Ulrich Middeldorf 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2016 
 
 https://archive.org/details/historyofheathenOOshel 
 
HISTORY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 BATMEN GOB 
 
 HEROES OF ANTIQUITY 
 
 TO WHICH IS ADDED AN 
 
 ORIGINAL TRANSLATION 
 
 OF THE 
 
 BATTLE OF THE GODS AND GIANTS. 
 
 THE WHOLE NEWLY ARRANGED, CORRECTED AND 
 ENLARGED, WITH THE ADDITION OF SEVERAL 
 ORIGINAL AND VALUABLE ARTICLES. 
 
 By WILLIAM SHELDON, F. A. g. 
 
 SECOND EDITION. 
 
 Ornamented with a number of elegant Cuts* 
 
 BOSTON : 
 
 PUBLISHED BY ISAIAH THOMAS, JUN....1816, 
 
 Mo Mann and Co . Printers , Dedham * 
 
District of Massachusetts , to ?vit : 
 
 nttl1i1t ». BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the 
 
 1 i, s i 8ccon ^ ^ay Getober, * n the thirty fourth 
 J '{ Year of the Independence of the United 
 States of America, Isaiah Thomas, Jun. 
 of the said district, has deposited in this office the title 
 of a book, the right whereof he claims as proprietor, in 
 the words following, to wit : 
 
 “ History of the Heathen Gods, and Heroes 
 of Antiquity. To which is added an Original Trans- 
 lation of the Battle of the Gods and Giants. The 
 whole newly arranged, corrected and enlarged, with 
 the addition of several original and valuable articles. 
 By William Sheldon, f. a. s. First edition, orna- 
 mented with a number of elegant cuts.” 
 
 In conformity to the Act of the Congress of the 
 United States, intitled, “ An Act for the encourage- 
 ment of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts 
 and books, to the authors and proprietors of such cop- 
 ies, during the times therein mentioned and also to 
 an act intitled, “ An Act supplementary to an Act, 
 intitled, an Act for the encouragement of learning, by 
 securing the copies of maps, charts and books, to the 
 authors and proprietors of such copies during the times 
 therein mentioned ; and extending the benefits thereof 
 to the arts of designing, engraving and etching histor- 
 ical, and other prints.” 
 
 WILLIAM S. SHAW, 
 Cterk cf ther District of Ma'ssaehusetfa 
 
PREFACE, 
 
 THE following work will be found t# 
 contain a compendious mass of information 
 which will be eminently useful to all who are 
 desirous of attaining such a degree of knowl- 
 edge of the Heathen Mythology, as will en- 
 able them to understand the Greek, Latin, and 
 English poets. 
 
 The greatest attention has been bestowed 
 on this performance, in order to render it as 
 complete as the nature of the subject, and the 
 limits prescribed, would allow. Recourse has 
 been had to the most approved treatises ; sev- 
 eral of which have been carefully compared 
 together, and the defects of one supplied by the 
 other. So far as the interpretation of any fa- 
 ble is either certain, or generally agreed upon, 
 that interpretation is inserted ; and where wri- 
 ters differ in their sentiments about an expla- 
 nation, that diversity of opinion is also, for the 
 most part, taken notice of. 
 a 2 
 
Vi PREFACE. 
 
 It is hoped that, on perusal, this treatise \ 
 be found to contain the Substance of ev< 
 thing that is valuable in Tooke’s Panthe 
 tvhich is a more bulky and expensive woi 
 and being written in the way of question i 
 tijiswcr, the work, of course, is swelled by i 
 merous questions, which are in a great degr 
 useless. Several articles will be found in t 
 book, which the reader will search for in vj 
 in the Pantheon * such as a translation fr< 
 the Theogony of Hesiod, of the battle of 
 Gods and Titans 5 the histories of Protei 
 of Romulus, of Leucothoe ; an account of \ 
 Constellations, &c . &c* An Original Int 
 Auction is also prefixed, in which an atten 
 has been made to give a true idea of t 
 Heathen Mythology ; and to rescue t 
 ancient Fagans (among whom our own anc< 
 tors are included) from the charge of havi 
 been subjected to that stupid and more th; 
 brutal ignorance, which led them to worsh 
 idols, made by themselves, of metals, woe 
 or stone, as real divinities. It is the more i 
 cumbent on us to rescue our forefathers fro 
 the charge of this gross stupidity because it 
 totally inconsistent with their practices, the 
 Witten testimonies, and the numerous mon 
 
PREFACE, 
 
 vii 
 
 ments of their wisdom, and their skill in the 
 arts and sciences, which they have left behind 
 them. This work will be found to possess 
 one farther advantage over Tooke’s Pan- 
 theon, and all other works of the kind, inas* 
 much as great care has been taken to alter and 
 expunge the many gross and indelicate ex* 
 pressions they contain ; and w hich have a ten* 
 dency to corrupt, more than to refine, the sen* 
 timents, morals and language of youthful stu- 
 dents. 
 
 This work will be found highly useful to, 
 and necessary for, every one who has a taste 
 for literature, and a desire to understand what 
 he reads. It will also be found extremely 
 beneficial to the Tyro in every seminary of 
 learning. 
 
 In a performance of this kind no one will 
 search for monuments of genius or invention ; 
 all the merit which can be sought for in works 
 of this nature is, industry in extracting the 
 materials from a great variety of authors, an- 
 cient and modern ; brevity and perspicuity in 
 the construction ; and judgment in the ar- 
 rangement of them. It is hoped this little 
 book will appear to be entitled, so far, to com- 
 mendation. 
 
PREFACE, 
 
 viii 
 
 A copious Index is added to the whole, 
 which contains, not only proper references to 
 the names and chapters of which the work is 
 composed, but a great variety of other explan- 
 atory articles, among which, the different 
 names and titles of the several deities are in- 
 serted, so that if any God or Goddess shall be 
 found spoken of, or alluded to, under a name, 
 or title, differing from that which they com- 
 monly bear, the Index will immediately shew 
 to which of them that title belongs. 
 
 EDITOR, 
 
 Worcester, October , 1B09. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 PEOPLE of weak minds and of little learning, 
 who have tasted the Pierian spring, but not drank 
 deep at it, when they read an account of the Heathen 
 Gods and Goddesses, and of the images dedicated to 
 them, and hear that the heathens were Idolators, or 
 worshippers of Images, give credit to those stories, 
 without any further inquiry or trouble. It may not, 
 therefore, be unnecessary to inform persons of this de= 
 scription, that the people of all the nations which ever 
 existed under heaven, have believed that there existed 
 one God, who is Almighty; and the maker of all 
 things. But there have been people who believed also 
 in inferior or subordinate gods, who were agents, or 
 mediators between God and man ; and who were em* 
 ployed in carrying on the tvorks of Providence and of 
 the creation, or nature ; just as those who profess the 
 Homan Catholic religion, now believe in the power 8 
 agency and beneficence of the different orders of an- 
 gels, and of the saints ; to whom they are in the habit 
 of addressing their prayers. 
 
 According to Varro, who was the most learned of 
 all the Romans, the heathens divided their mythology 
 into poetical or fabulous, philosophical or physical and 
 civil ; so that their poetical gods and goddesses all be- 
 long to the fabulous theology ; and were not objects 
 of belief or worship, any more than the saints are 
 among the Roman Catholics. That the greatest of 
 the poetical gods were considered as merely local dei- 
 ties, who had the care of particular countries, or cit- 
 ies, is evident from the consideration that almost all 
 the ancient cities had a Jupiter, whose authority did 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 ± 
 
 not extend beyond the limits of the city. In differen 
 countries they had different appellations. Jupiter, a 
 Carthage, was called Jupiter Ammon. ...In Egypt, 8c 
 rapis....In Athens, Jupiter Glympius....In Rome, Jupi 
 ter Capitolinus...and there was hardly a town in Ital 
 which had not its Jupiter. Indeed sometimes it hap 
 pened that there were in the same city Jupiters of diJ 
 fVent denominations ; as the Optimus Maximus Ju 
 plter; the Mild Jupiter; the Terrible Jupiter; th 
 Jupiter Tonans; the Jupiter Fulminans; the Jupite 
 Fulgurator and the Jupiter Pluvius. 
 
 They had twelve Celestial Deities called the D 
 majorum Gentium, whose names were Jupiter, June 
 Minerva, Neptune, Venus, Mars, Vulcan, Mercurj 
 Vesta, Apollo, Diana and Ceres. These may be coe 
 sidered as, in some degree, placed as an equivalent fa 
 the different orders in the Jewish celestial Hierarchy. 
 
 They had also their DU minorum Gentium; thes 
 Were six, viz. Hercules, Bacchus, Esculapius, Romi 
 lus, Castor and Pollux. These were inferior to th 
 others, on account of not having so great antiquity 
 and, moreover they were not entirely of celestial dt 
 scent ; their mothers having been women. In the fo! 
 lowing work they are not arranged exactly in thi 
 manner ; but from the account there given of then 
 which is collected from heathen authors, it is eviden 
 that the heathens themselves could got believe any on 
 of them to be the maker of the world ; for Saturn, th 
 oldest of all this group of gods, and the father of Jupi 
 ter himself, is said to be the son of Coelum and Tern 
 that is, heaven and earth ; therefore it is evident the 
 thought the world existed before he was born. Whe 
 St. Jerome disputed with the heathen philosophers c 
 his time about their gods, they explained them to b 
 merely symbolical representations of things. Jupite 
 was fire, Juno the air, Neptune the water, &c. so tha 
 in defending their religion they lost their gods. Tha 
 Saturn was nothing more than a symbol of Time is evi 
 dent from the representations made of him. His nam 
 
INTRODUCTION* 
 
 xi 
 
 in the Greek language is Chronos ; and Chronos is the 
 Greek word for Time. Thus the fable of Saturn de- 
 vouring his own children i$ natural enough ; for time 
 destroys all things. Jupiter is the son of Saturn and 
 Ops, or Cybele, or the earth, and dethrones Saturn. 
 
 My limits in this introduction would not admit of an 
 explanation of all the heathen fables, and allegories ; 
 it may therefore suffice to say, that, as they had ac- 
 counts of the origin of all their gods, it is sufficiently 
 evident that they did not consider any one of them 
 as that ETERNAL BEING who is without begin- 
 ning and without end. 
 
 The heathen are accused of worshipping inanimate 
 things. It is said the Persians worshipped Fire ; the 
 Lybians, the Sun, Moon and Stars; the Babylonians, 
 the Fish Oannes ; the Thebans, Thessalians, Syro- 
 phcenicians, Egyptians, &c. a variety of animals and 
 even plants. These charges, I believe, are advanced 
 on mistaken principles. Ihe Magians and those who 
 were called worshippers of Fire, worshipped toward 
 the Mithra, or Sun, as the habitation, or emblem of the 
 Divinity. Nor can I believe that there ever was a de- 
 scription of men, on the face of the earth, who were 
 stupid enough to worship dogs, cats, leeks and onions, 
 as gods. In order to explain these matters more fully, 
 it will be necessary to advert to the Egyptian philos- 
 ophy. The Egyptians held that the Supreme Being 
 existed from all eternity; that he created Celestial 
 Beings, which they called ill o ns. 1 hese were of dif- 
 ferent orders or degrees ; and although the Supreme 
 Being was called the Pleroma, and filled ail things; 
 yet the Demiurgus, one of the superior order of 
 ikons, made the w orld, apparently w ithout the knowl- 
 edge and consent of the Supreme Being. These iEons 
 also created other iEons inferior to themselves in 
 power and eminence, w hich inferior iEons were sup- 
 posed by the Egyptians to reside in different animals 
 and plants. Hence arose their veneration for different 
 animals and plants ; not that they worshipped them as 
 
iNTR©Bi7CTiear* 
 
 3)li 
 
 gods ; but they considered them as sacred on account 
 of their being the residence of superior beings. That 
 they could not believe they were gods is evident from 
 this...that the people of the different cities of Egypt held 
 different opinions ; and the inhabitants of one city ate 
 what those of another city considered as sacred. A 
 war broke out between the Tyntirites and Omphites, 
 because one party considered crocodiles as sacred, and 
 the other killed and ate them. 
 
 The belief that the Egyptians considered monkeys, 
 leeks, onions, cats, dogs, &c. as gods, came from the 
 Roman satirists ; but people should consider that poets 
 deal in fiction, and that their assertions ought not to 
 pass for historical truth. If Yirgil has told us that 
 when Enceladus turns himself in his uneasy bed, he 
 makes an eruption of Etna, are we therefore to be* 
 lieve it ? But on no better authority have the absurd 
 practises ascribed to the Egyptians obtained belief; 
 which is founded on a passage in Juvenal that is thus 
 translated. 
 
 Who has not heard where Egypt’s realms are nam’d'. 
 What monster gods her frantic sons have fram’d ? 
 Here Ibis gorg’d with well grown serpents, there 
 The Crocodile commands religious fear : 
 
 Where Memnon’s statue magic springs inspire 
 With vocal sounds, that emulate the lyre ; 
 
 And Thebes, such Fate, are thy disastrous turns? 
 Now prostrate o’er her pompous ruins mourns ; 
 
 A Monkey God, prodigious to be told ! 
 
 Strikes the beholder’s eye in burnish’d gold ; 
 
 To godship here, blue Triton’s scaly herd. 
 
 The river’s progeny is here preferr’d : 
 
 Through towns Diana’s pow’r neglected lies. 
 
 Where to her dogs aspiring temples rise : 
 
 And should you Leeks or Onions eat, no time 
 
INTRODUCTION, 
 
 xiii 
 
 Would expiate the sacrilegious crime— 
 
 Religious nations, sure, and blest abodes, 
 
 Where ev’ry Orchard is overrun with gods! 
 
 It has been said that these different and hostile sys-* 
 terns of religion were introduced by one of the ancient 
 kings of Egypt, who wanted to set his subjects togeth- 
 er by the ears, in order to take off their attention from 
 his government. I do not believe the Egyptians ever 
 were such fools as to be so imposed on. I rather think 
 that all the systems of the Egyptian religion had their 
 origin in the Egyptian philosophy I have mentioned ; 
 and that, like the people of all other countries, they 
 became divided into different sects ; some believing what 
 others denied. But that any of them worshipped 
 leeks, onions, dogs, cats, &c. as has commonly been 
 reported, I never can believe; I will not believe the 
 Egyptians ever were subject to such abominable stu- 
 pidity. They were a lettered people ; and letters 
 denote a state of civilization ; but to suppose they 
 were, as they are described by Juvenal, is to degrade 
 them below the most stupid and barbarous savages. 
 
 Nor will I believe that the following incongruous 
 collection of gods and goddesses were ever worshipped 
 among the enlightened nations of antiquity. We know 
 they excited the contempt of the philosophers, and the 
 ridicule of the poets : And in the most religious epo- 
 chas of the heathen world, I conceive they were con- 
 sidered merely as the mediators between God and man ; 
 and the worship addressed to them was much of the 
 game description as that which the Roman Catholics 
 now pay to their saints. That the most ignorant peo- 
 ple held them in greater veneration than the wisest, is 
 easy to believe ; as well as that there were those who 
 considered Demons, Furies, Harpies, Gorgeons, Chimas- 
 ras, Centaurs, Satyrs, &c. as realities: We have a- 
 
 mong us believers in ghosts, hobgoblins, witches, &c. 
 
 The Egyptians never pretended that the articles 
 which Juvenal says they worshipped were gods ; bat 
 
 51 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 xiv 
 
 they said the respect paid to them was on accoi 
 their utility. They honored oxen, sheep and do 
 their usefulness. The Ibis or Stork, because ] 
 stroyed the flying serpents: The Crocodile, be 
 the terror of him kept away the wild Arabs : 
 Ichneumon, because he prevented the Crocodile* 
 increasing to an inconvenient number. 
 
 It has been generally understood that the he 
 worshipped Images, as gods ; and, hence they 
 been called idolators. The use they made of Inn 
 sufficiently explained by Plutarch in his treai 
 Isis and Osiris. “ Philosophers honor the im 
 God, wherever they find it, even in inanimate b 
 and, consequently more in those which have life, 
 are, therefore, to approve, not the worshippers Oj 
 animals , hut those who by their means ascend to the 
 ty ; they are to be considered as so many mi 
 which nature holds forth, and in which the STJPR 
 iBEING displays himself in a wonderful manne] 
 as so many instruments, which he makes use of tc 
 ifest, outwardly, his incomprehensible wisdom. S 
 men, therefore, for the embellishing of statues, 
 together all the gold and precious stones in the ^ 
 the worship must not he referred to the statues ; f< 
 Deity does not exist in colours artfully dispose 
 in frail matter destitute of sense and motion .” J. 
 “ As the sun and moon, heaven, earth and se 
 Common to all men, but have different names, a< 
 ing to the difference of nations and languages ; i 
 manner, though there is but one Deity , and one j 
 deuce which governs the universe , and which has s< 
 subaltern ministers under it, men give to this I 
 which is the same, different names, and pay it dil 
 honors, according to the laws and customs of 
 country.” 
 
 In this passage Plutarch, who was a heathen, 
 us the sense of the whole heathen world. 
 
 Perhaps, after all, the idea of the twelve Ce 
 deities may have been taken from the twelve si, 
 
INTRODUCTION® 
 
 %Y 
 
 the Zodiac ; and the six terrestrial gods may relate to 
 the state and nature of man. Bacchus is youth. Her* 
 cules strength, Esculapius health, &c. &c....and thus 
 may all the heathen gods and goddesses be resolved in- 
 to types, allegories and symbols, 
 
 From the works of Herodotus, Diodmus Siculus , So- 
 Mums, Ammianus Marcellinus , &c. &c. we learn that 
 Osiris, Apis , or 31 nevis, the chief god of the Egyp- 
 tians, was worshipped in the shape of a bull, in which 
 the god became incarnate. This god they believed to 
 be immortal ; but they knew the bulls by which he 
 was represented were not immortal. A common bull 
 would not answer their purpose ; that which they be- 
 lieved to be a kind of Sechinah, or representative of 
 the Divinity, was always discovered by particular 
 marks. His body was to be all black, except a square 
 spot of white on his forehead. He was to have the figure 
 of an eagle, according to some, or of a half moon, as oth- 
 ers say, on his back ; a double list of hair on his tail, and 
 a scarabceus , or knot , under his tongue . For such a bull 
 as this they searched all Egypt, and, when they had 
 found him, they brought him with great rejoicing to 
 the Temple of Osiris, where they kept him as the repre- 
 sentative of their god, as long as he lived ; and when 
 he was dead they sought all through the country for 
 another, after having buried the deceased bull with 
 great solemnity. Now as they saw so many of these 
 bulls calved, reared, dead and buried, it was impossible 
 they could believe them to be immortal ; and, of course, 
 they could not believe them to be gods. It is evident, 
 therefore, that our charging the crime of idolatry, in 
 the literal sense of the word, to account of the heath- 
 en, is doing them great injustice ; and heaping on their 
 memory a calumny, which we have no right to charge 
 upon them. 
 
 We are very apt to revile the Jews as an illiberal, 
 narrow minded rsce of men, yet Josephus, who was a 
 Jew, speaks against that practice of which I am now 
 speaking. lie expressly declares that it is unjust and* 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 xvi 
 
 wrong to revile the religion of any nation, because 
 differs from our own. And that celebrated and leai 
 ed divine and historian, Doctor Humphrey Prideai 
 produces several instances wherein divine vengear 
 has, apparently, overtaken those who persecuted, 
 ridiculed, the religion of other nations. 
 
 1. He relates the instance of Cambyses, who bei 
 of that Persian sect which worshipped fire, as the or 
 symbol of the Divine Nature, they persecuted th< 
 who used other symbols in their religious worsh 
 For this reason when the Egyptian Apis was set 1 
 fore him, in order to shew his contempt of the religi 
 of Egypt, he inflicted a wound on the symbol of t 
 god, whereof he languished and died. A few days 
 ter, as Cambyses was mounting his horse, his swc 
 fell from the scabbard, and wounded him exactly 
 the same part of his thigh wherein he had wounded t 
 bull ; and the Egyptians had ample revenge for t 
 insult offered to their religion, as Cambyses died 
 consequence of this accident ; and they considered 
 as a punishment inflicted by their god, as a reward ] 
 bis impiety. 
 
 2. When Antiochus went against Elymais, or P 
 myra, he intended to rob the temple of the gods, a 
 thereby insult the national religion. But he \\ 
 beaten off with disgrace, and died a miserable deal 
 which was a punishment for this his sacrilegious i 
 tempt ; and a just vengeance inflicted upon him on i 
 count of the injuries he had done to the Jews; and t 
 mischief he had occasioned in their religious affairs. 
 
 3. When the Gauls made their irruption into t 
 eastern parts of Europe, invading Hungary, Macec 
 nia, Greece, &c. the second Brennus, who was thi 
 principal commander, took it into his head to make 
 expedition into Delphos, in order to plunder the te 
 pie of Apollo ; Brennus facetiously observing to 1 
 Lieutenant, Acichorius, that “the gods ought, in re 
 son, to impart some of their riches to men, who h 
 more occasion for them than themselves, and employ 
 
INTRODUCTION. XV il 
 
 them hi a better manner.” Almost all the authors 
 ivho treat of this event, say that it was attended with 
 extraordinary circumstances ; for they say that when 
 Brennus approached the temple of Delphos, the skies 
 were blackened with a dreadful tempest, and great 
 numbers of his men were destroyed by hailstones and 
 thunder, attended by an earthquake, which threw down 
 the mountains, and rent the rocks, which fell and 
 crushed the gauls, by hundreds at a time. The re- 
 maining troops were seized with such a panic the en- 
 suing night, as caused them to mistake their own men 
 for an enemy ; in consequence whereof, before daylight 
 appeared, they had destroyed each other in such a 
 manner, that not above one half of their number were 
 left alive. The Greeks flew from all parts of the 
 country to the defence of their temple, and made such 
 havoc with the Gauls that Brennus destroyed himself 
 with his own sword, and the miserable remains of his 
 army under Acichorius were pursued by cold, hunger 
 and the sword, until they were all destroyed. Now, 
 although the Greeks might exaggerate this event, in 
 order to make it appear that they were the favorites 
 of the gods, yet from the concurrent testimony of so 
 many ancient waiters as have mentioned this affair, we 
 must suppose that something extraordinary happened ; 
 and the Dean of Norwich has concluded that we have 
 not sufficient reason to disbelieve the facts which this 
 history relates; for the enterprise of Brennus was, 
 undoubtedly, a sacrilegious piece of impiety, and in - 
 tended as an insult to religion, as Well as to the Deity; 
 and demonstrated that he did not believe in the power 
 or justice of the immortal beings, or Being. And it is 
 hence very justly inferred that the living and true God 
 would interfere to punish contumely and insolence, 
 even if offered to a false religion. 
 
 Having stated these examples to shew the impropri- 
 ety of treating any description of religion tvith unne- 
 cessary disrespect, I now proceed to state some facte 
 M & 
 
xviii 
 
 XMTBODUCTIOX. 
 
 which prove that the religion of the Gentile nations 
 has, generally, been misrepresented. 
 
 1. Hesiod, in his Theogony, or history of the gen- 
 eration of the Gods, represents them as living beings, 
 produced by other living beings, and not as a collection 
 of images, or statues, from the hands of the carver or 
 statuary ; and those living beings were the objects of 
 adoration among the Greeks. Every body among the 
 Greeks knew that the renowned statue of Jupiter 
 Olympius was made by Phidias ; and that it w r as 
 made of marble; and not a living image descended 
 from a god....but they did believe that the gods were 
 immediately present in their temples, where their 
 statues were.. ..just as the Jews believed that the Deity 
 was present in his temple, more immediately than else- 
 where. 
 
 2. Homer, every where speaks of heaven as the 
 place of the residence of the gods. It was from thence 
 that they descended to the earth for any special pur- 
 poses. From thence Mercury, or Iris, are dispatched, 
 with messages to men, and on other particular occa- 
 sions. He calls them the Immortals , and all their ac- 
 tions are the actions of living beings. There is no 
 mention of images or idols being considered as gods, 
 or being present in any of those religious rites which 
 were performed by the Greeks; who sacrificed to the 
 heavenly poivers on almost all occasions. Nearly all 
 their meals were sacrifices, and they hardly ever drank 
 without pouring out a libation to the gods. They did 
 not suppose that when Homer speaks of Neptune, Mi- 
 nerva, Apollo and Venus as engaging in the battle be- 
 tween the Greeks and Trojans, it would have been 
 possible for him to have ascribed such actions as he at- 
 tributes to them, to images. In his writings we fre- 
 quently find Minerva shrouding herself in darkness, 
 becoming invisible, appearing to Telamachus in the 
 form of Mentor, and to Ulysses in different shapes. 
 So Mercury has intercourse with Ulysses in a variety 
 of shapes, and Proteus changes himself into almost all 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 xix 
 
 kinds of things and forms. It would he insulting the 
 understanding of the reader to attempt to convince him 
 that all these transformations were not ascribed to im- 
 ages, by so wise a man as Homer. 
 
 3. Virgil was familiarly acquainted with statues, 
 images, or idols; they were common enough in hig 
 time... .though I apprehend they were not very plenty 
 in the days of Homer. Yet Virgil, every where, rep- 
 resents his gods as immortal....as the same beings which 
 were living at the time of the Trojan war; that is, 
 perhaps, from one to two thousand years before the 
 time of Virgil. It is true he speaks of images, and 
 tells us that JEneas carried off his bundle of parvique 
 Penates , or household gods; but those were a kind of 
 talismans which had been in fashion through all anti- 
 quity. They were the same kind of earthen gods 
 which were made by Terah, the father of Abraham g 
 and which Rachel stole from her father Laban ; which 
 it is evident, were very small, because she could hide 
 them by sitting on them. 
 
 4. Ovid has written learnedly on the feasts and fasts 
 of the Romans ; and we find through all his writings 
 that the gods they worshipped were living, and immor- 
 tal beings, not gods of brass, silver, gold, wood or 
 stone. His metamorphoses are also produced by the 
 power of the living gods, who, we find, as in the cases 
 of Latona and Niobe, and Medusa, did sometimes 
 change mortals into stone ; but I cannot find that a 
 mortal could ever metamorphose a stone into a god. 
 
 5. To set this matter in a clearer point of view, I 
 will here produce a few passages from some of the Ro- 
 man poets, in order to shew in how despicable and 
 contemptible a light the idea of idol gods appeared to 
 them. 
 
 Thus Horace wrote : 
 
 Olim truncus tram Jiculnus , inutile lignum, 
 
 €}umfaber incertus scamnum, facer cine Priapnm , 
 
 M&luit esse Barn. 
 
lATKODrerioN. 
 
 %x 
 
 Lucian expresses his opinion in these words— 
 
 Est ne Dei sedes , nisi terra et pontus et aer . 
 
 We read in Ovid ; 
 
 Collitur pro Jove forrrm Jovis. 
 
 Martial says, 
 
 Quifinxit sacros auro vel marmorc vullus , 
 
 Non facit ille Deos. 
 
 In Statius we read, 
 
 Nulla autum effigies nulli commissa matella, 
 
 Forma Dies menles habitare ac numina gaudei ♦ 
 
 A great variety of passages to the same effect might 
 be produced, but these will be sufficient to show that 
 the gentiles were not idolaters in the literal sense of 
 the word. 
 
 And in order to shew, in a stronger light, how ex- 
 tremely common it is for the professors of one descrip- 
 tion of religion to slander those of another, I might 
 produce a thousand instances of calumnies invented a- 
 gainst the pure religions of the Jews and Christians. 
 Apion, the Egyptian, invented a story that the Jews, 
 who utterly abhorred all pictures and statues, worship- 
 ped the head of an Ass ; which ridiculous charge is re- 
 peated by that grave and wise historian Plutarch- 
 And in consequence of their presenting the golden 
 vine to Pompey, Florus spoke of it as their god; ami 
 said that Pompey saw, in their temple, the grand impi- 
 ety, a vine under a golden heaven. 
 
 As to the Christians “ the philosophers accused them 
 of the most monstrous impiety and charged them with 
 renewing the shocking feast of Thyestes, and the in- 
 cestuous amours of the Theban prince.”* These facts 
 should lead Christians to judge, and speak, with can 
 dour, of the religion of the gentiles. 
 
 * Mcshdm’s Eccl Hist , YoL i. p. 15 v. 
 

HISTOR* 
 
 OF THE 
 
 HEATHEN GODS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 JUPITER . 
 
 JUPITER is the father and king of gods 
 and men. He was represented sitting on a 
 throne of ivory and gold, holding thunder in 
 his right hand, and, in the left, a sceptre made 
 of cypress ; which wood, being free from cor- 
 ruption, is a symbol of eternal empire. On this 
 sceptre sits an eagle ; either because he was 
 brought up by it, or that heretofore that bird, 
 sitting upon his head, portended his reign ; or 
 because in the war against the giants, it brought 
 him the thunder, and thence was called the ar- 
 mor bearer. He had golden shoes, and an em- 
 broidered cloak, adorned with various flowers, 
 and iigures of animals. But he used to be 
 decked differently, for the variety of his names, 
 and of the people among whom he was wor- 
 shipped. The Lacedemonians erected a stat- 
 ue of him without ears; but the Cretans gave 
 him four. Upon holidays his face was painted 
 with vermilion, as the images of the other gods 
 
24 
 
 HEATHEN GODS. 
 
 were smeared with ointments, and dressed with 
 garlands. 
 
 There were very many Jupiters all sprung 
 from a different race. Varro reckons up three 
 hundred, and others many more ; seeing there 
 was no nation, almost, which did not worship a 
 Jupiter, and supposed him to have been born 
 among themselves. 
 
 Tully says, that there were three remarkable 
 of that name ; one begot of iEther, another of 
 Coelus, and these born in Arcadia : The third 
 a Cretan, son of Saturn and Ops, the most fa- 
 mous of all ; to whom therefore are usually as- 
 cribed all that the poets feigned about the oth- 
 er Jupiters. 
 
 He was educated, as well as born, upon Ida, 
 a mountain of Crete ; but by whom, there are 
 a great variety of opinions. 
 
 There are some who affirm, that he was nur- 
 sed by the Curetes, or Corybantes ; some, by 
 the Nymphs, and some, by Amaltha3a, daugh- 
 ter of Melissus, king of that island. Others, 
 on the contrary, have recorded, that he was fed 
 by the bees with honey ; others by goat’s milk ; 
 others by doves ; not a few, by an eagle ; and 
 many, by a bear. It is the opinion of some, 
 that Amaltluea was not a young princess roy- 
 al, but the very goat which suckled Jupiter; 
 whose horn he is said to have given afterwards 
 to his nurses, with this admirable privilege, that 
 whoever possessed it, should immediately ob- 
 tain whatever he desired. They add, besides, 
 that the goat being dead, and her skin pulled 
 
HEATHEN GODS, S>5 
 
 off, Jupiter made of it a* shield, called iEgig* 
 which he used afterwards in the battle against 
 the giants ; and, that he placed her at last, re- 
 stored again to life, among the constellations. 
 
 As to his actions worthy of memory, having 
 subdued the Titans and giants in war, he de- 
 livered his father from imprisonment, but after- 
 wards deposed him from the throne, and expel- 
 led him the kingdom, because he had formed a 
 conspiracy against him ; and then divided the 
 paternal inheritance with his two brothers Nep- 
 tune and Pluto. He so obliged and assisted 
 mankind by great favors, that he not only got 
 the name of Jupiter, but also obtained divine 
 honors, and was esteemed the common father 
 of gods and men. Among his celebrated ex- 
 ploits, was the punishment of Lycaon, king of 
 Arcadia. For when a rumor came up to hea- 
 ven concerning the wickedness and impiety of 
 mortals, being to search the truth more certain- 
 ly, he is said to have descended, and ranged 
 the whole earth in a human shape. At last en- 
 tering Lycaon’s house, and declaring himself 
 a God, whilst others were preparing sacrifices^ 
 he was derided by the king; who, with a de~ 
 sign of proving the divinity of the pretended 
 deity, killed one of his own domestics, and ser- 
 ved up his flesh roasted and boiled to table be- 
 fore Jupiter, for his entertainment. 
 
 But the god, abhorring the barbarity of the 
 man, sent forth his thunder, fired the palace, 
 and turned his majesty himself into a w r olf. 
 
 His other actions are very lewd and dishon- 
 c 
 
26 HEATHEN GODS. 
 
 <orable; for hardly was there any kind of wi< 
 edness, whereof he had not been guilty, or xm 
 of infamy, wherewith he is not branded. 
 
 I shall mention only a few of many. In t 
 shape of a crow he debauched his sister Jui 
 who was deluded by the hope and promises 
 marriage; as many ladies are. He ravist 
 Danae, daughter of Acrisius, king of the i 
 gives, being turned into a golden shower, 
 also, transformed into a swan, corrupted Le 
 wife of Tindarus, king of Laconia. He < 
 flowered Antiope, married to Lycus, king 
 Thebes, in the person of a satyr. He defi 
 Alcmena, Amphitnone’s wife, in the liken 
 of her husband. He inflamed iEgina, dauj 
 ter of iLsopus, king of Bceotia, in the sim 
 tude of fire. He abused Clytoris, a Thessali 
 virgin of great beauty, in the shape of an a 
 He offered violence to Calisto r daughter of I 
 caon, king of Arcadia, and counterfeiting i 
 modesty and countenance of Diana, rob! 
 her of her virginity. When she was obli^ 
 to wash in a fountain, together with the g 
 dess, and the other nymphs, her crime bei 
 discovered, she was disgracefully turned aw 
 by Diana, and afterwards changed by Juno 
 to a bear; but Jupiter took away her disgra 
 by advancing her among the consteilatio 
 Having assumed the figure of a bull of exq 
 site whiteness, he carried away into Cr< 
 Europa, descended of Agenor, king of Phae 
 cia, and violated her chastity. He, resembl 
 an eagle, forced Asteria, daughter of Corns 
 
HEATHEN SOBS, 
 
 21 
 
 lady of the greatest modesty, to yield to his 
 impure desires, and snatched her away in his 
 talons Under the same form also, he caught 
 up into heaven the pretty boy Ganymede, son 
 of Tros, as he was hunting upon the mountain 
 Ida. 
 
 Of how many several beasts that man takes 
 the figure, who has once put off his modesty ! 
 And by how many fables this one truth is rep- 
 resented, that the gods themselves, by impure 
 lust, become brutes ! 
 
 Jupiter had names almost innumerable; 
 which he obtained, either from the places where 
 he lived, and wherein he was worshipped, or 
 from the things which he did. The more re- 
 markable of them, as also of the other Gods and 
 Goddesses, are set down at the end of this book 
 in an alphabetical order. 
 
 These are the dreams of the poets concern- 
 ing Jupiter; but historians say, that he was 
 truly king of Crete, and contemporary with the 
 patriarch Abraham : That having deposed his 
 father, he divided the kingdom with his two 
 brothers. And, whereas the countries situat- 
 ed towards the east, fell by lot to Jupiter, the 
 western parts to Pluto, and the maritime to 
 Neptune, they hence feigned, that the first was 
 king and god of heaven, the second of hell, 
 and the third of the sea. 
 
 Some writers of character pretend to find 
 the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham and Japhet, in 
 Jupiter, Neptune and Pluto. But concerning 
 the mythologists, in general* I shall only 
 
HEATHEN GODS. 
 
 29 
 
 serve, that there is such a diversity of opinions 
 among them, about the true signification of the 
 fiction; and, which is worse, that their ac- 
 counts are so insipid and impertinent, nay, so 
 incongruous to the very fables which they pre- 
 tend to explain, that I have thought fit, rather 
 to pass over their explanations in most cases, 
 than advance any thing wherein the mind of 
 the reader cannot acquiesce, leaving to every 
 one to devise his own interpretation. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 JUNO . 
 
 JUNO is the queen of the gods, both the 
 sister and wife of Jupiter ; the daughter of Sa- 
 turn and Ops ; born in the island Samos, where 
 she lived while she continued a virgin. 
 
 She rides in a golden chariot drawn by pea- 
 cocks, distinguished by a sceptre and crown 
 set about with roses and lilies. Her person is 
 august ; her face full of brightness, beauty and 
 majesty ; her carriage noble, and her dress el- 
 egant and fine. 
 
 Iris, the daughter ofThaumasand Electra, 
 also sister of the Harpies, is servant and pecul- 
 iar messenger of Juno; though Jupiter and the 
 other gods, yea Furies and Men too, employed 
 her. Because of her swiftness, she is painted 
 with wings, sitting on a rainbow ; and was al- 
 ways sent to promote strife and dissension* as 
 c 2 
 
so 
 
 HEATHEN G OHS. 
 
 if she was goddess of discord. It was also her 
 office to unloose the souls of dying women, 
 from the chains of the body. 
 
 Juno had by Jupiter, Vulcan, Mars, and 
 Hebe ; although some say that Hebe was begot 
 of Juno only : For while she was yet childless, 
 as soon as she ate wild lettuces, set before her 
 at an entertainment in the royal palace, grow- 
 ing suddenly big bellied, she brought forth He- 
 be, who, for her extraordinary beauty, w r as by 
 Jupiter made goddess of youth, and the office 
 of serving the cup to him, was also conferred 
 on her. But when, by an unlucky fall, she 
 caused great diversion to the guests; Jupiter, 
 being enraged, turned her out of her office, and 
 Ganimede succeeded in her stead. 
 
 The vice, for which Juno was most notori- 
 ous, was jealousy ; whereof I shall give only 
 two instances out of many, Jupiter loved Io, 
 the daughter of Inachus, and enjoyed her. 
 When Juno observed that her husband was ab- 
 sent from heaven, and suspecting an intrigue 
 to be the cause, she immediately flew dow r n to 
 the earth, and luckily found the place where 
 the lovers lay. Jupiter, perceiving that his 
 -wife was coming, turned the maid into a most 
 beautiful cow\ Juno, seeing her, inquired who 
 she w as, whose she was, and from what bull ; 
 the god answered, that she suddenly sprung 
 out of the earth. The cunning goddess asked 
 her in a present, and the husband durst not re- 
 fuse, lest he should increase her suspicion. 
 Juno having received the cow, delivered her 
 
HEATHEN GODS. 
 
 31 
 
 io Argus, who had an hundred eyes, whereof 
 two in their turns slept, when the rest waked. 
 The cow being thus under a very grievous 
 confinement, and fed only with insipid leaves 
 and bitter herbs, Jupiter, not longer suffering 
 such an indignity, despatched Mercury in a 
 shepherd’s dress to Argus, that by some means 
 he might set Io at liberty. 
 
 Mercury, using his utmost art, at last charm- 
 ed Argus into a sound sleep by the sweetness 
 of his pipe; and when he was thus conquered, 
 and lulled by the force of the music, he cut off 
 his head, and so delivered Io. Juno, that she 
 might confer deserved honor upon her faithful 
 servant, changed him into a peacock, and a- 
 dorned his tail with his many eyes : But she 
 committed Io to the Furies to be tormented, 
 and drove her a vagabond through the world : 
 At last being arrived into Egypt, she entreat- 
 ed Jupiter that he would restore her former 
 shape; which she not only obtained, but be- 
 sides took the name of Isis, the goddess of the 
 Egyptians, and was worshipped with divine 
 honors. 
 
 Juno gave another proof of her jealousy. 
 For when her resentment against Jupiter be- 
 came so implacable, that nothing could pacify 
 her, King Cithaeron advised, that he should 
 pretend a design of entering into a second mar- 
 riage. The contrivance pleased the god; 
 w herefore he put in his chariot an image made 
 of oak, dressed in very rich apparel, and pub- 
 licly declared, that he was about to marry Pla- 
 
HEATHEN GODS. ,33 
 
 ieea, the daughter of Asophus: The report 
 having spread, came to the ears of Juno, who 
 immediately running thither, rushed upon the 
 image, and tore the clothes ; and when she dis- 
 covered the fraud, breaking out into laughter, 
 she was reconciled to her husband. 
 
 By Juno, Yarro understands the earth, and 
 by Jupiter, the heaven; by the marriage of 
 which, that is, by the commixture of the heav- 
 enly influences, and earthly vapors, all things 
 almost are generated. 
 
 But If we believe the Stoics, Juno is the air, 
 which, says Tuily, lying between the earth 
 and the heaven, is consecrated by the name of 
 Juno. She is called Jupiter’s wife, because 
 the air, of itself cold, is warmed by Jupiter, 
 that is, by fire. She is said to be bound by Ju- 
 piter with golden chains, and iron anvils hung 
 at her feet : Whereby the ancients signified, 
 that the air, though more nearly united to hea- 
 venly fire, was yet sometimes mingled with 
 earth and water, the heaviest elements* 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 MINERVA . 
 
 MINERVA, so called, as some say, from 
 the threats of her stern and fierce look, is the 
 president and inveutress of war. Instead of a 
 woman’s dress, she is arrayed in armor; wears 
 a golden head piece, and on it glittering crests ; 
 
HEATHEN CODS. 
 
 M 
 
 a brazen coat of mail covers her breast ; she 
 brandishes a lance in her right hand, and in 
 her left holds a shield, whereon is painted the 
 grisly head of Medusa, one of the Gorgons, 
 rough and formidable with snakes. The cock 
 is sacred to her, because he is a fighting bird ; 
 as is also the owl, a bird seeing in the dark, 
 who was painted on her images, being a repre- 
 sentation of a wise man, who, having dispelled 
 the clouds of ignorance and error, sees clearly 
 those things wherein others are blind. 
 
 Upon the head of this goddess there was an 
 olive crown, which is a smybol of peace ; ei- 
 ther because war is only made that peace may 
 follow ; or because she first taught men the use 
 of that tree. For when Neptune and Minerva 
 contended about the name of a very famous ci- 
 ty, built by Cecrops, it was resolved, that 
 whichsoever of these deities conferred the more 
 excellent and useful gift on man, should give 
 their name to the new city. Neptune brought 
 a horse, and Minerva instantly produced an ol- 
 ive out of the earth, which was judged by much 
 the more useful ; and therefore she called the 
 city Athens, from her own Greek name. 
 
 There were five Minervas, but that one, to 
 whom the rest are referred, was descended of 
 Jupiter. For he, finding that his wife was bar- 
 ren, through grief struck his forehead, and 
 brought forth Minerva the third month after, 
 whence perhaps she is called Tritonia. 
 
 Vulcan acted the midwife, who, opening his 
 brain with the blow @f a hatchet, was stunned 
 
heathen gobs® 
 
 with amazement, when he saw, not a naked 
 and little girl, but an armed Virago, leaping 
 out of her father’s head. 
 
 Some say, indeed, that Jupiter conceived 
 this daughter, after he devoured Metis, one of 
 his wives, with which food being presently 
 grown big, he brought forth the armed Pallas* 
 They assert, besides, that when Minerva was 
 born, it rained gold in the island Rhodes. 
 
 The Palladium was an image of Pallas, long 
 preserved in the Trojan castle, which is said 
 to have fallen from heaven, when the temple 
 of Minerva was building. This moved the ad- 
 miration of all, and when they consulted the 
 oracle of Apollo, it was answered, that the ci- 
 ty should be safe, while the statue remained 
 within the walls. 
 
