Gaia

“ Finally, the series of scenes in which men are represented hammering on the head of a female figure rising from the earth [887] may be regarded as referring to Gaia, with allusion to the custom of smiting on the earth to raise spirits. In this connection Gaia is undoubtedly to be identified with Pandora (see below) . [888] A cognate subject is that of a similar female head or bust in company with Eros, sometimes found on late Italian vases. [889] If Gaia is here intended, her connection with Eros finds some support in the poetic cosmogonies [890] ; otherwise it may be Aphrodite. ”

“ Some praenomina were taken from the men's names, like Gaia, Lucia, Publia, and Numeria. Moreover, Gaia is famous for one use above all, since they say that Gaia Caecilia, the wife of Tarquinius Priscus was the best wool-worker and as a result the custom was instituted that when young brides were asked what they were called outside their husband's door, they would say that they were Gaia. ”

“ The chief features of the myth, as drawn by Mr. Andrew Lang from Greek literature, [6] were the following: Gaea or Earth gave birth to Uranus or Heaven, and later she became her son's wife: they had many children, some of whom were gods of the elements, such as Oceanus, the deep, Hyperion, the sun, and Cronus of Crooked Counsel, who ever hated his mighty sire. Now Heaven used to hide his children from the light in the hollows of Earth, which both she and they resented. ”

“ It was not so very long before, that Galileo—an earlier maker of telescopes—had been accused by the learned scribes and pharisees of his day, of magic. ‘Oh, my dear Kepler,’ says Galileo to his brother astronomer in one of his most amusing letters, ‘how I wish that we could have one hearty laugh together! Here at Padua is the principal professor of philosophy, whom I have repeatedly and earnestly requested to look at the moon and planets through my glass, which he pertinaciously refuses to do. Why are you not here? ”

“ But astronomy is a very enervating branch of science. Galileo frequently came down to breakfast with red, heavy eyes; eyes that were swollen full of unshed tears. Still he persevered. Day after day he worked and toiled. Year after year he went on with his task till he had worked out in his own mind the satellites of Jupiter and placed a small tin tag on each one, so that he would know it readily when he saw it again. Then he began to look up Saturn's rings and investigate the freckles on the sun. ”

“ Mars, the God of War; Venus, Minerva, Mercury and all the other gods and goddesses and many lesser deities. They drank nectar, poured by Hebe or Ganymede, and ate ambrosia, which gave immortal life. Their statures were immense, for when Jupiter shook the locks of his hair the stars trembled, but they often disguised themselves as earthly beings and mingled with mankind. At times they issued commands through the voice of an oracle, or displayed anger through some exhibition of nature, such as when Jupiter threw his thunderbolts. ”

“ Your loyal and excellent fellow citizens, the only nation of men upon the whole face of the earth by whom Gaius is not esteemed to be a god, appear now to be even desiring to plot my death in their obstinate disobedience, for when I commanded my statue in the character of Jupiter to be erected in their temple, they raised the whole of their people, and quitted the city and the whole country in a body, under pretence of addressing a petition to me, but in reality being determined to act in a manner contrary to the commands which I had imposed upon them. ”

“ At this point, although I had not turned my thoughts at all upon the approximation of the stars to one another, yet my surprise began to be excited, how Jupiter could one day be found to the east of all the aforesaid fixed stars when the day before it had been west of two of them; and forthwith I became afraid lest the planet might have moved differently from the calculation of astronomers, and so had passed those stars by its own proper motion. ”

“ Elena giggled, for she was not aware that any one had seen her use her cuff for a memo pad.
"Before we leave Jupiter, I think that I should add that Galileo—the man who first used a telescope, you know—sought for Jupiter one night and discovered the moons travelling around the great planet. Poor Galileo tried to prove to his fellowmen that the earth was not the only world but that it was a mere planet like many others to be seen. Folks in those days believed that the earth was the centre of all things and that the sun naturally travelled around it, as the moon and stars did, also. ”

