The mythology of Greece and Rome, with special reference to its use in art

by Otto Seemann

III.—THE GODS OF THE EARTH AND LOWER WORLD.

We now come to a class of deities who stand in the most decided contrast to the gods of the heaven and the sea, whom we have previously described. It consists of those deities whose power is incessantly exerted either on the surface or in the depths of the earth, and who are accordingly brought into the closest connection with the life of man. The worship of these deities assumed among the Greeks a passionate and excited character, at first entirely strange to the Romans, though it gradually crept in here also.

Though the ancients saw in the earth, on the one hand, the fruitful source of all life in nature, they did not seek to disguise the fact that it is, on the other hand, also the open sepulchre into which all earthly existence sinks when its time is over. The worship of these deities was therefore celebrated with festivals of joy and mirth at the season of the revival of nature, and with mournful solemnities at the season of its decay. The devotees manifested both their mirth and mourning in a loud, noisy, passionate manner, usually designated orgiastic. An element of mystery never failed to introduce itself into the worship of these deities, who, in virtue of their dwellings, were able to inspire a greater feeling of awe than the bright forms of the gods of heaven. Their wrath also, which manifested itself in the sterility of the soil, was the subject of especial fear. Mysteries proper, or secret rites, existed only among the Greeks, but never found their way into the religious systems of Italy. We shall enumerate first the deities of the upper world, who preside over the growth of flocks and the fruits of the earth, and then those who inhabit the lower world.

1. Gæa (Tellus).—First among them is Gæa, or Mother Earth herself. This deity appears in the Cosmogony (or myths relating to the formation of the universe) as one of the primeval creative forces, having herself proceeded immediately from Chaos. In later times she acquired a more personal and plastic character, although she never attained any real importance in the religious system of the Greeks, owing to the existence of more definite and substantial deities, such as Rhea, Hestia, Demeter, and Themis. The worship of Tellus in Rome was more important, although here, too, it was somewhat thrown into the shade by the worship of Ceres and kindred deities.

The chief significance of Gæa lies in the fact that she is the source of all life and increase in nature. She is hence regarded as a mother who tends with loving care all her children. Under this aspect her praises are sung by Hesiod, and also in an ancient Dodonaic hymn. Like Demeter and other deities who dispense prosperity and abundance, she appears as tending and nourishing the young, and is often represented thus on ancient monuments.

At the same time Gæa is the common grave of mankind, and draws all things, with inexorable severity, down into her dark womb. She thus becomes a goddess of death and the lower world, and was on this account invoked, together with the Manes, as a witness of all solemn compacts and oaths.

A very ancient shrine of this goddess existed at Delphi, and the oracle there had once, said the Delphians, belonged to her.

In Rome, where she was also venerated as a goddess of marriage, her temple stood on the site of the house of Spurius Cassius. Festive offerings were made to her before and after seed-time. On the occasion of the Paganalia, she and Ceres were propitiated by the sacrifice of a pregnant sow, which was supposed to promote the prosperity of the coming year.

2. Rhea Cybele (Magna Mater Idæa).—Rhea is well known as the daughter of Uranus and Gæa, and the wife of Cronus, by whom she became the mother of Zeus and the other Cronidæ. She seems to have enjoyed only a limited measure of divine honours, until she was identified with the Phrygian goddess Cybele, who, like the Egyptian Isis, was an Asiatic symbol of fertility. She was worshipped throughout Lydia and Phrygia under the appellation of the “Mighty Mother.” Thence her worship, which was of a peculiarly noisy character, made its way through the Greek colonies into Greece itself, and towards the end of the second Punic war was, at the instance of the Sibylline books, introduced into Rome. Attalus, king of Pergamus, was on this occasion good enough to present the Romans with a sacred stone, which was regarded by the inhabitants of Pessinus as the great mother herself. After its arrival at Ostia, this stone was carried to Rome amid a solemn procession of Roman matrons. The day of its arrival (10th April) was ever afterwards kept as a festival, at which games were celebrated under the superintendence of the prætor. The worship of Cybele, however, never seems to have become naturalised in Rome, perhaps because Romans were not allowed to officiate as her priests.

The true home of the worship of Cybele was the district of Pessinus, a rough and rocky mountain land. It was here that she made her noisy processions, seated in a chariot drawn by lions or panthers, amid the boisterous music of her weird attendants, the Corybantes and Curetes. The myths that relate to the goddess bear a wild, fantastic character, similar to that of her rites. The best known among them is the story of her favourite, Attis, or Atys. He was a Phrygian youth of a beauty so exceptional that the great mother of the gods chose him for her husband. At first he returned her affection, but afterwards he proved faithless, and was about to marry a daughter of the king of Pessinus. But the vengeance of the angry goddess overtook him, for when the wedding guests were assembled at the festive banquet the goddess appeared in their midst, and filled those present with panic fear, and troubled their minds. Atys fled to the mountains, where he slew himself in a fit of frenzy. Afterwards, the goddess instituted a great mourning in memory of him, which took place about the time of the vernal equinox. The priests of the goddess marched, amid the loud noise of kettle-drums and fifes, to the mountains, in order to search for the lost youth; and when at length he, or an image representing him, was found, the priests, in an ecstasy of joy, danced about in wild excitement, gashing themselves with knives.

Representations of Rhea Cybele are rare. A statue representing her seated on a throne is shown in the Vatican. Her usual attribute is a kettle-drum.

3. Dionysus, or Bacchus (Liber).—Dionysus, or Bacchus, was regarded by Greeks and Romans alike as the god of wine and vineyards. In his more extended meaning he represents the blessings of the autumn. It is he who causes the fruits to ripen for the use of man; it is likewise he who dispenses to mankind all the advantages of civilisation and refinement, and of well-ordered political affairs.

Thebes was described as the birthplace of the god. His mother was Semele, the daughter of Cadmus, whom Zeus, the great god of heaven, honoured with his love. This very love, however, proved fatal to Semele, for the ever-jealous Hera came to her in the guise of her nurse, Beroë, and succeeded in exciting her suspicions as to the truth of her lover’s divinity. She insidiously persuaded Semele to make her lover swear to do what she desired, and then to put him to the test. Semele did so, and then besought Zeus to appear to her in the full majesty of his divine form. In vain did Zeus adjure her to take back her foolish request; she insisted on its fulfilment, and perished miserably, being burnt to ashes by the flame of Zeus, who approached her in a flash of lightning. Her unborn child was preserved by Zeus, who ordered Hermes to carry it to the nymphs of Nysa to be brought up. A later legend makes Ino, the sister of Semele, the foster-mother of Dionysus. The locality of this Nysa is somewhat uncertain, but it is generally supposed to be a district of Mount Pangæus in Thrace.

Dionysus, after growing up amid the solitude of the forest and strengthening himself by his contests with its wild beasts, at length planted the vine. Both the god and his attendants soon became intoxicated with its juice; after which, crowned with wreaths of laurel and ivy, and accompanied by a crowd of nymphs, satyrs, and fauns, he ranged the woods, which resounded with the loud and joyful cries of his inspired worshippers. The legend says that his education was then completed by Silenus, the son of Pan. In company with his preceptor and the rest of his train, he then set forth to spread his worship and the cultivation of the vine among the nations of the earth. He did not confine himself to mere vine-planting, however, but proved a real benefactor of mankind by founding cities, and by introducing more civilised manners and a more pleasant and sociable mode of life among men. On such as refused his favours his wrath fell with dreadful effect. Agave, the mother of the Theban king Pentheus, who had refused to receive him, and the rest of the Theban women, were driven mad by him; and in their frenzy they mistook the king for a wild boar and tore him to pieces.

Fig. 36.—Dionysus and Lion. From the Monument of Lysicrates.

