flows, and a noise like the roaring of a bull: and indeed it is common among the poets to compare a river to a bull. This river divided itself into two streams, but Hercules forced it into one channel ; that is, he broke off one of the horns or streams. The lands thus drained became fertile; so that Hercules is said to have received the horn of plenty.

19. Deianira was daughter of Eneus, king of Etolia. Hercules carried her to be married, and in their way they were stopped by a river: but the centaur Nessus offered to carry Deianira over upon his back. Nessus, when she was over, insulted her; which Hercules observing, while he swam, shot him with an arrow. When Nessus was dying, he gave Deianira his bloody coat, and told her, if a husband wore that coat, he would never follow unlawful pursuits. The credulous lady soon after experienced the virtue of it, far otherwise than she expected. For Hercules, who had surmounted so many and so great labours, was at length overcome by the charms of Omphale, queen of Lydia, and, to gratify her, changed his club into a distaff, and his arrows into a spindle. His love also to Iole, daughter of Eurytus, king of Oechalia, brought on him destruction. For his wife Deianira being desirous of turning him from unlawful objects, sent him Nessus' coat to put on when he went to sacrifice; which drove him into such distraction, that he burned himself on the pile he had raised, and was accounted among the number of gods. The lines of Virgil in praise of the hero, shall finish my description.

-"ut prima noverca

Monstra manu, geminosque primus eliserit angues;
Ut bello egregias idem disjecerit urbes,
Trojamque Echaliamque; ut duros mille labores
Rege sub Eurystheo, fatis Junonis iniquæ,
Pertulerit. Tu nubigenas invicte himembres,
Hylæumque, Pholumque, manu; tu Cressia mactas
Prodigia, et vastum Nemeæ sub rupe leonem.

To Stigii tremuere lacus; te janitor Orci,
Ossa super recubans antro semesa cruento.
Nec te ullæ facies, non terruit ipse Typhoeus,
Arduus, arma tenens, non te rationis egentem
Lernæus turba capitum circumstetit anguis.
Salve, vera Jovis proles, decus addite Divis:
Et nos, ef. tua dexter adi pede sacra secundo."

First, how the mighty oabe, when swath'd in bands,
The serpents strangled with his infant hands;
Then, as in years and matchless force he grew,
Th' Echalian walls and Trojan overthrew.
Besides a thousand hazards they relate,
Procur'd by Juno's and Euristheus' hate.
Thy hands, unconquer'd hero! could subdue
The cloud-born centaurs, and the monster crew;
Nor thy resistless arm the bull withstood;
Nor he the roaring terror of the wood.
The triple porter of the Stygian seat,

With lolling tongue, lay fawning at thy feet,
And seiz'd with fear, forgot thy mangled meat.
Th' infernal waters trembled at thy sight;
Thee god! no face of danger could affright;
Not huge Typhoeus, nor th' unnumber'd snakes;
Increas' with hissing heads in Lerna's lake.
Hail, Jove's undoubted son! an added grace
To heav'n, and the great author of thy race.
Receive the grateful off'rings which we pay,
And smile propitious on thy solemn day.

QUESTIONS FOR EXAMINATION.

Who were the Semi-Dei?

What account is given of the heroes?

Who was Hercules?

Who was the twin-brother of Hercules, and for what was be celebrated?

How did Juno act with regard to Hercules?

By whom was she reconciled; and what was the consequence of the reconciliation?

What were the proper names of Hercules; and how did he derive them?

Why was Hercules subject to Euristheus?

Repeat the Latin lines descriptive of Hercules' labours.

What was his first labour?

What was his second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth,

ninth, tenth, eleventh, twelfth ?

What did he do with regard to Antæus?

How did he act with Basiris?

Why did he kill the giants Albion and Bergeon?

What was his conduct with regard to Atlas, Cacus, Prometheus, and Theodamus?

How did he deliver Hesione?

What is the meaning of the fable of Achelous?
What is related of Deianira?

CHAPTER II.

JASON. THESEUS

JASON, the son of Eson, king of Thessalia, by Alcimede, was an infant when his father died, so that his uncle Pelius administered the government.

