Part 15

With looks averted backward they advance, Who strike and stab, and leave the blows to chance Waking in consternation, he essays, Weltering in blood, his feeble arms to raise; Environed by so many swords; 'From whence This barbarous usage? what is my offence? What fatal fury, what infernal charm, 'Gainst a kind father does his daughter arm?' Hearing his voice, as thunderstruck they stopped Their resolution, and their weapons dropped: Medea then the mortal blow bestows."

The subjects of the deceased king, when they were informed of the cause of his death, were anxious to avenge it, and Medea found herself compelled to fly with Jason to Corinth, in which place they resided forty years.

Unhappily their matrimonial happiness was disturbed by Jason's infidelity with Glaucus, the daughter of the King of the Country, for whom Medea was divorced, that he might follow his amour in comfort. This infidelity was severely avenged by Medea, who after destroying the children of Glaucus in her presence, presented to her a poisoned gown, and induced her to put it on; it immediately set her whole body on fire, and she died in the most painful torments.

This deed was followed by one still more revolting to the mind, for Medea slew two of her own children in their father's presence, and when the incensed Jason attempted to avenge their murder on the barbarous mother, she escaped by flying through the air in a chariot drawn by dragons.

"When Medea left her native soil, Unawed by danger, unsubdued by toil: Her weeping sire, and beckoning friends withstood, And launched enamoured in the boiling flood; One ruddy boy her gentle lips caressed, And one fair girl was pillowed on her breast; While high in air the golden treasure burns, And Love and Glory guide the prow by turns. But when Thessalia's inauspicious plain, Received the matron-heroine from the main; While hours of triumph sound, and altars burn. And shouting nations hail their Queen's return: Aghast, she saw new-decked the nuptial bed, And proud Creusa to the temple led; Saw her in Jason's mercenary arms. Deride her virtues and insult her charms: Saw her dear babes from fame and empire torn, In foreign realms deserted and forlorn: Her love rejected, and her vengeance braved By him, her beauties won, her virtues saved. {174} To the stern King of Ghosts she next applied. And gentle Proserpine, his ravished bride, That for old Aeson with the laws of fate; They would dispense, and lengthen his short date. Thus with repeated prayers she oft assails, The infernal tyrant, and at last prevails; Then calls to have decrepid Aeson brought, And stupifies him with a sleeping draught; This done, th' enchantress, with her locks unbound About her altar trips a frantic round; Piecemeal the consecrated wood she splits, And dips the splinters in the gory pits, Then hurls them on the piles; the sleeping sire She lustrates thrice, with sulphur, water, fire. * * * * * * His feeble frame resumes a youthful air, A glossy brown his hoary head of hair, The meagre paleness from his aspect fled, And in its room sprung up a florid red: Through all his limbs a youthful vigour flies, His emptied arteries swell with fresh supplies. Gazing spectators scarce believe their eyes. But Aeson is the most surprised to find A happy change in body and in mind, In sense and constitution the same man, As when his fortieth active year began."

OVID.

Pelias the usurper, was desirous of following so pleasant an example, and his daughters persuaded by Medea, who was anxious to avenge her husband's wrongs, destroyed him with their own hands. Their credulity met with a severe punishment, for Medea refused to restore him to life.

Meanwhile Pelias with his guards lay bound In magic sleep, scarce that of death so sound: The daughters now are by the Sorceress led, Into his chamber and surround his bed, 'Your fathers health's concerned and can ye stay? Unnatural nymphs, why this unkind delay? Unsheath your swords, dismiss his lifeless blood, And I'll recruit it with a vital flood: Your father's life and health are in your hand, And can ye thus, like idle gazers stand? Unless you are of common sense bereft, If yet one spark of piety is left, Dispatch a father's cure, and disengage The monarch from his loathsome load of age. Thus urged, the poor deluded maids proceed Betrayed by zeal to an inhuman deed, And in compassion, make a father bleed. Yes, she who has the kindest, tenderest heart, Is foremost to perform the bloody part. Yet, though to act the butchery betrayed, They could not bear to see the wounds they made, {175} With stern regard she eyed the traitor king, And felt ingratitude, the keenest sting; "Nor Heaven" she cried, "nor earth, nor Hell can hold A heart abandoned to the thirst of gold! Stamped with wild foot and shook her torrent brow, And called the furies from their dens below!"

