CHAPTER XXXII. THE PRESERVATION OF MYTHS 450
Traditional History. In Greece. Roman Poets of Mythology. Records of Norse Mythology. Records of German Mythology. Records of Oriental Mythology: Egyptian. Indian Records. Persian Records.
COMMENTARY 465
RULES FOR PRONUNCIATION 541
INDEX OF MYTHOLOGICAL SUBJECTS AND SOURCES 543
INDEX OF MODERN AUTHORS AND ARTISTS 582
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
FIGURE PAGE
1. Jupiter surveying the World. Roman Wall Painting, Naples: _Herculaneum and Pompeii, by H. Roux Ainé_ 3
2. Athena and Giant. Greek Bronze, Mus. Kircherianum: _Journal of Hellenic Studies, 4, 90_ 7
3. Zeus and Giants. Ancient Gem: _Baumeister 3, 1791_ 8
4. Prometheus making Man. Roman Sarcophagus in the Capitoline: _Baumeister 3, 1568_ 9
Upper row, from left to right: Oceanus, the Sun-god, Clotho, Lachesis, etc. Lower row: Cupid and Psyche, Gæa (Tellus), Prometheus, the newly created Man to whom Minerva gives life (the butterfly). Death, Cupid with down-turned torch, the first man dead, Atropos, Mercury.
5. Poseidon (Neptune), Dionysus (Bacchus) and Goddess. East Frieze, Parthenon, in the British Museum: _Photograph_ 17
6. Two Hours. Greek Vase Painting, St. Petersburg: _Roscher 1, 2727_ 18
7. Zeus from Dodona. Greek Bronze: _Photograph_ 20
8. Zeus after Phidias. Coin of Elis: _A. S. Murray, Greek Bronzes, opp. p. 81_ 21
9. Hera of Argos. Greek Marble: _Argive Heræum, 1_ 22
10. Athena Velletri. Ancient Marble in the Louvre: _Photograph_ 23
11. Ares Ludovisi. Ancient Marble in Rome: _Photograph_ 24
12. Ares (Mars). Painting by Raphael: _Photograph_ 25
13. The Forge of Vulcan. Roman Relief: _Baumeister 3, 1640_ 25
14. Apollo (so-called Adonis). Ancient Marble in the Vatican: _Photograph_ 26
15. Apollo Belvedere. Ancient Marble in the Vatican: _Photograph_ 27
16. Apollo. Greek Bronze from Thessaly, British Museum: _Murray, Greek Bronzes, Fig. 28_ 28
17. Diana. Painting by Correggio: _Photograph_ 29
18. Diana (Artemis) of Versailles. Ancient Marble in the Louvre: _Photograph_ 30
19. Artemis Knagia. Ancient Silver Medallion from Herculaneum: _Roscher 1, 566_ 31
20. Hermes Psychopompos. Greek Stele of Myrrhina: _P. Gardner, Sculptured Tombs, Fig. 72_ 34
Hermes (Mercury) leading to the underworld the spirit of a lady, Myrrhina, who has just died. From a relief on her tomb.
21. Eros (Cupid). Ancient Marble, Naples: _Photograph_ 36
22. Rape of Ganymede. Ancient Marble in the Vatican: _Baumeister 2, 891_ 37
23. Polyhymnia. Ancient Marble, Berlin: _Baumeister 2, 1185_ 37
24. The Three Fates. Painting attributed to Michelangelo, but recently conjectured to be by Rosso Fiorentino. Florence: _Photograph_ 38
25. Boreas. Greek Reliefs, Athens: _Baumeister 3, 2370_ 39
26. Zephyros. Greek Reliefs, Athens: _Baumeister 3, 2370_ 39
27. Boreas carrying off Orithyia. Greek Vase Painting, Munich: _Baumeister 1, 373_ 40
28. Iris carrying Child. Vase Painting: _Gerhard, Auserlesene Vasenbilder, 2, 83_ 41
29. Demeter of Knidos. Greek Marble in the British Museum: _E. von Mach, Handbook of Greek and Roman Sculpture, Plate 247_ 42
30. Ceres. Roman Wall Painting: _I. Weir, Greek Painting, p. 343_ 43
31. Dionysus and the Vine. Ancient Marble in the British Museum: _Roscher 1, 292_ 44
32. Pan the Hunter. Ancient Terra Cotta: _Murray and Hutton, Plate VI_ 45
33. A Satyr with Grafting Materials. Ancient Gem: _Pine's Virgil_ 46
34. The Greek Underworld. Ancient Vase Painting from Canusium: _Baumeister 3, 2042 B_ 48
Center: Hades and Persephone. Above, left: Megara, wife of Heracles, and two of her children, slain by Heracles when mad. Above, right: a Fury guarding Pirithoüs and Theseus. Middle, left: Orpheus playing and dancing, and an unknown family group. Middle, right: the three judges of the dead. Below: Sisyphus, a Fury, Hermes, Heracles with Cerberus, a Fury, Tantalus.
35. Hermes conducting a Soul to Charon. Ancient Terra Cotta: _Archäologische Zeitung, Berlin_ 49
36. Hypnos (_Somnus_, Sleep). _Murray, Greek Bronzes, opp. p. 72_ 50
37. A Fury. Ancient Vase Painting: _Roscher 1, 1334_ 51
38. Hades. Ancient Marble in the Villa Borghese, Rome: _Baumeister 1, 690_ 53
39. Death, Sleep, and Hermes laying a Body in the Tomb. Ancient Vase Painting: _P. Gardner, Sculptured Tombs, Fig. 5_ 54
40. Poseidon from Dodona. Greek Bronze in the British Museum: _Murray, Greek Bronzes, Fig. 32_ 55
41. Wedding of Poseidon and Amphitrite. Ancient Marble Frieze, Munich: _Baumeister 3, 1744 B_ 56
42. Triton carrying off a Nymph. Ancient Marble in the Vatican: _Baumeister 3, 1964_ 57
43. Bearded Janus. Roman Coin: _Baumeister 2, 1166 A_ 60
44. Genius Loci. Wall Painting from Herculaneum in the Naples Museum: _Gusman, Pompeii, p. 107_ 62
45. Ganymede feeding the Eagle. Ancient Relief: _Pietro Santi Bartoli, Gli. Antichi Sepolcri_ 64
46. Hermes (Mercury) kills Argus in presence of Zeus. Ancient Vase Painting: _Roscher 2, 279_ 65
47. Io, Argus, and Mercury. Wall Painting from Herculaneum in the Naples Museum: _Baumeister 1, 802_ 66
48. Europa on the Bull. Greek Vase Painting: _Harrison-Maccoll, Plate IV_ 69
49. Nereïds on Sea Beasts. Ancient Marble Frieze in Munich: _Baumeister 3, 1744 A_ 70
50. Youthful Bacchus embracing Semele in presence of Apollo and a Satyr. Etruscan Mirror, Berlin: _Baumeister 1, 557_ 71
51. Amphion and Zethus. Ancient Relief in the Palazzo Spada, Rome: _Roscher 2, 311_ 76
52. Contest of Athena and Poseidon for the Supremacy of Athens. Ancient Vase Painting, St. Petersburg: _Baumeister 3, 1542_ 83
53. Athena. Ancient Marble in Hope Collection: _Furtwängler, Masterpieces, Fig. 27_ 85
54. Cadmus slaying the Dragon. Ancient Vase Painting, Naples: _Baumeister 2, 822_ 87
Athena counseling. Above: river-god Ismenos, fountain-nymph Krene, and personification of Thebes.
