{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_66350/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_66350","id":"gutenberg_66350","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/66350","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Classics of Literature","Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore","Category: Poetry","Heracles (Greek mythological character) -- Poetry","Hesiod -- Translations into English"],"text":"THE REMAINS OF HESIOD THE ASCR\u00c6AN\n\n\n\n\n                               THE REMAINS\n                                   OF\n                           HESIOD THE ASCR\u00c6AN\n                                INCLUDING\n                         The Shield of Hercules,\n            _TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH RHYME AND BLANK VERSE_;\n                                  WITH\n                             A DISSERTATION\n                                 ON THE\n                 LIFE AND \u00c6RA, THE POEMS AND MYTHOLOGY,\n                                   OF\n                                 HESIOD,\n                          _AND COPIOUS NOTES_.\n\n                           THE SECOND EDITION,\n                         _REVISED AND ENLARGED_\n\n                                   BY\n                         CHARLES ABRAHAM ELTON,\n  AUTHOR OF SPECIMENS OF THE CLASSIC POETS FROM HOMER TO TRYPHIODORUS.\n\n             \u1f69 \u03c0\u03c1\u03ad\u03c3\u03b2\u03c5\u03c2 \u03ba\u03b1\u03b8\u03b1\u03c1\u1ff6\u03bd \u03b3\u03b5\u03c5\u03c3\u03ac\u03bc\u03b5\u03bd\u03bf\u03c2 \u03bb\u03b9\u03b2\u03ac\u03b4\u03bf\u03bd.\u2014\u0391\u039b\u039a\u0391\u0399\u039f\u03a3.\n\n                                _LONDON_:\n                 PRINTED FOR BALDWIN, CRADOCK, AND JOY,\n                           47 PATERNOSTER-ROW.\n                                  1815.\n\n                          C. Baldwin, Printer,\n                       New Bridge street, London.\n\n\n\n\nPREFACE.\n\n\nThe remains of Hesiod are not alone interesting to the antiquary, as\ntracing a picture of the rude arts and manners of the ancient Greeks.\nHis sublime philosophic allegories; his elevated views of a retributive\nProvidence; and the romantic elegance, or daring grandeur, with which he\nhas invested the legends of his mythology, offer more solid reasons than\nthe accident of coeval existence for the traditional association of his\nname with that of Homer.\n\nHesiod has been translated in Latin hexameters by Nicolaus Valla, and\nby Bernardo Zamagna. A French translation by Jacques le Gras bears date\n1586. The earliest essay on his poems by our own countrymen appears in\nthe old racy version of \u201cThe Works and Days,\u201d by George Chapman, the\ntranslator of Homer, published in 1618. It is so scarce that Warton in\n\u201cThe History of English Poetry\u201d doubts its existence. Some specimens of a\nwork equally curious from its rareness, and interesting as an example of\nour ancient poetry, are appended to this translation. Parnell has given\na sprightly imitation of the Pandora, under the title of \u201cHesiod, or the\nRise of Woman:\u201d and Broome, the coadjutor of Pope in the Odyssey, has\nparaphrased the battle of the Titans and the Tartarus.[1] The translation\nby Thomas Cooke omits the splendid heroical fragment of \u201cThe Shield,\u201d\nwhich I have restored to its legitimate connexion. It was first published\nin 1728; reprinted in 1740; and has been inserted in the collections of\nAnderson and Chalmers.\n\nThis translator obtained from his contemporaries the name of \u201cHesiod\nCooke.\u201d He was thought a good Grecian; and translated against Pope the\nepisode of Thersites, in the Iliad, with some success; which procured\nhim a place in the Dunciad:\n\n    Be thine, my stationer, this magic gift,\n    Cooke shall be Prior, and Concanen Swift:\n\nand a passage in \u201cThe Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot\u201d seems pointed more\ndirectly at the affront of the Thersites:\n\n    From these the world shall judge of men and books,\n    Not from the Burnets, Oldmixons, and Cookes.\n\nSatire, however, is not evidence: and neither these distichs, nor the\nsour notes of Pope\u2019s obsequious commentator, are sufficient to prove,\nthat Cooke, any more than Theobald and many others, deserved, either as\nan author or a man, to be ranked with dunces. A biographical account\nof him, with extracts from his common-place books, was communicated\nby Sir Joseph Mawby to the Gentleman\u2019s Magazine: vol. 61, 62. His\nedition of Andrew Marvell\u2019s works procured him the patronage of the\nEarl of Pembroke: he was also a writer in the Craftsman. Johnson has\ntold (Boswell\u2019s Tour to the Hebrides, p. 25.) that \u201cCooke lived twenty\nyears on a translation of Plautus: for which he was always taking\nsubscriptions.\u201d The Amphitryon was, however, actually published.\n\nWith respect to Hesiod, either Cooke\u2019s knowledge of Greek was in\nreality superficial, or his indolence counteracted his abilities; for\nhis blunders are inexcusably frequent and unaccountably gross: not in\nmatters of mere verbal nicety, but in several important particulars: nor\nare these instances, which tend so perpetually to mislead the reader,\ncompensated by the force or beauty of his style; which, notwithstanding\nsome few unaffected and emphatical lines, is, in its general effect, tame\nand grovelling. These errors I had thought it necessary to point out in\nthe notes to my first edition; as a justification of my own attempt to\nsupply what I considered as still a desideratum in our literature. The\ncriticisms are now rescinded; as their object has been misconstrued into\na design of raising myself by depreciating my predecessor.\n\nSome remarks of the different writers in the reviews appear to call for\nreply.\n\nThe Edinburgh Reviewer objects, as an instance of defective translation,\nto my version of \u03b1\u03b9\u03b4\u03c9\u03c2 \u03bf\u03c5\u03ba\u2019 \u03b1\u03b3\u03b1\u03c5\u03b7: which he says is improperly rendered\n\u201cshame\u201d: \u201cwhereas it rather means that diffidence and want of enterprise\nwhich unfits men from improving their fortune. In this sense it is\nopposed by Hesiod to \u03b8\u03b1\u03c1\u03c3\u03bf\u03c2, an active and courageous spirit.\u201d\n\nBut the Edinburgh Reviewer is certainly mistaken. If \u03b1\u03b9\u03b4\u03c9\u03c2 is to be taken\nin this limited sense, what can be the meaning of the line\n\n    \u0391\u03b9\u03b4\u03c9\u03c2 \u03b7 \u03c4\u2019 \u03b1\u03bd\u03b4\u03c1\u03b1\u03c2 \u03bc\u03b5\u03b3\u03b1 \u03c3\u03b9\u03bd\u03b5\u03c4\u03b1\u03b9 \u03b7\u03b4\u2019 \u03bf\u03bd\u03b9\u03bd\u03b7\u03c3\u03b9.\n\n    Shame greatly hurts or greatly helps mankind?\n\nthe proper antithesis is the \u03b1\u03b9\u03b4\u03c9\u03c2 \u03b1\u03b3\u03b1\u03b8\u03b7, alluded to in a subsequent line,\n\n    \u0391\u03b9\u03b4\u03c9 \u03b4\u03b5 \u03c4\u2019 \u03b1\u03bd\u03b1\u03b9\u03b4\u03b5\u03b9\u03b7 \u03ba\u03b1\u03c4\u03bf\u03c0\u03b1\u03b6\u03b7.\n\n    And shamelessness expels the better shame.\n\nThe good shame, which deters men from mean actions, as the evil one\ndepresses them from honest enterprise.\n\nIn my dissertation I had ventured to call in question the judgment of\ncommentators in exalting their favourite author: and had doubted whether\nthe meek forgiving temper of Hesiod towards his brother, whom he seldom\nhonours with any better title than \u201cfool,\u201d was very happily chosen as a\ntheme for admiration. On this the _old_ Critical Reviewer exclaimed \u201cas\nif that, and various other gentle expressions, for example _blockhead_,\n_goose-cap_, _dunderhead_, were not frequently terms of endearment:\u201d and\nhe added his suspicion that \u201clike poor old Lear, I did not know the\ndifference between a bitter fool and a sweet one.\u201d\n\nBut, as the clown in Hamlet says, \u201c\u2019twill away from me to you.\u201d The\ncritic is bound to prove, 1st, that \u03bd\u03b7\u03c0\u03b9\u03c2 is ever used in this playful\nsense; which he has not attempted to do: 2dly, that it is so used with\nthe aggravating prefix of \u039c\u0395\u0393\u0391 \u03bd\u03b7\u03c0\u03b9\u03b5: 3dly, that it is so used by Hesiod.\n\nHector\u2019s babe on the nurse\u2019s bosom is described as \u03bd\u03b7\u03c0\u03b9\u03bf\u03c2; and Patroclus\nweeping is compared by Achilles to \u03ba\u03bf\u03c5\u03c1\u03b7 \u03bd\u03b7\u03c0\u03b9\u03b7. These words may bear the\nsenses of \u201cpoor innocent;\u201d and of \u201cfond girl;\u201d the former is tender, the\nlatter playful; but in both places the word is usually understood in its\nprimitive sense of \u201cinfant.\u201d Homer says of Andromache preparing a bath\nfor Hector,\n\n    \u039d\u03b7\u03c0\u03b9\u03b7! \u03bf\u03c5\u03b4\u2019 \u03b5\u03bd\u03bf\u03b7\u03c3\u03b5\u03bd \u03bf \u03bc\u03b9\u03bd \u03bc\u03b1\u03bb\u03b1 \u03c4\u03b7\u03bb\u03b5 \u03bb\u03bf\u03b5\u03c4\u03c9\u03bd\n    \u03a7\u03b5\u03c1\u03c3\u03b9\u03bd \u0391\u03c7\u03b9\u03bb\u03bb\u03b7\u03bf\u03c2 \u03b4\u03b1\u03bc\u03b1\u03c3\u03b5\u03bd \u03b3\u03bb\u03b1\u03c5\u03ba\u03c9\u03c0\u03b9\u03c2 \u0391\u03b8\u03b7\u03bd\u03b7:\n\n                                   Il. xxii.\n\n    Fond one! she knew not that the blue-eyed maid\n    Had quell\u2019d him, far from the refreshing bath,\n    Beneath Achilles\u2019 hand.\n\nBut this is in commiseration: or would the critic apply to Andromache\nthe epithet of _goose-cap_? After all, who in his senses would dream\nof singling out a word from an author\u2019s context, and delving in other\nauthors for a meaning? The question is, not how it is used by other\nauthors, but how it is used by Hesiod. Till the Critic favours us with\nsome proofs of Hesiod\u2019s namby-pamby tenderness towards the brother who\nhad cheated him of his patrimony, I beg to return both the quotation and\nthe _appellatives_ upon his hands.[2]\n\nThe London Reviewer censures my choice of blank-verse as a medium for\nthe ancient hexameter, on the ground that the closing adonic is more\nfully represented by the rounding rhyme of the couplet: but it may be\nurged, that the flowing pause and continuous period of the Homeric verse\nare more consonant with our blank measure. In confining the latter to\ndramatic poetry, as partaking of the character of the Greek Iambics, he\nhas overlooked the visible distinction of structure in our dramatic and\nheroic blank verse. With respect to the particular poem, I am disposed\nto concede that the general details of the Theogony might be improved\nby rhyme: but the more interesting passages are not to be sacrificed to\nthose which cannot interest, be they versified how they may: and as the\ncritic seems to admit that a poem whose action passes\n\n    \u201cBeyond the flaming bounds of time and space\u201d\n\nmay be fitly clothed with blank numbers, by this admission he gives up\nthe argument as it affects the Theogony.\n\nIn disapproving of my illustration of Hesiod by the Bryantian scheme of\nmythology, the London Reviewer refers me for a refutation of this system\nto Professor Richardson\u2019s preface to his Arabic Dictionary; where certain\netymological combinations and derivations are contested, which Mr. Bryant\nproduces as authorities in support of the adoration of the Sun or of\nFire. Mr. Richardson, however, premises by acknowledging \u201cthe penetration\nand judgement of the author of the Analytic System in the refutation of\nvulgar errors, with the new and informing light in which he has placed\na variety of ancient facts:\u201d and however formidable the professor\u2019s\ncriticisms may be in this his peculiar province, it must be remarked\nthat a great part of \u201cThe New System\u201d rests on grounds independent of\netymology; and is supported by a mass of curious evidence collected from\nthe history, the rites, and monuments of ancient nations: nor can I\nlook upon the judgment of that critic as infallible, who conceives the\nsuspicious silence of the Persic historians sufficient to set aside the\nvenerable testimony of Herodotus, and the proud memorials and patriotic\ntraditions of the free people of Greece: and who resolves the invasion of\nXerxes into the petty piratical inroad of a Persian Satrap. I conceive,\nalso, with respect to the point in dispute, that the professor\u2019s\nconfutation of certain etymological positions is completely weakened in\nits intended general effect, by his scepticism as to the universality of\na diluvian tradition. If we admit that the periodical overflowings of the\nNile might have given rise to superstitious observances and processions\nin \u00c6gypt; and even that the sudden inundations of the Euphrates and\nthe Tigris might have caused the institution of similar memorials in\nBabylonia, how are we to account for Greece, and India, and America,\neach visited by a destructive inundation, and each perpetuating its\nremembrance by poetical legends or emblematical sculptures? Surely a most\nincredible supposition. Nor is this all; for we find an agreement not\nmerely of a flood, but of persons preserved from a flood; and preserved\nin a remarkable manner; by inclosure in a vessel, or the hollow trunk\nof a tree. How is it possible to solve coincidences of so minute and\nspecific a nature[3] by casual inundations, with Mr. Richardson, or, with\nDr. Gillies, by the natural proneness of the human mind to the weaknesses\nand terrors of superstition?\n\nAs to my choice of the Analytic System for the purpose of illustrating\nHesiod, I am not convinced by the argument either of the London or the\nEdinburgh Reviewer, that it is a system too extensive to serve for the\nillustration of a single author, or that my task was necessarily confined\nto literal explanation of the received mythology. In this single author\nare concentrated the several heathen legends and heroical fables, and\nthe whole of that popular theology which the author of the New System\nprofessed to analyse. Tzetzes, in his scholia upon Hesiod, interpreted\nthe theogonic traditions by the phenomena of nature and the operations of\nthe elements: Le Clerc by the hidden sense which he traced from Ph\u0153nician\nprimitives: and to these Cooke, in his notes, added the moral apologues\nof Lord Bacon. In departing, therefore, from the beaten track of the\nschool-boy\u2019s Pantheon, I have only exercised the same freedom which other\ncommentators and translators have assumed before me.\n\n    _Clifton, October, 1815._\n\n\nFOOTNOTES\n\n[1] A blank-verse translation of the Battle of the Titans may be found in\nBryant\u2019s \u201cAnalysis:\u201d and one of the descriptive part of \u201cThe Shield\u201d in\nthe \u201cExeter Essays.\u201d Isaac Ritson translated the Theogony; but the work\nhas remained in MS.\n\n[2] The untimely death of the writer unfortunately precludes me from\noffering my particular acknowledgments to the translator of Aristotle\u2019s\nPoetics, for the large and liberal praise which he has bestowed upon my\nwork in the second number of The London Review: a journal established on\nthe plan of a more manly system of criticism by the respectable essayist,\nwhose translations from the Greek comedy first drew the public attention\nto the unjustly vilified Aristophanes.\n\n[3] \u201cPaintings representing the deluge of Tezpi are found among the\ndifferent nations that inhabit Mexico. He saved himself conjointly\nwith his wife, children, and several animals, on a raft. The painting\nrepresents him in the midst of the water lying in a bark. The mountain,\nthe summit of which, crowned by a tree, rises above the waters, is the\npeak of Colhuacan, the Ararat of the Mexicans. The men born after the\ndeluge were dumb: a dove, from the top of the tree distributes among them\ntongues. When the great Spirit ordered the waters to withdraw, Tezpi\nsent out a vulture. This bird did not return on account of the number of\ncarcases, with which the earth, newly dried up, was strewn. He sent out\nother birds; one of which, the humming-bird, alone returned, holding in\nits beak a branch covered with leaves.\u2014Ought we not to acknowledge the\ntraces of a common origin, wherever cosmogonical ideas, and the first\ntraditions of nations, offer striking analogies, even in the minutest\ncircumstances? Does not the humming-bird of Tezpi remind us of Noah\u2019s\ndove; that of Deucalion, and the birds, which, according to Berosus,\nXisuthrus sent out from his ark, to see whether the waters were run off,\nand whether he might erect altars to the tutelary deities of Chald\u00e6a?\u201d\nHUMBOLDT\u2019S RESEARCHES, concerning the Institutions and Monuments of\nancient America: translated by HELEN MARIA WILLIAMS.\n\n\n\n\nDISSERTATION ON THE LIFE AND \u00c6RA OF HESIOD, HIS POEMS, AND MYTHOLOGY.\n\n\n\n\nSECTION I.\n\nON THE LIFE OF HESIOD.\n\n\nIt is remarked by Velleius Paterculus (Hist. lib. i.) that \u201cHesiod\nhad avoided the negligence into which Homer fell, by attesting both\nhis country and his parents: but that of his country he had made most\nreproachful mention; on account of the fine which she had imposed on\nhim.\u201d There are sufficient coincidences in the poems of Hesiod, now\nextant, to explain the grounds of this assertion of Paterculus; but the\nstatement is loose and incorrect.\n\nAs to the mention of his country, if by country we are to suppose the\nplace of his birth, it can only be understood by implication, and that\nnot with certainty. Hesiod indeed relates that his father migrated from\nCuma in \u00c6olia, to Ascra, a B\u0153otian village at the foot of mount Helicon;\nbut we are left to conjecture whether he himself was born at Cuma or at\nAscra. His affirmation that he had never embarked in a ship but once,\nwhen he sailed across the Euripus to the Isle of Eub\u0153a on occasion of a\npoetical contest, has been thought decisive of his having been born at\nAscra; but the poet is speaking of his nautical experience: and even if\nhe had originally come from Cuma, he would scarcely mention a voyage made\nin infancy. The observation respecting his parents tends to countenance\nthe reading of \u0394\u03b9\u03bf\u03c5 \u03b3\u03b5\u03bd\u03bf\u03c2; race of Dius; instead of \u03b4\u03b9\u03bf\u03bd \u03b3\u03b5\u03bd\u03bf\u03c2, race\ndivine; but the name of one parent only is found. The reproachful mention\nof his country plainly alludes to his charge of corruption against the\npetty kings or nobles, who exercised the magistracy of B\u0153otia: and by the\nfine is meant the judicial award of the larger share of the patrimony to\nhis brother.\n\nThere seems a great probability that Virgil, in his fourth eclogue, had\nHesiod\u2019s golden and heroic ages in view; and that he alludes to the\npassage of Justice leaving the earth, where he says\n\n    The virgin now returns: Saturnian times\n    Roll round again:\n\nand to Hesiod himself in the verse,\n\n    The last age dawns, in verse Cum\u00e6an sung:[4]\n\nand not, as is commonly thought, to the Sibyl of Campanian Cuma.\nProfessor Heyne objects, that Hesiod makes no mention of the revolution\nof a better age: yet such an allusion is significantly conveyed in the\nfollowing passage:\n\n      Oh would that Nature had denied me birth\n    Midst this fifth race, this iron age of earth;\n    That long before within the grave I lay,\n    Or long hereafter could behold the day!\n\nThat Virgil elsewhere calls Hesiod\u2019s verse Ascr\u00e6an is no argument against\nhis supposing him of Cuma: there seems no reason why either epithet\nshould not be used: for the poet was at least of Cum\u00e6an extraction. That\nAscr\u00e6us was Hesiod\u2019s received surname among the ancients proves nothing\nas to his birth-place, nor is any thing proved as to Virgil\u2019s opinion by\nhis adoption of the title in compliance with common usage. Apollonius was\nsurnamed Rhodius from his residence at Rhodes, yet his birth-place was\n\u00c6gypt. After all, nothing is established, even if it could be certified\nthat Virgil thought him of Cuma, beyond the single weight of Virgil\u2019s\nindividual opinion. Plutarch relates, from a more ancient and therefore\na more competent authority, that of Ephorus, the Cum\u00e6an historian, that\nDius was the youngest of three brothers, and emigrated through distress\nof debt to Ascra; where he married Pycimede, the mother of Hesiod.\n\nIf we allow the authenticity of the proem to the Theogony, Hesiod tended\nsheep in the vallies of Helicon; for it is not in the spirit of ancient\npoetry to feign this sort of circumstance; and no education could be\nconceived more natural for a bard who sang of husbandry. From the fiction\nof the Muses presenting him with a laurel-bough, we may infer also that\nhe was not a minstrel or harper, but a rhapsodist; and sang or recited\nto the branch instead of the lyre. La Harpe, in his Lyc\u00e9e, _ou Cours\nde Litt\u00e9rature_, asserts that Hesiod was a priest of the temple of the\nMuses. I find the same account in Gale\u2019s Court of the Gentiles; book\niii. p. 7. vol. i. who quotes Carion\u2019s Chronicle of Memorable Events.\nFor this, however, I can find no ancient authority. On referring to\nPausanias, he mentions, indeed, that the statue of Hesiod was placed\nin the temple of the Muses on Mount Helicon: and in the Works and Days\nHesiod mentions having dedicated to the Muses of Helicon the tripod which\nhe won in the Eub\u0153an contest; and observes\n\n    Th\u2019 inspiring Muses to my lips have giv\u2019n\n    The love of song, and strains that breathe of heaven.\n\nFrom the conjunction of this passage with the account of Pausanias, has\nprobably arisen a confused supposition that Hesiod was actually a priest\nof the Heliconian temple. The circumstance, although destitute of express\nevidence, is however probable, from his acquaintance with theogonical\ntraditions and his tone of religious instruction.\n\nGuietus rejects the whole passage as supposititious, which respects\nthe voyage to Eub\u0153a, and the contest in poetry at the funeral games of\nAmphidamas. Proclus supposes Plutarch to have also rejected it: because\nhe speaks of the contest as \u03c4\u03b1 \u03b5\u03c9\u03bb\u03b1 \u03c0\u03c1\u03b1\u03b3\u03bc\u03b1\u03c4\u03b1: which some interpret trite\nor threadbare tales: others old wives\u2019 stories. But if the latter sense\nbe the correct one, Plutarch may have meant to intimate his disbelief\nonly of Hesiod and Homer having contended; not altogether of a contest\nin which Hesiod took part. In fact it seems reasonable to infer the\nauthenticity of the passage from this very tradition of Homer and Hesiod\nhaving disputed a prize in poetry.\n\nIn the pseudo-history entitled \u201cThe Contest of Homer and Hesiod,\u201d is an\ninscription purporting to be that on the tripod which Hesiod won from\nHomer in Eub\u0153a:\n\n    This Hesiod vow\u2019d to Helicon\u2019s blest nine,\n    Victor in Chalcis crown\u2019d o\u2019er Homer, bard divine.\n\nNow that the passage in \u201cThe Works\u201d was extant long before this piece\nwas in existence, is susceptible of easy proof: but if we conceive with\nthe credulity of Barnes, that the piece is a collection of scattered\ntraditionary matter of genuine antiquity, that the passage was not\nconstructed on the narration may be inferred from the former wanting\nthe name of Homer. The nullity of purpose in such a forgery seems to\nhave struck those, who in the indulgence of the same fanciful whim have\nsubstituted, as Proclus states, for the usual reading in the text of\nHesiod,\n\n    \u03a5\u03bc\u03bd\u03c9 \u03bd\u03b9\u03ba\u03b7\u03c3\u03b1\u03bd\u03c4\u03b1 \u03c6\u03b5\u03c1\u03b5\u03b9\u03bd \u03c4\u03c1\u03b9\u03c0\u03bf\u03b4\u2019 \u03c9\u03c4\u03c9\u03b5\u03bd\u03c4\u03b1,\n\n    I bore a tripod ear\u2019d, my prize, away:\n\n    \u03a5\u03bc\u03bd\u03c9 \u03bd\u03b9\u03ba\u03b7\u03c3\u03b1\u03bd\u03c4\u2019 \u03b5\u03bd \u03c7\u03b1\u03bb\u03ba\u03b9\u03b4\u03b9 \u03b8\u03b5\u03b9\u03bf\u03bd \u039f\u03bc\u03b7\u03c1\u03bf\u03bd,\n\n    Victor in Chalcis crown\u2019d o\u2019er Homer, bard divine:\n\nthe identical verse in the pretended inscription. It is incredible that\nany person should take the trouble of foisting lines into Hesiod\u2019s poem,\nfor the barren object of inducing a belief that he had won a poetical\nprize from some unknown and nameless bard: unless we were to presume\nthat the forger omitted the name through a refinement of artifice, that\nno suspicion may be excited by its too minute coincidence with the\ntraditionary story: but it is a perfectly natural circumstance that the\npassage in Hesiod, describing a contest with some unknown bard, should\nhave furnished the basis of a meeting between Hesiod and Homer: and the\ntradition is at once explained by the coincidence of this passage in \u201cThe\nWorks,\u201d and an invocation in the \u201cHymn to Venus;\u201d where Homer exclaims on\nthe eve of one of these bardic festivals,\n\n    Oh in this contest let me bear away\n    The palm of song: do thou prepare my lay!\n\nThe piece entitled \u201cThe Contest of Homer and Hesiod,\u201d is entitled to\nno authority. It is not credible that a composition of this nature,\nconsisting of enigmas with their solutions, and of lines of imperfect\nsense which are completed by the alternate verses of the answerer, should\nhave been preserved by the oral tradition of ages like complete poems:\nand the foolish genealogies, whereby Homer and Hesiod are traced to Gods,\nMuses, and Rivers, and are made cousins, according to the favourite zeal\nof the Greeks for finding out a consanguinity in poets, diminish all the\ncredit of the writer as a sober historian.\n\nIt appears probable that the whole piece was suggested by the hint of\nthe contest in Plutarch: who quotes it in his \u201cBanquet of Sages,\u201d as an\nexample of the ancient contests in poetry. He says Homer proposed this\nenigma:\n\n    Rehearse, O Muse! the things that ne\u2019er have been,\n    Nor e\u2019er shall in the future time be seen:\n\nwhich Hesiod answered in a manner no less enigmatical:\n\n    When round Jove\u2019s tomb the clashing cars shall roll\n    The trampling coursers straining for the goal\n\nThe same verses, with a few changes, are given in \u201cThe Contest;\u201d only\nthe question is assigned to Hesiod, and the answer to Homer; as Robinson\nconjectures, with perhaps too much refinement, for the secret purpose of\ndepressing Hesiod under the mask of exalting him, by appointing Homer to\nthe more arduous task of solving the questions proposed. With respect\nalso to the award of Pan\u0153des, the judge, which is thought to betray the\nsame design by an imbecile or partial preference of the verses of Hesiod\nto those of Homer, the reason stated by Pan\u0153des, that \u201cit was just to\nbestow the prize on him who exhorted men to agriculture and peace, in\npreference to him who described only war and carnage\u201d is equally noble\nand philosophical; and by no means merits to have given rise to the\nproverbial parody quoted by Barnes: \u03a0\u03b1\u03bd\u03b9\u03b4\u03bf\u03c2 \u03c8\u03b7\u03c6\u03bf\u03c2 \u201cthe judgment of Pan:\u201d\ninstead of \u03a0\u03b1\u03bd\u03bf\u03b9\u03b4\u03bf\u03c5 \u03c8\u03b7\u03c6\u03bf\u03c2, \u201cthe judgment of Pan\u0153des.\u201d\n\nThe piece seems to be a mere exercise of ingenuity, without any\nparticular design of raising one poet at the expence of the other: and\nas it contains internal evidence of having been composed after the time\nof Adrian, who is mentioned by name as \u201cthat most divine Emperor,\u201d and\nPlutarch flourished under Trajan, there is reason to suppose that the\nnarrative of Periander in the \u201cBanquet of Wise Men,\u201d afforded the first\nhint of the whole contest.\n\nTo the same zeal for making Hesiod and Homer competitors we owe another\ninscription, quoted by Eustathius, ad Il. A. p. 5.\n\n    In Delos first did I with Homer raise\n    The rhapsody of bards; and new the lays:\n    Ph\u0153bus Apollo did our numbers sing;\n    Latona\u2019s son, the golden-sworded king.\n\nBut if the passage in \u201cThe Works\u201d be authentic, the spuriousness of this\ninscriptive record detects itself; as Hesiod there confines his voyages\nto the crossing the Euripus.\n\nPausanias mentions the institution of a contest at the temple in Delphos,\nwhere a hymn was to be sung in honour of Apollo: and says that Hesiod\nwas excluded from the number of the candidates because he had not learnt\nto sing to the harp. He adds, that Homer came thither also; and was\nincapacitated from trying his skill by the same deficiency: and, what is\nvery strange, he gives as a reason why he could not have taken a part in\nthe contest, even were he a harper, that he was blind.\n\nFrom Plutarch, Pausanias, and the author of \u201cThe Contest,\u201d we are enabled\nto cull some gossiping traditions of the latter life of Hesiod, which are\nscarcely worth the gleaning, except that, like the romancing Lives of\nHomer, they are proofs of the poet\u2019s celebrity.\n\nHesiod, we are told, set out on a pilgrimage to the Delphic Oracle, for\nthe purpose of hearing his fortune: and the old bard could scarcely get\nin at the gates of the temple, when the prophetess could refrain no\nlonger: \u201c_afflata est numine quando jam propriore Dei_:\u201d\n\n      Blest is the man who treads this hallow\u2019d ground,\n    With honours by th\u2019 immortal Muses crown\u2019d:\n    The bard whose glory beams divinely bright\n    Far as the morning sheds her ambient light:\n    But shun the shades of fam\u2019d Nemean Jove;\n    Thy mortal end awaits thee in the grove.\n\nBut after all her sweet words, the priestess was but a jilting gypsey;\nand meant only to shuffle with the ambiguity of her trade. The old\ngentleman carefully turning aside from the Peloponnesian Nemea, fell into\nthe trap of a temple of the Nemean Jupiter at \u00c6noe, a town of Locris.\nHe was here entertained by one Ganyctor; together with a Milesian, his\nfellow-traveller, and a youth called Troilus. During the night this\nMilesian violated the daughter of their host, by name Ctemene: and the\ngrey hairs of Hesiod, who we are told was an old man twice over,[5] and\nwhose name grew into a proverb for longevity, could not save him from\nbeing suspected of the deed by the young lady\u2019s brothers, Ctemenus\nand Antiphus: they without much ceremony murdered him in the fields,\nand \u201cto leave no botches in the work,\u201d killed the poor boy into the\nbargain. The Milesian, we are to suppose, escaped under the cloud of his\nmiraculous security, free from gashes and from question. The body of\nHesiod was thrown into the sea; and a dolphin,[6] or a whole shoal of\nthem, according to another account, conveyed it to a part of the coast,\nwhere the festival of Neptune was celebrating: and the murderers, having\nconfessed, were drowned in the waves. Plutarch (_de solerti\u00e2 animalium_)\nstates that the corpse of Hesiod was discovered through the sagacity of\nhis dog.\n\nThe body of a murdered poet, however, was not to rest quiet without\neffecting some further extraordinary prodigies. The inhabitants of\nOrchomenos, in B\u0153otia, having consulted the oracle on occasion of a\npestilence, were answered that, as their only remedy, they must seek\nthe bones of Hesiod; and that a crow would direct them. The messengers\naccordingly found a crow sitting on a rock; in the cavity of which they\ndiscovered the poet\u2019s remains; transported them to their own country, and\nerected a tomb with this epitaph:\n\n    The fallow vales of Ascra gave him birth:\n    His bones are cover\u2019d by the Mingan earth:\n    Supreme in Hellas Hesiod\u2019s glories rise,\n    Whom men discern by wisdom\u2019s touchstone wise.\n\nAmong the Greek Inscriptions is an epitaph on Hesiod with the name of\nAlc\u00e6us, which has the air of being a genuine ancient production, from its\nbreathing the beautiful classic simplicity of the old Grecian school:\n\n      Nymphs in their founts midst Locris\u2019 woodland gloom\n    Laved Hesiod\u2019s corse and piled his grassy tomb:\n    The shepherds there the yellow honey shed,\n    And milk of goats was sprinkled o\u2019er his head:\n    With voice so sweetly breathed that sage would sing,\n    Who sip\u2019d pure drops from every Muse\u2019s spring.\n\nSome mention Ctemene, or Clymene, on whose account Hesiod is said to have\nbeen murdered, as the name of his wife: others call her Archiepe; and he\nis supposed to have had by her a son named Stesichorus. In \u201cThe Works\u201d is\nthis passage:\n\n    Then may not I, nor yet my son remain\n    In this our generation just in vain:\n\nwhich, unless it be only a figure of speech, confirms the fact of his\nhaving a son.\n\nPausanias describes a brazen statue of Hesiod in the forum of the\ncity Thespia, in B\u0153otia; another in the temple of Jupiter Olympicus,\nat Olympia in Elis; and a third in the temple of the Muses, on Mount\nHelicon, in a sitting posture, with a harp resting on his knees; a\ncircumstance which he rather formally criticises, on the ground that\nHesiod recited with the laurel-branch.\n\nA brazen statue of Hesiod stood also in the baths of Zeuxippus, which\nformed a part of old Byzantium, and retained the same title, an epithet\nof Jupiter, under the Christian Emperors of Constantinople. (See Gibbon\u2019s\nRoman Empire, ii. 17; Dallaway\u2019s Constantinople, p. 110.) Constantine\nadorned the baths with statues, and for these Christodorus wrote\ninscriptions. That on the statue of Hesiod is quoted by Fulvius Ursinus,\nfrom the Greek Epigrams:\n\n    Midst mountain nymphs in brass th\u2019 Ascr\u00e6an stood,\n    Uttering the heaven-breathed song in his infuriate mood.\n\nThe collections of antiquities by Fulvius Ursinus, Gronovius, and\nBellorius exhibit a gem, a busto and a basso-relievo, together with\na truncated _herma_; which the ingenious artist who designed the\nfrontispiece to this edition has united with one of the heads. The\nbust in the Pembroke collection differs from all these. In fact the\nsculptures, whether of Hesiod or Homer, are only interesting as\nantiquities of art; for the likenesses assigned to eminent poets by the\nGrecian artists were mostly imaginary:[7] and must evidently have been so\nin such ancient instances as these.\n\nGreece, at an early period, seems to have possessed a spirit of just\nlegislation, which formed in the very bosom of polytheism a certain\ncode of practical religion: and from the semi-barbarous age of Orpheus,\ndown to the times of a Solon, a Plato, and a Pindar, Providence\ncontinued to raise up moral instructors of mankind, in the persons of\nbards, or legislators, or philosophers, who by their conceptions of\na righteous governor of the universe, and their maxims of social duty\nand natural piety, counteracted the degrading influence of superstition\non the manners of the people: and sowed the germs of that domestic and\npublic virtue which so long upheld in power and prosperity the sister\ncommunities of Greece. The same spirit pervades the writings of Hesiod.\n\nIt is evident even in the times that have passed since the gospel light\nwas shed abroad among the nations, that a perverted system of theology\nmay perfectly consist with a pure practical religion: that scholastic\nsubtleties, unscriptural traditions, and uncharitable dogmas, may\nconstitute the creed, while the religion of primitive Christianity\ninfluences the heart. So, in estimating the character of Hesiod, we must\nseparate those superstitions which belong to a traditionary mythology,\nfrom that system of opinions which respected the guidance of human life;\nthe accountableness of nations and individuals to a heavenly judge; and\nthe principles of public equity and popular justice which he derived\nfrom the national institutions. If we examine his poems in this view of\ntheir tendency and spirit, we shall find abundant cause for admiration\nand respect of a man, who, born and nurtured upon the lap of heathen\nsuperstition, could shadow out the maxims of truth in such beautiful\nallegories, and recommend the practice of virtue in such powerful and\naffecting appeals to the conscience and the reason.\n\nThey, however, who can feel the infinite superiority of Christianity\nover every system of philosophic morals, will naturally expect that the\nmorality of Hesiod should come short of that point of purity, which\nhe, who reads our nature, proposed through the revealer of his will\nas a standard for the emulation of his creatures. But in the zeal of\ncommenting upon an adopted author, we find that every thing equivocal\nhas been strained to some unobjectionable sense; we are presented with\nChristian graces for heathen virtues; and Hesiod is not permitted to\nbe absurd even in his superstitions; which are thought to involve\nsome refined emblematical meaning; some lesson of ethical wisdom or of\neconomical prudence.\n\nThe similitude of patriarch and prophet, with whom he is compared by\nRobinson, is not a very exaggerated comparison, in so far as respects the\nsimplicity of an ancient husbandman, laying down rules for the general\n\u0153conomy of life; or the graver functions of a philosopher, denouncing the\nvisitations of divine justice on nations and their legislators, greedy\nof the gains of corruption. But the learned editor is unfortunate in\nselecting for his praise the meek and placable disposition of Hesiod as\ncompleting the patriarchal character. The indignation which Hesiod felt\nat the injuries done him by a brother, and the venality of his judges,\nmight reasonably excuse the bitterness of rebuke: but he should not be\nheld up as a model of equanimity and forbearance. To this graceless\nbrother he seldom ever addresses himself in any gentler terms than \u03bc\u03b5\u03b3\u03b1\n\u03bd\u03b7\u03c0\u03b9\u03b5, _greatly foolish_: and I question whether Perses, if he could rise\nfrom the dead, would confess himself very grateful for the tenderness of\nthis reprehension.\n\nThe adverse decision in the law-suit with his brother must be confessed\nto be the hinge on which the alleged corruptness of his times perpetually\nturns: yet as he does not conceal the personal interest which he has\nin the question, his frankness wins our confidence; and simplicity and\ncandour are so plainly marked in his grave and artless style, that we are\ninsensibly led to form an exception in his favour as to the judgment of\nthe character from the writer; to believe his praises of frugality and\ntemperance sincere; and to coincide with Paterculus, in the opinion that\nhe was a man of a contented and philosophical mind, \u201cfond of the leisure\nand tranquillity\u201d of rustic life.\n\nHis countrymen, as Addison expresses it, must have regarded him \u201cas the\noracle of the neighbourhood.\u201d Plutarch adverts to his medical knowledge,\nin the person of Cleodemus the physician; and when we consider that he\npossessed sufficient astronomy for the purposes of agriculture, and that\nhe carried his zeal for science even into nautical details, of which,\nnotwithstanding, he confesses his inexperience, we shall acknowledge him\nto have been a man of extraordinary attainments for the times in which he\nlived.\n\n\nFOOTNOTES\n\n[4] It has been a favourite theory of learned men, that Virgil had access\nto Sibylline prophecies, which foretold the birth of a Saviour. How came\nthe Sibyls, any more than the Pythonesses of Delphos, to be ranked on a\nsudden with the really inspired prophets? or is it credible that they\nshould have had either the curiosity, or the power, to inspect the Jewish\nScriptures? The \u201cSibylline Verses\u201d were confessedly interpolated, if not\nfabricated, by the pious fraud of Monks. The imitations from Isaiah seem\nno less chimerical. Every description of a golden age among the poets may\nbe wrested into a similar parallel. Nor is it to be conceived that Virgil\nwould have produced so dry a copy of so luxuriant an original. This\nargument does not affect the extraordinary coincidence of the time of the\nappearance of this eclogue, with the epoch of the Messiah\u2019s birth; which\nis exceedingly curious.\n\n[5] See the epigram; which, for want of an owner, is ascribed by Tzetzes\nto Pindar:\n\n    Hail Hesiod! wisest man! who twice the bloom\n    Of youth hast prov\u2019d, and twice approach\u2019d the tomb.\n\n[6] The Greeks were extremely fanciful about dolphins. Several stories of\npersons preserved from drowning by dolphins, and romantic tales of their\nfondness for children, and their love of music, are related by Plutarch\nin his \u201cBanquet of Diocles.\u201d\n\n[7] See \u201cSpecimens of ancient Sculpture,\u201d by the society of Dilettanti.\n\n\n\n\nSECTION II.\n\nON THE \u00c6RA OF HESIOD.\n\n\nThe question of the \u00e6ra when Hesiod flourished, and whether he were the\nelder or the junior of Homer, or his contemporary, has given rise to\nsuch endless disputes, that Pausanias declines giving any opinion on the\nsubject. Some of the moderns have attempted to ascertain the point from\ninternal evidence: 1st, by the character of style: 2dly, by philological\ncriticism: 3dly, by astronomical calculation.\n\nIn the first instance they are unfortunately by no means agreed. Justus\nLipsius asserts that a greater simplicity and more of the rudeness of\nantiquity are apparent in Hesiod: Salmasius insists that Hesiod is more\nsmooth and finished, and less imbued with antiquity than Homer.\n\nAs to the argument of Heinsius respecting \u03c4\u03b5\u03ba\u03bc\u03b1\u03b9\u03c1\u03bf\u03bc\u03b1\u03b9 being used by Homer\nin the sense of _to effect_ or _bring to pass_, and by Hesiod in that\nof _to appoint_, _contrive_, or _will_; and as to the former being the\nmore ancient acceptation; the proof totally fails: inasmuch as Homer has\nrepeatedly used the word in the latter sense: and with regard to the use\nof \u03b8\u03b5\u03bc\u03b9\u03c3\u03c4\u03b1\u03c2 by Homer for law, when Hesiod uses \u03bd\u03bf\u03bc\u03bf\u03c5\u03c2, which is asserted\nnot to have been known in Homer\u2019s age, the objection is vague; unless we\nsuppose that Homer\u2019s poems[8] contained every word in the language. The\nargument of the celebrated Dr. Samuel Clarke, in favour of their being\nof a different age, and of Hesiod being the junior, turns on the word\n\u03ba\u03b1\u03bb\u03bf\u03c2; which in Homer is invariably made long in the first syllable;\nwhereas Hesiod makes it either long or short at pleasure: and on the word\n\u03bf\u03c0\u03c9\u03c1\u03b9\u03bd\u03bf\u03c2; of which the penult is long in Homer, and short in Hesiod. But\nshould the argument affect their being coeval, it does not appear why\nHesiod might not be the elder: for who will be bold enough to decide\nas to the most ancient quantity? nor could we possibly determine the\nquestion, unless we were in possession of other poets, contemporary with\nHomer, who should be found to conform exactly with the Homeric prosody:\nin which case the disagreement of Hesiod might favour a presumption\nof his belonging, at least, to a different age. The criticism seems,\nhowever, in all respects unworthy of so acute a reasoner as Dr. Clarke:\nfor surely the difference of country alone might induce a difference of\nprosodial usage, no less than a dissimilarity of dialect. But the most\ndecisive answer to all such minute criticisms appears to be, that all the\nevidence afforded us on historical authority respecting the discovery,\ncollection, and arrangement of the poems ascribed to Homer, justifies the\npresumption that their dialect, diction, and prosody have undergone[9]\nsuch modifications and changes, as to baffle all chronological reasoning\ndrawn from the present state of the poems.\n\nScaliger and Vossius have thought that the \u00e6ra of Hesiod could be\nascertained within seventy years, more or less, by astronomical\ncalculation, from the following passage of The Works and Days.\n\n    When sixty days have circled, since the sun\n    Turn\u2019d from his wintry tropic, then the star\n    Arcturus, leaving ocean\u2019s sacred flood,\n    First whole-apparent makes his evening rise.\n\nIt is singular that so great a philosopher as Dr. Priestley should also\nhave argued for the certainty of the same method of chronology in this\ninstance of Hesiod. (Lectures on History, Lect. xii. p. 99.) But neither\nthe accuracy nor the precise nature of the astronomical observation here\ncommemorated can possibly be ascertained. It is uncertain whether the\nsingle star Arcturus may not be placed for the whole constellation of\nBo\u00f6tes; of which there are examples in Columella, and other writers.\nIt is wholly uncertain whether this rising was observed in Hesiod\u2019s\nown country, or even in Hesiod\u2019s own time; a knowledge of both which\nparticulars is essential to our making a just calculation. We shall\nscarcely ascribe to Hesiod a more scientific accuracy than to subsequent\nastronomers; yet we find that even _their_ observations of the solstices\nand of the risings and settings of the stars, are ambiguous, and most\nprobably fallacious. Hesiod makes the achronycal rising of Arcturus sixty\ndays after the winter solstice: many other writers, and particularly\nPliny, say the same. Now setting the difference between Hesiod and\nPliny at 800 years, this will make a difference of eleven days in the\ntime of the ph\u00e6nomenon. Both therefore cannot have written from actual\nobservation, and probably neither did. The ancients copied from each\nother without scruple; because they knew not till the time of Hipparchus,\nthat the times of rising &c. varied by the course of ages. They seem\nbesides to have copied from writers of various latitudes: unconscious\nthat this also made a difference. We shall not then be disposed to rely\non this, or similar passages of Hesiod, for any secure data of chronology.\n\nIn the absence of internal evidence we are therefore referred to the\nopinions of antiquity. There is a remark of Gibbon in that part of his\nPosthumous Writings entitled \u201cExtraits raisonn\u00e9s de mes Lectures,\u201d which\nlays down an excellent rule of judgment in matters of chronology.\nHe very justly observes, that the differences of chronologers may be\nreconciled by the consideration that they reckoned from different \u00e6ras of\nthe person\u2019s life. The fixing the date from different periods, as from\nthe birth or death, the production of a work,[10] or any other remarkable\nevent of a person\u2019s life, might easily make the difference of a century.\n\u201cSo that we may establish it as a rule of criticism, that where these\ndiversities do not exceed the natural term of human life we ought to\nthink of reconciling, and not of opposing them. There are, indeed, many\nwriters, with respect to Homer, whom it is impossible to conciliate;\nsince they take in so enormous a period as 416 years, from the return\nof the Heraclid\u00e6 A. C. 1104 to the twenty-third Olympiad A. C. 688. But\nbesides that they are of inferior note, the great difference among them\nleaves the authority of each to stand singly by itself.\u201d\n\nThis reasoning very much diminishes whatever force might be derived\nfrom the authority of names, to the computations of those writers who\ncontend that Hesiod is a century younger than Homer. These are the Latin\nwriters; whose concurrence is however so exact as to induce a belief of\ntheir having merely copied from each other. Thus Velleius Paterculus,\nwho wrote his history 30 years after Christ, says that Homer flourished\n950 years before his time; that is, before Christ 920; and Pliny about\nthe year 78 computed that Homer lived 1000 years before him; before\nChrist 920. Paterculus follows Cicero in placing Hesiod 120 years after\nHomer: Pliny, Porphyry, and Solinus, concur in the order of their ages,\nand in the interval between them: varying only from ten to twenty or\nthirty years. But on the plan laid down by Gibbon, this chronology might\nbe reconciled with that of Ephorus, and Varro: who, according to Aulus\nGellius, made Hesiod and Homer contemporaries: as did Plutarch and\nPhilostratus.\n\nThis opinion is supported by the ancient authority of Herodotus; and by\nthat of the Chronicler of the Parian Marbles. The authenticity of these\nmarbles has, indeed, been impugned by a learned dissertation of Mr.\nRobertson, printed in 1788. To this an answer was published in 1789, by\nMr. Hewlett: and Mr. Gough has defended the genuineness of the Chronicle\nin a Memoir of the Arch\u00e6ologia, vol. ix. Gibbon observes, \u201cI respect that\nmonument as a useful, as an uncorrupt monument of antiquity: but why\nshould I prefer its authority to that of Herodotus? it is more modern:\n(B. C. 264:) its author is uncertain: we know not from what source he\ndrew his chronology.\u201d[11] The Parian Marble, however, if not a modern\nforgery, may be allowed to stand on the same footing with other Greek\ntablets of chronology.\n\nHerodotus was born B. C. 484. He affirms Hesiod and Homer to have\npreceded his own time by four hundred years: thus making them\ncontemporaries; and fixing their \u00e6ra at B. C. 884.\n\nThe Chronicler of the Marbles fixes the \u00e6ra of Hesiod at 944 years\nB. C.: and that of Homer at 907; by which Hesiod is placed 37 years\nbefore Homer; a difference, however, too trifling to affect the\nchronological evidence in favour of their contemporary existence.\n\n\nFOOTNOTES\n\n[8] Robinson, Dissertatio de Hesiodo.\n\n[9] \u201cIf we consider the chronology of Homer\u2019s life to be sufficiently\nestablished, one would be tempted to believe that his rhapsodies, as they\nwere called, have not only been arranged and digested in a subsequent\nperiod, as has been asserted on good authority, but have even undergone\nsomething similar to the _refaccimento_ by Berni of Boyardo\u2019s Orlando.\u201d\nEssays annexed to Professor Millar\u2019s History of the English Government.\n\n[10] It is strange, however, that a critic like Gibbon should have\nallowed himself to talk of a definite time when \u201cHomer wrote his Iliad;\u201d\nin an age when alphabetic characters were not in use; when poets composed\nonly rhapsodies, or such portions as could be recited at one time; which\nwere preserved by oral tradition through the recitations of succeeding\nbards.\n\n[11] The first specimen of a regular tablet of chronology is said to have\nbeen given by Demetrius Phalereus in his \u0391\u03c1\u03c7\u03bf\u03bd\u03c4\u03c9\u03bd \u0391\u03bd\u03b1\u03b3\u03c1\u03b1\u03c6\u03b7, about the\nmiddle of the fourth century B. C. The historian Tim\u00e6us, who flourished\nin the time of Ptolemy Philadelphus, first arranged his narrative\nin the order of Olympiads; which began B. C. 776. His contemporary\nSosibius, gave a work entitled \u03a7\u03c1\u03bf\u03bd\u03c9\u03bd \u0391\u03bd\u03b1\u03b3\u03c1\u03b1\u03c6\u03b7: Apollodorus wrote the\n\u03a3\u03c5\u03bd\u03c4\u03b1\u03be\u03b9\u03c2 \u03a7\u03c1\u03bf\u03bd\u03b9\u03ba\u03b7: and on such chronologers rests the credit of all later\ncompilers, as well as of the Arundelian Marbles. DR. GILLIES.\n\nWe are informed by Dr. Clarke, in his \u201cTravels,\u201d that these marbles were\nnot found in Paros, but in the Isle of Zia.\n\n\n\n\nSECTION III.\n\nON THE POEMS OF HESIOD.[12]\n\n\nPausanias informs us that \u201cthe B\u0153otians, who dwell round Helicon, have\na tradition among them that Hesiod wrote nothing besides the poem of\n\u2018Works:\u2019 and from this they take away the introduction, and say that the\npoem properly begins with The Strifes. They showed me a leaden tablet\nnear the fountain, which was almost entirely eaten away with age, and on\nwhich were engraven the Works and Days of Hesiod.\u201d\n\nIt is difficult to account for the manifest mutilation and corruption\nof this venerable poet\u2019s compositions, since it appears that they were\nextant in a complete, or at least, a more perfect form, so late as the\nage of Vespasian. Pliny, book xiv. complaining of the agricultural\nignorance of his age, observes that even the names of several trees\nenumerated by Hesiod had grown out of knowledge: and in book xv. he\nadverts to Hesiod\u2019s opinion of the unprofitableness of the olive. From\nsome verses in the Astronomicon of Manilius, an Augustan writer, it would\nseem that he had treated of ingrafting, and of the soils adapted to corn\nand vines.\n\n    He sings how corn in plains, how vines in hills\n    Delight, how both with vast increase the olive fills:\n    How foreign grafts th\u2019 adulterous stock receives,\n    Bears stranger fruit and wonders at her leaves.\n\n                                            CREECH.\n\nand it is remarkable that the line in Virgil translated by Dryden,\n\n    And old Ascrean verse through Roman cities sing,\n\noccurs in that book of the Georgics which is dedicated to planting,\ningrafting, and the dressing of vines. In the \u201cWorks,\u201d as they now\nappear, we find no mention of any trees but such as are fit for the\nfabrication of the plough: and it is plain that the countrymen of Pliny\ncould be in no danger of forgetting the names of the oak, the elm, or the\nbay-tree. Of the olive, and of ingrafting, there is no mention whatever,\nand but a cursory notice on the vine: nor is there any comparison of the\nsoils respectively adapted to the growth of vines and of corn.\n\nThe poem in some editions has been divided into two books; under the\ngeneral title of \u201cWorks and Days,\u201d but with a subdivision entitled Days\nonly: by which arrangement it is made virtually to consist of three\nbooks. In Loesner\u2019s edition the distinction of the second book is\ndone away: but the subdivision of Days is retained. From either mode\nof disposition this incoherency results: that Works and Days no longer\nappear to be the general title, but applicable only to the former part\nof the poem, in which there is no mention of Days at all. The ancient\ncopies, as Heinsius has shown, had no division into parts. If any minor\ndistinction be deemed admissible for the more convenient arrangement of\nthe subject, the disposition of Henry Stephens is obviously the most\nrational: whereby the poem is divided into two parts: the first entitled\n\u201cWorks\u201d only, and the second \u201cDays.\u201d\n\nCooke explains the \u201cWorks\u201d of Hesiod to mean the labours of agriculture,\nand the \u201cDays\u201d the proper seasons for the Works; but erroneously. The\nterm _Works_ is to be taken with greater latitude, as including not\nonly labours, but actions; and as referring equally to the moral, as to\nthe industrious \u0153conomy of human life. It is evident also that the term\n\u201cDays\u201d does not respect the seasons of labour specified in the course of\nthe poem, but the days of superstitious observance at the end of it: and\nof these many have no reference whatever to the works of husbandry.\n\nThe Theogony has all the appearance of being a patchwork of fragments;\nconsisting of some genuine Hesiod\u00e9an passages;[13] pieced together with\nverses of other poets, and probably of a different age. The mythology\nis occasionally inconsistent with itself: thus the god Chrysaor is\nre-introduced among the demi-gods; and the Fates are born over again from\ndifferent parents: an incongruity which Robinson attempts to obviate by\nan ingenious, but over-refined construction.