OVID.

When in Athens, to which place Medea came after leaving Corinth, she underwent the penance necessary to purify her from the crimes she had committed, after which she became the wife of King Aegeus, to whom she bore a son called Medus.

Before his intimacy with Medea, Aegeus had a son named Theseus, who had been sent to Athens with his father's sword, by the sight of which he was to introduce himself to his father's knowledge when he grew up; as Theseus attempted to make himself known to his father, Medea, who had grown jealous of the glory he had achieved, tried to poison him at an entertainment to which he had been invited. She failed in her purpose. The king, recognized by the sword he bore, his long lost son, and Medea had recourse to her dragons once more, to make her escape through the air, to Colchis, where, by some it is stated, she was re-united to Jason; while according to other authorities, Jason lived a melancholy and unhappy life; and, as he was reposing one day by the side of the ship which had borne him to Colchis, a large beam fell upon and crushed him to death. Medea also died at Colchis, and after her death is said to have been married to Achilles in Elysium.

It is asserted by some writers, that the murder of the two youngest of Jason's children, was not committed by Medea, but by the Corinthians themselves, in the Temple of Juno Acrea; and that to avoid the vengeance of heaven, and to free themselves from a plague which devoured the country after so frightful a massacre, they engaged the poet Euripides to write a tragedy which should tend to clear them of the murder, and throw the crime upon the guilty Medea. Festivals were also appointed, in which the mother was represented as destroying her own offspring, with all the attributes of a fury, and was regarded as a day of solemn mourning.

"O haggard queen! to Athens dost thou guide Thy glowing chariot, steeped in kindred gore; Or seek to hide thy foul infanticide Where peace and mercy dwell for evermore?

{176} The land where Heaven's own hallowed waters play, Where friendship binds the generous and the good, Say, shall it hail thee from thy frantic way, Unholy woman! with thy hands embrued.

In thine own children's gore? Oh! ere they bleed, Let Nature's voice thy ruthless heart appal! Pause at the bold, irrevocable deed-- The mother strikes--the guiltless babes shall fall!

* * * * * *

When o'er each babe you look a last adieu, And gaze on Innocence that smiles asleep, Shall no fond feeling beat to Nature true, Charm thee to pensive thought--and bid thee weep?

When the young suppliants clasp their parent dear, Heave the deep sob, and pour the artless prayer, Ay! thou shalt melt; and many a heart-shed tear Gush o'er the hardened features of despair! Nature shall throb in every tender string,-- Thy trembling heart the ruffian's task deny; Thy horror smitten hands afar shall fling The blade, undrenched in blood's eternal dye.

CHORUS.

Hallowed Earth! with indignation Mark, oh mark, the murderous deed. Radiant eye of wide creation, Watch th' accursed infanticide!

Yet, ere Colchia's rugged daughter Perpetrate the dire design, And consign to kindred slaughter Children of the golden line!

Shall mortal hand, with murder gory, Cause immortal blood to flow! Sun of Heaven!--array'd in glory Rise, forbid, avert the blow!

In the vales of placid gladness Let no rueful maniac range; Chase afar the fiend of Madness, Wrest the dagger from Revenge!

Say, hast thou, with kind protection, Reared thy smiling race in vain; Fostering Nature's fond affection, Tender cares, and pleasing pain?

Hast thou, on the troubled ocean, Braved the tempest loud and strong, Where the waves, in wild commotion, Roar Cyanean rocks among?

Didst thou roam the paths of danger, Hymenean joys to prove? Spare, O sanguinary stranger, Pledges of thy sacred love!

Ask not Heaven's commiseration, After thou hast done the deed; Mercy, pardon, expiation, Perish when thy victims bleed"

EURIPIDES.

* * * * *

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HERCULES.

