Neptune. §

Neptune was the brother of Jupiter. In the division of their father’s kingdom the empire of the seas fell to his share. He was worshipped as the god of the seas. Amphitrite was his wife. He was represented with black hair and blue eyes, standing erect in a chariot formed of a vast shell drawn by sea-horses; clothed in an azure mantle, and holding in his hand the trident which commanded the waves. Around him played the sea-nymphs, and the Tritons sounding their trumpet of shells.

He was the ruler of the waters, the god of ships and of all maritime affairs, and his supreme command could raise the stormy waves, or calm the wildest fury of the tempest.

The Isthmean games, which were celebrated at Corinth in Greece, were in honour of Neptune That city being the centre of the Greek commerce, derived its wealth from the sea, and therefore held. Neptune in more grateful estimation than the other states.

Polyphemus. §

Polyphemus was a son of Neptune, a giant who, like the Cyclops had but one eye. He kept sheep in the island of Sicily, and lived by violence and murder, devouring human beings whenever they fell in ills way. Polyphemus surprised Ulysses when he was driven to the island of Sicily and devoured several of his companions. Ulysses contrived to intoxicate Polyphemus, and while he was asleep extinguished his only eye. Phorcus, father of the Gorgons and of Proteus, and Triton, were sons of Neptune.

The Tritons were imaginary sea animals, the upper part of whose bodies was supposed to resemble that of man; the lower part that of the dolphin. The first of them was the son of Neptune and Amphitrite. This Triton, being the trumpeter of Neptune, terrified the giants in their war with the gods, by the sound of his instrument.

The Sirens were sea nymphs of rare beauty, who dwelt upon the coast of Sicily; their names were Parthenope, Ligeia, and Leucosia. In the neighbourhood of the Sirens lived the enchantress Circe. They were all admirable singers, and lured mariners, whom they detained from prosecuting their voyage, to visit them.

Circe metamorphosed men to brutes.

Milton, the British poet describes the effect of their music thus:

                    Circe and the sirens three,

Amid the flowery kirtled Naiades

Culling their potent herbs and baleful drugs;

Who, as they sung, would take the prisoned soul

And lap it in Elysium; Scylla wept

And chid her barking waves into attention,

And fell Charybdis murmured soft applause.

Scylla and Charybdis. §

Scylla, daughter of Phorcus, was a beautiful woman, whom Circe hated because she was beloved by Glaucus, whom Circe desired for herself. The mischievous Circe infected the water in which Scylla bathed, so that she was metamorphosed into a monster, retaining the female form, but having six dogs’ heads; some say she was changed to a rock on the coast of Sicily.

Scylla was, in fact, a rock, and the table of the dogs’ heads was derived from the supposed resemblance between the dashing of the waves and the howling of dogs. Opposite to Scylla was a whirlpool called Charybdis. Charybdis was supposed to have been a female robber killed by Hercules.

It was said that the rock Scylla and the whirlpool Charybdis, were so near to each other in the strait of Messina, that a ship, when it would steer clear of Charybdis, struck upon Scylla, and, if it would avoid Scylla, it was swallowed by Charybdis. Hence the proverb, when we shunScylla we are lost in Charybdis, signifying, one of two dangers is inevitable.

The Halcyones were sea-birds, who were supposed to build their nests upon the waves, and to calm their violence by their presence. Halcyone, wife of Ceyx, King of Trachinia, seeing the corpse of her husband driven on shore by the tide, who had been shipwrecked on his return from consulting the Oracle of Delphi, threw herself into the sea. The gods, pitying the unhappy fate of Ceyx and Halcyone, changed them into the birds called Halcyones, and imparted to them the power of stilling the waves.

The Halcyon of the ancients is supposed to be the king-fisher, an aquatic bird, which makes its appearance immediately upon the abatement of storms; thus they were ignorantly presumed to be the cause of allaying tempests.

Proteus was a son of Neptune, who was intrusted with the care of his flocks, consisting of sea-calves, (phocæ, or seals,) and other marine animals. He is represented by the poets as possessing the faculty of changing himself into whatever forms he chose. Hence, a fickle person is frequently called Proteus. History makes mention of a Proteus King of Egypt, about the time of the Trojan war, who was illustrious for his secrecy, wisdom, and foresight.

Proteus was a prophet. When Menelaus was detained on the coast of Africa on his return from Troy, he wished to consult Proteus; Proteus, however, would not attend to him, so Menelaus and his companions covered themselves with seal skins, and appeared to Proteus to be of his flock. In that way they succeeded in securing him, though he assumed sundry forms in order to escape.

Now thronging quick, to bask in open air,

The flocks of ocean to the strand repair.

Couched on the sunny sand the monsters sleep

Then Proteus mounting from the hoary deep,

Surveys his charge unknowing of deceit,

Pleased with the false review secure he lies,

And leaden slumbers press his drooping eyes.

    Shouting we⁴ seize the god; our force to evade,

His various arts he summons to his aid.

    A lion now he curls a surgy mane;

Sudden our bands a spotted pard retain;

Then armed with tusks, and lightning in his eyes,

A boar’s obscener shape the god belies.

On spiry volumes, there, a dragon rides;

Here, from our strict embrace a stream he glides.

And last, sublime, ’tis stately growth he rears

A tree, and well dissembled foliage wears.

Pope’ Homer’sOdyssey .

Harpies, certain disgusting demons mentioned by Virgil. The Harpies had human faces, but bodies of vultures, with long claws like the talons of carnivorous birds. The Harpies not only injured but defiled whatever they lighted upon. They were represented as rapacious and cruel, and destroying for the mere pleasure of destruction.

These subordinate deities were not all which mythology has recorded. There were various tribes of nymphs: those who presided over rivers and waters, were named Naiades; those who resided in marshes, Lymniades. The wood nymphs were called Dryades and Hamadryades. The nymphs of the mountains, Oreades. Milk, honey, oil, and sometimes goats, were sacrificed to their honour.

Bacchus. §

Bacchus, that first from out the purple grape,

Crushed the sweet poison of misused wine.

Milton’s Comus .

Bacchus was probably some ancient conqueror and civilian of the Eastern nations. The mythologists say that Bacchus was born in Egypt and educated at Nysa in Arabia; that he taught the culture of the grape, and the art of converting its juice to wine, and the preparation of honey: and that he subdued India, Phrygia, Egypt, and Syria. The conquests of Bacchus seem to have been of a pacific nature. They represented the triumph of the useful arts over brute force.

Bacchus, drawn by wild beasts, subject to his will, attended by rural deities, — Pan, Silenus, and the Satyrs, and making a peaceable progress from one country to another, exhibits a benefactor and not a disturber of nations. The fir, the ivy, the fig, and the vine, were sacred to Bacchus. The goat was slain in his sacrifices, because that animal is injurious to vines.

The festivals of Bacchus were celebrated in the woods. Women were his principal worshippers His priestesses were called Bacchæ, Bacchantes, and Menades, the Bacchæ ran about disguised in the skins of beasts with dishevelled hair, bearing torches in their hands, and waving the thyrsus, and sometimes bearing upon their shoulders young kids for the sacrifice.

The feasts of Bacchus were sometimes noisy, and those who attended them were often intoxicated. These feasts were called Bachanalia, Revels, and Orgies. Riotous meetings of those who drink much wine and keep late hours are now often called orgies. The Bacchæ hung little images of Bacchus upon the pine trees when they went into the woods to celebrate his worship.

To Bacchus.

Bacchus, on thee we call, in hymns divine,

And hang thy statues on the lofty pine.

Hence plenty ev’ry laughing vineyard fills,

Through the deep valleys and the sloping hills

Where’er the god inclines his lovely face,

More luscious fruits the rich plantations grace.

Then let us Bacchus’s praises duly sing,

And consecrated cakes and chargers bring;

Dragg’d by their horns let victim goats expire,

And roast on hazel spits before the sacred fire.

Come, sacred sire, with luscious clusters crowned,

Let all the riches of thy reign abound;

Each field replete, with blushing autumn, glow,

And in deep tides, by thee, the foaming vintage flow.

Pitt’s Virgil .

In the Medici gallery, at Florence, is a fine statue of Bacchus by Michel Angelo. He is crowned with ivy and vine tendrils, and holds in his right hand a cup, and in his left a bunch or cluster of grapes, of which a little satyr, covered with a goat skin, is endeavouring to get a taste.

Flora was the wife of Zephyrus, the goddess of flowers; in honour of whom the Romans celebrated games.

Flora was celebrated at Rome in certain festivals, called the Floral Games. Her head was adorned with a chaplet of roses. She carried in her arms a profusion of flowers, and was young and fair, as became “the queen of all the flowers.”

Pomona was the goddess of orchards, married to Vertumnus. The supposed skill of this goddess in the cultivation of fruit-trees and gardens, procured for her great reputation among the Romans, who placed her in the Pantheon, or temple of all the gods. Pomona was represented under the form of a beautiful young woman sitting upon a basket of fruit; and near her stood Vertumnus, in the figure of a young man, holding fruit in one hand, and in the other the horn of plenty.

Priapus was considered as the god of gardens. He was accounted the son of Venus and Bacchus; and his image, a most hideous mis-shapen figure, was set up to frighten away birds and thieves. The eastern nations worshipped him under the name of Baal-Peor.

Pales was the goddess of shepherds and protectress of flocks. Her feasts, called Parilia, were celebrated in the month of April, on which occasion no victim was killed, and nothing offered but the fruits of the earth. The shepherds purified their flocks with the smoke of sulphur, olive wood, box, laurel, and rosemary. They then made a fire of straw, round which they danced; and, afterwards, presented to the goddess, milk, cheese, prepared wine, and millet cakes. It was during this feast they celebrated the founding of Rome.

Other rural deities were Anna-Perenna, nearly the same as Pales; Bubona, goddess of herdsmen; Mellona, of bees; Seisa, protectress of corn when in the ground; Segesta, during the harvest; Tutelina, when stored; and Robigus, who was invoked to preserve it from the mildew. Populonia protected the fruits of the earth from hail and lightning. Pilumnus presided over the grinding of corn, and Picumnus over the manuring of lands.

Hippona was the goddess of horses and stables, and Collina of hills: while Jugatinus presided over hillocks. These were all invented by the Romans, and are not to be met with among the Grecian deities.

The Satyrs, and Fauns were rural divinities, supposed to inhabit forests and mountains. They were represented as half men and half goats.

Terminus was a Roman deity. Numa, finding the laws which he had established for the security of property insufficient, persuaded the Romans that there existed a god, the guardian of boundaries, and the avenger of usurpation. Numa built a temple to him upon the Tarpeian mountain, instituted feasts to his honour, and prescribed the form of his worship. He was represented under the form of an immovable rock. Milk, cakes, and fruit were offered to him, and his image was crowned with flowers and rubbed with oil.

Æolus was a son of Jupiter; god of the winds and tempests; which he was supposed to retain in a vast cave, or to set at liberty at his own will, or at the command of his father.

His children were Boreas, the north wind; Auster, the south; Eurus, the east; and Zephyrus, the west wind.

Æolus lived in the time of the Trojan war, and reigned over the Æolian islands, called, before, the Vulcanian. Æolus, possessing penetration and foresight superior to his contemporaries, by frequently foretelling the approach of storms, seemed to them to be something more than mortal. By attentively observing the direction in which the smoke of volcanoes was driven by the winds, he learnt to distinguish those which blew most violently, and were of longest duration. The descendants of Æolus sent colonies into Asia Minor, and afterwards passed over into Italy. Æolia may be seen in Asia Minor.

Pan. §

See plate, page 87.

The god Pan held a principal place among the most ancient divinities. By the poets, he is said to be the son of Jupiter and Calista. He was represented under the form of a satyr, half man and half goat, holding in his hand the rural pipe, invented by him, and called Syrinx. He was generally venerated by the Arcadians, as the head of all the rural deities. In the month of February, the Romans celebrated his feasts, which they called Lupercalia, from the place consecrated to him being supposed to be the same where Romulus and Remus were suckled by a wolf, in Latin lupus. The priests of Pan, at Rome, were called Luperci.

Pan was regarded as the inspirer of sudden untounded terror; more especially of the consternation which sometimes turned armies to flight. These frights are called Panics. The Athenians had a statue of him, like that of Mars. And in some antique gems and sculptures, his figure is nearly as frightful as that of Medusa.

The real origin of Pan was extremely ancient. The Egyptians worshipped the sun as Osiris, and the moon as Isis, and the several parts of the universe under various names, and they adored the whole collectively, under a figure of half man and half other animals. To this deity the Greeks gave the appellation of Pan, that is, in their language, the whole.

The poets relate that Pan successively loved the nymphs Echo, Syrinx, and Pithys. Echo preferred the beautiful Narcissus; who, seeing his own image in a fountain, was so captivated with it that he remained gazing there, till he languished and died. Echo pined away with grief for the loss of Narcissus, but being immortal preserved her voice, repeating every sound which reached her.

Syrinx was a nymph in the train of Diana, and, when pursued by Pan, fled for refuge to the river Ladon, her father, who changed her into a reed. Pan observing that the reeds, when agitated by the wind, emitted a pleasing sound, connected some of them together, formed of them a rural pipe, and named it Syrinx.

Pithys was favourable to the god, but Boreas being jealous of this preference, with his powerful blast precipitated her from a rock. While falling, she was changed into a pine tree, which was afterwards sacred to Pan. Milk and honey were offered to this deity.

Silenus. §

Silenus was the chief of the Satyrs, the foster-father of Bacchus. They represented him as an old man with a bald head, a flat nose, large ears, and every mark of intemperance. He was generally seen accompanying Bacchus, riding upon an ass, but so intoxicated, as to be almost incapable of keeping his seat. Historians give a different account of him. They say that he was a philosopher of great wisdom and learning, who accompanied Bacchus in his expedition to India, and was his principal counsellor.

Lares and Penates. §

The Lares and Penates were Roman gods, who presided over empires, cities, highways, houses, and individuals. Among these divinities, were ranked the souls of them who had faithfully served the state; and families placed among them the spirits of their departed friends and relations. They were esteemed as the guardians of houses; were worshipped by the Romans under the figure of small images of human form, and were kept in the most retired part of the edifices. Lamps, the symbols of vigilance, were consecrated to them, and that faithful domestic animal, the dog, was sacrificed to them When infants quitted one of their first ornaments called the Bulla, it was deposited before the feet of these domestic deities. During the public feasts of these Lares and Penates, small waxen images of them were suspended in the streets.

The Lares and Penates were represented as young boys, covered with dog-skins, and at their feet was placed the image of a dog. The dog is the emblem of faithful attachment and watchful care, and he is more the friend and guard of man than any brute animal; therefore he was a proper companion of the domestic gods.

The Lares were placed on a hearth in the hall; and on festivals they were crowned with garlands, and sacrifices were offered to them.

The other household gods, the Penates, were worshipped only in an interior apartment called the Penetralia. They were held so sacred by the Romans, that the expression of driving a man from his Penates, signified that he was expelled from his home, his country, and from all that he loved.

Genii were invisible spirits, regarded as the intimate companions of man’s thoughts, governing and disposing his mind and his conduct. Every man was supposed to have two Genii. His evil genius disposed him to wrong conduct, and led him to misery — his good genius inspired him with virtuous sentiments, and instructed him in what is excellent action.

They were represented as young men, holding, in one hand, a drinking vessel, and in the other, a horn of plenty. Sometimes they were depicted under the form of serpents.

The Genii presided over the birth and life of men. Each spot had a local genius — one of the place. Cities, groves, fountains, and hills, were provided with these guardians.

It was the custom of the Romans to invoke these Genii on birth-days. The ground was strewed with flowers, and wine was offered to them in cups.

The opinion prevailed, that the universe abounded in spirits, presiding over its various parts and movements. Plato, the Greek philosopher, speaks of Gnomes, Sylphs, and Salamanders; the first inhabiting the earth; the second, the air; the third, fire.

Aurora. §

Aurora was the goddess of morning, and the mother of the winds and the stars. She was represented seated in a light car, drawn by white horses. The clouds dispersed at her coming, and she “sprinkled with rosy light the dewy lawn;” Nox and Somnus (night and sleep) fled before her, and the constellations vanished in the heavens as she advanced from the east.

Aurora married Tithonus, and a prince of Troy, and a mortal. Tithonus entreated of his wife to bestow upon him the gift of immortality, and the goddess obtained it for him from the Destinies. But when Aurora presented her petition, she forgot to ask for perpetual youth, and Tithonus, though he continued to live for ages, was in such a state of dotage, that is of infirm old age, that he wished rather to die than live.

Tithonus, according to fabulous history, was transformed to a grasshopper, an insect which the ancients considered as peculiarly happy and long-lived. The Greek poet Anacreon wrote some pretty verses to the grasshopper, which have been translated by Thomas Moore.

Oh thou, of all creation blest,

Sweet insect! that delight’st to rest

Upon the wild wood’s leafy tops,

To drink the dew that morning drops,

And chirp thy song with such a glee,

That happiest kings may envy thee!

    Whatever decks the velvet field,

Whate’er the circling seasons yield.

Whatever buds, whatever blows,

For thee it buds, for thee it grows.

Nor yet art thou the peasant’s fear.

To him thy friendly notes are dear;

For thou art mild as matin dew,

And still, when summer’s flowery hue

Begins to paint the bloomy plain.

We hear thy sweet prophetic strain,

Thy sweet prophetic strain we hear.

And bless the notes and thee revere!

    The muses love thy shrilly tone;

Apollo calls thee all his own;

”Twas he who gave that voice to thee,

”Twas he who tunes thy minstrelsy.

Unworn by age’s dim decline,

The fadeless blooms of youth are thine.

    Melodious insect! child of earth!

In wisdom mirthful, wise in mirth;

Exempt from every weak decay.

That withers vulgar frames away;

With not a drop of blood to stain

The current of thy purer vein;

So blest an age is past by thee.

Thou seemest — a little deity!

Zephyr. §

See plate, page 97.

Zephyr or Zephyrus was the west wind. He was represented as a beautiful youth, with butterfly’s wings. He cooled the air by the fanning of his wings during the heat of the summer, and revived the flowers when they fainted under the sun’s rays.

Zephyr was married to Flora, the goddess of flowers. He was represented in the octagon temple of Athens, which is called the Temple of the Winds. Zephyr loved young Hyacinth, who was also beloved by the nymph Echo, and by Apollo. Hyacinth preferred Apollo, but the envious Zephyr applied his strongest breath to a discus which Apollo was throwing, and killed Hyacinth.

Pluto. §

Pluto, the supreme ruler of the infernal regions, sometimes called Dis, was the third son of Saturn and Ops. He was represented seated on a throne, surrounded with gloomy darkness, his countenance severe and frowning; in his hand a two-pronged fork, or a key, denoting the impossibility of returning from his dominions; his head crowned with the flowers of the narcissus, or with cypress or ebony. Sometimes he was seen in a chariot drawn by black horses, with a helmet on his head, which had the power of rendering him invisible. The victims offered to him generally were black sheep.

The wife of Pluto was Proserpine; her history is related with that of her mother, Ceres. The following verses describe the rape of Proserpine prettily.

    —— In Sicilia’s ever-blooming shade,

When playful Proserpine from Ceres strayed,

Led with unwary steps her virgin trains,

O’er Etna’s steeps, and Enna’s golden plains;

Plucked with fair hand the silver blossomed bower

And purple mead — herself a fairer flower;

Sudden, unseen amid the twilight shade.

Rushed gloomy Dis, and seized the trembling maid.

