trident; whence he is called Hippius, and Hippodromus, and is esteemed the president over the horse-races. At his altar, in the circus of Rome, games were instituted, in which they represented "the ancient Romans, by violence carrying away the Sabine virgins. His altar was under ground, and he was sacrificed unto by the name of Consus, the god of counsel; which, for the most part, ought to be given privately; and therefore the god Consus, was worshipped in an obscure and private place. The solemn games Consualia, celebrated in the month of March, were instituted in honour of Neptune, whose other name was, as I have said, Consus. At the same time, the horses left working, and the mules were adorned with garlands of flowers. Hence also it comes, that the chariot (as you see) of Neptune is drawn by hippocampi, or sea horses, as well as sometimes by dolphins. Those sea horses had the tails of fishes, and only two feet, which were like the fore feet of a horse, according to the description given of them in Statius; and this is the reason why fVirgil calls them two-footed horses. Neptune guides them, and goads them forward with his trident, as it is prettily expressed in Statius. a Ab iπos equus, et duos cursus. Pindar. ode 1. Isth. Var. ap. Lil. Gyr. b Dion. Halic. 1. 2. CA consilio dando. Serv. Plut. in Romulo. Dion. Halic. 1. 2. in Æn. 8. d e Illic Egeo Neptunus gurgite fossos f In portam deducit equos, prior haurit habenas Good Neptune's steeds to rest are set up here, Theb. 2. In the Egean gulph, whose fore parts harness bear, -Magnum qui piscibus æquor, Et juncto bipedum curru metitur equorum. Drawn by a team half fish half horse he rides. Geo. 4. It was therefore Neptune's peculiar office, anot only to preside over, and govern horses, both by land and by sea, but also the government of ships was committed to his care, which were always safe under his protection: for whenever he rides upon the waters, the weather immediately grows fair and the sea calm. SECT. 3- -CHILDREN OF NEPTUNE. THE most remarkable of his children were Triton, Phorcus, and Proteus. Of the first we shall speak in another place. Phorcus, or Phorcys, was his son by the nymph Thesea. He was vanquished by Atlas, and drowned in the sea. His surviving friends said, that he was made a sea god, and therefore they worshipped him. We read of another Phorcus, dwho had three daughters; they had but one eye among them all, which they all could use. When any of them desired to see any thing, she fixed the eye in her forehead, in the same manner as men fix a diamond in a ring: when she had used it, she The foaming billows; but their hinder parts Swim, and go smooth against the curling surge. a Hom. in Hymn. Sil. Ital. 1. 1. b Tumida æquora placat, Collectasque fugat nubes, selemque reducit. -He smooth'd the sea, Dispell'd the darkness and restor❜d the day. Equora postquam Prospiciens genitor, cœloque invectus aperto, Flectit equos, curruque volans dat lora secundo. -Where'er he guides His finny coursers, and in triumph rides, Virg. Æn. 1. Ibid. Æn. 5 pulled the eye out again, that her sisters might have it; thus they all used it, as there was occasion. Proteus, his son by the nymph Phonice, was the keeper of the sea calves. He could convert himself into all sorts of shapes: sometimes he could flow like the water, and sometimes burn like the fire: sometimes he was a fish, a bird, a lion, or whatever he pleased. Nor was this wonderful power enjoyed by Proteus alone; for Vertumnus, one of the gods of the Romans, had it; his name shows it, as we observed before in the story of Pomona. And from this god, Vertumnus, comes that common Latin expression,benè or male vertat, may it succeed well or ill: because it is the business of Vertumnus, to preside over the turn or change of things, which happen according to expectation; though oftentimes what we think good, is found in the conclusion [male vertere] to be worse than was expected; as that sword was which Dido received from Æneas, with which she afterward killed herself. Neptune fendued Periclymenus, Nestor's brother, with the same power; and he was killed by Hercules, when in the shape of a fly: for when Hercules fought against Neleus, a fly tormented him and stung him violently; and on Pallas discovering to him that this fly was Periclymenus, he killed him. Neptune gave the same power to Metra, Mestra, or Mestre, the daughter of Erisichthon: she obtained this reward from him, because he had debauched her; by which power she was enabled to succour her father's insatiable hunger. a Phocarum seu vitulorum marinorum pastor. Tzetz. chil. 2. hist 44. b Ovid. Met. 8. CVertumnus dictus est à vertendo. Rebus ad opinata revertentibus præesse. Donatus in Terent. Ensemque recludit e Dardanium, non has quæsitum munus in usus. Virg. Æn. 4, A gift by him not to this use bequeath'd. Hom. in Odyss. 11. 3 Nunc equa, nunc ales, modo bos, modo servus abibat, Præbebatque avido non justa alimenta parenti. Oy. Met. 8, For the same cause Cenis, a virgin of Thessaly, obtained the same, or rather a greater power, from Neptune; for he gave her power to change her sex, and made her invulnerable; she therefore turned herself into a man, and was called Caneus. aShe fought against the Centaurs, till they had overwhelmed her with a vast load of trees, and buried her alive; after which, she was changed into a bird of her own name. 1040 CHAPTER II. TRITON, AND THE OTHER MARINE GODS. TRITON was the son of Neptune by Amphitrite; he was his father's companion and trumpeter. Down to his navel he resembles a man, but his other part is like a fish his two feet are like the fore feet of a horse, his tail is cleft and crooked, like a half-moon, and his hair resembles wild parsley. Two princes of Parnassus, Virgil and Ovid, give most elegant descriptions of him. Now hart-like, now a cow, a bird, a mare, a Ovid. Met. b Hesiod. in Theog. 2. e Apollon. Argon. 4. c Stat. Theb. 6. Virg. Æn. 1. En. 10. Oceanus, another of the sea gods, awas the son of Calum and Vestab. He, by the ancients, was called the Father, not only of all the rivers, but of the animals, and of the very gods themselves; for they imagined, that all the things in nature took their beginning from him. It is said, he begot of his wife Tethys, three thousand sons, the most eminent of which was Nereus, who was nursed and educated by the Waves, dand afterward dwelt in the Egean Sea, and became a famous prophesier. He begat fifty daughters by his wife Doris, which nymphs were called, after their father's name, Nereides. Palamon, and his mother Ino, are also to be reckoned among the sea deities. They were made sea gods on this occasion: Ino's husband, Athamas, was distracted, and tore his son Learchus into pieces, and dashed him against the wall: Ino saw this, and fearing lest the same fate should come upon herself and her other son Melicerta, she took her son, and with him threw herself into the sea; where they were made sea deities. Nothing perished in the waters but their names. Though their former names were lost in the waves, yet they found new ones: she was called Leucothea, and he Palamon, by the Greeks, and Portumnus by the Latins. Glaucus the fisherman became a sea god by a more pleasant way for when he pulled the fishes which he had caught, out of his nets, and laid them on the shore, he observed, that by touching a certain 'herb, they Buccina, quæ medio concepit ut aëra ponto, He his wreath'd trumpet takes (as given in charge) Met. 1. a Hesiod. in Theog. Orph. in Hymn. Hesiod. ibid. Horat. Carm. 1. d Eurip, in Iphig. e Apol. 4. f Strabo. 1. 9. U |
