Page:The Music of the Spheres.djvu/38

 take their place. In the meantime, all the gods and goddesses had left the earth, Astraea, Goddess of Justice and Purity, remaining to the last. When man finally became so inferior that he engaged in strife and discord, this goddess hid her face in sorrow and flew upward to the sky where she took her place among the stars of the constellation of the Virgin.

Ovid describes the Milky Way as being the great road which led to the palaces of the gods which were clustered about the lofty, cloud-hidden summit of Mount Olympus. In these golden homes with their ivory halls and furniture which possessed self-motion, dwelt Jupiter, Supreme Ruler of Heaven and Earth; Juno, his wife; 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.

Although Apollo, Neptune and Pluto sometimes met in council at Olympus, these three gods had their principal palaces in quite a different part of the earth, Apollo's being beyond the "Land of the Sunrise," Neptune's under the sea and Pluto's under the ground.

Around Neptune's palace waved his lawns of seaweed and his trees of coral while the currents were the breezes which fanned and cooled his brow. His scepter was a trident with which he raised and stilled storms while his chariot was a shell drawn by brazen-hoofed sea-horses. Dolphins, tritons and sea-monsters made sportive homage about his watery path and sea-nymphs played among his rocks and grottoes or sat on the shore in the moonlight drying their long, bright hair. Neptune married one