GREEK AND ROMAN

MYTHOLOGY

BY
JESSIE M. TATLOCK

ILLUSTRATED

NEW YORK
THE CENTURY CO.
1917
Copyright, 1917, by
T H E CENTURY CO.
292
T18g

PREFACE

WHILE familiarity with classical mythology is

generally recognized as essential to the under-
standing of literature and art and to the preserva-
tion of a great and valuable part of our artistic
and spiritual heritage, the method of assuring
such a familiarity to the rising generation differs
in different schools. In many the stories of the
gods and heroes are read in the lower grades
from one or another of the children's books
based on the myths, and any further knowledge
of the subject depends upon the study of Vergil
and other Latin or Greek writers and on the use
of reference books in connection with reading in
English literature. In many schools, however,
experience has proved that as even the most ele-
mentary knowledge of mythology gained in child-
hood cannot be presupposed, and as the knowl-
edge gained from the occasional use of reference
books is unsubstantial and unsatisfactory, a sys-
tematic course in mythology for students of high-
school age is necessary. It might seem that to
such students this subject would be so simple as
to present no difficulties, but the fact is that to
those who come to its study, as surprisingly many
vi Preface
do, with such entire unfamiliarity that the name
of Apollo or Venus conveys nothing to them,
the mass of new and strange names and the di-
vergence of the conceptions from those to which
they are accustomed make the study not a little
difficult. After many years' experience with such
students the writer has been led to believe that
there is need for a text book in a style to appeal
to those who have outgrown children's books, but
of content so limited and treatment so simple as
to make it possible for the average boy or girl
to assimilate it in a course of about thirty lessons.
To secure brevity and simplicity only the most
famous and interesting of the stories have been
incorporated in this book; certain others are
briefly mentioned in the index. In reading a
narrative it is difficult for an inexperienced stu-
dent to distinguish between the important names
and those that merely form part of the setting
of the story. The mention of any names beyond
those that should be remembered has therefore
been avoided, and the effort has been made by
reiteration and cross-reference to impress these
names upon the student.
In preparing an elementary book on mythology
there are naturally two purposes to be kept in
mind: ( I ) By a sympathetic and accurate
treatment to give understanding and appreciation
of the character and ideals of the people among
whom the mythology developed. Any study that
 Preface vii
gives thi ^understanding and appreciation of one
of the peoples through whom our own spiritual
life and civilization has come to be what it is is
believed by the writer to be important to an in-
telligent valuation of our present life and ideals
and to a sane building for the future. (2) By
placing the familiar stories in their proper rela-
tion to enable the student better to understand
references in literature and representations in art,
ancient and modern. Because of the subjective
element in the treatment of mythology in later
ages the conceptions have become confused. It
is the writer's belief that to avoid confusion and
misunderstanding on the student's part the sub-
ject should not be treated through the medium of
modern wrriters and artists, whose interpretation
of Greek thought and religion has been affected
by the thought and religion of their own times,
but that by the use of ancient sources, careful
study of the people's own understanding of their
mythology, direct quotation and free reproduc-
tion of the works of Greek and Latin poets, illus-
trations drawn from Greek sculpture and paint-
ing, the effort should be made to leave an honest
picture of the mind of the Greeks. Therefore
reference has not been made in the text to Eng-
lish poems based upon the myths, but it has been
left to the individual teacher carefully to intro-
duce such illustrations and parallels; an appendix
suggests a few of the more notable. Another
viii Preface
misunderstanding that it is sought to avoid is the
popular association of these anthropomorphic con-
ceptions and imaginative tales with the Romans.
The writer has wished to make it clear that what
is known as classical mythology is a product of
Greece, and that in general the Latin writers have
merely retold stories that were not original with
their people. The Greek names have therefore
been employed primarily, even though they are
less familiar than the Latin. It may seem in-
consistent that this has been done even when the
version of a tale as it appears in the work of some
Latin poet, e.g., Ovid, has been followed, but it
is not the nomenclature, which is Latin, but the
subject matter and the conception of the tale,
which is Greek, that has been followed. Where
the story is mainly of Latin development Latin
names have been used. Perhaps it may seem
that too scant attention has been paid to Roman
gods, but when one deals with Roman deities
one quickly gets out of the realm of mythology
into that of ritual and history, subjects which
seem out of place in such a book as this.
In spelling Greek names the most familiar and
the simplest English spellings have been used.
In most cases « has been transliterated by Eng-
lish i. (Po^'don is a common exception, and
e takes the place of a before the terminations
a, as, us, as Me de'a, Au ge'as.) K has been ren-
dered c, at by <£> os by Latin us. In these incon-
 Preface IX

sistencies the usual and permissible custom is fol-

lowed. In the index and upon their first mention
the accent on names of more than two syllables
is indicated, and in an appendix a few simple
rules of pronunciation are given.
While in many instances in a foot-note the
version of a story followed has been indicated,
and in case of direct quotation the reference has
been given, in an elementary book such as this
the use of many notes has been avoided as unde-
sirable. In many stories one author has not been
followed exclusively, but various features have
been borrowed from various sources. Those
chiefly followed are: Homer, the Homeric
-Hymns, Hesiod, Pindar, iEschylus, Sophocles,
Euripides, Apollodorus, Apollonius Rhodius, Hy-
ginus, Pausanius, Vergil, and Ovid. In quoting
from the Iliad the translation of Lang, Leaf, and
Myers has been used; from the Odyssey, that of
Butcher and Lang; and from the Homeric
Hymns, that of Lang. Of modern authorities
consulted the most important are: Preller's
Griechische Mythologie revised by Robert (un-
fortunately incomplete) ; Wissowa's Religion und
Kultus der Romer; separate articles in Roscher's
Lexikon der griechischen und romischen Mythol-
ogie; the Pauly-Wissowa Real-Encyclopddie
der classischen Altertumszvissenschaft, Frazer's
Golden Bough, Jane Harrison's Prolegomena to
the Study of Greek Religion, Lawson's Modern
X Preface
Greek Folklore and Ancient Greek Religion,
Warde Fowler's Roman Festivals, and many
other books and articles have been helpful and
suggestive. The comprehensive works of Col-
lignon, Baumeister, Overbeck, Furtwangler, and
others have, of course, been taken as authorities
in dealing with representations in art.
J. M. TATLOCK.
December, 1916.
 CONTENTS
PAGE
INTRODUCTION xix

P A R T I. T H E GODS
CHAPTER

I T H E W O R L D OF T H E M Y T H S . . . 3

II T H E GODS OF O L Y M P U S : Z E U S . . 16

III H E R A , A T H E N A , HEPHAESTUS . . . 36
I Hera 36
II Athena 40
III Hephaestus . . . . . . 4 9
IV APOLLO AND A R T E M I S , . . . - 5 5
1 Apollo . 5 5
11 Artemis 80
V H E R M E S AND H E S T I A • 91
1 Hermes 91
11 Hestia 98
VI ARES AND APHRODITE 105
1 Ares 105
11 Aphrodite . . . . . . 109
VII T H E LESSER D E I T I E S OF O L Y M P U S . 122
1 Eros 122
11 Other Deities of Olympus . . 139
VIII T H E GODS OF T H E S E A 143
IX T H E GODS OF T H E E A R T H . . . .153

X T H E W O R L D OF T H E D E A D . . . 186
xi
xii Contents
PART II. T H E HEROES
CHAPTER PAGE
XI STORIES O F ARGOS . . . . . .199

XII HERACLES 210

XIII STORIES OF C R E T E , S P A R T A , C O R I N T H ,
AETOLIA 228
I Stories of Crete . . . . 228
II Stories of Sparta . . . . 234
III Stories of Corinth . . . . 236
IV Stories of AEtolia . . . . 241
XIV STORIES O F A T T I C A 244

XV STORIES O F T H E B E S 256

XVI T H E ARGONAUTIC EXPEDITION . . 266

XVII T H E TROJAN W A R 280

XVIII T H E W A N D E R I N G S OF ODYSSEUS . . 305

XIX T H E TRAGEDY OF A G A M E M N O N . . 326

XX T H E LEGENDARY O R I G I N O F R O M E . 331

A P P E N D I XA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .355
APPENDIX B 356

INDEX .................... 363

 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
FIG. PAGE
1. Omphalus, copy of a stone bound with fil-
lets that was set up at Delphi to mark
the center of the earth (Museum at
Delphi) 4
2. Rhea offering Cronus the stone in place of
Zeus (Vase in Metropolitan Museum) . 6
3. Zeus (Metropolitan Museum) . . . 17
4. Dirce tied to the bull (National Museum,
Naples) 27
5. Head of Zeus found at Otricoli (Vatican) 31
6. View of ruins at Olympia 33
7. Hera, " Borghese Juno" (Glyptothek Ny
Carlsberg, Copenhagen) 37
8. Ganymede and the eagle (Vatican) . . 39
9. Head of Hera (Museo delle Terme,
Rome) 4°
10. Lemnian Athena (Albertinum, Dresden) 41
11. Birth of Athena (Gerhard — Auserlese-
ne Vasenbilder) . . . . . . . 43
12. Athena " Minerva of Velletri " (Louvre) 45
13. Hephaestus and the Cyclopes preparing the
shield of Achilles (Palazzo dei Con-
servatori, Rome) 50
14. Apollo from the pediment of the temple
at Olympia 54
xiii
xiv Illustrations
FIG. PAGE
15. The sun-god in his chariot (Vase in Brit-
ish Museum) 56
16. Foundations of Apollo's temple at Delphi 57
17. Apollo as leader of the Muses (Vatican) . 60
18. Niobe and her daughter (Uffizi, Florence) 69
19. Asclepius (Capitoline Museum, Rome) . 75
20. Artemis of Versailles (Louvre) . . .81
21. Artemis of Gabii (Louvre) . . . . 83
22. Actaeon killed by his dogs (Vase in Bos-
ton Art Museum) .86
23. Sleeping Endymion (Capitoline Museum,
Rome) 87
24. Hermes in repose (National Museum,
Naples) . . . . . . . . . 93
25. Hermes (Olympia) 97
26. Hestia, so-called (Rome) 99
27. Genius and Lares (Wall-painting from
Pompeii) 101
28. Ares with Eros (Museo delle Terme,
Rome) 104
29. Bearded Mars (Museo delle Terme,
Rome) 106
30. Aphrodite of Cnidos (Museo delle Terme,
Rome) 107
31. Birth of Aphrodite from the sea (Museo
delle Terme, Rome) no
32. Judgment of Paris (Tomb of the Anicii,
Rome) 111
33. Venus of Aries (Louvre) 114
34. Eros, or Cupid (Capitoline Museum,
Rome) 123,
 Illustrations xv
FIG. PAGE
35. Cupid and Psyche (Capitoline Museum,
Rome) 127
36. Clio (Vatican) 140
37. Thalia (Vatican) 141
38. Terpsichore (Vatican) 142
39. Poseidon (Athens) 145
40. Marriage of Poseidon and Amphitrite
(Vase in Glyptothek Ny-Carlsberg) . 148
41. Head of a sea-god 149
42. Cybele in her car (Metropolitan Museum) 153
43. Demeter (Glyptothek Ny-Carlsberg) . . 155
44. Demeter, Triptolemus, and Persephone
(Athens) 159
45. Triptolemus in the dragon-drawn chariot
(Eleusis) 162
46. Dionysus (Museo delle Terme, Rome) . 163
47. Silenus with Dionysus (Vatican) . . . 167
48. Bacchic procession (National Museum,
Naples) 168
49. Youthful Dionysus (National Museum,
Naples) . . 172
50. Bacchic procession (Vase in Metropolitan
Museum) 173
51. Pan and a nymph (Terra Cotta from Asia
Minor) 175
52. Votive offering to Pan and the nymphs
(National Museum, Athens) . . . 179
53. Dancing Satyr (National Museum, Na-
ples) 180
54. Faun of Praxiteles (Capitoline Museum,
Rome) 181
xvi Illustrations
FIG.
55. Athena and Marsyas (Reconstruction
made in Munich) 182
56. Apollo and Marsyas (National Museum,
Athens) 183
57. Charon in his skiff (Vase in Metropolitan
Museum) 188
58. Heracles carrying off Cerberus (Gerhard.
Auserlesene Vasenbilder) . . . .191
59. Parting of Orpheus and Eurydice (Na-
tional Museum, Naples) . . . . 193
60. Carpenter making the chest for Danae
and Perseus (Vase in Boston Art Mu-
seum) 201
61. Head of Medusa Rondanini (Glyptothek,
Munich) 203
62. Perseus killing Medusa (Metope for Seli-
nunte) 205
63. Atlas supporting the heavens (National
Museum, Naples) 207
64. Heracles (Vatican) 211
65. Heracles strangling the serpents (Wall-
painting from Pompeii) 214
66. Five of Heracles' labors (Borghese Gal-
lery, Rome) 215
67. Heracles killing the Hydra (Gerhard.
Auserlesene Vasenbilder) . . . . 217
68. Heracles carrying the boar (Metropolitan
Museum) 218
69. Amazon (Capitoline Museum, Rome) . 219
70. Heracles in the bowl of the sun (Gerhard.
Auserlesene Vasenbilder) . . . .221
 Illustrations xvii
PAGE
FIG.
71. Nessus running ofl with Dejanira (Vase
in Boston Art Museum) . . . . 226
72. Europa on the bull (Wall-painting from
Pompeii) '228
73. Daedalus and Icarus (Villa Albani, Rome) 231
74. The Dioscuri (Ancient statues now set up
before the king's palace in Rome) . . 234
75. Chimsera (Archaeological Museum, Flor-
ence) 237
76. Bellerophon and Pegasus (Palazzo Spada,
Rome) 239
77. Meleager (Vatican) 242
78. Cephalus and the dawn-goddess (Vase in
Boston Art Museum) 246
79. Theseus killing the Minotaur (Vase in
Boston Art Museum) 251
80. Theseus and the rescued Athenians
(Wall-painting from Pompeii) . . . 252
81. • Centaur and Lapith (Metope from the
Parthenon) 253
82. Cadmus and the dragon (Vase in Metro-
politan Museum) . 257
83. CEdipus and the Sphinx (Vase in Boston
Art Museum) 261
84. Phrixus and the ram (Metropolitan Mu-
seum) 266
85. Centaur (Capitoline Museum, Rome) . 268
86. Medea preparing the magic brew (Ger-
hard. Auserlesene Vasenbilder) . . 276
87. Medea preparing to kill her children
(Wall-painting from Pompeii) . . . 278
xviii Illustrations
FIG; PAGE
88. The persuasion of Helen (National Mu-
seum, Naples) 285
89. Sacrifice of Iphigenia (National Museum,
Naples) 289
90. Priam ransoming Hector's body (Vase in
Vienna) 299
91. Laocoon and his sons (Vatican) . . . 302
92. Priam slain on the altar (Vase in the
Louvre) 304
93. Odysseus and the Sirens (Vase in British
Museum) 313
94. Odysseus appearing before Nausicaa
(Vase in Munich) 318
95. Odysseus makes himself known to Tele-
machus (Vase in Metropolitan Mu-
seum) 322
96. Odysseus avenging himself upon the suit-
ors (Vase in Munich Museum) . . 325
97. iEneas wounded (Wall-painting from
Pompeii) 332
98. AEneas fleeing from Troy (Gerhard.
Auserlesene Vasenbilder) . . . . 337
99. The wolf with Romulus and Remus
(Capitoline Museum, Rome) . . . 349
 INTRODUCTION

PRIMITIVE people, as they have looked out on Myths and

mythology.
the world about them, on the sea and the trees,
on the sky and the clouds, and as they have felt the
power of natural forces, the heat of the sun, the
violence of the wind, have recognized in these
things the expression and action of some being
more powerful than themselves. Able to under-
stand only those motives and sensations that are
like their own, they have conceived these beings
more or less after their own nature. The He-
brews, indeed, at an early time recognized one
rsupreme God, who had created and who directed
all the world according to his will, but most other
early people have seen living, willing beings in
the forms and powers of nature, and have wor-
shiped these beings as gods or feared them as
devils. Physical events, such as the rising and
setting of the sun, or the springing and ripening
of the grain, are to them actions of the beings
identified with sun or grain. In accounting for
these acts, whether regularly recurring, as the
rising of the sun, or occasionally disturbing the or-
dinary course of nature, as earthquakes, eclipses,
or violent storms, stories more or less complete
xix
 XX Introduction
grow, are repeated, and believed. These stories
told of superhuman beings and believed by a whole
people are myths, and all these myths together
form a mythology.
The interest The mythology of any people is interesting
mythology, because it reflects their individual nature and de-
veloping life; that of the Greeks is more inter-
esting to us than any other, first, because it ex-
presses the nature of a people gifted with a pe-
culiarly fine and artistic soul; secondly, because
our own thought and art are, in great part, a
heritage from the civilization of Greece. Much
of this heritage comes to us quite directly from
the Greek writers and artists whose works have
been preserved. The dramas of Sophocles and
Euripides hold an audience in America as they
held those in Athens, because their art is true
and great; the noble youth of the Hermes of
Praxiteles, or the gallant action of the horsemen
in the frieze of the Parthenon satisfy us in the
twentieth century as they did the Greeks in the
fifth and fourth centuries B.C. But more of this
heritage comes down to us through the Romans,
whose genius taught them to conquer and govern
without destroying, and who learned from the
nations that they conquered, Egypt, Asia, and
Greece, all that centuries of rich civilization had
to give. The civilization of the modern world,
America as well as Europe, is rooted deeply in the
civilization of Rome, and through Rome in tha;t
 Introduction xxi
of Greece. Greek thought and Greek principles
run through our law, our government, our stand-
ards of taste, our art, and our literature. r The
very personages of Greek mythology are famil-
iarly known to-day in the United States, divorced
from religious meaning but set up before our
eyes as symbols of truths that are in the very
nature of things. The winged Mercury (the
god of travelers, whose Greek name was Hermes)
waves his magic wand above the main entrance
to the Grand Central Station in New York; the
noble head of Minerva (the Greek Athena, the
goddess of wisdom) is set above the doors of our
libraries and colleges, and the adventures of
Ulysses (or Odysseus) and of many other Greek
heroes are painted on the walls of our Congres-
sional Library. Even in our daily language there
is still a hint of mythology: our troops still march
to martial music, the music of the war-god Mars,
and we eat at breakfast cereals, the gift of the
corn-goddess Ceres; the Muses of Pieria are not
too far away to inspire the music of our western
world.
These beliefs and stories have been handed Classical
down through so many ages and modified in so truly Greek.'
many ways that confusion as to their real origin
has naturally arisen. It is Greek, not Roman.
The Romans did not develop an original mythol-
ogy but took over stories from the Greeks and
others and told them of their own gods. It was
 xxii Introduction
the Greek Zeus, not the Roman Jupiter, who had
so many love adventures; it was the Greek Aphro-
dite, not the Roman Venus, who' received the
golden apple from Trojan Paris. Classical
mythology is the expression of the nature and
thought of the Greeks, not that of the Romans.
For the Greeks were by nature artistic; they in-
stinctively expressed their ideals, the truth as they
saw it, in poetry, story, and sculpture, and be-
cause imagination, insight, and love of beauty
were united in them, their stories and their art
have an appeal that is universal,
veiopment ^ e r e ligi° n a n d mythology of the Greeks was
not a
myology. fixed a n d unchanging thing- it varied with
different localities and changed with changing
conditions. For when we speak of Greece we
do not speak of a nation in the strict sense —
that is, a people under one central government —
but of the Greek race: " Wherever the Greeks
are, there is Greece." So the mythological stories
grew and changed as they passed from Asia
Minor to Greece, or from Greece to the islands
of the y£gean Sea, to Italy and Sicily. More-
over, the independence of the individual in the
Greek states, where men thought for themselves,
and no autocratic government or powerful priest-
hood exerted undue restraint, fostered variety and
permitted artists and poets so to modify tradition
as to express something of their individual ideas.
This added infinitely to the richness of mythology
 Introduction xxiii
and art. Local conditions, too, and local pride,
in a country broken both geographically and po-
litically into small divisions, added variety to re-
ligious customs. In mountain districts the god
of the sky and storms was most feared and wor-
shiped, in the fertile plains, the gods of earth
and harvest, while on the coast men needed the
favor of the gods who were powerful over the
sea and protected commerce. Local heroes gath-
ered stories about themselves, and local pride led
people to place important events, such as the
birth of a god or some important manifestation
of his power, in their own localities. Many dif-
ferent places claimed to be the birthplace of
Apollo, and the fires of Hephaestus burned
within many a volcano (called after his Latin
name, Vulcan). Furthermore, as they came in
contact with other peoples and became familiar
with their religious stories and ceremonial, they
incorporated much that was of foreign origin
into their own religion. The stories connected
with Dionysus, or Bacchus, and the extravagant
rites celebrated in his honor were imported from
the East, and the Aphrodite of Asia Minor was
far more Asiatic and sensual in character than
the Aphrodite of Greece. Finally, Since myth-
ology is not based on authority but grows
from the soul of the people, it necessarily fol-
lows that as Greek life and thought grew and
developed, as social conditions changed, as art
 xxiv Introduction
was perfected and poetry and philosophy grew
less simple, the telling of the myths and their
interpretation changed and developed. Mytho-
logy was a living, growing thing, impossible to
seize and fix in a consistent system. It must be
regarded as a mass of legend, handed down
through the people and poets of generation after
generation, continually reflecting the developing
life and soul of a great and vital race. When
different versions of a story are found, one is
not necessarily more authentic than another; in
the present book that version is given which has
become most famous in art and literature.
The character Before proceeding to the mythological stories
0 1 XUe vrrGGK

religion. that spring from the Greek religion, it is well to

notice some of the more marked characteristics
of that religion.
( i ) It was polytheistic, it was the worship of
many gods. The supremacy of Zeus, " father
of gods and king of men," over the other gods
did not make the religion a monotheism any more
than the hegemony or leadership of one Greek
state over others made Greece one united nation.
(2) The religion was, in origin, a worship
of the powers of nature. This is natural to
primitive men everywhere, because these are the
first powers outside of themselves of which men
are conscious. The intensity of the Greek sun,
the nearness of the sea and its importance in the
daily life of the people, the mountain barriers
 Introduction xxv
about them, all tended to emphasize men's de-
pendence upon nature. But as the Greeks de-
veloped in intelligence and civilization, as their
thoughts and their lives became less simple, and
abstract ideas entered into the government of
their actions, these nature gods assumed ethical
or moral meanings. So the thunder of Zeus,
originally his weapon as sky-god, became the
symbol of his world power as god of law and or-
der. The clear, illuminating brightness of the
sun made of the god of light, Apollo, the all-
seeing prophet, who in his worshipers required
purity. Athena, who, owing to the story of her
birth from her father Zeus's head when Hephaes-
tus had cleft it, is generally supposed to have
represented the descent of the storm when the
thunderbolt has opened the heavens, almost lost
this original meaning, and became the goddess
of practical wisdom and of skill in war.
(3) It was an anthropomorphic religion —
that is, the gods were conceived in the forms of
men, greater and more beautiful and of a finer
substance, yet such as men could understand and
represent. While a more spiritual conception
leads to a loftier ideal, this Greek conception of
the gods as of like nature with men exalts and
ennobles human life and the human body and
offers subjects for poets and sculptors. A purely
spiritual god can never be so represented as even
in part to satisfy his worshipers, but the noble
xxvi Introduction
dignity of Zeus, the king of gods, was so realized
by the sculptor Phidias that his great gold and
ivory statue quite worthily expressed to the peo-
ple their ideal. What gulf there was between
gods and men was bridged by the existence of
heroes or demigods, sons of gods by mortals, and
of nature and powers half human, half divine.
(4) To worship and propitiate these gods, in
nature so close to men, so easily understood, men
needed the help of no powerful priesthood gifted
with peculiar sanctity and mysterious knowledge
and powers. At the great shrines, it is true, there
were priests and priestesses devoted to the gods'
service, and there were men and women peculiarly
inspired by the god to interpret his will and give
warning and promise for the future; but these
prophets only occasionally or indirectly con-
trolled people's actions and had little authority in
determining religious belief and practice. Each
father was his family's priest; each man could
offer his own prayers and his own sacrifice and
be understood and accepted by the god he ad-
dressed. When the family ate and drank, part
of the meat and drink was offered to the gods.
When they danced and sang, the gods, called
on to be present, enjoyed a pleasure like their
own. Even games and athletics were shared by
the gods. Apollo threw the discus with his
friends, and Hermes was famous for his swift-
ness of foot. So athletic contests became a form
 Introduction xxvii
of worship. Business as well as pleasure was a
repetition of divine actions and therefore joined
with religion. Hermes was a shepherd and un-
derstood the needs of other shepherds; Hephaes-
tus was a smith, and no human smith needed an
interpreter to call upon him for aid in his craft.
The gods experienced and understood, too, the
different relations of life. The maiden Artemis
readily lent an ear to girls who were in trouble,
and the offering of their childish playthings was
acceptable to her. Hera, as wife and mother,
was always ready to champion mortals in those
relations, while the rights of kings were very
dear to Zeus, the king of gods. So all the acts
of daily life, all the simple things that men used,
finding their counterpart among the Olympians
were ennobled and filled with religious meaning.
The gods of the Romans were just as closely The character
. . r i of the Roman
connected with daily life as were those of the religion.
Greeks, but the number of deities to be recog-
nized was vastly multiplied, and they did not ap-
pear to their worshipers as distinct personalities.
No act of life, from the cooking of the family
meal to the declaration of war, but was under
the special care of some divinity. No material
thing, from the oven in which the bread was
baked to the city of Rome, but had its own in-
dwelling deity. Even to know the names of all
these innumerable divinities, much more to give
them all distinct characters and to determine the
xxviii Introduction
best way to approach each one, was quite im-
possible for the busy practical citizen. Hence,
a purely conventional system of 'religious cere-
monial and invocation ran through Roman life,
just as unquestioningly observed as the other
conventions and regulations to which the citizens
were subject. Each family under, its father as
head worshiped its own gods of the home and
family about its own hearth, and no one could
hold his place in the family without performing
his duty to the family gods. So the state, as
the greater family, had its own deities, its own
hearth in the shrine of Vesta in the Forum, its
own religious head, first the king, later under
the Republic the Pontifex Maximus. State and
religion were one and indivisible; failure in re-
ligious duty was failure in national duty, and a
wrong committed against the civil law was a
sin against the gods. This was a strong civiliz-
ing side of religion that made for good morals
and good citizenship, but it lacked the inspira-
tion of a more personal faith. Nor had the
Roman gods sufficient individuality to bring into
existence any body of mythology, such as that of
the Greeks. The stories we are accustomed to
associate with the Roman gods are either bor-
rowed from the Greeks or were late creations
of imagination inspired by and modeled on the
traditions of Greek mythology.
 PART I
THE GODS
 GREEK AND ROMAN
MYTHOLOGY
CHAPTER I
THE WORLD OF THE MYTHS
T H E knowledge that the world we live in is a Mythical
geography
sphere and but one of an endless number that are
whirling through space with incredible speed, is
not a knowledge that we have by nature or by
experience; ,we must be persuaded of this scien-
tific fact. For as we look around us and above
us, we seem to stand at the very center of a cir-
cular plane, vaulted by the sky, across whose
spacious arch the sun travels by day and the
moon by night. This was the view held by the
Greeks of early times. To them the world was
flat and round, a disk whose central point was in
their own native land, in Central Greece, at Del-
phi, the holy place of all their race. Near and far
were counted from Delphi; it was with the sacred
permission of the oracle established there that
those daring colonists set out who brought Greece
to the shores of Asia Minor, to Africa, and Italy.
Beyond those lands to which Greek enterprise Distant
and civilization penetrated lay distant lands in-
3
4 Greek and Roman Mythology
habited by strange people and monsters, the tiny
race of Pygmies, one-eyed giants, and serpents.
Far in the North lived a good and happy people,
the Hy per bo're ans, and to the South " the

Fig. i. Omphalus, copy of a stone bound with fillets that

was set up at Delphi to mark the center of the earth.

blameless Ethiopians." These had no dealings

with other men, but were specially loved by the
gods, who paid them frequent visits and ate at
their tables. Beyond all lands, and circling the
disk of earth, ran the Stream of Ocean, a great
and mysterious river without a farther shore.
 The World of the Myths 5
The account of the beginning of this world, The begin-
as the Greek poets tell it, is in one respect quite tfce world,
unlike the account that is found in the first chap-
ter of Genesis. For while the Hebrews were
taught that God, who existed from the beginning,
created our universe of heaven, earth, and sea,
and all the forms of life, ending in man, the
Greeks believed that the natural world came into
being by birth or generation, and that even the
gods whom they worshiped were the children
and successors of an earlier and more elemental
race of beings.
Thus, in the beginning was Chaos, a formless The earner
misty void; next came Gsea (Earth), and Eros
(Love), most beautiful of immortals. From
Chaos sprang Er'ebus (the darkness under the
earth) and Night. From these two were born
^Ether (the light of heaven) and Day. But
Gsea, touched by Eros, bore U'ra nus (Heaven),
the sea and all the hills. Then Uranus and Gsea
were united by Eros and became the parents of
the Titans, who represent the great ungoverned
forces of nature, and the three Cyclo'pes, who
are the rumbling thunder, the lightning, and the
thunderbolt; lastly, they gave birth to the hun-
dred-handed giants, who represent the violence
of the sea. When Uranus, fearing his children,
the Cyclopes and the hundred-handed giants,
drove them back into the earth, Gsea in her dis-
tress called upon the Titans for deliverance.
 6 Greek and Roman Mythology
The greatest of them, Cronus, obedient to his
mother's call, attacked his father, and having
maimed him with a sickle, seized his power.
Birth of After this, Cronus married his sister Rhea and
the gods.
became the father of six children; but since he
had been told that a son should overthrow his

Fig. 2. Rhea offering Cronus the stone in place of Zeus.

rule, as he had overthrown that of his own father,

he adopted the extraordinary precaution of swal-
lowing his children as soon as they were born.
Thus Hes'tia (Vesta), Deme'ter (Ceres), and
Hera (Juno) Posei'don (Neptune), and Hades
(Pluto), came to the light only to be devoured.
 The World of the Myths 7
When Rhea bore her last son, Zeus (Jupiter),
she saved him from the fate of his brothers and
sisters by giving to Cronus a stone wrapped in
baby's clothes in his place. The infant was kept
for safety in a cave in Crete, where he was
nourished on honey and the milk of the goat
Am al the'a, while the Cu re'tes, mountain spirits
of Crete or priests of Rhea, drowned his cries
by clashing their spears on their shields.
When Zeus was grown, by giving Cronus a **e ^San!1*11
strong potion he forced him to disgorge the five
children he had swallowed. He then declared
war upon him. The gods, as Zeus and his
brothers and sisters should now be called, forti-
fied themselves on M t Olympus, in Thessaly,
and for ten years the war raged without ceasing.
The rugged mountains and jumbled rocks of
Thessaly bear witness to the fury of the battles.
Finally Gsea advised Zeus to loose from their
prison under the earth the Cyclopes and the hun-
dred-handed giants. After this, armed with the
thunderbolts given him by the Cyclopes, and as-
sisted by the convulsions of sea and land caused
by the hundred-handed giants, Zeus gained the
victory. Those Titans who had taken Cronus'
part were buried deep in Tartarus, as far below
the earth as earth is below heaven.
The three brothers now divided the world be- The division
of the world.
tween T:hem. Zeus, chosen as king, was supreme
over heaven and earth, as truly a sky-god as his
 8 Greek and Roman Mythology
grandfather Uranus had been. Poseidon was
lord over all the waters, and to Hades was given
the realm that bears his name belbw the earth,
and dominion over the dead.
Typhon. Although Gsea had aided and abetted the gods
in their war against Cronus, she resented the
complete subjugation of her sons. Therefore
she brought forth Typhon, a fearful monster,
from whose shoulders grew a hundred serpent
heads, with darting tongues and fiery eyes, and
from whose throats came fearful sounds, like the
bellowing of bulls, the howling of dogs, the roar-
ing of lions, and the hissing of serpents. Under
him all the earth was shaken, the waters seethed;
even Hades below trembled at the convulsion of
the world. But Zeus seized the thunderbolts, his
gift from the Cyclopes, and overthrew Typhon,
scorching all his hundred heads. This monster,
too, was buried beneath the earth, but still from
his uneasy writhing at times the earth trembles,
and the flames from his nostrils shoot up through
the craters of volcanoes.
The war with To Zeus were born many sons and daughters,
J
the giants. ,
and when other enemies threatened his power, he
had their assistance in overcoming them. This
new war was brought on by a race of giants who
had sprung from the blood of Uranus, when
he was wounded by his son Cronus. Not all are
agreed as to just what the form of the giants
was, but artists sometimes depicted them ;with
 The World of the Myths 9
the tails of serpents, and armed, as a tribe of
savage men might be, with tree-trunks and rocks.
These, too, Zeus with the help of his brothers
and children overthrew and buried. After this
his rule was undisputed.
Much of this story of the world is allegory. Meaning of
-^ . r • . , , . , the myths.
Day springs from night; heaven and earth are
the parents of the powers of nature. It is all a
development from the lower to the higher, from
unordered forces of nature, to nature ordered
by thought, justice, and beauty. And this de-
velopment comes through love and birth, and
through struggle, in which the higher gains the
rule by crushing the lower. It is the story of
science, history, and the spiritual life, told as an
allegory.
Of the origin of man in the world the Greeks The creation
had three explanations: he was born of the earth,
as in the story of the earliest king of Athens, who
rose from the ground, half man, half serpent;
or he was descended from the gods, Zeus is called
" Father of gods and men "; or — and this came
to be the accepted account — he was molded out
of clay by the Titan's son, Prometheus, and
given life by A the'na, the wise daughter of Zeus.
A Greek gentleman of the second century A.D.,
traveling in his own country, was shown a small
brick hut in which, he was told by the natives of
the place, Prometheus had fashioned the first
man. Large masses of clay-colored stone lay
 10 Greek and Roman Mythology
about, and the credulous tourist says that it had
the odor of human flesh.1
rl!ft When he had created man, Prometheus gave
him the gift of fire, which raised him above all
other animals and enabled him to make use of
the world about him by forging weapons and
tools for agriculture. Fire was the means and
the symbol of civilization. But Prometheus fell
under the displeasure of Zeus for his favor to-
ward man; for when a joint meeting was held to
determine what part of beasts offered in sacrifice
was due to the gods and what to men, he pre-
pared a cunning device. He cut up an ox and
divided it in two portions; in one was the flesh
covered by the hide, and in the other the bones
temptingly covered by fat. Then he told Zeus
once for all to choose what should be his portion.
And Zeus, although he saw the deceit, chose the
bones and fat, because he wanted to bring trouble
on Prometheus and his creation, man. So the
gods deprived men of fire and denied them their
means of livelihood, until Prometheus stole it
once more from heaven, bringing it secretly in a
hollow reed. For this defiance of his power the
god punished Prometheus by having him bound
to a rock in the Caucasus Mountains, where an
eagle ever tore at his liver, which ever grew again.
Although at any time he might have won his
1
Pausanias, X. 4. 3.
 The World of the Myths 11
freedom by telling Zeus a secret which he alone
knew, the much-enduring Titan bore this torture
for ages. The two were at last reconciled and
Prometheus set free, by Her'a cles (Hercules),
the son of Zeus, who, as part divine, part human,
was suited to act as mediator between the gods
and man's self-sacrificing friend and benefactor.
Because of the theft of fire, against men, too, Pandora.
Zeus devised evil.
For fire will I give them an evil thing wherein they
shall rejoice, embracing their own doom. So spake
the father of men and gods, and laughed aloud. And
he bade glorious Hephaestus speedily to mingle earth
with water, and put therein human speech and strength,
and make, as the deathless goddesses to look upon, the
fair form of a lovely maiden. And Athena he bade
teach her handiwork, to weave the embroidered web.
And he bade golden Aphrodite shed grace about her
head and grievous desire and wasting passion. And
Hermes, the messenger, the slayer of Argus, he bade
give her a shameless soul. (Hesiod, Works and Days,
56 ff. Translation by A. W. Mair.)
Now when he had fashioned the beautiful bane in
the place of a blessing, he led her forth where were the
other gods and men. . . . And amazement held immor-
tal gods and mortal men, when they beheld the sheer de-
lusion unescapable for men. For from her cometh
the race of woman-kind. Yea, of her is the deadly race
and the tribes of women. A great bane are they to
dwell among mortal men, no help-meet for ruinous
poverty, but for abundance. (Hesiod, Theogony, 585 ff.
Translation by A. W. Mair.)
 12 Greek and Roman Mythology
Although Prometheus (Forethought) had warned
his brother Epimetheus (Afterthought) never to
accept anything from Zeus, Epknetheus fool-
ishly received this woman, Pan do'ra, at the
hands of the gods' messenger, Hermes.* She
had with her a jar which she was commanded
on no account to open. But curiosity was too
strong. The instant the lid was raised out flew
ten thousand little winged plagues, diseases, pains,
and sins; no one on earth could escape them.
Only Hope stayed within the mouth of the jar
and never flew out. So in this Greek story the
hitherto peaceful, innocent world received its
burden of trouble through the curiosity of the
first woman, just as in the Bible story the inno-
cence of the Garden of Eden was lost through
Eve.
The Four The Greeks were not quite consistent in their
Ages. ^
explanations of the coming of sin and trouble
into the world, for while in the one account it
all came when Pandora opened her jar, the ac-
count of the Four Ages shows a gradual deteri-
oration. For, first of all, in the Age of Gold
mortal men lived like gods, knowing neither sor-
row nor toil. The generous earth bore fruit of
herself, and there was neither numbing frost nor
burning heat to make shelter necessary. This
was during the reign of Cronus, known among
the Romans as Saturn. The men of this age
never grew old and feeble, but when death came,
 The World of the Myths 13
it came like a peaceful sleep. And when this
race was hidden in the earth Zeus made of them
good spirits who watch over mortals. The' sec-
ond race, that of the Silver Age, the gods made
inferior to the first in mind and body. The time
of helpless infancy was long, and the time of
manhood short and troubled, for they could not
refrain from injuring one another, and they failed
to give worship and sacrifice to the gods. Yet
the men of this age, too, had some honor, and
lived on as spirits under the earth. Next came
the Age of Bronze, when men insolently delighted
in war. Of bronze were their homes, of bronze
their armor, and their hearts were as hard as
their weapons. Last of all was the Age of Iron.
By day there was no end to their weariness and
woe, nor by night to their anxieties. Family
love was lost, parents neglected, and friendship
and the rights of hospitality forgotten. Might
became right, and respect for truth and plighted
faith was made of no account. Reverence and
Justice, veiling their heads, forsook men and
withdrew to Olympus.
When Zeus, then, saw how utterly wicked men The Flood of
Deucalion.
had become, he resolved to clear the earth of
them all. To the council summoned in heaven
destruction by fire seemed a method too danger-
ous to the homes of the gods; a flood over the
earth was a safer plan. To this end, Zeus shut
up the north wind and all the others that drive
 14 Greek and Roman Mythology
away the clouds, and sent out the rainy south
wind, and he called upon his brother Poseidon
to let out the waters under his' control. The
flood spread over the fields and broke down the
standing grain; it carried away the flocks with
their shepherds, the houses and the holy shrines.
Sea and land, all was one now, a limitless ocean.
Fishes swam in and out among the branches of
the trees, and awkward seals stretched them-
selves where lately the nimble goats had played.
The water-nymphs swam wonderingly among the
houses. The birds, flying long in search of a rest-
ing-place, fell exhausted in the watery waste.
The human race perished, all but the son of
Prometheus, Deucalion, and his wife Pyrrha.
These good people, taught beforehand by the
wise Titan, had constructed a great chest in which
they had gathered all that was necessary for life,
and when the flood came they took refuge in it
themselves, and floated for nine days until the
chest touched ground once more on Mt. Parnas-
sus. When Zeus looked down and saw all the
violent race of men swept off the earth, and only
this one man, a lover of justice and a devout
worshiper of the gods, left alive with his wife,
he called upon the north wind to disperse the
clouds and upon Poseidon to recall his waters.
Then Deucalion and Pyrrha stepped out of the
chest and saw a waste and unpeopled earth about
them, and in their loneliness they called upon
 The World of the Myths 15
the gods for help. The oracle made answer that
they should cast behind them the bones of their
mother. Knowing that the god could never or-
der them to be guilty of the impiety of disturbing
the tomb of their mortal parent, Deucalion di-
vined the true meaning of the mysterious com-
mand. The earth is the mother of all and the
stones are her bones. With heads reverently
veiled they descended the mountain, casting
stones behind them. Those that Deucalion threw
assumed the forms of men, those that Pyrrha
threw, the forms of women. So the earth was
repeopled.2
2
Apollodorus, I. 7; Ovid, Metamorphoses, I. 260if.
 C H A P T E R II

THE GODS OF OLYMPUS: ZEUS

Mt. oiympus. W H I L E the gods of the Greek religion were

personifications of natural powers, yet they were
conceived after the fashion of human beings, both
in bodily form and in their needs and passions.
They were born, grew, married, and suffered,
though death never came to them. These beings,
like men, only greater and more beautiful, must
have cities and homes like those of men, only
greater and more beautiful. So the Greeks of
the mainland looked up to the cloud-capped peak
of Mt. Olympus, majestic, mysterious, eternally
enduring, and saw there, under the arch of
heaven, the golden halls of the divine city.
There, as they say, is the seat of the gods that stand-
eth fast forever. Not by winds is it shaken, nor ever
wet with rain, nor doth the snow come nigh thereto,
but most clear air is spread about it cloudless, and the
white light floats over it. Therein the blessed gods are •
glad for all their days. {Odyssey, VI. 42 ff.)

It was a true celestial city, conceived after the

model of the Greek city-states. At the gates of
cloud the Hours stood as guardians, within the
walls rose the palaces of the gods, and on the
16
Fig. 3. Zeus.
 The Gods of Olympus: Zeus 19
topmost peak, the acropolis, was the great hall
where the members of the Olympic Council gath-
ered for deliberation or for feasting. Ambfosia
was the food served at these banquets, and nectar,
poured into the cups by Hebe, the goddess of
youth, nourished the ichor flowing in the gods'
veins instead of blood. The nostrils of the feast-
ers were filled with the rich odor of sacrifices of-
fered on earth, and their ears charmed by the
songs the Muses sang to the accompaniment of
Apollo's lyre.
In the place of honor sat Zeus on his golden zeus
r &
m (Jupiter).
throne, and Hera, his sister and wife, sat beside
him, while about them assembled the other ten
Olympians, all brothers, sisters, sons, or daugh-
ters of the " father of gods and king of men."
For after his victory over the Titans Zeus ruled
supreme over heaven and earth. He challenges
the other Olympians to dispute his power:
Go to now, ye gods, make trial that ye all may know.
Fasten ye a rope of gold from Heaven, and all ye gods
lay hold thereof and all goddesses; yet could ye not
drag from Heaven to earth Zeus, counselor supreme,
not though ye toiled sore. But once I likewise were
minded to draw with all my heart, then should I draw
you up with very earth and sea withal. . . . By so
much am I beyond gods and beyond men. (Iliad,
VIII. 18 ff.)

As sky-god he drew the clouds over the face

of heaven, sending storm and rain upon the earth,
 20 Greek and Roman Mythology
or he dispersed them and looked down over all
as a benignant father. The weapon of his anger
was the thunderbolt; Victory stood at his right
hand. Yet his rule was not one of arbitrary
violence; he was the author and promoter of
law and order, of a civilized and regulated inter-
course between men, of hospitality and just treat-
ment of man by man. Hesiod calls upon the
Muses to sing of him in words that recall the
song of the Virgin Mary:

Muses of Pieria, who glorify with song, come sing of

Zeus your father, and declare his praise, through whom
are men famed and unfamed, sung and unsung, as Zeus
Almighty will. Lightly he giveth strength, and lightly
he afflicteth the strong; lightly he bringeth low the
mighty and lifteth up the humble; lightly he maketh the
crooked to be straight and withereth the proud as
chaff; Zeus, who thundereth in Heaven, who dwelleth
in the height. (Hesiod, Works and Days, iff.)

ms marriage Zeus was married to his sister, " Hera of the

with Hera.
golden throne/' a beautiful, queenly goddess, yet,
as Homer portrays her, a very human woman,
implacably jealous of Zeus's other loves, in-
triguing to get her own way, using against her
lord all the traditional weapons of a woman. For
all his power and majesty, Olympian Zeus went
in dread of his wife's reproaches and persistency
and drew the thickest of clouds between them
when he indulged in any pleasure of which she
would not approve. Though she had no choice
 The Gods of Olympus: Zeus 21
but to yield when he asserted his will, she re-
served to herself the compensation of taunts and
a sullen demeanor. On one occasion when he
had promised a favor to another of the god-
desses, this altercation took place:
Anon with taunting words spake she to Zeus, the son
of Cronus, " Now who among the gods, thou crafty of
mind, hath devised counsel with thee? It is ever thy
good pleasure to hold aloof from me and in sweet med-
itation to give thy judgments, nor of thine own good
will hast thou ever brought thyself to declare unto me
the thing thou purposeth."
Then the father of gods and men made answer to
her: " Hera, think not thou to know all my sayings;
hard are they for "thee, even though thou art my wife.
But whichsoever it is seemly for thee to hear, none
sooner than, thou shalt know, be he god or man. Only
when I will to take thought aloof from the gods, then
do not thou ask of every matter nor make question. ,,
. . . He said, and Hera the ox-eyed queen was
afraid, and sat in silence, curbing her heart. {Iliad, I.
539 ff.)

