CURRENT LITERATURE.
GIFT-BOOKS.
Oignipos. By Talfourd Ely, M.A. (H. Grovel and Co.)—Mr. Talfourd Ely gives as a second title to his book, " Tales of the Gods of Greece and Rome." This scarcely does justice to its real character, which is of a more serious kind. The anther has done something much better than telling again, with such amount of " bowdlerisation " as might be practicable, the stories of Lempriere's Dictionary. He has given a popular and eminently readable account of the great Greek and Roman divinities. This he has done by a series of parallels and comparisons. Fifty years ago, it was the common practice to use the Latin names for the members of the Greek and the Roman pantheons indifferently. Then a more correct usage came up, and we used Zeus, Hera, Artemis, &c., in translating a Greek author; Jupiter, Juno, and Diana, in translating a Latin. But the average reader, even if he has some knowledge of the classics, has, it is probable, but very little notion of the real difference between the two sets of divinities. In fact, an ordinary knowledge of the Roman gods is taken from the literature of a time when they had been, so to speak, Hellenised. What they really were to the Italian people has to be discovered from sources not easily accessible. Mr. Talfourd Ely devotes the first part of his volume to " The Greater Gods and their Following," and most of this chapter gives us a parallel and a contrast between the two conceptions of the Deity. Chap. iii., for instance, is headed " Poseidon-Neptnnus," and in this it is pointed out to us how Poseidon was worshipped as—(1) the god of the water, (2) creator of the horse, and (3) god of sea- faring men ; while the Romans, not a seafaring people, " ware much more prone to think of the god who granted return to the peaceful harbour." The original Latin equivalent was then Portunus, In 399 B.C., Neptunus or Nevtunus was, so to speak, elevated to the first rank of gods. He "was properly the god of flowing water." This is a specimen of our author's treatment of the subject, a treatment that is scientific but does not cease to be popular. This is a really excellent book of its kind. But why " Vergil"? The English of " Vergilius " is Virgil.
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