 This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Kevin Laverne. Bullfinch's Mythology, The Age of Fable by Thomas Bullfinch. Chapter 17 The Golden Fleece, Medea. The Golden Fleece. In very ancient times there lived in Thessaly a king and queen named Athimus and Nephile. They had two children, a boy and a girl. After a time, Athimus grew indifferent to his wife, put her away, and took another. Nephile suspected danger to her children from the influence of the stepmother and took measures to send them out of her reach. Mercury assisted her and gave her a ram with a golden fleece, on which she set the two children, trusting that the ram would convey them to a place of safety. The ram vaulted into the air with the children on his back, taking his course to the east, till when crossing the strait that divides Europe and Asia, the girl whose name was Hella fell from his back into the sea, which from her was called the Hellespont, now the Dardanelles. The ram continued his career till he reached the kingdom of Colchis on the eastern shore of the Black Sea, where he safely landed the boy, Frixus, who was hospitably received by Aeotese king of the country. Frixus sacrificed the ram to Jupiter and gave the golden fleece to Aeotese, who placed it in a consecrated grove under the care of a sleepless dragon. There was another kingdom in Thessaly near to that of Athimus and ruled over by a relative of his. The king Aeoson, being tired of the cares of government, surrendered his crown to his brother Pellius on condition that he should hold it only during the minority of Jason, the son of Aeoson. When Jason was grown up and came to demand the crown from his uncle, Pellius pretended to be willing to yield it, but at the same time suggested to the young man the glorious adventure of going in quest of the golden fleece, which it was well known was in the kingdom of Colchis and was, as Pellius pretended, the rightful property of their family. Jason was pleased with the thought and forthwith made preparations for the expedition. At that time the only species of navigation known to the Greeks consisted of small boats or canoes hollowed out from trunks of trees, so that when Jason employed Argus to build him a vessel capable of containing fifty men, it was considered a gigantic undertaking. It was accomplished, however, and the vessel named Argo from the name of the builder. Jason sent his invitation to all the adventurous young men of Greece and soon found himself at the head of a band of bold youths, many of whom afterwards were renowned among the heroes and demigods of Greece. Hercules, Theseus, Orpheus, and Nestor were among them. They are called the Argonauts from the name of their vessel. The Argo with her crew of heroes left the shores of Thessaly and having touched at the island of Lemnos, thence crossed to Mycia and thence to Thrace. Here they found the sage Phineas and from him received instruction as to their future course. It seems the entrance of the Eucsene Sea was impeded by two small rocky islands which floated on the surface and in their tossings and heavings occasionally came together crushing and grinding to atoms any object that might be caught between them. They were called the Simplegades or Clashing Islands. Phineas instructed the Argonauts how to pass this dangerous strait. When they reached the islands they let go a dove, which took her way between the rocks and passed in safety, only losing some feathers of her tail. Jason and his men seized the favorable moment of the rebound, plied their oars with vigor and passed safe through, though the islands closed behind them and actually grazed their stern. They now rode along the shore till they arrived at the eastern end of the sea and landed at the kingdom of Colchis. Jason made known his message to the Colchian king Aeotese who consented to give up the golden fleece if Jason would yoke to the plow two fire-breathing bulls with brazen feet and sow the teeth of the dragon which Cadmus had slain and from which it was well known that a crop of armed men would spring up who would turn their weapons against their producer. Jason accepted the conditions and a time was set for making the experiment. Previously, however, he found means to plead his cause to Medea, daughter of the king. He promised her marriage and as they stood before the altar of Hecate called the goddess to witness his oath. Medea yielded, and by her aid, for she was a potent sorceress, he was furnished with a charm by which he could encounter safely the breath of the fire-breathing bulls and the weapons of the armed men. At the time appointed, the people assembled at the grove of Mars and the king assumed his royal seat while the multitude covered the hillsides. The brazen-footed bulls rushed in, breathing fire from their nostrils that burned up the herbage as they passed. The sound was like the roar of a furnace and the smoke like that of water upon quick-lime. Jason advanced boldly to meet them. His friends, the chosen heroes of Greece, trembled to behold him. Regardless of the burning breath, he soothed their rage with his voice, patted their necks with fearless hand, and adroitly slipped over them the yoke and compelled them to drag the plow. The Colchians were amazed, the Greeks shouted for joy. Jason next proceeded to sow the dragon's teeth and plow them in, and soon the crop of armed men sprang up and, wonderful to relate, no sooner had they reached the surface than they began to brandish their weapons and rush upon Jason. The Greeks trembled for their hero, and even she who had provided him a way of safety and taught him how to use it, Medea herself, grew pale with fear. Jason, for a time, kept his assailants at bay with his sword and shield till, finding their numbers overwhelming, he resorted to the charm which Medea had taught him. Seized a stone and threw it in the midst of his foes. They immediately turned their arms against one another, and soon there was not one of the dragon's brood left alive. The Greeks embraced their hero, and Medea, if she dared, would have embraced him too. It remained to lull to sleep the dragon that guarded the fleece, and this was done by scattering over him a few drops of a preparation which Medea had supplied. At the smell he relaxed his rage, stood for a moment motionless, then shut those great round eyes that had never been known to shut before, and turned over on his side fast asleep. Jason seized the fleece, and with his friends and Medea accompanying, hastened to their vessel before Aetis the king could arrest their departure, and made the best of their way back to Thessaly where they arrived safe, and Jason delivered the fleece to Pellius and dedicated the Argo to Neptune. What became of the fleece afterwards we do not know, but perhaps it was found after all, like many other golden prizes, not worth the trouble it had cost to procure it. This is one of those mythological tales, says a late writer, in which there is reason to believe that a substratum of truth exists, though overlaid by a mass of fiction. It probably was the first important maritime expedition, and like the first attempts of the kind of all nations, as we know from history, was probably of a half-piratical character. If rich spoils were the result, it was enough to give rise to the idea of the golden fleece. Another suggestion of a learned mythologist, Bryant, is that it is a corrupt tradition of the story of Noah and the Ark. The name Argo seems to countenance this, and the incident of the Dove is another confirmation. Pope, in his Ode on St. Cecilia's Day, thus celebrates the launching of the ship Argo, and the power of the music of Orpheus, whom he calls the Thracian. So when the first bold vessel dared to seize, high on the stern the Thracian raised his strain, while Argo saw her kindred trees descend from Pellian to the main, transported demigods stood round, and men grew heroes at the sound. In Dreyer's poem of the fleece, there is an account of the ship Argo and her crew, which gives a good picture of this primitive maritime adventure. From every region of Aegean's shore the brave assembled, those illustrious twins Caster and Pollux, Orpheus, Toonful Bard, Zettis and Calais as the wind and speed, strong Hercules and many a chief renowned. On deep Iolcos sandy shore they thronged, gleaming an armor ardent of exploits, and soon the laurel cord and the huge stone uplifting to the deck unmoored the bark, whose keel of wondrous length the skillful hand of Argus fashioned for the proud attempt, and in the extended keel a lofty mast upraised in sails full swelling to the chief's unwanted objects. Now first, now they learned their bolder steerage over ocean wave, led by the golden stars, as Chiron's art had marked the sphere celestial, etc. Hercules left the expedition at Mycia for Hillis, a youth beloved by him having gone for water was laid hold of and kept by the nymphs of the spring who were fascinated by his beauty. Hercules went in quest of the lad and while he was absent the Argo put to sea and left him. More in one of the songs makes a beautiful allusion to this incident. When Hillis was sent with his urn to the fount, through fields full of light and with heart full of play, light rambled the boy over meadow and mount and neglected his task for the flowers in the way. Thus many like me who in youth should have tasted the fountain that runs by philosophy's shrine, their time with the flowers on the margin have wasted and left their light urns all as empty as mine. Medea and Aeson Amid the rejoicings for the recovery of the golden fleece, Jason felt that one thing was wanting the presence of Aeson, his father, who was prevented by his age and infirmities from taking part in them. Jason said to Medea, My spouse, would that your arts, whose power I have seen so mighty for my aid, could do me one further service, take some years for my life and add them to my father's. Medea replied, Not at such a cost shall it be done, but if my art avails me his life shall be lengthened without abridging yours. The next full moon she issued forth alone, while all creatures slept, not a breath stirred the foliage and all was still. To the stars she addressed her incantations, and to the moon. To hecket the goddess of the underworld, and to tell us the goddess of the earth, by whose power plants potent for enchantment are produced. She invoked the gods of the woods and caverns, of mountains and valleys, of lakes and rivers, of winds and vapours. While she spoke, the stars shone brighter and presently a chariot descended through the air, drawn by flying serpents. She ascended it, and borne aloft made her way to distant regions, where potent plants grew which she knew how to select for her purpose. Nine nights she employed in her search, and during that time came not within the doors of her palace, nor under any roof, and shunned all intercourse with mortals. She next erected two