Page:Greek and Roman Mythology.djvu/22

 8 GREEK AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY Pyriphlegethon : Ovid, Met. v. 544 ; Vergil, Aen. vi. 551 ; Pope, Ode on St. Cecilia's Day 50 : - Th' infernal bounds, Which flaming Phlegethon surrounds. Lethe : Ovid, Trist. iv. 1, 47 : - Utque soporiferae liberem si pocula Lethes, Temporis adversi sic mini sensus hebet. Vergil, Aen. vi. 705, 714; Tennyson, In Memoriam xliii. : And in the long harmonious years (If Death so taste Lethean springs) May some dim touch of earthly things Surprise thee ranging with thy peers. Milton, Par. L. ii. 583 : - Lethe, the river of oblivion, rolls Her wat'ry labyrinth, whereof who drinks Forthwith his former state and being forgets, Forgets both joy and grief, pleasure and pain. Shak., King Henry IV. pt. ii. v. 2, 72, King Richard III. iv. 4, 250 ; Spenser, F. Q. i. iii. 36. Charon : Vergil, Aen. vi. 298 : - Portitor has horrendus aquas et flumina servat Terribili squalore Charon. Pope, Dunciad iii. 19 : Taylor, their better Charon, lends an oar. Swift, A Quibbling Elegy on Judge Boat : Our Boat is now sail'd to the Stygian ferry, There to supply old Charon's leaky wherry; Charon in him will ferry souls to Hell ; A trade our Boat has practised here so well. Shak., Troilus and Cressida iii. 2, 11. Cerberus : The conception of a dog guarding the lower world is very old. In the Rig Veda there are frequent allusions to the offspring of Sarama, the bitch of Indra, who conduct to the other world those whom Yama summons. In Vendidad, xiii. 9 of the Avesta, dogs are represented as sentinels of the other world. In the Funeral hymn, another portion of which is cited below, the dogs appear in one stanza in a hostile attitude, in the others as kind to those whom they conduct. They are mentioned in Rig Veda vii. 55, 2-3, x. 14, 10. Rig Veda x. 14 :