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Philome la. The daughter of Pandion, king of Athens; changed into a nightingale.

Phineas. King of Paphlagonia; bad 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.

Phoebus. A title of Apollo.

Ple'iades. Seven daughters of Atlas and Pleione, changed into stars.

Plu'to. The son of Saturn and Ops, brother of Jupiter and Neptune, and the god of the infernal regions. Plu'tus. The god of riches.

Pomo'na. The goddess of fruits and autumn.
Polyhym'nia. The Muse of rhetoric.

Pri'am. 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.

Proserpine. 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.

Psyche. A nymph beloved by Cupid and made immortal by Jupiter.

Pyg'mies. A nation of dwarfs only a span long, carried away by Hercules.

Pyl'ades. The constant friend of Orestes.

Pyr'amus and Thisbe. Two lovers of Babylon, who killed themselves with the same sword, and thus caused

The mis.

The daughter of Coelus and Terra, and

goddess of justice.

Ti'phys. Pilot of the ship Argo.

Tisiph'one. One of the three Furies.

Ti'tan. The son of Cœlus and Terra, elder brother of Saturn, and one of the giants who warred against heaven.

Titho'nus. The son of Laomedon, loved by Aurora, and turned by her, in his old age, into a grasshopper. Tri'ton. The son of Neptune and Amphitrite, a powerful sea god, and Neptune's trumpeter. Tro'ilus. A son of Priam and Hecuba.

Troy. A city of Phrygia, famous for holding out a siege of ten years against the Greeks, but finally captured and destroyed.

Ulys'ses. King of Ithaca, who, by his subtlety and eloquence, was eminently serviceable to the Greeks in the Trojan War. Ura'nia. The Muse of astronomy.

Venus. One of the most celebrated deities of the ancients, the wife of Vulcan, the goddess of beauty, the mother of love, and the mistress of the graces and of pleasures.

Vertum'nus. A deity of the Romans, who presided over spring and orchards, and who was the lover of Pomona.

Ves'ta. The sister of Ceres and Juno, the goddess of fire, and patroness of vestal virgins.

Viri'placa. An inferior nuptial goddess, who reconciled husbands and wives. A temple at Rome was dedithe berries of the mulberry tree, under which they died,cated to her, whither the married couple repaired after to change from white to red. a quarrel. Vulcan. The god who presided over subterraneous fire, patron of workers in metal.

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.

Rhadaman'thus. One of the three infernal judges. Rom'ulus. The son of Mars and 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.

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Sera'pis. See Apis.

Sile'nus. The foster-father, master, and companion of Bacchus. He lived in Arcadia, rode on an ass, and was drunk every day.

Si'rens. Sea nymphs, or sea monsters, the daughters of Oceanus and Amphitrite.

Sisyphus. The son of Eolus; a most crafty prince, killed by Theseus, and condemned by Pluto to roll up hill a large stone, which constantly fell back again. Sol. A name of Apollo.

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 heen as strong and as loud as the voices of fifty men together.

Sthe'no. One of the three Gorgons.

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.

Tartarus. The part of the infernal regions in which the wicked were punished.

Taurus. The bull under whose form Jupiter carried away Europa.

Telem'achus. The only son of Ulysses.

Terpsich'ore. The Muse presiding over dancing.

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Zeph'yrus. The west wind, son of Æolus and Aurora, and fover of the goddess Flora. Zeus. A title of Jupiter.

LEGEND AND FOLKLORE.

The eccentricities of traditional story and traditionary practice have always been found a more or less interesting and amusing study by the contemplative observer of human nature; and almost all travelers and historians, from Herodotus downward, have occasionally condescended to add something to the general collection of curiosities in that department. But to make a thorough investigation of the "vulgar antiquities' of any country, and especially of one's own, was, until very recently, regarded as childish and useless. An exception, indeed, has been made in favor of the folklores of ancient Greece and Rome, as being intrinsically beautiful and exceptionally instructive. But the very fact that these had been beautified by artistic treatment impaired their usefulness from the purely antiquarian point of view; and in any case the floating traditions of Attica and Latium were too few, too fragmentary, and gathered from too narrow an area to furnish adequate data for the anthropologist and the sociologist.

It was in Germany that the study of folklore entered upon its scientific stage, and indeed that country has been most prolific in curious oral traditions and unwritten customs. Every custom has an instructive history if we can but succeed in interpreting its lore.

Orion was a giant hunter, noted for his beauty.
Puck and Robin Goodfellow are identical myths.
Ogri, The, were giants said to feed on human flesh.
Toadstool, The, is called in Ireland the fairy's mush-

room.

Loki was the god of strife and evil in Scandinavian mythology.

Jupiter chose the eagle as the best preservative against lightning.

Apotheosis was the deification or raising of a mortal to the rank of a god.

