86 HESIOD.

dren of Night may be found in the Iliad,* as well as in the JEneid.t Another wonder of the prison-house, in Hesiod's account of it, is Cerberus : " A grisly dog, implacable, Watching before the gates. A stratagem Is his, malicious : them who enter there, With tail and bended ears he fawning soothes, But suffers not that they with backward step Repass : whoe'er would issue from the gates Of Pluto strong and stern Persephone, For them with marking eye he lurks : on them Springs from his couch, and pitiless devours." E. 1018-1026. In close proximity to this monster was the fabled Styx, in some respects the most awful personage in the 'Theogony.' The legend about her is somewhat obscure, but it is curious as being connected with that of Iris, the rainbow, whose function of carrying up water when any god has been guilty of falsehood seems a vague embodiment of the covenant sealed by the "bow set in the cloud : " " Jove sends Iris down To bring the great oath in a golden ewer, The far-famed water, from steep, sky-capt rock Distilling in cold stream. Beneath the earth Abundant from the sacred river-head Through shades of darkest night the Stygian horn Of Ocean flows : a tenth of all the streams To the dread Oath allotted. In nine streams Circling the round of earth and the broad seas

• II. xiv. 231, &c. t ^Eu. vi. 278, &c.