements of the sun and the operations of light in a We have seen in the general way similarly to the Greeks.
preceding chapters how the sky, earth, sea, and lower world were personified by divine beings of a high order, while in the
forces
and powers
in nature
were imagined as
we
It is
the sun
as the fields
and
in the
is
warmth of
of nature
human
soul.
At the same time these arrows destroy the life of plants and animals even man falls under them in southern climates, such
;
as Greece.
Their
light
penetrates to
dark corners,
and
is
therefore conceived
various ways corresponding to the Denial radiance of the sun, with all its friendly influences: (i) as the personification of
youth and beauty ; (2) as god of earthly blessings; (3) as god of the herds that gra/.e on the fields which are wanned by him,
a
character in
which
he appeared
largely
of
Laomedon.
which multiplied
under
his
care,
7
and
98
DEITIES OF
his flute,
till
(4) as
god of medicine,
who provided
for the
sounds, when his kindly beams spread light and warmth over nature (6) as god of oracles which reveal the secrets of the future, as the light of heaven
;
and
must eternal youth, strength, and endurance be For this reason he came to be a pro ascribed to Apollo.
tector of youth
in war.
when engaged in athletic contests, as well as But summer heat produces plagues, and so it was necessary to view Apollo as the cause of the same, as the
god of death, whose unerring arrows carry destruction with In this latter phase of his character we. find him styled them.
festival
Ka^rneios, and worshipped with particular zeal in Sparta, a being held annually in his honour in the month of
August,, the entire population withdrawing from the
for
town and
several
days encamping
in
tents
in
the neighbourhood,
like a besieging
army
avoid the injurious effects of the intense heat of the dog-days. As a religious The name of this festival was Karneia.
ceremony,
the intention
of
it
was
to
god, and accordingly it was attended with great reverence in Sparta, and from thence transplanted to Kyrene, a Greek
colony
on the
north
coast
to the
of Africa,
.to
the
islands of
Rhodes and
honour of
Sicily,
and
Greek
The
Apollo was
his
at
Amyklae.
in
character,
his
which
as
his destroying
with
function
god
of
youth
I-IKKBOS-APOLLO
AND HEUOS, OR
SOL.
99
and blooming vegetation, is represented in the myth from which he derived the title of Hyakinthios, :ind enjoyed a form of worship which was for the most part peculiar to the
over the whole Peloponnesos, the modern Morea, extending coast of it, to Sikyon, Messenia, Amyklae, and of the south It was accompanied by laments sung from place to
Sparta.
and by poetic competitions, the idea to be conveyed in the whole ceremony being the transitoriness of nature, and the
place,
return of
In this spirit the festival again in course of time. was celebrated annually at Sparta in of the Hyakinthia
life
July,
and lasted nine days, commencing with sadness and with joyous excitement. expressions of grief, and concluding
The myth
accidentally
to
which
tells
how Apollo
the
beautiful
killed,
in
throwing
his
disc,
Hyakinthos, whom he dearly loved, the youngest son of Amyklas or, in another version, how Zephyros, the wind;
god,
who
at the
head
at
The sorrow
the beginning of the festival of the Hyakinthia was to com memorate his death, while the belief that he had been
and bears
his
to
happy
feel
Persephone, was to point to the alternating myth, and return of life in nature, which in this instance is condecay reived under the form of a youth, the disc of Apollo being which scorches up w equally clearly a symbol of the sun,
tation.
A similar idea seems to run through the story whirh n how Apollo and Artemis, taking offence at Niobe because,
with a
mother
pride,
she
100
mother of beautiful children, shot down her children, Apollo the sons, and Artemis the daughters. When one after another had fallen before the angry deities,
as the
all
Leto
many
them in anguish to spare the but could not avert the fatal shaft. children,
mother
s
last
of her
it
When
struck, her
heart
became
like
murmur
or complain.
was
said, into
a rugged rock,
down which
his arrows,
against
the
Greeks, appears to
Whole ranks
aegis,
of fighting
men
at
and the
walls raised
by the
like structures of
upon the face of Thargelios, and a festival, Thargelia, being held in his honour at Athens in the
its
friendly influence
styled
month of May, to celebrate the ripening of the fruits of the field under the warmth of the sun, and at the same time to serve as
a festival of expiation in
ancient days.
called
memory
of the
human
sacrifices
of
festival at
Athens,
Metageitnia,
and
plenty,
In encouraging neighbourly feelings among his worshippers. October the firstfruits of the field were presented to him as a
sacrifice, and in September was held a festival at which he was invoked as a helper in battle. Under the title of Nomios -he was regarded by -herdsmen as their But the patron god.
XIII.
NioLe.
PHCEBOS-APOLLO AND
HI l.tns
OR
SOL.
is
felt
on the sea
as well as on.
in.
and
for this
this capacity worshipped, among other places, at Athens, where his temple, called the Delphinion, was in early times a An trial of capital crimes. place of refuge and a court for the annual festival was held in May, called Delphinia, to corn
memorate the
tribute of seven
in
sacrifices to the
As god
to
of the sun in
its
spend
the winter
away
with whom it was always mythical people called Hyperboreans, As the winter approached poets sang farewell to him. light. At his birth Zeus had given him a mitra (or cap), a lyre, and a
car drawn by swans, in which he was to proceed to Delphi, off to the bright land of the Hyper
When
the
the
priests
of Delphi
Daphnephoria,
honour of Apollo Ismenios, the ceremony consisting of a procession in which was carried a branch of olive hung with wreaths and representa
tions of the
sun,
moon,
stars,
and
planets,
Kopo.
From
it
may be
gathered that
we know
it
On of late origin. symbols so obvious as this being usually the other hand, it may be supposed, from the character of
in a simpler Apollo as sun-god, that the ceremony had existed was BCU red to him. The number sei cn form in early times.
red swans
made
<
ir<
le
BCVCB
tUDCfi
nimd
the
102
Delos at his
birth, this
month.
From
which occurred on the seventh day of the he took the title of Hebdomeios.
One
that in which he
as
styled
Lykios,
Turning now
to that
Delphi as the principal centre of his His oracles were there communicated through a
Pythia, who
rose
sat aloft
on a sacred
chasm
in
the
rock.
Out of
above
this
chasm
a continuous stream of
when she
educated
in
sat
for
of prophesying was by words or sounds, which persons the purpose caught up and put into verse, generally
it.
Her method
such a cunning way as to have, instead of a clear incontro vertible meaning, a double and easily mistaken import.
To
the oracle,
Athenians
advice as to
how
to
its
to .your
citadel of wood." This the Athenian sages misunderstood, and proceeded to have the Acropolis protected with wooden
enemy. day declared that the words referred to the fleet, and suc ceeded in persuading the people to take to the ships, the
the
the
which was the glorious victory of Salamis. Had the interpretation of the sages been accepted generally, the oracle
result of
103
it
meant the
fleet.
It
and
have maintained
its
reputa
and
its
vast influence.
same nature, but apparently older, were the oracles of Apollo in Asia Minor as for instance those of Colophon and Didymi near Miletus, the latter of which was in the hands
Of
the
Sometimes the god of the priestly family of the Branchidce. the prophetic gift to exercised the power of communicating
mortals,
as
he did to
daughter of Glaukos.
town of Cumre,
the
in the
Cassandra, and to Deiphobe, a The latter lived in a grotto beside the Campania of Italy, and was known by
Sibyl.
It
name
of the
Cumsean
Tan min the Proud, the last king of Rome, acquired the three concern Sibylline books which contained important prophecies
ing the fate of
in great reverence
by the
Romans.
They were preserved carefully in the Capitol down when they perished in a fire. In Greece
Epimenides, of whom the myth reports that when a herds man he fell asleep in a grotto, slept for fifty six years, and on
awakening found himself endowed with the prophetic
high degree.
gift in
Connected with
his gift of
prophecy was
his
in
power of music.
verse, but
the
when spontaneous, were As god of music he an inspired foresight into the future. was leader of the Muses, Musagetes and himself played on
thought to originate
;
for him.
At Delphi he was Styled Apollo Pythios, and enjoyed several annual festivals, such as the Theophania, tocelel
104
DEITIES OF
his return
which,
it
from the Hyperboreans, and the Theoxenia, at being harvest time, he was supposed to receive the
The principal festival, other gods at his hospitable table. however, was that at which the Pythian Games were held.
These games had been
instituted to
commemorate
the victory
of Apollo over the dragon Python, which resisted his entrance upon his duties as oracular god at Delphi. They were held at
first
fifth year.
As being himself possessed of eternal youth, and of the finest conceivable athletic form, Apollo came to be regarded as a
patron of the athletic contests of youth, and in this capacity
He
whom
home
persons polluted either with disease or crime turned for purification, and on this account his high power was brought
frequently and seriously to a great part of the people.
He
The
sister
is
(or Latona); wandering long hither and thither, pursued by the jealous Hera, at last found shelter in the island of Delos, It was said that in the Egean sea, and there was delivered.
had been only a waste rock driven about but that it became fixed in its present position on
birth of Apollo and Artemis, an event which was celebrated by a blaze of golden light shed over the island, while sacred swans flew round encircling it seven times.
in May, and for that reason his festival at Delos, the was held in that month. But Leto was compelled, Delia, through the pursuit of Hera, to abandon her children. They
This was
105
were entrusted to
Themis,
name which
signifies
"justice,"
and indicates here the indisputable sense of right present with By her he was fed on ambrosia and Apollo from his birth.
nectar,
strong,
and
that,
too,
so
he was a
youth of dazzling appearance, and escaped his divine nurse, a player on proclaiming that his destiny was to be a bowman,
the lyre, and to give truthful oracles to mankind.
at once accomplish the end of his ambition he set out a suitable place for an oracle, on a pilgrimage to search for
To
After searching
through
many
districts of
Greece he arrived
of
its
Greece.
More
Themis
willing to
young god.
in
terrible dragon,
and
young god, confident in the unerring aim of his arrows, attacked the monster, and slew it after a short combat. In this way he acquired his world-famed oracle, and from his
vain, for the
title
of
Pythios.
Apollo re
sacred tripod and
to take
From
mained
ora<
that
in
time
forward, with
one exception,
undisputed
possession of the
lc
at
when he had
up
their
defence against
did not prophesy as he wished, offered her violence and carried off the tripod. Apollo hastened to the aid of his priestess,
to settle
who
Amongst
life,
it
is
related that
106
DEITIES OF
Asklepios
During
on earth he acted
herdsman
to his friend
in the
Adsame
metos,
and again
capacity to
In vexation at his
banishment he joined with Poseidon in an attempt to dethrone But the scheme failed, and both deities were in con Zeus.
sequence sentenced to
assist
Laomedon
refused to give
for
by sending a dreadful
Troy.
with
Pan, who
lyre.
than the
The
decision,
which was
Midas, a king
Midas by causing his ears to grow long like those of an ass. Marsyas, too, had boasted that he could surpass Apollo in
the art of playing on the
cruel
flute,
and
for this
had
to suffer the
alive.
till
In
B.C.,
Rome
320
Afterwards a second
hill.
temple to
The Apolli-
narian
Games
was made by the Greek poets of later times between Apollo and the sun-god, Helios. As little did the Romans distinguish between Apollo and Sol. In both cases
distinction
No
the confusion arose from the fact that the fundamental idea of
The
title
of Phoebos plainly
HCKBOS-APOLLO
AND
HELIOS,
OR
Bf
of pure streaming light, particularly designated Apollo as god was of heaven, and this phase of his character of the
light
name being
LetQ,
darkness,* strictly
or Hyperion, on the contrary, remained, properly speaking, which is visible in the heavens by day, only the orb of the sun the and disappears by night in a regular course. That was The number seven was sacred to had. only signification he and in the island of Trinakia, sup him, as it was to Apollo, and it was said, he had seven herds of cows to be
posed
Sicily,
fifty in
or diminished in numbers.
see
was one of
his pleasures
to
>f
them grazing when he rose in the morning and when he ended in the evening. the sons of Helios the most famous is Phaethon, of
it
whom
with
is
said that
a son of Zeus and Io, and in consequence he really was his father, to prove himself such begged Helios, which Helios called the river by granting one request upon
Epaphos,
if
The not refuse to grant it. Styx to witness that he would for one was, that he, Phaethon, should be permitted
request
day
boldness of the
threatened his
request,
in
son
and
alarmed
his determination.
the
more
firmly,
and Helios,
finding himself
son
how
to drive
for
and manage
the horses,
to
I08
DEITIES OF
his strength
quainted with the right way, soon became confused, and lost and his senses. The spirited horses wheeled out
of the right course, and brought the chariot of the sun so near
to the earth that in
some places
began
fire,
fountains
rivers
to boil,
became black
in
Zeus, alarmed at the unexpected which both heaven and earth were thus placed, slew danger Phaethon with a stroke of lightning, and cast him from the
in
colour.
down
The
three
is,
that
daughters of Helios,
Phaethusa,
time,
-<*Egle,
and Lampetia,
into
wept
for
him a long
and
finally
s
became transformed
from them being changed by the sun into amber Phaethon s friend Kyknos mourned his loss
into a swan, while Helios
deeply,
was
so grieved
The symbols
were the
The symbols
and
of Apollo
lyre.
In works of art Apollo is usually represented as having the figure of a youthful athlete perhaps the finest existing statue of him being the Apollo His hair is long, and usually tied, like that of Belvidere of the Vatican.
his sister Artemis, in a large
In the character of
Musagetes he wears long ample drapery girt at the waist, a diadem round his head, and long tresses falling on his shoulders. Though the general representation of him is that in which he is engaged in playing on the
lyre, or resting
from doing
so,
as in plate xi.,
we
find
him
also with
bow
and arrows,
Sauroktonos, killing a lizard, holding forth his aegis to destroy his enemies, and present at the flaying of Marsyas.
as
XIV.
Artemis, or Diana,
Dionysos, or Bacchus.
ARTKMIS, UK DIANA
AND
M-.I.KNE,
OR LUNA.
IO<)
ARTEMIS, OR DIANA;
AND SELENE,
OR LUNA.
Artemis was
the
moon,
sun.
Apollo
like the But by degrees, as the moon came to be viewed and on the as a mere illuminating orb, sun, on the one hand believed as possessing a real or apparent and generally oilier and on human as well as animal life,
influence
upon vegetation,
there grew
kinds,
Luna, whose
other was
all
The
Artemis,
or
Diana, who
by became
embraced
the
in her character
moon on earthly life, while the the subject of a largely developed religious belief; like that of Helios, was but myth of Selene, on the contrary,
little
and accordingly,
and sparingly improved upon. influences of Great as was the variety of the real and fancied
the
life,
in the
a locality
And
further,
it
many
myths of
Artemis
fact
whose inner and being twin-sister of Apollo, she was believed to share. spiritual qualities warm southern lands It was observed that the vegetation of
of her
most under the quickening influence of spread and flourished which often for the coolness of night and the fall of dew,
110
DEITIES OF
It
was
known by
the sky
to
is
most copious when and hence clear and the moon sheds her pure light
experience that the
fall
of
dew
is
Artemis was
hills
;
believed to
roam by
night through
the
woods and
and
valleys,
accompanied by
nymphs
of
the fountains
was
felt.
security to
But the presence of the moon in the heavens gave travellers and to herds, especially from the attacks
the
of wild animals,
be.
Under
title
whose enemy Artemis was therefore thought to of Agrotora she was the patron goddess
and glens well-wox)ded and well-watered. Here she was worshipped under the form of a bear, and
its
many
heights
On
moon from
regarded as
showed
that
this,
purpose of punishing men, and to illustrate was told of her having sent among the ^Etolians the so-called Kalydonian boar, which laid waste their fields, till
the story
employ them
by Meleager and Atalanta. As a huntress her favourite animal was the stag, because its swiftness
after a great
hunt
it
was
slain
for
of foot.
would punish the wanton slaying of the stag, there is the story how for such a crime on the part of Agamemnon she
fleet,
on
its
way
to Troy, in the
sacrifice
harbour of
daughter,
of his
Iphigeneia.
Aktaeon,
the huntsman,
ARTEMIS, OR DIANA;
Ill
bathing,
and
into a stag,
and devoured by
illustrate
his
own hounds
appears to Sirius.
Another hunter
whom
Orion, a
at the
beginning of summer is seen in early morning in the east, where it remains until extinguished by the morning light. To express this in the form of a myth, Orion was said to have
lie-ntoo pressing in his advances towards
Eos,
the morning,
and
goddess of the
moon
slew him.
From the coincidence observed between the courses of the moon and the ebb and flow of tides, Artemis came to be viewed as a goddess who protected the occupation of the
fishermen, not only on the shore
also
sea, but
on lakes and
or
rivers.
name
zeal
of
account
former of her two names, the story was told of her having, to escape the pursuit of Minos, thrown herself from a rock into the sea, upon which she was caught in a fisherman s
net.
From the joyous feelings awakened by calm moonlight, and perhaps partly from her relationship to Apollo, she was described as fond of music
itself in
a strong
light to the
By whatever process the belief was arrived at, whether from some comparison which suggested itself between the life of man
and the waxing and waning of the moon, or whether because
mankind
of day,
at birth
seemed
to
come
we
find
112
DEITIES OF
of child-birth, with
the
title
Eileithyia,
Ilithyia,* or
She was throughout looked upon as a goddess of the female productive power in nature, and accordingly the care and nursing of children through their illnesses were placed
under
her
supervision.
Eleutho.
festival,
dancing of
young
girls,
was held
in her
death seems to
sink into night again, she came to be viewed as goddess of death, particularly of that manner of death which could not be
assigned to a
known cause
it
ostensible
wound, that Apollo or Artemis had laid them low and in these cases the death of men with a kindly arrow
injury or
:
was ascribed
rule.
to
Apollo,
and of women
to
Artemis,
as a
From
moon, with
her
to
its
pure serene
light,
naturally suggested, as
does to us
pure virgin,
spotless
Artemis,
as
name
implies,
the
"modest,
goddess,"
came
be looked on as a
virgin,
and
whether boys or
girls,
from
whom
When
girls
an age at which her care was no longer necessary, it was cus tomary for them to dedicate their girdles to the goddess. Young
girls
She was worshipped in goddess, and her symbol of a bear. and Thebes as goddess of strict upbringing, Athens, Corinth,
of good fame, of upright mind, and of sensibility in the affairs
* Both names are also assigned to Hera, described as a daughter of Zeus and Hera.
is
ARTEMIS, OR DIANA;
IIJ
of ordinary
life.
arrows at
all
wild
and
unchecked creatures
and
of
to
actions.
When
obtained
and, like
only a maiden
tender age
she
resolved,
and
Zeus
consent,
remain always
in a single state,
Athene, continued
ciple
her, as
we
Daphne, whom
into a bear.
and Kallisto
may have been from the same motive which assigned the bear as a symbol, that in early times her worship was attended
with
human sacrifice. Of this kind was the worship of Tauric Artemis, at first peculiar to the countries on
of
it.
the
the
shores of the Black Sea, the Crimea being the principal centre
From
the Crimea,
it
is
said,
among other places, at Sparta. There she was The sacrifices of human beings styled Orthia or Orthosia. were -however, in later times, commuted for the well-known cere
it
took root,
mony
altar, said
to
duced by the Spartan legislator Lykurgos. goddess of marshes she was styled Limnaia, and as a
i-oddess
river
Potamia.
nymphs of fountains, as, for example, Arethusa, whose beauty had attracted the river-god Alpheios and made her the object of his constant pursuit, till Artemis to elude him, caused
protection the
the water of the spring which she represented to flow
under
ground.
at the
As Munychia,
of the
which cak.
tin-in,
shape of a
full
moon, with
lights stuck
114
DEITIES OF
of a bear, she
had a sanctuary on the Acropolis of Athens. In Eubcea she was styled Amarynthia, and was worshipped
with great ceremony.
Selene, or Luna,
Helios to
it
inasmuch as she merely repre sented the orb of the moon, while Artemis represented the
Phcebos-Apollo,
influence exercised on nature
as the sun
compared with Helios, the rising star of day, Selene represents evening and night, carrying a torch, and clad in
long heavy robes, with a veil covering the back of her head. On her brow she wears a half-moon (less frequently horns),
as
;
if
or she rides
the beautiful
asleep on a hill-side,
scended to him, is the best known of the myths concerning her, and may be taken as a symbolical representation of the gentle influence of the goddess of night, who watches the
slumbers of
unconscious
creatures.
Among
the
Romans
had a handsome temple, founded by King Servius Tullius, on the Aventine hill, another on the Capitol, and
a third on the Palatine.
Luna
Compared with
describing,
the Artemis
the
so-called
whom we
Ephesus,
presents (Plate
XV.) so very
different
and strange
an aspect, that at first sight we are completely at a loss to understand how by any possibility the term of a virgin could be applied to her. Her appearance altogether wants the
simplicity, humanity,
and
truth to nature
which characterised
XV.
Diana
of Epliesus.
ARTEMIS, OR DIANA;
AM
is
\K,
OK LUNA.
15
being worshipped by the native her in the place of population of that land, and adopted was Artemis, who, leaving out the fact of her being a virgin, identical with the Asiatic goddess in respect of her probably
Minor, found this goddess
divine power over
fertility,
childbirth, the
The worship
the part of Asia
to other places
(
of
Diana of Ephesus
.recce Proper.
At Ephesus she had a temple, ^which, for the architecture, its si/.e, splendour, and wealth,
the
ancient
born
a
it
5rT~the night on which Alexander the Great was was set fire to and almost completely destroyed by
man named Herostratos, whose object, being simply to hand down his name in history, was gained. Afterwards, when Alex
ander had acquired renown by his extraordinary conquests in Asia, this coincidence was remarked, and accepted as having
1 >een
when
finished
it
before.
was
still being worshipped zealously when went to Kphesus to preach Christianity, and accordingly he was
ved with
smitlo,
\\
;i<>^-
hostility, especially
Diana,
that
to be sold among her worshippers and devotees. Feeling the success of Paul s preaching would ruin their trade.
the\
t;
d so great an opposition to
him and
his followers
that
Il6
DEITIES OF
were obliged to leave the town. Nevertheless the new re1 found converts, who from that time forward formed a gion
Christian
community
title
under the
This Artemis was also worshipped of Leukophryne in Asia Minor, and as suet
there.
at
Among
the
Romans
and
of native growth,
erected to her in
Rome
on the Aventine
as early as the
Her
sacrifices consisted of
oxen
had
became
firstfruits
offerings to a
virgin goddess.
Stags, dogs,
and the
of the fields
were sacred to
In works of art Artemis was usually represented as a huntress, either in the act of running with speed in pursuit of her game, or resting, and pre senting the picture of a young virgin, fleet of foot, her dress girt high, and
unencumbered except by bow and arrows. In type of face she resembles her brother Apollo so closely that, from the face alone, it is sometimes
difficult to distinguish
them.
Her hair, like his, is gathered into a large The most celebrated of the statues of her that
the so-called Diana of Versailles.
later
as, for
have come
down
and
to
in
us
is
In early
works of
also she
art,
some of the
in the British
is
Museum
example, a marble statue her drapery reaches to her feet, but in these cases
represented as in active movement, like the moon hastening Of the incidents in which she figured we find that through the clouds. of Aktaeon being transformed into a stag and devoured by his hounds, in a
sculptured group, on a painted vase, and on the fragment of a cameo in the British Museum. The hunt of the Kalydonian boar occurs on painted vases. The Ephesian Artemis was represented (plate xv.) with a mural crown
on her head.
Behind the crown is a disc, as symbol of the full moon ; on her breast, like a necklace, a garland of flowers, as a sign of her influence in spring-time, while above it are figures of maidens, to indicate her lions cling to her arms ; as mother of wild patronage of young girls
;
beasts,
she has
many
breasts
mented with
and gryphons
at the sides
are
DIONYSOS, OR
RA<vin;s.
17
;md bees.
How
the original
from heaven, it is impossible to say. Selene or Luna is represented as riding on a mule or a horse on the On a painted vase in the pediment of the Parthenon it is a horse. Helios is British Museum there occurs a representation of sunrise
fallen
rising in his
moon
is
the form of youths, dive headlong (Selene) rides away over the hill-tops on a horse,
in
int>
bayed
at
by a dog.
DIONYSOS, OR BACCHUS,
(PLATE
xiv.,)
Having more titles than any of the other deities, was styled, to increase their number, "God of the many names," of these the
most
familiar being,
and Bakchos.
this
have been borrowed by the Greeks in its been developed primitive form from oriental mythology, to have
god appears
to
by them, and
in later times
communicated
to
the
Romans.
His original signification was that of a divine being whose power might be noticed operating in the sap of vegetation; and, and joy for accordingly, spring was a season of gladness
him, and winter a season of sorrow.
From
and
its
this
sprung his
of the vintage
gay accompani
in which ments, and god of the ecstatic and mystic ceremonies As time went on his sufferings during winter were deplored.
he came to be viewed chiefly as the source of the happiness and mirth which arise from the enjoyment of the noble fruit
of the vine
in
;
gaiety
and
mirth,
gave
occasion
the
first
attempts
dramatic
performances, he
to
that of
god of
Il8
DEITIES OF
He
the
was born,
it
Thebes, and
was a son of
of
a daughter of
Kadmos,
Poseidon.
nant at
this rival in
her husband
affections,
and to this end, assuming a disguise, went ; Thebes, and presented herself to Semele how she suc ceeded in winning her confidence, and thereupon took occasion to propose that she should ask Zeus to visit her for
get rid of her
to
;
once
how
"by
plenitude of his majesty as god of thunder, without waiting to listen, had hastily sworn Zeus, who, the black waters of the Styx," to grant whatever she
in all the
should ask,
from granting which no power could absolve him how one day he appeared before the luckless Sernele with a display of
thunder and lightning which caused her death.
desire of vengeance
So
far the
satisfied.
But
Semele, at the
child,
moment
prevent
to a
male
whose
life
Bakchos.
To
suffering
at the
secretly despatched
of
Dithyrambos,
it
is
means
twice
born,"
and
In after times it was applied to a being restored by Zeus. of song in honour of the god of wine, of which Arion species
of
Dionysos was
happiness
tenders
among the nymphs, satyrs, sileni, herdsmen, and vineof Nysa. But when he arrived at manhood he set
DIONYSOS, OR BACCHUS.
countries, even into the
all
known
how
remotest parts of India, instructing the people, as he proceeded, and how to practise many other arts of to tend the
vine,
them the value of just and honourable peace, besides teaching He was praised everywhere as the greatest bene dealings. with factor of mankind. At the same time, it is said, apparently stubborn mood which in some cases reference to the fierce and
follows copious indulgence in wine, that he
met occasionally
we
will take
Lykurgos,
whom,
fell
kill
for
his son,
and afterwards to mistaking him for a vine-plant, of Thebes, himself in despair. Or, again, Pentheus, a king
he caused to be torn to pieces by his own mother and of women, because he had dared to look on at
whom
her following
Nowhere was the knowledge of how to utilize the vine ap in Attica, where the god had communicated preciated more than
it
to
Ikaros,
whose
first
his
In December a festival, with all deeply grieved for afterwards. in manner of rustic enjoyments, was held in honour of Dionysos
the country
In January, a festival called Lenaea was held in his honour in the town, at which one of the principal was a nocturnal and orgiastic procession of women.
round Athens.
features
Then followed
of February the Anthesteria, the first day and the second pouring which was called cask-opening day,
in
lay.
Lastly
came
Great
lasted
120
DEITIES OF
wooden image of
one sanctuary
accompanied by excited songs. The was daily the scene of splendid dramatic performances, and the whole town was astir and gay. His worship extended to Lemnos, Thasos, and Naxos,
to another,
theatre of Dionysos
pirates
where the story was told of his turning the Tyrrhenian into dolphins, and where he found the beautiful
Ariadne, when she had been abandoned by Theseus. It spread to Crete, the home of Ariadne, and into Asia Minor.
In Phrygia he was worshipped with wild ceremonies, called Sabazia, and in Thrace and Macedonia, called Kottytia. As
the
India,
god who had advanced through Asia Minor and on to accompanied by his wild and clamorous following, he
in this character
was
re
The
winter
sufferings
led
him
which the god was supposed to endure in to be associated with Demeter in the
The
vine, ivy,
god
of
however, two are to be specially noticed. The one called the Indian Bakchos" represents him as a man of years, with worthy aspect,
a long beard, a diadem on his brow, and long drapery sweeping to his feet. In the other figure he is represented as a beautiful youth with an almost
feminine appearance (plate xiv), beardless, his hair falling in long tresses, and adorned with a wreath of ivy or vine tendrils, sometimes wearing the skin of a stag over his shoulders, or with small horns on his brow, and often in a car drawn by panthers or lions, or riding on one of these beasts.
XVI.
DIONYSOS, OR BACCHUS.
At other times he appears as a child, and that sometimes when he being handed over by Hermes to the care of Silenos and the nymphs
Nysa.
is
f
youthful Dionysos is frequently represented in the company of Ariadne, while the elder Dionysos is usually accompanied by Sileni and
Satyrs, as
The
when he
visited Ikaros
reliefs,
and taught him the use of the vine, a of which two are in the British Museum.
:
On his journey to India he rides on a camel, and on other occas ons In- is attended by panthers. His staff is a thyrsus a rod with a pine cone at the In his hand is often a drinking cup. The movement and exciteim nt top.
of the persons
Praxiteles
who were
to
and
it is
now
HERMES,
(PLATES
OR
x.
MERCURY,
AND
xvn.,)
A
in
son of
the
a daughter of
first
the
prolificness
and welfare of
the animal
consequence, however, of the fact that in early times the chirf source of wealth consisted in herds of cattle, the prolificness of
it
came
was
first
cause of
all
wealth,
it
come
whence
it
might.
But as
civilization
advanced, and
became
known by experience
trade,
that there
traders.
condition of prosperity
trade was JK
and undisturbed
commerce
took
by land and sea, he came to be viewed .is guardian of commerce. And, further, assuming that all uho
part
in
trade were
qualified
to look
after
their
own
interests,
shrewd
and prudent,
the
function of
protecting
122
DEITIES OF
shrewdness, and even cunning, was assigned to In certain aspects of trade, if not in the best, it was reckoned a great point to talk over and cajole purchasers, and
prudence,
him.
from
method of doing
business,
Hermes
Finally,
it
came
to
be god of
"persuasive speech"
or oratory.
being only a short step from this to cunning and roguery, we must not be surprised to find him described as protector of
thieves
and
rascals,
though no doubt
this task
more
of
to
in joke
than in earnest.
His
office of
Zeus, appears
messenger and herald of the gods, in particular to have originated partly in the duty assigned
him of protecting commerce, the success of which depends largely on the messengers and envoys employed in it, and
partly in other functions of his which
explain.
far to
the
will of
the gods
to
men,
and from
office
In the capacity of
messenger or herald he had access even to the under-world, title of Psychopompos, he guided the
souls of the departed, crossing in
Charon
bark,
and placing
deities below.
(Plate VI.)
From
is
shadowy world of
and dreams
find
and accordingly we
guide of dreams.
Hermes
the swift
described as
Oneiropompos,
As
messenger of the gods he readily came to be looked on as a model for the youth practising in the palaestra, in which capacity he
had the
title
of
Enagonios.
perform was the variety of mythical stories about his actions and life, some of them taking us back to the very day of his
HKRMES, OR MERCURY.
was not an uncommon practice
in the early
123
birth.
For
it
myth-
of a god some instance of making age to ascribe to the infancy the by which he was afterwards distinguished.
peculiar qualities
So
it
His birth having taken place on the fourth of the month, that him. Born, as it was believed, during day became sacred to cave on the darkness of night, in an unfrequented, lonesome
Mount
of his nios, he was only a day old when a remarkable example out of the couch in cunning and knavery occurred. Slipping he was left asleep as was supposed, the night the cave where
found a herd of cattle belonging to being dark and cloudy, he stole a number of them. his brother (as sun-god), and
Apollo
When
for the morning came Apollo searched in vain had cleverly succeeded in missing cattle for the infant god all traces of them by fastening bunches of broom to obliterating into a their hoofs, and in this condition driving them backwards
the
cave at Pylos, so as to produce the impression that they had After this adventure he slunk left instead of entered the cave.
back
to his couch,
and feigned
to
be asleep.
Battos,
He
had, however,
against
named
at
who informed
such a daring piece of rob him, whereupon Apollo, angry out of his couch, and took him off to the bery, dragged him throne of Zeus to be punished and made an example of. But
Hermes
the
was
irrepressible,
made
play
on
it,
to
the
amusement and
ingratiated
for his
delight
Apollo,
giving
and
further
him
the lyre,
inventing"
own
use a shepherd
s pipe.
\.
The
cattle of the
of nature.
The
signification
124
DEITIES OF
cattle
to
showers by night.
brothers having thus made their peace, continued from that time forward on the best of terms, Apollo attesting
his
The two
in return
also the
power of prophecy. This condition, however, was attached to the gift, that he was not to communicate his revelations of the
future
by words
is
by
signs
and occurrences.
in
That
their
to say,
some undertaking
be guided by certain unexpected sights, or incidents, and were to recognise in them the accidents,
favour or displeasure of the gods with reference to the enter
prise in question,
in
mind were
a method of proceeding
modern
superstition.
These
signs
lieved to be sent
doubt, as to
by Hermes, whose counsel in other cases of whether to do or not do a thing, was sought for by
reverse.
the
ready answer which he gave proof of in the first days of his infancy, were often afterwards and with like success displayed
by him
as, for
example,
when he
Zeus,
Aphrodite
the tongs of
s girdle,
Poseidon
Hephaestos, or Apollo s bow and arrows, in make up matters, and smooth away the
But the most celebrated instance
were
fully
which
affair
of
to
Argos
appointed
whom
the
HKKMKS, OK MKRCURY.
latter,
might escape the Vengeance of the jealous Hera, had transformed into a cow, a trick which the
that
she
god<l<
had perceived.
the surveillance of
Hermes being commanded by Zeus to release lo from Argos, and in doing so to use no force, found the task no easy matter, seeing that the watchman had a hundred eyes, of which, when in his deepest sleep, only fifty
Well,
were closed.
Hermes succeeded, however, and in this fashion. amuse him by Presenting himself to Argos, he commenced to these means fairly gained telling all kinds of tales, and having by
the
watchman
confidence, he
it
pipe,
and played on
that one by they gradually lulled Argos into so deep a sleep one all his hundred eyes closed. The moment the last eyelid
and led drooped Hermes slew him, and at once released lo, For this service he rose high in the estimation of her away.
Zeus, and from that time the
name
title
of
"
Argos-slayer,"
phontes, was
rial
the proudest
it
which he bore.
ArgeiAs a memo
of Argos, Hera,
was
of his knavery
whole character of
frequently
Hermes
was he,
for
example, who invented Apollo which the Theban musician, Amphion, did such
one by
;
wonder
and
was he who taught Palamedes to express words in And, besides, wherever danger that required skill and \\riting.
it
dexterity as
mm h
as courage presented
itself,
he was
in
aiv
present to assist.
He
then d.m
tin-
of
Herakles, was
associated with
Athene.
To
ti
126
DEITIES OF
lers
lost their way he was a ready guide, and to exiles a constant and willing helper in strange lands and among ill-
who had
Hermes was, as has been who gives prolificness to flocks and herds. In we find him in what appears to have been the
is
in
Samothrace and
the
title
and Lemnos, where he bore of Kadniilos or Kasmilos. His usual title among
either
herdsmen was
Nomios
it
or
Epimelios.
his office to aid
became
this
end
it
These
called, consisting of a pillar running statues, narrower towards thefoot,and surmounted by ahead of Hermes,
they may be so
was the duty of travellers on passing one of them to place a stone beside it, a custom which not only
It
largely helped towards clearing the fields of stones, but also led
to
facilities for
improvement in the roads themselves, and hence to increased commerce. If more than two roads crossed, a
corresponding number of heads were placed on the pillar, one Similar figures were also found outside houses facing each way.
in
Athens
for the
The
is,
attributes of
purpose of cheering parting travellers. Hermes were the caduceus or kerykeion, that
tached to
times
is
and the
petasos or
a cock or a goat.
god of
oratory.
in
The Roman Mercurius appears to have common with Hermes only the character of god
possessed
of trade and
XVIII.
Themis.
Leto, or Latona,
111!
MIS.
127
oratory.
Roman
May.
bearded and about middli: In the earlier works of art Hermes appears His form is a sheep or a kid over his shoulders. frequently carrying such as In more recent works we find him of a youthful figure, athletic. He wears the petasos, ;.i.d of the gods. ,me his office as messenger sometimes wings at his heels, carries the caduceus, and sometimes, occurs fu of trade, a purse. Among the incidents of his life, one which thi..-t: on the painted vases is that in which he appears presenting the quently who had to decide their claims as to which of them v.:.s :o
:.
Paris,
Many
of the
Sometimes he is represented in sculptures as a HH- itHermae described above have come down to our tirms.
THEMIS,
(PLATF. XVIII.,)
was the personification of daughter of Uranos and Gaea, to control all human affairs, that divine law of right which ought
to no of that highest and noblest sense of right which is subject viewed human influences. In this capacity she came to be
was a personi also as goddess of the rights of hospitality. She will as it bore upon the affairs of the world, fication of divine
and accordingly the Delphic oracle had been under her control she before it was yielded to- Apollo, to whom, as her successor,
art.
Zeus
that
become
wife, as
which say
Mcer<e
Metis was
his
first.
To him
we or Parcae, and Astraea, the goddess of justice, of whom the Bronze the earth during Already told how she forsook
Age.
of
she descended to earth, and there, throughout the Golden Age, taught mankind the exercise of right and moderation. When,
afterwards, the
human
again to Olympos.
Themis, even
advice
;
example, did Zeus, when he declined to marry Thetis, because of the prediction of Themis, that a son would
as, for
be the issue of the marriage, who would excel even his father in might. We shall afterwards have to relate how Thetis was
given in marriage to Peleus, a mortal, in order that her son
might not be a source of danger to the gods. The worship of Themis extended to many districts of Greece, where temples, The principal altars, and statues were raised in her honour.
centres of
./Egina,
it,
woman of mature
age, with
it
large
open eyes
is
while
modern
be observed
figure her as in
must
She
in
one
and
to
HOK.*..
129
II.
INFERIOR DEITIES.
T T ITHERTO our descriptions have been 1 1 those deities of the Greeks and Romans,
their functions
confined
to
who, because
no god but Zeus, were of the superior order, or Olympian deities, Hades and styled Persephone being included, though their realm was the
were subordinate
to
n<
le;
We
gods,
but
were
nevertheless
worshipped
independently,
it
HOR.E,
(PLATE xxv.,)
The goddesses of the seasons," daughters of Zeus and Themis. Their number was variously estimated according to
"
winter.
it
and death
in
nature.
Thus we
ns in Athens, the
"blossoming,"
of
"harvest
and
fruit."
