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Mythology The Gods, Heroes, and Monsters of Ancient Greece (Ologies)

The Illustrated A-Z Of Classic Mythology: The Legends Of Ancient Greece, Rome And The Norse And Celtic Worlds; A Visual Dictionary With 1000 Entries And More Than 600 Fine Art Images

Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes, 75th Anniversary Illustrated Edition

The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Mythology: The myths and legends of the ancient worlds, from Greece, Rome and Egypt to the Norse and Celtic lands, through Persia and India to China and the Far East

100 Characters from Classical Mythology: Discover the Fascinating Stories of the Greek and Roman Deities

Bulfinch's Mythology: All Volumes

Bulfinch's Mythology:
All Volumes

Thomas Bulfinch's compendium of Greek, Norse and Anglo-Saxon myths and legends offers superb insight into the origins, themes and contexts of ancient stories.

This edition unites all volumes into a single, overarching text perfect for referencing, and inclusive of a lengthy, comprehensive glossary. Bulfinch's Mythology is a crucial text for enthusiasts of ancient myths and lore, as well as students and teachers of classics or ancient literature. It offers a well-researched, literate and comprehensive narration upon legends both renowned and obscure, with insight into the cultures and societies which birthed these stories plentiful.

After introducing the premise of the work, Bulfinch delves sequentially into the myths and legends of Ancient Greece. We witness adventures and follies of various Gods of the Greek pantheon, while mythic peoples such as the Myrmidons and beasts like the Chimaera and the Sphinx also appear.

Following a brief appearance of the Egyptian deities and Eastern myths originating from the Indian subcontinent, Bulfinch turns his focus upon the Nordic myths of antiquity. Valhalla and the Gods conceived by the Norse peoples are examined in depth, with the emergence of Thor and the origin of the Elves particular highlights.

A large portion of this work concerns the legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. All the famous characters of Arthurian lore are present; Lancelot, Merlin, Queen Guinevere (Guenever), Tristham and Isolde, Percival and others make their due appearance. The famous quest for the Holy Grail - or Sangreal - forms a lengthy part of this section.

Following the Arthurian myths, Bulfinch turns to the Mabinogeon - the earliest Medieval prose writings of the British Isles. Traced to the 12th and 13th centuries, these stories concern the origins of the British people, the famed Lady of the Fountain, and other aspects of chivalric society.

The book concludes with the legends of Charlemagne, where we learn how the various invasions and battles the ancient Frankish king partook in were mythologised and romanticised. Aspects of mythic lore, such as the appearance of Orcs and magical enchanting, offer a profound look into the development of these legends.

Paperback: 384 pages
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (November 1, 2016)

BULFINCH'S MYTHOLOGY

VOLUME ONE

THE AGE OF FABLE

OR

STORIES OF GODS AND HEROES

BY THOMAS BULFINCH
[1855]

Table of Contents

Glossary

CHAPTER X.

VERTUMNUS AND POMONA.

THE Hamadryads were Wood-nymphs. Pomona was of this class. and no one excelled her in love of the garden and the culture of fruit. She cared not for forests and rivers, but loved the cultivated country, and trees that bear delicious apples. Her right hand bore for its weapon not a javelin, but a pruning-knife. Armed with this, she busied herself at one time to repress the too luxuriant growths: and curtail the branches that straggled out of place; at another, to split the twig and insert therein a graft, making the branch adopt a nursling not its own. She took care, too, that her favourites should not suffer from drought, and led streams of water by them, that the thirsty roots might drink. This occupation was her pursuit, her passion; and she was free from that which Venus inspires. She was not without fear of the country people, and kept her orchard locked, and allowed not men to enter. The Fauns and Satyrs would have given all they possessed to win her, and so would old Sylvanus, who looks young for his years, and Pan, who wears a garland of pine leaves around his head. But Vertumnus loved her best of all; yet he sped no better than the rest. O how often, in the disguise of a reaper, did he bring her corn in a basket, and looked the very image of a reaper! With a hay band tied round him, one would think he had just come from turning over the grass. Sometimes he would have an ox-goad in his hand, and you would have said he had just unyoked his weary oxen. Now he bore a pruning-hook, and personated a vine-dresser; and again, with a ladder on his shoulder, he seemed as if he was going to gather apples. Sometimes he trudged along as a discharged soldier, and again he bore a fishing-rod, as if going to fish. In this way he gained admission to her again and again, and fed his passion with the sight of her.

One day he came in the guise of an old woman, her grey hair surmounted with a cap, and a staff in her hand. She entered the garden and admired the fruit. "It does you credit, my dear," she said, and kissed her not exactly with an old woman's kiss. She sat down on a bank, and looked up at the branches laden with fruit which hung over her. Opposite was an elm entwined with a vine loaded with swelling grapes. She praised the tree and its associated vine, equally. "But," said she, "if the tree stood alone, and had no vine clinging to it, it would have nothing to attract or offer us but its useless leaves. And equally the vine, if it were not twined round the elm, would lie prostrate on the ground. Why will you not take a lesson from the tree and the vine, and consent to unite yourself with some one? I wish you would. Helen herself had not more numerous suitors, nor Penelope, the wife of shrewd Ulysses. Even while you spurn them, they court you,- rural deities and others of every kind that frequent these mountains. But if you are prudent and want to make a good alliance, and will let an old woman advise you,- who loves you better than you have any idea of,- dismiss all the rest and accept Vertumnus, on my recommendation. I know him as well as he knows himself. He is not a wandering deity, but belongs to these mountains. Nor is he like too many of the lovers nowadays, who love any one they happen to see; he loves you, and you only. Add to this, he is young and handsome, and has the art of assuming any shape he pleases, and can make himself just what you command him. Moreover, he loves the same things that you do, delights in gardening, and handles your apples with admiration. But now he cares nothing for fruits nor flowers, nor anything else, but only yourself. Take pity on him, and fancy him speaking now with my mouth. Remember that the gods punish cruelty, and that Venus hates a hard heart, and will visit such offences sooner or later. To prove this, let me tell you a story, which is well known in Cyprus to be a fact; and I hope it will have the effect to make you more merciful.

