Heathen mythology Part 5

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DESTINY.

We have already seen that the decrees of Destiny, or Fate, were superior even to the will of Jupiter, as the King of the G.o.ds could not restore Proserpine to her mother, Destiny having decreed otherwise. But of this being, as possessing a place among the heroes of mythology, we are left in considerable ignorance. Scarcely knowing even if he were a G.o.d, or only the name or symbol whereby to represent an immutable and unchangeable law. In the antique bas-reliefs he is often to be seen, with a bandage over his eyes, and near him an open book which the G.o.ds alone might consult: and in which are written those events which must inevitably come to pa.s.s, and which all are so anxious to discover.

"Thou power which all men strive to look into!

Thou power which dost elude all human search!

To thee alone is given the right to gaze Into the fate prepared for all who live.

Oh! wilt thou ne'er unlock thine iron bars, Oh! wilt thou ne'er enable us to look Into the volume clasped at thy right hand?

The past is known to us, and doth contain So much of evil and so little good, So much of wrong, and oh! so little right, So much of suffering, and so little peace, That we would fain turn o'er the leaves which speak Of future things to our sore troubled souls.

Yet no! perchance the burden is too much, And is in mercy hidden from our eyes.

Earth is made up of so much care and woe, The past, the present, and the future known, Would sink us into deep and desperate sorrow."

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APOLLO.

This Deity, whose name still lives with us, as the presiding divinity of the art of song, was the son of Jupiter, by the beautiful Latona, daughter of the t.i.tan, Coeus. Asteria, her sister, disdaining the embraces of the G.o.d, threw herself into the sea, and was changed into the isle which bears the name of Delos; where Latona afterwards sought refuge from the fury of Juno, when about to overwhelm her, for her frailty with her husband. The irritated G.o.ddess, to punish Latona for her crime, excited against her the serpent Python, who pursued her wheresoever she went; until at last, in the Isle of Delos, alone and unfriended, bearing in her bosom the fruit of her weakness, she gave birth to Apollo and Diana. Weary of her confinement, and wis.h.i.+ng to return to her father Coeus, she arrived near his dominions, where, fatigued with her journey, she begged a drop of water from the peasants, whose cruel refusal to aid her she punished by changing them into frogs.

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"The G.o.ddess came, and kneeling on the brink, Stooped at the fresh repast, prepared to drink: Then thus, being hindered by the rabble race, In accents mild expostulates the case: 'Water I only ask, and sure 'tis hard From Nature's common rights to be debarred.

This, as the genial sun, and vital air, Should flow alike to every creature's share; One draught, as dear as life I should esteem, And water, now I thirst, would nectar seem: Oh! let my little babes your pity move, And melt your hearts to charitable love: They (as by chance they did) extend to you Their little hands, and my request pursue!'

Yet they the G.o.ddess's request refuse, And, with rude words, reproachfully abuse.

Her thirst by indignation was suppressed; Bent on revenge, the G.o.ddess stood confessed!

'And may you live,' she pa.s.sionately cried, 'Doomed in that pool for ever to abide!'

The G.o.ddess has her wish----"

OVID.

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During her residence at her father's court, Niobe, daughter of Tantalus, had the insolence to prefer herself to Latona, who had but two children, while Niobe possessed seven sons and seven daughters. She even ridiculed the wors.h.i.+p which was paid to Latona, observing, that she had a better claim to altars and sacrifices than the mother of Apollo. This insolence provoked Latona, and she entreated her children to punish the arrogant Niobe. Her prayers were granted, and immediately all the sons of Niobe expired by the {35} darts of Apollo, and all the daughters, except one, who was married, were equally destroyed by Diana; while Niobe, stricken by the greatness of the misfortune which had overwhelmed her, was changed into stone.

The bodies of Niobe's children were left unburied in the plains for nine successive days, because Jupiter changed into stones all such as attempted to inter them. On the tenth, they were honoured with a funeral by the G.o.ds.

While Apollo resided at the court of Jupiter, he retained the t.i.tle of the G.o.d of Light; and though many writers consider Phoebus and Apollo to be different deities, there can be no doubt that the wors.h.i.+p which is offered to Phoebus, as the sun, is due also to Apollo; and indeed, under both t.i.tles is he addressed by ancients, as well as moderns.

"Giver of glowing light!

Though but a G.o.d of other days, The kings and sages, Of wiser ages, Still live and gladden in thy genial rays!

"King of the tuneful lyre!

Still poets hymns to thee belong, Though lips are cold, Whereon of old, Thy beams all turned to wors.h.i.+pping and song!

"Lord of the dreadful bow!

None triumph now for Python's death But thou dost save From hungry grave, The life that hangs upon a summer's breath!

