to sleep the dragon. Slays her brother Absyrtus. Médéa lulls perilous juncture Mēdēa, by a magical potion, lulled to sleep the dragon who guarded the golden fleece, and placing that precious prize on board the Argo, set sail in company with Jason, carrying with her in her flight her younger brother Absyrtus. The rapid pursuit of Eētēs and his forces would have left the Argonauts no chance of escape, but for the stratagem of Medea. The sorceress, after slaughtering her brother Absyrtus, cut his body in pieces, and scattered his limbs about on the sea, and while the Colchian king was collecting the scattered fragments of his son's body the Argonauts succeeded in escaping. This horrible murder so provoked the righteous indignation of Zeus, that the Argonauts were doomed to protracted perils and hardships, in which they were obliged to carry the Argo on their shoulders overland by a wearisome journey. They at length reached the waters of the Mediterranean. Near the isle of Thera the romantic voyagers were overtaken by a tremendous hurricane, from the perils of which they were only saved by the supernatural aid of Apollo. The god, darting from his golden bow an arrow which pierced the waters like a ray of light, caused a new island to spring up on their path, into which they ran as into a port of refuge. Hurricane near the isle of Thera. Repulsed by Talos, the brazen man of Hephaistos. Return to the port of Iolcos. Cruelty of Stratagem and magical powers of Médéa. The Argonauts possess themselves of the city. Their perils, however, were not yet over. The Argonauts had attempted a landing on the coast of Crete, but were repulsed by Talos, a man of brass, the workmanship of Hephaistos, and the guardian of the island. As the vessel advanced, the mighty sentinel hurled against the Argonauts vast fragments of rock, by which, but for the successful stratagem of Mēdēa, by which Talos perished, they must have been destroyed. After touching at Egina and coasting along Euboea, they at length reached Iolcos, on the Pagasaan gulf, the place whence they had set out on their perilous enterprise. Meanwhile, fully convinced, from the protracted voyage of the Argo, that Jason and all on board had perished, the tyrant Pelias put to death Jason's father, mother, and infant son. The actual return of that prince was the signal for the infliction of retributive justice upon the murderous and oppressive Pēlias. This, however, could only be effected by a deeplaid stratagem, and this Mēdēa readily devised. Feigning herself a fugitive from the cruelty of Jason, she succeeded in gaining access to the daughters of Pelias. In their presence she displayed her magical powers, by taking a ram of great age, which, after cutting up and boiling in a cauldron with herbs, she produced again in the guise of a young and active lamb. In the firm belief that a similar process would be attended with the like result in the case of their aged father, they with their own hands cut him up, cast his limbs into the cauldron, and awaited the moment when Mēdēa should restore him to renovated youth. Mēdēa now pretended that it was necessary to invoke the moon, and as though for that purpose ascended to the top of the palace, where making a signal, Jason and the Argonauts rushed in and possessed themselves of the city. As to the ship Argo, which had borne the prime of the Grecian heroes on their glorious enterprise, after passing through so many perils, she was consecrated to Poseidon, Hail, happy race of heroes, and repay And with your glorious toils my numbers close. Fawkes's Argonautics. We cannot more appropriately close the myth of the Argonautic expedition, than by presenting to the reader a prominent reflection of Mr. Grote, an author whom we have just quoted, and to whom Grecian history is so much indebted. "Not only," does he observe, "are Mr. Grote's we unable to assign the date, or identify the crew, or decipher the reflections on the myth log-book of the Argo, but we have no means of settling even the pre- of Argo. liminary question, whether the voyage be matter-of-fact badly reported, or legend from the beginning. The widely-distant spots in which the monuments of the voyage were shown, no less than the incidents of the voyage itself, suggest no other parentage than epical fancy. The supernatural and the romantic not only constitute an inseparable portion of the narrative, but even embrace all the prominent and characteristic features; if they do not comprise the whole, and if there be intermingled along with them any sprinkling of historical or geographical fact, a question to us undeterminable, there is at least no solvent by which it can be disengaged, and no test by which it can be recognised. Wherever the Grecian mariner sailed he carried his religious and patriotic mythes along with him. His fancy and his faith were alike full of the long wanderings of Jason, Odysseus, Perseus, Hêraklês, Dionysus, Triptolemus, or Io. It was pleasing to him in success, and consoling to him in difficulty, to believe that their journeys had brought them over the ground which he was himself traversing. There was no tale amidst the wide range of the Grecian epic more calculated to be popular with the seaman than the history of the primeval ship Argo and her distinguished crew, comprising heroes from all parts of Greece, and especially the Tyndarids Castor and Pollux, the heavenly protectors invoked during storm and peril. He localised the legend anew wherever he went, often with some fresh circumstance suggested either by his own adventures or by the scene before him. He took a sort of religious possession of the spot, connecting it by a bond of faith with his native land, and erecting in it a temple or an altar with appropriate commemorative solemnities. The Jasonium thus established, and, indeed, every visible object called after the name of the hero, not only served to keep alive the legend of the Argo in the minds of future comers or inhabitants, 1 Diodorus says that she was translated to the heavens by Athēnē, and became a constellation. Diod. iv. 53. * Hist. Greece, vol. i. p. 333. Ariamaspi but was accepted as an obvious and satisfactory proof that this marvellous vessel had actually touched there in her voyage." 