called Olympus. The gods all had their separate dwellings, but all when summoned assembled in the palace of Zeus, there to feast upon ambrosia and nectar. Their duties consisted in discussing the affairs of heaven and earth, while for amusement they had the melodies of Apollo’s lyre, and the songs of the muses. There was a gate of clouds to this heavenly city kept by goddesses, the Hours or Seasons, and through these gates the celestials passed when bent upon any errand to earth. [Illustration: The Flying Mercury or Hermes. _Giovanni di Bologna._] Hermes (Roman name, Mercury) was the personification of the wind and the messenger of Zeus, and, like the Valkyries, he had the office of conducting the souls of the dead to Hades. His summoning of the souls of the dead is beautifully described in this passage from the Odyssey, translated by the poet Bryant: “In his hand he bore The beautiful golden wand, with which at will He shuts the eyes of men, or opens them From sleep. With this he guided on their way The ghostly rout; they followed, uttering A shrilly wail. As when a flock of bats, Deep in a dismal cavern, fly about And squeak, if one have fallen from the place Where, clinging to each other and the rock, They rested, so that crowd of ghosts went forth With shrill and plaintive cries. Before them moved Beneficent Hermes through those dreary ways, And past the ocean stream they went, and past Leucadia’s rock, the portals of the Sun, And people of the land of dreams, until They reached the fields of asphodel, where dwell The souls, the bodiless forms of those who die.” Among the loveliest of the sky deities are the goddesses of the dawn. Besides bringing light and joy to mankind, they are his kind helpers when he is in trouble, and the givers of all good things. We have already made the acquaintance of the Hindoo Dawn Goddess Ushas, and give here another Vedic hymn in her praise. The counterpart of Ushas in Greek mythology is Aurora, the Goddess of the Dawn, who is pictured flying before the car of Apollo. A more developed Dawn Goddess is Pallas Athēne (Roman name Minerva.) She is represented as having sprung fully armed from the head of her father Zeus, as the Dawn springs up in the morning sky. But she has a warlike, as well as a beneficent side when she wields the lightning and the thunderbolts. When Pallas Athēne decided to give her aid to any human being, she sometimes took the form of Mentes, or of a young shepherd, as she does in different scenes in the “Odyssey.” When she descends to earth she is described as fastening underneath her feet