(ireece the
13
INFERIOR DEITIES.
usual
number was
art
three,
and
works of
seasons
:
(see
Plate
its
Spring with
with
its
Summer
with
grain,
and
Autumn
grapes and
Occasionally we find a fourth season, that of Winter, repre sented in the act of returning with booty from the chase but,
;
is
nameless.
of the kindly seasons which bring about the and growth of nature, they were directly under the budding control of the superior deities, especially of Zeus and Hera. At times they are to be seen along with the Charites
deities
As
(Graces)
in the
company
in the
of Aphrodite,
Muses
company
of Apollo
for
it
is
in
the
happy
seasons of the year that the joyous voice of nature is heard. In the capacity of goddesses who watched over the blessings
of the
fields, it
became
changes
of the weather,
Tender and gladsome, moving in mazy dances, with crowns of gold and of flowers, they were always good and faithful to mankind, and, though sometimes
seeming
to the impatient to
come
The
with
fruit in
figure
(in
Plate
XXXI.)
represents a
Hora
The
is
dancing,
dish of
a wreath of palm-leaves
her
left
on her head.
hand probably
the
Hora
of Autumn.
their functions in nature. In consequence, how of the great and plenteous blessings that were observed ever, to flow from the unchangeable and orderly succession of the
Such were
POMONA.
131
good order
and
to
propriety in
human
life
and morality
have given rise to the belief that they were daughters of Themis. Their names, in the cases where the three appear together, have been admirably chosen to suit this metaphorical
notion
of their character
(justice),
:
as,
Eunomia
(wise
s
legislation),
Dike
Eunomia
services were
mostly directed to political life, the results being warmly praised 1 )ikc- s by poets, and her worship never neglected by the State.
sphere of operations was more
of individuals, informing,
injustice
ful
it
among
said,
was
her father,
Zeus,
of every
done on
earth.
Plutos that is, of riches, the gay companion of Dionysos, and guardian goddess of songs and festivities. The goddess of spring was also especially worshipped as a Hora (Plate XXI.) under the title of Chloris, which corres
ponds to the Roman Flora. She was the goddess of buds and flowers, of whom Boreas, the north winter wind, and
Zephyros.
the latter,
She chose
and became
POMONA
oddess of garden
fruits,
Her appearance full of them, with a dog by her side. It was said that she was that of a virgin in rustic garments. had been originally a Hamadryad, but had yielded her affec Her worship was confined to the tions to Vertumnus.
plenty
INFERIOR DEITIES.
Romans.
She had a
priest,
styled
flamen pomonalis,
service.
VERTUMNUS,
The husband
as well as the
of
as a deity of the
was worshipped by the Romans second order, who watched over the seasons
fruits,
Pomona,
garden
similar to those of
Pomona.
resembling a harvest thanksgiving, was held in his honour, the offerings brought him on that occasion consisting of firstfruits
all
kinds.
Like
Pomona,
a wreath
he,
too,
had a
priest of his
own.
At times he was
represented, like
Saturn, with a pruning-knife in his hand, and composed of ears of corn on his head. Originally he
was worshipped under the form of a rough wooden post, but had afterwards a beautiful bronze statue made by a Roman
artist.
JANUS,
(PLATE xvn.,)
Was
unknown to the Greeks, but from the earliest times held in high estimation by the Romans, who placed him on almost an equal footing with Jupiter, even giving his name
a deity
precedence in
the origin of
their prayers,
and downs of
and the
industry,
human
race by
means of agriculture,
and
religion.
According
Janus was
XVII.
Janus.
Hermes, or Mercury,
JANUS.
133
an ancient king who had come in remote early times from Greece to Latium, there instituted the worship of the gods and the erection of temples, and himself deserved high honours
like a god, for this reason, that
boon upon mankind by his instructions in many important ways. In In some of the stories he is confounded with Saturn.
others
it is
easy to explain the great honour paid to Janus by a people like the Romans, who, as a rule, had this peculiarity of pondering well the prospects of an undertaking before entering
It is
upon
it.
The beginning
is
importance to them,
ing."
It
in
"
Roman
poet, Ovid,
good beginmakes
Janus
Everything depends on the beginning." Even in Jupiter had consented to an enterprise, prosperity it out was believed to be under the control of Janus, carrying
say,
when
and, accordingly, great stress was laid on the circumstances Janus opened attending the commencement of any project.
and closed
all things.
He
sat,
were
in
its
hirues at his
command.
belief,
he was represented, as in one being that of a Plate. XVII., seated, with two heads, to indicate beginning, the other that of an old man, youth,
In accordance with this
to
indicate the
end,
left
whence
hand
at
is
lie
headed).
In his
a key, to
;
the beginning,
ign that
and shuts
the end
The
first
day of January,
month named
after
134
INFERIOR DEITIES.
first
honour.
day of a new year, was the occasion of a celebration in his At the beginning of every month the priests offered He was invoked every sacrifice to him at twelve altars.
morning as the beginner of a new day. Even at the sacrifices to other gods he was remembered, and received offerings of
wine and cakes, incense, and other things.
prayed
to
The husbandman
him
at the
beginning of seed-time.
When
war
The
into
Rome
reign of Romulus.
Numa Pompilius, a foundation having been previously laid during the The story runs, that the Sabines having
once made an assault on the newly built town of Rome, a spring of boiling water suddenly appeared, and was the means of de
stroying these enemies.
On
this spot a
in
was
honour of Janus, the gates of which stood open so long as Rome at war, and were closed with great ceremony and rejoicing
Rome was, however, so contin only in times of general peace. in war that, in the course of the first seven hundred ually engaged
years after the foundation of the city the gates of the temple were -closed only three times in the reign of Numa Pompilius,
after the first
Hence
the
temple
gates shut
came
to
be
TERMINUS,
Was
the god of boundaries, and had,
when represented
in art, the
a head, as in figure of a boundary stone or pillar surmounted by of Hermes by the wayside in Greece. the case of the figures
Such
figures of
PRIAPOS.
135
as, for
and
in
Hermapollo, Hermathene.
deities,
Pan
rural
represented
such a form.
is
Numa
Pompilius
said to
first altar
to this
worship boundary god, Terminus, and to have To accustom his subjects to respect the the Romans. among boundaries of their neighbours, he ordered them to be marked
off with figures
instituted his
honour annually
was called the Terminalia. on the occasion, and Boundary stones were adorned with flowers a general sacrifice offered, accompanied by lively songs.
February.
It
PRIAPOS,
Cal ed also
a son of
Dionysos
and Aphrodite.
in
this
He
also
fertility
of nature, and,
capacity,
fields.
cultivated
The
of a god is traceable back to power of nature under the form but in later and depraved times it came a very great antiquity,
to be
misused
for the
lust.
sensuality
and
to coarse purpose of giving expression the diversity of his This accounts for
is
which he appears as a
in
man
in
his
hand, and
\va*
fruit
his lap.
his
1
on the I.ampsakos, a town in Asia Minor, His symbols were, Greece. llespont, whence it spread over or a spear. like those of Dionysos, a drinking-cup, a thyrsus, At the festivals in his honour the sacrifices consisted of milk,
worship
1
I3 6
INFERIOR DEITIES.
PAN,
(PLATE
xix.,)
Was
god who watched over the pastureand herds. Woods and plains, hunting and fields, herdsmen, fishing, were under his immediate care and patronage, and on
ticularly in Arcadia, as the
this
now
account he was differently described as a son now of Zeus, of Hermes, his mother being in each case a nymph. As
god of green
Dionysos
Kybele.
he was associated with the worship of (Bacchus), and as mountain god with that of
fields
He
s
the shepherd
was fond of sportive dances and playing on pipe, which afterwards took its name of Pan s
it.
pipe from him, the story being that he was the inventor of
It
seems that a coy nymph named Syrinx, whom he loved and followed, was transformed into a reed, that Pan cut it and
fashioned
it
when
to
he once ventured
to challenge
Apollo
a competition.
The judge
Pan, and was,
his ears
selected
in
prize to
grow
like those of
who made
As god of herdsmen and country people, he journeyed through woods and across plains, changing from place to place
like the
nomadic
no
fixed
on
his pipe.
and
upon mountain scenes, when the weather is stormy, and no sound of human voices is to be heard, was ascribed to
travellers in wild
The
XIX.
Satyr.
Pan.
PAN.
37
the presence of
Number
that
Nip.
Pan, as a spirit of the mountains, a sort of And thus anxiety or alarm, arising from no
came
to be called
"
Panic
fear,"
such fear as
is
Pan.
His
Oreads,
who
danced
It pursued by him with violence. service to the gods during the war with the Titans, by portant with the invention of a kind of trumpet made from a sea-shell,
and re which he raised such a din that the Titans took fright, monster was approaching treated in the belief that some great
against them.
Another story
is,
that
Dionysos
being once
seriously attacked
of men by a hostile and very numerous body terrible on his way to India, was freed from them by a sudden to retreat in shout raised by Pan, which instantly caused them to have been invented to give stories appear great alarm. Both which has been Panic foundation for the
"
expression
fear,"
explained above.
was usually re man with a large hooked nose, with presented as a bearded covered with the ears and horns and legs of a goat, his body
Pan,
also called
Hylaeos
or forest god,
hair,
with a shepherd
s
pipe (syrinx)
in Plate
of seven reeds, or a
shepherd
crook
in his
hand, as
XIX.
among
tlu
From Greece
his
worship was
transplanted
because he taught Romans, by whom he was styled Inuus, and Lupercus, because he taught them m to breed rattle,
herds a-amst purpose of protecting the The other forest deities, who were represented like wolves. Pan with goat s legs, were called /Egipanes, and sometimes
to
employ dogs
for the
Paniski.
138
INFERIOR DEITIES.
FAUNUS, OR FATUUS,
Was a purely Roman deity,
as
is
originally resembling the Greek Pan, implied in the name, which is only another form of the same word. In process of time, however, his character passed
through
many
many
respects
from that of the Greek god. It was not till late times, when the and myths of the Greeks emigrated into religion Italy, that the
comparison of him with the Arcadian Pan was revived, and the The Roman poets frequently call the identity of both asserted. Greek Pan by the Roman name of Faunus. But the latter had
certain
as a son of
myths peculiar to himself, and is represented by them Picus, and grandson of Saturnus, or,
according
Mars, and
originally
an ancient
king of Latium, who, for the good he did his people, by intro ducing agriculture and civilization, came to be worshipped after his death as a prophetic under the deity of forest and
field,
name
in groves, and communicated by means of dreams, which those desiring them obtained by sleeping in sacred places on the hides of animals that had been offered as sacrifices. Fauna also delivered oracles, but only to
of Fatuus.
women.
(See below.)
agriculture and Lupercalia, or Faun-
As god
alia,
of the
cattle-rearing,
an annual
was celebrated
of December.
offerings
open
air
honour by the Romans on the 5th It was accompanied by sacrifices of goats, of milk and wine, banquets, and dancing in the in meadows and at cross-roads. In the middle of
in his
sacrifice
February also
temples
in
was presented
to him.
He
him
had two
are rare,
plural
Rome.
Artistic
representations of
and not
easily distinguished
The
PICUS, PICUMNUS,
AND PILUMNUS.
139
is
merely a
Roman
expression for
Roman
deity, a
that he loved
of Canens. Saturnus, father of Faunus, and husband Another story has it was an ancient prophet and forest god. Circe, the witch, was and married Pomona.
not returned, attracted by his beauty, and finding her affection him into a woodpecker a bird re\enged herself by changing
which was held to be a sacred symbol of prophecy by the Augurs events by or Roman priests, whose office was to foretell coming
and by various other phenomena. rving the flight of birds with a In early times his figure consisted of a wooden pillar which was afterwards exchanged for a figure Ipecker on on his head, the Romans generally with a of a
it,"
yuuth
woodpecker
to be a sign of some appearance of that bird the gods. Picus, besides being worshipped special intention of and a god, was also looked upon as one of the a prophet and must not be confounded with Picumof first
<
oiiM.lcring the
kings
Italy,
formed a pair of nus, who, with his brother Pilumnus, watch over married life. Roman deities whose office was to for them at the birth ot It was the custom to spread a couch
a
(
hild.
Pilumnus,
it
was
said,
all
illne.v>
(/>i/nm)
pound
the grain
Picumnus,
would give the of famous Stories were told of the two brothers,
the manuring of land,
deeds
in
14
INFERIOR DEITIES.
FAUNA, OR FATUA,
The wife,
was a
or,
goddess, whose origin and signification have been rendered very obscure by the variety of stones about her. She was identified with the goddess Ops, with Kyble^ with Semele, the mother of Dionysos (Bacchus), with Maia, the
Roman
mother of Hermes, with Gaea, Hekate, and other goddesses. In the earliest times she was called simply the kind goddess,"
"
her proper
mystery.
name as well as her origin being given out as a Her festival took place on the first night of May, and
was celebrated with wine, music, merry games, and mysterious ceremonies, at which only women and girls were permitted to
be present.
because, as
Fauna obtained
in
the
name
of the
"
kind
goddess"
the
whole creation,
be identified
was not strange that she should with other deities. As Fatua she was repre
sented with the appearance sometimes of Juno, sometimes of Kybele, but commonly as an aged woman, with pointed ears, holding a serpent in her hand.
The
offspring of
and sometimes
like.
who were
obscure significations of
we
Fays that is, beings with the power of witchcraft and prophecy, and possessed now with good, now with bad qualities,
call
now
useful
and helping
to
THE
SATYRS.
I4 1
THE
SATYRS,
(PLATE xix.,)
Like the
deities,
belong to the order of forest and are often confounded with the Panes and Fauni,
Roman Silvanus,
They represented
the genial,
Nature, which, under the protection and the aid of Dionysos (Bacchus), spreads over fields, woods,
in
finest figures in all
company.
As such
at least they
best times, being never figured, like half man, half animal, but at most exhibit only such signs of
s horns,
s tail,
to
little
inferior in nobility to
human
The
Satyrs constitute
a large
family,
their
either to play
To
name
of Sileni
and
Satyriski.
The
figure
given in Plate
is
XIX.
is
He
hair
leaning carelessly
flute.
on the
trunk of a tree,
from playing on a
His
is shaggy; on his brow are very small goats horns. countenance has a touch of animal expression in it.
His
He
The
life
in
woods and on
hills,
142
INFERIOR DEITIES.
in a constant
round of amusements of
all
kinds
hunting,
company
of the god,
the Maenads.
in passing,
"satire,"
com
do
monly
applied to
poems
with the Satyrs, and for this reason should not be written though derived from satura. The latter is an old "satyre,"
Latin word,which signified originally a poetic dialogue or gossip,
nature was admirably adapted
indirect abuse,
which from
criticism
its
for
conveying
of the
and
word.
KOMOS,
as guardian of festal banquets, of mirthful of lively humour, fun, and social pleasure, with enjoyments, On the other hand, attributes expressing joy in many ways.
Was worshipped
illustration of the
con
SILVANUS,
Like
Faunus, was
to
fields,
purely
Roman
god,
whose function
also was
interests
of herdsmen, living in
lines
first
woods and
and banks of
rivers.
and taking care to preserve boundary It was said that he erected the
boundary stones to
mark
from each other, and thus became the founder of a regular He was distinguished according to the system of landowning.
PALES.
143
field,
and wood.
In
works
figure
of art Silvanus
a cheerful aged
human
(for he,
music,)
and carrying a branch of a tree to mark him specially as god of This branch, which sometimes is that of a cypress. the forest.
is
explained as referring to his love for the beautiful Cyparissus, whom he is said to have changed into a cypress.
figure
There was a
of Silvanus in
Rome
Women
were excluded from his worship. The myths are not clear Some of them describe him as a son of about his origin.
Saturn.
PALES,
Was worshipped
Romans,
originally
in
Sicily,
and afterwards by
tin-
A merry
festival, called
honour of
on the
Rome
was said
to
day on which the foundation of the city of have been laid. Offerings of milk and must
were presented to her, while pipes were played and cymbals An ox was driven beat round a bla/ing fire of hay and straw.
through
this
bla/ing
fire,
the herdsmen
rushing
after
it,
ceremony
of the
intended for a
its
because of
city,
falling
served also to
commemorate
that event.
deity was represented as an aged woman on a leafless branch of a tree, or holding a shepherd s leaning crook in her hand, and was frequently identified with Fauna,
This
ancient
144
INFERIOR DEITIES.
SILENOS, AND
THE
is
SILENI.
represented as a son of
Hermes (Mercury), in others, of Pan and a nymph, the latter statement accounting for his being figured with the tail and
ears of a goat, while the rest of his form
He
was
usually described as
were styled whom, indeed, all those well advanced Sileni. Owing to his age, he came to be looked upon as a
sort of paternal guardian of the light-headed troops of Satyrs,
different
though, with regard to mythological signification, he was quite from them. One myth traces his origin, along with
the
worship of
Dionysos
(Bacchus),
to
Asia Minor,
and
was looked on as a
sprite or
daemon of
fertilizing fountains,
streams, marshy land, and luxuriant gardens, as well as the inventor of such music as was produced by the syrinx (Pan s of pipe) and the double flute which was used in the worship
he was born
in
first
many
places of that
in
name
;
remains untold.
It
for
tended the
according
infancy of Dionysos, as works of art show, and to the myths, was spent in Thrace.
mind he appeared specially as a companion one who knew how to press the grapes for of Dionysos, wine, and so much loved that liquid as readily to indulge in it
To
the Greek
to excess, in
his ass,
45
or else he
would have
fallen.
To
character, he
IK -id,
He was a short, roundcated and supported by two Satyrs. a bald head. bellied, hairy old man, with
The
ass or
mule he used
to ride
have distinguished itself at the as com time of the war with the Giants, in which its master, sort of Sancho Panza, to Dionysos, a panion and body-servant, and took part, by braying so loudly as to alarm the Giants,
intelligent beast,
and said
to
flight.
He is said to have been th j most upright of the sea. brother Titans, and to have had no share in the conof his For this reason he retained his office, against Uranos. It pas while the other Titans were consigned to Tartarus.
res
.
the care of
Okeanos and
for
his wife
that
Hera grew
up,
and
to
safety during
Titans.
kly
had
OS
>f
among
the rivers,
i:
number.
He
10
146
INFERIOR DEITIES.
all rivers
and
His daughters, the Okeanides, were, like all running waters. marine deities, represented with crowns of sea-weeds, strings of
Painters ren holding shells, and riding on dolphins. dered them as half human and half fish in shape but poets
corals,
;
human
number very
differently.
Proteus was
left for
a son
of
which he only
to graze
Poseidon
Being an aged
man, he was looked on as possessed of prophetic power and the secrets of witchcraft, though he would not be persuaded to exercise the former except by deceit or under threat of violence.
effort
to
changing himself into a great variety of shapes, such as those of a lion, panther, swine, or serpent, and, as a last resource, into the form of fire or water. This faculty of transformation, which
NEREUS
Or Derides,
confounded
the
in
AND
THE NEREIDES,
sometimes
called,
as they were
are frequently
his daughters,
mythology with
all
Okeanos and
Okeanids,
of
deities of a
lower
order.
Nereus was looked on as an ancient sea-god, a son of the dominion of the sea fell to
it
the
or,
With Doris,
M
(ailed
147
Nereides
or
to
Dorides,
them
most famous, the first-mentioned having become the wife of But Poseidon, while even Zeus desired to marry the second. announced that from this marriage would the Fates
having
issue a
son
who would
surpass
his
father
in
might,
Xeus
whom
and gave Thetis in marriage to Peleus, she bore Achilles, and thereafter returned to live
sisters
is
among her
of the sea.
Nereus
man
with
now swimming,
the sea-born troops on the sea, sometimes accompanying Aphrodite, or playing in the warm sunshine on the shores of
In such mouths, drying their wet tresses. were duly worshipped. To the pious feeling of places they the (ireeks the whole of nature appeared in some way divine,
1
ays and
at rivers
In and was accordingly viewed with reverence and sanctity. under the this spirit the phenomena of the sea were viewed
shimmering
represented
light
upon
its
gently
moving bosom
being
waves by
and Halie, the impetuous rush of billows on island shores by Nesaie and Aktsee, the fascination of the v rising tide by Pasithea, Erato, and Euneike, the
1
Thoe
mene, who
It
followed
in the train
of
ri>e
may be
that these
myths gave
of mermaids.
INFERIOR DEITIES.
TRITON
Triton,
AND
THE TRITONS.
be a son of
(PLATE xx.)
sometimes
said
to
Poseidon and
was a marine deity of a lower order, and the herald of Neptune, in which capacity he was represented a long twisted shell using
as a horn to
Amphitrite, sometimes
of
blow a loud
blast
to
be
to
be
hushed into
on the waves, it was Triton who announced his approach, and summoned the other marine deities. The Tritons were like him in figure, and had similar duties to perform. we find
rest.
When Neptune
travelled
Occasionally
his
him described
and
voracity,
in stories as a
monster who, by
wantonness
rendered the sea-shore dangerous, and was in consequence attacked by Dionysos and Herakles. In the war with the Giants he rendered considerable service
to Zeus,
by
that
the
Giants,
fearing
the
approach
of
some powerful
monster, or
some
human form down to the hips, covered with small holding a sea-shell in their hands, the lower part of them formed by the body and tail of a dolphin. Triton was
beings of
scales,
on the sea
in
Plate
XX.
Tritons
with a
dolphin in the background. In the early myths concerning Triton, he appears as the
personification
of
the
roaring
sea,
Amphitrite,
ocean.
lived in a golden
palace
XX.
Siren.
Tritons.
LEUKOTHEA.
THE SIRENS.
149
LEUKOTHEA
Was
regarded by sailors and those
who
travelled
on the sea as
their special
and
Odysseus
in his
dangerous
She is said to have been a daughter of Kadmos, voyage. the great-grandson of Poseidon. Originally the wife ot Athamas, in which capacity she bore the name of Ino,
she had incurred the wrath of Hera, because she had suckled
the infant Bakchos, a son of her sister
and
was pursued by her raving husband, and thrown, along with her youngest son, Melikertes, into the -sea, from which both mother and child were saved by a dolphin or
for this
From that time she took her place as a marine by Nereides. under the name of Leukothea, was known as the d-ity, and, came to be protector of all travellers by sea, while her son
worshipped as god of harbours, under the name of Palaemon. Her worship, especially at Corinth, the oldest maritime town of
importance
in
and Crete,
was traced
k to a high antiquity.
THE
SIRENS,
(PLATK XX.,)
of the According to one version of the myth, were daughters other name, Acheloi des) river-god Acheloos (hence their to another version, they were .uid a Muse. According
daughters
of
Phorkys.
In
either
case
they had
nymphs and playmates of Persephone, and for not protecting her when she was carried off bv Pluto were transformed In
15
INFERIOR DEITIES.
into beings half woman and half bird at first, and with the lower part of the body in the shape of a fish, latterly
Demeter
some resemblance
to
Plate
XX.
woman
in form, playing
on a double
flute.
Homeric poems their number is not specified. In names of three of them are commonly given Parthenope, Ligeia, and Leukosia. It is said that once,
In the
:
during the time when the greater part of their body was that
of a
bird,
singing, but
and were punished by having the principal by the Muses, who decked
was that the Sirens inhabited the
cliffs
The common
belief
of the islands lying between Sicily and Italy, and that the sweet ness of their voices bewitched passing mariners,
compelling
them
to land only to
meet
their death.
;
for they
right
cruel
power of
theirs
as
no
crew succeeded
of
whom more
will
plish, by keeping their attention fixed on the unsurpassably sweet music of their companion, Orpheus. The next who
the precaution, on
approaching, to stop the ears of his crew, so that they might be deaf to the bewitching music, and to have himself
firmly
bound
he would
allurements.
came
to an end, and
them
into
cliffs.
THE RIVER-GODS.
NYMPHS.
This transformation helps to explain the signification of the of myth of the Sirens, who were probably personifications
is
smooth and
The
soft
to
the
music ascribed to them may either refer melodious murmur of waves, or be simply a
alluring
THE RIVER-GODS
Were as a rule looked upon as sons of Okeanos, exercising a dominion over individual rivers. They were represented as bearded men, crowned with sedge, and often with horns on
their heads, reclining
and
resting
The names
of
many
of
in
an
Perieis,
he loved
Asopos, Kephissos. Of Alpheios, it is said that Arethusa, one of the nymphs in the train of Arte
persistently followed her,
mis, and so
to
Artemis
interfered,
avoid his pursuit, into a fountain, the waters of nymph, those of Alpheios. which, notwithstanding, irere said to join
NYMPHS.
(PLAIT XXI.)
imagination of the ancients peopled with beings of a higher order than themselves every mountain, and forest, every thicket, bush, and tree, *
The
restless
and
fertile
valley, plain,
152
INFERIOR DEITIES.
fountain, stream,
and
lake.
These beings,
firmly
in
in
whose existence
were
called
both
Greeks
and
Romans
believed,
Nymphs,
fairies
and resembled
many
respects the
mermaids and
of
modern
superstition.
Nymphs
beings between the gods and men, communicating with both, loved and respected by both ; gifted with the power of making
themselves visible or invisible at pleasure ; able to do many things only permitted to be done by the gods ; living, like the gods, on ambrosia ; leading a cheerful happy life of long
duration, and retaining strength and youthfulness to the last, but not destined to immortality, like the gods. In extraor
dinary cases they were summoned, it was believed, to the councils of the Olympian gods, but usually remained in their
particular spheres,
occupied
in
secluded grottoes and peaceful valleys, spinnipg, weaving, bathing, singing sweet songs,
in
Artemis
with
Dionysos
(Bacchus),
Hermes (Mercury), but always in a hostile attitude towards the wanton and excited Satyrs.
Even
the earliest of the ancient myths
of the various things done by nymphs, while poetic fancy in later times delighted to play with such creations. The Greeks, the great mass of them at any rate, believed in the exist
firmly
by
erecting
frequently very
the
the bees
hummed, were
sacred to them.
Sanctuaries, called
NYMPHS.
were also erected for their special honour
153
Nymphsea,
in well
The
presented to
them consisted of
bidden.
and
As
Nymphs,
all
many
and so
Very many of these beings, it would seem, were the offspring of Zeus and Thetis. Separating them in the most convenient manner,
according to their local habitations or reputed origin,
the following classes
1.
:
cannot be
given here.
we have
Dryads, or Hamadryads, also called Alseids, nymphs of woods and trees, inhabiting groves, ravines, and
fond of making merry with Apollo, Hermes and Pan, and very attractive to the Satyrs. (Mercury), Sometimes they appeared as rustic huntresses or shepherdesses.
wooded
valleys,
2.
Oreads,
or mountain-nymphs, sometimes
also
named
Limoniads,
Napaeae,
or
or
Leimoniads, nymphs
of
meadows and
flowers.
4.
in
Auloniads, nymphs of the mountain vales which herds grazed. The last three families of nymphs wrrv
in
usually found
the
and lovely nymph of the vales was Eurydike, by a snake, and dying in consequence, was mourned by all her sisters, and sung by Orpheus in most
favourite
touching melancholy
strains.
154
INFERIOR DEITIES.
5.
ains
Okeanids, daughters of Okeanos, nymphs of fount and streams, and named according to the characteristics
as
of streams,
Prymno,
Hippo,
brook"
;
"
like
a cascade which
current";
"
falls
over an
"
abrupt
"
height";
like a swift
Plexaure,
hidden
like
a dashing
Galaxaure,
like
"
the refreshing
coolness of a shady
tide";
"
stream";
Kalypso,
"
like the
Rhodeia,
"flowing
"
among
rose-trees";
Kallirrhce,
which
like a beautiful
stream
Melolosis,
"nymph
of the cool
and
purification.
also called
Dorids,
7.
Naiads,
generally
nymphs
of
the
"
liquid
element, daughters of
Zeus.
nymphs, and
for
this
company of Zeus, Poseidon, and Dionysos, as well as of Demeter, Persephone, and Aphrodite, and besides were
looked on as deities of marriage and sacred
8. 9. rites.
Potamids, nymphs
Limnads, nymphs
who
and misled travellers by their dangerous beings, songs or mimic screams for help. TO. Pleiads, seven daughters of Atlas and Pleione, sisters
allured
of the
11.
Hyads.
to
Atlantids, offspring of Atlas, and belonging same order as the last mentioned.
12.
the
Hyads,
;
or, according to other versions, daughters Languishing of grief at the death of Hyas, which was caused by a wild animal, they were changed into stars,
sisters,
^thra
of
Hyas.
being the seven stars which form the head in the constellation
XXI.
Chloris, or Flora.
Tyche, or 1 ortuna.
ECHO
of the Bull (Taurus).
i
XARKISSOS.
155
Their ascension takes place from the indicates rain, for which
stars.
They were
also
Dodonids, and described as the nurses of Zeus of Dodona. One of them was called Thyene. All the most prominent of the nymphs had names of their
They were represented
Plate
own.
as damsels of wonderful beauty, with
XXI.
represents three of
a fountain.
of
them have
ECHO NARKISSOS.
:
Echo
of
Hera, according
is
was a mountain-nymph, and at the same time a servant to one account, but had to be kept at a
In other accounts
the
fore>t-god
she
described as a beautiful
loved.
nymph whom
Pan
Happening
to
Echo
grieved
consequence, and pined away day by day till at her voice was all that was left of her. She then took to length
in
the mountains
herself in
and woods which Pan frequented, and occupied mimicking every vocal sound she heard.
personification of the
Narkissos was a
self-conceit in
consequenhis
vanity
and
ga/.c
upon the
in
reflection of his
for
own
it.
face,
till
at last
he
languished
his
unreturned Imv
Other
stories affirm
INFERIOR DEITIES.
was punished for this conduct by the gods, by being changed into the flower which still bears his name.
that he
THE HESPERIDES
Were daughters
of Atlas, an enormous giant,
who, as the
and supported the heavens on his shoulders. Their mother was Hesperis, a personification of the region of the West, where the sun continued to shine after he had set on Greece,
"
-
and where,
delicious
as travellers
told,
which could only have been produced by a The Gardens of the Hesperides special divine influence. with the golden apples were believed to exist in some island
fruits,
it
the north
antiquity
couch of Zeus, and there that the earth displayed the rarest it was another Eden. As knowledge blessings of the gods
:
it
became necessary
to
move
Ocean.
and
Western
golden apples, there is a which says that among the deities who attended the myth marriage ceremony of Zeus and Hera, bringing various presents with them, was Titaea, a goddess of the earth, whose gift con
sisted in her causing a tree to spring
it.
As
this
tree,
and
fruit,
it
it.
became necessary
Ladon
to
watch
THE MUSES.
157
Herakles, among his other adventures, slew this serpent and carried off some of the apples, which, however, were afterwards
returned to the Hesperides, through the kindness of
Athene.
The common account speaks of only three Hesperides, ^Egle, Erytheis and Hespere. Arethusa was afterwards
added, and in time three more, so that they were seven in
all.
THE
Or Pierides,
MUSES,
nymphs
of the springs that bickered down the sides of Mount Helikon and Mount Parnassos, called Kastalia, Aganippe, and
Pimpla
Zeus
and the Titanic nymph Mnemosyne, the name of Pierides being applied to them from Pieria, on Mount Olympos, the
reputed place of their birth, a locality which appears to have been originally the principal centre of their worship, whence it
spread
Bceotia,
It
first
to
Mount Helikon,
in
and
and elsewhere.
was also said
was usual
to a
Muses
that,
whom
it
having nine daughters, he named them each after one of the Muses, and challenged the latter to a competition in music, upshot of which was that his daughters lost the award, and were, as a punishment for their daring, transformed into
the
singing-birds.
The worship
in a grove, in
of the
was celebrated
of
art
j
many monuments
of
Museia
being
158
INFERIOR DEITIES.
The
nine
Muses
whom we
and Roman mythology, were looked upon as patron goddesses of music and song, of poetry, and of the
the Greek
arts generally, that
civilization of
man
fre
kind.
quently Olympos, gods there by the exercise of their arts, especially by music and the recital of songs, the burden of which was probably, as
to
their presence
also
to
enliven
for
happy
such,
or that of
moments
mourn
in strains
tears
who
god of
to
nected with
known
the worship of Dionysos, whose inspiration is have been of a wild and excited nature. As nymphs
movement
of water,
and
Dionysos is due. In addition to the usual nine we hear of three other Muses,
and Acedte, who are described as daughters and supposed to have existed from the earliest Uranos, times. As, however, both Homer and Hesiod appear to know only the number nine, we may assume that the belief in the
Melete,
Mneme,
of
XXII.
Klio.
Melpomene.
Thalia.
THE MUSES.
other
three
159
existence
of the
must have
originated
in
the
speculations of comparatively later times. Jn works of art of the earlier period the Muses were always
represented together in company, all wearing the same kind of dress, and all provided with attributes in the forms of musical
instruments
such as the
lyre, harp,
and
flute,
or with rolls of
manuscript.
The custom
works produced under the auspices of the Muses was the first foundation of libraries and museums, such as they exist in
modern
so far as
times,
"
museum
"
carries us
back
was due to
their inspiration.
The
1.
Klio
(Plate
XXII.),
the
muse
of
History,
sealed
in
wearing a wreath
an
Melpomene
(Plate
XXII.), the muse of Tragedy, a standing with her left foot raised on a
tragedians, and
a play
falls
;
in
her
left
hand
girt
under her
breast,
and
in
wide folds
mantle
a
or
pepfos
falls
carelessly.
wears
diadem or a
in
her
Thalia
(Plate
XXII.),
the
muse
of
Comedy and
is
l6o
INFERIOR DEITIES.
over the
left
shoulder,
free
;
and
arm
in her
hand a shepherd s crook, in the other a mask, such as was worn by actors in the Satyric plays. 4. Kaliope (Plate XXIIL), the muse of Heroic Poems, and looked on as the chief of the Muses, on which account
she sometimes appears as their representative ; seated, holding In other cases she is standing, a writing tablet and a stylus.
crowned with a wreath, and holding a manuscript roll in her hand, or a pipe (tuba] round which a branch of laurel is
twined.
5.
Urania
(Plate
XXIV.),
the
muse
of
Astronomy,
hand, while with the other she points upwards towards the heavens. In other cases she wears a crown of stars, and holds
lyre,
stars,
at
the
same time something on a globe beside her. 6. Euterpe (Plate XXIV.), the muse of the
"giver
Music,
the
of
pleasure,"
as her
name
on a double
struments.
7.
flute.
In other cases
in
Polyhymnia,
or
Polymnia
(Plate
XXIV.),
"rich
the
in
of Oratory, her
name
signifying
was also described as the inventor of myths, on which song," account she was represented in an attitude of contemplation,
with one finger raised to her lips ; on her head a laurel wreath. In other cases she appears in a quiet, attentive, observant
mood, leaning forward on a pillar, her arms concealed under her drapery, and wearing at times a veil, to indicate the hidden truths within the myths, while her posture was intended to
indicate the process of resolving the
meaning of them.
For
XXIII.
Mother
of the Muses.
Kalliope.
XXIV.
Urania.
Euterpe,
Polyhymiria.
THE
this
sacred
8.
poems
or hymns.
Erato
(Plate
with Songs, wearing a wreath, and playing on a large lyre a lyre by many strings. In other cases she appears holding
Terpsichore
wearing a wreath,
the
lyre.
her robe
girt
up,
and appears
the
The mother
stated,
Muses was called, as has already been Mnemosyne, that is, Memory," and especially the
of the
"
memory
commence
history,
to occur until
In later times brought into perfect harmony. be viewed merely as goddess of memory, and worshipped along with the Muses.
she
came
to
Plate
ful
XXIII. represents her standing attitude, both arms under her drapery,
was the custom of the Muses
the
in
a quiet, thought
to play,
ship of Apollo, at
among
and
the gods, while the Horse, Charites (Graces), Aphrodite, In this to mirth and gaiety, danced. other deities
given
dun<
e.
and merriment.
62
INFERIOR DEITIES.
IRIS,
(PLATE xxvi.,)
Goddess of the Rainbow, was a daughter of Thaumas and Elektra, a granddaughter of Okeanos and Gaea, and a
sister
of the
Harpies.
Zeus, she
left
lived
among
for the
commands
to
mankind,
by
whom
She
tra
wind always, from one end of the world could penetrate to the bottom of the sea, or to
in this respect
the Styx,
and
Hermes
(Mercury)
in his capacity of
she holding
much
the
towards Zeus.
It
was
Iris,
who charged
the clouds
let
with water from lakes and rivers, in order that they might
it fall
and,
accordingly,
in the
welcomed
it
and gladly
in
paid honours
beautiful
of
;
in
XXVI.
robe, holding in
s staff,
carries (caduceus\
and
in the
other a helmet.
XXV.
Erato.
Terpsichore.
Hone
AXJLOS.
l6j
^EOLOS
Was
a son of a king
lived
on one of the
abrupt rocky Lipara islands close to Sicily, along with his off
spring, six sons
and
in pairs,
and made
life
them out
in
gods.
The
have suggested itself to the ancients from the strong draught that is felt on entering a cave or subterraneous passage but whether the belief in the
restraint of a divine person, appears to
;
when mankind
not certain.
is
The
felt
both genially
command from
As an
we may
Odysseus
<
(Ulysses)
on that errant homeward voyage of his. departing, ^Eolos gave him a great bag containing all the contrary winds, putting
>n
it
on board the
ship, so that
fair
wind,
the
in
helm
coming
at length
sight,
sleep.
Hi- followers ob
to see the
and out burst the imprisoned wind with a roar and a force
164
INFERIOR DEITIES.
But besides
this
them
THE WIND
Of whom
the principal were
GODS,
the north wind,
Boreas,
Euros,
Eos
being assigned to
Typhon.
According
to another report,
number
was known, the prevalence in particular districts of winds blowing from this or that point between the four chief quarters,
naturally giving rise to a set of personifications such as north
The
gested by the
strength
Greek mythology, such as was sug phenomena of each wind as, for example, the
and
warmth of
the south-west.
and
all
winged.
Some were thought to be male, some female, Euros, who brought warmth and rain from
if
pouring
the
home
Zephyros,
and carried
west,
was
lightly clad,
scarf.
XX VI.
Hymen.
II"
!"
EOS,
OR AURORA:
mentioned.
I.UCIIKK.
165
on the
"
Tower of
the
Winds
"
at
Though
retain
was necessary
is
to
by
sacrifice,
no
particular story or
myth
told of
any
rival
Chloris
carried
(Flora),
off,
it
Boreas
Zephyros being the successful suitor. was said, Oreithyia, the beautiful
;
daughter of Kekrops, king of Attica and remembering this, the Athenians in their distress, when the Persians advanced
the
first
he rendered by sending a terrible north wind, which overtook the Persian fleet near the promontory of Athos, scattered and
largely destroyed
altar to him,
it.
From
had an
and offered
sacrifice at
The scene of Boreas carrying off Oreithyia is represented on a beautiful bronze relief found at Calymna, and now in the
British
Museum.
but
still
powerful in form, bearded, young, and wearing thick high boots, and a mantle
is
The wind-god
thrown across
his body.
