{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/wikisource_The_Age_of_Fable_Chapter_IV/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/wikisource_The_Age_of_Fable_Chapter_IV","id":"wikisource_The_Age_of_Fable_Chapter_IV","license":"Public Domain / CC-BY-SA (see source)","rights_basis":"wikisource_site_inclusion_policy","source":"wikisource","source_url":"https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Age_of_Fable/Chapter_IV","summary":null,"tags":["Headers_applying_DefaultSort_key","Subpages"],"text":"IV. JUNO AND HER RIVALS, IO AND CALLISTO; DIANA AND ACT\u00c6ON \u2014 LATONA AND THE RUSTICS\n\nJuno one day perceived it suddenly grow dark, and immediately\nsuspected that her husband had raised a cloud to hide some of his\ndoings that would not bear the light. She brushed away the cloud,\nand saw her husband on the banks of a glassy river, with a\nbeautiful heifer standing near him. Juno suspected the heifer's\nform concealed some fair nymph of mortal mould\u2014as was, indeed the\ncase; for it was Io, the daughter of the river god Inachus, whom\nJupiter had been flirting with, and, when he became aware of the\napproach of his wife, had changed into that form.\n\nJuno joined her husband, and noticing the heifer praised its\nbeauty, and asked whose it was, and of what herd. Jupiter, to stop\nquestions, replied that it was a fresh creation from the earth.\nJuno asked to have it as a gift. What could Jupiter do? He was\nloath to give his mistress to his wife; yet how refuse so trifling\na present as a simple heifer? He could not, without exciting\nsuspicion; so he consented. The goddess was not yet relieved of\nher suspicions; so she delivered the heifer to Argus, to be\nstrictly watched.\n\nNow Argus had a hundred eyes in his head, and never went to sleep\nwith more than two at a time, so that he kept watch of Io\nconstantly. He suffered her to feed through the day, and at night\ntied her up with a vile rope round her neck. She would have\nstretched out her arms to implore freedom of Argus, but she had no\narms to stretch out, and her voice was a bellow that frightened\neven herself. She saw her father and her sisters, went near them,\nand suffered them to pat her back, and heard them admire her\nbeauty. Her father reached her a tuft of grass, and she licked the\noutstretched hand. She longed to make herself known to him, and\nwould have uttered her wish; but, alas! words were wanting. At\nlength she bethought herself of writing, and inscribed her name\u2014\nit was a short one\u2014with her hoof on the sand. Inachus recognized\nit, and discovering that his daughter, whom he had long sought in\nvain, was hidden under this disguise, mourned over her, and,\nembracing her white neck, exclaimed, \"Alas! my daughter, it would\nhave been a less grief to have lost you altogether!\" While he thus\nlamented, Argus, observing, came and drove her away, and took his\nseat on a high bank, from whence he could see all around in every\ndirection.\n\nJupiter was troubled at beholding the sufferings of his mistress,\nand calling Mercury told him to go and despatch Argus. Mercury\nmade haste, put his winged slippers on his feet, and cap on his\nhead, took his sleep-producing wand, and leaped down from the\nheavenly towers to the earth. There he laid aside his wings, and\nkept only his wand, with which he presented himself as a shepherd\ndriving his flock. As he strolled on he blew upon his pipes. These\nwere what are called the Syrinx or Pandean pipes. Argus listened\nwith delight, for he had never seen the instrument before. \"Young\nman,\" said he, \"come and take a seat by me on this stone. There is\nno better place for your flocks to graze in than hereabouts, and\nhere is a pleasant shade such as shepherds love.\" Mercury sat\ndown, talked, and told stories till it grew late, and played upon\nhis pipes his most soothing strains, hoping to lull the watchful\neyes to sleep, but all in vain; for Argus still contrived to keep\nsome of his eyes open though he shut the rest.