Chapter XIV: Book THE SECOND: Fable I. Ii.1-303 (2)

Juno swelled with rage after the mistress shone amid the stars, and descended on the sea to the hoary Tethys, and the aged Ocean, a regard for whom has often influenced the Gods; and said to them, inquiring the reason of her coming, “Do you inquire why I, the queen of the Gods, am come hither from the æthereal abodes? Another has possession of heaven in my stead. May I be deemed untruthful, if, when the night has made the world dark, you see not in the highest part of heaven stars but lately {thus} honored to my affliction; there, where the last and most limited circle surrounds the extreme part of the axis {of the world}. Is there, then, {any ground} why one should hesitate to affront Juno, and dread my being offended, who only benefit them by my resentment? See what a great thing I have done! How vast is my power! I forbade her to be of human shape; she has been made a Goddess; ’tis thus that I inflict punishment on offenders; such is my mighty power! Let him obtain {for her} her former shape, and let him remove this form of a wild beast; as he formerly did for the Argive Phoronis. Why does he not marry her as well, divorcing Juno, and place her in my couch, and take Lycaon for his father-in-law? But if the wrong done to your injured foster-child affects you, drive the seven Triones away from your azure waters, and expel the stars received into heaven as the reward of adultery, that a concubine may not be received into your pure waves.”

The Gods of the sea granted her request. The daughter of Saturn enters the liquid air in her graceful chariot,[68] with her variegated peacocks; peacocks just as lately tinted, upon the killing of Argus, as thou, garrulous raven, hadst been suddenly transformed into {a bird having} black wings, whereas thou hadst been white before. For this bird was formerly of a silver hue, with snow-white feathers, so that he equalled the doves entirely without spot; nor would he give place to the geese that were to save the Capitol by their watchful voice, nor to the swan haunting the streams. His tongue was the cause of his disgrace; his chattering tongue being the cause, that the color which was white is now the reverse of white.

There was no one more beauteous in all Hæmonia than Larissæan[69] Coronis. At least, she pleased thee, Delphian {God}, as long as she continued chaste, or was not the object of remark. But the bird of Phœbus found out her infidelity;[70] and the inexorable informer winged his way to his master, that he might disclose the hidden offence. Him the prattling crow follows, with flapping wings, to make all inquiries of him. And having heard the occasion of his journey, she says, “Thou art going on a fruitless errand; do not despise the presages of my voice.”

[Footnote 64: _Thou, mischievous one._--Ver. 475. Clarke, rather
too familiarly, renders ‘importuna,’ ‘plaguy baggage.’]

[Footnote 65: _In front by the hair._--Ver. 476. ‘Adversâ prensis
a fronte capillis,’ is rendered by Clarke, ‘seizing her fore-top.’
Had he been describing the combats of two fish-wives, such a
version would have been, perhaps, more appropriate than in the
present instance.]

[Footnote 66: _With black hair._--Ver. 478. To the explanation
given at the end of the story, we may here add the curious one
offered by Palæphatus. He says that Calisto was a huntress who
entered the den of a bear, by which she was devoured; and that the
bear coming out, and Calisto being no more seen, it was reported
that she had been transformed into a bear.]

[Footnote 67: _Erymanthian forests._--Ver. 499. Erymanthus was a
mountain of Arcadia, which was afterwards famous for the slaughter
there, by Hercules, of the wild boar, which made it his haunt.]

[Footnote 68: _Graceful chariot._--Ver. 531. Clarke translates
‘habili curru,’ ‘her neat chariot.’]

[Footnote 69: _Larissæan._--Ver. 542. Larissa was the chief city
of Thessaly, and was situate on the river Peneus.]

[Footnote 70: _Her infidelity._--Ver. 545. ‘Sed ales sensit
adulterium Phœbeius,’ is translated by Clarke, ‘but the Phœban
bird found out her pranks.’]

EXPLANATION.

Cicero (On the Nature of the Gods, Book iii.) tells us, that Lycaon
had a daughter who delighted in the chase, and that Jupiter, the
second of that name, the king of Arcadia, fell in love with her. This
was the ground on which she was said to have been a favorite of Diana.
The story of Calisto having been received into Heaven, and forming the
Constellation of the Bear, was perhaps grounded on the fact of Lycaon,
her father, having been the first known to take particular notice of
this Constellation. The story of the request of Juno, that Tethys will
not receive this new Constellation into the Ocean, is probably derived
from the circumstance, that the Bear, as well as the other stars
within the Arctic Circle, never sets.

