{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/wikisource_The_Age_of_Fable_Chapter_XXIII/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/wikisource_The_Age_of_Fable_Chapter_XXIII","id":"wikisource_The_Age_of_Fable_Chapter_XXIII","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_XXIII","summary":null,"tags":["Headers_applying_DefaultSort_key","Subpages"],"text":"XXIII. ACHELOUS AND HERCULES \u2014 ADMETUS AND ALCESTIS \u2014 ANTIGONE \u2014PENELOPE\n\nACHELOUS AND HERCULES\n\nThe river-god Achelous told the story of Erisichthon to Theseus\nand his companions, whom he was entertaining at his hospitable\nboard, while they were delayed on their journey by the overflow of\nhis waters. Having finished his story, he added, \"But why should I\ntell of other persons' transformations when I myself am an\ninstance of the possession of this power? Sometimes I become a\nserpent, and sometimes a bull, with horns on my head. Or I should\nsay I once could do so; but now I have but one horn, having lost\none.\" And here he groaned and was silent.\n\nTheseus asked him the cause of his grief, and how he lost his\nhorn. To which question the river-god replied as follows: \"Who\nlikes to tell of his defeats? Yet I will not hesitate to relate\nmine, comforting myself with the thought of the greatness of my\nconqueror, for it was Hercules. Perhaps you have heard of the fame\nof Dejanira, the fairest of maidens, whom a host of suitors strove\nto win. Hercules and myself were of the number, and the rest\nyielded to us two. He urged in his behalf his descent from Jove\nand his labors by which he had exceeded the exactions of Juno, his\nstepmother. I, on the other hand, said to the father of the\nmaiden, 'Behold me, the king of the waters that flow through your\nland. I am no stranger from a foreign shore, but belong to the\ncountry, a part of your realm. Let it not stand in my way that\nroyal Juno owes me no enmity nor punishes me with heavy tasks. As\nfor this man, who boasts himself the son of Jove, it is either a\nfalse pretence, or disgraceful to him if true, for it cannot be\ntrue except by his mother's shame.' As I said this Hercules\nscowled upon me, and with difficulty restrained his rage. 'My hand\nwill answer better than my tongue,' said he. 'I yield to you the\nvictory in words, but trust my cause to the strife of deeds.' With\nthat he advanced towards me, and I was ashamed, after what I had\nsaid, to yield. I threw off my green vesture and presented myself\nfor the struggle. He tried to throw me, now attacking my head, now\nmy body. My bulk was my protection, and he assailed me in vain.\nFor a time we stopped, then returned to the conflict. We each kept\nour position, determined not to yield, foot to foot, I bending\nover him, clenching his hand in mine, with my forehead almost\ntouching his. Thrice Hercules tried to throw me off, and the\nfourth time he succeeded, brought me to the ground, and himself\nupon my back. I tell you the truth, it was as if a mountain had\nfallen on me. I struggled to get my arms at liberty, panting and\nreeking with perspiration. He gave me no chance to recover, but\nseized my throat. My knees were on the earth and my mouth in the\ndust.\n\n\"Finding that I was no match for him in the warrior's art, I\nresorted to others and glided away in the form of a serpent. I\ncurled my body in a coil and hissed at him with my forked tongue.\nHe smiled scornfully at this, and said, 'It was the labor of my\ninfancy to conquer snakes.' So saying he clasped my neck with his\nhands. I was almost choked, and struggled to get my neck out of\nhis grasp. Vanquished in this form, I tried what alone remained to\nme and assumed the form of a bull. He grasped my neck with his\narm, and dragging my head down to the ground, overthrew me on the\nsand. Nor was this enough. His ruthless hand rent my horn from my\nhead. The Naiades took it, consecrated it, and filled it with\nfragrant flowers. Plenty adopted my horn and made it her own, and\ncalled it 'Cornucopia.'