as for your children, one of them is beyond all measure, masculine, and mountainish, and to crown all, has made off to Scythia, and everyone knows what her diet is there, slaying strangers, and imitating the Scythians themselves, who are cannibals. As for Apollo, he makes pretence to universal knowledge-to shoot with the bow, to play the cithara, to be a doctor, and to prophesy—and having set up his oracle-shops, one at Delphi, another at Klaros and at Didyma, he juggles and cheats those who consult him, giving crooked answers,2 and double meanings, applicable to either side of the question, so that he runs no risk of failure, and from such trickery he makes his fortune for numerous are the fools, and those who offer themselves willing victims to be cheated and imposed upon. But by the wiser part of men it is not unknown that he is, for the most part, a mere juggler in words. The prophet himself, at all events, did not know he would kill his favourite with the quoit, nor did he divine for his own advantage, that Daphne would flee from him; and that, too, although he is so handsome and has such flowing locks. So I don't see why you thought you had finer children than poor Niobe.3 Leto. These same children, however the murderer of strangers and the lying prophet-I am well aware how it 1 See Euripides, 'Ipıyevɛía iv Taúpois, Herodot. iv. 103, and Göthe's Iphigenia. The Scythia of the text is the modern Crimea. 2 Λοξά, whence his epithet Λόξιας-“ the ambiguous speaker or prophet." For some specimens of his prophetic art, see the Zeug Tpayúdos, perhaps Lucian's masterpiece. Cf. Herodotus, passim ; Clemens Alex. IIporрETT.; Fontenelle, Hist. des Oracles. 3 See Ov. Metam. vi. 2, Pausanias i. 21, ii. 21, viii. 20. For an eloquent description of the most beautiful conception in all remaining Greek Sculpture, see Shelley's Letters from Italy. As for the miraculous metamorphosis of Niobe, Pausanias, who had seen the pillar of stone, considers that there need be no difficulty in believing it, for it happened in the old times of frequent miraculous interposition of Heaven. He is not prepared, however, to maintain that such miracles take place in his own day, for man's impiety precludes the possibility. Accordingly, he does not credit the received story that the petrified Niobe sheds tears, or the popular tales about lycanthropy, or that the Tritons blow through their shells, as the vulgar believe (viii. 2). Cf. viii. 8. With this expression of pious faith compare, also, the remarks of Diodorus (B. I. iv. 1), who holds that miraculous stories must not be inquired into too closely or critically. vexes you to see them in the company of the gods; and especially whenever the one is commended for her beauty, and the other performs on his cithara, to the admiration of all in the banqueting-hall. Hera. I could not help laughing, Leto-he an object of admiration, whom, if the Muses had chosen to give a just decision, Marsyas would have flayed, as himself the conqueror in the musical contest.1 But, as it was, the poor man was overreached, and perished by an unjust doom. And, as for your beautiful virgin, she is so beautiful, that, when she found she had been seen by Acteon, from fear the youth might proclaim her ugliness, she set on him his own dogs. I don't say all I might, for I omit to dwell on the fact, that, if she were really a virgin,3 she could not even assist ladies in the straw. Leto. You bear yourself superciliously, Hera, because you share the bed and throne of Zeus; and for that reason, you utter your insults without fear. But, however, I shall soon see you in tears again, when he deserts you and goes down to earth again in the form of a bull or a swan. 1 See Ov. Metam. vi. 4. Herodotus, Strabo, Pausanias, and Aulus Gellius all relate the story with perfect faith. Cf. Apollod. i. 4, and Hyginus. 2 See Apollodorus, iii. 4, whose enumeration of the thirty-two hounds seems to have been used by Ovid, Metam. iii. 3. According to the Greek mythologist, the dogs, who had torn their master to pieces (transformed, with some poetic justice, into a stag), on discovering their very excusable error, died of grief and remorse. Cf. Kallimachus, IIɛpì Tns Haλ. Baλ. (" On Pallas's Bath"), and Apuleius (Metam.) on the sculpture of Diana and the Dogs. Palæphatus remarks on the story of the dogs devouring their master, TOUTO d'or evdés-for, as he adds, on the contrary, a dog loves, and is faithful to, his master, however unworthy. 3 Пaplivos ye aurǹ ovca. The office of Eileithuia, or Eleithuia, in later times had been transferred, with some impropriety, to Artemis. Cf. Theok. Eid. xxii. ('Oapiorúc) 28, 29. XVII. HERMES NARRATES TO APOLLO THE ADULTERY OF ARES AND APHRODITE, AND THE REVENGE OF HEPHÆSTUS. Apollo and Hermes. Apollo. Why do you laugh, Hermes? Hermes. Because, my dear Apollo, I have seen the most ridiculous sight possible. Apollo. Then tell me, that I myself too, when I have heard, may be able to join in the laugh. Hermes. Aphrodite has been caught with Ares, and Hephæstus has captured and bound them. Apollo. How? For I fancy you are going to tell me something pleasant! Hermes. For a long time I imagine he had been aware of this amour, and was hunting them down; and when he had enveloped their bed with invisible fetters,1 he went back to his forge and worked away as usual. Then Ares enters unobserved, as he supposed; but Helios looks down upon them and sees them, and tells Hephæstus. And when they had got upon the bed, and were in each other's arms, and were involved within the meshes, the fetters completely entangle them, and Hephaestus suddenly comes upon them. She, you may be sure, had no means-for in fact she was entirely naked-of veiling her shame; while Ares at first kept making efforts to escape, and hoped to break the bonds; but afterwards, perceiving himself to be inextricably caught, he began to act the suppliant. 