Possibly, Arcas, the son of Calisto, dying at a youthful age, may have
been the origin of the Constellation of the Lesser Bear.

FABLE VIII. [II.551-590]

A virgin, the favorite of Apollo, of the same name with Coronis, is
changed into a crow, for a story which she tells Minerva, concerning
the basket in which Ericthonius was enclosed.

“Consider what I was, and what I am, and inquire into my deserts. Thou wilt find that my fidelity was my ruin. For once upon a time, Pallas had enclosed Ericthonius, an offspring born without a mother, in a basket made of Actæan twigs; and had given it to keep to the three virgins born of the two-shaped[71] Cecrops, and had given them this injunction, that they should not inquire into her secrets. I, being hidden among the light foliage, was watching from a thick elm what they were doing. Two {of them}, Pandrosos and Herse, observe their charge without {any} treachery; Aglauros alone calls her sisters cowards, and unties the knots with her hand; but within they behold a child, and a dragon extended by him. I told the Goddess what was done; for which such a return as this is made to me, that I am said to have been banished from the protection of Minerva, and am placed after the bird of the night. My punishment may warn birds not to incur dangers, by their chattering. But I consider {that} she courted me with no inclination of my own, nor asking for any such {favors}. This thou mayst ask of Pallas thyself; although she is angry, she will not, with all her anger, deny this. For Coroneus, one famous in the land of Phocis (I mention what is well known) begot me: and {so} I was a virgin of royal birth, and was courted by rich suitors ({so} despise me not). My beauty was the cause of my misfortune; for while I was passing with slow steps along the sea-shore, on the surface of the sand, as I was wont {to do}, the God of the Ocean beheld me, and was inflamed; and when he had consumed his time to no purpose, in entreating me with soft words, he prepared {to use} violence, and followed me. I fled, and I left the firm shore, and wearied myself in vain on the yielding sand. Then I invoked both Gods and men; but my voice did not reach any mortal. A virgin was moved for a virgin, and gave me assistance. I was extending my arms toward heaven; {when those} arms began to grow black with light feathers. I struggled to throw my garments from off my shoulders, but they were feathers, and had taken deep root in my skin. I tried to beat my naked breast with my hands, but I had now neither hands nor naked breast. I ran; and the sand did not retard my feet as before, and I was lifted up from the surface of the ground. After that, being lifted up, I was carried through the air, and was assigned, as a faultless companion, to Minerva. Yet what does this avail me, if Nyctimene, made a bird for a horrid crime, has succeeded me in my honor?”

[Footnote 71: _Two-shaped._--Ver. 555. Cecrops is here so called,
and in the Greek, διφυὴς from the fact of his having been born in
Egypt, and having settled in Greece, and was thus to be reckoned
both as an Egyptian, and in the number of the Greeks.]

EXPLANATION.

Ericthonius was fabled to be the son, or foster-child, of Athene, or
Minerva, perhaps because he was the son of the daughter of Cranaus,
who had the name of Athene, by a priest of Vulcan, which Divinity was
said to have been his progenitor. St. Augustine alleges that he was
exposed, and found in a temple dedicated to Minerva and Vulcan. His
name being composed of two words, ἔρις and χθὼν, signifying
‘contention,’ and ‘earth,’ Strabo imagines that he was the son of
Vulcan and the Earth. But it seems that the real ground on which he
was called by that name was, that he disputed the right to the crown
of Athens with Amphictyon, on the death of Cranaus, the second king.
Amphictyon prevailed, but Ericthonius succeeded him. To hide his legs,
which were deformed, he is said to have invented chariots; though that
is not likely, as Egypt, from which Greece had received many colonies,
was acquainted with the use of them from the earliest times. He is
also said to have instituted the festival of the Panathenæa, at
Athens, whence, in process of time, it was adopted by the whole of
Greece.

Hyginus tells us, that after his death he was received into heaven as
the constellation ‘Auriga,’ or ‘the Charioteer;’ and he further
informs us, that the deformity of his legs gave occasion to the
saying, that he was half man and half a serpent. Apollodorus says that
he was born in Attica; that he was the son of Cranaë, the daughter of
Attis; and that he dethroned Amphictyon, and became the fourth king of
Athens.

FABLE IX. [II.591-632]

Nyctimene having entertained a criminal passion for her father,
Nycteus, the Gods, to punish her incest, transform her into an owl.
Apollo pierces the breast of Coronis with an arrow, on the raven
informing him of the infidelity of his mistress.

