proper to the persons whom they were required to obey during the rest of the year.

Cybele, the mother of the Gods, was of so ex traordinary a modesty, that it was said no male ever saw her, except her husband: her name was scarcely ever pronounced: she was a pattern for all matrons: men were excluded from her temple, and she was worshipped in silence.

This was one of the forms observed in the worship of Cybele: another mode in which she was worshipped, on different occasions, or in different countries, was that her priests, who were of the male sex, were however eunuchs', and that her worshippers celebrated her festivals with a confused noise of timbrels, fifes and cymbals, expressed their emotions by howlings, and indulged in all the extravagant gestures of madmen: these ceremonies bore a reference to the circumstances which are said to have attended the birth of Jupiter.

Another curious particular which belongs to the history of Cybele, is the affection she is said to have conceived for Atys', a Phrygian shepherd-boy, which was so great, that she made him her high-priest, on condition that he would never allow himself to fall in love with a mortal: this condition he broke, and the Goddess as a punishment, took from him the power of ever being a father.

P Cicero De Harusp. v.; Tib. lib. i. El. vi. 22.

9 Virgil. Æn. iii. 112.

Juv. Sat. vi. 512.

s Ov. Fasti, lib. iv. 221.

CHAP. VII.

WAR OF THE TITANS.

Birth of Jupiter.-Saturn, defeated and imprisoned by the Titans, is rescued by his Son.-Plots against the Life of Jupiter, and is deprived of the Kingdom.--Worship of Janus.

THAT Saturn might fulfil the treaty he had made with his brothers, he constantly caused his male children to be brought to him as soon as they were born, and by him they were devoured: Cybele, observing this, and feeling a mother's kindness for her offspring, resolved when Jupiter was born, to deceive her husband; sbe accordingly dressed a large stone in the swaddlingclothes of an infant, and presented it to Saturn, who deceived by appearances, swallowed the stone, and thought it had been his child: Cybele concealed the infant Jupiter upon mount Ida in Crete, where according to some accounts he was born, and caused the Curetes and Corybantes, her priests, to make a deafening noise with their drums and cymbals, which prevented the parent God from hearing the baby cries of his son: Jupiter was nursed by the nymphs, and suckled by a goat: the horn of this goat, called "Amalthæa's" born," from the name of one of his nurses, and "Cornucopia," because it was endowed with the admirable privilege, that whoever possessed

Ov. Fasti, lib. iv. 197 et seqq. "Ov. Fasti, lib. v. 115.

WAR OF THE TITANS.

37

it, should find it containing every thing he desired, he gave when he grew up, as a present to the nymphs: and the skin of the animal he converted into a shield, usually called the Egis of Jupiter: Cybele, by a repetition of the same stratagem, deceived her husband at the birth of two other sons, Neptune and Pluto.

As they grew up, it should seem that Cybele acquainted her husband with what she had done, and presented to him the youths, his offspring, and that Saturn was so struck with their beauty and hopeful qualities, that he forgave his wife, and took them into favour: for the Titans having complained to Saturn of the breach of his agreement, the obvious remedy was for him upon their remonstrance to have destroyed his sons: this however he refused, and thereupon ensued a

war.

The Titans were enemies so formidable, that to represent the greatness of their might, they y are feigned to have had fifty heads and a hundred hands.

The names of the Titans were Oceanus, Cous, Creus, Hyperion, Iapetus, Cottus, Gyges and Briareus: they had an equal number of sisters with whom they married, Oceanus to Tethys, Cœus to Phoebe, Hyperion to Theia, and lape tus to Clymene.

The Titans were at first completely successful against Saturn: they took him and his wife prisoners, bound them with chains, and confined them in Hell: a few years after however, Jupiter overcame the Titans, and set his father and mother at liberty: the Titans were then shut up in

* Hesiod. The. 150.

y Hesiod. The. 133.

38

SATURN DEPOSED.

the prison which they had previously assigned to Saturn.

A prediction had reached the ears of Saturn", that he should be deprived of his kingdom by his eldest son: terrified at this menace, Saturn plotted to take away the life of Jupiter: but Jupiter having found out the design, and being full of resentment at the unkindness of a father whom he had so essentially served, drove Saturn out of his kingdom, and thus fulfilled the prediction: Saturn took refuge in a part of Italy, which is said afterwards to have been called Latium a latendo, from the God's having "laid hid" there: the king of this country was Janus, who is said to have been like Saturn, the son of Coelus, but by a different mother: Janus made Saturn the partner of his throne, and the exiled God, of whom so many ill things have been told, did here as in his parent kingdom; reclaimed the people from their wild way of living, and taught them arts, civilization and happiness.

Janus was a God of some importance in the Roman calendar: he was represented with two faces, emblematical of his prudence, looking before and behind: his temple was open in war, and shut in time of peace; that is, he was the God of Peace, to be invoked where peace was not, but whom it was no longer necessary to pro. pitiate when war had ceased: the Romans conquerors of the world were incessantly at war, and the temple of Janus was only twice shut during the whole period of the Roman republic.

Saturn being expelled from the empire of the

z Hesiod. The. 463 et seqq. a Virgil. Æn. viii. 322. Ov. 238. b Ov. Fasti, i. 65 et seqq. c Id. 281; Virgil.

Fasti,

Æn. vii. 610.

REIGN OF JUPITER.

39

Gods, Jupiter, his conqueror, called his brothers Neptune and Pluto, into partnership of his authority, taking to himself the government of Heaven and earth, and assigning to Neptune the dominion of the sea, and to Pluto the dominion of Tartarus, or Hell: this was the last revolution in the skies: consequently Jupiter is acknowledg ed in the Grecian mythology for the greatest of all the Gods, and is styled by Homer, father of Gods and men d.

Πατὴρ ἀνδρων τε Θεων τε. Od, a. 28.