88 On the Theogony. 



4. Coeus is only known as the husband of his sister Phcebe and the 

 father of Asterie ; and by her the grandfather of Hecate, whose inflaences 

 have been just described. 



5. Kronus, or Saturn, by his sister Rhea, (1. 453,) became the parent of 

 Jupiter and his well known brethren, who continued to retain in the popu- 

 lar system of belief, their high celestial power as the principal deities, viz. 

 Neptune, Pluto, and the goddesses Juno, Ceres, and Vesta. Jupiter, 

 although we have mentioned him first, from his ultimate rank, was the 

 youngest of this family. The well known legend is here introduced, how 

 Kronus, having learnt that one of his children was destined to dethrone 

 him, devoured all his children on their birth ; which the allegorists would 

 explain of Time, swallowing up his offspring, years, months, and days. 

 The disconsolate Rhea, when pregnant with her youngest child, has re- 

 course to the counsel of her own parents. Heaven and Earth ; they convey 

 her to Lyctus, in Crete, where she is safely delivered of Jupiter, whom she 

 conceals in a cavern of Mount Aegajus. Returning to Kronus, she offers 

 him, instead of the baby, a stone, wrapt in swaddling clothes, which he 

 swallows without suspecting the deceit. Jupiter grows up and thrives ; 

 and fulfils the fates by displacing his parent, having first obliged him to 

 disgorge all his former children — an operation not very delicately con- 

 ceived.* The stone last devoured was first thrown off, and Jupiter erected 

 the substitute which had preserved his infant life in Pytho, beneath Par- 

 nassus. The Theogony appears in this place mutilated, for we naturally 



expect a narrative of the manner in which Kronus was now dethroned by 

 Jupiter J but this is rather indicated than explained in a single line, where 

 we are told that he was vanquished by the arts and force of his son. We 

 are also informed that he released from the durance in which they had 

 been kept by Kronus, his uncles, Briareus, Cottus, and Gyges, the hun- 

 dred-handed offspring of Heaven and Earth, and the Cyclops, who repaid 

 him by the gift of thunder and lightning. Confiding in such formidable 

 support, he securely rules over mortals and immortals. We shall have 

 further to consider this subject hereafter, when we come to examine the 



* Apollodorus describes the medical process with great naivete ; he tells us, that 

 after Jupiter, under the care of the Curetcs, had arrived at manhood, he consulted 

 with Metis, or Prudence, and at her suggestion administered to Kronus an emetic 

 dose, which produced the effects described in ray text. His brethren, thus singularly 

 recovered, became allies with Jupiter in a war against Kronus and the Titans, which 

 is made to commence at once, although Hesiod appears to place some interval be- 

 tween ; but this may perhaps only be an appearance, arising from the inartificial 

 structure of his poem. This war continues, with doubtful success, for ten years ; 

 when Earth delivers an oracle to Jove, that if he will free her Cyclopian children, 

 &c. from Tartarus, they shall secure to him the victory. On this, Jupiter kills their 

 jailer, Campes, and delivers them, and they reward him by confirming his empire. 

 If such be indeed the just sequence of events in this mythical tale, wc must confess 

 that it has been very confusedly related by Hesiod. 



