of the systems in which earth and water were regarded as the origin of all beings. It reverses however the usual order, the earth being generally looked on as the female principle. We find no traces of it anterior to the Alexandrian period, when it is noticed by Lykophrón1 and Apollónios.2 At a much later age it is alluded to by Nonnos. Milton, who, like the Alexandrians, loved to bring forward recondite mythes and traditions, nearly translates the Rhodian poet in the following lines : 3 And fabled how the serpent, whom they called Ophion, with Eurynome,-the wide Encroaching Eve perhaps,-had first the rule Of high Olympos, thence by Saturn driven And Ops, ere yet Dictaan Jove was born.-Par. Lost, x. 580. CHAPTER IV. THE TITANS AND THEIR OFFSPRING:-NIGHT, OKEANOS AND TETHYS, HYPERION AND THEIA, HELIOS, SELENE, EOS, KEOS AND PHOEBE, KRIOS, HEKATE, KRONOS AND RHEA. We are now to consider the Titans and their offspring in particular, omitting Iapetos, who will find his appropriate place at the head of mankind. Though Night, eldest of things,' does not belong to the Titans, we will commence with an account of her. Núέ. (Nox. Night.) In the Theogony Night is the daughter of Chaos, and sister of Erebos, to whom she bore Day and Ether. She is then said to have produced without a sire Fate (Mópos) and Kér, Death, Sleep and Dreams, Momos (Mockery), Woe, the Hesperides, Nemesis, Deceit, Love (λórns), Old-age, and Strife.5 Euripidés says that Madness (Avoon) was the offspring of Night and Heaven. 6 It is not difficult to discern the reasons for giving this progeny to Night. It is a principle of all cosmogony that darkness preceded light, which sprang from it; a truth here expressed by 1 Cassandra, 1192, with the note of Tzetzés. 2 Argonaut. i. 503 seq. It is remarkable that there is no scholion on the passage. 3 Dionys. ii. 573; viii. 161; xii. 44; xli. 352. 4 Theog. 123. 5 Theog. 211 seq. The verse containing Deceit and Love (v. 224) is regarded as an interpolation. Another certain interpolation is vv. 217-222, in which the Mæræ and Kéres are classed among the offspring of Night. Her. Fur. 844. making Night the parent of Day and Ether. Night is also naturally regarded as the parent of Death, Sleep, Dreams, and their kindred ideas. Philotés, or the union of love, is also for a similar reason the child of Night.1 Deceit, Age, Strife, and Woe are figuratively her offspring, and so perhaps is Mockery, on account of its dark covert nature, as opposed to the openness of truth and candour; and Madness as being an obscuration of the mind, which perhaps is indicated in making her sire the clear lucid Heaven; the Hesperides are children of Night because their abode was near hers in the West. Nemesis is probably a daughter of Night to indicate the secret concealed path which the divine justice often treads to inflict the punishment due to vice. Hésiod places the cave which was the abode of Night in the West, behind where Atlas supports the heavens.2 Night and Day, he says, are there by turns; when one goes in the other goes out. Day bears light to mortals; Night, 'wrapt in a sable cloud, carries Sleep in her arms.' It is not quite clear whether the poet places the dwelling of Night on this side of or beyond the Ocean; Stésichoros, as we shall presently see, seems to assign its position to the other side of that stream. In Homer Sleep says to Héra that, when once at her desire he had cast Zeus into a slumber, the god on waking sought him, and would have flung him from the sky down into the sea, but that he took refuge with Night, 'the subduer of gods and men,' whom Zeus revering remitted his anger. The poet gives here no intimation of any kindred between Night and Sleep. dwelling of both would seem to be on Olympos. The Alkman and Sophoklés speak of the abode or springs