Roman Antiquities, and Ancient Mythology Part 17

They had the faces of virgins, the ears of bears, the bodies of vultures, human arms and feet, and long claws, hooked like the talons of carnivorous birds. Phineas, king of Arcadia, being a prophet, and revealing the mysteries of Jupiter to mortals, was by that deity struck blind, and so tormented by the Harpies that he was ready to perish for hunger; they devouring whatever was set before him, till the sons of Boreas, who attended Jason in his expedition to Colchis, delivered the good old king, and drove these monsters to the islands called Strophades: compelling them to swear never more to return.

The Harpies, according to the ingenious Abbe la Pluche, had their origin in Egypt. He further observes, in respect to them, that during the months of April, May, and June, especially the two latter, Egypt being very subject to tempests, which laid waste their olive grounds, and carried thither numerous swarms of gra.s.shoppers, and other troublesome insects from the sh.o.r.es of the Red Sea, the Egyptians gave to their emblematic figures of these months a female face, with the bodies and claws of birds, calling them _Harop_, or winged destroyers. This solution of the fable corresponds with the opinion of Le Clerc, who takes the harpies to have been a swarm of locusts, the word _Arbi_, whence Harpy is formed, signifying, in their language, a locust.

GORGONS were three in number, and daughters of Phorcus or Porcys, by his sister Ceto. Their names were Medusa, Euryale, and Stheno, and they are represented as having scales on their bodies, brazen hands, golden wings, tusks like boars, and snakes for hair. The last distinction, however, is confined by Ovid to Medusa.

According to some mythologists, Perseus having been sent against Medusa by the G.o.ds, was supplied by Mercury with a falchion, by Minerva with a mirror, and by Pluto with a helmet, which rendered the wearer invisible.

Thus equipped, through the aid of winged sandals, he steered his course towards Tartessus, where, finding the object of his search, by the reflection of his mirror, he was enabled to aim his weapon, without meeting her eye, (for her look would have turned him to stone) and at one blow struck off her head. When Perseus had slain Medusa, the other sisters pursued him, but he escaped from their sight by means of his helmet. They were afterwards thrown into h.e.l.l.

SPHINX was a female monster, daughter of Typhon and Echidna. She had the head, face, and b.r.e.a.s.t.s of a woman, the wings of a bird, the claws of a lion, and the body of a dog. She lived on mount Sphincius, infested the country about Thebes, and a.s.saulted pa.s.sengers, by proposing dark and enigmatical questions to them, which if they did not explain, she tore them in pieces. Sphinx made horrible ravages in the neighborhood of Thebes, till Creon, then king of that city, published an edict over all Greece, promising that if any one should explain the riddle of Sphinx, he would give him his own sister Iocasta in marriage.

The riddle was this, "What animal is that which goes upon four feet in the morning, upon two at noon, and upon three at night?" Many had endeavored to explain this riddle, but failing in the attempt, were destroyed by the monster; till dipus undertook the solution, and thus explained it: "The animal is man, who in his infancy creeps, and so may be said to go on four feet; when he gets into the noon of life, he walks on two feet; but when he grows old, or declines into the evening of his days, he uses the support of a staff, and thus may be said to walk on three feet." The Sphinx being enraged at this explanation, cast herself headlong from a rock and died.

CHAPTER XI.

_Dii indigetes, or Heroes who received divine Honors after Death._

HERCULES was the son of Jupiter by Alcmena, wife of Amphitryon, king of Thebes, and is said to have been born in that city about 1280 years before the Christian era. During his infancy Juno sent two serpents to kill him in his cradle, but the undaunted child grasping one in either hand, immediately strangled them both. As he grew up, he discovered an uncommon degree of vigor both of body and of mind. Nor were his extraordinary endowments neglected; for his education was intrusted to the greatest masters. The tasks imposed on him by Eurystheus, on account of the danger and difficulty which attended their execution, received the name of the _Labors of Hercules_, and are commonly reckoned, (at least the most material of them) to have been twelve.

The first was his engagement with Cleonaean lion, which furious animal, it is said, fell from the orb of the moon by Juno's direction, and was invunerable. It infested the woods between Phlius and Cleone, and committed uncommon ravages. The hero attacked it both with his arrows and club, but in vain, till, perceiving his error, he tore asunder its jaws with his hands.

