GRECIAN MYTHOLOGY, | 131 
of his foster-mother Wight ; sometimes also (pl. 23, fig. 9) as an old man 
with closed eyes leaning on a staff, with loose disordered hair and beard, a 
tunic extending below the knees, and over this another garment with 
sleeves and fastened below the breast, and with strong wings on his 
shoulder and smaller ones on his head. The gendus of sleep, on the con- 
trary, is usually represented as a winged boy with an inverted torch (fig. 6), 
or as a young man (jig. 8) standing with reclining head and closed eyes, the 
left arm leaning on a stump, and the right hand holding the inverted torch. 
We often see him also in the form of a boy lying on a skin or the bare earth, 
with poppies, a lizard or arabbit near him. According to the old legends, the 
lizard acted as the friend of man, and awoke the sleepers at the approach 
of a dangerous insect. Therabbit was no doubt a symbol of that retirement 
which the weary so much seek when desiring undisturbed repose. 
3. Taanatos (Death), twin brother to Sleep, was god of material death. 
In representing him the artists endeavored to soften down the terrors of the 
popular picture of the death of matter, and made the form to correspond 
very nearly or entirely with thatof Sleep. P/. 23, fig. 7, presents us with a 
statue found on a sepulchral altar in the palace of Albani at Rome, with 
the inscription Somnus (sleep). From the situation of the altar, however, it 
may be inferred that material death, or probably the genius of death, was 
intended and expressed by the milder and less repulsive figure of sleep. 
Far more terrible is the representation of the genius of death (pl. 16, jig. 4), 
whose appalling black color, rapid step, expanded wings, dishevelled hair, 
and death-dealing weapon, all point to his errand, the destruction of life. 
4, The Dreams were also the children of Night, and three of them appear to 
have been chiefly recognised. We have copied a group supposed to repre- 
sent them (pl. 23, jig. 17) from asepulchral lamp. A female form reposes 
gracefully on a lion’s skin, herself partly covered, and near her in a pleasant 
easy position lie three winged children or genii sleeping. The largest of 
the group appears to be Night, the smaller figures Dreams; and the club, 
tree, bow and arrows, seem to confirm this interpretation. 
A hideous exhibition of the Dreams is given in pl. 28, jig. 14. Orestes, 
whose youthful friendship for Pylades has become proverbial, had taken 
bloody revenge on his own mother in retaliation for her having connived at the 
assassination of his father Agamemnon upon his return from the siege of 
Troy. For the commission of this crime the Hwmenides assailed him, and 
pursued him with their bloody serpent-whips night and day. Their appal- 
ling figures harassed him in his dreams, while his mother appeared at his 
side with the bloody dagger in her breast. Hewas at last permitted to 
propitiate them, and occupy the throne of his father in peace. This myth 
obviously connects the Dreams with the human conscience, which is sym- 
bolized by the Eumenides. 
12. Tae Heroes. 
The Herozs were sons of the gods by mortal mothers. They shared 
851 
