96 MYTHOLOGY AND RELIGIOUS RITES. 
patron god of Taras (the ancient name for Taranto), and the figure as well 
as the inscription TAPAZ obviously point to that historical fact. 
Poseidon and Pallas Athene contended with each other about the sway 
of the city of Athens, and the honor of giving it a name. It was agreed to 
decide the dispute in favor of the one who should produce the most valuable 
gift for the Greeks. Poseidon struck the ground and the horse arose; 
Athene created the olive tree. The Greeks thereupon chose her for their 
patron deity, and called the city Athens. In pl. 21, jig. 12, representing 
this transaction, she is seen extending her right hand to Poseidon, in token 
of her joy at the happy termination of the contest. The owl is sitting on a 
branch of the olive, around whose trunk coils the serpent, one of the 
insignia of Athene. Owing to Poseidon’s gift in his contest with Athene, 
horses were ever afterwards sacrificed to him, together with seals ; and horse- 
races in honor of him constituted part of the exercises connected with the 
Isthmian games. Merchants and navigators made frequent offerings to 
Poseidon. 3 
4, Demeter, on Dio (Ceres). This goddess was the daughter of Cronos 
and Rhea, and the patroness of the vegetable world, particularly of fruits 
and grain. At an early period she appears to have been distinguished from 
Hestia, or Vesta, the latter impregnating the earth with fertilizing 
warmth, the former inducing, shaping, and maturing the nourishing ear. 
She fauadded agriculture, reclaimed mankind from a savage state, accustomed 
them to permanent residences, and taught them the rights of property. 
In statues and paintings she resembles era in the maternal expression, 
though she is of a milder countenance, and somewhat taller. The eye also 
is more closed, and not so penetrating ; the forehead is lower, and instead 
of a diadem she wears a single bandage, or a crown composed of ears of 
wheat. The ancient Pelasgi represented her (pl. 24, jig. 1) in full attire ; 
the crown rests on her brow, the left hand holds a sceptre, the right a bunch 
of wheat ears, poppies, and flowers; while a large veil, covering the upper 
part of her head, falls down upon her back. The later Grecian artists, how- 
ever, exhibit lea entirely naked, with a fruit basket and a sheaf of grain. 
Many busts of the goddess or the crown of ears ( pl. 24, fig. 2), or instead 
of it, the hair put up in a waving form, with a tuft or bunch on the top of 
the head ( pl. 18, fig. 16). 
Demeter was visited by Zeus in the shape of a serpent ; and she is seen 
on a coin (pl. 15, jig. 27a), shuddering at the sight of the serpent, and 
endeavoring to escape from it, while the reverse of the same coin (jig. 27) 
represents Bacchos with the body of a bull, the son of Zeus and Demeter. 
Some writers, however, interpret these figures of Zeus and Persephone 
(Proserpine). The latter, whom the common myth describes as the daughter 
of Zeus and Demeter, was the source of much grief to the mother. While 
yet a child, her father had betrothed her to her brother Hades, the gloomy 
prince of the infernal world, but when she grew up she declined fulfilling 
the engagement. As she was one day gathering flowers in the Mysian plain 
in the absence of her mother, the earth opened suddenly, and Hades arose 
in his golden chariot and carried her off through a cave to his shadowy 
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