173.Interpretative.Dædalusis a representative of the earliest technical skill, especially in wood-cutting, carving, and the plastic arts used for industrial purposes. His flight from one land to another signifies the introduction of inventions into the countries concerned. The fall of Icarus was probably invented to explain the name of theIcarianSea.
Illustrative.Dædalus: Chaucer, Hous of Fame, 409.Icarus: Shakespeare, 1 Henry VI, IV, vi; IV, vii; 3 Henry VI, V, vi; poem on Icarus by Bayard Taylor; travesty by J. G. Saxe.
In Art.Sculpture: Fig. 138, in text: Villa Albani, Rome; Canova's Dædalus and Icarus; painting by J. M. Vien; also by A. Pisano (Campanile, Florence).
174. The descendants of Erichthoniusare as follows:
Table M
Jupiter +— Tantalus+— Pelops+—Pittheus| +—Æthra| =Ægeus| +—Theseus| =Ariadne d. of Minos II| =Antiope (Hippolyta)| +—Hippolytus| =Phædra d. of Minos II+— Atreus+— ThyestesErichthonius+— Pandion I+— Erechtheus| +— Pandion II| | +—Ægeus| | =Æthra| | +—Theseus(see above)| +— Creüsa| =Apollo| +—Ion| =Xuthus+—Procne+—Philomela+—PhilomelaCecrops(see65). According to one tradition, Cecrops was autochthonous andhad one son, Erysichthon, who died without issue, and three daughters, Herse,Aglauros, and Pandrosos (personifications of Dew and its vivifying influences).According to another, he was of the line of Erichthonius, being either a son ofPandion I, or a son of Erechtheus and a grandson of Pandion I. Apollodorus makeshim father of Pandion II. He was regarded as founder of the worship of Atheneand of various civic institutions. He is probably a hero of the Pelasgian race.Ion.According to one tradition, the race of Erechtheus became extinct, savefor Ion, a son of Apollo and Creüsa, daughter of Erechtheus. This son, havingbeen removed at birth, was brought up in Apollo's temple at Delphi, and, inaccordance with the oracle of Apollo, afterwards adopted by Creüsa and her husbandXuthus (see the Ion of Euripides). Ion founded the new dynasty of Athens.But, according to Pausanias and Apollodorus, the dynasty of Erechtheus was continuedbyÆgeus, who was either a son, or an adopted son, of Pandion II. ByÆthra he became father of Theseus, in whose veins flowed, therefore, the bloodof Pelops and of Erichthonius.Interpretative.The story ofPhilomelawas probably invented to account forthe sad song of the nightingale. With her the swallow is associated as anothermuch loved bird of spring. Occasionally Procne is spoken of as the nightingale, andPhilomela as the swallow, and Tereus as taking the form of a red-crested hoopoe.Illustrative.Chaucer, Legende of Good Women (Philomene of Athens); Milton,Il Penseroso; Richard Barnfield, Song, "As it fell upon a day"; Thomson,Hymn on the Seasons; Swinburne, Itylus; Oscar Wilde, The Burden of Itys;Sir Thomas Noon Talfourd's drama, Ion.176-181. Trœzen: in Argolis. According to some the Amazonian wife ofTheseus wasHippolyta, but her Hercules had already killed.Theseusis said tohave united the several tribes of Attica into one state, of which Athens was thecapital. In commemoration of this important event, he instituted the festival ofPanathenæa, in honor of Athene, the patron deity of Athens. This festival differedfrom the other Grecian games chiefly in two particulars. It was peculiar tothe Athenians, and its chief feature was a solemn procession in which the Peplus,or sacred robe of Athene, was carried to the Parthenon, and left on or beforethe statue of the goddess. The Peplus was covered with embroidery, worked byselect virgins of the noblest families in Athens. The procession consisted of personsof all ages and both sexes. The old men carried olive branches in theirhands, and the young men bore arms. The young women carried baskets on theirheads, containing the sacred utensils, cakes, and all things necessary for the sacrifices.The procession formed the subject of the bas-reliefs which embellished thefrieze of the temple of the Parthenon. A considerable portion of these sculpturesis now in the British Museum among those known as the "Elgin Marbles." Wemay mention here the other celebrated national games of the Greeks. The firstand most distinguished were theOlympic, founded, it was said, by Zeus himself.They were celebrated at Olympia in Elis. Vast numbers of spectatorsflocked to them from every part of Greece, and from Asia, Africa, and Sicily.They were repeated every fifth year in midsummer, and continued five days. Theygave rise to the custom of reckoning time and dating events by Olympiads. Thefirst Olympiad is generally considered as beginning with the year 776 B.C. ThePythiangames were celebrated in the vicinity of Delphi, theIsthmianonthe Corinthian isthmus, theNemeanat Nemea, a city of Argolis. The exercisesin these games were chariot-racing, running, leaping, wrestling, throwingthe quoit, hurling the javelin, and boxing. Besides these exercises