altars, one to hecket, the other to hebe, the goddess of youth, and sacrificed a black sheep, pouring libations of milk and wine. She implored Pluto and his stolen bride that they would not hasten to take the old man's life. Then she directed that Aesons should be led forth, and having thrown him into a deep sleep by a charm, had laid him on a bed of herbs like one dead. Jason and all others were kept away from the place that no profane eyes might look upon her mysteries. Then with streaming hair she thrice moved round the altars, dipped flaming twigs in the blood, and laid them thereon to burn. Meanwhile the cauldron with its contents was got ready. In it she put magic herbs with seeds and flowers of acrid juice, stones from the distant east, and sand from the shore of all surrounding ocean, whorefrost gathered by moonlight, a scree chowel's head and wings, and the entrails of a wolf. She added fragments of the shells of tortoises and the liver of stags, animals tenacious of life, and the head and beak of a crow that outlives nine generations of men. These with many other things, without a name, she boiled together for her purposed work, stirring them up with a dry olive branch. And behold the branch when taken out instantly became green, and before long was covered with leaves and a plentiful growth of young olives. And as the liquor boiled and bubbled, and sometimes ran over, the grass wherever the sprinklings fell shot forth with a verger like that of spring. Seeing that all was ready, Medea cut the throat of the old man and let out all his blood, and poured into his mouth and into his wound the juices of her cauldron. As soon as she had completely imbibed them, his hair and beard laid by their whiteness and assumed the blindness of youth. His paleness and emaciation were gone, his veins were full of blood, his limbs of vigor and robustness. Aeson is amazed at himself, and remembers that such as he is now he was in his youthful days forty years before. Medea used her arts here for a good purpose, but not so in another instance, where she made them the instruments of revenge. Pellius, our readers will recollect, was the usurping uncle of Jason and had kept him out of his kingdom. Yet he must have had some good qualities for his daughters loved him, and when they saw what Medea had done for Aeson they wished her to do the same for their father. Medea pretended to consent and prepared her cauldron as before. At her request an old sheep was brought and plunged into the cauldron. Very soon a bleeding was heard in the kettle, and when the cover was removed a lamb jumped forth and ran frisking away into the meadow. The daughters of Pellius saw the experiment with delight, and appointed a time for their father to undergo the same operation. But Medea prepared her cauldron for him in a very different way. She put in only water and a few simple herbs. In the night she with the sisters entered the bed-chamber of the old king, while he in his guards slept soundly under the influence of a spell cast upon them by Medea. The daughters stood by the bed-side with their weapons drawn, but hesitated to strike till Medea shud their irresolution. Then turning away their faces and giving random blows they smote him with their weapons. He, starting from his sleep, cried out, My daughters, what are you doing? Will you kill your father? Their hearts felled them and their weapons fell from their hands. But Medea struck him a fatal blow and prevented his saying more. Then they placed him in the cauldron, and Medea hastened to depart in her serpent-drawn chariot before they discovered her treachery, or their vengeance would have been terrible. She escaped, however, but had little enjoyment of the fruits of her crime, Jason, for whom she had done so much, wishing to marry Cresa, princess of Corinth, put away Medea. She, enraged at his ingratitude, called on the gods for vengeance, sent a poisoned robe as a gift to the bride, and then killing her own children and setting fire to the palace, mounted her serpent-drawn chariot and fled to Athens, where she married King Aegeus, the father of Theseus, and we shall meet her again when we come to the adventures of that hero. The incantations of Medea will remind the reader of those of the witches in Macbeth. The following lines are those which seem most strikingly to recall the ancient model. Round about the cauldron go, in the poisoned entrails throw. Fillet of a finny snake, in the cauldron boil and bake, Eye of newt and toe of frog, wool of bat, and tongue of dog. Adders fork and blindworms sting, lizards leg and howlets wing. Maw of ravening, salt sea shark, root of hemlock, digged in the dark, etc. Macbeth act for scene one. And again... Macbeth. What is you do? Witches. A deed without a name. There is another story of Medea, almost too revolting for record even of a sorceress, a class of persons to whom both ancient and modern poets have been accustomed to attribute every degree of atrocity. In her flight from Colchis, she had taken her young brother absurdus with her. Finding the pursuing vessels of Aeates gaining upon the Argonauts, she caused the lad to be killed and his limbs to be strewn over the sea. Aeates on reaching the place found the sorrowful traces of his murdered son, but while he terried to collect the scattered fragments and bestow upon them an honorable interment, the Argonauts escaped. In the poems of Campbell will be found a translation of one of the choruses of the tragedy of Medea, where the poet Euripides has taken advantage of the occasion to pay a glowing tribute to Athens's native city. It begins thus. O haggard queen, to Athens dust thou guide, thy glowing chariot steeped in kindred gore, or seek to hide thy damned parasite, where peace and justice dwell for evermore. Recording by Kathy of www.skippopscratch.com Bullfinch's Mythology The Age of Fable by Thomas Bullfinch Chapter 18 Meliezer and Atalanta One of the heroes of the Argonautic expedition was Meliezer, son of Aenus, and Althea, king and queen of Caledon. Althea, when her son was born, beheld the three destinies who, as they spun their fatal thread, foretold that the life of the child should last no longer than a brand then burning upon the hearth. Althea seized and quenched the brand, and carefully preserved it for years, while Meliezer grew to boyhood, youth, and manhood. It chance then that Aenus, as he offered sacrifices to the gods, omitted to pay due honour to Diana, and she, indignant at the neglect, sent a wild boar of enormous size to lay waste the fields of Caledon. Its eyes shone with blood and fire, its bristles stood like threatening spears. Its tusks were like those of Indian elephants. The growing corn was trampled, the vines and olive trees laid waste. The flocks and herds were driven in wild confusion by the slaughtering foe. All common aid seemed vain, but Meliezer called on the heroes of Greece to join in a bold hunt for the ravenous monster. Theseus and his friend Pyrethous, Jason, Peleus, afterwards the father of Achilles, Telemond the father of Ajax, Nestor, then a youth, but who in his age bore arms with Achilles and Ajax in the Trojan War, these and many more joined in the enterprise. With them came Atalanta, the daughter Viaceus, king of Arcadia. A buckle of polished gold confined her vest, an ivory quiver hung on her left shoulder, and her left hand bore the bow. Her face blunt feminine beauty with the best graces of martial youth. Meliezer saw and loved. But now already they were near the monster's lair. They stretched strong nets from tree to tree, they uncoupled their dogs, they tried to find the footprints of their quarry in the grass. From the woods was a descent to marshy ground. Here the bore, as he lay among the reeds, heard the shouts of his pursuers and rushed forth against them. One and another is thrown down in slain. Jason throws his spear with a prayer to Diana for success, and the favoring goddess allows the weapon to touch, but not to wound, removing the steel point of the spear in its flight. Nestor assailed, seeks and finds safety in the branches of a tree. Telemond rushes on, but stumbling at a projecting root falls prone. But an arrow from Atlanta, at length, for the first time tastes the monster's blood. It is a slight wound, but Meliezer sees and joyfully proclaims it. Ancius, excited to endy by the praise given to a female, loudly proclaims his own valor, and defies alike the bore and the goddess who assented. But as he rushes on, the infuriated beast lays him low with a mortal wound. Theseus throws his lance, but it is turned aside by a projecting bow. The dart of Jason misses its object and kills instead one of their own dogs. But Meliezer, after one unsuccessful stroke, drives his spear into the monster's side, then rushes on and dispatches him with repeated blows. Then rose a shout from those around. They congratulated the conqueror, crowding to touch his hand. He, placing his foot upon the head of the slain bore, turned to Atlanta and bestowed on her the head and the rough hide, which were the trophies of his success. But at this, Envy excited the rest to strife. Plexipus and Toxius, the brothers of Meliezer's mother, beyond the rest opposed the gift and snapped from the maiden the trophy she had received. Meliezer kindling with rage at the wrong done to himself and still more at the insult offered to her whom he loved, forgot the claims of kinship and plunged his sword into the offender's hearts. As Althea bore gifts of thankfulness to the temples for the victory of her son, the bodies of her murdered brothers met her sight. She shrieks and beats her breast and hastens to change the garments of rejoicing for those of mourning. But when the author of the deed is known, grief gives way to the stern desire of vengeance on her son. The fatal brand which once she rescued from the flames, the brand which the destinies had linked with Meliezer's life, she brings forth and commands a fire to be prepared. Then four times she assays to place the brand upon the pile, four times draws back, shuttering at the thought of bringing destruction on her son. The feelings of the mother and the sister contend within her. Now she is pale at the thought of the proposed deed, now flushed again with anger at the act of her son. As a vessel driven in one direction by the wind and in the opposite by the tide, the mind of Althea hangs suspended in uncertainty. But now the sister prevails above the mother and she begins as she holds the fatal wood. Turn, ye furies, goddesses of punishment, turn to behold the sacrifice I bring. Crime must atone for crime. Shall Enius rejoice in his victor's son while the house of Zestius is desolate? But alas, to what deed am I born along? Brothers, forgive a mother's weakness. My hand fails me. He deserves death, but not that I should destroy him. But shall he then live and triumph and reign over Caledon while you, my brothers, wander