The Student's Mythology Part 1

The Student's Mythology.

by Catherine Ann White.

PREFATORY NOTE.

The Student's Mythology has been in use in ma.n.u.script for nearly three years in one of our largest academies, where it has been received with much favor by both teachers and pupils. Even in that form, which subjected them to the inconvenience of long dictations, it was preferred to any of the ordinary text-books on the subject. Copies were sought for the use of other inst.i.tutions, and the princ.i.p.als of the academy referred to, consented that the work should be prepared for the press.

In carrying out the plan, the subject matter was carefully cla.s.sified, and such additions made as were deemed necessary for completeness. As a farther precaution, the whole was submitted to the revision of an eminent cla.s.sical scholar.

Mythology is a subject which needs to be treated with peculiar care; and text-books are often objected to by parents and teachers as still retaining the taint of pagan corruption, and presenting dangerous images to the youthful mind. It was this difficulty which first led to the preparation of the present work. The Student's Mythology lays no claim to any superiority in point of erudition; the text-books already before the public leave nothing to be desired in this particular. It is a practical work, prepared by an experienced teacher, and already submitted to the decisive test of the schoolroom. It is not designed for young persons who are already advanced in cla.s.sical studies, but rather for pupils who have not yet entered, or who, like the greater number of those attending our female academies, are not likely ever to enter upon any regular cla.s.sical course. For the former, it may prove a useful introduction to these studies, while the latter will find in the work the most important and pleasing features of mythology.

With such views, it has been considered most judicious to present the cla.s.sic fables in their simplest, which is also their most poetic form, giving the allegorical meaning attached to the ancient myths, only where their application is clear and simple. For the same reason the writer has avoided questions of comparative mythology, except in cases where the a.n.a.logies are too obvious to be pa.s.sed unnoticed. The work has been compiled with care from reliable sources, and will, perhaps, be found to contain much that is new and interesting; many articles, such as those on the public games, the theatrical entertainments of the Greeks, the a.s.syrian, Chinese and American mythologies, will be found a pleasing addition, as these subjects have not been treated in the ordinary text-books. The chapter on the "Poets of Cla.s.sic Fable," and the "Supplement" containing a notice of the ancient writers whose names occur in the body of the work, will, it is hoped, be found generally useful.

Among the modern authors to whom the writer has been particularly indebted, we may mention Calmet, Anthon, Tooke, Bulfinch, Huc and Schlegel. In preparing the article on Druidism, Martin's "Histoire de France," and the "Monuments Celtiques" of Reynaud, have been consulted, together with the Irish Chroniclers and other standard authorities. The matter of the Mexican and Peruvian mythologies, has been chiefly taken from Clavigero and Prescott. Reference has been made throughout to the New American Cyclopdia.

The work now completed is offered to the public in the hope that it may render the subject of mythology more generally popular in our schools, and obviate the dangers attending this otherwise attractive study.

MYTHOLOGY.

CHAPTER I.

_Ques._ What is Mythology?

_Ans._ This word is derived from the Greek, _Mythos_, a myth or fable, and _logos_, a discourse. A myth is, properly speaking, an allegory or fable invented to convey some important moral or religious truth, or ill.u.s.trate some operation of nature. Mythology includes also the historical myths, or the narratives of G.o.ds, demiG.o.ds, and heroes, which were current among the heathen in ancient times.

_Ques._ Why is it necessary to become acquainted with these fables?

_Ans._ Because ancient literature and art cannot be fully understood or appreciated without some knowledge of Mythology. It was mingled with every theme of the cla.s.sic poet, and inspired the highest skill of the painter and sculptor.

These subjects keep their place to some extent in modern art, and mythological allusions are so frequent in our literature that an acquaintance with cla.s.sic fable is considered a necessary part of a liberal education.

_Ques._ Did all the heathen nations wors.h.i.+p the same deities?

_Ans._ The mythology of different nations varied as to the names and attributes of their divinities. There are, nevertheless, so many points of resemblance, that it is believed by many that the princ.i.p.al mythical systems had one common origin. To trace these a.n.a.logies, and the developments which gave rise to so great a diversity, is the province of comparative mythology.

_Ques._ In what important point do all these systems agree?

_Ans._ In the rite of sacrifice. We meet everywhere the same offerings: flowers, first fruits, libations of milk, honey, and wine; also sacrifices of animals, which were either partaken of by the votaries or consumed as holocausts upon the altar.

This mode of wors.h.i.+p varied but little in ceremonial, and the sacrifices of the different heathen nations resembled, in their exterior form, those offered to the true G.o.d by the ancient patriarchs. The idea of propitiating the deity in such a manner seems to have been universal both in the old and the new world, and we are forced to believe that it was drawn from a common fount of primeval tradition.

_Ques._ How did the belief in the heathen deities originate?

