“ A daughter of Agenor, king of Phœnicia, and Telaphassa. Her beauty attracted Jupiter, and to become possessed of her he assumed the shape of a handsome bull, and mingled with the herds of Agenor while Europa was gathering flowers in the meadows. She caressed the animal, and mounted on his back. The god crossed the sea with her, and arrived in Crete, where he assumed his proper form, and declared his love. She became mother of Minos, Sarpedon, and Rhadamanthus. ”

“ Hero ́des, surnamed the Great, followed the fortunes of Brutus and Cassius, and afterwards those of Antony. He was made king of Judæa by the aid of Antony, and after the battle of Actium he was continued in power by submission to and flattery of Augustus. He rendered himself odious by his cruelty, and as he knew his death would be a cause for rejoicing, he ordered a number of the most illustrious of his subjects to be confined and murdered directly he expired, that there might appear to be grief and shedding of tears for his own death. ”

“ At the marriage of Peleus and Thetis, the goddess of discord, who had not been invited, showed her displeasure by throwing into the assembly of the gods, who were at the nuptials, a golden apple, on which were the words: Let it be given to the fairest. The apple was claimed by Juno, Venus, and Minerva. Paris, who had been appointed to award it to the most beautiful of the three goddesses, gave it to Venus. Subsequently Paris visited Sparta, where he persuaded Helen, wife of Menelaus, the most beautiful woman of the age, to elope with him. This caused the Trojan war. ”

“ He learnt the art of war from Epaminondas. He married Olympias, the daughter of Neoptolemus, king of the Molossi, and became father of Alexander the Great. Amongst the most important events of his reign was the battle of Chæronea, which he won from the Greeks. The character of Philip is that of a sagacious, prudent, but artful and intriguing, monarch. He was assassinated by Pausanias at the celebration of the nuptials of his daughter, in the forty-seventh year of his age and the twenty-fourth of his reign, about 336 years before the Christian era. ”

“ A celebrated princess of Greece, daughter of Icarius, and wife of Ulysses, king of Ithaca. She became the mother of Telemachus, and was obliged to part, with great reluctance, from her husband, when the Greeks obliged him to go to the Trojan war. The strife between the hostile forces continued for ten years, and when Ulysses did not return home at the conclusion of the war her fears and anxieties became overwhelming. She was beset by a number of suitors, who told her that her husband would never return, and she ought to give herself to one of her admirers. ”

“ A daughter of Cepheus, king of Æthiopia, and Cassiope. She was promised in marriage to Phineus when Neptune drowned the kingdom and sent a sea monster to ravage the country, because Cassiope had boasted that she was fairer than Juno and the Nereides. The oracle of Jupiter Ammon was consulted, but nothing could stop the resentment of Neptune except the exposure of Andromeda to the sea monster. She was accordingly tied to a rock, but at the moment that the monster was about to devour her, Perseus, returning from the conquest of the Gorgons, saw her, and was captivated with her beauty. ”

“ Mars, the god of war, was the son of Jupiter and Juno, or of Juno alone, according to Ovid. The loves of Mars and Venus are greatly celebrated. On one occasion, while in each other’s company, Vulcan spread a net round them, from which they could not escape without assistance. They were thus exposed to the ridicule of the gods till Neptune induced Vulcan to set them at liberty. During the Trojan war Mars interested himself on the side of the Trojans, and defended the favorites of Venus with great determination. ”

“ One of the most celebrated deities of the ancients; the goddess of beauty, and mother of love. She sprang from the foam of the sea, and was carried to heaven, where all the gods admired her beauty. Jupiter gave her in marriage to Vulcan, but she intrigued with some of the gods, and, notably, with Mars, their offspring being Hermione, Cupid, and Anteros. She became enamored of Adonis, which caused her to abandon Olympus. Her contest for the golden apple, which she gained against her opponents Juno and Minerva, is a prominent episode in mythology. ”

“ Jupiter gave her a beautiful box, which she was ordered to present to the man who married her. This was Epithemeus, brother of Prometheus, who opened the box, from which issued a multitude of evils, which became dispersed all over the world, and which from that fatal moment have never ceased to affect the human race. ”

