this doctrine had obtained in the general system of the Hindoos may be seen in the writings of Calidasa, the Indian Shakspeare, whose drama of the "Hero and the Nymph," depicts the prince Pururavas, as restoring to her natural form, the object of his love, who had been transformed into a vine: PUR. What means this strange emotion-as I gaze Upon this vine, no blossoms deck its boughs; Air. Vine of the wilderness, behold A lone, heart-broken wretch in me, His love, as wild he clings to thee. To these fond arms the nymph I mourn, I'd bear her hence, and never more To these forbidden haunts return. (Goes to embrace the Vine, which is transformed to Urvasī.) What can this mean! through every fibre spreads The conscious touch of Urvasi-yet all I deemed her charms deceived me-let me wake And realize the vision, or dispel it. 'Tis no deceit 'Tis she-my best beloved (faints). URVASI (in tears). Revive my Lord! 1 and Both Empedocles and Pythagoras held the doctrine of the Metemp- Orpheus, sychosis, and both equally prohibited the eating of animal food. Empedocles, Empedocles held that plants had souls, and that into plants, as well Pythagoras. as into animals, the vital principle passed after death: A boy and a girl was I once, whom you see, And a shrub, and a bird, and a fish of the sea.2 With this exactly agrees the doctrine of the Maneveh Dherma Sastra. "Souls sunk in darkness in this world" transmigrate into 66 of their vegetable and mineral substances, worms, insects, reptiles, and fish," Sources &c. The author then particularises the various punishments. For a principles. gross crime against a spiritual or natural father, the sinner migrates one hundred times into the forms of grasses, of shrubs with thick-set Migratory punish ments. 1 Scene of Niobe's transforma tion. Niobě a famous subject of sculpture. Pelops comes Enomaus and his daughter Hippoda meia. stems, and of deciduous and twining plants. He who steals grain in the husk will be born again as a rat; if he purloins meat, as a vulture ;2 if he steals carriages, he will be born a camel. In these doctrines, then, we discern the whole cycle of the Greek and Roman metamorphoses, long before they are visible in the Hellenic writings of the western world. We must not forget, in our estimate of this myth of Niobe, that the final scene of her change into stone is laid out of Hellas, and in a part of Asia. The implicit credit that was attached to this tale may be seen by the fact that in the time of Pausanias, people still imagined they could see the petrified form of Niobe on Mount Sipylus. The myth of Niobe furnished ample scope for ancient art, of which one of the most celebrated specimens adorned the pediment of the temple of Apollo Sosianus, at Rome, where it was discovered in the year 1583. This magnificent group, which the Romans themselves were uncertain if it were the work of Praxiteles or of Scopas, is now at Florence. When Pelops came from Lydia into Greece, Enomaus, the son of from Lydia. Ares, was sovereign of Pisa, a district adjoining Olympia. The king of Pisa having been informed by an oracle that his death would follow the marriage of his daughter Hippodameia, refused her to every suitor who could not beat him in a chariot race from Olympia to the Isthmus of Corinth: the defeated competitor was doomed to forfeit his life. Already had thirteen unsuccessful claimants for Hippodameia's hand paid the penalty with their lives, when Pelops entered the lists. Induced by his earnest prayers, the god Poseidon supplied him with a golden chariot and winged horses, by which he won Hippodameia. and horses. Myrtillus, the charioteer of Enomaus, induced by Hippodameia herself, loosened the wheels of the king's chariot, who was thus overturned, and perished in the race. Pelops now became prince of Pisa, and amongst his numerous family were Trozen and Epidaurus, who gave their names to two Argolic cities, and Atreus and Thyestes, who figure prominently in Greek legend. Pelops supplied by Poseidon with chariot Pelops is prince of Pisa. Domestic quarrels augmented with Agamemnon. The domestic quarrels in this unhappy family increased with 'टणगुल्मलतानांचक्रव्यादान्दंष्ट्रिणामपि 2 Maneveh Dherma Sast. C. 12, Slok. 62. Man. Dh. Sast. C. 12, Slok. 58. 