Though Hera was Zeus's queen and lawful His other

wife, he united himself with many other god-
desses and mortal women. Many of these unions
originated as symbols of natural facts, others as
symbols of philosophic truths. Thus as sky-god,
god of sun and rain, Zeus must join in marriage
union with De me'ter, the grain-goddess, that
Per seph'o ne, the young corn of the new year,
may be born. Again, as the great, creating, regu-
 22 Greek and Roman Mythology
lating mind, he must unite with Mnemosyne
(nemos'ine) or Memory, that the Nine Muses,
the goddesses of poetry, music, and science, may
draw from father and mother what is needed for
all great creative work. But the extraordinary
number of Zeus's unions was due to the fact that
Greek mythology was not the creation or in-
heritance of one land and people, but was drawn
from the religion and traditions of Greeks in
many different lands and under many different
conditions. The religious traditions of many
peoples with whom the Greeks had intercourse
were incorporated by them into their own
mythology. Moreover, each Greek state had its
own local hero, the ancestor or early king of that
group, and these heroes were always of divine
origin, very many of them the sons of Zeus by
mortal women. Thus the Arcadians traced their
descent from Areas, a son of Callisto by Zeus, of
whose love the following story is told.
caiusto.3 Cal lis'to was a nymph, a favorite companion
of the huntress Ar'temis. One day, wandering
alone in the woods, she lay down upon the ground
to rest. Zeus saw her- there, and thinking him-
self quite safe from the jealous eyes of Hera,
came down secretly and wooed her. Callisto
would gladly have escaped the attentions of the
3
Following the story as told by the Latin poet Ovid
(Metamorphoses, II. 410 ff.), but retaining the original
Greek names.
 The Gods of Olympus: Zeus 23
god and gone to rejoin Artemis and her nymphs;
but who could withstand Zeus! Artemis, who,
as herself a maiden, would have none but maidens
in her company, turned Callisto away when she
would have rejoined her. Solitary and sad the
nymph lived in the woods until she bore to Zeus
a son, Areas. Now Zeus's love for Callisto was
known to Hera. " You shall not go unpunished/'
said she to the nymph, " for I shall take away
that beauty by which you charmed my husband's
love." In vain Callisto begged for pity. Her
arms began to be covered with coarse black hair;
crooked claws grew from her hands, which now
served as forefeet; that face which once aroused
Zeus's love was deformed by huge ugly jaws.
When she would have prayed for mercy, the
power to speak was taken from her, and an angry
frightened growl was all that she could utter.
But under her bear's form her human heart, her
grief and her love remained. How often in her
solitary anguish, fearing to rest in the dark
woods, she sought her old home! How often
she was driven away by the barking dogs! Once
herself a huntress, she was now the hunted.
Often she hid from the bears she met in the moun-
tains, forgetful that she was now of their kind.
So fifteen troubled years passed. One day her
son Areas, out hunting wild beasts, met with his
mother in the forest. She recognized her child
and ran to greet him. Terrified by the rush of
 24 Greek and Roman Mythology
the great bear, he aimed at her his hunting-spear.
Zeus checked his blow and raised Callisto to the
heavens, where he set her as the constellation of
the Great Bear. Hera's jealousy was not at all
satisfied by this. " Behold I took from her her
human form and now she is made a goddess!
Is this the punishment for a guilty woman! Is
this my power! " She went to the sea-gods and
prayed that they would never permit Callisto to
dip below their waves. The prayer was granted,
and thus it is that the Great Bear can always be
seen in the heavens and never sinks below the
waters.
10.4 Another story that shows the unrelenting
hatred with which Hera pursued those favored by
Zeus is that of Io.
Io was the daughter of In'a chus, a river-god.
Zeus loved and wooed and won her, coming to
her secretly under cover of a cloud spread be-
tween their meeting-place and Hera's watchful
eyes. But the jealous queen, looking down upon
the realm of Argos, and wondering to see the
low-lying cloud under a clear sky, at once sus-
pected some wrong-doing on her husband's part.
She glided down from heaven and bade the cloud
recede. Zeus, however, had foreseen the com-
ing of his wife and had changed the daughter of
Inachus into a beautiful white heifer. Suspect-
ing the trick, Hera requested the heifer as a gift,
4
Following Ovid, Metamorphoses, I. 583 ff.
 The Gods of Olympus: Zeus 25
and Zeus was constrained to yield or acknowledge
his love. Io was given by her mistress in charge
of Argus, a monster of whose hundred eyesr but
two were closed at one time. When she would
have held out supplicating hands to Argus, she
had no hands to hold out. When she tried to
speak, she was terrified by her own lowing. She
came to the banks of the river Inachus where she
was wont to play; when she saw the reflection
of her great mouth and new-formed horns, she
fled from her own image in terror. The Naiads
did not know her; her own father Inachus did
not know her. She followed her father and sis-
ters and offered herself to be petted and admired.
She licked their hands and kissed her father's
palms, nor could she keep back the big tears from
rolling down her nose. At last with her hoof
she traced in the sand the letters of her own name,
Io. " Woe is me!" cried her father, and fell
upon the heifer's neck. " I have sought you
through all lands. Better were it that I had never
found you." Hundred-eyed Argus parted them
as they lamented, and put her in a new pasture.
But Zeus could not endure to see her so unhappy.
He sent Hermes, his son and messenger, most
wily of gods, to destroy the ever-watchful Argus.
Laying aside his winged sandals and disguised
as a shepherd, Hermes approached Argus, who,
weary of his lonely and tedious watch, called to
him to come and share the shade of his tree.
 26 Greek and Roman Mythology
Seated beside Argus, Hermes piped to him charm-
ingly on his shepherd's pipes, varying with song
the long stories with which he beguiled the hours.
Two by two the hundred eyes were closed, until
at last no eye was awake to watch his charge.
Hermes at once slew him and set Io free. The
hundred eyes Hera took and placed in the tail
of her sacred peacock, where they may be seen
to-day. But her jealous wrath still pursued un-
fortunate Io. She sent a gad-fly to torment her
and drive her from land to land. In her weary
search for peace, the heifer passed over the
strait that divides Europe from Asia, whence it
derives its name, Bosphorus, the way of the cow.
Over the sea, too, that bears her name, the Ionian
Sea, she wandered, until at last she arrived in
Egypt, where she was restored to her natural
form and gave birth to a son, the ancestor of the
Ionian Greeks.
Antiope. Anti'ope was the daughter of the king of
Thebes. By Zeus she became the mother of two
sons Amphi'on and Zethus. Immediately after
their birth the babies were taken from her and
exposed on Mt. Cithseron, where they grew up
among the shepherds. Antiope fell into the power
of her uncle Lycus, whose wife Dirce treated
her with the greatest cruelty. After some years
she made her escape and fled to Mt. Cithseron,
where she happened to take refuge in the hut
where her sons lived. As one of a company of
 The Gods of Olympus: Zeus 27
Bacchantes, votaries of the wine-god Bacchus,
Dirce came, by chance, to the same place, and
finding the hated Antiope, she ordered Amphion
and Zethus to kill her by tying her to the horns

Fig. 4. Dirce tied to the bull.

of a fierce bull. They were about to carry out

this barbarous command when the shepherd in-
formed them that the victim was their own
mother. Releasing her, they now executed the
28 Greek and Roman Mythology
same sentence on Dirce, who was instantly torn
in pieces by the angry bull. Lycus, too, was
killed, and the brothers became kings of Thebes.
It is said that when they were building walls
about the city Zethus' strength enabled him to
lift huge stones into place, but that Amphion's
skill as a musician was so great that when he
played his lyre stones yet more huge rose of
themselves and took their places in the wall.
The story of Baucis and Phi le'mon shows how
Zeus could reward those who respected the law
of hospitality and punish those who violated it.
In a certain place where now is a marsh fre-
quented by wild birds was once a village. Here
Zeus came in the guise of a mortal, and with him
his son Hermes, winged sandals laid aside. They
went to a thousand dwellings seeking rest and
refreshment; all were barred against them. Yet
one, a little house thatched with reeds, received
them. Here good old Baucis and her husband
Philemon had grown old together, making hap-
piness even out of their poverty by bearing it
together with contented hearts. Here then came
the Immortals, and bending down their heads en-
tered the low door. The old man placed a seat
and bade them sit down, while Baucis bustled to
throw over ,it a coarse covering. Then she gath-
ered together the dying embers, added dry leaves
and fuel and blew it into a flame with her feeble
5
Following Ovid, Metamorphoses, VIII. 620 ff.
 The Gods of Olympus: Zeus 29
breath. Her husband brought in a cabbage from
the little garden, cut a fat piece from the long-
cherished flitch of bacon, and put them over, the
fire to cook. They shook up their cushion of
soft sedge-grass, laid it on the dining-couch, and
put over it a covering that, poor and patched
though it was, they used only on great festivals.
While the gods reclined on the couch, the trem-
bling old woman, with skirts tucked up, set out
the table. One foot of the table was uneven;
a brick steadied it, and a handful of greens cleaned
off the top. The feast began with olives, stewed
berries, endive, radishes, cottage-cheese, and eggs
carefully fried, all served in earthenware dishes.
After this the mixing-bowl and cups, made of
beech-wood lined with smooth wax, were set out
for the wine — not rich old wine, but the best
they had. There were nuts, figs, dried dates,
plums, and fragrant apples served in baskets, and
purple grapes gathered from the vines, and in
the middle of the table the honey-comb. Above
all there were cordial looks and eager good-will.
And now the astonished couple began to notice
that the mixing-bowl, as often as it was emptied,
filled up again of its own accord. They trem-
bled, and holding out their hands in supplication,
asked forgiveness for the humble fare. There
was one single goose, the guardian of the little
farm; this its masters now prepared to slaughter
for their divine guests. It escaped them, and
30 Greek and Roman Mythology
flapping its wings, dodged about the little room
and at last took refuge at the feet of the gods.
The Immortals forbade its slaughter. " We are
gods," said they, " and while this neighborhood
pays the penalty for its inhospitality, you shall
be free from misfortune. Leave your house and
follow us." The two old people obeyed and,
hobbling along with their sticks, climbed the hill.
When a little way from the top, they looked back
and saw all the village covered by a marsh; only
their own house was left. While they wondered
and bewailed their neighbors' fate, that little old
hut of theirs was transformed. In place of the
forked sticks supporting a roof thatched with
reeds, rose marble columns crowned with gilded
beams; the doors were of embossed metal, and
the pavement of marble. Then the son of Cronus
spoke: " Ask, righteous old man and worthy
woman, what you will." Philemon consulted a
moment with Baucis and then answered: " We
ask to be priests and to keep your shrines; and
since we have lived happily together, let the same
hour take us both, and let me never see the grave
of my wife nor have to be buried by her hands."
Their prayer was granted; they were guardians
of the temple as long as they lived. One day as
they stood side by side before the temple each
saw a change come over the other. Now their
forms, bent with age, grew straight and strong
and rooted firmly in the earth. Then as the wav-
 The Gods of Olympus: Zeus 31
ing tree-tops grew over their heads, each said:
"Farewell, O Wife! O Husband!" and then
the bark covered their mouths. And so, in after
years, the shepherds pointed out the oak and the
linden growing side by side, and said: " The

Fig. 5. Head of Zeus.

gods care for the godly, and protect those who

do them service."
Zeus was represented in art as a man of gener- zeus: Ms
ous build and majestic bearing, usually draped and worsMp.
from the waist down. His head was massive,
his brows heavy, his hair and beard extremely
32 Greek and Roman Mythology
thick, as though his face looked out from masses
of piled thunder-clouds. Beneath his overhang-
ing eyebrows gleamed those eyes whose glance
was lightning, and the heavily lined forehead
foreboded that frown at which the heavens shook.
His whole appearance was that of the majestic
and powerful god of heaven and earth. He was
generally represented as seated upon a throne,
holding in one hand his scepter or a spear, and
in the other his weapons, the winged thunderbolts.
With him often appeared the eagle, the bird that
by his bold heavenward flight and lightning-
descent upon his prey was associated with the
sky-god. On his scepter or beside him appeared
a winged female figure, Victory, for he held the
balances of fate and gave victory to this or that
warrior as he willed. Among the Greeks them-
selves the statue most admired was that of gold
and ivory set up in the temple at Olympia, in
southern Greece. Before this representation of
the greatest of their gods, Greeks from all parts
of the Hellenic world met once in every four
years to offer sacrifice and to compete in athletic
contests, honoring their divinity by the exhibition
of perfect bodies under perfect control. So great
was the honor paid to successful contestants that
the most famous lyric poets of Greece devoted
their genius to celebrating them in hymns, which
were sung by choruses to the accompaniment of
 The Gods of Olympus: Zeus 33

Fig. 6. View of ruins at Olympia.

the lyre or flute when the victors returned to their

own cities in triumphal state. Moreover, the
greatest sculptors joined to do them honor; for
the proudest glory of an Olympic victor was the
right he gained of having his statue set up in the
precinct of the god. As one walks now through
the ruins at Olympia, here he can make out the
plan of the palestra in whose wide spaces Greek
youth wrestled, ran races, rivaled one another in
throwing the discus. Here was the long colon-
nade or stoa beneath whose shade poets read
their works; in front, long rows of statues of
youths, nude as they appeared when winning their
 34 Greek and Roman Mythology
victories. Here was the line of treasuries of
all the states of Greece, and in the center, even
now impressive for the great d^ums of its col-
umns, fallen and piled in confusion by the earth-
quakes of centuries, rise the high foundations of
the great temple of Olympian Zeus.
At Do do'na, in Epirus, was a famous oracle
of Zeus, one of the oldest holy places in all Greece.
Here the priestess read the will of the god from
the sound of the rustling leaves of the great oak,
a tree especially sacred to Zeus. In every part
of the Greek world were places set apart for his
worship, and each state claimed his favor for
some special reason. As late as early Christian
times in Crete the grave of Zeus was pointed
out, for conceptions of immortal gods were
strangely combined with thoughts of death.
Jupiter. Zeus was identified by the Romans with their
old Latin god, Jupiter or Jove, and the stories
told of the one were transferred to the other.
Jupiter was originally a sky-god, as Zeus was,
and king of gods and men. Temples in his
honor crowned many high hills in Italy, and he
was called upon to send rain in time of drought.
On the Alban Mount the temple of Jupiter
Latiaris was the religious center of the Latin
Confederacy. Jupiter Optimus Maximus was
worshiped on the Capitoline Hill at Rome as
guardian of the state and giver of victory in
 The Gods of Olympus: Zeus 35
war, and to him generals returning victorious to
celebrate a triumph offered the best of the spoils
of war. Like Zeus, the Roman Jupiter was„pro-
tector of right and truth and the sanctity of
oaths.
 CHAPTER III

HERA, A T H E N A , H E P H ^ S T U S

I. HERA (JUNO)
I sing of golden-throned Hera, whom Rhea bore, an
immortal queen, in beauty preeminent, the sister and
the bride of loud-thundering Zeus, the lady renowned,
whom all the Blessed throughout high Olympus honor
and revere no less than Zeus whose delight is in the
thunder. (Homeric Hymn to Hera. Translation by
Andrew Lang.)

The wife As wife of the supreme god, Hera was naturally

the guardian of the marriage state. The bride
sacrificed to her, and matrons of the city were
the priestesses of her temple. At Samos the an-
nual celebration of her marriage with Zeus was
the greatest of festivals. By Zeus she had three
children, Ares (Mars), god of war, Hephaestus
(Vulcan), god of the forge, and Hebe, goddess
of youth. Though Hebe was originally also
cup-bearer to the gods, for some reason, perhaps
because she slipped one day when pouring the
nectar, she was displaced by Gan'ymede, a Tro-
jan prince. Zeus saw the boy on earth and loved
him for his boyish charm and beauty. Assum-
ing the form of his royal eagle, the god came
36
Fig. 7. Hera.
 Hera, Athena, Hephaestus 39
upon Ganymede when he was watching his flocks
on Mt. Ida, and carried him off to Olympus to
be his cup-bearer. This aroused Hera's anger,
not only against her husband but against the whole
race of Trojans, whom ever after she pursued
with relentless hatred. Indeed all Zeus's favor-

Fig. 8. Ganymede and the Eagle.

ites among mortals and his children by mortal

wives were objects of jealous hate to Hera.
Iris was the wind-footed, fleet messenger of iris.
Hera, who bore her commands to other gods
and to mortals. As she flew down from Olympus
men knew of her coming by the many-colored
trail she left behind her; for Iris was the rain-
 40 Greek and Roman Mythology
bow, the symbol of connection between earth and
heaven.
Appearance
and emblems.
Greek artists conceived of Hefa as a woman
in the full bloom of her age, of majestic form
and carriage, with a serene
and beautiful face, a concep-
tion inspired by the ideal for
which she stood, the queenly
protector of wifehood and
motherhood. As a matron
she was portrayed clad in a
long full garment, and on
her head a crown. Often she
held a scepter, sometimes a
pomegranate, the symbol of
fertility for women and
plants. Beside her often ap-
pears the peacock, his tail
Fig. 9. Head of adorned by the hundred Ar-
Hera.
gus eyes. (See p. 26.)
Juno. Corresponding to Hera as wife of Zeus, in
Roman worship stood Juno, the wife of Jupiter.
She too in old times had been the special guardian
of women and the marriage-tie.
II. ATHENA (MINERVA)

The Birth
of Athena.
Of all the children of Zeus the one who most
resembled her father in nature and power and
who most enjoyed his respect and confidence was
the maiden goddess, Pallas Athena. The story
Fig. io. Athena (known as "Lemnian Athena").
 Hera, Athena, Hephaestus 43
of her birth is consistent with this special rela-
tion, since she sprang, fully grown and fully
armed, from the head of Zeus.
Her did Zeus the counselor beget from his holy head
all armed for war in shining golden mail, while in awe
did the other gods behold it. Quickly did the goddess
leap from the immortal head, and stood before Zeus,
shaking her sharp spear, and high Olympus trembled
in dread beneath the strength of the gray-eyed maiden,

Fig. 11. Birth of Athena from the head of Zeus.

while earth rang terribly around, and the sea was boil-
ing with dark waves, and suddenly brake forth the
foam. Yea, and the glorious son of Hyperion checked
for long his swift steeds, till the maiden took from her
immortal shoulders her divine armor, even Pallas
Athena; and Zeus the counselor rejoiced. Hail to
thee, child of aegis-bearing Zeus. (Homeric Hymn to
Athena.)

T h e birth of A t h e n a is a favorite subject with Her origin

_ . . and nature.
Greek artists. Zeus is represented seated upon his
 44 Greek and Roman Mythology
throne, while about him are others of the Olym-
pian divinities. Before him stands the god of
the forge, Hephaestus, still grasping in his hand
the ax with which, to assist the miraculous birth,
he has cleft the skull of Zeus. Athena stands
beside her father, triumphant, brandishing her
spear, her breast protected by the aegis, or sacred
breast-plate, adorned with the head of the Gor-
gon Medusa. (See p. 209.) Originally, in the
ancient nature myth, Athena seems to have rep-
resented the waters of heaven let loose from the
clouds (represented by the head of Zeus) when
the thunderbolt (the ax of Hephaestus) cleaves
them. The dreadful Gorgon's head with its
snaky locks, on the breast-plate, suggests the
thunder-cloud and the forked lightning. At an
[early time, however, Athena ceased to be regarded
as a nature goddess and was worshiped as god-
dess of reason and practical wisdom, and as
patroness of arts and crafts. On the other hand,
she was the goddess of war-strategy, the de-
fender of cities, especially her own city of Ath-
ens. As champion of civilization and justice,
the almighty father granted it to her to wear his
aegis. Thus she represents, as has been well said,
" the warlike courage that gives peace, and the
intellectual activity that makes it fruitful."
The To Athena, as guardian of the city of Athens,
J
Parthenon. ' ° ^
was dedicated the Parthenon, the temple that
crowns the height of the Acropolis. Here was
 Hera, Athena, Hephaestus 45
the great gold and ivory statue by the sculptor
Phidias, and hither each year the Athenians came
in procession to offer to the goddess the new
peplos or robe, woven by the women of Athens
as an offering to the goddess of handicrafts.
Athena is represented as of strong and noble ^"^biems
form, dressed in a long
flowing garment. Her
finely molded features
express courage and
high intellectuality. In
addition to the a?gis she
usually wears a helmet,
surmounted by a sphinx
and griffins, and she
holds in her hand a
spear, or, frequently, a
small winged figure of
Victory. Other em-
blems are the snake and
the owl. The emblem
of the olive is given her
as,guardian of the city Fig. i z Athena (known as
of Athens. "Minerva of Velletri").

When the great city of Athens was founded The contest

0
» over Athens.
all the gods desired to have it as their own.
Athena and Poseidon (Neptune) were recog-
nized as having the best claim to it, and it was
determined that of the two that one should be
chosen who should give the best gift to the city.
 46 Greek and Roman Mythology
The twelve gods assembled to act as judges, and
Cecrops, the king of Athens, served as a wit-
ness. The scene of the contest 'was the height
of the Acropolis. Poseidon struck the rock
with his trident and a salt spring gushed forth.
Then Athena advanced and struck the rock with
her spear; an olive tree sprang up. To Athena
was adjudged the victory, for the olive was al-
ways a great source of wealth to the Athenian
state. The sacred olive tree was preserved in
the temple precinct, and the story of its mirac-
ulous sprouting in a. night, when the Athenians
returned to rebuild their citadel after its burning
in the Persian Wars, is told by Greek historians.
To this day one may see, also, the mark of
Poseidon's trident in the rock below the ancient
temple. Some say that Poseidon's gift was not
a spring, but a horse.
In the story of A rach'ne, Athena appears as
goddess of handicrafts.
Arachne. 6 Arachne was a mortal who excelled all other
maidens in weaving. Her work became so fa-
mous that the very nymphs deserted their woods
and streams to see it. Nor was it more the
finished work that excited this admiration than
the grace and skill of the maiden while she wove.
One would think that she had been taught by
Pallas. Yet she herself denied this and chal-
lenged the goddess to compete with her. Angry
6
Following Ovid, Metamorphoses, VI. 1 ff.
 * ^ . A , Athena, Hephaestus 47
at this presumption, the goddess determined to
humble her. She put on the form of a white-
haired old woman, her feeble limbs supported by
a stick. " Take the advice of an old woman/'
she said to Arachne, " you wish to be called
more skilful than all mortal women; yield at
least to the goddess, rash girl, and ask forgive-
ness for your boastful words." The maiden
angrily eyed her visitor and answered rudely:
" You have grown weak-minded with old age.
If you have any daughters, bestow your advice
upon them! I can attend to my own affairs.
Why does not the goddess come herself? Why
does she avoid a trial of skill?" "She has
come," said the goddess, and threw aside her
disguise. The nymphs and all the bystanders
worshiped, only the maiden was unterrified, and
obstinately insisted on the contest. The daugh-
ter of Zeus did not refuse. Arachne began to
weave; she wove a web as fine as a spider's. A
thousand colors were there, so finely shaded that
each faded into the other until the whole was
like the rainbow. Pallas wove the scene of her
contest with Poseidon. There sat the twelve
gods in august assembly, kingly Zeus in their
midst. There was Poseidon with his trident,
and'Athena herself, her breast protected by the
aegis, and beside her the newly-sprung olive tree.
Then, that the presumptuous girl might learn by
example, Athena wove the stories of mortals who
 48 Greek and Roman My*,. ^^
had dared to compete with gods and lad suffered
punishment. But Arachne was not daunted.
She wove into her web stories of 'the weaknesses
and strifes of the gods, Zeus and his loves, and
jealous Hera — many were the foibles there held
up to derision. Then about it she wove a lovely
border. Athena herself could not but wonder
at the maiden's skill, but her arrogance aroused
her resentment. She struck the delicate web with
her shuttle, and it crumbled into bits; then she
touched Arachne's forehead. A sense of her
impiety rushed over the girl; she could not en-
dure it, and hanged herself with a skein of her
own silk. But Athena did not wish that so skil-
ful a worker should die; she cut the skein and,
sprinkling upon her the juice of aconite, trans-
formed the maiden into a spider, that through
all ages she iri'ght continue to spin her matchless
webs.
Minerva. Minerva was an old Etruscan goddess whom
the Romans worshiped as patroness of handi-
crafts and goddess of practical wisdom. Her
festival was celebrated by guilds of artisans and
physicians, and on it school-children were given
a holiday. By her later identification with the
Greek Pallas Athena she became known as god-
dess of military strategy and as protectress of
cities. Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva formed a di-
vine triad worshiped on the Capitoline Hill.
 Hera, Athena, Hephaestus 49

III. H E P H ^ S T U S (VULCAN)

Half-brother of Athena, and son of Zeu§ and The god

of fire.
Hera, was Hephaes'tus, the lame god of fire,
the forge and metal-work, and as such, together
with his great sister, a mighty helper of men in
their struggle for civilization. He is thus ad-
dressed in the Homeric Hymn:
Sing, shrill Muse, of Hephaestus, renowned in craft,
who with gray-eyed Athena taught goodly works to
men on earth, even to men that before were wont to
dwell in caves like beasts; but now, being instructed in
craft by the renowned craftsman, Hephaestus, lightly
the whole year through they dwell happily in their own
homes. {Homeric Hymn to Hephaestus.)

He was born lame, but two stories are told

6f his fall from heaven that would more than
account for any such deformity. According to
the one, Hera, chagrined at finding her son
physically imperfect, threw him out of heaven.
To avenge himself for this cruelty on his mother's
part, Hephaestus cunningly constructed a golden
chair and brought it as a present to Hera. When
she had taken her seat upon it, invisible chains
held her fast, nor could she be freed. The gods
pleaded with Hephaestus in vain, until Di o ny'sus
(Bacchus), the wine-god, made him drunk and
so brought him to Mt. Olympus and induced him
to undo his own handiwork. According to the
other story Zeus, resenting his championship of
 50 Greek and Roman Mythology
his mother in one of the many quarrels between
the royal pair, seized him by the foot and hurled
him from Olympus.
All day I flew, and at the set of sun I fell in Lemnos,
and little life was in me. (Iliad, I. 592.)

Appearance Hephaestus made the glorious palaces of the

and emblems. , 0 1
gods on Olympus; he made the scepter of Zeus

Fig. 13. Hephaestus and the Cyclopes preparing the shield

of Achilles.

and the shield of Achilles; he helped to mold

Pandora. His workshops were under the earth,
where volcanoes gave an outlet to the fires of his
forge. Thus the Greeks saw his home in the
volcanic island of Lemnos, and the Greeks of
South Italy and Sicily, under Mt. /Etna or on
 Hera, Athena, Hephaestus 51
one of the Lipari Islands. On the latter, it was
the popular belief that if the metal were left
over-night near the crater, and due prayer and
sacrifice made to the god, a marvelously forged
sword would be found in the morning. To aid
him in his work he had wonderful maidens of
gold. He is described in his workshop by
Homer:
H e said, and from the anvil rose limping, a huge
bulk, but under him his slender legs moved nimbly.
The bellows he set away from the fire, and gathered all
his gear wherewith he worked into a silver chest; and
with a sponge he wiped his face and hands and sturdy
neck and shaggy breast, and did on his doublet, and
took a stout staff and went forth limping; but there
were handmaidens of gold that moved to help their
lord, the semblance of living maids. In them is under-
standing at their hearts, in them are voice and strength,
and they have the skill of the immortal gods. (Iliad,
XVIII. 410 ff.)

Ever friendly and helpful, often a peace-

maker, Hephaestus was beloved of men and gods,
though his limping gait subjected him to ridicule.
Then he poured forth wine to all the gods, from right
to left, ladling the sweet nectar from the bowl. And
laughter unquenchable arose among the blessed gods to
see Hephaestus bustling through the palace. (Iliad, I.
597 ff.)

Hephaestus is not a favorite subject in art, but

when he appears it is as a strongly-built man, his
 52 Greek and Roman Mythology
lameness only hinted at. He is dressed in a
workman's short tunic and wears the workman's
cap. Probably he originally represented the
lightning; hence the story of his fall from heaven,
vuican. Vulcan, the fire-god, was more feared than
courted in Rome, with its close-built streets, so
subject to destructive fires. His worship, there-
fore, as originally that of the war-god Mars, was
kept outside the city.
Fig. 14. Apollo, from Olympia.
 CHAPTER IV

APOLLO AND ARTEMIS

I. APOLLO

T H E purest and highest worship of the Greeks J g g , . 8 ^ '

was perhaps that offered to Phoebus Apollo, the healin s-
glorious god of light, who in later mythology took
the place of the Titan Helios. In his chariot
he drives across the heavens, attended by the
Hours and Seasons, and at evening stables his
horses in the golden west. Nothing false or
impure might be brought near to him; his was
a cleansing and enlightening power. With his
arrows, the rays of the brilliant Greek sun, he
destroyed his enemies and brought pestilence and
death upon those that had fallen under his dis-
pleasure. But he was a destructive god only
when provoked to anger; he was preeminently
the god of healing and medicine. It w7as he that
inspired physicians to divine the hidden cause of
disease; he was their patron. This healing gift
was especially exercised by Apollo's son, the di-
vine physician As cle'pi us, who incurred Zeus's
wrath by even restoring the dead to life.
But Apollo's greatest importance in the Greek The oracle
world was as god of prophecy, the giver of the
55
56 Greek and Roman Mythology
prophetic gift. The most famous of all oracles
was that at Delphi, a town of central Greece situ-
ated on the slopes of Mt. Parnassus. Here the
priestess, seated on a tripod over a cleft in the
rock, was thrown into an inspired frenzy by the

Fig. 15. The Sun-God in his Chariot.

vapors that rose about her. Her incoherent ut-

terances were interpreted by the priests of the
shrine. Hither came those seeking guidance, not
only from all the Greek world, but from distant
and non-Hellenic lands. No great undertaking
might be entered upon without the sanction and
Fig. 16. Foundations of Apollo's Temple at Delphi.
 Apollo and Artemis 59
guidance of the god; especially those seeking to
found a new colony must first consult the oracle
of Apollo. Thus the god was the founder of
cities, the promoter of colonization, the extender
of just and civilized law.
In all his manifestations Apollo stands for the 2?aeuf°^|
Greek ideal of manly strength and beauty, of the music-
highest and purest development of body and in-
tellect. He inspires not alone physicians with
their art and prophets with their power, but to
him all poets and musicians owe the divine spark.
He is the giver of all beauty and harmony. On
Mt. Parnassus he led his chorus of the Nine
Muses, and at the banquets of the gods he
charmed the Olympians by the music of his
golden lyre.
Apollo is always represented as in the prime ^nd emSfems
of youth, with smooth face and refined (in later
art almost feminine) features. As the archer
he is usually entirely nude and holds the bow.
As sun-god he appears in his chariot drawn by
winged horses, while a rosy-fingered Dawn"
throws open before him the gates of the East and
the Hours and Seasons accompany the chariot.
As god of music and leader of the Muses, he is
dressed in the long flowing garment of the Greek
bard and holds the lyre. About his forehead he
wears the wreath of laurel, sacred to him and
always the reward of the poet.
Apollo was the son of Zeus and the goddess ^ A ^ S ?
60 Greek and Roman Mythology
Leto (Lato'na). The story of his mother's
wanderings, driven by the cruel jealousy of Hera
to seek a birthplace for her children,' and of how
at last the little rocky isle of Delos 7 offered her a
refuge, is told in the Homeric Hymn.

Fig. 17. Apollo as leader of the Muses.

But the lands trembled sore and were adread, and

none, nay not the richest, dared to welcome Phoebus, not
till Lady Leto set foot on Delos, and speaking winged
7
Delos had up to that time been a floating island; in
return for its hospitable reception of Leto, Zeus fastened
it to the bottom with adamantine chains.
 Apollo and Artemis 61
words besought her: " Delos, would that thou wert
minded to be-the seat of my son, Phoebus Apollo, and
to let build him therein a rich temple. . . ." And
forth leaped the babe to light, and all the goddesses
raised a cry. Then, great Phoebus, the goddesses
washed thee in fair water holy and purely, and wound
thee in white swaddling bands, delicate, new-woven,
with a golden girdle around thee. Nor did his mother
suckle Apollo, the golden sworded, but Themis with
immortal hands first touched his lips with nectar and
sweet ambrosia, while Leto rejoiced, in that she had
borne her strong son, the bearer of the bow. (Homeric-
Hymn to the Delian Apollo.)

After the birth of the twins, Apollo and Arte-

mis, the story tells how once in Lycia Leto came,
weary and parched with thirst, to a pond where
some countrymen were gathering reeds. The
boors refused her the privilege she entreated of
quenching her thirst, and threatened the fainting
goddess with violence. They even waded into
the pond and stirred up the mud to make the
water undrinkable. In just anger at their boor-
ishness and cruelty the goddess prayed that they
might never leave that pool. There they live
still, often coming to the top to breathe, or squat-
ting on the bank, croaking their discontent with
hoarse voices. Their backs are green and their
bellies are white; their heads grow out of bloated
bodies; their eyes bulge. You can see cold-
blooded creatures like them in the nearest frog-
pond.
 62 Greek and Roman Mythology
python. At Delphi, before the coming of Apollo, the
site of the oracle was guarded by a pestilential
earth-born serpent, Python, who Jaid waste all
the land. This monster of disease and darkness
the god of light killed with his golden shafts
and made the oracle his own. Exulting in his
victory, he now sang for the first time the Paean,
the song of triumph and thanksgiving, and on
the scene of his victory he planted his sacred
laurel tree.
How the laurel came to be sacred to Apollo is
told by the Latin poet Ovid as follows:
Daphne. 8 Eros (Cupid) was responsible for Apollo's un-
happy love for Daphne. Once the sun-god saw
him fitting an arrow to the string, and being
haughty because of his recent victory over
Python, he taunted the little god of love. " Mis-
chievous boy, what have you to do with such
weapons! These are arms that become my
shoulders — I, who lately with my arrows laid
low swelling Python. Be you content to track
out love-adventures with your torch; do not as-
pire to my honors! " Aphrodite's son answered
him: " Your arrows pierce all things, Phoebus;
mine pierce you." As he spoke he drew from
his quiver two arrows; the one with point of gold
inspires love, that tipped with lead repels it.
With the first he wounded Apollo; with the sec-
ond he pierced Daphne, the daughter of a river-
8
Following Ovid, Metamorphoses, I. 452 ff.
 Apollo and Artemis 63
god. Straightway the god loved, but the nymph
hated the very name of lover and gave herself,
like the maiden goddess Artemis, to hunting wild
things in the woods. Many suitors sought her,
but she refused them all and persuaded her father
to permit her always to live a maiden. But
Apollo loved. He saw her hair in charming con-
fusion about her neck; he saw her eyes beaming
like stars; he saw her lips and longed to kiss
them. He praised her hands and her shapely
arms; he thought her all beautiful. She fled
from him more elusive than the light breeze, nor
did she stay to hear his entreaties: " Nymph,
I pray you, stay! I who pursue you am no
enemy. Nymph, stay! love is the cause of my
pursuit. Alas! what if you should fall! What
if the horrid thorns should wound your innocent
ankles, and I should be to you the cause of pain!
The ground is rough; run not so fast! I, too,
will follow more slowly. I who love you am no
boorish mountaineer; I am no rough shepherd.
Rash girl, you know not whom you flee. Jupiter
is my father. Through me what was and is and
will be is disclosed; through me the notes ring
harmonious on the strings. My arrow is sure,
yet one arrow is surer; it has wounded my heart.
Medicine is my invention; I am called savior
through all the world. Alas! no medicine can
cure my love, nor can the skill that saves all
•* others save its master."
 64 Greek and Roman Mythology
But the nymph still fled and the god still pur-
sued, she swift through fear, he swifter yet as
winged with love. Now he drew so close upon
her that she felt his breath upon her neck. She
felt her strength go from her and in her despair
called upon her father, the river-god: " Help
me, O Father! Let the earth open for me, or
else change this form that has been my ruin! "
As she ceased her prayer a heaviness seized her
limbs; her soft bosom was inclosed in a delicate
bark; her locks became leaves, her arms branches.
The foot, lately so swift, was rooted in the
ground; only her beauty remained. Phoebus
still loved her, and placing his hand upon the
trunk, he felt her breast tremble beneath the new-
formed bark. He put his arms about it and
kissed the wood; the wood shrank from his kisses.
Then said the god: " Since you cannot be my
wife, you shall surely be my tree, O Laurel, and
ever shall you adorn my head, my lyre, and my
quiver. And as my head is ever crowned with
youth and beauty, so shall your branches ever be
crowned with green and glossy leaves."
As the ever-green laurel recalls the story of
Apollo's unrequited love for a nymph, so the
fragrant hyacinth springs from his unhappy at-
tachment to a mortal youth snatched away by an
; untimely death.
Hyacinthus. 9 There was a time when even Delphi was de-
9
Following Ovid, Metamorphoses, X. 162 ff.
 Apollo and Artemis 65
serted by Apollo, when the bow and the lyre lost
their charm for him. H e spent all his days with
H y a cin'thus, carrying his hunting-nets, holding
in his dogs, accompanying him on the hunt or
in his sports. One day the friends, having taken
off their clothes and been rubbed with oil, were
amusing themselves throwing the discus. Apollo
threw it high and far, exhibiting skill and
strength in the sport. Hyacinthus rushed for-
ward to get the discus, not counting for the strong
rebound from such a throw. It glanced upward
and struck the boy full in the temple. The god
caught him in his fall and held him close, trying
to staunch the wound and applying medicinal
herbs. For once his art failed him. For as a
lily when the rays of the sun have struck hot
upon it droops its head towards the earth and
faints and dies, so the mortal youth drooped
his head upon his breast and fell lifeless from
the god's embrace.
In his grief Apollo upbraided himself as its
cause, and, since he could not restore the boy to
life, declared that at least his name should live for-
ever, celebrated by him in song. And lo! where
the red blood had flowed out upon the earth,
there sprang up a splendid purple flower with
a form like a lily. It bore on its petals " Ai,
A i " (Alas, Alas), a memorial of the sun-god's
mourning. And as often as the fresh young
spring drives away the winter, so often are these
 66 Greek and Roman Mythology
flowers fresh in the fields. Hyacinthus rises
again.
Marpessa. There was ah occasion when Apollo presented
himself as rival to a mortal and was rejected.
Mar pes'sa was a beautiful maiden, loved by Idas,
who, with the help of winged horses given him
by Poseidon, stole her from her father. Apollo
overtook the runaway couple and seized the
maiden for himself. But Idas, fearing not even
the god in defense of his beloved, drew his bow
against him. To prevent the unequal contest,
Zeus gave Marpessa her choice between the two.
On the one side stood the glorious sun-god, of-
fering immortality, power, glory, and freedom
from all earthly trouble. On the other stood
Idas, offering only faithful love and partnership
in his life with its mingled joy and sorrow. The
woman chose the mortal, fearing unfaithfulness
on the god's part, since immortal youth was not
granted her with immortal life, and preferring
to live, love, grow old, and die, with one capable
of a like love and destined to a like fate.
Niobe. 10 In the tragic fate of Ni'o be and her fourteen
children, Apollo with his sister Artemis appears
as his mother's avenger, and his golden arrows
bring destruction.
The story of Arachne's punishment for her
presumption towards Athena should have been
a warning to all. But Niobe was too haughty
10
Following Ovid, Metamorphoses, VI. 146 ff.
 Apollo and Artemis 67
to heed it. Many things made her proud. Her
husband was a celebrated musician; on both sides
of her family she was descended from the gods,
and she ruled over a great kingdom. More than
all, she was proud of her children, seven sons
and seven daughters.
The Priest of Leto had cried through the city:
" Come, all ye people, offer to Leto and the chil-
dren of Leto the sacrifice of prayei; and incense!
Bind your heads with laurel! Leto bids it by
my lips." All the people obeyed and offered sac-
rifice. Then came Niobe, dressed in purple and
gold, moving stately and beautiful among her
subjects and casting haughty looks about.
" What madness/' said she, " to place celestial
beings of whom you have only heard above those
seen! Why is Leto worshiped at the altars,
while no incense rises in my honor? My grand-
father is Atlas, who bears on his shoulders the
starry heavens. My other grandfather is Zeus.
Wide kingdoms own me as queen. Moreover,
my beauty is worthy of a goddess. Add to all
this my seven sons and seven daughters, and see
what cause I have for pride! I know not how
you dare to prefer Leto to me — Leto, who is
the mother of but two! I am beyond the power
of Fortune to injure. Go! enough honor has
been paid to her and her offspring. Put off the
laurel from your heads!" Niobe was obeyed;
the worship of Leto was neglected or celebrated
68 Greek and Roman Mythology
in secret. The goddess was indignant and said
to her two children: " Lo, I, your mother,
proud of having borne you, and second to no
one of the goddesses, unless it be Hera, am
brought to doubt whether I am a goddess. I
am cut off from the honor due, unless you help
me. Moreover, this woman adds insults and has
dared to set her children above you." Apollo
and Artemis heard her. Hidden in clouds they
came to the city of Thebes.
Two of Niobe's sons happened to be practis-
ing their horses on the race-course near the city.
The elder was just nearing the end of the course
when he received Apollo's arrow full in the breast.
Dropping the reins from his dying hand, he fell
from his chariot in the dust. His brother, hear-
ing the whizz of the arrow and seeing no man,
gave free rein to his horses, hoping to escape.
Apollo's unescapable shaft overtook him, and
his blood reddened the earth. Two others of the
sons were wrestling in the palestra. One arrow
pierced the two, locked as they were in one an-
other's arms. As they fell, another brother
rushed up to save them; he fell before he could
reach them. A sixth met his death in the same
way. The youngest raised his hands in prayer:
" O all ye gods, spare me! " Apollo might have
been moved, but the arrow had already left the
string.
Chance report and the prayers of those about
 Apollo and Artemis 69
her first told Niobe of her calamity. Her hus-
band, unable to bear his grief, had fallen on his
own sword. How different was Niobe now from
her who had lately driven the worshipers from
Leto's altars and had passed in haughty state
through her city; envied then by all, now pitiable
even to her enemies. With her seven daughters

Fig. 18. Niobe and her Daughter.

