Heathen mythology, Illustrated by extracts from the most celebrated writers, both ancient and modern. Various

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      "Flower! with a curious eye we scan

      Thy leaf, and there discover

      How passion triumphed—pain began—

      Or in the immortal, or the man,

      The hero, or the lover.

      "The disk is hurled:—ah! fatal flight!

      Low droops that beauteous brow:

      But oh! the Delian's pang! his light

      Of joy lies quenched in sorrow's night:

      The deathless record thou.

      "Or, do they tell, these mystic signs,

      The self destroyer's madness?

      Phrensy, ensanguined wreaths entwines:

      The sun of chivalry declines;—

      The wreck of glory's gladness!"

      Apollo was so disconsolate at the death of Hyacinth, that, as we have seen, he changed his blood into a flower which bore his name, and placed his body among the constellations.

      The Spartans established yearly festivals in his honour, which continued for three days; they did not adorn their hair with garlands during their festivals, nor eat bread, but fed only upon sweetmeats. They did not even sing Pæans in honour of Apollo, or observe any of the solemnities usual at other sacrifices.

      ——"Pitying the sad death

      Of Hyacinthus when the cruel breath

      Of Zephyr slew him, Zephyr, penitent,

      Who now, ere Phœbus mounts the firmament,

      Fondles the flower amid the sobbing rain."

      Keats.

      Saddened by his efforts to form an endearing friendship, Apollo once more sighed for the nymph Perses, daughter of Ocean, and had by her the celebrated Circe, remarkable for her knowledge of magic and venomous herbs.

      Bolina, another nymph to whom he was attached, wishing to escape from his pursuit, threw herself into the waves, and was received by the nymphs of Amphitrion.

      "I staid awhile to see her throw

      Her tresses back, that all beset

      The fair horizon of her brow,

      With clouds of jet.

      "I staid a little while to view

      Her cheek, that wore in place of red,

      The bloom of water, tender blue,

      Daintily spread.

      "I staid to watch a little space

      Her parted lips, if she would sing;

      The waters closed above her face,

      With many a ring.

      "And still I stayed a little more—

      Alas! she never comes again,

      I throw my flowers from the shore

      And watch in vain."

      Hood.

      After this, Apollo lost the young Cyparissus, who had replaced Hyacinth in his favour, and guarded his flocks; this young shepherd having slain by accident a stag of which Apollo was fond, expired of grief, and was changed into the tree which bears his name.

      Apollo now attached himself to the sybil of Cumes, and granted to her the boon of prolonging her life as many years as there were grains in a handful of sand which she held. But she lived to repent of this frightful gift.

      Alone in the world, her friends departed, and none to remind her of the days of the past, she implored the Gods to release her from the misery which overwhelmed her. Cassandra, daughter of Priam, consented to her prayer, if Apollo would grant to her the power of divination. Apollo agreed, and swore to the truth of his promise by the river Styx. Scarcely had he uttered the oath, than the gods, who could not absolve him from it, rallied him on his folly. Irritated at the ridicule they poured upon him, he added to this gift, the restriction, that she should never believe her own prophecies. After this he again yielded to the power of love, and sought to please Clymene, who was the mother of Phæton. To this nymph succeeded the chaste Castalia, whom he pursued to the very foot of Parnassus, where the Gods metamorphosed her into a fountain. As Apollo was lamenting his loss on the bank of that river, he heard an exquisite melody escaping from the depth of the wood. He approached the place from whence the sound seemed СКАЧАТЬ