LITERATURE 



341 



deities, those mysterious beings who were regarded when she mourned the display of her archery which 

 with awe by gods and men. she is allowed the same caused Orion's death. 



rank among the modern heathen deities, and was par- 

 ticularly worshiped at Rhamnus in Attica, where she 

 had a celebrated statue. 



> at um. This was one of the most ancient of the 

 , called Chronos by the Greeks and Saturnus by the 



Sol. Although the Greeks and Romans worshiped 

 Apollo as the god and dispenser of light, ami in view of 

 this attribute named him Phoebus, yet they eooeahred 

 another distinct divinity, distinguished from Apollo 

 especially in the earlier fables, under the literal name 



, , 



ans. He was said to be the son of Uranos and .applied to designate the sun. vi. Sol. These words. 

 i. i. e. the heavens and the earth, and to have therefore, were employed to express not only the actual 



. 



possessed the first government of the universe. His body in the heavens, but also a supposed being having 

 wife was Rhea. who was his sister. .Saturn and his j a separate and persortil existence. 

 five brethern were called Titans, probably from their 

 mother; Khea and her five sisters likewise Titanides. 

 Saturn seized upon the government of the universe 



Th 



f 







brothers; yet pledged 

 children; accordingly he is 

 represented as devouring his .sons as soon as born. 

 But this fate, three of them, Jupiter. Neptune, and 

 Pluto, escaped, through the artifice of Rhea, their 

 mother, who gave him stones to devour instead of the 

 children at their birth. Jupiter aided Saturn in recov- 

 ering his throne, after he had been driven from it by 

 his brothers, the Titans, and bound in Tartarus. But 

 soon he made war, himself, upon Saturn, and seized 

 the government. 



Sa'tyr. A sylvan deitv, or demi-god, represented as 

 a monster, half man and half goat; having horns on his 

 head, a hairy body, with the feet and tail of a goat. 

 They belong in the train of Bacchus, and have been dis- 

 tinguished for lasciviousness and riot. Although mortal, 

 they are superior to the cares and sorrows of mortal life. 



*M > I l.i. A maiden whose body the enchantress Circe 

 changed below the waist into frightful monsters always 

 barking. The old Greek story is, that Circe was jealous 

 of Scylla, and so deformed her by pouring the Juice of 

 poisonous herbs into the water in which she bathed. 

 This sudden metamorphosis so terrified Scylla, that she 

 threw herself into the sea, and became the rocks which 

 bear her name. 



Sod rat. The lotus tree which stands on the right- 

 hand side of the invisible throne of Allah. Its branches 

 extend wider than the distance between heaven and 

 earth. Its leaves resemble the ears of an elephant. 

 Each seed of its fruit encloses a houri; and two rivers 

 issue from its roots. Numberless birds sing among its 

 branches, and numberless angels rest beneath its shade. 



^il. nus. The older satyrs were generally termed 

 Sileni: but one of these Sileni is commonly the Silenus, 

 who always accompanies Dionysus (Bacchus), whom he 

 is said to have brought up and instructed. He is repre- 

 sented as a jovial old man, with a bald head, pug nose, 

 and rubicund visage, and generally as intoxicated, and, 

 . riding on an ass or supported by satyrs. 

 He was fond of music and dancing and is often accom- 

 panied by the flute. But it is a peculiar feature in his 

 character that he was an inspired prophet, yet. when 

 he was drunk and asleep he was in the power of mortals, 

 \\ho might compel him to prophesy and sing by sur- 



round! 

 oda, 



."5 



him 

 enus 



with chains of flowers, 

 was noted for wisdom; 



Like the sea- 

 and it would, 



therefore, appear that a Silen was simply a river-god; 

 and the name probably comes from the Greek verb, 

 minifying to roll, expressive of the motion of the streams, 

 urn between Silenus, Bacchus, and the 

 Naiades thus becomes easy of explanation, all being 



tio* relating to moisture. 



"il\;i mi- ' \\ i\:i Mils. 



A deity presiding over 



woods, forests, and fields. He is also called the pro- 

 tector of the boundaries of fields. 



^i i. n-. They were a sort of sea-goddesses, said by 

 be two m Dumber, by others, three, at 

 omer mentions but two. ami describes thorn as 

 virgins, dwelling upon an inland, and detaining with 

 them every voyager who waff allured thither l.v their 

 v would have decoyed even 



Mime 



four 



to be tv 

 Homer 



apparition seen in the clouds, 

 tain tunes of the day, by those who ascend the Brocken. 

 or Blocksberg, the highest mountain of the Hart/ Moun- 

 tains. 