    Her starting damsels sprung from mossy seats.

Dropped from their gauzy laps their gathered sweets,

Clung round the struggling nymph, with piercing cries

Pursued the chariot and invoked the skies.

    Pleased as he grasps her in his iron arms,

Frights with soft sighs, with tender accents charms.

The wheels descending rolled in smoky rings;

Infernal Cupids flapped their demon wings;

Earth with deep yawn received the fair, amazed,

And far in night celestial beauty blazed.

Botanic Garden, Canto IV.

At hell’s dread mouth a thousand monsters wait;

Grief weeps, and Vengeance bellows in the gate:

Base Want, low Fear, and Famine’s lawless rage,

And pale Disease, and slow repining Age.

Fierce, formidable fiends, the portal keep;

With Pain, Toil, Death, and Death’s half-brother.

Sleep. There, Joys, embittered with Remorse, appear;

Daughters of Guilt! here storms destructive War;

Mad Discord there, her snakv tresses tore;

Here, stretched on iron beds, the Furies roar.

The Infernal Regions was the place of reception for souls who had lived upon the earth. Immediately upon death, according to the notions of the Greeks spirits were conveyed by Mercury to the care of Charon, who transported them across the river Acheron, to the shore of eternity. They then proceeded to the tribunal of the judges of the dead, and were sentenced according to their past conduct, either to heaven or hell.

It was a superstition of the Greeks that the souls of the uninterred, or neglected dead, wandered about for a whole century without being admitted to the joy’s of heaven. On this account they were anxious to pay respect to their departed friends. When they died at home, the survivors sometimes interred the deceased, and sometimes they erected a pyre, or pile of wood, upon which the body was laid and consumed to ashes. These ashes were committed to an urn, and deposited with the remains of others of the same family. When a man perished at sea, or in an unknown spot, his friends would erect some monument in honour of him to satisfy his manes, or parted soul.

The entrance to the infernal regions was called Avernus. Before it was stationed a multitude of frightful forms, which produce misery and death. These were Diseases, Old Age, Terror, Hunger, Discord, and the Furies, terrible women, with snakes for hair, and whips of scorpions in their hands. The palace of Pluto, the sovereign of these dreary realms, was guarded by Cerberus, an enormous dog with three heads, one of which was always upon the watch.

Not far from the abode of Pluto was the tribunal, or judgment-seat of Minos, Eacus, and Rhadamanthus, who pronounced sentence upon the dead. Tartarus was an immense and gloomy prison, to which the wicked were doomed. It was surrounded by triple walls of solid brass, beneath which rolled the fiery waves of Phlegethon; and further distant, was the stagnant marsh of Cocytus. In this forlorn region were the river Styx, whose waters were of inky blackness, and Lethe, the stream of oblivion, or forgetfulness. To drink of Lethe made one forget all that was past.

It was believed by many that the departed were liberated from a state of punishment after a thousand years, that they drank of Lethe, forgot their sufferings, and were removed by the gods to some happy state of existence.

The poet Virgil describes the descent of the hero Eneas into hell, and thus it appears to him.

Now to the left Eneas darts his eyes,

Where lofty walls with triple ramparts rise.

There rolls fierce Phlegethon, with thundering sound.

His broken rocks, and whirls his surges round,

On mighty columns raised sublime, are hung

The massy gates, impenetrably strong.

In vain would men, in vain would gods essay.

To hew the beams of adamant away.

    Here rose an iron tower: before the gate,

By night and day a watchful Fury sate,

The pale Tisiphone;⁵ a robe she wore,

With all the pomp of horror, dyed in gore.

Here the loud scourge, and louder voice of pain,

The crashing fetter, and the rattling chain,

Strike the great hero with the frightful sound,

The hoarse, rough, mingled din, that thunders round.

Pitt’s Virgil.

Judges of the Dead. §

High on a throne, tremendous to behold,

Stern Minos waves a mace of burnished gold;

Around ten thousand thousand spectres stand,

Through the wide dome of Dis, a trembling band

Still as they plead, the fatal lots he rolls.

Absolves the just and dooms the guilty souls.

The judges of the dead, Minos, Rhadamanthus, and Eacus, held their tribunal in a place called the Field of Truth, where no falsehood could be heard, and no misrepresentations deceive. The judges were reputed to have been men — kings, who ruled upon the earth with such integrity and wisdom, that it pleased the supreme deity to appoint them judges of the dead.

The probable history of Minos is, that he was a king of the island of Crete, and was contemporary with Moses. He governed his kingdom with such eminent skill and justice, that his laws became celebrated all over Greece, and continued in operation for centuries after his death.

The Furies. §

The Furies were supposed to be ministers of the vengeance of the gods, especially employed in punishing the wicked upon earth, and after death. The Furies were women, commonly represented with torches in their hands, and also carrying whips of scorpions.

Tisiphone, Megæra, and Alecto were the names of these avengers: they were daughters of Acheron and Night; their names signify rage, slaughter, and envy. The Greeks called them Diræ, and sometimes Erinnes, disturbers of the mind.

The afflictions which we suffer come from God: “Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord;” but the same Scripture also says, “whom he loveth he chasteneth:” “He does not willingly afflict or grieve the children of men.” The Greeks had notions of this divine justice, tempered with mercy and they represented the Furies as having a double office — one which inflicted all the miseries of violent passions and a guilty conscience — the other, which imposed those lesser evils that soften the heart and make us better.

When the Furies punished men with obvious compassion, they were called Eumenides, or the Mild. In this case they were supposed to be appeased by Minerva, as it would be the part of wisdom to say, The guilty who are punished suffer enough; comfort them, give them opportunity to reform. The pain which their guilt has caused is sufficient to induce them to be virtuous hereafter.

Besides the Furies, Nemesis may be reckoned among the avenging deities. She presided over the punishment of guilt. She is represented as traversing the earth with great diligence, in search of the wicked; furnished with wings, a helm, and a chariot wheel, to signify that no place could secure the guilty from her pursuit. As a daughter of Astrea, or Justice, she rewarded virtue, while she punished vice with unrelenting severity.

The Fates. §

The Fates, or Destinies, sometimes called the Parcæ, and the Fatal Sisters, were, like the Furies, three in number, Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos. They were supposed to preside over the life of man, from his birth to his death, and to put an end to his life by cutting off a thread.

Stern Clotho weaves the checkered thread of life

Hour after hour the growing line extends,

The cradle and the coffin hound its ends.

Clotho held the distaff; Lachesis turned the spin die; Atropos cut the thread. Happy days were spun out of gold and silver, while the thread of sorrow was of black worsted. The Fates were represented as three women bending under the weight of years. Clotho wore a robe of various colours, ant a crown composed of seven stars. The robe of Lachesis was spangled with stars, and near her lay a number of spindles. Atropos, clothed in black, held the fatal shears, ready to cut the thread of life.

Besides those which have been enumerated as infernal deities, were Nox or Night, Death, and ”Death’s half-brother, Sleep.”

Nox, or Night, was the daughter of Chaos. She was represented in a long black veil spangled with stars, traversing the expanse of the firmament in a chariot of ebony.

Mors, or Death, was a daughter of Nox, depicted in the form of a skeleton, wearing a black robe covered with stars; having wings of an enormous length; her fleshless arms supporting a scythe.

To these terrible deities no altars were ever raised. Trenches were cut in the earth, into which was poured the blood of black sheep or heifers. During the prayers, the priest lowered his hands towards the earth, instead of raising them towards heaven. Being regarded as implacable, these deities were objects of great terror. No hymns were composed to their honour, and no temples were dedicated to them.

Criminals Punished in the Infernal Regions. §

Among the most memorable of the criminals punished in the infernal regions, were the Titans. They were represented as being precipitated into Tartarus for having made war against Jupiter and the gods; they were Atlas, Briareus, Gyges, Iapetus, Hyperion, and Oceanus. Some poets speak of them as whelmed beneath Sicily; and pretend that the dreadful eruptions of Etna are occasioned by their violent struggles.

Cerberus. §

Cerberus was a dreadful three-headed mastiff, placed as a sentinel before the gates of hell. At the entrance of Pluto’s palace, the tremendous keeper of these gloomy abodes was stationed. He fawned upon those who entered, but tore all who attempted to return.

Hercules was commanded to bring Cerberus into upper air, and descended to hell for that object. Cerberus, at sight of Hercules, crouched under the throne of Pluton, but the hero was permitted to take him. From the foam of his mouth, which dropped upon the earth, sprung deadly poison, aconite.

Echo. §

Echo was the daughter of Air and Earth. Juno condemned her to repeat the last syllable of all she should hear said. Echo loved the beautiful Narcissus, but he despised her. Echo was so afflicted at the treatment she received from Narcissus, that she pined entirely away, nothing of her remaining but her voice. She still haunts rocks and solitary places, and still repeats the last words of others.

The nymphs, companions of Echo, entreated Love to punish Narcissus for his contempt to her. The god granted their prayer, and conducted Narcissus to a fountain side. In the fountain, Narcissus beheld the reflection of his own face and form; it was more lovely than any object he had ever seen; he desired above all things, to possess the beautiful image — it was but a shadow — he died of grief, because he could not obtain the reality of so charming a injure.

Morpheus, the minister of Somnus or Sleep, is represented with the wings of a butterfly, to express his lightness. He holds in his hand a bunch of poppies, which he shakes over the eyelids of those whom he would put to sleep.

Dreams were the children of Somnus. The poets imagined that dreams were good or evil, true or deceitful. True dreams were supposed to pass from the cave of Somnus through gates of horn, to announce future blessings, or to warn men of impending dangers. False dreams passed through a gate of ivory, and suggested imaginary evils. False dreams are represented as hunting the couch of the slumberer, and were known by bat’s wings, of a black colour.

Themis and Nemesis. §

Themis, or Astrea, is the personification of Justice. She was the daughter of Heaven and Earth. The figure of Justice ordinarily bears a balance in one hand, and a sword in the other, and her eyes were covered with a bandage.

These emblems express the attributes of Justice Public justice decides which of two parties are right. She punishes the guilty, and acquits and relieves him who is innocent and falsely accused. The balance which Justice bears, intimates that she weighs, or deliberates upon all that two parties claim for themselves; the sword shows her power to punish the guilty; and the bandage, and her consequent blindness, express that she cannot see the bribes or the supplications of those who might dispose her to be partial.

Astrea descended from heaven in the Golden Age, that she might dwell among men; but, says the mythology, she has sometimes been driven into solitudes, and now comes among men not only as a friend, but an avenger.

Nemesis, the goddess of divine vengeance, or retributive justice, punishes those who are ungrateful to Providence; who neglect their own minds; who abuse the blessings which they possess; who are hard-hearted, and who persevere without compunction in evil courses. The character and office of Nemesis show, that the ancients admitted the moral government of the world by a superior power.

Fame. §

Fame is the report men make of actions good or bad. The celebrity or praise of greatness is renown. Fame, or Renown, is the messenger of Jove. Poets represent her as a female with innumerable wings, and as many voices. She flew in every direction, she repeated ten thousand times the truth or the falsehood she designed to spread abroad. It was equally her office to delight and to deceive mankind Fame carried a trumpet in her hand, to denote the loudness of her report. A figure of Fame was often fixed to the triumphal car of the Roman warriors.

Fortune. §

Wealth and poverty are variously distributed in the world. Some men abound with superfluities, others suffer want. The ancients thought that a blind goddess dispensed or denied riches to whom she pleased; and that she gave to the good or bad equally, without regard to the merit of either, what she pleased. They represented Fortune, as they called this blind goddess, turning a wheel, which raised up some persons, and threw down others at the same time.

Envy and Discord. §

Envy was personified by the poets of antiquity.

She was a frightful woman, repining always at the happiness of others, and endeavouring to injure those she hated. Envy was the daughter of Night. Her girdle was a serpent, and snakes hissed in her hair.

Discord was a malevolent female deity, who excited quarrels and wars. Jupiter banished her from heaven, because she created ill will and contention among the gods.

Health. §

The Greeks worshipped health under the name of Hygeia. The Romans call her Salus. She had a temple at Rome, and her priests offered up supplications to her for the health of all people. The Romans regarded this deity with high respect.

Somnus. §

Somnus, the god of sleep, son of Nox, was represented as a child in a profound sleep, holding in his hand poppies, which serve also for his pillow.

Somnus, or sleep, is called by Homer, “Death’s half-brother, Sleep.” One of the ancients called Sleep, the happy king of gods and men, because he supposed the immortals, except Jupiter, like men, forgot their existence and refreshed their powers in salutary sleep.

Ovid represents the cave or dwelling of Somnus, to be in the country of Cimmeria. Into this cave the sun never shone, and perfect stillness prevailed, except the soft murmuring of the river Lethe; poppies and somniferous herbs grew at its entrance. Here on a bed of black plumes, Somnus reclined, and hence he despatched true or false dreams, to comfort or disturb mankind as pleased him.

Hercules. §

Inan early stage of society, that is when men, in small numbers, inhabit large tracts of country; when their houses are only rude cabins, and where there are no considerable towns, nor many cultivated fields the forests which surround the abodes of human beings are filled with ferocious animals, which subsists on others weaker than themselves.

When the predaceous animals learn by their instincts, that their own domain, the wild woods, is shared with new occupants; that men and their domestic animals have come within their range, they immediately enter the slight enclosure where the flocks and herds are confined, and bear them off, an easy prey, sometimes attacking and destroying their helpless owners also.

When weak men, and weaker women, hear the roar of the lion, and the yell of the tiger; when they see their cattle strangled by the bloodthirsty panther, and their little children dragged from the cradle by the rapacious wolf, their terror and despair cannot be expressed.

If, in this state of peril, some man of a more powerful body, and a more courageous spirit than others of these small communities, encourages his affrighted associates, arms himself with a strong club; invents snares to entrap the invaders; kills them when they come near the habitations of men: seeks out their retreats: sets fire to their dens; strangles their little ones; and, at last, by his fearlessness, ingenuity, and perseverance, clears the country of these ravagers, he becomes the greatest benefactor of society.

Men who are delivered from danger and fear, feel lively gratitude to their deliverer; they admire his generosity and courage; he has exposed his life for their security; he has endangered himself, but he has preserved them. They delight to remember his extraordinary exploits, and to speak of all his goodness. When he is dead they relate his sufferings and his triumphs, and observe days to commemorate him. At first, they say the gods assisted him, but after many years, those who hear of his achievements declare that he was a god who accomplished these services to mankind. And so heroes come to be “as gods revered.”

Hercules, one of the most renowned of the heroes of antiquity, was reputed to be the son of Jupiter and Alcmena. From his birth Hercules was favoured with extraordinary abilities: but notwithstanding his strength, courage, and accomplishments, he was destined by the will of Jupiter to be subject to Eurystheus. King of Argos and Mycenæ.

The first exploit which is related of the infant Hercules was the strangling of two serpents while he was in his cradle. Juno, who hated Hercules, sent the serpents to destroy him, but when they aimed at him their dreadful stings, the fearless babe, with his little hands, squeezed them to death, while his elder brother, Iphiclus, who saw the deed, ran about shrieking through fright.

Hercules was early instructed in the arts practised in that obscure age, (perhaps twelve centuries before Christ.) Castor, the son of Tyndarus, taught him how to fight; Eurytus instructed him to shoot with the bow and arrow; Antylocus, to swim; Linus, to play upon the harp; and Eumolpus, to sing. Like some of his illustrious contemporaries, his education was finished under Chiron the Centaur.

Hercules was bred up at Thebes, and at the age of eighteen killed a furious lion, which devastated the country round Mount Cithron. He next killed Erginus, who demanded of the Thebans the tribute of a hundred oxen, because a Theban had slain his father. These public services induced Creon, King of Thebes, to bestow upon him his daughter in marriage, and to intrust him with the government of his kingdom.

When Eurystheus heard that Hercules was thus exalted, he commanded him to appear at Mycenæ and perform twelve most arduous labours, Eurystheus reminding him at the same time that Jupiter had given him the power to command him. Hercules upon this lost his senses, but Apollo restored to him his reason, and admonished him to submit to the will of the gods.

Thus instructed, Hercules resolved to bear with fortitude whatever trial gods or men should impose upon him. When he undertook the enterprises commanded by Eurystheus, the gods armed him for his labours. Minerva gave him a helmet and coat of mail; Mercury, a sword; Neptune, a horse; Jupiter, a shield; Apollo, a bow and arrow; and Vulcan, a golden cuirass, and brazen buskins.

The first labour of Hercules was the killing of the lion of Nemea, which ravaged the neighbourhood of Mycenæ. Hercules, not able to kill this lion with his club, pursued him to his den, and choked him to death. Hercules ever after clothed himself in the skin of the Nemean lion.

The second labour of Hercules was the destruction of the Hydra of the Lake of Lerna, a monster with a multitude of heads. As soon as one of these heads was struck off, two others immediately sprung up. But Hercules was enabled by the assistance of his friend Iolas to despatch the enemy. As fast as Hercules struck off a head, Iolas seared the place with a hot iron, and soon killed the Hydra. Hercules afterwards dipped the points of his arrows in the gall of the Hydra, which was a mortal poison. and caused the wounds inflicted by the arrows to produce instant death.

The third labour was to take, and bring alive to Eurystheus, a stag consecrated to Diana. This stag had golden horns, and brazen feet, and was of incredible swiftness. After a chase of a year, Hercules succeeded in taking it. Diana reproved Hercules for this act: but he pleaded the command of a severe task-master, and the goddess forgave him.

The fourth labour of this hero, was also to take alive a wild boar. This boar ravaged Erymanthus in Arcadia, and Hercules succeeded in seizing him in a snow bank.

The fifth labour was the cleansing of the stables of Augias, where 3,000 oxen had been confined many years. This was effected by turning a liver through the stable.

For his sixth labour Hercules was ordered to kill some carnivorous birds which devoured human flesh, and haunted the neighbourhood of Lake Stymphalus in Arcadia. This being accomplished, the seventh labour was the taking of a wild bull of Crete.

The eighth labour of Hercules was to obtain the mares of Diomedes, who preyed upon men. Hercules secured these animals, and gave them Diomedes for a repast.

The ninth labour was to get possession of a girdle belonging to Hippolyte, a formidable queen of the Amazons, a nation of warlike females. After Hippolyte was conquered, Hercules presented her to Theseus, King of Athens, for a wife.

The tenth labour was to kill Geryon, King of Gades, in Spain, and to bring his flock to Eurystheus.

The eleventh labour was to obtain golden apples from the garden of the Hesperides. The Hesperides were nymphs intrusted by Jupiter with the care of some golden apples which were guarded by a dragon. Hercules repaired to Atlas, the giant, for information concerning these apples, and took from him the burden of the earth which he bore upon his shoulders, while Atlas procured the apples.

The twelfth and last labour of Hercules was to bring up to earth the three-headed dog Cerberus, which guarded the entrance of hell.

The Twelve Labours are not the only exploits of Hercules; many others are related of him. When Hercules was driving the herds of Geryon through Italy, Cacus, a formidable robber, stole some of the cows, and concealed them in a cave; but the cows replied to the lowing of Hercules’ oxen, so that Hercules discovered the theft, pursued Cacus, broke into his retreat, and strangled him, though the latter vomited fire and smoke.

Hercules delivered Hesione, daughter of Laomedon. King of Troy, from a sea monster, which would have devoured her.

It is related that the Achelous, a river of Epirus, which divides Acarnia from Etolia, was once transformed to an ox, and encountered Hercules as an adversary. Hercules conquered Achelous, and broke off his horn. This horn was picked up by the nymphs, filled with fruits and flowers, and presented to Plenty, as her emblem.

