Heathen mythology Part 32

OVID.

When Lychas, by the command of Dejanira, had brought the fatal scarf, and Hercules became aware of its dreadful power, he seized the messenger, and hurled him into the sea with fearful violence.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

In vain did he attempt to pull it off, he only tore with it ma.s.ses of flesh. In the midst of his miserable tortures, his groans of anguish were mixed with imprecations on the credulity of Dejanira, and the jealousy and hatred of Juno, to whom he attributed all his pains.

"Then lifting both his hands aloft, he cries, 'Glut thy revenge, dread empress of the skies; Sate with my death the rancour of thy heart, Look down with pleasure and enjoy my smart; Or, if e'er pity moved a hostile breast For here I stand thy enemy profest;'

{187} Meanwhile, whate'er was in the power of flame, Was all consumed; his body's nervous frame No more was known; of human form bereft-- The eternal part of Jove alone was left.

As an old serpent casts his scaly vest, Wreathes in the Sun, in youthful glory drest; So, when Alcides' mortal mould resigned, His better part enlarged, and grew refined: August his visage shone; almighty Jove, In his swift car his honoured offspring drove: High o'er the hollow clouds the coursers fly, And lodge the hero in the starry sky."

OVID.

If his fame had been universal, his wors.h.i.+p soon became equally so, and Juno, once so inveterate, consented to his receiving her daughter Hebe in marriage.

Hercules is generally represented as gigantically proportioned, sometimes naked, sometimes covered with the skin of the Nemean lion; a thick and knotted club in his hands, on which he is often seen leaning.

Such are the most important parts of the life of Hercules, who is held out by the ancients as a complete pattern of virtue and piety, and is a.s.serted by them to have been employed for the benefit of mankind, and for this was deservedly rewarded with immortality.

"O worthy end of his laborious life, The nectared cup, and Hebe for a wife!

Her golden youth did with new transports play, And crowned his toils in empyrean day.

Yet did he oft, though in her arms he lay, And tasted to the height immortal youth, Sigh for young Iole, who, soft as May, And rich as Summer, yielded up her truth; There by Euripus, ever fickle stream, He won a world in her immortal arms, And found his prized honour but a dream Lost in the Ocean of her gentle charms."

THURLOW.

He has received many surnames and epithets, either from the place where his wors.h.i.+p was established, or from the labours which he had achieved; his temples were numerous and magnificent. The Phoenicians offered Quails on his altars, and as it was supposed that he presided over dreams, the sick and infirm were sent to sleep in his temples, that they might receive in their visions the agreeable presages of their approaching recovery.

The children of Hercules are as numerous as the labours and difficulties which he underwent, and became so powerful after his death, that they alone had the bravery to invade the Peloponnessus. {188}

"'Take hence this hateful life, with tortures torn, Inured to trouble, and to labours born.

Death is the gift most welcome to my woe, And such a gift a stepdame may bestow.

Was it for this Busiris was subdued, Whose barbarous temples reeked with stranger's blood?

Pressed in these arms his fate Antaeus found, Nor gained recruited vigour from the ground.

Did I not triple-formed Geryon fell?

Or, did I fear the triple dog of h.e.l.l?

Did not these hands the bull's armed forehead hold?

Are not our mighty toils in Elis told?

Did not Stymphalian lakes proclaim my fame?

And fair Parthenian woods resound my name?

Who seized the golden belt of Thermodon?

And who the dragon-guarded apples won?

Could the fair Centaur's strength my force withstand?

Or the fell boar that spoiled the Arcadian land?

Did not these arms the Hydra's rage subdue, Who from his wounds to double fury grew.

What if the Thracian horses, fat with gore, Who human bodies in their manger tore, I saw, and with their barbarous lord, o'erthrew?

What if these hands Nemaea's lion slew?

Did not this neck the heavenly globe sustain?

The female partner of the Thunderer's reign, Fatigued at length, suspends her harsh commands, Yet no fatigue has slacked these valiant hands; But now, new plagues consume me; neither force, Nor arms, nor darts can stop their raging course, Devouring flame through my racked entrails strays, And on my lungs and shrivelled muscles preys.'"

OVID.

As, however, the distemper was incurable, and death inevitable, he determined to die the hero he had lived, and giving his bow and arrow to Philoctetes, he erected a funeral pile on Mount Oeta, and spreading upon it his lion's skin, lay down with dignity and composure, his head placed upon his club, to await his death. The pile was lighted, and the flames arose in volumes, but the hero gazed calmly upon them, unalarmed at his impending doom. His mind was resolved to meet his fate, when, suddenly, the burning pile was surrounded with dark smoke, the fire burned like a furnace, and when it had consumed the mortal portion of Hercules, a chariot and horses was seen awaiting, which carried his immortal part to heaven, there to be seated amongst the G.o.ds. Loud claps of thunder accompanied his exaltation, and when his friends sought his ashes to grant them burial, unable to find them, they erected an altar to his memory, upon the spot where the burning pile had been.

{189}

PERSEUS.