“ We have all read of Galileo the astronomer who, contrary to the system of astronomy that had been received for ages before his day, taught that the sun, and not the earth, was the centre of our planetary system? ”

“ Gaius. "Come, sir," said good Gaius, "be of good cheer: you are welcome to me and to my house. What thou hast a mind to, call for freely; and what thou wouldst have my servants do for thee, they will do it with a ready mind."
Then said Mr. Feeble-mind, "This is an unexpected favor, and as the sun shining out of a very dark cloud. Did Giant Slay-good intend me this favor when he stopped me, and resolved to let me go no farther? Did he intend that, after he had rifled my pockets, I should go to Gaius, mine host? Yet so it is." ”

“ Jupiter, Jupiter, I maintain, at the instant of the birth of your highness having at length emerged from the turbid mists of the horizon, and being in possession of the middle quarter of the heavens, and illuminating the eastern angle, from his own royal house, from that exalted throne, looked out upon your most happy birth, and poured forth into a most pure atmosphere all the brightness of his majesty, in order that your tender body and your mind—though that was already adorned by God with still more splendid graces—might imbibe with your first breath the whole of that influence and power. ”

“ So there they went, and the host, whose name was Gaius, said: Come in, for my house was built for none but such as you.
Great-heart:—Good Gaius, let us sup. What have you for us to eat? We have gone through great toils, and stand much in want of food.
Gaius:—It is too late for us to go out and seek food; but of such as we have you shall eat. ”

“ There was a gate of clouds on the top of Mount Olympus that the goddesses, who were known as the Seasons, opened to allow the inhabitants of the Mount to descend to the earth and return. Jupiter, the ruler of the gods, sat on the Olympian throne holding thunderbolts and darts of lightning in his mighty hands. The same arts and labors as those of men were practised by these celestial beings. ”

“ There is something almost startling in their appearance of companionship with the huge planet—this sudden verification to your eyes of the laws of gravitation and of central forces. It is easy, while looking at Jupiter amid his family, to understand the consternation of the churchmen when Galileo’s telescope revealed that miniature of the solar system, and it is gratifying to gaze upon one of the first battle grounds whereon science gained a decisive victory for truth. ”

“ Whereas Jupiter, and still more Saturn, are seen well [111] defined; and their light is without intensity, and, if I may say so, quiescent. Wherefore I think that we shall rightly apply our philosophy if we refer the cause of the twinkling of the fixed stars to vibrations of a brilliancy, which is their own, belonging to their constitution, and inherent in their substance, and say, on the other hand, that the illumination of the planets, which is derived from the sun, and distributed to the world, is limited to their surface. ”

“ For just as these stars, like children worthy of their sire, never leave the side of Jupiter by any appreciable distance, so who does not know that clemency, kindness of heart, gentleness of manners, splendour of royal blood, nobleness in public functions, wide extent of influence and power over others, all of which have fixed their common abode and seat in your highness,—who, I say, does not know that all these qualities, according to the providence of God, from whom all good things do come, emanate from the benign star of Jupiter? ”

“ For what language is too strong for the marvellous beauty of this orb, if, having no light of its own, it can attain simply by the borrowed light of the sun to such splendour, as Jupiter has not, nor the moon, though enjoying a proximity to the sun as close as Venus; for if the moon’s light be compared with the light of Venus, it will be seen to be certainly greater on account of the apparent magnitude of the moon, but, in comparison with the light of Venus, dull, dead, and leaden. ”

“ Life was an emanation from the stars—the sun governed the heart, and the moon the brain. Jupiter governed the liver, Saturn the gall, Mercury the lungs, Mars the bile, and Venus the loins. In the stomach of every human being there dwelt a demon, or intelligence, that was a sort of alchymist in his way, and mixed, in their due proportions, in his crucible, the various aliments that were sent into that grand laboratory, the belly.40 He was proud of the title of magician, and boasted that he kept up a regular correspondence with Galen from hell ”

