{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/wikisource_The_Age_of_Fable_Chapter_XXXV/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/wikisource_The_Age_of_Fable_Chapter_XXXV","id":"wikisource_The_Age_of_Fable_Chapter_XXXV","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_XXXV","summary":null,"tags":["Headers_applying_DefaultSort_key","Subpages"],"text":"XXXV. ORIGIN OF MYTHOLOGY \u2014 STATUES OF GODS AND GODDESSES \u2014 POETS OF MYTHOLOGY\n\nORIGINS OF MYTHOLOGY\n\nHaving reached the close of our series of stories of Pagan\nmythology, and inquiry suggests itself. \"Whence came these\nstories? Have they a foundation in truth or are they simply dreams\nof the imagination?\" Philosophers have suggested various theories\non the subject; and 1. The Scriptural theory; according to which\nall mythological legends are derived from the narratives of\nScripture, though the real facts have been disguised and altered.\nThus Deucalion is only another name for Noah, Hercules for Samson,\nArion for Jonah, etc. Sir Walter Raleigh, in his \"History of the\nWorld,\" says, \"Jubal, Tubal, and Tubal-Cain were Mercury, Vulcan,\nand Apollo, inventors of Pasturage, Smithing, and Music. The\nDragon which kept the golden apples was the serpent that beguiled\nEve. Nimrod's tower was the attempt of the Giants against Heaven.\"\nThere are doubtless many curious coincidences like these, but the\ntheory cannot without extravagance be pushed so far as to account\nfor any great proportion of the stories.\n\n2. The Historical theory; according to which all the persons\nmentioned in mythology were once real human beings, and the\nlegends and fabulous traditions relating to them are merely the\nadditions and embellishments of later times. Thus the story of\n\u00c6olus, the king and god of the winds, is supposed to have risen\nfrom the fact that \u00c6olus was the ruler of some islands in the\nTyrrhenian Sea, where he reigned as a just and pious king, and\ntaught the natives the use of sails for ships, and how to tell\nfrom the signs of the atmosphere the changes of the weather and\nthe winds. Cadmus, who, the legend says, sowed the earth with\ndragon's teeth, from which sprang a crop of armed men, was in fact\nan emigrant from Ph\u0153nicia, and brought with him into Greece the\nknowledge of the letters of the alphabet, which he taught to the\nnatives. From these rudiments of learning sprung civilization,\nwhich the poets have always been prone to describe as a\ndeterioration of man's first estate, the Golden Age of innocence\nand simplicity.\n\n3. The Allegorical theory supposes that all the myths of the\nancients were allegorical and symbolical, and contained some\nmoral, religious, or philosophical truth or historical fact, under\nthe form of an allegory, but came in process of time to be\nunderstood literally. Thus Saturn, who devours his own children,\nis the same power whom the Greeks called Cronos (Time), which may\ntruly be said to destroy whatever it has brought into existence.\nThe story of Io is interpreted in a similar manner. Io is the\nmoon, and Argus the starry sky, which, as it were, keeps sleepless\nwatch over her. The fabulous wanderings of Io represent the\ncontinual revolutions of the moon, which also suggested to Milton\nthe same idea.\n\n\"To behold the wandering moon\n\nRiding near her highest noon,\n\nLike one that had been led astray\n\nIn the heaven's wide, pathless way.\"\n\n\u2014Il Penseroso.\n\n4. The Physical theory; according to which the elements of air,\nfire, and water were originally the objects of religious\nadoration, and the principal deities were personifications of the\npowers of nature. The transition was easy from a personification\nof the elements to the notion of supernatural beings presiding\nover and governing the different objects of nature. The Greeks,\nwhose imagination was lively, peopled all nature with invisible\nbeings, and supposed that every object, from the sun and sea to\nthe smallest fountain and rivulet, was under the care of some\nparticular divinity. Wordsworth, in his \"Excursion,\" has\nbeautifully developed this view of Grecian mythology:\n\n\"In that fair clime the lonely herdsman, stretched\n\nOn the soft grass through half a summer's day,\n\nWith music lulled his indolent repose;\n\nAnd, in some fit of weariness, if he,\n\nWhen his own breath was silent, chanced to hear\n\nA distant strain far sweeter than the sounds\n\nWhich his poor skill could make, his fancy fetched\n\nEven from the blazing chariot of the Sun\n\nA beardless youth who touched a golden lute,\n\nAnd filled the illumined groves with ravishment.