The Classic Myths in English Literature and in Art (2nd ed.) (1911)

298. Homer is also called Melesigenes, son of Meles – the stream on which Smyrna was built. The Homeridæ, who lived on Chios, claimed to be descended from Homer. They devoted themselves to the cultivation of epic poetry.

Arion. See George Eliot's poem beginning

Arion, whose melodic soulTaught the dithyramb to roll.

Other Greek Poets of Mythology to be noted are Callimachus (260 B.C.), whose Lock of Berenice is reproduced in the elegiacs of Catullus, and from whose Origins (of sacred rites) Ovid drew much of his information. Also Nicander (150 B.C.), whose Transformations, and Parthenius, whose Metamorphoses furnished material to the Latin poet. With Theocritus should be read Bion and Moschus, all three masters of the idyl and elegy. See Andrew Lang's translation of Theocritus, Bion, and Moschus; and the verses by Dobson and Gosse with which Lang prefaces the translation. Lycophron (260 B.C.) wrote a poem called Alexandra, on the consequences of the voyage of Paris to Sparta. The Loves of Hero and Leander were probably written by a grammarian, Musæus, as late as 500 A.D.

Translations of Greek Poets. The best verse translations of Homer are those of Chapman, Pope, the Earl of Derby, Cowper, and Worsley.

An excellent prose translation of the Iliad is that of Lang, Leaf, and Myers (London, Macmillan & Co., 1889); of the Odyssey, that by Butcher and Lang (London, Macmillan & Co., 1883); or the translation into rhythmical prose by G. H. Palmer (Boston, Houghton Mifflin Co., 1892).

The Tragic Poets. Plumptre's translations of Æschylus and Sophocles, 2 vols. (New York, Routledge, 1882); A. S. Way's translation of Euripides, into verse (London, 1894); Wodhull, Potter, and Milman's translation of Euripides in Morley's Universal Library (London, Routledge, 1888); Potter's Æschylus, Francklin's Sophocles, Wodhull's Euripides, 5 vols. (London, 1809). Other translations of Æschylus are J. S. Blackie's (1850); T. A. Buckley's (London, Bohn, 1848); E. A. A. Morshead's (1881); and Verrall's; – of Sophocles: Thos. Dale's, into verse, 2 vols. (1824); R. Whitelaw's, into verse (1883); Lewis Campbell's Seven Plays, into verse (1883); – of Euripides: T. A. Buckley's, 2 vols. (London, Bohn, 1854-1858); and Verrall's.

Other Poets. Lang's prose translation of Theocritus, Bion, and Moschus; C. S. Calverley's verse translation of Theocritus (Boston, 1906). Pindar, – Odes, transl. by F. A. Paley (London, 1868); by Ernest Myers (London, 1874). Translations of Greek Lyric Poets, – Collections from the Greek Anthology, by Bland and Merivale (London, 1833); The Greek Anthology, by Lord Neaves, Ancient Classics for English Readers Series (London, 1874); Bohn's Greek Anthology, by Burges (London, 1852).

On Homer, Hesiod, Theocritus, the tragic poets, Pindar, etc., see also Collins' excellent series of Ancient Classics for English Readers, Philadelphia (Lippincott); and the series entitled "English Translations from Ancient and Modern Poems," by Various Authors, 3 vols. (London, 1810). Also W. C. Wilkinson's College Greek Course, and College Latin Course, in English (1884-1886). Of Æschylus read the Prometheus Bound, to illustrate 15; the Agamemnon, Choëphori, and Eumenides, to illustrate 193, 228-230; and the Seven against Thebes, for 187. Of Sophocles read Œdipus Rex, Œdipus at Colonus, Antigone, with 182-185, etc.; Electra, with 228; Ajax and Philoctetes, with the Trojan War; Women of Trachis, with 162. Of Euripides read Medea, Ion, Alcestis, Iphigenia in Aulis and in Tauris, Electra.