of bodilystrength and agility, there were contests in music, poetry, and eloquence. Thusthese games furnished poets, musicians, and authors the best opportunities topresent their productions to the public, and the fame of the victors was diffusedfar and wide.Interpretative.Theseusis the Attic counterpart of Hercules, not so significantin moral character, but eminent for numerous similar labors, and preëminent asthe mythical statesman of Athens. His story may, with the usual perilous facility,be explained as a solar myth.Periphetesmay be a storm cloud with its thunderbolts;theMarathonian Bulland theMinotaurmay be forms of the power ofdarkness hidden in the starry labyrinth of heaven. Like Hercules, Theseus fightswith theAmazons(clouds, we may suppose, in some form or other), and, like him,he descends to the underworld.Ariadnemay be another twilight-sweetheart ofthe sun, and, like Medea and Dejanira, she must be deserted. She is either the"well-pleasing" or the "saintly." She was, presumably, a local nature-goddess ofNaxos and Crete, who, in process of time, like Medea, sank to the condition of aheroine. Probably from her goddess-existence the marriage with Bacchus survived,to be incorporated later with the Attic myth of Theseus. As the femalesemblance of Bacchus, she appears to have been a promoter of vegetation; and,like Proserpina, she alternated between the joy of spring and the melancholy ofwinter. By some she is considered to be connected with star-worship as amoon-goddess.Illustrative.Chaucer, The Knight's Tale (for Theseus and Ypolita); The Housof Fame, 407, and the Legende of Good Women, 1884, for Ariadne; Shakespeare,Two Gentlemen of Verona, IV, i; Midsummer Night's Dream, II, ii (Hippolyta andTheseus); Shakespeare and Fletcher, Two Noble Kinsmen. In Beaumont andFletcher's Maid's Tragedy, II, ii, a tapestry is ordered to be worked illustratingTheseus' desertion of Ariadne. Landor, To Joseph Ablett, "Bacchus is comingdown to drink to Ariadne's love"; Landor, Theseus, and Hippolyta; Mrs. Browning,Paraphrase on Nonnus (Bacchus and Ariadne), Paraphrase on Hesiod; SirTheodore Martin, Catullus, LXIV. Other poems: B. W. Procter, On the Statueof Theseus; Frederick Tennyson, Ariadne (Daphne and Other Poems); Mrs.Hemans, The Shade of Theseus; R. S. Ross, Ariadne in Naxos; J. S. Blackie,Ariadne; W. M. W. Call, Ariadne; Mrs. H. H. Jackson, Ariadne's Farewell.Phædra and Hippolytus: The Hippolytus of Euripides; Swinburne, Phædra;Browning, Artemis Prologizes; M. P. Fitzgerald, The Crowned Hippolytus; A.Mary F. Robinson, The Crowned Hippolytus; L. Morris, Phædra (Epic of Hades).OnCecrops: J. S. Blackie, The Naming of Athens; Erechtheus, by A. C. Swinburne.In Art.Theseus: the original of Fig. 140, text is in the Hermitage, St.Petersburg; of Fig. 141 in the Naples Museum. The Battle with the Amazonsfrequently recurs in ancient sculpture. The sleeping Ariadne, of the Vatican,Fig. 142, text. Also the Revels as in text, Fig. 144. Modern Sculpture: theTheseus of Canova (Volksgarten, Vienna); the Ariadne of Dannecker. Paintings:Tintoretto's Ariadne and Bacchus; Teschendorff's Ariadne; Titian'sBacchus and Ariadne.182-189. The Royal Family of Thebes.
Table N
Agenor+— Cadmus+—Agave| =Echion| +— Pentheus| +— Menœceus I| +—Creon| | +— Menœceus II| | +— Hæmon| +—Jocasta| =Laïus| +—Œdipus| =Jocasta| +—Eteocles| +—Polynices| +—Antigone| +— Ismene| =Œdipus| +—Eteocles(see above)| +—Polynices(see above)| +—Antigone(see above)| +— Ismene (see above)+— Polydorus+—Labdacus+—Laïus=Jocasta+—Œdipus(see above)
Illustrative.Œdipus: Plumptre's translation of Œdipus the King, Œdipus Coloneus, and Antigone; Shelley, Swellfoot the Tyrant; E. Fitzgerald, TheDownfall and Death of King Œdipus; Sir F. H. Doyle, Œdipus Tyrannus; Aubrey De Vere, Antigone; Emerson, The Sphinx; W. B. Scott, The Sphinx; M. Arnold, Fragment of an "Antigone."Tiresias: by Swinburne, Tennyson, and Thomas Woolner.
In Art.Ancient: Œdipus and the Sphinx (in Monuments Inédits, Rome and Paris, 1839-1878). Modern paintings: Teschendorff's Œdipus and Antigone, Antigone and Ismene, and Antigone; Œdipus and the Sphinx, by J. D. A. Ingres; The Sphinx, by D. G. Rossetti.
Of the stories told in these and the following sections no systematic, allegorical, or physical interpretations are here given, because (1) the general method followed by the unravelers of myth has already been sufficiently illustrated; (2) the attempt to force symbolic conceptions into the longer folk-stories, or into the artistic myths and epics of any country, is historically unwarranted and, in practice, is only too often capricious; (3) the effort to interpret such stories as the Iliad and the Odyssey must result in destroying those elements of unconscious simplicity and romantic vigor that characterize the early products of the creative imagination.
190-194. Houses concerned in the Trojan War.