"Father of rosy day!

No more thy clouds of incense rise; But waking flowers, At morning hours, Give out their sweets to meet thee in the skies!

"G.o.d of the Delphic fane!

No more thou listenest to hymns sublime; But they will leave, On winds at eve, A solemn echo to the end of time!"

HOOD.

By the invention of Phoebus, medicine became known to the world, as he granted to aesculapius the secrets of this miraculous art, who afterwards sought to raise the dead, and while in the act of bringing {36} to life Hippolitus, son of Theseus, Jupiter enraged with his impiety, smote him with a thunderbolt. Indignant at the punishment which had been awarded aesculapius, Apollo sought the isle of Lemnos, to immolate the Cyclops to his indignation, who had forged the thunderbolt.

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But so insolent an act could not remain unpunished, and Jupiter exiled him from Heaven. While on earth, he loved the nymph Daphne, and Mercury who had invented the lyre, gave it to him that he might the more effectually give vent to his pa.s.sion. This lyre, was formed of the sh.e.l.l of a tortoise, and composed of seven cords, while to its harmonious tones were raised the walls of Troy. In vain, however, were the sweet sounds of the lyre tuned, to soften Daphne whose affection rested with another, and was insensible to that of Apollo, though he pursued her with fervour for a year. Daphne, still inexorable, was compelled to yield to the fatigue which oppressed her, when the G.o.ds, at her entreaty, changed her into a laurel. Apollo took a branch and formed it into a crown, and to this day the laurel remains one of the attributes of the G.o.d. The leaves of this tree are believed to possess the property of preserving from thunder, and of making dreams an image of reality to those who place it beneath their pillow.

--------------------"Her feet she found Benumbed with cold, and fastened to the ground, A filmy rind about her body grows, Her hair to leaves, her arms extend to boughs, {37} The nymph is all into a laurel gone, The smoothness of her skin remains alone; To whom the G.o.d: "Because thou canst not be My mistress, I espouse thee for my tree; Be thou the prize of honour and renown, The deathless poet and the poem crown!

Thou shalt the Roman festivals adorn, And after poets, be by victors worn!

Thou shalt returning Caesar's triumph grace, When pomp shall in a long procession pa.s.s; Wreathed on the posts before his palace wait, And be the sacred guardian of the gate; Secure from thunder and unharmed by Jove, Unfading as the immortal powers above; And as the locks of Phoebus are unshorn So shall perpetual green thy boughs adorn."

OVID.

However earnest Apollo might have been in his pursuit of Daphne, he did not long remain inconsolable, but formed a tender attachment for Leucothoe, daughter of king Orchamus, and to introduce himself with greater facility, he a.s.sumed the shape and features of her mother. Their happiness was complete, when Clytie, her sister, who was enamoured of the G.o.d, and was jealous of his amours with Leucothoe, discovered the whole intrigue to her father, who ordered his daughter to be buried alive. Apollo pa.s.sing by accident over the tomb which contained her, heard her last melancholy cries, but unable to save her from death, he sprinkled nectar and ambrosia over her tomb, which penetrating as far as the body, changed it into the beautiful tree that bears the frankincense; while the unhappy Clytie, tormented by remorse, and disdained by the G.o.d, was changed into a sunflower, the plant which turns itself without ceasing, towards its deity, the sun.

"On the bare earth she lies, her bosom bare, Loose her attire, dishevelled is her hair; Nine times the morn unbarred the gates of light, As oft were spread the alternate shades of night, So long no sustenance the mourner knew, Unless she drank her tears, or sucked the dew, She turned about, but rose not from the ground, Turned to the sun still as he rolled his round; On his bright face hung her desiring eyes, Till fixed to earth, she strove in vain to rise, Her looks their paleness in a flower retained, But here and there, some purple streaks they gained.

Still the loved object the fond leaves pursue, Still move their root, the moving sun to view And in the Heliotrope the nymph is true."

OVID.

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These unhappy endeavours of Apollo, determined him to take refuge in friends.h.i.+p, and he attached himself to the young Hyacinth;

----"Hyacinth, long since a fair youth seen, Whose tuneful voice turned fragrance in his breath, Kissed by sad Zephyr, guilty of his death."

HOOD.

But misfortune appeared to cling to all who were favoured by Apollo, for as they played at quoits with Zephyr, the latter fired by jealousy, blew the quoit of Apollo on the forehead of the unhappy mortal, who fell dead upon the green turf on which they were playing; while his blood sinking into the ground, produced the flower which still bears his name.

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"Flower! with a curious eye we scan Thy leaf, and there discover How pa.s.sion triumphed--pain began-- Or in the immortal, or the man, The hero, or the lover.

"The disk is hurled:--ah! fatal flight!