 Therefore in the time of the Trojan war, 
 when the city was besieged by the Grecians, 
 and there was no hopes of gaining it, unlesi 
 the Palladium was first taken out of it; that 
 business was left to Ulysses and Diomedes, 
 who crept into the city through the common 
 Sewers, and brought away the fatal image ; 
 which being done, Troy was taken without 
 any difficulty. 
 
 Some say, that it was not lawful for any to 
 remove the Palladium out of its place ; yea, 
 not so much as to look upon it. Others add, 
 that it was made of wood, and so wonderful 
 that it oould move its eyes, and shake the spear. 
 
 Others, on the contrary, report, that it was 
 made of the bones of Pelops, and sold to the 
 
36 
 
 HEATHEN GODS. 
 
 Trojans by the Scythians. Some affirm, that 
 /Eneas recovered it from Diomedes, and car- 
 ried it with him into Italy ; and that it was 
 kept at Rome in the temple of Y esta, as a 
 pledge of the empire, as it had been to the 
 Trojans. 
 
 Lastly they write, that there were two Pal- 
 ladiums, one of which was taken away by Di- 
 omedes, the other by iEneas. 
 
 Minerva, like Vesta and Diana, was a per- 
 petual virgin, and so great a lover of chastity, 
 that she deprived Tiresias of his eyes, because 
 he saw her bathing in the fountain of Helicon. 
 Yet his mother by humble petitions obtained, 
 that her son, for the loss of his light of the bo- 
 dy, should have the art of prophecy and bright- 
 ness of mind; though Ovid assigns another 
 cause of his blindness. 
 
 There is another illustrious instance of the 
 chastity of Minerva, that, when Neptune had 
 debauched the beautiful Medusa, in her tem- 
 ple, she turned her golden locks, which had 
 tempted the god, into snakes, and caused that 
 those that looked upon her afterwards should 
 be turned into stones; that is, she became so 
 deformed and ugly, that such as looked upon 
 her, were as insensible of her charms, as if 
 they had been stones. 
 
 This goddess was educated near the Lake 
 Triton, where ceremonies were performed in 
 honor of her. 
 
 The virgins of that country, being distribut- 
 ed into several companies, and armed with 
 
HEATHEN GODS. 3T 
 
 clubs and stones, a signal being given, assaul- 
 ted each other. She, who w as first killed, was 
 not esteemed a virgin ; and therefore her body 
 was disgracefully thrown into the lake : But 
 she, who received the most and more remarkable 
 wounds, and continued constant and of undaunted 
 courage, was carried home in manner of a tri~ 
 umph, riding in a chariot, while the whole assem- 
 bly followed her with acclamations and praises* 
 
 Minerva was the inventress of divers arts, 
 especially of spinning ; and therefore the distaff 
 is ascribed to her. When Arachne, a lady of 
 Lydia, very skilful at spinning, challenged her 
 in this art, Minerva tore her work, and struck 
 her forehead with a wheel spoke ; so that the 
 unhappy maid, out of despair, hanged herself; 
 but by the pity of the goddess, was turned into 
 a spider. She also taught the art of building 
 castles, and therefore was believed to preside 
 over them. 
 
 By the fable of Minerva, the poets intended 
 to represent wisdom ; that is, knowledge and 
 skill of things joined with discreet and prudent 
 actions ; also the understanding of the noble 
 arts; all accomplishments of the mind; the 
 virtues, and especially chastity. 
 
 She sprung from Jupiter’s head, because the 
 sciences are not the invention of human wit* 
 but derived from the unexhausted fountain of 
 divine wisdom, for the use of man. 
 
 She was born armed, because a wise man’s 
 soul being fortified with counsel and virtue, is 
 invincible : is armed against fortune ; in dan- 
 
 B 
 
38 
 
 HEATHEN GODS. 
 
 gers intrepid, in crosses unbroken, in calami- 
 ties impregnable. 
 
 Her severe look and stern coutenance shews, 
 that a wise and modest mind gains not reputa- 
 tion and esteem from outward beauty and fine- 
 ry, but from inward honor and virtue. For 
 ■wisdom joined to modesty, shines no less cov- 
 ered with impurity, than encircled with rays 
 of glory ; has lustre not only clothed in purple, 
 butin a more despicable dress ; assumes majesty 
 placed on a dunghill equally as sitting on a 
 throne ; and charms in old age as well as in 
 youth. 
 
 She invented and practised spinning ; from 
 whence other virgins may learn, if they would 
 preserve their chastity, never to indulge idle- 
 ness. The spindle, distaff and needle, are the 
 arms of every virtuous woman : Being furnish- 
 ed with these, she may despise the enemy of 
 her honor, and drive Cupid far away. 
 
 As soon as Tiresias had seen Minerva nak- 
 ed, he lost his sight ; but then his mind w as 
 enlightened, and he became a prophet, and saw 
 future things before they w r ere acted. So he, 
 who hath once beheld the beauty of true w-is- 
 dom nearer and more clearly, ought willingly 
 to want the use of his eyes, and not to be de- 
 lighted with the view of corporal, or love of 
 present things ; since beholding eternal ob- 
 jects in his mind, he enjoys the contemplation 
 of celestial things, which are not visible to the 
 organs of sight. 
 
HEATHEN GODS. 3 § 
 
 By the Palladium, that fatal image, which 
 gives security to the cities wherein it is pre- 
 served, is meant, that those kingdoms flourish 
 and prosper* wherein wisdom counsels It is 
 supposed to have fallen down from heaven, 
 that hence we may learn, what is confirmed 
 by the divine oracles, that every good and 
 perfect gift is from above, and descends from 
 the Father of lights. 
 
HEATHEN GODS* 
 
 41 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 NEPTUNE . 
 
 THIS is a glorious and beautiful scene, 
 where the deities of the waters and marine 
 gods, riding in shells, are carried over the li- 
 quid plains of the sea ; being themselves the 
 presidents, the princes of the vast finny regions* 
 and the moderators of the flowing waves. 
 
 The king of them all is Neptune, painted 
 with black hair and blue eyes, adorned with 
 his three-tined sceptre, shining in an azure 
 mantle, and conspicuous in his chariot, crowd- 
 ed with a numerous attendance of creatures* 
 which resemble a fish in the upper, and a man 
 in the lower part of the body. 
 
 This Neptune is the governor of the sea, the 
 father of the rivers and fountains, and the son 
 of Saturn by Ops. His mother preserved him 
 from the devouring jaws of his father, who, ag 
 hath been remarked, eat up all the male child- 
 ren, by giving a young foal in his stead. 
 
 When he grew up, his father’s kingdom be- 
 ing divided by lot, he obtained the maritime 
 parts of it. 
 
 He and Apollo, by Jupiter’s command, were 
 forced to serve Laomedon in building the walls 
 of Troy ; because having formed a conspiracy* 
 with some others, they resolved to fetter that 
 god. 
 
 Afterwards, being charmed with the beauty 
 
 of Amphitrite, whose disdain he had long bore,. 
 
 D 2 
 
42 
 
 HEATHEN GODS. 
 
 at last, by the assistance of a dolphin, and the 
 power of flattery, he drew her into marriage. 
 
 The dolphin, in consideration of this service, 
 was placed among the stars, and made a con* 
 stellation. 
 
 Neptune had tw r o other wives, Salacia and 
 Veniiia, the former so called from the sea, the 
 latter from coming, because, by the flowing and 
 ebbing, the waters go and come, approach and 
 retire by a reciprocal motion. 
 
 As to the actions of this god ; the poets say, 
 having struck the ground with his Trident, he 
 produced a horse in Attica, from which he is 
 esteemed the president of horse races; and, at 
 his altar in the Circus of Rome, games were 
 instituted, in which the rape of the Sabine vir- 
 gins was represented. 
 
 He had his altar under ground, and they 
 sacrificed unto him under the name of Consus, 
 or the god of counsel, which frequently ought, 
 to be given privately ; and therefore he was 
 worshipped in an obscure and private place. 
 The solemn games, called Consuaiia, were cel- 
 ebrated in the month of March in honor of Nep- 
 tune, whose other name w as Consus ; at which 
 time, the horses left off from working, and the 
 mules were adorned with garlands of flowers. 
 
 Hence also it happens, that his chariot is 
 drawn by sea horses sometimes, as well as by 
 dolphins. These sea horses had only the two 
 fore feet, and the tails of fishes. 
 
 It was therefore Neptune’s office to preside 
 over and govern both horses and ships ; and 
 
HEATHEN GODS. 43 
 
 when he rides upon the waters, he always 
 makes a cairn. 
 
 His more remarkable children were Phorcus, 
 or Phorcys, and Proteus. The former was 
 born of the nymph Thesea. He was vanquish- 
 ed by Atlas, in a sea engagement, and drown- 
 ed in the floods ; and his surviving friends, 
 supposing that he was made a sea god, wor- 
 shipped him with divine honors. 
 
 There was another Phorcys different from 
 him, whose three daughters had only one eye 
 common to them all : So that when one of them 
 desired to see any thing, she fixed this eye in 
 her forehead, as a diamond in a ring; after- 
 wards she pulled it out, and gave it to her 
 sister to use, and she to the third by turns, as 
 there was need. 
 
 Proteus, (he other son of Neptune, was keep- 
 er of the sea calves, and his mother was the 
 nymph Phcenice. He could turn himself into 
 what shapes he would. Sometimes he dissolv- 
 ed into water, sometimes he was converted in- 
 to fire, he became now a fish, now a lion, then 
 a bird, or whatever else he pleased. But this 
 wonderful power of assuming any forms, did 
 not belong to Proteus alone ; for, 
 
 Vertumnus, a god of the Romans, was en- 
 dued with the like faculty, as his name shews, 
 and he presided over the turns of things, which 
 happen according to expectation. 
 
 Periclimenus, the brother of Nestor, was en- 
 dued by Neptune with the like gift, and was 
 killed by Hercules in the shape of a fly. For 
 
44 
 
 HEATHEN GODS. 
 
 when be fought against Neleus, being violent- 
 ly pricked bjT the sting of a fly, Pallas discov- 
 ered that it was Periclimenus in that form. 
 
 Mestra, or Mestre, or Metra, the daughter of 
 Erisicthon, obtained this favour also from Nep- 
 tune, as a reward of her chastity, violated by 
 him, that she should put on the figure of any 
 thing which she desired, that the better she 
 might be able to succor her father’s insatiable 
 hunger. 
 
 Coenis, a Thessalian virgin, for the same 
 cause, got the like, yea, rather a greater privi- 
 lege from this god ; for being debauched by 
 him, instead of a reward, she obtained, that she 
 might change her sex, and be wounded by no 
 dart. Therefore, being transformed into a 
 man, she became and was called Cseneus, who, 
 afterwards fighting against the Centaurs, was 
 overwhelmed alive with a great load of trees 
 heaped upon him, and changed into a bird of 
 his own name. 
 
 chapter v. 
 
 VENUS. 
 
 VENUS is styled the goddess of the graces, 
 eloquence, beauty, neatness, and cheerfulness ; 
 in whose countenance many charms sit and 
 play: In her forehead sit mirth and joy ; and a 
 thousand delights wantonly sport in her snowy 
 bosom. 
 

 
46 
 
 HEATHEN GODS. 
 
 She is clothed with a purple mantle glitter- 
 ing with diamonds ; and refulgent with a rosy 
 crown, she breathes pleasures, and flows in 
 softness. Two cupids attend at her sides, 
 three graces stand round her, and the lovely 
 Adonis follows after, gently holding her train. 
 Her chariot is of ivory, finely carved, and beau- 
 tifully painted and gilt, fashioned in form of a 
 shell, and drawn by swans, doves and swallows, 
 or as some say, by sparrows, as she directs, 
 when she pleases to mount it. 
 
 The same Venus is also the goddess of love, 
 the patroness of strumpets, the vile promoter 
 of impudence and lust, and infamous for many 
 whoredoms, rapes and incests : Who ought to 
 be surrounded by furies, not graces, and her 
 chariot drawn rather by swine, dogs, and goats, 
 than the purest and chasest birds. She is of- 
 ten painted like a virgin, rising out of the sea, 
 and riding in a shell : Sometimes as a woman 
 holding a shell, with her head adorned with 
 roses and other flowers : Sometimes she car- 
 ries a silver looking glass in her hand, and 
 shines with golden sandals and buckles. 
 
 She was worshipped among the Siconians, 
 having poppies in one hand, and an apple in 
 the other. They consecrated to her the thighs 
 of all sacrifices, except swine; because the 
 goddess, though filthy herself, hates that ani- 
 mal for its uncleanness, or rather because, for- 
 merly, a boar had killed Adonis, her gallant. 
 
 At Elis there was an image of her treading 
 on a tortoise with her foot, shewing that vir- 
 
HEATHEN GODS* 
 
 47 
 
 gins ought not to ramble abroad, and that wives 
 ought to keep at home, and take care of the 
 family. Some gave her a girdle or belt of di- 
 vers colors, called Cestus, in which they be- 
 lieved pleasures, delights and gratifications of 
 every kind to be folded up. Others arm her 
 with arrows, and make Python, or Suada, the 
 goddess of eloquence her companion. 
 
 Historians say, that there were four Venuses 
 born of different parents ; but this, of whom we 
 speak, was the most famous of them all; to 
 whom therefore are ascribed both the beauties 
 and disgraces of the rest. She is said to have 
 sprung from the froth of the sea, which the 
 Genitals of Coeius, or his son Saturn, being cut 
 off, and cast into the waters, had made. She 
 was no sooner born, than being laid, like a 
 pearl, in a shell, as it were in a cradle, she was 
 driven by Zephyrus upon the island of Cy- 
 prus, where the Horse received her, cherished 
 in their bosoms, educated, accomplished and 
 adorned her ; and when she was grown up, 
 they carried her into heaven, and presented 
 her to the gods, who, being taken with her 
 beauty, all strove to marry her; but at last she 
 was betrothed to Vulcan, to whom afterwards 
 she was given in wedlock. 
 
 The deeds, which are to be expected from a 
 most impudent, and powerful strumpet, are full 
 of mischiefs, plagues and lewdness. Time 
 would fail me, if I should attempt to repeat the 
 names of those, whom she has armed to their 
 mutual destruction, driven to wicked intrigue^ 
 
48 
 
 HEATHEN GODS. 
 
 and changed into monstrous beasts ; but I am 
 deterred by modesty from proceeding farther. 
 
 Nyctimene, inspired by impure lust, com- 
 mitted incest by violating her father’s bed, and 
 therefore was changed into an owl, an ugly and 
 dismal bird, w hich, conscious of gilt, never ap- 
 pears in the day time, but shuns light, and con- 
 ceals her shame with darkness, being driven 
 from the society of all birds. 
 
 Who abhors not the like fact of Myrrha, 
 contrived and committed by the assistance of 
 Venus ? But her sin proved her ruin; for she 
 was turned into a tree, which always as it 
 were bewails its impurity, and sends forth 
 drops like tears. Why should I mention the 
 Propae tides, the chief of prostitutes, who after- 
 wards became stones ? Or why Pygmalion the 
 statuary ? Who, considering, with himself the 
 great inconveniences of marriage, and resolv- 
 ing to live a single life, by exercising his own 
 art, so loved an image of Venus, which himself 
 had made, that he prayed the goddess would 
 soften and animate the ivory: W r hich having 
 obtained, he begat it of Paphos, from whom an 
 island had its name. 
 
 Py ramus and Thisbe, inhabitants of Baby- 
 lon, equal in beauty, age, manners and fortune, 
 by the instigation of V enus, began to love from 
 their very cradles. The vicinity of their 
 houses bred their mutual affection, acquaintance 
 nourished, and singular beauty, in both, com- 
 pleted it. When they arrived at a marriagea- 
 ble age, and much desired to be joined in mat- 
 
HEATHEN GOBS, 
 
 49 
 
 rimony, their parents refused, because of some 
 former quarrels between the two families, and 
 forbade them to see each other, or speak to- 
 gether. What could Pyramus do, or whither 
 could Thisbe turn herself ? There was a parti- 
 tion wall between both houses, in which was a 
 small crack, hitherto unknown to the servants; 
 but the lovers discovered it. Their words and 
 sighs went through, though their kisses could 
 not, which they fixed to the wall,* when they 
 took leave. 
 
 But their love was greater, than that it could 
 pass through by so narrow a crevice ; and 
 therefore they resolved the next night, to seek 
 that liberty abroad, which they could not en- 
 joy at home, and fly into a neighbouring wood. 
 
 The place is appointed under the shade of a 
 mulberry tree, which covered a fountain. This- 
 be, having deceived her keepers, escapes first, 
 and flies into the wood ; for love gave her 
 wings ; When behold a lioness came fresh 
 from the slaughter of some cattle, to the foun- 
 tain to drink. Thisbe, being affrighted, ran 
 into a cave, and, in her flight, her veil fell 
 from her head, which the lioness, returning 
 from the fountain, tore with her bloody mouth. 
 
 Afterwards comes Pyramus, sees the prints 
 of the wild beast in the gravel, and by and by 
 finds the veil bloody and torn. Immediately 
 concluding, that Thisbe was killed and de- 
 voured by the wild beast, his love turned into 
 distraction, he hastens to the appointed tree 5 
 and not finding Thisbe, fell upon his sword; 
 
5 § 
 
 HEATHEN GODS. 
 
 and poured forth his life with his blood. Mean- 
 while Thisbe recovered her spirks from the 
 fright, and came to the tree, where being shuck 
 with the horror of her expiring lover, and half 
 dead with grief, she began to tear her cheeks, 
 to beat her breast, to rend her hair, and water 
 his cold face with a flood of tears: At last, 
 that she might shut up the scene, she plunged 
 the same sword in her own breast, and falling 
 upon his body, breathed out her soul. The 
 tree likewise, warmed with the blood of the 
 slain, felt, and lamented their death; and from 
 that the berries, which before were white, drew 
 on a black and mourning colour. 
 
 Atalanta and Hippomenes must now suc- 
 ceed. She was the daughter of king Seheenus, 
 or Cseneus, very remarkable both for beauty 
 and the swiftness of her feet. W hen she con- 
 sulted the oracle, whether she should enter in- 
 to matrimony, she received the sad answer, 
 that marriage would be fatal to her. Where- 
 fore she hid herself in the woods, and inhabited 
 the places far remote from the conversation of 
 men. But by how much the more she avoided 
 them, by so much the more they courted her 
 with ardent wishes : Her disdain inflamed their 
 desires, and her pride raised their adoration. 
 At last, when she saw that she could not de- 
 liver herself from her importunate lovers by 
 other means, she proposed this condition to 
 them ; that, whoever should overcome her at 
 running, should have her as a reward of his 
 victory, but death to him if defeated. They 
 
HEATHEN GODS, 
 
 51 
 
 all accept the conditions, and strive to outrun 
 her ; but being overcome, undergo the severe 
 punishment, the loss of life for the fault of their 
 feet. Yet Hippomenes is not deterred, by 
 these fatal examples, from his purpose of con- 
 tending, nor gives over hopes of winning; be- 
 cause he had received three golden apples, 
 gathered in the gardens of the Hesperides, 
 from Yenus, who had taught him how he 
 should use them for his own advantage. He 
 therefore begins the race with Atalanta, and 
 sets out briskly ; but as soon as he beheld her 
 going before, he threw down one apple, with 
 whose beauty the virgin being enticed, went 
 out of the way, and took up the rolling gold. 
 Then he flings another, that he might occasion 
 a new stop ; lastly the third, so that, w hile she 
 was busied in gathering the apples, Hippomenes 
 reached the goal, and married her in reward of 
 his victory. But O the inconstancy of Y enus ! 
 And O the vice of an ungrateful mind ! Hippo- 
 menes, being intoxicated with love, was for- 
 getful of the kindness of Yenus; who, taking 
 it ill, so inflamed them with impatient desires, 
 that, in their journey, they dared to gratify 
 them in a temple, of w hich sacrilege they in- 
 stantly suffered the punishment, being turned 
 into lions. 
 
 Let Paris and Helena now come upon the 
 stage. He was the son of Priamus, king of 
 Troy, by Hecuba. When she was pregnant, 
 she dreamed, that she brought forth a burning 
 torch; and the soothsayers being consulted, 
 
52 
 
 HEATHEN GODS. 
 
 answered, that it portended the burning of Troy, 
 and that the tire should be kindled by the boy 
 which she had conceived. Therefore the 
 child, as soon as it was born, by the command 
 of Priamus, was exposed upon the mountain Ida, 
 where the shepherds nourished and educated 
 him, and called him Paris. 
 
 When he arrived to the state of manhood, 
 many excellent endowments and good quali- 
 ties shined in him ; and particularly he gave 
 such tokens of singular prudence and equity in 
 deciding controversies, that a very great dif- 
 ference arising among the goddesses, was de- 
 termined by his judgment. The goddess Bis- 
 cordia gave occasion to this contention. For 
 when all the gods and goddesses, she only ex- 
 cepted, were invited to the marriage of Peleus, 
 being angr}^ that she might revenge the dis- 
 grace, while they sat at the table, she crept in 
 privately, and threw a golden apple before 
 them, on which was this inscription, Let it be 
 given to the fairest. Hereupon arose a quarrel 
 among the goddesses ; for every one claimed 
 the apple to herself, as being the handsomest. 
 
 At last all the rest yielded to the three supe- 
 rior goddesses, Juno, Pallas and Venus; who 
 disputed so eagerly, that Jupiter himself could 
 not bring them to agreement, and therefore ap- 
 pointed, that they should stand to the determina- 
 tion of Paris. So they goto him, feeding his docks 
 on a certain mountain ; they open and plead 
 their cause before him, soliciting his favor with 
 great promises ; Juno professes to reward him 
 
HEATHEN GODS. 
 
 53 
 
 with power, Pallas with wisdom, and Venus 
 with the most beautiful woman in the whole 
 w orld. The judge having curiously inspected 
 them all, being corrupted by lust, pronounced 
 Venus the fairest, and assigned to her the 
 golden apple. 
 
 Venus performed her promise to Paris ; for 
 in a little time, he was ow ned son of Priamus, 
 and sailed into Greece, with a great fleet, un- 
 der the color of an embassy, but really to fetch 
 away Helena the most beautiful virgin in the 
 world, who was betrothed to Menelaus king of 
 Sparta, and then lived in his house. Me ne la us 
 being absent, he carried Helena to Troy. 
 Hence broke out that fatal war between the 
 Grecians and Trojans, in which Troy, the 
 metropolis of all Asia, was taken after a ten 
 years siege, and burnt in the year of the world, 
 two thousand eight hundred and seventy-one ; 
 and Priamus spoiled of Ids wife, children, king- 
 dom and life together. Helena, who after the 
 death of Paris, was married to Deiphobus, at 
 last betrayed the castle to the Grecians, and 
 admitted Menelaus into her chamber to kill 
 Bciphobus ; by which fact she was reconciled 
 to him. 
 
 The first of Venus’s companions was Hyme- 
 h8bus, the god of marriage, and protector of vir- 
 gins. He was the son ©f Bacchus and Venus 
 Urania, born in Attica, wdiere he used to res- 
 cue virgins carried away by thieves, and re- 
 stored them to their parents. He was of a fair 
 complexion; crowned with sweet marjoram,, 
 s 2 
 
HEATHEN GODS. 
 
 h£ 
 
 and sometimes with roses : In one hand he 
 holds a torch, in the other a veil of a flame 
 color, representing the blushes of virgins. 
 Maids newly married offered sacrifices to him, 
 as also to the goddess Concordia. 
 
 Cupid, the god of love, was the next of Ve- 
 nus’s companions, and had divers parents as- 
 cribed to him, because there were more Cupids. 
 Plato says, that he was born of Penia, the god- 
 dess of poverty, and Porus, the son of counsel 
 and plenty. 
 
 Hesiod reports of Chaos -and Terra ; Sappho 
 of Venus and Ccelus ; Alcaeus of Lite and Ze- 
 phyrus; Simonides of Mars and Venus; and 
 Alcmaeon of Zephyrus and Flora. But of 
 whatever family he is descended, this is plain, 
 that he always accompanies Venus either as a 
 son or servant. 
 
 The poets speak of two Cupids, one of which 
 is an ingenious youth, the son of Jupiter and 
 Venus, a celestial deity; the other a debau- 
 chee, son of Nox and Erebus, a vulgar god, 
 whose companions are drunkenness, sorrow, 
 enmity, contention, and other plagues of that 
 kind. 
 
 Each of them is naked, winged and blind, 
 also armed with a bow, arrows and torch ; 
 They have two darts of a different nature, the 
 one of gold, which procures, the other of lead, 
 which drives away love. He is a hoy, because 
 void of judgment ; blind, because a lover sees 
 not the vices of the object beloved ; winged, 
 because nothing is swifter or more inconstant* 
 
HEATHEN GODS. 
 
 55 
 
 For one, who loves to day, will hale tomorrow; 
 what he admires in the morning, he will des- 
 pise at night; and he is armed, because he 
 strikes afar off. 
 
 The Graces, called Charites, were three 
 sisters, daughters of Jupiter and Eurynome, or, 
 as others write, of Bacchus and Venus. The 
 first was called Aglaia, from her cheerfulness 
 and beauty; because kindness ought to he per- 
 formed freely: The second Thalia, from her 
 perpetual verdure ; because the memory of a 
 benefit ought always to be fresh : The third 
 Buphrosyne, from delight ; because we ought 
 no less to give, than receive w T ith pleasure. 
 
 Adonis was the son of Cynaras, king of Cy- 
 prus and Myrrha. Venus chose him as an at- 
 tendant for his singular beauty. At hunting, 
 being wounded under the groin by the teeth of 
 a hoar, he died; whom Venus bewailed with 
 arc any tears, and changed his blood spilt upon 
 the ground into the flower Anemone. While 
 she ran to bring assistance to him dying, she 
 hurt her foot, being pricked with a thorn, and 
 with her blood died the rose, which being be- 
 fore w hite, now became red. 
 
 Some add another pleasant conceit ; that 
 Venus and Proserpina contended before Jupi- 
 ter, which should have Adnois. They being 
 sent to the muse Calliope, by whose sentence 
 the controversy was to be decided, she settled 
 the matter thus: That Adonis should serve 
 Venus six months, and Proserpina as many. 
 The meaning of the fable is ; Venus is the 
 
56 
 
 HEATHEN GODS. 
 
 earth, and Adonis the sim. She reigns with 
 him six months, attired with flowers, and en- 
 riched with fruits: The other six months the 
 sun retires from us, as if he would live with 
 Proserpina. 
 
 By Venus we understand amorousness. She 
 is the goddess of beauty ; because nothing more 
 foments impure desires, tyrannizes over the af- 
 fections, subdues virtue, and enslaves the w hole 
 man. 
 
 She was worshipped armed; for beauty con- 
 quers neither less, nor more slowly, than the 
 Are or sword. She rides in a chariot, and 
 leads a triumph over her conquered enemies 
 after the war is ended, which she wages 
 by the power, not of arms, but love ; for she 
 fights with allurements, not ambushes; with 
 delights, not bullets ; with charms, not wounds ; 
 she throws no other firebrands than what love 
 kindles ; and the arrows w hich she darts to 
 the heart, are shot only from her eyes ; and 
 therefore no wonder, if the enemy turn not to 
 flight, but into her arms. 
 
 She wears a crow n, because beauty is al- 
 ways victorious ; it conquers even in peace ; 
 thunders in silence; lightens with its aspect; 
 seizes the breast ; storms the mind ; speaks 
 without a voice ; ties without chains ; en- 
 chants without withcraft ; and once to see, is 
 to conquer ; but to be seen, is to triumph. 
 
 She holds a mirror, that the brittleness of 
 the glass may remind her of the frailty of her 
 beauty. Her head also is adorned with flow- 
 
HEATHEN GODS. 
 
 hi 
 
 ers, from which she may understand, that 
 nothing is more fading than a fine complexion, 
 which, like a flower, blasts with the least 
 breath, breaks by the lightest accident, and 
 dies in a moment 
 
 She is born from the sea ; because a lover is 
 afflicted with as many storms of passions, as 
 there are winds that disturb the ocean. 
 
 She is infamous for her adulteries, rapes and 
 incests. Behold, whither the beauty of the 
 foody carries those whom it captivates ! See 
 the precipices, into which that ignus faiuus in 
 her eyes betrays her admirers ! 
 
 Thus from the purest and coolest face, an 
 impure flame is created : Thus the order of 
 things being perverted, many are blinded by 
 others’ eyes; find tumults raised in their 
 breasts, from the calm serenity of another’s 
 countenance ; grow pale at their redness ; and 
 become more impudent, the more they admire 
 modesty. Some are of opinion, that Astaroth, 
 the goddess of the Sidonians, mentioned in the 
 Holy Scriptures, was the same with Venus. 
 

HEATHEN GODS, 
 
 59 
 
 CHAPTER VI« 
 
 MARS . 
 
 MARS is the god of war, fierce in aspect, 
 stern in countenance, and terrible in dress : 
 He sits in a chariot drawn by two horses, with 
 a distracted woman driving it. He is covered 
 with armor, and brandishes a spear in his right 
 hand, as though he seemed to breathe fire and 
 death, and to threaten all with ruin and destruc- 
 tion. Sometimes he is represented sitting on 
 horseback, formidable with his whip and spear. 
 
 His servants are Fear and Terror ; Discord 
 also goes before in a tattered garment, and 
 Clamor and Anger follow him. 
 
 She, who drives his chariot, is Bel Iona, the 
 goddess of war, the companion, or, as some say, 
 the sister, or wife, of Mars. Her priests, the 
 Belionarii, sacrificed in their own blood : In 
 each hand holding out naked swords, where- 
 with having cut their shoulders, they run up 
 and down, as men mad and possessed ; which 
 rites being finished, they were thought to fore- 
 id futurities. 
 
 Before the temple of this goddess there was 
 a pillar, called Beilioa, over which the herald 
 threw a spear, when he proclaimed war. 
 
 Mars is said to be the son of Jupiter and 
 Juno, but Ovid says, of Juno only : For ad~ 
 miring how her husband had himself conceived 
 and begot Minerva, affecting the like also, she 
 went to Oceanus, to ask his advice, by what 
 
60 
 
 HEATHEN GODS, 
 
 means she might have a child without her hus- 
 band. Being wearied with her journey, by 
 chance, she sat down at the door of the god- 
 dess Flora ; who understanding the design, 
 bade her be of good heart, telling her, that she 
 had a flower in her garden, which if she should 
 even touch with her lingers, she should con- 
 ceive instantly with the very smell of it. Ac- 
 cordingly she was brought into the garden, and 
 the flower shewn her ; which having touched, 
 she conceived Mars, who afterwards married 
 Nerione, that is, Valor. 
 
 The poets mention only one action of this 
 god, and that rather to he concealed in dark- 
 ness, had it not been discovered by the light 
 of the sun, namely his adultery with Venus. 
 Vulcan, knowing the whoredom of his wife, 
 made a net of iron, so fine and small, that it 
 escaped the sight of more than human eyes, 
 and spread it over the bed of Venus. Soon 
 after the lovers returned to their sport, and 
 were caught in the snare. Vulcan calls all 
 the gods to the shew, who extremely jeered 
 the prisoners. Being thus long exposed to the 
 jests and hisses of all, at length, at the request 
 of Neptune, Vulcan, having unloosed their 
 chains, let them go. 
 
 But Alectyron, a young man very dear to 
 Mars, suffered the punishment which his crime 
 deserved ; because, being appointed watch at 
 the door, he fell asleep, and so gave an oppor- 
 tunity to Sol of entering the chamber ; there- 
 fore he was changed i»to a cock, which, being 
 
HEATHEN GODS. 61 
 
 mindful of his old fault, foretels the approach 
 of the sun by his crowing. 
 
 Indeed Venus married to Vulcan, that is, a 
 very handsome woman to a very ugly man, 
 gives too strong a temptation to adultery. But 
 that, or any other wickedness, however it may 
 be concealed by more than Cimmerian dark*- 
 ness, and committed in the most private re** 
 tirements, cannot escape the Son of Right- 
 eousness, or go unpunished. 
 
 To Mars was sacrificed the wolf for his fierce*- 
 ness ; the horse, because he excels in war ; the 
 woodpecker and vulture, for their ravenous- 
 ness ; the cock, for his vigilance $ and grass, 
 because it springs up more plentifully in cities 
 robbed of their inhabitants by war, and in 
 those places, that are moistened with human 
 blood. 
 
 Amongst the most ancient rites of this god, 
 this is worthy to be mentioned, namely, whoev- 
 er had undertaken the conduct of any war, 
 having entered the chapel of Mars, he first 
 shaked the Ancilia, (which were a kind of holy 
 shields) and afterwards the spear of his image, 
 saying. Mars, watch. His priests were called 
 Salii, 
 
HEATHEN GODS. 
 
 m 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 VULCAN. 
 
 YULC AN was the son of Jupiter and Juno, 
 (some say of Juno only) and himself a god, and 
 the blacksmith of the other deities. He had 
 his shop in the island of Lemnos, where he ex- 
 ercised his trade, and made Jupiter’s thunder, 
 and the arms of the rest of the gods. Being 
 contemptible for his deformity, he was cast 
 down from heaven to earth, and, having broke 
 his leg with the fall, from that time has been 
 lame ; and indeed, he had undoubtedly broken 
 Ms neck also, but that the Lemnians, out of 
 humanity, caught him falling. That he might 
 repay his great kindness, he fixed his seat among 
 them, and setting up the craft of a smith, 
 taught the natives the use of fire and iron. 
 
 This smoky god loved, and mightily desired 
 to marry, Minerva; and Jupiter consented, 
 yielding up the virgin to the will of this nasty 
 wretch ; but he suffered a repulse, and in the 
 wicked and fruitless struggle, his nature falling 
 upon the earth, produced the monster Ericht- 
 honius, who was a boy formidable with drag- 
 on’s feet ; which deform ty that he might hide, 
 he is said to have invented the use of chariots. 
 
 Though Minerva favored not Vulcan’s ad- 
 dress, yet he got V enus, the most beautiful of 
 all the goddesses to wife, whom afterwards, 
 being caught in adultery with Mars, he linked 
 with chains, and exposed them to be laughed 
 
HEATHEN GODS* 
 
 at by all the gods. He had a temple at Rome, 
 where feasts were celebrated in honor of him, 
 called Vulcania, at which animals were thrown 
 into the fire. 
 
 A temple was also built and dedicated to 
 him upon the mountain JEtna, guarded by 
 dogs, which were endued with so exquisite a 
 sense of smelling, that they went out to meet 
 the chaste and religious coming to it, fawned 
 upon them, and joined themselves companions 
 to them, as being acquaintances and friends of 
 their master Vulcan; but they drove away 
 the wicked and bad with their terrible bark- 
 ing, and tore them with their teeth. 
 
 It is feigned, that the first woman was fash- 
 ioned by the hammer of V ulcan, and honored 
 with the presents of all the gods, whence she 
 was called Pandora ; that Pallas gave her wis- 
 dom ; Apollo music ; Mercury the art of elo- 
 quence ; Venus beauty; and the other gods 
 bestowed other accomplishments. 
 
 They added, that when Prometheus stole 
 fire from heaven, to animate the man which he 
 had made, Jupiter, being incensed against man- 
 kind, sent Pandora to him with a sealed box, 
 but Prometheus would not receive it. After- 
 wards she carried it to the wife of Epimetheus, 
 brother of Prometheus, who, out of curiosity 
 natural to the sex, opened it, and let out diseases 
 and evils of all sorts, with which it was filled, 
 amongst mankind, only Hope remaing in (lie 
 bottom of the box. 
 
 That by Vulcan is understood fire, the name 
 
HEATHEN GODS. 
 
 65 
 
 itself discovers ; for so he is called from the 
 force and violence of fire : And therefore he is 
 painted with a blue hat, a symbol of the ce- 
 lestial or elementary fire, which is by nature 
 clear and unmixed; whereas the terrestrial* 
 because weaker, and wanting fuel, is justly 
 feigned to be lame. They say that Vulcan 
 was cast down from heaven, because the light- 
 ning comes from the air ; and that the Lemni- 
 ans caught him, because it frequently falls into 
 that island. 
 
 The Cyclops were the children of Neptune 
 and Amphitrite, who had only one eye, in the 
 middle of their forehead, of a round figure, in 
 the form of a circle. There were many of 
 them, who all exercised the art of smithery 
 under Vulcan, the chief of whom were Bron- 
 tes, Steropes, and Pyracmon. 
 
 Cacus, son of Vulcan, was the vilest of 
 rogues, taking his name from his wickedness. 
 He tormented all Latium, with his fires and 
 robberies, passing his life after the manner of 
 wild beasts, and inhabiting a dismal cave. 
 
 When one night he had dragged thither 
 Hercules’s oxen by the tail, that the tracts of 
 their feet might not discover this repository of 
 his thefts; Hercules by chance passing by* 
 and hearing the lowing of the oxen in the 
 cave, broke open the doors, seized and killed 
 the monster. 
 
 Calculus was the son of Vulcan, and also 
 lived by plunder and robbery. They say, that 
 While his mother sat hv the fire, a spark flew 
 F 2 
 
HEATHEN GODS, 
 
 66 
 
 into her lap, and that from it growing big, at 
 the usual time, she brought forth a son, who 
 afterwards was the founder of the city Praeneste. 
 Others report, that Caeculus, immediately after 
 his birth, was found by some shepherds, in the 
 midst of flames, altogether unhurt; whence he 
 was believed to have been the son of Vuican. 
 
 The shepherd Polyphemus was a monster 
 not unlike to these, and bom of Neptune. He 
 had only one eye in his forehead, and got his 
 living by murders and robberies. 
 
 Ulysses, being informed, that he had drawn 
 four of his companions into his den in Sicily, 
 and devoured them, attacked him, when he 
 was drunk with wine, and having thrust a fire 
 brand into his eye, quite deprived him of sight. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 VESTA . 
 
 VESTA, the eldest of all the goddesses, 
 the wife of Coelum and mother of Saturn, is 
 represented as a matron sitting and holding a 
 drum. She is not reckoned among the celes- 
 tials, because she is the earth itself, and lias 
 her name from clothing, because the earth is 
 clothed with plants and fruits. She sits, be- 
 cause the earth, being immoveable, stays in 
 the lowest part of the world ; and she carries 
 a drum, because the earth contains the boister- 
 ous winds in its bosom. 
 
€8 
 
 HEATHEN GODS. 
 
 Her head is also surrounded with divers 
 flowers and plants voluntarily waving them- 
 selves into a crown, while animals of every 
 kind play about and fawn upon her. Because 
 the earth is round, Vesta’s temple at Rome 
 was round ; and they say, that her image was 
 orbicular in some places. 
 
 It is no wonder, that the first oblations were 
 offered to her, since all the sacrifices spring 
 from the earth ; and the Greeks both began 
 and concluded all sacrifices with this goddess. 
 
 There was another Vesta, the daughter of 
 Saturn by Rhea, by whom thej^ understood 
 fire; snd she was esteemed the president and 
 guardian of the houses and altars, and one of 
 the houshold deities, because she invented the 
 art of building houses : And therefore an image 
 of Vesta, to which they used to sacrifice daily, 
 stood at the doors of private houses. 
 
 She admired virginity so much, that, when 
 her brother Jupiter had given her the liberty, 
 of asking whatever she would, she desired that 
 she might always continue a virgin, and have 
 the first oblations of all the sacrifices ; which 
 she not only obtained, but also this further 
 honor among the Romans, that perpetual fire 
 was kept in her temple amongst the sacred 
 pledges of her empire ; not upon the altars, or 
 in the chimneys, but in earthern vessels hang- 
 ing in the air, which the vestal virgins tended 
 with so much care, that if by chance this fire 
 was extinguished, a vacation was proclaimed, 
 and all public and private business was inter- 
 
heathen gods. 
 
 69 
 
 milted, until they had expiated the unhappy 
 prodigy with incredible pains. But if it hap- 
 pened by the carelessness of the virgins, they 
 were chastised with the severest punishments. 
 However, though this sacred fire was not ex- 
 tinguished, yet it w as renewed yearly upon the 
 Kalends of March, only with a fiame from the 
 rays of the sun. 
 
 By the fable of Vesta is understood the vi- 
 tal heat ; that pure, unmixed and benign fire, 
 go necessary for us, without w hich human life 
 cannot subsist, and by whose heat being diffu- 
 sed through all parts of the body, we are quick- 
 ened, cherished, refreshed and nourished. This 
 is the sacred, heavenly, and divine flame, 
 which we daily repair by food, and which' 
 moves and actuates the whole body, and can- 
 not be extinguished but with life itself; and 
 then there is a lasting vacation, and end put 
 to all our business in this w r orld. 
 
F 
 
 ; 
 
 1 
 
HEATHBN GODS, 
 
 71 
 
 CHAPTER IX, 
 
 APOLLO . 
 
 APOLLO is described as a beardless youth? 
 with long hair, crowned with laurel, and shin- 
 ing in an embroidered vestment ; holding a 
 bow and arrows in the right hand, and a harp 
 in the left. Sometimes he is seen with a 
 Shield in the one hand, and the Graces in the 
 other. And because his power is threefold ; 
 in heaven, where he is called Sol ; in earth, 
 where he is named Liber Pater; and in hell, 
 where he is stiled Apollo ; he is generally 
 painted with a harp, shield and arrows *• The 
 harp shewing his heavenly pow er for the har- 
 mony of celestial things ; the shield the terres- 
 trial, for health and safety, which he brings to 
 earthly creatures ; the arrows his infernal, for 
 whomsoever he strikes with them, he sends 
 them down thither. 
 
 There were four Apolfos, the most ancient 
 of whom was born of Vulcan : another a Cre- 
 tan, the offspring of the Gory ban t-es ; and 
 another of Arcadia: But these three are not 
 mentioned, because all their actions are ascri- 
 bed to one Apollo, son of Jupiter and Latona. 
 His mother, who was daughter of Caeus the 
 Titan, conceived twins by Jupiter : At which 
 Juno being incensed, sent the serpent Pithon 
 against her, who that she might escape it, fled 
 into the island Delos, where she brought forth 
 Apollo and Diana at the same birth. 
 
72 
 
 HEATHEN GODS. 
 
 By the invention of physic, music, poetry 
 and rhetoric, he deservedly presided over the 
 Muses, and advanced to other high honors* 
 He also taught the arts of foretelling and arch- 
 ery ; by which favors he so much obliged 
 mankind, that he was enrolled in the number 
 of the gods. 
 
 These achievements of his, which follow, 
 are remarkable above the rest. He destroyed 
 all the Cyclops, the forgers of Jupiter’s thun- 
 derbolts, with bis arrows, to revenge the death 
 of his son iEsculapius, whom Jupiter had kil- 
 led with his thunder ; and that, because, by 
 the power of physic, he restored the dead to 
 life again. 
 
 For this cause, Apollo was cast down from 
 heaven, deprived of his divinity, exposed to 
 the calamities of this world, doomed to ban- 
 ishment upon the earth, and compelled by 
 want to feed Admetus’s flocks. In this dis- 
 tress, being weary of idleness, he is said first 
 to have invented and formed a harp, with a 
 design of passing the time more agreeably. 
 