unevenged among the shades? No, thou hast lived by my gift. Die now for thine own crime. Return the life which twice I gave thee. First at thy birth, again when I snatched this brand from the flames. Oh, that that house to then died. Alas, evil is the conquest, but brothers, ye have conquered. And turning away her face, she threw the fatal wood upon the burning pile. It gave, or seemed to give, a deadly groan. Meliezer, absent in a knowing of the cause, felt a sudden pang. He burns, and only by courageous pride conquers the pain which destroys him. He mourns only that he perished by a bloodless and unhonored death. With his last breath he calls upon his aged father, his brother, and his fond sisters. Upon his beloved Atalanta, and upon his mother, the unknown cause of his fate. The flames increase, and with them the pain of the hero. Now both subside, now both are quenched. The brand is ashes, and the life of Meliezer is breathed forth to the wandering winds. Othea, when the deed was done, laid violent hands upon herself. The sisters of Meliezer mourn their brother with uncontrollable grief, till Diana, pitting the sorrows of the house that once had aroused her anger, turned them into birds. Atalanta. The innocent cause of so much sorrow was a maiden whose face, you might truly say, was boyish for a girl, yet too girlish for a boy. Her fortune had been told, and it was to this effect. Atalanta, do not marry, marriage will be your ruin. Terrified by this oracle she fled the society of men, and devoted herself to the sports of the chase. To all suitors, for she had many, she imposed a condition which was generally effectual in relieving her of their persecutions. I will be the prize of him who shall conquer me in the race, but death must be the penalty of all who try and fail. In spite of this hard condition some would try. Hippomanes was to be judge of the race. Can it be possible that any will be so rash as to risk so much for a wife? said he. But when he saw her lay aside her robe for the race, he changed his mind and said, Pardon me, Hughes, I knew not the prize you were competing for. As he surveyed them he wished them all to be beaten, and swelled with envy for any one that seemed at all likely to win. While such were his thoughts the virgin darted forward. As she ran she looked more beautiful than ever. The breezes seemed to give wings to her feet, her hair flew over her shoulders, and the gay fringe of her garment fluttered behind her. A ruddy hue tinged the whiteness of her skin, such as a crimson curtain cast on a marble wall. All her competitors were distanced, and were put to death without mercy. Hippomanes, not daunted by this result, fixing his eyes on the virgin, said, Why boast of beating those laggards? I offer myself for the contest. Atalanta looked at him with a pity incontinence, and hardly knew whether she would rather conquer him or not. What God contempt one so young and handsome to throw himself away. I pity him, not for his beauty, yet he is beautiful, but for his youth. I wish he would give up the race, or if he will be so mad. I hope he may outrun me. While she hesitates, resolving these thoughts, the spectators grow impatient for the race, and her father prompts her to prepare. Then Hippomanes addressed a prayer to Venus. Help me, Venus, for you have led me on. Venus heard, and was propitious. In the garden of her temple, in her own island of Cyprus, is a tree with yellow leaves and yellow branches and golden fruit. Hence she gathered three golden apples, and, unseen by anyone else, gave them to Hippomanes, and told him how to use them. The signal is given, each starts from the goal and skims over the sand. So light their tread, you would almost have thought they might run over the river surface, or over the waving grain without sinking. The cries of the spectators cheered Hippomanes. Now, now, do your best, haste, haste, you gain on her, relax not, one more effort! It was doubtful whether the youth or the maiden heard these cries with a greater pleasure. But his breath began to fail him, his throat was dry, the goal yet far off. At that moment he threw down one of the golden apples. The virgin was all amazement. She stopped to pick it up. Hippomanes shot ahead. Shouts burst forth from all sides. She redoubled her efforts, and soon overtook him. Again he threw an apple. She stopped again, but again came up with him. The goal was near. One chance only remained. Now Goddess, said he, Prosper your gift! And threw the last apple off at one side. She looked at it, and hesitated. Venus impelled her to turn aside for it. She did so, and was vanquished. The youth carried off his prize. But the lovers were so full of their own happiness that they forgot to pay due honour to Venus. And the Goddess was provoked at their ingratitude. She caused them to give offence to Cebele. That powerful Goddess was not to be insulted with impunity. She took from them their human form and turned them into animals of characters resembling their own. Of the hunter's heroine, triumphing in the blood of her lovers, she made a lioness, and of her lord and master a lion, and yoke them to her car, where they are still to be seen in all representations in statuary or painting of the goddess Cebele. Cebele is the Latin name of the goddess called by the Greeks Rhea and Ops. She was the wife of Cronos and the mother of Zeus. In works of art she exhibits the matronly air which distinguishes Juno and Ceres. Sometimes she is veiled and seated on a throne with lions at her side, and other times riding in a chariot drawn by lions. She wears a mural crown, that is, a crown whose rim is carved in the forms of towers and battlements. Her priests were called the Corribantes. Byron, in describing the city of Venus, which is built on a low island in the Adriatic Sea, borrows an illustration from Cebele. She looks to see Cebele, fresh from ocean, rising with her tiara of proud towers. At airy distance, with majestic motion, a ruler of the waters and their powers. Child Harald IV. In Moor's rhymes on the road, the poet, speaking of Alpine scenery, alludes to the story of Atalanta and Hippomeneus thus. Even here, in this region of wonders, I find that light-footed fancy leaves truth far behind, or at least, like Hippomeneus, turns her astray, by the golden illusions he flings in her way. End of Chapter 18 This is LibriVox Recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Lizzie Driver Bullfinch's Mythology The Age of Fable by Thomas Bullfinch Chapter 19 Hercules, Habe and Ganymede Hercules Hercules was the son of Jupiter and Alcimena. As Juno was always hostile to the offspring of her husband by mortal mothers, she declared war against Hercules from his birth. She sent two serpents to destroy him as he lay in his cradle, but the precocious infant strangled them with his own hands. He was, however, by the arts of Juno, rendered subject to Eurythias, and compelled to perform all his commands. Eurythias enjoined upon him a succession of desperate adventures, which are called the Twelve Labours of Hercules. The first was the fight with the Namian Lion. The Valley of Namia was infested by a terrible lion. Eurythias ordered Hercules to bring in the skin of this monster. After using in vain his club and arrows against the lion, Hercules strangled the animal with his hands. He returned, carrying the dead lion on his shoulders, but Eurythias was so frightened at the sight of it, and at this proof of the prodigious strength of a hero, that he ordered him to deliver the account of his exploits in future outside the town. His next labour was the slaughter of the Hydra. This monster ravaged the country of Agus, and dwelt in the swamp near the well of Amimon. This well had been discovered by Amimon when the country was suffering from drought, and the story was that Neptune, who loved her, had permitted her to touch the rock with his trident, and a spring of three outlets burst forth. Here the Hydra took up his position, and Hercules was sent to destroy him. The Hydra had nine heads, of which the middle one was immortal. Hercules struck off its heads with his club, but in place of the head knocked off, two new ones grew forth each time. At length, with the assistance of his faithful servant Iolus, he burned away the heads of the Hydra, and buried the ninth, or immortal one, under a huge rock. Another labour was the cleaning of the Aegean stables. Agius, king of Elis, had a herd of three thousand oxen, whose stalls had not been cleansed for thirty years. Hercules bought the rivers Alpheus and Penis through them, and cleansed them thoroughly in one day. His next labour was of a more delicate kind. Admeta, the daughter of Eurythias, longed to obtain the girdle of the Queen of the Amazons. And Eurythias ordered Hercules to go and get it. The Amazons were a nation of women. They were very warlike, and held several flourishing cities. It was their custom to bring up only the female children. The boys were either sent away to the neighbouring nations, or put to death. Hercules was accompanied by a number of volunteers, and after various adventures, it last reached the country of the Amazons. Hippolyta, the queen, received him kindly, and consented to yield him her girdle. But Juno, taking the form of an Amazon, went and persuaded the rest that the strangers were carrying off their queen. They instantly armed and came in great numbers down to the ship. Hercules, thinking that Hippolyta had acted treacherously, slew her, and taking her girdle, made sail homewards. Another task enjoined him was to bring to Eurythias the oxen of Geryon, a monster with three bodies, who dwelt in the island of Eurythia, the Red. So called because it lay at the west, under the rays of the setting sun. This description is thought to apply to Spain, of which Geryon was king. After traversing various countries, Hercules reached at length the frontiers of Libya and Europe, where he raised the two mountains of Calpe and Abla, as monuments of his progress, or, according to another account, rent one mountain into two and left half on each side, forming the Straits of Gibraltar. The two mountains being called the Pillars of Hercules. The oxen were guarded by the giant Eurythion, and his two-headed dog. But Hercules killed the giant and his dog, and brought away the oxen in safety to Eurythias. The most difficult labour of all was getting the golden apples of the Hezboerides. For Hercules did not know where to find them. These were the apples which Juno had received at her wedding from the goddess of the earth, and which she had instructed to the keeping of the daughters of Herespus, assisted by a watchful dragon. After various adventures, Hercules arrived at Mount Atlas in Africa. Attila's was one of the Titans who had warred against the gods, and after they were subdued, Attila's was condemned to bear on his shoulders to the gods. He was the father of the Hezboerides, and