initiated person was himself endowed with inventive power, he explained the appearances according in general to the system of philosophy which he had embraced.1 It was thus that Porphyrius conceived the Hierophant to represent the Platonic Démiurgos or creator of the world; the Torch-bearer (Daduchos), the sun; the Altar-man (Epibómios), the moon; the Herald (Hierokéryx), Hermés; and the other ministers, the lesser stars. These fancies of priests and philosophers have been by modern writers formed into a complete system, and Ste Croix in particular describes the Eleusinian mysteries with as much minuteness as if he had been actually himself initiated.2 It is to be observed, in conclusion, with respect to the charges of impiety and immorality brought against the Eleusinian mysteries by some Fathers of the Church, that this arose entirely from their confounding them with the Bakchic, Isiac, Mithraic, and other private mysteries, mostly imported from Asia, which were undoubtedly liable to that imputation. It must always be remembered, that those of Eleusis were public, and celebrated by the state.3 CHAPTER XII. SISTER-GODDESSES,-MUSES, HORE, CHARITES, Movoal. (Camena. Muses.) In the early ages of the world, when the principle of assigning a celestial cause to every extraordinary effect was in full operation, the powers of song and memory were supposed to be excited by certain goddesses who were denominated Muses. In Homer they are called the daughters of Zeus,5 and described as exhilarating the banquets of the gods by their lovely voices, attuned to the lyre of Apolló." When about to give the catalogue of the ships of the Achæans, the poet invokes the Muses, the daughters of Zeus, to prompt his memory.7 8 No definite number of the Muses is given by Homer, for we cannot regard as his the verse in which they are said to be nine. Perhaps originally, as in the case of the Erinnyes and so many 1 Aglaoph. 180, 181. 2 See Warburton, Divine Legation. Ste Croix, Recherches sur les Mystères, &c. Creuzer, Symbolik. 3 Aglaoph. 116, 197, 202, 1263. Muller, Proleg. 248 seq. 4 Dor. Μώσαι, Εol. Μοίσαι. 6 Il. i. 604. 7 Il. ii. 484 seq. 5 Il. ii. 490. Od. i. 10. 8 Od. xxiv. 60. other deities, there was no precise number. Pausanias1 gives an old tradition, according to which they were three,-Meleté (Practice), Mnémé (Memory), and Aœdé (Song). Aratos2 said they were four, the daughters of Zeus and the nymph Plusia (Wealthy), and that their names were, Thelxinoé (Mind-soother), Aœdé, Meleté, and Arché (Beginning). Alkman and some other poets made the Muses the daughters of Heaven and Earth; Euripidés+ says they were the daughters of Harmonia and born in Attica. The more received opinion makes them, as in the proœmium to the Theogony, nine, the daughters of Zeus and Mnémosyné (Memory). 3 The names of the Muses were, Kalliopé, Kleió, Melpomené, Euterpé, Erató, Terpsichoré, Urania, Thaleia, and Polymnia. Later ages assigned a particular department to each of the Muses, and represented them in various postures and with various attributes." Kalliopé presided over Epic Poetry; she was represented holding a close-rolled parchment, and sometimes a trumpet. Kleió presided over History; and appeared holding a halfopened roll. The invention of the lute or guitar (kıðápa) was ascribed to her. Melpomené, over Tragedy; she was veiled, and was leaning on a club, and holding a tragic mask in her left hand. Her instrument was the lyre named Barbiton. Euterpé, over Music; she held two flutes, and the invention of the tragic chorus was ascribed to her. Erató, the muse of Marriage-feasts and pantomimic dancing (öpxnois), played on the stringed instrument named phorminx. She is said to have invented hymns to the gods. Terpsichoré, the muse of the choric Dance (xopeía), appeared in a dancing posture. The pipe (avλós) was indebted to her for its origin. Urania, the muse of Astronomy, held in one hand a globe, in the other a rod with which she was employed in tracing out some figure. Thaleia, the patroness of Comedy, held a comic mask in one 2 Cic. De Nat. Deor. iii. 21. Eudocia, 294. 1 Paus. ix. 29, 2. 3 Diod. iv. 7. Paus. ut sup. 4. 4 Med. 830. 5 Theog. 