The Classic Myths in English Literature and in Art (2nd ed.) (1911) / Based Originally on Bulfinch's 'Age of Fable' (1855) - Charles Mills Gayley; Thomas Bulfinch

173. Interpretative. Dædalus is a representative of the earliest technical skill, especially in wood-cutting, carving, and the plastic arts used for industrial purposes. His flight from one land to another signifies the introduction of inventions into the countries concerned. The fall of Icarus was probably invented to explain the name of the Icarian Sea.

Illustrative. Dædalus: Chaucer, Hous of Fame, 409. Icarus: Shakespeare, 1 Henry VI, IV, vi; IV, vii; 3 Henry VI, V, vi; poem on Icarus by Bayard Taylor; travesty by J. G. Saxe.

In Art. Sculpture: Fig. 138, in text: Villa Albani, Rome; Canova's Dædalus and Icarus; painting by J. M. Vien; also by A. Pisano (Campanile, Florence).

174. The descendants of Erichthonius are as follows:

Table M

Jupiter +— Tantalus
+— Pelops
+— Pittheus
| +— Æthra
| =Ægeus
| +— Theseus
| =Ariadne d. of Minos II
| =Antiope (Hippolyta)
| +— Hippolytus
| =Phædra d. of Minos II
+— Atreus
+— Thyestes
Erichthonius
+— Pandion I
+— Erechtheus
| +— Pandion II
| | +— Ægeus
| | =Æthra
| | +— Theseus (see above)
| +— Creüsa
| =Apollo
| +— Ion
| =Xuthus
+— Procne
+— Philomela
+— Philomela
Cecrops (see 65). According to one tradition, Cecrops was autochthonous and
had one son, Erysichthon, who died without issue, and three daughters, Herse,
Aglauros, and Pandrosos (personifications of Dew and its vivifying influences).
According to another, he was of the line of Erichthonius, being either a son of
Pandion I, or a son of Erechtheus and a grandson of Pandion I. Apollodorus makes
him father of Pandion II. He was regarded as founder of the worship of Athene
and of various civic institutions. He is probably a hero of the Pelasgian race.
Ion. According to one tradition, the race of Erechtheus became extinct, save
for Ion, a son of Apollo and Creüsa, daughter of Erechtheus. This son, having
been removed at birth, was brought up in Apollo's temple at Delphi, and, in
accordance with the oracle of Apollo, afterwards adopted by Creüsa and her husband
Xuthus (see the Ion of Euripides). Ion founded the new dynasty of Athens.
But, according to Pausanias and Apollodorus, the dynasty of Erechtheus was continued
by Ægeus, who was either a son, or an adopted son, of Pandion II. By
Æthra he became father of Theseus, in whose veins flowed, therefore, the blood
of Pelops and of Erichthonius.
Interpretative. The story of Philomela was probably invented to account for
the sad song of the nightingale. With her the swallow is associated as another
much loved bird of spring. Occasionally Procne is spoken of as the nightingale, and
Philomela as the swallow, and Tereus as taking the form of a red-crested hoopoe.
Illustrative. Chaucer, Legende of Good Women (Philomene of Athens); Milton,
Il Penseroso; Richard Barnfield, Song, "As it fell upon a day"; Thomson,
Hymn on the Seasons; Swinburne, Itylus; Oscar Wilde, The Burden of Itys;
Sir Thomas Noon Talfourd's drama, Ion.
176-181. Trœzen: in Argolis. According to some the Amazonian wife of
Theseus was Hippolyta, but her Hercules had already killed. Theseus is said to
have united the several tribes of Attica into one state, of which Athens was the
capital. In commemoration of this important event, he instituted the festival of
Panathenæa, in honor of Athene, the patron deity of Athens. This festival differed
from the other Grecian games chiefly in two particulars. It was peculiar to
the Athenians, and its chief feature was a solemn procession in which the Peplus,
or sacred robe of Athene, was carried to the Parthenon, and left on or before
the statue of the goddess. The Peplus was covered with embroidery, worked by
select virgins of the noblest families in Athens. The procession consisted of persons
of all ages and both sexes. The old men carried olive branches in their
hands, and the young men bore arms. The young women carried baskets on their
heads, containing the sacred utensils, cakes, and all things necessary for the sacrifices.
The procession formed the subject of the bas-reliefs which embellished the
frieze of the temple of the Parthenon. A considerable portion of these sculptures
is now in the British Museum among those known as the "Elgin Marbles." We
may mention here the other celebrated national games of the Greeks. The first