The most celebrated among the myths which testify to the wondrous power of Dionysus is the story of the punishment of the Tyrrhenian pirates. On the occasion of his passage from Icaria to Naxos, these pirates put Dionysus in chains, purposing to take him to Italy, and there sell him as a slave. At a nod from the youthful god the chains fell from his limbs; he appeared as a lion, while a bear was seen at the other end of the ship. Vines and ivy tendrils wound themselves round the mast and sails of the ship, which stood still, whilst the strains of the nymphs burst forth. The sailors, terrified by the transformation of the god, leaped overboard, and were changed into dolphins. A fine representation, in relief, of this scene still exists on the monument of Lysicrates, at Athens. The most beautiful feature in it is the figure of the god playing with his lion in the most joyous unconsciousness (Fig. 36). With the name of Naxos, which was a chief seat of his worship, is connected the celebrated story of his marriage with Ariadne, the daughter of Minos, king of Crete. The Attic hero, Theseus, after escaping the dangers of the Labyrinth by her means, had taken her away with him from Crete in order to marry her. He deserted her, however, whilst asleep on the island of Naxos, either of his own accord or because warned of the god in a dream. The indescribable anguish and consternation of Ariadne, on awaking to find herself alone and deserted on a foreign strand, was only equalled by her joyous surprise when Bacchus, returning from his travels in India, found her and made her his bride. The poets, indeed, do not relate that Zeus then bestowed on her that immortality which he had already given his son on account of his glorious achievements and extraordinary merit toward mankind; but such appears to have been the popular tradition. At Athens a sort of harvest thanksgiving was celebrated in honour of both Dionysus and his bride, at which vines with the grapes on them were borne in solemn procession through the streets of the city.

The worship of Dionysus extended not only over the whole of Greece, but also to Italy, Asia Minor, Thrace, and Macedonia, and to every place where the vine was cultivated by the Greeks. The god was extolled as Lyæus, the deliverer from care, and great festivals were instituted in his honour, which were of a disorderly character, but very popular among the common people. At the time of the winter solstice there was mourning, because at this season the vine seemed to die away, and the god was believed to be suffering persecution at the hands of the evil spirits of winter, and obliged to flee in consequence to the sea or lower world. It was, therefore, thought right to suffer with him, and people manifested their grief at his disappearance by every kind of wild gesture. At the winter festivals of Dionysus, which were celebrated every other year, only women and girls took part. The festivals of the god at the beginning of spring, when the new wine was tasted for the first time, were purely festivals of gladness, like the greater Dionysia at Athens. On these occasions the reawakening of nature was celebrated with boundless joy and boisterous mirth. All kinds of jokes and mischievous pranks were indulged in, and festive processions and theatrical performances followed each other in quick succession.

The following festivals were celebrated at Athens in honour of Dionysus:—

1. The Lesser or Rural Dionysia. This was the vintage festival proper, which did not take place in Attica till the end of November or beginning of December, because they liked to let the grapes hang as long as possible. A he-goat was first solemnly sacrificed to the god; this was followed by a festive procession bearing the sacred things, and the festival concluded with all kinds of country amusements, dancing, masquerading, and revelling. The chief amusement of the young men was dancing on the leather bag. Out of the skin of the slaughtered goat was made a leather bag, which was inflated and smeared with oil: the young men then attempted to dance on it.

2. The Lenæa, or feast of the wine-press, was celebrated in the month of January at Athens, in the place where, according to an old tradition, the first wine-press had stood. Here stood the Lenæon, one of the two chief temples of the god. The chief feature of the festival was a magnificent procession with the sacred symbols of the god. This was followed by a great banquet, the viands for which were furnished by the city of Athens. The new wine which was drunk on these occasions did not tend to diminish the hilarity of the worshippers, so that all kinds of mischievous jokes were perpetrated.

Fig. 37.—The so-called Sardanapalus in the Vatican.

3. The Anthesteria were celebrated in February, on the 11th, 12th, and 13th days of the month Anthesterion. They were supposed to commemorate the return of Dionysus from the lower world, or, in other words, the reawakening of nature from the sleep of winter. The first day was called πιθοιγία (cask-opening), because on this day the new wine was first broached. The second and chief day of the festival was called χόες (cups). A procession and a great banquet took place, at which the guests were crowned with flowers. Many liberties were permitted to the slaves on this occasion, as at the Roman Saturnalia. The third day was called χύτροι (pots), because vessels were displayed filled with all kinds of boiled vegetables. These were regarded in the light of offerings for the souls of the dead, who were popularly supposed to revisit the upper world on this occasion.

Fig. 38.—Youthful Dionysus. From the Chateau Richelieu, now in the Louvre.

4. The Greater or City Dionysia formed the chief festival of the god, and the proper spring-feast of the Athenians. It was celebrated with extraordinary splendour in the month of March, and lasted several days, bringing together a vast concourse of strangers from all parts. The city, renowned alike for the refined artistic taste and the keen wit of its inhabitants, then donned its holiday garb, and innumerable merry antics were played by the crowds assembled in the streets and squares. The chief feature of the festival was a solemn procession, in which an old wooden statue of the god was borne through the streets. There were likewise banquets and comic processions in masks, and grand representations of new comedies and tragedies. The proceedings concluded with the presentation of prizes to the successful competitors.

The Italian nationalities likewise celebrated a festival on the 17th of March, called the Liberalia, in honour of Liber, or Liber Pater, the Italian god of the vine. It was distinguished throughout by the simple countrified character of the proceedings, and resembled the Lesser Dionysia of the inhabitants of Attica. People amused themselves with all kinds of jokes and antics, and with masquerades, the masks for which were cut from the bark of trees. The chief object of the festival was to pray for the fertility of the vines. These innocent festivals had nothing to do with the voluptuous Bacchanalia which were afterwards introduced into Rome in imitation of the Greek mysteries, and which the most rigorous interference of the authorities was unable to suppress.

If we try to conceive briefly the significance of the worship of Dionysus in the religion of the ancients, we shall find that in his primitive character the god was a personification of the active, productive power of nature. As Demeter was supposed to give corn and the other fruits of the field, so Dionysus was supposed to give the fruits of trees, and especially of the vine. He was likewise regarded as the author of the blessings of civilisation, so that, on this point, he supplements the idea of the great culture-goddess Demeter, with whom, both among the Greeks and Romans, he had many temples and festivals in common. Looking at his character from another side, we find him coming into contact with Apollo, since he was supposed not only to endow men with a kindly, cheerful disposition, but also to inspire them with a love of music, on which account he was honoured with Apollo as the friend and leader of the Muses.

Fig. 39.—Marble Head of Youthful Dionysus at Leyden.

Artistic representations of Dionysus have come down to us on numerous monuments. In earlier art he was generally depicted as majestic and grave, and on that account represented with a beard. We have given an instance of this earlier conception in the so-called Sardanapalus of the Vatican (Fig. 37). In later art he became more youthful, and was characterised by a delicate roundness of form. The statues of this period are distinguished by the almost feminine expression of face with which they endow the god, as well as by the rounded limbs and the graceful ease of every attitude. The statue of a youthful Dionysus in the Louvre at Paris is an instance of this later mode of conception (Fig. 38). So likewise is the head of Dionysus at Leyden, which is distinguished by a sweet expression of reverie. His soft hair, which falls about his shoulders in delicate ringlets, is generally intertwined with a garland of vine leaves or ivy (Fig. 39). The other attributes of the god are the thyrsus, or Bacchic wand, the diadem, the skin of a wild beast falling across his chest, which often forms his sole clothing, and the drinking-cup in his hand. He is generally accompanied by lions, tigers, or panthers; and the bull and ram, as the symbols of fertility, were held sacred to him, while the latter was also his usual sacrifice. Among plants, besides the vine and the ivy, the laurel was held sacred to him on account of its powers of inspiration.

Fig. 40.—Sleeping Ariadne. Vatican.

Fig. 41.—Dannecker’s Ariadne. Frankfort-on-the-Main.

Of all the prominent personages in the stories of Dionysus, Ariadne has received most attention at the hands of the sculptor. The most celebrated of such ancient monuments is a marble figure of great beauty, larger than life, representing the sleeping Ariadne. It is now preserved in the Vatican Museum at Rome (Fig. 40). Among the productions of modern sculptors, the Ariadne of Dannecker, at Frankfort-on-the-Main, which represents her as the bride of Theseus, riding on a panther, justly enjoys a very high reputation (Fig. 41).

