rites. and purifying agent, both in Italy and in Greece, leads us to its oriental source. There the Brahminical priesthood are to maintain a perpetual Brahminical fire, to which they offer oblations. The maintenance of the household fire is also a prime object in their religious tenets; it is produced by the attrition of two pieces of wood. THE LEGEND OF ARTEMIS. Artemis. Birth and parentage. the nymphs. Artemis. ARTEMIS is the last of those maiden deities who were never affected Myth of by the blandishments of Aphrodītē. Hesiod and Homer ascribe her parentage to Zeus and Lētō.' She is the sister of Apollo, and born in the isle of Delos. As there were many points of view from which the Greeks considered this goddess, we shall select that which is most in accordance with the popular Hellenic notion, whose source we find in Arcadia. Here she is the female sovereign of the nymphs; while in this Sovereign of province her sanctuaries and her temples were very numerous and of ancient foundation: Mounts Taygetus and Erymanthus were the scenes of her sylvan exploits. Here it is that she hunts in company with her nymphs, of whom twenty formed a sort of regular retinue in the chase, while the daughters of Oceanus, to the number of an additional sixty, formed her choral dances in the mountain forests. The Choir of weapons of the chase-the bow, quiver, and arrows-were the workmanship of Hephaistos, while Pan provided her with hounds. Four stags with golden antlers were attached to her chariot, and formed a swift and graceful equipage. The usual position of her temples in Arcadia was contiguous to lakes or rivers, whence she is sometimes styled "Limnētis," or the "Goddess of the Lake." But the most ancient point of view in which Artemis was considered was as the As sister of Apollo. sister of Apollo. In this character she is, like Apollo, armed with bow and arrows, often dealing out plague and death amongst animated creation. During the Trojan war she sides with the Trojans, as does her brother Apollo. Amongst the immortals she is the Elaphebolos, or Stag-killer, and delights in the wild tumult of the chase. But a still more ancient type of this goddess, in fact that whence the Arcadian Artemis takes its rise, is to be found in the union of "Artemis of the Stag," and Artemis, the sister of Helios, the Sun, or Apollo, in which case she would necessarily be Sēlēne, or the Moon. This notion we find in the Hindoo system, where Soma, or the Moon, Artemis as is described as young, beautiful, and of dazzling fairness, riding in a car drawn by an antelope. He appears both as a male and female, which, again, establishes the fact of the Indian immigration into Egypt, where this deity was worshipped both as masculine and feminine, the men sacrificing to the divinity as Luna, and the women as Lunus. The Indian deity is the president of Soma-war, or Moon- Artemis of day (Monday). Among other names, that of "Mriganka" is given 1 Hesiod Theog. 918. * Paus, viii, 53. 3 the Moon. India. Hymn to Hyperborean worship of Artemis. to him-" He who has the deer in his lap." The hymn to Surya contains the following beautiful address: Thy night-flowers pale, whom liquid odour steeps, Burning in the darkest glade? Will no loved name thy gentle mind persuade We again hold a connecting link with this deity through the medium of Herodotus, by whom we are informed that the worship of Artemis came from the Hyperboreans, and that the Hyperborean maidens, brought sacrifices to Delos. Here, again, we are led over the Orphic track into Thessaly, with the Greek and Indian symbol of "The Fawn." In the latter system, we have this symbol occurring as "the dusky deer on the disk of the Moon." Nor is the myth of Artemis, and her connection with the Oreades, or Mountain Nymphs, and the Hamadryades, or Tree Nymphs, less distinctive of the source of the legend. These, again, like Artemis, are of Arcadian origin. Connection Now, coupling the fawn of Artemis (the Moon) with the fawn of of Artemis, Soma (the Indian Moon), we have a strong elucidation of the identity of these two divinities, and the application of their offices. In the Vishnu Purana, we learn that the world was overrun with trees, and nature thereby much distressed. These the sages destroy with flames and with wind. On this occasion it is that the Moon, seeing but a few trees remaining, begs that their destruction may be stayed, and exclaims (and here is the Greek notion of the Hamadryades)— the Moon, and the Nymphs. That prime type of the Grecian divinity, jealousy on account