55. Harmonia in Company of Deities. Greek Vase Painting: _Ephemeris, 1897-1898, Plate X_ 89
Aphrodite, Eros, Harmonia standing, Peitho (Persuasion) sitting, and Koré, Hebe, Himeros (Desire).
56. The Forge of Vulcan. Painting by Velasquez: _Photograph_ 90
57. A Sacrifice to Apollo. Greek Vase Painting: _Gardner-Jevons Manual, p. 249, Fig. 16_ 91
58. Apollo with Hyacinthus. Ancient Marble in Hope Collection: _Roscher 16-17, 2765_ 93
59. The Fall of Phaëthon. Roman Relief in the Louvre: _Baumeister 3, 1449_ 97
Upper left-hand corner: Phaëthon making his request of Helios (Ph[oe]bus). Below: the Heliades turning into trees. Center: the maddened horses, one chariot wheel, and Phaëthon falling into the arms of Eridanus. The horsemen left and right of the four horses are Castor and Pollux. Earth-gods, sea-gods, and other figures.
60. A Son of Niobe. Ancient Marble in Florence: _Baumeister 3, 1751_ 100
61. The Children of Niobe. Ancient Relief, St. Petersburg: _Baumeister 3, 1759_ 101
62. Niobe and her Youngest Daughter. Ancient Marble, Florence: _Baumeister 3, 1746_ 102
63. Æsculapius (Asklepios). Ancient Marble, Florence: _Furtwängler, Masterpieces, Fig. 87_ 104
64. Admetus must Die. Wall painting from Herculaneum in Naples: _Baumeister 1, 53_ 106
65. Heracles. Ancient Marble in Lansdowne House: _Photograph_ 108
66. The Palatine Apollo. Ancient Marble in Vatican: _Baumeister 1, 104_ 110
67. Daphne. Ancient Marble: _Springer, Kunstgeschichte, 1, 336_ 113
68. Artemis (Diana). Ancient Marble, Dresden: _Furtwängler, Masterpieces, p. 325_ 117
69. Arethusa. Ancient Coin: _Baumeister 2, 1140_ 118
70. A Young River-god. Ancient Bronze Head: _Roscher 9, 1489_ 119
71. Actæon. Ancient Marble Relief: _Baumeister 1, 41_ 121
72. The Pleiades. Painting by Elihu Vedder: _Photograph_ 123
73. Endymion. Ancient Relief in the Capitoline, Rome: _E. von Mach, Handbook of Greek and Roman Sculpture, Plate 306_ 124
74. The Death of Adonis. Ancient Marble in the Louvre: _Baumeister 1, 17_ 127
Right: Adonis leaves Venus. Center: he is wounded. Left: he is cared for by Venus, Cupid, and attendants.
75. Psyche at the Couch of Cupid. Painting by Thumann: _Photograph_ 130
76. Psyche and Cupid on Mount Olympus. Painting by Thumann: _Photograph_ 136
77. Artemis of Gabii. Ancient Marble in the Louvre: _E. von Mach, Handbook of Greek and Roman Sculpture, Plate 207_ 139
78. Atalanta's Race. Painting by Poynter: _Photograph_ 140
79. Hero and Leander. Painting by Keller: _Photograph_ 144
80. Thisbe. Painting by Edward Burne-Jones: _Photograph_ 148
81. Hermes and Dog disguised as Pig. Ancient Vase Painting, Vienna: _Harrison-Maccoll, Plate XXXIIIa_ 151
82. Silenus taking Dionysus (Bacchus) to School. Ancient Terra Cotta: _Murray and Hutton, Fig. 36_ 152
83. Bearded Dionysus on Mule, attended by Satyr. Old Greek Terra Cotta Relief: _Baumeister 1, 481_ 153
84. Satyr and Mænad with Child Dionysus. Ancient Relief: _Baumeister 2, 932_ 154
85. Dionysus at Sea. Greek Vase Painting in the Pinakothek, Munich: _Harrison-Maccoll, Plate I_ 155
86. Bacchic Procession. Greek Vase Painting: _Arch. Zeit._ 156
87. Dionysus visiting a Poet. Ancient Relief, Naples: _Baumeister 3, 1849_ 157
88. Rape of Proserpina. Ancient Relief: _Baumeister 1, 461_ 159
89. Hades and Persephone. Ancient Terra Cotta: _P. Gardner, Sculptured Tombs, Fig. 29_ 161
90. Sacrifice to Demeter and Persephone. Greek Relief in Paris: _Baumeister 1, 457_ 162
91. Triptolemus and the Eleusinian Deities. Greek Vase Painting: _Baumeister 3, 1958_ 164
Demeter behind the chariot and Persephone and the nymph Eleusis in front.
