Neptune is thus described as calming a tempest raised by Æolus : Meantime, imperial Neptune heard the sound To raise such mountains on the troubled main ? With hoarse command his breathing subjects call, He spoke and, while he spoke, he smoothed the sea, His finny coursers, and in triumph rides, The waves unruffle, and the sea subsides. VIRGIL'S Eneid, book 1. Pluto was the son of Saturn, and brother to Jupiter and Neptune. On the partition of his sire's dominions, the empire of hell fell to his lot; at the commencement of his reign he endeavoured to procure a consort, but the goddesses affrighted at his gloomy abode refused his offers; in consequence of which, he seized the nymph Proserpine and carried her to the infernal regions, where she became his bride. This god was known by the names of Orcus, Agelastus, and Clytopoeon; but temples and statues were not erected to him as to the other superior gods, as he was considered malevolent and inexorable. The only sacrifices offered to him were black bulls, but the cypress, the narcissus, and all things gloomy and inauspicious were sacred to him. Pluto is often represented as sitting on a throne of sulphur, from which issue the four rivers, Phlegethon, Acheron, Lethe, and Cocytus; Proserpine sits on his left hand, Cerberus at his feet, and the Harpies, Fates, Eumenides, &c. surround him. At other times he is seated in a chariot drawn by four horses, and holding in his hand a fork similar to the trident of Neptune, but with two prongs. The giant Typheus was immured under Trinacria or Sicily, and struggling for emancipation he caused such convulsions in the earth, that Pluto became alarmed and visited these upper regions, and it was during this sojourn that he saw, and became enamoured of, the daughter of Ceres. His terrors reach the direful king of hell; The realms of night, and fright his trembling ghosts. But when in all the careful search he saw When straight the dame her little Cupid pressed With secret rapture to her snowy breast, And in these words the fluttering boy addressed :-- * * She said: and from his quiver straight he drew A dart, that surely would the business do. She guides his hand, she makes her touch the test, OVID'S Metamorphoses, book 5. C |