The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-11-19

Her eye wrinkles brighter, more lustrous her
Far sweeter her utterance, her chin iS quite
Dream Of Beauty incarnate, o lover and a lover
Our own Milton has done poor Eve justice
in lines which need not quotation.
Pygmalion, says the classic story, which is
really q Phenioan myth Of creation, made a
woman of marble or ivory, and Aphrodite, in
answer to his prayers, endowed the statue with
life. We do not believe il. No woman was
ever marble. She may seem hard and cold,
but she only requires sturdy male voice to
bid her
descend, be stone no morel"
to show that the marble appearance was put
on, and that she is, and ever was, genuine
pail Iitating flesh and blood.
soften does Pygmalion apply his hands to
the work. One while he addresses it in soft
terms, at another he brings it presents that
are agreeable to maidens, as shells and smooth
pebbles, and little birds, and flowers of thou
sand hues, and lilies, and painted balls, and
tears of the Heliades, that have distilled from
the trees He decks her limbs, too, with
clothing, and puts a long necklace on her neck.
Smooth pendants hang from her ears, and
bows from her breast. All things are be-
coming to her."-Ovid, Metam, x, vii.
There is something tender and kindly in
this myth; it represents woman as man would
have her, pure as the ivory, modestly arrayed,
and pebbles, and flowers-a thing of beauty,
and Joy forever. But Hesiod gives widely
different account of the creation of woman.
According to him, she was sent in mockery by
Zeus to be a scourge to mani
"The Sire who rules the earth and sways the
Had spoken; laughter filed his secret soul:
He bade the crippled god his hest obey,
And mould with temperlDg water plastic clay;
With human nerve and human voice Invest
The limbs elastic and the breathing breast;
Fair as the blooming goddesses above,
virgins likeness with the looks oflove.
He bade Minerva teach the skill that sheds
A thousand colors in the gliding threads;
He calld the magic of loves golden queen
To breathe around a witchery of mien,
And eager passions never sated flame,
And cares Of dress that prey upon the frame;
Bade Hermes last endue, with craft refined
mind. -HEsIoD ERGA, 6l-79.
If such was the Greek theory of the creation
of woman, it speaks i'll for the Greek men, for
woman is ever what man makes her. If he
chooses her to be gddy, and light, and crafty,
giddy, light, and crafty will she become; but
if he demands of her to be what God made her,
modest, and thrifty and tender such she will
ever prove. This our grand old northern fore
fathers knew, and they made her creation
sacred matter, and fashioned her from a nobler
stock than man. He was of the ash, she of
the elm; they called the first woman Embla,
or Emla, which means a laborious female
from the root amr, ami, ambl, signifying
"work.' Gone day, as the sons of Bor were
walking along the sea-beach, they found two
stems of wood, out of which they shaped a
man and woman. The first, Odin, infused
into them life and spirit; the second, Viii, en-
dowed them with reason and the power of
motion; the third, We, gave them speech and
features, hearing and vision" ("Younger
Edde," 8; cf, also "Voluspa" IT, 1S.) This
reminds one of the ancient Iranian myth of
Ahoura Mazda creating the first pair, Meschia
MaSchIana ba RaiU fraa pnt
the Scandinavians also spoke of three prime
val mothers: = Edda (great- grandmother,
Amma (grandmother), and mother, from
whom sprung the three classes of thral
churl, and earl. 1t is noticeable that these
primeval women are represented as good
housewives in the venerable Rigsmal which
describes the wanderings of the god Heimdal,
under the name of Rig. The Deity comes to
the hut of Edda, and at once
"FrOm the ashes she took q loaf
Heavy and thick, with bran Mixed
More beside she laid upon the board;
There is SCI a bowl of broth on the table;
There is a calf boiled, and Gates the best"
Then he goes to the house of ANNA, the
wife of Af.
"Afi's wife sat plying her rock
Win outspread arm, busked to weave.
A hood on her head, a sarx over her breast,
shoulders"
He next enters the hall OF Mother.
1.-THE housewife looked on her arms
Smoothed her vail, and fastened her sleeves,
her headgear adjusted. A. clasp was on her
bosom,
Her robe was ample, her sark blue;
Brighter her brow, tairer her breast.
Whittier her neck than purest snowdrift.
She took did Mother, figured cloth
OF white linen, and The table decked:
She then took cakes OF snoW-wh1te Wheat,
On the table them she laid.
She set forth salvers, silver adorned,
Full of game and pork, and roasted birds,
In a can was wine. the cups were costly.
Not word of disparagement of woman is
found in those old oosmic lays. The sturdy
Northerner knew her value, and he respected
her, whilst the frivolous Greek despised her
as a toy.
The Proyencal troubadours caught the
classic Interpretation of woman. Massila
was Greek colony, and Greek manners,
tastes, and habits of thought prevailed for
long in the southeast of France. They idolized
her as an idol Ol-pnnpet. but they knew not how