she came to the place where the bodies lay and,

throwing herself upon them, cried: " Gloat over
my grief, Leto, satisfy your cruel heart! Yet
are you the victor! More remains to me in my
wretchedness than to you in your vengeance."
Hardly were the words spoken than the cord of
Artemis' bow twanged. One by one six of the
daughters fell dead beside their brothers. But
 70 Greek and Roman Mythology
one remained, the youngest; her mother tried to
shield her with her own body. , " Leave one, and
that the youngest! " she cried; but' she for whom
she prayed fell. Niobe $at, childless and a
widow, among the corpses of her sons and daugh-
ters. In stony grief she sat there; no breeze
stirred her hair; her cheeks were pallid, her eyes
unmoved; her blood was frozen in her veins; she
was turned to stone. Magically borne to her
fatherland in Asia, there she still sits on the
mountain, and from her marble cheeks the tears
still flow.
Phaethon. 11 Pha'e thon was the son of Apollo by a nymph,
Clym'e ne. When one of his playmates mocked
him for believing that Apollo was really his
father, Phaethon made no answer, but, coming
home, asked his mother to give him some assur-
ance of his parentage. Clymene swore to him
by all that was sacred that she had told him truly,
but suggested that if he was not satisfied, he
should go and put the question to his father him-
self.
The boy eagerly traveled toward the sunrise,
beyond the borders of earth, and came to the pal-
ace of the sun. Phoebus, dressed in a purple
robe, was seated on a throne glittering with
gems. To right and left stood the Days, the
Months, the Years, and the Ages. There too
were the Seasons; young Spring, crowned with
11
Following Ovid, Metamorphoses, I. 750 ff.
 Apollo and Artemis 71
fresh flowers; Summer, nude but for her wfreaths
of grain; Autumn, stained with trodden grapes;
and icy Winter, rugged and hoary-haired. ' Be-
fore this company appeared the boy Phaethon,
and stood hesitating near the door, unable to
bear his father's brightness. But the sun, look-
ing at him with those eyes that see all things,
greeted him kindly and asked the reason of his
coming. Phaethon, encouraged by his recogni-
tion, answered: " O .light of the vast world,
Phoebus, my father, if that name is permitted, I
pray you to give me some pledge that I may be
recognized as your very son." In answer the
father embraced him and promised to grant what-
ever he should ask; he swore it by the Styx, an
oath no god might break. But when Phaethon
asked for the privilege of driving for one day
the chariot of the sun, Phoebus did all in his
power to dissuade him, telling him the dangers
of the way, and that not even Zeus, who wields
the thunder, could drive that chariot. Surely it
was no task for a mortal! But Phaethon was
obstinate in his demand, and Apollo had sworn
by the Styx.
The chariot was Hephaestus' work, all of gold
and ivory, set with gems, and marvelously
wrought. As Phaethon wondered at the work,
wakeful Aurora threw wide the golden gates and
opened the courts full of rosy light. The stars
fled away. When Phoebus saw the earth grow
72 Greek and Roman Mythology
red and the pale moon vanish, he bade the Hours
harness the fiery horses. Then he touched his
son's face with sacred ointment' that it might
bear the scorching flame, and on his head he
placed the rays, giving him this last advice. " If
you can still heed your father's words, my boy,
spare the whip and firmly hold the reins! Keep
to the middle course, where you will see the
tracks of my wheels; for if you go too high you
will burn the homes of the gods, if too low, the
earth. I commit the rest to Fortune. As I
speak, damp Night has reached its western goal ;
we may no longer delay; we are demanded, and
Dawn has put the shades to flight. Take the
reins, if you are still resolved."
The boy joyfully mounted the chariot and
thanked his father. The fiery horses sprang for-
ward, outstripping the wind that rose at dawn
from the east. But the chariot seemed light with-
out the accustomed weight of the mighty god,
and the horses bolted and left the trodden road.
Phaethon neither knew which way to turn, nor,
had he known, could he have guided the horses.
When from his dizzy height he looked down on
the lands lying far below him, he grew pale and
his knees trembled in sudden fear; his eyes were
blinded by excess of light. And now he wished
that he had never touched his father's horses;
he wished that he had never even known of his
high birth. What should he do? H e looked at
 Apollo and Artemis 73
the great expanse of sky behind his back; yet more
was before him. He measured the two with his
eye. Trembling, he saw about him the monsters
of which his father had warned him. The Ser-
pent, roused from his age-long lethargy by the too
near approach of the sun's chariot, hissed horri-
bly; there Scorpio, curving menacing arms, threat-
ened death with his poisonous fangs. At sight
of this monster Phaethon's heart failed him and
he dropped the reins. The horses ran wild.
The Moon wondered to see her brother's chariot
running nearer the earth than her own, and the
clouds all on fire. Then all the moisture in the
earth was dried up and the ground cracked.
Trees and crops, cities with their inhabitants, all
were turned to ashes. They say that this was
how the people of Africa were turned black, and
how Sahara became a sandy waste. The nymphs
pined away, seeing their fountains dried up about
them, and the river-beds were dusty hollows.
The ground cracked so wide that the light pene-
trated even into Tartarus and startled Hades and
his queen. The seas shrank and the fishes sought
the bottom. Three times Poseidon dared to
raise his head above his waters, ^and each time
the heat forced him back. At last Earth, the
mother of all, faint and scorched, appealed to
Zeus for help, calling him to witness her own un-
deserved distress, and the danger to his own realm
of heaven if this wild conflagration continued.
 74 Greek and Roman Mythology
Then Zeus hurled his thunder-bolt against Apol-
lo's son. The horses tore themselves loose and
left the chariot a wreck. Phaethon fell, like a
shooting star, leaving a trail of fire behind him,
until the waters of the river Po in Italy closed
over him. Then Apollo hid his face in grief,
and they say that one whole day went by without
a sun. The raging fires gave light. The water-
nymphs found Phaethon's body and buried it,
raising over it a tomb with this inscription:
" Here lies Phaethon, who drove his father's
chariot; if he could not control it, yet he fell
nobly daring."
Asciepius. Another son of Apollo, As cle'pi us, the divine
physician, has already been mentioned. Ascie-
pius was widely worshiped as god of medicine,
and at his temple in Epidaurus marvelous cures
were wrought. Here his priests cared for the
sick, and about the shrine rose a great establish-
ment to which flocked those needing his ministra-
tions. The god appeared by night to the patients,
not so often in his own form as in that of the
serpent sacred to him. It was in this form that
Asciepius (called by the Romans ^Es cu la'pi us)
was brought to Rome at the time of a plague. It
is said that the serpent left the ship before it
came to land and swam to an island in the Tiber.
There his worship was established, and it is in-
teresting to know that at this day a city hospital
is still there.
Fig. 19. Asclepius.
 Apollo and Artemis 77
When Zeus, in anger at Asclepius' presumption
in restoring the dead to life, struck and slew him
by a thunderbolt, Apollo rashly attempted to
avenge his son's death by shooting with his ar-
rows the forgers of the thunderbolt, the Cy-
clopes. In punishment for this insubordination,
Zeus compelled him for one year to serve a mor-
tal. During this time of exile he kept the sheep
of the just Ad me'tus, a prince of Thessaly.
Al ces'tis, the wife of Admetus, gained a place
among the women famous in story by an act of
noble self-sacrifice.
When the day approached that was destined Aicestis. 12
for Admetus' death, that prince won the reward
for his just and wise treatment of his divine
shepherd; for Apollo gained for him the prom-
ise of a postponement of that evil day, on condi-
tion that he could induce some other to take his
place. With full assurance that some one of his
devoted friends and servants, or, most certainly,
one of his parents, would feel disposed to offer
his life as a ransom, Admetus appealed to one
after another. All refused; even his father,
though reminded by his son that in any case he
had not long to live, and that he should feel quite
content to die since he would leave a son to carry
on the family, quite obstinately refused. It al-
most seemed that Death must have his own, and
Apollo's promise be unfulfilled. Then Admetus'
12
Euripides, Aicestis,
78 Greek and Roman Mythology
young wife, Alcestis, took his fate upon herself,
and for love of her husband, offered to go to the
dark home of Hades in his place. f
The day of the sacrifice came, and Apollo,
whose brightness and purity might not be pol-
luted by nearness to the dead, prepared to leave
the house of his servitude. Meeting Death by
the way, he vainly tried to persuade him to spare
Alcestis too, but that relentless enemy passed in-
side the house to cut from his victim's head the
lock of hair that consecrated her to the gods of
the lower world.
Meanwhile Alcestis had been preparing herself
for her terrible visitor. She put on her finest
robes and her ornaments, she decked the house
with garlands, and before the shrine of Hestia,
the guardian of the home, she prayed that her
two little children might find in the goddess a
protectress loving as a mother. And when the
children came running to her and the servants
sadly crowded round her, she bade them each one
a loving and courageous farewell. Admetus
came and with tears entreated her not to leave
him forlorn. H e did not offer to meet Death
for her. Only one request she made as her
strength ebbed, let her husband bring no step-
mother to tyrannize over her children.
To the house of mourning the hero Heracles
(Hercules), on one of his many adventurous
journeys, came and begged entertainment. The
 Apollo and Artemis 79
servants would have turned him away, unwilling
that their attentions to their dead mistress should
be interrupted, but Admetus, true to the Greek
law of hospitality, concealed his trouble and or-
dered a feast to be prepared for his guest. The
hero, warmed by food and wine, became so noisy
in his enjoyment of it that the servants could not
contain their indignation and reproached him
with his inconsiderate behavior. Great was
Heracles' mortification at finding that it was a
house of mourning he had unwittingly invaded,
and swearing that the courteous Admetus should
never regret his kindness, he hurriedly left the
house.
The funeral ceremonies were over and Alcestis
had been committed to the tomb. Her husband
returned to his widowed home, bowed with grief
and half awakened to the selfishness of his own
choice. At this moment Heracles reappeared,
leading with him a veiled woman whom he urged
the prince to keep for him for a time. Admetus,
remembering his promise to Alcestis, was unwill-
ing to admit any woman to his roof, wishing to
avoid even the appearance of setting up any one
in his wife's place. Only by much insistence
could the hero induce him to take her by the
hand and lead her in. Then Heracles drew off
the veil and disclosed Alcestis herself, whom he
had rescued by wrestling with and overthrowing
Death.
 80 Greek and Roman Mythology
itPRome. The worship of the Greek god Apollo was
early introduced into Rome under the same name.
With the introduction of his worship was asso-
ciated the acquisition of the Sibylline Books, sold,
according to the legend, to King Tarquin by the
Sibyl of Cumae. These precious books of proph-
ecy were kept beneath the temple on the Cap-
itoline Hill and in time of danger to the state
were solemnly consulted by those ordained for
that purpose.
I I . ARTEMIS (DIANA)

The goddess Ar'te mis was the child of Zeus and Leto, twin
of the moon . \
and the chase, sister of Apollo. As Apollo took the place of
the Titan Helios as god of the sun, so Artemis
took the place of Se le'ne as goddess of the moon.
In her chariot she too drove across the heavens;
her weapons, like his, were the bow and arrows.
But Artemis was more generally known as god-
dess of the chase and of all wild things in na-
ture. Dressed in the short hunting-dress, pulled
up through her belt to give her freedom of mo-
tion, with quiver and bow over her shoulder
she scoured the forest in pursuit of game. Her
companions were the mountain nymphs and the
spirits of the woods and streams. To her the
huntsman made his prayer and to her he offered
the first fruits of his game on rough stone altars.
But though a huntress, she was yet the friend
and protectress of beasts, both wild and do-
kJH
^nL^M>l^^k^H
^KBffijbLP^^D'- ^ H
.;, Mfc *frmm i^i^^^^^
W wfa^M^^m ^^

l/g si
Fig. 20. Artemis of Versailles.
 Apollo and Artemis 83
mestic, and their young were under her special
care.
Artemis is represented as a a c t i v e Appearance
maiden, dressed in a short hunting-dress coming and emblems.
only to the knee, and armed with bow and quiver.
When represented as
moon-goddess she ap-
pears in her chariot.
Her emblems are the
crescent, and the bow
and quiver, and she of-
ten has beside her a
deer or some other
animal of the chase.
As Apollo stood for The patroness
of maidens.
the ideal of youthful
manly beauty, so Arte-
mis was the ideal of
maidenhood, of mod-
esty, and of graceful
activity. She was the
patron goddess of
young girls and her
worship was served by Fig. 21. Artemis of Gabii.
them. Before marrying, Greek girls offered in
sacrifice a lock of hair, together with their dolls
or other toys; when in trouble it was to her they
called for help.
Ar e thu'sa, now a fountain in the Sicilian city Arethusa. 13
13
Following Ovid, Metamorphoses, V. 577 ff.
84 Greek and Roman Mythology
of Syracuse, was once a nymph, a follower of
Artemis, and lived in southern Greece. She
cared nothing for admiration and love but was
wholly devoted to the chase. One day when she
was tired and hot, she came upon a clear, cold
stream, flowing silently through the woods. She
drew near and dipped in, first her toes, then as
far as her knees; the cold water was so refresh-
ing that she took off her clothes and plunged into
the stream. While she was enjoying her bath,
she heard a murmur under the water, and as she
hastened to the bank in sudden fear, the hoarse
voice of the river-god Alphe'us: "Whither are
you hastening, Arethusa ?" She fled and the
eager god pressed hard upon her. Through
fields and pathless woods, over rocks and hills
she ran, and ever the sound of his pursuing feet
grew nearer. At last she was exhausted and
cried to Artemis, the protector of maidens. The
goddess heard and threw about her a thick mist
to hide her from the eyes of her pursuer.
Though baffled, the god still sought her. A cold
sweat poured from the maiden's limbs, drops
fell from her hair; she was transformed into a
spring. But even in this form Alpheus recog-
nized her and, to mingle his waters with hers,
laid aside the human form he had assumed.
Then Artemis opened the earth, and Arethusa
flowed down through black underground ways
until she rose again across the sea in Sicily. But
 Apollo and Artemis 85
the river-god endured even the darkness of the
under-world in pursuit of his love, and in that
bright Sicilian land at last joined his waVes with
hers.
That Artemis could be cruel in punishing one Actaeon. 14
who offended her maiden modesty is seen in the
story of Ac tse'on.
In a valley thickly wooded with pine and
pointed cypress trees was a natural cave, wherein
bubbled a spring of clearest water. Here Ar-
temis, when tired with hunting, used to bathe.
She would enter the cave, hand her hunting-spear
to one of her attendant nymphs, her bow and
quiver to another, to a third her mantle, while
others took off her hunting-shoes. Then she
would step into the spring, while the nymphs
poured water over her.
It was high noon, hot with the heat of the dog-
days, and Actseon, satisfied with the morning's
sport, had left the other hunters and wandered
innocently into the grove. Hoping to find water
he entered the cave. At sight of him the nymphs
raised a shrill outcry and crowded about Artemis
to hide her from his profane eyes. Insulted by
the intrusion, unintentional though it was, Arte-
mis protected herself even better. She splashed
water from the spring in Actseon's face, saying
as she did so: " Now, if you can, boast that you
have seen me unappareled!" At touch of the
14
Following Ovid, Metamorphoses, III. 138 ff.
86 Greek and Roman Mythology-
water his human form was changed to that of a
stag; and not his form alone, for trembling fear
entered his once bold heart and he fled, dreading
alike the woods and his own home and former
companions. As he fled, his own dogs, driven
mad by Artemis, saw him and gave chase, all
fifty of them. Over hills and rocks he fled and

Fig. 22. AcUeon killed by his Dogs.

longed to stop and cry: " I am Actaeon; know

your master! " But the words would not come,
and all the air resounded with the baying of the
dogs. They closed in on him and tore him to
pieces, while the hunters, who had urged them
on, called loudly for Actseon, eager that he should
have a share in such good sport. It is said that
 Apollo and Artemis 87
when the dogs recovered from their madness,
they ran howling through the woods, seeking their
master.
Once even the maiden Artemis loved a mortal. Endymion.
En dym'i on was a shepherd who kept his flocks

Fig. 23. Sleeping Endymion.

on Mt. Latmos, in Asia Minor. As she drove

her chariot across the sky by night, Artemis
looked down and saw the youth sleeping. His
beauty as he lay drew the moon-goddess to him
in love. Each night she left her course to descend
to the mountain-top and kiss the shepherd. Her
long absences and her paleness when she returned
 88 Greek and Roman Mythology-
aroused the suspicions of the other Olympians,
only too glad to detect a sign of weakness in the
cold 'maiden. Wishing to remoVe temptation
from her way, Zeus gave Endymion his choice
between death in any form and perpetual youth
with perpetual sleep. Endymion chose the lat-
ter, and still he sleeps in his cave on Mt. Latmos,
visited each night by the moon-goddess, who si-
lently and sadly kisses his pale cheeks. Nor do
his flocks suffer, for Artemis drives them by night
to rich pastures and watches over their increase.
This story was originally told of Selene, but
later the Greeks transferred it to the younger
goddess,
onon. The giant O ri'on, too, won the affection of
Artemis, though perhaps, in this case, she looked
upon him rather as a congenial companion in
hunting than as a lover. H e was a .son of Po-
seidon and had from his father the power of
walking through the sea as easily as he walked
on the land. Because he was too hasty in his
wooing of a certain girl, her father made him
drunk and then put out both his eyes. Finding
his way by the sound of the hammers to He-
phaestus' forge in Lesbos, he borrowed one of
the lame god's assistants to act as his guide, and
so came to the far east where the sun rises. The
brightness of the sun-beams restored his sight,
and Orion became a constant companion of Ar-
temis. Apollo disapproved of the friendship,
 Apollo and Artemis 89
and one day he challenged his sister to hit with
her arrow a dark speck that was moving on the
water; it was too late when she learned that the
mark was Orion's dark head. As she could not
restore him to life, she put him in the heavens
as a constellation, one of the brightest and most
beautiful that we can see. All the winter nights
he races across the heavens with his dog, Sirius,
at his heels, or he pursues the seven Ple'ia des,
maidens changed to stars that one sees all
crowded together and pale with fright as they
flee. In the summer, Orion appears in the east
at dawn, for he loves the dawn-goddess and,
great and brilliant as he is, grows pale before her.
Artemis appeared under quite a different char- Hecate,
acter as Hec'a te, for that mysterious deity, who
is associated with witchcraft and the horrors of
night and darkness, is but another form of the
bright moon-goddess. Her dark and mysterious
knowledge, such knowledge as sorceresses and
witches made use of in their evil charms, came
from her association with grave-yards and from
the celebration of her worship by night at cross-
roads, a time and place that open the supersti-
tious mind to impressions of terror and the pres-
ence of mysterious powers.15 She was a goddess
15
In New England, at the time of the witchcraft panics,
those people suspected of being in league with the Devil
were believed to hold their dark and hateful assemblies by-
midnight at the cross-roads.
 90 Greek and Roman Mythology
of triple form; her three faces looked down the
three forks of the roads where her statue was
often set up. The baying of dogs on moonlight
nights was thought to be a warning of her ap-
proach.
Diana. The Latin goddess Diana was originally a spe-
cial deity of women. A temple was dedicated to
her in a lonely wood beside the lake of Nemi, in
the Alban Hills. Here all the towns of the
Latins united in her worship. This shrine is
famous because of the gloomy legends connected
with it. It was said that in the wood grew a tree
on which was a golden bough, and that he who
could pluck this bough and slay the priest who
kept the shrine thereby succeeded to his honor
and retained it until he himself was slain by
another. Diana, as a goddess of women and of
nature, became identified with the Greek Artemis
and was then worshiped as goddess of the moon
and the chase.
 CHAPTER V
HERMES AND HESTIA
I. HERMES (MERCURY)

HERMES was the messenger of Zeus, the con- The wind-

• t> > god's infancy.
ductor of souls to the lower world, the guardian
of ambassadors, of travelers and merchants, the
patron of trade, skilled in all wiles, deceit and
trickery, the mischievous thief; on the other hand,
a shepherd and patron of shepherds. He was
the son of Zeus by Maia, " a fair-tressed nymph,"
who gave him birth in a cave in Arcadia " rich
in sheep." 16 In the morning he was born, and
by mid-day he stealthily left his cradle and set
forth to seek adventure. On the threshold of
the cave he met a tortoise, waddling along on the
grass. At once the ingenious boy saw what use
he could make of it. " ' Hail darling and dancer,
friend of the feast, welcome art thou! Whence
gottest thou that gay garment, a speckled shell,
thou, a mountain-dwelling tortoise? ' " Then he
scooped out the flesh of the tortoise, bored holes
through its shell, covered it with ox-hide, put on
it two horns, and stretched across it seven strings.
10
Following the Homeric Hymn to Hermes. Quota-
tions from the translation by Andrew Lang.
91
92 Greek and Roman Mythology
Touching the strings he sang gaily to the accom-
paniment of the newly-invented lyre. When the
chariot of Apollo had sunk into the waves of
Ocean, this nimble infant left his cave and lyre,
and ran to the shadowy hills, where fed the cat-
tle of the sun. From the herd he separated fifty
cattle and drove them hither and thither to con-
fuse their tracks. Next, he made sandals of
woven twigs and fastened them on his own feet
to obscure his tracks, and so drove the cattle back-
ward to the river. Then he made a great fire
and roasted two of the beasts. Carefully cov-
ering up the marks of the fire and the feast, and
throwing aside his sandals, back to his mother's
cave he flew, before the sun-god should rise
in the east and catch the thief at his work,
Through a hole, like a breath of wind, he en-
tered the cave, and treading noiselessly, climbed
into his cradle and wrapped about himself the
swaddling-clothes. But Apollo, when morning
rose from the stream of Ocean, missed the cattle
and questioned an old man who was digging in
a vineyard on the hillside. From the old fellow's
account of the marvelous child who had stolen
the cattle Apollo at once recognized his new-
born brother. When that little thief saw Apollo,
bent on vengeance, enter the cave, " he sank down
wthm his fragrant swaddling-bands and curled
ftmiself up, feet, head, and hands, into small space.
though really wide awake, and his tortoise-shell
Fig. 24. Hermes in Repose.
 Hermes and Hestia 95
he kept beneath his arm-pit." But Apollo saw
through the wiles of the cunning baby and angrily
threatened to throw him into Tartarus. In vain
did Hermes plead that he knew nothing of the
cattle: " ' Other cares have I, sleep and mother's
milk, and about my shoulders swaddling-bands,
and warmed baths.' " He dared even to add a
great oath that he was innocent. As Apollo was
far from satisfied, there was nothing for it but
to go to Olympus and put their dispute before
their father Zeus. Even there the crafty little
thief dared to repeat his lies, adding submissively:
" ' The Sun I greatly revere, and other gods, and
Thee I love, and him I dread . . . but do Thou
aid the younger.' " But perhaps because the in-
fant could not refrain from adding a wink to his
innocent tale, " Zeus laughed aloud at the sight
of his evil-witted child," and bade the brothers
be reconciled and Hermes show Apollo his cat-
tle. When Apollo was again roused to anger
by the sight of the hides of the slain cattle,
Hermes drew forth his lyre and played and sang
so bewitchingly that Apollo was pacified and
gladly formed a compact with his clever little
brother; Hermes was to be keeper of the cattle
and give to Apollo the lyre, which was ever
afterwards his favorite instrument. In this
myth, on the nature side, we see Hermes, a wind-
god, driving off the clouds, the cattle of the sun-
god. We see, too, Hermes as the herdsman,
 96 Greek and Roman Mythology
the inventor and the cunning thief; perhaps also,
in his compact with Apollo, we see him as the
trader.
The patron Clever and agile, good-humored and young,
of athletes,
traders and Hermes was the patron of young men, and to
travelers.
him they prayed, especially for success in athletic
contests. His statue was set up in gymnasia; he
presided, too, over games of chance. Both by
his speed in hastening from land to land, and by
his smoothness of address and his nimble wit,
he was the natural patron of traders. In the
market-place, the commercial and financial center
of Athens, statues of Hermes had a prominent
place. As he was the guide of travelers, square
blocks topped by a head of Hermes marked the
cross-roads and the important street-crossings in
the city. It was the mutilation of the$e Hermse
that caused such a panic at the time of the Athe-
nian expedition against Sicily. Alcibiades was
recalled from the war to answer to the charge of
having impiously destroyed them.
The herald of Hermes is best known as herald of the gods.
Zeus and con-
ductor of
souls to the
At Zeus's bidding he binds on his winged sandals,
lower world. takes his herald's staff in hand, and flies swiftly
to earth to carry to men the commands of the
father. It is he who conducts to Hades the soul
when it leaves the body, and gives it into the
charge of the gods of the lower world.
Appearance
and emblems.
Hermes is represented as a young man with
close-cropped curly hair, vivacious look, and
 Hermes and Hestia 97
agile, vigorous frame. He wears his winged san-
dals, often a traveler's hat or a winged cap; other-
wise he is usually nude. In his hand hccarries
his caduceus, or herald's staff, winged at the top,
with two serpents twined about it. He most
fully expresses the character of the Greek peo-

Fig. 25. Hermes from Olympia.

pie, as a French writer (Collignon) says, "the

inventive genius, the alert intelligence, the
physical vigor, developed and made supple by the
training of the palestra."
The worship of Hermes under the name of Mercury.
Mercury was introduced into Rome at a time
when there was anxiety about the grain trade
 98 Greek and Roman Mythology
with South Italy. His function as patron of
commerce was, therefore, his most important
one in Rome.

I I . HESTIA (VESTA)

o?eth°ddess While the fire of the forge is typified by He-

hearth-fire. phaestus, Hes'ti a represents another aspect, the
fire on the hearth, the natural altar and the spir-
itual center of family life. About the hearth
the gods of the family had their places; here the
family celebrated their festivals; here the stranger
found protection, and about it every new-born
infant was carried as a symbol of his admission
to the family life. So, too, the city, as the larger
family, had its common hearth whereon the holy
fire of Hestia must always be kept lighted. And
when a group of citizens, self-exiled from their
home, set out under Apollo's sanction to found
a colony, the hearth of the new home on the for-
eign shore must receive a fire kindled at the hearth
of Hestia in the mother-city. Thus the spiritual
bond between the parted kinsmen remained un-
broken, and the same goddess held the new homes
under her protection. Moreover, the essential
brotherhood of all true Hellenes was symbolized
in the great hearth-fire of Hestia at the center of
the Greek world, Delphi. So closely is Hestia
identified with the fire of the hearth that no fur-
ther outward form was needed — statues of her
are rare. As eldest sister of Zeus she is, how-
 Hermes and Hestia 99
ever, represented as a woman of stately form and
calm, benign expression, dressed in the double

Fig. 26. Hestia.

chiton or tunic of a Greek lady, her head covered

with a veil.
A passage in the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite
shows the respect that Hestia enjoyed among the
gods of Olympus:
 100 Greek and Roman Mythology
Nor to the revered maiden Hestia are the feats of
Aphrodite a joy, eldest daughter of crooked-counseled
Cronus, that lady whom both Poseicjon and Apollo
sought to win. But she would not, nay stubbornly she
refused; and she swore a great oath fulfilled, with her
hand on Father Zeus of the iEgis, to be a maiden for-
ever, that lady goddess. And to her Father Zeus gave
a goodly mede of honor, in lieu of wedlock; and in
mid-hall she sat her down, choosing the best portion;
and in all the temples of the gods is she honored, and
among all mortals is chief of gods.

vesta. The Roman Vesta is identical with Hestia of

the Greeks. At Rome the small round temple
of Vesta in the Forum was the religious center
of the community. Here no image of the god-
dess was needed, but her fire, kindled yearly on
June 15th from the rays of the sun by means of
a burning-glass, was kept always lighted by the
Vestal Virgins. These maidens were drawn
from the noblest families of Rome, and served
the goddess for thirty years under a vow of vir-
ginity. Every honor was paid them, and they
could extend their protection over whom they
would; even a criminal who met a Vestal on his
way to execution might thus gain his freedom.
Any disrespect to a member of the order was
punished by death, and their influence on state
affairs was often considerable. On the other
hand, as any breaking of the vow of virginity
brought pollution to the city hearth and evil to
 Hermes and Hestia 101
the community, such unfaithfulness was pitilessly
punished; the guilty priestess was buried alive.
When the Roman emperor wished to demonstrate
that he was the center as well of the religious as
of the political life of Rome, he transferred the

hearth of Vesta from the Forum to the Palatine

Hill, where his palace was.
Associated with the worship of Vesta at the other Eoman
1
gods of the
family hearth was the worship of the Lares and family.
Pe na'tes, the gods of home and of the household
store. Their images must be guarded jealously
102 Greek and Roman Mythology
by the householder, and must go with him, should
he be forced to leave his old home for a new one.
So M ne'as, when fleeing from ,Troy, bids his
father on the flight to hold fast to the penates.
(2Eneid, II. 717.)
Fig. 28. Ares with Eros.
 CHAPTER VI
ARES AND A P H R O D I T E

I. ARES (MARS)

I F Athena, as the warlike defender of right The god

&
' ' , of war.
and justice, the protector of cities, enjoyed the
honor of all men and the fullest share in her
mighty father's confidence, it was far otherwise
with Ares, the god of war and battle. Zeus de-
clares in his anger,
" Most hateful to me art thou of all the gods that
dwell on Olympus; thou ever lovest strife and wars
and battles." (Iliad, V. 890.)

Athena addresses him as,

"Ares, Ares, blood-stained bane of mortals, thou
stormer of walls." (Iliad, V. 31.)

He was the personification of battle, always

thirsting for blood; his worship originated among
the savage tribes of Thrace. He was drawn in
his chariot by his fiery horses, Fear and Dread,
borne by a Fury to the North Wind, and was
attended by Strife, Rout, Terror, and Battle-din.
In art, however, this blood-stained Ares gave
105
106 Greek and Roman Mythology
place to a much milder conception. In the fourth
century B.C. he appears as a young man with spir-
ited but somewhat thoughtful face, and slender,
graceful, nude form. Often he has no arms

Fig. 29. Bearded Mars.

other than a helmet and a shield or club. He is

frequently seen with Aph ro di'te (Venus), god-
dess of love and beauty, or their child, Eros
(Cupid). For Aphrodite, tired of her marriage
with the lame god of fire, Hephaestus, into which
she was forced by Zeus, yielded to the love of
Ares. Homer tells how Hephaestus, told of his
wife's infidelity by the sun-god, forged a net,
fine as a spider's web, wherein he insnared the
Fig. 30. Aphrodite of Cnidos.
 Ares and Aphrodite 109
guilty lovers so that they could not move a limb.
Here he held them prisoners, a laughing-stock to
all the gods.17
From Ares was derived the name, A re op'a-
gus, of the hill near the Acropolis in Athens,
where cases of murder were tried in old times.
Worshiped as Mars, in Rome the war-god oc- Mars,
cupied a much higher place than in Athens. To
him was dedicated the Campus Martius, a field
where the army met to be numbered, and to him,
on the return of a victorious army, were dedi-
cated the spoils of war. Through his son
Romulus, the legendary founder of the city of
Rome, the Romans claimed the special favor of
the war-god. (See p. 348.) With Mars was
associated Bel lo'na, a goddess personifying war.

II. APHRODITE (VENUS)

Aph ro di'te was the goddess of love and Her birth and
A marriages.
beauty. According to one story she was the
daughter of Zeus and the goddess Dio'ne; ac-
cording to the better known story she sprang
from the foam of the sea and was wafted gently
over the crest of the waves to Cyprus, her sacred
island.
Her did the golden-snooded Hours gladly welcome,
and clad her about in immortal raiment, and on her
deathless head set a well-wrought crown, fair and
golden, and in her ears put ear-rings of orichalcum and
17
Odyssey, VIII. 266.
no Greek and Roman Mythology

Fig. 31. Birth of Aphrodite from the Sea.

of precious gold. Her delicate neck and white bosom
they adorned with chains of gold, wherewith are be-
decked the golden-snooded Hours themselves, when
they come to the glad dance of the Gods in the dwelling
of the Father. And when they had adorned her in all
goodliness they led her to the Immortals, who gave her
greeting when, they beheld her, and welcomed her with
their hands; and each God prayed that he might lead
her home to be his wedded wife, so much they mar-
veled at the beauty of the fair-garlanded Cytherean.
(Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite.)

But Zeus gave her as wife to the lame fire-god

Hephaestus. It has been already told how she
left him for Ares, and how Hephaestus avenged
himself and held them up to the ridicule of the
other Olympians. Because of her beauty and
her power over the hearts of men and gods,
Aphrodite naturally aroused the jealousy of the
 Ares and Aphrodite 111
other goddesses. Hera never forgave the Tro-
jan Paris for awarding her the famous golden
apple.
To the marriage of Pe'leus and the sea-god- The Apple
, . . . o f Discord,
dess Thetis all the gods were invited except Ens,
the Goddess of Discord. To avenge herself for
this neglect, Eris threw among the guests a
golden apple bearing the inscription, " For the

Fig. 32. Judgment of Paris.

Fairest." Hera, Athefna, and Aphrodite each

claimed the apple. Unwilling to expose himself
to the storm of wrath a choice among the three
would raise, Zeus sent them to appear for judg-
ment before Paris. This Paris, the son of the
king of Troy, had been exposed as an infant and
brought up among shepherds, and was now keep-
ing his sheep on Mt. Ida. The three goddesses
came before him, arrayed in all their charms, and
 112 Greek and Roman Mythology
each demanded judgment in her favor. As a
bribe, Hera offered him power and riches;
Athena, glory in war; and Aphrodite, the most
beautiful woman in the world as his wife.
Whether influenced by her promise or by the sur-
passing charms of golden-crowned Aphrodite,
Paris decided in her favor, and she triumphantly
bore off the golden apple. To Paris and the
Trojans this judgment proved a curse, since the
fulfilment of Aphrodite's promise in giving to
Paris Menelaiis' wife, Helen, was the cause of
the Trojan War, which ended in the utter de-
struction of the city.
Her appear- In the figure of Aphrodite Greek artists tried
emblems. to express their ideal of beauty and of womanly
charm. She is less stately than Hera, with less
of strength and intellectuality than Athena.
Earlier artists represented her covered by a thin
clinging garment, but the statues of a later date
are usually quite nude. Her emblems are the
apple and pomegranate, the rose and the myrtle,
and the tortoise. Her chariot is drawn by spar-
rows or doves, or, on the waters, to betoken her
birth from the sea, by swans.
Her powers. Not only men and gods, but all creation wit-
ness to Aphrodite's power. By her child Eros
(or Cupid) all nature is given life and the power
to reproduce itself. Through her power birds
and beasts mate and give birth to their young;
through her all green things grow and put forth
 Ares and Aphrodite 113
seeds. And so her divine power is shown in the
spring, and when the gentle west wind breathed
over the land and all the earth grew grefen and
fertile, the Greeks sang songs of praise to violet-
crowned Aphrodite and held a festival in her
honor. But when the hot Greek summer came,
scorching the blossoms and robbing the fields of
their beauty, then a note of deep sadness came
into the worship of Aphrodite with the celebra-
tion of the Adonis feast.
A do'nis was a beauti ful youth who grew up Adonis,
under the care of the nymphs. Aphrodite, vic-
tim of the same love that made her powerful over
all others, loved this youth and devoted herself
to the enjoyment of his company. For his sake
she dressed herself like the huntress Artemis and
spent her days roaming over the hills with him
and following the chase. Dreading his rashness,
she made him promise to hunt no dangerous
beasts, but to be content with deer and hares and
other innocent game. One day, after warning
him thus, she entered her chariot drawn by swans
and drove away to Olympus. Adonis, on the
track of a wild boar, forgot his promise, entered
on the chase, and wounded the boar, which turned
on him and drove its white tusk into his
tender side. As the boy lay dying, Aphrodite,
distraught with anguish, came to him. Unable
to save her lover, she caused to grow from the
drops of his blood the anemone or wind-flower,
114 Greek and Roman Mythology
a delicate purple flower that grows plentifully in
the Greek meadows in the spring of the year.
In this story Adonis is the springtime, killed by
the fierce heat of summer. Each year in com-
memoration of his death the people went through

Fig- 33- Venus of Aries.

the city in procession, carrying a bier whereon

lay a wax figure of Adonis, covered with flowers,
while the women chanted the lament.
Low on the hills is lying the lovely Adonis, and his
thigh with the boar's tusk, his white thigh with the
boar's tusk, is wounded, and sorrow on Cypris (Aphro-
 Ares and Aphrodite 115
dite) he brings, as softly he breathes his life away.
(Bion, Idyl, I. 7 ff. Translation by Andrew Lang.)

At dawn the image was thrown into the sea.

Yet the mourning ended with joyful anticipation
of Adonis' return from the lower world at the
coming of the next spring.
Venus was an old Italian goddess, the giver of venws.
bloom and fruit fulness in nature, the protectress
of gardens. The Romans identified her with the
Greek Aphrodite, the bountiful goddess of love
and beauty.
Aphrodite or Venus was always ready to help
lovers who were wise enough to go to her. The
following famous love stories are some of the
many that witness to her power.
At a lan'ta had been warned by the gods that Ataianta's
^ ° t race, is
she should never marry; she therefore lived a
maiden in the forests and devoted herself to the
service of Artemis and the hunt. To the throng
of lovers who sought her hand she always an-
swered : " I am not to be won unless first van-
quished in a race. Contend with m e ! My hand
shall be the victor's reward, death the penalty of
the vanquished/' Yet so great was the power of
her beauty that even on these hard conditions
many entered the contest.
Hip pom/e ties had come as a spectator, and,
despising women, had laughed at the folly of
18
Ovid, Metamorphoses, X. 560 ff.
n6 Greek and Roman Mythology
those who entered the race. But when he saw
the maiden the mocking laugh died on his lips.
As she ran Atalanta grew continually more beau-
tiful in his eyes; he hated his rivals and dreaded
their success. The goal was reached, the crown
of victory placed on Atalanta's head, and her suit-
ors paid the penalty. Hippomenes was by no
means deterred by their fate; he leaped into the
race-course and facing Atalanta said: •" It is an
easy title to fame you seek against those slow
runners! Contend with me, the grandson of Po-
seidon, and if you win you will gain a name worth
winning! 7 Atalanta looked at him and seemed
to doubt (whether she would rather vanquish or
be vanquished. " What god," said she, " wishes
to destroy him and bids him to seek me as wife,
at such a risk? I am not worth such a price.
It is not that I am touched by his beauty —
though I might well be touched by it — but he is
still a boy; his youth moves me. Depart, stran-
ger, while you can; some other maiden would
be willing to be your wife. Yet why should I
pity you, when I have let so many others meet
their fate ? But I wish that you should depart —
or, since you are so foolish, I could wish that
you were swifter!" So she hesitated; but the
on-lookers demanded the race.
Then Hippomenes called upon Aphrodite to
help a daring lover, and the goddess heard.
From a tree of golden apples she picked three
 Ares and Aphrodite 117
and gave them to Hippomenes. The trumpeters
gave the signal • the racers darted forward. The
spectators shouted encouragement to the youth:
" Now, now is the time! Quick, quick, Hip-
pomenes !" Many times when she could have
passed him the maiden delayed an instant; but
the goal was still far off, and averting her eyes
she darted ahead. Then Hippomenes threw one
of the golden apples. The maiden's eye was
caught by the gleam of the gold; she turned
aside and picked up the fruit. Hippomenes
passed by; the air resounded with applause. At-
alanta made up for the delay by an effort and
was once more ahead. Delayed by the throwing
of a second apple, she again caught up and passed
her competitor. Only a short space remained.
" Now be with me and help me, Aphrodite! " he
prayed. Toward the side of the course with
all his strength he threw the last of the golden
apples. The girl seemed for an instant to hesi-
tate, but Aphrodite forced her to turn aside once
more. Hippomenes was victor and claimed his
reward.
In his victory, Hippomenes unluckily forgot
to give thanks to Aphrodite, and she, wishing in
her anger to destroy him, tempted him to pro-
fane the temple of Cybele (see p. 153), the great
mother of the gods. In punishment Cybele
changed the pair into lions and forced them to
4raw her chariot,
 li8 Greek and Roman Mythology
Pygmalion Pyg ma'li on was the king of Cyprus and a
Gaiatea. great sculptor. He made out of ivory a statue
of Aphrodite, so beautiful that he fell in love
with it. As if he had a living woman before
him he spoke to the image, embraced and kissed
it. He brought to her all sorts of presents such
as please maidens, costly dresses, necklaces, and
1
ear-rings. He called her his wife. At a fes-
tival of Aphrodite, who was especially worshiped
on the island, he offered sacrifice and prayed the
goddess to give him a wife exactly like the ivory
image. When he came home and embraced the
statue it seemed to him to return the pressure;
the ivory cheeks glowed with a warm flush; the
eyes answered his tender glances; the lips opened
to respond to his endearments. The goddess had
granted him more than he had dared to ask.
Hero and In Abydos, on one side of the Hellespont (now
the Dardanelles), lived a young man named Le-
ander; on the opposite side in Sestos, a maiden
named Hero lived in a tower by the shore and
cared for Aphrodite's sacred swans and sparrows.
At a festival of the goddess the two met and
immediately fell in love. Though they were for-
bidden to see one another, every night Leander
swam across the Hellespont and stayed with Hero
until dawn began to break. One night the wind
was high and the water dangerous, but the lover
was not deterred. At first love bore him up,
and the light his lady showed guided his way.
 Ares and Aphrodite 119
But the wind blew out the flame; his strength
failed him and the waters closed over his head.
Hero watched out the night in an agony of-fear;
at dawn she found her lover's body washed
ashore.19
Pyr'amus and Thisbe, living in adjoining K£a^u*0and
houses in Babylon, came to know one another,
and in time the acquaintance grew into love.
They would have married, but their fathers for-
bade it. They could speak only by nods and
signs, but the more the love was kept secret the
more ardent it became. In the high wall that
separated the two gardens they had found a tiny
crack, through which, without exciting suspicion,
they might murmur endearments. " O hateful
wall," they would say, " why do you stand in the
way of lovers? How small a thing it would be
for you to allow us to be united, or, if that is too
much to ask, that you would at least open a way
for our kisses! We are not ungrateful; we con-
fess that it is to you we owe the chance to hear
each other's voices." Speaking thus they said
good-night and pressed their lips each to his own
side of the unresponsive wall. One day, after
indulging in these vain regrets, they came to a
19
The English poet Byron, who swam the strait as
Leander did, says that at this point the Hellespont is not
more than a mile wide, but that the swimmer is carried
down so far by the swiftness of the current that the dis-
tance covered is not less than four miles.
20
Following Ovid, Metamorphoses, VI, 55 ff.
120 Greek and Roman Mythology
desperate resolve. When the silence of night had
fallen they would escape their guardians' watch-
ful eyes and go out from home.„ They agreed
to meet at the tomb of Ninus, where a white
mulberry tree grew beside a spring.
The long day wore away and at last night
came. Thisbe cautiously opened the door and
passed out unobserved. She had come to the
tomb and seated herself under the mulberry tree,
when lo! a lioness, her foaming jaws smeared
with the blood of fresh-slain cattle, came to
drink at the spring. By the rays of the moon
poor Thisbe saw her, and with trembling feet
she fled to a cave near by. As she fled she
dropped her cloak. The lioness, having drunk
her fill, was returning to the forest when she
chanced to see the cloak where it lay. She tore
it with her bloody jaws and so left it.
Pyramus, coming somewhat late, saw in the
sand the tracks of the beast. He grew pale.
He saw the garment stained with blood. " One.
night shall destroy two lovers," said he. " Un-
happy girl, it is I that have been your death. I
bade you come by night to a fearsome place, and
came not first myself. Tear my body in pieces
and devour my flesh, ye lions that live among
the rocks! But it is the part of a coward only
to wish for death." He raised Thisbe's mantle,
and weeping, pressed kisses upon it. " Receive
my blood! " he cried, and plunged his sword into
 Ares and Aphrodite 121
his breast. The blood spurted high, and falling
upon the mulberry tree stained the white berries
a dark purple.
Thisbe, still trembling with fright, yet unwill-
ing to fail her lover, returned to seek him.
When she came to the spot the changed color
of the berries made her uncertain whether she
was right. While she hesitated in bewilderment,
she saw the body lying on the ground. Shudder-
ing, she recognized her lover and raised a cry of
anguish, beating her breast and tearing her hair.
She embraced the limp form and, raining kisses
upon the cold lips, cried: " O Pyramus, what
cruel fate has snatched you from me ? Pyramus,
answer! Your dearest Thisbe calls you. Hear
me, and lift your drooping head! " At the name
of Thisbe, Pyramus raised his eyes, already
heavy in death, and having seen her, closed them.
And she, recognizing her cloak and the naked
sword, cried aloud again: " If your hand and
your love have destroyed you, unhappy Pyramus,
I too have a hand bold for this one deed. Love
shall give me too strength for the blow. I shall
follow you, at once the cause and the companion
of your death. You who could be torn from me
by death alone shall be torn from me not even
by death." She spoke, and placing the point
under her breast, fell upon the sword. The
ashes of the lovers rest in one urn, and still the
mulberry mourns in dark purple.
 CHAPTER VII
THE LESSER DEITIES OF OLYMPUS

O F the twelve great gods and goddesses that

made up the Olympic Council, ten have been al-
ready described. These are: Zeus, Hephaestus,
Apollo, Hermes, Ares, Hera, Athena, Hestia,
Artemis, Aphrodite. The two that remain are
Poseidon, god of the sea, and Demeter, the
grain-goddess, of whom later chapters will tell.
Besides these greater gods there were many lesser
deities. Those that had a place in Olympus are
described in this chapter.
I. EROS (CUPID)

Eros, or Cupid, was the child of Aphrodite,

some say by Ares. The conception of him as a
little winged boy is later, originally he was con-
ceived as a youth. Against his arrows no man
or god was safe, for they inspired the passion
of love. But once his weapons wounded their
master himself and he fell under the spell of
Psyche.

