Heathen mythology Part 3

_First Fury._ Prometheus!

_Second Fury._ Immortal t.i.tan!

_Third Fury._ Champion of Heaven's slaves!

_Pro._ He whom some dreadful voice invokes is here, Prometheus, the chained t.i.tan. Horrible forms, Whence and what are ye? Never yet there came {20} Phantasms so foul thro' monster-teeming h.e.l.l, From the all miscreative brain of Jove; Whilst I behold such execrable shapes, Methinks I grow like what I contemplate, And laugh and stare in loathsome sympathy.

_First Fury._ We are ministers of pain, and fear, And disappointment, and mistrust, and hate, And clinging crime; and, as lean dogs pursue Thro' wood and lake some struck and sobbing fawn, We track all things that weep, and bleed, and live, When the great king betrays them to our will.

_Pro._ Oh! many fearful natures in one name, I know ye; and these lakes and echoes know The darkness and the clangour of your wings.

But why more hideous than your loathed selves Gather ye up in legions from the deep!

_Second Fury._ We knew not that: Sisters, rejoice! rejoice!

_Pro._ Can aught exult in its deformity?

_Second Fury._ The beauty of delight makes lovers glad, Gazing on one another: so are we, As from the rose which the pale priestess kneels To gather for a festal crown of flowers, The aerial crimson falls, flus.h.i.+ng her cheek, So from our victim's destined agony, The shade which is our form invests us round; Else we are shapeless as our mother night.

_Pro._ I laugh your power, and his who sent you here, To lowest scorn. Pour forth the cup of pain.

_First Fury._ Thou thinkest we will rend thee bone from bone, And nerve from nerve, working like fire within!

_Pro._ Pain is my element, as hate is thine; Ye rend me now; I care not.

_Second Fury._ Dost imagine We will but laugh into thy lidless eyes?

_Pro._ I weigh not what ye do, but what ye suffer, Being evil. Cruel is the power which called You, or aught else so wretched into light!

_Third Fury._ Thou think'st we will live through thee one by one, Like animal life, and though we can obscure not The soul which burns within, that we will dwell Beside it, like a vain, loud mult.i.tude, Vexing the self-content of wisest men: That we will be dread thought beneath thy brain, And foul desire round thine astonished heart, And blood within thy labyrinthine veins, Crawling like agony.

_Pro._ Why use me thus now, Yet am I king over my self's rule, The torturing and conflicting throes within, As Jove rules you when h.e.l.l grows mutinous."

Sh.e.l.lEY.

This provoked the vengeance of Jupiter, and he ordered Vulcan to create a female, whom they called Pandora. All the G.o.ds vied in making presents.

Venus gave her beauty, and the art of pleasing; {21} Apollo taught her to sing; Mercury instructed her in eloquence; Minerva gave her the most rich and splendid ornaments. From these valuable presents which she received from the G.o.ds, the woman was called Pandora, which intimates that she had received every necessary gift. Jupiter, after this, gave her a beautiful box, which she was ordered to present to the man who married her; and by the command of the G.o.d, Mercury conducted her to Prometheus. The artful mortal was sensible of the deceit; and as he had always distrusted Jupiter, he sent away Pandora without suffering himself to be captivated by her charms.

"He spoke, and told to Mulciber his will, And smiling bade him his command fulfil; To use his greatest art, his nicest care, To frame a creature exquisitely fair; To temper well the clay with water, then To add the vigour and the voice of men; To let her first in virgin l.u.s.tre s.h.i.+ne, In form a G.o.ddess, with a bloom divine; And next the sire demands Minerva's aid, In all her various skill to train the maid Bids her the secrets of the loom impart, To cast a curious thread with happy heart; And golden Venus was to teach the fair The wiles of love, and to improve her air; And then in awful majesty to shed A thousand graceful charms around her head.

Next Hermes, artful G.o.d, must form her mind, One day to torture, and the next be kind: With manners all deceitful, and her tongue Fraught with abuse, and with detraction hung; Jove gave the mandate, and the G.o.ds obeyed: First Vulcan formed of earth the blus.h.i.+ng maid; Minerva next performed the task a.s.signed, With every female art adorned her mind; To her the Beauties and the Graces join, Around her person, lo! the diamonds s.h.i.+ne.

To deck her brows the fair tressed seasons bring, A garland breathing all the sweets of spring: Each present Pallas gives its proper place, And adds to every ornament a grace!

Next Hermes taught the fair the heart to move With all the false alluring arts of love, Her manners all deceitful, and her tongue With falsehoods fruitful, and detraction hung; The finished maid the G.o.ds Pandora call, Because a tribute she received from all; And thus 'twas Jove's command the s.e.x began A lovely mischief to the soul of man!

Within her hand the nymph a casket bears, Full of diseases and corroding cares: {22} Which opened, they to taint the world begin And Hope alone remained entire within!

Such was the fatal present from above, And such the will of cloud compelling Jove: And now unnumbered woes o'er mortals reign Alike infected is the land and main; O'er human race distempers silent stray, And multiply their strength by night and day!

'Twas Jove's decree they should in silence rove, For who is able to contend with Jove?"

