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Title: A handy dictionary of mythology
For everyday readers
Author: Anonymous
Release date: September 27, 2024 [eBook #74485]
Language: English
Original publication: London: Whittaker & Co
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A HANDY DICTIONARY OF MYTHOLOGY ***
A HANDY
DICTIONARY OF MYTHOLOGY
THE FAMILIAR QUOTATIONS
SERIES OF BOOKS.
Price 1s. cloth; 1s. 6d. half-bound in leather, red edges.
1. _FAMILIAR LATIN QUOTATIONS & PROVERBS._
2. _FAMILIAR FRENCH QUOTATIONS & PROVERBS._
3. _FAMILIAR ENGLISH QUOTATIONS._
4. _A HANDY CLASSICAL DICTIONARY._
5. _BIBLE TRUTHS WITH SHAKSPEARIAN PARALLELS._ By J. B. SELKIRK.
6. _A HANDY BOOK OF SYNONYMS, CONTAINING ABOUT 33,000 ENGLISH WORDS._
7. _THE SECRETARY’S ASSISTANT AND CORRESPONDENT’S GUIDE._ Thirteenth
Edition.
8. _TOURIST’S FRENCH PRONOUNCING HANDBOOK._
9. _REASONS WHY WE BELIEVE THE BIBLE._ By the Rev. JAMES COPLAND, M.A.
10. _TALES FROM SHAKSPEARE._ By CHARLES LAMB.
11. _A DICTIONARY OF DAILY BLUNDERS._
12. _RASSELAS._ By Dr. JOHNSON.
13. _ELIZABETH, OR THE EXILES OF SIBERIA._
14. _REJECTED ADDRESSES._
15. _A DICTIONARY OF ENGLISH PROVERBS._
16. _PLUTARCH’S LIVES OF ILLUSTRIOUS MEN._
17. _DE QUINCEY’S OPIUM-EATER._
18. _THE STORY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT._ By the Rev. A. CARTER, M.A.
19. _A DICTIONARY OF MYTHOLOGY._
TRIPLICATE VOLUMES,
Coloured edges, 3s. each.
1. _HANDBOOK FOR WRITERS AND READERS._
2. _REFERENCE HANDBOOK OF QUOTATIONS, English, French, and Latin._
3. _LAMB’S TALES FROM SHAKSPEARE, RASSELAS, AND ELIZABETH._
4. _A REFERENCE HANDBOOK FOR BIBLE AND GENERAL READERS._
A HANDY
DICTIONARY
OF
MYTHOLOGY
FOR EVERYDAY READERS
BY THE AUTHOR OF
‘A DICTIONARY OF DAILY BLUNDERS’
‘A DICTIONARY OF ENGLISH PROVERBS’
‘A HANDY BOOK OF SYNONYMS’
ETC. ETC.
LONDON: WHITTAKER & CO.
_Printed by_ R. & R. CLARK, _Edinburgh_.
[Illustration]
PREFACE.
This _Handy Dictionary of Mythology_ is intended to supply the everyday
reader with concise accounts of the gods and goddesses of the ancients
in an accessible form.
Besides confronting us at every turn in the museums and picture
galleries, these deities and heroes are constantly mentioned by poets
and portrayed by painters and sculptors, and they are used for the
purpose of illustration in the literature of the day. Nothing is more
common than to find the comic newspapers resorting to Mythology for
subjects for their pictures; and quite recently _Punch_ has given us
some delightful cartoons by Tenniel, which, apart from the admirable
drawing, are intensely amusing to people who know enough of Mythology
to see the drift of the artist. For example, there is a cartoon
representing Æacus, Minos, and Rhadamanthus sitting in judgment on the
unlucky electioneering bribers, and underneath is the word “Nemesis.”
Again, there was a capital cartoon representing the “Judgment of
Paris,” in which the Duke of Richmond, Earl Cairns, and Lord Salisbury
figure as Juno, Minerva, and Venus. This had reference to the selection
of a Conservative Leader for the House of Lords, and was very popular.
In order fully to enjoy similar works, and to appreciate the allusions,
it is necessary that we should be able to find out readily something
about these mythological beings. But to ascertain this “something” we
do not want to waste time in wading through such a number of volumes
as the compiler has used in making this Dictionary, even if it were
possible to get access to them.
It has been a matter of astonishment to him to find how many different
versions there are of the same fable, and to see how often various
writers attribute the same actions to different gods or heroes. In
fact, it has frequently been a difficult task to decide which version
should be adopted,--which authority accepted. It may therefore be
desirable to state that where doubts have arisen, either the various
versions are given, or else Lempriere’s _Classical Dictionary_ has been
referred to, to decide the questions. Besides Lempriere, the following
works, with many others of less authority, have been consulted in
compiling this Dictionary:--
POETICAL HISTORIES. “Written originally in French by the learned
Jesuit, P. GALTRUCHIUS.” Translated into English by MARIUS D’ASSIGNY,
B.D. Second edition, 1672.
THE PANTHEON. Representing the fabulous histories of the Heathen Gods
in a plain and familiar method. By ANDREW TOOKE, A.M. 1713.
A NEW PANTHEON; or, Fabulous History of Heathen Gods, Heroes, and
Goddesses. By SAMUEL BOYSE, A.M. 1753.
MYTHOLOGICAL, ETYMOLOGICAL, AND HISTORICAL DICTIONARY. By W. HOWELL,
B.D. 1793.
ROWDEN’S PAGAN DEITIES. 1820.
Now, supposing that all these books were accessible to the general
reader, it would still be in many instances impossible for him, without
considerable labour, to find therein much of the information contained
in this Dictionary, for some of the best of them have no index, but
this book is an index to them all.
The proper pronunciation of the names being important, the accent is
always marked; and the illustrative quotations from the poets have
been specially selected with the intention of assisting the reader in
finding out the number of syllables in a name, and by this means fixing
the pronunciation.
It will be seen that the compiler has not confined himself to Greek and
Roman Mythology, but has included the more important of the Egyptian,
Scandinavian, and Hindoo deities, references to which often occur in
modern literature.
The limited space at command has made it necessary to be as concise
as possible, but every name connected with Mythology, of any note at
all, has, it is hoped, been included, and care has been taken to avoid
repetitions as much as possible. Where two or three names occur in
connection with one fable, the tale is told once, and reference is made
to it under the name of the other deities concerned therein.
There are a few names inserted which, though not strictly mythological,
are mentioned because it frequently happens that in the history of
ancient heroes there is something fabulous in the tales told concerning
them.
As to some of the gods and heroes, the _Handy Classical Dictionary_
and _Plutarch’s Lives_ (part of this Series of Handy Books) may be
consulted with advantage for fuller information; and it is hoped that
the popularity of those two books will be at least equalled by the
_Dictionary of Mythology_.
[Illustration]
A HANDY
DICTIONARY OF MYTHOLOGY.
A′BAS, a son of Meganira, was turned into a newt, or water-lizard, for
deriding the ceremonies of the Sacrifice.
ABSY′RTUS, brother of Medea.
ACHELO′US was a son of Oceanus and Terra. He had the power of assuming
all shapes, and in a conflict with Hercules he turned himself into a
serpent, and then into a bull, but he was finally defeated, and he then
turned himself into a river, which has since been called Achelous.
ACH′ERON. One of the rivers of the infernal regions to which the
spirits of the dead resorted, and waited there till Charon the ferryman
took them over.
“Infernal rivers that disgorge
Into the burning lake their baleful streams.
... Sad Acheron, of sorrow black and deep.”
MILTON.
ACHIL′LES was the most valiant of the Greek heroes in the Trojan War.
He was the son of Peleus, King of Thessaly. His mother, Thetis,
plunged him, when an infant, into the Stygian pool, which made him
invulnerable wherever the waters had washed him; but the heel by which
he was held was not wetted, and that part remained vulnerable. He was
shot with an arrow in the heel by Paris, at the siege of Troy, and died
of his wound.
ACIDA′LIA, a name given to Venus from a fountain in Bœotia.
A′CIS. A Sicilian shepherd, loved by the nymph Galatea. One of the
Cyclops who was jealous of him crushed him by hurling a rock on him.
Galatea turned his blood into a river--the Acis at the foot of Mount
Etna.
ACTÆ′ON was the son of Aristæus, a famous huntsman. He intruded himself
on Diana while she was bathing, and was changed by her into a deer, in
which form he was hunted by his own dogs and torn in pieces.
A′DES, see Hades.
ADO′NIS, the beautiful attendant of Venus, who held her train. He was
killed by a boar, and turned by Venus into an anemone.
“Even as the sun with purple-coloured face
Had ta’en his last leave of the weeping morn,
Rose-cheeked Adonis hied him to the chase;
Hunting he loved, but love he laughed to scorn.”
SHAKESPEARE.
ADRASTÆ′A, another name of Nemesis, one of the goddesses of justice.
ADSCRIPTI′TII DII were the gods of the second grade.
ADVERSITY, see Echidna.
Æ′ACUS, one of the judges of hell, with Minos and Rhadamanthus. See
Eacus.
ÆCAS′TOR, an oath used only by women, referring to the Temple of Castor.
ÆD′EPOL, an oath used by both men and women, referring to the Temple of
Pollux.
ÆGE′ON, a giant with fifty heads and one hundred hands, who was
imprisoned by Jupiter under Mount Etna. See Briareus.
Æ′GIS, the shield of Jupiter, so called because it was made of goat
skin.
“Where was thine Ægis Pallas that appall’d?”
BYRON.
“Tremendous, Gorgon frowned upon its field,
And circling terrors filled the expressive shield.”
“Full on the crest the Gorgon’s head they place,
With eyes that roll in death, and with distorted face.”
POPE.
Æ′GLE. The fairest of the Naiads.
AEL′LO, the name of one of the Harpies.
ÆNE′AS was the son of Anchises and Venus. He was one of the few great
captains who escaped the destruction of Troy. He behaved with great
valour during the siege, encountering Diomed, and even Achilles
himself. When the Grecians had set the city on fire Æneas took his aged
father, Anchises, on his shoulders, whilst his son, Ascanius, and his
wife, Creusa, clung to his garments. He saved them all from the flames.
After wandering about during several years, encountering numerous
difficulties, he at length arrived in Italy, where he was hospitably
received by Latinus, king of the Latins. After the death of Latinus
Æneas became king.
“His back, or rather burthen, showed
As if it stoopëd with its load;
For as Æneas bore his sire
Upon his shoulders through the fire,
Our knight did bear no less a pack
Of his own buttocks on his back.”
BUTLER.
ÆO′LUS was the god of the winds. Jupiter was his reputed father, and
his mother is said to have been a daughter of Hippotus. Æolus is
represented as having the power of holding the winds confined in a
cavern, and occasionally giving them liberty to blow over the world.
So much command was he supposed to have over them that when Ulysses
visited him on his return from Troy he gave him, tied up in a bag,
all the winds that could prevent his voyage from being prosperous.
The companions of Ulysses, fancying that the bag contained treasure,
cut it open just as they came in sight of Ithaca, the port they were
making for, and the contrary winds rushing out drove back the ship many
leagues. The residence of Æolus was at Strongyle, now called Strombolo.
“Æolus from his airy throne
With power imperial curbs the struggling winds,
And sounding tempests in dark prisons binds.”
DRYDEN.
ÆSCULA′PIUS, the god of physic, was a son of Apollo. He was physician
to the Argonauts in their famous expedition to Colchis. He became so
noted for his cures that Pluto became jealous of him, and he requested
Jupiter to kill him with a thunderbolt. To revenge his son’s death
Apollo slew the Cyclops who had forged the thunderbolt. By his
marriage with Epione he had two sons, Machaon and Podalirus, both
famous physicians, and four daughters, of whom Hygeia, the goddess of
health, is the most renowned. Many temples were erected in honour of
Æsculapius, and votive tablets were hung therein by people who had been
healed by him; but his most famous shrine was at Epidaurus, where,
every five years, games were held in his honour. This god is variously
represented, but the most famous statue shows him seated on a throne
of gold and ivory. His head is crowned with rays, and he wears a long
beard. A knotty stick is in one hand, and a staff entwined with a
serpent is in the other, while a dog lies at his feet.
“Thou that dost Æsculapius deride,
And o’er his gallipots in triumph ride.”
FENTON.
Æ′SON was father of Jason, and was restored to youth by Medea.
Æ′TA, a king of Colchis, was father of Medea.
AGAMEM′NON was the son of Plisthenes and brother of Menelaus. He was
king of the Argives. His brother’s wife was the famous Helen, daughter
of Tyndarus, king of Sparta; and when she eloped with Paris, Agamemnon
was appointed leader of the Greeks in their expedition against Troy.
AGANIP′PIDES, a name of the Muses, derived from the fountain of
Aganippe.
AGINE′US, see Apollo.
AGLA′IA was one of the Three Graces.
AG′NI. The Hindoo god of lightning.
A′JAX was one of the bravest of the Greek warriors in the Trojan war.
His father was Telamon, and his mother Eribœa. Some writers say that he
was killed by Ulysses; others aver that he was slain by Paris; while
others again assert that he went mad after being defeated by Ulysses,
and killed himself. Another Ajax, son of Oileus, also took a prominent
part in the Trojan War.
ALCES′TIS, wife of Admetus, who, to save her husband’s life, died in
his stead, and was restored to life by Hercules.
ALCI′DES, one of the names of Hercules.
ALCME′NA, the mother of Hercules, was daughter of Electrion, a king of
Argos.
ALEC′TO was one of the Furies. She is depicted as having serpents
instead of hair on her head, and was supposed to breed pestilence
wherever she went.
ALEC′TRYON, a servant of Mars, who was changed by him into a cock
because he did not warn his master of the rising of the sun.
AL′FADUR, in Scandinavian Mythology the Supreme Being--Father of all.
AL′MA MAMMO′SA, a name of Ceres.
ALPHE′US, a river god. See Arethusa.
ALTAR. A structure on which a sacrifice was offered. The earliest
altars were merely heaps of earth or turf or rough unhewn stone; but
as the mode of sacrificing became more ceremonious grander altars were
built. Some were of marble and brass, ornamented with carvings and
bas-reliefs, and the corners with models of the heads of animals. They
varied in height from two feet to four, and some were built solid;
others were made hollow to retain the blood of the victims. Some were
provided with a kind of dish, into which frankincense was thrown to
overpower the smell of burning fat. This probably was the origin of the
custom of burning incense at the altar.
AMAL’THÆ’A the goat which nourished Jupiter.
AM’AZONS were a nation of women-soldiers who lived in Scythia. Hercules
totally defeated them, and gave Hippolyte, their queen, to Theseus for
a wife. The race seems to have been exterminated after this battle.
AMBARVA’LIA were festivals in honour of Ceres, instituted by Roman
husbandmen to purge their fields. At the spring festival the head
of each family led an animal, usually a pig or ram, decked with oak
boughs, round his grounds, and offered milk and new wine. After harvest
there was another festival, at which Ceres was presented with the
first-fruits of the season. See Ceres.
AMBER, see Heliades.
AMBRO’SIA were Bacchanalian festivals.
AMI’CA, a name of Venus.
AMPHI’ON was the son of Jupiter and Antiope. He was greatly skilled
in music; and it is said that, at the sound of his lute, the stones
arranged themselves so regularly as to make the walls of the city of
Thebes.
“Amphion, too, as story goes, could call
Obedient stones to make the Theban wall.”
HORACE.
“New walls to Thebes, Amphion thus began.”
WILLIAM KING.
“Such strains I sing as once Amphion played,
When list’ning flocks the powerful call obeyed.”
ELPHINSTON.
AMPHITRI′TE (or Salatia), the wife of Neptune, was a daughter of
Oceanus and Terra. She was the mother of Triton, a sea god.
“His weary chariot sought the bowers
Of Amphitrite and her tending nymphs.”
THOMSON.
AMY′CUS was king of Babrycia. He was a son of Neptune, and was killed
by Pollux.
ANCÆ′US. A son of Neptune, who left a cup of wine to hunt a wild boar
which killed him, and the wine was untasted. This was the origin of the
proverb--“There’s many a slip ’twixt cup and lip.”
ANCIL′IA, the twelve sacred shields. The first Ancile was supposed to
have fallen from heaven in answer to the prayer of Numa Pompilius. It
was kept with the greatest care, as it was prophesied that the fate
of the Roman people would depend upon its preservation. An order of
priesthood was established to take care of the Ancilia, and on 1st
March each year the shields were carried in procession, and in the
evening there was a great feast called Cœna Saliaris.
ANDROM′EDA, the daughter of Cepheus, king of the Ethiopians, was wife
of Perseus, by whom she was rescued when she was chained to a rock and
was about to be devoured by a sea-monster.
ANEM′ONE. Venus changed Adonis into this flower.
ANGERO′NIA, otherwise Volupia, was the goddess who had the power of
dispelling anguish of mind.
ANNA PEREN′NA, one of the rural divinities.
ANTÆ′US, a giant who was vanquished by Hercules. Each time that
Hercules threw him the giant gained fresh strength from touching the
earth, so Hercules lifted him off the ground and squeezed him to death.
AN′TEROS, one of the two Cupids, sons of Venus.
ANTIC′LEA, the mother of Ulysses.
ANTI′OPE was wife of Lycus, King of Thebes. Jupiter, disguised as a
satyr, led her astray and corrupted her.
ANU′BIS (or Herman′ubis). “A god half a dog, a dog half a man.” Called
_Barker_ by Virgil and other poets.
AON′IDES, a name of the Muses, from the country Aonia.
APH′RODI′TE, a Greek name of Venus.
APIS, a name given to Jupiter by the inhabitants of the Lower Nile.
Also the miraculous ox, worshipped in Egypt.
A′PIS, King of Argivia. Afterwards called Serapis, the greatest god of
the Egyptians.
APOL′LO. This famous god, sometime King of Arcadia, was the son of
Jupiter and Latona. He was known by several names, but principally
by the following:--Sol (the sun); Cynthius, from the mountain called
Cynthus in the Isle of Delos, and this same island being his native
place obtained for him the name of Delius; Delphinius, from his
occasionally assuming the shape of a dolphin. His name of Delphicus
was derived from his connection with the splendid Temple at Delphi,
where he uttered the famous oracles. Some writers record that this
oracle became dumb when Jesus Christ was born. Other common names of
Apollo were Didymæus, Nomius, Pæan, and Phœbus. The Greeks called him
Agineus because the streets were under his guardianship, and he was
called Pythius from having killed the serpent Python. Apollo is usually
represented as a handsome young man without beard, crowned with laurel,
and having in one hand a bow, and in the other a lyre. The favourite
residence of Apollo was on Mount Parnassus, a mountain of Phocis, in
Greece, where he presided over the Muses. Apollo was the accredited
father of several children, but the two most renowned were Æsculapius
and Phæton.
“Apollo there with aim so clever,
Stretches his leaden bow for ever.”
LLOYD, 1750.
“Wilt thou have music? Hark! Apollo plays,
And twenty cagëd nightingales do sing.”
SHAKESPEARE.
APOTHE′OSIS. The consecration of a god. The ceremony of deification.
APPLE, see Atalanta.