 By chance he killed Hyacinthus, a boy of 
 remarkable beauty and ingenuity, and whom 
 he very much admired. For, whilst they 
 played together at quoits, Zephyrus, who was 
 also taken with the love of Hyacinthus, being 
 enraged that Apollo was preferred to him, and 
 catching hold of this opportunity of revenging 
 his grief, drove the quoit, which the god had 
 thrown, by a puff of wind, against the head of 
 the boy, who instantly dropt down dead. But 
 
HEATHEN GODS® 73 
 
 Apollo caused the flowers called violets, to be 
 produced from his blood spilt upon the earth. 
 
 Besides, he wonderfully esteemed Cyparis- 
 sus, another very pretty youth ; who, having 
 killed a deer, which he had trained up, and ar- 
 dently loved, would admit no consolation : 
 But Apollo, moved with pity, changed him in- 
 to a cypress tree, whose branches they ever 
 afterwards used at funerals, to perpetuate his 
 mourning, as he had requested of the gods. 
 
 He pursued Daphne, a virgin famous for her 
 beauty and modesty, that he might fulfil his 
 impure lust ; hut she, having prayed to the 
 gods, was turned into a laurel, the chastest of 
 trees; which is never corrupted by the vio- 
 lence of heat or cold, but remains always flour- 
 ishing, always pure. 
 
 He also long courted, but could not gain the 
 nymph Botina; for she chose rather to be 
 drowned in the waters of a river, into which 
 she threw herself, than to yield to his lascivi- 
 ous flames. Nor did her invincible modesty 
 want its reward ; for exposing herself to death, 
 for the defence of her virginity, she conquered 
 both death and Apollo, and thence became im- 
 mortal. 
 
 Leucotlioe, daughter of Orchamus, king of 
 Babylon, was not equally tenacious of her 
 chastity ; for she at last consented to Apollo’s 
 suit ; w hich disgrace to the family, her father 
 not bearing, buried her alive. But when Apol- 
 lo, who indeed could not restore her to life a~ 
 gain, had sprinkled her body and the place 
 e 
 
74 
 
 HEATHEN GOBS. 
 
 with heavenly nectar, there sprung up a tree 
 that drops frankincense. 
 
 Apollo, who raised the walls of the city Troy 
 by the music of his harp alone, was challenged 
 by Marsyas, a proud musician ; but the god 
 flayed him alive, because he presumed to con- 
 tend with him in his own art, and afterwards 
 converted him into the river of Phrygia of the 
 same name. 
 
 When the gods Apollo and Pan contended 
 in singing, My das, king of Phrygia, being ap- 
 pointed umpire of the dispute, foolishly adjudg- 
 ed the palm to the latter, for which the former 
 stretched his ears to the length and shape of 
 an ass’s ears. The king endeavored to conceal 
 this disgrace from ail but his barber, whom he 
 earnestly begged, and by great promises pre- 
 vailed, that lie would not discover to any what 
 he had seen. But he, not being able to keep a 
 secret so wonderful, dug up the ground, and 
 whispered, Midas has asses’ ears, and then til- 
 ling up the ditch with earth, went away. But 
 strange ! The reeds, growing out of the hole, 
 being moved with the gentlest gale, uttered the 
 same words which the barber had there buried. 
 
 As to the sense of the fable, all agree, that 
 Apollo- is nothing else but the Bun, to whom 
 these four tilings, which are commonly attribu- 
 ted to the god, remarkably belong. The first 
 was the skill of prophesy lug, and knowledge of 
 secret things; which is the property of the 
 Sun, who, dispelling the darkness by his light, 
 discovers: hidden and concealed truth. Anode 
 
HEATHEN GOBS, 
 
 75 
 
 tv was the art of healing, which also shadows 
 forth the solar influence, than which nothing i* 
 more salutary, and more necessary to the pres- 
 ervation of tilings. The third; namely,, ex- 
 pertness of shooting, agrees also to the Bun, 
 who darts his rays as so many arrows from his 
 body to the earth. The fourth was music, 
 which may be applied to the Sun ; because be- 
 ing placed in the middle among the planets, 
 lie, together with them, by a manifold motion, 
 makes, as it were, a kind of consort; and, as 
 the planets are seven in number, the poets as- 
 sert, that Apollo’s harp consisted of so many 
 strings. 
 
 From the things offered in sacrifice to Apol- 
 lo, it likewise appears, that he was the Sun, 
 such as the olive, which cannot be nourished 
 in places distant from the Sun. The laurel 
 which is an evergreen, and is therefore an em- 
 blem of the vegetative influence of the Sun, 
 and other things of like natures and qualities. 
 
 They who pretend to turn ibis fable to true 
 history, tell us, that Apollo was a king of the 
 Arcadians, who was deposed for ruling with 
 too great severity, that he fled to Thessaly, 
 where king Admetus gave him the command 
 of the country lying about the river Amphry- 
 
HEATHEN GODS. 
 
 77 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 DIANA. 
 
 DIANA is painted in a limiting habit, with 
 a bow in her hand, a quiver full of arrows 
 hanging down from her shoulders ; and her 
 breast covered with the skin of a deer : She 
 was the goddess of hunting and chastity. 
 
 She has three different names, and as many 
 offices : In the heavens she is called Luna, on 
 the earth Diana, and in hell Hecate. In the 
 heavens she enlightens all things by her rays. 
 On the earth she subdues ail the wild beasts 
 by her bow and darts ; and in hell keeps in 
 subjection the ghosts and spirits, by her power 
 and authority. The poets feign, that she has 
 three heads, of a horse on the right side, of a 
 dog on the left, and a woman in the middle. 
 
 She is called Luna from shining ; because 
 in the night time, she sends forth a glorious 
 light. Her chariot is drawn by a black and 
 white horse ; or by two oxen, because of her 
 horns ; sometimes adding a mule, for her bar- 
 renness, since she shines not with her own, 
 but the borrowed light of the sun* 
 
 It is the opinion of some, that Luna was of 
 both sexes, and that the Egyptians, especially, 
 worshipped the god Lunas,, and also the god- 
 dess Luna ; but with this difference, that those 
 who worshipped Luna, were thought subject to 
 the women, and those, who honored Lunas, 
 were superior to them. It is to be observed. 
 
HEATHEN GODS. 
 
 also, that the men sacrificed to Venus, under 
 the name of Luna, m women’s dress, and the 
 women in men’s clothes. 
 
 The shepherd Endymion, is supposed to 
 have been Luna’s gallant, whom she so much 
 admired, that for the sake of kissing him, she 
 came down from heaven, to the mountain Lat- 
 mus, in Caria, where he lay in a certain cave, 
 condemned to perpetual sleep, because he at- 
 tempted to violate the modesty of Juno. 
 
 Endymion was in reality a famous astrono- 
 mer, who first described the course of the 
 moon, and he was said to sleep, because he 
 contemplated nothing but the planetary mo- 
 tions. 
 
 She was called Hecate, either because the 
 moon darts her rays or arrows far off ; or, be- 
 cause they sacrificed a hundred victims to her; 
 or, because, by her edict, those, who were not 
 buried, wandered a hundred years before they 
 were carried over to hell. 
 
 She was the daughter of Ceres and Jupiter, 
 &nd being cast out by her mother, and exposed 
 in the streets, was taken up by some shepherds 
 and nourished by them : For this reason she 
 was worshipped in the streets, and her statue 
 Usually set before the doors of the houses. 
 
 They say that she was of a prodigious size, 
 and wonderfully tall, with her head frightful 
 With snakes instead of hairs, and feet resemb- 
 ling serpents. She was encompassed with 
 dogs ; because that animal was sacred to her. 
 
 They say, that she presided over enchant* 
 
HEATHEN GODS. 
 
 79 
 
 ments, and that being called seven times, she 
 used to come to the sacrifices ; which being 
 finished, several apparitions were seen, called 
 from her Hecatssa. 
 
 This goddess was called Lncina and Opis ; 
 because she attended and gave assistance to 
 infants coming into the light of life ; which of- 
 fice she is said first to have performed to her 
 brother Apollo, when herself being just born, 
 was present, while her mother Latona brought 
 him forth, and did the office of a midwife ; but 
 she was so affrighted with her mother’s pains, 
 that she resolved perpetually to preserve her 
 virginity, seeing the pains to be endured in 
 child bearing are so many. 
 
 The women, after child birth, used to sacri- 
 fice to Juno, and to offer their own and the in- 
 fant’s clothes to Diana. 
 
 As this goddess was a huntress, and the 
 princess of hunters, the woods, groves and for- 
 ests were consecrated to her : And, because it 
 was believed, that she left off hunting on the 
 Ides of August, therefore it was not lawful to 
 bunt after that time; but they crowned the 
 dogs with garlands, lighted torches of stub- 
 ble, and near them hung up their hunting in- 
 struments. 
 
 She was of so inviolable a chastity, that she 
 resisted the solicitations of Mars and Apollo, 
 though powerful and famous deities. 
 
 Actaeon, the famous hunter, and son of Aris- 
 tseus, feit the vengeance of her offended mod- 
 esty ; for when he only looked at her, whilst 
 

 <30 HEATHEN GODS. 
 
 she was naked in a fountain, she deferred not 
 the punishment of his impurity one moment ; 
 for being sprinkled with water by her, he was 
 changed into a stag, and afterwards torn in 
 pieces by his own dogs. 
 
 She also punished the arrogance of Chione, 
 the daughter of Daedalion by Apollo and Mer- 
 cury. For when she had brought forth twins, 
 namely, Phiiamon, a skilful musician, son of 
 Apollo, and Autolychus, the offspring of Mer- 
 cury, famous in the art of stealing, she brag- 
 ged, that she had gratified two gods, and dared 
 to prefer herself to Diana, slighting the beauty 
 of the goddess ; but she, enraged with anger, 
 bent her bow, and pierced her tongue with an 
 arrow. 
 
 Meleager suffered the punishment due to his 
 father Gene us. For when he, in the offering 
 of the first fruits, wilfully forgot Diana, the 
 goddess, being angry, sent a boar to ravage the 
 lands of his kingdom of Caledonia. Meleager, \ 
 attended with many chosen youths, immedi- 
 ately went out to kill, or drive him out. The 
 virgin Atalanta joined herself to the hunters, 
 and first wounded the boar, which Meleager 
 soon after killed. 
 
 He congratulated Atalanta more, because she 
 wounded the wild beast, than himself, who had 
 killed it, and therefore gave her the boar’s skin. 
 
 But the uncles of Meleager, being enraged, 
 took the present from the virgin ; whereupon 
 Meleager, the giver, killed them. When his 
 mother Althaea understood that her brothers 
 
HEATHEN GODS. 
 
 were killed by her son, being mad with fury, 
 she prepared herself for revenge. In Aitheea’s 
 chamber, when she brought forth Meleager, 
 there was a stick, which the Fates took and 
 threw into the fire, saying, That the infant 
 should live as long as it remained unconsumed. 
 The mother speedily snatched it out of the 
 fire, quenched it with water, and laid it up. But 
 now, moved with rage for the slaughter of her 
 brothers, she cast the branch into the flames, 
 which burning, he also felt the fire in his bow r ~ 
 els, and at last, together with it, was reduced 
 to ashes. 
 
HEATHEN GODS. 
 
 83 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 CERES. 
 
 CERES is represented as a lady, tall in stat- 
 ure, venerable with majesty, beautified with 
 yellow hair, and crowned with a turban, com- 
 posed of the ears of corn ; her bosom swells 
 with large and snowy-white breasts : She holds 
 in her right hand a burning torch, and in her 
 left a handful of poppies and ears of corn. 
 
 She was begotten of Saturn and Ops, and of 
 so remarkable beauty, that she drew the gods 
 themselves into the love and admiration of her- 
 self. She being loved by her brothers Jupiter 
 and Neptune, and also debauched by them, 
 brought forth Proserpina to the former; but it 
 is uncertain, whether a daughter or horse to 
 the latter. For some say, that she cast herself 
 among a drove of mares, that she might avoid 
 the embraces of Neptune, and instantly put on 
 the shape of a. mare ; and that her brother, ob- 
 serving this, became a horse, and from her be- 
 gat Arion. 
 
 Ceres took this disgrace very ill, exceeding- 
 ly lamented her lost honor, and testified her 
 sorrow by mourning ■ clothes : After that, she 
 so hid herself in the dark recesses of a cave, 
 that none of the gods could know what became 
 of her; until Pan, the god of the woods, dis- 
 covered her by chance, and told Jupiter, who, 
 having sent the Fates to her, at last persuaded 
 her to lay aside her grief, and rise out of the 
 
84 
 
 HEATHEN GODS. 
 
 cave, to the great good and joy of all. For at 
 that time, they say, that all sorts of living crea- 
 tures were infected with a grievous plague, and 
 that the fruits of the earth, and granaries every 
 where corrupted ; and no wonder, since Ceres 
 the very goddess of the fruits skulked, and con- 
 cealed herself. She first invented and taught 
 the art of tilling the earth, of sowing pulse and 
 corn, and of making bread, whereas before men 
 eat only acorns. As soon as agriculture was 
 introduced, and men began to contend about 
 the limits of those fields, which though before 
 rough and uncultivated, being covered with 
 briars and unprofitable plants, now brought so 
 much profit, she enacted laws, and determined 
 the rights and properties of those who disputed. 
 
 Ceres is beautiful, because the earth, which 
 she resembles, gives a very delightful and 
 beautiful spectacle to beholders ; especially 
 when it is arrayed with plants, diversified with 
 trees, adorned with flowers, enriched with 
 fruits, and covered with green herbs, when it 
 displays the honors of the Spring, and pours 
 forth the gifts of Autumn with a bountiful hand. 
 Her hair is yellow, for the ears of com are of a 
 golden color, when they come to maturity. 
 She has breasts swelling with milk ; because 
 the earth, impregnated with seed, and big with 
 fruits, brings forth all things out of itself, and, 
 like a mother, feeds and nourishes us. 
 
 She holds a lighted torch, because when 
 Proserpina was stolen away by Pluto, she light- 
 ed torches with the flames which burst from 
 
HEATHEN GODS. 
 
 8.3 
 
 Hie top of Mount iEtna, and with them sought 
 her daughter through the whole world. She 
 also carries poppies, because, when spent with 
 grief, she could not obtain the least rest or 
 sleep, Jupiter gave her poppies to eat, which 
 plant, they say, has a power of creating sleep 
 and forgetfulness. 
 
 Triptolemus was the son of Eleusius or Ce- 
 reus. Ceres educated him from his infancy 
 upon this occasion : Whilst she sought Proser- 
 pina by sea and land, she turned out of her 
 •way into the city Eieusis, where the father of 
 Triptoiemus entertained her with the greatest 
 civility ; in return of which kindness, she bred 
 up his son, feeding him in the day time with 
 celestial and divine milk; but in the night 
 covering him over with fire. 
 
 The child growing up sooner than ordinary, 
 in a few days discovered his education more 
 than human. Wherefore the father, being as- 
 tonished, desired to know how Ceres had man- 
 aged his son : And while he observed all things 
 out of a private place, he saw Triptolemus 
 covered by Ceres with horning coals. Imme- 
 diately he cried out, that his son was killed, 
 and ran to save him. 
 
 Here Ceres punished the'Tash curiosity of 
 the man with death. Then she put lip Trip- 
 tolemus into her own chariot, and sent him 
 throughout the whole world, to shew men the 
 use of corn; which he executed faithfully, and 
 obtained his name from thence. 
 
 There is an Evet at Ceres feet, who was 
 
 K 
 
86 
 
 HEATHEN GODS. 
 
 formerly a boy, and changed by that goddess 
 into a beast like a lizard. For when Ceres, 
 wearied with the labor of her journey, and 
 scorched with thirst, came to a certain cottage, 
 and earnestly begged an old woman living 
 there, to give her water to w 7 ash her mouth ; 
 the old w oman gave her barley broth ; which, 
 whilst the goddess supped up greedily, the son, 
 a saucy boy, called Steliio, mocked her. This 
 enraged Ceres so much, that she threw some 
 of the broth into his face, and turned him into 
 an Evet. 
 
 Eresichthon, contemning the sacrifices of 
 this goddess, when he had defiled her grove, 
 and cut down one of her oaks, was punished 
 with insatiable hunger ; so that, hav ing devour- 
 ed all his food and effects, he was forced 
 to eat his own flesh to support his body, and 
 to bring upon himself an horrible death, that 
 he might the better sustain his life. 
 
 Among all the Cerealia, or sacrifices insti- 
 tuted in honor of Ceres, the chief are the Elu- 
 sinia, so called from the city Eleusis. Of these 
 were two sorts ; the Majora, consecrated to 
 Ceres; and the Minora to Proserpina. 
 
 It was a custom, that those who were to be 
 initiated in the Majora, never put off the 
 clothes, which they then wore, till they fell off 
 in rags. 
 
 In the Majora and Minora, a perpetual and 
 wonderful silence was kept ; so that to publish 
 any thing concerning them was a crime. 
 
 In these sacrifices they carried lighted torch- 
 es ; because with them Ceres sought her daugh- 
 
 . 
 
HEATHEN GODS. 87 
 
 ter; crying out through all the streets and 
 highways, Proserpina, and filling all places 
 with their dismal bowlings. 
 
 Games were also celebrated in these sacrifi- 
 ces, in which the victors were adorned with a 
 barley crown. 
 
 The Thesmophoria were instituted by Trip 
 iolemus ; and those women, who vowed to 
 maintain perpetual virginity, were initiated in 
 them. For some days a fast was kept ; and 
 wine was altogether banished from her altar. 
 
 A swine was sacrificed to Ceres ; because 
 (hat animal hurts the fruits of the earth ; and 
 garlands, composed of ears of corn, were offer- 
 ed to her, as Tally asserts. 
 
 Ambervalia were instituted to purge the 
 fields, and beg fruitfulness and plenty ; and 
 were so called, because the sacrifice surroun- 
 ded the lands, and was led about through the 
 fields.' 
 
 These sacrifices were performed by husband- 
 jnen, carrying a victim, namely a sow big with 
 young, or a cow-calf thrice through the corn 
 and hay, in the beginning of harvest, while 
 the fields resounded with the joyful acclama- 
 tions, and merry dancing of the rustics follow- 
 ing them. 
 
 Meanwhile one of them, adorned with a 
 crown, sung the praises of Ceres ; and after 
 they had offered mead mixed with milk, before 
 they reaped the fruits, they sacrificed the sow 
 to the goddess Ceres. 
 
 Some make Vesta the globe of the earth: 
 
HEATHEN GODS. 
 
 88 
 
 Ceres the soil or surface of it, which is plougbr 
 ed and sown, and Proserpina all that side of 
 the earth which lies under our feet. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 MERCURY. 
 
 MERCURY is represented as a young man, 
 with a cheerful countenance, an honest look, 
 and lively eyes; fair without paint, having 
 winged shoes and hat, and holding in his hand 
 a winged rod, bound about with two serpents. 
 
 His parents were Jupiter and Maia, daught- 
 er of Atlas ; and for that reason, perhaps, they 
 used to sacrifice to him in the month of May. 
 They say, indeed, that Juno, for some time, 
 gave him the breast; and, that her milk, which 
 he sucked too greedily ran out of his mouth upon 
 the heavens ; from which the milky way had its 
 name. 
 
 He had many remarkable qualities, on ac- 
 count of which, they w orshipped him as a god. 
 He is said to have invented letters, and the 
 use of them. He excelled in eloquence, and 
 the faculty of speaking ; and therefore was ac- 
 counted the god of rhetoricians and orators. 
 He is also reported to have been the first in- 
 ventor of contracts, weights and measures ; 
 and taught the arts of buying, selling, and traf- 
 fic ; and thence was called the god of mer- 
 chants, and of gain. 
 
 In the art of thieving he far excelled all oth- 
 
H Z 
 
90 
 
 HEATHEN GODS* 
 
 er sharpers, for he is the prince and god of 
 such. The very clay in which he was horn, 
 he stole away the cows of king Admetus, 
 though tended by Apollo himself: Who, while 
 he complained of the theft, would fright him 
 with threats, and had bent his how with an in- 
 tent of revenge, but found himself robbed of 
 his quiver and arrows also ; and so being pleas- 
 ed with the deceit, turned his resentment into 
 laughter. 
 
 He, being as yet an infant, and entertained 
 by Vulcan in his house, privately conveyed 
 away his working tools. He snatched Venus’s 
 girdle, whilst she embraced him : And, having 
 taken Jupiter’s sceptre, he designed to pilfer 
 the thunder also, but feared, lest it should burn 
 him. He was a wonderful master at making 
 peace; and therefore sometimes was painted 
 with golden chains, flowing from his mouth, 
 with which he linked together the minds of his 
 hearers ; and he pacified not only mortals, but 
 also the gods themselves, when they quarrell- 
 ed. This pacificatory faculty is signified by 
 the rod, which he holds in his hand, and which 
 formerly he got from Apollo, to whom he had 
 before given a harp. This wonderful virtue 
 of deciding controversies appeared by two ser- 
 pents fighting, which Mercury, by interposing 
 his rod, presently reconciled ; so that twisting 
 with a mutual embrace, they stuck to the rod, 
 which is called Caduceus ; and from hence all 
 ambassadors, sent to make peace, are called 
 caduceatores. 
 
HEATHEN GODS. 91 
 
 He had diverse offices ; the chief were, to 
 carry the commands of Jupiter ; whence he 
 was commonly called the messenger of the 
 gods : To sweep the room in which they used 
 to feast ; to make the beds, and perform other 
 mean and servile offices of that kind : Also to 
 attend persons dying : to unloose their souls 
 from the chains of the body, and carry them 
 down to hell : Likewise to revive, and replace 
 into new bodies, those that had already com- 
 pleted their time in the Elysian fields. 
 
 By his sister Venus he had a son, Herma- 
 phroditus by name, famous for beauty, of won- 
 derful modesty, and remarkable for his hatred 
 of women. The nymph Salmacis, an inhabi- 
 tant of the woods, which he frequently ranged 
 in hunting, greatly admired him : She often 
 tempted the youth, but as often suffered a re- 
 pulse : At last she laid a snare for him at a 
 fountain, whither when he came to bathe, she 
 also leaped into the water ; yet neither so 
 could she overcome his extraordinary chastity. 
 Therefore turning to the gods, she is said to 
 have prayed, that their two bodies might unite 
 mid become one ; wffiich she obtained. The 
 youth was amazed at the change of his body, 
 and desiring to have some like him, for a con- 
 solation of his grief, he obtained his w ish ; for 
 whosoever washed in that fountain became an 
 hermaphrodite, having both sexes. 
 
 One Battus, a herdsman, by chance saw 
 Mercury driving away the cow s of king Adme- 
 tus from Apollo: When Mercury perceived ih 
 
92 
 
 HEATHEN GODS. 
 
 lie went to the man, desired that lie would dis- 
 cover the theft to no body, and to his entreat- 
 ies added a present, a delicate cow, as a re- 
 ward of secrecy. Battus promised ; but Mer- 
 cury to try his faith, soon after returned to him 
 in another shape, and asked about the cows 
 that were stolen, if he saw them, or knew the 
 place whither the thief had carrier! them. Bat- 
 Ins denied ; but Mercury pressed hard, and 
 promised, that he would give him both a bull 
 and a cow, if he would tell. Being taken with 
 the promise, he points out the place and the 
 cows. Here Mercury, enraged with anger, 
 having laid aside his disguise, turned him into 
 a stone called Index . 
 
 In the sacrifices of this god they offered a 
 calf, milk, honey, and especially the tongues 
 of the victims, in allusion of his oratorical abil- 
 ities, they also hung a purse to his statue, to 
 denote that he was the god of the merchants : 
 And gave him the name Delius, because of his 
 fraud and treachery. 
 
 CHAPTER XIIT. 
 
 HERCULES. 
 
 THE twelve preceding heathen deities are 
 called the Dii majorum gentium. The follow- 
 ing six, viz. Hercules, Bacchus, iEsculapius, 
 Romulus, Castor and Pollux, are called the 
 Dii minorum gentium, or Demi Gods ; or as 
 some write it, Semi Dei. 
 

 MnillMIIM(MMinilinilt01Unn<UIIMIIHnUIMIIIjr 
 
§4 
 
 HEATHEN GODS. 
 
 The Semi Dei are supposed to have sacred 
 minds arid celestial souls in human bodies, and 
 to be born for the good and safety of mankind. 
 
 The chief of all the heroes is Hercules, son ! 
 of Jupiter and Alcmena, wife of Amphitryo, 
 king of Thebes. For when Amphitryo was 
 absent, Jupiter, having assumed his shape and 
 dress, came to Alcmena the queen, who, think- 
 ing that her husband had returned, entertained I 
 the deceitful god both at table and in bed ; and ; 
 had by him a son, of that largeness of limbs, 
 and firmness of powers, and strength of body, 
 that the god found a necessity to employ three 
 nights joined into one, in producing a son of 
 such marvellous valor. 
 
 Juno having discovered the adultery of her 
 husband, was inflamed with so great hatred 
 against Hercules, that she laid all the snares, 
 that jealousy could contrive, for his destruct- 
 ion. First, she obtained an edict from Jupiter, 
 which she endeavored to turn to his ruin. For 
 when the wife of Sthenelus, king of Mycenae;, 
 was big with Euristheus, at the same time in 
 which Hercules was in the womb, Jupiter or- 
 dained, that whomsoever of the two should be 
 first born, he should exercise authority over 
 the other: Juno therefore accelerating the 
 birth of Euristheus, he came before Hercules, 
 and so obtained a right and superiority over 
 him. Soon after his birth, also, she sent two 
 vipers to slay him in the cradle, but in vain ; 
 for the valiant infant, snatching them with his 
 hands, griped and killed them with his grasp. 
 
HEATHEN GOBS. 
 
 95 
 
 At length, by the mediation of Pallas, Juno 
 was reconciled to the noble youth, and gave 
 Mm the breast, which the infant having hurt 
 by sucking too greedily, the goddess out of an- 
 ger immediately weaned him. 
 
 Hercules was not only subjected to Eurisb 
 hens, by the edict of Jupiter, and unkindness 
 of Juno ; but besides, was advised and persua- 
 ded by the oracle of Apollo, that he should 
 submit himself to Euristheus, obey his com- 
 mands, and especially undergo the twelve la- 
 bors, which his master was to enjoin. 
 
 Hercules obeyed the Fates, and served his 
 master twelve years, wherein he executed the 
 most dangerous and difficult commands, with 
 like labor and -success, particularly these twelve 
 which follow. 
 
 I. He tore in pieces, with his nails, the lion 
 in the Nemean wood, which was believed to 
 have fallen from the orb of the moon, and was 
 invulnerable by any weapon. He wore the 
 skin for a shield and breastplate. 
 
 II. In the lake Lerna he killed a serpent 
 with seven heads, some say nine, others reck- 
 on up fifty ; a monster so dreadful, that one 
 head being cut off, another presently sprang up 
 in its place, unless the blood, issuing from the 
 wound, was stopped by fire. lolaus, the son 
 of Iphiclus, gave him lighted brands, with 
 which he staunched the blood ; wherefore when 
 he became decrepid and old, Hercules, by 
 prayers, restored him to youth again, as a re- 
 ward of his good service. 
 
HEATHEN- CODS, 
 
 III. On Erymanthus, a mountain of Arca- 
 dia, be bound a boar, whose fierceness and big- 
 ness was equally terrible, and brought it to 
 Euristheus. 
 
 IV, Being ordered to bring to Mycenae a 
 bind having brazen feet, and golden horns* 
 which none dared to wound, because she was 
 consecrated to Diana, and which none could 
 catch by running; yet Hercules, having pur- 
 sued her a whole year, at last took, and brought 
 her on his shoulders to Euristheus. 
 
 Y. He partly killed, and partly drove away 
 the birds, called Sty mphalkies, from the lake 
 of Stymphalus, which used to feed upon human 
 flesh. 
 
 YI. He defeated the army of the Amozans, 
 and took from Hyppolite, their queen, the fin- 
 est belt in the world. 
 
 VII. In one day he cleansed the stable of 
 Augeas, wherein three thousand oxen were 
 stabled thirty years, the 'dung being never car- 
 ried out, which he effected by to rising a river 
 into it. 
 
 VIII. He tamed a great bull, that did In- 
 numerable mischiefs to the island of Crete, and 
 brought him bound to Euristheus. 
 
 IX. He overcame Diomedes, the most cruel 
 tyrant of Thrace, who fed his horses with the 
 flesh of his guests, and gave him to his own 
 horses for fodder. 
 
 X. Be conquered in war the three bodied 
 Geryon, drove away Ids bay oxen, who de- 
 voured strangers, and brought them into Italy, 
 
heathen gods. 
 
 9 7 
 
 having first killed the dragon with seven heads* 
 and the two headed dog which guarded them. 
 
 XL He carried away the golden apples, in 
 the gardens of the Hesperides, having first kil- 
 led the dragon that kept them. 
 
 X1L Lastly, Being commanded by the Eu~ 
 fistheus to penetrate into hell, and bring the 
 dog Cerberus thence, he performed it without 
 delay, drawing the three headed monster* 
 bound in a triple chain, up to the earth. When 
 Cerbeus saw the light, he is said to have vom- 
 ited, from whence the poisonous herb wolfs- 
 bane sprang. 
 
 Besides these, there are other proofs of hits 
 valor, worthy to be mentioned. For, he van- 
 quished the giant Antaeus, son of the earth, 
 more than sixty four cubits high, so barbarous 
 to all strangers, that compelling them to wrest- 
 le with him, he choked them. 
 
 Busiris, son of Neptune, used to sacrifice to 
 his father all strangers that he could catch, till 
 Hercules offered both him and his son upon 
 the same altar. 
 
 He killed ike giants Albion and Bergion* 
 who intended to stop his journey : And when., 
 in the fight, his arrows failed him, having 
 ing prayed to Jupiter, he is said to have ob- 
 tain ed a shower of stones, by which he defeat- 
 ed and put to flight his enemies. 
 
 When Atlas was weary, and sinking under 
 his burden, Hercules took and carried the heav-. 
 i eng on his shoulders. 
 
 !i 2 
 
 s 
 
98 
 
 HEATHEN GOBS. 
 
 He overcame and strangled the fire vomiting 
 robber Cacus. 
 
 With an arrow he shot the eagle that de- 
 voured the liver of Prometheus chained to the 
 rock. 
 
 He slew Theodamus because he denied him 
 victuals : But he took Hylas his son with him 
 and was very kind to him. 
 
 He delivered Hesione, daughter of Laome- 
 don, king of Troy, from the whale, a sea mom 
 ster, to which she was exposed, in this man- 
 ner : He raised, on a sudden, a bank in that 
 place, where the whale was to devour her, and 
 stood there armed ; whither when the monster 
 came with open mouth, he leaped into his 
 throat, and sliding down into his belly, spent 
 three days in tearing him within ; but at length 
 he burst through safe, having lost only his hair. 
 Afterwards, Laomedou not standing to his 
 promises, and refusing to pay the plighted re- 
 ward, Hercules stormed and pillaged Troy, 
 and gave Hesione to Telamon, who first moun- 
 ted the wait, in part of the booty. 
 
 When Acheious, the son of Oceanus and 
 Terra, and Hercules, contended in a single 
 combat for Beianira, who was betrothed to 
 both, he overcame his rival, though he turned 
 himself sometimes into a serpent, sometimes 
 into a bull ; for one of iris horns being plucked 
 off, he was obliged to yield. Achelous was 
 truly a river of Greece, winding like a ser- 
 pent; and furrowing the fields, where it flovs, 
 with its waters makes a noise, imitating the 
 roaring of a bulb 
 
HEATHEN GOBS* 9^ 
 
 This river divides itself into two streams, 
 but Hercules, with banks, forced it into one 
 channel; and so, the sand being drained, there 
 followed great plenty of fruits of every kind. 
 
 Deianira was the daughter of Oeneus, king 
 of iEtolia. After Hercules married her, hav 
 ing a deep river to pass through, Nessus the 
 Centaur offered his assistance to carry through 
 Deianira on his back, which accordingly he 
 did. When he was on the other side, he pre- 
 pared to offer violence to her ; but Hercules 
 enraged at the sauciness of the monster, even, 
 swimming, robbed him of his life with an ar- 
 row. Nessus dying, gave to Deianira his 
 bloody coat in a present, which, he said, had a 
 power of restraining her husband from unlaw- 
 ful amours, if he should wear it. 
 
 The credulous lady accepted the present* 
 and, some time after, experienced its virtue 
 otherwise than she expected. For when Her- 
 cules, who was invincible, and unbroken by so 
 many and so great labors, became softened with 
 pleasure, and being overcome with the charms 
 of Omphale, queen of Lydia, served her as a 
 handmaid, having changed his club into a dis- 
 taff, and his arrows into a spindle ; seeing also 
 he so desperately loved lole, the daughter of 
 Eurytus, king of Oechalia; his wife Deianira, 
 taking it ill, and desirous of turning him from 
 unlawful amours, sent himNessus’s coat, which 
 having put on, when he was to sacrifice, being 
 instantly driven into distraction, he burned 
 himself in the pile which he raised, and after 
 his death was enrolled among the gods. 
 
HEATHEN OODS, 101 
 
 CHAPTER XI V» 
 
 BACCHUS . 
 
 BACCHUS is a filthy, shameless and im- 
 modest god ; with a body naked, red face, las- 
 civious look, swollen cheeks, fat breast, big 
 belly, and distended paunch; in an effeminate 
 posture, dispirited with luxury, and intoxicated 
 with wine. He is crowned with ivy and vine 
 leaves, and in his hand holds a thyrsus for a 
 sceptre. His chariot is drawn sometimes by 
 tigers and lions, sometimes by lynxes and 
 panthers : A drunken band of Satyrs, demons* 
 and nymphs presiding over the wine presses, 
 fairies of the fountains, and priestesses attend 
 him as his guard, and old Silenus, riding on an 
 ass, brings up the rear. He is painted with 
 horns, and sometimes a smooth and beardless 
 youth, frequently also an old man. 
 
 Concerning the birth and kindred of Bac- 
 chus, the poets say, that Jupiter, being charm- 
 ed with the love of Semeie, daughter of Cad- 
 mus, very much moved the jealousy of his 
 wife Juno, who therefore contriving snares for 
 the wanton, visited her in the shape of an old 
 woman, congratulated her acquaintance with 
 the king of the gods, and advised, that she 
 would oblige him by an inviolable oath, to 
 promise whatever she should ask : And then, 
 says she, you shall ask, that he come to you 
 with all the ensigns of his dignity, as he uses 
 to the bed of his royal spouse* The advice 
 
 i 2 
 
HEATHEN GODS* 
 
 M2 
 
 extremely pleased Semele, and rvhen first she 
 saw the god, she begged a favor, but without a 
 name, which he forthwith promised, and bound 
 himself by the Stygian Lake to perform, Ju- 
 piter, having heard the request, grieved much, 
 yet arrayed with his greatest glory, and terri- 
 ble with his tremendous majesty, unwilling en- 
 ters the house of Semele ; who, unable to sus- 
 tain the etherial tumult, being struck down 
 with the lightning, and stupified with the thun- 
 der, was soon reduced into ashes, and her pal- 
 ace perished in the flames, which her ambition 
 had kindled. 
 
 Meanwhile the child Bacchus, with whom 
 she was big, is taken out of the w omb of the 
 unhappy mother, and sewed into his fathers 
 thigh, till the full time of his nativity. When 
 he was born, Jupiter delivered him to Mercu- 
 ry, to be carried into Euboea, to Macris, daugh- 
 ter of Aristhaeus, A\ ho first anointed the lips of 
 the infant with honey, and brought him up 
 with great care, in a cave having two gates. 
 
 Bacchus invented so many things useful to 
 mankind, either in finishing controversies, 
 building cities, enacting laws, or obtaining 
 victories, that therefore he was admitted into 
 the council of the gods by the joint suffrages 
 of the whole world. Yea, even his priestess- 
 es, by striking the earth with their thyrsi, 
 drew forth rivers of milk, honey and wine, and 
 w rought several other miracles by the power of 
 that god. He first invented the use of wine, 
 ami taught the art of planting the vine, the 
 
 
HEATHEN GODS. 
 
 103 
 
 method of making honey, and tilling the 
 ground. When he was king of Phoenicia, he 
 first discovered to his subjects the manner of 
 traffic and navigation. He reduced men, wand- 
 ering after the manner of beasts, into society 
 and union, brought them over to religion, and 
 the knowledge of the gods, and excelled in the 
 mystery of prophesying. 
 
 He subdued India, Egypt, Syria, Phrygia, 
 and all the East, and there erected pillars as 
 Hercules did in the West. He rode upon an 
 elephant, and first invented triumphs and 
 crowns for kings. 
 
 Bacchus, willing to oblige Midas, king of 
 Phrygia, by some favor, because he had often 
 deserved well of him, bid him ask at large, and 
 promised that he should be master of his high- 
 est wish. The king immediately requested, 
 that whatever he should touch might be turned 
 into gold. The god was sorry, yet consented. 
 Midas soon perceived, that he had sought a 
 boon very destructive and dangerous to him- 
 self ; for being to take meat and drink, he 
 found that they also became gold, and that 
 therefore he must perish by hunger and thirst 
 Now repenting of his folly, and praying that 
 the dear bought gift might be recalled, the god, 
 being moved with compassion, ordered him to 
 bathe in the river Pactolus, of Lydia, and from 
 thence the sand of that river became gold. 
 
 In the sacred rites of Bacchus, there are 
 three things to be considered ; the things that 
 are offered, the priests, and, the sacrifices them- 
 
104 
 
 HEATHEN GOBS, 
 
 selves, which are celebrated with peculiar cer 
 emonies. Of plants and trees were consecra- 
 ted to him, bindweed, the fir, the ivy, the fig 
 and the vine : Of animals, the dragon, and the 
 pye, signifying the talkativeness of drunkards : 
 The goat was offered, being a creature de- 
 structive to the vines ; and, among the Egyp- 
 tians, they killed a swine to his honor before 
 their doors. The Satyrs, the Sileni, the Nai- 
 ades, but especially the women, called Bacchee 
 from himself, presided over the holy mysteries. 
 
 The sacrifices were various, according to 
 the variety of nations and places, and celebrat- 
 ed with different ceremonies, on stated days, 
 with the greatest religion, or rather the rankest 
 profaneness and impiety. 
 
 Oscophoria were first instituted by the Phoe- 
 nicians, when boys, carrying vine leaves in 
 their hands, went praying from the temple of 
 Bacchus to the chapel of Pallas. 
 
 Trieterica were acted in the winter, and by 
 night ; when the Bacchae, wandering about 
 armed, predicted things to come. 
 
 Epilensea, were games in the time of the 
 vintage; when they contended at treading the 
 grapes, and singing, all the while, the praises 
 of Bacchus. 
 
 Canephoria, among the ancient Athenians, 
 were performed by marriageable virgins, car- 
 rying golden baskets filled with the first fruits 
 of the year. 
 
 Apaturia were feasts in honor of Bacchus, 
 setting forth, how greatly men are deceived by 
 wine. 
 
JUE^HBN GODS. 105 
 
 Ambrosia were observed in January ; be» 
 cause that month was sacred to this god. 
 
 Ascalia were so catted from a Greek word 
 signifying bottles ; many whereof they filled 
 with wind, or with wine, and leaping upon 
 them with one foot, they thought that they did 
 great honor to Bacchus, because they thus 
 trampled upon the skin of the goat, who is the 
 greatest enemy to the vines. 
 
 Lastly, the Bacchanalia, or Byonysia, or 
 Orgia, were feasts among the Romans, solem- 
 nized in February, at midday, at first by wo- 
 men only ; but afterwards by men also, by 
 boys and girls, who left no sort of lewdnesg 
 and debauchery uncommitted ; for upon this 
 occasion, rapes, whoredoms, poison, murder, 
 and such abominable impieties were promoted 
 under a pretence of religion, till, by an edict of 
 the senate, these destructive festivals were ab- 
 rogated. 
 
 As to the historical sense of the fable ; some 
 by Bacchus understand Nimrod, not only from 
 the similitude of their names and epithets, but 
 because he may be said, not improperly, to 
 preside over the vines, seeing he was the first 
 king of Babylon, where were the most excel- 
 lent wines, celebrated among the ancients. 
 
 Others think, that Bacchus was Moses ; be- 
 cause many things in the fable of the one, 
 seem derived from the history of the other. 
 For the god was supposed to have been bom 
 in Egypt, presently shut up in an ark, and 
 thrown upon the waters, as was aho Moses, 
 
106 
 
 HEATHEN GODS. 
 
 His sirname Bi mater may be ascribed to the 
 prophet, who had one m oiher by nature, anoth- 
 er by adoption, namely, the daughter of king 
 Pharaoh. 
 
 Both were remarkable for beauty, educated 
 in Arabia, famous in war, and had women in 
 their armies. Orpheus stiles Bacchus a law- 
 giver, calls him Moses, and attributes to him 
 the two tables of the law. And as Bacchus 
 was represented double horned, so the face of 
 Moses appeared, from what time he spoke with 
 God in the mountain : His head seemed to 
 shine with rays of glory darting from his brow, 
 as if they were horns. 
 
 As the Bacchas brought water from a rock, 
 by striking it with the thyrsus, and opened 
 whole rivers of milk, wine and honey, where- 
 soever they went ; so the land of Canaan, to 
 which Moses brought the Israelites, flowed not 
 only with milk and honey, but wine also, as 
 appears from that noble vine branch cut off 
 with its grapes, which two men carried upon a 
 staff. Bacchus passed through the rivers Oron- 
 tes and Hydaspes, which were dried up, being 
 touched by his thyrsus ; as was done by Moses 
 in the Red Sea. 
 
 It is also said, that an ivy stick, thrown 
 down by one of the Bacchse upon the ground, 
 crept like a dragon, and twisted itself about an 
 oak. And lastly, that the Indians were once 
 covered with darkness, whilst those Bacchae 
 enjoyed a perfect day. From which we may 
 collect, that the anaient inventors of fables 
 
 J 
 
HEATHEN GODS* 107 
 
 iiave borrowed many things from the Holy 
 Scriptures, to patch up their conceits. 
 
 The moral sense of the fable shews w ine and 
 its effects. Jupiter, limping with Bacchus 
 sewed in his thigh, resembles a man burdened 
 and overcome with drunkenness, who not only 
 halts, but reels and stumbles, and madly rushes 
 wherever the force of the wine carries him. 
 As he was born amidst thunder and lightning ; 
 so wine often produces quarrels, violence, 
 noise and confusion. He is an eternal boy : 
 And indeed old men themselves become boys 
 again by too much wine ; for excess takes from 
 those, who too freely indulge in drinking, the 
 use of reason, by which men are distinguished 
 from children. 
 
 He is naked ; because the drunkard cannot 
 conceal or hide any thing. There is truth in 
 wine ; for it opens the secrets of the mind and 
 body too. By his horns is signified, that wine 
 not only dispels cares and troubles, but also 
 makes even the meanest bold, insolent and 
 fierce. 
 
