Upon a subject which has occupied the thoughts, and employed the pens of our most profound thinkers, and our ablest writers, it is perhaps difficult to say much that is likely to interest the reader, without the chance of being irksome from its proving a thrice told tale: and yet the subject is in itself so interesting, and so intimately connected with all that is most fascinating to our remembrances, and so blended with all that reminds us of departed greatness, that it is scarcely possible to pass it coldly by, or to speak in the language of others those ideas which excite our own imaginations. […] …………………………………………………    “She looks upon his lips, and they are pale;     She takes him by the hand, that is cold; She whispers in his ears a heavy tale,     As if they heard the woeful words she told: She lifts the coffer-lids that close his eyes, Where, lo! […] To whom is not the tale of the self-slain Narcissus known, though perhaps the exquisite story of Echo’s love for him may be less familiar to the mind. […] In some delicious ramble, he had found A little space, with boughs all woven round, And in the midst of all a clearer pool Than ere reflected in its pleasant cool The blue sky, here and there divinely peeping Through tendril wreaths, fantastically creeping; And on the bank a lonely flower he spied, A meek and forlorn flower with nought of pride, Drooping its beauty o’er the watery clearness To woo its own sweet image unto nearness; Deaf to light Zephyrus, it would not move, But still would seem to droop, to pine, to love; So while the poet stood in this sweet spot; Some fainted dreamings o’er his fancy shot; Nor was it long ere he had told the tale Of young Narcissus, and sad Echo’s vale.” […] On his grey locks I clotted     An ice-crown cold, — His sinews I knotted;     His tale is told.”

I discorsi aggiunti dunque in Appendice a questo trattato di Mitologia sono opportuno avviamento a tale studio importantissimo, e vogliono essere meditati accuratamente.

Questa notizia ci sarà utile per la spiegazione di alcuni strani miti che a lui si riferiscono per tale attributo ed ufficio.

Qual Nume dunque poteva esser perfetto, se tale non era neppur la Dea della Sapienza ?

Sebbene i Mitologi la considerino un’impresa secondaria (ed è tale se riguardisi soltanto lo scopo di uccidere una belva feroce), e perciò ne parlino soltanto incidentalmente, è per altro di somma importanza per la cronologia degli Eroi, dimostrando essa che furon contemporanei coloro che vi presero parte.

Infatti, la voce Penati è soltanto un attributo o aggettivo che corrisponde, non già per l’etimologia, ma pel significato e per l’effetto creduto, alla parola protettori, o patroni : quindi per tale ufficio poteva scegliersi qualunque Nume dei più noti e celebri.

To most people it has the same significance as a fable, legendary tale, or fanciful falsehood. […] A tale is told in Facetiæ Cantabrigienses of Professor Porson, who being one of a set party, the conversation turned on the subject of punning, when Porson observing that he could pun on any subject, a person present defied him to do so on the Latin gerunds, di, do, dum, which, however, he immediately did in the following admirable couplet: “When Dido found Æneas would not come, She mourned in silence, and was Dido dumb.” […] “Soon as the evening shades prevail The moon takes up her wondrous tale, And nightly to the list’ning earth Repeats the story of her birth.”

Quindi alcuni mitologi e poeti preferirono di sostituire ad Ecate la Dea Proserpina moglie di Plutone e regina dell’Inferno ; e lo stesso Dante seguì tale opinione ; poichè nel farsi predire da Farinata degli Uberti (nel C. x dell’Inferno) il suo esilio, e indicarne l’epoca fra circa 50 mesi lunari, esprime queste idee con frasi mitologiche nel modo seguente : « Ma non cinquanta volte fia raccesa « La faccia della Donna che qui regge « Che tu saprai quanto quell’arte pesa ; » ove apparisce manifestamente che l’ufficio di Proserpina e non di Ecate è accomunato da Dante con quel della Luna144.

« Quale, dove per guardia delle mura « Più e più fossi cingon li castelli, « La parte dov’ei son rende figura ; « Tale imagine quivi facean quelli, « E come a tai fortezze dai lor sogli « Alla ripa di fuor son ponticelli ; « Così da imo della roccia scogli « Movien, che recidean gli argini e i fossi « Infino al pozzo, che i tronca e raccogli. » (Inf.

Tale è l’antica statua di Sileno col piccolo Bacco nelle braccia, che trovasi nella villa Pinciana, e di cui una copia in bronzo esiste nel primo vestibolo della Galleria degli Uffizi in Firenze ; e come vedesi pure nel quadro dei Baccanali di Rubens, che è parimente nella stessa Galleria.

Ma la sua stessa precauzione fu causa del suo male, poichè Perseo, irritato di tale scortesia, lo raggiunse volando sul caval Pegaso mentre Atlante andava alla caccia, e mostrandogli la testa di Medusa lo trasformò in quel monte della Mauritania che tuttora chiamasi Atlante, del quale gli antichi favoleggiavano che sostenesse il Cielo, e il cui nome hanno dato i moderni, con evidente allusione mitologica, alla collezione delle carte geografiche e uranografiche.

Su tale argomento basti l’ aver citato i due grandi poeti, padri dell’ italiana poesia : « Degli altri fia laudabile tacere, « Chè il tempo saria corto a tanto suono. » Ad Apollo avvenne ancora un caso opposto, ma non meno funesto.

The word Edda has usually been connected with the Icelandic for great-grandmother;35 it has also been regarded as a corruption of the High German Erda, Mother Earth, from whom, according to the lay in which the word first occurs, the earliest race of mankind sprang,36 — or as the point or head of Norse poetry,37 or as a tale concerned with death 38 or as derived from Odde, the home of the reputed collector of the Elder Edda. […] The Reign of Jupiter. — New conflicts, however, awaited this new dynasty of Heaven — conflicts, the subject of many a tale among the ancients. […] That night, when he had fallen into his first sleep, she silently rose and uncovering her lamp — Scarce kept back a cry At what she saw; for there before her lay The very Love brighter than dawn of day; And as he lay there smiling, her own name His gentle lips in sleep began to frame, And, as to touch her face, his hand did move; O then, indeed, her faint heart swelled for love, And she began to sob, and tears fell fast Upon the bed. — But as she turned at last To quench the lamp, there happed a little thing That quenched her new delight, for flickering The treacherous flame cast on his shoulder fair A burning drop; he woke, and seeing her there The meaning of that sad sight knew full well, Nor was there need the piteous tale to tell. […] And such the sweet and solemn tale of her The pilgrim-heart, to whom a dream was given, That led her through the world, — Love’s worshipper, — To seek on earth for him whose home was heaven!

Con tale aiuto potè egli solo compier l’impresa, rimanendo spettatori e pieni di maraviglia gli stessi Eroi suoi compagni.

  Schiller, in his poem the Ideals, applies this tale of Pygmalion to the love of nature in a youthful heart. […] And such the sweet and solemn tale of her     The pilgrim-heart, to whom a dream was given, That led her through the world, — Love’s worshipper, —     To seek on earth for him whose home was heaven! […] That tale is old, but love anew May nerve young hearts to prove as true.” […] The tale ran that in the reign of Cecrops, the first king of Athens, the two deities contended for the possession of the city.