"Amongst these leaves she made a Butterfly,
With excellent device and wondrous slight,
Fluttering among the olives wantonly,
That seemed to live, so like it was in sight;
The velvet nap which on his wings doth lie,
The silken down with which his back is dight,
His broad outstretched horns, his hairy thighs,
His glorious colors, and his glistening eyes."
"Which when Arachne saw, as overlaid
And mastered with workmanship so rare.
She stood astonished long, ne aught gainsaid;
And with fast-fixed eyes on her did stare,
And by her silence, sign of one dismayed,
The victory did yield her as her share;
Yet did she inly fret and felly burn,
And all her blood to poisonous rancor turn."
And so the metamorphosis is caused by Arachne's own mortification
and vexation, and not by any direct act of the goddess.
The following specimen of old-fashioned gallantry is by Garrick:
UPON A LADY'S EMBROIDERY
"Arachne once, as poets tell,
A goddess at her art defied,
And soon the daring mortal fell
The hapless victim of her pride.
"Oh, then, beware Arachne's fate;
Be prudent, Chloe, and submit,
For you'll most surely meet her hate,
Who rival both her art and wit."
Tennyson, in his Palace of Art, describing the works of art with
which the palace was adorned, thus alludes to Europa:
"---- sweet Europa's mantle blew unclasped
From off her shoulder, backward borne,
From one hand drooped a crocus, one hand grasped
The mild bull's golden horn."
In his Princess there is this allusion to Danae:
"Now lies the earth all Danae to the stars,
And all thy heart lies open unto me."
NIOBE
The fate of Arachne was noised abroad through all the country,
and served as a warning to all presumptuous mortals not to
compare themselves with the divinities. But one, and she a
matron too, failed to learn the lesson of humility. It was
Niobe, the queen of Thebes. She had indeed much to be proud of;
but it was not her husband's fame, nor her own beauty, nor their
great descent, nor the power of their kingdom that elated her.
It was her children; and truly the happiest of mothers would
Niobe have been, if only she had not claimed to be so. It was on
occasion of the annual celebration in honor of Latona and her
offspring, Apollo and Diana, when the people of Thebes were
assembled, their brows crowned with laurel, bearing frankincense
to the altars and paying their vows, that Niobe appeared among
the crowd. Her attire was splendid with gold and gems, and her
face as beautiful as the face of an angry woman can be. She
stood and surveyed the people with haughty looks. "What folly,"
said she, "is this! to prefer beings whom you never saw to
those who stand before your eyes! Why should Latona be honored
with worship rather than I? My father was Tantalus, who was
received as a guest at the table of the gods; my mother was a
goddess. My husband built and rules this city, Thebes; and
Phrygia is my paternal inheritance. Wherever I turn my eyes I
survey the elements of my power; nor is my form and presence
unworthy of a goddess. To all this let me add, I have seven sons
and seven daughters, and look for sons-in-law and daughters-in-
law of pretensions worthy of my alliance. Have I not cause for
pride? Will you prefer to me this Latona, the Titan's daughter,
with her two children? I have seven times as many. Fortunate
indeed am I, and fortunate I shall remain! Will any one deny
this? My abundance is my security. I feel myself too strong for
Fortune to subdue. She may take from me much; I shall still have
much left. Were I to lose some of my children, I should hardly
be left as poor as Latona with her two only. Away with you from
these solemnities, put off the laurel from your brows, have
done with this worship!" The people obeyed, and left the sacred
services uncompleted.
The goddess was indignant. On top of Mount Cynthus where she
dwelt, she thus addressed her son and daughter: "My children, I
who have been so proud of you both, and have been used to hold
myself second to none of the goddesses except Juno alone, begin
now to doubt whether I am indeed a goddess. I shall be deprived
of my worship altogether unless you protect me." She was
proceeding in this strain, but Apollo interrupted her. "Say no
more," said he; "speech only delays punishment." So said Diana
also. Darting through the air, veiled in clouds, they alighted
on the towers of the city. Spread out before the gates was a
broad plain, where the youth of the city pursued their warlike
sports. The sons of Niobe were there among the rest, some
mounted on spirited horses richly caparisoned, some driving gay
chariots. Ismenos, the first-born, as he guided his foaming
steeds, struck with an arrow from above, cried out, "Ah, me!"