\n\nThe proem bears the internal marks of comparatively modern refinement.\nIt has not the simple outline of Hesiod. The whole passage has the air\nof one of those introductions which the rhapsodists were accustomed to\nprefix to their recitations: it is conceived in a more florid taste than\nthe usual composition of Hesiod, but expressed with considerable elegance\nof fancy.\n\nThese arguments are not affected by the individual opinions of Romans and\nGreeks, themselves modern with respect to Hesiod. Ovid in his \u201cArt of\nLove\u201d alludes to this proem:\n\n    The sister Muses did I ne\u2019er behold,\n    While, Ascra! midst thy vales, I fed my fold.\n\nPlutarch in the ninth book of his Symposiacs, quotes two of the verses\nin illustration of the propriety of epithets: Pausanias appeals to the\npresentation of the branch as evidence that Hesiod did not sing to the\nlyre; and Lucian in his dialogue \u201con the illiterate book-collector\u201d\nobserves, \u201chow can you have known these things without having learnt\nthem? how or whence? unless at any time you have received a branch from\nthe Muses like that shepherd. They, indeed, did not disdain to appear to\nthe shepherd, though a rough hairy man, with a sun-burnt complexion; but\nthey would never have deigned to come near you:\u201d and in the \u201cDialogue\nwith Hesiod\u201d he banters him as promising to sing of futurity; and\naffecting the Chalcas or Phineas, when there is nothing of prophecy in\nhis whole poem. An indirect argument for the spuriousness of the verses.\n\nIt must have been an impression of this proem which led Gibbon in his\n\u201cNotes on the editions of the Classics\u201d (Miscellaneous Works, vol. v.) to\nobserve, \u201cin the Theogony I can discern a more recent hand:\u201d for many\ndetails in the poem have all the internal evidence of antiquity. Perhaps\nthe catalogue of names, which Robinson superfluously defends on the\nscore of their metrical harmony, and compares with Homer\u2019s catalogue of\nships, of which the merit is geographical and historical, may furnish a\nstrong presumptive argument of antiquity. They would appear to have been\ncomposed at a period when alphabetic writing was unknown, and the memory\nof names and things depended on the technical help of oral tradition.\n\nPausanias says, speaking of the Theogony, \u201cThere are some who consider\nHesiod as the author of this poem.\u201d That _some_ theogony was composed\nby Hesiod is evidenced by the passage in Herodotus; who, speaking of\nHesiod and Homer, affirms, \u201cthese are they who framed a Theogony for the\nGreeks:\u201d and the fable of Pandora in the Theogony, that we now possess,\nbears characteristical marks of having come from the same hand as that in\nthe Works and Days.\n\nOf the Shield of Hercules it is asserted by Cooke, that \u201cthere is\ngreat reason to believe this poem was not in existence in the time of\nAugustus:\u201d but he merely advances, in proof of this assertion, that\n\u201cManilius, who was an author of the Augustan age, takes notice of no\nother than the Theogony, and the Works and Days:\u201d yet this, if indeed\nanything decisive could be concluded from the omission, would only\nprove that he did not believe the piece authentic. He further remarks\nthat critics should not suppose it to have formed a part of another\npoem, unless they could show when, where, or by whom the title had\nbeen changed. This is surely to demand a very unreasonable as well as\nunnecessary kind of proof. The distinct title affords, in fact, no\nevidence for the completeness of the poem; as we learn from \u00c6lian, that\nportions of Homer\u2019s Iliad and Odyssey were known by such separate titles\nas, \u201cthe Funeral Games of Patroclus,\u201d the \u201cGrot of Calypso;\u201d and sung as\ndetached pieces. The argument of Cooke that it cannot be an imitation\nof the Shield of Achilles, because the description of the mere Shield\noccupies but a small part of the piece, is equivalent to contending that\nVirgil could not have imitated the simile of Diana in the first book\nof the \u00c6neid from the Odyssey, because the rest of the book bears no\nresemblance to any thing in Homer. A slight presumption of the Shield\nbeing from the hand of Hesiod may be founded on a quotation of Polybius,\nfrom one of Hesiod\u2019s lost works: the historian speaks of the Macedonians\nas being \u201csuch as Hesiod describes the \u00c6acid\u00e6; rejoicing in war rather\nthan in the banquet:\u201d book v. ch. i. In the Shield, I\u00f6laus says of\nhimself and Hercules, that battles \u201care better to them than a feast.\u201d The\nexpression, however, may have been proverbial, and used by more poets\nthan one.\n\nThe poem is ascribed to Hesiod by Athen\u00e6us: but Aristophanes the\ngrammarian rejected it as spurious, and Longinus speaks doubtingly\nof Hesiod being the author. Tanaquil Faber confidently asserts \u201cthat\nthey who think the Shield not of Hesiod, have but a very superficial\nacquaintance with Grecian poetry:\u201d and on the other side Joseph Scaliger\nspeaks of the author, whoever he may be, of the Shield; which the\ncritical world by a preposterous judgment have attributed to the poet of\nAscra. It is not by a reference to authorities that the question must be\ndecided, but by an examination of the interior structure of the poem, and\nthe evidence of style.\n\nThe objections to a great part of the poem consist in its unlikeness to\nthe style of Hesiod, and its resemblance to that of Homer.\n\nRobinson insists in reply that it is very usual for the same author to\nshow a diversity of style; which is at least an admission that Hesiod is\nhere different from himself. But to his question \u201cwhether we demand the\nsame fervour and force in the Georgics of Virgil as in the \u00c6neid?\u201d it may\nbe asked in return whether a certain similarity of style be not clearly\ndistinguishable in these poems, however distinct their nature? there is,\nindeed, a difference, but not absolutely a discordance.\n\nThe whole laboured argument which he has bestowed on the necessary\ndissimilarity of didactic and heroical composition is plainly foreign\nto the question. Who would dream of urging as an objection to its\nauthenticity, that the style of \u201cThe Shield\u201d is unlike the _georgical_\nstyle of Hesiod? the objection is, that it is unlike his _epic_ style:\nand Robinson has brought the question to a fair issue by his remark that\nthe Battle of the Gods abounds no less than the Shield with the ornaments\nof poetry.\n\nIt is not sufficient that these passages respectively display ornament;\nwe must examine whether they display a similar style of ornament. Now the\ndescriptive part of the Shield is in a gorgeous taste; unlike the bold\nand simple majesty of the Theogony. There is a visible effort to surprise\nby something marvellous and uncommon; which often verges on conceit\nand extravagance. For sublime images we are presented with gigantic and\ndistorted figures, and with hideous conceptions of disgusting horror.\nThere is indeed a considerable degree of genius even in these faulty\npassages: but whoever perceives a resemblance in the imagery of the\nShield to that of the Titanic War, may equally trace an affinity between\nVirgil and Ariosto.\n\nThese reasonings affect that part of the poem chiefly, which is occupied\nwith the mere description of the Shield; but a single circumstance will\nshow that the passages which represent the action of the poem are both\nforeign to Hesiod\u2019s manner, and are in the manner of Homer. I allude to\nthe employment of similes and to the character of those similes.\n\nHomer is fond of comparisons; and of such, particularly, as are drawn\nfrom animated nature. The Shield of Hercules also abounds with similes,\nand they are precisely of this sort. But the frequent use of similitudes\nis so far from being characteristic of Hesiod, that in the whole Battle\nof the Giants but one occurs; and only one in the Combat of Jupiter and\nTyph\u00e6us; and in both we look in vain for any comparison drawn from lions,\nor boars, or vultures.\n\nRobinson appears, indeed, conscious of a more crowded and diversified\nimagery in the Shield than we usually meet with in Hesiod\u2019s poetry; for\nhe is driven to the miserable alternative of supposing that Hesiod may\nhave produced the Shield in his youth, and his other works in his old\nage. Longinus in the same manner accounts for the comparative quiet\nsimplicity of the Odyssey. The supposition in either case is founded on\nthe erroneous principle, that a poem is beautiful in proportion to the\nnoise and fury of its action, or the accumulation of its ornament. The\nnotion of the genius necessarily declining with the decline of youthful\nvigour is completely unphilosophical; and is contradicted by repeated\nexperience of the human faculties. It was in his old age that Dryden\nwrote his \u201cFables.\u201d\n\nAs to that portion of the poem which is properly the Shield, and from\nwhich the whole piece takes its title, it is self-evident that this\nmust have been borrowed from the description in the Iliad, or the\ndescription in the Iliad from this. I do not allude merely to a whole\nseries of verses being literally the same in each; but to long passages\nof description, bearing so close a resemblance as to preclude the idea\nof accidental coincidence; such as the bridal procession, the siege, the\nharvest, and the vintage.\n\nRobinson admits the imitation; but thinks the partisans of Homer cannot\neasily show that Homer was not the copyist. It were, however, easy to\ndecide from internal evidence which is the copy.\n\nWhere two poems are found so nearly resembling each other as to convey\nat once the impression of plagiarism, the scale of originality must\ndoubtless preponderate in favour of that which is the more simple in\nstyle and invention. Where a poem abounds with florid figures and\nirregular flights of imagination, it is inconceivable that a _copy_\nof that poem should exhibit a chaste simplicity of fancy: but it is\nhighly natural that an imitator should think to transcend his original\nby the aid of meretricious ornament; that he should mistake bombast for\nsublimity, and attempt to dazzle and astonish. Of this sort of elaborate\nrefinement a single instance will serve in illustration.\n\nBoth poets encircle their bucklers with the ocean. Robinson gives the\npreference to the author of The Shield of Hercules; alleging that his\ndescription is decorated with the utmost beauty of imagery; while that\nof The Shield of Achilles is naked of embellishment. To the unornamented\nstyle of the passage in Homer I appeal, as demonstrating the superiority\nof his judgment, and as thereby establishing beyond dispute the fact of\nhis originality.\n\nIn one condensed verse he pours around the verge of the buckler\n\u201cthe great strength of the ocean stream.\u201d An image of roundness and\ncompleteness is here at once presented to the eye, and fills the mind.\nBut the author of the Shield of Hercules, evidently striving to excel\nHomer, says that \u201chigh-soaring swans there clamoured aloud, and many\nfloated on the surface of the billows, and near them fishes were leaping\ntumultuously.\u201d Who does not perceive that the full image of the rounding\nocean is broken and rendered indistinct by this multiplicity of images?\nThe description is, indeed, picturesque; _at nunc non erat his locus_.\n\nYet that Hesiod was the plagiarist will scarcely be contended, until the\nassertion already advanced respecting the epic simplicity of his style\nshall have been set aside.\n\nBut the former part of the piece has all the internal marks of having\nbeen composed by an author of totally dissimilar genius. It has the stamp\nof the ancient simplicity upon it. A few passages are magnificent; but\nstill in a noble and pure taste. Here then I discern the hand of Hesiod.\nBut the presumption rests on surer grounds than characteristics of style.\n\nIn the concluding verses of the Theogony, the poet invokes the Muses\nto sing the praises of women; and among the lost works of Hesiod,\nwhose titles are dispersed in ancient authors, are enumerated the\nfour Catalogues of Women or Heroines; and the Herogony, or Generation\nof Heroes descended from them; which are thought to have been five\nconnected parts of the same poem. That this was the work of Hesiod we\nhave the testimony of Pausanias; who alludes to the tale of Aurora and\nCephalus, and that of Iphigenia, as treated by Hesiod in his Catalogue\nof Women. The fourth Catalogue had acquired a secondary title of \u0397\u03bf\u03b9\u03b1\u03b9\n\u03bc\u03b5\u03b3\u03b1\u03bb\u03b1\u03b9; the great Eoi\u00e6: fantastically framed out of the words \u03b7 \u03bf\u03b9\u03b7, or\n_such as_, which introduced the stories of the successive heroines. From\nthe use of this title a strange idea got abroad that Eoa was the name of\na young woman of Ascra, the mistress of Hesiod.\n\n      B\u0153otian Hesiod, vers\u2019d in various lore,\n    Forsook the mansion where he dwelt before:\n    The Heliconian village sought, and woo\u2019d\n    The maid of Ascra in her scornful mood:\n    There did the suffering bard his lays proclaim,\n    The strain beginning with Eoa\u2019s name.\n\n                  HERMISIANAX OF COLOPHON, in Athen\u00e6us, book xiii.[14]\n\nAmong the minor fragments of Hesiod are preserved three passages, each\nbeginning with the words \u03b7 \u03bf\u03b9\u03b7, introductory of a female description.\nThey are naturally considered as remnants of the Fourth Catalogue.\nNow the piece entitled \u201cThe Shield of Hercules\u201d also opens with these\nidentical words, introductory of the story of Alcmena.\n\nFabricius decides that these introductory words will not permit us to\ndoubt that \u201cThe Shield of Hercules\u201d formed part of the Fourth Catalogue;\nbut the inference does not necessarily extend beyond the first portion\nof the piece. Robinson justly argues on the incongruity of the poet\u2019s\ndigressing from the tale of Alcmena, to tell a story of Hercules; and\nhe therefore conjectures that this piece is a fragment of the Heroical\nGenealogies; but aware that the concurrence of the exordium with the\nabove-mentioned fragments, points the attention to the Fourth Catalogue,\nhe cuts the Gordian knot by changing \u03b7 \u03bf\u03b9\u03b7, or _such as_, into \u03b7 \u03bf\u03b9\u03b7,\n_she alone_.\n\nGuietus suggests the reading of \u03b7\u03bf\u03b9\u03b7, _rising with the dawn_; for the\npurpose of rendering the piece complete in itself: but the very basis\nof the argument in favour of the authenticity of the poem as a work\nof Hesiod, is the striking coincidence of the introductory lines with\nthe fragments of the Fourth Catalogue. This may be set aside by the\ningenious expedient of altering the text; but if the text be suffered\nto remain, the presumption, so far as it extends, is irresistible. I do\nconceive that Robinson, when his judgment consented to this alteration\nof the reading, yielded a very important advantage to those who dispute\nthe genuineness of the poem, as the production of Hesiod; that by the\nabandonment of these remarkably coincident words the difficulty of\nproving the poem to be a fragment is increased two-fold; and that with\nthe fact of its being a fragment is closely linked the fact of its\nauthenticity.\n\nFrom what has been said, it will perhaps be thought extraordinary that\nthe idea of a _cento_ of dispersed fragments, pieced together and\ninterpolated with Homeric imitations, never suggested itself to those\ncritics who have bestowed such elaborate scrutiny on the composition of\nthe poem.\n\nIn the scholium of the Aldine edition of Hesiod, it is stated, \u201cThe\nbeginning of the Shield as far as the 250th verse is said to form a\npart of the Fourth Catalogue.\u201d Here is at once an admission of the\npatchwork texture of the piece; and we may be allowed to conjecture\nthat the scholiast may possibly be mistaken as to the exact number of\nlines. This portion, in fact, comprehends the meeting of Hercules with\nCygnus, and his arming for battle; which follows, with a strange and\nstartling abruptness, immediately on his birth; and seems to have little\nconnexion with the praises of a heroine, in a poem devoted exclusively to\ncelebrated women.\n\nI should, therefore, be inclined to consider the first fifty-six lines\nonly as belonging to the Fourth Catalogue. This introductory part,\nending with the birth of Hercules, is awkwardly coupled with his warlike\nadventure in the grove of Apollo by the line\n\n    Who also slew Cygnus, the magnanimous son of Mars.\n\nThis line is perceptibly the link of connexion between the two fragments,\nand betrays the hand of the interpolator. The succeeding passage, as far\nas verse 153, I conjecture to have formed a part of the Herogony. It\nseems probable that Hesiod\u2019s description of the sculpture on the Shield\nof Hercules was limited to the dragon in the centre, and the figure of\nDiscord hovering above it; and was meant to end with the effects produced\nby the sight of this shield on the hero\u2019s enemies. This short description\nappears to have suggested the experiment of ingrafting upon it a florid\nparody of the Shield of Achilles; and that here precisely we may fix the\ncommencement of the spurious additions is probable from the verses\n\n    \u039f\u03c3\u03c4\u03b5\u03b1 \u03b4\u03b5 \u03c3\u03c6\u03b9, \u03c0\u03b5\u03c1\u03b9 \u03c1\u03b9\u03bd\u03bf\u1fd6\u03bf \u03c3\u03b1\u03c0\u03b5\u03b9\u03c3\u03b7\u03c2,\n    \u03a3\u03b5\u03b9\u03c1\u03b9\u03bf\u03c5 \u03b1\u03b6\u03b1\u03bb\u03b5\u03bf\u03b9\u03bf, \u03ba\u03b5\u03bb\u03b1\u03b9\u03bd\u1fc7 \u03c0\u03c5\u03b8\u03b5\u03c4\u03b1\u03b9 \u03b1\u03b9\u1fc3.\n\n              Through the flesh that wastes away\n    Beneath the parching sun, their whitening bones\n    Start forth, and moulder in the sable dust:\n\nbeing instantly followed by a passage from the Achillean Shield: \u0395\u03bd \u03b4\u03b5\n\u03c0\u03c1\u03bf\u03b9\u03c9\u03be\u03b9\u03c2, &c.\n\n    Pursuit was there, and fiercely rallying Flight.\n\nI suppose, therefore, the description of the putrefying corses of the\nfoes of Hercules to have joined the 320th verse; where he is made to\ngrasp the shield and ascend the chariot. Several of the subsequent\npassages, as, in particular, the description of the Cicada, appear to me\ngenuine; but they are visibly patched with Homeric similes, which are in\ngeneral mere plagiarisms; and are not at all in unison with the style\nof the rest of the poem; nor with the characteristic manner of Hesiod.\nThis mixture of authenticity and imposture will explain the contradictory\ndecisions of learned men; who, in examining this curious question, have\nlooked only at one side.\n\nIt does not appear that Hesiod was the most ancient author either of a\ntheogony or a rural poem; although Herodotus speaks of him as the first\nwho framed a theogonic system for the Greeks, and Pliny cites him as\nthe earliest didactic poet on agriculture. But tradition has preserved\nthe fame of theogonies by Orpheus and Mus\u00e6us: and Tzetzes mentions two\npoems of Orpheus, the one entitled _Works_, the other _Diaries_; the\narchetypes, probably, of The Works and Days.\n\nQuintilian observes that \u201cHesiod rarely rises, and a great part\nof him is occupied in names; yet he is distinguished by useful\nsentences conveying precepts, and a commendable sweetness of words and\nconstruction; and the palm is given him in that middle kind of writing.\u201d\n\nThis is niggardly praise; and is somewhat similar to that which the same\ncritic awards to Apollonius Rhodius;[15] whose picturesque style and\nimpassioned sentiment are honoured with the diluted commendation of \u201can\nequable mediocrity.\u201d Who that read the above character would suppose that\nHesiod was at all superior to the gnomic or sententious poets; such as\nTheognis or Phocylides? that he had ever composed his Combat of Giants,\nor his Ages of Gold and of Iron?\n\nIf the battle of the Titans be Hesiod\u2019s genuine composition, and if\nthe Shield, as there is reason to believe, contain authentic extracts\nfrom his Heroical Genealogies, we shall decide that Hesiod, as compared\nwith Homer, is less rapid; less fervent in action; less teeming with\nallusions and comparisons; but grand, energetic, occasionally vehement\nand daring; but more commonly proceeding with a slow and stately march.\nIn the mental or moral sublime I consider Hesiod as superior to Homer.\nThe personification of Prayers in the latter is almost the only allegory\nthat can be compared with the awful prosopopeia of Justice, weeping her\nwrongs at the feet of the Eternal: while Justice and Modesty, described\nas virgins in white raiment, ascending out of the sight of men into\nheaven, and the Holy D\u00e6mons, after having animated the bodies of just\nmen, hovering round the earth, and keeping watch over human actions, are\nequalled by no conceptions in the Iliad or Odyssey.\n\nAddison, with that squeamish artificial taste which distinguishes the age\nof Anne, as compared with that of Elizabeth, underrates, as might have\nbeen expected, the vigorous simplicity of Hesiod. But the strong though\nsimple sketches of the old Ascr\u00e6an bard are often more striking than the\nfinished paintings of the Mantuan. Critics admire the pastoral board of\nVirgil\u2019s Corycian husbandman; but there is a far greater charm in the\nsummer-repast of Hesiod: so picturesque in its scenery; so patriarchal in\nits manners. The winter tempest is a bolder copy of nature than any thing\nin the Latin Georgics; more fresh in colouring; more circumstantiated in\ndetail. The rising of the north-wind, moving the ocean, rooting the pines\nand oaks from the tops of the mountains, and strewing them along the\nvalleys, and after a pause, suddenly roaring in its strength through the\ndepths of the forests; the exquisite circumstances of life intermingled\nwith the effects of the storm on inanimate nature; the beasts quaking and\ngrinding their teeth with cold and famine; shuddering at the snowflakes,\nand shrinking into dens and thickets; the old man bent double with the\nblast;[16] the delicate contrast of the young virgin, sheltered in a soft\nchamber under her mother\u2019s roof, and bathing previously to her nightly\nrest, compose a picture wild, romantic, and interesting in an uncommon\ndegree.\n\nAs a legendary mythologist the elegant tale of Pandora, and the Island\nof the Blessed Spirits, are far beyond any thing of Ovid, and can only\nbe compared with Homer: and as a poetical moralist, the strongest proof\nof his merit is, that innumerable sentences of Hesiod, as is well\nremarked by Voltaire in his \u201cDictionnaire Philosophique\u201d have grown into\nproverbial axioms. Cicero observes in one of his Epistles; \u201cLet our dear\nLepta learn Hesiod, and have by heart \u2018the gods have placed before virtue\nthe sweat of the brow.\u2019\u201d His plain and downright rules of decency,[17]\nhis superstitious saws, and his lumber of names, belong to the manners\nof a semi-barbarous village and the learning of a dark age: his genius\nand his wisdom are his own. From that which remains, mutilated as it\nobviously is, we may form a judgment of what he would appear to us, if\nthe whole of his numerous works, complete and unadulterated by foreign\nmixture, were submitted to our observation. _Ex pede Herculem._\n\n\nFOOTNOTES\n\n[12] The following are enumerated as the lost poems of Hesiod.\n\nThe Catalogue of Women or Heroines, in five parts, of which the fifth\nappears to have been entitled \u201cThe Herogony.\u201d SUIDAS.\n\nThe Melampodia; from the sooth-sayer Melampus; a poem on divination.\nPAUSANIAS, ATHEN\u00c6US.\n\nThe great Astronomy or Stellar Book. PLINY.\n\nDescent of Theseus into Hades. PAUSANIAS.\n\nAdmonitions of Chiron to Achilles. PAUSANIAS, ARISTOPHANES.\n\nSoothsayings and Explications of Signs. PAUSANIAS.\n\nDivine Speeches. MAXIMUS TYRIUS.\n\nGreat Actions. ATHEN\u00c6US.\n\nOf the Dactyli of Cretan Ida; discoverers of iron. SUIDAS, PLINY.\n\nEpithalamium of Peleus and Thetis. TZETZES.\n\n\u00c6gimius. ATHEN\u00c6US. _Apocryphal._\n\nElegy on Batrachus, a beloved youth. SUIDAS.\n\nCircuit of the Earth. STRABO.\n\nThe Marriage of Ceyx. ATHEN\u00c6US, PLUTARCH.\n\nOn Herbs. PLINY.\n\nOn Medicine. PLUTARCH.\n\nFabricius (Bibliotheca Gr\u00e6ca) supposes the two latter subjects to be\nalluded to as incidental topics in other works of Hesiod. But the\npassages quoted by him from Pliny and Plutarch seem to justify the\nopinion that they meant to advert to distinct poems. There is nothing in\nthe works extant which favours the former idea. Mallows and asphodel are\nthe only herbs mentioned: and that merely as synonymous with a frugal\nmeal: like the _cichorea levesque malv\u00e6_ of Horace: nor is there anything\nmedical; for the passages respecting bathing, children, &c. are mere\nsuperstitions, unconnected with health. Athen\u00e6us (book iii.) quotes some\nverses as ascribed to Hesiod respecting the fishes fit for salting; but\nsays they seem to be rather the verses of a cook than of a poet; and adds\nthat cities are mentioned in them which were posterior to Hesiod\u2019s time.\nLilius Gyraldus states that the fables of \u00c6sop have been assigned to\nHesiod. Plutarch, indeed, observes that \u00c6sop might himself have profited\nby Hesiod\u2019s apologue of the Hawk and the Nightingale; and Quintilian\nmentions Hesiod, and not \u00c6sop, as the earliest fabulist; which passages\nmay have been strained to bear the above meaning. As to the Greek fables,\nextant under the name of \u00c6sop, they are proved to be spurious. See\nBentley\u2019s Dissertation on the Epistles of Phalaris, Themistocles, &c. and\nthe fables of \u00c6sop.\n\n[13] Manilius, describing the subjects of Hesiod, has a line\n\n    Atque iterum patrio nascentem corpore Bacchum,\n\nexcellently rendered by Creech, a translator now too fastidiously\nundervalued,\n\n    And twice-born Bacchus burst the Thunderer\u2019s thigh:\n\nbut this tale, which Ovid and Nonnus have related, is not found in the\npresent theogony.\n\n[14] In the same poem, which is a love-elegy to his mistress Leontium on\nthe sufferings of lovers, Homer is made to visit Ithaca, \u201csighing like\nfurnace\u201d for the chaste Penelope.\n\n[15] The Quarterly Reviewer, in his critique on my \u201cSpecimens of the\nClassic Poets,\u201d conceives it strange that I should prefer the Medea\nof Apollonius to Virgil\u2019s Dido; and talks of critical heresies. The\ndeliberation of Medea on her purposed suicide, and her interview with\nJason in the temple of Hecate, place the matter beyond all question;\nexcept with those who may be frightened by the word _heresy_ into a\nsurrender of their judgments to vulgar prejudice and traditional error.\n\n[16] This fine natural image is ridiculously parodied by Addison, \u201cThe\nold men, too, _are bitterly pinched by the weather_.\u201d Essay on Virgil\u2019s\nGeorgics.\n\n[17] These were excluded from the first edition of my translation, but\nare now reinstated, as curiously illustrative of manners.\n\n\n\n\nSECTION IV.\n\nON THE MYTHOLOGY OF HESIOD.\n\n\nDiogenes Laertius mentions that Pythagoras feigned to have seen the\nsoul of Hesiod in the infernal regions, bound to a brazen pillar, and\nhowling in torture for his false representations of the Deities: and\nthat of Homer environed with serpents for the same reason. Plato, in a\nsimilar feeling, excluded both these poets from his ideal republic. It\nseems strange that the philosophers should have failed to perceive that\nHesiod and Homer repeated merely the popular legends of their age; as is\nabundantly evident from the style and manner of narration and allusion\nthroughout their poems.\n\nThe following passage of Herodotus has been construed to mean that they\nwere the absolute inventors of the Grecian theology; \u201cWhence each of\nthe Gods came; whether all have continually existed, or what figures\nthey severally had, was known but lately; or, if I may so speak, only\nyesterday; for I am of opinion that Hesiod and Homer were older than\nmyself by four hundred years, and not more; these are they who framed\na theogony for the Greeks, and gave titles to the gods; distinguishing\ntheir honours and functions, and describing their forms.\u201d\n\nAgainst such an hypothesis several reasons obviously present themselves:\n1st, A plurality of gods could scarcely be the production of a single\nage, much less of one or two individuals: 2dly, It is not likely that\nGreece, which was visited by \u00c6gyptian and Ph\u0153nician colonists at an \u00e6ra\nlong antecedent to the age of Homer, should have been destitute of a\nreligious system: 3dly, It is not credible that a whole nation, at the\nsuggestion of one or two bards, should have abandoned this received\nsystem in order to adopt a whole hierarchy of divinities, of whom they\nhad never before heard.\n\nBut the doubt of Herodotus, \u201cwhether they have continually existed,\u201d\nshows that he merely considered Hesiod and Homer in the light of\ncollectors and illustrators of the ancient religion of their country; and\nWesseling accordingly interprets \u03c0\u03bf\u03b9\u03b7\u03c3\u03b1\u03bd\u03c4\u03b5\u03c2 as referring to arrangement\nand description, not invention. This stupid inference could in fact\nnever have been drawn, had Herodotus been compared with himself: as in a\npreceding passage he says, \u201cNearly all the names of the gods have come\ninto Greece from \u00c6gypt; for I have ascertained it to be a fact that they\nare of barbaric extraction.\u201d\n\nHerodotus, however, seems to have been in error, even as to this position\nof Hesiod and Homer having first digested the mythology of Greece into a\nsystem: and as he could not be ignorant that theogonies were ascribed to\npoets reputed their elders, such as Mus\u00e6us and Orpheus, he was reduced\nto the alternative of making these poets their juniors. \u201cThose poets,\u201d\nhe observes, \u201cwho were said to be before them, were in my opinion after\nthem.\u201d\n\nBut Cicero (in Bruto, cap. xviii.) sensibly argues, \u201cnor can it be\ndoubted that there were poets before Homer; which may be inferred from\nthe songs described by him as sung in the banquets of the Ph\u00e6acians and\nthe suitors.\u201d Fabricius makes a comment, that \u201cit cannot be proved from\nthis, that Greek poems, before Homer, were committed to writing, and so\nhanded down to posterity.\u201d As if the poems of Homer himself had been\ntransmitted in any other manner than by oral tradition![18]\n\nThe pre-existence of religious rites seems, indeed, to involve that of\npoetical cosmogonies and mythological hymns. Before the invention of\nletters there was no other traditionary record, or vehicle of popular\ninstruction, or organ of religious homage and supplication, than verse:\nthe conclusion follows that there were both poets anterior to the age of\nHomer,[19] and that these poets were also mythologists.\n\nPausanias mentions Olen of Lycia; who, he says, composed very ancient\nhymns; and who in his hymn to Lucina, makes her the mother of Love: and\nhe names Pamphus and Orpheus, as succeeding Olen, and as also composing\nhymns to the mythological Love.\n\nThe doubt entertained by Aristotle and Cicero of the personal existence\nof Orpheus, neither affects the antiquity of the name, nor of that system\nof theology which bears the title of Orphic. The relics now extant under\nthat name have, indeed, been suspected as the forgeries of Onomacritus,\nthe sooth-sayer, who produced the hymns to the people of Athens: but\nGesner is of opinion that he only altered the dialect of genuine Orphic\nremains, on which he ingrafted his own additions. The fragments which\nhave come down to us appear certainly from internal evidence to contain\na theology more ancient than that of Hesiod and Homer; for the nearer it\napproaches in any of its parts to the religious system of the \u00c6gyptians,\nthe stronger is the presumptive testimony of its antiquity.\n\n[20]The \u00c6gyptians held that the world was produced from Chaos, or Water.\nThey worshipped the Sun, as Osiris, Hammon, and Horus; the Moon, as Isis;\nthe Cabiri or Planets, as symbols of invisible divinities. They had two\nsystems of worship; the one exoteric or popular, the other esoteric or\nmystical. The adoration of the celestial bodies was literal with the\npeople, and emblematical with the priesthood. They supposed emanations\nfrom divinity to be resident in the parts of nature; and thus that the\nsun, moon, and stars, and the other bodies of the universe, were animated\nwith a divine spirit or virtue; or retained portions of a divine essence\nfrom good demons or genii, who dwelt in them: these d\u00e6mons had been\ninclosed in the bodies of virtuous men; and having left them, passed\ninto the stars and planets, which were consequently worshipped as gods.\nHence probably the legend of Hesiod, who supposes the spirits of men in\nthe golden age to become holy d\u00e6mons; though these d\u00e6mons are not sent to\nthe stars, but hover round the earth and keep watch over the actions of\nhumankind.\n\nJablonski, in his Pantheon \u00c6gyptiorum, considers this stellar theology as\nresolvable into an astronomical and Niliacal idolatry. The terrestrial\nOsiris is the Nile: the celestial Osiris the Sun, in his zodiacal\nprogress through the signs that preside over the seasons. Amon, Jupiter,\ndesignates the Sun in the constellation of Aries. In the vernal\nequinox he is Hercules, in the summer solstice Horus or Apollo, in\nthe winter solstice Harpocrates. Serapis was the Nile in its period of\nfertilization, or the autumnal Sun of the lower hemisphere. Isis was\nthe moon, the mother of multiform nature; the same also as Neitha or\nMinerva, and the causer of the Nile\u2019s inundations. Tithrambo, Brimo, or\nHecate, was Isis incensed, or the maleficent moon. Bubastis, Diana, or\nLatona, was the titular symbol of the New Moon, and Buto or Latona of\nthe full. The Cabiri, or Seven Planets, were worshipped as appendants of\nthe greater gods; thus the planet Venus was the star of Isis, and the\nplanet Jupiter the star of Osiris. The dog-headed Anubis, or Mercury,\nwas the celestial horizon, the guard of the Sun\u2019s gate, and the follower\nof Isis or the Moon. The bull Apis was a living symbol of the Nile; but\nwas supposed to have been generated in a heifer by the transmission of\ncelestial fire from the Moon; and was sacred both to that planet and to\nthe Sun. A living goat was the symbol of Mendes or Pan; the generative\nprinciple of all nature. These animal types were multiplied; thus a\nlion figured the Sun; a cow, Isis and Venus; and a hawk, Osiris. Stones\nwere also made typical. An obelisk represented the Sun; and seven\ncolumns, such as Pausanias saw in Laconia, the Planets. They worshipped\nalso Night, the supposed creative principle of all things, as Athor,\nVenus,[21] or Juno; and Pthas, the Vulcan as well as Minerva of the\nGrecians; the masculo-feminine cause and soul of the world; a pervading\ninfinite spirit, or subtile ethereal fire, superior to the solar and\nplanetary orbs; from which emanated terrestrial souls, and to which they\nreturned. This system may very well be reconciled with the received\ntheology; as it is not at all improbable that the subtile and scientific\n\u00c6gyptians should have refined upon their original emblems, by connecting\nwith them a secondary astronomical signification. In the explication of\ncertain terms, and the identity and nature of many of the deities, the\n\u201c\u00c6gyptian Pantheon\u201d agrees with the \u201cNew Analysis.\u201d\n\nProclus (in Tim\u00e6um, book i.) mentions a statue of Neitha or Minerva in\na temple at Sais, in \u00c6gypt, inscribed on the base with hieroglyphical\ncharacters to this effect: \u201cI am whatever things are, whatever shall be,\nand whatever have been. None have lifted up my veil. The fruit which I\nhave brought forth is the Sun.\u201d Notwithstanding the mixed planetary\nworship, the Sun was considered by the \u00c6gyptians as the king and\narchitect of the universe: who under the name of Osiris comprehended in\nhimself the power and efficacy of all the other material gods. Consistent\nwith this is the Orphic fragment:\n\n      Hear me thou! for ever whirling round the rolling heavens on high\n    Thy far-travelling orb of splendour midst the whirlpools of the sky:\n    Hear, effulgent Jove and Bacchus! father both of earth and sea!\n    SUN all-various! golden-beaming! all things teeming out of thee!\n\nIn another passage Orpheus identifies with the sun the different deities.\n\n    ONE Jove and Pluto; Bacchus, and the SUN;\n    One God alike in all, and all are ONE.\n\nThe cosmogonists of \u00c6gypt represented the Demiurgus or Universal Maker,\nin a human form, sending forth from his mouth an egg; which egg was the\nworld. They called him Kneph; who was the same as Pthas, the essential\npervading energy. Chaos is described by Orpheus, in the manner of Ovid,\nas an immense, self-existent, heterogeneous mass; neither luminous nor\ntenebrous; which in the lapse of ages generated an egg; and from this egg\nwas produced a masculo-feminine principle, which disposed the elements,\nand created the forms of nature. A prim\u00e6val water or Chaos, and a mundane\negg, are found also in the mythology of India.\n\nIn the cosmogonic system of \u00c6gypt the world was Deity, and its parts\nother gods; a doctrine equivalent to the \u03c4\u03bf \u03c0\u1fb6\u03bd of the Stoics; the\ninherent divinity of the universe; which Lucan seems to intend in the\nsentiment of Cato:\n\n    Deus est quodcunque vides: qu\u00f2cunque moveris.\n\n    Whate\u2019er we see, where\u2019er we move, is God.\n\nThis system is unfolded in the Orphic hymns:\n\n    Jove is the breath of all: the force of quenchless flame:\n    The root of ocean Jove: the sun and moon the same:\n    Jove is the king, the sire, whence generation sprang:\n    One strength, one D\u00e6mon, great, on whom all beings hang:\n    His regal body grasps the vast material round:\n    There fire, earth, air, and wave, and day and night, are found.\n\nThe same physico-theology appears in the Orphean verses,\n\n    I swear by those, the generating powers,\n    Whence sprang the gods that have eternal being;\n    Fire, Water, Earth, and Heaven, the Moon and Sun,\n    Great Love effulgent, and the sable Night!\n\nand in another fragment, preserved by Eusebius: (Pr\u00e6parat. Evang. iii. 9.)\n\n    Fire, water, earth, and ether, night and day,\n    Metis, first sire, and all-delighting Love.\n\nMetis is Minerva or Vulcan, the mind of the universe already noticed.\n\nFrom a general view of the \u00c6gyptian and Orphic theogonies, they would\nappear to consist in an atheistic materialism; for although they\nacknowledge a certain divine, or active, principle pervading and\nanimating passive matter, nothing can be inferred from this, superior\nto a physical operative energy. Jablonski indeed contends that,\nexclusive of the worship of the signs of the zodiac, and the solar and\nlunar phenomena, the more ancient \u00c6gyptians recognized an _intelligent_\npower, or infinite Eternal Mind, on whose wisdom the operations of the\n_sensible_ or visible divinities depended. But it may be doubted whether\nthis controlling intelligence were any thing different from the before\ndescribed emanation of the supposed ethereal spirit of holy d\u00e6mons, or\ndeified men.\n\nHesiod begins his poem on the generation of the gods with certain\ncosmogonical principles. Chaos first exists; then Earth; and thirdly\nLove. Erebus and Night spring from Chaos, and generate Ether and Day;\nand Earth produces Heaven. But we search in vain through the rest of\nthe work for the subtile intelligence of the Orphic philosophy. It has\nbeen attempted, indeed, to reduce the whole into a consistent scheme\nof theogonic physiology, by allegorizing the supernatural battles into\nvolcanic eruptions, hurricanes, and earthquakes; but much would still\nremain incapable of being wrested to a physical sense. On certain crude\nprinciples of cosmogonical tradition, and lineal generations of gods,\nintermingled with the generation of the world, the theogonist has\ningrafted ancient legendary histories, and poetical and moral allegories.\nThe historical mythology is alone significant; for every thing respecting\nthe nature of the gods was in Hesiod\u2019s time perverted and misunderstood.\nThe bard was no longer clothed in the robe of the hierophant.\n\nVery different hypotheses have been framed to explain the Greek\npolytheism. They have failed _because_ they were hypotheses. When the\nAbb\u00e9 Banier[22] detects the real characters of profane history in\nthe gods of the Pantheon; and when De Gebelin[23] sees in them only\nemblematical shadows, personifying the successive inventions of the\nsciences and arts, we are reminded of the observation of Dr. Reid;\n(Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man:) \u201cthat there never was an\nhypothesis invented by an ingenious man, which although destitute of\ndirect evidence, did not serve to account for a variety of phenomena,\nand had not therefore an indirect evidence in its favour.\u201d Even the\nAlchemists have laid claim to the heathen mythology; the pagan stories\nhave been analysed into chemical arcana: the golden fleece becomes a\nrecipe for the discovery of the philosopher\u2019s stone inscribed on a\nram\u2019s-skin, and Medea restores her father to life by means of the grand\nelixir.[24]\n\nBut it were an unreasonable scepticism to argue from these visionary\ntheories, that the ancient fabulous philosophy is a mass of inscrutable\nand unmeaning superstition. The affinity between the different systems of\npaganism rests on irrefutable proof.[25] This affinity points to a common\norigin. The light of history directs us to \u00c6gypt. The astronomical genius\nof that nation led them to symbolize their idols by the celestial signs.\nThese idols were the deified memories of men. As to their individuality,\nwe are assisted by certain resemblances in heathen theology to Mosaic\nscripture. This parallel may have been urged too closely and too\nfancifully; as by Huet, in his \u201cDemonstratio Evangelica:\u201d who affirms\nthat all the deities of the \u00c6gyptians, Indians, Americans, Greeks, and\nItalians, are only Moses in disguise; and by Theophilus Gale, in his\n\u201cCourt of the Gentiles;\u201d who draws a parallel between the god Pan, and\nthe Messias, Abel, and Israel; and who derives not only both the mythic\nor fabulous, and the physical theology of the heathens, but all human\nletters and sciences from the Hebrew language and scriptures, and the\nphilosophies of Joseph, Moses, and Solomon. Mistakes may have arisen\nfrom trusting too much to a specious analogy; as where Tubal-cain,\nthe artificer of brass and iron, is identified with Vulcan.[26] The\nconjectures of Hebraic etymologists, also, as of Bochart, in the Phaleg\nand Canaan of his Geographia sacra, must be acknowledged to be often\nvague and inconclusive. But so plain are the general traces of corrupted\nscripture-history, that Celsus, in his books against the Christians,\nattacks the biblical records as plagiarisms from the pagan mythology; and\nasserts that Paradise is borrowed from the gardens of Alcinous, and the\nflood of Noah from that of Deucalion; which Origen refutes by the greater\nantiquity of the Jewish traditions.\n\nIt is not to be supposed that they, who trace these parallels of\nmythology with scripture, mean that scripture was its immediate source:\nas the French Encyclop\u00e6dists seem to think, when they ridicule the idea\nof the Grecian poets having deduced their fables from the Mosaic books,\nof which they knew nothing. The religious separation of the Jews renders\nit improbable, that even the intellectual philosophy of the Greek sages,\nas Thales and Pythagoras, should have been indebted for the idea of pure\nincorporeal deity to the sacred oracles: though Dr. Anderson conceives\nit probable that \u201cthe Mosaic scriptures, and other prophetical writings\nunder the Jewish dispensation, could not be unknown to the priests of\n\u00c6gypt, Chald\u00e6a, and other adjacent countries.\u201d History of Philosophy, p.\n88.\n\nBut the improbability is greatly increased with respect to the\nmythological philosophy; nor is it credible that the circumstances of\npagan story, on the supposition of their representing the same events\nas those recorded in the book of Genesis, should have been transferred\nimmediately from the volume of Moses by poets or philosophers into the\npopular religion. Nations do not borrow vast systems of theology from\npoets or even from priests. Gale does not suppose that priests or bards\nimported the Hebrew accounts from the sacred writings; but that they\nwere learnt, through international communication with the Jews, by the\nPh\u0153nicians; who, in their various nautical enterprizes, carried them to\ndistant countries.\n\nBut the temple of heathen mythology rests its pillars in the two\nhemispheres, and overshadows climes unvisited by the navigators of\nPh\u0153nicia. Its basis must, apparently, be sought without the circle of\nJewish report and scripture, in ancient gentile tradition. Stillingfleet\nconvincingly argues, that, assuming the descent of mankind from the\nposterity of Noah, the obliteration and extinction of all remnants of\noral history concerning the ancient world is utterly inconceivable. He\nproceeds to show that such fragments were, in fact, so preserved in\nmany nations after the dispersion; that they were appropriated by the\nPh\u0153nicians, Greeks, Italians, and others to their respective countries;\nand that portions of Noah\u2019s memory, in particular, were retained in many\nfables under Saturn, Janus, Prometheus, and Bacchus.\n\nSimilar to this is the outline of the Analytic System; in which, however,\nthe d\u00e6mon-worship of the patriarchs of mankind is connected with the\narkite and ophite idolatry under the types of the sun and moon. The\naffinities in the pagan sister-mythologies are explained by the general\ndissemination of these idolatrous mysteries, and the traditions which\nthey were designed to commemorate, through the dispersion of a peculiar\npeople in the early ages; migrating from a central point, and spreading\nthrough the extremest regions of the east and west.\n\n\u201cThis wonderful people were the descendants of Chus; and called Cuthites\nand Cuseans. They stood their ground at the general migration of\nfamilies, but were at last scattered over the face of the earth. They\nwere the first apostates from the truth, yet great in worldly wisdom.\nThey introduced, wherever they came, many useful arts, and were\nlooked up to as a superior order of beings. They were joined in their\nexpeditions by other nations; especially by the collateral branches of\ntheir family; the Mizraim, Caphtorim, and the sons of Cana\u00e4n. These were\nall of the line of Ham, who was held by his posterity in the highest\nveneration. They called him Amon; and having in process of time raised\nhim to a divinity, they worshipped him as the Sun; and from this worship\nthey were called Amonians. Under this denomination are included all\nof this family; whether they were \u00c6gyptians or Syrians, of Ph\u0153nicia\nor of Cana\u00e4n. They were a people who carefully preserved memorials of\ntheir ancestors, and of those great events which had preceded their\ndispersion. These were described in hieroglyphics on pillars and obelisks.\n\n\u201cThe deity whom they originally worshipped was the Sun; but they soon\nconferred his titles upon some other of their ancestors; whence arose a\nmixed worship. Chus was one of these; and the idolatry began among his\nsons. The same was practised by the \u00c6gyptians; but this nation made many\nsubtile distinctions; and supposing that there were certain emanations\nof divinity, they affected to particularize each by some title, and to\nworship the deity by his attributes. This gave rise to a multiplicity of\ngods. The Grecians, who received their religion from \u00c6gypt and the East,\nmisapplied the terms which they had received, and made a god out of every\ntitle.\u201d _Preface to the Analysis of Ancient Mythology._\n\n\nFOOTNOTES\n\n[18] We know from Homer (Il. vi.) that when Pr\u00e6tus sent Bellerophon to\nthe king of Lycia he gave him, not a written letter, but \u03c3\u03b7\u03bc\u03b1\u03c4\u03b1 \u03bb\u03c5\u03b3\u03c1\u03b1,\n_mournful signs_; (probably like the picture-writing of the Mexicans:)\nwriting could not be common till many centuries afterwards, since the\nfirst written laws were given in Greece only six centuries B. C. (Herod.\nlib. ii. Strab. lib. vi.) DR. GILLIES.\n\n[19] \u201cThe Tr\u0153zenian histories,\u201d observes \u00c6lian, book xi. ch. 2, \u201crelate\nthat the poems of Or\u00e6bantius, a native of Tr\u0153zene, were in existence\nbefore Homer; and I know they affirm that Dares the Phrygian, whose\nIliad is even now extant, lived before Homer\u2019s time. Melisander, the\nMilesian, likewise, composed the battle of the Lapith\u00e6 and the Centaurs.\u201d\n\n[20] Brucker, Historia Critica Philosophi\u00e6, tom. i. Homer represents\nfather Oceanus as the generator of all things: and the Chaos of Hesiod is\nmerely the watery element.\n\n[21] So Orpheus:\n\n    NIGHT, source of all things, whom we VENUS name.\n\nNight and Chaos, or the aqueous mass, seem reciprocally considered as the\nsource of nature.\n\n[22] La Mythologie, ou la Fable expliqu\u00e9e par l\u2019Histoire.\n\n[23] Monde Primitif.\n\n[24] Wotton\u2019s Reflections on ancient and modern Learning.\n\n[25] See Sir William Jones\u2019s Dissertation on the Gods of Greece, Italy,\nand India.\n\n[26] The working of metals was not among the ancient attributes of\nVulcan: but a diversity of character or attributes is not always an\nobjection. Each god had not only a twofold nature, celestial, and human\nor heroical, but his history and qualities changed with change of place.\nThus Hercules was the Sun; he was also a vagabond hero; but he may have\nbeen one person in Greece, and another in Ph\u0153nicia. Gerard Vossius,\nin his treatise \u201cde Origine et Progressu Idolatri\u00e6,\u201d may therefore be\nright in his conjecture, that among the Ph\u0153nicians both Joshua and\nSamson were commemorated in the Tyrian Hercules. Bacchus was the Sun,\nand an Indian conqueror. His history also assimilates with that of Noah.\nHe was likewise in all probability Caphtor, the grandson of Ham; the\ngreat \u00c6gyptian warrior who dispossessed the Avim of that part of the\nland of Canaan, afterwards called Philistia. (See Priestley\u2019s Lectures\non History, i. 5.) But it is natural that the Ph\u0153nicians, who visited\nGreece when the memory of Moses was still vivid among the Canaanites,\nshould have brought with them miraculous reports of the Jewish lawgiver,\nwhich were added to the history of Bacchus. Bacchus is called by Orpheus,\n\u039c\u03b9\u03c3\u03b7\u03c2; and by Plutarch (de Iside et Osiride) Pal\u00e6stinus. Bacchus was\nexposed in an ark upon a river: a double coincidence with Noah and\nMoses, which is exactly in the spirit of the old mythologists. Nonnus,\nin his Dionysiacs, mentions the flight of Bacchus to the red sea, and\nhis battles with the Princes of Arabia; and relates that he touched\nthe rivers Orontes and Hydaspes with his thyrsus, and that the rivers\ndried up, and he passed through dry-shod. The Indians are in darkness,\nwhile the Bacchic army are in light. The ivy-rod of Bacchus is thrown\non the ground, and creeps to and fro like a live serpent. Snakes twist\nthemselves about the hair and limbs of Bacchus; which may be a shadow\nof the fiery serpents in the wilderness. The host of Bacchus, like the\nmultitude led by Moses, is accompanied by women. One of the Bacch\u00e6\ntouches a rock, and water gushes out; at another time wine and honey; and\nthe rivers run with milk. These circumstances are very remarkable. See\nStillingfleet, Origines Sacr\u00e6, ch. v. Nonnus, Dionysiacs.\n\n\n\n\nThe Works and Days.\n\n\n\n\nTHE WORKS AND DAYS.\n\n\nThe Argument.\n\nThe poem comprehends the general \u0153conomy of industry and morals. In the\nfirst division of the subject, the state of the world, past and present,\nis described; for the purpose of exemplifying the condition of human\nnature: which entails on man the necessity of exertion to preserve the\ngoods of life; and leaves him no alternative but honest industry or\nunjust violence; of which the good and evil consequences are respectively\nillustrated. TWO STRIFES are said to have been sent into the world, the\none promoting dissension, the other emulation. Perses is exhorted to\nabjure the former and embrace the latter; and an apposite allusion is\nmade to the circumstance of his litigiously disputing the patrimonial\nestate, of which, through the corruption of the judges, he obtained\nthe larger proportion. The judges are rebuked, and cheap contentment\nis apostrophized as the true secret of happiness. Such is stated to\nhave been the original sense of mankind before the necessity of labour\nexisted. The origin of labour is deduced from the resentment of Jupiter\nagainst Prometheus; which resentment led to the formation of PANDORA:\nor WOMAN: who is described with her attributes, and is represented as\nbringing with her into the world a casket of diseases. The degeneracy\nof man is then traced through successive ages. The three first ages are\nseverally distinguished as the golden, the silver, and the brazen. The\nfourth has no metallic distinction, but is described as the heroic age,\nand as embracing the \u00e6ra of the Trojan war. The fifth is styled the iron\nage, and, according to the Poet, is that in which he lives. The general\ncorruption of mankind in this age is detailed, and Modesty and Justice\nare represented taking their flight to heaven. A pointed allusion to\nthe corrupt administration of the laws, in his own particular instance,\nis introduced in a fable, typical of oppression. Justice is described\nas invisibly following those who violate her decrees with avenging\npower, and as lamenting in their streets the wickedness of a corrupted\npeople. The temporal blessings of an upright nation are contrasted with\nthe temporal evils which a wicked nation draws down from an angry\nProvidence. Holy D\u00e6mons are represented as hovering about the earth,\nand keeping watch over the actions of men. Justice is again introduced,\ncarrying her complaints to the feet of Jupiter, and obtaining that the\ncrimes of rulers be visited on their people. A pathetic appeal is then\nmade to these rulers in their judicial capacity, urging them to renounce\ninjustice. After some further exhortations to virtue and industry, and\na number of unconnected precepts, the Poet enters on the GEORGICAL\npart of his subject: which contains the prognostics of the seasons of\nagricultural labour, and rules appertaining to wood-felling, carpentry,\nploughing, sowing, reaping, threshing, vine-dressing, and the vintage.