n, Al[oe]us, and
Tityus; and, to prevent them rising again, the Island of Sicily is
fixed on Typhon, and Mount AEtna on AEgaeon, and Tityus is doomed to have
a vulture always gnawing his liver, which grows afresh every month.
Phlegias fired Apollo's temple at Delphi, for which he was sentenced
to have a great stone hung over his head, ready every moment to fall
and crush him to pieces. Ixion, for an assault on Juno, was struck
down to hell, and tied to a wheel, which kept continually turning.
Sisyphus is a notorious robber, condemned to roll a stone up to the
top of a hill, which is made to roll down again immediately; and as he
has to begin and roll it up again as soon as it comes down, his labour
is perpetual. The Danaides are fifty virgins (sisters), who all but
one, by the command of their father Danaus, slew their husbands on
their wedding night. For this they were condemned to draw water out of
a deep well, to fill a tub whose bottom was full of holes like a
sieve. Tantalus invited the gods to a feast, and, to improve their
divinity, he killed, boiled, and served up Pelops on the table before
them to eat. They refused to partake of this horrid dish, and
condemned Tantalus to stand in water which he could not drink, and to
have meat placed before him which he could not taste, though suffering
the pangs of hunger and thirst--a punishment he was to endure for
ever.

In the Tartarian regions there is a place supposed to abound with all
kinds of pleasures and delights, called Elysium, because thither the
souls of good men are conveyed after being freed from the body. This
is the heathen paradise, consisting of pleasant plains, the most
verdant fields, the shadiest groves, and the finest and most temperate
air that can be found. After the souls of the pious have spent many
ages in these Elysian fields, they drink the water of the river Lethe,
which makes them forget all things past; and then they return to the
world and pass into new bodies.

The Pagan deities have ambrosia for their food, and nectar for their
drink, both of which have the property of giving immortality to those
who partake of them.

The festivals of the heathens were many, as almost every deity was
allowed sacred honours. In sacrificing, the animals offered to the
celestial deities were white, and those to the infernal gods were
black. To Jupiter a white ox was sacrificed; to Neptune, Mars, and
Apollo a bull, ram, and boar; to Ceres, milk, honey, a