dropped the reins and fell lifeless. Another, hearing the sound
of the bow, like a boatman who sees the storm gathering and
makes all sail for the port, gave the rein to his horses and
attempted to escape. The inevitable arrow overtook him as he
fled. Two others, younger boys, just from their tasks, had gone
to the playground to have a game of wrestling. As they stood
breast to breast, one arrow pierced them both. They uttered a
cry together, together cast a parting look around them, and
together breathed their last. Alphenor, an elder brother, seeing
them fall, hastened to the spot to render them assistance, and
fell stricken in the act of brotherly duty. One only was left,
Ilioneus. He raised his arms to heaven to try whether prayer
might not avail. "Spare me, ye gods!" he cried, addressing all,
in his ignorance that all needed not his intercession; and Apollo
would have spared him, but the arrow had already left the string,
and it was too late.
The terror of the people and grief of the attendants soon made
Niobe acquainted with what had taken place. She could hardly
think it possible; she was indignant that the gods had dared and
amazed that they had been able to do it. Her husband, Amphion,
overwhelmed with the blow, destroyed himself. Alas! How
different was this Niobe from her who had so lately driven away
the people from the sacred rites, and held her stately course
through the city, the envy of her friends, now the pity even of
her foes! She knelt over the lifeless bodies, and kissed, now
one, now another of her dead sons. Raising her pallid arms to
heaven, "Cruel Latona," said she, "feed full your rage with my
anguish! Satiate your hard heart, while I follow to the grave my
seven sons. Yet where is your triumph? Bereaved as I am, I am
still richer than you, my conqueror. Scarce had she spoken when
the bow sounded and struck terror into all hearts except Niobe's
alone. She was brave from excess of grief. The sisters stood in
garments of mourning over the biers of their dead brothers. One
fell, struck by an arrow, and died on the corpse she was
bewailing. Another, attempting to console her mother, suddenly
ceased to speak, and sank lifeless to the earth. A third tried
to escape by flight, a fourth by concealment, another stood
trembling, uncertain what course to take. Six were now dead, and
only one remained, whom the mother held clasped in her arms, and
covered as it were with her whole body.
"Spare me one, and that the youngest! Oh, spare me one of so
many?!" she cried; and while she spoke, that one fell dead.
Desolate she sat, among sons, daughters, husband, all dead, and
seemed torpid with grief. The breeze moved not her hair, nor
color was on her cheek, her eyes glared fixed and immovable,
there was no sign of life about her. Her very tongue clave to
the roof of her mouth, and her veins ceased to convey the tide of
life. Her neck bent not, her arms made no gesture, her foot no
step. She was changed to stone, within and without. Yet tears
continued to flow; and, borne on a whirlwind to her native
mountain, she still remains, a mass of rock, from which a
trickling stream flows, the tribute of her never-ending grief.
The story of Niobe has furnished Byron with a fine illustration
of the fallen condition of modern Rome:
"The Niobe of nations! There she stands,
Childless and crownless in her voiceless woe;
An empty urn within her withered hands,
Whose holy dust was scattered long ago;
The Scipios' tomb contains no ashes now;
The very sepulchres lie tenantless
Of their heroic dwellers; dost thou flow,
Old Tiber! Through a marble wilderness?
Rise with thy yellow waves, and mantle her distress."
Childe Harold, IV.79
The slaughter of the children of Niobe by Apollo, alludes to the
Greek belief that pestilence and illness were sent by Apollo, and
one dying by sickness was said to be struck by Apollo's arrow.
It is to this that Morris alludes in the Earthly Paradise:
"While from the freshness of his blue abode,
Glad his death-bearing arrows to forget,
The broad sun blazed, nor scattered plagues as yet."
Our illustration of this story is a copy of a celebrated statue
in the imperial gallery of Florence. It is the principal figure
of a group supposed to have been originally arranged in the
pediment of a temple. The figure of the mother clasped by the
arm of her terrified child, is one of the most admired of the
ancient statues. It ranks with the Laocoon and the Apollo among
the masterpieces of art. The following is a translation of a
Greek epigram supposed to relate to this statue:
"To stone the gods have changed her, but in vain;
The sculptor's art has made her breathe again."
Tragic as is the story of Niobe we cannot forbear to smile at the
use Moore has made of it in Rhymes on the Road:
"'Twas in his carriage the sublime
Sir Richard Blackmore used to rhyme,
And, if the wits don't do him wrong,
'Twixt death and epics passed his time,
Scribbling and killing all day long;
Like Phoebus in his car at ease,
Now warbling forth a lofty song,
Now murdering the young Niobes."
