Bulfinch's Mythology: The Age of Fable

Sphinx. Pegasus

. Griffi

l 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 suppos

s 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

SP

d up the child by the feet, and left him hanging to the branch of a tree. Here the infant was found by a herdsman of Polybus, king of Corinth, who was pasturing his flock upon Mount Cithaeron. Polybus and Merope, his wife, adopted the child, whom they called OEdipus, or Swollen-foot, for they had no ch

g in a chariot. On his refusal to leave the way at their command, the attendant killed one of his horses, and the stranger, filled

ndition 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

me 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 OEdipu

AND THE

ed horse Pegasus. Minerva caught and tamed him, and presented him to the Muses. The fo

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 l

t 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 remain

he 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 wing

on in the beginning o the s

Heaven, Urania

art called, wh

ve the Olympi

light of Pe

d by

n of Heavens I

est, and draw

) with like saf

to my nati

flying steed un

though from a

n the Aleian

re to wander,

Thoughts, speaking

nd thought fu

ears, Bellero

tment; he con

bosom reads

ere, imposin

ables; man wa

II.

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 a

asus in Henry IV, where Ve

Harry, with h

his thighs, g

ground like fe

ith such ease

dropped down

wind a fie

orld with noble

CENT

as forming any 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 o

ius 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.

entaurs, and at his death Jupiter placed him a

PY

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 wa

o attack him, as if they were about to attack a city. But the hero awaking laughed at the

ies for a simile, Pa

that Pyg

dian mount, o

t revels by a

some belated

sees), while o

s, and nearer

ourse; they on th

jocund music

y and fear his

FFIN, O

ple 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 wer

ile from the Griffin

I

phon through t

rse, o'er hill

Arimaspian w

wakeful cust

arded