Of course the prophetic character may easily enough have been a mere additional assumption, the time of occurrence of distant events being apt to be confused with the time of hearing of them. In the popular mind everywhere the mystery of death, and the instinctive human longing to believe in a continuity of conscious spiritual life and sympathy, have generated a belief in the probability of an appearance coinciding with, or soon succeeding, the death of an individual; and from this the step is easy to a belief in the possibility of similar appearances before death, in order to foreshadow or forewarn. OLYMPIAN DEITIES AND HEROES. ACHA TES. The trusty friend of Æneas. ACHILLES. A Greek who signalized him- ADO NIS. A beautiful youth beloved by ÆGE US. A king of Athens, giving name to the Agean Sea by drowning himself in it. GIS. A shield given by Jupiter to Minerva. Also the name of a Gorgon whom Pallas slew. ENE AS. A Trojan prince, son of Anchises and Venus; the heroe of Virgil's poem, the " "Eneid." Æ OLUS. The god of the winds. ÆSCULA PIUS. The god of medicine and the son of Apollo. Killed by Jupiter with a thunderbolt for having restored Hippolytus to life. AGAMEM NON. King of Mycenæ and Ar- A JAX. Next to Achilles, the bravest of all AMPHITRITE. Goddess of the sea and ANDROM ACHE. Wife of Hector. and exposed to a sea monster, but was rescued and married by Perseus. ANTIG ONE. The daughter of Edipus and Jocasta, famous for her filial piety. A PIS. Son of Jupiter and Niobe; called also Serapis and Osiris. Taught the Egyptians to sow corn and plant vines, and worshipped by them in the form of an ox. APOLLO. The son of Jupiter and Latona, and the god of music, poetry, eloquence, medicine and the fine arts. ARACH'NE. A Lydian princess, turned into a spider for contending with Minerva at spinning. ARETHU SA. One of Diana's nymphs, who was changed into a fountain. AR GUS. The son of Aristor; said to have had a hundred eyes; but being killed by Mercury when appointed by Juno to guard Io, she a peacock. put his eyes on the tail of the ship Argo. an architect, who built ARIAD NE. The daughter of Minos, who, from love to Theseus, gave him a clew of thread to guide him out of the Cretan labyrinth; being afterward deserted by him, she was married to Bacchus and made his priestess. ARION. A lyric poet of Methymna, who, ATALANTA. A princess of Scyros, who BELLER OPHON. The son of Glaucus, king BELLO NA. Goddess of war; sister of BERENICE. A Grecian lady; the only per- BOREAS. The son of Astræus and Aurora; | CAD'MUS. The son of Agenor, king of CADU CEUS. Mercury's golden rod or CALYP'SO. One of the Oceanides, who A daughter of Priam and CER BERUS. The three-headed dog of Pluto, CHARYB'DIS. A ravenous woman, turned CHI MERA. A strange monster of Lycia, CROCUS. A young man enamored of the CRE SUS. King of Lydia; the richest man CU'PID. Son of Mars and Venus; the god The daughter of Coelus and Terra; wife of Saturn and mother of the gods. CYCLOPS. Vulcan's workmen, giants who had only one eye in the middle of their foreheads; slain by Apollo in a pique against Jupiter. DÆD'ALUS. A most ingenious artificer of Athens, who formed the Cretan labyrinth and invented the auger, axe, glue, plumb-line, saw, and masts and sails for ships. DANA'IDES, or BE LIDES. The fifty daughters of Danaus, king of Argos, all of whom, except Hypermnestra, killed their husbands on the first night of their marriage, and were therefore doomed to draw water out of a deep well and eternally pour it into a cask full of holes. DAPH'NE. A nymph beloved by Apollo, the daughter of the River Peneus, changed into a laurel tree. DAPH NIS. A shepherd of Sicily and son DEJANI RA. Wife of Hercules, who killed DIAN'A. Daughter of Jupiter and Latona DI DO. Founder and queen of Carthage; daughter of Belus and wife of Sichæus. According to Virgil, she entertained Æneas on his voyage to Italy, and burnt herself through despair because he left her. DIOME DES. Son of Tydeus and king of DRY ADES. Nymphs of the woods. ELECTRA. Daughter of Agamemnon and ENCEL ADUS. Son of Titan and Terra and the strongest of the giants; conspired against Jupiter and attempted to scale heayen. ENDYM ION. A shepherd and astronomer ER EBUS. The son of Chaos and Nox; an A Peloponnesian chief in the Trojan war. Also a Trojan and a friend of Nisus, for whose loss Æneas was inconsolable. EURYD ICE. Wife of Orpheus; killed by a serpent on her marriage day. EVAD NE. Daughter of Mars and Thebe; threw herself on the funeral pyre of her husband, Cataneus. FATES. Powerful