Sphinx. A monster said to be a daughter of Chi- 

 ma-ra, in the neighborhood of Thebes. Seated on a 

 rock, she put a riddle to every Theban that passed by. 

 and whoever was unable to solve it was killed by the 

 monster. This calamity induced the Thebans to pro- 

 claim that whoever should deliver the country of the 

 sphinx should obtain the kingdom and Jocasta as his 

 wife. The riddle ran as follows: "What is that which 

 has one voice, and at first four feet, then two feet, and 

 at last three feet, and when it has most is weakest?" 

 (Edipus explained the enigma by saying that it was 

 man, who, when an infant, creeps on all fours, when a 

 man, goes on two feet, and, when old. uses a staff, a 

 third foot. The monster immediately flung herself into 

 the sea and perished. The form of the so-called Egyp- 

 tian sphinxes is that of a winged lion with a human 

 head and bust, always in a lying attitude, whereas the 

 Greek sphinxes are represented in any attitude which 

 might suit the fancy of the poet. 



Styx. The word, or name, comes from the Greek. 

 meaning to abhor, and Styx is called the River of Hate 

 and represented as the river of the lower world. The 

 classic fables concerning it are of Egyptian origin. It 

 was said to flow nine times round the infernal regions. 

 The third river, Cocytus, flows out of the River Styx 

 and the murmur of its waters, the sound of which imi- 

 tates bowlings, is inexpressibly dismal; Phlegethon, the 

 fourth river, rolls slowly along its waves of fire. As a 

 mythical being, Styx is described as a daughter of Oce- 

 anus and Tethys. As a nymph, she dwelt at the entrance 

 of hades, in a lofty grotto which was supported by silver 

 columns. She became the divinity by whom the most 

 solemn oaths were sworn. When one of the gods had to 

 take an oath by Styx, Iris fetched a cup full of water 

 from the Styx, and the god, while taking the oath, 

 poured out the water. 



Tan talus. The son of Jupiter, and king of Lydia. 

 who,' according to some legends, was punished for be- 

 traying the secrets of his father by being placed in a 

 lake, in the infernal regions, whose waters fled from 

 him when he sought to quench his thirst, and amid 



trees laden wi 



sought to quenc 

 th fruit, whose 



boughs avoided every 



UlysBes. on his return to Ithaca, but were not permit tod. 

 By others they were described as daughters of the river- 

 god Achelous. and companion* of Proserpine, after 

 whose seizure they were changed into birds, that they 

 might fly in search of her. In an unhappy contest 

 with the Muses in singing they lost their wings as a 

 i.um-hment. Others make them sea-nyi 



niilar to that of the Tritons, with the faces of 



and the bodies of flying fish. Their fabled 



ii-e was placed by some on an island near Cape 



by others, on the islands 01 



railed SirrnniMM, not f.u from the |.rr.monti.rv of S 

 n-ntum on the coast of Italy. Various explanations 



the Cable of the Sirens have been given It .-, ,-,,mmoi,lv layinc the afton, > PeaefcoptO 

 considered as signifying the dangers of indulgence in the'nun. The goddess of justice was one of the 



most celebrated of the Titanides. or daughters of Uranus 



Sir'hm. Known in mythology a* the faithful dog , .-r is ascribed the first uttering of 



< >non. and net in the heavens as a bright star by Diana ! oracles, and also the first introduction of sacrifice*. 



effort he made to seize them. 



Tar'tarus. A dark abyss under the earth in which 

 the Titans were chained when their father feared their 

 strength. The music of Orpheus |>cnetrat-<l it.* depths 

 and caused the condemned to cease their toil. The 

 name has come to signify an inner region of hell, to 

 which the gods sent the exceptionally depraved. 



Tel . i moii. A son of *acus and Endeis, and brother 

 of lv,, tr assisted Felons in slaying 



brother Phocus. Telamon was expelled from '-gf . ~ 

 came to Salamis. where he was made king. He after- 

 ward became the father of Atlas. Telamon himself 

 was one of the Calydonian hunters and one of the 

 Argonauts. He was also a great friend of Hercules. 

 whom ho joined in his expedition against Laomedon of 

 Troy, which city he :, the first to enUr. Hevcules, 

 m return, gave to him Hesione. a daughter of F 



l< i. m'achus. The son of Ulysses and 

 He was an infant when his father went to ' 

 when he had been absent nearly twent; 

 chus went to Pylos and Sparta 

 UK him. Hewashospita 

 who sent his own son to conduct 

 Menelaus also received him k.mlly. 



. im. to Sparta 



< ommurucatsjd 



um the prophecy of Proteus concerning Ulysses, 

 of Sur- From Sparta I 



I,,.,,., ,,f nrrival d h.- foUAd M.. *&>, VfaOBQ he :,;-!.. I tfl 