1 The germ of the legend of the Argonauts and the golden fleece has also been considered to be found in the fable of the Arimaspi and and Griffins. Griffins. The former, as Herodotus was told, were a Scythian people, who waged a continual war with the griffins who collected the gold of the country. The writer to whom we have alluded, imagines that these were the symbols of two contending parties. The griffin was especially a fabulous animal of the Persians. Attic ancestry. Myth of THE LEGEND OF THESEUS. The Athenians, with their usual fondness for national aggrandisement, ran up the genealogy of their race, till it became identified with the soil. By this process they organized a pure, independent, and most ancient lineage, highly flattering to their pride as a people. Erechtheus, the Autochthon, or their "Own-Earth-Sprung," was the great ancestor of the Attic race, which in the earliest Greek poet is styled the "people of the magnanimous Erechtheus," whom Jove's daughter nourished, and the fertile soil This Homeric authority was a famous addition to their heraldic escutcheon. To Erechtheus succeeded Cecrops the Second, and to the latter, Pandiōn the Second. Of the four sons of Pandion, Egeus, Lycus, Pallas, and Nisus, the former obtained considerable distinction as the father of the celebrated Theseus; though other legends ascribe his parentage to Poseidon. Ethra, the daughter of Pitheus, king of Trozen, the mother of Theseus, had been directed by Egeus, in case her offspring should be a son, to send with him, on his reaching 1 Ritter, Vorher. 481. 2 Herod. iv. 27. 3 Δῆμον Ερεχθῆος μεγαλήτορος ὄν πότ' Αθήνη maturity, the secret tokens which he had communicated to that princess previous to his departure. Theseus, having grown up athletic in body and ardent in mind, now repaired to his father at Athens. Inflamed by the exploits of Heracles, who subsequently Exploits of presented to him in marriage Hippolyte, the queen of the Amazons, whom he had vanquished, he resolved to sweep away those bands of robbers that everywhere infested the country. Periphētēs, the Epi Theseus. daurian club-bearer, was the first who fell beneath his prowess, while his next victory was over the renowned Sinnus, the pine-bender, an atrocious wretch who used to fasten unhappy travellers between the heads of two pines, which, after being drawn together and suddenly released, by their springing back tore to pieces the victims of his cruelty. He also threw down a precipice Sciron, the Megarean robber, and put to death Procrustes, who had been accustomed to force the body of strangers to fit the size of his own bed. His next exploit was to kill the Minotaur of Crete, a monster half-man and Slays the half-bull, which he effected by the aid of Ariadne, with whom he set out for Athens. Previous to the Cretan expedition, Theseus had agreed with his father Ægeus that, should it be successful, the black sail with which the vessel set out should be exchanged for a white one. On approaching Attica, both Theseus and the pilot were so overjoyed, that they forgot to hoist the appointed signal of safety, and Egeus, in consequence, overwhelmed with despair, cast himself down a precipice, and was dashed to pieces. Minotaur. of Theseus. On ascending the throne, Theseus is said to have united into one, Political the twelve districts into which Cecrops had divided Attica; their achievements separate councils were abolished, and blended into the Prytaneum ; the currency was marked with the impression of an ox; and the Isthmian Games, in honour of Neptune, restored. He is further said, not only to have enlarged the capital, but to Emulates the heroic acts of Hèracles. have added to his country the territory of Megara. Notwithstanding these statesmanlike occupations, the romantic military fame of Heracles continued to stimulate the same ardent feelings in Theseus. He took a prominent part in the conflict of the Lapitha with the Centaurs, joined in the celebrated chase of the wild boar of Calydon, and vanquished the Amazons. His enterprises, however, were not always of Carries off an honourable nature. Accompanied by Pirithous, he seized on Helen, then a young girl, as she was performing a dance in the temple of Artemis, and after escaping their pursuers, who followed them as far as Tegea, they agreed to determine by lot to whom she should belong; and thus it was that Theseus became possessed of her. His next enterprise was in company with Pirithous, in order to gain for that prince Persephone, the daughter of Aidoneus, king of the Molossians. Pirithous, however, perished miserably, being thrown to Cerberus, the king's dog, while Theseus was cast into prison, from which he did not escape till rescued by Heracles. On the return of Theseus, he returns to his found his kingdom torn by domestic and public factions; Castor and Pollux, the brothers of Helen, indignant at the treachery of Theseus, were ravaging Attica, and he was compelled to take refuge in Scyros, at the court of king Lycomēdēs. Theseus kingdom. Tomb of After the death of Theseus, the oracle of Apollo ordered that his bones should be taken up, and borne to Athens, which was afterwards effected by Cimon, the son of Miltiades. Over the tomb of Theseus was erected a temple, which was richly decorated, and which became the asylum of the wretched. It was on the occasion of the marriage of Pirithous with Hippodameia, that the fierce conflict between the Centaurs and the Lapithæ took place. In the midst of the feast, one of them had endeavoured Centaurs and to carry off the bride of Pirithous, which was the cause of the catasLapitha. trophe. In the fable of the Centaurs, we see much information pre 1 Hom. xi. 630. |