Heathen mythology Part 2

_Vestal._ Spare me! oh spare!

_Priest._ Speak not, polluted one.

_Vestal._ Yet spare me!

_Priest._ Thou pleadst in vain--thy destiny is fixed.

_Vestal._ Mercy--oh! mercy; tho' my sin be great, Life is so beautiful I cannot die; And earth seems smiling with intenser light, And flowers give forth an odour ever new, The stars look brighter still than when of old I watched them fading from the mountain top: Earth, sky and air, are all so beautiful, I cannot, dare not, will not, think of death!

_Priest._ It is thy doom! thy living grave is near.

Thou hast despoiled the G.o.ddess of her due, The vow thou gavest to her thou hast broken, And thou must pay the awful penalty!

_Vestal._ The grave--a living grave--thou meanst it not-- To ope my eyes in th' ever during dark, To breathe a thick and frightful atmosphere, Drawn from my sighs and dampened with my tears!

_Priest._ The G.o.ds demand their victim!

_Vestal._ 'Tis blasphemy to think it; Oh! if thou ever knew'st a father's love, A mother's sigh, a sister's soft caress, If but one human sympathy be left, Pardon, oh! pardon!

_Priest._ Cling not around me, girl, touch, touch me not; The power to pardon lieth not in man.

Thy hour hath come.

_Vestal, (clasping him)._ I will not quit thee; Thou art a man with human sympathies; Madness will touch my brain; I cannot, will not yield.

Grant me some other death: poison or steel, Or aught that sends me suddenly from earth; But to be wrapt in clay, and yet not of it, To feel the earth crumbling around my brow, To scent its foul and noisome atmosphere, Is more than frail mortality can bear.

ANON.

[Ill.u.s.tration] {16}

JUPITER.

The nymphs of mount Ida, to whom Cybele had confided her son, educated him with great care; but his cries being likely to call the attention of Saturn and t.i.tan, the priests invented a dance accompanied with noise, called the Dactyl, in which they interchanged blows on steel bucklers. His nourishment was received from a goat, who was afterwards placed among the heavenly constellations, having given his skin to form a s.h.i.+eld, and one of his horns, which was presented to the nymphs, and named the Horn of Plenty. As Jupiter emerged from infancy, we have seen he had to strive with the t.i.tans, who disputed with him the right to reign in Heaven.

The first of their feats was to heap mountain on mountain in order to scale the walls of Heaven; they then threw fragments of rocks and burning trees against "high Olympus."

"But vainly came Typhaeus on, And vainly huge Porphyrion, Fierce Rhoetus of the vengeful stroke, And Minias strong as mountain oak, With bold Encelaedas, to heaven who strove To dart the trees, uprooted, from the grove:

For weak their might against the s.h.i.+eld Which Pallas' matchless arm did wield; While quick against the giant foes Juno, and ardent Vulcan, rose; And to the fight the young Apollo sped, Glittering afar with bows and arrows dread,

Who bathing in Castalian dew, His tresses loose of golden hue, Rejoicing in his youth is seen Amid the Lycian valleys green, Or in the Delian groves will sport oftwhile Amid the flowers that deck his native isle."

HORACE.

The G.o.ds at first defended themselves with great courage, but at the appearance of the hundred-headed Typhon, all, save Bacchus, sought safety in flight, and hid themselves in Egypt, where they obtained refuge under various forms: from the different disguises they then a.s.sumed, may be traced the wors.h.i.+p rendered by the Egyptians to both animals and vegetables. {17}

Typhon, who thus, by his mere appearance, seemed to turn the tide of war, is thus described:

----------------"Typhon, whose hands Of strength are fitted to tremendous deeds; And indefatigable are the feet Of the strong G.o.d: and from his shoulders rise A hundred snaky heads of dragon growth."

HESIOD.

Notwithstanding the dire appearance of this monster, Bacchus fought bravely against the foes of Heaven, and took the form of a Lion, while animated by the cries of Jupiter, who shouted "Courage, courage!" his bravery turned the tide of war.

"And now the murmur of incitement flies, All ranged in martial order, through the skies; Here Jove above the rest conspicuous s.h.i.+ned, In valour equal to his strength his mind; Erect and dauntless see the thunderer stand, The bolts red hissing from his vengeful hand; He walks majestic round the starry frame; And now the lightnings from Olympus flame.

