Story of Aeneas | Page 3

earth, the sun and the moon, the seas and rivers, and
storms--were ruled by different gods. Those beings it was supposed,
were in some respects like men and women. They needed food and
drink and sleep; they married and had children; and like poor mortals
they often had quarrels among themselves. Their food was am-bro'si-a,
which gave them immortality and perpetual youth, and their drink was
a delicious wine called nectar.
The gods often visited men and even accepted their hospitality.
Sometimes they married human beings, and the sons of such marriages
were the demigods or heroes of antiquity. AEneas was one of those
heroes, his mother being the goddess Ve'nus, of whom we shall hear
much in the course of our Story.
Though the gods never died, being immortal, they might be wounded
and suffer bodily pain like men. They often took part in the quarrels
and wars of people on earth, and they had weapons and armor, after the
manner of earthly warriors. But they were vastly superior to men in
strength and power. They could travel through the skies, or upon land
or ocean, with the speed of lightning, and they could change
themselves into any form, or make themselves visible or invisible at
pleasure.
The usual residence of the principal gods was on the top of Mount
O-lym'pus, in Greece. Here they had golden palaces and a chamber
where they held grand banquets at which celestial music was rendered
by A-pol'lo, the god of minstrelsy, and the Muses, who were the
divinities of poetry and song.
Splendid temples were erected to the gods in all the chief cities, where
they were worshiped with many ceremonies. Valuable gifts in gold and
silver were presented at their shrines, and at their altars animals were
killed and portions of the flesh burned as sacrifices. Such offerings
were thought to be very pleasing to the gods.
The head or king of the gods was Ju'pi-ter, also called Jove or Zeus. He
was the great Thunderer, at whose word the heavens trembled.
He, whose all conscious eyes the world behold, The eternal Thunderer

sat enthroned in gold. High heaven the footstool of his feet he makes,
And wide beneath him all Olympus shakes. HOMER, Iliad, BOOK
VIII.
The wife of Jupiter, and the queen of heaven, was Ju'no, who, as we
shall see, persecuted the hero AEneas with "unrelenting hate." Nep'tune,
represented as bearing in his hand a trident, or three- pronged fork, was
the god of the sea.
Neptune, the mighty marine god, Earth's mover, and the fruitless
ocean's king. HOMER
Mars was the god of war, and Plu'to, often called Dis or Ha'des, was the
god of the lower or "infernal" regions, and hence also the god of the
dead. One of the most glorious and beautiful of the gods was Apollo,
god of the sun, of medicine, music, poetry, and all fine arts.
Bright-hair'd Apollo!--thou who ever art A blessing to the
world--whose mighty heart Forever pours out love, and light, and life;
Thou, at whose glance, all things of earth are rife With happiness.
PIKE.
[Illustration: A ROMAN AUGUR.]
Another of the famous divinities of the ancients was Venus, the
goddess of beauty and love. According to some of the myths she was
the daughter of Jupiter. Others say that she sprang from the foam of the
sea.
These and countless other imaginary beings were believed in as deities
under the religious system of the ancient Greeks and Romans, and
every unusual or striking event was thought to be caused by some god
or goddess.
The will of the gods, it was supposed, was made known to men in
different ways--by dreams, by the flight of birds, or by a direct message
from Olympus. Very often it was learned by consulting seers, augurs or
soothsayers. These were persons believed to have the power of
prophecy. There was a famous temple of Apollo at Delphi, in Greece,
where a priestess called Pyth'i-a gave answers, or oracles, to those who
came to consult her. The name oracle was also applied to the place
where such answers were received. There were a great many oracles in
ancient times, but that at Delphi was the most celebrated.

STORY OF AENEAS.

I. THE WOODEN HORSE,
The gods, of course, had much to do with the siege and fall of Troy, as
well as with the sufferings of Aeneas, which Vergil describes in the
AEneid. There were gods and goddesses on both sides in the great
conflict. Some were for the Tro'jans, others for the Greeks, and some
had their favorites among the heroes and warriors who fought on one
side or the other. Two very powerful goddesses, Juno and Mi-ner'va
(the goddess of wisdom, also called Pallas), hated the Trojans because
of the