299. Roman Poets. Horace (65 B.C.) in his Odes, Epodes, and Satires makes frequent reference and allusion to the common stock of mythology, sometimes telling a whole story, as that of the daughters of Danaüs. Catullus (87 B.C.), the most original of Roman love-poets, gives us the Nuptials of Peleus and Thetis (for selections in English hexameters, see 177 and 191), the Lock of Berenice, and the Atys. Manilius of the age of Augustus wrote a poem on Astronomy, which contains a philosophic statement of star-myths. Valerius Flaccus (d. 88 A.D.) based his Argonautics upon the poem of that name by Apollonius of Rhodes. Statius (61 A.D.) revived in the brilliant verses of his Thebaid and his Achilleïd the epic myths and epic machinery, but not the vigor and naturalness of the ancient style. To a prose writer, Hyginus, who lived on terms of close intimacy with Ovid, a fragmentary work called the Book of Fables, which is sometimes a useful source of information, and four books of Poetical Astronomy, have been attributed. The works, as we have them, could not have been written by a friend of the cultivated Ovid.

Translations and Studies. For a general treatment of the great poets of Rome, the student is referred to W. L. Collins' series of Ancient Classics for English Readers (Philadelphia, Lippincott). For the Cupid and Psyche of Apuleius, read Walter Pater's Marius the Epicurean (London, 1885). Of translations, the following are noteworthy: Ovid, – the Metamorphoses, by Dryden, Addison, and others; into English blank verse by Ed. King (Edinburgh, 1871); prose by Riley (London, 1851); verse by Geo. Sandys (London, 1626). Virgil: complete works into prose by J. Lonsdale and S. Lee (New York, Macmillan); Æneid, translations, – into verse by John Conington (London, 1873); into dactylic hexameter by Oliver Crane (New York, 1888); the Æneids into verse by Wm. Morris (London, 1876); and by Theodore C. Williams (Boston, Houghton Mifflin Co.); Bks. 1-4, by Stanyhurst (Arber's Reprint) (1582); Æneis, by Dryden. Catullus: transl. by Robinson Ellis (London, 1871); by Sir Theodore Martin (Edinburgh, 1875). Horace: transl. by Theodore Martin (Edinburgh, 1881); by Smart (London, 1853); Odes and Epodes in Calverley's translations (London, 1886); Odes, etc., by Conington (London, 1872); Odes and Epodes, by Lord Lytton (New York, 1870); complete, by E. C. Wickham (Oxford, Clarendon Press); Odes, by A. S. Way (London, 1876) and Epodes (1898). Statius: Thebaid, transl. by Pope.

300. For Scandinavian literature, see footnotes to 300, and references in C. 268-282.

Runes were "the letters of the alphabets used by all the old Teutonic tribes… The letters were even considered magical, and cast into the air written separately upon chips or spills of wood, to fall, as fate determined, on a cloth, and then be read by the interpreters… The association of the runic letters with heathen mysteries and superstition caused the first Christian teachers to discourage, and, indeed, as far as possible, suppress their use. They were therefore superseded by the Latin alphabet, which in First English was supplemented by retention of two of the runes, named 'thorn' and 'wen,' to represent sounds of 'th' and 'w,' for which the Latin alphabet had no letters provided. Each rune was named after some object whose name began with the sound represented. The first letter was F, Feoh, money; the second U, Ur, a bull; the third Th, Thorn, a thorn; the fourth O, Os, the mouth; the fifth R, Rad, a saddle; the sixth C, Cen, a torch; and the six sounds being joined together make Futhorc, which is the name given to the runic A B C." – Morley, English Writers, 1, 267. See also Vigfusson and Powell's Corpus Poeticum Boreale, 2, 691, under Runes and Rune-Stones; Cleasby and Vigfusson's Icelandic-English Dictionary; and George Stephens' Old Northern Runic Monuments, 2 vols. (London, 1866-1868).

301. For Translations of the Nibelungenlied, see C. 283. For other German lays of myth, – the Gudrun, the Great Rose Garden, the Horned Siegfried, etc., – see Vilmar's Geschichte der deutschen National-Litteratur, 42-101 (Leipzig, 1886). See also, in general, Grimm's Deutsche Mythologie (Göttingen, 1855); Ludlow's Popular Epics of the Middle Ages, 2 vols. (London, 1865); George T. Dippold's Great Epics of Mediæval Germany (Boston, 1891).