“ Ant ́iope, daughter of Nycteus, king of Thebes, and Polyxo, was beloved by Jupiter. Amphion and Tethus were her offspring.
Antip ́ater, son of Iolaus, was a soldier under King Philip, and raised to the rank of a general under Alexander the Great. When Alexander went to invade Asia, he left Antipater supreme governor of Macedonia. He has been suspected of giving poison to Alexander to advance himself in power.
Antoni ́nus, surnamed Pius, was adopted by the Emperor Adrian, whom he succeeded. He was remarkable for all the virtues forming a perfect statesman, philosopher, and king. ”

“ Jupiter was educated in a cave on Mount Ida, in Crete, and fed with the milk of the goat Amalthæa. While he was very young he made war on the Titans, whom he conquered. The beginning of his reign in the supernal regions was interrupted by the rebellion of the giants, who were sons of the earth, and who were desirous of revenging the death of the Titans, but by the aid of Hercules, Jupiter overpowered them. Jupiter married Metis, Themis, Ceres, Euronyme, Mnemosyne, Latona, and Juno. His worship was universal: he was the Ammon of the Africans, the Belus of Babylon, and the Osiris of Egypt. ”

“ Mithrida ́tes First, king of Pontus. He was tributary to the crown of Persia: his attempts to make himself independent of that fealty proved fruitless, being defeated in a battle which he had provoked, and having to sue for peace.
Mithrida ́tes, surnamed “Eupator” and “The Great,” succeeded to the throne of Pontus when eleven years of age. The beginning of his reign was marked by ambition and cruelty. At an early age he inured himself to hardships by devoting himself to manly exercises, and sleeping in the open air on the bare earth. ”

“ A Phrygian philosopher who, originally a slave, procured his liberty by his genius. He dedicated his fables to his patron Crœsus. The fables which we have now under his name doubtless are a collection of fables and apologues of wits before and after the age of Æsop, conjointly with his own.
Agamem ́non, king of Mycenæ and Argos, was brother to Menelaus, and son of Plisthenes, the son of Atreus. He married Clytemnestra, and Menelaus Helen, both daughters of Tyndarus, king of Sparta. When Helen eloped with Paris, Agamemnon was elected commander-in-chief of the Grecian forces invading Troy. ”

“ He travelled over the greatest part of Europe, Asia, and Africa, in quest of knowledge, and returned home in the greatest poverty. He indulged in continual laughter at the follies of mankind for distracting themselves with care and anxiety in the short term of their lives. He told Darius, who was inconsolable for the loss of his wife, that he would raise her from the dead if he could find three persons who had gone through life without adversity, whose names he might engrave on the queen’s monument. ”

“ A celebrated magician, daughter of Ætes, king of Colchis, and niece of Circe. When Jason came to Colchis in quest of the Golden Fleece, Medea fell in love with him, and they exchanged oaths of fidelity, and when he had overcome all the difficulties which he had to encounter, Medea embarked with him for Greece. She lived in Corinth with her husband Jason for ten years, with much conjugal happiness, when he became enamored with Glauce, daughter of Creon, king of Corinth. To avenge herself on Jason she caused the destruction of Glauce, and killed her two children in his presence. ”

“ A celebrated Athenian, son of Gryllus, famous as a general, philosopher, and historian. He joined Cyrus the Younger in an expedition against Artaxerxes, king of Persia, and after the decisive battle of Cunaxa, in which Cyrus was defeated and killed, the skill and bravery of Xenophon became conspicuous. He had to direct an army of ten thousand Greeks, who were now more than six hundred leagues from home, and in a country surrounded by an active enemy. ”

“ A fountain of Bœotia, near Mount Helicon, sacred to the Muses. It rose from the ground when struck by the feet of the horse Pegasus.
Hippodami ́a. A daughter of Œnomaus, king of Pisa, who married Pelops, son of Tantalus. Her father would marry her only to some one who should conquer him in a chariot race. Her beauty was great, and many were competitors for her hand, though the conditions involved death in case of defeat in the race. After thirteen suitors had been defeated, Pelops entered the lists, and by bribing the charioteer of Œnomaus, obtained the victory and married Hippodamia. ”

