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015 - Chapter 5 Part II- Myths of the Sun Moon and Stars · Guide to Mythology

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Speaker 1: Chapter five, Part two of A Guide to Mythology by
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Speaker 1: Helen Clark. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
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Speaker 1: Chapter five, Part two, Myths of the Sun, Moon and Stars,
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Speaker 1: the Witch and the Sun's sister Russian. In a certain
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Speaker 1: far off country, there once lived a king and queen,
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Speaker 1: and they had an only son, Prince Ivan, who was
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Speaker 1: dumb from his birth. One day, when he was twelve
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Speaker 1: years old, he went into the stable to see a
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Speaker 1: groom who was a great friend of his. That groom
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Speaker 1: always used to tell him tales shahski, and on this
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Speaker 1: occasion Prince Ivan went to him expecting to hear some
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Speaker 1: stories skazotchki, but that wasn't what he heard. Prince Ivan
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Speaker 1: said the groom, your mother will soon have a daughter,
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Speaker 1: and you a sister. She will be a terrible witch
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Speaker 1: and she will eat up her father and her mother
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Speaker 1: and all their subjects. So go and ask your father
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Speaker 1: for the best horse he has, as if you wanted
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Speaker 1: a gallop, and then, if you want to be out
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Speaker 1: of harm's way, ride away whithersoever your eyes guide you.
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Speaker 1: Prince Ivan ran off to his father and for the
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Speaker 1: first time in his life, began speaking to him. At
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Speaker 1: that The king was so delighted that he never thought
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Speaker 1: of asking what he wanted a good steed for, but
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Speaker 1: immediately ordered the very best horse he had in his
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Speaker 1: stud to be saddled for the prince. Prince Ivan mounted
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Speaker 1: and rode off, without caring where he went. Long long
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Speaker 1: did he ride? At length? He came to where two
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Speaker 1: old women were sewing, and he begged them to let
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Speaker 1: him live with them. But they said, gladly would we
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Speaker 1: do so, Prince Ivan, Only we have now but a
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Speaker 1: short time to live. As soon as we have broken
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Speaker 1: that trunkful of needles and used up that trunkful of thread,
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Speaker 1: that instant will death arrive. Prince Ivan burst into tears
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Speaker 1: and rode on long, long did he ride. At length?
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Speaker 1: He came to where the giant Vertodab was, and he
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Speaker 1: besought him, saying, take me to live with you. Gladly
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Speaker 1: would I have taken you, Prince Ivan, replied the giant.
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Speaker 1: But now I have very little longer to live. As
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Speaker 1: soon as I have pulled up all these trees by
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Speaker 1: the roots, instantly will come my death. More bitterly still
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Speaker 1: did the Prince weep as he rode farther and farther
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Speaker 1: on by and by he came to where the giant
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Speaker 1: Vertigore was and made the same request to him. But
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Speaker 1: he replied gladly, would I have taken you, Prince Ivan,
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Speaker 1: But I myself have very little longer to live. I
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Speaker 1: am set here, you know, to level mountains. The moment
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Speaker 1: I have settled matters with these you see remaining, then
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Speaker 1: my death will come. Prince Ivan burst into a flood
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Speaker 1: of bitter tears and rode on still further, long long
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Speaker 1: did he ride. At last he came to the dwelling
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Speaker 1: of the son's sister. She received him into her house,
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Speaker 1: gave him food and drink, and treated him just as
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Speaker 1: if he had been her own son. The Prince now
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Speaker 1: le an easy life, but it was all no use.
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Speaker 1: He couldn't help being miserable. He longed so to know
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Speaker 1: what was going on at home. He often went to
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Speaker 1: the top of a high mountain and thence gazed at
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Speaker 1: the palace in which he used to live, and could
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Speaker 1: see that it was all eaten away, nothing but the
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Speaker 1: bare walls remained. Then he would sigh and weep. Once
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Speaker 1: when he returned, after he had been thus looking and crying,
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Speaker 1: the sun's sister asked him what makes your eye so
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Speaker 1: red to day, Prince Ivan, the wind has been blowing
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Speaker 1: in them, said he. The same thing happened the second time.