\nThis division of the subject includes a description of winter and of\na repast in summer. He then treats of navigation: and concludes with\nsome desultory precepts of religion, moral decorum, and superstition:\nand lastly, with a specification of DAYS: which are divided into holy,\nauspicious, and inauspicious: mixed and intermediary: or such as are\nentitled to no remarkable observance.\n\n\nWORKS.\n\n\nI.\n\n    Come, Muses! ye, that from Pieria raise\n    The song of glory, sing your father\u2019s praise.\n    By Jove\u2019s high will th\u2019 unknown and known of fame\n    Exist, the nameless and the fair of name.\n    \u2019Tis He with ease [27]the bowed feeble rears,\n    And casts the mighty from their highest spheres:\n    With ease of human grandeur shrouds the ray:\n    With ease on abject darkness pours the day:\n    Straightens the crooked: grinds to dust the proud;\n    Thunderer on high, whose dwelling is the cloud.\n    Now bend thine eyes from heaven: behold and hear:\n    Rule thou the laws in righteousness and fear:\n    While I to Perses\u2019 heart would fain convey\n    The truths of knowledge which inspire my lay.\n    Two STRIFES on earth of soul divided rove:\n    The wise will this condemn and that approve:\n    Accursed the one spreads misery from afar,\n    And stirs up discord and pernicious war:\n    Men love not this: yet heaven-enforced maintain\n    The strife abhorr\u2019d, but still abhorr\u2019d in vain.\n    [28]The other elder rose from darksome night:\n    The God high-throned, who dwells in ether\u2019s light,\n    Fix\u2019d deep in earth, and centred midst mankind\n    This better strife, which fires the slothful mind.\n    The needy idler sees the rich, and hastes\n    Himself to guide the plough, and plant the wastes:\n    Ordering his household: thus the neighbour\u2019s eyes\n    Mark emulous the wealthy neighbour rise:\n    Beneficent this strife\u2019s incensing zeal:\n    The potters angry turn the forming wheel:\n    Smiths beat their anvils; [29]almsmen zealous throng,\n    And minstrels kindle with the minstrel\u2019s song.\n      Oh Perses! thou within thy secret breast\n    Repose the maxims by my care imprest;\n    Nor ever let that evil-joying strife\n    Have power to wean thee from the toils of life;\n    The whilst thy prying eyes the forum draws,\n    Thine ears the process, and the din of laws.\n    Small care be his of wrangling and debate\n    For whose ungather\u2019d food the garners wait;\n    Who wants within the summer\u2019s plenty stored,\n    Earth\u2019s kindly fruits, and Ceres\u2019 yearly hoard.\n    With these replenish\u2019d, at the brawling bar\n    For others\u2019 wealth go instigate the war.\n    But this thou mays\u2019t no more: let justice guide,\n    Best boon of heaven, and future strife decide.\n    Not so we shared [30]the patrimonial land\n    When greedy pillage fill\u2019d thy grasping hand:\n    The bribe-devouring Judges lull\u2019d by thee\n    The sentence gave and stamp\u2019d the false decree:\n    Oh fools! who know not in their selfish soul\n    How far the half is better than the whole:\n    [31]The good which asphodel and mallows yield,\n    The feast of herbs, the dainties of the field!\n    [32]The food of man in deep concealment lies:\n    The angry gods have hid it from our eyes.\n    Else had one day bestow\u2019d sufficient cheer,\n    And, though inactive, fed thee through the year.\n    Then might thy hand [33]have laid the rudder by,\n    In blackening smoke for ever hung on high;\n    Then had the labouring ox foregone the soil,\n    And patient mules had found reprieve from toil.\n    But Jove conceal\u2019d our food: incensed at heart,\n    Since [34]mock\u2019d by wise Prometheus\u2019 wily art.\n    Sore ills to man devised the heavenly Sire,\n    And hid the shining element of fire.\n    Prometheus then, benevolent of soul,\n    In hollow reed the spark recovering stole;\n    Cheering to man; and mock\u2019d the god, whose gaze\n    Serene rejoices in the lightning\u2019s blaze.\n    \u201cOh son of Japhet!\u201d with indignant heart,\n    Spake the Cloud-gatherer: \u201coh, unmatch\u2019d in art!\n    Exultest thou in this the flame retrieved,\n    And dost thou triumph in the god deceived?\n    But thou, with the posterity of man,\n    Shalt rue the fraud whence mightier ills began:\n    I will send evil for thy stealthy fire,\n    [35]An ill which all shall love, and all desire.\n      The Sire who rules the earth and sways the pole\n    Had said, and laughter fill\u2019d his secret soul:\n    He bade famed Vulcan with the speed of thought\n    Mould plastic clay with tempering waters wrought:\n    Inform with voice of man the murmuring tongue;\n    The limbs with man\u2019s elastic vigour strung;\n    The aspect fair as goddesses above,\n    A virgin\u2019s likeness with the brows of love.\n    He bade Minerva teach the skill, that sheds\n    A thousand colours in the gliding threads:\n    Bade lovely Venus breathe around her face\n    The charm of air, the witchery of grace:\n    Infuse corroding pangs of keen desire,\n    And cares that trick the form with prank\u2019d attire:\n    Bade Hermes last implant the craft refined\n    Of thievish manners and a shameless mind.\n      He gives command; th\u2019 inferior powers obey:\n    The crippled artist moulds the temper\u2019d clay:\n    By Jove\u2019s design a maid\u2019s coy image rose:\n    [36]The zone, the dress, Minerva\u2019s hands dispose:\n    Adored Persuasion, and the Graces young,\n    [37]With chains of gold her shapely person hung:\n    Round her smooth brow [38]the beauteous-tressed Hours\n    A garland twined of spring\u2019s purpureal flowers:\n    The whole, Minerva with adjusting art\n    Forms to her shape and fits to every part.\n    Last by the counsels of deep-thundering Jove,\n    The Argicide, [39]his herald from above,\n    Adds thievish manners, adds insidious lies,\n    And prattled speech of sprightly railleries:\n    Then by the wise interpreter of heaven\n    The name Pandora to the maid was given:\n    Since all in heaven conferr\u2019d their gifts to charm,\n    For man\u2019s inventive race, this beauteous harm.\n      When now the Sire had form\u2019d this mischief fair,\n    He bade heaven\u2019s messenger convey through air\n    To Epimetheus\u2019 hands th\u2019 inextricable snare:\n    Nor he recall\u2019d within his heedless thought\n    The warning lesson by Prometheus taught:\n    That he disclaim each present from the skies,\n    And straight restore, lest ill to man arise:\n    But he received; and conscious knew too late\n    Th\u2019 insidious gift, and felt the curse of fate.\n      On earth of yore the sons of men abode,\n    From evil free and labour\u2019s galling load:\n    Free from diseases that with racking rage\n    Precipitate the pale decline of age.\n    Now swift the days of manhood haste away,\n    And misery\u2019s pressure turns the temples gray.\n    The woman\u2019s hands an ample casket bear;\n    She lifts the lid; she scatters ills in air.\n    Within [40]th\u2019 unbroken vase Hope sole remained,\n    Beneath the vessel\u2019s rim from flight detained:\n    The maid, by counsels of cloud-gathering Jove,\n    The coffer seal\u2019d and dropp\u2019d the lid above.\n    Issued the rest in quick dispersion hurl\u2019d,\n    And woes innumerous roam\u2019d the breathing world:\n    With ills the land is rife, with ills the sea,\n    Diseases haunt our frail humanity:\n    Through noon, through night [41]on casual wing they glide,\n    Silent, a voice the Power all-wise denied.\n      Thus mayst thou not elude th\u2019 omniscient mind:\n    Now if thy thoughts be to my speech inclin\u2019d,\n    I in brief phrase would other lore impart\n    Wisely and well: thou, grave it on thy heart.\n      When gods alike and mortals rose to birth,\n    A golden race th\u2019 immortals form\u2019d on earth\n    Of many-languaged men: they lived of old\n    When Saturn reign\u2019d in heaven, an age of gold.\n    Like gods they lived, with calm untroubled mind;\n    Free from the toils and anguish of our kind:\n    Nor e\u2019er decrepid age mishaped their frame,\n    The hand\u2019s, the foot\u2019s proportions still the same.\n    Strangers to ill, their lives in feasts flow\u2019d by:\n    [42]Wealthy in flocks; dear to the blest on high:\n    Dying they sank in sleep, nor seem\u2019d to die.\n    Theirs was each good; the life-sustaining soil\n    Yielded its copious fruits, unbribed by toil:\n    They with abundant goods midst quiet lands\n    All willing shared the gatherings of their hands.\n      When earth\u2019s dark womb had closed this race around,\n    [43]High Jove as d\u00e6mons raised them from the ground.\n    Earth-wandering spirits they their charge began,\n    The ministers of good, and guards of man.\n    Mantled with mist of darkling air they glide,\n    And compass earth, and pass on every side:\n    And mark with earnest vigilance of eyes\n    Where just deeds live, or crooked wrongs arise:\n    [44]Their kingly state; and, delegate from heaven,\n    By their vicarious hands [45]the wealth of fields is given.\n      The gods then form\u2019d a second race of man,\n    Degenerate far; and silver years began.\n    Unlike the mortals of a golden kind:\n    Unlike in frame of limbs and mould of mind.\n    Yet still [46]a hundred years beheld the boy\n    Beneath the mother\u2019s roof, her infant joy;\n    All tender and unform\u2019d: but when the flower\n    Of manhood bloom\u2019d, it wither\u2019d in an hour.\n    Their frantic follies wrought them pain and woe:\n    Nor mutual outrage could their hands forego:\n    Nor would they serve the gods: nor altars raise\n    That in just cities shed their holy blaze.\n    Them angry Jove ingulf\u2019d; who dared refuse\n    The gods their glory and their sacred dues:\n    Yet named the second-blest in earth they lie,\n    And second honours grace their memory.\n      The Sire of heaven and earth created then\n    A race, the third of many-languaged men.\n    Unlike the silver they: of brazen mould:\n    With ashen war-spears terrible and bold:\n    Their thoughts were bent on violence alone,\n    The deeds of battle and the dying groan.\n    Bloody their feasts, with wheaten food unblest:\n    Of adamant was each unyielding breast.\n    Huge, nerved with strength each hardy giant stands,\n    And mocks approach with unresisted hands:\n    Their mansions, implements, and armour shine\n    In brass; dark iron slept within the mine.\n    They by each other\u2019s hands inglorious fell,\n    In freezing darkness plunged, the house of hell:\n    Fierce though they were, their mortal course was run;\n    Death gloomy seized, and snatch\u2019d them from the sun.\n      Them when th\u2019 abyss had cover\u2019d from the skies,\n    Lo! the fourth age on nurturing earth arise:\n    Jove form\u2019d the race a better, juster line;\n    A race of heroes and of stamp divine:\n    Lights of the age that rose before our own;\n    As demi-gods o\u2019er earth\u2019s wide regions known.\n    Yet these dread battle hurried to their end:\n    Some where the seven-fold gates of Thebes ascend:\n    The Cadmian realm: where they with fatal might\n    Strove for the flocks of \u0152dipus in fight.\n    Some war in navies led [47]to Troy\u2019s far shore;\n    O\u2019er the great space of sea their course they bore;\n    For sake of Helen with the beauteous hair:\n    And death for Helen\u2019 sake o\u2019erwhelm\u2019d them there.\n    Them on earth\u2019s utmost verge the god assign\u2019d\n    A life, a seat, distinct from human kind:\n    Beside the deepening whirlpools of the main,\n    [48]In those blest isles where Saturn holds his reign,\n    Apart from heaven\u2019s immortals: calm they share\n    A rest unsullied by the clouds of care:\n    And yearly thrice with sweet luxuriance crown\u2019d\n    Springs the ripe harvest from the teeming ground.\n      Oh would that Nature had denied me birth\n    Midst this fifth race; [49]this iron age of earth:\n    That long before within the grave I lay,\n    Or long hereafter could behold the day!\n    Corrupt the race, with toils and griefs opprest,\n    Nor day nor night can yield a pause of rest.\n    Still do the gods a weight of care bestow,\n    Though still some good is mingled with the woe.\n    Jove on this race of many-languaged man,\n    Speeds the swift ruin which but slow began:\n    [50]For scarcely spring they to the light of day\n    Ere age untimely strews their temples gray.\n    No fathers in the sons their features trace:\n    The sons reflect no more the father\u2019s face:\n    The host with kindness greets his guest no more,\n    And friends and brethren love not as of yore.\n    Reckless of heaven\u2019s revenge, the sons behold\n    The hoary parents wax too swiftly old:\n    And impious point the keen dishonouring tongue\n    With hard reproofs and bitter mockeries hung:\n    Nor grateful in declining age repay\n    The nurturing fondness of their better day.\n    [51]Now man\u2019s right hand is law: for spoil they wait,\n    And lay their mutual cities desolate:\n    Unhonour\u2019d he, by whom his oath is fear\u2019d,\n    Nor are the good beloved, the just revered.\n    With favour graced the evil-doer stands,\n    Nor curbs with shame nor equity his hands:\n    With crooked slanders wounds the virtuous man,\n    And stamps with perjury what hate began.\n    Lo! ill-rejoicing Envy, wing\u2019d with lies,\n    Scattering calumnious rumours as she flies,\n    The steps of miserable men pursue\n    With haggard aspect, blasting to the view.\n    Till those fair forms in snowy raiment bright\n    [52]Leave the broad earth and heaven-ward soar from sight:\n    Justice and Modesty from mortals driven,\n    Rise to th\u2019 immortal family of heaven:\n    Dread sorrows to forsaken man remain;\n    No cure of ills: no remedy of pain.\n    [53]Now unto kings I frame the fabling song,\n    However wisdom unto kings belong.\n    A stooping hawk, crook-talon\u2019d, from the vale\n    Bore in his pounce [54]a neck-streak\u2019d nightingale,\n    And snatch\u2019d among the clouds: beneath the stroke\n    This piteous shriek\u2019d, and that imperious spoke:\n    \u201cWretch! why these screams? a stronger holds thee now:\n    Where\u2019er I shape my course a captive thou,\n    Maugre thy song, must company my way:\n    I rend my banquet or I loose my prey.\n    Senseless is he who dares with power contend:\n    Defeat, rebuke, despair shall be his end.\u201d\n      The swift hawk spake, with wings spread wide in air;\n    But thou to justice cleave, and wrong forbear.\n    Wrong, if he yield to its abhorr\u2019d controul,\n    Shall pierce like iron in the poor man\u2019s soul:\n    Wrong weighs the rich man\u2019s conscience to the dust,\n    When his foot stumbles on the way unjust:\n    Far diff\u2019rent is the path; a path of light,\n    That guides the feet to equitable right.\n    The end of righteousness, enduring long,\n    Exceeds the short prosperity of wrong.\n    [55]The fool by suffering his experience buys;\n    The penalty of folly makes him wise.\n      With crooked judgments, lo! the oath\u2019s dread God\n    Avenging runs, and tracks them where they trod:\n    Rough are the ways of Justice as the sea;\n    Dragg\u2019d to and fro by men\u2019s corrupt decree:\n    Bribe-pamper\u2019d men! whose hands perverting draw\n    The right aside, and warp the wrested law.\n    Though, while corruption on their sentence waits,\n    They thrust pale Justice from their haughty gates;\n    Invisible their steps the virgin treads,\n    And musters evils o\u2019er their sinful heads.\n    She with the dark of air her form arrays\n    And [56]walks in awful grief the city-ways:\n    Her wail is heard, her tear upbraiding falls\n    [57]O\u2019er their stain\u2019d manners, their devoted walls.\n      But they who never from the right have stray\u2019d,\n    Who as the citizen the stranger aid;\n    [58]They and their cities flourish: genial Peace\n    Dwells in their borders, and their youth increase:\n    Nor Jove, whose radiant eyes behold afar,\n    Hangs forth in heaven the signs of grievous war.\n    Nor scathe nor famine on the righteous prey;\n    Feasts, strewn by earth, employ their easy day:\n    Rich are their mountain oaks: the topmost trees\n    With clustering acorns full, the trunks with hiving bees.\n    Burthen\u2019d with fleece their panting flocks: the race\n    Of woman soft [59]reflects the father\u2019s face:\n    Still flourish they, nor tempt with ships the main;\n    The fruits of earth are pour\u2019d from every plain.\n      But o\u2019er the wicked race, to whom belong\n    The thought of evil, and the deed of wrong,\n    Saturnian Jove of wide-beholding eyes\n    Bids the dark signs of retribution rise:\n    And oft the crimes of one destructive fall:\n    The crimes of one are visited on all.\n    The god sends down his angry plagues from high,\n    Famine and pestilence: in heaps they die.\n    He smites with barrenness the marriage-bed,\n    And generations moulder with the dead:\n    Again in vengeance of his wrath he falls\n    On their great hosts, and breaks their tottering walls:\n    Arrests their navies on the ocean\u2019s plain,\n    And whelms their strength with mountains of the main.\n      Ponder, oh judges! in your inmost thought\n    The retribution by his vengeance wrought.\n    Invisible, the gods are ever nigh,\n    Pass through the midst, and bend th\u2019 all-seeing eye:\n    The men who grind the poor, who wrest the right,\n    Awless of heaven\u2019s revenge, stand naked to their sight.\n    For thrice ten thousand [60]holy demons rove\n    This breathing world, the delegates of Jove.\n    Guardians of man, [61]their glance alike surveys\n    The upright judgments and th\u2019 unrighteous ways.\n    A virgin pure is Justice: and her birth,\n    August, from him who rules the heavens and earth:\n    A creature glorious to the gods on high,\n    Whose mansion is yon everlasting sky.\n    Driven by despiteful wrong she takes her seat\n    In lowly grief at Jove\u2019s eternal feet.\n    There of the soul unjust her plaints ascend:\n    [62]So rue the nations when their kings offend:\n    When uttering wiles and brooding thoughts of ill,\n    They bend the laws and wrest them to their will.\n    Oh gorged with gold! ye kingly judges hear!\n    Make straight your paths: your crooked judgments fear:\n    That the foul record may no more be seen,\n    Erased, forgotten, as it ne\u2019er had been!\n      He wounds himself that aims another\u2019s wound:\n    His evil counsels on himself rebound.\n    Jove at his awful pleasure looks from high\n    With all-discerning and all-knowing eye;\n    Nor hidden from its ken what injured right\n    Within the city-walls eludes the light.\n    Or oh! if evil wait the righteous deed,\n    If thus the wicked gain the righteous meed,\n    Then may not I, nor yet my son remain\n    In this our generation just in vain!\n    But sure my hope, not this doth Heaven approve,\n    Not this the work of thunder-darting Jove.\n      Deep let my words, oh Perses! graven be:\n    Hear Justice, and renounce th\u2019 oppressor\u2019s plea:\n    This law the wisdom of the god assign\u2019d\n    To human race and to the bestial kind:\n    To birds of air and fishes of the wave,\n    And beasts of earth, devouring instinct gave\n    In them no justice lives: he bade be known\n    This better sense to reasoning man alone.\n    Who from the seat of judgment shall impart\n    The truths of knowledge utter\u2019d from his heart;\n    On him the god of all-discerning eye\n    [63]Pours down the treasures of felicity.\n    Who sins against the right, his wilful tongue\n    With perjuries of lying witness hung;\n    Lo! he is hurt beyond the hope of cure:\n    Dark is his race, nor shall his name endure.\n    Who fears his oath shall leave a name to shine\n    With brightening lustre through his latest line.\n      Most foolish Perses! let the truths I tell,\n    Which spring from knowledge, in thy bosom dwell:\n    Lo! wickednesses rife in troops appear;\n    [64]Smooth is the track of vice, the mansion near:\n    On virtue\u2019s path delays and perils grow:\n    The gods have placed before [65]the sweat that bathes the brow:\n    And ere the foot can reach her high abode,\n    Long, rugged, steep th\u2019 ascent, and rough the road.\n    The ridge once gain\u2019d, the path so rude of late\n    Runs easy on, and level to the gate.\n      Far best is he whom conscious wisdom guides;\n    Who first and last the right and fit decides:\n    He too is good, that [66]to the wiser friend\n    His docile reason can submissive bend:\n    But worthless he that reason\u2019s voice defies,\n    Nor wise himself, nor duteous to the wise.\n      But thou, oh Perses! what my words impart\n    Let mem\u2019ry bind for ever on thy heart.\n    [67]Oh son of Dios! labour evermore,\n    That hunger turn abhorrent from thy door;\n    That Ceres blest, with spiky garland crown\u2019d,\n    Greet thee with love and bid thy barns abound.\n    [68]Still on the sluggard hungry want attends,\n    The scorn of man, the hate of heaven impends:\n    While he, averse from labour, drags his days,\n    Yet greedy on the gain of others preys:\n    Even as the stingless drones devouring seize\n    With glutted sloth the harvest of the bees.\n      Love ev\u2019ry seemly toil, that so the store\n    Of foodful seasons heap thy garner\u2019s floor.\n    From labour men returns of wealth behold;\n    Flocks in their fields and in their coffers gold:\n    From labour shalt thou with the love be blest\n    Of men and gods; the slothful they detest.\n    Not toil, but sloth shall ignominious be;\n    Toil, and the slothful man shall envy thee;\n    Shall view thy growing wealth with alter\u2019d sense,\n    For glory, virtue walk with opulence.\n    Thou, like a god, since labour still is found\n    The better part, shalt live belov\u2019d, renown\u2019d;\n    If, as I counsel, thou thy witless mind,\n    Though weak and empty as the veering wind,\n    From others\u2019 coveted possessions turn\u2019d,\n    To thrift compel, and food by labour earn\u2019d.\n    [69]Shame, which our aid or injury we find,\n    Shame to the needy clings of evil kind;\n    Shame to low indigence declining tends:\n    Bold zeal to wealth\u2019s proud pinnacle ascends.\n    [70]But shun extorted riches; oh far best\n    The heaven-sent wealth without reproach possest.\n    Whoe\u2019er shall mines of hoarded gold command,\n    By fraudful tongue or by rapacious hand;\n    As oft betides when lucre lights the flame,\n    And shamelessness expels the better shame;\n    Him shall the god cast down, in darkness hurl\u2019d,\n    His name, his offspring wasted from the world:\n    The goods for which he pawn\u2019d his soul decay,\n    The breath and shining bubble of a day.\n      Alike the man of sin is he confest,\n    [71]Who spurns the suppliant and who wrongs the guest;\n    Who climbs, by lure of stolen embraces led,\n    With ill-timed act, a brother\u2019s marriage bed;\n    Who dares by crafty wickedness abuse\n    His trust, and robs the orphans of their dues;\n    Who, on the threshold of afflictive age,\n    His hoary parent stings with taunting rage:\n    On him shall Jove in anger look from high,\n    And deep requite the dark iniquity:\n    But wholly thou from these refrain thy mind,\n    Weak as it is, and wavering as the wind.\n      With thy best means perform the ritual part,\n    Outwardly pure and spotless at the heart,\n    And on thy altar let unblemish\u2019d thighs\n    In fragrant savour to th\u2019 immortals rise.\n    Or thou in other sort may\u2019st well dispense\n    Wine-offerings and the smoke of frankincense,\n    Ere on the nightly couch thy limbs be laid;\n    Or when the stars from sacred sun-rise fade.\n    So shall thy piety accepted move\n    Their heavenly natures to propitious love:\n    Ne\u2019er shall thy heritage divided be,\n    But others part their heritage to thee.\n      Let friends oft bidden to thy feast repair;\n    Let not a foe the social moment share.\n    Chief to thy open board the neighbour call:\n    When, unforeseen, domestic troubles fall,\n    The neighbour runs ungirded; kinsmen wait,\n    And, lingering for their raiment, hasten late.\n    As the good neighbour is our prop and stay,\n    So is the bad a pit-fall in our way.\n    Thus blest or curs\u2019d, we this or that obtain,\n    The first a blessing and the last a bane.\n    How should thine ox by chance untimely die?\n    The evil neighbour looks and passes by.\n    [72]If aught thou borrowest, well the measure weigh;\n    The same good measure to thy friend repay,\n    Or more, if more thou canst, unask\u2019d concede,\n    So shall he prompt supply thy future need.\n    Usurious gains avoid; usurious gain,\n    Equivalent to loss, will prove thy bane.\n    [73]Who loves thee, love; him woo that friendly wooes:\n    Give to the giver, but to him refuse\n    That giveth not; their gifts the generous earn;\n    But none bestows where never is return.\n    Munificence is blest: by heaven accurst\n    Extortion, of death-dealing plagues the worst.\n    Who bounteous gives though large his bounty flow,\n    Shall feel his heart with inward rapture glow:\n    Th\u2019 extortioner of bold unblushing sin,\n    Though small the plunder, feels a thorn within.\n      If with a little thou a little blend\n    Continual, mighty shall the heap ascend.\n    Who bids his gather\u2019d substance gradual grow\n    Shall see not livid hunger\u2019s face of woe.\n    No bosom-pang attends the home-laid store,\n    But rife with loss the food without thy door:\n    \u2019Tis good to take from hoards, and pain to need\n    What is far from thee: give the precept heed.\n      When broach\u2019d or at the lees, no care be thine\n    To save the cask, but [74]spare the middle wine.\n      To him the friend that serves thee glad dispense\n    With bounteous hand the meed of recompense.\n      Not on a brother\u2019s plighted word rely,\n    But, [75]as in laughter, set a witness by;\n    Mistrust destroys us and credulity.\n      Let no fair woman tempt thy sliding mind\n    [76]With garment gather\u2019d in a knot behind;\n    She [77]prattling with gay speech inquires thy home;\n    But trust a woman, and a thief is come.\n      One only son his father\u2019s house may tend,\n    And e\u2019en with one domestic hoards ascend:\n    Then mayst thou leave a second son behind:\n    For many sons from heaven shall wealth obtain;\n    The care is greater, greater is the gain.\n      Do thus: if riches be thy soul\u2019s desire,\n    By toils on toils to this thy hope aspire.\n\n\nII.\n\n      When, Atlas-born, the Pleiad stars [78]arise\n    Before the sun above the dawning skies,\n    \u2019Tis time to reap; and when they sink below\n    The morn-illumined west, [79]\u2019tis time to sow.\n    Know too they set, immerged into the sun,\n    While forty days entire their circle run;\n    And with the lapse of the revolving year,\n    When sharpen\u2019d is the sickle, re-appear.\n    Law of the fields, and known to every swain\n    Who turns the fallow soil beside the main;\n    Or who, remote from billowy ocean\u2019s gales,\n    Tills the rich glebe of inland-winding vales.\n    [80]Plough naked still, and naked sow the soil,\n    And naked reap; if kindly to thy toil\n    Thou hope to gather all that Ceres yields,\n    And view thy crops in season crown the fields;\n    Lest thou to strangers\u2019 gates penurious rove,\n    And every needy effort fruitless prove:\n    E\u2019en as to me thou cam\u2019st; but hope no more\n    That I shall give or lend thee of my store.\n    Oh foolish Perses! be the labours thine\n    Which the good gods to earthly man assign;\n    Lest with thy spouse, thy babes, thou vagrant ply,\n    And sorrowing crave those alms which all deny.\n    Twice may thy plaints benignant favour gain,\n    And haply thrice may not be pour\u2019d in vain;\n    If still persisting plead thy wearying prayer,\n    Thy words are nought, thy eloquence is air.\n    Did exhortation move, the thought should be,\n    From debt releasement, days from hunger free.\n      A house, a woman, and a steer provide,\n    Thy slave to tend the cows, but not thy bride.\n    Within let all fit implements abound,\n    Lest with refused entreaty wandering round,\n    Thy wants still press, the season glide away,\n    And thou with scanted labour mourn the day.\n    Thy task defer not till the morn arise,\n    Or the third sun th\u2019 unfinish\u2019d work surprise.\n    [81]The idler never shall his garners fill,\n    Nor he that still defers and lingers still.\n    Lo! diligence can prosper every toil;\n    The loiterer strives with loss and execrates the soil.\n      When rests the keen strength of th\u2019 o\u2019erpowering sun\n    From heat that made the pores in rivers run;\n    When rushes in fresh rains autumnal Jove,\n    And man\u2019s unburthen\u2019d limbs now lightlier move;\n    For now the star of day with transient light\n    Rolls o\u2019er our heads and joys in longer night;\n    When from the worm the forest boles are sound,\n    [82]Trees bud no more, but earthward cast around\n    Their withering foliage, then remember well\n    The timely labour, and thy timber fell.\n      Hew from the wood [83]a mortar of three feet;\n    Three cubits may the pestle\u2019s length complete:\n    Seven feet the fittest axle-tree extends;\n    If eight the log, the eighth a mallet lends.\n    Cleave many curved blocks thy wheel to round,\n    And let three spans its outmost orbit bound;\n    Whereon slow-rolling thy suspended wain,\n    Ten spans in breadth, may traverse firm the plain.\n      If hill or field supply a holm-oak bough\n    [84]Of bending figure like the downward plough,\n    Bear it away: this durable remains\n    While the strong steers in ridges cleave the plains:\n    If with firm nails [85]thy artist join the whole,\n    Affix the share-beam, and adapt the pole.\n      Two ploughs provide, on household works intent,\n    This art-compacted, that of native bent:\n    A prudent fore-thought: one may crashing fail,\n    The other, instant yoked, shall prompt avail.\n    Of elm or bay the draught-pole firm endures,\n    The plough-tail holm, the share-beam oak secures.\n      Two males procure: be nine their sum of years:\n    Then hale and strong for toil the sturdy steers:\n    Nor shall they headstrong-struggling spurn the soil,\n    And snap the plough and mar th\u2019 unfinish\u2019d toil.\n    In forty\u2019s prime thy ploughman: one [86]with bread\n    Of four-squared loaf in double portions fed.\n    He steadily shall cut the furrow true,\n    Nor towards his fellows glance a rambling view:\n    Still on his task intent: a stripling throws\n    Heedless the seed, and in one furrow strows\n    The lavish handful twice: while wistful stray\n    His longing thoughts to comrades far away.\n      Mark yearly when among the clouds on high\n    Thou hear\u2019st [87]the shrill crane\u2019s migratory cry,\n    [88]Of ploughing-time the sign and wintry rains:\n    Care gnaws his heart who destitute remains\n    Of the fit yoke: for then the season falls\n    To feed thy horned steers within their stalls.\n    Easy to speak the word, \u201cbeseech thee friend!\n    Thy waggon and thy yoke of oxen lend:\u201d\n    Easy the prompt refusal; \u201cnay, but I\n    Have need of oxen, and their work is nigh.\u201d\n    [89]Rich in his own conceit, he then too late\n    May think to rear the waggon\u2019s timber\u2019d weight:\n    Fool! nor yet knows the complicated frame\n    A hundred season\u2019d blocks may fitly claim:\n    [90]These let thy timely care provide before,\n    And pile beneath thy roof the ready store.\n      Improve the season: to the plough apply\n    Both thou and thine; and toil in wet and dry:\n    Haste to the field with break of glimmering morn,\n    That so thy grounds may wave with thickening corn.\n      In spring upturn the glebe: and break again\n    With summer tilth the iterated plain,\n    It shall not mock thy hopes: be last thy toil,\n    Raised in light ridge, to sow the fallow\u2019d soil:\n    The fallow\u2019d soil bids execration fly,\n    And brightens with content the infant\u2019s eye.\n    [91]Jove subterrene, chaste Ceres claim thy vow,\n    When grasping first the handle of the plough,\n    O\u2019er thy broad oxen\u2019s backs thy quickening hand\n    With lifted stroke lets fall the goading wand;\n    Whilst yoked and harness\u2019d by the fastening thong,\n    They slowly drag the draught-pole\u2019s length along.\n    So shall the sacred gifts of earth appear,\n    And ripe luxuriance clothe the plenteous ear.\n      A boy should tread thy steps: with rake o\u2019erlay\n    The buried seed, [92]and scare the birds away:\n    (Good is the apt \u0153conomy of things\n    While evil management its mischief brings:)\n    Thus, if a\u00ebrial Jove thy cares befriend,\n    And crown thy tillage with a prosperous end,\n    Shall the rich ear in fulness of its grain\n    Nod on the stalk and bend it to the plain.\n    So shalt thou sweep the spider\u2019s films away,\n    That round thy hollow bins lie hid from day:\n    I ween, rejoicing in the foodful stores\n    Obtain\u2019d at length, and laid within thy doors:\n    For plenteousness shall glad thee through the year\n    Till the white blossoms of the spring appear:\n    [93]Nor thou on others\u2019 heaps a gazer be,\n    But others owe their borrow\u2019d store to thee.\n      If, ill-advised, thou turn the genial plains\n    His wintry tropic when the sun attains;\n    Thou, then, may\u2019st reap, and idle sit between:\n    Mocking thy gripe the meagre stalks are seen:\n    Whilst, little joyful, gather\u2019st thou in bands\n    The corn whose chaffy dust bestrews thy hands.\n    In one scant basket shall thy harvest lie,\n    [94]And few shall pass thee, then, with honouring eye.\n    Now thus, now otherwise is Jove\u2019s design;\n    To men inscrutable the ways divine:\n    But if thou late upturn the furrow\u2019d field,\n    One happy chance a remedy may yield.\n    O\u2019er the wide earth when men the cuckoo hear\n    From spreading oak-leaves first delight their ear,\n    Three days and nights let heaven in ceaseless rains\n    Deep as thy ox\u2019s hoof o\u2019erflow the plains;\n    So shall an equal crop thy time repair\n    With his who earlier launch\u2019d the shining share.\n    Lay all to heart: nor let the blossom\u2019d hours\n    Of spring escape thee; nor the timely showers.\n      Pass by [95]the brazier\u2019s forge where loiterers meet,\n    Nor saunter in the portico\u2019s throng\u2019d heat;\n    When in the wintry season rigid cold\n    Invades the limbs and binds them in its hold.\n    Lo! then th\u2019 industrious man with thriving store\n    Improves his household management the more:\n    And this do thou: lest intricate distress\n    Of winter seize, and needy cares oppress:\n    Lest, famine-smitten, thou, at length, be seen\n    [96]To gripe thy tumid foot with hand from hunger lean.\n    Pampering his empty hopes, yet needing food,\n    On ill designs behold the idler brood:\n    Sit in the crowded portico and feed\n    On that ill hope, while starving with his need.\n    Thou in mid-summer to thy labourers cry,\n    [97]\u201cMake now your nests,\u201d for summer hours will fly.\n      Beware the January month: beware\n    Those hurtful days, that keenly piercing air\n    Which flays the herds; [98]those frosts that bitter sheathe\n    The nipping air and glaze the ground beneath.\n    From Thracia, nurse of steeds, comes rushing forth,\n    O\u2019er the broad sea, the whirlwind of the north,\n    And moves it with his breath: then howl the shores\n    Of earth, and long and loud the forest roars.\n    He lays the oaks of lofty foliage low,\n    Tears the thick pine-trees from the mountains brow\n    And strews the vallies with their overthrow.\n    He stoops to earth; shrill swells the storm around,\n    And all the vast wood rolls a deeper roar of sound.\n    The beasts their cowering tails with trembling fold,\n    And shrink and shudder at the gusty cold.\n    Thick is the hairy coat, the shaggy skin,\n    But that all-chilling breath shall pierce within.\n    Not his rough hide can then the ox avail:\n    The long-hair\u2019d goat defenceless feels the gale:\n    Yet vain the north-wind\u2019s rushing strength to wound\n    The flock, with thickening fleeces fenced around.\n    He bows the old man, crook\u2019d beneath the storm;\n    But spares the smooth-skin\u2019d virgin\u2019s tender form.\n    [99]Yet from bland Venus\u2019 mystic rites aloof,\n    She safe abides beneath her mother\u2019s roof:\n    The suppling waters of the bath she swims,\n    [100]With shining ointment sleeks her dainty limbs:\n    In her soft chamber pillow\u2019d to repose,\n    While through the wintry nights the tempest blows.\n    [101]Now gnaws the boneless polypus his feet;\n    Starved midst bleak rocks, his desolate retreat:\n    For now no more the sun with gleaming ray\n    Through seas transparent lights him to his prey.\n    O\u2019er the swarth \u00c6thiop rolls his bright career,\n    And slowly gilds the Grecian hemisphere.\n    And now the horned and unhorned kind\n    Whose lair is in the wood, sore-famish\u2019d grind\n    Their sounding jaws, and froz\u2019n and quaking fly\n    Where oaks the mountain dells imbranch on high:\n    They seek to couch in thickets of the glen,\n    Or lurk deep-shelter\u2019d in the rocky den.\n    [102]Like aged men who, prop\u2019d on crutches, tread\n    Tottering with broken strength and stooping head,\n    So move the beasts of earth; and creeping low\n    Shun the white flakes and dread the drifting snow.\n      I warn thee, now, around thy body cast,\n    A thick defence, and covering from the blast:\n    Let the soft cloak its woolly warmth bestow:\n    The under-tunic to thy ankle flow:\n    [103]On a scant warp a woof abundant weave;\n    Thus warmly wov\u2019n the mantling cloak receive:\n    Nor shall thy limbs beneath its ample fold\n    With bristling hairs start shivering to the cold.\n    Shoes from the hide of [104]a strong-dying ox\n    Bind round thy feet; lined thick with woollen socks:\n    [105]And kid-skins \u2019gainst the rigid season sew\n    With sinew of the bull, and sheltering throw\n    Athwart thy shoulders when the rains impend;\n    And let [106]a well-wrought cap thy head defend,\n    And screen thine ears, while drenching showers descend.\n      Bleak is the morn, when blows the north from high;\n    Oft when the dawnlight paints the starry sky,\n    A misty cloud suspended hovers o\u2019er\n    Heaven\u2019s blessed earth with fertilizing store\n    Drain\u2019d from the living streams: aloft in air\n    The whirling winds the buoyant vapour bear,\n    Resolved at eve in rain or gusty cold,\n    As by the north the troubled rack is roll\u2019d.\n    Preventing this, the labour of the day\n    Accomplish\u2019d, homeward bend thy hastening way:\n    Lest the dark cloud, with whelming rush deprest,\n    Drench thy cold limbs and soak thy dripping vest.\n      This winter-month with prudent caution fear:\n    Severe to flocks, nor less to men severe:\n    Feed thy keen husbandman with larger bread:\n    With half their provender thy steers be fed:\n    Them rest assists: the night\u2019s protracted length\n    Recruits their vigour and supplies their strength.\n    This rule observe, while still the various earth\n    Gives every fruit and kindly seedling birth:\n    Still to the toil proportionate the cheer,\n    The day to night, and equalize the year.\n      When from [107]the wintry tropic of the sun\n    Full sixty days their finish\u2019d round have run,\n    Lo! then the sacred deep Arcturus leave,\n    First whole-apparent on the verge of eve.\n    Through the grey dawn the swallow lifts her wing,\n    Morn-plaining bird, the harbinger of spring.\n      Anticipate the time: the care be thine\n    An earlier day to prune the shooting vine.\n    When the house-bearing snail is slowly found\n    To shun the Pleiad heats that scorch the ground,\n    And climb the plant\u2019s tall stem, insist no more\n    To dress the vine, but give the vineyard o\u2019er.\n    Whet the keen sickle, hasten every swain,\n    From shady booths, from morning sleep refrain;\n    Now, in the fervour of the harvest-day,\n    When the strong sun dissolves the frame away:\n    Now haste a-field: now bind thy sheafy corn,\n    And earn thy food by rising with the morn.\n    Lo! the third portion of thy labour\u2019s cares\n    The early morn anticipating shares:\n    In early morn the labour swiftly wastes:\n    In early morn the speeded journey hastes;\n    The time when many a traveller tracks the plain,\n    And the yoked oxen bend them to the wain.\n    When [108]the green artichoke ascending flowers,\n    When, in the sultry season\u2019s toilsome hours,\n    Perch\u2019d on a branch, beneath his veiling wings\n    [109]The loud cicada shrill and frequent sings:\n    [110]Then the plump goat a savoury food bestows,\n    The poignant wine in mellowest flavour flows:\n    Wanton the blood then bounds in woman\u2019s veins,\n    [111]But weak of man the heat-enfeebled reins:\n    Full on his brain descends the solar flame\n    Unnerves the languid knees, and all the frame\n    Exhaustive dries away: oh then be thine\n    To sit in shade of rocks; with [112]Byblian wine,\n    And goat\u2019s milk, stinted from the kid, to slake\n    Thy thirst, and eat the shepherd\u2019s creamy cake;\n    The flesh of new-dropt kids and youngling cows,\n    That, never teeming, cropp\u2019d the forest browse.\n    With dainty food so saturate thy soul,\n    And drink the wine dark-mantling in the bowl:\n    While in the cool and breezy gloom reclined\n    Thy face is turn\u2019d to catch the breathing wind;\n    And feel the freshening brook, whose living stream\n    Glides at thy foot with clear and sparkling gleam:\n    Three parts its waters in thy cup should flow,\n    The fourth with brimming wine may mingled glow.\n      When first [113]Orion\u2019s beamy strength is born,\n    Let then thy labourers thresh the sacred corn:\n    Smooth be the level floor, [114]on gusty ground,\n    Where winnowing gales may sweep in eddies round.\n    Hoard in thy ample bins the meted grain:\n    And now, as I advise, [115]thy hireling swain\n    From forth thy house dismiss, when all the store\n    Of kindly food is laid within thy door:\n    And to thy service let a female come;\n    But childless, for a child were burthensome.\n    [116]Keep, too, a sharp-tooth\u2019d dog, nor thrifty spare\n    To feed his fierceness high with generous fare:\n    Lest the day-slumbering thief thy nightly door\n    Wakeful besiege, and pilfer from thy store.\n    For ox and mule the yearly fodder lay\n    Within thy loft; the heapy straw and hay:\n    This care dispatch\u2019d, refresh the bending knees\n    Of thy tired hinds, and give thy unyoked oxen ease.\n      When Sirius and Orion the mid-sky\n    Ascend, and [117]on Arcturus looks from high\n    The rosy-finger\u2019d morn, the vintage calls:\n    Then bear the gather\u2019d grapes within thy walls.\n    Ten days and nights exposed the clusters lay\n    Bask\u2019d in the lustre of each mellowing day:\n    Let five their circling round successive run,\n    Whilst lie thy frails o\u2019ershaded from the sun:\n    The sixth in vats the gifts of Bacchus press;\n    Of Bacchus gladdening earth with store of pleasantness.\n      But when beneath the skies [118]on morning\u2019s brink\n    The Pleiads, Hyads, and Orion sink;\n    Know then the ploughing and the seed-time near:\n    Thus well-disposed shall glide thy rustic year.\n      But if thy breast with nautical desire\n    The perilous deep\u2019s uncertain gains inspire,\n    When chased by strong Orion down the heaven\n    Sink the seven stars in gloomy ocean driven;\n    [119]Then varying winds in gustful eddies roar:\n    Then to [120]black ocean trust thy ships no more:\n    But heedful care to this my caution yield,\n    And, as I bid thee, labour safe the field.\n    Hale on firm land the ship: with stones made fast\n    Against the staggering force of humid-blowing blast:\n    Draw from its keel the peg, lest rotting rain\n    Suck\u2019d in the hollow of the hold remain:\n    Within thy house the tackling order\u2019d be.\n    And furl thy vessel\u2019s wings that skimm\u2019d the sea:\n    The well-framed rudder in the smoke suspend,\n    And calm and navigable seas attend.\n    Then launch the rapid bark: fit cargo load,\n    And freighted rich repass the liquid road.\n    Oh witness Perses! thus for honest gain,\n    Thus did our mutual father plough the main.\n    Erst, from \u00c6olian Cuma\u2019s distant shore,\n    Hither in sable ship his course he bore;\n    Through the wide seas his venturous way he took;\n    No rich revenues; prosperous ease forsook:\n    His wandering course from poverty began,\n    The visitation sent from heaven to man:\n    Ascra\u2019s sad hamlet he his dwelling chose\n    Where nigh impending Helicon arose:\n    [121]In summer irksome and in winter drear,\n    Nor ever genial through the joyless year.\n      Each labour, Perses! let the seasons guide:\n    But o\u2019er thy navigation chief preside:\n    [122]Decline a slender bark: intrust thy freight\n    To the strong vessel of a larger rate:\n    The larger cargo doubles every gain,\n    Let but the winds their adverse blasts restrain.\n    If thy rash thoughts on merchandise be placed,\n    Lest debts ensnare or joyless hunger waste,\n    Learn now the courses of the roaring sea,\n    Though ships and voyages are strange to me.\n    Ne\u2019er [123]o\u2019er the sea\u2019s broad way my course I bore\n    Save once from Aulis to th\u2019 Eub\u0153an shore:\n    From Aulis, where the Greeks in days of yore,\n    The winds awaiting, kept the harbouring shore:\n    From sacred Greece a mighty army there\n    Lay bound for Troy, wide famed for women fair.\n    I pass\u2019d to Chalcis, where around the grave\n    Of king Amphidamus, in combat brave,\n    His valiant sons had solemn games decreed,\n    And heralds loud proclaim\u2019d full many a meed:\n    There, let me boast, that victor in the lay\n    I bore a tripod ear\u2019d, my prize, away:\n    This to the maids of Helicon I vow\u2019d\n    [124]Where first their tuneful inspiration flow\u2019d.\n    Thus far in ships does my experience rise;\n    Yet bold I speak the wisdom of the skies;\n    Th\u2019 inspiring Muses to my lips have given\n    The lore of song, and strains that breathe of heaven.\n    [125]When from the summer-tropic fifty days\n    Have roll\u2019d, when summer\u2019s time of toil decays:\n    Then is the season fair to spread the sail:\n    Nor then thy ship shall founder in the gale\n    And seas o\u2019erwhelm the crew: unless the Power,\n    Who shakes the shores with waves, have will\u2019d their mortal hour:\n    Or he th\u2019 immortals\u2019 king require their breath,\n    Whose hands the issues hold of life and death\n    For good and evil men: but now the seas\n    Are dangerless, and clear the calmy breeze.\n    Then trust the winds, and let thy vessel sweep\n    With all her freight the level of the deep.\n    But rapidly retrace thy homeward way\n    Nor till the season of new wine delay:\n    Late autumn\u2019s torrent showers: bleak winter\u2019s sweep:\n    The south-blast ruffling strong the tossing deep:\n    When air comes rushing in autumnal rain,\n    And curls with many a ridge the troubled main.\n    [126]Men, too, may sail in spring: when first the crow\n    Imprinting with light steps the sands below,\n    As many thinly-scatter\u2019d leaves are seen\n    To clothe the fig-tree\u2019s top with tender green.\n    This vernal voyage practicable seems,\n    And pervious are the boundless ocean-streams:\n    I praise it not: for thou with anxious mind\n    Must hasty snatch th\u2019 occasion of the wind.\n    The drear event may baffle all thy care;\n    Yet thus, even thus, will human folly dare.\n    Of wretched mortals lo! the soul is gain:\n    But death is dreadful midst the whelming main.\n    These counsels lay to heart; and, warn\u2019d by me,\n    Trust not thy whole precarious wealth to sea,\n    Tost in the hollow keel: a portion send;\n    Thy larger substance let the shore defend.\n    Wretched the losses of the ocean fall,\n    When on a fragile plank embark\u2019d thy all:\n    And wretched when thy sheaves o\u2019erload the wain,\n    And the crash\u2019d axle spoils the scatter\u2019d grain.\n    The golden mean of conduct should confine\n    Our every aim; be moderation thine.\n      Take to thy house a woman for thy bride\n    When in the ripeness of thy manhood\u2019s pride:\n    Thrice ten thy sum of years; the nuptial prime;\n    Nor fall far short, nor far exceed the time.\n    Four years the ripening virgin should consume,\n    [127]And wed the fifth of her expanded bloom.\n    A virgin choose: and mould her manners chaste:\n    Chief be some neighbouring maid by thee embraced:\n    Look circumspect and long: lest thou be found\n    The merry mock of all the dwellers round.\n    No better lot has Providence assign\u2019d\n    Than a fair woman with a virtuous mind:\n    Nor can a worse befall, then when thy fate\n    Allots a worthless, feast-contriving mate:\n    She, with no torch of mere material flame,\n    Shall burn to tinder thy care-wasted frame:\n    [128]Shall send a fire thy vigorous bones within,\n    And age unripe in bloom of years begin.\n      Th\u2019 unsleeping vengeance heed of heaven on high.\u2014\n    None as a friend should with a brother vie:\n    But if like him thou hold another dear,\n    Let no offences on thy side appear:\n    [129]Nor lie with idle tongue: if he begin\n    Offence of word and deed, [130]chastise his sin\n    Once for each act and word; but if he grieve,\n    And make atonement, straight his love receive:\n    Wretched! his friends who changes to and fro!\n    Let not thy face thy mind\u2019s deep secrets show.\n    Be not the host of many nor of none:\n    The good revile not, and the wicked shun.\n    [131]Rebuke not want, that wastes the spirit dry;\n    It is the gift of blessed gods on high.\n    [132]Lo! the best treasure is a frugal tongue:\n    The lips of moderate speech with grace are hung:\n    The evil-speaker shall perpetual fear\n    Return of evil ringing in his ear.\n    [133]When many guests combine in common fare\n    Be not morose nor grudge thy liberal share:\n    When all contributing the feast unite,\n    Great is the pleasure and the cost is light.\n      When the libation of the morn demands\n    The sable wine, forbear with unwash\u2019d hands\n    To lift the cup: with ear averted Jove\n    Shall spurn thy prayer, and every god above.\n      Forbear to let your water flow away\n    Turn\u2019d upright tow\u2019rds the sun\u2019s all-seeing ray:\n    E\u2019en when his splendour sets, till morn has glow\u2019d\n    Take heed; nor sprinkle, as you walk, the road,\n    Nor the road-side; nor bare affront the sight;\n    For there are gods who watch and guard the night.\n    The holy man discreet sits decently,\n    And to some sheep-fold\u2019s fenced wall draws nigh.\n      From rites of love unclean the hearth forbear,\n    Nor sit beside ungirt, for household gods are there.\n      Leave not the funeral feast to sow thy race;\n    From the gods\u2019 banquet seek thy bride\u2019s embrace.\n      Whene\u2019er thy feet the river-ford essay,\n    Whose flowing current winds its limpid way,\n    Thy hands amidst the pleasant waters lave,\n    And lowly gazing on the beauteous wave\n    Appease the river-god: if thou perverse\n    Pass with unsprinkled hands, a heavy curse\n    Shall rest upon thee from th\u2019 observant skies,\n    And after-woes retributive arise.\n      When in the fane [134]the feast of gods is laid,\n    [135]Ne\u2019er to thy five-branch\u2019d hand apply the blade\n    Of sable iron; from the fresh forbear\n    The dry excrescence at the board to pare.\n      Ne\u2019er let thy hand the wine-filled flaggon rest\n    [136]Upon the goblet\u2019s edge; th\u2019 unwary guest\n    May from thy fault his own disaster drink,\n    For evil omens lurk around the brink.\n      Ne\u2019er in the midst th\u2019 unfinished house forego,\n    Lest there perch\u2019d lonely croak the garrulous crow.\n      Ne\u2019er from [137]unhallow\u2019d vessels hasty feed,\n    Nor lave therein; for thou mayst rue the deed.\n      Set not a twelve-day or a twelve-month boy\n    [138]On moveless stones; they shall his strength destroy.\n      Ne\u2019er in the female baths thy limbs immerse;\n    In its own time the guilt shall bring the curse.\n      Ne\u2019er let the mystic sacrifices move\n    Deriding scorn; but dread indignant Jove.\n      Ne\u2019er with unseemly deeds the fountains stain,\n    Or limpid rivers flowing to the main.\n      Do thus: and still with all thy dint of mind\n    Avoid that evil rumour of mankind;\n    Easy the burthen at the first to bear,\n    And light when lifted as impassive air;\n    But scarce can human strength the load convey,\n    Or shake th\u2019 intolerable weight away.\n    Swift rumour hastes nor ever wholly dies,\n    But borne on nations\u2019 tongues a very goddess flies.\n\n\n_DAYS._\n\n      Thy household teach a decent heed to pay,\n    And well observe each Jove-appointed day.\n    [139]The thirtieth of the moon inspect with care\n    Thy servants\u2019 tasks and all their rations share;\n    [140]What time the people to the courts repair.\n    These days obey the all-wise Jove\u2019s behest:\n    The first new moon, the fourth, the seventh is blest:\n    Ph\u0153bus, on this, from mild Latona born,\n    The golden-sworded god, beheld the morn.\n    The eighth, nor less the ninth, with favouring skies,\n    Speeds of th\u2019 increasing month each rustic enterprise;\n    And on th\u2019 eleventh let thy flocks be shorn,\n    And on the twelfth be reap\u2019d thy laughing corn:\n    Both days are good: yet is the twelfth confest\n    More fortunate, with fairer omen blest.\n    On this the air-suspended spider treads\n    In the full noon his fine and self-spun threads;\n    And the wise emmet, tracking dark the plain,\n    Heaps provident the store of gather\u2019d grain.\n    On this let careful woman\u2019s nimble hand\n    Throw first the shuttle and the web expand.