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god would have stopped her as she spake, but she was too quick for him. The words escaped, and he could neither unsay his promise nor her request. In deep distress he left her and returned to the upper regions. There he clothed himself in his splendors, not putting on all his terrors, as when he overthrew the giants, but what is known among the gods as his lesser panoply. With thunders and lightnings he entered the chamber of Semele. Her mortal frame could not endure the splendors of the immortal radiance. She was consumed to ashes.70 Her son was the god Bacchus.71 Semele, in the blissful seats of Heaven, whither she was transported by the sorrowful Jove, has been represented as recounting thus the story of her doom:

      What were the garden-bowers of Thebes to me?

      What cared I for their dances and their feasts,

      Whose heart awaited an immortal doom?

      The Greek youths mocked me, since I shunned in scorn

      Them and their praises of my brows and hair.

      The light girls pointed after me, who turned

      Soul-sick from their unending fooleries…

      There came a change: a glory fell to me.

      No more 'twas Semele, the lonely girl,

      But Jupiter's Beloved, Semele.

      With human arms the god came clasping me:

      New life streamed from his presence; and a voice,

      That scarce could curb itself to the smooth Greek,

      Now and anon swept forth in those deep nights,

      Thrilling my flesh with awe; mysterious words —

      I knew not what; hints of unearthly things

      That I had felt on solemn summer noons,

      When sleeping Earth dreamed music, and the heart

      Went crooning a low song it could not learn,

      But wandered over it, as one who gropes

      For a forgotten chord upon a lyre.

      Yea, Jupiter! But why this mortal guise,

      Wooing as if he were a milk-faced boy?

      Did I lack lovers? Was my beauty dulled,

      The golden hair turned dross, the lithe limbs shrunk?

      The deathless longings tamed, that I should seethe

      My soul in love like any shepherd girl?

      One night he sware to grant whate'er I asked:

      And straight I cried, "To know thee as thou art!

      To hold thee on my heart as Juno does!

      Come in thy thunder – kill me with one fierce

      Divine embrace! – Thine oath! – Now, Earth, at last!"

      The Heavens shot one swift sheet of lurid flame;

      The world crashed: from a body scathed and torn

      The soul leapt through, and found his breast, and died.

      Died? – So the Theban maidens think, and laugh,

      Saying, "She had her wish, that Semele!"

      But sitting here upon Olympus' height,

      I look down, through that oval ring of stars,

      And see the far-off Earth, a twinkling speck —

      Dust-mote whirled up from the Sun's chariot wheel —

      And pity their small hearts that hold a man

      As if he were a god; or know the god —

      Or dare to know him – only as a man!

      O human love! art thou forever blind?72

       61. Ægina. The extent to which those who were concerned only indirectly in Jupiter's love affairs might yet be involved in the consequences of them is illustrated by the fortunes of Ægina. This maiden, the daughter of Asopus, a river-god, attracted the attention of Jupiter, who straightway ran off with her. Now, on the one hand, Sisyphus, king of Corinth, having witnessed the intrigue, was indiscreet enough to disclose it. Forthwith the vengeance of the king of gods and men fell upon him. He was condemned to Hades and, attempting to escape thence, had resort to a series of deceptions that resulted in his eternal punishment.73 On the other hand, the inhabitants of the island that had the misfortune to bear Ægina's name incurred the displeasure of Juno, who devastated their land with a plague. The following account of this calamity is placed in the mouth of Æacus, king of the island:74

      "At the beginning the sky seemed to settle down upon the earth and thick clouds shut in the heated air. For four months together a deadly south wind prevailed. The disorder affected the wells and springs. Thousands of snakes crept over the land and shed their poison in the fountains. The force of the disease was first spent on the lower animals, – dogs, cattle, sheep, and birds. The oxen fell in the midst of their work. The wool dropped from the bleating sheep. The horse groaned at his stall and died an inglorious death. Everything languished; dead bodies lay in the roads, the fields, and the woods; the air was poisoned by them. Next the disease attacked the country people, and then the dwellers in the city. At first the cheek was flushed and the breath drawn with difficulty. The tongue grew rough and swelled, and the dry mouth stood open, with its veins enlarged, and gasped for the air. Men could not bear the heat of their clothes or their beds, but preferred to lie on the bare ground. Nor could the physicians help, for the disease attacked them also. At last men learned to look upon death as the only deliverer from disease. All restraint laid aside, they crowded round the wells and fountains, and drank, without quenching thirst, till they died. On all sides lay my people strewn like over-ripened apples beneath the tree, or acorns under the storm-shaken oak. You see yonder a temple on the height. It is sacred to Jupiter. Often, while the priest made ready for sacrifice, the victim fell, struck down by disease without waiting for the blow. At length all reverence for sacred things was lost. Bodies were thrown out unburied, wood was wanting for funeral piles, men fought with one another for the possession of them. Finally there were none left to mourn; sons and husbands, old men and youths, perished alike unlamented.

      FARNESE BULL

      "Standing before the altar, I raised my eyes to Heaven. 'O Jupiter,' I said, 'if thou art indeed my father, give me back my people, or take me also away!' At these words a clap of thunder was heard. 'I accept the omen,' I cried. By chance there grew by the place where I stood an oak with wide-spreading branches, sacred to Jupiter. I observed on it a troop of ants busy with their labor. Observing their numbers with admiration, I said, 'Give me, O father, citizens as numerous as these, and replenish my empty city.' The tree shook, and the branches rustled, though no wind agitated them. Night came on. The tree stood before me in my dreams, with its numerous branches all covered with living, moving creatures, which, falling to the ground, appeared to gain in size, and by and by to stand erect, and finally to assume the human form. Then I awoke. My attention was caught by the sound of many voices without. While I began to think I was yet dreaming, Telamon, my son, throwing open the temple gates, exclaimed, 'Father, approach, and behold things surpassing even your hopes!' I went forth; I saw a multitude of men, such as I had seen in my dream. While I gazed with wonder and delight, they approached and, kneeling, hailed me as their king. I paid my vows to Jove, and proceeded to allot the vacant city to the new-born race. I called them Myrmidons from the ant (myrmex), from which they sprang. They are a diligent and industrious race, eager to gain, and tenacious of their gains."

      The Myrmidons were the soldiers of Achilles, the grandson of King Æacus, in the Trojan War.

       62. Antiope was, according to the Odyssey, another daughter of Asopus, therefore a sister of Ægina. But later poets make this darling of Jove daughter of Nycteus, king of Thebes. While she

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