Age of Fable or Beauties of Mythology

by Thomas Bulfinch

  Byron, in Childe Harold, Canto IV., alludes to the story of Orestes: -

  "O thou who never yet of human wrong

  Left the unbalanced scale, great Nemesis!

  Thou who didst call the Furies from the abyss,

  And round Orestes bade them howl and hiss,

  For that unnatural retribution, - just,

  Had it but been from hands less near, - in this,

  Thy former realm, I call thee from the dust!"

  One of the most pathetic scenes in the ancient drama is that in which Sophocles

  represents the meeting of Orestes and Electra, on his return from Phocis. Orestes

  mistaking Electra for one of the domestics, and desirous of keeping his arrival a secret

  till the hour of vengeance should arrive, produces the urn in which his ashes are

  supposed to rest. Electra, believing him to be really dead, takes the urn and embracing

  it, pours forth her grief in language full of tenderness and despair.

  Milton, in one of his sonnets, says, -

  ". . . The repeated air

  Of sad Electra's poet had the power

  To save the Athenian walls from ruin bare."

  This alludes to the story that when, on one occasion, the city of Athens was at

  the mercy of her Spartan foes, and it was proposed to destroy it, the thought was

  rejected upon the accidental quotation, by some one, of a chorus of Euripides.

  Troy.

  After hearing so much about the city of Troy and its heroes, the reader will

  perhaps be surprised to learn that the exact site of that famous city is still a matter of

  dispute. There are some vestiges of tombs on the plain which most nearly answers to

  the description given by Homer and the ancient geographers, but no other evidence of

  the former existence of a great city. Byron thus describes the present appearance of the

  scene: -

  "The winds are high, and Helle's tide

  Rolls darkly heaving to the main;

  And night's descending shadows hide

  That field with blood bedewed in vain,

  The desert of old Priam's pride,

  The tombs, sole relics of his reign,

  All - save immortal dreams that could beguile

  The blind old man of Scio's rocky isle."

  Bride of Abydos

  Chapter XXIX: Adventures Of Ulysses

  The Lotus-Eaters - Cyclopes - Circe - Sirens - Scylla And Charybdis -

  Calypso.

  Return Of Ulysses.

  The romantic poem of the Odyssey is now to engage our attention. It narrates

  the wanderings of Ulysses (Odysseus in the Greek language) in his return from Troy to

  his own kingdom Ithaca.

  From Troy the vessels first made land at Ismarus, city of the Ciconians, where, in

  a skirmish with the inhabitants, Ulysses lost six men from each ship. Sailing thence

  they were overtaken by a storm which drove them for nine days along the sea till they

  reached the country of the Lotus-eaters. Here, after watering, Ulysses sent three of his

  men to discover who the inhabitants were. These men on coming among the Lotus-

  eaters were kindly entertained by them, and were given some of their own food, the

  lotus-plant, to eat. The effect of this food was such that those who partook of it lost all

  thoughts of home and wished to remain in that country. It was by main force that

  Ulysses dragged these men away, and he was even obliged to tie them under the

  benches of his ship. ^*

  [Footnote *: Tennyson in the Lotus-eaters has charmingly expressed the dreamy,

  languid feeling which the lotus-food is said to have produced.

  "How sweet it were, hearing the downward stream

  With half-shut eyes ever to seem

  Falling asleep in a half-dream!

  To dream and dream, like yonder amber light

  Which will not leave the myrrh-bush on the height;

  To hear each others' whispered speech;

  Eating the Lotos, day by day,

  To watch the crisping ripples on the beach,

  And tender curving lines of creamy spray:

  To lend our hearts and spirits wholly

  To the influence of mild-minded melancholy;

  To muse and brood and live again in memory,

  With those old faces of our infancy

  Heaped over with a mound of grass,

  Two handfuls of white dust, shut in an urn of brass.]

  They next arrived at the country of the Cyclopes. The Cyclopes were giants, who

  inhabited an island of which they were the only possessors. The name means "round

  eye," and these giants were so called because they had but one eye, and that placed in

  the middle of the forehead. They dwelt in caves and fed on the wild productions of the

  island and on what their flocks yielded, for they were shepherds. Ulysses left the main

  body of his ships at anchor, and with one vessel went to the Cyclopes' island to explore

  for supplies. He landed with his companions, carrying with them a jar of wine for a

  present, and coming to a large cave they entered it, and finding no one within examined

  its contents. They found it stored with the riches of the flock, quantities of cheese, pails

  and bowls of milk, lambs and kids in their pens, all in nice order. Presently arrived the

  master of the cave, Polyphemus, bearing an immense bundle of firewood, which he

  threw down before the cavern's mouth. He then drove into the cave the sheep and

  goats to be milked, and, entering, rolled to the cave's mouth an enormous rock, that

  twenty oxen could not draw. Next he sat down and milked his ewes, preparing a part for

