Part 11

The Sylvans were the children of the foster father of God Bacchus, who accompanied the latter in all his travels. Bacchus having been well received and entertained at the court of Midas, King of Phrygia, he obtained from him the choice of whatever recompense he should name. Midas demanded the power of turning all that he touched into gold.

"'Give me,' says he, (nor thought he asked too much,) 'That with my body whatsoe'er I touch, Changed from the nature which it held of old, May be converted into yellow gold:' He had his wish: but yet the god repined, To think the fool no better wish could find. But the brave king departed from the place, With smiles of gladness, sparkling in his face: Nor could contain, but, as he took his way, Impatient longs to make the first essay; Down from a lowly branch a twig he drew, The twig strait glittered with a sparkling hue: He takes a stone, the stone was turned to gold, A clod he touches, and the crumbling mould Acknowledged soon the great transforming power, In weight and substance like a mass of ore. He plucked the corn, and straight his grasp appears, Filled with a bending tuft of golden ears. An apple next he takes, and seems to hold The bright, Hesperian, vegetable gold. His hand he careless on a pillar lays, With shining gold, the fluted pillars blaze. And while he wishes, as the servants pour, His touch converts the stream to Danae's shower."

OVID.

He was quickly brought however to repent his avarice, when the very meat which he attempted to eat, turned to gold in his mouth, and the wine to the same metal, as it passed down his throat. He was now as anxious to be delivered from this fatal gift, as he was before to receive it, and implored the god to revoke a present so fatal to the recipient.

"The ready slaves prepare a sumptuous board, Spread with rich dainties for their happy lord, Whose powerful hands the bread no sooner hold, But its whole substance is transformed to gold: Up to his mouth he lifts the savoury meat, Which turns to gold as he attempts to eat: His patron's noble juice, of purple hue, Touched by his lips a gilded cordial grew: Unfit for drink, and wondrous to behold, It trickles from his jaws a fluid gold. The rich, poor fool confounded with surprize, Staring on all his various plenty lies: {125} Sick of his wish, he now detests the power For which he asked so earnestly before: Amidst his gold with pinching famine curst, And justly tortured with an equal thirst. At last his shining arms to heaven he rears And, in distress, for refuge flies to prayers. 'O father Bacchus, I have sinned,' he cried, 'And foolishly thy gracious gift applied, Thy pity now, repenting, I implore; Oh! may I feel the golden plague no more!'"

OVID.

He was told to wash himself in the river Pactolus; he performed the necessary ablution, and the very sands were turned into gold by the touch of Midas. Divine honours were given to Silenus in Arcadia, and from him the Fauns and Satyrs are often called Sileni.

The Satyrs, also gods of the Country, were considered as mischievous, and inspired by their appearance, great fright in the shepherds--although they bore with them a flute or tambourine, to make the nymphs dance, when they inflamed their senses by the burning nature of their harmony, and the rapid measure with which they trod to the music of these demi-gods.

To them were offered the first fruits of everything, and they attended chiefly upon Bacchus, rendering themselves conspicuous in his orgies, by their riot and lasciviousness. It is said, that a Satyr was brought to Sylla, as that general returned from Thessaly; the monster had been surprised asleep in a cave; his voice was inarticulate, when brought into the presence of the Roman {126} general, and Sylla was so disgusted with the sight, that he ordered it instantly to be removed. The creature is said to have answered the description which poets and painters have given of the Satyrs.

Priapus was the most celebrated among them, as the the son of Venus, who meeting Bacchus on his return from his Indian expedition, was enamoured of him, and with the assistance of Juno, became the mother of Priapus. Juno having vowed vengeance against the goddess of beauty, took that opportunity to deform her son in all his limbs; notwithstanding which, as he grew up, his inclinations and habits became so vicious, that he was known as the god of lewdness. His festivals took place principally at Lampsacus, where they consecrated the ass to him; and the people naturally indolent, gave themselves up to every impurity during the celebration. When however his worship was introduced into Rome, he became more the God of Orchards and Gardens, than the patron of licentiousness. He was there crowned with the leaves of the vine, and sometimes with laurel or rocket, the last of these plants, which is said to raise the passions and excite love, being sacred to him.

