to be made, so exactly like it, that it was almost impossible to distinguish the original. Their form was oval. Their number was twelve; as was that of the priests, or Salii, at first, though afterwards they were increased to twenty-four. Bellona had a temple at Rome. She usually harnessed the terrible horses of Mars, and with dishe velled hair, and frantic gestures, drove them through the field of battle. Victory was also an attendant of Mars. She had several temples in Greece and Rome. Games were instituted in honour of Victory. A figure of Victory was often placed upon the car of a Roman conqueror when he appeared in triumph. Victory was then represented as flying, holding a crown, a branch of palm, and a globe Who was Mars? Who attended Mars, and what animals were sacred to him! How was he regarded in heaven and on earth? What nation chiefly honoured Mars? What reverence was attached to the Ancilia? What king instituted the Salii ? Who was Bellona ? How was Victory represented? VULCAN. See plate, page 37. VULCAN was the god of fire, of smiths, and of metals, and the armorer of the gods. The working of metals is a most important circumstance in the civilization of man. By very little thought we in stantly perceive that without the use of iron we could not cultivate the earth, prepare our food by the help of fire, possess any fine cutting instruments, or carry on any manufacture. For want of such accommodations we should be in the lowest state of savage life. The ancient Greeks sometimes imputed the art of forging metals to Prometheus. Perhaps Prome. theus first discovered that metals were capable of fusion, and taught the art of manufacturing them to mankind; but Vulcan, according to the mythology was skilled in this mechanic-operation, and was, in fact, a labourer at the anvil. "Obscure in smoke his flaming forges sound, While bathed in sweat, from fire to fire he flew ; In the book of Genesis it is said that Tubal-cain, one of the first men, was "an instructer of every artificer in brass and iron.' This Tubal-cain might have been the same man whom the Greeks described either as Prometheus, or as Vulcan, but the fable says, Vulcan was the son of Jupiter and Juno. Vulcan is sometimes called Mulciber, and Lemnius. It is said that Jupiter, taking offence at Vulcan, kicked him out of heaven, and that he fell into the island of Lemnos, and was lamed by his fall. At Lemnos he set up his forges, but afterwards moved to the volcanic islands of Lipari, near Sicily, where he forged Jupiter's thunderbolts. Nor was his name unheard or unadorned To noon he fell, from noon to dewy eve, A summer's day; and with the setting sun, Paradise Lost, Book I Venus was the beautiful wife of Vulcan. -when of old, as mystic bards presume, Descending Venus sought the dark abode, With radiant eye she viewed the boiling ore, Botanic Garden, Canto I. Vulcan wrought a helmet for Pluto, which rendered him invisible; a trident for Neptune, which shook both land and sea; and a dog of brass for Jupiter. He also constructed invincible armour for Achilles and Eneas. The former a Greek, and the latter a Trojan hero, who were engaged in the siege of Troy. Vulcan also fabricated palaces of pure gold for the celestial deities. At Athens and Rome, festivals were kept to his honour. Upon Mount Etna a temple was dedicated to him, which was guarded by dogs, whose sense of smelling was said to be so exquisite, as to enable them to discern whether persons who came there were virtuous or vicious, and who fawned upon, or drove them away accordingly. The Romans, in their most solemn treaties, invoked Vulcan; and the assemblies in which they discussed the most important affairs, were held in the temple of Vulcan. At Memphis, in Egypt, also, was a most magnificent edifice raised in honour of this god, before which stood a colossal statue seventy feet high. The fiction of the thunderbolts proceeded from the notion of ignorant people concerning the phenomenon of thunder. The sound of thunder resembles that of a heavy blow from some powerful instrument, as a cannon-ball, which breaks into a thousand fragments whatever it strikes. Thunder is known to be the explosion of the electric fluid, THE CYCLOPS. 43 and its dispersion into the atmosphere, accompanied by the evolution of fire. Before natural philosophy made this discovery, ignorant people fancied that thunder was an expres sion of the divine anger, and that it was produced by the bolts of Jupiter. These bolts were supposed to be sharp and barbed points, driven with a terrible force from the mighty arm of Jupiter, and which carried destruction before them. The ancients some. times marked the spot where they supposed a thunderbolt had fallen, enclosed the place, and held it in reverence. Who was Vulcan, and of what use is the manufacture of metals? Whom did the ancients suppose were the first workers of metals? Whom say the Hebrew scriptures was the first metallurgist? In what verses is Venus described as visiting Vulcan ? What was the worship of Vulcan ?, THE CYCLOPS. THE Cyclops were the workmen of Vulcan; they were probably very strong men, employed in the most laborious services of society. In Peloponnesus some of the first edifices were constructed of vast stones, which still remain. The arrangement of these stones, before the machines existed which have since been invented to assist labour, must have required immensely strong men. This is therefore called, from the Cyclops, the Cyclopean architec ture.* Vulcan had many Cyclops; the chief were Brontes, Steropes, and Pyracmon The Cyclops • Dr. Clarke. were of prodigious stature, and had each but one eye, placed in the middle of their foreheads; lived on such fruits and herbs as the earth spontaneously affords, and had no laws. All this only describes rude men, living by hard labour in a state of poverty. The fiction of the Cyclops being one-eyed arose from the fact, that when they were exposed to the most violent action of the fire with which they wrought, they were forced to shield their faces with a piece of stiff leather, that had in the middle of a single perforation through which they looked. Virgil thus describes the Cyclops at their work Amid the Hesperian and Sicilian flood, All black with smoke, a rocky island stood, Loud groans the mass beneath their ponderous blows, * * # * # The alternate blows the brawny brethren deal; Who were the Cylops? What mode of life did the Cyclops follow ? |