But not all the Centaurs were like the rude guests of Pirithous. Chiron was instructed by Apollo and Diana, and was renowned

for his skill in hunting, medicine, music, and the art of prophecy. The most distinguished heroes of Grecian story were his pupils. Among the rest the infant Aesculapius was intrusted to his

charge by Apollo, his father. When the sage returned to his home, bearing the infant, his daughter Ocyrhoe came forth to meet him, and at sight of the child burst forth into a prophetic strain (for she was a prophetess), foretelling the glory that he was to achieve. Aesculapius when grown up became a renowned physician, and even in one instance succeeded in restoring the dead to life. Pluto resented this, and Jupiter, at his request, struck the bold physician with lightning, and killed him, but after his death received him into the number of the gods, and groves, temples, and altars were consecrated to him. Epidaurus in Greece was the principal place of his worship, whence it was introduced into Rome B. C. 293 to avert a pestilence. The snake as an emblem of recovery and health was sacred to Aesculapius, on account of its renewing itself by casting its skin. Aesculapius had two sons and four daughters, of which Hygea was the most famous and Panacea the next.

Chiron was the wisest and justest of all the Centaurs. Amongst his other pupils were Jason, Hercules, and Achilles. In the contest between Hercules and the Centaurs, Chiron was accidentally wounded by one of the hero's arrows. Grieved at this unhappy even, Hercules ran to him, drew out the arrow, and applied a remedy which had been given him by Chiron himself; but in vain. The venom of the Hydra was not to be overcome. Chiron entered a cave, longing to die, but was unable on account of his immortality. He prayed to Zeus for relief, which the latter granted and placed him among the stars as the constellation Sagittarius.

THE PYGMIES.

The Pygmies were a nation of dwarfs, so called from a Greek word which means the cubit or measure of about thirteen inches, which was said to be the height of these people. They lived near the source of the Nile, or, according to others, in India. Homer tells us that the cranes used to migrate every winter to the Pygmies' country, and their appearance was the signal of bloody warfare to the puny inhabitants, who had to take up arms to defend their cornfields against the rapacious strangers. The Pygmies and their enemies the cranes form the subject of several works of art. Later writers tell of an army of Pygmies which, finding Her、

cules asleep, made preparations to attack him, as if they were about to attack a city. But the hero awaking laughed at the little warriors, wrapped some of them up in his lion's skin, and carried them to Eurystheus.

Aristotle did not believe the Pygmies were entirely mythical, and in our own day travellers claim to have discovered in Central Africa species of very remarkable dwarfs, which may have come directly or indirectly to the knowledge of the ancients. Milton uses the Pygmies for a simile:

66

like that Pygmean race

Beyond the Indian mount, or fairy elves
Whose midnight revels by a forest side,
Or fountain, some belated peasant sees
(Or dreams he sees), while overhead the moon
Sits arbitress, and nearer to the earth

Wheels her pale course; they on their mirth and dance
Intent, with jocund music charm his ear,

At once with joy and fear his heart rebounds."

Paradise Lost, Book I.

THE GRIFFIN, OR GRYPHON.

The Griffin is a monster with the body of a lion, the head and wings of an eagle, and back covered with feathers. Like birds it builds its nest, and instead of an egg lays an agate therein. It has long claws and talons of such a size that the people of that country make them into drinking-cups. India was assigned as the native country of the Griffins. They found gold in the mountains and built their nests of it, for which reason their nests were very tempting to the hunters, and they were forced to keep vigilant guard over them.

Gryphon.

Their instinct led them to

know where buried treasures lay, and they did their best to keep

plunderers at a distance. The Arimaspians, among whom the Griffins flourished, were a one-eyed people of Scythia. They made a raid on horseback and tried to steal the gold, and hence the mythical enmity between the horse and the Griffin. It is an Eastern fable, and we are told by Herodotus that they were employed to guard the gold of India.

Milton borrows a simile from the Griffins, Paradise Lost, Book
II. :

"As when a Gryphon through the wilderness,
With winged course, o'er hill and moory dale,
Pursues the Arimaspian who by stealth
Hath from his wakeful custody purloined
His guarded gold," etc.

a

CHAPTER XVII.

THE GOLDEN FLEECE-MEDEA,

THE GOLDEN FLEECE.

IN very ancient times there lived in Thessaly a king and queen named Athamas and Nephele. They had two children, a boy and a girl. After a time Athamas grew indifferent to his wife, put her away, and took another. Nephele suspected danger to her children from the influence of the stepmother, and took measures to send them out of her reach. Mercury assisted her, and gave her a ram, with a golden fleece, on which she set the two children, trusting that the ram would convey them to a place of safety. The ram vaulted into the air with the children on his back, taking his course to the East, till when crossing the strait that divides Europe and Asia, the girl, whose name was Helle, fell from his back into the sea, which from her was called the Hellespont-now the Dardanelles. The ram continued his career till he reached the kingdom of Colchis, on the eastern shore of the Black Sea, where he safely landed the boy Phrixus, who was hospitably received by Aeetes, the king of the country. Phrixus sacrificed the ram to Jupiter, and gave the golden fleece to Aeetes, who placed it in a consecrated grove, under the care of a sleepless dragon.

There was another kingdom in Thessaly near to that of Athamas, and ruled over by a relative of his. The king Aeson, being tired of the cares of government, surrendered his crown to his brother Pelias, on condition that he should hold it only during the minority of Jason, the son of Aeson. When Jason was grown up and came to demand the crown from his uncle, Pelias pretended to be willing to yield it, but at the same time suggested to the young man the glorious adventure of going in quest of the golden fleece, which it was well known was in the kingdom of Colchis, and was, as Pelias pretended, the rightful property