Curiosities & wonders > History of the heathen gods and heroes of antiquity, very necessary for understanding the writings of the ancients, and the modern English poets

3$. THE HISTORY OF
of the goddefs Flora, who underftanding the de-
fign, bid her be of good heart, telling her, that
Ihe had a flower in her garden, which, if (lie fliould
even touch with her fingers, flie fliould conceive
inftantly with the very fmell of it. Accordingly
Ihe was brought into the garden, and the flower
fliewnher; which having touched, (he conceived
Mars, who afterwards married Nerione, that is
Valour.
The poets mention only one acflion of this god,
and that rather to be concealed in darknefs, had it
not been dilcovered by the light of the fun, name¬
ly his adultery with Venus. Vulcan, knowing the
whoredom of his wife, made a net of iron, fo fine
and fmall, that it efcaped the fight of more than
human eyes, and fpread it over the bed of Venus.
The lovers foon after returned to their fp'ort, and
were caught in the fnare. Vulcan calls all the
gods to the (hew, who extremely jeered the pri-
foners. Being thus long expofed to the jells and
hides of all, at length at the requeft of Neptune,
Vulcan, having unloofed their chains, let them go.
But Aleclryon, a young man very dear to Mars,
fullered the punifhment which his crime deferved;
becaufe, being appointed watch at the door, he
fell afleep, and fo gave an opportunity to Sol of
entering the chamber; therefore he was changed
into a cock, which, being mindful of his old fault,
foretels the approach of the fun by his crowing.
Indeed Venus married to Vulcan, that is, a ve¬
ry handfome woman to a very ugly man, gives too
itrong a temptation to adultery. But that, or a-
ny other wickednefs, however it may be conceal¬
ed by more than Cimmerian darknefs, and com¬
mitted in the mod private retirements, cannot e-
fcape