To punish this conduct he
determined to visit the country with a flood, but to save from it
Philemon and Baukis, the good aged couple, and to reward them in a
striking manner. To this end he revealed himself to them before opening
the gates of the great flood, transformed their poor cottage on the hill
into a splendid temple, installed the aged pair as his priest and
priestess, and granted their prayer that they might both die together.
When, after many years, death overtook them, they were changed into two
trees, that side by side in the neighborhood--an oak and a linden."
(Murray's "Mythology," p. 38.)
Here we have another reference to the Flood, and another identification
with Atlantis.
Zeus was a kind of Henry VIII., and took to himself a number of wives.
By Demeter (Ceres) he had Persephone (Proserpine); by Leto, Apollo and
Artemis (Diana); by Dione, Aphrodite (Venus); by Semele, Dionysos
(Bacchus); by Maia, Hermes (Mercury); by Alkmene, Hercules, etc., etc.
We have thus the whole family of gods and goddesses traced back to
Atlantis.
Hera, or Juno, was the first and principal wife of Zeus. There were
numerous conjugal rows between the royal pair, in which, say the poets,
Juno was generally to blame.
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