4. The Nymphs.—We now come to a class of inferior terrestrial divinities who are often found in the train of Bacchus. The most numerous and important of these are the Nymphs. They personify the restless activity and energy of nature, over the whole of which their power extends. They manifest their presence in the murmuring, rippling streams and brooks, as well as in the sprouting vegetation of wood and meadow. They are tender, graceful maidens, who, though kindly disposed towards men, yet avoid human habitations, and prefer the peaceful solitude of the woods and mountains, where they lead a merry, joyous life among the clefts and grottoes.

Sometimes they devote themselves to useful pursuits, and spin and weave; sometimes they engage in graceful dances, and sing merry songs, or bathe their delicate limbs in the white spray of lonely brooks. They gladly join the train of those superior deities supposed to preside in the realms of nature. Thus we see them joining in the Bacchic revelry with Dionysus, or figuring in the train of Aphrodite, or ranging field and wood as they hunt in the company of Artemis.

According to the divisions of nature, over which the Nymphs were supposed to preside, we may distinguish the following classes:—

1. The Water-Nymphs, to whom, in their wider signification, the Oceanids and Nereids also belong. Here, however, we have only to deal with the water-nymphs of the brooks and fountains of the land, who are distinguished by the name of Naiads. As the kindly nourishers of plants, and as thereby ministering indirectly to the sustenance of both man and beast, they enjoyed a large measure of veneration among the ancients, although, being inferior deities, they could claim no temples of their own. Like the sea-nymphs, they possessed the gift of prophecy, and appear as the patrons of poetry and song.

2. Nymphs of the Mountains, or Oreads, to whom belong the nymphs of the valleys and glens (Napææ). These were very numerous, and received special names from the particular mountains or districts they inhabited. The most celebrated among them was the Bœotian nymph Echo. She was consumed by love for the beautiful youth Narcissus, a son of the river-god Cephisus, and finding that he did not reciprocate her affection, she pined away in ever-increasing grief, until at length her emaciated frame was changed into rock, and nothing but her voice remained. But Aphrodite avenged this injury to her sex on Narcissus, who had in his vain self-love thus contemned the beautiful nymph. As he was hunting one day on Mount Helicon, he bent down to quench his thirst from a spring clear as crystal, and the goddess caused him to fall in love with his own shadow, which was reflected in the water. The object of his desires being unattainable, he too pined away from grief, and the flower named after him has ever since continued an emblem of heartless beauty.

3. The Dryads, or Hamadryads (wood-nymphs). These appear to have been a conception of later times. It was supposed that their existence depended on that of the trees they inhabited, so that when the latter were destroyed the nymphs also perished. Not sharing immortality, therefore, they cannot properly be reckoned among the gods.

The veneration of nymphs was very ancient in Greece, and was thence transferred to Rome. Goats, lambs, milk, and oil were offered to them.

In art they are depicted as lovely maidens, generally only slightly clad, and adorned with flowers and garlands. The Naiads are also represented as drawing water, or with attributes relating to their element.

5. The Satyrs.—In contrast to the Nymphs, or female personifications of the life of Nature, we find a number of inferior wood and water-deities of the male sex, called Satyrs, Sileni, and Panes, between whom it is difficult to distinguish clearly. Generally by Satyrs (Fauni) we understand the wood and mountain-spirits proper, who are inseparably connected with Dionysus, whose attendant train they form. Coarse sensuality and a wanton spirit of mischief are the leading features of their character. On account of their animal propensities they were fabled to be only half human in appearance, with blunt noses and otherwise ignoble features, bristling hair, goat-like ears, and a goat’s tail. Like the Muses, they love music and dancing, their instruments being the Syrinx and the flute, together with cymbals and castanets. Like their master, they were passionately addicted to excessive indulgence in wine; but whereas in the former this produced only a rapturous enthusiasm and an exalted frame of mind, with them its effects were purely sensual, and excited them to insane and unseemly pranks of all kinds.

Fig. 42.—Head of Satyr. Munich Sculpture Gallery.

The Satyrs were not an uncommon subject of representation among ancient artists. The conception was based on the original hideous half-man, half-animal type; and in art, as well as in poetry, the blunt nose, the pointed ears, and the goat’s tail form their characteristic features. The Bacchic insignia of a band round the brow and an ivy garland also belong to them. There are some particularly fine antique statues of satyrs in the art-collections of Munich and Rome.

The engraving (Fig. 42) shows the highly-expressive face of a satyr in the Munich collection.

6. Silenus.—Silenus, according to the common tradition, was an old satyr who tended and brought up Dionysus, and afterwards became the faithful companion of his wanderings. He is depicted by the poets as a somewhat elderly man, with blunt nose and bald head, hairy chest and thighs, and a stomach so large that he can scarcely walk. He generally appears riding on an ass in front of the Bacchic company, with a satyr on either side supporting his half-drunken form.

The artists of antiquity seem to have devoted themselves frequently to the subject of Silenus. They either represented him as the nurse and preceptor of the youthful Bacchus, holding the child in his arms and regarding him with a look of affection, in which the comic element is entirely lacking, or they present him to us as the insatiable but good-natured wine-bibber. His standing attribute is the wine-skin, besides which, like other members of the Bacchic train, he bears a thyrsus and ivy garland.

Besides Silenus, who was celebrated as the preceptor of Dionysus, there was a whole tribe of Sileni. Whether this is due to the fact that the older satyrs were called Sileni, or whether they form a special class of deities presiding over the flowing, gushing water, cannot be determined with any certainty.

Among the Sileni were two personages who play a part in the story of Dionysus. These were Marsyas and Midas. The former, like all satyrs, was an accomplished master of the flute, and challenged Apollo to a trial of skill which proved fatal to him. The conditions of the contest were that he who was vanquished should put himself entirely in the power of his adversary. Apollo won, and made a cruel use of his victory by hanging Marsyas on a pine tree and flaying him alive.

Midas was the mythic founder of the kingdom of Phrygia, in Asia Minor, whither he had emigrated from Macedonia. Tradition makes him a son of Cybele, and, as her favourite, endowed with fabulous wealth. But, like many of the sons of men in the present day, the richer he grew the greater was his thirst for gold, until it betrayed him at length into an act of great folly. One day, the drunken Silenus strayed from the company of Bacchus into the garden of Midas. The latter received him with great hospitality, and after entertaining him sumptuously for ten days brought him to Bacchus. Pleased with his kindness, the god rewarded him with the gratification of any wish he might make. Midas now wished that everything he touched might turn to gold. Naturally the gratification of this wish well-nigh proved his ruin; and he only escaped by washing, at the command of the god, in the river Pactolus, which has ever since washed down gold in its sands. A later fable makes Midas the judge in the rivalry of Apollo and Pan, on which occasion he decided in favour of the latter, for which the god changed his ears into those of an ass. Modern criticism has seen in the rich Midas one of the many personifications of the sun, who, as he rises over the earth, turns all things to gold.

7. Greek and Roman Wood-Spirits.—1. Pan.—Pan was a very ancient god of the woods and meadows. He was at first honoured only by the inhabitants of the mountain-land of Arcadia and by other pastoral tribes. Subsequently his divinity was more generally acknowledged and more highly esteemed. Common accounts make him the son of Hermes by the nymph Penelope, a daughter of Dryops. His mother was not a little terrified at his birth, since he was hairy all over, and had horns and goat’s feet. His father wrapped him in a hare-skin, and bore him to Olympus, where the assembled gods showed no small pleasure at the sight of the strange little wood-demon. From time immemorial Pan was regarded by the shepherds of Greece as their most doughty protector; for which reason the mountain caves in which they gathered their herds together at night, or in threatening weather, were held sacred to him. There were many such caves of Pan in the mountains of Arcadia, and also one at the foot of the Acropolis at Athens, besides others on Mount Parnassus in Bœotia, and elsewhere. Pan was esteemed a god of great cheerfulness and activity of character, who loved to range the woods as a huntsman, and was on this account regarded with little less veneration by huntsmen than by shepherds. He was also looked on as the patron of fishing and bee-keeping.