\n\nAmong other stories, Mercury told him how the instrument on which\nhe played was invented. \"There was a certain nymph, whose name was\nSyrinx, who was much beloved by the satyrs and spirits of the\nwood; but she would have none of them, but was a faithful\nworshipper of Diana, and followed the chase. You would have\nthought it was Diana herself, had you seen her in her hunting\ndress, only that her bow was of horn and Diana's of silver. One\nday, as she was returning from the chase, Pan met her, told her\njust this, and added more of the same sort. She ran away, without\nstopping to hear his compliments, and he pursued till she came to\nthe bank of the river, where he overtook her, and she had only\ntime to call for help on her friends the water nymphs. They heard\nand consented. Pan threw his arms around what he supposed to be\nthe form of the nymph, and found he embraced only a tuft of reeds!\nAs he breathed a sigh, the air sounded through the reeds, and\nproduced a plaintive melody. The god, charmed with the novelty and\nwith the sweetness of the music, said, 'Thus, then, at least, you\nshall be mine.' And he took some of the reeds, and placing them\ntogether, of unequal lengths, side by side, made an instrument\nwhich he called Syrinx, in honor of the nymph.\" Before Mercury had\nfinished his story he saw Argus's eyes all asleep. As his head\nnodded forward on his breast, Mercury with one stroke cut his neck\nthrough, and tumbled his head down the rocks. O hapless Argus! the\nlight of your hundred eyes is quenched at once! Juno took them and\nput them as ornaments on the tail of her peacock, where they\nremain to this day.\n\nBut the vengeance of Juno was not yet satiated. She sent a gadfly\nto torment Io, who fled over the whole world from its pursuit. She\nswam through the Ionian sea, which derived its name from her, then\nroamed over the plains of Illyria, ascended Mount Haemus, and\ncrossed the Thracian strait, thence named the Bosphorus (cow-\nford), rambled on through Scythia, and the country of the\nCimmerians, and arrived at last on the banks of the Nile. At\nlength Jupiter interceded for her, and upon his promising not to\npay her any more attentions Juno consented to restore her to her\nform. It was curious to see her gradually recover her former self.\nThe coarse hairs fell from her body, her horns shrank up, her eyes\ngrew narrower, her mouth shorter; hands and fingers came instead\nof hoofs to her forefeet; in fine there was nothing left of the\nheifer, except her beauty. At first she was afraid to speak, for\nfear she should low, but gradually she recovered her confidence\nand was restored to her father and sisters.\n\nIn a poem dedicated to Leigh Hunt, by Keats, the following\nallusion to the story of Pan and Syrinx occurs:\n\n\"So did he feel who pulled the bough aside,\n\nThat we might look into a forest wide,\n\n\u2022\u2022\u2022\u2022Telling us how fair trembling Syrinx fled\n\nArcadian Pan, with such a fearful dread.\n\nPoor nymph\u2014poor Pan\u2014how he did weep to find\n\nNought but a lovely sighing of the wind\n\nAlong the reedy stream; a half-heard strain.\n\nFull of sweet desolation, balmy pain.\"\n\nCALLISTO\n\nCallisto was another maiden who excited the jealousy of Juno, and\nthe goddess changed her into a bear. \"I will take away,\" said she,\n\"that beauty with which you have captivated my husband.\" Down fell\nCallisto on her hands and knees; she tried to stretch out her arms\nin supplication\u2014they were already beginning to be covered with\nblack hair. Her hands grew rounded, became armed with crooked\nclaws, and served for feet; her mouth, which Jove used to praise\nfor its beauty, became a horrid pair of jaws; her voice, which if\nunchanged would have moved the heart to pity, became a growl, more\nfit to inspire terror. Yet her former disposition remained, and\nwith continual groaning, she bemoaned her fate, and stood upright\nas well as she could, lifting up her paws to beg for mercy, and\nfelt that Jove was unkind, though she could not tell him so. Ah,\nhow often, afraid to stay in the woods all night alone, she\nwandered about the neighborhood of her former haunts; how often,\nfrightened by the dogs, did she, so lately a huntress, fly in\nterror from the hunters! Often she fled from the wild beasts,\nforgetting that she was now a wild beast herself; and, bear as she\nwas, was afraid of the bears.