Classical Theology.—Xxxii.

CLASSICAL THEOLOGY . —XXXII .

LONDON , SATURDAY , SEZPTEHDZEZR 13 , 1 SG 0 .

IX . —DIANA AND i'OYEMSEE . The Greek historian and traveller Pausanias , about tivo centuries after the birth of Christ , travelled throughout Greece describing the various antiquities , temples , tombs , monuments , statues , and paintings . Both sculpture and architecture attained unrivalled excellence

upwards of two thousand four hundred years ago , in the time of Pericles , ivhen that consummate sculptor Phidias so pre-eminently distinguished himself b y his superior ability that his ivories have been held in the highest admiration , not only ivith the Greeks but amongst foreigners , as long as the appreciation of taste remained

with the ancients . Under h is s uperintenclence many of the most magnificent buildings in Athens were erected . After him a succession of famous painters , scul p tors , and architects appeared ; and the arts continued to flourish in surprising perfection in Greece , till the death of Alexander the Great . Many fine relics of these

celebrated Grecian wor-ks have been brought to this country aud deposited in the British Museum , ivhere they are now beheld with p leasure and pride by artists and ' men of letters . But long previous to the life of the pre-eminently great Master Mason , Phidiasthere existed a military race

, of women said to have been animated with the most indomitable souls and possessing the bravery of warriors , who inhabited Sarmatia Europaoa , or that part of Scythia washed by the river Tauais an ancient name also of the

Danube or Ister . These women were called Amazons , ai a privalivo and paCos mamma ; or from « , «« sintitl and ( w vicere ,- either because they cut oft' one of their breasts , or that they lived without the companionship of men . They formed a nation entirely of themselves , to prevent ivhich being in the least depopulated they admitted the embraces of the men of the

neihbouringg countries . The male offspi-ing of this promiscuous union they tilled at their birth ; the female children they brought up , and deprived them of their right breasts ; but more likely by bandages than the knife . This they did , it is supposed , that they mi ght with greater facilit y use the bow aud handle their other weapons against the

enemy . This warlike nation of women , ' by their frequent excursions , became , by conquest , possessors of a great part of Asia . . 'During this period of their might ancl power , Hercules and Theseus , like two Samsons , singlehanded , the one with his club , the other with his spear , came , in company upon the Amazons , in their battle

array , and signall y defeated them ; taking prisoner Hippolyta their queen , with so gentle an act of arms that , as we are told , ( Ovid in ~ £ p . Pluedr . ) , Hercules gave her in marriage to his fraternal friend Theseus . Nay , weread , that the beautiful Ilyppoly ta bore to Theseus a son , called after her name liippolytus , still more beautiful as a man than his mother as a woman . Tlie youth became an admirer of Diana , " a lover of the chase , and a votary of chastity .

Ariadne had a sister called Phteclra , a daughter of the same father , king Minos , whom Theseus had preferred to Ariadne , and made his wife . This stepmother fell in love with her son-in-law , liippolytus , aud having solicited him , and been repulsed , her malice was so greatly provoked that she ( like the amorous E gyptian ° dame * ivith

, Joseph ) accused Hyppolytus to her husband , with offering her a shameful wrong and attempting to compel her to his desire . Theseus believed the vindictive charge , raised by the infamous Phredra against his son , who , to avoid the wrathful' contention and angry outrage

he perceived , by a timely warning , ivould ensue , should he encounter his prejudiced and awfully offended father , hastened to prepare his chariot , and fled away . As he pursued his flight , he was met by a strange company of very monstrous sea-calves , sent by Neptune at the invocation of Theseus , at sight of which , the

highspirited horses took fright and whirled him into a wood , where , being by a bough struck from out his chariot ancl entangled in the harness , he was dragged through the thickets till his flesh was almost torn off his boues , and he was otherwise so broken and battered that his corpse was scarcely to be recognised . Such ivas then

Hippolytus ' s miserable end . Afterwards , at the request and with the assistance of Diana , as he had been one of her favourite votaries , JEsculapius undertook to restore him to life and heal him . On being thus set soundly upon his legs again , having naturally no wish to remain , any longer in Greece , which had become somewhat too hot for him , he departed for Italy , where , it is said , he called himself Yirbius , " quod ' vi , ¦ ¦ ¦ lisesse , ' , '' because lie had been twice a man .

Like almost all mythological fables , this one is engrafted on historical facts . Pha'dra , the poets ; tell , underwent the punishment of being consigned , to the tender care of the furies ; meaning thereby , the 'Miery torches " —the harrowin g stings—of her own evil conscience .. Cicero says , ( Or . pro lioscio Am . ) , ' -Every person ' s own

fraud has its own terror , ivhich brings to that person the greatest vexation , everyone ' s own wickedness torments and enrages him ; his own evil thoughts and the lashes of his conscience affect and affright him : these are constant and domestic furies to tho wicked , that , night and day , exact of them the punishment that their

crimes deserve . " Thus it fared with , the iniquitous Phrcdra . the guilt of the false accusation , and hate of one she had unlawfully loved , and the dread of detection , preyed on her mind and drove her at last to commit selfdestruction by hanging herself . Aud not long after , Theseus himself , so it is stated , ended an illustrious career , by au obscure death in banishment from his

country . Ephesus , now known as Aja Sabuk , inhabited by about forty or fifty Ottoman families , all of idiom reside in thatched roofed huts , or Turkish cottages , is situated about two days' horse journey south or' Smyrna , ( one of the seven cities that claim to be the birthplace of Homer ) , in tho midst of a lain extending westerlto the

p y sea four or five miles , and at least two in breadth . Many remains of antiquity arc scattered around this place ; in some parts the ground is completely covered with the ruins of noble edifices , among which aro innumerable fragments of marble pedestals and columns . Xot far from asnialliuosc [ ue , saidtoha \ 'ebeenanci . entlyacliitrchfounclecI

by St . John the Evangelist , are seen the remains of an amphitheatre , and a little furlhev from these , a large bath , or basin , fifteen feet in diameter , formed of white and red marble . There are also some very extensive ruins , wliich evidently are those of the once famous Ehesian temple of Dianaone of the seven

p , wonders of the world , ancl said to have been built by the Amazons . It ivas a work of the most magnificent structure , tho admiration aud constant theme of the ancient poets , artists , and travellers . It was more than two hundred feet in length , and two hundred in breadth , supported by one hundred and twenty-seven pillars of the

purest marble , sixty feet high , and each said to have been raised by as many contributory kings , who ivere then not a few , each people , or rather tribe , constituting a kingdom in those days . Of these pillars , thirty-six were statue columns , curiously engraven , and the others more or less carved and highly polished , Some represent them