ARACH′NE, a Lybian Princess, who challenged Minerva to a spinning
contest, but Minerva struck her on the head with a spindle, and turned
her into a spider.
“... So her disembowelled web,
Arachne, in a hall or kitchen spreads,
Obvious to vagrant flies.”
JOHN PHILLIPS.
ARCA′DIA, a delightful country in the centre of Peloponnessus, a
favourite place of the gods. Apollo was reputed to have been King of
Arcadia.
AR′CAS, a son of Calistro, was turned into a he-bear; and afterwards
into the constellation called Ursa Minor.
ARCHER, see Chiron.
AREOP′AGI′TÆ, the judges who sat at the Areopagus.
AREOP′AGUS, the hill at Athens where Mars was tried for murder before
twelve of the gods.
A′RES. The same as Mars, the god of war.
ARETHU′SA was one of the nymphs of Diana. She fled from Alpheus, a
river god, and was enabled to escape by being turned by Diana into a
rivulet which ran underground. She was as virtuous as she was beautiful.
AR′GONAUTS. This name was given to the fifty heroes who sailed to
Colchis in the ship Argo under the command of Jason, to fetch the
Golden Fleece.
AR′GUS was a god who had a hundred eyes which slept and watched by
turns. He was charged by Juno to watch Io, but, being slain by Mercury,
was changed by Juno into a peacock.
ARIAD′NE, daughter of Minos, King of Crete. After enabling Theseus to
get out of the Labyrinth by means of a clew of thread, she fled with
him to Naxos, where he ungratefully deserted her; but Bacchus wooed her
and married her, and the crown of seven stars which he gave her was
turned into a constellation.
ARI′ON was a famous lyric poet of Methymna, in the Island of Lesbos,
where he gained great riches by his art. There is a pretty fable which
has made the name of Arion famous. Once when travelling from Lesbos
his companions robbed him, and proposed to throw him into the sea. He
entreated the seamen to let him play upon his harp before they threw
him overboard, and he played so sweetly that the dolphins flocked
round the vessel. He then threw himself into the sea, and one of the
dolphins took him up and carried him to Taenarus, near Corinth. For
this act the dolphin was raised to heaven as a constellation.
ARISTÆ′US, son of Apollo and Cyrene, was the god of trees; he also
taught mankind the use of honey, and how to get oil from olives. He was
a celebrated hunter. His most famous son was Actæon.
ARMA′TA, one of the names of Venus, given to her by Spartan women.
AR′TEMIS. This was the Grecian name of Diana, and the festivals at
Delphi were called Artemesia.
ARTS and SCIENCES, see Muses.
ARUS′PICES, sacrificial priests.
ASCAL′APHUS was changed into an owl, the harbinger of misfortune, by
Ceres, because he informed Pluto that Proserpine had partaken of food
in the infernal regions, and thus prevented her return to earth.
ASCA′NIUS, the son of Æneas.
ASCOL′IA, Bacchanalian feasts, from a Greek word meaning a leather
bottle. The bottles were used in the games to jump on.
ASO′PUS. A son of Jupiter, who was killed by one of his father’s
thunderbolts.
ASSABI′NUS, the Ethiopian name of Jupiter.
ASSES-EARS, see Midas.
ASTAR′TE, one of the Eastern names of Venus.
ASTE′RIA, daughter of Cæus, was carried away by Jupiter, who assumed
the shape of an eagle.
ASTRE′A, mother of Nemesis, was the goddess of justice; she returned to
heaven when the earth became corrupt.
“... Chaste Astrea fled,
And sought protection in her native sky.”
JOHN HUGHES.
ATALAN′TA was daughter of Cæneus. The oracle told her that marriage
would be fatal to her, but, being very beautiful, she had many suitors.
She was a very swift runner, and, to get rid of her admirers, she
promised to marry any one of them who should outstrip her in a race,
but that all who were defeated should be slain. Hippomenes, however,
with the aid of Venus, was successful. That goddess gave him three
golden apples, one of which he dropped whenever Atalanta caught up to
him in the race. She stopped to pick them up, and he was victorious and
married her. They were both afterwards turned into lions by Cybele, for
profaning her temple.
A′TE. The goddess of revenge, also called the goddess of discord and
all evil. She was banished from heaven by her father Jupiter.
“With Ate by his side come hot from hell.”
SHAKESPEARE.
ATHE′NA, a name obtained by Minerva as the tutelary goddess of Athens.
ATLAS, was King of Mauritania, now Morocco, in Africa. He was also a
great astronomer. He is depicted with the globe on his back, his name
signifying great toil or labour. For his inhospitality to Perseus that
king changed him into the mountain which bears his name of Atlas.
A chain of mountains in Africa is called after him, and so is the
Atlantic Ocean. He had seven daughters by his wife Pleione, they were
called by one common name, Pleiades; and by his wife Æthra he had seven
more, who were, in the same manner, called Hyades. Both the Pleiades
and the Hyades are celestial constellations.
AT′REUS, the type of fraternal hatred. His dislike of his brother
Thyestes went to the extent of killing and roasting his nephews, and
inviting their father to a feast, which Thyestes thought was a sign
of reconciliation, but he was the victim of his brother’s detestable
cruelty.
“Medea must not draw her murdering knife,
Nor Atreus there his horrid feast prepare.”
LORD ROSCOMMON.
AT′ROPOS, one of the three sisters called _The Fates_, who held the
shears ready to cut the thread of life.
A′TYS, son of Crœsus, was born dumb, but when in a fight he saw a
soldier about to kill the king, he gained speech, and cried out, “Save
the king!” and the string that held his tongue was broken.
A′TYS was a youth beloved by Aurora, and was slain by her father, but,
according to Ovid, was afterwards turned into a pine-tree.
AUG′ÆAS, a king of Elis, the owner of the stable which Hercules
cleansed after three thousand oxen had been kept in it for thirty
years. It was cleansed by turning the river Alpheus through it. Augæas
promised to give Hercules a tenth part of his cattle for his trouble,
but, for neglecting to keep his promise, Hercules shot him.
AU′GURY. This was a means adopted by the Romans of forming a judgment
of futurity by the flight of birds, and the officiating priest was
called an augur.
AURO′RA, the goddess of the morning,
“Whose rosy fingers ope the gates of day.”
She was daughter of Sol, the sun, and was the mother of the stars
and winds. She is represented as riding in a splendid golden chariot
drawn by white horses. The goddess loved Tithonus, and begged the gods
to grant him immortality, but forgot to ask at the same time that he
should not get old and decrepit. See Tithonus.
“... So soon as the all-cheering sun
Should, in the farthest east, begin to draw
The shady curtains of Aurora’s bed.”
SHAKESPEARE.
AUS′TER, the south wind, a son of Jupiter.
AVER′NUS, a poisonous lake, referred to by poets as being at the
entrance of the infernal regions, but it was really a lake in Campania
in Italy.
AVERRUN′CUS DEUS, a Roman god, who could divert people from evil doing.
AXE, see Dædalus.
BA′AL, a god of the Phœnicians.
BA′AL-PE′OR, a Moabitish god, associated with licentiousness and
obscenity. The modern name is Belphegor.
BABES, see Rumina Dea.
BAC′CHANTES. The priestesses of Bacchus.
BAC′CHUS, the god of wine, was the son of Jupiter and Semele. He is
said to have married Ariadne, daughter of Minos, King of Crete, after
she was deserted by Theseus. The most distinguished of his children is
Hymen, the god of marriage. Bacchus is sometimes referred to under the
names of Dionysius, Biformis, Brisœus, Iacchus, Lenæus, Lyceus, Liber,
and Liber Pater, the symbol of liberty. The god of wine is usually
represented as crowned with vine and ivy leaves. In his left hand is a
thyrsus, a kind of javelin, having a fir cone for the head, and being
encircled with ivy or vine. His chariot is drawn by lions, tigers, or
panthers.
“Jolly Bacchus, god of pleasure,
Charmed the world with drink and dances.”
T. PARNELL, 1700.
BA′LIOS. A famous horse given by Neptune to Peleus as a wedding
present, and was afterwards given to Achilles.
BARKER, see Anubis.
BASSAR′IDES. The priestesses of Bacchus were sometimes so called.
BATTLE, see Valhalla.
BEAR, see Calistro.
BEAUTY, see Venus.
BEES, see Mellona.
BELISA′MA, a goddess of the Gauls. The name means the Queen of Heaven.
BELLER′OPHON, a hero who destroyed a monster called the Chimæra.
BELLO′NA, the goddess of war, and wife of Mars. The 24th March was
called Bellona’s Day, when her votaries cut themselves with knives and
drank the blood of the sacrifice.
“In Diræ’s and in Discord’s steps Bellona treads,
And shakes her iron rod above their heads.”
BELPHE′GOR, see Baal-Peor.
BE′LUS. The Chaldean name of the sun.
BERECYN′THIA, a name of Cybele, from a mountain where she was
worshipped.
BI′FORMIS, a name of Bacchus, because he was accounted both bearded and
beardless.
BIRDS, see Augury.
BIRTHS, see Lucina and Levana.
BLACKSMITH, see Brontes and Vulcan.
BLIND, see Thanyris.
BLUE EYES, see Glaukopis.
BO′NA DE′A. “The bountiful goddess,” whose festival was celebrated by
the Romans with much magnificence. See Ceres.
BO′NUS EVEN′TUS. The god of good success, a rural divinity.
BO′REAS, the north wind, son of Astræus and Aurora.
“... I snatched her from the rigid north,
Her native bed, on which bleak Boreas blew,
And bore her nearer to the sun....”
YOUNG, 1710.
BOUNDARIES, see Terminus.
BOXING, see Pollux.
BRAH′MA. The great Indian deity, represented with four heads looking to
the four quarters of the globe.
BRI′AREUS, see Ægeon.
BRIS′ÆUS. A name of Bacchus, referring to the use of grapes and honey.
BRONT′ES, one of the Cyclops. He is the personification of a
blacksmith.
BUBO′NA, goddess of herdsmen, one of the rural divinities.
BUD′DAH. A pagan deity, the Vishnu of the Hindoos.
BYB′LIS. A niece of Sol, mentioned by Ovid. She shed so many tears for
unrequited love that she was turned into a fountain.
“Thus the Phœbeian Byblis, spent in tears,
Becomes a living fountain, which yet bears
Her name.”
OVID.
CAB′IRI. The mysterious rites connected with the worship of these
deities were so obscene that most writers refer to them as secrets
which it was unlawful to reveal.
CAC′ODÆ′MON. Greek name of an evil spirit.
CA′CUS, a three-headed monster and robber.
CAD′MUS, one of the earliest of the Greek demigods. He was the reputed
inventor of letters, and his alphabet consisted of sixteen letters.
It was Cadmus who slew the Bœotian dragon, and sowed its teeth in the
ground, from each of which sprang up an armed man.
CADU′CEUS. The rod carried by Mercury. It has two winged serpents
entwined round the top end. It was supposed to possess the power of
producing sleep, and Milton refers to it in _Paradise Lost_ as the
“opiate rod.”
CALIS′TRO, an Arcadian nymph, who was turned into a she-bear by
Jupiter. In that form she was hunted by her son Arcas, who would have
killed her had not Jupiter turned him into a he-bear. The nymph and her
son form the constellations known as the Great Bear and Little Bear.
CALLI′OPE. The Muse who presided over epic poetry and rhetoric. She is
generally depicted using a stylus and wax tablets, the ancient writing
materials.
CAL′PE. One of the pillars of Hercules.
CALYP′SO was queen of the island of Ogygia, on which Ulysses was
wrecked, and where he was persuaded to remain seven years.
CA′MA. The Indian god of love and marriage.
CAMIL′LUS, a name of Mercury, from his office of minister to the gods.
CAN′ACHE. The name of one of Actæon’s hounds.
CANO′BA. The Indian Apollo.
CANO′PUS. The Egyptian god of water, the conqueror of fire.
CAP′IS or CAP′ULA. A peculiar cup with ears, used in drinking the
health of the deities.
CAPITOLI′NUS. A name of Jupiter, from the Capitoline hill, on the top
of which a temple was built and dedicated to him.
CAP′RI′PEDES. Pan, the Egipans, the Satyrs, and Fauns, were so called
from having goats’ feet.
CAPROTI′NA. A name of Juno.
CASSAN′DRA, a daughter of Priam and Hecuba, who was granted by Apollo
the power of seeing into futurity, but having offended that god he
prevented people from believing her predictions.
CASSIOPE′IA. The Ethiopian queen who set her beauty in comparison with
that of the Nereides, who thereupon chained her to a rock and left her
to be devoured by a sea-monster, but she was delivered by Perseus.
CASTA′LIA. One of the fountains in Mount Parnassus, sacred to the Muses.
CASTA′LI′DES, a name of the Muses, from the fountain Castalia or
Castalius.
CAS′TOR, son of Jupiter and Leda, twin brother of Pollux, noted for his
skill in horsemanship. He went with Jason in quest of the Golden Fleece.
CAU′THER, in Mohammedan mythology, is the lake of paradise, whose
waters are as sweet as honey, as cold as snow, and as clear as crystal;
and any believer who tastes thereof is said to thirst no more.
CEL′ENO was one of the Harpies, progenitor of Zephyrus, the west wind.
CEN′TAUR. A huntsman who had the fore-part like a man, and the
remainder of the body like a horse. The Centauri lived in Thessaly.
CEP′HALUS was married to Procris, whom he accidentally slew by shooting
her, while she was secretly watching him, he thinking she was a wild
beast. Cephalus was the type of constancy.
CERAU′NIUS. A Greek name of Jupiter, meaning The Fulminator, from his
thunderbolts.
CER′BERUS. Pluto’s famous three-headed dog, which guarded the gate of
the infernal regions, preventing the living from entering, and the
inhabitants from going out.
“Three-headed Cerberus, by fate
Posted at Plato’s iron gate;
Low crouching rolls his haggard eyes,
Ecstatic, and foregoes his prize.”
CEREMONIES, see Themis.
CE′RES, daughter of Saturn, the goddess of agriculture, and of the
fruits of earth. She taught Triptolemus how to grow corn, and sent him
to teach the inhabitants of the earth. She was known by the names of
Magna Dea, Bona Dea, Alma Mammosa, and Thesmorphonis. Ceres was the
mother of Prosperine. See Ambarvalia.
“To Ceres bland, her annual rites be paid
On the green turf beneath the fragrant shade.--
... Let all the hinds bend low at Ceres’ shrine,
Mix honey sweet for her with milk and mellow wine,
Thrice lead the victim the new fruits around,
On Ceres call, and choral hymns resound.”
“Ceres was she who first our furrows ploughed,
Who gave sweet fruits and every good allowed.”
POPE.
CES′TUS, the girdle of Venus, which excited irresistible affection.
CHA′OS allegorically represented the confused mass of matter supposed
to have existed before the creation of the world, and out of which the
world was formed.
“... Behold the throne
Of Chaos, and his dark pavilion spread
Wide on the wasteful deep; with him enthroned
Sat sable-vested Night, eldest of all things,
The consort of his reign.”
MILTON.
CHAR′ON was the son of Nox and Erebus. He was the ferryman who conveyed
the spirits of the dead, in a boat, over the rivers Acheron and Styx to
the Elysian Fields. “Charon’s toll” was a coin put into the hands of
the dead with which to pay the grim ferryman.
“From the dark mansions of the dead,
Where Charon with his lazy boat
Ferries o’er Lethe’s sedgy moat.”
CHARYB′DIS. A dangerous whirlpool on the coast of Sicily. Personified,
it was supposed to have been a woman who plundered travellers, but was
at last killed by Hercules. Scylla and Charybdis are generally spoken
of together to represent alternative dangers.
“Charybdis barks, and Polyphemus roars.”
FRANCIS.
CHE′MOS. The Moabitish god of war.
CHILDREN, see Nundina.
CHIMÆ′RA. A wild illusion, personified in the monster slain by
Bellerophon. It had the head and breast of a lion, the body of a goat,
and the tail of a serpent. It used to vomit fire.
... “And on the craggy top
Chimera dwells, with lion’s face and mane,
A goat’s rough body and a serpent’s train.”
POPE.
“First, dire Chimera’s conquest was enjoyned,
A mingled monster of no mortal kind.
Behind, a dragon’s fiery tail was spread,
A goat’s rough body bore a lion’s head,
Her pitchy nostrils flaky flames expire,
Her gaping throat emits infernal fire.”
MILTON.
CHI′RON, the centaur who taught Achilles hunting, music, and the use of
medicinal herbs. Jupiter placed him amongst the stars, where he appears
as Sagittarius the Archer.
CHLO′RIS. The Greek name of Flora, the goddess of flowers.
CHOU. An Egyptian god corresponding to the Roman Hercules.
CHRO′NOS. Time, the Grecian name of Saturn.
CIL′LAROS, see Cyllaros.
CIR′CE, daughter of the Sun. The knowledge of poisonous herbs enabled
her to destroy her husband, the King of the Sarmatians, for which act
she was banished. When Ulysses landed at Æcea, where she lived, she
turned all his followers into swine.
CISSE′TA. The name of one of Actæon’s hounds.
CITHER′IDES. A name of the Muses, from Mount Citheron.
CLI′O. One of the Muses, daughter of Jupiter and Mnemosyne. She
presided over history.
CLOACI′NA. The Roman goddess of sewers.
CLO′THO was one of the Fates. She was present at births, and held
the distaff from which was spun the thread of life. See Atropos and
Lachesis.
CLOWNS OF LY′CIA, THE, were changed into frogs by Latona, because they
refused to allow her to drink at one of their streamlets.
CLU′ACI′NA. A name of Venus, given to her at the time of the
reconciliation of the Romans and the Sabines, which was ratified near a
statue of the goddess.
CLY′TEMNES′TRA, wife of Agamemnon, slew her husband and married
Ægisthus. She attempted to kill her son Orestes, but he was delivered
by his sister Electra, who sent him away to Strophius. He afterwards
returned and slew both Clytemnestra and Ægisthus.
CLYT′IE. A nymph who got herself changed into a sunflower because her
love of Apollo was unrequited. In the form of this flower she is still
supposed to be turning towards Sol, a name of Apollo.
CNEPH. In Egyptian mythology the creator of the universe.
COCY′TUS, the river of Lamentation. One of the five rivers of the
infernal regions.
“Infernal rivers that disgorge
Into the burning lake their baleful streams.
... Cocytus, named of lamentation loud,
Heard on the rueful stream.”
MILTON.
CŒ’CULUS, a violent robber, was a son of Vulcan.
CŒ’LUS, also called Uranus (or Heaven), was the most ancient of the
gods.
CŒ′NA SALIA′RIS, see Ancilia.
COLLI′NA was one of the rural deities, the goddess of hills.
COMEDY, see Thalia.
CO′MUS was the god of revelry. He presided over entertainments and
feasts.
CON′CORD. The symbol of Concord was two right hands joined, and a
pomegranate.
CONCOR′DIA. The goddess of peace. One of the oldest Roman goddesses.
She is represented as holding a horn of plenty in one hand, and in the
other a sceptre, from which fruit is sprouting forth.
