THESEUS,

One of the most celebrated heroes of antiquity, was the son of Ægeus, and Æthra, the daughter of Pittheus, in whose house he was privately lodged, until he attained to years of maturity, when he was dispatched by his mother to the court of Athens, and entrusted with a sword, by which he was to discover himself to his father. He was not well received there, owing to the intrigues of Medea; but his intrepidity soon made him a universal favourite; he caught the bull of Marathon, and sacrificed it to Minerva; soon after this, he was selected as one of the seven chosen youths whom the Athenians sent yearly to Crete, to be devoured by the Minotaur; he, however, slew the monster, and abolished the hideous tribute. succeeded his father on the throne of Athens, B. C. 1235, amidst the universal rejoicings of the people, whose affections he gained by the mild and salutary laws which he enacted: he changed the government of Athens to a democracy, only reserving for himself the command of the armies. The friendship which subsisted between Pirithous, king of the Lapithæ, and Theseus, has become proverbial: they agreed to visit the infernal regions together, and to carry off Proserpine, as a wife for the former; but their attempt being discovered by Pluto,

Theseus

he adjudged, as a punishment, to Pirithous, that he should be fastened to his father's wheel; and to Theseus, that he should be tied to a huge stone, on which he was resting: Hercules delivered them from their unpleasant situation, when he obtained possession of Cerberus.

During the captivity of Theseus, in the realms of Pluto, Mnestheus usurped his throne, and, upon his return, refused to resign it in consequence of this, Theseus retired to the court of Lycomedes, king of Scyros; after a short residence there, his treacherous host led him one day to the top of a high rock, on pretence of shewing him his dominions, and, in an unguarded moment, precipitated him from thence.

After the death of Mnestheus, the descendents of Theseus regained the Athenian throne, deposited the remains of their father in a magnificent tomb, and instituted festivals and games to his memory, which were celebrated with great solemnity in the time of Pausanias and Plutarch, above 1200 years after his death.

The Minotaur was secluded by Minos in the famous labyrinth of Crete, formed by Daedalus for that purpose.

These private walls the Minotaur include,
Who twice was glutted with Athenian blood;
But the third tribute more successful proved,
Slew the foul monster, and the plague removed.

When Theseus, aided by the virgin's art,
Had traced the guiding thread through every part,
He took the gentle maid that set him free,
And, bound for Dias, cut the briny sea.

Now talking Fame, through every Grecian town,
Had spread, immortal Theseus, thy renown:
From him the neighbouring nations in distress
In suppliant terms implore a kind redress.

OVID'S Metamorphoses, book 8.

ACHILLES.

This renowned hero was the son of Peleus and Thetis, and the most famous warrior of his age: whilst an infant, his mother dipped him in the river Styx, and thus rendered every part of his body invulnerable, except the right heel, by which she held him. The celebrated Chiron, who has been before mentioned, was his principal instructor in every art but that of eloquence, which was taught him by Phoenix. When the Trojan war was about commencing, the goddess mother sent her son to the court of Lycomedes, where he remained disguised in female apparel for some time; until, it having been foretold by the oracle, that for Achilles would be reserved the fall of Troy, Ulysses, who had set out in search of him, discovered

him by his masculine and warlike tastes, and prevailed on him to accompany his countrymen in their expedition.

It is said that, when young, the choice was given to Achilles of a long and inglorious life, or one of a much shorter space of time, but followed by endless fame and glory, and that he nobly chose the latter. Whilst besieging Troy, Achilles quarrelled with Agamemnon, the leader of the Grecian powers, respecting a beautiful captive, named Briseis; he was so enraged that he withdrew his forces, and remained for some length of time totally inactive, until the death of his friend Patroclus, by the hand of Hector, aroused his fury, and arraying himself in the splendid armour made for him by Vulcan, he hastened to the field, and encountered and slew the Trojan hero. Achilles' death-blow was given by Paris (inspired by Apollo), who shot an arrow into his heel, and thus relieved the Trojans from their most formidable enemy. He was buried at Segæum, in the Troad, and honoured as a god. Some centuries after, Alexander the Great, proceeding to the conquest of Persia, discovered the tomb of the hero, and offered sacrifices upon it, remarking how much he envied the man who had been immortalized by the strains of Homer: Achilles seems indeed to have been a favourite of the poet, as his anger and its effects form the leading topics and principal ground-work of the Iliad.

Full in the midst, high towering o'er the rest, His limbs, in arms divine, Achilles dressed; Arms which the father of the fire bestowed, Forged on th' eternal anvils of the god. Grief and revenge his furious heart inspire, His glowing eye-balls roll with living fire; He grinds his teeth, and furious with delay, O'erlooks th' embattled host, and hopes the bloody day. The silver cuishes first his thighs infold;

Then o'er his breast was braced the hollow gold:

The brazen sword a various baldric tied,

That starred with gems, hung glittering at his side;

And, like the moon, the broad refulgent shield

Blazed with long rays, and gleamed athwart the field.
Next his high head the helmet graced; behind,
The sweepy crest hung floating in the wind;
Like the red star that from his flaming hair
Shakes down diseases, pestilence, and war;
So streamed the golden honours from his head,
Trembled the sparkling plumes, and the loose glories shed.
The chief beholds himself with wond'ring eyes,

His arms he poises, and his motion tries;
Buoyed by some inward force he seems to swim,

And feels a pinion lifting every limb.

And now he shakes his great paternal spear,

Pond'rous and huge! which not a Greek could rear;

From Pelion's cloudy top, an ash entire

Old Chiron felled, and shaped it for his sire ;