Heathen mythology, Illustrated by extracts from the most celebrated writers, both ancient and modern - Various

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and quiver, and more nimble than the stag that she pursues, who takes the diversion of the chase. The sun is a god, who, riding in a car of fire, diffuses his light through the world; the stars are so many divinities, who measure with their golden beams the regular progress of time; the moon presides over the silence of night, and consoles the world for the absence of her brother. Neptune reigns in the sea, surrounded by the Naiades, who dance to the joyous shells of the Tritons. In the highest heaven is seated Jupiter, master and father of men and gods. Under his feet roll the thunders, in the caverns of Etna, forged by the Cyclops; his smile rejoices nature; and his nods shakes the foundation of Olympus. Surrounding the throne of their sovereign, the other divinities quaff nectar, from a cup presented them by the young and beautiful Hebe. In the middle of the great circle shines, with distinguished lustre, the unrivalled beauty of Venus, alone adorned with a splendid girdle in which the Graces for ever play, and in her hand is a smiling boy whose power is universally acknowledged by heaven and earth. Sweet illusions of the fancy! pleasing errors of the mind! what objects of pity are those cold and insensible hearts who have never felt your charms! and what objects of pity and indignation those fierce and savage spirits, who would destroy a world that has so long been the treasury of the arts! a world, imaginary indeed, but delightful, and whose ideal pleasures are so well fitted to compensate for the real troubles and miseries of the world in which we live."

      If we turn to a still higher authority (and we acknowledge that the subject has been treated of so often and in so masterly a style by men of whom the world was scarcely worthy, that we are willing rather to present their mature opinions, than to obtrude our own) we shall find that Lord Bacon treats upon the subject in a manner which maintains his high character as a profound thinker. "I am not ignorant," he says, "how uncertain fiction is, and how liable to be wrested to this or that sense, nor how prevalent wit and discourse are, so as ingeniously to apply such meanings as were not thought of originally; but let not the follies and license of a few lessen the esteem due to parables; for that would be profane and bold, since religion delights in such veils and shadows: but, reflecting on human wisdom, I ingenuously confess my real opinion is, that mystery and allegory were from the original intended in many fables of the ancient poets, this appears apt and conspicuous to me; whether ravished with a veneration for antiquity, or because I find such coherence in the similitude with the things signified, in the very texture of the fable, and in the propriety of the names which are given to the persons or actors in the fables; and no man can positively deny that this was the sense proposed from the beginning, and industriously veiled in this manner. … No one should be moved, if he sometimes finds any addition for the sake of history, or by way of embellishment; or if chronology should happen to be confounded, or if part of one fable should be transferred to another, and a new allegory introduced: for these were all necessary, and to be expected, seeing they are the inventions of men of different ages, and who writ to different ends; some with a view to the nature of things and others to civil affairs. We have another sign, and that no small one, of this hidden sense which we have been speaking of, which is that some of these fables are in the narration so foolish and absurd, that they seem to claim a parable at a distance. Such as are probable may be feigned for amusement, and in imitation of history; but where no such designs appear, but they seem to be what none would imagine or relate, they must be calculated for other uses. What has a great weight with me is, that many of these fables seem not to be invented by those who have related them, Homer, Hesiod, and other writers; for were they the fictions of that age and of those who delivered them down to us, nothing great and exalted, according to my opinion, could be expected from such an origin; but if any one will deliberate on this subject attentively, these will appear to be delivered and related as what were before believed and received, and not as tales then first invented and communicated; besides, as they are told in different manners, by authors of almost the same times, they are easily perceived to be common, and derived from old tradition, and are various only from the additional embellishments diverse writers have bestowed on them. … The wisdom of the ancients was either great or happy, great if these figures were the fruits of their industry; and happy if they looked no further, that they have afforded matter and occasion so worthy of contemplation."

       Table of Contents

       Table of Contents

      The stars were the first recipients of the homage of mankind; and thus Heaven is the most ancient of the Gods. As the world increased they deified heroes.

      The Gods of the ancients were divided into many classes. The principal, or Gods of the first order, amounted to twenty, viz:—Jupiter, Juno, Neptune, Ceres, Mercury, Minerva, Vesta, Apollo, Diana, Venus, Mars, Vulcan, Destiny, Saturn, Genius, Pluto, Bacchus, Love, Cybele, and Proserpine. Besides these more important ones, they had others, such as Chaos; which did not belong to any particular class, and which were not the object of any faith.

      "Before the seas, and this terrestrial ball,

      And Heaven's high canopy, that covers all,

      One was the face of nature—if a face;

      Rather a rude and indigested mass;

      A lifeless lump, unfashioned and unframed,

      Of jarring seeds; and justly Chaos named.

      No sun was lighted up, the world to view;

      No moon did yet her blunted horns renew;

      Nor yet was earth suspended in the sky;

      Nor poised, did on her own foundations lie;

      Nor seas about their shores the arms had thrown;

      But earth, and air, and water were in one.

      Thus air was void of light, and earth unstable,

      And waters dark abyss unnavigable.

      No certain form on any was imprest;

      All were confused, and each disturbed the rest.

      For hot and cold were in one body fix'd;

      And soft with hard, and light with heavy mix'd.

      But God, or Nature, while they thus contend,

      To these intestine discords put an end:

      Then earth from air, and seas from earth were driven,

      And grosser air sunk from ethereal Heaven.

      The force of fire ascended first on high,

      And took its dwelling in the vaulted sky:

      Then air succeeds, in lightness next to fire;

      Whose atoms from unactive earth retire.

      Earth sinks beneath, and draws a numerous throng

      Of ponderous, thick, unwieldy seeds along.

      About her coasts unruly waters roar,

      And, rising on a ridge, insult the shore.

      Thus when the God, whatever God was he,

      Had formed the whole, and made the parts agree,

      That no unequal portions might be found,

      He moulded earth into a spacious round:

      Then, with a breath, he gave the winds to blew;

      And bade the congregated waters flow:

      

      He adds the running springs, and standing lakes,

      And bounding banks for winding rivers makes.

      Some part in earth are swallowed up; the most

      In ample oceans

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