\n\nThe mighty hunter, lifting up his eyes\n\nToward the crescent Moon, with grateful heart\n\nCalled on the lovely Wanderer who bestowed\n\nThat timely light to share his joyous sport;\n\nAnd hence a beaming goddess with her nymphs\n\nAcross the lawn and through the darksome grove\n\n(Not unaccompanied with tuneful notes\n\nBy echo multiplied from rock or cave)\n\nSwept in the storm of chase, as moon and stars\n\nGlance rapidly along the clouded heaven\n\nWhen winds are blowing strong. The Traveller slaked\n\nHis thirst from rill or gushing fount, and thanked\n\nThe Naiad. Sunbeams upon distant hills\n\nGliding apace with shadows in their train,\n\nMight with small help from fancy, be transformed\n\nInto fleet Oreads sporting visibly.\n\nThe Zephyrs, fanning, as they passed, their wings,\n\nLacked not for love fair objects whom they wooed\n\nWith gentle whisper. Withered boughs grotesque,\n\nStripped of their leaves and twigs by hoary age,\n\nFrom depth of shaggy covert peeping forth\n\nIn the low vale, or on steep mountain side;\n\nAnd sometimes intermixed with stirring horns\n\nOf the live deer, or goat's depending beard;\n\nThese were the lurking Satyrs, wild brood\n\nOf gamesome deities; or Pan himself,\n\nThat simple shepherd's awe-inspiring god.\"\n\nAll the theories which have been mentioned are true to a certain\nextent. It would therefore be more correct to say that the\nmythology of a nation has sprung from all these sources combined\nthan from any one in particular. We may add also that there are\nmany myths which have arisen from the desire of man to account for\nthose natural phenomena which he cannot understand; and not a few\nhave had their rise from a similar desire of giving a reason for\nthe names of places and persons.\n\nSTATUES OF THE GODS\n\nTo adequately represent to the eye the ideas intended to be\nconveyed to the mind under the several names of deities was a task\nwhich called into exercise the highest powers of genius and art.\nOf the many attempts four have been most celebrated, the first two\nknown to us only by the descriptions of the ancients, the others\nstill extant and the acknowledged masterpieces of the sculptor's\nart.\n\nTHE OLYMPIAN JUPITER\n\nThe statue of the Olympian Jupiter by Phidias was considered the\nhighest achievement of this department of Grecian art. It was of\ncolossal dimensions, and was what the ancients called\n\"chryselephantine;\" that is, composed of ivory and gold; the parts\nrepresenting flesh being of ivory laid on a core of wood or stone,\nwhile the drapery and other ornaments were of gold. The height of\nthe figure was forty feet, on a pedestal twelve feet high. The god\nwas represented seated on his throne. His brows were crowned with\na wreath of olive, and he held in his right hand a sceptre, and in\nhis left a statue of Victory. The throne was of cedar, adorned\nwith gold and precious stones.\n\nThe idea which the artist essayed to embody was that of the\nsupreme deity of the Hellenic (Grecian) nation, enthroned as a\nconqueror, in perfect majesty and repose, and ruling with a nod\nthe subject world. Phidias avowed that he took his idea from the\nrepresentation which Homer gives in the first book of the \"Iliad,\"\nin the passage thus translated by Pope:\n\n\"He spoke and awful bends his sable brows,\n\nShakes his ambrosial curls and gives the nod,\n\nThe stamp of fate and sanction of the god.\n\nHigh heaven with reverence the dread signal took,\n\nAnd all Olympus to the centre shook.\"\n\nTHE MINERVA OF THE PARTHENON\n\nThis was also the work of Phidias. It stood in the Parthenon, or\ntemple of Minerva at Athens. The goddess was represented standing.\nIn one hand she held a spear, in the other a statue of Victory.\nHer helmet, highly decorated, was surmounted by a Sphinx. The\nstatue was forty feet in height, and, like the Jupiter, composed\nof ivory and gold. The eyes were of marble, and probably painted\nto represent the iris and pupil. The Parthenon, in which this\nstatue stood, was also constructed under the direction and\nsuperintendence of Phidias. Its exterior was enriched with\nsculptures, many of them from the hand of Phidias. The Elgin\nmarbles, now in the British Museum, are a part of them.\n\nBoth the Jupiter and Minerva of Phidias are lost, but there is\ngood ground to believe that we have, in several extant statues and\nbusts, the artist's conceptions of the countenances of both. They\nare characterized by grave and dignified beauty, and freedom from\nany transient expression, which in the language of art is called\nrepose.