Hercules thought might, if anyone could, find the apples and bring them to him. But how to send Atlas away from his post, or bear up the heavens while he was gone? Hercules took the burden on his own shoulders, and sent Atlas to seek the apples. He returned with them, and though somewhat reluctantly, took his burden upon his shoulders again, and let Hercules return with them, he returned with them, and returned with them, and returned with them, and brought the apples to Eurythias. Milton, in his commerce, makes the Hezboerides the daughters of Herespus and Dinesis of Atlas, amidst the garden's fair of Hezboerus and his daughters three, that sing about the golden tree. The poets, led by the analogy of the lovely appearance of the western sky at sunset, viewed the west as a region of brightness and glory. Hence they placed in it the mighty Isle Eurythia, on which the bright oxen of Geryon were pastured, and the Isle of the Hezboerides. The apples are supposed by some to be the oranges of Spain, of which the Greeks had heard some obscure accounts. A celebrated exploit of Hercules was his victory over Antias. Antias, the son of terror, the earth, was a mighty giant and wrestler whose strength was invincible so long as he remained all strangers who came to his country to wrestle with him, on condition that if conquered, as they all were, they should be put to death. Hercules encountered him and finding that it was of no avail to throw him, for he always rose with renewed strength from every fall. He lifted him up from the earth and strangled him in the air. Cacus was a huge giant who inhabited a cave on Mount Aventine and plundered the surrounding country. Hercules was driving home the oxen of Gerion. Cacus stole part of the cattle while the hero slept. That their footprints might not serve to show where they had been driven. He draved them backwards by their tails to his cave, so their tracks all seemed to show that they had gone in the opposite direction. Hercules was deceived by this stratagem and would have failed to find his oxen. If it had not happened that in driving the remainder and were thus discovered, Cacus was slain by Hercules. The last exploit we shall record was bringing Ciberus from the lower world. Hercules descended into Hades accompanied by Mercury and Minerva. He obtained permission from Pluto to carry Ciberus to the upper air provided he could do it without the use of weapons. And in spite of the monster struggling he seized him, held him fast and carried him to Eurythias afterwards brought him back again. When he was in Hades he obtained the liberty of Theseus his admirer and imitator who had been detained a prisoner there for an unsuccessful attempt to carry off Persephone. Hercules, in a fit of madness killed his friend Ifytus and was condemned for this offence to become the slave of Queen Unfail for three years. While in this service the hero's nature seemed changed. He lived effeminately and spinning wool with the handmaidens of Unfail while the queen wore his lion skin. When this service was ended he married Dayanara and lived in peace with her three years. On one occasion as he was travelling with his wife they came to a river across which the centaur Nessus carried travelers for a stated fee. Hercules himself ford the river but gave Dayanara to Nessus to be carried across. Nessus attempted to run away with her but Hercules heard her cries and shot Nara into the heart of Nessus. The dying centaur told Dayanara to take a portion of his blood and keep it as it might be used as a charm to preserve the love of her husband. Dayanara did so and before long fancied she had occasion to use it. Hercules, in one of his conquests had taken prisoner of fair maiden named Isle and seemed more fond than Dayanara approved. When Hercules was about to offer sacrifices to the gods in honour of his victory he sent to his wife for a white robe to use on the occasion. Dayanara, thinking it a good opportunity to try her love spell steeped the garment in the blood of Nessus. We are to suppose she took care to wash out all traces of it but the magic power remained and as soon as the garment became warm on the body of Hercules it wasn't penetrated into all his limbs and caused him the most intense agony. In his frenzy he seized Lichas who had brought him the fatal robe and hurled him into the sea. He wrenched off the garment but it stuck to his flesh and with it he tore away whole pieces of his body. In this state he embarked on board a ship and was conveyed home. Dayanara on seeing what she had unwittingly done hung herself. Hercules, prepared to die ascended to Mount Etta where he built a funeral pile of trees gave his bow and arrows to phylacter teas and laid himself down on the pile his head resting on his club and his lion skin spread over him. With the countenance as serene as if he were taking his place at a feast on board he commanded phylacter teas to apply the torch. The flames spread apace and soon invested the whole mass. Milton thus allused to the frenzy as when Alcides from Mochilia crowned with conquest felt the invenomed robe and tore through pain up by the root Thalassian pines and light just from the top of Etta through into the Yuboic sea. Footnote, Alcides a name of Hercules the gods themselves felt troubled at seeing the champion of the earth so brought to his end but Jupiter with cheerful countenance I am pleased to see your concern, my princes and am gratified to perceive that I am the ruler of a loyal people and that my son enjoys your favour for although your interest in him arises from his noble deeds yet it is not the less gratifying to me but now I say to you fear not he who conquered all else is not to be conquered by those flames which you see blazing on Mount Etta only his mother's share in him can perish what he derived from me is immortal I shall take him dead to earth to the heavenly shores and I require of all of you to receive him kindly if any of you feel grieved at his attaining this honour yet no one can deny that he has deserved it the gods all gave their assent Juno only heard the closing words with some displeasure that she should be so particularly pointed at he had not enough to make her regret the determination of her husband so when the flames had consumed the mother's share of Hercules the diviner part instead of being injured thereby seemed to start forth with new vigour to assume a more lofty port and a more awful dignity Jupiter enveloped him in a cloud and took him up in a four horse chariot to dwell among the stars as he took his place in heaven Atlas felt the added weight Juno now reconciled to him gave him a daughter Haib in marriage the poet Shiller in one of his pieces called the ideal in life illustrates the contrast between the practical and the imaginative in some beautiful stanzas of which the last who may be thus translated deep degraded to a coward slave endless contests bore Alcides brave through the thorny path of suffering led slew the hydra crushed the lions might bring his friends to light living in the skiff that bears the dead all the torments every toil of earth Juno's hatred on him could impose well he bore them from his fated birth to life's grandly mournful close till the god the earth he part forsaken from the man in flames asunder taken drank the heavenly ethers purer breath joyous in the new unwanted lightness sought he upwards to celestial brightness earth's dark heavy burden lost in death High Olympus gives harmonious greetings to the hall where reigns his sire adored youth's bright goddess with a blush at a meeting gives the nectar to her lord SGB Haib and Ganymede Haib the daughter of Juno and goddess of youth the usual story is that she resigned her office on becoming the wife of Hercules but there is another statement which our countryman Crawford the sculpture has adopted in his group of Haib and Ganymede now in the Athenaeum gallery according to this Haib was dismissed from her office in consequence of a fall which she met with one day in attendance on the gods her successor was Ganymede a Trojan boy who was raised and carried off from the midst of his played fellows on Mount Haida bore up to heaven and installed in the vacant place Tennyson in his palace of art describes on the decorations on the walls a picture representing this legend there too flushed Ganymede his rosy thigh half buried in the eagle's down sole as a flying star shot through the sky above the pillared town and in Shelly's Prometheus falls to his cup-bearer thus pour forth Heaven's wine Idi and Ganymede and let it fill the dead old cups like fire the beautiful legend of the choice of Hercules may be found in the Tattler number 97 end of chapter 19 this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Christine Balfinch mythology The Age of Fable by Thomas Balfinch Chapter 20 Teseus Daedalus Castor and Pollux Teseus Teseus was the son of Aegios king of Athens and of Aetra daughter of the king of Troyotson he was brought up by Troyotson and when arrived at manhood he went to Athens and present himself to his father Aegios on parting from Aetra before the birth of his son placed his sword and shoes under large stone and directed her to send his son to him when he became strong enough to roll away the stone and take them from under it when she thought the time had come his mother led Teseus to the stone and he removed it with ease with the sword and shoes as the roads were infested with robbers his grandfather pressed him earnestly to take the shorter and safer way to his father's country by sea but the youth feeling in himself the spirit and the soul of the hero and eager to signalize himself like calculus with whose fame all greased and rank by destroying the evil doers and monsters that oppressed the country determined on the more perilous and adventurous journey by land his first day's journey brought him to Epidaurus where dwelled a man named Perifetis a son of Vulcan this ferocious savage always went armed with a club of iron and all travelers stood in terror of his violence when he saw Teseus approach he assailed him but speedily fell beneath the blows of the young hero who took possession of his club and bore it ever afterwards as a memorial of his first victory several similar contests with the petty tyrants and moral deers of the country followed in all of which Teseus was victorious one of these evil doers was called Procrustis or the Stretcher he had an iron bedstead on which he used to tie all travelers who fell into his hands if they were shorter than the bed he stretched their limbs to make them fit it if they were longer than the bed he lobbed off a portion Teseus served him as he had served others having overcome all the perils of the road Teseus at length reached Athens where new dangers awaited him Medea the sorceress who had fled from Corinth after her separation from Jason the wife of Iagoeus the father of Teseus knowing by