  cheese, and setting the rest aside for his customary drink. Then turning round his great

  eye he discerned the strangers, and growled out to them, demanding who they were,

  and where from. Ulysses replied most humbly, stating that they were Greeks, from the

  great expedition that had lately won so much glory in the conquest of Troy; that they

  were now on their way home, and finished by imploring his hospitality in the name of the

  gods. Polyphemus deigned no answer, but reaching out his hand seized two of the

  Greeks, whom he hurled against the side of the cave, and dashed out their brains. He

  proceeded to devour them with great relish, and having made a hearty meal, stretched

  himself out on the floor to sleep. Ulysses was tempted to seize the opportunity and

  plunge his sword into him as he slept, but recollected that it would only expose them all

  to certain destruction, as the rock with which the giant had closed up the door was far

  beyond their power to remove, and they would therefore be in hopeless imprisonment.

  Next morning the giant seized two more of the Greeks, and despatched them in the

  same manner as their companions, feasting on their flesh till no fragment was left. He

  then moved away the rock from the door, drove out his flocks, and went out, carefully

  replacing the barrier after him. When he was gone Ulysses planned how he might take

  vengeance for his murdered friends, and effect his escape with his surviving

  companions. He made his men prepare a massive bar of wood cut by the Cyclops for a

  staff, which they found in the cave. They sharpened the end of it and seasoned it in the

  fire, and hid it under the straw on the cavern floor. Then four of the boldest were

  selected, with whom Ulysses joined himself as a fifth. The Cyclops came home at

  evening, rolled away the stone and drove in his flock as usual. After milking them and

  making his arr
angements as before, he seized two more of Ulysses' companions and

  dashed their brains out, and made his evening meal upon them as he had on the others.

  After he had supped, Ulysses approaching him handed him a bowl of wine, saying,

  "Cyclops, this is wine; taste and drink after thy meal of man's flesh." He took and drank

  it, and was hugely delighted with it, and called for more. Ulysses supplied him once and

  again, which pleased the giant so much that he promised him as a favor that he should

  be the last of the party devoured. He asked his name, to which Ulysses replied, "My

  name is Noman."

  After his supper the giant lay down to repose, and was soon sound asleep. Then

  Ulysses with his four select friends thrust the end of the stake into the fire till it was all

  one burning coal, then poising it exactly above the giant's only eye, they buried it deeply

  into the socket, twirling it round as a carpenter does his auger. The howling monster

  with his outcry filled the cavern, and Ulysses with his aids nimbly got out of his way and

  concealed themselves in the cave. He, bellowing, called aloud on all the Cyclopes

  dwelling in the caves around him, far and near. They on his cry flocked round the den,

  and inquired what grievous hurt had caused him to sound such an alarm and break their

  slumbers. He replied, "O friends, I die, and Noman gives the blow." They answered, "If

  no man hurts thee it is the stroke of Jove, and thou must bear it." So saying, they left him

  groaning.

  Next morning the Cyclops rolled away the stone to let his flock out to pasture, but

  planted himself in the door of the cave to feel of all as they went out, that Ulysses and

  his men should not escape with them. But Ulysses had made his men harness the rams

  of the flock three abreast, with osiers which they found on the floor of the cave. To the

  middle ram of the three one of the Greeks suspended himself, so protected by the

  exterior rams on either side. As they passed, the giant felt of the animals' backs and

  sides, but never thought of their bellies; so the men all passed safe, Ulysses himself

  being on the last one that passed. When they had got a few paces from the cavern,

  Ulysses and his friends released themselves from their rams, and drove a good part of

  the flock down to the shore to their boat. They put them aboard with all haste, then

  pushed off from the shore, and when at a safe distance Ulysses shouted out, "Cyclops,

  the gods have well requited thee for thy atrocious deeds. Know it is Ulysses to whom

  thou owest thy shameful loss of sight." The Cyclops, hearing this, seized a rock that

  projected from the side of the mountain, and rending it from its bed he lifted it high in the

  air, then exerting all his force, hurled it in the direction of the voice. Down came the

  mass, just clearing the vessel's stern. The ocean, at the plunge of the huge rock,

  heaved the ship towards the land, so that it barely escaped being swamped by the

  waves. When they had with the utmost difficulty pulled off shore, Ulysses was about to

  hail the giant again, but his friends besought him not to do so. He could not forbear,

  however, letting the giant know that they had escaped his missile, but waited till they had

  reached a safer distance than before. The giant answered them with curses, but

  Ulysses and his friends plied their oars vigorously, and soon regained their companions.

