served by his sister. After which Thoas was killed, and the image of Diana, which lay hidden among a bundle of sticks, was carried away; and hence Diana was called Fascelis, from fascis, a "bundle." QUESTIONS FOR EXAMINATION. Who were Castor and Pollux, and what was their origin? What became of Castor, and what was granted to him at the request of his brother? What do the Sailors say of the stars Castor and Pollux? What is the story of Clytemnestra? Who was Diana Taurica; how was she worshipped; and who was her priestess? What is related of Agamemnon? On what account was Diana called Fascelis? CHAPTER IV. PERSEUS. ESCULAPIUS. PERSEUS was the son of Jupiter and Danæ, the daughter of Acrisius, who was shut up by her father in a very strong tower, where no man could enter, because her father had been told by an oracle, that he should be killed by his own grandchild. But nothing is impregnable to love: for Jupiter, as we are told by Horace, by changing himself into a shower of gold, descended through the tiles into the lady's apartment. "Inclusam Danæn turris ahenca Nocturnis ab adulteris. Si non Acrisium, virginis abditæ Custodem pavidum, Jupiter et Venus Risissent: fore enim tutum iter et patens, Converso in pretium Deo." Carm. 1. 3. 10, Within a brazen tow'r immur'd, By dogs and centinels secur'd, From midnight revels, and intrigues of love, Fair Dana was kept within her guardian's pow'r: And by his art successful prove, Chang'd to a golden show'r. As soon as Acrisius had heard that his daughter had brought forth a son, he ordered that she and the infant should be shut up in a chest, and thrown into the sea: the chest was driven to the island Seriphus, where a fisherman found it, took them out, and presented them to king Polydectes; who became enamoured of Danæ, and brought up her son; whom he called Perseus. Perseus, when he was grown a man, received from Mercury a scythe of adamant, and wings, which he fixed to his feet: Pluto gave him a helmet, and Minerva a shield of brass, so bright, that it reflected the images of things, like a looking-glass. His first exploit was the deliverance of Andromeda, the daughter of Cepheus, king of Ethiopia, who was bound by the nymphs to a rock, to be devoured by a sea-monster, because her mother Cassiope, or Cassiopeia, had proudly preferred 'her daughter's beauty to theirs; and when he had delivered her, he took her to wife. After which, both the mother and the daughter, and the son-in-law, were placed among the celestial constellations. His next expedition was against the Gorgons, of whom we have spoken before he encountered Medusa, their princess, whose head was supplied with snakes in the place of hair; he saw the image of her head by the brightness of his shield, and, by the favourable assistance of Minerva, struck it off: he then fixed it upon a shield, and, by showing it, afterward turned many persons into stone. Atlas was turned by the sight of it, into the mountain in Mauritania of that 66 name: because he rudely refused to entertain Perseus. When Medusa's head was cut off, the horse Pegasus sprang from the blood which fell on the ground, he was so called from [pege] a fountain," because he was produced near the fountains of the sea. This horse had wings; and flying over the mountain Helicon, he struck it with his hoof, and opened a fountain, which they call in Greek, Hippocrene; and in Latin, Fons Caballinus; that is, the "horse fountain." But afterward, while he drank at the fountain Pyrene in Corinth, where Bellerophon prepared himself for his expedition against the Chimæra, he was taken by him and kept. Bellerophon's first name was Hipponus; because he first taught the art of governing horses with a bridle but when he had killed Bellerus, a king of Corinth, he was afterward called Bellerophontes. This Bellerophon, the son of Glaucus, king of Ephyra, was equally beautiful and virtuous: he resisted all the temptations by which Sthenobæa, the wife of Prætus, enticed him to love her; and his repulses provoked her so, that in revenge she accused the innocent stranger to her husband. Prætus, however, would not violate the laws of hospitality with the blood of Bellerophon, but sent him into Lycia, to his father-in-law Jobates, with letters, which desired him to punish Bellerophon, as his crime deserved. Jobates read the letters, and sent him to fight against the Solymi, that he might be killed in the battle: but he easily vanquished them, and in many other dangers, to which he was exposed, he always came off conqueror. At last he was sent to kill the Chimæra; which he undertook, and performed, when he had procured the horse Pegasus, by the help of Neptune. Therefore Jobates, admiring the bravery of the youth, gave him one of his daughters to wife, allotting him also a part of his kingdom. Sthenobæa killed herself when she heard this. This happy success so transported Bel lerophon, that he endeavoured to fly upon Pegasus to heaven; for which Jupiter struck him with madness, and he fell from his horse into a field called Aleius Campus, *because in that place Bellerophon wandered up and down blind, to the end of his life: but Pegasus was placed among the stars. Some say that this was the occasion of the fable of the Chi mæra. There was a famous pirate, who used to sail in a ship in whose prow was painted a lion, in the stern a dragon, and by the body of the ship a goat was described; and this pirate was killed by Bellerophon, in a long boat that was called Pegasus. From the letters which Bellerophon carried Jobates, tcomes the proverb, "Bellerophon's letters;" when any one carries letters, which he imagines are wrote in his favour, but are sent to procure his ruin: and such letters are frequently called "Letters of Uriah," for the same reason. Esculapius is represented as a bearded old man, leaning on his jointed cane, adorned with a crown of laurel, and encompassed with dogs. He is the god of the physicians and physic, and the son of Apollo by the nymph Ceronis. He improved the art of physic, which before was little understood; and for that reason they accounted him a god. Apollo shot the nymph his mother when she was pregnant, because she admitted the addresses of another young man after he had become enamoured of her. But he repented after he had killed her, took out the child alive, and delivered him to be educated by the physician Chiron, who taught him his own art: the youth nade so great a progress in it, that because he restored health to the sick, and gave safety * Ab αλouw erro. * Βελλεροφοντος γραμματα, Bellerophontis litera usitatius dicta, Litere Uriæ. Ovid Met. 1. to those whose condition was desperate, he was thought to have a power of recalling the dead to life again. Upon this Pluto, the king of hell, *complained to Jupiter that his revenue was very much diminished, and his subjects taken from him by means of Esculapius; and at length, by his persuasion, Jupiter killed him with a stroke of thunder. He wears a crown of laurel, because that tree is powerful in curing many diseases. By the knots in his staff, is signified the difficulty of the study of physic. He has dogs painted about him, and dogs in his temple; because many believe that he was born of uncertain parents, and exposed, and afterward nourished by a bitch. +Others say, that a goat, which was pursued by a dog, gave suck to the forsaken infant; and that the shepherds saw a lambent flame playing about his head, which was a prognostication of his future divinity. The Cyrenians used to offer a goat to him in the sacrifices; either because he was nourished by a goat, as was said, for because a goat is always in a fever; and therefore a goat's constitution is very contrary to health. Plato says, that they used to sacrifice dung-hill cocks to him, which are deemed the most vigilant of all birds; for of all virtues, watchfulness is chiefly necessary to a physician. Esculapius was worshipped first at Epidaurus, where he was born; afterward at Rome, because, on being sent for thither, he delivered the city from a dreadful pestilence. For which reason, a temple was dedicated to him in an island in the mouth of the Tiber, where he was worshipped under the form of a great serpent; for when the Romans came to Epidaurus to transport the god thence; a great ser * Virg. Æn. 7. Lactant. de fals. Religo. Pacan. in Corinth In Phædone. |