of Jealousy of neglected sacrifice, is strongly marked in the case of Artemis, who Artemis., sent the memorable Calydonian boar as a visitation on Eneus for his neglect of her, while he did honour to the other divinities. It is impossible, in the brief space allotted to this department of our subject, to do justice to the ample stores of Mythology. We are compelled to close our sketches of the gods that we may be able to take in review the subject of the legendary heroes of Greece, most of whom will be found to hold a special connection with particular localities. CHAPTER V. LEGENDS OF HEROES. If the Theogony of Hesiod, on the one hand, has furnished us with the doctrinal relics of Orpheus, and through him of the great Indian system, the hymns of the Homerid of Chios have spread before us the the Homerid most simple forms of divine agency personified, as drawn from poetic Hymns of of Chios. Works and Days of Golden age. The Dæmons. invention, and founded upon human modes of actions, the only difference being the comparative magnitude and power by which those actions are developed. From the Theogony of Hesiod we have now to repair to another storehouse," The Works and Days," which he has filled with materials drawn from the same magazine that we have already examined. The Olympic gods, as the poet sings, formed the golden race happy, perfect, and good-men who subsisted upon the spontaneous productions of the earth. The tranquillity they enjoyed was like that of the immortals; disease and age touched them not, and their death was a gentle slumber : In banquets they delight, removed from care, From hence transported in a pleasing dream.' Even their very departure from this upper world became a source of benefit to their successors, for they became guardian agencies, pos 1 Cooke's Hesiod. sessed subterranean invisibility, and, like Plutus, enjoyed the privilege of dispensing riches. To this glorious race succeeded the silver race, reckless beings who Silver age. disdained the immortal gods, and refused them sacrifice and worship. If the silver race was degenerate, what must be said by the poet of the succeeding age? The brazen race, which now arose was made of Brazen race. hard ash-wood, and the disposition of this race was pugnacious in the extreme. Of gigantic strength were they, and of adamantine soul. Their very arms and implements were of brass. Incessantly engaged in fierce conflicts, they mutually perished, and ignobly descended to the realms of Hadēs. Heroic race. The fourth race formed by Zeus were made more just, and in every Fourth or respect superior to the former. They were heroes and demigodsthe glory of the Trojan war. Here it was that some perished; others, by the gentle regard of Zeus, were removed to the happy islands of the blest: There in the islands of the blest they find, The poet has now nearly passed through the whole of his graduated The Iron age. scale. One age alone remains; it is the iron age. And here that vein of melancholy reflection which more or less characterises this poem is most strongly marked. The poet sees nothing round him but dishonesty, injustice, ingratitude, and perjury, and he deeply regrets that his lot is cast in its degenerate days: For now the times are such, the gods ordain That every moment shall be winged with pain; Rest to our labour death alone can give. of Boeotia. Such is the system of human agencies depicted by Hesiod. But, because it is a system, as is his Theogony, just in that proportion it loses the stamp of Grecian invention. Nothing of this doctrinal, classifying, and arranging tendency appears, as we have already seen, in the writings of Homer; his position in Ionia removed him from those influences which gave such a deep tinge to the writings of Hesiod. The same profound ethical development is prominently seen Ethical tone in the writings of Pindar. Both Hesiod and Pindar were natives of Bootia; and the common allusions of both authors to the Orphic and Pythagorean dogmas, demonstrate some local and abiding source in Boeotia of those principles which we have already shown to be of Oriental origin. We cannot take a step in this early inquiry, without being met on the very threshold by evidences of the source of these deep reflections. Again, as in the Titanic war, Hesiod has had access Pre-existent epical types. to a system previously elaborated; just as Ovid has drawn upon Hesiod. The type of those various ages is clearly drawn in the different Yugs, or Ages, of the Hindoo epic. Here again, as in the case Illustrated. |