EOS, OR
AURORA
I.UC1
1-
KK.
meaning of
"who
sun,
travels high
deities
brother and
the
while
personification of
dawn
of morning.
still
wind was
in
felt at
her approach,
l>e.im>
lingered with
the
"
sky,
;
shot
the orient
through
-old
th
l66
INFERIOR DEITIES.
beams appeared
fingered Morn.
r
like
rosyoutspread fingers, she was called The star and the winds of the morning,
"
Zephyros, Boreas, Notes, and Euros, were her offspring by Astrseos, the god of starlight. The moon and the other
stars
her closely.
vanished gradually as she advanced, but Helios followed To poets she seemed to lift the veil of night with
rose-tinted fingers,
and
ocean in
a car with four white steeds, shedding light upon the earth.
Others
imagined
her
her
.
after
Bellerophon
on
all
it
up to Olympos.
She loved
to those persons
fresh young life, and showed special favour whose active spirit led them abroad in the
morning
to
When
beauty of a youth she would carry him off, and obtain im mortal life for him, as she did with Kleitos, Orion, Ke-
So
it
morning a comparison with the early death of promising and beautiful youth, and from the comparison proceeded to construct a myth which should trace both to the same divine
cause.
Tithonos became
lasted.
and
eternal
When
supplying
fine raiment.
shut
him up
in a
like
XXVII.
EOS,
OR AURORA
LUCIFER.
167
the chirp of a grasshopper, into which creature, it was said, he became transformed. By the story of Tithonos we would
understand day,
beautiful at
(
in
its
and
)f
Kephalos
Prokris,
Aura,
the goddess
and
discord between
story
is,
him and
to kill his wife by mistake when would seem, jealous of her hus out on the chase. Prokris, band s meetings with the goddess, had secreted herself in a
that
thicket to watch
them
Memnon and
Emathion,
for
mourned
at
death
his
at
arried
>t.
by
weeping mother
in his
to ^Ethiopia;
and
Thebes,
in
she erected
memory,
the
wonder
ful
monument
it,
which,
when
first
morning sun
touched
string.
In
.villas,
art
the
air,
on Pegasos at other times she appeared and pouring morning dew from a vessel
she
a
down on
In
I
the earth.
late
XXVII.
is
is
figured
driving
i/uiit/ri\i
with
great
bulls
speed, as
li-
The
in
ify
the
moon and
stars
are
still
the
170
INFERIOR DEITIES.
we
are
most
familiar.
He
was supposed
;
and,
show him
in this light,
now
with
now
To
art
the
later
age
of Hellenistic
and
Roman
poetry and
Psyche
a personification,
and as such conceived under the form of a small winged maiden, or, at other times, as a butterfly which bore the same
name.
Psyche, the story runs, was a king
s
beautiful.
The fame
the
of her beauty
rival,
princess,
and
inspire
common man.
Cupid obeyed so
far
pay the
visit,
hours together, with only this mitted to look upon her lover with her mortal eyes. Even this she would not have considered a drawback, had not her en
vious sisters stirred up her curiosity in the matter.
to their temptation, she took
where they spent happy drawback, that she was not per
Yielding
stole
into
Alarmed
at the dis
let
a drop of hot
oil fall
upon
his
awoke, and charging her with disobedience to his command, left her alone to her despair. She searched express
He
for
him everywhere
in vain,
finding her
way
at last to
the
down
to the lower
but,
odour.
Cupid could
XXVIII.
Cupid.
/UB^^tfri^^
Ganymedes.
OR AMOR
PSYCHE.
The ran to her help, and brought her back to life. and the marriage of Cupid anger of Aphrodite was appeased, was forthwith celebrated with great rejoicings, in and
longer,
Psyche
presence of the higher gods, Psyche obtaining immortality. The purpose of the story is obviously to illustrate the three
stages in the existence of a soul,
state, its
its
pre-existence in a blessed
its trials
its
future state of
happy immortality.
represents
the
Plate
XXVIII.
bow and
dangerous
shoot of a rose-tree grows behind to symbolize the sweetness and beauty of young love. Psyche has the wings of a butterfly,
and
arms.
links
pears riding
and by which she may be chained on her ankles In the other figure Eros ap Behind her is a mirror. on a lion, and playing on a lyre, the soft music of
In works of art he
his
is
company
ot
mother Aphrodite, or playing with the Muses and Graces, or or accompanied by Postruggling with his opposite Anteros,
thos, whose name,
of
a
love,"
like the
"desire
that
is,
love,"
"soft
yearning
for
love."
In later times
artists
often sur
rounded Aphrodite, and occasionally also Dionysos, with troops of little winged figures of children, which we call Erotes or
.viv//<%
signifying
"
originally the
"soul,"
came
mean
also a
butterfly,"
a likeness being ob
butterfly,
in
I7 2
INFERIOR DEITIES,
fined
The
this
on earth, rise on wing, and waft themselves in the light. flame of love which often scorched the soul was compared
its
doom.
When
Such
is
his face
and wept.
XXIX.
Be
Nemesis, holding a twig from an apple-tree, her customary attribute, and before him Elpis, or Hope, hold
lily.
ing a
HYMEN,
Was worshipped as the god
the
OR
HYMEN^US,
(PLATE xxvi.,)
of marriage both by the Greeks and
is
Romans.
His origin
now
from Apollo and Kalliope, now from Dionysos and Aphrodite, while at other times he is said to have been by birth a mortal,
and afterwards
and
deified.
Properly speaking, he
is
a personifica
his
deification,
Y oung, and of a
mistaken for a
girl,
that
he might be
Hymen
maidens,
To be near her, he once joined a troop of among whom she was engaged in celebrating a festival
to Demeter at Eleusis. Suddenly a band of robbers appeared from a hiding-place, carried the maidens off to their ship, and
set out with
them
as slaves in
some
But landing on the way on a dreary island, the robbers indulged so copiously in wine that they all fell into
distant country.
deep slumber.
Hymen,
slay
THK CRACKS.
Thereupon he
173
them
all,
which they
did.
set off to
Athens
in
the ship, and finding the people there in great distress, presented himself to the parents of the maiden he loved, and undertook
to bring her
him
he
all
as his wife.
Finding a crew,
at
once
the maidens
on board.
For
this
of
Thalassios,
So happy was
generally his
wedded
life
that
marriage ceremonies
all
name was on
the lips of
and the founder and protector of marriage rights. At bridal festivities a sacrifice was offered to him, festal songs were sung, and flowers and wreaths strewn. As a deity he was placed among the playmates of Eros, and
company of Aphrodite. His home, it was believed, was among the Muses on Mount Helikon in Bceotia. There is a
in the
story
lost his
life
in singing
He is the marriage song of Dionysos and Ariadne or Althaea. and of the charms of love always a picture of youthful beauty,
and song.
Hymen was
in Plate
of a golden colour
mantle represented as a beautiful youth with a sometimes nude and carrying a torch, as
veil.
XXVI., or a
THE CHARITKS,
fulness
OR GRACES,
Were looked upon by the Greeks as the goddesses of the grace and the charms of beauty, and of cheerful amusement,
in nature
and
in the intercourse
with
men.
As
1/4
INFERIOR DEITIES.
in
Orchomenos
in Boeotia,
in Sparta,
the
games held
Minos.
in their
honour
being
chomenos.
Their oldest sanctuary was said to be that at Or It contained images of them in the form of rude
the works of nature, especially
to
would seem
have given
rise in
very
simply as guardians of the vernal sweetness and beauty of nature, and afterwards as the friends and protectors of every
first
thing graceful
and
beautiful
developed.
Pindar, in
one of
of decorum,
in
life,
among men.
as beautiful
young modest maidens, winning and charming, always dancing, singing, and running,
bathing in fountains, or decking themselves with early flowers, especially with roses ; for the rose was sacred to them,
or
as well as to Aphrodite (Venus), in
her
to
many
be found.
Their
Muses
in
the
neighbourhood of Olympos, where they often appeared as com panions of Aphrodite, and danced before the other deities.
Their origin is variously stated, now Zeus and Eurynome, an Okeanid, being assigned as their parents, now Dionysos and Aphrodite. There is a difference also in the statements of
names and number. From Orchomenos, it would seem, come Aglsea, Euphrosyne, and Thalia. In Sparta and in
their
in the former
THE
t.KA
175
town being called Kleta (clang) and Phaenna (glimmer), in Auxo and Hegemone. In the Iliad a whole
race of
them
is
Pasithea.
mentioned, old and young the youngest being According to another account, the youngest was
;
the object
in assigning
him
such a wife being probably to indicate the perfect beauty of the works of art produced by that god. Beauty and sweetness, the
best
charm of
poetry,
all
They
assisted
Hermes (Mercury)
these instances
From
of their
will
be seen
how
number
of temples
and
beautiful
groups of statuary
alone,
as,
in their
sometimes to them
common
with
other deities
tor
Annual
festivals, called
Charitesia, accompanied with games, music, and dance, were held in their honour. It was the custom also to call upon them in taking an oath, and at banquets the first
cup of wine was offered to them. In early times they were represented
but
in later
in art as
draped
figures,
occupied
myrtle,
in
a dance.
dice,
the
and
as
At
other times they hold apples or perfume-vases, or ears of corn, or heads of poppies, or musical instruments such as the lyre,
llute,
and
s>rinx.
176
INFERIOR DEITIES.
PEITHO,
OR
SUADA,
Or Suadela, was the goddess of persuasion, and, like the Graces, formed part of the escort of Aphrodite, whose daughter she was said to be.
Her
Aphrodite,
Athens by Theseus,
into
at the time
when he succeeded
HEBE,
(PLATE xxvi.,)
she was called in the vine-growing Dia, of Phlius, where she was worshipped as the principal deity, was daughter of Zeus and Hera, and was the goddess of
or
as
district
Or Ganymeda,
and warding off age, like means of nectar and ambrosia. Her name among the Romans was Juventas. In Olympos she held the
youth, herself remaining always young, the other deities, by
office of
with the vine-growers of Phlius, and, secondly, because she was the youngest daughter of the regal pair of Olympos, and
as such,
to wait
pected
or
on the analogy of human arrangements, would be ex upon the divine guests, as Briseis did on Achilles,
or as, in real
life,
Hippodameia on Oenomaos
Melissa, the
daughter of Prokles, king of Epidauros, poured out wine for her father s men with a grace which captivated Periander. The
HEBE.
177
difficulty of explaining
office
was met
assume her
to
bearer to Zeus in
that
have been cup-bearer in general and him cup particular, while another ingeniously supposed
Hebe
from Olympos during the Trojan war, so as to avoid witnessing the misfortunes of his native country. Among her other duties
she ha.d to assist Hera to yoke her car.
When
deities.
accompanied Aphrodite. But the character in which she was best known and most admired was that of the bride and wife
of
raised to
earth.
Olympos
in
reward for
unknown
to the Iliad.
The
The
made
Herakles the guest of the gods of Olympos and the husband of the most attractive of the goddesses, was a subject which
Representations
of the marriage procession, and of Herakles receiving a cup of wine from Hebe, occur in ancient sculpture. In other cases
she appears in the
in the
character of
it
company of her mother Hera, or alone, Ganymeda, fondling the eagle of Zeus,
cup, as
or
or
giving
drink from a
occurs
not infrequently on
engraved gems.
At the town of
temple in her honour, which served as a place of refuge or asylum, in which slaves who had been
in a fine grove, a celebrated
set free
hung up
their chains
among
the goddess.
12
178
INFERIOR DEITIES.
two sanctuaries, one on the Capitol, the other beside the great racecourse. It was the custom dating, it was said, as far back as the time of Servius Tullius
to
In
of
money
for every
boy who
When
the
young
Roman assumed
the toga
virilis,
prayed to Jupiter and Juventas. At the beginning of every year sacrifice was offered to both deities in behalf of the
youth of the
city.
GANYMEDES,
(PLATE
xxvni.,)
Was
therefore great-grandson of
Zeus finding
carried
Dardanos, the founder of Troy. him on Mount Ida, and admiring his beauty,
Olympos, where he appears
to
him
off to
have succeeded
Hebe
He
The cup
in his
hand
by
ASKLEPIOS, OR ^SCULAPIUS,
(PLATE xxxi.,)
Was, according to the most common version of the myth, a son of Apollo and Koronis, a daughter of a Thessalian prince, whence his title Koronides. At his birth his mother died,
struck
ASKLEPIOS,
OR AESCULAPIUS.
179
and taking
it to Mount Pelion, gave it in keeping to the famous Chiron, who carefully instructed the boy from early physician, youth onwards in the mysteries of the healing art, training him
at the
same time
In the former
the pupil soen excelled the master, curing the most malignant
diseases,
and working
real
art.
There was
was Pluto,
but one
the
whom
The
and
his
that
complaint before
Zeus.
to
the
indignation
of
Apollo,
who was
only
by banishment from Olympos for some time. After death Asklepios was looked upon as a god in Greece festi
;
vals called
Asklepia were
to him, of
were erected
at Epidauros, in the
Peloponnesos.
Romans
sent ten deputies once, to inquire the will of the oracle with
Rome.
The
deputies
had hardly entered the temple, when from behind the goldand-ivory statue of the god a serpent appeared, the symbol of
Asklepios,
on
to
and followed them through the streets of the town, the harbour, and into their ship. They received it joy
a happy portent, and set out homewards.
left
fully as
On
to a
reaching
the ship,
and proceeded
temple
it
again
until,
on going up the
Tiber,
it
stopped at an island.
commemorate
and cured
Thither patients were conveyed a short statement of the symptoms of each case,
the event.
tablets,
which
l8o
INFERIOR DEITIES.
Besides the
cock,
its
serpent,
The
serpent,
;
by
the staff
marks him as wandering from place to place, to give help ;. while the dish, which he sometimes holds, is a symbol of his It was the custom of invalids to sacrifice a healing potions.
cock to him, as Socrates did after drinking the cup of poison, as a token that he did not fear death, but rather looked upon
it
as a cure
and a convalescence.
Among
mentioned.
soothing/
The name
of his
wife
was
common
the sky.
Like many other deities of the lower order, with heroes, he was in after times placed as a star
in in
In Plate
XXXI.
is
represented as a
man
round which a serpent, as emblem of rejuvenescence, is His type of face resembles that of Zeus so much, that coiled.
staff,
Museum
two gods it was intended to represent. The head in question was found in the island of Melos, on- the site of what
supposed to have been a temple to Asklepios, from the dis covery in the same place of a native tablet, dedicated to the
to his daughter Hygiea.
illness
is
god and
person
from a local
would dedicate a sculptured representation Of such sculptures there that had been affected. of the part
are a
number of examples
in the British
Museum.
XXXI.
One
of tlie Horae.
Perseus.
Hygiea.
JEsculapius.
HYG1EA.
MEDITRINA.
TELESPHOROS
81
HYGIEA,
(PLATE xxxi.,)
Or Hygieia,
or
Hygea,
was,
as
we have
just
said,
the
of health. daughter of Asklepios, and the goddess she was the wife of Asklepios.
Others said
whom
interest.
In Plate
XXXI.
it
she
She feeds
from a
is
known
a patera in her
MEDITRINA
Passed in
a
Rome
for a sister of
festival called
health,
in
her
I heal
infirmities."
The
this
distinction
in
that
it.
while
restored
Hygea preserved good health, The Greek goddess Jaso appears to have been
Meditrina
TELESPHOROS
Was
terious
looked upon as genius or deity of that secret and mys lie was rewhich sustains the convalescent, vitality
-A.
l82
INFERIOR DEITIES.
XXXI.) by the side of ^Esculapius, or standing between him and Hygea, as a small barefooted boy, wrapped This careful closely in a mantle, with a hood on his head.
presented (Plate
wrapping-up seems to indicate the secret shrouded nature of the vital force which he personifies, and may also have been
meant
valescence.
The
Minor.
TYCHE,
OR
FORTUNA.
(PLATE XXL)
The
of
life
was due
to chance,
in very
early times,
goddess of luck,
whom
She was a daughter of Zeus. The Parcae, It was believed that she guided the career of men, whether prosperously or the reverse and to show her in this capacity, she was figured holding a double
Fortuna.
or Fates, were her sisters.
;
Romans
In later times she was repre sented with wings, or with her eyes bound, standing on a ball or a wheel, to indicate that luck rolls like a ball, without choice,
the other that of the unlucky.
undoing
all
Sometimes she was represented with wealth and prosperity. with a ball on her head, or with a cornucopia in her hands.
In Plate XXI. she appears draped, her arms bare, a horn of the ball beside plenty in one hand and a rudder in the other,
the rudder indicating the rapid turns of fortune.
XXX.
Nike, or Victoria.
Herakles (Hercules),
NIKE, OR VICTORIA.
in
many
deity.
places
in
constantly
favouring
In
Italy the
festival
Fortuna was wide-spread, and a general Her principal worship honour annually on the 2 4 th of June. were newly-married women. She had an oracle pers, however, fame in the towns of Praeneste and Antium.
of considerable
NIKE, OR VICTORIA,
(PLATE xxx.,)
The goddess
Pallas
the and the Okeanid nymph Styx, and was regarded by Except in Greeks as inseparable from Zeus ana Athene. with works of art of an early period, she was represented a wreath, and a Her attributes were a
wings.
palm-branch,
Sometimes she carried a staff (caduceus} and floated in the like that of Hermes, as a sign of her power, down to earthair with outspread wings, or appeared coming
trophy of armour.
now
pointing the
way
to a victor,
a wreath
down
of victories by
she appears standing on a globe, draped, On coins ap a wreath and a palm-branch. winged, holding
In
Plate
XXX.
parently struck to
commemorate
victories, or, as
it
sometimes
happened,
painted
games,
on engraved gems,
vases, marble
figures
sculptures,
is
and among the smaller bron/e She of Nike are of frequent occurrence.
on gems, seems to
184
INFERIOR DEITIES.
have been that in which she was represented in the act of sacrificing an ox.
EIRENE, OR PAX,
The goddess
branch.
of peace, was also represented holding a palmfeet,
In Greece she
In
Rome
honour of an annual
festival
FATE,
The Greek name being Ananke,
control the career of
the
the world.
unchanging decrees. This deity was the offspring of Night and Erebos. Her sentences were carried out by the Parcae, who, however, were also looked upon as independent deities of fate. She was
represented standing on a globe, and holding an urn.
Gods, as well as
MCERA AND
THE MCER^E, OR
PARC^.
and reason, was supposed to be under the control of a goddess called Moera, who, in directly her own province, acknowledged the superiority of no other
social matters involving right
not even of Zeus, the ruler of the world, who, as supreme god, could not be thought to insist on anything unreasonable In later times we find, instead of this single deity, or wrong.
deity,
185
three Moerae (or Parcae) answering respectively to the three In this form, birth, years, and death. stages of human life
became subject
entitled v to
to him,
its
be called
Mceragetes,
human
fate
or of Zeus
heavens."
that
it
same ceremony, according to another version of the myth, having been performed by them to Zeus and Hera. It was natural to suppose the goddesses of fate present and taking
part at marriages
and
births.
The names
Atropos.
to exercise
Lachesis, and
To express the influence which they were believed on human life from birth to death, they were con
silver,
or wool
it
now
tightening,
now
slackening, and
at
last
cutting
off.
This occupation was so arranged among the three, that Klotho, the youngest, put the wool round the spindle, Lachesis spun it, and Atropos, the eldest, cut jt off, when a man had to die.
Tyche, or Fortuna, has been taken as a fourth
of the similarity of her functions.
It is not,
sister,
on account
so.
however,
They were represented in art as serious maidens, always side by side, and in most cases occupied as we have mentioned
there being instances, however, in which Atropos, the
terable,
is
unal
represented alone.
seriously both
in
Greece and
e\ves.
sacrifices of
honey and
flowers,
sometimes of
86
INFERIOR DEITIES.
and
in
Rome
and
altars.
NEMESIS,
Called also
in
was a personifica
tion of the
wrong.
vengeance which appeared to overtake every act of She was the goddess of punishment, and as such a
figure of her
mysterious power, watching over the propriety of life, she was conceived as shaping the demeanour of men in their times of prosperity, punishing crime, taking luck away from the
its doer, and keeping society She was represented as a thoughtful, beautiful equipoise. figure of queenly aspect, with a diadem or crown on her head,
winged, except in the case of early sculptures, or driving in a car drawn by gryphons. Among her several attributes were a
wheel, to indicate the speed of her punishments, a balance, a bridle, a yoke, a rudder, a lash, a sword, and an apple-branch.
Special festivals, called
sacrifices to assure
Nemesia, accompanied by
will,
public
her good
and
in
Smyrna.
Okeanos,
is
mentioned as her
father, while
and Helena
their daughter.
To
execute her
commands
Pcena, and Erinys (respectively justice, punishment, and vengeance). She was a terror to evil-doers. At the same time
her endeavours to preserve an equal balance in the attitude of
man
love,
to
man were
several
Smyrna
ERIS
ENYO.
187
KRIS,
Called by the
Romans Discordia,
stir
the goddess of
fierce disputes
strife,
was
among men.
It
and mortal
between Hera, Athene, and Aphrodite for the possession of the golden apple, the prize of beauty, which she threw among the
company assembled at the marriage of Peleus. Terrible in form and aspect, with attributes like those
of the
Eumenides,
the wife,
with
whom
her
sister
home was
in the
realms below,
as
and companion, sometimes Her daughter was of Ares, the god of massacre.
ENYO,
Whom
the
Romans
called
Bellona, now
of Mars.
believing her to be
the wife
sister
Similarly
among
the
title
of
it
Enyalios,
to battle.
The
peculiar fierceness
and
fury with
which she
Athene.
hair,
She was represented as of frightful aspect, with flowing rushing wildly hither and thither, with a lash in her hand,
shield
and
spear.
Her most
celebrated temple
Komana,
in
Asia Minor.
erected to her in
Rome by Appius
war against the Samnites a temple was Claudius. There the Senate
used to meet when they had to deliberate with an embassy from a hostile power, or when they had to decide whether the honour
of a triumphal entry into the city should be bestowed
upon
:i
88
INFERIOR DEITIES.
general.
At
pillar,
which,
on the occasion of declaring war, was viewed as marking the boundary between Roman and hostile territory. The ceremony
of declaring war was to throw a spear over this pillar
into
that
is,
There
festivals of
din and
Her
priests
were
PHEME,
The goddess
to
OR
FAMA,
of fame or report, whether good or bad, was said be a daughter of Gaea, and born at the time of her great Sleepless, always indignation at the overthrow of the Giants.
prying, swift of foot,
she saw or
addressed only to a few persons, heard then by degrees louder and to a larger circle, until finally she
of, at first in a whisper
had traversed heaven and earth communicating it. She was represented as a tender, gentle figure, winged, and holding a
trumpet.
ATE
Was men
the goddess of infatuation, mischief,
to actions that involved
and
guilt,
misleading
them
in ruin.
For
Zeus, cast her in anger from Olympos, and from that time she
in person
and
swift
men
to mislead them.
Her
sisters
were
Sweet-natured goddesses, whose special duty was to recom pense the persons whom Ate had reduced to distress and ruin.
XXIX.
One
of the Erinys.
189
signifies
prayers of the
penitent,"
in this case is
for
not
far to seek.
make amends
In the
of others in thoughtlessness
are described as
making good the harm done by Ate. Penitent prayers were at best but sorry aid in making good the evil done from
had
in
infatuation or carelessness.
The
place
Litae
before
were supposed to be daughters of Zeus, and to him the prayers of those who invoked his
assistance.
THE
ERINYS, OR
(PLATE xxix.,)
Called also
"
Dirse,
Eumenides,
or
Semnae
that
is,
the
of Night, or, according to goddesses, were daughters of the Earth and Darkness, while a third account another myth,
"
revered
Kronos and Eurynome. They were attendants of Hades and Persephone, and lived at the entrance
calls
them the
offspring of
Their first duty was to see to the punish ment of those of the departed who, having been guilty of some crime on earth, had come down to the shades without obtain
ing atonement from the gods.
gods,
At the command of the higher sometimes of Nemesis, they appeared on earth pursuing
Nothing escaped
their sharp eyes as they followed
criminals.
and
is
id instance of this
no
Agamemnon, who
avenge
Klytaemnestra,
to
The
90
INFERIOR DEITIES.
by Klytsemnestra was held by Zeus and Apollo to be no excuse for the act of Orestes, and accordingly he was subjected to the
long and cruel pursuit of the Furies, from which he was at length freed by bringing, on the advice of an oracle of Apollo,
an image of Artemis from Tauros to Argos. In Plate XXIX. is represented one of the Erinys pursuing Orestes the face reflected on the mirror which she holds is
;
The number
Alekto
Tisiphone (the avenger of murder), unwearied persecutor), and Megsera (the grim). (the They were represented as female figures of odious aspect, clad in black, sometimes winged, with hair formed of vipers, and
wards fixed to three
or a torch in their hands. In time carrying a serpent, a knife, this grim conception of them fell away, and they came to be
represented as beautiful serious maidens, clad something like As divine beings, whose office it was to punish Artemis.
and crimes committed against neglect of duty, breach of faith, came to be looked upon as aiding the preserva parents, they tion of a high morality, and were called Eumenides, or the
"
well-minded
goddesses."
When
sacrifices
were offered to
chosen
night,
for the
In
them
as, for
THE HARPYS
Also were creatures employed, according to the belief of the
Greeks and Romans, by the higher gods to carry out the punishment of crime. They were three in number Aello,
:
THE GORGONS.
191
or
said to
be
Thaumas
Elektra.
would seem that they were originally goddesses of the storm, which carries everything along with it. Their manner of punishing those whom they were sent to
;
woman and
all
devour
it,
uneatable.
Among
others
way was Phineus, a king of Thrace, been cruelty towards his own son and con his crime having tempt of the gods. For showing the Argonauts the way to
freed from their persecution by Kalais and Zetes, the winged sons of Boreas, who, in grati At other times, as the case of the daughters tude, killed them.
of
Pandareos,
THE GORGONS,
By name Stheino, Euryale, and Medusa, were daughters
of
was mortal.
in
snakes,
was punished by having her beautiful thus making her appearance more
sisters.
ghastly
than
of her
Her
face
was
last
u-rribk-
to
At
Perseus,
head with
his
IQ2
INFERIOR DEITIES.
presented
to
it
to Athene,
tegis
who had
assisted
him
in the enterprise,
be worn on her
The
aged women, and frequently place them by the side of the In early times there was only one Gorgon Medusa Furies.
instead of the three of later times.
The winged
horse,
Pegasos, was
In Plate
in
and Poseidon.
his
XXXI.
Perseus
is
face
off the
to avoid seeing
it.
The
in
of Greek sculpture
Selinus, in Sicily
;
examples one of the metopes of the oldest temple at and from the conventional manner in which
one of the
her face
is
represented,
it is
compared
with the
other parts of
familiar
the sculpture,
for
some time
s
to
Greek
to
art.
To
possess a representation of a
ills,
Gorgon
face
it
was
and
was frequently employed as a personal ornament. hundreds of such faces worked in thin gold, and intended Many
accordingly
be stitched down on garments, were found in the tomb of a priestess of Demeter in Kertch, and are now in the hermitage
to
of
St.
Petersburg.
Gorgon
sisters,
is
Museum, where
also
to
be seen, on a fragment of a terra-cotta relief, Athene holding up the shield, the polished surface of which reflected her face, and
thus guided Perseus to the spot without his encountering
its
deadly
stare.
THE
GRAEME.
193
THE
Daughters of
three
in
number
Enyo
and
their
"dread,"
"horror."
same time guardians of the Gorgons, they were conceived as misshapen hideous creatures, hoary and withered from their
birth, with
use of only one eye and one tooth for the common the three, and were supposed to inhabit a dark cavern near the The belief in their existence seems to entrance to Tartaros.
have been originally suggested by the grey fog or mist which lies upon the sea and is a frequent source of danger to the It is said that Perseus obtained from them the mariner.
necessary information as to the dwelling of the Gorgons by
seizing their solitary
eye and
tooth,
and refusing
to return
them
until
NYX, OR NOX,
Was,
be remembered, a daughter of Chaos. She be came the wife of Erebos (darkness), and bore to him two In the children, ./Ether (the pure air) and Hemera (day).
it
will
form of the myth she was one of the seven elements that constituted the world fire, water, earth, sky, sun, moon,
earliest
and
night.
In time the
with
this
imagination of the ancients associated mysterious goddess of night a control over illness,
lively
sufferings,
and death
men
When
13
194
INFERIOR DEITIES.
rode out in a chariot drawn by two black steeds, and, accom panied by many stars, traversed the heavens till daybreak, when
she returned to the palace.
heavy
wings, and carrying two children in her arms (one of them being
white, to personify Sleep, the other black, to personify Death),
HYPNOS, OR SOMNUS,
Was, as we have
son of Night, and twin-brother of with whom he lived in deep subterranean (death), darkness at the entrance to Tartaros. His influence extended
just said, a
Thanatos
to gods as well as
latter
he was viewed as a
rest,
special
benefactor,
weary refreshing
and
He
was represented
or
in different forms
and
attitudes, with
different attributes,
now nude,
hastily,
now
as
standing,
striding
or reposing
heavily; or
poppy
;
down on
those reposing
or as a child,
and sometimes
as a
hawk
On
was looked on as a favourite of the Muses, apparently because of the dreams he was supposed to communicate to men.
In the British
Museum
is
hawk growing out from the Hera commands him to take the form of
a hawk.
is
the bird
which
men
call
How
uncertain.
ONEIROS.
195
god of dreams.
According
to
the meaning of their names, the office of the latter would be to fashion dreams, as the gods desired them to be sent to
men.
those
In
this task
who
of
fashioned
by and PhanPhobetor, alarming dreams, tasos, who tricked sleepers with innumerable and strange phenomena. But we find Morpheus also represented in the as capacity of a sort of watchman and guardian of dreams,
that
all
dreams
had
the
appearance
reality,
the
author of
>neiros
idle
and deceptive or
Dreams
of the former
class
the latter class from the horn gate, of the palace where they
were kept, beside the Western Okeanos. They were called of Night, sometimes children of Sleep, and were directly under the control of the superior order of gods,
children
to
MOMUS
Was
his
a deity
at the actions
whose delight and occupation was to jeer bitterly both of gods and men, sparing no one with
except Aphrodite, in whom he could find nothing to blame, and vexed himself to death in consequence. As an example of his behaviour, it is said that he complained
insinuations
uf the
man
that
Prometheus had
not a window in his breast through which his thoughts might U- seen.
196
INFERIOR DEITIES.
THANATOS,
The god
of death, was, as
OR MORS.
said, a
we have
twin-brother of Sleep. He was, however, also described as a son of Earth and Tartaros, to whom it was his office to
introduce,,
some time
The
which he discharged the task caused him to be frequently regarded with pain, and to be repre sented as of a powerful figure, with shaggy beard and fierce
countenance, with great wings to his shoulders, and resembling, on the whole, the figures of Boreas, the god of the wild north
wind of
winter.
deities,
was
Thanatos
represented in
the
form of a quiet pensive youth, winged, crossed, often beside an urn with a
reversed.
wreath on
it,
Or,
expressed repose.
It
to
more
attractive representation
god of death took the place of the former repulsive representations whether, as a powerful and violent god, or as
a black child in the arms of his mother, Night.
Among
the
figures sculptured on the chest of Kypselos, a description of which we have still in Pausanias, was that of Night carrying
On Roman
sarco-
DEMONS, OR
GENII.
197
sword.
DAEMONS, OR GENII,
Were an order of
invisible beings,
one of
whom
was assigned by
Zeus to every man, to attend, protect, and guide him. They were nameless, and, like the multitude of mankind, innumerable.
Some
of
them acted
and
as personal
attendants to deities of a
were represented under particu higher order, lar forms, and enjoyed distinctive names, while others were
in that case
believed to watch over particular districts, towns, or nations. While the Greeks regarded these Daemons as deities of an
inferior order, the
Romans
believed
to
them
to be a sort of inter
The Daemons mediate beings linking mankind assigned to women were supposed to be feminine.
the gods.
To
itself
every
Diumon
with him,
to guide
him
of
in a
To be
was
to live
obedience to a
man
Daemon
or Genius.
To be
sad and
vexed, or to shorten
attendant
spirit.
On
meals
to the
"Good
form of a youth holding a horn of plenty and a dish in one hand, and sonu- lu-ads of poppies and ears of grain in the other
198
INFERIOR DEITIES.
The presence
of a serpent.
of a
Daemon was
also symbolised
by the
figure
rank,
and esteemed
in
or
flat
and
liba
violets
and rosemary.
his
When
former master to hang a chain upon the figures of his Lares. When a youth left the paternal roof he prayed "Ye Penates
:
of
to
my
fathers,
commend
parents, that
protect them.
Other Penates
these
private household
deities
public Lares,
who were
and towns.
of
whole
states
Of
Rome, and later three, the spirit of Julius Caesar having been added as the third for the Lares were considered to be the
;
spirits
of deceased persons
who continued
to
The
THE MANES.
99
sometimes as sons of Mercury and a nymph called Lara. Sacrifice Statues and temples were erected in their honour.
and prayers
their altars,
state
in
were
offered
up
at
which
in spring
and
summer were
frequently
decked with
travellers,
flowers.
in
and
They were protectors of highways and this capacity had the honour of a festival
called roads,
Compitalia, which was annually celebrated at cross a few days after the Saturnalia, and consisted of a
sacrifice of cakes, the
banquet and
by
slaves.
To
the Lares
who
protected the
of
lambs, calves,
It
offered.
after
became
which
Lemures
there
Larvae
afflicting
that
is,
evil
spirits
who wandered
for
mankind with
expiation for
illnesses
sacrifices
to
the gods.
Persons
who
died without
every wrong
they
THE MANES,
the departed inhabiting Generally speaking, were the souls of Survivors, however, who believed that the realm of shadows.
to
them
at
it
possible to call
III.
DEMIGODS, OR HEROES.
or heroes, were a class of beings peculiar,
to the mythology of the Greeks. They were regarded partly as of divine origin, were represented as
it
possessed of godlike form, strength, and courage ; were believed to have lived on earth in the remote dim ages of the nation s history ; to have been occupied in their lifetime with
thrilling
men
human
cases
sacrifice
and
a
to
have been
after
death in some
translated
the
first
and entitled to among and worship. They were described as having been sovereigns and legislators of the nation, and as the
to
life
the gods,
all the kingly and noble families. Monsters that devastated particular localities were destroyed, the oppressed were set free, and everywhere order and peaceful institutions
founders of
They
turous knights the history of whose deeds formed for the mass of the people the first chapter of the national history, and that
in a
had
and
ful
attained,
manner worthy both of the civilization to which the nation and of the gods to whose influence the progress
was due.
artists
The
an inexhaustible treasure of
deeds, and strange events, while they formed at the time a most powerful element in the national education.
same
2OI
It
may
have originated in later times, in an impulse to people the blank early pre-historic age with ideal figures of a sublime
order of men, to
or that
it
whom
memory
and
in
of distinguished
human
powers.
But
it
is
far
more
probable that, like the gods, the heroes had originally been divine personifications of certain elements of nature, and the
legends of adventures ascribed to
them merely a mythical form of describing the phenomena of these elements. The idea, for example, of a long struggle and ultimate victory over
is
the
same idea
that
we
in
But while overcoming, the powers of darkness. maintained their relationship to the elements the gods always marine of nature, of which they were divine personifications
and
finally
deities
for
instance,
celestial deities in
had ceased
came
in
time to be regarded as
(ireere, but
said,
men
of a high order
legends, which, as
we have
panded
so as to
wide scope now assigned to the heroes. There appear^ to hu\e been a time when the gods gene rally were in danger of being reduced in this maimei to the
imagination with
202
HEROES.
such events,
for instance,
war of Zeus with the Titans and Giants, the contests Apollo with Tityos and Python, or of Dionysos with his
more
in
the
light
of heroes
than of
indeed
by the necessity of
of the gods was
the
From
the position
determined, while
became
from men, the legends concerning them assuming gradually more of a historical than of an ideal character. Traditions of early battles and
less less distinguishable
still
and
victories that
circle
lingered
among
made
to
became the
centres of
founders of most of the elementary institutions of social and the guides of colonists.
It
were
left
by divine
beings.
For
in addition to
religion,
the vast
Greek national
whom we
in
who, when
in
after
the tribes to
coalesced
times
into
have appeared
in
many
cases
quite
character,
though probably very often different in regard to the details of the deeds or adventures ascribed to them. Thus many
dispensed
with
as
gods
would
be
203
demigods.
Turning to the oldest examples of the Greek epic poetry which we possess the Iliad and Odyssey we find the heroes More power represented as hardly distinguishable from men. were ful, more beautiful, and more courageous they certainly
than the ordinary
men
looked on
of their day, and on this account were still their ways of life ;
were distinctly the ways of men, not of gods. By the time of Hesiod we find this opinion of the heroes
heroic age
his time,
is
past.
looked back with reverent feelings to the happy age in which the great heroes stood between the gods and feeble mankind.
Zeus,
it
was taught by Hesiod, had translated the heroes to the removed from men, where they lived in
The perpetual golden age under the sovereignty of Kronos. that the ancient people, however, thought otherwise, believing
tumuli in Greece and in Asia Minor were the graves of the
heroes.
The imposing
for instance,
and Ajax. Sanctuaries and temples were erected to heroes, their bones were searched for, and when found regarded as a
r ^ reat source of strength to the town that possessed
them
all
relics
and a form of
Daemons.
The consequence
of this was
that
all
individuals who,
on account of extraordinary
strength, courage,
And
this
was
204
HEROES.
not confined to persons remarkable for their good qualities successful daring entitling a robber to this rank as much as did
;
men who
fell
at
Marathon and
Plataese.
ground that every had something of the nature of a Daemon in it, and was destined to a higher and nobler life, heroic honours were paid
soul
to almost all the
In
still
later times,
dead
so that
when a man
of particular
open of paying him signal honours was to regard him as having been, after the manner of Herakles, translated to a life among the gods, and to worship him as a god.
It
is,
in
the mythology
that
:
we have
to do.
three classes
First,
the demigods
earliest
in
human
history and
civilization,
Secondly, the such as Herakles, Theseus, Minos, Pelops, Perseus, or Bellerophon, who were distinguished
for
that of Prometheus.
for their
such,
extraordinary adventures, labours, and expeditions, example, as that of the Argonauts to Kolchis.
Thirdly, the
more recent
expeditions
for instance,
and Thebes
read more like historical traditions magnified by the imagina tion of the poets, than allegorical narratives such as those of
the two preceding classes.
PROMETHEUS.
PROMETHEUS
AMONG
appears
the origin of mankind, the most generally accepted one to have been that in which it was asserted that man
and
all
other forms of
from the
common
had, like the gods, originally sprung mother earth. It was not supposed that the
life
its
on the contrary,
in all
been created
was believed that a primeval pair had the chief districts in which mankind was
it
-afterwards found
settled.
