Page:Greek and Roman Mythology.djvu/39

 THE GREEK GODS 25 stuns or kills ; their bellowing is the roar of the thunder ; wings carry them through the air. When the head of Medusa was cut off, the monster Chrysaor (' gold-sword/ the golden flash of the lightning) sprang from her body, and also the winged horse Pegasus (the thundercloud), at the stamp of whose hoof (lightning) the spring of the Muses, Hippocrene (' horse spring '), which inspires all poets, gushed forth on Mount Helicon. After serv- ing Bellerophon, Pegasus bears in heaven the lightning of Zeus. Medusa was killed by Athena for the same reason as that for which the Giants were conquered by Zeus. That is, in the phenomena of the thunder- storm the element of power that is hostile to mankind, embodied in these monsters, soon disappears ; but rain and fertility, which men regard as gifts of the divinity of the storm, endure after the storm has vented its rage. Like Zeus, Athena becomes, on account of this contest and victory, the goddess of war and victory in general, so that she bears the epithets Promachos (' leader of the combat ') and Nike (' victory '). 37. In the dry season of the year, the rain, which pro- motes the growth of vegetation, sometimes pours from the thundercloud; and so Athena was the protectress of the chief sources of the wealth of Attica, namely, fruit culture and agriculture, and consequently of the cultivated land. Therefore the second principal type of her representation in art exhibits a matronly, enthroned goddess, who is visually called Athena Polias (' goddess of the city '). On the Acropolis of Athens was an ancient olive tree, which, it was said, the goddess had caused to spring up when she strove with Poseidon for the dominion over the country.