CONSTANCY, see Cephalus.
CONSU′ALIA. Games sacred to Neptune.
CON′SUS. A name given to Neptune as being the god of counsel.
COPHE′TUA. A legendary king of Africa, who disliked women, but
ultimately fell in love with a “beggar-maid,” as mentioned in _Romeo
and Juliet_.
“... Cupid, he that shot so trim
When King Cophetua loved the beggar-maid.”
SHAKESPEARE.
CO′PIA, the goddess of plenty.
CO′RAN. One of Actæon’s hounds was so named.
CORN, see Ceres.
COR′ONIS, was a consort of Apollo and mother of Æsculapius. Another
Coronis was daughter of a king of Phocis, and was changed by Athena
into a crow.
CORYBAN′TES were priests of Cybele. They obtained the name because they
were in the habit of striking themselves in their dances.
CORY′DON. A silly love-sick swain mentioned by Virgil.
CORY′THAIX. A name given to Mars, meaning Shaker of the Helmet.
COTYT′TO. The Athenian goddess of immodesty.
“Hail! goddess of nocturnal sport,
Dark-veiled Cotytto, to whom the secret flame
Of midnight torches burns; mysterious dame.”
MILTON.
COUNSEL, see Consus.
CREDITORS, see Jani.
CROW, see Coronis.
CULTIVATED LAND, see Sylvester.
CUP-BEARER, see Ganymede.
CU′PID, the god of love, was the son of Jupiter and Venus. He is
represented as a naked, winged boy, with a bow and arrows, and a torch.
When he grew up to be a man he married Psyche.
“For Venus did but boast one only son,
And rosy Cupid was that boasted one;
He, uncontroll’d, thro’ heaven extends his sway,
And gods and goddesses by turns obey.
EUSDEN, 1713.
CUVE′RA. The Indian god of wealth, corresponding to the Greek Plutus.
CY′BELE. The mother of the gods, and hence called Magna Mater. She was
wife of Saturn. She is sometimes referred to under the names of Ceres,
Rhea, Ops, and Vesta. She is represented as riding in a chariot drawn
by lions. In one hand she holds a sceptre, and in the other a key. On
her head is a castellated crown, to notify that she was the first to
protect castles and walls with towers.
“Nor Cybele with half so kind an eye
Surveyed her sons and daughters of the sky.”
DRYDEN.
“Might she the wise Latona be,
Or the towered Cybele,
Mother of a hundred gods,
Juno dares not give her odds.”
MILTON.
CY′CLOPS or CY′CLOPES were the gigantic, one-eyed workmen of Vulcan,
who made Jove’s thunderbolts. Hesiod gives their names as Arges,
Brontes, and Steropes.
“Meantime, the Cyclop raging with his wound,
Spreads his wide arms, and searches round and round.”
POPE.
CYG′NUS, the bosom friend of Phaëton. He died of grief on the death of
his friend, and was turned into a swan.
CYLL′AROS, one of Castor’s horses. The colour is mentioned as being
coal-black, with white legs and tail. See Cillaros.
CYL′LO. The name of one of Actæon’s hounds, which was lame.
CYLLOP′OTES. A name given to one of Actæon’s hounds which limped.
CYN′OSURE. One of the nurses of Jupiter, turned by the god into a
conspicuous constellation.
“Towers and battlements it sees
Bosomed high in tufted trees,
Where perhaps some beauty lies,
The Cynosure of neighbouring eyes.”
MILTON.
CYPARIS′SUS. A boy of whom Apollo was very fond; and when he died
he was changed, at Apollo’s intercession, into a cypress tree, the
branches of which typify mourning.
CY′PRESS, see Cyparissus.
CY′PRIA. A name of Venus, because she was worshipped in the island of
Cyprus.
CYTH′ERA. A name of Venus, from the island to which she was wafted in
the shell.
DACTY′LI were priests of Cybele. They were given the name, because,
like the fingers, they were ten in number.
DÆD′ALUS was a great architect and sculptor. He invented the wedge,
the axe, the level, and the gimlet, and was the first to use sails.
Dædalus also constructed the famous labyrinth for Minos, King of Crete.
See Icarus.
“Now Dædalus, behold, by fate assigned,
A task proportioned to thy mighty mind.”
POPE.
DA′GON. A god of the Philistines, half man half fish, like the mermaid.
Milton describes him as “Upward man and downward fish.”
DA′HAK. The Persian devil.
DAI′TYAS. In Hindoo mythology the devils or evil gods.
DAN′Æ was a daughter of Acrisius and Eurydice. She had a son by
Jupiter, who was drifted out to sea in a boat, but was saved by
Polydectes and educated.
DANA′IDES, see Danaus.
DANA′US, King of Argos, was the father of fifty daughters, who, all but
one, at the command of their father, slew their husbands directly after
marriage. For this crime they were condemned to the task of for ever
trying to draw water with vessels without any bottoms. See Hypermnestra.
DANCING, see Terpsichore.
DANGERS, see Scylla.
DAPH′NE. The goddess of the earth. Apollo courted her, but she fled
from him, and was, at her own request, turned into a laurel tree.
“... As Daphne was
Root-bound, that fled Apollo.”
MILTON.
DAR′DANUS, a son of Jupiter, who built the city of Dardania, and by
some writers was accounted the founder of Troy.
DEAD-TOLL, see Charon.
DEATH, see Nox.
DECEIVER, THE, see Apaturia.
DEIANI′RA, daughter of Œneus, was wife of Hercules. See Hercules.
DE′LOS, a name of Apollo, from the island in which he was born.
DEL′PHI. A town on Mount Parnassus, famous for its oracle, and for a
temple of Apollo. See Delphos.
DEL′PHICUS. A name of Apollo, from Delphi.
DEL′PHOS, the place where the temple was built from which the oracle of
Apollo was given.
DE′MARUS. The Phœnician name of Jupiter.
DE′MOGOR′GON was the tyrant genius of the soil or earth, the life and
support of plants. He was depicted as an old man covered with moss, and
was said to live underground. He is sometimes called the king of the
elves and fays.
“Which wast begot in Demogorgon’s hall
And saw’st the secrets of the world unmade.”
SPENCER.
DEUCHA′LION, one of the demigods, son of Prometheus and Pyrra. He and
his wife, by making a ship, survived the deluge which Jupiter sent on
the earth, circa 1503 B.C.
DEVIL, see Dahak, Daityas, and Obambou.
DI′ANA, goddess of hunting and of chastity. She was the sister of
Apollo, and daughter of Jupiter and Latona. She was known amongst the
Greeks as Diana or Phœbe, and was honoured as a triform goddess. As
a celestial divinity she was called Luna; as a terrestrial Diana or
Dictynna; and in the infernal regions Hecate.
DICTYN′NA, a Greek name of Diana as a terrestrial goddess.
DI′DO. A daughter of Belus, King of Tyre. It was this princess who
bought a piece of land in Africa as large as could be encompassed by a
bullock’s hide, and when the purchase was completed, cut the hide into
strips, and so secured a large tract of land. Here she built Carthage;
and Virgil tells that when Æneas was shipwrecked on the neighbouring
coast, she received him with every kindness, and at last fell in love
with him. But Æneas did not reciprocate her affections, and this so
grieved her that she stabbed herself. A tale is told in _Facetiæ
Cantabrigienses_ of Professor Porson, who being one of a set party, the
conversation turned on the subject of punning, when Porson observing
that he could pun on any subject, a person present defied him to do so
on the Latin gerunds, _di_, _do_, _dum_, which, however, he immediately
did in the following admirable couplet:--
“When Dido found Æneas would not come,
She mourned in silence, and was _Dido dumb_.”
DI′ES PA′TER, or Father of the Day, a name of Jupiter.
DII SELEC′TI composed the second class of gods. They were Cœlus,
Saturn, Genius, Oreus, Sol, Bacchus, Terra, and Luna.
DIN′DYME′NE. A name of Cybele, from a mountain where she was worshipped.
“Nor Dindymene, nor her priest possest,
Can with their sounding cymbals shake the breast
Like furious anger.”
FRANCIS.
DIOME′DES, the cruel tyrant of Thrace, who fed his mares on the flesh
of his guests, was overcome by Hercules, and was given to the same
horses as food.
DIO′NE. A poetic name of Venus.
DIONY′SIA were festivals in honour of Bacchus.
DIONY′SIUS. A name of Bacchus, either from his father Jupiter (Dios),
or from his nurses, the nymphs called Nyseæ.
DI′OS, a name of Jupiter.
DIOS′CURI. Castor and Pollux, the sons of Jupiter.
DI′RÆN. A name of the Furies.
DIS. A name of Pluto, god of hell, signifying riches.
“... That fair field
Of Enna, where Proserpine gathering flowers,
Herself a fairer flower, by gloomy Dis
Was gathered.”
MILTON.
DISCORD, see Ate.
DISCOR′DIA, sister of Nemesis, the Furies, and Death, was driven from
heaven for having sown discord amongst the gods.
DISEASES, see Pandora.
DISTAFF, see Pallas.
DODO′NA was a celebrated oracle of Jupiter.
“O where, Dodona, is thine aged grove,
Prophetic fount, and oracle divine?”
BYRON.
DODONÆ′US. A name of Jupiter, from the city of Dodona.
DOG, see Lares.
DOLA′BRA. The knife used by the priests to cut up the sacrifices.
DOL′PHIN, see Arion.
DOOR′GA. A Hindoo goddess.
DO′RIS was daughter of Oceanus, and sister of Nereus, two of the marine
deities. From these two sisters sprang the several tribes of water
nymphs.
DO′TO. One of the Nereids or sea nymphs.
DRA′CO. One of Actæon’s hounds.
DRAGON, seven-headed, see Geryon.
DREAMS, see Morpheus.
DRY′ADS were rural deities, the nymphs of the forests, to whom their
votaries offered oil, milk, and honey.
“Flushed with resistless charms he fired to love
Each nymph and little Dryad of the grove.”
TICKNELL.
DUMB′NESS, see Atys.
DWEUR′GAR. Scandinavian god of the Echo--a pigmy.
E′ACUS, son of Jupiter and Egina, one of the judges of the infernal
regions, who was appointed to judge the Europeans. See Æacus.
EARTH, see Antæas.
EB′LIS, the Mohammedan evil genius.
ECHID′NA. A woman having a serpent’s tail. She was the reputed mother
of Chimera, and also of the many-headed dog Orthos, of the three
hundred headed dragon, of the Hesperides, of the Colchian dragon, of
the Sphinx, of Cerberus, of Scylla, of the Gorgons, of the Lernæan
Hydra, of the vulture that gnawed away the liver of Prometheus, and
also of the Nemean lion; in fact, the mother of all adversity and
tribulation.
ECHNO′BAS, one of Actæon’s hounds.
ECH′O was a nymph who fell in love with Narcissus. But when he
languished and died she pined away from grief and died also, preserving
nothing but her voice, which repeats every sound that reaches her.
Another fable makes Echo a daughter of Air and Tellus. She was partly
deprived of speech by Juno, being allowed only to reply to questions.
“Sweet Echo, sweetest nymph, that liv’st unseen
Within thy airy shell.
. . . . . . .
Sweet queen of parley, daughter of the sphere,
So may’st thou be translated to the skies,
And give resounding grace to all heaven’s harmonies.”
MILTON.
“Oft by Echo’s tedious tales misled.”
OVID.
EGEON. A giant sea-god, who assisted the Titans against Jupiter.
EGE′RIA. A nymph who is said to have suggested to Numa all his wise
laws. She became his wife, and at his death was so disconsolate, and
shed so many tears, that Diana changed her into a fountain.
E′GIL. The Vulcan of northern mythology.
EGIP′ANS were rural deities who inhabited the forests and mountains,
the upper half of the body being like that of a man, and the lower half
like a goat.
E′GIS was the shield of Minerva. It obtained its name because it was
covered with the skin of the goat Amalthæa, which nourished Jupiter.
See Ægis.
ELEUSIN′IAN MYSTERIES. Religious rites in honour of Ceres, performed at
Eleusis in Attica.
ELYS′IUM, or the ELYSIAN FIELDS. The temporary abode of the just in the
infernal regions.
EMPYRE′AN, THE. The fifth heaven, the seat of the heathen deity.
ENDYM′ION. A shepherd, who acquired from Jupiter the faculty of being
always young. One of the lovers of Diana.
ENTERTAINMENTS, see Comus.
ENVY, see Furies.
ENYO was the Grecian name of Bellona, the goddess of war and cruelty.
E′OLUS, see Æolus.
E′OS. The Grecian name of Aurora.
E′OUS. One of the four horses which drew the chariot of Sol, the sun.
The word is Greek, and means red.
EPH′IAL′TES. A giant who lost his right eye in an encounter with
Hercules, and the left eye was destroyed by Apollo.
ER′ATO. One of the Muses, the patroness of light poetry; she presided
over the triumphs and complaints of lovers, and is generally
represented as crowned with roses and myrtle, and holding a lyre in
her hand.
ER′EBUS, son of Chaos, one of the gods of Hades, sometimes alluded to
as representing the infernal regions.
ERGA′TIS. A name given to Minerva. It means the work-woman, and was
given to the goddess because she was credited with having invented
spinning and weaving.
ERIC′THEUS, fourth King of Athens, was the son of Vulcan.
ERIN′NYS. A Greek name of the Furies. It means Disturber of the Mind.
ERISICH′THON was punished with perpetual hunger because he defiled the
groves of Ceres, and cut down one of the sacred oaks.
ER′OS. The Greek god of love.
EROS′TRATUS. The rascal who burnt the temple of Diana at Ephesus,
thereby hoping to make his name immortal.
ERYC′INA. A name of Venus, from Mount Eryx in Sicily.
ERYTHRE′OS. The Grecian name of one of the horses of Sol’s chariot.
ESCULA′PIUS, see Æsculapius.
E′TA, see Æta.
E′THON, one of the horses who drew the chariot of Sol--the sun. The
word is Greek, and signifies hot.
ET′NA. A volcanic mountain, beneath which, according to Virgil, there
is buried the giant Typhon, who breathes forth devouring flames.
EU′DROMOS. The name of one of Actæon’s hounds.
EU′LALON, one of the names of Apollo.
EUMEN′IDES, a name of the Furies, meaning mild, and referring to the
time when they were approved by Minerva.
EUPHRO′SYNE, one of the three Graces, see Graces.
“Come thou goddess fair and free,
In heaven ycleped Euphrosyne.”
MILTON.
EU′RUS. The east wind. A son of Æolus.
EURY′ALE was one of the Gorgons, daughter of Phorcus and Ceto.
EURYD′ICE, wife of Orpheus, who was killed by a serpent on her wedding
night.
“Nor yet the golden verge of day begun,
When Orpheus (her unhappy lord),
Eurydice to life restored,
At once beheld, and lost, and was undone.”
F. LEWIS.
EURYTH′ION. A seven-headed dragon. See Geryon.
EU′TERPE, one of the Muses, the patroness of instrumental music. The
word means agreeable.
EU′VYHE, an expression meaning “Well done, son.” Jupiter so frequently
addressed his son Bacchus by those words that the phrase at last became
one of his names.
EVENING STAR, see Hesperus.
EVIL, see Cacodæmon.
EVILS, see Pandora.
EYE, see Cyclops and Glaukopis.
FAME was a poetical deity, represented as having wings and blowing a
trumpet. A temple was dedicated to her by the Romans.
FATE, see Nereus.
FATES, or PARCÆ, were the three daughters of Necessity. Their names
were Clotho, who held the distaff; Lachesis, who turned the spindle;
and Atropos, who cut the thread with the fatal shears.
FAUN. A rural divinity, half man and half goat. They were very similar
to the Satyrs. The Fauns attended the god Pan, and the Satyrs attended
Bacchus.
FAVO′NIUS. The wind favourable to vegetation, that is, Zephyr--the west
wind.
“... Time will run
On smoother, till Favonius re-inspire
The frozen earth, and clothe in fresh attire
The lily and the rose, that neither sowed nor spun.”
MILTON.
FAYS.
“The yellow-skirted Fays
Fly after the night-steeds,
Leaving their moon-loved maze.”
MILTON.
FEASTS, see Comus.
FE′BRIS (fever), one of the evil deities, was worshipped that she might
not do harm.
FEB′RUUS. A name of Plato, from the part of the funeral rites which
consisted of purifications.
FERO′NIA, the Roman goddess of orchards, was patroness of enfranchised
slaves. Some authors think Feronia is the same as Juno.
FERTILITY, see Lupercus.
FESTIVALS, see Thalia.
FIDELITY, see Iolaus.
FI′DES, the goddess of faith and honesty, had a temple in the Capitol
of Rome.
FINE ARTS, see Minerva.
FIRE, see Salamander, Vesta, and Vulcan.
FIRE INSURANCE, see Canopus.
FISHERMAN, see Glaucus.
FLATH′-IN′NIS, in Celtic mythology, is Paradise.
FLEECE, GOLDEN, see Golden Fleece, Argonauts, and Jason.
FLIES, see Muscarius.
FLOCKS, see Pales.
FLO′RA, goddess of flowers and gardens, was wife of Zephyrus. She
enjoyed perpetual youth. Her Grecian name was Chloris.
FLORA′LIA were licentious games instituted in honour of the goddess
Flora.
FLOWERS, see Flora, Chloris, Hortensis, and Zephyrus.
FLUTE, see Marsyas.
FORTU′NA, the goddess of fortune, had a temple erected to her by
Servius Tullius. She was supposed to be able to bestow riches or
poverty on mankind, and was esteemed one of the most potent of the
ancient goddesses. She is usually represented as standing on a wheel,
with a bandage over her eyes, and holding a cornucopia.
FRAUD, one of the evil deities, was represented as a goddess with a
human face and a serpent’s body, and in the end of her tail was a
scorpion’s sting. She lived in the river Cocytus, and nothing but her
head was ever seen.
FREY′R. The Scandinavian god of fertility and peace. The patron god of
Sweden and Iceland.
FREY′JA. The Scandinavian Venus. The goddess of love.
FRI′GA. The Saxon goddess of earthly enjoyments. The name Friday is
derived from her. In Scandinavian mythology she is the goddess of
marriage.
FRO. The Scandinavian god of tempests and winds.
FROGS, see Clowns of Lycia.
FRUITS, see Ceres and Pomona.
FUNERALS, see Libitina and Manes.
FURIES, THE, were the three daughters of Acheron and Nox. They were the
punishers of evildoers. Their names were Tisiphone, Megæra, and Alecto,
and were supposed to personify rage, slaughter, and envy.
FUTURITY, see Cassandra.
GA′BRIEL, in Jewish mythology is the prince of fire and thunder, and
the angel of death to the favoured people of God.
GALATÆ′A. A sea nymph. Polyphemus, one of the Cyclops, loved her, but
she disdained his attentions and became the lover of Acis, a Sicilian
shepherd.
GALLAN′TES, madmen, from Galli (which see).
GAL′LI were priests of Cybele who used to cut their arms with knives
when they sacrificed, and acted so like madmen that demented people got
the name of Gallantes.