As the god of shepherds, Pan was also a lover of music, and on returning in the evening from the chase, says the Homeric story, he was wont to play sweet tunes on his pan-pipe (Syrinx), whilst the Oreads, or mountain-nymphs, sang the praises of the gods and led off their spirited dances. The poets have founded a story on his discovery of the Syrinx. They invented a fabulous nymph called Syrinx, with whom Pan was supposed to have fallen violently in love. The nymph, however, did not return his affection, and fled from his embraces. Pan pursued her, and in her extremity she sought the aid of Gæa, who transformed her into a reed. Out of this reed Pan, by joining seven pieces together, made an instrument which he called the Syrinx, after the nymph.

Pan was as passionately fond of dancing as of music. According to Pindar, he was the most accomplished dancer among the gods. His favourite amusement was to dance in company with the mountain-nymphs, on which occasions he regaled them with every kind of droll leap, in the performance of which his goat’s feet stood him in good stead.

As a wood-deity, Pan also possessed the gift of prophecy; indeed, according to some, it was he who first imparted this gift to Apollo. He certainly had a very ancient oracle at Acacesium in Arcadia.

Wild mountainous country and the thick untrodden forest are both alike apt to impress the lonely traveller with feelings of awe. All such sensations of sudden and unaccountable fear were ascribed to Pan (Panic). He was also said to delight in terrifying travellers with all kinds of strange noises. Hence, at a later period, arose the story that in the contest with the Titans he rendered good service to Zeus by blowing on a shell trumpet which he had invented, whereupon the Titans were seized with a sudden terror. This, however, is only another version of Triton’s services at the battle with the giants. It is well known that the Athenians introduced the worship of Pan, to which they had been hitherto strangers, into their city after the battle of Marathon, in consequence of the assistance which they believed they had received from the god.

Such are the more ancient and simple features of the character of Pan. He assumed a higher significance when men began to regard him as the companion of the “Mighty Mother,” and assigned him a place in the Bacchic circle. Men now saw in him a productive force of nature like the Phrygian Attis; indeed, in consequence of a misinterpretation of his name, he was made the creator and god of the universe. He seems to have originally signified the “purifying” breeze, which at one time whistled through the reeds, or at another moaned dismally in the forest, frightening the belated traveller.

After he had once been introduced into the company of Dionysus, poets and artists alike set themselves to work to invent a number of Panes and little Pans (Panisci), who were easily confounded with the Satyrs and Sileni.

The chief shrine of Pan was at Acacesium in Arcadia. Cows, goats, and sheep were sacrificed to him, besides offerings of milk, honey, and new wine.

Fig. 43.—Pan. From a Mural Painting at Herculaneum.

In art we must distinguish the earlier and later types of the god. In the former, which dates from the best days of Greek art, he is conceived as entirely human in appearance, with the exception of two sprouting horns on either side of the forehead. Later, he was depicted with larger horns, a long goat’s beard, and goat’s feet. We give an engraving of this later conception (Fig. 43), which is taken from a mural painting at Naples. The usual attributes of Pan are a Syrinx and shepherd’s crook, sometimes also a pine garland.

2. Silvanus.—Among the Roman wood-deities, Silvanus occupies a position most akin to that of Pan, although they are not exactly identical. His name, derived from silva (wood), points him out as the god of the forest, where he was supposed to dwell, a deity kindly disposed towards mankind, and propitious to the welfare of trees, plants, and cattle. At times, however, he appears, like Pan, as a mischievous sprite, who delights to trick and terrify the lonely traveller. His sphere of activity was not confined to the woods, since he was also regarded as the author of fruitfulness in gardens and orchards. In this character Silvanus bears a close resemblance to Terminus, the god of boundaries and landed property, inasmuch as he preserves fields, gardens, and houses from harm. The first of the fruits of the field were offered to him. He had two shrines in Rome, one on the Viminal and another on the Aventine.

Artists and poets agree in representing Silvanus as an old man with a rustic head-gear, scattering blooming lilies and other flowers. He is usually distinguished by a pruning-knife.

3. Faunus and Fauna.—Closely resembling Silvanus is another deity called Faunus, one of the most ancient national gods of Italy. He appears as the good spirit of the mountains, pastures, and plains. He was regarded by the shepherds as their best protector, since he made their cattle fruitful and drove off noxious beasts of prey. In the former character he was also called Inuus (the fertiliser); in the latter Lupercus (the warder-off of wolves).

Like Pan, he appears to have his seat in the woods, whence he sometimes terrifies and annoys travellers. At night, too, he creeps into men’s houses, and torments them with evil dreams and horrible apparitions (Incubus).

Like Pan, too, Faunus possessed the gift of prophecy, and answered both by direct revelations and by dreams. In this character he was called Fatuus, and had a celebrated oracle in the grove at Tibur, on the spring Albunea.

Having once invented a number of Fauns, the poets soon began to identify them with the Satyrs of the Greeks.

In honour of this decidedly national deity, different festivals were celebrated, at which rams were sacrificed and libations of wine and milk made. The Faunalia were celebrated on the Nones of December, on which occasion the guests at the festive board surrendered themselves to the most unrestrained mirth, and granted many liberties also to their slaves. The Lupercalia, however, formed the proper expiatory festival of Faunus. This festival was celebrated on the 15th of February, and was remarkable for the number of ancient customs which were observed. The chief of these was the course of the Luperci, or priests of Faunus, who, after making their offering, ran from the shrine of the god (Lupercal), on the Palatine, through the streets of Rome, their only clothing being an apron cut from the skin of the slaughtered animal. They struck all whom they met with thongs, also cut from the same blood-stained skin. Barren women placed themselves in the way of the Luperci, believing that by means of the strokes the reproach of barrenness would be taken away from them. As a day of atonement, this day was termed dies februatus (from februare, to purify), whence the name of the month.

The feminine counterpart of Faunus, though not his wife, was Fauna, a propitious, kindly goddess of the plains. She is also called Maia, or Bona Dea. The women made an offering to her every year at night, on which occasion males were strictly excluded.

In art Faunus bears exactly the same appearance as Pan, with whom, indeed, he was often identified.

8. Priapus.—The worship of Priapus, the god of fields and gardens, appears to have been long of a purely local character, confined principally to the districts on the Hellespont, since he is not even mentioned by earlier writers. He was the son of Dionysus and Aphrodite, and presided over the exuberant fertility of nature. He was supposed to exercise influence over the fruitfulness of flocks and herds, whilst fishing and the rearing of bees were also placed under his protection. His special sphere, however, was the protection of gardens and vineyards. Asses were sacrificed to him, a fact which gave rise to all sorts of comical stories relating to the hostility of Priapus to this animal. Besides this, he received the first fruits of the garden and field and drink-offerings of milk and honey. The worship of Priapus was introduced into Italy at the same time as that of Aphrodite, and he was identified with the native Mutunus.

This deity was scarcely noticed in higher art. In the gardens of Italy, however, rough-hewn pillars of wood, similar to those of Hermes, were erected in his honour. He is usually distinguished by a pruning-knife and club.