“ A son of Neleus and Chloris, nephew to Pelias, and grandson to Neptune. He was present at the bloody battle between the Lapithæ and the Centaurs, which took place at the nuptials of Pirithous. As king of Pylos he led his soldiers to the Trojan war, where he distinguished himself among the Grecian chieftains by eloquence, wisdom, and prudence. Homer makes his character as the most perfect of all his heroes. After the Trojan war Nestor retired to Greece, where he lived during his declining years in peace and tranquillity. ”

“ A son of Iapetus and Clymene, one of the Oceanides. He ridiculed the gods and deceived Jupiter himself, who, to punish him and the rest of mankind, took fire away from the earth; but Prometheus climbed the heavens by the assistance of Minerva, and stole fire from the chariot of the sun, which he brought down to the earth. This provoked Jupiter, and he ordered Prometheus to be chained to a rock, where a vulture was to feed on his liver, which was never exhausted. He was delivered from his torture by Hercules, who killed the vulture. ”

“ Dari ́us, the second king of Persia of that name, ascended the throne of Persia soon after the murder of Xerxes. He carried on many wars with success, aided by his generals and his son Cyrus the younger. He died B.C. 404, after a reign of nineteen years.
Dari ́us. The third king of Persia of that name. He soon had to take the field against Alexander, who invaded Persia. Darius met him with an enormous army, which, however, was more remarkable for the luxuries indulged in by its leaders than for military courage. ”

“ Adras ́tus, son of Talaus and Lysimache, was king of Argos. Polynices, being banished from Thebes by his brother Eteocles, fled to Argos, where he married Argia, daughter of Adrastus. The king assisted his son-in-law, and marched against Thebes with an army. He was defeated with great slaughter, and fled to Athens, where Theseus gave him assistance, and was victorious. Adrastus died from grief, occasioned by the death of his son Ægialeus.
Adria ́nus. A famous emperor of Rome. He is represented as an active, learned, warlike, and austere general. ”

“ Octavia, however, was slighted for the charms of Cleopatra, which incensed Augustus, who took up arms to avenge the wrongs of his sister, and at the great battle of Actium (B.C. 31) , the forces of Antony and Cleopatra suffered a disastrous defeat.
Aurelia ́nus, emperor of Rome, was austere and cruel in the execution of the laws, and in his treatment of his soldiers. He was famous for his military character, and his expedition against Zenobia, queen of Palmyra, gained him great honors. It is said that in his various battles he killed 800 men with his own hand. ”

“ Neoptol ́emus. A king of Epirus, son of Achilles and Deidamia, called also Pyrrhus. He greatly signalized himself during the siege of Troy, and he was the first who entered the wooden horse. He was inferior to none of the Grecian warriors in valor. Ulysses and Nestor alone were his superiors in eloquence and wisdom.
Ne ́pos, Corne ́lius. A celebrated historian in the reign of Augustus, and, like the rest of his literary contemporaries, he enjoyed the patronage and obtained the favor of the emperor. ”

“ A son of Agenor, king of Phœnicia, or, according to some, a son of Neptune, who became king of Thrace. He married Cleopatra (called by some Cleobula) , the daughter of Boreas, their children being Plexippus and Pandion. After the death of Cleopatra, he married Idæa, the daughter of Dardanus, who, jealous of Cleopatra’s children, accused them of an attempt on their father’s life, and they were condemned by Phineus to have their eyes put out. This cruelty was punished by the gods, Phineus being made blind, and the Harpies were sent by Jupiter to keep him in continual alarm. ”

“ Venus put her to death because of this, but Jupiter, at the request of Cupid, granted immortality to her.
Ptolemæ ́us First, called Ptolemy, surnamed Lagus. A king of Egypt, son of Arsinoe and Lagus. He was educated in the court of the king of Macedonia, and when Alexander invaded Asia Ptolemy attended him. After Alexander’s death Ptolemy obtained the government of Egypt, where he gained the esteem of the people by acts of kindness. He made himself master of Phœnicia and Syria, and rendered assistance to the people of Rhodes against their enemies, for which he received the name of Soter. ”