302. Egyptian. See Birch's Guide to the First and Second Egyptian Rooms, British Museum; Miss A. B. Edwards' A Thousand Miles up the Nile (London, 1876).

For the principal divinities, see Index to this work.

303. Indian. Max Müller's translation of the Rig-Veda-Sanhita; Sacred Books of the East, 35 vols., edited by Max Müller, – the Upanishads, Bhagavadgita, Institutes of Vishnu, etc., translated by various scholars (Oxford, 1874-1890); Müller's History of Sanskrit Literature (London, 1859); Weber's History of Indian Literature (London, 1878); H. H. Wilson's Rig-Veda-Sanhita, 6 vols. (London, 1850-1870), and his Theatre of the Hindus, 2 vols. (London, 1871); Muir's Sanskrit Texts, and his Principal Deities of the Rig-Veda, 5 vols. (London, 1868-1873); J. Freeman Clarke's Ten Great Religions (Boston, 1880); the Mahâbhârata, translated by Protap Chundra Roy, Nos. 1-76 (Calcutta, 1883-1893). See Indian Idylls, by Edwin Arnold; The Episode of Nala, – Nalopákhyánam, – translated by Monier Williams (Oxford, 1879). Of the Râmâyana, a paraphrase (in brief) is given by F. Richardson in the Iliad of the East (London, 1870). Sir William Jones' translation of the Sakuntala; E. A. Reed's Hindu Literature, with translations (Chicago, 1891), W. Ward's History, Literature, and Mythology of the Hindoos, 3 vols. (London, 1822). On Buddhism, read Arnold's Light of Asia.

For the chief divinities of the Hindus, see Index to this work.

304. Persian. J. Freeman Clarke's Ten Great Religions; Johnson's Oriental Religions; Haug's Essays on the Sacred Language, Literature, etc., of the Parsis, by E. W. West (Boston, 1879). In illustration should be read Moore's Fire-Worshipers in Lalla Rookh.

A FEW RULES FOR THE ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION OF GREEK AND LATIN PROPER NAMES

[These rules will cover most cases, but they are not intended to exhaust the subject. The reader is referred to the Latin grammars and the English dictionaries.]

I. Quantity. The reader must first ascertain whether the second last syllable of the word is long. In general a syllable is long in quantity:

(1) If it contains a diphthong, or a long vowel: Bau-cis, Ac-tae-on, Mē-tis, O-rī-on, Flō-ra.

(2) If its vowel, whether long or short, is followed by j, x, or z, or by any two consonants except a mute and a liquid: A´-jax, Meg-a-ba´-zus, A-dras´-tus.

Note (a). Sometimes two vowels come together without forming a diphthong. In such cases the diæresis is, in this volume, used to indicate the division: e. g. Men-e-lā'-üs, Pe-nē'-üs.

Note (b). The syllable formed by a short vowel before a mute with l or r is sometimes long and sometimes short: e. g. Cle-o-pā'-tra, or Cle-op´-ă-tra; Pa-trō'-clus, or Pat´-rŏ-clus.

II. Accent.

(1) The accent may be principal, or subordinate: Hel2-les-pon´-tus.

(2) The principal accent falls on the second last syllable (penult): Am-phi-tri´-te; or on the third last syllable (antepenult): Am-phit´-ry-on.

Note (a) In words of two syllables, it falls on the penult: Cir´-ce.

Note (b) In words of more than two syllables, it falls on the penult when that syllable is long; otherwise, on the antepenult: Æ-nē'-as, Her´-cŭ-les.

(3) The subordinate accent:

Note (a) If only two syllables precede the principal accent, the subordinate accent falls on the first syllable of the word: Hip2-po-crē'ne.

Note (b) If more than two syllables precede the principal accent, the laws governing the principal accent apply to those preceding syllables: Cas2-sĭ-o-pē'-a.

Note. In the Index of this work, when the penult of a word is long, it is marked with the accent; when the penult is short, the antepenult is marked. The reader should however bear in mind that a syllable may be long even though it contain a short vowel, as by Rule I, (2), above.

III. Vowels and Consonants. These rules depend upon those of Syllabication:

(1) A vowel generally has its long English sound when it ends a syllable: He´-ro, I´-o, Ca´-cus, I-tho´-me, E-do´-ni, My-ce´-næ.