The Sylvans, were, like the Fauns and Satyrs, the guardian deities of the woods and wild places of the earth.

Terminus was a somewhat curious divinity, presiding over bounds and limits, and punishing all usurpation. His worship was first introduced by Numa Pompilius, who persuaded his subjects that the limits of their lands and states, were under the immediate inspection of heaven. His temple was on the Tarpeian rock, and he was represented with a human head, though without feet or arms, to intimate that he never moved, wherever he might be placed.

The people of the country assembled once a year with their families, and crowned with garlands and flowers, the stones which divided their different possessions. It is said that when Tarquin the proud, wished to build a temple on the Tarpeian rock to Jupiter, the God Terminus refused to give place, though the other gods resigned theirs with cheerfulness, and the oracles declared from this, that the extent of the Empire should never be lessened.

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HEBE

was the daughter of Jupiter and Juno; though by many she is said to be the daughter of Juno only, who conceived her after eating lettuces.

Being fair, and always possessed of the bloom of beauty and youth, she was termed the Goddess of youth, and made by her mother the cup-bearer to all the Gods.

She was dismissed from her office by Jupiter, however, because she fell down as she was pouring nectar to the Gods, at a grand festival, and Ganymedes, a favourite of Jupiter, succeeded to her office.

"'Twas on a day When the immortals at their banquet lay, The bowl Sparkled with starry dew, The weeping of those myriad urns of light, Within whose orbs, the almighty Power At nature's dawning hour Stored the rich fluid of ethereal soul. * * * * * * But oh! Bright Hebe, what a tear, And what a blush were thine, When, as the breath of every Grace Wafted thy feet along the studded sphere With a bright cup, for Jove himself to drink, Some star, that shone beneath thy tread, Raising its amorous head To kiss those matchless feet, And all heaven's host of eyes. Checked thy career so fleet: Entranced, but fearful all, Saw thee, sweet Hebe, prostrate fall. * * * * * * But the bright cup? the nectared draught Which Jove himself was to have quaffed! Alas, alas, upturned it lay By the fallen Hebe's side; While in slow lingering drops, th' ethereal tide, As conscious of its own rich essence, ebbed away,"

MOORE.

Her mother employed her to prepare her chariot, and to harness her peacocks, when required. To her was granted the power of restoring to age the vigour of youth; and after Hercules was elevated to the rank of a God, he became reconciled to Juno by marrying her daughter Hebe.

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THE CENTAURS.

After the creation of the Fauns and Sylvans by the poets, the imagination of the latter invented the Centaur, a monster, of which the superior part was that of a man, and the remainder that of the horse.

Lycus, a mortal, being detained by Circe in her magical dominion, was beloved by a water-nymph who desired to render him immortal; she had recourse to the sorceress, and Circe gave her an incantation to pronounce.

As Lycus walked sorrowfully in the enchanted place, astonished at the many wondrous things which met his eye, he beheld

"The realized nymph of the stream, Rising up from the wave, with the bend and the gleam Of a fountain, and o'er her white arms she kept throwing Bright torrents of hair, that went flowing and flowing In falls to her feet, and the blue waters rolled Down her limbs like a garment, in many a fold."

HOOD.

Struck with each other's charms they loved, but unhappily the nymph, in her anxiety for her lover's immortality, and while calling upon her mistress to assist her, saw

"The Witch Queen of that place, Even Circe the Cruel, that came like a death Which I feared, and yet fled not, for want of my breath, There was thought in her face, and her eyes were not raised From the grass at her foot, but I saw, as I gazed Her hate--"

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This hate Lycus soon experienced; as the spell desired by the nymph, was in the act of being pronounced,

"I felt with a start, The life blood rush back in one throb to my heart, And saw the pale lips where the rest of that spell Had perished in terror, and heard the farewell Of that voice that was drowned in the dash of the stream! How fain had I followed, and plunged with that scream Into death, but my being indignantly lagged Thro' the brutalized flesh that I painfully dragged Behind me--"

HOOD.