\n      On the thirteenth forbear to sow the grain;\n    But then the plant shall not be set in vain.\n    The sixteenth profitless to plants is deem\u2019d\n    Auspicious to the birth of men esteem\u2019d;\n    But to the virgin shall unprosperous prove,\n    Then born to light or join\u2019d in wedded love.\n      So to the birth of girls with adverse ray\n    The sixth appears, an unpropitious day:\n    But then the swain may fence his wattled fold,\n    And cut his kids and rams; male births shall then be bold.\n    This day is fond of biting gibes and lies,\n    And jocund tales and whisper\u2019d sorceries.\n      Cut on the eighth the goat and lowing steer\n    And hardy mule; and when the noon shines clear,\n    Seek on the twenty-ninth to sow thy race,\n    For wise shall be the fruit of thy embrace.\n      The tenth propitious lends its natal ray\n    To men, to gentle maids the fourteenth day:\n    Tame too thy sheep on this auspicious morn,\n    And steers of flexile hoof and wreathed horn,\n    And labour-patient mules; and mild command\n    Thy sharp-tooth\u2019d dog with smoothly flattering hand.\n      The fourth and twenty-fourth no grief should prey\n    Within thy breast, for holy either day.\n      Fourth of the moon lead home thy blooming bride,\n    And be the fittest auguries descried.\n    [141]Beware the fifth, with horror fraught and wo:\n    \u2019Tis said the furies walk their round below\n    Avenging the dread oath; whose awful birth\n    From discord rose, to scourge the perjured earth.\n      On the smooth threshing-floor, the seventeenth morn,\n    Observant throw the sheaves of sacred corn:\n    For chamber furniture the timber hew,\n    And blocks for ships with shaping axe subdue.\n      The fourth upon the stocks thy vessel lay,\n    Soon with light keel to skim the watery way.\n      The nineteenth mark among the better days\n    When past the fervour of the noon-tide blaze.\n      Harmless the ninth: \u2019tis good to plant the earth,\n    And fortunate each male and female birth.\n      Few know the twenty-ninth, nor heed the rules\n    To broach their casks, and yoke their steers and mules,\n    And fleet-hoof\u2019d steeds; and on dark ocean\u2019s way\n    Launch the oar\u2019d galley; few will trust the day.\n      Pierce on the fourth thy cask; the fourteenth prize\n    As holy; and when morning paints the skies\n    The twenty-fourth is best; (few this have known;)\n    But worst of days when noon has fainter grown.\n      These are the days of which the careful heed\n    Each human enterprise will favouring speed:\n    Others there are, which intermediate fall,\n    Mark\u2019d with no auspice and unomen\u2019d all:\n    And these will some, and those will others praise,\n    But few are versed in mysteries of days.\n    In this a step-mother\u2019s stern hate we prove,\n    In that the mildness of a mother\u2019s love.\n      Oh fortunate the man! oh blest is he,\n    Who skill\u2019d in these fulfils his ministry:\n    He to whose note the auguries are given,\n    No rite transgress\u2019d, and void of blame to heav\u2019n.\n\n\nFOOTNOTES\n\n[27] _The bowed feeble rears._] This proem was wanting in the\nleaden-sheeted copy, seen by Pausanias in B\u0153otia. The affinity with\nscriptural language is remarkable. \u201cThe Lord maketh poor and maketh rich:\nhe bringeth low and lifteth up. He raiseth up the poor out of the dust,\nand lifteth up the beggar from the dung-hill to set him among princes.\u201d\nSamuel v. 1, ch. 2. \u201cGod is the judge: he putteth down one, and setteth\nup another. The Lord upholdeth all that fall, and raiseth up them that\nbe bowed down. The Lord lifteth up the meek: he casteth the wicked down\nto the ground.\u201d Psalms 75, 145, 147. I was originally led to suspect\nthat this introduction had been ingrafted on the poem by one of the\nAlexandrian Jews; who were addicted to this kind of imposture; but it\nis probably more ancient than the establishment of the Jewish colony\nat Alexandria, under the Ptolemies. There is nothing conclusive to be\ndrawn from coincidences of this sort between ancient writings. The first\nprinciples of morality, implanted in the human heart by its author, have\nin all ages been the same: and Socrates and Confucius might be found\nto agree, surely without any suspicion of imitation. Many passages of\nHesiod may be paralleled with verses in the Psalms and Proverbs: and in\nthe proem under consideration, there seem no grounds for the conjecture\nof plagiarism from views of the vicissitudes of human condition, and the\nordinations of a ruling providence which are continually passing before\nour eyes, and which must have struck the reasoning and serious part of\nmankind in all ages. Horace has a similar passage: b. i. od. 34.\n\n      The God by sudden turns of fate\n    Can change the lowest with the loftiest state:\n    Eclipse of glory the diminish\u2019d ray,\n      And lift obscurity to day.\n\nLe Clerc conjectures this exordium to be the addition of one of the\nrhapsodists: of whom Pindar says, Nem. Od. 2.\n\n    Th\u2019 Homeric bards, who wont to frame\n        A motley-woven verse,\n        Ere they the song rehearse,\n    Begin from Jove, and prelude with his name.\n\n[28] _The other elder rose._] Night is meant to be the mother of both the\nStrifes. Guietus remarks that \u03b5\u03c5\u03c6\u03c1\u03bf\u03bd\u03b7 is a term for night: from \u03b5\u03c5\u03c6\u03c1\u03bf\u03bd\u03b5\u03c9,\nto be wise. She was the mother of wise designs, because favourable to\nmeditation: the mother of good, therefore, as well as of evil. The good\nStrife is made the elder, because the evil one arose in the later and\ndegenerate ages of mankind.\n\n[29] _Almsmen zealous throng._] The proximity of the beggar to the bard\nmight in a modern writer convey a satirical innuendo, of which Hesiod\ncannot be suspected. The bard, as is evident from Homer\u2019s Odyssey,\nenjoyed a sort of conventional hospitality, bestowed with reverence and\naffection. It should seem, however, from this passage that the asker of\nalms was not regarded in the light of a common mendicant with us. It was\na popular superstition that the gods often assumed similar characters\nfor the purpose of trying the benevolence of men. A noble incentive to\ncharity, which indicates the hospitable character of a semi-barbarous age.\n\n[30] _The patrimonial land._] The manner of inheritance in ancient Greece\nwas that of gavelkind: the sons dividing the patrimony in equal portions.\nWhen there were children by a concubine, they also received a certain\nproportion. This is illustrated by a passage in the 14th book of the\nOdyssey:\n\n                            An humbler mate,\n    His purchased concubine, gave birth to me:\n    ... His illustrious sons among themselves\n    Portion\u2019d his goods by lot: to me indeed\n    They gave a dwelling, and but little more.\n\n                                       COWPER.\n\n[31] _The good which asphodel and mallows yield._] A similar sentiment\noccurs in the Proverbs: \u201cBetter is a dinner of herbs where love is, than\na stalled ox and hatred therewith.\u201d Ch. 15. v. 17.\n\nPlutarch in the \u201cBanquet of the Seven Sages,\u201d observes, that \u201cthe\nherb mallows is good for food, as is the sweet stalk of the asphodel\nor daffodil.\u201d These plants were often used by metonymy for a frugal\ntable. Homer (Odyssey 24.) places the shades of the blessed in meadows\nof asphodel, because they were supposed to be restored to the state\nof primitive innocence, when men were contented with the simple and\nspontaneous aliment of the ground. Perhaps the Greeks had this allusion\nin their custom of planting the asphodel in the cemeteries, and also\nburying it with the bodies of the dead. It appears from Pliny, b. xxii.\nc. 22. that Hesiod had treated of the asphodel in some other work: as he\nis said to have spoken of it as a native of the woods.\n\n[32] _The food of man in deep concealment lies._] The meaning of this\npassage resembles that of the passage in Virgil\u2019s first Georgic:\n\n    The sire of gods and men with hard decrees\n    Forbade our plenty to be bought with ease.\n\n                                       DRYDEN.\n\n[33] _Have laid the rudder by._] It seems the vice of commentators to\nrefine with needless subtleties on plain passages. Le Clerc explains\nthis to mean that \u201cin one day\u2019s fishing you might have caught such an\nabundance of fish, as to allow of the rudder being laid by for a long\ninterval.\u201d The common sense of the passage, however, is that, were the\nformer state of existence renewed, the rudder, which it was customary\nafter a voyage to hang up in the smoke, might remain there for ever. You\nneeded not have crossed the sea for merchandise. The custom of suspending\nthe helms of ships in chimneys, to preserve them from decay, is adverted\nto again among the nautical precepts.\n\n    The well-framed rudder in the smoke suspend.\n\nVirgil recommends the same process with respect to the timber hewn for\nthe plough: Georg. 1.\n\n    Hung where the chimney\u2019s curling fumes arise,\n    The searching smoke the harden\u2019d timber dries.\n\n[34] _Mock\u2019d by wise Prometheus._] The original deception which provoked\nthe wrath of Jupiter was the sacrifice of bones mentioned in the Theogony.\n\nIt would appear extraordinary that the crime of Prometheus, who was a\ngod, should be visited on man. This injustice betrays the real character\nof Prometheus; that he was a deified mortal. If Prometheus, the maker of\nman according to Ovid, and his divine benefactor according to Hesiod, be\nin reality Noah, as many circumstances concur to prove, the concealment\nof fire by Jupiter might be a type of the darkness and dreariness of\nnature during the interval of the deluge; and the recovery of the flame\nmight signify the renovation of light and fertility and the restitution\nof the arts of life.\n\n[35] _An ill which all shall love._] In the scholia of Olympiodorus on\nPlato, Pandora is allegorized into the irrational soul or sensuality:\nas opposed to intellect. By Heinsius she is supposed to be Fortune.\nBut there never was less occasion for straining after philosophical\nmysteries. Hesiod asserts in plain terms, that Pandora is the mother of\nwoman; he tells us she brought with her a casket of diseases; and that\nthrough her the state of man became a state of labour, and his longevity\nwas abridged. It is an ancient Asiatic legend; and Pandora is plainly the\nEve of Mosaic history. How this primitive tradition came to be connected\nwith that of the deluge is easily explained. \u201cTime with the ancients,\u201d\nobserves Mr. Bryant, \u201ccommenced at the deluge; all their traditions and\ngenealogies terminated here. The birth of mankind went with them no\nhigher than this epocha.\u201d We see here a confusion of events, of periods,\nand of characters. The fall of man to a condition of labour, disease, and\ndeath is made subsequent to the flood; because the great father of the\npost-diluvian world was regarded as the original father of mankind.\n\n[36] _The zone, the dress._] This office is probably assigned to Pallas,\nas the inventress and patroness of weaving and embroidery, and works in\nwool.\n\n[37] _With chains of gold._] \u039f\u03c1\u03bc\u03bf\u03c5\u03c2, rendered by the interpreter\n_monilia_, are not merely necklaces, but chains for any part of the\nperson: as the arms and ankles. Ornaments of gold, and particularly\nchains, belong to the costume of very high antiquity.\n\n\u201cYe daughters of Israel, weep over Saul: who clothed you in scarlet with\nother delights: who put on _ornaments of gold_ upon your apparel. Samuel\nb. ii. ch. 1. v. 24.\n\n\u201cAnd she took sandals upon her feet, and put about her her bracelets,\n_and her chains_, and her rings, and her ear-rings, and all her\nornaments, and decked herself bravely, to allure the eyes of all men that\nshould see her.\u201d Judith ch. x. v. 4.\n\n[38] _The beauteous-tressed Hours._] The Hours, according to Homer, made\nthe toilette of Venus:\n\n      The smooth strong gust of Zephyr wafted her\n    Through billows of the many-waving sea\n    In the soft foam: the Hours, whose locks are bound\n    With gold, received her blithely, and enrobed\n    With heavenly vestments: her immortal head\n    They wreathed with golden fillet, beautiful,\n    And aptly framed: her perforated ears\n    They hung with jewels of the mountain-brass\n    And precious gold: her tender neck, and breast\n    Of dazzling white, they deck\u2019d with chains of gold,\n    Such as the Hours wear braided with their locks.\n\n                                      HYMN TO VENUS.\n\n[39] _His herald from above._] The first edition had \u201cwinged herald;\u201d but\nthe wings of Mercury are the additions of later mythologists. Homer, in\nthe Odyssey, speaks only of\n\n                            The sandals fair,\n    Golden, and undecay\u2019d, that waft him o\u2019er\n    The sea, and o\u2019er th\u2019 immeasurable earth\n    With the swift-breathing wind:\n\nthere is no mention of the sandals being winged. They seem to have\npossessed a supernatural power of velocity, like the seven-leagued boots,\nor the shoes of swiftness, in the Tales of the Giants.\n\n[40] _Th\u2019 unbroken vase._] \u03b1\u03c1\u03c1\u03b7\u03ba\u03c4\u03bf\u03b9\u03c3\u03b9 \u03b4\u03bf\u03bc\u03bf\u03b9\u03c3\u03b9. Seleucus, an ancient\ncritic, quoted by Proclus, proposed \u03c0\u03b9\u03c5\u03bf\u03b9\u03c3\u03b9: as if the casket in which\nHope dwelt, might not literally be called her house. Heinsius supposes an\nallusion to the chamber of a virgin. After this, who would expect that\n\u03b4\u03bf\u03bc\u03bf\u03b9\u03c3\u03b9 means nothing more than a chest?\n\n                    \u0395\u03bb\u03bf\u03c5\u03c3\u03b1 \u03ba\u03b5\u03b4\u03c1\u03b9\u03bd\u1ff3\u03bd \u03b4\u03bf\u03bc\u1ff6\u03bd\n    \u0395\u03c3\u03b8\u1fc6\u03c4\u03b1, \u03ba\u03bf\u03c3\u03bc\u03bf\u03bd \u03c4\u2019.\n\n                 EURIPIDES. ALCESTIS. 158.\n\n              taking from her cedar coffers\n    Vestures and jewels.\n\n[41] _On casual wing they glide._] Perhaps Milton had Hesiod in his eye,\nin the speech of Satan to Sin: Par. Lost, b. ii. line 840.\n\n                            Thou and Death\n    Shall dwell at ease, and up and down unseen\n    Wing silently the buxom air.\n\n[42] _Wealthy in flocks._] Gr\u00e6vius has misled all the editors by arguing\nthat \u03bc\u1fc6\u03bb\u03b1 are, in this place, fruits of any trees; as arbutes, figs,\nnuts; and not flocks: but his arguments respecting the food of primitive\nmankind are drawn from the conceptions of modern poets; such as Lucretius\nand Ovid. The traditionary age described by Hesiod was a shepherd\nage. Flocks are the most ancient symbol of prosperity, and are often\nsynonymous with riches and dominion.\n\n[43] _High Jove as d\u00e6mons raised them from the ground._] In the account\nof this age we have a just history of the rise of idolatry; when deified\nmen had first divine honours paid to them; and we may be assured of the\nfamily in which it began; as what was termed Crusean, the _golden_ race,\nshould have been expressed Cusean; for it relates to the age of Chus,\nand the denomination of his sons. This substitution was the cause of the\nother divisions being introduced; that each age might be distinguished\nin succession by one of baser metal. Had there been no mistake about a\ngolden age, we should never have been treated with one of silver; much\nless with the subsequent of brass and iron. The original history relates\nto the patriarchic age, when the time of man\u2019s life was not yet abridged\nto its present standard, and when the love of rule and acts of violence\nfirst displayed themselves on the earth. The Amonians, wherever they\nsettled, carried these traditions along with them, which were thus added\nto the history of the country; so that the scene of action was changed.\nA colony who styled themselves Saturnians came to Italy, and greatly\nbenefited the natives. But the ancients, who generally speak collectively\nin the singular, and instead of Herculeans introduce Hercules; instead\nof Cadmians, Cadmus; suppose a single person, Saturn, to have betaken\nhimself to this country. Virgil mentions the story in this light, and\nspeaks of Saturn\u2019s settling there; and of the rude state of the nation\nupon his arrival; where he introduced an age of gold. \u00c6n. viii. 314. The\naccount is confused; yet we may discern in it a true history of the first\nages, as may be observed likewise in Hesiod. Both the poets, however the\nscene may be varied, allude to the happy times immediately after the\ndeluge; when the great patriarch had full power over his descendants, and\nequity prevailed without written law. BRYANT.\n\n[44] _Their kingly state._] The administration of forensic justice is\nimplied in the words \u03b3\u03b5\u03c1\u03b1\u03c2 \u03b2\u03b1\u03c3\u03b9\u03bb\u03b7\u03b9\u03bf\u03bd, regal office.\n\n[45] _The wealth of fields._] Heinsius quotes Hesychius to show that\n\u03c0\u03bb\u03bf\u1fe6\u03c4\u03bf\u03c2 does not always mean riches, properly so called; but the riches\nof the soil: and says that it is here applied to the good d\u00e6mons as\npresiding over the productions of the seasons. Bacchus, in the Len\u00e6an\nrites, was invoked by the epithet \u03c0\u03bb\u03bf\u03c5\u03c4\u03bf\u03b4\u03bf\u03c4\u03b7\u03c2, wealth-bestower; in\nallusion to the vineyard. It seems intimated here, that the Spirits\nreward the deeds of the just by abundant harvests; the common belief of\nthe Greeks, as appears both from Hesiod and Homer.\n\n[46] _A hundred years._] Heinsius explains this passage to mean, that\n\u201calthough this age was indeed deteriorated from the former, this much of\ngood remained; that the boys were not early exposed to the contagion of\nvice, but long participated the chaste and retired education of their\nsisters in the seclusion of the female apartments.\u201d Gr\u00e6vius, on the\ncontrary, insists that Hesiod notes it as a mark of depravation, that the\nyouth were educated in sloth and effeminacy, and grew up, as it were, on\nthe lap of their mothers. These two opinions are about equally to the\npurpose. [\u201cThe poet manifestly alludes to the longevity of persons in the\npatriarchic age: for they did not, it seems, die at three-score and ten,\nbut took more time even in advancing towards puberty. He speaks, however,\nof their being cut off in their prime; and whatever portion of life\nnature might have allotted to them, they were abridged of it by their own\nfolly and injustice.\u201d] BRYANT.\n\n[47] _To Troy\u2019s far shore._] Dr. Clarke in his travels in Greece, Egypt,\nand the Holy-land, has noticed that the existence of Troy, and the facts\nrelative to the Trojan war, are supported by a variety of evidence\nindependent of Homer: as has been abundantly shown in the course of the\ncontroversy between Mr. Bryant and his able antagonist, Mr. Morritt. This\npassage of Hesiod seems to me decisive testimony. If Hesiod be older than\nHomer, as is computed by the chronicler of the Parian Marbles, it is\nself-evident that the Trojan war is not of Homeric invention: and if they\nwere contemporary, or even if Hesiod, according to the vulgar chronology,\nwere really junior by a century, it is not at all probable that he should\nhave copied the fiction of another bard, while tracing the primitive\nhistory of mankind. He manifestly used the ancient traditions of his\nnation, of which the war of Troy was one.\n\n[48] _In those blest isles._] Pindar also alludes to these in his second\nOlympic Ode:\n\n    They take the way which Jove did long ordain\n    To Saturn\u2019s ancient tower beside the deep:\n        Where gales, that softly breathe,\n    Fresh-springing from the bosom of the main\n      Through the islands of the blessed blow.\n\nAs the life of these beatified heroes was a renewal of that in the\ngolden age, it is figured by the reign of Saturn or Cronus: the father\nof post-diluvian time. The era in which, after the waste of the deluge,\nthe vine was planted and corn again sown, was represented by tradition\nas a time of wonderful abundance and fruitfulness. Hence apparently the\nfable of the Elysian fields: which some have supposed to originate from\nthe reports of voyagers, who had visited distant fertile regions. Saturn\nis usually placed in Tartarus: but Tartarus meant the west: from the\nassociation of darkness with sunset: and the Blessed Islands were the\nFortunate Isles on the Western Coast of Afric.\n\n\u201cThese heroes, whose equity is so much spoken of, upon a nearer inquiry\nare found to be continually engaged in wars and murders; and like the\nspecimens exhibited of the former ages, are finally cut off by each\nother\u2019s hands in acts of robbery and violence: some for stealing sheep,\nothers for carrying away the wives of their friends and neighbours. Such\nwas the end of these laudable banditti: of whom Jupiter, we are told,\nhad so high an opinion, that after they had plundered and butchered one\nanother, he sent them to the island of the Blest to partake of perpetual\nfelicity.\u201d BRYANT.\n\n[49] _This iron age of earth._] Les \u00e9crivains de tous les tems ont\nregard\u00e9 leur si\u00e8cle comme le pire de tous: il n\u2019y a que Voltaire qui ait\ndit du sien,\n\n    O le bon tems que ce si\u00e8cle de fer!\n\nEncore \u00e9tait-ce dans un acc\u00e8s de gaiet\u00e9: car ailleurs il appelle le\ndixhuiti\u00e8me si\u00e8cle, l\u2019\u00e9gout des si\u00e8cles. C\u2019est un de ces sujets sur\nlesquels on dit ce qu\u2019on veut: selon qu\u2019il plait d\u2019envisager tel ou tel\nc\u00f4t\u00e9 des obj\u00eats. LA HARPE, LYC\u00c9E, tome premier.\n\n[50]\n\n    _For scarcely spring they to the light of day,_\n    _Ere age untimely strews their temples gray._]\n\nDr. Martyn, in a note on Virgil\u2019s 4th Eclogue, has fallen into the\nerror of the old interpreters; when he quotes Hesiod as describing the\niron age \u201cwhich was to end when the men of that time _grew old and\ngray_.\u201d Postquam _facti_ circa tempora cani _fuerint_: but the proper\ninterpretation is, quum vix _nati_ canescant: as Gr\u00e6vius has corrected\nit. The same critic is unquestionably right in his opinion, that the\nfuture tenses of this passage in the original are to be understood as\nindefinite present: \u03bc\u03b5\u03bc\u03c8\u03bf\u03bd\u03c4\u03b1\u03b9, incusabunt: _i. e._ incusare solent: _use_\nto revile.\n\nMark, iii. 27. \u03ba\u03b1\u03b9 \u03c4\u03bf\u03c4\u03b5 \u03c4\u03b7\u03bd \u03bf\u03b9\u03ba\u03b9\u1fb6\u03bd \u03b1\u03c5\u03c4\u03bf\u03c5 \u03b4\u03b9\u03b1\u03c1\u03c0\u03b1\u03c3\u03b5\u03b9: \u201cand then he will\nspoil his house:\u201d that is, he is accustomed to spoil. The imperfect time\nhas also frequently the same acceptation: as in the same evangelist: ch.\nxiv. 12. \u03c4\u03bf \u03c0\u03b1\u03c3\u03c7\u03b1 \u03b5\u03b8\u03c5\u03bf\u03bd, they _killed_ the passover: they are used to\nkill it.\n\n[51] _Now man\u2019s right hand is law._] Imitated by Milton in the vision of\nAdam:\n\n                                So violence\n    Proceeded, and oppression, and sword-law\n    Through all the plain.\n\n[52] _Leave the broad earth._] Virgil alludes to this passage, Georg. ii.\n473.\n\n    From hence Astr\u00e6a took her flight, and here\n    The prints of her departing steps appear.\n\n                                         DRYDEN.\n\nAs also Juvenal: Sat. vi. line 19.\n\n    I well believe in Saturn\u2019s ancient reign\n    This Chastity might long on earth remain:\u2014\n    By slow degrees her steps Astr\u00e6a sped\n    To heaven above, and both the sisters fled.\n\n[53] _Now unto kings._] \u0392\u03b1\u03c3\u03b9\u03bb\u03b5\u03c5\u03c2, which we render _king_, was properly,\nin the early times of Greece, a magistrate. The kings against whom Hesiod\ninveighs, are therefore simply a kind of nobles, who exercised the\njudicial office in B\u0153otia; like the twelve of Ph\u0153acia mentioned in the\nOdyssey. See Mitford\u2019s History of Greece, vol. i. ch. 3.\n\n[54] _A neck-streak\u2019d nightingale._] \u03a0\u03bf\u03b9\u03ba\u03b9\u03bb\u03bf\u03b4\u03b5\u03b9\u03c1\u03bf\u03bd, with variegated\nthroat. This has not been thought appropriate to the nightingale. Tzetzes\nand Moschopolus interpreted the term by \u03c0\u03bf\u03b9\u03ba\u03b9\u03bb\u03bf\u03c6\u03c9\u03bd\u03bf\u03bd, with varied voice;\na very forced construction; yet it is adopted by Loesner, who renders\nit by _canoram_. Ruhnken proposes the emendation of \u03c0\u03bf\u03b9\u03ba\u03b9\u03bb\u03bf\u03b3\u03b7\u03c1\u03c5\u03bd, which\nis synonymous. Others have doubted whether \u03b1\u03b7\u03b4\u03c9\u03bd, which is literally\n_singer_, might not apply to some other bird, as the thrush, which is\ndefined by Linn\u00e6us, \u201cback brown, neck spotted with white.\u201d But the name\n_singer_ might have been applied to the nightingale by way of eminence.\nIn fact I see no difficulty. Linn\u00e6us, indeed, describes the nightingale,\n\u201cbill brown, head and back pale mouse-colour, with olive spots,\u201d and\nsays nothing of the throat. Simonides, however, speaks of \u03c7\u03bb\u03bf\u03c1\u03b1\u03c5\u03c7\u03b5\u03bd\u03b5\u03c2\n\u03b1\u03b5\u03b9\u03b4\u03bf\u03bd\u03b5\u03c2, _green-necked_ nightingales, which might justify Hesiod\u2019s\nepithet. Bewick in the \u201cBritish Birds\u201d thus describes the _luscinia_:\n\u201cthe whole upper part of the body of a rusty brown tinged with olive;\nunder parts pale ash-colour; _almost white at the throat_.\u201d A more\nancient ornithologist has a description still more nearly approximating\nto the term of Hesiod; and it seems evident that there is more than one\nspecies of nightingale.\n\n\u201cLuscinia, philomela, \u03b1\u03b7\u03b4\u03c9\u03bd.\n\n\u201cThe nightingale is about the bigness of a goldfinch. The colour on the\nupper part, _i. e_. the head and back, is a pale fulvous (lion, or deep\ngold colour) with a certain mixture of green, like that of a red-wing.\nIts tail is of a deeper fulvous or red, like a red-start\u2019s. From its\nred colour it took the name of _rossignuolo_, in Italian: (_rossignol_,\nFrench). The belly is white. The parts under the wings, breast,\nand _throat_, are of a darker colour, with _a tincture of green_.\u201d\nWILLOUGHBY\u2019S ORNITHOLOGY, fol. 1678.\n\n[55] _The fool by suffering his experience buys._] \u03a0\u03b1\u03c5\u03c9\u03bd \u03b4\u03b5 \u03c4\u03b5 \u03bd\u03b7\u03c0\u03b9\u03bf\u03c2\n\u03b5\u03b3\u03bd\u03c9. This seems to have been a national proverb. Homer has a similar\napophthegm: Il. 17. 33.\n\n                              \u03bc\u03b7\u03b4\u2019 \u03b1\u03bd\u03c4\u03b9\u03bf\u03c2 \u03b9\u03c3\u03c4\u03b1\u03b8\u2019 \u03b5\u03bc\u03b5\u03b9\u03bf\n    \u03a0\u03c1\u03b9\u03bd \u03c4\u03b9 \u03ba\u03b1\u03ba\u03bf\u03bd \u03c0\u03b1\u03b8\u03b5\u03b5\u03b9\u03bd\u00b7 \u03c1\u03b5\u03c7\u03b8\u03b5\u03bd \u03b4\u03b5 \u03c4\u03b5 \u03bd\u03b7\u03c0\u03b9\u03bf\u03c2 \u03b5\u03b3\u03bd\u03c9.\n\n    Confront me not, lest some sore evil rise:\n    The fool must rue the act that makes him wise.\n\nPlato uses the same proverbial sentiment:\n\n    \u0395\u03c5\u03bb\u03b1\u03b2\u03b7\u03b8\u1fc6\u03bd\u03b1\u03b9 \u03ba\u03b1\u03b9 \u03bc\u03b7, \u03ba\u03b1\u03c4\u03b1 \u03c4\u03b7\u03bd \u03c0\u03b1\u03c1\u03bf\u03b9\u03bc\u03b9\u03b1\u03bd, \u03c9\u03c3\u03c0\u03b5\u03c1 \u03bd\u03b7\u03c0\u03b9\u03bf\u03bd \u03c0\u03b1\u03b8\u03bf\u03bd\u03c4\u03b1\u03b9 \u03b3\u03bd\u03c9\u03bd\u03b1\u03b9.\n\nBeware lest, after the proverb, you get knowledge like the fool, by\nsuffering.\n\n[56] _Walks in awful grief the city-ways._] Something similar is the\nprosopop\u0153ia of Wisdom in the Proverbs of Solomon, ch. viii. She standeth\non the top of high places, by the way, and the places of the paths.\n\nShe crieth at the gates: at the entry of the city: at the coming in of\nthe doors.\n\n[57] _O\u2019er their stain\u2019d manners._] Gr\u00e6vius observes that the\ninterpreters render \u03b7\u03b8\u03b5\u03b1 \u03bb\u03b1\u1ff6\u03bd, \u201cmost foolishly\u201d by _the manners_ of the\npeople: because \u03b7\u03b8\u03b5\u03b1 signifies also _habitations_. But as it is not\npretended that \u03b7\u03b8\u03b5\u03b1 does not equally signify _manners_, \u201cthe extreme\nfolly\u201d of the interpreters has, I confess, escaped my penetration. Is it\nso very forced an image that Justice should weep over the manners of a\ndepraved people?\n\n[58] _They and their cities flourish._] This passage resembles one in\nthe nineteenth book of the Odyssey: but not so closely as to justify the\ncharge of plagiarism which Dr. Clarke prefers against Hesiod, and which\nmight be retorted upon Homer. These were sentiments common to the popular\nreligion.\n\n            Like the praise of some great king\n    Who o\u2019er a numerous people and renown\u2019d,\n    Presiding like a deity, maintains\n    Justice and truth. Their harvests overswell\n    The sower\u2019s hopes: their trees o\u2019erladen scarce\n    Their fruit sustain: no sickness thins the folds:\n    The finny swarms of ocean crowd the shores,\n    And all are rich and happy for his sake.\n\n                                     COWPER.\n\n[59] _Reflects the father\u2019s face._] Montesquieu remarks: \u201cThe people\nmentioned by Pomponius Mela (the Garamantes) had no other way of\ndiscovering the father but by resemblance. Pater est quem nupti\u00e6\ndemonstrant.\u201d But this uncertain criterion was considered as infallible\ngenerally by the ancients.\n\n    She whom no conjugal affections bind,\n    Still on a stranger bends her fickle mind:\n    But easy to discern the spurious race,\n    None in the child the father\u2019s features trace.\n\n                  THEOCRITUS\u2014_Encomium of Ptolemy._\n\n    Oh may a young Torquatus bending\n      From his mother\u2019s breast to thee,\n    His tiny infant hands extending,\n      Laugh with half-open\u2019d lips in childish ecstasy:\n    May he reflect the father in his face:\n      Known for a Mallius to the glancing eye\n    Of strangers unaware, who trace\n    In the boy\u2019s forehead of paternal grace\n      A mother\u2019s shining chastity.\n\n           CATULLUS\u2014_Epithalamium on Julia and Mallius._\n\n[60]\n\n                      _Holy demons rove_\n    _This breathing world._]\n\nMilton is thought to have copied Hesiod in this passage:\n\n    Millions of spiritual creatures walk the earth\n    Unseen, both when we wake and when we sleep.\n\nBut the coincidence seems merely incidental, as the parallel wants\ncompleteness. There is nothing of angelic guardianship or judicial\ninspection in the spirits of Milton: he says only,\n\n    All these with ceaseless praise his works behold\n    Both day and night. How often from the steep\n    Of echoing hill, or thicket, have we heard\n    Celestial voices to the midnight air,\n    Sole, or responsive to each other\u2019s note,\n    Singing their great Creator?\n\n                               PAR. LOST, iv.\n\n[61]\n\n                        _Their glance alike surveys_\n    _The upright judgments and th\u2019 unrighteous ways._]\n\nThe eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.\nPROVERBS, xv. 3.\n\n[62] _So rue the nations when their kings offend._] Theobald, in a note\non Cooke\u2019s translation, proposes to change \u03b4\u03b7\u03bc\u03bf\u03c2, _the people_, into\n\u03c4\u03b7\u03bc\u03bf\u03c2, _then_: and renders \u03b1\u03c0\u03bf\u03c4\u03b9\u03c3\u03b7 in the sense of _punish_, instead of\n_rue_: thus the meaning would be, \u201cthat he might then, at that instant,\npunish the sins of the judges.\u201d Never was an interference with the text\nso little called for. The meaning which Theobald is so scrupulous to\nadmit is exactly conformable with that of a preceding passage:\n\n    And oft the crimes of one destructive fall;\n    The crimes of one are visited on all.\n\nIt is idle to inquire where is the justice of this kind of retribution?\nsince it is evident from all the history of mankind that such is the\ncourse of nature.\n\nBy the blessing of the upright the city is exalted: but it is overthrown\nby the mouth of the wicked. PROVERBS, xi. 11.\n\nThe king by judgment establisheth the land; but he that receiveth gifts\noverthroweth it. Ch. xxix. 4.\n\nIn Simpson\u2019s notes on Beaumont and Fletcher, this passage is compared\nwith the following in Philaster:\n\n                            In whose name\n    We\u2019ll waken all the Gods, and conjure up\n    The rods of vengeance, the abused people:\n\nand it is proposed to understand it in the sense of Fletcher, \u201cthat the\npeople might be raised up to _punish_ the crimes of their prince.\u201d There\nis taste and spirit in this interpretation, which cannot be said for the\namendment of Theobald: but the common acceptation seems to me the right\none, for the reasons already stated.\n\n[63] _Pours down the treasures of felicity._] In the house of the\nrighteous is much treasure: but in the revenues of the wicked there is\ntrouble. PROVERBS, xv. 6.\n\nThe Lord will not suffer the soul of the righteous to famish: but he\ncasteth away the substance of the wicked. Ch. x. 3.\n\nThe memory of the just is blessed: but the name of the wicked shall rot.\nCh. x. 7.\n\nA false witness shall not be unpunished: and he that speaketh lies shall\nperish. Ch. xix. 9.\n\nThe righteous shall never be removed: but the wicked shall not inhabit\nthe earth. Ch. x. 30.\n\nThe inheritance of sinners\u2019 children shall perish: and their posterity\nshall have a perpetual reproach. WISDOM OF JESUS THE SON OF SIRACH, xli.\n6.\n\nTheir fruit shalt thou destroy from the earth, and their seed from among\nthe children of men. PSALMS, xxi. 10.\n\n[64] _Smooth is the track of vice._] The way of sinners is made plain\nwith stones: but at the end thereof is the pit of hell. WISDOM OF JESUS\nTHE SON OF SIRACH, xxi. 10.\n\nBoth Plato and Xenophon who quote this line of Hesiod, read \u03bb\u03b5\u03b9\u03b7, smooth,\ninstead of \u03bf\u03bb\u03b9\u03b3\u03b7, short. Krebsius prefers the reading, as a _short_ road\nand _dwells near_ make a vapid tautology: and _smooth_ forms a good\nantithesis to _rough_.\n\n[65] _The sweat that bathes the brow._] Spenser has imitated this parable\nin his description of Honour:\n\n    In woods, in waves, in wars she wonts to dwell,\n      And will be found with peril and with pain:\n    Ne can the man that moulds in idle cell\n      Unto her happy mansion attain.\n    Before her gate high God did sweat ordain,\n      And wakeful watches ever to abide:\n    But easy is the way and passage plain\n      To Pleasure\u2019s palace: it may soon be spied,\n    And day and night her doors to all stand open wide.\n\nThis allegory of Hesiod seems the basis of the apologue of Hercules,\nVirtue and Vice, which Xenophon in his \u201cMemorabilia,\u201d 2, 21, quotes by\nmemory from Prodicus\u2019s \u201cHistory of Hercules.\u201d\n\n[66] _To the wiser friend._] The way of a fool is right in his own eyes:\nbut he that hearkeneth to counsel is wise. PROVERBS, xii. 15.\n\nA scorner loveth not one that reproveth him: neither will he go unto the\nwise. Ch. xv. 12.\n\n[67] _Oh son of Dios._] \u0394\u03b9\u03bf\u03bd \u03b3\u03b5\u03bd\u03bf\u03c2: Tzetzes had written in the margin\n\u0394\u03b9\u03bf\u03c5 \u03b3\u03b5\u03bd\u03bf\u03c2, and this is in all probability the true reading; not that\nthere is any thing extraordinary in the application of the term _divine_,\nas the Greeks used it in a wide latitude, and on frequent occasions.\nHomer applies it to the swineherd of Ulysses. It was a term of courtesy\nor respect; and Hesiod may have intended to compliment, not Perses, but\ntheir father. We have, however, the testimony of Ephorus, as recorded\nby Plutarch, that Dius was the father of Hesiod; and a copyist might\neasily have mistaken a \u03c5 for a \u03bd. The author of the \u201cContest of Homer\nand Hesiod\u201d seems to have read \u0394\u03b9\u03bf\u03c5 \u03b3\u03b5\u03bd\u03bf\u03c2, as he makes Homer address his\ncompetitor,\n\n    \u0397\u03c3\u03b9\u03bf\u03b4\u2019 \u03b5\u03ba\u03b3\u03bf\u03bd\u03b7 \u0394\u03b9\u03bf\u03c5\u2014\n\n    Oh Hesiod! Dius\u2019 son!\n\nThe reading is recommended by the Abb\u00e9 Sevin in the \u201cHistoire de\nl\u2019Acad\u00e9mie des Inscriptions,\u201d and by Villoison; and is adopted by Brunck\nin his \u201cGnomici Poet\u00e6 Gr\u00e6ci.\u201d The herma of Hesiod exhibited by Bellorio\nin his \u201cVeter\u00fbm Poetar\u00fbm Imagines\u201d has the inscription, \u0397\u03c3\u03b9\u03bf\u03b4\u03bf\u03c5 \u0394\u03b9\u03bf\u03c5\n\u0391\u03c3\u03ba\u03c1\u03b1\u03b9\u03bf\u03c2, Ascr\u00e6an Hesiod the son of Dios.\n\n[68] _Still on the sluggard hungry want attends._] He that gathereth\nin summer is a wise son; but he that sleepeth in harvest is a son that\ncauseth shame. PROVERBS, x. 5.\n\nHe that tilleth his land shall have plenty of bread: but he that\nfolloweth after vain persons shall have poverty enough. Ch. xxviii. 19.\n\nHate not laborious work; neither husbandry: which the Most High has\nordained. WISDOM OF JESUS THE SON OF SIRACH, vii. 15.\n\nHe becometh poor that dealeth with a slack hand: but the hand of the\ndiligent maketh rich. PROVERBS, x. 4.\n\nThe desire of the slothful killeth him; for his hands refuse to labour:\nhe coveteth greedily all the day long: but the righteous giveth and\nspareth not. Ch. xxi. 25.\n\n[69] _Shame, which our aid or injury we find._] The verse\n\n                      No shame is his,\n    Shame, of mankind the injury or aid,\n\noccurs in the Iliad, 24; and in the Odyssey, 17, we meet with\n\n    An evil shame the needy beggar holds:\n\nbut Le Clerc should have known better than to follow Plutarch in the\nsupposition of the lines being inserted from Homer by some other hand. It\nis one of the proverbial and traditionary sayings which frequently occur\nin their writings, and which belong rather to the language than to the\npoet.\n\nThe admirable Jewish scribe, in that ancient book of the Apocrypha\nentitled Ecclesiasticus, uses the same proverb:\n\nObserve the opportunity and beware of evil; and be not ashamed when it\nconcerneth thy soul.\n\nFor there is a shame that bringeth sin; and there is a shame which is\nglory and grace. WISDOM OF JESUS THE SON OF SIRACH, iv. 20, 21.\n\n[70] _But shun extorted riches._] He that hasteth to be rich, hath an\nevil eye, and considereth not that poverty shall come upon him. PROVERBS,\nxxviii. 22.\n\nHe that by usury and unjust gain increaseth his substance, he shall\ngather it for him that will pity the poor. Ch. xxviii. 8.\n\n[71] _Who spurns the suppliant._] The ninth book of the Odyssey exhibits\na beautiful passage illustrative of the high reverence in which the\nGrecians held the duties of hospitality.\n\n    Illustrious lord! respect the gods, and us\n    Thy suitors: suppliants are the care of Jove\n    The hospitable: he their wrongs resents,\n    And where the stranger sojourns there is he.\n\n                                         COWPER.\n\n[72] _If aught thou borrowest._] Lend to thy neighbour in time of his\nneed, and pay thou thy neighbour again in due season.\n\nKeep thy word and deal faithfully with him, and thou shalt always find\nthe thing that is necessary for thee. WISDOM OF JESUS THE SON OF SIRACH.\n\n[73] _Who loves thee, love._] Far different is the spirit of the Gospel.\n\u201cYe have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour\nand hate thine enemy: but I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them\nthat curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which\ndespitefully use you and persecute you, that ye may be the children of\nyour Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the\nevil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.\u201d\nMATTHEW, v. 43.\n\nIf ye love them which love you, what thank have ye? for sinners also\nlove those that love them. And if ye lend to them of whom ye hope to\nreceive, what thank have ye? for sinners also lend to sinners, to receive\nas much again. But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping\nfor nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the\nchildren of the Highest; for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the\nevil. LUKE, vi. 32.\n\n[74] _Spare the middle wine._] Hesiod says that we should use the middle\nof the cask more sparingly, that we might enjoy the best wine the longer.\nIt was the ancient opinion that wine was best in the middle, oil at the\ntop, and honey at the bottom. GR\u00c6VIUS.\n\nThis opinion of Hesiod is discussed by Plutarch in his Symposiacs, iii.\n7, and by Macrobius in his Saturnalia, vii. 12.\n\n[75] _As in laughter._] \u039a\u03b1\u03b9 \u03c4\u03b5 \u03ba\u03b1\u03c3\u03b9\u03b3\u03bd\u03b7\u03c4\u03c9 \u03b3\u03b5\u03bb\u03b1\u03c3\u03b1\u03c2 \u03b5\u03c0\u03b9 \u03bc\u03b1\u03c1\u03c4\u03c5\u03c1\u03b1 \u03b8\u03b5\u03c3\u03b8\u03b1\u03b9. The\ninterpreters say,\n\n    Etiam cum fratre ludens, testem adhibeto.\n\nBut I should place the comma after _fratre_, and join _ludens_ with\n_testem adhibeto_. \u201cEven in a compact with your brother, have a witness:\nyou may do it laughingly, or as if in jest.\u201d\n\n[76] _With garment gather\u2019d in a knot behind._] \u03c0\u03c5\u03b3\u03bf\u03c3\u03c4\u03bf\u03bb\u03bf\u03c2, adorning the\nhinder parts, seems to refer to some meretricious distinction of dress.\nSolon compelled women of loose character to appear in public in flowered\nrobes. Solomon in that beautiful chapter of the Proverbs has a similar\nallusion. \u201cThere met him a woman _with the attire of a harlot_, and\nsubtle of heart.\u201d Ch. vii. 10.\n\n[77] _Prattling with gay speech._] With her much fair speech she caused\nhim to yield: with the flattering of her lips she forced him. PROVERBS,\nvii. 21.\n\n[78]\n\n                                    _Arise_\n    _Before the sun._]\n\nIn the words of Hesiod there is made mention of one rising of the\nPleiads, which is heliacal, and of a double setting: the time of the\nrising may be referred to the 11th of May. The first setting, which\nindicated ploughing-time, was _cosmical_; when, as the sun rises, the\nPleiads sink below the opposite horizon, which, in the time of Hesiod,\nhappened about the beginning of November. The second setting is somewhat\nobscurely designated in the line\n\n    They in his lustre forty days lie hid;\n\nand is the _heliacal_ setting, which happened the third of April, and\nafter which the Pleiads were immerged in the sun\u2019s splendour forty days.\nHesiod, however, speaks as if he confounded the two settings, for no one\nwould suppose but that the first-mentioned setting was that after which\nthe Pleiads are said to be hidden previous to the harvest. But his words\nare to be explained with more indulgence, since he could not be ignorant\nof the time that intervened between the season of ploughing and that of\nharvest. LE CLERC.\n\n[79] _\u2019Tis time to sow._] In the original, begin _ploughing_; by which\nis meant the last ploughing, when they turned up the soil to receive the\nseed. Thus Virgil, Georg. 1:\n\n    First let the morning Pleiades go down:\n    From the sun\u2019s rays emerge the Gnossian crown,\n    Ere to th\u2019 unwilling earth thou trust the seed.\n\n                                            WARTON.\n\nHeyne observes, \u201cthey sink below the region of the West, at the same time\nthat the sun emerges from the East;\u201d the _cosmical_ setting described by\nHesiod. The receding of the bright star of the crown of Ariadne, which\nVirgil mentions, is its receding from the sun; that is, its heliacal\nrising.\n\nThe heliacal rising is a star\u2019s emersion out of the sun\u2019s rays; that is,\na star rises heliacally when, having been in conjunction with the sun,\nthe sun passes it and recedes from it. The star then emerges out of the\nsun\u2019s rays so far that it becomes again visible, after having been for\nsome time lost in the superiority of day-light. The time of day in which\nthe star rises heliacally is at the dawn of day; it is then seen for a\nfew minutes near the horizon, just out of the reach of the morning light;\nand it rises in a double sense from the horizon and from the sun\u2019s rays.\nAfterwards, as the sun\u2019s distance increases, it is seen more and more\nevery morning.\n\nThe heliacal rising and setting is then, properly, an apparition and\noccultation. With respect to the Pleiads, it appears that different\nauthors vary in fixing the duration of their occultation from about\nthirty-one days to above forty.\n\nIn a note by Holdsworth on Warton\u2019s Georgics, it is observed that\nthe _heliacal_ setting of these stars is pointed out by the word\n_abscondantur_. But this is a contradiction; for _Eo\u00e6 absconduntur_ is\nthe same as _occidunt matutin\u00e6_, set in the morning; but the time of day\nin which a star sets heliacally is in the evening, just after sun-set,\nwhen it is seen only for a few minutes in the west near the horizon, on\nthe edge of the sun\u2019s splendour, into which in a few days more it sinks.\n\n[80] _Plough naked still._] Virgil copies this direction, Georg. i:\n\n    Plough naked swain! and naked sow the land,\n    For lazy winter numbs the labouring hand.\n\n                                        DRYDEN.\n\nServius explains the meaning to be, that he should plough and sow \u201cin\nfair weather, when it was so hot as to make clothing superfluous.\u201d This\nseems to be very idle advice, and fixes on Virgil the imputation of\na truism. An equally superfluous counsel is ascribed by Robinson and\nGr\u00e6vius to Hesiod. We are correctly told that both \u03b3\u03c5\u03bc\u03bd\u03bf\u03c2 and _nudus_\napplied to men who had laid aside their upper garment, whether the\n_pallia_ or _toga_, the Grecian cloak or the Roman gown; and thus is\nexplained the passage in Matthew, xxiv. 18: \u201cNeither let him which is in\nthe field return back to take his clothes:\u201d but as no husbandman, whether\nGreek or Italian, unless insane, would dream of following the plough\nin a trailing cloak, Hesiod may safely be acquitted of so unnecessary\na piece of advice. In the hot climates of Greece and Italy, it was\nprobably the custom for active husbandmen to bare the upper part of their\nbodies. Virgil does not say \u201cPlough in fine weather and not in winter;\u201d\nbut \u201cPlough with your best diligence, for winter will soon be here:\u201d\nequivalent to Hesiod\u2019s \u201cSummer will not last for ever.\u201d\n\n[81] _The idler never shall his garners fill._] He that tilleth his land\nshall have plenty of bread: but he that followeth after vain persons\nshall have poverty enough. PROVERBS, xxviii. 19.\n\n[82] _Trees bud no more._] The sap of the trees, which causes them to\ngerminate, is then at rest. Trees when moist with sap are subject to\nworms, and the timber in consequence would be liable to putrefaction.\nVitruvius also recommends that timber be felled in the autumn.\n\n[83] _A mortar of three feet._] The purposes to which ancient marbles are\napplied by the Turks may serve to explain the use of the mortar, which\nHesiod mentions as part of the apparatus of the husbandman. \u201cCapitals,\nwhen of large dimensions, are turned upside down, and being hollowed out\nare placed in the middle of the street, and used publicly for bruising\nwheat and rice, as in a mortar.\u201d DALLAWAY\u2019S CONSTANTINOPLE.\n\n[84] _Of bending figure._] So also Virgil, Georg. i. 169:\n\n    Young elms, with early force, in copses bow,\n    Fit for the figure of the crooked plough.\n\n                                         DRYDEN.\n\nDr. Martyn, in his comparison of Virgil\u2019s plough with that of Hesiod,\nhas fallen into the mistake of the old interpreters who render \u03b3\u03bf\u03b7\u03bd\n_dentale_, the share-beam: whereas \u03b3\u03c5\u03b7\u03bd is _burim_, the plough-tail, to\nwhich the share-beam joins.\n\n[85] _Thy artist join the whole._] In the original \u201cthe servant of\nMinerva,\u201d that is, the carpenter. Minerva presided over all crafts, and\nwas the patroness of works in iron and wood.\n\n[86]\n\n                                 _with bread_\n    _Of four-squared loaf._]\n\nThe loaf here mentioned is similar to the _quadra_ of the Romans: so\ndenominated from its being marked four-square by incisions at equal\ndistances. See Athen\u00e6us, iii. 29.\n\nBy \u201ca quadruple loaf containing eight portions,\u201d Hesiod, perhaps, means\na loaf double the usual size; similar, probably, to that mentioned by\nTheocritus, Idyl. xxiv. 135:\n\n                              A huge Doric loaf:\n    Which he that digs the ground and sets the plant\n    Might eat and well be fill\u2019d.\n\n[87] _The shrill crane\u2019s migratory cry._] The cranes generally leave\nEurope for a more southern climate about the latter end of autumn;\nand return in the beginning of summer. Their cry is the loudest among\nbirds; and although they soar to such a height as to be invisible, it is\ndistinctly heard. It is often a prognostic of rain: as from the immense\naltitude of their ascent they are peculiarly susceptible of the motions\nand changes of the atmosphere: but Tzetzes is mistaken in supposing that\nthe migratory cry of the crane denotes only its sensibility of cold.\nThese migrations are performed in the night-time, and in numerous bodies;\nand the clangous scream, alluded to by Hesiod, is of use to govern their\ncourse. By this cry they are kept together; are directed to descend upon\nthe corn-fields, the favourite scene of their depredations, and to betake\nthemselves again to flight in case of alarm. Though they soar above the\nreach of sight they can, themselves, clearly distinguish every thing upon\nthe earth beneath them. See \u201cGoldsmith\u2019s Animated Nature.\u201d Virgil notices\nthe crane\u2019s instinct as to rain, Georg. i. 375:\n\n    The wary crane foresees it first, and sails\n    Above the storm, and leaves the lowly vales.\n\n                                         DRYDEN.\n\n[88] _Of ploughing-time the sign._] Of the first ploughing Hesiod says,\n\u03b5\u03b9\u03b1\u03c1\u03b9 \u03c0\u03bf\u03bb\u03b5\u03b9\u03bd: turn the soil in spring; of the second, \u03b8\u03b5\u03c1\u03b5\u03bf\u03c2 \u03bd\u03b5\u03c9\u03bc\u03b5\u03bd\u03b7,\nploughed again in summer; the summer tilth: of the third \u03b1\u03c1\u03bf\u03c4\u03bf\u03bd: by which\nhe invariably means the seed-ploughing, when they both ploughed up and\nsowed the ground. SALMASIUS _in Solinum_, 509.\n\nRobinson quotes a passage of Aristophanes: Birds, 711:\n\n    \u201cSow when the screaming crane migrates to Afric.\u201d\n\nThe ploughing first mentioned by Hesiod is, then, actually the last.\nIt appears that he recommends ground to be twi-fallowed: or prepared\ntwice by ploughing before the seed-ploughing. Virgil directs it to be\ntri-fallowed, Georg. i. 47:\n\n    Deep in the furrows press the shining share:\n    Those lands at last repay the peasant\u2019s care,\n    Which twice the sun and twice the frosts sustain,\n    And burst his barns surcharged with ponderous grain.\n\n                                                 WARTON.\n\nFallowing, or ploughing the soil while at rest from yielding a crop,\nprepares it for the growth of seed by pulverizing it, exposing it to\nthe influences of the atmosphere, and destroying the weeds: and is of\nessential use in recovering land that had been impoverished and exhausted\nby a succession of the same crops. The practice of fallows seems,\nhowever, to be now in a great degree superseded by that of an interchange\nof other crops in rotation; and the succession of green or leguminous\nplants alternately with the white crops or grain: the frequent hoeings,\nin this mode of tillage, cleaning the soil no less effectually than\nfallowings.\n\n[89] _Rich in his own conceit._] The sluggard is wiser in his own conceit\nthan seven men who can render a reason. PROVERBS, xxvi. 16.\n\n[90] _These let thy timely care provide before._] See Virgil, Georg. i.\n167:\n\n    The sharpen\u2019d share and heavy-timber\u2019d plough:\n    And Ceres\u2019 ponderous waggon rolling slow:\n    And Celeus\u2019 harrows, hurdles, sleds to trail\n    O\u2019er the press\u2019d grain, and Bacchus\u2019 flying sail:\n    These long before provide.\n\n                                              WARTON.\n\n[91] _Jove subterrene._] Guietus supposes that the husband of Proserpine\nis invoked from the consanguinity between Pluto, Proserpine, and Ceres.\nBut this is not the only reason. Gr\u00e6vius properly remarks, that the\nearth, and all under the earth, were subject to Pluto, as the air was\nto Jupiter: Pluto, therefore, was supposed the giver of those treasures\nwhich the earth produces: whether of metals or grain. He was in fact the\nsame with Plutus: and both names are formed from the Greek word \u03c0\u03bb\u03bf\u03c5\u03c4\u03bf\u03c2,\n_wealth_.\n\n[92] _And scare the birds away._] So Virgil, Georg. i. 156:\n\n    _Et sonitu terrebis aves._\n\n    Scare with a shout the birds.\n\n[93] _Nor thou on others\u2019 heaps a gazer be._] Virgil, Georg. i. 158:\n\n    On others\u2019 crops you may with envy look,\n    And shake for food the long-abandon\u2019d oak.\n\n                                       DRYDEN.\n\n[94] _And few shall pass thee then with honouring eye._] The Psalmist\nalludes to a blessing given by the passers-by at harvest: while comparing\nthe wicked to grass withering on the house-top: \u201cWherewith the mower\nfilleth not his hand, nor he that bindeth sheaves his bosom: neither\ndo they which go by say, \u201cThe blessing of the Lord be upon you.\u201d PSALM\ncxxix. 7, 8.\n\n[95] _The brazier\u2019s forge._] \u0398\u03b1\u03ba\u03bf\u03c2 was properly a _seat_ or _bench_: and\n\u03bb\u03b5\u03c3\u03c7\u03b7, _conversation_, _chit-chat_\u2014but they came to be applied to the\nplaces where loungers sat and talked: hence the former meant a shop, and\nthe latter a portico, piazza, or public exchange, whither idlers of all\nkinds resorted. It should seem from Homer that beggars took up their\nnight\u2019s lodging in such places: Odyssey xvii. Melantho, taking Ulysses\nfor a mendicant, says to him,\n\n    Thou wilt not seek for rest some brazier\u2019s forge,\n    Or portico.\n\n[96] _To gripe thy tumid foot._] Aristotle remarks that, in famished\npersons, the upper parts of the body are dried up, and the lower\nextremities become tumid. SCALIGER.\n\n[97] _Make now your nests._] Gr\u00e6vius finds out that \u03ba\u03b1\u03bb\u03b9\u03b1\u03b9 may mean\n_huts_ and _barns_, as well as _nests_: and in the true spirit of a\nverbal commentator, explodes the old interpretation of \u201c_facite nidos_\u201d\nand substitutes \u201c_exstruite casas_:\u201d in which he is followed, like the\nleader of the flock, by all the modern editors. These _viri doctissimi_\nare for ever stumbling on school-boy absurdities in their labour to be\ncritical and sagacious: \u201cthey strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel.