Part 2

Saturn devoured this, as he had the previous offerings; and emboldened by her success, Cybele delivered in the same manner Pluto and Neptune, and afterwards, by administering a potion, compelled him to yield up those he had already swallowed. Jupiter, the first whom the Goddess had saved by her artifice, was brought up secretly in the Isle of Crete, by the Corybantes, or warrior priests, who, making a deafening noise with their drums and cymbals, prevented for a period the cries of the infant from reaching the ears of Titan: when, however, the latter discovered, as he eventually did, that his hopes had been deceived, and his {10} agreement broken, he assembled an army, marched against Saturn, (who by this time was made aware of the deception, but refused to destroy his children), took him prisoner, and threw him into Tartarus, from whence he was delivered by Jupiter, and replaced upon his throne. But the fears of Saturn rendered him ungrateful to his deliverer, for Destiny having prophesied that Saturn should be dethroned by his son, the God attacked Jupiter in ambush, and finished, by declaring open war against him. Jupiter, however, again proved conqueror, chasing from heaven his father and his king, who took refuge in that part of Italy known as Latium; Janus, monarch of this city of refuge, succoured and received him, and Saturn, to recompense his hospitality, granted to him the gift of memory, and of looking into the future. From this cause, Janus is represented with a double face. The time which Saturn passed on earth is known as the age of gold.

"Ere Saturn's rebel son usurped the skies; When beasts were only slain in sacrifice; While peaceful Crete enjoyed her ancient lord; Ere sounding hammers forged the inhuman sword; Ere hollow drums were beat; before the breath Of brazen trumpets rung the peals of death, The good old God his hunger did assuage With roots and herbs, and gave the _golden age_."

VIRGIL.

"The Golden age was first; when man yet new, No rule but uncorrupted reason knew, And with a native bent did good pursue! Unforced by punishment, unawed by fear, His words were simple, and his soul sincere. Needless was written law, when none oppressed, The law of man was written in his breast; No suppliant crowds before the judge appeared, No court erected yet, nor cause was heard; But all was safe, for conscience was their guard: The mountain trees in distant prospects please, Ere yet the pine descended to the seas; Ere sails were spread new oceans to explore, And happy mortals unconcerned for more, Confined their wishes to their native shore: No walls were yet, nor fence, nor moat, nor mound, Nor drum was heard, nor trumpets' angry sound; Nor swords were forged, but void of care or crime, The soft creation slept away their time; The teeming earth, yet guiltless of the plough, And unprovoked did fruitful stores allow; {11} Content with food, which nature freely bred, On wildings and on strawberries they fed: The flowers unsown in fields and meadows reigned, And western winds immortal spring maintained; In following years the bearded corn ensued, From earth unasked, nor was that earth renewed; From veins of valleys, milk and nectar broke, And honey sweating thro' the pores of oak."

OVID.

From the gaieties and fetes which then took place arose the name of Saturnalia, or fetes of Saturn, which lasted three, four, and five days, and took place in December. All work was stayed, friend interchanged gifts with friend, the preparations for war and the execution of criminals were alike suspended, while masters waited on their slaves at table, in remembrance of the ideas of liberty and equality, which existed in ancient days.

Janus was represented supported by a staff, with a key in his hand, as he was believed to be the inventor of doors and of locks. From his name came the month of January. He worshipped at twelve altars, to represent the twelve months; and wore occasionally four faces, as tokens of the four seasons of the year. At Rome, in which his temple was placed, it was open in the time of war, and shut during that of peace.

Saturn, or Time, is represented sometimes on a flying chariot, and sometimes on a throne, under the figure of an old and bearded man, severe in aspect, thin and yet robust, his eyes marked by a stern light; a veil on his head, and a serpent round his waist; while in his hand he carries a harp. In later times he is represented with a scythe.

"Unfathomable sea! whose waves are years; Ocean of Time, whose waters of deep woe Are brackish with the salt of human tears; Thou shoreless flood, which in thy ebb and flow Claspest the limits of mortality! And sick of prey, yet howling on for more, Vomitest wrecks on its inhospitable shore. Treacherous in calm and terrible in storm, Who shall put forth on thee, Unfathomable sea?"

SHELLEY.

