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Title: 1000 Mythological Characters Briefly Described - Adapted to Private Schools, High Schools and Academies
Author: Ellis, Edward Sylvester, 1840-1916
Language: English
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Transcriber's Note
Bold text is marked with equals signs, =like this=.
For ease of searching, names with a syllabic accent mark have been
included initially without that accent, and all ligatures have been
expanded (e.g. æ has become ae). Further, proper nouns in the main
body of the text (but not in the quoted material) have been made
consistent where there was either a definite typographic error or
there was a clear prevalence of one form over another. A list of
these changes may be found at the end of the text.
There were some instances of valid variable spellings which have been
preserved as printed in each case. These include: Adrastaea,
Adrasteia; Dionysus, Dionysius; Galatea, Galataea; Nemean, Nemaean;
Perithous, Pirithous. The book also uses some archaic spelling, and
this is also preserved as printed.
1000
Mythological Characters
_Briefly Described_
ADAPTED TO
PRIVATE SCHOOLS, HIGH SCHOOLS
AND ACADEMIES
EDITED WITH INTRODUCTION BY
EDWARD S. ELLIS, M.A.
_Author of "The Young People's Standard
History of the United States" and
"Common Errors in Writing and
Speaking."_
COPYRIGHT, 1895, BY THE WOOLFALL COMPANY
COPYRIGHT, 1899, BY HINDS & NOBLE
HINDS, HAYDEN & ELDREDGE, INC.
NEW YORK PHILADELPHIA CHICAGO
[Illustration: Diana
_See page 46_]
INTRODUCTION.
There are many expressions which, though simple in themselves, must
forever remain beyond the grasp of human comprehension. Eternity, that
which has neither end nor beginning, baffles the most profound human
thought. It is impossible to think of a point beyond which there is
absolutely nothing, or to imagine the passing of a million years
without bringing us one day or one minute nearer to their close.
Suppose that one could fix upon the terminal point, we would still
fancy something beyond that, and then some period still more remote
would present itself, and so on _ad infinitum_.
The same insurmountable difficulty confronts us when we seek to
imagine a First Cause. God was the beginning, and yet it seems to our
finite minds, that something must have brought Him into existence,
and we conclude that back again of that creating Power must have been
another originating cause, and perhaps still another, and so on
without limitation.
And yet we know that there must have been a period when everything was
void, or, in other words, when there was nothing. In the awful
grandeur of that loneliness, desolation, and chaos, God we know,
however, existed and called the universe into being. All that we, in
our present finite condition, can ever comprehend of that stupendous
birth is contained in the opening of the first chapter of Genesis.
That is the story of the creation as told by God Himself to His chosen
people, the Hebrews, they alone being selected from the nations then
existing upon the earth to receive the wonderful revelation.
Every people, no matter how degraded and sunken in barbarism, has some
perception, some explanation of, and a more or less well-grounded
belief in, a First Cause. Far back among the mists of antiquity, at
the remotest beginnings of the shadowy centuries, sits enthroned a
Being, who in His infinite might and power brought mankind, the
universe, and all animate and inanimate things into existence, and who
rewards those of His children who do His will, and punishes those who
disobey His commands. That will, as interpreted by believers, is as
various in its application to the conduct of man as are the standards
of right and wrong among the civilized and even among the barbarous
nations of to-day. What is virtue with one is vice with the other, as
beauty and ugliness of form or feature, being relative terms, are
opposites with many different peoples.
Since the Greeks and Romans were not among those who received the
divine story of creation, they were forced to devise a theory to
explain their own existence and account for the origin of all things.
The foundation of this theory lay in the marvelous phenomena of nature
around them. The growth of the mighty tree from the tiny seed, the
bursting bud and blossom, the changing hues and the fragrance of
flowers, the alternation of day and night, the flash of the
rock-rending lightning, the rage of the tempest, the flow of the
rivers; the towering mountains, the lovely valleys; dew, rain, the
clouds, and the ever-shifting panorama on every hand; the majestic
sweep of the blazing worlds through space--all these pointed
unerringly to a First Cause, which originally launched them into
being, and maintains the constant order of things and the miraculous
procession of the planets and the orderly succession of the seasons in
obedience to laws that know no change.
To the Greeks and Romans, there was a time more remote than history
gives us any account of, when there was neither land nor water, and
when the earth and all things within and upon it were "without form
and void." Over that misty, nebulous mixing and mingling brooded the
god Chaos, who shared his throne with Nox, the goddess of night. From
this union the innumerable myths gradually sprang up and developed,
which in their own imaginative though often grotesque way explained
the various phases of creation. These finally became crystallized into
a literature, or mythology, which has since been the inspiration alike
of romancers and poets.
The most learned of mythologists differ in their analysis of the
multitude of myths that have descended to us. Their varying analyses,
however, may be separated into two distinct classes or divisions, each
of which has its own adherents and supporters.
The first school is that of the philologists, and the second that of
the anthropologists, or comparative mythologists.
Philology relates to the study of language, especially when treated in
a philosophical manner. This school maintains that the myths had their
origin in a "disease of the language, as the pearl is a result of a
disease of the oyster." The key, therefore, to all mythologies, they
say, is found in language. The names originally applied to the gods
generally referred to the phenomena of the clouds, winds, rain,
sunshine, etc. Latin, Greek, and Sanskrit, the great languages of
antiquity, they demonstrate, had their foundation in a single source
which is still older. As further proof of their position, they point
to the similarity in the most ordinary words in the various languages
of the same family, and show that they have undergone few or very
trifling changes.
The greatest authority among the philologists claims that during the
"first period" there was a tribe in Central Asia, whose language
consisted of one-syllable words, which contained the germs of the
Turanian, Aryan, and Semitic tongues. This age is termed the Rhematic
period, and was succeeded by the Nomadic or Agglutinative age, during
which the language gradually "received, once for all, that peculiar
impress of their formative system which we still find in all the
dialects and national idioms comprised under the name of Aryan or
Semitic," which includes over three thousand dialects.
The same authority follows the Agglutinative period with one
"represented everywhere by the same characteristic features, called
the Mythological, or Mythopoeic age."
As the name implies, this last-mentioned period saw the evolution and
development of mythic lore. As do the American Indians of to-day, so
primitive man, in his crude way, explained the operation of physical
laws by giving to inanimate objects like passions and sentiments with
himself. When the tempest rages, and the crashing lightning splinters
the mountain oak, the Indian says that the Great Spirit is angry. When
nature becomes serene and calm, the Great Spirit is pleased. The
malign forces around him, which work ill to the warrior, are, they
say, the direct doings of an evil spirit. Even the heavenly bodies are
personified, and "poetry has so far kept alive in our minds the old
animative theory of nature, that it is no great effort in us to fancy
the waterspout a huge giant or sea-monster, and to depict, in what we
call appropriate metaphor, its march across the field of ocean."
Since the names of the Greek heroes and gods show a general
correspondence with the Sanskrit appellations of physical things, it
is comparatively easy to understand many of the first fancies and
reflections of the earliest men who ever lived. It is the argument of
the philologists that these fancies and reflections settled into
definite shape in that far-away period when most of the nations, now
spread to the remotest corners of the earth, dwelt together and used a
common language. Following the gradual scattering of this single,
unified people, the language became sensitive to the change, many
words not only losing their original meaning, but, in some instances,
acquiring an opposite significance. Other words, again, in the course
of time were utterly lost. "As long as such personified beings as the
Heaven or the Sun are consciously talked of in mythic language, the
meaning of their legends is open to no question, and the action
ascribed to them will, as a rule, be natural and appropriate." The
time came, however, when these names were considered simply as
applying to heroes or deities, and amid the jumble and confusion of
the succeeding ages it became well-nigh impossible to trace the myths
back to their original source and meaning. Such is a brief outline of
the myth interpretations, as made by the philologists.
Anthropology may be defined as the study of man, considered in his
entire nature. In explaining mythology, the anthropologists say that
"it is man, it is human thought and human language combined, which
naturally and necessarily produced the strange conglomerate of ancient
fable." Instead, therefore, of seeking the source of myths in
language, the second class find it in the "condition of thought
through which all races have passed."
The argument of the anthropologists is that while all nations have
come from one parent-stock, as is claimed also by the philologists,
yet the various peoples, in their primitive or savage state, have
passed through a like low intellectual condition and growth. The
folk-lore of all countries shows that the savages consider themselves
of the same nature as beasts, and regard "even plants, inanimate
objects, and the most abstract phenomena as persons with human parts
and passions." Every religion antedating Christianity has inculcated
the worship of idols, which usually take the form of beasts, and it
will be noted in the study of myths that the gods often assume the
forms of birds and animals. If it were in our power mentally to become
savages for a time, so as to look upon nature and our surroundings as
do the Blackfeet Indians, or the Patagonians, or the South Africans,
it would be a long step toward making clear this particular phase of
the question.
From what has been stated, however, the young student will gain an
idea of the meaning of the word "myth," which may be termed a story
whose origin can never be known with certainty. To most people it has
the same significance as a fable, legendary tale, or fanciful
falsehood. A collection of myths belonging to a particular age or
people is "a mythology," and the branch of inquiry which classifies
and interprets them bears the same name.
E. S. E.
November 1st, 1895.
THE YOUTH'S DICTIONARY OF MYTHOLOGY.
=Abas= (Aʹbas), a son of Meganira, was turned into a newt, or
water-lizard, for deriding the ceremonies of the Sacrifice.
=Absyrtus= (Absyʹrtus). After Jason had slain the dragon which guarded
the golden fleece, he fled with Medea, the beautiful young sorceress,
and daughter of Aeetes, who pursued with great energy, for Medea had
taken with her the most precious treasure of the king, his only son
and heir, Absyrtus. To delay the pursuit, Medea slew her little
brother, cut the body in pieces, and dropped them over the side of the
vessel. Thus the cruel daughter effected her escape.
=Achelous= (Acheloʹus) was a river god, and the rival of Hercules in
his love for Deianira. To decide who should have the bride, Hercules
and Achelous had recourse to a wrestling bout, the fame of which
extends through all the intervening centuries. In this fierce
struggle, Achelous changed himself into the form of a bull and rushed
upon his antagonist with lowered horns, intending to hurl him aside.
Hercules eluded the onset, and seizing one of the huge horns, held it
so firmly that it was broken off by the furious efforts of Achelous to
free himself. He was defeated, and finally turned himself into a
river, which has since been known by his name.
=Acheron= (Achʹeron) (see "The Youth's Classical Dictionary"). The
current of the river Acheron, across which all souls had to pass to
hear their decree from Pluto, was so swift that the boldest swimmer
dare not attempt to breast it; and, since there was no bridge, the
spirits were obliged to rely upon the aid of Charon, an aged boatman,
who plied the only boat that was available. He would allow no soul to
enter this leaky craft until he had received the obolus, or fare,
which the ancients carefully placed under the tongue of the dead, that
they might not be delayed in their passage to Pluto. Those who had not
their fare were forced to wait one hundred years, when Charon
reluctantly ferried them over without charge.
"Infernal rivers that disgorge
Into the burning lake their baleful streams
... Sad Acheron, of sorrow black and deep."
Milton.
=Achilles= (Achilʹles) was the most valiant of the Greek heroes in the
Trojan War. He was the son of Peleus, King of Thessaly. His mother,
Thetis, plunged him, when an infant, into the Stygian pool, which
made him invulnerable wherever the waters had washed him; but the heel
by which he was held was not wetted, and that part remained
vulnerable. He was shot with an arrow in the heel by Paris, at the
siege of Troy, and died of his wound.
=Acidalia= (Acidaʹlia), a name given to Venus, from a fountain in
Boeotia.
=Acis= (Aʹcis). A Sicilian shepherd, loved by the nymph Galatea. One
of the Cyclops who was jealous of him crushed him by hurling a rock on
him. Galatea turned his blood into a river--the Acis at the foot of
Mount Etna.
=Actaeon= (Actaeʹon) was the son of Aristaeus, a famous huntsman. He
intruded himself on Diana while she was bathing, and was changed by
her into a deer, in which form he was hunted by his own dogs and torn
in pieces.
=Ades= (Aʹdes), see Hades.
=Adonis= (Adoʹnis), the beautiful attendant of Venus, who held her
train. He was killed by a boar, and turned by Venus into an anemone.
"Even as the sun with purple-colored face
Had ta'en his last leave of the weeping morn.
Rose-cheeked Adonis hied him to the chase;
Hunting he loved, but love he laughed to scorn."
Shakespeare.
=Adrastaea= (Adrastaeʹa), another name of Nemesis, one of the
goddesses of justice.
=Adscriptitii Dii= (Adscriptiʹtii Dii) were the gods of the second
grade.
=Adversity=, see Echidna.
=Aeacus= (Aeʹacus), one of the judges of hell, with Minos and
Rhadamanthus. See Eacus.
=Aecastor= (Aecasʹtor), an oath used only by women, referring to the
Temple of Castor.
=Aedepol= (Aedʹepol), an oath used by both men and women, referring to
the Temple of Pollux.
=Aeetes= (Aeeʹtes), a king of Colchis, and father of Medea.
=Aegeon= (Aegeʹon), a giant with fifty heads and one hundred hands,
who was imprisoned by Jupiter under Mount Etna. See Briareus.
=Aegis= (Aeʹgis), the shield of Jupiter, so called because it was made
of goat-skin.
"Where was thine Aegis Pallas that appall'd?"
Byron.
"Tremendous, Gorgon frowned upon its field,
And circling terrors filled the expressive shield."
"Full on the crest the Gorgon's head they place,
With eyes that roll in death, and with distorted face."
Pope.
=Aegle= (Aeʹgle). The fairest of the Naiads.
=Aello= (Aelʹlo), the name of one of the Harpies.
=Aeneas= (Aeneʹas) was the son of Anchises and Venus. He was one of
the few great captains who escaped the destruction of Troy. He behaved
with great valor during the siege, encountering Diomed, and even
Achilles himself. When the Grecians had set the city on fire Aeneas
took his aged father, Anchises, on his shoulders, while his son,
Ascanius, and his wife Creusa, clung to his garments. He saved them
all from the flames. After wandering about during several years,
encountering numerous difficulties, he at length arrived in Italy,
where he was hospitably received by Latinus, king of the Latins. After
the death of Latinus Aeneas became king.
"His back, or rather burthen, showed
As if it stooped with its load;
For as Aeneas bore his sire
Upon his shoulders through the fire,
Our knight did bear no less a pack
Of his own buttocks on his back."
Butler.
=Aeolus= (Aeoʹlus) was the god of the winds. Jupiter was his reputed
father, and his mother is said to have been a daughter of Hippotus.
Aeolus is represented as having the power of holding the winds
confined in a cavern, and occasionally giving them liberty to blow
over the world. So much command was he supposed to have over them that
when Ulysses visited him on his return from Troy he gave him, tied up
in a bag, all the winds that could prevent his voyage from being
prosperous. The companions of Ulysses, fancying that the bag contained
treasure, cut it open just as they came in sight of Ithaca, the port
they were making for, and the contrary winds rushing out drove back
the ship many leagues. The residence of Aeolus was at Strongyle, now
called Strombolo.
"Aeolus from his airy throne
With power imperial curbs the struggling winds,
And sounding tempests in dark prisons binds."
Dryden.
=Aesculapius= (Aesculaʹpius), the god of physic, was a son of Apollo.
He was physician to the Argonauts in their famous expedition to
Colchis. He became so noted for his cures that Pluto became jealous of
him, and he requested Jupiter to kill him with a thunderbolt. To
revenge his son's death Apollo slew the Cyclops who had forged the
thunderbolt. By his marriage with Epione he had two sons, Machaon and
Podalirius, both famous physicians, and four daughters, of whom
Hygeia, the goddess of health, is the most renowned. Many temples were
erected in honor of Aesculapius, and votive tablets were hung therein
by people who had been healed by him; but his most famous shrine was
at Epidaurus, where, every five years, games were held in his honor.
This god is variously represented, but the most famous statue shows
him seated on a throne of gold and ivory. His head is crowned with
rays, and he wears a long beard. A knotty stick is in one hand, and a
staff entwined with a serpent is in the other, while a dog lies at his
feet.
"Thou that dost Aesculapius deride,
And o'er his gallipots in triumph ride."
Fenton.
=Aeson= (Aeʹson) was father of Jason, and was restored to youth by
Medea.
=Agamemnon= (Agamemʹnon) was the son of Plisthenes and brother of
Menelaus. He was king of the Argives. His brother's wife was the
famous Helen, daughter of Tyndarus, king of Sparta; and when she
eloped with Paris, Agamemnon was appointed leader of the Greeks in
their expedition against Troy.
=Aganippides= (Aganipʹpides), a name of the Muses, derived from the
fountain of Aganippe.
=Agineus= (Agineʹus), see Apollo.
=Aglaia= (Aglaʹia) was one of the Three Graces.
=Agni= (Agʹni). The Hindoo god of lightning.
=Ajax= (Aʹjax) was one of the bravest of the Greek warriors in the
Trojan War. His father was Telamon, and his mother Eriboea. Some
writers say that he was killed by Ulysses; others aver that he was
slain by Paris; while others again assert that he went mad after being
defeated by Ulysses, and killed himself. Another Ajax, son of Oileus,
also took a prominent part in the Trojan War.
=Alcestis= (Alcesʹtis), wife of Admetus, who, to save her husband's
life, died in his stead, and was restored to life by Hercules.
=Alcides= (Alciʹdes), one of the names of Hercules.
=Alcmena= (Alcmeʹna), the mother of Hercules, was daughter of
Electryon, a king of Argos.
=Alecto= (Alecʹto) was one of the Furies. She is depicted as having
serpents instead of hair on her head, and was supposed to breed
pestilence wherever she went.
=Alectryon= (Alecʹtryon), a servant of Mars, who was changed by him
into a cock because he did not warn his master of the rising of the
sun.
=Alfadur= (Alʹfadur), in Scandinavian Mythology the Supreme
Being--Father of all.
=Alma Mammosa= (Alʹma Mammoʹsa), a name of Ceres.
=Alpheus= (Alpheʹus), a river god. See Arethusa.
=Altar.= A structure on which a sacrifice was offered. The earliest
altars were merely heaps of earth or turf or rough unhewn stone; but
as the mode of sacrificing became more ceremonious grander altars were
built. Some were of marble and brass, ornamented with carvings and
bas-reliefs, and the corners with models of the heads of animals. They
varied in height from two feet to twenty, and some were built solid;
others were made hollow to retain the blood of the victims. Some were
provided with a kind of dish, into which frankincense was thrown to
overpower the smell of burning fat. This probably was the origin of
the custom of burning incense at the altar.
=Amalthaea= (Amalʹthaeʹa), the goat which nourished Jupiter.
=Amazons= (Amʹazons) were a nation of women-soldiers who lived in
Scythia. Hercules totally defeated them, and gave Hippolyte, their
queen, to Theseus for a wife. The race seems to have been exterminated
after this battle.
[Illustration: Amazon
_See page 20_]
=Ambarvalia= (Ambarvaʹlia) were festivals in honor of Ceres,
instituted by Roman husbandmen to purge their fields. At the spring
festival the head of each family led an animal, usually a pig or ram,
decked with oak boughs, round his grounds, and offered milk and new
wine. After harvest there was another festival, at which Ceres was
presented with the first-fruits of the season. See Ceres.
=Amber=, see Heliades.
=Ambrosia= (Ambroʹsia) were Bacchanalian festivals.
=Amica= (Amiʹca), a name of Venus.
=Amphion= (Amphiʹon) was the son of Jupiter and Antiope. He was
greatly skilled in music; and it is said that, at the sound of his
lute, the stones arranged themselves so regularly as to make the walls
of the city of Thebes.
"Amphion, too, as story goes, could call
Obedient stones to make the Theban wall."
Horace.
"New walls to Thebes, Amphion thus began."
William King.
"Such strains I sing as once Amphion played,
When list'ning flocks the powerful call obeyed."
Elphinston.
=Amphitrite= (Amphitriʹte) (or =Salatia=), the wife of Neptune, was a
daughter of Oceanus and Tethys. She was the mother of Triton, a sea
god.
"His weary chariot sought the bowers
Of Amphitrite and her tending nymphs."
Thomson.
=Amycus= (Amyʹcus) was king of Bebrycia. He was a son of Neptune, and
was killed by Pollux.
=Ancaeus= (Ancaeʹus). A son of Neptune, who left a cup of wine to hunt
a wild boar which killed him, and the wine was untasted. This was the
origin of the proverb--"There's many a slip 'twixt cup and lip."
=Ancilia= (Ancilʹia), the twelve sacred shields. The first Ancile was
supposed to have fallen from heaven in answer to the prayer of Numa
Pompilius. It was kept with the greatest care, as it was prophesied
that the fate of the Roman people would depend upon its preservation.
An order of priesthood was established to take care of the Ancilia,
and on 1st March each year the shields were carried in procession, and
in the evening there was a great feast, called Coena Saliaris.
=Andromeda= (Andromʹeda), the daughter of Cepheus, king of the
Ethiopians, was wife of Perseus, by whom she was rescued when she was
chained to a rock and was about to be devoured by a sea-monster.
=Anemone= (Anemʹone). Venus changed Adonis into this flower.
=Angeronia= (Angeroʹnia), otherwise Volupia, was the goddess who had
the power of dispelling anguish of mind.
=Anna Perenna= (Anna Perenʹna), one of the rural divinities.
=Antaeus= (Antaeʹus), a giant who was vanquished by Hercules. Each
time that Hercules threw him the giant gained fresh strength from
touching the earth, so Hercules lifted him off the ground and squeezed
him to death.
=Anteros= (Anʹteros), one of the two Cupids, sons of Venus.
=Anticlea= (Anticʹlea), the mother of Ulysses.
=Antiope= (Antiʹope) was the wife of Lycus, King of Thebes. Jupiter,
disguised as a satyr, led her astray and corrupted her.
=Anubis= (Anuʹbis) (or Hermanubis (Hermanʹubis)). "A god half a dog, a
dog half a man." Called _Barker_ by Virgil and other poets.
=Aonides= (Aonʹides), a name of the Muses, from the country Aonia.
=Apaturia= (Apaturʹia), an Athenian festival, which received its name
from a Greek word signifying deceit.
=Aphrodite= (Aphʹrodiʹte), a Greek name of Venus.
=Apis=, a name given to Jupiter by the inhabitants of the Lower Nile.
Also the miraculous ox, worshiped in Egypt.
=Apis= (Aʹpis), King of Argivia. Afterward called Serapis, the
greatest god of the Egyptians.
=Apollo= (Apolʹlo). This famous god, some time King of Arcadia, was
the son of Jupiter and Latona. He was known by several names, but
principally by the following:--Sol (the sun); Cynthius, from the
mountain called Cynthus in the Isle of Delos, and this same island
being his native place obtained for him the name of Delius;
Delphinius, from his occasionally assuming the shape of a dolphin. His
name of Delphicus was derived from his connection with the splendid
Temple at Delphi, where he uttered the famous oracles. Some writers
record that this oracle became dumb when Jesus Christ was born. Other
common names of Apollo were Didymaeus, Nomius, Paean, and Phoebus. The
Greeks called him Agineus, because the streets were under his
guardianship, and he was called Pythius from having killed the serpent
Python. Apollo is usually represented as a handsome young man without
beard, crowned with laurel, and having in one hand a bow, and in the
other a lyre. The favorite residence of Apollo was on Mount Parnassus,
a mountain of Phocis, in Greece, where he presided over the Muses.
Apollo was the accredited father of several children, but the two most
renowned were Aesculapius and Phaeton.
"Wilt thou have music? Hark! Apollo plays.
And twenty cagëd nightingales do sing."
Shakespeare.
=Apotheosis= (Apotheʹosis). The consecration of a god. The ceremony of
deification.
