GRECIAN AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. FOR SCHOOLS. WITH A SERIES OF ILLUSTRATIONS. BY M. A. DWIGHT. NEW YORK: PUBLISHED BY BARNES & BURR. CHICAGO: GEORGE SHERWOOD. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1849, by M. A. DWIGHT, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District of Stereotyped by C. DAVISON, 33 Gold st., N. Y. PREFATORY NOTE. A KNOWLEDGE of Mythology is of so much importance in connection with ancient history, that the subject should be made a study in every school. To render it accessible to all, this work is offered to the public in an abridged form. The information necessary to an understanding of the character and attributes of each deity is retained, and the more general treatment omitted. This method was adopted on the supposition that at the recitations of his class, the teacher would have the larger work to which he could refer. INTRODUCTION. THE word Mythology is compounded of two Greek words, Muthos, a fable, and Logos, a discourse; and signifies a system of fables, or the fabulous history of the false gods of the heathen world. Fable is divided into various kinds; and the following is an example of the instructive, as used for the purpose by a famous orator: When Philip's son, the hereditary enemy of the liberty of Greece, demanded eight of their leading men to be delivered up to him, as the great impediment of mutual amity, "On a time," said Demosthenes to his fellow-citizens, "an embassy came from the wolves to the sheep, assuring them that the dogs by which they were attended were the sole occasion of the war; wherefore, if they would give them up, all would be well, and end in lasting peace. The sheep were persuaded, gave up the dogs, and henceforth the wolves devoured them at pleasure." A second sort is political, as the following: When Jupiter heard of the death of his son Sarpedon, in the rage of grief he called Mercury, the messenger of the gods, and gave him orders to go instantly to the Fates, and bring from them the strong box in which the eternal decrees were laid up. Mercury obeyed, went to the sisters, and omitted nothing that a wise and well-instructed minister could say to make them pacify the will of Jove. The sisters smiled, and told him that the other end of the golden |