This allegory signifies that Hercules checked the inundation of a river, and that when the waters had subsided, the soil, which had been overflowed, produced fruits and flowers.

Before the time of Hercules, the ancients pretended that the Mediterranean was an immense lake but that Hercules tore open the western extremity, at the present strait of Gibraltar, and formed a communication between the Mediterranean and Atlantic.

The disunited coasts were called the Pillars of Hercules, and were separated by a space of eighteen miles. The promontory of Africa thus produced, was Mount Abyla; that of Spain, where Gibraltar now stands, Mount Calpe.

Hercules killed Antæas, a giant of Lybia, a son of the Earth. He was a powerful wrestler, and was assisted by Terra, but Hercules lifted him up from the ground, and strangled him.

Hercules wished to marry the Princess Iole, but her father Eurytus refused her to him. He then once more lost his reason, and showing some disrespect to the Pythia, at Delphi, Apollo caused him to be sold as a slave to Omphale, Queen of Lydia. In the service of Omphale, it is said, that Hercules forgot his former habits, and, confining himself to the conversation of Omphale, used to employ himself in spinning.

When Hercules returned to Peloponnesus, he married Dejanira, a princess of Etolia. Having accidentally killed a man at the court of his father-in-law, Hercules was obliged to leave the place, and he took with him his wife. On his journey, being obliged to swim across the river Evenus, he placed Dejanira on the back of the centaur Nessus. When they reached the shore, Nessus offered to carry off Dejanira, but Hercules aimed at him one of his poisoned arrows, and killed him. The dying Nessus, unobserved by Hercules, offered a poisoned robe to Dejanira, telling her, that if her husband should ever cease to love her, if she could contrive to put that garment upon him, it would revive his attachment to her.

After that time, Hercules, remembering that the father of Iole had refused him his daughter, took upon himself to make war upon that king, and killed him and his three sons. Iole, therefore, fell into the hands of her father’s murderer, and was carried by him to his house as a domestic slave.

Hercules soon preferred Iole to Dejanira, and the latter, grieved to be deprived of her husband’s affections, bethought herself of the robe of Nessus. By some artifice Dejanira prevailed upon her husband to put on this robe; but no sooner was he arrayed in it than the poison penetrated his body, and threw him into mortal agonies.

Tortured by a slow but fatal disease, Hercules prayed to Jupiter, and prepared himself for death. He gave his bow and arrows to Philoctetes, pulled up trees by the roots, and erected for himself a funeral pile upon Mount Œta. He then spread his lion’s skin upon his pile, sustained himself upon his club, and demanding of Philoctetes to set fire to the pile, he expired in the flames, and was received by the gods in heaven. Hercules is sometimes called Alcides.

Hercules was worshipped after his death. He was often invoked by people who wanted assistance in their weakness, as by the wagoner in Æsop’s fables.

It is represented by the historian Xenophon, that when Hercules was young, two females once appeared to him, — one was Virtue, who proposed his arduous duties; the other was Pleasure, who offered to his acceptance an easy and indolent life; but he chose rather to perform the part of a deliverer of mankind.

The fables which are related concerning Hercules, are only disguises of eminent services rendered by some good and powerful man to his fellow-creatures. Eurystheus, probably represents the dictates of his conscience, which commanded him to severe toils in the service of society — and Omphale, may be the love of pleasure, which sometimes made him remit his exertions, and indulge himself for a time in repose and amusement. It was said, that Omphale sometimes put on the armour of Hercules, and ridiculed him as he sat at her distaff.

It has been mentioned that one of the exploits of Hercules, was taking the girdle of Hyppolite, queen of the Amazons. The Amazons were reputed to be a nation of masculine females, who lived near the river Thermodon in Cappadocia of Asia Minor.

The Amazons admitted no men into their society. All their life was employed in war and martial exercises. The story of the Amazons is probably a fiction but the frequent mention of them in various books makes it necessary to understand what is meant by the Amazons. At the present time, by an Amazon, we express the idea of a bold woman, without any sexlike refinement

Labours of Hercules.

The mighty Hercules o’er many a clime

Waved his vast mace in virtue’s cause sublime,

Unmeasured strength with early art combined,

Awed, served, protected, and amazed mankind.

    First, two dread snakes, at Juno’s vengeful nod,

Climbed round the cradle of the sleeping god;

Waked by the shrilling hiss and rustling sound,

And shrieks of fair attendants trembling round,

Their gasping throats with clinching hands he holds;

And death untwists their convoluted folds.

    Next in red torrents from her sevenfold heads

Fell Hydra’s blood on Lerna’s lake he sheds;

    Grasps Achelous with resistless force

And drags the rolling river to his course;

    Binds with loud bellowing, and with hideous yell

The monster Bull, and threefold Dog of hell.

Then where Nemea’s howling forests wave,

He drives the lion to his dusky cave;

Seized by the throat, the growling fiend disarms;

And tears his gaping jaws with sinewy arms;

    Lifts proud Antæus from his mother plains,

And with strong grasp the struggling giant strains;

Back falls his fainting head, and clammy hair.

Writhe his weak limbs, and flits his life in air;

By steps reverted, o’er the blood-dropped fen

He tracks huge Cacus to his murderous den,

Where, breathing flames through brazen lips, he fled,

And shook the rock-roofed cavern o’er his head.

Last, with wide arms the solid earth he tears,

Piles rock on rock, on mountain mountain rears;

Heaves up huge Abyla on Afric’s sand.

Crowns with high Calpe, Europe’s salient strand;

Crests with opposing towers the splendid scene;

And pours from urns immense the sea between.

    Loud o’er her whirling flood Charybdis roars,

Affrighted Scylla bellows round his shores:

Vesuvius groans through all his echoing caves,

And Ætna thunders o’er the insurgent waves.

Botanic Garden, Canto L

Centaur. §

See plate, page 121.

Chiron, the preceptor of Hercules, of Achilles and others of their class, was one of a fabulous race, the Centaurs. The Centaurs were represented to have the head and body of a man, terminated by the body and limbs of a horse.

This fable represents the people of Thessaly, who first bestrode the horse, and made him serviceable to man. Rude and ignorant people, when they first behold a man and horse thus coupled, imagine them to be one being. From a misconception of this sort, arose the fable of the Centaurs.

Jason. §

Jason is chiefly known as the chief of the Argonautic expedition, which took place, according to common chronology, B. C. 1243. This expedition was probably the first considerable voyage undertaken by the Greeks to buy and sell: to exchange the commodities of their own with those of a distant country.

The voyage of Jason was from Aulis in Thessaly to Colchis on the Euxine sea, and he was accompanied by many young and adventurous Greeks. Jason’s ship was called the Argo, and his companions the Argonauts.

The history of Jason is the following. He was the son of Eson, King of Iolchos, in upper Greece. Eson died, and his kingdom was usurped by Pelias, and the young Jason driven from his country. Chiron, the preceptor of Achilles, likewise educated Jason, who acquired all the accomplishments of that rude age.

When Jason became a man, he was instructed by an oracle to go back to Iolchos Pelias, when he saw the rightful heir to the throne returned, in order to remove him from his sight, advised him to undertake the recovery of the Golden Fleece; and Jason was prevailed upon to engage in that enterprise, with many others as fearless and full of hope as himself.

A certain king of Thebes, had a son and daughter, named Phryxus and Helle, who were persecuted by Ino, one of their father’s wives. Phryxus and Helle, to escape from Ino, who had determined to offer them as sacrifices to some god, resolved to put themselves under the protection of Etes, King of Colchis The poets relate, that just as they were about to be offered, a winged ram, with a golden fleece, took them upon his back, and flew away to Colchis through the air.

Helle on the way fell off, and was precipitated into the strait, thence called Hellespont. When Phryxus arrived at Colchis, he sacrificed the ram to Jupiter, as an expression of gratitude for his preservation, and dedicated the fleece to the god. Etes envied Phryxus the possession of the fleece, and murdered him in order to obtain it.

When Jason demanded his inheritance of Pelias, the latter promised it to him, provided he would bring him the golden fleece; which was, perhaps, if Jason would pay him a certain sum, which he might gain in a voyage of traffic, though such a one had never been before attempted by any Greeks.

After stopping at some islands of the Egean, and sundry ports of the Euxine sea, Jason arrived at the capital of Colchis, and demanded the fleece of Etes. Etes then required of him to tame two ferocious bulls, to tie them to a plough, and with them to plough a field, never before cultivated. He was next to kill an ever-watchful dragon that guarded the fleece; to pluck out his teeth, and sew the plain; armed men were to spring from these teeth, and Jason was to kill them all.

These conditions appeared to be so many impossibilities; but Medea, the daughter of Etes, a sorceress, offered her magic aid to Jason. Medea gave him a somniferous draught, which he poured into the dragon’s gaping jaws, and then assisted him in taming the bulls, etc. The fleece being thus obtained, Jason, as he had promised, took Medea for his wife, and returned in triumph to his native country.

The return of the Argonauts was celebrated with every demonstration of joy in Thessaly. This voyage of the Argonauts was, in fact, an expedition of discovery; it opened a new channel for trade, and new sources of wealth to the people of Greece, and they afterwards carried on a productive commerce, and established colonies upon the Asiatic border of the Euxine.

For ten years, says the fable, Jason loved Medea, and they lived happily together; but at length, he attached himself to another female, and the wretched Medea, to revenge herself upon him, killed their children. This is a frightful story, but it was made very affecting by Euripides, who wrote a tragedy called Medea, which is exceedingly admired by those who understand the Greek literature.

It is said that Jason lived a melancholy and unsettled life, after he was separated from Medea; and that going one day to the water-side to look at the Argo, a beam fell on his head, and he was thus killed.

Theseus. §

Theseus was a king of Athens, yet he is also ranked among fabulous heroes; for it is sometimes said of him that he went with Jason to the Argonautic expedition, and sometimes that he was the friend of Hercules. The father of Theseus was Ægeus, King of Athens, and his mother was Æthra, daughter of Pittheus, King of Trœzene.

The parents of Theseus did not live together, and Æthra bred up her son in the court of her father. The deeds of Hercules were reported to Trœzene, and were related to Theseus. When Theseus heard of the achievements of Hercules, he longed to resemble that renowned hero. Robbers, too many for Hercules alone to contend with, ravaged Peloponnesus, and Theseus resolved to expel them. Æthra, during his youth, had never informed Theseus that his father was King of Athens, but when he was grown to be a man, she thought proper to send him to Ægeus. Æthra one day, previously to the departure of Theseus, took him along with her to a spot where a large stone was fixed, and commanded her son to raise it; and though it was exceedingly heavy, the vigorous Theseus lifted it, and saw beneath it a sword.

“This sword, my son,” said Æthra, addressing herself to Theseus, “belonged to your father, who is Ægeus, King of Athens; whenever you shall present it to him, he will remember that it was left in my possession, and he will acknowledge you as his son. Depart, but do not venture the perils of a land journey; robbers will surprise you, and you will be cut off by their cruel hands; a sea voyage is safe and short, and you will soon reach Athens.” The aged Pittheus joined Æthra in her entreaties that Theseus would not expose himself to the lawless men who infested the then untravelled ways of Greece; nevertheless, Theseus ventured, and soon distinguished himself.

On his road to Athens, Theseus met three famous robbers. The first, Sinis, used to dart out from his haunts, seize the unwary passer-by, and having stripped him, would tie his limbs to the branches of trees, which, having been bent down, suddenly would spring up, and tear the unhappy sufferer in pieces. The second, Sciron, occupied a narrow foot-path along the sea-side, and having robbed the passenger, who could not escape, afterwards precipitated him into the sea. The third, Procrustes, in the wantonness of his cruelty, had invented a bed into which he forced his victims; and, if they were too tall for its length he would cut off their limbs to fit the bed; or, if they were too short, by dreadful tortures, he stretched them to its extent. This bed of Procrustes, is now often spoken of to illustrate some cruel or foolish contrivance, designed to alter what is properly unalterable. According to the fable, Theseus attacked and killed all these wretches.

When Theseus arrived at Athens, Ægeus was an old man, and having no acknowledged son, the Pallantidæ, a powerful family at Athens, expected that one of themselves would succeed to the throne. Theseus did not immediately declare himself the king’s son, but the people flocked to see the destroyer of the robbers, and treated him as a deliverer and a benefactor. Ægeus also was pleased with the young stranger, and was particularly kind to him.

The Pallantidæ saw that Ægeus loved Theseus. They said, “He will adopt him for his son, and will leave him the kingdom. We then shall be no more than the subjects of this upstart: let us kill him.” The Pallantidæ soon induced Ægeus to hate the young stranger, and even persuaded him to offer Theseus a cup of poison, with his own hand. Before this wicked project was executed, Theseus appeared to his father with the sword which Æthra had given him. Ægeus knew the sword, and readily believed Theseus when he related what his mother had told him. Ægeus was delighted with his new-found son, and the Athenians were rejoiced to find that the brave stranger was to be their future monarch. The Pallantidæ, however, were disappointed and enraged, and did not give up their purpose of killing Theseus; but in this they did not succeed. Theseus knew their malice, and put them to death.

Some years before the appearance of Theseus at Athens, Minos, King of Crete, accused the Athenians of having killed his son, Androgeus, and demanded of them, as a satisfaction, a certain number of Athenian youths and maidens, who were to be sent periodically to Minos, at Crete. Some writers say these young persons were destined to become slaves; and others, that they were to be eaten up by a frightful monster called the Minotaur.

It is a curious fact, that all partially civilized people, and all savages, require the life of one person to be given for that of another, which has been treacherously taken. In the Hebrew law, it is said, “An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth;” which means, if a man violently strike out another’s eye or tooth, the injured person was permitted to strike out the eye or tooth of his adversary. The Athenians admitted such a law to be just, and Minos demanded many lives, as a compensation for the single life of his son, because in those days people pretended to think a prince was of more value than a hundred ordinary persons. We know better at the present time.

The young persons who were to be sent to Crete were chosen by lot out of a large number, and they were doomed to slavery or death. On the day when the choice was made, all Athens was in tears. The parents were distracted to lose their children, and the children were afflicted beyond measure to be torn from their affectionate parents. Theseus witnessed this melancholy scene. At once he determined to free his country from this odious tribute, and comforted the distressed parents who were about to give up their children, by offering to go with them to Crete, and promising to restore them in safety.

The fable says, that Theseus went with the Athenian youths to Crete, and when he got there, learned they were to be devoured by a monster which was half a man and half a beast, that was kept in a curious building called the Labyrinth. This Labyrinth was built by the famous architect Dædalus. The Labyrinth was so artfully constructed that no person could get in and out again without a guide; but the daughter of King Minos, the beautiful Ariadne, gave Theseus a clew, or thread, which ran along through all the windings of the Labyrinth, so that he was enabled to find the Minotaur, which he killed, and he afterwards induced Minos to give up the exaction of the tribute. It is probable the truth is nothing more, than that the two princes peaceably agreed that this bad custom should cease.

Theseus married Ariadne, and promised to take her with him to Athens, but being arrived at the island of Naxos, he left her there alone, and in the utmost grief. Poets and painters, when they would describe a beautiful and unhappy lady, represent the forsaken Ariadne. It is related that one of the sails of Theseus’ vessels was black, and that when he left Athens he promised his father, should he return successful, that he would displace the black sail and put up a white one. About the time that he expected Theseus, Ægeus used to go to a promontory that overlooked the sea, to watch his approach: at length the vessel appeared in sight, and with it the fatal black sail. Theseus had forgotten to remove it.

As soon as Ægeus saw the black sail, he apprehended that some misfortune had happened to his son, and, in his despair, precipitated himself into the sea. From this circumstance it is said that the Archipelago was called the Ægean Sea.

The character of Theseus, as a king, belongs to true history. Cecrops, who led the first Egyptian colony into Attica, was the first civilizer of that country. Cecrops divided Attica into twelve little republics: all these acknowledged the King of Athens for their sovereign, but they chose their own chiefs and inferior magistrates among themselves. Until the time of Theseus, these petty states were always at war with each other.

When Theseus became King of Attica, he perceived that his subjects could not improve nor be happy, because they were always injuring each other, and always in fear. No man wishes to cultivate his field if he expects another to take away his harvest; nor will he plough and sow the soil, if he thinks he can go into the next field, and take from it the corn, and not expect to be punished.

In peaceable and prosperous society, every man must have his own property; every man must take care of his own, and no man must take what does not belong to himself; and if one should take what is not his own, that dishonest and violent conduct is punished by the magistrate, who learns from books of written laws what is to be done to the criminal or the breakers of laws. The right which a man has to keep his own property separately from others is political security. The security of property, and the punishment of all outrages, is a state of political order. Theseus found in Attica the entire want of political order.

As soon as Theseus became king, he travelled all over Attica, and told his people he was sorry to see them always quarrelling, and that if they would cultivate the earth, take care of their flocks, make comfortable garments, worship the gods, and leave off injuring one another, they would be happy and grow rich. Then they were poor and in want, because they did very little work, and ravaged each other’s territory. He told them he was King of Athens, and would be general of an army, and command the soldiers: and when the army of any other state should come into Attica, he would be ready to punish such an enemy.

Theseus also said he would take advice of wise men in Athens, and they would make laws to govern all the people. He would sometimes call together assemblies of the people — that is, all the men who were respectable should come into one place, and deliberate upon what was best for the people to do; and if any man did wrong, he might be complained of; and there should be courts, and the judges should be taught the laws, and they should prevent bad men from doing wrong to others, by punishing the persons who were guilty; and the courts should be held in Athens; and the people all over the province of Attica, might come to the magistrates at Athens, to settle their disputes.

The subjects of Theseus consented to be governed in this manner, and they soon became so happy under his regulations, that peaceable people from other places where no wise government existed, went to reside in Attica, that they might live in safety and quiet. All these people were grateful to Theseus, for introducing this excellent civil order: and the people of all Greece heard of these regulations, and some of them adopted the same institutions.

Before the time of Theseus, Athens was a rude place, without any beautiful buildings, or any thing elegant: but Theseus caused new houses and temples, much better than the old ones, to be erected: and he showed much respect to religion: extended his dominions to the territory of Megara, and set up a column to show the boundary of his kingdom. On that side of the column which stood towards Peloponnesus, was written,

On this side is Peloponnesus.

On the other side the inscription was,

On this side is Ionia.

Ionia was a name of upper Greece.

It is to be lamented that a legislator so wise and so successful in improving the condition of his subjects as Theseus, could not have spent his whole life so honourably and usefully; but he became tired of quiet; he remembered the days which he had spent in hazardous enterprises; in killing robbers and wild beasts; and as then there were no books to read, he felt the want of something more to do, so he left his people to govern themselves, and went into the less civilized countries of Greece, to seek new adventures.

One Peritheus, King of Thessaly, carried off some flocks from Marathon, near Athens, and Theseus, resolving to punish him as he deserved, followed Peritheus. But instead of punishing him, Theseus became greatly delighted with Peritheus, and they traversed Greece together, doing more harm than good. Among other violent acts, Theseus seized the beautiful Helen, as she was dancing in the temple of Diana, and might have carried her to Athens, but her brothers. Castor and Pollux, recovered her, and took her home to her parents at Sparta.

Theseus and Peritheus next heard of a princess of Epirus, Proserpine, daughter of Aidoneus, King of Sparta, and they went to her father’s court to seize her; but Aidoneus suspected them, and drove off Peritheus by means of some furious dogs, and threw Theseus into prison. Hercules, however, prevailed upon Aidoneus to release Theseus, and at length he returned to Athens.

