l; just as Ulysses was the true hero at Troy, standing
above all the others and solving their problems, so Hercules is the
great Pre-Trojan hero, saving himself at last and rising to Olympus.
Finally the two careers of Ulysses and Hercules are affirmed to be
identical. This division, therefore, falls of itself into three
portions: (1) the Judge, (2) the condemned, (3) the redeemed. Thus the
whole forms a complete little cycle within itself.

1. Minos, the Judge, was the ancient king of Crete, where he was
lawgiver and suppressed wrong-doing on sea and land. Here he continues
his vocation, which demands the assigning of the just penalty to the
guilty. He is manifestly the type of Justice, both punishing and
rewarding; as punisher he has been transferred by Dante to the Inferno.
Later Greek legend united with him two other judges, his brothers,
Rhadamanthys and AEacus.

2. We have next four instances of punishment, though this is apparently
of different degrees. The wrong, however, is not stated except in the
case of Tityos, which probably hints the general nature of the misdeeds
of the three others. The poet takes for granted that his hearer could
fill out each legend for himself. In every case there was evidently
some violation done to the Gods, not to men--some crime against
Olympus. The period is thrown back into the Pre-Trojan time, into the
age of the demigods and of the free intercourse between mortals and
immortals; thus it is parallel with the first division of the Book. But
now judgment has entered the Houses of Hades along with the penalty.

The guilt of Orion is that of love between a mortal and a Goddess,
Aurora, which violation was punished by the "soft bolts" of Artemis,
protectress of chastity. This legend has already been alluded to by
Calypso. (Book V. line 121.) Jealous are the Gods of that mortal man
with whom a Goddess falls in love, and with good reason. Orion's
punishment is an eternal chase, the hunter is compelled to hunt
forever, repeating what he did in life. Perhaps not a heavy punishment
for one who is fond of hunting; yet a tremendous burden, if never
interrupted with rest; indeed it becomes a labor quite like the labor
of Sisyphus, ever repeated. Of Tityos both the guilt and punishment are
indicated; the legend is similar to and yet in contrast with that of
Orion; in the one the Goddess approaches the mortal and in the other
the mortal approaches the Goddess; hence, too, the severer punish