With his scythe and with his wings, our eyes are familiar, as, to the present day, he is never drawn without these accompaniments. {12}

"To one that marks the quick and certain round Of year on year, and finds that every day Brings its grey hair, or bears a leaf away From the full glory with which life is crowned, Ere youth becomes a shade, and fame a sound: Surely to one that feels his foot on sand Unsure, the bright and ever visible hand Of Time, points far above the lowly bound Of pride that perishes: and leads the eye To loftier objects and diviner ends; A tranquil strength, sublime humility, A knowledge of ourselves, a faith in friends, A sympathy for all things born to die, With cheerful love for those whom truth attends."

LAMAN BLANCHARD.

This fable is easy of explanation. Time is the child of heaven and earth; he has wings because he flies rapidly, a scythe because he destroys all, an hour-glass to measure his course equally; and the serpent is the symbol of eternity, which has neither a beginning nor an end. He slew his father, because, the world and time once created, he could exist no longer; he devoured his infants because time destroys all, and he threw them from his stomach because time returns with the years and days; and this part of the fable is also an image of the operations which nature accomplishes under the influence of time. He did not devour Jupiter, as he represents the celestial regions, nor Juno, she being the prototype of the air: Time, mighty and all-destroying as he is, having no influence over the elements.

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{13}

CYBELE, VESTA.

This goddess was the daughter of Uranus, being the sister and wife of Saturn. As soon as she was born, she was exposed on a mountain, but being preserved and suckled by some of the wild beasts of the forest, she received the name of Cybele from the mountain where her life had been preserved. She is called also the ancient Vesta, to distinguish her from her daughter Vesta, who, with her mother, is also called Cybele. But the Deity of whom we now write is the earth, and is easy to distinguish from her daughter. In several temples of the ancients, the statues of Cybele were only a piece of stone, meant to represent the stability of the earth.

This great Goddess saw and became enamoured of a shepherd, who repulsed her affection, being in love with a mortal nymph; and rather than submit to the tyrannical passion of Cybele, he is said to have destroyed himself, and the goddess metamorphosed him into a pine-tree.

In the mythology of every country, this Deity is found, though under various names. She is represented with keys in her hand, her head crowned with rising turrets, and sometimes with the leaves {14} of an oak. She is also seen with many breasts, to intimate that the earth gives aliment to all living creatures.

To her daughter, who presided over the fiery element, Numa Pompilius consecrated an altar, where virgins, named Vestals, maintained perpetual fire. At Delphi and at Athens the priestesses were not virgins, as at the other temples, but widows who were past the time of marriage.

It was the employment of the Vestals to take care that the sacred fire of Vesta was not extinguished, for if it ever happened, it was deemed the prognostic of great calamities to the state: the offender was punished for negligence, and severely scourged by the high priest. The privileges of the Vestals were great: they had the most honourable seats at the public games and festivals, a lictor preceded them when they walked in public; they were carried in chariots when they pleased, and had the power of pardoning criminals if they encountered them on the way to execution, and the meeting was declared to be purely accidental.

Such of them as forgot their vow, were placed in a large hole under the earth, where a bed was placed, with a little bread, wine, {15} oil, and a lighted lamp: the guilty Vestal was stripped of the habit of her order, and compelled to descend into the subterranean cavity, which was immediately shut, and she was left to die of hunger.

_Vestal._ Spare me! oh spare!

_Priest._ Speak not, polluted one.

_Vestal._ Yet spare me!

_Priest._ Thou pleadst in vain--thy destiny is fixed.

_Vestal._ Mercy--oh! mercy; tho' my sin be great, Life is so beautiful I cannot die; And earth seems smiling with intenser light, And flowers give forth an odour ever new, The stars look brighter still than when of old I watched them fading from the mountain top: Earth, sky and air, are all so beautiful, I cannot, dare not, will not, think of death!

_Priest._ It is thy doom! thy living grave is near. Thou hast despoiled the Goddess of her due, The vow thou gavest to her thou hast broken, And thou must pay the awful penalty!

_Vestal._ The grave--a living grave--thou meanst it not-- To ope my eyes in th' ever during dark, To breathe a thick and frightful atmosphere, Drawn from my sighs and dampened with my tears!

_Priest._ The Gods demand their victim!

_Vestal._ 'Tis blasphemy to think it; Oh! if thou ever knew'st a father's love, A mother's sigh, a sister's soft caress, If but one human sympathy be left, Pardon, oh! pardon!

_Priest._ Cling not around me, girl, touch, touch me not; The power to pardon lieth not in man. Thy hour hath come.

