names; and L'All. 3. Charon: Pope, Dunciad 3: 19; and in numerous poems. Elysium: Cowper, Progress of Error, Night, "The balm of care, Elysium of the mind "; Milton, P. L. 3: 472; Comus 257, L'All.; Shake speare, 3 Hen. VI. 1:2; Cymbeline 5:4; Twelfth N. 1:2; Two Gen. of Verona 2:7; Shelley, To Naples. Lethe: Shakespeare, Twelfth N. 4:1; Jul. Cæs. 3:1; Hamlet 1:5; 2 Hen. IV. 5: 2; Milton, P. L. 2: 583. Tartarus: Milton, P. L. 2: 858; 6:54. § 49. Interpretative. — The name Hades means "the invisible," or "he who makes invisible." The meaning of Pluto (Plouton), according to Plato (Cratylus), is wealth, - the giver of treasure which lies underground. Pluto carries the cornucopia, symbol of inexhaustible riches; but careful discrimination must be observed between him and Plutus (Ploutos), who is merely an allegorical figure, - a personification of wealth and nothing more. Hades is called also the Illustrious, the Many-named, the Benignant, Polydectes or the hospitable. Illustrative. - Milton, L'All. and Il Pens.; P. L. 4:270; Thos. Kyd, Spanish Tragedy (Andrea's descent to Hades) - this poem deals extensively with the Infernal Regions; Shakespeare, 2 Hen. IV. 2:4; Troil. and Cressida 4:4; 5: 2; Coriol. 1:4; Titus Andron. 4: 3. Poems. Buchanan, Ades, King of Hell; Lewis Morris, Epic of Hades. § 50. Proserpina. - Not from the Latin pro-serpo, to creep forth (used of herbs in spring), but from the Greek form Persephone, a bringer of death. The later name Pherephatta refers to the doves (phatta), which were sacred to her as well as to Aphrodite. She carries ears of corn as symbol of vegetation, poppies as symbol of the sleep of death, the pomegranate as the fruit of the underworld of which none might partake and return to the light of heaven. Among the Romans her worship was overshadowed by that of Libitina, a native deity of the underworld. Illustrative. - Keats, Melancholy 1; Spenser, F. Q. 1, 2: 2. Poems.-Aubrey de Vere, The Search after Proserpine; Jean Ingelow, Persephone; Swinburne, Hymns to Proserpine; L. Morris, Persephone (Epic of Hades); D. G. Rossetti, Proserpina. (Also in crayons, in water-colors, and in oil.) In Art. — Sculpture: Eastern pediment of Parthenon frieze. Painting: Lorenzo Bernini's Pluto and Proserpine; P. Schobelt's Abduction of Proserpine. § 51. Textual. — (1) For Æacus, son of Ægina, see § 63 and § 165 (1) C; for Minos and Rhadamanthus, see § 61. Eumenides: Euphemistic term, meaning the well-intentioned. Hecate was descended through her father Perses from the Titans, Creüs and Eurybie; through her mother Asteria from the Titans, Cous and Phoebe. She was therefore, on both sides, the granddaughter of Uranus and Gæa. The following table is based upon Hesiod's account of the Family of Night. (Theogony.) According to other theogonies, the Fates were daughters of Jove and Themis, and the Hesperides daughters of Atlas. The story of the true and false Dreams and the horn and ivory gates (Od. 19: 560) rests on a double play upon words: (1) èλépas (elephas), ivory, and ¿λepaípoμai (elephairomai), to cheat with false hope; (2) κépas (keras), horn, and кpaivelv (krainein), to fulfil. See Mortimer Collins, The Ivory Gate, a poem. Illustrative. Hades: P. L. 2: 964; L. Morris, Epic of Hades. Styx: Shakespeare, Troil. and Cressida 5: 4; Titus Andron. 1:2; Milton, P. L. 2: 577; Pope, Dunciad 2: 338. Erebus: Shakespeare, M. of Venice 5:1; 2 Hen. IV. 2:4; Jul. Cæs. 2: I. Cerberus: Spenser, F. Q I, II:41; Shakespeare, Love's L. L. 5:2; 2 Hen. IV. 2:4; Troil. and Cressida 2:1; Titus Andron. 2:5; Maxwell, Tom May's Death; Milton, L'All. 2. Furies: Milton, Lycidas; P. L. 2: 596, 671; 6:859; 10: 620; P. R. 9: 422; Comus 641; Dryden, Alexander's Feast 6; Shakespeare, M. N. Dream 5:1; Rich. III. 1:4; 2 Hen. IV. 5:3. Hecate: Shakespeare, Macb. 4: 1. Sleep and Death: Shelley, To Night; H. K. White, Thanatos. In Art. - Painting of a Fury by M. Angelo (Uffizi, Florence). §§ 52-54. See next page for Genealogical Table, Divinities of the Sea. For stories of the Grææ, Gorgons, Scylla, Sirens, Pleiades, etc., consult Index. Illustrative. Oceanus: Milton, Comus 868. Neptune Spenser, F. Q. 1, 11: 54; Shakespeare, Macb. 2:2; Tempest 1: 2; M. N. Dream 2:2; Harpies. Milton, P. L. 3: 403. Sirens: Wm. The Family of Night. In Art.