Sir Richard Blackmore was a physician, and at the same time a
very prolific and very tasteless poet, whose works are now
forgotten, unless when recalled to mind by some wit like Moore
for the sake of a joke.
THE GRAEAE AND GORGONS
The Graeae were three sisters who were gray-haired from their
birth, whence their name. The Gorgons were monstrous females
with huge teeth like those of swine, brazen claws, and snaky
hair. They also were three in number, two of them immortal, but
the other, Medusa, mortal. None of these beings make much figure
in mythology except Medusa, the Gorgon, whose story we shall next
advert to. We mention them chiefly to introduce an ingenious
theory of some modern writers, namely, that the Gorgons and
Graeae were only personifications of the terrors of the sea, the
former denoting the STRONG billows of the wide open main, and the
latter the WHITE-crested waves that dash against the rocks of the
coast. Their names in Greek signify the above epithets.
PERSEUS AND MEDUSA
Acrisius was the king who ruled in Argos. To him had an oracle
declared that he should be slain by the child of his daughter
Danae. Therefore the cruel king, thinking it better that Danae
should have no children than that he should be slain, ordered a
tower of brass to be made, and in this tower he confined his
daughter away from all men.
But who can withstand Jupiter? He saw Danae, loved her, and
changing his form to a shower of gold, he shone into the
apartment of the captive girl.
Perseus was the child of Jupiter and Danae. Acrisius, finding
that his precautions had come to nought, and yet hardly daring to
kill his own daughter and her young child, placed them both in a
chest and sent the chest floating on the sea. It floated away
and was finally entangled in the net of Dicte, a fisherman in the
island of Seriphus. He brought them to his house and treated
them kindly, and in the house of Dicte, Perseus grew up. When
Perseus was grown up, Polydectes, king of that country, wishing
to send Perseus to his death, bade him go in quest of the head of
Medusa. Medusa had once been a beautiful maiden, whose hair was
her chief glory, but as she dared to vie in beauty with Minerva,
the goddess deprived her of her charms and changed her beautiful
ringlets into hissing serpents. She became a cruel monster of so
frightful an aspect that no living thing could behold her without
being turned into stone. All around the cavern where she dwelt
might be seen the stony figures of men and beasts which had
chanced to catch a glimpse of her and had been petrified with the
sight. Minerva and Mercury aided Perseus. From Minerva, Perseus
borrowed her shield, and from Mercury the winged shoes and the
harpe or crooked sword. After having flown all over the earth
Perseus espied in the bright shield the image of Medusa and her
two immortal sisters. Flying down carefully he cut at her with
his harpe and severed her head. Putting the trophy in his pouch
he flew away just as the two immortal sisters were awakened by
the hissings of their snaky locks.
PERSEUS AND ATLAS
After the slaughter of Medusa, Perseus, bearing with him the head
of the Gorgon, flew far and wide, over land and sea. As night
came on, he reached the western limit of the earth, where the sun
goes down. Here he would gladly have rested till morning. It
was the realm of King Atlas, whose bulk surpassed that of all
other men. He was rich in flocks and herds and had no neighbor
or rival to dispute his state. But his chief pride was in his
gardens, whose fruit was of gold, hanging from golden branches,
half hid with golden leaves. Perseus said to him, "I come as a
guest. If you honor illustrious descent, I claim Jupiter for my
father; if mighty deeds, I plead the conquest of the Gorgon. I
seek rest and food." But Atlas remembered that an ancient
prophecy had warned him that a son of Jove should one day rob him
of his golden apples. So he answered, "Begone! Or neither your
false claims of glory nor of parentage shall protect you;" and he
attempted to thrust him out. Perseus, finding the giant too
strong for him, said, "Since you value my friendship so little,
deign to accept a present;" and turning his face away, he held up
the Gorgon's head. Atlas, with all his bulk, was changed into
stone. His beard and hair became forests, his arms and shoulders
cliffs, his head a summit, and his bones rocks. Each part
increased in bulk till he became a mountain, and (such was the
pleasure of the gods) heaven with all its stars rests upon his
shoulders.
And all in vain was Atlas turned to a mountain, for the oracle
did not mean Perseus, but the hero Hercules, who should come long
afterwards to get the golden apples for his cousin Eurystheus.