\n\nOne day a youth espied her as he was hunting. She saw him and\nrecognized him as her own son, now grown a young man. She stopped\nand felt inclined to embrace him. As she was about to approach,\nhe, alarmed, raised his hunting spear, and was on the point of\ntransfixing her, when Jupiter, beholding, arrested the crime, and\nsnatching away both of them, placed them in the heavens as the\nGreat and Little Bear.\n\nJuno was in a rage to see her rival so set in honor, and hastened\nto ancient Tethys and Oceanus, the powers of ocean, and in answer\nto their inquiries thus told the cause of her coming: \"Do you ask\nwhy I, the queen of the gods, have left the heavenly plains and\nsought your depths? Learn that I am supplanted in heaven\u2014my place\nis given to another. You will hardly believe me; but look when\nnight darkens the world, and you shall see the two of whom I have\nso much reason to complain exalted to the heavens, in that part\nwhere the circle is the smallest, in the neighborhood of the pole.\nWhy should any one hereafter tremble at the thought of offending\nJuno, when such rewards are the consequence of my displeasure? See\nwhat I have been able to effect! I forbade her to wear the human\nform\u2014she is placed among the stars! So do my punishments result\u2014\nsuch is the extent of my power! Better that she should have\nresumed her former shape, as I permitted Io to do. Perhaps he\nmeans to marry her, and put me away! But you, my foster-parents,\nif you feel for me, and see with displeasure this unworthy\ntreatment of me, show it, I beseech you, by forbidding this guilty\ncouple from coming into your waters.\" The powers of the ocean\nassented, and consequently the two constellations of the Great and\nLittle Bear move round and round in heaven, but never sink, as the\nother stars do, beneath the ocean.\n\nMilton alludes to the fact that the constellation of the Bear\nnever sets, when he says:\n\n\"Let my lamp at midnight hour\n\nBe seen in some high lonely tower,\n\nWhere I may oft outwatch the Bear,\" etc.\n\nAnd Prometheus, in J. R. Lowell's poem, says:\n\n\"One after one the stars have risen and set,\n\nSparkling upon the hoar frost of my chain;\n\nThe Bear that prowled all night about the fold\n\nOf the North-star, hath shrunk into his den,\n\nScared by the blithesome footsteps of the Dawn.\"\n\nThe last star in the tail of the Little Bear is the Pole-star,\ncalled also the Cynosure. Milton says:\n\n\"Straight mine eye hath caught new pleasures\n\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0While the landscape round it measures.\n\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Towers and battlements it sees\n\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Bosomed high in tufted trees,\n\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Where perhaps some beauty lies\n\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The Cynosure of neighboring eyes\"\n\nThe reference here is both to the Pole-star as the guide of\nmariners, and to the magnetic attraction of the North He calls it\nalso the \"Star of Arcady,\" because Callisto's boy was named Arcas,\nand they lived in Arcadia. In \"Comus,\" the brother, benighted in\nthe woods, says:\n\n\"... Some gentle taper!\n\nThough a rush candle, from the wicker hole\n\n\u2022\u2022\u2022\u2022Of some clay habitation, visit us\n\nWith thy long levelled rule of streaming light,\n\nAnd thou shalt be our star of Arcady,\n\nOr Tyrian Cynosure.\"\n\nDIANA AND ACT\u00c6ON\n\nThus in two instances we have seen Juno's severity to her rivals;\nnow let us learn how a virgin goddess punished an invader of her\nprivacy.\n\nIt was midday, and the sun stood equally distant from either goal,\nwhen young Actaeon, son of King Cadmus, thus addressed the youths\nwho with him were hunting the stag in the mountains:\n\n\"Friends, our nets and our weapons are wet with the blood of our\nvictims; we have had sport enough for one day, and to-morrow we\ncan renew our labors. Now, while Ph\u0153bus parches the earth, let us\nput by our implements and indulge ourselves with rest.\"\n\nThere was a valley thick enclosed with cypresses and pines, sacred\nto the huntress queen, Diana. In the extremity of the valley was a\ncave, not adorned with art, but nature had counterfeited art in\nits construction, for she had turned the arch of its roof with\nstones as delicately fitted as if by the hand of man. A fountain\nburst out from one side, whose open basin was bounded by a grassy\nrim. Here the goddess of the woods used to come when weary with\nhunting and lave her virgin limbs in the sparkling water.