=Arachne= (Arachʹne), a Lydian princess, who challenged Minerva to a
spinning contest, but Minerva struck her on the head with a spindle,
and turned her into a spider.
"... So her disemboweled web,
Arachne, in a hall or kitchen spreads.
Obvious to vagrant flies."
John Phillips.
=Arcadia= (Arcaʹdia), a delightful country in the center of
Peloponnessus, a favorite place of the gods. Apollo was reputed to
have been King of Arcadia.
=Arcas= (Arʹcas), a son of Calisto, was turned into a he-bear; and
afterward into the constellation called Ursa Minor.
=Archer=, see Chiron.
=Areopagitae= (Areopʹagiʹtae), the judges who sat at the Areopagus.
=Areopagus= (Areopʹagus), the hill at Athens where Mars was tried for
murder before twelve of the gods.
=Ares= (Aʹres). The same as Mars, the god of war.
=Arethusa= (Arethuʹsa) was one of the nymphs of Diana. She fled from
Alpheus, a river god, and was enabled to escape by being turned by
Diana into a rivulet which ran underground. She was as virtuous as she
was beautiful.
=Argonauts= (Arʹgonauts). This name was given to the fifty heroes who
sailed to Colchis in the ship Argo, under the command of Jason, to
fetch the Golden Fleece.
=Argus= (Arʹgus) was a god who had a hundred eyes which slept and
watched by turns. He was charged by Juno to watch Io, but, being slain
by Mercury, was changed by Juno into a peacock.
=Ariadne= (Ariadʹne), daughter of Minos, King of Crete. After enabling
Theseus to get out of the Labyrinth by means of a clew of thread, she
fled with him to Naxos, where he ungratefully deserted her; but
Bacchus wooed her and married her, and the crown of seven stars which
he gave her was turned into a constellation.
=Arion= (Ariʹon) was a famous lyric poet of Methymna, in the Island of
Lesbos, where he gained great riches by his art. There is a pretty
fable which has made the name of Arion famous. Once when traveling
from Lesbos his companions robbed him, and proposed to throw him into
the sea. He entreated the seamen to let him play upon his harp before
they threw him overboard, and he played so sweetly that the dolphins
flocked round the vessel. He then threw himself into the sea, and one
of the dolphins took him up and carried him to Taenarus, near Corinth.
For this act the dolphin was raised to heaven as a constellation.
=Aristaeus= (Aristaeʹus), son of Apollo and Cyrene, was the god of
trees; he also taught mankind the use of honey, and how to get oil
from olives. He was a celebrated hunter. His most famous son was
Actaeon.
=Armata= (Armaʹta), one of the names of Venus, given to her by
Spartan women.
=Artemis= (Arʹtemis). This was the Grecian name of Diana, and the
festivals at Delphi were called Artemisia.
=Arts and Sciences=, see Muses.
=Aruspices= (Arusʹpices), sacrificial priests.
=Ascalaphus= (Ascalʹaphus) was changed into an owl, the harbinger of
misfortune, by Ceres, because he informed Pluto that Proserpine had
partaken of food in the infernal regions, and thus prevented her
return to earth.
=Ascanius= (Ascaʹnius), the son of Aeneas and Creusa.
=Ascolia= (Ascolʹia), Bacchanalian feasts, from a Greek word meaning a
leather bottle. The bottles were used in the games to jump on.
=Asopus= (Asoʹpus). A son of Jupiter, who was killed by one of his
father's thunderbolts.
=Assabinus= (Assabiʹnus), the Ethiopian name of Jupiter.
=Ass's ears=, see Midas.
=Astarte= (Astarʹte), one of the Eastern names of Venus.
=Asteria= (Asteʹria), daughter of Caeus, was carried away by Jupiter,
who assumed the shape of an eagle.
=Astrea= (Astreʹa), mother of Nemesis, was the goddess of justice; she
returned to heaven when the earth became corrupt.
"... Chaste Astrea fled,
And sought protection in her native sky."
John Hughes.
=Atalanta= (Atalanʹta) was daughter of Caeneus. The oracle told her
that marriage would be fatal to her, but, being very beautiful, she
had many suitors. She was a very swift runner, and, to get rid of her
admirers, she promised to marry any one of them who should outstrip
her in a race, but that all who were defeated should be slain.
Hippomenes, however, with the aid of Venus, was successful. That
goddess gave him three golden apples, one of which he dropped whenever
Atalanta caught up to him in the race. She stopped to pick them up,
and he was victorious and married her. They were both afterward turned
into lions by Cybele, for profaning her temple.
=Ate= (Aʹte). The goddess of revenge, also called the goddess of
discord and all evil. She was banished from heaven by her father
Jupiter.
"With Ate by his side come hot from hell."
Shakespeare.
=Athena= (Atheʹna), a name obtained by Minerva as the tutelary goddess
of Athens.
=Atlas=, was King of Mauritania, now Morocco, in Africa. He
was also a great astronomer. He is depicted with the globe on his
back, his name signifying great toil or labor. For his inhospitality
to Perseus that king changed him into the mountain which bears his
name of Atlas. A chain of mountains in Africa is called after him, and
so is the Atlantic Ocean. He had seven daughters by his wife Pleione,
they were called by one common name, Pleiades; and by his wife Aethra
he had seven more, who were, in the same manner, called Hyades. Both
the Pleiades and the Hyades are celestial constellations.
=Atreus= (Atʹreus), the type of fraternal hatred. His dislike of his
brother Thyestes went to the extent of killing and roasting his
nephews, and inviting their father to a feast, which Thyestes thought
was a sign of reconciliation, but he was the victim of his brother's
detestable cruelty.
"Media must not draw her murdering knife,
Nor Atreus there his horrid feast prepare."
Lord Roscommon.
=Atropos= (Atʹropos), one of the three sisters called The Fates, who
held the shears ready to cut the thread of life.
=Atys= (Aʹtys), son of Croesus, was born dumb, but when in a fight he
saw a soldier about to kill the king he gained speech, and cried out,
"Save the king!" and the string that held his tongue was broken.
=Atys= (Aʹtys) was a youth beloved by Aurora, and was slain by her
father, but, according to Ovid, was afterward turned into a pine-tree.
=Augaeas= (Augʹaeas), a king of Elis, the owner of the stable which
Hercules cleansed after three thousand oxen had been kept in it for
thirty years. It was cleansed by turning the river Alpheus through it.
Augaeas promised to give Hercules a tenth part of his cattle for his
trouble but, for neglecting to keep his promise, Hercules slew him.
=Augury= (Auʹgury). This was a means adopted by the Romans of forming
a judgment of futurity by the flight of birds, and the officiating
priest was called an augur.
=Aurora= (Auroʹra), the goddess of the morning,
"Whose rosy fingers ope the gates of day."
She was daughter of Sol, the sun, and was the mother of the stars and
winds. She is represented as riding in a splendid golden chariot drawn
by white horses. The goddess loved Tithonus, and begged the gods to
grant him immortality, but forgot to ask at the same time that he
should not get old and decrepit. See Tithonus.
"... So soon as the all-cheering sun
Should, in the farthest east, begin to draw
The shady curtains of Aurora's bed."
Shakespeare.
=Auster= (Ausʹter), the south wind, a son of Jupiter.
=Avernus= (Averʹnus), a poisonous lake, referred to by poets as being
at the entrance of the infernal regions, but it was really a lake in
Campania, in Italy.
=Averruncus Deus= (Averrunʹcus Deus), a Roman god, who could divert
people from evil-doing.
=Axe=, see Daedalus.
=Baal= (Baʹal), a god of the Phoenicians.
=Baal-Peor= (Baʹal-Peʹor), a Moabitish god, associated with
licentiousness and obscenity. The modern name is Belphegor.
=Babes=, see Rumia Dea.
=Bacchantes= (Bacʹchantes). The priestesses of Bacchus.
=Bacchus= (Bacʹchus), the god of wine, was the son of Jupiter and
Semele. He is said to have married Ariadne, daughter of Minos, King of
Crete, after she was deserted by Theseus. The most distinguished of
his children is Hymen, the god of marriage. Bacchus is sometimes
referred to under the names of Dionysius, Biformis, Brisaeus, Iacchus,
Lenaeus, Lyceus, Liber, and Liber Pater, the symbol of liberty. The
god of wine is usually represented as crowned with vine and ivy
leaves. In his left hand is a thyrsus, a kind of javelin, having a fir
cone for the head, and being encircled with ivy or vine. His chariot
is drawn by lions, tigers, or panthers.
"Jolly Bacchus, god of pleasure,
Charmed the world with drink and dances."
T. Parnell, 1700.
=Balios= (Baʹlios). A famous horse given by Neptune to Peleus as a
wedding present, and was afterward given to Achilles.
=Barker=, see Anubis.
=Bassarides= (Bassarʹides). The priestesses of Bacchus were sometimes
so called.
=Battle=, see Valhalla.
=Bear=, see Calisto.
=Beauty=, see Venus.
=Bees=, see Mellona.
=Belisama= (Belisaʹma), a goddess of the Gauls. The name means the
Queen of Heaven.
=Bellerophon= (Bellerʹophon), a hero who destroyed a monster called
the Chimaera.
=Bellona= (Belloʹna), the goddess of war, and wife of Mars. The 24th
March was called Bellona's Day, when her votaries cut themselves with
knives and drank the blood of the sacrifice.
"In Dirae's and in Discord's steps Bellona treads,
And shakes her iron rod above their heads."
=Belphegor= (Belpheʹgor), see Baal-Peor.
=Belus= (Beʹlus). The Chaldean name of the sun.
=Berecynthia= (Berecynʹthia), a name of Cybele, from a mountain where
she was worshiped.
=Biformis= (Biʹformis), a name of Bacchus, because he was accounted
both bearded and beardless.
=Birds=, see Augury.
=Births=, see Lucina and Levana.
=Blacksmith=, see Brontes and Vulcan.
=Blind=, see Thamyris.
=Blue eyes=, see Glaukopis.
=Bona Dea= (Boʹna Deʹa). "The bountiful goddess," whose festival was
celebrated by the Romans with much magnificence. See Ceres.
=Bonus Eventus= (Boʹnus Evenʹtus). The god of good success, a rural
divinity.
=Boreas= (Boʹreas), the north wind, son of Astraeus and Aurora.
"... I snatched her from the rigid north,
Her native bed, on which bleak Boreas blew,
And bore her nearer to the sun...."
Young, 1710.
=Boundaries=, see Terminus.
=Boxing=, see Pollux.
=Brahma= (Brahʹma). The great Indian deity, represented with four
heads looking to the four quarters of the globe.
=Briareus= (Briʹareus), a famous giant. See Aegeon.
=Brisaeus= (Brisʹaeus). A name of Bacchus, referring to the use of
grapes and honey.
=Brontes= (Brontʹes), one of the Cyclops. He is the personification of
a blacksmith.
=Bubona= (Buboʹna), goddess of herdsmen, one of the rural divinities.
=Buddha= (Budʹdha). Primitively, a pagan deity, the Vishnu of the
Hindoos.
=Byblis= (Bybʹlis). A niece of Sol, mentioned by Ovid. She shed so
many tears for unrequited love that she was turned into a fountain.
"Thus the Phoebeian Byblis, spent in tears,
Becomes a living fountain, which yet bears
Her name."
Ovid.
=Cabiri= (Cabʹiri). The mysterious rites connected with the worship of
these deities were so obscene that most writers refer to them as
secrets which it was unlawful to reveal.
=Cacodaemon= (Cacʹodaeʹmon). The Greek name of an evil spirit.
=Cacus= (Caʹcus), a three-headed monster and robber.
=Cadmus= (Cadʹmus), one of the earliest of the Greek demi-gods. He was
the reputed inventor of letters, and his alphabet consisted of sixteen
letters. It was Cadmus who slew the Boeotian dragon, and sowed its
teeth in the ground, from each of which sprang up an armed man.
=Caduceus= (Caduʹceus). The rod carried by Mercury. It has two winged
serpents entwined round the top end. It was supposed to possess the
power of producing sleep, and Milton refers to it in _Paradise Lost_
as the "opiate rod."
=Calisto= (Calisʹto), an Arcadian nymph, who was turned into a
she-bear by Jupiter. In that form she was hunted by her son Arcas, who
would have killed her had not Jupiter turned him into a he-bear. The
nymph and her son form the constellations known as the Great Bear and
Little Bear.
=Calliope= (Calliʹope). The Muse who presided over epic poetry and
rhetoric. She is generally depicted using a stylus and wax tablets,
the ancient writing materials.
=Calpe= (Calʹpe). One of the pillars of Hercules.
=Calypso= (Calypʹso) was queen of the island of Ogygia, on which
Ulysses was wrecked, and where he was persuaded to remain seven years.
=Cama= (Caʹma). The Indian god of love and marriage.
=Camillus= (Camilʹlus), a name of Mercury, from his office of minister
to the gods.
=Canache= (Canʹache). The name of one of Actaeon's hounds.
=Canopus= (Canoʹpus). The Egyptian god of water, the conqueror of
fire.
=Capis= (Capʹis) or =Capula= (Capʹula). A peculiar cup with ears, used
in drinking the health of the deities.
=Capitolinus= (Capitoliʹnus). A name of Jupiter, from the Capitoline
hill, on the top of which a temple was built and dedicated to him.
=Capripedes= (Capʹriʹpedes). Pan, the Egipans, the Satyrs, and Fauns,
were so called from having goat's feet.
=Caprotina= (Caprotiʹna). A name of Juno.
=Cassandra= (Cassanʹdra), a daughter of Priam and Hecuba, who was
granted by Apollo the power of seeing into futurity, but having
offended that god he prevented people from believing her predictions.
=Cassiopeia= (Cassiopeʹia). The Ethiopian queen who set her beauty in
comparison with that of the Nereides, who thereupon chained her to a
rock and left her to be devoured by a sea-monster, but she was
delivered by Perseus. See Andromeda.
=Castalia= (Castaʹlia). One of the fountains in Mount Parnassus,
sacred to the Muses.
=Castalides= (Castaʹliʹdes), a name of the Muses, from the fountain
Castalia or Castalius.
=Castor= (Casʹtor), son of Jupiter and Leda, twin brother of Pollux,
noted for his skill in horsemanship. He went with Jason in quest of
the Golden Fleece.
=Cauther= (Cauʹther), in Mohammedan mythology, is the lake of
paradise, whose waters are as sweet as honey, as cold as snow, and as
clear as crystal; and any believer who tastes thereof is said to
thirst no more.
=Celeno= (Celʹeno) was one of the Harpies, progenitor of Zephyrus, the
west wind.
=Centaur= (Cenʹtaur). A huntsman who had the forepart like a man, and
the remainder of the body like a horse. The Centauri lived in
Thessaly.
=Cephalus= (Cepʹhalus) was married to Procris, whom he accidentally
slew by shooting her while she was secretly watching him, he thinking
she was a wild beast. Cephalus was the type of constancy.
=Ceraunius= (Cerauʹnius). A Greek name of Jupiter, meaning The
Fulminator, from his thunderbolts.
=Cerberus= (Cerʹberus). Pluto's famous three-headed dog, which guarded
the gate of the infernal regions, preventing the living from entering,
and the inhabitants from going out.
"Three-headed Cerberus, by fate
Posted at Pluto's iron gate;
Low crouching rolls his haggard eyes,
Ecstatic, and foregoes his prize."
=Ceremonies=, see Themis.
[Illustration: Apollo Belvedere
_See page 23_]
=Ceres= (Ceʹres), daughter of Saturn, the goddess of agriculture, and
of the fruits of the earth. She taught Triptolemus how to grow corn,
and sent him to teach the inhabitants of the earth. She was known by
the names of Magna Dea, Bona Dea, Alma Mammosa, and Thesmorphonis.
Ceres was the mother of Proserpine. See Ambarvalia.
"To Ceres bland, her annual rites be paid
On the green turf beneath the fragrant shade.--
... Let all the hinds bend low at Ceres' shrine,
Mix honey sweet for her with milk and mellow wine,
Thrice lead the victim the new fruits around,
On Ceres call, and choral hymns resound."
"Ceres was she who first our furrows plowed,
Who gave sweet fruits and every good allowed."
Pope.
=Cestus= (Cesʹtus), the girdle of Venus, which excited irresistible
affection.
=Chaos= (Chaʹos) allegorically represented the confused mass of matter
supposed to have existed before the creation of the world, and out of
which the world was formed.
"... Behold the throne
Of Chaos, and his dark pavilion spread
Wide on the wasteful deep; with him enthroned
Sat sable-vested Night, eldest of all things,
The consort of his reign."
Milton.
=Charon= (Charʹon) was the son of Nox and Erebus. He was the ferryman
who conveyed the spirits of the dead, in a boat, over the rivers
Acheron and Styx to the Elysian Fields. "Charon's toll" was a coin
put into the hands of the dead with which to pay the grim ferryman.
"From the dark mansions of the dead,
Where Charon with his lazy boat
Ferries o'er Lethe's sedgy moat."
=Charybdis= (Charybʹdis). A dangerous whirlpool on the coast of
Sicily. Personified, it was supposed to have been a woman who
plundered travelers, but was at last killed by Hercules. Scylla and
Charybdis are generally spoken of together to represent alternative
dangers.
"Charybdis barks, and Polyphemus roars."
Francis.
=Chemos= (Cheʹmos). The Moabitish god of war.
=Children=, see Nundina.
=Chimaera= (Chimaeʹra). A wild illusion, personified in the monster
slain by Bellerophon. It had the head and breast of a lion, the body
of a goat, and the tail of a serpent. It used to vomit fire.
"... And on the craggy top
Chimera dwells, with lion's face and mane,
A goat's rough body and a serpent's train."
Pope.
"First, dire Chimera's conquest was enjoined,
A mingled monster of no mortal kind.
Behind, a dragon's fiery tail was spread,
A goat's rough body bore a lion's head,
Her pitchy nostrils flaky flames expire,
Her gaping throat emits infernal fire."
Milton.
=Chiron= (Chiʹron), the centaur who taught Achilles hunting, music,
and the use of medicinal herbs. Jupiter placed him among the stars,
where he appears as Sagittarius, the Archer.
=Chloris= (Chloʹris). The Greek name of Flora, the goddess of flowers.
=Chou.= An Egyptian god corresponding to the Roman Hercules.
=Chronos= (Chroʹnos). Time, the Grecian name of Saturn.
=Cillaros= (Cilʹlaros), see Cyllaros.
=Circe= (Cirʹce), daughter of the Sun. The knowledge of poisonous
herbs enabled her to destroy her husband, the King of the Sarmatians,
for which act she was banished. When Ulysses landed at Aeaea, where
she lived, she turned all his followers into swine.
=Cisseta= (Cisseʹta). The name of one of Actaeon's hounds.
=Citherides= (Citherʹides). A name of the Muses, from Mount Citheron.
=Clio= (Cliʹo). One of the Muses, daughter of Jupiter and Mnemosyne.
She presided over history.
=Cloacina= (Cloaciʹna). The Roman goddess of sewers.
=Clotho= (Cloʹtho) was one of the Fates. She was present at births,
and held the distaff from which was spun the thread of life. See
Atropos and Lachesis.
=Clowns of Lycia, The= (Lyʹcia), were changed into frogs by Latona,
because they refused to allow her to drink at one of their streamlets.
=Cluacina= (Cluʹaciʹna). A name of Venus, given to her at the time of
the reconciliation of the Romans and the Sabines, which was ratified
near a statue of the goddess.
=Clytemnestra= (Clyʹtemnesʹtra), wife of Agamemnon, slew her husband
and married Aegisthus. She attempted to kill her son Orestes, but he
was delivered by his sister Electra, who sent him away to Strophius.
He afterward returned and slew both Clytemnestra and Aegisthus.
=Clytie= (Clytʹie). A nymph who got herself changed into a sunflower
because her love of Apollo was unrequited. In the form of this flower
she is still supposed to be turning toward Sol, a name of Apollo.
=Cneph.= In Egyptian mythology the creator of the universe.
=Cocytus= (Cocyʹtus), the river of Lamentation. One of the five rivers
of the infernal regions.
"Infernal rivers that disgorge
Into the burning lake their baleful streams.
... Cocytus, named of lamentation loud.
Heard on the rueful stream."
Milton.
=Coeculus= (Coeʹculus), a violent robber, was a son of Vulcan.
=Coelus= (Coeʹlus), also called Uranus (or Heaven), was the most
ancient of the gods.
=Coena Saliaris= (Coeʹna Saliaʹris), see Ancilia.
=Collina= (Colliʹna) was one of the rural deities, the goddess of
hills.
=Comedy=, see Thalia.
=Comus= (Coʹmus) was the god of revelry. He presided over
entertainments and feasts.
=Concord= (Conʹcord). The symbol of Concord was two right hands
joined, and a pomegranate.
=Concordia= (Concorʹdia). The goddess of peace. One of the oldest
Roman goddesses. She is represented as holding a horn of plenty in one
hand, and in the other a scepter, from which fruit is sprouting forth.
=Constancy=, see Cephalus.
=Consualia= (Consuʹalia). Games sacred to Neptune.
=Consus= (Conʹsus). A name given to Neptune as being the god of
counsel.
=Cophetua= (Copheʹtua). A legendary king of Africa, who disliked
women, but ultimately fell in love with a "beggar-maid," as mentioned
in _Romeo and Juliet_.
"... Cupid, he that shot so trim
When King Cophetua loved the beggar-maid."
Shakespeare.
=Copia= (Coʹpia), the goddess of plenty.
=Coran= (Coʹran). One of Actaeon's hounds was so named.
=Corn=, see Ceres.
=Coronis= (Corʹonis), was a consort of Apollo and mother of
Aesculapius. Another Coronis was daughter of a king of Phocis, and was
changed by Athena into a crow.
=Corybantes= (Corybanʹtes) were priests of Cybele. They obtained the
name because they were in the habit of striking themselves in their
dances.
=Corydon= (Coryʹdon). A silly love-sick swain mentioned by Virgil.
=Corythaix= (Coryʹthaix). A name given to Mars, meaning Shaker of the
Helmet.
=Cotytto= (Cotytʹto). The Athenian goddess of immodesty.
"Hail! goddess of nocturnal sport,
Dark-veiled Cotytto, to whom the secret flame
Of midnight torches burns; mysterious dame."
Milton.
=Counsel=, see Consus.
=Creditors=, see Jani.
=Crow=, see Coronis.
=Cultivated Land=, see Sylvester.
=Cup-bearer=, see Ganymede.
=Cupid= (Cuʹpid), the god of love, was the son of Jupiter and Venus.
He is represented as a naked, winged boy, with a bow and arrows, and a
torch. When he grew up to be a man he married Psyche.
"For Venus did but boast one only son,
And rosy Cupid was that boasted one;
He, uncontroll'd, thro' heaven extends his sway,
And gods and goddesses by turns obey."
Eusden, 1713.
=Cuvera= (Cuveʹra). The Indian god of wealth corresponding to the
Greek Plutus.
=Cybele= (Cyʹbele). The mother of the gods, and hence called Magna
Mater. She was wife of Saturn. She is sometimes referred to under the
names of Ceres, Rhea, Ops, and Vesta. She is represented as riding in
a chariot drawn by lions. In one hand she holds a scepter, and in the
other a key. On her head is a castelated crown, to denote that she
was the first to protect castles and walls with towers.
"Nor Cybele with half so kind an eye
Surveyed her sons and daughters of the sky."
Dryden.
"Might she the wise Latona be,
Or the towered Cybele,
Mother of a hundred gods,
Juno dares not give her odds."
Milton.
=Cyclops= (Cyʹclops) or =Cyclopes= (Cyʹclopes) were the gigantic,
one-eyed workmen of Vulcan, who made Jove's thunderbolts. Hesiod gives
their names as Arges, Brontes, and Steropes.
"Meantime, the Cyclop raging with his wound,
Spreads his wide arms, and searches round and round."
Pope.
