pened. He set out against the Gorgons to perform some arduous deed of that sort for the king; and, when he arrived in Libya Iphianassa. In what fashion, Triton? Alone, or did he take some others with him as auxiliaries? He took companions, doubtless, for, otherwise, the road is difficult of passage. Triton. Through the air: for Athena supplied him with wings. And when, accordingly, he came where they were living, they were asleep, I imagine; and he cut off the head of Medusa, and took to his wings, and made off. Iphianassa. How did he get a look at her? For they are not to be seen: or, whoever does have a look at them will never thereafter look at anything else. Triton. Athena, by holding before him her shield-for I heard him afterwards telling Andromeda and Kepheus so-Athena, I say, upon her resplendent shield, as upon a mirror, allowed him to have a glimpse of the reflection from Medusa; then, seizing her by the hair with his left hand, and fixing his eyes upon the reflection, he grasped his scimitar with his right, and cut off her head, and flew off before her sisters awoke. And when he had arrived in the neighbourhood of the sea-coast of Ethiopia here, while now flying near to the earth, he sees Andromeda lying exposed upon a certain projecting rock, fast secured to it—a most beautiful object, ye gods! with her tresses let down, half naked much below the breasts. In the first place, pitying her fate, he began questioning her as to the cause of her condemnation; but, insensibly captured by passion-for the girl had to be saved--he resolved to bring aid to her. And, when the sea-monster rushed towards her, exceedingly terrible, as though about to swallow Andromeda whole, the youth sus 2 1 Polydektes, the king of Seriphos, the island on which the outcasts had found refuge. 2 In this very favourite subject of modern art she is invariably represented wholly nude. In Greek art she sometimes appears as here described. In the picture described by Philostratus, following Euripides, the chains which bind Andromeda are being unfastened by Eros. With the knτog of this romance compare the tremendous Dragon of the Golden Fleece, described by Apollonius, 'Apy. iv. 127-160, and the prodigious Serpent of the Thebais of Statius, which occupies an acre of ground. G pended above, in the air, his scimitar grasped by the hilt, with one hand aims his blows, and with the other displays the Gorgon's head in front of him, and turned the creature into stone; and it died there and then, and the greater part of it, as much as looked upon Medusa, is petrified.1 Then, unfastening the virgin's bonds, and giving her his hand, he supported her as she descended on tip-toe from the rock, which was smooth and slippery. And now he is celebrating his nuptials in the palace of Kepheus, and he will carry her off to Argos; so that, instead of death, she has found a bridegroom one does not meet with every day. Iphianassa. Well, for my part, I am not excessively grieved at the event: for how did the girl wrong us, if her mother did boast somewhat loudly on that occasion, and claim to be fairer than we ? 2 Doris. The girl ought to have perished notwithstanding, for so the mother would have suffered pain, on account of her daughter, if, at least, she is a true mother. 3 Iphianassa. Let us no longer, Doris, bear these wrongs in mind, though a female of barbaric birth talked somewhat in a style beyond her proper rank and situation; for, in having been frightened on account of her child, she has paid to us a sufficient penalty. Let us, therefore, rejoice at her wedding.* 1 The bones of this bellua (as it is called by Ovid), as we are assured by the naturalist Pliny, were brought to Rome from the town of Joppa, on the Palestinian coast, the supposed scene of the tremendous combat, and were found to be forty feet in length, while the spine was a foot and a half in thickness. Hist. Nat. ix. 5. Pausanias (iv. 35), too, makes Joppa the scene of the memorable exposure and combat. He tells us that a spring close by was, in his time, still red with the blood of the monster. Cf. Solinus, xxxvi. As for the rationalising Palæphatus, he considers it absurd to believe in the exposure of girls to seamonsters. The real monster he finds in a certain king named Keton. "That starred Æthiop queen that strove 2 To set her beauty's praise above The sea-nymphs, and their Powers offended." 