Perseus, continuing his flight, arrived at the country of the
AEthiopians, of which Cepheus was king. Cassiopeia, his queen,
proud of her beauty, had dared to compare herself to the Sea-
Nymphs, which roused their indignation to such a degree that they
sent a prodigious sea-monster to ravage the coast. To appease
the deities, Cepheus was directed hy the oracle to expose his
daughter Andromeda to be devoured by the monster. As Perseus
looked down from his aerial height he beheld the virgin chained
to a rock, and waiting the approach of the serpent. She was so
pale and motionless that if it had not been for her flowing tears
and her hair that moved in the breeze, he would have taken her
for a marble statue. He was so startled at the sight that he
almost forgot to wave his wings. As he hovered over her he said,
"O virgin, undeserving of those chains, but rather of such as
bind fond lovers together, tell me, I beseech you, your name and
the name of your country, and why you are thus bound." At first
she was silent from modesty, and, if she could, would have hid
her face with her hands; but when he repeated his questions, for
fear she might be thought guilty of some fault which she dared
not tell, she disclosed her name and that of her country, and her
mother's pride of beauty. Before she had done speaking, a sound
was heard off upon the water, and the sea-monster appeared, with
his head raised above the surface, cleaving the waves with his
broad breast. The virgin shrieked, the father and mother who had
now arrived at the scene, wretched both, but the mother more
justly so, stood by, not able to afford protection, but only to
pour forth lamentations and to embrace the victim. Then spoke
Perseus: "There will be time enough for tears; this hour is all
we have for rescue. My rank as the son of Jove and my renown as
the slayer of the Gorgon might make me acceptable as a suitor;
but I will try to win her by services rendered, if the gods will
only be propitious. If she be rescued by my valor, I demand that
she be my reward." The parents consent (how could they
hesitate?) And promise a royal dowry with her.
And now the monster was within the range of a stone thrown by a
skilful slinger, when with a sudden bound the youth soared into
the air. As an eagle, when from his lofty flight he sees a
serpent basking in the sun, pounces upon him and seizes him by
the neck to prevent him from turning his head round and using his
fangs, so the youth darted down upon the back of the monster and
plunged his sword into its shoulder. Irritated by the wound the
monster raised himself into the air, then plunged into the depth;
then, like a wild boar surrounded by a pack of barking dogs,
turned swiftly from side to side, while the youth eluded its
attacks by means of his wings. Wherever he can find a passage
for his sword between the scales he makes a wound, piercing now
the side, now the flank, as it slopes towards the tail. The
brute spouts from his nostrils water mixed with blood. The wings
of the hero are wet with it, and he dares no longer trust to
them. Alighting on a rock which rose above the waves, and
holding on by a projecting fragment, as the monster floated near
he gave him a death-stroke. The people who had gathered on the
shore shouted so that the hills re-echoed to the sound. The
parents, transported with joy, embraced their future son-in-law,
calling him their deliverer and the savior of their house, and
the virgin, both cause and reward of the contest, descended from
the rock.
Cassiopeia was an Aethiopian, and consequently, in spite of her
boasted beauty, black; at least so Milton seems to have thought,
who alludes to this story in his Penseroso, where he addresses
Melancholy as the
"---- goddess, sage and holy,
Whose saintly visage is too bright
To hit the sense of human sight,
And, therefore, to our weaker view
O'erlaid with black, staid Wisdom's hue.
Black, but such as in esteem
Prince Memnon's sister might beseem,
Or that starred Aethiop queen that strove
To set her beauty's praise above
The Sea-nymphs, and their powers offended."
Cassiopeia is called "the starred Aethiop queen," because after
her death she was placed among the stars, forming the
constellation of that name. Though she attained this honor, yet
the Sea-Nymphs, her old enemies, prevailed so far as to cause her
to be placed in that part of the heaven near the pole, where
every night she is half the time held with her head downward, to
give her a lesson of humility.
"Prince Memnon" was the son of Aurora and Tithonus, of whom we
shall hear later.
THE WEDDING FEAST
The joyful parents, with Perseus and Andromeda, repaired to the
palace, where a banquet was spread for them, and all was joy and
festivity. But suddenly a noise was heard of war-like clamor,
and Phineus, the betrothed of the virgin, with a party of his
adherents, burst in, demanding the maiden as his own. It was in
vain that Cepheus remonstrated, "You should have claimed her
when she lay bound to the rock, the monster's victim. The
sentence of the gods dooming her to such a fate dissolved all
engagements, as death itself would have done.:" Phineus made no
reply, but hurled his javelin at Perseus, but it missed its mark
and fell harmless. Perseus would have thrown his in turn, but
the cowardly assailant ran and took shelter behind the altar.