53 seq. 76, comp. v. 917. • Καλλιόπη (Fair-Voice), Κλειώ (Proclaimer), Μελπομένη (Songstress), Εύτέρπη (Delighter), Ερατώ (Love-inspirer), Τερψιχόρη (Dance-lover), Οὐρανία (Celestial), área (Blooming), Пoλvuvia (Hymnful). 7 Diodór. iv. 7. Sch. Apoll. Rh. iii. 1. Eudocia, 293. Anthologia, ix. 504, 505. Horace (Carm. i. 1, 34) gives this instrument to Polymnia. hand, and in the other a crooked staff. She was also regarded as the patroness of husbandry and planting. Polymnia, the muse of Eloquence and the Mimic art, had the fore-finger of her right hand on her mouth, or carried a roll. Pieria in Macedonia is said by Hesiod1 to have been the birthplace of the Muses; and everything relating to them proves the antiquity of the tradition of the knowledge and worship of these goddesses having come from the North into Hellas.2 Almost all the mountains, grots, and springs from which they have derived their appellations, or which were sacred to them, are, we may observe, in Macedonia, Thessaly, or Bœótia (Aonia). Such are the mountains Pimpla, Pindos, Parnassos, Helikón, the founts Hippokréné, Aganippé, Leibéthron, Kastalia, and the Korykian cave. The Muses, says Homer,3 met the Thracian Thamyris in Dórion (in the Peloponnése), as he was returning from Echalia. He had boasted that he could excel them in singing; and enraged at his presumption, they struck him blind, and deprived him of his knowledge of music. Shortly after the birth of the Muses, the nine daughters, it is said, of Pierios, king of Æmathia, challenged them to a contest of singing. The place of trial was Mount Helikón. At the song of the latter the sky became dark and all nature was put out of harmony, but at that of the Muses the heaven itself, the stars, the sea, and rivers stood motionless, and Helikón swelled up with delight, so that his summit would have reached the sky had not Poseidón directed Pégasos to strike it with his hoof. The Muses then turned the presumptuous maids into nine different kinds of birds.4 The Muses did not escape the darts of Love. Kalliopé bore to Eagros a son named Línos, who was killed by his pupil Héraklés. She also had by the same sire Orpheus, whose skill on the lyre was such as to move the very trees and rocks, and the beasts of the forest assembled round him as he struck its chords. He was married to Eurydiké," whom he tenderly loved; but a snake 1 Theog. 53. 2 See Buttmann, Mythol. i. 293. Voss, Myth. Br. iv. 3. Müller, Orchom. 381. Proleg. 219. Comp. above, p. 17. 3 Il. ii. 594. Nikander ap. Anton. Lib. 9, where the names of the birds are given; these of course were the names of the nine maids in Nikander. Ovid, who also relates the legend (Met. v. 300 seq.), says they were turned into magpies, and he is followed by Statius, Silv. ii. 4, 19. The tale seems indebted for its origin to the Muses' name, Pierides, from Pieria. Apollod. i. 3, 2. Others made Apolló the sire of Linos and Orpheus. Hésiod (Fr. 97) said that Urania was the mother of Linos: see Conon, 19. 6 Argiopé according to Hermésianax. having bitten her as she ran through the grass, she died. Her disconsolate husband determined to descend to the under-world, to endeavour to mollify its rulers, and obtain permission for her to return to the realms of light. Hadés and Persephoné listened to his prayer; and she was allowed to return, on condition of his not looking on her till they were arrived in the upper-world. Fearing that she might not be following him, the anxious husband looked back, and thereby lost her. He now avoided human society; and despising the rites of Dionýsos, was torn to pieces by the Mænades. The Muses collected the fragments of his body, and buried them, and at their prayer Zeus placed his lyre in the skies.1 Kleió, having drawn on herself the anger of Aphrodité by taunting her with her passion for Adónis, was inspired by her with love for Pieros the son of Magnés. She bore him a son named Hyakinthos.2 Euterpé, or according to some, Kalliopé, or Terpsichoré, bore Rhésos to the god of the river Strymón ;3 Melpomené was by Achelóos the mother of the Sirens. Hymenæos, the god of marriage, was said to be the offspring of the divine Urania, but the name of his sire is unknown. Those who took a less sublime view of the sanctity of marriage gave him Dionysos and Aphrodíté for parents. He was invoked at marriage festivals. By the Latin poets