menu_book Chapter 3

bullfinch's mythology the age of fable by thomas bullfinch chapter three apollo and daphne pyramus and thisbe cephalus and progres the slime with which the earth was covered by the waters of the flood produced an excessive fertility which called forth every variety of production both bad and good among the rest python an enormous serpent crept forth the terror of the people and lurked in the caves of mount parnassus apollo slew him with his arrows weapons which he had not before used against any but feeble animals hares wild goats and such game in commemoration of this illustrious conquest he instituted the pythian games in which the victor in feats of strength swiftness of foot or in the chariot race was crowned with a wreath of beech leaves for the laurel was not yet adopted by apollo as his own tree the famous statue of apollo called the belvidare represents the god after this victory over the serpent python to this byron alludes in his child herald for one hundred and sixty one

the lord of the unerring bow the god of life and poetry and light the sun in human limbs arrayed and brow all-radiant from his triumph in the fight the shaft has just been shot the arrow bright with an immortal's vengeance in his eye and nostril beautiful disdain and might and majesty flash their full lightnings by developing in that one glance the deity apollo and daphne daphne was apollo's first love it was not brought about by accident but by the malice of cupid apollo saw the boy playing with his bow and arrows and being himself elated with his recent victory over python he said to him what have you to do with warlike weapons saucy boy leave them for hands worthy of them behold the conquest i have won by means of them over the vast serpent who stretched his poisonous body over acres of the plain be content with your torch child and kindle up your flames as you call them where you will but presume not to meddle with my weapons venus boy heard these words and rejoined

your arrows may strike all things else apollo but mine shall strike you so saying he took his stand on a rock of pranassus and drew from his quiver two arrows of different workmanship one to excite love the other to repel it the former was of gold and sharp-pointed the latter blunt and tipped with lead with the leaden shaft he struck the nymph daphne the daughter of the river-god peneus and with the golden one apollo through the heart forthwith the god was seized with love for the maiden and she abhorred the thought of loving her delight was in woodland sports and in the spoils of the chase many lovers sought her but she spurned them all ranging the woods and taking no thought of cupid nor of hymen her father often said to her daughter you owe me a son-in-law you owe me grandchildren she hating the thought of marriage as a crime with her beautiful face tinged all over with blushes threw arms round her father's neck and said dearest father grant me this favour that i may always remain unmarried like diana he consented but at the same time said your own face will forbid it

apollo loved her and longed to obtain her and he who gives oracles to all the world was not wise enough to look into his own fortunes he saw her hair flung loose over her shoulders and said if so charming in disorder what would it be if arranged he saw her eyes bright as stars he saw her lips and was not satisfied with only seeing them he admired her hands and arms naked to the shoulder and whatever was hidden from view he imagined more beautiful still he followed her she fled swifter than the wind and delayed not a moment at his entreaties stay said he daughter of peneus i am not a foe do not fly me as a lamp flies the wolf or dove the hawk it is for love i pursue you you make me miserable for fear you should fall and hurt yourself on these stones and i should be the cause pray run slower and i will follow slower i am no clown no rude peasant jupiter is my father and i am lord of delphos and tenedos and know all things present and future i am the god of song and the lyre my arrows fly true to the mark

but alas an arrow more fatal than mine has pierced my heart i am the god of medicine and know the virtues of all healing plants alas i suffer a malady that no balm can cure the nymph continued her flight and left his plea half uttered and even as she fled she charmed him the wind blew her garments and her unbound hair streamed loose behind her the god grew impatient to find his wounds thrown away and sped by cupid gained upon her in the race it was like a hound pursuing a hare with open jaws ready to seize while the feebler animal darts forward slipping from the very grasp so flew the god and the virgin he on the wings of love and she on those of fear the pursuer is the more rapid however and gains upon her and his panting breath blows upon her hare her strength begins to fail and ready to sink she calls upon her father the river-god help me peneus open the earth to enclose me or change my form which has brought me into this danger scarcely had she spoken when a stiffness seized all her limbs

her bosom began to be enclosed in a tender bark her hair became leaves her arms became branches her foot stuck fast in the ground as a root her face became a tree-top retaining nothing of its former self but its beauty apollo stood amazed he touched the stem and felt the flesh tremble under the new bark he embraced the branches and lavished kisses on the wood the branches shrank from his lips since you cannot be my wife said he you shall assuredly be my tree i will wear you for my crown i will decorate with you my harp and my quiver and when the great roman conquerors lead up the triumphal pomp to the capital you shall be woven into wreaths for their brows and as internal youth is mine you also shall be always green and your leaf know no decay the nymph now changed into a laurel-tree bowed its head in grateful acknowledgment that apollo should be the god both of music and poetry will not appear strange but that medicine should also be assigned to his province may the poet armstrong himself a physician thus accounts for it