122
The Lesser Deities of Olympus 123
21
THE STORY OF CUPID AND PSYCHE

There were once a king and queen who. had

three daughters. While the beauty of the two

Fig. 34. Eros or Cupid.

elder sisters was remarkable, that of the youngest

was beyond the power of human tongue to ex-
21
Apuleius, a Latin poet of the 2d Century A.D., tells this
story in its fully developed form. It differs greatly in
style and character from the mythological stories of early
 124 Greek and Roman Mythology
press. The fame of her beauty drew people from
the most distant lands to see her; men said that
this was no mortal maid, but thkt Venus her-
self had deserted the heavens and come to dwell
on earth. The shrines of the goddess were de-
serted, and the ashes grew cold on her altars;
the worship due to her was paid to the maiden.
Enraged at this transference of her honors to
another, Venus called to her help her winged
son Cupid, that pert and mischief-making boy.
" I conjure you by your love for your mother,"
said she, " punish this rebellious beauty and
avenge the insult to me. Inspire her with love
for the lowest of beings, one so degraded that
in the wide world is not his like."
Now while the two elder sisters were happily
married to princes, the divine perfection of
Psyche's beauty and the ill-will of the goddess
had hindered suitors from aspiring to her love.
Her parents, therefore, suspecting that in some
way they had offended the gods, consulted the
oracle of Apollo. The answer was given:
" Hope for no mortal son-in-law; the maiden is
destined to be the bride of a monster before
whose flames and weapons Jupiter himself trem-
Greece, and has many of the features of the fairy tales of
other European peoples. To omit the details would so de-
tract from its interest and charm that it is here given at
some length. Following Apuleius, Latin names are em-
ployed.
The Lesser Deities of Olympus 125
bles. To meet her husband the maiden must be
led to the top of the mountain and there left."
The king and queen, though overcome with grief,
prepared to obey the oracle. Dressed as a bride
and accompanied by a procession, funereal rather
than bridal, Psyche was led to the destined spot.
A day of mourning was proclaimed in the city,
and the parents and friends were dissolved in
tears.
Scarcely was Psyche left alone upon the moun-
tain, when Zephyr (the west wind), tenderly lift-
ing the trembling maiden, wafted her gently to
a flowery valley below. Before her she saw a
grove and in the midst of it a fountain. Near
the fountain rose a wonderful palace — surely
the home of some god! For the ceilings of cedar
and ivory were supported on golden columns,
while the walls were covered with silver wrought
in marvelous designs. The pavement was a mo-
saic of precious stones. Filled with wonder and
delight, Psyche plucked up courage to enter and
examine the unguarded treasures of the place.
No one appeared, but a voice spoke softly to her:
" Why are you astonished, Lady ? All these
riches are yours. Yonder is your bed-chamber.
When you have rested and refreshed yourself
by the bath, we, your attendants, will wait upon
you diligently, dress you and prepare for you a
royal banquet." Her fears allayed by the gentle
voice, Psyche did as she was bidden, and in due
126 Greek and Roman Mythology
time partook of a feast exquisitely prepared and
served by invisible attendants, while bodiless mu-
sicians sang to the accompaniment of an unseen
lyre. That night the master of the place came to
her and made her his wife, but before the light he
disappeared. Thus it happened each night, and
she learned to look forward to his coming and
to love him for his sweet voice and his tender
caresses, though she had never seen him. In
the day, however, with only the bodiless voices
to people her solitude, she felt lonely, and sor-
rowed to leave her family in ignorance of her
fate. She told her trouble to her husband and
entreated him to allow her to see her sisters. At
last he unwillingly yielded to her caresses, warn-
ing her solemnly, however, that she must not
listen to her sisters' persuasions and attempt to
see or inquire about her husband's form. " Dis-
obedience," said he, " will bring sorrow upon me
and destruction upon you, sweet Wife."
The following day, when the two sisters came
to the mountain and called upon Psyche by name,
beating their breasts and lamenting her fate,
obedient Zephyr carried them down to the valley
and set them before the palace. After they had
embraced and rejoiced together, and Psyche had
showed them the beauties of the palace and had
regaled them with the delicacies prepared by the
invisible attendants, envy crept into the hearts
of the sisters, and insatiable curiosity to know
Fig. 35. Cupid and Psyche.
The Lesser Deities of Olympus 129
the happy master of all these riches. Psyche
told them that her husband was a beautiful youth,
who passed his days hunting on the mountains.
Then she loaded them with gifts and bade Zephyr
carry them back to the mountain.
The more the sisters talked over their visit
to the palace the more angry and envious they
became. They complained that they were given
over to old, bald-headed, stingy kings in foreign
lands, while the youngest was married to a beau-
tiful god and had control of untold wealth. Even
the winds were her servants! They persuaded
themselves that she had acted arrogantly toward
them, and they resolved to bring about her down-
fall. On their third visit, therefore, assuming
a tone of sisterly solicitude, they told her that
her husband was well known to be a venomous
serpent, who was often seen gliding down the
mountain at daybreak. H e was keeping her only
until she was well fatted; then he would devour
her. Let her conceal in the bed a lamp and a
sharp knife, and when her husband was buried
in sleep, let her kill him and so make her escape.
The simple girl, though at first she indignantly
rejected the suggestion, was at last persuaded.
Night came, and with the darkness came her hus-
band. As soon as he was asleep, Psyche, sum-
moning all her courage, uncovered the lamp and
seized the knife. But when by its light she saw
no awful monster, but the gentlest and loveliest
130 Greek and Roman Mythology
of all creatures, Cupid himself, the beautiful God
of Love, overcome with delight and shame she
fell upon her knees. So enchanted was she with
the beautiful sight, the golden curls, the ruddy
cheeks, the delicate wings that sprang from his
shoulders, that she remained wrapped in admira-
tion and forgot to extinguish the light. At the
foot of the bed lay his bow and arrows. Curious
to try how sharp they were, Psyche pressed the
arrow point against her finger. Tiny drops of
blood welled out, and thus did Psyche fall in love
with Love. But while she pressed kisses on his
face, and hung over him, bewildered with delight,
a drop of burning oil fell upon his shoulder.
The god sprang up and, seeing the signs of his
wife's faithlessness, tore himself from her
frenzied embraces and flew away. Pausing for
one instant in his flight, he turned and addressed
her: " O simple Psyche, for you I was dis-
obedient to my mother Venus, and when she bade
me give you over to some base marriage, I chose
instead to come to you myself as a lover. I, the
most famous of archers, have wounded myself
with my own arrow and have made you my wife.
And you would believe me to be a monster and
would cut off my head! It was of this that I so
often warned you. As for those wicked plot-
ters, they shall feel my anger; you will I punish
by my flight alone." So saying he spread his
wings and flew away.
The Lesser Deities of Olympus 131
When Psyche had recovered her senses, she
set forth in search of Cupid. Towards evening
she found herself close to the city where her, eld-
est sister lived. To her she recounted what had
happened, only that she changed Cupid's parting
words. " Quit my house this instant/' she
quoted him as saying, " I will at once marry your
sister." The wicked queen, goaded by love of
gold and glory, left her home and her husband
and hurried to the mountain. Then calling on
Zephyr to waft her to the valley, she leaped from
the rock and was dashed in pieces on the stones
below. In the same way Psyche visited the sec-
ond sister, and in the same manner she, too, suf-
fered the penalty of her treachery.
In the meantime the sea-gull had brought word
to Venus, who was bathing in the sea, that her
son was lying at home grievously sick and likely
to die. He added malicious gossip — that Cupid
h^d been guilty of a disgraceful love affair with
a mortal girl, and that, in consequence of his
neglect, love had left the world. Hot with anger
the goddess hastened to her golden chamber, and
finding him as she had been told, cried to him
in a passion of rage: " This is fine behavior
and becoming your birth and character! You
trample upon the commands of your mother and
take to wife that base girl whom I had sent you
to torment with an ignoble love! But you were
always troublesome and disrespectful, even to me;
132 Greek and Roman Mythology
and your father Mars you fear not at all, but
are ever driving him into love affairs. You shall
repent of it! I shall adopt one pi the sons of
my slaves and give to him the bow and arrows
that you so little know how to use. I must have
recourse to my old foe Sobriety; she will soon
blunt your arrows and extinguish your torch! "
So she turned her back upon her wounded son
and left the house.
Meanwhile Psyche, still distractedly wander-
ing in search of Cupid, came by chance to a tem-
ple of Ceres. Here was a confused heap of corn
and grain, and near it scythes and other tools
lying in disorder. Piously anxious to win the
favor of any goddess that might help her, Psyche
set to work to bring order out of the confusion.
The goddess came to the temple while she was
thus engaged. Throwing herself at her feet the
girl besought her: " By thy plenty-giving hand,
by the joyful rites of harvest, by thy secret mys-
teries, by thy dragon-drawn car, by the Sicilian
fields and that thieving chariot and the descent
of Proserpina (see p. 154) to a lightless wed-
lock, and the return of thy child to the world
above, pity your suppliant, luckless Psyche!
Amid this heap of grain let me hide for a few
days, until the wrath of Venus is abated!"
Ceres was moved but feared to offend Venus.
Regretfully she drove Psyche from her temple.
As she left the shrine of Ceres, Psyche saw in
 The Lesser Deities of Olympus 133
the valley beneath a shrine of Juno. Thither
she turned her weary steps, and falling down
before the altar, prayed the goddess to help her
in her desperate need. Juno listened kindly but
answered that she could give no protection to a
fugitive slave of her daughter-in-law Venus.
Then Psyche, convinced that no hope of help lay
in any other, resolved to surrender herself to her
mistress Venus and humbly to propitiate her.
Now Venus, repairing to heaven in her golden
dove-drawn chariot, had asked and secured the
help of the herald Mercury. He had cried the
lost maiden through all the world: " I f any one
can seize in her flight or can discover the fugitive
slave of Venus, a king's daughter, Psyche by
name, let him repair to Mercury, the herald, at
the temple of Venus; he shall receive as a reward
from Venus herself seven sweet kisses." This
proclamation further persuaded Psyche that the
only course now open to her was one of sub-
mission. She therefore hastened to the house
of Venus, who, when she saw her, raised a joyful
laugh. " At last/' said she, " have you deigned
to pay your respects to your mother-in-law ? Or
perhaps you came to visit your husband, who lies
still in danger from the wound you gave him?
But take courage! I shall receive you as a good
mother-in-law should. Where are my servants,
Solicitude and Sorrow ?" These, immediately
appearing, scourged and otherwise tortured the
 134 Greek and Roman Mythology
unhappy Psyche, and then brought her again be-
fore her mistress.
Venus next set the girl before, a great heap
of wheat, barley, millet, poppy, beans, and every
other kind of grain and seed, and said scornfully
to her: " You seem to me so deformed a slave
that only by industry can you deserve your hus-
band. I shall make trial of you. Separate the
various grains in this heap, and see that the work
is finished before evening!" So she left her.
Despairing at the impossible task, Psyche sat still
without moving a finger to the confused mass.
But a little ant took pity on the wife of Cupid
and called together the populous tribe from a
neighboring ant-hill. In a very short time the
grains and seeds were piled neatly into separate
heaps. Then the little ants disappeared. Venus,
returning from a feast, fragrant with perfumes
and wreathed with roses, saw with anger the suc-
cess of her hated slave. " Worthless girl," said
she, " this is not the work of your hands but that
of your wretched lover! " And throwing her a
crust of dry bread she retired to rest.
At dawn Venus called Psyche, and pointing
out to her a wood by the river, ordered her to
get a lock of golden wool from the sheep that
fed there. Psyche gladly set out, not hoping to
secure the lock of wool, but intending to throw
herself into the river. But a reed of the river
spoke to her: " O sorrowful Psyche, pollute not
The Lesser Deities of Olympus 135
my waters, nor dare to approach the sheep on
the farther bank! For while the sun is hot, they
are fierce and destroy any who come near them,
but when at noon they go to rest under the trees,
then with safety you may cross the river, and
you shall find the golden wool caught on the
bushes. So shall you accomplish the task
safely."
Venus greeted her successful return with a bit-
ter smile: " I know well," said she, " that you
did not perform this task by yourself. Now I
will make trial of your courage and prudence.
Bring me from the fountain on yonder lofty
mountain liquid dew in this crystal urn.'' Psyche
hopefully received the urn and hurried to the
mountain. But when she reached the top, she
saw the impossibility of the undertaking. For
the fountain rose from the top of an inaccessible
rock and plunged down thence into a terrible
chasm where fierce dragons kept perpetual watch.
And the roaring waters called to her as they
crashed down: " Depart, or you will perish! "
As she shrank back in dismay, the eagle of Jupi-
ter came to her: " Can you, a simple mortal,
hope to steal one drop of the Stygian waters,
terrible to Jove himself ? Give me the little urn! "
Psyche, therefore, receiving the full urn, joyfully
returned to Venus.
The goddess was only the more enraged, and
laid on her another task. " Take this box," said
 136 Greek and Roman Mythology
she, " and direct your steps to the abode of
Pluto. There say to Proserpina that Venus begs
her to give her a little of her beauty in this box,
for she has exhausted all her own in anxious
attendance on her sick son. Return at once, for
I must dress for the theater of the gods." And
now truly Psyche saw that she was face to face
with destruction. She therefore ascended to the
top of a high tower, meaning to cast herself down
and so reach the infernal world by the shortest
way. But the tower spoke to her: " O wretched
girl, why do you seek to destroy yourself before
the last test of your endurance? Listen to me!
Near Lacedsemon in Achsea is the cavity through
which Pluto breathes. Here is the entrance to
the lower world. Go from thence by a straight
road to the palace of Pluto. Take with you two
pieces of bread soaked in honey, and in your
mouth two pieces of money to pay Charon (see
p. 188) for ferrying you across the river. The
bread will appease the fierce three-headed dog,
Cerberus. But be careful not to stop to listen to
the appeals for help from those you meet, for
Venus will send many wretched beings to induce
you to stop or lay aside the sop or the coin that
you need for your return journey. Proserpina
will receive you kindly and will offer you a soft
bed and a dainty banquet. Decline them both!
When you have received what you came for,
return at once to the upper world. On no ac-
The Lesser Deities of Olympus 137
count open or even look at the box that you
carry!"
Psyche started on her enterprise, and all fell
out as the tower had said. She obe}^ed his in-
structions resolutely until the danger were passed
and she was just about to emerge into the light
of day. Then she was seized with a rash curi-
osity and a longing to take for herself a little
of the divine beauty she carried so that she might
appear better in the eyes of her lover when she
should see him again. But when she opened the
box, there came forth no beauty but only a
Stygian sleep that instantly overpowered her, so
that she fell down where she stood and lay mo-
tionless.
Cupid, being now quite recovered of his
wound, had flown through the window of his
room and come to find Psyche. When, there-
fore, he saw her lying there motionless, he took
the sleep and shut it up again in its little box,
and arousing Psyche by the touch of one of his
arrows, said: " Unfortunate girl, a second time
you would have perished by that fatal curiosity!
But now fulfil your task to Venus; I will take
care of the rest." So saying he flew away and
Psyche carried the box to Venus.
Meanwhile Cupid flew straight to heaven, and
presenting himself before his grandfather Jupi-
ter, asked his aid. The father of gods, smilingly
stroking the cheeks of Cupid, answered kindly:
 138 Greek and Roman Mythology
" Though you, my child, presuming on your
power, never pay me the reverence that is my
due, and by your arrows cause me to act un-
worthily of my dignity and so injure my reputa-
tion, yet I will do all that you ask/' He there-
fore sent Mercury to call the gods to a council
meeting, and addressing them, he told them that
he thought it best that Cupid should marry.
Venus he bade submit, promising to make the
marriage legal by raising Psyche to the order of
the gods. Mercury brought the bride before
him, and she received from Jupiter the nectar
and ambrosia. " Take this," said he, " and be
immortal; nor shall Cupid ever depart from your
embraces, but this marriage shall be eternal."
Then the wedding banquet was served. Cupid
reclined beside Psyche, Jupiter by Juno, and so
all the other gods and goddesses in order.
Ganymede poured the nectar for Jupiter, and
Bacchus for the other gods, Vulcan prepared the
supper, the Hours scattered roses all about, the
Graces scattered balsam, and the Muses sang
melodiously, while Apollo accompanied them on
his lyre and Venus danced to their music.

Psyche is the soul. By her own act she de-

stroys her happy and innocent life with Love,
endures in the world every trial and suffering,
and even goes down to Hades, to be in the end
reunited with Love and to live with him forever
 The Lesser Deities of Olympus 139
in heaven. The story as it is told here belongs
to a late time. It is a philosophical fairy tale.

II. OTHER DEITIES OF OLYMPUS

The Graces (or Chart tes) presided O v e r t h e The Graces.

feast and the dance, all the gracious and festive
side of social intercourse. For the Greek ideal
demanded that men's everyday life, no less than
their worship, should be ruled by grace and
beauty, and the deities who brought this harmony
to life were fittingly conceived as the daughters
of no less a one than Zeus. They were three in
number and were represented nude or in trans-
parent drapery, adorned with spring flowers and
roses.
The Nine Muses, daughters of Zeus and Mne- The Nine
0
Muses.
mosyne (nemos'ine, Memory), presided, each
over a distinct form of poetry, art, or science.
They formed the chorus of Apollo, the god of
music, and with him haunted the heights of Par-
nassus or Helicon, or danced about the springs of
Pieria. Their names, their functions, and their
emblems are as follows: Clio, the muse of his-
tory, holds a roll of,writing; Cal Pope, the muse
of epic poetry, holds a tablet and pen; Mel pom'-
e ne, the muse of tragedy, holds a tragic mask;
Tha li'a, the muse of comedy, holds a comic mask
or wears the distinctive costume of the actor of
comedy; Terpsichore, the muse of the choral
lyric and the dance, wears a long garment and
 140 Greek and Roman Mythology
holds a lyre; Er'ato, the muse of love poetry,
wears a thin garment and holds a lyre; Eu ter'pe,
the muse of flute music, holds a.double flute;
U ra'ni a, the muse of astronomy, holds a globe;
Po lym'ni a, the muse of religious poetry or the
pantomime, is represented in an attitude of medi-

Fig. 36. Clio,

tation. To the Muses poets offered prayers and
vows: " Fortunate is he whomsoever the Muses
love, and sweet flows his voice from his lips."
(Homeric Hymn to the Muses.)
•me Three The Three Fates held in their hands the thread
of life, and when man's allotted life was spun,
The Lesser Deities of Olympus 141
the shears of the fates cut it off. Their names
are given in the little verse from Lowell's Villa
Franca: "Spin, spin, Clotho, spin! Lach'e sis,
twist! and At'ropus, sever!" They tell of the
past, present, and future.

Fig. 37. Thalia.

Nem'e sis, a darkly mysterious power that Kernels,

overshadowed even the gods themselves, for evil
done or for excess of pride brought divine
vengeance from which there was no hope of es-
cape.
 142 Greek and Roman Mythology
.Solus. The winds were under the control of TSL'o lus,
to whom Zeus gave the power to rouse or to
quiet them. In a vast cave in one of the volcanic
Lipari Islands, he and his twelve boisterous chil-
dren, the winds, lived a life of feasting and merri-

Fig. 38. Terpsichore.

ment. There they struggle against their prison

doors and cause mighty rumbling of the moun-
tain. If let loose, Vergil says, they would sweep
away earth and sea and sky in their destruc-
tive course. Bo're as is the wild north wind;
Zeph'y rus is the gentle west wind.
 CHAPTER VIII

THE GODS OF THE SEA

Po SEI'DON was the son of Cronus and Rhea Poseidon

(Neptune
and brother of Zeus. To him, after the over-
throw of the Titans, was given control over all
the waters, fresh as well as salt. He supplanted
Oceanus of the older dynasty. The early Greeks
thought that the waters were beneath the earth
and held it up; earthquakes were due to them.
Moreover the Ocean flowed all about the circle
of the earth as a great salt river. Homer speaks
of Poseidon as, " he that girdleth the world, the
shaker of the earth." Though he was a member
of the Olympic Council, he had his palace in the
depths of Ocean.
There was his famous palace in the deeps of the
mere, his glistering golden mansions builded, imperish-
able forever. Thither went he and let harness to his
car his bronze-hoofed horses, swift of flight, clothed
with their golden manes. He girt his own golden
array about his body and seized the well-wrought lash
of gold, and mounted his chariot, and forth he drove
across the waves. And the sea-beasts frolicked be-
neath him, on all sides out of the deeps, for well they
knew their lord, and with gladness the sea stood
asunder. (Iliad, XIII. 21 ff.)
143
 144 Greek and Roman Mythology
Beside him was seated his wife, " fair-ankled
Am phi tri'te," the daughter of Nereus (see p.
148, while before and about his, chariot swam
the Tritons, half man, half fish, heralding their
lord's approach by blasts on their shells.
In addition to his lordship over the waters
Poseidon presided over horses and horsemanship.
One version of his contest with Athena over Ath-
ens, as was said earlier, attributes to him the
creation of a salt spring, but the other version
attributes to him the creation of the horse.
The walls After the overthrow of the giants, Apollo and
of Trov
Poseidon fell under the displeasure of Zeus, who
therefore forced them to serve a mortal. They
agreed with La om'e don, king of Troy, for a
certain reward to build the walls of his city.
When the work was completed, Laomedon re-
fused to abide by his bargain and insolently dis-
missed the gods. Poseidon in his anger sent
floods and a terrible sea-monster to ravage the
coast. To appease the monster no sacrifice was
acceptable but that of He si'o ne, daughter of
Laomedon. The princess was about to be de-
voured by the monster when Heracles, that
friend of troubled mankind, appeared and res-
cued her. How he too was cheated of his re-
ward by the faithless Laomedon, and how he
avenged his wrongs, will be told later in the story
of Heracles. (See p. 220.)
Fig. 39. Poseidon.
 The Gods of the Sea 147
It is as god of horses and horsemanship that Peiops and
0 x
Hippodamia.
Poseidon appears in the story of Peiops and Hip-
po da mi'a. This Hippodamia was the daughter
of CEn o ma'us, king of Elis. Many young men
wished to marry her, but her father had been
warned by an oracle to beware of his future
son-in-law. As he was the owner of horses as
fleet as the wind, he made the condition that
he who would win the daughter must first
contend with the father in a chariot-race, the
reward of success being the hand of Hippo-
damia and the price of failure the suitor's
life. Many had staked their lives on the ven-
ture, and the maiden remained unmarried.
Peiops had been granted by Poseidon extraordi-
nary skill in horsemanship; now he obtained in
addition four winged steeds, and so offered him-
self for the perilous race. Nor was Poseidon
Peiops' only divine helper, for, by the power of
Aphrodite, Hippodamia's heart was so won at first
sight that she bribed her father's charioteer Myr-
tilus to take out the bolt from his chariot-wheel be-
fore starting on the race. So QEnomaiis perished
and Peiops led away Hippodamia as his wife.
The lovers, however, by their ingratitude and
treachery brought down upon their already ac-
cursed family the further displeasure of the gods,
for Peiops, in a fit of rage, hurled Myrtilus into
the sea. The tragic history of the race of Peiops
 148 Greek and Roman Mythology
is associated with the Trojan War and will be
told in that connection. (See p. 281.)
Neptune. The Romans had from early times worshiped
Neptune as god of moisture and of flowing water,
when they identified him with the Greek Posei-
don, they recognized him-also as god of the sea.
Nereus. Ne'reus, the wise and kindly " Old Man of the
Sea," lived with his fifty charming daughters
below the waters in a great shining cave. He
personifies the sea as a source of gain to men,
the sea on whose calm and friendly surface mer-
chants and sailors venture out in ships. His fifty
daughters, the Ne'reids, represent the sea in all
its many phases. They live together happily in
their deep-sea cave, but often rise to the surface,

Fig. 40. Marriage of Poseidon and Amphitrite.

and in sunlight or in moonlight may be seen sitting

on the shore or on a rock covered with seaweed,
drying their long green locks, or riding on the
dolphins, or playing in the waves with the Tri-
tons. If a mortal comes near, they will slide
down into the sea and disappear, for their bodies .
end in green fishes' tails and the deep water is
their real home. Three of the fifty are especially
famous: Amphitrite, Poseidon's wife; Thetis
 The Gods of the Sea 149
(see p. 283), the mother of Achilles, and
Gal a te'a, whom the Cyclops Pol y phe'mus
loved.
A stranger and more mysterious " Old Man of Proteus
the Sea " was Pro'teus, the shepherd of Posei-

Fig. 41. Head of a Sea-God.

don's flock of seals. He had the gift of proph-

ecy, and would tell the future if one could catch
and hold him. But, like the sea itself, he con-
tinually changed his form, and when one had
seized him as a roaring lion, he glided away as
a serpent, or if one still held to that slippery
 150 Greek and Roman Mythology
form, suddenly he was a flame of fire, or as run-
ning water he slipped through the hands.
The sirens. Although from the earliest tirpes the Greeks
were a sea-faring people, they never forgot the
perils that lurked in the deep, nor the uncertainty
of trusting themselves to its waters. Especially
in the west, near Sicily and Italy, fable told of
the dangers that lay in wait for the rash voy-
ager. Somewhere in that part of the sea was
the island of the Sirens, beautiful maidens in face
and breast but winged and clawed as birds. By
the charm of their singing they lured mariners
to drive their ships upon the rocks. He who
heard their magic voices no longer remembered
his dear native land, nor his wife and children,
but only heard the charmer and cast himself into
the sea. All the beach below where they sat and
sang was white with the bones of men. Fair
they seemed as the smooth bright surface of the
sea that treacherously smiles over the bones of
its victims. The much-enduring Odysseus was
warned of these alluring maidens and passed by
them safely only by having the ears of his com-
panions stuffed with wax, while he himself was
kept from the fatal leap by being fast bound to
his own mast.
The Harpies. Wholly terrible, without the malign charm of
the Sirens, were the Harpies, with their huge
wings and strong talons. They were goddesses
of storm and death, who snatched and carried
 The Gods of the Sea 151
away their booty as if on the wings of the wind.
When weary sailors had ignorantly landed on the
Harpies' shores, and, having prepared their .feast,
sat down to enjoy it, down swooped these vile
birds and carried off the food in their claws.
Their coming brought not alone famine but the
mournful omen of approaching death.
The passage between the coasts of Sicily and scyiia and
Italy was beset with danger. Here in the side
of a precipitous cliff was a cave where lurked
the monster Scyiia. From out the dark cavern
she stretched her six heads, armed with rows of
great sharp teeth. Woe to the unlucky mariners
who had steered too close to shore! Drawn in
as by a drag-net by her twelve long arms, they
were crunched in the great jaws, and only the
bones were left to tell the tale. And if men es-
caped this horror, on the other side lay Char-
yb'dis, sucking down the water into her black
whirlpool and belching it forth again, three times
each day. Against these monsters even Posei-
don's help was of no avail.
Fresh water as well as salt had each its own River-gods
and nymphs.
deity. From the river at any moment its god
might rise up, the water streaming from his hair
and beard. So Alpheus rose to pursue Are-
thusa (see p. 84) ; so the god of the Xanthus
near Troy rose and fought with Achilles. (See
p. 296.) Sometimes the river-god took the form
of a bull. (See p. 225.) Each little brook and
152 Greek and Roman Mythology
spring had its own nymph, a lovely maiden with
tossing hair, with laughing voice and lightly
dancing feet. These are the Naiads. (See p.
184.)
 CHAPTER IX
THE GODS OF THE EARTH
T H E skies that rule over all, and the great seas,
are male beings; Zeus and Poseidon rule there.
The earth, that gives life to plants and animals
and men, that cares for and generously nourishes
her children, is the great mother goddess, Gsea.

Fig. 42. Cybele in her Car.

Rhea, the mother of the gods, was also an Bhea or cy-

bele the Grea
earth-goddess. The people of Asia Minor knew Mother,
her as Cy'bele or the Great Mother, and repre-
sented her crowned with a turreted crown like
the wall of a city; for she was the bringer of
153
 154 Greek and Roman Mythology
civilization, the protectress of cities. Lions drew
her chariot, and about her were the Cor y-
ban'tes, who acclaimed her with shouts and the
clashing of cymbals, and led her worship with
wild dances. This worship never took firm root
in Greece, but it was introduced into Rome and
was there one of the most influential, of the for-
eign religious cults.
Demeter More characteristic of the Greek people was
(Ceres).
the worship of De me'ter, the bountiful goddess
of the grain. She was the sister of Zeus and
had her place in the Olympic Council. W e see
her, of generous and kindly aspect, draped from
head to foot, holding a torch, or ears of wheat
and corn mingled with poppies. Per seph'o ne
(or Proser'pi n a ) , the fresh young corn of the
new year, was her only daughter, looking to
Zeus, the giver of rain and sun, as her father.
The worship of these two is a beautiful, natural
harvesters' worship, but trouble and loss enter
in.
The Rape of When Persephone was still a young girl she
Persephone « . . - - « -
(Proserpina), was playing with the ocean nymphs one day, in
the sunny land of Sicily. She had wandered a
little way from her friends and stooped to pick a
narcissus. As she uprooted the fragrant flower,
out of the earth sprang the black horses and
golden chariot of Hades, or Pluto, the king of the
lower world. In spite of her cries for help, the
black god carried the maiden off with him; as
Fig. 43. Denieter.
 The Gods of the Earth 157
she passed, the flowers fell from her hands. Then
the earth opened at the word of the god, and
Pluto descended with his prize into the gloomy
regions over which he ruled. Here he made her
his queen.
Demeter, who had gone to Asia Minor to visit
Cybele, heard of her loss, but did not know who
the robber was nor where she should begin her
search for her daughter. Disconsolately she
wandered over all the earth, her serene and kindly
face befouled by tears, her clothes torn and soiled,
her corn and flowers abandoned. Without her
ministry the fields yielded no crops, men and
beasts starved, and though they called on her, she
would not hear nor answer. At last, in her wan-
derings she came to the fountain of Cy'ane, in
Sicily. Now the nymph Cyane had seen Pluto
with the stolen girl and had vainly tried to bar
his passage. In grief at her failure she had wept
herself into a fountain and so had lost the power
of speech. All that she could do was to wash
up at the mother's feet the girdle that the girl
had dropped in her passage. Then Demeter, in
her anger and despair, cursed the ground, and
above all the lovely land of Sicily that had be-
trayed its trust. Not far from Cyane is an-
other fountain, once a nymph, Arethusa, who,
as was told above (see p. 84), in her flight from
the river Alpheus rushed down into the earth in
Greece and rose again in Sicily. On her way
 158 Greek and Roman Mythology
through the lower world she had seen Persephone
sharing Pluto's throne. From her, Demeter
learned at last the truth and at once-went to Zeus
to demand redress. Induced, not alone by De-
meter's tears and prayers, but by the agonized
cries of all the suffering earth, Zeus decreed that
Pluto should give up his stolen bride — on one
condition, that no food had passed her lips during
her stay beneath the earth. By ill fortune she
had been persuaded by Pluto to taste the seeds
of a pomegranate. A compromise was made:
Persephone should return to her mother, but each
year she should descend again into the lower
world to stay as many months as she had eaten
seeds of the pomegranate. And so each winter
^when the seeds of grain are sowed, the daughter
of the grain-mother goes down into the dark
ground, and the fields are bare and unlovely while
the mother mourns. But when the time agreed
upon is over, and Persephone comes again to the
light, then Demeter is glad and looks to her
fields. The fresh young spears of grain come out
of the dark earth, and when the time comes and
the crops begin to ripen, Demeter makes the fields
beautiful with poppies, and then, when the ears
are full, men gather them joyfully and bring
them into their barns and praise the bountiful
Demeter and her lovely daughter.
TheEieusinian El eu'sis is a small town a few miles distant
Mysteries.
from Athens. Here were celebrated the Mys-
Fig. 44. Demeter, Triptolemus and Persephone.
 The Gods of the Earth 161
teries in honor of Demeter. All Athens took
part in the procession and the purification, but
to the Mysteries themselves only those wh<3 had
been initiated were admitted. The ceremonies
were kept very secret, but it seems that the rape
of Persephone and her return were dramatically
represented, and that the initiate gained some
deeper trust in a happy immortality than was
known to others. The story of the institution
of these El eu sin'i an Mysteries is connected with
Demeter's search for her daughter.
Exhausted by nine days of fasting and useless Demeter and
J
, Tnptolemus.
wandering, Demeter had come to Eleusis and
had sat down beside a well. Here came the four
daughters of the king of that land to fill their
water-jars. Seeing the tired old woman, they
spoke to her kindly and brought her with them
to their father's house. The king's wife had
lately borne a son, and the disguised goddess
took the baby to nurse. She anointed him with
ambrosia, and each night as he slept she placed
him in the embers on the hearth, for so she in-
tended to burn away the mortal part and make
him as one of the gods. But the anxious queen
watched through the door one night, and rushed
in with terrified cries to rescue her baby from
t;he fire. Then the goddess rose in all her divine
majesty and said to the mother: " O foolish
woman! now have you brought incurable evil
upon your son; I would have made him immortal
162 Greek and Roman Mythology
and given him everlasting youth, but now must
he suffer the common lot of men. Yet I will
give him imperishable honor since he has lain
on my breast. But come now, build me here a
temple, and the rites in it I will myself pre-
scribe." So they built to Demeter a great tem-
ple, and when the child Trip tol'e mus had grown

Fig. 45. Triptolemus in the dragon-drawn Chariot.

up, the goddess taught him to raise grain and corn

and sent him in a dragon-drawn chariot through
every land to teach men how to sow and reap.
Through him, too, she gave the Greeks her Mys-
teries and a better hope for the future life. As
the Greek poet Pindar says: " Happy is he that
hath seen those things ere he go beneath the
earth; he knoweth life's end, he knoweth its be-
ginning given of God."
Fig. 46. Dionysus or Bacchus.
 The Gods of the Earth 165
It was soon after the expulsion of the kings, ceres,
at the time of a failure of crops, that the Romans,
in obedience to a command of the Sibylline
books 22 introduced the worship of Demeter.
Even then she was not worshiped under her
Greek name, but was ^identified with an old Latin
goddess named Ceres, and Persephone was given
the Latinized form Proserpina. Ceres was al-
ways the special protectress of the plebeians.
Di on y'sus or Bacchus is familiarly known as Dionysus or
. . . . Bacchus.
the convivial wine-god; but while the vine is most
closely associated with him, he is, in truth, the
vital strength of everything that grows, the
power of fertility and of joyful, springing life.
His mother was Sem'e le, daughter of Cadmus HIS birth and
° travels.
(see p. 256), the founder of Thebes, and his fa-
ther was Zeus. Though Semele was of divine
descent on both sides of her family, she was her-
self a mortal, and to make love to her Zeus put on
the form of a mortal. At first she rejected his at-
tentions, but when he told her who he was, she
yielded and gladly received him. Hera knew of
this and was filled with angry jealousy. Dis-
guising herself as Semele's old nurse Ber'o e, she
led the girl on to talk of her love. When she
had heard all the story, she pretended not to
believe that the lover was Zeus. " I f he were,
why should he not come to you in all his glory,
22
Books of prophecy said to have been received by Tar-
quin, the legendary king of Rome, from the Sibyl,
166 Greek and Roman Mythology
as he does to Hera? He is treating you with
very little respect." Semele's pride was touched.
The next time her lover came she-induced him
to swear that he would grant whatever she should
demand. Then she asked that he should show
himself to her in all his Olympian majesty. The
fatal oath by the Styx had been given; even to
save one he loved Zeus could not recall it. He
came to her as God of Heaven, armed with the
thunder-bolts. No mortal could endure his glory
or the flame of the lightning; poor Semele was
reduced to ashes. So the earth is scorched by
the full blaze of the Greek sun at midsummer, or
seared by the lightning; only the seeds within it
remain alive. Just so Semele's baby, Dionysus
or Bacchus, came to birth from his mother's
ashes, and ivy sprang up miraculously to shade
him from the hot sky. His grieving father took
him and gave him to the mountain nymphs of
Nysa to nurse. As he grew older Si le'nus, one
of the lesser divinities of earth, was given to
him as a tutor, and with his help he discovered
all the secrets of nature, especially the culture of
the vine. He taught his followers, the rustic
deities, to make from the grapes wine, the mys-
terious source at once of womanish weakness,
and invincible power and joyous freedom from
care. Intoxicated by the new drink, they
thronged together in Bacchic revels. Wherever
he went, he was joined by crowds of women,
 The Gods of the Earth 167
called Bac chan'tes, who celebrated his worship
by wild dances, the clashing of cymbals, the beat-
ing of drums, shrill flutings, and unrestrained
shouts. Always so accompanied, Bacchus trav-
eled over the world, teaching the cultivation of

Fig. 47. Silenus with Dionysus.

the grape and the power of wine. He penetrated

to India, where even the panthers and lions fell
under his charm and obediently drew his tri-
umphal chariot. As a conquering hero he re-
turned to Greece and demanded worship every-
 168 Greek and Roman Mythology
where. And everywhere the women flocked to
his revels. Dressed in the skins of beasts, with
streaming hair, brandishing snakes or the ivy-
twined wand or thyrsus, they joined in the wild
dances. With shrill outcries they tore in pieces
the sacrificial animals and devoured the raw flesh.
The Bacchic At Thebes Pen'theus, the king, forbade the
revels, and when the women of his city, in de-

Fig. 48. Bacchic Procession.

fiance of his commands, went out to join the Bac-

chantes, he followed to spy on the secret rites.
Enraged at this opposition, Bacchus made the
women mad. They mistook the king for a wild
beast and tore him to pieces, his own mother
leading in the murderous assault. There is prob-
ably some historical basis for this story, for these
extravagant wild rites, introduced from Thrace
 The Gods of the Earth 169
or Asia Minor, met with bitter opposition in some
parts of Greece. But the promise they offered
of raising the worshiper above the bounds of
the natural, plodding human life and giving a
high and divine power through mystic union with
the god, overrode all opposition, and the Bacchic
mysteries were received and practised with im-
mense enthusiasm.
Many stories are told of Bacchus and his trav- The good
els, and of how he punished his enemies and re-
warded his friends. On one occasion, as he was
lying asleep on the shore of an island, some pirates
came upon him, and thinking that the beautiful
youth might be held for a large ransom, they
carried him off to their ship. The helmsman,
recognizing the god in his divine grace and beauty,
implored his companions to set him free, but they
were deaf to his words. When the god awoke
he tearfully besought his captors to take him to
the island of Naxos. Pretending to consent they
steered the other way. Suddenly the ship stood
rooted in the sea; ivy trailed up the mast, and
vines wreathed the sails; a sweet odor filled the
air, and wine flowed about the deck. The cap-
tive's bonds dropped from him, and in his place
crouched a lion. In their terror the sailors leaped
overboard and were instantly transformed into
dolphins — all but the god-fearing helmsman,
whom Bacchus saved and made his follower.
 170 Greek and Roman Mythology
M^das.23 Midas was a king in Phrygia. One day Silenus
in a dazed and drunken condition was brought be-
fore him. Recognizing Bacchus-' tutor in the
muddled old man, Midas entertained him well and
sent him back to his pupil, In return for this
good office, Bacchus offered to fulfil whatever
wish the king should make. When Midas, being
excessively fond of riches, asked that whatever he
touched might become gold, Dionysus was sorry
for the foolish wish, but could not withdraw his
offer. Midas returned home in delight. To try
his new power he touched an oak branch; it be-
came golden. He lifted a stone from the ground;
it was a mass of gold. The very earth became
hard and yellow at his touch. He picked some
ears of grain; golden was the harvest. He pulled
an apple from the tree; one would have thought
it one of the golden apples of the Hesperides.
If he touched the door-posts with his fingers, the
posts shone as gold. When he washed his hands
in fresh water, the drops that fell were like the
golden shower that deceived Danae. (See p.
200.) The servants placed a banquet before
him; when he touched the bread it hardened
under his fingers; when he raised a dainty morsel
to his lips, his teeth closed on a lump of gold.
H e mingled wine with his water; molten gold
flowed down his throat. And now he hated and
loathed the wealth that he had loved; he was
23
Following Ovid, Metamorphoses, XL 85 ff.
 The Gods of the Earth 171
starving in the midst of plenty. Raising his
hands and gleaming arms to heaven he cried:
" Have pity on me, kindly Bacchus, I have sinned!
Oh, pity me, and take away the cursed boon! "
Bacchus heard him. He bade him go to the
river Pacto'lus and wash in the spring from
which it rises. There the golden touch left him
and was transferred to the river, whose sands are
mixed with gold to this day.
Dionysus married A ri ad'ne, a beautiful prin- Ariadne,
cess of Crete, whom the hero Theseus (see p.
250) had carried away from her home and had
then deserted on the island of Naxos. Her di-
vine lover Dionysus came to her while she slept
and wakened her by a kiss. The wedding of the
pair was celebrated with great magnificence and
joy, and as a wedding gift the god gave his bride
a crown studded with brilliant stars. When she
died, her grieving husband threw the crown up
into the heavens. There it can still be seen as
Corona, or Ariadne's Crown.
Although the Di on y'si a, or Bac cha-na'li a, The
. ' , . Dionysia
were always celebrated with wild orgies and ex-
travagant enthusiasm, Dionysus also received
worship of a different character. Praise was
given to him as the hospitable and genial deity
who brings joy to the feast, frees men from care,
and makes them of friendly and kindly feelings
towards one another. He brought to men civili-
zation and law; he was a lover of peace. By his
 172 Greek and Roman Mythology
exhilarating power he inspired poets and mu-
sicians and thus is associated with Apollo and the
Muses. The Attic drama originated at the festi-
vals of Dionysus. The rough dances and music
were reduced to form; the choral dances became
pantomimic, and the songs took on dramatic
character. From this was developed tragedy
and comedy. The great theater of Athens is in
the precinct of Dionysus.
Dionysus:
appearance
There is much variation in the representations
and emblems. of the god; two distinct types are especially fa-
miliar. In the one he appears as a mature man,
bearded and heavily draped;
this was the regular type
in early times. In the
other he appears as a
smooth-faced young man,
of grace and charm that
is almost feminine. His
hair is long, sometimes
hanging in curls and some-
times caught up on his head
like that of a woman. He
usually is either nude or
wears a panther's or lion's
Fig. 4g. Youthful
skin over his shoulder.
Dionysus. His head is crowned with
ivy or grape-leaves, and he holds in his hand
grapes or a shallow cup of wine. Sometimes he
is represented as the eastern conqueror in his
 The Gods of the Earth 173
triumphal car, drawn by lions or panthers, while
about him throng his followers, Satyrs, Sileni,
Maenads (see p. 179), mingling with his votaries,
the Bacchantes, who brandish snakes or ivy-
twined staves.

Fig. 50. Bacchic Procession.

Tell me, Muse, concerning the dear son of Hermes, Pan.

the goat-footed, the two-horned, the lover of the din of
revel, who haunts, the wooded dells with dancing
nymphs that tread the crests of the steep cliffs, calling
upon Pan the pastoral god of the long wild hair. Lord
is he of every snowy crest and mountain peak and
rocky path. (Homeric Hymn to Pan.)

This is that mysterious pastoral god, Pan, the

spirit of the mountains and woods of Greece.
The daughter of a mortal bore him to Hermes as
he tended her father's sheep in the hills of Arca-
dia. A strange child he was, as the poet sings,
goat-legged, with horns and a goat's beard, laugh-
ing and jumping even from his birth. His
 174 Greek and Roman Mythology
mother was frightened when she saw him, but
Hermes was glad and wrapped him in the skins
of hares and carried him off to Olympus to show
him to the gods. They were all delighted with
him, especially Dionysus, and they called him Pan.
Hither and thither he goes through the thick copses,
sometimes being, drawn to the still waters, and some-
times faring through the lofty crags he climbs the high-
est peak whence the flocks are seen below; ever he
ranges over the high white hills, and ever among the
knolls he chases and slays the wild beasts, the god with
keen eye, and at evening returns piping from the chase,
breathing sweet strains on the reeds. . . . W i t h him
then the mountain nymphs, the shrill singers, go wan-
dering with light feet, and sing at the side of the dark
water of the. well, while the echo moans along the
mountain crest, and the god leaps hither and thither,
and goes into the midst, with many a step of the dance.
On his back he wears the tawny hide of a lynx, and his
heart rejoices with shrill songs in the soft meadow,
where crocus and fragrant hyacinth bloom all mingled
amidst the grass. (Homeric Hymn to Pan.)
So one can almost see him to-day as one listens
in the hills to the Greek shepherds piping to their
sheep, just as they did in the old days before Pan
died. But it is not safe to see him, for he is a
shy god and a mischievous, and if one spies upon
him when he is sleeping or at play, one may have
good cause to repent. Indeed it is best to avoid
certain shady spots by springs at noon-day, for
there Pan chooses to sleep while the big flies buzz
in the sun-light and all else is still, and he does
Fig. 51. Pan and a Nymph.
 The Gods of the Earth 177
not like to be disturbed. At night he lives in
caves in the hills, and those places are sacred to
him. There is one of these sacred caves in the
cliff that forms the Acropolis, right in the city
of Athens, but Pan deserted it long ago, and al-
tars to Christian saints were set up near by. He
had no worship in Athens until the time of the
Persian Wars, and then the story goes that just
before the battle of Marathon a runner sent to
Sparta to ask for help against the- Persians was
met on the road by Pan, who told him that he
wished well to the Athenians and would help them
in the battle, although they had hitherto paid him
no honor. And after the battle they remembered
the unreasoning fear that had fallen upon the
Persians and how they had fled before the Greeks,
though so much fewer in number, and they set
apart this cave as his shrine. Such fear as this
is known as Panic terror. Sometimes it mysteri-
ously comes upon men in the woods; often it seizes
a flock of sheep and without cause they rush upon
their own destruction.
But Pan is not always dangerous or ill-natured; The syrinx*
to those he favors he sends increase of their flocks
and keeps their herds safe from harm. Some
shepherds whom he loved he taught to play on
the pipes, and they taught others, and so the shep-
herds in the lonely hills can pipe to their lady-
loves as Pan pipes to the nymphs. For Pan loves
the nymphs, although they are a little afraid of
 178 Greek and Roman Mythology
his goat's legs and his queer goat-like fane, and
sometimes run away from him. So, they say,
he wished to press his love on the nymph Syrinx,
but she fled from him, and when he had followed
her to the bank of a stream and thought he was
just seizing her, his hand closed on a bunch of
reeds. From his windy sighs a sweet, plaintive
sound rose among the hollow reeds, so he broke
off a few of unequal length, fastened them to-
gether with wax, and so made the syrinx, a mu-
sical instrument of that form.
The worship As he is the mysterious soul of naiure, Pan is
J
of Pan. m '
very wise and knows even what the future holds,
and so throughout Greece his oracles were con-
sulted, and to Pan and the nymphs people prayed
and brought offerings of milk and cheese and
honey, or a kid from their flocks.
" Great Pan But "Great Pan is dead." The story is told
J
is d e a d . "
by Plutarch. In the time of the emperor Tiberius
a ship was sailing from Greece to Italy. As it
passed by a certain island, all on board heard a
voice calling, " Thamus." Three times the call
was repeated and at the last an Egyptian of that
name, who was of the ship's company, answered.
He was told that when they came to a certain
place off the coast of Epirus, he was to announce,
" Great Pan is dead." When the ship reached
this place, a calm fell, and Thamus did as he had
been told. Immediately a sound of lamentation
answered from the shore, as if an unseen multi-
 The Gods of the Earth 179
tude were mourning. The Christian tradition
told that this was about the time of Christ's death,
and that the mysterious voice announced the ,end
of the gods of Greece, who withdrew lamenting
before the cross of Christ.

Fig. 52. Votive Offering to Pan and the Nymphs.

