observed before in the story of Pomona. From this god, Vertumnus, comes that common Latin expression, bene 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 which Dido received from Æneas, with which she afterwards killed herself. Neptune *endued 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 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, by which †she was enabled to succour her father's insatiable hunger. For the same cause Cænis, 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 Cæneus. She 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,-Ovid Met. "Ensemque recludit Dardanium, non hos quæsitum munus in usus.” -The Trojan sword unsheath'd, A gift by him not to this use bequeath'd. Hom. in Odyss. 11. Virg. En 4. "Nunc equa, nunc ales, modo bos, modo servus obibat. Præbebatque avido non justa alimenta parenti."-Ovid Met. 3. QUESTIONS FOR EXAMINATION. How is Neptune represented? From what is his name derived? Whose son was Neptune, and how was his life preserved? What task was imposed on him for his rebellion against Jit piter? Why was the dolphin made a constellation? What were Amphitrite's names, and from what were they derived? Why is Neptune called Hippius and Hippodromus ? What games were instituted at his altar, and what sacrifices were offered him? What were the Consualia, and how were they kept? What was Neptune's peculiar office? Who were Neptune's children? What is the history of Phorcus? Who was Proteus, and what particular power had he? What is the history of Periclymenus? Who was Mestra, and what did she do? CHAPTER II. TRITON, AND THE OTHER MARINE GODS. TRITON was the son of Neptune by Amphitrite; he was his father's companion and trumpeter. Half of him 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: "Hunc vehit immanis Triton, et cærula concha Him and his martial train the Triton bears, "Cæruleum Tritona vocat; conchaque sonaci He his wreath'd trumpet takes (as given in charge) Oceanus another of the seagods, was the son of Coelum and Vesta. 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 things in nature took their beginning from him. It is said that he and his wife Tethys were parents of three thousand sons, the most eminent of which was: Nereus, who was nursed and educated by the waves, and afterward dwelt in the Egean sea, and became a famous prophecier. He was the father of fifty daughters by his wife Doris, whose 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 seagods 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 her self 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 seagod 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 recovered their strength, and leaped again into the water. He wondered at so strange an effect, and had a desire to taste this herb. When he had tasted it, he followed his fishes, and, leaping into the water, became a god of the sea.-Ovid Met. 13. To these we may add the story of Canopus, a god of the Egyptians, who, by the help of water, gained a memorable victory over the god of the Chaldeans. When these two nations contended about the power and superiority of their gods, the priests consented to bring two gods together, that they might decide their controversy. The Chaldeans brought their god Ignis (Fire,) and the Egyptians brought Canopus: they set the two gods near one another to fight. Canopus was a great pitcher filled with water, and full of holes, but so stopped with wax that nobody could discern them : when the fight began, Fire, the god of the Chaldeans, melted the wax, which stopped the holes ; so that Canopus, with rage and violence assaulted Ignis with streams of water, and totally extinguished, vanquished, and overcame him. QUESTIONS FOR EXAMINATION. Who was Triton, and how is he described? Give Ovid's account. Give the history of Palemon. How was Glaucus transformed to a seagod? CHAPTER III. THE MONSTERS OF THE SEA. THE SIRENS, SCYLLA, AND CHARYBDIS. THERE were three Sirens, whose parentage is uncertain, though some say they were the offspring of the river Achelous, and the muse Melpomene. They had the faces of women, but the bodies of flying fishes they dwelt near the promontory Peloris in Sicily, (now called Capodi Faro,) or in the islands called Sirenuse, which are situate in the extreme parts of Italy; where, with the sweetness of their singing, they allured all the men to them that sailed by those coasts: and when by their charms they brought upon them a dead sleep, they drowned them in the sea, and afterward took them out and devoured them. Their names were Parthenope, (who died at Naples, for which reason that city was formerly called Parthenope,) Liga, and Leucosta. That their charms might be more easily received, and make the greater impression on the minds of the bearers, they used musical instruments with their voices, and adapted the matter of their songs to the temper and inclination of their hearers. With some songs they enticed the ambitious, with others the voluptuous, and with other songs they drew on the covetous to their destruction. |