GAN′ESA. The Indian Mercury. The god of wisdom and prudence.
GANGA. One of the three Indian river goddesses.
GANYMEDE, a beautiful Phrygian youth, son of Tros, King of Troy. He
succeeded Hebe in the office of cup-bearer to Jupiter. He is generally
represented sitting on the back of a flying eagle.
GARDENS, see Pomona.
GATES, see Janus.
GAUTA′MA. The chief deity of Burmah.
GENII were domestic divinities. Every man was supposed to have two of
these genii accompanying him; one brought him happiness, the other
misery.
GEN′ITOR. A Lycian name of Jupiter.
GEOMETRY, see Mercury.
GE′RYON was a triple-bodied monster who lived at Gades, where his
numerous flocks were guarded by Orthos, a two-headed dog, and by
Eurythion, a seven-headed dragon. These guardians were destroyed by
Hercules, and the cattle taken away.
GIMLET, see Dædalus.
GIRDLE, see Cestus.
GLAU′CUS was a fisherman who became a sea-god through eating a
sea-weed, which he thought invigorated the fishes and might strengthen
him.
GLAUKO′PIS. A name given to Minerva, because she had blue eyes.
GNO′MES, a name given by Plato to the invisible deities who were
supposed to inhabit the earth.
GNOS′SIS, a name given to Ariadne, from the city of Gnossus in Crete.
GOAT, see Iphigenia, Mendes, and Venus.
GOAT’S FEET, see Capripedes.
GOLDEN APPLE, see Atalanta.
GOLDEN FLEECE, THE, was a ram’s hide, sometimes described as white,
and at other times as purple and golden. It was given to Phryxus, who
carried it to Colchis, where King Æta entertained Phryxus, and the
hide was hung up in the grove of Mars. Jason and forty-nine companions
fetched back the golden fleece. See Argonauts.
GOPY′A. Indian mythological nymphs.
GOR′GONS, THE, were three sisters, named Stheno, Euryale, and Medusa.
They petrified every one they looked at. Instead of hair their heads
were covered with vipers. Perseus conquered them, and cut off the head
of Medusa, which was placed on the shield of Minerva, and all who fixed
their eyes thereon were turned into stone.
GRACES, THE, were the attendants of Venus. Their names were, Aglaia,
so called from her beauty and goodness; Thalia, from her perpetual
freshness; and Euphrosyne, from her cheerfulness. They are generally
depicted as three cheerful maidens with hands joined, and either nude
or only wearing transparent robes,--the idea being that kindnesses,
as personified by the Graces, should be done with sincerity and
candour, and without disguise. They were supposed to teach the duties
of gratitude and friendship, and they promoted love and harmony among
mankind.
GRACES (fourth), see Pasithea.
GRAD′IVUS. A name given to Mars by the Romans. It meant the warrior who
defended the city against all external enemies.
GRA′GUS. The name by which Jupiter was worshipped in Lycia.
GRANARIES, see Tutelina.
GRAP′SIOS. A Lycian name of Jupiter.
GRASSHOPPER, see Tithonus.
GRIEF, see Niobe.
HA′DA. The Babylonian Juno.
HA′DES. The Greek name of Pluto, the god of hell, the word signifying
hidden, dark, and gloomy; the infernal regions; sometimes written,
_Ades_.
HAILSTORMS, see Nuriel.
HALCY′ONE, one of the Pleiades, was a daughter of Atlas and Pelione.
HALCY′ONS were sea-birds, supposed to be the Greek king-fishers. They
made their nests on the waves, and during the period of incubation the
sea was always calm. Hence the modern term Halcyon Days.
HAMADRY′ADES were wood-nymphs, who presided over trees.
HAPPINESS, see Genii.
HAROE′RIS. The Egyptian god, whose eyes are the sun and moon.
HAR′PIES were animals with the heads and breasts of women, the bodies
of birds, and the claws of lions. Their names were Aello, Ocypete, and
Celeno. They were loathsome creatures, living in filth, and poisoning
everything they came in contact with.
“Such fiends to scourge mankind, so fierce, so fell,
Heaven never summoned from the depth of hell.
A virgin face, with wings and hookëd claws,
Death in their eyes, and famine in their jaws,
While proof to steel their hides and plumes remain
We strike the impenetrable fiends in vain.”
HARPI′KRUTI. The Egyptian name of the god Harpocrates.
HARPOC′RATES, son of Isis, was the god of silence and meditation. He is
usually represented as a young man, holding a finger of one hand to his
lips, while in the other hand he holds a cornucopia.
HARVEST, see Segesta.
HAWK, see Nysus.
HA′ZIS. The Syrian war-god.
HEALTH, see Hygeia and Salus.
HEA′VEN, QUEEN OF, see Belisama. God of, see Cœlus.
HE′BE was the goddess of youth. She was cup-bearer to Jupiter and the
gods, until she had an awkward fall at a festival, and so displeased
Jupiter that she was deprived of her office, and Ganymede was
appointed in her stead.
“Wreathed smiles,
Such as hung on Hebe’s cheek,
And love to live in dimples sleek.”
MILTON.
“Bright Hebe waits; by Hebe ever young
The whirling wheels are to the chariot hung.”
POPE.
HEC′ATE. There were two goddesses known by this name, but the one
generally referred to in modern literature is Hecate, or Prosperine,
the name by which Diana was known in the infernal regions. In heaven
her name was Luna, and her terrestrial name was Diana.
HEC′UBA. The mother of Paris, was allotted to Ulysses after the
destruction of Troy, and was afterwards changed into a hound.
“What’s Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba?”
SHAKESPEARE.
HEIFER, see Ino.
HEL′ENA when a child was so beautiful that Theseus and Perithous stole
her, but she was restored by Castor and Pollux. She became the wife
of Menelaus, king of Sparta, but eloped with Paris, and thus caused
the Trojan War. After the death of Paris she married Deiphobus, his
brother, and then betrayed him to Menelaus. She was strangled by order
of Polyxo, king of Rhodes.
HE′LIADES were the daughters of Sol, and the sisters of Phaeton, at
whose death they were so sad that they stood mourning till they became
metamorphosed into poplar trees, and their tears were turned into
amber.
HEL′ICON. A mountain in Bœotia sacred to the Muses, from which place
the fountain Hippocrene flowed.
“Yet still the doating rhymer dreams,
And sings of Helicon’s bright streams;
But Helicon for all his clatter
Yields only uninspiring water.”
BROOM, 1720.
HELICO′NIDES. A name of the Muses, from Mount Helicon.
HELIOP′OLIS, in Elysium, was the city of the sun.
HE′LIOS. The Grecian sun-god, who went home every evening in a golden
boat which had wings.
HEL′IOTROPE. Clytie was turned into this flower by Apollo. See Clytie.
HEL′LE was drowned in the sea, into which she fell from off the back
of the golden ram, on which she and Phryxus were escaping from the
oppression of their stepmother Ino. The episode gave the name of the
Hellespont to the part of the sea where Helle was drowned, and it is
now called the Dardanelles.
HELLESPONTIA′CUS. A title of Priapus.
HEMPH′TA. The Egyptian god Jupiter.
HEPHÆS′TOS. The Greek Vulcan.
HE′RA. The Greek name of Juno.
HER′ACLES, is the same as Hercules.
HER′CULES was the son of Jupiter and Alcmena. The goddess Juno hated
him from his birth, and sent two serpents to kill him, but though only
eight months old he strangled the snakes. As he got older he was set
by his master Eurystheus what were thought to be twelve impossible
tasks, which have long been known as the “Twelve Labours of Hercules.”
They were:--
_First_, To slay the Nemean Lion.
_Second_, To destroy the Hydra which infested the marshes of Lerna.
_Third_, To bring to Eurystheus the Arcadian Stag with the golden
horns and brazen hoofs.
_Fourth_, To bring to his master the Boar of Erymanthus.
_Fifth_, To cleanse the stable of King Augeas, in which 3000 oxen had
been kept for thirty years, but had never been cleaned out.
_Sixth_, To destroy the Stymphalides, terrible carnivorous birds.
_Seventh_, To capture the Bull which was desolating Crete.
_Eighth_, To capture the mares of Diomedes, which breathed fire from
their nostrils, and ate human flesh.
_Ninth_, To procure the girdle of Hippolyta, queen of the Amazons.
_Tenth_, To bring to Eurystheus the flesh-eating oxen of Geryon, the
monster king of Gades.
_Eleventh_, To bring away some of the golden apples from the garden of
the Hesperides.
_Twelfth_, To bring up from Hades the three-headed dog, Cerberus.
All these tasks he successfully accomplished, and, besides, he assisted
the gods in their wars with the giants. Several other wonderful feats
are mentioned under other headings, as Antæus, Cacus, etc. His death
was brought about through his endeavours to preserve Deianira from the
attacks of Nessus, the centaur, whom he killed. The centaur, before
he expired, gave his mystic tunic to Deianira, who in turn gave it to
Hercules, and he put it on, but his doing so brought on an illness of
which he could not be cured. In a fit of desperation he cast himself
into a funeral pile on Mount Æta; but Jupiter had him taken to heaven
in a four-horse chariot, and only the mortal part of Hercules was
consumed.
“Let Hercules himself do what he may,
The cat will mew, and dog will have his day.”
SHAKESPEARE.
HERDSMEN, see Bubona.
HER′MÆ were statues of Hermes (Mercury), which were set up in Athens
for boundaries, and as direction marks for travellers.
HER′MANU′BIS, see Anubis.
HERMATHE′NAE were statues of Mercury and Minerva placed together.
HER′MES. A Greek name of the god Mercury.
“Hermes obeys. With golden pinions binds
His flying feet, and mounts the western winds.”
VIRGIL.
HERMI′ONE, daughter of Mars and Venus, who was turned into a serpent,
and allowed to live in the Elysian fields. There was another Hermione,
daughter of Menelaus; she was betrothed to Orestes, but was carried
away by Pyrrhus, the son of Achilles.
HE′RO. A priestess of Venus, with whom Leander was so enamoured that he
swam across the Hellespont every night to visit her, but at last was
drowned; when Hero threw herself into the sea and was drowned also.
HEROES, see Valhalla.
HESPER′IDES. Three daughters of Hesperus, King of Italy. They kept in
their garden the golden apples which Juno gave Jupiter on their wedding
day. See Hercules.
HES′PERUS, brother of Atlas, was changed into the evening star.
“To the ocean now I fly,
And those happy climes that lie
Where day never shuts his eye,
Upon the broad fields of the sky;
There I suck the liquid air,
All amidst the gardens fair
Of Hesperus and his daughters three,
That sing about the golden tree.”
MILTON.
HES′TIA. The Greek name of Vesta.
HIEROGLY′PHICS, see Mercury.
HIGHWAYS, see Janus.
HIL′DUR. The Scandinavian Mars.
HIP′PIA. A name of Minerva.
HIP′PIUS. A name of Neptune.
HIPPOCAM′PUS. The name of Neptune’s favourite horse.
HIPPOCRE′NIDES, a name of the Muses, from the fountain of Hippocrene
(the horse fountain), which was formed by a kick of the winged horse
Pegasus.
HIPPOLY′TE, queen of the Amazons, daughter of Mars. Her father gave her
a famous girdle, which Hercules was required to procure (see Hercules).
She was conquered by Hercules, and given by him in marriage to Theseus.
HIPPOLY′TUS was son of Theseus and Hippolyte; he was killed by a fall
from a chariot, but was raised to life again by Diana, or, as some say,
by Æsculapius.
HIPPO′NA was a rural divinity, the goddess of horses.
HISTORY, see Clio and Saga.
HONEY, see Aristæus and Dryads.
HOPE, see Pandora.
HO′RÆ were the daughters of Sol and Chronis.
HORSE, see Cyllaros.
HORSE RACES, see Neptune.
HORSES, see Hippona.
HORTEN′SIS, a name of Venus, because she looked after plants and
flowers in gardens.
HO′RUS. A name of Sol, the Egyptian day god.
HOSTIL′INA. A rural divinity; goddess of growing corn.
HUNGER, see Erisichthon.
HUNTING, see Diana.
HUNTSMEN, see Pan.
HYACIN′THUS was a boy greatly loved by Apollo; but he was accidentally
slain by him with a quoit. Apollo caused to spring from his blood the
flower Hyacinth.
HY′ADES were seven daughters of Atlas and Æthra, and they form a
constellation which, when it rises with the sun, threatens rain.
HY′DRA. A famous monster serpent, which had many heads. It was slain by
Hercules. See Hercules.
HYGE′IA, the goddess of health, was a daughter of Æsculapius and
Epione. She was represented as a young woman feeding a serpent, which
is twined round her arm.
HY′LAS. A beautiful boy beloved by Hercules. The nymphs were jealous of
him, and spirited him away while he was drawing water for Hercules.
HY′MEN, the Grecian god of marriage, was either the son of Bacchus
and Venus, or, as some say, of Apollo and one of the Muses. He was
represented as a handsome youth, holding in his hand a burning torch.
“Some few there are of sordid mould
Who barter youth and bloom for gold:
But Hymen, gen’rous, just, and kind,
Abhors the mercenary mind;
Such rebels groan beneath his rod,
For Hymen’s a vindictive god.”
Dr. COTTON, 1736.
HYMN, see Pæan.
HYPE′RION. Son of Cœlus and Terra. The model of manly beauty,
synonymous with Apollo. The personification of the sun.
“So excellent a king; that was to this
Hyperion to a satyr.”
SHAKESPEARE.
HYPERMNES′TRA. One of the fifty daughters of Danaus, who were
collectively called the Danaides. She was the one who refused to kill
her husband on the wedding night. See Danaus.
IAC′CHUS. A name of Bacchus.
IAP′ETOS. The father of Atlas. See Japetus.
IB′LEES. The Arabian Satan.
IC′ARUS, son of Dædalus, who with his father made themselves wings
with which to fly from Crete. They were fixed to the shoulders by wax.
Icarus flew too near the sun, and the heat melting the wax, caused the
wings to drop off, and he fell into the sea and was drowned.
ICHNOBA′TE. One of Actæon’s hounds; it means tracker.
IDÆ′A. A name of Cybele, from Mount Ida, where she was worshipped.
IDÆ′AN MOTHER. Cybele was sometimes so called.
IDA′LIA. A name of Venus, from Mount Idalus.
IMPERA′TOR was a name of Jupiter, given to him at Præneste.
I′NACHUS was one of the earliest of the demigods or heroes.
INCENDIARY, see Erostratus.
INCENSE, see Venus.
IN′CUBUS. A Roman name of Pan, meaning The Nightmare. See Innus.
INDIG′ETES were deified mortals, gods of the fourth order. They were
peculiar to some district.
IN′DRA. The Hindoo Jupiter; his wife was Indrant, who presides over the
winds and thunder.
INFANTS, see Natio.
IN′NUS. A name of Pan, the same as Incubus.
I′NO, second wife of Athamas, King of Thebes, father of Phryxus and
Helle. Ino had two children, who could not ascend the throne while
Phryxus and Helle were alive. Ino therefore persecuted them to such
a degree that they determined to escape. They did so on a ram, whose
hide became the Golden Fleece (see Phryxus and Helle). Ino destroyed
herself, and was changed by Neptune into a sea-goddess.
INO′A were festivals in memory of Ino.
INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC, see Euterpe.
I′O was a daughter of Inachus, and a priestess of Juno at Argus.
Jupiter courted her, and was detected by Juno, when the god turned
Io into a beautiful heifer. Juno demanded the beast of Jupiter, and
set the hundred-eyed Argus to watch her. Jupiter persuaded Mercury to
destroy Argus, and Io was set at liberty, and restored to human shape.
Juno continued her persecutions, and Io had to wander from place to
place till she came to Egypt, where she became wife of King Osiris, and
won such good opinions from the Egyptians that after her death she was
worshipped as the goddess Isis.
IOLA′US, son of Iphicles, assisted Hercules in conquering the Hydra, by
burning with hot irons the place where the heads were cut off; and for
his assistance he was restored to youth by Hebe. Lovers used to go to
his monument at Phosis and ratify their vows of fidelity.
IO′THUN. Celtic mythological monsters, or giants.
IPH′ICLUS was twin brother of Hercules, and father of Iolaus.
IPHIGENI′A was a daughter of Agamemnon. He made a vow to Diana, which
involved the sacrifice of Iphigenia, but just at the critical moment
she was carried to heaven, and a beautiful goat was found on the altar
in her place.
I′RIS, daughter of Thaumas and Electra, was the attendant of Juno, and
one of the messengers of the gods. Her duty was to cut the thread which
detained expiring souls. She is the personification of the rainbow.
IRON, see Vulcan.
I′SIS, wife of Osiris, see Io.
I′TYS was killed by his mother Progne when six years old, and given to
his father Tereus as food. The gods were so enraged at this that they
turned Itys into a pheasant, Progne into a swallow, and Tereus into an
owl.
IXI′ON was son of Phlegyas, King of the Lapithæ. For attempting to
produce thunder, Jupiter cast him into hell, and had him bound to a
wheel, surrounded with serpents, which is for ever turning over a river
of fire.
“The powers of vengeance, while they hear,
Touched with compassion, drop a tear;
Ixion’s rapid wheel is bound,
Fixed in attention to the sound.”
F. LEWIS.
“Or, as Ixion fix’d, the wretch shall feel
The giddy motion of the whirling wheel.”
POPE.
J′ANI was a place in Rome where there were three statues of Janus, and
it was a meeting-place for usurers and creditors.
JA′NITOR. A title of Janus, from the gates before the doors of private
houses being called Januæ.
JA′NUS. A king of Italy, said to have been the son of Cœlus, others
say of Apollo; he sheltered Saturn when he was driven from heaven by
Jupiter. Janus presided over highways, gates, and locks, and is usually
represented with two faces. A brazen temple was erected to him in Rome,
which was always open in time of war, and closed during peace.
“Old Janus, if you please,
Grave two-faced father.”
“In two-faced Janus we this moral find,--
While we look forward, we should glance behind.”
COLMAN.
JAP′ETUS, son of Cœlus and Terra, husband of Clymene. He was looked
upon by the Greeks as the father of mankind. See Iapetos.
JA′SON was son of Æson, king of Iolcos; he was brought up by the
centaur Chiron. His uncle Æta sent him to fetch the Golden Fleece from
Colchis (see Argonauts). He went in the ship Argo with forty-nine
companions, the flower of Greek youth. With the help of Juno they got
safe to Colchis, but the King Ætes promised to restore the Golden
Fleece only on condition that the Argonauts performed certain services.
Jason was to tame the wild fiery bulls, and to make them plough the
field of Mars; to sow in the ground the teeth of a serpent, from which
would spring armed men who would fight against him who ploughed the
field of Mars; to kill the fiery dragon which guarded the tree on which
the Golden Fleece was hung. The fate of Jason and the rest of the
Argonauts seemed certain; but Medea, the king’s daughter, fell in love
with Jason, and with the help of charms which she gave him he overcame
all the difficulties which the king had put in his way. He took away
the Golden Fleece and Medea also. The king sent his son Absyrtus to
overtake the fugitives, but Medea killed him, and strewed his limbs in
his father’s path, so that he might be delayed in collecting them, and
this enabled Jason and Medea to escape. After a time Jason got tired of
Medea, and married Glauce, which cruelty Medea revenged by killing her
children before their father’s eyes. Jason was accidentally killed by a
beam of the ship Argo falling on him.
