With twining osiers fenced, and moss their beds:
Then ploughs for seed the fruitful farrows broke,
And oxen laboured first beneath the yoke."
Ovid.
Nor was crime long in making its appearance. Hyacon, King of Arcadia, violated all the laws of hospitality by the massacre of his guests. He had the cruelty to offer up to Jupiter, in one of the high festivals, the members of a slave, as an offering to the God. But his punishment was as swift as his conduct had been atrocious: his palace was reduced to ashes, and his form was changed into that of a wolf. From this Jupiter took the name which denotes him an avenger of the laws of hospitality.
Jupiter is also distinguished by the name of Ammon from the following circumstance:
Bacchus being in the midst of the sands of Arabia, was seized with a thirst so burning, that he was reduced to long even for a drop of water. Jupiter presented himself to him under the form of a battering-ram, and striking the earth, caused the grateful liquid to spring forth in abundance. Bacchus, to commemorate the deed, erected a temple to his benefactor in the deserts of Lybia, under the name of Jupiter Ammon, i. e.—sandy.
By this time mankind had owed their creation to the King of the Gods. Prometheus, grand-son of Uranus, having deceived Jupiter, he was punished by being withheld from the element of fire; and to enrage his sovereign, he formed a being of clay, of workmanship so exquisite, that it scarcely seemed to need life to add to its beauty, and to complete his performance, assisted
by Minerva, he stole fire from the chariot of the sun, wherewith to animate his image.