(2) A vowel generally has its short English sound in a syllable that ends in a consonant: Hel´-en, Sis´-y-phus, Pol-y-phe´-mus. But e in the termination es has its long sound: Her´mes, A-tri´-des.

(3) The vowel a has an obscure sound when it ends an unaccented syllable: A-chæ´-a; so, also, the vowel i or y, not final, after an accented syllable: Hes-per´-i-des; and sometimes i or y in an unaccented first syllable: Ci-lic´-i-a.

(4) Consonants have their usual English sounds; but c and g are soft before e, i, y, æ, and œ: Ce´-to, Ge´-ry-on, Gy´-ges; ch has the sound of k: Chi´-os; and c, s, and t, immediately preceded by the accent and standing before i followed by another vowel, commonly have the sound of sh: Sic´-y-on (but see Latin grammars and English dictionaries for exceptions).

IV. Syllabication.

(1) The penultimate syllable ends with a vowel: e. g. Pe-ne´-us, I-tho´-me, A´-treus, Hel´-e-nus;

Except when its vowel is followed by x or by two consonants (not a mute with l or r), then the vowel is joined with the succeeding consonant: Nax-os, Cir-ce, Aga-mem-non.

(2) Other syllables (not ultimate or penultimate) end with a vowel: e. g. Pi-ræ-us;

Except when (a) the vowel is followed by x or any two consonants (not a mute with l or r): e. g. Ix-i´-on, Pel-o-pon-ne´-sus; and when (b) the syllable is accented and its vowel followed by one or more consonants: e. g. An2-ax-ag´-o-ras, Am-phic´ty-on, Œd-'i-pus.

Note (a). But an accented a, e, or o before a single consonant (or a mute with l or r), followed by e, i, or y before another vowel, is not joined with the succeeding consonant, and consequently has the long sound: Pau-sā'-ni-as; De-mē'-tri-us.

Note (b). An accented u before a single consonant (or mute with l or r) is not joined with the succeeding consonant, and consequently has the long sound: Jū'-pi-ter.

(3) All words have as many syllables as they have vowels and diphthongs.

1

See Preface.

2

Supplementary information concerning many of the myths may be found in the corresponding sections of the Commentary. For the pronunciation of names see Index, and Rules preceding the Index.

3

So far as possible, Latin designations, or Latinized forms of Greek names, are used.

4

On the Titans, etc., Preller's Griech. Mythol. 1, 37.

5

On signification of Uranus, Cronus, Zeus, see Preller, 1, 37, 38, and Commentary, §§ 4, 24.

6

Roscher, Ausf. Lex., Article Giganten [J. Ilberg].

7

The name more probably signifies Brandisher [of the Lance].

8

Consequently the creation of these men could not be assigned to Prometheus, – unless they were made by him before the war of the Titans.

9

There is uncertainty as to the mythical period of these events. The order here given seems to me well grounded. Hes. Works and Days, 180; Theog. 790-910.

10

§§ 156, 161, 191 and Commentary, § 10.

11

From Herakles, a drama by George Cabot Lodge.

12

From Byron's Prometheus. See also his translation from the Prometheus Vinctus of Æschylus, and his Ode to Napoleon Buonaparte.

13

Prometheus, or The Poet's Forethought. See Commentary.

14

Compare Byron's political satire, The Age of Bronze.

15

Oracles, see §§ 24, 30, and Commentary.

16

Consult, in general, corresponding sections of the Commentary.

17

Symbolized on earth by Mount Olympus in Thessaly.

18

Cowper's translation.

19

See Commentary, § 23, for Gladstone's latest utterance on the number of the Olympians.

20

The names included in parentheses represent the Greek, the others being Roman equivalents, Latin names, or names common to both Greek and Roman usage.

21

See Commentary, § 34.

22

On the Latin name, see Commentary, § 24.

23

Iliad, I, 622-625, Earl of Derby's translation. See also the passage in Chapman's translation.

24

On the name Juno, see Commentary.

25

For the names Athene and Minerva, see Commentary.

26

See Commentary.