9. Saturnus and Ops.—Before passing to Demeter, or Ceres, the great goddess of civilisation, to whom by Greeks and Romans alike the blessings of the harvest were ascribed, and who forms the best link between the gods of the upper and lower worlds, we must pause to consider some gods of agriculture and cattle-rearing peculiar to the Romans. Among them are Saturn and Ops, who belong to the most ancient national deities of Italy. To Saturn was ascribed the introduction of agriculture, together with the cultivation of the vine and other fruits. He was, therefore, venerated as the great benefactor of mankind, who not only promoted the physical welfare of men, but who also introduced a higher standard of civilisation. After the Romans had become acquainted with the mythology of the Greeks, they identified him with Cronus. In consequence of this, the story arose that, after his dethronement by Jupiter, Saturn fled to Italy, where he was hospitably received by Janus. There he is said to have brought together the inhabitants, who had hitherto wandered about without any fixed homes, and to have united them in regular political communities, over which he himself ruled. This was the golden age. In remembrance of the happy age when men were not yet troubled by sorrow or need, the Saturnalia were celebrated during three days, beginning from the 17th of December. This festival, which with changed meaning still continues in the Carnival of the present day, was celebrated in Rome with particularly great splendour. Unbounded festivity reigned throughout the whole town, and vented itself in every description of joke and prank. The distinctions of class were suspended, the courts and schools kept holiday, and the shops were closed. The chief day was the 19th of December, which was especially a festive day for the slaves, for on this day there were practically no slaves in Rome. No services were required of them, and they were allowed to don the clothes of their masters and to eat and drink as much as they liked, whilst their masters waited on them at table. And this custom allowed a class, otherwise subject to so many afflictions, to forget their sorrows for at least one day in a year. Wealthy Romans generally kept open house on this day, and vied with each other in the splendour of their hospitalities; and of course a solemn sacrifice was made to Saturn. The woollen bandages which, during the greater part of the year, enveloped the feet of his statue in order that he might not depart without vouchsafing a blessing, were on this day unloosed, and throughout the night the temple was illuminated with wax tapers. This festival, which was extremely popular among the Romans, was also celebrated with games in the circus.

The chief temple of Saturn, which was begun by Tarquinius Superbus and finished in the first years of the Republic, was situated on the ascent to the Capitol from the Forum. Beneath it was a vault containing the state treasury, or ærarium, the guardianship of the state treasures being committed to this god as the dispenser of every blessing.

Regarded as the wife of Saturn, and therefore identified with Rhea, Ops was the goddess of the seed-time and harvest. On this account her worship was closely connected with that of Saturn, and she had a place in his temple on the Capitoline. A festival was celebrated in honour of her on the 25th of August, when the newly-gathered corn was threshed.

When taken together, Saturn and Ops were regarded as deities who presided over marriage and the education of children, it being an easy step from the deity of the sprouting, ripening seed, to that of the budding, thriving season of human life.

Saturn is always represented as an old man, and is generally distinguished by a pruning-knife or sickle.

10. Vertumnus and Pomona.—Vertumnus and Pomona much resemble Saturn and Ops, the only difference being that the former exert their influence solely on the growth and welfare of the fruits of the garden and orchard. Vertumnus properly signifies the self-changing one; referring, probably, to the manifold changes which the fruit undergoes from the time of its first appearance in blossom to that of its maturity. For the same reason the god was said to possess the faculty of assuming any shape he liked. The first of the flowers and fruits were offered to him. Pomona, as her name signifies, was the goddess of the fruit harvest, and called by the poets the wife of Vertumnus. Each deity had a special priest (flamen), though the latter naturally held only an inferior position.

In art Vertumnus generally appears as a beautiful youth, his head crowned with a garland of ears of corn or laurel, with a horn of plenty, as a symbol of the blessings he bestows, in his right hand. He is sometimes distinguished by a dish filled with fruit, or a pruning-knife. Pomona is generally represented as the season of Autumn, a beautiful maiden with boughs of fruit-trees in her hand.

11. Flora.—Among the inferior deities of the plain was Flora, the goddess of blossoms and flowers, who was held in great honour by the Sabines, and everywhere in the interior of Italy. Her worship is said to have been introduced into Rome by Numa, who assigned the goddess a priest of her own. She attained a higher significance by becoming a goddess of maternity, whom women invoked before their confinement. Her festival was celebrated with great rejoicings from the 28th of April to the 1st of May (Floralia). The doors of the houses were adorned with flowers, and wreaths were worn in the hair. After the first Punic war, the festival, which was remarkable throughout for its merry and tumultuous character, was also celebrated with games, hares and deer being hunted in the circus.

Artists appear to have represented Flora as the season of Spring, in the guise of a beautiful girl crowned with flowers. There is a fine marble statue of this kind, larger than life, in the museum at Naples, called the Farnese Flora.

12. Pales.—Pales was the ancient pastoral goddess of the Italian tribes, from whom the name Palatine, which originally meant nothing but a pastoral colony, was derived. She was especially venerated by the shepherds, who besought her to send fruitfulness and health to their flocks. A festival in her honour was celebrated on the 21st of April, the anniversary of the foundation of the city (Palilia), at which very ancient rustic customs were observed. The most remarkable of these was the kindling of a large straw fire, through which the shepherds rushed with their flocks, thinking thus to purify themselves from their sins. Milk and baked millet-cakes were offered to the goddess. There is no statue of her now in existence.

13. Terminus.—Terminus, although he had nothing to do either with the welfare of the crops or the fruitfulness of the flocks, may yet be reckoned among the field deities, as the god who specially presided over boundaries. All landmarks were held sacred to him, and their erection was attended with religious ceremonies. In order that his people might fully appreciate the sanctity of boundaries, King Numa instituted a special festival in honour of the god, called the Terminalia, and annually celebrated on the 23rd of February. The proprietors of lands bordering on each other were wont on this occasion to crown the boundary stone with garlands, and to make an offering of a flat cake to the god.

In his wider signification Terminus was regarded as the god under whose protection the boundaries of the state reposed, and in this character he had a chapel in the temple of Minerva on the Capitol. A statue of the god also stood in the midst of the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, which is explained by the following story:—After Tarquinius had conceived the plan of building the great temple of Jupiter on the Capitol, the limited space necessitated the removal of several existing shrines, which could only occur with the consent of the deities themselves. They all expressed by means of auguries their readiness to make way for the highest god of heaven, except Terminus, who refused, and whose shrine had therefore to be included in the temple of Jupiter.

Statues of Terminus are exactly like the Hermæ of the Greeks, and have no importance in art.

14. Demeter (Ceres).—Demeter was a daughter of Cronus and Rhea. Her name signifies Mother Earth, and she is, therefore, an expression of the ancient conception of the earth-goddess, with a special reference to nature and human civilisation. She was also named Deo, and by comparison of these two words, her name has been interpreted as Dawn-Mother, from the same root as Zeus, the sky. The thriving of the crops was ascribed to her influence; she was further regarded as the patroness of all those arts which are more or less intimately connected with agriculture, and which men first learned from her. Demeter thus rises to the rank of a goddess of civilisation. She rescued men by means of agriculture from the lower grades of hunters and shepherds, and brought their former rude and barbarous manners into subjection to law and morality. She thus becomes that “bountiful daughter of Heaven,” who, as Schiller sings in his Lay of the Bell,

“of old

Called the wild man from waste and wold,

And, in his hut thy presence stealing,

Roused each familiar household feeling;

And, best of all the happy ties,

The centre of the social band,—

The instinct of the Fatherland.”

Regarded in this light, she comes into contact with Dionysus, whose beneficial influence on human civilisation and manners we have already described. This accounts for the intimate connection of these two deities in the Eleusinian mysteries, where Dionysus-Iacchus even appears as the son of Demeter and the husband of Cora-Persephone. Owing to the important part she played in the institution of law and order among mankind, she was venerated as the goddess of marriage, marriage being the necessary foundation of civil society. She was also regarded as the tutelary goddess of national assemblies.