6 Vide Welcker, Zeitschrift fur die alte Kunst, p. 589. 3 Ibid. Slok. 67. 5 Paus, i, 21, 5. This 7 Pind. Ol. i. 109. The legend of the winged horses was to be seen on the chest of Cypselus. Paus. v. 17. Eust. ad Hom. p. 184. flight of animal had been placed amongst the flocks of Atreus by the craft of Hermes, expressly with a design to ruin the whole family. In order to take a more terrible revenge, Atreus pretended to be reconciled to Revenge of Thyestes, and accordingly invited him to Mycena. After murdering Atreus. the two sons of Thyestes, Atreus served up their flesh at the banquet, and their father ignorantly partook of the dire repast. Thyestes, on seeing the bones of his children brought in, was horror-struck at the sight, and, cursing the house of Tantalus, hastily fled. So terrible was Curse of the spectacle, that even Helios turned back his chariot to the east, that Thyestes and he might fly from the horrible scene. Soon were the curses of Thy- Helios. estes fulfilled, for not only was the kingdom of Atreus afflicted with famine, but the whole of his family became involved in the most tragical disasters. Still later, even the son of Atreus, Agamem- Fate of non," the king of men," blest with unrivalled riches and power, Agamemnon, the sovereign of wealthy Mycena, and the supreme chief of the combined Hellenic force at Troy-even he was doomed to taste the bitterness of Thyestes' protracted curse. In complete ignorance of the treachery of his wife Clytemnestra, he had now returned victorious to his native land from the plains of Troy. Scarcely had he landed, Is murdered when Ægisthus, the base paramour of Clytemnestra, aided by the by Existhus treacherous queen herself, slaughtered Agamemnon and his comrades, nestra. "as at his crib men slay an ox.' At the same time perished Cassandra, the prophetic daughter of Priam,* murdered by the hand of Clytemnestra. Orestes, however, the only son of Agamemnon, was saved by his nurse, and placed in security with the Phocian Strophius. and Clytem slain by At length, Orestes, now grown to manhood, returned, and fulfilling Ægisthus the retribution announced by the gods, slew Ægisthus, his father's Orestes. murderer, and Clytemnestra, his gulity mother, recovered the kingdom of Mycenae, and succeeded to the sovereignty of Menelaus in Sparta. Such is the history of the powerful, wealthy, but unfortunate dynasty of the Pelopids. LEGENDS OF THEBES. Thebes. The celebrity of Thebes originates with its first great founder CADMUS, Cadmus, the son of Agenor and Telphusa. His sister Europa had been carried founder of off by Zeus to Crete; and now, in company with his brothers Phenix and Čilix, he set out in search of her, at the express command of her father. After long wanderings, the oracle at Delphi directed him to follow a cow of a particular description until she should sink down with fatigue. He accordingly followed the animal to the site of Thebes, where the conditions of the oracle were fulfilled. A neighbouring fountain, whither he had despatched some people for water, Slays the was guarded by a tremendous dragon, the progeny of Ares. This dragon of the monster Cadmus slew, and, by the advice of Athenē, sowed his teeth fountain. 1 Soph. Ajax. 1266. • Od. iv. 512-537. 