=Cygnus= (Cygʹnus), the bosom friend of Phaeton. He died of grief on
the death of his friend, and was turned into a swan.
=Cyllaros= (Cyllʹaros), one of Castor's horses. The color is mentioned
as being coal-black, with white legs and tail. See Cillaros.
=Cyllo= (Cylʹlo). The name of one of Actaeon's hounds, which was lame.
=Cyllopotes= (Cyllopʹotes). A name given to one of Actaeon's hounds
which limped.
=Cynosure= (Cynʹosure). One of the nurses of Jupiter, turned by the
god into a conspicuous constellation.
"Towers and battlements it sees
Bosomed high in tufted trees,
Where perhaps some beauty lies,
The Cynosure of neighboring eyes."
Milton.
=Cyparissus= (Cyparisʹsus). A boy of whom Apollo was very fond; and
when he died he was changed, at Apollo's intercession, into a cypress
tree, the branches of which typify mourning.
=Cypress= (Cyʹpress), see Cyparissus.
=Cypria= (Cyʹpria). A name of Venus, because she was worshiped in the
island of Cyprus.
=Cythera= (Cythʹera). A name of Venus, from the island to which she
was wafted in the shell.
=Dactyli= (Dactyʹli) were priests of Cybele. They were given the name,
because, like the fingers, they were ten in number.
=Daedalus= (Daedʹalus) was a great architect and sculptor. He invented
the wedge, the axe, the level, and the gimlet, and was the first to
use sails. Daedalus also constructed the famous labyrinth for Minos,
King of Crete. See Icarus.
"Now Daedalus, behold, by fate assigned,
A task proportioned to thy mighty mind."
Pope.
=Dagon= (Daʹgon). A god of the Philistines, half man half fish, like
the mermaid. Milton describes him as "Upward man and downward fish."
=Dahak= (Daʹhak). The Persian devil.
=Daityas= (Daiʹtyas). In Hindoo mythology the devils or evil gods.
=Danae= (Danʹae) was a daughter of Acrisius and Eurydice. She had a
son by Jupiter, who was drifted out to sea in a boat, but was saved by
Polydectes and educated.
[Illustration: Fountain of Cybele (Rhea)
_See page 42_]
=Danaides= (Danaʹides), see Danaus.
=Danaus= (Danaʹus), King of Argos, was the father of fifty daughters,
who, all but one, at the command of their father, slew their husbands
directly after marriage. For this crime they were condemned to the
task of forever trying to draw water with vessels without any bottoms.
See Hypermnestra.
=Dancing=, see Terpsichore.
=Dangers=, see Charybdis, also Scylla.
=Daphne= (Daphʹne). The goddess of the earth. Apollo courted her, but
she fled from him, and was, at her own request, turned into a laurel
tree.
"... As Daphne was
Root-bound, that fled Apollo."
Milton.
=Dardanus= (Darʹdanus), a son of Jupiter, who built the city of
Dardania, and by some writers was accounted the founder of Troy.
=Dead-toll=, see Charon.
=Death=, see Nox.
=Deceiver, The=, see Apaturia.
=Deianira= (Deianiʹra), daughter of Oeneus, was wife of Hercules. See
Hercules.
=Delius= (Deʹlius), a name of Apollo, from the island in which he was
born.
=Delphi= (Delʹphi). A town on Mount Parnassus, famous for its oracle,
and for a temple of Apollo. See Delphos.
=Delphicus= (Delʹphicus). A name of Apollo, from Delphi.
=Delphos= (Delʹphos), the place where the temple was built, from
which the oracle of Apollo was given.
=Demarus= (Deʹmarus). The Phoenician name of Jupiter.
=Demogorgon= (Deʹmogorʹgon) was the tyrant genius of the soil or
earth, the life and support of plants. He was depicted as an old man
covered with moss, and was said to live underground. He is sometimes
called the king of the elves and fays.
"Which wast begot in Demogorgon's hall
And saw'st the secrets of the world unmade."
Spenser.
=Deucalion= (Deucaʹlion), one of the demi-gods, son of Prometheus and
Pyrra. He and his wife, by making a ship, survived the deluge which
Jupiter sent on the earth, circa 1503 B.C.
=Devil=, see Dahak, Daityas, and Obambou.
=Diana= (Diʹana), goddess of hunting and of chastity. She was the
sister of Apollo, and daughter of Jupiter and Latona. She was known
among the Greeks as Diana or Phoebe, and was honored as a triform
goddess. As a celestial divinity she was called Luna; as a terrestrial
Diana or Dictynna; and in the infernal regions Hecate.
=Dictynna= (Dictynʹna), a Greek name of Diana as a terrestrial
goddess.
=Dido= (Diʹdo). A daughter of Belus, King of Tyre. It was this
princess who bought a piece of land in Africa as large as could be
encompassed by a bullock's hide, and when the purchase was completed,
cut the hide into strips, and so secured a large tract of land. Here
she built Carthage; and Virgil tells that when Aeneas was shipwrecked
on the neighboring coast she received him with every kindness, and at
last fell in love with him. But Aeneas did not reciprocate her
affections, and this so grieved her that she stabbed herself. A tale
is told in _Facetiae Cantabrigienses_ of Professor Porson, who being
one of a set party, the conversation turned on the subject of punning,
when Porson observing that he could pun on any subject, a person
present defied him to do so on the Latin gerunds, _di_, _do_, _dum_,
which, however, he immediately did in the following admirable couplet:
"When Dido found Aeneas would not come,
She mourned in silence, and was _Dido dumb_."
=Dies Pater= (Diʹes Paʹter), or Father of the Day, a name of Jupiter.
=Dii Selecti= (Dii Selecʹti) composed the second class of gods. They
were Coelus, Saturn, Genius, Oreus, Sol, Bacchus, Terra, and Luna.
=Dindymene= (Dinʹdymeʹne). A name of Cybele, from a mountain where she
was worshiped.
"Nor Dindymene, nor her priest possest,
Can with their sounding cymbals shake the breast
Like furious anger."
Francis.
=Diomedes= (Diomeʹdes), the cruel tyrant of Thrace, who fed his mares
on the flesh of his guests. He was overcome by Hercules, and himself
given to the same horses as food.
=Dione= (Dioʹne). A poetic name of Venus.
=Dionysia= (Dionyʹsia) were festivals in honor of Bacchus.
=Dionysius= (Dionyʹsius). A name of Bacchus, either from his father
Jupiter (Dios), or from his nurses, the nymphs called Nysae.
=Dioscuri= (Diosʹcuri). Castor and Pollux, the sons of Jupiter.
=Dirae= (Diʹrae). A name of the Furies.
=Dis.= A name of Pluto, god of hell, signifying riches.
"... That fair field
Of Enna, where Proserpine gathering flowers,
Herself a fairer flower, by gloomy Dis
Was gathered."
Milton.
=Discord=, see Ate.
=Discordia= (Discorʹdia), sister of Nemesis, the Furies, and Death,
was driven from heaven for having sown discord among the gods.
=Diseases=, see Pandora.
=Distaff=, see Pallas.
=Dithyrambus.= A surname of Bacchus.
=Dodona= (Dodoʹna) was a celebrated oracle of Jupiter.
"O where, Dodona, is thine aged grove,
Prophetic fount, and oracle divine?"
Byron.
=Dodonaeus= (Dodonaeʹus). A name of Jupiter, from the city of Dodona.
=Dog=, see Lares.
=Dolabra= (Dolaʹbra). The knife used by the priests to cut up the
sacrifices.
=Dolphin=, see Arion.
=Doorga= (Doorʹga). A Hindoo goddess.
=Doris= (Doʹris) was daughter of Oceanus, and sister of Nereus, two of
the marine deities. From these two sisters sprang the several tribes
of water nymphs.
=Doto= (Doʹto). One of the Nereids or sea nymphs.
=Draco= (Draʹco). One of Actaeon's hounds.
=Dragon=, seven-headed, see Geryon.
=Dreams=, see Morpheus.
=Dryads= (Dryʹads) were rural deities, the nymphs of the forests, to
whom their votaries offered oil, milk, and honey.
"Flushed with resistless charms he fired to love
Each nymph and little Dryad of the grove."
Ticknell.
=Dumbness= (Dumbʹness), see Atys.
=Dweurgar= (Dweurʹgar). Scandinavian god of the Echo--a pigmy.
=Eacus= (Eʹacus), son of Jupiter and Egina, one of the judges of the
infernal regions, who was appointed to judge the Europeans. See
Aeacus.
=Earth=, see Antaeus.
=Eblis= (Ebʹlis), the Mohammedan evil genius.
=Echidna= (Echidʹna). A woman having a serpent's tail. She was the
reputed mother of Chimaera, and also of the many-headed dog Orthos, of
the three-hundred-headed dragon of the Hesperides, of the Colchian
dragon, of the Sphinx, of Cerberus, of Scylla, of the Gorgons, of the
Lernaean Hydra, of the vulture that gnawed away the liver of
Prometheus, and also of the Nemean lion; in fact, the mother of all
adversity and tribulation.
=Echnobas= (Echnoʹbas), one of Actaeon's hounds.
=Echo= (Echʹo) was a nymph who fell in love with Narcissus. But when
he languished and died she pined away from grief and died also,
preserving nothing but her voice, which repeats every sound that
reaches her. Another fable makes Echo a daughter of Air and Tellus.
She was partly deprived of speech by Juno, being allowed only to reply
to questions.
"Sweet Echo, sweetest nymph, that liv'st unseen
Within thy airy shell.
. . . .
Sweet queen of parley, daughter of the sphere,
So may'st thou be translated to the skies,
And give resounding grace to all heaven's harmonies."
Milton.
"Oft by Echo's tedious tales misled."
Ovid.
=Egeon.= A giant sea-god, who assisted the Titans against Jupiter.
=Egeria= (Egeʹria). A nymph who is said to have suggested to Numa all
his wise laws. She became his wife, and at his death was so
disconsolate, and shed so many tears, that Diana changed her into a
fountain.
=Egil= (Eʹgil). The Vulcan of northern mythology.
=Egipans= (Egipʹans) were rural deities who inhabited the forests and
mountains, the upper half of the body being like that of a man, and
the lower half like a goat.
=Egis= (Eʹgis) was the shield of Minerva. It obtained its name because
it was covered with the skin of the goat Amalthaea, which nourished
Jupiter. See Aegis.
=Eleusinian Mysteries= (Eleusinʹian). Religious rites in honor of
Ceres, performed at Eleusis, in Attica.
=Elysium= (Elysʹium), or the =Elysian Fields=. The temporary abode of
the just in the infernal regions.
=Empyrean, The= (Empyreʹan). The fifth heaven, the seat of the heathen
deity.
=Endymion= (Endymʹion). A shepherd, who acquired from Jupiter the
faculty of being always young. One of the lovers of Diana.
=Entertainments=, see Comus.
=Envy=, see Furies.
=Enyo= was the Grecian name of Bellona, the goddess of war and
cruelty.
=Eolus= (Eʹolus), see Aeolus.
=Eos= (Eʹos). The Grecian name of Aurora.
=Eous= (Eʹous). One of the four horses which drew the chariot of Sol,
the sun. The word is Greek, and means red.
=Ephialtes= (Ephʹialʹtes). A giant who lost his right eye in an
encounter with Hercules, and the left eye was destroyed by Apollo.
=Erato= (Erʹato). One of the Muses, the patroness of light poetry;
she presided over the triumphs and complaints of lovers, and is
generally represented as crowned with roses and myrtle, and holding a
lyre in her hand.
=Erebus= (Erʹebus), son of Chaos, one of the gods of Hades, sometimes
alluded to as representing the infernal regions.
=Ergatis= (Ergaʹtis). A name given to Minerva. It means the
work-woman, and was given to the goddess because she was credited with
having invented spinning and weaving.
=Erictheus= (Ericʹtheus), fourth King of Athens, was the son of
Vulcan.
=Erinnys= (Erinʹnys). A Greek name of the Furies. It means Disturber
of the Mind.
=Erisichthon= (Erisichʹthon) was punished with perpetual hunger
because he defiled the groves of Ceres, and cut down one of the sacred
oaks.
=Eros= (Erʹos). The Greek god of love.
=Erostratus= (Erosʹtratus). The rascal who burnt the temple of Diana
at Ephesus, thereby hoping to make his name immortal.
=Erycina= (Erycʹina). A name of Venus, from Mount Eryx in Sicily.
=Erythreos= (Erythreʹos). The Grecian name of one of the horses of
Sol's chariot.
=Esculapius= (Esculaʹpius), see Aesculapius.
=Eta= (Eʹta), see Aeetes.
=Ethon= (Eʹthon), one of the horses who drew the chariot of Sol--the
sun. The word is Greek, and signifies hot.
=Etna= (Etʹna). A volcanic mountain, beneath which, according to
Virgil, there is buried the giant Typhon, who breathes forth devouring
flames.
=Eudromos= (Euʹdromos). The name of one of Actaeon's hounds.
=Eulalon= (Euʹlalon), one of the names of Apollo.
=Eumenides= (Eumeʹnides), a name of the Furies, meaning mild, and
referring to the time when they were approved by Minerva.
=Euphrosyne= (Euphroʹsyne), one of the three Graces, see Graces.
"Come, thou goddess fair and free,
In heaven ycleped Euphrosyne."
Milton.
=Eurus= (Euʹrus). The east wind. A son of Aeolus.
=Euryale= (Euryʹale) was one of the Gorgons, daughter of Phorcus and
Ceto.
=Eurydice= (Eurydʹice), wife of Orpheus, who was killed by a serpent
on her wedding night.
"Nor yet the golden verge of day begun.
When Orpheus (her unhappy lord),
Eurydice to life restored,
At once beheld, and lost, and was undone."
F. Lewis.
=Eurythion= (Eurythʹion). A seven-headed dragon. See Geryon.
=Euterpe= (Euʹterpe), one of the Muses, the patroness of instrumental
music. The word means agreeable.
=Euvyhe= (Euʹvyhe), an expression meaning "Well done, son." Jupiter
so frequently addressed his son Bacchus by those words that the phrase
at last became one of his names.
=Evening Star=, see Hesperus.
=Evil=, see Cacodaemon.
=Evils=, see Pandora.
=Eye=, of one, see Cyclops and Glaukopis.
=Fame= was a poetical deity, represented as having wings and blowing a
trumpet. A temple was dedicated to her by the Romans.
=Fate=, see Nereus.
=Fates=, or =Parcae=, were the three daughters of Necessity. Their
names were Clotho, who held the distaff; Lachesis, who turned the
spindle; and Atropos, who cut the thread with the fatal shears.
=Faun.= A rural divinity, half man and half goat. They were very
similar to the Satyrs. The Fauns attended the god Pan, and the Satyrs
attended Bacchus.
=Favonius= (Favoʹnius). The wind favorable to vegetation, that is,
Zephyr--the west wind.
"... Time will run
On smoother, till Favonius reinspire
The frozen earth, and clothe in fresh attire
The lily and the rose, that neither sowed nor spun."
Milton.
=Fays.=
"The yellow-skirted Fays
Fly after the night-steeds,
Leaving their moon-loved maze."
Milton.
=Feasts=, see Comus.
=Febris= (Feʹbris) (fever), one of the evil deities, was worshiped
that she might not do harm.
=Februus= (Febʹruus). A name of Pluto, from the part of the funeral
rites which consisted of purifications.
=Feronia= (Feroʹnia), the Roman goddess of orchards, was patroness of
enfranchised slaves. Some authors think Feronia is the same as Juno.
=Fertility=, see Lupercus.
=Festivals=, see Thalia.
=Fidelity=, see Iolaus.
=Fides= (Fiʹdes), the goddess of faith and honesty, and a temple in
the Capitol of Rome.
=Fine Arts=, see Minerva.
=Fire=, see Salamander, Vesta, and Vulcan.
=Fire Insurance=, see Canopus.
=Fisherman=, see Glaucus.
=Flath-innis= (Flathʹ-inʹnis), in Celtic mythology, is Paradise.
=Fleece, Golden=, see Golden Fleece, Argonauts, and Jason.
=Flies=, see Muscarius.
=Flocks=, see Pales (goddess of pastures).
=Flora= (Floʹra), goddess of flowers and gardens, was wife of
Zephyrus. She enjoyed perpetual youth. Her Grecian name was Chloris.
=Floralia= (Floraʹlia) were licentious games instituted in honor of
the goddess Flora.
=Flowers=, see Flora, Chloris, Hortensis, and Zephyrus.
=Flute=, see Marsyas.
=Fortuna= (Fortuʹna), the goddess of fortune, had a temple erected to
her by Servius Tullius. She was supposed to be able to bestow riches
or poverty on mankind, and was esteemed one of the most potent of the
ancient goddesses. She is usually represented as standing on a wheel,
with a bandage over her eyes, and holding a cornucopia.
=Fraud=, one of the evil deities, was represented as a goddess with a
human face and a serpent's body, and at the end of her tail was a
scorpion's sting. She lived in the river Cocytus, and nothing but her
head was ever seen.
=Freyr= (Freyʹr). The Scandinavian god of fertility and peace. The
patron god of Sweden and Iceland.
=Freyja= (Freyʹja). The Scandinavian Venus. The goddess of love.
=Friga= (Friʹga). The Saxon goddess of earthly enjoyments. The name
Friday is derived from her. In Scandinavian mythology she is the
goddess of marriage.
=Fro.= The Scandinavian god of tempests and winds.
=Frogs=, see Clowns of Lycia.
[Illustration: The Fates
_See page 54_]
=Fruits=, see Ceres, and Pomona.
=Funerals=, see Libitina, and Manes.
=Furies, The=, were the three daughters of Acheron and Nox. They were
the punishers of evil-doers. Their names were Tisiphone, Megaera, and
Alecto, and were supposed to personify rage, slaughter, and envy.
=Futurity=, see Cassandra.
=Gabriel= (Gaʹbriel), in Jewish mythology is the prince of fire and
thunder, and the angel of death to the favored people of God.
=Galataea= (Galataeʹa). A sea nymph. Polyphemus, one of the Cyclops,
loved her, but she disdained his attentions and became the lover of
Acis, a Sicilian shepherd.
=Gallantes= (Gallanʹtes), madmen, from Galli (which see).
=Galli= (Galʹli) were priests of Cybele who used to cut their arms
with knives when they sacrificed, and acted so like madmen that
demented people got the name of Gallantes.
=Ganesa= (Ganʹesa). The Indian Mercury. The god of wisdom and
prudence.
=Ganga.= One of the three Indian river goddesses.
=Ganymede=, a beautiful Phrygian youth, son of Tros, King of Troy. He
succeeded Hebe in the office of cup-bearer to Jupiter. He is generally
represented sitting on the back of a flying eagle.
=Gardens=, see Pomona (goddess of fruit-trees).
=Gates=, see Janus.
=Gautama= (Gauʹtama) (Buddha). The chief deity of Burmah.
=Genii= were domestic divinities. Every man was supposed to have two
of these genii accompanying him; one brought him happiness, the other
misery.
=Genitor= (Genʹitor). A Lycian name of Jupiter.
=Geometry=, see Mercury.
=Geryon= (Geʹryon) was a triple-bodied monster who lived at Gades,
where his numerous flocks were guarded by Orthos, a two-headed dog,
and by Eurythion, a seven-headed dragon. These guardians were
destroyed by Hercules, and the cattle taken away.
=Gimlet=, see Daedalus.
=Girdle=, see Cestus (Venus's).
=Glaucus= (Glauʹcus) was a fisherman who became a sea-god through
eating a sea-weed, which he thought invigorated the fishes and might
strengthen him.
=Glaukopis= (Glaukoʹpis). A name given to Minerva, because she had
blue eyes.
=Gnomes= (Gnoʹmes), a name given by Plato to the invisible deities who
were supposed to inhabit the earth.
=Gnossis= (Gnosʹsis), a name given to Ariadne, from the city of
Gnossus, in Crete.
=Goat=, see Iphigenia, Mendes, and Venus.
=Goat's Feet=, see Capripedes.
=Golden Apple=, see Atalanta.
=Golden Fleece, The=, was a ram's hide, sometimes described as white,
and at other times as purple and golden. It was given to Phryxus, who
carried it to Colchis, where King Aeetes entertained Phryxus, and the
hide was hung up in the grove of Mars. Jason and forty-nine companions
fetched back the golden fleece. See Argonauts.
=Gopya= (Gopyʹa). Indian mythological nymphs.
=Gorgons, The= (Gorʹgons), were three sisters, named Stheno, Euryale,
and Medusa. They petrified every one they looked at. Instead of hair
their heads were covered with vipers. Perseus conquered them, and cut
off the head of Medusa, which was placed on the shield of Minerva, and
all who fixed their eyes thereon were turned into stone.
=Graces, The=, were the attendants of Venus. Their names were, Aglaia,
so called from her beauty and goodness; Thalia, from her perpetual
freshness; and Euphrosyne, from her cheerfulness. They are generally
depicted as three cheerful maidens with hands joined, and either nude
or only wearing transparent robes--the idea being that kindnesses, as
personified by the Graces, should be done with sincerity and candor,
and without disguise. They were supposed to teach the duties of
gratitude and friendship, and they promoted love and harmony among
mankind.
=Graces= (fourth), see Pasithea.
=Gradivus= (Gradʹivus). A name given to Mars by the Romans. It meant
the warrior who defended the city against all external enemies.
=Gragus= (Graʹgus). The name by which Jupiter was worshiped in Lycia.
=Granaries=, see Tutelina.
=Grapsios= (Grapʹsios). A Lycian name of Jupiter.
=Grasshopper=, see Tithonus.
=Grief=, see Niobe.
=Hada= (Haʹda). The Babylonian Juno.
=Hades= (Haʹdes). The Greek name of Pluto, the god of hell, the word
signifying hidden, dark, and gloomy; the underworld, or infernal
regions; sometimes written _Ades_.
=Hailstorms=, see Nuriel.
=Halcyone= (Halcyʹone) (or =Alcyone=), one of the Pleiades, was a
daughter of Aeolus.
=Halcyons= (Halcyʹons) were sea birds, supposed to be the Greek
kingfishers. They made their nests on the waves, and during the period
of incubation the sea was always calm. Hence the modern term Halcyon
Days.
=Hamadryades= (Hamadryʹades) were wood-nymphs, who presided over
trees.
=Happiness=, see Genii.
=Haroeris= (Haroeʹris). The Egyptian god, whose eyes are the sun and
moon.
=Harpies, The= (Harʹpies), (literally, snatchers, demons of
destruction, or, in the modern sense, extortioners). They were
monsters, half-birds, half-maidens, having the heads and breasts of
women, the bodies of birds, and the claws of lions. Their names were
Aello, Ocypete, and Celeno. They were loathsome creatures, living in
filth, and poisoning everything they came in contact with.
"Such fiends to scourge mankind, so fierce, so fell,
Heaven never summoned from the depth of hell.
A virgin face, with wings and hookèd claws,
Death in their eyes, and famine in their jaws,
While proof to steel their hides and plumes remain
We strike the impenetrable fiends in vain."
=Harpikruti= (Harpiʹkruti). The Egyptian name of the god Harpocrates.
=Harpocrates= (Harpocʹrates), or Horus, an Egyptian god, son of Osiris
and Isis. He was the god of silence and secrecy. He is usually
represented as a young man, holding a finger of one hand to his lips
(expressive of a command to preserve silence), while in the other hand
he holds a cornucopia, signifying early vegetation.
=Harvest=, see Segetia. A Roman divinity, invoked by the husbandman
that the harvest might be plentiful.
=Hawk=, see Nysus.
=Hazis= (Haʹzis). The Syrian war-god.
=Health=, see Hygeia and Salus.
=Heaven=, =Queen of=, (Heaʹven) see Belisama. =God of=, see Coelus.