But his act was a signal for an onset by his band upon the guests
of Cepheus. They defended themselves and a general conflict
ensued, the old king retreating from the scene after fruitless
expostulations, calling the gods to witness that he was guiltless
of this outrage on the rights of hospitality.
Perseus and his friends maintained for some time the unequal
contest; but the numbers of the assailants were too great for
them, and destruction seemed inevitable, when a sudden thought
struck Perseus: "I will make my enemy defend me." Then, with a
loud voice he exclaimed, :If I have any friend here let him turn
away his eyes!" and held aloft the Gorgon's head. "Seek not to
frighten us with your jugglery," said Thescelus, and raised his
javelin in act to throw, and became stone in the very attitude.
Ampyx was about to plunge his sword into the body of a prostrate
foe, but his arm stiffened and he could neither thrust forward
nor withdraw it. Another, in the midst of a vociferous
challenge, stopped, his mouth open, but no sound issuing. One of
Perseus's friends, Aconteus, caught sight of the Gorgon and
stiffened like the rest. Astyages struck him with his sword, but
instead of wounding, it recoiled with a ringing noise.
Phineus beheld this dreadful result of his unjust aggression, and
felt confounded. He called aloud to his friends, but got no
answer; he touched them and found them stone. Falling on his
knees and stretching out his hands to Perseus, but turning his
head away, he begged for mercy. "Take all," said he, "give me
but my life." "Base coward," said Perseus, "thus much I will
grant you; no weapon shall touch you; moreover you shall be
preserved in my house as a memorial of these events." So saying,
he held the Gorgon's head to the side where Phineus was looking,
and in the very form in which he knelt, with his hands
outstretched and face averted, he became fixed immovably, a mass
of stone!
The following allusion to Perseus is from Milman's Samor:
"As 'mid the fabled Libyan bridal stood
Perseus in stern tranquillity of wrath,
Half stood, half floated on his ankle-plumes
Out-swelling, while the bright face on his shield
Looked into stone the raging fray; so rose,
But with no magic arms, wearing alone
Th' appalling and control of his firm look,
The Briton Samor; at his rising awe
Went abroad, and the riotous hall was mute."
Then Perseus returned to Seriphus to King Polydectes and to his
mother Danae and the fisherman Dicte. He marched up the tyrant's
hall, where Polydectes and his guests were feasting. "Have you
the head of Medusa?" exclaimed Polydectes. "Here it is,"
answered Perseus, and showed it to the king and to his guests.
The ancient prophecy which Acrisius had so much feared at last
came to pass. For, as Perseus was passing through the country of
Larissa, he entered into competition with the youths of the
country at the game of hurling the discus. King Acrisius was
among the spectators. The youths of Larissa threw first, and
then Perseus. His discus went far beyond the others, and, seized
by a breeze from the sea, fell upon the foot of Acrisius. The
old king swooned with pain, and was carried away from the place
only to die. Perseus, who had heard the story of his birth and
parentage from Danae, when he learned who Acrisius was, filled
with remorse and sorrow, went to the oracle at Delphi, and there
was purified from the guilt of homicide.
Perseus gave the head of Medusa to Minerva, who had aided him so
well to obtain it. Minerva took the head of her once beautiful
rival and placed it in the middle of her Aegis.
Milton, in his Comus, thus alludes to the Aegis:
"What was that snaky-headed Gorgon-shield
That wise Minerva wore, unconquered virgin,
Wherewith she freezed her foes to congealed stone,
But rigid looks of chaste austerity,
And noble grace that dashed brute violence
With sudden adoration and blank awe!"
Armstrong, the poet of the Art of Preserving Health, thus
describes the effect of frost upon the waters:
"Now blows the surly North and chills throughout
the stiffening regions, while by stronger charms
Than Circe e'er or fell Medea brewed,
Each brook that wont to prattle to its banks
Lies all bestilled and wedged betwixt its banks,
Nor moves the withered reeds. . . .
The surges baited by the fierce Northeast,
Tossing with fretful spleen their angry heads,
E'en in the foam of all their madness struck
To monumental ice.
* * * * *
Such execution,
So stern, so sudden, wrought the grisly aspect
Of terrible Medusa,
When wandering through the woods she turned to stone
Their savage tenants; just as the foaming lion
Sprang furious on his prey, her speedier power
Outran his haste,
And fixed in that fierce attitude he stands
Like Rage in marble!"