\"\n\n\u00a0\n\nThe ancients were fond of finding a hidden meaning in their\nmythological tales. They explain this fight of Achelous with\nHercules by saying Achelous was a river that in seasons of rain\noverflowed its banks. When the fable says that Achelous loved\nDejanira, and sought a union with her, the meaning is that the\nriver in its windings flowed through part of Dejanira's kingdom.\nIt was said to take the form of a snake because of its winding,\nand of a bull because it made a brawling or roaring in its course.\nWhen the river swelled, it made itself another channel. Thus its\nhead was horned. Hercules prevented the return of these periodical\noverflows by embankments and canals; and therefore he was said to\nhave vanquished the river-god and cut off his horn. Finally, the\nlands formerly subject to overflow, but now redeemed, became very\nfertile, and this is meant by the horn of plenty.\n\nThere is another account of the origin of the Cornucopia. Jupiter\nat his birth was committed by his mother Rhea to the care of the\ndaughters of Melisseus, a Cretan king. They fed the infant deity\nwith the milk of the goat Amalthea. Jupiter broke off one of the\nhorns of the goat and gave it to his nurses, and endowed it with\nthe wonderful power of becoming filled with whatever the possessor\nmight wish.\n\nThe name of Amalthea is also given by some writers to the mother\nof Bacchus. It is thus used by Milton, \"Paradise Lost,\" Book IV.:\n\n\"... That Nyseian isle,\n\nGirt with the river Triton, where old Cham,\n\nWhom Gentiles Ammon call, and Libyan Jove,\n\nHid Amalthea and her florid son,\n\nYoung Bacchus, from his stepdame Rhea's eye.\"\n\nADMETUS AND ALCESTIS\n\n\u00c6sculapius, the son of Apollo, was endowed by his father with\nsuch skill in the healing art that he even restored the dead to\nlife. At this Pluto took alarm, and prevailed on Jupiter to launch\na thunderbolt at \u00c6sculapius. Apollo was indignant at the\ndestruction of his son, and wreaked his vengeance on the innocent\nworkmen who had made the thunderbolt. These were the Cyclopes, who\nhave their workshop under Mount \u00c6tna, from which the smoke and\nflames of their furnaces are constantly issuing. Apollo shot his\narrows at the Cyclopes, which so incensed Jupiter that he\ncondemned him as a punishment to become the servant of a mortal\nfor the space of one year. Accordingly Apollo went into the\nservice of Admetus, king of Thessaly, and pastured his flocks for\nhim on the verdant banks of the river Amphrysos.\n\nAdmetus was a suitor, with others, for the hand of Alcestis, the\ndaughter of Pelias, who promised her to him who should come for\nher in a chariot drawn by lions and boars. This task Admetus\nperformed by the assistance of his divine herdsman, and was made\nhappy in the possession of Alcestis. But Admetus fell ill, and\nbeing near to death, Apollo prevailed on the Fates to spare him on\ncondition that some one would consent to die in his stead.\nAdmetus, in his joy at this reprieve, thought little of the\nransom, and perhaps remembering the declarations of attachment\nwhich he had often heard from his courtiers and dependents fancied\nthat it would be easy to find a substitute. But it was not so.\nBrave warriors, who would willingly have perilled their lives for\ntheir prince, shrunk from the thought of dying for him on the bed\nof sickness; and old servants who had experienced his bounty and\nthat of his house from their childhood up, were not willing to lay\ndown the scanty remnant of their days to show their gratitude. Men\nasked, \"Why does not one of his parents do it? They cannot in the\ncourse of nature live much longer, and who can feel like them the\ncall to rescue the life they gave from an untimely end?\" But the\nparents, distressed though they were at the thought of losing him,\nshrunk from the call. Then Alcestis, with a generous self-\ndevotion, proffered herself as the substitute. Admetus, fond as he\nwas of life, would not have submitted to receive it at such a\ncost; but there was no remedy. The condition imposed by the Fates\nhad been met, and the decree was irrevocable. Alcestis sickened as\nAdmetus revived, and she was rapidly sinking to the grave.