Chapter XV: Part II: Legends (6)

[15] Castor and Pollux were known by the name of the Dioscuri, from _dios_, gods, and _kuroi_, youths.

[16] The ancient Greeks attributed much of the subsequent character of an individual to early influences; hence Hera, the future queen and mistress of heaven, is represented as being brought up in a domesticated and orderly household, where home virtues are carefully inculcated.

[17] In the Homeric age peacocks were unknown; it is therefore the later poets who describe Hera surrounded with peacocks, which were brought to Greece from India.

[18] This circumstance has given rise to the erroneous conclusion that Juno presided over the finances of the state, but the word _moneta_ is derived from the Latin _monere_, which means to warn or admonish.

[19] See Roman Festivals.

[20] The first large ship possessed by the Greeks fit for more than coast navigation.

[21] When Perseus, with the help of Athene, had cut off the head of the Medusa, the two sisters caused a sad dirge-like song to issue from the mouths of the many snakes of which their hair was composed, whereupon Athene, pleased with the sound, imitated the melody on a reed, and thus invented the flute.

[22] For details see Roman Festivals.

[23] See Legend of Troy.

[24] Some, with but little reason, make Demeter the daughter of Uranus and Gaea.

[25] Demeter transformed Ascalaphus into an owl for revealing the secret.

[26] The course which the sun ran was considered by the ancients to be a rising and descending curve [drawing of an arc], the centre of which was supposed to be reached by Helios at mid-day.

[27] The river Po.

[28] This great work of antiquity was destroyed by an earthquake fifty-six years after its erection, B.C. 256. The fragments remained on the ground for many centuries, until Rhodes was conquered by the Turks, and they were eventually sold by one of the generals of Caliph Othman IV. to a merchant of Emesa for L36,000, A.D. 672.

[29] According to some authorities, Strymon.

[30] This wonderful lyre, which had been given to Apollo by Hermes (Mercury) in exchange for the Caduceus or rod of wealth, is said to have possessed such extraordinary powers, that it caused a stone, upon which it was laid, to become so melodious, that ever afterwards, on being touched, it emitted a musical sound which resembled that produced by the lyre itself.

[31] Aristaeus was worshipped as a rural divinity in various parts of Greece, and was supposed to have taught mankind how to catch bees, and to utilize honey and wax.

[32] Astraea was the daughter of the Titans Coeus and Phoebe. Perses was son of the Titans Crios and Eurybia.

[33] Called also Anaitis-Aphroditis.

[34] This occurred during the night Alexander the Great was born.

[35] Another version with regard to the origin of this defect, is that being born ugly and deformed, his mother Hera, disgusted at his unsightliness, herself threw him violently from her lap, and it was then that his leg was broken, producing the lameness from which he suffered ever after. On this occasion he fell into the sea, and was saved by the sea-nymphs Thetis and Eurynome, who kept him for nine years in a cavern beneath the ocean, where he made for them, in gratitude for their kindness, several beautiful ornaments, and trinkets of rare workmanship.

[36] According to some accounts Chares was the wife of Hephaestus.

[37] The trident resembled the arrow-headed pronged fork, used by the fishermen of the Mediterranean Sea in the eel-fishery.

[38] Scylla is a dangerous rock, much dreaded by mariners, in the Straits of Messina.

[39] The island of Rhodes owes its name to her.

[40] It is worthy of notice that the sons of Poseidon were, for the most part, distinguished by great force and turbulence of character, in keeping with the element over which their father was the presiding deity. They were giants in power, and intractable, fiery, and impatient by nature, spurning all efforts to control them; in all respects, therefore, fitting representatives of their progenitor, the mighty ruler of the sea.

[41] A cubit is the length from the elbow to the extremity of the middle finger, and therefore an indefinite measure, but modern usage takes it as representing a length of seventeen to eighteen inches.

[42] On the Egyptian coast.

[43] See Legend of the Argonauts.

[44] His two sons Deimos and Phobos.

[45] Romulus was deified by the Romans after death, and was worshipped by them under the name of Quirinus, an appellation which he shared in common with his father Mars.

[46] Midas was the son of Cybele and Gordius, the king who tied the celebrated and intricate knot.

[47] The shades of those mortals whose lives had neither been distinguished by virtue nor vice, were condemned to a monotonous, joyless, existence in the Asphodel meadows of Hades.

[48] Echidna was a bloodthirsty monster, half maiden, half serpent.

[49] One of the horns of the goat Amalthea, broken off by Zeus, and supposed to possess the power of filling itself with whatsoever its owner desired.

[50] According to another account, Momus discovered that Aphrodite made a noise when she walked.

[51] The word Psyche signifies "butterfly," the emblem of the soul in ancient art.

[52] Tiresias alone, of all the shades, was in full possession of his mental vigour.

[53] Most of the words ending in eus may also be pronounced thus: _AE'-ge-us_, _[=a]'-tre-us_, _pro-me'-the-us_, etc.

[54] The first e like ei in their.

[55] _Th_ at the beginning of a word has its soft sound, as in _both_.