From this time his existence become a torture to him. Though there were none of his former beings to consort with, yet still he loved to haunt the places of his humanity, and with a beating heart and bursting frame, behold the various occupations and pleasures in which he had formerly joined.

"I once had a haunt near a cot. where a mother Daily sat in the shade with her child, and would smother Its eye-lids in kisses, and then in its sleep Sang dreams in its ears, of its manhood, while deep In a thicket of willows I gazed o'er the brooks That murmured between us, and kissed them with looks; But the willows unbosomed their secret, and never I returned to a spot I had startled for ever; Tho' I oft longed to know, but could ask it of none, Was the mother still fair, and how big was her son?"

HOOD.

Time brought no remedy, for still he was troubled by the absence of sympathy, and the repression of that human feeling which yet clung like a curse to him.

"For the haunters of fields, they all shunned me by flight, The men in their horror, the women in fright: None ever remained, save a child once that sported Among the wild blue bells, and playfully courted The breeze; and beside him a speckled snake lay Tight strangled, because it had hissed him away From the flower at his finger; he rose and drew near Like a son of immortals, one born to no fear, But with strength of black locks, and with eyes azure bright, To grow to large manhood of merciful might, He came, with his face of bold wonder, to feel The hair of my side and to lift up my heel, And questioned his face with wide eyes, but when under My lids he saw tears,--for I wept at his wonder, He stroked me, and uttered such kindliness then, That the once love of women, the friendship of men In past sorrow, no kindness, e'er came like a kiss On my heart in its desolate day, such as this {130} And I yearned at his cheeks in my love, and down bent And lifted him up in my arms with intent To kiss him--but he cruel--kindly alas! Held out to my lips a plucked handful of grass! Then I dropped him in horror, but felt as I fled, The stone he indignantly hurled at my head, That dissevered my ear, but I felt not, whose fate, Was to meet more distress in his love his hate!"

HOOD.

The only mitigation of his sorrow, was that when in Thessaly

"He met with the same as himself,"

and obtained with them, if not sympathy, at least companionship.

Chiron was the wisest of the Centaurs. Music, divination, astronomy, and medicine, were equally familiar to him, and his name is blended with those of the principal sages of Greece, whom he instructed in the use of plants and medicinal herbs.

The battle of the Centaurs with the Lapithae at the bridal of Perithous is famous in history, and was the cause of their destruction.

The Centaurs inflamed with wine, behaved with rudeness and even offered violence to the bride, and to the women that were present.

"Now brave Perithous, bold Ixion's son, The love of fair Hippodame had won. The cloud begotten race, half men, half beast, Invited came to grace the nuptial feast: In a cool cave's recess the treat was made, Whose entrance, trees, with spreading boughs o'ershade, They sat; and summoned by the bridegroom, came, To mix with those, the Lapythaean name: ----------------The roofs with joy resound, And Hymen, Ioe Hymen, rung around. Raised altars shone with holy fires: the bride Lovely herself, (and lovely by her side A bevy of bright nymphs, with sober grace,) Came glittering like a star, and took her place. Her heavenly form beheld, all wished her joy; And little wanted, but in vain their wishes all employ. For one, most brutal of the brutal brood, Or whether wine or beauty fired his blood, Or both at once, beheld with lustful eyes The bride: at once resolved to make his prize. Down went the board, and fastening on her hair, He seized with sudden force the frighted fair. 'Twas Eurytus began; his bestial kind His crime pursued, and each as pleased his mind On her, whom chance presented, took. The feast An image of a taken town expressed."

OVID.

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FLORA, POMONA, VERTUMNUS, THE SEASONS.