“Has not the thing, which is very well known throughout the whole of Lesbos,[72] been heard of by thee, that Nyctimene defiled the bed of her father? She is a bird indeed; but being conscious of her crime, she avoids {the human} gaze and the light, and conceals her shame in the darkness; and by all {the birds} she is expelled entirely from the sky.”

The raven says to him, saying such things, “May this, thy calling of me back, prove a mischief to thee, I pray; I despise the worthless omen.” Nor does he drop his intended journey; and he tells his master, that he has seen Coronis lying down with a youth of Hæmonia. On hearing the crime of his mistress, his laurel fell down; and at the same moment his usual looks, his plectrum,[73] and his color, forsook the God. And as his mind was {now} burning with swelling rage, he took up his wonted arms, and levelled his bow bent from the extremities, and pierced, with an unerring shaft, that bosom, that had been so oft pressed to his own breast. Wounded, she uttered a groan, and, drawing the steel from out of the wound, she bathed her white limbs with purple blood; and she said, “I might {justly}, Phœbus, have been punished by thee, but {still I might} have first brought forth; now we two shall die in one.” Thus far {she spoke}; and she poured forth her life, together with her blood. A deadly coldness took possession of her body deprived of life.

The lover, too late, alas! repents of his cruel vengeance, and blames himself that he listened {to the bird, and} that he was so infuriated. He hates the bird, through which he was forced to know of the crime and the cause of his sorrow; he hates, too, the string, the bow, and his hand; and together with his hand, {those} rash weapons, the arrows. He cherishes her fallen to the ground, and by late resources endeavors to conquer her destiny; and in vain he practices his physical arts.

When he found that these attempts were made in vain, and that the funeral pile was being prepared, and that her limbs were about to be burnt in the closing flames, then, in truth, he gave utterance to sighs fetched from the bottom of his heart (for it is not allowed the celestial features to be bathed with tears). No otherwise than, as when an axe, poised from the right ear {of the butcher}, dashes to pieces, with a clean stroke, the hollow temples of the sucking calf, while the dam looks on. Yet after Phœbus had poured the unavailing perfumes on her breast, when he had given the {last} embrace and had performed the due obsequies prematurely hastened, he did not suffer his own offspring to sink into the same ashes; but he snatched the child from the flames and from the womb of his mother, and carried him into the cave of the two-formed Chiron. And he forbade the raven, expecting for himself the reward of his tongue that told no untruth, to perch any longer among the white birds.

[Footnote 72: _Lesbos._--Ver. 591. This was an island in the Ægean
sea, lying to the south of Troy.]

[Footnote 73: _Plectrum._--Ver. 601. This was a little rod, or
staff, with which the player used to strike the strings of the
lyre, or cithara, on which he was playing.]

EXPLANATION.

History does not afford us the least insight into the foundation of
the story of Coronis transformed into a crow, for making too faithful
a report, nor that of the raven changed from white to black, for
talking too much. If they are based upon some events which really
happened, we must be content to acknowledge that these Fables refer to
the history of two persons entirely unknown to us, and who, perhaps,
lived as far back as the time of the daughters of Cecrops, to whom the
story seems to bear some relation. Coronis being the name of a crow as
well as of a Nymph, Lucian and other writers have fabled that her son,
Æsculapius, was produced from the egg of that bird, and was born in
the shape of a serpent, under which form he was very generally
worshipped.

FABLE X. [II.633-675]

Ocyrrhoe, the daughter of the Centaur Chiron, attempting to predict
future events, tells her father the fate of the child Æsculapius, on
which the Gods transform her into a mare.

In the meantime the half-beast {Chiron} was proud of a pupil of Divine origin, and rejoiced in the honor annexed to the responsibility. Behold! the daughter of the Centaur comes, having her shoulders covered with her yellow hair; whom once the nymph Chariclo,[74] having borne her on the banks of a rapid stream, called Ocyrrhoë. She was not contented to learn her father’s arts {only; but} she sang the secrets of the Fates. Therefore, when she had conceived in her mind the prophetic transports, and grew warm with the God, whom she held confined within her breast, she beheld the infant, and she said, “Grow on, child, the giver of health to the whole world; the bodies of mortals shall often owe their {own existence} to thee. To thee will it be allowed to restore life when taken away; and daring to do that once against the will of the Gods, thou wilt be hindered by the bolts of thy grandsire from being able any more to grant that {boon}. And from a God thou shalt become a lifeless carcase; and a God {again}, who lately wast a carcase; and twice shalt thou renew thy destiny. Thou likewise, dear father, now immortal, and produced at thy nativity, on the condition of enduring for ever, wilt then wish that thou couldst die, when thou shalt be tormented on receiving the blood of a baneful serpent[75] in thy wounded limbs; and the Gods shall make thee from an immortal {being}, subject to death, and the three Goddesses[76] shall cut thy threads.”

