branch, most notably those descended from Eolus. With these families most of the Older Heroes are, by blood or by adventure, to some extent connected. Bearing this fact in mind, and at the same time observing the chronological sequence of adventures, we obtain an arrangement of myths as illustrating the races, families, or houses: (1) of Danaüs of Argos, (2) of Æolus of Thessaly, (3) of Etolus, (4) of Minos of Crete, (5) of Cecrops and of Erichthonius of Attica, (6) of Labdacus of Thebes.1 $133. The Genealogy of Danaus. As the Hellenes, in the north, traced their descent from Deucalion and Pyrrha of Thessaly, so the Pelasgic races of the south from the river-god Inachus, son of Oceanus. The son of Inachus, Phoroneus, lived in the Peloponnesus and founded the town of Argos. This Phoroneus conferred upon the Argives the benefits attributed by other Greeks to Prometheus. He was succeeded by his son Pelasgus, from whom a division of the Greek people derive their name. With the love of Jupiter for the sister of Phoroneus, the fair Io, we are already acquainted. Her son was Epaphus, king of Egypt, from whom were descended (1) Agenor of Phoenicia, father of Europa and Cadmus, and (2) Belus of Egypt, father of Ægyptus and Danaus. To the family of Agenor we shall return in the history of Minos, son of Europa, and of Edipus, descendant of Cadmus. 2 The Danaïds.1 Ægyptus and his fifty sons drove Danaüs and his fifty daughters back to Argos, the ancestral home of the race. Finally a reconciliation was arranged by means of a fifty-fold marriage between the sons of Ægyptus and the Danaïds. But in accordance with a treacherous command of Danaüs, all his daughters, 1 For references to genealogical tables, see Commentary, § 132. 4 Apollod. 2. 1. § 5, etc.; Pausanias; Ovid, Heroides 14; Horace, Odes 3: 11, 23. save Hypermnestra, slew their husbands on the wedding night. For this crime the forty-nine Danaïds were condemned to spend eternity in Tartarus, trying to fill with water a vessel full of holes. From Hypermnestra and her husband, Lynceus, was sprung the royal house of Argos. Their son was Abas; their grandson, Acrisius, of whom the following narrative is told. § 134. The Doom of King Acrisius.'-— The daughter of Acrisius was Danaë, of surpassing loveliness. In consequence of an oracle which had prophesied that the son of Danaë would be the means of his grandfather's death, the hapless girl was shut in an underground chamber, that no man might love or wed her. But Jupiter, distilling himself into a shower of gold, flooded the girl's prison, wooed, and won her. Their son was Perseus. King Acrisius, in dismay, ordered mother and child to be boxed up in a chest and set adrift on the sea. The two unfortunates were, however, rescued at Seriphus by a fisherman, who conveyed the mother and infant to Polydectes, king of the country, by whom they were treated at first with kindness, but afterwards with cruelty. $ 135. Perseus and Medusa.2 When Perseus was grown up, Polydectes sent him to attempt the conquest of the Gorgon Medusa, a terrible monster who had laid waste the country. She had once been a maiden whose hair was her chief glory; but as she dared to vie in beauty with Minerva, the goddess deprived her of her charms, and changed her ringlets into hissing serpents. She became a monster of so frightful an aspect that no living thing could behold her without being turned into stone. All around the cavern where she dwelt might be seen the stony figures of men and animals that had chanced to catch a glimpse of her and had been petrified at the sight. Perseus, favored by Minerva and Mercury, set out against the Gorgon, and approached first the cave of the three Grææ : 1 Simonides of Ceos, also Apollodorus, Pausanias, and Hyginus (Fables). 2 Ovid, Metam. 4:608-739; 5: 1-249. 8 For Gorgons and Grææ, see § 54. There sat the crones that had the single eye, Clad in blue sweeping cloak and snow-white gown; While o'er their backs their straight white hair hung down In long thin locks; dreadful their faces were, Carved all about with wrinkles of despair; Snatching the eye, Perseus compelled the Grææ, as the price of its restoration, to tell him how he might obtain the helmet of Hades that renders its wearer invisible, and the wingèd shoes and pouch that were necessary. With this outfit, to which Minerva added her shield and Mercury his knife, Perseus sped to the hall of the Gorgons. In silence sat two of the sisters, But a third woman paced about the hall, And moaned aloud, and shrieked in her despair; Because the golden tresses of her hair Were moved by writhing snakes from side to side, That in their writhing oftentimes would glide On to her breast, or shuddering shoul ders white; Or, falling down, the hideous things Upon her feet, and crawling thence would twine This was Medusa. Her, while she was praying the gods to end her misery, or, as some say, while she was sleeping, Perseus approached, and guided by her image reflected in the bright shield which he bore, cut off her head, and so ended her miser 1 William Morris, The Doom of King Acrisius, in The Earthly Paradise. able existence. Thus are described the horror and the her features in death: : It lieth, gazing on the midnight sky, Its horror and its beauty are divine. Yet it is less the horror than the grace Which turns the gazer's spirit into stone; Are graven, till the characters be grown Which humanize and harmonize the strain.1 . . . grace of § 136. Perseus and Atlas. - From the body of Medusa sprang the winged horse Pegasus, of whose rider, Bellerophon, we shall presently be informed. After the slaughter of Medusa, Perseus, bearing with him the head of the Gorgon, flew far and wide, over land and sea. As night came on, he reached the western limit of the earth, and would gladly have rested till morning. Here was the realm of Atlas, whose bulk surpassed that of all other men. He was rich in flocks and herds; but his chief pride was his garden of the Hesperi des, whose fruit was of gold, hanging from golden branches, 1 From Shelley's lines On the Medusa of Leonardo Da Vinci in the Florentine Gallery. half hid with golden leaves. Perseus said to him, "I come as a guest. If thou holdest in honor illustrious descent, I claim Jupiter for my father; if mighty deeds, I plead the conquest of the Gorgon. I seek rest and food." But Atlas, remembering an ancient prophecy that had warned him against a son of Jove who should one day rob him of his golden apples, attempted to thrust the youth out. Whereupon Perseus, finding the giant too strong for him, held up the Gorgon's head. Atlas, with all his bulk, was changed into stone. His beard and hair became forests, his arms and shoulders cliffs, his head a summit, and his bones rocks. Each part increased in mass till the giant became the mountain upon whose shoulders rests heaven with all its stars. § 137. Perseus and Andromeda. — On his way back to Seriphus, the Gorgon-slayer arrived at the country of the Ethiopians, over whom Cepheus was king. His wife was Cassiopea— "That starred Ethiop queen that strove To set her beauty's praise above The sea-nymphs, and their powers offended."1 These nymphs had consequently sent a sea-monster to ravage the coast. To appease the deities, Cepheus was directed by the oracle to devote his daughter Andromeda to the ravening maw of the prodigy. As Perseus looked down from his aërial height, he beheld the virgin chained to a rock. Drawing nearer, he pitied, then comforted her, and sought the reason of her disgrace. At first from modesty she was silent; but when he repeated his questions, for fear she might be thought guilty of some offence which she dared not tell, she disclosed her name and that of her country, and her mother's pride of beauty. Before she had done speaking, a sound was heard upon the water, and the monster appeared. The virgin shrieked; the father and mother, who had now arrived, poured forth lamentations and threw their arms about the victim. But the hero, himself, undertook to slay the monster, on condition that, if the maiden were rescued by his valor, she should 1 Milton, Il Penseroso, l. 19. |