92. Demeter (Ceres), Triptolemus, and Proserpina. Greek Relief: _E. von Mach, Handbook of Greek and Roman Sculpture, Plate 178_ 165
93. Orpheus and Eurydice. Painting by Lord Leighton: _Photograph_ 166
94. Farewell of Orpheus and Eurydice (Mercury ready to lead her away). Ancient Marble Relief in Villa Albani, Rome: _Photograph_ 167
95. Isthmian Poseidon. Ancient Marble in Lateran: _Springer, Kunstgeschichte, 1, Fig. 495_ 169
96. Pelops winning the Race; Hippodamia looking on. Ancient Vase Painting: _Baumeister 2, 1395_ 171
97. Phosphor, Eos, and Helios (the Sun) rising from the Sea. Ancient Vase Painting: _Gerhard, Akademische Abhandlungen_ 172
98. Sun, rising, preceded by Dawn. Painting by Guido Reni: _Photograph_ 173
99. Sunrise; Eos (Dawn) pursuing Cephalus. Greek Vase Painting: _P. Gardner, Grammar of Greek Art, Fig. 71_ 174
The young stars descending; to the left, the moon (Selene) riding over the hills.
100. The God of Sleep. Ancient Relief: _Baumeister 1, 770_ 176
101. The Death of Memnon (Aurora lifting his body). Greek Vase Painting in the Louvre: _Harrison-Maccoll, Plate XVIII_ 180
102. Pan blowing his Pipe, Echo answering. Ancient Earthenware Lamp: _Baumeister 1, 514_ 182
103. The Music Lesson (Pan teaching a Boy). Ancient Marble, Florence: _Baumeister 2, 1340_ 184
104. Bacchic Dance (Nymph and Satyrs). Ancient Relief: _Baumeister 3, 1931_ 184
105. Silenus. From an ancient candelabrum in Munich: _Baumeister 2, 895_ 185
106. Satyr (Marble Faun). Ancient Marble in the Capitoline, Rome: _Photograph_ 186
107. Satyr swinging Maiden. Greek Vase Painting in Berlin: _Harrison-Maccoll, Plate XXXII_ 186
108. Satyr drinking from Amphora. Ancient Vase Painting in Baltimore: _Harrison-Maccoll, Plate IX_ 187
109. Narcissus gazing at his Reflection. Wall Painting from Pompeii, Naples: _Baumeister 2, 1213_ 188
110. A Rustic. Wall Painting from Herculaneum 195
111. A Rustic. Wall Painting from Herculaneum 196
112. Galatea and Polyphemus. Wall Painting in House of Germanicus, Rome: _Roscher 9, 1587_ 199
113. A Sea-god, perhaps Glaucus. Ancient Marble in Vatican: _Baumeister 2, 987_ 200
114. Nereïds and Sea Monsters. Ancient Relief: _Baumeister 2, 1216_ 204
115. The Danaïds. Ancient Marble Relief in Vatican: _Roscher 6, 951_ 207
116. Danaë and Perseus and the Chest. Greek Vase Painting in St. Petersburg: _Harrison-Maccoll, Plate XXXIV_ 208
117. Medusa Rondanini (Front View). Ancient Marble in Munich: _Furtwängler, Masterpieces, Fig. 63_ 209
118. Medusa Rondanini (Profile). Ancient Marble in Munich: _Furtwängler, Masterpieces, Fig. 63_ 209
119. Perseus. Marble by Cellini in Florence: _Photograph_ 210
120. Perseus with the Head of Medusa. Ancient Vase Painting: _Gerhard_ 211
121. Perseus finds Andromeda. Ancient Vase Painting in Museum, Berlin: _Jahrbuch des D. Arch. Instituts XI (1896), Plate II_ 212
Right: Aphrodite holding wreath over Perseus' head. Left: Cepheus seated, Hermes with his wand, and an Æthiopian inhabitant.
122. Bellerophon and Pegasus. Ancient Relief: _Baumeister 1, 317_ 215
123. Heracles strangling the Nemean Lion. Greek Vase Painting in British Museum: _Baumeister 1, 722_ 217
Left: Iolaiis and the local nymph Nemea. Right: Athena and Hermes.
124. Heracles killing the Hydra (behind him Athena and Iolaiis). Greek Vase Painting: _Baumeister 1, 724_ 217
125. Heracles bringing Home the Boar (Eurystheus hiding in a wine jar). Greek Vase Painting: _Harrison-Maccoll, Plate XII_ 218
126. Heracles with the Bull: Metope of the Temple of Zeus at Olympia: _Baumeister 2, 1285_ 219
127. Heracles and Cerberus. Greek Vase Painting: _Baumeister 1, 730_ 220
Left: Athena and Hermes. Right: Goddess of the Underworld.
128. Heracles and Antæus. Greek Vase Painting in Athens: _Harrison-Maccoll, Plate XXIV_ 221
129. Hercules and Nessus (Dejanira in Chariot). Wall Painting from Pompeii: _Baumeister 1, 733_ 226
130. The Building of the Argo, Athene directing. Ancient Terra Cotta Relief in the British Museum: _Baumeister 1, 127_ 229
131. Jason conquers the Bulls and steals the Fleece. Ancient Relief in Vienna: _Baumeister 2, 981_ 231
Center: Æetes seated. Right: Medea assists her lover.
132. Medea deliberating upon the Murder of her Children. Wall Painting from Herculaneum: _Baumeister 2, 948_ 234
133. Medea and Daughters of Pelias preparing the Caldron. Ancient Marble Relief, Berlin: _Photograph_ 235
134. Meleager on the Boar Hunt. Roman Relief: _Baumeister 2, 990_ 238
Atalanta appears twice,--as before the hunt to the left of the central figures, as during the hunt in front of Meleager, and shooting an arrow into the boar.
135. The Death of Meleager. Roman Sarcophagus in the Louvre: _Baumeister 2, 991_ 241
Right: the contest between Meleager and his uncles. Left: Althæa putting the fateful brand into the fire; behind her a Fury whose torch has lighted the fire. Center: the dying Meleager, and Atalanta seated mourning.
136, 137. Castor and Pollux capturing the Giant Talus. Ancient Vase Painting: _Baumeister 3, 1804_ 244, 245
Pollux on foot in front of Medea. Seated Deities on right, Poseidon and Amphitrite.
