minstrelsy, and the Muses, who were the divinities of poetry and song.

In all the chief cities grand temples were erected for the worship of
the gods. One of the most famous was the Parʹthe-non, at Athens. At the
shrines of the gods costly gifts in gold and silver were presented, and
on their altars, often built in the open air, beasts were killed and
burned as sacrifices, which were thought to be very pleasing to the
divine beings to whom they were offered.

[Illustration: THE PARTHENON.

_From model in Metropolitan Museum, New York._]

The greatest and most powerful of the gods was Juʹpi-ter, also called
Jove or Zeus. To him all the rest were subject. He was the king of the
gods, the mighty Thunderer, at whose nod Olympus shook, and at whose
word the heavens trembled. From his great power in the regions of the
sky he was sometimes called the "cloud-compelling Jove."

He, whose all-conscious eyes the world behold,
The eternal Thunderer sat, enthroned in gold.
High heaven the footstool of his feet he makes,
And wide beneath him all Olympus shakes.

POPE, _Iliad_, Book VIII.

The wife of Jupiter, and the queen of heaven, was Juʹno, who, as we
shall see, was the great enemy of Troy and the Trojans. One of the
daughters of Jupiter, called Veʹnus, or Aph-ro-diʹte, was the goddess of
beauty and love. Nepʹtune was the god of the sea. He usually carried in