2 Hygin. Fab. 88. Hom. Odyss. xi. 411. servitude of Cadmus and the daughters in the earth, out of which armed men sprang up, who slew each other, with the exception of five, whom the legend names as the ancestors of Seven years, the Thebans. At the instigation of Arēs, Zeus now compelled Cadmus. Cadmus to a servitude of seven years, after which he obtained the government of Thebes, with Harmonia for his wife, to whom he presented the magnificent necklace made by Hephaistos, together with a Wedding of beautiful peplus, a species of shawl. The concourse of the gods at this wedding was splendid in the extreme, and corresponded with their nuptial gifts and congratulations. The offspring of this marriage was one son, named Polydorus, and four daughters, Semelē, Ino, Autonoē, and Agave. The five great families of the dragon race were Celebrity of named Sparti. All the daughters of Cadmus were celebrated in of Cadmus. legendary song. Semele became the favourite of Zeus, but perished on a visit of the god, overpowered by the awful majesty and the blaze of lightnings attendant upon the "king of gods and men." Ino was the consort of Athamas, the son of Æolus; while Agavē, who married Echion, one of the Sparti, gave birth to Pentheus. This prince violently opposed the worship of Dionysus, who, after wandering over India, Asia, and Thrace, now came to Thebes at the head of a troop of Asiatic females. Though Cadmus and the prophet Tīresias acknowledged the divinity of the god, no miracles of Dionysus could Opposition assuage the vehement opposition of Pentheus. A large body of headed by his mother Agave, influenced by the frenzy of Dionysus, were celebrating his orgies on Mount Citharon. In order to survey the female multitude, Pentheus had climbed a tall pine tree; the Theban the female worshippers detected him, pulled down the tree, and tore him in pieces, his mother Agavē herself being the most eager in the attack. Myth of Pentheus. of Pentheus to Dionysus. Is slain by Bacchantes. Theban women, Myth of Is trans formed into a stag. THE LEGEND OF ACTEON. Autonoē, the remaining daughter of Cadmus, was mother of ACTEON, the renowned hunter. He had been trained in the art by the Centaur Cheiron, and had been a favourite companion of Artemis. He at length, however, became the subject of her anger, either because he had seen the goddess while bathing in the vale of Gargaphia, or because he had loved and sued for Semele, or, as another legend states, because of his presumptuous vaunts of superior skill in hunting. Being transformed into a stag by the goddess, he was set upon and devoured by his own dogs. Evidences of the Orchomenian tradition were not wanting. The very rock of Acteon, haunted by his spectre-the rock upon which he used to sleep when fatigued in the chase was shown on the road to Megara, not far from Platæa.5 1 Σπαρτοι, sown, 3 Accusil, ap Apollod. iii. 4, 4. 5 Paus. ix. 2, 3; Apollod. iii. 4, 3. Callim. Hymn in Pallad. 110. ♦ Diod. iv. 81. The venerable Cadmus and his consort, now retiring among the Cadmus Illyrians, were changed into serpents, and, by the permission of Zeus, wafted to the were wafted to the Elysian fields.' Elysian fields. With the Theban king Laius, the son of Labdacus, commences a series of tragic events unparalleled in the wild catastrophes of antiquity. Laius having been forewarned by an oracle that he would fall Myth of by the hands of his son, on the birth of EDIPUS, had him exposed on Edipus. a wild part of Mount Citharon. Here he was discovered by the herdsman of Polybus, king of Corinth. As Edipus grew up, being resolved to know his parentage, he applied to Delphi. The oracle admonished him that, should he return to his native country, it would be his destiny to slay his father and become the husband of his mother. As Corinth was, as he imagined, his native country, he resolved to abandon that city. It so chanced, however, that as he Edipus was leaving Delphi by the "Schistos Hodos," or forked road that leaves Delphi. leads to Boeotia and Phocis, at the points where the roads divide he met his own father Laius, riding in a chariot; and as Polyphetes, the charioteer, seemed inclined to push him from the road, a fierce struggle ensued, in which Edipus slew both Polyphetes, his father, and his retinue. Thus was fulfilled one part of the oracle. Creon, Part of the the brother of Jocasta, the relict of the late king Laius, succeeded to oracle the kingdom of Thebes. His succession, however, occurred at a most disastrous time, for Thebes was now scourged by a terrible monster, 'Eurip. Bacch. 2 Schol, ad Europ. Pheniss. 39. fulfilled. |