goddesses, who presided over the birth and the life of mankind, were the three daughters of Nox and Erebus, named Clotho, Lachesis and Atropos. Clotho was supposed to hold the distaff, Lachesis to draw the thread of human life, and Atropos to cut it off. FAUNI. Rural gods, described as having the legs, feet and ears of goats. FAU NUS. Son of Mercury and Nox and father of the Fauni. FLO RA. The goddess of flowers. FORTUNA. The goddess of fortune; said to be blind. FURIES. The three daughters of Nox and Acheron, named Alecto, Tisiphone and Megæra, with hair composed of snakes, and armed with whips, chains, etc. GALATE A. A sea-nymph, daughter of Nereus and Doris, passionately loved by Polyphemus. GAN YMEDE. The son of Tros, king of Troy, whom Jupiter, in the form of an eagle, snatched np and made his cup bearer. GOR DIUS. A husbandman, but afterward king of Phrygia, remarkable for tying a knot of cords, on which the empire of Asia depended, in so intricate a manner that Alexander, unable to unravel it, cut it asunder. GOR GONS. The three daughters of Phorcus and Ceta, named Stheno, Euryale and Medusa. Their bodies were covered with impenetrable scales, their hair entwined with serpents; they had only one eye betwixt them, and they could change into stones those whom they looked on. GRA CES. Three goddesses, Aglaia, Thalia and Euphrosyne, represented as beautiful, modest virgins, and constant attend ants on Venus. HAR PIES. Winged monsters, daughters of Neptune and Terra, named Aello, Celæno and Ocypete, with the faces of virgins, the bodies of vultures and hands armed with claws. HE BE. The daughter of Juno; goddess of youth and Jupiter's cup-bearer; banished from heaven on account of an unlucky fall. HECTOR. The son of Priam and Hecuba; the most valiant of the Trojans, and slain by Achilles. HEC UBA. The wife of Priam, who tore her eyes out for the loss of her children. HELENA, or HEL EN. The wife of Menelæus and the most beautiful woman of her age, who, running away with Paris, occasioned the Trojan war. HER CULES. The son of Jupiter and Alcmena; the most famous hero of antiquity, remarkable for his great strength and numerous exploits. HERMI ONE. The daughter of Mars and Venus and wife of Cadmus; was changed into a serpent. Also, a daughter of Mene- | læus and Helena, married to Pyrrhus. HERO. A beautiful woman of Sestos, in Thrace, and priestess of Venus, whom Leander of Abydos loved so tenderly that he swam over the Hellespont every night to see her; but he, at length, being unfortunately drowned, she threw herself, in despair, into the sea. HESPER IDES. Three nymphs, Ægle, Arethusa and Hesperethusa, daughters of Hesperus. They had a garden bearing golden apples, watched by a dragon, which Hercules slew and bore away the fruit. HES'PERUS. The son of Japetus and brother to Atlas; changed into the evening star. HYACINTHUS. A beautiful boy, beloved by Apollo and Zephyrus. The latter killed him, but Apollo changed the blood that was spilt into a flower called hyacinth. HY ADES. Seven daughters of Atlas and Æthra, changed by Jupiter into seven A celebrated monster, or serpent, with seven, or, according to some, fifty heads, which infested the Lake Lerna. It was killed by Hercules. HY MEN. Son of Bacchus and Venus, and god of marriage. 'stars. HY DRA. HYPERION. Son of Coelus and Terra. ICA RIUS. Son of Ebalus; having received from Bacchus a bottle of wine, he went into Attica to show men the use of it, but was thrown into a well by some shepherds whom he had made drunk, and who thought he had given them poison. ICARUS. The son of Dædalus, who, flying with his father out of Crete into Sicily and soaring too high, melted the wax of his wings and fell into the sea, thence called the Icarian sea. I'o. The daughter of Inachus, turned by Jupiter into a white heifer, but afterward resumed her former shape; was worshipped after her death by the Egyptians under the name of Isis. IPHIGENI A. The daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, who, standing ready as a victim to be sacrificed to appease the ire of Diana, was by that goddess transformed into a white hart and made a priestess. I'RIS. The daughter of Thumas and Electra; one of the Oceanides and messenger and companion of Juno, who turned her into a rainbow. IXION. A king of Thessaly and father of the Centaurs. He killed his own sister, and was punished by being fastened in hell to a wheel perpetually turning. JA NUS. The son of Apollo and Creusa and first king of Italy, who, receiving the banished Saturn, was