138. Dædalus and Icarus. Ancient Relief in the Villa Albani, Rome: _Roscher 6, 934_ 247
139. So-called Theseus. Greek Marble in the Parthenon: _Baumeister 2, 1370_ 249
140. Æthra caresses Theseus and sends him forth with his Father's Sword. Greek Vase Painting, St. Petersburg: _Harrison-Maccoll, Plate XXII_ 251
141. Theseus receiving Thanks from the Rescued after killing the Minotaur. Campanian Wall Painting in Naples: _Baumeister 3, 1876_ 252
142. The Sleeping Ariadne. Ancient Marble in Vatican: _Baumeister 1, 130_ 254
143. Head of Dionysus. Ancient Marble, Leyden: _Roscher 7, 1128_ 256
144. The Revels of Bacchus and Ariadne. Roman Sarcophagus: _Baumeister 1, 492_ 257
Large figures from left to right: Priest, Satyr, Mænad, Mercury, Bacchus and Ariadne seated, Satyr, Mænad, priest. Small figures: Desire (Himeros) and Love leading Pan captive, followed by Silenus.
145. Lapith and Centaur fighting. Greek Metope from the Parthenon, British Museum: _Photograph_ 259
146. [OE]dipus and the Sphinx. Greek Vase Painting: _P. Gardner, Grammar of Greek Art, Fig. 70_ 261
147. Eteocles and Polynices kill each other. Etruscan Relief, Florence: _Baumeister 3, 1841_ 266
148. The Gods bring Wedding Gifts. Ancient Relief from the Villa Albani, Rome: _Baumeister 1, 759_ 271
From right to left, married couple, Vulcan, Minerva, the four seasons (Winter, Spring, Summer, Autumn) Hymen with torch, Comus, Amor pushing jealous deity away.
149. Map of the Troad and the Hellespont 273
150. Helen persuaded by Aphrodite; Paris (Alexander) held by Love. Ancient Relief in Naples: _E. von Mach, Handbook, Plate 312_ 277
151. Achilles taken from Scyros by Ulysses (to the right) and Diomedes (to the left). Pompeian Wall Painting, Naples: _Roscher 1, 27_ 279
152. The Sacrifice of Iphigenia. Pompeian Wall Painting, Naples: _Baumeister 1, 807_ 281
153. The Surrender of Briseïs. Relief by Thorwaldsen: _Photograph_ 284
154. Hector's Farewell. Relief by Thorwaldsen: _Photograph_ 291
155, 156. The Embassy to Achilles. Greek Vase Painting: _P. Gardner, Grammar of Greek Art, Fig. 72_ 294, 295
Left section: Briseïs is led away. Right section: Ajax and Ulysses, leaning on staff, plead with Achilles; at the right, Ph[oe]nix.
157. The Battle by the Ships. Greek Vase Painting: _Baumeister 1, 783_ 296
Perhaps the moment when Ajax retreats. Hector presses upon him followed by a youth with a torch. At the extreme right, Paris drawing a bow.
158. Supposed Menelaüs with the Body of Patroclus. Ancient Marble, Florence: _Baumeister 1, 785_ 298
159. Contest of Achilles and Hector. Ancient Vase Painting: _Baumeister 1, 788_ 302
Left: Athene. Right: Apollo.
160. Achilles over the Body of Hector at the Tomb of Patroclus (whose shade is running above the tomb). Greek Vase Painting: _P. Gardner, Sculptured Tombs, Fig. 40_ 303
161. Priam's Visit to Achilles (under whose couch lies the body of Hector). Greek Vase Painting: _Baumeister 1, 791_ 304
Achilles has been taking his dinner. Servants bear gifts behind Priam.
162. Achilles and the Amazon Penthesilea. Greek Vase Painting: _Baumeister 3, 2123_ 307
163. [OE]none warning Paris not to sail for Greece. Ancient Relief, in the Villa Ludovisi, Rome: _Baumeister 2, 1360_ 309
164. The Wooden Horse. Ancient Gem: _Baumeister 1, 794_ 310
165, 166. The Sack of Troy. Greek Vase Painting, Naples: _Baumeister 1, 795_ 312, 313
Priam on altar, Astyanax on his lap, and Polites, whom Pyrrhus has just killed, at his feet. Pyrrhus is about to strike Priam. Behind him rushes Andromache to strike a kneeling soldier. Below, under the palm tree, sits Hecuba facing the statue of Minerva (a Palladium) behind which Helen is seen to cower. In front Cassandra clings to the statue, while Ajax, striding over the body of her dead lover, tries to drag her away by the hair. To the left, Æneas, with Anchises in his arms, and little Ascanius are hastening away.
167. Orestes and Electra at the Tomb of Agamemnon. Greek Vase Painting: _Baumeister 3, 1939_ 315
168. Orestes pursued by Furies. Greek Vase Painting: _Baumeister 2, 1313_ 316
169. Orestes and Pylades before the King of the Tauri (Iphigenia as a priestess on the steps of the temple). Wall Painting from Pompeii, Naples: _Springer, Kunstgeschichte, 1, 529_ 316
170. Ulysses offering the Cyclops Wine. Ancient Statuette in the Vatican: _Baumeister 2, 1251_ 318
171. Boring out the Cyclops' Eye. From an Attic Vase: _P. Gardner, Grammar of Greek Art, p. 225_ 322
172. Ulysses and Two Companions under the Rams. Greek Vase Painting: _Harrison-Maccoll, Plate XXIX_ 323
173. The Castle of Circe. Sicilian Vase Painting: _Baumeister 2, 839_ 325
174. Ulysses and the Sirens. Greek Vase Painting in the British Museum: _P. Gardner, Grammar of Greek Art, p. 227, Fig. 78_ 329
175. Ulysses and Scylla. Etruscan Relief: _Baumeister 3, 1762_ 330
176. Penelope at the Loom, and Telemachus. Greek Vase Painting in Museum, Chiusi: _Harrison-Maccoll, Plate XLI_ 339
177. Ulysses recognized by Euryclea (behind him Eumæus). Ancient Terra Cotta Relief: _Baumeister 2, 1257_ 341
178, 179. Ulysses kills the Suitors. Greek Vase Painting, Berlin: _Baumeister 3, 2139_ 342, 343
It will be seen that the suitors are defending themselves.
180. The Nike (Victory) of Samothrace. Greek Statue in the Louvre: _Von Mach, Greek Sculpture, Plate facing p. 30_ 345
181. Æneas, Anchises, and Iulus. Ancient Gem, Uffizi, Florence 347
182. Scylla (carved end of ancient table). _Chefs d'[OE]uvres de l'Art Antique_, Paris, 1867 349
183. The Cumæan Sibyl. Painting by Michelangelo in the Vatican: _Photograph_ 353
184. Ixion on the wheel. Ancient Vase Painting, Berlin: _Baumeister 1, Fig. 821_ 358
Below, right: Vulcan looking at his handiwork; a Fury and Hermes. Above: winged forms, perhaps the Hours, to see that the motion is perpetual. One is even now shoving the wheel; the other has just taken off her hand to point "your turn."
