Bulfinch's Mythology

Thomas Bulfinch, Valerie Willis

• Publisher: 4 Horsemen Publications
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9781644502334
• eBook ISBN: 9781644502341
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: European Medieval History
• Index: Social Sciences

This is a cornerstone piece for anyone wanting to dive deeper into mythology of various kinds.
Mr. Bulfinch does a wonderful job in making a collective account of stories for most of the entities he covers, including several excerpts from poets, historians, Milton, Homer, as well as his own brother and many more. Traversing from Greek and Roman to Hindu and Celtic and beyond, this is a great book for any mythology lover.
If that wasn't enticing enough, we added in the volumes of "King Arthur and His Knights" and even "Legends of Charlemagne" to give you an unforgettable resource and collection. This contents of this book were created in the late 1800's and thus, the wording and spelling of many of the deities, places, and beyond are vastly different from their modern versions. In an attempt to bring this up to speed, while still maintaining its original state, Battle Goddess Productions has replaced the spellings that may hinder someone's ability to discover more research on the stories and mythology found within.
This includes the spelling of names, such as but not limited to, Corea – Korea, Thibet – Tibet, or in some cases we added the alternative spelling "Halcyone/Alcyone" in order not to lose the original grip it holds. Another change we did was break out the dialogue and excerpts so that they may stand out clearly and be easier read or found. we hope these extra efforts involving the textual content make this a more pleasant experience for discovering mythology.
The artwork found within is a collection of work from a mixture of artists from over a hundred years ago and older. A listing of artists can be found in the back matter so you may search for more of their work within our edition. Not all of the public domain images had the artist labelled, but we felt the "unknown" deserved to be shown off right along with the more well-known artists. The collective was known for illustrating fairy tales, mythology, or even prior versions of Bulfinch's own publications including Arthur Rackham, a personal favorite. If you have ever wondered where and how so many authors tie mythology into their work, then this book may be the key you were looking for. Within this piece are many stories both familiar and lesser known.
There will be information discovered in here that may shed light on modern retellings and inspired work like "American Gods" by Neil Gaiman to our very own "Cedric the Demonic Knight" by Valerie Willis. By no means is this a complete collection of all things mythology, worldly, or monsters. Though, as a complete geek for mythology, it is a must-have as part of your at-home collection. There are several other up to date sources, but this is a flavor you will not, cannot, find.
If you wish to research these further, seek out other books such as J.A. Coleman's "Dictionary of Mythology, " "The Encyclopedia of Celtic Mythology and Folklore" by Patricia Monaghan, "Norse Mythology A to Z" by Kathleen N. Daly, and even Carol Rose's "Giants, Monsters, and Dragons" – all of these are found in our very own arsenal of go-to books for research.

Chapter 1

Introduction

The literature of our time, as of all the centuries of Christendom, is full of allusions to the gods and goddesses of the Greeks and Romans. Occasionally, and, in modern days, more often, it contains allusions to the worship and the superstitions of the northern nations of Europe. The object of this book is to teach readers who are not yet familiar with the writers of Greece and Rome, or the ballads or legends of the Scandinavians, enough of the stories which form what is called their mythology, to make those allusions intelligible which one meets every day, even in the authors of our own time.

The Greeks and Romans both belong to the same race or stock. It is generally known in our time as the Aryan family of mankind; and so far, as we know its history, the Greeks and Romans descended from the tribes which emigrated from the high table- lands of Northern India. Other tribes emigrated in different directions from the same center, so that traces of the Aryan language are found in the islands of the Pacific Ocean.

The people of this race, who moved westward, seem to have had a special fondness for open air nature, and a willingness to personify the powers of nature. They were glad to live in the open air, and they specially encouraged the virtues which an open-air people prize. Thus, no Roman was thought manly who could not swim, and every Greek exercised in the athletic sports of the palaestra.

The Romans and Grecian and German divisions of this great race are those with which we have most to do in history and in literature. Our own English language is made up of the dialects of different tribes, many of whom agreed in their use of words which they had derived from our Aryan ancestry. Thus, our substantive verb I AM appears in the original Sanscrit of the Aryans as ESMI, and m for ME (MOI), or the first person singular, is found in all the verbal inflections. The Greek form of the same verb was ESMI, which became ASMI, and in Latin the first and last vowels have disappeared, the verb is SUM. Similar relationships are traced in the numerals, and throughout all the languages of these nations.

The Romans, like the Etruscans who came before them, were neither poetical nor imaginative in temperament. Their activity ran in practical directions. They therefore invented few, if any stories, of the gods whom they worshipped with fixed rites. Mr. Macaulay speaks of these gods as "the sober abstractions of the Roman pantheon." We owe most of the stories of the ancient mythology to the wit and fancy of the Greeks, more playful and imaginative, who seized from Egypt and from the East such legends as pleased them, and adapted them in their own way. It often happens that such stories, resembling each other in their foundation, are found in the Greek and Roman authors in several different forms.

To understand these stories, we will here first acquaint ourselves with the ideas of the structure of the universe, which the poets and others held, and which will form the scenery, so to speak, of the narratives.

The Greek poets believed the earth to be flat and circular, their own country occupying the middle of it, the central point being either Mount Olympus, the abode of the gods, or Delphi, so famous for its oracle.

The circular disk of the earth was crossed from west to east, and divided into two equal parts by the SEA, as they called the Mediterranean, and its continuation the Euxine.

Around the earth flowed the RIVER OCEAN, its course being from south to north on the western side of the earth, and in a contrary direction on the eastern side. It flowed in a steady, equable current, unvexed by storm or tempest. The sea, and all the rivers on earth, received their waters from it.

