Heathen mythology Part 4

[Ill.u.s.tration: OLYMPUS.]

{25}

Jupiter is often described by the ancients as visiting the earth in disguise, and distributing to its inhabitants his punishments or rewards.

Ovid relates one in connexion with the luxury of Rome, and in which the hospitality of Baucis and Philemon saved them from the fate of their friends. He is represented as the guardian of man, and dispenser of good and evil.

"While we to Jove select the holy victim, Whom after shall we sing than Jove himself?

The G.o.d for ever great, for ever king, Who slew the earth-born race, and measures right To heaven's great habitants.

Swift growth and wondrous grace, oh! heavenly Jove, Waited thy blooming years: inventive wit, And perfect judgment crowned thy youthful act.

Thou to the lesser G.o.ds hast well a.s.signed Their proper shares of power; thy own, great Jove, Boundless and universal. Each monarch rules His different realm, accountable to thee, Great ruler of the world; these only have To speak and be obeyed; to those are given a.s.sistant days to ripen the design; To some whole months; revolving years to some; Others, ill-fated, are condemned to toil Their tedious life, and mourn their purpose blasted, With fruitless act and impotence of counsel.

Hail! greatest son of Saturn, wise disposer Of every good; thy praise what man yet born Has sung? or who that may be born shall sing?

Again, and often, hail! indulge our prayer, Great Father! grant us virtue, grant us wealth, For without virtue, wealth to man avails not, And virtue without wealth exerts less power, And less diffuses good. Then grant us, Gracious, Virtue and wealth, for both are of thy gift!"

PRIOR.

JUNO.

Juno, who was the daughter of Saturn and Cybele, was also sister and wife to Jupiter. Her pride protected her beauty: for when the G.o.d, to seduce her, took the form of a cuckoo, she recognised him in his disguise, and refused to submit to his wishes, unless he would consent to marry her. At their nuptials, invitations were sent to all the G.o.ds, and beings of even a lower order were not forgotten. But one nymph, by the insolence of her refusal, merited {26} the punishment she received of being changed into a tortoise, and became the symbol of silence.

As might be expected, the marriage of Jupiter and Juno, was not productive of much happiness, the jealousy of the latter being a never-failing source of misery; it was this which caused the celebrated Trojan war; and this that caused Jupiter to suspend her from Heaven by a golden cord, in the attempt to rescue her from which, Vulcan achieved the wrath of his sire, the Thunderer.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

The intrigue of Jupiter with Io, is also celebrated in the history of his amours. Juno became jealous as usual, discovered the object of his affections, and surprised him in the company of Io; a change soon took place in the appearance of the latter, when, through the {27} influence of the G.o.d, she a.s.sumed the form of a white heifer. Juno instantly discovered the fraud, and requested Jupiter to give her possession of an animal she so much admired.

The request was too reasonable to be refused, and Io became the property of Juno, who placed her under the control of the hundred-eyed Argus: but Jupiter, anxious for the situation of Io, sent Mercury, who destroyed Argus, and restored her to liberty.

"Down from the rock fell the dissevered head, Opening its eyes in death, and falling bled, And marked the pa.s.sage with a crimson trail; Thus Argus lies in pieces, cold and pale, And all his hundred eyes with all their light Are closed at once in one perpetual night; These Juno takes, that they no more may fail, And spreads them in her peac.o.c.k's gaudy tail."

OVID.

After undergoing the vengeance of Juno, who unrelentingly pursued her, she gave birth to an infant on the banks of the Nile, and was restored by Jupiter to her natural shape.

All who seemed to be favoured by, or who favoured Jupiter, she persecuted with the utmost rigour: but when it is remembered what cause Juno had for her jealousy, and that her husband metamorphosed himself into a swan for Leda, into a shepherd for Mnemosyne, into a shower of gold for Danae, and into a bull for Europa, she may easily be pardoned her restless spirit.

When Jupiter had a.s.sumed the form of a bull, he mingled with the herds belonging to Agenor, father of Europa, while the latter, with her female attendants, was gathering flowers in the surrounding meadows.

Europa caressed the beautiful animal, and at last had the courage to sit upon his back. Jupiter took advantage of her situation, and with precipitate steps retired towards the sh.o.r.e, crossed the sea with Europa on him, and arrived safe in Crete. Here he adopted his original shape, and declared his love. The nymph consented, though she had previously taken the vows of perpetual celibacy; and became the mother of Minos, Sarpedon, and Rhadamanthus.

"The ruler of the skies, the thundering G.o.d, Who shakes the world's foundation with a nod, Among a herd of lowing heifers ran, Frisked in a bull, and gallopped o'er the plain; {28} His skin was whiter than the snow that lies Unsullied by the breath of southern skies, His every look was peaceful, and expressed The softness of the lover in the beast.

Agenor's royal daughter, as she played Among the fields, the milk white bull surveyed, And viewed his spotless body with delight, And at a distance kept him still in sight; At length she plucked the rising flowers, that fed The gentle beast, and fondly stroked his head.

She placed herself upon his back, and rode O'er fields and meadows, seated on the G.o.d.

He gently marched along, and by degrees, Left the dry meadows and approached the seas, Where now he dips his hoofs and wets his thighs, Now plunges in, and carries off the prize."

OVID.

At length Juno, unable to bear the many injuries her love had sustained, left Jupiter, and retired to the Isle of Samos, announcing, at the same time, that she should return no more to the court of the King of Heaven.

The latter, not disheartened, dressed a statue as Queen of Olympus, placed it in his chariot, and declared it should be the future wife of the ruler of the G.o.ds. This induced Juno to quit her hiding place; for, unable to restrain her jealousy, she rushed back with all speed, destroyed the statue, laughingly acknowledged her error, and was reconciled to her husband.