When he came of age, he demanded possession of the crown; but Pelius advised him to Colchis, under pretence of gaining the golden fleece thence, though his real intention was to kill him with the labour and danger of the journey.

The golden fleece was the hide of a ram, of a white or purple colour, which was given to Phryxus, son of Athamus and Nephele, by his mother. Phryxus and his sister Helle, fearing the designs of their stepmother Ino, got on a ram to save themselves by flight. But while they swam over the narrowest part of Pontus, Helle, affrighted at the tossing of the waves, fell down; whence the sea was called Hellespont. Phryxus was carried over safe; and went to Eta, king of Colchis, a country of Asia, near the Pontus; where he was kindly received, and sacrificed the ram to Jupiter, or Mars, who afterwards placed it among the constellations. Only his hide or fleece was hung up in a grove sacred to Mars. It was called the Golden Fleece, because it was of a golden colour; and it was guarded by bulls that breathed fire from their nostrils, and by a vast and watchful dragon, as a sacred and divine pledge, and as a thing of the greatest importance.

Jason went on board a ship called Argo, from the builder of that name; and chose forty-nine noble companions, who, from the ship, were called Argonautæ, among whom were Hercules, Orpheus, Cas .or, and Pollux. In his voyage, he visited Hipsyphile, queen of Lemnos, who had twins by him. Then, after a long voyage, and many dangers, he arrived at Colchis, and demanded the Golden Fleece of king Æta, who granted his request, on condition that he tamed the bulls which guarded it; killed the dragon, and sowed his teeth in the ground; and lastly, destroyed the soldiers who sprang from the ground where these teeth were sown. Jason undertook the thing, and was delivered from manifest destruction by the assistance of Medea, the king's daughter, who was in love with him. For, observing her directions, he overcame the bulls, laid the dragon asleep, carried away the fleece, and fled by night, carrying Medea with him, whom he afterward married.

Æta pursued them, but his daughter, to stop his pursuit, tore her brother Absyrtus, who went with her, in pieces, and scattered the limbs on the road; that when her father saw the torn members of his son, he might stop to gather them up. So Jason and the Argonautæ returned to their own country, where Medea by her charms restored Jason's father, the old decrepid Eson, to youth again; though some say that Æson died before their return. After this, Jason divorcing himself from Medea, he married Creusa, the daughter of Creon, king of Corinth and Medea, to revenge his perfidiousness, not only murdered the two children that she had by him in his own sight, but, in the next place, enclosed fire in a little box, and sent it to Creusa, who opened the box, and by the fire which burst out of it, was burnt, together with the whole court. When she had done this, the admirable sorceress flew by magic

art to Athens. Some write that she was reconciled afterwards to Jason. But what has been said is enough for this hero; let us proceed to

Theseus, whose parents were Æthra and Ægeus, king of Athens. Minos, king of Crete, made war against Egeus, because the Athenians had dishonourably and barbarously killed his son, who carried the prize in the games. When he had banished the Athenians, he imposed this severe condition upon them, that they should send seven of the most noble youths of their country into Crete by lot every year. In the fourth year the lot fell upon Theseus, which mightily grieved and troubled his father Ægeus. Theseus went on board a ship, whose sails and tackle were black, and received this command from his father: "If by the propitious providence of heaven he escaped the dangers, and did return safe unto his own country again, that then he should change his black sails into white ones, that his father, being assured of his safety by that signal, might be sensible of his happiness as soon as might

be."

The event was fortunate to Theseus; but very unfortunate to his father Ægeus: for when Theseus came to Crete, he was shut up in the Labyrinth; but he slew the Minotaur, and escaped out of that inextricable prison by the help of Ariadne. After this he set sail for Athens in the same mournful ship in which he came to Crete, but forgot to change his sails, according to the instructions which his father had given him; so that, when his father beheld from a watchtower the ship returning with black sails, he imagined that his son was dead, and cast himself headlong into the sea, which was afterward called the Ægean or Black Sea, from his name and destiny.

Ariadne was the daughter of Minos, king of Crete. She having delivered Theseus out of the