Bulfinch's Mythology
The Age of Fable, the Age of Chivalry, Legends of Charlemagne
Excerpt
IF no other knowledge deserves to be called useful but that
which helps to enlarge our possessions or to raise our station in
society, then mythology has no claim to the appellation. But if that
which tends to make us happier and better can be called useful then we
claim that epithet for our subject. For mythology is the handmaid of
literature; and literature is one of the best allies of virtue and
promoters of happiness.
Without a knowledge of mythology much of the elegant literature of our
own language cannot be understood and appreciated. When Byron calls Rome
"the Niobe of nations," or says of Venice, "She looks a Sea-Cybele fresh
from ocean," he calls up to the mind of one familiar with our subject,
illustrations more vivid and striking than the pencil could furnish, but
which are lost to the reader ignorant of mythology. Milton abounds in
similar allusions. The short poem "Comus" contains more than thirty
such, and the ode "On the Morning of the Na ... read full excerpt from Bulfinch's Mythology ebook