The second labor was his conquest of the Lernaean hydra, a formidable serpent or monster which harbored in the fens of Lerna, and infected the region of Argos with his poisonous exhalations. This seems to have been one of the most difficult tasks in which Hercules was ever engaged. The number of heads a.s.signed the hydra is various; some give him seven, some nine, others fifty, and Ovid an hundred; but all authors agree that when one was cut off, another sprung forth in its place, unless the wound was immediately cauterized. Hercules, not discouraged, attacked him, and having ordered Iolas, his friend and companion, to cut down wood sufficient for fire-brands, he no sooner had cut off a head than he applied these brands to the wounds; by which means searing them up, he obtained a complete victory.

The third labor was to bring alive to Eurystheus an enormous wild boar which ravaged the forest of Erymanthus in Arcadia, and had been sent to Phocis by Diana to punish aeneas, for neglecting her sacrifices. Hercules brought him bound to Eurystheus. There is nothing descriptive of this exploit in any of the Roman poets.

The fourth labor was the capture of the Maenalaean stag. Eurystheus, after repeated proofs of the strength and valor of Hercules, resolved to try his agility, and commanded him to take a wild stag that frequented mount Maenalus, which had brazen feet and golden horns. As this animal was sacred to Diana, Hercules durst not wound him; but though it were no easy matter to run him down, yet this, after pursuing him on foot for a year, the hero at last effected.

The fifth labor of Hercules consisted in killing the Stymphalides, birds so called from frequenting the lake Stymphalis in Arcadia, which preyed upon human flesh, having wings, beaks, and talons of iron. Some say Hercules destroyed these birds with his arrows, others that Pallas sent him brazen rattles, made by Vulcan, the sound of which so terrified them, that they took shelter in the island of Aretia. There are authors who suppose these birds called Stymphalides, to have been a gang of desperate banditti who had their haunts near the lake Stymphalis.

The sixth labor was his cleansing the stable of Augeas. This Augeas, king of Elis, had a stable intolerable from the stench occasioned by the filth it contained, which may be readily imagined from the fact that it sheltered three thousand oxen, and had not been cleansed for thirty years. This place Eurystheus ordered Hercules to clear in one day, and Augeas promised, if he performed the task, to give him a tenth part of the cattle. Hercules, by turning the course of the river Alpheus through the stable, executed his design, which Augeas seeing, refused to fulfil his promise. The hero, to punish his perfidy, slew Augeas with his arrows, and gave his kingdom to his son Phyleus, who abhorred his father's treachery.

The seventh labor was the capture of the Cretan bull. Minos, king of Crete, having acquired the dominion of the Grecian seas, paid no greater honor to Neptune than to the other G.o.ds, wherefore the deity, in resentment of this ingrat.i.tude, sent a bull, which breathed fire from his nostrils, to destroy the people of Crete. Hercules took this furious animal, and brought him to Eurystheus, who, because the bull was sacred, let him loose into the country of Marathon, where he was afterwards slain by Theseus.

The eighth labor of Hercules, was the killing of Diomedes and his horses. That infamous tyrant was king of Thrace, and son of Mars and Cyrene. Among other things he is said to have driven in his war-chariot four furious horses, which, to render the more impetuous, he used to feed on the flesh and blood of his subjects. Hercules is said to have freed the world from this barbarous prince, and to have killed both him and his horses, as is signified in some drawings, and said expressly by some of the poets. Some report that the tyrant was given by Hercules as a prey to his own horses.

The ninth labor of Hercules was his combat with Geryon, king of Spain.

Geryon is generally represented with three bodies agreeable to the expressions used of him by the poets, and sometimes with three heads. He had a breed of oxen of a purple color, (which devoured all strangers cast to them) guarded by a dog with two heads, a dragon with seven, besides a very watchful and severe keeper. Hercules, however, killed the monarch and all his guards, and carried the oxen to Gades, whence he brought them to Eurystheus. Some mythologists explain this fable by saying that Geryon was king of three islands, now called Majorca, Minorca, and Ivica, on which account he was fabled to be triple bodied and headed.

The tenth labor of Hercules was his conquest of Hippolyte queen of the Amazons. His eleventh labor consisted in dragging Cerebus from the infernal regions into day. The twelfth and last was killing the serpent, and gaining the golden fruit in the gardens of the Hesperides.