JOCAS′TA (otherwise Epicasta), wife of Laius, King of Thebes, who in
after life married her own son, Œdipus, not knowing who he was, and, on
discovering the fatal mistake, hanged herself.
JOVE. A very general name of Jupiter.
“From the great father of the gods above
My muse begins, for all is full of Jove.”
VIRGIL.
JUDGES IN HELL, THE, were Rhadamanthus for Asiatics; Æacus for
Europeans; Minos was the presiding judge. See Triptolemus.
JUGATIN′US was one of the nuptial deities.
JU′NO was the daughter of Saturn and Ops, _alias_ Cybele. She was
married to Jupiter, and became queen of all the gods and goddesses,
and mistress of heaven and earth. Juno was the mother of Mars, Vulcan,
Hebe, and Lucina. She prompted the gods to conspire against Jupiter,
but the attempt was frustrated, and Apollo and Neptune were banished
from heaven by Jupiter. Juno is the goddess of marriage, and the
protectress of married women; and she had special regard for virtuous
women. In the competition for the celebrated Golden Apple, which Juno,
Venus, and Minerva each claimed as the fairest amongst the goddesses,
Juno was much displeased when Paris gave the apple to Venus. The
goddess is generally represented riding in a chariot drawn by peacocks,
with a diadem on her head, and a sceptre in her hand.
JU′PITER, son of Saturn and Cybele (or Ops), was born on Mount Ida, in
Crete, and nourished by the goat Amalthæa. When quite young Jupiter
rescued his father from the Titans; and afterwards, with the help of
Hercules, defeated the giants, the sons of earth, when they made war
against heaven. Jupiter was worshipped with great solemnity under
various names by most of the heathen nations. The Africans called him
Ammon; the Babylonians, Belus; and the Egyptians, Osiris (see Jove). He
was represented as a majestic personage seated on a throne, holding in
his hands a sceptre and a thunderbolt; at his feet stood a spread eagle.
“By Jupiter, this shall not be revoked.”
SHAKESPEARE.
JUSTICE, see Astrea, Nemesis.
KALI. A Hindoo goddess, after whom Calcutta is named.
KA′LOC. One of the chief of the Mexican gods.
KAM′A. The Hindoo god of love.
KEB′LA. The point of the compass which worshippers look to during their
invocations. Thus the Sol or Sun worshippers turn to the east, where
the sun rises, and the Mohammedans turn towards Mecca.
KE′DERLI, in Mohammedan mythology, is a god corresponding to the
English St. George, and is still invoked by the Turks when they go to
war.
KI′UN. The Egyptian Venus.
KNEPH. An Egyptian god, having a ram’s head and a man’s body.
KRISH′NA. An Indian god, the revenger of wrongs; also called the Indian
Apollo.
KRO′DO. The Saxon Saturn.
KU′MA′RA. The war-god of the Hindoos.
KU′VERA. The Hindoo god of riches.
LA′BE. The Arabian Circe, who had unlimited power of metamorphosis.
LA′BOUR, see Atlas, Hercules.
LABYRINTH, see Theseus.
LACH′ESIS. One of the three Fates or Parcæ. She spun the thread of life.
LACIN′IA. A name of Juno.
LACTURA. One of the goddesses of growing corn.
LA′DON. The dragon which guarded the apples in the garden of the
Hesperides. Also the name of one of Actæon’s hounds. Also the river to
which Syrinx fled when pursued by Pan, where she was changed into a
reed, and where Pan made his first pipe.
LÆ′LAPS. One of Diana’s hunting dogs, which, while pursuing a wild
boar, was petrified. Also the name of one of Actæon’s hounds.
LAKS′MI. Hindoo goddess of wealth and pleasure. One of the husbands of
Vishnu.
LAMENTATION, see Cocytus.
LAM′IA. An evil deity amongst the Greeks and Romans, and the great
dread of their children, whom she had the credit of constantly enticing
away and destroying.
LAMP, see Lares and Penates.
LAM′POS. One of Aurora’s chariot horses, the other being Phæton.
LAOC′OON. One of the priests of Apollo, who was, with his two sons,
crushed to death by serpents, because he opposed the admission of the
wooden horse to Troy.
LAOM′EDON, son of Ilus, a Trojan king. He was famous for having, with
the assistance of Apollo and Neptune, built the walls of Troy.
LAP′IS. The oath stone. The Romans used to swear by Jupiter Lapis.
LAP′ITHUS, son of Apollo. His numerous children were called Lapithæ,
and they are notorious for their fight with the centaurs at the nuptial
feast of Perithous and Hippodamia.
LA′RES and PEN′ATES were sons of Mercury and Lara, or, as other
mythologists say, of Jupiter and Lamida. They belonged to the lower
order of Roman gods, and presided over homes and families. Their
statues were generally fixed within the doors of houses, or near the
hearths. Lamps were sacred to them, as symbols of vigilance, and the
dog was their sacrifice.
LARK, see Scylla and Nysus.
LATO′NA, daughter of Cœus and Phœbus, mother of Apollo and Diana. Being
admired so much by Jupiter, Juno was jealous, and Latona was the object
of the goddess’s constant persecution.
LAUGHTER, see Momus and Venus.
LAU′REL, see Daphne.
LAVER′NA. The goddess of thieves.
LAW, see Menu.
LAWGIVER, see Nomius.
LAWS, see Themis.
LEAN′DER, see Hero.
LEATHER BOTTLE, see Ascolia.
LE′DA was the mother of Castor and Pollux, their father being Jupiter,
in the shape of a swan. After her death she received the name of
Nemesis.
LEM′NIUS. One of the names of Vulcan.
LEM′URES. The spectres of departed souls. Milton, in his “Ode to the
Nativity,” says--
“Lemures moan with midnight plaint.”
They are sometimes referred to as the Manes of the dead.
LENÆ′US. One of the names of Bacchus.
LER′NA. The lake near Argos where Hercules conquered the Hydra.
LE′THE. One of the rivers of the infernal regions, of which the
souls of the departed are obliged to drink to produce oblivion or
forgetfulness of everything they did or knew while alive on the earth.
“A slow and silent stream,
Lethe, the river of oblivion, rolls
Her watery labyrinth, whereof who drinks
Forthwith his former state and being forgets,
Forgets both joy and grief, pleasure and pain.”
MILTON.
LEUCOTH′EA. The name of Ino after she was transformed into a sea-nymph.
LEVA′NA. The deity who presided over new-born infants.
LEVEL, THE, see Dædalus.
LIAK′URA. Mount Parnassus.
LIBERAL ARTS, see Minerva.
LIB′ER PAT′ER. A name of Bacchus.
LIBERTY, see Bacchus.
LIB′ISSA. Queen of fays and fairies.
LIBITI′NA. The chief of the funeral deities.
LICENTIOUSNESS, see Belphegor.
LIGE′A. A Greek syren or sea-nymph.
LIGHTNING, see Agni.
LI′LITH. A Jewish myth who is a great enemy to new-born children. She
was said to have been Adam’s first wife, but, refusing to submit to
him, was turned from Paradise and made a spectre.
LI′NA. The goddess of the art of weaving.
LIN′DOR. A lover in the shape of a shepherd, like Corydon; a love-sick
swain.
LION, see Atalanta, Chimæra.
LIVER, see Tityus and Prometheus.
LOCKS, see Janus.
LO′FEN. The Scandinavian god who guards friendship.
LOF′UA. The Scandinavian goddess who reconciles lovers.
LOKE. The Scandinavian Satan, the god of strife, the spirit of evil.
LO′TIS. A daughter of Neptune, who fled from Priapus, and only escaped
from him by being transformed into a lotus-plant.
LO′TUS-PLANT, see Lotis.
LOVE, see Cupid, Eros, Venus.
LU′CIAN. The impersonation of folly, changed into an ass.
LU′CIFER. The morning star.
LUCI′NA. The goddess who presides at the birth of children. She was a
daughter of Jupiter and Juno.
“Lucina, hail! So named from thine own grove,
Or from the light thou giv’st us from above.”
OVID.
LUD. In ancient British mythology the king of the Britons.
LU′NA. The name of Diana as a celestial divinity. See Diana and Hecate.
LU′PERCUS, or Pan. The Roman god of fertility; his festival day was
15th February, and the festivals were called Lupercalia.
LYCAON′IAN FOOD. Execrable viands, such as were supplied to Jupiter
by Lycaon. To test the divine knowledge of the god he served up human
flesh, which Jove discovered, and punished Lycaon by turning him into a
wolf.
LYCIAN CLOWNS were turned into frogs by Latona or Ceres.
LYMNI′ADES. Nymphs who resided in marshes.
LYN′CEUS. One of the Argonauts. The personification of sharpsightedness.
LYRE. This musical instrument is constantly associated with the doings
of the ancient deities. Amphion built the walls of Thebes by the music
of his lyre. Arion charmed the dolphins in a similar way. Hercules
broke the head of Linus, his music master, with the lyre he was
learning to use; and Orpheus charmed the most savage beasts, and even
the Harpies and gods of the infernal regions, with the enchanting music
of the lyre. See Mercury.
MÆN′ADES. Priestesses of Bacchus.
MAGICIANS, see Telchines.
MAG′NA DE’A, a name of Ceres.
MAGPIES, see Pierides.
MA′HA′SOOR. The Hindoo god of evil.
MA′IA. The mother of the Grecian Mercury.
MAM′MON. The money-god.
MA′NES. The souls of the departed. The god of funerals and tombs.
“All have their Manes, and their Manes bear.
The few who’re cleansed to those abodes repair,
And breathe in ample fields the soft Elysian air.”
MANURING LAND, see Picumnus.
MARCH 24, Bellona’s Day. See Bellona.
MARI′NA. A name of Venus, meaning sea-foam, from her having been formed
from the froth of the sea. See Aphrodite.
MARRIAGE, see Cama, Hymen, Juno, Jugatinus.
MARS, the god of war, was the son of Jupiter and Juno. Venus was his
favourite goddess, and amongst their children were Cupid, Anteros, and
Harmonia. In the Trojan War Mars took the part of the Trojans, but was
defeated by Diomedes.
MARSHES, see Lymniades.
MAR′SYAS. The name of the piper who challenged Apollo to a musical
contest, and, being defeated, was flayed to death by the god. He was
the supposed inventor of the flute.
MA′RUT. The Hindoo god of tempestuous winds.
MATU′RA. One of the rural deities who protected the growing corn at
time of ripening.
MAX′IMUS. One of the appellations of Jupiter, being the greatest of the
gods.
MEASURES and WEIGHTS, see Mercury.
MEDE′A. Wife of Jason, chief of the Argonauts. See Jason.
“Now to Medæa’s dragons fix my reins.”
F. LEWIS.
“Let not Medea draw her murdering knife,
And spill her children’s blood upon the stage.”
LORD ROSCOMMON.
MEDICINE, see Apollo.
MEDITATION, see Harpocrates.
MEDU′SA. One of the Gorgons. Minerva changed her beautiful hair into
serpents. She was conquered by Perseus, who cut off her head, and
placed it on Minerva’s shield. Every one who looked at the head was
turned into stone.
Ulysses, in the Odyssey, says he wished to see more of the inhabitants
of Hades, but was afraid, as he says--
“Lest Gorgon, rising from the infernal lakes,
With horrors armed, and curls of hissing snakes,
Should fix me, stiffened at the monstrous sight,
A stony image in eternal night.”
POPE.
“Medusa with Gorgonian terror guards
The ford.”
MILTON.
“Remove that horrid monster, and take hence
Medusa’s petrifying countenance.”
ADDISON.
MEG′ÆRA. One of the three Furies.
MEG′ALE. A Greek name of Juno, meaning great.
MELICER′TA, see Palæmon.
MELLO′NA. One of the rural divinities, the goddess of bees.
MELPOM′ENE. One of the Muses, the goddess of tragedy.
MEMORY, see Mnemosyne.
MEN′DES. An Egyptian god like Pan. He was worshipped in the form of a
goat.
MENELA′US. A Spartan king. The elopement of his wife Helen with Paris
was the origin of the siege of Troy. See Helena.
ME′NU. The Hindoo god of law. See Satyavrata.
MERCHANTS, see Mercury.
MER′CURY, the son of Jupiter and Maia, was the messenger of the gods,
and the conductor of the souls of the dead to Hades. He was the
supposed inventor of weights and measures, and presided over orators
and merchants. Mercury was accounted a most cunning thief, for he
stole the bow and quiver of Apollo, the girdle of Venus, the trident
of Neptune, the tools of Vulcan, and the sword of Mars, and he was
therefore called the god of thieves. He is the supposed inventor of
the lyre, which he exchanged with Apollo for the Caduceus. There was
also an Egyptian Mercury, under the name of Thot, who is credited with
having taught the Egyptians geometry and hieroglyphics.
“And there, without the power to fly,
Stands fix’d a tip-toe Mercury.”
LLOYD, 1750.
“Then fiery expedition be my wing,
Jove’s Mercury, and herald for a king.”
“Be Mercury, set feathers to thy heels
And fly, like thought, from them to me again.”
SHAKESPEARE.
ME′RU. The abode of the Hindoo god Vishnu. It is at the top of a
mountain 80,000 leagues high. The Olympus of the Indians.
MI′DAS. A king of Phrygia, who begged of Bacchus the special gift that
everything that he touched might be turned into gold. The request was
granted, and as soon as he touched his food it also was turned to
gold, and for fear of being starved he was compelled to ask the god to
withdraw the power he had bestowed upon him. He was told to bathe in
the river Pactolus. He did so, and the sands which he stood on were
golden for ever after. It was this same king who, being appointed to be
judge in a musical contest between Apollo and Pan, gave the Satyr the
palm; whereupon Apollo, to show his contempt, bestowed on him a pair of
asses’ ears. This gave rise to the term “Midas-eared,” as a synonym for
ill-judged, or indiscriminate.
“He dug a hole, and in it whispering said,
What monstrous ears sprout from King Midas’ head.”
OVID.
MI′LO, a celebrated Cretan athlete, who is said to have felled an ox
with his fist, and to have eaten the beast in one day. His statue is
often seen with one hand in the rift of a tree trunk, out of which he
is vainly trying to withdraw it. The fable is, that when he got an old
man he attempted to split an oak tree, but having lost his youthful
vigour, the tree closed on his hand and he was held a prisoner till the
wolves came and devoured him.
MIMALLO′NES. The “wild women” who accompanied Bacchus, so called
because they mimicked his actions.
MI′MIR. In Scandinavian mythology the god of wisdom.
MIND, see Erinnys.
MINER′VA, the goddess of wisdom, war, and the liberal arts, is said to
have sprung from the head of Jupiter fully armed for battle. She was a
great benefactress of mankind, and patroness of the fine arts. She was
the tutelar deity of the city of Athens. She is also known by the names
of Pallas, Parthenos, Tritonia, and Glaukopis. She was very generally
worshipped by the ancients, and her temple at Athens, the Parthenon,
still remains. She is represented in statues and pictures as wearing
a golden helmet encircled with an olive branch, and a breastplate. In
her right hand she carries a lance, and by her side is the famous Ægis
or shield, covered with the skin of Amalthæa, the goat which nourished
Jupiter; and for the boss of the shield is the head of Medusa. An owl,
the emblem of meditation, is on the left; and a cock, the emblem of
courage, on the right. The Elgin Marbles in the British Museum were
brought from the Parthenon, her temple at Athens.
MI′NOS. The principal of the three judges of hell, before whom the
spirits of the departed appeared and heard their doom.
MI′NOTAUR. The monster, half man, half bull, which Theseus slew.
MIRTH, see Momus.
MISERY, see Genii.
MITH′RA. A Persian divinity, the ruler of the universe, corresponding
with the Roman Sol.
MNEMOS′YNE. Mother of the Muses and goddess of memory. Jupiter courted
the goddess in the guise of a shepherd.
MOAK′IBAT. The recording angel of the Mohammedans.
MO′LOCH. A god of the Phœnicians to whom human victims, principally
children, were sacrificed. Moloch is figurative of the influence which
impels us to sacrifice that which we ought to cherish most dearly.
“First Moloch, horrid king, besmeared with blood
Of human sacrifice, and parents’ tears,
Though for the noise of drums and timbrels loud,
Their children’s cries unheard, that poured through fire
To this grim idol.”
MILTON.
MO′MUS. The god of sarcasm. The god who blamed Jove for not having
made a window in man’s breast, so that his thoughts could be seen. His
bitter jests occasioned his being driven from heaven in disgrace. He
is represented as holding an image of Folly in one hand, and raising a
mask from his face with the other. He is also described as the god of
mirth or laughter.
MONE′TA. A name given to Juno by those writers who considered her the
goddess of money.
MONEY, see Moneta.
MONEY-GOD, see Mammon.
MOON. The moon was, by the ancients, called _Hecate_ before and after
setting; _Astarte_ when in crescent form; _Diana_ when in full. See
Luna.
“Soon as the evening shades prevail
The moon takes up her wondrous tale,
And nightly to the list’ning earth
Repeats the story of her birth.”
ADDISON.
MOR′PHEUS. The god of sleep and dreams, the minister of Somnus.
“Morpheus, the humble god that dwells
In cottages and smoky cells;
Hates gilded roofs and beds of down,
And though he fears no prince’s frown,
Flies from the circle of a crown.”
Sir JOHN DENMAN.
MORS. Death, a daughter of Nox.
MOUNTAIN, see Atlas, Nymph.
MUL′CIBER. A name of Vulcan, sometimes spelled Mulcifer. See Vulcan.
MUN′IN. The Scandinavian god of memory, represented by the raven that
was perched on Odin’s shoulder.
MUSCA′RIUS. A name given to Jupiter because he kept off the flies from
the sacrifices.
MU′SES, THE, were nine daughters of Jupiter and Mnemosyne. They
presided over the arts and sciences, music and poetry. Their names
were, Calliope, Clio, Erato, Thalia, Melpomene, Terpsichore, Euterpe,
Polyhymnia, and Urania. They principally resided in Mount Parnassus,
at Helicon.
“Be thou the tenth Muse, ten times more in worth,
Than those old nine which rhymers advocate.”
SHAKESPEARE.
MUSIC, see Apollo, Muses.
MY′THRAS. The Egyptian name of Apollo.
NAI′ADS, THE, were beautiful nymphs of human form who presided over
springs, fountains, and wells. They resided in the meadows by the sides
of rivers. Virgil mentions Ægle as being the fairest of them.
NAN′DI. The Hindoo goddess of joy.
NAR′AE. The name of the infernal regions amongst the Hindoos.
NA′RA′YAN. The mover of the waters. The Hindoo god of tides.
NARCIS′SUS, son of Cephisus and the Naiad Liriope, was a beautiful
youth, who was so pleased with the reflection of himself which he
saw in the placid water of a fountain that he could not help loving
it, imagining that it must be some beautiful nymph. His fruitless
endeavours to possess himself of the supposed nymph drove him to
despair, and he killed himself. There sprang from his blood a flower,
which was named after him, Narcissus.