Table O
(1)Family of Peleusand its connections:
Asopus +— Ægina=Jupiter+—Æacus+— Telamon| =Eribœa| +— Ajax| =Hesione| +—Teucer+—Peleus=Thetis+—Achilles+— Pyrrhus (Neoptolemus)=Hermioned.of Menelaüs and HelenNereus=Doris+— Thetis=Peleus+—Achilles(see above)
(2)Family of Atreusand its connections:
Jupiter +— Minos I| +— Lycastus| +— Minos II| +— Crateus| +— Aërope| =Atreus| +—Agamemnon| | =Clytemnestra| | +—Iphigenia| | +—Electra| | +— Chrysothemis| | +—Orestes| | =Hermione| +—Menelaüs| =Helen| +— Hermione| =Neoptolemus| =Orestes+— Tantalus+— Pelops=Hippodamia+—Atreus| =Aërope| +—Agamemnon(see above)| +—Menelaüs(see above)+— Thyestes| +—Ægisthus+— Pittheus+— Æthra=Ægeus+— Theseus+— Hippolytus
(3)Family of Tyndareusand its connections:
Æolus +— Perieres+— Icarius| +—Penelope+—Tyndareus=Leda+— Castor+—ClytemnestraThestius+—Leda=Tyndareus+— Castor (see above)+—Clytemnestra(see above)=Jupiter+— Pollux+—Helen=Menelaüs=Paris
Castor and Pollux are called sometimes Dioscuri (sons of Jove), sometimes Tyndaridæ (sons of Tyndareus). Helen is frequently called Tyndaris, daughter of Tyndareus.
(4)Descent of Ulysses and Penelope:
Hellen +— Æolus I+— Perieres| +— Icarius| | +—Penelope| | =Ulysses| | +—Telemachus| +—Tyndareus| =Leda| +— Castor| +—Clytemnestra+— Deïon+— Cephalus| =Procris| +— Arcesius| +— Laërtes| +—Ulysses| =Penelope| +—Telemachus(see above)+— Actor+— Menœtius+—Patroclus
(5)The Royal Family of Troy:
Iapetus (Titan) +— Atlas+— Electra (Pleiad)=Jupiter+—Dardanus=Batea+— Erichthonius+— Tros+— Ilus II| +—Laomedon| +— Tithonus| | =Aurora| | +— Memnon| +— Hesione| | =Telamon| | +—Teucer| +—Priam| =Hecuba| +—Hector| | =Andromache| | +— Astyanax| +—Paris| | =Œnone| | =Helen| +— Deiphobus| +— Helenus| +— Troilus| +— Cassandra| +— Creüsa| | =Æneas| | +—Ascanius| | =Iulus| +— Polyxena+— Assaracus+— Capys+— Anchises=Venus+—Æneas=Creüsa+—Ascanius(see above)Teucer+— Batea=Dardanus+— Erichthonius (see above)
195.On theIliadand onTroy: Keats, Sonnet on Chapman's Homer; Milton, Paradise Lost, 1, 578; 9, 16; Il Penseroso, 100; Hartley Coleridge, Sonnet onHomer; T. B. Aldrich, Pillared Arch and Sculptured Tower; the Sonnets of Lang and Myers prefixed to Lang, Leaf, and Myers' translation of the Iliad. On theJudgment of Paris: George Peele, Arraignment of Paris; James Beattie, Judgment of Paris; Tennyson, Dream of Fair Women; J. S. Blackie, Judgment of Paris. See, for allusions, Shakespeare, All's Well that Ends Well, I, ii, iii; Henry V, II, iv; Troilus and Cressida, I, i; II, ii; III, i; Romeo and Juliet, I, ii; II, iv; IV, i; V, iii. OnHelen: A. Lang, Helen of Troy, and his translation of Theocritus, Idyl XVIII; Landor, Menelaüs and Helen; John Todhunter, Helena in Troas; G. P. Lathrop, Helen at the Loom (Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 32, 1873). See Shakespeare, Midsummer Night's Dream, I, i; III, ii; IV, i; All's Well that Ends Well, I, i, iii; II, ii; Romeo and Juliet, II, iv; Troilus and Cressida, II, ii; Marlowe, Faustus (Helen appears before Faust).
In Art.Homer: the sketch by Raphael (in the Museum, Venice).Paris andHelen.Paintings: Helen of Troy, Sir Frederick Leighton; Paris and Helen, by David; The Judgment of Paris, by Rubens; by Watteau. Sculpture: Canova's Paris. Crayons: D. G. Rossetti's Helen; see also Fig. 150, as in text (ancient relief, Naples).
196. Iphigenia and Agamemnon.Sometimes, in accordance with Goethe's practice, the nameTaurisis given to the land of the Tauri. To be correct one should say, "Iphigenia among the Tauri," or "Taurians." (See Index.) Iphigenia and Agamemnon by W. S. Landor; also his Shades of Agamemnon and Iphigenia; Dryden, Cymon and Iphigenia; Richard Garnett, Iphigenia in Delphi; Sir Edwin Arnold, Iphigenia; W. B. Scott, Iphigenia at Aulis. Any translations of Goethe's Iphigenia in Tauris, and of Euripides' Iphigenia in Aulis and Among the Tauri; also of Æschylus' Agamemnon,—such as those by Milman, Anna Swanwick, Plumptre, E. A. Morshead, J. S. Blackie, E. Fitzgerald, and Robert Browning. For Agamemnon, see Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida, I, iii; II, i, iii; III, iii; IV, v; V, i; and James Thomson, Agamemnon (a drama). TheTroilus andCressidastory is not found in Greek and Latin classics. Shakespeare follows Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde, which is based upon the Filostrato and the Filocolo of Boccaccio.Pandarus: the character of this name, uncle of Cressida, to be found in Lydgate, Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde, and Shakespeare's play of the same title, enjoys an unsavory reputation for which medieval romance is responsible. OnMenelaüs, see notes to Helen and Agamemnon.