As
first
In
wooded
and mountainous
which
this creation
took
took place simultaneously throughout place, and whether the various inhabited regions, we have no means of knowing
the current belief.
From
in
the forests
the primitive condition of savages living like anim iN and caves, they advanced slowly in the direction
of dvili/ation,
,ind
terrible
punishim
tribes
becoming in time united into two great races, the The former traced its origin to IVlasgic and the Hellenic.
206
HEROES.
Phoroneus, and appears to have been resident mainly in the Peloponnesos, while the latter looked back to Deukalion as its founder, and was resident in Thessaly
the Argive
According to the story, a great flood had swept away the whole human race except one pair, Deukalion and Pyrrha, who, as the flood abated, landed on
Mount
and
cast
as Zeus
had commanded.
From From
its
these stones
new
race
men
Deukalion, and
women from
those cast
by
his wife.
name, while its four great branches, the ^Eolians, Dorians, Achaeans, and lonians, traced their descent and names from
four of his sons.
life,
more mysterious
Its
beam
and
its
of winter.
life.
The
fire
of the
At the
forge, tools
and weapons were fashioned. It was an emblem of the life of man, with its flash and sudden extinction on the one hand
In prolonged blaze on the other. was seen descending from the sky, and in volcanic
its
it
eruptions
it
earth.
The
source of
all
;
in the close
keeping of the
it
gods
was
Prometheus.
possession of so great a blessing, had from the first refused Their to transmit any portion of his sacred fire to men.
deplorable
condition,
however,
it,
HEROES.
207
found a champion in the person of Prometheus (a son of the Titan Japetos), who had previously identified himself
with the cause of humanity in a dispute that arose at (Sikyon) as
to
Mekone
sacrifices
all
offered to them.
On
that occasion
tered as a sacrifice,
the eatable parts in the skin of the animal as one portion, worthless parts and cleverly covered the bones and
having
with
fat as
what he
though
thought
the
portion
for
the
gods.
Zeus,
chose the worthless parts, and perfectly aware of the deceit, more firmly than ever determined to withhold his fire from
men.
and succeeded
Prometheus, however, resolved to obtain it for them, in snatching some of it from the hearth of
it,
of Hephaestos in
Lemnos.
demned
to
be chained
mountains, and to submit while every day a vulture came to For a long gnaw away his liver, which daily grew afresh.
time he bore this
suffering,
for
the
the purpose of learning the secret, permitted Herakles to shoot the vulture, to free Prometheus, and bring him back to
(
Mympos.
Meantime the human race enjoyed the many benefits of advance in civilization rapidly. But fire, and continued to
that their cup of happiness might be mixed with sorrow, Zeus ordered Hephajstos to fashion a woman of clay, of divine as charms beauty, but possessed of all the weaknesses as well
of
human
nature.
in
the
industrial
208
HEROES.
occupations of women, Aphrodite gave her grace of manners, and taught her the arts of a beauty, while Hermes qualified
and Horse, Athene robed her with costly, beautiful and decked her with flowers, so that, when all was done, robes, Pandora, as they called her, might be irrestibly attractive to
Epimetheus, who, though warned by his brother Prometheus to accept no gift from Zeus, yielded to the besetting weakness from which he
to
obtained his
name
when
it
was too
late.
He
made her
his wife.
The curiosity of her husband, however, tempted open it, and suddenly there escaped from it troubles, weariness, and illnesses, from which mankind was never after
him
to
free.
wards
have thus, in contrast with the general belief described above as to the spontaneous origin of man from the earth, an
We
human being directly fashioned by the gods from From this mean substance it was also asserted the first clay. men were made by Prometheus, Athene assisting him by
instance of a
breathing
life
But
in to
It played by Prometheus in the cause of human civilization. is better to account for that zeal by assuming Prometheus to
have been originally a god of fire, who, asserting his right to employ that element for the benefit of mankind, provoked the
hostility of the other gods,
tified
for
assuming
in
god
Lemnos and
in Attica.
209
had depended
with could be symbolized by, fire, was connected in primitive times was Prometheus, the progress of agriculture
or
two giants Otos and Ephialtes, Small and puny sons of Aloeus (the planter) and Iphimedeia. on grain, and soon at their birth, they grew quickly, living size and beauty. became the wonder of men for their great and agriculture could not go together, they Finding that war confined him in a seized Ares, the god of war, bound and He would have perished brazen vase for thirteen months.
reflected in the story of the
lar-e
"it
in
at length
and
him
free.
Olympos itself, and for this Mount Ossa on the top of Mount purpose they had placed had heaped Mount Pelion, when Olympos, and upon Ossa They perished in youth, ere .ifts of Apollo felled them.
^iil
their
be convenient
k-ends
ITof
those that
different disrelate to combined expeditions of heroes from from the other of the Argonauts, as the expedition tn.
and
to
arnn-e the
as
latter
dan
scem->
according
to
the
localities
assigned
the
principal
210
HEROES.
(a.)
ARGOS.
line of heroes
all
stands
Inachos,
With the nymph Melia for his wife, he became the father of Phoroneus and lo, of whom the former, according to Argive
legends, was the
first
man upon
the earth.
to
Such services as
puted to have founded the town of Argos, and to have estab lished there the worship of Hera. With regard to lo, we have
Hermes) how she was loved by Zeus, and, to escape the jealousy of Hera, was transformed by him into a cow how Hera, discovering the transformation,
already related (in connection with
set a
watch over
lo, in the
how Hermes
person of Argos, a giant with a hun slew the watchman and released
that
it
transformed lo into a cow, for the purpose of thwarting the love of Zeus for her. Argos had tethered her to an olive-tree
Hera, between the towns of Mykenae and and was there keeping guard when Hermes arrived and Argos,
in a grove sacred to
slew him.
Though
set free,
human
in
At
to
was restored
goaded on reaching Egypt, she obtained rest, her human form, and became the mother of
last,
by a vexatious insect
Epaphos.
lo,
cation of the
the white horned cow, appears to have been a personifi moon, like the Phoenician goddess Astarte, who
was
moon.
Her wanderings were like Hera, who punished her, was the
DANAOS.
21
supreme goddess of the heavens. Argos, with his many eyes, reminds us of the stars. The slaying of Argos by Hermes was
a favourite subject with ancient
artists.
of Egypt,
called
name on
who bore
two sons
race that spread over Phoenicia, Cilicia, and on to Thebes in Greece, Belos remained in Egypt, succeeded to the throne,
and marrying Anchirrhoe, a daughter of the Nile, had two The latter was appointed to sons, /Egyptos and Danaos.
rule over Arabia, the former over Libya.
^Egyptos had
fifty
and Danaos the same number of daughters. A dispute arose between the two families, and Danaos yielding took ship
sons,
all
the
way
by the sons of yEgyptos. At Argos, the home of his race, he was kindly received by the reigning king, and protected against
the pursuers.
district of Argos was suffering from a which Poseidon had angrily caused. Danaos sent out drought his daughters to search for a spring, and while they were so
ed
it
happened
that
one of them,
it,
Amymone,
throwing
asleep
missed
but hit
a Satyr
who was
the brake.
Pursued by the Satyr, she (ailed on the name eidon for help, and the god instantly appeared, drme
Satyr,
off the
a
and
for love
of the beautiful
at
Danaul caused
lie
perennial
spring
to
flow
I.erna,
where
met
her.
Amymone
plia,
who by false lights misled many ships among rocks, and enriched himself from
a
cargoes.
at
H\
last.
singular
fatality
he perished
in
this
way himself
212
HEROES.
He
Palamedes,
faculty,
Nausimedon,
it is
the ship
captain.
having besieged proposed to forget their difference with Danaos, and to marry his daughters. Without
said,
Meantime
for
Argos
some
length
them
commanded
who,
each daughter he presented a knife, and them all to slay each her own husband on the
All obeyed his order except
marriage night.
Hypermnestra,
resolution than as
preferring to
be regarded
as of
weak
the
mother of the Argive line of kings. While Zeus approved the murderous deed of her forty-nine sisters, and sent Athene
and Hermes
into a
to give
them
expiation,
Hypermnestra was
cast
On being brought to trial she was saving himself by flight. however publicly acquitted her husband returning to Argos, succeeded Danaos on the throne, and in after times was
;
widely respected,
great
festival in
among
The
prize of
victory
in
the
games
that
accompanied that
;
festival
was
the tradition
being
that
on the
first
occasion
of these
shield which
Danaos.
Whether
decide
it
was
to
who
to
had accomplished
their
own widowhood,
or whether
it
was
among
Danaos
accepted as husbands.
On
the
AK.RISIOS
AND
PRrKTOS.
213
ranged
his
by a victorious
athlete
ot
after
tl
in Tartaros by having ception of Hypermnestra, were punished and pour it in the vain endeavour continually to carry water, It may be that this form of punish a broken cistern. of
filling
for
them
as the
most suitable
for
who
generally in
it
women, At the
was very suggestive of the dry parched soil of in summer. Argos, the streams of which were always dried up
same time
From Abas,
the
brothers
Akrisios
and
Prcetos,
When
they had
grown
fraternal
encounter-, lied
I.yna,
received by the king, lobates, and the queen, Amphianax, whose daughter, Stheneboea, he married. With the assistance
army he was p-instaied in his rights of sovereignty over Argos and Corinth, fortifying himself in the citadel of
of a Lycian
Of both
citadels,
now
in
ruins,
still
made
upon them.
Pnetos had three
d.
nighk
rs,
them
win.
common
I
usages
>iom
ot
the worship of
fl
and made
shrine.
ancient
a
image ami
For
by
form of insanity
wander
restlessly
among
the
woods
214
HEROES.
and
hills
It is
The
father
summoned Melam-
pos, the prophet and priest, to work a cure upon his daughters, but on the prophet s stipulating a third of the kingdom as his
reward, dismissed him again.
other
The
evil
grew worse,
their
for
the
women
of abandoning
husbands and
slaying
children.
Melampos was
recalled,
and
this
time
demanded an
additional
third of the kingdom for his brother, Bias. Proetos agreed, and Melampos, collecting a body of active youths, pursued the three princesses over the mountains, and on to Sikyon,
where the eldest of the three died, and the other two, after being purified, were given in marriage to Melampos and Bias
respectively.
heavens, at Argos
Prcetos,
the wanderings of the three daughters of ; under the imaginary form of cows, having reference,
wanderings of
lo, to the
moon.
at the prospect
Returning
to Akrisios,
we
find
him troubled
To
Delphi replied that a daughter would be born to him, and that she would bear a son who would slay his grandfather, and
rule in his stead.
The
daughter,
Danae
and
of gold, sent by Zeus, penetrated to her, and she became the mother of an infant destined to fulfil the oracle and to become
conspicuous
among
the
ancient
heroes.
He
was named
DANAE.
215
the great
in
in darkness, god of light, and to his having been born which respect, as in several others, he may be compared with Leto (darkness), while his father Apollo, whose mother was
was Zeus.
golden
The shower
hearing
the
beam
of
light.
Akrisios,
voice
of the
child,
summoned
his
to give a solemn explanation of daughter to the altar of Zeus mother the circumstance. Disbelieving her story, he placed committed them to the waves. and child in a closed box, and
After rocking about on the bosom of the sea, the box was at was there last carried towards the island of Seriphos, and
a fisherman named Diktys, who caught in a net belonging to It was to his house, and acted kindly by them. took the waifs a very barren island, affording little but shelter to the families The chief or king of it was of fishermen that inhabited it.
just
mentioned, and as
the gaiety of his habits as was his brother for Struck with the beauty of Danae, and finding his simplicity. that her son Perseus stood in the way of the fulfilment of
his desires,
to get rid of him, and Polydektes became anxious of the opportunity that presented itself gladly availed himself not to be outdone in professions of loyalty, when Perseus,
vowed
that
Gorgon
Medusa
Perseus
forth sadly
on
his
when Hermes and Athene, who often lent adventures, appeared to him, and led him
li
to
ve(l T
three aged
women,
in
common.
refused to give
the
them back
in
until
they told
him where
to fincf
2l6
HEROES.
ments.
winged shoes, and the pouch necessary for his future move On arriving at where the nymphs lived, he obtained
from them the objects in question, to which Hermes added the knife (harpe) with which he had cut off the head of Argos.
proceeded towards the Gorgons with the speed of a bird, the helmet of Hades making him invisible, but concealing nothing from his sight.
It is further said that
to
approach
Medusa without being petrified, To this end she gave him a shield
he himself, unseen, advanced and cut off her head. The he had done this there sprang from the trunk of Me dusa Pegasos, the winged horse, and Chrysaor, the father of
instant
Geryoneus. Perseus, placing the head quickly into the pouch which the nymphs had given him, hastened from the scene, pursued by the two sisters of Medusa for some distance.
adventures on the way back to Seriphos were Among the turning of Atlas into stone because the giant refused to receive him hospitably, and the release of Andromeda,
his
whom
to a
rock on
She was a
the king and queen vaunted herself equal in having beauty to the Nereids, gave offence to them and to Poseidon
daughter of
of ^Ethiopia.
also, who thereupon visited the country with a flood, and sent a dreadful monster from the sea to destroy both men and
cattle.
On
Ammon
in Libya,
Ke
until
he exposed
Andromeda,
to the monster.
Com
pelled
by
XXXII.
Bellerophon,
PERSEUS.
the shore,
which
become
his wife?
and Perseus, after slaying the monster, Kepheus unchained the maiden. She had, however, been engaged
agreed to this,
feast.
But the sight of the Gorgon s head turned them and Perseus triumphantly carried off his bride.
Arriving at Seriphos,
to stone,
he found that
his
were being persecuted by Polydektes, and obliged to seek pro tection at the altars of the gods. His course was to announce
iiis
who
at
once assembled
his nobles to
how
the
young hero
had
kept
his
word.
Perseus
appeared assembly, and producing the Gorgon s head, Not turned the king and all his nobles instantly to stone. content with punishing in this manner the principal perse
in the
cutors of
is
said
to
to
have
turned
the
and
and the
fishing
population attached to
him.
Even the
frogs of
the island
became dumb,
said
an
ancient proverb. ing thus fulfilled his promise, and rescued his mother, Perseus handed over the winged shoes, the pouch, and the
the
made him invisible, to Hermes, to be restored to nymphs. The head of Medusa he gave to Athene, who
that
:itcr
wore
it
on her
set
shield.
Andromeda, he
in
grandfather,
left
the
meantime having
dread
lest
consequence of an in
fulfilled
be
regarding
his
death,
had established
himself at
2l8
HEROES.
Larisa in Thessaly.
on
in
Thither Perseus proceeded, and found, Teutamias, occupied with public games
father.
honour of
his
deceased
games, and by a fatality which justified the oracle, the disc which he threw fell upon the foot of Akrisios, and caused
his
death.
After
burying
his
but instead of establishing himself there, exchanged Argos for Tiryns, which was then held by Megapenthes, a son of
after
massive walls.
Perseus and
Elektryon and
Herakles,
Alkseos.
Alkmene,
latter.
mother
was
a
a
Amphitryon,
was
leaving the
son,
whom
From
left
his grandfather.
this Perses the Persian kings traced their lineage. The of Pontos and Cappadocia, claiming the same descent, kings introduced a figure of Perseus on their coins. In Tarsos and
in
Egypt also were traditions of ancient benefits derived from the Greek hero.
While the wanderings of lo remind us of the wanderings of and lead us to connect the origin of the legends
the moon,
movement of
the sun, and the effect of his light, particularly in slaying the
would seem,
adventures must have had some connection with the Argive worship of Zeus and Athene.
SISYPHOS
AND
ASOPOS.
219
in parts,
formed
fre
most
attractive
subject
to
ancient
poets,
and were
of which we still quently represented in works of art, many One of the earliest examples of Greek sculpture possess.
which an approximate date can be assigned, is a group on a temple at Selinus in Sicily, which represents him cut
to
Gorgon
In Plate
in
XXXI. he
one hand
is
is figured holding the head of Medusa In Plate the curved sword in the other. and
XXXII.
the rescue of
Andromeda.
(b.)
CORINTH.
Owing
two
of
seas,
to
its
dependent for its the sea-god Poseidon, had at an prosperity on the benignity of established his worship, and exalted him as its early period
principal god.
commerce; and
we would
In the legends concerning the Corinthian heroes therefore expect to find decided traces of this
we found
worship of Hera.
With regard
to
Sisyphos,
the
first
^gina,
the
^gina,
deter
mined
of
to make capital of his knowledge, by informing Asopos what he had seen, on condition that the river-god would
on the parched
citadel of Corinth
to,
Acrocorinth, as
it
was called.
The
and
220
HEROES.
of
Peirene. But Zeus could not permit the act of treachery to He sent the god or daemon of death to claim pass unpunished. him. Instead of yielding, Sisyphos bound the daemon with
mean
Sisyphos was
Merope, not
to offer the
customary
Arrived
on the part of his wife, and repeated his complaint so often that he was at last allowed to return to the upper world. Another version
this neglect
it
him
off
by force from
In either case he returned to Corinth, lived to an advanced age, and after death was punished, as we have
already related, by having to
roll
Hades.
which when
back.
It
it
immediately rolled
may be
At any
rate
we
find a connection of
he, at the
Sisyphos with the worship of Poseidon in the statement that command of the Nereids, received the dead body of Melikertes from his mother, and instituted in his honour
the Isthmian games, which afterwards were held in honour of
Poseidon.
More
in his
title
directly
is
the legend of
Glaukos,
The
reference
of
of the sea
bore,
is
strengthened by the
it is
and yet
BELLEROPHON.
For some reason
to
221
that he
is
associated.
on human
furious,
became
name was a
equestrians
in
his excepting the incident of the bridling of Pegasos, in Argos all conducted elsewhere
and afterwards
in Lycia.
It may be strangely blended with that of the Argive Perseus. that the proximity of the two towns, and the political depend
other hand,
so
its
such a way as to alter a legend originally common to both, much that each might in time fairly claim a separate hero of
own.
Whichever way
it
may have
on
their coins.
winged horse, we have already from the neck of the Gorgon Medusa, sprang when Perseus cut her head off. The legend proceeds to tell how it flew through the air, and did not set foot on earth until
With regard
to that wonderful
related
how
it
it
it
halted to quench
its
thirst at the
Bellerophon, after
and was
applied to the seer Polyidos for advice, down to sleep at night beside the
222
HEROES.
This he did, and in the course of his sleep dreamed that the goddess came and gave him a golden bridle,
altar of
Athene.
bidding him show it to his father, Poseidon, and at the same time sacrifice a white ox to him. Waking, he found the bridle,
sacrificed the ox, and,
altar to
seer,
dedicated an
bit,
Athene.
The
and from
master.
According to the ancient derivation, the name of Bellerophon signifies the "slayer of Belleros," the story being that he had
accidentally caused the death of a person of that name, either
his
own
To
sary purification, he repaired to Argos, and was there kindly received by Proetos, the reigning king. Unfortunately, however, the wife of Proetos, Sthenebcea (or, as Homer calls her,
and finding the young hero firm against her temptations, re solved to accomplish his ruin, to this end charging him before
the king with an attempt to violate her. Proetos, on hearing the charge, decided to send the youth to Lycia, to the court of lobates, the father of Sthenebcea, with a letter written in strange characters, in which the Lycian king was instructed to compass
The parting scene, where Bellerophon receives the letter, and Sthenebcea still gazes affectionately on
the death of the bearer.
is represented on several ancient painted vases. Arriving at the Lycian court, Bellerophon was entertained On the tenth day the king inquired hospitably for nine days. the business of his guest, and received the letter of Proetos.
him,
letter,
Chimsera*
(a
monster composed of a
s
It
was represented
a goat
BELLEROPHON.
223
and slaughtered
master up in the
who
attacked
it.
his
air
of the monster, and yet not too far for his spear to have deadly
effect.
(Plate
his
XXXII.)
Bellerophon
returned triumphant.
scheme had not succeeded, the king had at any rate Though a terrible enemy to his subjects, and determined a got rid of
second time to
should
fail
profit
in
With
like success
women
of Asia Minor,
and
artists
With
seus,
this result
The
and afterwards,
(See Plate
Greeks.
XXXIII.)
Trojan war, took part against the It would seem from their con
among other reasons, that the legends concerning them originated in the worship of the
goddess. In a last effort to secure the death of Bellerophon, the Lycian king planned an ambush for him of his bravest knights, all of
the time came, perished at the hands of the hero, then became clear, could be no other than the son of
moon
whom, when
who,
it
he received
daughter
in
kingdom.
His wife
its
back.
be -tatement
.if
iN -pittm^
fire
may have
reference
U>
the
\t>I-
canic feature
224
HEROES.
bore him three blooming children Isandros, Hippolochos, and Laodameia. In short, he had reached the pinnacle of
:
But the gods prepared* a catastrophe for him. He became insane, and wandered about sad and alone, avoiding His son Isandros was slain by Ares, the company of men.
happiness.
Laodameia, by Artemis. According to another success in hazardous adventures had inflamed report, repeated him with the desire to mount to Olympos on the back of his
his daughter
wonderful horse.
In the attempt he
fell
to earth, smitten
by
(t.)
THEBES.
It is
to the comparatively
all their
Theban
legends, with
variety of
to say
We
Thebes are
from horrors, but only that the especially by the earliest of them, con
free
mind
among
the heroes of
Thebes
is
it
Kadmos,
was called
the founder
the Kadmeia, as
who, while
to the population gathered round rendering important services of their public affairs, is said to him there in the
management
in
previously
unknown
it
that
land.
still
It
is
this
or alphabet, more
we
employ.
That
he found the
letters of
in use
among
who
visited
Greece
in
KADMOS.
225
in
many
places,
is
among
;
others,
in
the
neighbourhood
of
Thebes,
Kadmos
but to believe, as the Greeks did, that was a Phoenician by birth, and that the system of
probable
which he introduced was, like the alphabet, Phoe was only another instance of the readiness with which nician, the Greeks listened to stories that traced the beginni
civilization
their civilization
n;ii ions
back
more ancient
of the East.
to the legend,
the former
becoming king of
had
By Agenor one daughter Euro pa and three sons, Kadmos, Phoenix, and Kilix. The sister having disappeared carried
it
off,
was
said,
bull, into
which Zeus
down
the countries
named
Kadmos, accompanied by his mother, proceeded through the Greek islands northwards to the coast of Thrace. There his mother died and was buried. He pro ceeded to Delphi, to ask the oracle The concerning his sister. was to search no longer, but to follow a cow which
should
after
them, while
come
city.
in his way,
and where
it
lay
down
to rest there to
it
found a
h
Leaving Delphi, he saw a cow, and followed Itootia, till it reached the place where Thelu
irds built,
and there
lay
down.
Intending to sacrifice
,
the
cow
in
honour of Athene,
his protecting
god<lc<
Kadmos
It
happened, however, that the fountain was watched ], v a terrible :., which killed his men. With the aid of Athene, Kad15
226
HEROES.
mos
command
of the goddess,
sowed
teeth in the
sprang a number of wild armed giants, called Spartse. By throwing a stone among them, Kadmos so roused their pas
sions that they
fell
upon each other with such fury and effect them survived. From these five the noblest
their lineage.
slain,
To
Kadmos was
god
for eight
compelled
years, or a
long year
as
it
was
and expired, he was raised by Athene to the throne of Thebes to complete his happiness Zeus gave him Harmonia, the
beautiful daughter of Ares
and Aphrodite,
feast,
The
Kadmos
to
for him,
made by Hephsestos. From the marriage sprang four daughters, Semele, Ino, Autonoe, Agaue, and one son,
Polydoros.
Autonoe married Aristaeos, to whom she bore Aktaeon, the young huntsman who, for the misfortune of having once seen
Artemis bathing, was transformed into a stag, and devoured by his own hounds. Ino married Athamas, of whom it is said
that,
violence,
and that she eluded him by leaping into the sea, after which she was regarded as a marine goddess under the name Semele became the mother of the wine-god of Leukothea.
Dionysos, and at the birth of her child was, as has been
already related,
struck
227
Agaue, marrying Echion, one of the five surviving Spartre, became the mother of Pentheus, who, after the death of
Polydoros, succeeded to the sovereignty of Thebes. Semele being dead, her statement that Zeus himself was the
father of her child
by Agaue.
But
after
was disbelieved by her sisters, especially her son Dionysos had grown up, and
their
rites.
Agaue and the other women of Thebes changed minds, and embraced his worship with its extravagant
India,
new
his
was
slain
mother and her excited companions. Labdakos, tinby Meantime Agaue, son of Polydoros, succeeded to the throne.
recovering her senses under the
affliction, fled to Illyrium.
fell
so thickly
on
their children
drove
to
They
Illyrium, and there found peace in the grave. Their bodies, it was believed, had been transformed into two snakes that lay beside their tomb, while their spirits had been
wandered
Kadmos,
brothers
Amphion
"great
respects the
like
and Zethos, who resemble in many twin-brethren" Castor and Pollux, being
them represented riding on white horses, and appearin_ Between the two brothers there with aid in times of distress.
was a great difference of character,
t<>
music, and excelling in the skill with which he played the lyre -iven him by Hermes, while Zethos applied himself wholly to
rough
life,
What /ethos
did
physical force,
strains, as
Amphion accomplished by
was shown
228
HEROES.
far
outgrown the
limits
Kadmos
like
as to require
in bringing
new
barriers
huge stones
to strike his
Amphion,
and
still
been to point
with harmony in placing the blocks required in good masonry. The same idea recurs in the legend of the building of the
Trojan walls by Apollo and Poseidon, the former god corres ponding to Amphion and the latter to Zethos. The seven
gates of
Thebes answered
of the two
The mother
according to an early report, was a daughter of the river-god In the usual genealogy, however, she was described Asopos. as a daughter of Thebe and Nykteus (the "dark and
stormy
regent in Thebes during the Zeus having approached Antiope in the form of a Satyr, she was driven from her father s house, and forced to seek refuge, which she found with Epopeus,
"),
who
held the
office of
minority of Labdakos.
Under
remained some
be given up to him.
("
meanwhile demanding in vain that she should Ultimately she was given up to Lykos
the brother of Nykteus, but, as his name implies, of an opposite character. Returning with him, she gave quite birth to twin boys on the way, in the neighbourhood of
light
")
Eleutherae.
brought up.
entrusted to a herdsman to be
carried off to Thebes, where, as
some
years,
(KIM!
Antiope
from Thebes, and taking the direction of Mount Kithceron, where her children had been left, at last reached She the house of the herdsman who had taken care of them.
tied
did not, however, recognise him, nor was she aware that the who took kindly to her, were her sons. It two
youths,
happened
just
then
that
Dirke,
to
Mount
Fvithceron to
take part in
her escaped victim, and ordered the two young herdsmen to fetch a wild bull from their herd, and to bind her to its
horns, that she might be dragged to death.
command, had not the old herdsman at the obeyed moment recognised Antiope, and revealed her as their mother.
her
On
/ethos,
their
indignation,
seized
Dirke,
H .ed miserably.
that Dirke
On
abdicated
their favour,
with her sons to Thebes, Lykos and then commenced the building
Amphion
married
Niobe,
king Tantaios,
and had a family of sons and daughters, whose beauty, in their mother - eyes, might measure with that of Apollo and A temis. How she was punished for her pride has already been related.
After the death of
Amphion and
/ethos, caused,
it
prafl 8 :id,
by
Thebes
finally pa
little is
said, his
fame consisting
grandfather
01
hietly in his
Laios and
CEdipos.
This Laios married Jokaste. a daughter of MenoikeUS, and
had by
An
the child,
230
HEROES.
on growing
to
his father.
To
Mount
Kithseron, expecting
to perish.
It
\v-as,
however,
found by some
herdsmen, conveyed by them to Corinth, and there given over to the king, Polybos, whose wife was childless, and took readily to the castaway. Arriving at years
of manhood, CEdipos inquired at an oracle concerning his parentage, and was told in reply to avoid the lands of his ancestors, for otherwise he would cause his father s death, and
Puzzled by an answer so marry his own mother. and being uncertain whether Polybos might not mysterious, have been his father, he left the court at Corinth, and wandered
thereafter
In the course of his wanderings he met about the country. A quarrel arose between Laios travelling with a retinue. and some of the royal attendants. Laios took the CEdipos
part of his
slain
in the
fight
way
to
Thebes.
consequence of the loss of life caused by a a monster with the body of a lion, and the head, Sphinx This creature had a riddle braast, and arfns of a woman.
in
all
who approached
her,
and on
their
rock,
and perished.
The
man who
should
succeed in getting rid of the Sphinx was the hand of Jokaste, the widow of Laios, along with the throne of Thebes. CEdipos
married her, and
fulfilled the oracle.
sons,
THESSALY.
23
on inquiring at the oracle criminality of their marriage, until, misfortunes that had befallen the country, use of certain
answer which revealed the facts in all their they received an while (Edipos, after putting out horror. Jokaste slew herself,
his eyes, forsook
Thebes, and wandered about, accompanied by His two sons succeeded him Antigone.
other, however,
and
ultimately
both
we
The
the poetic
Sophocles.
(</.)
THESSALY.
In
and even combatants fought with trunks of trees, or hurled rocks It was there that the war of the gods against hills at each other. and Titans took place. There the brothers Otos and the (iiants
Kphialte sheaped
hill
on mountain
in their
ambition to scale
asunder the heavens. There Poseidon cleft the mountain-range vale of Tempe. with his trident, and formed the pleasant
Mount Olympos,
with
its
and there
also
was lolkos,
combats behold of the Lapithse, and the scene of those formed in after times them and the Centaurs which ,,
BO attractive a subject to
Greek
sculptors.
are Ixion Lapithse the two principal figures Among Ixion s wife was Dia, a daughter of and his son Peirithoos.
the
232
HEROES.
Previous to the marriage he had promised her according to ancient usage, many valuable presents, which he afterwards refused to give. Deioneus endeavoured to but in the course of the indemnify himself, attempt perished in a great hole, full of fire, which had been cunningly prepared for him by Ixion. For this the first murder of a relation, it
father,
Deioneus.
was believed, that had taken Ixion was place in the world punished with frenzy, and wandered about, unable to obtain expiation from gods or men, till at last Zeus received him com
passionately,
and
purified him.
But the
purification
was not
him from conceiving a passion for who, knowing his desires, deceived him witli
From
this
and
posed success with Hera, was despatched by Zeus to Tartaros, there bound by Hermes to a winged wheel, which con
stantly revolved, as
to such crime.
The same passion for a goddess descended to his son Peirith6os, who tried to carry off Persephone from Hades, for which
his
his
to the banquet, and, being unused to the influence of wine, could not suppress excitement. The wild Eurytion
laid
went
and a scene
hold of the bride, his fellows rushed towards her maidens, of grand confusion took Peirithoos and place
;
Of Kaineus, another
having been
related that,
THRACE.
233
man by
trees
Poseidon, and
made
;
which they struck him with, and heaped above him, he remained unwounded, and sank into the earth alive, a scene
represented
painting
still
in
several ancient
in existence.
With regard
to the Centaurs,
were represented was that of the body and legs of a horse, with In the head, arms, and body of a man down to the waist.
early
works of
art,
man
in
Cheiron seems
but his form
;
to
in
common
with them
kindly,
for
well-meaning and
a friend of gods
and various
re
arts.
The young
and
tuition, in
Mount
He was the So also were Jason and Asklepios. of Peleus and of Herakles, and his death was an friend
Pelion.
example of the
In trying to
self-sacrifice
his
life.
bow
of
Herakles.
The wound
lie
room of
s(e.)
THRA<
The burden
of
all
is
the strange
for
be
supposed
the
to
to the
among
ungenial
northern
hills
and
234
HEROES.
is
supposed,
the
it
it
was trans
Pieria,
planted thither
with
its
by immigrants
is
from
district of
would be hard
belief
to
decide.
that
the
concerning
Orpheus,
common
to both regions.
the
Orpheus was regarded as a son of the muse Kalliope and god Apollo. From his mother he inherited the fascinating
lyre
and sang, so
and hills, gathered round him to listen. The subject of his song was always the beautiful Eurydike, whom he had loved and lost. She had died through the poisoned bite of a snake that
lurked in the grass over which she had to run to escape from
her.
Her
sister
nymphs, accom
panied by Orpheus, wandered over the hills and valleys, filling the air with plaintive strains to call her back again. Orpheus
carried his search for her even
down
to the
gloomy shades of
the lower world, the sweetness of his music soothing the monsters
and wicked
spirits that
Even
and the merciless Erinys were touched by his passionate grief. It was agreed that Eurydike should be permitted to return with him to the upper world, the only condition attached to
the agreement being that he should not turn to look
upon her
face
all
the
way
back.
His patience, however, gave way. The and Eurydike must instantly retrace her
and be
lost to
him
for ever.
sat
in doleful
mood by
open
Then he withdrew
to the
ORPHEUS.
35
was discovered by a torn band of Monads out upon some wild Bacchic mission, and The Muses, it was said, gathering limb. by them limb from them to Pieria, on Mount Olympos, and the limbs, conveyed His head and lyre floated down the buried them there.
the lyre sounding sweetly Hebros, and were carried by the sea, of Lesbos, with the swell and fall of the waves, to the island
There poets and musicians. sweeter beside it the head was buried, and nightingales sang But in Thrace also a tomb than elsewhere in Greece. of Orpheus, while a sanctuary was that pointed out as being established in his honour.
its
rites
and
and bear ceremonies, said to have been instituted by Orpheus, that his name, was widely propagated in Greece. It maybe
ing
his
in the
sufficient
associating
in
with his
name
religious institutions
having
It
is
much
common
said that
Argonauts, but at
of the Orpheus accompanied the expedition what period of his life we do not know.
To
the
same region of Thrace belongs the legend of Thaa son of the king Philammon and the nymph
for his personal
He
and on the
at
of a
court of
the
isted
himself not
inferior to
the
But on his way homeward he was met laughters of Zeus. his power of by them they put his eyes out, and took away
;
236
HEROES.
(/)
ATTICA.
The people
first
of Attica, generally speaking, believed that their ancestors had sprung from the earth, and by some process
trees or rocks, or
been direct
ascribed to
The change was not supposed to have and instantaneous, as we may infer from the form
the
first
Kekrops,
man
legs.
with extremities in the shape of snakes in place of In later times of learned speculation this
.
human
Kekrops was
thought to have been an immigrant from Egypt. Proofs of an early immigration into Attica are certainly not wanting, but they
do not point to Egypt as the source of it. They point Crete, which in the time of Minos held Attica, as it
held other places, as a dependency.
to
probably
according to the legend, ruled as king over the race of Attica, established himself on the primitive Acropolis of
Kekrops,
He gave his people laws, and taught them to Kekropia. It was worship Zeus and Athene-Polias. during his reign that the celebrated contest took between Poseidon and Athene place
for the control of Attica.
to decide, and,
common
to
all,
He had
all
three daughters,
Herse,
re
three
names apparently
The
last-mentioned was
priestess of Athene.
Of
Herse became
the mother of
divine
herald.
ATTICA.
237
Her
and her
story,
that
slain
she
loved
by Ares.
appointed
Areopagus was
sit
to
tne
gd, an d
continued thereafter to
on cases of
murder.
Tin- successor
of Kekrops was
He
was the offspring of Hephaestos and Gaea, was the fondling of Athene, and when he obtained the throne of Attica, taught his
of the goddess, people to worship the ancient wooden image Panathenaic games. and instituted in her honour the famous
I
in
open
it.
Two
of the
sisters,
to
a snake within, were curiosity, opened the box, and on seeing ith frantic terror and threw themselves from the rocks
of the Acropolis.
the
Pandion, and
he
Erechtheus,
with
whom
Kekrops came to an end, passing over to Ion, a reputed Erechtheus son of Apollo, and the ancestor of the Ionian race.
and
all
Eumolpos,
however, was
the
th.it
prince of Kleusis.
The
and
to,
in one.
son
whom
a touching story
is
told.
in
Thebes,
had obtained
important
assistam e
fmm
Tereus,
a king of Thrace,
and
for this
238
HEROES.
Philomela as his wife. To prevent the former from revealing the truth, he tore out her tongue, and placed her in a cage in a wood. But his end was not thus gained; for Prokne contrived
to send her sister a piece of drapery
understood.
terrible
broidered a representation of the facts, which her sister readily The two sisters then combined to execute a
his son Itys, revenge on Tereus, placing the flesh of Tereus drew his before him as a dish. they killed,
till
whom
all
birdshe
two
into a lapwing,
into a nightingale.
out, their
was Philomela whose tongue was cut since her name is the same as that of object being,
The
Attic legend of
Boreas,
the wind-god,
as
who
carried off
that
has
has
also
of
We
on to Ion,
extinct,
Kreusa,
a daughter of
and
at
his
birth
was taken
away
from
his
mother, who
childless.
afterwards
to
married
Xuthos, and
remained
Going
to
prospects of
the
Delphi to consult the oracle about their and Kreusa were told by posterity, Xuthos
god
meet.
in
adopt as their son the first youth they should This happened to be Ion, who had been brought up
mand
CRETE.
239
According to another legend, Pandion was driven from Attica by the sons of Metion, and took refuge with Pylos,
the king of Megara,
.vho,
after
Pandion
where he found and adopted ^geus, death, advanced upon Attica, and,
and Lykos,
reigned
in
of
the
his
adopted
of
the
father,
and became
father
renowned
hero,
we
(A-.)
CRETE.
of Crete,
its
The
tility,
position of the
island
extent
and
fer
to
its
appear to have attracted the early shores. They founded the towns of Knosos
Phoenician traders
and
to
(iortys,
it
a powerful ascendency over the other islands of the Archipelago, and extending to various districts of the main-
and of Greece,
including
Attica,
as
has
just
been
said.
They introduced
n,
Moloch; and
pletely
A<
through
the
successive
still
cornier
Of
the
this
kind were
the
legends
(Ireck
of
river
Jardanos.
had
The
immigrants settled
Phoenicians,
the towns
that
Ken
planted by the
meats,
it
adapting
themselves
to existing
of the
traditions appears, and accepting the ancient island as a basis for legends of a purely (Ireek con
struction.
whom
/eu-
240
HEROES.
and loved while she was gathering spring buds near Sidon, where her father, Agenor (or Phoenix, as some said), was king.
