Persephone

1. Persephone 珀耳塞福涅（Persephone）是希腊神话中冥界的 王后，她是德墨忒尔（Demeter）和宙斯的女儿， 被哈迪斯（Hades）绑架到冥界与哈迪斯结婚，成 为冥后。

2. 从远处突然看见、窥见 To Hades Venus, who was sitting on Mount Eryx playing with her boy Cupid, espied him, and said, “My son, take your darts with which you conquer all, even Jove himself, and send one into the breast of yonder dark monarch, who rules the realm of Tartarus. Why should he alone escape? Seize the opportunity to extend your empire and mine. Do you not see that even in heaven some despise our power? 轻视

3. To Persephone Minerva the wise, and Diana the huntress, defy us; and there is that daughter of Ceres, who threatens to follow their example. Now do you, if you have any regard for your own interest or mine, join these two in one.”

4. Here Proserpine was playing with her companions, gathering lilies and violets, and filling her basket and her apron with them, when Pluto saw her, loved her, and carried her off. She screamed for help to her mother and companions; and when in her fright she dropped the corners of her apron and let the flowers fall, childlike she felt the loss of them as an addition to her grief.

5. An old man named Celeus was out in the field, gathering acorns and blackberries, and sticks for his fire. His little girl was driving home their two goats, and as she passed the goddess, who appeared in the guise of an old woman, she said to her, “Mother,”——and the name was sweet to the ears of Ceres,—— “why do you sit here alone upon the rocks?”

6. The old man also stopped, though his load was heavy, and begged her to come into his cottage. She declined, and he urged her. “Go in peace,” she replied, “and be happy in your daughter; I have lost mine.” As she spoke, tears——or something like tears, for the gods never weep—— fell down her cheeks upon her bosom.

7. 有同情心的 The compassionate old man and his child wept with her. Then said he, “Come with us, and despise not our humble roof; so may your daughter be restored to you in safety.” “Lead on,” said she, “I cannot resist that appeal!” So she rose from the stone and went with them. As they walked he told her that his only son, a little boy, lay very sick, feverish, and sleepless.

8. 混合 挤、压 While they ate, Ceres mingled poppy juice in the milk of the boy. When night came and all was still, she arose, and taking the sleeping boy, moulded his limbs with her hands, and uttered over him three times a solemn charm, then went and laid him in the ashes. His mother, who had been watching what her guest was doing, sprang forward with a cry and snatched the child from the fire. 夺取、抓住

9. Then Ceres assumed her own form, and a divine splendor shone all around. While they were over- come with astonishment, she said, “Mother, you have been cruel in your fondness to your son. I would have made him immortal, but you have frustrated my attempt. Nevertheless, he shall be great and useful. He shall teach men the use of the plough, 挫败、击败

10. Ceres turned her chariot towards heaven, and hasten -ed to present herself before the throne of Jove. She implored Jupiter to interfere to procure the restitution of her daughter. Jupiter consented on one condition, namely, that Proserpine should not during her stay in the lower world have taken any food; otherwise, the Fates forbade her release. 归还、赔偿

11. Ceres restored the earth to her favor. Now she remembered her promise to his infant son Triptolemus. When the boy grew up, she taught him the use of the plough, and how to sow the seed. She took him in her chariot, drawn by winged dragons, through all the countries of the earth, imparting to mankind valuable grains, and the knowledge of agriculture. 传授、赋予

12. Cupid 奥利匹斯众神中，最叫人无可奈何的，就是爱神丘比特。 丘比特一直被人们喻为爱情的象征，相传他有头非常美 丽的金发，雪白娇嫩的脸蛋，还有一对可以自由自在飞 翔的翅膀，丘比特和他母亲爱神阿芙洛狄忒一起主管神、 人的爱情。不过他与母亲维纳斯不同，阿芙洛狄忒代表 的是理性的爱，而丘比特代表的是盲目的爱。

13. A certain king and queen had three daughters. The charms of the two elder were more than common, but the beauty of the youngest was so wonderful that the poverty of language is unable to express its due praise. The fame of her beauty was so great that strangers from neighboring countries came in crowds to enjoy the sight, and looked on her with amazement, paying her that homage which is due only to Venus herself.

14. Cupid prepared to obey the commands of his mother. He shed a few drops from the bitter fountain over her lips, though the sight of her almost moved him to pity; then touched her side with the point of his arrow. At the touch she awoke, and opened eyes upon Cupid （himself invisible）, which so startled him that in his confusion he wounded himself with his own arrow.

15. 招致 Her parents, afraid that they had unwittingly incurred the anger of the gods, consulted the oracle of Apollo, and received this answer: “The virgin is destined for the bride of no mortal lover. Her future husband awaits her on the top of the mountain. He is a monster whom neither gods nor men can resist.”

16. She approached the building and ventured to enter. Every object she met filled her with pleasure and amazement. Golden pillars supported the vaulted roof, and the walls were enriched with carvings and paintings representing beasts of the chase and rural scenes, adapted to delight the eye of the beholder. Proceeding onward, she perceived that besides the apartments there were others filled with all manner of treasures, and beautiful and precious productions of nature and art.

17. She prepared her lamp and a sharp knife, and hid them out of sight of her husband. When he had fallen into his first sleep, she silently rose and uncovering her lamp beheld not a hideous monster, but the most beautiful and charming of the gods, with his golden ringlets wandering over his snowy neck and crimson cheek, with two dewy wings on his shoulders, whiter than snow,

18. and with shining feathers like the tender blossoms of spring. As she leaned the lamp over to have a nearer view of his face a drop of burning oil fell on the shoulder of the god, startled with which he opened his eyes and, without saying one word, he spread his white wings and flew out of the window.

19. “For now,” said they, “he will perhaps choose one of us.” With this idea, without saying a word of her intentions, each of them rose early the next morning and ascended the mountains, and having reached the top, called upon Zephyr to receive her and bear her to his lord; then leaping up, and not being sustained by Zephyr, fell down the cliff and was dashed to pieces. 悬崖 支持

20. Cupid, being no longer to bear the absence of his beloved Psyche, slipping through the smallest crack of the window of his chamber which happened to be left open, flew to the spot where Psyche lay, and gathering up the sleep from her body closed it again in the box, and waked Psyche with a light touch of one of his arrows. “Again,” said he, “hast thou almost perished by the same curiosity. But now perform exactly the task imposed on you by my mother, and I will take care of the rest.”

21. Then Cupid, as swift as lightning penetrating the heights of heaven, presented himself before Jupiter with his supplication. Jupiter lent a favoring ear, and pleaded the cause of the lovers so earnestly with Venus that he won her consent. On this he sent Mercury to bring Psyche up to the heavenly assembly, and when she arrived, handing her a cup of ambrosia, he said, “Drink this, Psyche, and be immortal;

22. Pan cave As a god of woods and fields, of flocks and shepherds, he dwelt in grottos, wandered on the mountains and in valleys, and amused himself with the chase or in leading the dance of the nymphs. He was fond of music, and was, as we have seen, the inventor of the syrinx, or shepherd’s pipe, which he himself played in a masterly manner.

23. Pan, like other gods who dwelt in forests, was dreaded by those whose occupations caused them to pass through the woods by night, for the gloom and loneliness of such scenes dispose the mind to superstitious fears. Hence sudden fright without any visible cause was ascribed to Pan, and called a Panic terror. 归因于

24. The Olympian gods, while despising Pan for his simplicity and love for riot, exploited his powers. Apollo wheedled the art of prophecy from him, and Hermes copied a pipe which he had let fall, claimed it as his own invention, and sold it to Apollo. 诱惑、哄骗