=Hebe= (Heʹbe), daughter of Zeus (Jupiter) and Hera (Juno), was the
goddess of youth. She was cup-bearer to Jupiter and the gods, until
she had an awkward fall at a festival, causing her to alight in an
indecent posture, which so displeased Jupiter that she was deprived of
her office, and Ganymede was appointed in her stead.
"Wreathed smiles,
Such as hung on Hebe's cheek,
And love to live in dimples sleek."
Milton.
"Bright Hebe waits; by Hebe ever young
The whirling wheels are to the chariot hung."
Pope.
=Hecate= (Hecʹate). There were two goddesses known by this name, but
the one generally referred to in modern literature is Hecate, or
Proserpine, the name by which Diana was known in the infernal regions.
In heaven her name was Luna, and her terrestrial name was Diana. She
was a moon-goddess, and is generally represented in art with three
bodies, standing back to back, a torch, a sword, and a lance in each
right hand.
=Hecuba= (Hecʹuba). The wife of Priam, king of Troy, and mother of
Paris. Taken captive in the Trojan war, she fell to the lot of Ulysses
after the destruction of Troy, and was afterwards changed into a
hound.
"What's Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba?"
Shakespeare.
=Heifer=, see Ino.
=Helena= (Helʹena) when a child was so beautiful that Theseus and
Perithous stole her, but she was restored by Castor and Pollux. She
became the wife of Menelaus, king of Sparta, but eloped with Paris,
and thus caused the Trojan War. After the death of Paris she married
Deiphobus, his brother, and then betrayed him to Menelaus. She was
afterward tied to a tree and strangled by order of Polyxo, king of
Rhodes.
=Heliades, The= (Heʹliades), were the daughters of Sol, and the
sisters of Phaeton, at whose death they were so sad that they stood
mourning till they became metamorphosed into poplar trees, and their
tears were turned into amber.
=Helicon= (Helʹicon). A mountain in Boeotia sacred to the Muses, from
which place the fountain Hippocrene flowed.
"Yet still the doting rhymer dreams,
And sings of Helicon's bright streams;
But Helicon for all his clatter
Yields only uninspiring water."
Broom, 1720.
=Heliconiades= (Helicoʹniades). A name given to the Muses, from Mount
Helicon.
=Heliopolis= (Heliopʹolis), in Egypt, was the city of the sun.
=Helios= (Heʹlios). The Grecian sun-god, or charioteer of the sun, who
went home every evening in a golden boat which had wings.
=Heliotrope= (Helʹiotrope). Clytie was turned into this flower by
Apollo. See Clytie.
=Helle= (Helʹle) was drowned in the sea, into which she fell from off
the back of the golden ram, on which she and Phryxus were escaping
from the oppression of their stepmother Ino. The episode gave the name
of the Hellespont to the part of the sea where Helle was drowned, and
it is now called the Dardanelles. She was the daughter of Athamas and
Nephele.
=Hellespontiacus= (Hellespontiaʹcus). A title of Priapus.
=Hemphta= (Hemphʹta). The Egyptian god Jupiter.
=Hephaestus= (Hephaesʹtus). The Greek Vulcan, the smith of the gods.
=Hera= (Heʹra). The Greek name of Juno.
=Heracles= (Herʹacles) is the same as Hercules.
=Hercules= (Herʹcules) was the son of Jupiter and Alcmena. The goddess
Juno hated him from his birth, and sent two serpents to kill him, but
though only eight months old he strangled them. As he got older he was
set by his master Eurystheus what were thought to be twelve impossible
tasks which have long been known as the "Twelve Labors of Hercules."
They were:
_First_, To slay the Nemean Lion.
_Second_, To destroy the Hydra which infested the marshes of Lerna.
_Third_, To bring to Eurystheus the Arcadian Stag with the golden
horns and brazen hoofs.
_Fourth_, To bring to his master the Boar of Erymanthus.
_Fifth_, To cleanse the stable of King Augeas, in which 3,000 oxen
had been kept for thirty years, but had never been cleaned out.
_Sixth_, To destroy the Stymphalides, terrible carnivorous birds.
_Seventh_, To capture the Bull which was desolating Crete.
_Eighth_, To capture the mares of Diomedes, which breathed fire from
their nostrils, and ate human flesh.
_Ninth_, To procure the girdle of Hippolyte, queen of the Amazons.
_Tenth_, To bring to Eurystheus the flesh-eating oxen of Geryon, the
monster king of Gades.
_Eleventh_, To bring away some of the golden apples from the garden of
the Hesperides.
_Twelfth_, To bring up from Hades the three-headed dog, Cerberus.
All these tasks he successfully accomplished, and, besides, he
assisted the gods in their wars with the giants. Several other
wonderful feats are mentioned under other headings, as Antaeus, Cacus,
etc. His death was brought about through his endeavors to preserve
Deianira from the attacks of Nessus, the centaur, whom he killed. The
centaur, before he expired, gave his mystic tunic to Deianira, who in
turn gave it to Hercules, and he put it on, but his doing so brought
on an illness of which he could not be cured. In a fit of desperation
he cast himself into a funeral pile on Mount Oeta; but Jupiter had
him taken to heaven in a four-horse chariot, and only the mortal part
of Hercules was consumed.
"Let Hercules himself do what he may,
The cat will mew, and dog will have his day."
Shakespeare.
=Herdsmen=, see Bubona.
=Hermae= (Herʹmae) were statues of Hermes (Mercury), which were set up
in Athens for boundaries, and as direction marks for travelers.
=Hermanubis= (Herʹmanuʹbis), see Anubis.
=Hermathenae= (Hermatheʹnae) were statues of Mercury and Minerva
placed together.
=Hermes= (Herʹmes). A Greek name of the god Mercury.
"Hermes obeys. With golden pinions binds
His flying feet and mounts the western winds."
Virgil.
=Hermione= (Hermiʹone), daughter of Mars and Venus, who was turned
into a serpent, and allowed to live in the Elysian Fields. There was
another Hermione, daughter of Menelaus and Helen; she was betrothed to
Orestes, but was carried away by Pyrrhus, the son of Achilles.
=Hero= (Heʹro). A priestess of Venus, with whom Leander was so
enamored that he swam across the Hellespont every night to visit her,
but at last was drowned; when Hero saw the fate of her lover she threw
herself into the sea and was also drowned.
=Heroes=, see Valhalla.
=Hesperides= (Hesperʹides). Three daughters of Hesperus, King of
Italy. They were appointed to guard the golden apples which Juno gave
Jupiter on their wedding day. See Hercules.
=Hesperus= (Hesʹperus), brother of Atlas, was changed into the evening
star.
"To the ocean now I fly,
And those happy climes that lie
Where day never shuts his eye,
Upon the broad fields of the sky:
There I suck the liquid air,
All amidst the gardens fair
Of Hesperus and his daughters three,
That sing about the golden tree."
Milton.
=Hestia= (Hesʹtia). The Greek name of Vesta, the goddess of the
hearth.
=Hieroglyphics= (Hieroglyʹphics), see Mercury.
=Highways=, see Janus.
=Hildur= (Hilʹdur). The Scandinavian Mars.
=Hippia= (Hipʹpia). A surname of Minerva.
=Hippius= (Hipʹpius). A surname of Neptune.
=Hippocampus= (Hippocamʹpus). The name of Neptune's favorite horse, a
fabulous marine animal, half horse and half fish.
=Hippocrenides= (Hippocreʹnides), a name of the Muses, from the
fountain of Hippocrene (the horse fountain), which was formed by a
kick of the winged horse Pegasus.
=Hippolyte= (Hippolʹyte), queen of the Amazons, daughter of Mars. Her
father gave her a famous girdle, which Hercules was required to
procure (see Hercules). She was conquered by Hercules, and given by
him in marriage to Theseus.
=Hippolytus= (Hippolʹytus) was the son of Theseus and Hippolyte; he
was killed by a fall from a chariot, but was raised to life again by
Diana, or, as some say, by Aesculapius.
=Hippona= (Hippoʹna) was a rural divinity, the goddess of horses.
=History=, see Clio and Saga.
=Honey=, see Aristaeus and Dryads.
=Hope=, see Pandora.
=Horae= (Hoʹrae) were the daughters of Sol and Chronis, the goddesses
of the seasons.
=Horse=, see Cyllaros.
=Horse Races=, see Neptune.
=Horses=, see Hippona.
=Hortensis= (Hortenʹsis), a name of Venus, because she looked after
plants and flowers in gardens.
=Horus= (Hoʹrus). The name of two deities, one Sol, the Egyptian day
god; the other, the son of Osiris and Isis. See Harpocrates.
=Hostilina= (Hostilʹina). A rural divinity; goddess of growing corn.
=Hunger=, see Erisichthon.
=Hunting=, see Diana.
=Huntsmen=, see Pan.
[Illustration: Hebe
_See page 62_]
=Hyacinthus= (Hyacinʹthus) was a boy greatly loved by Apollo; but he
was accidentally slain by him with a quoit. Apollo caused to spring
from his blood the flower Hyacinth.
=Hyades= (Hyʹades) were seven daughters of Atlas and Aethra, and they
formed a constellation which, when it rises with the sun, threatens
rain.
=Hydra= (Hyʹdra). A monster serpent, which had a hundred heads. It was
slain by Hercules. See Hercules.
=Hygeia= (Hygeʹia), the goddess of health, was a daughter of
Aesculapius and Epione. She was represented as a young woman giving a
serpent drink out of a saucer, the serpent being twined round her arm.
=Hylas= (Hyʹlas). A beautiful boy beloved by Hercules. The nymphs were
jealous of him, and spirited him away while he was drawing water for
Hercules. See Wm. Morris's tragedy, "The Life and Death of Jason."
=Hymen= (Hyʹmen), the Grecian god of marriage, was either the son of
Bacchus and Venus, or, as some say, of Apollo and one of the Muses. He
was represented as a handsome youth, holding in his hand a burning
torch.
"Some few there are of sordid mould
Who barter youth and bloom for gold:
But Hymen, gen'rous, just, and kind,
Abhors the mercenary mind;
Such rebels groan beneath his rod,
For Hymen's a vindictive god."
Dr. Cotton, 1736.
=Hymn=, see Paean.
=Hyperion= (Hypeʹrion). Son of Coelus and Terra. The model of manly
beauty, synonymous with Apollo. The personification of the sun.
"So excellent a king; that was to this
Hyperion to a satyr."
Shakespeare.
=Hypermnestra= (Hypermnesʹtra). One of the fifty daughters of Danaus,
who were collectively called the Danaides. She was the one who refused
to kill her husband on the wedding night. See Danaus.
=Iacchus= (Iacʹchus). Another name for Bacchus.
=Iapetos= (Iapʹetos). The father of Atlas. See Japetus.
=Iblees= (Ibʹlees). The Arabian Satan.
=Icarus= (Icʹarus), son of Daedalus, who with his father made
themselves wings with which to fly from Crete to escape the resentment
of Minos. The wings were fixed to the shoulders by wax. Icarus flew
too near the sun, and the heat melting the wax, caused the wings to
drop off, and he fell into the Aegean or Icarian sea and was drowned.
=Ichnobate= (Ichnobaʹte). One of Actaeon's hounds; the word means
tracker.
=Idaea= (Idaeʹa). A name of Cybele, from Mount Ida, where she was
worshiped.
=Idaean Mother= (Idaeʹan Mother). Cybele was sometimes so called, in
Cyprus, in which there is a grove sacred to Venus.
=Idalia= (Idaʹlia). A name of Venus, from Mount Idalus, in Cyprus, in
which there is a grove sacred to Venus.
=Imperator= (Imperaʹtor) was a name of Jupiter, given to him at
Praeneste.
=Inachus= (Iʹnachus) was one of the earliest of the demi-gods or
heroes, King of Argos.
=Incendiary=, see Erostratus.
=Incense=, see Venus.
=Incubus= (Inʹcubus). A Roman name of Pan, meaning The Nightmare. See
Innus.
=Indigetes= (Indigʹetes) were deified mortals, gods of the fourth
order. They were peculiar to some district.
=Indra= (Inʹdra). The Hindoo Jupiter; his wife was Indrant, who
presides over the winds and thunder.
=Infants=, see Natio.
=Innus= (Inʹnus). A name of Pan, the same as Incubus.
=Ino= (Inʹo), second wife of Athamas, King of Thebes, father of
Phryxus and Helle. Ino had two children, who could not ascend the
throne while Phryxus and Helle were alive. Ino therefore persecuted
them to such a degree that they determined to escape. They did so on a
ram, whose hide became the Golden Fleece (see Phryxus and Helle). Ino
destroyed herself, and was changed by Neptune into a sea-goddess.
=Inoa= (Inoʹa) were festivals in memory of Ino.
=Instrumental Music=, see Euterpe.
=Io= (Iʹo) was a daughter of Inachus, and a priestess of Juno at
Argos. Jupiter courted her, and was detected by Juno, when the god
turned Io into a beautiful heifer. Juno demanded the beast of Jupiter,
and set the hundred-eyed Argus to watch her. Jupiter persuaded Mercury
to destroy Argus, and Io was set at liberty, and restored to human
shape. Juno continued her persecutions, and Io had to wander from
place to place till she came to Egypt, where she became wife of King
Osiris, and won such good opinions from the Egyptians that after her
death she was worshiped as the goddess Isis.
=Iolaus= (Iolaʹus), son of Iphicles, assisted Hercules in conquering
the Hydra, by burning with hot irons the place where the heads were
cut off; and for his assistance he was restored to youth by Hebe.
Lovers used to go to his monument at Phocis and ratify their vows of
fidelity.
=Iothun= (Ioʹthun). Celtic mythological monsters, or giants.
=Iphicles= (Iphʹicles) was twin brother of Hercules, and father of
Iolaus.
=Iphigenia= (Iphigeniʹa) was a daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra.
Agamemnon made a vow to Diana, which involved the sacrifice of
Iphigenia, but just at the critical moment she was carried to heaven,
and a beautiful goat was found on the altar in her place.
=Iris= (Iʹris), daughter of Thaumas and Electra, was the attendant of
Juno, and one of the messengers of the gods. Her duty was to cut the
thread which detained expiring souls. She is the personification of
the rainbow.
=Iron=, see Vulcan.
=Isis= (Iʹsis), wife of Osiris, and a much worshiped divinity of the
Egyptians. See Io.
=Itys= (Iʹtys) was killed by his mother Procne when six years old, and
given to his father Tereus, a Thracian of Daulis, as food. The gods
were so enraged at this that they turned Itys into a pheasant, Procne
into a swallow, and Tereus into a hawk.
=Ixion= (Ixiʹon), the son of Phlegyas, King of the Lapithae. For
attempting to produce thunder, Jupiter cast him into hell, and had him
bound to a wheel, surrounded with serpents, which is forever turning
over a river of fire.
"The powers of vengeance, while they hear,
Touched with compassion, drop a tear;
Ixion's rapid wheel is bound,
Fixed in attention to the sound."
F. Lewis.
"Or, as Ixion fix'd, the wretch shall feel
The giddy motion of the whirling wheel."
Pope.
=Jani= (Jaʹni) was a place in Rome where there were three statues of
Janus, and it was a meeting-place for usurers and creditors.
=Janitor= (Jaʹnitor). A title of Janus, from the gates before the
doors of private houses being called Januae.
=Janus= (Jaʹnus). A king of Italy, said to have been the son of
Coelus, others say of Apollo; he sheltered Saturn when he was driven
from heaven by Jupiter. Janus presided over highways, gates, and
locks, and is usually represented with two faces, because he was
acquainted with the past and the future; or, according to others,
because he was taken for the sun, who opens the day at his rising, and
shuts it at his setting. A brazen temple was erected to him in Rome,
which was always open in time of war, and closed during peace.
"Old Janus, if you please,
Grave two-faced father."
"In two-faced Janus we this moral find,--
While we look forward, we should glance behind."
Colman.
=Japetus= (Japʹetus), son of Coelus and Terra, husband of Clymene. He
was looked upon by the Greeks as the father of all mankind. See
Iapetos.
=Jason= (Jaʹson), the son of Aeson, king of Iolcos; he was brought up
by the centaur Chiron. His uncle Aeeta sent him to fetch the Golden
Fleece from Colchis (see Argonauts). He went in the ship Argo with
forty-nine companions, the flower of Greek youth. With the help of
Juno they got safe to Colchis, but the King Aeetes promised to restore
the Golden Fleece only on condition that the Argonauts performed
certain services. Jason was to tame the wild fiery bulls, and to make
them plow the field of Mars; to sow in the ground the teeth of a
serpent, from which would spring armed men who would fight against him
who plowed the field of Mars; to kill the fiery dragon which guarded
the tree on which the Golden Fleece was hung. The fate of Jason and
the rest of the Argonauts seemed certain; but Medea, the king's
daughter, fell in love with Jason, and with the help of charms which
she gave him he overcame all the difficulties which the king had put
in his way. He took away the Golden Fleece and Medea also. The king
sent his son Absyrtus to overtake the fugitives, but Medea killed him,
and strewed his limbs in his father's path, so that he might be
delayed in collecting them, and this enabled Jason and Medea to
escape. After a time Jason got tired of Medea, and married Glauce,
which cruelty Medea revenged by killing her children before their
father's eyes. Jason was accidentally killed by a beam of the ship
Argo falling on him.
=Jocasta= (Jocasʹta) (otherwise Epicasta), wife of Laius, King of
Thebes, who in after-life married her own son, Oedipus, not knowing
who he was, and, on discovering the fatal mistake, hanged herself.
=Jove.= A very general name of Jupiter.
"From the great father of the gods above
My muse begins, for all is full of Jove."
Virgil.
=Judges in Hell, The=, were Rhadamanthus for Asiatics; Aeacus for
Europeans; Minos was the presiding judge in the infernal regions. See
Triptolemus.
=Jugatinus= (Jugatinʹus) was one of the nuptial deities.
=Juno= (Juʹno) was the daughter of Saturn and Ops, _alias_ Cybele. She
was married to Jupiter, and became queen of all the gods and
goddesses, and mistress of heaven and earth. Juno was the mother of
Mars, Vulcan, Hebe, and Lucina. She prompted the gods to conspire
against Jupiter, but the attempt was frustrated, and Apollo and
Neptune were banished from heaven by Jupiter. Juno is the goddess of
marriage, and the protectress of married women; and she had special
regard for virtuous women. In the competition for the celebrated
Golden Apple, which Juno, Venus, and Minerva each claimed as the
fairest among the goddesses, Juno was much displeased when Paris gave
the apple to Venus. The goddess is generally represented riding in a
chariot drawn by peacocks, with a diadem on her head, and a scepter in
her hand.
=Jupiter= (Juʹpiter), son of Saturn and Cybele (or Ops), was born on
Mount Ida, in Crete, and nourished by the goat Amalthaea. When quite
young Jupiter rescued his father from the Titans; and afterward, with
the help of Hercules, defeated the giants, the sons of earth, when
they made war against heaven. Jupiter was worshiped with great
solemnity under various names by most of the heathen nations. The
Africans called him Ammon; the Babylonians, Belus; and the Egyptians,
Osiris (see Jove). He is represented as a majestic personage seated on
a throne, holding in his hands a scepter and a thunderbolt; at his
feet stood a spread eagle.
=Justice=, see Astrea, Nemesis.
=Kali.= A Hindoo goddess, after whom Calicut is named.
=Kaloc= (Kaʹloc). One of the chief of the Mexican gods.
=Kama= (Kamʹa). The Hindoo god of love.
=Kebla= (Kebʹla). The point of the compass which worshipers look to
during their invocations. Thus the Sol or Sun worshipers turn to the
east, where the sun rises, and the Mohammedans turn toward Mecca.
=Kederli= (Keʹderli), in Mohammedan mythology, is a god corresponding
to the English St. George, and is still invoked by the Turks when they
go to war.
=Kiun= (Kiʹun). The Egyptian Venus.
=Kneph.= An Egyptian god, having a ram's head and a man's body.
=Krishna= (Krishʹna). An Indian god, the revenger of wrongs; also
called the Indian Apollo.
=Krodo= (Kroʹdo). The Saxon Saturn.
=Kumara= (Kuʹmaʹra). The war-god of the Hindoos.
=Kuvera= (Kuʹvera). The Hindoo god of riches.
=Labe= (Laʹbe). The Arabian Circe, who had unlimited power of
metamorphosis.
=Labor= (Labʹor), see Atlas, Hercules.
=Labyrinth=, see Theseus.
=Lachesis= (Lachʹesis). One of the three goddesses of Fate, the
Parcae. She spun the thread of life.
=Lacinia= (Lacinʹia). A name of Juno.
=Lactura.= One of the goddesses of growing corn.
=Ladon= (Laʹdon). The dragon which guarded the apples in the garden of
the Hesperides. Also the name of one of Actaeon's hounds. Also the
river in Arcadia to which Syrinx fled when pursued by Pan, where she
was changed into a reed, and where Pan made his first pipe.
=Laelaps= (Laeʹlaps). One of Diana's hunting-dogs, which, while
pursuing a wild boar, was petrified. Also the name of one of Actaeon's
hounds.
=Laksmi= (Laksʹmi) Hindoo goddess of wealth and pleasure. One of the
husbands of Vishnu.
=Lamentation=, see Cocytus.
=Lamia= (Lamʹia). An evil deity among the Greeks and Romans, and the
great dread of their children, whom she had the credit of constantly
enticing away and destroying.
=Lamp=, see Lares and Penates.
=Lampos= (Lamʹpos). One of Aurora's chariot horses, the other being
Phaeton.
=Laocoon= (Laocʹoon). One of the priests of Apollo, who was, with his
two sons, strangled to death by serpents, because he opposed the
admission of the fatal wooden horse to Troy.
=Laomedon= (Laomʹedon), son of Ilus, a Trojan king. He was famous for
having, with the assistance of Apollo and Neptune, built the walls of
Troy.
=Lapis= (Lapʹis). The oath stone. The Romans used to swear by Jupiter
Lapis.
=Lapithus= (Lapʹithus), son of Apollo. His numerous children were
called Lapithae, and they are notorious for their fight with the
centaurs at the nuptial feast of Perithous and Hippodamia.
=Lares and Penates= (Laʹres and Penaʹtes) were sons of Mercury and
Lara, or, as other mythologists say, of Jupiter and Lamida. They
belonged to the lower order of Roman gods, and presided over homes and
families. Their statues were generally fixed within the doors of
houses, or near the hearths. Lamps were sacred to them, as symbols of
vigilance, and the dog was their sacrifice.
=Lark=, see Scylla and Nysus.
=Latona= (Latoʹna), daughter of Coelus and Phoebe, mother of Apollo
and Diana. Being admired so much by Jupiter, Juno was jealous, and
Latona was the object of the goddess' constant persecution.
=Laughter=, see Momus and Venus.
=Laurel= (Lauʹrel), see Daphne.
=Laverna= (Laverʹna). The Roman patroness of thieves.
=Law=, see Menu.
=Lawgiver=, see Nomius.
=Laws=, see Themis.
=Leander= (Leanʹder), see Hero.
=Leather Bottle=, see Ascolia.
=Leda= (Leʹda) was the mother of Castor and Pollux, their father being
Jupiter, in the shape of a swan. After her death she received the name
of Nemesis.
=Lemnius= (Lemʹnius). One of the names of Vulcan.
=Lemures= (Lemʹures). The ghosts of departed souls. Milton, in his
"Ode to the Nativity," says--
"Lemures moan with midnight plaint."
They are sometimes referred to as the Manes of the dead.
=Lenaeus= (Lenaeʹus). One of the names of Bacchus.
=Lerna= (Lerʹna). The lake or swamp near Argos where Hercules
conquered the Lernaean Hydra.
=Lethe= (Leʹthe). One of the rivers of the infernal regions, of which
the souls of the departed are obliged to drink to produce oblivion or
forgetfulness of everything they did or knew while alive on the earth.