her arts who he was and fearing the loss of her influence with her husband if Teseus should be acknowledged as his son she filled the mind of Iagoeus with suspicions of the young stranger and induced him to present him a cup of poison but at the moment when Teseus stepped forward to take it the sight of the sword which he wore prevented the fatal drought Medea detected in her arts fled once more from desert punishment and arrived in Asia where the country after worlds called Medea received its name from her Teseus was acknowledged by his father and declared his successor the Athenians were at that time in deep affliction on account of the tribute which they were forced to pay to Minos king of Crete Teseus consisted of seven youths and seven maidens who were sent every year to be devoured by the Minotaur a monster with a bald body and a human head it was exceedingly strong and fierce and was kept in a labyrinth constructed by Daedalus so artfully contrived that whoever was enclosed in it could by no means find his way out and assist it here the Minotaur roomed Teseus resolved to deliver his countrymen from this calamity or to die in the attempt accordingly when the time of sending of the tribute came and the youths and maidens were according to custom drawn by lot to be sent he offered himself as one of the victims in spite of the entreaties of his father the ship departed under black sails as usual which Teseus promised his father to change for white in case of his returning victorious when they arrived in Crete the youths and maidens were exhibited before Minos and Ariadne the daughter of the king being present became deeply enamored of Teseus by whom her love was readily returned she furnished him with a sword with which to encounter the Minotaur with which to encounter the Minotaur and with a clue of thread by which he might find his way out of the labyrinth he was successful slew the Minotaur escaped from the labyrinth and taking Ariadne as the companion of his way with his rescued companions sailed for Athens on their way they stopped at the island of Naxos where Teseus abandoned Ariadne leaving her asleep footnote the finest pieces of sculpture in Italy the recumbent Ariadne of the Vatican represents this incident a copy is owned by the Atenaion Poston and deposited in the museum on fine arts end of footnote his excuse for this ungrateful treatment of his benefactress was that Minerva appeared to him in a dream and commanded him to do so on approaching the coast of Attica he got the signal appointed by his father and neglected to raise the white sails and the old king thinking his son had perished put an end to his own life Teseus thus became king of Athens one of the most celebrated of the adventures of Teseus is his expedition against the Amazons he assailed them before they had recovered from the attack of Hercules which had been untyop the Amazons in their turn invaded the country of Athens and penetrated into the city itself and the final battle in which Teseus overcame them was fought in the very midst of the city this battle was one of the favorite subjects of the ancient sculptors and is commemorated in several works of art that are still extant the friendship between Teseus and Piritus was of a most intimate nature yet it originated in the midst of arms Piritus had made an eruption into the plain of Marathon and carried off the herds of the king of Athens Teseus went to repel the plunderers the moment Piritus beheld him he was seized with admiration he stretched out his hands at the token of peace and cried be judged thyself the action does do require thy friendship replied the Athenian and they swore inviolable fidelity their deeds corresponded to their professions and they ever continued through brothers in arms each of them aspired to espouse a daughter of Jupiter Teseus fixed his choice on Helen then but a child afterwards so celebrated as the cause of the Trojan War and with the aid of his friend he carried her off Piritus aspired to the wife of the monarch of Erebus and Teseus though aware of the danger accompanied the ambitious lover in his descent to the underworld but Pluto seized and set them on an enchanted rock at his palace gate where there remained the hercules arrived and liberated Teseus leaving Piritus to his fate after the death of Antioch Teseus married Phadra daughter of Minos king of Crete Phadra saw in Hippolytus the son of Teseus a youth endowed with all the graces and virtues of his father and of an age corresponding to her own she loved him but he repulsed her advances and her love was changed to hate she used her influence over her infatuated husband to cause him to be jealous of his son and he implicated the vengeance of Neptune upon him as Hippolytus was one day driving his chariot along the shore as sea monster raised himself above the waters and threatened the horses so that they ran away and dashed the chariot to pieces Hippolytus was killed but by Diana's assistance Ascolopius restored him to life Diana removed Hippolytus from the power of his deluded father and fell stepmother and placed him in Italy under the protection of the nymph Egeria Teseus at length lost the favor of his people and retired to the court of Lycomides king of Scyrus who at first received him kindly but afterwards treacherously slew him in a later age the Athenian general Simon discovered the place where his remains were laid by Athens where they were deposited in a temple called the Teseum erected in honor of the hero The queen of the Amazons whom Teseus espoused is by some called Hippolyta that is the name she bears in Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream the subject of which is the festivities attending the nuptials of Teseus and Hippolyta and the ancient Greek tradition that the shade of Teseus appeared strengthening his countrymen at the Battle of Marathon Teseus is a semi-historical personage it is recorded of him that he united the several tribes by whom the territory of Attica was then possessed into one state of which Athens was the capital In commemoration of this important event he instituted the festival of Panathenaea of Minerva the patron deity of Athens This festival differed from the other Grecian games chiefly into particulars It was peculiar to the Athenians and its chief feature was the solemn procession in which the peplus or sacred robe of Minerva was carried to the Portenon and suspended before the statue of the goddess The peplus was covered with embroidery worked by select virgins of the Athenians The procession consisted of persons of all ages and both sexes The old men carried olive branches in their hands and the young men wore arms The young women carried baskets on their heads containing the sacred utensils, cakes and all things necessary for the sacrifices The procession formed the subject of the best reliefs which embellished A considerable portion of these sculptures is now in the British Museum among those known as the Elgin Marbles Olympic and other games It seems not inappropriate to mention here the other celebrated national games of the Greeks The first and most distinguished were the Olympic founded it was said by Jupiter himself They were celebrated at Olympia while numbers of spectators blocked to them from every part of Greeks and from Asia, Africa and Sicily They were repeated every fifth year in mid summer and continued five days They gave rise to the custom of reckoning time and dating events by Olympiads The first Olympiad is generally considered as corresponding with the year 776 BC European games were celebrated in the vicinity of Delphi the Isthmion on the Corinthian Isthmus the Nymion at Nymia a city of Argolis The exercises in these games were of five sorts running, leaping, wrestling throwing the quad and hurling the javelin or boxing Besides these exercises of bodily strength and agility there were contests games, furnished poets musicians and authors the best opportunities to present their productions to the public and the fame of the victors was diffused far and wide Diadolus The labyrinth from which Thesios escaped by means of the clue of Ariadne was built by Diadolus a most skillful artificer It was an edifice with numberless winding passages with turnings opening into one another and seeming to have neither beginning nor end like the river Minder which returns on itself and flows no onward nor backward in its course to the sea Diadolus built the labyrinth for King Minos but afterwards lost the favor of the king and was shut up in a tower He had tried to make his escape from his prison to search on all the vessels and permitted none to sail without being carefully searched Minos may control the land and sea said Diadolus but not the regions of the air I will try that way So he set to work to fabricate wings for himself and his young son Icarus He wrought feathers together beginning with the smallest and adding larger so as to form an increasing surface the larger ones he secured with thread and the smaller with wax and gave the whole a gentle curvature like the wings of a bird Icarus the boy stood and looked on sometimes running together up the feathers which the wind had blown away and then handling the wax and working it over with his fingers by his play impending his father in his labors When at last the work was done the artist waving his wings found himself by the upward and hung suspended poising himself on the beaten air He next equipped his son in the same manner and taught him how to fly as a bird tempts her young ones from the lofty nest into the air When all was prepared for flight he said Icarus my son I charge you to keep at a moderate height for if you fly too low the damp will clog your wings and if too high the heat will melt them keep near me and you will be safe While he gave him these instructions and fitted the wings to his shoulders the face of the father was wet with tears and his hands trembled He hissed his boy not knowing that it was for the last time Then rising on his wings he flew off encouraging him to follow the flight to see how his son managed his wings As they flew the plowman stopped his walk to gaze and the shepherd leaned on his stuff and watched them astonished at the sight and thinking there were gods who could thus clear the air They passed Samus and Delos on the left and Levintos on the right When the boy exulting in his career began to leave the guidance of his companion The nearness of the blazing sun softened the wax which held the feathers together and they came off He fluttered with his arms but no feathers remained to hold the air While his mouth uttered cries to his father it was submerged in the blue waters of the sea which then force was called by his name His father cried Icarus, Icarus, where are you At last he saw the feathers and bitterly lamenting his own arts he buried the body and called the land Icaria in memory of his child Delos arrived safe in Sicily