that fed on the inconsumable liver of Prometheusa. In a word we have here a Grecian mythe of the Fall of man, which we shall presently find carried out in that of Pandorab.

The simple narrative of Hesiod was as usual expanded by later writers, and Mount Caucasus was fixed on as the place of Prometheus' punishment. The pragmatisers also explained the mythe after their own fashion. Prometheus was, they say, a king of the Scythians, and his country was wasted by a river named Eagle ('Aeròs), whose inundations when he was unable to prevent, his subjects laid him in chains. But Heracles coming thither opened a passage for the Eagle into the sea, and thus freed the captive monarchc.

The name of Prometheus led to his being viewed as the bestower of all knowledge on mankind. A philosophical mythe in Platoe says that the gods formed man and the other animals of clay and fire within the earth, and then committed to Prometheus and his brother the task of distributing powers and qualities to them. Epimetheus prayed to be allowed to make the distribution. Prometheus assented; but when he came to survey the work, he found that the silly Epimetheus had abundantly furnished the inferior animals, while man was left naked and helpless. As the day for their emerging from the earth was at hand, Prometheus was at a loss what to do; at length as the only remedy he stole fire, and with it the artist-skill of Athena and Hephæstos, and gave it to man. He was also regarded as the creator of the human race. Another

Qui vultur jecur intimum pererrat,
Et pectus trahit intimasque fibras,
Non est quem tepidi vocant poetæ,
Sed cordis mala, livor atque luxus.

Compare Lucret. iii. 992. seq.

Petronius, ap. Fulgent. ii. 9.

b We are fully aware of the difficulty presented by the Hesiodic narrative of the stealing of the fire, and that it would seem from it that Zeus had deprived mankind of it in consequence of the trick played him by Prometheus. Still we think with Völcker that the sense of the original mythe is the one given above.

Βραχεῖ δὲ μύθῳ πάντα συλλήβδην μάθε,

Πᾶσαι τέχναι βροτοῖσιν ἐκ Προμηθέως.—vv. 505, 506.

e Polit. p. 274. Protag. p. 320. Phileb. p. 16.

legend said that all mankind having perished in Deucaliôn's flood, Zeus directed Prometheus and Athena to make images of clay, on which he caused the winds to blow, and thus gave them lifea. A third said that Prometheus had formed a man of clay, and Athena beholding it offered him her aid in procuring anything in heaven that might contribute to its perfection. Prometheus said that he could not tell what there might be in heaven to his purpose, unless he could go thither and judge for himself. The goddess then bore him to heaven in her sevenfold shield, and there seeing everything animated by the celestial heat, he secretly applied his ferula to the wheel of the Sun's chariot and thus stole some of the fire, which he then applied to the breast of his man and thus animated him. Zeus, to punish Prometheus, bound him and appointed a vulture to prey on his liver, and the incensed gods sent fevers and other diseases among men.

As Care, says the fable, was crossing a river she observed the marly clay, and began to make a man out of it. Jupiter happening to come by, she asked him to animate it; he did so, but when Care went to give it her own name, he insisted on its being named from himself. While they were disputing, Earth arose and asserted her right to it, as she had furnished the body. They took Saturn for arbitrator, and he decided that, as Jupiter had given it life, he should have the body, but that as Care had formed it she should possess it while it lived, and that it should be called Man (Homo), because it was made of earth (humus) c.

On the story of Prometheus has been founded the following very pretty fable, which adds another instance to the many legends we have already given, invented to account for properties and relations of animals.

"Etym. Mag. and Steph. Byz. v. 'Ikóviov.

b Apollod. i. 7. 1. Ovid, Met. i. 82. Hor. Carm. i. 3. 29. seq. Fulgent. Myth. i. 9. Serv. Buc. vi. 42. As Servius quotes Sappho as an authority, Welcker (Tril. 71. note) seems to have reason for thinking that this legend should be assigned to that poetess. It is remarkable that there is no mention of Pandora in it. See in Horace (Carm. i. 16. 13.) and Claudian (De IV Cons. Honor. 228. seq., and In Eutrop. ii. 490. seq.) other accounts of this creation of man.

e

Hygin. 220. The etymology at the end proves this to be a Latin fiction. Parnell's beautiful imitation of it is well known.

When Prometheus had stolen fire from heaven for the good of mankind, they were so ungrateful as to betray him to Zeus. For their treachery they got in reward a remedy against the evils of old-age; but not duly considering the value of the gift, instead of carrying it themselves, they put it on the back of an ass, and let him trot on before them. It was summer time, and the ass quite overcome by thirst went up to a fountain to drink; but a snake forbade all approach. The ass, ready to faint, most earnestly implored relief: the cunning snake, who knew the value of the burden which the ass bore, demanded it as the price of access to the fount. The ass was forced to comply, and the snake obtained possession of the gift of Zeus, but with it as a punishment for his art he got the thirst of the ass. Hence it is that the snake by casting his skin an-. nually renews his youth, while man is borne down by the weight of the evils of old-age. The malignant snakes moreover, when they have an opportunity, communicate their thirst to mankind by biting thema.

