Stories of Old Greece and Rome — Appendices 1-10

I

The only powers that dared oppose the will of Jupiter were the Fates and Destiny, who issued their irrevocable decrees without regard to the wishes of the ruler of Olympus.

Jupiter's sovereignty is thus described by Homer:-- "He whose all-conscious eyes the world behold, The eternal Thunderer sat, enthroned in gold, High heaven the footstool of his feet he makes, And wide beneath him all Olympus shakes.

* * * * * He spoke, and awful bends his sable brows, Shakes his ambrosial curls, and gives the nod, The stamp of fate and sanction of the god;

High heaven with trembling the dread signal took, And all Olympus to the center shook."

--POPE'S TRANSLATION.

The principal temples of Jupiter were the Capitol at Rome, and the Temple of Jupiter Ammon in Libya.

At Dodona was the oracle of Jupiter, called the "Speaking Oak," where the responses were given by the trees whose rustling branches made sounds that were interpreted by the priests.

The oracle was said to have been established at Dodona in the following manner: two black doves took their flight from Thebes in Egypt.

One flew to Dodona in Epirus; and alighting in a grove of oaks, it proclaimed, in human language, to the people of that region, that they must establish there an oracle of Jupiter.

The other dove flew to the temple of Jupiter Ammon, and delivered a similar command there.

Another account says that two priestesses were carried off from Thebes in Egypt by the Phœnicians, and set up oracles at Dodona and the Libyan Oasis.

A magnificent temple at Olympia was dedicated to Jupiter, and here, every fifth year, the Greeks assembled to celebrate games.

These festivals lasted five days, and were known as the Olympic Games.

Vast numbers of spectators flocked to them from every part of Greece and from Asia, Africa, and Sicily.

The Greeks usually reckoned time by Olympiads or five-year periods,--the space of time between the celebrations.

The first Olympiad was about 776 B. C.

Inside the temple at Olympia stood a wonderful statue of Jupiter made of ivory and gold.

The parts representing flesh were of ivory laid on a framework of wood, while the drapery and ornaments were of gold.

It was the work of Phidias, and was considered the highest achievement of Grecian sculpture.

The height of the figure was forty feet, and the pedestal was twelve feet.

The god was represented as seated on his throne, with his brows crowned with a wreath of olive and in his hand a scepter.

The statue was considered one of the Seven Wonders of the world, but our knowledge of it is confined to literary descriptions and to copies on coins.

II

Poems:-- Prometheus Bound ÆSCHYLUS Prometheus Unbound PERCY B. SHELLEY

Prometheus HENRY W. LONGFELLOW

Prometheus JAMES R LOWELL The following are Byron's lines:-- "Titan!

to whose immortal eyes The sufferings of mortality, Seen in their sad reality, Were not as things that gods despise;

What was thy pity's recompense?

A silent suffering, and intense;

The rock, the vulture, and the chain;

All that the proud can feel of pain;

The agony they do not show;

The suffocating sense of woe."

III

There is a full account of the story of Pandora in Hawthorne's "Wonder Book."

Poems:-- Pandora DANTE G. ROSSETTI

Masque of Pandora HENRY W. LONGFELLOW

IV

Other mythologists than Ovid, in treating the story of the flood, state that Deucalion and Pyrrha took refuge in an ark, which, after sailing about for many days, was stranded on the top of Mount Parnassus.

This version was far less popular with the Greeks, though it shows more plainly the common source from which all these myths are derived.

"Who does not see in drowned Deucalion's name, When Earth her men, and Sea had lost her shore, Old Noah!"

--FLETCHER.

V

The city of Delphi, containing the famous oracle of Apollo, was built on the slopes of Mount Parnassus in Phocis.

It had been observed at a very early period that the goats feeding on Parnassus were thrown into convulsions when they approached a certain deep cleft in the side of the mountain.

When a goatherd ventured near the spot, he found a peculiar vapor arising from the cavern, and as he inhaled it, he was affected in the same way as the animals had been.

The inhabitants of the country, unable to explain the goatherd's convulsive ravings, imputed his utterings to divine inspiration.

A temple was therefore erected on the spot, and the prophetic influence was attributed to various gods, but was finally assigned only to Apollo.

A priestess was appointed who was named the Pythia, and her office was to sit upon a tripod placed over the chasm from which the divine afflatus proceeded.

The priestess and the tripod were both adorned with laurel; and as she inhaled the hallowed air, her words--believed to be inspired by Apollo--were interpreted by the priests.

The Pythian Games were celebrated at Delphi every three years, and were instituted by Apollo in commemoration of his conquest of the Python.

At these games were chariot racing, running, leaping, wrestling, throwing quoits, hurling javelins, and boxing.

Besides the exercises in bodily strength, there were contests in music, poetry, and oratory.

