groups of figures of great beauty: the seats which Vulcan constructed for the gods were so contrived, that they came self-moved from the sides of the apartment to the place where each god seated himself at the table when a council was to be held. He

is described by Homer in the midst of his works :

-the silver footed dame

Reach'd the Vulcanian dome, eternal frame!
High-eminent, amid the works divine,

Where heaven's far beaming brazen mansions shine.
There the lame Architect the goddess found,
Obscure in smoke, his forges flaming round;
While bath'd in sweat, from fire to fire he flew,
And, puffing loud, the roaring bellows blew.
Then from his anvil the lame artist rose;
Wide with distorted legs oblique he goes,
And stills the bellows, and, in order laid,
Locks in their chest the instruments of trade.
Then with a sponge the sooty workman drest
His brawny arms imbrown'd, and hairy breast:
With his huge sceptre grac'd, and red attire,

Came halting forth the sov'reign of the fire.-Homer.

He obtained in marriage the most beautiful goddess Venus; who behaved treacherously towards him, as has been already noticed. He desired to marry Minerva, and Jupiter consented, if he could overcome her modesty. For when Vulcan made arms for the gods, Jupiter gave him leave to choose out of the goddesses a wife, and he chose Minerva ; but he admonished her at the same time to refuse him, as she successfully did.

*

At Rome were celebrated the Vulcania, feasts in honour of Vulcan; at which they threw animals into the fire to be burnt to death. The Athenians instituted other feasts to his honour, called Chalsea. A temple besides was dedicated to him upon the mountain Ætna, from which he is sometimes named Ætnæus. This temple was guarded by dogs, whose sense of smelling was so exquisite, that they could discern whether the persons that came thither were chaste and religious, or whether they were wicked;

they used to meet, and flatter and follow the good, esteeming them the acquaintance and friends of Vulcan their master.

It is feigned, that the first woman was fashioned by the hammer of Vulcan, and that every god gave her some present, whence she was called Pandora. Pallas gave her wisdom, Apollo the art of music, Mercury the art of eloquence, Venus gave her beauty, and the rest of the gods gave her other accomplishments. They say also, that when Prometheus stole fire from heaven, to animate the man which he had made, Jupiter was incensed, and sent Pandora to Prometheus with a sealed box, but Prometheus would not receive it. He sent her with the same box again to the wife of Epimetheus, the brother of Prometheus; and she, out of a curiosity natural to her sex, opened it, which as soon as she had done, all sorts of diseases and evils, with which it was filled, flew among mankind, and have infested them ever since. And nothing was left in the bottom of the box but Hope.

Vulcan's servants were called Cyclops, because they had but one eye, which was in the middle of their foreheads, of a circular figure; Neptune and Amphitrite were their parents. The names of three of them were Brontes, Steropes, and Pyracmon: besides these there were many more, all of whom exercised the art of smithery under Vulcan, as we are taught by Virgil.-n. 8.

Cacus, so called from his wickedness, tormented all Latium with his fires and robberies; living like a beast in a dismal cave. He stole Hercules' oxen, and dragged them backward by their tails into his cave, that the track of their feet might not discover this repository of his thefts. But Hercules passing by, heard the lowing of the oxen in the cave, broke open the doors, and seizing the villain, put him to death.-Virg. Æn. 8.

His cave was so dark, that it admitted not the least ray of light; the floor of it was red with the blood perpetually shed upon it, and the heads and limbs of the men he bad murdered were fastened to the posts of the doors.

Cæculus also lived by plunder and robbery. He was so called from the smallness of his eyes: it is thought the noble family of the Cæcilii at Rome derived their origin from him. He was the founder of the city Præneste. Others say, that the shepherds found Cæculus unhurt in the midst of the fire, as soon as he was born; from which he was thought to be the son of Vulcan.

To these servants and sons of Vulcan, add the shepherd Polyphemus, a monster not unlike them, born of Neptune. For he had but one eye in his forehead, like the Cyclops, and he procured his living by murders and robberies, like Cacus and Cæculus. This monster drew Ulysses and some of his companions into his den in Sicily, and devoured them. He thought, too, that the rest of Ulysses' servants could not escape his jaws. But Ulysses made him drunk with wine, and then with a firebrand quite put out his sight, and escaped.

