of its banishing,—­the Autolycus enchantment of making black seem white,—­and the disappointed fury of Ixion (taking shadow for power), mingle in the moral meaning of this and its collateral legends; and give an aspect, at last, not only of foolish cunning, but of impiety or literal “idolatry,” “imagination worship,” to the dreams of avarice and injustice, until this notion of atheism and insolent blindness becomes principal; and the “Clouds” of Aristophanes, with the personified “just” and “unjust” sayings in the latter part of the play, foreshadow, almost feature by feature, in all that they were written to mock and to chastise, the worst elements of the impious “‘dinos’” and tumult in men’s thoughts, which have followed on their avarice in the present day, making them alike forsake the laws of their ancient gods, and misapprehended or reject the true words of their existing teachers.

30.  All this we have from the legends of the historic AEolus only; but, besides these, there is the beautiful story of Semele, the mother of Bacchus.  She is the cloud with the strength of the vine in its bosom, consumed by the light which matures the fruit; the melting away of the cloud into the clean air at the fringe of its edges being exquisitely rendered by Pindar’s epithet for her, Semele, “with the stretched-out hair” (’tauuetheira’.) Then there is the entire tradition of the Danaides, and of the tower of Danae and golden shower; the birth of Perseus connecting this legend with that of the Gorgons and Graiae, who are the true clouds of thunderous ruin and tempest.  I must, in passing, mark for you that the form of the sword or sickle of Perseus, with which he kills Medusa, is another image of the whirling harpy vortex, and belongs especially to the sword of destruction or annihilation; whence it is given to the two angels who gather for destruction the evil harvest and evil vintage of the earth (Rev. xiv. 15).  I will collect afterwards and complete what I have already written respecting the Pegasean and Gorgonian legends, noting here only what is necessary to explain the central myth of Athena herself, who represents the ambient air, which included all cloud, and rain, and dew, and darkness, and peace, and wrath of heaven.  Let me now try to give you, however briefly, some distinct idea of the several agencies of this great goddess.

31.  I. She is the air giving life and health to all animals. 
     II.  She is the air giving vegetative power to the earth. 
     III.  She is the air giving motion to the sea, and rendering
           navigation possible. 
     IV.  She is the air nourishing artificial light, torch or lamplight;
          as opposed to that of the sun, on one hand, and of consuming*
          fire on the other. 
     V. She is the air conveying vibration of sound.

* Not a scientific, but a very practical and expressive distinction.

I will give you instances of her agency in all these functions.