\u201d\nAre the labourers to set about building huts and barns in the middle of\nharvest? Who does not see that \u201cmake nests,\u201d as old Chapman properly\nrenders it, is a mere proverbial figure? \u201cMake hay while the sun shines.\u201d\n\n[98] _Those frosts._] Hesiod is said, in this description, to have\nimitated Orpheus: as if two poets could not describe the appearances and\neffects of winter, without copying from each other.\n\n      Many and frequent from the clouds of heaven\n    The frosts rush down, on beeches and all trees,\n    Mountains and rocks and men: and every face\n    Is touch\u2019d with sadness. They sore-nipping smite\n    The beasts among the hills: nor any man\n    Can leave his dwelling: quell\u2019d in every limb\n    By galling cold: in all his limbs congeal\u2019d.\n\n[99] _Yet from bland Venus\u2019 mystic rites aloof._] Hesiod introduces the\nprivacy and retiredness of a virgin\u2019s apartment in the house of her\nmother, as conveying the idea of more complete shelter.\n\n[100] _With shining ointment._] Ointment always accompanied the bath.\nThus Homer describes the bathing of Nausicaa and her maids in the sixth\nbook of the Odyssey:\n\n    And laving next and smoothing o\u2019er with oil\n    Their limbs, all seated on the river bank\n    They took repast.\n\nAnd afterwards of Ulysses:\n\n                      At his side they spread\n    Mantle and vest; and next the limpid oil\n    Presenting to him in a golden cruse,\n    Exhorted him to bathe.\n\n                                 COWPER.\n\n[101] _Now gnaws the boneless polypus his feet._] Athen\u00e6us, book vii.\nexplodes the notion of the polypus gnawing its own feet, and states that\nits feet are so injured by the congers or sea-eels. Pliny accounts for\nthe mutilation in rather a marvellous manner. \u201cThey are ravenously fond\nof oysters: these, at the touch, close their shell, and cutting off the\nclaws of the polypus take their food from their plunderer. The polypi,\ntherefore, lie in wait for them when they are open; and placing a little\nstone, so as not to touch the body of the oyster, and so as not to be\nejected by the muscular motion of the shell, assail them in security and\nextract the flesh. The oyster contracts itself, but to no purpose, having\nbeen thus wedged open.\u201d Lib. ix. c. 30.\n\nThe same story has been told, with greater probability, of the monkey.\n\u201cThe name of polypi has been peculiarly ascribed to these animals by the\nancients, because of the number of feelers or feet of which they are all\npossessed, and with which they have a slow progressive motion: but the\nmoderns have given the name of polypus to a reptile that lives in fresh\nwater, by no means so large or observable. These are found at the bottom\nof wet ditches, or attached to the under-surface of the broad-leaved\nplants that grow and swim on the waters. The same difference holds\nbetween these and the sea-water polypi, as between all the productions\nof the land and the ocean. The marine vegetables and animals grow to a\nmonstrous size. The eel, the pike, or the bream of fresh waters is but\nsmall: in the sea they grow to an enormous magnitude. It is so between\nthe polypi of both elements. Those of the sea are found from two feet\nin length to three or four: and Pliny has even described one, the arms\nof which were no less than thirty feet long. The polypus contracts\nitself more or less in proportion as it is touched, or as the water is\nagitated in which they are seen. Warmth animates them, and cold benumbs\nthem: but it requires a degree of cold approaching congelation, before\nthey are reduced to perfect inactivity. The arms, when the animal is\nnot disturbed, and the season is not unfavourable, are thrown about in\nvarious directions in order to seize and entangle its prey. Sometimes\nthree or four of the arms are thus employed; while the rest are\ncontracted, like the horns of a snail, within the animal\u2019s body. It seems\ncapable of giving what length it pleases to these arms: it contracts\nand extends them at pleasure; and stretches them only in proportion to\nthe remoteness of the object it would seize. Some of these animals so\nstrongly resemble a flowering vegetable in their forms, that they have\nbeen mistaken for such by many naturalists. Mr. Hughes, the author of the\nNatural History of Barbadoes, has described a species of this animal, but\nhas mistaken its nature, and called it a sensitive flowering plant. He\nobserved it to take refuge in the holes of rocks, and, when undisturbed,\nto spread forth a number of ramifications, each terminated by a flowery\npetal, which shrunk at the approach of the hand, and withdrew into the\nhole from which it had before been seen to issue. This plant, however,\nwas no other than an animal of the polypus kind: which is not only to be\nfound in Barbadoes, but also on many parts of the coast of Cornwall, and\nalong the shores of the Continent.\u201d GOLDSMITH, ANIMATED NATURE, vol. vi.\n\nThe Polypus is mentioned by Homer, Odys. v.:\n\n    As when the polypus enforced forsakes\n    His rough recess, in his contracted claws\n    He gripes the pebbles still to which he clung:\n    So he within his lacerated grasp\n    The crumbled stone retain\u2019d, when from his hold\n    The huge wave forced him, and he sank again.\n\n                                         COWPER.\n\n[102] _Like aged men._] In the original, \u03c4\u03c1\u03b9\u03c0\u03bf\u03b4\u03b9 \u03b2\u03c1\u03bf\u03c4\u1fb6, a three-footed\nmortal: that is, a man with a crutch: a metaphor suggested, probably, by\nthe \u00e6nigma of the Sphinx.\n\n\u201cWhat is that, which is two-footed, three-footed, and four-footed, yet\none and the same? \u0152dipus declared that the thing propounded to him was\nman: for that a man, while an infant, went on four: when grown up, on\ntwo; and when old, on three: as using a staff through feebleness.\u201d\nDIODORUS, Bibl. 4.\n\n[103] _On a scant warp._] The nap is formed by the threads of the woof:\nHesiod therefore directs the woof to be thick and strong, that the nap\nmay the better exclude wet.\n\n[104] _A strong-dying ox._] This expression is borrowed from Chapman.\nThus we find in Homer, \u201ca thong from a slaughtered ox.\u201d This is\nillustrated by Plutarch in his Symposiacs, 2. by the fact that the skins\nof slaughtered beasts are tougher, less flaccid, and less liable to be\nbroken than those of animals which have died of age or distemper. The\nancients, says Gr\u00e6vius, made their shoes of the raw hide.\n\n\u03a0\u03b9\u03bb\u03bf\u03b9, in Latin _udones_, were woollen socks; worn, when abroad, inside\nthe shoes; or as substitutes for shoes, in the manner of slippers, when\nwithin doors and in the bed-chamber. LE CLERC.\n\n[105] _And kid-skins \u2019gainst the rigid season sew._] This was a sort of\nrough cloak of skins common to the country people of Greece.\n\n    Stripp\u2019d of my garberdine of skins, at once\n    I will from high leap down into the waves.\n\n                  THEOCRITUS, _Idyl._ iii. 25.\n\nGr\u00e6vius quotes Varro as authority for a similar covering being worn among\nthe Romans: by soldiers in camp, by mariners, and poor people.\n\n[106] _A well-wrought-cap._] In very ancient times the cap answered no\nother purpose for the head than the sock, which was worn inside the shoe,\ndid for the foot. The helmets were lined with it. Of this kind was that\nof the helmet which Ulysses, Odys. x. received from Merion:\n\n                          Without it was secured\n    With boar\u2019s-teeth ivory-white, inserted thick\n    On all sides, and with woollen head-piece lined.\n\n                                             COWPER.\n\nEustathius tells us, that in after-times they gave the same term, \u03c0\u03b9\u03bb\u03bf\u03c2,\nto any covering for the head, and thus they ascribed to Ulysses a cap\nsuch as they then used. Thus as the club is the badge of Hercules, so is\nthe cap of Ulysses: as appears from coins and other antiques. The ancient\nGreeks did not use any covering for the head: and it was from them that\nthe Romans borrowed the custom of going bare-headed. They used caps only\non journeys; in excessive heat or cold; or in rainy weather. These caps\nthe Latins called _petasos_: they were a kind of broad-brimmed hat, like\nthat which is observed in the figures of Mercury. Otherwise, when in the\ncity, they merely wrapped their heads in the lappet of the gown. GR\u00c6VIUS.\n\n[107] _The wintry tropic._] The winter solstice, according to the table\nof Petavius, happened in Hesiod\u2019s time on the 30th of December. The\nacronychal rising of Arcturus took place in the 14th degree of Pisces,\nwhich corresponds in the calendar with the 5th of March. LE CLERC.\n\nThe acronychal rising of a star is when it rises at the beginning of\nnight: the acronychal setting is when it sets at the end of night. But\nthere are two acronychal risings and settings: the one when the star\nrises exactly as the sun sets, and sets exactly as the sun rises. This is\nthe _true_ acronychal rising and setting, but it is invisible by reason\nof the day-light. The other is the visible or _apparent_ acronychal\nrising and setting; which is, when the star is actually seen in the\nhorizon.\n\n[108] _The green artichoke._] \u03a3\u03ba\u03bf\u03bb\u03c5\u03bc\u03bf\u03c2 is not the thistle, as has been\ncommonly supposed. Pliny says of it, lib. xxii. c. 22, \u201cThe scolymos is\nalso received for food in the East. The stalk is never more than a cubit\nin height, with scaly leaves, and a black root of a sweet taste.\u201d It is,\ntherefore, the artichoke.\n\n[109] _The loud cicada._] The interpreters translate \u03b7\u03c7\u03b5\u03c4\u03b1 _canora_, and\n\u03bb\u03b9\u03b3\u03c5\u03c1\u03b7\u03bd _dulcem_; and hence an idea is prevalent that Hesiod speaks of\nthe cicada as having a sweet note; but of these epithets the first is\nproperly _vocal_ or _sonorous_, and the second _shrill_ or _stridulous_.\nAnacreon calls the insect \u201cwise in music,\u201d but he seems to think the note\nmusical from its cheerful association with summer:\n\n    Mortals honour thee with praise,\n    Prophet sweet of summer days.\n\nVirgil applies to it the characteristics of _hoarse_ and _querulous_. Ecl.\nii. Georgic. iii.\n\n\u201cOf this genus the most common European species is the _cicada plebeia_\nof Linn\u00e6us. This is the insect so often commemorated by the ancient\npoets; and generally confounded by the major part of translators with\nthe grasshopper. It is a native of the warmer parts of Europe, and\nparticularly of Italy and Greece: appearing in the latter months of\nsummer, and continuing its shrill chirping during the greatest part of\nthe day: generally sitting among the leaves of trees. Notwithstanding\nthe romantic attestations in honour of the cicada, it is certain that\nmodern ears are offended rather than pleased with its voice; which\nis so very strong and stridulous, that it fatigues by its incessant\nrepetition; and a single cicada, hung up in a cage, has been found to\ndrown the voice of a whole company. The male cicada alone exerts this\npowerful note, the female being entirely mute. That a sound so piercing\nshould proceed from so small a body may well excite our astonishment;\nand the curious apparatus, by which it is produced, has justly claimed\nthe attention of the most celebrated investigators. Reaumur and Ro\u00ebsel,\nin particular, have endeavoured to ascertain the nature of the mechanism\nby which the noise is produced; and have found that it proceeds from a\npair of concave membranes, seated on each side of the first joints of the\nabdomen: the large concavities of the abdomen, immediately under the two\nbroad _lamell\u00e6_ in the male insect, are also faced by a thin, pellucid,\niridescent membrane, serving to increase and reverberate the sound; and\na strong muscular apparatus is exerted for the purpose of moving the\nnecessary organs.\u201d SHAW, GENERAL ZOOLOGY, vol. vi.\n\nThe same naturalist specifies several large and elegant insects in\nthis division of the genus cicada. One with the body of a polished\nblack colour, marked with scarlet rings: another of a green hue, with\ntransparent wings, veined also with green; and a third of a fine black\nvaried beneath with yellow streaks, and the wings black towards the base.\n\n[110] _Then the plump goat._] This is imitated by Virgil, Georg. i. 341:\n\n    For then the hills with pleasing shades are crown\u2019d,\n    And sleeps are sweeter on the silken ground:\n    With milder beams the sun serenely shines,\n    Fat are the lambs and luscious are the wines.\n\n                                          DRYDEN.\n\n[111] _But weak of man the heat-enfeebled reins._] Aristotle is of the\nsame opinion. The curious reader may consult the Dictionnaire de BAYLE,\niv. 222. Note A.\n\n[112] _Byblian wine._] This was so called from a region of Thrace: it was\na thin wine, and not intoxicating. See Athen\u00e6us, i. 31. It is mentioned\nby Theocritus, Idyl. xiv. 15:\n\n    I open\u2019d them a flask of Byblian wine\n    Well-odour\u2019d: with the flavour of four years.\n\n[113] _Orion\u2019s beamy strength._] In the table of Petavius the bright\nstar of the foot of Orion makes its heliacal rise in the 18th degree of\nCancer: that is, on the 12th of July. LE CLERC.\n\n[114] _On gusty ground._] So Varro, de Re Rustic\u00e2, lib. i. c. 51. \u201cThe\nthreshing-floor should be in a field, on higher ground, where the wind\nmight blow over it.\u201d See also Columella, lib. xi. c. 20.\n\n[115]\n\n                    _Thy hireling swain_\n    _From forth thy house dismiss._]\n\n\u0398\u03b7\u03c4\u03b1 \u03b1\u03bf\u03b9\u03ba\u03bf\u03bd \u03c0\u03bf\u03b9\u03b5\u03b9\u03c3\u03b8\u03b1\u03b9 is rendered by Gr\u00e6vius _comparare sibi servum\ndomo carentem_: and Schrevelius explains the passage to mean that \u201cyou\nshould seek out a servant who, having no house of his own to look after,\ncould direct his whole attention to your concerns.\u201d So when the harvest\nis over, and the corn laid up in the granaries, he is to look out for a\nlabourer! Was there ever a direction so unmeaning as this? I translate\nthe words, (_meo periculo_) \u201c_servum operarium \u00e8 domo dimitte_.\u201d\n\n[116] _Keep, too, a sharp-tooth\u2019d dog._] Virgil has a more poetical\npassage on the same subject, Georg. iii. 404:\n\n    Nor last forget thy faithful dogs: but feed\n    With fattening whey the mastiff\u2019s generous breed\n    And Spartan race, who for the fold\u2019s relief\n    Will prosecute with cries the nightly thief,\n    Repulse the prowling wolf, and hold at bay\n    The mountain robbers rushing to the prey.\n\n                                      DRYDEN.\n\n[117]\n\n              _On Arcturus looks from high_\n    _The rosy-finger\u2019d morn._]\n\nBy this is understood the heliacal rising of Arcturus, which happened in\nthe time of Hesiod about the 21st of September. LE CLERC.\n\n[118]\n\n                    _On morning\u2019s brink_\n    _The Pleiads, Hyads, and Orion sink._]\n\nThis is the morning, or cosmical, setting of the Pleiads; which, according\nto Petavius, happened some time in November. LE CLERC.\n\n[119] _Then varying winds._] Virgil cautions the navigator against the\nappearances of the sun, Georg. i. 455:\n\n    If dusky spots are varied on his brow\n    And streak\u2019d with red a troubled colour show:\n    That sullen mixture shall at once declare\n    Winds, rain, and storms, and elemental war:\n    What desperate madman then would venture o\u2019er\n    The frith, or haul his cables from the shore?\n\n                                          DRYDEN.\n\n[120] _Black ocean._] \u039f\u03b9\u03bd\u03bf\u03c0\u03b9 \u03c0\u03bf\u03bd\u03c4\u03c9, wine-coloured. This evidently means\nblack: as the Greek poets apply the epithet black to wine. Hesiod has\n\u03b1\u03b9\u03b8\u03bf\u03c0\u03b1 \u03bf\u03b9\u03bd\u03bf\u03b9, black coloured wine. The sense of this latter epithet is\ndeduced from the blackness caused by burning: as \u03b1\u03b9\u03b8\u03c9 is _to burn_.\n\n[121] _In summer irksome._] This inconvenience arose from the site of\nthe place: as the scholiasts Proclus and Tzetzes relate: for by the\nneighbourhood of so high a mountain as Helicon, the breezes, which might\nhave alleviated the summer heat, were intercepted: and in winter, the\nrays of the sun were excluded from the village; which was also exposed to\ntorrents from the melting of the snow. ROBINSON.\n\n[122] _Decline a slender bark._] \u0391\u03b9\u03bd\u03b5\u03b9\u03bd, _commend_. This passage is\nquoted by Plutarch in illustration of words used in a different sense\nfrom what they seem to import. _Praise_ means _refuse_. The same idiom\noccurs in Virgil\u2019s second Georgic:\n\n                  Commend the large excess\n    Of spacious vineyards: cultivate the less.\n\n                                       DRYDEN.\n\n[123] _O\u2019er the sea\u2019s broad way._] From the following extracts it will\nnot appear extraordinary that this prodigious voyage of Hesiod should\nhave afforded him but little opportunity of acquiring a practical\nknowledge of navigation. On an inspection of the map we must, however,\nconcede that the passage from Aulis direct to Chalcis is somewhat wider\nthan the part of the strait crossed by a draw-bridge.\n\n\u201cElle (Chalcis) est situ\u00e9e dans un endroit o\u00f9 \u00e0 la faveur de deux\npromontoires qui s\u2019avan\u00e7ent de part et d\u2019autre, les c\u00f4tes de l\u2019\u00eele\ntouchent presque \u00e0 celles de B\u00e8otie.\n\n\u201cCe leger intervalle, qu\u2019on appelle Euripe, est en partie combl\u00e9 par\nune digue. A chacune de ses extr\u00e9mit\u00e9s est une tour pour le d\u00e9fendre,\net un pont-lever pour laisser passer un vaisseau.\u201d BARTHELEMY, VOYAGES\nD\u2019ANACHARSIS, tom. ii. p. 82.\n\n[124] _Where first their tuneful inspiration flow\u2019d._] That is, on mount\nHelicon. Both Le Clerc and Robinson unaccountably refer the term \u03b5\u03bd\u03b8\u03b1,\nwhere, to Chalcis: and regard this passage as contradictory to that in\nthe proem to the Theogony: whereas the one confirms the other.\n\n[125]\n\n    _When from the summer-tropic fifty days_\n    _Have roll\u2019d._]\n\nIf no verses be wanting here, Hesiod truly needs not boast of his\nskill in nautical affairs. For what can be more absurd than to confine\nall navigation within fifty days, and those beginning from the\nsummer-solstice; especially as the summer solstice fell on the 3d of\nJuly? I should suppose that there was a deficiency of two verses to this\neffect:\n\n    Before the summer-tropic fifty days\n    Thy keel may safely plough the azure ways.\n\nThe similarity of the lines may have caused the copyist\u2019s omission of\nthe two former. I am aware that the art of navigation was in that\nage imperfect: but if sea-faring men had learnt from experience that\nnavigation was safe fifty days _after_ the summer solstice, they could\nhave learnt from the same teacher that it was equally safe fifty days\n_before_ it: namely, in the months of May and June. LE CLERC.\n\n[126] _Men, too, may sail in spring._] What the poet says here of a\nspring voyage, I understand of that which may be made in the month of\nApril: which is not much less liable to gales and storms than even the\nwinter months. Certainly it was in April that the fig-tree began to be in\nleaf. LE CLERC.\n\n[127] _And wed the fifth of her expanded bloom._] She begins to bloom in\nher twelfth year. Let her wed in the fifth year of her puberty; that is,\nin her sixteenth. GUIETUS.\n\nRobinson, not considering the difference of climate, supposes that the\nfourteenth year is the first of her puberty, and that she is directed to\nwed in her nineteenth.\n\n[128] _Shall send a fire thy vigorous bones within._] A virtuous woman is\na crown to her husband, but she that maketh ashamed is as rottenness in\nhis bones. PROVERBS, xii. 4.\n\n[129] _Nor lie with idle tongue._] Devise not a lie against thy brother,\nneither do the like to thy friend. ECCLESIASTICUS, vii. 12.\n\n[130] _Chastise his sin._] Far more liberal is the counsel of the son of\nSirach:\n\nAdmonish a friend: it may be, he hath not done it; and if he have done\nit, that he may do it no more.\n\nAdmonish thy friend: it may be he hath not said it; and if he have, that\nhe speak it not again.\n\nAdmonish a friend, for many times it is a slander; and believe not every\ntale.\n\nThere is one that slippeth in his speech, but not from his heart: and who\nis he, that hath not offended with his tongue?\n\nECCLESIASTICUS, xix.\n\nCicero says elegantly, \u201cCare is to be taken lest friendships convert\nthemselves even into grievous enmities: whence arise bickerings,\nbackbitings, contumelies: these are yet to be borne, if they be\nbearable: and this compliment should be paid to the ancient friendship,\nthat the person in fault should be he that inflicts the injury, not he\nthat suffers it.\u201d DE AMICITIA, c. 21.\n\nThe author of the Pythagorean \u201cgolden verses\u201d has a line which deserves\nindeed to be written in letters of gold:\n\n    Hate not thy tried friend for a slender fault.\n\nThis is probably one of the maxims of Hesiod which induced La Harpe to\nobserve, \u201cCette morale n\u2019est pas toujours la meilleure du monde.\u201d LYC\u00c9E,\ntom. i. H\u00e9siode.\n\n[131] _Rebuke not want._] Whoso mocketh the poor reproacheth his Maker.\nPROVERBS, xvii. 5.\n\n[132] _Lo! the best treasure is a frugal tongue._] In the multitude of\nwords there wanteth not sin: but he that refraineth his lips is wise. The\ntongue of the just is as choice silver. PROVERBS, x. 19, 20.\n\n[133] _When many guests combine._] There were two sorts of\nentertainments among the ancient Grecians: the first was provided at\nthe expense of one man, the second was at the common charge of all\npresent: at the latter some of the guests occasionally contributed more\nthan their exact proportion. These were generally most frequented, and\nare recommended by the wise men of those times as most apt to promote\nfriendship and good neighbourhood. They were for the most part managed\nwith more order and decency, because the guests who ate of their own\ncollation were usually more sparing than when they were feasted at\nanother man\u2019s expense; as we are informed by Eustathius. So different was\ntheir behaviour at the public feasts from that at private entertainments,\nthat Minerva, in Homer, having seen the intemperance and unseemly actions\nof Penelope\u2019s courtiers, concludes their entertainment was not provided\nat the common charge.\n\n                      Behold I here\n    A banquet, or a nuptial feast? for these\n    Meet not by contribution to regale;\n    With such brutality and din they hold\n    Their riotous banquet.\n\n                       COWPER, _Odyss._ l.\n\nPOTTER, _Arch\u00e6ologia Gr\u00e6ca_.\n\n[134] _The feast of gods._] A sacrifice was followed by a general\nbanquet, and the tables were spread in the temple itself. The gods were\nsupposed invisibly to be present. Thus we are to explain their visit to\nthe \u00c6thiopians in Homer, Il. i:\n\n    For to the banks of the Oceanus\n    Where \u00c6thiopia holds a feast to Jove\n    He journied yesterday; with whom the gods\n    Went also.\n\n                                       COWPER.\n\n[135] _Ne\u2019er to thy five-branch\u2019d hand apply the blade._] This precept is\nsomewhat obscurely expressed, like the symbols of Pythagoras: that things\nof no value might appear to involve a mysterious importance. Hesiod seems\nto intimate that we should not choose the precise time of the feast for\nwashing the hands and paring the nails, but sit down to table with hands\nready washed. No person, indeed, even at a private entertainment, would\nhave thought of cutting his nails at table, if he did not wish the\nparings to fly into the dishes, which I conceive could not have been more\nagreeable to the Greeks than to ourselves. LE CLERC.\n\n[136] _Upon the goblet\u2019s edge._] Robinson supposes a sentiment of\nhospitality; that the flaggon is not to stand still. Others suppose\n\u03bf\u03b9\u03bd\u03bf\u03c7\u03bf\u03b7 to be a bowl used only in libation, and which it was indecent\nto prostitute to common use. But for this there seems not the least\nauthority.\n\n\u201cAll the allegorical glosses invented by the latter Greeks to varnish\nover the doting superstitions of their ancestors are utterly destitute of\nverisimilitude. Even in our day traces of the old superstitions remain in\nmany places. There are people, for instance, who think it a bad omen if\nthe loaf be inverted, so that the flat part is uppermost; if the knives\nbe laid across, or the salt spilt on the table. It would be just as easy\nto find a mystical sense in these, as in the idle fancies of Hesiod.\u201d LE\nCLERC.\n\n[137] _Unhallow\u2019d vessels._] There is here an allusion to the ancient\ncustom of purifying new vessels and consecrating them to a happy use; or,\nas we say, blessing them. GUIETUS.\n\nLe Clerc imagines a prohibition against seizing the flesh from the\ntripods before a sacrifice, which he illustrates by the offence of the\nsons of Eli, 1 Sam. ii. 13; but what has the bathing to do with this?\n\n[138] _On moveless stones._] By \u03b1\u03ba\u03b9\u03bd\u03b7\u03c4\u03b1, immoveable things, he appears\nto mean the ground or stones, which are cold and hard; or by sitting on\nimmoveable things we may understand habits of sloth. GUIETUS.\n\nProclus interprets the word to mean sepulchres, which it was unlawful\nto move: but on the same grounds it may be interpreted land-marks. One\nshould rather understand by it any sort of stones; Hesiod preferring that\na boy should be placed on wooden slabs that might be moved about. But the\nbeing placed on a stone could not be more hurtful to him on the twelfth\nday or month than at any other period of his childhood. This was a mere\nsuperstition; and we may as well seek to interpret the dreams of a man\nwho is light-headed. LE CLERC.\n\n[139] _The thirtieth of the moon._] That is, the last day of each month;\nfor the most ancient Greeks, as well as the Orientals, employed lunar\nmonths of thirty days. LE CLERC.\n\nThe Greek month was divided into \u03c4\u03c1\u03b9\u03b1 \u03b4\u03b5\u03ba\u03b7\u03bc\u03b5\u03c1\u03b1, three decades of days.\nThe first was called \u03bc\u03b7\u03bd\u03bf\u03c2 \u03b1\u03c1\u03c7\u03bf\u03bc\u03b5\u03bd\u03bf\u03c5 or \u03b9\u03c3\u03c4\u03b1\u03bc\u03b5\u03bd\u03bf\u03c5; the second, \u03bc\u03b7\u03bd\u03bf\u03c2\n\u03bc\u03b7\u03c3\u03bf\u03c5\u03bd\u03c4\u03bf\u03c2; and the third, \u03bc\u03b7\u03bd\u03bf\u03c2 \u03c6\u03b8\u03b9\u03bd\u03bf\u03bd\u03c4\u03bf\u03c2, \u03c0\u03b1\u03c5\u03bf\u03bc\u03b5\u03bd\u03bf\u03c5, or \u03bb\u03b7\u03b3\u03bf\u03bd\u03c4\u03bf\u03c2: the\nbeginning month, the middle month, the declining or ending month. The\nwords were put in the genitive case because some day was placed before\nthem. Thus the middle-first or first of the second decade was the\neleventh of the whole month; and the first of the end, or of the last\ndecade, was the twenty-first: the twenty-ninth was called \u03b5\u03b9\u03ba\u03b1\u03c2 \u03bc\u03b5\u03b3\u03b1\u03bb\u03b7,\nthe great twentieth. The French Republican calendar was formed on the\nGreek model.\n\n[140] _What time the people to the courts repair._] The forenoon was\ndistinguished by the time of the court of judicature sitting, as in this\npassage of Hesiod; the afternoon by the time of its breaking up, as in\nthe following of Homer:\n\n                  At what hour the judge,\n    After decision made of numerous strifes\n    Between young candidates for honour, leaves\n    The forum, for refreshment\u2019s sake at home.\n\n                         COWPER, _Odyss._ xii.\n\n[141] _Beware the fifth._] Virgil copies this, as well as some other of\nthese superstitions, Georg. i. 275:\n\n    For various works behold the moon declare\n    Some days more fortunate: the fifth beware:\n    Pale Orcus and the Furies then sprang forth\u2014\n    ...\n    Next to the tenth the seventh to luck inclines\n    For taming oxen and for planting vines:\n    Then best her woof the prudent housewife weaves:\n    Better for flight the ninth; averse to thieves.\n\n                                            WARTON.\n\n\n\n\n\nThe Theogony.\n\n\n\n\nTHE THEOGONY.\n\n\nThe Argument.\n\nThe proem is a rhapsody in honour of the Muses. It opens with a\ndescription of their solemn dances on mount Helicon, and of the hymns\nwhich they sing during their nightly visitation of earth. The poet then\nrelates their appearance to himself, and his consequent inspiration;\ndescribes their employments in heaven; their birth and dignity; their\ninfluence on kings or magistrates, minstrels and bards; and finishes\nwith invoking their assistance and proposing his subject. The COSMOGONY,\nor origin of nature, then commences, and blends into the THEOGONY, or\ngeneration of gods, which is continued through the whole poem, and\nconcludes with the race of demi-gods, or those born from the loves of\ngoddesses and mortals. The following legendary traditions are interwoven\nepisodically with the main subject. I. The imprisonment of his children\nby URANUS or HEAVEN in a subterranean cave; and the consequent conspiracy\nof EARTH and CRONUS, or SATURN. II. The concealment of the infant\nJUPITER. III. The impiety and punishment of Prometheus. IV. The creation\nof PANDORA, or WOMAN. V. The war of the GODS and TITANS. VI. The combat\nof JUPITER with the giant TYPH\u00c6US.\n\n\nTHE THEOGONY.\n\n    Begin we from the Muses oh my song!\n    Muses of Helicon: their dwelling-place\n    The mountain vast and holy: where around\n    The altar of high Jove and fountain dark\n    From azure depth, [142]they lightly leap in dance\n    With delicate feet; and having duly bathed\n    Their tender bodies in Permessian streams,\n    [143]In springs that gush\u2019d fresh from the courser\u2019s hoof,\n    Or blest Olmius\u2019 waters, many a time\n    Upon the topmost ridge of Helicon\n    Their elegant and amorous dances thread,\n    And smite the earth with strong-rebounding feet.\n    Thence breaking forth tumultuous, and enwrapt\n    With the deep mist of air, they onward pass\n    Nightly, and utter, as they sweep on high,\n    A voice in stilly darkness beautiful.\n    They hymn the praise of \u00c6gis-wielding Jove,\n    And Juno, named of Argos, who august\n    In golden sandals walks: and her, whose eyes\n    Glitter with azure light, Minerva born\n    From Jove: Apollo, [144]sire of prophecy,\n    And Dian gladden\u2019d by the twanging bow:\n    Earth-grasping Neptune, shaker of earth\u2019s shores:\n    Majestic Themis and Dione fair:\n    [145]And Venus twinkling bland her tremulous lids:\n    Hebe, her brows with golden fillet bound:\n    Morn, the vast Sun, and the resplendent Moon:\n    Latona and Japetus: and him\n    Of crooked wisdom, Saturn: and the Earth:\n    And the huge Ocean, and the sable Night\n    And all the sacred race of deities\n    Existing ever. They to HESIOD erst\n    Have taught their stately song: the whilst he fed\n    His lambs beneath the holy Helicon.\n      And thus the goddesses, th\u2019 Olympian maids\n    Whose sire is Jove, first hail\u2019d me in their speech;\n    \u201cShepherds! that tend in fields the fold; ye shames!\n    [146]Ye fleshly appetites! the Muses hear:\n    \u2019Tis we can utter fictions veil\u2019d like truths,\n    Or, if we list, speak truths without a veil.\u201d\n      So said the daughters of the mighty Jove,\n    Sooth-speaking maids: and gave unto my hand\n    A rod of marvellous growth, [147]a laurel-bough\n    Of blooming verdure; and within me breathed\n    A heavenly voice, that I might utter forth\n    All past and future things: and bade me praise\n    The blessed race of ever-living gods:\n    And ever first and last the Muses sing.\n      Away then\u2014why [148]this tale of oaks and rocks?\n    Begin we from the Muses oh my song!\n    They the great spirit of their father Jove\n    Delight in heaven: their tongues symphonious breathe\n    All past, all present, and all future things:\n    Sweet, inexhaustible, from every mouth\n    That voice flows on: the Thunderer\u2019s palace laughs\n    With scatter\u2019d melody of honied sounds\n    From the breathed voice of goddesses, and all\n    The snow-topp\u2019d summits of Olympus ring,\n    The mansions of immortals. They send forth\n    Their undecaying voice, and in their songs\n    Proclaim before all themes the race of gods\n    From the beginning: the majestic race,\n    Whom earth and awful heaven endow\u2019d with life:\n    And all the deities who sprang from these,\n    Givers of blessings. Then again they change\n    The strain to Jove, the sire of gods and men:\n    Him praise the choral goddesses: him first\n    And last: with rising and with ending song:\n    How excellent he is above all gods,\n    And in his power most mighty. Once again\n    They sing the race of men, and giants strong;\n    And soothe the soul of Jupiter in heaven.\n    They, daughters of high Jove: Olympian maids:\n    Whom erst Mnemosyne, protecting queen\n    Of rich Eleuther\u2019s fallows, in embrace\n    With Jove their sire amidst [149]Pieria\u2019s groves\n    Conceived: of ills forgetfulness; to cares\n    Rest: thrice three nights did counsel-shaping Jove\n    Melt in her arms, apart from eyes profane\n    Of all immortals to the sacred couch\n    Ascending: and when now the year was full,\n    When moons had wax\u2019d and waned, and reasons roll\u2019d,\n    And days were number\u2019d, she, some space remote\n    From where Olympus highest towers in snow,\n    [150]Bare the nine maids, with souls together knit\n    In harmony: whose thought is only song:\n    Within whose bosoms dwells th\u2019 unsorrowing mind.\n    There on the mount they shine in troops of dance,\n    And dwell in beautified abodes: and nigh\n    The Graces also dwell, and Love himself,\n    And hold the feast. But they through parted lips\n    Send forth a lovely voice; they sing the laws\n    Of universal heaven; the manners pure\n    Of deathless gods, and lovely is their voice.\n    Anon they bend their footsteps tow\u2019rds the mount,\n    Rejoicing in their beauteous voice and song\n    Unperishing: far round the dusky earth\n    Rings with their hymning voices, and beneath\n    Their many-rustling feet a pleasant sound\n    Ariseth, as tumultuous pass they on\n    To greet their heavenly sire. He reigns in heaven,\n    The bolt and glowing lightning in his grasp,\n    Since by the strong ascendant of his arm\n    Saturn his father fell: he to the gods\n    Appoints the laws, and he their honours names.\n      So sing the Muses; dwellers on the mount\n    Of heaven: nine daughters of the mighty Jove:\n    Melpomene, Euterpe, Erato,\n    Polymnia, Terpsichore, Thalia,\n    Urania, Clio, and Calliope:\n    The chiefest she: who walks upon the steps\n    Of kingly judges in their majesty:\n    And whomsoe\u2019er of heavenly-nurtured kings\n    Jove\u2019s daughters will to honour, looking down\n    With smiling aspect on his cradled head\n    They pour a gentle dew upon his tongue:\n    And words, as honey sweet, drop from his lips.\n    To him the people look: on him all eyes\n    Wait awful, who in righteousness discerns\n    The ways of judgment: in a single breath,\n    Utter\u2019d with knowledge, ends the mightiest strife,\n    And all is peace. The wisdom this of kings:\n    That in their judgment-hall they from the oppress\u2019d\n    Turn back the tide of ills, retrieving wrongs\n    With mild accost of [151]soothing eloquence.\n    On him, the judge and king, when passing forth\n    Among the city-ways, all reverent look\n    With a mild worship, as he were a god:\n    And in [152]the great assembly first is he.\n    Such is the Muses\u2019 goodly gift to man.\n    The Muses, and Apollo darting far\n    The arrows of his splendour, raise on earth\n    [153]Harpers and men of song: but kings arise\n    From Jove himself. Oh blessed is the man\n    Whome\u2019er the Muses love! sweet is the voice\n    That from his lips flows ever. [154]Is there one\n    Who hides some fresh grief in his wounded mind\n    And mourns with aching heart? but he, the bard,\n    [155]The servant of the Muse, awakes the song\n    To deeds of men of old, and blessed gods\n    That dwell on mount Olympus. Straight he feels\n    His sorrow stealing in forgetfulness:\n    Nor of his griefs remembers aught: so soon\n    The Muse\u2019s gift has turn\u2019d his woes away.\n      Daughters of Jove! all hail! but oh inspire\n    The lovely song! record the heavenly race\n    Of gods existing ever: those who sprang\n    From earth and starry heaven and murky night,\n    And whom the salt deep quicken\u2019d. Say how first\n    The gods and earth became: how rivers flow\u2019d:\n    Th\u2019 unbounded sea raged high in foamy swell,\n    The stars shone forth, and overhead the sky\n    Spread its broad arch: and say from these what gods,\n    Givers of blessings, sprang: and how they shared\n    Heaven\u2019s splendid attributes and parted out\n    Distinct their honours: and how first they fix\u2019d\n    Their dwelling midst Olympus\u2019 winding vales:\n    Tell, oh ye Muses! ye who also dwell\n    In mansions of Olympus: tell me all\n    From the beginning: say who first arose.\n    [156]First of all beings Chaos was: and next\n    Wide-bosom\u2019d Earth, the seat for ever firm\n    Of all th\u2019 immortals, whose abode is placed\n    Among the mount Olympus\u2019 snow-top\u2019d heads,\n    [157]Or in the dark abysses of the ground:\n    Then Love most beauteous of immortals rose:\n    He of each god and mortal man at once\n    Unnerves the limbs, dissolves the wiser breast\n    By reason steel\u2019d, and quells the very soul.\n      From Chaos, Erebus and sable Night:\n    From Night arose the Sunshine and the Day:\n    Offspring of Night from Erebus\u2019 embrace.\n      Earth first conceived with Heaven: whose starry cope,\n    Like to herself immense, might compass her\n    On every side: and be to blessed gods\n    A resting-place immoveable for ever.\n    She teem\u2019d with the high Hills, the pleasant haunts\n    Of goddess nymphs, who dwell within the glens\n    Of mountains. With no aid of tender love\n    She gave to birth the sterile Sea, high-swol\u2019n\n    In raging foam: and, Heaven-embraced, anon\n    She teem\u2019d with Ocean, rolling in deep whirls\n    His vast abyss of waters. Cr\u0153us, then,\n    C\u00e6us, Hyperion, and I\u00e4petus,\n    Themis, and Thea rose; Mnemosyne,\n    And Rhea; Ph\u0153be diadem\u2019d with gold,\n    And love-inspiring Tethys: and of these,\n    Youngest in birth, the wily Saturn came,\n    The sternest of her sons; for he abhorr\u2019d\n    The sire who gave him life. Then brought she forth\n    [158]The Cyclops brethren, arrogant of heart,\n    Undaunted Arges, Brontes, Steropes:\n    Who forged the lightning shaft, and gave to Jove\n    His thunder: they were like unto the gods:\n    Save that a single ball of sight was fix\u2019d\n    In their mid-forehead. Cyclops was their name,\n    From that round eye-ball in their brow infix\u2019d:\n    And strength and force and manual craft were theirs.\n      Others again were born from Earth and Heaven:\n    Three giant sons: strong, dreadful but to name,\n    Children of glorying valour: Briareus,\n    Cottus and Gyges: from whose shoulders burst\n    A hundred arms that mock\u2019d approach, and o\u2019er\n    Their limbs hard-sinew\u2019d fifty heads upsprang:\n    Mighty th\u2019 immeasurable strength display\u2019d\n    In each gigantic stature: and of all\n    The children born to earth and heaven these sons\n    Were dreadfullest: and they, e\u2019en from the first,\n    Drew down their father\u2019s hate: as each was born\n    He seized them all, and hid them in th\u2019 abyss\n    Of Earth: nor e\u2019er released them to the light.\n    Heaven in his evil deed rejoiced: vast Earth\n    Groan\u2019d inly, sore aggrieved: but soon devised\n    A stratagem of mischief and of fraud.\n    Sudden creating for herself a kind\n    Of whiter iron, she with labour framed\n    A scythe enormous: and address\u2019d her sons:\n    She spoke emboldening words, though grieved at heart.\n      \u201cMy sons! alas! ye children of a sire\n    Most impious, now obey a mother\u2019s voice:\n    So shall we well avenge the fell despite\n    Of him your father, who the first devised\n    Deeds of injustice.\u201d While she said, on all\n    Fear fell: nor utterance found they, till with soul\n    Embolden\u2019d, wily Saturn huge address\u2019d\n    His awful mother. \u201cMother! be the deed\n    My own: thus pledged I will most sure achieve\n    This feat: nor heed I him, our sire, of name\n    Detested: for that he the first devised\n    Deeds of injustice.\u201d Thus he said, and Earth\n    Was gladden\u2019d at her heart. She planted him\n    In ambush dark and secret: in his grasp\n    She placed the sharp-tooth\u2019d scythe, and tutor\u2019d him\n    In every wile. Vast Heaven came down from high,\n    And with him brought the gloominess of Night\n    On all beneath: with ardour of embrace\n    Hovering o\u2019er Earth, in his immensity\n    He lay diffused around. The son stretch\u2019d forth\n    His weaker hand from ambush: in his right\n    [159]He took the sickle huge and long and rough\n    With sharpen\u2019d teeth: and hastily he reap\u2019d\n    The genial organs of his sire, at once\n    Cut sheer: then cast behind him far away.\n    They not in vain escaped his hold: for Earth\n    Received the blood-drops, and as years roll\u2019d round\n    Teem\u2019d with strong furies and with giants huge,\n    Shining in mail, and grasping in their hands\n    Protended spears: and wood-nymphs, named of men\n    Dryads, o\u2019er all th\u2019 immeasurable earth.\n      So severing, as was said, with edge of steel\n    The genial spoils, he from the continent\n    Amidst the many surges of the sea\n    Hurl\u2019d them. Full long they drifted o\u2019er the deeps:\n    Till now swift-circling a white foam arose\n    From that immortal substance, and a nymph\n    Was quicken\u2019d in the midst. The wafting waves\n    First bore her to Cythera\u2019s heavenly coast:\n    Then reach\u2019d she Cyprus, girt with flowing seas,\n    And forth emerged a goddess, in the charms\n    Of awful beauty. Where her delicate feet\n    Had press\u2019d the sands, green herbage flowering sprang.\n    Her Aphrodite gods and mortals name,\n    [160]The foam-born goddess: and her name is known,\n    As Cytherea with the blooming wreath,\n    For that she touch\u2019d Cythera\u2019s flowery coast:\n    And Cypris, for that on the Cyprian shore\n    She rose, amidst the multitude of waves:\n    And Philomedia, from the source of life.\n    [161]Love track\u2019d her steps; and beautiful Desire\n    Pursued, while soon as born she bent her way\n    Towards heaven\u2019s assembled gods: her honours these\n    From the beginning: whether gods or men\n    Her presence bless, to her the portion fell\n    Of [162]virgin whisperings and alluring smiles,\n    And smooth deceits, and gentle ecstasy,\n    And dalliance, and the blandishments of love.\n      But the great Heaven, rebuking those his sons\n    That issued from his loins, new-named them now\n    Titans: and said that they avenging dared\n    A crime; but retribution was behind.\n      Abhorred Fate and dark Necessity\n    And Death were born from Night: by none embraced\n    These gloomy Night brought self-conceiving forth:\n    And Sleep and all the hovering host of dreams.\n    [163]Then bare she Momus; Care, still brooding sad\n    On many griefs; and next [164]th\u2019 Hesperian maids,\n    Whose charge o\u2019er-sees the fruits of blooming gold\n    Beyond the sounding ocean, the fair trees\n    Of golden fruitage. Then the Destinies\n    Arose, and Fates in vengeance pitiless:\n    Clotho, and Lachesis, and Atropos:\n    Who at the birth of men dispense the lot\n    Of good and evil. They of men and gods\n    The crimes pursue, nor ever pause from wrath\n    Tremendous, till destructive on the head\n    Of him that sins the retribution fall.\n      Then teem\u2019d pernicious Night with Nemesis,\n    The scourge of mortal men: again she bare\n    Fraud and lascivious Love: slow-wasting Age,\n    And still-persisting Strife. From hateful Strife\n    Came sore Affliction and Oblivion drear:\n    Famine and weeping Sorrows: Combats, Wars,\n    And Slaughters, and all Homicides: and Brawls,\n    And Bickerings, and deluding Lies: with them\n    Perverted Law and galling Injury,\n    Inseparable mates: and the dread Oath;\n    A mighty bane to him of earth-born men\n    Who wilful swears, and perjured is forsworn.\n      The Sea with Earth embracing, Nereus rose,\n    [165]Eldest of all his race: unerring seer,\n    And true: with filial veneration named\n    Ancient of Years: for mild and blameless he:\n    Remembering still the right; still merciful\n    As just in counsels. [166]Then rose Thaumas vast,\n    [167]Phorcys the mighty, Ceto fair of cheek,\n    And stern Eurybia, of an iron soul.\n      From Nereus and the fair-hair\u2019d Doris, nymph\n    Of ocean\u2019s perfect stream, the lovely race\n    Of goddess Nereids rose to light, whose haunt\n    Is midst the waters of the sterile main:\n    Eucrate, Proto, Thetis, Amphitrite,\n    Love-breathing Th\u00e1lia, Sao, and Eudora,\n    And Spio, skimming with light feet the wave:\n    Galene, Glauce, and Cymoth\u00f6e:\n    Agave, and the graceful Melita:\n    [168]Rose-arm\u2019d Eunice, and Eulimene:\n    Pasithea, Doto, Erato, Pherusa,\n    Nes\u00e6a, Cranto, and Dynamene:\n    Protomed\u00eda, Doris, and Act\u00e6a:\n    And Panope, and Galat\u00e6a fair:\n    Rose-arm\u2019d Hippon\u00f6e: soft Hippoth\u00f6e:\n    Cymodoce who calms, at once, the waves\n    Of the dark sea, and blasts of heaven-breathed winds:\n    With whom Cymatol\u00e9ge, and the nymph\n    Of beauteous ankles Amphitrite glide:\n    Cymo, E\u00efone, Liagore,\n    And Halimede, with her sea-green wreath:\n    Pontopor\u00efa, and Polynome;\n    Evagore, and blithe Glauconome:\n    Laomed\u00eda, and Evarne blest\n    With gracious nature and with faultless form:\n    Lysianassa, and Autonome,\n    And Psamathe, with shape of comeliness:\n    Divine Menippe, Neso, and Themistho:\n    And Pron\u00f6e, and Eupompe, and Nemertes:\n    Full of her deathless sire\u2019s prophetic soul.\n    These sprang from blameless Nereus: [169]Nereid nymphs:\n    Who midst the waters ply their blameless tasks.\n      Electra, nymph of the deep-flowing ocean,\n    Embraced with Thaumas: rapid Iris thence\n    Rose, and A\u00ebllo and Ocypetes,\n    [170]The sister-harpies, fair with streaming locks:\n    Who track the breezy winds and flights of birds,\n    On wings of swiftness hovering nigh the heaven.\n      Then Ceto, fair of cheek, to Phorcys bore\n    [171]The Grai\u00e6; from their birth-hour gray: and hence\n    Their name with gods, and men that walk the earth:\n    Long-robed Pephredo, saffron-veil\u2019d En\u00fdo:\n    And Gorgons dwelling on the brink of night\n    Beyond the sounding main: where silver-voiced\n    Th\u2019 Hesperian maidens in their watches sing:\n    Stheno, Euryale, Medusa these:\n    The last ill-fated, since of mortal date:\n    The two immortal, and unchanged by years.\n    Yet her alone the blue-hair\u2019d god of waves\n    Enfolded, on the tender meadow grass,\n    And bedded flowers of spring: [172]when Perseus smote\n    Her neck, and snatch\u2019d the sever\u2019d bleeding head,\n    [173]The great Chrysaor then leap\u2019d into life:\n    [174]And Pegasus the steed; who born beside\n    [175]Old Nilus\u2019 fountains thence derived a name.\n    Chrysaor, grasping in his hands a sword\n    Of gold, flew upward on the winged horse:\n    And left beneath him earth, mother of flocks,\n    And soar\u2019d to heaven\u2019s immortals: and there dwells\n    In palaces of Jove, and to the god\n    Deep-counsell\u2019d bears the bolt and arrowy flame.\n      Chrysaor with Callirh\u00f6e, blending love,\n    Nymph of sonorous ocean, [176]Geryon rose,\n    Three headed form: him the strong Hercules\n    Despoil\u2019d of life among his hoof-cloven herds\n    On Erythia, girdled by the wave:\n    What time those oxen ample-brow\u2019d he drove\n    To sacred Tyrinth, the broad ocean frith\n    Once past: and Orthrus, the grim herd-dog, stretch\u2019d\n    Lifeless; and in their murky den beyond\n    The billows of the long-resounding deep,\n    The keeper of those herds, Eurytion, slain.\n      Another monster Ceto bare anon\n    [177]In the deep-hollow\u2019d cavern of a rock:\n    Stupendous nor in shape resembling aught\n    Of human or of heavenly; the divine\n    Echidna, the untameable of soul:\n    Above, a nymph with beauty-blooming cheeks,\n    And eyes of jetty lustre; but below,\n    A speckled serpent horrible and huge,\n    Gorged with blood-banquets, monstrous, hid in caves\n    Of sacred earth. There in the uttermost depth\n    Her cavern is, within a vaulted rock:\n    Alike from mortals and immortals deep\n    Remote: the gods have there decreed her place\n    In mansions known to fame. So pent beneath\n    The rocks of Arima Echidna dwelt\n    Hideous: a nymph immortal, and in youth\n    Unchanged for evermore. But legends tell,\n    That with the jet-eyed nymph Typhaon mix\u2019d\n    His fierce embrace: [178]a whirlwind rude and wild:\n    She, fill\u2019d with love, conceived a progeny\n    Of strain undaunted. Geryon\u2019s dog of herds,\n    Orthrus, the first arose: the second birth,\n    Unutterable, was the dog of hell:\n    Blood-fed and brazen-voiced, and bold and strong,\n    [179]The fifty-headed Cerberus; and third\n    Upsprang the Hydra, pest of Lerna\u2019s lake:\n    Whom Juno, white-arm\u2019d goddess, fostering rear\u2019d\n    With deep resentment fill\u2019d, insatiable,\n    \u2019Gainst Hercules: but he, the son of Jove,\n    Named of Amphytrion, in the dragon\u2019s gore\n    Bathed his unpitying steel: by warlike aid\n    Of Iolaus, and the counsels high\n    Of Pallas the Despoiler. Last came forth\n    [180]Chim\u00e6ra, breathing fire unquenchable:\n    A monster grim and huge, and swift and strong:\n    Her\u2019s were three heads: a glaring lion\u2019s one:\n    One of a goat: a mighty snake\u2019s the third:\n    In front the lion threatened, and behind\n    The serpent, and the goat was in the midst,\n    Exhaling fierce the strength of burning flame.\n    But the wing\u2019d Pegasus his rider bore,\n    The brave Bellerophon, and laid her dead.\n      She, grasp\u2019d by forced embrace of Orthrus, gave\n    [181]Depopulating Sphinx, the mortal plague\n    Of Cadmian nations: and the lion bare\n    Named of Nem\u00e6a. Him Jove\u2019s glorious spouse\n    To fierceness rear\u2019d: and placed his secret lair\n    Among Nem\u00e6a\u2019s hills, the pest of men.\n    There lurking in his haunts he long ensnared\n    The roving tribes of man, and held stern sway\n    O\u2019er cavern\u2019d Tretum: o\u2019er the mountain heights\n    Of Apesantus, and Nem\u00e6a\u2019s wilds:\n    Till strong Alcides quell\u2019d his gasping strength.\n      Now Ceto, in embrace with Phorcys, bare\n    Her youngest born: the dreadful snake, that couch\u2019d\n    In the dark earth\u2019s abyss, his wide domain,\n    Holds o\u2019er the golden apples wakeful guard.\n    [182]Tethys to Ocean brought the rivers forth,\n    In whirlpool waters roll\u2019d: Eridanus\n    Deep-eddied, and Alpheus, and the Nile:\n    Fair-flowing Ister, Strymon, and Meander,\n    Phasis and Rhesus: Achelous bright\n    With silver-circled tides: Heptaporus,\n    And Nessus: Haliacmon and Rhod\u00edus:\n    Gran\u00edcus and the heavenly Simois:\n    \u00c6sapus, Hermus, and Sangarius vast:\n    Pen\u00e9us, and Caicus smoothly flowing:\n    And Ladon, and Parthenius, and Evenus:\n    Ardescus, and Scamander the divine.\n      Then bore she a blest race of Naiad nymphs,\n    Who with the rivers and the king of day\n    O\u2019er the wide earth [183]claim the shorn locks of youth:\n    Their portion this and privilege from Jove.\n    Admete, Pitho, Doris and Ianthe:\n    Urania heavenly-fair: and Clymene:\n    Prymno, Electra, and Callir\u00f6e:\n    Rhod\u00eda, Hippo, and Pasith\u00f6e:\n    Plexaure, Clytie, and Melobosis:\n    Idya, Th\u00f6e, Xeuxo, Galaxaure:\n    And amiable Dione, and Circeis\n    Of nature soft, and Polydora fair;\n    [184]And Ploto, with the bright dilated eyes:\n    Perseis, Ianira, and Acaste:\n    Xanthe, the sweet Petr\u00e6a, saffron-robed\n    Telestho, Metis, and Eurynome:\n    And Crisie, and Menestho, and Europa:\n    Lovely Calypso, Amphiro, Eudora:\n    Asia, and Tyche, and Ocyr\u00f6e:\n    And Styx, the chief of oceanic streams.\n      The daughters these of Tethys and of Ocean,\n    The eldest-born: for more untold remain:\n    Three-thousand graceful Oceanides\n    [185]Long-stepping tread the earth: or far and wide\n    Dispersed, they haunt [186]the glassy depth of lakes,\n    A glorious sisterhood of goddess birth.\n    As many rivers also, yet untold,\n    Rushing with hollow-dashing echoes, rose\n    From awful Tethys: but their every name\n    Is not for mortal man to memorate,\n    Arduous; yet known to all the borderers round.\n      Now Thia, yielding to Hyperion\u2019s arms,\n    Bare the great Sun and the refulgent Moon:\n    And Morn, that scatters wide the rosy light\n    To men that walk the earth, and deathless gods\n    Whose mansion is yon ample firmament.\n      Eurybia, noble goddess, blending love\n    With Crius, gave the great Astr\u00e6us birth,\n    Pallas the god, and Perses, wise in lore.\n      The Morning to Astr\u00e6us bare the Winds\n    Of spirit untamed: [187]East, West, and South, and North\n    Cleaving his rapid course: a goddess thus\n    Embracing with a god. Last, Lucifer\n    Sprang radiant from the dawn-appearing Morn:\n    And all the glittering stars that gird the heaven.\n      Styx, ocean-nymph, with Pallas mingling love,\n    Bare Victory, whose feet are beautiful\n    In palaces: and Zeal, and Strength, and Force,\n    Illustrious children. [188]Not apart from Jove\n    Their mansion is: nor is there seat, or way,\n    But he before them in his glory sits\n    Or passes forth: and where the Thunderer is,\n    Their place is found for ever. So devised\n    The nymph of Ocean, the eternal Styx:\n    What time the Lightning-sender call\u2019d from heaven,\n    And summon\u2019d all th\u2019 immortal deities\n    To broad Olympus\u2019 top: then thus he spake:\n    \u201cHear all ye gods! That god who wars with me\n    Against the Titans, shall retain the gifts\n    Which Saturn gave, and honours heretofore\n    His portion midst th\u2019 immortals: and whoe\u2019er\n    Unhonour\u2019d and ungifted has repined\n    Under Saturnian sway, the same shall rise,\n    \u201cAs just it is, to honours and rewards.