185. Amazon. Ancient Marble Statue: _Guhl and Koner_ 364
186. Valkyrie bearing a Hero to Valhalla. Painting by Dielitz: _Photograph_ 375
187. Loki and Siguna. Painting by Gebhardt: _Photograph_ 393
188. Gunther and Brunhild. Fresco by Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld: _Photograph_ 406
189. Siegfried and Kriemhild. Fresco by Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld: _Photograph_ 407
FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS AND MAPS
PAGE
Lemnian Athena Frontispiece
Statue, possibly after Phidias, reconstructed by Furtwängler from torso in Dresden and head in Bologna: _Photograph_.
Hera of the Vatican 22
Ancient Marble in the Vatican: _Photograph_.
Venus (Aphrodite) of Melos 32
Greek Marble in the Louvre: _Photograph_.
Greece in the Fifth Century B.C. 64
The Farnese Bull Group: Amphion, Zethus, Dirce, and Antiope 74
Ancient Marble in Naples: _E. von Mach, Handbook, Fig. 44_.
Apollo and Daphne 112
Marble Group by Bernini, Villa Borghese, Rome: _Photograph_.
Aphrodite (Petworth Head) 126
Ancient Marble in London: _Furtwängler, Masterpieces, Plate XVII_.
Eros with Bow 136
Ancient Marble in the Capitoline Museum: _Baumeister 1, 539_.
Hermes of Praxiteles 150
Greek Marble in Olympia: _Photograph_.
Perseus freeing Andromeda 212
Ancient Relief in the Capitoline Museum: _Roscher 2, 346_.
The Wedding of Hercules and Hebe 226
Ancient Apulian Vase Painting in Berlin: _Baumeister 1, 700_.
Amazon 306
Ancient Marble in Lansdowne House: _Photograph_.
Laocoön 310
Greek Marble in the Vatican: _Photograph_.
The Outer Geography of the Odyssey 318
Flying Mercury 330
Statue by Giovanni di Bologna in Florence: _Photograph_.
Italy before the Growth of the Roman Empire 346
The Victory (Nike) of Brescia 372
Ancient Bronze Statue: _E. von Mach, Greek Sculpture, Plate XXXV, No. 4_.
INTRODUCTION
THE STUDY OF MYTHOLOGY IN CONNECTION WITH ENGLISH POETRY AND WITH ART
Our American educational methods too frequently seek to produce the effect of polish upon a kind of sandstone information that will not stand polishing. With such fatuity many of our teachers in the secondary schools exercise their pupils in the study of English masterpieces and in the critical estimate of æsthetic qualities before acquainting them with the commonplace facts and fables that, transmitted through generations, are the material of much of our poetry because the material of daily converse, imagination, and thought. These commonplaces of tradition are to be found largely in the literature of mythology. Of course the evil would be neither so widespread nor so dangerous if more of the guardians and instructors of our youth were at home even among the Greek and Latin classics. But for various reasons,--some valid, as, for instance, the importance of increased attention to the modern languages and the natural sciences; others worthless, as the so-called utilitarian protest against the cultivation of "dead" languages,--for various reasons the study of the classics is at present considerably impaired. It is, therefore, incumbent upon our universities and schools, recognizing this fact and deploring it, to abate so far as possible the unfortunate consequences that proceed therefrom, until, by a readjustment of subjects of instruction and of the periods allotted them, the Greek and Latin classics shall be reinstated in their proper place as a means of discipline, a humanizing influence, the historic background against which our present appears. For, cut off from the intellectual and imaginative sources of Greece and Rome, the state and statesmanship, legislation and law, society and manners, philosophy, religion, literature, art, and even artistic appreciation, run readily shallow and soon dry.
Now, one evident means of tempering the consequence of this neglect of the classics is the study of them through translations and summaries. Such secondhand study must indeed be ever a makeshift; for the literature of a people inheres in its language, and loses its seeming and often its characteristic when caparisoned in the trappings of another speech,--an utterance totally dissimilar, the outcome of diverse conditions of physical environment, history, social and intellectual tradition. But in dealing with the purely imaginative products of antiquity, the inefficacy of translation may be somewhat offset if those products be reproduced, so far as possible, not in the prosaic but in the poetic atmosphere and in the imaginative garb of art. For though the phenomena of plastic art are not the same in one continent as in another, or from one century to the next, and though the fashion of poetry itself varies from age to age and from clime to clime, the genesis of imagination is universal, its products are akin, and its process is continuous. For this reason the study of the imaginative thought of the ancients through the artistic creations of the moderns is commended to students and readers as feasible and profitable.
The study of the classic myths stimulates to creative production, prepares for the appreciation of poetry and other kinds of art, and furnishes a clew to the spiritual development of the race.
1. Classic mythology has been for succeeding poetry, sculpture, and painting, a treasure house replete with golden tales and glimmering thoughts, passions in the rough and smooth, and fancies rich bejeweled. Like Virgil's Shadows that flit by the Lethean stream until at beck of Fate they revisit upper day and the ever-tranquil stars, these ghosts of "far-off things and battles long ago," peopling the murmurous glades of myth, await the artist who shall bestow on each his new and predetermined form and restore them, purified and breathing of Elysian air, to the world of life and ever-young mankind.
2. For the reader the study of mythology does, in this respect, as much as for poet, sculptor, or painter. It assists him to thrid the labyrinth of art, not merely with the clew of tradition, but with a thread of surer knowledge whose surest strand is sympathy.
