Heathen mythology Part 18

The day following his birth he offered an early proof of his dishonest propensities, by stealing away the oxen of Admetus which Apollo tended.

"The babe was born at the first peep of day, He began playing on the lyre at noon, And the same evening did he steal away Apollo's herds."

Sh.e.l.lEY.

He gave another proof of this propensity, by throwing himself upon the timid Cupid, and wrestling from him his quivers; and increased his notoriety by robbing Venus of her girdle, Mars of his sword, Jupiter of his sceptre, and Vulcan of his mechanical instruments.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

"Hermes with G.o.ds and men, even from that day Mingled and wrought the latter much annoy, And little profit, going far astray, Through the dun night."

Sh.e.l.lEY.

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As the messenger of Jupiter, he was entrusted with all his secrets and permitted to make himself invisible whenever he pleased, or to a.s.sume any shape he chose.

The invention of the lyre and seven strings is ascribed to him, which he gave to Apollo, and received in exchange the celebrated caduceus, with which the G.o.d of poetry used to drive the flocks of King Admetus. This celebrated instrument was a rod entwined at one end by two serpents.

------------------------"Come take The lyre--be mine the glory of giving it-- Strike the sweet chords, and sing aloud and wake The joyous pleasure out of many a fit Of tranced sound--and with fleet fingers make Thy liquid voiced comrade talk with thee; It can talk measured music eloquently.

Then bear it boldly to the revel loud, Love wakening dance, or feast of solemn state, A joy by night or day, for those endowed With art and wisdom, who interrogate!

It teaches, bubbling in delightful mood All things which make the spirit most elate, Soothing the mind with sweet familiar play, Chasing the heavy shadows of dismay."

Sh.e.l.lEY.

"O Hermes, thou who couldst of yore Amphion's bosom warm, And breathe into his strains the power, The rugged rocks to charm; Breathe, breathe into my lyre's soft string, And bid its music sweet notes fling, For what O lyre, can thee withstand?

Touched by an Orpheus' magic hand, Thou calm'st the tiger's wrath: The listening woods thou draw'st along, The rivers stay to hear thy song, And listen still as death.

t.i.tyos with pleasure heard thy strain, And Ixion smiled amid his pain."

HORACE.

Numerous were the modes of sacrifice to Mercury, and the places in which they were offered; among others, the Roman merchants yearly celebrated a festival in his honour. After the votaries had sprinkled themselves with water, they offered prayers to the divinity, and entreated him to be favourable to them, and to forgive any artful measures, perjuries, or falsehoods they had used in the pursuit of gain; and this may be considered to have been particularly necessary when it is remembered that the merchants, who had promised him all the incense in the world to obtain his {112} protection, proved that they had profited by his principles, by offering him only a hundredth part, when they had secured his good offices.

Jupiter soon missed the services of his intelligent messenger, and recalled him to Olympus. Here, Mercury rendering some kindness to Venus, the G.o.ddess fell in love with him, and bore to him Hermaphrodite, a child which united the talents of his father with the graces of his mother; at the age of fifteen, he began to travel, and bathing one day in a fountain in Cana, excited the pa.s.sion of Salmaeis, the nymph who presided over it.

"From both the ill.u.s.trious authors of his race The child was named; nor was it hard to trace Both the bright parents through the infant's face.

When fifteen years, in Ida's cool retreat, The boy had told, he left his native seat, And sought fresh fountains in a foreign soil: The pleasure lessened the attending toil.

With eager steps the Lycian fields he crossed, And fields that border on the Lycian coast; A river here he viewed so lovely bright, It showed the bottom in a fairer light, Nor kept a sand concealed from human sight.

The fruitful banks with cheerful verdure crowned, And kept the spring eternal on the ground.

A nymph presides, nor practised in the chase, Nor skilful at the bow, nor at the race; Of all the blue-eyed daughters of the main, The only stranger to Diana's train; Her sisters often, as 'tis said, would cry 'Fye, Salmaeis, what always idle! fye; Or take the quiver, or the arrows seize And mix the toils of hunting with thy ease.'

Nor quivers she, nor arrows e'er would seize, Nor mix the toils of hunting with her ease; But oft would bathe her in the crystal tide, Oft with a comb her dewy locks divide; Now in the limped streams she views her face, And dressed her image in the floating gla.s.s: On beds of leaves she now reposed her limbs, Now gathered flowers that grew about her streams, And there by chance was gathering as she stood To view the boy--"

OVID.

Hermaphroditus continued deaf to all entreaties and offers; and Salmaeis, throwing her arms around him, entreated the G.o.ds to render her inseparable from him whom she adored. The G.o.ds heard her prayer, and formed of the two, a being of perfect beauty, preserving the characteristics of both s.e.xes.