Flora was unknown among the Greeks, having her birth with the Romans. She was the Goddess of Flowers,

"which unveil Their breasts of beauty, and each delicate bud O' the Season, comes in turn to bloom and perish. But first of all the Violet, with an eye Blue as the midnight heavens, the frail snow-drop, Born of the breath of winter, and on his brow, Fixed like a pale and solitary star, The languid hyacinth, and wild primrose, And daisy, trodden down like modesty, The fox-glove, in whose drooping-bells the bee Makes her sweet music: the Narcissus, named From him who died for love, the tangled woodbine Lilacs and flowering limes, and scented thorns, And some from whom the voluptuous winds of June Catch their perfumery."

BARRY CORNWALL.

She married Zephyrus, and received from him the privilege of presiding over flowers, and enjoying perpetual youth.

Pomona was the Goddess of Fruits and Fruit Trees, and supposed to be the Deity of Gardens.

"Her name Pomona, from her woodland race, In garden culture none could her excel, Or form the pliant souls of plants so well; Or to the fruit more generous flavours lend, Or teach the trees with nobler loads to bend."

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Pleased with her office, and unwilling to take upon herself the troubles of marriage, she vowed perpetual celibacy. Numerous were the suitors who attempted to win her from her rash determination, but to all of them the answer was alike in the negative: tho' Vertumnus, one of the most zealous, pursued her with unchanging ardour.

"Long had she laboured to continue free From chains of love and nuptial tyranny; And in her orchard's small extent immured, Her vow'd virginity she still secured. Oft would loose Pan, and all the lustful train Of satyrs, tempt her innocence in vain. Vertumnus too pursued the maid no less, But with his rivals, shared a like success."

OVID.

Miserable, but not cast down, by the many refusals he met with, Vertumnus took a thousand shapes to influence the success of his suit.

"To gain access, a thousand ways he tries Oft in the hind, the lover would disguise, The heedless lout comes shambling on, and seems Just sweating from the labour of his teams. Then from the harvest, oft the mimic swain Seems bending with a load of bearded grain. Sometimes a dresser of the vine he feigns, And lawless tendrils to their boughs restrains. Sometimes his sword a soldier shews; his rod An angler; still so various is the God. Now, in a forehead cloth some crone he seems, A staff supplying the defect of limbs: Admittance thus he gains; admires the store Of fairest fruit; the fair possessor more; Then greets her with a kiss; th' unpractised dame Admired, a grandame kissed with such a flame. Now seated by her, he beholds a vine, Around an elm in amorous foldings twine, "If that fair elm," he cried, "alone should stand, No grapes would glow with gold, and tempt the hand; Or if that vine without her elm should grow, 'Twould creep a poor neglected shrub below. Be then, fair nymph, by these examples led, Nor shun for fancied fears, the nuptial bed."

OVID.

In this disguise, Vertumnus recommended himself and his virtues to Pomona.

"On my assurance well you may repose, Vertumnus scarce Vertumnus better knows, True to his choice all looser flames he flies, Nor for new faces fashionably dies. The charms of youth, and every smiling grace, Bloom in his features, and the god confess."

OVID.

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The pertinacious wooing of the metamorphosed deity, had, at last its effect, in preparing Pomona for Vertumnus, when he should assume his natural shape.

"The story oft Vertumnus urged in vain, But then assumed his heavenly form again; Such looks and lustre the bright youth adorn, As when with rays glad Phoebus paints the morn. The sight so warms the fair admiring maid, Like snow she melts, so soon can youth persuade; Consent on eager wings succeeds desire, And both the lovers glow with mutual fire."

OVID.

Pomona had a temple at Rome, and a regular priest, who offered sacrifices to her divinity for the preservation of fruit: she is generally represented sitting on a basket, full of flowers and fruit, holding a bough in one hand, and apples in the other.

Vertumnus is represented under the figure of a young man, crowned with various plants, bearing in his left hand fruits, and in his right a horn of abundance.

The Goddess Pomona is often confounded with Autumn, Ceres with Summer, and Flora with Spring.

