Page:Hesiod, and Theognis.djvu/92

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78
HESIOD.

represent the Rhodanus or Rhone; also that the rivers of Greece appear to be slighted in comparison with those of Asia Minor and the Troad—a circumstance to be accounted for by the Asiatic origin of the poet's father, which would explain his completer geographical knowledge of the colonies than of the mother country. The names of the water-nymphs are referable to islands and continents—e. g., Europa, Asia, Doris, Persia—or to physical characteristics, such as clearness, turbidness, violet hue, and the like. But the poet gives a good reason for furnishing only a selection:—

"More remain untold. Three thousand nymphs
Of Oceanic line, in beauty tread
With ample step, and far and wide dispersed
Haunt the green earth and azure depth of lakes,
A blooming race of glorious goddesses.
As many rivers also yet untold,
Rushing with hollow dashing sound, were born
To awful Tethys, but their every name
Is not for mortal man to memorate,
Arduous, yet known to all the dwellers round."
—E. 492-501.

We must not trespass upon our readers' patience, by enumerating with the conscientious genealogist the progeny of the rest of the Titans. Two goddesses, however, stand out from amidst one or other of these broods, as of more special note, and more direct bearing upon the world's government and order. Asteria, the goddess of stars, a Titanid in the second generation, bears to Perses, a god of light, and a Titan of the original stock, one only daughter, Hecate. The attributes of