_Vestal, (clasping him)._ I will not quit thee; Thou art a man with human sympathies; Madness will touch my brain; I cannot, will not yield. Grant me some other death: poison or steel, Or aught that sends me suddenly from earth; But to be wrapt in clay, and yet not of it, To feel the earth crumbling around my brow, To scent its foul and noisome atmosphere, Is more than frail mortality can bear.

ANON.

Enraged at this daring, Jupiter had him conveyed to Mount Caucasus, where being chained to the rock, a vulture preyed upon his entrails, which grew as fast as they were devoured, thus subjecting him to a never dying torture.

"Awful sufferer! To thee unwilling, most unwillingly I come, by the great Father's will driven down, To execute a doom of new revenge. Alas! I pity thee, and hate myself, That I can do no more: aye from thy sight Returning, for a season, heaven seems hell, So thy worn form pursues me night and day, Smiling reproach. Wise art thou, firm and good, But vainly wouldst stand forth alone in strife Against the Omnipotent: as yon clear lamps, That measure and divide the weary years From which there is no refuge, long have taught And long must teach. Even now the Torturer arms With the strange might of unimagined pains The powers who scheme slow agonies in hell; And my commission is to lead them here, Or what more subtle, foul, or savage fiends People the abyss, and leave them to their task. Oh that we might be spared: I to inflict, And thou to suffer! once more answer me: Thou knowest not the period of Jove's power?

_Prometheus._ I know but this, that it must come.

_First Fury._ Prometheus!

_Second Fury._ Immortal Titan!

_Third Fury._ Champion of Heaven's slaves!

_Pro._ He whom some dreadful voice invokes is here, Prometheus, the chained Titan. Horrible forms, Whence and what are ye? Never yet there came {20} Phantasms so foul thro' monster-teeming hell, From the all miscreative brain of Jove; Whilst I behold such execrable shapes, Methinks I grow like what I contemplate, And laugh and stare in loathsome sympathy.

_First Fury._ We are ministers of pain, and fear, And disappointment, and mistrust, and hate, And clinging crime; and, as lean dogs pursue Thro' wood and lake some struck and sobbing fawn, We track all things that weep, and bleed, and live, When the great king betrays them to our will.

_Pro._ Oh! many fearful natures in one name, I know ye; and these lakes and echoes know The darkness and the clangour of your wings. But why more hideous than your loathed selves Gather ye up in legions from the deep!

_Second Fury._ We knew not that: Sisters, rejoice! rejoice!

_Pro._ Can aught exult in its deformity?

_Second Fury._ The beauty of delight makes lovers glad, Gazing on one another: so are we, As from the rose which the pale priestess kneels To gather for a festal crown of flowers, The aerial crimson falls, flushing her cheek, So from our victim's destined agony, The shade which is our form invests us round; Else we are shapeless as our mother night.

_Pro._ I laugh your power, and his who sent you here, To lowest scorn. Pour forth the cup of pain.

_First Fury._ Thou thinkest we will rend thee bone from bone, And nerve from nerve, working like fire within!

_Pro._ Pain is my element, as hate is thine; Ye rend me now; I care not.

_Second Fury._ Dost imagine We will but laugh into thy lidless eyes?

_Pro._ I weigh not what ye do, but what ye suffer, Being evil. Cruel is the power which called You, or aught else so wretched into light!

_Third Fury._ Thou think'st we will live through thee one by one, Like animal life, and though we can obscure not The soul which burns within, that we will dwell Beside it, like a vain, loud multitude, Vexing the self-content of wisest men: That we will be dread thought beneath thy brain, And foul desire round thine astonished heart, And blood within thy labyrinthine veins, Crawling like agony.

_Pro._ Why use me thus now, Yet am I king over my self's rule, The torturing and conflicting throes within, As Jove rules you when hell grows mutinous."

SHELLEY.

This provoked the vengeance of Jupiter, and he ordered Vulcan to create a female, whom they called Pandora. All the Gods vied in making presents. Venus gave her beauty, and the art of pleasing; {21} Apollo taught her to sing; Mercury instructed her in eloquence; Minerva gave her the most rich and splendid ornaments. From these valuable presents which she received from the Gods, the woman was called Pandora, which intimates that she had received every necessary gift. Jupiter, after this, gave her a beautiful box, which she was ordered to present to the man who married her; and by the command of the god, Mercury conducted her to Prometheus. The artful mortal was sensible of the deceit; and as he had always distrusted Jupiter, he sent away Pandora without suffering himself to be captivated by her charms.