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Offerings were made to him of milk and honey, because he was the G.o.d of eloquence, whose powers were sweet and persuasive. Sometimes his statues represent him without arms, because the power of speech can prevail over everything.

The Greeks and Romans celebrated his festivals, princ.i.p.ally in the month of May. They frequently placed on his back the statue of Minerva, and offered to him the tongues of the victims whom they immolated to the G.o.ddess.

"Who beareth the world on his shoulders so broad; Hear me, thou power, who, of yore, by thy words Couldst soften the hearts of the barbarous hordes, And by the Palaestia taught him of the wild To be gentle, and graceful, and meek as a child.

Thou messenger fleet of the cloud-throned sire, 'Twas thou who inventedst the golden-stringed lyre; I hail thee the patron of craft and of guile, To laugh while you grieve, to deceive while you smile, When you chafed into wrath bright Apollo of old, His dun-coloured steers having stol'n from the fold, He laughed; for, while talking all fiercely he found That his quiver, alack! from his back was unbound.

'Twas thou, who old Priam didst guide on his way, When he pa.s.sed unperceived thro' the hostile array, Of the proud sons of Atreus, who sought to destroy The towers of high Ilion, the city of Troy.

O Hermes, 'tis thou who conductest the blest To the seats where their souls shall for ever exist, Who governest their shades by the power of thy spell, The favourite of Heaven, the favourite of h.e.l.l."

HORACE.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

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NEREIDS

These divinities were children of Nereus and Dorus. As the Dryads and Hamadryads presided over forests--as the Naiads watched over fountains and the sources of rivers--as the Oreads were the peculiar guardians of the hills, so the Nereids guided and commanded the waves of the ocean, and were implored as its deities. They had altars chiefly on the coast of the sea, where the piety of mankind made offerings of milk, oil, and honey, and often of the flesh of goats. When they were on the sea sh.o.r.e, they generally resided in grottos and caves, adorned with sh.e.l.ls.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

There were fifty of them, all children of Nereus, who is represented as an old man with a long flowing beard, and hair of an azure colour. The chief place of his residence was in the Egean Sea, where he was attended by his daughters, who often danced in chorus round him. He had the gift of prophecy, and informed those who consulted him, of the fate which awaited them, though such was the G.o.d's aversion to his task, that he often evaded the importunities of the inquirers, by a.s.suming different shapes, and totally escaping from their grasp.

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DIVINITIES OF THE SECOND CLa.s.s.

The G.o.ds of the first order, were endowed by the writers of antiquity, with natures partly real, and partly imaginary. By their power, the government of the universe was carried on; but mortals in attributing to these G.o.ds their own pa.s.sions and weaknesses, began to blend with them divinities of a secondary cla.s.s, to preside over those less important affairs, which might be supposed unworthy the notice of the superior intelligences.

For the most part, therefore, these Immortals have no origin in history; but, as allusions are constantly made to them in the eloquent language of the orator, or in the beautiful metaphor of the poet, it is necessary to introduce those who are considered to be the most celebrated.

And for the future, the poetry offered will princ.i.p.ally be that which relates rather to the attributes they were supposed to possess, than to the G.o.ds themselves. Thus, with such deities as aeolus and Mors, we shall introduce poems addressed to the Wind and Death, over which they presided, as suited to the modern character of our Mythology, and more generally appreciated by the readers of the nineteenth century.

DIVINITIES OF THE EARTH.

PAN.

Pan was the G.o.d of shepherds, and of all inhabitants of the country; he was the son of Mercury by Driope, and is usually described as possessing two small horns on his head, his complexion ruddy, his nose flat, and his legs, thighs, tail and feet hairy, like those of a goat. When he was brought into the world, the nurse, terrified at sight of him, ran away in horror, and his father wrapping him up in the skins of beasts, carried him to Heaven, where Jupiter and the other G.o.ds, entertained themselves with the oddity of his appearance; Bacchus was delighted with him, and gave him the name of Pan.

--------------"Sprung the rude G.o.d to light; Of dreadful form, and horrible to sight; Goat-footed, horned, yet full of sport and joy, The nurse, astonished, fled the wondrous boy: {116} His s.h.a.ggy limbs, the trembling matron feared, His face distorted, and his rugged beard: But Hermes from her hands received the child, And on the infant G.o.d auspicious smiled.

In the thick fur wrapped of a mountain hare, His arms the boy to steep Olympus bear; Proudly he shows him to imperial Jove, High seated 'mid the immortal powers above.