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Speaker 1: Then the Sun's sister ordered the wind to stop blowing. Again.
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Speaker 1: A third time did Prince Ivan come back with a
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Speaker 1: blubbered face. This time there was no help for it.
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Speaker 1: He had to confess everything, and then he took to
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Speaker 1: entreating the son's sister to let him go that he
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Speaker 1: might satisfy himself about his old home. She would not
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Speaker 1: let him go, but he went on urgently entreating. So
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Speaker 1: at last he persuaded her, and she let him go
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Speaker 1: away to find out about his home. But first she
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Speaker 1: provided him for the journey with a brush, a comb,
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Speaker 1: and two youth giving apples. However old any one might be,
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Speaker 1: let him eat one of these apples. He would grow
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Speaker 1: young again in an instant. Well, Prince Ivan came to
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Speaker 1: where Verdigore was. There was only just one mountain left.
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Speaker 1: He took his brush and cast it down on the
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Speaker 1: open plain. Immediately there rose out of the earth. Goodness
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Speaker 1: knows whence high, ever so high, mountains, their peaks touching
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Speaker 1: the sky, And the number of them was such that
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Speaker 1: there were more than the eye could see. Verdigre rejoiced
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Speaker 1: greatly and blithely recommenced his work. After a time, Prince
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Speaker 1: Ivan came to where Vertodob was and found that there
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Speaker 1: were only three trees remaining there. So he took the
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Speaker 1: comb and flung it on the open plain. Immediately from
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Speaker 1: somewhere or other there came a sound of trees, and
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Speaker 1: forth from the ground arose dense oak forests, each stem
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Speaker 1: more huge than the others. Ver Todab was delighted, thanked
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Speaker 1: the prince and set to work uprooting the ancient oaks.
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Speaker 1: By and by, Prince Ivan reached the old woman and
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Speaker 1: gave each of them an apple. They ate them and
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Speaker 1: straightway became young again. So they gave him a handkerchief.
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Speaker 1: You only had to wave it, and behind you lay
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Speaker 1: a whole lake. At last, Prince Ivan arrived at home.
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Speaker 1: Out came running his sister to meet him and caressed
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Speaker 1: him fondly. Sit thee down, my brother, she said, play
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Speaker 1: a tune on the lute while I go and get
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Speaker 1: dinner ready. The Prince sat down and strummed away on
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Speaker 1: the lute goosely. Then there crept a mouse out of
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Speaker 1: a hole, and said to him in a human voice.
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Speaker 1: Save yourself, Prince, run away quick. Your sister has gone
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Speaker 1: to sharpen her teeth. Prince Ivan fled from the room,
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Speaker 1: jumped upon his horse, and galloped away back. Meanwhile, the
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Speaker 1: mouse kept running over the strings of the lute. They twanged,
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Speaker 1: and the sister never guessed that her brother was off.
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Speaker 1: When she had sharpened her teeth, she burst into the room.
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Speaker 1: Lo and behold, not a soul was there, nothing but
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Speaker 1: the mouse bolting into his hole. The witch waxed wroth,
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Speaker 1: ground her teeth like anything, and set off in pursuit.
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Speaker 1: Prince Ivan heard a loud noise and looked back. There
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Speaker 1: was his sister chasing him. So he waved his handkerchief,
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Speaker 1: and a deep lake lay behind him. While the witch
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Speaker 1: was swimming across the water, Prince Ivan got a long
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Speaker 1: way ahead, but on she came faster than ever, and
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Speaker 1: now she was close at hand. Verte Dub guessed that
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Speaker 1: the prince was trying to escape from his sister, so
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Speaker 1: he began tearing up oaks and strewing them across the road.
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Speaker 1: A regular mountain did he pile up. There was no
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Speaker 1: passing by for the witch, so she set to work
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Speaker 1: to clear the way. She gnawed and gnawed, and at
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Speaker 1: length contrived by hard work to bore her way through.