\n\nJust at this time Hercules arrived at the palace of Admetus, and\nfound all the inmates in great distress for the impending loss of\nthe devoted wife and beloved mistress. Hercules, to whom no labor\nwas too arduous, resolved to attempt her rescue. He went and lay\nin wait at the door of the chamber of the dying queen, and when\nDeath came for his prey, he seized him and forced him to resign\nhis victim. Alcestis recovered, and was restored to her husband.\n\nMilton alludes to the story of Alcestis in his Sonnet \"on his\ndeceased wife:\"\n\n\"Methought I saw my late espoused saint\n\nBrought to me like Alcestis from the grave,\n\nWhom Jove's great son to her glad husband gave,\n\nRescued from death by force, though pale and faint.\"\n\nJ. R. Lowell has chosen the \"Shepherd of King Admetus\" for the\nsubject of a short poem. He makes that event the first\nintroduction of poetry to men.\n\n\"Men called him but a shiftless youth,\n\nIn whom no good they saw,\n\nAnd yet unwittingly, in truth,\n\nThey made his careless words their law.\n\n\"And day by day more holy grew\n\nEach spot where he had trod,\n\nTill after-poets only knew\n\nTheir first-born brother was a god.\"\n\nANTIGONE\n\nA large proportion both of the interesting persons and of the\nexalted acts of legendary Greece belongs to the female sex.\nAntigone was as bright an example of filial and sisterly fidelity\nas was Alcestis of connubial devotion. She was the daughter of\nOedipus and Jocasta, who with all their descendants were the\nvictims of an unrelenting fate, dooming them to destruction.\nOEdipus in his madness had torn out his eyes, and was driven forth\nfrom his kingdom Thebes, dreaded and abandoned by all men, as an\nobject of divine vengeance. Antigone, his daughter, alone shared\nhis wanderings and remained with him till he died, and then\nreturned to Thebes.\n\nHer brothers, Eteocles and Polynices, had agreed to share the\nkingdom between them, and reign alternately year by year. The\nfirst year fell to the lot of Eteocles, who, when his time\nexpired, refused to surrender the kingdom to his brother.\nPolynices fled to Adrastus, king of Argos, who gave him his\ndaughter in marriage, and aided him with an army to enforce his\nclaim to the kingdom. This led to the celebrated expedition of the\n\"Seven against Thebes,\" which furnished ample materials for the\nepic and tragic poets of Greece.\n\nAmphiaraus, the brother-in-law of Adrastus, opposed the\nenterprise, for he was a soothsayer, and knew by his art that no\none of the leaders except Adrastus would live to return. But\nAmphiaraus, on his marriage to Eriphyle, the king's sister, had\nagreed that whenever he and Adrastus should differ in opinion, the\ndecision should be left to Eriphyle. Polynices, knowing this, gave\nEriphyle the collar of Harmonia, and thereby gained her to his\ninterest. This collar or necklace was a present which Vulcan had\ngiven to Harmonia on her marriage with Cadmus, and Polynices had\ntaken it with him on his flight from Thebes. Eriphyle could not\nresist so tempting a bribe, and by her decision the war was\nresolved on, and Amphiaraus went to his certain fate. He bore his\npart bravely in the contest, but could not avert his destiny.\nPursued by the enemy, he fled along the river, when a thunderbolt\nlaunched by Jupiter opened the ground, and he, his chariot, and\nhis charioteer were swallowed up.\n\nIt would not be in place here to detail all the acts of heroism or\natrocity which marked the contest; but we must not omit to record\nthe fidelity of Evadne as an offset to the weakness of Eriphyle.\nCapaneus, the husband of Evadne, in the ardor of the fight\ndeclared that he would force his way into the city in spite of\nJove himself. Placing a ladder against the wall he mounted, but\nJupiter, offended at his impious language, struck him with a\nthunderbolt. When his obsequies were celebrated, Evadne cast\nherself on his funeral pile and perished.