Pan is not always represented with the goat's His ap-

. . . pearance.
legs and beard; sometimes his form is entirely
human except for the slightest indication of horns
to mark his animal nature. In this he is almost
indistinguishable from the Satyrs.
Not only in appearance but in nature and origin satyrs.
 180 Greek and Roman Mythology-
Pan's companions, the Satyrs, bear a close re-
semblance to him. They, too, are wild spirits
of the woods and hills, half timid, playful ani-
mals, and half human. They have short, flat
noses, pointed ears, and
little tails, sometimes, too,
goats' legs. They follow
Dionysus, or they dance
and play with Pan and
the nymphs, and are al-
ways hankering after wine
and women. The country
people feared them, for
they sometimes stole away
the herds and killed the
goats and sheep, but they
imitated their rough, lively
Fig. S3. Dancing dances and their noisy
Sat
y- songs, and so developed a
popular kind of drama, called satyric drama, in
which the chorus was composed of men dressed
as Satyrs. These dramas were given in honor of
Dionysus. In later times Satyrs appear in art
as younger, gentler, and more innocent, just as
one may see in the graceful young Satyr or Faun
of Praxiteles, who leans pensively against a tree,
holding a flute in his hand.
Faunus. Faunus was an old Roman god of flocks and
herds, who through his power of prophecy and
his pastoral character became identified with Pan.
 The Gods of the Earth 181
Finally many Fauns were conceived of and con-
founded with the Satyrs.
Another of the company of Dionysus was his Sileni:
Marsyas and
tutor Silenus, he who was brought in an intoxi- Midas.
cated condition to King Midas. There were
many Sileni, and they were first heard of in Asia
Minor, where they were
represented with horses'
ears and tails and were
connected with fountains
and running water and
were credited with the gift
of prophecy. That same
King Midas by mixing
wine in a fountain is said
to have caught a Silenus
and forced him to tell him
the future. The Sileni,
like other rural deities,
were musicians. To Athe-
na is attributed the dis-
covery of the flute, but Fig. 54. Faun of
Praxiteles.
when she saw what distor-
tion of face its use required, she threw it aside in
disgust. It was picked up by the Silenus, Mar'-
syas, who became so skilful in its use that he im-
pudently challenged Apollo to a musical contest
When the prize of victory, as was right, had been
adjudged to Apollo and his lyre, Marsyas paid a
terrible penalty, for Apollo had him flayed and
182 Greek and Roman Mythology
his empty skin hung on a tree as a warning to
all. Some say that Midas was present at this
contest and that in punishment for his foolish
judgment in favor of the Silenus he was given

Fig. 55. Athena and Marsyas.

ass's ears. Ovid, however, tells that this indig-

nity came upon him for his decision in favor of
Pan in a musical contest with Apollo. The king
tried to hide his deformity by wearing a large
turban, but his barber, unable to contain the se-
 The Gods of the Earth 183
cret, dug a hole in the ground and whispered it to
the earth. On that place reeds grew up and, as
they rustled in the wind, ever repeated, " Midas
has ass's ears." 24
The Sileni usually appear as the most repulsive
and ludicrous of Dionysus' company. They have
short, bloated bodies, and ugly, drunken faces;

Fig. 56. Apollo and Marsyas.

they are rarely separated from their cherished

wine-skins. The original and higher type is re-
tained when Silenus appears as the nurse of Di-
onysus; in Greece he was sometimes regarded
simply as the eldest of the Satyrs and was repre-
sented accordingly.
2
* Ovid, Metamorphoses, XI. 146 ff.
 184 Greek and Roman Mythology
The name nymph in Greek simply means young
nymphs, woman; it is used of all those nature-spirits of
trees and brooks, woods and hills, that were con-
ceived under maiden form. In their groves and
brooks they lived, spinning and weaving, singing
and dancing in the meadows, or, when no one was
by to see them, bathing in the clear springs.
They accompanied Artemis in the chase, followed
Dionysus' noisy throng, or played and quarreled
with the mischievous Satyrs. Sometimes, too,
they loved mortal men, and many of the heroes
had nymphs for mothers or for brides; but it
was an uncertain relationship, for often the mor-
tal, longing for his own people, deserted his
nymph, or she grew tired of human restraints
and returned to her wilds.
There were different kinds of nymphs. The
Naiads were the bright elusive spirits of the
springs and brooks, the Oreads were the moun-
tain spirits, the Dryads and Hamadryads lived in
the trees. Unlike a god, a nymph was not im-
mortal, and when the hour came and the tree
died, the Dryad died too. When some woods-
man felled a great tree in the forest, he turned
aside with a murmured prayer as it fell, for then
the nymph sighing passed out of her body and
vanished. The Greek writer Hesiod says that a
crow lives nine times as long as a man, a deer four
times as long as a crow, a raven three times as
long as a deer, a phoenix nine times as long as a
 The Gods of the Earth 185
raven, and a nymph ten times as long as a phoenix.
Echo was a nymph whom Pan loved and pur-
sued, but she loved a Satyr, or, as others say, she
loved the beautiful youth Narcis'sus. He did
not return her love, but seeing his own reflexion
in a stream, loved that, and ever gazing into his
own eyes, withered away with vain passion.
Then Echo, too, pined from disappointed love un-
til she was nothing but a disembodied voice that
lives on among the rocks and hills.
The nymphs were worshiped throughout
Greece, and offerings of lambs, milk, oil, and wine
were brought to their groves and grottoes.
 CHAPTER X

THE WORLD OF THE DEAD

The Greek T H E Greeks, who found in this world so much

view of death.
that was interesting, beautiful, and heroic, utterly
dreaded the coming of death to take them from
this very real present life and plunge them into
an unknown future. They believed, indeed, in
a life after death, but it was a shadowy and un-
real one, not to be compared to the most hum-
drum existence on the sun-lit earth. The great
hero Achilles, when his shade appeared before
Odysseus on his visit to the world of the dead,
earnestly declared:
Nay, speak not comfortably to me of death, O great
Odysseus! Rather would I live upon the earth as the
hireling of another, with a landless man that hath no
great livelihood, than bear sway among all the dead
that be departed. (Odyssey, XI. 488 ff.)
The realm of Just where the realm of the dead was is un-
the dead.
certain. In the Odyssey Homer tells of a land
far to the west, by the river Ocean, beyond the
setting of the sun, where in eternal darkness and
mist lived the souls of the departed; but generally
people thought of this gloomy land as being far
186
 The World of the Dead 187
beneath the earth, in the darkness of the lower
world. Near Cumse, in the vicinity of Naples,
where volcanic vapors, hot springs, and strange
upheavals of the ground suggest the nearness of
mysterious powers below the earth, a cave with
unexplored depths offered entrance to the land
of the dead, and A ver'nus, a lake whence rose
deadly vapors, was thought to be but the over-
flow of the rivers of Hades. Other localities in
Greece and the islands afforded passage for the
departing soul to its long home, and permitted
occasional intercourse between the dead and the
living.
To this gloomy land, wherever it was, the soul, The journey
. 1 7 1 1 1 . < 1 1 . - of the soul
when it left the body, journeyed under the guid- after death,
ance of the god Hermes. Though the body of
the dead might lie upon his bed in his own home,
or upon the battle-field, the soul, thought of as a
tiny winged creature in form like the living man,
but insubstantial and shadowy, joined the great
throng of pale shades that were always unhappily
waiting on the shores of the river Ach'e ron.
Here he must wait in uneasy expectation until
the friends he had left behind him should give
his body due burial with sacrifice and provide him
with a small coin, an obol, for his passage money.
Only then would old Charon, the terrible ferry-
man of the dead, receive him into his leaky skiff
and set him across the hated stream. For all
Hades was cut off from approach by its rivers,
188 Greek and Roman Mythology-
Acheron, River of Woe, and its branches,
Cocy'tus, River of Wailing, and Phleg'ethon,
River of Fire. The fourth river of Hades was
the Styx, by which the gods swore their unbreak-
able oaths. Once across the Acheron the soul

Fig. 57. Charon in his Skiff.

must pass by the three-headed watch-dog, Cer'-

ber us, to appease whom he was provided with
a little cake made of seed and honey. Then he
entered through the wide gates of Hades into that
immense home of the dead, open in hospitality
to all men, as the Greeks grimly said.
 The World of the Dead 189
Hefe Hades, or Pluto reigned, the dark and Hades or
' . . Pluto.
hateful brother of Zeus, and beside him the stolen
Persephone (Proserpina), no longer young and
happy as when she played with the nymphs in the
bright fields of Sicily, but stern and cruel on the
throne beside her black lord. When the Cyclopes
gave to Zeus the thunderbolts and to Poseidon
the trident as the symbols of their power, they
gave to Pluto the helmet of darkness that made
its wearer invisible. Only twice do we hear of
the infernal king leaving his kingdom to appear
in the light of the sun; once when he came to
carry off Persephone, and again when the hero
Heracles had wounded him, he was forced to
visit Olympus to get the help of the divine physi-
cian. Pluto had deputed judges to weigh each
dead man's good and evil deeds and assign each
to his proper place — Minos (see p. 230) the
former just king of Crete, his brother Rhad a-
man'thus, and 7E'a cus- (see p. 283), the righteous
grandfather of the hero Achilles. If the soul was
condemned, the Furies, or Eu men'i des, avengers
of crime, terrible with their snaky locks, drove
the criminal before them to a place of punishment
yet lower than Hades and buried in threefold
night, while the righteous were led to the place
of the Blessed.25
25
This conception of a judgment with its consequent
punishment and reward was not developed until long after
the time of Homer.
 190 Greek and Roman Mythology
Tartarus. In the place of torment, T a r t a r us, were those
Titans whom Zeus had overthrown, the rebellious
giants, and wicked men who here p^id the penalty
for their crimes against the gods. Impious Ix-
i'on for his inhuman cruelties was bound to a fiery
wheel and racked and torn by its swift revolu-
tions. . Sis'y phus (see p. 236), who tried to cheat
even Death, must forever roll up-hill a heavy
stone, which ever rolled down. Tantalus (see p.
281), who abused the hospitality of the gods,
ever tortured by hunger and consuming thirst,
tried vainly to reach fruits hung just above his
head, or stooped to drink the wrater which always
eluded his parched lips. From this comes our
word tantalize. The forty-nine daughters of
Dan'a us, who had murdered their husbands,
hopelessly fetched water in leaky vessels. (See
p. 199.) All the air sounded writh groans and
shrieks, and the Furies drove the victims who
would escape back to their endless torture.
The Eiysian The Elysian Fields were originally regarded
X I 6 1 U.S.

as the last home only of a few favored heroes,

sons of the gods, but afterwards men thought of
them as peopled by others too, those who, through
their noble lives or perhaps through participation
in the Mysteries of Demeter, were admitted to
this glorious companionship. These fortunate
ones lived in calm happiness in the Elysian Fields
or Island of the Blest.
 The World of the Dead 191
Far from gods and men, at the farthest end of the
earth, in the deep-flowing ocean, where the earth bears
thrice in a year.— Hesiod, Works and Days, 197 fif.
No snow is there, nor yet great storm, nor any rain.;
but always ocean sendeth forth the breeze of the shrill
west to blow cool on men.— Odyssey, IV. 566 ff.

Here the heroes feasted or wandered together

through the flowery fields, contended in games

Fig. 58. Heracles carrying off Cerberus.

and enjoyed a repetition of the pleasures of the

upper world.26
Though the lower world was generally closed JJsits »tf
to the living, yet some few heroes visited it in lower wona.
life. Heracles came to carry off the watch-dog
Cerberus. The hero Odysseus (Ulysses) came
26
It is not possible to give a simple and consistent ac-
count of the life after death that will accord with the
various descriptions in the Greek poetry of different
periods.
 192 Greek and Roman Mythology
by the advice of the sorceress Circe, to ask about
his future course. ^Eneas, the Trojan ancestor
of the Romans, came for t h e ' same purpose.
These stories will be told in detail later on. (See
pp. 223, 311, 343.)
Orpheus and One man won his entrance and safe departure
x
Eurydice. , .
through his divine gift of music. This was
Orpheus, son of Apollo and the Muse Calliope,
who had learned from his father to play the lyre
so marvelously that at his song wild beasts be-
came tame, serpents came out of the earth to
listen, the very stones obeyed his will. When his
wife Eu ryd'i ce died from the sting of a snake,
he followed her to Hades, by his music persuad-
ing even grim Charon and the dog Cerberus to
let him pass in. Pluto, too, yielded to his song
• and allowed him to carry away Eurydice, on con-
dition that he would not look back at her until he
should reach the upper world. But just as they
were about to come to the light of earth, the de-
sire to see his beloved wife overpowered Orpheus,
and he turned and looked at her. Then Hermes
gently took Eurydice by the hand and led her
back to the home of the dead. Orpheus refused
to be comforted and rejected the advances of all
other women. In the end, he met his death by
the violence of some frenzied Bacchantes.
Charmed by his music, the stones they threw fell
harmless at his feet, until the mad shouts of the
women drowned the strains of his lyre. Then
Fig. 59. Parting of Orpheus and Eurydice.
 The World of the Dead 195
they killed him and tore him limb from limb.
His head and lyre, floating down the river, still
gave forth melodious sounds. The Muses buried
the fragments of his body, and above his grave
the song of the nightingale is sweeter than any-
where else in the world.
 PART II
THE HEROES
 C H A P T E R XI

STORIES OF ARGOS

T H E family of Dan'a us and his famous de- Danaus and

J
his fifty
scendant Perseus sprang from that lo, the daugh- daughters,
ter of the river-god In'a chus, whom Zeus had
loved. (See p. 24.) Still in the form of a
heifer, she came to Egypt, where she was restored
to her human form and gave birth to a son.
Some of her descendants remained in Egypt and
ruled there as kings.
One of these Egyptian kings had two sons,
JE gyp'tus and Danaiis, of whom the former was
the father of fifty sons and the latter of as many
daughters. Danaiis had cause to fear his
nephews, and when they wished to marry his
daughters, he fled to Argolis 1 ; but iEgyptus and
his sons followed them and pressed the marriage.
While pretending to yield, Danaiis ordered his
daughters to carry concealed daggers and each to
murder her husband on the wedding night.
Forty-nine of the fifty obeyed, but the fiftieth,
Hy perm nes'tra, spared her husband, Lynceus.
About the fate of the forty-nine there is some dif-
ference of opinion. Some say that Danaiis found
suitors so scarce after this that he was compelled
199
 200 Greek and Roman Mythology
to give them to the contestants in a race. Others
say that Lynceus killed them all to avenge his
brothers, and that they were punished in Hades
by being compelled eternally to carry water in
leaky vessels. Perhaps these Da na'i des repre-
sent the springs of Argolis, whose waters quickly
run away and are absorbed by the dry and porous
soil of that country.
Danae and Hypermnestra and Lynceus had a grandson
named A cris'i us, to whom was born one daugh-
ter, Danae, and no son. When he sent to the
oracle at Delphi to know whether he might hope
for a male child, he received the answer that he
was fated to have no son and that he should meet
death at the hands of a son of Danae. Hoping
to avoid this danger, he had a great bronze cham-
ber constructed in the earth, and here he impris-
oned his daughter with her nurse. After some
years, when he was one day passing near the
opening of this strong prison, he was astonished
to hear the voice of a little child at play. Sum-
moning his daughter before him he inquired who
was the father of her child. She answered him
that through the opening in the roof of her prison
Zeus had come to her in the form of a golden
shower, and that it was he who was the father
of her child, Perseus. Acrisius, by no means be-
lieving this story and determined to be rid of
his dangerous grandson, had the mother and child
shut up in a great chest and set adrift on the
 Stories of Argos 201

Fig. 60. Carpenter making the chest for Danae and

Perseus.
sea. The Greek poet Simonides tells of the love
and despair of the young mother:
When, in the carven chest,
The winds that blew and waves in wild unrest
Smote her with fear, she, not with cheeks unwet,
Her arms of love round Perseus set,
And said: O child, what grief is mine!
 202 Greek and Roman Mythology
But thou dost slumber, and thy baby breast
Is sunk in rest,
Here in the cheerless brass-bound bark,
Tossed amid starless night and pitchy dark.
Nor dost thou heed the scudding brine
Of waves that wash above thy curls so deep,
Nor the shrill winds that sweep,—
Lapped in thy purple robe's embrace,
Fair little face!
But if this dread were dreadful too to thee,
Then wouldst thou lend thy listening ear to me;
Therefore I cry,— Sleep, babe, and sea be still,
And slumber our unmeasured ill.
O h ! may some change of fate, sire Zeus, from thee
Descend, our woes to end!
But if this prayer, too overbold, offend
Thy justice, yet be merciful to m e ! 2 7

Zeus did not fail to hear her cry, but guided

the chest to the island of Se ri'phus, where a
fisherman, Dictys by name, drew it ashore in his
net. Unlike the other inhabitants of the island,
he was a kindly man and he cared for the un-
fortunate castaways in his own home.
The quest of It happened that a brother of the fisherman,
heal°rgon s Pol y dec'tes, who was king of the island, fell in
love with Danae and, as he was an unjust and
cruel man, wished to make her accept his love
even against her will. But by this time Perseus
had grown into a particularly strong and brave
young man, and Polydectes was afraid of him.
He therefore formed a plan to get him out of his
27
Translation by John Addington Symonds.
 Stories of Argos 203
way. Inviting a number of young men to a
feast, he asked them each to bring him some valu-
able gift. Perseus impulsively declared that he
was ready to attempt anything, even to getting
the head of the gorgon Me du'sa, the most im-
possible feat imaginable. Now Medusa had once
been a beautiful maiden, who was over-proud of
her beauty, and especially of her glorious hair.

Fig. 61. Head of Medusa.

When she dared to compare herself to Athena,

the goddess avenged the insult by turning her
hair into snakes and her face into so terrible a
sight, with its great glaring eyes, and its huge
mouth with protruding tongue, .that any one who
looked upon it was turned to stone. Polydectes
caught at Perseus' offer, and while he demanded
only a horse as a gift from each of the other
young men, he insisted that nothing but this hor-
 204 Greek and Roman Mythology
rible head would be acceptable from him. One
cannot wonder that Perseus was thrown into the
depths of despair at the thought of this hopeless
adventure.
As he wandered along the shore, however,
Hermes met him, urged him not to lose hope,
and instructed him how he should accomplish the
task. For his success three things were neces-
sary, the helmet of Hades, which made its wearer
invisible, the winged sandals, and the magic wal-
let. These were in the care of the nymphs, and
no one could tell him where these nymphs were
except the Grse'ae, three extraordinary old women
who had among them just one tooth and one great
bright eye. Hermes, therefore, sent Perseus off
under the guidance of Athena, to find these old
women.
The Grae©. But when Perseus came to them, the Grsese re-
fused to tell him where the nymphs lived, and it
was only when he adroitly seized the eye, as the
old women passed it from one to another, that
he compelled them to tell him what he wanted
upon pain of being forever deprived of sight.
Having thus found the nymphs and having re-
ceived from them the helmet of Hades, the
winged sandals, and the magic wallet, still under
the guidance of Hermes and Athena the young
hero flew far away to the west, where the stream
of Ocean encircles the world. Here, by the
 Stories of Argos 205
shore, were sleeping the gorgons, Medusa and her
two terrible and immortal sisters.

Fig. 62. Perseus killing Medusa.

Now the wise Athena had warned Perseus that The gorgon
Medusa slain.
he must not look directly at the gorgons, but
must fly down from above, guiding himself by
 206 Greek and Roman Mythology
the reflection in his brightly polished shield.
Perseus did exactly as he was told, and with one
blow of his sharp sword severed Medusa's head
from her body, and thrust it into the magic wal-
let. But the two sisters were awakened by the
hissing of the snakes, and as the hero flew away
on the winged sandals, they pursued him and
would certainly have caught him had not the hel-
met of Hades made him invisible.
Atlas turned On his return journey, Perseus came to the
to stonG,
entrance of the Mediterranean Sea, where the
giant Atlas ruled, rich in flocks and herds and
proud of his Garden of the Hes per'i des, where
grew trees of golden apples. Now Atlas had
learned from an oracle that one day a son of
Zeus would come who would rob him of the cher-
ished golden fruit. When, therefore, Perseus
came, announcing himself as the son of Zeus and
demanding rest and a hospitable welcome, Atlas
not only refused him but tried violently to drive
him from his land. Perseus was no match for
the giant in strength, but he drew from the wallet
the terrible gorgon's head. Atlas was changed
into a mountain; his beard and hair became trees,
and his bones, rocks; his head towered high among
the clouds, and the sky with all its stars rested
upon his shoulders. This is the Mt. Atlas in
Africa that still guards the entrance to the
Mediterranean Sea, rising opposite Gibraltar.
 Stories of Argos 207
Next the hero came to the land of Ethiopia, perwtuand
where Cepheus and his wife Cas si o pe'a ruled.
Because the queen had boasted that she was more
beautiful than the ocean nymphs, Poseidon in

Fig. 63. Atlas supporting the Heavens.

anger had sent a terrible sea-monster to devastate

the coast, and the oracle had pronounced that only
by the sacrifice of the princess An drom'e da
could the land be freed from this terror. So,
when Perseus came flying by on his winged san-
 208 Greek and Roman Mythology
dais, he saw a lovely maiden chained to a rock
and raising tearful eyes to heaven. He stopped,
learned of the cruel sacrifice, and' secured from
Cepheus the promise that if he should kill the
monster and free the maiden, he should have her
as his wife. The sword that had severed Me-
dusa's head from her body now put an end to
Poseidon's monster, and the grateful parents re-
ceived the conqueror as a worthy son-in-law.
But while they were celebrating the wedding-
feast, Phineus, to whom Andromeda's hand had
been promised, but who had held back while the
terrible sea-serpent threatened, rushed in with a
strong band of followers and attempted to claim
his bride and slay his courageous rival. Again
Medusa's head was drawn out, and Phineus and
his company were turned to,stone,
poiydectes During Perseus' absence Polydectes had be-
turned to . .
stone. come more violent and tyrannical than ever, and
Dictys and Danae had been compelled to take
refuge at a shrine. Here they were when the
hero returned in triumph to Seriphus. Polydec-
tes was seated in the midst of his wicked court,
assembled to witness the discomfiture of the
foolish young man who had gone out on such an
impossible adventure. Even when Perseus came
before them and showed the wallet, the king re-
fused to believe that it contained the dreadful
head. As the company looked scornfully on him,
the hero drew forth the head, and instantly Poly-
 Stories of Argos 209
dectes and his whole court became stone images.
Dictys was made king of Seriphus, the gorgon's
head was presented to Athena, on whose breast-
plate, or segis, it ever after appeared, and Per-
seus, accompanied by his mother and his bride,
returned to his native land of Argos.
The hero's grandfather, Acrisius, had heard
that his grandson was coming and had fled to an-
other town to avoid his fate, but Perseus, inno-
cent of any evil intention, followed him, wishing
to persuade him to return. In an athletic con-
test Perseus threw a discus, which, bounding
aside, hit Acrisius on the foot, thus causing his
death and bringing the fulfilment of the old
prophecy. After this Perseus felt unwilling to
succeed to the throne of his grandfather; he
therefore effected an exchange with his cousin
and became king of Mycenae and Tiryns.
 CHAPTER XII

HERACLES (HERCULES)

Heracles' O F all the heroes, Her'a cles, better known by

J
birth. #
his Roman name, Her'cu les, was by far the most
widely honored and the greatest, and the stories
of his deeds of prowess are many. His mother
was Alcme'na, a grandchild of Perseus, and a
daughter of E lec'try on, king of Mycenae. Her
father married her to a famous warrior, Am-
phi'try on by name, who by accident killed his
father-in-law and was forced with his wife to
flee to Thebes. On one occasion when Amphi-
tryon was away fighting, Zeus visited Alcmena
in the form of her husband, and later, when twin
sons were born to her, the one, Heracles, was
declared to be Zeus's son, while the other was the
son of Amphitryon.
Hera's Now just before Heracles' birth Zeus had de-
enmity.
clared in the assembly of the gods that a descend-
ant of Perseus would soon be born who should
rule mightily over Mycenae. Hera, always jeal-
ous of Zeus's children by other wives, plotted to
foil his purpose. She extracted from him a
promise that the child first born on a certain day
210
Fig. 64. Heracles.
 Heracles (Hercules) 213
should be the ruler in that land. Having secured
this, she retarded the birth of Heracles and
brought his cousin Eu rys'theus first to the light.
Nor did her jealous hatred end there, for through-
out his life Heracles suffered labors and great
unhappiness at her hands.
His troubles and dangers began in his baby- Heracles
1 ! -^ . * , TT - t 1 . . strangles the
hood, r o r one night when Heracles and his twin serpents,
brother were ten months old, their mother had
laid them side by side in their father's great
curved shield, and rocking the shining cradle had
hushed them to sleep: " Sleep, my babes, sleep
sweetly and light; sleep, brothers twain, goodly
children. Heaven prosper your slumbering now
and your awakening to-morrow." At midnight
Hera sent two terrible serpents with evil gleam-
ing eyes and poisonous fangs to kill Heracles.
Then the babies awoke, and the mortal's son cried
aloud and tried to slip from the cradle, but Her-
acles gripped the poisonous serpents by the
throats and strangled them with his baby hands.
Alcmena heard the cry and called upon her hus-
band to make haste and see what was wrong.
Calling on his slaves to follow, Amphitryon
sprang from his bed and rushed to the cradle.
There was Heracles capering with joy and hold-
ing out the strangled serpents for his father to
see. His parents, appalled at the evil omen, con-
sulted a seer as to what it might mean, and were
told that their son was to be a mighty hero, who,
 214 Greek and Roman Mythology
after many labors, should go to share the life of
the immortals.28
educauVn ^ ° Heracles, commonly known as Amphitry-
on's son, grew strong and active; from his father

Fig. 65. Heracles strangling the Serpents.

he learned to drive a chariot, from a son of

Hermes all kinds of athletic games, and from a
son of Apollo he learned music. This unfor-
tunate tutor was the first to feel his pupil's power,
for in a moment of rage the boy killed him with
a blow of his lyre. Then Amphitryon sent him
" Theocritus, Idyl XXIV.
 Heracles (Hercules) 215
to be brought up among the shepherds. It is told
that once at cross-roads Heracles met two women,
Duty and Pleasure, and that each asked him to
take her as his guide. Notwithstanding the en-
ticing offers Pleasure made him, the hero chose
Duty and followed her through life.
When he was grown, Heracles married the pe Twelve
0
Labors.
daughter of the king of Thebes. But Hera, who

Fig. 66. Five of Heracles' Labors.

still hated Alcmena's son, sent a cursed madness

upon him so that he threw his own children into
the fire. Seeking purification from his crime, he
left his country and his wife and journeyed to
Delphi. The god commanded that he should
serve his cousin Eurystheus and so make atone-
ment. Thus, as Hera had planned, Zeus's son
became the servant of Eurystheus, at whose bid-
ding he performed twelve great labors. The
 216 Greek and Roman Mythology
number was twelve because Heracles is a sun-god,
and the labors follow the course of the sun
through the months, beginning near at hand in
Argolis and ending in the lower world.
CD The A ferocious lion, whose lair was a cave in the
Nemean '
Lion. mountains of Argolis, was ravaging the country
round. Eurystheus ordered Heracles to rid him
of this terror. Finding that his arrows did not
even pierce the beast's hide, Heracles finally
caught him in his cave and strangled him; then
he bore him back to Mycenae. But Eurystheus
was so terrified by the sight of the dead lion that
he ordered the hero never thereafter to enter the
city, but to display his spoils outside the walls.
The skin of the lion, impervious to all weapons,
Heracles always afterwards wore.
(2) The In the marsh of Lerna, also in Argolis, lived
Lernean J ° '
Hydra, the Hydra, a serpent with nine heads, and so
poisonous that its touch or its foul breath caused
death. This beast Heracles attacked with his
sword, but finding that as he cut off one head
two grew in its place, he ordered his nephew and
faithful companion Io la'us, to burn each neck the
instant he had severed the head. One head was
immortal; this he buried under a stone. The
Hydra seems to represent the malaria coming
from a marsh, until it is dried up by the sun.
<3) The The scene of the next three labors was Ar-
Erymanthian ... T-^. TT i 1 r . 1 1 t

Boar. cadia. First, Heracles caught a fierce wild boar

in a net and brought it alive to Eurystheus, who
 Heracles (Hercules) 217
was so fearful of it that he jumped into a large
jar and only peeped out at it over the rim.
Next, a golden-horned doe, unlike most-does ay The
very dangerous, had to be caught. Its brazen Doe.
hoofs never knew fatigue, and it led Heracles a
chase for a whole year before it was caught and
brought to Mycenae.
Near the Stym pha'li an Lake lived huge birds ^> pgMMt
with arrow-like feathers and mighty talons, who Blrds-

Fig. 67. Heracles killing the Hydra.

used to snatch men and beasts and carry them

away. At Athena's suggestion, Heracles aroused
these birds with cymbals and then shot them with
arrows which he had dipped in the Hydra's
poison.
His next task carried the hero to Elis, where (6> The
he was sent to clean the stables of Au ge'as, which Augeas.
had not been cleaned in thirty years. This he ac-
218 Greek and Roman Mythology
complished by turning the course of the river
Al phe'us so that it flowed through the stables.
King Augeas cheated him of the reward he had
promised, and later, when he was free, Heracles
took vengeance upon him and, at the same time,

Fig. 68. Heracles carrying the Boar.

established in Elis the Olympic Games in honor

of his father Zeus.
King Minos of Crete had been presented with
a beautiful bull by Poseidon, but, as he refused
to offer it in sacrifice, it had been driven mad
and was a menace to the whole island. Heracles
tamed the brute and rode it across the sea back
to Greece. Later the bull escaped and went to
 Heracles (Hercules) 219
Marathon, where the hero Theseus finally killed it.
Di o me'des was a son of Ares and ruled as (8) The
king in the savage land of Thrace. He had Diomedes.
marvelous horses whom
he fed on the flesh of
men. When Heracles
attempted to capture
these fierce beasts, the
Thracians in great num-
bers attacked him, but
he and Iolaiis drove
them off and bore the
horses back to Eurys-
theus.
Hip pol'y ta was at (9) The
Girdle of
this time the queen of Hippolyta.
the Amazons, a warlike
tribe of women that
lived near the Euxine
Sea. Ares had given
her a girdle, and Eu-
rystheus' daughter cov-
eted it. When Hera-
cles arrived at her court
F i g . 69. A m a z o n .
and asked for the gir-
dle, Hippolyta was so struck by his strength
and beauty that she would have given it him,
had not Hera, unwilling that he should get
off so easily, roused the other Amazons to at-
 220 Greek and Roman Mythology
tack him. Then Heracles, thinking that the
queen had played him false, killed her. On his
way home, from this adventure, ,when he had
come to Troy, he found the king La om'e don in
great trouble. For when Poseidon and Apollo
had built for him the walls of his city, he had
failed to give them the reward he had promised.
Poseidon had, therefore, sent a dreadful sea-mon-
ster to ravage the coast, and nothing would free
the city from this terror but that He si'o ne,
Laomedon's daughter, should be offered to the
monster. The maiden was waiting to be de-
voured when Heracles came and agreed to kill
the serpent in return for the gift of some won-
derful horses that Laomedon had received from
Zeus in payment for his stolen son, Gan'y mede.
The incorrigible king cheated Heracles, too, and
later paid for his dishonesty with his life,
do) The His tenth labor called Heracles to the far west,
Geryon. where the sun sinks into the stream of Ocean.
Here lived Ge'ry on, an extraordinary being with
three bodies, six legs and six arms, and a pair
of monstrous wings. He was very rich, and
thousands of glorious red cattle fed on his land
under the guard of an ever watchful dog and a
strong herdsman. Heracles sailed thither in a
golden bowl, which the sun had given him, using
his lion's skin as a sail. As he passed through
the straits that separate Europe from Africa, he
landed and set up the Pillars of Hercules as a
 Heracles (Hercules) 221
monument of his feat. On arriving at the coun-
try of Geryon he was attacked first by the dog
and then by the herdsman, but he killed 'them
both, and finally, after a terrific struggle, crushed
Geryon himself and drove off the cattle. Just

Fig. 70. Heracles in the bowl of the Sun.

what route he took on his homeward way it is

difficult to say, but he seems to have visited all
the lands of western Europe and to have had
many adventures and done many marvelous deeds.
On the Aventine Hill, later a part of Rome, he
met and killed the giant Cacus, who had stolen
 222 Greek and Roman Mythology
some of his cattle, dragging them off to his cave
by the tails so that their tracks might mislead
Heracles. But the other cattle dowed as they
passed the cave, and the captives answered them,
thus betraying the hiding-place. Approaching
Greece from the north, at last he brought the
cattle to Eurystheus, who sacrificed them to Hera.
(ii) The When Zeus had married Hera, she had pre-
r
Apples of the #

Hesperides. sented him with some golden apples, which were

kept up in the north near the land of the Hyper-
boreans and were guarded by a dragon. To learn
just where to find them Heracles must catch and
hold Nereus, the Old Man of the Sea, who, like
Proteus, had the power of changing his form.
But whether he became a raging lion or a flame
of fire or flowing water, Heracles held him fast
and at length had his question answered. On
his way he had various adventures, for in Libya
he met the giant Antaeus, a son of Earth, who was
accustomed to challenge all comers to wrestle with
him. As every time he fell to earth he rose
with redoubled strength, he had always been the
victor, and a temple near by was adorned with
the skulls of his victims. Heracles conquered
him by holding him up in his arms, away from
his mother Earth, until he crushed in his ribs.
While the hero was sleeping after this combat,
the Pygmies swarmed about him and tried to
bury him alive in the sand, but he awoke and
amused himself by picking them up and bundling
 Heracles (Hercules) 223
them into his lion's skin to carry home with him.
In Egypt the king tried to sacrifice him, as he
did all strangers, to Zeus, but Heracles burst his
bonds and dashed out the brains of his captors.
In the Caucasus Mountains he found and freed
Prometheus, who for ages had been bound there
for having disobeyed Zeus and given fire to
men. (See p. 10.) At last he came to the gar-
den where the apples grew and there found Atlas
holding up the heavens. (This would make it
seem that the garden was in the west, but mytho-
logical geography is sometimes hard to follow.)
He persuaded Atlas to get the apples for him,
taking the giant's burden while he was gone.
Atlas returned with the apples but refused to
take up his burden again, preferring to be the
bearer of the apples to Eurystheus. Heracles,
pretending to agree, asked him to take the heavens
only for one nlioment while he put a cushion on
his shoulder. The stupid giant was taken in, and,
of course, once the transfer had been made,
Heracles went on his way leaving Atlas to his old
burden.29
His twelfth and last labor took Heracles to berus.
02) Cer-
the lower world. Here he was guided and as-
sisted by Athena and Hermes, and with their help
safely passed by the dangers of the way and
29
Cf. the story of Perseus turning Atlas to stone, p. 207;
such inconsistencies are due to the independent develop-
ment of the separate stories.
 224 Greek and Roman Mythology
came to the presence of King Pluto. The king
agreed to let him take the threes-headed watch-
dog, Cerberus, if he could get him' without using
a weapon. This his great strength enabled him
to do, and he took the dog to Mycenae. Cer-
berus was afterwards returned to the lower world.
The Service Although his twelve labors were now ended,
Heracles had no rest; Hera's hate still pursued
him. While he was staying with a certain king,
he killed his host's son, out of resentment for an
imagined injury, and because of this violation
of hospitality he suffered from a painful illness.
When he went to Delphi to ask how he might
escape this trouble, Apollo refused to answer,
whereupon Heracles stole the tripod and was
about to set up an oracle of his own. Apollo
hastened to defend his sacred shrine, and the
combatants were parted only by a thunderbolt
from Zeus. They thereupon swore loyal friend-
ship with one another, and Apollo gave the hero
an answer to his question. He might expiate his
crime by having himself sold as a slave at public
auction and giving the price to the family of the
slain man. Om'pha le, Queen of Libya, having
bought him, he served her faithfully for the allot-
ted term. Part of the time he was fighting his
mistress' enemies and keeping her country from
harm, but most of the time he sat at her feet in
womanish clothes, employed in spinning and
weaving and other feminine tasks.
 Heracles (Hercules) 225
At the end of his term of service he turned his tion
The ofdestruc-
Troy.
attention to avenging himself on the faithless
Laomedon. Assembling a force of men and
ships he attacked Troy and took it, putting to the
sword the king and all his sons except Priam.
Him he made king in his father's place.
On his return to Greece he married De ian i'ra, gejanira and
J
' Nessus.
after fighting and conquering her former unwel-
come lover, the river-god Ach e lo'us. Ancheloiis
in the struggle took the form of a bull, and the
horn which Heracles broke off was afterwards
used as the horn of plenty or cornucopia.30 After
this victory again he was attacked by his madness
and killed a boy at his father-in-law's court.
Self-exiled, with his wife, he left the country,
and starting again on his wanderings, came to a
river where the centaur Nessus acted as ferry-
man. When Nessus, after carrying Dejanira
over on his back, attempted to run away with her,
Heracles drew one of his poisoned arrows and
shot him. Before he died he gave Dejanira a
vial filled with his own blood, telling her that if
her husband's love ever seemed to fail she should
dip a robe in the blood and his love would be
restored. '
Not Ions: after this the hero undertook to pun- The death
&
. . of Heracles.
ish a king who had once refused to give him his
daughter in marriage. He took the city and car-
30
Some say that the horn of plenty was the horn of the
goat Amalthea; see p. 7.
226 Greek and Roman Mythology
ried off the princess I'o le as his captive. Stop-
ping on his way home to sacrifice to Zeus, he sent
a messenger to get him a suitable garment to wear

Fig. 71. Nessus running off with Dejanira.

at the sacrifice. Then Dejanira, fearing that his

love had turned from her to the captive Iole,
remembered the centaur's advice and sent him a
robe that she had dipped in the blood. When
 Heracles (Hercules) 227
Heracles put it on, it clung to his body and ate
into his flesh like fire. In his agony he threw
the messenger that had brought the garment into
the sea, and then, preferring death to such tor-
ture, having ordered a great funeral-pyre to be
raised on.a mountain-top, he laid himself upon it
and begged his friends to set fire to it. All re-
fused to be responsible for the hero's death, until
at length Phil oc te'tes, partly from pity and partly
because of Heracles' offer of his famous bow and
arrows, applied the torch. Amid columns of
smoke, and thunder and lightning sent by Zeus
to glorify the end of his son, the hero's spirit left
the earth. Thereafter he was taken into Olympus
and made a god, and Hera, relenting, gave him
to wife her own daughter Hebe. His earthly
wife Dejanira, in grief and remorse, killed her-
self.
Heracles was worshiped both as a hero* and as The worship
of
1 1 11 1 • 11 • 1 Heracles.
a god, and was called upon especially in the
palestra and in all athletic contests. Young men
regarded him as their special friend and helper.
In Athens a temple was built in honor of Her-
acles, the Warder off of Evil, in memory of his
many good deeds to men, and in Rome, as Her-
cules, he was worshiped as the Unconquered and
the Defender. He is represented as a gigantic
man of remarkable muscular development. His
lion's skin hangs over his shoulder and his club
is in his hand.
 CHAPTER XIII
STORIES O F CRETE, SPARTA, CORINTH,
AND .ETOLIA

I. STORIES OF CRETE
Enropa.31 E u RO'PA, the daughter of the Phoenician king,
with her friends and companions was one day

Fig. 72. Europa on the Bull.

gathering flowers in the meadows by the sea-

shore ; merrily they were filling their baskets with
31
Following Moschus, Idyl II.
 Stories of Crete 229
daffodils and lilies, violets and roses, contending
who could gather the most. Looking down from
his high heaven on the pretty group, Zeus marked
the princess Europa in the midst, preeminent
among her companions, just as Aphrodite is pre-
eminent among the Graces. To see her was to
desire her for his own, so he laid aside his scepter
and his thunderbolt and put on the form of a
white bull, a beautirul bull that had never felt
the yoke nor drawn the plow. So he came into
the flowery meadow, and the maidens did not fear
him but gathered around him and began to stroke
his snowy sides. At Europa's touch he lowed
gently and beseechingly and kneeling down looked
back at her with gentle, loving eyes as if to in-
vite her to his broad white back. She spoke to
her playmates and said: " Come, dear com-
panions, let us ride on this bull's back, for he
looks kind and mild, not at all like other bulls,
and so like a man's is his understanding that he
lacks only the power of speech." So she sat
down smiling upon his back, and the others would
have followed her, but suddenly the bull, having
gained what he wanted, stood up and in all haste
made for the sea.
Then Europa stretched out her hands to her
companions, crying aloud for help. But already
they had reached the shore, and still the bull
rushed on, right over the waves with hoofs un-
wet. The Nereids rose from the waters and
 230 Greek and Roman Mythology
frolicked about them, riding on the dolphins;
Poseidon, calming the waves, guided them on
their watery path, and the Tritons-, trumpeting on
their long shells, sounded the marriage-hymn.
Europa, holding with one hand to the horn of
the bull and with the other holding up her long
robe that it might not be wet with the waves,
spoke to the bull: " Whither are you bearing
me, O godlike bull? It is clear that you are a
god, for none but a god could do this thing.
Alas! why did I ever leave my father's house to
follow you and to journey alone on such a strange
sea-voyage! " And the bull answered: " Take
heart, dear maiden, and fear not the salt sea-
waves, for I am Zeus himself, and it is love of
you that has driven me to journey over the sea
in the form of a bull. Soon Crete shall receive
you, and the island that nourished me as an in-
fant shall be your wedding-place, and there you
shall bear me famous sons that shall rule as
kings."
Minos 1, and In Crete, then, Europa bore to Zeus three sons,
of whom one, Minos, became king of the island,
and by his just and enlightened rule brought civili-
zation and prosperity to his country and extended
its power over neighboring lands. After his
death, in consideration of his righteousness and
wisdom, he and his brother Rhadamanthus were
made judges of the dead in the lower world. (See
p. 189.) Minos II, the grandson of this Minos,
Fig. 73. Daedalus and Icarus.
 Stories of Crete 233
seems to have been of very different character;
for when, in answer to prayer, Poseidon had sent
him from the sea a splendid white bull for-sacri-
fice, he offered to the gods an inferior animal and
put the bull among his own herds. In punish-
ment, Poseidon inspired in his wife an unholy
passion for the bull, so that she left her home and
followed the beast all over the island. From
their union sprang the Minotaur, half bull and
half man.
During the reign of Minos there had arrived Dsedaius.
on his shores an exile from Athens, Dse'da lus,
who was the most skilful artist and engineer of
his time. When a safe place in which to confine
the Minotaur was needed, Dsedaius built the Laby-
rinth, so winding and complicated a structure
that no man or beast once shut inside could ever
find the exit. Notwithstanding this and other
services the artist fell under the king's displeasure
and was himself, with his son, imprisoned in the
Labyrinth he had designed. Knowing no way
of escape to be possible, he constructed for him-
self and his son Ic'a rus wings and fastened them
on with wax. Unfortunately, however, though
Dsedaius had warned his son not to fly too near
the sun, Icarus forgot the injunction, and before
he could be recalled the wax had melted, and the
boy fell into the sea that from him was called
the Icarian Sea, the part of the iEgean between
the Cyclades and Asia Minor. Dsedaius himself
 234 Greek and Roman Mythology
made good his escape to Italy and there dedicated
his wings in a temple of Apollo.
II. STORIES OF SPARTA

castor and The Di os cu'ri, Castor and his brother Pol y-

deu'ces, the latter better known by his Roman
name, Pollux, were the local heroes of Sparta.

Fig. 74. T h e Dioscuri (Ancient statues now set up be-

fore the king's palace in Rome).