3 Bápßapos, usually translated " barbarian," properly denotes merely a non-Hellen, one not speaking the Hellenic language, "a foreigner." The Greeks called all foreigners barbaroi, in particular, the highlycivilized Persians. Iphianassa, as a Greek divinity, naturally speaks as a Greek woman. Tápog. This term was especially applied to the wedding supper (for the feast always took place at night) which, with the Greeks, was the sole witness of the legal solemnization of the rite. XV. ZEPHYRUS RELATES TO NOTUS THE MANNER OF THE RAPE OF EUROPA, AND THE MARINE POMP WITH WHICH SHE WAS CONDUCTED TO HER NUPTIALS WITH ZEUS. Zephyrus and Notus. Zephyrus. Never did I see a more magnificent Procession on the sea, since I was born, and began to blow. But you-did you not see it, Notus ? Notus. What is this Procession you talk of, Zephyrus, or who were the Processionists ? Zephyrus. You have missed a most delicious spectacle, the like of which you may never see again. Notus. Yes, for I was employed in the neighbourhood of the Red Sea, and, indeed, I blow over part of India, as much of the country as stretches along the sea-coast. I know, therefore, nothing of what you speak of. Zephyrus. But you know Agenor of Sidon? Notus. Yes, the father of Europa.1 What then? Zephyrus. It is about herself I will relate to you a story. Notus. It is not, is it, that Zeus has been for a long time the girl's lover? For that I knew quite a long while ago. Zephyrus. You are, then, aware of the amour. But listen now to the sequel. Europa had gone down to the shore in sportive mood, taking with her companions of her own 1 See Ov. Metam. ii. 14, iii. 1, and the charming Idyll of Moschus, entitled Euporn. Herodotus, at the beginning of his Histories, among the numerous rapes of European and Asiatic women perpetrated by the two races, one upon the other, which he assigns as the original cause of the enmity between them, recounts that of Europa, whom he alleges to have been carried off by Greek traders: a more probable explanation of a Greek myth than many of the solutions of the old historian-xpovíwv ὄζων καὶ βεκκέσεληνος. Palæphatus, in his accustomed rationalising spirit, discredits the miracle. "I believe," he affirms, "that neither a bull nor a horse could swim so great a space of sea; nor do I believe that a girl would mount a fierce bull; and Zeus, if he wished to bring Europa to Krete, would have found for her a pleasanter way of travelling." The bull, in fact, he resolves into the less prodigious human ravisher, whose name he supposes to have been Tauros. age. And Zeus, making himself like a bull, began to sport with them, seeming a very handsome creature, for he was perfectly white, and had beautifully crumpled horns, and was tame and quiet in look. He began, then, as he was, to frolic about upon the shore, and to bellow most sweetly; so that Europa ventured even to mount him. And, as soon as this was done, Zeus started off with her at a running pace towards the sea; and, plunging in, began to swim. But she, very much terrified at the occurrence, with her left hand kept clinging to his horn, that she might not slip off, while with the other she held together her long flowing dress,' blown about by the wind. Notus. That was a charming spectacle, Zephyrus, you witnessed, and an amorous-Zeus swimming, carrying his beloved. Zephyrus. Yet what followed was far more delightful, Notus. For the sea from that moment was without a ripple, and, attracting a perfect calm, showed itself smooth and unruffled. We, however, keeping quiet, followed, being no more than mere spectators of what was happening and the Loves, hovering a little above the sea, so as at times to graze the water with the tips of their feet, with lighted torches, sang together the hymeneal song: while the Nereids, emerging from the sea, rode by their side upon dolphins, clapping their hands, most of them half-naked. Then, too, the whole tribe of Tritons, and whatever else of the sea-dwellers is not terrible to the sight-all led their dances round the girl. Poseidon, indeed, mounting upon his chariot, and with Amphitrite riding at his side, led the way with hilarity, clearing the way for his swimming brother. To crown all, two Tritons were bearing Aphrodite, who reclined upon a shell, and 2 1 The Timλos was a full, flowing dress worn by Greek ladies. Cf. 'IX. v. 734; '08. xviii. 292; Xen. KuроT. v. i. 6; Euripides, Mnd. 1160 (of the fatal peplos given to Glauke by Medea). The peplos worn by Athena, in the Panathenaic procession at Athens, is the most celebrated example of it. 2 «Νηρείδες δ ̓ ἀνέδυσαν ὑπὲξ ἁλός, αἱ δ' ἄρα πᾶσαι * * * τοὶ δ ̓ ἀμφὶ μιν ἠγερέθοντο Τρίτωνες, πόντοιο βαρύθριοι αὐλητῆρες,” κ.τ.λ. Moschus, Εὐρώπη-114-120. This took scattered all sorts of flowers before the bride.' place all the way from Phenicia as far as Krete. But, when he had set foot on the island, the bull was no longer to be seen. Then Zeus, taking her by the hand, conducted Europa to the cave of Dikte, blushing and with eyes cast down: for now she knew to what she was being led. And we, plunging in, set to work to put the sea in commotion, one in one part, and another in another. Notus. O fortunate Zephyrus, to have seen such a sight! But I, for my part, had to satisfy my eyes with elephants, griffins,' and black men. 1 This graphic description of the nuptial procession of Europa and Zeus, a sort of description in which Lucian excels, it is highly probable, was suggested by some particular, celebrated, picture. One of the most famous modern paintings of this subject is that of Paolo Veronese, in the British National Gallery. 2 For this monster, so well known to the medieval world, cf. ПIpoμ. Aɛoμ. 284, where the oiwvòv is so interpreted by the scholia, &c.; Herod. iii. 116; Pliny, Hist. Nat. viii. 21, x. 49; Ælian, Iɛpì Zówv 'Idór., iv. 27; Philost. 'Arolwv. iii. 48. Plaut. Aul. v. i. |