the stones are her bones; these we may cast behind us; and I think this is what the oracle means. At least, it will do no harm to try." They veiled their faces, unbound their garments, and picked up stones, and cast them behind them. The stones (wonderful to relate) began to grow soft and assume shape. By degrees they put on a rude resemblance to the human form, like a block half finished in the hands of the sculptor. The moisture and slime that were about them became flesh; the stony part became bones; the veins remained veins, retaining their name, only changing their use. Those thrown by the hand of the man became men, and those by the woman became women. It was a hard race and well adapted to labor, as we find ourselves to be at this day, giving plain indications of our origin.

It is curious to note how, even in many particulars, this tradition corresponds to the account of the deluge in the Bible-God's determination to destroy every living thing on the earth, the ark on Ararat with the temple on Parnassus, Deucalion and Pyrrha with Noah and his wife. Both Deucalion and Noah were saved for their righteous lives, both offered sacrifices at the abatement of the waters, and both had the promise of this being the last deluge.

The comparison of Eve to Pandora is too obvious to have escaped Milton, who introduces it in Book IV. of Paradise Lost.

"More lovely than Pandora, whom the gods
Endowed with all their gifts, and O, too like
In sad event, when to the unwiser son
Of Japhet brought by Hermes, she insnared
Mankind with her fair looks, to be avenged
On him who had stole Jove's authentic fire."

Prometheus and Epimetheus were sons of Japetus, which Milton changes to Japhet. Prometheus was the son of Japetus and the ocean nymph Clymene. By some he is supposed to be identical with Magog (Gen. 10:2). The latter was the son of Japhet (a name closely allied to Japetus). Both went to settle in Scythia; both invented or improved the art of forging metals. Prometheus was the brother of Atlas, Menoetius, and Epimetheus, the last of whom is confused with Gog, the brother of Magog. Prometheus and Hephaestus had a common altar in Athens, where

there was a yearly festival called the Prometheia, of which a torch-race was the most prominent feature.

Prometheus has been a favorite subject with the poets. Aeschylus wrote a trilogy about him, the third part of which Mrs. Browning has admirably translated. He is represented as the friend of mankind, who interposed in their behalf when Jove was incensed against them, and who taught them civilization and the arts. But as, in so doing, he transgressed the will of Jupiter, he drew down on himself the anger of the ruler of gods and men. Jupiter had him chained to a rock on Mount Caucasus, where a vulture preyed on his liver, which was renewed as fast as devoured. This state of torment might have been brought to an end at any time by Prometheus if he had been willing to submit to his oppressor; for he possessed a secret which involved the stability of Jove's throne, and if he would have revealed it he might have been at once taken into favor. But that he disdained to do. He has therefore become the symbol of magnanimous endurance of unmerited suffering and strength of will resisting oppression.

CHAPTER III.

APOLLO AND DAPHNE-PYRAMUS AND THISBE-CEPHALUS AND PROCRIS.

THE slime with which the earth was covered by the waters of the flood produced an excessive fertility, which called forth every variety of production, both bad and good. Among the rest, Python, an enormous serpent, crept forth, the terror of the people, and lurked in the caves of Mount Parnassus. Apollo slew him with his arrows-weapons which he had not before used against any but feeble animals, hares, wild goats, and such game. In commemoration of this illustrious conquest he instituted the Pythian games, in which the victor in feats of strength, swiftness of foot, or in the chariot race was crowned with a wreath of beech-leaves; for the laurel was not yet adopted by Apollo as his own tree.

This myth probably means that after the deluge the heat of the sun (Apollo) caused to disappear all the noxious disease (Python) produced by the overflowing waters. The Pythian games were next in importance to the Olympic games. They took place near Delphi, in the third year of each Olympiad, and were continued as late as A.D. 394. Gymnastic sports formed a part of the ceremonies, but the chief contest was a musical one. The prize was a wreath from the sacred bay tree in the vale of Tempe.

The famous statue of Apollo called the Belvedere represents the god after this victory over the serpent Python. To this Byron alludes in his Childe Harold, Canto iv.:

"The lord of the unerring bow,
The god of life, and poetry, and light,
The Sun, in human limbs arrayed, and brow
All radiant from his triumph in the fight.
The shaft has just been shot; the arrow bright
With an immortal's vengeance; in his eye
And nostril, beautiful disdain, and might,
And majesty flash their full lightnings by,
Developing in that one glance the Deity.'

APOLLO AND DAPHNE.

Daphne was Apollo's first love. It was not brought about by accident, but by the malice of Cupid. Apollo saw the boy playing with his bow and arrows; and being himself elated with his recent victory over Python, he said to him, " What have you to do with warlike weapons, saucy boy? Leave them for hands worthy of them. Behold the conquest I have won by means of them over the vast serpent who stretched his poisonous body over acres of the plain! Be content with your torch, child, and kindle up your flames, as you call them, where you will, but presume not to meddle with my weapons."

Venus's boy heard these words, and rejoined: "Your arrows may strike all things else, Apollo, but mine shall strike you." So saying, he took his stand on a rock of Parnassus and drew from his quiver two arrows of different workmanship, one to excite love, the other to repel it. The former was of gold and sharppointed, the latter blunt and tipped with lead. With the leaden shaft he struck the nymph Daphne, the daughter of the river god Peneus, and with the golden one Apollo, through the heart. Forthwith the god was seized with love for the maiden, and she abhorred the thought of loving. Her delight was in woodland sports and in the spoils of the chase. Many lovers sought her, but she spurned them all, ranging the woods and taking no thought of Cupid nor of Hymen. Her father often said to her: “Daughter, you owe me a son-in-law; you owe me grandchildren." She, hating the thought of marriage as a crime, with her beautiful face tinged all over with blushes, threw her arms around her father's neck and said: "Dearest father, grant me this favor, that I may always remain unmarried, like Diana.” He consented, but at the same time said: "Your own face will forbid it."

Apollo loved her, and longed to obtain her; and he who gives oracles to all the world was not wise enough to look into his own fortunes. He saw her hair flung loose over her shoulders, and said: "If so charming in disorder, what would it be if arranged?" He saw her eyes bright as stars; he saw her lips, and was not satisfied with only seeing them. He admired her hands and arms, naked to the shoulder, and whatever was hidden

from view he imagined more beautiful still. He followed her; she fled, swifter than the wind, and delayed not a moment at his entreaties. Stay," said he, " daughter of Peneus! I am not a

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foe.

Apollo and Daphne.

Do not fly me as a lamb flies a wolf or a dove the hawk. It is for love I pursue you. You make me miserable, for fear you should fall and hurt yourself on these stones, and I should