The Athenians could no longer respect Theseus, because he had abandoned his duty, and had shown no regard to the rights of other princes, and they banished him to the island of Scyros, where he died and was buried. In time, the Athenians forgot the follies of Theseus, and honoured his memory. Cimon, about four centuries before Christ, took up the remains of Theseus, had them removed to Athens, and there buried. Over the place of his interment a monument was erected; and a beautiful temple, the temple of Theseus, still remaining in Athens, was raised in honour of this hero.

Œdipus. §

Among the fables of antiquity there is not one more sad than the story of Œdipus. Œdipus, King of Thebes, in Boeotia, was the son Laius. Laius was descended from Venus, say the mythologists, and Juno hated Venus, and all who belonged to her; so Juno always persecuted the posterity of Venus, and she pronounced a curse upon the descendants of Labducus, the father of Laius.

Laius was married to Jocasta, and an oracle foretold to them that the former should be killed by his son. As soon as Jocasta had a son, Laius commanded her to kill him; but no mother could be so cruel, so she gave the infant to her servant, and ordered him to destroy it. The man, not willing to kill him with his own hands, carried the child to the woods, bored his heels and hung him upon a tree of Mount Citheron.

The infant would soon have died, but one of the shepherds of Polybus, King of Corinth, found him and took him to the palace of the king.

The Queen of Corinth, Peribœa, had no child, and she soon loved the little Œdipus, as the foundling was called, as well as if he had been her own son; as well as the Egyptian princess loved Moses: and she instructed him in all the accomplishments known at that time to the Corinthians.

The companions of Œdipus envied his talents, and told him he was some low-born stranger, and not the son of Peribœa. When Œdipus heard this, he begged his supposed mother to tell who were his real parents: Peribœa did not herself know, but she comforted Œdipus as well as she could. Afterwards the poor young man, in order to learn what he wished to know, went to the oracle at Delphi.

When he inquired concerning his parents, the oracle answered Œdipus, that he must not go home, for if he did, he would murder his father, and marry his mother. Œdipus did not know what to do: he had no home but the house of Polybus, and he resolved not to go back to Corinth, lest the prediction of the oracle should be accomplished.

Œdipus, uncertain whither he should go, took the road to Phocis, but he had not proceeded far, when he met on the way a chariot, on which was Laius, King of Thebes, and his armour-bearer. The road was narrow, and Laius ordered Œdipus to make way for him to pass. Œdipus refused; the two parties began to fight, and soon Laius and his attendant were killed. In that rude age it does not appear that people set much value upon life. Œdipus did not care whom he had killed, but went on towards Phocis •

At that time a terrible monster, called the Sphinx, ravaged the neighbourhood of Thebes. This monster was, perhaps, a robber. The Sphinx had proposed a riddle, and it was said, whoever should expound it, would be able to kill him. The riddle was, “What animal walks on four feet in the morning, on two feet at noon, and upon three in the evening!”

When Œdipus heard the riddle, he instantly perceived its meaning, and explained it thus: — Man, in the morning of life, walks upon his hands and feet; when he has grown to maturity, which is the noon or middle of the day of life, he walks on his feet only: and, in the evening of his days, when he is very old, he uses a staff in addition to his own limbs. The monster, upon hearing this, dashed his head on a rock and killed himself.

While the Sphinx was terrifying and tormenting the people about Thebes, Creon, the queen’s brother, proclaimed that the man who would destroy that monster, should marry the queen, and govern the kingdom; accordingly Œdipus married his mother. But in a few years a terrible pestilence., or mortal disease, prevailed at Thebes, and the Thebans inquired of an oracle what could be done to put a stop to the fatal plague. The oracle answered that the plague would cease when the murderer of Laius should be discovered and punished.

Œdipus loved his people, and forgetting that he had ever killed a man himself, resolved upon discovering the concealed murderer. He spared no pains, and soon learned that he was himself the man whom he sought. When this fact was proved, Jocasta killed herself; and Œdipus, in his distress, tore out his own eyes. Œdipus had four children: two sons and two daughters: the sons were Eteocles and Polynices, and the daughters, Antigone and Ismene.

The oracle had pronounced that Œdipus should not die in Thebes, so, blind as he was, and led by his daughter, Antigone, he wandered into Attica. Arrived at Mount Colonos, Œdipus took refuge in a grove sacred to the Furies. Theseus, King of Attica, being informed that Œdipus was at Mount Colonos, went thither and found the fugitive king attended by Antigone. As soon as Theseus approached him, Œdipus exclaimed that the gods had appointed that spot on which he stood for his burial place, and instantly expired.

The Theban Pair. §

After Œdipus left Thebes, his two sons Eteocles and Polynices, agreed to reign one year, each, alternately. Eteocles reigned over Thebes, the first year, and then his brother demanded the throne. Eteocles refused to relinquish the kingdom, and Polynices went into Argos, and asked aid in procuring his right, from Adrastus, King of Argos.

Seven chiefs, princes of Peloponnesus, at the head of their troops, marched against Thebes, and stationed themselves at the seven gates of the city. Here they meant to attack the forces of Eteocles, but the two brothers agreed to end the quarrel by single combat, and each killed the other. These brothers hated each other with such perfect hatred, that it was said, when their dead bodies lay upon one pyre, the flames from each refused to unite in the same blaze. Hence the expression — hatred, like that of the Theban pair.

Another story is related concerning Polynices; it is, that his uncle Creon refused to allow him to be buried, and threatened to punish with death any person who should offer to inter him. According to the notions of the ancients, to permit the dead to remain unburied, was an act of the greatest indignity and cruelty. Antigone, the sister of Polynices, resolved to perform this office for her brother: and she entreated her sister Ismene to help her in this sad duty; but Ismene had less courage, and dared not comply with Antigone’s request.

Antigone, who was pious and affectionate, could not refrain from this duty, and in despite of the orders of Creon, she buried Polynices in the night. Creon being informed that Antigone had disobeyed him, ordered her to be buried alive. Hæmon, the son of Creon, loved the virtuous Antigone, and when he learned her cruel fate killed himself.

Sophocles wrote a tragedy on the death of Antigone. This tragedy was exceedingly admired by the Athenians, and their admiration of it shows a just moral taste in that people, for Antigone is a beautiful example of female excellence. Her constant attendance upon her afflicted father, her heroic love for her brother, and her strong sense of her duty, which she performed at the loss of her life, exhibit exalted virtues — a beautiful specimen of character among the Greek women, at once domestic and heroic. Ismene was, in fact, scarcely less heroic than Antigone, the former through timidity, refused to assist in the obsequies of Polynices, but when Creon accused Antigone of disobeying his commands, Ismene urged that she was equally guilty, and urged that she might be equally punished, which the generous Antigone as strongly resisted.

Ten years after the first Theban war, the sons and descendants of the chiefs who engaged in behalf of the brothers, renewed their hostilities, and carried on a second war. The Argives, or chiefs from Peloponnesus were called the Epigoni, and they were finally defeated.

Orpheus. §

Orpheus was the son of Apollo and the muse Calliope. Apollo gave a lyre to Orpheus, and the fable says, he sung and played so sweetly, that beasts and trees, as well as men danced to his music. Eurydice was the wife of Orpheus; he loved her dearly: but another man, one Aristæus, loved her also. The Greeks of that age had never heard of the commandment, “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife,” and often stole each other’s wives.

Aristæus one day ran after Eurydice; she fled from him, and as she was running, a serpent in the grass stung her to death; so she went to the dark dominions of Pluto and Proserpine. Orpheus in his grief at the loss of Eurydice, thought he could persuade Pluto to restore her to him, and with his lyre in his hand, he descended to the infernal regions, and played most delightfully when he had entered the domain of “gloomy Dis.”

At the sound of this music, say the poets, the wheel of Ixion stopped, the stone of Sisyphus stood still, Tantalus forgot his thirst, and even the Furies relented. Pluto and his queen, charmed with the music, and pitying the affliction of Orpheus, consented that Eurydice should return to earth, if her husband would refrain from looking at her till she should be come to upper air.

Orpheus thus satisfied, proceeded to the region of day, and Eurydice followed; but before he had set his foot upon earth, Orpheus forgot the command of the god, and turned about to look at Eurydice; he saw her, but she vanished directly from his eyes. Thus deprived of Eurydice forever, Orpheus consoled himself for the loss of her by playing upon his lyre as he wandered about Mount Rhodope, in the rude country of Thrace.

Orpheus never more liked the society of females), and they conceived a dislike for him. Some of the Bacchæ are reported, in their drunken revelry, to have torn him to pieces, and thrown his head into the Hebrus, a river of Thrace. The floating head was carried down to the Egean sea, the lips uttering the sad sound, Eurydice! Eurydice!

The philosophers of antiquity pronounced the existence of Orpheus to be an entire fable.

Amphion was another musical prodigy, who raised the walls of the city of Thebes by his lyre, as Apollo raised those of Troy, perhaps persuading the people to raise the walls, or encouraging them during their labours in erecting them.

Arion was also a famous poet and musician, who acquired wealth by his talents, and being on a voyage to Lesbos was thrown overboard by the sailors, who wanted his money. Arion was playing on his lyre when his murderers precipitated him into the sea, and so charmed were the dolphins that they gathered round the ship to hear the music, and one taking Arion on his back, conveyed him to Cape Tenarus.

Castor and Pollux. §

See plate, page 149.

Castor and Pollux were twin brothers of Helen and Clytemnestra. When Helen first look a view of the Grecian host at Troy, she did not perceive her brothers, she exclaims, that

——“two are wanting of the numerous train,

Whom long my eyes have sought but sought in vain;

Castor and Pollux, first in martial force,

One bold on foot, and one renowned for horse,

My brothers these; the same our native shore,

One house contained us as one mother bore.

                            * * * * * *

So spoke the fair, nor knew her brothers’ doom,

Wrapt in the cold embraces of the tomb;

Adorned with honours on their native shore,

Silent they slept, and heard of wars no more.

Castor and Pollux were among the Argonauts, and they recovered Helen from Theseus. They were probably roving adventurers, who did as much wrong as right. It is related in their history, that Leucippus, a prince who was uncle to these adventurers, had two daughters, Phœbe and Talaria; these young women were to be married to two friends, Lynceus and Has, and Castor and Pollux were invited to attend their wedding.

As soon as the brothers saw the brides, they fell a desire to possess them, and laid a plan to carry them off, but Lynceus and Has, perceiving their purpose, a battle ensued. Castor killed Lynceus, and has killed Pollux. Castor, being a son of Jupiter, for the children of Leda were all called Jupiter s, was immortal, but Castor begged that his brother might share his undying existence, and that they might be alive and dead alternately, whether for a day each, or for six months, the mythology does not determine.

Castor and Pollux were worshipped by the Greeks and Romans. Among the Romans reports often prevailed that Castor and Pollux made their appearance in their armies, mounted on white steeds. They were generally represented on white horses, armed with spears, riding side by side, their heads covered with a petasus, on the top of which glittered a star. Castor and Pollux are constellations, one never appears with the other, but when one rises the other sets.

Dædalus §

See plate, page 159.

Dædalus was a celebrated mechanician of antiquity. An Athenian descended from Erechtheus, a king of Athens. Dædalus was the most ingenious man of his time and was the reputed inventor of the wedge, the lever, the axe, and the sails of ships. It is said that Talus, a nephew of Dædalus, discovered as much inventive talent as his uncle and that the latter, through envy, killed the young artist.

After the murder of Talus, Dædalus, with his son Icarus, fled from Athens to Crete, where they were welcomed by Minos. Dædalus constructed the Labyrinth of Crete, but Minos afterwards, being offended at Dædalus, confined him and Icarus in that edifice. Dædalus contrived wings of wax and of feathers, for himself and his son, and they took their flight towards Italy. Icarus mounted too high, fell into the sea, and was drowned, but his father was more fortunate, getting safe into Sicily, where he is supposed to have built certain temples.

The wings of Dædalus are supposed to have signified ships.

The Lapithæ. §

The Centaurs were a people of Thessaly, who first tamed and used the horse. The battle of the Centaurs and of the Lapithæ was famous. The Lapithæ were some chiefs, Perithous, and others, descended from Lapithus. When Perithous was to be married to Hippodamia, the Centaurs were invited to the marriage; but they became intoxicated with wine, and were rude to some of the females present, and the Lapithæ, justly provoked at this brutality, punished it by killing some, and driving others into banishment.

Iphigenia. §

The Greek princes having made suitable preparations for the siege of Troy, assembled with all their forces at Aulis, a city opposite to Colchis, in Eubœa. They chose Agamemnon, King of Mycenæ, and brother of Menelaus, for their chief, and Calchas, the soothsayer, for their priest.

Calchas, the seer, whose comprehensive view,

The past, the present, and the future knew.

But being assembled at Aulis, the host was prevented from sailing by contrary winds.

Calchas being consulted in this emergency, declared that Agamemnon had provoked Diana, by killing her favourite stag, and that it was the pleasure of the goddess to detain the Greeks by adverse winds, until the king should sacrifice to her, his daughter Iphigenia. At first, Agamemnon chose rather to abandon the expedition, but the other princes at length persuaded him to yield to the will of Diana.

In obedience to this suggestion, the King of Mycenæ sent a message to his wife Clytemnestra, requesting her to bring to him Iphigenia, that he might marry her to Achilles. Clytemnestra gladly obeyed this summons, but nothing could exceed her grief and indignation when she was informed of her daughter’s cruel destiny.

Iphigenia saw the preparation for a sacrifice, and when she learned that she was the victim, she entreated her father to save her life; but a fatal superstition hardened him against her supplications. Calchas took the knife in his hand, and was about to strike Iphigenia to the heart, when she suddenly disappeared, and a goat was found in her place, and sacrificed accordingly.

The mythologists explain this story thus: they say Diana had compassion upon the innocent virgin, and carried her away miraculously to her temple in Taurica, (the Crimea of modern geography,) where she made her a priestess. After this, the Argive host, as Homer often calls the Greeks, departed from Aulis, and had a favourable passage to Troy.

At Troy, the Grecian armament was encountered by a force sufficiently prepared to receive them. Hector, the valiant son of Priam, was the chief of the Trojans, and the neighbouring states sent large supplies of soldiers to them. The siege was begun, and a long conflict of ten years was carried on before Troy was taken by the Greeks. The Greeks did not confine their assaults to the city of Troy, but they ravaged the neighbourhood, and pillaged the towns and domains of the adjacent territory.

In the tenth year of the siege, the army of the Greeks was visited by a pestilence or plague, which destroyed many lives, and retarded the war, before Troy was taken. The loss was great on both sides; the most valiant of the Trojans, and particularly of the sons of Priam, were slain; indeed, so great was the slaughter, that the rivers of the country are represented as filled with dead bodies, and suits of armour. These rivers were so shallow as hardly to deserve the name, and are better known in Homer’s verses, than in the topography of Troy.

The poetical account of the taking of Troy is this. The Greeks, no being able to enter the city, pretended to abandon the siege, and to return to their ships, but instead, they built a wooden vessel, in the form of a horse, into which several armed men entered and concealed themselves. How this was done, without being observed by the Trojans, is not well accounted for, but such is the story told by Virgil.

The Trojans, looking down from their walls, and perceiving the absence of the Greeks, and nothing left but the wooden horse, went out of their gates to examine the wonder, and afterwards had it drawn within their walls. When the Greeks, concealed within the horse, found themselves in Troy, they took advantage of the night, got out of the horse, forced open the gates of the city, and admitted the Greek troops, who were concealed without; and thus Troy was taken, after a siege of ten years.

Another story is told concerning the taking of Troy. It is said that it had been decreed by the gods that Troy should not fall till large numbers of the Trojans should be slain by the arrows of Hercules. These arrows had been dipped in the blood of the Lernean Hydra, and communicated a mortal poison. When Hercules was expiring, he gave his bow and arrows to Philoctetes, and made the latter swear that he would never reveal the place where Hercules commanded him to inter his remains, when his body should be consumed on the pile.

After the death of his friend, Philoctetes repaired to Sparta, and Menelaus engaged him to go to the siege of Troy. Philoctetes, in an unguarded moment, revealed to Ulysses the place where Hercules was interred; and the gods, to punish his perjury, suffered him to let fall one of the arrows upon his foot, which inflicted a loathsome and incurable wound.

While the fleet was sailing to Troy, the envenomed wound became so offensive to those about him, that Ulysses persuaded them to land on the island of Lemnos, and abandon Philoctetes while he slept.

During the ten years of the siege, Philoctetes remained alone upon the desolate island, suffering from his wound, and sustaining himself by the flesh of birds which he killed with his arrows. A soothsayer at that time told the Greeks that Troy never could be taken without the arrows of Hercules, and Ulysses immediately departed for Lemnos, where he found Philoctetes, and entreated him to follow him to Troy.

Philoctetes hated Ulysses for his treachery, and refused at first to accompany him, but at length he was persuaded, for Hercules appeared to him and commanded him to go with Ulysses. Philoctetes slew vast numbers of the Trojans with the fatal arrows, among others, Paris, who had caused the war. Sophocles has made a drama of the history of Philoctetes, at Lemnos; it is not unlike that of Robinson Crusoe, excepting that the latter was not lame, and was much the happier of the two; Philoctetes was cured of his wound by Machaon, the son of Esculapius, who was the most eminent physician of the Greeks.

Agamemnon. §

Agamemnon and Menelaus were brothers. Agamemnon was King of Argos and Mycenæ; he married Clytemnestra, the sister of Helen, Queen of Sparta. These princes in their youth were driven away from Argos, by their uncle, Thyestes, who usurped the kingdom, but Tyndarus, King of Sparta, deposed Thyestes, and restored Agamemnon to the sovereignty of Argos and Mycenæ; and, having given his two daughters to the brothers, left his own kingdom of Sparta to Menelaus.

When Agamemnon sacrificed his daughter Iphigenia, Clytemnestra was bitterly incensed against him, and, soon after that event, wickedly attached herself to Egisthus, son of the usurper Thyestes. During the absence of Agamemnon, Egisthus and Clytemnestra ruled together in his kingdom; and when Agamemnon, after the taking of Troy returned to Mycenæ, the guilty pair determined to kill him.

Agamemnon brought with him Cassandra, the daughter of Priam. Apollo had conferred upon Cassandra the gift of prophecy, but afterwards taking offence at her, he ordained that though her predictions should be true, she should never be believed. Thus it was in vain that Cassandra foretold to Agamemnon, that Clytemnestra would put him to death. Agamemnon despised her warning, and entered his palace without fear. Egisthus and Clytemnestra soon contrived the murder of the king. The latter, being in need of refreshment, took a bath, and while he was unarmed, the queen and Egisthus killed him.

Orestes and Pylades. §

Besides Iphigenia, Agamemnon had two children, a son and a daughter; these were Electra and Orestes. Electra is described by the Greek dramatists, Eschylus and Sophocles, to have been exceedingly good; abhorring the conduct of her mother, piously lamenting her father’s murder, and anxiously preserving the young Orestes. On the death of Agamemnon, Orestes was the proper successor to the throne, and Electra knew that the usurper, Egisthus, feared that Orestes, when he should become a man, would punish his perfidious conduct.

To save her brother’s life, Electra sent him to the care of Strophius, King of Phocis. Strophius had a son, whose name was Pylades, and so much did Orestes and Pylades love each other, that their friendship has become a proverb. To love like Pylades and Orestes, expresses the most faithful friendship.

