tually gnawed his
liver.

TANTALUS was a wise and wealthy king of Lydia, with whom the gods
themselves condescended to associate; he was even permitted to sit at table
with Zeus, who delighted in his conversation, and listened with interest to
the wisdom of his observations. Tantalus, however, elated at these
distinguished marks of divine favour, presumed upon his position, and used
unbecoming language to Zeus himself; he also stole nectar and ambrosia from
the table of the gods, with which he regaled his friends; but his greatest
crime consisted in killing his own son, {135} Pelops, and serving him up at
one of the banquets to the gods, in order to test their omniscience. For
these heinous offences he was condemned by Zeus to eternal punishment in
Tartarus, where, tortured with an ever-burning thirst, he was plunged up to
the chin in water, which, as he stooped to drink, always receded from his
parched lips. Tall trees, with spreading branches laden with delicious
fruits, hung temptingly over his head; but no sooner did he raise himself
to grasp them, than a wind arose, and carried them beyond his reach.

SISYPHUS was a great tyrant who, according to some accounts, barbarously
murdered all travellers who came into his dominions, by hurling upon them
enormous pieces of rock. In punishment for his crimes he was condemned to
roll incessantly a huge block of stone up a steep hill, which, as soon as
it reached the summit, always rolled back again to the plain below.

IXION was a king of Thessaly to whom Zeus accorded the privilege of joining
the festive banquets of the gods; but, taking advantage of his exalted
position, he presumed to aspire to the favour of Hera, which so greatly
incensed Zeus, that he struck him with his thunderbolts, and commanded
Hermes to throw him into Tartarus, and bind him to an ever-revolving wheel.

The DANAIDES were the fifty daughters of Danaus, king of Argos, who had
married their fifty cousins, the sons of AEgyptus. By the command of their
father, who had been warned by an oracle that his son-in-law would cause
his death, they all killed their husbands in one night, Hypermnestra alone
excepted. Their punishment in the lower world was to fill with water a
vessel full of holes,--a never-ending and useless task.

[Illustration]

Aides is usually represented as a man of mature years and stern majestic
mien, bearing a striking resemblance to his brother Zeus; but the gloomy
and inexorable exp