Theo

gony.

CHAPTER VI.

OF THE WAR OF JOVE AND TYPHŒUS, OF ITS RF

NEWAL, AND OF THE WAR OF MICHAEL

AND THE DRAGON.

WHEN the great Victor God, almighty Jove,
The Titans from celestial Regions drove,
Wide Earth Typhoeus bore, with Tart'rus join'd,
Her youngest born, and blust'ring as the Wind;
Fit for most arduous Works his brawny Hands,
On Feet as durable as Gods he stands ;

From Heads of Serpents hiss an hundred Tongues,
And lick his horrid Jaws, untir'd his Lungs;
From his dire hundred Heads his Eye-balls stare,
And Fire-like, dreadful to Beholders, glare;
Terrific from his hundred Mouths to hear,
Voices of ev'ry Kind torment the Ear;
His Ut'rance sounds like Gods in Council full;
And now he bellows like the lordly Bull;

And now he roars like the stern Beast that reigns
King of the Woods, and Terror of the Plains;
And now, surprising to be hear'd, he yelps,
Like, from his ev'ry Voice, the Lyon's Whelps;
And now, so loud a Noise the Monster makes,
The loftyest Mountain from its Basis shakes:
And now Typhoeus had perplex'd the Day,
And over Men and Gods usurp'd the Sway,
Had not the powrful Monarch of the Skys,
Of Men and Gods the Sire, great Jove the wise,
Against the Foe his hotest Vengeance hurl'd,
Which blaz'd and thunder'd thro th' æthereal World.
Th' Almighty rising made Olympus nod,
And the Earth groan'd beneath the vengeful God.
Hoarse thro the cœrule Main the Thunder rowl'd,
Thro which the Light'ning flew, both uncontroul'd;
Fire caught the Winds which on their Wings they bore,
Fierce flame the Earth and Heav'n, the Seas loud roar,
And beat with burning Waves the burning Shore;

The Tumult of the Gods was hear'd afar :
How hard to lay this Hurricane of War!

But, Jove at last collected all his Might,

With Light'ning arm'd, and Thunder, for the Fight, With Strides majestic from Olympus strode ;

What Powr is able now to face the God!

The Flash obedient executes his Ire;
The Giant blazes with vindictive Fire ;
From ev'ry Head a diff'rent Flame ascends;
The Monster bellows, and Olympus bends :
The God repeats his Blows, beneath each Wound
All maim'd the Giant falls, and groans the Ground.
Fierce flash the light'nings from the Hands of Jove,
The Mountains burn, and crackles ev'ry Grove.
The melted Earth floats from her inmost Caves,
As from the Furnace run metallic Waves:
So the Earth melted: and the Giant fell,
Plung'd by the Arms of mighty Jove to Hell.
Typhæus bore the rapid Winds which fly
With Tempests wing'd, and darken all the Sky;
But from the bounteous Gods derive their Birth
The Gales which breathe frugiferous to Earth,
The South, the North, and the swift Western Wind,
Which ever blow to profit human Kind:
Those from Typhous sprung, an useless Train,
To Men pernicious, bluster o'er the Main;
With thick and sable Clouds they veil the Deep,
And now destruction cross the Ocean sweep.
The Mariner with Dread beholds from far
The gath'ring Storms, and elemental War;
His Bark the furious Blast and Billows rend;
The Surges rise, and Cataracts descend;
Above, beneath, he hears the Tempest roar;
Now sinks the Vessel, and he fears no more:
And Remedy to this they none can find,
Who are resolv'd to trade by Sea and Wind.
On Land in Whirlwinds, or unkindly Showrs,
They blast the lovely Fruits and blooming Flowrs;
O'er Sea and Land the blust'ring Tyrants reign,
And make of earth-born Men the Labours vain.

And now the Gods, who fought for endless Fame,
The God of Gods almighty Jove proclaim,
As Earth advis'd: nor reigns olympian Jove
Ingrate to them who with the Titans strove ;
On those who war'd beneath his wide Command
He Honours heaps with an impartial Hand.

This battle between Jove and Typhoeus is another allegorical picture in which nature is represented as striving against the condition which has been imposed upon her by man's operations in the world, and of which condition Typhon or Typhoeus is a personification; as is well seen by Homer's description of his origin, as set forth in his Hymn to Apollo: in which Typhon is represented to have been caused to come forth by wounding the earth. This is an allegorical description signifying that the condition figured by the personage of Typhon was gradually brought into existence by the artificial use of the terrestrial substances, and the train of consequences following thereon. And the truth of which, nature most plainly declares. Thus whilst Pandora is a personification of the conditions which art brings into existence, as touching all the affairs of life, and the circumstances under which the creatures of the earth exist; so the Titans and Typhoeus, or Typhon, are personifications of the conditions which art imposes upon the earth itself.

This, then, is another Egyptian allegory illustrative of a similar conflagrant terrestrial restoration to that depicted by the conflict between the gods and Titans, happening subsequently and of less extent. In the former picture there is an array of many powers in conflict, expressive of more extensive operation;

in the latter the Omnipotent is represented as striving with an individual power. This picture signifies that after the destruction of art and the restoration of the reign of nature, by means of the Titanian conflagration, fire is again discovered, art arises, and the world returns into that state of degeneracy which existed before the Titanian restoration. This Typhoean battle is again attended by all the circumstances concomitant on conflagrant burning of the earth.

In this allegory, again, the blazing of the giant plainly shows that the monster is merely a personification of the Typhoan or unnatural condition of the earth, against which nature strives, by means of fire, for the recovery of her own proper powers. We observe that, before the engagement, his eyes are described as staring fire-like from his hundred heads; he makes all kinds of horrid noises, which are sometimes so loud that the loftiest mountain shakes. This alludes to the volcanic eruptions and earthquakes, by which it appears that the earth becomes more and more agitated as the time of the conflagration advances. The concussions of Tom- Eruption boro, for example, as related by Raffles, in 1815, extended themselves to a circumference of a thousand miles; and within the space of three hundred miles around, the most astonishing and alarming effects were experienced. At Java, three hundred miles distant, the sun at noonday was enveloped in impenetrable clouds, and amidst this darkness explosions were heard at intervals which were mistaken for peals of artillery in a naval combat, and vessels despatched to afford relief. This was as the bellowing of the Egyptian Typhoeus.

of

Tomboro.

PSA.

XC. 4.

The approaching fiery restoration of the earth.

these words: "For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night." The evidences now presented by the face of nature show that, as here declared, a thousand years is as nothing in comparison to the age of the world.

The subterranean powers are now most actively preparing for another conflagration, which must occur principally in the regions of the Andes and the mountains of Mexico, which are full of volcanoes. This circumstance must have been equally obvious to the ancients; and it seems to be to this that Hesiod mysteriously alludes, when he says that a life, or a second life, has been accorded to the men of the iron age, on

Some happy Soil far in the distant Main:

that is, after those regions have again been made happy by a conflagrant restoration of the integrity of that part of the earth. Volcanic agency is also known to be in very wide operation both beneath the bed of the Pacific, and that of the Atlantic

oceans.

The chimnies of Zion, spoken of in the sixth chapter of the second book of Esdras, seem to signify the volcanoes of America: the chimnies of the old Zion, whose fire is to cause the erection of the future Zion, by the ancient poets denominated Olympus, which, no doubt, is near at hand; but nature and history seem to declare that some generations of the Promethean lineage still first await their day. The prophecies of Scripture respecting the degeneration of the world, have not all yet been accomplished.