Heathen mythology Part 17

------"He comes to us From the depths of Tartarus.

For what of evil doth he roam From his red and gloomy home.

In the centre of the world Where the sinful dead are hurled?

Mark him as he moves along, Drawn by horses black and strong.

Such as may belong to night, Ere she takes her morning flight, Now the chariot stops: the G.o.d On our gra.s.sy world hath trod, Like a t.i.tan steppeth he, Yet full of his divinity.

On his mighty shoulders lie Raven locks, and in his eye A cruel beauty, such as none Of us may wisely look upon."

BARRY CORNWALL.

In vain she called upon her attendants for help, the G.o.d bore her off to his dominions, and she became his bride.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

"So in Sicilia's ever blooming shade, The playful Proserpine from Ceres strayed.

Led with unwary step her virgin trains O'er Etna's steeps, and Enna's golden plains; Plucked with fair hand the silver blossomed bower, And purpled mead,--herself a fairer flower; {105} Sudden, unseen amid the twilight glade, Rushed gloomy Dis, and seized the trembling maid.

Her startling damsels sprung from mossy seats, Dropped from their gauzy laps the gathered sweets, Clung round the struggling nymph, with piercing cries Pursued the chariot, and invoked the skies;-- Pleased as he grasps her in his iron arms, Frights with soft sighs, with tender words alarms; The wheels descending, rolled in smoky rings, Infernal Cupids flapped their demon wings; Earth with deep yawn received the fair amazed, And far in night, celestial beauty blazed."

DARWIN.

At the entrance of the place of torments was an enormous vestibule, tenanted by black Anxieties, Regrets, Groans, Remorse, pale Malady, Decay, Fright, Hunger, Poverty, Death, Sleep, fierce Joy, Rage, and the Eumenides, or Furies, who were seated on a couch of iron, and crowned with blood-stained serpents. A deep and dark cavern led towards Tartarus, which was surrounded by the river Acheron; Charon conducted over this water the souls of those sent to him by Death, while any to whom the rites of sepulchre had not been granted, were for a hundred years allowed to solicit their pa.s.sage in vain. If any living person presented himself to cross the lake, he could not be admitted before he showed Charon a golden bough; and Charon was once imprisoned for a year, because he had ferried Hercules over without this pa.s.sport.

Cerberus, a dog with three heads, watched at the entrance to Tartarus.

"A horrid dog and grim, couched on the floor, Guards, with malicious art, the sounding door; On each, who in the entrance first appears, He fawning wags his tail, and c.o.c.ks his ears; If any strive to measure back the way, Their steps he watches, and devours his prey."

HESIOD.

Surrounded by an outer wall of iron, this terrible place was enclosed within a wall of adamant.

Pluto is generally represented as holding a trident with three p.r.o.ngs, and has a key in his hand, to intimate that whoever enters can never return. He is considered as a hard-hearted and inexorable deity, with a grim and dismal countenance, for which reason, temples were not raised to his honour, as to the remainder of the G.o.ds; though the story of Orpheus shews that he could be occasionally less severe. {106}

"When ill-fated Orpheus tuned to woe His potent lyre, and sought the realms below; Charmed into life unreal forms respired, And list'ning shades the dulcet note admired.

Love led the sage through Death's tremendous porch, Cheered with his smile, and lighted with his torch; h.e.l.l's triple dog his playful jaws expands, Fawns round the G.o.d, and licks his baby hands; In wondering groups the shadowy nations throng, And sigh or simper, as he steps along; Sad swains, and nymphs forlorn, on Lethe's brink, Hug their past sorrows, and refuse to drink; Night's dazzled empress feels the golden flame Play round her breast, and melt her frozen frame; Charms with soft words, and sooths with amorous wiles, Her iron-hearted lord, and Pluto smiles.

His trembling bride the bard triumphant led From the pale mansions of the astonished dead; Gave the fair phantom to admiring light, Ah! soon again to tread irrevocable night!"

DARWIN.

Black victims, and particularly the bull, were the only sacrifices which were offered to him, and their blood was not sprinkled on the altars, but permitted to run down into the earth to penetrate the realms of the G.o.d.

The Syracusans paid yearly homage to him near the fountain of Cyane, into which one of the attendant maidens of Proserpine had been metamorphosed, and where he had, according to the received traditions, disappeared with the G.o.ddess.

--------"On the ground, She sinks without a single sound, And all her garments float around; Again, again she rises light, Her head is like a fountain bright, And her glossy ringlets fall With a murmur musical, O'er her shoulders, like a river That rushes and escapes for ever.

Is the fair Cyane gone?

Is this fountain left alone For a sad remembrance, where We may in after times repair, With heavy heart and weeping eye, To sing songs to her memory?"

BARRY CORNWALL.