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Speaker 1: But by this time Prince Ivan was far ahead. On
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Speaker 1: she dashed in pursuit, chased and chased just a little more,
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Speaker 1: and it would be impossible for him to escape. But
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Speaker 1: Verdigor spied the witch, laid hold of the very highest
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Speaker 1: of all the mountains, pitched it down all of a
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Speaker 1: heap on the road, and flung another mountain right on
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Speaker 1: top of it. While the witch was climbing and clambering,
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Speaker 1: Prince Ivan rode and rowed and found himself a long
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Speaker 1: way ahead. At last, the witch got across the mountain
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Speaker 1: and once more set off in pursuit of her brother.
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Speaker 1: By and by she caught sight of him and exclaimed,
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Speaker 1: you shan't get away from me this time. And now
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Speaker 1: she is close. Now she is just going to catch him.
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Speaker 1: At that very moment, Prince Ivan dashed up to the
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Speaker 1: abode of the son's sister and cried son's son open
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Speaker 1: the window. The son's sister opened the window, and the
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Speaker 1: prince bounded through it, horse and all. Then the witch
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Speaker 1: began to ask that her brother might be given up
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Speaker 1: to her for punishment. The son's sister would not listen
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Speaker 1: to her, nor would she give him up. Then the
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Speaker 1: witch said, let Prince Ivan be weighed against me, to
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Speaker 1: see which is the heavier. If I am, then I
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Speaker 1: will eat him. But if he is, then let him
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Speaker 1: kill me. This was done. Prince Ivan was the first
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Speaker 1: to get into one of the scales, than the witch
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Speaker 1: began to get into the other. But no sooner had
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Speaker 1: she set foot in it than up shot Prince Ivan
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Speaker 1: in the air, and that with such force that he
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Speaker 1: flew right up into the sky and into the house
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Speaker 1: of the Sun's sister. But as for the Witch Snake,
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Speaker 1: she remained down below on earth. The making of the
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Speaker 1: Mirror Japanese. Now, when Ama Terasu, the Sun Goddess ascended
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Speaker 1: into her kingdom, she reigned there peacefully in great glory,
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Speaker 1: and the fair light of her beauty flooded the earth
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Speaker 1: and the heavens. Her brother Susawo, at the time of
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Speaker 1: his banishment to the underworld, beheld her shining and said,
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Speaker 1: I will go and bid fairwell to my sister, the
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Speaker 1: Sun Goddess. Ere I depart. So he mounted to heaven
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Speaker 1: with such sudden violence that the rivers and mountains shook
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Speaker 1: and groaned aloud, and every land and country quaked. Ema
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Speaker 1: Terasu was greatly alarmed and said, I know my brother
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Speaker 1: desires to take my kingdom from me. So she girt
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Speaker 1: on her ten span sword and her nine span sword,
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Speaker 1: and her necklace of five hundred jewels, which she twisted
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Speaker 1: round her hair and arms, and she slung on her
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Speaker 1: thousand arrow quiver and great high sounding elbow shield. Then
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Speaker 1: she brandished her bow and stamped her feet into the
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Speaker 1: hard ground till it fell away from her like rotten snow,
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Speaker 1: and she stood valiantly, uttering a mighty cry of defiance.
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Speaker 1: Then Sousu Woe stood on the far side of the
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Speaker 1: tranquil river of Heaven, which is the Milky Way, and
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Speaker 1: answered her softly with fair words, O, my sister, I
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Speaker 1: am come hither with a pure heart to bid THEE farewell.
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Speaker 1: Why dost thou put on a stern countenance. Let me
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Speaker 1: but see THEE once and speak with THEE face to face.
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Speaker 1: Ere I depart. Then the heart of the sun Goddess
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Speaker 1: was softened, and she let him enter and cross the
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Speaker 1: river of Heaven. But even here Sousa Woe could not
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Speaker 1: rest from his turbulent ways. Now in her wisdom, Ama
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Speaker 1: Teresu would wonder how best to help and comfort mankind.
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Speaker 1: And on a certain day she sent Souso Woe on
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Speaker 1: a journey to find her sister, the Food Goddess, as
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Speaker 1: she had many things to inquire of her. When the
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Speaker 1: Food got Us looked and saw Sousu Woe descending toward her,
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Speaker 1: she quickly prepared a great banquet in his honor, and
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Speaker 1: by her miraculous power, she produced from her mouth boiled
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Speaker 1: rice and every kind of fish and game. But Susa Woe,
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Speaker 1: watching her, flew into a rage and cried out, thou
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Speaker 1: art unclean. Dost thou offer me what comes from thy mouth?