 He is crow ned w r ith ivy ; because that plant 
 always green and flourishing, by its natural 
 coolness, assuages the heat occasioned by 
 drunkenness. 
 
 Women commonly celebrated the sacrifices 
 of Bacchus, and those enraged, intoxicated, 
 and abandoned to ail wickedness. Accord- 
 ingiy wine effeminates minds the most mascu- 
 line, and disposes them to luxury : It begets 
 anger* stirs up men to madness ; and therefore 
 
108 
 
 HEATHEN GODS. 
 
 tigers and lions draw the chariot of that god. 
 
 The Bacchanalia were celebrated by per- 
 sons masked ; for wine introduces the figures, 
 as w ell as manners of wild beasts, changing 
 one into a lion, another into a bear, this into a 
 swine, that into an ass. 
 
 Bacchus is sometimes merry, and sometimes 
 morose and sad ; for nothing so much cherish- 
 es the heart of man as wine: Nothing more 
 delightfully refreshes the spirits and mihd, than 
 that natural nectar, which being moderately 
 taken, all our griefs and cares fly away, and 
 unusual cheerfulness appears in the counten- 
 ance. Whereas excess of wine causeth sad- 
 ness, for though it is the cradle of Life, yet it 
 is also the grave of Reason : So that when the 
 body is drowned in liquor, the mind floats, or 
 else is stranded. 
 
 Drunkenness weakens every member ; it 
 blinds the sight, and especially then, when it 
 draws little stars from the eyes: It makes the 
 head to totter, the hams to sink, the feet to fail, 
 the hands to tremble, the mouth to froth, the 
 eyes to sparkle and water, the faultering tongue 
 to attempt unintelligible words, and the throat 
 to send forth a most loathsome stench. 
 
 chapter xv. 
 
 JESCULA PIUS. 
 
 jESCULAPIUS was the son of Apollo by 
 the nymph Coroais, and was accounted the 
 
jWBMMnmMMBwaoitiimwiim^ 
 
HEATHEN GODS. 
 
 110 
 
 god of the physicians, because he had muck 
 improved physic. Be appears to be a beard- 
 ed old man, leaning on a jointed cane, adorn- 
 ed with a laurel crown, and encompassed with 
 dogs. 
 
 Apollo shot the nymph his mother with an 
 arrow, because she suffered herself to be de- 
 bauched by another young man ; but soon re- 
 penting of the act, having opened her belly, he 
 took out the child alive, and delivered him to 
 Chiron, a physician, to be educated, who 
 taught him his own art. 
 
 The youth so excelled in medicine, that, be- 
 cause he restored health to the sick, and safety 
 to those who were despaired of, he was thought 
 to recal the dead to life again. Whereupon 
 Pluto, the king of hell, complained to Jupiter, 
 that his revenue was diminished, and his sub- 
 jects taken away : At length he obtained that 
 Jupiter, by a stroke of his thunder, killed i£s- 
 Gulapius. 
 
 He wears a crown of laurel, because that 
 tree is powerful in curing many diseases. lie 
 holds a knotted staff in his hand, to signify the 
 difficulty of the art of physic. He had dogs 
 painted about him, and dogs were also placed 
 in his temple ; because it was believed by ma- 
 ny, that being born of uncertain parents, he 
 was exposed, and afterwards nourished by a 
 bitch. Others say, that a goat, which a dog 
 pursued, gave suck to the forsaken infant; that 
 a lambent flame was seen by the shepherds to 
 piay about his temples, which was the prog- 
 
HEATHEN GODS. Ill 
 
 nostication of his future divinity; and that in 
 his sacrifices, among the Cyrenians, a she goat 
 used to be offered ; either because he was nour- 
 ished by such, or because that animal seems to 
 be contrary to health, seeing it is said to labor 
 with a continual fever. 
 
 Plato says, that they used to sacrifice to him 
 dunghill cocks, which are the most vigilant of 
 all birds; for of all virtues, principally wake- 
 fulness is necessary to a physician. 
 
 This god was worshipped first at Epidaurus, 
 where he was born ; afterwards at Rome, whith- 
 er being sent for, he delivered the city from a 
 dreadful pestilence. Wherefore a temple was 
 dedicated to him in an island of the Tiber, 
 where they paid divine honors to him, under 
 the form of a great serpent. For when the Ro- 
 mans came to Epidaurus, to transport this deity 
 from thence, a great serpent twined himself 
 into their ship, which they supposing to be 7Es- 
 culapius, brought to Rome with them. Others 
 say, that the Romans, being kindly received 
 by the Epidaurians, were brought into the tem- 
 ple of iEsculapius, and that the serpent under 
 whose image they worshipped that god, volun- 
 tarily entered into the ship of the Romans. 
 His two sons, Machaon and Podalirius, both 
 famous in the art of physic, followed Agamem- 
 non, the general of the Grecians, and did no 
 small service to his fellow soldiers at Troy. 
 His daughters were called Hygisea and Iaso. 
 
 Chiron the Centaur, the son of Saturn and 
 Phiilyra, was his master* When Saturn em- 
 
112 
 
 HEATHEN GODS. 
 
 braced that nymph, being surprised at the com- 
 ing of his wife Ops, he suddenly changed him- 
 self into a horse. Phillyra, being with child 
 by him, brought forth a creature, whose upper 
 part resembled a man, and the lower a horse, 
 called Chiron ; who, when he grew up, betook 
 himself to the woods ; and there learning the 
 virtues of herbs, he became a most excellent 
 physician, and so excelled, by the commenda- 
 tion of his other accomplishments, that he was 
 appointed Achilles’ tutor, and taught iEscula- 
 pius physic. At last, when he handled Her- 
 cules’s arrows, one of them, dipped in the blood 
 of the Lernseon Hydra, accidentally fell on 
 his foot, which gave him a wound incurable, 
 and pains intolerable ; insomuch, that he de- 
 sired to die, but could not, because he was 
 bom of parents, each of which was immor- 
 tal. At length, by the pity of the gods, he 
 was translated into heaven, w here he makes 
 fee sign of Sagittarius in the Zodiac. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 ROMULUS. 
 
 THE Greeks, who were well acquainted 
 with the obscurity and uncertainty in which 
 the history of all ancient cities is involved, 
 claimed the honor of being the founders of as 
 many as possible of them. They claimed their 
 own descent from the Pelasgi, an ancient and 
 mighty people of Scythia f and they reported 
 
HEATHEN GODS* 
 
 113 
 
 that the Pelasgi were also the founders of 
 Rome. When that city was taken and sacked 
 fey Brennus, the Gaul, the report of this event 
 extended to Greece ; and Heraclides, of Pon* 
 tus, speaking of it in his treatise “ concerning 
 the soul,” relates that an account was brought 
 from the West, that an army from the country 
 of the Hyperboreans (so the Greeks called the 
 Europeans who lived in the northern, and even 
 the Trans Alpine parts of Europe) had taken 
 a Grecian city called Rome, situated somewhere 
 near the Great Sea . This was the title the 
 Greeks gave to the Mediterranean. 
 
 But the Romans themselves held that this 
 Grecian account of the origin of Rome, was 
 fabulous ; and they supplanted it by, perhaps, 
 another fable. Indeed they had several fabu- 
 lous stories of their founder of Rome; but that 
 which obtained the most credit was, that Amu- 
 lius having fraudulently obtained the kingdom 
 of Alba from his brother Numitor ; in order to 
 prevent any claim to the throne through the 
 only daughter of Numitor, he made her a 
 priestess of Vesta, in which office she was to 
 live a life of the strictest chastity and virtue. 
 But the god Mars found means to have some 
 intercourse with her; and in due course of 
 time the marks of the amour became sufficient- 
 ly visible. The mode of punishing the viola- 
 tion of their chastity by the vestal virgins, was 
 to bury them alive in the earth ; but, as a very 
 strong friendship existed between the daught- 
 ers of Numitor and Amaliu^ the daughter ©f 
 •' 52 
 
114 HEATHEN G02>S. 
 
 the latter prevailed on her father to spare the 
 offending vestal from the punishment allotted 
 to her crime ; and in due time she was deliv- 
 ered of two sons of extraordinary size and 
 beauty. They proved a new cause of alarm to 
 Amulius, and he determined to have them de- 
 stroyed ; and, by his directions, one of his ser- 
 wants deposited them on the banks of the Ti- 
 ber, in a cradle, or trough, in which the river 
 carried them down to a place called Cerma- 
 Hum, where they drifted ashore, and were 
 suckled by a she wolf, and fed by a woodpeck- 
 er; in consequence whereof the wolf and the 
 woodpecker were dedicated and sacred to the 
 god Mars. But some say that the daughter of 
 jVumitor was deflowered by Amulius himself, 
 who went to her in complete armor ; and she 
 reported it was Mars. They also say that the 
 children were suckled by a prostitute, who was 
 married to Faustulus, their foster father, and 
 whose name was Acca Larentia. But as the 
 Latins called prostitutes by the name of Lupce y 
 thence arose the fable that these children were 
 suckled by a wolf. But, whatever she was, 
 the Romans honored her with sacrifices. 
 
 The Faustulus, here mentioned, was herds- 
 man to Amulius; but he brought up the child- 
 ren undiscovered by him. Some assert that 
 Numitor had knowledge of the circumstance, 
 and supplied the means for their subsistence. 
 They were called Romulus and Remus, from 
 the teat of the wild animal they were said to 
 tuck. They were instructed in letters and 
 
flEATHEST CotiB ll§ 
 
 oilier suitable branches of education by the 
 Gabii, and made very great progress in all the 
 studies which were common in that age. They 
 applied themselves to generous exercises and 
 pursuits, in hunting, running, and, like Hercu- 
 les and Theseus, in apprehending of robbers, 
 delivering such as were oppressed by violence, 
 and in other virtuous and honorable pursuits; 
 by which things they acquired renown. 
 
 After a violent dispute the herdsmen of N if- 
 ini lor drove away some of the cattle of Amu- 
 lias ; but Romulus and Remus fell upon the 
 conquerors, and recovered the greatest part of 
 the booty. In consequence of this affair, Re- 
 mus was given up to Numitor to be punished f 
 and the birth of the young men being discov- 
 ered, they assaulted Amulius and put him la 
 death. After this they placed Numitor, their 
 grandfather, on the throne of Alba ; and paid 
 due honor to I ilia their mother. From Alba, 
 Romulus and Remus removed down the Tiber, 
 with a view to build a new city ; and they 
 pitched upon the spot where Rome now stands. 
 But falling out about the best situation, Remus 
 preferring the Aventine Mount to the spot 
 marked out by Romulus on the Palatine Mount, 
 an affray commenced, in which Remus wa& 
 slain by Romulus, or some of his party; and 
 Romulus became the sole founder of Rome. 
 
 There resorted to Romulus in his new city, 
 a number of outlaws, and disorderly persons* 
 from various parts of Italy ; and they being 
 Without wives, the rape of the Sabine virgins 
 
1.16 
 
 HEATHEN GODS. 
 
 was committed, by which they procured six 
 hundred and eighty three virgins. The Sa- 
 bines were descended from the Lacedaemoni- 
 ans ; they were a bold, numerous and warlike 
 people, living in unwalled towns. They sent 
 ambassadors to Romulus, to demand their 
 daughters ; and Acron, king of the Cercinen- 
 sians, advanced to chastise this insolence. But 
 Romulus overcame Acron in single combat ; 
 defeated his army ; took his city, and removed 
 the inhabitants to Rome. He next defeated 
 the people of Fidense, Crustumenium, and An- 
 ternnee, and removed them to his new city; 
 dividing their lands among the citizens. The 
 rest of the Sabines, under Tatius, carried the 
 war to the gates of Rome. They entered the 
 city, and the garrison on the hill, afterward 
 called Capitoline, was betrayed to them by 
 Tarpeia. Many battles were fought by the 
 two parties, and the war was at length ended 
 by the Sabine women, who rushed between the 
 two parties as they were about to renew the 
 combat, and persuaded them to a peace ; and 
 the rest of the Sabines removed to Rome. 
 Romulus conquered the Fidenates, and over- 
 threw the Veientes in two battles; in one of 
 which some pretend he slew more than seven 
 thousand in one day with his own hand. The 
 remainder of the V eientes were incorporated 
 with the Romans. 
 
 After this, Romulus restored the captives to 
 the Veientes, of his own will, without the con- 
 sent of the senate* whereat the senators we.re 
 
heathen gods. 117 
 
 much displeased ; and soon after Romulus dis- 
 appeared. Various accounts have been given 
 of his death. That which the Romans thought 
 fit to have believed, was, that in an assembly 
 of the people without the city, it became dark 
 and tempestuous ; Romulus disappeared in the 
 hurricane, and he was carried up to heaven. 
 Orders were given to honor and worship him as 
 a god, who was thus caught up to heaven. The 
 common people believed he would be a benefi- 
 cent deity. Some doubts and uneasiness, it is 
 true, remained; but they were cleared up by 
 Julius Proculus, a friend of Romulus, who ac- 
 companied him from Alba. He went into the 
 forum and made oath, that as he was travelling 
 he met Romulus in a form more noble and au- 
 gust than ever, and clad in bright and dazzling 
 armor. Romulus informed him that it had 
 pleased the gods to allow him to dwell with 
 men for some time ; but that as he had found- 
 ed them a city, he had returned to heaven from 
 whence he came. He gave directions that the 
 Romans should worship him under the title of 
 the god Quirinus ; with which they religiously 
 complied ; and they believed he had been car- 
 ried up to heaven in the chariot of his father 
 Mars, the god of war. 
 
HEATHEN GOBS, 
 
 ■119 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 CASTOR AND POLLUX . 
 
 CASTOR and Pollux were twin brothers,, 
 sons of Jupiter and Leda, wife of Tyndarus, 
 king of Laconia. Jupiter loved her, but could 
 not succeed in his amour, till being changed 
 into a swan, he gained her mutual affection by 
 the sweetness of his singing; and flying into 
 her bosom, as it were into an assylum, to es- 
 cape the violence of an eagle pursuing him, he 
 abused her, though already pregnant by her 
 husband. From this embrace she afterwards 
 brought forth two eggs, which, being hatched* 
 produced these brothers, and two sisters also : 
 From the one egg sprung Pollux and Helena, 
 of divine seed ; from the other Castor and 
 Clyteemnestra, begotten by the mortal father. 
 Both the brothers w r ent with Jason to Colchis ; 
 w hence having returned, they recovered their 
 sister Helena, whom Theseus had stolen, by 
 subduing the Athenians, who fought for him. 
 Their clemency and humanity towards that 
 conquered people w^as so great, that they offer- 
 ed white lambs upon their altars. When Cas- 
 tor, as being mortal, was killed by Linceus, 
 Pollux prayed that Jupiter would restore him 
 to life, and confer immortality upon him ; 
 which when he could not obtain, yet leave 
 was granted, that he should share his own with 
 his brother ; so that afterwards they lived by 
 turns, and at length were both translated int# 
 
120 
 
 HEATHEN GODS. 
 
 heaven, and changed into stars, now called 
 Gemini. These were esteemed lucky and 
 prosperous to mariners, because formerly, when 
 a violent tempest seized the Argonauts, two 
 lambent flames seemed to settle upon the heads 
 of Castor and Pollux, and a wonderful calm im- 
 mediately ensued; whence it was believed, 
 that something more than human was in these 
 youths : But if only one flame appeared, which 
 they called Helena, it portended certain de- 
 struction to sailors. 
 
 A famous temple was dedicated to Castor 
 and Pollux, in the Forum at Rome ; because 
 in the dangerous battle with the Latins, it was 
 believed that they, riding on white horses, as- 
 sisted the Romans. 
 
 Clytsemnestre, who was the sister of Castor, 
 and daughter of Tyndarus, afterwards was mar- 
 ried to Agamemnon, whom, being returned 
 from the siege of Troy, she killed, by the help 
 of iEgistheus, her gallant, designing the same 
 fate to her son Orestes, but that his sister Plec- 
 tra delivered him from certain destruction, 
 sending him privately to Strophius, king of the 
 Phoceuses. Having stayed there twelve years, 
 he returned into his native country, and slew 
 Clytsemnestra and iEgistheus her adulterer. 
 
 He killed Pyrrhus also in the' temple of Apol- 
 lo, because he had carried away Hermione, the 
 daughter of Menelaus, formerly betrothed to 
 him. 
 
 For these crimes he was tormented by 
 Furies, and could not be freed from them, till 
 
HEATHEN GODS* 
 
 121 
 
 lie had expiated his wickedness at the altar of 
 Diana Taurica, whither he was conducted by 
 Pylades, his friend, perpetual companion, and 
 the partner of all his dangers, with whom he 
 cultivated a friendship so strictly, that the one 
 did not refuse to die for the other. 
 
 Diana Taurica was worshipped in Taurica 
 Chersonesus, a peninsula, so called from the 
 Tauri, a people of Scythia Europtea. This 
 goddess was worshipped with human victims. 
 At that time, when Orestes was brought into 
 her temple, Iphigenia his sister, the daughter 
 of Agamemnon, was priestess. She was made 
 upon the following occasion: Agamemnon, 
 king of the Argivi, by the common consent of 
 all Greece, was appointed general in the expe- 
 dition against Troy. 
 
 By chance, in Aulis he killed a deer be- 
 longing to Diana ; whereupon the Goddess be- 
 ing enraged, caused a calm, very prejudicial to 
 the Grecians sailing to Troy, so that their ships 
 stood fixed and immoveable. The soothsay- 
 ers, being consulted, answered, that the winds 
 and Diana are to be satisfied, with the blood of 
 Agamemnon, or some of his family. Where- 
 fore Ulysses was forthwith sent to bring away 
 Iphigenia, the daughter of Agamemnon, from 
 her mother, by a trick, pretending that she was 
 to be married to Achilles. Whilst she is pla- 
 ced at the altar to be sacrificed, the goddess, 
 pitying her, substituted a hind for her, and sent 
 the virgin into Taurica Chersonesus; where, 
 by the order of king Thoas, she presided over 
 
 L 
 
122 
 
 HEATHEN GODS, 
 
 the sacrifices of that goddess, which used to be 
 solemnized with human blood. And when Ce- 
 lestes was brought thither by the inhabitants 
 to be sacrificed, he was known and preserved 
 by his sister. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 SATURN. 
 
 THE following heathen deities have not 
 been regularly classed by the mythologists ; 
 therefore we shall arrange them according to 
 the rank they held in the estimation of their 
 votaries. 
 
 Saturn was painted a decrepid, wrinkled old 
 man, with a long beard, and hoary head : His 
 shoulders are bowed into an arch; his jaws dry 
 and hollow; his eyes full of corruption; his 
 cheeks sunk ; his nose flat ; his forehead fur- 
 rowed ; his chin turning up ; his lips black and 
 blue ; his little ears flagging, and his hands 
 crooked. In his right hand he holds a rusty 
 scythe, and in his left a serpent, biting its own 
 tail. 
 
 Saturn was the son of Terra, or Vesta, and 
 Coeium, Coelus or Ccelius, w ho was the offspring 
 of iEther and Dies, and the most ancient of all 
 the Gods. 
 
 This Coeium married his own daughter Vesta, 
 and begat of her many children ; the most em- 
 inent ©f which was Saturn, whose brothers were 
 
124 
 
 HEATHEN GODS. 
 
 the Cyclops, Oceanus, Titan, the hundred 
 handed Giants, and divers others : His sisters 
 were Ceres Tethys, and Ops, or Rhea, whom 
 afterwards he had to wife. These sisters per- 
 suaded their mother Vesta, that she should 
 exclude Titan or Titanus, the eldest son, and 
 that the kingdom should be devolved upon Sat- 
 urn, though it belonged to his brother by he- 
 reditary nght. 
 
 When Titan saw his mother and sister zeal- 
 ous for his brother, thinking fit to yield to the 
 time, he quitted his right, and transferred it to 
 Saturn, upon this condition, that he should 
 bring up no male child, and that after his death* 
 the kingdom should return to Titan’s posterity. 
 
 Saturn not only accepted the condition, but 
 kept it with strict fidelity, whilst he could, but 
 at last his design was prevented ; for when his 
 wife Ops perceived that he devoured all the 
 male children, having brought forth Jupiter and 
 Juno at one birth, she offered the daughter to 
 him, but sent away the son Jupiter to be nurs- 
 ed privately in Mount Ida, by the Curetes and 
 Corvbantes. priests of Cybele, who used to 
 make a noise with drums and cymbals, that the 
 crying of the infant might not be heard by Sat- 
 urn. By the same trick she saved Neptune 
 and Pluto from her devouring husband. 
 
 This artifice of Ops being discovered, Sat- 
 urn demanded the boy of her : But she gave 
 him a stone wrapped up in swaddling clothes 
 for Jupiter, which he swallow ed down instantly. 
 
 Meanwhile Titan, finding himself cheated. 
 
MAT HEN GODS. 
 
 125 
 
 and the agreement broken ; to revenge the in- 
 jury. raised forces, made war against Saturn, 
 took both him and Rhea, and sent them bound 
 down to hell; till some years after, Jupiter, 
 having conquered the Titans in war, set his 
 father and mother at liberty. 
 
 But though Saturn ought to have been mind- 
 ful of this kindness, and to have favoured Ju- 
 piter for the future, yet he laid snares for him ; 
 because he had learned from the oracle, that 
 he should be driven out of his kingdom by his 
 own son ; which accordingly happened. For 
 Jupiter deposed him from his throne, expelled 
 him the kingdom, and, besides, when he saw 
 him drunk with mead, he bound and castrated 
 him, as he had before served his father Cesium, 
 with his sickle. 
 
 Saturn, having left his kingdom, went into 
 Italy, which was heretofore called Saturnina 
 from him, and there lived with king Janus ; ah 
 
 that part of Italy, which he inhabited, and 
 in which he lay hid, was called Latium. 
 
 Here Saturn, being taken by Janus into a 
 ishare of the kingdom, reduced the wild people, 
 wandering up and down after the manner of 
 beasts, to civil society, and joined them as it 
 were with brazen chains, that is, by brass mon« 
 «y, which he invented ; and therefore, on the 
 one side of the money was stamped the ship 
 in which Saturn was brought to Italy, and on 
 the other, Janus Bifrons. But although the 
 money was brass, this was called the Golden 
 Age ; and the poets would persuade their cted- 
 J2 2 
 
126 
 
 HEATHEN GODS. 
 
 ulous posterity, that the earth without any cul- 
 ture, brought forth the fruits, and that all things 
 were common ; that there were no differences 
 nor contentions among mortals ; for all things 
 happened according to every one’s mind. 
 
 They sacrificed to Saturn with human 
 blood ; and therefore gladiators were placed 
 under his protection and were employed in his 
 feasts. They had their heads bare, in the time 
 of the sacrifice, and the priests were dressed in 
 scarlet garments. His altar shone with waxen 
 tapers lighted ; because by Saturn they were 
 reduced from the darkness of error to the light 
 of truth. 
 
 The feasts, called Saturnalia, w r ere instituted 
 by Tullus, king of the Romans, or, if we be- 
 lieve Livy, by Sempronius and Minutius the 
 
 consuls. 
 
 Till the time of Julius Caesar, they were 
 finished in one day, to wit, on the fourteenth 
 of the Calends of December : For then they 
 began to be celebrated in three days, and af- 
 terwards in four or five, by order of Caligula ; 
 some write, that they have been lengthened out 
 to the seventh day. Upon these festival days, 
 the senate did not tit ; the schools kept holy 
 day ; presents were sent to and fro amongst 
 friends ; it was unlawful to proclaim war, and 
 to inflict punishments on the guilty. It was 
 allowed to servants to sport with their masters* 
 Yea, the masters waited on the servants sitting 
 at table, in memory of that liberty, which all 
 enjoyed in the reign of Saturn, when there 
 
HEATHEN GOBS, 
 
 32 ? 
 
 was no servitude. Contrary to custom they 
 washed in the morning immediately after they 
 rose out of bed, as if they were to go to table. 
 And lastly. They used a festival garment, cal- 
 led Synthesis, of a purple or scarlet color, 
 which was the dress of the men of higher dis- 
 tinction. 
 
 Some say, that Saturn was Nimrod, the foun- 
 der of the Babylonian empire ; yet it is more 
 probable that he was Noah. 
 
 The physical sense of the fable is, that by 
 Saturn is signified time, which devours all 
 things, as Saturn does his own children. And 
 as he is said to vomit them up again, so time 
 constantly swallows up days, months and years, 
 and produces them anew. Be is not improp- 
 erly said to have been the son of Coelum or 
 heaven, for the motions of the heavens are the 
 measures of time. His altars were always a- 
 dorned with abundance of wax tapers, to show, 
 that he brought men from the darkness of error 
 to the light of truth. Lastly, as Saturn carries 
 a scythe, so time is painted, mowing down all 
 things with his. 
 
^HEATHEN GODS. 
 
 129 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 PAN. 
 
 PAN is the god of the woods, and had this 
 name, either because he was the son of Penel* 
 ope from the embraces of all her wooers, or be- 
 cause he exhilarated the minds of all the gods 
 with the music of the pipe, which he invented, 
 and by the harmony of the cittern, upon which 
 he played skilfully, as soon as he was born : 
 Or, perhaps, he is called Pan, because he gov- 
 erns the affairs of the universal world by his 
 mind, as he represents it by his body. He 
 was worshipped at Rome, where he had a tem- 
 ple buiU at the foot of the Palatine Hill ; his 
 feasts were called Lupercalia, and his priests 
 Luperci. His descent is uncertain ; but the 
 common opinion is, that he was born of Mercu- 
 ry and Penelope. For Mercury, loving her, 
 and not being able to move her to his wishes, 
 at last changed himself into a very white goat, 
 obtained his desire, and begat Pan of her, when 
 she kept the sheep of her father Icarus, in the 
 mountain Taygetus. Pan, after his birth, was 
 lapped up in the skin of a hare, and carried in- 
 to heaven. 
 
 He is described half a goat, and horned, 
 crowned with pine leaves, with a smiling and 
 ruddy face, the feet and tail of a goat, and dres- 
 sed in a spotted skin : He holds a crooked staff 
 In one hand, and in the other a pipe composed 
 
130 HEATHEN GOBS. 
 
 of uneven reeds, with the music of which, he 
 can cheer even the gods themselves. 
 
 Pan is a symbol of the universal world : In 
 his upper part he resembles a man, because the 
 superior and celestial part of the w orld is beau- 
 tiful, radiant and glorious, as the face of this 
 god, whose redness is like the splendor of the 
 sky ; and his spotted skin is an image of the 
 starry firmament. In his lower parts he is 
 shagged and deformed, which represents the 
 shrubs, wild beasts, and trees of the earth : His 
 pipe of seven reeds signify the harmony of the 
 seven planets. 
 
 They say, that when Pan blows his pipe, 
 the nymphs dance round him, and the dugs of 
 the sheep are filled with milk ; for he is the 
 god of the shepherds and hunters, the captain 
 of the nymphs, the president of the mountains, 
 and of a country life, and the guardian of the 
 flocks, that graze upon the mountains. 
 
 Although his aspect is very deformed, yet 
 being changed into a white ram, he gratified 
 the moon : The nymph Echo also, becoming 
 pregnant by him, brought forth a daughter cal- 
 led Irioges, who gave Medea the medicines, 
 wherewith she charmed Jason. He could not 
 but please Dry ope, when he laid aside his di- 
 vinity, and made himself a shepherd for her 
 sake. 
 
 But he could not court the nymph Syrinx, 
 with such success : For when she ran aw ay, 
 that she might avoid so filthy a lover, she came 
 to a river, by which being stopped, she there 
 
HEATHEN GODS. 
 
 131 
 
 begged the Naiades, because she could not es- 
 cape the pursuing god, that they would change 
 her into reeds ; which being granted, Pan of 
 them made a pipe, which was called Syrinx, 
 from the name of the nymph. In the sacrifi- 
 ces of this god, they offered milk and honey m 
 shepherds 1 bottles. 
 
 He was worshipped chiefly in Arcadia, 
 whence he is often stiled the god of that coun- 
 try. 
 

HEATHEN GODS. 
 
 133 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 JANUS. 
 
 JANUS was the son of Coelus and Heeate, 
 having a double face and forehead, in one and 
 the same head ; hence he is called the two fa- 
 ced god ; and therefore he sees the things pla- 
 ced behind his back, as well as before his face. 
 In his right hand he holds a key, and in hie 
 left a rod; and beneath his feet are twelve al- 
 tars. Pliny says, that his statue which was 
 setup by Numa, had its fingers so composed* 
 as to signify the number of 365 days. He had 
 a rod, because he was guardian of the ways. 
 He was inventor of locks, doors and gates, all 
 which were under his protection, and therefore 
 he held a key ; or because he opens the gates* 
 through which the prayers of mortals are con- 
 veyed to the ears of the gods ; which was the 
 cause why, in the sacrifices of the other gods* 
 prayers were made to him first. He is also 
 said to open the year, of which the first month 
 derives its name from him. The twelve altar# 
 dedicated to him signify the twelve months ; 
 and the number, which he reckoned by the 
 bending of his fingers, equal the days of the 
 year. 
 
 He had several temples built and dedicated 
 to him, some of which had double doors, other# 
 four gates ; because he sometimes was repre* 
 sented with four faces, denoting the four qu«T^ 
 tgrs of the year. 
 
HEATHEN GODS* 
 
 134 
 
 It was a custom among the Romans* that, in 
 Ms temple the consuls were inaugurated, and 
 from thence said to open the year on the Ka- 
 lends of January, when a new laurel, instead 
 of the old, was put on the statue of that god. 
 The temple of Janus was opened in time of 
 war, and shut in time of peace ; and it is won- 
 derful, that, within the space of seven hundred 
 years, this was shut only thrice; once by Nu- 
 ma ; afterwards by the consuls Marcus Attilius, 
 and Titus Manlius, after a league struck up 
 with the Carthagenians ; and lastly, by Au- 
 gustus, after the victory at Actium. 
 
 Some say, that Janus was Noah, others, 
 Ogyges, others a priest, philosopher and a di- 
 vine; and some assert, that he was the most 
 ancient king of Italy, and founder of the town 
 Janiculum. 
 
 Janus is an emblem of a man of singular pru- 
 dence, which consists in the remembrance of 
 things past, and in the foresight of things to 
 come. 
 
 The prudent man ought to have as it were 
 two faces ; that by his natural sagacity of mind, 
 and ripeness of judgment, having observed both 
 past and future things, he may be able to dis- 
 cern the causes and beginning of things ; he 
 may perceive their progresses, and even the 
 forerunning accidents of all things ; that he may 
 make comparisons, observe consequences ; and 
 by a wise connexion of causes and events, be 
 able to join things present with past and future ; 
 so that he may judge right, and act prudently. 
 
HEATHEN GODS. 
 
 135 
 
 The prudent man has the key of all things $ 
 for nothing is so obscure, that his understand- 
 ing cannot comprehend ; nothing is so secret 
 and private, that his consideration and care 
 cannot detect and lay open ; nothing so Hrd 
 and intricate, that, by his quickness and lex- 
 terity, he cannot explain and unfold. 
 
 By this key of judgment, he examines all 
 the ways of business, and finds out the fittest 
 of them ; he sees the disposition of times, and 
 exigences of affairs ; he removes difficulties* 
 publishes the things useful, and conceals the 
 hurtful : He opens for himself a passage into 
 the friendship of others ; he insinuates himself 
 into the inward recesses of their hearts, learns 
 their secret counsels, resolves mysteries, pen- 
 etrates things unknown, and seeks, finds and 
 views, objects the most remote from the com- 
 mon sense of the world. 
 
 Janus first instituted altars, temples and sac- 
 rifices. For it is a sign of the highest pru- 
 dence to pay due honors to the Supreme Deity* 
 to reverence his power, to propagate his wor- 
 ship* and magnify his glory. 
 
 chapter xxr. 
 
 PHOEBUS , OR THE SUN . 
 
 THE Sun, which illuminates all things, is 
 called Sol* either because he is the only star of 
 
136 
 
 HEATHEN GODS. 
 
 considerable apparent magnitude ; or because^ 
 when he rises, having darkened all the other, 
 he alone appears. The poets indeed say, that 
 there were five ; yet the chief was the son of 
 Hyperion, and nephew to iEther, but born of 
 an unknown mother. The Persians reckon 
 Sol the greatest of their gods, and they wor- 
 ship him in a cave. His statue resembled a li- 
 on in the head, shining in a Persian habit and 
 turban, holding with both hands the horns of a 
 mad and struggling bull. Those who desired 
 to be initiated in the sacred rites of this god, 
 had very many hardships to undergo; and ac- 
 cess to the employment of the priesthood, and 
 knowledge of his mysteries, was to be found 
 only through disgraces, stripes, colds, heats, and 
 other torments. They represented his power 
 by a sceptre, on the top whereof shines an 
 eye, by which is signified, that the Sun sees* 
 and that all things are seen by him. 
 
 No other actions of Sol are mentioned, but 
 his debaucheries and loose intrigues, whereby 
 he obscured the honor of his name : The more 
 remarkable are these which follow. 
 
 He debauched Venus, in the island of 
 Rhodes, at which time, they say it rained gold, 
 and the earth clothed itself with roses and lilies. 
 
 Of Clymene he begat one son, Phaeton, and 
 three daughters, Phaethusa, Lampetia and Phoe- 
 be. Phaeton gave an opportunity to the poets, 
 of feigning a fable. When Epaphas, a son of 
 Jupiter, reproached him in a quarrel, that lie 
 boasted in vain of Sol being his father ; an# 
 
HEATHEN GODS® 137 
 
 4hat it was a pretence of his mother to cover 
 her adultery ; he, being provoked by the slan- 
 der, and persuaded by the advice of his moth- 
 er, went to the palace of the Sun, to bring in- 
 dubitable marks of his family . The Sun re- 
 ceived him kindly, and owned him as his, 
 withal, swearing by the Stygian Lake, that he 
 would deny nothing that he should ask, as a 
 proof of his fatherly affection. Phaeton imme- 
 diately desired the liberty of governing his 
 father’s chariot for one day. 
 
 Phoebus, being bound by a solemn oath, 
 which it was unlawful for any of the gods to vi- 
 olate, bewailing the rashness of the youth, and 
 using his admonitions and better counsels in 
 vain, at last, unwillingly granted what he 
 could not deny. 
 
 Phaeton, transported with joy, mounts the 
 chariot, aud taking the reins, began to lash the 
 flaming steeds; but they, then finding him ig- 
 norant of driving, ran away, and set on fire 
 both heaven and earth. Jupiter, that he might 
 put an end to the conflagration, struck the au- 
 thor of it with a thunderbolt, and precipitated 
 him into the river Po. While the sisters im- 
 moderately lament this misfortune at the brink 
 of the river, by the pity of the gods, they are 
 turned into poplar trees, weeping amber instead 
 of tears. 
 
 By this fable the ambitious are taught, what 
 event they ought to expect, who raise them- 
 selves higher than becomes them. 
 
 JJe had by Neaera 3 a daughter Pasiphae, max- 
 
 Mi 
 
HEATHEN GODS. 
 
 138 
 
 tied to Minos, king of Crete. She, being in-* 
 flamed with the love of a bull, and obtaining 
 her desire by the art of Daedalus, who had in- 
 closed her in a wooden cow for that purpose, 
 brought forth a Minotaur , a monster, resembling 
 a man in the middle part of the body, and a 
 bull in the rest. The occasion of the fable 
 Was ; Pasiphae bore twins in the house of Dae- 
 dalus $ the one like her husband Minos, the oth- 
 er resembling one called Taurus, her gallant. 
 
 Circe, the most skilful of all sorceresses, was 
 &lso a daughter of his by Perse. This Circe 
 killed her husband, king of the Sarmatians, 
 with poison ; and being therefore expelled the 
 kingdom by her subjects, flying into Italy, she 
 fixed her seat upon the promontory Circaeum. 
 Here she saw and loved the sea god Glaucus, 
 who at that time admired Scylla. Circe, rag- 
 ing with love, having poisoned the waters, 
 where her rival used to wash, turned the nymph 
 into a sea monster. She entertained Ulysses, 
 with great civility, who was driven into that 
 place by tfye violence of a storm, and at his re- 
 quest, restored all his companions, whom she 
 changed into hogs, bears, wolves, and other 
 beasts of that kind, to their former shapes 
 again. She set upon Ulysses himself, but in 
 vain ; for he was armed against all her assaults. 
 She is also said to have drawn down the very 
 Stars from heaven, by her enchantments ; that 
 hence it may appear more clearly, that by vo- 
 luptuousness, of which she is an emblem, men 
 became ravenous and filthy beasts ; and that 
 
HEATHEN GODS® 
 
 isd 
 
 those, who with the lustre of their virtues and 
 wit, shine in the world, as stars in the firma- 
 ment, if once they addict themselves to ob- 
 scene pleasures, are eclipsed by the clouds of 
 their vices, and fall, as it were from heaven* 
 into obscurity itself. 
 
 The Horae were also reputed the daughters 
 ©f Sol and Chronis, who early in the morning* 
 prepare the chariot and horses for their father; 
 and open the gates of the day® 
 
HEATHEN G0D8L 
 
 141 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 CYBELE. 
 
 CYBELE hath her head crowned with tow- 
 ers, and is the goddess of cities, garrisons, and 
 of all things that the earth sustains. She is the 
 earth itself, on which are built many towers 
 and castles. 
 
 In her hand she carries a key, because, in 
 winter, the earth locks up her treasures, which 
 in the spring she brings forth, and dispenses 
 with a plentiful hand. 
 
 She sits in a chariot, because the earth hangs 
 in the air, being poised by its own weight. 
 She had her garments painted with flowers of 
 various colors, and figured with the images of 
 several creatures, which needs no explication, 
 since every body knows, that such a dress is 
 suitable to the earth. 
 
 The sacrifices of this goddess were celebra- 
 ted with a confused noise of timbrels, pipes, 
 cymbals, and the mad howling of the sacrifi- 
 cers, who profaned both the temple of theip 
 goddess, and the ears and eyes of their hear- 
 ers with filthy words and rites. They opened 
 her temple with prayers, not hands ; none en- 
 tered who had tasted garlic. The priests sac- 
 rificed to her sitting and touching the earth : 
 They offered the heart of the victims ; and 
 among trees, the box and pine were sacred to 
 her. Her priests were called Gaili, from a 
 
142 
 
 HEATHEN GODS. 
 
 river of Phrygia, of whose waters whoever 
 drank, being struck with madness, they castra- 
 ted themselves ; And when they sacrificed, 
 they cut their arms with knives. They were 
 also called Curetes, Corybantes, Telchines, 
 Cabiri, and Idaei Dactyli. 
 
 The Curetes are said to have been Cretans, 
 or iEtolians, or Euboeans, and had their names 
 from a Greek word signifying shaving. For 
 they shaved their hair before, but not behind : 
 Or perhaps, because they were habited in long 
 vests, like maidens : Or lastly, because there is 
 a report that they educated Jupiter. 
 
 They were called Corybantes, because in 
 the sacrifices of their goddess, they tossed their 
 heads, and danced, and being as it were mad, 
 butted with their foreheads like rams. 
 
 When they initiated any one in their sacrifi- 
 ces, they placed him in a chair, and danGed 
 about him, in the most foolish manner. 
 
 The Telchines came from Crete into Cy- 
 prus, and afterwards into the island Rhodes, 
 and were famous magicians and enchanters; 
 or, if we believe others, they were men well 
 deserving for the invention of many arts; for 
 they are said first to have made the statues of 
 the gods. 
 
 The Cabiri, or Caberi, so called from a 
 mountain of Phrygia, were either servants of 
 the gods, or gods themselves, or rather daemons, 
 or the same that the Corybantes were. 
 
 The Idaei Dactyli were servants and assist- 
 ants of Magna Mater. 
 
HEATHEN GODS. 
 
 143 
 
 They were called Idsei from Mount Ida* 
 where they lived, and Dactyli, because being 
 ten males and as many females, they equalled 
 the number of the fingers, like which, constant- 
 ly and every where, they served Rhea, who 
 used their assistance almost in all things. 
 
144 
 
 HEATHEN GODS, 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 LATONA. 
 
 LATONA was the daughter of Phoebe and 
 Coeus, the Titan, whom, tor her great beauty, 
 Jupiter loved and deflowered. 
 
 When Juno perceived her big, she cast her 
 out of heaven to the earth, having first obliged 
 Terra to swear, that she should not give her 
 any where a habitation to bring forth in : And 
 besides, she sent the serpent Python to perse- 
 cute the wanton all over the world. But in 
 vain ; for in the island Delos, under a palm or 
 an olive tree, Latona brought forth Diana, who 
 immediately performed the office of a midwife 
 to her mother, and undertook the care of her 
 brother Apollo, when he was born. They say, 
 that this island heretofore floated in the sea, 
 and then lay hid under the waters when Terra 
 swore, but emerged afterwards by the order of 
 Neptune, and became fixed and immoveable 
 for Latona’s use. 
 
 The Delos was sister to Latona, and for- 
 merly called Asteria, whom Jupiter loved and 
 courted ; but she was converted into an island. 
 Others report, that she was changed into a 
 quail, and flew into this island, whence it was 
 called Ortygia. 
 
 The pride of Niobe, and inhuman barbarity 
 of the Lycians, made the deity of this goddess 
 more illustrious. This Niobe, the daughter of 
 Tantalus, and wife of Amphion, king of The*- 
 
HEATHEN GOBS. 
 
 145 
 
 foes, being enriched with all the gifts of nature 
 and fortune, could not bear her happiness with 
 moderation. Wherefore being puffed up with 
 pride, she began to despise Latona, and esteem 
 herself greater than her, boasting that fortune 
 could not hurt her ; and although she should 
 take many things from her, yet she would leave 
 more than Latona possessed ; that she had bora 
 seven sons, and as many daughters to her 
 husband, and other such like ; thus preferring 
 herself to the goddess in every respect. 
 
 But in a short time the mad queen was de- 
 prived of all her happiness, and reduced from 
 the highest good fortune to the lowest degree 
 of misery. For when Latona saw herself des- 
 pised, and her sacrifices disturbed by Niobe, 
 she enjoined Apollo and Diana, to revenge the 
 injury of their mother. They immediately fil- 
 led a quiver with arrows, betook themselves to> 
 Niobes palace, and killed first her sons, then 
 her daughters, and their father in the sight of 
 the mother ; so that being stupified with grief* 
 she was turned into marble* from which as yet 
 flows a fountain of tears. 
 
 The Rustics of Lycia also experienced the 
 anger of Latona by their own ruin. For whea 
 she wandered in the fields big with twins, and 
 partly by the fatigue of her journey, partly Dy* 
 the intolerable heat, began to bum with so 
 great thirst, that she had almost perished ; afc 
 last she discovered a spring in the low valley* 
 and being transported with joy, she ran to it* 
 and cast herself upon her knees to drink th# 
 
HEATHEN GODS. 
 
 1 46 
 
 cool waters ; but the neighboring towns hin- 
 dered her, and bid her depart : She earnestly 
 begged leave, which they as surily denied. 
 Wherefore being unable longer to bear the bar- 
 barous treatment, she turned them into frogs, 
 which immediately leaped into the muddy wa- 
 ters, where they lived ever after. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV- 
 
 AURORA. 
 