he is presented to us arrayed in a yellow robe, his temples wreathed with the fragrant plant amaracus, his locks dropping odour, and the nuptial torch in his hand." Beside the usual epithets common to all goddesses, and derived from beauty and dress, the Muses were styled, 1. Sweet-speaking; 2. Perfect-speaking; 3. Loud-voiced; 4. Honey-breathing. Apollod. ut sup. Apoll. Rh. i. 23. Hermésianax ap. Athen. xiii. 597. Ov. Met. x. xi. Verg. Geor. iv. 454 seq. Conon, 455. Eudocia, 318. Diod. iv. 25. No mention of Orpheus occurs in Homer or Hésiod. Pindar (Pyth. iv. 176 (313) seq.) reckons him among the Argonauts. It were idle to notice the fancies of Creuzer and others respecting the mysteries introduced by him into Greece long before the time of Homer. According to these mystics (Symb. iii. 148 seq.) he was a priest of the Light-religion,—that of Apolló or Vishnú,-and vainly resisted the raving orgies of the Dionysos or Seeva worship when it reached Greece. See Lobeck's Aglaophamus for all that the most extensive learning, joined with sense and sane philosophy, has been able to do toward elucidating the real nature and character of the poems and institutions ascribed to Orpheus: see also Müller, Proleg. 379 seq. The name Orpheus is perhaps connected with õppvos, õppavos, orbus, furvus. Apollod. ut sup. 3 Id. ib. Eur. Rhés. passim. Sch. Il. x. 435. 5 Serv. En. iv. 127. Hymen o Hymenæe! Catull. 4 Catull. lxi. 2. Nonn. xxxiii. 67. 6 ut sup. Met. x. 1 seq. 7 Catull. ut sup. Ovid. Hér. xxi. 157 seq. The most probable derivation of the name Muse (Moûσa), seems to be that which deduces it from the obsolete verb MAQ to inquire or invent. The Lydians, who spoke a language akin to the Greek, called, we are told, the Muses Nymphs, or the Nymphs Muses, apparently using the terms as synonymous.1 We everywhere find the Muses connected with founts; Eumélos of Corinth said they were three in number, the daughters of Apolló, and he called them Képhisó, Apollónis, and Borysthenis,2 two of which names are evidently derived from those of rivers; and the comic poet Epicharmos in his drama named Hébé's Wedding, where the gods appeared as thorough bons-vivants, made the seven Muses the daughters of Pieros and Pimpleia (Fattener and Filler), and named them after seven rivers. They probably figured in this comedy as the presidents of the fish-market. If, however, the Muses were not generally regarded as connected in some way with the water the poet would hardly have thus represented them, as the humour would not have been fully appreciated by the audience. We may further observe that the musical Sirens were placed by the poets at the edge of the water, possibly from a feeling of a connection between that element and music, and that water-deities were held to be prophetic. The Latins, it would also appear, connected their Camenæ with the fountains; for Egeria was one of them, and her fount long continued to be an object of veneration. The Gotho-German race (whose language and religion bear so great an affinity to those of Greece) seem also to have connected music with the water in their ancient religious system; and this notion still remains part of the popular creed in northern Europe, as is proved by the many legends of the songs of Mermaids, Nixes, Necks, and similar beings of the waters current among the people in Germany and Scandinavia. In the Edda the abode of Saga the goddess of narration, is by Söquabæk, i.e. the rushing stream or waterfall. In fact, this, like almost every other article of popular belief, has its origin in nature. There is music in the sound of water as it purls or murmurs along in the rivulet, (the very terms prattling, babbling, tinkling, warbling, applied to brooks and streams by our poets prove it,) and even the waterfall espe1 Steph. Byz. v. TúppηBos. Sch. Theocr. vii. 92. Suidas, Photius, Hesych. v. vúμon. Serv. Buc. vii. 21. 2 Eudocia, 294. Tzetz. on Hés. "Epy. init. 3 Eudocia and Tzetzés, ut sup. The names as amended by Hermann are Neiló, Tritóné, Asópó, Achelóis, Heptapora, and Rhodia, (the two last from rivers named by Homer, Il. xii. 20, and Hésiod, Theog. 341) the seventh, Tiripló, is evidently corrupt; Hermann proposes Pactóló. The reader will find several of these legends in my Fairy Mythology. |