The
off
on
back over the sea towards the south coast of Crete, in the district of Gortys and Phsestos,
Europa gave
Sarpedon,
whom
who grew up under the care of Asterion, to Zeus had commended their mother. How familiar
have been with the various
may
now
of a bull
now
Europa seated among the branches of a plane-tree. The oldest traditions describe Minos as ruling the
with exemplary justice,
its
island
extending
its
He
the
among
his
which formed,
legislation
was believed,
times, the
laws, he
basis
of
of Lykurgos.
to
These
father,
said,
were he
communicated
him by
his
Zeus, with
in
whom
went every ninth year to hold communion in the island. So high was his reputation
a sacred cave
justice,
for
that
when he
The wife of Minos was Pasiphae, a daughter of the sungod Helios and Perseis. It is necessary to bear her parent
age in mind for the sake of obtaining a right clue to the
explanation of the legend concerning her. For, as a daughter of Helios and Perseis, she may well have been originally a
241
of a white cow.
for
Her name,
of
such an
office.
whom more
will
be told here
Minos,
it
was
said,
island,
proceeded
a
sacrifice
calling
on
the
sea-god
sea.
this
Poseidon to send up a victim for that purpose from the Poseidon heard, and sent a shimmering white bull. In
act of compliance
ceived
that
his
on the part of the sea-god, Minos per Instead, supremacy at sea was secured.
however, of sacrificing the white bull, he placed it among a herd which is his own herd which browsed near Gortys
Poseidon, elsewhere said to have belonged to the sun-god. offence at the deceit, caused the bull to become wild, taking
same time inflamed the queen, Pasiphae, with an unnatural desire towards it. The bull broke from his stall, and was pursued by Pasiphae over hills and through woods, till the great artist Daedalos succeeded in holding him to
and
at the
finally
the
meadow, and
in satisfying the
who
Minotauros,
Daedalos had
now to employ his skill in making a vast labyrinth, with intricate winding passages, from which no one who entered
could find his way out.
Within
it
Minos
periodically
by
Such tribute, consisting of seven boys and tributary states. seven girls of noble families, Minos had levied on Athens as a
satisfaction for the
murder of
his
son
Androgeos by
^Egeus,
despatched to Crete,
Theseus,
the son of
^geus, put an
16
242
HEROES.
end
to
it
in a
manner which we
his death at
shall
to relate.
Minos met
Agrigentum, in
Sicily,
whither he
had pursued Daedalos, who had escaped from the labyrinth, into which he and his son Ikaros had been thrown for making a
lifelike as to be mistaken by had escaped by means of wings which he had made for himself and his son. The latter fell into the sea, and
figure of
the herd.
He
was
King Kokalos, whose daughter killed Minos by pouring boiling water on his head while he was in a bath. Minos was buried there, and had a tomb erected
in his
memory.
the coins of the town of Phaestos
is
On
winged and nude, rushing with great strides, and holding what This figure has been appears to be a stone in each hand.
identified with the legends of
Tales, who
art
is
described as
having been
made
work of
He
see
in Crete
by Zeus,
who landed on
the coast.
round the island three times a day, and When the Argonauts arrived, he
opposed their landing, but unsuccessfully; for it happened that they were aware of the fact that, though apparently altogether
made
of bronze, he
still
to heel,
and containing
Philoktetes,
managed
Talos
This vein Pceas, the father of with an arrow from the famous bow
died.
of Herakles.
and
who accompanied
It
him by witchcraft. had been the practice of Talos, when he caught any one landing on the coast, to seize his victim in his arms, to leap
the Argonauts, overcame
PELOPS.
243
fire,
while laughing at
and press him to his burning bosom, the This was the origin of the phrase the pain.
"Sardonic laughter."
Though
the appointment of
Rhadamanthys
as a judge in
the lower world was said to have been due to the sense of justice
not given.
It
may be
in Crete.
right to
his brother
Minos
Sarpeand there
(h.)
and Argos
With Pelops commences a lineage of heroes famous in Klis for their deeds of violence, and for the retribution
How
Niobe, the
sister
of Pelops, was
punished
we have
already seen.
What
his father,
Tantalos, had to endure in Tartaros has also been described. Tantalos had ruled his kingdom of Phrygia, in Asia Minor,
well,
invited
and on that account gained the esteem of the gods, who him to a banquet. But he betrayed their secrets, and, to
all,
crown
invited
all
them
of knowing of his
own son
Pelops.
The
His father was despatched to Tartaros. When Pelops had grown to manhood under the care of the his skill gods especially of Poseidon, from whom he learned
shoulder of ivory.
in
managing horses
he resolved to win
244
HEROES.
the
owner of horses
swift as the
wind.
The
story
was that
CEnomaos had been informed by an oracle that his death would be caused by the husband of his daughter. Trusting to the extraordinary speed of his horses, he freely offered his
daughter
chariot
s
hand
to
race.
Those who
any suitor who should outstrip him in a failed, it was stipulated in the
This fate had befallen
previous to the arrival of Pelops,
many an
Poseidon,
ardent
suitor
won
the race.
to
It is said,
and gave
s
practical effect to
her passion by
charioteer,
Myrtilos,
to take a
spoke out
of his master
wheel.
With the hand of Hippodameia, Pelops obtained the throne of Elis, and had, among other children, two sons, named Atreus
and Thyestes.
other
fully
He
monuments of
pointed to at Olympia.
having slain the beautiful young a son of Pelops and a nymph, were compelled to Chrysippos, leave Elis. They found refuge in Mykense, establishing them
selves in the old fort of Midea, until the death of Eurystheus,
attest
the
power of
its
ancient kings.
Atreus
married a daughter of Minos ^Erope who allowed herself to listen to proposals from Thyestes, and assisted him to carry off
ram with the golden fleece, the possession of which was sup posed to secure the government of the country. But Zeus inter
the
fered in the cause of Atreus, the elder of the brothers, and, as a
HERAKLES.
245
in the west. Thyestes sign of his will, caused the sun to rise returned to his brother s house, asking to be forgiven, and was
Instead of being
sitting
down
to eat,
and Thyestes On consulting an over the land. thereupon famine stalked oracle with regard to the famine, Atreus was told to find
with the flesh of his
own
son.
fled in horror,
Thyestes, and
take him
back.
He
did
so,
and moreover
confinement in Argos, at the same time trying to persuade ^Egisthos, the son of Thyestes, to kill his father. But events took a different course, Thyestes preferring to make
placed him
in
a victim of Atreus.
On
the death of
Atreus,
Agamemnon
succeeded to the throne of Argos, and his brother Menelaos Of these two brothers more shall be said to that of Sparta.
in
HERAKLES.
(PLATE xxx.)
Though regarded sometimes
way appointed
long
series of
as a god,
it
and honoured
in the
for immortals,
was
arduous labours,
difficulties
apparently
insur-.
mountable, and
numer
In the
memory throughout
Greece.
instructed in
Herakles was pointed to as a model of what a perfect athlete should be while the tales of his wrestling with this or that giant were repeated as examples
;
Soldiers going to
Labourers
246
HEROES.
oppressed by
toil
incidents of his
more
own Theseus.
So
far,
Herakles was
looked upon merely as an example of extraordinary physical strength and patient toiling to the end ; but in later times he
came
also to
in
which
entitled
"The
Choice of
Herakles,"
as being
met
at a
Duty
other a
him
all
if
Zeus
and Alkmene, the wife of Amphitryon, a descendant of On the day on which he Perseus, and resident in Thebes. was to have been born, Hera, to whose persecution all the
labours
and
sufferings
of Herakles in after
life
were due,
obtained from Zeus, in presence of the assembled gods, a vow that the boy to be born on that day should have power and
dominion over
all
Hastening to Argos,
her to give birth to Eurystheus, a weakly seven-months child. Meantime she had delayed the birth of Herakles, who, in
this hostility
With all consequence, became the subject of Eurystheus. on the part of Hera, it is curious to compare a scene which not unfrequently occurs on ancient painted vases,
representing
infant
Herakles.
The
s
story
command
child to Olympos,
and put
to
Hera
breast,
HERAKLES.
247
it
was.
From
the
this divine
milk Herakles drew his godlike strength, promise of which was given soon after his birth, by his strangling the serpent sent by Hera to kill him.
first
His youth was spent under the instruction of the most cele brated heroes of the day, the wise Rhadamanthys teaching him to be wise and virtuous, and Linos the practice of music.
Unluckily, Linos had to punish him for some neglect, and in doing so enraged the boy so much, that he turned and slew his
master.
hills,
For
left
and
this Amphitryon carried his son away to] the him under the care of herdsmen, with whom,
like
Romulus, or Amphion and Zethos, he enjoyed a wild life of hunting and exposure to climate, his limbs growing to enor
mous
size,
and
unusual
fire.
At the age
of eighteen he slew an enormous lion that infested Mount Kithaeron, destroying the flocks of his father, Amphitryon, and of Thespios, the king of Thespiae. Returning to Thebes from the lion-hunt, and wearing its skin hanging from his shoulders
as a sign of his success,
he met the heralds of the king of the from Orchomenos to claim the annual tribute Minyae, coming Herakles cut off the of a hundred cattle levied on Thebes.
ears
heralds,
bound
their hands,
and sent
which Amphitryon and his them home. A war two sons, Herakles and Iphikles, did wonders on the part
followed, in
in that
last act
own
free will
for
Hera, annoyed
at the fast-rising
fame
the
of the
young hero, persuaded Eurystheus and authority given him at his birth by Zeus,
Herakles to enter his
Delphic oracle whether
it
to
exercise
to
call
on
the
service.
Herakles inquired
to escape the
at
was possible
summons,
248
HEROES.
but was told in reply that he must carry out successfully twelve
tasks to be
done
so,
imposed on him by Eurystheus, and that, having he would be reckoned among the number of im
mortals.
With
at
this
answer
in his
Eurystheus
of
life.
OF HERAKLES.
may
be, as has
Burgundy, was intended to an illustration of the course and operations of the sun. convey His first labours are performed near home, the distance from which increases with each new labour that is imposed, till at
Siegfried in that of the king of
last, after
and brings
back with him the hated dog Cerberus. In later times the twelve labours were openly brought into connection with the
twelve signs of the zodiac.
originally, this
It
is,
case of the twelve higher deities of Olympos, that it was adopted by the poets, such as Pisander and Stesichoros, who first made
these labours their theme,
and
it
in poetry
is
and
Herakles
the
In the Odyssey (viii. 224) Herakles and Eurytos are described as the most celebrated
j
and
in early
works of
art,
it is
bowman
that
is
principally
represented.
is
But
introduced.
The
club becomes
his favourite
weapon
and
wrapped round
his loins,
he now
Nemean
head
under
1.
fitting to his
crown
of its hanging down his back the skin like a cap, and the fore-legs knotted
his chin.
Tlie
Nemean
lion,
the offspring of
had been sent by Hera to devastate the neighbourhood of Nemea, and had succeeded, to the horror of the natives. What made the matter worse, was that the plain of Nemea was sacred
to Zeus.
The
lion
was known
to
be invulnerable,
It
proof even
its
destruction.
was, closed the entrance behind him, and at The skin the monster in his arms strangled it once grappling
he tore
knowing
it
to
be impenetrable,
resolved to wear
henceforth in his
own
defence.
To
the
legend as
it
and
Roman poets, the story of Molorchos, a native of the district, on whom Herakles called on his way to the cave, and who,
when about
to kill his only goat to
make a
was told by the hero to desist and to wait his return. It was arranged that should he not return within thirty days Molorchos was to sacrifice to him as to a dead person. The
thirty
It is possible of preparing the sacrifice. that the thirty days may refer to the period of greatest heat in
summer, when the lion and dog are ascendant. 2. The Lcrncan hydra, also the offspring of Typhon and
250
Echidna, and sent by Hera.
given more
HEROES.
Herakles killed
it
The
proved to
fully by Apollodorus, whose version, though have been founded on an earlier form of it by
and
art
of high antiquity.
The hydra
was a monster with nine heads, of which eight were mortal and
the marshy ground beside and even the smell which spread from Amymone, its poison was fatal to any one who passed near it. Herakles arrived at the spot in a chariot, attended by lolaos, and suc
It lived in
ceeded
in driving the
hydra from
its
upon it. The fight began, and Herakles found that for every head of it which he cut two fresh heads started up, and to
increase the difficulty a huge crab
heel.
It
came and
seized
him by the
Herakles
was necessary
to try another
form of attack.
ordered lolaos to set the neighbouring wood on fire and to fetch him a brand from it ; with the brand so obtained he pro ceeded, the moment he had cut off a head, to burn it up, and
in
this
one, he at last
came
to
off also,
and buried
it
under a
huge rock.
When
to
his
dipped his arrows in the poison of the hydra. success was reported to Eurystheus, the latter refused
it
He
reckon
as
had rendered
assistance.
The
is its
is
marshy
district,
and
that
poison, with
smell, repre
sents the
miasma whch
arises
from such
districts.
3. The Erymanthian boar, like the Keryneian Stag and the Stymphalian Birds, carries us to a mountainous and wild rustic Its haunt was on Mount Erymanthos, in the north of scene. But the name of Erymanthos was also applied to a Arcadia.
251
down
and
it is
not
illustration
the of the ravages produced in winter and early spring by with swollen torrents. The orders of Eurysdescent of this river
be brought back
alive
to
of Herakles returning with it alive on Mykenffi but at the sight and he hid his shoulders, fear took possession of the king, as himself in a large bronze vessel, into which Herakles,
frequently represented
on ancient
vases,
The
consternation of Eurys-
theus
may be
is
imagined.
the boar
which Herakles paid on his who lived in a cave on Mount way to the Centaur, Pholos, hero was hungry, and Pholos gave him to eat. The Pholoe.
told the story of a visit
He
at
was also
thirsty,
Now
Pholos had
hand a
was the
common
who lived in other parts of the property of the Centaurs a present mountain. On the other hand the wine had been
from Dionysos, and had been accompanied with the command friend Herakles that it should not be opened till his good
arrived.
Pholos accordingly had no hesitation in tapping the from it. The strong aroma of the vase, and both drank deeply nostrils of the other Centaurs, who wine, however, reached the
now
and
torches,
and
fell
which HerakK-s,
sent by the clouds, who \\vndisadvantage of a flood of water Ultimately he succeeded in the mothers of the Centaurs.
the
Pholos
252
HEROES.
lost his
life,
who
lived
on Mount
and brought up Achilles. Pholos was stooping over a Centaur who had fallen by an arrow from Herakles, and after drawing out the arrow, was wondering how so small a thing
could produce such an
striking severely
effect,
when
it
fell
from
his hands,
and
on
body and
he died.
The legend
antlers
The Keryneian stag, an animal of wonderful fleetness, with of gold and hoofs of brass, was sacred to Artemis,
it
to
whom
Pleiads.
It
had been dedicated by Taygete, one of the took its name from the hill and hunting district
at other
stag.
The
task imposed on
Herakles was to capture and bring it back alive. The chase lasted for a whole year, Herakles pursuing it over hills and
plains, ravines
to the
Hyperborean
region,
started
among
the Arcadian
sought shelter in the sanctuary of Artemis, but being dislodged was overtaken by Herakles at the banks of the river
It
Ladon.
He
would have
had not Apollo and Artemis The stag running a whole year on to
slain
it
where
it
had
set out,
may be compared
the
"
with the
much
"
shimmering being
who pursued
"
I will catch
speed equal that of Helios"; for which boast the angry god transformed her into a deer.
5.
The Stymphalian
birds.
The
253
among
way
as to be constantly exposed
to the floods
and storms of
birds,
which,
with
their
iron
talons
and
arrows, delighted in
figures of
human
flesh.
From
of Artemis,
like them, too, they were, there is every reason to believe, symbols of the cold, destructive storms of winter. To get rid
and
of them, Herakles first raised an alarm by ringing a large and when the birds came out from the thick wood where
nests were,
flew
bell
their
away
in fright.
many were shot down by his arrows, and They flew, as it appears from the
the rest
story of
the Argonauts, to an island, sacred to Ares, in the inhospitable Black Sea, where the Argonauts suffered severely from the
heavy
relief
falls
As
the
like a thick
snow
storm, the
of which,
it
frequently
feathers.
the legends
of other
sun,
by the myth-makers
to destroy
beings
district
more
hero.
of his having alarmed the birds by have been suggested by a common practice may of raising birds from their nests. At the same time it may also refer to a custom which is known at any rate in more recent
ringing a bell
The statement
times
The Augeian
stables.
254
HEROES.
his daughter
all
Agamede, the
sorceress
Iliad
701, 739).
occurs in connection with the worship of the heavenly powers, a being of streaming light." Light while Augeias itself means
"
and
it
son of Helios.
in character
obviously identical
all
of
whom
represented by
phenomena
s light, is his
one of them
and described as
The
and the task assigned to Herakles was to clear out his endless and in one day. To accomplish this, the hero made an opening through the wall at a part where the
line of stalls alone
river
approached
it,
it.
swept with
dung.
as
it
The stream, rushing in at the opening, flowed along the stables, their accumulated
Augeias had promised to reward Herakles with a but declined to fulfil his agreement on tenth of his herds This hearing that the task had been imposed by Eurystheus.
;
Elis.
bull had been presented by Poseidon to 7. The Cretan and by him placed among the herd of cattle sacred to Minos,
the sun.
How
it
became
wild,
Minos, conceiving a passion for it, followed it over the island, The has been told in connection with the legends of Crete.
task imposed
on Herakles was
Mykense.
255
The
first
difficulty
is
which he
was to capture and subdue it, an act in The frequently represented on the painted vases.
second was to bring it over the sea to Mykenae, which he did by sitting on its back while it swam, as did Europa with Zeus,
in the
that
shape of a bull. As to the fate of the bull, it is said Eurystheus sacrificed it to Hera, and, again, that it
The horses of Diomedes, a king of Thrace, and reputed to have been a son of Ares, the god of war and the personification of storm. Like the people whom he ruled, Diomedes was
8.
fierce in war.
in the
neighbourhood of Abdera,
where
He
and by that means became furious and so powerful that they had to be fastened with iron chains. The human flesh on
wrecked on that inhospitable
which they fed was generally that of persons who had been Herakles was ordered to coast.
bring these horses to Mykenae.
To Abdera he went by
sea;
overpowered the guards, and led the horses away to the shore, when he was overtaken by a crowd of the A terrible fi-lit ensued, in which the subjects of Diomedes.
and on
arriving
king
fell at
of
whom
fell
and
his
in
games
honour the hero raised a mound, and instituted his honour, which the people of Abdera afterwards
After the horses
to
continued annually.
Eurystheus,
is
said
that
they
of /ens
256
HEROES.
Lykaeos.
Their allegorical signification is clearly that of and hence the legend was located in
we
and Boreas.
The girdle of Hippolyte, the queen of the Amazons, had gift from Ares, and was a symbol of the power of a The task imposed on Herakles was rushing headlong storm.
9.
been a
of
whom we
Argive Hera.
the girdle.
From
this
The cattle of Geryon or Geryoneus, who was a son of Chrynymph Kallirrhoe. In one person he
had three bodies, three heads, three pairs of legs, and six arms. He was gigantic in size, heavily armed, powerful, and provided The great point of his character was that he was with wings.
the lord of
immense herds of
cattle.
and Helios, in whose case the cattle and considering further that
assigned to
various
may be
the
inferred that
also
was an
illustration of
some of
and
of these
with his
phenomena none but those of wintry storms correspond Geryon keeps personal appearance and vehemence.
dark cave
in the
Herakles penetrates, and drives them away eastward towards The expedition had three stages
:
257
first,
judged by the
meaning of
;
its
and,
Erytheia was an
island
somewhere
;
in the
Herakles
tained,
and
to reach
some
said,
vessel in which he
east. On the passage Herakles was alarmed, or at any rate disturbed, by a storm, which was only appeased
by
drawing his bow on Okeanos. Reaching the island, he placed himself on Mount Abas, but was observed by the twohis
headed dog of Geryon, and attacked by it. He slew the dog, and was next attacked by the herdsman Eurytion, who also fell
at his hands. cattle
Then
Menoitios,
who was
of Helios, pointed out to him the cattle of Geryon, He was in the act of grazing in a meadow by the river s side.
driving
and
fierceness,
in all
his strength
ended by a
shaft
from Herakles.
and landing them safely, Herakles commenced his homeward journey on foot, through Iberia, Gaul, over the Alps, and down through Italy, with many
into the vessel of the sun,
adventures, in
all
of which he was
successful.
At
Rome
the
though
At the
On
the
was disturbed
gods
17
258
HEROES.
From
the
Sicily,
to
follow
it,
Herakles, holding on by
the horns of another bull, crossed with his herd to that island,
through the length and breadth of which he appears to have wandered, encountering giants like Eryx, experiencing kindness
from the nymphs of Himera and Egesta, at whose warm springs he was refreshed, and everywhere leaving reminiscences of his
Thence he passed up the shores of the by Illyria and Epirus to Ambracia, where a
visit.
Adriatic,
round
gadfly, sent
by
run away in great numbers to the With the remainder he reached the Hellespont,
cattle to
and thence proceeded to Mykenae, where Eurystheus them to the goddess Hera.
ii.
sacrificed
the
last
The apples of the Hesperides. According to later story, labour imposed on Herakles was to procure three of
;
and hence
invincible,
in
works of
art
hand.
As
in
the case of the cattle of Geryon, here also the chief interest of the legend resides in the adventures on the way.
As regards
was a difference of opinion; some, apparently under the influence of Phoenician traditions, believing it to have been in the remote
west, while ^Eschylos
that Atlas
and the
From
in later times,
a very
wide scope was given to the adventures of the hero on his way there and back. Herakles himself, not knowing what direction
to take,
to the
is
said to
have
first
259
knew
made
up.
In spite of the
many
transformations of Nereus,
He then pro Herakles compelled him to tell him the way. ceeded to Libya, where he found Antoeos, a giant of enormous
strength,
who
crossed the
waste where he
He
Earth, deriving from his mother a strength which rendered him invincible to those who could not lift him from the ground,
which Herakles
did.
The
and commended
itself largely
in the palaestra.
When
and
he
lay
down
to rest,
in a
Pygmies,
the waste.
He
wrapped them
into
killed them.
E^ypt, where he was seized by the orders of Busiris and con He burst his veyed, as were all strangers, to be sacrificed.
bonds, and offered up instead Busiris, his son, and retinue. From Egypt he went to India, and thence returned in a
northerly direction towards the Caucasus mountains, where he set free Prometheus, and in return for that kindly act was told
way on through Scythia to the region of the Hyperboreans, where lived Atlas and the Hesperides. Part of the arran-r ment was that Atlas should pluck the three apples for him; and
the
to relieve
him
for that
purpose
it
returned with the apples, and naively proposed that he him Herakles appeared to self should convey them to Eurystheus. iate the proposal, and only wished first to find a pad to save his head from the weight.
Atlas did not see the joke, and
Herakles. of
260
HEROES.
it
that Herakles
himself entered the garden, slew the dragon which watched the tree, and carried off the apples and returned with them
to Eurystheus.
12.
the entrance to
dog of Hades, which guarded the lower world, was a symbol of the eternal
darkness of Hades.
The
in
task of bringing
it
to
the upper
the earlier
epic poetry
It
as the
most
was supposed that he entered from the upper world through a chasm near Tsenarum, The shades of the dead fled in returning by the same way.
of the labours of Herakles.
terror
friends
when they beheld him. Near the gates he found his Theseus and Peirithoos seated on a rock, to which
if
it,
and
in great
tried
He
when he
to
do the same
To
impart
life
to the shades of
his friends
whom
he
freed,
severe
fight
with
Menoites, agreed that he might take Cerberus provided he could do so without the assistance of arms of any kind. This he succeeded
in doing,
At
last
to Eurystheus,
completed
The
ancient
and
sculptors,
and of the
for
latter
es
who worked
Roman
patrons,
high.
The manner
in
and from
originally
which each of the labours was represented, seldom varied; this it may be assumed that the type of each had been established by Greek artists of it would have been presumption
celebrity,
from
whose models
to depart.
As
261
an instance of ho\v these labours were represented collectively, we would cite a. marble sarcophagus in the British Museum,
dating probably from the third century A.D.
Without caring to
portance.
On
the extreme
left
of the front
we
find Herakles
dragging Cerberus out of Hades, the mouth of which is repre sented as the rocky entrance to a cave. Among the rocks is
hiding a nude diminutive figure, which
the shades of the dead, who, as
it
may be taken
is
to
be one of
was
when
Next
to this
a group of Herakles
at his feet.
removing the girdle of the Amazon Hippolyte, who lies dead Then we have the scene in the garden of the
Hesperides, then the taming of the horses of Diomedes, and On one end of the lastly, the strangling of the Nemean lion.
sarcophagus he appears slaying the Lernean hydra, and on the other capturing the Keryneian stag. In these last three groups
he
is
while
tures
and of a youthful figure, form has become colossal, and his fea
marked with
On
beginning
;
from the
left
hand,
next to that
we
find
making an opening, as
birds
in the fourth
he
is
engaged
and
in
the
five
fifth
he
These
Herakles,
the
and on the
262
HEROES.
labours,
HERAKLES
AS A
NATIONAL HERO.
and apparently
after
the
expiry
of his
servitude
to
that
monarch, Herakles performed many other wonderful feats, which caused his name to be surrounded with glory. Of these
it
quished the Giant Antseos, who lived in Cyrene, on the north coast of Africa, and slew all who came in his way,
and
that
in
been to
sacrifice
strangers
that
entered his
dominions.
Next we find him among the Caucasus mountains, where, having shot the bird that gnawed the liver of Prometheus, he set the Titan free. He saved Alkestis, the wife of
Admetos,
Admetos, being sick, had caused an inquiry to be made of an oracle as to the issue of his illness, and was told in reply
that he
to
to volunteer
lay
down
his life
for
him.
For
this
his wife,
Alkestis,
offered herself,
who
seized the
god of death
till
He
accompanied the expedition of the Argonauts in search first war against Troy,
along with
Telamon,
Peleus, the
father
The cause
Laomedon,
263
the king of Troy, who, in consideration of Herakles having Hesione from thejawg of a sea-monster, rescued his
daughter
had promised her hand to Herakles. Laomedon was besieged in his citadel, finally was taken prisoner, and slain along with all except Podarkes, whose life was spared on the his sons
entreaty of Hesione.
of Hesione.
after the
Telamon was rewarded with the hand Podarkes assumed the name of Priamos, and,
a new
companions
withdrawal of Herakles and his expedition, established On the way home Herakles and his dynasty in Troy. were compelled to take shelter from a storm at
For
this
In an expedition against Pylos, Herakles succeeded, with in overcoming Periklymenos, a the assistance of
Athene,
strange being,
pleased.
friend
who had
He
next proceeded
Lacedrcmon, to
assist
his
family
this
crowned with
success, though
among
Tyndareus was
reinstated.
Whether
it
him by Kurystheus, or at some other period of his life, Herakles is said to have once returned to Thebes, exhausted by toil, and
to have fallen into violent illness, followed
by raving,
in the
many
unfortunate acts,
among
others attempting to carry off the sacred tripod from the sanc Being afterwards informed by the tuary of Apollo at Delphi.
Oracle of Apollo that the crimes he
his
he offered
his services to
Omphale, queen of
264
HEROES.
OF HERAKLES.
the
conditions laid
suitor
down by
of
offered
her father.
man who
should
Having proved
his
deceit.
Having taken the stronghold of and his children to death, with the
off;
exception of lole,
ing
whom
he carried
home
Eubcea, intending to offer a sacrifice to Zeus. Deianeira, hear ing of this, and being jealous of a revival of her husband s
lole,
accustomed
in
some preparation
to
husband
love,
and sent
it
Herakles.
She was not aware that the preparation contained the deadliest Herakles had hardly put on the robe, when he was poison.
seized with violent pain the poison entering into his frame.
He
fire
and
after
handing
bow and
mounted
the pyre,
His
spirit,
XXXIV.
Theseus.
Laokoon.
265
it
said,
Iris
and Hermes
Olympos, where,
to
after
being reconciled
to Hera, he
was married
all the gods. Deianeira, mean time having heard of the calamity she had caused, put herself
to death.
While ancient poets familiarized the people with the exploits of Herakles, artists found in them an endless variety of sub
jects,
testify.
done
to him.
THESEUS.
(PLATE xxxiv.)
The
friend,
Herakles,
counterpart
of
king of Attica,
and ^Ethra, a daughter of Pittheus, king of Trcezene. While his mother was a descendant of Pelops, his father was of the line of Erechtheus. Theseus, brought up under the
care of his grandfather, Pittheus,
virtue
were well known, soon gave promise of great strength and skill in athletic exercises, such as were then prescribed
for youths,
father, ^geus, on taking leave of his mother, lyre. had secreted his sword and sandals at Troezene, .-Kthra, under a great rock, and told her that when the boy was able to move the rock, he might come to him at Athens, bringing
His
the sword
and sandals
as a token.
When
only in his
six
teenth year, Theseus accomplished this task, and at once set out for Athens, where Medea, who was then living with
266
HEROES.
.^Egeus,
tried
to
compass
his
death,
but her
plan
having
failed, fled.
On
his
way
to
exploits resembling
more or
less
the
feats
which Herakles
He slew Periphates, whose performed in his youth. practice had been to crush with a blow of his iron club all
travellers
and
Epidauros.
On
the
this feat,
was
said, that
Theseus established the Isthmian games. At Krommyon he slew the wild boar that was laying waste the country round. He threw Skiron from a high cliff into the sea a death to
which that robber had doomed many unlucky travellers. At Eleusis he slew the powerful Kerkyon, and afterwards Da-
mastes
(usually called
his victims
was
to place
if
if
Arriving at Athens, Theseus was purified from all this blood shed by the grateful inhabitants. It happened that, because of the long Ionian dress which he wore, and his long hair, which
girl,
some
scoffed at
him
far
for
To show
that he
was
from
that
it
up
astonishment
sons
rid
of his
uncle
who
of Theseus, in
the
hope of
THESEUS.
267
succeeding to the government of Athens at the death of their His extraordinary strength enabled him to uncle ygeus.
as
He then proceeded to Marathon, where, overpower them. we have already said, in connection with the labours of
Herakles, a furious
bull
it
off to Athens,
He
it
to
him her
But the adventure in which he gained the greatest glory was Minotaur, a monster of which we have given
where we have also explained why Athens was compelled to send a tribute of young men and maidens as victims to the Minotaur. Theseus offered himself as a victim, and in time
arrived
favour of Ariadne, the place, however, he had won the obtained from her a clue of thread, daughter of Minos, and had
of the by holding on to which he might find his way back out The intricacies of its labyrinth in which the Minotaur lived. of danger against passages would have otherwise been a source would not have served him. On a very which his great strength
a picture in which Ariadne is represented as holding the one end of the clue, while Theseus in the interior of the labyrinth is slaying the monster.
Museum
there
is
from the cruel tribute, Having by this act freed Athens for ever set out on the homeward voyage, Theseus and his companions But at the island of Naxos he accompanied also by Ariadne.
abandoned
I
home
far
as his wife.
or
grief
away
that
commemorated
and
artists.
268
HEROES.
Meanwhile the
for at
That the good news might be known more quickly, Theseus had promised, when he set out, to hoist a white flag when he sighted Attica, if successful. In his joy,
Athens.
howeVer, he had forgotten the promise, and sailed towards the On port with the black colours with which he had started.
seeing
this, his father, ./Egeus,
Among
were the expedition of the Argonauts and that of Herakles In the latter expedition he had, it was against the Amazons.
said, carried off
commanded by Eurystheus
their queen, a great
off of
body of the
Amazons invaded
Attica,
but
were repulsed by Theseus. His warm friendship for the Thessalian prince Peirithoos gave Theseus two opportunities of displaying his heroic qualities.
The
first
was
at which, as has
been previously related, the Centaurs present at the banquet, becoming fired with wine, raised a tumult, and would have
carried off the bride, but for the resistance of Theseus.
The
passion
lower world
After
the
till
government of Athens, lived in splendour, ruled with prudence, and introduced institutions of a most liberal kind among his
269
united the various independent and previously hostile villages of Attica into one state, with Athens at its head.
people.
He
He
the
new impulse
of
had been established by Erechtheus. In the island of Delos he founded an annual festival accom
Panathensea,
that
panied by games, at which the prize was a wreath of the sacred In Athens the festival of Pyanepsia, in honour palm-tree.
Oschophoria, in honour of Dionysos, were both said to have been established by him. He met his death, it was said, at the hands of Lykomedes, to whose court he
of Apollo, and of
had
retired
in Athens.
;
His wife
according to
another report, Antiope. The memory of his deeds was preserved by a beautiful
for
that purpose,
Theseion.
CEneus,
At the
birth of
would seem, Atropos telling her that her infant would live as long as a brand which she pointed to on the fire remained unconsumed.
hid
it
Althaea snatched
carefully,
it
that
moment from
the flames,
away
growing to manhood he took part in the Argonautic expedition, and is said to have signalized himself by many
her son.
acts of bravery
;
On
27
HEROES.
was laying waste the country round Kalydon, defying the spears and hounds of ordinary huntsmen.
Meleagros sent messengers round Greece to
invite all
its
There
deukes
Theseus
from Athens,
Admetos
many
from Pherse,
Ankseos and
the beautiful
Atalante
from Arcadia,
Jason
on the
tenth for the chase, which, with a few accidents, resulted in the death of the boar by the spear of Meleagros, to whom accord
fell the trophy of the monster s head and skin. In Plate XXXIII. he is represented standing beside an altar shaded by a laurel-tree, holding two spears in his hand.
ingly
to him.
The head
of the boar
lies
on the
As, however, Atalante had been the first to wound the boar, Meleagros made that a pretext for presenting her with its skin.
But on her way homewards to Arcadia she was met and forcibly robbed of it by the brothers of Althaea, the mother of Meleagros, who considered that they had a superior claim
A quarrel arose on that account to that part of the booty. between Meleagros and his uncles ; they fought, and the end To avenge their death, of it was that the uncles were slain. cast the brand, which up till then she had Althaea carefully into the fire, and thereupon her brave son was
preserved, seized with dreadful pain, and died.
kill herself.
iger.
Tlie Dioskuri.
271
To
-son,
and
wife Alkimede.
The
father of
^son was
^Eolos (a son of
Hellen and a grandson of Deukalion), at whose death he succeeded to the throne, but was driven from it by Pelias,
his
step-brother,
at
all
his
relatives
saved from
harm by some of his father s friends, and placed under the At the age of care and instruction of the Centaur Cheiron.
and claim
twenty he was told by an oracle to present himself to Pelias, his father s kingdom. Pelias also had learned from
him
for the
first
time
with
feet.
Pelias,
happened
that the
Knipeus was swollen when Jason reached it, on his way But Hera, the patron to put forth his claim against Pelias.
.uoddess of lolkos, taking the form of an old
woman, conveyed
him
On
his
arrival at lolkos,
Pelias recognised
oracle, but, at the
him as the
rightful heir
referred to
by the
same
time,
was unwilling
He would
do something
in the
way of heroic
the golden
set
fleece from Kolchis. Jason agreed to this, and about building the Argo, the largest ship that had as yet
272
HEROES.
sailed
skill
from Greece.
with her
the ship
and advice
When
was ready, Jason sent messengers to invite the foremost heroes of Greece to join him in his enterprise. Among the many
who accepted
his invitation
Meleagros, Orpheus, Peleus, Neleus, Admetos, Theseus, his friend Peirithoos, and the two sons of Boreas, Kalais and
Zetes.
Turning now to the story of the golden fleece, the finding of which was the object of so powerful an expedition, we must go
back
to
^Eolos,
whom we
father of Jason
had two
wife,
children,
Athamas, who married Nephele, and Phrixos and Helle. On the death of his
I no,
a daughter of
The second
wife
disliking
their lives.
made
several
attempts on
To
it
was
appeared
same time a
large
over the
on which she proposed Phrixos and Helle should escape sea. They started according to her advice, and
fell
the
Phrixos reached safely the opposite shore, but Helle ram s back into the sea and was drowned. The
from
of
name
Hellespont was in consequence given to the strait which they had to cross. Phrixos, having reached the other side, proceeded
to Kolchis,
on the
sacrificed the
ram
to Zeus, in
honour of
He hung
273
pleasure
if it
should be
so.
The expe as a favourable omen. lightning, which was taken where the heroes were kindly dition proceeded first to Lemnos,
received, remained a long time,
fathers of a
it
new
race of heroes.
The women
would
seem,
at the instigation
One
and
life,
of the
called
Lemnian women, Hypsipyle, bore a son to Jason, him Euneos. Leaving Lemnos and its festive
the Argonauts continued their journey as far as Kyzikos, where they landed for a short time, and were in the act of when Herakles, having broken his oar, left the ship,
leaving,
accompanied by Hylas,
to cut a
new
But
some nymphs, admiring the beauty of young Hylas, carried him off; and as Herakles would not leave the country without
him,
the expedition
was compelled
to
Their next and companionship of the great hero. was in the neighbourhood of the modern Scutari, landing where the reigning king, Amykos, was famed as a boxer, and
assistance
his territories. cruelty to all strangers who entered the Argonauts land for the purpose of obtaining fresh Seeing
for his
a challenge to match water, he sent them, as was his custom, him with a boxer, which Pollux accepted, and proved the skill by which he earned his fame upon the boastful Amykos. the perilous Proceeding on their journey, they passed through
entrance to the Black Sea in safety, owing their escape from its dangers to the advice of Phineus, the blind and aged king
of the district,
whom
account of his food being always carried off or polluted by the Harpy s, just as he sat down to eat it. This punishment, as
well as his blindness,
in
274
HEROES.
and
children.
The Harpys were driven away effectually by of Boreas, who accompanied the Argonauts and
;
was
Phineus communicated
Symplegades, two
and crushed every
great
cliffs
that
moved upon
their bases,
His plan was first to a pigeon through between them, and then the moment that
cliffs,
the
retire to
each side, to row the Argo swiftly through the passage. It was done, and before the cliffs could close upon her, the ship, From that time all but her rudder, had got clear of danger.
the Symplegades were united into one rock.
After
many
Kolchis, where they found -/Eetes, a reputed son of Helios as king. He refused to give up the golden
except to the
man who
which he proposed.
The first
was to yoke to a plough his unmanageable bulls, that snorted fire and had hoofs of brass, and to plough the field of Ares
with them.
teeth,
field
was
to be
men were
he
hung on an oak
in a
grove sacred to Ares, and was watched continually by a Medea, the daughter of ^Eetes, having
for Jason,
s
prepared him for these danger mixture which made him proof
also helped him,
and sword.
and
his success
was complete.
homeward voyage,
On
gave pursuit.
whom
sea.
she had taken with her, and cast the limbs about in the The delay caused to ^Eetes in collecting the pieces of
to escape.
According to
to
another report, Absyrtos had by that time grown and met his death in an encounter with Jason,
manhood,
of
in pursuit
whom
his father.
other dangers, Jason at last reached lolkos, and, presenting the golden fleece to Pelias,
After passing through
many
claimed the throne, as agreed upon. But Pelias still refused to abdicate. Jason therefore slew him, and assumed the govern
ment of
Kolchis.
is
said,
accession of Jason to the years of peace followed the that fell upon, the royal house The origin of the troubles throne.
Ten
thereafter
whom he made his (or Glauke, as others called her), with jealousy, turned to the wife in Corinth. Medea, stung
Kreusa
arts of witchcraft she
had learned
in Kolchis,
a dress
and
them
she
finding Jason
of Kreorr, the father of Kreusa; and further, enraged at what she had done, she put to death
had borne
to him,
and
fled to
Athens,
with ^Egeus.
