<h1 id="id00519" style="margin-top: 5em">CHAPTER XVI</h1>
<h5 id="id00520">MONSTERS</h5>
<h5 id="id00521">GIANTS, SPHINX, PEGASUS AND CHIMAERA, CENTAURS, GRIFFIN, AND
PYGMIES</h5>
<p id="id00522" style="margin-top: 2em">Monsters, in the language of mythology, were beings of unnatural
proportions or parts, usually regarded with terror, as possessing
immense strength and ferocity, which they employed for the injury
and annoyance of men. Some of them were supposed to combine the
members of different animals; such were the Sphinx and Chimaera;
and to these all the terrible qualities of wild beasts were
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 among them. The
human giants, if so they may be called, such as the Cyclopes,
Antaeus, Orion, and others, must be supposed not to be altogether
disproportioned to human beings, for they mingled in love and
strife with them. But the superhuman giants, who warred with the
gods, were of vastly larger dimensions. Tityus, we are told, when
stretched on the plain, covered nine acres, and Enceladus required
the whole of Mount Aetna to be laid upon him to keep him down.</p>
<p id="id00523">We have already spoken of the war which the giants waged against
the gods, and of its result. While this war lasted the giants
proved a formidable enemy. Some of them, like Briareus, had a
hundred arms; others, like Typhon, breathed out fire. At one time
they put the gods to such fear that they fled into Egypt and hid
themselves under various forms. Jupiter took the form of a ram,
whence he was afterwards worshipped in Egypt as the god Ammon,
with curved horns. Apollo became a crow, Bacchus a goat, Diana a
cat, Juno a cow, Venus a fish, Mercury a bird. At another time the
giants attempted to climb up into heaven, and for that purpose
took up the mountain Ossa and piled it on Pelion. [Footnote: See
Proverbial Expressions.] They were at last subdued by
thunderbolts, which Minerva invented, and taught Vulcan and his
Cyclopes to make for Jupiter.</p>
<h5 id="id00524">THE SPHINX</h5>
<p id="id00525">Laius, king of Thebes, was warned by an oracle that there was
danger to his throne and life if his new-born son should be
suffered to grow up. He therefore committed the child to the care
of a herdsman with orders to destroy him; but the herdsman, moved
with pity, yet not daring entirely to disobey, tied up the child
by the feet and left him hanging to the branch of a tree. In this
condition the infant was found by a peasant, who carried him to
his master and mistress, by whom he was adopted and called
OEdipus, or Swollen-foot.</p>
<p id="id00526">Many years afterwards Laius being on his way to Delphi,
accompanied only by one attendant, met in a narrow road a young
man also driving in a chariot. On his refusal to leave the way at
their command the attendant killed one of his horses, and the
stranger, filled with rage, slew both Laius and his attendant. The
young man was OEdipus, who thus unknowingly became the slayer of
his own father.</p>
<p id="id00527">Shortly after this event the city of Thebes was afflicted with a
monster which infested the highroad. It was called the Sphinx. It
had the body of a lion and the upper part of a woman. It lay
crouched on the top of a rock, and arrested all travellers who
came that way proposing to them a riddle, with the condition that
those who could solve it should pass safe, but those who failed
should be killed. Not one had yet succeeded in solving it, and all
had been slain. OEdipus was not daunted by these alarming
accounts, but boldly advanced to the trial. The Sphinx asked him,
"What animal is that which in the morning gees on four feet, at
noon on two, and in the evening upon three?" OEdipus replied,
"Man, who in childhood creeps on hands and knees, in manhood walks
erect, and in old age with the aid of a staff." The Sphinx was so
mortified at the solving of her riddle that she cast herself down
from the rock and perished.</p>
<p id="id00528">The gratitude of the people for their deliverance was so great
that they made OEdipus their king, giving him in marriage their
queen Jocasta. OEdipus, ignorant of his parentage, had already
become the slayer of his father; in marrying the queen he became
the 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 came
to light. Jocasta put an end to her own life, and OEdipus, seized
with madness, tore out his eyes and wandered away from Thebes,
dreaded and abandoned by all except his daughters, who faithfully
adhered to him, till after a tedious period of miserable wandering
he found the termination of his wretched life.</p>
<h5 id="id00529">PEGASUS AND THE CHIMAERA</h5>
<p id="id00530">When Perseus cut off Medusa's head, the blood sinking into the
earth produced the winged horse Pegasus. Minerva caught him and
tamed him and presented him to the Muses. The fountain Hippocrene,
on the Muses' mountain Helicon, was opened by a kick from his
hoof.</p>
<p id="id00531">The Chimaera was a fearful monster, breathing fire. The fore part
of its body was a compound of the lion and the goat, and the hind
part a dragon's. It made great havoc in Lycia, so that the king,
Iobates, sought for some hero to destroy it. At that time there
arrived at his court a gallant young warrior, whose name was
Bellerophon. He brought letters from Proetus, the son-in-law of
Iobates, recommending Bellerophon in the warmest terms as an