“ Uranus, the more refined deity, represented the light and air of heaven, possessing the distinguishing qualities of light, heat, purity, and omnipresence, whilst Gæa, the firm, flat, [1] life-sustaining earth, was worshipped as the great all-nourishing mother. Her many titles refer to her more or less in this character, and she appears to have been universally revered among the Greeks, there being scarcely a city in Greece which did not contain a temple erected in her honour ”

“ In this mighty war, which rent the very heavens with the crash of battle, Jupiter at last conquered all his jealous enemies, and made himself ruler of the gods and of the world.1 On that day he established his dwelling place on Mount Olympus, and set the earth below him for a footstool. From his throne in the high heavens he looked down upon the kingdoms that he had portioned out to each of his brothers ”

“ Earth, overcome with heat and thirst, could say no more. Then Jupiter, calling the gods to witness that all was lost unless some speedy remedy were applied, thundered, brandished a lightning bolt in his right hand, launched it against the charioteer, and struck him at the same moment from his seat and from existence. ”

“ Many of the Greek philosophers looked upon the Olympian Jupiter as only an emblem of the atmosphere, and little suspected that the day would come when that great god of antiquity would be anatomized, dissected, and his various parts and qualities displayed. How often do things which have struck one generation with awe become commonplace affairs in another! ”

“ Gaius is not here. You have now had a sufficient tranquil sleep, but now turn and raise yourself, and rest upon your elbow, and recognise those who are about you; they are all your own people, those of your friends, and freedmen, and domestics, who honour you above all others, and who are honoured by you in return. ”

“ In the character of Gaius, we see one who used the world as not abusing it. He was blessed with all the necessary comforts and conveniences of life, and very probably upon the whole, was in a very prosperous condition as it regards temporal matters ”

“ When Jupiter went wandering on the earth in search of adventures other than the wooing of some maiden, he often made Mercury his companion, for this slender young god was his favorite among all the dwellers of Olympus. One day both the gods, disguised as travelers, stopped at the hut of an aged couple named Philemon and Baucis ”

“ But the discovery which was at once perceived to be most important in itself, and most revolutionary in its effects, was that of Jupiter’s satellites, first seen by Galileo on the 7th of January 1610, and by him named Sidera Medicea, in honour of the grand-duke of Tuscany, Cosmo II., who had been his pupil, and was about to become his employer. An illustration is, with the general run of mankind, more powerful to convince than an argument ”

“ How joyfully she mounted! sometimes looking up to marvel at the height of the steps, which seemed to ascend into the very sky, sometimes looking down at her little shell of honey, thinking how brightly it shone, like pure gold, and how pleased Jupiter would be with it. At last she stood upon the summit of Olympus, and with timid step walked through the circle of gazing immortals, until she came before the throne of Jupiter. ”

“ The Grecians, however, ascribing all things to the gods, thought that the phenomenon was due to Jupiter, who, sometimes wishing to keep his business on earth secret from the other immortals on Mount Olympus, kept them from seeing him by hanging a little covering over the sun.
"The Olympian Father hangs a noon-day night
O'er the sun's disk and veils its glittering light,
Fear falls on man. ”

“ In common with all other Greek and Roman divinities, Jupiter, though immortal, was subject to pleasure, pain, grief, and anger, and a prey to all the passions which rule the hearts of men.
OLYMPIAN ZEUS.—Flaxman.
It was he who presided at the councils held on the top of “many-peaked Olympus,” and summoned the gods whenever he wished to discuss with them any matter of importance, or to [Pg 41] indulge in a sumptuous repast, when they ate the celestial ambrosia and quaffed the fragrant nectar. ”

“ He 267represented and indeed personated Jupiter, the great god of the oak, the sky, and the thunder, and in that character made rain, thunder, and lightning for the good of his subjects, like many more kings of the weather in other parts of the world. Further, he not only mimicked the oak-god by wearing an oak wreath and other insignia of divinity, but he was married to an oak-nymph Egeria, who appears to have been merely a local form of Diana in her character of a goddess of woods, of waters, and of childbirth. ”