Of the numerous legends which are linked with the name of this goddess, none perhaps is more celebrated, or more pregnant with meaning in regard to her worship, than the rape of her daughter Persephone, or Cora. The latter was once playing with the daughters of Oceanus in a flowery meadow, where they were picking flowers and making garlands. Persephone happened to quit her companions for a moment to pluck a narcissus she had perceived, when suddenly the ground opened at her feet, and Pluto, or Hades, the god of the infernal regions, appeared in a chariot drawn by snorting horses. Swift as the wind he seized and carried off the terrified maiden in spite of her struggles, and vanished again into the regions of darkness before her companions were aware of the catastrophe. All this occurred, however, with the knowledge of Zeus, who had, unknown to Demeter, promised her daughter to Pluto. When Demeter missed her darling child, and none could tell her where she had gone, she kindled torches, and during many days and nights wandered in anxiety through all the countries of the earth, not even resting for food or sleep. At length Helios, who sees and hears everything, told Demeter what had happened, not disguising, however, that it had occurred with the consent of Zeus. Full of wrath and grief, the goddess now withdrew from the society of the other gods into the deepest solitude. Meanwhile all the fruits of the earth ceased, and a general famine threatened to extinguish the human race. In vain Zeus sent one messenger after another, beseeching the angry goddess to return to Olympus. Demeter swore that she would neither return nor allow the fruits of the earth to grow until her daughter was restored to her. At length Zeus was fain to consent, and despatched Hermes to the lower world to bring Persephone back. Persephone joyfully prepared to obey this command, but as she was about to depart Hades gave her a pomegranate-seed to eat, whereupon she found herself bound to him and unable to return. By means of Zeus, however, a compact was made by which Persephone was to spend two-thirds of the year in the upper world with her mother, and the remaining portion with her husband. And thus every year at springtide she ascends from her subterraneous kingdom to enjoy herself in her mother’s company, but returns again late in autumn to the regions of darkness and death.

It is not difficult to discover the meaning of this myth. It is simply an allegorical representation of the spectacle that is annually renewed before our eyes—the dying away and coming to life again of the vegetable world. Whilst Cora is dwelling during the winter months in the realms of Hades, Nature appears to wear a garb of mourning for her lost daughter. In the Eleusinian mysteries this inevitable decease and resurrection of the vegetable world was conceived as a symbol of higher meaning, setting forth the immortality of the soul. Every living being shares the fate of Cora; every life becomes the prey of cold, inexorable death, only to arise from the darkness of the grave more beautiful and glorious than before.

Closely connected with this beautiful and expressive myth is another which refers to the institution of the Eleusinian mysteries. When Demeter, after the loss of her daughter, was wandering over the earth in the guise of a poor old woman, she came to Eleusis. The daughters of Celeüs, the king of the city, found her sitting on a stone by the Maidens’ Well as they came thither to draw water, and offered the old woman service in their father’s house as nurse to their youngest brother Demophon. The goddess consented, and was kindly received in the house of Celeüs, where she was at once installed as nurse to the young prince. She became so fond of the child that she resolved to make him immortal by anointing him with ambrosia, and then laying him at night in the glow of the fire. She was discovered at her work, however, by the mother of the child, whose cries disturbed her, and thus prevented her from fulfilling her benevolent intention. She now revealed herself to Celeüs, and commanded him to build her a temple in Eleusis. When it had been hastily completed, with the help of the goddess, she initiated Celeüs and some other princes of Eleusis—Triptolemus, Eumolpus, and Diocles—in the solemn rites of her service. On Triptolemus, who is called the son of Celeüs, she imposed the task of disseminating a knowledge of agriculture and of her own worship throughout the earth, and for this purpose lent him her own chariot and dragons. On this he travelled through the countries of the earth, making known everywhere the blessings of agriculture, and uniting men in regular political communities. He was not well received in all places, and the goddess had sometimes to step in and punish those who contemned her benefits. Such was the case with the Scythian king Lynceus and the Thessalian prince Erysichthon; but at length her cause triumphed, and the worship of the bountiful goddess spread itself over the whole world.

The chief seat of her worship was the city of Eleusis, which was beautifully situated on the bay of Salamis. It retained this honour even after it had lost its independence and come into the possession of the Athenians. The Eleusinian mysteries were celebrated both here and at Athens, in honour of Demeter and the deities associated with her. They probably contained a symbolical history of Cora.

There was a distinction between the greater and lesser mysteries. The latter were celebrated at Athens in the month of Anthesterion (February), and were a kind of preparation for the greater mysteries, which took place in September, and were celebrated during nine days, partly at Athens and partly at Eleusis. In these secret rites only those could take part who had been initiated. The chief feature of the festival was a great and solemn procession on the sixth day from Athens to Eleusis, a distance of about twelve miles. All those who took part in it—often as many as 30,000—were crowned with myrtle, and bore torches in their hands, as the procession started from Athens at the earliest dawn.

The festival of the Thesmophoria, which was celebrated at the beginning of November, in honour of Demeter in her character of lawgiver and goddess of marriage, was less important than the Eleusinia. It lasted for five days, and only married women were allowed to take part in it.

Fig. 44.—Demeter Enthroned. Painting from Pompeii. Naples.

The Ceres of the Romans, though undoubtedly an ancient Italian goddess, was the very counterpart of the Greek Demeter, with whom, after the successful introduction of her worship during the first years of the Republic, she was entirely identified.

The chief festival of Ceres and her associate deities, Liber and Libera, fell on the 19th of April, which, as the proper spring month, was especially dedicated by the inhabitants of Italy to deities presiding over agriculture. The Cerealia were opened by a grand procession, in which every one was clothed in white. It was further celebrated with solemn sacrifices and games in the circus, the management of which lay with the plebeian ædiles.

The usual sacrifice, both among Greeks and Romans, was the sow (the symbol of fruitfulness), but, besides this, cows and the first fruits of the trees and hives were offered to her.

In the representations of the goddess an expression of lofty dignity is blended with condescending benevolence and gentleness. Her principal attributes are a torch, a sheaf of corn, a garland of ears of corn interwoven in her hair, and a basket filled with flowers at her side. Among the few antique statues, a large marble figure in the Capitoline Museum at Rome deserves especial mention. The engraving (Fig. 44), which is after a Pompeian painting, depicts Demeter as the bountiful goddess of agriculture. She is seated on a throne, and holds a torch consisting of two calices in her right hand, and a bunch of corn in her left.

15. Persephone (Proserpina).—In Persephone, the goddess of the lower world, whom the Athenians preferred to call by her mystic name of Cora, two distinct conceptions are embodied. On the one hand she appears as the wife of the dark god of the lower world—like him, a gloomy, awe-inspiring deity, who pitilessly drags down all that lives into the hidden depths of the earth; whence the grave is called the chamber of Persephone. Such is the view of her taken by Homer and later epic poets. These represent her as sitting enthroned at the side of her grim lord, the joyless queen of the infernal regions, to dwell in which were worse than to be a slave on earth. On the other hand she appears as Cora, the lovely daughter of the all-bountiful Mother Earth; a personification, in fact, of that never-dying force of nature which, year by year, causes the most luxuriant vegetation to spring up before our eyes, only, however, to die away again in the autumn. In a somewhat narrower sense Persephone may be regarded as a type of the grain, which long remains in the ground where it has been sown as though dead, but afterwards breaks forth into new life. It was only natural to associate with this last conception ideas of the immortality of the soul, of which, in the secret doctrines of the mysteries, Persephone was a symbol. Though we know but little concerning the details of the mysteries, we are yet aware that their chief object was to disseminate better and purer ideas of a future life than the popular faith of the Greeks afforded. It was commonly believed that the souls of men after death led a dull, miserable existence in the world of shadows. Those initiated in the mysteries, however, were taught that death was only a resurrection of the soul to a brighter and better life, on the condition, of course, that a man had fully pleased the gods and rendered himself worthy of such a happy lot.

Persephone, or Proserpina, as she is called in Latin, was a deity originally entirely strange to the Romans, who borrowed all their ideas of the lower world from the Greeks. Nevertheless, they identified her with Libera, an ancient rustic goddess of fertility, the feminine counterpart of Liber, under which name she signifies the same as the Greek Cora. Black, barren cows were sacrificed to Persephone as an infernal goddess, but she does not appear to have had any temples of her own.

Fig. 45.—Persephone Enthroned. Painting from Pompeii. Naples.

Persephone is of no great importance in art, and statues of her are rare. She is represented either as the fair daughter of Demeter, or as the grave, severe queen of the world of shadows. In the latter character she may generally be recognised by her sceptre and diadem. Her other attributes are ears of corn, a poppy, and a torch, as a symbol of her connection with the Eleusinian mysteries, besides the pomegranate and narcissus. The engraving (Fig. 45), after a painting in the Naples Museum, represents her as the Stygian queen.

