Chapter XMonsters. Giants. Sphinx. Pegasus and the Chimaera.Centaurs. Griffin. PygmiesMonsters, in the language of mythology, were beings of unnaturalproportions or parts, usually regarded with terror, as possessingimmense strength and ferocity, which they employed for the injuryand annoyance of men. Some of them were supposed to combine themembers of different animals; such were the Sphinx and theChimaera; and to these all the terrible qualities of wild beastswere attributed, together with human sagacity and faculties.Others, as the giants, differed from men chiefly in their size;and in this particular we must recognize a wide distinction amongthem. The human giants, if so they may be called, such as theCyclopes, Antaeus, Orion, and others, must be supposed not to bealtogether disproportioned to human beings, for they mingled inlove and strife with them. But the superhuman giants, who warredwith the gods, were of vastly larger dimensions. Tityus, we aretold, when stretched on the plain, covered nine acres, andEnceladus required the whole of Mount AEtna to be laid upon himto keep him down.We have already spoken of the war which the giants waged againstthe gods, and of its result. While this war lasted the giantsproved a formidable enemy. Some of them, like Briareus, had ahundred arms; others, like Typhon, breathed out fire. At onetime they put the gods to such fear that they fled into Egypt,and hid themselves under various forms. Jupiter took the form ofa ram, whence he was afterwards worshipped in Egypt as the godAmmon, with curved horns. Apollo became a crow, Bacchus a goat,Diana a cat, Juno a cow, Venus a fish, Mercury a bird. Atanother time the giants attempted to climb up into heaven, andfor that purpose took up the mountain Ossa and piled it onPelion. They were at last subdued by thunderbolts, which Minervainvented, and taught Vulcan and his Cyclopes to make for Jupiter.THE SPHINXLaius, king of Thebes, was warned by an oracle that there wasdanger to his throne and life if his new-born son should besuffered to grow up. He therefore committed the child to thecare of a herdsman, with orders to destroy him; but the herdsman,moved to pity, yet not daring entirely to disobey, tied up thechild by the feet, and left him hanging to the branch of a tree.Here the infant was found by a herdsman of Polybus, king ofCorinth, who was pasturing his flock upon Mount Cithaeron.Polybus and Merope, his wife, adopted the child, whom they calledOEdipus, or Swollen-foot, for they had no children themselves,and in Corinth OEdipus grew up. But as OEdipus was at Delphi,the oracle prophesied to him that he should kill his father andmarry his own mother. Fighting against Fate, OEdipus resolved toleave Corinth and his parents, for he thought that Polybus andMerope were meant by the oracle.Soon afterwards, Laius being on his way to Delphi, accompaniedonly by one attendant, met in a narrow road a young man alsodriving in a chariot. On his refusal to leave the way at theircommand, the attendant killed one of his horses, and thestranger, filled with rage, slew both Laius and his attendant.The young man was OEdipus, who thus unknowingly became the slayerof his own father.Shortly after this event the city of Thebes was afflicted with amonster which infested the high-road. It was called the Sphinx.It had the body of a lion, and the upper part of a woman. It laycrouched on the top of a rock, and stopped all travellers whocame that way, proposing to them a riddle, with the conditionthat those who could solve it should pass safe, but those whofailed should be killed. Not one had yet succeeded in solvingit, and all had been slain. OEdipus was not daunted by thesealarming accounts, but boldly advanced to the trial. The Sphinxasked him, "What animal is that which in the morning goes on fourfeet, at noon on two, and in the evening upon three?" OEdipusreplied, "Man, who in childhood creeps on hands and knees, inmanhood walks erect, and in old age with the aid of a staff."The Sphinx was so mortified at the solving of her riddle that shecast herself down from the rock and perished.The gratitude of the people for their deliverance was so greatthat they made OEdipus their king, giving him in marriage theirqueen Jocasta. OEdipus, ignorant of his parentage, had alreadybecome the slayer of his father; in marrying the queen he becamethe husband of his mother. These horrors remained undiscovered,till at length Thebes was afflicted with famine and pestilence,and the oracle being consulted, the double crime of OEdipus cameto light. Jocasta put an end to her