t mutable figure on earth, for he assumed shapes suitable to all
seasons, and to all ranks. To direct the husbandman he wore a rural
dress; by a change of attributes he became the instructer of smiths and
other artificers, whose instruments he appeared adorned with. This Horus
of the smiths had a short or lame leg, to signify that agriculture or
husbandry will halt without the assistance of the handicraft or mechanic
arts. In this apparatus he was called _Mulciber_, (from _Mulci_, to
direct and manage, and _ber_ or _beer_, a cave or mine, comes Mulciber,
the king of the mines or forges;) he was called also Hephaistos, (from
_Aph_, _father_, and _Esto_, _fire_, comes Ephaisto, or Hephaiston, the
father of fire; and from _Wall_, to work, and Canan, to _hasten_, comes
_Wolcon_, Vulcan, or _work furnished_;) all which names the Greeks and
Romans adopted with the figure, and, as usual, converted from a _symbol_
to a _god_.

AEOLUS, god of the winds, is said to have been the son of Jupiter by
Acasta or Sigesia, daughter of Hippotas. His residence was, according to
most authors, at Rhegium in Italy; but wherever it was, he is
represented as holding the winds, enchained in a vast cave, to prevent
their committing any more such devastations as they had before
occasioned; for, to their violence was imputed not only the disjunction
of Sicily from Italy, but also the separation of Europe from Africa, by
which a passage was opened for the ocean to form the Mediterranean sea.
According to some, the AEolian, or Lip{)a}ri islands were uninhabited
till Lip{)a}rus, son of Auson, settled a colony there, and gave one of
them his name. AE{)o}lus married his daughter Cy{)a}ne, peopled the rest
and succeeded him on the throne. He was a generous and good prince, who
hospitably entertained Ulysses, and as a proof of his kindness, bestowed
on him several skins, in which he had enclosed the winds. The companions
of Ulysses, unable to restrain their curiosity, having opened the skins,
the winds in consequence were set free, and occasioned the wildest
uproar; insomuch that Ulysses lost all his vessels, and was himself
alone saved by a plank. It may not be improper to remark, that over the
rougher winds the poets have placed AE{)o}lus; over the milder, Juno; and
the rain, thunder and lightning they have committed to Jupiter himself.

MOMUS, son of Somnus and Nox, was the god of pleasantry and wit, or
rather the jester of the celestial assembly; for,