\u201d\n      Then first of every power eternal Styx,\n    Sway\u2019d by the careful counsels of her sire,\n    Stood on Olympus, and her sons beside:\n    Her Jove received with honour, and endow\u2019d\n    With goodly gifts: ordain\u2019d her the great oath\n    Of deities: her sons for evermore\n    Indwellers with himself. Alike to all,\n    Even as he pledged that sacred word, the god\n    Perform\u2019d; so reigns he, strong in power and might.\n      Now Ph\u0153be sought the love-delighting couch\n    Of C\u0153us: so within a god\u2019s embrace\n    Conceived the goddess. Then arose to life\n    The azure-robed Latona: ever mild:\n    Gracious to man and to immortal gods:\n    Mild from the first beginning of the world:\n    Gentlest of all within th\u2019 Olympian courts.\n      Anon she bare [189]Asteria, blest in fame:\n    Whom Perses to his spacious palace led,\n    That he might call her spouse: and [190]she conceived\n    With Hecat\u00e9. Her o\u2019er all others Jove\n    Hath honour\u2019d, and endow\u2019d with splendid gifts:\n    With power on earth and o\u2019er the untill\u2019d sea:\n    Nor less her glory from the starry heaven,\n    Chief honour\u2019d by immortals: and if one\n    Of earthly men performing the due rite\n    Of victim divination, would appease\n    The gods above, he calls on Hecat\u00e9:\n    To him, whose prayer the goddess gracious hears,\n    High honour comes spontaneous, and to him\n    She yields all affluence; for the power is hers.\n    Whatever gods, the sons of heaven and earth,\n    Shared honour at the hands of Jove, o\u2019er all\n    [191]Her wide allotment stands: nor whatsoe\u2019er\n    Of rank she held, midst the old Titan gods,\n    Has Saturn\u2019s son invaded or deprived;\n    As was the ancient heritage of power\n    So hers remains: e\u2019en from the first of things.\n    Nor is [192]her solitary birth reproach:\n    Nor less, though singly born, her rank and power\n    In heaven and earth and main, but higher meed\n    Of glory, since her honour is from Jove.\n    She, in the greatness of her power, is nigh\n    With aid to whom she lists: whoe\u2019er she wills\n    O\u2019er the great council of the people shines:\n    And when the mailed men arise to wage\n    Destroying battle, she to whom she lists\n    Is present, yielding victory and fame;\n    And on the judgment-seat with awful kings\n    She sits; and when in the gymnastic strife\n    Men struggle, the propitious goddess comes\n    Present with aid: then easily the man,\n    Conqueror in hardiment and strength, obtains\n    The graceful wreath, and glad-triumphing sheds\n    [193]A gleam of glory o\u2019er his parents\u2019 days.\n    She, as she lists, is nigh to charioteers\n    Who strive with steeds: and voyagers who cleave\n    Through the blue watery vast th\u2019 untractable way.\n    They call upon the name of Hecat\u00e9\n    With vows: and his, loud-sounding god of waves,\n    Earth-shaker Neptune. Easily at will\n    The glorious goddess yields the woodland prey\n    Abundant: easily, while scarce they start\n    On the mock\u2019d vision, snatches them in flight.\n    She too with Hermes is propitious found\n    To herd and fold: and bids increase the droves\n    Innumerable of goats and woolly flocks,\n    And swells their numbers or their numbers thins.\n    And thus, although her mother\u2019s lonely child,\n    She midst th\u2019 immortals shares all attributes.\n    Her Jove appointed nursing-mother bland\n    Of babes, who after her to morn\u2019s broad light\n    Should lift the tender lid: so from the first\n    The foster-nurse of babes: her honours these.\n      Embraced by Saturn, Rhea gave to light\n    Illustrious children. [194]Golden-sandal\u2019d Juno,\n    [195]Ceres, and Vesta: [196]Pluto strong, who dwells\n    In mansions under earth: of ruthless heart;\n    [197]Earth-shaker Neptune, loud with dashing waves:\n    And [198]Jupiter th\u2019 all-wise: the sire of gods\n    And men; beneath whose crashing thunder-peal\n    The wide earth rocks in elemental war.\n    But them, as issuing from the sacred womb\n    They touch\u2019d the mother\u2019s knees, did Saturn huge\n    Devour: revolving in his troubled thought\n    Lest other one of beings heavenly-born\n    Usurp the kingly honours. For from earth\n    And starry heaven the rumour met his ear,\n    That it was doom\u2019d by Fate, strong though he were,\n    [199]To his own son he should bow down his strength.\n    Jove\u2019s wisdom this fulfill\u2019d. No blind design\n    He therefore cherish\u2019d, and in crooked craft\n    Devour\u2019d his children. But on Rhea prey\u2019d\n    Never-forgotten anguish. When the time\n    Was full, and Jove, the sire of gods and men,\n    Came to the birth, her parents she besought,\n    Earth and starr\u2019d Heaven, that they should counsel yield\n    How secretly the babe may spring to life:\n    And how the father\u2019s furies \u2019gainst his race\n    In subtlety devour\u2019d may meet revenge:\n    They to their daughter listen\u2019d and complied:\n    Unfolding what the Fates had sure decreed\n    Of kingly Saturn and his dauntless son:\n    And her they sent to Lyctus: to the clime\n    Of fallow\u2019d Crete. Now when her time was come,\n    The birth of Jove her youngest-born, vast Earth\n    Took to herself the mighty babe, to rear\n    With nurturing softness in the spacious isle\n    Of Crete. So came she then, transporting him\n    With the swift shades of night, to Lyctus first:\n    And thence, upbearing in her arms, conceal\u2019d\n    Beneath the sacred ground, in sunless cave,\n    Where shagg\u2019d with thickening woods th\u2019 Eg\u00e6an mount\n    Impends. Then swathing an enormous stone\n    She placed it in the hands of Heaven\u2019s huge son,\n    The ancient king of gods: that stone he snatch\u2019d;\n    And in his ravening breast convey\u2019d away:\n    Wretch! nor bethought him that the stone supplied\n    His own son\u2019s place; survivor in its room,\n    Unconquer\u2019d and unharm\u2019d: the same, who soon\n    Subduing him with mightiness of arm,\n    Should drive him from his state, and reign himself\n    King of immortals. Swiftly grew the strength\n    And hardy limbs of that same kingly babe:\n    And when the great year had fulfill\u2019d its round,\n    Gigantic Saturn, wily as he was,\n    Yet foil\u2019d by Earth\u2019s considerate craft, and quell\u2019d\n    By his son\u2019s arts and strength, released his race:\n    The stone he first disgorged, the last devour\u2019d:\n    This Jove on earth\u2019s broad surface firmly fix\u2019d\n    At Pythos the divine, in the deep cleft\n    Of high Parnassus: [200]to succeeding times\n    A monument, and miracle to man.\n    The brethren of his father too he loosed,\n    Whom Heaven, their sire, had in his frenzy bound:\n    They the good deed in grateful memory bore:\n    And gave the thunder, and the burning bolt,\n    And lightning, which vast Earth had heretofore\n    Hid in her central caves. In these confides\n    The god, and reigns o\u2019er deities and men.\n      I\u00e4petus ascends the bed of love\n    With Cl\u00fdmene, fair-ankled ocean-nymph:\n    She brought forth Atlas: her undaunted son:\n    Glorying Men\u0153tius and Prometheus vers\u2019d\n    In changeful turns and shifting subtleties:\n    And Epimetheus of unwary mind:\n    Who from old time became an evil curse\n    To man\u2019s inventive race; for he received\n    The clay-form\u2019d virgin-woman sent from Jove.\n    All-seeing Jove struck with his smouldering flash\n    Haughty Men\u0153tius, and cast down to hell;\n    Shameless in crime and arrogant in strength.\n    Atlas, enforced by stern necessity,\n    [201]Props the broad heaven: on earth\u2019s far borders, where\n    Full opposite th\u2019 Hesperian virgins sing\n    With shrill sweet voice, he rears his head and hands\n    Aye unfatiguable: Heaven\u2019s counsellor\n    So doom\u2019d his lot. But with enduring chains\n    [202]He bound Prometheus, train\u2019d in shifting wiles,\n    With galling shackles fixing him aloft\n    Midway a column. Down he sent from high\n    His eagle hovering on expanded wings:\n    She gorged his liver: still beneath her beak\n    Immortal; for it sprang with life, and grew\n    In the night-season, and repair\u2019d the waste\n    Of what the wide-wing\u2019d bird devour\u2019d by day.\n    But her the fair Alcmena\u2019s hardy son\n    Slew; from Prometheus drove the cruel plague,\n    And freed him from his pangs. Olympian Jove,\n    Who reigns on high, consented to the deed;\n    That thence yet higher glory might arise,\n    O\u2019er peopled earth, to Hercules of Thebes:\n    And in his honour, Jove now made to cease\n    The wrath he felt before; \u2019gainst him who strove\n    In wisdom e\u2019en with Saturn\u2019s mighty son.\n      Of yore when strife arose for sacrifice,\n    Twixt gods and men, within Mecona\u2019s walls,\n    Prometheus wilful [203]parted a huge ox\n    And set before the god: so tempting him\n    With purpose to deceive: for here he laid\n    The unctuous substance, entrails, and the flesh\n    Close cover\u2019d with the belly of the hide:\n    There the white bones he craftily disposed;\n    And with the marrowy substance wrapt them round.\n    Then spake the father of the gods and men:\n    \u201cSon of I\u00e4petus!\u201d thou famous god!\n    How partial, friend! are thy divided shares!\u201d\n    So in rebuke spoke Jupiter: whose thoughts\n    Of wisdom perish not. Then answer\u2019d him\n    Wily Prometheus, with a laugh suppress\u2019d,\n    And well remembering his insidious fraud:\n    \u201cHail glorious Jove! thou mightiest of the gods\n    Who shall endure for ever: choose the one\n    Which now the spirit in thy breast persuades.\u201d\n    He spoke, revolving treachery. Jove, whose thoughts\n    Of wisdom perish never, knew the guile,\n    Not unforewarn\u2019d: and straight his soul devised\n    Evil to mortals, that should surely be:\n    He raised the snowy portion with his hands,\n    And felt his spirit wroth: yea, anger seiz\u2019d\n    His spirit, when he saw the whitening bones\n    O\u2019erlaid with cunning artifice: and thence,\n    E\u2019en from that hour, the dwellers upon earth\n    Consume the whitening bones, when climbs the smoke\n    Wreath\u2019d from their flaming altars. Then again\n    Cloud-gatherer Jove with indignation spake:\n    \u201cSon of I\u00e4petus! of all most wise!\n    Still, friend! rememberest thou thy arts of guile?\u201d\n    So spake, incensed, the god, whose wisdom yields\n    To no decay: and from that very hour,\n    Remembering still the treachery, he denied\n    The strength of indefatigable fire\n    To all the dwellers upon earth. But him\n    Benevolent Prometheus did beguile:\n    For in a hollow reed he stole from high\n    The far-seen splendour of unwearied flame.\n    Then deep resentment stung the Thunderer\u2019s soul;\n    And his heart chafed in anger, when he saw\n    The fire far-gleaming in the midst of men.\n    And for the flame restored, he straight devised\n    A mischief to mankind. At Jove\u2019s behest\n    Famed Vulcan fashion\u2019d from the yielding clay\n    A bashful virgin\u2019s likeness: and the maid\n    Of azure eyes, Minerva, round her waist\n    Clasp\u2019d the broad zone, and dress\u2019d her limbs in robe\n    Of flowing whiteness; placed upon her head\n    A wondrous veil of variegated threads;\n    Entwined amidst her hair delicious wreaths\n    Of verdant herbage and fresh-blooming flowers;\n    And set a golden mitre on her brow;\n    Which Vulcan framed, and with adorning hands\n    Wrought, at the pleasure of his father Jove.\n    Rich-labour\u2019d figures, marvellous to sight,\n    Enchased the border: forms of beasts that range\n    The earth, and fishes of the rolling deep:\n    Of these innumerable he there had graven;\n    And exquisite the beauty of his art\n    Shone in these wonders, like to animals\n    Moving in breath, with vocal sounds of life.\n    Now when his plastic hand instead of good\n    Had framed this beauteous bane, he led her forth\n    Where were the other gods and mingled men.\n    She went exulting in her graced array,\n    Which Pallas, daughter of a mighty sire,\n    Known by her eyes of azure, had bestow\u2019d.\n    On gods and men in that same moment seiz\u2019d\n    The ravishment of wonder, when they saw\n    The deep deceit, th\u2019 inextricable snare.\n    From her the sex of tender woman springs:\n    [204]Pernicious is the race: the woman tribe\n    Dwell upon earth, a mighty bane to men:\n    No mates for wasting want, but luxury:\n    And as within the close-roof\u2019d hive, the drones,\n    Helpers of sloth, are pamper\u2019d by the bees;\n    These all the day, till sinks the ruddy sun,\n    Haste on the wing, \u201ctheir murmuring labours ply,\u201d\n    And still cement the white and waxen comb:\n    Those lurk within the cover\u2019d hive, and reap\n    With glutted maw the fruits of others\u2019 toil;\n    Such evil did the Thunderer send to man\n    In woman\u2019s form, and so he gave the sex,\n    Ill helpmates of intolerable toils.\n    Yet more of ill instead of good he gave:\n    The man who shunning wedlock thinks to shun\n    The vexing cares that haunt the woman-state,\n    And lonely waxes old, shall feel the want\n    Of one to foster his declining years:\n    Though not his life be needy, yet his death\n    Shall scatter his possessions to strange heirs,\n    And aliens from his blood. Or if his lot\n    Be marriage, and his spouse of modest fame,\n    Congenial to his heart, e\u2019en then shall ill\n    For ever struggle with the partial good,\n    And cling to his condition. But the man,\n    Who gains the woman of injurious kind,\n    Lives bearing in his secret soul and heart\n    Inevitable sorrow: ills so deep\n    As all the balms of medicine cannot cure.\n    Therefore it is not lawful to elude\n    The eye of Heaven, nor mock th\u2019 Omniscient Mind.\n    For not Prometheus, the benevolent,\n    Could shun Heaven\u2019s heavy wrath: and vain were all\n    His arts of various wisdom: vain to \u2019scape\n    Necessity, or loose the mighty chain.\n      When Heaven their sire \u2019gainst Cottus, Briareus,\n    And Gyges, felt his moody anger chafe\n    Within him, sore amazed with that their strength\n    Immeasurable, their aspect fierce, and bulk\n    Gigantic, with a chain of iron force\n    He bound them down; and fix\u2019d their dwelling-place\n    Beneath the spacious ground: beneath the ground\n    They dwelt in pain and durance: in th\u2019 abyss\n    There sitting, where earth\u2019s utmost bound\u2019ries end.\n    Full long oppress\u2019d with mighty grief of heart\n    They brooded o\u2019er their woes: but them did Jove\n    Saturnian, and those other deathless gods\n    Whom fair-hair\u2019d Rhea bare to Saturn\u2019s love,\n    By policy of Earth, lead forth again\n    To light. For she successive all things told:\n    How with the giant brethren they should win\n    Conquest and splendid glory. Long they fought\n    With toil soul-harrowing: they the deities\n    Titanic and Saturnian: each to each\n    Opposed, in valour of promiscuous war.\n    From Othrys\u2019 lofty summit warr\u2019d [205]the host\n    Of glorious Titans: from Olympus they,\n    The band of gift-dispensing deities\n    Whom fair-hair\u2019d Rhea bore to Saturn\u2019s love.\n    So waged they war soul-harrowing: each with each\n    Ten years and more the furious battle join\u2019d,\n    Unintermitted: nor to either host\n    Was issue of stern strife or end: alike\n    Did either stretch the limit of the war.\n      But now when Jove had set before his powers\n    All things befitting; the repast of gods;\n    The nectar and ambrosia, in each breast\n    Th\u2019 heroic spirit kindled: and now all\n    With nectar and with sweet ambrosia fill\u2019d,\n    Thus spake the father of the gods and men:\n    \u201cHear me! illustrious race of Earth and Heaven!\n    That what the spirit in my bosom prompts\n    I now may utter. Long, and day by day,\n    Confronting each the other, we have fought\n    For conquest and dominion: Titan gods,\n    And we the seed of Saturn. Still do ye,\n    Fronting the Titans in funereal war,\n    Show mighty strength: invulnerable hands:\n    Remembering that mild friendship, and those pangs\n    Remembering, when ye trod the upward way\n    Back to the light: and by our counsels broke\n    \u201cThe burthening chain, and left the murky gloom.\u201d\n      He spake: and Cottus brave of soul replied:\n    \u201cOh Jove august! not darkly hast thou said:\n    Nor know we not how excellent thou art\n    In counsel and in knowledge: thou hast been\n    Deliverer of immortals from a curse\n    Of horror: by thy wisdom have we risen,\n    Oh kingly son of Saturn! from dark gloom\n    And bitter bonds, unhoping of relief.\n    Then with persisting spirit and device\n    Of prudent warfare, shall we still assert\n    Thy empire midst the fearful fray, and still\n    In hardy conflict brave the Titan foe.\u201d\n      He said: the gods, the givers of all good,\n    Heard with acclaim: nor ever till that hour\n    So burn\u2019d each breast with ardour to destroy.\n    All on that day stirr\u2019d up the mighty strife,\n    Female and male: Titanic gods, and sons\n    And daughters of old Saturn; and that band\n    Of giant brethren, whom, from forth th\u2019 abyss\n    Of darkness under earth, deliverer Jove\n    Sent up to light: grim forms and strong, with force\n    Gigantic: arms of hundred-handed gripe\n    Burst from their shoulders: fifty heads up-sprang,\n    Cresting their muscular limbs. They thus opposed\n    In dreadful conflict \u2019gainst the Titans stood,\n    In all their sinewy hands [206]wielding aloft\n    Precipitous rocks. On th\u2019 other side, alert\n    The Titan phalanx closed: then hands of strength\n    Join\u2019d prowess, and show\u2019d forth the works of war.\n    Th\u2019 immeasurable sea tremendous dash\u2019d\n    With roaring; earth re-echoed; the broad heaven\n    Groan\u2019d shattering: vast Olympus reel\u2019d throughout\n    Down to its rooted base beneath the rush\n    Of those immortals: the [207]dark chasm of hell\n    Was shaken with the trembling, with the tramp\n    Of hollow footsteps and strong battle-strokes,\n    And measureless uproar of wild pursuit.\n    So they against each other through the air\n    Hurl\u2019d intermix\u2019d their weapons, scattering groans\n    Where\u2019er they fell. The voice of armies rose\n    With rallying shout through the starr\u2019d firmament,\n    And with a mighty war-cry both the hosts\n    Encountering closed. Nor longer then did Jove\n    Curb down his force; but sudden in his soul\n    There grew dilated strength, and it was fill\u2019d\n    With his omnipotence: [208]his whole of might\n    Broke from him, and the godhead rush\u2019d abroad.\n    The vaulted sky, the mount Olympus, flash\u2019d\n    With his continual presence; for he pass\u2019d\n    Incessant forth, and lighten\u2019d where he trod.\n    Thrown from his nervous grasp the lightnings flew\n    Reiterated swift; the whirling flash\n    Cast sacred splendour, and the thunderbolt\n    Fell. Then on every side the foodful earth\n    Roar\u2019d in the burning flame, and far and near\n    The trackless depth of forests crash\u2019d with fire.\n    Yea\u2014the broad earth burn\u2019d red, the floods of Nile\n    Glow\u2019d, and the desert waters of the sea.\n    Round and around the Titans\u2019 earthy forms\n    Roll\u2019d the hot vapour, and on fiery surge\n    Stream\u2019d upward, swathing in one boundless blaze\n    The purer air of heaven. Keen rush\u2019d the light\n    In quivering splendour from the writhen flash:\n    Strong though they were, intolerable smote\n    Their orbs of sight, and with bedimming glare\n    Scorch\u2019d up their blasted vision. [209]Through the void\n    Of Erebus, the preternatural flame\n    Spread, mingling fire with darkness. But to see\n    With human eye and hear with ear of man\n    Had been, as on a time [210]the heaven and earth\n    Met hurtling in mid-air: as nether earth\n    Crash\u2019d from the centre, and the wreck of heaven\n    Fell ruining from high. Not less, when gods\n    Grappled with gods, the shout and clang of arms\n    Commingled, and the tumult roar\u2019d from heaven.\n    Shrill rush\u2019d the hollow winds, and roused throughout\n    A shaking and a gathering dark of dust;\n    Crushing the thunders from the clouds of air,\n    Hot thunderbolts and flames, the fiery darts\n    Of Jove: and in the midst of either host\n    They bore upon their blast the cry confused\n    Of battle, and the shouting. For the din\n    Tumultuous of that sight-appalling strife\n    Rose without bound. Stern strength of hardy proof\n    Wreak\u2019d there its deeds, till weary sank the fight.\n    But first, array\u2019d in battle, front to front,\n    Full long they stood, and bore the brunt of war.\n    Amid the foremost, towering in the van,\n    [211]The war-unsated Gyges, Briareus,\n    And Cottus, bitterest conflict waged: for they\n    Successive thrice a hundred rocks in air\n    Hurl\u2019d from their sinewy grasp: with missile storm\n    [212]The Titan host o\u2019ershadowing, them they drove,\n    Vain-glorious as they were, with hands of strength\n    O\u2019ercoming them, beneath th\u2019 expanse of earth\n    And bound with galling chains: [213]so far beneath\n    This earth, as earth is distant from the sky:\n    So deep the space to darksome Tartarus.\n    A brazen anvil rushing from the sky\n    Through thrice three days would toss in airy whirl,\n    Nor touch this earth, till the tenth sun arose:\n    Or down earth\u2019s chasm precipitate revolve,\n    Nor till the tenth sun rose attain [214]the verge\n    Of Tartarus. A fence of massive brass\n    Is forged around: around the pass is roll\u2019d\n    A night of triple darkness; and above\n    Impend the roots of earth and barren sea.\n    There the Titanic gods in murkiest gloom\n    Lie hidden: such the cloud-assembler\u2019s will:\n    There in a place of darkness, where vast earth\n    Has end: from thence no egress open lies:\n    Neptune\u2019s huge hand has closed with brazen gates\n    The mouth: a wall environs every side.\n    There Gyges, Cottus, high-souled Briareus,\n    Dwell vigilant: the faithful sentinels\n    Of \u00c6gis-bearer Jove. Successive there\n    The dusky Earth, and darksome Tartarus,\n    The sterile Ocean, and the starry Heaven,\n    [215]Arise and end, their source and boundary.\n    [216]A drear and ghastly wilderness, abhorr\u2019d\n    E\u2019en by the gods; a vast vacuity:\n    Might none the space of one slow-circling year\n    Touch the firm soil, that portal enter\u2019d once,\n    [217]But him the whirls of vexing hurricanes\n    Toss to and fro. E\u2019en by immortals loathed\n    This prodigy of horror. There too stand\n    The mansions drear of gloomy Night, o\u2019erspread\n    With blackening vapours: and before the doors\n    Atlas upholding heaven his forehead rears,\n    And indefatigable hands. There Night\n    And Day, near passing, mutual greeting still\n    Exchange, [218]alternate as they glide athwart\n    The brazen threshold vast. This enters, that\n    Forth issues; nor the two can one abode\n    At once constrain. This passes forth and roams\n    The round of earth; that in the mansion waits,\n    Till the due season of her travel come.\n    Lo! from the one the far-discerning light\n    Beams upon earthly dwellers; but a cloud\n    Of pitchy blackness veils the other round:\n    Pernicious Night: aye-leading in her hand\n    [219]Sleep, Death\u2019s half-brother: sons of gloomy Night\n    There hold they habitation, Death and Sleep;\n    Dread deities: [220]nor them the shining Sun\n    E\u2019er with his beam contemplates, when he climbs\n    The cope of heaven, or when from heaven descends.\n    Of these the one glides gentle o\u2019er the space\n    Of earth and broad expanse of ocean waves,\n    Placid to man. The other has a heart\n    Of iron; yea, the heart within his breast\n    Is brass, unpitying: whom of men he grasps\n    Stern he retains: e\u2019en [221]to immortal gods\n    A foe. The hollow-sounding palaces\n    Of Pluto strong the subterranean god,\n    [222]And stern Pros\u00e9rpina, there full in front\n    Ascend: a grisly dog, implacable,\n    Holds watch before the gates: a stratagem\n    Is his, malicious: them who enter there,\n    With tail and bended ears he fawning soothes:\n    But suffers not that they with backward step\n    Repass: whoe\u2019er would issue from the gates\n    Of Pluto strong and stern Pros\u00e9rpina,\n    For them with marking eye he lurks; on them\n    Springs from his couch, and pitiless devours.\n      There, odious to immortals, dreadful Styx\n    Inhabits: refluent Ocean\u2019s eldest-born:\n    She from the gods apart for ever dwells\n    In far-re-echoing mansions, [223]with arch\u2019d roofs\n    Of loftiest rock o\u2019erhung: and all around\n    The silver columns lean upon the skies.\n      Swift-footed Iris, nymph of Thaumas born,\n    Takes with no frequent embassy her way\n    O\u2019er the broad main\u2019s expanse, when haply strife\n    Be risen, and midst the gods dissension sown:\n    And if there be among th\u2019 Olympian race\n    Who falsehood utters, [224]Jove sends Iris down\n    To bring the great oath in a golden ewer:\n    The far-famed water, from steep, sky-capt rock\n    Distilling in cold stream. Beneath wide Earth\n    Abundant from [225]the sacred river-head,\n    Through shades of blackest night, the Stygian horn\n    Of ocean flows: a tenth of all the streams\n    To the dread oath allotted. In nine streams\n    Circling the round of earth and the broad seas,\n    With silver whirlpools twined in many a maze,\n    It falls into the deep: one stream alone\n    Flows from the rock; a mighty bane to gods.\n    Who of immortals, that inhabit still\n    Olympus top\u2019d with snow, [226]libation pours\n    And is forsworn, he one whole year entire\n    Lies reft of breath: nor yet approaches once\n    The nectar\u2019d and ambrosial sweet repast:\n    But still reclines on the spread festive couch\n    Mute, breathless; and a mortal lethargy\n    O\u2019erwhelms him: but, his malady absolved\n    With the great round of the revolving year,\n    More ills on ills afflictive seize: nine years\n    From ever-living deities remote\n    His lot is cast: in council nor in feast\n    Once joins he, till nine years entire are full:\n    The tenth again he mingles with the blest\n    Societies, who fill th\u2019 Olympian courts.\n    So great an oath the deities of heaven\n    Decreed the water of eternal Styx,\n    The ancient stream; that sweeps with wandering waves\n    A rugged region: where of dusky Earth,\n    And darksome Tartarus, and Ocean waste,\n    And starry Heaven, the source and boundary\n    Successive rise and end: a dreary wild\n    And ghastly: e\u2019en by deities abhorr\u2019d.\n      There gates resplendent rise; the threshold brass;\n    Immoveable; on deep foundations fix\u2019d;\n    Self-framed. Before them the Titanic gods\n    Abide, without th\u2019 assembly of the Blest,\n    Beyond the gulf of darkness. There beneath\n    The ocean-roots, th\u2019 auxiliaries renown\u2019d\n    Of Jove who rolls the hollow-pealing thunder,\n    Cottus and Gyges in near mansions dwell:\n    But He that shakes the shores with dashing surge\n    Hailing him son, gave Briareus as bride\n    Cymopol\u00eda; prize of brave desert.\n      But now when Jupiter from all the heaven\n    Had cast the Titans forth, huge Earth embraced\n    By Tartarus, through balmy Venus\u2019 aid,\n    [227]Her youngest-born Typh\u0153us bore; whose hands\n    Of strength are fitted to stupendous deeds:\n    And indefatigable are the feet\n    Of the strong god: and from his shoulders rise\n    A hundred snaky heads of dragon growth,\n    Horrible, quivering with their blackening tongues:\n    In each amazing head, from eyes that roll\u2019d\n    Within their sockets, fire shone sparkling: fire\n    Blazed from each head, the whilst he roll\u2019d his glance\n    Glaring around him. In those fearful heads\n    Were voices of all sound, miraculous:\n    Now utter\u2019d they distinguishable tones\n    Meet for the ear of gods: now the deep cry\n    Of a wild-bellowing bull untamed in strength:\n    And now the roaring of a lion, fierce\n    In spirit: and anon the yell of whelps\n    Strange to the ear: and now the monster hiss\u2019d,\n    That the high mountains echoed back the sound.\n    Then had a dread event that fatal day\n    Inevitable fall\u2019n, and he had ruled\n    O\u2019er mortals and immortals; but the Sire\n    Of gods and men the peril instant knew\n    Intuitive; and vehement and strong\n    He thunder\u2019d: instantaneous all around\n    Earth reel\u2019d with horrible crash: the firmament\n    Of high heaven roar\u2019d: the streams of Nile, the sea,\n    And uttermost caverns. While the king in wrath\n    Uprose, [228]beneath his everlasting feet\n    The great Olympus trembled, and earth groan\u2019d.\n    From either god a burning radiance caught\n    The darkly azured ocean: from the flash\n    Of lightnings, and that monster\u2019s darted flame,\n    Hot thunderbolts, and blasts of fiery winds.\n    Earth, air, sea, glow\u2019d: the billows, heaved on high,\n    Foam\u2019d round the shores, and dash\u2019d on every side\n    Beneath the rush of gods. Concussion wild\n    And unappeasable uprose: aghast\n    The gloomy monarch of th\u2019 infernal dead\n    Shudder\u2019d: the sub-tartarean Titans heard\n    E\u2019en where they stood, with Saturn in the midst:\n    They heard appall\u2019d the unextinguish\u2019d rage\n    Of tumult, and the din of dreadful war.\n    But now when Jove had gather\u2019d all his strength,\n    And grasp\u2019d his weapons, bolts, and bickering flames,\n    He from the mount Olympus\u2019 topmost ridge\n    Leap\u2019d at a bound, and smote him: hiss\u2019d at once\n    The horrible monster\u2019s heads enormous, scorch\u2019d\n    In one conflagrant blaze. When thus the god\n    Had quell\u2019d him, thunder-smitten, mangled, prone,\n    He fell: earth groan\u2019d and shook beneath his weight.\n    Flame from [229]the lightning-stricken deity\n    Flash\u2019d, midst the mountain-hollows, rugged, dark,\n    Where he fell smitten. Broad earth glow\u2019d intense\n    From that unbounded vapour, and dissolv\u2019d:\n    As fusile tin by art of youths above\n    The wide-brimm\u2019d vase up-bubbling foams with heat;\n    Or iron, hardest of the mine, subdued\n    By burning flame amidst [230]the woody dales\n    Melts in the sacred caves beneath the hands\n    Of Vulcan, so earth melted in the glare\n    Of blazing fire. He down wide Hell\u2019s abyss\n    His victim hurl\u2019d in bitterness of soul.\n    [231]Lo! from Typh\u0153us is the strength of winds\n    Moist-blowing: save the South, North, East, and West:\n    [232]These born from gods, a blessing great to man:\n    Those, unavailing gusts, o\u2019er the waste sea\n    Breathe barren: with sore peril fraught to man:\n    In whirlpool rage fall black upon the deep:\n    Now here, now there, they rush with stormy gale,\n    Scatter the rolling barks, and whelm in death\n    The mariner: an evil succourless\n    To men, who midst the ocean-ways their blast\n    Encounter. They again o\u2019er all th\u2019 expanse\n    Of flowery earth the pleasant works of man\n    Despoil, and fill the blacken\u2019d air with cloud\n    Of eddying dust and hollow rustlings drear.\n      Now had the blessed Powers of Heaven fulfill\u2019d\n    Their toils, for meed of glory \u2019gainst the gods\n    Titanic striving in their strength: and now,\n    Earth-counsell\u2019d, they exhort Olympian Jove,\n    Of wide beholding eyes, to regal sway\n    And empire o\u2019er immortals: he to them\n    Due honours portion\u2019d with an equal hand.\n      First as a bride the Monarch of the gods\n    [233]Led Metis: her o\u2019er deities and men\n    Vers\u2019d in all knowledge. But when now the time\n    Was full, that she should bear [234]the blue-eyed maid\n    Minerva, he with treacheries of smooth speech\n    Beguiled her thought, and hid his spouse away\n    In his own breast: so Earth and starry Heaven\n    Had counsell\u2019d: him they both advising warn\u2019d\n    Lest, in the place of Jove, another seize\n    The kingly honour o\u2019er immortal gods.\n    For so the Fates had destined, that from her\n    An offspring should be born, of wisest strain.\n    First the Tritonian virgin azure-eyed:\n    Of equal might and prudence with her sire:\n    And then a son, king over gods and men,\n    Had she brought forth, invincible of soul,\n    But Jove in his own breast before that hour\n    Deposited the goddess: evermore\n    So warning him of evil and of good.\n      Next led he shining Themis: and she bare\n    Order, and Justice, and the blooming Peace,\n    The Hours by name: who perfect all the works\n    Of human kind: and Destinies, whom Jove\n    All-wise array\u2019d with honour: Lachesis,\n    Clotho, and Atropos: who deal to men\n    The dole of good or ill. To him anon\n    Old Ocean\u2019s daughter, amiablest of mien,\n    Eurynome, [235]brought the three Graces forth\n    Beauteous of cheek: Euphrosyne, Aglaia,\n    And Th\u00e1lia blithe: their eye-lids, as they gaze,\n    Drop love, unnerving: and beneath the shade\n    Of their arch\u2019d brows they steal the sidelong glance\n    Of sweetness. To the couch anon he came\n    Of many-nurturing Ceres: Proserpine\n    The snowy-arm\u2019d she bare: her gloomy Dis\n    Snatch\u2019d from her mother, and all-prudent Jove\n    Consign\u2019d the prize. Next loved he the fair-hair\u2019d\n    Mnemosyne: from her the Muses nine\n    Are born: their brows with golden fillets wreath\u2019d;\n    Whom feasts delight, and rapture sweet of song.\n      In mingled joy with \u00e6gis-wielding Jove\n    Latona bore [236]the arrow-shooting Dian,\n    And Ph\u0153bus, loveliest of the heavenly tribe.\n      He last the blooming Juno led as bride:\n    And she, embracing with the king of gods\n    And men, bore Mars, and [237]Hebe, and Lucina.\n      He from his head disclosed himself to birth\n    The blue-eyed maid, Tritonian [238]Pallas; fierce,\n    Rousing the war-field\u2019s tumult; unsubdued;\n    Leader of armies; awful: whom delight\n    The shout of battle and the shock of war.\n      Without th\u2019 embrace of love did Juno bear\n    [239]Illustrious Vulcan, o\u2019er celestials graced\n    With arts: and strove contending with her spouse\n    Emulous. From the god of sounding waves,\n    Shaker of earth, and Amphitrite, sprang\n    [240]Sea-potent Triton huge: beneath the deep\n    He dwells in golden edifice, a god\n    Of awful might. Now [241]Venus gave to Mars,\n    Breaker of shields, a dreadful offspring: Fear,\n    And Consternation: they confound, in rout\n    Of horrid war, the phalanx dense of men,\n    With city-spoiler Mars. [242]Harmonia last\n    She bare, whom generous Cadmus clasp\u2019d as bride.\n      Daughter of Atlas, Maia bore to Jove\n    [243]The glorious Hermes, herald of the gods;\n    The sacred couch ascending. [244]Semele,\n    Daughter of Cadmus, melting in embrace\n    With Jove, gave jocund Bacchus to the light:\n    A mortal an immortal: now alike\n    Immortal deities. Alcmena bare\n    Strong Hercules: dissolving in embrace\n    With the cloud-gatherer Jove. The crippled god,\n    In arts illustrious, Vulcan, as his bride\n    The gay Aglaia led, the youngest Grace.\n    [245]Bacchus of golden hair, his blooming spouse\n    Daughter of Minos, Ariadne clasp\u2019d\n    With yellow tresses. Her Saturnian Jove\n    Immortal made, and fearless of decay.\n      Fair-limb\u2019d [246]Alcmena\u2019s valiant son, achieved\n    His agonizing labours, Hebe led\n    A bashful bride, the daughter of great Jove\n    And Juno golden-sandal\u2019d, on the mount\n    Olympus top\u2019d with snow. Thrice blest who thus,\n    A mighty task accomplish\u2019d, midst the gods\n    Uninjur\u2019d dwells, and free from withering age\n    For evermore. Perseis, ocean-nymph\n    Illustrious, to th\u2019 unwearied Sun produced\n    Circe and king \u00c6etes. By the will\n    Of Heaven, \u00c6etes, boasting for his sire\n    The world-enlightning Sun, Idya led\n    Cheek-blooming, nymph of ocean\u2019s perfect stream:\n    And she, to love by balmy Venus\u2019 aid\n    Subdued, [247]Medea beauteous-ankled bare.\n      And now farewell, ye heavenly habitants!\n    Ye islands, and ye continents of earth!\n    And thou, oh main! of briny wave profound!\n    Oh sweet of speech, Olympian Muses! born\n    From \u00e6gis-wielding Jove! sing now the tribe\n    Of goddesses; whoe\u2019er, by mortals clasp\u2019d\n    In love, have borne a race resembling gods.\n      Ceres, divinest goddess, in soft joy\n    Blends with I\u00e4sius brave, in the rich tract\n    Of Crete, whose fallow\u2019d glebe thrice-till\u2019d abounds;\n    And [248]Plutus bare, all-bountiful, who roams\n    Earth, and th\u2019 expanded surface of the sea:\n    And him that meets him on his way, whose hands\n    He grasps, him gifts he with abundant gold,\n    And large felicity. Harmonia, born\n    Of lovely Venus, gave to Cadmus\u2019 love\n    Ino and Semele: and fair of cheek\n    Agave, and Auton\u00f6e, the bride\n    Of Arist\u00e6us with the clustering locks;\n    And Polydorus, born in towery Thebes.\n      Aurora to Tithonus Memnon bare,\n    The brazen-helm\u2019d, the \u00c6thiopian king,\n    And king Emathion: and to Cephalus\n    Bare she a son illustrious, Ph\u00e4ethon,\n    Gallantly brave, a mortal like to gods:\n    Whom, while a youth, e\u2019en in the tender flower\n    Of glorious prime, a boy, and vers\u2019d alone\n    In what a boy may know, love\u2019s amorous queen\n    Snatch\u2019d with swift rape away: in her blest fane\n    Appointing him her nightly-serving priest;\n    The heavenly d\u00e6mon of her sanctuary.\n    [249]Jason \u00c6sonides, by heaven\u2019s high will,\n    Bore from \u00c6etes, foster-son of Jove,\n    His daughter: those afflictive toils achieved,\n    Which Pelias, mighty monarch, bold in wrong,\n    Unrighteous, violent of deed, imposed:\n    And much-enduring reach\u2019d th\u2019 Iolchian coast,\n    Wafting in winged bark the jet-eyed maid,\n    His blooming spouse. She yielding thus in love\n    To Jason, shepherd of his people, bare\n    Medeus, whom the son of Philyra,\n    [250]Sage Chiron, midst the mountain-solitudes\n    Train\u2019d up to man: thus were high Jove\u2019s designs\n    Fulfill\u2019d. Now Psamathe, the goddess famed,\n    Who sprang from ancient Nereus of the sea,\n    Bare Phocus; through the lovely Venus\u2019 aid\n    By \u00c6acus embraced. To Peleus\u2019 arms\n    Resign\u2019d, the silver-footed Thetis bare\n    Achilles lion-hearted: cleaving fierce\n    The ranks of men. Wreath\u2019d Cytherea bare\n    \u00c6neas: blending in ecstatic love\n    With brave Anchises on the verdant top\n    Of Ida, wood-embosom\u2019d, many-valed.\n      Now [251]Circe, from the Sun Hyperion-born\n    Descended, with the much-enduring man\n    Ulysses blending love, Latinus bare,\n    And Agrius, brave and blameless: far they left\n    Their native seats in Circe\u2019s hallow\u2019d isles,\n    And o\u2019er the wide-famed Tyrrhene tribes held sway.\n      Calypso, noble midst the goddess race,\n    Clasp\u2019d wise Ulysses: and from rapturous love\n    Nausithous and Nausinous gave to day.\n      Lo! these were they, who yielding to embrace\n    Of mortal men, themselves immortal, gave\n    A race resembling gods. Oh now the tribe\n    Of gentle women sing! Olympian maids!\n    Ye Muses, born from \u00e6gis-bearer Jove!\n\n\nFOOTNOTES\n\n[142] _They lightly leap in dance._] This representation of the Muses is\ntaken from the ancient custom of dancing round the altar during sacrifice.\n\n[143] _In springs that gush\u2019d fresh from the courser\u2019s hoof._] Hippos was\nan \u00c6gyptian title of the sun. This ancient term became obsolete, and was\nmisapplied by the Greeks, who uniformly applied it to horses. Hippocrene\nwas a sacred fountain denominated from the god of light, who was the\npatron of verse and science. But by the Greeks it was referred to an\nanimal, and supposed to have been produced by the hoof of a horse. Other\nnations, says Athanasius, reverenced rivers and fountains: but above all\npeople in the world the \u00c6gyptians held them in the highest honour, and\nesteemed them as divine. From hence the custom passed westward to Greece,\nItaly, and the extremities of Europe. One reason for holding waters\nso sacred arose from a notion that they were gifted with supernatural\npowers. BRYANT.\n\n[144] _Sire of prophecy._] Ph\u0153bus is thought to be derived from \u03a6\u03b1\u03bf\u03c2\n\u03b2\u03b9\u03bf\u03c5, light of life: but the Greeks always associated with the name the\n_prophetic_ attribute of Apollo: hence they formed from it the word\n\u03c6\u03bf\u03b9\u03b2\u03b1\u03b6\u03c9, to _prophecy_: as \u03b2\u03b1\u03ba\u03c7\u03b5\u03c5\u03bd, to celebrate orgies or madden, is\nformed from \u03b2\u03b1\u03ba\u03c7\u03bf\u03c2: like the _debacchor_ of the Latins. Lycophron, v. 6:\n\n    \u0394\u03b1\u03c6\u03b9\u03b7\u03c6\u03b1\u03b3\u03c9\u03bd \u03c6\u03bf\u03b9\u03b2\u03b1\u03b6\u03b5\u03bd \u03b5\u03ba \u03bb\u03b1\u03b9\u03bc\u03c9\u03bd \u03bf\u03c0\u03b1.\n\n    From foaming mouth with laurel fed\n    She pour\u2019d the voice of prophecy.\n\n[145] _And Venus twinkling bland her tremulous lids._] \u0395\u03bb\u03b9\u03ba\u03bf\u03b2\u03bb\u03b5\u03c6\u03b1\u03c1\u03bf\u03c2\nis explained by Guietus _arcuatis superciliis_: so Creech, in his\ntranslation of a chapter of Plutarch\u2019s Morals, where the verse is quoted;\n\n    And Venus beauteous with her bending brows.\n\nBut the Greek for an eyebrow is \u03bf\u03c6\u03c1\u03c5\u03c2. Robinson more properly interprets\nit _orbiculatis palpebris_, with semicircular eye-lids: after the old\nscholiast; who conceives it a metaphor drawn from \u03b5\u03bb\u03b9\u03be: the bending\ntendril of ivy or the vine. Le Clerc explains it _volubilibus palpebris_:\nand is supported by Gr\u00e6vius, who quotes Petronius in illustration of the\npeculiar propriety of the epithet as applied to Venus:\n\n      Blandos oculos et inquietos,\n    Et quadam propri\u00e2 not\u00e2 loquaces.\n\n      Soft and ever restless eyes,\n    Still talkative, with language all their own.\n\n\u0395\u03bb\u03b9\u03c3\u03c3\u03c9 is _circumvolvo_, to roll about.\n\n[146] _Ye fleshly appetites._] This degrading address seems to betray a\nmodern hand. If the proem be genuine, the shepherd\u2019s occupation must have\ndegenerated in the time of Hesiod from its ancient honourable character.\nBut it is not likely that an agricultural poet should speak of husbandmen\nin these debasing terms. Le Clerc\u2019s apology, that revilings such as\nthese belong to the manners of primeval simplicity, does not appear very\nsatisfactory. The poet, whoever he was, meant the address, probably, as\nan exhortation to higher pursuits.\n\n[147] _A laurel-bough._] Salmasius observes that they who aspired to\nskill in divination, chewed the leaf of the laurel. Its poisonous\nquality produced a preternatural action on the nerves, and a convulsion\nand frothing at the mouth, favourable to the idea of being possessed\nor inspired. As poets feigned a kind of divination, and a knowledge\nof supernatural things, the laurel was equally a symbol of poesy and\nprophecy: and held sacred to Ph\u0153bus, the god of verse and divination. We\nfind from Pausanias that those poets who did not play on the lyre held a\nlaurel-bough in their hand, during their public recitations, as the badge\nof their profession. Hence probably the term \u201crhapsodist:\u201d \u03b5\u03c0\u03b9 \u03c1\u03b1\u03b2\u03b4\u03c9\n\u03b1\u03b4\u03b5\u03b9\u03bd, \u201c_to sing to the branch_.\u201d and a rhapsody seems to have designated\nsuch a portion of verses as the bard would recite at one time. Salmasius\nseems therefore mistaken in deriving the word from \u03c1\u03b1\u03c0\u03c4\u03b5\u03b9\u03bd \u03c4\u03b1\u03c2 \u03c9\u03b4\u03b1\u03c2,\n_stitching together songs_: in allusion to the centos which the Homeric\nrhapsodists were accustomed to recite from the works of Homer: although\nthe derivation appears countenanced by Pindar\u2019s expression of \u03c1\u03b1\u03c0\u03c4\u03c9\u03bd\n\u03b5\u03c0\u03b5\u03c9\u03bd \u03b1\u03bf\u03b9\u03b4\u03bf\u03b9, _singers of tissued verses_.\n\n[148] _This tale of oaks._] This seems to have been a proverbial\nexpression to signify any idle tale or preamble. The Scholiasts\nillustrate it from Odyssey xvii. 163, where Penelope asks Ulysses, whom\nshe does not yet recognise, \u201cwhence he is?\u201d and observes,\n\n    Thou comest not from some ancient oak or rock:\n\nin allusion to the fable of men born from trees: originating, possibly,\nin children being found exposed in hollow trees and cavities of rocks.\nBut there is another passage in Homer more to the purpose, Il. xx. 126:\n\n    It is no time from oak or hollow rock\n    With him to parley, as a nymph and swain,\n    A nymph and swain soft parley mutual hold.\n\n                                       COWPER.\n\nMr. Bryant explains this passage in Homer by the traditionary reverence\npaid to caverns: which in the first ages were deemed oracular temples:\nwhence persons entered into compacts under rocks and oaks as places of\nsecurity. But surely there is no need to go back to the first ages, or to\ndive into traditional superstitions for the solution of a circumstance so\nextremely obvious, as that of two lovers conversing in the shade. Harmer\nin his \u201cIllustrations of the Classics,\u201d vol. iii. of his \u201cObservations\non Scripture,\u201d renders \u03b1\u03c0\u03bf \u03b4\u03c1\u03c5\u03bf\u03c2, _on account of_ an oak: instead of\n_from an oak_: \u201cwhen people meet each other on account of some rock or\nsome tree which they happen upon in travelling.\u201d But the alteration is\nquite unnecessary: the word _from_ perhaps indicates that one is resting\nunder the tree, while the other is passing by. The adage in Hesiod is\nexpressed \u201c_around_ an oak:\u201d which implies a _number_ of persons. The\nrock associated with the oak marks the peculiar climate of Greece and\nthe East. The shade cast by a rock is described by Eastern travellers as\nsingularly cool.\n\n[149] _Pieria\u2019s groves._] The Pierians were celebrated for their skill in\nmusic and poetry. Hence Pieria came to be regarded as the birth place of\nthe Muses. BRYANT.\n\n[150] _Bare the nine maids._] The origin of verse itself, which is to\nbe sought in the necessity of some mechanical help for the memory at an\n\u00e6ra when letters were not invented, and every thing depended on oral\ntradition, obviously accounts for the fiction of memory being the mother\nof the Muses. But there is a farther reason. The ancient temples were the\ndepositaries of all traditionary knowledge. We are told by Homer that\nthe voice of the Syrens was enchanting, but their knowledge of the past\nequally so. The Syrens appear to have been merely priestesses of one of\nthis description of temples, which stood in Sicily, and was erected on\nthe sea-shore, answering also the purpose of a lighthouse. The rites\nof the temple consisted partly of hymns chanted by young and beautiful\nwomen to the sound of harps and flutes: and it was their office to\nentangle by their allurements such strangers as touched upon the coast:\nwho were instantly seized by the priests and sacrificed to the solar\ngod. The Syrens are described as the daughters of Calliope, Melpomene,\nand Terpsichore; three of the Muses: they were in fact the same with the\nMuses. These temples were sacred colleges: sciences were taught there: in\nparticular music and astronomy. The transition was easy from the young\npriestesses of these temples, to blooming goddesses who presided over\nhistory, poetry, &c. See the \u201cAnalysis of Ancient Mythology.\u201d\n\n[151] _Soothing eloquence._] This passage is exactly similar to one in\nthe Odyssey, b. viii.:\n\n                                        Jove\n    Crowns him with eloquence: his hearers charm\u2019d\n    Behold him, while with unassuming tone\n    He bears the prize of fluent speech from all;\n    And when he walks the city, as they pass,\n    All turn and gaze, as they had pass\u2019d a god.\n\n                                         COWPER.\n\n[152] _The great assembly._] The ancient Grecian princes, as Dionysius\nof Halicarnassus remarks, were not absolute like the Asiatic monarchs:\ntheir power being limited by laws and established customs:\u201d and this is\nperfectly consonant to the higher authority of Homer. The poet himself\nappears a warm friend to monarchical rule, and takes every opportunity\nzealously to inculcate loyalty. \u201cThe government of many is bad: let\nthere be one chief, one king.\u201d It is, however, sufficiently evident\nthat the poet means here to speak of executive government only: \u201cLet\nthere be one chief, one king,\u201d he says: but he adds, \u201cto whom Jupiter\nhas intrusted the sceptre and the laws, _that by them he may govern_.\u201d\nAccordingly in every Grecian government which he has occasion to enlarge\nupon, he plainly discovers to us strong principles of republican rule.\nNot only the council of principal men, but the assembly of the people\nalso is familiar to him. The name _agora_ signifying a place of meeting,\nand the verb formed from it to express haranguing in assemblies of the\npeople, were already in common use; and to be a good public speaker\nwas esteemed among the highest qualifications a man could possess. In\nthe government of Ph\u00e6acia, as described in the Odyssey, the mixture of\nmonarchy, aristocracy, and democracy is not less clearly marked than in\nthe British constitution. One chief, twelve peers (all honoured, like\nthe chief, with the title which we translate _king_), and the assembly\nof the people, shared the supreme authority. The universal and undoubted\nprerogatives of kings were religious supremacy and military command.\nThey often also exercised judicial power. But in all civil concerns\ntheir authority appears very limited. Every thing, indeed, that remains\nconcerning government in the oldest Grecian poets and historians, tends\nto demonstrate that the general spirit of it among the early Greeks was\nnearly the same as among our Teutonic ancestors. The ordinary business\nof the community was directed by the chiefs. Concerning extraordinary\nmatters and more essential interests, the multitude claimed a right to be\nconsulted. MITFORD, History of Greece, i. 3.\n\n[153] _Harpers and men of song._] Singer was a common name among the\nHebrews, Greeks, Romans, and other ancient people, for poet and musician;\nemployments which were then inseparable: as no poetry was written but\nto be sung; and little or no music composed, but as an accompaniment to\npoetry. BURNEY, History of Music, 312.\n\n[154]\n\n                                    _Is there one_\n    _Who hides some fresh grief._]\n\nThis whole passage is found among the fragments attributed to Homer.\nThis sentiment of the power of poesy and the subjects chosen by the bard\nis entirely in the spirit of antiquity, when mythology and heroism were\nthe favourite themes. Achilles is described by Homer as diverting the\nuneasiness of his mind by warlike odes which he accompanied on the lyre,\nIl. ix. 189:\n\n                            Arriving soon\n    Among the Myrmidons, their chief they found\n    Soothing his sorrows with the silver-framed\n    Harmonious lyre, spoil taken when he took\n    \u00c6etion\u2019s city: with that lyre his cares\n    He soothed, and glorious heroes were his theme.\n\n                                            COWPER.\n\n[155] _The servant of the Muse._] Laws were always promulgated in verse,\nand often publicly sung; a practice which remained in many places long\nafter letters were become common: morality was taught: history was\ndelivered in verse. Lawgivers, philosophers, historians, all who would\napply their experience or their genius to the instruction and amusement\nof others, were necessarily poets. The character of poet was therefore\na character of dignity: an opinion even of sacredness became attached\nto it: a poetical genius was esteemed an effect of divine inspiration\nand a mark of divine favour: and the poet, who moreover carried with\nhim instruction and entertainment, not to be obtained without him, was\na privileged person, enjoying by a kind of prescription the rights of\nuniversal hospitality. MITFORD.\n\nYet in the vulgar tradition, Homer is represented as a mere\nballad-singing mendicant! and whoever attempts to refute, by the light of\nhistoric evidence and of reason, this or similar absurdities of modern\nignorance, when sanctioned by popular prejudice, must expect to be set\ndown as a dealer in paradoxes.\n\n[156] _First of all beings Chaos was._] The ancients were in general\nmaterialists, and thought the world eternal. But the mundane system, or\nat least the history of the world, they supposed to commence from the\ndeluge. The confusion which prevailed at the deluge is often represented\nas the chaotic state of nature: for the earth was hid, and the heavens\nobscured, and all the elements in disorder. BRYANT.\n\n[157] _Or in the dark abysses of the ground._] Tartarus is considered by\nBrucker in his epitome of the Theogony (Historia Critica Philosophi\u00e6,\ntom. 1.) as the third birth. Tartarus is, indeed, after introduced as a\nperson, but in the singular number: the word is here used in the plural,\nand I conceive it to mean simply the cavities of the earth, and to be\nconnected with the preceding sentence.\n\n[158] _The Cyclops brethren._] Thucydides acquaints us concerning the\nCyclopes, that they were the most ancient inhabitants of Sicily, but\nthat he could not find out their race. Strabo places them near \u00c6tna and\nIcontina, and supposes that they once ruled over that part of the island;\nand it is certain that a people called Cyclopians did possess that\nprovince. It is generally agreed by writers upon the subject, that they\nwere of a size superior to the common race of mankind. Among the many\ntribes of the Amonians who went abroad, were to be found people who were\nstyled Anakim; and were descended from the sons of Anak: so that this\nhistory, though carried to a great excess, was probably founded in truth.