In Art.Iphigenia.Paintings: Fig. 152, text (Museum, Naples); E. Hübner; William Kaulbach; E. Teschendorff.
199. Achilles.Chaucer, Hous of Fame, 398; Dethe of Blaunche, 329; Landor, Peleus and Thetis; Robert Bridges, Achilles in Scyros; Sir Theodore Martin, translation of Catullus, LXIV; translation by C. M. Gayley as quoted in text. See also Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida; 2 Henry VI, V, i; Love's Labour's Lost, V, ii; Milton, Paradise Lost, 9, 15.
In Art.In general, Figs. 151, 153, 155-156, 159-162, in text; Wiertz, Fight for the Body of Achilles (Wiertz Museum, Brussels); Burne-Jones, The Feast of Peleus (picture).
204. Ajax.Plumptre, Ajax of Sophocles; Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida, Love's Labour's Lost, IV, iii; V, ii; Taming of the Shrew, III, i; Antony and Cleopatra, IV, ii; King Lear, II, ii; Cymbeline, IV, ii; George Crabbe, The Village.
In Art.The ancient sculpture, Ajax (or Menelaüs) of the Vatican. Modern sculpture, The Ajax of Canova. Flaxman's outline drawings for the Iliad.
207. Hector and Andromache.Mrs. Browning, Hector and Andromache, a paraphrase of Homer; C. T. Brooks, Schiller's Parting of Hector and Andromache. See also Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida; Love's Labour's Lost, V, ii; 2 Henry IV, II, iv; Antony and Cleopatra, IV, viii.
In Art.Flaxman's outline sketches of the Fight for the Body of Patroclus, Hector dragged by Achilles, Priam supplicating Achilles, Hector's Funeral, Andromache fainting on the Walls of Troy; Canova's Hector (sculpture); Thorwaldsen's Hector and Andromache (relief) (Fig. 154, text). Hector, Ajax, Paris, Æneas, Patroclus, Teucer, etc., among the Ægina Marbles (Glyptothek, Munich). The Pasquino group (Fig. 158, in text) is from a copy in the Pitti, Florence.
216. Priam and Hecuba.The translations of Euripides' Hecuba and Troades; Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida; Coriolanus, I, iii; Cymbeline, IV, ii; Hamlet, II, ii; 2 Henry IV, I, i.
219-220. Polyxena.W. S. Landor, The Espousals of Polyxena.Philoctetes: translation of Sophocles by Plumptre; sonnet by Wordsworth; drama by Lord de Tabley.
221. Œnone.See A. Lang, Helen of Troy; W. Morris, Death of Paris (Earthly Paradise); Landor, Corythos (son of Œnone), the Death of Paris, and Œnone, Tennyson, Œnone, also the Death of Œnone, which is not so good.
The pathetic story of the death of Corythus, the son of Œnone and Paris, at the hands of his father, who was jealous of Helen's tenderness toward the youth, is a later myth.
223. Sinon.Shakespeare, 3 Henry VI, III, ii; Cymbeline, III, iv; Titus Andronicus, V, iii.
224. Laocoön.L. Morris, in The Epic of Hades. See Frothingham's translation of Lessing's Laocoön (a most important discussion of the Laocoön group and of principles of æsthetics). See also Swift's Description of a City Shower.
In Art.The original of the celebrated group (statuary) of Laocoön and his children in the embrace of the serpents is in the Vatican in Rome. (See text, opp. p.310.)
226. Cassandra.Chaucer, Troilus and Criseyde; Dethe of Blaunche, 1246. Poems by W. M. Praed and D. G. Rossetti. See Troilus and Cressida, I, i; II, ii; V, iii; Lord Lytton's translation of Schiller's Cassandra.
In Art.The Cassandra of Dante Gabriel Rossetti (in ink).
228-230. Electra and Orestes.Translations of the Electra of Sophocles, the Libation-pourers and the Eumenides of Æschylus, by Plumptre; and of the Orestes and Electra of Euripides, by Wodhull. Lord de Tabley, Orestes (a drama); Byron, Childe Harold, 4; Milton, sonnet, "The repeated air Of sad Electra's poet," etc.
In Art.Græco-Roman sculpture: Fig. 169, in text, Orestes and Pylades find Iphigenia among the Taurians. Pompeian Fresco; Orestes and Electra (Villa Ludovisi, Rome); Orestes and Electra (National Museum, Naples). Vase-paintings: Figs. 167-168 in text; also Orestes slaying Ægisthus; Orestes at Delphi; Purification of Orestes. Modern paintings: Electra, by Teschendorff and by Seifert.
Clytemnestra, The Death of, by W. S. Landor; Clytemnestra, by L. Morris, in The Epic of Hades.
Troy: Byron, in his Bride of Abydos, thus describes the appearance of the deserted scene where once stood Troy:
The winds are high, and Helle's tideRolls darkly heaving to the main;And Night's descending shadows hideThat field with blood bedew'd in vain,The desert of old Priam's pride;The tombs, sole relics of his reign,All—save immortal dreams that could beguileThe blind old man of Scio's rocky isle!
The winds are high, and Helle's tideRolls darkly heaving to the main;And Night's descending shadows hideThat field with blood bedew'd in vain,The desert of old Priam's pride;The tombs, sole relics of his reign,All—save immortal dreams that could beguileThe blind old man of Scio's rocky isle!
