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HESIOD.
dren of Night may be found in the Iliad,[1] as well as in the Æneid.[2]
Another wonder of the prison-house, in Hesiod's account of it, is Cerberus:—
"A grisly dog, implacable,
Watching before the gates. A stratagem
Is his, malicious: them who enter there,
With tail and bended ears he fawning soothes,
But suffers not that they with backward step
Repass: whoe'er would issue from the gates
Of Pluto strong and stern Persephone,
For them with marking eye he lurks: on them
Springs from his couch, and pitiless devours."
—E. 1018-1026.
Watching before the gates. A stratagem
Is his, malicious: them who enter there,
With tail and bended ears he fawning soothes,
But suffers not that they with backward step
Repass: whoe'er would issue from the gates
Of Pluto strong and stern Persephone,
For them with marking eye he lurks: on them
Springs from his couch, and pitiless devours."
—E. 1018-1026.
In close proximity to this monster was the fabled Styx, in some respects the most awful personage in the 'Theogony.' The legend about her is somewhat obscure, but it is curious as being connected with that of Iris, the rainbow, whose function of carrying up water when any god has been guilty of falsehood seems a vague embodiment of the covenant sealed by the "bow set in the cloud:"—
"Jove sends Iris down
To bring the great oath in a golden ewer,
The far-famed water, from steep, sky-capt rock
Distilling in cold stream. Beneath the earth
Abundant from the sacred river-head
Through shades of darkest night the Stygian horn
Of Ocean flows: a tenth of all the streams
To the dread Oath allotted. In nine streams
Circling the round of earth and the broad seas
To bring the great oath in a golden ewer,
The far-famed water, from steep, sky-capt rock
Distilling in cold stream. Beneath the earth
Abundant from the sacred river-head
Through shades of darkest night the Stygian horn
Of Ocean flows: a tenth of all the streams
To the dread Oath allotted. In nine streams
Circling the round of earth and the broad seas