Hercules, after his conquests in Spain, having made himself famous in the country of the Celtae or Gauls, is said to have there founded a large and populous city, which he called Alesia. His favorite wife was Dejanira, whose jealousy most fatally occasioned his death. Hercules having subdued chalia and killed Eurytus the king, carried off the fair Iole, his daughter, with whom Dejanira suspecting him to be in love, sent him the garment of Nessus, the Centaur, as a remedy to recover his affections; this garment, however, having been pierced with an arrow dipped in the blood of the Lernaean hydra, whilst worn by Nessus, contracted a poison from his blood incurable by art. No sooner, therefore, was it put on by Hercules than he was seized with a delirious fever, attended with the most excruciating torments. Unable to support his pains, he retired to mount ta, where, raising a pile, and setting it on fire, he threw himself upon it, and was consumed in the flames, after having killed in his phrenzy Lycus his friend. His arrows he bequeathed to Philoctetes, who interred his remains.

After his death he was deified by his father Jupiter. Diodorus Siculus relates that he was no sooner ranked amongst the G.o.ds than Juno, who had so violently persecuted him whilst on earth, adopted him for her son, and loved him with the tenderness of a mother. Hercules was afterwards married to Hebe, G.o.ddess of youth, his half sister, with all the splendor of a celestial wedding; but he refused the honor which Jupiter designed him, of being ranked with the twelve G.o.ds, alleging there was no vacancy; and that it would be unreasonable to degrade any other G.o.d for the purpose of admitting him.

Both the Greeks and Romans honored him as a G.o.d, and as such erected to him temples. His victims were bulls and lambs, on account of his preserving the flocks from wolves; that is, delivering men from tyrants and robbers. He was wors.h.i.+pped by the ancient Latins under the name of Dius, or Divus Fidius, that is, the guarantee or protector of faith promised or sworn. They had a custom of calling this deity to witness by a sort of oath expressed in these terms, _Me Dius Fidius!_ that is, so help me the G.o.d Fidius! or Hercules.

PERSEUS was the son of Jupiter and Danae, daughter of Acrisius king of Argos. When Perseus was grown up, Polydectes, who was enamored of his mother, finding him an obstacle to their union, contrived to send him on an exploit, which he hoped would be fatal to him. This was to bring him the head of Medusa, one of the Gorgons. In his expedition Perseus was favored by the G.o.ds; Mercury equipped him with a scymetar, and the wings from his heels; Pallas lent him a s.h.i.+eld which reflected objects like a mirror; and Pluto granted him his helmet, which rendered him invisible.

In this manner he flew to Tartessus in Spain, where, directed by the reflection of Medusa in his mirror, he cut off her head, and brought it to Pallas. From the blood arose the winged horse Pegasus.

After this the hero pa.s.sed into Mauritania, where repairing to the court of Atlas, that monarch ordered him to retire, with menaces, in case of disobedience; but Perseus, presenting his s.h.i.+eld, with the dreadful head of Medusa, changed him into the mountain which still bears his name. In his return to Greece he visited Ethiopia, mounted on Pegasus, and delivered Andromeda, daughter of Cepheus, (who was exposed on a rock of that coast to be devoured by a monster of the deep) on condition he might make her his wife: but Phineas, her uncle, sought to prevent him, by attempting, with a party, to carry off the bride. The attempt, notwithstanding, was rendered abortive; for the hero, by showing them the head of the Gorgon, at once turned them to stone.

Perseus having completed these exploits, was desirous of revisiting home, and accordingly set off for that purpose with his wife and his mother. Arriving on the coast of Peloponnesus, and learning that Teutamias, king of Larissa, was then celebrating games in honor of his father, Perseus, wis.h.i.+ng to exhibit his skill at the quoit, of which he has been deemed the inventor, resolved to go thither. In this contest, however, he was so unfortunate as to kill Acrisius, the father of his mother, who, on the report that Perseus was returning to the place of his nativity, had fled to the court of Teutamias his friend, to avoid the denunciation of the oracle, which had induced him to exercise such cruelty on his offspring. At what time Perseus died is unknown; but all agree that divine honors were paid him. He had statues at Mycenae and in Seriphos. A temple was erected to him in Athens, and an altar in it consecrated to Dictys.

[Ill.u.s.tration:

HECTOR'S BODY DRAGGED AT THE CAR OF ACHILLES.

Pl. 8.]