of Night in the North, whilst Apollónios appears to place them within the earth. It was, as we shall see, the custom of the poets (or perhaps such had been previously the popular creed) to bestow chariots and horses on those deities who had a long course to perform. We do not however find a vehicle assigned to Night by Homer or Hésiod; but succeeding poets furnished her with one. Eschylos speaks of her 'dark chariot;' Euripidés describes her as driving through Olympos,-the sky according to the views of his time; Theokritos 10 calls the stars the attendants on the car of 1 Ἐν φιλότητι μιγεῖσα and ἐν φιλότητι καὶ εὔνῃ are contant phrases in Homer and Hésiod. Il. xiv. 249 seq. 2 Theog. 746 seq. 4 6 Fr. Incert. 93. 3 See Völcker, Hom. Geog. p. 39. 5 Fr. 123. Welcker. • Choëph. 660. • Fr. Androm. 28. 7 Argonaut. iv. 630. 10 Idyll. ii. 166. quiet Night;' Apollónios1 represents Night as yoking her horses at sunset; and Statius2 makes Sleep her charioteer. Night was called by the poets,3 1. Black-robed; 2. Black-winged. As the name of this deity is common to most of the languages which are akin to the Greek, its derivation is not perhaps to be found in any of them. Ωκεανὸς καὶ Τηθύς. Oceanus et Tethys. 5 O'keanos, the first-born of the Titans, espoused his sister Téthys. Their offspring were the rivers of the earth, and three thousand daughters, named O'keanides, or Ocean-nymphs. This is all the account of O'keanos and Téthys given in the Theogony; elsewhere Hésiod makes them to be the parents of Helené. Homer speaks of them as the origin of the gods. When Zeus, he says, placed his sire in Tartaros, Rhea committed her daughter Héra to the charge of O'keanos and Téthys, by whom she was carefully nurtured. Euripidés' terms O'keanos as being a rivergod, bull-headed (ravpókpavos). The abode of O'keanos was at the end of the earth, probably in the West.10 He dwelt, according to Eschylos, in a grottopalace; beneath his stream, as it would appear." In the Prométheus Bound of this poet O'keanos comes borne through the air on a griffon, to console and advise the lofty-minded sufferer; and from the account which he gives of his journey it is manifest that he came from the West. When Héraklés was crossing his stream in the cup of the sun-god to fetch the oxen of Géryones, O'keanos rose, and by agitating his waters tried to terrify him, but on the hero's bending his bow at him he retired.12 In the Ilias 13 O'keanos is said to dread the thunder of Zeus. As in similar cases, it is not always easy to distinguish the god from the stream over which he rules. The name O'keanos is apparently connected with a family of 1 Argonaut. iii. 1193. 2 Theb. ii. 59. 8 1. μελάμπεπλος (Eur. Ion, 1150). 2. μελανόπτερος (Aristoph. Av. 695). 4 Nis Sanser., Nox Lat., Night Eng., Nacht Germ., Nátt, Nat, Natt, Scandinav. 5 Theog. 337 seq. Comparing v. 338 seq. with v. 367 seq. we feel inclined to regard the catalogue of the rivers in the former place as a late addition, 6 Sch. Pind. Nem. x. 80 (150). 7 Il. xiv. 201, 302. In v. 246, he is called the origin of all (TávτEO TI)—— whether gods or things is uncertain. 8 Il. xiv. 202, 303. 10 Пl. xiv. 200, 301. 12 Pherekýdés ap. Athén. xi, 470. 9 Or. 1377. words signifying water;' that of Téthys seems to express the Rearer, the Nurse, or Grandmother;2 and some understand by it Mother Earth.3 O'keanos and Téthys might thus answer to Poseidón and Démétér in some mythes of production where rivers are the offspring. But as the chief products of their union are the numerous Ocean-nymphs, denoting in general qualities of the Ocean-stream, Téthys may perhaps be merely the expression of its calm, equable and constant current. It seems in fact to be only another form of Thetis, the name of a Néréis.1 "Yπeрiwv Kai Oein. Hyperion et Theia. Hyperíón and Theia are in the Theogony 5 the parents of the Sun, Moon, and Dawn. In Homer Hyperíón is equivalent to Hélios. Pindar extols Theia as the bestower of wealth on mortals. 