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Speaker 1: And he took out his sword and slew her. When
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Speaker 1: Ama Teresu heard this, she was very wroth with her
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Speaker 1: brother and sent a second messenger to see if the
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Speaker 1: Food Goddess were really dead. And when he found her,
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Speaker 1: behold a miracle. All things good for man were growing
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Speaker 1: from her head and body, millet and grass, mulberry trees
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Speaker 1: with silkworms on them, rice and wheat, and large and
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Speaker 1: small beans. The messenger took them all and presented them
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Speaker 1: to the Sun Goddess, who rejoiced greatly. And gave them
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Speaker 1: to mankind rice for the wet fields and other grains
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Speaker 1: for the dry. And she planted the mulberry trees on
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Speaker 1: the fragrant hills of heaven, and chewed the cocoons of
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Speaker 1: the silkworms and spun thread to weave silk garments for
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Speaker 1: the gods. Now, one day, while she was weaving with
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Speaker 1: her maidens in the sacred hall, word was brought to
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Speaker 1: her that her brother had trampled the rice fields and
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Speaker 1: polluted her storehouses. And when she sought to excuse him,
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Speaker 1: he angered her yet more by his folly and violence.
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Speaker 1: So Ama Teresu covered her face, and in her grief
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Speaker 1: and anger, she hid herself from the sight of all
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Speaker 1: men in a rocky cave and closed the door. When
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Speaker 1: her radiance was hidden, all the world was left in
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Speaker 1: deep darkness and confusion. The whole plain of Heaven was obscured,
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Speaker 1: and the land of the reed plains darkened. Night and
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Speaker 1: day were unknown, and neither in Heaven nor earth was
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Speaker 1: there any light at all. The sound of many voices
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Speaker 1: rose and fell like the swarming of bees, and everywhere
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Speaker 1: was trouble and dismay. In the midst of the gloom,
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Speaker 1: the eighty myriads of gods met together in council, and
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Speaker 1: their meeting place was on the banks of the milky
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Speaker 1: Way of Heaven. And the great Wise God, wiser than
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Speaker 1: his fellows, who held in his mind the thoughts and
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Speaker 1: imaginings of all men, said softly, she is a woman,
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Speaker 1: and surely will be curious. Let us show her something
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Speaker 1: more beautiful than herself. But as in all high heaven,
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Speaker 1: nothing fairer could be found. They made a mighty mirror,
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Speaker 1: forged by the blacksmith God from the metals of heaven.
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Speaker 1: Yet the gods were not satisfied, and commanded him to
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Speaker 1: make another. So, with his anvil from the milky Way
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Speaker 1: and bellows fashioned from a single deer skin, he forged
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Speaker 1: a second, and yet a third, And this last was
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Speaker 1: perfect and flawless in shape, like the sun. And they
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Speaker 1: licked great fires outside the cave and hung the mirror
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Speaker 1: there on the branches of the sacred Sakaki tree. Above
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Speaker 1: it a necklace of ever bright and glittering jewels, and
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Speaker 1: below it some strips of fine woven cloth. Then the
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Speaker 1: Wise God took from his fellows six long bows and
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Speaker 1: bound them together and placed them upright in the ground
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Speaker 1: and gently brushed the strings, and the fair goddess amen
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Speaker 1: O Wuzamae was led forth to dance, her flowing sleeves
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Speaker 1: bound up with the creeping plant masaki, and her head
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Speaker 1: dress of trailing katsura vine gathered from the mountains of
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Speaker 1: heavenly fragrance, and in her hands the branches of young
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Speaker 1: bamboos hung with tiny bells. These she waved rhythmically to
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Speaker 1: and fro to the sound of her stepping, And as
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Speaker 1: the humming of the bowstrings rose and fell, the eighty
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Speaker 1: myriad gods sat around her and joyfully beat the measure.
