Age of Fable or Beauties of Mythology Read online

  AGE OF FABLE OR BEAUTIES OF MYTHOLOGY

  Bulfinch, Thomas

  Preface

  If no other knowledge deserves to be called useful but that which helps to

  enlarge our possessions or to raise our station in society, then Mythology has no claim

  to the appellation. But if that which tends to make us happier and better can be called

  useful, then we claim that epithet for our subject. For Mythology is the handmaid of

  literature; and literature is one of the best allies of virtue and promoters of happiness.

  Without a knowledge of mythology much of the elegant literature of our own

  language cannot be understood and appreciated. When Byron calls Rome "the Niobe

  of nations," or says of Venice, "She looks a Sea-Cybele fresh from ocean," he calls up

  to the mind of one familiar with our subject illustrations more vivid and striking than the

  pencil could furnish, but which are lost to the reader ignorant of mythology. Milton

  abounds in similar allusions. The short poem "Comus" contains more than thirty such,

  and the ode "On the Morning of the Nativity" half as many. Through "Paradise Lost"

  they are scattered profusely. This is one reason why we often hear persons by no

  means illiterate say that they cannot enjoy Milton. But were these persons to add to

  their more solid acquirements the easy learning of this little volume, much of the poetry

  of Milton which has appeared to them "harsh and crabbed" would be found "musical as

  is Apollo's lute." Our citations, taken from more than twenty-five poets, from Spenser to

  Longfellow, will show how general has been the practice of borrowing illustrations from

  mythology.

  The prose writers also avail themselves of the same source of elegant and

  suggestive illustration. One can hardly take up a number of the Edinburgh or Quarterly

  Review without meeting with instances. In Macaulay's article on Milton there are

  twenty such.

  But how is mythology to be taught to one who does not learn it through the

  medium of the languages of Greece and Rome? To devote study to a species of

  learning which relates wholly to false marvels and obsolete faiths, is not to be

  expected of the general reader in a practical age like this. The time even of the young

  is claimed by so many sciences of facts and things, that little can be spared for set

  treatises on a science of mere fancy.

  But many not the requisite knowledge of the subject be acquired by reading the

  ancient poets in translations? We reply, the field is to extensive for a preparatory

  course; and these very translations require some previous knowledge of the subject to

  make them intelligible. Let any one who doubts it read the first page of the "Aeneid,"

  and see what he can make of "the hatred of Juno," the "decree of the Parcae," the

  "judgment of Paris," and the "honors of Ganymede," without this knowledge.

  Shall we be told that answers to such queries may be found in notes, or by a

  reference to the Classical Dictionary? We reply, the interruption of one's reading by

  either process is so annoying that most readers prefer to let an allusion pass

  unapprehended rather than submit to it. Moreover, such sources give us only the dry

  facts without any of the charm of the original narrative; and what is a poetical myth

  when stripped of its poetry? The story of Ceyx and Halcyone, which fills a chapter in

  our book, occupies but eight lines in the best (Smith's) Classical Dictionary; and so of

  others.

  Our book is an attempt to solve this problem, by telling the stories of mythology in

  such a manner as to make them a source of amusement. We have endeavored to tell

  them correctly, according to the ancient authorities, so that when the reader finds them

  referred to he may not be at a loss to recognize the reference. Thus we hope to teach

  mythology not as a study, but as a relaxation from study; to give our work the charm of

  a story-book, yet by means of it to impart a knowledge of an important branch of

  education. The index at the end will adapt it to the purposes of reference, and make it

  a Classical Dictionary for the parlor.

  Most of the classical legends in this book are derived from Ovid and Virgil. They

  are not literally translated, for, in the author's opinion, poetry translated into literal

  prose is very unattractive reading. Neither are they in verse, as well for other reasons

  as from a conviction that to translate faithfully under all the embarrassments of rhyme

  and measure is impossible. The attempt has been made to tell the stories in prose,

  preserving so much of the poetry as resides in the thoughts and is separable from the

  language itself, and omitting those amplifications which are not suited to the altered

  form.

  The Northern mythological stories are copied with some abridgment from Mallet's

  Northern Antiquities. These chapters, with those on Oriental and Egyptian mythology,

  seemed necessary to complete the subject, though it is believed these topics have not

  usually been presented in the same volume with the classical fables.

  The poetical citations so freely introduced are expected to answer several

  valuable purposes. They will tend to fix in memory the leading fact of each story, they

  will help to the attainment of a correct pronunciation of the proper names, and they will

  enrich the memory with many gems of poetry, some of them such as are most

  frequently quoted or alluded to in reading and conversation.

