Whilst Latona was wandering through the fields of Lycia, she desired to drink from a spring at the bottom of a valley, but the country rustics drove her away. In spite of her entreaties, they refused to allow her to slake her thirst, whereupon, in wrath, she, cursing them, said, "May ye always live in this water!" Immediately they were turned into frogs, and leaped into the streams and pools, where they continued to exist.
Vulcan, notwithstanding his noble descent, is obliged to follow the trade of a blacksmith. On account of his deformity, he was cast down from heaven into the isle of Lemnos. His leg was broken by the fall. He erected a forge, where he makes thunderbolts for his father Jupiter and armour for the other gods. His servants are called Cyclops, because they have but one eye. Though Vulcan is unpleasant in the sight of others, Venus thinks him the most beautiful of all the divinities.
Æolus keeps the winds under his power in a cave in the Æolian Islands, where he dwells. He can raise storms and hurricanes, and restrain their rage at pleasure.
Momus is a jester, mocker, or mimic. His life is spent in idleness, merely observing the sayings and doings of the gods, and then censuring and deriding them. For instance, when Neptune was made a bull, Minerva a house, and Vulcan a man, Momus was appointed to judge as to whom the greatest skill was manifested in creation. The carping god disapproved of all. He found fault with the bull for not having his horns before his eyes in his forehead, that he might be enabled to push the surer. He condemned the house, because it was fixed and could not be carried away in case it was placed in a bad neighbourhood. But the god, he said, who made man, was most imprudent because he did not make a window in the human breast, that the thoughts might be seen.
Satyrs described--Diana's Retirement--Pallas, the Goddess of Shepherds and Pasture--The vile Flora--Pomona deceived--Celestial Nymphs--Terrestrial Nymphs--River Gods and Goddesses--Sirens--Witch Circe--Infernal Deities--Passage to Tartarus--Palace of Pluto--Judges of Hell--Goddesses of Destiny--Furies--Night, Death, and Sleep: by whom presided over--Names of Monsters condemned in the place of Punishment--Tartarian Regions--Delights of the Elysian Fields--Food and Drink of Pagan Gods--Festivals of Heathens--Colour of Gods--Sacrifices to Deities--Things sacred to Gods.