These occasions gave the poets and musicians an opportunity to show their productions to the public.

VI

There was in Troy a celebrated statue of Minerva called the Palladium.

It was said to have fallen from heaven, and the Trojans believed that the city could not be taken so long as this statue remained within it.

Ulysses and Diomede entered the city in disguise, and succeeded in obtaining the Palladium, which they carried off to the Grecian camp.

The finest and most celebrated of the statues of Minerva was the one by Phidias in the Parthenon at Athens.

This was forty feet in height, and was covered with ivory and gold.

It represented the goddess as standing with a spear in one hand, and in the other a statue of victory.

Her helmet, highly decorated, was surmounted by a sphinx.

The Parthenon itself was constructed under the supervision of the famous sculptor;

and many of the reliefs which enriched the exterior were by the hand of Phidias himself.

The statue of Minerva is not in existence, but parts of the frieze of the Parthenon are in the British Museum and are known as the Elgin Marbles.

The hero Theseus instituted at Athens the festival of Panathenæa in honor of Minerva.

The chief feature of the festival was a solemn procession in which the Peplus, or sacred robe of Minerva, was carried to the Parthenon, and left on or before the statue of the goddess.

The Peplus was covered with embroidery worked by virgins of the noblest families in Athens.

The festival was peculiar to the Athenians, but among them persons of all ages and both sexes took part in the celebrations.

In the procession the old men carried olive branches and the young men bore arms.

The women carried baskets on their heads containing the sacred utensils and cakes necessary for the sacrifices.

VII

The most famous representations of Juno are the torso in Vienna from Ephesus, the Barberini in the Vatican at Rome, the bronze statuette in the Cabinet of Coins and Antiquities in Vienna, and the Farnese bust in the National Museum at Naples.

Juno's festivals, the Matronalia, in Rome, were always celebrated with great pomp.

Less important feasts were held in each city where a temple was dedicated to her.

On one of these occasions, an old priestess was very anxious to go to Juno's temple at Argos, in which she had served the goddess many years in her maiden days, and which she had left only to be married.

The way was long and difficult, and the old priestess could not attempt to walk such a distance; so she bade her sons Cleobis and Biton harness her white heifers to her car.

The youths were anxious to do her bidding; but they could not find the heifers, however diligently they searched.

As they did not wish to disappoint their mother who had set her heart on attending the services, they harnessed themselves to the car, and thus conveyed her to the temple.

The mother, touched by their filial devotion, then prayed to Juno to bestow on her sons the greatest gift in her power; and when the old priestess went in search of the youths, after the services were over, she found them dead in the portico of the temple where they had lain down to rest.

Juno had taken them, while they slept, to the Elysian Fields to enjoy an eternity of bliss as a reward for their devotion.

VIII

There is another version of the story of how Hercules brought Alcestis back from Hades.

This is in the Alcestis of Euripides, and Browning has related it in his "Balaustion's Adventure."

In this account the wife of Admetus is not surrendered willingly by Pluto, but the great hero Hercules wrestles with Death for the body and life of Alcestis, and by winning the victory over this dread adversary, restores Admetus's wife to his arms.

Other poems:-- The Love of Alcestis WILLIAM MORRIS Alcestis FRANCIS T. PALGRAVE

Shepherd of King Admetus JAMES R. LOWELL

IX

The combat between a hero and a dragon is a favorite theme in mythology and folklore.

Besides the myth of Apollo's slaying of the Python are the well-known stories of Siegfried's killing of Fafnir, St. George and the Dragon, Perseus and the Sea Serpent, Cadmus and the Serpent, and Hercules and the Hydra.

The principal temples dedicated to the worship of Apollo were at Delos, his birthplace, and at Delphi.

One of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world, the famous Colossus of Rhodes, was a statue of Apollo.

His head was encircled with a halo of bright sunbeams, and his legs were set wide apart to allow vessels to pass in and out of the harbor with all their sails spread.

Among the many remains of ancient sculpture, none is better known--unless it be the Venus of Milo--than the statue of Apollo called the Belvedere, from the name of the apartment of the pope's palace at Rome in which it is placed.

The artist is unknown, but the work is supposed to be of the first century of our era, and is modeled on the type of Greek sculpture of the Hellenistic period.

It is restored to represent the god at the moment when he has shot the arrow that slays the Python.

Poems:-- Apollo in "The Epic of Hades" LEWIS MORRIS Hymn to Apollo JOHN KEATS Hymn to Apollo PERCY B. SHELLEY

X

The story of Clytie is frequently alluded to in poetry, and the sunflower is often used as an emblem of constancy.

Moore's lines are well known:-- "The heart that has truly loved never forgets, But as truly loves on to the close;

As the sunflower turns on her god when he sets The same look that she turned when he rose."