When Orestes was grown to manhood, he conceived the design of punishing his mother and her accomplice; and, to aid her brother’s purpose, Electra caused it to be reported that he had died in Phocis. Clytemnestra and Egisthus rejoiced at this, and went together to the temple of Apollo, to thank the god for the young prince’s death. Orestes concealed himself near the temple, and, watching their approach, killed his father’s murderers, alter they had reigned seven years.

After this horrid act, however cruel the provocation, Orestes was tormented by the Furies, and could not be happy anywhere. To be tormented by the Furies, means that he was sorry for what he had done; that he thought constantly of his murdered mother, and hated himself for his crime. Euripides, one of the Greek poets, says, that Orestes consulted the oracle of Apollo, to learn how he must make amends for his crime, and to escape from the vengeance of the Furies.

The oracle commanded him, in order to recover the peace of his mind, to go to Taurica Chersonesus,⁶ and bring from thence the statue of Diana. This was a difficult undertaking, for the King of Chersonesus always sacrificed every stranger who entered his dominions. But Orestes was not intimidated, and, accompanied by his friend Pylades, set out for the dominions of the barbarian⁷ king.

When the two friends arrived at Tauros, they were carried before Thoas the king, and he commanded them to be sacrificed to Diana. Iphigenia was the priestess, and assisted at all the sacrifices of the goddess. As soon as Iphigenia learned that the victims she was appointed to offer were Greeks, she thought of her far off country, and longed to see the strangers, and to converse with them.

Iphigenia was touched with pity at the sight of Pylades and Orestes, and she resolved to spare the life of one of them, though she could not so far disobey the king as to save both. She told them as she was a Greek, that she had friends in Greece, and that one or other of them should be permitted to return to their country, if he would take letters from her to her friends.

Iphigenia did not determine which of the two friends should be spared. Orestes declaring that he was willing to die, entreated Pylades to be the bearer of the letters, and to preserve his own life. Pylades, in his turn, not to be outdone in generosity, begged that Orestes might become the messenger of Iphigenia, and himself the victim. In the midst of this generous strife, the letters of Iphigenia were produced. One was addressed to Orestes, Prince of Mycenæ.

Orestes, upon this discovery, declared himself to be the same individual. Iphigenia confessed that she was that daughter of Agamemnon, who had miraculously escaped from Aulis, and she instantly resolved she would return with her brother and his friend to Greece, and that they would take along with them the statue of Diana.

Thoas soon discovered the flight of the priestess, and of the intended victims of Diana, and he would have followed, and brought them back to Scythia, but Minerva informed him that all had been done according to the will of the gods. The three friends in due time arrived at Argos, and were all kindly welcomed by Electra. Pylades married that princess, and Orestes married his cousin, Hermione, the daughter of Menelaus and Helen. He afterwards reigned in peace and honour, at Argos, and died in old age. Perhaps Iphigenia still continued a priestess of Diana, and lived happily with her affectionate brother and sister.

Menelaus. §

Agamemnon and Menelaus were called the Atridæ, or sons of Atreus. When Troy was taken, Helen was recovered, and Menelaus carried her back to Sparta. The voyage of Menelaus to Sparta is related in the fourth book of Homer’s Odyssey. When Telemachus, the son of Ulysses, went to Sparta to inquire concerning his father, he found Menelaus and Helen living in much luxury and enjoyment. Menelaus relates to Telemachus, that his vessels were tossed about the Egean sea for eight long years, sometimes on the coast of Cyprus, and then along the shores of Phœnicia, till they were driven to the borders of Egypt and Lybia. Menelaus, in the Odyssey, says, this protracted voyage was owing to the displeasure of the gods on account of some neglect in the worship due to them.

Long on the Egyptian coast by calms confined

Heaven to my fleet refused a prosperous wind;

No vows had we preferred, nor victim slain!

For this the gods each favouring gale restrain.

Odyssey , Book IV.

A long and weary calm ensued,

And the pale mariner at once deplores,

His wasted vigour and exhausted stores.

But one day while some of his men were gone to the shore for provisions, and others were engaged in fishing, one of the sea nymphs, Eidothea, the daughter of Proteus, appeared to Menelaus, and counselled him to apply to her father for instruction how to reconcile the offended deities.

Proteus was a sea-god capable of transforming himself into any shape he chose, and always endeavouring to elude those who asked any thing of him. Eidothea, however clothed Menelaus and three of his associates in the skins of Phocæ, or seals, which animals belonged to her father’s sea-herds, laid them in the sands, and instructed them to take her father by surprise, and hold him till he should declare the will of the gods, of which he was informed.

Menelaus did as he was directed by Eidothea; and Proteus informed him by what religious services to appease the gods, and gain a prosperous voyage. Having received these instructions, Menelaus inquired of the seer concerning his companions in arms, Agamemnon, Ulysses, and Ajax. Proteus told him of the fate of his brother and of Ajax, and informed him that Ulysses still lived.

Menelaus, as soon as he knew the will of the gods, performed the ceremonies required, and erected a cenotaph⁸ to the memory of Agamemnon.

These rights to piety and grief discharged,

The friendly gods a springing gale enlarged:

The fleet swift tilting o’er the surges flew

Till Grecian cliffs appeared, a blissful view.

Ajax. §

Ajax, next to Achilles, was the most valiant of the Greeks, who went to the siege of Troy. Ajax was the son of Telamon, a king of the island of Salamis. During the war he engaged in single combat with Hector; neither was killed, and at parting they exchanged arms. On the death of Achilles, Ulysses and Ajax contended which should possess his armour, and because it was given to Ulysses, Ajax went mad. In his phrensy, he slew a flock of sheep, supposing them to be sons of Atreus, who had bestowed the armour upon Ulysses, and at length killed himself in despair.

Another Ajax was the son of Oileus, King of Locris. The night that Troy was taken, Ajax pursued Cassandra into the Temple of Minerva. Cassandra had fled thither as an asylum, a place where she might be secure from the ill treatment which soldiers in a moment of victory offer to the defenceless. Minerva was offended at the disrespect shown to her by Ajax, and resolved to punish him.

Minerva borrowed thunders from Jupiter, and tempests from Neptune, and destroyed the vessel in which Ajax was returning to Greece. Ajax swam to a rock, and declared himself safe, in despite of the gods. This impiety offended Neptune, who shook the rock with his trident, and precipitated Ajax into the sea, where he was drowned.

By Neptune rescued from Minerva’s hate.

On Gyræ, safe, Oilean Ajax sate

His ship o’erwhelmed; but frowning on the floods,

Impious he roared defiance to the gods;

To his own prowess all the glory gave,

The power defrauding who vouchsafed to save.

This heard the raging ruler of the main;

His spear, indignant for such high disdain,

He launched, dividing with his forky mace

The aerial summit from its mighty base;

The rock rushed seaward with impetuous roar,

Ingulfed, and to the abyss the boaster bore.

O dyssey , Book IV.

Ulysses. §

Ulysses, King of Ithaca and Dulichium, two little islands near the western coast of Greece, was, of all the heroes of the Trojan war, most renowned for his eloquence and cunning. Ulysses was the son of Lærtes, and the husband of Penelope. When Ulysses married, his father went into rural retirement, and left his kingdom to his son. Ulysses was very happy in his government, and in his family, for he tenderly loved Penelope, and their only child, the infant Telemachus.

When Ulysses was summoned to go to the war of Troy, he was unwilling to leave his wife and child, and pretended to be insane. To make his insanity probable, he yoked a horse and a bull together, and sowed a field with salt instead of barley. Palamedes, suspecting that Ulysses was not insane, placed the little Telemachus before the plough, and Ulysses, instantly turning it from the furrow, would not hurt the child. This proved that he was in a sound mind.

Being forced to go to the war, Ulysses performed the most eminent services, and received thanks and praises from all the Greeks. But on his return from Troy, he was exposed to many misfortunes. His vessel was first driven out of its course to the coast of Africa, and next to the island of Sicily, where he visited the Cyclops. Polyphemus, the King of the Cyclops, seized Ulysses and his companions, five of whom he devoured; but the King of Ithaca put out the eye of Polyphemus, and narrowly escaped with his life, by tying himself under the body of a sheep, which carried him out of the cave of Polyphemus.

In Æolia he met with a friendly reception, and Æolus, the wind-god, gave him all the adverse winds in bags, that he might have none but fair winds to carry him to Ithaca. But the companions of Ulysses were curious to know what the bags contained; so they opened them, and out rushed the blasts, carrying all before them, and the whole fleet was destroyed, except the ship carrying Ulysses.

Ulysses was next driven to the island of Circe, where the enchantress metamorphosed all his companions into hogs. The god Mercury had given Ulysses an herb called Moly, which preserved him from the effects of her arts, and he retained his human figure. Ulysses afterwards visited the infernal regions, and there he consulted the prophet Teresias, how he might return to Ithaca.

Ulysses had compelled Circe to restore his men to their natural form, and once more, with his single vessel, he embarked for Ithaca, but he was not destined yet to return. By the directions of Circe, he passed along the coasts of the Sirens unhurt, and escaped the whirlpools of Scylla and Charybdis. On the island of Sicily, the companions of Ulysses seized upon, and devoured, some cattle which were designed for victims to Apollo; this gave such offence to the god, that he sunk the vessel, drowned the mariners, and permitted Ulysses only to escape on a single plank.

Thus destitute and forlorn, Ulysses floated to the island of Calypso, where he was kindly received by that goddess. Calypso lived in a delicious spot, and was so much delighted with Ulysses, that she wished to detain him in her island as long as he should live; but after he had resided with her seven years, the gods commanded him to leave Calypso, and return to Ithaca. Mercury ordered Calypso to furnish Ulysses with every thing necessary for his voyage, and she obeyed him, and the hero departed once more for Ithaca.

He had almost reached Corcyra, when Neptune recollected that his son Polyphemus had had his single eye put out by Ulysses, and thought it just that he should suffer still more as a punishment for that act; so the god raised a storm and sunk Ulysses’ ship, and the latter, not till he had suffered many perils, arrived safely at the island of the Phocians; there, though he was alone, and exposed to wild beasts, he laid himself down to rest and fell asleep.

While Ulysses was sleeping, Nausicaa, the daughter of Antinöus, King of the Phocians, came, with his attendants, to the spot where the stranger lay, and awakened him by their voices. Ulysses soon made his forlorn state known to these young women. They were moved with compassion for him; provided him with clothes, and directed him to apply to the king and queen for succour.

Ulysses found the king and queen of Phocia living in a sumptuous palace, surrounded with beautiful gardens. They were persons of amiable manners, and generous dispositions, and did all they could to divert the unfortunate stranger; exhibiting towards him that generous hospitality which the ancients considered as the first of duties. At a convenient time, they persuaded him to relate his adventures. Ulysses readily complied, and afterwards Antinöus had him safely conveyed to his own kingdom, which he reached after an absence of twenty years.

When Ulysses found himself once more in Ithaca, ho resolved to proceed to his palace in the disguise of an old beggar; but he first went to the cottage of one of his servants, Eumæus; who, though he did not know his master, entertained him kindly, and afterwards conducted him to his palace, where he asked charity of his son Telemachus, which the latter gave. As Ulysses approached his palace, his faithful dog Argus recognised him, and immediately fell dead at his feet.

During the absence of Ulysses, the neighbouring princes had severally importuned Penelope to marry one of them; but the queen, tenderly attached to the memory of her husband, and hoping that he still lived, denied them all. The suitors, as the princes were called, took up their abode in the palace of Ulysses, slaughtered his flocks, drank his wine, and insulted his son.

No sooner did Ulysses appear in Ithaca, and discover himself to his family, than the suitors were properly punished for their audacity and violence. Ulysses killed them all, and restored order and quiet in his dominions; rewarding Penelope for her fidelity, cherishing his son, and improving his people. The interesting story of Ulysses is related at length in the Odyssey. According to some opinions, he was a wise man, but he was certainly not very honest; and the want of honour is a blemish in his character, which diminishes esteem for him.

Achilles. §

Achilles, the principal of the Greek heroes who went to the siege of Troy, was the son of Pelides, King of Thessaly, and of Thetis, a sea-nymph. To render his person invulnerable, (impenetrable to the darts of his enemies,) Thetis, in his infancy, dipped her son into the waters of the Styx. After this precaution, the heel only, the part by which his mother held him, was liable to be wounded.

Achilles was instructed by Chiron, the Centaur, in the arts of war and music, and by Phœnix in eloquence. When Menelaus was about to attack Troy, Chalcas, a diviner in whom the Greeks placed implicit confidence, declared that Troy could not be taken without the assistance of Achilles. Thetis, who foresaw that her son would perish in this enterprise, concealed him in female attire among the household of Lycomedes, King of Scyras. Here he was discovered by Ulysses. That wily Greek, travelling about in the disguise of a merchant, exposed jewels and arms for sale to the maidens of Lycomedes’ court. Achilles was among them; and, in despite of his habiliment, chose the armour, and thus discovered his sex.

Achilles then felt himself in honour compelled to engage in the cause of Menelaus, and led his myrmidons, the soldiers of Pythia, in fifty ships to Troy. Here he soon distinguished himself by his ravages in the neighbouring districts, his person being defended by a suit of impenetrable armour, which Thetis had procured to be made for him by Vulcan.

Among the captives taken by Achilles, in his predatory incursions, was Briseis, a beautiful female, upon whom Agamemnon set his affections. Agamemnon was the chief of the expedition, and the laws of war required that he should be obeyed. Even the fierce Achilles could not refuse submission to “the king of men,” as Agamemnon was called, and he was forced to surrender the fair Briseis.

The displeasure of Achilles upon this occasion forms the principal subject of Homer’s Iliad, which commences thus, in Pope’s translation:

Achilles’ wrath, to Greece the direful spring

Of woes unnumbered, heavenly goddess, sing.”

Achilles withdrew himself from the battle, and after his separation, the Trojans prevailed.

Achilles had a friend whom he tenderly loved: this was Patroclus, who was slain by Hector, the chief hero of Troy. Indignant at this misfortune, Achilles determined to avenge the death of his friend by that of Hector. He therefore returned to the battle-ground, and they came to an engagement in which Achilles slew Hector, and dragged his lifeless body three times round the walls of Troy.

The manner of Achilles’ death is variously related; the common tradition is, that he went into a temple with Polyxena, the daughter of Priam, to be married to her, and that her brother, Paris, there aimed an arrow at his defenceless heel, which caused his death. From this circumstance the tendon of the heel is called, by anatomists, the tendon of Achilles.

When Achilles was young, his mother asked him whether he preferred a long life, spent in obscurity and retirement, or a few years of military glory not being better instructed, he chose the latter, and Jupiter granted his desire. When Achilles was lamenting the loss of Briseis, he reminds his mother of his destiny.

Oh! parent goddess! since in early bloom,

Thy son must fall, by too severe a doom,

Sure to so short a race of glory born;

Great Jove, in justice, should this span adorn;

Honour and fame, at least, the Thunderer owed,

And ill he pays the promise of a god,

If yon proud monarch thus thy son defies,

Obscures my glory and resumes my prize.

Iliad , Book  V.

Achilles is supposed to have been buried near the promontory of Sigæum, not far from the site of ancient Troy. Some ages after the war of Troy, Alexander, as he was going into Persia, offered a sacrifice on the tomb of Achilles, to celebrate the hero, and the poet who had transmitted his fame to posterity.

Nestor. §

Nestor, King of Pylos, a city of Messinia in Peloponnesus, went to the siege of Troy. His character is more amiable than that of the heroes generally. Nestor was very old, having lived three ages, — that is supposed to signify three of thirty years, and he was consequently ninety years old. Nestor, though a warrior, was a peace-maker. When Achilles and Agamemnon, in the first book of the Iliad, had their fierce quarrel concerning the captive Briseis, the wise Nestor endeavoured to allay their mutual fury.

To calm their passions with the words of age,

Slow from his seat arose the Pylian sage,

Experienced Nestor, in persuasion skilled,

Words sweet as honey from his lips distilled.

Two generations now had passed away,

Wise by his rules and happy by his sway;

Two ages in his native realm he reigned,

And now the example of the third remained.

All viewed with awe the venerable man.

Iliad , Book   I.

Nestor returned from the war of Troy in safety to his own dominions and family in Messinia. He lost his son Antilochus in the battles of Troy; but his old age is represented to have been passed in the piety and peace, which the sovereign of a small and unwarlike state might be likely to enjoy without disturbance.

Diomed. §

Diomed, the King of Etolia, was one of the bravest of the followers of Menelaus. Diomed is celebrated in Homer, for what is called his night adventure. This was entering during the night the city of Troy, in order to report to the Greeks the condition of the enemy.

Is there, said he,⁹ a chief so greatly brave

His life to hazard, and his country save?

Lives there a man who singly dares to go.

To yonder camp, or seize some straggling foe?

Or, favoured by the night, approach so near,

Their speech, their counsels, their designs to hear?

None of the host answered to this appeal but Diomed.

——————— “Untaught to fear

Tydides spoke — The man you seek is here.

To yon black camps to bend my dangerous way,

Some god within commands, and I obey.

But let some other chosen warrior join.

To raise my hopes and second my design.”

This other “chosen warrior” was Ulysses. They proceeded together among the unwary Trojans, committed great slaughter, and returned to the Greek camp, having murdered Rhesus, King of Thrace, one of the allies of the Trojans, and bringing with them the famous horses of Rhesus,

“Swift as the wind, and white as winter snow.”

When Diomed returned to Etolia, he found his kingdom and family in the condition which any might presume upon, who should abandon his duties for ten years. His wife had married a stranger, and his subjects had become regardless of all laws; so he left his country and settled himself in Magna Grecia, where he died.

Hector. §

Hector, the son of Priam and Hecuba, was the most valiant of the Trojans. His wife was Andromache, the daughter of Ætian, an Asiatic prince, and their only child was Astyanax. The parting of Hector and Andromache is justly accounted the most pathetic passage of the Iliad.

Hector killed Patroclus, the favourite friend of Achilles. After Achilles withdrew himself from the Greeks on account of his quarrel with Agamemnon, the Trojans gained perpetual advantages, and Patroclus entreated Achilles that he might be clothed in his armour and combat Hector. Achilles consented, and Patroclus fell,

Achilles, exasperated beyond measure at the loss of his friend, returned to the field, and renewed his attack upon the Trojans. Fear fell upon them as this mighty barbarian, instigated by his terrible passions, dealt death at every blow. Hector was not without terror at the thought of encountering so invincible a warrior; and his father, mother and friends, entreated him to avoid Achilles.

Hector was too proud to fly from an enemy; he met the ferocious Achilles, and died by his hand. Achilles afterwards fastened the dead body of Hector to his car, and dragged it ignominiously round the tomb of Patroclus. Priam afterwards went to the tent of Achilles, and begged his son’s body. Achilles could not resist the supplications of the old man, and gave up the body.

By one of those miracles very common among the poets, the disfigured person of Hector was restored to its natural beauty, and when he was brought back to Troy, and received by his mother, wife, and sister, Hecuba exclaimed,

“Yet glowest thou fresh with every living grace;

No mark of pain or violence of face;

Rosy and fair! as Phœbus’ silver bow

Dismissed thee gently to the shades below.

The amiable character of Hector was, perhaps, best described by Helen, who says, in Pope’s Homer,

“Yet was it ne’er my fate from thee to find,

A deed ungentle or a word unkind;

While others cursed the authoress of their wo,

Thy pity checked my sorrows in their flow;

If some proud brother eyed me with disdain,

Or scornful sister with her sweeping train,

Thy gentle accents softened all my pain;

For thee I mourn, and mourn myself in thee,

The wretched source of all this misery,

Iliad , Book XI V.

