Part 1 (1/2)

Myths of Greece and Rome.

by H. A. Guerber.

PREFACE.

The aim of this book is to present a complete and entertaining account of Grecian and Roman mythology in such a manner that the student will appreciate its great influence upon literature and art.

These myths, an inexhaustible fund of inspiration for the poets and artists of the past, have also inspired many noted modern works. To impress this fact forcibly upon the student, appropriate quotations from the poetical writings of all ages, from Hesiod's ”Works and Days,” to Tennyson's ”Oenone,” have been inserted in the text, while reproductions of ancient masterpieces and noted examples of modern painting and sculpture are plentifully used as ill.u.s.trations.

The myths are told as graphically and accurately as possible, great care being taken, however, to avoid the more repulsive features of heathen mythology; and when two or more versions of the same myth occur, the preference has invariably been given to the most popular, that is to say, to the one which has inspired the greatest works.

Both the Latin and the Greek forms of proper names are given, but the Latin names are usually retained throughout the narrative, because more frequently used in poetry and art.

The closing chapter includes an a.n.a.lysis of myths by the light of philology and comparative mythology, and the philological explanation of the stories related in the preceding chapters.

A map, genealogical table, and complete glossary and index adapt this little volume for constant use in the library and art gallery, at home and abroad.

CHAPTER I.

THE BEGINNING OF ALL THINGS.

Mythology is the science which treats of the early traditions, or myths, relating to the religion of the ancients, and includes, besides a full account of the origin of their G.o.ds, their theory concerning the beginning of all things.

[Sidenote: Myths of creation.]

Among all the nations scattered over the face of the earth, the Hebrews alone were instructed by G.o.d, who gave them not only a full account of the creation of the world and of all living creatures, but also a code of laws to regulate their conduct. All the questions they fain would ask were fully answered, and no room remained for conjecture.

It was not so, however, with the other nations. The Greeks and Romans, for instance, lacking the definite knowledge which we obtain from the Scriptures, and still anxious to know everything, were forced to construct, in part, their own theory. As they looked about them for some clue to serve as guide, they could not help but observe and admire the wonders of nature. The succession of day and night, summer and winter, rain and suns.h.i.+ne; the fact that the tallest trees sprang from tiny seeds, the greatest rivers from diminutive streams, and the most beautiful flowers and delicious fruits from small green buds,--all seemed to tell them of a superior Being, who had fas.h.i.+oned them to serve a definite purpose.

They soon came to the conclusion that a hand mighty enough to call all these wonders into life, could also have created the beautiful Earth whereon they dwelt. These thoughts gave rise to others; suppositions became certainties; and soon the following myth or fable was evolved, to be handed down from generation to generation.

At first, when all things lay in a great confused ma.s.s,-- ”Ere earth, and sea, and covering heavens, were known, The face of nature, o'er the world, was one; And men have call'd it Chaos; formless, rude, The ma.s.s; dead matter's weight, inert, and crude; Where, in mix'd heap of ill-compounded mold, The jarring seeds of things confusedly roll'd.”

Ovid (Elton's tr.).

The Earth did not exist. Land, sea, and air were mixed up together; so that the earth was not solid, the sea was not fluid, nor the air transparent.

”No sun yet beam'd from yon cerulean height; No orbing moon repair'd her horns of light; No earth, self-poised, on liquid ether hung; No sea its world-enclasping waters flung; Earth was half air, half sea, an embryo heap; Nor earth was fix'd, nor fluid was the deep; Dark was the void of air; no form was traced; Obstructing atoms struggled through the waste; Where cold, and hot, and moist, and dry rebell'd; Heavy the light, and hard the soft repell'd.”

Ovid (Elton's tr.).

[Sidenote: Chaos and Nyx.]

Over this shapeless ma.s.s reigned a careless deity called Chaos, whose personal appearance could not be described, as there was no light by which he could be seen. He shared his throne with his wife, the dark G.o.ddess of Night, named Nyx or Nox, whose black robes, and still blacker countenance, did not tend to enliven the surrounding gloom.

[Sidenote: Erebus, AEther, and Hemera.]

These two divinities wearied of their power in the course of time, and called their son Erebus (Darkness) to their a.s.sistance. His first act was to dethrone and supplant Chaos; and then, thinking he would be happier with a helpmeet, he married his own mother, Nyx. Of course, with our present views, this marriage was a heinous sin; but the ancients, who at first had no fixed laws, did not consider this union unsuitable, and recounted how Erebus and Nyx ruled over the chaotic world together, until their two beautiful children, AEther (Light) and Hemera (Day), acting in concert, dethroned them, and seized the supreme power.

