Heathen mythology Part 23

Autumn appears clad in a robe red with the juice of the vintage, which he yields to gladden the heart of man: while a dog is placed at his feet to denote it as the season of the chase.

"I saw old Autumn in the misty morn, Stand shadowless like silence, listening To silence, for no lonely bird would sing Into his hollow ear from woods forlorn, Nor lowly hedge nor solitary thorn; Shaking his tangled locks all dewy bright With spangled gossamer that fell by night, Pearling his coronet of golden corn.

Where are the songs of summer? with the sun, Opening the dusky eyelids of the south, Till shade and silence waken up alone, And morning sings with a warm odorous mouth.

Where are the merry birds? Away, away On panting wings through the inclement skies, Lest owls should prey Undazzled at noon-day, And tear with h.o.r.n.y beak their l.u.s.trous eyes.

Where are the blooms of Summer? in the west, Blus.h.i.+ng their last to the last sunny hours, When the mild eve by sudden night is prest Like tearful Proserpine, s.n.a.t.c.hed from her flowers To a most gloomy breast.

Where is the pride of Summer,--the green prime-- The many, many leaves all twinkling?--There On the moss'd elm; three on the naked lime Trembling,--and one upon the old oak tree!

Where is the Dryad's immortality?

Gone into mournful cypress and dark yew, Or wearing the long, gloomy winter through In the smooth holly's green eternity.

The squirrel gloats on his accomplished h.o.a.rd, The Ants have trimm'd their garners with ripe grain, And honey bees have stored The sweets of summer in their luscious cells; {137} The swallows all have winged across the main; But here the Autumn melancholy dwells, And sighs her tearful spells, Amongst the sunless shadows of the plain.

Alone, alone, Upon a mossy stone, She sits and reckons up the dead and gone, With the last leaves for a love-rosary, Whilst all the withered world looks drearily, Like a dim picture of the drowned past In the hushed mind's mysterious far away, Doubtful what ghostly thing will steal the last Into that distance, grey upon the grey.

O go and sit with her, and be o'ershaded Under the languid downfall of her hair; She wears a coronal of flowers faded, Upon her forehead, and a face of care;-- There is enough of withered every where To make her bower,--and enough of gloom; There is enough of sadness to invite, If only for the rose that died--whose doom Is beauty's,--she that with the living bloom Of conscious cheeks, most beautifies the light; There is enough of sorrowing, and quite Enough of bitter fruits the earth doth bear, Enough of chilly droppings for her bowl, Enough of fear and shadowy despair, To frame her cloudy prison for the soul."

HOOD.

Winter, as the oldest season, is drawn with shrivelled limbs, and white and h.o.a.ry locks, to represent the appearance of old age.

"When first the fiery mantled sun His heavenly race began to run; Round the earth, in ocean blue His children four the Seasons flew;-- First, in the green apparel dancing, The young Spring smiled with angel grace; Rosy Summer next advancing, Rushed into her sire's embrace:-- Her bright haired sire, who bade her keep For ever nearest to his smiles, On Calpe's olive shaded steep, On India's citron covered isles: Now remote and buxom brown, The queen of vintage bowed before his throne; A rich pomegranate gemmed her crown, A ripe sheaf bound her zone.

But howling Winter fled afar, To hills that prop the polar star, And loves on deer-borne car to ride With barren Darkness by his side, Round the sh.o.r.e where loud Lofoden Whirls to death the roaring whale, Round the hall where Runic Oden Howls his war song to the gale; {138} Save when a-down the ravaged globe He travels on his native storm, Deflowering Nature's gra.s.sy robe, And trampling on her faded form: Till light's returning lord a.s.sume The shaft that drives him to his polar field, Of power to pierce his raven plume, And chrystal covered s.h.i.+eld.

Oh, sire of storms, whose savage ear The Lapland drum delights to hear, When frenzy with her bloodshot eye Implores thy dreadful deity, Archangel! power of desolation!

Fast descending as thou art, Say, hath mortal invocation Spells to touch thy stony heart?

Then, sullen Winter, hear my prayer, And gently rule the ruined year; Nor chill the wanderer's bosom bare, Nor freeze the wretch's falling tear.

