vo ng jaws of Saturn, who ate up all the male chiren that was born to him, by giving Saturn a young foal to eat in his stead. In the Greek he is called Пoveday [Posiedon,] because he so binds our feet that we are not able to walk within his dominions, that is, on the water.

When he came of age, Saturn's kingdom was divided by lot, and the maritime parts fell to him. He and Apollo, by Jupiter's command, were forced to serve Laomedon, in building the walls of Troy; because he and some other gods had plotted against Jupiter. Then he took *Amphitrite to wife, who refused a long time to hearken to his courtship; but at last, by the assistance of a dolphin, and by the power of flattery, he gained her. To recompense which kindness, the dolphin was placed among the stars, and made a constellation. Amphitrite had two other names; Salacia, so called from salum, the sea, or the salt water, towards the lower part and bottom of the sea; and Venilia, so called from veniendo, because the sea goes and comes with the tide, or ebbs and flows by turns.

races.

The poets tell us, that Neptune produced a horse in Attica out of the ground, by striking it with his trident; whence he is called Hippius and Hippodromus, and he is esteemed the president over horse At his altar, in the Circus at Rome, games were instituted, in which they represented the ancient Romans by violence carrying away the Sabine women. His altar was under ground, and sacrifices were offered to him by the name of Consus, the god of counsel; which for the most part ought to be given privately; and therefore the god Consus was worshipped in an obscure and private place. The solemn games Consualia, celebrated in the

* Dicitur αμφιτρίτη παρά το άμφιτριβειν a circumterendo, quod errans mare circumterat.

month of March, were instituted in honour of Neptune. At the same time, the horses left working, and the mules were adorned with garlands of flowers.

Hence it also happens, that the chariot of Neptune is drawn by hippocampi, or sea horses, as well as sometimes by dolphins. Those sea horses had the tails of fishes, and only two feet, which were like the fore feet of a horse, according to the description given of them in Statius:

"Illic Egeo Neptunus gurgite fessos

In portam deducit equos, prior haurit habenas
Ungula, postremi solvuntur in æquora pisces." Treb. 2.
Good Neptune's steeds to rest are set up here,

In the Egean gulph, whose fore parts harness bear,
Their hinder parts fish-shap'd.

And this is the reason why Virgil calls them twofooted horses: Neptune guides them, and goads them with his trident, as it is expressed in Statius :

"Triplici telo jubet ire jugales:

Illi spumiferos glomerant a pectore fluctus,

Pone natant, delentque pedum vestigia cauda." Achil. 1.

Shaking his trident, urges on his steeds,

Who with two feet beat from their brawny breasts
The foaming billows; but their hinder parts
Swim, and go smooth against the curling surge.

It was therefore Neptune's peculiar office, not only to preside over, and to govern horses both by land and sea, but also the government of ships were coinmitted to his care, which were always safe under his protection; for whenever he rides upon the waters, the weather immediately grows fair, and the sea calm.

"Tumida æquora placat,

Collectasque fugat nubes, solemque reducit." Virg. Æn. 1
-He smooth'd the sea,

Dispell'd the darkness, and restor❜d the day

"Subsidunt undæ, tumidumque sub axe tonanti
Sternitur æquor aquis, fugiunt vasto æthere nimbi "

High on the waves his azure car he guides,
Its axles thunder, and the sea subsides;
And the smooth ocean rolls her silent tides.

"Equora postquam

Prospiciens genitor, cæloque invectus aperto,
Flectit equos, curruque volans dat lora secundo."

-Where'er he guides

His finny coursers, and in triumph rides,
The waves unruffle, and the sea subsides

Æn. 5.

Virg. Æm

The most remarkable of his children were Triton, Phorcus or Proteus. Of the first we shall speak in another place.

Phorcus or Phorcys, was his son by the nymph Thesea. He was vanquished by Atlas, and drowned in the sea. His surviving friend said, that he was made a sea god, and, therefore, they worshipped him. We read of another Phorcus, who had three daughters, they had but one eye among them all, which they all could use. When either of them desired to see any thing, she fixed the eye in her forehead, in the same manner as men fix a diamond in a ring; and having used it, she pulled the eye out again, that her sisters might have it; thus they all used it, as there was occasion.

Proteus, his son by the nymph Phoenice, was the keeper of the sea calves. He could convert himself into all sorts of shapes; sometimes he could flow like the water, and sometimes burn like the fire ; sometimes he was a fish, a bird, a lion, or whatever he pleased. Ovid Met. 8.

Nor was this wonderful power enjoyed by Proteus alone; for Vertumnus, one of the gods of the Romans, possessed it; his *name shows it, as we

* Vertumnus dictus est a vertendo