"A slow and silent stream,
Lethe, the river of oblivion, rolls
Her watery labyrinth, whereof who drinks
Forthwith his former state and being forgets,
Forgets both joy and grief, pleasure and pain."
Milton.
[Illustration: Hera
_See page 64_]
=Leucothea= (Leucothʹea). The name of Ino after she was transformed
into a sea nymph.
=Levana= (Levaʹna). The deity who presided over new-born infants.
=Level, The=, see Daedalus.
=Liakura= (Liakʹura). Mount Parnassus.
=Liberal Arts=, see Minerva.
=Liber Pater= (Liʹber Paʹter). A name of Bacchus.
=Liberty=, see Bacchus.
=Libissa= (Libʹissa). Queen of fays and fairies.
=Libitina= (Libitiʹna). A Roman goddess, the chief of the funeral
deities.
=Licentiousness=, see Belphegor.
=Ligea= (Ligeʹa). A Greek syren or sea-nymph, one of the Nereides.
=Lightning=, see Agni.
=Lilith= (Liʹlith). A Jewish myth representing a finely dressed woman
who is a great enemy to new-born children. She was said to have been
Adam's first wife, but, refusing to submit to him, was turned from
Paradise and made a specter.
=Lina= (Liʹna). The goddess of the art of weaving.
=Lindor= (Linʹdor). A lover in the shape of a shepherd, like Corydon;
a love-sick swain.
=Lion=, see Atalanta, Chimaera.
=Liver=, see Tityus and Prometheus.
=Locks=, see Janus.
=Lofen= (Loʹfen). The Scandinavian god who guards friendship.
=Lofua= (Lofʹua). The Scandinavian goddess who reconciles lovers.
=Loke.= The Scandinavian Satan, the god of strife, the spirit of evil.
Written also Lok, and Loki.
=Lotis= (Loʹtis). A daughter of Neptune, who fled from Priapus, and
only escaped from him by being transformed into a lotus-plant.
=Lotus-Plant= (Loʹtus-Plant), see Lotis.
=Love=, see Cupid, Eros, Venus.
=Lucian= (Luʹcian). The impersonation of folly, changed into an ass.
=Lucifer= (Luʹcifer). The morning star.
=Lucina= (Luciʹna). The goddess who presides at the birth of children.
She was a daughter of Jupiter and Juno, or, according to others, of
Latona.
"Lucina, hail! So named from thine own grove,
Or from the light thou giv'st us from above."
Ovid.
=Lud.= In ancient British mythology the king of the Britons. He is
said to have given his name to London.
=Luna= (Luʹna). The name of Diana as a celestial divinity. See Diana
and Hecate. Also, the Italian goddess of the moon.
=Lupercus= (Luʹpercus), or Pan. The Roman god of fertility; his
festival day was 15th February, and the festivals were called
Lupercalia.
=Lycaonian Food= (Lycaonʹian). Execrable viands, such as were
supplied to Jupiter by Lycaon. To test the divine knowledge of the god
he served up human flesh, which Jove discovered, and punished Lycaon
by turning him into a wolf.
=Lycian Clowns= were turned into frogs by Latona or Ceres.
=Lymniades= (Lymniʹades). Nymphs who resided in marshes.
=Lynceus= (Lynʹceus). One of the Argonauts. The personification of
sharpsightedness.
=Lyre.= This musical instrument is constantly associated with the
doings of the ancient deities. Amphion built the walls of Thebes by
the music of his lyre. Arion charmed the dolphins in a similar way.
Hercules broke the head of Linus, his music-master, with the lyre he
was learning to use; and Orpheus charmed the most savage beasts, and
even the Harpies and gods of the infernal regions, with the enchanting
music of the stringed lyre. See Mercury.
=Maenades= (Maenʹades). Priestesses of Bacchus.
=Magicians=, see Telchines.
=Magna Dea= (Magʹna Deʹa), a name of Ceres.
=Magpies=, see Pierides.
=Mahasoor= (Maʹhaʹsoor). The Hindoo god of evil.
=Maia= (Maʹia). The mother of the Grecian Mercury.
=Mammon= (Mamʹmon). The money god.
=Manes= (Maʹnes). The souls of the departed. The Roman god of
funerals and tombs.
"All have their Manes, and their Manes bear.
The few who're cleansed to those abodes repair,
And breathe in ample fields the soft Elysian air."
=Manuring Land=, see Picumnus.
=March 24=, Bellona's Day. See Bellona.
=Marina= (Mariʹna). A name of Venus, meaning sea-foam, from her having
been formed from the froth of the sea. See Aphrodite.
=Marriage=, see Cama, Hymen, Juno, Jugatinus.
=Mars=, the god of war, was the son of Jupiter and Juno. Venus was his
favorite goddess, and among their children were Cupid, Anteros, and
Harmonia. In the Trojan War Mars took the part of the Trojans, but was
defeated by Diomedes. The first month of the old Roman year (our
March) was sacred to Mars.
=Marshes=, see Lymniades.
=Marsyas= (Marʹsyas). The name of the piper who challenged Apollo to a
musical contest, and, being defeated, was flayed to death by the god.
He was the supposed inventor of the flute.
=Marut= (Maʹrut). The Hindoo god of tempestuous winds.
=Matura= (Matuʹra). One of the rural deities who protected the growing
corn at time of ripening.
=Maximus= (Maxʹimus). One of the appellations of Jupiter, being the
greatest of the gods.
=Measures and Weights=, see Mercury.
=Medea= (Medeʹa). Wife of Jason, chief of the Argonauts. To punish
her husband for infidelity, Medea killed two of her children in their
father's presence. She was a great sorceress. See Jason.
"Now to Medaea's dragons fix my reins."
F. Lewis.
"Let not Medea draw her murdering knife,
And spill her children's blood upon the stage."
Lord Roscommon.
=Medicine=, see Apollo.
=Meditation=, see Harpocrates.
=Medusa= (Meduʹsa). One of the Gorgons. Minerva changed her beautiful
hair into serpents. She was conquered by Perseus, who cut off her
head, and placed it on Minerva's shield. Every one who looked at the
head was turned into stone.
Ulysses, in the Odyssey, relates that he wished to see more of the
inhabitants of Hades, but was afraid, as he says--
"Lest Gorgon, rising from the infernal lakes,
With horrors armed, and curls of hissing snakes,
Should fix me, stiffened at the monstrous sight,
A stony image in eternal night."
Pope.
"Medusa with Gorgonian terror guards
The ford."
Milton.
"Remove that horrid monster, and take hence
Medusa's petrifying countenance."
Addison.
=Megaera= (Megʹaera). One of the three Furies--Greek goddesses of
vengeance.
=Megale= (Megʹale). A Greek name of Juno, meaning great.
=Melicerta= (Melicerʹta), see Palaemon.
=Mellona= (Melloʹna). One of the rural divinities, the goddess of
bees.
=Melpomene= (Melpomʹene). One of the nine Muses, the goddess of
tragedy.
=Memnon= (Memʹnon), son of Tithonus and of Eos, who after the death of
Hector brought the Aethiopians to the assistance of Priam in the war
against Troy.
=Memory=, see Mnemosyne.
=Mendes= (Menʹdes). An Egyptian god like Pan. He was worshiped in the
form of a goat.
=Menelaus= (Menelaʹus). A Spartan king, brother of Agamemnon. The
elopement of his wife Helen with Paris was the cause of the siege of
Troy. See Helena.
=Menu= (Meʹnu), or =Manu= (Maʹnu). The Hindoo law-giver. See
Satyavrata.
=Merchants=, see Mercury.
=Mercury= (Merʹcury), the son of Jupiter and Maia, was the messenger
of the gods, and the conductor of the souls of the dead to Hades. He
was the supposed inventor of weights and measures, and presided over
orators and merchants. Mercury was accounted a most cunning thief, for
he stole the bow and quiver of Apollo, the girdle of Venus, the
trident of Neptune, the tools of Vulcan, and the sword of Mars, and he
was therefore called the god of thieves. He is the supposed inventor
of the lyre, which he exchanged with Apollo for the Caduceus. There
was also an Egyptian Mercury under the name of Thoth, or Thaut, who is
credited with having taught the Egyptians geometry and hieroglyphics.
Hermes is the Greek name of Mercury. In art he is usually represented
as having on a winged cap, and with wings on his heels.
"And there, without the power to fly,
Stands fix'd a tip-toe Mercury."
Lloyd, 1750.
"Then fiery expedition be my wing,
Jove's Mercury, and herald for a king."
"Be Mercury, set feathers to thy heels
And fly, like thought, from them to me again."
Shakespeare.
=Meru= (Meʹru). The abode of the Hindoo god Vishnu. It is at the top
of a mountain 8,000 leagues high. The Olympus of the East Indians.
=Midas= (Miʹdas). A king of Phrygia, who begged of Bacchus the special
gift that everything that he touched might be turned into gold. The
request was granted, and as soon as he touched his food it also was
turned to gold, and for fear of being starved he was compelled to ask
the god to withdraw the power he had bestowed upon him. He was told to
bathe in the river Pactolus. He did so, and the sands which he stood
on were golden forever after. It was this same king who, being
appointed to be judge in a musical contest between Apollo and Pan,
gave the satyr the palm; whereupon Apollo, to show his contempt,
bestowed on him a pair of asses' ears. This gave rise to the term
"Midas-eared" as a synonym for ill-judged, or indiscriminate.
"He dug a hole, and in it whispering said,
What monstrous ears sprout from King Midas' head."
Ovid.
=Milo= (Miʹlo), a celebrated Croton athlete, who is said to have
felled an ox with his fist, and to have eaten the beast in one day.
His statue is often seen with one hand in the rift of a tree trunk,
out of which he is vainly trying to withdraw it. The fable is, that
when he got to be an old man he attempted to split an oak tree, but
having lost his youthful vigor, the tree closed on his hand and he was
held a prisoner till the wolves came and devoured him.
=Mimallones= (Mimalloʹnes). The "wild women" who accompanied Bacchus,
so called because they mimicked his actions, putting horns on their
heads when they took part in his orgies.
=Mimir= (Miʹmir). In Scandinavian mythology the god of wisdom.
=Mind=, see Erinnys.
=Minerva= (Minerʹva), the goddess of wisdom, war, and the liberal
arts, is said to have sprung from the head of Jupiter fully armed for
battle. She was a great benefactress of mankind, and patroness of the
fine arts. She was the tutelar deity of the city of Athens. She is
also known by the names of Pallas, Parthenos, Tritonia, and Glaukopis.
She was very generally worshiped by the ancients, and her temple at
Athens, the Parthenon, still remains. She is represented in statues
and pictures as wearing a golden helmet encircled with an olive
branch, and a breastplate. In her right hand she carries a lance, and
by her side is the famous aegis or shield, covered with the skin of
Amalthaea, the goat which nourished Jupiter; and for the boss of the
shield is the head of Medusa. An owl, the emblem of meditation, is on
the left; and a cock, the emblem of courage, on the right. The Elgin
Marbles in the British Museum, London, were brought from the
Parthenon, her temple at Athens.
=Minos= (Miʹnos). The supreme of the three judges of hell, before whom
the spirits of the departed appeared and heard their doom.
=Minotaur= (Minʹotaur). The monster, half man, half bull, which
Theseus slew.
=Mirth=, see Momus.
=Misery=, see Genii.
=Mithras= (Mithʹras). A Persian divinity, the ruler of the universe,
corresponding with the Roman Sol.
=Mnemosyne= (Mnemosʹyne). Mother of the Muses and goddess of memory.
Jupiter courted the goddess in the guise of a shepherd.
=Moakibat= (Moakʹibat). The recording angel of the Mohammedans.
=Moloch= (Moʹloch). A god of the Phoenicians to whom human victims,
principally children, were sacrificed. Moloch is figurative of the
influence which impels us to sacrifice that which we ought to cherish
most dearly.
"First Moloch, horrid king, besmeared with blood
Of human sacrifice, and parents' tears,
Though for the noise of drums and timbrels loud,
Their children's cries unheard, that poured through fire
To this grim idol."
Milton.
=Momus= (Moʹmus). The god of mockery and blame. The god who blamed
Jove for not having made a window in man's breast, so that his
thoughts could be seen. His bitter jests occasioned his being driven
from heaven in disgrace. He is represented as holding an image of
Folly in one hand, and raising a mask from his face with the other. He
is also described as the god of mirth or laughter.
=Moneta= (Moneʹta). A name given to Juno by those writers who
considered her the goddess of money.
=Money=, see Moneta.
=Money-God=, see Mammon.
=Moon.= The moon was, by the ancients, called _Hecate_ before and
after setting; _Astarte_ when in crescent form; _Diana_ when in full.
See Luna.
"Soon as the evening shades prevail
The moon takes up her wondrous tale,
And nightly to the list'ning earth
Repeats the story of her birth."
Addison.
=Morpheus= (Morʹpheus). The Greek god of sleep and dreams, the son and
minister of Somnus.
"Morpheus, the humble god that dwells
In cottages and smoky cells;
Hates gilded roofs and beds of down,
And though he fears no prince's frown,
Flies from the circle of a crown."
Sir John Denman.
=Mors.= Death, a daughter of Nox (Night).
=Mountain=, see Atlas, Nymph.
=Mulciber= (Mulʹciber). A name of Vulcan, sometimes spelled Mulcifer,
the smelter of metals. See Vulcan.
=Munin= (Munʹin). The Scandinavian god of memory, represented by the
raven that was perched on Odin's shoulder.
=Muscarius= (Muscaʹrius). A name given to Jupiter because he kept off
the flies from the sacrifices.
=Muses, The= (Muʹses), were nine daughters of Jupiter and Mnemosyne.
They presided over the arts and sciences, music and poetry. Their
names were, Calliope, Clio, Erato, Thalia, Melpomene, Terpsichore,
Euterpe, Polyhymnia, and Urania. They principally resided in Mount
Parnassus, at Helicon.
"Be thou the tenth Muse, ten times more in worth,
Than those old nine which rhymers advocate."
Shakespeare.
=Music=, see Apollo, Muses.
=Mythras= (Myʹthras). The Egyptian name of Apollo.
=Naiads, The= (Naiʹads), were beautiful nymphs of human form who
presided over springs, fountains, and wells. They resided in the
meadows by the sides of rivers. Virgil mentions Aegle as being the
fairest of the Naiades.
=Nandi= (Nanʹdi). The Hindoo goddess of joy.
=Narrae= (Narʹrae). The name of the infernal regions amongst the
Hindoos.
=Narayan= (Naʹraʹyan). The mover of the waters. The Hindoo god of
tides.
=Narcissus= (Narcisʹsus), son of Cephisus and the Naiad Liriope, was a
beautiful youth, who was so pleased with the reflection of himself
which he saw in the placid water of a fountain that he could not help
loving it, imagining that it must be some beautiful nymph. His
fruitless endeavors to possess himself of the supposed nymph drove him
to despair, and he killed himself. There sprang from his blood a
flower, which was named after him, Narcissus.
"Narcissus so himself forsook,
And died to kiss his shadow in the brook."
"Hadst thou Narcissus in thy face, to me
Thou wouldst appear most ugly."
Shakespeare.
=Nastrond= (Nasʹtrond). The Scandinavian place of eternal punishment,
corresponding with Hades.
[Illustration: Hero and Leander
_See page 66_]
=Natio= (Naʹtio). A Roman goddess who took care of young infants.
=Nemaean Lion= (Nemaeʹan), see Hercules.
=Nemesis= (Nemʹesis), the goddess of vengeance or justice, was one of
the infernal deities. Her mother was Nox. She was supposed to be
constantly traveling about the earth in search of wickedness, which
she punished with the greatest severity. She is referred to by some
writers under the name of Adrasteia. The Romans always sacrificed to
this goddess before they went to war, because they wished to signify
that they never took up arms but in the cause of justice.
"Forbear, said Nemesis, my loss to moan,
The fainting, trembling hand was mine alone."
Dr. J. Wharton.
=Nephalia= (Nephaʹlia). Grecian festivals in honor of Mnemosyne, the
mother of the Muses.
=Neptune= (Nepʹtune), god of the sea, was a son of Saturn and Cybele,
and brother to Jupiter and Pluto. He quarreled with Jupiter because he
did not consider that the dominion of the sea was equal to Jupiter's
empire of heaven and earth; and he was banished from the celestial
regions, after having conspired with Pluto to dethrone Jupiter.
Neptune was married to Amphitrite, daughter of Oceanus and Tethys, by
whom he had a son named Triton. He was also father of Polyphemus (one
of the Cyclopes), Phoreus, and Proteus. Neptune is represented as
being seated in a shell chariot, drawn by dolphins or sea-horses, and
surrounded by Tritons and sea-nymphs. He holds in his hand a trident,
with which he rules the waves. Though a marine deity, he was reputed
to have presided over horse-training and horse-races; but he is
principally known as the god of the ocean; and the two functions of
the god are portrayed in the sea horses with which his chariot is
drawn, the fore-half of the animal being a horse, and the hind-half a
dolphin. Ships were also under his protection, and whenever he
appeared on the ocean there was a dead calm.
=Nereides, The= (Nereʹides), were aquatic nymphs. They were daughters
of Nereus and Doris, and were fifty in number. They are generally
represented as beautiful girls riding on dolphins, and carrying
tridents in the right hand or garlands of flowers.
=Nereus= (Nereʹus). A sea deity, husband of Doris. He had the gift of
prophecy, and foretold fates; but he had also the power of assuming
various shapes, which enabled him to escape from the importunities of
those who were anxious to consult him.
=Nessus= (Nesʹsus). The name of the Centaur that was destroyed by
Hercules for insulting his wife Deianira. Nessus's blood-smeared robe
proved fatal to Hercules.
=Nestor= (Nesʹtor). A grandson of Neptune, his father being Neleus,
and his mother Chloris. Homer makes him one of the greatest of the
Greek heroes. He was present at the famous battle between the Lapithae
and the Centaurs, and took a leading part in the Trojan war.
"... Here's Nestor
Instructed by the antiquary times,
He must, he is, he cannot but be wise."
Shakespeare.
=Nicephorus= (Nicephʹorus). A name of Jupiter, meaning the bearer of
victory.
=Nidhogg= (Nidʹhogg). In Scandinavian mythology the dragon who dwells
in Nastrond.
=Niflheim= (Niflʹheim). The Scandinavian hell. It was supposed to
consist of nine vast regions of ice beneath the North Pole, where
darkness reigns eternally. See Nastrond.
=Night=, see Nox.
=Nightingale=, see Philomela.
=Nightmare=, see Incubus.
=Nilus= (Niʹlus), a king of Thebes, who gave his name to the Nile, the
great Egyptian river.
=Nine, The=, see Muses.
=Niobe= (Niʹobe) was a daughter of Tantalus, and is the
personification of grief. By her husband Amphion she had seven sons
and seven daughters. By the orders of Latona the father and sons were
killed by Apollo, and the daughters (except Chloris) by Diana. Niobe,
being overwhelmed with grief, escaped further trouble by being turned
into a stone.
=Nomius= (Noʹmius). A law-giver; one of the names of Apollo. This
title was also given to Mercury for the part he took in inventing
beneficent laws.
=Norns.= Three Scandinavian goddesses, who wove the woof of human
destiny. The three witches in Shakespeare's "Macbeth" have their
origin in the Scandinavian Norns.
=Notus= (Noʹtus). Another name for Auster, the south wind.
=Nox= was the daughter of Chaos, and sister of Erebus and Mors. She
personified night, and was the mother of Nemesis and the Fates.
=Nundina= (Nundiʹna). The goddess who took charge of children when
they were nine days old--the day (_Nona dies_) on which the Romans
named their children.
=Nuptialis= (Nuptiaʹlis). A title of Juno. When the goddess was
invoked under this name the gall of the victim was taken out and
thrown behind the altar, signifying that there should be no gall
(bitterness) or anger between married people.
=Nuriel= (Nuʹriel). In Hebrew mythology the god of hailstorms.
=Nyctelius= (Nycteʹlius). A name given to Bacchus, because his
festivals were celebrated by torchlight.
=Nymphs.= This was a general name for a class of inferior female
deities who were attendants of the gods. Some of them presided over
springs, fountains, wells, woods, and the sea. They are spoken of as
land-nymphs or Naiads, and sea-nymphs or Nereids, though the former
are associated also with fountains and rivers. The Dryads were
forest-nymphs, and the Hamadryads were nymphs who lived among the
oak-trees--the oak being always specially venerated by the ancients.
The mountain-nymphs were called Oreads.
"With flower-inwoven tresses torn,
The nymphs in twilight shade
Of tangled thickets mourn."
Milton.
=Nysae= (Nyʹsae). The names of the nymphs by whom Bacchus was nursed.
See Dionysius.
=Nysaeus= (Nyʹsaeus). A name of Bacchus, because he was worshiped at
Nysa, a town of Aethiopia.
=Nysus= (Nyʹsus). A king of Megara who was invisible by virtue of a
particular lock of hair. This lock his daughter Scylla cut off, and so
betrayed her father to his enemies. She was changed into a lark, and
the king into a hawk, and he still pursues his daughter, intending to
punish her for her treachery.
=Oannes= (Oanʹnes). An Eastern (Babylonian) god, represented as a
monster, half-man, half-fish. He was said to have taught men the use
of letters in the day-time, and at night to have retired to the depth
of the ocean.
=Oath=, see Lapis.
=Obambou= (Obamʹbou). A devil of African mythology.
=Ocean=, see Neptune.
=Oceanides= (Oceanʹides). Sea-nymphs, daughters of Oceanus and Tethys.
Their numbers are variously estimated by different poets; some saying
there were as many as 3,000, while others say they were as few as
sixteen. The principal of them are mentioned under their respective
names, as Amphitrite, Doris, Metis, etc.
=Oceanus= (Oceʹanus), son of Coelus and Terra, and husband of Tethys.
Several mythological rivers were called his sons, as Alpheus, Peneus,
etc., and his daughters were called the Oceanides. Some of the
ancients worshiped him as the god of the seas, and invariably invoked
his aid when they were about to start on a voyage. He was also thought
to personify the immense stream which it was supposed surrounded the
earth, and into which the sun and moon and other heavenly bodies sank
every day.
=Ocridion= (Ocridʹion). A king of Rhodes, who was deified after his
death.
=Ocypete= (Ocyʹpete). One of the Harpies, who infected everything she
touched. The word means swift of flight.
=Ocyroe= (Ocyʹroe). A daughter of Chiron, who had the gift of
prophecy. She was metamorphosed into a mare.
=Odin= (Oʹdin). In Scandinavian mythology the god of the universe,
and reputed father of all the Scandinavian kings. His wife's name was
Friga, and his two sons were Thor and Balder. The _Wodin_ of the early
German tribes.
=Oeagrus= (Oeʹagrus). King of Thrace, and father of Orpheus.
=Oedipus= (Oedʹipus). A son of Laius, King of Thebes, best known as
the solver of the famous enigma propounded by the Sphinx. In solving
the riddle Oedipus unwittingly killed his father, and, discovering the
fact, he destroyed his own eyesight, and wandered away from Thebes,
attended by his daughter Antigone. Oedipus is the subject of two
famous tragedies by Sophocles.
=Oenone= (Oenoʹne). Wife of Paris, a nymph of Mount Ida, who had the
gift of prophecy.
=Ogygia= (Ogygʹia). An island, the abode of Calypso, in the
Mediterranean Sea, on which Ulysses was shipwrecked. It was so
beautiful in sylvan scenery that even Mercury (who dwelt on Olympus)
was charmed with the spot.
=Ointment=, see Phaon.
=Olenus= (Oleʹnus). A son of Vulcan, who married Lathaea, a woman who
thought herself more beautiful than the goddesses, and as a punishment
she and her husband were turned into stone statues.
=Olives=, see Aristaeus.
=Olympius= (Olymʹpius). A name of Jupiter, from Olympia, where the god
had a splendid temple, which was considered to be one of the seven
wonders of the world.