This celebrated hero was, after his death, as a reward for the many courageous deeds he had performed, placed among the gods, and rewarded with divine honours. It has been asserted that there were many of the same name, some writers extending the number to forty-three; though of these the son of Jupiter and Alcmena is the most celebrated, and as such, doubtless, many of their actions have been attributed to him. In order to gain the affections of Alcmena, Jupiter took the form of her husband, and from this union was born Hercules, who was brought up at Tirynthus; Juno, however, could not look upon him with pleasure, and before he was nine months old, sent two snakes intending them to devour him. Far from fearing these terrible enemies, the child grasped them boldly in both his hands, and strangled them, while his brother Iphielus shrieked aloud in terror.

He was early instructed in those arts in which he afterwards became so famous, for Castor taught him to fight, Eurytus to shoot with the bow and arrows, and Autolycus to drive a chariot; after this, he perfected himself under the tuition of the Centaur, Chiron. When in the eighteenth year of his age, a huge lion devastated the people, and preyed on the flocks of Amphitryon, laying waste also the adjacent country. From this monster Hercules relieved them, and when Erginus, King of Orchomedas, sent for his yearly tribute of one hundred crowns, Hercules mutilated the servants who came to raise it, and on Erginus coming to avenge their death, he slew him, and delivered his country from the inglorious tribute.

These heroic deeds soon became bruited abroad, and Creon, who reigned in Thebes, rewarded his courage by giving him his daughter in marriage, and entrusting him with the government of his people.

As Hercules was by the will of Jupiter, subjected to the power of Eurystheus, the latter, jealous of the fame he was achieving, ordered him to appear before him.

Proud of his strength and of his successes, the hero refused, and Juno to punish him, struck him with a sudden madness, in which he killed his own offspring, imagining them to be those of Eurystheus. {178}

_Hercules._ "Hast thou beheld the carnage of my sons?

_Theseus._ I heard, I saw the ills thou showest me.

_Hercules._ Why hast thou then unveiled me to the Sun?

_Theseus._ Why not? Can mortal man pollute the Gods?

_Hercules._ Fly, thou unhappy, my polluting guilt!

_Theseus._ Friends, from their friends, no stain of guilt contract.

_Hercules._ This hath my thanks, indeed, I thought thee good.

_Theseus._ And for that good deed, now I pity thee!

_Hercules._ I want thy pity, I have slain my sons.

_Theseus._ Thee, for thy grace, in other ills I mourn!

_Hercules._ Whom hast thou known involved in ills like these?

_Theseus._ Thy vast misfortunes reach from earth to heaven.

_Hercules._ I therefore am prepared, and fixed to die.

_Theseus._ And deemest thou the gods regard thy threats?

_Hercules._ The gods regard not me, nor I the gods!

_Theseus._ Forbear: lest thy proud words provoke worse ill.

_Hercules._ I now am full, and can contain no more.

_Theseus._ What dost thou? Whither doth thy rage transport thee?

_Hercules._ From whence I came, to death's dark realms I go.

_Theseus._ This is the language of a vulgar spirit.

_Hercules._ Thou from misfortune free, canst counsel me;

_Theseus._ Doth the much suffering Hercules say this?

_Hercules._ He had not suffered this, had ills a mean.

_Theseus._ The brave protector, the kind friend of men.

_Hercules._ They nought avail me.

_Theseus._ Greece will not suffer thee to die thus rashly.

_Hercules._ Now hear me whilst my arguments refute All thy monitions. Whilst I yet Hung on the breast, two hideous serpents came, Sent by Juno to destroy me, rolled their spires Within my cradle. When my age advanced To youth's fresh bloom, why should I say what toils I then sustained? What lions--what dire forms Of Triple Typhons, or what giants, what Of monsters banded in the Centaur war, Did I not quell? The Hydra, raged around, With heads still spouting from the sword I slew. These and a thousand other toils endured, To the dark regions of the dead I went, To drag the triple headed dog to light, That guards the gate of Pluto;--the command Of stern Eurystheus. This last bloody deed, (Wretch that I am!) the murder of my sons Have I achieved, to crown my house with ills. I am reduced to this unhappiness, At my loved Thebes I cannot dwell, for here What temple, what assembly of my friends Can I approach? Pollutions rank as mine, Allow no converse. Should I go to Argos? How, since I fly my country, should I seek Refuge in other states, malignant eyes Would scowl on me when known, and bitter tongues Goad me with these reproaches:--Is not this The son of Jove, who slew his sons and wife? Then bid me thence with curses on my head. {179} And to the man, whose former days were passed In happier fortune, mournful is the change; But him, that in distresses hath been trained, Naught grieves, as though lie were allied to ills. And to this misery shall I come, I ween. The earth will cry aloud, forbidding me To touch her soil, to pass its waves, the sea, And every fountain whence the rivers flow. Thus like Ixions, on the whirling wheel In chains, will be my stake: and this were best, That never Grecian might behold me more, With whom in better days I have been happy. Why therefore should I live? What blessing were it To gain a useless and unhallowed life?"