  Having chosen mythology as connected with literature for our province, we have

  endeavored to omit nothing which the reader of elegant literature is likely to find

  occasion for. Such stories and parts of stories as are offensive to pure taste and good

  morals are not given. But such stories are not often referred to, and if they

  occasionally should be, the English reader need feel no mortification in confessing his

  ignorance of them.

  Our book is not for the learned, nor for the theologian, nor for the philosopher,

  but for the reader of English literature, of either sex, who wishes to comprehend the

  allusions so frequently made by public speakers, lecturers, essayists, and poets, and

  those which occur in polite conversation.

  We trust our young readers will find it a source of entertainment; those more

  advanced a useful companion in their reading those who travel, and visit museums

  and galleries of art, an interpreter of paintings and sculptures; those who mingle in

  cultivated society, a key to allusions which are occasionally made; and last of all, those

  in advanced life, pleasure in retracing a path of literature which leads them back to the

  days of their childhood, and revives at every step the associations of the morning of

  life.

  The permanency of those associations is beautifully expressed in the well-known

  lines of Coleridge, in "The Piccolomini," Act ii. Scene 4.

  "The intelligible forms of ancient poets,

  The fair humanities of old religion,

  The Power, the Beauty, and the Majesty

 
That had their haunts in dale or piny mountain,

  Or forest, by slow stream, or pebbly spring,

  Or chasms and watery depths; all these have vanished.

  They live no longer in the faith of reason;

  But still the heart doth need a language; still

  Doth the old instinct bring back the old names;

  Spirits or gods that used to share this earth

  With man as with their friend; and at this day

  "Tis Jupiter who brings whate'er is great,

  And Venus who brings every thing that's fair."

  Chapter I: Introduction

  The religions of ancient Greece and Rome are extinct. The so-called divinities of

  Olympus have not a single worshipper among living men. They belong now not to the

  department of theology, but to those of literature and taste. There they still hold their

  place, and will continue to hold it, for they are too closely connected with the finest

  productions of poetry and art, both ancient and modern, to pass into oblivion.

  We propose to tell the stories relating to them which have come down to us from

  the ancients, and which are alluded to by modern poets, essayists, and orators. Our

  readers may thus at the same time be entertained by the most charming fictions which

  fancy has ever created, and put in possession of information indispensable to every

  one who would read with intelligence the elegant literature of his own day.

  In order to understand these stories, it will be necessary to acquaint ourselves

  with the ideas of the structure of the universe, which prevailed among the Greeks - the

  people from whom the Romans, and other nations through them, received their

  science and religion.

  The Greeks believed the earth to be flat and circular their own country occupying

  the middle of it, the central point being either Mount Olympus, the abode of the gods or

  Delphi, so famous for its oracle.

  The circular disk of the earth was crossed from west to east, and divided into two

  equal parts by the Sea, as they called the Mediterranean, and its continuation the

  Euxine, the only seas with which they were acquainted.

  Around the earth flowed the River Ocean, its course being from south to north on

  the western side of the earth, and in a contrary direction on the eastern side. It flowed

  in a steady, equable current, unvexed by storm or tempest. The sea, and all the rivers

  on earth, received their waters from it.

  The northern portion of the earth was supposed to be inhabited by a happy race

  named the Hyperboreans, dwelling in everlasting bliss and spring beyond the lofty

  mountains whose caverns were supposed to send forth the piercing blasts of the north

  wind, which chilled the people of Hellas, (Greece.) Their country was inaccessible by

  land or sea. They lived exempt from disease or old age, from toils and warfare.

  Moore has given us the "Song of a Hyperborean," beginning

  "I come from a land in the sun-bright deep,

  Where golden gardens glow,

  Where the winds of the north, becalmed in sleep,

  Their conch shells never blow."

  On the south side of the earth, close to the stream of Ocean, dwelt a people

  happy and virtuous as the Hyperboreans. They were named the Aethiopians. The gods

  favored them so highly that they were wont to leave at times their Olympian abodes, and

  go to share their sacrifices and banquets

  On the western margin of the earth, by the stream of Ocean, lay a happy place

  named the Elysian Plain, whither mortals favored by the gods were transported without

  tasting of death, to enjoy an immortality of bliss. This happy region was also called the

  "Fortunate Fields," and the "Isles of the Blessed."

  We thus see that the Greeks of the early ages knew little of any real people

  except those to the east and south of their own country, or near the coast of the

  Mediterranean. Their imagination meantime peopled the western portion of this sea with

  giants, monsters, and enchantresses; while they placed around the disk of the earth,

  which they probably regarded as of no great width, nations enjoying the peculiar favor of

  the gods, and blessed with happiness and longevity.