unconquerable hero, but added at the close a request to his
father-in-law to put him to death. The reason was that Proetus was
jealous of him, suspecting that his wife Antea looked with too
much admiration on the young warrior. From this instance of
Bellerophon being unconsciously the bearer of his own death
warrant, the expression "Bellerophontic letters" arose, to
describe any species of communication which a person is made the
bearer of, containing matter prejudicial to himself.</p>
<p id="id00532">Iobates, on perusing the letters, was puzzled what to do, not
willing to violate the claims of hospitality, yet wishing to
oblige his son-in-law. A lucky thought occurred to him, to send
Bellerophon to combat with the Chimaera. Bellerophon accepted the
proposal, but before proceeding to the combat consulted the
soothsayer Polyidus, who advised him to procure if possible the
horse Pegasus for the conflict. For this purpose he directed him
to pass the night in the temple of Minerva. He did so, and as he
slept Minerva came to him and gave him a golden bridle. When he
awoke the bridle remained in his hand. Minerva also showed him
Pegasus drinking at the well of Pirene, and at sight of the bridle
the winged steed came willingly and suffered himself to be taken.
Bellerophon mounted him, rose with him into the air, soon found
the Chimaera, and gained an easy victory over the monster.</p>
<p id="id00533">After the conquest of the Chimaera Bellerophon was exposed to
further trials and labors by his unfriendly host, but by the aid
of Pegasus he triumphed in them all, till at length Iobates,
seeing that the hero was a special favorite of the gods, gave him
his daughter in marriage and made him his successor on the throne.
At last Bellerophon by his pride and presumption drew upon himself
the anger of the gods; it is said he even attempted to fly up into
heaven on his winged steed, but Jupiter sent a gadfly which stung
Pegasus and made him throw his rider, who became lame and blind in
consequence. After this Bellerophon wandered lonely through the
Aleian field, avoiding the paths of men, and died miserably.</p>
<p id="id00534">Milton alludes to Bellerophon in the beginning of the seventh book
of "Paradise Lost":</p>
<p id="id00535"> "Descend from Heaven, Urania, by that name<br/>
If rightly thou art called, whose voice divine<br/>
Following above the Olympian hill I soar,<br/>
Above the flight of Pegasean wing<br/>
Upled by thee,<br/>
Into the Heaven of Heavens I have presumed,<br/>
An earthly guest, and drawn empyreal air<br/>
(Thy tempering); with like safety guided down<br/>
Return me to my native element;<br/>
Lest from this flying steed unreined (as once<br/>
Bellerophon, though from a lower sphere),<br/>
Dismounted on the Aleian field I fall,<br/>
Erroneous there to wander and forlorn."<br/></p>
<p id="id00536">Young, in his "Night Thoughts," speaking of the sceptic, says:</p>
<p id="id00537"> "He whose blind thought futurity denies,<br/>
Unconscious bears, Bellerophon, like thee<br/>
His own indictment, he condemns himself.<br/>
Who reads his bosom reads immortal life,<br/>
Or nature there, imposing on her sons,<br/>
Has written fables; man was made a lie."<br/></p>
<p id="id00538">Vol II, p 12</p>
<p id="id00539">Pegasus, being the horse of the Muses, has always been at the
service of the poets. Schiller tells a pretty story of his having
been sold by a needy poet and put to the cart and the plough. He
was not fit for such service, and his clownish master could make
nothing of him But a youth stepped forth and asked leave to try
him As soon as he was seated on his back the horse, which had
appeared at first vicious, and afterwards spirit-broken, rose
kingly, a spirit, a god, unfolded the splendor of his wings, and
soared towards heaven. Our own poet Longfellow also records an
adventure of this famous steed in his "Pegasus in Pound."</p>
<p id="id00540">Shakspeare alludes to Pegasus in "Henry IV.," where Vernon
describes Prince Henry:</p>
<p id="id00541"> "I saw young Harry, with his beaver on,<br/>
His cuishes on his thighs, gallantly armed,<br/>
Rise from the ground like feathered Mercury,<br/>
And vaulted with such ease into his seat,<br/>
As if an angel dropped down from the clouds,<br/>
To turn and wind a fiery Pegasus,<br/>
And witch the world with noble horsemanship"<br/></p>
<h5 id="id00542">THE CENTAURS</h5>
<p id="id00543">These monsters were represented as men from the head to the loins,
while the remainder of the body was that of a horse. The ancients
were too fond of a horse to consider the union of his nature with
man's as forming a very degraded compound, and accordingly the
Centaur is the only one of the fancied monsters of antiquity to
which any good traits are assigned. The Centaurs were admitted to
the companionship of man, and at the marriage of Pirithous with
Hippodamia they were among the guests. At the feast Eurytion, one
of the Centaurs, becoming intoxicated with the wine, attempted to
offer violence to the bride; the other Centaurs followed his
example, and a dreadful conflict arose in which several of them
were slain. This is the celebrated battle of the Lapithae and
Centaurs, a favorite subject with the sculptors and poets of
antiquity.</p>
<p id="id00544">But not all the Centaurs were like the rude guests of Pirithous.