 AURORA was the daughter of Terra and 
 Tytan, the sister of the sun and moon, and 
 mother of all the stars ; though some say of 
 Hyperion and Thia, or else Pallas ; of a ruddy 
 countenance, and rosy fingers.. She sits high 
 in a golden chariot, with white horses drawing 
 it. She was much taken with the love of Ce- 
 phalus, a very beautiful youth. Rut when she 
 could by no persuasion move him to violate 
 his faith plighted to his w ife Procris, daughter 
 of the king of Athens, she carried him up into 
 heaven by force ; neither yet could she shake 
 the constancy of the man: Therefore she sent 
 him back to his wife, disguised in the habit of 
 a merchant; who being desirous to try her 
 fidelity towards himself, attacked her chastity 
 by presents and other endearments. When 
 the woman had almost made a surrender, the 
 husband, being restored 4o his former shape, 
 severely chid her levity. She, being confoun- 
 
Hum t i/uj uu i,ii jin 1 1 rn rf i > « nTiitTn 
 
148 
 
 HEATHEN t»GUS» 
 
 ded with shame, hid herself in the woods, but 
 afterwards was reconciled to him, and gave 
 him an unerring arrow, which she had receiv- 
 ed from Minoe. 
 
 Cephalus, having got this arrow, he spent 
 his whole time in hunting, and constantly pur- 
 sued the wild beasts. Frocris, suspecting that 
 he was detained in the woods by the love of 
 some nymph, went before, and lay in a bush to 
 discover the truth of the matte?: But when 
 she moved herself carelessly, her husband bent 
 his bow, and thinking that it was a wild beast, 
 shot his wife with the same dart which he got 
 from her. 
 
 Aurora, being also charmed with the singu- 
 lar beauty of Tithonus, son of Laomedon, and 
 brother of Priamus, carried him up into heav- 
 en, joined him to herself in wedlock, and from 
 the Fates obtained immortality for him instead 
 ©f a portion. But because she forgot to ask 
 perpetual youth for him, he is said soon to have 
 arrived to a decrepid age ; so that he was to be 
 rocked in the cradle, like an infant, to sleep. 
 Whereupon being weary of life, he besought 
 Aurora, that he might die : She denied that it 
 was in her power to grant his request; but she 
 turned him into a grasshopper, which, they 
 Bay, being wasted with old age, dies not, but 
 grows young again. 
 
 The story is otherwise told, that Tithonus 
 being a great lover of astronomy, used to rise 
 before break of day to observe the stars, this 
 continual vigilance preserved his health, but at 
 
HEATHEN GODS. 140 
 
 last he was forced to submit to the inconven- 
 iences of old age. Nevertheless, Aurora, by 
 the help of oriental drugs, restored him to his 
 youth and vigor. 
 
 Memnon was the son of this marriage, who, 
 when he came to Troy, to bring assistance to 
 Priamus, fighting in a single combat with 
 Achilles, was slain. 
 
 In the place where he fell, a fountain arose, 
 which every year, the same day on which he 
 was killed, sends forth blood instead of water. 
 But when his body was burning on the funeral 
 pile, by the prayers of his mother Aurora, he 
 was changed into a bird; and out of the same 
 pile dew many other birds of the same kind, 
 called Memnonias, which dividing into two 
 troops, and lighting with their beaks and claws, 
 with their own blood appeased the ghost of 
 Memnon, the author of their race. 
 
 It surpasses credit, what they report con- 
 cerning the statue of this Memnon, made of 
 black marble, and set up in the temple of Se» 
 rapis, at Thebes, in Egypt; namely, that the 
 mouth of that statue, as soon as the rays of the 
 rising sun touched it, sent forth a most harmo- 
 nious sound, as though it rejoiced at the ap- 
 proach of its mother ; but, at the setting sun, 
 uttered a low and melancholy tone, as if it 
 grieved at her departure. 
 
 According to Homer, Aurora had a passion 
 for Orion, a lovely youth who delighted much* 
 in dogs and hunting, she is said to have car- 
 ried him with her into Delos. 
 
 N 2 
 
HEATHEN GODS* 
 
 The mythologists also say, that she is the 
 mother of the winds, because after a calm in 
 the night, the winds rise in the morning as if 
 they were attendants upon the sun, by whose 
 heat and light they are begotten* 
 
 CHAPTER XXV* 
 
 JEOLUS , 
 
 iEOLUS is the god of the winds, descended 
 <ef Jupiter and Acesta, or Segesta, daughter of 
 Bippota. He dwelt in one of the seven islands 
 called i&olian from him ; was very expert in 
 astronomy, and well skilled in that science 
 which belongs to the nature of the winds; and 
 $0, because from the clouds, and smoke of the 
 iEoliao islands, he foretold winds and tempests 
 long before they arose ; it was generally be- 
 lieved, that the winds were under his power, 
 and that he could raise or still them, when it 
 pleased him. He was hospitable both to gods 
 and men, just to his subjects, skilful in warlike 
 affairs, and accomplished in all sorts of human 
 prudence. He is said to have invented sails 
 for shipping. 
 
 The iEoiian islands are by some authors 
 said to have lain long in a desert, barren state, 
 until iEolus, married Cyane, the daughter of 
 Biparus, and gathering a multitude of people 
 together, caused those islands to be inhabited. 
 This JLiparus being at variance >vith his broth- 
 
152 
 
 HEATHEN GODS. 
 
 ers, sought shelter in one of these islands, which 
 was before uninhabited. He called the island 
 Lipara from his own name. Some say, that 
 this island was the habitation and workhouse 
 of Vulcan. The ancients used to lay rough 
 iron, and the reward for working it into swords 
 together upon the shore, and next day they 
 found them ready made. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 MOMUS . 
 
 MOMUS, which name signifies a jester, a 
 mocker or mimick, is also a god. He is rep- 
 resented with a mask and grotesque face, lives 
 an idle life, and his only business is nicely to 
 pry into the sayings and actions of the other 
 gods, and if any thing is done amiss, or duty 
 neglected, he censures, mocks and derides them 
 with the greatest liberty. 
 
 Neptune, Vulcan and Minerva can witness 
 this. For when they contended, which of 
 them was the most skilful artificer, and Nep- 
 tune made a bull, Minerva a house, and Vul- 
 can a man, Momus, being chosen umpire of the 
 dispute, chid them all. 
 
 He accused Neptune of imprudence, because 
 he placed not the bull’s horns in his very fore- 
 head before his eyes ; for then he might push 
 with a stronger and surer blow : He blamed 
 Blinerva, because her house was not moveable,* 
 
154 
 
 HEATHEN GODS. 
 
 that it might be easily carried away, if by 
 chance she should not have good neighbors : 
 But he said, that Vulcan was the most impru- 
 dent of them all, because, in forming man, he 
 had not made a window in his breast, that it 
 might be seen, what every one projected in his 
 heart, whether he designed any thing of trick, 
 and whether he intended one thing and spoke 
 another. They feigned that Nox and Somnus 
 were his parents, and not without reason ; for 
 it is a sign of a dull, drowsy and undiscerning 
 disposition to disparage the actions of others ; 
 since all things are liable to censure. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 THEMIS , ASTRJEA AND NEMESIS. 
 
 THE three goddesses, Themis, Astraea and 
 Nemesis, consult together about great affairs. 
 
 Themis, the first of them, is the daughter of 
 Coelum and Terra, whose office it was to in- 
 struct men to do things honest, just and right. 
 There was another Themis, the wife of Jupi- 
 ter, of whom justice, law and peace are said to 
 be born. 
 
 Astraea, the daughter of Aurora and Astrasus 
 the Titan, or, as others say, of Jupiter and 
 Themis, was esteemed the princess of justice. 
 The poets feign, that in the golden age she de- 
 scended from heaven to the earth, and being 
 offended at last by the wickedness of mankind. 
 
HEATHEN GODS. 1 55 
 
 returned to heaven again, after all the other 
 gods had gone before her. 
 
 JN emesis was born of Jupiter and Necessity, 
 or, as others affirm, of Nox and Oceanus ; she 
 was the goddess that was a rewarder of virtue, 
 and pun slier of vice. 
 
 It is said, that she being debauched by Ju- 
 piter in the shape of a goose, brought forth an 
 egg, which she gave to a shepherd, to be carri- 
 ed to Leda. The egg was laid up in a box, 
 and, soon after, Helena was produced; but 
 others think differently of this matter. 
 
 She was also called Rhamnusia from a town 
 in Attica, where she had a temple, in which 
 a statue of her made of one stone, ten cubits 
 high, holds the bough of an apple tree in its 
 hand, and wears a crown, in which were en- 
 graven many images of deer. 
 
 They also gave her a wheel, being a symbol 
 of the swiftness with which she is carried to 
 revenge wickedness. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 VERTUMNUS . 
 
 YERTUMNUS was the god of Spring ; an 
 office to which he was appointed on account of 
 the changeableness of his nature, he having 
 the pow er, like Proteus, to transform himself 
 into any kind of shape. 
 
 The most known of his adventures, or achiev* 
 
HEATHEN GODS. 
 
 156 
 
 merits, is his wooing Pomona, the goddess of 
 orchards; which action is celebrated by Ovid* 
 
 Pomona was fair and beautiful ; but withal 
 exceedingly coy, and entirely proof against 
 the power of Y enus. 
 
 But her chaste desires and inclinations did 
 not secure her from the attacks of the deities 
 of the woods. She was frequently assailed by 
 Satyrs and Fauns ; and that old sleepy, beast- 
 ly god Silenus often attempted to surprise her. 
 
 Among her admirers, however, Yertumnus 
 was the most importunate; for though often 
 rejected with scorn, he still renewed his ad- 
 dresses. 
 
 In order to get a sight of her, he w ould some- 
 times disguise himself as a reaper, carrying 
 a load of grain, and sweating under his bur- 
 then ; and carrying a scythe at his back ; his 
 sun burnt face being partly covered with a tur- 
 ban made of haybands. 
 
 At other times he would appear as a hind, 
 with an ox goad in his hand ; then as a vine 
 dresser ; another time as a laborer gathering 
 apples in the orchard of Pomona. All these 
 changes he underwent, that he might have the 
 pleasure of beholding the goddess. But 
 
 At other times he would appear before her 
 in the striking garb of a soldier, in order to at- 
 tract her attention. He would assume the ap- 
 pearance of an angler ; and was continually 
 varying his dress and manner, in order to see, 
 or be seen by her. 
 
 He at length assumed the form of an old wo- 
 
HEATHEN GODS, 
 
 157 
 
 man, and entered into familiar conversation 
 with the goddess, all which tended to inflame 
 her with a passion for Verttimnos. He set 
 forth all his various perfections, his affection, 
 his constancy and unchanging attachment; 
 and his fitness to become her spouse. These 
 arguments were accompanied by blandishments 
 which were too warm for the appearance he 
 had assumed. They betrayed the latent ener- 
 gies of the god. He appeared suddenly before 
 her in his proper form and glory, and the god- 
 dess being inspired with a mutual flame, his 
 wishes were crowned with success. 
 
 OH AFTER XXIX. 
 
 POMONA. 
 
 POMONA is the goddess, the guardian, and 
 the president, not of the apples only, but also 
 of ail fruits, and product of trees and plants. 
 She had a proper priest, who was called Fla- 
 men Pomona! is. 
 
 When Pomona was dressing her gardens and 
 orchards according to her custom, with remark- 
 able care and diligent industry ; and was- whol- 
 ly employed in watering and securing the 
 roots, and lopping off all the luxuriancy of the 
 overgrown bushes; Vertumnus, a principal 
 god among the Romans, who could put on what 
 forms he pleased, being charmed with her beau- 
 ty, counterfeited the likeness of an old woman* 
 
158 
 
 HEATHEN GOBS. 
 
 went into her garden, admired the apples, com- 
 mended and saluted the virgin. Then taking 
 an occasion from those things, which he saw, 
 at last, he turned his discourse to marriage ; 
 assuring her, that there would not be wanting 
 several of the gods themselves, who would pro- 
 nounce themselves very happy in such a wife. 
 Observe, says he, the trees creeping up this 
 wall, striving with their rich plumbs and line 
 apples, which shall excel the other; and yet, 
 unless these were joined with Pales, by which 
 they are supported, as by husbands, they would 
 continue barren, and bring forth nothing but 
 leaves. She was not moved with these speech- 
 es, till V ertumnus changed himself into a young 
 man, and then she also began to feel the force 
 and power of love, and yielded to his desires. 
 The meaning of this fable is, that Vertumnus 
 is an emblem of the year, which turns itself in- 
 to a variety of shapes, according to the multi- 
 tude of its productions in different seasons, but 
 is at no time more graceful than in the season 
 of ripe fruits, that is, when Pomona submits to 
 his embraces. 
 
 — 040 - 
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 FLORA. 
 
 FLORA is the goddess and president of 
 Sowers ; and therefore was adorned and dress- 
 ed with them. 
 
HEATHEN GODS. 
 
 159 
 
 Among the Romans, she was esteemed a 
 goddess, but in reality was a very famous strum- 
 pet, who, by her abominable trade, heaped up 
 great treasures, and made the Roman people 
 her heir. 
 
 Particularly, she left a certain sum of money, 
 out of the yearly interest of which her birth 
 day was celebrated, by exhibiting plays, which, 
 in honor of her, they called Florales, or Flora- 
 lia. But because this appeared scandalous 
 and profane to the senate, they resolved to cov- 
 er that wickedness by a specious title ; and ap- 
 pointed, that Flora should be worshipped as a 
 goddess, who might preside over the flowers ; 
 and that she should be appeased by divine wof- 
 ship, that the plants and trees might flourish. 
 
 Her image was exposed in the temple of 
 Castor and Pollux, dressed in a close coat, 
 holding in her right hand the flowers of beans 
 and peas ; for, while the Floralia w r ere per- 
 formed, the iEdiles scattered beans, peas, and 
 other pulse among the people. These games 
 were proclaimed, and begun by sound of trum- 
 pet ; and came at last to that excess of inde- 
 cency, that persons appeared naked. But 
 when Cato, that severe Censor of manners, 
 came to be a spectator, the Romans had so 
 much remains of modesty left, that they w ould 
 not proceed, till a person of his probity and 
 virtue had made his exit. 
 
160 
 
 HEATHEN GODS* 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI. 
 
 PALES. 
 
 PALES is the goddess of the shepherds and 
 pastures, and by some called Magna Mater 
 and Vesta. They offered to her milk and wa- 
 fers of millet for a good growth of pasture. Her 
 feasts Palilia were celebrated upon the eleventh 
 or twelfth of the Kalends of May, on which 
 day Romulus founded the city of Rome. 
 
 The shepherds, in the fields, strictly ob- 
 served her festivals, that she might drive away 
 the wolves, and diseases from the cattle. They 
 Were performed with various rites ; for they 
 danced about and leaped over burning heaps 
 of straw and chaff, disposed in a particular or- 
 der and distance ; and then purified the sheep, 
 and other cattle with fume of rosemary, laurel 
 and sulphur. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXII. 
 
 FERONIA. 
 
 PERONIA is the goddess of the woods ; 
 and it is said, that she had a grove sacred to 
 her under the mountain Soracte : And that this 
 grove, being set on fire, when the neighbors re- 
 solved to remove the image of Feronia thence, 
 became green again. Strabo reports, that 
 those who were inspired by the power of Fero- 
 
HEATHEN GODS, 
 
 161 
 
 nia,used to walk upon burning coals with their 
 bare feet unhurt. Yet many believed, that, 
 by Feronia was meant only that virtue by 
 which flowers and fruits are produced. Ser- 
 vants were made free in her temple, and re- 
 ceived the cap which was the badge of their 
 liberty, for which they worshipped her as their 
 protectress. 
 
 CHAPTER XXX11I. 
 
 SYLVANUS . 
 
 SYLVANUS, as a deity of the woods, is 
 placed next to Pan, an old man, with goat’s 
 feet, a human face, and of little stature, hold- 
 ing cypress in his hand stretched out. He is 
 called Sylvanus, because he presides over the 
 woods. He admired the boy Cyparissus, who 
 had a very tame deer, and in great esteem. 
 When Sylvanus had unawares killed this deer, 
 and the boy died for grief, Sylvanus changed 
 him into a cypress tree, and carried a branch 
 of it always in his hand in memory of the boy. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIV. 
 
 SILENUS . 
 
 SILENUS follows, an old fellow 7 , with a flat 
 Hose, bald head, large and wide ears, and a 
 
162 
 
 HEATHEN GODS, 
 
 small, flat, gorbellied body : He sits upon a sad- 
 dle backed ass ; but, when he walks on foot, 
 he leans upon a staff. He was Bacchus's fos- 
 ter father, master, and continual companion, 
 and consequently almost always drunk. The 
 cup, which he and Bacchus used, was called 
 Cantharus, and the staff, by which he support- 
 ed his staggering steps, was named Ferula 
 The Satyrs attended and esteemed Silenus as 
 a parent, and when they grew 7 old, were called 
 Sileni: And as to his ass, they feign, that he 
 was translated into heaven, and placed among 
 the stars ; because in the war against the Gi- 
 ants, SiSenus, riding on him, did considerable 
 service to Jupiter. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXV. 
 
 SATYRS. 
 
 THE Satyrs are described, having their 
 heads armed with horns, goats feet and legs, 
 crooked hands, their bodies rough with hairs, 
 and tails not much shorter than horses. 
 
 There is no animal in nature more fallacious 
 and libidinous than these gods ; for their very 
 name shews the filthiness of their disposition : 
 And Pausanias proves this by an instance of 
 some mariners, who, being driven by a storm 
 upon a desert island, and seeing themselves 
 surrounded by a flock of Satyrs, betook them- 
 selves again to their ships $ but the Satyrs 
 
164 
 
 HEATHEN GODS. 
 
 having left the men, rushed upon the women, 
 and committed all manner of rudeness upon 
 their bodies. 
 
 04 ^— ■ 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVI. 
 
 FAUNS. 
 
 THE Fauns are joined to the Satyrs, and 
 differ almost in name only, being not unlike 
 them in appearance ; for they are both horned 
 and hoofed, and crowned with branches of the 
 pine. They were esteemed rural gods by the 
 Boors, who, through fear of their power, be- 
 cause they were armed with horns and nails* 
 and painted in a terrible shape, worshipped 
 them with profound veneration. 
 
 Faunus, or Fatuellus, was the son of Picus* 
 king of the Latins. 
 
 He married his own sister Fauna, or Fatua* 
 and consecrated her a priestess, after which she 
 got the gift of prophecy. There is a report al- 
 so, that this Faunus was the father and prince 
 of the other Fauni and Satyrs. His name was 
 given him from prophesying ; whence also we 
 call men, speaking rashly and inconsiderately * 
 Fatui; because they, who prophecy, used to 
 speak with another’s mind, what things them- 
 selves do not understand. 
 
HEATHEN GODS. 
 
 165 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVII. 
 
 PRIAPUS. 
 
 PRIAPUS is a shameless and obscene dei- 
 ty, and therefore the painter, out of modesty, 
 left the picture unfinished. He was the son of 
 Venus and Bacchus, born at Lampsacus, where 
 his mother hating his deformity, and the enor- 
 mous disproportion of his members, rejected 
 him. Yet he was so agreeable to the women 
 of that place, that he was banished from the 
 city by their husbands, until, by the command 
 of the oracle, he was recalled, and made god 
 of the gardens ; and therefore crowned with 
 herbs. 
 
 He carries a sickle in his hand, to cut off 
 from the trees all superfluous boughs, and to 
 drive away thieves, beasts, and mischievous 
 birds. 
 
 They say, that his deformity was occasioned 
 hence, that Juno perceiving Venus pregnant, 
 and being inflamed with jealousy, under pre- 
 tence of assisting her in labor, spitefully mis- 
 used her, so that the child was deformed, from 
 w hich he took his name. 
 
166 
 
 HEATHEN GODS. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVIII. 
 
 ARISTjEUS. 
 
 ARISTiEUS was begotten of Apollo and 
 Cyrene, educated by the Nymphs, and taught 
 by them the art of making oil, honey and 
 cheese. 
 
 He passionately loved Eurydice, the wife of 
 Orpheus, and pushed her into a wood, where 
 she was so stung by a serpent, that she forth- 
 with died. The nymphs, from a hatred of the 
 fact, revenged her death by the destruction of 
 bis bees. 
 
 When Aristaeus deplored so great a loss, hav- 
 ing begged the assistance of his mother, he 
 learned from the oracle, that Eurydice was to 
 be appeased by sacrifices : Which, whilst he 
 performed, and offered four bulls and as many 
 heifers, it is reported, that a great swarm of 
 bees suddenly burst forth from the carcases of 
 the bulls, and that he thus made up his loss. 
 
 "“” 0+0 — 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIX. 
 
 TERMINUS. 
 
 TERMINUS is also a god, and held in great 
 honor at Rome: He is so called, because the 
 boundaries of lands are under his protection. 
 The statue of this god was either a square 
 stone, or a log of wood planed, which they us- 
 
HEATHEN GODS. 
 
 107 
 
 bally perfumed with ointment, and crowned 
 with garlands. And indeed the land marks 
 were so sacred, that whoever dared to move, 
 plough up, or transfer them elsewhere, his head 
 became devoted to the Bii Terrain ales, .and 
 every one had a power of killing him. They 
 did not sacrifice animals to these si ones, be- 
 cause it was unlawful to stain them with the 
 blood of victims ; but, upon the last day of the 
 year, they offered to them wafers of bread, end 
 the first fruits of the com ; and those festivals 
 were called Terminal ia. 
 
 CHAPTER XL. 
 
 NYMPHS . 
 
 NOT fardrom the gardens of Pomona, one 
 may see neat, pretty, beautiful and charming 
 virgins almost innumerable: Of whom some 
 run about the w r oods, and hide themselves in 
 the trunks of the aged oaks ; some plunge them- 
 selves into the fountains, and some swim in 
 the rivers. They are called by one common 
 name Nymphs, because they always look 
 young, or, because they shine with the lustre 
 of beauty. Yet all have their proper appella- 
 tions, which they derive either from the places 
 wherein they live, or the offices, which they 
 perform; they are especially distributed into 
 three classes, Celestial, Terrestrial, and Marine 
 Nymphs. 
 
168 
 
 HEATHEN GOBS. 
 
 The Celestial Nymphs were those souls and 
 intellects, who guided the spheres of heaven^ 
 and dispensed the starry influences on the ear- 
 thly bodies. 
 
 Of the Terrestrial Nymphs, some preside 
 over the woods, and were called Dryades, be- 
 cause they lived in the oaks: Others were na- 
 med Hamadryades, because they were thought 
 to have been born together with the oaks, and 
 also to have died with them. 
 
 The ancients believed, that whatever was 
 born with the oaks, was sent from heaven, and 
 divine; and the Druids, priests of the Gauls, 
 esteemed nothing more divine, and more sac- 
 red, than the excrescence sticking to the oak. 
 
 Others of the Terrestrial Nymphs are cal- 
 led Oreades, or Orestiades, because they pre- 
 sided over the mountains. The Napaeae had 
 the care of thfc"forests and valleys : The Le- 
 moniades were set over the meadows and fields ; 
 and the Me lies had their name from the ash 
 trees sacred to them ; and these w ere supposed 
 to be the mothers of those children, who were 
 accidentally bom under a tree, or exposed 
 there. 
 
 The Marine Nymphs were either those, 
 which preside over the seas, and were called 
 Nereides or Nerinse, from Nereus and Doris, 
 their parents ; or those over the fountains cal- 
 led N aides, or Naiades; or else inhabit the ri- 
 vers, named Ftuviales, or Potamides ; or, last- 
 ly, those who preside over the lakes and ponds, 
 called Limnades. 
 
HEATHEN GODS® 
 
 109 
 
 Nymphs were attributed to almost all the 
 gods for their service: Jupiter had two, Nep- 
 tune fifty, Phoebus his Muses, Bacchus innum- 
 erable, Diana her huntresses, Thetis the Nerei- 
 des, and Juno fourteen attending her. 
 
 Arethusa was one of Diana’s nymphs, not 
 less chaste than beautiful. When she was bath- 
 ing herself in a crystal river, the pleasantness 
 of the place inviting her, Alpheus, the god of 
 the river, having assumed a human shape, arose 
 out of the water; first saluted her with kind 
 words, then approached her ; but she flies, and 
 he follows : And when he had almost overtak- 
 en her, by the assistance of Diana she dissol- 
 ved into a fountain. Alpheus then resumed 
 his former shape, and endeavored to mix his 
 own with her streams, but in vain ; for Arethu- 
 sa ever continues her flight, and through a sub- 
 terranean passage runs into Sicily. Alpheus 
 pursues her thither, and at last unites and mar- 
 ries his own with her waters in that island. 
 
 Echo was formerly a nymph, though now on- 
 ly a voice; and even when she was alive, she 
 could only repeat the last of many words. This 
 she suffered as a punishment for her talkative- 
 ness : For when Juno came down from heaven 
 to discover Jupiter’s intrigues with the nymphs. 
 Echo detained her with his tedious discourses, 
 that the Nymphs might have an opportunity of 
 flying and hiding themselves. 
 
 This Echo by chance saw Narcissus ramb- 
 ling through the woods, admired, courted, fol- 
 lowed and embraced the proud youth in her 
 
170 
 
 HEATHEN GODS. 
 
 arms : But he broke from her embraces, and 
 fled out of her sight ; whereupon the despised 
 nymph hid herseif in the woods, and pined a« 
 way with grief. 
 
 Narcissus, for a punishment of his cruelty, 
 suffered as hard a fate ; for though he would 
 neither love others, nor be loved by them; yet 
 he perished by love of himself. By thirst he 
 is led to a fountain, whose waters were clear 
 and silver colored: As soon as he stooped 
 down, to quench his thirst, having seen his own 
 image, he stayed gazing at it, and passionately 
 loves himself. At last, being consumed with 
 love, by the favor of the gods, he was turned 
 into a flower of his own name. The common 
 offerings made to the Nymphs, were milk, oil, 
 honey and wine. 
 
 CHAPTER XLI. 
 
 RURAL GODS AND GODDESSES . 
 
 THE images of the inferior rural gods and 
 goddesses are smaller, than that they can be 
 discerned by the eyes ; wherefore 1 will only 
 recount their names. 
 
 Resina, who had the care of the country. 
 
 CoLLirvA, reigned over the hills. 
 
 Valeonia, holds her empire in the valleys. 
 
 Bippona, presides over the horses and sta- 
 bles. 
 
 Bubona, protects the oxen. 
 
HEATHEN GODS. 
 
 171 
 
 Seia, takes care of the seed, whilst it lies 
 buried in the earth. She is likewise called 
 Segetia, when the green blade appears above 
 
 ground. 
 
 Ritncina, is the goddess of weeding. 
 Occator, the god of harrowing. 
 
 Sator, of sowing. 
 
 Sarritor, of raking. 
 
 The god Robtgus was worshipped, that he 
 might drive away the rpiidew from the corn. 
 
 Stercutius, or Sterq,uilinub, who first in- 
 vented the art of dunging the ground. 
 
 Nodosus, is set over the knots and joints of 
 the stalks. 
 
 V oltjsia, is goddess of the folds of the blades, 
 
 and pods of the corn. 
 
 Patelina, when the ear breaks out of the 
 pod. 
 
 Flora, when the ear blossoms. 
 
 Lactura, or Lactucina, when it begins to 
 
 have milk. 
 
 Matura, when it comes to maturity. 
 Hastilina, when the crops were proportion- 
 ed to the seed sown. 
 
 Tutelina, hath the tutilage of the com ga- 
 thered. 
 
 Pilumnus, invented the art of baking the 
 corn. 
 
 Mellona, found out the method of making 
 honey. 
 
 Fornax, was esteemed a goddess, because, 
 before the use of wheat, bread corn, was parch- 
 ed in a furnace. 
 
HEATHEN GODS. 
 
 173 
 
 CHAPTER XL1X. 
 
 THE MUSES. 
 
 THERE are nine Muses, who are represent- 
 ed as virgins crowned with palms* They seem 
 to smile pleasantly, shining in a becoming 
 dress, and handsomely sitting together in the 
 shade of a laurel arbor. Some of them play on 
 the harp, some on the cittern, some upon the 
 pipe, some upon the cymbal, and some harmo* 
 niously use their voice and instruments at 
 once ; with united minds, tongues and fingers* 
 making a most agreeable concert. 
 
 The Muses are the mistresses of all the sci- 
 ences, the presidents of the musicians and po- 
 ets, and the governesses of the feasts and so- 
 lemnities of the gods. 
 
 Jupiter begat them of the nymph Mnemo- 
 syne, who afterwards brought them forth upon 
 the Pierian mountain. 
 
 They had names derived from their proper 
 accomplishments of mind or body. 
 
 The first Calliope, so called from the sweet- 
 ness of her voice, presides over rhetoric, and 
 is esteemed the most excellent of all the nine. 
 
 The second Clio, from the glory and famous- 
 ness of the things that she records. 
 
 The third Erato, because she sings of am- 
 ours, or because learned men are loved and 
 praised by others : She invented poetry. 
 
 The fourth Thalia, from the gaiety anS 
 
 p 2 
 
1 74 
 
 HEATHEN GOBS. 
 
 pleasantry of her songs, who invented comedy 
 and geometry. 
 
 The fifth Melpomene, from singing, and she 
 presides over tragedy. 
 
 The sixth Terpsichore, because she delights 
 in dancing. 
 
 The seventh Euterpe, for the sweetness of 
 her singing : Logic was her invention. 
 
 The eighth Polyhymnia, because she excels 
 in memory, and therefore presides over history. 
 
 The ninth Urania, so called from heaven, or 
 the singing of heavenly things ; or because, 
 through her assistance, men are raised to the 
 heavens by praises ; or that, by the favor of 
 the sciences, they become conversant in the 
 contemplation of celestial things. 
 
 CHAPTER XLI1I. 
 
 GENIUS , OR GENIL 
 
 BY Genius, is understood that spirit of na- 
 ture, which begets all things ; or that which is 
 begotten with us ; or lastly, that which pro- 
 tects and defends us through the whole course 
 of life. In honor of this god, the marriage bed 
 and birth day were called Genial ; and those 
 who live merrily or delicately, are said to live 
 a genial life, or to indulge their genius. The 
 Greeks called them Demons, either from the 
 terror and fear created in them to whom they 
 appear $ or because, being wise and knowing, 
 
HEATHEN GODS. 
 
 175 
 
 they were consulted as oracles. Some think, 
 that illustrious men, in reward of their virtue, 
 after death become demons, being a middle 
 kind between gods and men. The Genius bore 
 frequently the figure of a serpent, sometimes 
 also of a boy, girl, or old man, crowned with 
 the leaves of the plane tree, because that tree 
 was sacred to them. They offered wine, flow- 
 ers, incense, meal sprinkled with salt, and 
 sometimes a swine chiefly on a birth day ; 
 though Censorinus says, that they used not to 
 sacrifice with blood and slaughter on that day 
 on which themselves received life. 
 
 The Genii were continual and watchful 
 guardians, overseers, and keepers of the men, 
 as the Junos were of the women, from the cra- 
 dle to the grave ; carried their prayers to the 
 gods, and interceded for them. The ancients 
 assigned to every person two, a good or white, 
 and an evil or black Genius, one of which in- 
 cites to virtue, the other promotes to vice. Not 
 only men and women, but also countries, cities, 
 houses, doors, stables and hearths, had their 
 peculiar Genii. 
 
 CHAPTER XLIV. 
 
 THE PENATES . 
 
 THE Penates, so called from Penns, were 
 gods reigning in the inward parts of heaven, 
 and entirely governed mankind by their reason, 
 
176 
 
 HEATHEN GODS. 
 
 heat and spirit ; so that we cannot live, or use 
 our understanding without them. There were 
 three orders of- them ; some had the care of 
 provinces and kingdoms, and these were called 
 absolutely Penates; others protected particu- 
 lar cities, and were called country gods ; the 
 small gods presided over families. 
 
 CHAPTER XLV. 
 
 THE LARES. 
 
 THE Lares were children born from the 
 stolen embrace of Mercury and Lara. For 
 when she had discovered the amours of Jupi- 
 ter, he being extremely enraged, cut out her 
 tongue, and banished her to the Stygian Lake, 
 While Mercury conducted her thither, he rav- 
 ished her upon the road ; and so growing big 
 bellied, she brought forth twins, named the 
 Lares, who were appointed domestic gods, and 
 accordingly presided over houses, streets, and 
 ways, where also they were worshipped. In 
 the plays instituted in honor of them, called 
 Compitalia, images of men and women, made 
 of wool, w ere hung in the streets, and as many 
 balls of the same matter, as there were servants 
 in the family, and so many complete images, 
 as there were children. This was done, that 
 these deities, being contented with the woolen 
 images, might spare those children and serv- 
 ants alive. The Roman youth; who wore a 
 
HEATHEN GODS. 
 
 177 
 
 golden ornament, called Bulla, till the four- 
 teenth year of their age, used then to conse-. 
 crate and hang it up to the Lares. These 
 gods were sometimes clothed in the skins, and 
 sometimes fashioned in the shape of dogs, 
 whence that creature was consecrated to them. 
 The place sacred to them was called Latarium, 
 where their worshippers offered the first fruits, 
 wine and incense, and their images were adorn- 
 ed with chaplets and garlands. 
 
 CHAPTER XIiVI. 
 
 GODS AND GODDESSES PRESIDING 
 OVER INFANTS , &c. 
 
 THE gods and goddesses presiding over in- 
 fants and adults, women pregnant and bringing 
 forth, also marriages and funerals, were so ma- 
 ny, that it would be tedious to enumerate them 
 all. Juno and Luna were the principal. 
 
 CHAPTER XLVII. 
 
 TUTELAR GODS. 
 
 THEY ascribed particular gods to particular 
 parts of the body. The head was sacred to 
 Jupiter, the breast to Neptune, the waist to 
 Mars, the forehead to Genius, the eyebrows to 
 Juno, the eyes to Cupid, the ears to Memoria, 
 
178 HEATHEN GODS. 
 
 the right hand to Fides, the back and hinder 
 parts to Pluto, the reins to Venus, the feet to 
 Mercury, the knees to Misericordia, the ancles 
 and soles of the feet to Thetis, and the fingers 
 to Minerva. 
 
 CHAPTER XLVIII. 
 
 JASON. 
 
 JASON was the son of ,Eson, king of Thes- 
 saly, and Alcimede. After the death of his 
 father, which happened whilst he was yet an 
 infant, his uncle Pelias administered the gov- 
 ernment. When the prince grew up, and de- 
 manded of his uncle his hereditary kingdom, 
 he was by him persuaded, and sent upon the 
 Colcbian expedition : under pretence, indeed, 
 of carrying off the golden fleece thence, but, 
 truly, that he might die by the danger and la- 
 bor of the journey. 
 
 This golden fleece was the skin of a ram, 
 which some say was white, others purple, giv- 
 en to Phryxus. son of Athamus, by his mother 
 Nephele. Phryxus and his sister Helle, fear- 
 ing the snares of their stepmother Ino, that they 
 might secure their safety by flight, got on this 
 ram; but, while they swam over the narrowest 
 part of Pontus, Helle, affrighted at the tossing 
 of the waves, fell down into the sea, which from 
 her was called the Hellespont. Bid Phryxus, 
 being carried safe over, went to iEta, king of 
 
HEATHEN GODS* 
 
 179 
 
 Colchis, a country of Asia, near Pontus ; by 
 whom being kindly received, he there sacrific- 
 ed to Jupiter, or Mars, his ram, which after- 
 wards was placed among the constellations : 
 Only his hide, or fleece, was hung up in a grove 
 sacred to Mars. 
 
 It was called the golden fleece, because it 
 was of the color of that metal ; and bulls, 
 breathed fire from their nostrils, also a vast and 
 watchful dragon guarded it, as a sacred thing, 
 divine pledge, and fatal relic. 
 
 Jason brought away that fleece : For being 
 inflamed with a desire of praise, he went on 
 board the ship Argo, attended by forty nine 
 very choice and noble companions, called Ar- 
 gonauts from the ship. 
 
 In his voyage he visited Hypsiphile, queen 
 of Lemnos, who, entertaining him at table and 
 in bed, conceived and brought forth twins by 
 him : Then having undergone a tedious course, 
 and many dangers, he at length arrived at Col- 
 chis, and demanded the golden fleece of king 
 iEta. He answered, that he would grant it on 
 that condition only, that first he would tame, 
 and put under the yoke, the fire vomiting and 
 brazen footed bulls ; that he would kill the 
 dragon, and sow his teeth ; and lastly, destroy 
 and cut down with the sword, the crop of arm- 
 ed soldiers springing up from that seed. Jason 
 being obliged to accept the hard conditions, 
 was delivered from manifest destruction by the 
 assistance of Medea, the king’s daughter, who 
 greatly loved him* For, observing her direc- 
 
180 
 
 HEATHEN GODS. 
 
 lions, he overcame the bulls, laid the dragon 
 asleep, carried away the fleece, and fled by 
 night with Medea, whom he afterwards mar- 
 ried. Mt'd pursued them : But Medea, that 
 she might stop him, tore her brother Absyrtus, 
 who w as along with her, in pieces, and scatter- 
 ed his torn limbs on the road. When the fath- 
 er saw r them, he was kept from pursuing them, 
 by gathering up the members of his son : And 
 so Jason, with the other Argonauts, returned 
 into his native country. 
 
 It is reported, that Medea, by her charms, 
 restored iEson, Jason’s father, feeble and wast- 
 ed with old age, to his former bloom of youth 
 again; but that contradicts the history above 
 related. 
 
 Jason, afterwards hating Medea, divorced 
 her, and married Creusa, daughter of Creon, 
 king of Corinth. Medea, to revenge the per- 
 fidiousness of her husband, first murdered the 
 two sons begot by him in their father’s sight ; 
 next she sent fire inclosed in a little box to 
 Creusa, as a present ; which having opened, 
 herself, together with the whole court, was 
 burnt : And then the sorceress flew by magic 
 art to Athens. Some say, that she was again 
 reconciled to Jason. 
 
HEATHEN GODS. 
 
 !8L 
 
 CHAPTER XLIX. 
 
 THESEUS . 
 
 THESEUS was the son of iEgeus, king of 
 Athens, and iEthra. Minos, king of Crete^ 
 made war against iEgeus, because the Athe- 
 nians had dishonorably and barbarously killed 
 his son, who had carried away from them all 
 the prizes in the games. When he had van- 
 quished the Athenians, he imposed this very- 
 severe condition, that yearly seven youths, of 
 the first quality, should be sent into Crete, to> 
 be devoured by the Minotaur. The fourth 
 year Theseus was chosen by lot, which afflict- 
 ed his father iEgeus with extreme grief 
 Therefore Theseus went on board a ship, fitted 
 out with black sails and tackle ; being desired 
 by his father, that, if by any propitious deity he 
 escaped the dangers, when he returned safe in- 
 to his own country again, he should change 
 his black sails into white ; by which signal his 
 father being assured of his safety, might anti- 
 cipate his happiness before he saw him. The 
 event happened fortunate indeed to Theseus^ 
 but very fatal to his father. For as soon as 
 the young prince came to Crete, being shut up 
 in the labyrinth, he slew the Minotaur, and es- 
 caped out of that inextricable prison by the 
 help of Ariadne; which being done, he return- 
 ed to Athens in the same mournful ship, quite 
 forgetful of his father’s command. Therefore 
 \ bis father, spying the ship fro m a watch tower^ 
 fit 
 
1$2 HEATH ftN GODS. 
 
 returning with black sails, and thinking that 
 his son had perished, threw himself headlong 
 into the sea, which afterwards, from his name, 
 was called the iEgean Sea. 
 
 Ariadne was the daughter of Minos, king of 
 Crete, who, being charmed with the love of 
 Theseus, delivered him out of the labyrinth by 
 the direction of a thread. She followed him in 
 his return to the island Naxus, where he per- 
 fidiously and ungratefully left her. But Bac- 
 chus, pitying the forsaken lady, married her, 
 and gave her a crown illuminated with seven 
 stars, which he had before received from V e- 
 nus ; and this crown, after the death of Ariad- 
 ne, was placed among the constellations. 
 
 Theseus performed many other valorous ex- 
 ploits ; he overcame the Centaurs ; vanquish- 
 ed the Thebans ; and defeated the Amazons, 
 who were women animated with the souls and 
 bravery of men ; a military race, inhabiting 
 that part of Scythia, which is washed by the 
 river Tanais. They lived in common, and 
 passed their lives together without the society 
 of men. They admitted, indeed, the embraces 
 of the neighboring men, and thus propagated 
 their race ; but they killed the male offspring, 
 and brought up the girls only, whose right 
 breast they cut off, that they might more con- 
 veniently use the right arm in shooting arrows, 
 and brandishing weapons against the enemy. 
 
 These female warriors possessed a great part 
 of Asia by their frequent excursions, when 
 Hercules, accompanied with Theseus, subdued 
 
HEATHEN 66DS, 183 
 
 them, and, taking their queen Hippolyte, gave 
 her in marriage to Theseus. He had by her a 
 son Hyppolytus, very beautiful, much given to 
 hunting, and a remarkable lover of chastity. 
 His step-mother, his father being absent, solic- 
 ited him to lewdness ; but suffering a repulse, 
 she afterwards accused him before her husband* 
 being returned, of the crime of adultery offered 
 to her. Theseus gave ear to his wicked wife, 
 and meditated revenge and punishment to the 
 son ; which he perceiving, hastened his flight 
 in a chariot. While he fled, his horses being 
 frighted by sea monsters, he was thrown out of 
 the chariot, and, being entangled in the har- 
 ness, was dragged through the thickets of a 
 wood, and miserably torn to pieces. After- 
 wards, at the request of Diana, Aesculapius re- 
 stored him to life again : But Phaedra, pricked 
 by the stingi of conscience, hanged herself. 
 
 Theseus, also went down to hell : For it had 
 been agreed between him and Pirithous, his in- 
 timate friend, that they should not marry anyr 
 woman except Jupiter’s daughters : As there-* 
 fore Theseus had got Helena, his daughter by 
 Leda, and no other remained on earth for Pir- 
 ithous, they both together went down to hell, 
 with an intent to steal Proserpina from her 
 husband Pluto. Pirithous was torn by Cerbe- 
 rus in the very entry, but Theseus came alive 
 into the palace of Pluto, and there continued 
 in chains, till Hercules, sent thither by Eurist- 
 heus, delivered him. Theseus, at last, finish- 
 ed his illustrious life by an obscure end. 
 
184 
 
 HEATHEN GODS. 
 
 CHAPTER L. 
 
 PERSEUS. 
 
 PERSEUS was the son of Jupiter and Da- 
 iiae, daughter of Acrisius. The father, having- 
 known from the oracle, that he should be kil- 
 led by his grandchild, shut her up in a very 
 strong tower, that no man might come to her. 
 But nothing is impregnable to love : For Ju- 
 piter, being turned into a golden shower, de- 
 scended through the tiles into the bosom of 
 the young lady, who was left by the god en- 
 riched with gold, and big with child. 
 