\n\nEarly in the contest Eteocles consulted the soothsayer Tiresias as\nto the issue. Tiresias in his youth had by chance seen Minerva\nbathing. The goddess in her wrath deprived him of his sight, but\nafterwards relenting gave him in compensation the knowledge of\nfuture events. When consulted by Eteocles, he declared that\nvictory should fall to Thebes if Men\u0153ceus, the son of Creon, gave\nhimself a voluntary victim. The heroic youth, learning the\nresponse, threw away his life in the first encounter.\n\nThe siege continued long, with various success. At length both\nhosts agreed that the brothers should decide their quarrel by\nsingle combat. They fought and fell by each other's hands. The\narmies then renewed the fight, and at last the invaders were\nforced to yield, and fled, leaving their dead unburied. Creon, the\nuncle of the fallen princes, now become king, caused Eteocles to\nbe buried with distinguished honor, but suffered the body of\nPolynices to lie where it fell, forbidding every one on pain of\ndeath to give it burial.\n\nAntigone, the sister of Polynices, heard with indignation the\nrevolting edict which consigned her brother's body to the dogs and\nvultures, depriving it of those rites which were considered\nessential to the repose of the dead. Unmoved by the dissuading\ncounsel of an affectionate but timid sister, and unable to procure\nassistance, she determined to brave the hazard, and to bury the\nbody with her own hands. She was detected in the act, and Creon\ngave orders that she should be buried alive, as having\ndeliberately set at naught the solemn edict of the city. Her\nlover, H\u00e6mon, the son of Creon, unable to avert her fate, would\nnot survive her, and fell by his own hand.\n\nAntigone forms the subject of two fine tragedies of the Grecian\npoet Sophocles. Mrs. Jameson, in her \"Characteristics of Women,\"\nhas compared her character with that of Cordelia, in Shakspeare's\n\"King Lear.\" The perusal of her remarks cannot fail to gratify our\nreaders.\n\nThe following is the lamentation of Antigone over \u0152dipus, when\ndeath has at last relieved him from his sufferings:\n\n\"Alas! I only wished I might have died\n\nWith my poor father; wherefore should I ask\n\nFor longer life?\n\nO, I was fond of misery with him;\n\nE'en what was most unlovely grew beloved\n\nWhen he was with me. O my dearest father,\n\nBeneath the earth now in deep darkness hid,\n\nWorn as thou wert with age, to me thou still\n\nWast dear, and shalt be ever.\"\n\n-Francklin's Sophocles.\n\nPENELOPE\n\nPenelope is another of those mythic heroines whose beauties were\nrather those of character and conduct than of person. She was the\ndaughter of Icarius, a Spartan prince. Ulysses, king of Ithaca,\nsought her in marriage, and won her, over all competitors. When\nthe moment came for the bride to leave her father's house,\nIcarius, unable to bear the thoughts of parting with his daughter,\ntried to persuade her to remain with him, and not accompany her\nhusband to Ithaca. Ulysses gave Penelope her choice, to stay or go\nwith him. Penelope made no reply, but dropped her veil over her\nface. Icarius urged her no further, but when she was gone erected\na statue to Modesty on the spot where they parted.\n\nUlysses and Penelope had not enjoyed their union more than a year\nwhen it was interrupted by the events which called Ulysses to the\nTrojan war. During his long absence, and when it was doubtful\nwhether he still lived, and highly improbable that he would ever\nreturn, Penelope was importuned by numerous suitors, from whom\nthere seemed no refuge but in choosing one of them for her\nhusband. Penelope, however, employed every art to gain time, still\nhoping for Ulysses' return. One of her arts of delay was engaging\nin the preparation of a robe for the funeral canopy of Laertes,\nher husband's father. She pledged herself to make her choice among\nthe suitors when the robe was finished. During the day she worked\nat the robe, but in the night she undid the work of the day. This\nis the famous Penelope's web, which is used as a proverbial\nexpression for anything which is perpetually doing but never done.\nThe rest of Penelope's history will be told when we give an\naccount of her husband's adventures.","title":"The Age of Fable/Chapter XXIII","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":2813}