\nThey were particularly famous for architecture; and in all parts whither\nthey came, they erected noble structures, which were remarkable for their\nheight and beauty: and were often dedicated to the chief deity, the sun,\nunder the name of Elorus and P\u2019Elorus. People were so struck with their\ngrandeur, that they called every thing great or stupendous Pelorian\n(\u03c0\u03b5\u03bb\u03c9\u03c1\u03bf\u03c2, huge): and when they described the Cyclopians as a lofty\ntowering race, they came at last to borrow their ideas of this people\nfrom the towers to which they alluded. They supposed them in height to\nreach the clouds, and in bulk equal to the promontories on which these\nedifices were founded. As these buildings were often-times light-houses,\nand had in their upper story one round casement, \u201clike an Argolick\nbuckler or the moon,\u201d by which they afforded light in the night-season,\nthe Greeks made this a characteristic of the people. They supposed this\naperture to have been an eye, which was fiery and glaring, and placed\nin the middle of their foreheads. What confirmed the mistake was the\nrepresentation of an eye, which was often engraved over the entrance of\nthese temples: the chief deity of \u00c6gypt being elegantly represented by\nthe symbol of an eye, which was intended to signify the superintendency\nof Providence. The notion of the Cyclopes framing the thunder and\nlightning for Jupiter, arose chiefly from the Cyclopians engraving\nhieroglyphics of this sort upon the temples of the deity. The poets\nconsidered them merely in the capacity of blacksmiths, and condemned them\nto the anvil. BRYANT.\n\nThe proximity of \u00c6tna doubtless had its share in this delusion, Virg. \u00c6n.\nviii. 417:\n\n                              Deep below\n    In hollow caves the fires of \u00c6tna glow.\n    The Cyclops here their heavy hammers deal:\n    Loud strokes and hissings of tormented steel\n    Are heard around: the boiling waters roar,\n    And smoky flames through fuming tunnels soar.\n    Hither the father of the fire by night,\n    Through the brown air precipitates his flight:\n    On their eternal anvils here he found\n    The brethren beating, and the blows go round.\n\n                                          DRYDEN.\n\n[159] _He took the sickle._] In a fragment of Sanchoniatho, the Ph\u0153nician\nphilosopher, translated by Philo the Jew, is recorded this very history\nof Uranus and Cronus, or Saturn. De Gebelin, in his \u201cMonde Primitif,\u201d\nresolves it, according to his system, into the invention of reaping,\nwhich he supposes Saturn to personify. But Saturn is often represented\nwith a ship, as well as a sickle; which has no reference to agriculture.\nThe explanation may, however, be correct, if we consider Saturn not as\na mere figurative prosopop\u0153ia of reaping, but as the real person who\nrestored the labours of harvest; in the same manner as his Greek name\nCronus, which some have thought to intimate a personification of Time,\npoints out very significantly the person who began the new \u00e6ra of time:\nthe great father of the post-diluvian world. The type of the ship on\nthe ancient coins of Saturn is an apposite emblem of the ark: and the\nconcealment of the children of Heaven in a cavern seems an obscure\nremnant of the same tradition.\n\n[160] _The foam-born goddess._] The name of the Dove among the ancient\nAmonians was I\u00f6n and I\u00f6nah. This term is often found compounded, and\nexpressed Ad-I\u00f6nah, queen dove: from which title another deity, Adiona,\nwas constituted. This mode of idolatry must have been very ancient, as\nit is mentioned in Leviticus and Deuteronomy, and is one species of\nfalse worship, which Moses forbade by name. According to our method of\nrendering the Hebrew term it is called Idione. This Idione or Adione\nwas the Dione of the Greeks: the deity who was sometimes looked upon as\nthe mother of Venus: at other times as Venus herself: and styled Venus\nDion\u00e6a. Venus was no other than the ancient I\u00f6nah: and we shall find in\nher history numberless circumstances relating to the Noachic dove, and\nto the deluge. We are told, when the waters covered the earth, that the\ndove came back to Noah, having roamed over a vast uninterrupted ocean,\nand found no rest for the sole of her foot. But upon being sent forth a\nsecond time by the patriarch, in order to form a judgment of the state\nof the earth, she returned to the ark in the evening, and \u201cLo! in her\nmouth was an olive leaf plucked off.\u201d From hence Noah conceived his first\nhopes of the waters being assuaged, and the elements reduced to order.\nHe likewise began to foresee the change that was to happen in the earth:\nthat seed-time and harvest would be renewed, and the ground restored to\nits pristine fecundity. In the hieroglyphical sculptures and paintings\nwhere this history was represented, the dove was depicted hovering over\nthe face of the deep. Hence it is that Dione, or Venus, is said to have\nrisen from the sea. Hence it is, also, that she is said to preside over\nwaters, to appease the troubled ocean, and to cause by her presence a\nuniversal calm: that to her were owing the fruits of the earth, and\nthe flowers of the field were renewed by her influence. The address of\nLucretius to this goddess is founded on traditions, which manifestly\nallude to the history above mentioned. BRYANT.\n\n[161] _Love track\u2019d her steps._] What the Greeks called Iris, was\nexpressed Eiras by the \u00c6gyptians. The Greeks out of Eiras formed Eros,\na god of love, whom they annexed to Venus, and made her son: and\nfinding that the bow was his symbol, instead of the iris they gave him\na material bow, with the addition of a quiver and arrows. The bows of\nApollo and Diana were formed from the same original. After the descent\nfrom the ark the first wonderful occurrence was the bow in the clouds,\nand the covenant of which it was made an emblem. At this season another\n\u00e6ra began. The earth was supposed to be renewed, and Time to return to\na second infancy. They therefore formed an emblem of a child with the\nrainbow, to denote this renovation in the world, and called him Eros,\nor Divine Love. But however like a child he might be expressed, the\nmore early mythologists esteemed him the most ancient of the gods; and\nLucian, with great humour, makes Jupiter very much puzzled to account\nfor the appearance of this infant deity. \u201cWhy thou urchin,\u201d says the\nfather of the gods, \u201chow came you with that little childish face, when I\nknow you to be as old as Iapetus?\u201d The Greek and Roman poets reduced the\ncharacter of this deity to that of a wanton, mischievous pigmy: but he\nwas otherwise esteemed of old. He is styled by Plato a mighty god; and\nit is said that Eros was the cause of the greatest blessings to mankind.\nBRYANT.\n\n[162] _Virgin whisperings._] These attributes of Venus suggest a\ncomparison with the properties of her cestus as described by Homer:\n\n      It was an ambush of sweet snares: replete\n    With love, desire, soft intercourse of hearts,\n    And music of resistless whisper\u2019d sounds,\n    Which from the wisest steal their best resolves.\n\n                                             COWPER.\n\n[163] _Then bare she Momus._] Hesiod has truly painted the nature\nof detraction (Momus) in describing it as born from Night. The same\norigin is given to Care: because all anxieties are increased in the\nnight-season: whence Night is styled by Ovid, \u201cthe mighty nurse of\nCares.\u201d LE CLERC.\n\n[164] _Th\u2019 Hesperian maids._] The ancient temples in which the sun was\nadored often stood within enclosures of large extent. Some of them were\nbeautifully planted, and ornamented with pavilions and fountains. Places\nof this nature are alluded to under the description of the gardens of\nthe Hesperides and Alcinous. They were also regal edifices: and termed\nTor-chom and Tar-chon; which signified a regal tower, and was of old\na high place or temple of Cham. By a corruption it was in later times\nrendered Trachon. The term was still further sophisticated by the\nGreeks, and expressed Drachon. The situation of these buildings on a\nhigh eminence, and the reverence in which they were held, made them be\nlooked upon as places of great security. On these accounts they were\nthe repositories of much treasure. When the Greeks understood that in\nthese temples the people worshipped a serpent-deity, they concluded that\nTrachon was a serpent: hence the name Draco came to be appropriated to\nthat imaginary animal. Hence also arose the notion of treasures being\nguarded by dragons, and of the gardens of the Hesperides being under the\nprotection of a serpent. BRYANT.\n\nPerhaps also in these gardens was kept up the ancient Paradisiacal\ntradition: as the golden apples and the dragon present an analogy with\nthe hieroglyphic account given by Moses of the forbidden fruit and the\nserpent. This is the more probable, as it is evident this tradition\nhad mixed itself in the dispersed legends of pagan mythology from the\nremarkable coincidence of the \u201cserpent-woman,\u201d considered by the Mexicans\nas the mother of the human race, and ranked next to \u201cthe god of the\ncelestial paradise.\u201d The Mexican temples, also, where \u201cthe great spirit,\u201d\nor sun personified, was worshipped, are described by Humboldt in his\n\u201cAmerican Researches,\u201d as raised in the midst of a square and walled\nenclosure, which contained gardens and fountains. This mixed worship of\nthe Paradisiacal serpent may account for a serpent, twisted into the form\nof a fillet, being made an emblem of the sun\u2019s disk: and for snaky hair\nbeing typical of divine wisdom: while the tresses were, at the same time,\nso disposed as to figure the sun\u2019s rays, and the human visage represented\nhis orb.\n\nThe Hesperian virgins seem the same with the Muses and Syrens, the\npriestesses of the temple: and their singing sweetly on their watch, as\ndescribed afterwards by Hesiod, alludes to the hymns which they chanted\nat the altar. They are made the daughters of Night, because the gardens\nwere in Afric: which, equally with Italy and Spain, was denominated\n_Hesperia_ by the Greeks: and the region of the west was considered as\nsynonymous with Night.\n\n[165] _Eldest of all his race._] The history of the patriarch was\nrecorded by the ancients through their whole theology. All the principal\ndeities of the sea, however diversified, have a manifest relation to him.\nNoah was figured under the history of Nereus: and his character of an\nunerring prophet, as well as of a just, righteous, and benevolent man, is\nplainly described by Hesiod. BRYANT.\n\n[166] _Then rose Thaumas vast._] That beautiful phenomenon in the\nheavens, which we call the rainbow, was by the \u00c6gyptians styled Thamuz,\nand signified \u201cthe wonder.\u201d The Greeks expressed it Thaumas: and hence\nwas derived \u03b8\u03b1\u03c5\u03bc\u03b1\u03b6\u03c9, to wonder. This Thaumas they did not immediately\nappropriate to the bow: but supposed them to be two personages, and\nThaumas the parent. BRYANT.\n\n[167] _Phorcys the mighty._] Homer calls him \u201cthe old man of the sea:\u201d\nand gives precisely the same appellation to Proteus. The character of the\nlatter varies only from that of Nereus in the quality of transforming\nhimself into sundry shapes. This may have a reference to the great\ndiluvian changes, varying the face of nature. The connexion of Phorcys\nand Ceto favours the supposition that these three deities are one and the\nsame personage.\n\n\u201cThe ark in which mankind were preserved was figured under the semblance\nof a large fish. It was called Cetos.\u201d BRYANT.\n\n_Cetos_ is the Greek term for a whale.\n\n[168] _Rose-arm\u2019d Eunice._] \u03c1\u03bf\u03b4\u03bf\u03c0\u1fc3\u03c7\u03c5\u03c2, _rosy-elbow\u2019d_: this epithet,\ntogether with that of \u03c1\u03bf\u03b4\u03bf\u03b4\u03b1\u03ba\u03c4\u03c5\u03bb\u03bf\u03c2, _rosy-fingered_, was derived from\nthe artificial custom of staining the elbow and tops of the fingers with\nrose-colour. In Dallaway\u2019s Constantinople it is remarked of the modern\nGreek girls \u201cthat the nails both of the fingers and the feet are always\nstained of a rose-colour:\u201d a curious vestige of Grecian antiquity.\n\n[169] _Nereid nymphs._] Spenser, in his \u201cSpousals of the Thames and\nMedway,\u201d b. 4. cant. ii. of the \u201cFaery Queen,\u201d has imposed on himself\na task, from which a translator would fain escape: and has transposed\ninto his stanzas the whole fifty Nereids of Hesiod, together with his\ncatalogue of Rivers.\n\n[170] _The sister-harpies._] The harpies were priests of the sun: they\nwere denominated from their seat of residence, which was an oracular\ntemple called Harpi. The representation of them as winged animals was\nonly the insigne of the people, as the eagle and vulture were of the\n\u00c6gyptians. They seem to have been a set of rapacious persons, who for\ntheir repeated acts of violence and cruelty were driven out of Bithynia,\ntheir country. BRYANT.\n\n[171] _The Grai\u00e6; from their birth-hour gray._] The circumstance of their\nbeing gray seems to be explained by a passage of \u00c6schylus, who describes\nthem as half-women, half-swans:\n\n                          The Gorgonian plains\n    Of Cisthine, where dwell the Phorcydes\n    Swan-form\u2019d, three ancient nymphs, one common eye\n    Their portion.\n\n                                  _Prometheus Chained._\n\n\u201cThis history relates to an Amonian temple founded in the extreme parts\nof Africa, in which there were three priestesses of Cana\u00e4nitish race, who\non that account are said to be in the shape of swans: the swan being the\ninsigne under which their country was denoted. The notion of their having\nbut one eye among them took its rise from a hieroglyphic very common\nin \u00c6gypt and Cana\u00e4n: this was the representation of an eye, which was\nengraved on the pediment of their temples.\u201d BRYANT.\n\nThe Gorgons were probably similar personages: they are described by\n\u00c6schylus with wings and serpentine locks: attributes apparently borrowed\nfrom the emblematical devices in the temples of \u00c6gypt. Gorgon was a title\nof Minerva at Cyrene in Lybia.\n\n[172]\n\n                            _When Perseus smote_\n    _Her neck._]\n\nThe island of Seriphus is represented as having once abounded with\nserpents; and it is styled by Virgil in his Ciris _serpentifera_: it had\nthis epithet, not on account of any real serpents, but according to the\nGreeks, from Medusa\u2019s head, which was brought thither by Perseus. By this\nis meant the serpent-deity, whose worship was here introduced by a people\ncalled Peresians. It was usual with the \u00c6gyptians to describe upon the\narchitrave of their temples some emblem of the deity who there presided:\namong others the serpent was esteemed a most salutary emblem, and they\nmade use of it to signify superior skill and knowledge. A beautiful\nfemale countenance surrounded with an assemblage of serpents was made\nto denote divine wisdom. Many ancient temples were ornamented with this\ncurious hieroglyphic. These devices upon temples were often esteemed as\ntalismans, and supposed to have a hidden influence by which the building\nwas preserved. In the temple of Minerva, at Tigea, was some sculpture of\nMedusa, which the goddess was said to have given to preserve the city\nfrom ever being taken in war. It was probably from this opinion that\nthe Athenians had the head of Medusa represented on the walls of their\nAcropolis; and it was the insigne of many cities, as we find from ancient\ncoins. Perseus was one of the most ancient heroes in the mythology of\nGreece: the merit of whose supposed achievements the Helladians took to\nthemselves, and gave out that he was a native of Argos. Herodotus more\ntruly represents him as an Assyrian; by which is meant a Babylonian. Yet\nhe resided in \u00c6gypt, and is said to have reigned at Memphis. To say the\ntruth, he was _worshipped_ at that place: for Perseus was a title of the\ndeity, and was no other than the Sun, the chief god of the gentile world.\nHis true name was Perez; rendered Peresis, Perses, and Perseus: and in\nthe account given of this personage we have the history of the Peresians\nin their several peregrinations; who were no other than the Heliad\u00e6 and\nOsirians. It is a mixed history in which their forefathers are alluded\nto: particularly their great progenitor, the father of mankind. He was\nsupposed to have had a renewal of life: they therefore described Perseus\nas enclosed in an ark and exposed in a state of childhood on the waters,\nafter having been conceived in a shower of gold. BRYANT.\n\n[173] _The great Chrysaor._] Chus by the \u00c6gyptians and Canaanites was\nstyled Or-chus, and Chus-or: the latter of which was expressed by the\nGreeks by a word more familiar to their ear Chrusor; as if it had a\nreference to gold. This name was sometimes changed into Chrusaor: and\noccurs in many places where the Cuthites were known to have settled. They\nwere a long time in \u00c6gypt: and we read of a Chrusaor in those parts, who\nis said to have sprung from the blood of Medusa. We meet with the same\nChrusaor in the regions of Asia Minor, especially among the Carians: in\nthose parts he was particularly worshipped, and said to have been the\nfirst deified mortal. The Grecians borrowed this term, and applied it\nto Apollo: and from this epithet, Chrusaor, he was denominated the god\nof the golden sword. This weapon was at no time ascribed to him, nor is\nhe ever represented with one either on a gem or marble. He is described\nby Homer in the hymn to Apollo, as wishing for a harp and a bow. There\nis never any mention made of a sword, nor was the term Chrusaor of\nGrecian etymology. Since, then, we may be assured that Chus was the\nperson alluded to, we need not wonder that so many cities, where Apollo\nwas particularly worshipped, should be called Chruse, and Chrusopolis.\nNor is this observable in cities only, but in rivers. It was usual in\nthe first ages to consecrate rivers to deities, and to call them after\ntheir names. Hence many were denominated from Chrusorus: which by the\nGreeks was changed to \u03c7\u03c1\u03c5\u03c3\u03bf\u03c1\u03c1\u03bf\u03b1\u03c2, _flowing with gold_: and from this\nmistake, the Nile was called _Chrusorrhoas_, which had no pretensions to\ngold. In all the places where the sons of Chus spread themselves, the\nGreeks introduced some legend about gold. Hence we read of a _golden_\nfleece at Colchis: _golden_ apples at the Hesperides: at Tartessus a\n_golden_ cup: and at Cuma in Campania a _golden_ branch. But although\nthis repeated mistake arose in great measure from the term Chusus being\neasily convertible into Chrusus, there was another obvious reason for\nthe change. Chus was by many of the Eastern nations expressed Cuth; and\nhis posterity, the Cuthim. This term, in the ancient Chaldaic and other\nAmonian languages, signified _gold_: and hence many cities and countries\nwhere the Cuthites settled were described as golden. BRYANT.\n\n[174] _And Pegasus the steed._] Pegasus received its name from a\nwell-known emblem, the horse of Poseidon: by which we are to understand\nan ark or ship. \u201cBy horses,\u201d says Artemidorus, \u201cthe poets mean ships:\u201d\nand hence it is that Poseidon is called Hippius; for there is a strict\nanalogy between the poetical or winged horse on land, and a real ship in\nthe sea. Hence it came that Pegasus was esteemed the horse of Poseidon\n(Neptune), and often named _scuphius_; a name which relates to a ship,\nand shows the purport of the emblem. The ark, we know, was preserved by\ndivine providence from the sea, which would have overwhelmed it: and as\nit was often represented under this symbol of a horse, it gave rise to\nthe fable of the two chief deities, Jupiter and Neptune, disputing about\nhorses. BRYANT.\n\nTo this we may add the still more remarkable fable of the dispute between\nNeptune and Pallas: when the former produces a horse, and the latter\nan olive-tree. \u201cThese notions,\u201d observes the author of the Analysis,\n\u201carose from emblematical descriptions of the deluge, which the Grecians\nhad received by tradition: but what was general they limited, and\nappropriated to particular places.\u201d\n\n[175] _Old Nilus\u2019 fountains._] \u03a9\u03ba\u03b5\u03b1\u03bd\u03bf\u03c5 \u03c0\u03b5\u03c1\u03b9 \u03c0\u03b7\u03b3\u03b1\u03c2. Le Clerc remarks that\n\u201cthis derivation is absurd: as we do not talk of the fountains of the\nsea, but of rivers.\u201d He adds, however, that \u201cHesiod more than once calls\nthe ocean the river:\u201d and this should have led him to perceive that it is\nin fact a river of which Hesiod speaks. The oceanic river was the Nile,\nwhich in very ancient times was called the Oceanus.\n\n[176] _Geryon rose._] One of the principal and most ancient settlements\nof the Amonians upon the ocean was at Gades; where a prince was supposed\nto have reigned, named Geryon. The harbour at Gades was a very fine one,\nand had several tor, or towers, to direct shipping: and as it was usual\nto imagine the deity to whom the temple was erected to have been the\nbuilder, this temple was said to have been built by Hercules. All this\nthe Grecians took to themselves. They attributed the whole to Hercules\nof Thebes: and as he was supposed to conquer wherever he came, they made\nhim subdue Geryon: and changing the tor or towers into so many head of\ncattle, they describe him as leading them off in triumph. Tor-keren\nsignified a regal tower; and this being interpreted \u03c4\u03c1\u03b9\u03ba\u03b1\u03c1\u03b7\u03bd\u03bf\u03c2, this\npersonage was in consequence described with three heads. BRYANT.\n\nErythia, according to Pliny, is another name for Gades.\n\n[177] _In the deep-hollow\u2019d cavern of a rock._] It is probable that at\nArima in Cilicia there was an Ophite temple; which, like all the most\nancient temples, was a vast cavern. Some emblematical sculpture of the\nserpent-deity may have given rise to the creation of this mythological\nprodigy. The Hydra had, probably, a similar origin.\n\n[178] _A whirlwind, rude and wild._] There were two distinct Typhons or\nTyphaons, although they are sometimes confounded together. The one is the\nsame as the gigantic Typh\u00e6us, subsequently described by Hesiod: the other\nthe whirlwind here mentioned.\n\n\u201cBy this Typhon was signified a mighty whirlwind, or inundation. It had\na relation to the deluge. In hieroglyphical descriptions, the dove was\nrepresented as hovering over the mundane egg which was exposed to the\nfury of Typhon: for an egg, containing in it the proper elements of life,\nwas thought no improper emblem of the ark, in which were preserved the\nrudiments of the future world.\u201d BRYANT.\n\nRobinson is therefore manifestly wrong in proposing to substitute \u03b1\u03bd\u03bf\u03bc\u03bf\u03bd,\n_lawless_, for \u03b1\u03bd\u03b5\u03bc\u03bf\u03bd, _a wind_: though the reading be countenanced by\nthe Bodleian copy and the Florentine edition of Junta.\n\n[179] _The fifty-headed Cerberus._] Cerberus was the name of a place,\nthough esteemed the dog of hell. We are told by Eusebius from Plutarch,\nthat Cerberus was the Sun: but the term properly signified the temple,\nor place, of the Sun. The great luminary was styled by the Amonians both\nOr and Abor; that is, light, and the parent of light: and Cerberus is\nproperly Kir-abor, the place of that deity. The same temple had different\nnames from the diversity of the god\u2019s titles, who was there worshipped.\nIt was called Tor-caph-el; which was changed to \u03c4\u03c1\u03b9\u03ba\u03b5\u03c6\u03b1\u03bb\u03bf\u03c2: and Cerberus\nwas from hence supposed to have had three heads. BRYANT.\n\nThe poets increased the number of heads, as they seem to have thought a\nmultitude of heads or arras sublimely terrific. Pindar out-does Hesiod\nby a whole fifty, and speaks of the _hundred-headed_ Cerberus. \u0395\u03ba\u03b1\u03c4\u03bf\u03bd \u03c4\u03b1\n\u03ba\u03b5\u03c6\u03b1\u03bb\u03bf\u03bd.\n\n[180] _Chim\u00e6ra, breathing fire unquenchable._] The same passage occurs\nin the 6th book of the Iliad. \u201cIn Lycia was the city Phaselis, situated\nupon the mountain Chim\u00e6ra; which mountain was sacred to the god of fire.\nPhaselis is a compound of Phi, which in the Amonian language is a mouth\nor opening, and of Az-el: another name for Orus, the god of light.\nPhaselis signifies a chasm of fire. The reason why this name was imposed\nmay be seen in the history of the place. All the country around abounded\nin fiery eruptions. Chim\u00e6ra is a compound of Chamur, the name of the\ndeity, whose altar stood towards the top of the mountain. But the most\nsatisfactory idea of it may be obtained from coins which were struck\nin its vicinity, and particularly describe it as a hollow and inflamed\nmountain.\u201d BRYANT.\n\n[181] _Depopulating Sphinx._] The Nile begins to rise during the fall of\nthe Abyssinian rains; when the sun is vertical over \u00c6thiopia: and its\nwaters are at their height of inundation when the sun is in the signs Leo\nand Virgo. The \u00c6gyptians seem to have invented a colossal representation\nof the two zodiacal signs, which served as a water-mark to point out\nthe risings of the Nile: and this biform emblem of a virgin and lion\nconstituted the famous \u00e6nigma.\n\n[182] _Tethys to Ocean brought the rivers forth._] When towers were\nsituated upon eminences fashioned very round, they were by the Amonians\ncalled Tith, answering to Titthos in Greek. They were so denominated\nfrom their resemblance to a woman\u2019s breast, and were particularly sacred\nto Orus and Osiris, the deities of light, who by the Grecians were\nrepresented under the title of Apollo. Tethys, the ancient goddess of\nthe sea, was nothing else but an old tower upon a mount. On this account\nit was called Tith-is, the mount of fire. Thetis seems to have been a\ntransposition of the same name, and was probably a Pharos, or fire-tower,\nnear the sea. BRYANT.\n\n[183] _Claim the shorn locks._] It was the custom of the Greeks for adult\nyouths to poll their hair as an offering to Apollo and the Rivers.\n\n[184] _And Ploto, with the bright dilated eyes._] \u0392\u03bf\u03c9\u03c0\u03b9\u03c2, ox-eyed: that\nis, with eyes artificially enlarged. Pliny, Nat. Hist. xxxiii. 6, speaks\nof the _stibium_ or antimony as an astringent, especially as to the\neye-lid: and mentions that it was called _platyophthalmum_, eye-opener:\nfrom its forming an ingredient in the washes of women, as it had the\neffect of opening or dilating the eye by contracting the lid. The modern\nGreek women retain the custom. \u201cOf the few that I have seen with an open\nveil or without one, the faces were remarkable for symmetry and brilliant\ncomplexion: with the nose straight and small: the eyes vivacious: either\nblack or dark-blue: having the eyebrows, partly from nature, and as much\nfrom art, very full, and joining over the nose. They have a custom,\ntoo, of drawing a black line with a mixture of powder of antimony and\noil above and under the eye-lashes in order to give the eye more fire.\u201d\nDALLAWAY, Constantinople Ancient and Modern.\n\nStrutt, in the general introduction to his \u201cView of the Dress and Habits\nof the People of England,\u201d observes that the Moorish ladies in Barbary,\nthe women in Arabia Felix, and those about Aleppo continue the same\ntraditional custom of tinging the inside of the eye-lid. Dr. Russel\ndescribes the operation as effected \u201cby means of a short smooth probe of\nivory, wood, or silver; charged with a powder named the black Kohol. This\nsubstance is a kind of lead-ore brought from Persia: and is prepared by\nroasting it in a quince, an apple, or a truffle; then, adding a few drops\nof oil of almonds, it is ground to a subtile powder on a marble. The\nprobe being first dipped in water, a little of the powder is sprinkled\non it. The middle part is then applied horizontally to the eye, and the\neye-lids being shut upon it, the probe is drawn through between them,\nleaving the inside tinged, and a black rim all round the edge. The Kohol\nis used likewise by the men: but not so generally by way of ornament\nmerely: the practice being deemed rather effeminate. It is supposed to\nstrengthen the sight and prevent various disorders of the eye.\u201d NATURAL\nHISTORY OF ALEPPO, vol. i. iii. 22.\n\nMr. Gifford, in the notes to his admirable version of Juvenal, supposes\nthe effeminate practice of the Roman fops to assimilate with this: in the\npassage which he translates,\n\n    Some with a tiring-pin their eye-brows dye,\n    Till the full arch gives lustre to the eye.\n\n                                   SAT. ii. 67.\n\nJuvenal, however, mentions only the painting of the eye-brows: unless by\nthe epithet _tremulous_, _trementes_, which he applies to the eyes, he\nmeans to intimate the whole operation, and the eye-ball quivering under\nthe application of the needle.\n\nIn the second book of Kings, ix. 30, when it is said \u201cJezebel painted her\nface,\u201d the Septuagint has it, \u201cshe antimonized her eyes:\u201d \u0395\u03c3\u03c4\u03b9\u03bc\u03bc\u03b9\u03b6\u03b1\u03c4\u03bf\n\u03c4\u03bf\u03c5\u03c2 \u03bf\u03c6\u03b8\u03b1\u03bb\u03bc\u03bf\u03c5\u03c2 \u03b1\u03c5\u03c4\u03b7\u03c2.\n\n[185] _Long-stepping tread the earth._] The Greeks, as appears from their\nfemale epithets, were very attentive to the form of the ankle, and the\nmanner of walking: and a long step, no less than a well-turned ankle, as\nimplying a tallness of figure, was thought characteristic of graceful\nbeauty.\n\n[186] _The glassy depth of lakes._] All fountains were esteemed sacred:\nbut especially those which had any preternatural quality and abounded\nwith exhalations. It was an universal notion that a divine energy\nproceeded from the effluvia; and that the persons who resided in their\nvicinity were gifted with a prophetic quality. Fountains of this nature,\nfrom the divine influence with which they were supposed to abound, the\nAmonians styled Ain-omphe, or oracular fountain. These terms the Greeks\ncontracted to _numphe_, a nymph: and supposed such a person to be an\ninferior goddess who presided over waters. Hot springs were imagined to\nbe more immediately under the inspection of the nymphs. Another name for\nthese places was Ain-Ades, the fountain of Ades or the Sun; which in like\nmanner was changed to Na\u00efades, a species of deities of the same class.\nBRYANT.\n\n[187] _East, West, and South, and North._] Le Clerc and the generality\nof editors suppose Hesiod to omit the east-wind entirely: and consider\n\u03b1\u03c1\u03b3\u03b5\u03c3\u03c4\u03b5\u03c9 as an epithet, signifying _swift_ or _serene_: as the term\nis so used by Homer. Gr\u00e6vius quotes a subsequent line of the Theogony\nas authority for \u03b1\u03c1\u03b3\u03b5\u03c3\u03c4\u03b7\u03c2 being so used by Hesiod also: but there is\nevidence for \u03b1\u03c1\u03b3\u03b5\u03c3\u03c4\u03b7\u03c2 being the name of a wind; though Aulus Gellius\nand Pliny suppose it to be a west-wind, called by the Latins Caurus.\nAristotle also, as is observed by the Monthly Reviewer, describes the\n\u03b1\u03c1\u03b3\u03b5\u03c3\u03c4\u03b7\u03c2 as a westerly wind, which blows from that part of the heaven\nin which the sun sets at the summer solstice: and adds that by some\nit is called Olympias, by others Iapyx. We see however from this very\npassage of Aristotle, that the names of winds were capricious and\narbitrary: and in fact almost every district in Greece called the winds\nby names different from those which the neighbouring district used. The\nsame critic observes that in a note to the word \u03c3\u03ba\u03b5\u03b9\u03c1\u03bf\u03b9\u03bd (Caurus), in\nAlberti\u2019s edition of Hesychius, an opinion is intimated that \u03b1\u03c1\u03b3\u03b5\u03c3\u03c4\u03b7\u03c2 is\nproperly an easterly wind, \u03b1\u03c0\u03b7\u03bb\u03b9\u03c9\u03c4\u03b7\u03c2 \u03b1\u03bd\u03b5\u03bc\u03bf\u03c2: nor can there be the least\ndoubt of the matter, in so far as regards Hesiod. The London Reviewer,\nindeed, remarks that \u201cthe omission of the wind would be no proof of\nHesiod\u2019s ignorance of its existence\u201d: a similar omission occurs in the\nPsalms. \u201cPromotion cometh neither from the east, nor the west, nor yet\nfrom the south.\u201d But it is forgotten that Hesiod is describing the\ngenealogy of the winds: and it is very inconceivable that one of the four\ncardinal winds should have escaped his notice. The editions of Stephens\nand Trincavellus read\n\n    \u039d\u03bf\u03c3\u03c6\u03b9 \u039d\u03bf\u03c4\u03bf\u03c5, \u0392\u03bf\u03c1\u03b5\u03c9 \u03c4\u03b5, \u03ba\u03b1\u03b9 \u0391\u03c1\u03b3\u03b5\u03c3\u03c4\u03bf\u03c5, \u0396\u03b5\u03c6\u03c5\u03c1\u03bf\u03c5 \u03c4\u03b5:\n\ninstead of \u03b1\u03c1\u03b3\u03b5\u03c3\u03c4\u03b5\u03c9 \u0396\u03b5\u03c6\u03b9\u03c1\u03bf\u03b9\u03bf: and I have no doubt that this is the true\nreading.\n\n[188]\n\n                                _Not apart from Jove_\n    _Their mansion is._]\n\nSo Callimachus, Hymn to Jupiter:\n\n      No lots have made thee king above all gods:\n    But works of thy own hands: thy Strength and Force,\n    Whom thou hast, therefore, station\u2019d next thy throne.\n\nStrength and Force are introduced by \u00c6schylus as characters, in the first\nscene of his \u201cPrometheus Chained.\u201d\n\n[189] _Asteria, blest in fame._] According to Callimachus Asteria was\nmetamorphosed into the Isle of Delos: a term which alludes to its\nappearing after having been submerged in the sea: \u03b4\u03b7\u03bb\u03bf\u03c2, _visible_.\nAsteria is from \u03b1\u03c3\u03c4\u03b7\u03c1 a star.\n\n                        Asteria was thy name\n    Of old: since like a star from heaven on high\n    Thou didst leap down precipitate within\n    A fathomless abyss of waters, flying\n    From nuptial violence of Jove.\n\n                                  HYMN TO DELOS.\n\n[190]\n\n                              _She conceived_\n    _With Hecat\u00e9._]\n\n\u0395\u03ba\u03b1\u03c4\u03b7 was a title of Diana, as \u03b5\u03ba\u03b1\u03c4\u03bf\u03c2 of Apollo: from \u03b5\u03ba\u03b1\u03c2 _far off_:\nalluding to the distance to which the sun and moon dart their rays. This\ngoddess is represented in ancient sculptures as three females joined\nin one, with various attributes in their hands: this triple figure was\ncombined of the three characters sustained by the moon: who was Selene\nor Luna in heaven, Diana on earth, and Proserpine in the subterranean\nregions. Luna is said by Cicero to be the same as Lucina, the goddess\nof child-bearing: a title given also to Diana and Juno. Hecate has also\nassigned to her by Hesiod the office of foster-mother of children. This\nmay be explained partly by the reckoning of pregnant women being guided\nby the number of lunar periods; and partly by the emblematic character of\nthe moon, as an object of worship.\n\n\u201cThe moon was a type of the ark: the sacred ship of Osiris being\nrepresented in the form of a crescent, of which the moon was made\nan emblem. Selene was the reputed mother of the world, as Plutarch\nconfesses: which character cannot be made in any degree to correspond\nwith the planet. Selene was the same as Isis: the same also as Rhea,\nVesta, Cubele, and Damater, or Ceres.\u201d BRYANT.\n\nThese female deities not only melt into each other, but at last resolve\nthemselves into the one Zeus: so that the lunar idolatry is absorbed\nultimately in the solar. \u201cThe patriarch had the names of Meen or Menes;\nwhich signify a moon, and was worshipped all over the east as Deus Lunus.\nStrabo mentions several temples of this lunar god in different places:\nall these were dedicated to the same Arkite deity, called Lunus, Luna,\nand Selene. The same deity was both masculine and feminine: what was Deus\nLunus in one country was Dea Luna in another. Meen was also one of the\nmost ancient titles of the \u00c6gyptian Osiris; the same as Apollo.\u201d BRYANT.\n\nThe sacred bull Apis is figured in the ancient coins and sculptures,\nwith a crescent moon upon his head instead of horns: by which the great\nrestorer of husbandry, Noah, was connected with the ark in which he had\nbeen miraculously preserved; and of which the lunar crescent was an\nemblem.\n\n[191] _Her wide allotment stands._] The other gods were either celestial,\nterrestrial, marine, or subterranean: but the divinity of Hecate pervaded\nheaven, earth, and the abyss, from her being intermixed with Luna, Dian,\nand Proserpine: and the sea, from the moon influencing the tides. She\nwas invoked at sacrifices, probably, as presiding over divination from\nthe entrails of beasts: because she was the patroness of magical rites\nand incantations: from such ceremonies being performed in the secrecy\nof night by the light of the moon. The Greeks, on every new moon, were\naccustomed to spread a feast in the cross-ways, which was carried away by\nthe poor: this was called \u201cHecate\u2019s supper;\u201d and was said to have been\neaten by Hecat\u00e9. See Aristophanes, Plutus.\n\n[192] _Her solitary birth._] This alludes to the honour and the\nprivileges attached by the ancients to numerous children. The moon is\nsaid to be single in birth, as the only planet of the same apparent size\nand lustre.\n\n[193] _A gleam of glory o\u2019er his parents\u2019 days._] The odes of Pindar are\ntraditional records of the glory attached by the Greeks to the conquerors\nin their games: a glory which extended to their parents and connexions,\nand even to the city in which they were born. Cicero describes the return\nfrom an Olympic victory as equivalent to a Roman triumph. The victor in\nfact rode in a triumphal chariot, and entered through a breach in the\nwalls into the city: which Plutarch explains to signify that walls are\nuseless with such defenders. The same writer relates, that a Spartan\nmeeting Diagoras, who had been crowned in the Olympic games, and had seen\nhis sons and grand-children crowned after him, exclaimed, \u201cDie Diagoras!\nfor thou canst not be a god.\u201d A memorial on the gymnastic exercises of\nthe Greeks will be found in the \u201cM\u00e9moires de l\u2019Acad\u00e9mie des Inscriptions\net Belles Lettres,\u201d tom. i. 286.\n\n[194] _Golden-sandal\u2019d Juno._] Juno was the same as I\u00f6na: and she\nwas particularly styled Juno of Argus. Argus was one of the terms by\nwhich the ark was distinguished. The Grecians called her Hera; which\nwas not originally a proper name, but a title: the same as Ada of the\nBabylonians; and expressed \u201cthe Lady\u201d or \u201cQueen.\u201d She was the same as\nLuna or Selene, from her connexion with the ark; and at Samos she was\ndescribed as standing in a lunette, with the lunar emblem on her head.\nShe was sometimes worshipped under the symbol of an egg: so that her\nhistory had the same reference as that of Venus. She presided equally\nover the seas, which she was supposed to calm or trouble. Isis, Io, and\nIno were the same as Juno, and Venus also was the same deity under a\ndifferent title. Hence in Laconia there was an ancient statue of the\ngoddess styled Venus Junonia. Juno was also called Cupris, and under that\ntitle was worshipped by the Hetrurians. As Juno was the same with I\u00f6na we\nneed not wonder at the Iris being her concomitant. BRYANT.\n\n[195] _Ceres, and Vesta._] Ceres was the deity of fire; hence at Cnidus\nshe was called Cura: a title of the Sun. The Roman name Ceres, expressed\nby Hesychius Gerys, was by the Dorians more properly rendered Garis. It\nwas originally the name of a city called Charis: for many of the deities\nwere erroneously called by the names of the places where they were\nworshipped. Charis is Char-is, the city of fire: the place where Orus and\nHephaistus were worshipped. It may after this seem extraordinary that she\nshould ever be esteemed the goddess of corn. This notion arose from the\nGreeks not understanding their own theology. The towers of Ceres were\nP\u2019urtain or Prutaneia: so called from the fires which were perpetually\nthere preserved. The Grecians interpreted this _purou tameion_: and\nrendered what was a temple, a granary of corn. In consequence of this,\nthough they did not abolish the ancient usage of the place, they made it\na repository of grain; from whence they gave largesses to the people. In\nearly times the corn there deposited seems to have been for the priests\nor divines: but this was only a secondary use to which these places were\nadapted. They were properly sacred towers, where a perpetual fire was\npreserved. It was sacred to Hestia, the Vesta of the Romans, which was\nonly another title for Damater or Ceres: and the sacred hearth had the\nsame name. BRYANT.\n\n[196] _Pluto strong._] \u201cSome,\u201d says Diodorus, \u201cthink that Osiris is\nSerapis: others that he is Dionusus: others still that he is Pluto:\nmany take him for Zeus or Jupiter, and not a few for Pan.\u201d This was an\nunnecessary embarrassment, for they were all titles of the same god.\nPluto, among the best mythologists, was esteemed the same as Jupiter; and\nindeed the same as Proserpine, Ceres, Hermes, Apollo, and every other\ndeity. BRYANT.\n\n[197] _Earth-shaker Neptune._] The patriarch was commemorated by the\nname of Poseidon. Under the character of Neptune Genesius he had a\ntemple in Argolis: hard by was a spot of ground called _the place of\ndescent_; similar to the place on mount Ararat, mentioned by Josephus;\nand undoubtedly named from the same ancient history. The tradition of the\npeople of Argolis was, that it was so called because in this spot Danaus\nmade his first descent from the ship in which he came over. In Arcadia\nwas a temple of \u201cNeptune _looking-out_.\u201d Poseidon god of the sea was also\nreputed the chief god, the deity of fire. This we may infer from his\npriest; who was styled P\u2019urcon. P\u2019urcon is the lord of fire or light; and\nfrom the name of the priest we may know the department of the god. He was\nno other than the supreme deity, the Sun: from whom all may be supposed\nto descend. Hence Neptune in the Orphic verses is, like Zeus or Jupiter,\nstyled the father of gods and men. BRYANT.\n\n[198] _Jupiter th\u2019 all-wise._] In the Orphic fragments both Jove and\nBacchus are identified with the Sun: which is described as the source\nof all things. Hammon, the African Jupiter, is mentioned by Lucan; who\nspecifies his having horns. These were the lunar crescent of Apis or\nOsiris, the Arkite god. The patriarch, his son Ham, and his grandson\nChus, are reciprocally mixed with each other; in the same manner as the\nark and the dove: the moon, the sun, and the typical serpent, are often\nmixed and confounded in this hieroglyphical mythology.\n\n[199] _To his own son he should bow down his strength._] Although the\nRomans made a distinction between Janus and Saturn they were two titles\nof one and the same person. The former had the remarkable characteristic\nof being the author of time, and the god of the new year: the latter also\nwas looked upon as the author of time, and held in his hand a serpent,\nwhose tail was in his mouth and formed a circle: by which emblem was\ndenoted the renovation of the year. On their coins they were equally\nrepresented with keys in their hand and a ship near them. Janus was\ndescribed with two faces: the one that of an aged man; the other that of\na youthful personage. Saturn as of an uncommon age with hair white like\nsnow: but they had a notion that he would return to infancy. He is also\nsaid to have destroyed all things: which however were restored with vast\nincrease. BRYANT.\n\nThe faces of Janus, supposed to look to the time past and that which is\nto come, evidently regard the \u00e6ra before the flood and that after it:\nand the aged and youthful visage represent the old world and the new.\nThe keys may allude to the shutting up the productions of the earth,\nand again opening them. The ship is the ark. The story of Saturn and\nthe infant Jupiter involves similar allusions. The old god devouring\nhis children significantly points to the destruction of the human race.\nSaturn and Jupiter seem only separate personifications of the double\nvisage of Janus: and the infant Jupiter personifies the second infancy\nof Saturn. The new order of things which took place on the renovation\nof nature is typified in the dethronement of the aged monarch by his\nyouthful son.\n\n[200]\n\n                            _To succeeding times_\n    _A monument._]\n\nThe stone, which Saturn was supposed to have swallowed instead of a\nchild, stood according to Pausanias at Delphi: it was esteemed very\nsacred, and used to have libations of wine poured upon it daily: and upon\nfestivals was otherwise honoured. The purport of the above history I take\nto have been this. It was for a long time the custom to offer children\nat the altar of Saturn: but in process of time they removed it, and in\nits form erected a stone pillar, before which they made their vows, and\noffered sacrifices of another nature. BRYANT.\n\n[201] _Props the broad heaven._] \u201cThis Atlas,\u201d says Maximus Tyrius, \u201cis a\nmountain, with a cavity of a tolerable height, which the natives esteem\nboth as a temple and a deity: and it is the great object by which they\nswear, and to which they pay their devotions.\u201d The cave in the mountain\nwas certainly named C\u00f6el, the house of god: equivalent to C\u0153lus of the\nRomans: and this was the heaven which Atlas was supposed to support.\nBRYANT.\n\n[202] _He bound Prometheus._] Prometheus, who renewed the race of men,\nwas Noos, or Noah. Prometheus raised the first altar to the gods,\nconstructed the first ship, and transmitted to posterity many useful\ninventions. He was supposed to have lived at the time of the deluge,\nand to have been guardian of \u00c6gypt at that season. He was the same as\nOsiris, the great husbandman, the planter of the vine, and inventor of\nthe plough. Prometheus is said to have been exposed on mount Caucasus,\nnear Colchis, with an eagle placed over him, preying on his heart. These\nstrange histories are undoubtedly taken from the symbols and devices\nwhich were carved upon the front of the ancient Amonian temples, and\nespecially those of \u00c6gypt. The eagle and vulture were the insignia of\nthat country. We are told by Orus Apollo that a heart over burning coals\nwas an emblem of \u00c6gypt. The history of Tityus, Prometheus, and many other\npoetical personages was certainly taken from hieroglyphics misunderstood\nand badly explained. Prometheus was worshipped by the Colchians as a\ndeity, and had a temple and high place upon mount Caucasus: and the\ndevice upon the portal was \u00c6gyptian, an eagle over a heart. BRYANT.\n\n[203] _Parted a huge ox._] Pliny, book vii. ch. 56, speaks of Prometheus\nas the first who slaughtered an ox. This traditionary circumstance is\nagreeable to that passage in scriptural history, where Noah receives\nthe divine permission to kill animals for food: and Hesiod\u2019s tale of\nthe division of the ox may be only a disfigured representation of the\nfirst sacrifice after the flood. The affinity of I\u00e4petus, the father of\nPrometheus, with Japhet, is very remarkable. This confusion of personages\nhas been already noticed as common in the ancient mythology.\n\n[204] _Pernicious is the race._] Lord Kaimes, in his sketches of the\nHistory of Man, i. 6. observes that in the more polished age of Greece\nwomen were treated with but little consideration by their husbands:\nand female influence was confined to the artful accomplishments of\ncourtezans. But it was very different at an earlier \u00e6ra of society.\n\u201cWomen in the Homeric age,\u201d remarks Mr. Mitford, \u201cenjoyed more freedom,\nand communicated more in business and amusement among men, than in\nafter-ages has been usual in those eastern countries; far more than at\nAthens, in the flourishing times of the commonwealth. Equally, indeed,\nHomer\u2019s elegant eulogies and Hesiod\u2019s severe sarcasm prove women to have\nbeen in their days important members of society.\u201d\n\nMilton has imitated this description of the infelicities supposed to\nbe produced by woman-kind, in a prophetic complaint, which comes with\nbeautiful propriety from the lips of Adam: and which his own domestic\nunhappiness enabled him to express with feeling.\n\n[205]\n\n                                        _The host_\n    _Of glorious Titans._]\n\nThe giants, whom Abydenus makes the builders of Babel, are by other\nwriters represented as the Titans. They are said to have received their\nname from their mother Tit\u00e6a: by which we are to understand that they\nwere denominated from their religion and place of worship. The ancient\naltars consisted of a conical hill of earth, in the shape of a woman\u2019s\nbreast. Tit\u00e6a was one of these. It is a term compounded of Tit-aia, and\nsignifies literally a breast of earth. These altars were also called\nTit-an, and Tit-anis, from the great fountain of night, styled An and\nAnis: hence many places were called Titanis and Titana where the worship\nof the sun prevailed. By these giants and Titans are always meant the\nsons of Ham and Chus. That the sons of Chus were the chief agents\nboth in erecting the tower of Babel, and in maintaining principles of\nrebellion, is plain: for it is said of Nimrod, the son of Chus, that \u201cthe\nbeginning of his kingdom was Babel.\u201d The sons of Chus would not submit\nto the divine dispensation in the original disposition of the several\nfamilies: and Nimrod, who first took upon him regal state, drove Ashur\nfrom his demesnes, and forced him to take shelter in the higher parts\nof Mesopotamia. This was their first act of rebellion and apostacy.\nTheir second was to erect a lofty tower, as a landmark to repair to, as\na token to direct them, and prevent their being scattered abroad. It\nwas an idolatrous temple, erected in honour of the sun, and called the\ntower of Bel: as the city, from its consecration to the sun, was named\nBel-on: the city of the solar god. Their intention was to have founded\na great, if not an universal, empire: but their purpose was defeated by\nthe confounding of their labial utterance. By this judgment they were\ndispersed; the tower was deserted; and the city left unfinished. These\ncircumstances seem, in great measure, to be recorded by the gentile\nwriters. They add, that a war soon after commenced between the Titans and\nthe family of Zeuth. This was no other than the war mentioned by Moses;\nwhich was carried on by four kings of the family of Shem against the sons\nof Ham and Chus. The dispersion from Babylonia had weakened the Cuthites.\nThe house of Shem took advantage of their dissipation, and recovered the\nland of Shinar, which had been unduly usurped by their enemies. After\nthis success they proceeded farther: and attacked the Titans in all their\nquarters. After a contest of some time they made them tributaries: but\nupon their rising in rebellion, after a space of thirteen years, the\nconfederates made a fresh inroad into their countries. \u201cTwelve years\nthey served Chedorlaomer: and in the thirteenth they rebelled: and in\nthe fourteenth year came Chedorlaomer, and the kings that were with him,\nand smote the Rephaims in Ashtaroth Karnaim;\u201d who were no other than the\nTitans. They were accordingly rendered by the Seventy, \u201cthe giant brood\nof Ashtaroth:\u201d and the valley of the Rephaim, in Samuel, is translated\n\u201cthe valley of the Titans.\u201d From the sacred historians we may then infer\nthat there were two periods of this war. The first, when the king of Elam\nand his associates laid the Rephaim under contribution: the other, when,\nupon their rebellion, they reduced them a second time to obedience. The\nfirst part is mentioned by several ancient writers, and is said to have\nlasted ten years. Hesiod takes notice of both, but makes the first rather\nof longer duration:\n\n    Ten years and more they sternly strove in arms.\n\nIn the second engagement the poet informs us that the Titans were quite\ndiscomfited and ruined: and according to the mythology of the Greeks,\nthey were condemned to reside in Tartarus, at the extremity of the\nknown world. A large body of Titanians, after their dispersion, settled\nin Mauritania: which is the region called Tartarus. The mythologists\nadjudged the Titans to the realms of night merely from not attending\nto the purport of the term \u03b6\u03bf\u03c6\u03bf\u03c2. This word described the West, and it\nsignified also darkness. From this secondary acceptation the Titans of\nthe West were consigned to the realms of night: being situated, with\nrespect to Greece towards the regions of the setting sun. BRYANT.\n\n[206]\n\n                                            _Wielding aloft_\n    _Precipitous rocks._]\n\nThis, perhaps, suggested to Milton the arming the angels with mountains:\n\n    They pluck\u2019d the seated hills with all their load;\n    Rocks, waters, woods; and by the shaggy tops\n    Uplifting, bore them in their hands.\n\n                                        PAR. LOST. vi.\n\n[207]\n\n                                    _The dark chasm of hell_\n    _Was shaken._]\n\nThis is expanded by Milton with uncommon sublimity:\n\n    Hell heard th\u2019 insufferable noise: hell saw\n    Heaven ruining from heaven, and would have fled\n    Affrighted: but strict Fate had cast too deep\n    Her dark foundations, and too fast had bound.\n\n                                         Book vi.\n\n[208]\n\n                                            _His whole of might_\n    _Broke from him._]\n\nMilton attains to a higher conception of omnipotence in the passage:\n\n    Yet half in strength he put not forth, but check\u2019d\n    His thunder in mid-volley: for he meant\n    Not to destroy, but root them out of heaven.\n\nThere is, however, nothing in Milton which equals in sublimity the sudden\nexpansion of power in the soul of the deity: \u03b5\u03b9\u03b8\u03b1\u03c1 \u03bc\u03b5\u03bd \u03bc\u03b5\u03bd\u03b5\u03bf\u03c2 \u03c0\u03bb\u03b7\u03bd\u03c4\u03bf\n\u03c6\u03c1\u03b5\u03bd\u03b5\u03c2. The plan of the battle of angels is evidently built on that of\nthe battle of giants: the Messiah, like Hesiod\u2019s Jove, coming forth to\ndecide the contest; and sending before him thunderbolts and plagues.\nMilton\u2019s magnificent imagery of the chariot is borrowed from the vision\nof the prophet Ezekiel.\n\n[209]\n\n                                    _Through the void_\n    _Of Erebus._]\n\n\u03a7\u03b1\u03bf\u03c2 is here only a gulf or void. Le Clerc quotes Aristophanes to show\nthat it is the vacuity of air: but the conflagration of air has already\nbeen described. Gr\u00e6vius is undoubtedly right in interpreting it the\nsubterraneous abyss, or Erebus: in which sense it is afterwards used by\nHesiod; when the Titans are said to dwell \u201cbeyond the obscure chaos,\u201d or\nchasm. Virgil uses chaos in this acceptation, \u00c6neid. vi. 205:\n\n                    Ye silent shades!\n    Oh Chaos hoar! and Phlegethon profound!\n\n                                      PITT.\n\nSo also Ovid, Metamorph. x. Orpheus to Pluto and Proserpine:\n\n    I call you by those sights so full of fear:\n    This chaos vast; these silent kingdoms drear!