Their mother Leda, whose mortal husband was

the king Tyn da're us, had by him two children,
Cly tem nes'tra, who became the wife of King
Ag a mem'non of Mycense, and Castor. But
Zeus made love to Leda, taking upon himself
 Stories of Sparta 235
when he visited her the form of a swan, and to
him she bore two other children, Helen, whose
divine beauty brought about the Trojan 'War,
and Polydeuces. Castor was famous as a
trainer of horses, while Polydeuces was the great-
est of all boxers. Between the two brothers
there was so great a love that when the mortal's
son, Castor, was killed, Polydeuces, immortal by
virtue of his divine father, obtained permission
to divide his immortality with his brother.
Therefore on alternate days after their death the
two were among the dead in Hades, and among
the gods in heaven, where they are still visible
as the bright stars, Castor and Pollux, in the
constellation Gemini, or the Twinsi They were
patrons of sailors, to whom they appear as balls
of fire upon the masts, giving promise of clear
weather after a storm.32 Among the Romans
they received worship, and after the battle of
Lake Regillus, fought between the Romans and
the exiled Tarquins, they appeared in the Forum
as two glorious youths on white horses and an-
nounced to the Romans the victory of their
armies. In their honor a temple was built on
the spot where they had appeared.33
32
This may perhaps be identified with the phenomenon
known as St. Elmo's Fire.
33
Some say that it was Castor alone who appeared.
 236 Greek and Roman Mythology

III. STORIES OF CORINTH

Sisyphus. Corinth, through its situation on the isthmus

holding command of two seas, was from the be-
ginning an important commercial^ city, and its
people were known as clever business men able
to outwit all comers. This reputation began with
the founder of the city, Sis'yphus, who began
his career by bargaining with the river-god
A so'pus for the never-failing spring Pi re'ne, on
the citadel of Corinth, in return for which he
was to give the river-god information about his
daughter, stolen by Zeus. In punishment for this
interference with his plans, Zeus sent Death to
take Sisyphus. Death himself, outwitted by the
shrewd Corinthian, was caught, and while he
was kept in chains, no one on earth could die.
This state of things could not be allowed, and
Ares succeeded in freeing Death and even in giv-
ing Sisyphus over to him. Before he was haled
off to the lower world, however, the king exacted
in secret a promise from his wife that she would
offer no funeral sacrifices. When Pluto com-
plained bitterly of this neglect, Sisyphus, feigning
righteous indignation, offered to see that his wife
did the proper thing, if for the purpose he was
allowed to return to the upper air. Permission
was given, and once outside the gates of Hades
the wily king refused to return, lived to a ripe
old age and at last died a natural death. But
 Stories of Corinth 237
no one may cheat the gods and escape punishment,
however clever he may be. In Hades Sisyphus
was condemned eternally to roll a weighty stone
up a hill, which ever, as it reached the top, rolled
down again.
Sisyphus' grandson Bel ler'o phon was of very Beiiero-
different mold. In his youth he was forced into
exile because he had unintentionally killed a man.
Hoping to be purified he went to Tiryns, and here
the wife of King Prce'tus fell in love with him,
and when he would not respond to her love,

Fig. 75. Chimsera.

falsely accused him to her husband. Fearing di-

vine anger if he himself killed a guest, Proetus
sent him to the king of Lycia, and with him a
secret message asking to have him slain. The
king of Lycia at first treated Bellerophon with
generous hospitality, but when he had read the
message he sent him off on the dangerous ad-
238 Greek and Roman Mythology
venture of killing the Chi mse'ra. This beast had
the fore part of a lion, the hinder part of a
dragon, and in the middle the head of a goat,
and breathed out fire from her nostrils. A seer
consulted by Bellerophon told him that his suc-
cess depended upon his catching and taming the
winged horse Peg'a sus, and advised him to pass
a night beside Athena's altar that he might secure
the goddess' help. Pegasus was the offspring of
Poseidon by Medusa, from whose neck he had
sprung when Perseus cut off her head. Athena
had given him to the Muses, and he had opened
for them by a blow of his hoof the sacred spring
of Hip po cre'ne on Mt. Hel'i con. While Bel-
lerophon slept by her altar, Athena appeared to
him and put into his hand a golden bridle, with
which he easily caught Pegasus while he was.
drinking at the spring of Pirene. Mounted on
the winged horse he flew down from above and
killed the terrible Chimsera. The Lycian king
sent him on other dangerous adventures and at
last set an ambush to kill him. But when Bel-
lerophon came out safe and victorious from all,
the king, seeing that he was favored by the gods,
gave him his daughter in marriage and half his
kingdom as dowry. In time Bellerophon became
so elated by his achievements that he challenged
the immortal gods themselves, for he attempted
to fly to Zeus's very dwelling on the winged
horse. Zeus hurled a thunderbolt, and Bellero-
Fig. 76. Bellerophon and Pegasus.
 Stories of iEtolia 241
phon fell to earth maimed and blinded — an ex-
ample to the proud not to attempt flying too high.
Pegasus came to the dwelling of Zeus and was
given the honor of drawing the thunder-chariot.
IV. T H E CALYDONIAN BOAR H U N T

During the time when the god-descended he-

roes lived in Greece,, several joint expeditions were
undertaken by them. One of these was the Caly-
donian boar hunt. Calydon was a town of i£to-
lia ruled over by CEneus, who was the first man
of that part of Greece to learn of Dionysus the
culture of the vine. He was married to Al the'a,
who bore to him a son Mel e a'ger. When the
boy was seven days old, the Fates told Althea
that he would die when the log that was then
burning on the hearth should be consumed.
Hearing this Althea quenched the brand and put
it away in a box.
When Meleager had grown to be a young man,
one harvest time his father CEneus, offering sacri-
fice of the first-fruits to all the other gods, passed
over Artemis alone. In anger at this neglect
the goddess sent into his country a great and
ferocious boar, which laid waste all the country
around. Meleager summoned the heroes from
all parts of Greece, promising to him who killed
the boar its hide as a gift of honor. It was a
very distinguished company that assembled for
the hunt: Castor and Polydeuces, from Lacedse-
242 Greek and Roman Mythology
mon, Theseus, from Athens, and his friend
Pi rith'o us, Jason, later the leader of the Argo-
nauts, Am phi a ra'us of Argos, and many other
famous heroes. When the huntress At a lan'ta,

Fig. 77. Meleager.

daughter of the king of Arcadia, joined their

number, many were indignant that they should
be expected to share the danger and glory of the
enterprise with any woman, however strong, but
 Stories of iEtolia 243
Meleager loved Atalanta and insisted upon her
being received.
CEneus entertained the company for nine days,
and on the tenth they started the hunt. Three
of the number lost their lives before any one had
even wounded the beast, and Atalanta was the
first to strike him, shooting an arrow into his
back. Then Amphiaraiis shot him in the eye,
but it was Meleager who finally despatched him,
piercing between his ribs. The hide, which be-
longed to him by right, he gave to Atalanta.
This mightily enraged some of the hunters, for
they thought it unworthy that a woman should
go off with the prize of honor for which so many
men had striven; therefore the two uncles of Mel-
eager lay in wait for the maiden and took away
the hide, declaring that it belonged to them if
Meleager did not choose to keep it. Meleager
killed his uncles and restored the hide to Atalanta.
When the news of her brothers' murder at the
hands of her son came to Althea's ears, she seized
the brand from its box and threw it on the fire.
As it consumed the vital strength left Meleager's
body, and as it fell in ashes the spark of his life
went out. Althea too late repented of her act
of vengeance and took her own life. The weep-
ing women about her were changed into birds.
 CHAPTER XIV

STORIES OF ATTICA

cecrops. T H E Athenians were proud in their belief that

their early kings were not, as were those of other
Greek states, foreigners who had come to their
shores, but true sons of Attica, born of its soil.
The first king, Cecrops, who had been witness
to Athena's victory in her contest with Poseidon
for the city, was born, half man, half serpent,
from the earth.
Erectheus. Another earthborn king was E rec'theus, 34
whose form was wholly that of a serpent. At
his birth Athena took him under her protection,
and gave him in a basket into the care of the
three daughters of Cecrops, enjoining them, un-
der pain of her displeasure, not to seek to know
what the basket contained. Curiosity was too
strong for them, and when they saw the serpent
lying in the basket, they were driven mad and
leaped to death off the rock of the Acropolis.
Athena then brought Erectheus up in her own
temple and made him king of Athens. It was
he that set up the sacred wooden image of the
34
The earthborn serpent was called by some Erecthonius,
and his grandson, Erectheus,
244
 Stories of Attica 245
goddess in her temple and instituted the Pan-
athenaic Festival in her honor. At his death he
was buried in the temple precinct and was after-
wards worshiped with Athena in the Erectheum.
O ri thy'ia, one of the daughters of Erectheus, orithyia and
Boreas.
was wooed by Bo're as, the northeast wind, but
rejected his advances. One day he came upon
her as she was carrying sacrifices for Athena on
the Acropolis and bore her off to his wild north-
ern kingdom of Thrace. Boreas still conscious
of his kinship to the Athenians, served the Greeks
well at the time of the battle of Thermopylae,
when the Persian fleet was threatening the whole
coast. The Delphic oracle ordered the Athenians
to call upon their son-in-law for help, whereupon
they prayed to Boreas, who answered by shatter-
ing the Persian ships at Artemisium.
Another daughter of Erectheus was Procris, cephaius and
who was married to a young hunter named
Ceph'a lus. Aurora, goddess of the dawn, loved
Cephaius and stole him away, leaving Procris
inconsolable. In her loneliness she took to hunt-
ing with Artemis, from whom she received a dog
that never grew tired and a javelin that never
missed its mark. As Aurora could not make
Cephaius forget his love for his wife, she finally
sent him back, and he joyfully returned to his
life as a hunter, receiving from his wife the won-
derful dog and javelin. Unfortunately Procris,
being of a jealous disposition and suspecting her
 246 Greek and Roman Mythology
husband of a love affair with Aura, the morning
breeze, one day concealed herself in the bushes
to spy on them. Cephalus, hearing a rustling in
the underbrush, thought it some wild beast,
hurled his unerring javelin, and killed his wife.

Fig. 78. Cephalus and the Dawn-Goddess.

Procne and Procne and Phil o me'la were the daughters

Philomela. . °
of another early king of Athens. The Thracian
king Tereus had married Procne, but afterwards
he fell in love with the sister, Philomela, and
persuaded her to marry him by telling her that
Procne was dead. To conceal this deed from his
 Stories of Attica 247
wife he cut out Philomela's tongue and impris-
oned her in a hut in the woods. But she wove
her story into the web of a robe and contrived
to send it to her sister. At an opportunity of-
fered by the celebration of the festival of Diony-
sus, Procne visited the lonely hut and brought
Philomela in disguise to her palace. The two
sisters then wreaked on the faithless Tereus a
horrible vengeance, for Procne killed her son
It'y lus and served him up to his father at a
feast. When Tereus pursued the murderesses
and was about to kill them, the gods transformed
the three into birds, Tereus into a tufted hoo-poe,
Procne into a swallow, and Philomela into the
nightingale who still pours out her mournful
notes, grieving over the slaying of the boy
Itylus.35
As*Heracles was the great hero of the Pelopon- Theseus,
nesus, who freed all the country around from
danger, so Theseus was the hero of Attica, who
cleared the roads of giants and robbers and gave
liberty and unity to the city of Athens. There
was a question about his birth; some said that
his father was Poseidon, and alleged as a proof
of this that once when King Minos, to try the
hero's divine birth, threw a ring into the sea,
Theseus, diving in after it, returned with the
ring and a golden crown given him by Amphi-
35
Some identify Procne with the nightingale and
Philomela with the swallow.
 248 Greek and Roman Mythology
trite. It was more generally supposed, however,
that his father was ^Egeus, the king of Athens,
and his mother .ZEthra, daughter of the king of
Trcezen. Before his son was born, iEgeus left
yEthra at Troezen, after placing his sword and
sandals under a great rock with the instructions
that the boy, so soon as he was strong enough
to lift the stone and get them from under it,
should be sent to Athens.
Theseus frees Theseus grew up clever and courageous, and
the roads of o r o >
giants. tall and strong as well, so that at sixteen he easily
lifted the stone and joyfully set out for Athens.
His mother and grandfather urged him to go by
sea, for it was a short and comparatively safe
voyage, but, wishing to emulate Heracles, he pre-
ferred the perilous journey by land. On his way
he met with six great adventures. First he came
upon the giant Per i pha'tes, a son of Hephaestus,
who brained all travelers with his iron club.
Theseus overcame him and took his club. Next
he met Sinis, who compelled every passer-by to
help him bend down a tall pine tree and then,
fastening the unfortunate by the head to the top
of the tree, let it go suddenly. This fate Theseus
inflicted on the giant himself. H e killed a great
sow that ravaged the country; some say this sow
was really a woman whose foul manners earned
her this name. His fourth adventure was with
Sciron, a giant who kept watch on a narrow pass
where the cliff falls abruptly into the sea. This
 Stories of Attica 249
giant forced all travelers to wash his feet, and
when they knelt down to do so he gave them a
kick that sent them into the waters below, .where
an enormous turtle swallowed them. Theseus
gave the turtle a final feast on the giant himself.
The next giant he met he overthrew in a wrestling
match. Last of all he overcame Pro crushes,
who pressed upon strangers the hospitality of his
iron bed; but if they were too long, he cut them
off, and if they were too short, he stretched them
out to fit the bed.
When he had reached Athens and had purified Theseus meets
h l s father
himself in the river of all this slaughter, he en- -
tered the city. His long hair and his foreign
appearance exciting the laughter of some build-
ers, he took a cart that contained huge building
blocks and tossed it lightly over the roof of a
house. At the palace, although he did not dis-
close his identity, his father's new wife, the
sorceress M e d e ' a (see p. 279), recognized him
and plotted his death. She persuaded ^Egeus to
invite him to a feast and offer him a cup of
poisoned wine. As they feasted, however, The-
seus drew his sword to cut a piece of meat, and
his father, instantly recognizing the weapon,
dashed the poisoned cup to the floor and sprang
to embrace his son. In a rage of disappointed
hate, Medea called her dragon-drawn chariot and
flew away. ^Egeus now proclaimed Theseus as
his heir.
 250 Greek and Roman Mythology
Theseus kills But the hero, thirsting for dory and adven-
& J
the Minotaur. ' °
ture, first went to Marathon, where he captured
the bull that Heracles had brought from Crete,
and then, when the time came around for seven
young men and seven maidens to be sent as a
tribute from Athens to King Minos of Crete (see
p. 233), he offered himself as one of their num-
ber, hoping to win their return. The tribute had
come about in this way. King Minos' son had
been killed by the Athenians, and Minos had be-
sieged the city. The Athenians might have stood
out against him and his army, .but the gods sent a
famine and pestilence upon them, and the oracle
declared that the divine displeasure would not
be appeased until they should accept whatever
terms Minos offered. He demanded that every
year seven boys and seven girls should be sent
to Crete to be given to the Minotaur. When the
ship bearing Theseus and the thirteen other vic-
tims started out, it was equipped with a black
sail, but Theseus promised his father that should
he succeed in his adventure and kill the Minotaur,
on the return voyage he would change the black
sail for a white one. On their arrival in Crete
King Minos' daughter A ri ad'ne fell in love with
the hero at first sight and secretly gave him a
ball of string to enable him to thread the mazes
of the Labyrinth, and a sword to kill the Mino-
taur. Having succeeded by this means' in his
difficult adventure, Theseus set sail for home,
 Stories of Attica 251
carrying with him on his ship his benefactress
Ariadne. On the island of Naxos, however, he
deserted his bride while she slept,— some say
because he loved some one else and wanted to
get rid of her, others, because he was warned to
leave her there to become the wife of Dionysus.
Perhaps it was in requital of his faithlessness to

Fig. 79. Theseus killing the Minotaur.

Ariadne that the gods made him forget his

promise to raise a white sail if he returned suc-
cessful. For ^igeus, having watched long from
a high rock for the returning ship, thinking, when
he saw the black sail, that his son was dead, threw
himself from the rock and was killed.
Theseus was recognized as king, and imme- Theseus as
diately set about instituting reforms. He gave Athens.
252 Greek and Roman Mythology
up his absolute royal power, and after uniting
in one state all the divisions of Attica, he made
of it a free self-governing commonwealth. After
this he started out again on a career of adven-

Fig. 80. Theseus and the rescued Athenians.

ture. Like Heracles he went to the Amazons'

country and from there carried off their queen
An ti'o pe. To recover her the Amazons be-
sieged Athens, though Antiope herself had fallen
 Stories of Attica 253
so in love with Theseus that she fought by his
side against her own people. The Amazons were
driven off, but the queen was killed.
Pi rith'o us, king of the Lapiths, having heard The battle of
the fame of Theseus and, wishing to make trial »nd centaurs,
of him, drove off some of his cattle. Theseus
pursued him, but when they had come near to one
another, each was so filled with admiration of
the other's noble bearing and courage that by
mutual consent they gave up all thought of fight-

Fig. 81. Centaur and Lapith.

ing and swore an oath of friendship. Soon after

this Pirithous celebrated his wedding and invited
Theseus to attend. The Centaurs, who were also
guests, becoming inflamed with wine, attempted
to steal the bride. In the battle that followed
Theseus fought bravely by the side of his friend
Pirithous and the Centaurs were driven off.
 254 Greek and Roman Mythology
The theft of The two friends were now fired by the am-
J
Helen and
Persephone, bition each to have a divine wife; Theseus, there-
fore, carried off Helen, the beautiful daughter
of Zeus and Leda. As she was not yet of mar-
riageable age, he left her under the care of his
mother, and before he returned to claim her, her
two brothers, Castor and Polydeuces, rescued her
and took her back to Sparta. Pirithoiis' attempt
was yet more daring, for he induced Theseus to
help him carry off Pluto's wife, Persephone.
Not even Theseus was strong enough for this ad-
venture, and the two heroes were caught and
chained in the lower world. Theseus' adventures
might have ended here had not the mighty Hera-
cles, in his quest for Cerberus, found and freed
• him. On his return to Athens he found that
his people had turned against him and accepted
another as king. He therefore retired to the
island of Scyros, and there met his death by be-
ing thrown from a cliff.
The Theseum. The Athenians said that at the battle of Mara-
thon a glorious hero, whom they recognized as
Theseus, appeared amongst them in full armor
and led them on to victory, and after the war
the oracle commanded that Theseus' bones should
be brought from Scyros and given honorable
burial at Athens. The Athenian leader Cimon
carried out this command, and having brought
the hero's remains home amid great rejoicings,
interred them in the middle of the city and erected
 Stories of Attica 255
a temple in his honor. The wonderfully pre-
served temple in Athens called the Theseum is,
unfortunately, probably misnamed, and the true
shrine of Theseus has disappeared.
 CHAPTER XV

STORIES OF THEBES
Cadmus' WHEN Europa had been carried off to Crete
search for
Europa. by Zeus in the form of a beautiful white bull,
her father A ge'nor had ordered his sons to go
out in search of their sister and not to return
unless they found her. Cadmus, one of the sons,
therefore, set out from Phoenicia and wandered
for many years through the islands and coasts
of the sea, until at last, despairing of success,
he came to Delphi to consult the oracle. Apollo
told him that the search was quite vain and com-
manded him to follow a cow who would lead
him to the spot where he was destined to found
a new city. Hardly had Cadmus left the oracle
when the cow appeared and going before him
into Bceotia lay down near the place where later
stood the citadel of Thebes.
The founding Wishing to make a sacrifice to his patron god-
of Thebes.
dess Athena, Cadmus sent his men to the spring
of Ares, close at hand, to fetch water for the
purification. The spring was guarded by a ter-
rible dragon, himself a son of Ares, and no one
of Cadmus' men returned to tell the tale. Puz-
zled at the long delay, Cadmus went himself to
256
 Stories of Thebes 257
the spring. There lay the bloody and mangled
bodies of his companions, and over them threat-
ened the huge triple jaws and three-forked

Fig. 82. Cadmus and the Dragon.

tongues of the dragon. At the bidding of

Athena Cadmus killed the beast with a stone and
sowed in the ground its huge teeth, from which
sprang up a crop of armed men of more than
 258 Greek and Roman Mythology
human size and strength. Still at Athena's bid-
ding, Cadmus threw a stone into their midst,
whereupon they turned their weapons upon one
another and fought on fiercely until only five
were left. These five made peace with one an-
other and with Cadmus and became under him the
founders of the five great Theban families.
Harmonia's To atone for the blood of Ares' sacred dragon
slain by his hand, Cadmus had to serve the god
for eight years. At the end of this time Athena •
made him king of the new city he had founded,
and Zeus gave him as wife Harmo'nia, the
daughter of Ares and Aphrodite. All the gods
came down from Olympus to honor the wedding,
and the Muses, led by Apollo, sang the marriage
hymn. Cadmus gave to his bride a marvelous
necklace; some say it was made for him by He-
phaestus, and others that he received it from
Europa, to whcrfn it had been given by Zeus.
Whatever was its Qrigin, Harmonia's necklace
always brought disaster to its owner; indeed, not-
withstanding the splendor of his marriage, an ill
fate pursued Cadmus. Hoping to avoid his des-
tiny, he left his city and settled in Illyria, but
even there the resentment of Ares pursued him.
At last, quite discouraged, he declared in bitter-
ness that, since a serpent was so cherished and
so faithfully avenged by the gods, he wished that
he might be one. Immediately his wish was
granted and Harmonia shared his fate. The
 Stories of Thebes 259
tombs of the hero and his wife were set up in the
land of their exile and were guarded by their
geniuses in the forms of serpents. Cadmus is
credited with having introduced the alphabet into
Greece from Phoenicia.
The evil fate of Cadmus pursued his descend- Thedes- a
r
cendants of
ants. One of his four daughters was Sem'ele, oadmus.
the mother of Bacchus, who, as was told in the
account of that god (see p. 165), was burned to
ashes by the brightness of her lover Zeus. An-
other was the mother of that unfortunate Action
who was torn to pieces by his own dogs. (See p,
85.) A third became a votary of Bacchus and
in her madness tore to pieces her own son Pen-
theus. (See p. 168.) The fourth inflicted and
suffered terrible woes through Hera's anger at
her for taking care of Semele's child Bacchus.
The curse laid upon the family of Cadmus (Edipus.
passed over his one son and that son's son, but
fell with redoubled force in the next generation
upon the family of La'i us. It was in defiance
of the warning of the gods that La'ius married
his cousin Jo cas'ta, for an oracle had pronounced
that he was destined to meet his death at the
hands of a son born of that union. In order to
avoid this danger he commanded that the baby
born to his wife should at once be put to death.
The duty was entrusted to a shepherd, who, how-
ever, being tender-hearted, could not bear to take
the infant's life, but after piercing his feet and
 260 Greek and Roman Mythology
binding them with thongs, intended to leave him
to his fate on Mt. Cithseron. It happened that
a shepherd of the king of Corinth, who was pas-
turing his flocks on the mountains, received the
poor maimed infant and took him to his king and
queen. As they were childless, the royal couple
gladly adopted him and brought him up as their
own son.
The prophecy. The boy, called CEdipus or Swollen-Foot, grew
up in the belief that he was the real son and
rightful heir of the king of Corinth, but a cer-
tain insulting hint that he once received with
regard to his birth troubled him enough to send
him to Apollo's oracle at Delphi to ask the truth.
He received no direct answer to his question, but
was told that he was destined to kill his father
and marry his mother. Horrified by this proph-
ecy, he turned his back on Corinth, resolved never
to return while his supposed parents lived.
Fulfilment of As he hurried along the steep mountain path
e prop ecy. j e a ( j; n g a w a y f r0 m Delphi, he met a chariot com-
ing from the direction of Thebes. The charioteer
somewhat arrogantly ordered him out of the way,
and CEdipus, accustomed to being treated as a
prince and being, besides, deeply troubled over
the tragic prophecy, violently resented the order
and provoked a blow from the master of the
chariot. In a passion of rage CEdipus drew his
sword and killed both master and charioteer.
The old man was King La'ius. On his arrival
 Stories of Thebes 261
at Thebes CEdipus found the city in great tribu-
lation over the destruction caused by a mysterious
being with the body of a lion, the head of a
woman, and the wings of a bird. This creature,
the Sphinx, had seated herself above the road
and asked all passers-by the following riddle:

Fig. 83. CEdipus and the Sphinx.

" What is it that, though it has one voice, is four-

footed, and two-footed, and three-footed?"
Those who could not answer the riddle the Sphinx
killed, and a great pile of whitening bones lay
about her. But CEdipus was not daunted by the
fate of those others who had gone before, and
when the question was put to him he answered:
 262 Greek and Roman Mythology
" It is man, since in his babyhood he goes on
hands and knees, in his manhood he walks up-
right, and when old supports himself with a
cane." In chagrin at being answered the Sphinx
threw herself over the cliff, and thus the city was
freed. The Thebans honored the stranger who
had come to their relief in every way, and even
made him their king and gave him as wife the
widowed queen. Jocasta bore to him four chil-
dren, two sons and two daughters, and for a long
time he lived in peace and prosperity, loved and
honored by all his grateful people.
The prophecy But at last the day of retribution came, and
made clear.
a blight and pestilence fell upon the city, so that
the fields yielded no grain, and men and beasts
died. To the ambassadors sent to Delphi to
learn the cause the answer was returned that not
until the city was purged of the murderer of
King Lai'us would the curse be removed. CEdi-
pus had never suspected that the old man he had
killed on the road from Delphi was the Theban
king, and the truth was the less likely to come to
him since the sole attendant of the murdered
king who had escaped had told a big story of
a robber band that had attacked them on the
road. (Edipus, therefore, proclaimed that who-
soever knew anything of the men who had done
this deed should declare it, and that the guilty
ones should be put to death or driven into ban-
ishment. A blind seer who was brought to tes-
 Stories of Thebes 263
tify before the king at first refused to speak, and
when, goaded by a charge of treachery, he de-
clared, " Thou art the man who has brought
pollution upon this land! " CEdipus turned upon
him in furious disbelief* Only when he learned
the time and place of the murder and the age
and appearance of the murdered man, was fhe
convinced of his own guilt, and with this con-
viction came a yet more bitter discovery. For
through the testimony of the Theban and Corin-
thian shepherds who had been concerned in his
exposure and his adoption as an infant he learned
that he was the son of Lai'us whom he had killed
and the husband of his own mother. The terrible
truth had already broken upon Jocasta, and she
had gone into the private chambers of the palace
and hung herself. With the pin of her brooch
her wretched husband put out both his eyes,
that he might never look upon the holy sun
again.
Jocasta's brother Creon took the throne, and cEdipus'
blind CEdipus, led by his heroic and faithful
daughter An tig'o ne, went into exile. His end
was mysterious. At Athens, under the noble
king Theseus, he found refuge and protection,
but with prophetic knowledge of what his fate
was to be, he sought the sacred grove of the
Furies at Co lo'nus, close to Athens, and there
amid thunder and strange portents he disappeared
from the sight of men.
 264 Greek and Roman Mythology
The seven The curse that rested on the family was not
J
against
Thebes. lifted by CEdipus' death. His two sons, Ete'o-
cles and Pol y ni'ces, who had deserted their fa-
ther in his old age and blindness and by him had
been cursed for this faithlessness, quarreled about
the throne, and Eteocles drove his brother from
the kingdom. Polynices, therefore, went to
Argos and persuaded the king A dras'tus, to
champion his cause. An army was gathered, and
seven great chiefs were found to undertake the
expedition against seven-gated Thebes. The seer
Am phi a ra'us went unwillingly, for he knew that
the war was contrary to the will of the gods, and
that from it he should never return alive. But
when he married it had been agreed that if any
difference should arise between him and his
brother-in-law Adrastus, his wife E ri'phy le
should be the judge. Polynices, therefore, bribed
her with Harmonia's necklace, and she treacher-
ously sent her husband to the war. Of the seven
heroes Adrastus alone returned alive. The
brothers, Eteocles? and Polynices, meeting in sin-
gle combat, died at one another's hands, thus
fulfilling the curse with which CEdipus had cursed
them when they had deserted him in his day of
trouble and exile.
Antigone's Eteocles was buried by Creon and the Thebans
J
sacrifice. .
with all due honor, but it was decreed that the
body of Polynices, as that of a traitor, should
be left for the dogs and vultures to devour. An-
 Stories of Thebes 265
tigone, loyal to her brother as she had been to
her father, at the risk of her life and in spite of
the dissuasion of her weaker sister Is me'ne, gave
the body the last rites of burial, without which
the shade must wander hopeless on the banks of
Acheron. In punishment she was buried alive,
and her lover, Creon's son, killed himself upon
her tomb. With Antigone's act of self-sacrifice
and dreadful death the long tragedy of the family
of Cadmus came to an end.
In the next generation the city of Thebes The
finally fell before the seven sons of the original
Seven, and the son of Polynices was established
on the throne.' This war is known as the war of
the Ep ig'o ni or descendants.
 CHAPTER XVI

THE ARGONAUTIC EXPEDITION ™

The Golden ALTHOUGH Ath'a mas, a king in northern

b
Fleece. ' _
Greece, had two children, Phrixus and Helle, he
left his first wife and married again. This sec-
ond wife, like the traditional step-mother wish-

Fig. 84. Phrixus and the Ram.

ing to get rid of the children, persuaded Athamas

to sacrifice Phrixus to Zeus, and the sacrifice
was about to be accomplished when Hermes sent
a ram with golden fleece which carried off the
30
Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica.
266
 The Argonautic Expedition 267
two children on his back. As they passed over
the strait now known as the Dardanelles, Helle
lost her hold and fell off into the water.. That
is how this strait in ancient times came to be
called the Hellespont. Phrixus kept on to Col-
chis, on the Euxine (now the Black) Sea, where
he offered up the ram to Zeus and gave the golden
fleece to M e'tes, the king, who hung it on a tree
in the sacred grove of Ares, under the guardian-
ship of a sleepless dragon.
The nephew of Athamus, Pe'li as, king of I ol'- Jason,
cus, a violent and unjust man, seized the power
and possessions that belonged to his half-brother
iEson. Fearing for the life of his son Jason,
^Eson sent him as a baby to be brought up by
the centaur Chiron, who, unlike most of the cen-
taurs, was wonderfully wise and just and was
famous both as a physician and as the tutor of
many of the heroes. Jason had taken part in
the Calydonian boar-hunt when he was hardly
more than a boy. He had learned from Chiron
kindness and courtesy as well as courage; once
when he found a feeble old woman waiting for
some one to help her across a raging mountain
torrent, he cheerfully took her on his back and
set her over. As the old woman happened to
be Hera in disguise, he was rewarded for his
courtesy by securing a powerful friend. Soon
after this, when Pelias was holding a great sac-
rifice in honor of Poseidon, Jason determined to
268 Greek and Roman Mythology-
attend. In crossing a river he lost one sandal
in the mud and went on without it. Now Pelias
had been warned by an oracle to- beware of a

Fig. 85. Centaur.

man who should come to him wearing one san-

dal; when, therefore, Jason appeared before him,
he determined to put him out of his way. So
when the young man quite simply and frankly
 The Argonautic Expedition 269
demanded of him the kingdom that of right be-
longed to him, Pelias answered cautiously that
he would willingly give it up but it seemed only
right that Jason should first prove his courage
by bringing back from Colchis the famous golden
fleece. Thus he thought he should make sure of
his death.
Without delay Jason sent messengers all over The
~ * 1 <- 1 • 1 • Argonauts.
Greece to gather comrades for this dangerous en-
terprise. When assembled they were fifty in all
— each one a famous hero, the son or grandson
of a god. Chief of all was Heracles, who had
just returned from his adventure with the Ery-
manthian boar. Orpheus was there, the divine
musician; Castor and Polydeuces, the twin-
brothers of Helen; Meleager of Calydon; Peleus
and Telamon, whose sons, Achilles and Ajax,
were to be great heroes of the Trojan War; the
two sons of Orithyia and Boreas, the north wind,
came from Thrace on their dark, cloudy wings
scaled with gold, their black hair streaming be-
hind them as they flew. Theseus would surely
have been among the company, but at that time
he was still a prisoner in Hades. A ship was
built by a son of Phrixus, Argus, with the help
of Athena herself, and was named from its
builder, Argo. In its prow Athena had set a
beam from the sacred oak of Dodona, possessed
of a voice and prophetic power like that of the
trunk from which it was cut. All the city came
 270 Greek and Roman Mythology
out to see the heroes depart. 37 From the wooded
shore across the bay Chiron waved farewell to
his pupil and held out for his father to see Pe-
leus' son, the baby Achilles, who had been given
into his charge. The young men dipped their
long oars to the music of Orpheus' lyre, the
fishes frolicked about the ship, and the gods looked
down from high heaven in admiration at the
glorious band of heroes.
The Many were the adventures on this famous voy-
age. Sometimes the sea threatened to sink the
ship; sometimes the strangers among whom they
landed were hostile and they were compelled to
fight for their lives. At the island of Lemnos
the women, who had recently murdered their
husbands and fathers, tried to keep the Argo-
nauts with them, offering them a share of their
island. Once they were pursued by a tribe of
six-handed giants. Finally when they had landed
on the shore of an island to rest, they lost the
strongest of their company, Heracles, and two
others with him. Heracles had gone into the
woods to cut a new oar in place of one that he
had broken, and his young friend and follower
Hylas had gone to get water from the spring.
37
This assembling of hardy and adventurous men from
all quarters for a hazardous enterprise suggests the enlist-
ment for a polar expedition. The same courage and re-
sourcefulness are required, and the appeal of the dangerous
and unknown is the same.
 The Argonautic Expedition 271
The nymphs, thinking that this charming young
stranger would be a delightful playfellow and
partner in the dance, put out their long, white
arms and drew the boy down into their foun-
tain. One of the company heard his last despair-
ing cry and started to the rescue, calling to Her-
acles as he ran. Supposing that robbers had
stolen him the two scoured the country and were
gone so long that the other heroes sailed away
leaving them behind.
When at last Jason and his companions had ^ ^ " " H
passed through the Bosphorus they came to the fheSc*ashS
home of Phineus. This Phineus, because by his Rocks-
gift of prophecy he told men all the future, Zeus
had cursed with blindness and had sent the Har-
pies (see p. 150) to torment him. These dreadful
deities of storm and death snatched away or de-
filed whatever food was set before their victim.
The coming of the Argonauts brought relief to the
starving, blind old man, for when the Harpies
swooped down upon the banquet set for the hero
the two sons of Boreas drew their swords with a
great shout and pursued them. Far over the sea
they flew, and they would in the end have caught
and killed the Harpies, but Iris came between them
and forbade it. In return for this good deed
Phineus told the voyagers of all that lay be-
fore them and especially of the perilous Sym-
pleg'a des, or Clashing Rocks. So when they had
set sail again and saw the waves breaking and
 272 Greek and Roman Mythology
the foam tossed high from these terrible rocks,
they loosed a dove as the seer had bidden them,
and when she had passed safely through with
only the loss of her tail feathers, they dashed in
as the rocks rebounded and forced the ship
through, rowing with all their might, before the
rocks could close a second time. Yet even so
the ship might not have escaped, but Athena
pushed it on and held back the rocks with her
hand. From that time those rocks have re-
mained rooted fast together, no longer affording
that dangerous passage.
Further The next day, just before dawn, they landed
on a small island, and there Apollo met them as
he passed on his way to the Hyperboreans. About
his head his hair fell in golden curls, in his hand
was his silver bow, and under his feet the island
quaked. The heroes were amazed when they
saw him, and feared to look into the shining
eyes of the god. So when he passed on they
made sacrifice to him and sang the paean and
called that island sacred to Apollo of the Dawn.
Then they sailed on by many strange lands and
peoples, the coast of the Amazons and the island
of Ares. Here there flew out a flock of birds
who rained down upon the rowers' heads a rain
of feathers, sharp as arrows; but the heroes
raised over the ship a covering of their shields,
set close together, and so passed by in safety.
Further on they saw the Caucasus Mountains
 The Argonautic Expedition 273
rising before them, and a great vulture, with
wide-spread wings, flew over the ship, and from
the cliff above sounded cries of agony as^ Pro-
metheus suffered once more his age-long tor-
ture; for Heracles had not yet come to free
that much-enduring friend of man. (See pp.
10, 2 2 3 . )
Now as the ship neared Colchis, Hera and Jason and
Athena in heaven held a council together to plan
how they might aid Jason in his adventure. They
called Aphrodite and persuaded her to send her
son Eros, or Cupid, to iEetes' daughter Me de'a
to cause her to take Jason's part. The* goddess
of love found her little son playing dice* with
Zeus's young cup-bearer, the boy Ganymede, and
by the promise of a golden ball she' won him
to do what she asked. Meanwhile the* heroes
had landed and had gone up to the great palace
of iEetes, adorned with the work of Hephaestus,
four fountains always flowing, one with oil, one
with wine, one with milk, and one with water.
There King ^Eetes entertained the travelers roy-
ally, while Medea sat by, her heart filled with
love and pain as she looked at Jason, for Eros'
sharp arrow had pierced deep. Then Jason told
the king that he had come to get the golden
fleece, and iEetes answered craftily, saying that
he would freely give it when he had tried Jason
and found that he was worthy to receive it. But
first, as proof of his skill and courage, let him
274 Greek and Roman Mythology
harness to a plow the bronze-hoofed bulls that
breathed out fire from their nostrils and plow
with them the field of Ares. When this was
done, let him plant the dragon's teeth that Athena
had given. Then, if all this was accomplished
between dawn and sunset, he should receive the
golden fleece. Though he looked upon it as an
impossible task, Jason could do no better than
accept the king's conditions, but he returned to
his ship and his comrades in utter discourage-
ment. As for Medea, she was in an agony of
doubt as to whether to drive this love from her
heart and allow Jason to perish or to be disloyal
to her father and help with her magic arts.
Love got the upper hand, and she took powerful
herbs and ointments and went to meet Jason at
the shrine of Hecate beyond the walls. As
Jason came to meet her the gods made him of
nobler bearing and more glorious than before,
and he talked to the maiden Medea with winning
words. So she gave him a charm made of a
flower that grew from the blood drawn from
Prometheus by the vulture, and gathered and
treated in magic ways* She told him, too, how
to propitiate Hecate by mysterious sacrifice per-
formed at midnight, and how afterwards, when
he had smeared his body and his weapons with
the magic ointment, he could safely sow the
dragon's teeth. Jason promised her in return his
undying love and gratitude and that he would
 The Argonautic Expedition 275
carry her home with him and make her his
wife.
When it was time for the trial, all the'people Jason
h<Lrness6s
assembled, and the Argonauts looked on with the buns,
dread as the fire-breathing bulls rushed upon their
leader. But the ointment made him invulnerable
to fire, and he grappled with them and forced
them to their knees and put the yoke upon their
necks. So he plowed the field of Ares and then
he sowed the dragon's teeth. Thereupon a crop
of armed men sprang up, as they had from the
dragon's teeth sowed by Cadmus at the founding
of Thebes. Jason remembered Medea's warning
and threw into their midst a great stone, and
immediately they fell upon one another, and oth-
ers Jason himself slew with his sword until none
were left.
But ^Eetes.had no intention of fulfilling his Jason secures
0
the golden
agreement and giving up the golden fleece, and fleece,
he plotted to burn the ship Argo while the heroes
slept. Once more Medea saved Jason, for she
told him where to find the tree on which the
fleece was hung, and she gave him a sleeping
potion to pour over the dragon's eyes, and her-
self lulled him by a magic song. So in that
night they secured the fleece and secretly board-
ing the ship set sail. When the king knew of
their flight and that they had taken not only the
famous fleece but his undutiful daughter as well,
he started out in hot pursuit. Then Medea did
276 Greek and Roman Mythology
a horrible thing, for she slaughtered her own
brother, whom she had taken with her, and cut
up his limbs and east them behind her on the
waters, so that her father, in gathering them up
for burial, might be delayed in his pursuit.
About the course followed by the Argonauts
on their return voyage there is much uncertainty,
but they seem to have met with many of the mon-
sters and strange beings that Odysseus (or
Ulysses) afterwards encountered. At last, how-
ever, they landed on their native shores and were

Fig. 86. Medea preparing the magic brew.

received with joy by ^Eson and with feigned sat-

isfaction by Pelias. Years and anxiety had
greatly enfeebled ^Eson, and his son longed to
see him young and strong again. Medea under-
took to satisfy his wish. Nine nights under the
full moon she scoured the earth in her dragon-
 The Argonautic Expedition 277
drawn chariot in search of rare herbs and other
things of use in the sorcerer's art. Then she
built altars to Hecate and the goddess of youth,
and sacrificing to the gods of the under world
she called upon them by name. The old man
she purified three times, with fire, with water,
a!nd with sulphur. Then she concocted a brew
of magic herbs, of frost got by moonlight, of
the wings and flesh of bats, of the vitals of a
wolf, the liver of a stag, and the beak and head of
a long-lived crow. She stirred it all together with
af stick of dry olive-wood; the stick grew green
aftd put forth leaves, and where the liquid spat-
tered on the earth fresh grass sprang up. Then
the sorceress opened the veins of her patient,
and as the blood flowed out, she poured into his
mouth and veins her magic liquid. And his
white hairs grew dark again, the color came into
his sunken cheeks, and his feeble form grew
stroiig and straight. When Pelias' daughters
saw this marvel, they begged to have the same
treatment given to their father as well. Medea
pretended to consent, and having made a power-
less brew of herbs and water, gave the signal for
the credulous daughters to slaughter their father.
Because of this murder of Pelias, Jason and The tragedy
J
' of Medea.
Medea were obliged to leave Iolcus and take ref-
uge in Corinth. In time Jason grew tired of
his passionate and mysterious wife and an-
nounced his intention of marrying a princess of
278 Greek and Roman Mythology
Corinth. Medea, covering up her bitter resent-
ment with a show of submission, sent the bride
as a wedding gift a beautiful robe, but when she
put it on it consumed her flesh like fire, and her

Fig. 87. Medea preparing to kill her Children.

father in trying to help her perished with her.

This was not enough to satisfy Medea's hatred.
That the perfidious Jason might not have sons
to care for his old age and to perpetuate his
 T h e Argonautic Expedition 279
race, she conquered her maternal feelings and
killed her two children. Then in her dragon-
drawn chariot she flew away. In Athens she
married Theseus' father iEgeus and almost
brought about the hero's death by persuading his
father to offer him a poisoned cup. When
TEgeus' sudden recognition of his son thwarted
this plot, the sorceress flew away and disap-
peared from story. (See p. 249.)
Jason passed thereafter a forlorn and useless Jason's end.
life. His only comfort was to go and sit in
the shade of the old ship. Argo, the outward
symbol of his only great achievement. One day
its rotting timbers fell on him and crushed him.
 CHAPTER XVII

THE TROJAN WAR

The legend T H E story of the Trojan War was the sub-

J J
of Troy.
ject of a great cycle of legends, and the deeds
of the heroes engaged in it inspired the imagina-
tion of the Greeks in all ages. Homer's Iliad
is but the greatest of many epics written about
the siege of Troy, and the Odyssey is concerned
with the adventures of one of the heroes of that
war on his return voyage. All the great writers
of tragedy turned to some phase of the struggle
or to the history of one or other of the families
engaged in it. Alexander the Great set Achilles
before him as his ideal hero and turned aside
from his march of conquest to visit his reputed
tomb. The fame and influence of the story de-
scended upon Rome, and the poet Vergil took
as the subject of his national epic the wander-
ings of Trojan yEneas from burning Troy until
he settled in Italy and became the ancestor of
the Roman race. For more than two thousand
years scholars have discussed the historical basis
for the legend, and not fifty years ago a Ger-
man business man, having acquired a sufficient
fortune, determined to devote the rest of his life
280
 The Trojan War 281
and a large part of his money to excavating be-
neath a little Turkish village on the legendary-
site of Troy. There, buried beneath three ^other
ruined cities, were unearthed the remains of a
walled town of the time of which Homer tells.
Whether history, legend, or myth, the Trojan
War has left its mark deep on the thought and
poetry of our world, and the actors in that drama
are pictured on the walls of our libraries and
public buildings along with Columbus and the
Pilgrim Fathers, as part of our heritage from
the past.
The siege took place in the generation succeed-
ing that of the Calydonian Boar Hunt, the Seven
against Thebes, and the voyage of the Argonauts,
and many of the warriors engaged before Troy
were the sons of the earlier heroes. Three fam-
ilies are of especial importance in this connec-
tion.
Agamem'non and Men e la'us, the leaders of Jfh|anatffi
the Greek hosts, were descended from Tan'ta lus,
who was the son of Zeus. This Tantalus was
remarkably favored by the gods, for he was in-
vited to their banquets, partook of their nectar
and ambrosia, and shared their secrets. For
what crime he lost his exalted position and in
what way he was punished is a matter of dis-
pute. Some say that he stole nectar and am-
brosia and shared it with his friends; some, that
he divulged the secrets of Zeus; some, that he
282 Greek and Roman Mythology
became so presumptuous that to test the gods he
served up to them at a feast the flesh of his own
son Pelops. There are also differing accounts
of the punishment he received: that he stood in
Hades below a rock that seemed ever about to fall
and crush him, or that, as was told in an earlier
chapter (see p. 190), in the presence of food and
drink he was always unable to reach it and ap-
pease his torturing hunger and thirst. Though
Pelops had been served up in this cannibal fash-
ion, he had been restored to life by Hermes and
came out of the ordeal whole and strong except
for one shoulder, which Demeter, in the absent-
mindedness induced by her grief for her daugh-
ter, had unfortunately eaten. For it she sub-
stituted a shoulder of ivory. It was Pelops who
won his wife Hippodamia by contending with her
father in a chariot race (see p. 147), and some say
that it was his violence to the charioteer Myrtilus
that brought on his family the curse that pur-
sued it through three generations. Because of
their murder of their brother, Pelops drove his
sons Aureus and Thy es'tes, from his kingdom,
and they came to Mycenae where they succeeded
to the power after Eurystheus, death. Atreus
caught Thyestes in an attempt to deprive him of
his power and, while appearing to forgive him,
avenged himself by serving up his son to him at
dinner. The sons of Atreus were Agamemnon
and Menelaiis, the former, king of Mycenae and
 The Trojan War 283
overlord of a large part of the Peloponnesus and
surrounding islands, the latter, ruler of Sparta
and husband of Zeus's beautiful daughter Helen.
Achilles was descended from 7E'a cus, who was The family of
noted for his uprightness and justice. He was
the son of Zeus by JE gi'na, whom Zeus in the
form of an eagle had stolen from her father, a
river-god, and had carried off to the island near
Athens that still bears her name. Hera, in anger
at the island for affording hospitality to a rival,
sent upon it a plague that destroyed all the in-
habitants except y£acus, who in his loneliness
called upon his father to give him a people.
Zeus answered his prayer by turning a tribe of
ants into men, called from the Greek word Myr'-
mi dons. Because of his righteousness, y£acus
after death was made a judge in the lower world.
(See p. 189.) .ZEacus' son Peleus, with the Myr-
midons, migrated to a part of Thessaly called
Phthia. As a young man he took part in the
Calydonian boar hunt and the quest of the golden
fleece. His wife was the Nereid Thetis, whom
Zeus himself had been deterred from marrying
only by the prophecy that she would bear a son
greater than his father. The issue of this mar-
riage was Achilles. Because of a prophecy that
her son would die in war, Thetis had tried to make
him. invulnerable by dipping him as a baby in the
potent waters of the Styx. The heel by which
she held him had been unwet by the waters and
 284 Greek and Roman Mythology
hence was the one vulnerable spot.38 After this
Thetis left her husband and child and returned
to her father Nereus in the depths of the sea,
and Achilles was given to the centaur Chiron
to be educated. He grew up strong and beau-
tiful, and so swift of foot that he needed no dog
nor spear in hunting but overtook his game and
caught it alive.
The royal The earliest mortal ancestor of the Trojan royal
J
family of _ •;
Troy. family was Dardanus, a son of Zeus, who
founded a city on the slopes of Mt. Ida, in the
northwestern corner of Asia Minor. From his
grandson Tros the Trojans took their name. One
of Tros's sons was the beautiful boy Ganymede,
whom Zeus took to be his cup-bearer, and an-
other was Ilus, who transferred the seat of his
power to Ilium or Troy, a new city built between
Mt. Ida and the Hellespont. The walls of the
new city were built by Poseidon and Apollo for
Ilus's son, the faithless Laomedon. After the
destruction of the city and the death of Laomedon
at Heracles' hands (see p. 225), the rule fell to
Laomedon's only living son, Priam, a just and
god-fearing man, by whom the city was splendidly
restored. Priam became the father of fifty
daughters and fifty sons, of whom the noblest was
Hector. Another of his sons was the ill-omened
Paris, the curse of Troy.
38
Anatomists still call the tendon attached to the heel
"Achilles' tendon."
 The Trojan W a r 285
The golden apple that the goddess had thrown 2?ethceau4es
in among the gods assembled as guests at the wed-
ding of Peleus and Thetis (see p. 111) had not
only brought discord between Zeus's wife and his

Fig. 88. The persuasion of Helen.

daughters, Athena and Aphrodite, but it was the

first cause of the war between Greeks and Tro-
jans, which, after lasting for ten-years, ended
in. the utter destruction of Troy and the death
 286 Greek and Roman Mythology
of hundreds of heroes. For the Trojan prince
and shepherd Paris, whom Zeus had made judge
in the matter, had given the prize of beauty to
Aphrodite because she had promised him as wife
the most beautiful woman in the world. Now
the most beautiful woman in the world was Helen,
the daughter of Leda and Zeus (see p. 235), who,
after being sought in marriage by all the princes
of Greece, had been given by her step-father to
Menelaus, king of Sparta. Fulfilling her prom-
ise, Aphrodite led Paris to the court of Menelaus,
who, in accordance with the gracious custom that
required hospitable treatment of strangers as a
law of Zeus, received him kindly and entertained
him at his palace. Then Paris did a treacherous
thing; for while Menelaus was away from home,
he induced Helen to desert her husband, and put-
ting her and much treasure on board his ship,
he sailed away to Troy. Greek poets seem not
to have attached so much blame in the matter to
Helen as we might expect, partly, no doubt, be-
cause she had yielded to Aphrodite's persuasions,
but partly, it would seem, because such divine
beauty as hers seemed to them to cover a multi-
tude of sins. But Paris' action was unreservedly
condemned.
The can When the Greek chiefs had been contending
to arms. .
for the hand of Helen, they had agreed that if
violence should be done to her or to the man
whom she married, they would all unite in aveng-
 The Trojan War 287
ing it. And so when Menelaus and his brother
Agamemnon, king of Mycenae, called upon them
to take arms against the Trojans, they hastened
to fulfil their pledge. Agamemnon, as the most
powerful prince of Greece, was chosen leader
of the armies. His most trusted counselor was
the aged Nestor, whose long reminiscences of
the glories of his youth and the mighty deeds of
the heroes of his generation met with unfailing
respect from the courteous princes. Di o me'des,
son of Tydeus, came from Argos; he was the
bravest of Greeks, except only Achilles. Ajax,
son of Telemon, led his forces from Salamis and
earned for himself the title of " great bulwark
of the Achaeans." The catalogue of ships, as
Homer gives it, amounted to more than twelve
hundred; these were all rowed with great oars
and carried fifty to one hundred and twenty men
each. All the heroes were anxious to secure the
help of Odysseus, prince of Ithaca, whose reputa-
tion for courage and endurance was equaled by
his reputation for cunning devices and persua-
sive talk. But Odysseus was living happily with
his wife Pe nel'o pe and his little son Te lem'a chus
and wished to avoid going to the war. So when
an embassy came to summon him, he feigned
madness, and harnessing an ass and a bull to his
plow, sowed his field with salt. But the clever
ambassadors laid the baby Telemachus before the
plow, and when Odysseus turned it aside, they
 288 Greek and Roman Mythology
proved his sanity and induced him to join the
expedition. Once forced to throw in his for-
tune with theirs, Odysseus was more than ready
to help in securing the company of young Achil-
les. For Achilles' mother, the sea-goddess The-
tis, having prophetic knowledge that her son was
not destined to return alive from the war, had
sent him, disguised as a girl, to serve among the
attendants of the princess of Scyros. Odysseus
came to the court in the disguise of a peddler,
bringing among the feminine silks and trinkets
a sword. While the princess and her maids ea-
gerly tried on the ear-rings and veils, Achilles with
sparkling eyes seized upon the sword and bran-
dished it above his head. Then Odysseus threw
off his disguise and easily persuaded Achilles to
join the army. He was the strongest and bravest
of all the princes, in beauty, strength and noble
nature the ideal hero of the Greeks. With Achil-
les came his friend Pat ro'clus, and so close was
the affection between the two that their friend-
ship takes its place beside that between David
and Jonathan.
The sacrifice The armies of the Greek leaders assembled at
of Iphigenia
at Auiis. Aulis, on the eastern coast of Central Greece.
There Artemis, in punishment for the killing of
a sacred hind, refused them favorable winds and
would not allow them to sail, until Agamemnon,
summoning his young daughter Iph i ge ni'a on
the plea of giving her in marriage to Achilles,
 The Trojan W a r 289
offered her as a sacrifice. At the moment when
the knife was about to descend upon her, Ar-
temis snatched her away to serve as priestess in
her temple at Taurus, putting in her place a hind.
Then favorable winds brought the fleet to Troy.

