Fig. 53.—Head of Niobe. Florence....

No apology can be needed for introducing to the public a work like the present. There has long been a want of a book which should, in a moderate compass, give a clear and readable account of these legends; for Dictionaries of Mythology do not give a view of the subject as a whole; and the price of most other works on the Greek and Roman myths would prevent their being used as class-books. These considerations have led the publishers to bring out this book in an English dress. If any should be in

Myths may be described as poetic narratives of the birth, life, and actions of the old heathen gods and heroes or demigods. Both myth and legend [1] are distinguished from the “Mährchen,” or popular tale, by not being, like the latter, a mere product of the imagination, but always being founded on some preceding reality, whether that be an oft-recurring phase of nature, or a distinct and real occurrence. It is often most difficult to recognise with any precision the true germ of a myth, on accou

We learn most concerning the conceptions the ancients formed of their gods from the numerous Greek and Roman poets whose works have come down to us, and who contributed so largely to the construction of the myths. First, both in antiquity and importance, are the poems attributed to Homer, in which we find the whole political system of Olympus, with Zeus at its head, already constructed. Henceforth the gods, in outward appearance at least, are endowed with forms entirely human; more grand and bea

By Cosmogony, we understand the legends relating to the creation of the world; by Theogony, those relating to the origin of the gods. On both points we have to deal with the Greeks alone, since the Romans never indulged in any researches of this kind. All that their poets have to say on the subject is, without exception, borrowed from the Greeks. According to the common account the world was formed out of Chaos. By this, however, we must not understand a huge and shapeless mass, but merely dark,

1. Zeus (Jupiter). —Chief of the celestial deities is Zeus, called by the Romans Jupiter, the controller and ruler of the universe. As being the god of heaven par excellence , the “Skyfather,” he is to both nations the source of all life in nature, and from his gracious hand are shed blessing and abundance. All the phenomena of the air were supposed to proceed from him. He gathers and disperses the clouds, casts forth his lightning, stirs up his thunder, sends down rain, hail, snow, and fertilis

1. Poseidon (Neptunus). —Poseidon, or Neptunus, as he was called by the Romans, was the son of Cronus and Rhea. Homer calls him the younger brother of Zeus, in which case his subjection to the latter is only natural. According to the common account, however, Zeus was the youngest of the sons of Cronus, but acquired the sovereignty over his brothers by having overthrown their cruel father. Poseidon was accordingly indebted to his brother for his dominion over the sea and its deities, and was ther

We now come to a class of deities who stand in the most decided contrast to the gods of the heaven and the sea, whom we have previously described. It consists of those deities whose power is incessantly exerted either on the surface or in the depths of the earth, and who are accordingly brought into the closest connection with the life of man. The worship of these deities assumed among the Greeks a passionate and excited character, at first entirely strange to the Romans, though it gradually cre

Before passing to the heroic legends, some remarks are necessary concerning the inferior deities, who played such an important part in the domestic worship of the Romans. We have already incidentally remarked that the people of Italy generally passed by the greater gods of the heaven and earth in anxious awe. Their invocation and adoration was left to public worship, whilst, in their less important domestic concerns, men had recourse to certain inferior deities, whom they thought nearer to them;

On passing to heroic mythology, a world still more rich in marvels than that with which we have already become acquainted presents itself to our view. The greater extent of this department of mythic lore is easily comprehensible, if we take into consideration the multitude of separate existences into which Greek life was split up, even from the earliest times. Each of the numberless countries, islands, cities, and towns endeavoured to trace back its peculiar institutions to mythical founders and

The legends concerning the origin of the human race differ very widely. The most ancient are undoubtedly those which describe men as springing from the trees or rocks. Another tradition asserts that the human race was of later growth, having been first called into existence by Zeus and the gods of Olympus. A third account makes the Titan Prometheus, the son of Iapetus, the creator of mankind, but leaves it uncertain whether this took place before or after the flood of Deucalion. Prometheus, acco

1. The Lapithæ and the Centaurs. —We shall commence with the Thessalian legend of the Lapithæ and Centaurs, on account of its great antiquity and its importance in sculpture. We read in the Homeric poems how the hoary Nestor on one occasion boasts of having, in his younger days, taken part with his friends Pirithoüs and Cæneus, and the other princes of the Lapithæ, in their contest with the savage Centaurs. In Homer’s account the Centaurs are merely depicted as an old Thessalian mountain tribe o

1. The Calydonian Hunt. —The story of Meleager and the Calydonian boar hunt was undoubtedly, in its origin, nothing more than a provincial myth based on natural phenomena, like other myths that we have already explained. In this case the physical significance involved in the myth soon disappeared, owing to the treatment it received at the hands of the epic and dramatic poets. The poets, in fact, succeeded in introducing some striking ethical conceptions, which absorbed all higher interest. Œneus

We have already incidentally mentioned most of the seers of antiquity—Melampus, the son of Amythaon, who figures in Argive legend; likewise Amphiaraüs, Tiresias, and Calchas. Concerning Tiresias, we may remark that the ancients ascribed to him a fabulous age, extending over seven or even nine generations; so that he was thus a witness of all that happened to Thebes, from the foundation of the city to its destruction by the Epigoni. Like all celebrated soothsayers, he was acquainted with the lang