At evening twilight, from the echoing mountains,
She came alone. No gracious words fell from her
But when the people filled the heights around
She threatened and rebuked their wickedness,
Refusing though besought to appear again;
"How have your golden fathers left a race
Degenerate! But you shall breed a worse
And then shall wars, and then shall hateful bloodshed
Be among men; and grief press hard on crime."
This said, she sought the mountains, and the people
Whose eyes still strained upon her, left for ever.
And when these also died, those others sprang,
A brazen race, more wicked than the last.
These first the sword, that roadside malefactor,
Forged; these first fed upon the ploughing oxen.
And Justice then, hating that generation,
Flew heavenward, and inhabited that spot
Where now at night may still be seen the virgin.
Virgo was also identified with Erigone, the daughter of Icarius, who hung herself when she learned of her father's death. In classic times she was associated with Ceres, or her daughter Proserpine. Proserpine, so the legend relates, was wandering in the fields in the springtime, and was carried off by Pluto to be his wife. Ceres besought Jupiter to intercede in the matter, and consequently Proserpine was allowed her liberty at intervals.
This myth is regarded as an allegory. Proserpine represents the seed which is buried in the earth, and in proper time bursts forth into bloom.
In Egypt Virgo was associated with Isis, and it was said that she formed the Milky Way by dropping innumerable wheat heads in the sky.
Another version of this myth is that Isis dropped a sheaf of corn as she fled to escape Typhon, which, as he continued to pursue her, became scattered over the heavens, thus producing the Galaxy which has all the appearance of glittering grains of golden corn.
The Chinese call the Milky Way "the Yellow Road,"