rewarded by him with the knowledge of husbandry and of things past and future. JA'SON. The leader of the Argonauts, who, with Medea's help, obtained the golden fleece from Colchis. JU'NO. The daughter of Saturn and Ops; sister and wife of Jupiter, the great queen of heaven and of all the gods, and goddess of marriages and births. JUPITER, OF ZEUS. The son of Saturn and Ops; the supreme deity of the heathen world, the most powerful of the gods and governor of all things. LAOC ́OON. A son of Priam and Hecuba and high priest of Apollo, who opposed the reception of the wooden horse into Troy, for which he and his two sons were killed by serpents. LAOM EDON. A king of Troy, killed by Hercules for denying him his daughter Hesione after he had delivered her from the sea-monster. LA'RES. Inferior gods at Rome, who presided over houses and families; sons of Mercury and Lara. LE THE. A river of hell whose waters caused a total forgetfulness of things past. LUCIFER. The name of the planet Venus, or morning star; said to be the son of Jupiter and Aurora. LUNA. The moon; the daughter of Hyperion and Terra. LUPER CALIA. Feasts in honor of Pan. MEDE'A. The daughter of Etes and a wonderful sorceress or magician; she assisted Jason to obtain the golden fleece. MEM NON. The son of Tithonus and Aurora and king of Abydon; killed by Achilles for assisting Príam, and changed | into a bird at the request of his mother. MENELA US. The son of Atreus, king of Sparta; brother of Agamemnon and husband of Helen. MEN TOR. The faithful friend of Ulysses, the governor of Telemachus, and the wisest man of his time. MERCURY, or HERMES. The son of Jupiter and Maia; messenger of the gods, inventor of letters, and god of eloquence, commerce and robbers. MI DAS. A king of Phrygia, who had the power given him of turning whatever he touched into gold. MINER VA, or PALLAS. The goddess of wisdom, the arts, and war; produced from Jupiter's brain. MIN OTAUR. A celebrated monster, half man and half bull. MNEMOS YNE. The goddess of memory, and mother of the nine Muses. MO MUS. The son of Nox and god of folly and pleasantry. MOR PHEUS. The minister of Nox and Somnus, and god of sleep and dreams. MU SES. Nine daughters of Jupiter and Mnemosyne, named Calliope, Clio, Erato, Euterpe, Melpomene, Polyhymnia, Terpsichore, Thalia and Urania. They were mistresses of all the sciences and governesses of the feasts of the gods. MU TA. Goddess of silence. NA IADES. Nymphs of streams and fountains. NARCIS SUS. A beautiful youth, who, falling in love with his own reflection in the water, pined away into a daffodil. NEM ESIS. One of the infernal deities and goddess of revenge. NEPTUNE. The son of Saturn and Ops; god of the sea and, next to Jupiter, the most powerful deity. He NES'TOR. The son of Neleus and Chloris and king of Pylos and Messenia. fought against the Centaurs, was distinguished in the Trojan war, and lived to a great age. NI'OBE. Daughter of Tantalus and wife of Amphion, who, preferring herself to Latona, had her fourteen children killed by Diana and Apollo, and wept herself into a stone. Nox. The most ancient of all the deities and goddess of night. OCEAN'IDES. Sea-nymphs, daughters of Oceanus; three thousand in number. OCEANUS. An ancient sea-god. CEDIPUS. King of Thebes, who solved the riddle of the Sphinx, unwittingly killed his father, married his mother, and at last ran mad and tore out his eyes. OM PHALE. A queen of Lydia, with whom Hercules was so enamored that he submitted to spinning and other unbecoming offices. ORES TES. The son of Agamemnon. OR PHEUS. A celebrated Argonaut, whose skill in music is said to have been so great that he could make rocks, trees, etc., follow him. He was the son of Jupiter and Calliope. PALLADIUM. A statue of Minerva, which the Trojans imagined fell from heaven, and with which their city was deemed unconquerable. PAN. The son of Mercury and the god of shepherds, huntsmen and the inhabitants of the country. PANDO'RA. The first woman, made by Vulcan, and endowed with gifts by all the deities. Jupiter gave her a box which contained all the evils and miseries of life, but with hope at the bottom. PARIS, or ALEXANDER. Son of Priam and Hecuba; a most beautiful youth, who ran away with Helen, and thus occasioned the Trojan war. PARNAS'SUS. A mountain of Phocis famous for a temple of Apollo; the favorite residence of the Muses. PEGASUS. A winged horse belonging to Apollo and the Muses, which sprang from the blood of Medusa when Perseus cut off her head. PENA TES. Small statues, or household