“Narcissus so himself forsook,
And died to kiss his shadow in the brook.”
“Hadst thou Narcissus in thy face, to me
Thou would’st appear most ugly.”
SHAKESPEARE.
NASTR′OND. The Scandinavian place of eternal punishment, corresponding
with Hades.
NA′TIO. A Roman goddess who took care of young infants.
NEMÆ′AN LION, see Hercules.
NEM′ESIS, the goddess of vengeance or justice, was one of the infernal
deities. Her mother was Nox. She was supposed to be constantly
travelling about the earth in search of wickedness, which she punished
with the greatest severity. She is referred to by some writers under
the name of Adrastæa. The Romans always sacrificed to this goddess
before they went to war, because they wished to signify that they never
took up arms but in the cause of justice.
“Forbear, said Nemesis, my loss to moan,
The fainting trembling hand was mine alone.”
Dr. J. WHARTON.
NEPHA′LIA. Grecian festivals in honour of Mnemosyne, the mother of the
Muses.
NEP′TUNE, god of the sea, was a son of Saturn and Cybele, and brother
of Jupiter and Pluto. He quarrelled with Jupiter because he did not
consider that the dominion of the sea was equal to Jupiter’s empire of
heaven and earth; and he was banished from the celestial regions, after
having conspired with Pluto to dethrone Jupiter. Neptune was married
to Amphitrite, daughter of Oceanus and Tethys, by whom he had a son
named Triton. He was also father of Polyphemus (one of the Cyclopes),
Phoreus, and Proteus. Neptune is represented as being seated in a shell
chariot, drawn by dolphins or sea-horses, and surrounded by Tritons
and sea-nymphs. He holds in his hand a trident, with which he rules
the waves. Though a marine deity, he was reputed to have presided over
horse-training and horse-races; but he is principally known as the god
of the ocean; and the two functions of the god are portrayed in the
sea-horses with which his chariot is drawn, the fore-half of the animal
being a horse, and the hind-half a dolphin. Ships were also under his
protection, and whenever he appeared on the ocean there was a dead calm.
NERE′IDES, THE, were aquatic nymphs. They were daughters of Nereus and
Doris, and fifty in number. They are generally represented as beautiful
girls riding on dolphins, and carrying tridents in the right hand.
NERE′US. A sea deity, husband of Doris. He had the gift of prophecy,
and foretold fates; but he had also the power of assuming various
shapes, which enabled him to escape from the importunities of those who
were anxious to consult him.
NES′SUS. The name of the Centaur which was destroyed by Hercules for
insulting Dejanira.
NES′TOR. A grandson of Neptune, his father being Neleus, and his mother
Chloris. Homer makes him one of the greatest of the Greek heroes. He
was present at the famous battle between the Lapithæ and the Centaurs,
and took a leading part in the Trojan war.
“... Here’s Nestor
Instructed by the antiquary times,
He must, he is, he cannot but be wise.”
SHAKESPEARE.
NICEPH′ORUS. A name of Jupiter, meaning the bearer of victory.
NID′HOGG. In Scandinavian mythology the dragon who dwells in Nastrond.
NIF′LHEIM. The Scandinavian hell. It was supposed to consist of nine
vast regions of ice beneath the North Pole, where darkness reigns
eternally. See Nastrond.
NIGHT, see Nox.
NIGHTINGALE, see Philomela.
NIGHTMARE, see Incubus.
NINE, THE, see Muses.
NI′OBE was a daughter of Tantalus, and is the personification of grief.
By her husband Amphion she had seven sons and seven daughters. By the
orders of Latona the father and sons were killed by Apollo, and the
daughters (except Chloris) by Diana. Niobe, being overwhelmed with
grief, escaped further trouble by being turned into a marble statue.
NO′MIUS. A lawgiver; one of the names of Apollo. This title was also
given to Mercury for the part he took in inventing beneficent laws.
NORNS. Three Scandinavian goddesses, who wove the woof of human destiny.
NO′TUS. Another name for Auster, the south wind.
NOX was the daughter of Chaos, and sister of Erebus and Mors. She
personified night, and was the mother of Nemesis and the Fates.
NUN′DINA. The goddess who took charge of children when they were nine
days old--the day on which the Romans named their children.
NUPTIA′LIS. A title of Juno. When the goddess was invoked under this
name, the gall of the victim was taken out and thrown behind the altar,
signifying that there should be no gall (bitterness) or anger between
married people.
NU′RIEL. In Hebrew mythology the god of hailstorms.
NYCTE′LIUS. A name given to Bacchus, because his festivals were
celebrated by torchlight.
NYM′PHS. This was a general name for a class of inferior female deities
who were attendants of the gods. Some of them presided over springs,
fountains, wells, woods, and the sea. They are spoken of as land-nymphs
or Naiads, and sea-nymphs or Nereides, though the former are associated
also with fountains and rivers. The Dryades were forest-nymphs, and the
Hama-dryades were nymphs who lived amongst the oak-trees--the oak being
always specially venerated by the ancients. The mountain-nymphs were
called Oreades.
“With flower-inwoven tresses torn,
The nymphs in twilight shade
Of tangled thickets mourn.”
MILTON.
NY′SÆ. The names of the nymphs by whom Bacchus was nursed. See
Dionysius.
NY′SÆUS. A name of Bacchus, because he was worshipped at Nysa.
NY′SUS. A king of Megara who was invisible by virtue of a particular
lock of hair. This lock his daughter Scylla cut off, and so betrayed
her father to his enemies. She was changed into a lark, and the king
into a hawk, and he still pursues his daughter, intending to punish her
for her treachery.
OAN′NES. An Eastern god, represented as a monster, half man, half fish.
He was said to have taught men the use of letters in the day-time, and
at night to have retired to the depth of the ocean.
OATH, see Lapis.
OBAM′BOU. A devil of African mythology.
OCEAN, see Neptune.
OCEAN′IDES. Sea-nymphs, daughters of Oceanus and Tethys. Their numbers
are variously estimated by different poets; some saying there were
as many as 3000, while others say they were as few as sixteen. The
principal of them are mentioned under their respective names, as
Amphitrite, Doris, Metis, etc.
OCE′ANUS, son of Cœlus and Terra, and husband of Tethys. Several
mythological rivers were called his sons, as Alpheus, Peneus, etc.,
and his daughters were called the Oceanides. Some of the ancients
worshipped him as the god of the seas, and invariably invoked his
aid when they were about to start on a voyage. He was also thought
to personify the immense stream which it was supposed surrounded the
earth, and into which the sun and moon and other heavenly bodies sank
every day.
OCRID′ION. A king of Rhodes, who was deified after his death.
OCY′PETE. One of the Harpies, who infected everything she touched. The
word means swift of flight.
OCY′ROE. A daughter of Chiron, who had the gift of prophecy. She was
metamorphosed into a mare.
O′DIN. In Scandinavian mythology the god of the universe, and reputed
father of all the Scandinavian kings. His wife’s name was Friga, and
his two sons were Thor and Balder.
Œ′AGRUS. Father of Orpheus.
Œ′DIPUS. A son of Laius, King of Thebes, best known as the solver of
the famous enigma propounded by the Sphinx.
ŒNO′NE. Wife of Paris, a nymph of Mount Ida, who had the gift of
prophecy.
OGYG′IA. An island, the abode of Calypso, in the Mediterranean Sea.
It was so beautiful in sylvan scenery that even Mercury (who dwelt on
Olympus) was charmed with the spot.
OINTMENT, see Phaon.
OLE′NUS. A daughter of Vulcan, wife of Lethæa, a woman who thought
herself more beautiful than the goddesses, and as a punishment she and
her husband were turned into stone statues.
OLIVES, see Aristæus.
OLYM′PIUS. A name of Jupiter, from Olympia, where the god had a
splendid temple, which was considered to be one of the seven wonders of
the world.
OLYM′PUS was the magnificent mountain on the coast of Thessaly, 6000
feet high, where the gods were supposed to reside. There were several
other smaller mountains of the same name.
“High heaven with trembling the dread signal took,
And all Olympus to the centre shook.”
POPE.
OLY′RAS. A river near Thermopylæ, which, it is said, attempted to
extinguish the funeral pile on which Hercules was consumed.
OMOPHA′GIA. A Bacchanalian festival at which some uncooked meats were
served.
OM′PHALE. The Queen of Lydia, to whom Hercules was sold as a bondsman
for three years for the murder of Iphitus. Hercules fell in love with
her, and led an effeminate life in her society, wearing female apparel,
while Omphale wore the lion’s skin.
ONA′RUS. A priest of Bacchus, said to have married Ariadne after she
had been abandoned by Theseus.
ONU′VA. The Venus of the ancient Gauls.
OPA′LIA. Roman festivals in honour of Ops, held on 14th of the calends
of January.
OPIATE-ROD, see Caduceus.
“Eyes ... more wakeful than to drowse,
Charmed with Arcadian pipe--the pastoral reed
Of Hermes or his opiate-rod.”
MILTON.
OPS. Mother of the gods, a daughter of Cœlus and Terra. She was
known by the several names of Bona Dea, Rhea, Cybele, Magna Mater,
Proserpine, Tellus, and Thya; and occasionally she is spoken of as Juno
and Minerva. She personified labour, and is represented as a comely
matron, distributing gifts with her right hand, and holding in her left
hand a loaf of bread. Her festival was the 14th day of the January
calends.
ORACLES, see Themis.
ORÆ′A. Certain sacrifices offered to the goddesses of the seasons to
invoke fair weather for the ripening of the fruits of the earth.
ORBO′NA. The goddess of orphans.
ORCHARDS, see Feronia.
O′READS were mountain nymphs, attendants on Diana.
ORGIES. Drunken revels. The riotous feasts of Bacchus were so
designated.
ORI′ON. A famous handsome giant, who was blinded by Œnopion for a
grievous wrong done to Merope, and he was expelled from Chios. The
sound of the Cyclopes’ hammers led him to the abode of Vulcan, who gave
him a guide. He then consulted an oracle, and had his sight restored,
as Longfellow says, by fixing
“His blank eyes upon the sun.”
He was afterwards slain by Diana and placed amongst the stars, where
his constellation is one of the most splendid.
ORI′THY′IA. A daughter of Erechtheus, whose lover, Boreas, carried her
off while she was wandering by the river Ilissus. Her children were
Zetes and Calais, two winged warriors who accompanied the Argonauts.
OR′MUZD. In Persian mythology the creator of all things.
O′ROS. The Egyptian Apollo.
ORPHANS, see Orbona.
OR′PHEUS was son of Apollo and the Muse Calliope. He was married to
Eurydice; but she was stung by a serpent, and died. Orpheus went down
to Hades to claim her, and played so sweetly with his lute that Pluto
allowed Eurydice to return to the earth with Orpheus, but on condition
that he did not look behind him until he had reached the terrestrial
regions. Orpheus, however, in his anxiety to see if she were following
him, looked round, and Eurydice disappeared from his sight, instantly
and for ever.
“Orpheus’ lute was strung with poets’ sinews.”
SHAKESPEARE.
OSI′RIS. The Egyptian god of the sun; he was worshipped under the form
of an ox.
“... After these appeared
A crew who, under names of old renown,
Osiris, Isis, Orus, and their train,
With monstrous shapes and sorceries abused
Fanatic Egypt and her priests to seek
Their wandering gods, disguised in brutish forms
Rather than human.”
MILTON.
OS′SA. One of the mountains which the giants piled on the top of
Olympus to enable them to ascend to heaven and attack the gods.
OX, see Apis.
OWL, see Æsculapius and Itys.
PACTO′LUS. The river in Lydia where Midas washed himself by order of
Bacchus, and the sands were turned to gold.
PÆ′AN. A name given to Apollo, from _pæan_, the hymn which was sung in
his honour after he had killed the serpent Python.
“With hymns divine the joyous banquet ends,
The Pæans lengthened till the sun descends.”
POPE.
PALÆ′MON, or Melicerta, a sea-god, son of Athamas and Ino.
PA′LES. The goddess of shepherds and protectress of flocks; her
festivals were called Palilia.
“Pomona loves the orchard,
And Liber loves the wine,
And Pales loves the straw-built shed,
Warm with the breath of kine.”
MACAULAY.
“Great Pales help, the pastoral rites I sing,
With humble duty mentioning each thing.”
POPE.
PALLA′DIUM. A famous statue of the goddess Pallas (Minerva). She is
sitting with a spear in her right hand, and in her left a distaff and
spindle. Various accounts are given of the origin of it. Some writers
say it fell from the skies. It was supposed that the preservation of
the statue would be the preservation of Troy; and during the Trojan War
the Greeks were greatly encouraged when they became the possessors of
it.
PAL′LAS, or Minerva. The name was given to Minerva when she destroyed
a famous giant named Pallas. See Minerva.
“Apollo, Pallas, Jove, or Mercury,
Inspire me that I may this treason find.”
SHAKESPEARE.
PAN. The Arcadian god of shepherds, huntsmen, and country folk, and
chief of the inferior deities, is usually considered to have been the
son of Mercury and Penelope. After his birth he was metamorphosed into
the mythical form in which we find him depicted, namely, a horned,
long-eared man, with the lower half of the body like a goat. He is
generally seen playing a pipe made of reeds of various lengths, which
he invented himself, and from which he could produce music which
charmed even the gods. These are the Pan-pipes, played by Punch and
Judy showmen. Pan’s terrific appearance once so frightened the Gauls
when they invaded Greece that they ran away though no one pursued them;
and the word _panic_ is said to have been derived from this episode.
The Fauns, who greatly resembled Pan, were his attendants.
“Piping on their reeds the shepherds go,
Nor fear an ambush, nor suspect a foe.”
POPE.
PANDO′RA, according to Hesiod, was the first mortal female. Vulcan made
her of clay, and gave her life. Venus gave her beauty; and the art of
captivating was bestowed upon her by the Graces. She was taught singing
by Apollo, and Mercury taught her oratory. Jupiter gave her a box, the
famous “Pandora’s Box,” which she was told to give to her husband,
Epimetheus, brother of Prometheus. As soon as he opened it there
issued from it numberless diseases and evils which were soon spread
all over the world, and from that moment they have afflicted the human
race. It is said that Hope alone remained in the box.
“More lovely than Pandora, whom the gods
Endowed with all their gifts.”
MILTON.
PANTHE′ON. The temple of all the gods, built by Agrippa at Rome, in the
reign of Augustus. It was 144 feet in diameter, and 144 feet high; and
was built in the Corinthian style of architecture, mostly of marble;
while its walls were covered with engraved brass and silver. Its
magnificence induced Pliny to give it rank amongst the wonders of the
world.
PA′PHIA, a name of Venus.
PAP′REMIS. The Egyptian Mars.
PAR′CÆ, THE, were goddesses who presided over the destiny of human
beings. They were also called the Fates, and were three in number,
Atropos, Clotho, and Lachesis. See Fates.
PAR′IS was son of Priam, king of Troy, and his mother was Hecuba. It
had been predicted that he would be the cause of the destruction of
Troy, and his father therefore ordered him to be strangled as soon as
he was born; but the slave who had been entrusted with this mission
took the child to Mount Ida, and left it there. Some shepherds,
however, found the infant and took care of him. He lived amongst
them till he had grown to man’s estate, and he then married Œnone,
a nymph of Ida. At the famous nuptial feast of Peleus and Thetis,
Discordia, who had not been invited, attended secretly; and when
all were assembled, she threw amongst the goddesses a golden apple,
on which was inscribed “Let the fairest take it.” This occasioned a
great contention, for each thought herself the fairest. Ultimately,
the contestants were reduced to three, Juno, Pallas (Minerva), and
Venus; but Jove himself could not make these three agree, and it was
decided that Paris should be the umpire. He was sent for, and each
of the goddesses courted his favour by offering all sorts of bribes.
Juno offered him power, Pallas wisdom, and Venus promised him the most
beautiful woman in the world. Paris gave the golden apple to Venus.
Soon after this episode Priam owned Paris as his son, and sent him to
Greece to fetch Helen, who was renowned as being the most beautiful
woman in the world. She was the wife of Menelaus, king of Sparta; but
during his absence Paris carried Helen away to Troy, and this gave rise
to the celebrated war between the Greeks and the Trojans, which ended
in the destruction of Troy. Paris was amongst the 676,000 Trojans who
fell during or after the siege.
PARNAS′SIDES, a name common to the Muses, from Mount Parnassus.
PARNAS′SUS. The mountain of the Muses in Phocis, and sacred to Apollo
and Bacchus. Any one who slept on this mountain became a poet. It was
named after one of the sons of Bacchus.
PAR′THENON. The temple of Minerva (or Pallas), at Athens. It was
destroyed by the Persians, and rebuilt by Pericles.
PAR′THENOS was a name of Juno, and also of Minerva. See Pallas.
PASIPH′AE was the reputed mother of the Minotaur killed by Theseus. She
was said to be the daughter of Sol and Perseis, and her husband was
Minos, king of Crete.
PASITH′EA. Sometimes there are _four_ Graces spoken of; when this is
so, the name of the fourth is Pasithea.
PA′VAN, the Hindoo god of the winds.
PEACE, see Concordia.
PEACOCK, see Argus.
PEG′ASUS. The famous winged horse which was said to have sprung from
the blood of Medusa when her head was cut off by Perseus. His abode
was on Mount Helicon, where, by striking the ground with his hoof, he
caused water to spring forth, which formed the fountain afterwards
called Hippocrene.
“Thy stumbling founder’d jade can trot as high
As any other Pegasus can fly.”
EARL OF DORSET.
“To turn and wind a fiery Pegasus,
And witch the world with noble horsemanship.”
SHAKESPEARE.
PE′LEUS. A king of Thessaly, who married Thetis, one of the Nereids.
PE′LIAS. A son of Neptune and Tyro. He usurped the throne of Cretheus,
which Jason was persuaded to relinquish and take the command of the
Argonautic expedition. On the return of Jason, Medea, the sorceress,
undertook to restore Pelias to youth, but required that the body should
first be cut up and put in a caldron of boiling water. When this
had been done, Medea refused to fulfil her promise. Pelias had four
daughters, who were called the Peliades.
PE′LIAS was the name of the spear of Achilles, which was so large that
none could wield it but the hero himself.
PE′LION. A well-wooded mountain, famous for the wars between the giants
and the gods, and as the abode of the Centaurs, who were expelled by
the Lapithæ.
“The gods they challenge, and affect the skies,
Heaved on Olympus tottering Ossa stood;
On Ossa, Pelion nods with all his wood.”
POPE.
PE′LOPS, son of Tantalus, king of Phrygia. His father killed him, and
served him up to be eaten at a feast given to the gods, who, when they
found out what the father of Pelops had done, restored the son to life,
and he afterwards became the husband of Hippodamia.
PENA′TES. Roman domestic gods. See Lares.
PERPETUAL PUNISHMENT, see Sisyphus.
PERSEPH′ONE. The Greek name of Proserpine.