The northern portion of the earth was supposed to be inhabited by a happy race named the Hyperboreans [this word means "who live beyond the north" from the word "hyper," beyond, and boreas, the north wind], dwelling in everlasting bliss and spring beyond the lofty mountains whose caverns were supposed to send forth the piercing blasts of the north wind, which chilled the people of Hellas (Greece). Their country was inaccessible by land or sea. They lived exempt from disease or old age, from toils and warfare. Moore has given us the "Song of a Hyperborean," beginning:

"I come from a land in the sun-bright deep,

Where golden gardens glow,

Where the winds of the north, becalmed in sleep,

Their conch-shells never blow."

On the south side of the earth, close to the stream of Ocean, dwelt a people happy and virtuous as the Hyperboreans. They were named the Ǣthiopians. The gods favored them so highly that they were wont to leave at times their Olympian abodes, and go to share their sacrifices and banquets.

On the western margin of the earth, by the stream of Ocean, lay a happy place named the Elysian Plain, whither mortals favored by the gods were transported without tasting of death, to enjoy an immortality of bliss. This happy region was also called the "fortunate fields," and the "Isles of the Blessed."

We thus see that the Greeks of the early ages knew little of any real people except those to the east and south of their own country, or near the coast of the Mediterranean. Their imagination meantime peopled the western portion of this sea with giants, monsters, and enchantresses; while they placed around the disk of the earth, which they probably regarded as of no great width, nations enjoying the peculiar favor of the gods, and blessed with happiness and longevity.

The Dawn, the Sun, and the Moon were supposed to rise out of the Ocean, on the western side, and to drive through the air, giving light to gods and men. The stars also, except those forming Charles' Wain or Bear, and others near them, rose out of and sank into the stream of Ocean. There the sun-god embarked in a winged boat, which conveyed him round by the northern part of the earth, back to his place of rising in the east. Milton alludes to this in his "Commmus”:

"Now the gilded car of day

His golden axle doth allay

In the steep Atlantic stream,

And the slope sun his upward beam

Shoots against the dusky pole,

Pacing towards the other goal

Of his chamber in the east."

The abode of the gods was on the summit of Mount Olympus, in Thessaly. A gate of clouds, kept by the goddesses named the Seasons, opened to permit the passage of the Celestials to earth, and to receive them on their return. The gods had their separate dwellings; but all, when summoned, repaired to the palace of Jupiter [Or Zeus. The relation of these names to each other will be explained on the next page], as did also those deities whose usual abode was the earth, the waters, or the underworld. It was also in the great hall of the palace of the Olympian king that the gods feasted each day on ambrosia and nectar, their food and drink, the latter being handed round by the lovely goddess Hebe. Here they conversed of the affairs of heaven and earth; and as they quaffed their nectar, Apollo, the god of music, delighted them with the tones of his lyre, to which the muses sang in responsive strains. When the sun was set, the gods retired to sleep in their respective dwellings.

The following lines from the Odyssey will show how Homer conceived of Olympus:

"So saying, Minerva, goddess azure-eyed,

Rose to Olympus, the reputed seat

Eternal of the gods, which never storms

Disturb, rains drench, or snow invades, but calm

The expanse and cloudless shines with purest day.

T here the inhabitants divine rejoice

Forever.:" – Cowper

Such were the abodes of the gods as the Greeks conceived them. The Romans, before they knew the Greek poetry, seem to have had no definite imagination of such an assembly of gods. But the Roman and Etruscan races were by no means irreligious. They venerated their departed ancestors, and in each family the worship of these ancestors was an important duty. The images of the ancestors were kept in a sacred place, each family observed, at fixed times, memorial rites in their honor, and for these and other religious observances the family hearth was consecrated. The earliest rites of Roman worship are supposed to be connected with such family devotions.

As the Greeks and Romans became acquainted with other nations, they imported their habits of worship, even in early times. It will be remembered that as late as St. Paul's time, he found an altar at Athens "to an unknown god." Greeks and Romans alike were willing to receive from other nations the legends regarding their gods, and to incorporate them as well as they could with their own. It is thus that in the po...

Table of contents

• Bulfinch’s Mythology
• About This Book
• Foreword From Battle Goddess Productions
• Original Publisher’s Preface
• Original Author’s Preface
• The Age of Fable
• Chapter 1
• Chapter 2
• Chapter 3
• Chapter 4
• Chapter 5
• Chapter 6
• Chapter 7
• Chapter 8
• Chapter 9
• Chapter 10
• Chapter 11
• Chapter 12
• Chapter 13
• Chapter 14
• Chapter 15
• Chapter 16
• Chapter 17
• Chapter 18
• Chapter 19
• Chapter 20
• Chapter 21
• Chapter 22
• Chapter 23
• Chapter 24
• Chapter 25
• Chapter 26
• Chapter 27
• Chapter 28
• Chapter 29
• Chapter 30
• Chapter 31
• Chapter 32
• Chapter 33
• Chapter 34
• King Arthur and His Knights
• Chapter 1
• Chapter 2
• Chapter 3
• Chapter 4
• Chapter 5
• Chapter 6
• Chapter 7
• Chapter 8
• Chapter 9
• Chapter 10
• Chapter 11
• Chapter 12
• Chapter 13
• Chapter 14
• Chapter 15
• Chapter 16
• Chapter 17
• Chapter 18
• Chapter 19
• Chapter 20
• Chapter 21
• Chapter 22
• Chapter 23
• The Mabinogion
• Introductory Note
• Chapter 1
• Chapter 2
• Chapter 3
• Chapter 4
• Chapter 5
• Chapter 6
• Chapter 7
• Chapter 8
• Chapter 9
• Chapter 10
• Chapter 11
• Chapter 12
• Chapter 13
• Legends of Charlemagne
• Glossary
• Index of Figures