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PASTORAL LIFE OF THE ANCIENTS. 259
sacrifices to him. Thus, in Idyll v. 58, the Lucanian goatherd
already referred to says, that he will set aside for Pan eight
dishes of milk and six of honey.
But besides importing the belief in Pan from Arcadia the
Sicilians recognized two demigods of native origin, who con-
tributed, if not to excite feelings allied to religion, at least to
amuse their imagination and to contribute greatly to the va-
riety and UveUness of their poetry. These were the shepherd
Polyphemus, who was horridly deformed, and the herdsman
Daphnis, who was endowed with the most surpassing beauty.
Polyphemus was the son of Neptune. Notwithstanding his
forbidden aspect he is represented as susceptible of some tender
emotions, and it is his misfortune to be deeply enamored of the
beautiful Nereid or Mermaid Galatea, whom he sees sporting
in the green waves, while he surveys the coast from the sum-
mit of a mountain and plays upon the syrinx for the amusement
of himself and his flock*.
The Sicilian Daphnis, like the Arcadian Pan, was the son
of Mercury and of a mountain nymph, and excelled in playing
on the syrinx ; but his form was entirely human and the most
beautiful that could be imagined.
The guardian of fair kine, himself more fair.
Virg. Buc. V. 44.
He tended his cattle upon the picturesque Herman mountains
to the north of ^Etna, and did not mix in the society of men.
At the time when the beard was beginning to grow on his upper
lip, the nymph Echenais became enamored of him, and
enjoined him upon pain of losing his eye-sight not to approach
any other female. He consented, and for some time persisted
m obeying her ; but at length a Sicilian princess, having in-
toxicated him with wine, accomphshed her purpose. He shared
the fate of Tharayras, the Thracian, and was thus punished
for his follyt. He then pined away, and died of hopeless love
* Theocritus, Idyll vi. and xi. Lucian, Dial. Doridis et Galatete. Ovid, Met
L. xiii. 739-870.
t TimsEUS, author of the Hist, of Sicily, as quoted by Parthenius, c. 29. iElian,
Van Hist. L. x. c. 18. Died. Sic. L. iv. c. 84. p. 283.