On Troy the following references will be valuable: H. W. Acland, The Plains of Troy, 2 vols. (London, 1839); H. Schliemann, Troy and its Remains (London, 1875); Ilios (London, 1881); Troja, results of latest researches on the site of Homer's Troy (London, 1882); W. J. Armstrong,Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 33, p. 173 (1874), Over Ilium and Ida; R. C. Jebb,Jour. Hellenic Studies, Vol. 2, p. 7, Homeric and Hellenic Ilium;Fortn. Review, N. S. Vol. 35, p. 4331 (1884), Homeric Troy.
231-244.TheOdyssey: Lang, Sonnet, "As one that for a weary space has lain," prefixed to Butcher and Lang's Odyssey. Translations by W. Morris, G. H. Palmer, Chapman, Bryant, Pope.Ulysses: Tennyson; Landor, The Last of Ulysses. See also Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida; 3 Henry VI, III, ii; Coriolanus, I, iii; Milton, Paradise Lost, 2, 1019; Comus, 637; R. Buchanan, Cloudland; Pope, Rape of the Lock, 4, 182; Stephen Phillips, Ulysses; Robert Bridges, The Return of Ulysses; R. C. Rogers, Odysseus at the Mast, Blind Polyphemus, Argus.
In Art.Statuettes, vase-paintings, and reliefs as in text, Figs. 170-180; also Ulysses summoning Tiresias (in Monuments Inédits, Rome and Paris, 1839-1878); Meeting with Nausicaa (Gerhard's vase pictures); outline drawings of Ulysses weeping at the song of Demodocus, boring out the eye of Polyphemus, Ulysses killing the suitors, Mercury conducting the souls of the suitors, Ulysses and his dog, etc., by Flaxman.
Penelope: Poems by R. Buchanan, E. C. Stedman, and W. S. Landor. In ancient sculpture, the Penelope in the Vatican. Modern painting by C. F. Marchal. In crayons by D. G. Rossetti.
Circe: M. Arnold, The Strayed Reveller; Hood, Lycus, the Centaur; D. G. Rossetti, The Wine of Circe; Saxe, The Spell of Circe. See Shakespeare, Comedy of Errors, V, i; 1 Henry VI, V, iii; Milton, Comus, 50, 153, 253, 522; Pope, Satire 8, 166; Cowper, Progress of Error; O. W. Holmes, Metrical Essay; Keats,Endymion, "I sue not for my happy crown again," etc. Circe and the Companions of Ulysses, a painting by Briton Rivière. Circe, in crayons.
OnSirensandScyllaseeC. 50-52; S. Daniel, Ulysses and the Siren; Lowell, The Sirens. Scylla and Charybdis have become proverbial to denote opposite dangers besetting one's course. Siren, in crayons; Sea-Spell, in oil, D. G. Rossetti.
Calypso: Pope, Moral Essays, 2, 45; poem by Edgar Fawcett (Putnam's Mag., 14, 1869). Fénelon, in his romance of Telemachus, has given us the adventures of the son of Ulysses in search of his father. Among other places which he visited, following on his father's footsteps, was Calypso's isle; as in the former case, the goddess tried every art to keep the youth with her, and offered to share her immortality with him. But Minerva, who, in the shape of Mentor, accompanied him and governed all his movements, made him repel her allurements. Finally, when no other means of escape could be found, the two friends leaped from a cliff into the sea and swam to a vessel which lay becalmed offshore. Byron alludes to this leap of Telemachus and Mentor in the stanza of Childe Harold beginning "But not in silence pass Calypso's isles" (2, 29). Calypso's isle is said to be Goza.
Homer's description of the ships of the Phæacians has been thought to look like an anticipation of the wonders of modern steam navigation. See the address of Alcinoüs to Ulysses, promising "wondrous ships, self-moved, instinct with mind," etc. (Odyssey, 8).
Lord Carlisle, in his Diary in the Turkish and Greek Waters, thus speaks of Corfu, which he considers to be the ancient Phæacian island:
"The sites explain the Odyssey. The temple of the sea-god could not have been more fitly placed, upon a grassy platform of the most elastic turf, on the brow of a crag commanding harbor, and channel, and ocean. Just at the entrance of the inner harbor there is a picturesque rock with a small convent perched upon it, which by one legend is the transformed pinnace of Ulysses.
"Almost the only river in the island is just at the proper distance from the probable site of the city and palace of the king, to justify the princess Nausicaa having had resort to her chariot and to luncheon when she went with the maidens of the court to wash their garments."
245-254.Poems: Tennyson, ToVirgil, of which a few stanzas are given in the text; R. C. Rogers, Virgil's Tomb.ÆneasandAnchises: Chaucer, Hous of Fame, 165; 140-470 (pictures of Troy); Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida; Tempest, II, i; 2 Henry VI, V, ii; Julius Cæsar, I, ii; Antony and Cleopatra, IV, ii; Hamlet, II, ii; Waller, Panegyric to the Lord-Protector (The Stilling of Neptune's Storm).
Dido: Chaucer, Legende of Good Women, 923; Sir Thomas Wyatt, The Song of Iopas (unfinished); Marlowe, Tragedy of Dido, Queen of Carthage; Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra, IV, xii; Titus Andronicus, II, iii; Hamlet, II, ii.Palinurus: see Scott's Marmion, Introd. to Canto I (with reference to the death of William Pitt).
