Page:The Ancient City- A Study on the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome.djvu/37

 CHAP. III. THE SACRED FIRE. 31 flowers, fruits, incense, wine, and victims. They be- lieved it to have power, and asked for its protection. They addiessed fervent prayers to it, to obtain those eternal objects of human desire — health, wealth, and happiness. One of these prayers, which has been pre- served to us in the collection of Orphic Hymns, runs thus: "Render us always prosperous, always happy, O fire; thou who art eternal, beautiful, ever young; thou who nourishest, thou who art rich, receive favor- ably these our offerings, and in return give us happiness and sweet health." ' Thus they saw in the fire a beneficent god, who main- tained the life of man ; a rich god, who nourished him with gifts; a powerful god, who protected his house and family. In pi-esence of danger they sought refuge near this fire. When the palace of Priam is de- stroyed, Hecuba draws the old man near the hearth. " Thy arms cannot protect thee," she says ; " but this altar will protect us all." * See Alcestis, who is about to die, giving her life to save her husband. She approaches the fire, and in- vokes it in these terms: "O divinity, mistress of this house, for the last time I fall before thee, and address thee my prayers, for I am going to descend among the dead. "Watch over my children, who will have no mother; give to my boy a tender wife, and to my girl a noble husband. Let them not, like me, die before the time ; but let them enjoy a long life in the midst of happiness." ^ > Orphic Eymns, 84. Plaut., Capitv., II. 2. TibuU., I. 9, 74. Ovid, A. A., I. C37. Plin., Nat. Hist., XVIII. 8. IV. 8, 22. • Eurip., Ale., 162-1C8.
 * Virgil, jEn., II. 523. Horace, Epist., I. 5. Ovid, TrisU