From the functions, and the place he inhabited, he received different names, and became the G.o.d of the infernal regions, of death, and of funerals.

That he might govern with order and regularity, the spirits who {107} were inhabitants of his vast dominions, he committed part of his power to three judges of the infernal regions, of whom Minos and Rhadamanthus were the most important. He sate in the middle, holding a sceptre in his hand. The dead pleaded their different causes before him, and the impartial judge shakes the fatal urn which is filled with the destinies of mankind.

Rhadamanthus was employed in compelling the dead to confess their crimes, and in punis.h.i.+ng them for their offences.

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"Awful Rhadamanthus rules the state.

He hears and judges each committed crime, Inquires into the manner, place, and time: The conscious wretch must all his acts reveal, Loth to confess, unable to conceal, From the first moment of his vital breath, To his last year of unrepenting death."

Amongst the most notorious criminals plunged in Tartarus, were the t.i.tans; Sisyphus, a celebrated robber, condemned to roll an enormous stone to the summit of a high mountain, from which it fell again without ceasing, that he might be eternally employed in this punishment; Ixion who had dared to offer impure vows to Juno, and was affixed to a wheel which went constantly round, rendering his punishment also eternal; with Tantalus, condemned to a burning thirst, and surrounded by the grateful liquid which always vanished before his touch. {108}

--------"Tantalus condemned to hear The precious stream still purling in his ear; Lip-deep in what he longs for, and yet curst With prohibition and perpetual thirst."

COWPER.

The Danaides, daughters of Danaus, king of Argos, were also there, who, in obedience to the cruel advice of their parent, had caused their husbands to perish; with t.i.tyus, who having had the audacity to attempt the honour of Latona, was doomed to feel a vulture constantly gnawing his entrails.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

Ulysses sought the realm of Pluto, among his many adventures.

"When lo! appeared along the dusky coasts, Thin, airy shoals of visionary ghosts: Fair, pensive youths, and young enamoured maids; And withered elders, pale and wrinkled shades; Ghastly with wounds the forms of warriors slain, Stalked with majestic port, a martial train; These and a thousand more, swarmed o'er the ground, And all the dire a.s.sembly shrieked around.

Astonished at the sight, aghast I stood, And a cold fear ran s.h.i.+vering through my blood."

While here he saw the ghosts of all those famed in story, who had descended to the infernal regions for punishment.

"High on a throne, tremendous to behold, Stern Minos waves a mace of burnished gold; Around, ten thousand, thousand spectres stand, Thro' the wide dome of Dis, a trembling band.

Still as they plead, the fatal lot he rolls, Absolves the just, and dooms the guilty souls.

There huge Orion, of portentous size, Swift thro' the gloom, a giant hunter flies; A ponderous mace of bra.s.s with direful sway Aloft he whirls to crush the savage prey!

Stern beasts in trains that by his truncheon fell, Now grisly forms, shoot o'er the lawns of h.e.l.l.

There t.i.tyus, large and long, in fetters bound, O'erspreads nine acres of infernal ground; {109} Two ravenous vultures, furious for their food, Scream o'er the fiend, and riot in his blood, Incessant gore the liver in his breast, Th' immortal liver grows, and gives the immortal feast.

There Tantalus along the Stygian bounds Pours out deep groans (with groans all h.e.l.l resounds); Ev'n in the circling floods refreshment craves, And pines with thirst amidst a sea of waves; When to the water he his lip applies, Back from his lip the treacherous water flies, Above, beneath, around his hapless head, Trees of all kinds delicious fruitage spread; There figs sky-dy'd, a purple hue disclose, Green looks the olive, the pomegranate grows, There dangling pears exalting scents unfold, And yellow apples ripen into gold: The fruit he strives to seize, but blasts arise, Toss it on high, and whirl it to the skies.

I turned my eye, and, as I turned, surveyed A mournful vision! the Sisyphian shade; With many a weary step, and many a groan, Up the high hill he heaves a huge round stone; The huge round stone, resulting with a bound, Thunders impetuous down and smokes along the ground, Again the restless...o...b..his toil renews, Dust mounts in clouds, and sweat descends in dews."

[Ill.u.s.tration]

{110}

MERCURY.

Though according to Cicero, there were no less than five G.o.ds of this name; yet to the son of Jupiter and Maia, the actions of all the others have been probably attributed, as he is the most famous and the best known.

Mercury was the messenger of the G.o.ds and the patron of travellers and shepherds; he conducted the souls of the dead into the infernal regions, and not only presided over orators and merchants, but was also the G.o.d of thieves, pickpockets, and all dishonest persons.

--------"A babe, all babes excelling, A schemer subtle beyond all belief, A shepherd of thin dreams, a cow stealing, A night watching and door waylaying thief."

Sh.e.l.lEY.