=Olympus= (Olymʹpus) was the magnificent mountain on the coast of
Thessaly, 9,000 feet high, where the gods were supposed to reside.
There were several other smaller mountains of the same name.
"High heaven with trembling the dread signal took,
And all Olympus to the center shook."
Pope.
=Olyras= (Olyʹras). A river near Thermopylae, which, it is said,
attempted to extinguish the funeral pile on which Hercules was
consumed.
=Omophagia= (Omophaʹgia). A Bacchanalian festival at which some
uncooked meats were served.
=Omphale= (Omʹphale). The Queen of Lydia, to whom Hercules was sold as
a bondsman for three years for the murder of Iphitus. Hercules fell in
love with her, and led an effeminate life in her society, wearing
female apparel, while Omphale wore the lion's skin.
=Onarus= (Onaʹrus). A priest of Bacchus, said to have married Ariadne
after she had been abandoned by Theseus.
=Onuva= (Onuʹva). The Venus of the ancient Gauls.
=Opalia= (Opaʹlia). Roman festivals in honor of Ops, held on 14th of
the calends of January.
=Opiate-rod=, see Caduceus.
"Eyes ... more wakeful than to drowse,
Charmed with Arcadian pipe--the pastoral reed
Of Hermes or his opiate-rod."
Milton.
=Ops.= Mother of the gods, a daughter of Coelus and Terra. She was
known by the several names of Bona Dea, Rhea, Cybele, Magna Mater,
Proserpine, Tellus, and Thya; and occasionally she is spoken of as
Juno and Minerva. She personified labor, and is represented as a
comely matron, distributing gifts with her right hand, and holding in
her left hand a loaf of bread. Her festival was the 14th day of the
January calends.
=Oracles=, see Themis.
=Oraea= (Oraeʹa). Certain sacrifices offered to the goddesses of the
seasons to invoke fair weather for the ripening of the fruits of the
earth.
=Orbona= (Orboʹna). Roman goddess of children, invoked by mothers when
they lost or were in danger of losing their offspring.
=Orchards=, see Feronia.
=Oreades= (Oʹreades) were mountain nymphs, attendants on Diana.
=Orgies.= Drunken revels. The riotous feasts of Bacchus were so
designated.
=Orion= (Oriʹon). A handsome hunter, of great stature, who was blinded
by Oenopion for a grievous wrong done to Merope, and was therefore
expelled from Chios. The sound of the Cyclops' hammers led him to the
abode of Vulcan, who gave him a guide. He then consulted an oracle,
and had his sight restored, as Longfellow says, by fixing
"His blank eyes upon the sun."
He was afterward slain by Diana and placed amongst the stars, where
his constellation is one of the most splendid.
=Orithyia= (Oriʹthyʹia). A daughter of Erechtheus, whose lover,
Boreas, carried her off while she was wandering by the river Ilissus.
Her children were Zetus and Calais, two winged warriors who
accompanied the Argonauts.
=Ormuzd= (Orʹmuzd). In Persian mythology the creator of all things.
=Oros= (Oʹros). The Egyptian Apollo.
=Orphans=, see Orbona.
=Orpheus= (Orʹpheus) was son of Apollo and the Muse Calliope. He was
married to Eurydice; but she was stung by a serpent, and died. Orpheus
went down to Hades to claim her, and played so sweetly with his lute
that Pluto allowed Eurydice to return to the earth with Orpheus, but
on condition that he did not look behind him until he had reached the
terrestrial regions. Orpheus, however, in his anxiety to see if she
were following him, looked round, and Eurydice disappeared from his
sight, instantly and forever.
"Orpheus' lute was strung with poets' sinews."
Shakespeare.
=Osiris= (Osiʹris). The Egyptian god of the sun, the source of warmth,
life, and fruitfulness; he was worshiped under the form of a sacred
bull, named Apis.
"... After these appeared
A crew who, under names of old renown,
Osiris, Isis, Orus, and their train,
With monstrous shapes and sorceries abused
Fanatic Egypt and her priests to seek
Their wandering gods, disguised in brutish forms
Rather than human."
Milton.
=Ossa= (Osʹsa). One of the mountains of Thessaly (once the residence
of the centaurs) which the giants piled on the top of Mount Pelion to
enable them to ascend to heaven and attack the gods.
=Ox=, see Apis.
=Owl=, see Aesculapius and Itys.
=Pactolus= (Pactoʹlus). The river in Lydia where Midas washed himself
by order of Bacchus, and the sands were turned to gold.
=Paean= (Paeʹan). A name given Apollo, from _paean_, the hymn which
was sung in his honor after he had killed the serpent Python. Paeans
were solemn songs, praying either for the averting of evil and for
rescue, or giving thanks for help vouchsafed.
"With hymns divine the joyous banquet ends,
The Paeans lengthened till the sun descends."
Pope.
=Palaemon= (Palaeʹmon), or Melicerta, a sea-god, son of Athamas and
Ino.
=Pales= (Paʹles). The goddess of shepherds and sheepfolds and
protectress of flocks; her festivals were called by the Romans
Palilia.
"Pomona loves the orchard,
And Liber loves the wine,
And Pales loves the straw-built shed,
Warm with the breath of kine."
Macaulay.
"Great Pales help, the pastoral rites I sing,
With humble duty mentioning each thing."
Pope.
=Palladium= (Pallaʹdium). A famous statue of the goddess Pallas
(Minerva). She is sitting with a spear in her right hand, and in her
left a distaff and spindle. Various accounts are given of the origin
of the statue. Some writers say that it fell from the skies. It was
supposed that the preservation of the statue would be the preservation
of Troy; and during the Trojan War the Greeks were greatly encouraged
when they became the possessors of it.
=Pallas= (Palʹlas), or Minerva. The name was given to Minerva when she
destroyed a famous giant named Pallas. The Greeks called their goddess
of wisdom Pallas Athene. See Minerva.
"Apollo, Pallas, Jove, or Mercury,
Inspire me that I may this treason find."
Shakespeare.
[Illustration: Iris
_See page 73_]
=Pan.= The Arcadian god of shepherds, huntsmen, and country folk, and
chief of the inferior deities, is usually considered to have been the
son of Mercury and Penelope. After his birth he was metamorphosed
into the mythical form in which we find him depicted, namely, a
horned, long-eared man, with the lower half of the body like a goat.
He is generally seen playing a pipe made of reeds of various lengths,
which he invented himself, and from which he could produce music which
charmed even the gods. These are the Pan-pipes, or _Syrinx_. Pan's
terrific appearance once so frightened the Gauls when they invaded
Greece that they ran away though no one pursued them; and the word
_panic_ is said to have been derived from this episode. The Fauns, who
greatly resembled Pan, were his attendants.
"Piping on their reeds the shepherds go,
Nor fear an ambush, nor suspect a foe."
Pope.
=Pandora= (Pandoʹra), according to Hesiod, was the first mortal
female. Vulcan made her of clay, and gave her life. Venus gave her
beauty; and the art of captivating was bestowed upon her by the
Graces. She was taught singing by Apollo, and Mercury taught her
oratory. Jupiter gave her a box, the famous "Pandora's Box," which she
was told to give to her husband, Epimetheus, brother of Prometheus. As
soon as he opened it there issued from it numberless diseases and
evils which were soon spread all over the world, and from that moment
they have afflicted the human race. It is said that Hope alone
remained in the box. Pandora means "the all-gifted."
"More lovely than Pandora, whom the gods
Endowed with all their gifts."
Milton.
=Pantheon= (Pantheʹon) (lit. "the all-divine place"). The temple of
all the gods, built by Agrippa at Rome, in the reign of Augustus (B.C.
27). It was 144 feet in diameter, and 144 feet high; and was built in
the Corinthian style of architecture, mostly of marble; while its
walls were covered with engraved brass and silver. Its magnificence
induced Pliny to give it rank among the wonders of the world.
=Paphia= (Paʹphia), a name of Venus.
=Papremis= (Papʹremis). The Egyptian Mars.
=Parcae, The= (Parʹcae), were goddesses who presided over the destiny
of human beings. They were also called the Fates, and were three in
number, Atropos, Clotho, and Lachesis. See Fates.
=Paris= (Parʹis), the son of Priam, king of Troy, and of his mother
Hecuba. It had been predicted that he would be the cause of the
destruction of Troy, and his father therefore ordered him to be
strangled as soon as he was born; but the slave who had been entrusted
with this mission took the child to Mount Ida, and left it there. Some
shepherds, however, found the infant and took care of him. He lived
among them till he had grown to man's estate, and he then married
Oenone, a nymph of Ida. At the famous nuptial feast of Peleus and
Thetis, Discordia, who had not been invited, attended secretly; and
when all were assembled, she threw among the goddesses a golden apple,
on which was inscribed "Let the fairest take it." This occasioned a
great contention, for each thought herself the fairest. Ultimately,
the contestants were reduced to three, Juno, Pallas (Minerva), and
Venus; but Jove himself could not make these three agree, and it was
decided that Paris should be the umpire. He was sent for, and each of
the goddesses courted his favor by offering all sorts of bribes. Juno
offered him power, Pallas wisdom, and Venus promised him the most
beautiful woman in the world. Paris gave the golden apple to Venus.
Soon after this episode Priam owned Paris as his son, and sent him to
Greece to fetch Helen, who was renowned as being the most beautiful
woman in the world. She was the wife of Menelaus, king of Sparta; but
during his absence Paris carried Helen away to Troy, and this gave
rise to the celebrated war between the Greeks and the Trojans, which
ended in the destruction of Troy. Paris was among the 676,000 Trojans
who fell during or after the siege.
=Parnassides= (Parnasʹsides), a name common to the Muses, from Mount
Parnassus.
=Parnassus= (Parnasʹsus). The mountain of the Muses in Phocis, and
sacred to Apollo and Bacchus. Any one who slept on this mountain
became a poet. It was named after one of the sons of Bacchus.
=Parthenon= (Parʹthenon). The temple of Minerva (or Pallas) on the
Acropolis at Athens. It was destroyed by the Persians, and rebuilt by
Pericles.
=Parthenos= (Parʹthenos) was a name of Juno, and also of Minerva. See
Pallas.
=Pasiphae= (Pasiphʹae) was the reputed mother of the Minotaur killed
by Theseus. She was said to be the daughter of Sol and Perseis, and
her husband was Minos, king of Crete.
=Pasithea= (Pasithʹea). Sometimes there are _four_ Graces spoken of;
when this is so, the name of the fourth is Pasithea. Also called
Aglaia.
=Pavan= (Pavʹan), the Hindoo god of the winds.
=Peace=, see Concordia.
=Peacock=, see Argus.
=Pegasus= (Pegʹasus). The famous winged horse which was said to have
sprung from the blood of Medusa when her head was cut off by Perseus.
His abode was on Mount Helicon, where, by striking the ground with his
hoof, he caused water to spring forth, which formed the fountain
afterward called Hippocrene.
"Each spurs his faded
Pegasus apace."
Byron.
"Thy stumbling founder'd jade can trot as high
As any other Pegasus can fly."
Earl of Dorset.
"To turn and wind a fiery Pegasus,
And witch the world with noble horsemanship."
Shakespeare.
=Peleus= (Peʹleus). A king of Thessaly, who married Thetis, one of the
Nereides. It is said that he was the only mortal who married an
immortal.
=Pelias= (Peʹlias). A son of Neptune and Tyro. He usurped the throne
of Cretheus, which Jason was persuaded to relinquish and take the
command of the Argonautic expedition. On the return of Jason, Medea,
the sorceress, undertook to restore Pelias to youth, but required that
the body should first be cut up and put in a caldron of boiling water.
When this had been done, Medea refused to fulfil her promise. Pelias
had four daughters, who were called the Peliades.
=Pelias= (Peʹlias) was the name of the spear of Achilles, which was so
large that none could wield it but the hero himself.
=Pelion= (Peʹlion). A well-wooded mountain, famous for the wars
between the giants and the gods, and as the abode of the Centaurs, who
were expelled by the Lapithae. See Ossa, a mount, which the giants
piled upon Pelion, to enable them to scale the heavens.
"The gods they challenge, and affect the skies,
Heaved on Olympus tottering Ossa stood;
On Ossa, Pelion nods with all his wood."
Pope.
=Pelops= (Peʹlops), son of Tantalus, king of Phrygia. His father
killed him, and served him up to be eaten at a feast given to the
gods, who, when they found out what the father of Pelops had done,
restored the son to life, and he afterward became the husband of
Hippodamia.
=Penates= (Penaʹtes). Roman domestic gods. The hearth of the house was
their altar. See Lares.
=Perpetual Punishment=, see Sisyphus.
=Persephone= (Persephʹone). The Greek name of Proserpine.
=Perseus= (Perʹseus) was a son of Jupiter and Danae, the daughter of
Acrisius. His first famous exploit was against the Gorgon, Medusa. He
was assisted in this enterprise by Pluto, who lent him a helmet which
would make him invisible. Pallas lent him her shield, and Mercury
supplied him with wings. He made a speedy conquest of the Gorgons, and
cut off Medusa's head, with which he flew through the air, and from
the blood sprang the winged horse Pegasus. As he flew along he saw
Andromeda chained to the rock, and a sea-monster ready to devour her.
He killed the monster, and married Andromeda. When he got back, he
showed the Gorgon's head to King Polydectes, and the monarch was
immediately turned into stone.
"Now on Daedalian waxen pinions stray,
Or those which wafted Perseus on his way."
F. Lewis.
=Persuasion=, goddess of, see Pitho.
=Phaeton= (Phaʹeton). A son of Sol, or, according to many
mythologists, of Phoebus and Clymene. Anxious to display his skill in
horsemanship, he was allowed to drive the chariot of the sun for one
day. The horses soon found out the incapacity of the charioteer,
became unmanageable, and overturned the chariot. There was such great
fear of injury to heaven and earth, that Jove, to stop the
destruction, killed Phaeton with a thunderbolt.
"Now Phaeton, by lofty hopes possessed,
The burning seat with youthful vigor pressed."
"The breathless Phaeton, with flaming hair,
Shot from the chariot like a falling star
That in a summer's evening from the top
Of heaven drops down, or seems at least to drop."
Addison.
=Phaon= (Phaʹon). A boatman of Mitylene, in Lesbos, who received from
Venus a box of ointment, with which, when he anointed himself, he grew
so beautiful that Sappho became enamored of him; but when the ointment
had all been used Phaon returned to his former condition, and Sappho,
in despair, drowned herself.
=Pheasant=, see Itys.
=Philoctetes= (Philoctʹetes) was son of Poeas, and one of the
companions of Jason on his Argonautic expedition. He was present at
the death of Hercules, and received from him the poisoned arrows which
had been dipped in the blood of Hydra. These arrows, an oracle
declared, were necessary to be used in the destruction of Troy, and
Philoctetes was persuaded by Ulysses to go and assist at the siege.
He appears to have used the weapons with great dexterity and with
wonderful effect, for Paris was among the heroes whom he killed. The
story of Philoctetes was dramatized by the Greek tragedians Aeschylus,
Euripides, and Sophocles.
=Philomela= (Philomeʹla) was a daughter of Pandion, king of Athens,
who was transformed into a nightingale. She was sister to Procne, who
married Tereus, King of Thrace. The latter having offered violence to
Philomela, her sister, Procne, came to her rescue, and to punish her
husband slew her son Itylus, and at a feast Philomela threw Itylus's
head on the banquet table.
"Forth like a fury Philomela flew,
And at his face the head of Itys threw."
Pope.
"And thou, melodious Philomel,
Again thy plaintive story tell."
Sir Thomas Lyttleton.
=Phlegethon= (Phlegʹethon). A river of fire in the infernal regions.
It was the picture of desolation, for nothing could grow on its
parched and withered banks. Also called Pyriphlegethon.
"... Infernal rivers ...
... Fierce Phlegethon,
Whose waves of torrent fire inflame with rage."
Milton.
=Phlegon= (Phleʹgon) (burning), one of the four chariot horses of Sol.
=Phlegyas= (Phleʹgyas). Son of Mars and father of Ixion and Coronis.
For his impiety in desecrating and plundering the temple of Apollo at
Delphi, he was sent to Hades, and there was made to sit with a huge
stone suspended over his head, ready to be dropped on him at any
moment.
=Phoebus= (Phoeʹbus). A name of Apollo, signifying light and life.
"Gallop apace, you fiery-footed steeds,
Toward Phoebus' lodging."
Shakespeare.
=Phorcus= (Phorʹcus), or =Porcys=. A son of Neptune, father of the
Gorgons. The same as Oceanus.
=Phryxus= (Phryxʹus), see Golden Fleece.
=Picumnus= (Picumʹnus). A rural divinity, who presided over the
manuring of lands, also called Sterentius.
=Picus= (Piʹcus). A son of Saturn, father of Faunus, was turned into a
woodpecker by Circe, whose love he had not requited.
=Pierides= (Pierʹides). A name of the Muses, derived from Pieria, a
fountain in Thessaly, near Mount Olympus, where they were supposed to
have been born. Also, the daughters of Pierus, a king of Macedonia,
who settled in Boeotia. They challenged the Muses to sing, and were
changed into magpies.
=Pietas= (Pieʹtas). The Roman goddess of domestic affection.
=Pillar=, see Calpe.
=Pilumnus= (Pilumʹnus). A rural divinity that presided over the corn
while it was being ground. At Rome he was hence called the god of
bakers.
=Pine-Tree=, see Atys.
=Pirithous= (Pirithʹous). A son of Ixion and great friend of Theseus,
king of Athens. The marriage of Pirithous and Hippodamia became famous
for the quarrel between the drunken Centaurs and the Lapithae, who,
with the help of Theseus, Pirithous, and Hercules, attacked and
overcame the Centaurs, many of whom were killed, and the remainder
took to flight.
=Pitho= (Piʹtho), the goddess of Persuasion, daughter of Mercury and
Venus. She is sometimes referred to under the name of Suada.
=Plants=, see Demogorgon.
=Pleasure=, see Rembha.
=Pleiades, The= (Pleiʹades). Seven daughters of Atlas and Pleione.
Their names were Electra, Alcyone, Celaeno, Maia, Sterope, Taygete,
and Merope. They were made a constellation, but as there are only six
stars to be seen, the ancients believed that one of the sisters,
Merope, married a mortal, and was ashamed to show herself among her
sisters, who had all been married to gods.
"... The gray
Dawn and the Pleiades before him danced.
Shedding sweet influence."
Milton.
=Pluto= (Pluʹto). King of the infernal regions. He was a son of Saturn
and Ops, and husband of Proserpine, daughter of Ceres. He is
sometimes referred to under the name Dis, and he personifies hell. His
principal attendant was the three-headed dog Cerberus, and about his
throne were the Eumenides, the Harpies, and the Furies.
"With equal foot, rich friend, impartial fate
Knocks at the cottage and the palace gate.
. . . . .
Night soon will seize, and you must go below,
To story'd ghosts and Pluto's house below."
Creech.
=Plutus= (Pluʹtus), the god of riches, was son of Jasion or Iasius and
Ceres (Demeter), the goddess of corn. He is described as being blind
and lame; blind because he so often injudiciously bestows his riches,
and lame because fortunes come so slowly.
=Pluvius= (Pluʹvius). A name of Jupiter, because he had the rain in
his control.
=Podalirius= (Podalirʹius). A famous surgeon, a son of Aesculapius and
Epione. His skill in medicine made him very serviceable among the
soldiers in the Trojan war.
=Poet=, see Parnassus.
=Poetry=, see Apollo, Calliope, The Muses.
=Poisonous Herbs=, see Circe.
=Poisonous Lake=, see Avernus.
=Pollear= (Pollʹear). Son of Siva, the Hindoo god of wisdom.
=Pollux= (Polʹlux). Twin brother of Castor. Their father was Jupiter
and their mother Leda. He and his brother form the constellation
Gemini. His Greek name was Polydeuces. Castor and Pollux are also
known under the name of Dioscuri, the presiding deities of public
games in Rome, Castor being the god of equestrian exercise, and Pollux
the god of boxing. See Aedepol.
=Polybotes= (Polyboʹtes). One of the giants who made war against
Jupiter. He was killed by Neptune.
=Polydectes= (Polydecʹtes) was turned into stone when Perseus showed
him Medusa's head. See Perseus.
=Polydeuces= (Polydeuʹces). The Greek name of Pollux.
=Polyhymnia= (Polyhymʹnia). Daughter of Jupiter and Mnemosyne. One of
the Muses who presided over singing and rhetoric.
=Polyphemus= (Polypheʹmus), one of the most celebrated of the Cyclops,
a son of the nymph Thoosa and Neptune, or Poseidon, as the Greeks
called the god of the sea. He captured Ulysses and twelve of his
companions, and it is said that six of them were eaten. The remainder
escaped by the ingenuity of Ulysses, who destroyed Polyphemus's one
eye with a fire-brand.
"Charybdis barks and Polyphemus roars."
Francis.
=Polyxena= (Polyxʹena). Daughter of Hecuba and Priam, king of Troy. It
was by her treachery that Achilles was shot in the heel.
[Illustration: Laocoon
_See page 79_]
=Pomona= (Pomoʹna). The Roman goddess of fruit-trees and gardens.
"So to the sylvan lodge
They came, that like Pomona's arbor smiled
With flowerets decked and fragrant smells."
Milton.
=Poplar-Tree=, see Heliades.
=Portunus= (Portuʹnus) (Palaemon), son of Ino, was the Roman god of
harbors.
=Poseidon= (Poseiʹdon). The Greek name of Neptune, god of the sea.
=Pracriti= (Pracʹriti). The Hindoo goddess of nature.
=Predictions=, see Cassandra.
=Priam= (Priʹam). The last king of Troy. See Paris.
=Priapus= (Priaʹpus), the guardian of gardens and god of natural
reproduction, was the son of Venus and Bacchus.
"Priapus could not half describe the grace
(Though god of gardens) of this charming place."
Pope.
=Prisca= (Prisʹca). Another name of Vesta.
=Procris= (Proʹcris). Daughter of Erechtheus, king of Athens. See
Cephalus, her husband.
=Progne= (Progʹne), wife of Tereus. Commonly called Procne, whose
sister was Philomela. See Itys and Tereus.
"Complaining oft gives respite to our grief,
From hence the wretched Progne sought relief."
F. Lewis.
=Prometheus= (Promeʹtheus), the son of Japetus and father of
Deucalion. He presumed to make clay men, and animate them with fire
which he had stolen from heaven. This so displeased Jupiter that he
sent him a box full of evils, which Prometheus refused; but his
brother Epimetheus, not so cautious, opened it, and the evils spread
over all the earth. Jupiter then punished Prometheus by commanding
Mercury to bind him to Mount Caucasus, where a vulture daily preyed
upon his liver, which grew in the night as much as it had been reduced
in the day, so that the punishment was a prolonged torture. Hercules
at last killed the vulture and set Prometheus free.
=Prophecy=, see Nereus.
=Proserpine= (Proserʹpine). A daughter of Jupiter and Ceres. Pluto
carried her off to the infernal regions and made her his wife. She was
known by the names of "the Queen of Hell," Hecate, Juno Inferna, and
Libitina. She was called by the Greeks Persephone.
"He sung, and hell consented
To hear the poet's prayer,
Stern Proserpine relented,
And gave him back the fair."
F. Lewis.
=Proteus= (Proʹteus). A marine deity, who could foretell events and
convert himself at will into all sorts of shapes. According to later
legends, Proteus was a son of Poseidon.
"The changeful Proteus, whose prophetic mind,
The secret cause of Bacchus' rage divined."
The Lusiad.
"What chain can hold this varying Proteus fast?"
Budgell.
=Psyche= (Psyʹche). The wife of Cupid. The name is Greek, signifying
the soul or spirit.