Thence
on the
also she
life
had
to
of Theseus.
She
believed, in a chariot
Jason,
it
is
said,
276
HEROES.
death.
life.
approaching the upon him, and caused his Another version of the story says that he took his own
On
AND TROY.
THE
against
heroes of the succeeding age were regarded as sons or grandsons of those whom we have just described, the great
events of the period in which they lived being the two wars
It
some
foundation in historical facts, are altogether mythical in their form, and interwoven with incidents of a wholly mythical
character. events, more than any of the other adventures of formed the favourite subjects of the national poetry of heroes, Greece, the incidents of each having been, as a whole, or in part,
These two
worked up
poems and
tragedies, of
and "Odyssey" the oldest, These exceptions are the it is believed, and at the same time the most celebrated, of the
"Iliad"
epic
poems upon
Troy, the
277
The principal epic on reputed author of them being Homer. the expedition of the seven heroes against Thebes was entitled
the
Thebais,
to us.
its
We
shall relate
both
come
down
THE SEVEN HEROES WHO WENT AGAINST THEBES: THEIR DESCENDANTS, THE EPIGONI.
We
have already alluded to the
series of
grim events by
to
which CEdipos,
will
Laios, came
the
It
own
mother, Jokaste.
union sprang four children, two of them being sons, Eteokles and Polyneikes, and two
this
daughters,
criminality
Antigone, and Ismene and that, when the of the marriage came to light, Jokaste killed herself,
;
while CEdipos, after putting out his eyes, went into voluntary
exile,
accompanied only by
his high-souled
daughter Antigone,
into a
who resolved to share all his adversity. The sons, remaining in Thebes, soon
reign year about,
first
fell
warm
last
dispute
agreed to
Eteokles, the
His year, however, having expired, he period of office. not only declined to retire in behalf of his brother, but went so far as to expel him from the city.
Polyneikes, brooding revenge, betook himself to Adrastos, king of Sikyon, and was there hospitably received,
meeting also under the
throne,
Tydeus
same roof another pretender to a The two youths became friends, of Argos.
278
HEROES.
to stand
by each other
allied himself
first,
in the recovery
his
two daughters
their
to
cause,
in
Polyneikes
Thebes, and next, Tydeus in Argos. Meantime both the young men visited
stout
as
many
parts of Greece,
many a
example,
summons
such,
for
Kapaneus,, a son of Hipponoos, of Argos, Eteoklos, son of Iphis, and Parthenopaeos, a son of Atalanta These three, and Melanion (or of Ares), from Arcadia.
together with Polyneikes, Tydeus,
the princely seer
Amphiaraos,
the
the son of
Apollo),
Thebes.
constituted
It
so-called
was,
however,
with
extreme
;
reluctance
Amphiaraos took part in the expedition for he was a man of profound piety, and a prophet, who knew that the other leaders of the affair had all more or less been guilty of
criminal
acts.
it
He
was
godless as
injustice,
had
suffered
had no
army
warnings, however, were unheeded, and he himself, since much was thought to depend on his presence, was forced to
take part in the adventure through the following plot
:
at
concerning the projected expedition, at last agreed to intrust the decision of the matter to Eriphyle (the wife of Amphiaraos), who was prevailed on by the costly presents given her secretly by Polyneikes to decide against
her husband, though she had been informed
by him
that
279
Adrastos
expedition.
alone, of
all
the seven,
On
his wife Amphiaraos turned round, and called down upon a curse, which his son, Al km aeon, afterwards fulfilled by
slaying his
to avenge his father s death. was now ready to march under its seven leaders. The army
mother
We
its
for a
moment
of
to (Edipos.
and
miserable
Greece, he at
last,
under the
arrived in
guidance
faithful daughter,
Antigone,
Attica, where,
ful
to find a peace
end
in his
out, Polyneikes
going in
upon person to beg for his blessing on Eteokles, as town. (Edipos cursed the unholy enterprise. a brother of the king, despatched his uncle, Kreon,
the assault
reigning
his
their native
commands to bring back (Edipos But when Kreon attempted to do so, by force if necessary. Theseus interfered, and expelled him and his followers from the
mother s,
to Attica, with
land.
down upon
his
undutiful sons a
died in the sacred grove of the Eumenides at Kolonos, near Athens, and was buried by Theseus with pomp and ceremony.
About the same time the expedition of the seven set out. a judgment reaching Nemea they found all the springs dry sent upon them by Dionysos, it was said, the guardian deity of
On
Thebes.
for
280
HEROES.
Hypsipyle
(see Argonauts),
women
of
Lemnos
to
Nemea, and
to the king,
Opheltes.
Lykurgos, her duty being to tend his young child, They begged her to take them to a well, which
she did ; but before going off with them, had, contrary to the warning of an oracle, laid down the child on the ground in the wood. Returning from the well, they found the child dead
within the coils of a snake.
have
it
to
On
this
be a miraculous creature sent by Zeus as. an evil omen. account he re-named the child Archemoros, which
"dawn
means the
of
mystery."
the
angry parents by
child,
celebration of the
games
(see above).
Nemean home by
her son,
In spite of
arrived before
omen, the
several
after
walls.
important adventures as a
hostility,
and would
extraordinary
strength.
Of
the
fifty
281
The
dispute must
now be decided by
each
its
force
of
arms.
Thebes was
taking up
similar
his
closely surrounded,
of the
seven heroes
seven gates.
In a
manner Eteokles
distributed his
When defence of the gate which his valour were the battle commenced, deeds of extraordinary
brother was
to attack.
done on both
the
sides
Thebans having gained the divine good-will in a special degree by the sacrifice which Kreon s son, Mencekeus,
voluntarily
made
re town, as the oracle announced by the seer Teiresias When the last and fatal day of the siege commended.
arrived,
of what Amphiaraos warned his companions in arms and the death of all their leaders except Adrasawaited them, for their friends, tos. Intrusting to him tokens of remembrance
of despair. they rushed into battle with all the courage Matters soon began to look grave outside the walls of
Thebes.
The
fierce
Kapaneus, who had boasted that he in spite of Zeus and all the divine
his
storm
ing ladder,
when a
and hurled
him
and
to the ground.
A general
army
this event,
the Argive
falling before
pierced
leaders being Polyneikes each other through the body in a hand-to-hand The earth, struck by a lightning bolt on the spot encounter.
their
slain.
Eteokles and
where Amphiaraos stood, yawned and swallowed him, from which time forward he continued to exist as a spirit endowed
with the
gift
of prophecy.
282
HEROES.
succeeded
rite
which he
at the
body
who
should perform it. The kindly heart of Antigone could not bear this sentence, which caused her brother s soul to wander
for ever without rest in the lower
world
defied
Kreon
;
strict order,
she thought
but his
to
and buried the corpse secretly, as watchman having observed the act, she
the fact of her being and the tears and entreaties of
alive
was condemned
be buried
Hsemon,
being of no avail to mitigate her doom. Antigone was pent in a subterranean chamber, in which, to avoid the pangs of starvation, she hanged herself. Hsemon, unwilling to
outlive her, put
an end
to his existence,
and Kreon
inhuman
by which
his house,
the family of
CEdipos became
extinct.
undertook to avenge the death of their fathers by a second attack on Thebes. This was the so-called war of the
(that
is,
"offspring"
Epigoni
or sons), which
was entered
upon with the consent of the gods, and ended in the destruc tion of Thebes, which for a long time remained a mere open
space called
"
Lower
Thebes."
283
Troy,
Hekabe
(or Hecuba).
When
the time
another son to be born to them, their daugh approached ter Kassandra, on whom Apollo had bestowed the gift of
to be prophecy, announced that the child would grow up the infant To prevent such a[calamity, the ruin of his country.
was
at
its
birth
exposed on Mount Ida, where it was found in whose society and occu
Alexandros, spent
On
came
him
from
him
to decide
Hera, Athene, and Aphrodite commanding which of them was the most beautiful. Here we
must explain.
his
Zeus withdrew, as we have already seen, proposed marriage with Thetis, on account of a communicated by Themis, that the issue of such a prophecy union would be a son who would surpass his father in might, it
When
in marriage to Peleus, a
young prince of Phthia, in Thessaly, whose piety had endeared him to the gods. The gods came to their marriage feast," as they did to that of Kadmos and Harmonia, all but Eris, the
goddess of
strife.
Angry
at not
284
HEROES.
to
mar
and
to this
end threw
"
among them a golden apple, on which was written, To the most beautiful." Hereupon the three goddesses mentioned
above claimed each the
the shepherd on
first
prize,
to Paris,
Mount
Unwilling at
to take
upon himself so
much
responsibility, Paris
was
at
on being promised the throne of Asia by Hera, immortal fame as a hero by Athene, and the loveliest wife on earth by Aphrodite. He assigned the prize
to the
last-mentioned goddess, and by so doing drew upon himself and his native country the most bitter enmity of the
other two.
In the meantime
offered
in
it
Troy, for
happened that a sacrifice was to be which oxen were wanted. Two of the
to the herd
king
sons,
on
Mount
it
who
and followed
it
to
demand
its
and
Paris
would have
who
Then
and brave.
The untoward prophecy was forgotten. The sudden change from the life of a herdsman
to that of a
made
and the promise had been made him of the most beautiful wife on earth.
But Aphrodite meant to fulfil the promise, and to this end commanded him to have ships built to sail to Hellas, and proceed to Sparta, where, in the person of Helena, he would
285
Paris obeyed, and was accompanied on the journey by -^Eneas, a son of Anchises and the god
dess Aphrodite.
Arriving at Amyklae, he was met and kindly
the Dioscuri, of Helena.
the
parents)
welcomed by
To
the
same family
(of
memnon,
belonged Klytsemnestra, the wife of Aga who, like her brother Kastor, was mortal, while the
Of
the close
is
a fine
time
it
we
though
in point of
little later.
brides,
and attempted
to carry
them
fight
at the
hands of Idas,
whom
both should
prayer with
live
its
condition.
were regarded as divine beings, and supposed to ride on white horses in the sky, with dazzling spears, and each with a star
above
his brow.
In storms,
ball of fire
in the air,
him.
After spending
Dioscuri, Paris,
accom
panied by ^Eneas,
the king,
Menelaos, and
Helena,
same
spirit
Amyklae.
Of Menelaos we have
already mentioned
his
286
HEROES.
The
:
story of his
marriage and
its
consequences
Such,
it
is
as follows
grace of Helena, that even as a young girl she had captivated the hearts of men, and, among others, of Theseus, who carried
her
off.
The
grew
to
womanhood,
so
Tyndareus
for her.
her foster-father,
hostility of
became alarmed
so many,
therefore,
at the prospect of
provoking the
He
determined,
first
choose for
herself.
But
he
an oath, not only that they would be satisfied with her choice, but would assist her husband then and after in whatever danger or difficulty he might be placed.
called
to take
upon them
She chose Menelaos, the brother of Agamemnon, her sister s husband, and the marriage was celebrated with great pomp. Tyndareus, however, had omitted to offer a sacrifice to Aph
rodite,
his foster-
been
said,
and
wife,
freely
admitted to his
Helena, with
whom
deepened with time, and under the influence of the costly pre
sents of Asiatic wares which he gave her. Menelaos, meanwhile
visit to
Idomeneus
of
husband
safely at
under the care of his guest. With her a distance, Helena was readily persuaded to
become
his wife,
and there
live in
and splendour.
287
cover of night, they embarked, and after weathering a storm sent by Hera, the goddess of marriage troth, reached Troy in
safety,
To
had
the
Returning at once, and having con sulted his powerful brother, Agamemnon, he proceeded to Pylos, to seek the advice of the aged Nestor, whose reputa
fallen
on
his house.
prudence and wisdom throughout Greece had been acquired by his services in many wars in the course of the His two preceding generations, such was his great age.
tion for
com
sufficient to
punish the crime that had been committed, and recover the
possession of Helena.
Acting on
the princes
assistance.
this advice,
visited all
and heroes of the land, to obtain pledges of their Those who had been suitors of Helena had been
bound by an oath to assist Menelaos whenever called upon by him to do so, and were now ready to carry out their engage
ment.
Others promptly offered their services, from feelings of resentment at the vileness of the act ot Paris. Only in two
cases was any difficulty experienced, but they were very
im
portant cases, as
it
proved.
The
first
and
faithful wife,
Telemachos, and being in the enjoyment of perfect domestic felicity, he was unwilling to exchange it for a part in a war, the
which appeared very dubious. But instead of return ing a blunt answer, he pretended insanity, put on a fisherman s hat, yoked a horse and an ox together, and commenced to
issue of
288
HEROES.
plough.
In saving
The
Thetis having been offered by the gods the choice in behalf of her son, of either a long life spent in obscurity and retirement, or a few years of dazzling martial fame, chose the life of obscu
rity,
court of
and with that view conveyed him, dressed as a girl, to the Lykomedes, in the island of Skyros. There he was
brought up among the king s daughters, and gained the love of one of them, Deidamia, who bore him a son, Neoptolemos,
who
Meantime
be of the highest importance for the Trojan it was known expedition to discover the concealment of the young son of
Thetis,
and
For
that purpose
Odysseus
to Skyros.
On
and wares
s daughters, he obtained admittance to the palace, and discovered Achilles, disguised as he was. Odysseus ordered a suit of armour to be displayed before the youth, magnificent
king
and a
call to
upon
Achilles,
who
projected
expedition.
Peleus sent
Menoetios, to be a companion for his son. The harbour of Aulis was where the various contingents of
ships
and
had all arrived more than 1,000 ships, each with at least 150 men it was a sight such as had never been seen in Greece
289
Agamemnon,
commander
of the expedition.
While the
itself
round a plane-tree, on which was a sparrow s nest with The serpent devoured the young ones, but nine young birds.
to the mother-bird
priest,
on turning
was
instantly
changed
into stone.
was summoned
to divine
:
what the
years
He
replied
"Nine
we must
fight
round
Ilion,
town."
Thereafter the fleet sailed, crossed the ^Egean, and landed by mistake in Mysia, which the Greeks prepared to lay waste. They
were, however, stoutly opposed
Telephos,
proved
a son of Herakles.
Patroklos
by
He
under the Centaur Cheiron, and the knowledge of medicine then obtained was able to cure. Telephos also had received a
wound from
finding that
it.
the
would not
heal, consulted
it
The
was by him who had caused it. Meantime another oracle communicated to the Greeks, to the intent that Telephos How this came about we shall should lead them to Troy.
see presently.
had returned again to the harbour of Aulis. While lying there, Agamemnon had chanced to see a beautiful His passion for the chase led him to stag, sacred to Artemis.
The Greek
fleet
stag,
and
kill
it,
he dared to boast that he could excel the goddess of the chase This was the cause of a series of misfortunes that then herself.
befel him.
The
injured goddess
first
sent a
290
HEROES.
the fleet
In spite of Palamedes invention of the game of draughts and other means of amusement, the
after
week
week.
tell
upon the
force,
and
to create
At
last
Agamemnon,
Iphigeneia.
His
fatherly feelings
had to
com
mander of the
expedition.
He
Klytsemnestra, to
to
come
be married, he
said, to Achilles.
They came
but
it
was
Agamemnon
The
sacrifice,
suddenly appeared on the scene, provided a goat for the carried off Iphigeneia in a cloud to Taurus, and
appointed her to the care of her temple there. Klytsemnestra could not forgive her husband for the deception he had
practised.
related.
How
she
avenged herself
shall
be
afterwards
In conseqence of the oracle concerning the wound which he had received from the spear of Achilles, Telephos proceeded
to Aulis,
fleet lay,
in
disguise to
Agamemnon,
whom
Klytsemnestra had brought with her, and threatened to slay the child, if healing were refused him. Odysseus interposed, and
scraping
to the
some of the
rust
it
services in
Thereupon Telephos offered his leading the expedition to Troy, and the oracle being
the Greeks set
at
sail
thus
fulfilled,
on
an altar raised there by had inherited the bow and arrows Herakles, Philoktetes, who of Herakles, was bitten in the foot by a snake, and suffered
their
way
Lemnos,
to sacrifice at
29 1
to heal the agony that made him scream continually. Unable to endure his screams, the Greeks left wound, and unwilling
THE
on
meet the
and around the city of Troy all the forces enemy, assembling Their foremost could obtain from neighbours and allies. they
hero,
was Hektor, they chose to lead them in assaults, The first engagement of the two the eldest son of the king.
whom
forces occurred while the Greeks were in the act of landing from
their ships, the result of
it
back within
loss
to take enemy. The first attempt of the Greeks that the Trojans the town by storm entirely failed, and, finding would not surrender Helena to her husband, the Greek com
on
their
mander could
so than
see
to
do
Accordingly a well-fortified camp was siege. round the ships, which had been hauled up on the constructed
by a
shore,
and with
back upon, the Greek army and towns in the neigh lay waste the territory
that
camp
to
fall
forces,
of the besiegers, did not seek a battle, and excepting such inci
dents as
or
when
Achilles
single combat,
when
and
of moment transpired. put to death by Achilles, nothing In the course of the raids made by the Greeks in the neigh-
292
HEROES.
bourhood,
it
happened
town of Pedasos,
obtained as his
the
priest of
and come
captive
Agamemnon
of
Chrysei s, a daughter
Chryses,
s
Agamemnon
to
restore
him
his
met with
and con
Having one other resource an appeal to the god whose service he was Chryses implored the aid of Apollo,
for other reasons also hostile to
who, being
carried
them
off in .great
numbers.
and inquired of the Agamemnon high-priest, Kalchas, by what the angry god could be appeased.
called a muster of the army,
Kalchas, being assured of the protection of Achilles, boldly declared that the wrath of Apollo had been caused by the unjust detention of Chrysei s, a daughter of one of his priests.
Upon
this,
against
force, had not the goddess Athene felt his dignity as king and com interposed. Agamemnon mander of the army insulted by the threat of Achilles, and
demanded
had been
as satisfaction for
this the
Brisei s, apparently
whom
he
compelled
give
up.
Achilles
having been
to resist
his
warned by Athene to be calm, confessed his inability the demand, and from that time withdrew with all
from the camp.
men
Agamemnon
insult
293
Trojans.
Emboldened by
battles,
by numerous
from their
walls,
and
after
back to the
last,
camp
At
disasters,
Agamemnon
sent an
embassy to Achilles, offering to restore Briseis, and in addition to bestow on him his daughter s hand, with seven towns for a But the wrath of Achilles would not relent, and still dowry.
the need of his countrymen grew worse.
to
at the
head
of
and
set several
Seeing
this,
Myrmidons
The
in the heat of the battle, their sudden reappear ance striking the Trojan army with terror, and causing it to fall Not content with thus deciding the battle, Patroklos, back.
disregarding
the
enemy
till
Hektor, turning round, engaged him in a hand-to-hand fight, Hektor the issue of which was the death of the Greek hero.
stripped
Achilles,
left
the
body
Achilles at
Greeks to take possession of. The grief of the loss of his friend was as violent as had been
Agamemnon.
He
on
a reconciliation which
Hektor, and with the object in view of obtaining it, yielded to all the sufferings of his countrymen
With armour rould not previously induce him to submit to. and superb than had ever been seen before, forged moreda/./ling
294
HEROES.
by the god Hephaestos, and brought by Thetis in the hour of her son s need, he went forth to battle, seeking Hektor in the
Trojan ranks, which everywhere hurried back like sheep before a wolf. The Trojan hero stepped forth to meet his adversary,
but not without sad misgivings.
his faithful wife,
He
and
had said
farewell
to
Andromache,
to his boy,
Astyanax.
But even the strong sense of duty to his country, which had supported him in this domestic scene, deserted him utterly
when
Hektor fled but Achilles, bearing of the god of war himself. a faster step, cut off his retreat, and thus imbued him having
with the courage of despair.
The combat
Achilles proceeded to
it
body by binding
to
his
war- chariot.
to the
Greek camp,
s
and there
saved
cast
it
among
dust and
dirt.
Displeased by such
body, and
him
for the
performance of
an act of generosity which was to blot out the memory of his previous cruelty. On the one hand, Thetis was employed
to persuade her son to give
On
Hermes was
tent,
and beg the body of his son. and coming to the young hero s Troy obeyed, tent, besought him, as he valued his own father, to give him leave to take away the lifeless body, and pay to it the cus
in the night to Achilles
of
tomary
rites
of burial.
by the gentleness
his knees, shared
man from
295
the morning,
safe escort.
In the pause of hostilities that took place then, the Greeks buried the body of Patroklos with great ceremony.
THE DEATH OF
The
loss of
ACHILLES.
the
Hektor had so
dispirited
Trojans, that
without fresh succours they could not face the enemy again. Such succours, however, consisting of an army of Amazons,
under the
command
of the
beautiful
in the interval of
for
mourning
for
When
hostilities
commenced
her being eager to measure again, with that of Achilles, and to avenge the death of strength The leaders of the Hektor, led the Trojan army into battle. While of Telamon. Greeks were Achilles and Ajax, the son
the latter hero was engaged in driving back the Trojan ranks,
and Penthesilea met in single combat. He would have spared her willingly, and did not, till compelled in selfAchilles
defence, strike
with
all
his
might.
Then she
fell
mortally
s
fell,
hers that disgrace. body, implored Achilles to spare was no need of this ; for he, to save her still if possible, and
not, to soothe her last
There
if
moments,
lifted
till
she died.
to
a combined rush
Achilles
made a
sign
but rescue the body of their leader her valour, to them to halt, and praising
it
to
them
freely
a kindly act
which
alike.
Among
296
there was one
as body,
HEROES.
as well
who not
Amazon, struck his spear sudden blow from Achilles laid him
inflicted
on the ground.
this
All
who saw
punishment
approved of
it,
except
Diomedes,
sites,
Feeling himself
deeply wronged because his countrymen, and especially Aga memnon, did not unconditionally take his part in the matter,
Achilles
abandoned
for a
and took ship to Lesbos. Odysseus was sent after him, and by dint of smooth words, cleverly directed, succeeded in bringing him back to the camp.
What made
person of
the
return
of Achilles more
urgent at that
in
new
ally to
the Trojans,
the
Memnon,
who
appeared further to be a proper match for him, inasmuch as he also carried armour fashioned by Hephsestos. When the
two heroes met, and were fighting Olympos a simultaneous visit from
fiercely,
Zeus received in
He
Moera,
will of Fate,
and
Memnon, saw
his death.
son dead.
and buried
it
in his
297
for,
animated by
success, he led on the Greeks, and would have captured Troy, however clearly the Fates might have decreed the contrary,
had not Apollo given unerring flight to an arrow drawn by Paris. By that shaft from an unworthy source, as far as could
be judged, Achilles
way, carried
fell.
and
back to the camp, where its burial was attended with extraordinary pomp and ceremonial, the Muses chanting
lays, and the heroes who had known him personally taking part, as was the custom on such occasions, in athletic
dolorous
competitions.
offered
in the fight
was
Only two claims were preferred, and those were on behalf of the two heroes who had rescued his body. The award being given in favour of
into a state of insanity, in the course of
fell
Odysseus, Ajax, from grief at what he deemed neglect, sank which he intentionally
upon
his sword,
and
died.
cessation
This
war having been resumed, the first event of importance that occurred was the capture of Helenos, a son of Priam, who,
like
his
sister,
Kassandra,
prophecy.
Odysseus,
was endowed with the gift of who had made the capture, compelled
it
The answer
siege,
Neoptolemos
2,
the
bow and
arrows of Heraklcs:
298
HEROES.
Troy.
In
no
difficulty
was ex
for the
perienced.
be of service
common
good, proceeded to Skyros, where he found Neoptolemos grown to manhood, and thirsting for martial renown.
present of the splendid armour which his father, Achilles, had worn, and which Odysseus now magnanimously parted with,
youth s ambition, and led him easily to Troy, where he distinguished himself in a combat with Eurypylos (a son of Telephos), who had joined the Trojan ranks.
fired the
more
serious matter
bow and
in the possession of
said,
Philoktetes, whom, as we have already the Greeks abandoned at Lemnos, not caring to endure
wound
in his foot.
His
feelings
Notwith
accompanied by Diomedes (or, as others say, by Neoptolemos), went to Lemnos, and successfully tricked Philoktetes into following him to Troy, where his
of Asklepios, and a
was effected between him and Agamemnon. The on whom his fatal arrows were tried was Paris, after whose
the seizure of
Odysseus,
successful in the
difficulty of the
new
Troy
in the disguise of
He
299
except by Helena, who, having felt ever since the death of Paris a yearning for Menelaos, proved to be a valuable ally.
Odysseus, in the meantime, returned to the Greek camp to The two having made obtain the assistance of Diomedes.
their
way back
it
to
Palladium, and,
last condition.
carrying
and
next difficulty was the plan of assault to be adopted. It was proposed by Odysseus, on the suggestion of the goddess
The
Athene, that Epeios, a famous sculptor, should make a great wooden horse, sufficiently large to hold inside a number of
the bravest Greeks,
and
and the
army should embark and set sail, as if making homeward. The plan of Odysseus was agreed to, and great was the joy of the
Trojans when they saw the
fleet set sail.
The
people, scarcely
to
abandoned camp,
make
There they found nothing remaining but a great wooden some horse, about the use of which various opinions arose its instant thinking it an engine of war, and demanding
destruction.
it
must have been an object of religious veneration, and if so, ought to be taken into the city. Among those who thought
otherwise was
Laokoon,
a priest of Apollo,
who had
arrived
on the scene, accompanied by his two young sacrifice to the god in whose service he was. Laokoon warned
his
sons, to offer a
in
no case
and
upon which the weapons of the heroes within were heard to clash, and the bystanders were all but convinced of the justice But the gods had willed it otherwise, of the priest s opinion.
and
HEROES.
judgment upon him in the shape of two enormous serpents, which, while he and his two sons were engaged in sacrificing at an altar by the shore, issued from the sea, and casting their coils round the two boys first, then round the father, who
came
him
The
scene
is
now
is
in
the
Vatican,
Plate
XXXIV.
taken.
The mysterious fate of Laokoon was readily believed to be a punishment for the violence he had done to the sacred
horse.
But to carry out effectually the stratagem of the horse, Odysseus had left behind on the shore his friend Sinon, with
his
victim
all the appearance of a which he professed to be. sacrifice, The good king Priam was touched by the piteous story which Sinon told, ordered his bonds to be struck off, and inquired
and would,
if
had been
before.
The
city gates being too small, part of the wall was broken through, and the horse conducted in triumph towards the citadel. This
and general
rejoicing,
When
become
exhausted by the unusual excitement, being fast asleep, Sinon approached the horse, and opened a secret door in its side.
The
fleet,
made
fire
signal to
the
which lay concealed behind the neighbouring island of Tenedos, and now advanced quietly to the shore. The troops
having disembarked and made their way
silently to the city,
301
ensued a
fearful
slaughter,
the
surprised inhabitants
Finally the town
well-armed Greeks.
was
fell
set
on
fire
in every corner,
and
utterly destroyed.
Priam
by the hand of Neoptolemos. The same fate befel the son of Hektor not for anything that he had done, but that he
might not grow up to avenge his father s death. Of the few Trojans who escaped were ^neas, his father Anchises, and his
infant son Askanios.
^Eneas
fled
became the
where he
now
penitent
wife,
Helena, and took her back with him. The Trojan women of rank and beauty were distributed among the Greek heroes as
captives in war,
of Hektor, and
Neoptolemos obtaining Andromache, the widow Agamemnon carrying off Priam s daughter,
extensive
booty from the king s palaces having been divided, preparations were made for returning home. While some as, for example, Nestor, Idomeneus,
Kassandra.
The
Diomedes,
like
Philoktetes,
and
Neoptolemos
had
favourable
their respective
homes
in safety, others,
Menelaos, were driven hither and thither by storms, which delayed their passage for years. But the heroes to whose
return the greatest interest
attaches,
were
Agamemnon and
Odysseus.
Agamemnon,
her husband
meantime accepted as ^gisthos, a son of Thyestes, and therefore of an accursed line. These two proposed to compass the death of
in the
had
Agamemnon
and he, though warned of their designs by ; Kassandra, whose prophetic power enabled her to foresee the issue, lent himself easily to their purpose, innocently accepting
302
HEROES.
as genuine his wife s expressions of joy. He entered the warm bath that had been prepared for him, but on coming out of it,
found himself entangled in a piece of cloth which his wife threw over his head. In this helpless condition he was slain
perishing with him.
by her and ^Egisthos, Kassandra and many of his followers His young son Orestes contriving to
escape, with the help of his sister Elektra, fled to Phokis, where he was received hospitably, and remained several years, during which ^Egisthos ruled over Argos on the throne of
Agamemnon.
Agamemnon an
oracle of
Apollo was communicated to Orestes, commanding him to re venge that foul deed, and promising the assistance of the god.
by
Py lades,
mother he professed to be a
the death of
intelligence of
her son
at the
hands of
The shedding
of a mother
;
perpetrated the deed to at the instigation of Apollo, went far to exculpate him,
and though the fact that Orestes had avenge the murder of his father, and
it
did
not satisfy the malignant Erinys (Furies), from land to land, permitting no peace to his throbbing heart.
Arriving, in the course of his wanderings, at Delphi,
to Apollo of his sufferings,
Orestes
complained he might expect relief if he could fetch the ancient statue of the goddess Artemis from Taurus. The difficulty of the task
that
consisted in
this, that it
ORESTES.
303
approached her
his
sister
temple.
Fortunately for
Orestes, as
it
happened,
there,
Iphigeneia
held
the
office
of priestess
having been
carried away, as
we have
sister,
He
Apollo had
goddess.
commanded him
With the
to carry
away the
statue of the
assistance
of
Iphigeneia he
obtained
it
company
returned with
The
the
task
still
continued to persecute the unhappy youth. Apollo then advised him to proceed to Athens, and there to call for a trial in the Areopagus, a court appointed to
relentless
(See
Ares.")
for justice in
his behalf.
The
Erinys
appeared as
When
the pleadings
and the votes of the judges came to to be equally divided for and against.
casting vote was reserved on
this
The
among
acquittal.
The Erinys
of
Eumenides.
from the stains
father
acquitted, and purified (See "Erinys.") of crime, Orestes ascended the throne of his
in
Thus
Agamemnon,
Mykenze, married
Hermione,
the
304
HEROES.
also.
perils,
and
after
several ad
number
reached the country of the Kyklopes enormous In a cave which was the habitation with only one eye. giants of one of them, Polyphemos by name, a son of the sea-god
Poseidon, Odysseus and his fellow-travellers took shelter, while anchored beside a neighbouring island. Poly
arrival,
returned
thing he did on enter was to close up the entrance with a great stone, which a ing hundred men could not have moved. The next thing was,
The
first
The
following morning,
at the
mouth
of the cave, to prevent the escape of his victims, and the con
The
history of the
first
day
having repeated itself on the two following days, a plan of The giant having had his usual escape occurred to Odysseus. Odysseus offered him some wine, which had the effect supper,
of creating a desire for more.
replenished,
at last
this,.
Polyphemos
Seeing
and
intoxication.
companions, laid hold of a great pole, and having made the end of it red hot, let it down on the giant s eye, and burned it
305
out.
Polyphemos sprang up
and
after
groping in
removed the
stone,,
and
sat
place, determined to
permit no one
But Odysseus and his companions fastened themselves each under the belly of one of the great
to escape.
sheep within the cave, knowing that the giant would let them And so it was for, feeling the fleece as pass out unmolested.
;
Odysseus once outside they passed, he was quite satisfied. the cave, and with what remained of his crew safe in the ship,
shouted jeeringly back to the Kyklops, telling him also his name. Polyphemos then implored his father, the god Posei
don, to punish Odysseus for what he had just done. It was in answer to this prayer that Odysseus was- driven hither and
thither,
there,,
and
reached
home
in a
Of the adventures
that befel
him
country of
:
After
the mis leaving ^Eolos, the king of the winds, and suffering fortune already related (see "yolos"),.he reached the habita
tion of the sorceress
Circe
(a sister of
Medea,
it
was
said),
whose
act
was
to transform his
into swine.
manner, Circe
entertaining
men to their proper human form. Changing her now exhibited a cordial feeling towards Odysseus
his
companions very hospitably for the period of a year, on the expiry of which she advised him to make a journey to the lower world, to question the shade of
him and
;o6
HEROES.
in the siege of
Troy, and then returned to Circe, who gave him counsel in regard to his future journey. On his voyage good
homeward he passed
the
Sirens
>;
safely (see
"Sirens
),
passed
and afterwards, in spite of the warnings both of Teiresias and Circe, landed on the island ofTrinakia, where his companions plundered
sacred
flocks
the
this
of
the sun-god.
As a
fearful
punishment storm at
for
sea,
and
perished except Odysseus, who, clinging to a piece of his ship for nine days, was at length driven on shore on the
island belonging to the
kindly,
years.
received him
-of immortality,
Odysseus
home
in
The gods, Ithaka, and yearning to see it again before he died. taking compassion on him, prevailed on Kalypso to let him He made a raft, and put to sea but Poseidon, not yet go.
;
appeased for the wrong done to his son Polyphemos, raised a storm which shattered the small craft, and would have caused
of the sea-nymph he found himself in the land, Swimming island of the Phaeakians, was discovered on the shore by the
for -the timely aid
Leukothea.
king
s
to
king, Alkinoos, to
daughter, Nausikaa, and entertained hospitably by the whom he related his adventures. After re
ceiving
in a
still
many costly
presents, he
well-manned
faithful to
ship.
princes
him, in spite of the incessant wooing of all the of the neighbouring islands in the course of her
s
husband
long absence.
whom
he
left
an
infant,
had now
307
grown
to
in search of intelligence
concerning
when Odysseus
and
how
and consuming her husband s possessions. Odysseus and his son appeared among them in disguise, raised a quarrel, and
with the help of Athene, slew
them
all.
Then took
place the
by the
Ithaka.
we have
Romulus
and
Remus,
it is
true,
which may be compared in some respects with that of several Greek heroes. They were the offspring of a god (Mars) and a vestal virgin. They were exposed to death at their birth, were
herdsmen.
their
suckled by a she-wolf, were preserved and brought up among On arriving at manhood, they returned to claim
inheritance,
it
city of
Rome, Romulus
the Palilia
their
after himself.
They
instituted festivals
the
wolf.
latter to
commemorate
having
been nourished by a
They
Remus,
was
to
at last carried
up bodily
heaven
A simple hut on the Pala storm of thunder and lightning. tine hill was preserved with veneration as the sanctuary of
308
HEROES.
Romulus.
ance of
it,
appear
in
Rome
as
it
ment of the
Greece.
such
in
HORATIUS COCLES.
The
ancient
Roman
who
had fought so well in the old wars- raised by the exiled Royal A golden statue of him stood in family and their partisans.
the market-place,
and beside
it
sacrifice
was offered
in his
for
as
were appointed
But the story of the deeds of Horatius wanted, nevertheless, the true legendary character, and was probably accepted; by. the people with more of pride than pious feeling.
UNLIKEnot were
represented alike
self,
Aryan kinsfolk
literary people.
the Greeks
the Teutons
And
Christianity, as
by
by Charlemagne him
did
its
Hence
it
included under the general name Germany, no and systematic account has been transmitted to complete modern times.
now
But the old Germans were of the same race with the people Their speech was essen
the same.
They had
the
same
social
and domestic
customs, and the same religion. Further, during the time when Christianity was spreading over Germany and Scandinavia,
that exodus of the
Norsemen was
ended
also
in
or Snowland, as
it
was
named by
"
There,
says,
of the polar
circle,"
independent principalities
priests,
and disdaining
310
who were
Norsemen
new
rival religions
seem
to
have
felt
Hence, in a measure, the complete and form in which the Icelanders were able to leave a systematic permanent record of their mythology. It was a Christian priest
then dying away.
Sigmund Sigfusson
the elder Edda.
poems known
as
To the succeeding
Edda, which
the
first
merely a prose rendering of those portions of work which narrate the creation of the world and man,
is
and the generation, adventures, functions, and ultimate fate of the gods. As a cosmogony and theogony this Edda, or, as the word might be paraphrased, Tales of a Grandmother," is as
"
complete even as its Greek prototype, the Theogony of Hesiod. as a record and expression of the spiritual life of those Teutons, who also were the progenitors of our English race, it
And
is,
more
interesting.
THE CREATION.
In the prose Edda, Ginki, the wise king, travels in search of knowledge to the home of the Asa folk the Norse gods
each of
whom
some piece
of special
information.
The cosmogonic
them
closely corresponds in
the Hesiodic
poem
main points with that contained in while its special details, tone, and colouring
THE CREATION.
Where the are the expression of special climatic conditions. the beginning, says the Edda, no earth now is there was in
an empty space (Ginnunga-gap), on sand, sea, or grass, but only whose north side lay the region of mist, ice, and snow (Niflheim),
and on
heim).
melt,
its
south side the region of warmth and sunlight (MuspelThe warm breaths from the sun-land caused the ice to
thursen,
and topple over into Ginnunga-gap ; and from the matter Reimso accumulated sprang the huge Ymir, ancestor of the milk of Rime, or Frost, giants. Ymir fed on the
the
it
may be
"cow"
observed, in the
or mother-earth.
;
Zendavesta, stands
indifferently for
The cow
by
from which, in
consequence of the
licking,
was produced
Bori,
who
is
alike the
was the fashioner of the world, and the father of Bor, who and just s brothers were Wili and We Odin father of Odin.
:
as in Hesiod the deities Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades supplant Kronos, so the sons of Bori overthrow and succeed the primi Also, the dead of Ymir and the Frost Giants. tive
Ymir
His
becomes
;
earth
mountains
and crags
float in the
form of clouds.
The
heavens,
by
four
Dwarves
;
Nordri (north), and Sudri (south) of Muspelheim. sparks from the fire-land
thus
fashioned was called Midgard, as being placed midway between To preserve it and its inhabitants the lands of frost and fire.
from the
Jotunheim, Odinand his brother made from the eyebrows of tinsurrounded themselves were said to have been Ymir. The inhabitants of wood which the brothers found produced from t\vo pieces
giants,
it
who dwelt
in
with a fence
312
floating
sea,
and changed into a man, whom they named whom they named Embla.
or Midgard, arose the Norse Olympos,
Asa
folk
Gladsheim
and Vingolf for the goddesses. There also was Walhalla, wherein Odin placed one-half of the heroes slain im battle, the
other half being received by Freija, the wife of Odin.
Besides
those already
named
Edda
says, other
;
home
Breidablick,
where dwelt the bright and beautiful, far-seeing Baldur ; Himinbiorg, or the Heaven-tower of the thunder-god Thor; and
Valaskialf,
all
The
gods
also
met
Yggdrasil, one of
second in
:
and
way
so as to keep
away
Lastly, the
LOWER WORLD
was ruled by the goddess Hel ; and to it were consigned those who had not died in battle. It was so far away that Odin s swift
horse Sleipnir took nine nights to reach
the Norse Styx
it.
The
river Gioll
side.
hell.
surrounded
XXXV.