-Neptune: on the eastern end of the Parthenon frieze. The Atlas (GræcoRoman sculpture) in National Museum, Naples; the Triton in Vatican. Modern painting: J. Van Beers, The Siren; D. G. Rossetti. § 56. Illustrative. - Saturn: Milton, Il Pens.; Greene, Arraignment of Paris. Fauns: Milton, Lycidas. (See Hawthorne's Marble Faun.) Bellona: Shakespeare, Macb., "Bellona's bridegroom, lapped in proof"; Milton, P. L. 2:922. Pomona: Randolph, To Master Anthony Stafford; Milton, P. L. 9:393; 5: 378; Thomson, Seasons, Summer 663. Flora: P. L. 5:16; Spenser, F. Q. 1, 4: 17; R. H. Stoddard, Arcadian Hymn to Flora; Pope, Windsor Forest 38. Janus: Jonathan Swift, To Janus, on New Year's Day, 1726; Egeria, one of the Camenæ; Childe Harold 4: 115-120; Tennyson, Palace of Art, 'Holding one hand against his ear," etc. Pan, etc.: Milton, P. L. 4: 707; 4: 329. 66 § 57. The first love of Zeus was Metis, daughter of Oceanus and Tethys. She is Prudence or Foreknowledge. She warned Zeus that if she bore him a child, it would be greater than he. Whereupon Zeus swallowed her; and, in time, from his head, sprang Athene, "the virgin of the azure eyes, Equal in strength, and as her father wise" (Hesiod, Theog.). On Latona, see §§ 37, 72, and Commentary. § 58. For Danaë, see § 134; for Alcmene, § 139; for Leda, § 165 c. § 59. In the following general table of the Race of Inachus, marriages are indicated in the usual manner (by the sign =, or by parentheses); the more important characters mentioned in this work are printed in heavy-face type. While numerous less important branches, families, and mythical individuals have been intentionally omitted, it is hoped that this reduction of various relationships, elsewhere explained or tabulated to a general scheme, may furnish the reader with a clearer conception of the family ties that motivate many of the incidents of mythical adventure, and that must have been commonplaces of information to those who invented and perpetuated these stories. It should be borne in mind that the traditions concerning relationships are by no means consistent, and that consequently the collation of mythical genealogies demands the continual exercise of discretion, and a balancing of probabilities. Inachus is the principal river of Argolis in the Peloponnesus. Interpretative. — Io is explained as the hornèd moon, in its various changes and wanderings.1 Argus is the heaven with its myriad stars, some of them shut, some blinking, some always agleam. The wand of Hermes and his music may be the morning breeze, at the coming of which the eyes of heaven close (Cox 2: 138; Preller 2:40). The explanation would, however, be just as probable if Mercury (Hermes) were a cloud-driving wind. Pan and the Syrinx: naturally the wind playing through the reeds, if (with Müller and Cox) we take Pan to be the all-purifying, but, yet, gentle wind. But see p. 200. Illustrative. Shelley, To the Moon: "Art thou pale for weariness Of climbing heaven and gazing on the earth, Wandering companionless Among the stars that have a different birth?" Milton's "To behold the wandering moon, Riding near her highest noon, Like one that had been led astray, Through the heaven's wide pathless way" (Il Penseroso). See also for Io, Shelley's Prometheus Bound. Argus: Pope, Dunciad 2: 374; 4:637. In Art. — Correggio's painting, Jupiter and Io; not a pleasant conception. § 60. Interpretative. — The myth of Callisto and Arcas is of Arcadian origin. If the Arcadians, in very remote times, traced their descent from a she-bear, and if they also, like other races, recognized a bear in a certain constellation, they might naturally mix the fables and combine them later with the legend of the all-powerful Zeus (Lang 2:181). According to 1 But see p. 415, § 34. |