DEUCALION AND PYRRHA.

171

Procris paid a very severe penalty for her curiosity.

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Deucalion was a prince who reigned in Thes saly, about fifty years later than the reign of Cecrops in Athens: both he and his wife Pyrrha owed their birth immediately to the Gods, he being the son of Prometheus, and she the daughter of Epimetheus, first cousins to Jupiter: the mother of Pyrrha was Pandora in the time of Deucalion, Jupiter, exasperated with the crimes and enormities of mankind, sent a flood which destroyed the whole world: Deucalion and Pyrrha, the only pious and innocent persons then living, embarked in a small vessel, and alone survived the destruction of the human race: when the flood subsided, they landed upon mount Parnassus ; and struck with their forlorn and desolate situation, they resorted to the oracle of Themis which happened to be near, humbly enquiring how the destruction that had taken place might be repaired, and the ungodly generation which had perished replaced by one more virtuous: the oracle commanded them to cast the bones of their "Great Mother" over their shoulders: they were at first puzzled with this direction, and shud. dered at the thought of violating the remains of their earthly or imputed parents: at length they discovered that by their mother the oracle designed the earth, and that the bones of their mother were the pebbles scattered upon the surface: they obeyed the will of the Goddess; and the stones cast by Deucalion were turned into men; and those thrown by Pyrrha into women.

C Ov. Met. vii. 690 et seqq.

d Id. i. 240 et seqq.

CHAP. XVIII.

OF BACCHUS, GOD OF WINE.

Jupiter assumes the Form of a Bull, and carries off Europa.-Cadmus, the Founder of Thebes.Semele consumed by Fire from Heaven.-Education of Bacchus.-Solemnity of his Worship.-His Figure.His Adventure with Pirates. Perplexity of the History of Bacchus.-He is the same with Osiris. His Pacific Conquests in Ethiopia, India, and other Countries. He is attended by Satyrs. Silenus, a Rural God, his Preceptor.-Story of Midas, who turned every thing he touched into Gold.Midas's Ears changed into those of an Ass.-Story of Triptotemus. Punishment of Lycurgus, King of Thrace, for his Opposition to Bacchus.-Punishment of Pentheus. Leucothoe and Palæmon.-Acteon turned into a Sta

CADMUS is one of the most ement personages in the early Grecian history: he passed over from Phoenicia into that part of Greece called Boeotia, ten years after Deucalion's flood: we are not to expect consistency in the fabuus history of the ancients: accordingly in this short space of time from the universal destruction of mankind, we read of Cadmus transporting himself from one civilised country, to teach the arts of life to the savage inhabitants of another: Cadmus is said to have first imported letters into Greece, which afterwards surpassed all countries of mankind in the use of letters.

Herod. ii. 49, et iv. 147.

JUPITER AND EUROPA.

173

We may well expect that the Greeks, who excelled so much in fable and the brilliancy of imagination, would adorn with a variety of fictions the history of so memorable a person as Cadmus and in this expectation we are not disappointed.

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The following is said to be the occasion of Cadmus's passing over from Phoenicia: Agenor king of Sidon, his father, had also a daughter, called Europa: Jupiter fell in love with this princess, and determined to run away with her: to effect this purpose he turned himself into a most beautiful milk-white bull, with horns of the finest pearl, and in this disguise mixed with the herds of king Agenor: Europa exceedingly admired the noble animal, who carried himself toward her with the utmost tameness, ate the flowers out of her hand, and kissed the fingers of the giver Europa, charmed with his gentleness, patted his sides and at length ventured to leap upon his back: Jupiter watched his opportunity: he stood upon the sea-shore; and he no sooner felt himself pressed with the desired burthen, than he plunged into the waves, and swam away with the affrighted maiden to the island of Crete.

Agenor, afflicted beyond measure by the loss of his daughter, ordered his son Cadmus to set out in search of her, and added to his commands this severe injunction, that his son should never venture to return till he had found her: Cadmus sought his sister through the world in vain; who can expect to find what Jupiter desires to con ceal? at length, in Phocis, near the oracle of Delphi, he ceased from his wanderings; and, not

f Ov. Met. ii. 847 et seqq.

174

CADMUS, FOUNDER OF THEBES.

daring to go back to his father, asked the direction of Apollo, where he should fix his abode: the oracle told him that, at going out of the temple, he would see a young heifer, and that he was to follow this animal till it lay down of its own accord; there he was to fix with his followers, and to call the country Boeotia, from Bos, the Greek name for an ox.

Cadmus accepted the omen, and on his arrival kissed the earth which he was henceforth to inhabit: the next thing he thought of was to make a sacrifice to Jupiter: he sent his followers to seek Iwater for his sacrifice: he waited their return from morning till evening, but not one of them came back: he then hastened himself to search the cause they had found a spring, but it was defended by an enormous dragon with a triple row of teeth in either jaw, which, the moment an urn was let down into the fountain, sprang forth and destroyed them: Cadmus killed the serpent: Minerva appeared to him, and directed him to repair the loss of his companions by sowing the earth with the teeth of the dragon: from this extraordinary seed immediately sprang up a crop of armed men, who, retaining the venomous character of the source of their existence, fell to ins stant blows, and were all, except five, killed on the spot these five, warned by the fate of their fellows, struck up a league of amity, and became the coadjutors of Cadmus in building the city of Thebes &.

The wife of Cadmus was Hermione, or Harmonia, who was according to some the daughter of Mars and Venus: and according to others sister

gov. Met. iii. 1 et seqq.

JUPITER AND SEMELE.

175

to Dardanus, the founder of Troy: by her he had one son Polydorus, and four daughters, Ino, Agave, Autonoe and Semele: Polydorus was the second king of Thebesh.

Semele, the youngest of the daughters of Cadmus, was the mother of Bacchus: Jupiter, they said, became enamoured of the maiden: this was the usual fiction by which the Greeks sought to do honour to their favourite heroes: by an obvious consequence they represented Juno as irritated at the infidelities of her husband, full of rage against the favourite sultana of the day, and nourishing a furious animosity against the stripling Demigod.

Jupiter assumed the figure of a man, and in that disguise paid his visits to Semele: the better to secure her affections, he however confessed to her in private who he was: upon this circumstance Juno built her project of revenge: she appeared before the young lady in the form of Beroe, her nurse, and pretended to be her friend.

"How are you sure," said this treacherous foe, "that the person who visits you is actually Jupiter? any audacious adventurer might say that he was a God; and tricks and delusions are abroad every where were 1 in your place, I would require him to give me proof of his pretensions: nay, if he be Jupiter, the thing I am going to recommend will afford the most certain pledge that he really loves you: say to him the next time he comes, that you are tired of being always visited thus in masquerade, and beg that at least for once he would enter your chamber in the same majesty and state, with which he presents himself to Juno his wife."

Paus. ix. 5.