Page:The history of silk, cotton, linen, wool, and other fibrous substances 2.djvu/297

 sacrifices to him. Thus, in Idyll v. 58, the Lucanian goatherd already referred to says, that he will set aside for Pan eight dishes of milk and six of honey.

But besides importing the belief in Pan from Arcadia the Sicilians recognized two demigods of native origin, who contributed, if not to excite feelings allied to religion, at least to amuse their imagination and to contribute greatly to the variety and liveliness of their poetry. These were the shepherd Polyphemus, who was horridly deformed, and the herdsman Daphnis, who was endowed with the most surpassing beauty.

Polyphemus was the son of Neptune. Notwithstanding his forbidden aspect he is represented as susceptible of some tender emotions, and it is his misfortune to be deeply enamored of the beautiful Nereid or Mermaid Galatea, whom he sees sporting in the green waves, while he surveys the coast from the summit of a mountain and plays upon the syrinx for the amusement of himself and his flock.

The Sicilian Daphnis, like the Arcadian Pan, was the son of Mercury and of a mountain nymph, and excelled in playing on the syrinx; but his form was entirely human and the most beautiful that could be imagined.

The guardian of fair kine, himself more fair.

''Virg. Buc.'' v. 44.

He tended his cattle upon the picturesque Heræan mountains to the north of Ætna, and did not mix in the society of men. At the time when the beard was beginning to grow on his upper lip, the nymph Echenais became enamored of him, and enjoined him upon pain of losing his eye-sight not to approach any other female. He consented, and for some time persisted in obeying her; but at length a Sicilian princess, having intoxicated him with wine, accomplished her purpose. He shared the fate of Thamyras, the Thracian, and was thus punished for his folly. He then pined away, and died of hopeless love