feigned
to have made them from clay: being a diligent observer of the motions of
the heavenly bodies from Mount Caucasus, it was fabled that he was
chained there: having discovered the method of striking fire from the
flint, or perhaps, the nature of lightning, it was pretended that he
stole fire from the gods: and, because he applied himself to study with
intenseness, they imagined that a vulture preyed continually on his
liver.

There is another solution of this fable, analogous to the preceding.
According to Pliny, Prometheus was the first who instituted sacrifices.
Being expelled his dominions by Jupiter, he fled to Scythia, where he
retired to Mount Caucasus, either to make astronomical calculations or
to indulge his melancholy for the loss of his dominions, which
occasioned the fable of the vulture or eagle feeding on his liver. As he
was the first inventor of forging metals by fire, he was said to have
stolen that element from heaven; and, as the first introduction of
agriculture and navigation had been ascribed to him, he was celebrated
as forming a living man from an inanimate substance.

AMPHION, king of Thebes, son of Jupiter and Anti{)o}pe, was instructed
in the use of the lyre by Mercury, and became so great a proficient,
that he is reported to have built the walls of Thebes by the power of
his harmony, which caused the listening stones to ascend voluntarily. He
married Ni{)o}be, daughter of Tant{)a}lus, whose insult to Di{=a}na
occasioned the loss of their children by the arrows of Apollo and
Di{=a}na. The unhappy father, attempting to revenge himself by the
destruction of the temple of Apollo, was punished with the loss of his
sight and skill, and thrown into the infernal regions.

ORPHEUS, son of Apollo by the Muse Calli{)o}pe, was born in Thrace, and
resided near Mount Rhod{)o}pe, where he married Eurydice, a princess of
that country. Aristaeus, a neighboring prince, fell desperately in love
with her, but she flying from his violence, was killed by the bite of a
serpent. Her disconsolate husband was so affected at his loss, that he
descended by the way of Taen{)a}rus to hell, in order to recover his
beloved wife. As music and poetry were to Orpheus hereditary talents, he
exerted them so powerfully in the infernal regions, that Pluto and
Proserpine, touched with compassion, restored to him his consort on
condition that he should not look back upon her till they came to the
light of the world. His impa