\n\nOne day, having repaired thither with her nymphs, she handed her\njavelin, her quiver, and her bow to one, her robe to another,\nwhile a third unbound the sandals from her feet. Then Crocale, the\nmost skilful of them, arranged her hair, and Nephele, Hyale, and\nthe rest drew water in capacious urns. While the goddess was thus\nemployed in the labors of the toilet, behold Act\u00e6on, having\nquitted his companions, and rambling without any especial object,\ncame to the place, led thither by his destiny. As he presented\nhimself at the entrance of the cave, the nymphs, seeing a man,\nscreamed and rushed towards the goddess to hide her with their\nbodies. But she was taller than the rest and overtopped them all\nby a head. Such a color as tinges the clouds at sunset or at dawn\ncame over the countenance of Diana thus taken by surprise.\nSurrounded as she was by her nymphs, she yet turned half away, and\nsought with a sudden impulse for her arrows. As they were not at\nhand, she dashed the water into the face of the intruder, adding\nthese words: \"Now go and tell, if you can, that you have seen\nDiana unapparelled.\" Immediately a pair of branching stag's horns\ngrew out of his head, his neck gained in length, his ears grew\nsharp-pointed, his hands became feet, his arms long legs, his body\nwas covered with a hairy spotted hide. Fear took the place of his\nformer boldness, and the hero fled. He could not but admire his\nown speed; but when he saw his horns in the water, \"Ah, wretched\nme!\" he would have said, but no sound followed the effort. He\ngroaned, and tears flowed down the face which had taken the place\nof his own. Yet his consciousness remained. What shall he do?\u2014go\nhome to seek the palace, or lie hid in the woods? The latter he\nwas afraid, the former he was ashamed, to do. While he hesitated\nthe dogs saw him. First Melampus, a Spartan dog, gave the signal\nwith his bark, then Pamphagus, Dorceus, Lelaps, Theron, Nape,\nTigris, and all the rest, rushed after him swifter than the wind.\nOver rocks and cliffs, through mountain gorges that seemed\nimpracticable, he fled and they followed. Where he had often\nchased the stag and cheered on his pack, his pack now chased him,\ncheered on by his huntsmen. He longed to cry out, \"I am Actaeon;\nrecognize your master!\" but the words came not at his will. The\nair resounded with the bark of the dogs. Presently one fastened on\nhis back, another seized his shoulder. While they held their\nmaster, the rest of the pack came up and buried their teeth in his\nflesh. He groaned,\u2014not in a human voice, yet certainly not in a\nstag's,\u2014and falling on his knees, raised his eyes, and would have\nraised his arms in supplication, if he had had them. His friends\nand fellow-huntsmen cheered on the dogs, and looked everywhere for\nActaeon, calling on him to join the sport. At the sound of his\nname he turned his head, and heard them regret that he should be\naway. He earnestly wished he was. He would have been well pleased\nto see the exploits of his dogs, but to feel them was too much.\nThey were all around him, rending and tearing; and it was not till\nthey had torn his life out that the anger of Diana was satisfied.\n\nIn Shelley's poem \"Adonais\" is the following allusion to the story\nof Actaeon:\n\n\"'Midst others of less note came one frail form,\n\nA phantom among men: companionless\n\nAs the last cloud of an expiring storm,\n\nWhose thunder is its knell; he, as I guess,\n\nHad gazed on Nature's naked loveliness,\n\nAct\u00e6on-like, and now he fled astray\n\nWith feeble steps o'er the world's wilderness;\n\nAnd his own Thoughts, along that rugged way,\n\nPursued like raging hounds their father and their prey.\"\n\nStanza 31.\n\nThe allusion is probably to Shelley himself.\n\nLATONA AND THE RUSTICS\n\nSome thought the goddess in this instance more severe than was\njust, while others praised her conduct as strictly consistent with\nher virgin dignity. As, usual, the recent event brought older ones\nto mind, and one of the bystanders told this story: \"Some\ncountrymen of Lycia once insulted the goddess Latona, but not with\nimpunity. When I was young, my father, who had grown too old for\nactive labors, sent me to Lycia to drive thence some choice oxen,\nand there I saw the very pond and marsh where the wonder happened.