 When it was told to Acrisius, that his daugh- 
 ter had brought forth a son, he ordered the 
 mother and infant to be shut up in a chest, ami 
 thrown into the sea. But a certain fisherman 
 drew them out, and presented them to king Pi- 
 Jumnus, who married Danae, and educated her 
 son, whom he called Perseus. 
 
 When he grew up, he was presented by Mer- 
 cury with an adamantine scythe and wings ; 
 equipped besides with Pluto’s helmet, and Mi- 
 nerva’s brazen shield, so bright, that it reflect- 
 ed the images of objects, like a looking glass. 
 
 When Andromeda, the daughter of Cephe- 
 ns, king of ^Ethiopia, for the pride of her moth- 
 er Cassiope, w ho preferred herself to the other 
 Nymphs in point of beauty, was by them bound 
 to a rock, and exposed to a sea monster, he 
 both delivered and married her. Afterwards 
 
HEATHEN O0DS, 185 
 
 the mother, daughter, and son in law, were 
 placed among the constellations. 
 
 In his next expedition, which he undertook 
 against the Gorgoos, having encountered with 
 Medusa, their princess, formidable with snakes 
 instead of hair ; and seeing the image of her 
 head in his shield, he struck it off, Pallas di- 
 recting his hand, which, being afterwards fixed 
 on his shield, he carried away, and, at the sight 
 of it, turned many into stones. 
 
 By holding out the same head, he changed 
 Atlas, king of Mauritania, into a mountain of 
 his own name, because he excluded him from 
 the laws of hospitality. 
 
 When Medusa’s head was cut off, the horse 
 Pegasus sprang from the blood, which flowed 
 from the wound upon the earth. Fie was so 
 called from a Greek word, signifying a fountain, 
 because they supposed him born near the foun- 
 tains of the sea. He was also winged, and fly- 
 ing up into the mountain Helicon, he struck a 
 rock with his hoof, and opened a fountain, cal- 
 led by the Greeks Hippocrene, that is, the 
 Horse Fountain ; and by the Latins, Cabalii- 
 nus. But afterwards, while he drank of the 
 Corinthian Spring Pyrene, he was taken by 
 Bellerophon, who, at that time, was preparing 
 an expedition against the Chimeera. 
 
 Bellerophon had this name from Bellerus, a 
 certain king of Corinth, whom he had killed \ 
 whereas, formerly, he was called Hipponous* 
 from governing horses with a bridle, which art 
 he is said first to have taught* 
 
Aeathen Gobs. 
 
 .185 
 
 He was son of Glaucus, king of Ephyra, of 
 equally great beauty and virtue. When Sthe- 
 jiohaea, wife of Prsetus, tempting him to adulte- 
 ry ; the woman, triad at the repulse, and raging 
 with fury, accused the innocent stranger to her 
 husband. 
 
 However Pr solus was unwilling himself to 
 violate the laws of hospitality with the blood 
 of Bellerophon ; but sent him into Lycia, to 
 his father in law Jobates, with letters to that 
 effect. Jobates, having read the letters, for a 
 certain punishment of his crime, sent him to 
 subdue the Solymi, that he might be killed in 
 the battle. But, when he had easily vanquish- 
 ed them, and being exposed to many other 
 dangers, had always returned conqueror; at 
 last he was sent to kill the Chimsera ; which 
 labor he undertook, and performed with great 
 praise, having procured the horse Pegasus, by 
 the help of Neptune. 
 
 Wherefore Jobates, admiring the bravery of 
 the youth, gave him one of his daughters in 
 marriage, with a part of his kingdom. When 
 Sthenoba3a heard that, she procured death to 
 herself. 
 
 But Bellerophon, being transported with so 
 happy success of things, while he endeavors to 
 hy up into heaven with Pegasus, being struck 
 by Jupiter with madness, fell from his horse in- 
 to a held, called Aleius, because in it he wan- 
 dered blind to the end of life : But Pegasus 
 was placed among the stars. 
 
 Some say, the fable of the Chimera took its 
 
HEATHEN GODS. 
 
 187 
 
 rise from this. There was a famous pirate, 
 whose ship had a lion painted on her prow, a 
 goat on the middle part, and a dragon on the 
 stern, and that this pirate was killed by Belle* 
 rophon* 
 
 chapter nr. 
 
 PROMETHEUS. 
 
 PROMETHEUS was the son of Iapetus, 
 and father of Deucalion. He is said to have 
 formed man out of clay, and with so great suc- 
 cess, that Minerva, admiring his skill, frankly 
 proffered, that she would procure him whatev- 
 er he should want, for the completing of his 
 work, of all things which are in heaven. Pro- 
 metheus answered, that he could not tell, what 
 of them might be useful to him, since he had 
 never seen them with his eyes. 
 
 Therefore being carried up to heaven, by 
 the assistance of Minerva, after he had viewed 
 all things, at last, observing that the heat of 
 the sun would be very useful for animating his 
 men, he put a stick to the wheel of the Sun’s 
 chariot, and having lighted it, carried the fire 
 with him to the earth. 
 
 Jupiter resenting this theft very heinously, 
 sent Pandora into the world with a box full of 
 all sorts of evils, w r hich she should give to Pro- 
 metheus. He, fearing and suspecting what it 
 was, refused the present; but his brother Epi- 
 
IBB 
 
 HEATHEN GODS. 
 
 mctheus was not so cautious ; for be took and 
 opened the box, and, unawares, let out every 
 kind of evils amongst men ; which, when he 
 perceived, he immediately shut the box, and 
 fortunately kept Hope sticking in the bottom. 
 Jupiter commanded Mercury to bind the thief 
 Prometheus on Mount Caucasus, sent an eagle, 
 which continually gnawed his liver. Y et some 
 say, that the cause of this punishment was, be- 
 cause he had made woman, the most perni- 
 cious of all creatures. But Prometheus, hav- 
 ing formerly deserved well of Jupiter, was af- 
 terwards exempted from punishment. 
 
 To this Nicander adds another fable ; that 
 some ungrateful men, after receiving the tire, 
 discovered the theft to Jupiter, to whom, in- 
 stead of a reward, he gave perpetual youth. 
 They put this upon an ass, that it might be 
 brought to the earth. But he, being thirsty, 
 and coming to a fountain to drink, was hinder- 
 ed by a serpent; however, at last he obtained 
 leave, having promised, that he would give 
 him all that he carried. Hence it happens, 
 that the serpent, being advanced in age, seems 
 to grow young again. 
 
 This Prometheus was a very prudent man ; 
 and, because he reduced rude and savage men 
 to humanity, they feigned, that he made them 
 out of clay : Because he observed the motions 
 of the stars from the mountain Caucasus, there- 
 fore they said, that he was chained there : Be- 
 cause he invented the method of striking fire 
 out of the flint, and first discovered the nature 
 
heathen gods. 
 
 189 
 
 of lightning, he was said to have stolen tire 
 from the gods : And because he applied his 
 mind to that study with great care and solid- 
 tude, therefore they imagined, that an eagle 
 ate his liver. 
 
 When his father Deucalion reigned in Thes- 
 saly, they say, that the whole globe of the 
 earth was overflown by so great a deluge, that 
 mankind was utterly destroyed, only Deucali- 
 on and his wife Pyrrha being saved. 
 
 Those two were carried in a ship upon the 
 mountain Parnassus, and when the waters were 
 abated, having consulted the oracle Themis, 
 by what art mankind might be restored; the 
 answer was, that mankind would be restored if 
 they cast the hones of their great mother, that 
 is, the stones of the earth, behind their backs. 
 Therefore having cast the stones, a miracle 
 ensued ; for the stones, which Deucalion threw, 
 were turned into men, and Pyrrha restored her 
 own sex by the like method. 
 
 The meaning of this fable is ; Deucalion and 
 his wife Pyrrha, being very pious, by the ex- 
 ample of their life, and sanctity of manners, 
 softened men and women, who before were 
 fierce and hard as stones, and brought them to 
 a civil and good behavior. 
 
190 
 
 HEATHEN GODS. 
 
 CHAPTER LII. 
 
 ATLAS. 
 
 ATLAS, king of Mauritania, was the son 
 of Iapetus, and brother of Prometheus. When 
 he understood from the oracle, that destruction 
 threatened him from one of the sons of Jupi- 
 ter, he resolved to entertain no stranger in his 
 house. But Perseus, who was begotten by Ju- 
 piter, by chance taking a journey through his 
 dominions, and in point of civility, visiting 
 him, being excluded by him, and provoked at 
 so much inhumanity, having held out the 
 shield, which he carried, and shewed the head 
 of Medusa, changed him into a mountain of 
 his own name, so high, that it is believed to 
 touch heaven. 
 
 They feigned that Atlas sustained the heav- 
 ens on his shoulders, because he was a famous 
 astronomer, and first taught the nature and mo- 
 tion of the spheres. His daughters also were 
 esteemed stars by the ancients. 
 
 By his wife ASthra he had seven daughters, 
 who were called Ambrosia, Endora, Pasithoe, 
 Coronis, Plexauris, Pv tho and Tyche ; and by 
 a common name Hyades. He had also seven 
 others by Pleione, and their names were Elec- 
 tra, Halcyone, Celoeno, Maia, Asterope, Tay- 
 gete and Merope ; and they were called Plei- 
 ades. 
 
 The Hyades derive their name from a Greek 
 word signifying to rain ; for, when they rise or 
 
HEATHEN G0©§* 
 
 191 
 
 set, they cause great rains. Others would have 
 them so called from their brother Hyas, whom, 
 being devoured by a lion, they lamented with 
 implacable grief, so that, by the compassion of 
 Jupiter, they were turned into seven stars, 
 which are seen in the head of Taurus. 
 
 The Pleiades are so called from a Greek 
 word signifying sailing ; for, when these stars 
 arise, they portend good weather to navigators. 
 
 The Romans call them Yergilise, from the 
 spring season in which they rise : Although 
 others think, that they were so called, because 
 they never appear single, but altogether, ex- 
 cept Merope, who scarce ever allows herself 
 to be seen, because, when the other sisters had 
 married themselves to gods, she alone joined 
 herself to Sisyphus a mortal. These Pleiades 
 were transformed into stars, because they in- 
 cessantly lamented the fate of their father At- 
 las, who was changed into a mountain. 
 
 Hesperus was the brother of Atlas, and be- 
 cause he lived some time in Italy, it was cal- 
 led Hesperia from him. He frequently went 
 up to the top of Mount Atlas, for the sake of 
 viewing the stars ; and, because at last he ap- 
 peared no more, the vulgar paid divine honors 
 to him, and called a very bright star by his 
 name. 
 
 The Hesperides were the three daughters of 
 Hesperus, called iEgle, Arethusa, and Hesper- 
 ethusa. 
 
 It is reported that they had gardens remark- 
 able for trees bearing golden fruit, and that a 
 
1 92 
 
 HEATHEN GODS. 
 
 watchful dragon guarded them, which, when 
 Hercules slew, they feigned that he carried a- 
 way the golden apples. 
 
 CHAPTER LI1I. 
 
 ORPHEUS AND AMPHION 
 
 ORPHEUS and Amphion were drawn to- 
 gether in the same picture, and almost in the 
 same colors; because both excelled in the 
 same art, and, by the harmony of the harp, 
 moved not only men, but beasts, and the stones 
 themselves. 
 
 Orpheus was the son of Apollo by Calliope 
 the Muse, who, having received a harp from 
 his father, sung so sweetly, that he tamed wild 
 beasts, stayed the courses of the rivers, and 
 raised the woods into admiration of himself. 
 They report, that he descended into hell with 
 the same harp, that he might recover frotai Plu- 
 to and Proserpina his wife Eurydice, who was 
 killed by a serpent, while she fied from the vi- 
 olence of Aristseus: And that he so charmed 
 them with the sweetness of his music, that they 
 permitted his wile to return to life, upon this 
 condition, notwithstanding, that he should not 
 look upon her, till they had arrived upon the 
 earth ; but such was the impatience of his pas- 
 sion, that he could not perform the condition, 
 wherefore she was taken back again into hell, j 
 Hereupon Orpheus resolved henceforth to live 
 
HEATHEN GODS. 
 
 193 
 
 & life of celibacy, and by his example he alien- 
 ^ted the minds of many others from the love of 
 women ; for which cause, he is said to have 
 been torn in pieces by the Mamades and Bac- 
 chse : Yet others give a different reason of his 
 death, namely, that the women, by the instiga- 
 tion of Venus, were so inflamed with love to 
 him, that striving to run into his embraces, be- 
 ing pushed on by a furious contention and de- 
 sire, they tore him in pieces. The Muses 
 gathered his bones, and reposed them in a sep- 
 ulchre, not without tears ; and his harp was 
 placed among the constellations. 
 
 Amphion was the son of Jupiter by Anfiope. 
 He received his harp or lute from Mercury, 
 and with the sound thereof moved the stones 
 so regularly, that they composed the walls of 
 the city Thebes. Because both Orpheus and 
 Amphion, by the power of eloquence, had re- 
 duced savage men to a more civil way of life, 
 they gave occasion to this fable. 
 
 Arion is a proper companion for these two 
 musicians. He was a lyrick poet, born at Me- 
 thymna, in the island of Lesbos. 
 
 He having gained an immense treasure by 
 his art, while he sailed back from Italy to Les- 
 bos, his native country, the seamen assaulted 
 him for the sake of his riches. But entreat- 
 ing, that it might be allowed him to play some 
 song before he died ; having taken his harp, 
 and playing sweetly, he cast himself into the 
 sea ; where being received by a dolphin, which 
 lie had charmed by his music, he was carried 
 
 R 
 
194 
 
 HEATHEN GOBS. 
 
 on his back to Tenedos ; and the dolphin, in 
 reward of his kindness, was taken up into hea- 
 ven. 
 
 CHAPTER Lriv. 
 
 ACHILLES. 
 
 ACHILLES was the son of Peleus by The- 
 tis. His mother plunged him in the Stygian 
 waters, when he was yet an infant ; whence 
 his body became invulnerable, except that part 
 of the foot, by which he was held, when he 
 was washed. Olliers say, that he was hid by 
 Thetis in the night under a tire, after he had 
 been anointed with Ambrosia in the day; 
 whence he was first called Pirisous, because 
 he was preserved from the hre ; afterwards he 
 obtained the name of Achilles, as if without a 
 lip, because his lip, which he licked, after it 
 was anointed with Ambrosia, was burnt off. 
 Others report, that he was educated by Chiron 
 the Centaur, and, instead of milk, was fed with 
 the entrails of lions, and marrow of boars and 
 bears ; whence he had an immense greatness 
 of soul, and invincible strength of body. 
 
 When Thetis had heard from the oracle, that 
 her son should die in the Trojan expedition, 
 she ordered him to be dressed in woman’s ap- 
 parel, and to skulk in the boarding school in 
 the island Scyros, among the daughters of king 
 Lycomedes. Ulysses discovering this, be- 
 
HEATHEN GODS. 
 
 195 
 
 cause Calchas the diviner had declared, that 
 Troy could not he taken without Achilles, 
 went thither as a merchant with goods, which 
 he exposed to sale in that boarding school, 
 with an intent of knowing him from the other 
 virgins. 
 
 When, from the natural temper of the sex, 
 the royal maids viewed with wishful eyes, and 
 laid their hands on the bracelets, glasses, and 
 other ornaments of the female dress ; Achilles, 
 on the contrary, began to handle the targets, to 
 fit the helmets to his head, to brandish the 
 swords, and place them to his side ; by this 
 discovery, shewing himself a man, he was con- 
 strained to take up arms, and to go to the war, 
 being first, at the request of Thetis, equipped 
 by Vulcan, with impenetrable armor. 
 
 At Troy he killed Hector, the son of Pria- 
 mus, and he himself was slain by Paris, by a 
 trick of Polyxena. 
 
 This Polyxena was the daughter of Priamus, 
 king of Troy, a virgin of extraordinary beauty. 
 Achilles by chance saw her upon the walls of 
 the city, loved, and wished to marry her; Prh 
 a mus consented ; they met in the temple of 
 Apollo to solemnize the marriage, where Paris 
 crept in privately, and hiding himself behind 
 the image of the god, with an arrow killed A- 
 chilles, in that part of the foot in which alone 
 be was vulnerable. Afterwards, Troy being 
 taken, the Greeks appeased the ghost of Achil- 
 les, demanding a due punishment ©f the mur- 
 der, by the blood of Polyxena. 
 
I9G 
 
 HEATHEN GODS. 
 
 CHAPTER LV. 
 
 ULYSSES. 
 
 ULYSSES was the son of Laertes and An- 
 ticlea : His wife Penelope was highly famed 
 for her prudence and chastity. While the 
 flame of the Trojan war raged, , that he might 
 avoid that expedition, and not be compelled to 
 go away from his dear wife, he counterfeited 
 madness, having joined beasts of a different 
 kind in the plough, and sowing salt in the fur- 
 rows. But his pretence was detected by Pala- 
 medes, who threw his infant son into the fur- 
 row, while he ploughed, to see whether Ulysses 
 would wound him with the ploughshare. When 
 Ulysses went out of the way, and turned the 
 plough, that he might not hurt the boy, being 
 judged to be in his right wits, he was compelled 
 to go to the war, where he did great service* 
 and himself alone chiefly brought it about, that 
 Troy was taken, having removed all the fatal 
 obstacles of storming it : For he brought Achil- 
 les to the w r ar, and Hercule’s arrows, got from 
 Philoctetes, to Troy ; also he carried away 
 the ashes of Laomedon, which were preserved 
 upon the Scsean gate of Troy ; and stole the 
 Palladium from the same city : He likewise 
 killed Rhesus, king of Thrace, and took his 
 horses, before they had tasted the water of the 
 river Xanthus. All which things were in the 
 fates of Troy, so that, without them, it could 
 not have been taken. 
 
HEATHEN GODS. 1.97 
 
 Afterwards he disputed with Ajax, the son 
 of Telamon and Hesione, before the Grecian 
 princes, for the arms of Achilles. The judges, 
 being persuaded by the eloquence of Ulysses, 
 assigned the arms to him. At which disap- 
 pointment, Ajax, falling into a rage, fell upon 
 his sword, and his blood issuing forth, was turn- 
 ed into a violet. 
 
 Afterwards Ulysses, being tossed on the sea 
 in a tedious voyage of twenty years, and al- 
 ways driven from his native country by con- 
 trary tempests, in that time, first blinded Poly- 
 phemus, having put out his eye with a fire- 
 brand : And from thence setting sail into Mo ~ 
 lia, he got from ASoIus all the contrary winds 
 put into leathern bags : But when he had al- 
 most made the port of Ithaca, the bags being 
 untied by his companions, who supposed them 
 full of money, the winds gushing out, he was 
 driven into iEolia again. 
 
 Secondly, When his companions were chan- 
 ged into beasts by Circe, having taken, against 
 all her charms, an antidote, which Mercury 
 had made up, he rushed into her cave with a 
 drawn sword, and compelled the sorceress to 
 restore his companions to their former shapes ; 
 by which being reconciled, she bore him a son 
 called Telegodus. 
 
 Thirdly, He went dow n to hell, to know from 
 the prophet Tiresias, what things should hap- 
 pen to him. 
 
 Fourthly, Having sailed to the islands of the 
 Sirens, he avoided the dangerous snares .$f 
 b. 2 
 
198 
 
 HEATHEN GODS. 
 
 their charming voice, having stopped the ears 
 of his companions with wax, and himself being 
 bound with a strong rope to the ship’s mast. 
 
 And, lastly, The ship being broken by the 
 waves, and having suffered wreck, he escaped 
 by swimming, and came naked and alone to 
 the port of the Phoeacenses, where being found 
 by Nausicaa, the daughter of king Alcinous, 
 lying among the young trees, he was civilly 
 entertained, and his companions and ship being 
 found, he was carried asleep into Ithaca. Here 
 being awakened by Pallas, by her advice, he 
 put on the disguise of a beggar : Then he went 
 to his neatherd’s, with whom he found his son 
 Telemachus: From thence he was brought 
 home; where, after many affronts offered to 
 him by the wooers of Penelope, by the assist- 
 ance of his son and the neatherds, to whom he 
 discovered himself, taking up arms, he killed 
 them ail to a man, and then received his wife 
 Penelope. 
 
 This Penelope was the daughter of Icarus, a 
 perfect example of singular chastity ; for though 
 it was generally thought, that her husband was 
 dead, yet she could not be prevailed upon by 
 any persuasions of her parents, or solicitations 
 of her lovers, to violate her faith plighted to 
 her husband, when he departed. And when 
 many noble youths courted her, and even 
 threatened violence, if she should refuse to mar- 
 ry, the crafty woman asked, and indeed obtain- 
 ed as much time to deliberate, as was sufficient 
 for finishing the web, which she had in hand. 
 
HEATHEN GODS. 
 
 199 
 
 But undoing by slight, what she had woven by 
 day, she put them off till the return of Ulys- 
 ses, who killed them all. 
 
 CHAPTER L»V1. 
 
 ORION.- 
 
 ORION, as is reported, was produced from 
 the urine of three gods. For w hen Jupiter 
 Neptune and Mercury took a journey together 
 being benighted, they turned into the cottage 
 of a certain poor man called Hireus. They 
 were entertained so kindly, and even splendid 
 ]y, for the meanness of their host, that they 
 granted him the liberty of asking w hat he plea- 
 sed. He said that he wished to live a single 
 life, because he had so promised to his dying 
 wife, and yet extremely desired a son. 
 
 The gods favoring so pious a request, moist 
 ened the hide of an ox, which he had killed fok 
 their entertainment, with their urine, com 
 manding him to bury it in the earth. In the 
 tenth month afterwards he digged it up again, 
 as he was ordered, and found a boy produced 
 from thence, which he called Urion, or Orion. 
 He afterwards, growing up, joined himself a 
 companion to Diana. But because his love to 
 the goddess exceeded the bounds of modesty ; 
 ©r because, as some s ty, he extolled the strength 
 ©f his own body too insolently, and boasted, 
 that there was no wild beast, which he could 
 
200 
 
 HEATHEN GODS. 
 
 not easily master ; the earth not enduring such 
 arrogance, sent a scorpion, by which he was 
 killed. He was afterwards carried to heaven, 
 and placed among the constellations, where be 
 is believed to raise storms, when he appears 
 not ; but on the other hand, to bring a calm* 
 when he shews himself. 
 
 ' CHAPTER LVII. 
 
 OSIRIS , APIS AND SERAPIS. 
 
 OSIRIS, Apis and Serapis were three dif- 
 ferent names of one and the same God. Osiris 
 was the son of Jupiter by Niobe, the daughter 
 of Phoroneus. After he had reigned many 
 years over the Argives, being inflamed with a 
 desire of glory, he left his kingdom to his broth- 
 er iEgialus, and sailed into Egypt, to seek a 
 new name and new dominions there. 
 
 That nation being not so much overcome by 
 his arms, as obliged by his kindness and great 
 favors, he married Io, daughter of Inachus, 
 whom Jupiter had turned into a cow r , as was 
 mentioned before, but when she, driven by the 
 Furies, came to Egypt, being restored to her 
 former shape, she was wedded to Osiris, and 
 taught the Egyptian’s letters ; wherefore both 
 she and her husband obtained divine honors, 
 and were esteemed immortal by that people. 
 But Osiris shewed himself mortal, being killed 
 by his brother Typhon; and being sought by 
 
HEATHEN GODS. 
 
 202 
 
 his wife Xo, otherwise called Isis, was at last 
 found in a chest, and laid in a monument, in 
 an island near to Memphis, which the sad and 
 fatal Stygian Lake encompasses. And be- 
 cause she made use of the sagacity of dogs, to 
 find out the place in which he was hid, hence 
 they say it happened, that in the solemn pro- 
 cession of Isis, which used yearly to be cele- 
 brated, dogs went before, and the people wor- 
 shipped a god with a dog’s head, called Anubis, 
 with religious ceremony. After the body of 
 Osiris was committed to the grave, there ap- 
 peared to the Egyptians an ox of a beautiful 
 shape, w hich they, supposing to be Osiris, wor- 
 shipped as a god, and called it Apis, in their 
 language, an ox. Because, after his death, his 
 body was found shut up in a chest, he was cal- 
 led Serapis, and afterwards by the change of 
 the second letter Serapis. Plutarch says, that 
 Osiris was thought to be the sun, and was rep- 
 resented by a sceptre, in the top of which shone 
 an eye; because the sun sees and enlightens 
 all things. 
 
 Isis, w hom some affirm to be Pallas, others 
 the Earth, others Ceres, and many the Moon, 
 was painted horned, after the similitude of the 
 increasing moon, dressed in black garments, 
 because the moon shines in darkness, holding 
 a cymbal in her right hand, and a bucket in her 
 left. The feathers of a vulture adorned her 
 head, for, among the Egyptians, that bird is 
 sacred to Juno ; and the top of the porches used 
 to be dressed with its feathers. 
 
HEATHEN GODS. *>G3 
 
 The priests of Isis, called Isiaci, abstained 
 from swine and sheep’s flesh, neither used salt 
 to their meat, lest they should violate their 
 chastity-; they shaved their heads, and they 
 wore paper shoes, and a linen vest, because 
 Isis first taught the use of flax, whence she is 
 called Linigera. 
 
 Though Serapis was the god of the Egyp- 
 tians, yet he was worshipped in Greece, and es- 
 pecially at Athens, also at Rome. He was cal- 
 led by some Jupiter Ammon, by others Pluto, 
 Bacchus, iEsculapius, and sometimes Osiris. 
 His image bore a flasket on its head, and near 
 it lay a three-headed creature, having in the 
 middle a lion’s head, on the right side a dog’s, 
 and on the left a wolfs. 
 
 A twisting snake encompas ed them, with 
 Ms head hanging down to the god’s right hand, 
 by which the terrible monster was bridled. 
 Besides, in all the temples almost, wherein Se- 
 rapis and Isis were worshipped, an image was 
 seen, which having put its finger on its lips, 
 seemed to enjoin silence. By this they meant, 
 as Varro thinks, that none should dare to say, 
 that these gods were formerly men : and it was 
 provided by a law, under the penalty of death, 
 that none should say, that Serapis was once a 
 mortal. 
 
 Apis, of whom we spoke above, was king of 
 the Argives, who being transported thence in- 
 to Egypt, became Serapis the greatest of all 
 the gods of the Egyptians. After his death, 
 succeeded the ox, which we mentioned before. 
 
204 
 
 HEATHEN GOBS. 
 
 whose form and qualities, Pliny describes ; but 
 that is not material to our purpose. 
 
 SEA GODS . 
 
 NEPTUNE is the principal God of the sea; 
 but as he is also reckoned among the Celestial 
 Gods, we have given hirn his proper station. 
 His exploits, which are recorded by the poets 
 and Mythologists, were chiefiy performed on 
 the land. Of the other most remarkable sea 
 deities the following are selected. 
 
 CHAPTER LVUI. 
 
 TRITON. 
 
 TRITON, the son of Neptune by Amphi- 
 trite was also his companion and trumpeter, 
 who bearing the likeness of a man down to the 
 navel, resembles a fish as to the rest. His feet 
 are like the fore feet of a horse ; his tail fork- 
 ed and crooked ; and his hairs not unlike wild 
 parsley. 
 
 Oceanus, another of these marine deities, was 
 descended of Ccelum and Vesta, who, by the 
 ancients, was called the father not only of all 
 rivers, but also of the animals, and of the gods 
 themselves ; and they say, that all things took 
 their beginning from him. He is reported to 
 have begot of his wife Thetys, three thousand 
 sons-, the most eminent of whom was 
 
HEATHEtf 60DS. 205* 
 
 Nereus, a famous prophesier, nursed and ed- 
 ucated by the waves, dwelling chiefly in th© 
 iEgean sea, who by his wife Doris had fifty 
 daughters called from him Nereides. 
 
 Palsemon, and Ino his mother, were mad© 
 sea deities on this occasion. When she saw 
 one of her sons, Learchus by name, torn in pie- 
 ces, and dashed to the wall by her husband* 
 Athamas, who was enraged by the Furies ; and 
 fearing the like fate to herself and her surviv- 
 ing child, having taken the boy in her arms* 
 she threw herself and him headlong into the 
 sea, and both drew their divinity from the wa- 
 ters, having made shipwreck only of their for- 
 mer names ; for &he was called Leucothoe, and 
 he Palsemon by the Greeks, but by the Latins 
 Portumnus. 
 
 Glaucus, the fisherman, got divine honors by 4 
 a more pleasant way. For when he had spread 
 the fishes, which he caught by his nets, on the* 
 brink, and had observed that, at the touch of a 
 certain herb, they recovered their strength, and 
 leaped again into the waters, wondering at th© 
 effect, he desired to prove the quality of th© 
 herb, and having tasted it, he instantly follow- 
 ed his fishes, j limping into the waters, and be* 
 came a sea-god. 
 
 Canopus, a god of the Egyptians, is to be 
 added to these deities of the waters ; who, by 
 the help of that element, gained a memorable 
 victory over the gods of the Chaldeans. 
 
 For a controversy arising between these two 
 people, whose god was the greater and more 
 
 M 
 
206 
 
 HEATHEN GODS. 
 
 powerful, the priests of both nations, together 
 with their god, met by appointment to decide 
 the matter. 
 
 The image of Canopus, and Fire, the deity 
 of the Chaldeans, are placed one against the 
 other, ready to tight : but Canopus, whose bel- 
 ly was a pitcher full of water, and with holes 
 covered with wax, so small that no eyes could 
 discern them, being enraged with anger, and 
 enilemed at the sight of the god Fire, the wax 
 melting with the heat, assaulted the enemy 
 w ith such violence, that, with his liquid darts, 
 he quite extinguished and subdued him, and re- 
 turned victor from the battle. 
 
 CHAPTER L1X. 
 
 PROTEUS , 
 
 WAS a deity who held a very considerable 
 rank among the gods of the ocean; and was 
 celebrated for possessing a prophetic spirit as 
 well as the power of changing himself into ail 
 maimer of shapes. 
 
 When Meneiaus returned from the war of 
 Troy, ins fleet was driven to Egypt ; where it 
 was long detained by calms and contrary winds. 
 At length the Creeks under his command, were 
 In danger of perishing by hunger, and famine 
 stared them in the face ; but in their extreme 
 iitc ssity Eidothea, the daughter of Proteus, ap- 
 peared to Mentlaus, and informed him that her 
 
HEATHEN GOBS. 
 
 2Q7 
 
 father Proteus, who was the delegate of Nep- 
 tune in those seas, resorted daily to the Island 
 of Pharos, attended by the Phocae, which sur- 
 rounded him every day while he took his nap 
 at noon on the shore. Eidothea met him and 
 the three resolute companions who attended 
 him by appointment at Pharos. She made 
 holes for them in the sand, and covered them 
 with the sheds of four of the Phocee, which she 
 had provided. At noon the remaining Phocae 
 arrived on the shore ; and when Proteus rose 
 from the sea, he counted them as usual, and 
 finding the number complete, he fell asleep® 
 I cannot describe this adventure better than 
 by the account Homer has given of it. 
 
 Pleas’d with the false review, secure he Ees, 
 
 And leaden slumbers press his drooping eyes. 
 
 Rushing impetuous forth, we straight prepare 
 A furious onset with the sound of war, 
 
 And shouting seize the God : our force t’ evade 
 His various arts he soon resumes in aid : 
 
 A lion now, he curls his surgy mane; 
 
 Sudden, our bands a spotted pard restrain ; 
 
 Then arm’d with tusks, and hght’mng in ins eyes 
 A boar’s obscener shape the god belies : 
 
 On spiry volumes, there a dragon rides ; 
 
 Her from our strict embrace, a stream he glides : 
 
 And last, sublime, Ms stately growth he rears, 
 
 A tree; and well dissembled foliage wears. 
 
 Vain e-forts ! with superior pow’r compress’d. 
 
 He with reluctance thus the seer address’d: 
 
 Say son of Atreus, say what god inspir’d 
 This daring fraud, and what the boon desir’d ?' 
 
 Eidothea had particularly directed them not 
 to loose their hold on him — and finding himself 
 thus overcome, he gave Menelaus directions 
 how to propitiate the gods, in order to regain 
 his native country ; and informed him concern- 
 
HEATHEN GODS. 
 
 .208 
 
 ing the fate of his friends who had attended 
 him to the Trojan war. Menelaus performed 
 the rites prescribed by Proteus — and obtained 
 a prosperous voyage to the shores of Greece. 
 
 CHAPTER LN. 
 
 LEUCOTHOE 
 
 WAS one of the sea goddesses or nymphs. 
 She is represented as being of a cerulean color, 
 and very beautiful. She sometimes acted in 
 opposition to the will of Neptune. For when 
 that god had destroyed the bark which Ulysses 
 built for himself, and on which he was voyag- 
 ing from the island of Calypso, Leucothoe see- 
 ing him bufletting the waves, she appeared to 
 him ; and gave him a scarf which kept him 
 buoyant and by virtue whereof he arrived in 
 the Island of Pheacia. 
 
 CHAPTER LXI. 
 
 THE SIRENS . 
 
 THE Sirens were three, descended of uncer- 
 tain parents ; some say, that they were the off- 
 spring of Achelous the river, and Melpomene 
 the Muse : They had the faces of women, but 
 the bodies of flying fish. They dwelt near the 
 ^r@m©ntory Pelorus in Sicily, or in the Islands 
 
HEATHEN GODS, 
 
 2m 
 
 ©ailed Sirenusae, situate in the extreme parts 
 of Italy; where they drowned in the sea all 
 men sailing by these coasts, being first charm- 
 ed with the sweetness of their singing, then 
 composed in a deep sleep, and afterwards they 
 took them out and devoured them. Their 
 names were Parthenope, Ligea, and Leucosis,. 
 
 That their charms might more easily slide 
 through the ears into the mind of the hearers, 
 they added the measures and notes of the harp, 
 to the modulation of the voice ; and adapted 
 the matter of the song to every one’s temper, 
 by some enticing the ambitious, by others tha 
 voluptuous, and by others the covetous draw- 
 ing them to destruction. 
 
 Utysses and Orpheus only escaped. The 
 former, being forewarned by Circe of his dan- 
 ger from their singing, stopped the ears of his 
 companions with wax, and ordered himself to 
 be bound to the mast of the ship ; by which 
 means, he was carried safe by the fatal coasts. 
 
 The latter, namely, Orpheus, overcame them 
 in their own art ; for striking his harp, and cel- 
 ebrating the praises of the gods, he far out-did 
 the musick of these monsters ; so that out of 
 despair, they threw themselves into the sea, 
 and were turned into stones. 
 
 By this fiction the poets would signify, that 
 the minds of men are deposed from their proper 
 seat and state, by the allurements of pleasures, 
 and that there is no more deadly plague given 
 by nature to men. Whoever pursues them., 
 mm jpakes shipwreck ff reason Whoever 
 9 2 
 
HEATHEN GODS. 
 
 2J9 
 
 then desires to decline them, it is necessary, 
 that his ears be stopped to their charms, but 
 opened to the music of Orpheus, that is, to the 
 instructions and precepts of the wise. 
 
 CHAPTER LXI. 
 
 SCYLLA AND CHARYBDIS. 
 
 SOME say, that Scylla w^as a most beautiful 
 woman from the breast downward, but had six 
 dogs’ heads at her under parts : Others report, 
 that, in the upper part of the body, sh*> shewed 
 the appearance of a woman, but in the lower, 
 of a serpent and wolf. All, however, affirm 
 her to have been the daughter of Phorcus. 
 
 She being inflamed with mutual affection to- 
 wards Glaucus, who loved her exceedingly, 
 Circe, who also admired him, was enraged that 
 Scylla should be preferred to her; and there-* 
 fore in revenge infected the fountain, wherein 
 her rival used to bathe, with poisonous herbs. 
 Scylla, being ignorant of the thing, and enter* 
 ing the fountain, soon perceived the lower part 
 of her body changed into the heads of dogs ; 
 which affected her with such grief, that she cast 
 herself headlong into the neighboring sea, 
 where she was turned into a lock, infamous for 
 many shipwrecks. 
 
 This rock, which still is seen in the sea, di- 
 viding Italy from Sicily, between Messina and 
 Rhegium, a town of Calabria, is said to be sur^ 
 
HEATHEN GODS. 
 
 211 
 
 pounded with dogs and wolves, because the 
 noise of the waves, broken upon this great 
 rock by the returning tide, resembles the bark- 
 ing and howling of those animals. 
 
 Charybdis is a vast whirlpool in the same 
 Sicilian sea, over against Scylla, which boils 
 up with the swelled rolls of the water, and with 
 its eddies, swallows and vomits up again all 
 near it. 
 
 They say, that this Charybdis was a very 
 ravenous woman, who, when she stole Hercu- 
 les’s oxen, being struck by Jupiter with a thun- 
 der bolt, was turned into that Gulph. 
 
 These fables represent the vices of luxury 
 and gluttony, which render the voyage of life 
 very hazardous. 
 
 The former, like Scylla, draws unwary pas- 
 sengers by the deceitful charms of beauty ; and 
 when she hath once entangled them in her 
 snares, she tortures, vexes, torments and dis- 
 quiets them with rage surpassing the madness 
 of dogs, or the ravenous ness of wolves. 
 
 The latter, namely gluttony, is an insatiable 
 gulph, which buries families alive, devours es- 
 tates and patrimonies, consumes lands and treas- 
 ures, and sucks up ail things. They are neigh- 
 boring vices like Scylla and Charybdis, and 
 indeed too often act with united forces ; for 
 you will hardly find a man addicted to glutto- 
 ny, who is not besmeared with the filth of base 
 pleasures, and wholly given up to the most 
 vite and impudent lusts* 
 
212 
 
 HEATHEN GO©g. 
 
 THE INFERNAL DEITIES, 
 
 With a brief account of hell and Ely sum, prefixed* 
 
 CHAPTER LX1I. 
 
 HELL . 
 
 WE will now treat of the infernal deities^ 
 and the dark and gloomy regions of hell. The 
 passage that leads to these dominions, is a deep 
 cave, with a wide mouth, a rocky descent, over- 
 shadowed with a grove, and dreadful with the 
 lake Avernus, whence such poisonous vapours 
 arise, that birds, attempting to fly over it, are 
 immediately killed by the stench of it. 
 
 Before the very entrance of hell sits sorrow, 
 revengeful cares, pale diseases, repining old 
 age, fear, famine, poverty, labor and death. 
 Next, sleep, the half brother of death, the evil 
 pleasures of a guilty mind, fatal war, fraud and 
 violence, also the iron beds of the furies, and 
 mad discord tying her snaky hair with bloody 
 ribbands. 
 
 ELYSIUM. 
 
 ELY SIUM is a place in the infernal domin- 
 ions, abounding with pleasures and delights; 
 whither the souls of the good go, after they are 
 loosed from the chains of the body, and purged 
 from their lighter offences, that they had ctD’ 
 traded m this wtrld. 
 
HEATHEN GOD&. 
 
 218 
 
 ./Eneas received this account from one of the 
 inhabitants of it, as Virgil says, who describes 
 this place as abounding with ail the delights, 
 that the most pleasant plains, the most verdant 
 fields, and most temperate air can produce. 
 
 chapter lx in. 
 
 PLUTO. 
 
 PLUTO is the king of hell, begotten of Sat? 
 urn and Ops, and the brother of Jupiter and 
 Neptune. These infernal kingdoms are attri- 
 buted to him, not only because the western 
 parts of the world fell to him by lot ; but also 
 because he introduced the use of burying and 
 funeral obsequies : hence he is believed to ex- 
 ercise a sovereignty over the dead. He sits 
 on a dark throne, holding a key instead of a 
 sceptre, and wearing a crown of ebony. Some- 
 times he is crowned with a diadem, sometimes 
 with the flowers of the Daffodil, and sometimes 
 with the leaves of the cypress, because he is 
 delighted with these plants, especially the daf- 
 fodil ; for Proserpina was gathering that flower, 
 when he stole her away. His horses and char- 
 iot are of a black color ; and himself is often 
 painted with a rod in his hand for a sceptre* 
 and covered with a head-piece. 
 
 The key in his hand signifies, that the dead 
 are locked up in the other world, so as that they 
 cannot return to life again ; for he presides 
 
214 
 
 HEATHEN GODS. 
 
 over life and death, and has also the power of 
 lengthening or shortening the lives of men on 
 this earth. He is also the god of riches, be- 
 cause they are dug up from beneath. 
 
 CHAPTER LXTV. 
 
 PLUTUS. 
 
 PLUTUS, though he is not one of the in- 
 fernal gods, is joined to Pluto, because of the af- 
 finity of the name and office; for both of them 
 are gods of riches, which are the root of all 
 evils, and which nature the common parent, 
 hath placed near hell : nor indeed is there any 
 nearer way to that place, than by hunting after 
 riches too eagerly. 
 
 This Plutus w as the son of Jason, or Jasius, 
 by Ceres : He was blind, lame, void of judg- 
 ment, and of a very timorous nature ; which 
 infirmities were justly ascribed to him ; for he 
 too often passes by good men, in the distribu- 
 tion of his treasures, and loads the wicked with 
 riches; which shews that he is blind. Wealth 
 got by industry comes slowly, and therefore 
 they feign him lame : And lastly, he was timo- 
 rous, because the rich use to watch over their 
 treasures with great care and fear. 
 
HEATHEN gods. 
 
 215 
 
 CHAPTER LXV. 
 
 PROSERPINA . 
 
 PROSERPINA is queen of hell, the infer- 
 nal Juno, and wife of Pluto. She was the 
 daughter of Jupiter, who being disguised in the 
 shape of a bull, begat her of Ceres ; and after 
 she was born, and grown up, he debauched her, 
 though his own daughter, in the form of a drag- 
 on. 
 
 I When none of the goddesses would marry 
 Pluto because of his deformity, being vexed 
 that he was so despised, and forced to live a 
 single life, he in a rage mounted his chariot, 
 and suddenly sprung up from a den of Sicily ; 
 where, having seen a company of very beauti- 
 
 I ful virgins, gathering [lowers in the fields of 
 Enna, he, inflamed with love, rushed upon one 
 ol them, and the most charming, Proserpina by 
 name, carried her oif w ith him, and sunk into 
 the earth not far from Syracuse, where sudden- 
 ly a lake arose. The other nymphs, her com- 
 panions, being struck with fear and dispersed, 
 Ceres, the mother, came to find her daughter, 
 but in vain. Therefore having kindled torch- 
 es at the flames, which burst forth from the top 
 
 I of Mount iEtna, she seeks Proserpina through- 
 out ail the countries of the world. At last she 
 was assured by the nymph Arethusa, that she 
 was stolen by Pluto, and carried down into his 
 dark dominions. Ceres enraged with anger, 
 immediately goes to Jupiter, and complains of 
 
216 
 
 HEATHEN CODS. 
 
 the violence offered to her daughter by his 
 brother Pluto. Jupiter promised that she should 
 return to the world, provided she had tasted 
 nothing in hell. Hereupon Ceres went dow n 
 rejoicing, and Proserpina was returning, tri- 
 umphing with great transport, when Ascala- 
 phus told, that she saw Proserpina while she 
 walked, in Pluto's orchard, pluck a promegra- 
 nate, and eat some grains of it ; by which fatal 
 discovery, her return was stopped. The moth- 
 er amazed at this mischance, and incensed, 
 changed Ascalaphus into an owl, an ill-boding 
 bird; and then, by importunate prayers, extor- 
 ted from Jupiter, that Proserpina should live 
 half the year with her, and the rest of the time 
 with her husband Pluto. She afterwards so 
 loved this disagreeable husband, that, being 
 subject to jealousy, she turned his mistress, 
 Mentha, into mint, an herb of her own name. 
 