ACHILLES was the offspring of a G.o.ddess. Thetis bore him to Peleus, king of Thessaly, and was so fond of him, that she charged herself with his education. By day she fed him with ambrosia, and by night covered him with celestial fire, to render him immortal. She also dipped him in the waters of Styx, by which his whole body became invulnerable, except that part of his heel by which she held him. He was afterwards committed to the care of Chiron the Centaur, who fed him with honey, and the marrow of lions and wild boars; whence he obtained that strength of body and greatness of soul which qualified him for martial toil.

When the Greeks undertook the siege of Troy, Calchas the diviner, and priest of Apollo, foretold that the city should not be taken without the help of Achilles. Thetis, his mother, who knew that Achilles, if he went to the siege of Troy, would never return, clothed him in female apparel, and concealed him among the maidens at the court of Lycomedes, king of the island of Scyros. But this stratagem proved ineffectual; for Calchas having informed the Greeks where Achilles lay in disguise, they sent Ulysses to the court of Lycomedes, where, under the appearance of a merchant, he was introduced to the king's daughters, and while they were studiously intent on viewing his toys, Achilles employed himself in examining an helmet, which the cunning politician had thrown in his way.

Achilles thus detected, was prevailed on to go to Troy, after Thetis had furnished him with impenetrable armor made by Vulcan. Thither he led the troops of Thessaly, in fifty s.h.i.+ps, and distinguished himself by a number of heroic actions; but being disgusted with Agamemnon for the loss of Briseis, he retired from the camp, and resolved to have no further concern in the war. In this resolution he continued inexorable, till news was brought him that Hector had killed his friend Patroclus; to avenge his death he not only slew Hector, but fastened the corpse to his chariot, dragged it round the walls of Troy, offered many indignities to it, and sold it at last to Priam his father.

Authors are much divided on the manner of Achilles' death; some relate that he was slain by Apollo, or that this G.o.d enabled Paris to kill him, by directing the arrow to his heel, the only part in which he was vulnerable. Others again say, that Paris murdered him treacherously, in the temple of Apollo, whilst treating about his marriage with Polyxena, daughter to king Priam.

Though this tradition concerning his death be commonly received, yet Homer plainly enough insinuates that Achilles died fighting for his country, and represents the Greeks as maintaining a b.l.o.o.d.y battle about his body, which lasted a whole day. Achilles having been lamented by Thetis, the Nereids, and the Muses, was buried on the promontory of Sigaeum; and after Troy was captured, the Greeks endeavored to appease his manes by sacrificing Polyxena, on his tomb, as his ghost had requested.

The oracle at Dodona decreed him divine honors, and ordered annual victims to be offered at the place of his sepulture. In pursuance of this, the Thessalians brought hither yearly two bulls, one black, the other white, crowned with wreaths of flowers, and water from the river Sperchius. It is said that Alexander, seeing his tomb, honored it by placing a crown upon it, at the same time crying out "that Achilles was happy in having, during his life, such a friend as Patroclus, and after his death, a poet like Homer."

ATLAS was son of j.a.petus and Clymene, and brother of Prometheus, according to most authors; or, as others relate, son of j.a.petus by Asia, daughter of Ocea.n.u.s. He had many children. Of his sons, the most famous were Hesperus (whom some call his brother) and Hyas. By his wife Pleione he had seven daughters, who went by the general names of Atlantides, or Pleiades; and by his wife aethra he had also seven other daughters, who bore the common appellation of the Hyades.

According to Hyginus, Atlas having a.s.sisted the giants in their war against Jupiter, was doomed by the victorious G.o.d, as a punishment, to sustain the weight of the heavens. Ovid, however, represents him as a powerful and wealthy monarch, proprietor of the gardens of the Hesperides, which bore golden fruit; but that being warned by the oracle of Themis that he should suffer some great injury from a son of Jupiter, he strictly forbade all foreigners access to his presence. Perseus, however, having the courage to appear before him, was ordered to retire, with strong menaces in case of disobedience; but the hero presenting his s.h.i.+eld, with the dreadful head of Medusa, turned him into the mountain which still bears his name.

