as offerings to the goddess. These were of honourable families, and were attended by the daughters of foreigners settled at Athens. The latter carried a folding seat for the young girls to rest upon, and an umbrella to screen them from the sun; they also carried water and honey for the libations. Foreigners, or sojourners as they were called, who resided at Athens, held a rank inferior to natives of the city Musicians, some playing on the flute, and others upon the lyre, rhapsodists, who sang passages from Homer's poems, and dancers of singular grace accompanied the procession, and passed through the streets, amidst a crowd of spectators. When the whole reached the temple of Minerva, a magnificent sacrifice ended the solemnity, and the assembly dis. persed to different places, where they concluded the day in feasting and mirth. The most celebrated statue of Minerva in ancient times, was that of the Parthenon, thirty-nine feet in height, formed of ivory and gold. It was the work of Phidias, produced by the request of Pericles. The Athenians were offended at Phidias, because it was discovered that among certain figures, engraved upon the shield of Minerva, he had placed likenesses of himself and of Pericles. In consequence, this capricious people banished Phidias, and he withdrew from Athens to Elis, where he was beloved and che rished, and where he made a statue of Jupiter, tha was reckoned among the seven wonders of the world What was the Palladium ? Who carried the Palladium to Italy? What was the Parthenon? What was the Panathenæa ? What were the songs sung at the Panathenæa? What procession appeared at Athens at this festival' What was the most celebrated statue of Minerva 1 CERES CERES. See plate, page 55. 61 CERES, the daughter of Saturn and Ops, was the goddess of agriculture. She first instructed men to plough the soil, to sow seeds, to reap the harvest, to thresh the grain, to make flour and bread, to enclose fields, and to mark out the limits of each individual's property. In the first ages of society, men fed upon wild fruits, and the flesh of wild animals taken in hunting --they are then in a barbarous state. When they discover the use of vegetable substances, and acquire the art of procuring them from the fields, they have advanced. one step in civilization-they are in the agricultural state. Ceres, possibly, might have done much to advance her contemporaries from a savage condition, to one of greater industry and comfort. Ceres might have made some improvements in the art of cultivating the earth. The Egyptians worshipped a goddess, called by them Isis; who, like the Ceres of the Greeks, conferred the gifts of corn, bread, and separated property. The mythologists say, that Isis and Ceres are the same goddess, worshipped under those different names, in different countries in the pagan world. The image of Ceres was that of a tall female, having her head adorned with ears of wheat. Her right hand was filled with poppies and corn, and her left carried a lighted torch. Ceres had splendid temples, and she was worshipped by husbandmen in the fields, before they began to reap. Sacrifices to her were also offered in the spring, and oblations of wine, honey, and milk. Virgil mentions this rural observance : To Ceres bland, her annual rites be paid, When winter ends and spring serenely shines, Mix honey sweet, for her, with milk and mellow wine. Exalt your rural queen's immortal praise.-Pitt's Virgil. The worship of Ceres was universal among those who received the religion of Greece. The most solemn ceremonial of that religion was the festival of Ceres, celebrated at Eleusis, a town in Attica, and particularly honoured by the Athenians. These solemnities were called the Eleusinian Mysteries. The word mysteries signifies something not commonly known. The Mysteries of Eleusis seems to have been an institution resembling modern Masonry, in the particular of secrecy at least. Initiated persons that is, those who were admitted to be present at the ceremonies at Eleusis, were strictly forbidden to divulge what they saw there. Persons of both sexes were admitted by the high priest, called the Hierophant, to the mysteries of Eleusis. It was pretended that those who enjoyed this privilege were under the immediate protection of the goddess, and not only in this life, but after death. Those who broke the vow to conceal what they were instructed in, in these mysteries, were accounted execrable. Execration was a sentence which forbade all people to dwell in the same house, to enter the same ship, to drink from the same vessel, to buy and sell, or to converse with the person considered sacrilegious. The sentence of execration permitted any PROSERPINE 63 one to put the supposed criminal to death as a public offender. The mysteries of Eleusis are believed to have consisted of certain spectacles, sometimes brilliant, and sometimes frightful. Splendid fireworks, suc ceeded by complete darkness, artificial thunder and lightning, and pretended forms of spirits. The first introduction to these exhibitions was the initiation. What these mysteries really signified is'unknown. The garments worn at the initiation were accounted holy, and preserved as charms, thos is, as being preventives to accidents and diseases, or malevolence of enemies. Who was Ceres? What is the primitive condition 品 mankind? What favour did Ceres probably confer, and what was she called by the Egyptians? How was Ceres represented? In what verses is her worship described ? What honours were offered to Ceres at Eleusis? What are Mysteries? How were persons admitted to the mysteries of Eleusis regarded? What was execration? What spectacles were exhibited at Eleusis? What superstition is related concerning the initiation ? PROSERPINE. ONE of the prettiest fictions of the mytno.ogy is the story of Proserpine. Proserpine was the be loved daughter of Ceres. The favourite residence of Ceres was the beautiful and fertile island of Sicily. In Sicily the young Proserpine was bred up, and her innocent and happy occupation was to wander over the valley of Enna, where, attended by companions as lovely as herself, she de! yhted in gatherng flowers. One day as Proserpine, with the daughters of Oceanus, was diverting herself in the pleasant fields of Enna, Pluto, the king of the infernal regions, appeared in his chariot drawn by two fine horses, black as ebony. Admiring the beauty of Proserpine, Pluto was resolved to make her his queen, and had come to carry her off with him. The young virgins saw him, and one of them, says a modern poet, in terror exclaimed, "Tis he, 'tis he, he comes to us Where the sinful dead are hurled? Now the chariot stops: the god Barry Cornwall. It appears, however, that Pluto had nothing frightful in the apprehension of Proserpine, and that she was taken without much resistance. The ground opened upon the occasion, the ebon coursers descended, and where the earth closed over the car of Pluto and Proserpine a fountain gushed out. This fountain was called Cyane, and thither the Sicilians would afterwards resort, and celebrate the descent of Proserpine in annual festivals. Ceres, alarmed at the absence of Proserpine, |