16. Hades (Pluto).—The same twofold nature which we meet with in Persephone may be observed also in her husband, Hades, or Aïdoneus (the invisible), as he is called by the epic poets, on account of the mysterious gloom in which his kingdom as well as his person was enveloped. He first appears as the unrelenting, inexorable foe of human life, on whom one cannot even think without fear and trembling. For this reason, says Homer, “he is of all the gods the most detested among mortals.” This conception, however, was subsequently supplanted by one of a less dismal nature, in which the other side of his character is brought into prominence. From this point of view he is represented not only as sending nourishment to plants from the deep bosom of the earth, but also as offering unbounded riches to mankind in the shape of the precious metals which lie in his subterraneous passages and chambers. In this sense he was also called Pluto, or Pluteus—that is, the god of riches.

Hades belonged to the earliest deities of Greece, being, like Poseidon, a brother of Zeus. When the three brothers partitioned the universe among themselves, Hades received the dark regions of the earth as his exclusive kingdom, the portals of which he was said to keep closed, in order that no soul might return to the upper world without his consent. He was also termed Polydectes (the receiver of many), from the fact of his seizing on all men, without distinction, at their appointed time, and conveying them to his dismal realms. The ideas which men first entertained, as to the mode in which Hades exercised his power over mortals, exactly corresponded with their grim conception of the god. He was looked on as a powerful and dreaded robber, who, as in the case of Persephone, seizes on his prey and carries it off with his swift horses. Later, a milder conception of the god was introduced. The task of carrying the souls of the dead to the lower world was delegated to Hermes, who thus became a servant of Pluto, the Zeus of the infernal regions, just as he was otherwise a servant of the Zeus of heaven. But though the original dismal conception of this deity as the inexorable god of death was much diminished in course of time, yet Hades, nevertheless, always conveyed an idea of something grim and mysterious to the Greek mind; which is perhaps the reason why so few myths, beyond that of the rape of Proserpina, were circulated concerning him. He can, in fact, scarcely be said to have had a place in the public worship of the Greeks.

Fig. 46.—Head of Hades. Palazzo Chigi. Rome.

The Roman conception of this deity differed little from that of the Greeks, having been, in fact, borrowed entirely from a Greek source. By them he was called Pluto, or Pater Dis. He had no temple in Rome, but had, in common with Proserpina, a subterranean altar in the Campus Martius, which was uncovered and used once a-year. Only black animals were sacrificed to him.

Artists naturally hesitated to portray a being whose very name they feared to pronounce, and consequently antique statues of Hades are very rare. His characteristic features—a grim expression of countenance, tightly-closed lips, and long tangled hair—are embodied in a marble head, in the possession of Prince Chigi at Rome, of which we give an engraving (Fig. 46). His principal attributes are a sceptre, a votive bowl, and sometimes a two-pronged fork, or a key.

17. The Lower World.—To our consideration of Hades we must add some remarks on the ideas which the ancient Greeks and Romans had of the other life and of the abodes of the dead. It may be well to remark, at the outset, that the Romans do not originally appear to have believed in a kingdom of the dead in the interior of the earth, and that all their ideas on this subject were borrowed from the writings of the Greeks. Neither do their ideas on this subject, nor even those of the Greeks, appear to have been invariably the same at all times. Even in the poetry of Homer we come across two very different views as to the situation of the realms of the dead. According to that which we find in the Iliad, it was situated beneath the disc-shaped earth, only a thin layer separating it from the upper world. This is made evident on the occasion of the great battle of the gods in the 20th book, where we read—

“Pluto, the infernal monarch, heard alarmed,

And, springing from his throne, cried out in fear,

Lest Neptune, breaking through the solid earth,

To mortals and immortals should lay bare

His dark and drear abode of gods abhorred.”

According to another view which prevails in the Odyssey, the world of shadows was not situated beneath the earth, but lay far to the westward, on the other side of Oceanus, or on an island in the same; so indefinite and vague were men’s ideas as to the locality of the kingdom of death in the time of Homer, and so undeveloped were their conceptions as to the lives of departed souls. The lower world appears as a desolate, dismal region, where departed spirits lead a shadowy, dreamy existence, to reach which is no happiness. There is no difference in their lots; for we as yet hear nothing of the judgment of the dead. The Elysian fields, to which the special favourites of the gods were transferred, form no part of the lower world in Homer, but were supposed to lie in an entirely distinct region in the far West (the isles of the blest). Later on, the outlines of the lower world become more clearly defined. It was now supposed to be a region in the centre of the earth, with several passages to and from the upper world. Through it flowed several rivers—Cocytus, Pyriphlegethon, Acheron, and Styx. The last of these encompassed the lower world several times, and could only be crossed by the aid of Charon, the ferryman, who was depicted as a sullen old man with a bristling beard. The Greeks therefore used to place an obolus (small copper coin) in the mouths of their dead, in order that the soul might not be turned back by Charon for lack of money. On the farther side of the river the portals were watched by the dreadful hell-hound Cerberus, a three-headed monster, who refused no one entrance, but allowed none to leave the house of Pluto. All souls, on reaching the lower world, had to appear before the tribunal of Minos, Rhadamanthus, and Æacus. Those whose lives had been upright were then permitted to enter Elysium, where they led a life of uninterrupted bliss; whilst those who on earth had been criminal and wicked were consigned to Tartarus, where they were tormented by the Furies and other evil spirits. Those whose lives had not been distinctly good or bad remained in the asphodel meadow, where as dim shadows they passed a dull, joyless existence.

The punishments of great criminals in the infernal regions were a fruitful theme for the imagination of the poets. The most celebrated criminals were Tityus, Tantalus, Sisyphus, Ixion, and the Danaids. We have said that the idea of the judgment of the dead is not found in the earliest legends. Hence we must expect to find, in some cases, that the crimes supposed to have drawn down the wrath of the gods were either later inventions, or had very little connection with the punishment inflicted. Thus to take the case of Tantalus, the original idea appears to have been the burning sun looking upon sweet fruits and streams of water, and drying them up instead of being able to enjoy them. It is possible that another part of the legend, the offering of his children for the gods of heaven to eat, may have a similar origin. So the story of Sisyphus seems to point to the sun daily toiling up the steep hill of heaven, yet ever obliged to recommence his weary task. So the name Ixion seems to be derived from a word meaning wheel, and to be yet another allusion to the orb of day. As men began to forget the reality underlying these words, and to think that some real person suffered these woes, it was only natural that they should try to find a reason. Generally, perhaps always, some point in the story could be twisted into a crime deserving of punishment (compare the legend of Œdipus). The punishment of Tityus, who had offered violence to Leto, consisted in being chained to the earth, whilst two vultures continually gnawed at his ever-growing liver. Tantalus, the ancestor of the Atridæ, Agamemnon and Menelaus, had been deemed worthy to hold intercourse with the gods, until he thought fit to put their omniscience to the test by setting before them the flesh of his son Pelops. This crime he was condemned to expiate by the torments of continual hunger and thirst. Above his head were suspended the most beautiful fruits; but when he attempted to snatch them, a gust of wind blew them beyond his reach. At his feet flowed a stream of the purest water; but when he tried to quench his thirst, it suddenly vanished into the ground. Sisyphus, formerly king of Corinth, had provoked the wrath of the gods by his numerous crimes, and was condemned, in consequence, to roll a block of stone up a high mountain, which, on reaching the top, always rolled down again to the plain. Ixion, a not less insolent offender, was bound hand and foot to an ever-revolving wheel. Lastly, the Danaids, or daughters of Danaus, who, at their father’s command, had slain their husbands on the wedding night, were condemned to pour water continually into a cask full of holes, which could never be filled.