TheSibyl. The following legend of the Sibyl is fixed at a later date. In the reign of one of the Tarquins there appeared before the king a woman who offered him nine books for sale. The king refused to purchase them, whereupon the woman went away and burned three of the books, and returning offered theremaining books for the same price she had asked for the nine. The king again rejected them; but when the woman, after burning three books more, returned and asked for the three remaining the same price which she had before asked for the nine, his curiosity was excited, and he purchased the books. They were found to contain the destinies of the Roman state. They were kept in the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, preserved in a stone chest, and allowed to be inspected only by especial officers appointed for that duty, who on great occasions consulted them and interpreted their oracles to the people.
There were various Sibyls; but the Cumæan Sibyl, of whom Ovid and Virgil write, is the most celebrated of them. Ovid's story of her life protracted to one thousand years may be intended to represent the various Sibyls as being only reappearances of one and the same individual.
Illustrative.Young, in the Night Thoughts, alludes to the Sibyl. See also Shakespeare, 1 Henry VI, II, ii; Othello, III, iv.
In Art.Figs. 181-183, in text. The Virgil of Raphael (drawing in the Museum, Venice); the Æneas of the Ægina Marbles (Glyptothek, Munich). P. Guérin's painting, Æneas at the Court of Dido; Raphael, Dido; Turner, Dido building Carthage. The Sibyls in Michelangelo's frescoes in the Sistine Chapel, Rome; the Cumæan Sibyl of Domenichino; Elihu Vedder's Cumæan Sibyl.
255-257. Rhadamanthus: E. W. Gosse, The Island of the Blest.Tantalus: Cowper, The Progress of Error; L. Morris, Epic of Hades; W. W. Story, Tantalus.Ixion: poem by Browning in Jocoseria. See Pope, St. Cecilia's Day, 67; Rape of the Lock, 2, 133.Sisyphus: Lord Lytton, Death and Sisyphus; L. Morris, in The Epic of Hades.
The teachings of Anchisesto Æneas, respecting the nature of the human soul, were in conformity with the doctrines of the Pythagoreans. Pythagoras (born about 540B.C.) was a native of the island of Samos, but passed the chief portion of his life at Crotona in Italy. He is therefore sometimes called "the Samian," and sometimes "the philosopher of Crotona." When young he traveled extensively and is said to have visited Egypt, where he was instructed by the priests, and afterwards to have journeyed to the East, where he visited the Persian and Chaldean Magi, and the Brahmins of India. He established himself at Crotona, and enjoined sobriety, temperance, simplicity, and silence upon his throngs of disciples.Ipse dixit(Pythagoras said so) was to be held by them as sufficient proof of anything. Only advanced pupils might question. Pythagoras considerednumbersas the essence and principle of all things, and attributed to them a real and distinct existence; so that, in his view, they were the elements out of which the universe was constructed.
As the numbers proceed from the monad or unit, so he regarded the pure and simple essence of the Deity as the source of all the forms of nature. Gods, demons, and heroes are emanations of the Supreme, and there is a fourth emanation, the human soul. This is immortal, and when freed from the fetters of the body, passes to the habitation of the dead, where it remains till it returns to the world, to dwell in some other human or animal body; at last, when sufficientlypurified, it returns to the source from which it proceeded. This doctrine of the transmigration of souls (metempsychosis), which was originally Egyptian and connected with the doctrine of reward and punishment of human actions, was the chief reason why the Pythagoreans killed no animals. Ovid represents Pythagoras saying that in the time of the Trojan War he was Euphorbus, the son of Panthus, and fell by the spear of Menelaüs. Lately, he said, he had recognized his shield hanging among the trophies in the Temple of Juno at Argos.
OnMetempsychosis, see the essay in the Spectator (No. 343) on the Transmigration of Souls; Shakespeare, Merchant of Venice (Gratiano to Shylock).
Harmony of the Spheres.The relation of the notes of the musical scale to numbers, whereby harmony results from proportional vibrations of sound, and discord from the reverse, led Pythagoras to apply the wordharmonyto the visible creation, meaning by it the just adaptation of parts to each other. This is the idea which Dryden expresses in the beginning of his song for St. Cecilia's Day, "From harmony, from heavenly harmony, This everlasting frame began."
In the center of the universe (as Pythagoras taught) there was a central fire, the principle of life. The central fire was surrounded by the earth, the moon, the sun, and the five planets. The distances of the various heavenly bodies from one another were conceived to correspond to the proportions of the musical scale. See Merchant of Venice, Act V (Lorenzo and Jessica), for the Music of the Spheres; also Milton, Hymn on the Nativity. See Longfellow's Verses to a Child, and Occultation of Orion, for Pythagoras as inventor of the lyre.
260. Camilla.Pope, illustrating the rule that "the sound should be an echo to the sense," says:
When Ajax strives some rock's vast weight to throw,The line, too, labors and the words move slow;Not so when swift Camilla scours the plain,Flies o'er th' unbending corn, or skims along the main.
When Ajax strives some rock's vast weight to throw,The line, too, labors and the words move slow;Not so when swift Camilla scours the plain,Flies o'er th' unbending corn, or skims along the main.
Essay on Criticism.