Fig. 89. Sacrifice of Iphigenia.

There is nothing more moving in all tragedy than

Iphigenia's appeal to her father, as Euripides tells
it, and nothing more noble than her final willing
submission when she knew that without it her
people could never be victorious.
 290 Greek and Roman Mythology
The early A second act of self-sacrifice marked the land-
years of
the war. ing of the Greeks. Pro tes i la'us, knowing the
prophecy that the man who first touched Trojan
soil should meet his death, leaped from the ship,
offering his life for the cause. His devoted wife
La od a mi'a prayed to the gods that he might
return to her for one day. The prayer was
granted, and when he died the second time she
threw herself upon his funeral pyre and so ac-
companied him to Hades. The siege of the city
now began. The gods took an active part in the
struggle, protecting and inspiring their sons and
favorites among the heroes and in some cases
even entering the battle in person. On the Tro-
jan side were Aphrodite (Venus), Ares (Mars),
and Apollo; on the Greek side, Hera (June),
Athena (Minerva), and Poseidon (Neptune).
Zeus (Jupiter) held victory in the balance, yield-
ing to the persuasion now of this god, now of
that, for Greeks or Trojans, but keeping his eyes
fixed on the fate that required the ultimate over-
throw of Troy. For nine years the siege con-
tinued with varying fortune, yet, on the whole,
advantage lay with the Greeks, since they had
driven the Trojans within their walled city and
had ravaged the neighboring country.
The quarrel
between Aga-
After one of these raids Agamemnon had re-
memnon and
Achilles.
ceived as his share of the booty a maiden named
Chry seAis, whose father was a priest of Apollo.
The priest, coming to ransom his daughter, was
 The Trojan War 291
driven off with insults, and called upon the god
for vengeance.
And Phoebus Apollo heard him and came dowa from
the peaks of Olympus wroth at heart, bearing on his
shoulders his bow and covered quiver. And the ar-
rows clanged upon his shoulders in his wrath, as the
god moved; and he descended like to night. Then he
sate him aloof from the ships, and let an arrow fly;
and there was heard a great clanging of the silver bow.
First did he assail the mules and fleet dogs, but after-
ward, aiming at the men his swift dart, he smote; and
the pyres of the dead burnt continually in multitude.
(Iliad, I. 42 ff.)

On the tenth day of the plague brought by Apol-

lo's arrows Achilles, inspired by Hera, called the
Greeks to an assembly and urged the prophet
Calchas to tell what had aroused the anger of
the god. When the prophet made known the
truth, Agamemnon was furiously angry against
him and against Achilles for protecting him, and
declared that if Chryseis was taken from him he
would take in return Achilles' slave maiden
Bri se'is. So began the quarrel between Aga-
memnon and Achilles, which, as Homer says,
" hurled down into Hades many strong souls
of heroes." For Achilles, in wrath at the loss
of Briseis and in indignation at the insolent in-
vasion of his rights, retired to his tent and re-
fused to lead his Myrmidons to battle. More-
over he complained of his ungrateful treatment
 292 Greek and Roman Mythology
to his mother Thetis, calling her up from her home
in the depths of ocean to listen to his angry com-
plaints. And she " rose from the gray sea like
a mist," and caressed her son and promised to
go to Father Zeus and demand Agamemnon's
punishment. So when Thetis came to Olympus
and clasped his knees, Zeus bowed his ambrosial
head in assent, promising that the Greeks should
flee before the Trojans until Agamemnon should
bitterly repent of his insolence. It is the story
of this quarrel between the heroes and its re-
sults which Homer tells in the Iliad.
The Trojans Though he delayed in its accomplishment, Zeus
S6t IlXG tO

the ships, did n o t forget his promise, and he laid his stern
command upon all the gods to refrain from fur-
ther interference in the battle. Then Hector
rallied the Trojans and drove the Greeks back
to their ships, and the battle swayed now this
way, now that, and all the plain was strewn with
dead and wounded. For a time Agamemnon
took the lead and seemed invincible, but at the
last he was disabled by a wound, and Menelatis
was wounded, and Odysseus, and many others of
the chiefs. So Hector led his people against the
wall that the Greeks had built about their camp,
and Apollo, disobeying Zeus's command, put him-
self at their head and cast down the wall " as a
boy scatters the sand beside the sea/' Fire was
thrown on one of the Greek ships and the whole
fleet might have been destroyed and the Greeks
 The Trojan War 293
cut off from return home if great Ajax had not
stubbornly held the Trojans at bay.
At this desperate crisis Patroclus, grieving for The death of
the sufferings of his friends, went to Achilles and
begged that if he was unwilling himself to for-
get his resentment and return to the conflict, he
would permit him, clad in his armor, to lead
the Myrmidons to the rescue. For he hoped
that the Trojans seeing Achilles' well known arms
would think that the hero himself had come
against them and so would lose confidence. Half
unwillingly Achilles gave his consent, at the
same time earnestly warning Patroclus that when
he had driven the Trojans back and saved the
ships he should refrain from pursuing to the
walls of the city. On the appearance of Patro-
clus in Achilles' armor the tide of the battle was
turned, and the Greeks drove back the Trojans!
Then Patroclus, in the fury of the fight, forgot
his chief's orders and pursued even to the city
and would have scaled the wall at the head of
his victorious Myrmidons if Apollo had not ap-
peared on the ramparts and forced them back.
Although the Trojans rallied, Patroclus held his
ground beneath the walls of the city, until Apollo,
coming behind him, struck him and cast off
his helmet and broke his spear. So, unarmed by
the god, Patroclus was overthrown and killed by
Hector, prophesying as the breath left his body
the approaching death of his victorious foe at
 294 Greek and Roman Mythology
the hands of the vengeful Achilles. Menelaiis
and Ajax, standing over the body of their fallen
comrade, with grim determination beat back the
fierce attacks of the Trojans. But Achilles'
armor fell into Hector's hands, though the horses
and chariot were saved and driven out of the
field. Homer says of those immortal horses:
As a pillar abideth firm that standeth on the tomb of
a man or woman dead, so abode they immovably with
the beautiful chariot, abasing their heads unto the
earth. And hot tears flowed from their eyes to the
ground as they mourned in sorrow for their charioteer.
(Iliad, XVII. 434.)

Achilles re- A messenger from the battle came to Achilles

turns to
the war. as he sat beside the ships, waiting anxiously for
the return of his friend. When he heard the
news " a black cloud of grief enwrapped Achilles,
and with both hands he took dark dust and
poured it over his head and defiled his comely
face, and on his fragrant doublet black ashes
fell/' Thetis heard her son's moans and rose
from the sea and came and, sitting beside him,
tried to comfort him. She promised to go to
Hephaestus and persuade him to make for the
hero arms greater and more glorious than those
he had lost, so that he might return to the bat-
tle and avenge his dead friend. After Thetis
had left him, Hera sent Iris, bidding him show
himself to the Trojans, even unarmed as he
was.
 The Trojan War 295
Around his strong shoulders Athena cast her tasseled
asgis, and around his head the bright goddess set a
crown of a golden cloud, and kindled therefrom a blaz-
ing flame.

So when Achilles shouted aloud, the Trojans were

dismayed and drew back, and the Greeks drew the
body of Patroclus from under the heap of slain
that had fallen on him and carried him to Achil-
les' tent. Meanwhile Thetis, fulfilling her prom-
ise, found Hephaestus working at his forge and
made her request. And the lame god made for
Achilles marvelous armor, worthy of a god. The
shield was wrought in wonderful designs, the
earth and heavens, the sun, moon, and stars, were
in the middle of it, and there were two cities,
one at peace, where people were being married
and dancing and holding their law-courts, the
other under siege, and the gods mingling in the
fight. On other circles of the shield he pictured
fields plowed and harvested, and a vineyard, and
herds of cattle attacked by lions, and flocks of
sheep; besides these, a dancing-place where boys
and girls were dancing to music. All around the
edge of the shield he wrought the river of Ocean.
When Achilles had received the glorious armor
from his mother, he was filled with a furious
eagerness to join battle with the Trojans and
avenge himself on Hector; but first he went to
the assembly of the Greeks and became recon-
ciled with Agamemnon. The other heroes were
 296 Greek and Roman Mythology
glad of his return, but most of all, Agamemnon,
who acknowledged the wrong he had done and
offered all the reparation in his power. So
Zeus's promise to Thetis had been fulfilled, and
now, calling the gods to assembly, he bade them
go and enter the conflict, helping whatever heroes
they would.
The deeds of The most terrible battle of the war now began,
&
Achilles. .
and Achilles raged across the plain like a god,
seemingly invincible. All that met him fell be-
fore him, among them two sons of Priam. At
last the river Xanthus, choked with the bodies
of the sons of Troy, rose in his might against
the hero and pursued him across the plain, threat-
ening to overwhelm him in his great waves.
Achilles might well have died there, with his
vengeance unaccomplished, if Hera had not
roused her son Hephaestus to meet and check the
oncoming flood of the river with a flood of fire.
Freed from the pursuit of the river-god, Achilles
returned to the pursuit of his enemies and
drove them before him to the city. From his
post on the walls Priam saw the danger of
his people and ordered the gates to be thrown
open to afford them a refuge. This might have
been the signal for the destruction of Troy, for
Achilles was so close on their heels that he had
almost entered the gates behind them, when
Apollo inspired one of the fugitives to stand and
meet him. Then, when Achilles would have
 The Trojan War 297
killed the rash mortal, the god snatched him away,
and assuming his form, drew Achilles in pur-
suit away from the open gates.
But brave Hector still stood outside the gates The death
** of Hector.
of the city and would not hear the prayers of
his father and mother that he should follow his
comrades into safety; for he dreaded the re-
proach of his people that he had led them on
to battle and had brought many to death and had
then feared himself to stand against Achilles.
So when Achilles returned from his vain pursuit
of the god, Hector boldly stood to meet him,—
only for a moment, for when he saw him near,
in his blazing armor and brandishing his great
spear, a panic seized Hector and he turned and
fled. Three times around the walls of Troy Hec-
tor fled and Achilles pursued.
But when the fourth time they had reached the
springs, then the Father hung his golden balances, and
set therein two lots of dreary death, one of Achilles,
one of horse-taming Hector, and held them by the
midst and poised. Then Hector's fated day sank down,
and fell to the house of Hades, and Phoebus Apollo left
him. (Iliad, XXII. 208.)

Then Athena, the enemy of Troy, came in the

form of his brother and urged Hector to stand
and wait for Achilles' onset, and he was deceived
and obeyed. But when, having thrown his spear
against Achilles and missed him, he turned to
receive a second spear from his brother and saw
 298 Greek and Roman Mythology
no one near, he knew that the gods had de-
ceived him and drew his sword for the last des-
perate chance. The end had been" determined by
fate, and noble Hector fell before Achilles, as
Patroclus had fallen before him, "and his soul
flew forth of his limbs and was gone to the
house of Hades, wailing her fate, leaving her
vigor and youth." Then Achilles took a savage
vengeance for his friend's death, for he bound
his fallen enemy to his chariot by the feet and
dragged him in the dust about the walls of Troy.
This last insult to the noblest of their sons Priam
and Hecuba saw from the walls, and his people
could scarcely prevent the old man from rushing
out to his own death. And Hector's noble wife
An drom'a che, as she waited at home for her
lord's return, hearing the moans and laments
rushed in terror to the walls, and seeing that
terrible sight joined her despairing grief with
theirs.
The redemp- So Achilles returned victorious from the battle
tion of Hec-
tor's body. with all his purpose accomplished, and he held a
splendid funeral for Patroclus, with a feast and
a great sacrifice and a triumphal procession about
his funeral pyre. And when the body had been
burned, he gathered the ashes and put them in
a golden urn and buried them and raised over
them a mound. Then followed the funeral
games — chariot-racing, boxing, wrestling, spear-
 The Trojan War 299
throwing, and other contests, and Achilles offered
splendid prizes, and all the heroes entered the
lists. When this was over, Zeus sent Iris to
Priam to bid him go to Achilles' tent to ransom
the body of his son. As Priam went in his char-
iot, Hermes met him and guided him safely
through the sleeping guards and brought him to
Achilles' tent. And Achilles, who had been
warned by Thetis that this was Zeus's will, re-

Fig, go. Priam ransoming Hector's Body.

ceived the old man courteously, and thinking of

his own father, far away in Greece, whom he
should never see again, spoke kindly to him and
granted his request. He had the body washed
and anointed and laid over it a rich robe and set it
on the wagon. Then he had a feast spread and he
and his enemy's father ate and drank together, and
Priam gave a great ramson. So Priam brought
Hector's body back to the city,.and all Troy came
 300 Greek and Roman Mythology
out to meet him with weeping and laments, and
Achilles granted a truce of eleven days that the
Trojans might perform their funeral rites.
T he d
* A if^h With the funeral of Hector the Iliad ends, but
y
of Achilles.
from other sources we learn of the later events
of the war. Twice the hopes of the Trojans
were raised by the coming of powerful allies.
The first of these was Pen thes i le'a, queen of the
Amazons, who came with her band of warrior
women and brought momentary success to the
sinking cause of Troy. After many great deeds,
she fell in a fierce encounter with Achilles, though
it was said that when her helmet fell off and dis-
closed her noble beauty, the hero repented of his
success. Memnon, son of the goddess of dawn,
came from Ethiopia with a great following, and
he too fell before Achilles. But the hero's great
career was run, and he met his death, as the
Fates decreed, by the arrow of Paris, guided by
Apollo, to pierce him in the only vulnerable spot,
his heel. When the Greeks had rescued his body,
they burned it, and putting his ashes in a golden
urn with the ashes of his friend Patroclus, raised
over it a great mound. Near the shore of the
Dardanelles at this day there is a hill that bears
the name of the " Tomb of Achilles." His spirit
joined the other great heroes in the Elysian
Fields.
The last in- After this a contest arose between Ajax and
J
cidents of
the war. Odysseus as to which of them should receive the
 The Trojan War 301
arms of Achilles, and when the decision was given
in Odysseus' favor, Ajax, crazed with anger,
made an onslaught on an innocent flock of 'sheep,
imagining them to be Odysseus and his followers.
When he came to his senses, he killed himself.
Then the gods made it known to the Greeks that
they could never take Troy until Phil oc testes,
who was the possessor of Heracles' bow and pois-
oned arrows (see p. 227) should be brought from
the island of Lesbos, where his comrades had most
cruelly left him suffering from a horrible wound.
With some difficulty Philoctetes was induced to
forego his resentment and come to the Greek
camp. Being cured of his wound he met Paris
in battle and killed him with one of his poisoned
arrows. Even then two things were still neces-
sary before the gods would give Troy over to
her enemies. Achilles' son Ne op tol'e mus had
to be summoned from Greece to take his father's
place, and the Pal la'di um, or sacred image of
Athena, which had fallen from heaven long ago,
and on the possession of which the safety of the
city depended, must be taken. This extraordi-
nary feat was performed by Odysseus and Dio-
medes, who, entering the city by night, abstracted
the image from the shrine and carried it to the
Greek camp.
The final device by which Troy fell into the The wooden
J J
horse.
hands of its besiegers was planned with the help
of Athena. A huge hollow structure in the form
302 Greek and Roman Mythology
of a horse was set up near the walls, and in the
belly armed men, the bravest of the Greeks, were
placed in ambush. Then the hosts sailed off,

Fig. 91. Laocoon and his Sons.

pretending to be returning to Greece, while, in

reality, they concealed themselves behind the
island of Tenedos, ready to return at a given
 The Trojan War 303
signal. The Trojans poured out of the city, re-
joicing in the unexpected freedom and wondering
at the wooden horse. The question as t c w h a t
it meant and what should be done with it was
decided by the testimony of a clever Greek named
Sinon, who, having gained the confidence of the
Trojans, explained the horse as a final tribute to
Athena, which, if taken within the city by the
people of Troy, would certainly protect them from
harm. La oc'o on, the priest of Apollo, suspect-
ing the wiles of the Greeks, urged that it be
thrown into the sea and raised his weapon to
strike the wood a blow. Immediately two horri-
ble serpents appeared on the sea, and glided with
their slimy lengths over the water, caught Laocoon
and his two sons and strangled them with their
coils. Then all believed that the gods had sent
retribution upon the priest for his impious doubts,
and resolved to draw the horse within the walls
As it was too high to go under the gates, a piece
of the wall was thrown down and the horse
brought in amid great rejoicing.
That night while all Troy slept, the Greek spy The destruc-
0 J r r
tion of Troy.
Sinon unloosed the bolts and let out the heroes
concealed in the horse. At the signal given by
fire, the fleet returned from Tenedos, the gates
were opened from within, and the Greeks fell
upon the sleeping city. The brave resistance of-
fered by the Trojans, taken unawares in the
blackness of night, was useless. The prophetic
304 Greek and Roman Mythology
daughter of Priam, Cas san'dra, was dragged
from the sanctuary of Athena and carried into
slavery; the same fate overtook'Hector's wife

Fig. 92. Priam slain on the Altar.

Andromache, after she had seen her infant son

dashed from the wall that his father had so long
defended. Priam was cut down before the altar
in his own palace, and all the city sank in ashes.
 CHAPTER XVIII

THE WANDERINGS OF ODYSSEUS

AFTER the fall of Troy the chiefs with their The return of
J
the heroes.
followers sailed for home. But in those days
even the comparatively short voyage from Asia
Minor to Greece was filled with danger; more-
over, some of the heroes in the course of that
long war had incurred the enmity of one or an-
other of the gods, who, therefore, cut off alto-
gether or delayed their return home. Certain of
the Trojans after long wanderings founded new
cities on strange shores; many of both nations
met their death by drowning or by the violence
of savage men and monsters; one returned only
to be foully murdered. " The much enduring
Odysseus " (more familiarly known by his Latin
name, Ulysses) added ten years of wanderings
and of marvelous adventures to the ten years of
the war, and returned home to his faithful wife
Penelope after an absence of twenty years.
Homer tells his story in the Odyssey.
When he had set sail from Troy with his men odysseus
and ships, Odysseus made a fairly prosperous Lotus-eaters,
voyage as far as the southern point of Greece
and was within a few days' sail of Ithaca, his
305
 306 Greek and Roman Mythology
home, when a great wind arose and drove him
from his course. After nine days the ships came
to land in the Lotus-eaters' country, and the men
were kindly entertained and given to eat of the
lotus. This plant had the strange power of tak-
ing from him who ate of it all remembrance of
the past and all ambition for the future and mak-
ing him desire only to live on in a dreamy and
effortless present. Those of Odysseus' men,
therefore, who had tasted the lotus could be
forced to continue on their voyage only by being
bound in the ships until the effect of the food had
worn off.
The Cyclops. The next land reached by the voyagers was
very different, a rough and rocky island inhabited
by a tribe of savage giants, called Cyclo'pes,
whose peculiarity it was that each had but one
great eye, set in the middle of his forehead.
Leaving the rest of his companions on another
island, Odysseus beached his own ship on the
shore of the Cyclopes, and as none of the terri-
ble inhabitants was about at the time, he and his
men disembarked and trustfully wandered about
the island until they chanced upon a great cave
where a plentiful supply of milk and cheese
tempted their appetites. While they were eat-
ing, the Cyclops Polyphe'mus returned, driving
his sheep before him, and coming into the cave
closed its entrance with a huge rock. Though
his natural craftiness and caution led Odysseus
 The Wanderings of Odysseus 307
to conceal his true name and give, when asked,
the name Noman, with apparent confidence he
requested of his monstrous host hospitality' and
the gifts that Greek courtesy usually gave a guest
as his due. But Zeus and his law of hospitality
were not recognized by this savage giant, and
his only answer was to seize two of his guests
and devour them raw. Then he lay down to
sleep. In the morning, after breakfasting on
two more of the men, he drove his sheep out
of the cave, and rolling the stone against the
opening, left Odysseus and those of his company
who remained uneaten to sit and wait for their
fiendish host to return for his next meal. But
Odysseus was not the man to sit and expect his
fate at the hands of a stupid and barbarous Cy-
clops. He planned escape and vengeance. At
the fall of evening, when Polyphemus returned
with his flocks, the wily hero talked pleasantly
with him and offered him some particularly fine
and strong wine that he happened to have with
him. In high good humor Polyphemus washed
down his dinner of two Greeks with this drink —
a pleasant change to one accustomed only to
sheep's milk — and stretched himself out to sleep.
Then Odysseus and his men seized a great long
pole which, during the day, they had sharpened
to a point and hardened in the fire, and using
all their strength, drove it deep into the Cyclops'
one eye. Polyphemus sprang up, bellowing with
308 Greek and Roman Mythology
pain, and madly called on his brother Cyclopes
for help. But when, hurrying to the mouth of
the cave, they asked him who was /troubling him,
he could only answer: " Noman is slaying me
by guile, nor at all by force." So they went
away, telling him to pray to his father Poseidon,
since, if no man was killing him, it must be by
the will of the gods, whom no one can resist.
It was now morning and time to let the sheep
out, so the Cyclops, still groaning with pain,
rolled away the stone from the door and sat down
by it, stretching out his hands to feel if any man
passed out. Odysseus took the sheep and fas-
tened them three together; he ordered one of his
men to stretch himself flat on the middle one of
each group, and so all but he passed out safely.
Then he himself clung firmly to the under side of
the great thick-fleeced ram, and the blind Cy-
clops, though he felt over the ram's back and
wondered that he should be behind his flock, failed
to detect the hero. So the men escaped to their
boat. Although they had been saved by their
leader's wits, they were a second time endan-
gered by his rashness, for when they were once
afloat Odysseus could not resist calling back
tauntingly to his enemy, and the Cyclops, dashing
down to the shore, hurled immense rocks after
the departing ship. If his aim had not been poor
because of his blindness, the ship would surely
have been sunk. Failing in this, Polyphemus
 The Wanderings of Odysseus 309
called aloud upon Poseidon for vengeance, and
from that time on the sea-god turned against the
heroes and relentlessly kept them wandering over
the waters.
Some time after this adventure the heroes The island
of Mollis.
came to the floating island of /E'o lus, the king of
the winds. Here Odysseus was kindly received
and entertained, and on his departure was pre-
sented by ^Eolus with a huge bag in which were
imprisoned all the winds except the favorable west
wind. So after nine days' fair sailing they had
actually come so near to Ithaca that they could see
men moving on the rocks, and Odysseus, for the
first time feeling free from his anxieties, lay down
in the boat to rest. Then the men conspired to
rob him, and supposing that the bag contained
precious treasure they eagerly opened it. In an
instant all the contrary winds rushed out together
and drove the ships far off their course straight
back to the island of iEolus. But iEolus, think-
ing that one so unfortunate as Odysseus must
for his sins be under the disfavor of the gods,
sent him angrily away, refusing to give him any
more help.
Next they came to the land of a people named circe.
Laes try go'ni ans, who fell upon the strangers and
destroyed eleven of the ships with their com-
panies. Only the twelfth, with Odysseus on
board, got off in safety. In great grief over
the loss of their companions, the remnant of
310 Greek and Roman Mythology
Odysseus' company sailed on until they came to
the island of the sorceress Circe. Having learned
discretion from his previous misfortunes, Odys-
seus did not risk all his men at once, but sent
half, under a trustworthy leader, to explore the
country while the other half remained by the
shore. The scouting party, as they went through
the woods, were alarmed by meeting great num-
bers of lions and wolves, but as these beasts in-
stead of attacking them came and fawned upon
them appealingly, they took heart and continued
on their way until they came to a palace. The
peacefulness of the place and the reassuring
sound of a woman singing emboldened the ad-
venturers to enter. Circe turned from her weav-
ing to greet the strangers and hastened to set be-
fore them food and drink. The thirsty men did
not see the magic drops their hostess mingled with
their wine. At a touch of her wand the lordly
Greeks dropped down and trotted, grunting re-
proachfully, to the sties. But one man, their
leader, had not gone into the house with them.
At their prolonged absence he became uneasy and
returned in haste to the ship to tell what he feared.
So Odysseus set out alone to rescue his men. As
he went, Hermes met him and warned him of
the danger that lay before him and gave him an
herb to protect him against Circe's spells. When,
therefore, Circe received him as she had his fol-
lowers, and after giving him the potion, raised
 The Wanderings of Odysseus 311
her wand and ordered him to the sties, the hero
grappled with her and threatened to kill her un-
less she at once restored his men to their proper
forms. Recognizing in this successful resistance
to her magic the hand of a god, and charmed by
her new guest's cleverness and strength, the sor-
ceress yielded to all his demands and sending
for the rest of the company from the ship en-
tertained them all royally for a whole year. But
at the end of that time, when they all began to
long for the return home, Circe told Odysseus
of a terrible ordeal that lay before him before
he could reach Ithaca. He, a living man, must
go to the realm of the dead to consult the seer
Ti re'si as.
With dread at his heart Odysseus followed out The visit to
Hades.
the sorceress' directions and sailed on to the very
edge of the world, where the stream of Ocean
rolls by the land of the Cim mer'i ans, a land al-
ways shrouded in mist and darkness, for the
sun never rises upon it. From there he pro-
ceeded along the shore of the Ocean until he
came to the grove of Persephone, where was the
entrance to Hades. By the place where the
rivers of the lower world, fiery Phleg'e thon, and
Co cy'tus, the river of wailing, flow into gloomy
Ach'e ron, he dug a trench, as Circe had directed
him, and poured a libation to the dead. Then
he sacrificed black sheep and let their blood run
into the trench. And the shades of the dead
312 Greek and Roman Mythology
crowded around with ghostly cries, eager to drink
of the blood,— boys and maidens, and warriors
that had fallen in battle. But Odysseus kept them
off with his sword that the shade of the seer
Tiresias might first drink and tell him what he
wished to know. So Tiresias came and drank,
and prophesied to the hero his safe home-coming
and how he should find violent men wasting his
substance and should kill them all and so live to an
old age in peace and plenty among a happy peo-
ple. But then he told him, too, of Poseidon's
anger at the mutilation of his son Polyphemus,
and that yet for many years he would keep Odys-
seus away from Ithaca, and he warned him es-
pecially that destruction would overtake them all
if they should injure the cattle of the sun when
they came to the island of Trinacria. When the
seer had finished, Odysseus' mother came, and
when she had drunk of the blood she knew her
son and told him of her own death, caused by
grief at his long absence, and of his old father,
and of his wife Pe nel'o pe, and his little son Te-
lem'a chus. But when he tried to embrace her,
like a shadow or a dream she faded away. Then
there came about him many of the women famous
in story — Leda, the mother of Helen and of
Castor and Polydeuces; Alcmena, Heracles'
mother; Ariadne, whom Theseus had deserted on
Naxos, and many others. He saw and talked
with the heroes who had fought with him at
 The Wanderings of Odysseus 313
Troy — Agamemnon, who told him of his treach-
erous murder, and Achilles, preeminent here as
in the world above. There were the heroes of
ancient times, even the shade of great Heracles
— the shade only, for he himself was now a god
in Olympus. There he saw Minos sitting as
judge, and those who had sinned against the gods
suffering eternal punishment, Tantalus, Sisyphus,
and others.
Returning safely from that land that so few The sirens,
living men have ever visited, the company stopped

Fig. 93. Odysseus and the Sirens.

once more at Circe's island. There they were en-

tertained for a day while Circe told Odysseus of
the dangers that next confronted him and how he
 314 Greek and Roman Mythology
might win safely through them. From there
they sailed on until they saw on the shore at a
distance the meadow of the Sirens, who bewitch
men by their songs. But Odysseus stuffed his
companions' ears with wax and had himself
bound hand and foot to the mast, as Circe had
told him. And when the ship came near, the
Sirens called to him to leap from the deck and
come to them, for they had knowledge of past
and future and could give him happiness. So
he tried to break away and go to them, and
he made signs to the others to loose him, but
they pulled steadily on and so escaped that dan-
ger,
scyiia^and Soon two cliffs appeared, rising one on either
side of the course between Italy and Sicily; in
the one crouched Scylla, her twelve feet dangling
down from the cave, and her six heads turning
in every direction in search of ships. On the
other side was a lower cliff with a fig tree at
the top, and below it Char yb'dis, who three times
a day sucked in the water and cast it out again.
As the ship passed through, keeping, as Circe
had told them, well away from Charybdis, Scylla
stretched her long necks forward and seized a
man in each of her terrible jaws. As they were
drawn up, squirming like fishes caught on a hook,
they cried out in anguish to Odysseus, and all
that were left of that company shuddered as they
passed on.
 The Wanderings of Odysseus 315
Towards nightfall Odysseus saw before them The cattie
. . of the Sun.
the island of the Sun, Trinacria, and he ordered
his men to row on, remembering the warnings
of Tiresias and Circe. But they were exhausted
with hard rowing and the strain of the terrible
meeting with Scylla and insisted upon landing
for the night. The next morning unfavorable
winds were blowing, and continued for a whole
month, until all the food and wine was exhausted.
Then while Odysseus was sleeping, his companions
preferring any other form of death to starvation,
killed some of the sacred cattle that grazed on
that island and made a feast. When Odysseus
awoke and saw it, he knew that destruction had
come upon them, for the empty hides crept mys-
teriously, and the flesh on the spits bellowed. At
last favorable winds blew, and they put out to
sea. But the sun-god had complained to Zeus
of the loss of his cattle, threatening that if his
wrong were not avenged he would leave the world
in darkness and go to shine among the dead. So
Zeus sent a storm to overtake the ship, and all
the men were swept into the sea and drowned,
and only Odysseus clung to the boat. He was
carried straight back to Charybdis, who, as she
threw out the water, shattered and then swallowed
down the ship; Odysseus escaped only by grasp-
ing hold of the fig tree wThen the water cast him
up. There he hung suspended until Charybdis
heaved up the wreckage of the ship again. Then
 316 Greek and Roman Mythology
he dropped upon one of its timbers and rowed
with his hands until he was out of reach of the
whirlpool,
calypso's After this hairbreadth escape the hero, now
quite without companions, was washed ashore on
the island of Calypso, the daughter of Atlas.
There he lived for eight years in the company of
the charming nymph, eating and drinking of the
best and living the most peaceful and luxurious
of lives on that beautiful island. Yet he did not
forget his home and his wife, but sat day after
day by the sea eating out his heart with home-
sickness. For, as he himself said:

Surely there is naught sweeter than a man's

own country and his parents, even though he dwell far
off in a rich house, in a strange land, far from them
that begat him. {Odyssey, IX. 34 ff.)

At last, at the complaint of Athena that her

favorite was kept too long away from home,
Zeus sent Hermes to command Calypso to let him
go. Yielding unwillingly, she gave him the tools
and material to construct a raft and a sail, and
when it was ready, she stocked it with food and
wine and gave him clothes and rich gifts and
so sent him away. For eighteen days he had
sailed prosperously along on his raft before
Poseidon caught sight of him, and still brooding
over the injury to Polyphemus, sent a furious
storm against him. The sail was carried away
 The Wanderings of Odysseus 317
and the raft itself was swept and torn by the
waves. To the solitary adventurer out on those
wide waters it seemed that his own gods had
deserted him and that death was close upon him.
But a sea-goddess saw and pitied him, and rising
in the foam beside him held out to him her filmy
scarf and spoke wisely and reassuringly. Borne
up by the new courage she inspired and by the
mysterious power of the scarf, Odysseus struck
bravely out when the raft finally parted, and
swimming continuously for two days and two
nights, came at last in sight of land. But the
waves were breaking high on the rocky coast,
and the exhausted swimmer was beaten against
the rocks and again sucked back by the undertow
until it seemed he must go under. At one point
a back current offered possible landing; there he
managed to come to land and drew his bruised
and soaked limbs up on the shore. Among the
bushes on the bank he lay down and fell into the
sleep of exhaustion.
The shore on which Odysseus had landed w a s Nausicaa.
that of the Phse a'ci ans, a good and prosperous
people at peace with all the world and in great
favor with the gods. On the night of the hero's
perilous landing the king's daughter Nau sic'a a
had been bidden by Athena in a dream to go down
to the shore to wash her clothes in preparation
for her coming wedding day. As her father had
not yet even decided upon any one of her suitors
318 Greek and Roman Mythology
as her husband, the princess felt shy about sug-
gesting wedding preparations, but not wishing to
displease the goddess, she modestlyasked for the
ox-cart that she and her maidens might carry
down her brothers' clothes to wash them in the
sea. The cart was brought around, the queen
packed a basket with bread and honey and wine,
and the young girls drove off for the shore.
When the clothes had all been washed and spread
out in the sun to bleach, they sat down on the

Fig. 04. Odysseus appearing before Nausicaa.

grass to eat the food the queen had provided, and

then, tucking up their skirts, they joined in a game
of ball. It happened that the spot they had
chosen for their noisy fun was close to the place
where Odysseus had all this time been lying
asleep. What was the astonishment and terror
of the girls when suddenly a strange and wild-
looking man appeared in their midst! Only
Nausicaa stood her ground with dignity, and
when the hero approached and begged for help
and hospitable treatment, she showed him every
 The Wanderings of Odysseus 319
kindness. She gave him oil to anoint his lame
and battered limbs and some of her brothers'
newly washed clothes to put on, and bade him
follow her to the city, where her father would
entertain him. Being a prudent girl and fearing
gossip if she appeared in company with a hand-
some stranger (for the oil and the fresh clothes
had restored Odysseus' fine appearance), she
thought it best not to take him with her in the
ox-cart.
As Odysseus, so long an exile from civilized
human life, approached the king's palace, he won-
dered at the great wharves thronged with ships
and at the beautiful city with its fine streets and
houses and its busy and prosperous people, and
more than ever a longing came over him for his
•own well-ordered land. The considerate and
gentle treatment he received when he presented
himself as a stranger before the king and queen
proved that the reputation of the Phseacians was
not undeserved. For they provided him with
warm baths and entertained him royally with a
feast and music, dancing and athletic sports, nor
did they so forget the courtesy of hosts as ever
to show curiosity about who the stranger was
or on what business he was bent. When, how-
ever, the proper time had come, Odysseus told
them all his story since the day that Troy fell,
and he ended with earnest entreaties that his hosts
would provide him with a ship and oarsmen to
 320 Greek and Roman Mythology
set him across the sea to Ithaca. So they gave
him all that he asked and added splendid gifts,
more valuable than all the booty he had gathered
at Troy and then lost in his wanderings. While
he slept, for he was still overcome with weari-
ness, he was set ashore on the island of Ithaca.
Then those generous Phseacians received a poor
reward for their hospitality, for as the ship re-
turned, Poseidon rooted it fast in the sea and
turned it to stone, to a little rocky island that still
lies there off the island of Corfu and by its name,
" The Island of Ulysses," witnesses to the truth
of the story.
Penelope's The twenty long years of the hero's absence
had brought anxiety and distress to his people
and to his wife and son. For after the news of
the fall of Troy had reached Ithaca,'and the other
Greek princes who were still alive had returned
to Greece, and still no word came of Odysseus,
it came to be commonly believed that he was dead,
and a great number of suitors from Ithaca and
elsewhere began to demand Penelope in mar-
riage. Telemachus was still too young success-
fully to defend his mother from their insolent
insistence or his house from their greedy vio-
lence, and year after year saw them living riot-
ously and extravagantly on their absent host's
hospitality. The faithful Penelope, still hoping
against hope for her noble husband's return, put
them all off from day to day with a device that
 The Wanderings of Odysseus 321
was worthy of her crafty husband. Promising
that she would make a decision so soon as she
had completed a shroud she was weaving for her
old father against his death, she spent her days
in the chambers among her maidens, weaving her
great web, and at night when no one was by to
see, she unraveled all that she had done the day
before. For three years the suitors had been de-
ceived, but at last they had learned of the trick
and were now pressing more insistently than ever
for a decision.
Meanwhile, as Telemachus grew to be a young ^el^chUo
man, more and more he chafed at the wasting his father-
of his inheritance and the arrogant behavior of
the suitors, yet he was unable either to turn them
out of his house or to protect his mother from
their persistency. Shortly before Odysseus'
landing at Ithaca, however, the goddess Athena,
extending to his son the favor she had always
shown to Odysseus, roused him to brave the anger
of the suitors and go in search of his father.
With the goddess as guide he came first to the
court of Nestor and afterwards to that of
Menelaiis. Both heroes received the son of their
old comrade with cordial kindness, but the aged
Nestor could tell him nothing of his father.
Menelaiis, however, had heard from Proteus, the
prophetic old man of the sea, that Odysseus was
held captive on an island by the nymph Calypso.
Strengthened in his resistance to the suitors by
 322 Greek and Roman Mythology
the knowledge that his father was still living,
Telemachus started on his return voyage. But
the suitors, made anxious by the increased cour-
age and determination the young man had dis-
played in equipping a ship and venturing across
the seas, planned to catch him on his return and
take his life.
Odysseus m When Odysseus awoke on the shore of his own
J
the swine-
nerd's hut. island, Athena appeared to him and warned him
of the dangers that still awaited him. To secure
him further she changed his appearance to that
of an old and ragged beggar. It was in this dis-
guise that he presented himself at the hut of the
faithful old swineherd Eu mse'us and asked for

Fig. 95. Odysseus makes himself known to Telemachus.

food and shelter. True to the hospitable custom

of his absent master, the swineherd received the
old stranger with kindness, and while he set be-
fore him the best he could provide, entertained
him with an account of the sorry state of affairs
on the island, speaking always of his lord Odys-
 The Wanderings of Odysseus 323
seus with loyal and affectionate regret. As they
talked, Telemachus, just landed and happily es-
caped from the ambush set for him, appeared
at the hut. His father's heart rejoiced to see the
boy grown so strong and confident, and to re-
ceive at his hands the fine courtesy and respect
for age that distinguished noble Greeks. But he
restrained his feelings, and not until Eumseus was
called away, leaving father and son alone to-
gether, did he reveal himself to Telemachus. So
the two planned together the destruction of the
troublesome suitors, and before the swineherd re-
turned Odysseus had resumed his disguise. Odysseus
Not as an honored hero returning from the war suitors.
did Odysseus reenter his home after his twenty
years of absence, but as an old and wretched beg-
gar asking for charity. Yet even so two faith-
ful friends knew him. His old hunting-dog, ly-
ing neglected in the dirt outside the door, knew
his master as he passed by means of that strange
dog's sense that humans cannot understand, and
with one last pricking of the ears and feeble wag-
ging of his tail, died happy. The second friend
who knew him was not his wife, who, though
she had him brought to her to ask him for any
news of her husband he might have learned on
his travels, gave him only that attention she gave
to every stranger. It was his old nurse Eu ry-
cle'a who, as at Penelope's command she washed
the old stranger's feet, saw a scar he had had
324 Greek and Roman Mythology
since he was a boy and at once knew him. In
the great hall where the arrogant suitors sat all
day and feasted none knew that despised old man,
and all with one accord joined in scornful and
ungenerous treatment of him. For how could
Zeus's law of hospitality bind men who so dis-
honored an absent hero's house and so persecuted
the unprotected ? It was only by the spirited in-
terference of Telemachus, supported by the less
shameless of the princes, that Odysseus was
saved from violence. At last Athena put it into
Penelope's mind to appear among the suitors
with the great bow her lord had left behind him,
and announce that she would keep them waiting
no longer, but that to him who was man enough
to bend that bow and shoot through the holes in
nine ax-heads set up before them she would give
herself as wife. All tried, boastfully and hope-
fully, and all failed even to bend the bow. Then
the old beggar rose and demanded that he be
allowed to make the trial. Amid the jeers and
disgusted protests of the princes he received the
bow from Penelope's hand. The tough wood
bent, the arrow whizzing from the string pierced
through the nine axes. Then his disguise fell
from him, and standing revealed the hero turned
his arrows now this way, now that, upon those
wretched suitors. By order of Telemachus all
the weapons had been removed from the hall the
night before, and the faithful swineherd and an
 The Wanderings of Odysseus 325
equally faithful keeper of cattle had been posted
at the exits. So the men were slaughtered like
sheep, and Odysseus and his son would have met
with no resistance had not a disloyal slave
smuggled in some swords and shields for those
who had not yet fallen. Even against these odds

Fig. 06. Odysseus avenging himself upon the Suitors.

the father and son, aided by their protectress

Athena, were victorious, and not one of the suit-
ors or their followers lived to leave that hall of
death. At the end of this bloody act Odysseus
made himself known to his wife; the house was
cleansed of its murderous stains, and a period of
peace and prosperity followed the hardships of
those twenty years.
 CHAPTER XIX