The wife of Jupiter is always represented as superbly arrayed, in a chariot drawn by two peac.o.c.ks, where she sat with a sceptre in her hand, having always a peac.o.c.k beside her. She was adored above all at Argos, where her feasts were celebrated by the sacrifice of a hundred bulls. At Rome, hers were the Lupercalian feasts. She was believed to preside over the birth-pangs of the Roman women, and the priests, to render the time fruitful, struck these grave matrons with a portion of the skin of a kid, which they a.s.serted had formed one of the vestments of the G.o.ddess.

In the spirit of a high mythology, Juno may be considered as representing the sublunary atmosphere; and, as opposed to Jupiter, the active origin and organizer of all, she is of a pa.s.sive nature. These ideas are allied with those of Hymen, who is called Juno, the virtuous wife.

A statue of Juno recently discovered, is thus described:--

"The countenance expresses a stern unquestioned severity of {29} dominion, with a certain sadness. The lips are beautiful, susceptible of expressing scorn, but not without sweetness. With fine lips a person is never wholly bad, and they never belong to the expression of emotions purely selfish, lips being the seat of imagination. The drapery is finely conceived; and the manner in which the act of throwing back one leg is expressed in the diverging folds of the drapery of the left breast, fading in bold, yet graduated lines, into a skirt, as it descends from the left shoulder, is admirably imagined."

Sh.e.l.lEY.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

CERES.

Ceres, daughter of Saturn and Cybele, was G.o.ddess of the productions of the earth. She taught man the art of agriculture, and is represented crowned with wheat, holding a torch in one hand, and in the other an ear of corn; sometimes she carries a sceptre, and sometimes a sickle, and her chariot is drawn by lions or by serpents.

------------"As tempered suns arise Sweet beamed, and shedding through the lucid clouds A pleasing calm: while broad and brown, below Extensive harvests hang the heavy head.

Rich, silent, deep, they stand: for not a gale Rolls its light billows o'er the bending plain: A calm of plenty; till the ruffled air Falls from its poise, and gives the breeze to blow.

{30} Rent is the fleecy mantle of the sky, And back by fits the shadows sweep along.

A gaily chequered, heart-expanding view, Far as the circling eye can shoot around, Unbounded, tossing in a flood of corn."

THOMSON.

Loved by Jupiter, she had by the G.o.d a daughter called Proserpine, whom Pluto, G.o.d of h.e.l.l, seized near the beautiful vale of Enna, in Sicily, and carried with him to his dismal kingdom. Ceres, whose love for her child, almost surpa.s.sed even the usual love of mothers, placed on Mount Etna two torches, and sought her "from morn to noon, from noon to dewy eve,"

throughout the world. At last, when she deemed her search well nigh hopeless, she was informed by the nymph Arethusa of the dwelling place of her child, and of the name of him who had torn her beloved one from her paternal care.

Ceres implored Jupiter to interfere, and withdraw her from the infernal regions, which he agreed to do, but found it would be beyond his power, as, by a decree of Destiny, she would not be able to quit her place of concealment, should she have partaken of any nourishment while there; and it was discovered that though she had refused all ordinary food, she had been tempted while in the gardens of Pluto, to pluck a pomegranate, and to eat a few of its seeds. This was sufficient; and the utmost Ceres could obtain, was that she should pa.s.s six months of the year with her mother and six months with Pluto, when she became his wife.

"Near Enna's walls a s.p.a.cious lake is spread, Famed for the sweetly singing swans it bred; Pergusa is its name: and never more Were heard, or sweeter sounds than on Cayster's sh.o.r.e.

Woods crown the lake, and Phoebus ne'er invades The tufted fences or offends the shades: Fresh fragrant breezes fan the verdant bowers, And the moist ground smiles with enamelled flowers, The cheerful birds their airy carols sing, And the whole year is one eternal spring.

Here while young Proserpine, among the maids, Diverts herself in these delicious shades; While like a child with busy speed and care, She gathers lilies here, and violets there; While first to fill her little lap she strives, h.e.l.l's grizzly monarch at the shades arrives; Sees her thus sporting on the flowery green, And loves the blooming maid as soon as seen.

{31} The frighted G.o.ddess to her mother cries: But all in vain, for now far off she flies; His urgent flame impatient of delay, Swift as his thought he seized the beauteous prey, And bore her in his sooty car away.

Far she behind her leaves her virgin train; To them too cries, and cries to them in vain.

And while with pa.s.sion she repeats her call, The violets from her lap and lilies fall: She misses them, poor heart! and makes new moan: Her lilies, oh! are lost, her violets gone.

O'er hills the ravisher, and valleys speeds, By name encouraging his foamy steeds; He rattles o'er their necks the rusty reins, And ruffles with the stroke their s.h.a.ggy manes Throws to his dreadful steeds the slackened rein, And strikes his iron sceptre through the main; The depths profound thro' yielding waves he cleaves, And to h.e.l.l's centre a free pa.s.sage leaves; Down sinks his chariot, and his realms of night The G.o.d soon reaches with a rapid flight."

OVID.

The attempts of Ceres to encourage the art of agriculture were not always favourably received: the King of the Scythians, who loved the sword more than the ploughshare, and the spear more than the reaping hook, having attempted to smother the art taught by Ceres in its infancy, was metamorphosed into a lynx. Nor was this the only instance of the vengeance of the G.o.ddess, who was irritable, and prompt to punish. A young child, whose chief crime was having laughed to see her eat with avidity, was changed into a lizard: while a Thessalian, who had desecrated and attempted to destroy a sacred forest, was doomed to an hunger so cruel, that he devoured his own limbs, and died in the midst of fearful torments.