And gild the courts of heaven with sacred light)
The immortal arms the goddess-mother bears
Swift to her son."

The story of Aurora's mortal husband, Tithonus, has been told by Tennyson in the following matchless monologue:

The woods decay, the woods decay and fall,
The vapors weep their burden to the ground,
Man comes and tills the field and lies beneath,
And after many a summer dies the swan.
Me only cruel immortality

Consumes I wither slowly in thine arms,

:

Here at the quiet limit of the world,

A white-hair'd shadow roaming like a dream
The ever silent spaces of the East,
Far-folded mists, and gleaming halls of morn.

Alas! for this gray shadow, once a man
So glorious in his beauty and thy choice,
Who madest him thy chosen, that he seem'd
To his great heart none other than a god!
I ask'd thee, "Give me immortality."
Then didst thou grant mine asking with a smile,
Like wealthy men who care not how they give.
But thy strong Hours indignant work'd their wills,
And beat me down and marr'd and wasted me,
And tho' they could not end me, left me maim'd
To dwell in presence of immortal youth,

Immortal age beside immortal youth,

And all I was, in ashes.

Can thy love,

Thy beauty, make amends, tho' even now,

Close over us, the silver star, thy guide,

Shines in those tremulous eyes that fill with tears

C

To hear me? Let me go; take back thy gift:
Why should a man desire in any way

To vary from the kindly race of men,
Or pass beyond the goal of ordinance

Where all should pause, as is most meet for all?

A soft air fans the cloud apart; there comes
A glimpse of that dark world where I was born;
Once more the old mysterious glimmer steals
From thy pure brows, and from thy shoulders pure,
And bosom beating with a heart renew'd.
Thy cheek begins to redden thro' the gloom,
Thy sweet eyes brighten slowly close to mine
Ere yet they blind the stars, and the wild team
Which love thee, yearning for thy yoke, arise
And shake the darkness from their loosened manes,
And beat the twilight into flakes of fire.

Lo! ever thus thou growest beautiful
In silence, then before thine answer given
Departest, and thy tears are on my cheek.
Why wilt thou ever scare me with thy tears,
And make me tremble lest a saying learnt,
In days far-off, on that dark earth, be true?
"The gods themselves cannot recall their gifts."

Ay me! ay me! with what another heart
In days far-off, and with what other eyes
I used to watch if I be he that watch'd-
The lucid outline forming round thee: saw
The dim curls kindle into sunny rings;

Changed with thy mystic change, and felt my blood
Glow with the glow that slowly crimson'd all
Thy presence and thy portals, while I lay

Mouth, forehead, eyelids, growing dewy-warm

With kisses balmier than half-opening buds
Of April, and could hear the lips that kiss'd
Whispering I knew not what of wild and sweet
Like that strange song I heard Apollo sing,
While Ilion like a mist rose into towers.

Yet hold me not forever in thine East:
How can my nature longer mix with thine?
Coldly thy rosy shadows bathe me, cold
Are all thy lights, and cold my wrinkled feet
Upon thy glimmering thresholds, when the steam
Floats up from those dim fields about the homes
Of happy men that have the power to die,
And grassy barrows of the happier dead.
Release me, and restore me to the ground;
Thou seest all things, thou wilt see my grave :
Thou wilt renew thy beauty morn by morn;
I earth in earth forget these empty courts
And thee returning on thy silver wheels.

An antistrophe of one of Euripides' dramas, "The Troades," contains this beautiful allusion to Aurora :

"And Eos' self, the fair, white-steeded Morning,
Her light which blesses other lands, returning

Has changed to a gloomy pall!

She looked across the land with eyes of amber, –
She saw the city's fall, -

She who, in pure embraces,

Had held there, in the hymeneal chamber,

Her children's father, bright Tithonus old,

Whom the four steeds with starry brows and paces
Bore on, snatched upward, on the car of gold,
And with him, all the land's full hope of joy!
The love-charms of the gods are vain for Troy."

APOLLO, OR PHOEBUS APOLLO, Lat.; HELIOS, Gr.

THE office of Apollo was to give light to men and gods during the day. He is described as rising every morning in the east, preceded by his sister Aurora, who, with her rosy fingers, paints the tips of the mountains, and draws aside the misty veil through which her brother is about to appear.

When he has burst forth in all the glorious light of day, Aurora disappears, and Apollo drives his flamedarting chariot along the accustomed track.

This chariot, which is of burnished gold, is drawn by four fire-breathing steeds, behind which the young god stands erect with flashing eyes, his head surrounded with rays, holding in one hand the reins of those fiery coursers which in all hands save his are unmanageable. When towards evening he descends the curve in order to cool his burning forehead in the waters of the sea, he is followed closely by his sister Sēlē'ne (the moon), who is now prepared to take charge of the world and light up the dusky night.

When Apollo had finished his daily course, a wingéd boat or cup which had been made for him by Hephas'tus (Vulcan) conveyed him, with his chariot and horses, to the east, where he began again his bright journey. This is what Milton alludes to in " Comus":

"Now the gilded car of day

His golden axle doth allay
In the steep Atlantic stream

And the slope-Sun his upward beam
Shoots against the dusky pole,

Pacing toward the other goal

Of his chamber in the east."

With the first beams of the light of the sun all nature awakens to renewed life, and the woods re-echo with the songs of the birds. Hence, Apollo is the god of music. He is himself the musician among the Olympic gods.

He attained his greatest importance among the Greeks as a god of prophecy. His oracle at Delphi was in high repute all over the world. That which raised the whole moral tone of the Greek nation was the belief that he was the god who accepted repentance as an atonement for sin, who pardoned the contrite sinner, and who acted as the protector of those who had committed a crime which required long years of expiation.

The most splendid temple of Apollo was at Delphi, which was considered the centre of the earth. The serpent, Python, was a monster that inhabited the valley near Delphi and destroyed both men and cattle. Apollo slew the Python, and in honor of this event the Pythian games were celebrated in the third year of every Olympiad.

Soon after his victory over the Python, Apollo saw Eros (Cupid) bending his bow, and mocked at his efforts. Eros, to punish him, shot him in the heart with his golden arrow of love, and at the same time discharged his leaden arrow of aversion into the heart