own life, and OEdipus,seized with madness, tore out his eyes, and wandered away fromThebes, dreaded and abandoned hy all except his daughters, whofaithfully adhered to him; till after a tedious period ofmiserable wandering, he found the termination of his wretchedlife.PEGASUS AND THE CHIMAERAWhen Perseus cut off Medusa's head, the blood sinking into theearth produced the winged horse Pegasus. Minerva caught andtamed him, and presented him to the Muses. The fountainHippocrene, on the Muses' mountain Helicon, was opened by a kickfrom his hoof.The Chimaera was a fearful monster, breathing fire. The forepart of its body was a compound of the lion and the goat, and thehind part a dragon's. It made great havoc in Lycia, so that theking Iobates sought for some hero to destroy it. At that timethere arrived at his court a gallant young warrior, whose namewas Bellerophon. He brought letters from Proetus, the son-in-lawof Iobates, recommending Bellerophon in the warmest terms as anunconquerable hero, but added at the close a request to hisfather-in-law to put him to death. The reason was that Proetuswas jealous of him, suspecting that his wife Antea looked withtoo much admiration on the young warrior. From this instance ofBellerophon being unconsciously the bearer of his own death-warrant, the expression "Bellerophontic letters" arose, todescribe any species of communication which a person is made thebearer of, containing matter prejudicial to himself.Iobates, on perusing the letters, was puzzled what to do, notwilling to violate the claims of hospitality, yet wishing tooblige his son-in-law. A lucky thought occurred to him, to sendBellerophon to combat with the Chimaera. Bellerophon acceptedthe proposal, but before proceeding to the combat consulted thesoothsayer Polyidus, who advised him to procure if possible thehorse Pegasus for the conflict. For this purpose he directed himto pass the night in the temple of Minerva. He did so, and as heslept Minerva came to him and gave him a golden bridle. When heawoke the bridle remained in his hand. Minerva also showed himPegasus drinking at the well of Pirene, and at sight of thebridle, the winged steed came willingly and suffered himself tobe taken. Bellerophon mounting, rose with him into the air, andsoon found the Chimaera, and gained an easy victory over themonster.After the conquest of the Chimaera, Bellerophon was exposed tofurther trials and labors by his unfriendly host, but by the aidof Pegasus he triumphed in them all; till at length Iobates,seeing that the hero was a special favorite of the gods, gave himhis daughter in marriage and made him his successor on thethrone. At last Bellerophon by his pride and presumption drewupon himself the anger of the gods; it is said he even attemptedto fly up into heaven on his winged steed; but Jupiter sent agadfly which stung Pegasus and made him throw his rider, whobecame lame and blind in consequence. After this Bellerophonwandered lonely through the Aleian field, avoiding the paths ofmen, and died miserably.Milton alludes to Bellerophon in the beginning o the seventh bookof Paradise Lost:"Descend from Heaven, Urania, by that nameIf rightly thou art called, whose voice divineFollowing above the Olympian hill I soar,Above the flight of Pegasean wing,Up-led by thee,Into the Heaven of Heavens I have presumed,An earthly guest, and drawn empyreal air,(Thy tempering;) with like safety guided downReturn me to my native element;Lest from this flying steed unreined, (as onceBellerophon, though from a lower sphere,)Dismounted on the Aleian field I fall,Erroneous there to wander, and forlorn."Young in his Night Thoughts, speaking of the skeptic, says,"He whose blind thought futurity denies,Unconscious bears, Bellerophon, like theeHis own indictment; he condemns himself,Who reads his bosom reads immortal life,Or nature there, imposing on her sons,Has written fables; man was made a lie."Vol. II.1,12.Pegasus, being the horse of the Muses, has always been at theservice of the poets. Schiller tells a pretty story of hishaving been sold by a needy poet, and put to the cart and theplough. He was not fit for such service, and his clownish mastercould make nothing of him. But a youth stepped forth and askedleave to try him. As soon as he was seated on his back, thehorse, which had appeared at first vicious, and afterwardsspirit-broken, rose kingly, a spirit, a god; unfolded thesplendor of his wings and soared towards heaven. Our own poetLongfellow also records an adventure of this famous steed in hisPegasus in Pound.Shakespeare alludes to Pegasus