  The Dawn, the Sun, and the Moon were supposed to rise out of the Ocean, on

  the eastern side, and to drive through the air, giving light to gods and men. The stars

  also, except those forming the Wain or Bear, and others near them, rose out of and sank

  into the stream of Ocean. There the sun-god embarked in a winged boat, which

  conveyed him round by the northern part of the earth, back to his place of rising in the

  east. Milton alludes to this in his "Comus."

  "Now the gilded car of day

  His golden axle doth allay

  In the steep Atlantic stream,

  And the slope Sun his upward beam

  Shoots against the dusky pole,

  Pacing towards the other goal

  Of his chamber in the east."

  The abode of the gods was on the summit of Mount Olympus, in Thessaly. A

  gate of clouds, kept by the goddesses named the Seasons, opened to permit the

  passage of the Celestials to earth, and to receive them on their return. The gods had

  their separate dwellings; but all, when summoned, repaired to the palace of Jupiter, as

  did also those deities whose usual abode was the earth, the waters, or the underworld.

  It was also in the great hall of the palace of the Olympian king that the gods feasted

  each day on ambrosia and nectar, their food and drink, the latter being handed round by

  the lovely goddess Hebe. Here they conversed of the affairs of heaven and earth; and as

  they quaffed their nectar, Apollo, the god of music, delighted them with the tones of his

  lyre, to which the Muses sang in responsive strains. When the sun was set, the gods

  retired to sleep in their respective dwellings.

  The following lines from the Odyssey will show how Homer conceived of

  Olympus: -

  "So saying, Minerva, goddess azure-eyed,

  Rose to Olympus, the reputed seat

  Eternal of the gods, which never storms

  Disturb, rains drench, or snow invades, but calm

  The expanse and cloudless shines with purest day.

  There the inhabitants divine rejoice

  Forever." Cowper.

  The robes and other parts of the dress of the goddesses were woven by Minerva

  and the Graces, and every thing of a more solid nature was formed of the various

  metals. Vulcan was architect, smith, armorer, chariot builder, and artist of all work in

  Olympus. He built of brass the houses of the gods; he made for them the golden shoes

  with which they trod the air or the water, and moved from place to place with the speed

  of the wind, or even of thought. He also shod with brass the celestial steeds which

  whirled the chariots of the gods through the air, or along the surface of the sea. He was

  able to bestow on his workmanship self-motion, so that the tripods (chairs and tables)

  could move of themselves in and out of the celestial hall. He even endowed with

  intelligence the golden handmaidens whom he made to wait on himself.

  Jupiter, or Jove, (Zeus, ^*) though called the father of gods and men, had himself

  a beginning. Saturn (Cronos) was his father, and Rhea (Ops) his mother. Saturn and

  Rhea were of the race of Titans, who were the children of Earth and Heaven, which

  spr
ang from Chaos, of which we shall give a further account in our next chapter.

  [Footnote *: The names included in parentheses are the Greek, the others being

  the Roman or Latin names.]

  There is another cosmogony, or account of the creation, according to which

  Earth, Erebus, and Love were the first of beings. Love (Eros) issued from the egg of

  Night, which floated on Chaos. By his arrows and torch he pierced and vivified all

  things, producing life and joy.

  Saturn and Rhea were not the only Titans. There were others, whose names

  were Oceanus, Hyperion, Iapetus, and Ophion, males; and Themis, Mnemosyne,

  Eurynome, females. They are spoken of as the elder gods, whose dominion was

  afterwards transferred to others. Saturn yielded to Jupiter, Oceanus to Neptune,

  Hyperion to Apollo. Hyperion was the father of the Sun, Moon, and Dawn. He is

  therefore the original sun-god, and is painted with the splendor and beauty which were

  afterwards bestowed on Apollo.

  "Hyperion's curls, the front of Jove himself." Shakspeare.

  Ophion and Eurynome ruled over Olympus till they were dethroned by Saturn

  and Rhea. Milton alludes to them in Paradise Lost. He says the heathens seem to have

  had some knowledge of the temptation and fall of man,

  "And fabled how the serpent, whom they called

  Ophion, with Eurynome, (the wide-Encroaching Eve perhaps,) had first the rule

  Of high Olympus, thence by Saturn driven.

  The representations given of Saturn are not very consistent; for on the one hand

  his reign is said to have been the golden age of innocence and purity, and on the other

  he is described as a monster who devoured his own children. ^* Jupiter, however,

  escaped this fate, and when grown up espoused Metis, (Prudence,) who administered a

  draught to Saturn which caused him to disgorge his children. Jupiter, with his brothers