So they conversed by touch of hands, till Leander, plucking up courage, began to plead with words, with sighs and tears. These arguments he us'd, and many more; Then she told him of the turret by the murmuring sea where all day long she tended Venus' swans and sparrows: 'Come thither.' As she spake this, her tongue tripp'd, And suddenly her former colour chang'd, And here and there her eyes through anger rang'd; Strove to resist the motions of her heart: And hands so pure, so innocent, nay, such As might have made Heaven stoop to have a touch, Vow'd spotless chastity; but all in vain; For a season all went well. Guided by a torch which his mistress reared upon the tower, he was wont of nights to swim the strait, that he might enjoy her company. But one night a tempest arose, and the sea was rough; his strength failed, and he was drowned. The waves bore his body to the European shore, where Hero became aware of his death, and in her despair cast herself into the sea and perished. A picture of the drowning Leander is thus described by Keats1: Come hither all sweet maidens soberly, Down looking aye, and with a chasten'd light, § 97. Pygmalion and the Statue.2 Pygmalion saw so much to blame in women, that he came at last to abhor the sex and resolved to live unmarried. He was a sculptor, and had made with wonderful skill a statue of ivory, so beautiful that no living woman was to compare with it. It was indeed the perfect semblance of a maiden that seemed to be alive, and that was prevented from moving only by modesty. His art was so perfect that it concealed itself, and its product looked like the workmanship of nature. Pygmalion at last fell in love with his counterfeit creation. Oftentimes he laid his hand upon it as if to assure himself whether it were living or not, and could not even then believe that it was only ivory. The festival of Venus was at hand, a festival celebrated with great pomp at Cyprus. Victims were offered, the altars smoked, and the odor of incense filled the air. When Pygmalion had 1 Sonnet: On a Picture of Leander. 2 Ovid, Metam. 10:243-297. performed his part in the solemnities, he stood before the altar and, according to one of our poets, timidly said: — "O Aphrodite, kind and fair, That what thou wilt canst give, That clothe her cedar frame Ah, touch them with thy flame! And let her choose me, as I chose, And then an altar in thy court I'll offer, decked with gold; And there thy servants shall resort, Thy doves be bought and sold!"1 According to another version of the story, he said not, "bid mine image live," but "one like my ivory virgin." At any rate, with such a prayer, he threw incense on the flame of the altar. Whereupon Venus, as an omen of her favor, caused the flame to shoot up thrice a fiery point into the air. When Pygmalion reached his home, to his amazement he saw before him his statue garlanded with flowers. Yet while he stood, and knew not what to do He trembled at the sight, for though her eyes, 1 Andrew Lang, The New Pygmalion. In that fair garment that the priests had laid Dyed like the setting sun upon the corn. Speechless he stood, but she now drew anear, And thus she spoke, "Wilt thou not come to me, O dear companion of my new found life, For I am called thy lover and thy wife? . . ... "My sweet," she said, "as yet I am not wise, "At last mine eyes could see a woman fair, give.'" "1 A fuller account of Venus' address to the statue is the following: "O maiden, in mine image made! O grace that shouldst endure! Exchange this endless life of art For beauty that must die, And blossom with a beating heart Into mortality! Change, golden tresses of her hair, To gold that turns to gray; 1 From William Morris, Pygmalion and the Image, in The Earthly Paradise. Change, silent lips, forever fair, To lips that have their day! Oh, perfect arms, grow soft with life, Wake, woman's heart, from peace to strife, To love, to joy, to pain!"1 The maiden was called Galatea. Venus blessed the nuptials, and from the union Paphos was born, by whose name the city, sacred to Venus, is known. § 98. Pyramus and Thisbe.2 Pyramus was the handsomest youth, and Thisbe the fairest maiden, in Babylonia, where Semiramis reigned. Their parents occupied adjoining houses. Propinquity brought the young people together, and acquaintance ripened into love. They would gladly have married, but their parents forbade. One thing, however, parents could not forbid (for Venus and Cupid favored the match), — that love should glow with equal ardor in the bosoms of both. They conversed by signs and glances, and the fire burned the more intensely that it was covered. In the wall between the two houses there was a crack, caused by some fault in the structure. It afforded a passage to the voice; and tender messages passed back and forth through the gap. When night came and they must say farewell, the lovers pressed their lips upon the wall, she on her side, he on his. One morning, when Aurora had put out the stars, and the sun had melted the frost from the grass, they met at the accustomed spot, and arranged a meeting for that night, at a well-known edifice, standing without the city's bounds, the Tomb of Ninus. The one who first arrived should await the other at the foot of a white mulberry-tree, near a cool spring. Evening came. Thisbe, arriving first, sat alone by the monument in the dim light of the evening. Suddenly she descried a lioness, her jaws reeking with 1 Andrew Lang, The New Pygmalion, or The Statue's Choice. A witty and exquisite bit of burlesque. 2 Ovid, Metam. 4:55-166. |