Something still remained in addition to what she had said. She heaved a sigh from the bottom of her breast, and the tears bursting forth, trickled down her cheeks, and thus she said: “The Fates prevent me, and I am forbidden to say any more, and the use of my voice is precluded. My arts, which have brought the wrath of a Divinity upon me, were not of so much value; I wish that I had not been acquainted with the future. Now the human shape seems to be withdrawing from me; now grass pleases {me} for my food; now I have a desire to range over the extended plains; I am turned into a mare, and into a shape kindred {to that of my father}. But yet, why entirely? For my father partakes of both forms.”

As she was uttering such words as these, the last part of her complaint was but little understood; and her words were confused. And presently neither {were} they words indeed, nor did it appear to be the voice of a mare, but of one imitating a mare. And in a little time she uttered perfect neighing, and stretched her arms upon the grass. Then did her fingers grow together, and a smooth hoof united five nails in one continued piece of horn. The length of her face and of her neck increased; the greatest part of her long hair became a tail. And as the hairs lay scattered about her neck, they were transformed into a mane {lying} upon the right side; at once both her voice and her shape were changed. And this wondrous change gave her the {new} name {of Enippe}.

[Footnote 74: _Chariclo._--Ver. 636. She was the daughter of
Apollo, or of Oceanus, but is supposed not to have been the same
person that is mentioned by Apollodorus as the mother of the
prophet Tiresias.]

[Footnote 75: _A baneful serpent._--Ver. 652. This happened when
one of the arrows of Hercules, dipped in the poison of the Lernæan
Hydra, pierced the foot of Chiron while he was examining it.]

[Footnote 76: _The three Goddesses._--Ver. 654. Namely, Clotho,
Lachesis, and Atropos, the ‘Parcæ,’ or ‘Destinies.’]

FABLE XI. [II.676-707]

Mercury, having stolen the oxen of Apollo, and Battus having perceived
the theft, he engages him, by a present, to keep the matter secret.
Mistrusting, however, his fidelity, he assumes another shape, and
tempting him with presents, he succeeds in corrupting him. To punish
his treachery, the God changes him into a touchstone.

The Philyrean[77] hero wept, and in vain, {God} of Delphi, implored thy assistance; but neither couldst thou reverse the orders of great Jupiter, nor, if thou couldst have reversed them wast thou then present; {for then} thou wast dwelling in Elis and the Messenian[78] fields. This was the time when a shepherd’s skin garment was covering thee, and a stick cut out of the wood was the burden of thy left hand, {and} of the other, a pipe unequal with its seven reeds. And while love is thy concern, while thy pipe is soothing thee, some cows are said to have strayed unobserved into the plains of Pylos.[79] The son of Maia the daughter of Atlas, observes them, and with his {usual} skill hides them, driven off, in the woods. Nobody but an old man, well-known in that country, had noticed the theft: all the neighborhood called him Battus. He was keeping the forests and the grassy pastures, and the set of fine-bred mares of the rich Neleus.[80]

{Mercury} was afraid of him, and took him aside with a gentle hand, and said to him, “Come, stranger, whoever thou art, if, perchance any one should ask after these herds, deny that thou hast seen them; and, lest no requital be paid thee for so doing, take a handsome cow as thy reward;” and {thereupon} he gave {him one}. On receiving it, the stranger returned this answer: “Thou mayst go in safety. May that stone first make mention of thy theft;” and he pointed to a stone. The son of Jupiter feigned to go away. {But} soon he returned, and changing his form, together with his voice, he said, “Countryman, if thou hast seen any cows pass along this way, give me thy help, and break silence about the theft; a female, coupled together with its bull shall be presented thee as a reward.” But the old man,[81] after his reward was {thus} doubled, said, “They will be beneath those hills;” and beneath those hills they {really} were. The son of Atlas laughed and said, “Dost thou, treacherous man, betray me to my own self? Dost betray me to myself?” and {then} he turned his perjured breast into a hard stone, which even now is called the “Touchstone;”[82] and this old disgrace is {attached} to the stone that {really} deserves it not.

[Footnote 77: _Philyrean._--Ver. 676. Chiron was the son of
Philyra, by Saturn.]

[Footnote 78: _Messenian._--Ver. 679. Elis and Messenia were
countries of Peloponnesus; the former was on the northwest, and
the latter on the southwest side of it.]