Oak, The, is sacred to Jupiter because he first taught mankind to live upon acorns.

Goat, The, was the animal usually sacrificed to Bacchus, on account of its propensity to destroy the vine. Gypsies, The, are said to be wanderers because they refused shelter to the Virgin and Christ-child on the flight into Egypt.

Valkyri, in the northern mythology, are either nine or three times three divine maidens, who cleave their way through air and water to lead to Odin those who have fallen in battle and who are worthy of Valhalla.

Dagon, the national god of the Philistines, half man and half fish, is mentioned in the Old Testament as having temples at Gaza and Ashdod, Several names of places prove that the worship of Dagon existed also in other parts of Palestine.

traced further to the lares or hearth spirits of the ancients. The Russian Domovoy lives behind the stove, and in some families a portion of the supper is always set aside for him; for if he is neglected he waxes wroth and knocks the tables and benches about at night. Astral Spirits are the supposed spirits which per- Spirits with similar functions elsewhere, are the Lithuvade the stars, each star having its own spirit or soul.anian kanka, the Finnish paara, and the French lutin. Paracelsus thought that every human being had an astral spirit; hence the influence of one's particular star on his life.

This

Star Legends. In Galicia, the province northeast of Hungary, the peasants believe that when a star falls to earth, it is at once transformed into a rarely beautiful Wehr-wolf. According to the ancient German woman with long hair, blonde and glittering. superstition, the Wehr-wolf was a man-wolf, who had splendid creature, miraculously engendered, exercises the form of a man by day and a wolf by night. Lycan-on all who come in contact with her a magical influence. thropy, or wolf-madness, was prevalent in Europe, and Every handsome youth unfortunate enough to attract especially in Germany, in the fourteenth and fifteenth her attention becomes her victim. Thus having allured centuries. them to her, she encircles them with her arm in an enCornucopia,the horn or symbol of plenty, is placed in, brace that becomes gradually tighter and tighter, until the hands of emblematical figures of Plenty, Liberality, the poor dupes are strangled to death. If certain words and the like, who are represented as pouring from it an are murmured the moment the star starts to fall, they abundance of fruits or corn. It is frequently used in cause her allurements to lose their power. From this architecture, sculpture, and heraldry. superstition springs the custom of wishing while a star is seen hurrying through the air, a wish said surely to come true if completely formulated before the light is extinguished. The Spaniards saw in the falling stars the souls of their dead friends, the thread of whose existence was cut short by destiny. The Arabs thought these stars to be burning stones thrown by angels at the heads of devils who attempted to enter Paradise. Valhalla is the place of residence for the fallen in battle, in Scandinavian mythology. The name Valhalla was given to a magnificent marble structure of nearly the same proportions as the Parthenon, erected by Lucwig I., of Bavaria (1830-41), as a Temple of Fame for all Germany, on an eminence two hundred and fifty feet above tlie Danube, near Ratisbon. By means of statues. busts, reliefs, and tablets, the mythology and history of Germany are illustrated and her great names commemorated.

Idris, a mythical figure in Welsh tradition, supposed to have been at once a giant, a prince, and an astronomer. On the summit of Cader Idris in Merionethshire, may be seen his rock-hewn chair, and an ancient tradition told that any Welsh bard who could pass the night upon it would be found the next morning, either dead, mad, or endowed with supernatural poetic inspiration. This tradition forms the subject of a fine poem by Mrs. Hemans; the gigantic size of the chair is alluded to in Tennyson's "Geraint and Enid."

Griffin, The, is a chimerical creature, and first mentioned by Aristeas about 500 B. C. The griffin is variously described and represented, but the shape in which it most frequently appears is that of a cross between a lion and an eagle, having the body and legs of the former, with the beak and wings of the latter, and the addition of pointed ears. Sometimes the four legs are all like those of an eagle, and the head is that of a cock. The figure seems to have originated in the East, as it is found in ancient Persian sculptures. Among the Greeks it appears on antique coins, and as an ornament in classical architecture.

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Thule was the name given by ancient Greeks and Romans to the most remote northern portion of the world then known. Whether an island or part of a continent, is not known. It is mentioned by Pytheas. the Greek navigator, who says it is six days' sail from Britain, and that its climate is a mixture of earth, air, and sea. Ptolemy, with more exactitude, tells us that the sixty-three degrees of north latitude runs through the middle of Thule, and adds that the days there are, at the equinoctials, twenty-four hours long.

Nectar is the name given by Homer, Hesiod, Pindar, and the Greek poets generally, and by the Romans, to the beverage of the gods, their food being called ambrosia. But Sappho and Aleman make nectar the food of the gods, and ambrosia their drink. Homer describes nectar as resembling red wine, and represents its continued use as causing immortality. By the later poets, nectar and ambrosia are represented as of most delicious odor; and sprinkling with nectar, or anointing with ambrosia, is spoken of as conferring perpetual youth, and they are assumed as the symbols of every-ental. thing most delicious to the taste.