and most distinguished were the Olympic, founded, it was said, by Zeus himself.
They were celebrated at Olympia in Elis. Vast numbers of spectators
flocked to them from every part of Greece, and from Asia, Africa, and Sicily.
They were repeated every fifth year in midsummer, and continued five days. They
gave rise to the custom of reckoning time and dating events by Olympiads. The
first Olympiad is generally considered as beginning with the year 776 B.C. The
Pythian games were celebrated in the vicinity of Delphi, the Isthmian on
the Corinthian isthmus, the Nemean at Nemea, a city of Argolis. The exercises
in these games were chariot-racing, running, leaping, wrestling, throwing
the quoit, hurling the javelin, and boxing. Besides these exercises of bodily
strength and agility, there were contests in music, poetry, and eloquence. Thus
these games furnished poets, musicians, and authors the best opportunities to
present their productions to the public, and the fame of the victors was diffused
far and wide.
Interpretative. Theseus is the Attic counterpart of Hercules, not so significant
in moral character, but eminent for numerous similar labors, and preëminent as
the mythical statesman of Athens. His story may, with the usual perilous facility,
be explained as a solar myth. Periphetes may be a storm cloud with its thunderbolts;
the Marathonian Bull and the Minotaur may be forms of the power of
darkness hidden in the starry labyrinth of heaven. Like Hercules, Theseus fights
with the Amazons (clouds, we may suppose, in some form or other), and, like him,
he descends to the underworld. Ariadne may be another twilight-sweetheart of
the sun, and, like Medea and Dejanira, she must be deserted. She is either the
"well-pleasing" or the "saintly." She was, presumably, a local nature-goddess of
Naxos and Crete, who, in process of time, like Medea, sank to the condition of a
heroine. Probably from her goddess-existence the marriage with Bacchus survived,
to be incorporated later with the Attic myth of Theseus. As the female
semblance of Bacchus, she appears to have been a promoter of vegetation; and,
like Proserpina, she alternated between the joy of spring and the melancholy of
winter. By some she is considered to be connected with star-worship as a
moon-goddess.
Illustrative. Chaucer, The Knight's Tale (for Theseus and Ypolita); The Hous
of Fame, 407, and the Legende of Good Women, 1884, for Ariadne; Shakespeare,
Two Gentlemen of Verona, IV, i; Midsummer Night's Dream, II, ii (Hippolyta and
Theseus); Shakespeare and Fletcher, Two Noble Kinsmen. In Beaumont and
Fletcher's Maid's Tragedy, II, ii, a tapestry is ordered to be worked illustrating
Theseus' desertion of Ariadne. Landor, To Joseph Ablett, "Bacchus is coming
down to drink to Ariadne's love"; Landor, Theseus, and Hippolyta; Mrs. Browning,
Paraphrase on Nonnus (Bacchus and Ariadne), Paraphrase on Hesiod; Sir
Theodore Martin, Catullus, LXIV. Other poems: B. W. Procter, On the Statue
of Theseus; Frederick Tennyson, Ariadne (Daphne and Other Poems); Mrs.
Hemans, The Shade of Theseus; R. S. Ross, Ariadne in Naxos; J. S. Blackie,
Ariadne; W. M. W. Call, Ariadne; Mrs. H. H. Jackson, Ariadne's Farewell.
Phædra and Hippolytus: The Hippolytus of Euripides; Swinburne, Phædra;
Browning, Artemis Prologizes; M. P. Fitzgerald, The Crowned Hippolytus; A.
Mary F. Robinson, The Crowned Hippolytus; L. Morris, Phædra (Epic of Hades).
On Cecrops: J. S. Blackie, The Naming of Athens; Erechtheus, by A. C. Swinburne.
In Art. Theseus: the original of Fig. 140, text is in the Hermitage, St.
Petersburg; of Fig. 141 in the Naples Museum. The Battle with the Amazons
frequently recurs in ancient sculpture. The sleeping Ariadne, of the Vatican,
Fig. 142, text. Also the Revels as in text, Fig. 144. Modern Sculpture: the
Theseus of Canova (Volksgarten, Vienna); the Ariadne of Dannecker. Paintings:
Tintoretto's Ariadne and Bacchus; Teschendorff's Ariadne; Titian's
Bacchus and Ariadne.
182-189. The Royal Family of Thebes.

Table N

Illustrative. Œdipus: Plumptre's translation of Œdipus the King, Œdipus Coloneus, and Antigone; Shelley, Swellfoot the Tyrant; E. Fitzgerald, The Downfall and Death of King Œdipus; Sir F. H. Doyle, Œdipus Tyrannus; Aubrey De Vere, Antigone; Emerson, The Sphinx; W. B. Scott, The Sphinx; M. Arnold, Fragment of an "Antigone." Tiresias: by Swinburne, Tennyson, and Thomas Woolner.