The knowledge of mythic lore has led men in the past broadly to appreciate the motives and conditions of ancient art and literature, and the uniform and ordered evolution of the æsthetic sense. And, beside enriching us with heirlooms of fiction and pointing us to the sources of imaginative joy from which early poets of Hellenic verse, or Norse, or English, drank, the classic myths quicken the imaginative and emotional faculties to-day, just as of old. How many a man held by the sorrows of the Labdacidæ or the love of Alcestis, by some curious wonder in Pausanias, or some woe in Hyginus, has waked to the consciousness of artistic fancy and creative force within himself! How many, indifferent to the well-known round, the trivial task, the nearest care of home, have read the Farewell to Andromache and lived a new sympathy, an unselfish thrill, a purified delight! And not only as an impulse toward artistic output, or patriotic devotion, or domestic altruism, but as a restraining influence, a chastener of æsthetic excess, a moderator of the "unchartered freedom" that knows no mean between idolatry and loathing, of the foolish frenzy that affects new things, abnormal and sensational, in literature, music, and the plastic arts,--as such a tutor and governor is the study of beautiful myths invaluable. Long familiarity with the sweet simplicity, the orderly restraint, the severe regard, the filial awe that pervade the myths of Greece and Rome,--or with the newness of life and fullness and wonder of it, the naïveté and the romance, of Eddic lore,--cannot but graciously temper our modern estimate of artistic worth.
The study, when illustrated by masterpieces of literature and art, should lead to the appreciation of concrete artistic productions of both these kinds.
It goes without saying that a rational series of somewhat consecutive stories is more serviceable to the reader than a congeries of data acquired by spasmodic consultation of the classical dictionary,--a mass of information bolted, as it were, but by no means digested. If, moreover, these stories are narrated in genealogical and realistic sequence and are illustrated by lyric, narrative, and descriptive passages of modern literature, there is furnished not only that material of allusion and reference for which the student nowadays trusts to meager and disjointed textbook notes, but a potentiality that should render the general reading of _belles-lettres_ more profitable. For a previous acquaintance with the material of literary tradition heightens the appreciation of each allusive passage as it is encountered; it enables the reader to sympathize with the mood and to enter into the purpose of the poet, the essayist, the novelist, the orator; it expands the intellectual lungs for the atmosphere breathed by the artist, at any rate for a literary and social atmosphere less asthmatic than that to which so many of us are unconsciously habituated. Of course all this advantage would far better result from the first-hand nutriment and discipline of the Greek and Latin classics; of course direct familiarity with the writers of Greece and Rome is the _sine qua non_ of level-headed criticism and broad evaluation of modern literature; and, of course, a sympathy with the imaginings of old is the best incentive to an æsthetic estimate not only of art but of nature to-day; but if our American pupils and many of their teachers cannot quaff Massic and Falernian, they do well to scent the bouquet. In time a sense of flavor may perchance be stimulated, and ultimately a desire for nearer acquaintance with the literatures that we inherit.
The study of these ancient tales serves, then, much more than the purpose of special information. It refines the æsthetic judgment in general, and heightens the enjoyment of such works of literature as, not treating of mythical or classical subjects, still possess the characteristics of the classic: the unconscious simplicity, the inevitable charm, and the noble ideality. The Lycidas, the Adonais, the Thyrsis, the In Memoriam, the Ode to Duty, the Bothie of Tober-na-Vuolich, the Hymn of Man, Love is Enough, Prospice, Festus, the Ode of Life, the Dream of Gerontius, Lying in the Grass, and Simmenthal must mean little to one devoid of the spirit of classicism.
In respect of art a similar inspiration, aid, instruction, are afforded by the study. This volume is liberally supplied with cuts of famous paintings and sculptures of mythical subjects. Familiarity with specimens of ancient art, even through the medium of photography and engraving, must not only cultivate the historic sense but stimulate the æsthetic. The cruder efforts of the ancients, no less than the more refined, are windows through which we view the ancient mind. The frequent contemplation of their nobler efforts and of the modern masterpieces here reproduced may avail to lift some from the level of apathy or provinciality in matters of imagination; some it may spur to a study of the originals, some to artistic creation. A public which, from year to year, displays a deeper interest in the art of foreign lands will despise no auxiliary to a more intelligent appreciation of that art. A country whose future in artistic achievement cannot be prophesied in a paragraph will more and more truly recognize the value of a study that is an introduction to much that is best in art as it exists.
3. Furthermore, it must be borne in mind that the myths of the ancients, as the earliest literary crystallization of social order and religious fear, record the incipient history of religious ideals and of moral conduct. For though ethnologists may insist that to search for truth _in_ mythology is vain, the best of them will grant that to search for truth _through_ mythology is wise and profitable. If we accept the statement (often stretched beyond its proper limit) that mythology is primitive philosophy, and the other statement that an ancient philosophy never dies, but by process of internal growth, of modification, and of accretion acquires a purer spirit and a new and higher form,--then, since truth was never yet conceived of error (_ex nihilo nihil fit_), the truth now recognized, while it did not exist in that fraction of myth which happens to be irrational, existed as an archetypal impulse,--set the myth in motion, and, as a process refining the mind of man, tended steadily to eliminate from primitive philosophy (that is, from the myths that embodied primitive philosophy) the savage, ephemeral, and irrational element. For all myths spring from the universal and inalienable desire to know, to enjoy, to teach. These impulses of knowledge, of imaginative relaxation, of conduct, are the throbbing of the heart of reason; the first or the second is the primal pulse of every myth, and to the life of every myth each impulse may be, at some period, contributory. This study has led men to trace soberly the progress of their kind from the twilight of gray conjecture to the dawn of spiritual conviction and rational individuality; to discern a continuity of thought, an outward reach of imagination, an upward lift of moral and religious ideas; to confess the brotherhood of humanity and an inspiring purpose which holds good for every race and through all time.
SUGGESTIONS TO TEACHERS
1. _Of the Classic Myths in their Relation to Literature._ It is essential that the teacher of mythology, no matter what textbook or system he uses or what classic epic he proposes to present, should first make himself acquainted with the meaning of myth, its origin and elements; the difference between myth and fable, between myths explanatory and myths æsthetic, myths reasonable and myths unreasonable, the theories of myth-making as a process of deterioration or as a process of development. He should also inform himself concerning the ways in which the leading myths have been disseminated, and how the survivors have been preserved. Materials for this preparation he will find in Chapters XXX-XXXII of this book as readily, perhaps, as elsewhere; but no matter where he obtains this information he should in a simple and interesting talk pass on the cream of it to the pupils about to begin the study of the stories themselves. He will in that way bring them to a reasonable appreciation of the value of myths and their relation to our civilization, and awaken in them anticipatory interest in the proposed reading. It is a great mistake to plunge students of high-school age, without preliminary orientation and a justification of the study, into a world which may otherwise appear to them unreasonable in conception and unrelated in experience. Pupils may, if time permits, read these concluding chapters, and so obtain a systematic outlook upon the subject, during a brief review in the senior year, but not earlier.
