Stories of Old Greece and Rome — Appendices 21-30
XXI
References and allusions to Cupid abound in poetry.
A few of the best-known poems are:-- Eros EDMUND GOSSE Ode to Psyche JOHN KEATS The Lost Eros THOMAS ASHE The Unknown Eros COVENTRY PATMORE Story of Cupid and Psyche WILLIAM MORRIS Hue and Cry After Cupid BEN JONSON The following is a charming little poem by John Lyly:-- "Cupid and my Campaspe play'd At cards for kisses, Cupid pay'd. He stakes his quiver, bow and arrows, His mother's doves, and teeme of sparrows, Looses them too; then downe he throwes The coerall of his lippe, the rose Growing on's cheek (but none knows how), With these, the crystal of his brow, And then the dimple of his chin;
All these did my Campaspe winne;
At last hee set her both his eyes;
She won, and Cupid blind did rise.
O love!
has she done this to thee?
What shall (alas) become of mee?"
XXII
There is a very old story of a woman's love for her husband and her efforts to win him back from Death which is known in every part of India.
On a certain night in the year millions of Hindu women celebrate a rite in honor of Savitri.
The story is told in the Mahabharata, an ancient epic of India.
Walter Pater, in "Marius the Epicurean," gives the story of Cupid and Psyche as contained in Apuleius.
Many of the incidents of the story will be found in modern fairy tales and romances such as "Beauty and the Beast"; Grimm's "Twelve Brothers"; the Gaelic stories: "The Three Daughters of King O'Hara," "Fair, Brown and Trembling," "The Daughter of the Skies"; and the Norse tale, "East of the Sun and West of the Moon."
XXIII
The most amusing use made of the story of Pyramus and Thisbe is in Shakespeare's "Midsummer-Night's Dream," Act III, Sc.
2, and Act V, Sc.
1, which is a burlesque of what was, in the original story in Ovid, a tragedy.
XXIV
Poems on "Hero and Leander" have been written by Chistopher Marlowe, Leigh Hunt, Thomas Hood, and Thomas Moore.
Keats wrote a sonnet, "On a Picture of Leander."
Byron attempted Leander's feat of swimming across the Hellespont, a thing that was considered impossible until the English poet proved its feasibility by performing it himself.
The distance in the narrowest part is almost a mile, and there is a constant current setting out from the Sea of Marmora.
Since Byron's time the swimming of the Hellespont has been achieved by others; but it still remains a test of strength and skill.
XXV
Various modern stories have been based upon the myth of Pygmalion.
One of the best known is "The Venus of Ille," by Prosper Mérimée. Poems:-- The New Pygmalion ANDREW LANG Pygmalion and the Image WILLIAM MORRIS Pygmalion the Sculptor ROBERT BUCHANAN XXVI
Amphion had a twin brother named Zethus who, however, had none of the musician's artistic ability.
The brothers heard that their mother Antiope had been put aside by her second husband Lycus, in order that he might marry another wife; so Amphion and Zethus hastened to Thebes, where they found things worse than they had imagined, for Antiope was thrust into prison and subjected to very cruel treatment.
The brothers besieged the city; and, after taking possession of it, put Lycus to death.
Then they tied Dirce, who had been the cause of their mother's suffering, to the tail of a wild bull, and let it drag her over the stones until she was dead.
This punishment of Dirce is the subject of a famous piece of sculpture called the "Farnese Bull" (as it once belonged to the Farnese family), now in the National Museum at Naples.
Poem:-- Amphion ALFRED TENNYSON XXVII
Orpheus's lute was placed in the heavens as the bright constellation Lyra.
The story of Orpheus and Eurydice is often alluded to in poetry.
Pope has used it to illustrate the power of music in his "Ode for St. Cecilia's Day," and the wonderful beauty of the nightingale's song over the grave of Orpheus is alluded to by Southey in his "Thalaba."
The song of the nightingale seemed to the ancients so plaintive that, wishing to account for its sadness, they invented the story of Philomela.