268-281.On Norse mythology, see R. B. Anderson, Norse Mythology, or the Religion of our Forefathers (Chicago, 1875); Anderson, Horn's Scandinavian Literature (Chicago, S. C. Griggs & Co., 1884); Dasent, Popular Tales from the Norse (transl. from P. C. Asbjörnsen, New York, 1859); Thorpe's translation of Sæmund's Edda, 2 vols. (London, 1866); Icelandic Poetry or Edda of Sæmund, transl. into English verse (Bristol, A. S. Cottle, 1797); Augusta Larned, Tales from the Norse Grandmother (New York, 1881); H. W. Mabie, Norse Stories (Boston, 1882). A critical edition of the Elder Edda is Sophus Bugge's (Christiania, 1867). The Younger Edda: Edda Snorra Sturlasonar, 2 vols. (Hafniae, 1848-1852); by Thorleif Jonsson (Copenhagen, 1875); Translation: Anderson's Younger Edda (Chicago, S. C. Griggs & Co., 1880) (see references at foot of pp. 458-461 and inC. 282). Illustrative poems: Gray, Ode on the Descent of Odin, Ode on the Fatal Sisters; Matthew Arnold, Balder Dead; Longfellow, Tegnér's Drapa, on Balder's Death; William Morris, The Funeral of Balder, in The Lovers of Gudrun (Earthly Paradise); Robert Buchanan, Balder the Beautiful;W. M. W. Call, Balder; and Thor. Sydney Dobell's Balder does not rehearse the Norse myth. It is a poem dealing with the spiritual maladies of the time, excellent in parts, but confused and uneven. Longfellow's Saga of King Olaf (the Musician's Tale, Wayside Inn) is from the Heimskriṅgla, or Book of Stories of the Kings, edited by Snorri Sturlason. Many of the cantos of the Saga throw light on Norse mythology. See also the Hon. Roden Noël's Ragnarok (in the Modern Faust), for an ethical modification of the ancient theme.
Anses(the Asa-folk, Æsir, etc.). The word probably meansghost,ancestralspirit,—of such kind as the Manes of the Romans. The derivation may be from the rootAN, 'to breathe,' whenceanimus(Vigfusson and Powell, Corp. Poet. Bor. 1, 515). According to Jordanes, the Anses were demigods, ancestors of royal races. The main cult of the older religion was ancestor-worship, Thor and Woden being worshiped by a tribe, but each family having its ownanses, or deified ancestors (Corp. Poet. Bor. 2, 413).Elfwas another name used of spirits of the dead. Later it sinks to the significance of "fairy." Indeed, say Vigfusson and Powell, half our ideas about fairies are derived from the heathen beliefs as to the spirits of the dead, their purity, kindliness, homes in hillocks (cf. the Irish "folk of the hills,"Banshees, etc.) (Corp. Poet. Bor. 2, 418).
TheNorse Religionconsists evidently of two distinct strata: the lower, of gods, that are personifications of natural forces, or deified heroes, with regular sacrifices, with belief in ghosts, etc.; the upper, of doctrines introduced by Christianity. To the latter belong the Last Battle to be fought by Warrior-Angels and the Elect against the Beast, the Dragon, and the Demons of Fire (Corp. Poet. Bor. 2, 459).
OdinorWodenwas first the god of the heaven, or heaven itself, then husband of earth, god of war and of wisdom, lord of the ravens, lord of the gallows (which was called Woden's tree or Woden's steed).Friggais Mother Earth.Thoris the lord of the hammer—the thunderbolt, the adversary of giants and all oppressors of man. He is dear to man, always connected with earth,—the husband ofSif(the Norse Ceres). His goat-drawn car makes the rumbling of the thunder.Freyrmeanslord; patron of the Swedes, harvest-god.Baldermeans alsolordorking. On the one hand, his attributes recall those of Apollo; on the other hand, his story appeals to, and is colored by, the Christian imagination. He is another figure of that radiant type to which belong all bright and genial heroes, righters of wrong, blazing to consume evil, gentle and strong to uplift weakness: Apollo, Hercules, Perseus, Achilles, Sigurd, St. George, and many another.Höderis the "adversary."
Nanna, Balder's wife, is the ensample of constancy; her name ismaiden.
282.TheVolsunga Saga. The songs of the Elder Edda, from which Eirikr Magnússon and William Morris draw their Story of the Volsungs and the Nibelungs (London, 1870), are The Lay of Helgi the Hunding's-Bane, The Lay of Sigrdrifa, The Short Lay of Sigurd, The Hell-Ride of Brynhild, The Lay of Brynhild, The Ancient Lay of Gudrun, The Song of Atli, The Whetting of Gudrun, The Lay of Hamdir, The Lament of Oddrun. For translations of these fragments, see pp. 167-270 of the volume mentioned above. For the originals and literaltranslations of these and other Norse lays of importance, see Vigfusson and Powell's Corpus Poeticum Boreale; and Vigfusson's Sturlunga Saga, 2 vols. For the story of Sigurd, read William Morris' spirited epic, Sigurd the Volsung. Illustrative of the Norse spirit are Motherwell's Battle-Flag of Sigurd, the Wooing Song of Jarl Egill Skallagrim, and the Sword Chant of Thorstein Raudi; also Dora Greenwell's Battle-Flag of Sigurd; and Charles Kingsley's Longbeard's Saga, in Hypatia. Baldwin's Story of Siegfried (New York, 1888) is a good introduction for young people.