After his recovery he consulted the oracle of Apollo, and was told that he must act in compliance with the will of Jupiter, and be subservient to the commands of Eurystheus for twelve years, and that after he had been successful in the labours to be imposed upon him, he would be admitted amongst the gods. This answer determined him to bear with fortitude whatever gods or men might command, and Eurystheus, seeing so perfect a hero subjected to him, ordered him to perform the most terrible and dangerous deeds he could imagine, which are now generally known as the twelve labours of Hercules.

The favors of the gods had completely armed him when he undertook his labours. He had received a coat of arms and helmet from Minerva, a sword from Mercury, a horse from Apollo, and from Vulcan a golden cuirass and brazen buskin, with a celebrated club of brass, according to the opinion of some writers, but more generally supposed to be of wood, and cut by the hero himself in the forest of Nemaea. The first labour imposed upon Hercules by Eurystheus, was to kill the lion of Nemaea, which ravaged the country near Mycenae. The hero, unable to destroy him with his arrow, boldly attacked him with his club, pursued him to his den, and after a close and sharp engagement, he choked him to death. He carried the dead beast on his shoulders to Mycenae, and ever after clothed himself with the skin. Eurystheus was so astonished at the sight of the beast, and at the courage of Hercules, that he ordered him never to enter the gates of the city when he returned from his expeditions, but to wait for his orders without the walls. He even made himself a hiding place into which he retired whenever Hercules returned. The second labour of Hercules was to destroy the Lernaean hydra, which had seven heads. This celebrated {180} monster he attacked with his arrows, and soon after he came to a close engagement, and by means of his heavy club, destroyed the heads of his enemy. But this was productive of no advantage, for as soon as one head was beaten to pieces by the club, immediately two sprang up, and the labour of Hercules would have remained unfinished, had he not commanded his friend Iolas, who accompanied him, to burn, with a hot iron, the root of the head which he had crushed to pieces. This succeeded, and Hercules became victorious, opened the belly of the monster, and dipped his arrow in the gall, to render the wounds which he gave, fatal and incurable. He was ordered in his third labour to bring alive and unhurt, into the presence of Eurystheus, a stag, famous for its incredible swiftness, its golden horns, and brazen feet. This celebrated animal frequented the neighbourhood of Oenoe, and Hercules was employed for a whole year in continually pursuing it; at last, he caught it in a trap, or when tired, or according to others by slightly wounding it, and lessening its swiftness. As he returned victorious, Diana snatched the stag from him, and severely reprimanded him for molesting an animal which was sacred to her. Hercules pleaded necessity, and by representing the commands of Eurystheus, he appeased the goddess and obtained the beast. The [Illustration] fourth labour was to bring alive to Eurystheus a wild boar which ravaged the neighbourhood of Erymanthus. In this expedition he {181} destroyed the Centaurs, and caught the boar by closely pursuing him through the deep snow. Eurystheus was so frightened at the sight of the boar, that, according to Diodorus, he hid himself in a brazen vessel for some days. In his fifth labour Hercules was ordered to clean the stables of Augias, where three thousand oxen had been confined for many years. For the sixth, he was ordered to kill the carnivorous birds which ravaged the country near the lake Stymphalis, in Arcadia. In his seventh, he brought alive into Peloponnesus a prodigious wild bull, which laid waste the island of Crete. In his eighth, he was employed in obtaining the mares of Diomedes, which fed upon human flesh. He killed Diomedes, and gave him to be eaten by his mares, which he brought to Eurystheus. They were sent to Mount Olympus by the King of Mycenae, where they were devoured by the wild beasts; or, according to others, consecrated to Jupiter, and their breed still existed in the age of Alexander the Great. For his ninth labour, he was commanded to obtain the girdle of the Queen of the Amazons. In his tenth, he killed the monster Geryon, King of Gades, and brought to Argos his numerous flocks which fed upon human flesh. The eleventh labour was to obtain apples from the garden of Hesperides, three celebrated daughters of Hesperus, who were appointed to guard some golden apples, given by Jupiter to Juno on the day of their marriage.