[Footnote 79: _Plains of Pylos._--Ver. 684. There were three
cities named Pylos in Peloponnesus. One was in Elis, another in
Messenia, and the third was situate between the other two. The
latter is supposed to have been the native place of Nestor, though
they all laid claim to that honor.]

[Footnote 80: _Neleus._--Ver. 689. He was the king of Pylos, and
the father of Nestor.]

[Footnote 81: _The old man._--Ver. 702. Clarke quaintly translates
‘at senior,’ ‘but then the old blade.’]

[Footnote 82: _The ‘Touchstone.’_--Ver. 706. It is a matter of
doubt among commentators whether ‘index’ here means a general term
for the touchstone, by which metals are tested; or whether it
means that Battus was changed into one individual stone, which
afterwards was called ‘index.’ Lactantius, by his words, seems to
imply that the latter was the case. He says, ‘He changed him into
a stone, which, from this circumstance, is called “index” about
Pylos.’ ‘Index’ was a name of infamy, corresponding with the Greek
word συκοφάντης, and with our term ‘spy.’]

EXPLANATION.

The Centaurs, fabulous monsters, half men and half horses, were
perhaps the first horsemen in Thessaly and its neighborhood. It is
also probable that Chiron, who was one of these, acquired great fame
by the knowledge he had acquired at a time and in a country where
learning was little cultivated. The ancients regarded him as the first
promulgator of the utility of medicines, in which he was said to have
instructed his pupil Æsculapius. He was also considered to be an
excellent musician and a good astronomer, as we learn from Homer,
Diodorus Siculus, and other authors. Most of the heroes of that age,
and among them Hercules and Jason, studied under him. Very probably,
the only foundation for the story of the transformation of Ocyrrhoë,
was the skill and address which, under her father’s instruction, she
acquired in riding and the management of horses. For if, as it seems
really was the case, the horsemen of that age were taken for monsters,
half men and half horses, it is not surprising to find the story that
the daughter of a Centaur was transformed into a mare.

Chiron is generally supposed to have marked out the Constellations,
for the purpose of directing the Argonauts in their voyage for the
recovery of the Golden Fleece.

FABLE XII. [II.708-764]

Mercury, falling in love with Herse, the daughter of Cecrops,
endeavors to engage Aglauros in his interest, and by her means, to
obtain access to her sister. She refuses to assist him, unless he
promises to present her with a large sum of money.

Hence, the bearer of the caduceus raised himself upon equal wings; and as he flew, he looked down upon the fields of Munychia,[83] and the land pleasing to Minerva, and the groves of the well-planted Lycæus. On that day, by chance, the chaste virgins were, in their purity, carrying the sacred offerings in baskets crowned with flowers, upon their heads to the joyful citadel of Pallas. The winged God beholds them returning thence; and he does not shape his course directly forward, but wheels round in the {same} circle. As that bird swiftest in speed, the kite, on espying the entrails, while he is afraid, and the priests stand in numbers around the sacrifice, wings his flight in circles, and yet ventures not to go far away, and greedily hovers around {the object of} his hopes with waving wings, so does the active Cyllenian {God} bend his course over the Actæan towers, and circles round in the same air. As much as Lucifer shines more brightly than the other stars, and as much as the golden Phœbe {shines more brightly} than thee, O Lucifer, so much superior was Herse, as she went, to all the {other} virgins, and was the ornament of the solemnity and of her companions. The son of Jupiter was astonished at her beauty; and as he hung in the air, he burned no otherwise than as when the Balearic[84] sling throws forth the plummet of lead; it flies and becomes red hot in its course, and finds beneath the clouds the fires which it had not {before}.

He alters his course, and, having left heaven, goes a different way; nor does he disguise himself; so great is his confidence in his beauty. This, though it is {every way} complete, still he improves by care, and smooths his hair and {adjusts} his mantle,[85] that it may hang properly, so that the fringe and all the gold may be seen; {and minds} that his long smooth wand, with which he induces and drives away sleep, is in his right hand, and that his wings[86] shine upon his beauteous feet.