Imitations of Shakespeare
Of Atlas there is another story, which I like better than the one
told. He was one of the Titans who warred against Jupiter like
Typhoeus, Briareus, and others. After their defeat by the king
of gods and men, Atlas was condemned to stand in the far western
part of the earth, by the Pillars of Hercules, and to hold on his
shoulders the weight of heaven and the stars.
The story runs that Perseus, flying by, asked and obtained rest
and food. The next morning he asked what he could do to reward
Atlas for his kindness. The best that giant could think of was
that Perseus should show him the snaky head of Medusa, that he
might be turned to stone and be at rest from his heavy load.
Chapter X
Monsters. Giants. Sphinx. Pegasus and the Chimaera.
Centaurs. Griffin. Pygmies
Monsters, in the language of mythology, were beings of unnatural
proportions or parts, usually regarded with terror, as possessing
immense strength and ferocity, which they employed for the injury
and annoyance of men. Some of them were supposed to combine the
members of different animals; such were the Sphinx and the
Chimaera; and to these all the terrible qualities of wild beasts
were attributed, together with human sagacity and faculties.
Others, as the giants, differed from men chiefly in their size;
and in this particular we must recognize a wide distinction among
them. The human giants, if so they may be called, such as the
Cyclopes, Antaeus, Orion, and others, must be supposed not to be
altogether disproportioned to human beings, for they mingled in
love and strife with them. But the superhuman giants, who warred
with the gods, were of vastly larger dimensions. Tityus, we are
told, when stretched on the plain, covered nine acres, and
Enceladus required the whole of Mount AEtna to be laid upon him
to keep him down.
We have already spoken of the war which the giants waged against
the gods, and of its result. While this war lasted the giants
proved a formidable enemy. Some of them, like Briareus, had a
hundred arms; others, like Typhon, breathed out fire. At one
time they put the gods to such fear that they fled into Egypt,
and hid themselves under various forms. Jupiter took the form of
a ram, whence he was afterwards worshipped in Egypt as the god
Ammon, with curved horns. Apollo became a crow, Bacchus a goat,
Diana a cat, Juno a cow, Venus a fish, Mercury a bird. At
another time the giants attempted to climb up into heaven, and
for that purpose took up the mountain Ossa and piled it on
Pelion. They were at last subdued by thunderbolts, which Minerva
invented, and taught Vulcan and his Cyclopes to make for Jupiter.
THE SPHINX
Laius, king of Thebes, was warned by an oracle that there was
danger to his throne and life if his new-born son should be
suffered to grow up. He therefore committed the child to the
care of a herdsman, with orders to destroy him; but the herdsman,
moved to pity, yet not daring entirely to disobey, tied up the
child by the feet, and left him hanging to the branch of a tree.
Here the infant was found by a herdsman of Polybus, king of
Corinth, who was pasturing his flock upon Mount Cithaeron.
Polybus and Merope, his wife, adopted the child, whom they called
OEdipus, or Swollen-foot, for they had no children themselves,
and in Corinth OEdipus grew up. But as OEdipus was at Delphi,
the oracle prophesied to him that he should kill his father and
marry his own mother. Fighting against Fate, OEdipus resolved to
leave Corinth and his parents, for he thought that Polybus and
Merope were meant by the oracle.
Soon afterwards, Laius being on his way to Delphi, accompanied
only by one attendant, met in a narrow road a young man also
driving in a chariot. On his refusal to leave the way at their
command, the attendant killed one of his horses, and the
stranger, filled with rage, slew both Laius and his attendant.
The young man was OEdipus, who thus unknowingly became the slayer
of his own father.
Shortly after this event the city of Thebes was afflicted with a
monster which infested the high-road. It was called the Sphinx.
It had the body of a lion, and the upper part of a woman. It lay
crouched on the top of a rock, and stopped all travellers who
came that way, proposing to them a riddle, with the condition
that those who could solve it should pass safe, but those who
failed should be killed. Not one had yet succeeded in solving
it, and all had been slain. OEdipus was not daunted by these
alarming accounts, but boldly advanced to the trial. The Sphinx
asked him, "What animal is that which in the morning goes on four
feet, at noon on two, and in the evening upon three?" OEdipus
replied, "Man, who in childhood creeps on hands and knees, in
manhood walks erect, and in old age with the aid of a staff."
The Sphinx was so mortified at the solving of her riddle that she
cast herself down from the rock and perished.