in Henry IV, where Vernondescribes Prince Henry:"I saw young Harry, with his beaver on,His cuishes on his thighs, gallantly armed,Rise from the ground like feathered Mercury,And vaulted with such ease into his seat,As if an angel dropped down from the clouds,To turn and wind a fiery Pegasus,And witch the world with noble horsemanship."THE CENTAURSThe Greeks loved to people their woods and hills with strangewild people, half man, half beast. Such were the Satyrs menwith goats' legs. But nobler and better were the Centaurs, mento the waist, while the rest was the form of a horse. Theancients were too fond of a horse to consider the union of hisnature with man's as forming any very degraded compound, andaccordingly the Centaur is the only one of the fancied monstersof antiquity to which any good traits are assigned. The Centaurswere admitted to the companionship of man, and at the marriage ofPirithous with Hippodamia, they were among the guests. At thefeast, Eurytion, one of the Centaurs, becoming intoxicated withthe wine, attempted to offer violence to the bride; the otherCentaurs followed his example, and a dreadful conflict arose inwhich several of them were slain. This is the celebrated battleof the Lapithae and Centaurs, a favorite subject with thesculptors and poets of antiquity.But all the Centaurs were not like the rude guests of Pirithous.Chiron was instructed by Apollo and Diana, and was renowned forhis skill in hunting, medicine, music, and the art of prophecy.The most distinguished heroes of Grecian story were his pupils.Among the rest the infant Aesculapius was intrusted to hischarge, by Apollo, his father. When the sage returned to hishome bearing the infant, his daughter Ocyroe came forth to meethim, and at sight of the child burst forth into a propheticstrain (for she was a prophetess), foretelling the glory that hewas to achieve. Aesculapius, when grown up, became a renownedphysician, and even in one instance succeeded in restoring thedead to life. Pluto resented this, and Jupiter, at his request,struck the bold physician with lightning and killed him, butafter his death received him into the number of the gods.Chiron was the wisest and justest of all the Centaurs, and at hisdeath Jupiter placed him among the stars as the constellationSagittarius.THE PYGMIESThe Pygmies were a nation of dwarfs, so called from a Greek wordwhich means the cubit (a cubit was a measure of about thirteeninches), which was said to be the height of these people. Theylived near the sources of the Nile, or according to others, inIndia. Homer tells us that the cranes used to migrate everywinter to the Pygmies' country, and their appearance was thesignal of bloody warfare to the puny inhabitants, who had to takeup arms to defend their cornfields against the rapaciousstrangers. The Pygmies and their enemies the cranes form thesubject of several works of art.Later writers tell of an army of Pygmies which finding Herculesasleep made preparations to attack him, as if they were about toattack a city. But the hero awaking laughed at the littlewarriors, wrapped some of them up in his lion's-skin, and carriedthem to Eurystheus.Milton used the Pygmies for a simile, Paradise Lost, Book I:"----------like that Pygmaean raceBeyond the Indian mount, or fairy elvesWhose midnight revels by a forest side,Or fountain, some belated peasant sees,(Or dreams he sees), while overhead the moonSits artibress, and nearer to the earthWheels her pale course; they on their mirth and danceIntent, with jocund music charm his ear.At once with joy and fear his heart rebounds."THE GRIFFIN, OR GRYPHONTHE Griffin is a monster with the body of a lion, the head andwings of an eagle, and back covered with feathers. Like birds itbuilds its nest, and instead of an egg lays an agate therein. Ithas long claws and talons of such a size that the people of thatcountry make them into drinking-cups. India was assigned as thenative country of the Griffins. They found gold in the mountainsand built their nests of it, for which reason their nests werevery tempting to the hunters, and they were forced to keepvigilant guard over them. Their instinct led them to know whereburied treasures lay, and they did their best to keep plunderersat a distance. The Arimaspians, among whom the Griffinsflourished, were a one-eyed people of Scythia.Milton borrows a simile from the Griffins, Paradise Lost, BookII.:"As when a Gryphon through the wilderness,With winged course, o'er hill and moory dale,Pursues the Arimaspian who by stealthHath from his wakeful custody purloinedHis guarded gold."