A private part of the house had three bed-chambers, adorned with ivory and with tortoiseshell, of which thou, Pandrosos, hadst the right-hand one, Aglauros the left-hand, and Herse had the one in the middle. She that occupied the left-hand one was the first to remark Mercury approaching, and she ventured to ask the name of the God, and the occasion of his coming. To her thus answered the grandson of Atlas and of Pleione: “I am he who carries the commands of my father through the air. Jupiter himself is my father. Nor will I invent pretences; do thou only be willing to be attached to thy sister, and to be called the aunt of my offspring. Herse is the cause of my coming; I pray thee to favor one in love.” Aglauros looks upon him with the same eyes with which she had lately looked upon the hidden mysteries of the yellow-haired Minerva, and demands for her agency gold of great weight; {and}, in the meantime, obliges him to go out of the house. The warlike Goddess turned upon her the orbs of her stern eyes, and drew a sigh from the bottom {of her heart}, with so great a motion, that she heaved both her breast and the Ægis placed before her valiant breast. It occurred {to her} that she had laid open her secrets with a profane hand, at the time when she beheld progeny created for {the God} who inhabits Lemnos,[87] without a mother, {and} contrary to the assigned laws; and that she could now be agreeable both to the God and to the sister {of Aglauros}, and that she would be enriched by taking the gold, which she, in her avarice, had demanded. Forthwith she repairs to the abode of Envy, hideous with black gore. Her abode is concealed in the lowest recesses of a cave, wanting sun, {and} not pervious to any wind, dismal and filled with benumbing cold; and which is ever without fire, and ever abounding with darkness.

[Footnote 83: _Munychia._--Ver. 709. Munychia was the name of a
promontory and harbor of Attica, between the Piræus and the
promontory of ‘Sunium.’ The spot was so called from Munychius, who
there built a temple in honor of Diana.]

[Footnote 84: _Balearic._--Ver. 727. The Baleares were the islands
of Majorca, Minorca, and Iviza, in the Mediterranean, near the
coast of Spain. The natives of these islands were famous for their
skill in the use of the sling. That weapon does not appear to have
been used in the earliest times among the Greeks, as Homer does
not mention it; it had, however, been introduced by the time of
the war with Xerxes, though even then the sling was, perhaps,
rarely used as a weapon. The Acarnanians and the Achæans of Agium,
Patræ, and Dymæ were very expert in the use of the sling. That
used by the Achæans was made of three thongs of leather, and not
of one only, like those of other nations. The natives of the
Balearic isles are said to have attained their skill from the
circumstance of their mothers, when they were children, obliging
them to obtain their food by striking it, from a tree, with a
sling. While other slings were made of leather, theirs were made
of rushes. Besides stones, plummets of lead, called ‘glandes,’
(as in the present instance), and μολύβδιδες, of a form between
acorns and almonds, were cast in moulds, to be thrown from slings.
They have been frequently dug up in various parts of Greece, and
particularly on the plains of Marathon. Some have the device of a
thunderbolt; while others are inscribed with δέξαι, ‘take this.’
It was a prevalent idea with the ancients that the stone
discharged from the sling became red hot in its course, from the
swiftness of its motion.]

[Footnote 85: _Adjusts his mantle._--Ver. 733. ‘Chlamydemque ut
pendeat apte, Collocat,’ etc., is translated by Clarke--‘And he
places his coat that it might hang agreeably, that the border and
all its gold might appear.’]

[Footnote 86: _That his wings._--Ver. 736. Clarke renders ‘ut
tersis niteant talaria plantis,’ ‘that his wings shine upon his
spruce feet.’]

[Footnote 87: _God who inhabits Lemnos._--Ver. 757. Being
precipitated from heaven for his deformity, Vulcan fell upon the
Isle of Lemnos, in the Ægean Sea, where he exercised the craft of
a blacksmith, according to the mythologists. The birth of
Ericthonius, by the aid of Minerva, is here referred to.]

EXPLANATION.

Cicero tells us, that there were several persons in ancient times
named Mercury. The probability is, that one of them fell in love with
Herse, one of the daughters of Cecrops, king of Athens; and that
Aglauros becoming jealous of her, this tradition was built upon facts
of so ordinary a nature.

FABLE XIII. [II.765-832]

Pallas commands Envy to make Aglauros jealous of her sister Herse.
Envy obeys the request of the Goddess; and Aglauros, stung with that
passion, continues obstinate in opposing Mercury’s passage to her
sister’s apartment, for which the God changes her into a statue.

