glaia_; but they differed concerning
their origin. Some suppose them to have been the offspring of Jupiter
and Eunomia, daughter of Oce{)a}nus; but the most prevalent opinion is,
that they were descended from Bacchus and Venus. According to Homer,
Aglaia, the youngest, was married to Vulcan, and another of them to the
god of Sleep. The Graces were companions of _Mercury_, _Venus_, and the
_Muses_.

Festivals were celebrated in honor of them throughout the whole year.
They were esteemed the dispensers of liberality, eloquence, and wisdom;
and from them were derived simplicity of manners, a graceful deportment,
and gaiety of disposition. From their inspiring acts of gratitude and
mutual kindness they were described as uniting hand in hand with each
other. The ancients partook of but few repasts without invoking them, as
well as the Muses.

SIRENS were a kind of fabulous beings represented by some as
sea-monsters, with the faces of women and the tails of fishes, answering
the description of mermaids; and by others said to have the upper parts
of a woman, and the under parts of a bird. Their number is not
determined; Homer reckons only two; others five, namely, Leucosia,
Ligeia, Parthen{)o}pe, Agla{)o}phon, and Molpe; others admit only the
three first.

The poets represent them as beautiful women inhabiting the rocks on the
sea-shore, whither having allured passengers by the sweetness of their
voices, they put them to death. Virgil places them on rocks where
vessels are in danger of shipwreck; Pliny makes them inhabit the
promontory of Minerva, near the island Capreae; others fix them in
Sicily, near cape Pel{=o}rus.

Claudian says they inhabited harmonious rocks, that they were charming
monsters, and that sailors were wrecked on their coasts without regret,
and even expired in rapture. This description is doubtless founded on a
literal explication of the fable, that the Sirens were women who
inhabited the shores of Sicily, and who, by the allurements of pleasure,
stopped passengers, and made them forget their course.

Ovid says they accompanied Proserpine when she was carried off, and that
the gods granted them wings to go in quest of that goddess. Homer places
the Sirens in the midst of a meadow drenched in blood, and tells us that
fate had permitted them to reign till some person should over-reach
them; that the wise Ulysses accomplished their destiny, having escaped
their snares, by stopping the ears of his compan