The wife of Prometheus was Pandora", or Clymene, or Hesioned, or Asiae. His only child was Deucalion.

Ilavsópa. Pandora.
Πανδώρα.

The celebrated mythe of the introduction of evil into the world by means of a woman is related at large by Hesiod in his didactic poem, and is touched on in the Theogonyf. The following is the ingenious, and in general correct, view of it given by an able mythologists.

According to some very ancient mythe the first of mankind were two brothers, Prometheus and Epimetheus, that is, Forethought and After-thought. These first men lived in intimate relation with the gods, who, as we may have already seen, were by no means beings of pure benevolence; on the contrary, they and mankind were to one another somewhat like patrons and

a Ælian, de Nat. An. vi. 51. and Nicand. Ther. 340. seq. with the Scholia. Nicander terms it an ὠγύγιος μῦθος. They derived it from the Κωφοί, a satyric drama of Sophocles now lost.

Hesiod, ap. Sch. Apoll. Rh. iii. 1086.

d Esch. Prom. 560.

f Works, 47. seq. Theog. 570. seq.

8 Buttmann, Mythol. i. "Pandora."

Sch. Od. x. 2. e Herod. iv. 45.

clients, lords and vassals. The latter recognised the power of the former, who on their part could not well dispense with the gifts and respect of men; and men, like the tenants of griping landlords, were obliged to be very circumspect, that is, to use a good deal of forethought in their actions, to get every advantage they could in their dealings with the gods. This is intimated in the transaction respecting the fire of which Zeus is said to have deprived men, and which Prometheus stole and brought back to earth.

Zeus then, the mythe goes on to relate, was incensed at this daring deed, and resolved to punish the men for it. He therefore directed Hephæstos to knead earth and water, to give it human voice and strength, and to make the fair form of a virgin like the immortal goddesses: he desired Athena to endow her with artist-knowledge, Aphrodite to give her beauty and desire, and Hermes to inspire her with an impudent and artful disposition. When formed she was attired by the Seasons and Graces; each of the deities gave the commanded gifts, and she was named Pandora (All-gifted). Thus furnished she was brought by Hermes to the dwelling of Epimetheus; who, though his brother had warned him to be upon his guard and to receive no gifts from Zeus, dazzled with her charms took her to his house and made her his wife. The evil effects of this imprudent act were speedily felt. In the house of these first men stood a closed jar, which they had been forbidden to open. Forethought, as may be supposed, had rigidly obeyed this direction, and had hitherto kept his brother also from transgressing it. But the case was now altered: a woman, whose chief attribute is curiosity, was come into the house: dying to know what the jar contained she raised the lid, and all the evils hitherto unknown to man poured out and spread over the earth. In terror at the sight of these monsters, she clapped down the lid just in time to prevent the escape of Hope, who thus remained with man, his chief support and comfort.

This fable of Pandora is certainly not capable of being reconciled with other Hellenic mythes of the origin of mankind, such as the one which we have given above; but incongruities little discomposed those ancient bards, and if a mythe contained a moral that pleased them, they were indifferent

about its harmonising with others. Contradictions however becoming apparent, Prometheus and his brother ceased to be looked on as the first men, but Pandora still kept her place as the first woman. Prometheus and Epimetheus were soon regarded as the symbols of Prudence and Folly, and were held to be gods. From the remote period in which the legends placed them they could only be regarded as Titans, and accordingly by Hesiod and Eschylus they are placed among that ante-Kronid race. Prometheus was also speedily raised to the rank of creator of mankind, to whom he gave the fire which he had stolen from heaven. Yet even so late as the times of Augustus some vestige of the old sense of the mythe seems to have remained; for Horace classes Prometheus with Dædalos and Heracles, and speaks of him as a mana. It is remarkable however that Eschylus represents him only as the benefactor and instructor of mankind.

The next step in the corruption of the mythe, says the critic, was to change the jar (πíos) in which the evils were inclosed, and which lay in the house of the men, into a box brought with her from heaven by Pandora. It is rather strange how this notion could have prevailed, when the species of vessel was so expressly stated by Hesiod, who also mentions its great lid (uéya Tŵμa), a phrase that does not at all accord with such a box as Pandora could have carried with her. Further it is said that 'Hope alone remained in the infrangible house within the jare;' where, though interpreters in general

The Epicurean poet was however disposed to regard all the popular gods as having been originally mere men.

bПios, akin to the Latin vas, the German fass, and our words butt and pot, was a kind of large pitcher or jar with a wide mouth and a close-fitting lid. It was usually earthen, and was mostly employed for holding wine.