  Ulysses next arrived at the island of Aeolus. To this monarch Jupiter had

  intrusted the government of the winds, to send them forth or retain them at his will. He

  treated Ulysses hospitably, and at his departure gave him, tied up in a leathern bag with

  a silver string, such winds as might be hurtful and dangerous, commanding fair winds to

  blow the barks towards their country. Nine days they sped before the wind, and all that

  time Ulysses had stood at the helm, without sleep. At last quite exhausted he lay down

  to sleep. While he slept, the crew conferred together about the mysterious bag, and

  concluded it must contain treasures given by the hospitable King Aeolus to their

  commander. Tempted to secure some portion for themselves they loosed the string,

  when immediately the winds rushed forth. The ships were driven far from their course,

  and back again to the island they had just left. Aeolus was so indignant at their folly that

  he refused to assist them further, and they were obliged to labor over their course once

  more by means of their oars.

  The Laestrygonians.

  Their next adventure was with the barbarous tribe of Laestrygonians. The

  vessels all pushed into the harbor, tempted by the secure appearance of the cove,

  completely land-locked; only Ulysses moored his vessel without. As soon as the

  Laestrygonians found the ships completely in their power they attacked them, heaving

  huge stones which broke and overturned them, and with their spears despatched the

  seamen as they struggled in the water. All the vessels with their crews were destroyed,

  except Ulysses' own ship which had remained outside, and finding no safety but in flight,

  he exhorted his men to ply their oars vigorously, and they escaped.

  With grief for their slain companions mixed with joy at their own escape, they

  pursued their way till they arrived at the Aeaean isle, where Circe dwelt, the daughter of

  the sun. Landing here Ulysses climbed a hill, and gazing round saw no signs of

  habitation except in one spot at the centre of the island, where he perceived a palace

  embowered with trees. He sent forward one half of his crew, under the command of

  Eurylochus, to see what prospect of hospitality they might find. As they approached the

  palace, they found themselves surrounded by lions, tigers and wolves, not fierce, but

  tamed by Circe's art, for she was a powerful magician. All these animals had once been

  men, but had been changed by Circe's enchantments into the forms of beasts. The

  sounds of soft music were heard from within, and a sweet female voice singing.

  Eurylochus called aloud and the goddess came forth and invited them in; they all gladly

  entered except Eurylochus, who suspected danger. The goddess conducted her guests

  to a seat, and had them served with wine and other delicacies. When they had feasted

  heartily, she touched them one by one with her wand, and they became immediately

  changed into swine, in "head, body, voice and bristles," yet with their intellects as before.

  She shut them in her sties and supplied them with acorns and such other things as

  swine love.

  Eurylochus hurried back to the ship and told the tale. Ulysses thereupon

  determined to go himself, and try if by any means he might deliver his companions. As

  he strode onward alone, he met a youth who addressed him familiarly, appearing to be

  acquainted with his adventures. He announced himself as Mercury, and informed

  Ulysses of the arts of Circe, and of the danger of approaching her. As Ulysses was not

  to be dissuaded from his attempt, Mercury provided him with a sprig of the plant Moly, of

  wonderful power to resist sorceries, and instructed him how to act. Ulysses proceeded,

  and reaching the palace was courteously received by Circe, who entertained him as she

  had done his companions, and after he had eaten and drank, touched him with her

  wand, saying, "Hence, seek the sty and wallow with thy friends." But he, instead of
r />   obeying, drew his sword and rushed upon her with fury in his countenance. She fell on

  her knees and begged for mercy. He dictated a solemn oath that she would release his

  companions and practise no further harm against him or them; and she repeated it, at

  the same time promising to dismiss them all in safety after hospitably entertaining them.

  She was as good as her word. The men were restored to their shapes, the rest of the

  crew summoned from the shore, and the whole magnificently entertained day after day,

  till Ulysses seemed to have forgotten his native land, and to have reconciled himself to

  an inglorious life of ease and pleasure.

  At length his companions recalled him to nobler sentiments, and he received

  their admonition gratefully. Circe aided their departure, and instructed them how to pass

  safely by the coast of the Sirens. The Sirens were seanymphs who had the power of

  charming by their song all who heard them, so that the unhappy mariners were

  irresistibly impelled to cast themselves into the sea to their destruction. Circe directed

  Ulysses to fill the ears of his seamen with wax, so that they should not hear the strain;

  and to cause himself to be bound to the mast, and his people to be strictly enjoined,

  whatever he might say or do, by no means to release him till they should have passed

  the Sirens' island. Ulysses obeyed these directions. He filled the ears of his people with

  wax, and suffered them to bind him with cords firmly to the mast. As they approached

  the Sirens' island, the sea was calm, and over the waters came the notes of music so

  ravishing and attractive, that Ulysses struggled to get loose, and by cries and signs to

  his people, begged to be released; but they, obedient to his previous orders, sprang

  forward and bound him still faster. They held on their course, and the music grew fainter

  till it ceased to be heard, when with joy Ulysses gave his companions the signal to

  unseal their ears, and they relieved him from his bonds.

  The imagination of a modern poet, Keats, has discovered for us the thoughts that