 The signification of the fable is this. Ceres 
 is the earth, Proserpina is the fertility of the 
 earth, or rather the seed, which lies buried un- 
 der ground in the winter, and in summer breaks 
 forth, and becomes fruit ; thus Proserpina lives 
 half the year in hell and the other half in heav- 
 en. 
 
 GHAPTER LXVI. 
 
 CHARON. 
 
 CHARON is the ferry-man of hell, a nasty, 
 pale a long-bearded oh} fellow; he waits with 
 
, 21 8 
 
 HEATHEN GODS. 
 
 Bis boat, that he may carry over to the oth&r 
 side, the souls of the dead, which hock to the 
 shores in troops ; yet not ail promiscuously, but 
 those only, whose bodies are committed to the 
 grave ; for the unburied wander about the 
 shores an hundred years, and then are admitted 
 into the boat, having first paid to Charon, a 
 half-penny by way of fare. 
 
 There are four rivers to he passed over by 
 the dead. 
 
 The first is Acheron, w ho formerly was the 
 son of Terra, or Ceres, born in a cave, and con- 
 ceived without a father ; and because he could 
 mot endure to behold the light, he ran dow n to 
 hell, and w as changed into a river, whose wa- 
 ters are extremely bitter. 
 
 The second is Styx, which is a lake rather 
 than a river, and was formerly the daughter of 
 Oceanus, and the mother of the goddess Victo- 
 ria by Acheron. 
 
 When' Victoria stood on Jupiter’s side, in 
 the war against the Giants, she obtained this 
 prerogative for her mother Styx, that the gods 
 should not violate her deity by an oath ; if any 
 of them should act contrary, he should be ban- 
 ished from the nectar and table of the gods, a 
 year and nine days; hence they held an oath 
 by the Stygian Lake sacred. 
 
 The third river, Coccytus, fiow r s with a 
 lamentable, and, as it were, a groaning noise,, 
 imitating and encreasing the howling of the 
 damned. 
 
 The fourth is Phlegethon, or Periphlegethon, 
 
0EATHEN GOBS. 2I§ 
 
 which swells with fiery waves, and rblls streams 
 of flames. The souls of the dead, having pas- 
 sed over these rivers, are carried to Pluto’s pal- 
 ace ; in the gate of which Cerberus watches, a 
 dog with three heads, begotten of Echidna and 
 Typhon; and whose body is covered with 
 snakes, instead of hair. 
 
 Lethe is another river in hell, whose waters 
 if any drink, he immediately forgets all things 
 past. And so when the pious souls have spent 
 many ages in the Elysian fields, having drank 
 the Lethean water, they are believed to return 
 to the world again, and to pass into new bodies. 
 Which that they might willingly do, it was ne- 
 cessary that they should forget both the pleas- 
 tires which they received in Elysium, and the 
 @vils which they had suffered in this life. 
 
 CHAPTER LXVII. 
 
 NOX. 
 
 'NOX is the most ancient of all the godded 
 $es, the sister of Erebus, and daughter of Cha- 
 os. She had by her brother a daughter, Death, 
 and a son, Sleep, who gives peace of mind to 
 mortals, takes away all care and solicitude, re- 
 freshes the members of the body, wearied with 
 hard services, and recruits them for their daily 
 labors. In the palace of sleep, there are two 
 gates ; one of ivory, through which false dreams 
 pass ; the other @f horn, which emits true vifc 
 
 T$RS, 
 
HEATHEN GODS. 
 
 %20 
 
 Morpheus is the servant of sleep, who can 
 change himself into all shapes and figures, and 
 presents the dreams to persons sleeping. 
 
 CHAPTER LiXVIII. 
 
 THE THREE JUDGES OF HELL. 
 
 THE three judges of hell are Minos, Rliad- 
 amanthus, and iEacus, who for their singular 
 prudence, temperance and equity, while they 
 flourished in Crete, were thought worthy to pass 
 sentence upon the souls of the dead. 
 
 The two first were the sons of Jupiter by 
 Europa ; the last by iEagina. When iEacus 
 alone escaped from the plague, which swept 
 away all the subjects of the queen his mother, 
 he besought Jupiter his father, that he would 
 repair the race of mankind almost extinct. 
 Jupiter heard him, and turned a great multi- 
 tude of ants, which crept about in an old hol- 
 low oak, into men called Myrmidones, from a 
 Greek word signifying an ant. 
 
 Pluto assigned to those three their respect- 
 ive provinces thus ; that Rhadamanthus should 
 judge the Asiaticks, iEacus the Europeans, each 
 holding a staff in his hand ; but Minos, being 
 honored with a golden sceptre, and sitting alone, 
 should oversee the judgments of these two ; 
 and, if there should arise any more doubtful 
 and difficult case, he should decide it. 
 
HEATHEN GOBS, 
 
 mi 
 
 CHAPTER LXIX. 
 
 FATES. 
 
 THE Fates are three old ladies, dressed in 
 snow white garments with a purple bonier, the 
 daughters of Nox, and Erebus, or of Necessity, 
 or of the sea, or of that rude and indigested 
 mass, which the ancients called Chaos. They 
 are three in number, because time divides it- 
 self into past, present, and future ; and their 
 names are Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos. 
 Their office is to manage the fatal thread of 
 life ; for Clotho holds the distaff, and draws the 
 thread ; Lachesis turns the spindle ; and Atro- 
 pos cuts the thread with scissors ; that is, the 
 first calls us into life ; the second determines 
 our lot and condition ; and the third concludes 
 life. 
 
 ©HAPTER LXX. 
 
 FURIES. 
 
 THE Furies are monsters, with a woman’s 
 face, but full of terror, armed with lighted torch- 
 es, and frightful with snakes, lashing their 
 necks and shoulders. Their names are Alecto, 
 Tisiphone, and Megsera, the offspring of Nox„ 
 and Acheron, who are esteemed virgins ; be- 
 cause, since they are the avengers of ail evil 
 deeds, they cannot be corrupted or perverted, 
 T % 
 
HEATHEN GODS. 
 
 422 * 
 
 so as that the wicked may escape punishbrien t. 
 'They are three in number; because there are 
 as many passions of the mind, namely, Anger, 
 Covetousness, and Lust, by which mortals are 
 Imrried headlong into all sorts of wickedness ; 
 for anger begets hatred and revenge ; Cove- 
 tousness seeks immoderate wealth, by right or 
 wrong; and Lust persuades to pursue pleas- 
 ures at any rate. 
 
 The meaning of the fable is, that everyone’s 
 own fraud and terror disturbs him most ; that 
 his own wickedness torments him ; his madness 
 affects him ; and his evil thoughts and lashes 
 of conscience affrighted his mind. These are 
 the continual and domestick furies to the wick- 
 ed, which both night and day exact the de- 
 served punishment of all their crimes. 
 
 CHAPTER LXXI. 
 
 THE GIANTS, TITANS, &c. 
 
 WE pass now from the judges to the crimin- 
 als, represented in the most horrid colors. It 
 will be sufficient to mention a few of the most 
 noted, and slightly to touch at their crimes and 
 punishments. 
 
 The Giants were descended of Terra and 
 the blood of Coelum, which flowed from the 
 dishonorable wound, which his son Saturn gave 
 him. They were very high in stature, and 
 
 formidable with the feet of dragons } their looks 
 
HEATHEN GOD&* 
 
 223 
 
 and bodies were full of terror, and their impru- 
 dence was so great, that they strove to depose 
 Jupiter from the possession of heaven. Hav- 
 ing thus engaged with the celestial gods, they 
 heaped up mountains upon mountains, and from 
 thence darted trees set on fire into heaven. 
 They hurled also prodigious stones, and solid 
 rocks, which, afterwards falling again upon the 
 earth, or into the sea, became mountains or 
 islands. 
 
 The battle was fought in the Phlegrsean 
 plains, near the borders of Campania, but un- 
 successfully by the giants, who were destroyed 
 by the thunder of Jupiter, the arrows of Apol- 
 lo, or the arms of the other gods ; and some 
 say, that serpents, and other venomous and per- 
 nicious animals, were produced out of the blood 
 of the slain, that was spilt upon the earth. The 
 most eminent of these giants were, 
 
 Typhaeus, or Typhon, begotten of Juno a- 
 lone, of so prodigious a bulk, that he was said to 
 touch heaven with his head, the east w ith one 
 hand, and the west with the other : A hundred 
 dragon’s heads grew from his shoulders ; his 
 whole body was covered with feathers, scales, 
 rugged hair, and adders ; his eyes sparkling, 
 and his mouth belching out Oames; from his 
 fingers ends snakes issued, and his feet had the 
 shape and fold’s of a serpent’s body. At last 
 he w^as overcome, and thrown down ; and lest 
 he should rise again, the whole island of Sicily 
 was laid upon him. This island was also cal- 
 led Trinacria, because it bears the form of a 
 
224 
 
 HEATHEN GODS. 
 
 triangle, where are three promontories, Pelo- 
 rus, P tchynus, and Lilybaeus; Ids right hand 
 was under the first, his left under the second, 
 *md his legs were pressed down by the third. 
 
 iEgaeon was another prodigious and cruel 
 giant, to whom the poets ascribe fifty heads, 
 and a hundred hands : He hurled a hundred 
 rocks against Jupiter at one throw ; by whom 
 notwithstanding, being overcome, he was bound 
 in a hundred chains, and thrust under the moun- 
 tain iEtna, which casts forth great flames of 
 fire, as oft as he moves his side. 
 
 Aioeus, when, for his decrepid age, he was 
 unable to take up arms against the gods ; sent 
 Othus and Ephialtes, the sons of his wife by 
 Neptune, in his own stead, to give assistance 
 to the Giants ; but these also met with the like 
 fate, and snifered punishments in hell suitable 
 to their rashness. 
 
 Tityus was the son of Jupiter and Elara, 
 born in a subterranean cave, in which the god 
 had hid his mother, fearing the anger of Juno. 
 The time of her delivery being come, she 
 brought forth a boy of such wonderful bigness, 
 that the earth itself opened, to give him a pas- 
 sage out of the cave into the light of life; 
 hence he was believed to be the son of the 
 earth. 
 
 He afterwards, by the persuasion of Juno, 
 not scrupling to accuse Latona of adultery, was 
 struck by the thunder of Jupiter, and thrown 
 down to hell, where being stretched on the 
 ground, he is said to cover mine acre? of land 
 
HEATHEN GODS* 
 
 225 . 
 
 with his body, and to give ills liver, which 
 grows again with the moon, to a vulture to be 
 devoured. 
 
 To these may be added the Titans, descend” 
 ed of Terra and Coslum, the chief of whom 
 was Titanus the elder brother of Saturn, who 
 made war against Jupiter, for usurping the 
 kingdom due to him by hereditary right. But 
 in this war he and his party were beaten, and 
 cast down to hell. 
 
 There were also others remarkable for their 
 crimes. Such was Phlegyas, king of the Lapi- 
 thas in Thessaly, and father of the nymph Co- 
 ro nis. When he knew that Apollo had de- 
 bauched his daughter, raging with anger, he 
 burnt the temple of the god at Delphos, for 
 which the enraged deity shot him with an ar- 
 row, and punished him thus ; that sitting un- 
 der a great stone, continually threatening his 
 ruin, he should ever dread what he never suf- 
 fers, and, from his fear, cal! out to men, that 
 they may learn to exercise justice, and not 
 contemn the gods. 
 
 Ixion was the offspring of this Phlegyas, 
 who, having killed his sister, and obtained his 
 pardon from the gods, was advanced to heaven. 
 But he was so swelled with his prosperity, that 
 he attempted to offer violence to Juno; where- 
 fore for a punishment of his most insolent at- 
 tempt, Jupiter sent a cloud in the shape of Ju- 
 no, which the infatuated lover embraced, and 
 from thence, they say, those abominable mon- 
 sters the Centaurs were bom. When he was 
 
HEATHEN GOES. 
 
 32a 
 
 thrown down to the earth again, and boasted 
 every where, that he had debauched the queen 
 of the gods, he was struck with thunder head- 
 long into hell, where, being tied to a wheel, he 
 is continually turned round. 
 
 Salmoneus was king of Elis, who despised 
 kingly, but courted divine honors. That he 
 might attain these, he built a high brazen bridge 
 over the city, and drove his chariot over it, to 
 imitate Jupiter’s thunder; from whence also 
 lie threw down lighted torches upon the people 
 and commanded ail, that were touched by them 
 to be killed ; thus imitating the power and ven- 
 geance of the gods. But Jupiter/not suffering 
 his insolence, cast him down headlong from 
 his high theatre into hell. 
 
 Sisyphus was a famous robber, killed by The- 
 seus. His punishment in hell is to roll a great 
 stone to the top of a high hill, which no sooner 
 touches the top, than it is tumbled down again. 
 
 The Belides, so called from their grandfath- 
 er Belus, and Banaides, from their father Da- 
 naus, were fifty virgin sisters, whom the father 
 married to as many sons of his brother. But 
 when he heard from the Oracle that he should 
 be cut off by one of his sons in law, he enjoin- 
 ed his daughters, that in their wedding night, 
 being privately provided with daggers, they 
 should kill every one her own husband asleep. 
 Every one executed the contrived wickedness, 
 except Rypermnestra, w^ho spared her husband 
 Lyneeus, who, afterwards, having killed Dana- 
 $m, took his kingdom* The other wicked sis- 
 
HEATHEN GODS* 
 
 ters, for a punishment of such impiety, draw 
 waters out of a very deep w ell, which they con- 
 stantly pour into a tub bored through like a 
 sieve, till they fill it; which attempting in 
 vain, they are tormented with infinite and un- 
 profitable labor. 
 
 Tantalus was the son of Jupiter by the 
 nymph Flota. When he had invited all the 
 gods to a feast, to prove their divinity by an 
 iiifalliabie experiment, he set his own son Pe« 
 lops before them to eat. All restrained from 
 the horrid diet, except Ceres, who eat the 
 child’s shoulder ; but instead of it, the gods 
 substituted and ivory one, and having recalled 
 his soul out of hell by Mercury, restored him 
 to life again. 
 
 This is the Pelops, who, by his wife, Hippo- 
 damia, had Atreus and Thyestes ; the latter 
 whereof was banished, because he corrupted 
 his brother’s wife, and after he was recalled* 
 eat up those children begotten in adultery ; for 
 Atreus had killed them, and brought them in 
 dishes to the table, where himself and his broth- 
 er were dining together. With the horror of 
 which fact, it is reported, that the sun went 
 backward, having turned his course to the east 
 again. But as Tantalus was much more wick- 
 ed, so his punishment was greater; for being 
 driven down to hell, amidst elegant entertain- 
 ments, he is tormented w ith eternal hunger and 
 thirst ; being forbidden to drink the waters 
 flowing up to his lips, and obliged to withhold 
 his teeth from the meats put just to his moutfc 
 
228 
 
 HEATHEN GODS. 
 
 They say also, that he divulged the secrets of 
 the gods to men ; and therefore a weighty stone 
 hangs over his head, continually threatening 
 his destruction. The fable of Tantalus repre- 
 sents the condition of a miser, who is poor in 
 the midst of plenty, and as much wants the 
 things that he has, as those which he has not. 
 
 CHAPTER LXXir. 
 
 CENTAURS , HARPIES , &e. 
 
 THE Centaurs were the ancient inhabitants 
 of Thessaly, and the first who tamed horses, 
 and used them in war ; from whence it came 
 to pass, that being seen riding on horses, they 
 were supposed to have the members partly of 
 men, partly of horses : But the poets say, that 
 Ixion begat them of a cloud, which he believ- 
 ed to he Juno. 
 
 Geryon was said to have three bodies, be- 
 cause he was king of the three islands, which 
 were called Balearides ; or because there were 
 three brothers of the same name, so united in 
 mind and affections, that they were believed 
 to be animated and governed by one soul. 
 They add, that he kept oxen, which devoured 
 all strangers, and that they were guarded by a v 
 dog with two, and a serpent with seven heads. 
 
 The Harpyes, so called from their rapacity, \ 
 w r ere bom of Oceanus and Terra, with the fa- 
 ces of virgins, and bodies of birds ; their hands 
 
 ■ 
 
HEATHEN GOBS. 22'§ 
 
 were armed with claws, and they lived in the 
 islands. Their names were Aello, Ocypete 
 and Celaeno, which last brought forth Zephyr- 
 us and Balius and Xanthus the horses of A- 
 ehilles. The three Gorgons, Medusa, Sthenio# 
 and Uryale, were the daughters of Phorcus 
 and Cete, their heads were dreadful with vi- 
 pers instead of hairs, by which they struck so 
 great terror into beholders, that they presently 
 hardened into stones. By this fable they 
 would represent the wonderful beauty of these 
 sisters, which was such, that those who saw 
 them, seemed to stand Avith amazement in the 
 same place, as if they were stones. 
 
 The Lam hr, or Empusge,as others call them# 
 were descended of the same parents ; they had 
 only one eye, and one tooth common to them 
 all, which they kept at home in a certain little 
 vessel, and whomsoever of them went abroad# 
 she used them. They had the faces, and a Is® 
 the necks and breasts of women ; but their in- 
 ferior parts w ere covered with scales and end* 
 ed in serpents. They used to entice men by 
 deceit, and then devour them ; for with their 
 naked breasts, open bosoms, and downcast eyes* 
 as it were out of modesty, they tempted be- 
 holders first to discourse, and then they flew to 
 their throats, strangled and tore them most 
 barbarously. 
 
 The Chimaera is a monster which vomit# 
 forth fire, having the head and breast of a lion, 
 the belly of a goat, and the tail of a dragon. 
 A mountain of Lyeia, from whence flames of 
 
230 
 
 HEATHEN GODS. 
 
 fire break forth, gave occasion to the fable; 
 for lions dwell in the top of it, goats in the mid- 
 dle, which abounds with pastures, and serpents 
 at the bottom ; and because Bellerophon made 
 this mountain habitable, he is said to have kil- 
 led the Chimaera. 
 
 Sphinx was a monster begotten of Typhon 
 and Echidna, having the bead and face of a 
 young woman, the wings of a bird, and the body 
 and feet of a dog. She Jived in the mountain 
 Sphincius, whence she assaulted all passengers* 
 and infested the country about Thebes. Apol- 
 lo, being consulted concerning her, made ans- 
 wer, That there would be no end of so great 
 an evil, unless somebody resolved the riddle of 
 Sphinx; which when many attempted in vain 
 and were torn by the monster,Creon at that time 
 reigning at Thebes, having published an edict 
 through all Greece promised that he would give 
 his ssster Jocasta in marriage to the man who 
 should explain it. The riddle was ; What an- 
 imal goes upon four feet in the morning, upon 
 two at noon, and three at night ? Oedipus, en- 
 couraged with the hope of the reward, under- 
 took it, and happily explained it ; telling, That 
 the creature was man, who, in his infancy, 
 creeping on his hands and feet, is four footed ; 
 when age advances, he is two footed, because 
 he uses no other support than that of his feet ; 
 but when he is old, he is supported by the 
 help of a statf, and so may be said to be three- 
 footed. Sphinx took this so ill, that she im- 
 mediately cast herself headlong from a rock, 
 and died. 
 
HEATHEN GODS. 
 
 231 
 
 Oedipus was the sob of Laics, king of The- 
 bes. Soon after his birth, his father command- 
 ed a soldier to cany the child into a wood, and 
 kill him, because it had been foretold by the 
 Oracle, that he should be cut off by him; but 
 the soldier being moved with compassion, and 
 afraid to embrue his hands in the ro}^al blood 
 of the innocent, having pierced his feet with 
 iron, hung him upon a tree, to be killed with 
 hunger. One of the shepherds of Polybius, 
 king of Corinth, found him, and brought him to 
 the queen, who, wanting children, educated 
 him as her own son. When he grew up, being 
 informed that he was not the son of Polybius, 
 he resolved to find his parents ; and having 
 consulted the Oracle, he heard, that he would 
 find his father in Phocis. While he goes thith- 
 er, he met some travellers, among whom a 
 quarrel arising, he killed his father unknow n to 
 him ; then going to Athens, he married his 
 own mother Jocasta, and by her had two sons, 
 Eteocies, and Poiynices, and as many daught- 
 ers, Antigona, and Ismena. At length when 
 by clear proofs he discovered that he had kil- 
 led his father, and married his mother, he was 
 seized with so great madness, that he pulled 
 out his own eyes, and had put violent hands 
 on himself, but that his daughter Antigona, 
 prevented, and led him about, being then blind. 
 
 Eteocies and Poiynices, sons of Oepidus and 
 Jocasta, succeeded their father in the govern- 
 ment, on this condition, that they should reign 
 by turns. But Eteocies, the elder, after h« 
 
J3& HEATHEN GOBS. 
 
 had governed the first year, refused to give 
 place to his brother Polynices. Hence a griev- 
 ous war broke out, in which the two brothers 
 engaging in a single combat, killed one anoth- 
 er by mutual wounds. They say, that their 
 enmity lasted in their bodies after death, which 
 being placed on the same pile, to be burnt by 
 the same fire, the flames refused to unite, but 
 were divided into two parts. 
 
 CHAPTER L.XXIII. 
 
 BATTLE OF THE GODS AND TITANS . 
 
 Wrom the Theogony of Hersiod; comprising a dt* 
 scription of Tartarus. 
 
 — — Fotpiiyaprov s yupctv 
 
 TIxVTg?, &c. &Boy — 666. 
 
 NOW rings th’ expanse of heav’n with dire alarnfrj 
 And ail the Gods, embattled, rush to arms : 
 
 Th’ enormous Titans of gigantic size. 
 
 Burst their dark prisons and attempt the skies; 
 
 Whilst there, set free from Erebus and Nigh’t 
 The Giant brothers aid the Gods in fight. 
 
 His hundred hands each tow’ring monster rears. 
 
 And from his fifty dreadful heads he stares : 
 
 While the dread brotherhood thus sternly frown, 
 
 A hundred rocks at once by each are thrown : 
 
 The Titans rush, with maddest fury driven, 
 
 Assault the Gods, and urge the war on heav’n : 
 
 While from the groaning earth the rocks rebound, 
 
 Heav’n shakes, and ocean trembles all around ; 
 
 At each dread blow, shakes the eternal poles ; 
 
 And Hell affrighted, agitated rolls ; 
 
 Such awful noise profoundest Nature shocks, 
 
 Whilst hills meet nills, and rocks encounter rocks* 
 Tumultuous clamours rise through earth, air, heav'n. 
 
 And now to shake the skies to War is giv’n. 
 
 Tltea Jtre in ah his terrors dread array’d. 
 
HEATHEN COBS. 
 
 230 
 
 Olympus and the hills to tremble made ; 
 
 He hurls ten thousand Jight’mngs through the air. 
 
 The forky bolts with reddest fury glare : 
 
 Their horrid gleam to night extends the day ; 
 
 While all their flashing terrors they display. 
 
 In wrath he moves, redoubles blows on blows, 
 
 Burn all the groves, the earth with fire now glows ; 
 
 The waters hiss with fire, and boil the floods, 
 
 And Ocean smokes from ail its deep abodes : 
 
 The murky clouds of war impel the night, 
 
 Save when Jove’s forky lightnings give their light : 
 
 Heav’n flames, Earth groans, and even Chaos burns. 
 
 When he Earth’s hills and shining tow’rs inurns j 
 'When the huge Earth is to the center torn, 
 
 And each disruptive chasm admits the morn. 
 
 New horrors now appear of ev’ry kind, 
 
 Clouds dash on clouds before the stormy wind ; 
 
 Which the huge drifts of sand in columns rear, 
 
 And half the deserts mount th’ encumber’d air. 
 
 The lightnings fly, the bellowing tempest soars, 
 
 Clouds the bright skies involve, and thunder roars. 
 Stupendous were the deeds of heav’n-born might ; 
 
 What could it less when gods contend in fight? 
 
 Now heav’n the war fierce urges on its foes, 
 
 The Giant pow’rs soon feel unusual woes. 
 
 Aegeon and Gyges stalk with haughty stride, 
 
 And Cottus rends up hills with Giant pride : 
 
 These hurl’d at once upon the Titan bands, 
 
 Three hundred mountains from three hundred hands ! 
 
 Thus overthrown and overwhelm’d, they bound. 
 
 The Giant host beneath the groaning ground, 
 
 In chains infrangible, as far they lie 
 
 From earth, as earth is from the star-clad sky! 
 
 Nine times the space that measures night and day. 
 
 An anvil falling through th’ ethereal way. 
 
 Fierce rushing through th’ expanse with whirling rounds. 
 Scarce in that time would reach th’ infernal bounds. 
 
 An iron wall built of prodigious height, 
 
 The dungeons fix in caves of threefold night. 
 
 O’er the dire horrors of th’ eternal shade. 
 
 The huge foundations of the earth are laid ; 
 
 There by stern Jove, in strongest fetters bound, 
 
 Th’ afflicted Titans groan in pains profound i 
 Oh seats of woe ! far, far from cheerful day, 
 
 Gulfy, unpassable, the boundless way ! 
 
 Far o’er those realms a brazen palace stands, 
 
 With gates of brass, the work of Neptune’s hands,; 
 
 From Chaos to old Ocean’s verge it swells. 
 
 Where stern Aegeon (with the Giants) dwells ; 
 
 Jove’s watchful guards ! hence ’tis the fountains rise, 
 
 Which ooze through earth, or exhale tow’rd the skies i 
 That rumbling murmur through the realms below, 
 
 Or feed the rivers where the Oceans flow ; 
 
 Pread horrors all the dire abodes iafest, 
 
 v 2 
 
IlEATKEN OODaL 
 
 Gloomy and fell, which ev’n the Gods detest : 
 
 Waste, void and wide appears th. gulf profound, , 
 And a year’s journey scarce can reach the bound ! 
 There in wild whirls appears the god of‘ storms* 
 Annoys the wanderer, and the night deforms : 
 
 Th' immortal pow’rs behold with wild affright^ 
 
 Th’ enormous chasm, and close it up in night* 
 
 Hence to huge Atlas’ giant limbs are giv’n, 
 
 To rear the golden spheres and prop the heavn* 
 
 Here sable Night, and here the radiant Day, 
 Alternate lodge, alternate is their sway. 
 
 A brazen bound divides the varying pow’rs, 
 
 When here Night rests, the Day eontrouls the hours;' 
 And when Night, issuing, shews the starry skies, 
 
 Hay from her dark domain obsequious dies : 
 
 She, in her turn, o’er earth with radiance gleams, 
 And from her lamp pours forth the cheering beams : 
 But Night and Somnus, drowsy, issue forth. 
 
 Heath’s brethren, and o’erwhelm the spacious earth f 
 From hell’s foul womb these pow’rs resistless sprung^ 
 The fell Tartarean horrors nurs’d among. 
 
 Remote from where the flaming wheels of Day, 
 Mount high in heav’n, or gild the western way ; 
 
 With drowsy footsteps, issuing from the deep, 
 
 O’er Earth’s wide surface reigns the god of sleep ; 
 Friendly to life ! But Death relentless wears, 
 
 A flinty heart, deriding human cares ; 
 
 He makes his prey of man, the race unblest ! 
 
 And all the immortal gods his power detest. 
 
 The daring host of Giant Titans fell ; 
 
 Hurl’d by Jove’s thunders down to deepest hell* 
 Maternal woes then felt the pregnant earth, 
 
 And all her frame shook with the monstrous birth. 
 Hence the gigantic Typhoeus, bold and young. 
 
 From Earth and Tartarus the monster sprung ; 
 
 For gods a match in fight ! aloft he spreads 
 From Ins gigantic form, an hundred heads ; 
 
 And from his hundred mouths, with vengeance dire. 
 Throws poisonous foam, and darts, and murky fire.' 
 With frowns terrific his huge eyebrow s scow l, 
 
 And, red as flame, his fiery eyeballs roll ; 
 
 From ev’ry crest, where’er he turns, flames flow, 
 
 The Giant burns, and flashing splendors glow ; 
 
 His hundred tongues produce so dire a noise, 
 
 The skies seem frighted with his thund’ring voice. 
 Fiercely at times against the heav’ns he arms, 
 
 The skies he shakes, and ev’n the gods alarms : 
 
 He roars like bulls advancing to the fight ; 
 
 And now, like lions, hideous makes the night ; 
 
 The Giants hiss like snakes, or like wolves yell. 
 
 The rocks and mountains shake to deepest helh 
 They ’gainst th’ immortal pow’rs defiance hurl’d. 
 
 And bold Rebellion’s bloody flag unfurl’d ; 
 
HEATHEN QOm 
 
 235 
 
 th thought Typhotui gains the heav’nly towers. 
 
 Ai d s<.es in chains th great celestial powers. 
 
 But tar and wide til’ Almighty arms ox Jove, 
 
 Caus’d thunders roll, and torked lightnings drove: 
 
 To crush the seeds oi this most tbul revolt, 
 
 O’er earth and seas — he hurls the darning bolt; 
 
 Amidst his lightnings sternly frowns the God ; 
 
 Olympus shakes and all the mountains nod. 
 
 Fierce iiames involve the poles, devour the ground? 
 Earth shakes the Ocean from the depths profound. 
 
 With thund’ring sound, fires from Typho&us hash. 
 Storms rattle and the ancient mountains crash. 
 
 The conflagration rolls below, above, 
 
 And seems to threaten ev.’n the throne of Jove : 
 
 Earth totters from the fiery deluge, fell, 
 
 And Pluto quakes, with ail his ghosts, in hell. 
 
 E’en the pale Titans, chain’d on living Are, 
 
 The wdi known lightnings to escape desire; 
 
 Now full of wrath great Jove applies the rod ; 
 
 His loudest thunders now proclaim the God. 
 
 Gloomy he rushes from th’ Olympian height. 
 
 And curs’d Typhoons feels his godlike might: 
 
 Now sink he must, though he for mercy call ; 
 
 Earth groans and quakes beneath th’ enormous fall® 
 
 But still the lightnings of th’ Almighty play ; 
 
 They burst the Earth, and in it let the day ; 
 
 The kindling earth, melts inward in her caves, 
 
 And floats with hissing, fierce, metalline, w 7 aves> 
 
 As from the furnace fusile iron flows, 
 
 Or melted ore with bright effulgence glows. 
 
 When Vulcan frames the bolts of Jove’s dread ire, 
 
 In blazing channels rolls the liquid fire; 
 
 While earth thus melts, and while her streams thus floty? 
 Jove plung’d the Giant to the realms below 7 . 
 
 Forth from Typhoeus sprung the winds that wing 
 •The storms, and shrilly through the ether sing : 
 
 But from the gods descend and issue forth ; 
 
 The East, the West, the South, and sterner North ; 
 These send the breeze, soft as the voice of love, 
 
 Sport on the seas, and wanton through the grove. 
 
 They cool the sultry air with gentle gales, 
 
 Urge the tall ships and swell their spreading sails. 
 
 The rest in whirlwinds fly, and sounding storm 
 The wild waves toss, and heav’ns calm face deform 
 Dreadful to man the raving ocean roars, 
 
 And the bilg’d navies scatters round the shores; 
 
 O’er the wide earth they, thund’ring, bend their way ; 
 Grass, herbs, and fiow’rs and trees, become their prey : 
 While the vain boasts of man, the dome and tower, 
 
 Torn from their base, confess th’ o’erwhelming power! 
 
 Thus heav’n contends, nor yet contends in vain, 
 Against the Giant, and the Titan train ; 
 
 Again in peace the blissful gods above, 
 
 Add sft the thromes of heav’n, ©bey their Jot®, 
 
HEATHEN GOBS. 
 
 23 © 
 
 CHAPTER LXXIV. 
 
 THE VIRTUES WHICH WERE WOW 
 SHIPPED AS DEITIES. 
 
 VIRTUE. 
 
 THOSE goddesses, whose images are small 
 and all painted in one picture, are the virtues; 
 by whose favor not only the Dii Adscriptitii, 
 but all the other gods were advanced to heav- 
 en, and honored with divine worship. There 
 are among them seme vices, to which also al- 
 tars were dedicated, which, like shades, in- 
 crease the lustre of the virtues, whose bright- 
 ness is doubled by the reflection of the colors. 
 The ancients worshipped not only the several 
 species of virtues, but also virtue herself in the 
 habit of a matron, sitting on a square stone. 
 Marcus Marcellos dedicated a temple to her, 
 near which he built another to Honor. By 
 this w^as signified, that by virtue the way is 
 opened to true honor. 
 
 FAITH. 
 
 FAITH had a temple at Rome, near the 
 Capitol, which Numa Pompilius consecrated to 
 her. The sacrifices of this goddess were per- 
 formed without slaughter, or blood ; and her 
 priests had their heads wrapped, and hands 
 covered with white cloth ; because Faith ought 
 
HEATHEN GOBS. 
 
 to be close and secret. Her symbol was a 
 white dog, which is a faithful creature, and two 
 virgins joining their right hands, whereby they 
 engaged their faith for future friendship. 
 
 HOPE . 
 
 HOPE had a temple in the Herb market, at 
 Rome which, being struck with lightning was 
 burnt down. She was represented as a woman 
 standing, with her left hand lightly holding up 
 the skirts of her garment, and in her right a 
 plate, in which was placed a Ciborium, fash- 
 ioned to the likeness of a flower, with this in- 
 scription, SPES , P. R . The hope of the Roman 
 people • 
 
 JUSTICE. 
 
 JUSTICE was painted with a virgin coun- 
 tenance, a piercing eye, severe brow, her asr 
 pact awful, noble, and venerable. 
 
 PIETY. 
 
 PIETY had a chapel dedicated to her by 
 Attilius the Duumvir, in that place wherein 
 the woman dwelt, who fed her mother in pris- 
 on by the breast. This extraordinary piety 
 
238 
 
 HEATHEN GODS. 
 
 of the daughter gained the mother’s freedom, 
 and afterwards they were both maintained at 
 the public expense, and the place was conse- 
 crated to the goddess Piety. There is a like 
 example in the Grecian history, of a certain 
 woman w ho nourished Cymon, her aged father 
 in the same manner. 
 
 MERCY . 
 
 MERCY was worshipped by the Athenians, 
 who erected an altar to her, and made her tem- 
 ple an asylum, to which the miserable and «n- 
 fortunate might fly. 
 
 CLEMENCY . 
 
 CLEMENCY was reputed a goddess; but 
 nothing memorable occurs concerning her, un- 
 less that a temple was erected to the clemency 
 of Caesar. 
 
 CHASTITY. 
 
 CHASTITY had two temples dedicated to 
 her, the one to Pudicitia Patricia, the other to 
 Pudiciiia Piebeia, built by Virginia, the daugh- 
 ter of Aulus ; for when the noble ladies had 
 banished her from the sacrifices of this goddess. 
 
HEATHEN GODS. 
 
 239 
 
 because, being of a Patrician family, she was 
 married to a Plebian, she invited all the Pie- 
 Man matrons to her new chapel ; and having 
 dedicated the altar to Pudicitia Plebeia, -she 
 addressed them thus: I beg, that there may be 
 the same emulation of chastity among you mat- 
 rons , as of bravery among the men ; that you 
 worship this goddess as zealously , as they adore 
 honor ; and that this altar be frequented by pur- 
 er and chaster votaries , than that of Pudicitia , 
 if it be possible . The rites of both were the 
 same ; and no matron, except of an approved 
 chastity, and who had been married only '.to 
 one man, had leave of sacrificing. 
 
 TRUTH. 
 
 TRUTH, the mother of Virtue, was dressed 
 in snow white garments; her countenance was 
 serene, courteous, cheerful, and yet modest ; 
 she is the pledge of honesty, the bulwark of 
 honor, and the light and ornament of human 
 society: She was commonly accounted the 
 daughter of Time and Saturn ; because truth 
 is discovered in the course of time ; but De- 
 mocritus feigns, that she lies hid in the bottom 
 <*f a well. 
 
24 $ 
 
 HEATHEN CODs. 
 
 UNDERSTA ND1NG . 
 
 UNDERSTANDING was consecrated by 
 the Romans, that she might give them a sound 
 mind. An altar was built to her m the capi- 
 tal, by Marcus iEmilius. 
 
 — 040 — 
 
 CONCORD. 
 
 CONCORD had many altars dedicated to 
 her at several times. Her image held a bowl 
 in the right hand, and a horn of plenty or a 
 sceptre, from which fruits seemed to sprout 
 forth in the left. Her symbols were two right 
 hands joined, and a pomegranate. 
 
 PEACE. 
 
 PEACE was honored at Athens with an ah 
 tar ; and at Rome had a most magnificent tem- 
 ple in the Forum, begun by Claudius, and fin- 
 ished by Vespasian, w hich afterwards was oon- 
 sumed by fire, under the emperor Commodus. 
 She was described in the form of a matron, 
 holding ears of corn in her hand, and crowned 
 with olive, or laurel, and sometimes with reser. 
 Her symbol was a Cadueeus, 
 
HEATHEN GOBSm 
 
 M% 
 
 HEALTH. 
 
 HEALTH was held in such honor among 
 the Romans, that several holy days were ap- 
 pointed, in which they worshipped her. Her 
 image was the figure of a woman sitting on a 
 throne, and holding a bowl in her right hand* 
 Hard by stood an altar, to which a twining ser- 
 pent lifted up its head. In the same place wag 
 heretofore celebrated the Augurium Salutis, 
 w hich was a kind of divination, whereby it was 
 inquired, if the gods would permit, that the 
 people should pray for peace. 
 
 FIDELITY. 
 
 FIDELITY also got a temple and an altar* 
 and had suitable sacrifices performed to her,* 
 She seemed a venerable imtron, sitting on a 
 throne, holding in her right hand a caduceus,, 
 and in her left a horn of plenty. 
 
 LIBERTY. 
 
 LIBERTY, after the kings were expelled* 
 was worshipped by the Romans as a goddess* 
 and a temple was dedicated to her. Cicero 
 says, that Clodius also consecrated bis ©w& 
 house to this deity. 
 
24 % 
 
 HEATHEN GODi 
 
 MONEY. 
 
 MONEY was also invocated, that they 
 Blight be rich ; and, indeed, man> at this time* 
 worship gold and silver, make vows, and raise 
 altars to Mammon, that they may fill thei? 
 Goffers. 
 
 MIRTH . 
 
 MIRTH was likewise consecrated, and Ly- 
 eurgus ridiculously erected an image among 
 the Lacedemonians to that god. The Thessa- 
 lians of the city Hypata every year sacrificed 
 to him with great jollity. 
 
 GOOD GENIUS . 
 
 GOOD GENIUS had a temple in the way 
 that leads to the mountain Maenalus ; and at 
 the end of supper, they offered him a cup filled 
 with wine and water. 
 
HEATHEN GODS. 
 
 240 
 
 CHAPTER LXXV. 
 
 The VICES to which propitiary sacrifices were 
 offered . 
 
 THE VICES which oppose our happiness, 
 and often occasion mischiefs and dangers, are 
 the evil deities. 
 
 ENVY, . 
 
 ENVY was a goddess, as Pallas herself con- 
 fessed, when, meeting her at her house, she re- 
 quested, that she would infect a certain lady, 
 ©ailed Aglauros, with her poison. Ovid paints 
 this goddess, and describes her house in ele- 
 gant verse. 
 
 CONTUMELY AND IMPUDENCE . 
 
 CONTUMELY and IMPUDENCE were 
 worshipped at Athens, and represented by a 
 partridge, a very impudent bird. 
 
 CALUMNY. 
 
 CALUMNY, to whom the same Athenians 
 raised an altar, was painted thus by Apelles. 
 There sat a man, having long and open ears. 
 
HEATHEN GODS. 
 
 £44 
 
 inviting calumny, with his hand held out ; and 
 two women, ignorance and suspicion, attend 
 him. Before him calumny breaks out into a 
 fury ; with a countenance comely and beauti- 
 ful indeed ; but with sparkling eyes, and a face 
 inflamed with anger ; in her left hand she held 
 a lighted torch, and with her right twists a 
 young man’s neck, pouring forth his prayers, 
 and holding up his hands to the gods. Envy, 
 pale and dirty, goes before : Fraud and Conspir- 
 acy at her side ; and behind follows Repent- 
 ance, clad in mourning and torn garments, 
 turning back her head, to find Truth coming 
 ^fter with a slow pace. 
 
 FRAUD. 
 
 FRAUD was described with a human face* 
 the rest of the body resembling a serpent, whose 
 tail ended in the sting of the scorpion. She 
 uses lo swim through the river Cocytus, her 
 head only appearing above water. 
 
 DISCORD . 
 
 DISCORD is described by Petronius, rising 
 up from the Stygian Lake, with torn hair, and 
 clotted blood upon her visage ; her eyes sent 
 forth floods of tears ; her teeth were covered 
 \vith rust j her tongue flowed with gore ; her 
 
HEATHEN COBS. 
 
 ; 24S 
 
 lead was beset with snakes ; and being cloth- 
 ed with tattered garments, she brandished a 
 bloody lamp in her trembling right hand. 
 
 FURY. 
 
 FURY is described, sometimes chained, and 
 roaring ; sometimes raging and revelling, with 
 loose chains. Virgil paints her setting on a 
 heap of arms, bound with a hundred chains, 
 and bellowing with her bloody mouth. Petro- 
 nius describes her loose, with her chains bro- 
 ken, lifting up her bloody head on high. She 
 covers her head, wounded in a thousand places, 
 with a bloody helmet, and carries a burning 
 brand in her hand. 
 
 CHAPTER LXXVI. 
 
 DEITIES having both good and bad qualities* 
 FAME : 
 
 FAME had temples dedicated to her. Vir- 
 gil and Ovid give a very elegant description of 
 her. They say, that Terra, enraged against 
 the gods, brought forth this monstrous phantom* 
 sister to Coeus and Enceladus. She was of a 
 prodigious size, having all her body covered 
 with feathers, or rather wings, under wbiofe 
 
HEATHEN GOBS, 
 
 242 
 
 were placed innumerable eyes : She had al- 
 most an infinite number of ears, mouths, and 
 tongues. She files by night through the dark 
 shade of the earth, and in the middle of heav* 
 en ; in the day she sHs a say, either on the top 
 of a high house, or on lofty towers, and affrights 
 great cities ; and is as tenacious of a lie as of 
 truth. 
 
 FORTUNE . 
 
 FORTUNE was reputed a goddess, though 
 she comes both to the good and bad without 
 any judgment. She is so blind, that she runs 
 indifferently to any body, often pass'.ng by her 
 own worshippers, and favoring those who de- 
 spise her; yet her temples and names were al- 
 most innumerable. 
 