When the female warrior, to be dreaded in battle, came hither, she stood before the abode (for she did not consider it lawful to go under the roof), and she struck the door-posts with the end of the spear. The doors, being shaken, flew open; she sees Envy within, eating the flesh of vipers, the nutriment of her own bad propensities; and when she sees her, she turns away her eyes. But the other rises sluggishly from the ground, and leaves the bodies of the serpents half devoured, and stalks along with sullen pace. And when she sees the Goddess graced with beauty and with {splendid} arms, she groans, and fetches a deep sigh at her appearance. A paleness rests on her face, {and} leanness in all her body; she never looks direct on you; her teeth are black with rust; her breast is green with gall; her tongue is dripping with venom. Smiles there are none, except such as the sight of grief has excited. Nor does she enjoy sleep, being kept awake with watchful cares; but sees with sorrow the successes of men, and pines away at seeing them. She both torments and is tormented at the same moment, and is {ever} her own punishment. Yet, though Tritonia[88] hated her, she spoke to her briefly in such words as these: “Infect one of the daughters of Cecrops with thy poison; there is occasion so {to do}; Aglauros is she.”

Saying no more, she departed, and spurned the ground with her spear impressed on it. She, beholding the Goddess as she departed, with a look askance, uttered a few murmurs, and grieved at the success of Minerva; and took her staff, which wreaths of thorns entirely surrounded; and veiled in black clouds, wherever she goes she tramples down the blooming fields, and burns up the grass, and crops the tops {of the flowers}. With her breath, too, she pollutes both nations and cities, and houses; and at last she descries the Tritonian[89] citadel, flourishing in arts and riches, and cheerful peace. Hardly does she restrain her tears, because she sees nothing to weep at. But after she has entered the chamber of the daughter of Cecrops, she executes her orders; and touches her breast with her hand stained with rust, and fills her heart with jagged thorns. She breathes into her as well the noxious venom, and spreads the poison black as pitch throughout her bones, and lodges it in the midst of her lungs.

And that these causes of mischief may not wander through too wide a space, she places her sister before her eyes, and the fortunate marriage of {that} sister, and the God under his beauteous appearance, and aggravates each particular. By this, the daughter of Cecrops being irritated, is gnawed by a secret grief, and groans, tormented by night, tormented by day, and wastes away in extreme wretchedness, with a slow consumption, as ice smitten upon by a sun often clouded. She burns at the good fortune of the happy Herse, no otherwise than as when fire is placed beneath thorny reeds, which do not send forth flames, and burn with a gentle heat. Often does she wish to die, that she may not be a witness to any such thing; often, to tell the matters, as criminal, to her severe father. At last, she sat herself down in the front of the threshold, in order to exclude the God when he came; to whom, as he proffered blandishments and entreaties, and words of extreme kindness, she said, “Cease {all this}; I shall not remove myself hence, until thou art repulsed.” “Let us stand to that agreement,” says the active Cyllenian {God}; and he opens the carved door with his wand. But in her, as she endeavors to arise, the parts which we bend in sitting cannot be moved, through their numbing weight. She, indeed, struggles to raise herself, with her body, upright; but the joints of her knees are stiff, and a chill runs through her nails, and her veins are pallid, through the loss of blood.

And as the disease {of} an incurable cancer is wont to spread in all directions, and to add the uninjured parts to the tainted; so, by degrees, did a deadly chill enter her breast, and stop the passages of life, and her respiration. She did not endeavor to speak; but if she had endeavored, she had no passage for her voice. Stone had now possession of her neck; her face was grown hard, and she sat, a bloodless statue. Nor was the stone white; her mind had stained it.

[Footnote 88: _Tritonia._--Ver. 783. Minerva is said to have been
called Tritonia, either from the Cretan word τριτω, signifying ‘a
head,’ as she sprang from the head of Jupiter; or from Trito, a
lake of Libya, near which she was said to have been born.]

[Footnote 89: _Tritonian._--Ver. 794. Athens, namely, which was
sacred to Pallas, or Minerva, its tutelary divinity.]

EXPLANATION.

Pausanias, in his Attica, somewhat varies this story, and says that
the daughters of Cecrops, running mad, threw themselves from the top
of a tower. It is very probable that on the introduction of the
worship of Pallas, or Minerva, into Attica, these daughters of Cecrops
may have hesitated to encourage the innovation, and the story was
promulgated that the Goddess had in that manner punished their
impiety. This seems the more likely, from the fact mentioned by
Pausanias that Pandrosos, the third daughter of Cecrops, had, after
her death, a temple built in honor of her, near that of Minerva,
because she had continued faithful to that Goddess, and had not
disobeyed her, as her sisters had done. The reputation and good fame
of Herse and Aglauros had, however, been restored by the time of
Herodotus, since he informs us that they both had their temples at
Athens.

FABLE XIV. [II.833-875]

Jupiter assumes the shape of a Bull, and carrying off Europa, swims
with her on his back to the isle of Crete.