_Ans._ When the early traditions of the human race became corrupt, the sublime idea of one G.o.d, self-existent and eternal, was lost or obscured. We find it, though vaguely perhaps, in the character and attributes of certain divinities, as the Zeus (Jupiter) of the Greek, and the Alfdur of Scandinavian mythology. There are pa.s.sages in the early Greek poets which show clearly a belief in the unity of G.o.d. In the verses attributed to the mythic poet Orpheus, and generally known as Orphic Remains, we find the following:

"One self-existent lives; created things Arise from him; and He is all in all.

No mortal sight may see Him, yet Himself Sees all that live; * * *

* * * For He alone All heavenly is, and all terrestrial things Are wrought by Him. First, midst and last he holds With His omniscient grasp."

The same idea is expressed in the verses of the poet Aratus, quoted by St. Paul in his address to the Athenians on the Hill of Mars.

Instead of ministering spirits obeying the will of the Supreme Being, and communicating that will to man, there arose a number of inferior deities, each exercising some peculiar and partial sovereignty. The G.o.d whom the warrior invoked in battle was powerless to bless the field he cultivated in time of peace; the power of Jupiter was wors.h.i.+pped in the rolling thunder; but when the earth trembled or fiery torrents burst from the mountain top, the wrath of Pluto must be appeased, and sacrifices were offered to the infernal powers. The strife and turbulence of nature were attributed to the G.o.ds, who became in some manner identified with the elements they were supposed to govern.

The honors paid to the memory of departed heroes a.s.sumed, in the course of time, the character of religious wors.h.i.+p. Hence arose a cla.s.s of demiG.o.ds, whose real achievements, transmitted by popular tradition and embellished by the poets, became altogether legendary and mythical.

_Ques._ Were the Greek and Roman mythologies the same?

_Ans._ They were, to a great extent. The ancient Latins had, undoubtedly, their own G.o.ds and their peculiar superst.i.tions, but they do not appear to have had any regular mythology. When the Romans received the arts and sciences from the Greeks, they adopted, also, their divinities and their entire system of religion.

They shared a tradition, which seems to have been universal, of a time of primeval innocence, when man dwelt in a peaceful world, ignorant alike of sorrow and of sin. This was the Golden Age. Avarice and discord were unknown; men had not learned to slay animals for food, nor had the earth been disturbed by the plough. Neither the labors of the husbandman, nor the merchant's traffic disturbed the joyous leisure of that happy time; no s.h.i.+ps ploughed the seas, and the glittering steel rested harmless in the mine. Ovid thus describes the days of innocence:

"The Golden Age was first, when man, yet new, No rule but uncorrupted reason knew, And, with a native bent did good pursue.

Unforced by punishment, unawed by fear, His words were simple, and his soul sincere; Needless was written law where none oppressed; The law of man was written in his breast: No suppliant crowds before the judge appeared, No court erected yet, nor cause was heard, But all was safe; for conscience was their guard.

No walls were yet, nor fence, nor moat, nor mound, Nor drum was heard, nor trumpet's angry sound, Nor swords were forged; but, void of care and crime, The soft creation slept away their time."

The Silver Age was far inferior to that of gold; but virtue still dwelt on earth, and the Immortals had not altogether departed from the abodes of men. Jupiter then divided the year into seasons, shortened the winter days, and let loose the northern blasts, so that men were obliged to build dwellings, and cultivate the ungrateful soil.

Their first habitations were caves and grottoes, leafy coverts of the forest, or huts rudely constructed of the trunks of trees and interwoven boughs.

The Brazen Age came next; men grew fierce and warlike, but were not as yet altogether impious.

The Iron Age gave birth to all the calamities that afflict mankind.

Avarice and violence reigned supreme; men were not satisfied to till the earth, but dug into its hidden mines, and drew thence gold and iron, potent instruments of ill to man.

The same poet says:

"Then land-marks limited to each his right; For all before was common as the light.

Nor was the ground alone required to bear Her annual income to the crooked share, But greedy mortals, rummaging her store, Digged from her entrails first the precious ore (Which next to h.e.l.l the prudent G.o.ds had laid,) And that alluring ill to sight displayed.

Thus cursed steel, and more accursed gold, Gave mischief birth, and made that mischief bold: And double death did wretched man invade, By steel a.s.saulted, and by gold betrayed."

_Dryden's Ovid._

MOUNT OLYMPUS.

_Ques._ Where were the G.o.ds supposed to dwell?

_Ans._ On the summit of Mount Olympus, in Thessaly. This mountain hides its head, covered with perpetual snows, in a belt of clouds.

The Greeks imagined above these, a sublime abode reposing in eternal suns.h.i.+ne, and free from the storms which vexed the lower world. A gate of clouds, guarded by the G.o.ddesses of the seasons, opened to permit the pa.s.sage of the Celestials when they descended to earth. Each G.o.d had his own dwelling, but all were obliged to repair, when summoned, to the palace of Jupiter. Even those deities whose usual abode was on the earth, in the waters, or in the lower shades, were compelled to a.s.semble in Olympus at his command. Here they feasted on ambrosia and nectar, discoursed upon the affairs of heaven and earth, and were delighted at intervals by the music of Apollo's lyre, and the songs of the Muses.