The gratitude of the people for their deliverance was so great
that they made OEdipus their king, giving him in marriage their
queen Jocasta. OEdipus, ignorant of his parentage, had already
become the slayer of his father; in marrying the queen he became
the husband of his mother. These horrors remained undiscovered,
till at length Thebes was afflicted with famine and pestilence,
and the oracle being consulted, the double crime of OEdipus came
to light. Jocasta put an end to her own life, and OEdipus,
seized with madness, tore out his eyes, and wandered away from
Thebes, dreaded and abandoned hy all except his daughters, who
faithfully adhered to him; till after a tedious period of
miserable wandering, he found the termination of his wretched
life.
PEGASUS AND THE CHIMAERA
When Perseus cut off Medusa's head, the blood sinking into the
earth produced the winged horse Pegasus. Minerva caught and
tamed him, and presented him to the Muses. The fountain
Hippocrene, on the Muses' mountain Helicon, was opened by a kick
from his hoof.
The Chimaera was a fearful monster, breathing fire. The fore
part of its body was a compound of the lion and the goat, and the
hind part a dragon's. It made great havoc in Lycia, so that the
king Iobates sought for some hero to destroy it. At that time
there arrived at his court a gallant young warrior, whose name
was Bellerophon. He brought letters from Proetus, the son-in-law
of Iobates, recommending Bellerophon in the warmest terms as an
unconquerable hero, but added at the close a request to his
father-in-law to put him to death. The reason was that Proetus
was jealous of him, suspecting that his wife Antea looked with
too much admiration on the young warrior. From this instance of
Bellerophon being unconsciously the bearer of his own death-
warrant, the expression "Bellerophontic letters" arose, to
describe any species of communication which a person is made the
bearer of, containing matter prejudicial to himself.
Iobates, on perusing the letters, was puzzled what to do, not
willing to violate the claims of hospitality, yet wishing to
oblige his son-in-law. A lucky thought occurred to him, to send
Bellerophon to combat with the Chimaera. Bellerophon accepted
the proposal, but before proceeding to the combat consulted the
soothsayer Polyidus, who advised him to procure if possible the
horse Pegasus for the conflict. For this purpose he directed him
to pass the night in the temple of Minerva. He did so, and as he
slept Minerva came to him and gave him a golden bridle. When he
awoke the bridle remained in his hand. Minerva also showed him
Pegasus drinking at the well of Pirene, and at sight of the
bridle, the winged steed came willingly and suffered himself to
be taken. Bellerophon mounting, rose with him into the air, and
soon found the Chimaera, and gained an easy victory over the
monster.
After the conquest of the Chimaera, Bellerophon was exposed to
further trials and labors by his unfriendly host, but by the aid
of Pegasus he triumphed in them all; till at length Iobates,
seeing that the hero was a special favorite of the gods, gave him
his daughter in marriage and made him his successor on the
throne. At last Bellerophon by his pride and presumption drew
upon himself the anger of the gods; it is said he even attempted
to fly up into heaven on his winged steed; but Jupiter sent a
gadfly which stung Pegasus and made him throw his rider, who
became lame and blind in consequence. After this Bellerophon
wandered lonely through the Aleian field, avoiding the paths of
men, and died miserably.
Milton alludes to Bellerophon in the beginning o the seventh book
of Paradise Lost:
"Descend from Heaven, Urania, by that name
If rightly thou art called, whose voice divine
Following above the Olympian hill I soar,
Above the flight of Pegasean wing,
Up-led by thee,
Into the Heaven of Heavens I have presumed,
An earthly guest, and drawn empyreal air,
(Thy tempering;) with like safety guided down
Return me to my native element;
Lest from this flying steed unreined, (as once
Bellerophon, though from a lower sphere,)
Dismounted on the Aleian field I fall,
Erroneous there to wander, and forlorn."
Young in his Night Thoughts, speaking of the skeptic, says,
"He whose blind thought futurity denies,
Unconscious bears, Bellerophon, like thee
His own indictment; he condemns himself,
Who reads his bosom reads immortal life,
Or nature there, imposing on her sons,
Has written fables; man was made a lie."
Vol. II.1,12.
Pegasus, being the horse of the Muses, has always been at the
service of the poets. Schiller tells a pretty story of his
having been sold by a needy poet, and put to the cart and the
plough. He was not fit for such service, and his clownish master
could make nothing of him. But a youth stepped forth and asked
leave to try him. As soon as he was seated on his back, the
horse, which had appeared at first vicious, and afterwards
spirit-broken, rose kingly, a spirit, a god; unfolded the
splendor of his wings and soared towards heaven. Our own poet
Longfellow also records an adventure of this famous steed in his
Pegasus in Pound.