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Speaker 1: She sang of the beauty of an unknown goddess, and
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Speaker 1: as her body swayed in cadence, the great assembly of
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Speaker 1: gods laughed aloud till the vault of heaven and shook
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Speaker 1: the sun. Goddess wondered greatly at all this mirth and music,
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Speaker 1: and said, how is it that while the whole plain
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Speaker 1: of Heaven and the land of the reed plains is darkened,
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Speaker 1: Uzume sings and frolics, and the eighty myriad gods do laugh.
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Speaker 1: She peeped inquisitive out of the cave. Uzumee still sang
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Speaker 1: of the beauty of the unknown goddess, and the words
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Speaker 1: of the first song were these gods from the cavern's
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Speaker 1: gloom comes she majestical, shall not our hearts rejoice? Mine
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Speaker 1: is the victory. Who can resist my charms? Hail ever
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Speaker 1: shining one and wondering, longing, yet unwilling to venture forth.
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Speaker 1: Ama Terasu looked from the depths of the cave and
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Speaker 1: listened to the strains and her the gods make merry
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Speaker 1: till opening wider the door, she stood upon the threshold.
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Speaker 1: Two gods hastily held forward the mirror, and she saw,
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Speaker 1: amazed the vision of her own exceeding loveliness. Then the
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Speaker 1: first flush of dawn appeared. Suddenly in the east there
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Speaker 1: was a stir as of awakening birds. The mountain tops
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Speaker 1: blushed pink, and all the gods held their breath. She
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Speaker 1: stepped forward softly, still gazing entranced, while broad shafts of
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Speaker 1: light shot upward in the sky, and her glory filled
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Speaker 1: the air with rosy radiance. As she looked on in
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Speaker 1: her ineffable beauty, the wise god, twisting a rice straw rope,
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Speaker 1: stretched it across the mouth of the cave. For never
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Speaker 1: more could she desire to hide her face a sorrowing world,
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Speaker 1: and thus with the sunshine came music and dancing for
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Speaker 1: the delight of men. In Norse mythology, the story is
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Speaker 1: told that the heavenly bodies were formed of the sparks
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Speaker 1: from Muspelheim. The gods did not create him, but they
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Speaker 1: placed them in the heavens to give light to the world,
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Speaker 1: and assigned them a prescribed locality and motion. Mundalfery was
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Speaker 1: the father of the Sun and Moon. He had two children,
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Speaker 1: a son and a daughter, so lovely and graceful that
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Speaker 1: he called the boy Maine Moon, and the girl Soul Sun.
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Speaker 1: And Soul he gave in marriage to Glenner, the Shining One.
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Speaker 1: The gods, however, were much incensed at the presumption of Mundalfery,
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Speaker 1: so they took his two children and placed them in
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Speaker 1: the heavens, where they let Soul drive the horses of
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Speaker 1: the Sun, while Maine guides the moon and regulates its
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Speaker 1: increasing and waning aspect, very closely akin to a god
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Speaker 1: in the sun. In Norse mythology is Balder the Good.
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Speaker 1: He is the favorite of all the gods and of
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Speaker 1: all men and nature. So fair and dazzling is he
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Speaker 1: in form and features that rays of light seemed to
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Speaker 1: issue from him. Some idea of the beauty of his
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Speaker 1: hair may be formed from the fact that the whitest
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Speaker 1: of all plants is called Balder's brow. Balder is described
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Speaker 1: as the mildest, the wisest, and the most eloquent of
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Speaker 1: all the gods. Yet such is his nature that the
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Speaker 1: judgment he has pronounced can never be altered. He dwells
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Speaker 1: in the heavenly mansion called Brideblick, meaning the broad, shining
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Speaker 1: splendor into which nothing unclean can enter. He is, in
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Speaker 1: fact the god of light. Someone says of him. Light
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Speaker 1: is the best thing we have in the world. It
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Speaker 1: is white and pure. It cannot be wounded. No shock
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Speaker 1: can disturb it. Nothing in the world can kill it,
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Speaker 1: excepting its own negative darkness. Hotter Loki Fire is jealous
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Speaker 1: of it. The pure light of heaven and the blaze
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Speaker 1: of fire are each other's enemies. Balder does not fight.