HESIOD.

When the box was opened, there issued from it a mult.i.tude of evils and distempers, which dispersed themselves over the world, and which from that fatal moment have never ceased to afflict the human race. Hope alone remained at the bottom, and that only has the power of easing the labours of man, and rendering his troubles less painful.

"But thou, oh! Hope, with eyes so fair, What was thy delighted measure?

Still it whispered promised pleasure, And bade the lovely scenes at distance hail!

Still would her touch the strain prolong, And from the rocks, the woods, the vale, She called on Echo still throughout the song; And where her sweetest theme she chose A soft responsive voice was heard at every close, And Hope, enchanted, smiled and waved her golden hair!"

COLLINS.

"Hope sets the stamp of vanity on all, That men have deemed substantial since the fall, Yet has the wondrous virtue to educe, From emptiness itself, a real use; And while she takes, as at a father's hand, What health and sober appet.i.te demand, From fading good derives with chemic art That lasting happiness, a thankful heart.

Hope with uplifted foot set free from earth Pants for the place of her ethereal birth; Hope, as an anchor firm and sure, holds fast The Christian vessel, and defies the blast.

Hope! nothing else can nourish and secure His new born virtue, and preserve him pure.

Hope! let the wretch once conscious of the joy, Whom now despairing agonies destroy, Speak, for he can, and none so well as he, What treasures centre, what delights in thee.

Had he the gems, the spices, and the land That boasts the treasure, all at his command, The fragrant grove, th' inestimable mine, Were light when weighed against one smile of thine."

COWPER.

{23}

After this commenced the age of steel, when even Jupiter abandoned himself to the fiery pa.s.sions of love, jealousy, and vengeance.

----------"Hard steel succeeded then: And stubborn as the metal were the men.

Truth, modesty, and shame the world forsook; Fraud, avarice, and force, their places took.

Then sails were spread to every wind that blew, Raw were the sailors, and the depths were new; Trees, rudely hollowed, did the waves sustain, Ere s.h.i.+ps in triumph, ploughed the watery plain.

Then landmarks limited to each his right; For all before was common as the light: Nor was the ground alone required to bear Her annual income to the crooked share, But greedy mortals rummaging her store, Dug from her entrails first the precious ore, Which next to h.e.l.l the prudent G.o.ds had laid, And that alluring ill to sight displayed.

Thus cursed steel, and more accursed gold, Gave mischief birth, and made the mischief bold, And double did wretched man invade, By steel a.s.saulted, and by gold betrayed.

Now (brandished weapons glittering in their hands) Mankind is broken loose from moral bands: No right of hospitality remain; The guest, by him who harboured him, is slain.

The son-in-law pursues the father's life, The wife her husband murders, he the wife; The step-dame poison for the son prepares; The son inquires into his father's years.

Faith flies, and piety in exile mourns; And justice, here opprest, to heaven returns."

OVID.

He was enamoured of Antiope, Alcmena, Danae, Leda, Semele, Europa, Calista, and a crowd of other G.o.ddesses and mortals.

The princ.i.p.al names given to Jupiter are the Thunderer, the Avenger, the G.o.d of Day, the G.o.d of the Worlds, and lastly of Olympus, in which he dwelt, and on which poets and painters have exercised their imaginations.

The figures of Jupiter have varied according to the circ.u.mstances and the times in which they have appeared. He has been represented as a swan, a bull, a shower of gold, and as a cuckoo: but Homer appears to have inspired ideas of the most n.o.ble kinds to the sculptors of antiquity. The divine poet represents the King of G.o.ds seated on a golden throne, at the feet of which are two cups, containing the principle of good and evil. His brow laden with {24} dark clouds; his eyes darting lightning from beneath their lids; and his chin covered with a majestic beard. In one hand the sceptre, in the other a thunderbolt. The virtues are at his side: at his feet the eagle who bears the thunderbolt. One frown from his eyes makes the whole earth tremble.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

The Olympian games in Greece were inst.i.tuted in honour of this G.o.d, from those celebrated at Olympus. The following, perhaps the finest description we have of Jupiter, while granting the prayer of Achilles, is from Homer's Iliad.

"Twelve days were pa.s.sed, and now the dawning light, The G.o.ds had summoned to the Olympian height.

Jove first ascending from the watery bowers, Leads the long order of ethereal powers.

When like the morning mist in early days, Rose from the flood the daughter of the seas; And to the seats divine her flight addressed.

There far apart, and high above the rest The Thunderer sat; where old Olympus shrouds His hundred heads in heaven, and props the clouds.

Suppliant the G.o.ddess stood: one hand she placed Beneath his beard, and one his knees embraced: 'If e'er, O father of the G.o.ds!' she said, 'My words could please thee, or my actions aid; Some marks of honour on my son bestow, And pay in glory what in life you owe.

Fame is at least by heavenly promise due, To life so short, and now dishonoured too.

Avenge this wrong, oh ever just and wise; Let Greece be humbled, and the Trojans rise; Till the proud king, and all the Achaian race, Shall heap with honours him they now disgrace.'"

HOMER.