The Abbe la Pluche has given a very clear and ingenious explication of this fable. Of all nations the Egyptians had, with the greatest a.s.siduity, cultivated astronomy. To point out the difficulties attending the study of this science, they represented it by an image bearing a globe or sphere on its back, which they called _Atlas_, a word signifying _great toil or labor_; but the word also signifying _support_, the Phnicians, led by the representation, took it in this sense, and in their voyages to Mauritania, seeing the high mountains of that country covered with snow, and losing their tops in the clouds, gave them the name of _Atlas_, and thus produced the fable by which the symbol of astronomy used among the Egyptians became a Mauritanian king, transformed into a mountain, whose head supports the heavens.

The rest of the fable is equally obvious to explanation. The annual inundations of the Nile obliged the Egyptians to be very exact in observing the motions of the heavenly bodies. The Hyades, or Huades, took their name from the figure V, which they form in the head of Taurus. The Pleiades were a remarkable constellation and of great use to the Egyptians in regulating the seasons: hence they became the daughters of Atlas; and Orion, who arose just as they set, was called their lover.

By the golden apples that grew in the gardens of the Hesperides, the Phnicians expressed the rich and beneficial commerce they had in the Mediterranean, which being carried on during three months only of the year, gave rise to the fable of the Hesperian sisters. The most usual way of representing Atlas, among the ancient artists, was as supporting a globe; for the old poets commonly refer to this att.i.tude in speaking of him.

PROMETHEUS was son of j.a.petus, but it is doubtful whether his mother were Asia, or Themis. Having incurred the displeasure of Jupiter, either for stealing some of the celestial fire, or for forming a man of clay, Jupiter, in resentment, commanded Vulcan to make a woman of clay, which, when finished, was introduced into the a.s.sembly of the G.o.ds, each of whom bestowed on her some additional charm or perfection. Venus gave her beauty, Pallas wisdom, Juno riches, Mercury taught her eloquence, and Apollo music. From all these accomplishments she was styled Pandora, that is, loaded with gifts and accomplishments, and was the first of her s.e.x.

Jupiter, to complete his designs, presented her a box, in which he had enclosed age, disease, war, famine, pestilence, discord, envy, calumny, and, in short, all the evils and vices with which he intended to afflict the world. Thus equipped, Pandora was sent to Prometheus, who, being on his guard against the mischief designed him, declined accepting the box; but Epimetheus, his brother, though forewarned of the danger, had less resolution; for, being enamored of the beauty of Pandora, he married her, and opened the fatal treasure, when immediately flew abroad the contents, which soon overspread the world, hope only remaining at the bottom.

Prometheus escaping the evil which the G.o.d designed him, and Jupiter not being appeased, Mercury and Vulcan were despatched by him to seize Prometheus, and chain him on Mount Caucasus, where a vulture, the offspring of Typhon and Echidna, was commissioned to prey upon his liver, which, that his torment might be endless, was constantly renewed by night in proportion to its increase by day; but the vulture being soon destroyed by Hercules, Prometheus was released. Others say, that Jupiter restored Prometheus to freedom, for discovering the conspiracy of Saturn, his father, and dissuading his intended marriage with Thetis.

Nicander, to this fable, offers an additional one. He tells us, that when mankind had received the fire from Prometheus, some ungrateful men discovered the theft to Jupiter, who rewarded them with the gift of _perpetual youth_. This present they put on the back of an a.s.s, which stopping at a fountain to quench his thirst, was prevented by a water-snake which would not suffer him to drink till he gave him his burden; hence the serpent renews his youth upon changing his skin.

Prometheus was esteemed the inventor of many useful arts. He made man of the mixture and temperament of all the elements, gave him strength of body, vigor of mind, and the peculiar qualities of all creatures, as the craft of the fox, the courage of the lion, &c. He had an altar in the academy of Athens in common with Vulcan and Pallas. In his statues he holds a sceptre in the right hand.

Several explanations have been given of this fable. Prometheus, whose name is derived from a Greek word, signifying foresight and providence, was conspicuous for that quality; and because he reduced mankind, before rude and savage, to a state of culture and improvement, he was feigned to have made them from clay: being a diligent observer of the motions of the heavenly bodies from Mount Caucasus, it was fabled that he was chained there: having discovered the method of striking fire from the flint, or perhaps, the nature of lightning, it was pretended that he stole fire from the G.o.ds: and, because he applied himself to study with intenseness, they imagined that a vulture preyed continually on his liver.

There is another solution of this fable, a.n.a.logous to the preceding.

According to Pliny, Prometheus was the first who inst.i.tuted sacrifices.