Chiron was instructed by Apollo and Diana, and was renowned for
his 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 his charge
by Apollo, his father. When the sage returned to his home bearing
the infant, his daughter Ocyroe came forth to meet him, and at
sight of the child burst forth into a prophetic strain (for she
was a prophetess), foretelling the glory that he was to achieve
Aesculapius when grown up became a renowned physician, and even in
one instance succeeded in restoring the dead to life. Pluto
resented this, and Jupiter, at his request, struck the bold
physician with lightning, and killed him, but after his death
received him into the number of the gods.</p>
<p id="id00545">Chiron was the wisest and justest of all the Centaurs, and at his
death Jupiter placed him among the stars as the constellation
Sagittarius.</p>
<h5 id="id00546">THE PYGMIES</h5>
<p id="id00547">The Pygmies were a nation of dwarfs, so called from a Greek word
which means the cubit or measure of about thirteen inches, which
was said to be the height of these people. They lived near the
sources of the Nile, or according to others, in India. Homer tells
us that the cranes used to migrate every winter to the Pygmies'
country, and their appearance was the signal of bloody warfare to
the puny inhabitants, who had to take up arms to defend their
cornfields against the rapacious strangers. The Pygmies and their
enemies the Cranes form the subject of several works of art.</p>
<p id="id00548">Later writers tell of an army of Pygmies which finding Hercules
asleep made preparations to attack him, as if they were about to
attack a city. But the hero, awaking, laughed at the little
warriors, wrapped some of them up in his lion's skin, and carried
them to Eurystheus.</p>
<p id="id00549">Milton uses the Pygmies for a simile, "Paradise Lost," Book I.:</p>
<p id="id00550"> "… like that Pygmaean race<br/>
Beyond the Indian mount, or fairy elves<br/>
Whose midnight revels by a forest side,<br/>
Or fountain, some belated peasant sees<br/>
(Or dreams he sees), while overhead the moon<br/>
Sits arbitress, and nearer to the earth<br/>
Wheels her pale course; they on their mirth and dance<br/>
Intent, with jocund music charm his ear.<br/>
At once with joy and fear his heart rebounds."<br/></p>
<h5 id="id00551">THE GRIFFIN, OR GRYPHON</h5>
<p id="id00552">The Griffin is a monster with the body of a lion, the head and
wings of an eagle, and back covered with feathers. Like birds it
builds its nest, and instead of an egg lays an agate therein. It
has long claws and talons of such a size that the people of that
country make them into drinking-cups. India was assigned as the
native country of the Griffins. They found gold in the mountains
and built their nests of it, for which reason their nests were
very tempting to the hunters, and they were forced to keep
vigilant guard over them. Their instinct led them to know where
buried treasures lay, and they did their best to keep plunderers
at a distance. The Arimaspians, among whom the Griffins
flourished, were a one-eyed people of Scythia.</p>
<p id="id00553">Milton borrows a simile from the Griffins, "Paradise Lost," Book<br/>
II,:<br/></p>
<p id="id00554"> "As when a Gryphon through the wilderness,<br/>
With winged course, o'er hill and moory dale,<br/>
Pursues the Arimaspian who by stealth<br/>
Hath from his wakeful custody purloined<br/>
His guarded gold," etc.<br/></p>
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