27

Iliad, 5, 590. See also 21, 395.

28

Iliad, 18, 395.

29

Iliad, 1, 390.

30

On the birth of Apollo, his adventures, names, festivals, oracles, and his place in literature and art, see Commentary. For other particulars, see sections on Myths of Apollo.

31

From Cynthia's Revels.

32

Iliad, 5, 370, etc.

33

A popular etymology.

34

For Venus in poetry and art, see Commentary.

35

From the Venus of Milo, by E. R. Sill, formerly professor of English Literature in the University of California.

36

The references are to the Berkeley Hills, the Bay of San Francisco, and the glimpses of the Pacific.

37

Lang, Odyssey, 24, 1; adapted.

38

Eros, by Edmund Gosse. For verses on the blindness of Cupid, see Lyly's Cupid and Campaspe in Commentary.

39

For description of their spinning, see translation of Catullus, LXIV, in § 191.

40

See Commentary.

41

For references to poetry and works of art, see corresponding sections in Commentary.

42

According to Thomas Moore's Song of a Hyperborean.

43

From Alexander's Feast.

44

For interpretation and illustration, see corresponding sections of Commentary.

45

Iliad, 22, 482; 9, 568; 20, 61.

46

Odyssey, 10, 508; 11, 20; 24, 1.

47

Sophocles, Œdipus Rex, 177.

48

Æneid, 6, 295.

49

From The Garden of Proserpine, by A. C. Swinburne.

50

Æneid, 6.

51

Odyssey, 4, 561.

52

Hes. Works and Days, 169.

53

From The Fortunate Islands, by Andrew Lang.

54

Iliad, 14, 231; 16, 672.

55

Odyssey, 24, 12; 19, 560. Æneid, 6, 893. Ovid, Metam. 11, 592.

56

For genealogical table, see Commentary.

57

For references to poetry and works of art, see corresponding sections of Commentary.

58

Iliad, 14, 303.

59

Iliad, 18, 30-50.

60

For genealogical table, see Commentary.

61

Wordsworth, Miscellaneous Sonnets.

62

Names of the corresponding Greek divinities are in parentheses.

63

For illustrative material, see Commentary.

64

Gellius, 5, 12. Ovid, Fasti, 1, 179. Macrobius, Sat. 1, 9-15.

65

From Macaulay's Prophecy of Capys.

66

Ovid, Metam. I, 700 et seq.

67

Ovid, Metam. 2, 410 et seq.

68

Translated by Andrew Lang: Theocritus, Bion, and Moschus, London, 1880.

69

§ 70.

70

Ovid, Metam. 3, 260 et seq.

71

§§ 42, 110-113.

72

From E. R. Sill's Semele.

73

Commentary, §§ 118, 255.

74

Ovid, Metam. 7, 172 et seq.

75

Roscher, Ausf. Lex. Lfg. 3, 379 [Schirmer]. Originals in Pausanias, Apollodorus, and Hyginus.

76

From Tennyson's Amphion. See Horace, Ars Poet. 394.

77

Ovid, Metam. 8, 620-724.

78

From The Sons of Cydippe, by Edmund Gosse in his On Viol and Flute.

79

§ 27, and Commentary.

80

From Ovid.

81

From Spenser's Muiopotmos.

82

Ovid, Metam. 6, 1-145.

83

§ 200.

84

Iliad, 5, 850 et seq. (Lang, Leaf, and Myers' translation). In accordance with the system of nomenclature adopted in this work, Latin equivalents are given, wherever possible, for Greek names.

85

Iliad, 21, 390 (Lang, Leaf, and Myers' translation).

86

Ovid, Metam. 3, 1-137; 4, 563-614.

87

Iliad, 2, 1335.

88

Ovid, Metam. 6, 313-381.

89

§ 30.

90

Roscher, Ausf. Lex. Lfg. 2, 254, Article Aloadæ [Schultz].

91

Ovid, Metam. 10, 162-219.

92

Ovid, Metam. 2, 1-400.

93

§ 44.

94

Medio tutissimus ibis.– Ovid.

95

Hic situs est Phaëthon, currus auriga paterni,Quem si non tenuit, magnis tamen excidit ausis.– Ovid.

96