Hector feared that Andromache would be cruelly treated by whomsoever among the Greeks should make her his prisoner; he says,

“I see thee weeping, trembling, captive led.”

She fell to the share of Neoptolemus, son of Achilles. It is said that he married her. The infant Astyanax was killed by some of the barbarous conquerors of Troy.

When Priam entreated the body of Hector, Achilles for a moment was melted. The meeting between them was solemn and affecting. Old age in affliction touches the most obdurate heart. The wretched Priam kissed the hands that had been stained with the blood of his dear son, and supplicated the iron-hearted Achilles to restore his mangled form. Achilles, implacable as he had shown himself, could not refuse a request so reasonable, and when he granted the body of Hector, he also allowed a truce; a suspension of hostilities, that Priam might bury his son, and the funeral honours were paid according to the customs of the country.

When Troy was afterwards taken, the family of Priam tied to the altar of the gods for protection. Priam, in this last conflict, clothed himself in armour, and would have defended himself, but Hecuba detained him in the temple of Jupiter. While Hecuba was thus endeavouring to save her aged husband, their son Polites entered the sanctuary; Neoptolemus pursued him thither, and, disregarding the place, inflicted a mortal wound upon the youth, who fell dead at his parents’ feet.

Priam lifted his spear against the murderer, but in vain; his hand was feeble, opposed to the strong arm of the Greek. The latter, without compassion or reverence, seized the gray hair of Priam, and severed his head from his body. Hecuba was assigned, as a captive, to Ulysses, but that hero passing into Thrace, Hecuba made her escape from him, and lived and died in that barbarous land. Cassandra was murdered by those who accomplished the death of Agamemnon, and thus ended the race of the Dardan kings. So horrible are the details of war.

It is hardly probable that this story is exactly true, but it has certainly many parallels among nations not taught by the revelation of God, and some, alas! among those who have been instructed in the gospel of peace.

Eneas. §

Eneas was a prince of Troy, son of Anchises and the goddess Venus. When Troy was in flames, Eneas escaped with his life, taking upon his shoulders his aged father, Anchises, and in one hand his household gods, while he led, in his other hand, his young son, Ascanius. Creusa, the wife of Eneas, followed her husband and father, but she was unhappily lost in the crowd.

According to Virgil, the Roman poet, who has written the history of Eneas in the poem called the Eneid, Eneas attached followers to himself, and embarked upon the Mediterranean, in hopes to establish himself in some country more favoured than Troy. In his voyage, Eneas stopped at Delos, the Strophades, Crete, and Sicily. In Sicily, he buried his father; hence he would have continued his course to Italy, but he was driven upon the coast of Africa.

Carthage is commonly supposed to have been founded about eight hundred years before the Christian era, but Virgil pretends that it existed at the end of the war of Troy, 1184 B. C. This anachronism may be pardoned in a poet, for poets are not required to be accurate. Eneas, according to the fable, was driven to the city of Carthage, and kindly received by Dido.

Dido was a princess of Tyre, in Phœnicia. Her husband, Sichæus, was immensely rich, and Epymalion, a tyrannical king of Tyre, in order to possess himself of the wealth of Sichæus, murdered him. Dido, after the loss of her husband, in fear for her own life, escaped with a company of Tyrians to Africa, where she founded the city of Carthage.

According to Virgil, Dido wished to detain Eneas at Carthage, and to marry him, but he refused, and left her for Italy. In consequence of her grief for the departure of Eneas, Dido refused to live, and committed suicide. The readers of Virgil always pity her, because her sorrow and despair are described in an affecting manner.

In the passage from Carthage to Sicily, Eneas was driven ashore at Cumæ, and the Sibyl conducted him to the infernal regions, that he might learn the fate of himself, and his posterity. After a voyage of seven years, and the loss of thirteen ships, Eneas came to the Tiber. Here he was kindly received by Latinus, the king of the country, who gave him his daughter Lavinia, though she had been previously promised to Turnus, for a wife.

Eneas met also with a kind reception from Evander, a prince of Arcadia, who had brought a colony into Italy, had dispossessed the aborigines, or natives, of a little tract adjacent to Latium, and had established himself there. This prince gave Eneas an interesting account of the former state of Italy, of the golden age of Saturn, and the less happy days that followed.

Young persons are not to understand from the word king, as it is used in the history of ancient and pastoral people, the same idea as that of a king in modern times. Those kings who are mentioned in the history of Abraham, must have been the proprietors of small tracts of land, who exercised a patriarchal government over those who lived upon their domains, and who, like the nobles of Europe m the middle ages, called out their followers to fight their battles. A king of England or France, though he has not the absolute power of ancient kings, rules a large territory, and lives in a manner wholly different from Evander, or Chedorlaomer.

To prevent the marriage of Eneas and Lavinia, Turnus declared war against the former. Virgil related many battles which ensued between Eneas and Turnus; that Eneas was assisted by his mother, Venus, and by Evander, and that, being tired of fighting, the rivals at last, to finish the contest, agreed upon a single combat. Turnus was killed, and it may be that Eneas reigned peaceably in Latium.

Fabulous history does not relate with precision the death of Eneas, but it is somewhere said that he was drowned in the Numicus, a river of Italy, being weighed down by his armour; and that the Latins, as the Romans afterwards believed of Romulus, imagined their king was taken up into heaven. After this, the Latins honoured Eneas as a god, and offered sacrifices to him. To imagine a man to be a god, and to worship him as one, is the apotheosis of that man. This folly no longer exists in the world; men are now better instructed in the nature of God, and in the proper way to honour great men.

Besides the history of gods and demi-gods, compends of Mythology usually contain notices of certain eminent individuals of antiquity, who, by way of distinction, are called the Seven Wise Men of Greece — and to them is also added the tradition of certain monuments of art, now perished. The latter were the Seven Wonders of the world. The common account of the celebrated men, and of the perished monuments, is the following.

Brahma. §

The Hindus believe that the elements which form the material universe, were immersed in water before they were brought by Brahma to their present forms and order. They described the creation as Moses does in the book of Genesis. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth; and the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God moved on the face of the waters.”

The world being created, was divided into ten parts, each of which was committed to the care of a guardian spirit. Besides Brahma in his three characters, and the guardian spirits, the Hindus believe in many inferior deities: the chief of these are,

Casgapa, the ancient god of the heavens, with Aditi his consort, parents of many of the inferior deities.

Ganesa, son of Seva, the god of wisdom, is depicted with an elephant’s head, the symbol of sagacious discernment, and attended by a rat, which the Indians regarded as a wise and provident animal. All sacrifices and religious ceremonies; addresses to superior gods; serious writings, and worldly affairs of moment, are begun by pious Hindus, with an invocation of Ganesa. His image is set up in their streets and their high roads: and against their temples and houses. They daily sprinkle it with oil, and adorn it with flowers.

Menu, the lawgiver. Fourteen of this name are supposed by the Hindus to have existed successively.

Lachsmee, the goddess of abundance, who presides over agricultural labours, and is the wife of Vishnu. She is represented with a twisted cord under her arm, somewhat resembling the cornucopia, or horn of plenty, of the Grecian Ceres.

Indra the king; the god of the heavens; chief of the good spirits. His consort is named Sachi; his celestial city, Amaravati; his palace, Vaijayanta; his garden, Nandana; his chief elephant, Airavat; his charioteer, Matali; and his weapon, Vajra, or the thunderbolt. He is the master of the thunder; the ruler of the winds and showers. His peculiar place of abode is Meru, or the North Pole, allegorically represented as a mountain of golden gems.

Seshanaga, the Sovereign of Patala, or the infernal regions; the king of serpents. He is thus described in the Bhagavat, a sacred Hindu poem. His appearance is gorgeous and brilliant. He has a thousand heads; and on each of them is a crown set with resplendent gems. His neck, tongues, and body, are black. His eyes gleam like torches. The skirts of his robes are yellow. A sparkling jewel is hung on each one of his ears. His arms are extended and adorned with rich bracelets. His hands bear the holy shell, the radiated weapon, the war-mace, and the lotos.

Yama or Yamen, the god of death. He is esteemed to be a child of the sun: he is called also, King of Justice. He is distinguished as being the judge of departed souls; for the Hindus believe that when a soul leaves its body, it is immediately conveyed to Yamapur, or the city of Yama; where it receives a just sentence from him; and thence, either ascends to Swerga, or the first heaven; or is driven down to Narac, the region of serpents; or assumes on earth, the form of some animal; unless its offence had been so heinous as to merit a vegetable, or even a mineral prison.

Yamen is described under the double character of the Greek Furies. He is inexorably severe to the incorrigibly guilty; but to the penitent he is gracious and relenting. And like the true God, though he is a “consuming fire,” yet “he forgiveth iniquity, transgression, and sin.”

They, who polluted with offences come,

             Behold him as the King

Of terrors; black of aspect, red of eye,

Reflecting back upon the sinful mind

             Its own inborn deformity.

But to the righteous spirit, how benign,

             His awful countenance!

Where tempering justice with parental love,

             Goodness and heavenly grace,

And sweetest mercy shine. Yet is he still

Himself the same, one form, one face, one will

And these his twofold aspects are but one;

             And change is none

In him; for change in Yamen could not be,

             The immutable is He.

Parvati is the consort of Seva, whose rites and emblems are shamefully immoral and indecent. Carticéya, the son of Parvati, leader of the celestial armies. He is represented as riding upon a peacock, clothed in a robe spangled with eyes, having six heads, and numerous hands, which grasp spears, sabres, and other weapons of war.

Seraswatti is the wife of Brahma, and emblem of his creative power, the patroness of the arts and sciences. She is depicted as holding in her hands the palmira leaf, and the reed for writing. Durga is the same goddess, when regarded as difficult of access, the severe, the majestic divinity of heroic virtue, the vanquisher of demons and giants.

Cama is the beautiful god of love, having a bow of cane, and shafts enwreathed with flowers. Suradevi, the goddess of wine, who arose from the ocean, when, after the deluge, it was disturbed by the gods, with the mountain Mandar, and forced to throw up the sacred things, and animals, and the water of life, which it had swallowed.

Varuna, the genius of the waters.

Agni, the genius of lire.

Agnastra, the fabricator of the heavenly arrows.

Pavan, the ruler of the winds.

Mariatale, the favouring goddess of the Parias, the lowest and miserably despised caste, or division of the Hindus; rejected by their countrymen, and condemned to perform all the most laborious and degrading offices of life.

The Hindus pay adoration to the Sun and Moon The sun is adored under the name of Surya. Surya is represented as riding in a chariot, drawn by seven green horses, guided by his charioteer Arun, or the dawn. Temples, in honour of the sun, now exist in India. One of these is thus described: “The walls were of red marble, interspersed with streaks of gold. On the pavement was an image of the radiant divinity, hardly inferior to himself in splendour; his rays being imitated by a boundless profusion of rubies, pearls, and diamonds, of inestimable value.”

Another temple of the sun at Juggernaut is of surprising magnificence: It is surrounded by a high wall, and has three entrances. At the eastern gate are two very fine figures of elephants, each with a man upon his trunk. On the west are two surprising figures of horsemen completely armed, who, having killed two elephants, are seated upon them. In front of that gate is an octagonal pillar of black stone, fifty cubits¹⁰ high. Nine flights of steps lead to an extensive enclosure, in which is a large dome, constructed of stone, upon which are carved the sun and the stars; and round them is a border on which is a variety of human figures, expressive of different passions; some kneeling, others prostrate; together with a number of strange imaginary animals.

The Hindu priests, at their first assuming the Zennar or sacred cord of three threads, the mystic symbol of their faith, learn the Gayteree, or invocation of praise to the sun.

The Hindus regard the moon as a male deity, to whom they give the name of Chandra, and whom their poets describe as sitting in a splendid chariot, drawn by two antelopes, and holding in the right hand a rabbit. Fountains are by them dedicated to this divinity.

Vishnu. §

See plate, page 191.

The Hindus suppose that Vishnu takes upon himself different forms at different times, and is called by different names.

The different characters of Vishnu are called manifestations of Vishnu. When a god appears on earth in a human form, he is said to be incarnate, or clothed in flesh.

The Rama of the Hindus is an incarnate deity. He was a celebrated conqueror, who delivered his wife Sita from the giant Ravan, King of Lanca.

Chrishna is a manifestation of Vishnu. He is regarded by the Hindus as the god of shepherds; of whose nature and actions, their sacred writings give the most extraordinary and strange representations. He is depicted as splendidly decorated, wearing a rich garland of wild flowers, and having his ankles adorned with strings of pearls. His complexion is dark blue, approaching to black, and hence, the large bee of that colour is often drawn fluttering over his head. His character and attributes greatly resemble those of the Grecian Apollo.

Deva. §

See plate, page 191.

Rama, Chrishna, and Budha, another beneficent deity, are sometimes called the Avatars. They came into the world to abolish human sacrifices, and to appoint in their place, the innocent oblation of fruits, flowers, and incense.

All the Avatars are painted with coronets of gems; jewels in their ears; necklaces; garlands of flowers hanging down below their waists; loose mantles of golden tissue, or coloured silk, with embroidered hems. In their hands are placed the sacred shell, elliptical rings, and maces, or battle-axes.

In ancient times, not only sacrifices of beasts were common amongst the Hindus, but even of human beings. Vestiges of this sanguinary superstition are still evident, in frequent instances of voluntary suicide; and in the shocking practice of women burning themselves with their deceased husbands, which is yet encouraged by the Brahmins, and which civil authority has not been able effectually to check.

The Hindus offer religious services to certain animals. They believe that Vishnu, who has already been incarnate nine times, in different forms, will appear once more in the figure of a horse, in order to put an end to all things here. They are taught to practise most cruel, absurd, and impure rites; and that it is meritorious to inflict on themselves severe penances; such as wearing an iron collar, set with sharp points, about the neck; dragging constantly along a heavy weight; remaining for a long time in the most painful positions of body; drowning themselves in the Ganges, or exposing themselves in its holy waters, to be devoured by tigers or alligators.

Of these wretched fanatics, the most disgusting are the Fakirs, who sometimes hang themselves upon spikes, and may be seen in this state till they expire, being a long time sustained by others infatuated like themselves, who bring them food.

Hindu Temples. §

The Hindu temples of the highest antiquity are the subterranean temples at Salsette, and in the small isle of Elephanta near Bombay, which is thus denominated from the figure of a large elephant admirably well cut in the solid rock, of which the island is composed.

This astonishing cavern, which, as containing an assemblage of all the deified heroes and princes of India, may be called the Hindu Pantheon: is about half way up the steep side of the mountain, from whose stony bosom it is excavated. The temple is about one hundred and twenty feet square, and eighteen feet high. The enormous mass of solid rock which forms its roof, is supported by four rows of pillars, of beautiful proportion, and finely fluted. Over these columns runs a ridge of stone, so cut as to resemble a huge beam, which is richly adorned with carved work.

Along the sides of the cavern are ranged between forty and fifty statues, each, twelve or fifteen feet in height, of exact symmetry; but though round and prominent, yet not one of them is detached from the main rock. Some of these statues wear a kind of helmet; others, crowns richly ornamented with gems; whilst others display only large, bushy ringlets of curled or flowing hair. Many of them have four hands, and many six; grasping sceptres and shields; symbols of justice and religion; or war-weapons. Amongst them are conspicuous, the triform representation of Brahmé, and the frightful image of Sceva.

The principal Hindu temples of more modern date, are those of Juggernaut, Benares, Mattia, Tripetty, and Seringham. The Indian pagodas, in general, are commonly erected near the banks of the Ganges, the Kistna, or some other sacred river, for the benefit of ablution in the purifying stream. At the entrance of all the most considerable of them, is a portico, supported by rows of lofty columns, with handsome flights of stone steps. Under these porticoes, multitudes assemble at the rising of the sun, and having bathed in the stream below, await the opening of the gates, which universally front the east, to admit the first solar ray.

Of these temples, that of Juggernaut is the most celebrated. Juggernaut is the residence of the chief Brahmin of all India. The image of Juggernaut stands in the centre of the pagoda, upon an elevated altar, encompassed with iron rails, under a magnificent dome. So vast was the number of pilgrims who resorted to the Juggernaut, that the average annual amount of a tax of half-a-crown on each one of them, exacted by a Mohammedan prince of the country, was 750,000 l.; and 8000 lbs. weight of provisions were daily prepared for the use of the priests and the pilgrims. The priests of the temple of Seringham, with their families, composing a multitude of not less than 40,000 persons, were maintained by the liberality of the pilgrims frequenting its celebrated shrine.

The idol images in these temples are generally of the most monstrous forms that imagination can picture. Some have numerous heads and arms, the rude symbols of superhuman wisdom and gigantic power. Some have large horns branching from their heads; and others, huge tusks protruding from extended open mouths. Numbers of sacred hieroglyphical animals are sculptured on the walls. The bull of Sceva; the eagle of Vishnu; the elephant of Ganesa; the ram; the ape; the rhinoceros, are blended together in groups.

Political State of the Hindus. §

It is a singular fact, that in Asia, where the Hebrews dwelt, among whom a revelation of the true God existed from the age of Abraham to that of Christ, a period of nineteen centuries; and where our Saviour himself spent his days on earth, that a universal corruption of religion should exist, — that Mohammedanism or Paganism should universally prevail among the natives.

The Mohammedans compelled the people to embrace their religion, and instantly killed those who refused it; and the subjects of other religions, being unable for the most part to read at all, and being unfurnished with the Christian Scriptures, cannot know at present, and without instructions from European nations, the Christian doctrines. Besides the authority of their priests forbids them to receive new doctrines, and their political regulations also hinder them from learning from each other.

Among the Hindus a very remarkable political order exists, which effectually prevents the progress of society; that is, prevents one race of men from growing wiser and better than their fathers were — prevents any particular individual from endeavouring to improve his fellow-citizens. In the history of modern Europe, and of America, there are many instances of eminent persons who have spent their whole lives in the instruction of others, and who have particularly endeavoured to exalt the minds, and raise the condition of the lower classes of the people: such as William Penn, John Wesley, and Dr. Franklin.

No such persons are allowed to exert themselves for the benefit of the unfortunate natives of Asia, except a few European missionaries, no native Hindu, in particular, is permitted to converse indiscriminately with persons of every degree and of every occupation. The custom and fixed law of the nation forbids it.

The regulation of society which forbids all improvement, is that of the people into orders or castes. The castes are hereditary, immutable divisions of the people, established in the earliest times, by their sacred laws. Of these there are four; that of the priests, or Brahmins; that of the military; that of the agriculturists and traders; and that of the labourers and artisans.

These are as much separated, and have as little mutual communication, as persons of a different nation, or a different species. They cannot intermarry, nor join in any common occupations, or remove from one caste to another.

Those of the superior castes regard those of the inferior with the utmost contempt: and consider themselves as polluted by their approach. Even the lowest Hindus refuse to eat with strangers of any class whatsoever. The loss of caste, that is, the breaking of any rule of the caste, degrades a Hindu to a most miserable condition; cuts him off from all society, and causes him to be regarded as an impure and detestable animal.

There is yet another class of persons, the Parias, who are accounted the vilest of all, and are subject to the extremest poverty, the lowest indignities, and the meanest services that can be imposed. It is easy to see why the Christian religion, which declares all men equal, should not be introduced among such a people.