=Pygmalion= (Pygmaʹlion). A famous sculptor who had resolved to remain
unmarried, but he made such a beautiful statue of a goddess that he
begged Venus to give it life. His request being granted, Pygmalion
married the animated statue.
"Few, like Pygmalion, doat on lifeless charms,
Or care to clasp a statue in their arms."
=Pylades= (Pyʹlades). The son of Strophius, King of Phanote, and
husband of Electra; famous on account of his faithful friendship with
Orestes.
"His wine
Was better, Pylades, than thine.
... If you please
To choose me for your Pylades."
F. Lewis.
=Pylotis= (Pyloʹtis). A Greek name of Minerva.
=Pyracmon= (Pyrʹacmon), one of the chiefs of the Cyclopes.
=Pyramus and Thisbe= (Pyrʹamus and Thisʹbe). Two Babylonian lovers,
the children of hostile neighbors. See Shakespeare's burlesque of the
story of their loves, in "Midsummer Night's Dream."
=Pyrois= (Pyʹrois) (luminous). One of the four chariot horses of Sol,
the Sun.
=Pythia= (Pyʹthia). The priestess of Apollo at Delphi, who delivered
the answers of the oracle. Also the name of the Pythian games
celebrated in honor of Apollo's victory over the dragon Python.
=Python= (Pyʹthon). A famous serpent killed by Apollo, which haunted
the caves of Parnassus. See Septerion.
=Quadratus= (Quadraʹtus). A surname given to Mercury, because some of
his statues were four-sided.
=Quadrifrons= (Quadʹrifrons). Janus was sometimes depicted with four
faces instead of the usual two, and he was then called Janus
Quadrifrons.
=Quies= (Quiʹes). The Roman goddess of rest; she had a temple just
outside the Colline gate of Rome.
=Quietus= (Quieʹtus). One of the names of Pluto.
=Quirinus= (Quiriʹnus). A name given to Mars during wartime; Virgil
refers to Jupiter under the same name.
=Quoit=, see Hyacinthus.
=Race=, see Atalanta.
=Radamanthus= (Radamanʹthus), see Rhadamanthus.
=Rage=, see Furies.
=Rainbow=, see Iris.
=Rama= (Raʹma). A Hindoo god, who was the terrestrial representative
of Vishnu.
=Ram's Hide=, see Golden Fleece.
=Reeds=, see Pan, also Syrinx.
=Rembha= (Remʹbha). The Hindoo goddess of pleasure.
=Reproduction=, see Priapus.
=Rest=, see Quies.
=Revenge=, see Ate.
=Rhadamanthus= (Rhadamanʹthus), a son of Jupiter and Europa, was the
ruler of the Greeks in the Asiatic islands, and judge of the dead in
the infernal regions.
"These are the realms of unrelenting fate:
And awful Rhadamanthus rules the state.
He hears and judges each committed crime,
Inquires into the manner, place, and time;
The conscious wretch must all his acts reveal,
Loth to confess, unable to conceal;
From the first moment of his vital breath,
To the last hour of unrepenting death."
Dryden.
=Rhamnusia= (Rhamnuʹsia). A name of Nemesis, from Rhamnus, a town in
Attica, where she had a temple in which was her statue, made of one
stone ten cubits high.
=Rhea= (Rheʹa). The Greek name of Cybele. She was a daughter of Uranus
and Gaea, and was called Mother of the gods.
=Rhetoric=, see Calliope, also Polyhymnia.
=Riches=, see Plutus.
=Riddle=, see Sphinx.
=Rimmon= (Rimʹmon). A Phrygian god of whom Milton says--
"... Rimmon, whose delightful seat
Was fair Damascus, on the fertile banks
Of Abana and Pharpar, lucid streams."
=Riot=, see Saturnalia.
=River of Fire=, see Phlegethon.
=Roads=, see Vialis.
=Robber=, see Cacus, Coeculus.
=Romulus= (Romʹulus). The traditional founder of Rome. He was a son
of Mars and Ilia, and twin brother of Remus. The infants were thrown
into the Tiber, but were miraculously saved and suckled by a she-wolf,
till they were found by Faustulus, a shepherd, who brought them up.
Remus was killed in a quarrel with his brother, and Romulus became the
first King of Rome.
=Rumia Dea= (Rumiʹa Dea). The Roman goddess of babes in arms.
=Rumina= (Ruʹmina). Roman pastoral deities, who protected suckling
cattle.
=Runcina= (Runciʹna). The goddess of weeding or cleansing the ground.
=Sacrifices= were ceremonious offerings made to the gods. To every
deity a distinct victim was allotted, and the greatest care was always
taken in the selection of them. Anything in any way blemished was
considered as an insult to the god. At the time of the sacrifice the
people were called together by heralds led by a procession of
musicians. The priest, clothed in white, was crowned with a wreath
made of the leaves of the tree which was sacred to the particular god
to whom the sacrifice was offered. The victim had its horns gilt, and
was adorned with a chaplet similar to that of the priest, and was
decorated with bright-colored ribbons. The priest then said, "Who is
here?" to which the spectators replied, "Many good people." "Begone
all ye who are profane," said the priest; and he then began a prayer
addressed to all the gods. The sacrifice was begun by putting corn,
frankincense, flour, salt, cakes, and fruit on the head of the victim.
This was called the Immolation. The priest then took a cup of wine,
tasted it, and handed it to the bystanders to taste also; some of it
was then poured between the horns of the victim, and a few of the
saturated hairs were pulled off and put in the fire which was burning
on the altar. Then, turning to the east, the priest drew with his
knife a crooked line along the back of the beast from the head to the
tail, and told the assistants to kill the animal. This was done
directly, and the entrails of the victim taken out and carefully
examined by the Haruspices to find out what was prognosticated. The
carcase was then divided, and the thighs, covered with fat, were put
in the fire, and the rest of the animal was cut up, cooked, and eaten.
This feast was celebrated with dancing, music, and hymns, in praise of
the god in whose honor the sacrifice was made. On great occasions as
many as a hundred bullocks were offered at one time; and it is said
that Pythagoras made this offering when he found out the demonstration
of the forty-seventh proposition of the book of Euclid.
=Saga= (Saʹga). The Scandinavian goddess of history. The word means a
_saw_ or saying; hence Sagas, which embody Scandinavian legends, and
heroic or mythical traditions.
=Sagittarius= (Sagittaʹrius), see Chiron.
=Sails=, see Daedalus.
=Salamanders= (Salʹamanʹders). The genii who, according to Plato,
lived in fire.
"The spirits of fiery termagants in flame,
Mount up and take a Salamander's name."
Pope.
=Salatia= (Salaʹtia), or Salacia, a Roman goddess of the salt water.
See Amphitrite.
=Salii= (Salʹii). The priests of Mars who had charge of the sacred
shields.
=Salmoneus= (Salmoʹneus). A king of Elis who, for trying to imitate
Jupiter's thunders, was sent by the god straight to the infernal
regions.
=Salus= (Saʹlus). The Roman goddess of health.
=Sappho= (Sapʹpho), a celebrated poetess, a native of Lesbos, who
flourished in the seventh century B.C. Her only connection with the
goddesses of the time is that the Greeks called her "The tenth Muse."
=Sarcasm=, see Momus.
=Saron= (Saʹron), a sea-god.
=Sarpedon= (Sarpeʹdon), son of Jupiter by Europa. He accompanied
Glaucus, when the latter set out to assist Priam against the Greeks in
the Trojan War. He was slain by Patroclus.
=Saturn= (Satʹurn), king of the Universe, was father of Jupiter,
Neptune, and Pluto. These gods quarreled amongst themselves as to the
division of their father's kingdom, which ended in Jupiter having
heaven and earth, Neptune the sea, and Pluto the infernal regions.
=Saturnalia= (Saturnaʹlia). Festivals held in honor of Saturn about
the 16th or 18th of December. Principally famous for the riotous
disorder which generally attended them.
=Saturnius= (Saturʹnius). A name given to Jupiter, Neptune, and Pluto,
as sons of Saturn.
=Satyavrata= (Satyaʹvraʹta). The Hindoo god of law. The same as Menu.
=Satyrs= (Satʹyrs). Spirits of the woodland, half men, half goats, and
fond of wine and women. They were the attendants of Dionysus, and were
similar in most respects to the fauns who attended Pan. See Silenus.
"Five satyrs of the woodland sort.
. . . . . .
With asses' hoofs, great goggle eyes,
And double chins of monstrous size."
Yalden.
=Scylla= (Scylʹla). A beautiful nymph who excited the jealousy of
Neptune's wife, Amphitrite, and was changed by the goddess into a
frightful sea-monster, which had six fearfully ugly heads and necks,
and which, rising unexpectedly from the deep, used to take off as many
as six sailors from a vessel, and carry them to the bottom of the
sea. An alternative danger with the whirlpool, Charybdis, which
threatened destruction to all mariners.
"There on the right her dogs foul Scylla hides,
Charybdis roaring on the left presides."
Virgil.
=Scylla= (Scylʹla). A daughter of Nysus, who was changed into a lark
for cutting off a charmed lock of her father's hair. See Nysus.
=Sea=, see Neptune.
=Seasons=, see Vertumnus.
=Sea-Weed=, see Glaucus.
=Segetia= (Segeʹtia). A rural divinity who protected corn during
harvest-time.
=Sem.= The Egyptian Hercules.
=Semele= (Semʹele), daughter of Cadmus and the mother of Bacchus
(Dionysus), who was born in a miraculous manner after Jupiter had
visited her, at her special request, in all his terrible splendor. She
was deified after her death, and named Thyone.
=Semi-Dei= were the demi-gods.
=Semones= (Semoʹnes). Roman gods of a class between the "immortal" and
the "mortal," such as the Satyrs and Fauns.
=Septerion= (Septeʹrion). A festival held every nine years at Delphi
in honor of Apollo, at which the victory of that god over the Python
was grandly represented.
=Serapis= (Seraʹpis). The Egyptian Jupiter, and generally considered
to be the same as Osiris. See Apis.
=Serpent.= The Greeks and Romans considered the serpent as symbolical
of guardian spirits, and as such were often engraved on their altars.
See Aesculapius, Apollo, Chimaera, Eurydice, and Medusa.
"Pleasing was his shape,
And lovely; never since of serpent kind,
Lovelier; not those that in Illyria changed
Hermione and Cadmus, or the god
In Epidaurus, nor to which transformed
Ammonian Jove, or Capitoline, was seen."
Milton.
=Seshanaga= (Seshʹanagʹa). The Egyptian Pluto.
=Sewers=, see Cloacina.
=Sharp-sightedness=, see Lynceus.
=Shepherds=, see Pan.
=Shields=, see Ancilia.
=Ships=, see Neptune.
=Silence=, see Harpocrates and Tacita.
=Silenus= (Sileʹnus). A Bacchanalian demi-god, the chief of the
Satyrs. He is generally represented as a fat, drunken old man, riding
on an ass, and crowned with flowers.
"And there two Satyrs on the ground,
Stretched at his ease, their sire Silenus found."
=Singing=, see Polyhymnia, Thamyris.
=Sirens, The= (Siʹrens). Sea nymphs, who by their music allured
mariners to destruction. To avoid the snare when nearing their abode,
Ulysses had the ears of his companions stopped with wax, and had
himself tied to the mast of his ship. They thus sailed past in safety;
but the Sirens, thinking that their charms had lost their powers,
drowned themselves.
=Sisyphus= (Sisʹyphus), son of Aeolus and Enaretta. He was condemned
to roll a stone to the top of a hill in the infernal regions, and as
it rolled down again when he reached the summit, his punishment was
perpetual.
"I turned my eye, and as I turned, surveyed
A mournful vision! The Sisyphian shade.
With many a weary step and many a groan,
Up the high hill he leaves a huge round stone,
The huge round stone, resulting with a bound
Thunders impetuous down, and smokes along the ground."
Pope.
"Thy stone, O Sisyphus, stands still
Ixion rests upon his wheel,
And the pale specters dance."
F. Lewis.
=Siva= (Siʹva). In Hindoo mythology the "changer of form." He is
usually spoken of as the "Destroyer and Regenerator."
=Slaughter=, see Furies.
=Slaves=, see Feronia.
=Sleep=, see Caduceus, Morpheus, and Somnus.
=Sleipner= (Sleipʹner). The eight-legged horse of Odin, the chief of
the Scandinavian gods.
[Illustration: Winged Mercury
_See page 86_]
=Sol.= The sun. The worship of the god Sol is the oldest on record,
and though he is sometimes referred to as being the same as the god
Apollo, there is no doubt he was worshiped by the Egyptians, Persians,
and other nations long before the Apollo of the Greeks was heard of.
See Surya.
"Sol through white curtains shot a timorous ray,
And oped those eyes that must eclipse the day."
Pope.
=Somnus= (Somʹnus). The Roman god of sleep, son of Erebus and Nox
(Night). He was one of the infernal deities, and resided in a gloomy
cave, void of light and air.
=Sospita= (Sosʹpita). A name of Juno, as the safeguard of women. She
is called the "saving goddess."
=Soter= (Soʹter). A Greek name of Jupiter, meaning Savior or
deliverer.
=Soul=, see Psyche.
=South Wind=, see Auster.
=Spear=, see Pelias.
=Sphinx, The.= A monster having the head and breast of a woman, the
body of a dog, the tail of a serpent, the wings of a bird, the paws of
a lion, and a human voice. She lived in the country near Thebes, and
proposed to every passer-by the following enigma: "What animal is that
which walks on four legs in the morning, two at noon, and three in the
evening." Oedipus solved the riddle thus: Man is the animal; for, when
an infant he crawls on his hands and feet, in the noontide of life he
walks erect, and as the evening of his existence sets in, he supports
himself with a stick. When the Sphinx found her riddle solved she
destroyed herself.
=Spider=, see Arachne.
=Spindle=, see Pallas.
=Spinning=, see Arachne, Ergatis.
=Spring=, see Vertumnus.
=Stable=, see Augaeas.
=Stars=, see Aurora.
=Sterentius= (Sterenʹtius). The Roman god who invented the art of
manuring lands. See also Picumnus.
=Steropes= (Sterʹopes). One of the Cyclopes.
=Stone=, see Medusa and Phlegyas.
=Stone= (rolling), see Sisyphus.
=Streets=, see Apollo.
=Stymphalides= (Stymʹphaliʹdes). The carnivorous birds destroyed in
the sixth labor of Hercules.
=Styx.= A noted river of hell, which was held in such high esteem by
the gods that they always swore "By the Styx," and such an oath was
never violated. The river has to be crossed in passing to the regions
of the dead. See Achilles and Thetis.
"To seal his sacred vow by Styx he swore:--
The lake with liquid pitch,--the dreary shore."
Dryden.
"... Infernal rivers that disgorge
Into the burning lake their baleful streams,
Abhorrèd Styx, the flood of deadly hate."
=Suada= (Suaʹda), the goddess of Persuasion. See Pitho.
=Success=, see Bonus Eventus.
=Sun=, see Aurora, Belus, Sol, and Surya.
=Sunflower=, see Clytie.
=Suradevi= (Suraʹdeʹvi). The Hindoo goddess of wine.
=Surgeon= (Surʹgeon), see Podalirius.
=Surya= (Suʹryʹa). The Hindoo god corresponding to the Roman Sol, the
sun.
=Swallow=, see Itys.
=Swan=, see Cygnus and Leda.
=Swiftness=, see Atalanta.
=Swine=, see Circe.
=Sylphs.= Genii who, according to Plato, lived in the air.
"The light coquettes as Sylphs aloft repair,
And sport and flutter in the fields of air."
Pope.
=Sylvester= (Sylvesʹter). The name of Mars when he was invoked to
protect cultivated land from the ravages of war.
=Syrinx.= The name of the nymph who, to escape from the importunities
of Pan, was by Diana changed into reeds, out of which he made his
celebrated pipes, and named them "The Syrinx."
=Tacita= (Tacʹita). The goddess of Silence. See Harpocrates, also
Horus.
=Tantalus= (Tanʹtalus). Father of Niobe and Pelops, who, as a
punishment for serving up his son Pelops as meat at a feast given to
the gods, was placed in a pool of water in the infernal regions; but
the waters receded from him whenever he attempted to quench his
burning thirst. Hence the word "tantalizing".
Speaking of this god, Homer's Ulysses says: "I saw the severe
punishment of Tantalus. In a lake, whose waters approached to his
lips, he stood burning with thirst, without the power to drink.
Whenever he inclined his head to the stream, some deity commanded it
to be dry, and the dark earth appeared at his feet. Around him lofty
trees spread their fruits to view; the pear, the pomegranate, and the
apple, the green olive, and the luscious fig quivered before him,
which, whenever he extended his hand to seize them, were snatched by
the winds into clouds and obscurity."
"There, Tantalus, along the Stygian bound,
Pours out deep groans,--his groans through hell resound.
E'en in the circling flood refreshment craves
And pines with thirst amidst a sea of waves."
"... And of itself the water flies
All taste of living wight, as once it fled
The lip of Tantalus."
Milton.
=Tartarus= (Tarʹtarus). An inner region of hell, to which the gods
sent the exceptionally depraved.
=Telchines= (Telchiʹnes). People of Rhodes, who were envious sorcerers
and magicians.
=Tellus= (Telʹlus). A name of Cybele, wife of Saturn, and the Roman
deity of mother-earth.
=Tempests=, see Fro.
=Temple.= An edifice erected to the honor of a god or goddess in which
the sacrifices were offered.
=Tenth Muse.= Sappho was so called.
=Tereus= (Terʹeus) was a son of Mars. He married Procne, daughter of
the king of Athens, but became enamored of her sister Philomela, who,
however, resented his attentions, which so enraged him that he cut out
her tongue. When Procne heard of her husband's unfaithfulness she took
a terrible revenge (see Itys). Procne was turned into a swallow,
Philomela into a nightingale, Itys into a pheasant, and Tereus into a
hoopoe, a kind of vulture, some say an owl.
=Tergemina= (Tergemiʹna). A name of Diana, alluding to her triform
divinity as goddess of heaven, earth, and hell.
=Terminus= (Terʹminus). The Roman god of boundaries.
=Terpsichore= (Terpsichʹore). One of the nine Muses; she presided over
dancing.
=Terra.= The Earth; one of the most ancient of the Grecian goddesses.
=Thalestris= (Thalesʹtris). A queen of the Amazons.
=Thalia= (Thaliʹa). One of the nine Muses; she presided over
festivals, pastoral poetry and comedy.
=Thalia= (Thaliʹa). One of the Graces. (See Charities).
=Thamyris= (Thamʹyris). A skilful singer, who presumed to challenge
the Muses to sing, upon condition that if he did not sing best they
might inflict any penalty they pleased. He was, of course, defeated,
and the Muses made him blind.
=Theia= (Theʹia) or =Thea=. A daughter of Uranus and Terra, wife of
Hyperion.
=Themis= (Theʹmis), a daughter of Coelus and Terra, and wife of
Jupiter, was the Roman goddess of laws, ceremonies, and oracles.
=Theseus= (Theʹseus). One of the most famous of the Greek heroes. He
was a son of Aegeus, king of Athens. He rid Attica of Procrustes and
other evil-doers, slew the Minotaur, conquered the Amazons and married
their Queen.
"Breasts that with sympathizing ardor glowed,
And holy friendship such as Theseus vowed."
Budgell.
=Thesmorphonis= (Thesmorphoʹnis). A name of Ceres.
=Thetis= (Theʹtis). A sea-goddess, daughter of Nereus and Doris. Her
husband was Peleus, king of Thessaly, and she was the mother of the
famous Achilles, whom she rendered all but invulnerable by dipping him
into the River Styx. See Achilles.
=Thief=, see Laverna, Mercury.
=Thor.= The Scandinavian war-god (son of Odin), who had rule over the
aerial regions, and, like Jupiter, hurled thunder against his foes.
=Thor's Belt= is a girdle which doubles his strength whenever the
war-god puts it on.
=Thoth.= The Mercury of the Egyptians.
=Thread of Life=, see Fates.
=Thunderbolts=, see Cyclops.
=Thunderer, The=, Jupiter. See Tonitrualis.
"O king of gods and men, whose awful hand
Disperses thunder on the seas and land,
Disposing all with absolute command."
Virgil.
"The eternal Thunderer sat enthroned in gold."
Homer.
"So when thick clouds enwrap the mountain's head,
O'er heaven's expanse like one black ceiling spread;
Sudden the Thunderer, with flashing ray,
Bursts through the darkness and lets down the day."
Pope.
=Thya= (Thyʹa), a name of Ops.
=Thyades= (Thyaʹdes). Priestesses of Bacchus, who ran wild in the
hills, wearing tiger-skins and carrying torches.
=Thyrsus= (Thyrʹsus), a kind of javelin or staff carried by Dionysus
and his attendants. It was usually wreathed with ivy and topped by a
pine-cone. See Bacchus.
=Tides=, see Narayan.
=Time= (or Saturn). The husband of Virtue and father of Truth.
=Tisiphone= (Tis-iphʹone). One of the Furies, daughter of Nox and
Acheron, who was the minister of divine vengeance upon mankind.
=Titan= (Tiʹtan). Elder brother of Saturn, who made war against him,
and was ultimately vanquished by Jupiter.
=Titans= (Tiʹtans) were the supporters of Titan in his war against
Saturn and Jupiter. They were the sons of Uranus and Gaea, men of
gigantic stature and of great strength. Hence our English word
_Titanic_.
=Tithonus= (Ti-thoʹnus). The husband of Aurora. At the request of his
wife the gods granted him immortality, but she forgot at the same time
to ask that he should be granted perpetual youth. The consequence was
that Tithonus grew old and decrepit, while Aurora remained as fresh as
the morning. The gods, however, changed him into a grasshopper, which
is supposed to moult as it gets old, and grows young again.
=Tityus= (Titʹyus). A son of Jupiter. A giant who was thrown into the
innermost hell for insulting Diana. He, like Prometheus, has a vulture
constantly feeding on his ever-growing liver, the liver being supposed
to be the seat of the passions.
=Toil=, see Atlas.
=Tombs=, see Manes.
=Tongue=, see Tereus.
=Tonitrualis= (Tonitruaʹlis), or Tonans. The Thunderer; a name of
Jupiter.
=Towers=, see Cybele.
=Tragedy=, see Melpomene.
=Trees=, see Aristaeus.
=Tribulation=, see Echidna.
=Triformis= (Triforʹmis), see Tergemina.
=Triptolemus= (Triptolʹemus). A son of Oceanus and Terra. He was a
great favorite of the goddess Ceres, who cured him of a dangerous
illness when he was young, and afterwards taught him agriculture. She
gave him her chariot, which was drawn by dragons, in which he carried
seed-corn to all the inhabitants of the earth, and communicated the
knowledge given to him by Ceres. Cicero mentions a Triptolemus as the
fourth judge of the dead.
"Triptolemus, whose useful cares intend
The common good."
Pope.
=Triterica= (Triteriʹca). Bacchanalian festivals.
=Tritons= (Triʹtons) were sons of Triton, a son of Neptune and
Amphitrite. They were the trumpeters of the sea-gods, and were
depicted as a sort of mermen--the upper half of the body being like a
man, and the lower half like dolphins.
=Trivia= (Triʹvia). A surname given to Diana, because she presided
over all places where three roads meet.
=Trophonius= (Trophoʹnius). A legendary hero of architecture, and one
of Jupiter's most famous oracles.
=Troy.= The classic poets say that the walls of this famous city were
built by the magic sound of Apollo's lyre. See Dardanus, Helen,
Hercules, Paris.
=Trumpeters=, see Tritons.
=Truth.= A daughter of Time, because Truth is discovered in the
course of Time. Democritus says that Truth lies hidden at the bottom
of a well.
=Tutelina= (Tutelʹina). A rural divinity--the goddess of granaries.
=Two Faces=, see Janus.
=Typhoeus= (Typhoeʹus), see Typhon.