where he built a temple to Apollo and hung up his wings and offering to the god Delos was so proud of his achievements that he could not bear the idea of arrival His sister had placed her son Pertex under his charge to be taught the mechanical arts He was an apt scholar and gave striking evidences of ingenuity Walking on the seashore he picked up the spine of a fish imitating it he took a piece of iron and notched it on at the edge and thus invented the saw He put two pieces of iron together connecting them at one end with a rivet and sharpening the other ends and made a pair of compasses Delos was so envious of his nephew's performances that he took an opportunity when they were together one day on the top of a high tower to push him off But Minerva, who favours ingenuity saw him falling and arrested his fate by changing him into a bird called after his name the portrait This bird does not build his nest nor take lofty flights but nestles in the hedges and mindful of his fall avoids high places The death of Icarus is told in the following lines by Darwin With melting wax and losing strings sank helpless Icarus on unfaithful wings had long he rushed through the uprighted air with limbs distorted and dishevelled hair and serving narrates decked his watery grave over his pale cores their pearly sea flowers shed and threw it with crimson moss his marble bed struck in their coral towers the passing bell and wide in ocean told his echoing knell Castor and Pollux Castor and Pollux were the offspring of Leda and the Sven under which disguised the lake from which sprang the twins Helen so famous afterwards as the cause of the Trojan War was their sister When Teseus and his friend Piritus had carried off Helen from Sparta the useful heroes Castor and Pollux with their followers hastened to her rescue Teseus was absent from Attica and the brothers were successful in recovering their sister Castor was famous for having three horses and Pollux for skill in boxing they were united by the warmest affection and inseparable in all their enterprises they accompanied the Argonautic Expedition during the voyage a storm arose and Orpheus prayed to the some attrition gods and played on his harp where upon the storm ceased and stars appeared on the heads of the brothers from this incident it was afterwards to be considered the patron deities of semen and voyagers under lamb and flames which in certain states of the atmosphere play around the stales and masts of the vessels were called by their names After the Argonautic Expedition we find Castor and Pollux engaged in a war with Edas and Lunkius Castor was slain and Pollux inconsolable for the loss of his brother he gave his own life as a ransom for him Jupiter so far consented as to allow the two brothers to enjoy the poon of life alternately passing one day under the earth and the next in the heavenly abodes according to another form of the story Jupiter rewarded the attachment of the brothers by placing them among the stars as Gemini the twins they received divine honors under the name of Discurie sons of Joe they were believed to have appeared occasionally in later times taking part with one side or the other in hard fought fields and were said on such occasions to be mounted on magnificent white steeds thus in the early history of Rome they are said to have assisted the Romans at the battle of Lake Regulus and after the victory a temple was erected in their honor on the spot where they appeared Macaulay in his laze of ancient Rome thus alludes to the legend so like the river no mortal might one from other know white as snow their armor was their steeds were white as snow never an earthly unveil did such rare armor gleam and never did such gallant steeds drink of an earthly stream back comes the chief in triumph who in the hour of fight has seen the great twin brethren in harness on his right safe comes the ship to heaven through billows and through gales if once the great twin brethren set shining on the sails end of chapter 20 this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer visit LibriVox.org recording by Kevin Laverne bullfinch's mythology the age of fable by Thomas bullfinch chapter 21 Bacchus Ariadne Bacchus Bacchus was the son of Jupiter and Simile Juno to gratify her resentment against Simile contrived a plan for her destruction assuming the form of Barrow her aged nurse she insinuated doubts of the self who came as a lover heaving a sigh she said I hope it will turn out so but I can't help being afraid people are not always what they pretend to be if he is indeed Jove make him give some proof of it ask him to come arrayed in all his splendors such as he wears in heaven that will put the matter beyond a doubt Simile was persuaded to try the experiment without naming what it is Jove gives his promise and confirms it with irrevocable oath attesting the river sticks terrible to the gods themselves then she made known her request the god would have stopped her as she spake but she was too quick for him the words escaped and he could neither unsay his promise nor her request in deep distress he left her and returned to the upper regions and clothed himself in his splendors not putting on all his terrors as when he overthrew the giants but what is known among the gods as his lesser panoply arrayed in this he entered the chamber of Simile her mortal frame could not endure the splendors of the immortal radiance she was consumed to ashes Jove took the infant Bacchus and gave him in charge to the Nicene nymphs who nourished his infancy and for their care were rewarded by Jupiter by being placed as the Hyades among the stars when Bacchus grew up he discovered the culture of the vine and the mode of extracting its precious juice but Juno struck him with madness and drove him forth a wanderer through various parts of the earth in Phrygia the goddess Rhea cured him and taught him her religious rites and he set out on a progress through Asia teaching the people the cultivation of the vine the most famous part of his wanderings is his expedition to India which is said to have lasted several years returning in triumph he undertook to introduce his worship into Greece but was opposed by some princes who dreaded its introduction on account of the disorders and madness it brought with it as he approached his native city Thebes Penteas the king who had no respect for the new worship forbade its rites to be performed but when it was known that Bacchus was advancing men and women but chiefly the latter young and old poured forth to meet him and to join his triumphal march Mr. Longfellow in his drinking song thus describes the march of Bacchus Vaughns with youthful Bacchus follow Ivy crowns that brow supernal as the forehead of Apollo and possessing youth eternal round about him fair Bacchantes bearing symbols, flutes and thursies while from Maxian groves of Zontes vineyards sing delirious verses it was in vain Penteas remonstrated commanded and threatened Go! said he to his attendants sees this vagabond leader of the route and bring him to me I will soon make him confess his claim of heavenly parentage and renounce his counterfeit worship it was in vain his nearest friends and wisest counsellors remonstrated and begged him not to oppose the God their remonstrances only made him more violent but now the attendants returned whom he had dispatched to seize Bacchus they had been driven away by the Bacchanals but had succeeded in taking one of them prisoner and they brought him they brought before the king Penteas beholding him with wrathful countenance said fellow you shall speedily be put to death that your fate may be a warning to others but though I grudge the delay of your punishment speak tell us who you are and what are these new rights you presume to celebrate the prisoner unterrified responded my name is Akates they were flocks to leave me but they left me their fishing rods and nets and their fisherman's trade this I followed for some time till growing weary of remaining in one place I learned the pilot's art and how to guide my course by the stars it happened as I was sailing for Delos we touched at the island of Dia and went ashore next morning I sent the men for fresh water and myself mounted the hill to observe the wind as they thought a boy of delicate appearance whom they had found asleep they judged he was a noble youth perhaps a king's son and they might get a liberal ransom for him I observed his dress his walk, his face there was something in them which I felt sure was more than mortal I said to my men what God there is concealed in that form I know not but someone there certainly is pardon us gentle deity for our success to our undertakings dictus, one of my best hands for climbing the mast and coming down by the ropes and Melanthus, my steersman and Epopius, the leader of the sailors cry one and all exclaimed spare your prayers for us so blind is the lust of gain when they proceeded to put him on board I resisted them this ship shall not be profaned by such impiety said I I have a greater share in her than any of you but Lycobus, a turbulent fellow seized me by the throat and attempted to throw me overboard and I scarcely saved myself by clinging to the ropes the rest approved the deed then Bacchus for it was indeed he as if shaking off his drowsiness exclaimed what are you doing with me what is this fighting about who brought me here where are you going to carry me one of them replied fear nothing Noxus is my home said Bacchus take me there and you shall be well rewarded they promised so to do and told me to pilot the ship to Noxus Noxus laid to the right and I was trimming the sails to carry us there when some by signs and others by whispers signified to me their will that I should sail in the opposite direction and take the boy to Egypt to sell him for a slave I was confounded and said let someone else pilot the ship withdrawing myself from any further agency yes they cursed me and one of them exclaiming don't flatter yourself that we depend on you for our safety took any place as pilot and bore away from Noxus then the God pretending that he had just become aware of their treachery looked out over the sea and said in a voice of weeping sailors these are not the shores you promised to take me to yonder island is not my home what have I done it's the glory that you will gain by cheating a poor boy I wept to hear him but the crew laughed at both of us and sped the vessel fast over the sea all at once strange as it may seem it is true the vessel stopped in the mid sea as fast as if it was fixed on the ground the men astonished pulled at their oars and spread more sail trying to make progress by the aid of both but all in vain Ivy twined around the oars with heavy clusters of berries a vine laden with grapes ran up the mast and along the sides of the vessel the sound of flutes was heard and the odor of fragrant wine spread all around the God himself had