Читать книгу Heathen mythology, Illustrated by extracts from the most celebrated writers, both ancient and modern - Various - Страница 16

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"Hope sets the stamp of vanity on all,

That men have deemed substantial since the fall,

Yet has the wondrous virtue to educe,

From emptiness itself, a real use;

And while she takes, as at a father's hand,

What health and sober appetite demand,

From fading good derives with chemic art

That lasting happiness, a thankful heart.

Hope with uplifted foot set free from earth

Pants for the place of her ethereal birth;

Hope, as an anchor firm and sure, holds fast

The Christian vessel, and defies the blast.

Hope! nothing else can nourish and secure

His new born virtue, and preserve him pure.

Hope! let the wretch once conscious of the joy,

Whom now despairing agonies destroy,

Speak, for he can, and none so well as he,

What treasures centre, what delights in thee.

Had he the gems, the spices, and the land

That boasts the treasure, all at his command,

The fragrant grove, th' inestimable mine,

Were light when weighed against one smile of thine."

Cowper.

After this commenced the age of steel, when even Jupiter abandoned himself to the fiery passions of love, jealousy, and vengeance.

—————"Hard steel succeeded then:

And stubborn as the metal were the men.

Truth, modesty, and shame the world forsook;

Fraud, avarice, and force, their places took.

Then sails were spread to every wind that blew,

Raw were the sailors, and the depths were new;

Trees, rudely hollowed, did the waves sustain,

Ere ships in triumph, ploughed the watery plain.

Then landmarks limited to each his right;

For all before was common as the light:

Nor was the ground alone required to bear

Her annual income to the crooked share,

But greedy mortals rummaging her store,

Dug from her entrails first the precious ore,

Which next to hell the prudent Gods had laid,

And that alluring ill to sight displayed.

Thus cursed steel, and more accursed gold,

Gave mischief birth, and made the mischief bold,

And double did wretched man invade,

By steel assaulted, and by gold betrayed.

Now (brandished weapons glittering in their hands)

Mankind is broken loose from moral bands:

No right of hospitality remain;

The guest, by him who harboured him, is slain.

The son-in-law pursues the father's life,

The wife her husband murders, he the wife;

The step-dame poison for the son prepares;

The son inquires into his father's years.

Faith flies, and piety in exile mourns;

And justice, here opprest, to heaven returns."

Ovid.

He was enamoured of Antiope, Alcmena, Danae, Leda, Semele, Europa, Calista, and a crowd of other goddesses and mortals.

The principal names given to Jupiter are the Thunderer, the Avenger, the God of Day, the God of the Worlds, and lastly of Olympus, in which he dwelt, and on which poets and painters have exercised their imaginations.

The figures of Jupiter have varied according to the circumstances and the times in which they have appeared. He has been represented as a swan, a bull, a shower of gold, and as a cuckoo: but Homer appears to have inspired ideas of the most noble kinds to the sculptors of antiquity. The divine poet represents the King of Gods seated on a golden throne, at the feet of which are two cups, containing the principle of good and evil. His brow laden with dark clouds; his eyes darting lightning from beneath their lids; and his chin covered with a majestic beard. In one hand the sceptre, in the other a thunderbolt. The virtues are at his side: at his feet the eagle who bears the thunderbolt. One frown from his eyes makes the whole earth tremble.

The Olympian games in Greece were instituted in honour of this God, from those celebrated at Olympus. The following, perhaps the finest description we have of Jupiter, while granting the prayer of Achilles, is from Homer's Iliad.

"Twelve days were passed, and now the dawning light,

The Gods had summoned to the Olympian height.

Jove first ascending from the watery bowers,

Leads the long order of ethereal powers.

When like the morning mist in early days,

Rose from the flood the daughter of the seas;

And to the seats divine her flight addressed.

There far apart, and high above the rest

The Thunderer sat; where old Olympus shrouds

His hundred heads in heaven, and props the clouds.

Suppliant the Goddess stood: one hand she placed

Beneath his beard, and one his knees embraced:

'If e'er, O father of the Gods!' she said,

'My words could please thee, or my actions aid;

Some marks of honour on my son bestow,

And pay in glory what in life you owe.

Fame is at least by heavenly promise due,

To life so short, and now dishonoured too.

Avenge this wrong, oh ever just and wise;

Let Greece be humbled, and the Trojans rise;

Till the proud king, and all the Achaian race,

Shall heap with honours him they now disgrace.'"

Homer.

OLYMPUS.

Jupiter is often described by the ancients as visiting the earth in disguise, and distributing to its inhabitants his punishments or rewards. Ovid relates one in connexion with the luxury of Rome, and in which the hospitality of Baucis and Philemon saved them from the fate of their friends. He is represented as the guardian of man, and dispenser of good and evil.

"While we to Jove select the holy victim,

Whom after shall we sing than Jove himself?

The God for ever great, for ever king,

Who slew the earth-born race, and measures right

To heaven's great habitants.

Swift growth and wondrous grace, oh! heavenly Jove,

Waited thy blooming years: inventive wit,

And perfect judgment crowned thy youthful act.

Thou to the lesser gods hast well assigned

Their proper shares of power; thy own, great Jove,

Boundless and universal. Each monarch rules

His different realm, accountable to thee,

Great ruler of the world; these only have

To speak and be obeyed; to those are given

Assistant days to ripen the design;

To some whole months; revolving years to some;

Others, ill-fated, are condemned to toil

Their tedious life, and mourn their purpose blasted,

With fruitless act and impotence of counsel.

Hail! greatest son of Saturn, wise disposer

Of every good; thy praise what man yet born

Has sung? or who that may be born shall sing?

Again, and often, hail! indulge our prayer,

Great Father! grant us virtue, grant us wealth,

For without virtue, wealth to man avails not,

And virtue without wealth exerts less power,

And less diffuses good. Then grant us, Gracious,

Virtue and wealth, for both are of thy gift!"

Prior.