chin turned up; his right hand holds a rusty scythe, and his left a child, which he is about to devour. He is the son of Terra, or Vesta, and Cœlum, Coelus, or Cœlius, who was the son of Ether and Dies, and the most ancient of all the gods. This Coelum married his own daughter Vesta, by whom he had many children. The most eminent of them was Saturn, whose brothers were the Cyclops, Oceanus, Titan, the hundred-handed giants, and divers others; his sisters were Ceres, Tethys, and Ops, or Rhea, whom he afterwards married. The sisters persuaded their mother Vesta to exclude Titan, or Titanus, the eldest son, and to appoint Saturn heir of his father's kingdom. When Titan saw the fixed resolution of his mother and sisters, he would not strive against the stream, but voluntarily quitted his right, and transferred it to Saturn, under condition that he should not bring up any male children, so that after Saturn's death, the kingdom might return to the children of Titan.

His wife Ops, perceiving that her husband devoured all her male children, when she brought forth the twins, Jupiter and Juno, she only sent Juno to him, and sent Jupiter to be nursed in Mount Ida, by the priestesses of Cybele, who were called Curetes, or Corybantes. It was their custom to beat drums and cymbals while the sacrifices were offered up, and the noise of them hindered Saturn from hearing the cries of Jupiter. By the same trick she also saved Neptune and Pluto from her devouring husband.

Titan, when he saw himself cheated, and the agreement broken, to revenge the injury, raised forces, and brought them against Saturn, and making both him and Rhea prisoners, he bound them, and shut them together in hell, where they lay till Jupiter, a few years after, overcame the Titans, and set his father and mother again at liberty. After this

Saturn strove to take away his life; because he heard by an oracle that he should be driven out of his kingdom by a son, as in reality he was afterwards; for Jupiter deposed him from the throne, and expelled him the kingdom; because he had conspired to take away his life. Beside this, when he found Saturn almost drunk with mead, he bound and maimed him, as Saturn had also maimed his father Coelum before, with his sickle.

Saturn having thus lost his kingdom went into Italy, which was anciently called Saturnia. He lived there with king Janus; and that part of Italy in which he lay hidden, was afterwards called Latium, and the people Latini; as Ovid observes:

"Inde diu Genti mansit Saturnia nomen:
Dicta fuit Latium terra, latente Deo."

The name Saturnia thence this land did bear,
And Latium too, because he shelter'd here.

Fast. 1.

King Janus made Saturn partner of his kingaom, upon which Saturn reduced the people to civil society, and joined them to each other, as it were, in chains of brass, that is, by the brass money which he invented; and therefore, on one side of the money was stamped a ship.

"At bona posteritas puppim signavit in æra,
Hospitis adventum testificata Dei."

Fast. 3.

A ship by th' following age was stamp'd on coin,
To show they once a god did entertain.

And on the other side was stamped a Janus Bifrons. But although the money was brass, yet this was the golden age in which Saturn lived, when, as the poets, who magnify the happiness of that age, would persuade us, the earth without the labour of ploughing and sowing brought forth its fruits, and all things were common to all. Virgil hath given an elegant description of this happy age in the eighth book of his Æneid:

"Primus ad æthereo venit Saturnus Olympo,
Arma Jovis fugiens, et regnis exul ademptis.
Is genus indocile, ac dispersum montibus altis
Composuit, legesque dedit. Latiumque vocari
Maluit, his quoniam latuisset tutus in oris :
Aurea, quæ ut perhibent, illo sub rege fuêre
Sæcula; sic placida populos in pace regebat."
Then Saturn came, who fled the pow'rs of Jove,
Robb'd of his realms, and banish'd from above.
The men dispers'd on hills to town he brought,
The laws ordain'd, and civil customs taught,
And Latium call'd the land, where safe he lay
From his unduteous son, and his usurping sway.
With his wild empire, peace and plenty came;
And hence the golden times derived their name.

QUESTIONS FOR EXAMINATION.

How are the terrestrial deities divided, and why?
Which are the most celebrated of the celestial deities?

How is Saturn described?

Whose son was he, and who were his brothers and sisters?
What was the conduct of his sisters to him?

How did Titan act, and for what did he stipulate?

By what means did Jupiter escape, and who besides were sa ved in like manner?

Who were the corybantes; and what was their custom in offering sacrifices?

How did Titan avenge himself upon Saturn?

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Who released Saturn, and how did he requite the exertions of Jupiter in his behalf?

How did Jupiter act afterwards?

What is the origin of the name Latini?

Repeat the two Latin and English lines.

What did he perform at Latium?

How is the age in which Saturn flourished described by the poets?
Repeat the lines from Virgil-

"Primus ad æthereo venit," &c.

SEC. 2.-NAMES OF SATURN. SACRIFICES, &c.

Many derive the name Saturnus* from sowing, because he first taught the art of sowing and tilling the ground, in Italy; and therefore he was esteemed the god of husbandry, and called Stercutius by the Romans, because he first fattened the earth with manure he is accordingly painted with a sickle,

* Saturnus dictus est a Satu, sicut a Portu Portunus, et a Neptu Neptunus. Festus. Serv. in Æn. 7. Lips. Sat. 3.