If we wish to come at the probable meaning of this fable, we must have recourse to Egyptian antiquities. The Horus of the Egyptians was the most mutable figure on earth, for he assumed shapes suitable to all seasons, and to all ranks. To direct the husbandman he wore a rural dress; by a change of attributes he became the instructer of smiths and other artificers, whose instruments he appeared adorned with. This Horus of the smiths had a short or lame leg, to signify that agriculture or husbandry will halt without the assistance of the handicraft or mechanic arts. In this apparatus he was called _Mulciber_, (from _Mulci_, to direct and manage, and _ber_ or _beer_, a cave or mine, comes Mulciber, the king of the mines or forges;) he was called also Hephaistos, (from _Aph_, _father_, and _Esto_, _fire_, comes Ephaisto, or Hephaiston, the father of fire; and from _Wall_, to work, and Canan, to _hasten_, comes _Wolcon_, Vulcan, or _work furnished_;) all which names the Greeks and Romans adopted with the figure, and, as usual, converted from a _symbol_ to a _god_. ÆOLUS, god of the winds, is said to have been the son of Jupiter by Acasta or Sigesia, daughter of Hippotas. His residence was, according to most authors, at Rhegium in Italy; but wherever it was, he is represented as holding the winds, enchained in a vast cave, to prevent their committing any more such devastations as they had before occasioned; for, to their violence was imputed not only the disjunction of Sicily from Italy, but also the separation of Europe from Africa, by which a passage was opened for the ocean to form the Mediterranean sea. According to some, the Æolian, or Lipări islands were uninhabited till Lipărus, son of Auson, settled a colony there, and gave one of them his name. Æŏlus married his daughter Cyăne, peopled the rest and succeeded him on the throne. He was a generous and good prince, who hospitably entertained Ulysses, and as a proof of his kindness, bestowed on him several skins, in which he had enclosed the winds. The companions of Ulysses, unable to restrain their curiosity, having opened the skins, the winds in consequence were set free, and occasioned the wildest uproar; insomuch that Ulysses lost all his vessels, and was himself alone saved by a plank. It may not be improper to remark, that over the rougher winds the poets have placed Æŏlus; over the milder, Juno; and the rain, thunder and lightning they have committed to Jupiter himself.