gods. PENEL'OPE. A celebrated princess of Greece, daughter of Icarus and wife of Ulysses; celebrated for her chastity and constancy in the long absence of her husband. PER SEUS. Son of Jupiter and Danaë; performed many extraordinary exploits by means of Medusa's head. PHA ETON. Son of Sol (Apollo) and Climene. He asked the guidance of his father's chariot for one day as a proof of his divine descent; but, unable to manage the horses, set the world on fire, and was therefore struck by Jupiter with a thunderbolt into the River Po. PHILOME LA. The daughter of Pandion, king of Athens; changed into a nightingale. PHINEAS. King of Paphlagonia; had his eyes torn out by Boreas, but was recompensed with the knowledge of futurity. Also, a king of Thrace, turned into a stone by Perseus. PRIAM. The last king of Troy, the son of Laomedon, under whose reign Troy was taken by the Greeks. PROMETHEUS. The son of Japetus; said to have stolen fire from heaven to animate two bodies which he had formed of clay, and was therefore chained by Jupiter to Mount Caucasus, with a vulture perpetually gnawing his liver. PROS ERPINE. Wife of Pluto. PROTEUS. The son of Oceanus and Tethys; a sea-god and prophet, who possessed the power of changing himself into any shape. PSY CHE. A nymph beloved by Cupid and made immortal by Jupiter. PYG MIES. A nation of dwarfs only a span long, carried away by Hercules. PYR AMUS and THISBE. Two lovers of Babylon, who killed themselves with the same sword, and thus caused the berriesof the mulberry tree, under which they died, to change from white to red. PYTHON A huge serpent, produced from the mud of the deluge; killed by Apollo, who, in memory thereof, instituted the Pythian games. RE MUS. The elder brother of Romulus, killed by him for ridiculing the city walls. ROM ULUS. The son of Mars Ilia; thrown into the Tiber by his uncle, but saved, with his twin brother, Remus, by a shepherd; became the founder and first king of Rome. SATURN. A son of Cœlus and Terra; god of time. SAT YRS. Attendants of Bacchus; horned monsters, half goats, half men. SEMIR AMIS. A celebrated queen of Assyria, who built the walls of Babylon; was slain by her own son Ninyas and turned into a pigeon. SILE NUS. The foster-father, master and companion of Bacchus. He lived in Arcadia, rode on an ass and was drunk every day. SIRENS. Sea-nymphs, or sea-monsters, 1 the daughters of Oceanus and Amphitrite. SIS YPHUS. The son of Aolus; a most crafty prince, killed by Theseus and condemned by Pluto to roll up hill a large stone, which constantly fell back again. SOM NUS. The son of Erebus and Nox and the god of sleep. SPHINX. A monster who destroyed herself because Edipus solved the enigma she proposed. STEN TOR. A Grecian whose voice is reported to have been as strong and as loud as the voices of fifty men together. STYX. A river of hell. SYLVANUS. A god of woods and forests. TA CITA. A goddess of silence. TAN TALUS. The son of Jupiter and king of Lydia, who served up the limbs of his son Pelops to try the divinity of the gods, for which he was plunged to the chin in a lake of hell and doomed to everlasting thirst and hunger. TAR TARUS. The part of the infernal regions in which the wicked were punished. TAU RUS. The bull under whose form Jupiter carried away Europa. TELEM ACHUS. The only son of Ulysses.' TITAN. The son of Coelus and Terra, elder brother of Saturn and one of the giants who warred against heaven. TRITON. The son of Neptune and Amphitrite, a powerful sea-god and Neptune's trumpeter. TROY. A city of Phrygia, famous for holding out a siege of ten years against the Greeks, but finally captured and destroyed. ULYSSES. King of Ithaca, who, by his subtlety and eloquence, was eminently serviceable to the Greeks in the Trojan war. ELYSIUM AND HADES. Elysium, among the Greeks and Romans, was the regions inhabited by the blessed after death. They are placed by Homer at the extremities of the earth, by Plato at the antipodes, and by others in the Fortunate Islands (the Canaries). They were at last transferred to the interior of the earth, which is Virgil's notion. The happiness of the blessed consisted in a life of tranquil enjoyment in a perfect summer land, where the heroes, freed from all care and infirmities, renewed their favorite sports. Hades was originally the Greek name of the lord of the lower or invisible world, afterwards called Pluto; but in later times, as in the Greek Scriptures, it is applied to the region itself. With the ancients Hades was the common receptacle of departed spirits. |