"Iphis was a young man of humble parentage, who saw and loved Anaxarete, a noble lady of the ancient family of Teucer. He struggled long with his passion, but when he found he could not subdue it, he came a suppliant to her mansion. First he told his passion to her nurse, and begged her as she loved her foster-child to favour his suit. And then he tried to win her domestics to his side. Sometimes he committed his vows to written tablets, and often hung at her door garlands which he had moistened with his tears. He stretched himself on her threshold, and uttered his complaints to the cruel bolts and bars. She was deafer than the surges which rise in the November gale; harder than steel from the German forges, or a rock that still clings to its native cliff. She mocked and laughed at him, adding cruel words to her ungentle treatment, and gave not the slightest gleam of hope.

"Iphis could not any longer endure the torments of hopeless love, and, standing before her doors, he spake these last words: 'Anaxarete, you have conquered, and shall no longer have to bear my importunities. Enjoy your triumph! Sing songs of joy, and bind your forehead with laurel,- you have conquered! I die; stony heart, rejoice! This at least I can do to gratify you, and force you to praise me; and thus shall I prove that the love of you left me but with life. Nor will I leave it to rumour to tell you of my death. I will come myself, and you shall see me die, and feast your eyes on the spectacle. Yet, O ye Gods, who look down on mortal woes, observe my fate! I ask but this: let me be remembered in coming ages, and add those years to my fame which you have reft from my life.' Thus he said, and, turning his pale face and weeping eyes towards her mansion, he fastened a rope to the gate-post, on which he had often hung garlands, and putting his head into the noose, he murmured, 'This garland at least will please you, cruel girl!' and falling hung suspended with his neck broken. As he fell he struck against the gate, and the sound was as the sound of a groan. The servants opened the door and found him dead, and with exclamations of pity raised him and carried him home to his mother, for his father was not living. She received the dead body of her son, and folded the cold form to her bosom, while she poured forth the sad words which bereaved mothers utter. The mournful funeral passed through the town, and the pale corpse was borne on a bier to the place of the funeral pile. By chance the home of Anaxarete was on the street where the procession passed, and the lamentations of the mourners met the ears of her whom the avenging deity had already marked for punishment.

"'Let us see this sad procession,' said she, and mounted to a turret, whence through an open window she looked upon the funeral. Scarce had her eyes rested upon the form of Iphis stretched on the bier, when they began to stiffen, and the warm blood in her body to become cold. Endeavouring to step back, she found she could not move her feet; trying to turn away her face, she tried in vain; and by degrees all her limbs became stony like her heart. That you may not doubt the fact, the statue still remains, and stands in the temple of Venus at Salamis, in the exact form of the lady. Now think of these things, my dear, and lay aside your scorn and your delays, and accept a lover. So may neither the vernal frosts blight your young fruits, nor furious winds scatter your blossoms!"

When Vertumnus had spoken thus, be dropped the disguise of an old woman, and stood before her in his proper person, as a comely youth. It appeared to her like the sun bursting through a cloud. He would have renewed his entreaties, but there was no need; his arguments and the sight of his true form prevailed, and the Nymph no longer resisted, but owned a mutual flame.

Pomona was the especial patroness of the Apple-orchard, and as such she was invoked by Phillips, the author of a poem on Cider, in blank verse. Thomson in the "Seasons" alludes to him:

          "Phillips, Pomona's bard, the second thou
           Who nobly durst, in rhyme-unfettered verse,
           With British freedom, sing the British song."

But Pomona was also regarded as presiding over other fruits, and as such is invoked by Thomson:

          "Bear me, Pomona, to thy citron groves,
           To where the lemon and the piercing lime,
           With the deep orange, glowing through the green,
           Their lighter glories blend. Lay me reclined
           Beneath the spreading tamarind, that shakes,
           Fanned by the breeze, its fever-cooling fruit."

Table of Contents

Glossary

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BULFINCH'S MYTHOLOGY

VOLUME ONE

THE AGE OF FABLE

ORSTORIES OF GODS AND HEROES

BY THOMAS BULFINCH[1855]

CHAPTER X.

VERTUMNUS AND POMONA.

Princess Bride 1987 Wallace Shawn (Vizzini) and Mandy Patinkin (Inigo Montoya)

Going Where Darwin
Feared to Tread

Communism's
45 Goals

Going Where Darwin
Feared to Tread

Ardipithecus
Ramidus

Human Genome
Project

OR

STORIES OF GODS AND HEROES

BY THOMAS BULFINCH
[1855]