a chaplet of vine leaves and bore in his hand a spear wreathed with Ivy tigers crouched at his feet and forms of lynxes and spotted panthers played around him the men were seized with terror or madness some leaped overboard preparing to do the same beheld their companions in the water undergoing a change their bodies becoming flattened and ending in a crooked tale one exclaimed what miracle is this and as he spoke his mouth widened his nostrils expanded and scales covered all his body another endeavoring to pull the oar felt his hands shrink up and presently to be no longer hands but fins another trying to raise his arms by a rope and curving his mutilated body jumped into the sea what had been his legs became the two ends of a crescent shaped tail the whole crew became dolphins and swam about the ship now upon the surface now under it scattering the spray and spouting the water from their broad nostrils of twenty men I alone was left trembling with fear toward noxose I obeyed and when we arrived there I kindled the altars and celebrated the sacred rites of Bacchus Pentheus here exclaimed we have wasted time enough on this silly story take him away and have him executed without delay Akates was led away by the attendants and shut up fast in prison but while they were getting ready the instruments of execution the prison doors came open from his limbs and when they looked for him he was nowhere to be found Pentheus would take no warning but instead of sending others determined to go himself to the scene of the salamnities the mountain Kitheron was all alive with worshipers and the cries of the Bacchanals resounded on every side the noise roused the anger of Pentheus as the sound of a trumpet does the fire of a war horse he penetrated through the wood the scene of the orgies met his eyes at the same moment the women saw him and first among them his own mother Agave blinded by the god cried out see there the wild boar the hugest monster that prowls in these woods come on sisters I will be the first to strike the wild boar the whole band rushed upon him and while he now talks less arrogantly now excuses himself and now confesses his crime in vain he cries to his aunts to protect him from his mother Altono seized one arm Eno the other and between them he was torn to pieces while his mother shouted victory victory we have done it the glory is ours so the worship of Bacchus was established in Greece there is an allusion to the story of Bacchus and the mariners in Milton's Comus at line 46 chapter 29 Bacchus that first from out the purple grapes crushed the sweet poison of misused wine after the Tuscan manors transformed coasting the Terahin shore as the winds listed on Searsie's Island fell who knows not Searsie the daughter of the son whose charmed cup whoever tasted lost his upright shape and downward fell into a groveling swine Ariadne we have seen in the story of Theseus how Ariadne the daughter of King Minos after helping Theseus to escape from the labyrinth was carried by him to the island of Noxus and was left there asleep while the ungrateful Theseus pursued his way home without her Ariadne on waking and finding herself deserted abandoned herself to grief but Venus took pity on her and consoled her with the promise that she should love an immortal lover instead of the mortal one she had lost the island where Ariadne was left was the favorite island of Bacchus the same that he wished the Terahinian Marriers to carry him to when they so treacherously attempted to make prize of him as Ariadne sat lamenting her fate Bacchus found her consoled her and made her his wife as a marriage present he gave her a golden crown enriched with gems and when she died he took her crown and threw it up into the sky as it mounted the gems grew brighter and were turned into stars and preserving its form Ariadne's crown remains fixed in the heavens as a constellation between the kneeling Hercules and the man who holds the serpent Spencer alludes to Ariadne's crown though he has made some mistakes in his mythology it was at the wedding of Pyrethus and not Theseus that the centaurs and Lapithae quarreled look how the crown which Ariadne wore upon her ivory forehead that same day that Theseus her unto his bridal bore then the bold centaurs made that bloody fray with the fierce Lapiths which did them dismay being now placed in the firmament through the bright heaven doth her beams display and is unto the stars an ornament to be removed in order excellent End of Chapter 21 This is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Patty Marie in Istanbul Bullfinches mythology The Age of Fable by Thomas Bullfinch Chapter 22 The Rural Deities Erysychthon Rikus The Water Deities Kamini Winds The Rural Deities Penn the god of wood and fields of flocks and shepherds dwelt in grottoes wandered on the mountains and in valleys with the chase or in leading the dances of the nymphs he was fond of music and as we have seen the inventor of the seerings or shepherd's pipe which he himself played in a masterly manner Penn, like other gods who dwelt in forests was dreaded by those whose occupations caused them to pass through woods by night for the gloom and loneliness disposed the mind to superstitious fears hence sudden fright without any visible cause was ascribed to Penn and called panic terror as the name of the god signifies all Penn came to be considered a symbol of the universe and personification of nature and later still to be regarded as a representative of all the gods and of heathenism itself Sylvainus and Faunus were Latin deities whose characteristics were so nearly the same as those of Penn that we may safely consider them as the same personage under different names the wood nymphs Penn's partners in the dance were but one class of nymphs there were beside them the niads who presided over brooks and fountains the aureads nymphs of mountains and grottos and the niriads sea nymphs the three last named were immortal but the wood nymphs called dryads or hammer dryads were believed to perish they had come into existence it was therefore an impious act to wantonly destroy a tree and in some aggravated cases were severely punished as in the instance of erisicthon which we are about to record Milton in his glowing description of early creation thus alludes to Penn as the personification of nature the universal pan knit with the graces and the hours in dance led on the eternal spring and describing eaves a boat in shadier bower more sacred or sequestered though but feigned pan or sylvanus never slept nor nymph nor faunus haunted Paradise Lost Book Four it was a pleasing trait of old paganism that it loved to trace in every operation of nature the agency of deity the imagination of the Greeks peopled the regions of earth and sea with divinities to whose agency it attributed those phenomena which our philosophy ascribes to the operation of the laws of nature sometimes in our poetical moods we feel disposed to regret the change and to think that the heart has lost as much as the head has gained by the substitution the poet wordsworth thus strongly expresses this sentiment great god I'd rather be a pagan suckled in a creed outworn so might I standing on this pleasantly have glimpses that would make me less forlorn the sight of Proteus rising from the sea and herald Triton blow his rethed horn shiller in his poem digotter Grishanlantz expresses his regret for the overthrow of the beautiful mythology of ancient times in a way that has called forth an answer from a Christian poet Mrs. E. Barrett Browning in her poem called the dead pan the two following verses are a specimen by your beauty which confesses some chief beauty conquering you by our grand heroic guesses through your falsehood at the true we will weep not earth shall roll air to each god's orial and pan is dead earth out grows the mythic fancies young beside her in her youth and those debonair romances sound but dull beside the truth Phoebus chariot courses run look up poets to the sun pan pan is dead these lines are founded on an early Christian tradition that when the heavenly host told the shepherds at Bethlehem of the birth of Christ a deep groan all the aisles of Greece told that great pan was dead and that all the royalty of Olympus was dethroned and the several deities were sent wandering in cold and darkness so Milton in his hem on the nativity the lonely mountains or and the resounding shore a voice of weeping heard and loud lament from haunted spring and dale the parting genius is with sighing sent with flower and woven tresses torn the nymphs in twilight shade of tangled thickets mourn erisic thon erisic thon was a profane person and a despiser of the gods on one occasion he presumed to violate with the axe a grove sacred to Ceres there stood in this grove a venerable oak so large that it seemed a wood in itself its ancient trunk towering aloft whereon boat of garlands were often hung and inscriptions carved expressing the gratitude of suppliance to the nymph of the tree often had the dryads danced round it hand in hand with 15 cubits round and it overtopped the other trees as they overtopped the shrubbery but for all that erisic thon saw no reason why he should spare it and he ordered his servants to cut it down when he saw them hesitate he snatched an axe from one and thus impiously exclaimed I care not whether it be a tree beloved of the goddess or not if it were the goddess herself it should come down if it stood in my way and so saying he lifted the axe and the oak seemed to shudder and utter a groan when the first blow fell upon the trunk blood flowed from the wound all the bystanders were horror struck and one of them ventured to remonstrate and hold back the fatal axe scornful look said to him receive the reward of your piety and turned against him the weapon which he had held aside from the tree gashed his body with many wounds and cut off his head then from the midst of the oak came a voice I who dwell in this tree am a nymph beloved of series and dying by your hands I warn you that punishment awaits you he desisted not from his crime and at last the tree sundered by repeated blows and drawn by ropes fell with a crash and prostrated a great part of the grove in its fall the dryads in dismay at the loss of their companion and seeing the pride of the forest laid low went in a body to series in garments of mourning and invoked punishment upon Erysychthon she nodded her assent and as she bowed her head the grain ripe for harvest in the laden fields bowed also she planned a punishment so dire that one would pity him if such a culprit as he could be pitied to deliver him over to famine as series herself approached famine for the fates have ordained that these two goddesses should never come together she called an oriad from her mountain and spoke to her in these words there is a place in the farthest part of Eisklad Scythia a sad and sterile region without trees