To shuddering want's unmantled bed, Thy horror-breathing agues cease to lead, And gently on the orphan head Of innocence descend.

But chiefly spare, O King of clouds, The sailor on his airy shrouds; When wrecks and beacons strew the steep, And spectres walk along the deep.

Milder yet thy snowy breezes Pour on yonder tented sh.o.r.es, Where the Rhine's broad billow freezes, Or the dark brown Danube roars.

Oh, winds of Winter! list ye there To many a deep and dying groan; Or start, ye demons of the midnight air, At shrieks and thunders louder than your own.

Alas! e'en your unhallowed breath, May spare the victim fallen low; But man will ask no truce to death, No bounds to human woe."

CAMPBELL.

DIVINITIES OF THE SEA.

OCEa.n.u.s AND THETIS.

Ocea.n.u.s, one of the most powerful deities of the sea, was, according to Homer, the parent of all the G.o.ds, and on that account received frequent visits from the remainder of the deities. He is represented as an old man, with a long, flowing beard, and sitting upon the waves of the sea. He often holds a pike in his hand, whilst s.h.i.+ps under sail appear at a distance, or a sea monster stands near him. {139}

Ocea.n.u.s presided over every part of the sea, and even the rivers were subjected to his power. The ancients were very reverential in their homage to Ocea.n.u.s, and wors.h.i.+pped with great solemnity a deity, to whose care they entrusted themselves when going on any voyage.

He was the father of the Oceanides to the number of three thousand.

"Three thousand graceful Oceanides Long-stepping, tread the earth, or far and wide Dispersed, they haunt the gla.s.sy depth of lakes, A glorious sisterhood of G.o.ddess birth."

HESIOD.

Thetis, one of the sea deities, was daughter of Nereus and Doris and is often confounded with Tethys, her grandmother. She was loved by Neptune and Jupiter; but when the G.o.ds were informed that her son would become greater than his father, they ceased their addresses, and Peleus, the son of aeacus, was permitted to solicit her hand. Thetis refused him, but the lover had the artifice to catch her when asleep, and by binding her strongly, prevented her escaping from his grasp. When Thetis found she could not elude the vigilance of Peleus, she consented to marry him, though much against her inclination. Their nuptials were celebrated on Mount Peleon with great pomp, at which all the deities attended.

"Proteus thus to virgin Thetis said, 'Fair G.o.ddess of the waves, consent to wed, A son you'll have, the terror of the field, To whom, in fame and power, his sire shall yield.'

Jove, who adored the nymph with boundless love, Did, from his breast, the dangerous flame remove; He knew the fates, nor cared to raise up one, Whose fame and greatness, should eclipse his own.

On happy Peleus he bestowed her charms, And blessed his grandson in the G.o.ddess' arms: --A silent creek Thessalia's coast can show, Two arms project, and shape it like a bow; 'Twould make a bay, but the transparent tide Does scarce the yellow, gravel bottom hide; A grove of fragrant myrtle near it grows, Whose boughs, though thick, a beauteous grot disclose The well wrought fabric, to discerning eyes, Rather by art than nature seem to rise.

A bridled dolphin, oft fair Thetis bore To this her loved retreat, her favourite sh.o.r.e: Here Peleus seized her slumbering where she lay, And urged his suit, with all that love could say: The nymph o'erpowered, to art for succour flies, And various shapes the eager youth surprize.

{140} A bird she seems, but plies her wings in vain, His hand the fleeting substance still detain: A branchy tree, high in the air she grew, About its bark, his nimble arms he threw: A tiger next she glares with flaming eyes, The frightened lover quits his hold and flies.

The sea-G.o.ds he with sacred rites adores, Then a libation on the ocean pours; While the fat entrails crackle in the fire, And sheets of smoke in sweet perfume aspire: Till Proteus, rising from his oozy bed, Thus to the poor, desponding lover said, 'No more in anxious thoughts your mind employ, For yet you shall possess the dear, expected joy, You must once more the unwary nymph surprize, As in her cooly grot she slumbering lies: Then bind her fast with unrelenting hands, And strain her tender limbs with knotted bands; Still hold her under every distant shape, Till tired, she tries no longer to escape?