The four seasons have also been described with great distinctness, by poets, both ancient and modern, all of whom were delighted to pour forth tributes of praise in their honour; Spring is usually drawn as a nymph, with her head crowned by a wreath of flowers; and many are the strains attributed to her.

"I come, I come! ye have called me long, I come o'er the mountains with light and song! Ye may trace my step o'er the wakening earth, By the winds which tell of the violet's birth, By the primrose stars in the shadowy grass, By the green leaves opening as I pass.

I have breathed in the south, and the chesnut flowers, By thousands have burst from the forest bowers, And the ancient graves, and the fallen fanes, Are veiled with wreaths on Italian plains: But it is not for me in my hour of bloom, To speak of the ruin or the tomb.

I have looked o'er the hills of the stormy north, And the larch has hung all his tassels forth, The fisher is out in the stormy sea, And the rein-deer bounds o'er the pastures free, And the fence has a fringe of softer green, And the moss looks bright where my foot hath been.

I have sent thro' the wood-paths a glowing sigh, And called out each voice of the deep blue sky; From the night bird's lay thro' the starry time, {134} In the groves of the soft Hesperian clime, To the swan's wild note by the Iceland lakes, When the dark fir-branch into verdure breaks.

From the streams and founts I have loosed the chain, They are sweeping on to the silvery main, They are flashing down from the mountain brows, They are flinging spray o'er the forest boughs, They are bursting fresh from their sparry caves, And the earth resounds with the joy of waves!

Come forth, O ye children of gladness, come! Where the violets lie may be now your home. Ye of the rose-lip and dew-bright eye, And the bounding footstep to meet me fly! With the lyre, and the wreath, and the joyous lay, Come forth to the sunshine, I may not stay.

Away from the dwellings of care-worn men, The waters are sparkling in grove and glen! Away from the chamber and sullen hearth, The young leaves are dancing in breezy mirth! Their light stems thrill to the wild wood strains. And youth is abroad in my green domains.

But ye! ye are changed since ye met me last! There is something bright from your features past! There is something come over brow and eye, Which speaks of a world where the flowers must die! Ye smile!--but your smile hath a dimness yet-- Oh! what have ye looked on since last we met?

Ye are changed, ye are changed! and I see not here All whom I saw in the vanished year! There were graceful heads with their ringlets bright, Which tossed in the breeze with a play of light, There were eyes, in whose glistening laughter lay No faint remembrance of dull decay!

There were steps that flew o'er the cowslip's head, As if for a banquet all earth were spread; There were voices that rung thro' the sapphire sky, And had not a sound of mortality! Are they gone? is their mirth from the mountains passed? Ye have looked on death since ye met me last!

I know whence the shadow comes o'er you now, Ye have strewn the dust on the sunny brow! Ye have given the lovely to earth's embrace, She hath taken the fairest of beauty's race, With their laughing eyes and their festal crown, They are gone from amongst you in silence down!

The Summer is coming, on soft winds borne, Ye may press the grape, ye may bind the corn! For me I depart to a brighter shore, Ye are marked by care, ye are mine no more, I go where the loved, who have left you, dwell, And the flowers are not death's--farewell, farewell!"

HEMANS.

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Summer is drawn naked, bearing an ear of corn, just arriving at its fulness, to denote the harvest yielded by its light and heat; with a scythe in her hand, to intimate that it is the season of harvest.

A welcome to the summer's pleasant song, A welcome to the summer's golden hour, A welcome to the myriad joys that throng, With a deep loveliness, o'er tree and flower, The earth is glad with beauty, the sky Smiles in calm grandeur over vale and hill, And the breeze murmurs forth a gentle sigh, And the fish leap from out the smiling rill. The town's pale denizens come forth to breathe. The free, fresh air, and lave their fevered brows; And beauty loves young fairy flowers to wreathe Beneath some stately forest's antique boughs. Oh! art hath nought like this, the very air Breatheth of beauty, banishing despair."

FRANCIS.

At other times, she is represented surrounded by the flowers which blossom latest, mingled with the delicious fruits which are the offspring of the summer season.