2 Apollo. What then? Did Hephaestus release them? Hermes. Not at all. On the contrary, summoning all 1 'Hür' 'Apáxvia XÉTTα-" As fine as a cobweb," according to the poet of the Odyssey. (Od. viii. 280.) The dɛoud of the text, apparently, was an extremely fine wire-net. 2 « Τώ δ' ἐς δεμνία βάντε κατέδραθον, ἀμφὶ δὲ δεσμοὶ Θὐδέ τι κινῆσαι μελέων ἦν, οὐδ ̓ ἀναεῖραι· Καὶ τότε δὴ γιγνώσκον, ὃτ ̓ οὐκ ἔτι φυκτὰ πελόνται.” Cf. Ov., Metam. iv. 2. Ars Am. ii. 573. Amores, i. 9. D the Gods,' he discovers to them their adultery; while the captives bound together naked, with eyes fixed on the ground, show their confusion by their blushes: and the spectacle appeared to me the pleasantest imaginable-all but as good as the antecedent event itself.2 Apollo. But that blacksmith-does he not himself, too, feel shame in exposing the disgrace of his marriage-bed ? Hermes. No, by heaven! not he, who, in fact, stands over them and laughs at them. For myself, however, if one must speak the truth, I did grudge Ares not only his intrigue with the fairest of the Goddesses, but even his being bound with her. Apollo. Then would you really endure even to be fettered upon that condition ? Hermes. And would you not, my dear Apollo? Only come and have a look; for I will commend you, if you would not yourself, too, pray for the like good fortune, if you did but see.3 2 XVIII. HERA DENOUNCES, AND ZEUS DEFENDS, THE CHARACTER OF BACCHUS. Hera and Zeus. Hera. I should be ashamed, Zeus, if I had such an 1 The Goddesses, as the poet of the Odyssey carefully informs us, did not sanction the stratagem of Hephæstus, and absented themselves :Θηλύτεραι δὲ θεαὶ μένον αἰδοῖ οἴκοι ἑκάστη.—Οδ. viii. 324. Μονονουχὶ αὐτὸ γιγνόμενον τὸ ἔργον. “Εργον et ἐνεργεῖν, in re Venereâ, pervulgati sunt usus."-Hemst. One commentator (Jensius) interprets the words of Hermes, τὸ θέαμα ἥδιστον—ἔργον, as implying: "Scilicet ferme ita hoc spectaculo delectatus fui, quàm si ipse iisdem fruerer gaudiis." Cf. Plato, Пó. III., who condemns this, with other Homeric theology, as immoral and improper. 3 Lucian has not at all "improved upon "the free confessions of Hermes, as given by the poet of the Odyssey: «Αι γὰρ τοῦτο γενοίτο, ἄναξ ἑκατηβόλ ̓ "Απολλον, Δέσμοι μὲν τρὶς τόσσοι ἀπείρονες ἀμφὶς ἔχοιεν, Hermes and Apollo are, appropriately, the interlocutors in this dialogue, since they are specially named in the Homeric epos. effeminate son, and so debauched a drunkard, with his hair bound with the women's head band, associating chiefly with frantic women, more effeminate than themselves, dancing to the noise of drums, and pipe, and cymbals, and, in short, like anything rather than his father. Zeus. Yet this effeminate mitre-wearer,1 who goes more delicately than women, Hera, not only conquered Lydia, and took captive the inhabitants of Tmolus, and brought the Thracians under his yoke, but also made an expedition against the Indians with that army of women, took possession of the elephants, and made himself master of the country, and led away captive the king who dared to offer him a brief resistance; and all this he did while leaping about, and dancing with his chorus,2 bearing the ivywreathed thyrsus, drunk, as you say, and in bacchanalian frenzy. But if anyone attempts to insult him by showing contempt for the initiation into his mystic rites, he certainly avenges himself on him either by binding him with vinetwigs, or by causing him to be torn in pieces by his mother like a fawn.* Do you observe how manly these actions are, and not unworthy of his father? And if playful sportiveness and wantonness are combined with them, there is no cause for grudging them to him; and, especially, if one considers what he would be sober, when he performs such actions drunk. 3 Hera. You appear to me to be going to commend also his discovery-the vine and wine-and that, though you see how drunkards behave, staggering along, and betaking themselves to insolence and violence, and, in a word, mad 1 See 0. A. ii.; Cf. Euripides, Bákɣaι; Ovid, Metam. iii. 8. xi. 1-2; Apollod. iii. 5; Hor. Car. ii. 19; Virg. Æn. vii. 373. 2 Ορχούμενος ἅμα καὶ χορεύων. Χορεύων differs from the preceding verb in implying the circular dance, and has particular reference to the dithyrambic and dramatic chorus round the altar of Dionysus. The thyrsus was one of the well-known insignia of the God of Wine. It was a pole, or wand, enwreathed with vine and ivy leaves, and crowned with a pine cone. 3 Tv TEλerýv. Lit., "the perfecting" or "perfection" (réλoç), used of the sacred mysteries. Cf. Herod. ii. 171. iv. 79; Plato, paidpos, 240. As was Pentheus, king of Thebes, for opposing the introduction of the Bacchic worship and ritual into his city. See Báкyaι; Pausanias, ii. 2; Ov. Met. iii., 514. |