Sexual life in ancient Greece : with thirty-two full-page plates

RELIGION AND EROTIC

with Endymion: “He so dearly loved the eyes of Endymion, that not even when he was asleep did he cause them to shut, but let him keep them open when he put him to sleep, that he might ever enjoy the delight of gazing on them.”

Of the origin of Orion, the splendid constellation, fabled by the ancients to be either a giant who with brandished club or brilliant weapons at his side strides along the sky, or a mighty hunter, the following singular story is told. Zeus, Poseidon, and Hermes in their wanderings upon earth once came to the aged Hyrieus at Thebes, by whom in spite of his poverty they were received with great hospitality. By way of thanks, the gods granted the old man permission to ask the fulfilment of a prayer ; hetold them that he had long been a widower, and that while he did not want a second wite, he did wantason. The gods resolved to grant his prayer. The skin of a previously slaughtered bullock is brought forward and in it the three gods deposit their seed. Skin and all is then buried in the earth, and from it after nine months steps forth a boy, who later develops into the mighty Orion. The story, that no doubt arose from a false interpretation, is said to indicate that so mighty a giant as Orion needed not one, but three fathers, and that he, like nearly all the giants, came from the earth.

When grown up Orion shows his sensuality in an outrageous manner for, in a fit of drunkenness, he violates the daughter (or the wife) of his guest and friend, (nopion, king of Chios (Parthenius, 20; Pindar, frag. 72). For this he is blinded by his father, but he gropes his way towards the risingsun and at last finds the light of his eyes restored by its beams. Later, he conceives a desire for Artemis, and seeks to lay violent hands on her: whereupon

* For the birth of Orion see Ovid, Fasti, v, 495 ff. ; Nonnus, Dionysiaca, xiii, 96 ff.; Hyginus, Fab., 195, and Poet. astron., ii, 34, although, according to Strabo, ix, 404, Pindar had already spoken of it

(frag. 73). False derivation from ovpety, which not only means to make water, but also to discharge semen (so e.g. in Anton, Liberalis, 41).

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