Imagens das páginas
PDF
ePub

Sometimes he is painted with a crow and a hawk flying over his head, a wolf and a laurel tree on one side, and a swan and a cock on the other; and under his feet grasshoppers creeping. The crow is sacred to him, because he foretells the weather, and shows the different changes of it by the clearness or hoarseness of his voice. The swan is likewise endued with a divination,* because foreseeing his happiness in death, he dies with singing and pleasure. The wolf is not unacceptable to him, not only because he spared his flock when he was a shepherd, but the sharpness of his eyes represents the foresight of prophecy. The laurel tree is of a very hot nature, always flourishing, and conducing to divination and poetic raptures; and the leaves of it put under the pillow, was said to produce true dreams. The hawk has eyes as bright as the sun; the cock foretells his rising; and the grasshoppers so entirely depend on him, that they owe their rise and subsistence to his heat and influence.

There were four Apollos: the first and most ancient of them was born of Vulcan, and was the tutelary god of the Athenians; the second was a Cretan, a son of one of the Corybantes; the third was born of Jupiter and Latona; the fourth was born in Arcadia, called by the Arcadians, Nomius. But though, as Cicero says, there were so many Apollos, yet the rest of them are seldom mentioned, and all that they did is ascribed to one only, namely, to him that was born of Jupiter and Latona, which is thus represented:

Latona, the daughter of Coeus the Titan, conceived twins by Jupiter: Juno, incensed at it, sent the serpent Python against her; and Latona, to es

* Cygni non sine causa Apollini dicati sunt, quod ab eo divinationem habere videantur; quia prævidentes quid in morte boni sit, cum cantu et voluptate moriuntur. Cic. Tuscul. 1.

↑ Banier's Mythology.

cape the serpent, fled into the island of Delos;where she brought forth Apollo and Diana at the same birth.

QUESTIONS FOR EXAMINATION.

How is Apollo represented?

With what things is he painted, and why?

Why are the crow, hawk, wolf, swan, and laurel, consecrated to him?

How many Apollos were there, and which is the principal? Where was Apollo born, and what was the occasion of his birth at Delos?

SEC. 2.-ACTIONS OF APOLLO.

Apollo was advanced to the highest degree of honour and worship by these four means, viz: by the invention of physic, music, poetry, and rhetoric, which is ascribed to him; and, therefore, he is supposed to preside over the Muses. It is said that he taught the arts of foretelling events, and shooting with arrows; when, therefore, he had benefited mankind infinitely by these favours, they worshipped him as a god. Hear how gloriously he himself repeats his own accomplishments of mind and nature, where he magnifies himself to the flying nymph whom he passionately loved.

"Nescis, temeraria, nescis

Quem fugias, ideoque fugis

Jupiter est genitor. Per me quod eritque, fuitque,
Estque, patet. Per me concordant carmina nervis ;
Certa quidem nostra est, nostra tamen una sagitta
Certior, in vacuo, quæ vulnera pectore fecit.
Inventum medicina meum est, opiferque per orbem
Dicor; et herbarum est subjecta potentia nobis."

Stay, nymph, he cried, I follow not a foe;
Thus from the lion darts the trembling doe:

Ov. Met. 1.

Thou shunn'st a god, and shunn'st a god that loves.
But think from whom thou dost so rashly fly,
Nor basely born, nor shepherd's swain am I.

-What shall be,

Or is, or ever was, in fate I see.

Mine is the invention of the charming lyre;
Sweet notes and heavenly numbers I inspire.
Sure is my bow, unerring is my dart,

But ah! more deadly his, who pierc'd my heart.
Med'cine is mine; what herbs and simples grow
In fields, in forests, all their powers I know,
And am the great physician call'd below.

His principal actions are as follows:

1. He destroyed all the Cyclops, the forgers of Jupiter's thunderbolts, with his arrows, to revenge the death of Esculapius, his son, whom Jupiter had killed with thunder, because by the help of his physic he revived the dead. *For this act Apollo was cast down from heaven and deprived of his divinity, exposed to the calamities of the world, and commanded to live in banishment upon the earth. In this distress he was compelled by want to look after Admetus' cattle: where, it is said, he first invented and formed a harp. After this, Mercury got an opportunity to drive away a few of the cattle of his herd by stealth; and while Apollo complained and threatened to punish him, unless he brought the same cattle back again, his harp was also stolen by the samet god; so that his anger was changed to laughter.

