Classical Theology.—Xx

imera , the Hydra Lernseus , Cacus and Casculus , the Cyciops , the Stymphaliades , and tho dragon which took possession of the garden of Hesperides . To embody them all under one head , the last mentioned anomaly might perhaps have been the veritable offspring of tho fable , Vulcan ' s soil Edchthonius , born with dragon ' s feet , said to have become the fourth king of Athenswhoto hide his monstrous malformations

, , , it is gravely stated , first invented chariots . If Vulcan lost Minerva , wc presume we have a right to suspect that although a cunning artificer , ho lacked wisdom . But what has been just asserted of him has likewise been said of Venus . There is a light as well as a dark side , or at all events two sides to everything ; of the best , none are all good , neither arc all

evil of the worst , in this world . The JEtu . ean temple was guarded , we are told , ( Var . apucl Lil . ) by dogs whose scent and sagacity was so exquisite that they could discern whether persons who sought to enter it were chaste and reli gious , or disorderly and wicked . They used to meetfawn upon aud follow the goodas well

, , knowing and estimating thorn amongst the honoured friends and acquaintances of their master , Vulcan ; but never ceased baying and tearing at those whom they discovered to be bad and unworthy of his regard , until they had entirely driven them beyond the precincts of the sanctuary over which they kept such diligent watch .

I ruth is admitted to be stranger than fiction ; but it is as bard , as paradoxical , to expect it in fables , where all is more or less metaphorically represented , from what we have learnt of Vulcan he is the last whom we should have selected from among tho gods as the wondrous artificer who made a woman ; nor as one who had moulded and formed a young girl into what a woman ought to beor was capable of

, imparting such instruction as should conduce to the . completion of her religious , moral and useful education . It is indeed feigned that the archetype of the fair sex was fashioned by the hammer of Vulcan , and that all the supercelestial gods and goddesses gave her seme . gift of personal and mental endowment . Minerva conferred on her the aid

of wisdom , Apollo presented her with the art of music , Mercury bestowed the grace of eloquence , Venus afforded the adornment of beauty , and the rest of those high immortals gave her other accomplishments , whence she received the name of Pandora . Vulcan had high and just cause to be proud of this feat of bis ingenuity and his hammer . Our

fair readers ( if we have any ) must doubtless feel often indignant— -if they will allow us to say so—with the liberties poets have wickedly taken with—their characters . " Most women have no characters at all , " says Pope ; but then , what says Byron 1 " Poets are such liars ,

And take all colours , like the hands of dyers . " Menandcr , so great an admirer of the sex—who in return honoured him with the title of " the squint-eyed poet "—goes out of bis way to insinuate—perhaps in retaliation , although he has as good as said he couldn ' t do without them—that the severe punishment Jupiter awarded to Prometheus , when he

commanded Mercury to hind him to the rock Caucasus , and set an eagle to prey upon his liver , was not in consequence of his having stolen fire from heaven , but "because he had made woman , which is the most pernicious creature in the world . " The account given by Pausanius may be regarded as equally right or wrong . He says , respecting the

abstraction of the heavenly fire , Prometheus stole it to animate the man he had made ; Jupiter thereat being incensed , sent for Pandora , in order that a sealed box ho had constructed for a particular purpose , not unlike that of an infernal machine , mi ght be conveyed by her to Prometheus . But no sooner had Pandora arrived with her treasure than Prometheus

, suspectin g Jupiter ' s extra polite attention , declined the honour , and would not receive it , being most desirous to send it back . The wife however of his brother Epimetheus , in a state of curiosity natural to her sex , could not refrain from

Classical Theology.—Xx

a little inspection of it , which ended , of course , in her opening the box ; whereupon all sorts of misfortunes , evils , and diseases it contained flew amongst mankind , aud have infested them inveterately ever since . Some insist that Epimetheus himself searched out the gift and secured Hope at the bottom of it , and that it was

he who having made an image of a maii in clay , for -this presumptuous , vain , or mad freak of artistic skill it is further recorded of this son of Japetus that he was turned into an ape . The true solution of the fable is , that it was Pallas , otherwise Wisdom , who conducted Prometheus to heaven . By the fable of Prometheus lihting his darkness

g , or torch , at tho sun , is meant his seeking , attempting , and gaining much knowledge from above . It was his crime in not being afterwards satisfied or turning his knowledge to a good end that brought on the cause of his punishment . Hard and passing strange indeed would it be to have condemned him for bringing light from heaven to man—since

he knew that man could not make light , nor could that blessing be derived except from heaven itself . We may all remember how sweetly Horace has expressed himself upon this subject , and find a good old revived translation a failure so far as it goes when compared with the original . " No power the pride of mortals can control :

Prone ( o new crimes , by strong presumption driven : AVith sacrilegious hands Prometheus stole Celestial fire and bore it down from heaven : That fatal present brought on man ' s whole race An army of diseases—Death began With a new vigour then to mend his pace And form a more compendious way to man . "

Masterpieces Of The Architecture Of Different Nations.

MASTERPIECES OF THE ARCHITECTURE OF DIFFERENT NATIONS .

UV J . G . LEGHAND . THE AKOIIITECTUUE OF THE GREEKS ( CONTISUED ) . The Tower of the Winds at Athens . —This singular monument is of the small number of those which Vitruvius has cited in his work , and which still remain . All the upper portion is iu a state of good preservation , and the bas reliefs ,

in which the eight principal winds are personified and distinguished by different attributes , without being of a very finished execution are of the grandest character . It appears that this exquisite edifice served at the same time as a public clock on account of some clepsydra or other mechanism to mark the hours at nighteven as solar dials traced on each

, of the eight places where the winds were personified , indicated them during the day . The Triton , of bronze , which served as a weathercock at the top of the roof , likewise indicated by day , with its vane , the quarter whence the winds blew ; but , as with a people who were navigators , it was also necessary that they should bo aware of this at night as well ,

it is supposed that small openings were contrived in the frieze , and , being made wider as they entered into the interior , they thus produced , when the wind entered them , a variety of sounds , or set in motion some tone by means of which a communication was imparted of from what quarter the wind was blowing . We knowfrom the sixth chapter of the 1 st Book of

Vitru-, vius , that the name of the architect who built the Tower of the Winds was Andronicus Cyrrhestes , but he does not give us the date of the erection of this monument ; it has been conjectured , however , from tho details of the edifice aud from the amount of knowledge in astronomy and gnomonics , that it may be supposed it could not have bceu erected until after

the ago of Pericles . ' The Monument of Thrasillus , executed in great pari in the Hock of the Acropolis , below the Parthenon . —This edifice was erected shortly after the death of Alexander the Great , by Thrasillus , who built and dedicated it , as an inscription informs us , after he had carried off the prize with theHipno-