Age of Fable or Beauties of Mythology

by Thomas Bulfinch

  Byron alludes to the oracle of Delphi where speaking of Rousseau, whose

  writings he conceives did much to bring on the French revolution, he says, -

  "For then he was inspired, and from him came,

  As from the Pythian's mystic cave of yore,

  Those oracles which set the world in flame,

  Nor ceased to burn till kingdoms were no more."

  Chapter XXXV: Origin Of Mythology

  Statues Of Gods And Goddesses - Poets Of Mythology.

  Origin Of Mythology.

  Having reached the close of our series of stories of Pagan mythology, an inquiry

  suggests itself. "Whence came these stories? Have they a foundation in truth, or are

  they simply dreams of the imagination?" Philosophers have suggested various theories

  on the subject; and (1) The Scriptural theory; according to which all mythological

  legends are derived from the narratives of Scripture, though the real facts have been

  disguised and altered. Thus Deucalion is only another name for Noah, Hercules for

  Samson, Arion for Jonah, &c. Sir Walter Raleigh, in his History of the World, says,

  "Jubal, Tubal, and Tubal-Cain were Mercury, Vulcan, and Apollo, inventors of

  Pasturage, Smithing, and Music. The Dragon which kept the golden apples was the

  serpent that beguiled Eve. Nimrod's tower was the attempt of the Giants against

  Heaven." There are doubtless many curious coincidences like these, but the theory

  cannot without extravagance be pushed so far as to account for any great proportion

  of the stories.

  (2) The Historical theory; according to which all the persons mentioned in

  mythology were once real human beings, and the legends and fabulous traditions

  relating to them are merely the additions and embellishments of later times. Thus the

  story of Aeolus, the king and god of the winds, is supposed to have risen from the fact

  that Aeolus was the ruler of some islands in the Tyrrhenian Sea, where he reigned as

  a just and pious king, and taught the natives the use of sails for ships, and how to tell

  from the signs of the atmosphere the changes of the weather and the winds. Cadmus,

  who, the legend says, sowed the earth with dragon's teeth, from which sprang a crop

  of armed men, was in fact an emigrant from Phoenicia, and brought with him into

  Greece the knowledge of the letters of the alphabet, which he taught to the natives.

  From these rudiments of learning sprung civilization, which the poets have always

  been prone to describe as a deterioration of man's first estate, the Golden Age of

  innocence and simplicity.

  (3) The Allegorical theory supposes that all the myths of the ancients were

  allegorical and symbolical, and contained some moral, religious, or philosophical truth

  or historical fact, under the form of an allegory, but came in process of time to be

  understood literally. Thus Saturn, who devours his own children, is the same power

  whom the Greeks called Cronos, (Time,) which may truly be said to destroy whatever it

  has brought into existence. The story of Io is interpreted in a similar manner. Io is the

  moon, and Argus the starry sky, which, as it were, keeps sleepless watch over her.

  The fabulous wanderings of Io represent the continual revolutions of the moon, which

  also suggested to Milton the same idea.

  "To behold the wandering moon

  Riding near her highest noon,

  Like one that had been led astray

  In the heaven's wide, pathless way."

  Il Penseroso

  (4) The Physical theory; according to which the elements of air, fire, and water

  were originally the objects of religious adoration, and the principal deities were

  personifications of the powers of nature. The transition was easy from a personification

  of the elements to the notion of supernatural beings presiding over and governing the

  different objects of nature. The Greeks, whose imagination was lively, peopled all nature

  with invisible beings, and supposed that every object, from the sun and sea to the

  smallest fountain and rivulet, was under the care of some particular divinity. Wordsworth,

  in his Excursion, has beautifully developed this view of Grecian mythology.

  "In that fair clime the lonely herdsman, stretched

  On the soft grass through half a summer's day,

  With music lulled his indolent repose;

  And, in some fit of weariness, if he,

  When his own breath was silent, chanced to hear

  A distant strain far sweeter than the sounds

  Which his poor skill could make, his fancy fetched

  Even from the blazing chariot of the Sun

  A beardless youth who touched a golden lute,

  And filled the illumined groves with ravishment.

  The mighty hunter, lifting up his eyes

  Toward the crescent Moon, with grateful heart

  Called on the lovely Wanderer who bestowed

  That timely light to share his joyous sport;

  And hence a beaming goddess with her nymphs

  Across the lawn and through the darksome grove

  (Not unaccompanied with tuneful notes

  By echo multiplied from rock or cave)

  Swept in the storm of chase, as moon and stars

  Glance rapidly along the clouded heaven

  When winds are blowing strong. The Traveller slaked

  His thirst from rill or gushing fount, and thanked

  The Naiad. Sunbeams upon distant hills

  Gliding apace with shadows in their train,

  Might with small help from fancy, be transformed

  Into fleet Oreads sporting visibly.