2. He raised the walls of the city of Troy, by the music of his harp alone; if we may believe the poet:

"Ilion aspices, firmataque turribus altis

Moni, Apollinæ structa canore lyræ."-Ovid. Ep. Parid.
Troy you shall see, and walls divine admire ;
Built by the music of Apollo's lyre.

Some say that there was a stone, upon which Apollo only laid down his harp, and the stone by the touch became so melodious, that whenever it was struck with another stone, it sounded like a harp.

3. By misfortune he killed Hyacinthus, a boy that he loved. For, while Hyacinthus and be were

* Lucian Dial. Mort.

Hor. Carm. 1.

playing together at quoits, Zephyrus was enraged, because Apollo was better beloved by Hyacinthus than himself; and, having an opportunity of revenge, he blew the quoit that Apollo cast, against the head of Hyacinthus, by which blow he fell down dead. Apollo caused the blood of the youth, that was spilt upon the earth, to produce flowers called riolets, as Ovid finely expresses it: .

"Ecce cruor, qui fusus humi signaverat herbam,
Desinit esse cruor; Tyrioque nitentior ostro
Flos oritur, formamque capit, quam lilia; si non
Purpureus color huic, argenteus esse in illis. '-Met. 10.
Behold the blood, which late the grass had dy'd,
Was now no blood; from which a flower full blown,
Far brighter than the Tyrian scarlet shone,
Which seem'd the same, or did resemble right
A lily, changing but the red to white.

. Besides, he was passionately fond of Cyparissus, another boy, who, when he had unfortunately killed a fine deer, which he exceedingly loved and had brought up from its birth, was so melancholy for his misfortune, that he constantly bewailed the loss of his deer, and refused all comfort. Apollo, because he begged of the god that his mourning might be made perpetual, in pity changed him into a cypress tree, the branches of which were always used at funerals.

-munusque supremum,

Hoc petit a superis, ut tempore lugeat omni.-
Ingemuit, tristisque Deus, lugebere nobis,
Lugebisque alios, aderisque dolentibus, inquit."

Implores that he might never cease to mourn,
When Phoebus sighing, I for thee will mourn,
Mourn thou for others, hearses still adorn.

Ov. Met. 10.

4. He fell violently in love with the virgin Daphne, so famous for her modesty. He pursued her, but while she fled from the violence of his pas

1

sion, she was changed into a laurel, which remains always flourishing, and always pure.

5. He courted also a long time the nymph Bolina, but never could gain her; for she chose rather to throw herself into the river and be drowned, than yield to his wishes.

6. Leucothoe, the daughter of Orchamus, king of Babylon, was not so tenacious. Her father could not bear the disgrace brought on his family, and buried her alive. Apollo was greatly grieved at this, and though he could not bring her again to life, he poured nectar upon the dead body, and thereby. turned it into a tree that drops frankincense.

"Nectare adorato spargit corpusque locumque,
Multaque præquestus, tanges tamen æthera, dixit.
Protinus imbutum cœlesti nectare corpus
Delicuit, terramque suo madefecit adore ;
Virgaque per glebas, sensim radicibus actis,
Thurea surrexit; tumulumque cacumine rupit."
Ov. Met. 4.
He mourned her loss, and sprinkled all her hearse
With balmy nectar, and more precious tears.
Then said since fate does here our joys defer,
Thou shalt ascend to heav'n and bless me there
Her body straight embalm'd with heav'nly art,
Did a sweet odour to the ground impart,
And from the grave a beauteous tree arise,
That cheers the gods with pleasing sacrifice.

The attachment of Leucothoe and Apollo had been discovered to her father by her sister Clytie, whom Apollo formerly loved, but now deserted: which she seeing, pined away, with her eyes continually looking up to the sun, and at last was changed into a flower called a sun-flower, or heliotrope. Ovid Met. 4.

7. Apollo was challenged in music by Marsyas, a proud musician; and when he had overcome him, Apollo slayed him for his temerity, and converted him into the river of that name in Phrygia.

8. Midas, king of Phrygia, having foolishly de

« AnteriorContinuar »