The Brahmin caste holds all the others in the most humiliating subjection. The Brahmins abstain entirely from animal food and fermented liquors: and the other castes exercise an uncommon degree of temperance and self-denial. The abstinence from animal food is occasioned by their belief in the doctrine of the Metempsychosis, or transmigration of souls through various bodies. The Sanscrit, or sacred language, in which their books of religion are written, has long ceased to be a spoken tongue; and is understood only by the priests and learned.

Frea and Thor. §

Frea, or Frigga, the daughter of Niorder, god of the winds and seas, was represented as the most amiable of the goddesses. She was the wife of Odin, accompanied him in battle, on horseback, and shared the dead with him. Frea was called Vanadis, goddess of hope. Frea inhabited a magnificent palace of heaven, named Fansal, the illustrious abode.

Virgins of high birth consecrated themselves to her service. In a temple at Upsal was seen her image reclining on cushions, adorned with the emblems of fertility and abundance. Under the name of Hertha, she was regarded as the earth. She was worshipped by most of the German tribes. To her was consecrated the sixth day of the week; which still bears her name, Frea’s day, or Friday. She was attended by Fulla her handmaid, with long flowing hair, and a bandeau of gold.

Thor was esteemed to be the eldest and bravest of the sons of Odin and Frea. He was supposed to rule over the aerial regions; to launch the thunder; to point the lightning; to direct the meteors, winds, and storms. Prayers were addressed to him for favourable winds, refreshing rains, and fruitful seasons. The fifth day of the week was dedicated to him, and called after his name, Thor’s day or Thursday.

The principal of the inferior deities of Scandinavia, were Niorder, etc.

Niorder, who presided over the seas, navigation, hunting, and fishing. He espoused Skada, daughter of the giant Thiasse; who preferring the mountains of her father to the humid palace of her husband, prevailed with him to spend nine out of every twelve days in the hilly regions, while the other three were spent on the shores of the ocean. Niorder is supposed to have been a king of some part of Sweden, and high priest of Upsal.

Balder, a son of Odin. He was represented as possessing a majestic, attractive beauty: light hair and dazzling eyes. He was mild and eloquent, uttering just and irrevocable decrees. Into his palace no impure person could enter; and upon its columns were engraven those Runic rhymes which were imagined to have power to revive the dead. He was killed unintentionally, by his blind brother, Hoder.

Heimdal, the guardian of the heavens. He was styled the powerful, the holy, the god with golden teeth. He was represented as posted m the celestial fortress, at one end of the bridge Bifrost, which reached from earth to heaven, and was evidently an emblem of the rainbow. There he defended he passage against the giants; taking less sleep than the birds; seeing a hundred leagues around him, by night as well as by day; hearing the grass growing on the ground, and the wool on the backs of the sheep. Heimdal held in his hand a trumpet, the sound of which might be heard throughout all worlds. He was esteemed to be the standard bearer of the gods; the judge and pacificator of combats and disputes. He was represented with a cock’s crest upon his head.

To the gods just described, may be added several children of Odin: Hoder the blind; the silent Vidar, who walked the waters and the air; Vali the formidable archer; Uller, who presided over the trial by duel; and Forseti, who decided the differences between gods and men. Iduna, queen of youth; Saga, goddess of waterfalls; Vara, the witness of oaths; Lofen, the guardian of friendship; Synia, the avenger of broken faith.

Niflheim. §

The Scandinavian hell was called Niflheim, and was represented as consisting of nine vast regions of ice, situated under the north pole. Near its eastern gate reposed the body of Vala, the prophetess.

Hard by the eastern gate of Hell

In ancient time great Vala fell;

And there she lies in massive tomb,

Shrouded by night’s eternal gloom.

Fairer than gods, and wiser, she

Held the strange keys of destiny.

She knew what chanced ere time began;

Ere worlds there were, or gods, or man;

No mortal tongue has ever said,

What hand unknown laid Vala dead.

But yet if rumour rightly tells,

In her cold bones the Spirit dwells,

And still if bold intruder come.

Her voice unfolds his hidden doom.

And oft the rugged ear of Hell

Is soothed by some melodious spell.

Slow breathing from the hollow stone

In witching notes and solemn tone.

Herbert’sHelga .

The Dog of Darkness, similar to the Grecian Cerberus, guarded the entrance of Niflheim.

Uprose the king of men with speed,

And saddled straight his coal-black steed;

Down the yawning steep he rode.

That leads to Hela’s drear abode.

Him the dog of darkness spied;

His shaggy throat he opened wide.

While from his jaws, with carnage filled,

Foam and human gore distilled.

Hoarse he bays with hideous din,

Eyes that glow, and fangs that grin.

Gray’s Descent of Odin .

In the Scandinavian Hell was the principal abode of Loke, the cruel, cunning, and malicious enemv of gods and men. Here resided Hela, the dreadful goddess of death, daughter of the evil genius Loke and the giantess Angherbode, or messenger of ill Hela was described as occupying an immense palace; where her hall was Sorrow; her table. Famine; her knife, Hunger; her servants, Slowness and Delay; her gate, Precipice; her vestibule, Languor; her bed, Malady and Leanness; her tent, Malediction. One half of her body was of the colour of putrid, and the other of living flesh. In this region of horrors roamed the wolf Fenris, a monster dreaded by the gods, as destined to be one instrument of their destruction; and the equally formidable serpent.

The Valkyries were maids of the god of war; the goddesses of slaughter. It was their province to select those that were to fall in battle; to bear the invitation of Odin to the most distinguished; to conduct the souls of heroes slain to Valhalla, his hall; and there to pour out for them the beverage of the gods.

On steeds that seemed as fleet as light,

Six maids in brilliant armour dight.

Their chargers of ethereal birth,

Pawed, with impatient hoof, the earth,

And snorting fiercely ’gan to neigh,

As if they heard the battle bray,

And burned to join the bloody fray.

But they unmoved and silent sate,

With pensive brow and look sedate,

Proudly each couched her glittering spear

And seemed to know nor hope nor fear.

    So mildly firm their placid air,

So resolute, yet heavenly fair.

But not one ray of pity’s beam,

From their dark eyelids seem to gleam;

Nor gentle mercy’s melting tear.

Nor love might ever harbour there.

Was never woman’s beauteous face,

So stern, and yet so passionless.

Helga .

The Song of Vala
[From Herbert’s Helga.] §

Silence, all ye sons of glory!

    Silence, all ye powers of light!

While I sing of ancient story,

    Wonders wrapt in mystic night.

I was rocked in giant’s cradle,

    Giant’s lore my wisdom gave;

I have known both good and evil,

    Now I lie in lowly grave.

Long before the birth of Odin,

    Mute was thunderous ocean’s roar.

Stillness o’er the huge earth brooding.

    Strand was none, nor rocky shore.

Neither grass nor green tree growing,

    Vernal shower, nor wintry storm,

Nor those horses, bright and glowing.

    Dragged the Sun’s refulgent form.

He who rules, by night, the heaven.

    Wist not where his beams to throw.

All to barren darkness given.

    There, confusion; Hell below.

Imir sat in lonely sadness.

    Watching o’er the fruitless globe;

Never morning beamed with gladness;

    Never eve with dewy robe.

Who are those in pride advancing.

    Through the barren tract of night?

Mark their steel divinely glancing,

    Imir falls in holy fight!

Of his bones, the rocks high swelling

    Of his flesh the glebe is made;

From his veins the tide is welling.

    And his locks are verdant shade.

Hark! his crest with gold adorning.

    Chanticleer on Odin calls.

Hark! another bird of morning

    Claps his wings in Hela’s halls.

Nature shines in glory beaming;

    Elves are born, and man is formed,

Every hill with gladness teeming,

    Every shape with life is warmed.

Who is he by heaven’s high portal,

    Beaming like the light of morn?

’Tis Heimdallar’s form immortal,

    Shrill resounds his golden horn.

Say, proud warder, robed in glory,

    Are the foes of nature nigh?

Have they climbed the mountains hoary?

    Have they stormed the lofty sky?

On the wings of tempest riding,

    Surtur spreads his fiery spell;

Elves in secret caves are hiding;

    Odin meets the wolf of hell.

She must taste a second sorrow,

    She who wept when Balder bled,

Fate demands a nobler quarry;

    Death must light on Odin’s head.

See ye not yon silent stranger?

    Proud he moves with lowering eyes,

Odin, mark thy stern avenger!

    Slain the shaggy monster lies.

See the serpent weakly crawling;

    Thor has bruised its loathsome head!

Lo the stars from heaven are falling!

    Earth has sunk in ocean’s bed!

Glorious Sun! thy beams are shrouded.

    Vapours dank around thee sail;

Nature’s eye with mists is clouded;

    Shall the powers of ill prevail?

Say, shall earth with freshness teeming

    Once again from ocean rise?

Shall the dawn of glory streaming

    Wake us to immortal joys?

He shall come in might eternal,

    He whom eye hath never seen

Earth and heaven and powers infernal,

    Mark his port and awful mien.

He shall judge, and he shall sever

    Shame from glory, ill from good;

These shall live in light forever,

    Those shall wade the chilling flood.

Dark to dwell in wo repining.

    Far beyond the path of day.

In that bower, where serpents twining,

    Loathsome spit their venomed spray.

This song of Vala contains a sort of abstract of the Voluspa. The third and fourth verses describe Chaos — the supposed state of the universe before the present order was commenced. The lines,

Nor those horses, bright and glowing,

Dragged the Sun’s refulgent form,

remind the reader of Apollo’s chariot.

The seventh stanza describes Imir, the supreme creator, sitting in “lonely sadness” because earth had no intelligent inhabitants. The ninth stanza supposes Imir to perish, and his substance to form the material world. The Scripture says, at creation, “the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy.” In the same way the Scandinavian mythology makes birds of the morning celebrate the day when “God saw all that he had made, and behold it was very good.”

The eleventh stanza of the song of Vala supposes that evil spirits, foes of nature, begin to disturb the peace of the world, as the serpent entered the garden of Eden. The powers of good and evil contend, and Thor bruises the head of the serpent. A good deity destroying evil and malignant beings is a doctrine of the Scripture — Earth shall be destroyed and its beauty renewed. The Scriptures say, these elements “shall wax old as a garment,” but there shall be “a new heaven and a new earth.” The Christian doctrine of retribution is clear in this verse,

He shall judge, and he shall sever

    Shame from glory, ill from good;

These shall live in light forever,

    Those shall wade the chilling flood.

These are a few of the parallels which may be traced between the Bible and Scandinavian mythology

Mexican Priests. §

See plate, page 229.

All the offices of religion were divided among the Mexican priesthood. Some were diviners, and some were sacrificers; some composed hymns, and others sung them. Some of the priests kept the temples clean, and to others belonged the care of educating the younger priests, the ordering of the festivals, and the care of the mythological paintings.

Four times a day, the Mexicans offered incense to their idols, and they had censers in all their houses, to use in their domestic devotions. Females were sometimes devoted to the priestly function from their infancy. As soon as the destined girl was born, her parents offered her to some god, and in two months she was carried to the temple, where a small broom, and an equally small censer was placed in her little hands, to denote that at a future time she should sweep the sacred floors and offer incense in the temple. At a suitable age, the Mexican priestess was permitted to marry. The cruelty of the Mexicans in their worship is detestable, and sorry as one may feel for the misfortunes which they have experienced under the dominion of the Spaniards, the abolition of human sacrifices, and the introduction of Christianity into their country, must be accounted a change for the better.

Pantheon. §

The Pantheon is of a later origin than the Capitol. It was built by Marcus Agrippa, son-in-law of Augustus. There are no windows in this edifice. The name Pantheon signifies the temple of all the gods. The Pantheon still exists as a catholic church, dedicated to St. Mary and All Saints. It is known at Rome as the Rotonda. It was formerly entered by an ascent of twelve steps; but the surface of modern Rome is so much elevated above that of the ancient city, that this building is below the common level; and those who visit the church, must descend a flight of stairs to the entrance.

The consecration of temples was solemnly observed by the Romans. Tacitus describes the ceremony nearly thus:

“Upon the 2lst of July, being a clear day, the ground upon which the temple was to be raised, was bound by garlands of flowers and fillets. Persons who had lucky names, (according to the superstition of the age,) first entered the enclosure with boughs in their hands, taken from those trees which the gods delighted in. (Minerva was supposed to prefer the olive, and Apollo the laurel, etc.) Next followed the vestals, attended by boys and girls whose parents were living. These sprinkled pure water on the ground.

“A magistrate, attended by one of the priests, offered a sacrifice, and humbly besought Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva, to prosper this holy undertaking; entreating that the divine mercy would accomplish what human piety had begun. This prayer being concluded, a great company, consisting of priests, senators, knights, and common people, laid hold of ropes, to which was fastened a large stone, this, with many lively expressions, was drawn by their united force to a trench which had been marked in the soil, for the reception of the foundation stones in the wall; into this trench, wedges of gold and silver were first thrown, and the corner-stone was then deposited, amidst the rejoicings of the people.”

A custom like this, of offering prayers, and laying the first stone of a house of worship with expressions of veneration and joy, is common, at the present time, among Christians.

The memorable fact, that “groves were God’s first temples,” is found in the history of all primitive people. “Trees, in the old time, served for the temples of the gods,” said a Latin historian. Dodona’s oaks were honoured as the residence of Jupiter; the ancient Syrians seduced God’s people to their mode of worship; the ancient Germans, according to Tacitus, worshipped in sacred groves in the open air; the Druids of Britain observed the same custom; and the Indians of Asia and America acknowledged the divinity in the thick shade. The Romans, after their temples became numerous and magnificent, still kept up this ancient custom; and in many parts of the city might be seen Luci, or groups of trees, consecrated to some god.

The Romans placed great confidence in soothsayers and auguries. Soothsayers were persons who pretended to foresee future events; and they discerned these events in certain appearances of things. The soothsayers declared that thunder, lightning, and comets expressed the will of the gods. They also maintained, that motions and chattering of birds intimated what might happen; and these signs, when favourable, were called auspices; and when unfavourable, portents.

An auspicious day is one that promises some happiness. We say a portentous cloud, or a portentous appearance, we mean a cloud that threatens a destructive storm, or an appearance of some danger.

The flight of birds was divided (by the Romans) into dexter and sinister, right and left; the former being esteemed fort fortunate; the latter, unlucky. If a man, commencing a journey, saw a flock of birds flying in the right hand direction, it was a good omen, and foreshowed to him a prosperous adventure; but if the birds took a contrary course, an evil presage took hold of his imagination; and he was thrown, by his foolish superstition, into apprehension of some calamity.

Other animals, besides birds, exhibited good and bad signs; and some inconsiderate circumstances, sneezing, spilling salt, hearing strange voices, were deemed lucky and unlucky. The art of explaining all these to the credulous and ignorant people, who believed in their mysterious import, was Augury; and the Augurs, or explainers of mysteries, were respectable men at Rome, and were held in honour by the people.

Divination, or augury, was practised upon chickens kept in a coop for that purpose. Their manner of eating, and of fluttering about their food, was thought to promise happiness or disappointment. Besides the Augurs at Rome, were Haruspices; these persons were commissioned to examine the dead bodies of victims offered in the sacrifices; and to tell by certain marks, what mischance or success was about to happen to the sacrificers, or to the Roman people.

At Rome, were several distinct orders or colleges of priests; as the college of Augurs, of Pontifices, etc.

Numa, the second King of Rome, was the principal founder of these orders. They were only few in number, sometimes not more than fifteen persons in an order. The Flamines, Sodales, and Salii, were of them.

The most distinguished of the priests at Rome, were the Pontifices; their duty was to appoint the public worship, to order the sacrifices and festivals, and to punish inferior priests, and the vestal virgins, if they were guilty of any crime. The high-priest of this order was almost as much venerated as the modern Pope of Rome.

So much was religion honoured in the person of priests, that it was said, the liberty of the commonwealth, the virtue of the people, the safety of the citizens, and the honour of the gods were committed to their guardianship.

Cæsar Augustus, and others of the emperors thought proper, in order to exalt the public respect for themselves, to assume the office of Pontifex Maximus, or chief priest.

The Roman history represents the great men of that nation as eminent for wisdom and courage: admirable as warriors, and orators; and distinguished, in their most civilized stale, for love of arts, and for magnificent works. But their superstition, and ignorance of God’s character and will, ought to diminish our adoration of them; and make us grateful, that the revelation in which we are instructed in this our day exalts us to the higher excellence of Christian faith and Christian virtue, and relieves us from a burdensome worship, and from fears and error.

Sibyls. §

The Sibyls were virgin prophetesses, held in honour by the Romans. They were probably fictitious beings; or traditions of some real women, entirely altered from the original fact. The principal were the Delphic, the Erythrean, and Cumea, Sibyls.

In the Roman history, frequent mention is made of the Sibylline oracles. These were books kept, or pretended to be kept, in the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, which were committed to the care of certain persons, who, when a difficult enterprise was to be undertaken, affected to consult them, and to find in them directions of what was best to be done

The fabulous origin of the Sibylline books is this. In the reign of Tarquin II., a woman came to Rome, and brought nine books to the king, demanding for them certain pieces of gold. Tarquin refused the price; the woman departed from him, burnt three of the books, returned with six, and still demanded the price.

Tarquin refused the Sibyl, for such she was, her demand, and she left him a second time: still she returned again, having but three books, for she had burnt three of the six, and still she demanded the original price. Tarquin, moved by her importunity, applied to the augurs for instruction how to act.

The augurs, after some mysterious consultations, told Tarquin that he had been guilty of impiety in refusing a gift from the gods; and they commanded him to give whatever the woman required. Upon this, Tarquin purchased the books, and was informed by the augurs, that they contained oracles concerning the future state of Rome. The woman immediately disappeared, and was never seen more.

Parthenon. §

See plate, page 245.

The Parthenon is the chief boast of the Greek architecture. It was situated on the Acropolis of Athens; and even in its present state of dilapidation, is accounted the most magnificent ornament of that city. The accomplished Pericles first designed the Parthenon, as a suitable dwelling-place for the “august Athena;” the favourite goddess of all Attica. The architects of the Parthenon were Callicrates and Ictinus.

The Parthenon was about two hundred and eighteen feet in length, and ninety-eight feet, six inches in width. This temple is of white marble, of the Doric order, the columns fluted, and without bases; the number in front, eight. The story of the birth of Minerva was carved on the front pediment, and on the back. was represented the contest with Neptune.

The statue of Minerva, which was placed in the Parthenon, was esteemed among the best works of Phidias, the most renowned of the Greek sculptors. The Parthenon remained entire for many ages. It is said that Christians have worshipped in it as a church, and that Mohammedans have used it for a mosque. In 1687, the Venetians besieged the Acropolis, and threw into it a bomb, which demolished the roof of the Parthenon; at the same time setting fire to a powder magazine within the Acropolis, which exploded, and did much damage to this temple.

Lord Elgin, a Scotch nobleman, took pains some years since, to pull down and convey to England some of the finest specimens of sculpture from the Parthenon. “Thus,” says Dr. Clark, “the form of the temple has sustained a greater injury than it had already experienced from the Venetian artillery.” It is to be regretted that a great portion of these specimens of Grecian art were lost, with the vessel on board which they were, in Cerigo bay, near the island of Cythera, in 1802.

The Parthenon was constructed of immense blocks of white marble. “The quarries of Pentelicus, of Hymettus, of the Cyclades, of Lacedæmon, and of the most distant mountains of Greece,” contributed the material of which the Parthenon and other edifices of the Acropolis were composed. Modern travellers admire the skill, and mechanic powers, which must have been exerted, in conveying the immense masses of marble up the acclivity of the Acropolis.