When the grandson of Atlas had inflicted this punishment upon her words and her profane disposition, he left the lands named after Pallas, and entered the skies with his waving wings. His father calls him on one side; and, not owning the cause of his love, he says, “My son, the trusty minister of my commands, banish delay, and swiftly descend with thy usual speed, and repair to the region which looks towards thy {Constellation} mother on the left side, (the natives call it Sidonis[90] by name) and drive towards the sea-shore, the herd belonging to the king, which thou seest feeding afar upon the grass of the mountain.”

{Thus} he spoke; and already were the bullocks, driven from the mountain, making for the shore named, where the daughter of the great king, attended by Tyrian virgins, was wont to amuse herself. Majesty and love but ill accord, nor can they continue in the same abode. The father and the ruler of the Gods, whose right hand is armed with the three-forked flames, who shakes the world with his nod, laying aside the dignity of empire, assumes the appearance of a bull; and mixing with the oxen, he lows, and, in all his beauty, walks about upon the shooting grass. For his color is that of snow, which neither the soles of hard feet have trodden upon, nor the watery South wind melted. His neck swells with muscles; dewlaps hang from {between} his shoulders. His horns are small indeed, but such as you might maintain were made with the hand, and more transparent than a bright gem. There is nothing threatening in his forehead; nor is his eye formidable; his countenance expresses peace.

The daughter of Agenor is surprised that he is so beautiful, and that he threatens no attack; but although so gentle, she is at first afraid to touch him. By and by she approaches him, and holds out flowers to his white mouth. The lover rejoices, and till his hoped-for pleasure comes, he gives kisses to her hands; scarcely, oh, scarcely, does he defer the rest. And now he plays with her, and skips upon the green grass; {and} now he lays his snow-white side upon the yellow sand. And, her fear {now} removed by degrees, at one moment he gives his breast to be patted by the hand of the virgin; at another, his horns to be wreathed with new-made garlands. The virgin of royal birth even ventured to sit down upon the back of the bull, not knowing upon whom she was pressing. Then the God, by degrees {moving} from the land, and from the dry shore, places the fictitious hoofs of his feet in the waves near the brink. Then he goes still further, and carries his prize over the expanse of the midst of the ocean. She is affrighted, and, borne off, looks back on the shore she has left; and with her right hand she grasps his horn, {while} the other is placed on his back; her waving garments are ruffled by the breeze.

[Footnote 90: _Sidonis._--Ver. 840. Sidon, or Sidonis, was a
maritime city of Phœnicia, near Tyre, of whose greatness it was
not an unworthy rival.]

EXPLANATION.

This Fable depicts one of the most famous events in the ancient
Mythology. As we have already remarked, it is supposed that there were
several persons of the name of Zeus, or Jupiter; though there is great
difficulty in assigning to each individual his own peculiar
adventures. Vossius refers the adventure of Niobe, the daughter of
Phoroneus, to Jupiter Apis, the king of Argos, who reigned about B.C.
1770; and that of Danaë to Jupiter Prœtus, who lived about 1350 years
before the Christian era. It was Jupiter Tantalus, according to him,
that carried off Ganymede; and it was Jupiter, the father of Hercules,
that deceived Leda. He says that the subject of the present Fable was
Jupiter Asterius, who reigned about B.C. 1400. Diodorus Siculus tells
us that he was the son of Teutamus, who, having married the daughter
of Creteus, went with some Pelasgians to settle in the island of
Crete, of which he was the first king. We may then conclude, that
Jupiter Asterius, having heard of the beauty of Europa, the daughter
of Agenor, King of Tyre, fitted out a ship, for the purpose of
carrying her off by force. This is the less improbable, as we learn
from Herodotus, that the custom of carrying those away by force, who
could not be obtained by fair means, was very common in these rude
ages.

The ship in which Asterius made his voyage, had, very probably, the
form of a bull for its figure-head; which, in time, occasioned those
who related the adventure, to say, that Jupiter concealed himself
under the shape of that animal, to carry off his mistress. Palæphatus
and Tzetzes suggest, that the story took its rise from the name of
the general of Asterius, who was called Taurus, which is also the
Greek name for a bull. Bochart has an ingenious suggestion, based upon
etymological grounds. He thinks that the twofold meaning of the word
‘Alpha,’ or ‘Ilpha,’ which, in the Phœnician dialect, meant either a
ship or a bull, gave occasion to the fable; and that the Greeks, on
reading the annals of the Phœnicians, by mistake, took the word in the
latter sense.

Europa was honored as a Divinity after her death, and a festival was
instituted in her memory, which Hesychius calls ‘Hellotia,’ from
Ἑλλωτὶς, the name she received after her death.