  The Zephyrs, fanning, as they passed, their wings,

  Lacked not for love fair objects whom they wooed

  With gentle whisper. Withered boughs grotesque,

  Stripped of their leaves and twigs by hoary age,

  From depth of shaggy covert peeping forth

  In the low vale, or on steep mountain side;

  And sometimes intermixed with stirring horns

  Of the live deer, or goat's depending beard;

  These were the lurking Satyrs, a wild brood

  Of gamesome deities; or Pan himself,

  The simple shepherd's awe-inspiring god."

  All the theories which have been mentioned are true to a certain extent. It would

  therefore be more correct to say that the mythology of a nation has sprung from all these

  sources combined than from any one in particular. We may add also that there are

  many myths which have arisen from the desire of man to account for those natural

  phenomena which he cannot understand; and not a few have had their rise from a

  similar desire of giving a reason for the names of places and persons.

  Statues Of The Gods.

  To adequately represent to the eye the ideas intended to be conveyed to the

  mind under the several names of deities, was a task which called into exercise the

  highest powers of genius and art. Of the many attempts four have been most

  celebrated, the first two known to us only by the descriptions of the ancients, the others

  still extant and the acknowledged masterpieces of the sculptor's art.

  The Olympian Jupiter.

  The statue of the Olympian Jupiter by Phidias was considered the highest

  achievement of this department of Grecian art. It was of colossal dimensions, and was

  what the ancients called "chryselephantine;" that is, composed of ivory and gold; the

  parts representing flesh being of ivory laid on a core of wood or sto
ne, while the drapery

  and other ornaments were of gold. The height of the figure was forty feet, on a pedestal

  twelve feet high. The god was represented seated on his throne. His brows were

  crowned with a wreath of olive, and he held in his right hand a sceptre, and in his left a

  statue of Victory. The throne was of cedar, adorned with gold and precious stones.

  The idea which the artist essayed to imbody was that of the supreme deity of the

  Hellenic (Grecian) nation, enthroned as a conqueror, in perfect majesty and repose, and

  ruling with a nod the subject world. Phidias avowed that he took his idea from the

  representation which Homer gives in the first book of the Iliad, in the passage thus

  translated by Pope: -

  "He spoke and awful bends his sable brows,

  Shakes his ambrosial curls and gives the nod,

  The stamp of fate and sanction of the god.

  High heaven with reverence the dread signal took,

  And all Olympus to the centre shook."*

  Cowper's version is less elegant, but truer to the original. -

  "He ceased, and under his dark brows the nod

  Vouchsafed of confirmation. All around

  The sovereign's everlasting head his curls

  Ambrosial shook, and the huge mountain reeled"

  The Minerva Of The Parthenon.

  This was also the work of Phidias. It stood in the Parthenon, or temple of

  Minerva at Athens. The goddess was represented standing. In one hand she held a

  spear, in the other a statue of Victory. Her helmet, highly decorated, was surmounted by

  a Sphinx. The statue was forty feet in height, and, like the Jupiter, composed of ivory

  and gold. The eyes were of marble, and probably painted to represent the iris and pupil.

  The Parthenon in which this statue stood was also constructed under the direction and

  superintendence of Phidias. Its exterior was enriched with sculptures, many of them

  from the hand of Phidias. The Elgin marbles now in the British Museum are a part of

  them.

  Both the Jupiter and Minerva of Phidias are lost, but there is good ground to

  believe that we have, in several extant statues and busts, the artist's conceptions of the

  countenances of both. They are characterized by grave and dignified beauty, and

  freedom from any transient expression, which in the language of art is called repose.

  It may interest our readers to see how this passage appears in another famous

  version, that which was issued under the name of Tickell, contemporaneously with

  Pope's, and which, being by many attributed to Addison, led to the quarrel which ensued

  between Addison and Pope.

  "This said, his kingly brow the sire inclined;

  The large black curls fell awful from behind,

  Thick shadowing the stern forehead of the god;

  Olympus trembled at the almighty nod."

  The Venus De' Medici.

  The Venus of the Medici is so called from its having been in the possession of

  the princes of that name in Rome when it first attracted attention, about two hundred

  years ago An inscription on the base records it to be the work of Cleomenes, an

  Athenian sculptor of 200 B.C., but the authenticity of the inscription is doubtful. There is

  a story that the artist was employed by public authority to make a statue exhibiting the

  perfection of female beauty, and to aid him in his task, the most perfect forms the city

  could supply were furnished him for models. It is this which Thomson alludes to in his

  Summer.

  "So stands the statue that enchants the world;

  So bending tries to veil the matchless boast,

  The mingled beauties of exulting Greece."

