Page:Greek and Roman Mythology.djvu/62

 48 GREEK AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY 63. Iii the most ancient times but few of the stars figured in mythology. The morning star, Heosphoros or Phosphorus (' light-bringer/ Lat. Lucifer}, is repre- sented as a boy carrying a torch ; the brilliant constella- tion Orion, as a giant hunter, with club raised aloft. Orion was carried off by Eos and killed by Artemis. His dog is Sirius ('the glittering'), the brightest of all the fixed stars, at whose rising the hottest time of the year, dog days, commences. The Bear looks anxiously around at Orion, and the rain goddesses, the starry group of the Pleiades, flee before his snares. Later, after the example of the Babylonians, all the individual groups of clear-shining stars were conceived of as picturesque figures, and by tales of metamorphoses were associated with the older mythical beings. 64. First among the light-divinities of another sort stands Eos ('dawn/ Lat. Aurora), sister of Helios and Selene. As dispenser of the morning dew she carries pitchers in her hands. The brightness of the daily phenomenon which she represents caused to be attributed to her a saffron-yellow robe, arms and fingers beaming with rosy light, and glittering white wings. On account of her swiftness she is frequently represented riding in a chariot. Her husband was Ti.th.omis, a brother of Priam ; her son Memnon was killed by Achilles. As she had car- ried off Orion, so she stole TIthonus away when he was a beautiful youth, and obtained for him from Zeus the grant of immortality, but not of eternal youth. There- fore he withered away beside her, and as an old man, weakened by age, passed a miserable existence. 65. The swiftness with which the rainbow bends itself from heaven down to earth caused Iris, its representative,