 FEUER. 
 
 FEVER, also fear and paleness, poverty and 
 art, necessity and violence, and tempest too* 
 were esteemed deities, and had altars and tem- 
 ples dedicated to them. 
 
 SILENCE. 
 
 BOTH the Romans and Epyptians worship- 
 ped the gods and goddesses of Silence. The 
 
248 
 
 HEATHEN GODS. 
 
 Latins particularly performed sacrifices to An- 
 geroma and Tacita, and the Egyptians to Har- 
 pocratis. That god was painted naked, in the 
 figure of a boy, crowned with an Egptian mi- 
 tre, holding in his left hand a horn of plenty, 
 and, with a finger of the right put on his lips, 
 as it were commanding silence. 
 
 The Harpocratis worshipped by the Egyp- 
 tians, as the god of Silence, was the son of Isis. 
 They offered such fruits as lentils and pulse to 
 him ; and consecrated to him the tree called 
 Perse ; because the leaves of it were shaped 
 like a tongue, and the fruit like a heart. His 
 Egyptian mitre, ended in points like two buds. 
 In some statues a figure in his right hand rest- 
 ed on his lips, as if enjoining Silence. The 
 images of Angeronia and Tacita, stood upon 
 the altar of the goddess V olupia. Their mouths 
 were tied up and sealed. This signifies that 
 they should endure their cares and troubles 
 without murmuring. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 EXPLANATION 
 
 OF THE 
 
 CONSTELLATIONS, PLANETS, 
 TIMES AND SEASONS. 
 REPRESENTED ON THE FARNESE GLOBE, 
 
 For the more perfect understanding of the poets and 
 dent historians , we have thought it necessary to add , in 
 an Appendix , a brief account of the Farnese Globe ; 
 which is the most ancient work of that kind in the world . 
 and contains all the Constellations which were known 
 by the poets of antiquity. It is true the Roman poets 
 do not , all of them, like Manillas, treat professedly of 
 the constellations, yet there are numerous expressions 
 and allusions in them which cannot be fully understood 
 without an explanation, such as that which will here b& 
 given . 
 
 CONSTELLATIONS. 
 
 THOUGH the stars were thought by the 
 ancients to be innumerable, yet the consteila* 
 lions on their globes were under fifty. Of these 
 
250 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 the Farnese globe (though much injured by 
 time, or its keepers) has preserved to us above 
 forty. The principal lines, as the arctic and 
 antarctic circles, the tropics, the equator, and 
 zodiac, are marked out on this globe, but with- 
 out any stars. To avoid the confusion that so 
 many figures may be apt to give, the constella- 
 tions to the north of the zodiac are first consid- 
 ered ; then those on the zodiac itself, and last- 
 ly those to the south of the zodiac. 
 
 The great Serpent (or Draco) by the north- 
 ern pole, spreads itself into both hemispheres, 
 and rolls according to the poets, between, as 
 well as round, the two Bears. 
 
 The Arcti (or Bears) are lost on the Farnese 
 globe. Belice, or the greater Rear, had its 
 tail towards the head of Cy nosura, or the lesser 
 Rear. Before the discovery of the compass, 
 these were the great directors in navigation. 
 
 Bootes was behind the greater Bear, or 
 Charle’s wain (so called from the Roman Plaus- 
 tra) and appears in the act of driving it on. 
 Be is dressed like a countryman, in a short tu- 
 nic, with his legs and arms bare, and the pe- 
 dum pastorale in ids right hand. Arcturus was 
 @n his breast. 
 
 Corona, or Ariadne’s crown, at Bootes’s right 
 hand, is a wreath of flowers and leaves fasten- 
 ed with a ribband, and makes such a circular 
 appearance in the heavens, though it is turned 
 to a Gothic crown on our globes. 
 
 Engoiutsis, or Ingeniculus, is so called from 
 his kneeling, the reason of which was unknown 
 
APPENDIX, 
 
 251 
 
 in the times of Manillas, and even of Aratus. 
 Avienus will have it to he Hercules almost 
 tired with his long fight with the serpent that 
 kept the garden of the Hesperides; in memory 
 of which Jupiter placed his figure in the heav- 
 ens with his heel bruising the great serpent’s 
 head. He is quite naked. 
 
 Ophiuchus or Serpentinus, is also naked, and 
 holds another serpent in his hands. Manillas 
 speaks of him and the serpent as fighting to- 
 gether, and that so equally, that the combat 
 must last for ever. The old globe is not so 
 picturesque ; for the serpent in his hands seems 
 rather to threaten Bootes than the person that 
 holds it. 
 
 The figure of Lyra shows that the lyra and 
 testudo of old were the same, for the bottom 
 part of it consists of the entire shell of a tor- 
 toise. It has only six strings, but there is a 
 space for a seventh, which seems to be defac- 
 ed, or perhaps w r as omitted in memory of the 
 Pleiad that has disappeared ; for it had seven 
 at first, in allusion to the number of the Plei- 
 ades. 
 
 Aquila, just under Lyra, is described as fly- 
 ing with the fuimen in his talons ; whereas 
 here he is without it, and standing in a quiet 
 posture. His head is in the other hemisphere, 
 near the Dolphin. 
 
 The figure of the Dolphin is spoken of as 
 very aptly marked out by the disposition of its 
 stars. From an expression in Mamiius, it may 
 be inferred, that the Dolphin on the ancient 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 25€ 
 
 painted globes was of a dark colour. On suck 
 a ground, the stars (when represented) must 
 have appeared to great advantage. 
 
 Cygnus, both here and by the poets, is rep* 
 resented in the attitude of flying. Before the 
 left wing is a line, almost worn out in the Far- 
 nese globe, which may be the Sagitta, as it is 
 said to be just by Cygnus. All that is observ- 
 ed of so plain a figure, is, that it was marked 
 out by the stars contained in it. 
 
 The five next constellations all relate to one 
 another. Pegasus, or the flying horse, on 
 which Perseus rode, is described, as he is here, 
 in a rapid flying posture, though there is but 
 half his figure. His mane is described by Avi- 
 enus^ like the manes of the two fine horses on 
 Monte Cavallo at Rome. 
 
 Andromeda extends her arms, and is descri- 
 bed as chained to a rock even in the heavens* 
 with grief and fear expressed in her face; and 
 is remarked as turning from her barbarous moth- 
 er, as on the globe. 
 
 Perseus holds bis sw r ord in one hand, with 
 the head of Medusa in the other, which agrees 
 with the poetical accounts; only there should 
 be a hook on his sword, which perhaps is e£* 
 faced. 
 
 Cassiopeia, the mother of Andromeda, is 
 seated on the arctic circle, and represented 
 with a disturbed air, as Cepheus her father is 
 with a severe one. They retain the same 
 character in the heavens as they had upo® 
 earth. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 253 
 
 The Deltoion or Triangle, is quite effaced* 
 or was omitted. It was not capable of any po- 
 etical description. It is said to lie in the space 
 between Andromeda, Perseus and Aries, which 
 space is of a triangular form. 
 
 Ericthonius, or Heniochus, commonly called 
 Auriga, or the Charioteer, appears without his 
 chariot, though in the posture of driving one. 
 In his right hand he holds his whip, as in his 
 left were the Haedi and Capella, which he held 
 before his breast, and therefore are not seen, as 
 his back is turned towards us. Probably in 
 some ancient globes his chariot was represent- 
 ed too. 
 
 These are all the northern constellations on 
 the globe. The signs of the zodiac are next to 
 be considered. 
 
 Cancer, according to Manilius, was repre- 
 sented without eyes ; so that what is seen on 
 the globe is only the socket for them. The 
 figures were generally represented on the an- 
 cient globes as alive and in action ; for which 
 reason Cancer, when painted, was of a black 
 color, though the moderns paint him red, as if 
 boiled. 
 
 Leo is described as furious and roaring, and 
 is represented on the globe. He is said to be 
 the Nemaean lion slain by Hercules. 
 
 Virgo has ears of corn in her hand, with the 
 virgin’s attribute, the zone. She is so describ- 
 ed by Manilius, who says, her look is chaste 
 and severe ; but as her back is towards us, this 
 is not seen. She is most usually represented 
 x 
 
254 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 with wings, and the corn in her hand in the 
 painted globes was colored as very ripe. 
 
 Libra, or the Balance, is said to have been 
 originally held up by the Scorpius, who ex- 
 tended his claw s beyond its limits for that pur- 
 pose, but that a little before Augustus’s death, 
 Scorpius w as made to contract his claws ; and 
 a new figure (probably of Augustus himself) 
 was introduced to bold the balance. On the 
 Farnese globe it is held by Scorpius, which 
 shews its antiquity. In several medals it is 
 held by a man, supposed to be Augustus. 
 
 Manilius alludes to both these ways of hold- 
 ing the balance. The old poets agree in its 
 being held up (though the moderns represent 
 it without any supporter) and with both scales 
 exactly even, which seems to refer to the e- 
 quality of the day and night w hen the sun en- 
 ters this sign. 
 
 Scorpius, according to the poets, was drawn 
 by the painters of a dark venomous colour, and 
 his tail pointed and raised, as preparing to 
 strike. These descriptions in the poets agree 
 with the figure on the globe, as far as they can 
 agree with the bare figure of a thing; and no 
 doubt they have added the colourings to it with 
 the same justness, as being equally acquainted 
 with the works of the painters as of the statu- 
 aries. 
 
 Arcitenens, or Sagittarius, is represented 
 like a Satyr. He holds his bow as just ready 
 to shoot an arrow aimed at the tail of Scorpius. 
 The artists, in process of time, substituted a 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 MB 
 
 centaur in the room of the satyr (as appears 
 from several gems and medals) and the poets 
 followed that idea even about the Augustan 
 age. Lucan expressly calls him Chiron, who 
 seems rather to preside over the constellation 
 properly called Centaurus. Manilius was in 
 the same error, and mentions some drapery, 
 though both are naked on the globe. He marks 
 very strongly the severity of his look, which 
 appears also in his figure. 
 
 Capricorn is hid, all but the head, by the 
 globe resting on Atlas’s shoulders. The rest 
 of his fiigure might be supplied from gems or 
 medals, particularly from a medal of Augustus 
 Caesar, where he is represented with the fore 
 part like a goat, and ending in a fish. 
 
 Aquarius appears like a beautiful fine shaped 
 youth, or representing Ganymedes, Jupiter’s 
 cup bearer. He holds the cup or little urn in 
 his hand, inclined downward, and is always 
 pouring out of it, as the source of a river run- 
 ning from his feet over a large part of the globe. 
 These particulars are well marked out by the 
 poets. 
 
 Pisces, or the Fishes, are described by Ma- 
 nilius under water, in the river that flows from 
 Aquarius. Their places are both marked by 
 the poets, and their being turned different 
 ways ; and they describe them rather in a more 
 picturesque manner than they appear on the 
 globe. Ovid gives a very pretty account how 
 they came to be received into the heavens. 
 
 Aries, or the Ram, turns his head baekward, 
 
256 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 as Manilius observes, from whom it appears ai* 
 so that he was painted of a gold color, and ve- 
 ry properly, as this was the very Ram so fa- 
 mous for his golden fleece ; and the same also 
 that carried Helle over the Sea, and gave her 
 name to a noted part of it. 
 
 Taurus, or the Bull, famous for carrying Eu- 
 ro pa over the same eletnent, and giving a name 
 to our part of the world, is described by the po- 
 ets as he appears on the globe. His head is 
 turned from the course of the sun, and he rises 
 backwards. He is represented only in part, 
 with his neck bending downward, and his knee 
 yet more bent. On some gems is seen his 
 w r ho!e figure, butting with his head, and tear- 
 ing up the ground with his feet. From a diffi- 
 cult passage in Virgil, we find that Taurus was 
 represented on the coloured globes with gilded 
 horns, and all the rest white, agreeably to the 
 poetical descriptions of Europa’s bull, and like 
 the bulls that were sacrificed to Jupiter Maxi- 
 mus. 
 
 Gemini (or the Twins) are described by 
 Manilius as naked, young, and beautiful, with 
 their arms interweaved, just as they appear on 
 the globe. Ovid makes them to be Castor and 
 Pollux ; but as these are always seen both to- 
 gether, that cannot be reconciled with their 
 taking their place alternately in the higher 
 heavens, unless the Twins were considered on- 
 ly as memorials, like the real Hercules. 
 
 These are the twelve signs of the zodiac; 
 the southern constellations are as follow 
 
APPEND!*. 
 
 25J 
 
 Argo is the famous ship that carried Jason 
 and the Argonauts to Colchis to fetch the gold- 
 en fleece, and is said to be the first that was 
 ever built. It is represented as sailing on, 
 though but half of it appears. There are no 
 figures on it besides a Victory and a Triton. 
 
 Hydras, or the water serpent, was (Manilius 
 says) very well marked out with stars ; but 
 this does not appear, because the Farnese globe 
 (the only ancient one as yet known) has no 
 stars. The situation of Hydras is described 
 by Avienus as it is in the Farnese globe. 
 
 Crates, or the Cup, rests on the back of the 
 Hydras toward the middle. It is shaped like 
 the little urns which the ancients used to drink 
 out of, and are seen in the hand of Bacchus in 
 statues and relievos. This too is said to be 
 marked out by its stars. 
 
 Corvus, or the Crow, is perched on the back 
 of the serpent, and bending down as pecking 
 at it. Nothing more is observed of it by the 
 poets. 
 
 Centaurus is just under the serpent’s tail. 
 His look is mild, as being the philosophical 
 Chiron, the great master of the rules of equity 
 and justice, and the instructor of Hercules, as 
 well as of Achilles. He is represented as 
 coming from the chace with a young lioness in 
 his hand, which is held by him (as a sacrifice) 
 toward the altar before him. 
 
 Ara is said by Manilius to be the altar on 
 which Jupiter offered sacrifice for success a- 
 gainst the giants. He represented it as with 
 x 2 
 
25S 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 lighted coals on it, and the frankincense as 
 flaming up ; but nothing of this appears on the 
 globe. 
 
 Next to Ara is a wreath like Ariadne’s, on- 
 ly larger, and without a ribband. As it is not 
 mentioned by the ancients, there is no guess- 
 ing what it means. 
 
 Piscis Notus, or the southern fish, whose 
 place should be under Aquarius, and near Ce- 
 tus, is lost by the globe resting in that part 
 on Atlas’s shoulder. 
 
 Cetus, or the sea monster that was to have 
 destroyed Andromeda, is well represented 
 swimming along the water that flows from A- 
 quarius’s urn, with great scales on his breast, 
 his mouth open and threatening, and his tail 
 wreathed, just as he is described by Manilius, 
 
 Flumen, or the River (supposed originally to 
 be the Nile, but turned by the Romans into 
 Eridanus, or the Po) wanders several ways. 
 The chief thing to be observed is, that it is 
 very winding and irregular, which is marked 
 by the poets as well as by the artists. 
 
 Orion kneels on one knee a little beyond 
 Cetus. His face is in profile; he holds out 
 his arms, and should perhaps grasp a sword in 
 his right hand. But that part is indistinct, and 
 the poets differ about it. Something like a 
 dagger hangs by his left side, Which agrees 
 better with Manilius and Avienus’s account of 
 his sword than what Ovid says. 
 
 Procyon, or Orion’s dog, rises before Sirius* 
 and it is thence that he has his name. 
 
APPENDIX* 
 
 25 $ 
 
 Sirius, or Canicula (commonly called the 
 Dog star) who has so terrible a character in the 
 old poets, and whose influence is so dreaded at 
 this day at Rome, was represented by the old 
 painters with a malign and dark look, and 
 sometimes as breathing flames like the Chimse- 
 pa. As a mark of his being so hot and fiery, 
 he is seen on the globe with several odd rays 
 about his head. He is described as running 
 vehemently after Lepus, who appears as run- 
 ning from him, and is therefore called sw ift, as 
 well as Sirius is by Yirgil, even when speak* 
 ing of him as a constellation. 
 
 Thus of the forty two great constellations in 
 the catalogue of Eratosthenes, we find all on 
 the Farnese globe, except the Arcti and the 
 Piscis Notus. As for the Hyades, Pleiades., 
 and A returns (so famous in antiquity) they 
 were not reckoned primarj^, but only seconda- 
 ry constellations, contained, the two first in 
 Taurus, and the other in Bootes. The Plei- 
 ades might possibly be represented personally 
 in some ancient globes. Yirgil mentions one 
 of them in that manner, and others speak of 
 them as a distinct constellation. 
 
 PLANETS , TIMES AND SEASONS . 
 
 SATURN was the most remote of the Plan- 
 ets, which was known to theantients; and 
 took ts name from Saturn the father of Jupiter, 
 who was supposed to preside over it 
 
260 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Jupiter, Mars, Venus and Mercury were also 
 supposed to preside over those planets which 
 bear their names. Venus, when the morning, 
 or evening, star, is supposed to be led by a 
 youth called Lucifer, Phosphorus, or Hesperus; 
 and many of the poets have called the planet 
 itself by those names. It is to this fable the 
 prophet Isaiah alludes when he says, How art 
 thou fallen from heaven , O Lucifer , son cf the 
 morning. Hilel in the Hebrew language which 
 signifies the morning star, has been translated 
 into the Latin word Lucifer, which means the 
 same thing. 
 
 Diana was said to preside over the moon, 
 and have the direction of it, whence she is 
 called Luna ; and Apollo is said to have pre- 
 sided over the sun ; whence the poets frequent- 
 ly call the sun Apollo. 
 
 The Mythologists personified the Times and 
 Seasons. Hebe is said to mean Eternity. The 
 Platonic year, or Magnus Annus, the Scecula, 
 the Four Ages, the Anni, the Seasons, Ver, 
 iEstas, Autumnus, Hyems, the Months, Days, 
 Night and Morning, the Evening, the Hours, 
 Space and Time, were all represented as Dei- 
 ties. 
 
REFERRING TO ALL THE NECESSARY MATTERS 
 
 IN THIS BOOK. 
 
 Page 
 
 ACHERON , a river of hell 
 
 Achilles , his history 194 
 
 Acidalia, one of the titles of Venus 
 Acteon changed into a stag T9 
 
 Adonis , account of 55 
 
 Adscriptiiii dii , gods of lower rank and dignity 
 JEacus, a judge of hell £20 
 
 JEgeon , a giant 224 
 
 Mgis , a shield so called, made by Jupiter 25 
 
 .dEZ/o, was one of the Harpies 229 
 
 JEolus, his history 150 
 
 JEons, what they were 11 
 
 Aesulanus , one of the gods of wealth 
 Aesculapius , excelled in medicine, 110. The cock 
 sacrificed to him 111 
 
 Aeson, the father of Jason, when very old, was re* 
 stored to youth by Medea 180 
 
 Ajax killed himself, and his blood was turned into 
 violets 197 
 
 Alcmena , Amphitrion’s wife abused by Jupiter 26 
 
 Alecto, one of the Furies 221 
 
 Aledryon changed into a cock 60 
 
 Alotus , a giant 224 
 
 Amazons, account of them 182 
 
 Ambervalia , festivals of Ceres 87 
 
 Amphion, account of 192 
 
 Amphitrite wife of Neptune 41 
 
262 INDEX. 
 
 Page 
 
 Ancilia were holy shields kept in the temple of Mars 
 Andromeda 252 
 
 Antiopt discovered by Jupiter 26 
 
 Apaturia , a title of Venus 
 
 Apis , Osiris and Serapis 200 
 
 Apollo , his description, 71 — Four of them* ib. In- 
 vents musick, &c,72 — Destroys the Cyclops, ib. 
 Cast down from heaven, ib Kills Hyacinthus, ib. 
 Changes Cyparissus into a cypress tree, 73 — His 
 impurities, ib. Raises the walls of Troy by mu- 
 
 sick, 74 — Contends with Pan, ib. Apollo is the 
 Sun, ib. Things sacrificed to him 75 
 
 Aquarius 255 
 
 Aquila, 251 
 
 Ara , 257 
 
 Arcitenens , or Sagittarius . 254 
 
 Arcti or Bears , 250 
 
 Argo , 257 
 
 Aries, 255 
 
 Arachne was turned into a spider by Minerva 37 
 
 Arethusa , one of Diana’s nymphs 169 
 
 Argonauts , wera Jason’s companions that went with 
 him to carry away the Golden fleece 179 
 
 Argus , his history 31 
 
 Ariadne delivers Theseus out of the labarynth 181 
 Arion , 193 
 
 Aristaeus , account of 166 
 
 Astrea , her history 154 
 
 Atalanta and Hippomenes 50 
 
 Atlas, king of Mauritania 190 
 
 Atropes , one of the Fates 
 
 Aurora , her likeness, 146. Loves Cephalus, ib. 
 
 Mother of the winds 150 
 
 Autolycus , was a most notorious thief 
 
 
 BaaZ, BeeZ, Beelphegor , Beelzebub , Beelzemen, Beel- 
 samen,Belus, were names of Jupiter 
 Bacchus , his appearance, 101. Birth, ib. His inven- 
 tions, 102. His rites, 103. AVbo he was, 105. 
 
 His priests, 106. Meaning of this fable 107 
 
INDHX. 263 
 
 Page 
 
 Barbata , one of the titles of Venus 
 
 Bassarides were nymphs of Bacchus 
 
 Battle of the Gods and Titans £3£ 
 
 Battus bribed by Mercury to conceal his theft 91 
 
 Belides , their crimes and punishment ££6 
 
 Beller option, account of 185 
 
 Bellona, the goddess of war 59 
 
 Biblis fell in love with her brother Caunus, she died 
 of grief, and was turned into a fountain 
 Biceps and Bifrons, two names of Janus 
 Biformis, Bromius and Brimater, names of Bacchus 
 Body, the human, Gods presiding over the different 
 
 parts of it ITT 
 
 Botina drowns herself T3 
 
 Bootes, £50 
 
 Brennus, the Gaul 16 
 
 Bubona , a deity presiding over oxen 
 Busiris was a cruel tyrant, who offered human sac- 
 rifices to his father Neptune ; he was killed by 
 Hercules, and was himself sacrificed to Neptune, 
 
 Caeculus son of V ulcan 65 
 
 Cabiri or Caberi, priests of Cybele 142 
 
 Cadmus built the city of Thebes, invented the great- 
 est part of the Greek Alphabet, sowed the teeth 
 of a dragon in the ground, from whence armed 
 men sprang up ; both he and his wife Hermione 
 were turned into sefpents 
 
 Calista, robbed of her virginity by Jupiter* £6 
 
 Calliope one of the Muses 173 
 
 Calumny , £43 
 
 Cambyscs , 16 
 
 Cancer , £53 
 
 Capricorn , * £55 
 
 Canopus, a god of the Egyptians £05 
 
 Cassiopeia , £52 
 
 Castor and Pollux , 119, Castor tormented by furies 1£0 
 Centaurs , Harpies , See. their history ££8 
 
 Ceres } her figure, 83. Her origin, ib . Debauched 
 
264 INDEX. 
 
 Fag£' 
 
 by Jupiter and Neptune, ib . Meaning of her fa- 
 ble, 84. Her festivals 86 
 
 Cetus, £58 
 
 Charon, his history £16 
 
 Charybdis , account of £10 
 
 Chastity, a virtue £38 
 
 Chimcera , history of it ££9 
 
 Chione , punished by Diana 80 
 
 Chiron the Centaur 111 
 
 Circe, daughter of Apollo, her history 
 Clavigtr, one of the titles of Janus and of Hercules 
 Clemency, a virtue £38 
 
 Clio, one of the Muses ITS 
 
 Clolho, one of the Fates 
 
 Clyicemnestra kills her husband, ISO. Slain by her 
 Son, ib. 
 
 Cocytus, a river of hell 
 
 Coenis, account of 44 
 
 Concord, her image £40 
 
 Constellations , the celestial £49 
 
 Contumely, £43 
 
 Consus , a name of Neptune hence the games called 
 Consulia 
 
 Corona , or Ariadne’s crown £50 
 
 Corvus, £57 
 
 Corybantes, priests of Cybele 14£ 
 
 Crates or Cup £57 
 
 Cronia, festivals in honor of Saturn 
 Cunia and Carmenta, were tutelar goddesses to new 
 born infants 
 
 Cupid , history of, 54. Two of them, ib. 
 
 Curetes, priests of Cybele 14£ 
 
 Cybele, her description, 141. Her sacrifices, ib. 
 
 Cyclops destroyed by Apollo, 7£. Were the chil- 
 dren of Neptune 65 
 
 Cyllenius, one of the names of Mercury 
 Cygnus, £5£ 
 
 Cyparissus, changed into a Cyprus tree by Apollo 7U 
 Cypris , Cytheris , Cythtra and C alva, were names of 
 Venus 
 
INDEX. 
 
 263 
 
 Daedalus was a famous artificer, he invented the*^ 
 Axe, the vSaw, the Plumb line, the Augre and 
 Glue, he was shut up by Minos in a Labyrinth, 
 which he himself had made, but fled out of it with 
 artificial wings 
 
 Daemon Bonus, Dithyrambus , Dionysius , names of 
 Bacchus : Daemon Bonus , was also a title of Pri« 
 apus 
 
 Danaides, the fifty daughters of Danaus who were 
 punished in hell, for killing their husbands on 
 
 their wedding night 
 
 Daphne, changed into a laurel 73 
 
 Dea Syria, one of the titles of Venus 
 
 Deltoton or Triangle 253 
 
 Demiurgus, 
 
 Diana , her description, 77* Names, ib. Parentage 78 
 Diclynna , one of the names of Diana 
 Dies, Diespiter , names of Jupiter 
 DU Majorum Gentium, the superior deities 10 
 
 DU Minorum Gentium, the subordinate deities 10 
 
 DU Indigetes, and DU Adscriptitii , gods that once 
 were men 
 
 Dindymene and Dindyme, names of Cybele 
 
 Dionysia, festivals in honor of Bacchus 
 
 Dirue, the names of the Furies 
 
 Dis , one of the names of Pluto 
 
 Discord, the goddess 
 
 Dodoneus, a name of Jupiter 
 
 Dolius, a name of Mercury 
 
 Draco, or the Serpent 250 
 
 Druids, priests among the Gauls 
 Dryades , nymphs of the woods 
 
 | SZeits, Eleleus, Eleutherius, names of BacchdS 
 Eleusina , one of the names of Ceres 
 Elicius, a name of Jupiter 
 Elysium, account of it 
 
 Endymion, the shepherd, account of 3$ 
 
 Enialius , one of the titles of Mars 
 ¥ 
 
20 # 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Envy, 
 
 Engonasis , 
 
 Epistrophia, a name of Venus 
 
 Erato, one of the Muses 
 
 Eresichthon , contemns the sacrifices of Ceres 
 
 Ericthonius, 
 
 Ergatis, one of the names of Minerva 
 Erinnys, a name common to the Furies 
 Eros , a name of Cupid 
 Erycina , a name of Venus 
 Eteoeles and Polynices, sons of Oedipus 
 Evihus, Evany Euchius, names of Bacchus 
 Eumenides, a general name of the Furies 
 Eurydice, beloved by Aristseus 
 Euterpe, one of the Muses 
 Egyptian Philosophy 
 
 Fags 
 
 243 
 
 250 
 
 173 
 
 86 
 
 253 
 
 231 
 
 166 
 
 174 
 
 10 
 
 Faith, one of the Virtues 236 
 
 Fame , the goddess 245 
 
 Fates, account of them 221 
 
 Fauna and Fatua, names of Cybele 
 
 Fauns, their history 164 
 
 Februus, a name of Pluto 
 
 Feretrius, a name of Jupiter 
 
 Feronia , account of 160 
 
 Fever, 247 
 
 Fidelity, a Viitue 241 
 
 Flora, account of 158 
 
 Florida, a title of Juno 
 
 Flumen, 258 
 
 Fortune, a goddess 247 
 
 Fraud, 244 
 
 Fulgens and Fulminator , names of Jupiter 
 Furies, tbir history 221 
 
 Fury, one of the Vices 245 
 
 $jalli, priests of Cybele 
 
 E anymede, taken up into heaven ^ 2'f 
 
 Genitor, Gragos and Grapsius, names of Jupiter 
 
INDEX* 
 
 201 
 
 Genius or Gem/, 174. It is also one of the names 
 of Priapus 
 
 Gemini , 256 
 
 Geryon , a Centaur 228 
 
 Giants , Titans, &c. their history 222 
 
 Glaucopis , a title of Minerva 
 
 Glaucus , the fisherman 205 
 
 Golden Fleece carried off by Jason 179* 
 
 Goa/, suckled Jupiter 24 
 
 Gods, the several classes of them 92 
 
 Good Genius , 242 
 
 Gods and Goddesses presiding over infants 177 
 
 Graces, history of the 54 
 
 Gravidus , one of the titles of Mars 
 
 Hades, a name of Pluto 
 Hamadryades , nymphs of the woods 
 Harpies, their history 228 
 
 Health, 241 
 
 Hecate, a name of Diana 7T 
 
 Helicon , the fount of the Muses 
 He//, deities of it __ 212 
 
 Heraria, were sacrifices offered to Juno 
 Hesperus, 26Q 
 
 Hercule, Hercle , an oath taken only by men, where* 
 as the women used Mcastor 
 Hercules, son of Jupiter and Alcmena, 94* His la® 
 bors, 95. Death 99 
 
 Hermaphroditus, a son of Mercury 9$, 
 
 Hermes, one of Mercury’s names 
 Hesperidet, the daughters of Hesperus 
 Hesperus, the brother of Atlas 191 
 
 Hippius and Hippodromus, names of Neptune 
 Hippotades , one of the names of iEolus 
 Hireus, the reputed father of Orion 
 Hope, one of the Virtues 237 
 
 Hortensis, a title of Venus 
 
 Hyades, daughters of Atlas 19# 
 
 Hymenceus , the god of marriage 
 
268 
 
 INDEX, 
 
 Hymenceus , account of 
 Hydrus , 
 
 T&g/t 
 
 53 
 
 257 
 
 lacchus, one of the names of Bacchus 
 Janus takes Saturn into a share of his kingdom, 133 
 Who he was, ib . Of his temple, 134. Meaning 
 of the fable, ib . He first instituted altars 135 
 
 Jason , his history 178 
 
 Idcei Daclyli , priests of Cybele 142 
 
 Idolaters , 14 
 
 Impudence , 243 
 
 Jnachis, a name of lo or Isis 
 
 Infants, gods presiding over them 176 
 
 Jo, her history 30 
 
 Iphigenia was carried to be sacrificed to Diana Tau- 
 rica, but was spared, and made priestess of Diana 
 Jringes, daughter of Pan 130 
 
 Jiiga , one of Juno’s titles 
 
 Juno , her appearance and attendants, 29. Her 
 children, 30. Jealous, ib. Her fable explained 33 
 Juno Inferna , a name of Proserpina 
 Jupiter , how represented, 23. Many of them, 24. 
 
 His education, ib. His brethren, 25. Punishes 
 Dycaon, ib. His debaucheries, ib. He was a 
 king in Crete, 26. Jupiter, Neptune and Pluto 
 compared to the three sons of Noah, 27. Carri- 
 ed Bacchus in his thigh 
 Jupiter Seewidus, a name of Neptun© 
 
 Justice , one of the Virtues 237 
 
 Ixion , account of 22 5 
 
 Lachesis , one of the Fates 
 
 Lacina , Lucina, Lncilia, titles of Juno 
 
 Lamice or Empusce, account of them 
 
 Lapis or Lapidceus , titles of Jupiter 
 
 Lares , history of them 
 
 Latialis , a title of Jupiter 
 
 Latona , her history, 144. Despised by Niobe, 145. 
 
 229 
 
 176 
 
INDEX) 269 
 
 Pagf 
 
 Lena, priestesses of Bacchus 
 
 Leo , 258 
 
 Lethe , a river of hell 
 Leucosia , one of the Syrens 
 
 Lucothoe , her history, 208. Ravished by Apollo 7$ 
 
 Liberty , a Virtue * 241 
 
 Libra , 254 
 
 Ligcea , one of the Syrens 
 
 Liparus , account of 159 
 
 Lucina , a name of Diana 79 
 
 Luna , a name of Diana 77 
 
 Lycaon’s impiety, 25. His punishment, 
 
 Xyra, 251 
 
 Main, one of the daughters of Atlas 
 Marina, Melanis , Merdrix , Migonitis , Murcia , 
 names of Venus 
 
 iH&rs, his attendants, 59. Parentage. Intrigue 
 with Venus, 60. Sacrifices 61 
 
 Marsyas , flea’d alive by Apollo 74 
 
 Magians, 11 
 
 Medea, account of her 179 
 
 Meleager , punished by Diana 80 
 
 Melpomene, one of the Muses 174 
 
 Mernnon, history of 149 
 
 Mena, one of the nuptial goddesses 
 Mercury, his description and patronage, 88. In- 
 vented letters, A noted thief, i&. His offi- 
 ces, 91. His sacrifices 92 
 
 Mercy, one of the Virtues 23& 
 
 Merope , one of the daughters of Atlas, married to 
 Sisyphus 
 
 Mestra or Mestre or Metra, account of 44 
 
 Metroa , sacrifices offered to Cybele 
 Midas , had his ears changed into an asses’ by Apol- 
 lo, 74. His request of Bacchus 108 
 
 Mimallones, attendants on Bacchus 
 Minerva, her similitude, 33. Came out of Jupiter’® 
 forehead, 34. Her chastity, 36. Her 
 7 2 
 
270 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 37. Fable explained, ib. 
 
 Minos , one of the judges of hell 
 Mirth , 
 
 Mnemosyne , mother of the Muses 
 Momus , account of him, 152. His judgment in 
 the cause of Neptune, Vulcan and Minerva, ib . 
 Money , 242 
 
 .Moses, thought to be Bacchus 105 
 
 Morpheus , was the servant of Somnus, his office was 
 to bring dreams to people 
 
 Muses, account of them 173 
 
 Musica , one of the titles of Minerva 
 
 Naades, were priestesses of Bacchus 
 
 Naides and Naiades , were nymphs of the fountains 
 
 Narcissus , account of 170 
 
 Nebrodes , one of the names of Bacchus 
 
 Nemesis, her history 154 
 
 Neptune , his description, 41. Marries Amphitrite, 
 
 ib* His altar placed under ground, 42. His 
 
 children 
 
 43 
 
 Ncreus, 
 
 Nerio or Nerione , the wife of Mars 
 Nimrod , said to be Bacchus 
 
 205 
 
 Niobe , her history 
 
 Nissoeus , one of the names of Bacchus 
 Nomius , one of the names of Apollo 
 Nona, one of the Fates 
 
 144 
 
 JVbx, her history 
 
 Nuptialis , one of Juno’s titles 
 
 Nyetilius, a name of Bacchus 
 
 219 
 
 Nydimene, account of 
 Nymphagetes , a name of Neptune 
 
 48 
 
 Nymphs, their history 
 Occator , the god of harrowing 
 
 167 
 
 Oceanus, history of 
 
 204 
 
 Oedivus, account of 
 
 231 
 
 Olympius , Opitulus, Opitulator 3 names and titles of 
 Jupiter 
 
 Page 
 
 220 
 
 242 
 
 173 
 
INDEX, 
 
 Opertus , one of the names of Pluto 
 Ophiucus , 
 
 Opifer, a title of Apollo 
 Opigena, a title of Juno 
 Opis. a name of Diana 
 Ops, a name of Cybele 
 Orcus or Ouragus , name of Pluto 
 Orion , 
 
 Orion, account of 
 Orpheus, overcomes the Syrens, 192. His history, ih. 
 Oscilla, small images of Bacchus, hung on trees 
 
 while his festivals were solemnizing 
 Osiris , Apis and Serdpis 200 
 
 Othus, one of the Giants that warred against heaven 
 
 Paloemon, account of 205 
 
 Pales, her history 160 
 
 Palladium , what 35 
 
 Pan, his birth and parentage, 129. His description, 
 ib Is a symbol of the universe ISO 
 
 Pandora, account of her 64 
 
 Paris and Helena , 51 
 
 Parnassides , the Muses were so called 
 Parthenope , one of the Syrens 
 
 Pasphce, daughter of Apollo 137 
 
 Pasithea, one of Cybele r s names 
 Peace, a Virtue 240 
 
 Pegasus , the Muses horse, he was caught and rid- 
 den upon by Bellerophon, and was placed in 
 heaven among the stars 252 
 
 Pelops, history of 227 
 
 Penates , account of them 155 
 
 Penelope, her history 196 
 
 Periclimenes, account of 43 
 
 Perseus , son of Jupiter andDanae, 184. Androm- 
 eda, ib. C uts off Medusa’s head, 185. Made a 
 Constellation 252 
 
 Persians, worship Phoebus 
 
 Pmmtia , a goddess^ whose image was only a 
 
 271 
 
 Page 
 
 251 
 
 79 
 
 258 
 
 199 
 
(272 INDEX, 
 
 Page 
 
 shapeless stone ; it was also a name of Cybele 
 Phaeton, his history 166 
 
 Phanaeus , a name of Apollo 
 Phlegethon, a river of hell 
 
 Phelegyas, burnt the temple of Apollo 225 
 
 Phoebus , or the Sun, 135. His debaucheries 136 
 
 Phorcus, son of Neptune 43 
 
 Phosphorus, 260 
 
 Piety , one of the Yirtues 23T 
 
 Pisces, 255, 258 
 
 Planets, Times and Seasons ~ 259 
 
 Pleiades , daughters of Atlas 190 
 
 Pluto , his history 213 
 
 Plutus, account of 214 
 
 Polyhymnia, one of the Muses 174 
 
 Polyphemus , who he was 66 
 
 Polyxena, daughter of Priamus 195 
 
 Pomia, a title of Venus 
 
 Pomona, her history 157 
 
 Porthemus and Poriitor , names of Charon 
 Priapus, account of him 165 
 
 Primigenia and Privata , titles of Fortune 
 P roc yon, 258 
 
 Prometheus , steals fire from heaven, 187. His his- 
 tory, ib. 
 
 Propylma , one of the names of Hecate or Diana 
 Proserpina, her history, 215. Signification of her 
 fable 216 
 
 Proteus, son of Neptune 206 
 
 Pylotis, one of the titles of Minerva 
 Pyramus and Thisbe, 48 
 
 Pyrrha , the wife of Deucalion 
 Pytho , a daughter of Atlas 
 
 Quietus, a name of Pluto 
 Quirinus, a title of Jupiter 
 
 Pectus, one of Bacchus’s titles 
 
 Med Regina^ titles of Fortune 
 
INDEX. 
 
 273 
 
 Page 
 
 Remus , son of Mars and Illia, 113. Slain at the 
 founding of Rome 115 
 
 Rhadamanthus , judge of hell 220 
 
 Rhamn usia, a. name of Nemesis 155 
 
 hhea, a name of Gybele 
 
 Romulus , account of, 112. Son of Mars and Illia* 
 113. Brought up by Faustulus, 114. Founds 
 Rome, 115. C arried up to heaven, 117* Wor- 
 
 shipped as the god duirinus, ib . 
 
 Ruminus , one of Jupiter’s titles 
 
 Rural Gods and Goddesses 170 
 
 Salacia , wife of Neptune 42 
 
 Salii , priests of Mars 61 
 
 Sabrnacis, a nymph, her history 91 
 
 Salmoneus , account of 226 
 
 *Sd/or and Saritor , rural gods 
 
 Saturn, his description, 122. Obtains the kingdom 
 of his brother Titan, 124. Jupiter deposes him, 
 125. He goes to Italy, ib . His sacrifices, 126. 
 
 Sense of his fable 127 
 
 Satyrs , their description 162 
 
 Scorpius , 254 
 
 Scylla and Charybdis 210 
 
 Semele , her history 101 
 
 Strapis , an Egyptian god, the same with Apis 
 Senator , Stoer, Stator, Stabilitor , titles of Jupiter 
 Silence , 247 
 
 Silenus, his history 161 
 
 Sirens , history of them 208 
 
 Sirius or Canicula , 259 
 
 Sisyphus , a robber 226 
 
 a name of Apollo 
 
 Sphynx , a monster 23& 
 
 Spolia Opima, those spoils which one general takes 
 from another in battle 
 Slercutius , a name of Saturn 
 a river of hell 
 
 Suada one of the nuptial goddesses 
 
274 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Suculce , daughters of Atlas, called also Hyades 
 
 Summanus , a name of Pluto 
 Sun, is Apollo 
 
 Sylvanus , account of 161 
 
 Syrens vide Sirens 
 
 Syrinx, changed into reeds 130 
 
 Tatida, one of the goddesses of silence 
 
 Tantalus, son of Jupiter by Plota 227 
 
 Tauriceps, Tauriformis , names of Bacchus 
 
 Taurus, 256 
 
 Taygete, one of the daughters of Atlas 
 
 Telchines, priest of Cybele 142 
 
 Terminus, 166 
 
 Terpsicore , one of the Muses 174 
 
 Thalia, one of the Muses 173 
 
 Themis, account of her 154 
 
 Theseus, his history, 181. Subdues the Amazons, 
 
 182. Descends into hell 183 
 
 Thesmophoria , festivals of Ceres 87 
 
 Thetis, hides Achilles 194 
 
 Thyades, were companions of Bacchus 
 Titan , resigns the kingdom to Saturn, 124. Makes 
 war upon him, ib. 
 
 Titans , account of them 225 
 
 Tithonus, beloved by Aurora 148 
 
 Tityus , the giant 224 
 
 Trieterica , sacrifices of Bacchus 
 
 Triptolemus , account of 85 
 
 Triton, a god of the sea 204 
 
 Trivia, one of the names of Hecate or Diana 
 Truth, one of the Virtues 239 
 
 Tutelar, Gods 177 
 
 Tyndaridc e, the children of Tyndarus, Helena, Cly- 
 taemnestra, Castor and Pollux 
 Typhosus or Typhon, account of 223 
 
 Vedius, a name of Jupiter 
 
 Yenilia , wife of Neptune 42 
 
INDEX* 
 
 27S 
 
 Page 
 
 Venus, her appearance, 44. How worshipped, 46. 
 
 Four of them, 47. Her wickedness, ib, Expla- 
 nation of her fable 56 
 
 Verticordia, a title of Venus 155 
 
 Vertumnus , his history, 155. Courts Pomona, 156. 
 
 Could turn himself into any shape, ib . 
 
 Vesta , her history, 66® Two of them, 68* The fa- 
 ble explained 69 
 
 Vestal virgins 68 
 
 Vices, account of them 243 
 
 Vergo , a title of Fortune 
 
 Virgo , 253 
 
 Virtue, the Virtues 236 
 
 Ulysses , history of, 196® Disputes with Ajax, 197. 
 
 His adventures, ib. 
 
 Understanding , 240 
 
 Unxia , a title of Juno 
 
 Urania , one of the Muses 174 
 
 Vulcan, spreads an iron net over Mars and Venus, 
 63. His history* ib* Cast out of heaven, ib. 
 Courts Minerva, ib . Marries Venus, ib. His 
 temple on Mount Etna, 64. Makes the first 
 woman, ib. By Vulcan, fire Is meant 5 ib, 
 
 Zeus, one of JupitePs namei. 
 
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