Odin.
THE
AESIR.
ODIN.
313
THE
Whose
There names were
Thor,
AESIR,
Hodr,
ODIN.
(PLATE xxxv.)
The
the
Odin
is
evident,
first,
from
meaning of
attributes assigned to
name, and, secondly, from the various him. The word Odin is simply another
Grimm
He
is
=Atman
and as such corresponds to the Hindoo Brahman (German, Athem), or ever-present life and energy.
is,
of course, Zeus,
is
who is
likewise spoken
derived from
a root
signifying
to
was
"
originally
thus the King of the Greek Asgard shine," and It was but natural that the glistening ether."
rain-clouds
Odin, as the personification of the blue sky, should rule the and the sunlight ; hence as Odin the rain-giver
he corresponds with Zeus Ombrios (the showery Zeus), while as the light-god he is merely a Norse Phcebos or Apollo, whose spear the sun rays disperses the darkness. As skygod,
air,
he was, no
less naturally
protector
of sailors.
In
this
314
respect he corresponds or
is
But
of functions
Finally,
is
as distinctive
resemble
each other in their development from purely phy Odin, the ever-present ether, be
ever-
knowing
spirit,
the Father of
And
as Zeus
is
Odin
is
the
The two
ravens that
on the shoulders
him news of what was passing in the world, were called Hunin and Munin Thought and Memory. Memory, or Mnemosyne, was the mother of the Greek Muses. A trace
.
In of the worship of Odin survives even to the present day. one of the Orkney islands is an Odin stone, into a hollow
of which superstitious people thrust their hands,
testifying
is
on
their
most solemn
its
said to
have derived
by way of The island of Heligoland name from Odin, who was also
oath.
"
Charles s Wain," named Helgi (der Heilige\ or the Holy. and the Milky as we now call it, was named Odin s Wain Unlike Zeus the was also known as Odin s Way. Way" Greek All-father Odin was also a god of war. Hence it
"
was
that, as already
Freija,
who were
at different
one simply a development of the other. Of all the goddesses, She sat enthroned Frigg was the best and dearest to Odin.
beside him, and
surveyed the
world.
She knew
all,
and
In Plate
XXXVI.
represented seated with the golden spindle by She is attended by her side, with which she used to spin.
she
is
XXXVI
Frigg.
XXXVII.
Freija.
THOR.
315
who
and
presided
sending sunshine,
rain,
She was further a goddess into whose charge the dead passed. As has been said, half the number of heroes
harvest
who
Plate
fell
in
battle
XXXVII.
Plate
In
XXXV.
Odin
is
figured seated
on
his
throne,
and attended by the ravens, Hunin and Munin, and the two
dogs.
THOR,
(PLATE xxxvin.,)
Or Donar, simply meant the Thunderer der Donncrcr ; and he dwelt in the vault of heaven. As he was likewise said to
be the son of Odin, or of Heaven, it is evident that, as in the case of the All-father, he had a purely physical origin. As the
and
as
thunderbolts
of Zeus
were
forged
by the smith-god
so
the
Hephaestos,
who
hammer
of
Odin was smithied by the Dwarves (zwer*e\ or black elves, who dwelt within the earth. Thor is represented driving
through the clouds
in
Among
much
it
in as
reverence as Christ
s
;
cross
among
Christians.
It
was carved
was
on
their gravestones
suspended
in their temples.
hammer, was invoked as the deity who made marriages He was also the god of the hearth and of lire.
As
way
a sky-god
Thor
is
is
identical with
Odin much
in
the
same
as
Vishnu
with Indra.
316
to their trysting-place,
Thor goes on
traverses
foot
he
is
the striding
god, as
is
Vishnu
is,
who
heaven in three
steps.
Thor
Thor
whose name
thunder
In Plate
XXXVIII. Thor
is
drawn by
hammer
BALDR
Means
the
blick
daylight, in
Anglo-Saxon
theogony.
called
Breida-
Euryphassa,
Baldr
in
The story of Eurynome, and Eurydike. the most lovely and pathetic not only in Norse but
sical
any mythology leaves no doubt whatever as to its phy The joy of the world in the origin and significance.
presence of Baldr means only the gladness inspired by sunlight. The solemn oath sworn by all living things not to hurt the
bright god,
and
their speechless
dismay
mean
when, in the purely concrete language of the primitive race, Baldr, or the sun, was dead.
The myth
hurt Baldr
;
to
Hodr
the blind
it.
him with
a twig of
This mistletoe-bough
XXXVIII.
Ther.
XXXIX.
Ereyr.
FREYR.
317
Odin puts to sleep the spring maiden of the thorn of the Persian, Isfeudyar; or of the
kills
Loki,
was
said, fled
into a salmon,
fast
and bound
until
the
of the
gods
or,
in
Christian termi
by Odin
son, Bali,
The unlucky Hodr was killed whose home was among the willows and in
FREYR,
(PLATE xxxix.,)
Is likewise
named
Fro.
The
functions ascribed to
him are
another instance of that interchange or overlapping to which we have referred above, and which seems to be accounted for
by the hypothesis
reality
Thus
merely the
sun-lit
and air-breathing heaven as represented by Odin. Like Odin he is the patron of seafarers. Not only is Freyr repeated, so to
speak, in Odin, but also
servant, Skirnir
in the
or
if
Volsung and Niblung heroes, Sigurd, And as Sigurd can win the maiden
Brynhild only by riding through the flaming fire which sur rounded and guarded her dwelling, so by the same exploit must Skirnir win Gerda for his master. In later times, when the old
religion
being explained on
that Freyr
its
it
had only been a Swedish king, whose sorrowing buried his body in a magnificent tomb, to which, for subjects
318
if
is,
however,
all
authoritative source of
Edda"
the Eddas.
In Dasent
"
Prose
Freyr
is
fruits
whose beauty
house, and
and sea
he
won
is
her.
In Plate
XXXIX.
Freyr
speed greater than that of the swiftest Sometimes he was drawn by it in a car. In crossing horse. the sea he also used a boat.
through the
air, at a
TYR
Is likewise
named
Ziu,
and Saxnot.
this
is
Once more,
be an instance
of personifying an epithet.
Ziu
meaning
is
"shine"
He On
him
good
for wrestlers to
call."
the other having been bitten off by the wolf Fenris, into whose
it
as a pledge of security,
when
the
BRAGI
Is the
"
He
is
famous
for
wisdom,
HEIMDALL.
319
and best
She
in tongue-wit
part of this
is
and cunning speech." A sort of counter god was his wife Iduna, who dwelt in the under-world.
of Ushas
Dawn
is
spoken of in terms that recall the Hindoo description For as Ushas the Eos or the Daure goddess. new morning, so Iduna makes the world young every
said to preserve in a
HEIMDALL
Was
and
the
under
world.
The sound
horn
is
shall
The name
of his horse,
sun-gods and sun-horses of classical mythology. Heimdall was so sharp a watchman that he could even hear the grass grow on
the earth, and the wool on the backs of sheep
!
in strength to Thor.
As
the
"
twilight,"
or
Gotterdammerung, Vithar shall destroy the wolf Fenris, the devourer of the gods, by placing one foot on the monster s lower
jaw,
and pushing up the upper one thus wrenching them Ulle is the god of the chase ; a skilful bowman, Like Bragi and Iduna, Mimir is and a fast runner on stilts.
asunder.
the deity of
tree,
wisdom and knowledge. He dwelt by the Yggdrasil, beneath whose roots bubbled forth the
Mimir
s
ash-
well
of wisdom,
well,
Loki
He
giant Farbanti,
whose duty
it
32O
and hateful
as
One was
the huge
wolf Fenris (Plate XL..), who, at the last day, shall hurry gaping to the scene of battle, with his lower jaw scraping the earth
and
The second was the serpent of nose scraping the sky Midgard the serpent which Odin threw into the sea, where
his
!
it
world in
was the goddess Hel, who was half black and half blue, and lived daintily on the brains and marrow of men.
its folds.
The
third
Hel
these
is,
Loki was
at the
bottom of
The
personage
who
figures conspicuously in
modern
theology, are
its
equivalents
ist
Loki
loose.
er or
bondum
figure in
der Teufel
frei
is
Of
to
who
Norse mythology
we must
little.
be representative of the good and evil powers of nature. Among them are the Elves (Alfen, Elfen), who live in
Their king is the Erlkonig (Elfen Allheimr (Elf-home). In the night hours they come in troops to dance Konig).
in the grass, leaving, according to popular belief, their traces
in
the
is
form of
fairy-rings.
The dwarves
and metals,
(Zwerge), whose
father
named
skill
To
stones
on which they
in workmanship. As guardians of hidden were propitiated by the seekers of the same treasures they An echo is called by the with a black goat or a black cock.
The Wolf
Feiiris.
321
Dwergmaal-Zwergsprache
or
dwarf-voice.
The
beings
who
The giant Hrungnir had a head of stone, and a heart of stone ; and a giantess, mother of Gmir, as many as nine hundred heads. Another
the winter.
who slew Thor and cast his eyes up to heaven, where they shone thereafter as stars. In the extreme north dwelt the giant Hresvelgr, the motion of whose wings caused
giant was Thiassi,
in
which respect he resembles the gigantic Nagananda, who raises the waves on
On
was
Surtr,
heim.
phantoms from the land of the dead, who in the dark nights rode to the earth on a wolf bridled with snakes. The three
Nornen were the Norse Fates. The Valkyrien were fair maidens who hovered over the field of battle, woke up the dead heroes with a kiss, and led away their souls to fight and drink ale as of
old in the happy Valhalla.
THE
epic.
According
the
to
the
Solar
myth"
this
epic
serves
Aryan nations in India being known under the names of Ramayana and Mahabharata more in Greece as the Iliad and the in our Odyssey
purpose of
all
;
;
common
21
322
northern lands as the Tale of the Volsungs, and the Nibelungen Lay ; and in England as the tale of King Arthur and
his
"Solar
myths
main incidents
not too
completely coincide.
Indeed
it is
much
to affirm that
its
But not only do the main incidents in the coincide with those in the Iliad and Odyssey, Northern Epics but they even contain episodes which correspond in everything
except the
name with
plots in
Greek tragedy.
Gudrun,
for
example,
is
We now
proceed to give a
Volsunga Saga. Volsung was the son of Rerir, the son of the Sigi, the son of Odin. Volsung lay for seven years in his mother s womb ; and
they said the youngling kissed his mother or ever she died. Volsung had a daughter called Signy, who was married to Sig-
King of Gothland. During the marriage festivities in Volsung s house, and as the good folk sat round the evening
geir,
fire,
man wrapped
in a cloak,
who drove
wood right up to the hilt, predicted who should be able to draw it out again, and immediately disappeared. The old man was Odin and
;
the sword was the sword Gram, which has the sword
its
counterpart in
Durandal, and in King Arthur s Excalibur. And as only Theseus could lift the huge stone, and none but Ulysses could draw his own bow, so among
of Chrysaor, in
Roland
323
two children, Helgi and Hamund. But Sigmund was no moreconstant in his loves than other heroes of whom we read in
classical literature. He fell in love with Hjordis, who was beloved by the son of King Hunding. Between the two heroes there ensued a fight, during which the one-eyed man in a blue
cloak, and a
bill in his
hand, appeared
whereupon Sigmund
his wife Hjordis,
was
slain.
and entrusted
preserve
it
And
go
<
now,"
said he,
"I
will
sat
over him
he died
day dawning.
character
Hjordis after that married Hialprek, King of Denmark, a who corresponds to the Grecian Laios and Akrisios.
s
At Hialprek
Sigmund the favourite hero of Norse mythology. Sigurd was taught in all the arts and sciences by Regin, the cunning black
smith,
who was
by Odin,
those
or
worm
Fafnir,
who guarded
golden treasures which, according to the Solar theory, mean the gladdening and revivifying sunlight, Fafnir himself beinu
the
the
evil
light.
power,
the
cloud,
or
the
darkness which
steals
Regin wished to secure the treasure for himself, and forged a sword for Sigurd to But slay the worm with.
it
its
very
first
trial;
and Sigurd,
in
contempt Regin smithying, procures the fragments of his paternal sword Gram, and Regin welds them together. Gram
stood every
test.
Sigurd drove
it,
324
anvil
and next he slew Regin, who wished to possess the whole of the prize on the plea that his forging of the weapon had really won the victory. After
;
that Sigurd
went to
the
the Solar
earth
is
myth
Maiden of
Spring,
for
whom
by the
the cold
longing.
and Greek
stories,
was unfaithful
sister
in
his loves.
He
fell
in love with
Gudrun, the
Volsung Saga
whatever.
is
man who
could ride through the fire which surrounded her dwelling. This Gunnar could not do ; but Sigurd did it in Gunnar s shape,
whereafter Brynhild agreed to marry Gunnar.
But Gudrun, in
and
just as
(Enone procured
that of the
and Deianeira
on the
Next, Gudrun,
leaves
It
her
marries
Atli
King of
s
Hunland.
must be another
name
for
treasure,
the
river,
which they had received from the These treasures the brothers buried in the Rhine
sunlight,"
their
way
to
325
The scene
is
in
which
by the
treacherous Atli
unsurpassed
power and terror by any fighting story, except, perhaps, by that one in the Mahabharata which describes the final struggle
battle-field of
on the
venge
said,
Hastmapur.
Next
;
follows
Gudrun
s re
for the
like, as
we have already
s
own and
Atli
children.
But we cannot further pursue those final tragedies in which all the various kinsfolk die by each other s hands, and in
obedience to that stern, inevitable
personified in
fate
which
in these tales
seems to be Odin, and looms so terribly background of the dramas of Sophocles and ^Eschylus.
in the
We
would
in conclusion
recommend
translation of the
Volsung Saga, recently published by Messrs. Morris and Magnusson, as also Dr. Dasent s translation of the
Edda.
prose
Those who know German may also consult Wilhelm Mannhardt s Die Goffer der deutschen und Nordischcn
Vrtkcr,
published
"
in
Berlin,
"
1860.
For an exhaustive ex
position of the
Solar
myth
embraced
general,
and of Aryan myths in we recommend the student to the work of the Rev.
in
George W. Cox on
"
The Mythology
of the Aryan
Nations."
common
to the
IN nations
Hence
that the
Aryan
Hindoo myths
it
Com
parative Mythology.
But
would be an
error
to suppose
Hin
races, of the
For the myths, like the languages, of all these various Hindoos included, are derived from one common
Greek, Latin, Sanscrit,
etc.,
source.
was spoken by the early "Aryans" primitive Aryan before they branched away from their original home in Central Asia, to form new nationalities in India, Greece, Northern
language that
etc.
The
sister
Sanscrit language
is
thus
tongues
manner,
It is
only the elder sister of the other Aryan mythologies. reason of the discovery of this
that scholars have
ally.
by
common origin
to treat
of these languages
been enabled
unintelligible in
once explained by the meaning of their Sanscrit equivalents. Thus, the name of the chief Greek god, Zeus, conveys no But the Greek sky-god Zeus evidently meaning in itself.
327
Dyaus, and
"
this
word
is
to
shine."
Zeus then,
"
Similarly
by
their counterparts, or
Thus
the
name
and
originally
meant the bright sky the goddess herself being air. Athene is referred to Sanscrit names
:
dawn, and Erinys is explained by the Sanscrit Saranyn. In the Hindoo Pantheon there are two great The Vedic the Vedic and the Brahmanic. classes of gods
meaning the
light of
earliest
by a simple, uninstructed,
the former ;
agricultural people.
The Brahmanic
a refined development of
of
Vedism
and was gradually displacing the simpler worship or more before the
Five or six centuries before the
last event,
birth of Christ.
Dissent, under the name and form of Buddhism, became the chief religion of India ; but in about ten centuries Brahmanism
recovered
paratively
its
old position.
Buddhism now
India.
Its
retains but
com
in
:
few followers in
chiet
holds are
Burmah, Siam, Japan, Thibet, Nepaul, China, and Mongolia and its followers, in the present day, perhaps outnumber those
of
all
328
THE VEDIC
DYAUS
GODS.
Was, as we have already indicated, the god of the bright sky, his name being connected with that of Zeus through the root As such Dyaus was the Hindoo rain-god, i.e., prima dyu.
rily,
fell.
Zeus rains
name Dyaus,
in Greek,
hardly any mythological suggestion and the meaning of the like those of the names Ouranos and Kronos
it
to
become
the nucleus
spoken of as an overruling spirit. The epithet, Dyaus pitar, is simply Zeus pater Zeus the father; or, as it is spelled in Latin, Jupiter. Another of his names, Janita, is the Sanscrit for
genetor, a
finally
title
or producer.
Dyaus
VARUNA
Is also a sky-god
The name
so far
is
according to another account, a water-god. derived from Var, to cover, or to overarch and
:
:
Here, then,
we seem
meaning of the Greek Ouranos, whom we Ouranos means the already know to have been a sky-god as observed above, the name would have remained coverer, but,
to find a clue to the
:
unintelligible apart
from
is
its
The myth
of Varuna
XI.
I.
Indra.
329
spiritualized
sense impressions.
From
the
men
thousand-eyed (or starred) Varuna who overlooked all and things, the Indian Aryans passed to the loftier con
whose ception of Varuna as an all-seeing god or providence, Some of the finest or angels, saw all that took place. spies,
passages in the Vedic
hymns
:
Varuna
of
is
addressed
is
the second
which
"
so
remarkable
:
pathetic
beauty
from
Mailer s
"
Rigveda"
Let
me
not yet,
have mercy,
have mercy, If I go along trembling like a cloud driven by the wind Almighty, have mercy I to Through want of strength, thou strong and bright god, have gone
: !
"
the
wrong shore have mercy, Almighty, have mercy Thirst came upon the worshipper, tho he stood in the midst of the waters have mercy, Almighty, have mercy Whenever we men, O Varuna, commit an offence before the heavenly
:
!
"
"
host,
have mercy,
This complete transition from the physical to the spiritual, this abstract or contemplative bias of the Hindoo mind, is curiously
instanced in the
name Aditi.
Aditi
Originally
it
meant the
illimitable
far east, whence became a name for the mother in whose and finally, it seems a name for the lap the gods were nursed and Infinite and Absolute of the metaphy incomprehensible
Then
sicians.
INDRA.
(PLATE XLI.)
The
connection, or identity, between Zeus and
Dyaus seems
330
be
to
There
than
is
a greater resem
blance between
"
Dyaus. cloud
and
as
The myth
of Indra
god
is
a further
instance of that transition from the physical to spiritual meaning to which we have referred ; though Indra is by no means so
spiritual
a being- as Varuna.
It is also
back the myths are traced the more atmospheric do His the gods become. First, of the merely physical Indra.
name
rain.
is
He
is
rain-bringer.
Indra shatters
the cloud with his bolt, and releases the imprisoned waters.
further indicated
moved
in
Dyaus
him correspond closely with sky. in classical mythology. Like Hermes and Herakles, he some was endowed with precocious strength like Hermes he goes in
;
search of the cattle, the clouds which the evil powers have
driven away
;
and
though
Thor.
in the
the breezes
the Maruts,
or the crushers.
is
among an
whose
fertilizing
of the deities, who has done honour to the gods by his exploits ; he at whose might heaven and earth are alarmed, and who is known by the greatness of his strength he, men,
as soon as born
is
He who
the
first
is
Indra.
331
"He
moving earth
who
mountains
heavens
"
who spread
he, men, is who re who, having destroyed Abi, set free the seven rivers covered the cows detained by Bale ; who generated fire in the clouds ; who
He
he, men, is Indra. under whose control are horses and cattle, and chariots ; who gave birth to the sun and to the dawn ; and
is
invincible in battle
"
He
villages,
and
all
who
is
the leader
of the waters
"He
men, is Indra. heaven and earth bow down; he at whose might the mountains are appalled ; he who is the drinker of the Soma juice, the firm
:
he,
to
whom
of frame, the
Indra.
he,
men,
is
May we envelop thee with acceptable praises as husbands are braced by their wives
"
"
em
The
first
hymn from
"
the
"
Rigveda
perhaps refers to Indra as a sun-god, and to the rapidity with which, in tropical climates, the newly-born sun grows in heatgiving powers.
verse,
is
The
Abi,
the
same
as the
and
is
multiplied in
against
He
is
same hymn
in
much
of language that would naturally be applied to But so is almost every sustainer of the world.
Hindoo
deity.
whenever
it
came
to his turn to
be praised or propitiated.
SURYA
Corresponds to the Greek Helios.
the
That
is,
body of The same distinction exists between Poseidon and the sun. the one being the god of all waters, and even a Nereus;
god of
light as the special
332
visitor at
Surya
SAVITAR
Is another personification of the sun.
"
Inspirer,"
and
is
to
drive
or
stimulate.
As
the sun-god
he
is
and
if
we suppose
that in
sense
that
came
to
lose
to
purely physical
mean
so
Savitar
came
possessed a hand
made
of real gold,
Thus
instead.
the
hand
at a sacrifice,
corresponds to the Teutonic god Tyr, whose hand was cut off by the wolf Fenris.
Savitar thus
regarded as all-powerful.
That
Savitar
"
is
a sun-god appears
"
Rigveda
Shining forth he
rises
he, he,
"
my god
from the lap of the dawn, praised by singers who never misses the same place.
He
steps forth, the splendour of the sky, the wide-seeing, the far-shining, ; surely enlivened by the sun do men go to their tasks,
and do
"
their
work.
!
"
May May
the golden-eyed Savitri arise hither the golden-handed, life-bestowing, well guarding, exhilarating, and
affluent Savitri
be present
"
at the sacrifice
The second
was
also
"
who
the wanderer
333
SOMA.
In some respects the myth of
any.
Soma
is
Soma
plant, cor
and blood of the Qoasir, responds to that mixture of honey life to the which, in the Norse mythology, imparts prolonged In the Rigveda the Soma is similarly described ; as also
gods.
it is
But in the same hymns Soma is also It is he who gives strength ful god.
to
conquer
his
enemy
He
is
further, like
Vishnu, Indra,
earth,
and Varuna,
;
the
supporter
it
of
heaven and
as
if
thus
would seem
the
human kind
during which
men
are
attributed conscious
and energy
to whatever hurt or
"
"
benefited them.
The
in
:
Rigveda
adduced
to
show
Where
there
is
is
placed, in
Soma that immortal, imperishable world, place me, Where life is free, in the third heaven of heavens, where the worlds are
.
.
"
radiant, there
make me
immortal.
And
"
again,
In
filter,
which
is
The
the support of the world, thou, pure In thee Usijas first gathered thee.
Soma,
art puri
all their
worlds
Soma
fur
may
it
be
honeyed
Vayu
AGNI
Is the
god of
fire,
his
name
334
Latin
ignis. He corresponds to the Greek Hephsestos. Of this Mr. Wheeler, in his introduction to his History of India, thus god
writes
"
To man
Its powers raise it to the rank of a deity whose operations are felt and seen. It burns and it consumes. It dispels the darkness, and with it drives away, not only the imaginary horrors which the mind associates
fire
of
such as beasts of
...
;
It
becomes
and
moon
with
the
lightning
which shoots from the sky and and strikes down the strong man;
with the deity who covers the field with grain and ripens the harvest ; with the divine messenger who licks up the sacrifice
and
carries
it
to the gods/
As another curious instance of the sort of fetishism to which we have referred, there is a Vedic description of Agni as
being generated from the rubbing of sticks, after which he burst forth from the wood like a fleet courser. Again, when
excited by the wind he rushes amongst the trees like a bull, and consumes the forest as a raja destroys his enemies. Such
sentiments of course prove the purely physical origin of the god Agni; and it is hardly necessary to observe that, like
Indra, Varuna, Soma, Vishnu, and supporter of the universe.
etc.,
he.
is
an all-powerful god,
VAYU
Is the
air.
Allied to
him
are the
is derived Maruts, crushers," from a root meaning to grind, and is obviously connected with such names as Mars and Ares. The same root appears in
whose name
335
as the crashing, or Miolnir, an epithet of Thor, conceived Maruts are the Hindoo counterparts of the crushing god. The the fierce storm-beings who toss the sea into Norse
Ogres as being foam, and who, in the Norse Tales, are represented armed with iron clubs, at every stroke of which they send
the earth flying so
meaning of the
up the clouds
many yards into the air. The primary name is clear from the Vedic passages which
among the
forest trees,
and tearing
far the
Of
all
the personifications of
Hindoo mythology, by
is
USHAS,
Whose name name Ushas
is
is
the
same
as the
Greek Eos
us, to
or the
Dawn.
is
The
burn.
She
also the
same as the Sanscrit Ahoma, or Dahana, and the Greek Athene, and Daphne. The language in which the physical Ushas was spoken of was especially capable of easy transformation into
a-
The
and
dawn-light
it
is
beautiful to all
men, barbarous or
stretch
of poetic fancy to represent Ushas as a young wife awakening her children, and giving them new strength for the
toils
of the
new
"
day.
to
It
Sanscrit,
like the
means
awake,"
happens that the word which, in and thus, to know also means
"
"
Greek Athene, Ushas became a goddess of wisdom. The following passages show how Ushas was regarded by the Vedic worshippers.
"
dawn upon
Ushas, daughter of heaven, dawn upon us with riches diffu^er of light, us with abundant food ; beautiful goddess, dawn upon us with
;
wealth of cattle.
336
"
This auspicious Ushas has harnessed her vehicles from afar, above the and she comes gloriously upon men with a hundred
First of all the world is she awake, trampling over transitory darkness ; the mighty, the giver of light, from on high she beholds all things ; ever youthful, ever reviving, she comes first to the invocation."
"
Had we
it
would be easy to show how naturally the language in which the Vedic gods are described must ultimately have suggested a
monotheistic conception.
the following monotheistic
"
Meantime we content
hymn,
translated
ourselves with
by Dr.
Max Miiller.
He
:
In the beginning there rose the source of golden light. only lord of all that is ; he established this earth and this sky god to whom we shall offer our sacrifice ?
"
was the
is
who
the
whose
gods desire
is
whose shadow
the
"
god
to
whom we
death
who
He who
all
awakening world.
to
He who
governs
men and
beasts
who
is
the
god
whom we
"He
claims,
his
"
whose power these snowy mountains, whose power the sea pro He whose these regions are as it were river. two arms who is the god to whom we shall offer our sacrifice ? He through whom the sky is bright and the earth firm. He through
with the distant
:
whom
nay,
is
who
He
to
to
whom
heaven and
;
by
look up,
trembling inwardly
he over
whom
who
is
the
god
whom we
shall offer
our
sacrifice ?
"
May
is
who who
he not destroy us, he the creator of the earth created heaven ; he who also created the bright
the
or he the righteous,
:
god
to
whom we
"
XLII.
V 1SIIII11.
337
THE BRAHMANIC
Of
the later
GODS.
Brahma,
Hindoo
Vishnu, and Siva forming the Hindoo Trinity, or Trimurrti. These gods, however, are not regarded as separate, independent
or phases gods, but merely as three manifestations or revelations of the spirit or energy of the supreme incomprehensible being
Brahm.
That the
trinity is
commentator appears from the fact that it was unknown to the Yaska. Yaska s trinity is composed of the three Vedic gods
Agni, Vayu, and Surya.
Agni, in such trinity as the Brahmanic,
in the
appears to be
known
Brahma, Vishnu, and Indra as being the sons of Mahadeva, or found in the Siva. Perhaps, however, the reason of this is to be
mutual jealousy of the two great sects, Vaishnavas and Saivas, To into which the Hindoo religion came to be divided.
Brahm
as
the self-existent
of
whom
there
is
no image
As
signifying,
is
among
which
name Brahm
is
of the neuter
as that
described
delights
all,
whence
all
they live
when
must
return.
BRAHMA
(PLATE XLII.)
Is that
member
name
the
is
most
familiar to
Englishmen, and
to
Hindoos themselves.
temples of other gods, but he The reason of this has neither temples nor altars of his own.
that
is
quiescent,
and
22
will
338
remain so
end of the present age of the world of the only a small portion of whose 432,000
the spirit
graceful
moving on the waters. Narayana is figured as a youth lying on a snake couch which floats on the water,
his toe in his
and holding
mouth.
Brahma is figured as a four-headed god, bearing in one hand a copy of the Vedas, in another a spoon for pouring out the lustral water contained in a vessel which he holds in a third
.
hand, while the fourth hand holds a rosary. The rosary was used by the Hindoos to aid them in contemplation, a bead
,
silent
pronunciation of each
name
of the
name.
each god y had his sacti, or wife, or female and his vahan, or vehicle, whereon he rode. counterpart, Brahma s sacti is Saraswati, the goddess of poetry, wisdom,
Brahma,
like
art.
hanasa,
VISHNU
(PLATE
Is XLII.)
spirit.
The Vaishnavas
is
allege that
no
would cut
all
it
creation, preservation,
and destruction are at bottom only one a fact thus pointing to the unity of God.
XLIII.
Kamadeva.
Siva.
339
Of
the two
Hindoo
Vishnu
more
;
numerous.
his
rahan
and
(laruda, the winged half-man, half-bird, king of birds, his sacti, or wife, is the is said goddess Lakshmi.
is
He
one holding a chank, or shell, the second a chakra or quoit, the third a club, and the fourth a lotus, PlateXLII. represents Vishnu lying asleep on Ananta, the serpent
of eternity.
will rest in
that position
will spring
a lotus
stalk,
on the
top of which
time will
above the surface of the waters, which at that cover the world Brahma will appear to create the
earth anew.
SIVA
(PLATE
Is the destroyer
XLIII.)
Brahm s
His
energy.
He
is
represented as of a white
Pracriti,
bull.
sacti is
Bhavani or
the terrible Doorga or Kali, and his rahau a white Sometimes Siva is figured with a trident in one hand,
and
in
His necklace
;
is
made
are
river
of
human
in
is
his
loins
wrapped
and from
his
Ganga
the
god of worth
KamaLI
1 1.
)
who
is
represented (sec
Mate
as
a
flowers,
and
bow whose
gods,
is
string
1
formed of bees
and
thirdly,
Ganesa,
the
rithivi,
who
god
is
especially the
at the
invoked
opening of Hindoo
340
AVATARS OF VISHNU.
The word Avatar means,
in
its
that
from the world of the gods to the world of men. In these des cents, or incarnations, the purpose of Vishnu has always been a
is named Matsya, wherein, during the reign of King Satyavrate, Vishnu appeared in the form of a fish. For the world had been deluged by water for
beneficent one.
His
first
avatar
its
its inhabitants, except the king and seven with their families, who, together with pairs of all species sages, of animals entered into an ark prepared for them, and of which
wickedness, and
its
cable tied to
its
horn.
In the
second, or
tortoise,
Vishnu appeared in the form of a supporting Mount Mandara on his back, while the gods
avata.r,
Kurma
In the
Varaha,
or
Vishnu appeared as a boar to save the earth when had been drowned a second time. The boar went into the sea
and fished the earth out on his tusks. In the fourth he ap peared as Narasingha, the man-lion, to free the world from a monarch who, for his austerities, had been endowed by the
gods with universal dominion.
king to pieces.
In
likewise
was a bene
god who
Vishnu.
tenth,
is
His chief incarnation appears in Krishna, the most loved by the Hindoos. Buddha, the founder
or
Nine of these avatars have already passed. In the Kalki Avatara, he will appear armed with a
and riding on a white horse, when he will end the present age; after which he will sleep on the waters, produce Brahma, and so inaugurate a new world.
scimitar,
of
all
as a whole,
and
as
it is
now known
in the case of
Hindoo mythology.
Egyptian than of Greek, Norse, Germanic, or The reason of this is very evident. The
its
abstract or
meta
we have
gap
and as
its
are no
between
and
its
latest formations.
would appear as if precisely the same kind of between the Egyptian and the Greek genius as between the Greek genius and that of the Hindoos. The
Indeed,
difference existed
temperament of the Greek was open, joyous, sensuous that of the other two races was self-repressive, brooding, and mystical.
;
The
what was
imagined all things visible be merely the veil. The Greek was artistically sensuous; the Hindoo was mystically religious. Or, the difference
and tangible
to
34 2
between them may be said to resemble that between form and colour. The contrast in intellectual bias between the Egyptians
and
is
sufficiently indicated in
what
Herodotus says of the Egyptian contempt for the claims made by the Greeks of descent from the gods. The priests of Egypt
could only laugh at the absurdity of the belief according to which a god was said to be the sixteenth ancestor of Hecatseus. Our
gods, said they, never lived on earth.
However, it appears as if a comparison of it with other systems shows that the mythology of Egypt is, in great measure at least,
explicable
Myth."
by the general doctrines implied in the title Solar Even that very readiness with which the Greeks identified
"
own
affords, if
not proof, at
all
events
some countenance, to the supposition that both Pantheons were, so to speak, peopled after the same manner. Again, the functions and characters of the Egyptian gods interchange like
those of the Greek and Norse gods.
cases
birth
similar
physical
meanings.
an
We
find in both
and
his
same confusion, or identity, between a god s mother sister and what appears to be the same conflict between
;
The
old
German
religion
is,
perhaps, of a
is
more
spiritual character
Yet there
no doubt
Ormuzd and
between
This
Ahriman was
seems a strong indirect proof that Osiris and Typho are the same as Indra and Vritra. The idea of dynastic overthrow and
succession
common
to the
Aryan
religions,
NEPH.
PTHAH.
343
such weird and pathetic grandeur in Norse mythology, is, if at of Egypt. Yet it seems all, but faintly denned in the religion
to
"
be implied
in such phrases as
gods."
"
Osirian
it
divinities,"
and
appears that many of the Egyptian deities are only personified attributes of one and
three orders of the
Lastly,
The
eight
great
Neph, Amun,
Pthah, Khem,
NEPH
Is
also
Nef,
Cnouphis,
and
Cenubis.
it
is
still
retained in Arabic.
waters."
He
"
is
the spirit of
God moving on
the
Therefore in
Neph
313)
;
Brahma and
Zeus.
in
He
is
represented as having a
His
Hindoo phrase
ology
sacti,
PTHAH
Is
only
Neph under
new name
or,
to express
it
other
is
He
the
the
demwurgoS)
or artisan
of the
him
regarded him as the counterpart of their own artisan god, Hephrcstos or Vulcan. As the creator he was thought of as the
father
in
Memphis.
He
He
chiefly
figure
344
KHEM,
Like the former god,
of the universal
life.
is
He
He
is
the god
as
and was
identified
Pan by
in the.
Chemmis,
Thebais
by the
not only merges into the god Num or Neph, he also usurps the functions of, or is the same as, the garden-god Ranno. It was but natural that the god of reproduction should also be a garden-god. This garden-god, Ranno, was represented under the form of an asp, whose figure is found on
wine-presses and garden and agricultural implements. It should here be observed that Priapus, the classical counterpart of the
procreative
Khem
Khem, was
AMUN
Was
tion
the,
chief
of the
name
god of Upper Egypt. From the significa hidden it would appear that Amun
"
"
was a deity of a highly spiritual character. As in the preceding instances, he is identified or connected with various other gods,
e.g., he is named as Amun-ra (Ra being the sun-god), and Amun-num (Num, the living breath or spirit). His companion goddess was Mut or Maut and the two deities, with their son
;
SATI
The Greeks imagined
to
NEITH.
MAUT.
BUBASTIS.
RA.
345
NEITH,
was said to be the goddess of the upper heaven (or Sati was the goddess of the lower heaven (or ether), whereas be a sky-deity, and if she be also the mother of If Neith
Who
air).
the sun-god, the facts are another instance from Egyptian my thology of that same process through which the Greeks peopled But further, their Olympos and the Norsemen their Asgard.
the functions attributed to Neith
seem
to
show
same way as that of As Athene in Greek, and Ahana in Sans the Greek Athene. of the dawn, and finally, moral crit, meant originally the light
of this goddess was developed
in the
much
and
intellectual light, so
we
find that
This goddess was worshipped especially at deity of wisdom. Sais in the Nile delta.
MAUT,
To whom we
the
meant the Mother, Mother Nature, thus corresponded to the Greek Demeter.
Theban
Trinity,
and
BUBASTIS
Was
worshipped in the town of Bubastus in Lower She was said to be the daughter of the great goddess Egypt. Isis. She was represented with the head of a cat, the animal
chiefly
RA
Comes
first
in
the second
their
class
of deities.
The Creeks
identified
him with
own
346
city in
is
represented with a
which he was principally worshipped Heliopolis. hawk s head, over which is a solar
origin
He
disc.
or the upper
:
seems to be proved by the myths and that he air, was his mother
;
married
merely signifying the interaction of earth and sunlight in producing vegetation. But again, Ra was said to have for children Athor, Mu, and Mat. Athor
this
Mut (Demeter)
was
who was
originally the
goddess
light.
of light
while
Mu
means physical
transition in
light,
meaning happens in the story of Neith, and in that of Athene, Ahana, Ushas, and Eos. The wide prevalence of this god s worship shows in what importance
he was held, an importance naturally attaching to the sun-god
Precisely the
same
among
all
Old Testament
worship, was
spelling, Pharaoh.
Ra
is
also identical
with Baal, a
name implying
"city
"
lord,"
Baalbek means
Greeks
of the
sun,"
Heliopolis.
SEB
Is
said
to
He
the
is
sort of
Kronos,
functions
being
hieroglyphics
to
Egyptian be the
for
it
Here again we have an interchange of has been seen that Neph, Pthah, etc., have
been similarly described. Also, like other gods in and out of Greek mythology, Seb marries his own sister, Nutpe. These
two were
at the
head of the
"Osirian
divinities
Osiris, Isis,
XL1V.
Osiris.
Nilegod.
OSIRIS.
347
identified with
Seth, Nephthys.
Rlu-a.
She
is
supposed
and
to pre
As being
and
Osiris, she
OSIRIS,
(PLATE
XLIV.,)
The
great deity of the Egyptians, has been by some identified with the sun, or sunlight, or the vivifying powers in nature.
According to
the
sleep
this
of
the
Brynhild
(see
p.
324),
or
certainly
least,
life,
His contest with Seb (by the Greeks called Typho) would seem to be another instance of the plausibility, at
of this view.
At any
rate,
Osiris,
became
Thoth
s
to
who
after their
by Horus (the son of Osiris), good and bad deeds have been weighed by Anubis
the under-world were attended by forty officers,
These
trials in
who
Gardner Wilkinson
"
the
bench of judges who attended at the ordinary tribunals of the Egyptians, and whose president, or arch-judge, corresponded to
Osiris.
The
human form
with
different heads.
The
first
of a man, the
sixtli
348
They
man was
whom examined
it
if
was
his
province to
avenge."
The worship
where he was
sacrifice,
of Osiris was
universal
and
and
truth.
As
Osiris
was the
Seb
personification of physical
his brother
(Typho) was the personification of all evil. Of the analogy between these two on the one hand, and the old Persian
deities of
good and evil, we have already spoken. Another explanation of the Osirian myth has thus been
:
was the Nile god. (Plate XLIV.) The river, in its periodical inundations, was said to have married the earth (Isis, Rhea), and in its retreat to have been killed by the
given
Osiris
who was jealous, perhaps, of the wondrous fruitfulness of the marriage between the soil
river.