PER′SEUS was a son of Jupiter and Danæ, the daughter of Acrisius. His
first famous exploit was against the Gorgon, Medusa. He was assisted in
this enterprise by Pluto, who lent him a helmet which would make him
invisible. Pallas lent him her shield, and Mercury supplied him with
wings. He made a speedy conquest of the Gorgons, and cut off Medusa’s
head, with which he flew through the air, and from the blood sprang the
winged horse Pegasus. As he flew along he saw Andromeda chained to the
rock, and a sea-monster ready to devour her. He killed the monster, and
married Andromeda. When he got back, he showed the Gorgon’s head to
King Polydectes, and the monarch was immediately turned into stone.
“Now on Dædalian waxen pinions stray,
Or those which wafted Perseus on his way.”
F. LEWIS.
PERSUASION, goddess of, see Pitho.
PHA′ETON. A son of Sol, or, according to most mythologists, of Phœbus
and Clymene. Anxious to display his skill in horsemanship, he was
allowed to drive the chariot of the sun for one day. The horses soon
found out the incapacity of the charioteer, became unmanageable, and
overturned the chariot. There was such great fear of injury to heaven
and earth, that Jove, to stop the destruction, killed Phaeton with a
thunderbolt.
“Now Phaeton, by lofty hopes possessed,
The burning seat with youthful vigour pressed.”
“The breathless Phaëton, with flaming hair,
Shot from the chariot like a falling star
That in a summer’s evening from the top
Of heaven drops down, or seems at least to drop.”
ADDISON.
PHA′ON. A boatman, who received from Venus a box of ointment, with
which, when he anointed himself, he grew so beautiful that Sappho
became enamoured of him; but when the ointment had all been used Phaon
returned to his former condition, and Sappho, in despair, drowned
herself.
PHEASANT, see Itys.
PHILOCT′ETES was son of Pœas, and one of the companions of Jason on
his Argonautic expedition. He was present at the death of Hercules,
and received from him the poisoned arrows which had been dipped in the
blood of the Hydra. These arrows, an oracle declared, were necessary
to be used in the destruction of Troy, and Philoctetes was persuaded
by Ulysses to go and assist at the siege. He appears to have used the
weapons with great dexterity and with wonderful effect, for Paris was
amongst the heroes whom he killed.
PHILOME′LA was a daughter of Pandion, King of Athens, who was
transformed into a nightingale.
“Forth like a fury Philomela flew,
And at his face the head of Itys threw.”
POPE.
“And thou, melodious Philomel,
Again thy plaintive story tell.”
Sir THOMAS LYTTLETON.
PHLEG′ETHON. A river of fire in the infernal regions. It was the
picture of desolation, for nothing could grow on its parched and
withered banks.
“... Infernal rivers ...
... Fierce Phlegethon,
Whose waves of torrent fire inflame with rage.”
MILTON.
PHLE′GON (earth loving), one of the four chariot horses of Sol.
PHLE′GYAS. Son of Mars and father of Ixion and Coronis. For his impiety
in desecrating and plundering the temple of Apollo at Delphi, he was
sent to Hades, and there was made to sit with a huge stone suspended
over his head, ready to be dropped on him at any moment.
PHŒ′BUS. A name of Apollo, signifying light and life.
“Gallop apace, you fiery-footed steeds,
Towards Phœbus’ lodging.”
SHAKESPEARE.
PHOR′CUS. A son of Neptune, father of the Gorgons.
PHRYX′US, see Golden Fleece.
PICUM′NUS. A rural divinity, who presided over the manuring of lands,
called also Sterentius.
PI′CUS. A son of Saturn, father of Faunus, was turned into a woodpecker
by Circe, whose love he had not requited.
PIER′IDES. A name of the Muses, derived from Pieria, a fountain near
Mount Olympus, where they were supposed to have been born. Also, the
daughters of Pierus, a king of Macedonia, who settled in Bœotia. They
challenged the Muses to sing, and were changed into magpies.
PILLAR, see Calpe.
PILUM′NUS. A rural divinity, which presided over the corn while it was
being ground.
PINE-TREE, see Atys.
PIRITH′OUS. A son of Ixion and great friend of Theseus, King of Athens.
The marriage of Pirithous and Hippodamia became famous for the quarrel
between the drunken Centaurs and the Lapithæ, who, with the help of
Theseus, Pirithous, and Hercules, attacked and overcame the Centaurs,
many of whom were killed, and the rest took to flight.
PI′THO, the goddess of Persuasion, daughter of Mercury and Venus. She
is sometimes referred to under the name of Suada.
PLANTS, see Demogorgon.
PLEASURE, see Rembha.
PLEI′ADES, THE. Seven daughters of Atlas and Pleione. Their names were
Electra, Alcyone, Celæno, Maia, Sterope, Taygete, and Merope. They were
made a constellation, but as there are only six stars to be seen, the
ancients believed that one of the sisters, Merope, married a mortal,
and was ashamed to show herself amongst her sisters, who had all been
married to gods.
“... The gray
Dawn and the Pleiades before him danced,
Shedding sweet influence.”
MILTON.
PLU′TO. King of the infernal regions. He was a son of Saturn and Ops,
and husband of Proserpine, daughter of Ceres. He is sometimes referred
to under the name Dis, and he personifies hell. His principal attendant
was the three-headed dog Cerberus, and about his throne were the
Eumenides, the Harpies, and the Furies.
“With equal foot, rich friend, impartial fate
Knocks at the cottage and the palace gate.
. . . . . . .
Night soon will seize, and you must go below,
To story’d ghosts and Pluto’s house below.”
CREECH.
PLU′TUS, the god of riches, was son of Jason and Ceres. He is described
as being blind and lame; blind because he so often injudiciously
bestows his riches, and lame because fortunes come so slowly.
PLU′VIUS. A name of Jupiter, because he had the rain in his control.
PODALIR′IUS. A famous surgeon, a son of Æsculapius, who was very
serviceable amongst the soldiers in the Trojan war.
POET, see Parnassus.
POETRY, see Apollo, Calliope, The Muses.
POISONOUS HERBS, see Circe.
POISONOUS LAKE, see Avernus.
POLL′EAR. Son of Siva, the Hindoo god of wisdom.
POL′LUX. Twin brother of Castor. Their father was Jupiter and their
mother Leda. He and his brother form the constellation Gemini. His
Greek name was Polydeuces. See Ædepol.
POLYBO′TES. One of the giants who made war against Jupiter.
POLYDEC′TES was turned into stone when Perseus showed him Medusa’s
head. See Perseus.
POLYDEU′CES. The Greek name of Pollux.
POLYHYM′NIA. Daughter of Jupiter and Mnemosyne. One of the Muses who
presided over singing and rhetoric.
POLYPHE′MUS, one of the most celebrated of the Cyclopes, a son of
Neptune. He captured Ulysses and twelve of his companions, and it is
said that six of them were eaten. The rest escaped by the ingenuity of
Ulysses, who destroyed the Cyclop’s one eye with a firebrand.
“Charybdis barks and Polyphemus roars.”
FRANCIS.
POLYX′ENA. Daughter of Priam, king of Troy. It was by her treachery
that Achilles was shot in the heel.
POMO′NA. The Roman goddess of fruits and gardens.
“So to the sylvan lodge
They came, that like Pomona’s arbour smiled
With flowerets decked and fragrant smells.”
MILTON.
POPLAR-TREE, see Heliades.
PORTU′NUS (Palæmon), son of Ino, was god of harbours.
POSEI′DON. A name of Neptune.
PRAC′RITI. The Hindoo goddess of nature.
PREDICTIONS, see Cassandra.
PRI′AM. The last king of Troy. See Paris.
PRIA′PUS, the guardian of gardens and god of natural reproduction, was
son of Venus and Bacchus.
“Priapus could not half describe the grace
(Though god of gardens) of this charming place.”
POPE.
PRIS′CA. Another name of Vesta.
PRO′CRIS. Daughter of the king of Athens. See Cephalus.
PROG′NE, wife of Tereus. See Itys and Tereus.
“Complaining oft gives respite to our grief,
From hence the wretched Progne sought relief.”
F. LEWIS.
PROME′THEUS was son of Japetes and father of Deucalion. He presumed
to make clay men, and animate them with fire which he had stolen from
heaven. This so displeased Jupiter that he sent him a box full of
evils, which Prometheus refused; but his brother Epimetheus, not so
cautious, opened it, and the evils spread over all the earth. Jupiter
then punished Prometheus by commanding Mercury to bind him to Mount
Caucasus, where a vulture daily preyed upon his liver, which grew
in the night as much as it had been reduced in the day, so that the
punishment was a prolonged torture. Hercules at last killed the vulture
and set Prometheus free.
PROPHECY, see Nereus.
PROSER′PINE. A daughter of Jupiter and Ceres. Pluto carried her off to
the infernal regions and made her his wife. She was known by the names
of “the Queen of Hell,” Hecate, Juno Inferna, and Libitina.
“He sung, and hell consented
To hear the poet’s prayer,
Stern Proserpine relented,
And gave him back the fair.”
F. LEWIS.
PRO′TEUS. A marine deity, who could foretell events and convert himself
at will into all sorts of shapes.
“The changeful Proteus, whose prophetic mind,
The secret cause of Bacchus’ rage divined.”
_The Lusiad._
“What chain can hold this varying Proteus fast?”
BUDGELL.
PSY′CHE. The wife of Cupid. The name is Greek, signifying the soul or
spirit.
PYGMA′LION. A famous sculptor who had resolved to remain unmarried,
but he made such a beautiful statue of a goddess that he begged Venus
to give it life. His request being granted, Pygmalion married the
animated statue.
“Few, like Pygmalion, doat on lifeless charms,
Or care to clasp a statue in their arms.”
PY′LADES.
“His wine
Was better, Pylades, than thine.
... If you please
To chuse me for your Pylades.”
F. LEWIS.
PYLO′TIS. A Greek name of Minerva.
PYR′ACMON, one of the chiefs of the Cyclopes.
PY′ROIS (luminous). One of the four chariot horses of Sol.
PY′THIA. The priestess of Apollo at Delphi, who delivered the answers
of the oracle. Also the name of the games celebrated in honour of
Apollo’s victory over the Pithon.
PY′THON. A famous serpent killed by Apollo. See Septerion.
QUADRA’TUS. A surname given to Mercury, because some of his statues
were four-sided.
QUAD′RIFRON′TIS. Janus was sometimes depicted with four faces instead
of the usual two, and he was then called Janus Quadrifrontis.
QUI′ES. The Roman goddess of rest; she had a temple just outside the
Collini gate of Rome.
QUIE′TUS. One of the names of Pluto.
QUIRI′NUS. A name given to Mars during war time; and Virgil refers to
Jupiter under the same name.
QUOIT, see Hyacinthus.
RACE, see Atalanta.
RADAMAN′THUS, see Rhadamanthus.
RAGE, see Furies.
RAINBOW, see Iris.
RA′MA. A Hindoo god, who was the terrestrial representative of Vishnu.
RAM’S HIDE, see Golden Fleece.
REEDS, see Pan and Syrinx.
REM′BHA. The Hindoo goddess of pleasure.
REPRODUCTION, see Priapus.
REST, see Quies.
REVENGE, see Ate.
RHADAMAN′THUS, a son of Jupiter and Europa, was the judge of the
Asiatics in the infernal regions.
“These are the realms of unrelenting fate:
And awful Rhadamanthus rules the state.
He hears and judges each committed crime,
Inquires into the manner, place, and time;
The conscious wretch must all his acts reveal,
Loth to confess, unable to conceal;
From the first moment of his vital breath,
To the last hour of unrepenting death.”
DRYDEN.
RHAMNU′SIA. A name of Nemesis, from Rhamnus, a town in Attica, where
she had a temple in which was her statue, made of one stone ten cubits
high.
RHE′A. The Greek name of Cybele.
RHETORIC, see Calliope, Polyhymnia.
RICHES, see Plutus.
RIDDLE, see Sphinx.
RIM′MON. A Phrygian god of whom Milton says--
“... Rimmon, whose delightful seat
Was fair Damascus, on the fertile banks
Of Abana and Pharpar, lucid streams.”
RIOT, see Saturnalia.
RIVER OF FIRE, see Phlegethon.
ROADS, see Vialis.
ROBBER, see Cacus, Cœculus.
ROM′ULUS. The traditional founder of Rome. He was a son of Mars and
Ilia, and twin brother of Remus. The infants were thrown into the
Tiber, but were miraculously saved and suckled by a she-wolf, till they
were found by Faustulus, a shepherd, who brought them up. Remus was
killed in a quarrel with his brother, and Romulus became the famous
emperor.
RUMI′A DEA. The Roman goddess of babes in arms.
RUNCI′A. The goddess of weeding or cleansing the ground.
SACRIFICES were ceremonious offerings made to the gods. To every deity
a distinct victim was allotted, and the greatest care was always taken
in the selection of them. Anything in any way blemished was considered
as an insult to the god. At the time of the sacrifice the people
were called together by heralds led by a procession of musicians.
The priest, clothed in white, was crowned with a wreath made of the
leaves of the tree which was sacred to the particular god to whom the
sacrifice was offered. The victim had its horns gilt, and was adorned
with a chaplet similar to that of the priest, and was decorated with
bright-coloured ribbons. The priest then said, “Who is here?” to which
the spectators replied, “Many good people.” “Begone all ye who are
profane,” said the priest; and he then began a prayer addressed to all
the gods. The sacrifice was begun by putting corn, frankincense, flour,
salt, cakes, and fruit on the head of the victim. This was called the
Immolation. The priest then took a cup of wine, tasted it, and handed
it to the bystanders to taste also; some of it was then poured between
the horns of the victim, and a few of the saturated hairs were pulled
off and put in the fire which was burning on the altar. Then, turning
to the east, the priest drew with his knife a crooked line along the
back of the beast from the head to the tail, and told the assistants to
kill the animal. This was done directly, and the entrails of the victim
taken out and carefully examined by the Aruspices to find out what was
prognosticated. The carcase was then divided, and the thighs, covered
with fat, were put in the fire, and the rest of the animal was cut up,
cooked, and eaten. This feast was celebrated with dancing, music, and
hymns, in praise of the god in whose honour the sacrifice was made. On
great occasions as many as a hundred bullocks were offered at one time;
and it is said that Pythagoras made this offering when he found out the
demonstration of the forty-seventh proposition of the book of Euclid.
SA′GA. The Scandinavian goddess of history.
SAGGITA′RIUS, see Chiron.
SAILS, see Dædalus.
SAL′AMAN′DERS. The genii who, according to Plato, lived in fire.
“The sprites of fiery termagants in flame,
Mount up and take a Salamander’s name.”
POPE.
SALA′TIA, see Amphitrite.
SAL′II. The priests of Mars who had charge of the sacred shields.
SALMO′NEUS. A king of Elis who, for trying to imitate Jupiter’s
splendours, was sent by the god straight to the infernal regions.
SA′LUS. The Roman god of health.
SAP′PHO, a celebrated poetess, a native of Lesbos, who flourished B.C.
610. Her only connection with the goddesses of the time is that the
Greeks called her “The tenth Muse.”
SARCASM, see Momus.
SA′RON, a sea-god.
SAT′URN, King of the Universe, was father of Jupiter, Neptune, and
Pluto. These gods quarrelled amongst themselves as to the division of
their father’s kingdom, which ended in Jupiter having heaven and earth,
Neptune the sea, and Pluto the infernal regions.
SATURNA′LIA. Festivals held in honour of Saturn about the 16th or
18th of December. Principally famous for the riotous disorder which
generally attended them.
SATUR′NIUS. A name given to Jupiter, Neptune, and Pluto, as sons of
Saturn.
SATYA′VRA′TA. The Hindoo god of law. The same as Menu.
SAT′YRS were the attendants of Silenus, and were similar in most
respects to the fauns who attended Pan. See Silenus.
“Five satyrs of the woodland sort,
. . . . . .
Their ears prick’d up, their noses short,
. . . . . .
With asses’ hoofs, great goggle eyes,
And double chins of monstrous size.”
YALDEN.
SCYL′LA. A beautiful nymph who excited the jealousy of Neptune’s
wife, Amphitrite, and was changed by the goddess into a frightful
sea-monster, which had six fearfully ugly heads and necks, and who,
rising unexpectedly from the deep, used to take off as many as six
sailors from a vessel, and carry them to the bottom of the sea. An
alternative danger with Charybdis.
“There on the right her dogs foul Scylla hides,
Charybdis roaring on the left presides.”
VIRGIL.
SCYL′LA. A daughter of Nysus, who was changed into a lark for cutting
off a charmed lock of her father’s hair. See Nysus.
SEA, see Neptune.
SEASONS, see Vertumnus.
SEA-WEED, see Glaucus.
SEGES′TA. A rural divinity who protected corn during harvest-time.
SEM. The Egyptian Hercules.
SEM′ELE, the mother of Bacchus, was born in a miraculous manner after
Jupiter had visited her, at her special request, in all his terrible
splendour. She was deified after her death, and named Thyone.
SEMI-DEI were the demi-gods.
SEMO′NES. Roman gods of a class between the “immortal” and the
“mortal,” such as the Satyrs and Fauns.
SEPTE′RION. A festival held in honour of Apollo, at which the victory
of that god over the Python was grandly represented.
SERA′PIS. The Egyptian Jupiter, and generally considered to be the same
as Osiris. See Apis.
SERPENT. The Greeks and Romans considered the serpent as symbolical of
guardian spirits, and as such were often engraved on their altars. See
Æsculapius, Apollo, Chimera, Eurydice, and Medusa.
“Pleasing was his shape,
And lovely; never since of serpent kind,
Lovelier; not those that in Illyria changed
Hermione and Cadmus, or the god
In Epidaurus, nor to which transformed
Ammonian Jove, or Capitoline, was seen.”
MILTON.
SESH′ANAG′A. The Egyptian Pluto.
SEWERS, see Cloacina.
SHARP-SIGHTEDNESS, see Lynceus.
SHEPHERDS, see Pan.
SHIELDS, see Ancilia.
SHIPS, see Neptune.
SILENCE, see Harpocrates and Tacita.
SILE′NUS. A Bacchanalian demi-god, the chief of the Satyrs. He is
generally represented as a fat, drunken old man, riding on an ass, and
crowned with flowers.
“And there two Satyrs on the ground,
Stretched at his ease, their sire Silenus found.”
SINGING, see Polyhymnia, Thanyris.
SI′RENS, THE. Sea nymphs, who by their music allured mariners to
destruction. To avoid the snare when nearing their abode, Ulysses had
the ears of his companions stopped with wax, and had himself tied to
the mast of his ship. They thus sailed past in safety; but the Sirens,
thinking that their charms had lost their powers, drowned themselves.
SIS′YPHUS, son of Æolus and Enaretta. He was condemned to roll a stone
to the top of a hill in the infernal regions, and as it rolled down
again when he reached the summit, his punishment was perpetual.
“I turned my eye, and as I turned, surveyed
A mournful vision! The Sisyphian shade,
With many a weary step and many a groan,
Up the high hill he heaves a huge round stone,
The huge round stone, resulting with a bound,
Thunders impetuous down, and smokes along the ground.”