Shakespeare alludes to Pegasus in Henry IV, where Vernon
describes Prince Henry:
"I saw young Harry, with his beaver on,
His cuishes on his thighs, gallantly armed,
Rise from the ground like feathered Mercury,
And vaulted with such ease into his seat,
As if an angel dropped down from the clouds,
To turn and wind a fiery Pegasus,
And witch the world with noble horsemanship."
THE CENTAURS
The Greeks loved to people their woods and hills with strange
wild people, half man, half beast. Such were the Satyrs men
with goats' legs. But nobler and better were the Centaurs, men
to the waist, while the rest was the form of a horse. The
ancients were too fond of a horse to consider the union of his
nature with man's as forming any very degraded compound, and
accordingly the Centaur is the only one of the fancied monsters
of antiquity to which any good traits are assigned. The Centaurs
were admitted to the companionship of man, and at the marriage of
Pirithous with Hippodamia, they were among the guests. At the
feast, Eurytion, one of the Centaurs, becoming intoxicated with
the wine, attempted to offer violence to the bride; the other
Centaurs followed his example, and a dreadful conflict arose in
which several of them were slain. This is the celebrated battle
of the Lapithae and Centaurs, a favorite subject with the
sculptors and poets of antiquity.
But all the Centaurs were not like the rude guests of Pirithous.
Chiron was instructed by Apollo and Diana, and was renowned for
his skill in hunting, medicine, music, and the art of prophecy.
The most distinguished heroes of Grecian story were his pupils.
Among the rest the infant Aesculapius was intrusted to his
charge, by Apollo, his father. When the sage returned to his
home bearing the infant, his daughter Ocyroe came forth to meet
him, and at sight of the child burst forth into a prophetic
strain (for she was a prophetess), foretelling the glory that he
was to achieve. Aesculapius, when grown up, became a renowned
physician, and even in one instance succeeded in restoring the
dead to life. Pluto resented this, and Jupiter, at his request,
struck the bold physician with lightning and killed him, but
after his death received him into the number of the gods.
Chiron was the wisest and justest of all the Centaurs, and at his
death Jupiter placed him among the stars as the constellation
Sagittarius.
THE PYGMIES
The Pygmies were a nation of dwarfs, so called from a Greek word
which means the cubit (a cubit was a measure of about thirteen
inches), which was said to be the height of these people. They
lived near the sources of the Nile, or according to others, in
India. Homer tells us that the cranes used to migrate every
winter to the Pygmies' country, and their appearance was the
signal of bloody warfare to the puny inhabitants, who had to take
up arms to defend their cornfields against the rapacious
strangers. The Pygmies and their enemies the cranes form the
subject of several works of art.
Later writers tell of an army of Pygmies which finding Hercules
asleep made preparations to attack him, as if they were about to
attack a city. But the hero awaking laughed at the little
warriors, wrapped some of them up in his lion's-skin, and carried
them to Eurystheus.
Milton used the Pygmies for a simile, Paradise Lost, Book I:
"----like that Pygmaean race
Beyond the Indian mount, or fairy elves
Whose midnight revels by a forest side,
Or fountain, some belated peasant sees,
(Or dreams he sees), while overhead the moon
Sits artibress, and nearer to the earth
Wheels her pale course; they on their mirth and dance
Intent, with jocund music charm his ear.
At once with joy and fear his heart rebounds."
THE GRIFFIN, OR GRYPHON
The Griffin is a monster with the body of a lion, the head and
wings of an eagle, and back covered with feathers. Like birds it
builds its nest, and instead of an egg lays an agate therein. It
has long claws and talons of such a size that the people of that
country make them into drinking-cups. India was assigned as the
native country of the Griffins. They found gold in the mountains
and built their nests of it, for which reason their nests were
very tempting to the hunters, and they were forced to keep
vigilant guard over them. Their instinct led them to know where
buried treasures lay, and they did their best to keep plunderers
at a distance. The Arimaspians, among whom the Griffins
flourished, were a one-eyed people of Scythia.
Milton borrows a simile from the Griffins, Paradise Lost, Book
II.:
"As when a Gryphon through the wilderness,
With winged course, o'er hill and moory dale,
Pursues the Arimaspian who by stealth
Hath from his wakeful custody purloined
His guarded gold." |
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