DEMI-GODS AND HEROES.

In the assembly of the gods, Jupiter is represented as ruling supreme. He frowns, and Olympus trembles; he smiles, and the sky brightens. But heaven is not his only theatre of action; enveloping his deity in illusive forms, he descends to earth to propagate his power in a race of heroes.

From his seat on high, he descends to Danaë in the form of a golden shower, and the valiant Perseus springs forth; who, with powerful arm, subdues monsters.

In the form of Amphitryôn he appears to Alcmena, and makes her the mother of Hercules.

With the majestic neck of a swan, he clings to Leda for protection, and she becomes the mother of the magnanimous Pollux, and the god-like Helena, the most beautiful woman that earth ever produced.

In the strength of a mettled bull, he invites the virgin Europa to mount his back, and carries her through the floods of the sea to the shores of Crete, where she brings forth Minos, the wise and powerful lawgiver of nations.

In these fictions all nature is deified; even animals are considered as sacred beings. Thus nothing mean or abject lies in the idea of representing the supreme divinity in any form that is offered by all-comprising nature. As the wind stirs up the quiet sea, so the jealousy of Juno brings life into these fictions of imagination; and this jealousy is not destitute of sublimity, for, being endowed with divine power, it checks even the boasted omnipotence of the Thunderer.

That an opposing, jealous, yet eminent power strives to check the highest authority, is likewise entirely appropriate to the genius of these fables; according to which, the beautiful and strong,

in developing itself, must struggle against opposition and difficulties, and sustain many trials and dangers before its value is acknowledged and approved.

The demi-gods were also called Semones, as being descended from a mortal and an immortal. The deified mortals or peculiar

gods of any country, were called Indigetes.

In the poems of Homer, the heroes are described merely as warriors who had distinguished themselves by extraordinary strength, courage, and prudence; these qualities being essential to those who were charged either with the government of the people, or the conduct of the wars. The poets posterior to Homer, placed the heroes in an intermediate rank between gods and men; therefore they were called demi-gods, and temples were erected, and sacrifices offered to them. Their time is called the Heroic, and in the period to which the achievements of the heroes are attributed, much fable is mingled with true history.

The heroic times of the ancients is the period when they passed from the savage to the civilized state. That of the Greeks is the most celebrated; perhaps from its history having been handed down to us by the most distinguished poets. Those times commenced with the establishment of the kingdom of Sicyon (an ancient city of Greece), about 2164 B. C., and were closed after the siege of Troy, 1245; but the greatest events are embraced in the six last centuries of that period.

PERSEUS.

The history of Perseus belongs to the earliest period of the heroic age, and is therefore the most involved in clouds and fable.

To trace the earthly descent of this hero, it is necessary to go back to old Inachos, whose daughter, Io, gave Zeus a son in Egypt named Epaphos. Lybia, the regal daughter of Epaphos, became the mother of Belos and Agenor, the sons of Neptune. Belos was the father of Danäos and Ægyptos.

Danäos came from Ægyptos over to Greece, to assert and maintain his claims to the kingdom of Argos, against Gelanôr, who at that time actually reigned over the country. The claims of the former rested upon his descent from Inachos; those of the latter, on the right of possession. The people were called upon

to decide to whom the royal crown belonged; while they were yet wavering, a wolf rushed into a herd of cows and destroyed the bull that defended them. This unexpected accident was considered as a sign from the gods, that the stranger was destined to reign, instead of the native. Accordingly, Danäos ascended the throne; and to him the Argives are said to be indebted for the knowledge of digging wells and the building of ships.

Danäos, according to the legend, had fifty daughters, and Ægyptos as many sons. The latter came over to Greece, each of them intending to marry a daughter of Danäos. But Danäos had received warning from an oracle, that one of his sons-in-law would deprive him of his royal authority; and, anxious to retain his throne, he commanded each of his daughters to kill her husband on the first night of their marriage. This cruel order was obeyed by all of them except Hypermnêstra, who, notwithstanding the danger that threatened her own life in consequence, suffered Lynceus, her beloved husband, to fly. But he afterwards returned; for Danäos became reconciled to his daughter, and Perseus and Hercules, the god-like heroes, are descendants of Lynceus and Hypermnestra.

Atlas, a son of Lynceus, reigned over Argos after the death of his father, and left two sons, Protos and Acrisios, who at different times contested with each other for the royal authority.

Acrisios in his turn feared destruction from his descendants. It had been predicted to him that he should be killed by one of his grandsons. He therefore shut up his only daughter, Danaê, in a brazen tower, that he might thwart the prediction of the oracle. But his precaution was rendered ineffectual by Jupiter, who, descending in a golden shower through an opening in the roof of the building, made her the mother of Perseus.

When Perseus was born, his grandfather committed both mother and child to the sea, in a crazy bark. The benevolent goddess of the deep, tenderly taking up the divine boy, together with his mother, in the lap of the waters, brought the bark to a haven on the shores of the small island of Seriphos, in the Ægean sea. Here they were found by Dictys, a fisherman, and carried by him to Polydectis, king of the island, who kindly received both mother

and child, and superintended the education of young Perseus, intrusting him to the care of the priests of Minerva's temple.

His rising genius and manly courage, however, soon displeased Polydectês, and the monarch who wished to get Danaê into his power, feared the resentment of her son. Yet Polydectês resolved to remove every obstacle, and invited his friends to a sumptuous entertainment, requiring all who came to present him with a beautiful horse. Perseus was included, knowing that it was not in his power to furnish the requisite gift. But Perseus, who wished not to appear inferior to the other guests in magnificence, told the king, that as he could not bring him a horse, he would bring the head of Medusa, the only one of the Gorgons who was subject to mortality. This offer was particularly agreeable to Polydectês, as it would remove Perseus from Seriphos; and as his undertaking seemed impossible, the attempt might perhaps end in his ruin.

The innocence of Perseus was protected by the gods. Pluto lent him a helmet which had the power of rendering the wearer invisible; Minerva gave him her buckler, which was as resplendent as glass; and from Mercury he received wings and the talaria, with a short dagger made of diamonds, and called harpe. With these arms Perseus commenced his expedition, and traversed the air, conducted by the goddess Minerva.

He first went to the Grææ, the sisters of the Gorgons, and with the aid of Pluto's helmet, which made him invisible, stole from them the eye and tooth which they shared in common, and refused to return them until he was informed of the residence of their sisters. When he had received every necessary information, he flew to the habitation of the Gorgons, and found the monsters asleep. He knew that, by fixing his eyes upon them, he should be instantly changed to stone, he therefore looked continually upon his shield, which reflected all objects as clearly as the best mirror. He approached them, his courage supported by the goddess Minerva, and with one blow struck off the head of Medusa. The noise awoke the two immortal sisters, but Pluto's helmet rendered Perseus invisible, and the attempts of the Gorgons to revenge their sister's death, proved fruitless. The conqueror made his way through the air, and from the blood which dropped from Medusa's head sprang those innumerable serpents which have ever since infested the sandy deserts of Lybia.