King Tereus, having wearied of his wife Procne, tore out her tongue by the roots and then married her sister Philomela, pretending that his wife was dead.
Procne informed her sister of the horrible truth by means of a web into which she wove her story.
To revenge themselves upon the king, the sisters killed the boy Itylus (son of Tereus and Procne) and served him up as food to his father.
To punish them for this wickedness the gods changed Procne into a swallow, and Philomela into a nightingale, which forever bemoans the murdered Itylus.
The king, Tereus, they transformed into a hawk.
Poems:-- The Power of Music WILLIAM WORDSWORTH Eurydice and Orpheus ROBERT BROWNING Orpheus and Eurydice LEWIS MORRIS Eurydice JAMES R. LOWELL
Eurydice EDWARD DOWDEN Waking of Eurydice EDMUND GOSSE XXVIII
The Muses were the daughters of Jupiter and Mnemosyne, goddess of memory.
Although they sometimes united in one grand song, they had separate duties and powers.
Apollo as leader of the choir of Muses was called Musagetes.
Clio, the Muse of history, recorded the great deeds of heroes, and was usually represented with a laurel wreath, and a book and stylus.
Euterpe, the Muse of lyric poetry, was represented with a flute and garlands of flowers.
Thalia, the Muse of comedy, was also the patroness of pastoral poetry, and so was often represented with a shepherd's crook as well as a mask.
Melpomene, the Muse of tragedy, wore a crown of gold, and wielded a dagger and a scepter.
Terpsichore, the Muse of choral dance and song, was usually portrayed in the act of dancing.
Erato, the Muse of love poetry, held a lyre.
Polyhymnia, the Muse of sacred poetry, also presided over rhetoric.
Calliope, the Muse of epic and heroic poetry, wore a laurel crown.
Urania, the Muse of astronomy, held mathematical instruments.
XXIX
Mars's attendants, or some say his children, were Eris (Discord), Phobos (Alarm), Metus (Fear), Demios (Dread), and Pallor (Terror).
As founder of Rome, Romulus was its first king, and ruled over the people so tyrannically that the senators determined to get rid of him.
So one day when an eclipse plunged the city into sudden darkness, the senators killed Romulus, cut his body into pieces, and hid them under their wide togas.
When daylight returned, and the people looked about for their king,--for all the citizens had assembled on the Forum,--the senators informed them that Romulus had been carried off by the immortal gods and would never return.
After this Romulus was worshiped as a god under the name of Quirinus, and a temple was built on one of the seven hills of Rome, which has since been known as Mount Quirinal.
Yearly festivals in honor of Romulus were held in Rome under the name of Quirinalia.
XXX
Homer gives two versions of the story of Vulcan's lameness,--one, that Jupiter threw him out of heaven for helping his mother against Jupiter's will; and the other, that he was born deformed, and that Juno, ashamed of his ugliness, cast him out of heaven.
(1) "Yea once ere this, when I was fain to save thee (Juno), he caught me by my foot and hurled me from the heavenly threshold.
All day I flew, and at the set of sun I fell in Lemnos, and little life was in me."
(2) "She (Thetis) delivered me when pain came upon me from my great fall through the ill-will of my shameless mother who would fain have hid me away for that I was lame."
He spake and from the anvil rose limping, a huge bulk, but under him his slender legs moved nimbly.
The bellows he set away from the fire, and gathered all his gear wherewith he worked into a silver chest; and with a sponge he wiped his face and hands and sturdy neck and shaggy breast, and did on his doublet and took a stout staff and went forth limping.
--_Iliad_, Book I and Book XVIII.
Vulcan's children were mostly monsters; but he is also the reputed father of Servius Tullius, sixth king of Rome, by a slave Ocrisia whom he visited in the form of a bright flame, which played harmlessly about her.
Vulcan was worshiped by all blacksmiths and artisans; and great festivals, called the Vulcanalia and the Hephæstia, were celebrated in his honor.