=Typhon= (Tyʹphon). A monster with a hundred heads who made war
against the gods, but was crushed by Jove's thunderbolts, and
imprisoned under Mount Etna.
"... Typhon huge, ending in snaky twine."
Milton.
=Typhon= (Tyʹphon). In Egyptian mythology the god who tried to undo
all the good work effected by Osiris. According to the Greek writer,
Hesiod, Typhon or Typhoeus was a monster giant, son of Terra and
Tartarus.
=Uller= (Ulʹler). The Scandinavian god who presided over archery and
duels.
=Ulysses= (Ulysʹses). A noted king of Ithaca, whose exploits in
connection with the Trojan war, and his adventures on his return
therefrom, are the subject of Homer's Odyssey. His wife's name was
Penelope, and he was so much endeared to her that he feigned madness
to get himself excused from going to the Trojan war; but this artifice
was discovered, and he was compelled to go. He was of great help to
the Grecians, and forced Achilles from his retreat, and obtained the
charmed arrows of Hercules from Philoctetes, and used them against the
Trojans. He enabled Paris to shoot one of them at the heel of
Achilles, and so kill that charmed warrior. During his wanderings on
his homeward voyage he was taken prisoner by the Cyclopes and escaped,
after blinding Polyphemus, their chief. At Aeolia he obtained all the
winds of heaven, and put them in a bag; but his companions, thinking
that the bags contained treasure which they could rob him of when they
got to Ithaca, cut the bags, and let out the winds, and the ships were
immediately blown back to Aeolia. After Circe had turned his
companions into swine on an island where he and they were shipwrecked,
he compelled the goddess to restore them to their human shape again.
As he passed the islands of the Sirens he escaped their allurements by
stopping the ears of his companions with wax, and fastening himself to
the mast of his ship. His wife Penelope was a pattern of constancy;
for, though Ulysses was reported to be dead, she would not marry any
one else, and had the satisfaction of finding her husband return after
an absence of about twenty years. The Greek name of Ulysses is
Odysseus.
"To show what pious wisdom's power can do,
The poet sets Ulysses in our view."
=Undine= (Unʹdine). A water-nymph, or sylph, who, according to fable,
might receive a human soul by marrying a mortal.
=Unknown God, An.= With reference to this God, nothing can be more
appropriate than St. Paul's address to the Athenians, as recorded in
the 17th chapter of the Acts of the Apostles:
"_Ye_ men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too
superstitious. For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions,
I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD.
Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you.
God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that
he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made
with hands; neither is worshiped with men's hands, as though
he needed anything, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath,
and all things; and hath made of one blood all nations of men
for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath
determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of
their habitation; that they should seek the Lord, if haply
they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far
from every one of us: for in him we live, and move, and have
our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For
we are also his offspring. Forasmuch then as we are the
offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is
like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's
device. And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but
now commandeth all men everywhere to repent: because he hath
appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in
righteousness by _that_ man whom he hath ordained; _whereof_
he hath given assurance unto all _men_, in that he hath
raised him from the dead."
=Unxia= (Unxʹia). A name of Juno, relating to her protection of newly
married people.
=Urania= (Uraʹnia). A daughter of Jupiter and Mnemosyne--one of the
Muses who presided over astronomy.
[Illustration: Venus de Milo
_See page 142_]
=Uranus= (Uraʹnus), literally, heaven. Son and husband of Gaea, the
Earth, and father of Chronos (Time) and the Titans. The Greek name of
Coelus; his descendants are sometimes called Uranides.
=Urgus= (Urʹgus). A name of Pluto, signifying the Impeller.
=Ursa Major= (Urʹsa Maʹjor), see Calisto.
=Ursa Minor= (Urʹsa Miʹnor), see Arcas.
=Usurers=, see Jani.
=Utgard Loki= (Utʹgard Loʹki). In Scandinavian mythology the king of
the giants.
=Valhalla= (Valhalʹla). The Scandinavian temple of immortality,
inhabited by the souls of heroes slain in battle.
=Vali= (Vaʹli). The Scandinavian god of archery.
=Valleys=, see Vallonia.
=Vallonia= (Valloʹnia). The goddess of valleys.
=Varuna= (Varuʹna). The Hindoo Neptune--generally represented as a
white man riding on a sea-horse, carrying a club in one hand and a
rope or noose to bind offenders in the other.
=Vedius= (Veʹdius). The same as Vejovis.
=Vejovis= (Vejoʹvis). "Little Jupiter"--a name given to Jupiter when
he appeared without his thunder.
=Vejupiter= (Vejuʹpiter), see Vejovis.
=Vengeance=, see Nemesis.
=Venus= (Veʹnus). The goddess of beauty, and mother of love. She is
said to have sprung from the foam of the sea, and was immediately
carried to the abode of the gods on Olympus, where they were all
charmed with her extreme beauty. Vulcan married her, but she permitted
the attentions of others of the gods, and notably of Mars, their
offspring being Hermione, Cupid, and Anteros. After this she left
Olympus and fell in love with Adonis, a beautiful youth, who was
killed when hunting a wild boar. Venus indirectly caused the Trojan
War, for, when the goddess of discord had thrown among the goddesses
the golden apple inscribed "To the fairest," Paris adjudged the apple
to Venus, and she inspired him with love for Helen, wife of Menelaus,
king of Sparta. Paris carried off Helen to Troy, and the Greeks
pursued and besieged the city (see Helen, Paris, and Troy). Venus is
mentioned by the classic poets under the names of Aphrodite, Cypria,
Urania, Astarte, Paphia, Cythera, and the laughter-loving goddess. Her
favorite residence was at Cyprus. Incense alone was usually offered on
her altars, but if there was a victim it was a white goat. Her
attendants were Cupids and the Graces.
=Verticordia= (Vertiʹcorʹdia). A Roman name of Venus, signifying the
power of love to change the hard-hearted. The corresponding Greek
name was Epistrophia.
=Vertumnus= (Vertumʹnus) ("the Turner," "Changer"). God of spring, or,
as some mythologists say, of the seasons; the husband of Pomona, the
goddess of fruits and orchards.
=Vesta= (Vesʹta), daughter of Saturn and Cybele, was the goddess of
the hearth and its fire. She had under her special care and protection
a famous statue of Minerva, before which the Vestal Virgins kept a
fire or lamp constantly burning.
=Vestal Virgins= (Vesʹtal Virʹgins) were the priestesses of Vesta,
whose chief duty was to see that the sacred fire in the temple of
Vesta was not extinguished. They were always selected from the best
families, and were under a solemn vow of chastity, and compelled to
live perfectly pure lives.
=Vialis= (Viaʹlis). A name of Mercury, because he presided over the
making of roads.
=Victory= (Vicʹtory). A goddess, the daughter of Styx and Acheron,
generally represented as flying in the air holding out a wreath of
laurel. Her Greek name is Nike (_Nicē_). See Nicephorus.
=Vidor.= A Scandinavian god, who could walk on the water and in the
air. The god of silence (corresponding with the classic Harpocrates).
=Virtue.= A goddess worshiped by most of the ancients under various
names. The way to the temple of honor was through the temple of
virtue.
=Virtuous Women=, see Juno.
=Vishnu= (Vishʹnu). The Preserver, the principal Hindoo goddess.
=Volupia= (Voluʹpia), see Angeronia.
=Vulcan= (Vulʹcan), the god of fire, was the son of Jupiter and Juno.
He offended Jupiter, and was by him thrown out of heaven; he was nine
days falling, and at last dropped into Lemnos with such violence that
he broke his leg, and was lame forever after. Vulcan was married to
Venus. He is supposed to have formed Pandora out of clay. His servants
were the Cyclopes. He was the patron deity of blacksmiths, and as the
smelter or softener of metal bears also the name of Mulciber.
"Men call him Mulciber; and how he fell
From heaven, they fabled, thrown by angry Jove,
Sheer o'er the crystal battlements."
Milton.
=Vulcanalia= (Vulcān-alʹia) were Roman festivals in honor of
Vulcan, at which the victims (certain fish and animals) were thrown
into the fire and burned to death.
=War=, see Bellona, Chemos, Mars.
=Water=, see Canopus.
=Water-Nymphs=, see Doris.
=Wax Tablets=, see Calliope.
=Wealth=, see Cuvera.
=Weaving=, see Ergatis.
=Weeding=, see Runcina.
=Weights and Measures=, see Mercury.
=Well=, see Truth.
=West Wind=, see Favonius.
=Winds=, see Aurora, Auster, Boreas, Zephyr.
=Wine=, see Bacchus, Suradevi.
=Wisdom=, see Pollear, Minerva.
=Woden= (Woʹden), the Anglo-Saxon form of the Scandinavian god Odin;
Wednesday is called after him.
=Women's Safeguard=, see Sospita.
=Woodpecker=, see Picus.
=Woods=, see Dryads.
=World=, see Chaos.
=Xanthus= (Xanʹthus), the name of the wonderful horse of Achilles.
=Yama= (Yaʹma). The Hindoo devil, generally represented as a terrible
monster of a green color, with flaming eyes.
=Ygdrasil= (Ygʹdraʹsil). The famous ash-tree of Scandinavian
mythology, under which the gods held daily council.
=Ymir= (Yʹmir). The Scandinavian god, corresponding to Chaos of the
classics.
=Youth= (perpetual), see Tithonus.
=Zephyr= (Zephʹyr) or =Zephyrus= (Zephʹyrus). The west wind and god
of flowers, a son of Astraeus and Aurora (Eos). See Favonius.
"Wanton Zephyr, come away.
. . . . .
The sun, and Mira's charming eyes,
At thy return more charming grow.
With double glory they appear,
To warm and grace the infant year."
John Hughes, 1700.
=Zetes= (Zeʹtes), with his brother Calais, drove the Harpies from
Thrace.
=Zethus= (Zeʹthus), twin brother of Amphion. He was the son of Antiope
and Zeus. See Amphion.
=Zeus= (Zūs). The Greek name of Jupiter, the greatest god in
Grecian mythology. He was the god of the sky and its phenomena, and as
such was worshiped on the highest mountains, on which he was
enthroned. From Zeus come all changes in the sky or the winds; he is
the gatherer of the clouds which dispense fertilizing rain; and is
also the thunderer and hurler of lightning.
THE END.
=Entertainments for Every Occasion.= Ideas, games, charades, tricks,
plans--for keeping those present entertained, on whatever occasion,
whether a party, a festival, a bazaar, an entertainment, or merely
"our own folks" or an "_entre nous_."
=The Humorous Speaker.= The choicest, most recent _humor_ that lends
itself to _recitation_. Easily the best collection that has been made.
The selections are chosen because they are _good literature_, and
because they are _good recitations_. Unhackneyed material--most of it
from recently copyrighted books, for which _special permission_ has
been secured. A _hundred and twenty five_ selections, about 500 pages.
=Commencement Parts.= "Efforts" for all occasions. _Models_ for every
possible occasion in high-school and college career, every one of the
"efforts" being what some fellow has _stood on his feet_ and actually
delivered on a similar occasion--not what the compiler _would_ say if
_he_ should happen to be called on for an ivy song or a response to a
toast, or what not; but what the fellow himself, when his turn came,
_did say_! Invaluable, indispensable to those preparing any kind of
"effort." _Unique._
Contains _models_ of the salutatory, the valedictory, orations, class
poems, class songs, class mottoes, class will, ivy poem and song,
Dux's speech; essays and addresses for flag day, the seasons, national
and other holidays; after-dinner speeches and responses to toasts.
Also _models_ for occasional addresses--social, educational,
political, religious. Also models for _superintendents'_ and
_principals'_ addresses to graduating class, debating team,
educational conference; on dedication of school building, public
building, library; for holidays, festival days, and scores of social
and other occasions. Also themes for essays, and lists of _subjects_
for orations, essays, toasts.
=College Men's 3-Minute Declamations.= Material with vitality in it
for prize speaking. _14th edit._
=College Maids' 3-Minute Readings.= Up-to-date recitations from living
men and women. On the plan of the popular College Men's 3-Minute
Declamations, and on the same high plane. _Twelfth edition._
=Pieces for Prize Speaking Contests.= _Volume I._ Over one hundred
pieces that have _actually taken prizes_ in prize speaking contests.
_Successful._
=Pieces for Prize Speaking Contests.= _Vol. II._
=Pieces for Every Occasion.= "Special days."
=Famous Poems Explained.= (Barbe).
=How to Attract and Hold an Audience.= Every student in college or
school, every lawyer, every teacher, every clergyman, every man or
woman occupying an official position, every citizen and every youth
who is likely ever to have occasion in committee, or in public, to
enlist the interest, to attract and hold the attention of one or more
hearers, and _convince_ them--every person who ever has to, or is
likely to have to "speak" to one or more listeners will find in our
new book a clear, concise, _complete_ handbook which will enable him
to _succeed_!
Thorough, concise, methodical, replete with common sense, complete. In
his logical method, in the crystal-like lucidity of his style, in his
forceful, incisive, penetrating mastery of his subject, the author has
at one bound placed himself on a plane with the very ablest
teacher-authors of his day.
=Fenno's Science and Art of Elocution.= _Standard._ Probably the most
successful of its kind.
=The Power of Speech, How to Acquire It.= A comprehensive system of
vocal expression. Thorough and practical instruction in the use of the
speaking voice, embracing deep breathing, articulation, modulation,
emphasis and delivery; vocal coloring, interpretation of the written
word, the conveying of thought by means of vocal expression, and the
principles of oratory and dramatic art.
=The Psychology of Public Speaking.= A scientific treatment of the
practical needs of the public speaker. A worth-while book.
=How to Use the Voice= in Reading and Speaking. By Ed. Amherst Ott,
head of the School of Oratory, Drake University. Suitable for class
work.
=How to Gesture.= E. A. Ott. New _illus._ edit.
=Constitution of U. S.= In English, German and French.
=Constitution of U. S., with Index.= (Thorpe's _Pocket Edition_).
=Brief History of Civilization.= (Blackmar).
=The Changing Values of English Speech.=
=The Worth of Words.= (Bell).
=The Religion of Beauty.= (Bell).
=Dictionaries: The Classic Series.= _Half morocco._ Especially
planned for students and teachers in colleges and high schools. Up to
the times in point of contents, authoritative while modern as regards
scholarship, instantly accessible in respect to arrangement, in a
binding elegant and durable. 8×5½ in.
_French-English and Eng.-French_,
_German-English and Eng.-German_,
_Latin-English and Eng.-Latin_,
_Greek-English and Eng.-Greek_,
_English-Greek Dictionary_.
=Dictionaries: The Handy Series.= _Pocket Edition._ Scholarship modern
and accurate; beautiful print.
_Spanish-English and Eng.-Spanish_,
_Italian-English and Eng.-Italian_,
_New-Testament Lexicon_. With a fine presentation
of the _Synonyms_ of the Greek Testament.
=Liddell and Scott's Abridged Greek Lexicon.= With new _Appendix of
Proper and Geog'l names_.
=White's Latin-English Dictionary.=
=White's English-Latin Dictionary.=
=White's Lat.-Eng. and Eng.-Lat. Diction.=
=International Pronouncing French-English and Eng.-French Dictionary.=
_Half morocco._ The _pronunciation_ is indicated by a full re-spelling
of each title-word in the system of the _International Phonetic
Associ'n_, a widely used means of indicating, simply and accurately,
the _pronunciation_ of _all_ languages in a _single_ (amplified)
_Roman alphabet_.
=Who's Who in Mythology?= A dictionary of mythological characters.
Identifies and locates _instanter_ every god and goddess, hero and
myth that are likely to be broached either in conversation, sermon,
song, drama, painting or statuary.
=Who's Who in History?= A dictionary of classical characters and
allusions. Locates the places, identifies the persons, describes the
things, which are constantly alluded to in literature, in sermons, in
paintings, in sculpture and in conversation.
=BOOKS BY RALCY HUSTED BELL=
=The Worth of Words=
_Third Edition, Revised and Enlarged._
The SOULS of words live after their forms change. This spiritual
element of words survives as literature. The _living_ book contains
the EGO of the author--the spiritual personality of his mind. This
book treats of the _right_ usage of words on this vital basis. It is a
_living_ guide. Simple and clear, it aids correct speech and shows how
to vitalize words with SOUL.
=The Changing Values of English Speech=
A mate to THE WORTH OF WORDS. Touches lightly the philosophical side
in a _practical_ way: illumines _Style_, _Soul of Words_, _Early
English_, _Language Change_, _Poetry_, _Syntax_, _Variations in
Word-Meanings_, _Distinctions_, _Origin of Language_, _Old Celtic
Friends_, _English Orthography_, _Words Changed Since Shakespeare_,
_Commonplace Poetry_, _Aborigines_. Reads with the _fascination of
romance_.
=The Religion of Beauty=
_Second Edition, Revised and Enlarged._
This is the autobiography of a Soul glad of life--one who finds riches
in the possessions of others and, above all, a golden wealth in man's
_Impersonal Estate_--in SKY and STAR, SUN and CITY, the SEA and the
OPEN WORLD--one who finds the _Religion_ of _Beauty_ in all things,
and reveals the secret whereby all who will may dig up "real wealth"
while having a good time.
=Taormina=
_Illustrated. New Historic Matter._
History is told here with Maeterlinck's charm of style; scenes are
painted with the power and beauty of Hearn; philosophy is
unconsciously brought forth from events. Greek legend weaves a
necklace of imagery which holds ETNA in its clasp. Martial echoes
mingle with the voices of ancient poets, the murmur of the Ionian Sea
and of olive leaves in sunny Sicily.
=English and American Literature=
=A One Year Course=
=FROM CHAUCER TO MARK TWAIN=
By B. A. HEYDRICK, A. B.
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH, HIGH SCHOOL OF COMMERCE NEW YORK CITY
Interestingly written, illustrated with portraits and enlivened by
pictures of scenes described, facsimiles of manuscripts, etc.
In the space of three hundred pages the author has managed to give a
clear account of English literature from Chaucer to Mark Twain and
James Whitcomb Riley. It is _not_ a mere outline, but a continuous
narrative, and really the most engaging book on the subject that has
appeared. It is written on a different plan from most brief
text-books. The author has wisely not attempted to treat every author
in English literature. By omitting the names which have no meaning for
us to-day the author has gained space to treat the really significant
writers quite fully enough for the needs of young students. An
excellent feature of the book is the profusion of _illustrations_.
Throughout the work emphasis is placed upon books that _still live_.
The nineteenth century in particular is treated fully; the writers may
be no greater than those of the eighteenth, but they have more to say
to us.
Each chapter is followed by a list of recommended reading in the chief
authors, with references to volumes where these may be found. By means
of this recommended reading _the course covered by this book may
readily be extended to cover two years' work_, or more. Under each
chief author is mentioned a standard library edition of his works and
inexpensive editions of single volumes.
=The Speaker Series=
The Speaker Series (32 vols) paper.
No. 1 Popular Short Stories
No. 2 Selections Chosen for Declamation Contest
No. 3 Selections for Children to Recite
No. 4 Cuttings from Stories
No. 5 Cuttings from Stories
No. 6 Ten Short Plays
No. 7 Readings, and Four Plays
No. 8 Briefs of Debates, and Readings
No. 9 Cuttings of Popular Stories
No. 10 Modern American Oratory
No. 11 Dramatic and Humorous Readings
No. 12 Centennial Number
No. 13 New Platform Selections
No. 14 Selections for Religious Occasions
No. 15 Encores: Nearly 200 Fresh, Bright Hits
No. 16 Popular Platform Readings
No. 17 Humorous and Dramatic Readings
No. 18 Monologues
No. 19 On Temperance
No. 20 For Declamation Contests
No. 21 After-dinner Speaking
No. 22 School and College Readings
No. 23 Selections for Entertainments
No. 24 Dramatic Selections
No. 25 Popular Prose and Poetry
No. 26 Readings from Great Authors
No. 27 Readings and Debates Not Found Elsewhere
No. 28 Classic Masterpieces
No. 29 Best Fiction for the Platform
No. 30 Humorous and Pathetic Readings
No. 31 Patriotic Selections
No. 32 Scenes from Plays for Platform Readings
THE ABOVE NUMBERS IN EIGHT BOUND VOLUMES, indexed by authors and
titles:
Vol. I. Including Nos. 1, 2, 3 and 4,
Vol. II. Including Nos. 5, 6, 7 and 8,
Vol. III. Including Nos. 9, 10, 11 and 12,
Vol. IV. Including Nos. 13, 14, 15 and 16,
Vol. V. Including Nos. 17, 18, 19, 20,
Vol. VI. Including Nos. 21, 22, 23, 24,
Vol. VII. Including Nos. 25, 26, 27, 28,
Vol. VIII. Including Nos. 29, 30, 31, 32.
Transcriber's Note
As referred to in the Transcriber's note at the beginning of this
ebook, proper nouns have been amended for ease of searching as
follows:
Page 13--Deianeira amended to Deianira--... in his love for
Deianira.
Page 18--Podalirus amended to Podalirius--... Machaon and
Podalirius, both famous physicians, ...
Page 31--Rumina amended to Rumia--=Babes=, see Rumia Dea.
Page 32--Thanyris amended to Thamyris--=Blind=, see Thamyris.
Page 49--Antaeas amended to Antaeus--=Earth=, see Antaeus.
Page 55--Plato amended to Pluto--=Februus= (Febʹruus). A name
of Pluto, ...
Page 56--Chimera amended to Chimaera--She was the reputed
mother of Chimaera, ...
Page 61--Segestia amended to Segetia--=Harvest=, see Segetia.
Page 70--Venns amended to Venus--... in which there is a
grove sacred to Venus.
Page 72--Argus amended to Argos--... and a priestess of Juno
at Argos.
Page 79--Romas amended to Romans--The Romans used to swear by
Jupiter Lapis.
Page 84--Diomede amended to Diomedes--... but was defeated by
Diomedes.
Page 87--Thot amended to Thoth--There was also an Egyptian
Mercury under the name of Thoth, ...
Page 89--Glaucopis amended to Glaukopis--... Pallas,
Parthenos, Tritonia, and Glaukopis.
Page 117--Japetes amended to Japetus--... the son of Japetus
...
Page 122--Runcia amended to Runcina--=Runcina= (Runcina). The
goddess of weeding ...
Page 127--Chimera amended to Chimaera--See Aesculapius,
Apollo, Chimaera, ...
Page 127--Thanyris amended to Thamyris--=Singing=, see
Polyhymnia, Thamyris.
Page 130--Ergotis amended to Ergatis--=Spinning=, see
Arachne, Ergatis.
Page 134--Thesmorphonius amended to
Thesmorphonis--=Thesmorphonis= (Thesmorphonis). A name of
Ceres.
Page 135--Naryanan amended to Narayan--=Tides=, see Narayan.
Page 141--Calistro amended to Calisto--=Ursa Major= (Urʹsa
Maʹjor), see Calisto.
Page 145--Ergatos amended to Ergatis--=Weaving=, see Ergatis.
The book notes Vishnu as a goddess, and Laksmi as one of Vishnu's
husbands. This is preserved as printed.
Minor punctuation errors have been repaired. Hyphenation has been made
consistent.
The following printer errors have been repaired:
Page 102--anxiiety amended to anxiety--Orpheus, however, in
his anxiety ...
Page 124--spirites amended to sprites--The sprites of fiery
termagants in flame, ...
Page 140--preceive amended to perceive--... I perceive that
in all things ye are too superstitious.
With regard to quoted material, all attributions (or lack thereof)
are preserved as in the original.
The transcriber notes that, on page 16, two couplets are attributed
to Pope, although the second is actually from Dryden. However, this
is preserved as printed.
The frontispiece illustration has been moved to follow the title page.
Other illustrations have been moved where necessary so that they are
not in the middle of a paragraph.
*** End of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "1000 Mythological Characters Briefly Described - Adapted to Private Schools, High Schools and Academies" ***
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