Vishnu is the second god of the Hindu triad, now the most worshiped of all Hindu gods. Originally, in the oldest Vedas, a sun-god, he gradually increased in influ- | ence at the expense of other gods, and in the later Purana, is the supreme god. Always a friendly god, he became specially the friend and benefactor of man in his avatars or incarnations. The Vishnuite doctrines were gathered into one body in the eleventh century, as the Vishnu-Purana. Of twenty principal sects, votaries of Vishnu, and one hundred minor brotherhoods, some are merely local, others are wealthy bodies and widespread.

Damon and Pythias, two noble Pythagoreans of Syracuse, are remembered as the models of faithful friendship. Pythias, having been condemned to death by the elder Dionysius, the tyrant of Syracuse, begged to be allowed to go home for the purpose of arranging his domestic affairs, Damon pledging his own life for the reappearance of his friend at the time appointed for his doom. Dionysius consented, and Pythias returned just in time to save Damon from death. Struck by so noble an example of mutual affection, the tyrant pardoned Pythias, and desired to be admitted into their sacred fellowship.

Brownie, a very engaging though mythical creature of the Scottish rural districts, is believed to assist in housework at night. The brownie is good tempered and industrious, but has a great objection to slovenliness, and marks his sense of neglect by pinching slatternly maids. Good housewives leave out a bowl of milk for him. If the farm changed hands the brownie usually left, which may explain why there are none now. The resemblance of the Scotch brownie to the Robin Goodfellow of the English and the Kobold of the German folklore is obvious, but perhaps they may be

Amulet is any object worn as a charm. It is often a stone or a piece of metal, with an inscription or some figures engraved on it, and is generally suspended from the neck, and worn as a preservative against sickness or witchcraft. Its origin, like its name, seems to be ori

Cockatrice, The, is a fabulous monster, often confounded with the basilisk, and regarded as possessing similar deadly powers. To the charms of the basilisk is added a dragon's tail armed with a sting; and it shared also the power of destroying, by a glance, so often referred to in Shakespeare, and other early writers.

Cuneiform is a term descriptive of a form of writing of which the component parts resemble a wedge. It was used by the peoples of Babylonia, Assyria, and other ancient nations, and was inscribed upon stone, bronze, iron, glass, and clay. It was not until the seventeenth century that the wedge-shaped characters were pected to be other than idle fancies of the architects.

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Arthur's Round Table contained seats for one hundred and fifty knights. Three were reserved; two for honor, and one (called the siege perilous) for Sir Galahad, destined to achieve the quest of the Sangreal. If anyone else attempted to sit in it, his death was the certain penalty.

Undines, The, according to the fanciful system of Paracelsis, were female water sprites. They intermarry readily with human beings, and the Undine who gives birth to a child under such a union receives, with her babe, a human soul. But the man who takes an Undine to wife must be careful not to go on the water with her, or at least must not vex her while there, or she returns to her native element.

Isis was an Egyptian goddess. The deities of ancient Egypt might be male or female, but in neither case could the Egyptian worshiper conceive a deity as existing in isolation; to every deity of either sex there must be a counterpart of the other sex. It was to this notion that the goddess Isis owed her origin; she was the counterpart of Osiris, and this fact is expressed in the statement that she was at once wife and sister of Osiris.

OUTLINES OF HISTORY.

CHRONOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL TABULATIONS DESIGNED FOR READY REFERENCE.

Prehistoric Ages.—Sir J. Lubbock distinguishes four prehistoric ages, as follows: 1. The Paleolithic or Early Stone Age. 2. The Neolithic or Polished Stone Age. 3. The Bronze Age. 4. The Iron Age. In the Stone Age man knew nothing of pottery or agriculture and had no domestic animals except the dog. In the Bronze Age arms and cutting instruments were made of bronze. In the Iron Age bronze was superseded by iron.

B.C.

2350

The Deluge.

FROM THE DELUGE TO THE TIME OF CYRUS

2200 (circa). Hia dynasty founded in China.

1996. Birth of Abraham. 1921. Call of Abraham. 1896. Isaac born. 1837. Jacob and Esau born. 1822. Egyptian alphabet invented. 1729. Joseph sold into Egypt. 1706. Jacob removes into Egypt. 1700. Rameses, King of Egypt. 1618. Sesostris, King of Egypt.

1582. Beginning of the chronology of the Arundelian marbles, brought to England A.D. 1627.
1574. Moses born. 1571. Aaron born.

1491. The Exodus. The Law given from Sinai. 1451. Moses and Aaron die.
1451. Joshua leads the Israelites into Canaan.

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