[Sidenote: Creation of Gaea and Ura.n.u.s.]

s.p.a.ce, illumined for the first time by their radiance, revealed itself in all its uncouthness. AEther and Hemera carefully examined the confusion, saw its innumerable possibilities, and decided to evolve from it a ”thing of beauty;” but quite conscious of the magnitude of such an undertaking, and feeling that some a.s.sistance would be desirable, they summoned Eros (Amor or Love), their own child, to their aid. By their combined efforts, Pontus (the Sea) and Gaea (Ge, Tellus, Terra), as the Earth was first called, were created.

In the beginning the Earth did not present the beautiful appearance that it does now. No trees waved their leafy branches on the hillsides; no flowers bloomed in the valleys; no gra.s.s grew on the plains; no birds flew through the air. All was silent, bare, and motionless. Eros, the first to perceive these deficiencies, seized his life-giving arrows and pierced the cold bosom of the Earth. Immediately the brown surface was covered with luxuriant verdure; birds of many colors flitted through the foliage of the new-born forest trees; animals of all kinds gamboled over the gra.s.sy plains; and swift-darting fishes swam in the limpid streams. All was now life, joy, and motion.

[Ill.u.s.tration: AMOR.--Martin.]

Gaea, roused from her apathy, admired all that had already been done for her embellishment, and, resolving to crown and complete the work so well begun, created Ura.n.u.s (Heaven).

”Her first-born Earth produc'd, Of like immensity, the starry Heaven: That he might sheltering compa.s.s her around On every side.”

Hesiod (Elton's tr.).

[Sidenote: The egg myth.]

This version of the creation of the world, although but one of the many current with the Greeks and Romans, was the one most generally adopted; but another, also very popular, stated that the first divinities, Erebus and Nyx, produced a gigantic egg, from which Eros, the G.o.d of love, emerged to create the Earth.

”In the dreary chaotical closet Of Erebus old, was a privy deposit, By Night the primaeval in secrecy laid; A Mystical Egg, that in silence and shade Was brooded and hatched; till time came about: And Love, the delightful, in glory flew out.”

Aristophanes (Frere's tr.).

[Sidenote: Mount Olympus and the river Ocea.n.u.s.]

The Earth thus created was supposed by the ancients to be a disk, instead of a sphere as science has proved. The Greeks fancied that their country occupied a central position, and that Mount Olympus, a very high mountain, the mythological abode of their G.o.ds, was placed in the exact center. Their Earth was divided into two equal parts by Pontus (the Sea,--equivalent to our Mediterranean and Black Seas); and all around it flowed the great river Ocea.n.u.s in a ”steady, equable current,” undisturbed by storm, from which the Sea and all the rivers were supposed to derive their waters.

[Sidenote: The Hyperboreans.]

The Greeks also imagined that the portion of the Earth directly north of their country was inhabited by a fortunate race of men, the Hyperboreans, who dwelt in continual bliss, and enjoyed a never-ending springtide. Their homes were said to be ”inaccessible by land or by sea.” They were ”exempt from disease, old age, and death,” and were so virtuous that the G.o.ds frequently visited them, and even condescended to share their feasts and games. A people thus favored could not fail to be happy, and many were the songs in praise of their sunny land.

”I come from a land in the sun-bright deep, Where golden gardens grow; Where the winds of the north, becalm'd in sleep, Their conch sh.e.l.ls never blow.

”So near the track of the stars are we, That oft, on night's pale beams, The distant sounds of their harmony Come to our ears, like dreams.

”The Moon, too, brings her world so nigh, That when the night-seer looks To that shadowless...o...b.. in a vernal sky, He can number its hills and brooks.

”To the Sun G.o.d all our hearts and lyres By day, by night, belong; And the breath we draw from his living fires We give him back in song.”

Moore.

[Sidenote: The Ethiopians and the Isles of the Blest.]

South of Greece, also near the great river Ocea.n.u.s, dwelt another nation, just as happy and virtuous as the Hyperboreans,--the Ethiopians. They, too, often enjoyed the company of the G.o.ds, who shared their innocent pleasures with great delight.

And far away, on the sh.o.r.e of this same marvelous river, according to some mythologists, were the beautiful Isles of the Blest, where mortals who had led virtuous lives, and had thus found favor in the sight of the G.o.ds, were transported without tasting of death, and where they enjoyed an eternity of bliss. These islands had sun, moon, and stars of their own, and were never visited by the cold wintry winds that swept down from the north.