they call these statues Hermæ, from Mercury, whose Greek name was Hermes: concerning which Hermæ it is to be observed: 1. That they have neither hands nor feet; and hence Mercury was called Cyllenius, and by contraction Cyllius, which words are derived from a Greek word signifying a man without hands and feet and not from Cyllene, a mountain in Arcadia, on which he was educated. : 2. A purse was usually hung to a statue of Mercury, to signify that he was the god of gain and profit, and presided over merchandising; in which, because many times things are done by fraud and treachery, they gave him the name of Dolius. 3. The Romans used to join the statues of Mercury and Minerva together, and these images they called Hermathenæ; and sacrificed to both deities upon the same altar. Those who had escaped any great danger, always offered sacrifices to Mercury: they offered up a calf, and milk, and honey, and especially the tongues of the sacrifices, which, with a great deal of ceremony, they cast into the fire, and then the sacrifice was finished. It is said that the Megarenses first used this ceremony. QUESTIONS FOR EXAMINATION. What is related of Mercury in connexion with Venus? What were the ancient indices? What were the Herma? Why was Mercury called Cyllenius ? Why was he called Dolius?" What were the Hermathenæ ? What were the sacrifices offered to Mercury, and why? CHAPTER V. SEC. 1.-BACCHUS. HIS IMAGE AND BIRTH. BACCHUS, the god of wine, and the captain and emperor of drunkards, is represented with swoln cheeks, red face, and a body bloated and puffed up. He is crowned with ivy and wine-leaves; and has in his hand a thyrsus, instead of a sceptre, which is a javelin with an iron head, encircled by ivy or vineleaves. He is carried in a chariot, which is sometimes drawn by tigers and lions, and sometimes by lynxes and panthers: and, like a king, he has his guards, who are a drunken band of satyrs, demons, nymphs that preside over the wine-presses, fairies of fountains, and priestesses. Silenus oftentimes comes after him, sitting on an ass that bends under hiş burden. He is sometimes painted an old man, and sometimes a smooth and beardless boy; as Ovid and Tibullus describe him. I shall give you the reason of these things, and of his horns, mentioned also in Qvid: "Tibi inconsumpta juventa? Tu puer æternus, tu formosissimus alto Conspiceris cœlo, tibi, cum sine cornibus adstas, -Still dost thou enjoy Unwasted youth? Eternally a boy Thou'rt seen in heaven, whom all perfections grace: According to the poets, the birth of Bacchus was both wonderful and ridiculous. They say, that when Jupiter was in love with Semele, it excited Juno's jealousy, who endeavoured to destroy her; and in the shape of an old woman, visited Semele, and advised her to oblige him, when he came, by an inviolable oath, to grant her a request then, says she to Semele, ask him to come to you as he is wont to come to Juno: and he will come clothed in all his glory, and majesty, and honour. Semele was greatly pleased with this advice; and therefore, when Jupiter visited her next, she begged a favour of him, but did not expressly name the favour. Jupiter bound himself in the most solemn oath to grant her request, let it be what it would. Semele, little foreseeing what she desired would prove her ruin, made the rash request. What Jupiter had so solemnly sworn to perform, he could not refuse he accordingly put on all his terrors, arrayed himself with his greatest glory, and in the midst of thunder and lightning entered Semele's house. Her mortal body could not stand the shock, and she perished; for the thunder struck her down and stupified her, and the lightning reduced her to ashes. So fatal are the rash desires of the ambitious! Bacchus, her son, not yet born, was preserved, taken from his mother, and sewed into Jupiter's thigh, whence in fulness of time he was born, and delivered into the hands of Mercury to be carried into Euboa, to Macris, the daughter of Aristæus, who immediately anointed his lips with honey, and brought him up with great care in a cave, to which there were two gates. Ovid. Met. 3. QUESTIONS FOR EXAMINATOIN, How is Bacchus represented? By what is his chariot drawn? How is he painted? Give some account of Bacchus' birth? What was the consequence of that request? What did Macris do for Bacchus at his birth? SEC. 3.-THE NAMES OF BACCHUS. Bacchus was so called from a Greek word, which signifies to revel;" and for the same reason, the 66 |