\n\nTHE VENUS DE' MEDICI\n\nThe Venus of the Medici is so called from its having been in the\npossession of the princes of that name in Rome when it first\nattracted attention, about two hundred years ago. An inscription\non the base records it to be the work of Cleomenes, an Athenian\nsculptor of 200 B.C., but the authenticity of the inscription is\ndoubtful. There is a story that the artist was employed by public\nauthority to make a statue exhibiting the perfection of female\nbeauty, and to aid him in his task the most perfect forms the city\ncould supply were furnished him for models. It is this which\nThomson alludes to in his \"Summer\":\n\n\"So stands the statue that enchants the world;\n\nSo bending tries to veil the matchless boast,\n\nThe mingled beauties of exulting Greece.\"\n\nByron also alludes to this statue. Speaking of the Florence\nMuseum, he says:\n\n\"There, too, the goddess loves in stone, and fills\n\nThe air around with beauty;\" etc.\n\nAnd in the next stanza,\n\n\"Blood, pulse, and breast confirm the Dardan shepherd's prize.\"\n\nSee this last allusion explained in Chapter XXVII.\n\nTHE APOLLO BELVEDERE\n\nThe most highly esteemed of all the remains of ancient sculpture\nis the statue of Apollo, called the Belvedere, from the name of\nthe apartment of the Pope's palace at Rome in which it was placed.\nThe artist is unknown. It is supposed to be a work of Roman art,\nof about the first century of our era. It is a standing figure, in\nmarble, more than seven feet high, naked except for the cloak\nwhich is fastened around the neck and hangs over the extended left\narm. It is supposed to represent the god in the moment when he has\nshot the arrow to destroy the monster Python. (See Chapter III.)\nThe victorious divinity is in the act of stepping forward. The\nleft arm, which seems to have held the bow, is outstretched, and\nthe head is turned in the same direction. In attitude and\nproportion the graceful majesty of the figure is unsurpassed. The\neffect is completed by the countenance, where on the perfection of\nyouthful godlike beauty there dwells the consciousness of\ntriumphant power.\n\nTHE DIANA A LA BICHE\n\nThe Diana of the Hind, in the palace of the Louvre, may be\nconsidered the counterpart to the Apollo Belvedere. The attitude\nmuch resembles that of the Apollo, the sizes correspond and also\nthe style of execution. It is a work of the highest order, though\nby no means equal to the Apollo. The attitude is that of hurried\nand eager motion, the face that of a huntress in the excitement of\nthe chase. The left hand is extended over the forehead of the\nHind, which runs by her side, the right arm reaches backward over\nthe shoulder to draw an arrow from the quiver.\n\nTHE POETS OF MYTHOLOGY\n\nHomer, from whose poems of the \"Iliad\" and \"Odyssey\" we have taken\nthe chief part of our chapters of the Trojan war and the return of\nthe Grecians, is almost as mythical a personage as the heroes he\ncelebrates. The traditionary story is that he was a wandering\nminstrel, blind and old, who travelled from place to place singing\nhis lays to the music of his harp, in the courts of princes or the\ncottages of peasants, and dependent upon the voluntary offerings\nof his hearers for support. Byron calls him \"The blind old man of\nScio's rocky isle,\" and a well-known epigram, alluding to the\nuncertainty of the fact of his birthplace, says:\n\n\"Seven wealthy towns contend for Homer dead,\n\nThrough which the living Homer begged his bread.\"\n\nThese seven were Smyrna, Scio, Rhodes, Colophon, Salamis, Argos,\nand Athens.\n\nModern scholars have doubted whether the Homeric poems are the\nwork of any single mind. This arises from the difficulty of\nbelieving that poems of such length could have been committed to\nwriting at so early an age as that usually assigned to these, an\nage earlier than the date of any remaining inscriptions or coins,\nand when no materials capable of containing such long productions\nwere yet introduced into use. On the other hand it is asked how\npoems of such length could have been handed down from age to age\nby means of the memory alone. This is answered by the statement\nthat there was a professional body of men, called Rhapsodists, who\nrecited the poems of others, and whose business it was to commit\nto memory and rehearse for pay the national and patriotic legends.\n\nThe prevailing opinion of the learned, at this time, seems to be\nthat the framework and much of the structure of the poems belong\nto Homer, but that there are numerous interpolations and additions\nby other hands.\n\nThe date assigned to Homer, on the authority of Herodotus, is 850\nB.C.\n\nVIRGIL\n\nVirgil, called also by his surname, Maro, from whose poem of the\n\"\u00c6neid\" we have taken the story of \u00c6neas, was one of the great\npoets who made the reign of the Roman emperor Augustus so\ncelebrated, under the name of the Augustan age. Virgil was born in\nMantua in the year 70 B.C. His great poem is ranked next to those\nof Homer, in the highest class of poetical composition, the Epic.