and without crops cold dwells there and fear and shuddering and famine go and tell the last to take possession of the bowels of Erysychthon let not abundance subdue her nor the power of my gifts drive her away be not alarmed at the distance for famine dwells very far from series but take my chariot the dragons are fleet and obey the rain and will take you through the air in a short time so she gave her the reins and she drove away and soon reached Scythia on arriving at Mount Caucasus she stopped the dragons and found famine in a stony field pulling up with teeth and claws the scanty herbage her hair was rough her eyes sunk her tail her lips splanched her jaws covered with dust and her skin drawn tight so as to show all her bones as the Oryad saw her a far off for she did not dare come near she delivered the commands of series and though she stopped as short a time as possible and kept her distance as well as she could yet she began to feel hungry and turned the dragons heads and drove back to Thessaly famine obeyed the commands of series and sped through the air to the dwelling of Erysychthon entered the chamber of the guilty man and found him asleep she unfolded him with her wings and breathed herself into him infusing her poison into his veins having discharged her task she hastened to leave the land of plenty and returned to her accustomed haunts Erysychthon still slept and in his dreams craved food and moved his jaws as if eating when he awoke his hunger was raging without a moments delay he would have food set before him of whatever kind earth, sea or air produces and complained of hunger even while he ate what would have sufficed for a city or a nation was not enough for him the more he ate the more he craved his hunger was like the sea which receives all the rivers yet is never filled or like fire which burns all the fuel that is heaped upon it is still voracious for more his property rapidly diminished under the unceasing demands of his appetite but his hunger continued unabated at length he had spent all and had only his daughter left a daughter worthy of a better parent her too he sold she scorned to be the slave of a purchaser and as she stood by the seaside raised her hands in prayer to Neptune he heard her prayer and though her new master was not far off and had his eye upon her a moment before Neptune changed her form and made her assume that of a fisherman busy at his occupation her master looking for her and seeing her in her altered form she said good fisherman wither went the maiden whom I saw just now with hair disheveled and in humble garb standing about where you stand tell me truly so may your luck be good and not a fish nibble at your hook and get away she perceived that her prayer was answered and rejoiced inwardly adhering herself inquired of about herself and replied pardon me stranger but I have been so intent upon my line that I have seen nothing else but I wish I may never catch another fish if I believe any woman or other person except myself to have been hereabouts for some time he was deceived and went his way thinking that his slave had escaped when she resumed her own form her father was pleased to find her still with him and the money too that he got by the sale of her so he sold her again but she was changed by the favor of Neptune as often as she was sold now into a horse now a bird now an ox now a stag got away from her purchasers and came home and by this base method he took off for his wants and at last hunger compelled him to devour his limbs and he strove to nourish his body by eating his body till death relieved him from the vengeance of Ceres Rekus the Hama Dryads could appreciate services as well as punish injuries the story of Rekus proves this Rekus happened to see an oak just ready to fall ordered his servants to prop it up the nymph who had been on the point of perishing with the tree came and expressed her gratitude to him for having saved her life and bade him ask what reward he would Rekus boldly asked her love and the nymph yielded to his desire she at the same time charged him to be constant and told him that a bee should be her messenger and let him know when she would admit his society one time the bee came to Rekus as he was playing at drafts and he carelessly brushed it away this so incensed the nymph that she deprived him of sight our countryman JR Lowell has taken this story in order poems he introduces it thus here now this fairy legend of old Greece as full of freedom youth and beauty still as the immortal freshness of that grace carved for all ages on some attic frieze the water deities Okeanus and Tethys were the titans who ruled over the watery element when Jove and his brothers overthrew the titans and assumed their power Neptune and Amphitrity succeeded to the dominion of the waters in place of Okeanus and Tethys Neptune Neptune was the chief of the water deities the symbol of his power was the trident or spear with three points with which he used to shatter rocks to call forth or subdue storms to shake the shores and the like he created the horse and was the patron of horse races his own horse had brazen hoofs and golden mains they drew his chariot over the sea which became smooth before him while the monsters of the deep gambled about his path was Amphitrity Amphitrity was the wife of Neptune she was the daughter of Nereus and Doris and the mother of Triton Neptune to pay his court to Amphitrity came riding on a dolphin having won her he rewarded the dolphin by placing him among the stars Nereus and Doris Nereus and Doris are the parents of the Nereids the most celebrated of whom are Amphitrity Thetis the mother of Achilles and Galatea who was loved by the Cyclops Polyphemus Nereus was distinguished for his knowledge and his love of truth and justice whence he was termed an elder the gift of prophecy was also assigned to him Triton and Proteus Triton was the son of Neptune and Amphitrity and the poets make him his father's trumpeter Proteus was also a son of Neptune he, like Nereus is styled a sea elder for his wisdom and knowledge of future events his peculiar power was that of changing his shape at will Thetis Thetis, the daughter of Nereus and Doris was so beautiful that Jupiter himself sought her in marriage but having learned from Prometheus the titan that Thetis should bear a son who should grow greater than his father Jupiter desisted from his suit and decreed that Thetis should be the wife of a mortal by the aid of Chiron the centaur Pellius succeeded in winning the goddess for his bride and their son was the renowned Achilles in our chapter on the Trojan War it will appear that Thetis was a faithful mother to him aiding him in all difficulties and watching over his interests from the first to the last Lucothea and Pallimon I know the daughter of Cadmus and wife of Athomas flying from her frantic husband with her little son Melisertes in her arms sprang from a cliff into the sea the gods out of compassion made her a goddess of the sea under the name of Lucothea and him a god under that of Pallimon both were held powerful to save from shipwreck and invoked by sailors Pallimon was usually represented riding on a dolphin the Isthmian games were celebrated in his honour he was called Portunus by the Romans and believed to have jurisdiction of the ports and shores Milton alludes to all these deities in the song at the conclusion of Comus Sabrina Fair listen and appear to us in name of great Okeanus by the earth-shaking Neptune's Mace and Thetis grave majestic pace by Hori Nereus wrinkled look and the Carpathian Wizard's Hook by Scaly Triton's winding shell and old soothe saying by Lucothea's lovely hands and her son who rules the strands by Thetis tinsel-slippered feet and the songs of Siren's sweet Armstrong the poet of the art of preserving health under the inspiration of Hygia the goddess of health thus celebrates the niads Pian is the name of both Apollo and Esculapius Come ye niads to the fountain's lead propitious maids the task remains to sing your gifts so Pian sow the powers of health command to praise your crystal element O comfortable streams with eager lips and trembling hands the languid thirsty quaff new life in you fresh vigor fills their veins no warmer cups the rural ages knew none warmer sought the sires of humankind happy and temperate peace their equal days felt not the alternate fits of feverish mirth and sick dejection still serene and pleased blessed with divine immunity from ills long centuries they lived their only fate was ripe old age and rather sleep than death the camani by this name the latins designated the muses but included under it some other deities principally nymphs of fountains Egeria was one of them whose fountain and grotto are still shown it was said that Numa the second king of Rome was favored by this nymph with secret interviews in which she taught him those lessons of wisdom and of law which he embodied in the institutions of his rising nation after the death of Numa the nymph pined away and was changed into a fountain Byron in child Harold canto four thus alludes to Egeria and her grotto Egeria all thy heavenly bosom beating for the far footsteps of thy mortal lover the purple midnight veiled that mystic meeting with her most starry canopy Tennyson also in his palace of art gives us a glimpse of the royal lover expecting the interview holding one hand against his ear with the wood nymph stayed the Tuscan king to hear of wisdom and of law the winds when so many less active agencies were personified it is not to be supposed that the winds failed to be so they were Boreus or Aquillo the north wind notice or austere the south and Eurus the east the first two have been chiefly celebrated by the poets the former as a type of rudeness and the latter of gentleness Boreus loved the nymph orothea and tried to play the lover's part but met with poor success it was hard for him to breathe gently and sighing was out of the question weary at last of fruitless endeavours he acted true to his character seized the maiden and carried her off their children were Zetis and Calais winged warriors who accompanied the orgonautic expedition and did good service to the monstrous birds the harpies Zephyrus was the lover of Flora Milton alludes to them in Paradise Lost where he describes Adam waking and contemplating Eve still asleep he on his side leaning half phrased with looks of cordial love hung over her enamoured and beheld beauty which whether waking shot forth peculiar graces then with voice mild as Zephyrus on Flora breathes her hand soft touching whispered thus Awake, my theorist my espoused my latest found Heaven's last best gift my ever new delight Dr. Young the poet of The Night Thoughts addressing the idle and luxurious says ye delicate who nothing can support yourselves most insupportable for whom the winter rose must blow and silky soft Bavonius breathes still softer or be chid End of Chapter 22