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Speaker 1: The mythology gives no exploits by him. He only shines
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Speaker 1: and dazzles, conferring blessings upon all, and this he continues
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Speaker 1: to do, steadfast and unchangeable, until darkness steals upon him.
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Speaker 1: Darkness that does not itself know what harm it is doing,
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Speaker 1: and when Balder is dead, cries of lamentation are heard
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Speaker 1: throughout all nature. How his death occurred will be related
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Speaker 1: in the story of him in this chapter. The god
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Speaker 1: of Sun in Egypt was Ra, though Osiris is often
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Speaker 1: called the god of the Sun and probably was identified
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Speaker 1: with the Sun in some stage of the long development
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Speaker 1: of this myth. As already mentioned, Like Balder and other
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Speaker 1: sun gods, Ra has his fight with the demon of
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Speaker 1: darkness in the underworld, as described in an ancient Egyptian papyrus,
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Speaker 1: a translation of which is given in this chapter. In
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Speaker 1: Greek mythology, there are two gods of thee Sun and
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Speaker 1: two goddesses of the moon. The older ones were Helios
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Speaker 1: and Selene, but they became identified with the later celebrated
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Speaker 1: pair Phoebus, Apollo and Artemis or Diana, as the Romans
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Speaker 1: called her, the children of Zeus, the god of the
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Speaker 1: sky and Latona. Apollo was not only a god of
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Speaker 1: the Sun who brought the warm sun and spring, but
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Speaker 1: he was the healer who warded off the dangers and
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Speaker 1: diseases of summer and autumn. He had a temple at Delphi,
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Speaker 1: where a priestess was wont to give forth oracles in
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Speaker 1: regard to the future supposed to be revealed by Apollo.
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Speaker 1: He was a founder of cities, a promoter of colonization,
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Speaker 1: a giver of good laws, and finally he was the
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Speaker 1: patron of music and poetry. To him were sacred the wolf,
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Speaker 1: the roe, the mouse, the he goat, the ram, the dolphin,
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Speaker 1: and the swan. An ancient temn by Callimachus two forty
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Speaker 1: b c. Describes him as follows, how hath the laurel
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Speaker 1: shoot of Apollo heaved? How the whole of the shrine
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Speaker 1: afar afar be ye sinners. Now verily doth Phoebus knock
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Speaker 1: at the doors with beauteous foot, see you not the
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Speaker 1: Delian palm has nodded in a pleasant fashion on a
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Speaker 1: sudden and the swan sings sweetly on the air. Now
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Speaker 1: of your own accord. Fall back, ye bolts, of the doors,
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Speaker 1: and of yourselves, ye bars, For no longer is the
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Speaker 1: god afar off. Make ready, ye young men, for the
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Speaker 1: song and the choir. Not to every one doth Apollo
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Speaker 1: manifest himself, but to only the good whoso shall have
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Speaker 1: seen him. Great is he small, that man who hath
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Speaker 1: not seen him. We shall behold thee o far darter,
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Speaker 1: and shall be no more of small account, nor silent lear,
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Speaker 1: nor noiseless tread should the servants of Phoebus have when
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Speaker 1: he sojourns among them. Listen and keep holy silence at
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Speaker 1: the song in honor of Apollo. Golden are both the
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Speaker 1: garden and clasp of Apollo, his lear, his Lyceean beau,
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Speaker 1: and his quiver, golden too his sandals. For Apollo is
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Speaker 1: rich in gold, and has many possessions, and in indeed
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Speaker 1: he is ever beauteous, ever young great too in art
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Speaker 1: is no one so much as Apollo. To Phoebus, the
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Speaker 1: care of the beau, as well as of song is
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Speaker 1: entrusted to him. Likewise belong divinations and diviners, And from
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Speaker 1: Phoebus physicians have learned the art of delaying death, and
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Speaker 1: following Phoebus, men are wont to measure out cities, for Phoebus,
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Speaker 1: ever delights in founding cities, and Phoebus himself lays their foundations.
