Зображення сторінки
PDF
ePub

first she could not imagine they were a part of herself, and tried to run from them and to drive them away; but as she ran she carried them with her, and when she tried to touch her limbs she found her hands touch only the yawning jaws of monsters. Scylla remained rooted to the spot. Her temper grew as ugly as her form, and she took pleasure in devouring hapless mariners who came within her grasp. Thus she destroyed six of the companions of Ulysses and tried to wreck the ships of Aeneas, till at last she was turned into a rock, and as such still continues to be a terror to mariners.

Glaucus is said to have been the son of Neptune. He was drowned either by accident or by suicide, and was reported to have been changed into a sea god and to have had the gift of prophecy. He was also said to have built and steered the Argo. He lived near the town of Anthedon, in Boeotia, and Pausanias tells us that the place where he leaped into the sea was still shown and called "Glaucus's Leap."

Keats, in his Endymion, has given a new version of the ending of "Glaucus and Scylla." Glaucus consents to Circe's blandishments, till he, by chance, is witness to her transactions with her beasts. Disgusted with her treachery and cruelty, he tries to escape from her, but is taken and brought back, when with reproaches she banishes him, sentencing him to pass a thousand years in decrepitude and pain. He returns to the sea and there finds the body of Scylla, whom the goddess has not transformed but drowned. Glaucus learns that his destiny is that, if he passes his thousand years in collecting all the bodies of drowned lovers, a youth beloved of the gods will appear and help him. Endymion fulfils this prophecy, and aids in restoring Glaucus to youth and Scylla and all the drowned lovers to life.

i

CHAPTER VIII

PYGMALION-DRYOPE-VENUS AND ADONIS-APOLLO

AND HYACINTHUS.

PYGMALION saw so much to blame in women that he came at last to abhor the sex, and resolved to live unmarried. He was a sculptor, and had made with wonderful skill a statue of ivory, so beautiful that no living woman came anywhere near it. It was indeed the perfect semblance of a maiden that seemed to be alive and only prevented from moving by modesty. His art was so perfect that it concealed itself, and its product looked like the workmanship of nature. Pygmalion admired his own work, and at last fell in love with the counterfeit creation. Oftentimes he laid his hand upon it as if to assure himself whether it were living or not, and could not even then believe that it was only ivory. He caressed it, and gave it presents such as young girls love-bright shells and polished stones, little birds and flowers of various hues, beads and amber. He put raiment on its limbs, and jewels on its fingers, and a necklace about its neck. To the ears he hung ear-rings, and strings of pearls upon the breast. Her dress became her, and she looked not less charming than when unattired. He laid her on a couch spread with cloths of Tyrian dye, and called her his wife and put her head upon a pillow of the softest feathers, as if she could enjoy their softness.

The festival of Venus was at hand-a festival celebrated with great pomp at Cyprus. Victims were offered, the altars smoked, and the odor of incense filled the air. When Pygmalion had performed his part in the solemnities he stood before the altar and timidly said: "Ye gods, who can do all things, give me, I pray you, for my wife"-he dared not say "my ivory virgin," but said instead-" one like my ivory virgin." Venus, who was present at the festival, heard him and knew the thought he would have uttered; and, as an omen of her favor, caused the flame on the altar to shoot up thrice in a fiery point into

[graphic][subsumed][merged small]

the air. When he returned home he went to see his statue, and, leaning over the couch, gave a kiss to the mouth. It seemed to be warm. He pressed its lips again, he laid his hand upon the limbs; the ivory felt soft to his touch and yielded to his fingers, like the wax of Hymettus. While he stands astonished and glad, though doubting, and fears he may be mistaken, again and again, with a lover's ardor, he touches the object of his hopes. It was indeed alive! The veins, when pressed, yielded to the finger and again resumed their roundness. Then at last the votary of Venus found words to thank the goddess, and pressed his lips upon lips as real as his own. The virgin felt the kisses and blushed, and, opening her timid eyes to the light, fixed them at the same moment on her lover. Venus blessed the nuptials she had formed, and from this union Paphus was born, from whom the city, sacred to Venus, received its name.

[graphic][merged small]

The story of Pygmalion and his statue is in all probability an allegory. Pygmalion was a virtuous and honorable man, who became disgusted with the vice of the women of Cyprus, and would

« НазадПродовжити »