Thus he then sunk beneath the gla.s.sy flood, And broken accents fluttered where he stood.

Bright Sol had almost now his journey done, And down the steepy, western convex run; When the fair Nereid left the briny wave, And, as she used, retreated to her cave, He scarce had bound her fast, when she arose, And into various shapes her body throws; She went to move her arms, then found them tied, Then with a sigh 'Some G.o.d a.s.sists,' she cried, And in her proper shape stood blus.h.i.+ng by his side."

DRYDEN.

Thetis became mother of several children by Peleus, but all these she destroyed by fire in attempting to see whether they were immortal. Achilles would have shared the same fate, if Peleus had not s.n.a.t.c.hed him from her hand, as she was going to repeat the cruel operation. She afterwards rendered his body invulnerable by plunging him in the waters of the Styx, excepting that part of the heel by which she held him. As Thetis well knew the future fate of her son, she attempted to remove him from the Trojan war, by concealing him in the court of Lycomedes. This, however, was useless, as he went with the rest of the Greeks. The mother, still anxious for his preservation, prevailed upon Vulcan to make him a suit of armour; but after it was done, she refused to fulfil the promise she had made to the G.o.d. When Achilles was killed by Paris, Thetis issued out of the sea with the Nereids to mourn his death, and after she had collected his ashes in a golden urn, raised a monument to his memory, and inst.i.tuted festivals in his honour.

{141}

TRITON, PROTEUS, PORTUMNUS, GLAUCUS, aeOLUS, THE SYRENS, CHARYBDIS AND SCYLLA, CIRCE AND THE HARPIES.

Triton was the son of Neptune and Amphitrite, and was reckoned of much importance among the sea deities, being able to raise or to calm storms at his pleasure. He is generally represented with a sh.e.l.l in his hand.

"Old Triton blowing his sea horn."

WORDSWORTH.

His body above the waist, is that of a man, but below, a dolphin's, while by some he is shown with the fore feet of a horse. He usually precedes the chariot of the G.o.d of the sea, sounding his sh.e.l.l, and is resembled, in this, by his sons the Tritons.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

Proteus, son of Ocea.n.u.s and Thetis, was guardian of the subjects of Neptune, and had the power of looking into the future, from that G.o.d, because he had tended for him the monsters of the sea.

"The shepherd of the seas, a prophet, and a G.o.d, High o'er the main, in watery pomp he rides, His azure car and finny coursers guides.

With sure foresight, and with unerring doom He sees what is, and was, and is to come."

VIRGIL.

From his knowledge of futurity, mankind are said to have received the greatest benefits.

----------------"Blue Proteus dwells, Great Neptune's prophet, who the ocean quells; He in a glittering chariot courses o'er The foaming waves, him all the nymphs adore, Old Nereus too, because he all things knows, The past, the present, and the future shows; {142} So Neptune pleased who Proteus thus inspired, And with such wages to his service hired, Gave him the rule of all his briny flocks, That feed among a thousand ragged rocks."

The changes which this deity was able to make in his appearance, caused the name of Proteus to be synonimous with change. Thus

"The Proteus lover woos his playful bride, To win the fair he tries a thousand forms, Basks on the sands, or gambols in the storms.

A dolphin now, his scaly sides he laves; And bears the sportive damsel on the waves; She strikes the cymbals as he moves along, And wondering Ocean listens to the song.

And now a spotted pard the lover stalks, Plays round her steps, and guards her favoured walks; As with white teeth he prints her hand, caressed, And lays his velvet paw upon her breast, O'er his round face her snowy fingers strain The silken knots and fit the ribbon-rein.

And now a swan he spreads his plumy sails, And proudly glides before the fanning gales; Pleased on the flowery brink with graceful hand She waves her floating lover to the land; Bright s.h.i.+nes his sinuous neck with crimson beak, He prints fond kisses on her glowing cheek, Spreads his broad wings, elates his ebon crest, And clasps the beauty to his downy breast."

DARWIN.