tins, and built Lavinium, fo named after his wife. He died in the year before Chrift 1197.

Ulyffes, on his return by fea from the Trojan war to the island of Ithaca, of which he was king, was met by the Syrens, who used every effort to stop him; but, that he might not be surprised by their melodious voices, he ftopped his ears, and caufed himself to be tied to the maft of the fhip.

His wife Penelope, who was befieged by a numerous train of lovers in the abfence of her husband, delivered herself by artifice. She promised to make choice of one of them as soon as a piece of tapestry, on which the was at work, fhould be finifhed; but every night the unwove all fhe had done the preceding day.

Hercules was the son of Jupiter and Alcmene, wife of Amphytrion. He was expofed, through the whole courfe of his life, to perform the most dangerous adventures, by the malignity of Juno, and the fatality of his birth. His principal exploits are termed, by way of eminence, the twelve labours of Hercules.

Euryftheus, who fucceeded Perfeus, in the kingdom of Argos, had conceived a jealoufy of Hercules, and impofed upon him, as fabulous history relates, the following hazardous enterprises. 1. He overcame the lion of Nemaa, whofe fkin he after

wards

wards wore. 2. He destroyed the hydra with seven heads. 3. He took, on the mountain. Erimanthus, in Arcadia, a wild boar that had made dreadful havock round the country, and dragged it alive to Euryftheus. 4. He catched an hind with golden horns and brazen hoofs, after hunting her a year on foot. 5. He cleanfed the ftable of Augeas, king of Elis, in which 3000 oxen had stood for many years. 6. He deftroyed the harpies, or birds of prey. 7. He delivered Prometheus from mount Caucafus, and killed the eagle which fed upon his liver. 8. He killed Diomedes, and the horses which he fed on human flesh. 9. He fubdued the giant Geryon, and carried away his flock of cattle. 10. He conquered the army of the Amazons, and took from Hippolite their queen, her girdle, and married her to Thefeus. II. He went down to hell,and deftroyed the three-headed dog Cerberus. He killed the dragon, which defended the garden of the Hefperides, and brought from thence the golden apples.

f

12.

Besides thefe, and many other notable atchievements, Hercules is faid to have taken the heavens, upon his fhoulders, in order to eafe Atlas, the fon of Uranus, a great obferver of the stars, and the first who reprefented the world by a fphere.

This famous hero ended his life in the following manner. Having flain the centaur Neffus, the dying monster gave Dejanira, Hercules's wife, a garment dipt in his own blood, as a prefervative for love. This Dejanira foon after fent him to regain his affections. The hero had no fooner put on the poisoned shirt, than he was feized with violent and incurable pains; therefore, making a funeral pile on mount Oëta, he fet fire to it, and closed, with the most dreadful agonies, a life of hardships for the good of his fellow-creatures.

Thefeus was the son of Ægeus, king of Athens, and Æthra, daughter of the wife Pitheus, at whofe court he was brought up by Træzenus. He killed the Minotaur, a monster which had a bull's head, and all its lower parts human. It was inclosed in the labyrinth at Crete, made by Dedalus, by the order of Minos, king of that island, the inhabitants of which facrificed men to Jupiter and Saturn; and where many of the gods and goddesses were born.

Perfeus was the fon of Jupiter and Danae, daughter of Acrifius, king of Argos. He was king of the Mycenians. He had the wings of Mercury, the fhield of Minerva, the helmet of Pluto, and a fword forged by Vulcan. Thus armed, he overcame and cut off the head of Medusa, which, ac

cording

cording to the poets, was furrounded by ferpents instead of hair, and turned to ftones those who had the rashness to look upon it. He alfo delivered Andromeda, daughter of Cepheus, king of Ethiopia, from a monster, and afterwards married her.. He lived about 1348 years before Chrift.

Achilles was the fon of the goddefs Thetis, daughter of Nereus and Doris, the moft beautiful of the Nereides; and Peleus, fon of the famous Aacus, king of Egina, and the nymph Endeis, daughter of Chyron. He was educated by the centaur * Chiron. His mother dipped him in the Styx, all but the heel, by which the held him, to make him invulnerable. He was flain at the fiege of Troy by Paris, whofe arrows fhot him in the heel, in the year before Christ 1180.

Jason was the son of Eson and Alcimede. Upon the death of his father, he was placed under the tuition of Pelias, at whose perfuafion he undertook the Argonautic expedition to Colchis for the golden fleece, which he carried away about 937 years before Chrift.

The golden fleece was the skin and fleece of a ram, called golden, because it was of a golden colour. It was guarded by bulls that breathed fire from their.

* A Centaur is a monster, half man and half herfe..

noftrils

noftrils; and by a the grove of Mars.

large and watchful dragon, in

Pelias, the son of Neptune and Tyro, was brought up by a mare, and became the most cruel of all men. He not only ufurped the estates of Jafor, but caufed him to be imprifoned. He facrificed his mother-in-law to Juno, and put to death the wife and children of Efon; but Jafon was faved from his fury, and educated in private.

CHAP. L.

ON THE BEAUTY AND UTILITY OF FABULOUS

HISTORY.

OME weak, though perhaps well-meaning

SOME

men, condemn the delightful fictions, with which Homer and Hefiod, and their poetical imitators, have enriched and embellished their works. But although these fictions did not contain many useful inftructions, and many important truths, would there be any reafon to attack and deftroy a fyftem, which peoples and animates nature, and makes a folemn temple of the vast universe ?

Thefe