This book should be studied for its materials and the inspiration that it affords,--not word by word for its style, or as a dictionary or scientific authority; nor paragraph by paragraph with a painful committing to memory of each myth and each episode in the myth. Discrimination must be made. Some of these myths, and especially the episodes from the epics (Chapters XXII-XXIX), are to be read rapidly and in large assignments, sometimes at home with reports in class, sometimes in class and at sight, but always for the enjoyment. Others are to be studied in detail, but solely when they are of special and vital significance, historically, morally, or æsthetically. Emphasis should be laid only occasionally and sparingly upon interpretations of mythical materials. What both teacher and student should aim at is the picture--manners, morals, ideals, heroic figures, epic events, broad and vivid against the canvas of antiquity: that, and the reality of classic order, grandeur, and restraint.
The myths are here presented in a logical and genealogical arrangement; and they should be studied in this order, so that the pupil may carry away, not a jumble of sporadic recollections, but some conception of the systems of creative imagination which obtained in earlier civilizations. The knowledge of the myths and the proper perspective of their relation, one to another, may further be fixed by the study of the family ties that motivate many of the incidents of mythical adventure, and that must have been commonplaces of information to the inventors and narrators of these stories.
The myths may well be reproduced as exercises in narration, comparison, description; and they may be regarded as stimulus for imaginative invention concerning local wonders and beauties of nature. Pupils may also be encouraged to consider, and to comment upon, the moral qualities of the heroes and heroines of mythology. Thus they may be led to recognize the difference between ancient and modern standards of right and wrong. To this end, and for the supply of further nutriment, it is important that teachers collect from their reading of the classic originals, or from translations of the Iliad, the Odyssey, the Greek dramatists, the Æneid, the Metamorphoses, etc., material supplementary to the text, and give it freely to their classes. To facilitate this practice the sources of the myths have been indicated in the footnotes of this volume, and a few of the best translations have been mentioned in the Commentary. Instructors should also read to the classes illustrative English poems, or portions of them based upon the myths under consideration; and they should encourage the pupils to collect from their English reading additional examples of the literary survival or adaptation of ancient story. For this purpose special sections of the Commentary have been prepared, indicating some of the best known literary applications of each myth.
The Commentary is numbered in sections corresponding to those of the text. The Textual Notes should be studied in connection with each lesson, the Interpretative more sparingly, as I have said. They should not be suffered to spoil the interest in the stories as such. They are of interest in themselves only to maturer minds. Allusions and interpretations which the younger pupil does not appreciate will, if the book is used for purposes of reference in his further English, Latin, or Greek studies, be clear before the end of his course.
From the outset care should be taken that pupils give to the classical names their proper accent, and that they anglicize both vowels and consonants according to the recognized rules laid down in the Latin grammars, the English dictionaries, and the pages preceding the Index of this book.
Mythological and classical geography should not be neglected. The maps accompanying this volume will be serviceable; but there should be in the classroom one of Kiepert's maps of the World as Known to the Ancients (Orbis Veteribus Notus), or maps of Ancient Italy, Greece, and Asia Minor. The teacher will find the International Atlas (G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York), A. Keith Johnston's School and College Atlas of Ancient Geography, or the new edition of the same by James Cranstoun, issued as Ginn and Company's Classical Atlas, indispensable in the prosecution of general reading.
When it is the intention to study, in connection with the book, an Homeric epic or a portion of it, the teacher should first make sure that the class has an adequate preliminary training in general mythology (such, for instance, as may be provided by the first twenty-one chapters); he should then outline rapidly and entertainingly the epic as a whole, emphasizing its position in the literature of the world and its relation to the world of its own times, before proceeding to read it in detail with the class. Excellent suggestions as to this method of study are offered in the Introduction to Maxwell & Chubb's Pope's Homer's Iliad, Books I, VI, XXII, and XXIV (Longmans), and in the Introduction to the Riverside Edition of the Odyssey: Ulysses among the Phæacians (Houghton Mifflin Company).
The more important myths and the best illustrative poems should provide not only nutriment for thought, but material for memory. Our youth in the push for hasty achievement bolt their meals; they masticate little, swallow everything, digest nothing,--and having agonized, forget. If fewer things were dispatched, especially in the study of literature, and if more were intrusted to the memory, there would be something to assimilate and time to assimilate it; there would be less dyspepsia and more muscle. Teachers and parents are over-considerate, nowadays, of the memory in children: they approach it gingerly; they have feared so much to wring its withers that in most children the memory has grown too soft for saddling. In our apprehension lest pupils may turn out parrots, we have too often turned them out loons. It is better that a few of the facts in their heads be wrong than that no facts be there at all. With all our study of children and our gabble about methods of teaching them, while we insist, properly enough, that youth is the seedtime of observation, we seem to have forgotten that it is also the harvest-time of memory. It is easy for children to remember what they learn, it is a delight for them to commit to memory; we act criminally when we send them forth with hardly a fact or a date or a glorious verse in the memory of one out of ten of them. Such, unfortunately, is the case in many of our schools; and such was not the case in the day of our fathers. Pupils should be encouraged to recite _memoriter_ the best poems and verses that accompany the myths here given; and they should not be allowed to pass allusions already explained without recalling verses that contain them.
But above all things should be cultivated, by means of this study, the spiritual capabilities of our youth. _Pabulum_ for thought, accurate habits of memory, critical judgment, simplicity and directness of oral and written expression, may all be furnished or developed by other educative agencies; but what stimulus to fancy, to poetic sensitiveness and reflection, to a near kinship with the spirit of nature humanized, can be found more cogent than the contemplation of the poetic traditions that abide in verse? Mythology, fraught with the fire of imagination, kindles the present from the past.
In this new world of ours, shall slopes and mountains, gorges, cañons, flowery fields and forests, rivers, bays, Titanic lakes, and shoreless reach of ocean be seen of eyes that lack insight, be known of men for whom nature does not live? Surely the age of myth is not wholly past; surely the beauties and the wonders of nature are a fable of things never fully revealed; surely this new republic of ours, no less than her prototypes by Tyrrhenian and Ægean seas, utters, in her queenly form and flowing robes, a spirit, a truth, a potential poetry, and a beauty of art, the grace of which we Americans, with deeper imaginative training and sympathy and awe, may yet more highly value and more clearly comprehend.