7 The interpretation given by the ancients of Hyperíón as Overgoer, seems liable to little objection. Some interpret Theia Swift; Müller renders it Bright.10 Ἠέλιος, Ηλιος. (Sol. gum.) Hélios was the son of Hyperíón by Theia, or according to a Homeridian hymn by Euryphaessa (Wide-shining). His office was to give light to men and gods during the day. In the Odyssey, when Hélios ends his diurnal career, he is said to go under the earth :" it is not easy to determine whether the poet meant that he then passed through Tartaros back to the East during the night. At all events neither Homer nor Hésiod evinces 1 See Appendix D. 2 Akin to τηθή οι τιτθή, nurse or grandmother, τιτθή nipple, τιθήνη, nurse, &c. Hermann renders it Alumnia. 3 Schwenck, 102. From Oéw, the endings Ous and Tis being merely formative: see p. 15. 5 Theog. 371 seq. 6 Il. xix. 398 (comp. vi. 513). Od. i. 24. Il. viii. 480. Od. i. 8; xii. 133, 263, 346, 374. the contraction of 'Trepiovíwv (see Passow s. v. it is simpler to take it as an epithet of the epithet paélwv is made his son. 7 Isth. v. 1. Ὑπερίων ἠέλιος occurs in It is possible that 'Trepiwv is Völcker, Hom. Geog. 26); but Sun made his sire, as another This is adopted by Völcker, ut sup., and Müller, Proleg. 375. Hermann renders it Tollo (subst). From 0éw. Völcker, ut supra. Hermann makes it Ambulona. 10 Proleg. ut sup., regarding it probably as the same with dîa: see Appendix C. 11 Od. x. 191: comp. Apoll. Rh. iii. 1191. any knowledge of the beautiful fiction of the solar cup or basin.1 The origin of this seems to lie in the simple fact that men, seeing the sun rise in the east and set in the west each day, were naturally led to inquire how his return to the east was effected. If then, as there is reason to suppose, it was the popular belief that a lofty mountainous ring ran round the edge of the earth, it was easy for the poets to feign that on reaching the western stream of Ocean Hélios himself, his chariot and his horses, were received into a magic cup or boat made by Héphæstos, which, aided by the current, conveyed him during the night round the northern part of the earth, where his light was only enjoyed by the happy Hyperboreans, the lofty Rhipaæans concealing it from the rest of mankind.2 The cup (λéẞns or déñas) of the Sun-god appeared first, we are told, in the Titanomachia of Arktínos or Eumélos. Peisander, in his Hérakleia,* represented O'keanos giving the hero the Sungod's cup to pass over to Erytheia; and Stésichoros said in his Géryonéis, that 5 Hélios Hyperionidés Into the golden cup went down; That, through the Ocean having passed, He to the depths of dark sacred Night might come, Unto his mother and unto his wedded wife, And his dear children; but the grove shaded with laurel Entered the son of Zeus. Mimnermos had the following lines in his poem named Nannó :" Hélios is doomed to labour every day; And rest there never is for him Or for his horses, when rose-fingered Eós 1 The most learned of poets is the only one that has alluded to this fiction in modern times. He evidently had it in view in the following lines: The gilded car of day His glowing axle doth allay In the steep Atlantic stream; And the slope sun his upward beam Shoots against the dusky pole, Pacing toward the other goal Of his chamber in the east.-Comus, 95. In the Cambridge MS. the reading in v. 99 is northern pole. 2 They must also have supposed that the cup continued its course during the day, thus compassing the earth every twenty-four hours. 3 Athén. xi. 470. 4 Id. l. c. 6 Id. l. c. Id. I. c. The grove, Müller (Dorians, i. 536) thinks, was in the country of the Hyperboreans. |