POPE.
“Thy stone, O Sisyphus, stands still,
Ixion rests upon his wheel,
And the pale spectres dance.”
F. LEWIS.
SI′VA. In Hindoo mythology the “changer of form.”
SLAUGHTER, see Furies.
SLAVES, see Feronia.
SLEEP, see Caduceus, Morpheus, and Somnus.
SLEIP′NER. The eight-legged horse of Odin the chief of the Scandinavian
gods.
SOL. The sun. The worship of the god Sol is the oldest on record, and
though he is sometimes referred to as being the same as the god Apollo,
there is no doubt he was worshipped by the Egyptians, Persians, and
other nations long before the Apollo of the Greeks was heard of. See
Surya.
“Sol through white curtains shot a timorous ray,
And oped those eyes that must eclipse the day.”
POPE.
SOM′NUS. The god of sleep, son of Nox (Night). He was one of the
infernal deities, and resided in a gloomy cave, void of light and air.
SOS′PITA. A name of Juno, as the safeguard of women.
SO′TER. A Greek name of Jupiter, meaning deliverer.
SOUL, see Psyche.
SOUTH WIND, see Auster.
SPEAR, see Pelias.
SPHINX, THE. A monster having the head and breasts of a woman, the
body of a dog, the tail of a serpent, the wings of a bird, the paws of
a lion, and a human voice. She lived in the country near Thebes, and
proposed to every passer-by the following enigma:--“What animal is that
which walks on four legs in the morning, two at noon, and three in the
evening.” Œdipus solved the riddle thus:--Man is the animal; for, when
an infant he crawls on his hands and feet, in the noontide of life he
walks erect, and as the evening of his existence sets in, he supports
himself with a stick. When the sphinx found her riddle solved she
destroyed herself.
SPIDER, see Arachne.
SPINDLE, see Pallas.
SPINNING, see Arachne, Ergotis.
SPRING, see Vertumnus.
STABLE, see Augæas.
STARS, see Aurora.
STEREN′TIUS. The Roman god who invented the art of manuring lands. See
also Picumnus.
STER′OPES. One of the Cyclopes.
STONE, see Medusa and Phlegyas.
STONE (rolling), see Sisyphus.
STREETS, see Apollo.
STYM′PHALI′DES. The carnivorous birds destroyed in the sixth labour of
Hercules.
STYX. A noted river of hell, which was held in such high esteem by the
gods that they always swore “By the Styx,” and such an oath was never
violated. See Achilles and Thetis.
“To seal his sacred vow by Styx he swore:--
The lake with liquid pitch,--the dreary shore.”
DRYDEN.
“... Infernal rivers that disgorge
Into the burning lake their baleful streams,
Abhorréd Styx, the flood of deadly hate.”
MILTON.
SUA′DA, the goddess of Persuasion. See Pitho.
SUCCESS, see Bonus Eventus.
SUN, see Aurora, Belus, Sol, and Surya.
SUNFLOWER, see Clytie.
SURA′DE′VI. The Hindoo goddess of wine.
SUR′GEON, see Podalirius.
SU′RY′A. The Hindoo god corresponding to the Roman Sol, the sun.
SWALLOW, see Itys.
SWAN, see Cygnus and Leda.
SWIFTNESS, see Atalanta.
SWINE, see Circe.
SYLPHS. Genii who, according to Plato, lived in the air.
“The light coquettes as Sylphs aloft repair,
And sport and flutter in the fields of air.”
POPE.
SYLVES′TER. The name of Mars when he was invoked to protect cultivated
land from the ravages of war.
SYRINX. The name of the nymph who, to escape from the importunities
of Pan, was by Diana changed into reeds, out of which he made his
celebrated pipes, and named them “The Syrinx.”
TAC′ITA. The goddess of Silence. See Harpocrates.
TAN′TALUS. Father of Niobe and Pelops, who, as a punishment for serving
up his son Pelops as meat at a feast given to the gods, was placed in
a pool of water in the infernal regions; but the waters receded from
him whenever he attempted to quench his burning thirst. Hence the word
tantalising.
Speaking of this god, Homer’s Ulysses says, “I saw the severe
punishment of Tantalus. In a lake, whose waters approached to his
lips, he stood burning with thirst, without the power to drink.
Whenever he inclined his head to the stream, some deity commanded it
to be dry, and the dark earth appeared at his feet. Around him lofty
trees spread their fruits to view; the pear, the pomegranate, and the
apple, the green olive, and the luscious fig quivered before him,
which, whenever he extended his hand to seize them, were snatched by
the winds into clouds and obscurity.”
“There, Tantalus, along the Stygian bound,
Pours out deep groans,--his groans through hell resound.
E’en in the circling flood refreshment craves
And pines with thirst amidst a sea of waves.”
“... And of itself the water flies
All taste of living wight, as once it fled
The lip of Tantalus.” MILTON.
TAR′TARUS. An inner region of hell, to which the gods sent the
exceptionally depraved.
TELCHI′NES. Priests of Cybele, who were famous magicians.
TEL′LUS. A name of Cybele, wife of Saturn.
TEMPESTS, see Fro.
TEMPLE. An edifice erected to the honour of a god or goddess in which
the sacrifices were offered.
TENTH MUSE. Sappho was so called.
TER′EUS was a son of Mars. He married Progne, daughter of the king of
Athens, but became enamoured of her sister Philomela, who, however,
resented his attentions, which so enraged him that he cut out her
tongue. When Progne heard of her husband’s unfaithfulness she took
a terrible revenge (see Itys). Progne was turned into a swallow,
Philomela into a nightingale, Itys into a pheasant, and Tereus into a
hoopoo, a kind of vulture, some say an owl.
TERGEMI′NA. A name of Diana, alluding to her triform divinity as
goddess of heaven, earth, and hell.
TER′MINUS. The Roman god of boundaries.
TERPSICH′ORE. One of the nine Muses; she presided over dancing.
TERRA. The earth; one of the most ancient of the Grecian goddesses.
THALES′TRIS. A queen of the Amazons.
THALI′A. One of the nine Muses; she presided over festivals and comedy.
THALI′A. One of the Graces.
THAN′YRIS. A skilful singer, who presumed to challenge the Muses to
sing, upon condition that if he did not sing best they might inflict
any penalty they pleased. He was, of course, defeated, and the Muses
made him blind.
THE′IA. A daughter of Cœlus and Terra, wife of Hyperion.
THE′MIS, a daughter of Cœlus and Terra, and wife of Jupiter, was the
Roman goddess of laws, ceremonies, and oracles.
THE′SEUS. One of the most famous of the Greek heroes. He was a son of
Ægeus, King of Athens.
“Breasts that with sympathising ardour glowed,
And holy friendship such as Theseus vowed.”
BUDGELL.
THESMONPHO′MUS. A name of Ceres.
THE′TIS. A sea-goddess, daughter of Nereus and Doris. Her husband
was Peleus, King of Thessaly, and she was the mother of the famous
Achilles, whom she rendered all but invulnerable by dipping him into
the River Styx. See Achilles.
THIEF, see Laverna, Mercury.
THOR. The Scandinavian war god (son of Odin), who had rule over the
aerial regions, and, like Jupiter, hurled thunder against his foes.
THOR’S BELT, is a girdle which doubles his strength whenever the
war-god puts it on.
THOTH. The Mercury of the Egyptians.
THREAD OF LIFE, see Fates.
THUNDERBOLTS, see Cyclops.
THUNDERER, THE, Jupiter. See Tonitrualis.
“O king of gods and men, whose awful hand
Disperses thunder on the seas and land,
Disposing all with absolute command.”
VIRGIL.
“The eternal thunderer sat enthroned in gold.”
HOMER.
“So when thick clouds enwrap the mountain’s head,
O’er heaven’s expanse like one black ceiling spread;
Sudden the thunderer, with a flashing ray,
Bursts through the darkness and lets down the day.”
POPE.
THY′A, a name of Ops.
THYA′DES. Priestesses of Bacchus, who ran wild in the hills, wearing
tiger-skins and carrying torches.
THYR′SUS, a kind of javelin. See Bacchus.
TIDES, see Naryanan.
TIME (or Saturn). The husband of Virtue and father of Truth.
TISIPH′ONE. One of the Furies.
TI′TAN. Elder brother of Saturn, who made war against him, and was
ultimately vanquished by Jupiter.
TI′TANS were the supporters of Titan in his war against Saturn and
Jupiter.
TI′THO′NUS. The husband of Aurora. At the request of his wife the gods
granted him immortality, but she forgot at the same time to ask that he
should be granted perpetual youth. The consequence was that Tithonus
grew old and decrepit, while Aurora remained as fresh as the morning.
The gods, however, changed him into a grasshopper, which is supposed to
moult as it gets old, and grows young again.
TIT′YUS. A son of Jupiter. A giant who was thrown into the innermost
hell for insulting Diana. He, like Prometheus, has a vulture constantly
feeding on his ever-growing liver.
TOIL, see Atlas.
TOMBS, see Manes.
TONGUE, see Tereus.
TONITRUA′LIS. The Thunderer; a name of Jupiter.
TOWERS, see Cybele.
TRAGEDY, see Melpomene.
TREES, see Aristæus.
TRIBULATION, see Echidna.
TRIFOR′MIS, see Tergemina.
TRIPTOL′EMUS. A son of Oceanus and Terra. He was a great favourite of
the goddess Ceres, who cured him of a dangerous illness when he was
young, and afterwards taught him agriculture. She gave him her chariot,
which was drawn by dragons, in which he carried seed-corn to all the
inhabitants of the earth, and communicated the knowledge given to him
by Ceres. Cicero mentions a Triptolemus as the fourth Judge in hell.
“Triptolemus, whose useful cares intend
The common good.” POPE.
TRITERI′CA. Bacchanalian festivals.
TRI′TONS were sons of Triton, a son of Neptune and Amphitrite. They
were the trumpeters of the sea-gods, and were depicted as a sort of
mermen--the upper half of the body being like a man, and the lower half
like dolphins.
TRI′VIA. A name of Diana.
TROPHO′NIUS. One of Jupiter’s most famous oracles.
TROY. The classic poets say that the walls of this famous city were
built by the magic sound of Apollo’s lyre. See Dardanus, Helen,
Hercules, Paris.
TRUMPETERS, see Tritons.
TRUTH. A daughter of Time, because Truth is discovered in the course of
Time. Democritus says that Truth lies hidden at the bottom of a well.
TUTEL′INA. A rural divinity--the goddess of granaries.
TWO FACES, see Janus.
TYPHŒ′US, see Typhon.
TY′PHON. A monster with a hundred heads who made war against the gods,
but was crushed by Jove’s thunderbolts, and imprisoned under Mount Etna.
“... Typhon huge, ending in snaky twine.”
MILTON.
TY′PHON. In Egyptian mythology the god who tried to undo all the good
work effected by Osiris.
UL′LER. The Scandinavian god who presided over archery and duels.
ULYS′SES. A noted king of Ithaca, whose exploits in connection with
the Trojan war, and his adventures on his return therefrom, are the
subject of Homer’s Odyssey. His wife’s name was Penelope, and he was
so much endeared to her that he feigned madness to get himself excused
from going to the Trojan war; but his artifice was discovered, and he
was compelled to go. He was of great help to the Grecians, and forced
Achilles from his retreat, and obtained the charmed arrows of Hercules
from Philoctetes, and used them against the Trojans. He enabled Paris
to shoot one of them at the heel of Achilles, and so kill that charmed
warrior. During his wanderings on his homeward voyage he was taken
prisoner by the Cyclopes, and escaped, after blinding Polyphemus, their
chief. At Æolia he obtained all the winds of heaven, and put them in
a bag; but his companions, thinking that the bags contained treasure
which they could rob him of when they got to Ithaca, cut the bags, and
let out the winds, and the ships were immediately blown back to Æolia.
After Circe had turned his companions into swine on an island where he
and they were shipwrecked, he compelled the goddess to restore them
to their human shape again. As he passed the islands of the Sirens he
escaped their allurements by stopping the ears of his companions with
wax, and fastening himself to the mast of his ship. His wife Penelope
was a pattern of constancy; for, though Ulysses was reported to be
dead, she would not marry any one else, and had the satisfaction of
finding her husband return after an absence of about twenty years.
“To show what pious wisdom’s power can do,
The poet sets Ulysses in our view.”
FRANCIS.
UN′DINE. A water nymph, or sylph.
UNKNOWN GOD, AN. With reference to this GOD, nothing can be more
appropriate than St. Paul’s address to the Athenians, as recorded in
the 17th chapter of the Acts of the Apostles:--
“_Ye_ men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too
superstitious. For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found
an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore
ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you. God that made the
world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and
earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; neither is worshipped
with men’s hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth
to all life, and breath, and all things; and hath made of one blood
all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and
hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their
habitation; that they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel
after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us:
for in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of
your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring. Forasmuch
then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the
Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and
man’s device. And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now
commandeth all men every where to repent: because he hath appointed a
day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by _that_
man whom he hath ordained; _whereof_ he hath given assurance unto all
_men_, in that he hath raised him from the dead.”
UNX′IA. A name of Juno, relating to her protection of newly-married
people.
URA′NIA. A daughter of Jupiter and Mnemosyne--one of the Muses who
presided over astronomy.
URA′NUS. The Greek name of Cœlus; his descendants are sometimes called
Uranids.
UR′GUS. A name of Pluto, signifying the Impeller.
UR′SA MA′JOR, see Calistro.
UR′SA MI′NOR, see Arcas.
USUR′ERS, see Jani.
UT′GORD LO′KI. In Scandinavian mythology the king of the giants.
VAL′HAL′LA. The Scandinavian temple of immortality, inhabited by the
souls of heroes slain in battle.
VA′LI. The Scandinavian god of archery.
VALLEYS, see Vallonia.
VALLO′NIA. The goddess of valleys.
VARU′NA. The Hindoo Neptune--generally represented as a white man
riding on a sea-horse, carrying a club in one hand and a rope in the
other.
VE′DIUS. The same as Vejovis.
VEJO′VIS. “Little Jupiter”--a name given to Jupiter when he appeared
without his thunder.
VEJU′PITER, see Vejovis.
VENGEANCE, see Nemesis.
VE′NUS. The goddess of beauty, and mother of love. She is said to have
sprung from the foam of the sea, and was immediately carried to the
abode of the gods on Olympus, where they were all charmed with her
extreme beauty. Vulcan married her, but she permitted the attentions
of others of the gods, and notably of Mars, their offspring being
Hermione, Cupid, and Anteros. After this she left Olympus and fell in
love with Adonis, a beautiful youth, who was killed when hunting a wild
boar. Venus indirectly caused the Trojan War, for, when the goddess of
discord had thrown amongst the goddesses the golden apple inscribed “To
the fairest,” Paris adjudged the apple to Venus, and she inspired him
with love for Helen, wife of Menelaus, King of Sparta. Paris carried
off Helen to Troy, and the Greeks pursued and besieged the city (see
Helen, Paris, and Troy). Venus is mentioned by the classic poets under
the names of Aphrodite, Cypria, Urania, Astarte, Paphia, Cythera, and
the laughter-loving goddess. Her favourite residence was at Cyprus.
Incense alone was usually offered on her altars, but if there was a
victim it was a white goat. Her attendants were Cupids and the Graces.
VERTI′COR′DIA. A Roman name of Venus, signifying the power of love to
change the hard hearted. The corresponding Greek name was Epistrophia.
VERTUM′NUS. God of spring, or, as some mythologists say, of the
seasons; the husband of Pomona, the goddess of orchards.
VES′TA, daughter of Saturn and Cybele, was the goddess of fire. She
had under her special care and protection a famous statue of Minerva,
before which the Vestal Virgins kept a fire or lamp constantly burning.
VES′TAL VIR′GINS were the priestesses of Vesta, whose chief duty was to
see that the sacred fire in the temple of Vesta was not extinguished.
They were always selected from the best families, and were under a
solemn vow of chastity, and compelled to live perfectly pure lives.
VIA′LIS. A name of Mercury, because he presided over the making of
roads.
VIC′TORY. A goddess, the daughter of Styx and Acheron, generally
represented as flying in the air holding out a wreath of laurel. See
Nicephorus.
VI′DOR. A Scandinavian god, who could walk on the water and in the air.
The god of silence (corresponding with the classic Harpocrates).
VIRTUE. A goddess worshipped by most of the ancients under various
names. The way to the temple of honour was through the temple of virtue.
VIRTUOUS WOMEN, see Juno.
VISH′NU. The Preserver, the principal Hindoo goddess.
VOLU′PIA, see Angeronia.
VUL′CAN, the god of fire, was the son of Jupiter and Juno. He offended
Jupiter, and was by him thrown out of heaven; he was nine days falling,
and at last dropped into Lemnos with such violence that he broke his
leg, and was lame for ever after. Vulcan was married to Venus. He is
supposed to have formed Pandora out of clay. His servants were the
Cyclops. He was the patron deity of blacksmiths.
“Men call him Mulciber; and how he fell
From heaven, they fabled, thrown by angry Jove,
Sheer o’er the crystal battlements.”
MILTON.
VULCA′NIA were Roman festivals in honour of Bacchus, at which the
victims were thrown into the fire and burned to death.
WAR, see Bellona, Chemos, Mars.
WATER, see Canopus.
WATER-NYMPHS, see Doris.
WAX TABLETS, see Calliope.
WEALTH, see Cuvera.
WEAVING, see Ergatos.
WEEDING, see Runcina.
WEIGHTS and MEASURES, see Mercury.
WELL, see Truth.
WEST WIND, see Favonius.
WINDS, see Aurora, Auster, Boreas, Zephyr.
WINE, see Bacchus, Suradevi.
WISDOM, see Pollear, Minerva.
WO′DEN, the Anglo-Saxon form of the Scandinavian god Odin; Wednesday is
called after him.
WOMEN’S SAFEGUARD, see Sospita.
WOODPECKER, see Picus.
WOODS, see Dryads.
WORLD, see Chaos.
XAN′THUS, the name of the wonderful horse of Achilles.
YA′MA. The Hindoo devil, generally represented as a terrible monster of
a green colour, with flaming eyes.
YG′DRA′SIL. The famous ash-tree of Scandinavian mythology, under which
the gods held daily council.
Y′MIR. The Scandinavian god, corresponding to Chaos of the classics.
YOUTH (perpetual), see Tithonus.
ZEPH′YR. The god of flowers, a son of Æolus and Aurora, the west wind.
See Favonius.
“Wanton Zephyr, come away.
. . . . .
The sun, and Mira’s charming eyes,
At thy return more charming grow.
With double glory they appear,
To warm and grace the infant year.”
JOHN HUGHES, 1700.
ZE′TES, with his brother Calais, drove the Harpies from Thrace.
ZE′THUS, twin brother of Amphion. See Amphion.
ZEU′S. The Greek name of Jupiter.
THE END.
Transcriber's Notes:
Italics are shown thus: _sloping_.
Variations in spelling and hyphenation are retained.
Perceived typographical errors have been changed.
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