generally were goats, pigs, and oxen; but at Taurica they immolated on her altars all strangers who were unhappily shipwrecked on their coasts: among plants, the poppy and the dittany were sacred to her. This goddess is known by a variety of names, the principal are, Phœbe, Delia, Luna, Taurica, Cynthia, and Aricia; she is supposed to have been the Isis of the Egyptians. In Hell, Diana was known and adored as Hecaté, and under that appellation great power was ascribed to her in the regions of Pluto, and the most solemn oaths made in her name.

Hath honoured, and endowed with splendid gifts:
With power on earth, and o'er the untilled sea:
Nor less her glory from the starry heaven,
Chief honoured by immortals: and if one
Of earthly men, performing the due rite
Of virtuous divinations, would appease
The gods above, he calls on Hecaté:

To him, whose prayer the goddess gracious hears,
High honour comes spontaneous, and to him
She yields all affluence, for the power is hers.
Whatever gods, the sons of heaven and earth,
Shared honour at the hands of Jove, o'er all
Her wide allotment stands.

She, in the greatness of her power is nigh
With aid to whom she lists: whoe'er she wills

O'er the great council of the people shines:
And when the mailed men arise to wage
Destroying battle, she to whom she lists
Is present, yielding victory and fame;
And on the judgment seat with awful kings
She sits; and when in the gymnastic strife
Men struggle, the propitious goddess comes,
Present with aid.

She, as she lists, is nigh to charioteers
Who strive with steeds: and voyagers who cleave
Through the blue watery vast th' untracked way.
They call upon the name of Hecaté

With vows and his, loud-sounding god of waves,
Earth-shaker Neptune. Easily at will

The glorious goddess yields the woodland prey
Abundant: easily, while scarce they start
On the mocked vision, snatches them in flight.
She too with Hermes is propitious found

To herd and fold; and bids increase the droves
Innumerable of goats and woolly flocks,
And swells their numbers, or their numbers thins,
And thus, although her mother's lonely child,
She 'midst th' immortals shares all attributes.

HESIOD'S Theogony.

Haste thee, nymph, whose winged spear,
Wounds the fleeting mountain deer!
Dian, Jove's immortal child,

Huntress of the savage wild!

Goddess with the sun-bright hair!
Listen to a people's prayer.

Turn, to Lethe's river turn,

There thy vanquished people mourn.
Come to Lethe's wavy shore,
There thy people's peace restore.
Thine their hearts, their altars thine;
Dian! must they, must they pine?

MOORE'S Anacreon, ode 64.

MERCURY.

Mercury was the son of Jupiter and Maia; he was born on Mount Collene in Arcadia, and entrusted during his infancy to the care of the Seasons; he was the messenger of the Gods, particularly of Jupiter, and the patron of travellers, shepherds, orators, and merchants; also of thieves, and dishonest persons of every kind: he is said to have been the inventor of weights and measures, and of the seven-stringed lyre, which he presented to Apollo, and received from him in return the famous caduceus, or serpent-wand, with which he conducted the souls of the dead to the infernal regions.

Mercury was worshipped by the Greeks generally under the name of Hermes, but he was known as Cyllenius, from the place of his birth; Caduceator, Delins, and Arcas, and in Boeotia as Criophorus; he was universally adored in Greece, Egypt, and Italy; his principal offspring were Hermaphroditus, Pan, and Endorus.

Mercury is often represented as in the annexed plate,—a young man, with the petasus, or winged cap, given to him by Jupiter, on his head; wings on his feet, and the caduceus in his hand; at other times, with a purse in his hand, a cock on his wrist, and a goat, a scorpion, and a fly at his feet. Horace thus addresses him :

Sweet smooth-tongued god, wise Atlas son,
Whose voice did mould men's flinty hearts,
Just risen from their parent stone,
By softening music, and instructing arts.

Thee, thee my muse shall gladly sing,
Thee, post of heaven, and guard of hell;
First mover of the charming string;
By waggish thievery cunning to conceal.

Unless you would restore the cows,
Whilst with his voice he dared the child,
And threatened with his angry brows,

Now he had lost his bow Apollo smiled.