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

THE HEATHEN GODS.
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( Others, on the contrary, report, that it was made
i of the bones of Pelops, and fold to the Trojans by
I the Scythians. Some affirm that ^Eneas recovered
l| it from Diomedcs, and carried it with him into Ita¬
ly ; and that it was kept at Rome, in the temple of
Veila, as a pledge of the empire, as it had been
to the Trojans.
Laftly they write, that there were two Palladi¬
ums, one of which was taken away by Diomedes,
the other by vEneas.
Minerva, like Vefta and Diana, was a perpetual
virgin, and fo great a lover of chaftity, that Ihe
deprived Tirefias of his eyes, becaufe he faw her
ibathing in the fountain of Helicon. Yet his mo¬
ther by humble petitions obtained, that her fon,
or the lofs of his light of the body, Ihould have
he art of prophecy and brightnefs of mind ; tho’
}vid ailigns another caufe of his blindnefs.
There is another illuftrious inftance of the chaf-
ty of Minerva, that, when Neptune had de-
auched the beautiful Medufa in her temple, (he
med her golden locks, which had tempted the
d, into fnakes, and caufed, that thofe, that look-
upon her afterwards, fhould be turned into
nes; that is, ffie became fo deformed and ugly,
at fuch as looked upon her, were as infenfible of
pr charms, as if they had been ftones.
This goddefs was educated near the Lake Triton,
here ceremonies were performed in honour of her.
The virgins of that country, being diftributed
:o feveral companies, and armed with clubs and
nes, a fignal being given, alfaulted each other.
e, who was firft killed, was not efteemed a vir-
and therefore her body was difgracefully
own into the lake: but flie, who received the
most