\nNear by stood an ancient altar, black with the smoke of sacrifice\nand almost buried among the reeds. I inquired whose altar it might\nbe, whether of Faunus or the Naiads, or some god of the\nneighboring mountain, and one of the country people replied, 'No\nmountain or river god possesses this altar, but she whom royal\nJuno in her jealousy drove from land to land, denying her any spot\nof earth whereon to rear her twins. Bearing in her arms the infant\ndeities, Latona reached this land, weary with her burden and\nparched with thirst. By chance she espied on the bottom of the\nvalley this pond of clear water, where the country people were at\nwork gathering willows and osiers. The goddess approached, and\nkneeling on the bank would have slaked her thirst in the cool\nstream, but the rustics forbade her. 'Why do you refuse me water?'\nsaid she; 'water is free to all. Nature allows no one to claim as\nproperty the sunshine, the air, or the water. I come to take my\nshare of the common blessing. Yet I ask it of you as a favor. I\nhave no intention of washing my limbs in it, weary though they be,\nbut only to quench my thirst. My mouth is so dry that I can hardly\nspeak. A draught Of water would be nectar to me; it would revive\nme, and I would own myself indebted to you for life itself. Let\nthese infants move your pity, who stretch out their little arms as\nif to plead for me;' and the children, as it happened, were\nstretching out their arms.\n\n\"Who would not have been moved with these gentle words of the\ngoddess? But these clowns persisted in their rudeness; they even\nadded jeers and threats of violence if she did not leave the\nplace. Nor was this all. They waded into the pond and stirred up\nthe mud with their feet, so as to make the water unfit to drink.\nLatona was so angry that she ceased to mind her thirst. She no\nlonger supplicated the clowns, but lifting her hands to heaven\nexclaimed, 'May they never quit that pool, but pass their lives\nthere!' And it came to pass accordingly. They now live in the\nwater, sometimes totally submerged, then raising their heads above\nthe surface or swimming upon it. Sometimes they come out upon the\nbank, but soon leap back again into the water. They still use\ntheir base voices in railing, and though they have the water all\nto themselves, are not ashamed to croak in the midst of it. Their\nvoices are harsh, their throats bloated, their mouths have become\nstretched by constant railing, their necks have shrunk up and\ndisappeared, and their heads are joined to their bodies. Their\nbacks are green, their disproportioned bellies white, and in short\nthey are now frogs, and dwell in the slimy pool.\"\n\nThis story explains the allusion in one of Milton's sonnets, \"On\nthe detraction which followed upon his writing certain treatises.\"\n\n\"I did but prompt the age to quit their clogs\n\nBy the known laws of ancient liberty,\n\nWhen straight a barbarous noise environs me\n\nOf owls and cuckoos, asses, apes and dogs.\n\nAs when those hinds that were transformed to frogs\n\nRailed at Latona's twin-born progeny,\n\nWhich after held the sun and moon in fee.\"\n\nThe persecution which Latona experienced from Juno is alluded to\nin the story. The tradition was that the future mother of Apollo\nand Diana, flying from the wrath of Juno, besought all the islands\nof the Aegean to afford her a place of rest, but all feared too\nmuch the potent queen of heaven to assist her rival. Delos alone\nconsented to become the birthplace of the future deities. Delos\nwas then a floating island; but when Latona arrived there, Jupiter\nfastened it with adamantine chains to the bottom of the sea, that\nit might be a secure resting-place for his beloved. Byron alludes\nto Delos in his \"Don Juan\":\n\n\"The isles of Greece! the isles of Greece!\n\nWhere burning Sappho loved and sung,\n\nWhere grew the arts of war and peace,\n\nWhere Delos rose and Phoebus sprung!\"","title":"The Age of Fable/Chapter IV","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":3647}