§ 26. A happy application of the story of Prometheus is made by Longfellow in the following verses: 2 "Of Prometheus, how undaunted On Olympus' shining bastions Myths are told, and songs are chanted, Full of promptings and suggestions. "Beautiful is the tradition Of that flight through heavenly portals, The old classic superstition Of the theft and the transmission Of the fire of the Immortals! "First the deed of noble daring, Born of heavenward aspiration, 1 From Byron's Prometheus. See also his translation from the Prometheus Vinctus of Eschylus, and his Ode to Napoleon Buonaparte. 2 Prometheus, or The Poet's Forethought. See Commentary, § 26. 5 Cry of pain on crags Caucasian. "All is but a symbol painted Of the Poet, Prophet, Seer; Only those are crowned and sainted "In their feverish exultations, In their triumph and their yearning, "Shall it, then, be unavailing, All this toil for human culture? O'er life's barren crags the vulture? "Such a fate as this was Dante's, By defeat and exile maddened; "But the glories so transcendent That around their memories cluster, "All the melodies mysterious, Through the dreary darkness chanted; Thoughts in attitudes imperious, Voices soft, and deep, and serious, Words that whispered, songs that haunted! "All the soul in rapt suspension, All the quivering, palpitating "Ah, Prometheus! heaven-scaling! In such hours of exultation Round the cloudy crags Caucasian! "Though to all there is not given Strength for such sublime endeavor, "Yet all bards, whose hearts unblighted As they onward bear the message!" § 27. Next to the Age of Silver came the Brazen Age,1 more savage of temper and readier for the strife of arms, yet not altogether wicked. § 28. Last came the hardest age and worst, the Age of Iron. Crime burst in like a flood; modesty, truth, and honor fled. The gifts of the earth were put only to nefarious uses. Fraud, violence, war at home and abroad were rife. The world was wet with slaughter; and the gods, one by one, abandoned it, Astræa, following last, goddess of innocence and purity. The Flood. Jupiter, observing the condition of things, burned with anger. He summoned the gods to council. Obeying the call, they travelled the Milky Way to the palace of Heaven. There, Jupiter set forth to the assembly the frightful condition of the earth, and announced his intention of destroying its inhabitants, and providing a new race, unlike the present, which should be worthier of life, and more reverent toward the gods. Fearing lest a conflagration might set Heaven itself on fire, he proceeded to drown the world. Not satisfied with his own waters, he called his brother Neptune to his aid. Speedily the race of men, and their possessions, were swept away by the deluge. 1 Compare Byron's political satire, The Age of Bronze. § 29. Deucalion and Pyrrha. - Parnassus alone, of the mountains, overtopped the waves; and there Deucalion, son of Prometheus, and his wife Pyrrha, daughter of Epimetheus, found refuge — he a just man and she a faithful worshipper of the gods. Jupiter, remembering the harmless lives and pious demeanor of this pair, caused the waters to recede, the sea to return to its Then Deucalion and 66 shores, and the rivers to their channels. Pyrrha, entering a temple, defaced with slime, approached the unkindled altar, and, falling prostrate, prayed for guidance and aid. The oracle1 answered, "Depart from the temple with head veiled and garments unbound, and cast behind you the bones of your mother." They heard the words with astonishment. Pyrrha first broke silence: "We cannot obey; we dare not profane the remains of our parents." They sought the woods, and revolved the oracle in their minds. At last Deucalion spoke : Either my wit fails me, or the command is one we may obey without impiety. The earth is the great parent of all; the stones are her bones; these we may cast behind us; this, I think, the oracle means. At least, to try will harm us not." They veiled their faces, unbound their garments, and, picking up stones, cast them behind them. The stones began to grow soft, and to assume shape. By degrees, they put on a rude resemblance to the human form. Those thrown by Deucalion became men; those by Pyrrha, women. hard race that sprang up, and well adapted to labor. It was a 8 30. The Demigods and Heroes. As preceding the Age of Iron, Hesiod mentions an Age of Demigods and Heroes. Since, however, these demigods and heroes were, many of them, reputed to have been directly descended from Deucalion, their epoch must be regarded as subsequent to the deluge. The hero, Hellen, son of Deucalion and Pyrrha, became the ancestor of the Hellenes or Greeks. The Eolians and Dorians were, according to legend, descended from his sons Æolus and Dorus; from his son Xuthus, the Achæans and Ionians derived their origin. Another great division of the Greek people, the Pelasgic, resi 1 Oracles, see §§ 33, 38, and Commentary. dent in the Peloponnesus or southern portion of the peninsula, was said to have sprung from a different stock of heroes, that of Pelasgus, son of Phoroneus of Argos, and grandson of the rivergod Inachus. The demigods and heroes were of matchless worth and valor. Their adventures form the subject of many of the succeeding chapters. They were the chieftains of the Theban and the Trojan wars and of numerous other military or predatory expeditions. Since most of the myths in Chapters IV to XXVII are best known to English poetry in their Latin form, the Latin designations, or Latinized forms of Greek names, have been retained; but, for the poetic conception of all these stories, except such as are contained in Sections 55, 56, 98 and 124, we are indebted not to the Roman but the Greek imagination. |