The native American., 1837-09-09
GREEK AND ROMAN LITERATURE.


sure the annexed notices. They taken from a re,
cent London journal and though particularly addressed
to such as are familiar with ancient literature and my
thology, will be welcome to all persons OF tase anu
learning oo,s
..One of the things that vex with the Roman Poe's
is that thew give themselves sort OF air OF patronage
with regard to the Greeks, and seem to hink ney 90
them honour by initiating them; sometimes ".nou'
SYLLABLE OF acknowledgment There is nohlng 20 SNOW
for VirpiI,s ever having mentioned Homer; ana yet
,y;,bont Homer il is doubtful whether he would have
written line Of epic poetry, especially as he owns
that his chief inclination did not lie towards poetry
By the way, Virgil speaks of nobody else, ancient or
ccntemporaneous, except court poets and 'grea men,
Gallus, Va.us, &C. It's the same with Horace, who
does not appear to have noticed single name that was
not good receipt the court of his qnondam enemy,
though he is ingenious in acknowledging The me-
rts Of the Greek writers, and boasts of having intro
of his originality, Of Catulluss, if possess
sed the writings of Alcaeus and Others whose few re-
manning fragments we find wholesale passages those
Latns! Caesar called Terence half Menander,' -
and there is suspect that the half was not the
better half that it was the elegance without the wit
But we need not multiply examples. II is acknow-
lodged that the Latin genius was but reflection of the
Greek and cold one;-a moon looking upon city Of
stone and steel.
BY nothing, in our reading of late years, has this
truth been more strongly impressed upon US than oy
the perusa Of the admirable "Mythology" lately writ
by Mr. Kegh,ley, OF the objects of which and
it is In strict scholastic proprety-is restore to the
Greeks the integrity Of their repute the original and
almost exclusive possessors Of the ancient mythic Ia
bles. The true Olympus was, in fact. as much con.
fined to Greece POLITICALLY, il was geographically.
The poor and spare deties Of old Italy did but appro
pirate to themselves the history Of those Of Greece,
and cumsy for they net only left the localities
where they found them, (Which they could not well
avoid since the Greek poets had made them SO fam
but these deities with foreign histories, they cal
led by Latin names,-a practice which unfortunately
for what should have been the first object, in every
sense, Of classical education has been maintained in
modern literature in consequence of The long survival
of the Latin language, and its thrustng itself before
the Greek in school teaching Mr. Keightey, remi ds
us of the usurpaon in almost every page Of his book
hv refusing to uphold this anomaly, and restoring
the gods OF Homer and Hesod their right appea,ons.
We cannot say how this has pleased US, and how
DELIGHT to read our History Of the Gods over again
with this new old gloss upon it, this consciousness Of
a Greek instead Of Roman presence. 1t is no longer
ssPantheon," which, grateful as we are to the world
for old associations, reminds us OF temple at Rome;
(even that the Romans forced to call by Greek
word their comparative poor language having no ge-
Mus for compounds.) Mr.. Keghtley's is the true
Olympus restored; his book entitled .The Mythology
of The Ancient Greece and Italy - it consists Of 484
pages and 447 o. those devoted to the gods Of Greece
those of Italy occupy but twelfth part OF the volume.
This alone gives lively idea of the tue state Of the
matter. MI. Keightey's gods, except in this small
portion Of the wok no longer Jupiter, Juno, Mars,
Mercury and Venus,-the gods Of Virgil and Horace,
but Zeus, Mera, Arcs, Hermes. and Aphrodite.-|
those of Homer, Aschylus, and Theocrus. Mercury
is 4 pleasant word, and Venus has been rendered de-
lghtnl by thousand loving associations; but Hermes,
not Mercury, the god who invented the lutte, and
stole the herds of Apollo Hermes, not Mercury was
the messenger of heaven the god with the winged san
dals and the rod Of gold and Aphrodite, not Venus,
magic girdle, and was in love with Adonis The Greek
poets, the compatrot of the gods OF Olympus, knew
nothing Of the insignificant Italian godngs called Mer
curry, Mars, and Vulcan. Mercury Qtom Mer1) was
the market god! What poor hand to claim affinity
with the god of the lutte and Of eloquence whose divine
thefts were but laughing vindication Of the
right of w.t. and done ont of certain energy of the
iovial! Mr.. Keghtley doubts whether Apollo, with
his .Grecian name, belonged to the original sys
tenn Of Italy; and Venus (srange words to hear is
deity uabout whom u Is almost Impossible 70 learn
any thing sGtisfactory."
Since our second perusal Of this gentleman's book
(for we have read il. pen in hand twice over and
mean to read il agan) begin to be tolerant of the
Latin names and Greek gods and do not like to hear of
Jupiter and Juno, of Mars, Bacchus, Apoo-rirorlm
as the grammar unntentonay hath it. Jupiter, 10 be
sure NAV be barbarous pronunciation OF the Greek
compound Zeu-pater; and Apollo wants but TO
complete him. Even Mr.. Keightley writes him Apollo,
instead Of Apolon; and Apollo is beautiful word,
which the La,ins, by good fortune. did seriously
injure We glad that we are not forced to give il
nm. But we begin to be indignant at the erroneous
me given TO Mars instead Of ares, 10 Minerva instead
of Palas aene, 10 Mercury, instead of Hermes, Bac-
hus instead Of Dyonisus Neptune instead Of Poseidon
20. How mnch better would "Poseydon" have sound
ed than "NeptuEe," in all the poetry which makes
,aention Of the watery god 1t was not Neptune tina,
shared the third part Of the empire Of the universe
that had his palace beneath the ocean, and was the
shaker Of the earth, and the husband Of Amphrte,
and the giant that took the peninsula in three Gas the
leaper's phrase i) it was Poseidon. Neptune was
probably little better than the ierelf, the Number
Np Of the Germans with termination similar to other
Latin sea-gods-Neptunnus Portumnus a sort Of 1hu-
ay-fsh god, not the majestic emperor fthe MAN, We
are sorry that such poets Ovid and Spenser made
mention of him" There is certain coldness in Vr-
ril (who was northern ltalian) which renders
comparatively different to his Laiinzings, bot Ovid
poet of the Neapoitan territory, the region of the
modern Fairy Tales had the warm genius of the Gre
clan part of Italy, and we could wish him to have
escaped Romanisms Of all sorts, Augustus included ;
whose trgid barbaIity knew too well how 10 punish
southern temperament when he the poor singer of
he lover OF gods and men to die near the Danube
Dvid's Metamorphoses almost all Greek stories;
when he gets to Romulus and Numa, his poetry is
drawing TO close.
Among the very few should care to retain from
the Roman mythology (and for some We confess no
mean aection,) domestic gods, or Lares Pomona
the beauty Of the gardens and the of Aurora the