THE TRAGEDY OF AGAMEMNON

ciytemnestra WHEN Agamemnon went to lead the armies of

and ^Sgis- °
thus. Greece against Troy in vengeance for the wrong
done to his brother Menelaiis, he left both the
care of his children and the rule of his wide king-
dom to his wife Cly tern nes'tra. Though no pro-
tracted wanderings doubled for him, as for
Ulysses, the time of his absence, the avenging
fates had prepared for his home-coming a trag-
edy so black as to be the fitting culmination to
the course of crime and horror that marked the
history of his race. JE gis'thus, Agamemnon's
cousin, who was at once the guilty lover and the
associate in power of Ciytemnestra, was a son
of that Thyestes who, ignorant of what he did,
had been forced by his brother Atreus to eat of
the flesh of his own son, served to him at a feast.
(See p. 282.) The hatred engendered by this
horrible crime had been handed down from father
to son, and iEgisthus only waited an opportunity
to avenge his father's wrong on Atreus' son Aga-
memnon. Ciytemnestra, too, in addition to her
secret passion for ^Egisthus, had other causes to
wish her husband's death. Ever since that day
326
 The Tragedy of Agamemnon 327
when, under pretense of giving his daughter in
marriage to Achilles, Agamemnon had summoned
his wife to bring Iphigenia to Aulis and had then
offered the maiden in sacrifice to Artemis, Cly-
temnestra had nourished fierce resentment to-
wards her lord and with JEgisthus secretly
planned his ruin.
At last the watchman, who from his high tower The murder
had watched and waited for nine long years for aon.
the beacon light that was to tell the fall of Troy
and the return of his conquering lord, announced
that the fiery signal had been passed along and
Agamemnon was at hand. Preparations were
made for his honorable reception, and the citi-
zens joyfully gathered to greet him. He came
accompanied by those of his followers who still
survived, and bringing with him as a slave,
Priam's daughter Cassandra, to whom Apollo,
because he loved her, had given the gift of proph-
ecy, and because she rejected his love, had added
the curse that her prophecies should never be
belieyed. As the king in his chariot drew up be-
fore the palace, the great doors opened, and
Clytemnestra in festal robes came out to greet
her lord and with feigned honor and affection
led him within. The palace doors closed behind
them. Then Cassandra, who had refused to leave
the chariot, raised her prophetic voice in lamen-
tation and unintelligible warning of coming trag-
edy. All the bloody and unnatural crimes of
 328 Greek and Roman Mythology
that house rose before her, and she saw them
about to be crowned by another yet more terri-
ble. But none could understand her warnings;
only when a great cry of agony rose from within
those closed doors and was repeated again and
again did her meaning become plain. Insolent
in her vengeance, Clytemnestra threw wide the
doors and displayed the body of her husband
bleeding from the wounds she had inflicted as he
stepped into the bath prepared to make him
ready for the feast of his home-coming. Cas-
sandra too met death at the hand of jealous Cly-
temnestra.
orestes The terrible law of retribution in those days
avenges his .
father. required of a son to avenge his father, and Cly-
temnestra and ^Egisthus, knowing this, would
have slaughtered Agamemnon's little son O res'tes
had not his older sister E lec'tra sent him out
of the country for safe-keeping. That Electra
herself might never be in a position of influence
to arouse a revolt against the murderers, she was
compelled to become the wife of a humble serv-
ant. She could only pray that the distant brother
would return when the time came to fulfil his
duty of vengeance. And when the time came
and Orestes with his faithful friend Py'la des
arrived, the brother and sister, meeting before
their father's tomb were in full agreement about
the duty before them. iEgisthus and Clytemnes-
tra were celebrating a religious feast when Ores-
 The Tragedy of Agamemnon 329
tes came upon them, and taking them unawares,
killed them both.
This revolting murder of a mother by her son, Orestes'
0 J
- madness and
though done in accordance with the law of venge- purification,
ance, brought defilement and the anger of the
gods. The Eumen'i des, or Furies, the divine
avengers of crime, pursued Orestes and drove
him mad. He wandered from land to land, al-
ways accompanied by his faithful friend Pylades,
until at the god's command he came to the land
of the Taurians to obtain the sacred image of the
goddess Artemis. It was to this land that Iphi-
genia had been carried by Artemis when she was
saved by her at Aulis, and here she had lived
ever since, serving as Artemis' priestess in her
temple. In accordance with the barbarous cus-
tom of this country all strangers who landed on
their shores were offered in sacrifice to the god-
dess, and it was to Iphigenia that the duty of
this sacrifice fell. When Orestes and Pylades
were about to be ^offered up, however, they be-
came known to the priestess, and through her
extraordinary power and influence they were en-
abled to secure the sacred image of Artemis and
escape unharmed, carrying Iphigenia with them.
Even then, before Orestes could be purified of
his crime, he was compelled to appear before the
A re o'pa gus, the great Athenian court of jus-
tice. Here the Eumenides acted as his accusers,
and though he pleaded in defense Apollo's ap-
330 Greek and Roman Mythology
proval of his act, the court was equally divided
on the question. Athena cast the deciding vote
for acquittal, the Eumenides left;him, and the
curse on the family of Pelops had run its course.
 CHAPTER XX

THE LEGENDARY ORIGIN OF ROME

T H E Romans, tracing the history of their race The jEneid.
back beyond the times when events were recorded
in history into the realm of tradition and myth,
honored 7E ne'as, the son of An chi'ses, by the
goddess Venus, as the founder of their race.
Throughout the Trojan War JEneas had proved
himself one of the bravest and ablest leaders of
the Trojan forces, standing next, perhaps, to
Hector in general esteem. On the occasion of
his single combat with Diomedes his goddess-
mother had intervened to save his life; he had
joined in the contest over Patroclus' body and had
even stood to meet the invincible Achilles. So
much we learn from Homer, but it is the Latin
poet Vergil who narrates the full story of ^Eneas'
deeds and wanderings, making him the central fig-
ure in his great Roman national epic, the Mneid.
On the night when,> neglecting
&
© ©
the wise coun- ^Eneas's es-
c a p e f r o m

sels of Laocoon, the Trojans had drawn the failing Troy,

wooden horse within their walls, the weary citi-
zens, relieved of immediate anxiety by the ap-
parent departure of the Greeks, had given them-
selves up to much needed rest and sleep. ^Eneas'
331
332 Greek and Roman Mythology
rest was disturbed by the vision of his dead cousin
Hector appearing before him, all bloody from the
wounds he had received at Achilles' hands, and

Fig. 97. /IDneas Wounded.

bidding him arouse himself and see the destruc-

tion that had at last come upon Troy. Spring-
ing up, the hero rushed to the roof of his house
and from that point could see that the city was
The Legendary Origin of Rome 333
already in the hands of its foes. Reckless of
personal danger and caring little for his own life
if he might yet bring some support to his falling
city, he led a band of Trojans in one last desper-
ate struggle. Driven from one point to another
he came at last to Priam's palace and saw the old
king lying slain before his household altar, his
last son lying near him and his women huddled
together in despair. But the fates decreed that
iEneas should not perish in burning Troy, but
should live to found a new and greater city on the
banks of Tiber. Venus appeared to her son, and
" drawing aside the veil that dims mortal sight,"
showed him the gods directing the destruction
of the city. Then iEneas yielded and hurried
at once to his home to save his own family. Bid-
ding his father Anchises take up the images of
the Penates or family gods, he took the old man
upon his back, seized his little son As ca'ni us, or
I u'lus, by the hand, and bidding his wife Cre-
u'sa follow close behind, he made his way
through the flames and confusion to a place of
safety outside the walls. Not until he had passed
the city gate did he discover that his wife was
not following. In his distracted and hopeless
search for her he met only her shade which came
to tell him that the gods detained her on those
shores and that it was their will that he should
go on his way without her. Other Trojans who
had escaped in the course of a few days joined
 334 Greek and Roman Mythology
the little group in their place of hiding between
the mountains and the sea, and here they built and
fitted out twelve ships on which the next spring
they set sail.
jEneas's Then began a period of wandering almost as
r
wanderings. ° °
full of adventure as the nine years of Ulysses'
seafaring. First the company landed in Thrace,
where iEneas hoped to found a new city, but the
strange portent of a bush which, when uprooted,
dripped blood and spoke in the voice of Priam's
murdered son Pol y dor'us 39 drove them to seek
a more propitious land. They sailed to Delos
to consult Apollo, and understanding a refer-
ence of the oracle to an ancestral home as mean-
ing Crete, whence, tradition held, their fore-
fathers had gone to Troy, they made their way
thither. While they were building the new city,
a terrible pestilence fell upon them, blighting the
grain and killing men and beasts. Then the Pe-
nates warned ^Eneas in a dream that the ancestral
land Apollo prophesied was Hesperia, or Italy,
whence, as legend told, Dardanus, the ancestor
of the Trojans, had originally come. In pain
and grief, but still hopeful, the diminished band
started on their western voyage; but a terrible
39
During the war Priam had sent Polydorus, only a boy
at the time, to seek protection with the king of Thrace,
but when the news of the fall of Troy came to him, the
king murdered his charge and seized the treasure that
Priam had sent with him.
The Legendary Origin of Rome 335
storm drove the ships out of their course to the
island of the Strophades, haunted by those dread-
ful Harpies which the Argonauts had met.
While the exhausted sailors were feasting, these
horrible bird-women swooped down and seized the
food off the tables. Driven off by the men, they
yet left despair behind them, for their leader
prophesied a long and destructive voyage, and
that finally the day should come when hunger
would force the wanderers to eat their own tables.
Leaving the Strophades the Trojans sailed north-
ward along the coast of Epirus, passing Odys-
seus' rocky island of Ithaca and the coast of the
Phaeacians, and landing finally in a harbor further
up the coast. Here they were overjoyed to find
a new city modeled on Troy and ruled over by
Priam's prophetic son Herenus. Hector's wife
Andromache, who at the fall of Troy had been
given to Achilles' son Neoptolemus, was now liv-
ing with Helenus as his wife. At the moment
of the Trojans' landing she was occupied in of-
fering a sacrifice at the empty tomb of her noble
first husband. She and Helenus received their
wandering countrymen with enthusiastic hospi-
tality, and when ^Eneas felt that they must con-
tinue on their divinely guided way, they loaded
him with gifts, and after Helenus had warned
him of the dangers that lay before him, they
unwillingly let him go. Sailing westward they
sighted Italy, but knowing that the towns of this
336 Greek and Roman Mythology
part of south Italy were Greek they gave the
coast a wide berth. As they neared Sicily they
saw the cave of dreadful Scylla and the waters
thrown high from the whirlpool of Charybdis,
but, more fortunate than Ulysses, had no need
to pass between. Not knowing the risk they ran,
the sailors beached their ships on the south coast
of Sicily near the cave of the Cyclops Polyphemus
and came on shore to spend the night. But iEtna
belching forth flames and thundering in full erup-
tion drove sleep away and kept the men in terri-
fied suspense. At dawn a man, hairy, savage,
and emaciated, came to them pitifully begging to
be taken from this terrible island. He was a
Greek, a companion of Ulysses, who had been
left behind when those whom Ulysses' craft had
saved from being devoured had made their hasty
escape, but in the face of the savagery of the in-
human Cyclops race-enmity was forgotten and
the wretched .Greek found refuge on the Trojan
ships. They did not get away from the island
without seeing Polyphemus and his brothers,
however, for Polyphemus, coming down to the
water to bathe his bloody eye-socket, heard the
sound of their oars and bellowed aloud. The
other Cyclopes heard him, and hurrying to the
shore, stood there towering up like great trees
and threatening the ship with destruction. On
the further shore of Sicily a grief of which
^Eneas had not been forewarned awaited him;
Fig. 98. AEneas fleeing from Troy.
The Legendary Origin of Rome 339
his old father Anchises, who had nobly borne
with him the hardships of these years of wander-
ing, died and had to be given a grave in this,for-
eign soil. From Sicily it was but a short voy-
age to the destined home in Italy, but when the
ships had been launched and were well out at
sea, Juno, still cherishing resentment against the
hated Trojan race, persuaded ^Eolus, king of
the winds, to let out conflicting blasts against the
ships. Driven directly south, they finally sought
shelter in an inlet on the coast of Africa where
the new city of Carthage was building. iEneas,
setting out with his faithful comrade A cha'tes
to explore the neighborhood, was met by his
mother Venus disguised as a huntress and by
her was directed to the city.
Though on the coast of Africa, Carthage was -ffineas enter-
& &
tained by
a Phoenician city, founded by a Phoenician king's D^O.
daughter, Dido, who with a large following had
secretly departed from her native land after the
murder of her husband by her wicked brother.
She was well acquainted with the story of Troy,
and the name of ^Eneas was familiar to her, so she
welcomed the unfortunate strangers cordially and
generously, and even urged them to share her
new city and happy prospects. Venus had a
hand in this extreme good-will shown her son,
for she sent her powerful boy Cupid to take the
form of little Ascanius and inspire in the wid-
owed queen love for the noble stranger. Indeed
 340 Greek and Roman Mythology
iEneas, who, not unresponsive to the queen's ad-
vances, had united with her in a secret marriage,
might have been tempted to remain in Carthage,
had not Jupiter sent Mercury to warn him
against such an alliance and to remind him of
his great destiny as founder of that Roman race
that was to hold the world under its rule. So,
obedient to the gods' will, the righteous ^Eneas
put behind him his personal feelings and also,
from the human standpoint, all thought of grati-
tude and honor towards his generous hostess and
wife, and fixing his eyes only on the command
of the fates, hastened to launch his ships and
sail away. Then the unfortunate Dido, thus be-
trayed by the goddess into a passionate and un-
wise love, and by the god-fearing yEneas deserted
while her passion still burned at its hottest, had
a great pyre erected in the court of her palace,
and mounting to the top, killed herself with the
sword her faithless lover had left behind him,
on her lips curses against her betrayer. As the
Trojans sailed away towards their unknown fu-
ture home, the sea behind them was lighted by
the red flames of that tragic pyre.
e Ur g
o? th sh? s ^ u t ^ e S ^ P S c a m e safely to Sicily, where kind
A cesses, the king of Trojan descent who ruled
over that part of the island, received them hos-
pitably. Here they stayed to offer sacrifices and
hold the postponed funeral games in honor of
Anchises. While the men were thus employed,
The Legendary Origin of Rome 341
unrelenting Juno sent her messenger Iris down
to tempt the Trojan women to burn the ships
and thus thwart the fates and secure for ^hem-
selves an end of their wanderings and the settle-
ment they longed for in Sicily. Some ships had
been previously lost in the storm, now others
were destroyed by fire, and too few were left to
transport all the company to the land decreed by
fate. Therefore the older and weaker men and
the women, already regretting their rash act,
were left behind with Acestes, and with his di-
minished following iEneas started on once more.
For the final voyage Venus secured from Nep-
tune favorable seas; yet one man was demanded
as a sacrifice for his favor — Pal i nu'rus, the
skilful pilot, overcome with sleep, fell backward
into the sea and was lost. A point of land on
the west coast of Italy, where his body came
ashore, still retains his name.
The friendly seer Helenus had told ^Eneas that The sn>yi
before he could reach his future home and found
a city he must visit the Sibyl of Cumse and
through the help of the prophetess descend to
the lower world and obtain his father's advice on
his future course. Leaving his men on the shore
a few miles from where Naples stands, ^Eneas
sought the cave of the Sibyl. This cave with
its hundred dark mouths, was near Avernus, a
lake mysteriously formed from the waters of
the lower world and not far from the cave that
342 Greek and Roman Mythology
opened into Hades. Within it sat the Sibyl and
uttered her prophecies when the god Apollo in-
spired and took possession of her. After the
sacrifice had been offered and iEne^s had prayed
for help, the Sibyl poured forth her prophetic
warnings and promises:
The Trojans shall come to the kingdom of Lavinium
( I t a l y ) ; dismiss this anxious care from your heart;
but they will wish that they had not come. Wars, hor-
rid wars, and the Tiber flowing with blood, I see. . . .
Yet yield not to misfortune, but go boldly forward.

Undaunted, yEneas only asked that the Sibyl

should open to him the way to the lower world
that he might go to see his father, penetrating,
as those other sons of the gods, Hercules, The-
seus, and Orpheus, had done, the fearful places
of the dead. The Sibyl answered:
Easy is the descent to A vermis; day and night the
gates of black Dis (Pluto) lie open, but to retrace your
steps, and escape once more to the upper air, that is the
toil, that is the difficult task. (JBneid, VI, 126 ff.)

Yet it might be done if the hero could first

find and pluck the golden branch that Proserpina
claimed as her due offering. In the thick wood
where the strange tree grew that one golden
bough could hardly have been found had not
Venus sent two doves to lead the way for her
son.
The Legendary Origin of Rome 343
After /Eneas had offered the proper sacrifice of The
black sheep to the infernal deities, the Sibyl led
him through a black cavern upon the gloomy road
that led to the kingdom of Pluto. Here before
the gates sat Grief and avenging Cares, pale Dis-
ease and sad Old Age, Fear and evil Famine, and
shameful Want, and Death's twin brother Sleep,
and death-dealing War on the threshold. Here
were the iron chambers of the Furies, and here
was mad Discord, her snaky locks bound with
bloody fillets. In the middle of the open space
was a huge elm beneath whose leaves clung de-
ceiving Dreams, and about were many other mon-
strous forms, Centaurs, Scyllas, flaming Chimaera,
Gorgons, and Harpies. Yet these were only un-
bodied shades against which, the Sibyl warned
the hero, his sword could have no effect. Be-
low this place seethed black Acheron, where the
foul ferryman Charon waited with his frail skiff.
About the bank crowded the shades of the dead
whose funeral rites had been left undone, " as
many as the leaves that fall in the woods in
autumn at the first touch of frost." But the
ferryman refused them all and sent them away
to wander vainly about the shore until a hun-
dred years should pass; then they win a passage
to the sunless shore beyond. Here Palinurus
greeted iEneas and begged him, when he re-
turned to the upper air, to seek his body on the
344 Greek and Roman Mythology
shore and give him proper burial. Charon at
first refused to accept a living man in his little
boat, but the word of the Sibyl, and the sight
of the golden bough overcame his unwillingness,
and he turned out his ghostly passengers to make
room for the hero, and so set him across the
stream. A honey-cake thrown by the Sibyl paci-
fied three-headed Cerberus. Then his guide led
/Eneas through the places of the dead. First
they passed those who had died in infancy and
those who had suffered death on false accusa-
tions ; next were those who had taken their own
lives, and the Fields of Mourning inhabited by
unhappy lovers, and among these the hero recog-
nized unfortunate Dido, fresh from the funeral
pyre she herself had built. He would have
stopped to talk with her and excuse to the shade
his desertion of the living woman, but she si-
lently turned from him and glided away, to re-
join her first husband. Proceeding they came
to where thronged the great warriors. The
Greeks fled before the Trojan hero, but his friends
and countrymen stayed to speak with him and
ask of the world they had left. Then they came
to the fiery river Phlegethon, encircling the ada-
mantine walls of Tartarus, guarded by the Furies.
From here arose groans and the sound of blows
and the clank of iron chains. In the pit below
writhed the Titans and the rebellious giants and
those who had sinned against the gods or had
The Legendary Origin of Rome 345
been guilty of unnatural crimes. Into this deep
hell iEneas could not look, but the Sibyl told
him of it as they passed by. In contrast t9 the
fiery tortures of Tartarus the Elysian Fields
spread before them, lighted by their own sun and
stars, and bathed in a generous air and rosy
light. Here the great heroes, children of the
gods, contended in games, or joined in the song
and choral dance. Here were the great founders
of the Trojan race, Ilus, Dardanus, and others.
Afar off in a green secluded valley of this realm
at last ./Eneas met Anchises, reviewing the long
line of souls who, having stayed the allotted time
in the lower world and having drunk forget ful-
ness from the stream of Lethe, were ready to
return in other bodies to the upper air as the
descendants of ^Eneas, the glorious Roman race,
Romulus who was to found Rome; all the seven
Roman kings, and the great governors and gen-
erals who should make of Rome a world em-
pire, all up to Augustus, in whose time Vergil
wrote his great poem. When Anchises had
shown his son all the future glories of their race,
and warned him of the hardships that yet lay
before him, he brought him to the Gates
of Dreams. Through the gate of horn pass
dreams that are to be fulfilled; through that
of ivory, those sent to deceive mortals.
From hence iEneas proceeded to the world
above.
 346 Greek and Roman Mythology
Tfce.tlanding Sailing up the west coast of Italy, the Tro-
jans finally beached their ships near where the
Tiber, yellow with the sand it washes down,
empties into the sea. When they had landed
and prepared a hasty meal, their hunger led them
to devour not only the food intended for them
but the flat cakes of bread on which the food
had been laid out. Seeing this, young Ascanius
cried: "See, we are eating our tables!" So
^Eneas, recognizing that the prophecy of the
Harpy was thus harmlessly fulfilled and that the
land granted them by fate had at last been
reached, gave thanks and worshiped the divini-
ties of the place. The king of this part of the
country was La ti'nus, whose daughter La vin'i a
was sought as wife by the king of a neighbor-
ing tribe, Turnus by name. Though the parents
of the girl would have been glad to have this
prince as a son-in-law, the gods had warned them
..against the marriage, since a hero from over the
sea was to have her as wife and by her raise
up a race that should rule the world. When,
therefore, yEneas sent messengers to Latinus, the
king recognized his destined son-in-law in the
stranger, and readily formed an alliance and of-
fered him his daughter in marriage. But Juno,
still implacable towards ^Eneas, sent one of the
Furies to rouse Turnus and Latinus' queen against
the Trojans. Moreover she made trouble be-
tween the newcomers and some Latin herdsmen,
The Legendary Origin of Rome 347
and finally threw open the gates of Janus' temple
and roused all the country in war.40 By night
Father Tiber, the river-god, rose from his stream,
and speaking to the sleeping ^Eneas, bade him
proceed up the river to where the good king
Evan'der had his palace. With willing obe-
dience .^Eneas made his way up the stream until
at noon he came to Evander's settlement, its
humble roofs clustered among the seven hills that
later bore the massive buildings of imperial Rome.
Fitly entertained by Evander on the spot later
to be made glorious by his descendants, /Eneas
formed a compact of mutual help with the king,
and on his new ally's advice proceeded thence
northward to Etruria to draw into his alliance
an Etruscan king who was already a bitter en-
emy of Turnus. Thus reinforced, ^Eneas re-
turned at last to his camp by the Tiber to find
a fierce battle in progress. Notwithstanding the
superior numbers of the enemy and the brave
deeds of Turnus and his allies, the Trojans were
victorious, and Turnus died at ^Eneas' hand. At
this point Vergil's story closes, but we know that
Lavinia became ./Eneas' wife and that in her
honor he named the town that he founded La-
vinium.
/Eneas' son Ascanius, or lulus, founded Alba Romuius
and Remus.
40
Janus was the Roman god of beginnings. In time of
war the gates of his temple were opened; in time of peace,
closed.
348 Greek and Roman Mythology
Longa on the slope of the Alban Mount, and here
his descendants continued to rule after his death.
The last of the line to hold thje throne was
Nu'mi tor, whose younger brother A mu'li us
wickedly supplanted him, and to preserve his
own power, put to death Numitor's only son,
and consecrated his daughter Rhea Silvia to the
service of the goddess Vesta as a Vestal Virgin.
But the virgin was loved by the war-god Mars
and by him became the mother of twin sons.
When Amulius, persisting in his wicked designs,
ordered the babies to be drowned in the river,
the trough that held them was carried down the
stream into the Tiber, and by the guidance of
the gods was washed high up on the bank and
left by the retreating waters under a fig tree on
the Palatine Hill. A she-wolf, wandering that
way, was attracted by the babies' cries, and adopt-
ing them as her own whelps, nourished them with
her milk. It is said that a wood-pecker, a bird
sacred to Mars, also brought the babies food in
her beak. After some time a kindly shepherd
came upon the little savages and took them home
to his hut on the Palatine Hill. As they grew,
the twins, called by their foster-parents Romulus
and Remus, became the acknowledged leaders of
all the young shepherds about and fought against
many wild beasts and robbers. After a quarrel
with some herdsmen of Numitor Remus was taken
before his grandfather and was recognized by him
The Legendary Origin of Rome 349
as his daughter's child. Amulius met at the
young men's hands the death he deserved, and
Numitor was restored to his kingdom.' But
Romulus and Remus, having a particular affec-
tion for the hills where they had lived as boys,
put themselves at the head of a band of young
men and set out to found a new city on the banks
of the Tiber. A dispute arising between the two

Fig. 99. The wolf with Romulus and Remus.

as to whether the Palatine or the Aventine Hill

was the more favorable site, they agreed to leave
the matter to be decided by the gods. To Remus,
looking for the divine sanction on the Aventine,
appeared six vultures, but when he would have
claimed the decision in his favor, Romulus on the
Palatine reported the flight of twelve vultures.
Disappointed in his hopes and wishing to show
his contempt for his successful brother's plans,
350 Greek and Roman Mythology
Remus mockingly leaped over the wall Romulus
was building. Romulus in a rage killed him on
the spot. The new settlement was soon enlarged
by the people from the country around, who were
gladly afforded refuge there from enemies and
a hospitable reception. Only wives were lack-
ing. To supply this deficiency, when he had
vainly tried more peaceful methods, Romulus
adopted a somewhat treacherous device. Under
pretense of celebrating sacred games, he invited
his neighbors, the Latins and Sabines, to visit
his city with their wives and daughters, and when
the visitors were off their guard, the young Ro-
mans seized the Sabine women and drove the men
away with violence. After some time the Sa-
bines returned in force to recover their women,
and a bloody battle was fought in what was after-
wards the Roman Forum. In the midst of the
fight the Sabine women, whose affections had
been won by their violent young captors, but who
still were anxious for the safety of their rela-
tives, rushed between the combatants and effected
a reconciliation. The Sabines were now given
a settlement on the Capitoline and Quirinal Hills,
and the two races united in one state with a com-
mon meeting-place in the Forum, the valley be-
tween their respective settlements. Through the
wise and strong rule of Romulus the new city
grew rapidly, and successful wars were carried
on against hostile neighbors. One day when the
The Legendary Origin of Rome 351
king was reviewing his army in the Campus
Martius, or Field of Mars, outside the city walls,
an eclipse of the sun, accompanied by a terrific
storm, darkened the heavens and threw the as-
semblage into a panic. As the men dispersed,
Mars descended in a fiery chariot and carried his
son Romulus off to heaven. After this his peo-
ple worshiped the deified Romulus under the
name of Qui ri'nus, and side by side with the tem-
ples of their other gods, religiously preserved
the little straw hut he had occupied as a shep-
herd. The stories of Romulus's six successors
in the kingship, full of interest and adventure,
belong rather to the legendary history of Rome
than to mythology.
APPENDICES
 APPENDICES

APPENDIX A
Notes on the Pronunciation of Greek and Latin Proper
Names.
I. Accent.
( i ) The last syllable (ultima) is never accented.
(2) The next to the last syllable (penult) is accented
when it contains a long vowel or a diphthong or when
its vowel is followed by two or more consonants or by
x or z, e.g., A the'na, He phaes'tus, Min er'va.
(3) If the penult is not long, the accent falls on the
third syllable from the end (antepenult), e.g., Ju'piter,
Ni'o be.
II. Consonants.
(1) Ch is pronounced like k.
(2) C is soft before e, i, y, ce, 02; elsewhere it is hard.
III. Vowels.
(1) The vowel e is long in the terminations c and es.
(2) The vowel e is long before the terminations a
and us.
(3) The diphthongs <z and ce are pronounced like e.

355
356 Appendices

APPENDIX B
A Brief List of Poems and Dramas Based on the
Myths.
Chapter I. The World of the Myths.
Keats, Hyperion; ^Eschylus, Prometheus Bound
(translation in Everyman's Library) ; Mrs. E. B.
Browning, Prometheus Bound; Shelley, Prometheus
Unbound; Byron, Prometheus; Robert Bridges,
Prometheus; J. R. Lowell, Prometheus; H. W. Long-
fellow, Prometheus and Epimetheus; D. G. Rossetti,
Pandora; H. W. Longfellow's Masque of Pandora;
Account of the Four Ages and the Flood in Ovid's
Metamorphoses I. 89-415 (translation in Bohn's
Libraries).

Chapter II. The Gods of Olympus: Zeus.

Dean Swift, Baucis and Philemon, imitated from the
Eighth Book of Ovid, Metamorphoses (a burlesque),
in the Scott-Saintsbury edition of Swift's Works;
Ovid, Metamorphoses I. 583 if., II. 410 ff., V I I I . 620 ff.
(translation in Bohn's Libraries),

Chapter III. Hera, Athena, Hephaestus.

Thomas Moore, The Fall of Hebe; J. R. Lowell,
Hebe; John Ruskin, The Queen of the Air (lectures) ;
Milton, Paradise Lost I. 740 ff.; Ovid, Metamorphoses
VI. 1 ff. (translation in Bohn's Libraries).

Chapter IV. Apollo and Artemis.

Keats, Hymn to Apollo; Shelley, Hymn of Apollo,
Homer's Hymn to the Sun; A. C. Swinburne,, The Last
Oracle, Delphic Hymn to Apollo; Stephen Phillips,
Marpessa; W. S, Landor, Niobe; Chaucer, Prolog of
 Appendices 357
the Legend of Good Women; W. Morris, The Love of
Alcestis; R. Browning, Apollo and the Fates, Balaus-
tion's Adventure; Euripides, Alcestis (translation in
Everyman's Library) ; Ovid, Metamorphoses I. 452 fL,
X. 162 fL, VI. 146 fL, L 748 fL; Shelley, Homer's
Hymn to the Moon, Arethusa; A. H. Clough, Action;
John Lyly, Endymion; Keats, Endymion; J. R. Lowell,
Endymion; H. W. Longfellow, Endymion, Occultation
of Orion; Ovid, Metamorphoses V. 577 fL, III. 138 fL

Chapter V. Hermes and Hestia.

Shelley, Homer's Hymn to Mercury.

Chapter VI. Ares and Aphrodite.

Chaucer, The Compleynt of Mars, Legend of
Thisbe (in The Legend of Good Women); Shake-
speare, Venus1 and Adonis, Midsummer Night's Dream;
Shelley, Homer's Hymn to Venus; Keats, Sonnet On
a Picture of Leander; Byron, Poem written after
swimming from Sestos to Abydos; Thomas Moore,
Hero and Leander; Tom Hood, Hero and Leander;
Tennyson, Hero to Leander; Sir Edwin Arnold, Hero
and Leander; Leigh Hunt, Hero and Leander; D. G.
Rossetti, Sonnets, Venus Verticordia, Venus Victrix,
Hero's Lamp (in The House of Life) ; W. S. Landor,
Hippomenes and Atalanta; W. Morris, Pygmalion and
the Image, Atalanta's Race (in The Earthly Paradise) ;
Andrew Lang, The New Pygmalion; Theocritus, Idyl
XV.; Bion, Idyl I. (translations in Bohn's Libraries
and in The Loeb Classical Library) ; Ovid, Metamor-
phoses X. 560 ff., IV. 55 fL

Chapter VII. The Lesser Deities of Olympus.

Mrs. E. B. Browning, Paraphrases on Apuleius;
Keats, Ode to Psyche; A. C. Swinburne, Eros; W.
358 Appendices
Morris, Cupid and Psyche (in The Earthly Paradise) ;
Spenser, The Tears of the Muses.

Chapter VIII. The Gods of the S e a /

D. G. Rossetti, A Sea-Spell; J. R. Lowell, The Sirens.

Chapter IX. The Gods of the Earth.

Shelley, Homer's Hymn to the Earth, Song of
Proserpine, Hymn of Pan; Pan, Echo, and the Satyr;
Tennyson, Demetir and Persephone; A. C. Swinburne,
Hymn to Proserpine, At Eleusis, Pan and Thalasslus;
D. G. Rossetti, Proserpine; Mrs. E. B. Browning,
Bacchus and Ariadne (paraphrase on Nonnus), The
Dead Pan; R. W. Emerson, Bacchus; W. S. Landor,
Cupid and Pan; R. Browning, Pan and Luna; Ovid,
Metamorphoses V. 341 ff.

Chapter X. The World of the Dead.

Dante, The Divine Comedy; Milton, Paradise Lost;
Sackville, Induction to the Mirror for Magistrates; L.
Morris, The Epic of Hades; A. C. Swinburne, The
Garden of Proserpine, Eurydice; A. Lang, The For-
tunate Islands; W. Morris, The Earthly Paradise;
Shelley, Orpheus; Wordsworth, The Power of Music;
R. Browning, Eurydice to Orpheus, Ixion; J. R. Lowell,
Eurydice.

Chapter XL Stories of Argos.

Chaucer, The Legend of Hypermnestra (in The
Legend of Good Women) ; W. Morris, The Doom of
King Acrisius (in The Earthly Paradise) ; D. G.
Rossetti, Aspect a Medusa; Ovid, Metamorphoses IV.
610 ff.
 Appendices 359
Chapter XII. Heracles.
W. Morris, The Golden Apples (in The Earthly
Paradise) ; Theocritus, Idyl X. (translation in Bohn's
Libraries and in The Loeb Classical Library).

Chapter XIII. Stories of Crete, Sparta, Corinth, and

JEtolia.
Shelley, Homer's Hymn to Castor and Pollux;
Macaulay, The Battle of Lake Regillus; H. W. Long-
fellow, Pegasus in Pound; W. Morris, Bellerophon in
Argos and Lycia (in The Earthly Paradise) ; G.
Meredith, Bellerophon; A. C. Swinburne, Atalanta in
Calydon; Moschus, Idyl II (translations in Bohn's
Libraries and in The Loeb Classical Library) ; Ovid,
Metamorphoses II. 833 ff., VIII. 183 if., VIII. 260 ff.

Chapter XIV. Stories of Attica.

Chaucer, The Legend of Philomela, and The Legend
of Ariadne (in The Legend of Good Women), The
Knight's Tale (in The Canterbury Tales) ; A. C. Swin-
burne, Erectheus, Itylus; Thomas Moore, Cephalus and
Procris; M. Arnold, Philomela.

Chapter XV. Stories of Thebes.

A. C. Swinburne, Tiresias; Tennyson, Tiresias;
Shelley, Swellfoot the Tyrant; Sophocles, CEdipus
Tyr annus, CEdipus Coloneus, Antigone (translations in
Everyman's Library).

Chapter XVI. The Argonautic Expedition.

Chaucer, The Legend of Hypsipyle and Medea (in
The Legend of Good Women) ; W. Morris, The Life
and Death of Jason; Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica
360 Appendices
(translation in The Loeb Classical Library) ; Theo-
critus, Idyl XIII. (translation in Bohn's Libraries and
in The Loeb Classical Library); Euripides, Medea
(translation in Everyman's Library). '

Chapter XVII. The Trojan War.

Chaucer, Troilus and Criseyde; Shakespeare, Tral-
ius and Cressida; Keats, Sonnet on Chapman's Homer;
Tennyson, CEnone, Dream of Fair Women; W. S.
Landor, The Death of Paris and CEnone, Menelaus and
Helen, Iphigenia and Agamemnon, Shades of Iphigenia
and Agamemnon; A. Lang, Helen of Troy, The Shade
of Helen, Translation of Theocritus, Idyl XVIII.; Mrs.
E. B. Browning, Hector and Andromache (a para-
phrase of Homer) ; W. Morris, The Death of Paris
(in The Earthly Paradise) ; Wordsworth, Laodamia;
M. Arnold, Palladium; D. G. Rossetti, Cassandra;
Schiller, Cassandra (translation by Lord Lytton);
Goethe, Iphigenia in Tauris (translation in Bohn's
Libraries) ; Sophocles, Ajax, Philoctetes; Euripides,
Iphigenia at Aulis, Iphigenia Among the Taurians,
Hecuba, Trojan Women, Andromache.

Chapter X V I I I . The Wanderings of Odysseus.

Tennyson, Ulysses, The Lotus-Eaters; W. S. Landor,
The Last of Ulysses, Penelope; Stephen Phillips,
Ulysses; M. Arnold, The Strayed Reveller; D. G. Ros-
setti, The Wine of Circe; J. R. Lowell, The Sirens;
Shelley, The Cyclops (translation from Euripides) ;
Milton, C omits (inspired by the story of Circe) ; Pope,
Argus; Theocritus, Idyl XI (translation in The Loeb
Classical Library). A. Lang, Hesperothen, The Odys-
sey, The Sirens, In Ithaca.
 Appendices 361
Chapter XIX. The Tragedy of Agamemnon.
AEschylus, Agamemnon Choephori, Eumenides;
Sophocles, Electra; Euripides, Electra, Orestes;
Iphigenia in Tauris (translation in Everyman's Li-
brary).

Chapter XX. The Legendary Origin of Rome.

Chaucer, The Legend of Dido (in The Legend of
Good Women) ; Christopher Marlowe, The Tragedy of
Dido.
For general reading: The Iliad (translation by
Lang, Leaf and Myers) ; The Odyssey (translation by
Butcher and L a n g ) ; The Homeric Hymns (translation
in The Loeb Classical Library) ; translations of the
tragedies of i£schylus, Sophocles and Euripides in
Everyman's Library; Ovid, Metamorphoses (transla-
tions in Bohn's Libraries and in The Loeb Classical
Library).
For younger students: A. C. Church, Stories from
Homer; Stories from the Greek Tragedians; Stories
from Virgil. These are excellent reading and retain
remarkably well the spirit of the originals. Charles
Kingsley, The Heroes.
 INDEX
Ages'tes, 340 Al gi'des, name of Heracles.
A cha'tes, 339 A l g i n ' o u s , king of the
Ach e lo'us, 225 Phaeacians.
A'cher on, 187, 311, 343 Alcmae'on, one of the Epi-
A chil'les, 186, 280, 283, 288f. goni, son of Amphiaraus
A cris'i us, 200, 209 and Eriphyle, who, fol-
Actse'on, 85L lowing his father's injunc-
A d m e ' t u s , 77f. tion, killed his . mother,
A d o ' n i s , H3f. and who was, therefore,
A dras'tus, 264 pursued by the Furies.
i E ' a c u s , 189, 283 Alcme'na, 210
^Ee'tes, 267, 273 Alec'to, one of the Furies
^ ' g e u s , 248, 279 Aloe'us, father of Otus and
^Egi'na, 283 Ephialtes.
^E'gis, 44 Alphe'us, 84, 218
^Egis'thus, 326L Althae'a, 241
i E g y p ' t u s , 199 Amalthe'a, 7
yEne'as, 280, 331L A m ' a z o n s , 219, 252, 300
yE'olus, 142, 309, 339 Am bro'sia, 19
y£s cu la'pi us. See Asclep- Am'mon, an Egyptian deity
ius identified with Zeus; he
^ ' s o n , 267, 276 had a famous shrine in
JE'ther, 5 an oasis of the Libyan
JE'thra, 248 desert.
Ag a mem'non, 281, 287f., Am phi a ra'us, 242, 264
3^6f. Am phi'on, 26f.
A ga've, daughter of Cad- A m p h i t r i ' t e , 144, 148, 247
mus and mother of Pen- A m p h i t ' r y o n , 210
theus. A m u l ' i u s , 348
A ge'nor, 256 Anchi'ses, 331, 339, 345
Agis, the Four, 12 A n d r o m ' a c h e , 298, 304, 335
Aglai'a, one of the graces. An drom'eda, 207
A'jax, 287, 294, 300 Antae'us, 222
Alba Longa, 347 A n t i g ' o n e , 363, 364
Alges'tis, 771. A n t i ' a , Prcetus' wife, who
364 Index
falsely accused Bellero- A s t y ' a n a x , Hector's infant
phon. son.
A n t i n ' o u s , one of Penel- A t a l a n ' t a in Caledon, 242
ope's suitors. A t a l a n ' t a ' s race, H5f.
A n t i ' o p e , 26f., 252 A t h ' a m a s , 266
Aph ro di'te, 106, i09f., 286 A t h e ' n a , 9, 40L, 111, 203,
Apol'lo, 551., 92, 144, 181, 238, 297
224, 272, 291, 296 At'las, 206, 223
Apple of Discord, 108, 285 A'treus, 282
A r a c h ' n e , 46L A tri'des, sons of Atreuis,
Ar'cas, 22 Agamemnon and Mene-
A re o'pa gus, 109, 329 laus
A'res, 36, 105 f., 256 A t ' r o p u s , 141
A r e t h u ' s a , 83f., 157 A u g e ' a s , 217
Ar'go, 269 Au'lis, 288
Argbnautic expedition, 269f. Au'ra, 246
Ar'gus (hundred-eyed), 25 Au ro'ra, 71, 245
Ar'gus (builder of the A u t o ' m e d o n , charioteer of
A r g o ) , 269 Achilles
Ar'gus (Odysseus' d o g ) , 323 A v e r ' n u s , 187, 341
A r i a d ' n e , 171, 250
Aristse'us, son of Apollo
and father of Actseon. I t Bac'cha na'li a, 171
was when he was pursu- Bacchan'tes, 167, 173, 192
ing Eurydice that she Bac'chus, see Dionysus
stepped upon the serpent Bau'cjs, 28L
from whose sting she Bear, the Great, 24
died. I n punishment, his Bel ler'o phon, 237
bees were destroyed by Bello'na, 109
the nymphs. On the ad- Be re cyn'thi a, Cybele, from
vice of Proteus he offered Mt. Berecynthus in Phry-
animals in sacrifice to the gia
shades of Orpheus and B e r ' o e , 165
Eurydice, whereupon bees Bona Dea, divinity wor-
swarmed in the carcasses. shiped in secret by women
H e taught men to keep in Rome
bees. B o ' r e a s , 142, 245, 271
A r ' t e m i s , 69, 8of-, 241, 288 Bos'pho rus, 26
As ca'ni us, 333, 347 B r i a ' r e u s , a hundred-hand-
Ascle'pius, 55, 74 ed giant who aided Zeus
A so'pus, 236 jagainst the rebellious gods
As sar'a cus, king of Troy, Brise'is, 291
son of Tros. Bronze Age, 13
 Index 365
Ca'cus, 221 Clym'ene, 70
Cad'mus, 256 Cly tern nes'tra, 234, 326f.
Ca du'ge us, 97 Cly'ti e, a water-nymph who
Cal'chas, 291 loved Apollo and was
Calli'ope, 139, 192 changed into a sun-flower.
Callis'to, 22f. Cogy'tus, 188, 311
Cal y do'ni an boar, 241 f. Col'chis, 273
Calyp'so, 316 Co lo'nus, 263
Ca mil'la, a princess of Italy Con'sus, a Roman god of
who assisted Turnus agriculture.
against ^Eneas Co ro'nis, by Apollo, mother
Cas san'dra, 304, 327 of Asclepius.
Cas si o pe'a, 207 C o r y b a n ' t e s , 154
Cas'tor, 234, 241, 254, 269 Cre'on, 263
Qe'crops, 46, 244 Cretan bull, 218
Ce lse'no, one of the Harpies Creu'sa, 333
Ce'le us, king of Eleusis and Cro'nus, 6f., 12
father of Triptolemus Cu'mse, 187
Cen'taurs, 253 Cupid, 123. See also Eros.
(Teph'alus, 245 Cu re'tes, 7
Qe'pheus, 207 Cy'ane, 157
Qer'berus, 188, 223, 254 * Cy'bele, 117, 153
Ce'res, 6, 165. See also Cyclo'pes, 5, 7, 189, 306,
Demeter. * 336
Q e r y n e ' a n doe, 217 Qyc'nus, son of Poseidon,
Qestus, the girdle of Venus Apollo, or Ares, who was
with power to enhance turned into a swan.
beauty Qyn'thia, name of Artemis
Qe'yx. See Haley one derived from Mt. Cyn-
Cha'os, 5 thus in Delos, where she
Cbar'ites, 139 was' born.
Cha'ron, 187, 343 Cypris, 114
Charyb'dis, 151, 314, 315, Cyth er e'a, name of Aphro-
336 dite, derived from Cyth-
Chimae'ra, 238 era, an island near the
Chi'ron, 267, 284 Peloponnese.
Chryse'is, 290
Qi co'ni ans, men with whom Dse'da lus, 233
Odysseus fought early in Dan'a e, 200
his wanderings. Dan'a ids, 190, 199 .
Cimme'ri ans, 311 D a n ' a u s , 199
Cir'c^e, 310 Daph'ne, 62L
Cli'o, 139 Daph'nis, a son of Hermes
Clo'tho, 141 who was made blind by
366 Index
a jealous naiad. H e was E n y ' o , goddess of war,
the ideal shepherd and companion of Ares.
musician. E'os, the dawn goddess.
D a r ' d a n u s , 284, 334 E p e ' u s , builder of the
Day, 5 wooden liorse.
D e i p h ' o b u s , son of Priam E p h i a l ' t e s , one of the
who married Helen at giants who piled Pelion
Paris' death. on Ossa in order to reach
D e j a n i ' f a , 225 the gods.
De'los, 60 Ep i dau'rus, 74
Del'phi, 3, 56, 62, 98, 215, Ep ig'o ni, 265
224, 262 Ep i me'theus, 12
Deme'ter, 6, 21, 154L E r ' a t o , 140
Deu ca'li on, I4f. Er'ebus, 5
Di an'a, 90. See also Ar- E rech'theus, 244
temis. E r ich t W n i us, 244
Dic'tys, 202, 208 E rin'ys, the Furies
Di'do, 339, 344 E ri'phy le, 264
D i o m e ' d e s , 287, 301 E'ris, i n
D i o m e ' d e s , horses of, 219 E'ros, 5, 106, 112, I22f., 273
Di o'ne, 109 Er y man'thi an boar, 216
D i o n y ' s i a , 171 E t e ' o c l e s , 264
D i o n y ' s u s , \6$i. E thi o'pi ans, 4
Di os cu'ri, 234 Eu mse'us, swineherd of
Di'rae, a name of the Furies. Odysseus.
Dir'ge, 26f. E u m e n ' i d e s , 189, 329
Dis, name of Pluto or Hades Eu phros' y ne, one of the
Do do'na, 34, 269 Graces.
Dreams, gates of, 345 Eu ro'pa,' 228f.
Dry'ads, 184 Eu ry'a l e , one of the gor-
gons
E'cho, 185 Eu ry cle'a, 323
Ei lei thy'ia, the goddess Eu ryd'i ce, 192
who aided women in Eu ryl'o chus, a companion
child-birth. of Odysseus
Elec'tra, 328 Eu ryn'o me, mother of the
Elec'tra, one of the Pleiads Graces
E l e c ' t r y o n , 210 Eurys'theus, 213
Eleu'sis, 158 Eu ter'pe, 140
E leu sin'i an Mysteries, 138 E v a d ' n e , wife of Capaneus,
Ely'sian Fields, 190, 345 who, when her husband
En gel'a dus, one of the was killed in the siege of
hundred-handed giants. Thebes, threw herself on
En dy'mi on, 87f. his funeral pyre.