music exalts each joy allays each grief expels diseases softens every pain and hence the wise of ancient days adored one power of physic melody and song the story of apollo and daphne is often alluded to by the poets waller applies it to the case of one whose amatory verses though they did not soften the heart of his mistress yet won for the poet widespread fame yet what he sung in his immortal strain though unsuccessful was not sung in vain all but the nymph that should redress his wrong attend his passion and approve his song like phoebus thus acquiring unsought praise he caught at love and filled his arms with bays the following stanza from shelley's adonnes alludes to byron's early quarrel with the reviewers the herded wolves bold only to pursue the obscene ravens clamours o'er the dead the vultures to the conqueror's banner true who feed where desolation first is fed and whose wings rain contagion how they fled when like apollo from his golden bough the pythian of the age one arrow sped and smiled the spoilers tempt no second blow they fawn on the proud feet that spurn them as they go

pyramus and thisbe pyramus was the handsomest youth and thisbe the fairest maiden in all babylonia where semoramus reigned their parents occupied adjoining houses and neighbourhood brought the young people together an acquaintance ripened into love they would gladly have married but their parents forbade one thing however they could not forbid that love should glow with equal ardour in the bosoms of both they conversed by signs and glances and the fire burned more intensely for being covered up in the wall that parted the two houses there was a crack caused by some fault in the structure no one had remarked it before but the lovers discovered it what will not love discover it afforded a passage to the voice and tender messages used to pass backward and forward through the gap as they stood pyramus on this side this beyond that their breath would mingle cruel wall they said why do you keep two lovers apart but we will not be ungrateful we owe you we confess the privilege of transmitting loving words to willing ears

such words they uttered on different sides of the wall and when night came and they must say farewell they pressed their lips upon the wall she on her side he on his as they could come no nearer next morning when aurora had put out the stars and the sun had melted the frost from the grass they met at the accustomed spot then after lamenting their hard fate they agreed that next night when all was still they would slip away from watchful eyes leave their dwellings and walk out into the fields and to ensure a meeting repair to a well-known edifice standing without the city's bounds called the tomb of ninus and that the one who came first should await the other at the foot of a sudden tree it was a white mulberry tree and stood near a cool spring all was agreed on and they waited impatiently for the sun to go down beneath the waters and night to rise up from them then cautiously thisbe stole forth unobserved by the family her head covered with a veil made her way to the monument and sat down under the tree as she sat alone in the dim light of the evening she descried a lioness her jaws reeking with recent slaughter approaching the fountain to slake her thirst thisbe fled at the sight and sought refuge in the hollow of a rock as she fled she dropped her veil

the lioness after drinking at the spring turned to retreat to the woods and seeing the veil on the ground tossed and rented with her bloody mouth pyramus having been delayed now approached the place of meeting he saw in the sand the footsteps of the lion and the collar flat from his cheeks at the sight presently he found the veil all rent and bloody o hapless girl said he i have been the cause of thy death thou more worthy of life than i hast fallen the first victim i will follow i am the guilty cause in tempting thee forth to a place of such peril and not being myself on the spot to guard thee come forth ye lions from the rocks and tear this guilty body with your teeth he took up the veil carried it with him to the appointed tree and covered it with kisses and with tears my blood also shall stain your texture said he and drawing his sword plunged it into his heart the blood spurted from the wound and tinged the white mulberries of the tree all red and sinking into the earth reached the roots so that the red colour mounted through the trunk to the fruit

by this time thisbe still trembling with fear yet wishing not to disappoint her lover stepped cautiously forth looking anxiously for the youth eager to tell him the danger she had escaped when she came to the spot and saw the changed colour of the mulberries she doubted whether it was the same place while she hesitated she saw the form of one struggling in the agonies of death she started back a shudder ran through her frame as a ripple on the face of the still water when a sudden breeze sweeps over it but as soon as she recognised her lover she screamed and beat her breast embracing the lifeless body pouring tears into its wounds and imprinting kisses on the cold lips oh pyramus she cried what has done this answer me pyramus it is your own thisbe that speaks hear me dearest and lift that drooping head at the name of thisbe pyramus opened his eyes then closed them again she saw her veil stained with blood and the scabbard empty of its sword thy own hand has slain thee and for my sake she said