Ignorant of the precise situation of the beautiful garden containing them, Hercules applied to the nymphs in the neighbourhood of the Po for information, and was told that Nereus, if properly managed, would direct him in his pursuits. The hero seized Nereus while he slept, and the sea god, unable to escape from his grasp, answered all the questions he proposed, which led him to Atlas, in Africa, and of him, he demanded three of the golden apples. Atlas placed the burden of the heavens on the shoulders of Hercules, and went in quest of the apples. At his return, Hercules expressed a wish to ease his load by putting something on his head, and when Atlas assisted him to remove the inconvenience, he artfully left the burden, and seized the apples which Atlas had thrown on the ground. According to other accounts, Hercules gathered them without the assistance of Atlas, after killing a dragon which guarded the tree. {182}

The twelfth and last, and most dangerous of his labours, was to bring upon earth the three-headed dog Cerberus. This was cheerfully undertaken by Hercules, and he descended into hell by a cave on Mount Taenarus. He was permitted by Pluto to carry away his friends Theseus and Pirithous, who were condemned to punishment in hell; and Cerberus also was granted to his prayers, provided he made use of no arms, but only force to drag him away. Hercules, as some report, carried him back to hell, after he had brought him before Eurystheus. Besides these arduous labours, which the jealousy of Eurystheus imposed upon him, he also achieved others of his own accord, equally great and celebrated.

He delivered Hesione, a daughter of Laomedon, King of Troy, from a sea monster, to whom the Trojans yearly presented a marriageable maiden; and when the hero had fulfilled his task, Laomedon refused to give him the tribute of six beautiful horses, which he had promised to him. Hercules, incensed at his treachery, besieged Troy, and put the king and his family to the sword.

"First, two dread snakes, at Juno's vengeful nod, Climbed round the cradle of the sleeping God; Waked by the shrilling hiss, and rustling sound, And shrieks of fair attendants trembling round, Their gasping throats with clenching hands he holds; Till death entwists their convoluted folds. And in red torrents from her seven gold heads Fell Hydra's blood in Lerna's lake he sheds; Grasps Achelous with resistless force, And drags the roaring river to his course: Binds with loud bellowing and with hideous yell The monster bull, and three-fold dog of hell."

"Then, where Nemea's howling forests wave, He drives the Lion to his dusky cave; Seized by the throat the howling fiend disarms, And tears his gaping jaws with sinewy arms; Lifts proud Anteus from his mother-plains, And with strong grasp, the struggling giant strains; Back falls his fainting head, and clammy hair, Writhe his weak limbs, and flits his life in air;-- By steps reverted o'er the blood-dropped fen He tracks huge Ceacus to his forest den! Where breathing flames through brazen lips, he fled, And shakes the rock-roofed cavern o'er his head! Last, with wide arms the solid earth he tears, Piles rock on rock, on mountain, mountain rears; Heaves up huge Abyla in Afric's sand, Crowns with huge Calpe Europe's salient strand, Crests with opposing towers the splendid scene, And pours from urns immense, the sea between. Loud o'er her whirling flood Charybdis roars Affrighted Scylla bellows round her shores, Vesuvius groans through all his echoing caves, And Etna thunders o'er the insurgent waves."

{183}

When these were performed, he became deeply enamoured of Iole, daughter of Eurystheus, but she, being refused to his entreaties, he became insane a second time, and murdered Iphitus, the only one of the sisters of Iole who was willing to assist him in obtaining her.

After some time had passed, he was purified from this murder, and his insanity was at an end. However, the gods were not satisfied, but persecuted him still further, for he was smitten with an indisposition which compelled him once more to consult the oracle of Delphi.