friend Theseus. His tenth exploit was to seize the oxen belonging to the monster Geryon, king of Gades; they were guarded by the king himself, a dragon with seven heads, and a dog with two: Hercules killed them all, and carried the oxen to Argos. His eleventh achievement was to obtain some of the golden apples from the garden of the Hesperides; they were watched by a dragon which never slept; Hercules, however, slew him, and brought away the spoils. His last, and most arduous task, was to bring Cerberus, the triple-headed dog of Pluto, up to earth; he effected this, and after having shewn him to Eurystheus, restored him to the infernal regions. Hercules married Omphale and Dejanira: his death was caused by his wearing a poisoned robe, given by the centaur, Nessus, to the latter, who sent it to Hercules from motives of jealousy. After his death he was taken by Jupiter to Olympus, and placed among the gods; his worship soon became universal, and his temples were much frequented. Hercules is usually represented as a robust man, clad in the skin of the Nemean lion, and leaning upon his club.

Hercules thus pathetically deprecates the vengeance of Juno, when the poisoned vesture begins to take effect :—

Then, lifting both his hands aloft, he cries,

"Glut thy revenge, dread empress of the skies;

Sate with my death the rancour of thy heart,
Look down with pleasure, and enjoy my smart;
Or, if e'er pity moved a hostile breast,
(For here I stand thy enemy profest),

Take hence this hateful life, with tortures torn,
Inured to trouble, and to labours born.
Death is the gift most welcome to my woe,
And such a gift a step-dame may bestow.

Was it for this Busiris was subdued,

Whose barb'rous temples reeked with strangers' blood?
Pressed in these arms, his fate Antæus found,

Nor gained recruited vigour from the ground.
Did I not triple-formed Geryon fell ?

Or, did I fear the triple dog of hell?

Did not these hands the bull's armed forehead hold?
Are not our mighty toils in Elis told?

Do not Stymphalian lakes proclaim my fame?
And fair Parthenian woods resound my name?
Who seized the golden belt of Thermodon?
And who the dragon-guarded apples won?

Could the fierce centaur's strength my force withstand?
Or the fell boar that spoiled th' Arcadian land?

Did not these arms the Hydra's rage subdue,
Who from his wounds to double fury grew?
What, if the Thracian horses, fat with gore,
Who human bodies in their mangers tore,

I saw, and, with their barb'rous lord, o'erthrew ?
What if these hands Nemæa's lion slew?

;

Did not this neck the heavenly globe sustain?
The female partner of the Thund❜rer's reign,
Fatigued at length, suspends her harsh commands
Yet no fatigue hath slacked these valiant hands.
But now new plagues pursue me; neither force,
Nor arms, nor darts, can stop their raging course :
Devouring flame through my racked entrails strays,
And on my lungs and shrivelled muscles preys."

Meanwhile, whate'er was in the power of flame
Was all consumed; his body's nervous frame
No more was known; of human form bereft-
Th' eternal part of Jove alone was left.
As an old serpent casts his scaly vest,
Wreathes in the sun, in youthful glory drest;
So when Alcides' mortal mould resigned,
His better part enlarged, and grew refined:
August his visage shone ;—almighty Jove,
In his swift car, his honoured offspring drove :
High o'er the hollow clouds the coursers fly,
And lodge the hero in the starry sky.

OVID'S Metamorphoses, book 9.

PERSEUS.

PERSEUS was the son of Jupiter and Danaë, the daughter of Acrisius, who, to avoid the fulfilment of a prophecy by the

oracle that he should perish by the hand of his grandson, imprisoned Danaë in a brazen tower. Upon the birth of her infant she was thrown into the sea with it, by her inhuman parent, but was preserved by a fisherman, named Dictys, and conducted to Polydectes, the king of Seriphos, one of the Cyclades, who placed Perseus under the guardianship of the priests belonging to the temple of Minerva. Perseus was one of the guests invited by Polydectes, to a sumptuous entertainment, at which it was customary for each visitor to present the monarch with a beautiful horse; Perseus could not comply with this requisition, but told the king that he would bring him instead the head of Medusa, the only one of the Gorgons who was subject to mortality; Polydectes, in the hope of ridding himself of his protégé, readily accepted the proposal. The gods aided Perseus in his undertaking; Pluto lent him a helmet, which had the property of rendering its wearer invisible; Vulcan gave him a dagger made of diamonds; Mercury, wings and the talaria; and Minerva, her resplendent buckler; she conducted him to the place of conflict, where he soon achieved his perilous task; and before returning to his patroness the shield to which he was principally indebted for success, he affixed to it the hideous head of the Gorgon, which had the power of transforming into stone all who gazed upon it. The precise time of his death is unknown; but statues were erected to

his honour in Mycena and Seriphos. The Athenians raised a temple to his memory, and consecrated in it an altar to Dictys, who cherished Danaë, and her infant charge. Perseus was

also worshipped as a god by the Egyptians.

He was united to Andromeda, the daughter of Cepheus, king of Ethiopia, whom he had rescued from a terrible sea-monster, to whose fury she was exposed.

Perseus formed one of the figures on the celebrated shield of Hercules, forged by Vulcan.

There was the horseman, fair-haired Danaë's son,
Perseus; nor yet the buckler with his feet

Touched, nor yet distant hovered: strange to think;
For nowhere on the surface of the shield
He rested: so the crippled artist-god

Illustrious framed him with his hands in gold.
Bound to his feet were sandals winged; a sword
Of brass, with hilt of sable ebony,

Hung round him from the shoulders by a thong:
Swift e'en as thought he flew. The visage grim
Of monstrous Gorgon, all his back o'erspread;
And wrought in silver, wond'rous to behold,
A veil was drawn around it, whence in gold
Hung glittering fringes: and the dreadful helm
Of Pluto clasped the temples of the prince,
Shedding a night of darkness.

HESIOD'S Shield of Hercules.