i too can be brave for once and my love is as strong as thine i will follow thee in death for i have been the cause and death which alone could part us shall not prevent my joining thee and ye unhappy parents of us both deniest not our united request as love and death have joined us let one tomb contain us an thou tree retain the marks of slaughter let thy berries still serve for memorials of our blood so saying she plunged the sword into her breast her parents ratified her wish the gods also ratified it the two bodies were buried in one sepulchre and the tree ever after brought forth purple berries as it does to this day more in the sylph's ball speaking of davy's safety lamp is reminded of the wall that separated thisbe and her lover oh for that lamp's metallic gauze that curtain of protecting wire which davy delicately draws around illicit dangerous fire the wall he sets twixt flame and air like that which barred young thisbe's bliss through whose small holes this dangerous pair may see each other but not kiss

in michael's translation of the lusiat occurs the following allusion to the story of pyramus and thisbe and the metamorphosis of the mulberries the poet is describing the island of love here each gift pomona's hand bestows in cultured garden free and cultured flows the flavor sweeter and the hue more fair than ever is fostered by the hand of care the cherry here in shining crimson glows and stained with lover's blood in pendant rose the mulberries o'erloat the bending boughs if any of our young readers can be so hard-hearted as to enjoy a laugh at the expense of poor pyramus and thisbe they may find an opportunity by turning to shakespeare's play of the midsummer night's dream where it is most amusingly burlesqued cephalus and procris cephalus was a beautiful youth and fond of manly sports he would rise before the dawn to pursue the chase aurora saw him when she first looked forth fell in love with him and stole him away but cephalus was just married to a charming wife whom he devotedly loved

her name was procris she was a favourite of diana the goddess of hunting who had given her a dog which could outrun every rival and a javelin which would never fail of its mark and procris gave these presents to her husband cephalus was so happy in his wife that he resisted all the entreaties of aurora and she finally dismissed him in displeasure saying go ungrateful mortal keep your wife whom if i am not much mistaken you will one day be very sorry you ever saw again cephalus returned and was as happy as ever in his wife and his woodland sports now it happened some angry deity had sent a ravenous fox to annoy the country and the hunters turned out in great strength to capture it their efforts were all in vain no dog could run it down and at last they came to cephalus to borrow his famous dog whose name was lelapse no sooner was the dog let loose than he darted off quicker than their eye could follow him if they had not seen his footprints in the sand they would have thought he flew cephalus and others stood on a hill and saw the race the fox tried every art he ran in a circle and turned on his track the dog close upon him with open jaws snapping at his heels but biting only the air

cephalus was about to use his javelin when suddenly he saw both dog and game stop instantly the heavenly powers who had given both were not willing that either should conquer in the very attitude of life and action they were turned into stone so life-like and natural did they look you would have thought as you looked at them that one was going to bark the other to leap forward cephalus though he had lost his dog still continued to take delight in the chase he would go out at early morning ranging the woods and hills unaccompanied by anyone needing no help for his javelin was a sure weapon in all cases fatigued with hunting when the sun got high he would seek a shady nook where a cool stream flowed and stretched on the grass with his garments thrown aside would enjoy the breeze sometimes he would say aloud come sweet breeze come and fan my breast come and allay the heat that burns me some one passing by one day heard him talking in this way to the heir and foolishly believing that he was talking to some maiden went and told the secret to procris cephalus's wife love is credulous

procris at the sudden shock fainted away presently recovering she said it cannot be true i will not believe it unless i myself am a witness to it so she waited with anxious heart till the next morning when cephalus went to hunt as usual then she stole out after him and concealed herself in the place where the informer directed her cephalus came as he was wont when tired with sport and stretched himself on the green bank saying come sweet breeze come and fan me you know how i love you you make the groves and my solitary rambles delightful he was running on in this way when he heard or thought he heard a sound as of a sob in the bushes supposing it some wild animal he threw his javelin at the spot a cry from his beloved procress told him that the weapon had too surely met its mark he rushed to the place and found her bleeding and with sinking strength endeavouring to draw forth from the wound the javelin her own gift cephalus raised her from the earth strove to stanch the blood and called her to revive and not to leave him miserable to reproach himself was her death she opened her feeble eyes and forced herself to utter these few words i implore you if you have ever loved me if i have ever deserved kindness at your hands my husband grant me this last request do not marry that odious breeze

this disclosed the whole mystery but alas what advantage to disclose it now she died but her face wore a calm expression and she looked pityingly and forgivingly on her husband when he made her understand the truth more in his legendary ballads has won on cephalus and procris beginning thus a hunter once in a grove reclined to shun the noon's bright eye and oft he wooed the wandering wind to cool his brow with its sigh while mute lay even the wild bees hum nor breath could stir the aspen's hair his song was still sweet air o come while echo answered come sweet air chapter three