2. _Of the Classic Myths in their Relation to Art._[1] The illustration of a book on ancient mythology offers great difficulties, because the modern reader expects one thing and the ancient artist, on whose works one must rely, intentionally offers a very different thing. We have grown to be a reading people, forming our ideas largely on the written word, while in antiquity the spoken word opened the door to understanding. A story which has been committed to writing is fixed for all time, having lost its power of growth; whereas a tale that passes from mouth to mouth, with no record by which to check its accuracy in particulars, is free to expand. It changes with the moods of those who tell it, and the intellectual and moral standards of those who listen. People to-day are unimaginative and literal. They also expect that the pictures which illustrate their books shall follow the individual conceptions of the author closely. When the story is dramatized a certain latitude is granted to the actor; the artist, however, who illustrates the book has no such freedom. He is expected to take precisely the author's view of a fictitious character, and, consequently, his individuality may show itself only in the technique. In antiquity there were no standard books of fiction or of myths. When writing came into use with the sixth century before Christ, the individual versions of this or that great epic poem or drama were preserved; but the great mass of the people knew them, not because they had read the manuscripts, but because they had heard them acted or recited. Book illustrations, therefore, were unknown. Yet so powerful was the impression which the myths made on the people that most of the artists drew their inspiration from them. Artists and poets alike wished to make real the powerful characters of Greek tradition. To make a literally true illustration of any one version of a great myth was not the aim of a classic artist.
Another difficulty is found in the fact that few ancient myths continued to be equally interesting to the people all the time. It is therefore necessary for us, in choosing illustrations, to draw on all periods of ancient art, the crude beginning and the decline as well as the brief span of fine art. The comparatively meager store of genuinely classic works of art acts as one of the greatest obstacles to the compilation of a continuous record of classic myths in classic art. To give such a record, however, rather than to _illustrate_ his book, must be the aim of the author who publishes to-day a version of ancient mythology together with such pictures or reliefs or statues as are preserved. The modern reader of such a book should therefore appreciate this fact: he must make allowance for the gradual development of ancient art. The picture is not there for the sake of strengthening the written work, but for its own sake. It often offers an independent version of the myth which he reads, and at all times may give him an insight into the mental make-up of the classic people.
Sculpture was the finest art of the Greeks, if one may judge by the remains. In this province the artists worked according to the best principles of art, making their appeal directly to the nobler side of man. Before an ancient statue one feels the power of an idea immediately, and not by the circuitous route of remembering a sequence of words which may have aimed to suggest a similar idea. The Greeks were the least literal in their sculpture. Their marbles, therefore, cannot yield _illustrations_ which the modern editor can use, except when they embody, like the Demeter of Knidos (Fig. 29) or the Athena of Velletri (Fig. 10), a well-defined character-conception. The modern reader, on the other hand, cannot fail to notice that this conception never does justice to the character of the goddess as it appears in all the myths, and very rarely even to that characteristic which may dominate the particular version of any one myth. If such pictures, however, were entirely omitted from the book, the best means of appreciating the essential nobility of the Greek mind would be lost.
None of the Greek masterpieces of painting are extant. Their attenuated influence, however, may be traced in the Italian wall paintings from Pompeii and elsewhere. Painting permits greater literalness than sculpture. The picture from Herculaneum, for instance,--Io, Argus, and Mercury (Fig. 47),--tells a definite story and one which is also told by the poets. But the painter has considered the making of a pleasing picture first, and given only a secondary thought to accuracy of tradition. This must be so; for while we may without displeasure listen to the description of a monster, we cannot see his actual representation without discomfort. When we hear how the companions of Ulysses were turned into swine, the tragic note is never lost. To paint this scene, however, and not to border on the ridiculous or the burlesque is given only to the greatest artist--if it is at all possible.
Fortunately for our purposes of illustration, there was a class of secondary artists in Greece which did not always shrink from selecting subjects ill adapted for art, and from rendering them with slight variations so that they are neither bad to look at nor altogether untrue. These were the painters of vases. Some of them were masters of their craft (cf. Fig. 116), others were of only mediocre skill. All, however, like their nobler brethren, were primarily concerned with the decorative and technical side of their art and but secondarily with their subject. If the story, for instance, called for four persons and their space for five, they unhesitatingly added the fifth person, and, vice versa, removed one without compunction if they had place for fewer figures than the story demanded. Being, moreover, commercial people, they painted according to fashion. Whatever version of a myth happened to be popular, that they selected, so that it has been possible to trace by their vases the changes which several myths underwent from the sixth century onward.
A careful student notices the similarity of types in many of these pictures and realizes that the ancient painter of vases started out with a certain stock-in-trade which he altered as little as possible, adding something new only where it was absolutely necessary.
From these observations it is clear that the works of men who were least gifted artistically are the best adapted for the purposes of book illustrations; for a painter is literal in the inverse ratio of his worth as artist. Nothing, therefore, could be less fair than to judge Greek vase painting by the collection of pictures here offered. Only paintings like Figures 85 and 101, for instance, can give a hint of the best that these men produced.
Going gradually down the scale of artists one finally comes to the level of the makers of Roman sarcophagi, in whose honor it can only be said that to descend lower is impossible. Several myths, however,--the story of the fall of Phaëthon (Fig. 59), for instance,--are not illustrated in art before the decadent period of imperial Roman sculpture. It is therefore necessary to draw also upon this source.
Of course unity of art or school or excellence cannot be preserved in a set of pictures which groups the Demeter of Knidos (Fig. 29), the blinding of Polyphemus (Fig. 171), and the fall of Phaëthon (Fig. 59). But individually the pictures help to fix in memory the particular stories that they are chosen to illustrate; and collectively they show how strongly the myths here retold influenced the noblest fancy of the great artists as well as the receptive minds of mediocre artisans. The suggestive power of classic myths, moreover, was not confined to antiquity. When learning and culture returned to the world in the Renaissance, this power also returned. Raphael (see Fig. 12) and Michelangelo (see Fig. 183) were under its sway, and so are many modern artists (see Figs. 72 and 154). They did not all understand the classic spirit equally, therefore some of their pictures are modern in everything save the title, while others have caught the truth with singular accuracy and are modern only in technique. Adding these Italian and more recent pictures to the collection further destroys mere unity, but it insures, on the other hand, a full appreciation of the abiding and ennobling power of ancient mythology.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] See Preface.
THE CLASSIC MYTHS