Heathen mythology Part 30

OVID.

When in Athens, to which place Medea came after leaving Corinth, she underwent the penance necessary to purify her from the crimes she had committed, after which she became the wife of King aegeus, to whom she bore a son called Medus.

Before his intimacy with Medea, aegeus had a son named Theseus, who had been sent to Athens with his father's sword, by the sight of which he was to introduce himself to his father's knowledge when he grew up; as Theseus attempted to make himself known to his father, Medea, who had grown jealous of the glory he had achieved, tried to poison him at an entertainment to which he had been invited. She failed in her purpose. The king, recognized by the sword he bore, his long lost son, and Medea had recourse to her dragons once more, to make her escape through the air, to Colchis, where, by some it is stated, she was re-united to Jason; while according to other authorities, Jason lived a melancholy and unhappy life; and, as he was reposing one day by the side of the s.h.i.+p which had borne him to Colchis, a large beam fell upon and crushed him to death. Medea also died at Colchis, and after her death is said to have been married to Achilles in Elysium.

It is a.s.serted by some writers, that the murder of the two youngest of Jason's children, was not committed by Medea, but by the Corinthians themselves, in the Temple of Juno Acrea; and that to avoid the vengeance of heaven, and to free themselves from a plague which devoured the country after so frightful a ma.s.sacre, they engaged the poet Euripides to write a tragedy which should tend to clear them of the murder, and throw the crime upon the guilty Medea. Festivals were also appointed, in which the mother was represented as destroying her own offspring, with all the attributes of a fury, and was regarded as a day of solemn mourning.

"O haggard queen! to Athens dost thou guide Thy glowing chariot, steeped in kindred gore; Or seek to hide thy foul infanticide Where peace and mercy dwell for evermore?

{176} The land where Heaven's own hallowed waters play, Where friends.h.i.+p binds the generous and the good, Say, shall it hail thee from thy frantic way, Unholy woman! with thy hands embrued.

In thine own children's gore? Oh! ere they bleed, Let Nature's voice thy ruthless heart appal!

Pause at the bold, irrevocable deed-- The mother strikes--the guiltless babes shall fall!

When o'er each babe you look a last adieu, And gaze on Innocence that smiles asleep, Shall no fond feeling beat to Nature true, Charm thee to pensive thought--and bid thee weep?

When the young suppliants clasp their parent dear, Heave the deep sob, and pour the artless prayer, Ay! thou shalt melt; and many a heart-shed tear Gush o'er the hardened features of despair!

Nature shall throb in every tender string,-- Thy trembling heart the ruffian's task deny; Thy horror smitten hands afar shall fling The blade, undrenched in blood's eternal dye.

CHORUS.

Hallowed Earth! with indignation Mark, oh mark, the murderous deed.

Radiant eye of wide creation, Watch th' accursed infanticide!

Yet, ere Colchia's rugged daughter Perpetrate the dire design, And consign to kindred slaughter Children of the golden line!

Shall mortal hand, with murder gory, Cause immortal blood to flow!

Sun of Heaven!--array'd in glory Rise, forbid, avert the blow!

In the vales of placid gladness Let no rueful maniac range; Chase afar the fiend of Madness, Wrest the dagger from Revenge!

Say, hast thou, with kind protection, Reared thy smiling race in vain; Fostering Nature's fond affection, Tender cares, and pleasing pain?

Hast thou, on the troubled ocean, Braved the tempest loud and strong, Where the waves, in wild commotion, Roar Cyanean rocks among?

Didst thou roam the paths of danger, Hymenean joys to prove?

Spare, O sanguinary stranger, Pledges of thy sacred love!

Ask not Heaven's commiseration, After thou hast done the deed; Mercy, pardon, expiation, Perish when thy victims bleed"

EURIPIDES.

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HERCULES.

This celebrated hero was, after his death, as a reward for the many courageous deeds he had performed, placed among the G.o.ds, and rewarded with divine honours. It has been a.s.serted that there were many of the same name, some writers extending the number to forty-three; though of these the son of Jupiter and Alcmena is the most celebrated, and as such, doubtless, many of their actions have been attributed to him. In order to gain the affections of Alcmena, Jupiter took the form of her husband, and from this union was born Hercules, who was brought up at Tirynthus; Juno, however, could not look upon him with pleasure, and before he was nine months old, sent two snakes intending them to devour him. Far from fearing these terrible enemies, the child grasped them boldly in both his hands, and strangled them, while his brother Iphielus shrieked aloud in terror.

He was early instructed in those arts in which he afterwards became so famous, for Castor taught him to fight, Eurytus to shoot with the bow and arrows, and Autolycus to drive a chariot; after this, he perfected himself under the tuition of the Centaur, Chiron. When in the eighteenth year of his age, a huge lion devastated the people, and preyed on the flocks of Amphitryon, laying waste also the adjacent country. From this monster Hercules relieved them, and when Erginus, King of Orchomedas, sent for his yearly tribute of one hundred crowns, Hercules mutilated the servants who came to raise it, and on Erginus coming to avenge their death, he slew him, and delivered his country from the inglorious tribute.

These heroic deeds soon became bruited abroad, and Creon, who reigned in Thebes, rewarded his courage by giving him his daughter in marriage, and entrusting him with the government of his people.

As Hercules was by the will of Jupiter, subjected to the power of Eurystheus, the latter, jealous of the fame he was achieving, ordered him to appear before him.

Proud of his strength and of his successes, the hero refused, and Juno to punish him, struck him with a sudden madness, in which he killed his own offspring, imagining them to be those of Eurystheus. {178}

_Hercules._ "Hast thou beheld the carnage of my sons?

_Theseus._ I heard, I saw the ills thou showest me.

_Hercules._ Why hast thou then unveiled me to the Sun?

_Theseus._ Why not? Can mortal man pollute the G.o.ds?

_Hercules._ Fly, thou unhappy, my polluting guilt!

_Theseus._ Friends, from their friends, no stain of guilt contract.

_Hercules._ This hath my thanks, indeed, I thought thee good.

_Theseus._ And for that good deed, now I pity thee!

_Hercules._ I want thy pity, I have slain my sons.

_Theseus._ Thee, for thy grace, in other ills I mourn!

_Hercules._ Whom hast thou known involved in ills like these?

_Theseus._ Thy vast misfortunes reach from earth to heaven.

_Hercules._ I therefore am prepared, and fixed to die.

_Theseus._ And deemest thou the G.o.ds regard thy threats?

_Hercules._ The G.o.ds regard not me, nor I the G.o.ds!

_Theseus._ Forbear: lest thy proud words provoke worse ill.

_Hercules._ I now am full, and can contain no more.

_Theseus._ What dost thou? Whither doth thy rage transport thee?

_Hercules._ From whence I came, to death's dark realms I go.