APIS
Was
at
the great
as
beast-god
at
of Egypt.
This sacred
bull
was
known
Apis Memphis, and as Mnevis, or Onuphis, His worship was so prevalent and popular, Heliopolis.
bull.
The
whose soul had transmigrated into the sacred bull was allowed to live for no
end of which
it
was taken to
APIS.
349
His death was
drowned
in
wells.
followed by national mournings, which, however, gave place to national thanksgivings as soon as a new Avatar, or sacred bull
discovered himself by the following marks a black coat, a white a half-moon on its triangular spot on the forehead, a spot like
:
The its tongue a knot like a beetle. from ./Elian, as given in Wilkinson, narrates following quotation the ceremonies consequent on the re-discovery of Osiris
right side,
and under
"As
soon as a report
is
god
marks,
known to them by tradition, approach the divine cow has desposited her calf, and there,
it
following the ancient ordinance of Hermes, feed during four months, in a house facing the rising sun.
with milk
When
this
period has passed the sacred scribes and prophets resort to the him dwelling of Apis, at the time of the new moon, and placing
boat prepared for the purpose, convey him to Memphis, where he has a convenient and agreeable abode, with pleasure
in a
for
wholesome
exercise.
Female
most
which he
companions of his
has access
own
when he
;
wishes.
for
it is
He
is
not thought right to give him the The considered too fattening.
.
.
man
is
the happiest
of mortals,
and
it is
is
Cambyses,
said,
looked upon with admiration by all people." found a set of villagers rejoicing over a
new sacred
bull
bull, and fancying they were making merry over his recent defeat in Ethiopia, the king of kings at once ran the
through the body, and had the priests Hogged. considered a good omen if the bull ate food offered to it
It
was
Men
35
own
SERAPIS
(PLATE
XLV.)
Was
his
another
name
Egypt until the time of Ptolemy Philadelphus, when it was introduced from Sinope, under the name of Serapis. Serapis was known as the judge of
worship
the under-world.
ISIS
(PLATE XLV.)
Was
him
for,
as
he was judge of the dead, so she is described as the giver of death. She is identified with Ceres and Persephone, and,
in this view, the grief of Isis for her
mourning
declare
:
I am nature, the parent of all the gods, mistress of the elements, the beginning of the ages, sovereign of the gods, queen of the manes, and the first of heavenly
all
beings."
all
she
is
convertible with
Mat and
"
Nutpe
various
pians,
And
names
My
divinity,
uniform in
itself, is
rites,
and
different
worship
XI.V.
Serapis.
ANUBIS.
351
real
me
and
call
me by my
name,
Queen
Plutarch considers Isis to be the earth, the feminine of nature, while Diodorus says that the part Egyptians, con
Isis.
all
ANUBIS,
With Hor, or Horus, and Har-pi-chruti, or Harpocrates, were the children of Osiris and Isis. The first was a
jackal-headed god
and, according to another myth, was the ; son of Osiris and Nephthys, a sister of Isis, who, fearing the jealousy of Isis, concealed the child by the sea-shore.
The
of Anubis was to superintend the passage of souls to their abode in the unseen world. As such he corre
office
sponded
presided
sculpture
to
the
Greek
Hermes
a
Psychopompos.
Anubis
in
is
over
as
tombs; and he
standing
is
frequently introduced
over
bier
on which a corpse
deposited.
As
the avenger
identified
in
who was
slain
by Typhon, he was
also
He
corresponded
some
sun-god Ra, Egyptians as representing the vivifying power of the sun. Harpocrates seems to be merely another version of Horus
is
the
he
sitting
on a
lotiis-tlower,
he was thought of as the god of silence. Perhaps in a representation of him in front of each of their temples, placing
this figure
meant
ought to
be conducted with
352
THOTH
Was
is
the
god
of the
under-world, and
He
and bearing a tablet, and palm-branch. So great was the respect in which the pen, sacred ibis was held on account, no doubt, of its usefulness
represented with the head of an
ibis,
in destroying
it
venomous
reptiles
that
any one
guilty of killing
ANOUKE
Was
the third
the other
member of the trinity of Northern two members being Sati and Neph.
Ethiopia,
THE
born of the
ficent
evil
SPHINX,
who was
a cruel monster
was a bene
being
who
deity
wisdom and knowledge. Her figure lion-bodied, with the head and breast of a woman was placed before every temple.
The Egyptian
brother.
more forbidding and strange-looking animal than his Greek He had the trunk and legs of a hippopotamus, with
the head of a crocodile.
INDEX.
A.
Abas, 212, 213 Al i, 33 1 A 1x1 era, 255 Abderos, 255 Absyrtos, 275
Acha;ans, 206, 239 Acheloulcs, 149
Achel<ios
ICthon, 66
Agamemnon, no,
264
189, 245, 28^, 286, 287, 289, 290, 292, 293, 296, 298, 3 i, 32,
33
149, 151,
Acheron, 59
Achilles, 60, 80, 147, 158, 167, 176, 203, 233, 252, 289, 290, 291, 292, 293, 294, 295, 296, 297, 298 Aditi, 329
|
Aganippe, 157 Agathodsemoo, 197 Agaue, 226, 227 Agenor, 118, 211, 225, 240
Aglaea, 174, 175 Agiauros, 236, 237 A g n 333. 334, 337
.
Admetos, 106, 262, 270, 272 Adonaea, Adonias, 86 Ad. mis, 85, 86, 87, 317
Adrastca, 29, 186 Adrastos, 277, 278, 279, 281 Kakos, 62
.
Agrii^entum, 242
Agrotera, f 10 Ahoina, Dahana, 335, 345, 340 Ahriinan, 342 Aide>, Aidoneus, src Hadr> Ais, Aide-, Aidoneus, .see lades Ajax, 203, 295, 297
1
r.iMiiu,
219
Akt.eon,
no, 226
(
ptOS, 21
.
I,
212
15
aii-<
>pe,
.Kschylus, I, 14, 68, 198, 231, 325 .Ksculapius, sec Asklepios -Ksir, 312, 313 271, 272
.
Alknueon, 278 39, 48, 2 1 8, 246 Alkyoneus, 43 Ah.L-us, 70, 209 Alphabet ^Phoenician), 224
Alkmene,
23
354
INDEX.
Alpheios, 113, 151 Alsei ds, 153 Althaea, 173, 269, 270
Apis, Mnevis, Onuphis, 348, 350 Apollinarian games, 106 Apollo, 10, 15, 16, 20, 24, 39, 43, 53, 61, 72 ; described, 96 ; 108, 109, in, 112, 123, 124, 125, 127,
130, 135, 136, 152, 153, 158, 161, 172, 177, 178, 179, 181, 190, 202, 209, 215, 228, 229, 234, 238, 252,
Ammon, Amum,
Amor,
see Eros
216
256, 263, 269, 278, 283, 292, 297, 299, 302, 303, 3!3. 35 * Appius Claudius, 187
227, 247 ; 147,
Amphion, 125
Amphitrite, 148
legend
of,
described,
55
no, in,
136,
Ammon
Amyklae, 98, 99, 285 Amyklas, 99 Amykos, 273 Amymone, 52, 211, 250 Anadyomene, 85 Ananke, see Fate Ananta, 339 Anar, see Onar Anchirrhoe, 21 1 Anchises, 86, 301 Ancile, 78 Androgeos, 241
Archemoros, 280 Archimedes, I Areopagus, 77, 237, 303 Ares, Mars, 10, 39, 47, 74,
scribed,
de
75
80, 86,
138, 1 68, 187, 209, 220, 224, 226, 236, 243, 253, 256, 307, 334 Arethusa, 113, 151, 157
Argeiphontes, 125 Arges, 27 Argiope, 235 Argo, 54, 271 Argolis, 177 Argonauts, 52, 54, 91, 150, 204, 209, 242, 253, 268
191,
Anouke, 352
Antaeos, 52, 262 Anteia, 222 Anteros, 86, 169, 171 Anthesteria, 119 Antigone, 230, 231, 277, 2/9, 282 Antiope, 228, 229, 269
Argonautic expedition, 235, 269 Argos, 124, 125, 2-10, 211 Argos, district of, 47, 48, 51, 52,
87, 190, 221,
222
Argos, heroes of, 210; 219, 245, 246 Ariadne, 120, 173, 241, 267 Arion, 52, 66, 118, 281
Aristaeos, 226,
234
Antium, 179, 183 Anubis, 347, 351 Aoede, 158 Apaturia, 82 Apeliotes, 164
Apelles,
i
Arsinoe, 86 Artemis, Diana, 10, 24, 39, 61, 70, 99, 100, 104; described, 109; 151,
152, 178, 190, 224, 226, 229, 252,
Aphrodite, Venus, 10, 17, 24, 39, 76 ; described, 83 ; 97, 124, 130,
135, 171, 177,
147,
161,
169,
170, 176,
172,
187,
173, 195,
I75 226,
273,
Asa folk, 310, 312, 315 Asgard, 312, 313, 345 Ask, 312 Askanios, 86, 301 Asklepia, 179
Asklepios, /Esculapius, 104, 106 described, 178 ; 181, 182, 233
;
Aphrodite Pandemos, 85
INDEX.
355
P>aldr,
Bali,
317
Battos, 123
ion,
240
204;
de
A^yanax, 294
Atalante, no, 270, 278 Ate, 1 88, 189 Atliamus, 226, 272
I4<),
Athene, Palla>, Minerva, 10, 24, 39, 43.47, 5 73. 75,82, 86,87; described, SS 113, 125, 135, 157, 175, 183, 187, 191, 192, 207,208,
;
214
319
157, 169, 173,
212, 215, 216, 217, 2l8, 222, 225, 226, 236, 237, 250, 283, 284, 292, 298, 299, 303, 335, 345, 346 Athens, 6, 28, 40, 69, 77, 91, 92, 93, 94, loo, 101, 112, 114, 119, 128, 129, 157, 164, 165, 169, 173, 174, 176, 1 86, 190, 239, 241, 275
174,225
Boeotos, 59 B .r. 311, 366 Boreas, 131, 164, 165, 166, 196, 238, 256, 273, 274
191,
Borghild, 323
319 337, 338, 339 Brahma, 336 described, 337 343 Brahmanism, 327
Brahm,
340,
At
is,
34
in
Audhumbla, 311
Au^eian Stables, 253 Auycias, 253, 254 Augurs, 139 Augustus, 134 Anka, ^4 }
Aulis,
117
no,
Brono, 316 Brontes, 27 BI-..H/C A-e, 44, 127, 242 Brynhild, 317, 324, 347 Bubastis, 345 Bubastus, 345 Buddha, 340 Buddhism, 327 ;iris, 202
C.
Cadnui>.
Autonoe, 226
Aux...
see
Kadnios
Can):
(
ainjiania,
82
I
-.
Canens, 139
C
Baal,
346
apitoline
lill,
Hakchus, Bacchus,
we
Dionj
Cappadocia, JiN
356
Carthage, 84 Cassandra, 93 Caucasus, 81, 207, 287 Centaurs, 231, 232, 233, 268 Cerberus, 58, 248, 352 Ceres, see Demeter Cerigo, see Cytheiea Chalkeia, 82 Chaos, 30, 193
Charis, 83
INDEX.
Danaos,
52, 21
1,
212
173; 176,
263, 302
Demeter, Ceres,
39,
65
5, 10, 24, 29, 33, S 2 , 57, 61, 63 ; described, 71, 120, 150, 172, 192, 243,
345,
35,
35i
Compitalia, 199 IOI II2 Corinth, 6, 16, 49, $4, 8 120, 213 ; legends of, 219; 230 Cretan Bull, 254
7>
Diana of Ephesus,
Crete, 29, 30, 31, 49, 66, in, 149. 169, 174, 236 ; legends ot, 239 ;
293 Crimea,
Cumsean
Sibyl, 103 Cupid, see Eros Cyparissus, 143 Cyprus, 84, 85, 87 262 Cyrene, Kyrene, 98, Cytherea, island of, 85 Cythere, 84, 85, 87
114, 115, 223 Dike, Astraea, 42, 131, 186 Diktynna, in Diktys, 214, 217 Dindumene, 33 Diomedes, 75, 95 2 55 2 9 8 2 301 Dione, 5, 39, 84, 85 Dionysia, 119 81 Dionysos, 18, 43, 48, 68, So, 37* described, 117; 135, : 3 6 H5 H8, i49 J 5 2 140, 141, J 72, 173, 202,213, J 154, 155,
>
99>
>
>
i44>
7i>
226, 227, 235 Dioskuri, 189, 285, 286 Dirse, see Erinys
D.
Daedalos, 241, 242 Daemons or Genii,
203,
204 Damastes, 266 Danae, 214, 21$, 217 Danaides, 60, 61, 213
Dithyrambos, 117, 118 Dodona, 36, 84, 155 Dodonids, 155 Donar, see Thor Doorga, Kali, 320, 339 Dorides, 146, 147, 154
INDEX.
357
Dryads
I
I
25,
153
)\\arves, 315,
320
336
Dynamene, 147
Erechtheum, 94, 237, 238, 265, 269 Ergane, 93 Erichthonios, 82, 91, 237
Eridanus, 108
Erinys, Eumenides, Semnae, Euri.r, 28, 52, 64, 1 86 described, 189 ; 190, 192, 234, 303, 327 Eriphyle, 278 Eris, Discordia, 76, 187, 283
;
Echidna, 249, 331, 352 Echion, 227 Echo, 155 Kdda, 310, 312, 325 Egypt, Religion of, 339
;
Eileithvia, Eleutho, 48, Eirene, 1 ax, 131 described, 184 Elektra, 162, 191, 302
in
Elektryon, 218
Eleusinia, 68
Erl-Konig, 320 Eros, Cupid, Amor, 21, described, 168 ; 173 Erotidia, 169 Erymanthian boar, 250
85, 86
Eleusinian
69, 120
Mysteries,
57,
64,
68,
266
Eleutheme, 228 Eleutho, see Eileithyia Elfheim, 312, 320
Elis, 15, 44, 47, 93, 112,
1-J is
of,
283 243
Mini-,,
Eumenides, see Erinys, 187, 279, 303 , Kumolpos, 69, 237 Euneike, 147 Euneos, 273, 280 Eunnmia, 131 ICuphrosyne, 174
Euripides,
i,
190,
197
Endymion, 114
Enipeus, 271 Enkelados, 43, 91 Enyalios, 187
Enyo,
165
J5ellonia,
Eurynome,
descri1>ed,
189,316
244, 246, 250, 251, 254, 255 Eurytion, 232 Kurytos, 235, 248
247,
248,
Epicurus, I Epidauros, 179, 266 Epi^oui, wife of A>klcpio>, 180 Epigoni, 277, 282
Euterpe, 160
F.
J
afnir, 323,
324
INDEX.
Farbanti, 319 Fate, 38 ; described, 184 Fatuus, see Faunus Fauna, Fatua, 138 ; described, 140 ; 142, 143 Faunalia, 138 Faunus, Fatuus, 138, 139, 140, 141 Fays, 140 Fenris, 318, 319, 320, 332 Flamen pomonalis, 132 Flora, see Chloris
Gredr, 318 Gudrun, 322, 324 Gulltopr, 319 Gunnar, 317, 324 Gyes, see Gyges Gyges, Gyes, 26
Gyrton, 231
H.
Hades, Aides, Pluto, 50 described, 56 ;
;
Freyr, Fro, 313, 317, 318 Frigg, see Freija Fulla, Volla, 315
Furise, see Erinys
36, 43, 63, 66, 129, 189, 215, 216, 220, 232, 305,
10,
62,
347
5,
22, 26,
Hamund, 323
Harmonia, 158, 226, 283 Harpe, 216
Harpokrates, 351 Harpys, 162 described, 190 253 Hastmapur, 325 Hebdomeios, 102 Hebe, Juventas, 39; described, 176; 265 Hebros, 235 Hecate, 43 described, 71; 140
; ; ;
88,
237
Galatea, 147
Galaxaure, 154 Galene, 147 Gamelia, 48 Ganesa, 339 Ganges, 20, 339 Ganymeda, 176 Ganymedes, 177 ; described, 178 Ge, see Gaea Gerda, 317 Geryon, 256 Geryoneus, 216, 256
Giants, 22, 28, 43, 53, 90, 93, 145, 148, 188, 202, 231 Ginki, 310
Hegemone, 175
Heimdall, 313, 319 Hekabe, Hekuba, 283 Hekate, see Hecate
Ginnunga-gap, 311 Gioll, 312 Gladsheim, 312 Glauke, 147, 275 Glaukopis, 93 Glaukos, 103 ; described, 220 Gmir, 321 Golden Age, 44, 127 Gorgons, 91, 191, 193, 216 Gorgophone, 91 Gortys, 239, 240, 241
Graces, see Charites
Hekatombason, 41 Hekatoncheires, 26, 27, 30 Hektor, 75, 84, 291, 293, 294, 295, 301 Hel, 312, 320 Hela, 312 Helena, 187, 284, 285, 286, 287, 291, 298, 301 Helenos, 284, 297 Helgi, 314, 323 Heliades, 108 Heligoland, 314 Helikon, 157, 158, 173
Heliopolis, 346, 348
INDEX.
359
II( -li.js,
Sol, 51, 76 ; described, 96; 109, 114, 165, 1 66, 240, 274, 331,
Hilde, 364
1
limeic/s. S^,
345
Hello, 272 Ik-lien, 206, 271, 272 Hellespont, 135, 203
lleniera, 22, 193
Hippodameia,
J
1
76, 243,
244
Hephaestus, Vulcan, 24, 27, 39, 43, described, 79; 86, 88, 97, 47, 76
;
124, 175, 267, 208, 226, 237, 242, 294, 296, 315, 334, 343, 348 Hera, Here, Juno, 5, IO, 24, 29, 33,
39, 40,
5
,
lippolochos, 224
[ippolytos,
Hippolyte, 256,268
1
I
86
described, 46-49; 50, 56, 75, 79, 87, 91, 104, 118,
;
43
lipponoos, 278
Hippotes, 163
Hjordis, 323 Hodr, 313, 316, 317
124, 125, 130, 140, 149, 156, 168, 176, 177, 185, 210,
162,
212
image
of,
Homer,
248
I 1
I,
246, 247, 249, 255, 256, 271, 272, 283, 284, 344 Herakles, Hercules, 39, 42, 43, 47, 52, 58, 76, 90, 91, 104, 105, 125, 148, 157, 169, 177, 204, 207, 209, 218, 220, 223, 233, 242, 245, 246 the choice of, 246; 247 ; legends
265, 266, 267, 268, 272, 273, 289, 290, 297, 324, 327, 330 see Herakles Hercules, 1 lenna. 126
of,
,
248;
Horatius Codes, 307 Horus, 347, 351 Lresvelgr, 321 himthursen, 321 Hrungnir, 321 Hunding, 323 Hunin, 314, 315
1 1
Hermes, .Mercury,
1 8, 20,24,38, 39, 63, 103, 104, 1 18; described, 1 21; 134, 136, 140, 144, 152, 153, 162, 168, 169, 175, 1 83, 198, 208, 209, 2IO, 211, 212, 215, 217, 227, 232,
de
Herodotus,
.
i,
16,
342
Hymen.
172
lynieii;eos,
86; described,
described, 2OO (erostratos, 115 lerse, 236, 237 Hesiod, 17,22, 23, 36, 158, 203,310
J
107
II
1
yperiiiiiestra, 212,
Somiui>,
288
Iypm,
lespere, 157
(
He-pcridcs, 156, 248 ksperides, iurden of, 156, 258 li>pcris, 156
I
33
described,
7I;
7, 143
k eland, 2O, 309, 310 Ida, 46, 51, 153, 178, 2.V,, M.i nymph), 29
bl.u, 270,
285
INDEX.
75,
76,
83,
I lion,
177,
321,
175, 322,
Jaso, 181 Jason, 233, 270, 271, 280 Jokaste, 229, 230, 231, 277 Jb tunheim, 311, 312 Julius Caesar, 198 Julius, see Askanios Juno, see Hera
Junones, 49
Jupiter, see Zeus Juventas, see Hebe
Illyrium, 227
; 330, 33i, 333,. 334, 337, 342 Ino, 149, 226, 272 Inuus, 137 lo, 48, 107, 124, 125 ; described, 210 ; 214, 218 lobates, 213, 222 lolaos, 250
K.
Kadmilos, Kasmilos, 126 Kadmos, 6, 118, 148, 158; legend 228 of, 224 Kaineus, 232
;
Kalais, 191
lole,
264
Iolkos,.23i, 270, 271, 272, 275 Ion, 237; legend of, 238 lonians. 206
Kalchas, 289, 290, 292 Kali Yuga, 337, 338 Kalki Avatara, 340
Kalliope, 160, 172, 234 Kallirrhoe, 153, 178
Kalliste, Kallisto, 113 Kalydon, 76, 264,
Iphigeneia, 12,
Iphikles, 247
no,
no
Iphimedeia, 209
278 47 described, 162 ; 265, 287 Iron Age, 44 Isandros, 224 Isfeudyar, 317 Isis, Mut, 344, 346, 347; de scribed, 350 Ismene, 230, 277
Iris,
;
345>
I phis,
269 Kalydonian Hunt, 76, 269 Kalydonian Boar, 76, no, 269 Kalypso, 154, 305, 306 Kamadeva, 339 Kapaneus, 278, 280 Karneia, 98 Karneios, 98 Karpo, 129
Kassandra, 283, 284, 297, 301, 302 Kassiepeia, 216
Kastalia, 157 Kastor, 227, 270, 272, 285
Ismenios, 101
Isthmian Games, 16, 220, 292 Isthmus of Corinth, 16, 54, 266, 276 Itanos, 239 Ithaka, 163, 306, 307 Itys, 238 Ixion, 30, 60, 61, 231, 232
legend
of,
236
J-
Dyaus
Janus, 32 ; described, 132 Janus, Temple of, 184 Japetos, 27, 207 Jardanos, 239
Jasion,
66
Kephalos, 166, 167 Kepheus, 216, 217, 218, 263 Kephissos, 151, 155 Kerberos, see Cerberus Kerkyon, 266 Keryneian Stag, 250, 252, Keryx, 236 Keto. 191, 193
INDEX.
36:
Klieni,
Kirke, see Circe Kitha-ron, 153, 229, 230, 247 Kleitos, 166
Kleta, 175 Klio, 150
Labyrinth, 241, 267 Lachesis, 185 Ladon, 87, 156, 252 Laertes, 287
Laios, 229, 230, 277, 323
Lakedamion, 270
Lakonia,
1
12
43
Lakshmi, 339 Lampetia, 108 Lampsakos, 135 Laodamia, 224 Laokoon, 299, 300
53, 97, 106, 262 Lapithre, 231, 232
Knidos, 85 Knosos, 239 Koios, 27 Kokalos, 242 Kolchis, 191, 204, 271, 274, 275 Kolonos, 190, 279 Komana, 187 Komos, 142
Laomedon,
Kopo, 101
Kora, see Persephone, 62 Koronides, 178 Koronis, 124, 178 Korybantes, 34 Kos, 43, 263 Kottos, 26
Kreios, 27 Kreon, 275, 279, 281, 282 Kreta, see Crete
Latium, 133, 138 Learchos, 272 I.e. la, 285 Leimoniads, 153
Lemnos,
79, 81, 82, 120. 126, 207, 208, 273. 280, 290, 298
of,
266
226, 306
Kuveia, 339
Kybebe, 33, 136, 140, 143 Kyklopes, 22, 26, 27, 30, 106, 304, 306 Kyknos, 76, 108 Kyllenios, 123 Kypselos, 196 Ky/ik<, 273
Kyl)ele,
L.
362
INDEX.
Lucifer, 168
Memnon,
80, 167,
296
Memphis, 343
Menelaos, 245, 285, 286, 287, 299, 301 Menoetios, 288 Menoikeus, 229, 281
i
Lykomedes, 269, 288 Lykos, 228, 229, 239 Lykurgos, (legislator), 113,240 Lykurgos, (king), 119, 256, 280 Lynkeus, 212, 213, 270, 285
Metion, 239
Metis, 30, 38, 88, 127
M.
Machseon, 298 Maenads, 147, 235
Mahabharata, 321, 325,337 Maia, 39, 121, 140 Manes, 199 Marathon, 204, 255, 267 Mars, see Ares
Marspiter (Mars Pater), 77 Marsyas, 106 Maruts, 330, 334, 335 Mat, 346, 350
Midas, 35, 106, 136 Midea, 244 Midgard, 311, 312, 320 Miletus, 103 Mimir, 319 Minerva, see Athene Minos, 62, ill, 174, 204; legend of, 240 ; 244, 254, 267, 269 Minotaur, 101, 241, 267 Minyse, 231, 247 Miolnir, 335 Mneme, 158
Mnemosyne,
314
Mnevis, see Apis, 348 Moloch, 31, 239 Molorchos, 249 Moera, Moerae, Parcas,
scribed, 184;
127
de
296
Moeragetes, 185
325
Meditrina, 181 Meditrinalia, 181
Momus, 195
Morpheus, 195 Mors, see Thanatos Mosychlos, 79, 81 Mu, 346 Munin, 314 Munychia, 113 Musagetes, 103, 158 Museia, 157 Muses, 130, 149, 150 ; described, 157; 171, 174, 175, 177, 194,226, 234, 235, 297 Museums, 159 Muspelheim, 311, 321 Mut, see Isis Mutinus, 135 Mykense, 210, 218, 244, 248, 251, 254, 255, 302
Medusa,
216,
Megapenthes, 218 Megara, 238 Mekone, 207 Melampos, 214 Melanion, 278
Meleagros, 76, no, 269, 270, 272 Melete, 158 Melia, 210 Melian Nymphs, 28
Melikertes, 149, 220, 272 Melolosis, 154
Melpomene, 159
INDKX.
363
Nympluva, 153
Nymphs,
151
28,
8,
113,
137
described,
Naganando, 321
Naiads, 125, 154 Napoja.-, 153
Nwa,
189
1 1
144
22, 70, 184, 185,
;
described, 193
196
O.
October horse, 78 Odin, 311, 312; described, 317, 322, 323, 324, 325 Odinand, 311
(
313;
Mysseus, Ulysses, 60, 95, 149, 150, 296, 297, 163, 287, 288, 290, 298, 299, 300, 301 ; wanderings
of,
304
76,
203,
248,
276,
231,
277,
279,
282
Kneus, 264, 269 (Knoimvos, 76, 176, 243, 244 (Knone, 324 l-.ta, 264 ^*, 335 Oiax, 212 Oikles, 262, 278
(
<
<
146;
<
)ileus,
>k
see
Ajax
Nereus, 55,
Nesaie, 147
.
145
described,
146
Okeanos, 22, 23, 27, 30, 38, 55, 148, 150, described, 145 58 154, 162, 186, 195, 210
;
<
264
>kvpete,
191
6,
Nestor, 53, 287, 301 Neverita, 55 Niblungs, 317, 321 Niflheim, 311, 312 Nike, Victoria, 93 described, 183 Nile, 211, 339 Niobe, 99, 229, 243
;
Ni>D>,
10,
40,
41,
47, 49,
16,
42
Olympian (lames, 16, 244 Olympos, 6, IO, 24, 25, 30, 42, 43,
44, 47, 70, 76, 78, 80, 81, 127, 174. 128, 157, 158, i?6, 177, i /S, ij"- 188, 207, 209, 224, 226, 231, 235, 246, 248, 296, 33 2 345
i
hnpliule,
)neiros,
263
122
195
164,
I
66
72,
)neiropoinpo>,
\y\
Nuina
oin pilius,
78, 92,
134,
280
364
INDEX.
Orchomenos, 173,
174, 247
Ormuzd, 342
j
Orpheus, 58, 150, 153, 228 ; legend of, 234; 272 Oschophoria, 269 Osiris, 342, 346 described, 347
;
2l6, 221, 223 Peirene, 220, 221 Peirithoos, 231, 232, 268, 272 Peitho, Suada, Suadela, 85, 176 Peleus, 128, 147, 158, 187,233,262, 270, 272, 283, 288 Peliads, 153
Pelias, 52, 271,
!
275
348, 349, 350, 35 i, 35 2 Ossa, 209 Othrys, 30 Otos, 76, 209, 231
Ovid, 133
P.
Pelion, 153, 179, 209, 233, 251 Peloponnesos, 99, 179, 206 Pelops, 42, 204, 143, 244 Penates, 198 Peneios, 6, 151
307
Periklymenos, 263
Periphates, 266
Athene
j
266
344
129, 149, 170, 189, 220, 232, 234, 347, 350 Perses, 70, 218
Perseus,
91,
of,
191,
192,
193,
204
214; 221, 246, 248 Persians, 92, 102, 165 Pessinus, 35 Phseakians, 306 Phaedra, 241, 269 Phaenna, 175
legend
324
Parthenia, 48 Parthenos, 93
Parthenope, 150 Parthenopseos, 76, 278 Pasiphae, 240, 241, 242 Pasithea, 147, 175 Patroklos, 203, 288, 289, 293, 295 Paul, St., 115 Pausanias, 41, 196
Pheme, Fama,
Philoktetes, 242, 290, 298, 301 Philomela, 237, 238 Phineus, 191, 217, 273 Phlius, 176, 177
INDEX.
365
Porphyrion, 43 Poseidon, Neptune, 10, 1 6, 24, 29, 33, 36, 435 described, 50557, 66 f
72,
146, 191,
106,
222,
Phoroneus, 205, 210 Phrah, Pharaoh, 346 Phrixos, 272 Picumnus, 139 Pious, 138, 139 Pierides, 157 Pieria, 157, 234, 235 Pieros, 157 Pilumnus, 139 Pimpla, Pimplea, 157 Pindar, I, 3, 68, 174 Pindos, 158 Pittheus, 265 Plataeae, 204
Plato,
I
237, 306, 33 i
149, 2l6,
231, 244,
254,
305,
Priamos, 263, 283, 294, 297, 300, 301 Priapos, Lutinus, 135
Prithivi,
339
252
Prodikos, 246 Proetos, 213, 214, 218, 222 Prokne, 237, 238 Prokris, 167 Prokrustes, 266
iS,
Plexaure, 154
Pluto, sec
29,
33,
Prometheus, 81, 82, 88, 195, 204; described, 205; 210, 233, 262
Proserpina, Persephone Proleus, 145, 146 Prymno, 154 Psyche, 170, 171 122
>ee
191
Podaikes, 263
P<eas,
242
Psychopompoe,
P.rna, 186
Polias,
93
Pollux, see
I
Polydeuko
Pulybos, 230
uly boles, 43
Polydektcs, 214, 217, 248 Polydeukes, Pollux, 227, 270, 272, 273, 285 Polydoroft, 226, 227 Polyhymnia, Polyinnia, 160 Polyido-, 221
Polykleitos, 49 Pol yk rates, 49
Town
of,
Pythian (James, 16, 59, 104 Pythios, 103, 105 Python, 96, 104, 105, 202
V
Qoasir, 333
K.
Ra,
I
lira,
RakhshttM, 331
366
INDEX.
described,
109;
Reimthursen, Rime, or Frost, 311 Remus, 74, 77, 307 Rerir, 322 Rhadamanthys, 62, 240, 243, 247 Rhamnusia, 186 Rhea, Kybele, 27, 29, 31 described, 33; 57, 65, 71, 144, 347 Rhea Silvia, 74 Rhodeia, 154 Rhodes, 98, 149 Rhodope, 234 Rhoetos, 43 River Gods, 151 Romulus, 74, 77, 134, 247, 307
;
Selli, 37 Semele, 39, 48, 118, 140, 149, 226, 227 Semnse, see Erinys
Serapis, Sarapis, 350 Seriphos, 215, 216, 217 Servius Tullius, 74, 114, 116, 178 Seth, 347 Seven \Vonders of the Ancient
World, 42
Sibyl, see
Cumscan
143, 163,
192,
219,
242
Sidon, 240
1
S.
144
Silvanus, 140, 142, 143 Silver Age, 44
Sinis,
266
Samothrace, 126 Saranyn, 327 Sarapis, see Serapis Saraswati, 338 Sarpedon, 240, 243 Sati, 344, 345, 352 Saturnalia, 31, 32, 199 Saturnia, 32 Saturnus, 18, 29 described, 32; 132, 133, 137, 139, 143
;
305
31,
described, 219 Sisyphos, 60, 6 1 Siva,lMahadeva, 337; described, 339 Skirnir, 317 Skyros, 288, 298 Sleipnir, 312 Smyrna, 187
Socrates,
I,
17,
So
Solymi, 223
141
;
144,
145,
231, 325
Scopas, 169
99, 113, 157, 169, Sparta, 173, 245, 284, 285 Sparta:, 226, 227 98,
INDEX.
36?
Thamyris, 235 Thanatos, Mors, 194, 196, 197 Thargelia, 100 Thargelios, 100 Thasus, 120
6, 76, 77, 101, 112, n8, 119, 128, 167, 224; legends of, 224, 247, 263 Thebes, War against, 277 Thebes, 1 )estruction of, 282
Syrinx, 136
Themis,
T.
27,
39,
104
described,
Talos, 239, 242 Tantalos, 60, 6l, 229, 243 Taranis, 376
Tarentum, 98
Tarquin, 103
Taixjs, 218 Tartarus, 18, 24, 25, 30, 60, 70, 87, 94, 195. 213, 232, 145. I93
of,
243
The>pio>,
IO6, 206,
Telemachus, 287, 306 Telepha>sa, 225 Tdephos, 289, 290, 298 Telophoros, l8l Telesto, 154
l
24, 47, 79, 128, 147, 152, 158, 243, 283, 288, 294, 296 Thiassi, 321
eni])e, 6, 52,
231
Thoe, 147 Thor, Donar, 312, 313 3i5. 321, 330, 335 Thoth, 347, 352
described,
Thrace, 77, 118, 144, 22$; legends of, 233; 255 Thucydides, i Thyeiie, 155 Thycstes, 244, 245, 301
Tiiyns, 213, 2l8 Tisiphonc, 28, 190 Tita-a, 156
Titans, 22, 25, 26, 27, 33, 42, 127, 137, 145, 200, 231
50,
2l8
173
3 68
INDEX,
Tithonos, 1 66, 167, 296 Tityos, 60, 6 1, 202 Triformis, 70 Trimurrti, 337 Trinakia, 107, 305
Vishnu
334,
337 j
Triptolemos, 66
Tritogeneia, Tritonia, 88, 89 Triton, 60, 63 ; described, 148; 150
Tritonis, 88
Volsungs, 317, 321, 322 Volsung Saga, 324,^325 Vritra, 331, 333, 342 Vulcanalia, 82
Trivia, 71
Trcezene, 128, 157, 265 Troilos, 291 Trollweiber, 321 Tros, 178
Troy, Ilion, 91, 95, 106, no, 178, 204, 245 ; war of, 282 Tyche, Fortuna, 182, 185 Tydeus, 277, 280, 296 Tyndareus, 263, 286 Typho, 342, 347 Typhon, Typhoeus, 164, 249, 351. 382 Tyr, Ziu, 313, 318, 332
165
313, 343
X.
Xuthos, 238
Y.
Yggdrasil, 312, 319
U.
UHr, 313, 319 Ulysses, see Odysseus Urania, 85, 87, 127, 160 Uranos, 18, 22 ; described, 26; 27, 28, 29, 33, 43, 85, 127, 145, 158,
1
Ymir, 3 1
1,
357
Z.
68,
;
328
V.
272
17,
34
Valkyrien, 321
Varuha, 340 Varuna, 328, 330, 333, 334 Vayu, 334, 337 Ve, 313 Vedas, 9, 338 Vedism, 327 Veneralia, 87
Venilia, 55 Venus, see
206, 207, 208,210, 2l8, 219, 220, 224, 232, 235, 236, 239, 244, 246, 247, 249, 3 5, 329, 330, 343 Zeuxis, I Ziu, see Tyr
Zygia, 48
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"
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this description so
if any, living writers of fiction, who could have solved a literary task of adequately and gracefully as Herr Gustav Freytag." Saturday Review
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Gesenius
Student s Hebrew Grammar, from the twenty-first German edition, as by E. Roediger, D.D., Professor of Oriental Languages at the University of Translated by B. DAVIES, LL.D. With special Additions and Improvements, Berlin. by Dr. Roediger and with Reading Book and Exercises by the Translator. New
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Zealand: its Physical Geography, Geology, and Natural Pro History, with special Reference to the results of Government Expeditions in the vinces of Auckland and Nelson. Translated from the German original by E. Sauter.
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e are glad to see such a masterly handling of the subject of German Declension. to explain his theory with regard to the inflection of the adjective and the verb in a very lucid and thorough manner.
\\
Koehler (Dr.
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ioth Edition.
German
Lenormant
Student
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History of the East comprising the history of the Israelites, Egyptians, Assyrians, Phoenicians and Carthaginians, Babylonians, Medians, Persians, and Arabians. By Francois Lenormant, Librarian to the Institute of France. 2 vols., post 8vo., cloth, i2s.
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Life of Prince Henry of Portugal, surnarned the comprising the Discovery within one century of half the Navigator, and its results World with New Facts in the Discovery of the Atlantic Islands, a refutation of French claims to Priority of Discovery, Portuguese knowledge (subsequently lost) of the Nile From authentic contemporary Lakes, and the History of the Naming of America. documents. Illustrated with portraits, maps, etc. Royal 8vo., cloth, i 55. The Life of Prince Henry is a piece of good work, full of new matter, and of high mark
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Comprising passages from the works of no less than 140 French writers of the nineteenth century, this collection of Elegant Extracts has been made with proper regard to tinreputation of the numerous authors, and with due consideration for the peculiar needs of
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Strauss (Dr. D. F.) The Old Faith and the the fourth German edition, by Mathilde Blind.
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Translated from
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hostile criticism will not refuse to recognise in it a becoming epilogue to an in The style is a model of elegance ato d of afcd history of theological inquiry. History ol spirit of the work throughout breathes the dignified independence and Srecision, Jrecision, isinterested love of truth which places Strauss so high above the ordinary run of writers on ru both sides of the controversy with which his name is identified." Saturday Review.
The most
:vennui cnapter
me
and the
Student
s Hebrew Lexicon: a compendious Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon to the Old Testament, chiefly founded on the works of Gesenius and Fiirst, with improvements from Roediger, Dietrich, Ewald, and others. Edited by BENJAMIN DAVIES, Ph.D., LL.D., Translator of Roediger s Gesenius or Student s Hebrew Grammar. New Edition.
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this
Its
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We strongly recommend
volume
Testament Language. The form is simply perfect." London Quarterly Review. No better work can be put in the power of Biblical students." Educational Times.
"
Old
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As
It is the best Lexicon for a moderate price which can be procured in the English language. a philological work, it is of superior excellence." Sword and Trowel.
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