The earth wide blazes with the fires of Jove, Nor the flash spares the verdure of the grove."

HESIOD.

The invaders, at length, were overthrown, and crushed beneath the mountains which they themselves had prepared to execute their vengeance on Jupiter.

Many times, though vainly, the t.i.tans sought to avenge their defeat; and Olympus, from this time, was only troubled by internal dissensions.

--------------"The bruised t.i.tans mourned Within a den where no insulting light Could glimmer on their tears; where their own groans They felt, but heard not; hard flint they sat upon, Couches of rugged stone and slaty ridge, Stubborned with iron.

Coeus and Gyges and Briareus, With many more, the brawniest in a.s.sault, Were pent in regions of laborious breath; Dungeoned in opague element to keep Their clenched teeth still clenched, and all their limbs Locked up like veins of metal cramped and screwed: Without a motion save of their big hearts, Heaving in pain."

KEATS' HYPERION.

After his victory, Jupiter, who had driven Saturn from Heaven, and was in consequence its undisputed king, espoused Juno his sister. {18} The commencement of their union was a happy one, and was called the age of silver, being an era of virtue, less pure, however, than that of the age of gold.

"But when good Saturn banished from above Was driven to h.e.l.l, the world was under Jove.

Succeeding times a silver age behold, Excelling bra.s.s, but more excelled by gold; Then summer, autumn, winter did appear, And spring was but a season of the year.

The sun his annual course obliquely made, Good days contracted and enlarged the bad.

Then air with sultry heat began to glow; The wings of winds were clogged with ice and snow; And s.h.i.+vering mortals into houses driven, Sought shelter from the inclemency of heaven.

Those houses then were caves or homely sheds, With twining osiers fenced, and moss their beds: Then ploughs for seed the fruitful farrows broke, And oxen laboured first beneath the yoke."

OVID.

Nor was crime long in making its appearance. Hyacon, King of Arcadia, violated all the laws of hospitality by the ma.s.sacre of his guests. He had the cruelty to offer up to Jupiter, in one of the high festivals, the members of a slave, as an offering to the G.o.d. But his punishment was as swift as his conduct had been atrocious: his palace was reduced to ashes, and his form was changed into that of a wolf. From this Jupiter took the name which denotes him an avenger of the laws of hospitality.

Jupiter is also distinguished by the name of Ammon from the following circ.u.mstance:

Bacchus being in the midst of the sands of Arabia, was seized with a thirst so burning, that he was reduced to long even for a drop of water. Jupiter presented himself to him under the form of a battering-ram, and striking the earth, caused the grateful liquid to spring forth in abundance.

Bacchus, to commemorate the deed, erected a temple to his benefactor in the deserts of Lybia, under the name of Jupiter Ammon, i. e.--sandy.

By this time mankind had owed their creation to the King of the G.o.ds.

Prometheus, grand-son of Ura.n.u.s, having deceived Jupiter, he was punished by being withheld from the element of fire; and to enrage his sovereign, he formed a being of clay, of workmans.h.i.+p so exquisite, that it scarcely seemed to need life to add to its beauty, and to complete his performance, a.s.sisted {19} by Minerva, he stole fire from the chariot of the sun, wherewith to animate his image.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

Enraged at this daring, Jupiter had him conveyed to Mount Caucasus, where being chained to the rock, a vulture preyed upon his entrails, which grew as fast as they were devoured, thus subjecting him to a never dying torture.

------------------"Awful sufferer!

To thee unwilling, most unwillingly I come, by the great Father's will driven down, To execute a doom of new revenge.

Alas! I pity thee, and hate myself, That I can do no more: aye from thy sight Returning, for a season, heaven seems h.e.l.l, So thy worn form pursues me night and day, Smiling reproach. Wise art thou, firm and good, But vainly wouldst stand forth alone in strife Against the Omnipotent: as yon clear lamps, That measure and divide the weary years From which there is no refuge, long have taught And long must teach. Even now the Torturer arms With the strange might of unimagined pains The powers who scheme slow agonies in h.e.l.l; And my commission is to lead them here, Or what more subtle, foul, or savage fiends People the abyss, and leave them to their task.

Oh that we might be spared: I to inflict, And thou to suffer! once more answer me: Thou knowest not the period of Jove's power?

_Prometheus._ I know but this, that it must come.