283.TheNibelungenlied. The little book entitled Echoes from Mist Land, by Auber Forestier (Chicago, Griggs & Co., 1877) will be of value to the beginner. Other translations are made by A. G. Foster-Barham (London, 1887) and by W. N. Lettsom, The Fall of the Nibelungers (London, 1874), both in verse. See also T. Carlyle, Nibelungenlied (Crit. Miscell.), Essays, 2, 220. Modern German editions by Simrock, Bartsch, Marbach, and Gerlach are procurable. The edition by Werner Hahn (Uebersetzung d. Handschrift A, Collection Spemann, Berlin u. Stuttgart) has been used in the preparation of this account. The original was published in part by Bodmer in 1757; later, in full by C. H. Myller, by K. K. Lachmann (Nibelunge Nôt mit der Klage, 1826); by K. F. Bartsch (Der Nibelunge Nôt, 2 vols. in 3, 1870-1880), and in Pfeiffer's Deutsch. Classik. des Mittelalt., Vol. 3, (1872); and by others (see James Sime'sNibelungenlied, Encyc. Brit.). Of some effect in stimulating interest were Dr. W. Jordan's Studies and Recitations of the Nibelunge, which comprised the Siegfried Saga, and Hildebrandt's Return. Especially of value is Richard Wagner's series of operas, The Ring of the Nibelung,284-288. In painting, Schnorr von Carolsfeld's wall pictures illustrative of the Nibelungenlied, in the royal palace at Munich, are well known; also the illustrations of the four operas by J. Hoffmann, and by Th. Pixis.
282-283.Historically,Siegfriedhas been identified, variously, with (1) the great German warrior Arminius (or Hermann), the son of Sigimer, chief of the tribe of the Cherusci, who inhabited the southern part of what is now Hanover and Brunswick. Born 18B.C.and trained in the Roman army, in the year 9A.D.he overcame with fearful slaughter the Roman tyrants of Germany, defeating the Roman commander Varus and his legions in the Teutoburg Forest in the valley of the Lippe; (2) Sigibert, king of the Ripuarian Franks, who in 508A.D.was treacherously slain while taking a midday nap in the forest; (3) Sigibert, king of the Austrasian Franks whose history recalls more than one event of the Sigurd and Siegfried stories; for he discovered a treasure, fought with and overcame foreign nations,—the Huns, the Saxons, the Danes,—and finally in consequence of a quarrel between his wife Brünhilde and his sister-in-law Fredegunde, was, in 576A.D.,assassinated by the retainers of the latter; (4) Julius, or Claudius Civilis, the leader of the Batavi in the revolt against Rome, 69-70A.D.It is probable that in Sigurd and Siegfried we have recollections combined of two or more of these historic characters.
Mythologically,Sigurd(of the shining eyes that no man might face unabashed) has been regarded as a reflection of the god Balder.
GunnarandGuntherare, historically, recognized in a slightly known king of the Burgundians, Gundicar, who with his people was overwhelmed by the Huns in 437A.D.
AtliandEtzelare poetic idealizations of the renowned Hunnish chieftain, Attila, who united under his rule the German and Slavonic nations, ravaged the Eastern Roman Empire between 445 and 450A.D., and, invading the Western Empire, was defeated by the Romans in the great battle of Châlons-sur-Marne, 451. He died 454A.D.
Dietrich of Berne(Verona) bears some very slight resemblance to Theodoric, the Ostrogoth, who, between 493 and 526A.D., ruled from Italy what had been the Western Empire. In these poems, however, his earlier illustrious career is overlooked; he is merely a refugee in the court of the Hunnish king, and, even so, is confounded with uncles of his who had been retainers of Attila; for the historic Theodoric was not born until two years after the historic Attila's death.
These historic figures were, of course, merely suggestions for, or contributions to, the great heroes of the epics, not prototypes; the same is true of any apparently confirmed historic forerunners of Brynhild, or Gudrun, or Kriemhild. The mythological connection of these epics with the Norse myths of the seasons, Sigurd being Balder of the spring, and Hogni Höder of winter and darkness, is ingenious; but, except as reminding us of the mythic material which the bards were likely to recall and utilize, it is not of substantial worth.
In the Norse version, the nameNibelungis interchangeable with the patronymicGiuking,—it is the name of the family that ruins Sigurd. But, in the German version, the name is of purely mythical import: the Nibelungs are not a human race; none but Siegfried may have intercourse with them. The land of the Nibelungs is equally vague in the German poem; it is at one time an island, again a mountain, and in one manuscript it is confounded with Norway. But mythically it is connected with Niflheim, the kingdom of Hela, the shadowy realm of death. The earth, that gathers to her bosom the dead, cherishes also in her bosom the hoard of gold. Naturally, therefore, the hoard is guarded by Alberich, the dwarf, for dwarfs have always preferred the underworld. So (according to Werner Hahn, and others) there is a deep mythical meaning in the Lay of the Nibelungs: beings that dwell far from the light of day; or that, possessing the riches of mortality, march toward the land of death.
284-288.Wagner finished this series of operas in 1876. For a translation the reader is referred to the four librettos, Englished by Frederick Jameson (Schott & Co., London); or to the series published by Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., New York.
298. Homeris also called Melesigenes, son of Meles—the stream on which Smyrna was built. The Homeridæ, who lived on Chios, claimed to be descended from Homer. They devoted themselves to the cultivation of epic poetry.
Arion.See George Eliot's poem beginning