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Speaker 1: The twin sister of Apollo, Artemis, is first of all
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Speaker 1: the goddess of the moon. Its slender arc is her beaw,
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Speaker 1: its beams are her arrows, with which she sends upon
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Speaker 1: womankind a painless death. She determined herself never to fall
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Speaker 1: in love or marry, and so she imposed upon the
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Speaker 1: nymphs she gathered about her vows of perpetual maidenhood, and
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Speaker 1: if any of them broke these vows, she punished them
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Speaker 1: severely and swiftly. Graceful in form and free of movement,
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Speaker 1: Equipped for the chase, and surrounded by a bevy of
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Speaker 1: fair companions, the swift, rushing goddess was wont to scour hill, valley,
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Speaker 1: forest and plain. She was, however, not only huntress, but
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Speaker 1: guardian of wild beasts, mistress of horses and kine, and
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Speaker 1: other domestic brutes. She ruled marsh and mountain. Her gleaming
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Speaker 1: arrows smote sea as well as land springs and woodland brooks.
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Speaker 1: She favored, for in them she and her attendants were
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Speaker 1: accustomed to bathe. She blessed with verdure the meadows and
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Speaker 1: arable lands, and from them obtained a meed of thanks.
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Speaker 1: When weary of the chase, she turned to music and dancing,
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Speaker 1: for the lear and flute and song were dear to
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Speaker 1: her muses. Graces, nymphs and the fair goddesses themselves thronged
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Speaker 1: the rights of the chorus leading queen, but ordinarily a
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Speaker 1: woodland chapel or a rustic altar sufficed for her worship.
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Speaker 1: There the hunter laid his offering antlers, skin, or eatable
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Speaker 1: portions of the deer that Artemis of the Golden Arrows
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Speaker 1: had herself vouchsafed him. She was mistress of the brute creation,
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Speaker 1: protectress of the youth, patron of temperance in all things,
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Speaker 1: guardian of civil right. The cypress tree was sacred to her,
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Speaker 1: and her favorite rits were the bear, the boar, the dog,
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Speaker 1: the goat, and especially the hind. A pretty picture is
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Speaker 1: given of Artemis in a hymn by Callimachus, which describes how,
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Speaker 1: when sitting yet a blooming child, on the knees of
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Speaker 1: her sire, she thus addressed him, grant me, kind father,
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Speaker 1: to preserve eternal maidenhood and many names, that so Phoebus
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Speaker 1: may not vie with me, and give me arrows and bow.
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Speaker 1: Grant it, sire, I ask not a quiver of thee
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Speaker 1: nor a large bow. The Cyclops will forthwith forge me
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Speaker 1: arrows and fashion a flexible bow. And I ask to
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Speaker 1: be girt as far as the knee, with a tunic
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Speaker 1: of colored border, that I may slay wild beasts. And
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Speaker 1: give me sixty ocean nymphs to form my chorus, all
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Speaker 1: young and of the same age. Give me likewise as attendants,
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Speaker 1: twenty amnesian nymphs, who may duly take care of my buskins.
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Speaker 1: And when I no longer am shooting, lynxes and stags,
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Speaker 1: may tend my fleet dogs. Give me all mountains, and
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Speaker 1: a sign to me any city, whichsoever thou choosest, for
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Speaker 1: twill be rare. When Artemis shall go down into a
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Speaker 1: city on mountains, will I dwell? Thus having spoken, the
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Speaker 1: maiden wished to touch the beard of her sire, and
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Speaker 1: oft outstretched her hands to no purpose until at last
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Speaker 1: she might touch it. Then her father assented with a smile,
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Speaker 1: and said, as he fondled her, have child, whatever you
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Speaker 1: ask of your own choice. But other, yet greater gifts
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Speaker 1: will your sire bestow thrice. Ten cities will I present
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Speaker 1: to you, which shall not learn to honor any other
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Speaker 1: god but THEE alone, and shall be called the cities
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Speaker 1: of Artemis. And I will give THEE many cities to
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Speaker 1: measure out in common with other gods on the continent
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Speaker 1: and islands. In all shall be altars and sacred groves
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Speaker 1: of Artemis. And thou shalt be guardian over ways and harbors.
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Speaker 1: End of Chapter five, Part two,