Mittheilungen des K. deutschen archäologischen Instituts, Athens. 27. Return of Proserpina. [Vase.] 28. Head of Arethusa. [Coin.] 29. Departure of Triptolemus. [Vase.] 34. Niobe. [Statue.] Baum. Baum. Baum. Smith, Dict. of Antiquities. Baum. Baum. 35. Scylla. [Coin.] . 43. Dædalus making wings, while Icarus helps him. [Relief.] 44. Icarus lying dead on the shore. [Wall painting.] 45. The Calydonian Hunt. [Relief.] 46. Hercules and Cerberus. [Vase.] 47. The Apotheosis of Hercules. [Vase.] 48. Mercury conducting a soul to Charon. [Terra-cotta relief.] Arch. Zeit. 49. Ganymede. [Statue.] . . Millin. Thompson's Horace. 52. Large crater, over which two youthful Satyrs are picking grapes. 56. Galatea and Polyphemus, with two Nereids and a God of Love. [Wall painting.] Roscher. FIG. 57. Young River-god. [Bronze head.] 58. Esculapius. [Statue.] Baum. Müller. Lützow, Münchener Antiken. 59. Woman decorating a Hermes with a fillet. [Relief.] 60. The Serpent Esculapius landing on the Island. [Coin.] . .Müller. 61. Boreas. [Relief.] . Millin. INTRODUCTION ΤΟ THE "METAMORPHOSES" OF OVID. THE Mythology of the Greeks, adopted by the Romans, consists mainly of two distinct parts. The first is what is technically called Theogony, "the generation of the gods," and was put in the shape best known to us by Hesiod, some time about 800 B.C. It began, there is no reason to doubt, with rude personifications of the objects and forces of nature, such as would be natural to a people of active intelligence, lively imagination, and childlike ignorance on all matters of science. The Sun, the Dawn, the Winds, the Floods, are easily conceived as superhuman persons. Some of the earlier fables are hardly any thing more than metaphors, or poetic images, put in the form of narrative. That the Sun is figured as a shepherd, and the fleecy clouds his flock, which are scattered by the wind and gathered again by his beams, a very old bit of Eastern poetry, easily gives rise to the stories of Apollo as the shepherd of Admetus, and that which tells the stealing of his cattle by the rogue Hermes. That the maiden Artemis gazes with love on the sleeping prince Endymion, is hardly more than a poetical way of describing the beautiful spectacle of a full moon rising opposite the sun that is going down. But few fables can be explained in this simple way. By a very natural process, a group of divine or ideal Persons was conceived, whose family history or personal adventures became the subject of tales sometimes absolutely devoid of any sym |