“In all that relates to harmony, elegance, execution, beauty, proportion, the Parthenon stands a chef d’oeuvre;¹¹ every portion of the sculpture, by which it is so highly decorated, has all the delicacy of a cameo.”¹² The immense quantity of this sculpture serves to show the vast resources of the Athenian state.

————— Those men are called divine,

Who public structures raise, and who design.

There is something sublime in the character of Pericles, who imagined the appropriation of so much wealth, so much genius and thought, so much labour and perseverance, such concentration of intellectual and physical power; and yet there is something more magnificent in the conception of a people, who consented in such a work; who gave to it money, time, and skill; and the sentiments of patriotism, and of veneration, in which it originated, in such amount as to produce so glorious a result, so lasting a monument.

“Often,” says Dr. Clark, “as the Parthenon has been described, the spectator, who for the first time approaches it, finds that nothing he has read can give any idea of the effect produced in beholding it.” The most remarkable ornament of the Parthenon is the series of sculpture continued round the whole of the frieze beneath the ceiling. This represents the whole of the Panathenaic Festival, by the best artists of ancient Greece; is one continued sculpture above three feet in height, and originally six hundred feet in length. A very considerable portion of this remains, and is “alone,” says Dr. Clark, “worth a journey to Athens.”

“The whole population of the ancient city, animated by the bustle and business of the Panathenæ, seems to be exhibited by this admirable work; persons of either sex, and of every age, priests, charioteers, cattle, victors, youths, maidens, victims, gods, and heroes, all enter into the procession. Every countenance expresses the earnestness and greatness of the occasion; and every magnificence of costume, and varied disposition of the subject, adds to the effect of the representation.

“It is somewhere said of Phidias,¹³ that as a sculptor, he particularly excelled in his statues of horses. Perhaps some notion may be conceived of the magic of his art, when it is related, that of a hundred horses introduced by him into the Panathenaic pomp, there are not two either in the same attitude, or which are not characterized by a marked difference of expression.”

The figures thus exhibited give a most correct notion of the fashions of dress peculiar to the Greeks in the time of Pericles. Among the articles of dress, may be seen the leathern boot called the cothornus, and resembling that sometimes worn at the present time. Some of the horsemen of the Parthenon wore light hats slightly confined by ribands. The Greeks had two external covers for the head, the Petasus, and the Pileus. Homer mentions no other covering of the head, but the helmet of the military. The Romans usually, when there was occasion, wrapped their heads in their robes or mantles. This Greek cap was only an ornament sometimes worn by men of fashion.

“The Parthenon, in its entire state, either as a heathen temple, or as a Christian sanctuary, was lighted only by means of lamps; it had no windows.”

“The remains of many ancient buildings in Egypt, and in Greece, seem to prove that the earliest places of idolatrous worship were all calculated to obstruct, rather than to admit light. Even in its present state, the Parthenon still retains something of its original gloomy character.”

Dr. Clark observes, that the prospect from the western entrance of the Parthenon is truly affecting “Every portion of territory comprehended in the survey has been rendered memorable, as the scene of some conspicuous event in Grecian story; either as the land of genius, or the field of heroism; as honoured by the poet’s cradle, or the patriot’s grave; as exciting the remembrance of all by which human nature has been adorned and dignified; or as proclaiming the awful mandate, which ordains that not only talents and virtue, but also states and empires, and even the earth itself shall pass away.”

The temple of Diana, at Ephesus, was of immense extent and magnificence; but as no remains, nor any correct representation of it exists, it needs no description. In Italy, all over Greece, and the islands, wherever the gods of Greece and Rome, of Syria, and of Persia, were worshipped, in all those countries, the ruins of temples may be found, and all serve to show that the sentiment of religion, however perverted, is expressed everywhere, by the finest works of human art, and the universal concurrence of mankind.

[Prophets and Oracles.] §

The Hebrew Scriptures give us accounts of prophets; men who were endowed by God with superior wisdom, and who were enabled by divine assistance to foretell events, which afterwards were accomplished; and, moreover, to direct others wisely what they ought to do. When Herod inquired of the Jews were Christ should be born, they answered, in Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it was written by the prophet.

It appears from all antiquity, that though the Hebrews alone had true prophets, all nations believed that the gods communicated their will to some men, that those favoured persons might convey that will to the rest of mankind. The word oracle signifies the words which express the will of God. The ancients believed that some persons were instructed to express and explain God’s will; and these persons uttered oracles.

Among- the ancients, certain places were fixed upon, where priests, when they were consulted, gave information of the god’s purposes. Thus, Lycurgus. the Spartan lawgiver, went to the oracle of Apollo at Delphi, and inquired if it were the will of the gods, that the Spartans should adopt his laws. The oracle replied that it was the divine will: and the Spartans obeyed. Those who consulted oracles were forced to pay for the information they sought; so that rich people only could be benefited by them.

One of the most celebrated oracles of Greece was that of Jove, at Dodona, in Epirus. Here black pigeons congregated in oak trees, and made the usual noise of pigeons; but some persons fancying their noise to have some meaning; and pretending to explain that meaning as the will of Jupiter, other credulous persons repaired to that place, to learn what they should do, or what they might.

The most famous oracle of Greece was that of Apollo at Delphi, a city of Phocis. So many persons resorted to the Delphic oracle, and such large presents were made to it, that the institution became immensely rich; but the oracle was uttered by a poor old woman called the Pythia: who was made to sit upon a stool, called, from its three feet, a tripod; and to inhale some deleterious gas, which convulsed her body, and made her utter strange words; which artful priests explained just as they chose, to those who consulted them. In Greece, besides these, were many other oracles; but those of Dodona and Delphi were the chief.

[Religious Services.] §

The victims offered in sacrifice were often highly ornamented, and the priests on those occasions were richly dressed; the worshippers wore white, and brought wreaths and baskets of flowers to the sacrifices. Lustration or purification was a ceremony necessary to be observed by devout persons attending a sacrifice. When a very wicked person came, he was said to be polluted, unfit for a religious service, till he should be put into a proper state by a suitable ceremony.

A large vessel of water stood near the entrance of the temple, and the priest having plucked a burning brand from the altar of the god, extinguished it in water designed for the purification; this act was supposed to consecrate the water: and this water being sprinkled upon the worshippers, was supposed to make them pure, or fit to address the divine being. Catholic Christians have a vessel of holy water in their churches.

Washing the hands upon any solemn occasion was accounted a purification. Hector says,

I dread with unwashed hands to bring

My incensed wine to Jove an offering.

Washing the whole person was an expression of innocency. In the xxxvi. chapter of Ezekiel, in which the prophet tells the Israelites that God will turn them from their sins, he says, in the name of God, “Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean; from all your filthiness, and from all your idols will I cleanse you.” When Pilate, the Roman governor of Judea, against his conviction of his innocence, was about to give up the blameless Jesus to his enemies, “he took water, and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person, see ve to it.”

It was customary, during the performance of religious services, on some occasions for a part of the worshippers to dance round the altar while they sung their sacred hymns. These hymns consisted of three stanzas or parts; while the singers sung the first, they moved from east to west, this stanza was called the Strophe; the second stanza, the Antistrophe, was sung while the singers returned from west to east; they then stood still around the altar and sung the epode, or last part of the song. The hymns were composed in honour of the gods, and celebrated their actions, and their beneficence to mankind. They usually concluded with a petition that the god who was addressed would continue his favour to the supplicants.

Various offerings besides sacrifices were brought to the temples; these were either designed to pacify the deity, if he had been offended, or to procure some favour, or to express the gratitude of the giver. Crowns, garlands of flowers, cups of gold, or any thing which might adorn the temples, were presented to the gods, and hung upon the walls, pillars, and roof, as was convenient. Poor people made such humble offerings as they could afford.

One mode of supporting the public worship was by tithes — a tenth part of any thing, as the tenth of the metal from a mine, or the tenth of the wheat, etc. The collecting of the tithes or taxes was called the gathering of tribute. In the xiv. chapter of Genesis, Abraham is represented as giving tithes of all to Melchisedek, King of Salem, and priest of the Most High God.

[Piety of the Ancients.] §

Though the Greeks and Romans did not worship one God as we do, nor were those they worshipped holy beings, they always confessed that Jove was supreme. Those who acknowledged one, “high throned above all,” called him Theon,¹⁴ or the God. Piety is a disposition to bear God in mind, to thank him always for his manifold goodness. This disposition was always cherished by the most virtuous of the ancients.

“The piety of the ancient Grecians,” says a writer eminent in the knowledge of their antiquities, “was in nothing more manifest than in their continued prayers and supplications to the gods; for no man among them who was endued with the smallest prudence, said the philosopher Plato, would undertake any thing without having first asked the direction and the assistance of the gods; for this they thought the surest means to have all their enterprises crowned with success.” This was practised by all the people as well as by the philosophers, says the same authority.

Every morning and evening supplications were offered. “Both at the rising of the sun and moon, one might everywhere behold the Greeks and barbarians, those in prosperity, as well as those under calamities and afflictions, prostrating themselves, and hear their supplications.” One of the Roman poets says, “we pray for the prosperity of Italy, both in the morning and in the evening.” The Spartans only prayed that the gods would grant what was honourable and good for them: and they added one petition more, viz. that they might be enabled to suffer injuries with patience. Petitioners, both to gods and men, used to supplicate with green boughs in their hands, and sometimes with garlands on their heads.

Imprecation or cursing, was practised by the ancients: this is sometimes called malediction. A curse is a supplication to some god, that he would inflict shame and misery upon the accursed person; that is, the person hated by him who entreats the curse. The misfortunes which happen in consequence of our own or other person’s faults, are sometimes called curses. The Greeks had a most superstitious fear of curses. Kings, parents, priests, and prophets, uttered imprecations upon detested persons; and those who heard the malediction believed that all the evils which it threatened would actually overtake the accursed person, and sometimes all his posterity. “All men are afraid of imprecations,” said one of the Roman writers.

Blessing, or benediction, was the reverse of cursing. It was a supplication that God would make those blessed, prosperous and happy. A memorable example of blessing and cursing is given in the forty-fourth chapter of Genesis. The patriarch Jacob assembles his children around his death-bed, and upon some, he pronounces blessings, on others curses. The blessing was supposed sometimes to express the will of God, and could not be recalled. When Isaac had blessed Jacob, and given him the inheritance of Esau, he could not withdraw the blessing, and give his property to the first-born, because he had, as it were, promised them in a solemn manner to Jacob who had deceived him.

An oath is a solemn promise made in the name of God. If a man says, I declare in the name of God, (that is, I declare that I believe God hears me, and that he will punish me if I speak falsely: I declare that I speak the truth at this moment;) such a declaration is an oath. When a man declares he will surely do a certain act, he makes a vow. The Hebrews were permitted to take oaths upon solemn occasions. “Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God, and serve him, and shalt swear by his name.” — Deuteronomy.

There was another mode of swearing besides using the name of God, as by the elements, the sun, moon, or stars; or, a king would swear by his sceptre, a soldier by his spear, a fisherman by his nets, etc. Thus Achilles, in the Iliad, addressing himself to Agamemnon, exclaims,

Now by this sacred sceptre hear me swear

Which never more shall leaves or blossoms bear,

Which severed from the trunk as I from thee,

On the bare mountain left its native tree.

                          * * * *

By this I swear, when bleeding Greece again

Shall call Achilles, she shall call in vain.

This swearing by certain objects signifies, as surely as this thing, the sun, or moon, for example, exists, and as God hears me, I speak truly. Achilles means, truly as I hold this sacred sceptre, I swear, that let the Greeks need my services ever so much, I will never again unite myself to you, Agamemnon, in their defence.

After this explanation, it is easy to understand our Saviour’s prohibition, —  “Swear not at all; neither by heaven, for it is God’s throne; nor by the earth, for it is his footstool,” etc. This injunction was given because the oaths were sometimes taken falsely, and sometimes needlessly by the people of that time; and they did not hold God in suitable reverence when they thus used dishonestly and lightly to call upon him.

All important agreements, or covenants, among the ancients, were made with mutual oaths. False swearers are abhorred everywhere, and never after they are detected believed. False swearing is perjury. A person hired to swear to a falsehood is suborned. Perjury, among the Greeks, was punished with death; among us, as it ought to do, it makes the perjured person liable to imprisonment and disgrace.

Whenever the Greeks were about to embark on a voyage, previously to their departure, they made a sacrifice, and put up prayers for safety and success; and the sea-faring men were joined in their devotions by their friends and neighbours. Being arrived in port, the first act of mariners was to thank the gods for their preservation; and if they had been safely landed after tempests, their custom was to consecrate the garment in which they had escaped, out of gratitude to their deliverers, and to engrave upon a tablet a short account of their deliverance.

Those who undertook a journey, first implored the divine protection. When they departed for a foreign land, it was customary to take leave of the gods by kissing the earth; and when they returned, they repeated the same act as a salutation to the guardians of the country. In a strange place, the Greeks worshipped the local deities as the protectors and patrons of those who sojourned in their land; and when they were restored to their homes, offered thanks for a safe return to their peculiar divinities.

[The Temple.] §

After holy persons, holy places demand some attention. From the days of Moses, to those of Solomon, about four hundred years, the Tabernacle was the chief place of worship. After Solomon, B. C. 1070, the Temple which Solomon built was the Lord’s house. Both the Tabernacle and the Temple were called the Sanctuary.

The Tabernacle was a movable tent, a building made of pillars, boards, and curtains, kept together by fastenings of gold and silver, and which could be taken to pieces, and removed from one place to another. See Exodus, ch. xxvi.

The Tabernacle was divided into two apartments, the outermost called the holy place, and the innermost, called the holy of holies. The high-priest only entered this apartment, and that but once a year. The most holy place was divided from the holy place, by a veil or curtain adorned with gold and embroidery.

The Tabernacle was enclosed by a row of pillars, with curtains between; and the space within this fence, and around the Tabernacle, was called the Court of the Tabernacle. The Tabernacle was carried by the Jews wherever they went, during their sojourn in the wilderness, and when they were established in Canaan, it was set up in Shiloh, and is thence called the Lord’s House in Shiloh.

The Temple was built by King Solomon. It was a magnificent building in the city of Jerusalem. The first temple was destroyed when Jerusalem was taken by the Babylonians. It was rebuilt after the restoration, adorned and beautified by Herod, and finally laid in the dust by the Roman army, when Jerusalem was taken under Titus, A. D. 70.

We read in the New Testament, that at the crucifixion of Christ, the veil of the temple was rent. The Temple, like the Tabernacle, contained the apartment called the most holy, and it was concealed from common eyes, by the sacred curtain. When nature was convulsed on the occasion of our Lord’s violent death, this curtain, or veil, was torn by the shock of an earthquake.

Jerusalem was called by the Jews, he Holy City, because the Tabernacle was removed thither by King David, and set up on the holy hill, Mount Zion; and there, on Mount Moriah, afterwards stood the Temple of Solomon. During the reign of David, Jerusalem became the metropolis of the Jewish state; and thither the whole people, or as many as were able, annually repaired to celebrate certain religious festivals.

Theholy things were altars, garments, and vessels, besides incense, and other substances used in the Hebrew worship. The ark of the covenant, the mercy-seat, the altar of incense, the table, and candlestick, the altar of burnt-offerings, the laver, the priest’s robes, purifying water, holy oil, and holy perfumes, together with instruments used in the sacrifices, were holy things.

Ark. §

The Ark was a box or coffer of wood, overlaid with gold. In the ark were kept the Tables of the Law, these were stones on which the ten commandments were engraved. The book of the Law was that commonly called Leviticus.

The Mercy-Seat was of pure gold, and formed the covering of the ark. A cherub was placed at each end of it. A cherub was the image of a human face attached to a form with wings. It was an emblematical figure, denoting God’s presence.

It is said, that between the cherubs, on the mercy-seat, a perpetual and vivid light was apparent. This light was called by the Jews, the Shechina, or the habitation of God, and sometimes, the glory. The ark was kept in the Holy of Holies, within the veil.

The Altar of Incense was made of wood covered with gold, and upon it a perfume of sweet spices was offered morning and evening. Incense was a perfumed substance burnt in a censer. The table used in the religious services of the Hebrews was furnished with golden dishes and spoons. Upon this table were set every Sabbath, twelve cakes of fresh bread called the show-bread. This consecrated bread, according to the law, could only be eaten by the priests.

The Candlestick was a pillar of pure gold, from which several branches were extended which supported lamps. The lamps were daily supplied with fresh oil, and kept always burning. The Altar of Incense, the Table, and the Candlestick were kept in the Holy Place.

The Altar of Burnt-Offering was overlaid with brass, and was that on which sacrifices were offered. The fire used to enkindle the fuel used in the sacrifices was fire from heaven.

The Laver was a vessel of brass, which would contain a large quantity of water. It was designed for the priests to wash their hands and feet in, when they went to do service in the sanctuary; thus to intimate, by outward purity, that “clean heart” which is proper to the ministers of religion. The Altar of Burnt-Offering and the Laver stood under the open sky.

The sacred vestments of the High-Priest were principally the Ephod, the Robe, and the Mitre. The Ephod was a short vest, without sleeves, worn over the Robe. The Robe was a flowing garment which covered the whole person. The Mitre was a pointed cap worn by the High-Priests only. On the front of the Mitre was a plate of gold, upon which was engraved the inscription, Holiness to the Lord. The Mitre is still worn by Catholic and Protestant Bishops.

The Breast-plate of the High-Priest was an ornament of a square form, consisting of twelve jewels set in gold, representing the twelve tribes of Israel. The Robe was of blue cloth with a wrought border of pomegranates and litde bells suspended from the hem. This was emblematic — fruit and sound — intimating that the fruits of righteousness, that is a virtuous conduct, should always attend the sound, the fame or reputation of the priest’s sanctity.

The corn, wine, and oil, and the birds and beasts offered in the Hebrew sacrifices, and in those of all the nations of antiquity, were required to be of the best quality that could be procured. Things of the greatest value being the most suitable to express the highest sense of gratitude and homage which human beings can feel. These sacrifices were offered daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly.

[Jewish Holy Times.] §

The holy times chiefly observed by the Hebrews, were the morning and evening sacrifice, the Sabbath, the new moons, and the feasts of the Passover, the Pentecost, and the feast of Tabernacles.

The Passover was celebrated during seven days of Abib, the first month of the Hebrew year. The Passover commemorated God’s passing over the dwellings of the Hebrews in Egypt, while an angel smote with death the first-born of every Egyptian family. The lamb sacrificed and eaten by the Hebrews on this occasion was called the paschal lamb. Ripe corn (barley) was also offered at the Passover. On the last day of the Passover was held a solemn assembly of the people, called a holy convocation.

The Pentecost was observed fifty days after the passover. It celebrated the beginning of the wheat harvest, and was a thanksgiving for the divine mercy in bestowing the fruits of the earth.

The Pentecost also celebrated the revelation of the law to Moses on Mount Sinai.

The Feast of Tabernacles was kept to preserve the remembrance of the time when the Hebrews wandered in the desert, and rested in booths and tents without any fixed habitations. To these solemn feasts the Hebrews were commanded to bring a tithe or tenth part of their corn, wine, oil, and the first-born of their cattle.

The holy actions of different religions are different, but the sentiments are the same, except in those where human sacrifices are permitted; they are the natural worship of frail and weak creatures to a powerful and gracious benefactor, and consist chiefly of praise, and prayer, and confession; and in acknowledgments of gratitude, weakness, penitence, hope, and trust.