  Byron also alludes to this statue. Speaking of the Florence Museum, he says, -

  "There too the goddess loves in stone, and fills

  The air around with beauty;" &c.

  And in the next stanza,

  "Blood, pulse, and breast confirm the Dardan shepherd a prize.

  See this last allusion explained in Chapter XXVII.

  The Apollo Belvedere.

  The most highly esteemed of all the remains of ancient sculpture is the statue of

  Apollo, called the Belvedere, from the name of the apartment of the Pope's palace at

  Rome in which it is placed. The artist is unknown. It is supposed to be a work of Roman

  art, of about the first century of our era. It is a standing figure, in marble, more than

  seven feet high, naked except for the cloak which is fastened around the neck and

  hangs over the extended left arm. It is supposed to represent the god in the moment

  when he has shot the arrow to destroy the monster Python. (See Chapter III.) The

  victorious divinity is in the act of stepping forward. The left arm which seems to have

  held the bow is outstretched, and the head is turned in the same direction. In attitude

  and proportion the graceful majesty of the figure is unsurpassed. The effect is completed

  by the countenance, where, on the perfection of youthful godlike beauty there dwells the

  consciousness of triumphant power.

  The Diana A La Biche.

  The Diana of the Hind, in the palace of the Louvre, may be considered the

  counterpart to the Apollo Belvedere. The attitude much resembles that of the Apollo, the

  sizes correspond and also the style of execution. It is a work of the highest order,

  though by no means equal to the Apollo. The attitude is that of hurried and eager

  motion, the face that of a huntress in the excitement of the chase. The left hand is

  extended over the forehead of the Hind which runs by her side, the right arm reaches

  backward over the shoulder to draw an arrow from the quiver.

  The Poets Of Mythology.

  Homer, from whose poems of the Iliad and Odyssey we have taken the chief part

  of our chapters of the Trojan war and the return of the Grecians, is almost as mythical a

  personage as the heroes he celebrates. The traditionary story is that he was a

  wandering minstrel, blind and old, who travelled from place to place singing his lays to

  the music of his harp, in the courts of princes or the cottages of peasants, and

  dependent upon the voluntary offerings of his hearers for support. Byron calls him "The

  blind old man of Scio's rocky isle," and a well-known epigram, alluding to the uncertainty

  of the fact of his birthplace, says, -

  "Seven wealthy towns contend for Homer dead,

  Through which the living Homer begged his bread."

  These seven were Smyrna, Scio, Rhodes, Colophon, Salamis, Argos, and

  Athens.

  Modern scholars have doubted whether the Homeric poems are the work of any

  single mind. This arises from the difficulty of believing that poems of such length could

  have been committed to writing at so early an age as that usually assigned to these, an

  age earlier than the date of any remaining inscriptions or coins, and when no materials,

  capable of containing such long productions were yet introduced into use. On the other

  hand it is asked how poems of such length could have been handed down from age to

  age by means of the memory alone. This is answered by the statement that there was a

  professional body of men, called Rhapsodists, who recited the poems of others, and

  whose business it was to commit to memory and rehearse for pay the national and

  patriotic legends.

  The prevailing opinion of the learned, at this time, seems to be that the
/>   framework and much of the structure of the poems belongs to Homer, but that there are

  numerous interpolations and additions by other hands.

  The date assigned to Homer, on the authority of Herodotus, is 850 B. C.

  Virgil.

  Virgil, called also by his surname Maro, from whose poem of the Aeneid we have

  taken the story of Aeneas, was one of the great poets who made the reign of the Roman

  emperor, Augustus, so celebrated, under the name of the Augustan age. Virgil was born

  in Mantua in the year 70 B. C. His great poem is ranked next to those of Homer, in the

  highest class of poetical composition, the Epic. Virgil is far inferior to Homer in originality

  and invention, but superior to him in correctness and elegance. To critics of English

  lineage Milton alone of modern poets seems worthy to be classed with these illustrious

  ancients. His poem of Paradise Lost, from which we have borrowed so many

  illustrations, is in many respects equal, in some superior to either of the great works of

  antiquity. The following epigram of Dryden characterizes the three poets with as much

  truth as it is usual to find in such pointed criticism: -

  On Milton.

  "Three poets in three different ages born,

  Greece, Italy, and England did adorn.

  The first in loftiness of soul surpassed,

  The next in majesty, in both the last.

  The force of nature could no further go;

  To make a third she joined the other two."

  From Cowper's Table Talk: -

  "Ages elapsed ere Homer's lamp appeared,

  And ages ere the Mantuan swan was heard.

  To carry nature lengths unknown before,

  To give a Milton birth, asked ages more.

  Thus genius rose and set at ordered times,