18. The Erinyes (Furiæ).—The Erinyes, or Furies, were denizens of the lower world, who executed the commands of Hades and Persephone. They were ultimately three in number, and their names were Tisiphone, Alecto, and Megæra; and this number, like that of the Graces, the Fates, and others, is due to the fact that the Greeks expressed any undefined number by the sacred numeral three. In their original signification they appear as the avengers of every violation, either on the part of gods or men, of the moral laws of the universe. When, at a later period, the idea of an avenging Nemesis had become more and more developed, the significance of the Erinyes diminished, and their avenging duties were confined to the family.

As the inexorable pursuers of every injury done to the sacred ties of blood—especially the murder of kindred—they received a much greater degree of attention at the hands of the Greek tragic poets, by whom they were frequently brought on the stage. The pictures thus drawn of the relentless activity of the Erinyes are both powerful and striking. Nothing can equal the keen scent with which they trace the crime, or the untiring speed with which they pursue the criminal. As a symbol of this latter quality, the poets have endowed them with brazen feet. Their appearance is wan and Gorgon-like; wild lust for blood is written in their features, and the serpents which twine round their heads in the place of hair deal out destruction and death on their unhappy victims. Flight avails them nought, for there is no region whither the avenging Furies cannot follow, no distance that they cannot compass. With torch swung on high they dog the steps of the unhappy wretch, like swift huntresses following in the track of their hard-pressed game, and never rest until they have driven him to madness and death.

What, then, was the origin of the belief in these dreadful beings? Two explanations have been given, and in each case we shall see in them the powers of nature. Whether we are to look upon them as the storm-clouds darting lightnings upon the criminal, or as the bright dawn rising over the earth and pointing out his hiding-place, we must recognise the idea of the punishment of sin, inflicted by the powers of heaven. If, as seems most probable (cf. the genealogy given them by Æschylus and Sophocles), we are to take the latter explanation, we shall have some reason for the names of “kindly” and “venerable,” applied to them by the Greeks, partly, no doubt, owing to the ancient custom of avoiding words of ill-omen. Yet poetical mythology treated this as a transformation of their nature, and associated it with a special event, namely, the institution of the Areopagus at Athens, and the purification of the matricide Orestes effected by this venerable court. The story relates that Orestes, after having slain his mother Clytæmnestra and her infamous paramour Ægisthus, in revenge for the murder of his father Agamemnon, wandered for a long time about the earth in a state bordering on madness, owing to the persecution of the Erinyes. At length, however, he was befriended by Apollo and Athene, the kindly deities of the luminous Æther. Apollo first purified him before his own altar at Delphi, and then defended him before the court of the Areopagus, which had been founded by Athene. Orestes was here acquitted, for Athene, when the votes for and against him were equal, declared that then and in all future time the criminal should have the benefit of the doubt. The Furies, indeed, were at first very wroth, and threatened the land with barrenness both of women and soil; but Athene succeeded in pacifying them, by promising that a shrine should be erected to them on the hill of the Areopagus. After they had taken possession of this sanctuary, they were thenceforth venerated by the Athenians, under the names of Semnæ (venerable), or Eumenides (benevolent), as propitious deities who, though they still continued to punish crimes, were ever ready to grant mercy to the repentant sinner, and to give succour to all good men.

There were different traditions concerning the origin of the Erinyes. According to Hesiod, they owed their existence to the first execrable crime committed since the beginning of the world, for they were the daughters of Earth, and sprang from the drops of blood that fell from the mangled body of Uranus. They here appear, therefore, as an embodiment of the curses which the angry father invoked on the head of his unnatural son. Sophocles, on the other hand, calls them the daughters of Gæa and Scotos (darkness of night). Æschylus simply terms them the daughters of the Night. Besides the shrine in Athens already mentioned, they had another near the city, a sacred grove in Colonus, which was celebrated as the last refuge of the unfortunate Œdipus. In Athens they had an annual festival, at which libations of milk and honey were made to them.

In art the Erinyes are represented as swift huntresses, armed with spear, bow, and quiver. Torches, scourges, or snakes were also put in their hands. They were, moreover, provided with wings on their shoulders or head as a token of their swiftness.

19. Hecate.—Among the mystic deities of the lower world we must not omit to mention Hecate. By the Romans, indeed, she was never publicly venerated, though she was not exactly unknown to them. Common tradition made her a daughter of the Titan Perseus and Asteria. She ruled principally over the secret forces of Nature, which perhaps explains the spectral and awe-inspiring form which this goddess assumed. She was supposed to preside over all nocturnal horrors, and not only to haunt the tombs and cross-roads herself in company with the spirits of the dead, but also to send nightly phantoms from the lower world, such as the man-eating spectre Empusa, and other fabulous goblins.

As her name seems to signify, Hecate (far-striking) was originally a moon-goddess, not like either Artemis or Selene, but representing the new moon in its invisible phase. The ancients not being able to account for the different phases of the moon, naturally came to the conclusion that, when invisible, it was tarrying in the lower world. The public worship of the goddess was not very extensive, but her importance in connection with the mysteries was all the greater. Men were wont to affix small pictures of her to houses and city gates, which were supposed to prevent any bad spells from affecting the town or house. On the last day of every month her image on the house doors was crowned with garlands, and viands were set before it in her honour, which were afterwards eaten by the poor, and termed the meals of Hecate. Wooden images of the goddess with three faces were generally set up where three roads met, and here dogs were sacrificed to her as sin-offerings for the dead. This usually took place on the thirtieth day after death. As in the case of other infernal deities, black lambs were sacrificed to her, besides libations of milk and honey.

Fig. 47.—Three-formed Hecate. Capitoline Museum.

Hecate was generally represented as three-formed (triformis), which probably has some connection with the appearance of the full, half, and new moon. In order to explain more clearly the nature of such a representation, we give an engraving (Fig. 47) after a bronze statuette in the Capitoline Museum at Rome. The figure facing us holds in her hands a key and a rope, which point her out as the portress of the lower world; over her brow is a disc, representing, probably, the dark surface of the new moon. The figure on the right holds in either hand a torch, in virtue of her character as a mystic goddess, whilst on her brow is a half-moon and a lotus-flower. Lastly, the third figure bears, as a symbol of the full moon, a Phrygian cap with a radiant diadem fastened on it, which gives forth seven rays; in her right hand is a knife, in her left the tail of a serpent, of which no satisfactory interpretation has hitherto been discovered.

20. Sleep and Death.—Sleep and Death were conceived by the ancients as twin brothers. According to Hesiod, they were children of Night alone. They dwelt in the lower world, whence they visited the earth to steal over mortals; the former a kindly benevolent spirit, the latter grim and cruel. Apart from this conception, which was especially developed by later poets and artists, Death was sometimes depicted as quite distinct from Sleep, and in a still less amiable guise. The different forms of violent death were personified as female deities of formidable aspect, called the Ceres; or Apollo and Artemis among the inhabitants of heaven, and Pluto and Persephone among those of the lower world, were represented, as the deities of death. The Romans had a personal god of death, whom they called Orcus; he was represented as an armed warrior dealing out mortal wounds among mankind. But none of these special gods of death had any great importance, either in religion or art. Artists, indeed, laboured sedulously to diminish the dreadful appearance of Thanatus (death), and to render him more and more like his brother Hypnus (sleep).

Thanatus and Hypnus often appear in company, either sleeping or standing; the former usually bears a reversed torch, the latter a poppy-stalk or a horn, out of which he is pouring some liquid. They are both generally represented in the bloom of youth. In Fig. 34, which is after a drawing of Asmus Carstens, they appear as the children of Night, and are here brought into immediate connection with the other powers, Nemesis and the Parcæ, who control the destinies of man.

Besides Sleep and Death, Hesiod also mentions Dreams as the children of Night. Other writers, however, call them the sons of Sleep, who dwell in the far West, close to the realms of Hades. This house of dreams has, in Homer’s well-known description, two gates—one of ivory, through which pass flattering, deceptive dreams, and one of horn, whence the true dreams proceed. Morpheus was made the special god of dreams by the poets, and termed the son of Hypnus.