At last little Jupiter was born――and Ops determined to save him.
Accordingly she gave Saturn a stone, and told him it was the boy.
Saturn devoured it――and did not discover the cheat. This is a hard
story, but the Greeks believed it, and we must not laugh at them, for
we see things quite as foolish in our day. The Mormons, who live in
Illinois, believe that one Joe Smith, a vile and wicked man, found
certain brass plates, written over with a revelation from God, which he
alone could translate; and they think this translation, which they call
the Book of Mormon, is as true as the Bible. There are certain deluded
people, even among us, misled by one Miller, who imagines that the
world is to be speedily destroyed. These things teach us how easy it is
to be deceived in religious matters, and how careful we should be not
to adopt new and singular notions upon this important subject.
Jupiter, having escaped his father’s jaws, was nursed by a goat. When
he was a year old, he was a prodigious fellow. By this time the Titans
had imprisoned his father, Saturn. So Jupiter made war upon them; he
released his father, and conquered heaven, earth and hell. The heaven
and earth he reserved to himself; the sea he gave to Neptune, and the
lower regions to Pluto.
Jupiter was supposed to be immortal, and of boundless power; but he
yet had the passions of a man. Many of his actions, as detailed by
the Grecian poets, would be regarded by us as very base, selfish
and wicked, and worthy of being punished by confinement in the
penitentiary. Such is the character of the chief god, in a system of
man’s invention. Does not this show us that the religion of the Bible,
which reveals to us a God pure, holy, just and good, is of divine
origin? Does it not also show us the danger of taking anything for
religion, such as Mormonism and Millerism, and all other mythologies
which come from man?
Apollo was the name of several gods, and this has led to some
confusion. The great Apollo was the son of Jupiter and Latona.
Jupiter’s regular wife was Juno, a fierce, proud goddess, who hated
Latona, and sent a prodigious serpent, called Python, to torment her.
In order to protect her, Jupiter raised up a beautiful island, called
Delos, in the sea, to which Latona retired. Here Apollo was born, and
when he grew up he became the god of the fine arts, music, poetry,
painting, &c. His adventures, as detailed by the ancient Greek poets,
are quite interesting.
[Illustration: _Vulcan._ _Pluto._]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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