This hero was the son of Jupiter and Danae, the daughter of Acresius. As the latter had confined his daughter in a brazen tower, to prevent her becoming a mother, because, according to the words of an oracle, he was to perish by the hands of his daughter's son, Perseus was no sooner born, than Acresius caused him to be thrown into the sea, with his mother, Danae. The hopes of the father were frustrated; for the slight bark which carried Danae and her son, was driven on the island of Seriphos, one of the Cyclades, where they were found by a fisherman named Dictys, and carried by him to Polydectes, the monarch of the place, by whom they were received with much kindness, and the priests of Minerva's temple had the charge of the youthful Perseus entrusted to them.

His rising genius and great courage fell under the displeasure of Polydectes, who feared, lest the love with which he soon became inspired towards Danae, and the intentions which he harboured towards her, should meet with the resentment of her son. The monarch, however, resolved to remove every obstacle out of his way, and made a sumptuous banquet, decreeing that all who came should present him with a beautiful horse. To this feast Perseus was invited, Polydectes being aware that he would not be able to procure the present which the wealth of the remaining guests could enable them to offer.

To a high spirited man this was unbearable, and unable to submit to the position of being the only one who had brought no present, and unwilling to appear inferior to the remainder of the guests in splendour, he told Polydectes, that though he was unable to give him a horse, he would bring him the head of one of the Gorgons, and Medusa being the only one subject to mortality, she must be the victim.

For more than one reason this was very agreeable to Polydectes, in the first place, as it would remove Perseus from the island, and the next that, from its seeming impossibility, the attempt might end in his ruin.

The G.o.ds, however, are the protectors of innocence, and that of Perseus was made their peculiar care. Pluto lent him his helmet, possessing the wonderful power of making the bearer invisible. The buckler of Minerva, as resplendent as gla.s.s, was given him by {190} that G.o.ddess. Mercury gave him wings and the Calaria, with a short dagger formed of diamonds. With this a.s.sistance Perseus boldly commenced his expedition, traversing the air, conducted by Minerva. He went first to the Graces, the sisters of the Gorgons, who possessed but one eye and one tooth among the three; with the a.s.sistance of Pluto's helmet, which rendered him invisible, Perseus was able to steal their eye and their tooth while sleeping, and refused to return them until they had informed him where their sisters, the Gorgons resided.

When the necessary information had been received, Perseus sought the habitation of the Gorgons, whom he fortunately found asleep. Knowing that if he fixed his eyes upon them, he would be changed to stone, he used his s.h.i.+eld, which was transparent, as a mirror to reflect the object he sought to destroy. Keeping his eyes thus fixed upon them, he approached, Minerva supporting his courage, and with one blow of his sword, cut off Medusa's head.

The noise of the blow awoke the two remaining sisters, who frantic with rage, looked around for the murderer of their sister, but in vain, for he had already put on the invisible helmet of Pluto, and the attempts of the Gorgons to avenge the death of the sister were fruitless.

The conqueror pursued his way through the air, and from the blood which dropped from the head of the slain Gorgon he carried with him, arose the innumerable serpents which have for ages infested the sandy deserts of Lybia.

"Where western waves on furthest Lybia beat, Dreadful Medusa fixed her horrid seat.

'Twas from this monster, to afflict mankind, That nature first produced the snaky kind: On her at first their forky tongues appeared, From her their dreadful hissings first were heard."

OVID

Chrysaor, who married Callirhoe, one of the Oceanides, sprung with his golden sword from those drops of blood, as well as the winged Pegasus, which flew directly through the air, and stopping on the Mount bearing the same name, became a favorite with the Muses.

In the meantime young Perseus pursued his flight through the air, across the deserts of Lybia. The approach of night compelled him to seek a brief shelter with Atlas, monarch of Mauritania. {191}

"The victor Perseus, with the Gorgon head, O'er Lybian sands his airy journey sped.

The gory drops distilled as swift he flew, And from each drop envenomed serpents grew.

The mischiefs brooded on the barren plains, And still the unhappy fruitfulness remains.

Thence Perseus, like a cloud, by storms was driv'n, Thro' all the expanse beneath the cope of heaven.

The jarring winds unable to control, He saw the southern and the northern pole: And eastward thrice, and westward thrice was whirled, And from the skies surveyed the nether world.

But when grey ev'ning showed the verge of night, He feared in darkness to pursue his flight.

He poised his pinions, and forgot to soar, And sinking, closed them on th' Hesperian sh.o.r.e: Then begged to rest, till Lucifer begun To wake the morn, the morn to wake the sun.

Here Atlas reigned of more than human size, And in his kingdom the world's limit lies.

Here t.i.tan bids his wearied coursers sleep, And cools the burning axle in the deep.

The mighty monarch, uncontrolled, alone, His sceptre sways; no neighb'ring states are known.

A thousand flocks on shady mountains fed, A thousand herds o'er gra.s.sy plains were spread: Her wondrous trees their s.h.i.+ning stores unfold, Their s.h.i.+ning stores too wondrous to be told; Their leaves, their branches, and their apples, gold.

Then Perseus the gigantic prince addressed, Humbly implored a hospitable rest: If bold exploits thy admiration fire, (He said), I fancy, mine thou wilt admire: Or if the glory of a race can move, Not mean my glory, for I spring from Jove."

OVID.