\nVirgil is far inferior to Homer in originality and invention, but\nsuperior to him in correctness and elegance. To critics of English\nlineage Milton alone of modern poets seems worthy to be classed\nwith these illustrious ancients. His poem of \"Paradise Lost,\" from\nwhich we have borrowed so many illustrations, is in many respects\nequal, in some superior, to either of the great works of\nantiquity. The following epigram of Dryden characterizes the three\npoets with as much truth as it is usual to find in such pointed\ncriticism:\n\nON MILTON\n\n\"Three poets in three different ages born,\n\nGreece, Italy, and England did adorn\n\nThe first in loftiness of soul surpassed,\n\nThe next in majesty, in both the last.\n\nThe force of nature could no further go;\n\nTo make a third she joined the other two.\"\n\nFrom Cowper's \"Table Talk\":\n\n\"Ages elapsed ere Homer's lamp appeared,\n\nAnd ages ere the Mantuan swan was heard.\n\nTo carry nature lengths unknown before,\n\nTo give a Milton birth, asked ages more.\n\nThus genius rose and set at ordered times,\n\nAnd shot a dayspring into distant climes,\n\nEnnobling every region that he chose;\n\nHe sunk in Greece, in Italy he rose,\n\nAnd, tedious years of Gothic darkness past,\n\nEmerged all splendor in our isle at last.\n\nThus lovely Halcyons dive into the main,\n\nThen show far off their shining plumes again.\"\n\nOVID\n\nOvid, often alluded to in poetry by his other name of Naso, was\nborn in the year 43 B.C. He was educated for public life and held\nsome offices of considerable dignity, but poetry was his delight,\nand he early resolved to devote himself to it. He accordingly\nsought the society of the contemporary poets, and was acquainted\nwith Horace and saw Virgil, though the latter died when Ovid was\nyet too young and undistinguished to have formed his acquaintance.\nOvid spent an easy life at Rome in the enjoyment of a competent\nincome. He was intimate with the family of Augustus, the emperor,\nand it is supposed that some serious offence given to some member\nof that family was the cause of an event which reversed the poet's\nhappy circumstances and clouded all the latter portion of his\nlife. At the age of fifty he was banished from Rome, and ordered\nto betake himself to Tomi, on the borders of the Black Sea. Here,\namong the barbarous people and in a severe climate, the poet, who\nhad been accustomed to all the pleasures of a luxurious capital\nand the society of his most distinguished contemporaries, spent\nthe last ten years of his life, worn out with grief and anxiety.\nHis only consolation in exile was to address his wife and absent\nfriends, and his letters were all poetical. Though these poems\n(the \"Trista\" and \"Letters from Pontus\") have no other topic than\nthe poet's sorrows, his exquisite taste and fruitful invention\nhave redeemed them from the charge of being tedious, and they are\nread with pleasure and even with sympathy.\n\nThe two great works of Ovid are his \"Metamorphoses\" and his\n\"Fasti.\" They are both mythological poems, and from the former we\nhave taken most of our stories of Grecian and Roman mythology. A\nlate writer thus characterizes these poems:\n\n\"The rich mythology of Greece furnished Ovid, as it may still\nfurnish the poet, the painter, and the sculptor, with materials\nfor his art. With exquisite taste, simplicity, and pathos he has\nnarrated the fabulous traditions of early ages, and given to them\nthat appearance of reality which only a master hand could impart.\nHis pictures of nature are striking and true; he selects with care\nthat which is appropriate; he rejects the superfluous; and when he\nhas completed his work, it is neither defective nor redundant. The\n'Metamorphoses' are read with pleasure by youth, and are re-read\nin more advanced age with still greater delight. The poet ventured\nto predict that his poem would survive him, and be read wherever\nthe Roman name was known.\"\n\nThe prediction above alluded to is contained in the closing lines\nof the \"Metamorphoses,\" of which we give a literal translation\nbelow:\n\n\"And now I close my work, which not the ire\n\nOf Jove, nor tooth of time, nor sword, nor fire\n\nShall bring to nought. Come when it will that day\n\nWhich o'er the body, not the mind, has sway,\n\nAnd snatch the remnant of my life away,\n\nMy better part above the stars shall soar,\n\nAnd my renown endure forevermore.\n\nWhere'er the Roman arms and arts shall spread\n\nThere by the people shall my book be read;\n\nAnd, if aught true in poet's visions be,\n\nMy name and fame have immortality.\"","title":"The Age of Fable/Chapter XXXV","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":3118}