"Visceribus miserorum, et sanguine vescitur atro,
Vidi egomet, duo de numero cum corpora nostro
Prensa manu magna, medio resupinus in antro
Frangeret ad saxum, sanieque aspera natarent
Limina: vidi, atro cum membra fluentia tabo
Manderet, et tepidi tremerent sub dentibus artus.
Haud impune quidem: nec talia passus Ulysses,
Oblitusve sui est Ithacus discrimine tanto.

Nam simul expletus dapibus, vinoque sepultus
Cervicem inflexam posuit, jacuitque per antrum
Immensus, saniem eructans, ac frusta cruento
Per somnum commixta mero; nos magna precati
Numina, sortitique vices, una undique circum
Fundimur, et telo lumen terebramus acuto
Ingens; quod torva solum sub fronte latebat,
Argolici clypei aut Phœbeæ lampadis instar.'

Virg. Æn. 3

The joints of slaughter'd wretches are his food,
And for his wine he quaffs the streaming blood.
These eyes beheld, when with his spacious hand
He seiz'd two captives of our Grecian band;
Stretch'd on his back, he dash'd against the stones
Their broken bodies and their crackling bones.
With spouting blood the purple pavement swims,
While the dire glutton grinds the trembling limbs.
Not unreveng'd Ulysses bore their fate,

Nor thoughtless of his own unhappy state;

For gorg'd with flesh, and drunk with human wine,
While fast asleep the giant lay supine,
Snoring aloud, and belching from his maw
His undigested foam and morsels raw ;

We pray, we cast the lots; and then surround
The monstrous body, stretch'd along the ground;
Each as he could approach him, lends a hand
To bore his eyebald with a flaming brand;
Beneath his frowning forehead lay his eye,
For only one did this vast frame supply,
But that a globe so large, his front it fill'd,
Like the sun's disk, or like the Grecian shield.

QUESTIONS FOR EXAMINATION.

Who was Vulcan, and where did he exercise his trade? Whose son was he, and what accident happened to him? How was his life saved, and how did he requite the kindness of his benefactors?

Who did he marry?

Did he wish to marry any one besides, and was he successful? What were the Vulcania, and how were they celebrated? What other feasts; and what temple was dedicated to him? What is said of the dogs that guarded that temple?

What story is told of Vulcan with respect to Pandora? Who were Vulcan's servants, and what was their business? What is said of his son Cacus?

What is said of Cæculus, another son?

How is Polyphemus described?

CHAPTER IV.

EOLUS.

He who stands next him is Eolus, the "god of the winds," the son of Jupiter and Acesta or Segesta, the daughter of Hippotas, from whom he is na

med Hippotades. He dwelt in one of those seven islands, which from him are called Æoliæ, and some-times Vulcaniæ. He was a skilful astronomer, and an excellent natural philosopher: he understood more particularly the nature of the winds; and, by observing the clouds of smoke of the Æolian islands, he was enabled to foretel winds and tempests a great while before they arose, and it was generally believed they were under his power: so that he 'could raise the winds, or still them as he pleased.. Hence he was styled emperor and king of the winds, the children of Astræus and Aurora. Virgil describes Juno coming to him, at his palace, of which: he gives a description in beautiful verse:

"Nimborum in patriam, loca feta furentibus Austris,
Eoliam venit. Hic vasto rex Eolus antro
Luctantes ventos, tempestatesque sonoras
Imperio premit, ac vinclis et carcere frœnat.
Illi indignantes magno cum murmure montis
Circum claustra fremunt. Celsa sedet Æolus arce,
Sceptra tenens; mollitque animos, et temperat iras.
Ni faciat, maria ac terras, cœlumque profundum
Quippe ferant rapidi secum, verrantque per auras,
Sed pater omnipotens speluncis abdidit atris,
Hoc metuens; molemque, et montes insuper altos,
Imposuit; regemque dedit, qui fœdere certo,
Et premere, et laxas sciret dare jussus habenas."!!

Thus rag'd the goddess, and with fury fraught,
The restless regions of the storms she sought.
Where, in a spacious cave of living stone,
The Tyrant Eolus, from his airy throne,
With pow'r imperial curbs the struggling winds,
And sounding tempests in dark prisons binds.
This way and that, th' impatient captives tend,,
And, pressing for relief, the mountains rend.
High in his hall th' undaunted monarch stands,
And shakes his sceptre, and their rage commands;
Which did he not, their unresisted sway

Would sweep the world before them in their way:
Earth, air and seas, through empty space would roll,
And heav'n would fly before the driving soul.

In fear of this, the father of the gods

Confined their fury to these dark abodes,

And lock'd them safe, oppress'd with mountain-loads ;