\n\n[210]\n\n                            _The heaven and earth_\n    _Met hurtling in mid-air._]\n\nMilton, Paradise Lost, book ii:\n\n                  Nor was his ear less pealed\n    With noises loud and ruinous ...\n                        than if this frame\n    Of heaven were falling, and these elements\n    In mutiny had from their axle torn\n    The steadfast earth.\n\n[211] _The war-unsated Gyges._] Hesiod has confounded the history by\nsupposing the Giants and Titans to have been different persons. He\naccordingly makes them oppose each other: and even Cottus, Briareus, and\nGyges, whom all other writers mention as Titans, are by him introduced\nin opposition, and described as of another family. His description is\nhowever much to the purpose, and the first contest and dispersion are\nplainly alluded to. BRYANT.\n\n[212] _The Titan host o\u2019er-shadowing._] Milton, Par. Lost, b. vi.:\n\n    Themselves invaded next and on their heads\n    Main promontories flung, which in the air\n    Came shadowing, and oppress\u2019d whole legions arm\u2019d.\n\n[213]\n\n                                        _So far beneath_\n    _This earth._]\n\nVirgil, \u00c6n. vi. 577:\n\n    The gaping gulf low to the centre lies,\n    And twice as deep as earth is distant from the skies:\n    The rivals of the gods, the Titan race,\n    Here, singed with lightning, roll within th\u2019 unfathom\u2019d space.\n\n                                                           DRYDEN.\n\n[214]\n\n                                    _The verge_\n    _Of Tartarus._]\n\nThe ancients had a notion that the earth was a widely extended plain,\nwhich terminated abruptly in a vast clift of immeasurable descent. At the\nbottom was a chaotic pool, which so far sunk beneath the confines of the\nworld, that, to express the depth and distance, they imagined an anvil of\niron, tossed from the top, could not reach it in ten days. This mighty\npool was the great Atlantic ocean: and these extreme parts of the earth\nwere Mauritania and Iberia: for in each of these countries the Titans\nresided. BRYANT.\n\nThis explains the introduction of Atlas before the gates of Tartarus:\nGuietus is therefore in error when, not being able to account for this\nsituation of Atlas, he marks the passage as supposititious.\n\nMilton\u2019s classical reading appears in his admeasurement of the distance\nwhich the rebel angels passed in their fall from heaven:\n\n    _Nine_ days they fell: the _tenth_ the yawning gulf\n    Received them.\n\n[215] _Arise and end._] Seneca, Hercules Frantic:\n\n    Rank with corruption\u2019s moss the sterile vast\n        Of that abyss: th\u2019 unsightly earth is numb\u2019d\n        In its eternal barren hoariness:\n            The dismal end of things:\n            The limits of the world:\n    Air moveless hangs with clinging weight above:\n        And black night brooding sits\n        Upon the lifeless universe.\n\n[216] _A drear and ghastly wilderness._] Homer, Il. xx.:\n\n                    A dismal wilderness\n    Hoary with desolation: which the gods\n    Behold, and shuddering turn their eyes away.\n\n[217]\n\n    _But him the whirls of vexing hurricanes_\n    _Toss to and fro._]\n\nDante, Inferno, canto quinto:\n\n    I venn\u2019 in luogo d\u2019ogni luce muto:\n    Che mughia, come fa mar per tempesta,\n    Se da contrarii venti se combattuto:\n    La bufera infernale, che mai non resta,\n      Mena gli spiriti con la sua rapina,\n    Voltando et percuotendo gli molesta.\n\n    They reach a spot, void of all ray of light,\n    Which howls as seas in storms, where winds opposing fight:\n    The hellish whirlwind, never resting, hurls\n    The hovering spirits snatch\u2019d upon its whirls:\n    And vexing smites, and eddying turns them round.\n\nMilton seems to have conceived from this passage of Hesiod his idea of\nSatan falling down the chaotic void, book ii.:\n\n    A vast vacuity: all unawares,\n    Fluttering his pennons vain, plumb down he drops\n    Ten thousand fathoms deep: and to this hour\n    Down had been falling, had not, by ill chance,\n    The strong rebuff of some tumultuous cloud\n    Instinct with fire and nitre hurried him\n    As many miles aloft.\n\n[218]\n\n        _Alternate as they glide athwart_\n    _The brazen threshold._]\n\nMilton, Par. Lost, vi. 4:\n\n                        There is a cave\n    Within the mount of God, fast by his throne,\n    Where light and darkness in perpetual round\n    Lodge and dislodge by turns, which makes through heaven\n    Grateful vicissitude, like day and night:\n    Light issues forth, and at the other door\n    Obsequious darkness enters, till her hour\n    To veil the heaven.\n\n[219] _Sleep, Death\u2019s half brother._] Virg. \u00c6n. vi. 278:\n\n    Here Toils and Death, and Death\u2019s half-brother Sleep,\n    Forms terrible to view, their sentry keep.\n\n                                                  DRYDEN.\n\n[220]\n\n                        _Nor them the shining Sun_\n    _E\u2019er with his beam contemplates._]\n\nOdyssey, xi. 14:\n\n    With clouds and darkness veil\u2019d: on whom the Sun\n    Deigns not to look with his beam-darting eye:\n    Or when he climbs the starry arch, or when\n    Earthward he slopes again his westering wheels.\n\n                                            COWPER.\n\n[221]\n\n                            _To immortal gods_\n    _A foe._]\n\nProbably from his destroying the human favourites of the gods, and the\nsons of the goddesses who have descended to mortal amours: as in the\ninstances of Hyacinthus, the favourite of Apollo; and Memnon, the son of\nAurora; whose death and burial are described with such romantic fancy in\nQuintus Calaber, Post-Homerics, or Supplemental Iliad.\n\n[222] _And stern Pros\u00e9rpina._] Many of the temples of Ceres were\ndedicated to the deity under the name of Persephone or Proserpine, who\nwas supposed her daughter; but they were in reality the same personage.\nPersephone was styled Cora; which the Greeks misinterpreted the virgin or\ndamsel. This was the same as Cura, a feminine title of the Sun; by which\nCeres also was called at Cnidos. However mild and gentle Proserpine may\nhave been represented in her virgin state by the poets, yet her tribunal\nseems in many places to have been very formidable. In consequence of this\nwe find her, with Minos and Rhadamanthus, condemned to the shades below\nas an infernal inquisitor. Nonnus says, \u201cProserpine armed the Furies:\u201d\nthe notion of which Furies arose from the cruelties practised in the\nPrutaneia, or fire-temples. They were originally only priests of fire;\nbut were at last ranked among the hellish tormentors. Herodotus speaks\nof a Prutaneion in Achaia Pthiotic, of which he gives a fearful account.\nNo person, he says, ever entered the precincts, that returned: whatever\nperson strayed that way was immediately seized upon by the priests and\nsacrificed. BRYANT.\n\n[223]\n\n                            _With arch\u2019d roofs_\n    _Of loftiest rock o\u2019erhung._]\n\nNot far from the ruins (of Nonacrum, a town of Arcadia,) is a lofty\ncliff: I have seen none that ascended to such a height. A stream distils\nfrom the declivity. This water is denominated Styx by the Greeks. It is\ndeadly to man and to all animals whatever. PAUSANIAS, _Arcadics_, b. viii.\n\nLe Clerc supposes an opinion to have existed, that a person wrongfully\naccused might securely drink the water of Styx: and conceives Hesiod to\nmean that the gods drank of the water at the same time that they made a\nlibation, and if they took a false oath, were convicted by the lethargic\nproperties of this noxious stream.\n\n[224] _Jove sends Iris down._] To this covenant (with Noah) Hesiod\nalludes: he calls it the great oath. He says that this oath was Iris,\nor the bow in the heavens; to which the deity appealed when any of the\ninferior divinities were guilty of an untruth. On such an occasion the\ngreat oath of the gods was appointed to fetch water from the extremities\nof the ocean, with which those were tried who had falsified their word.\nBRYANT.\n\nThe words will certainly admit of this construction; but the context\ndirects that the great oath be connected with the Stygian water. The\nemployment of Iris on the mission is still a remarkable coincidence with\nthe diluvian covenant.\n\n[225] _The sacred river-head._] That is, the ocean; which probably\nreceived this title from the Nile, a river highly venerated, being of old\ncalled the Oceanus. Styx is said to be a horn, or branch of the ocean,\nfrom the ancient idea that all rivers sprang from it: Homer Il. 21:\n\n    Therefore not kingly Acheloius,\n    Nor yet the strength of ocean\u2019s vast profound:\n    Although from him all rivers and all seas,\n    All fountains and all wells proceed, can boast\n    Comparison with Jove.\n\n                                            COWPER.\n\nThe rivers of Earth and Orcus were believed to communicate; thus Virgil,\n\u00c6n. vi. 658, of the Elysian fields:\n\n    In fragrant laurel groves, where Po\u2019s vast flood\n    From upper earth rolls copious through the wood.\n\n[226]\n\n                                      _Libation pours_\n    _And is forsworn._]\n\nIt was customary to pour a libation, while taking a solemn oath. Thus in\nthe third Iliad:\n\n    Then pouring from the beaker to the cups\n    They fill\u2019d them.\n    All-glorious Jove, and ye, the powers of heaven!\n    Whoso shall violate this contract first,\n    So be their blood, their children\u2019s and their own,\n    Pour\u2019d out, as this libation on the ground.\n\n                                        COWPER.\n\n[227] _Her youngest-born Typh\u0153us._] Taph, which at times was rendered\nTuph, Toph, and Taphos, was a name current among the Amonians, by which\nthey called their high places. Lower \u00c6gypt being a flat, and annually\noverflowed, the natives were forced to raise the soil on which they built\ntheir principal edifices, in order to secure them from the inundation:\nand many of their sacred towers were erected on conical mounds of earth.\nThere were often hills of the same form constructed for religious\npurposes, upon which there was no building. These were high altars; on\nwhich they used sometimes to offer human sacrifices. Tophet, where the\nIsraelites made their children pass through fire to Moloch, was a mount\nof this form. Those cities in \u00c6gypt which had a high place of this sort,\nand rites in consequence of it, were styled Typhonian. Many writers say\nthat these rites were performed to Typhon at the tomb of Osiris. Hence he\nwas in later times supposed to have been a person; one of immense size;\nand he was also esteemed a god. But this arose from the common mistake by\nwhich places were substituted for the deities there worshipped. Typhon\nwas the Tuph-on, or altar; and the offerings were made to the Sun, styled\nOn; the same as Osiris and Busiris. What they called his tombs were\nmounds of earth raised very high: some of these had also lofty towers\nadorned with pinnacles and battlements. They had also carved on them\nvarious symbols; and particularly serpentine hieroglyphics; in memorial\nof the god to whom they were sacred. In their upper story was a perpetual\nfire, that was plainly seen in the night. The gigantic stature of Typhon\nwas borrowed from this object: and his character was formed from the\nhieroglyphical representations in the temples styled Typhonian. This may\nbe inferred from the allegorical description of Typh\u0153us given by Hesiod.\nTyphon and Typh\u0153us were the same personage; and the poet represents him\nof a mixed form; being partly a man, and partly a monstrous dragon, whose\nhead consisted of an assemblage of smaller serpents: and as there was a\nperpetual fire kept up in the upper story, he describes it as shining\nthrough the apertures of the building. The tower of Babel was undoubtedly\na Tuph-on, or altar of the Sun; though generally represented as a\ntemple. Hesiod certainly alludes to some ancient history concerning the\ndemolition of Babel, when he describes Typhon or Typh\u0153us as overthrown by\nJove. He represents him as the youngest son of Earth; as a deity of great\nstrength and immense stature; and adds what is very remarkable, that had\nit not been for the interposition of the chief god, this d\u00e6mon would have\nobtained a universal empire. BRYANT.\n\nEqually remarkable is the diversity of voices, described as issuing\nfrom the different heads of the giant. In the Mexican mythology a giant\nbuilds an artificial hill, in the form of a pyramid, as a memorial of the\nmountain, in whose caverns he, with six others, had taken shelter from a\ndeluge. This monument was to reach the clouds; but the gods destroyed it\nwith fire. See Humboldt\u2019s American Researches.\n\n[228]\n\n                  _Beneath his everlasting feet_\n    _The great Olympus trembled._]\n\nMr. Todd, in his notes on Milton, quotes the passage describing the\nrushing of the Messiah\u2019s chariot, as superior in grandeur to this of\nHesiod:\n\n                  Under his burning wheels\n    The steadfast empyreum shook throughout,\n    All but the throne itself of God.\n\nThe majesty of Milton\u2019s exception certainly exceeds Hesiod in loftiness\nof thought: but the mere rising of Jupiter causing the mountain to\nrock beneath his eternal feet, is more sublime than the shaking of the\nfirmament from the rolling of wheels.\n\n[229] _The lightning-stricken deity._] \u03a4\u03bf\u03b9\u03bf \u03b1\u03bd\u03b1\u03ba\u03c4\u03bf\u03c2. _King_ is merely a\ntitle of deity, and was applied before to Prometheus.\n\n[230] _The woody dales._] Forges were erected in woody valleys, on\naccount of the abundance of fuel. GUIETUS.\n\n[231] _Lo! from Typh\u0153us is the strength of winds._] By these are meant\nthe intermediary winds: with some of which it is evident that Hesiod\nwas acquainted, although perhaps they were not yet distinguished by\nnames. The ancient Greeks at first used only the four cardinal winds:\nbut afterwards admitted four collaterals. Vitruvius enumerates twenty\ncollateral winds in the Roman practice.\n\n[232] _These born from gods._] That is, from _superior_ gods: as Aurora\nand Astr\u00e6us.\n\n[233] _Led Metis._] One of the most ancient deities of the Amonians was\nnamed Meed or Meet; by which was signified divine wisdom. It was rendered\nby the Grecians Metis. It was represented under the symbol of a beautiful\nfemale countenance surrounded with serpents. BRYANT.\n\nThe figure of wedding Wisdom occurs in \u201cThe Wisdom of Solomon,\u201d ch. viii.\nv. 2. \u201cI loved her, and sought her out from my youth: I desired to make\nher my spouse, and I was a lover of her beauty.\u201d\n\nIn the Proverbs, Solomon describes Wisdom as the companion of Deity, in\nthe language of exquisite poetry:\n\n\u201cI was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth\nwas. When there were no depths I was brought forth: when there were\nno fountains abounding with water. When he prepared the heavens I\nwas there: when he set a compass upon the face of the depths: when he\nestablished the clouds above: when he strengthened the fountains of\nthe deep: when he gave to the sea his decree: when he appointed the\nfoundations of the earth: then I was by him, as one brought up with him:\nand I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him.\u201d Chap. viii.\n\n[234]\n\n                                _The blue-eyed maid_\n    _Minerva._]\n\nAn-ath signified the _fountain of light_: and was abbreviated Nath\nand Neith by the \u00c6gyptians. They worshipped under this title a divine\nemanation, supposed to be the goddess of Wisdom. The Athenians, who\ncame from Sais, in \u00c6gypt, were denominated from this deity, whom they\nexpressed Athana, or in the Ionian manner, Athene. BRYANT.\n\nCudworth mentions Hammon and Neith as titles for one and the same deity;\nand quotes Plutarch as authority that Isis and Neith were also the\nsame among the \u00c6gyptians: and therefore the temple of Neith or Athene\n(Minerva) at Sais, was by him called the temple of Isis. Intellectual\nSystem, b. i. ch. 4.\n\n[235] _Brought the three Graces forth._] As Charis was a tower sacred to\nfire, some of the poets supposed a nymph of that name, who was beloved\nby Vulcan. Homer speaks of her as his wife. The Graces were said to\nbe related to the Sun, who was, in reality, the same as Vulcan. The\nSun, among the people of the East, was called Hares, and with a strong\nguttural, Chares: and his temple was styled Tor-chares: this the Greeks\nexpressed Tricharis; and from thence formed a notion of three Graces.\nBRYANT.\n\n[236] _The arrow-shooting Dian._] Artemis Diana and Venus Dione were in\nreality the same deity, and had the same departments. This sylvan goddess\nwas distinguished by a crescent, as well as Juno Samia; and was an emblem\nof the Arkite history, and in consequence of it was supposed to preside\nover waters. BRYANT.\n\n[237] _Hebe._] Hebe is a mere personification of youth. The poets made\nher the cup-bearer of the gods, as an emblem of their immortality.\n\n[238]\n\n                              _Pallas; fierce,_\n    _Rousing the war-field\u2019s tumult._]\n\nIn her martial character Minerva is intended to personify the wisdom and\npolicy of war as opposed to brute force and animal courage; which are\nrepresented by Mars.\n\n[239] _Illustrious Vulcan._] The author of the New Analysis has exploded\nthe notion that Vulcan was the same with Tubal-cain: who is mentioned in\nGenesis iv. 22, as \u201can instructor of every artificer in brass and iron:\u201d\nfor nothing of this craft was of old attached to Hephaistus or Vulcan:\nwho was the god of fire; that is, the Sun. Later mythologists degraded\nhim to a blacksmith; and placed him over the Cyclops, or Cyclopians, the\nSicilian worshippers of fire. The emblems carved in the temples led to\nthe idea of Vulcan and the Cyclops forging thunderbolts and weapons for\nthe celestial armoury.\n\n[240] _Sea-potent Triton._] The Hetrurians erected on their shores towers\nand beacons for the sake of their navigation, which they called Tor-ain:\nwhence they had a still farther denomination of Tor-aini (Tyrrheni).\nAnother name for buildings of this nature was Tirit or Turit: which\nsignified a tower or turret. The name of Triton is a contraction of\nTirit-on: and signifies the tower of the Sun: but a deity was framed from\nit, who was supposed to have had the appearance of a man upwards, but\ndownwards to have been like a fish. The Hetrurians are thought to have\nbeen the inventors of trumpets; and in their towers on the sea-coast\nthere were people appointed to be continually on the watch, both by\nday and by night, and to give a proper signal if any thing happened\nextraordinary. This was done by a blast from the trumpet. In early times,\nhowever, these brazen instruments were but little known; and people were\nobliged to use what were near at hand; the conchs of the sea: by sounding\nthese they gave signals from the tops of the towers when any ship\nappeared: and this is the implement with which Triton is more commonly\nfurnished. So Amphi-tirit is merely an oracular tower, which by the poets\nhas been changed into Amphitrite, and made the wife of Neptune. BRYANT.\n\n[241]\n\n                        _Venus gave to Mars,_\n    _Breaker of shields, a dreadful offspring._]\n\nThe making the goddess of Love, Concord, and Fertility, the spouse of\nMars, and the mother of Fear and Terror, is obviously of later invention\nand of Grecian origin: and was, no doubt, suggested by the Rape of Helen,\nwhich was supposed to be instigated by Venus, and which kindled the war\nof Troy. See that elegant and classical poem of the sixth century: \u201cThe\nRape of Helen\u201d of Coluthus.\n\n[242]\n\n                                _Harmonia last_\n    _She bare, whom generous Cadmus clasp\u2019d as bride._]\n\nI am persuaded that no such person as Cadmus ever existed. If we consider\nthe whole history of this celebrated hero, we shall find that it was\nimpossible for any one person to have effected what he is supposed to\nhave performed. They were not the achievements of one person nor of one\nage: the travels of Cadmus, like the expeditions of Perseus, Sesostris,\nand Osiris, relate to colonies, which at different times went abroad and\nwere distinguished by this title. As colonies of the same denomination\nwent to parts of the world widely distant, their ideal chieftain, whether\nCadmus, or Bacchus, or Hercules, was supposed to have traversed the same\nground.\n\nHarmonia, the wife of Cadmus, who has been esteemed a mere woman, seems\nto have been an emblem of nature, and the fostering nurse of all things.\nIn some of the Orphic verses she is represented not only as a deity, but\nas the light of the world. She was supposed to have been a personage\nfrom whom all knowledge was derived. On this account the books of science\nwere styled the books of Harmonia: as well as the books of Hermes. These\nwere four in number; of which Nonnus gives a curious account, and says\nthat they contained matter of wonderful antiquity. The first of them is\nsaid to be coeval with the world. Hence we find that Hermon or Harmonia\nwas a deity to whom the first writing is ascribed. The same is said of\nHermes. The invention is also attributed to Thoth. Cadmus is said not\nonly to have brought letters into Greece, but to have been the inventor\nof them. Whence we may fairly conclude, that under the characters of\nHermon, Hermes, Thoth, and Cadmus, one person is alluded to.\n\nThe story of Cadmus, and of the serpent with which he engaged upon\nhis arrival in B\u0153otia, relates to the Ophite worship which was there\ninstituted by the Cadmians. So Jason in Colchis, Apollo in Phocis,\nHercules at Lerna, engaged with serpents: all of which are histories of\nthe same purport, but mistaken by the latter Grecians. It is said of\nCadmus that, at the close of his life, he was, together with his wife\nHarmonia, changed into a serpent of stone. This wonderful metamorphosis\nis supposed to have happened at Encheli\u00e6, a town of Illyria. The true\nhistory is this. These two personages were here enshrined in a temple,\nand worshipped under the symbol of a serpent. BRYANT.\n\n[243] _The glorious Hermes, herald of the gods._] The \u00c6gyptians\nacknowledged two personages under the title of Hermes and Thoth. The\nfirst was the same as Osiris; the most ancient of all the gods, and the\nhead of all. The other was called the second Hermes; and likewise, for\nexcellence, styled Trismegistus. This person is said to have been a great\nadept in mysterious knowledge, and an interpreter of the will of the\ngods. He was a great prophet; and on that account was looked upon as a\ndivinity. To him they ascribed the reformation of the \u00c6gyptian year:\nand there were many books, either written by him, or concerning him,\nwhich were preserved by the \u00c6gyptians in the most sacred recesses of\ntheir temples. As he had been the cause of great riches to their nation,\nthey styled him the dispenser of wealth, and esteemed him the god of\ngain. We are told that the true name of this Hermes was Siphoas. What is\nSiphoas but Aosiph misplaced? and is not Aosiph the \u00c6gyptian name of the\npatriarch Joseph, as he was called by the Hebrews? BRYANT.\n\n[244] _Semele._] The amour of Jupiter with Semele is described with\nbrilliant luxuriancy of fancy and diction by Nonnus in his Dionysiacs.\n\n[245] _Bacchus of golden hair._] The history of Dionusus is closely\nconnected with that of Bacchus, though they were two distinct persons.\nDionusos is interpreted by the Latins Bacchus; but very improperly.\nBacchus was Chus, the grandson of Noah; as Ammon was Ham. Dionusus was\nNoah; expressed Noos, Nus, Nusus; the planter of the vine, and the\ninventor of fermented liquors: whence he was also denominated Zeuth;\nwhich signifies ferment; rendered Zeus by the Greeks. Dionusus was the\nsame as Osiris. According to the Grecian mythology, he is represented\nas having been twice born; and is said to have had two fathers and two\nmothers. He was also exposed in an ark, and wonderfully preserved. The\npurport of which histories is plain. We must, however, for the most part,\nconsider the account given of Dionusus as the history of the Dionusians.\nThis is two-fold: part relates to their rites and religion, in which the\ngreat events of the infant world and preservation of mankind in general\nwere recorded: in the other part, which contains the expeditions and\nconquests of this personage, are enumerated the various colonies of the\npeople who were denominated from him. They were the same as the Osirians\nand Herculeans. There were many places which claimed his birth: and as\nmany where was shown the spot of his interment. The Grecians, wherever\nthey met with a grot or cavern sacred to him, took it for granted that\nhe was born there: and wherever he had a taphos, or high altar, supposed\nthat he was there buried. The same is also observable in the history of\nall the gods.\n\nThere are few characters which at first sight appear more distinct than\nthose of Apollo and Bacchus. Yet the department which is generally\nappropriated to Apollo as the Sun, I mean the conduct of the year, is by\nVirgil given to Bacchus, Georg. i. 5:\n\n    Lights of the world! ye brightest orbs on high,\n    Who lead the sliding year around the sky,\n    Bacchus and Ceres!\n\n                                      WARTON.\n\nHence we find that Bacchus is the Sun or Apollo; in reality they were\nall three the same; he was the ruling deity of the world. BRYANT.\n\nIn this passage of Virgil, Ceres is Luna, or the Moon.\n\n[246] _Alcmena\u2019s valiant son._] Hercules was a title given to the chief\ndeity of the gentiles: who has been multiplied into almost as many\npersonages as there were countries where he was worshipped. What has\nbeen attributed to this god singly was the work of Herculeans, a people\nwho went under this title, among the many which they assumed, and who\nwere the same as the Osirians, Peresians, and Cuthites. Wherever there\nwere Herculeans, a Hercules has been supposed. Hence his character has\nbeen variously represented. One while he appears little better than a\nsturdy vagrant: at other times he is mentioned as a great benefactor;\nalso as the patron of science; the god of eloquence, with the Muses in\nhis train. He was the same as Hermes, Osiris, and Dionusus; and his rites\nwere introduced into various parts by the Cuthites. In the detail of his\nperegrinations is contained in great measure a history of that people,\nand of their settlements. Each of these the Greeks have described as a\nwarlike expedition, and have taken the glory of it to themselves. BRYANT.\n\n[247] _Medea._] The natives of Colchis and Pontus were of the Cuthite\nrace: they were much skilled in simples. Their country abounded in\nmedicinal herbs, of which they made use both to good and bad purposes.\nIn the fable of Medea we may read the character of the people: for that\nprincess is represented as very knowing in all the productions of nature,\nand as gifted with supernatural powers. BRYANT.\n\n[248] _Plutus._] Plutus is the same with Pluto: who, in his subterranean\ncharacter, presided over all the riches of the ground: whether metallic\nor vegetable.\n\n[249] _Jason._] In the account of the Argo we have, undeniably, the\nhistory of a sacred ship; the first which was ever constructed. This\ntruth the best writers among the Grecians confess; though the merit\nof the performance they would fain take to themselves. Yet after all\ntheir prejudices, they continually betray the truth, and show that the\nhistory was derived to them from \u00c6gypt. Plutarch informs us, that the\nconstellation, which the Greeks called the Argo, was a representation of\nthe sacred ship of Osiris: and that it was out of reverence placed in\nthe heavens. The ship of Osiris was esteemed the first ship constructed;\nand was no other than the ark. Jason was certainly a title of the Arkite\ngod; the same as Areas, Argus, Inachus, and Prometheus: and the temples\nsupposed to have been built by him in regions so remote were temples\nerected to his honour. It is said of this personage that, when a child,\nhe underwent the same fate as Osiris, Perseus, and Dionusus: \u201che was\nconcealed, and shut up in an ark, as if he had been dead.\u201d BRYANT.\n\n[250] _Sage Chiron._] Chiron, so celebrated for his knowledge, was a\nmere personage formed from a tower or temple of that name. It stood in\nThessaly; and was inhabited by a set of priests called Centauri. They\nwere so denominated from the deity they worshipped, who was represented\nunder a particular form. They styled him Cahen-taur: and he was the same\nas the Minotaur of Crete, and the Tauromen of Sicilia: consequently of\nan emblematical and mixed figure. The people, by whom this worship was\nintroduced, were many of them Anakim; and are accordingly represented\nas of great strength and stature. Such persons among the people of\nthe East were styled _nephele_, which the Greeks, in after-times,\nsupposed to relate to Nephele, a cloud: and in consequence described the\nCentaurs as born of a cloud. Chiron was a temple: probably at Nephele\nin Thessalia; the most ancient seat of the Nephelim. His name is a\ncompound of Chir-on: the tower or temple of the Sun. In places of this\nsort, people used to study the heavenly motions; and they were made use\nof for seminaries, where young persons were instructed. Hence Achilles\nwas said to have been taught by Chiron; who is reported to have had many\ndisciples. BRYANT.\n\n[251] _Circe._] From the knowledge of the Cuthites in herbs we may justly\ninfer a great excellence in physic. \u00c6gypt the nurse of arts, was much\ncelebrated for botany. To the Titanians, or race of Chus, was attributed\nthe invention of chemistry: hence it is said by Syncellus, that chemistry\nwas the discovery of the Giants. Circe and Calypso are, like Medea,\nrepresented as very experienced in pharmacy and simples. Under these\ncharacters we have the history of Cuthite priestesses, who presided in\nparticular temples near the sea-coast, and whose charms and incantations\nwere thought to have a wonderful influence. The nymphs who attended them\nwere a lower order in these sacred colleges; and they were instructed by\ntheir superiors in their arts and mysteries. BRYANT.\n\n\n\n\nThe Shield of Hercules.\n\n\n\n\nTHE SHIELD OF HERCULES.\n\n\nThe Argument.\n\nI. The arrival of Alcmena at Thebes, as the companion of her husband\u2019s\nexile. The expedition of Amphitryon against the Teloboans. The artifice\nof Jupiter, who anticipates his return, and steals the embraces of\nAlcmena. The birth of Hercules.\n\nII. The meeting of Hercules with Cygnus: the description of his armour:\nand particularly of his SHIELD, diversified with sculptured imagery.\n\nIII. The combat: and the burial of Cygnus.\n\n\nTHE SHIELD OF HERCULES.\n\n    Or as Alcmena, from Electryon born,\n    The guardian of his people, her lov\u2019d home\n    And natal soil abandoning, to Thebes\n    Came with Amphitryon: with the brave in war.\n    She all the gentle race of womankind\n    [252]In height surpass\u2019d and beauty: nor with her\n    Might one in prudence vie, of all who sprang\n    From mortal fair-ones, blending in embrace\n    With mortal men. Both from her tressed head,\n    And [253]from the darkening lashes of her eyes,\n    She breathed enamouring odour like the breath\n    Of balmy Venus: passing fair she was,\n    Yet not the less her consort with heart-love\n    Revered she; so had never woman loved.\n    Though he her noble sire by violent strength\n    Had slain, amid [254]those herds, the cause of strife,\n    Madden\u2019d to sudden rage: his native soil\n    He left, and thence to the Cadmean state,\n    Shield-bearing tribe, came supplicant: and there\n    Dwelt with his modest spouse; yet from the joys\n    Of love estranged: for he might not ascend\n    The couch of her, the beautiful of feet,\n    Till for the slaughter of her brethren brave,\n    His arm had wreak\u2019d revenge; and burn\u2019d with fire\n    The guilty cities of those warlike men\n    Taphians and Teloboans. This the task\n    Assign\u2019d: the gods on high that solemn vow\n    Had witness\u2019d: of their anger visitant\n    In fear he stood; and speeded in all haste\n    T\u2019 achieve the mighty feat, imposed by Heaven.\n    Him the B\u0153otians, gorers of the steed,\n    Who coveting the war-shout and the shock\n    Of battle o\u2019er the buckler breathe aloft\n    Their open valour: him the Locrian race\n    Close-combating; and of undaunted soul,\n    The Phocians follow\u2019d: towering in the van\n    Amphitryon gallant shone: and in his host\n    Gloried. But other counsel secret wove\n    Within his breast the sire of gods and men:\n    That both to gods and to th\u2019 inventive race\n    Of man a great deliverer might arise\n    Sprung from his loins, of plague-repelling fame.\n    Deep-framing in his inmost soul deceit,\n    He through the nightly darkness took his way\n    From high Olympus, glowing with the love\n    Of her, the fair-one of the graceful zone.\n    Swift to the Typhaonian mount he pass\u2019d:\n    Thence drew nigh Phycium\u2019s lofty ridge: sublime\n    There sitting, the wise counsellor of heaven\n    Revolved a work divine. That self-same night\n    He sought the couch of her, who stately treads\n    With long-paced step; and melting in her arms\n    Took there his fill of love. That self-same night\n    The host-arousing chief, the mighty deed\n    Perform\u2019d, in glory to his home returned:\n    Nor to the vassals and the shepherd hinds\n    His footstep bent, before he climb\u2019d the couch\n    Of his Alcmena: such inflaming love\n    Seiz\u2019d in the deep recesses of his heart\n    The chief of thousands. And as he, that scarce\n    Escapes, and yet escapes, from grievous plague\n    Or the hard-fettering chain, flies free away\n    Joyful,\u2014so struggling through that arduous toil\n    With pain accomplish\u2019d, wishful, eager, traced\n    The prince his homeward way. The live-long night\n    He with the modest partner of his bed\n    Embracing lay, and revell\u2019d in delight\n    The bounteous bliss of love\u2019s all-charming queen.\n      Thus by a god and by the first of men\n    Alike subdued to love, Alcmena gave\n    Twin-brethren birth, within the seven-fold gates\n    Of Thebes: yet brethren though they were, unlike\n    Their natures: this of weaker strain; but that\n    Far more of man; valorous and stern and strong.\n    Him, Hercules, conceived she from th\u2019 embrace\n    Of the cloud-darkener: to th\u2019 Alc\u00e6an chief,\n    Shaker of spears, gave Iphiclus: a race\n    Distinct: nor wonder: this of mortal man,\n    That of imperial Jove. The same who slew\n    The lofty-minded Cygnus, child of Mars.\n      For in the grove of the far-darting god\n    He found him: and insatiable of war\n    His father Mars beside. Both bright in arms,\n    Bright as the sheen of burning flame, they stood\n    On their high chariot; and the horses fleet\n    Trampled the ground with rending hoofs: around\n    In parted circle smoked the cloudy dust,\n    Up-dash\u2019d beneath the trampling hoofs, and cars\n    Of complicated frame. The well-framed cars\n    Rattled aloud: loud clash\u2019d the wheels: while rapt\n    In their full speed the horses flew. Rejoiced\n    The noble Cygnus; for the hope was his,\n    Jove\u2019s warlike offspring and his charioteer\n    To slay, and strip them of their gorgeous mail.\n    But to his vows the Prophet-god of day\n    Turn\u2019d a deaf ear: for he himself set on\n    Th\u2019 assault of Hercules. Now all the grove,\n    And Ph\u0153bus\u2019 altar, flash\u2019d with glimmering arms\n    Of that tremendous god: himself blazed light,\n    And darted radiance from his eye-balls glared\n    As it were flame. But who of mortal mould\n    Had e\u2019er endured in daring opposite\n    To rush before him, save but Hercules,\n    And Iol\u00e4us, an illustrious name?\n    For mighty strength was theirs: and arms that stretch\u2019d\n    From their broad shoulders unapproachable\n    In valorous force, above their nervous frames:\n    He therefore thus bespoke his charioteer:\n      \u201cOh hero Iol\u00e4us! dearest far\n    To me of all the race of mortal men;\n    I deem it sure that \u2019gainst the blest of Heaven\n    Amphitryon sinn\u2019d, when to the fair-wall\u2019d Thebes\n    He came, forsaking Tirynth\u2019s well-built walls,\n    Electryon midst the strife of wide-brow\u2019d herds\n    Slain by his hand: to Creon suppliant came,\n    And her of flowing robe, Henioche:\n    Who straight embraced, and all of needful aid\n    Lent hospitable, as to suppliant due:\n    And more for this, e\u2019en from the heart they gave\n    All honour and observance. So he lived,\n    Exulting in his graceful-ankled spouse\n    Alcmena. When the rapid year roll\u2019d round,\n    We, far unlike in stature and in soul,\n    Were born, thy sire and I: him Jove bereaved\n    Of wisdom; who from his parental home\n    Went forth, and to the fell Eurystheus bore\n    His homage. Wretch! for he most sure bewail\u2019d\n    In after-time that grievous fault, a deed\n    Irrevocable. On myself has Fate\n    Laid heavy labours. But, oh friend! oh now\n    Quick snatch the purple reins of these my steeds\n    Rapid of hoof: the manly courage rouse\n    Within thee: now with strong unerring grasp\n    Guide the swift chariot\u2019s whirl, and wind the steeds\n    Rapid of hoof: fear nought the dismal yell\n    Of mortal-slayer Mars, whilst to and fro\n    He ranges fierce Apollo\u2019s hallow\u2019d grove\n    With frenzying shout: for, be he as he may\n    War-mighty, he of war shall take his fill.\u201d\n      Then answer\u2019d Iol\u00e4us: \u201cOh revered!\n    Doubtless the father of the gods and men\n    Thy head delights to honour; and the god\n    Who keeps [255]the wall of Thebes and guards her towers,\n    [256]Bull-visaged Neptune: so be sure they give\n    Unto thy hand this mortal huge and strong,\n    That from the conflict thou mayst bear away\n    High glory. But now haste\u2014in warlike mail\n    Dress now thy limbs, that, rapidly as thought\n    Mingling the shock of cars, we may be join\u2019d\n    In battle. He th\u2019 undaunted son of Jove\n    Shall strike not with his terrors, nor yet me\n    Iphiclides: but swiftly, as I deem,\n    Shall he to flight betake him, from the race\n    Of brave Alc\u00e6us: who now pressing nigh\n    Gain on their foes and languish for the shout\n    Of closing combat; to their eager ear\n    More grateful than the banquet\u2019s revelry.\u201d\n      He said: and Hercules smiled stern his joy\n    Elate of thought: for he had spoken words\n    Most welcome. Then with winged accents thus:\n    \u201cJove-foster\u2019d hero! it is e\u2019en at hand,\n    The battle\u2019s rough encounter: thou, as erst,\n    In martial prudence firm, aright, aleft,\n    With vantage of the fray, unerring guide\n    Arion huge, the sable-maned, and me\n    Aid in the doubtful contest, as thou mayst.\u201d\n      Thus having said, he sheathed his legs in greaves\n    Of mountain brass, resplendent-white: famed gift\n    Of Vulcan: o\u2019er his breast he fitted close\n    The corselet, variegated, beautiful,\n    Of shining gold; this Jove-born Pallas gave,\n    When first he rush\u2019d to meet the mingling groans\n    Of battle. Then the mighty man athwart\n    His shoulder slung the sword, whose edge repels\n    Th\u2019 approach of mortal harms: and clasp\u2019d around\n    His bosom, and reclining o\u2019er his back,\n    He cast the hollow quiver. Lurk\u2019d therein\n    Full many arrows: shuddering horror they\n    Inflicted, and the agony of death\n    Sudden, that chokes the suffocated voice:\n    The points were barb\u2019d with death, and bitter steep\u2019d\n    In human tears: burnish\u2019d the lengthening shafts:\n    And they were feather\u2019d from the tawny plume\n    Of eagles. Now he grasp\u2019d the solid spear\n    Sharpen\u2019d with brass: and on his brows of strength\n    Placed the forged helm, high-wrought in adamant,\n    That cased the temples round, and fenced the head\n    Of Hercules: the man of heavenly birth.\n      Then with his hands he raised THE SHIELD, of disk\n    Diversified: might none with missile aim\n    Pierce, nor th\u2019 impenetrable substance rive\n    Shattering: a wondrous frame: since all throughout\n    Bright with enamel, and with ivory,\n    And [257]mingled metal; and with ruddy gold\n    Refulgent, and with azure plates inlaid.\n    The scaly terror of a dragon coil\u2019d\n    Full in the central field; unspeakable;\n    With eyes oblique retorted, that aslant\n    Shot gleaming flame: his hollow jaw was fill\u2019d\n    Dispersedly with jagged fangs of white,\n    Grim, unapproachable. And next above\n    The dragon\u2019s forehead fell, stern Strife in air\n    Hung hovering, and array\u2019d the war of men:\n    Haggard; whose aspect from all mortals reft\n    All mind and soul; whoe\u2019er in brunt of arms\n    Should match their strength, and face the son of Jove.\n    Below this earth their spirits to th\u2019 abyss\n    Descend: and through the flesh that wastes away\n    Beneath the parching sun, their whitening bones\n    Start forth, and moulder in the sable dust.\n    [258]Pursuit was there, and fiercely rallying Flight,\n    Tumult and Terror: burning Carnage glow\u2019d:\n    Wild Discord madden\u2019d there, and frantic Rout\n    Ranged to and fro. A deathful Destiny\n    There grasp\u2019d a living man, that bled afresh\n    From recent wound: another, yet unharm\u2019d,\n    Dragg\u2019d furious; and a third, already dead,\n    Trail\u2019d by the feet amid the throng of war:\n    And o\u2019er her shoulders was a garment thrown\n    Dabbled in human blood: and in her look\n    Was horror: and a deep funereal cry\n    Broke from her lips. There indescribable\n    Twelve serpent heads rose dreadful: and with fear\n    Froze all, who drew on earth the breath of life,\n    Whoe\u2019er should match their strength in brunt of arms,\n    And face the son of Jove: and oft as he\n    Moved to the battle, from their clashing fangs\n    A sound was heard. Such miracles display\u2019d\n    The buckler\u2019s field, with living blazonry\n    Resplendent: and those fearful snakes were streak\u2019d\n    O\u2019er their c\u00e6rulean backs with streaks of jet:\n    And their jaws blacken\u2019d with a jetty dye.\n      Wild from the forest, [259]herds of boars were there,\n    And lions, mutual-glaring; and in wrath\n    Leap\u2019d on each other; and by troops they drove\n    Their onset: nor yet these nor those recoil\u2019d,\n    Nor quaked in fear. Of both the backs uprose\n    Bristling with anger: for a lion huge\n    Lay stretched amidst them, and two boars beside\n    Lifeless: the sable blood down-dropping ooz\u2019d\n    Into the ground. So these with bowed backs\n    Lay dead beneath the terrible lions: they,\n    For this the more incensed, both savage boars\n    And tawny lions, chafing sprang to war.\n      There too [260]the battle of the Lapith\u00e6\n    Was wrought; the spear-arm\u2019d warriors: C\u00e6neus king,\n    Hopleus, Phal\u00e9rus, and Pirithous,\n    And Dryas, and Exadius: Prolochus,\n    Mopsus of Titaressa, Ampyx\u2019 son,\n    A branch of Mars, and Theseus like a god:\n    Son of \u00c6g\u00e9us: silver were their limbs,\n    Their armour golden: and to them opposed\n    The Centaur band stood thronging: Asbolus,\n    Prophet of birds; Petr\u00e6us huge of height;\n    Arctus, and Urius, and of raven locks\n    Mimas; the two Peucid\u00e6, Dryalus,\n    And Perimedes: all of silver frame,\n    And grasping golden pine-trees in their hands.\n    At once they onset made: in very life\n    They rush\u2019d, and hand to hand tumultuous closed\n    With pines and clashing spears. There fleet of hoof\n    The steeds were standing of stern-visaged Mars\n    In gold: and he himself, tearer of spoils,\n    Life-waster, purpled all with dropping blood,\n    As one who slew the living and despoil\u2019d,\n    Loud-shouting to the warrior-infantry\n    There vaulted on his chariot. Him beside\n    Stood Fear and Consternation: high their hearts\n    Panted, all eager for the war of men.\n      There too Minerva rose, leader of hosts,\n    Resembling Pallas when she would array\n    The marshall\u2019d battle. In her grasp the spear,\n    And on her brows a golden helm: athwart\n    Her shoulders thrown her \u00e6gis. Went she forth\n    In this array to meet the dreadful shout\n    Of war. And there a tuneful choir appear\u2019d\n    Of heaven\u2019s immortals: in the midst the son\n    Of Jove and of Latona sweetly rang\n    Upon his golden harp. Th\u2019 Olympian mount,\n    Dwelling of gods, thrill\u2019d back the broken sound.\n    And there were seen th\u2019 assembly of the gods\n    Listening, encircled with their blaze of glory:\n    And in sweet contest with Apollo there\n    The virgins of Pieria raised the strain\n    Preluding; and they seem\u2019d as though they sang\n    With clear sonorous voice. And there appear\u2019d\n    A sheltering haven from the untamed rage\n    Of ocean. It was wrought of tin refined,\n    And rounded by the chisel: and it seem\u2019d\n    Like to the dashing wave: and in the midst\n    Full many dolphins chased the fry, and show\u2019d\n    As though they swam the waters, to and fro\n    Darting tumultuous. Two of silver scale,\n    Panting above the wave, the fishes mute\n    Gorged, that beneath them shook their quivering fins\n    In brass: but on the crag a fisher sate\n    Observant: in his grasp he held a net,\n    Like one that, poising, rises to the throw.\n      There was the horseman, fair-hair\u2019d Dana\u00eb\u2019s son,\n    Perseus: nor yet the buckler with his feet\n    Touch\u2019d, nor yet distant hover\u2019d: strange to think:\n    For nowhere on the surface of the shield\n    He rested: so the crippled artist-god\n    Illustrious framed him with his hands in gold.\n    Bound to his feet were sandals wing\u2019d: a sword\n    Of brass with hilt of sable ebony\n    Hung round him from the shoulders by a thong:\n    Swift e\u2019en as thought he flew. The visage grim\n    Of monstrous Gorgon all his back o\u2019erspread:\n    And wrought in silver, wondrous to behold,\n    A veil was drawn around it, whence in gold\n    Hung glittering fringes: and the dreadful helm\n    Of Pluto clasp\u2019d the temples of the prince,\n    Shedding a night of darkness. Thus outstretch\u2019d\n    In air, he seem\u2019d like one to trembling flight\n    Betaken. Close behind the Gorgons twain\n    Of nameless terror unapproachable\n    Came rushing: eagerly they stretch\u2019d their arms\n    To seize him: from the pallid adamant,\n    Audibly as they rush\u2019d, the clattering shield\n    Clank\u2019d with a sharp shrill sound. Two grisly snakes\n    Hung from their girdles, and with forking tongues\n    Lick\u2019d their inflected jaws; and violent gnash\u2019d\n    Their fangs fell glaring: from around their heads\n    Those Gorgons grim a flickering horror cast\n    Through the wide air. Above them warrior men\n    Waged battle, grasping weapons in their hands.\n    [261]Some from their city and their sires repell\u2019d\n    Destruction: others hasten\u2019d to destroy:\n    And many press\u2019d the plain, but more still held\n    The combat. On the strong-constructed towers\n    Stood women, shrieking shrill, and rent their cheeks\n    In very life, by Vulcan\u2019s glorious craft.\n    The elders hoar with age assembled stood\n    Without the gates, and to the blessed gods\n    Their hands uplifted, for their fighting sons\n    Fear-stricken. These again the combat held.\n    Behind them stood the Fates, of aspect black,\n    Grim, slaughter-breathing, stern, insatiable,\n    Gnashing their white fangs; and fierce conflict held\n    For those who fell. Each eager-thirsting sought\n    To quaff the sable blood. Whom first they snatch\u2019d\n    Prostrate, or staggering with the fresh-made wound,\n    On him they struck their talons huge: the soul\n    Fled down th\u2019 abyss, the horror-freezing gulf\n    Of Tartarus. They, glutted to the heart\n    With human gore, behind them cast the corse:\n    And back with hurrying rage they turn\u2019d to seek\n    The throng of battle. And hard by there stood\n    Clotho and Lachesis; and Atropos,\n    Somewhat in years inferior: nor was she\n    A mighty goddess: yet those other Fates\n    Transcending, and in birth the elder far.\n    And all around one man in cruel strife\n    Were join\u2019d: and on each other turn\u2019d in wrath\n    Their glowing eyes: and mingling desperate hands\n    And talons mutual strove. [262]And near to them\n    Stood Misery: wan, ghastly, worn with woe:\n    Arid, and swoln of knees; with hunger\u2019s pains\n    Faint-falling: from her lean hands long the nails\n    Out-grew: an ichor from her nostrils flow\u2019d:\n    Blood from her cheeks distill\u2019d to earth: with teeth\n    All wide disclosed in grinning agony\n    She stood: a cloud of dust her shoulders spread,\n    And her eyes ran with tears. But next arose\n    [263]A well-tower\u2019d city, by seven golden gates\n    Enclosed, that fitted to their lintels hung:\n    There men in dances and in festive joys\n    Held revelry. Some on the smooth-wheel\u2019d car\n    A virgin bride conducted: then burst forth\n    Aloud the marriage-song: and far and wide\n    Long splendours flash\u2019d from many a quivering torch\n    Borne in the hands of slaves. Gay-blooming girls\n    Preceded, and the dancers follow\u2019d blithe:\n    These with shrill pipe indenting the soft lip\n    Breathed melody, while broken echoes thrill\u2019d\n    Around them: to the lyre with flying touch\n    Those led the love-enkindling dance. A group\n    Of youths was elsewhere imaged to the flute\n    Disporting: some in dances and in song,\n    In laughter others. To the minstrel\u2019s flute\n    So pass\u2019d they on; and the whole city seem\u2019d\n    As fill\u2019d with pomps, with dances, and with feasts.\n      Others again, without the city walls,\n    [264]Vaulted on steeds and madden\u2019d for the goal.\n    [265]Others as husbandmen appear\u2019d, and broke\n    With coulter the rich glebe, and gather\u2019d up\n    Their tunics neatly girded. Next arose\n    A field thick-set with depth of corn: where some\n    With sickle reap\u2019d the stalks, their speary heads\n    Bent, as weigh\u2019d down with pods of swelling grain,\n    The fruits of Ceres. Others into bands\n    Gather\u2019d, and threw upon the threshing-floor\n    The sheaves. And some again hard by were seen\n    Holding the vine-sickle, who clusters cut\n    From the ripe vines; which from the vintagers\n    Others in frails received, or bore away,\n    [266]In baskets thus up-piled, the cluster\u2019d grapes,\n    Or black or pearly-white, cut from deep ranks\n    Of spreading vines, whose tendrils curling twined\n    In silver, heavy-foliaged: near them rose\n    The ranks of vines, by Vulcan\u2019s curious craft\n    Figured in gold. The vines leaf-shaking curl\u2019d\n    Round silver props. They therefore on their way\n    Pass\u2019d jocund to one minstrel\u2019s flageolet,\n    Burthen\u2019d with grapes that blacken\u2019d in the sun.\n    Some also trod the wine-press, and some quaff\u2019d\n    The foaming must. But in another part\n    Were men who wrestled, or in gymnic fight\n    Wielded the c\u00e6stus. Elsewhere men of chase\n    Were taking the fleet hares. Two keen-tooth\u2019d dogs\n    Bounded beside: these ardent in pursuit,\n    Those with like ardour doubling on their flight.\n    Next them were horsemen, who sore effort made\n    To win the prize of contest and hard toil.\n    High o\u2019er the well-compacted chariots [267]hung\n    The charioteers: the rapid horses loosed\n    At their full stretch, and shook the floating reins.\n    Rebounding from the ground with many a shock\n    Flew clattering the firm cars, and creak\u2019d aloud\n    The naves of the round wheels. They therefore toil\u2019d\n    Endless: nor conquest yet at any time\n    Achiev\u2019d they, but a doubtful strife maintain\u2019d.\n    In the mid-course the prize, a tripod huge,\n    Was placed in open sight; and it was carved\n    In gold: the skilful Vulcan\u2019s glorious craft.\n      Rounding the uttermost verge [268]the ocean flow\u2019d\n    As in full swell of waters: and the shield\n    All-variegated with whole circle bound.\n    Swans of high-hovering wing there clamour\u2019d shrill,\n    And many skimm\u2019d the breasted surge: and nigh\n    Fishes were tossing in tumultuous leaps.\n    Sight marvellous e\u2019en to thundering Jove: whose will\n    Bade Vulcan frame the buckler; vast and strong.\n    This fitting to his grasp the strong-nerved son\n    Of Jupiter now shook with ease: and swift\n    As from his father\u2019s \u00e6gis-wielding arm\n    The bolted lightning darts, he vaulted sheer\n    Above the harness\u2019d chariot at a bound\n    Into the seat: the hardy charioteer\n    Stood o\u2019er the steeds from high, and guided strong\n    The crooked car. Now near to them approach\u2019d\n    Pallas, the blue-eyed goddess, and address\u2019d\n    These winged words in animating voice:\n    [269]\u201cRace of the far-famed Lyngeus! both all-hail!\n    Now verily the ruler of the Blest,\n    E\u2019en Jove, doth give you strength to spoil of life\n    Cygnus your foe, and strip his gorgeous arms.\n    But I will breathe a word within thine ear\n    In counsel, oh most mighty midst the strong!\n    Now soon as e\u2019er from Cygnus thou hast reft\n    The sweets of life, there leave him: on that spot,\n    Him and his armour: but th\u2019 approach of Mars,\n    Slayer of mortals, watch with wary eye:\n    And where thy glance discerns a part exposed,\n    Defenceless of the well-wrought buckler, strike!\n    With thy sharp point there wound him, and recede:\n    For know, thou art not fated to despoil\n    \u201cThe steeds and glorious armour of a god.\u201d\n      Thus having said, the goddess all-divine,\n    Aye holding in her everlasting hands\n    Conquest and glory, rose into the car\n    Impetuous: to the war-steeds shouted fierce\n    The noble Iol\u00e4us: from the shout\n    They starting snatch\u2019d the flying car, and hid\n    With dusty cloud the plain: for she herself,\n    The goddess azure-eyed, sent into them\n    Wild courage, clashing on her brandish\u2019d shield:\n    Earth groan\u2019d around. That moment with like pace\n    E\u2019en as a flame or tempest came they on,\n    Cygnus the tamer of the steed, and Mars\n    Unsated with the roar of war. And now\n    The coursers mid-way met, and face to face\n    Neigh\u2019d shrill: the broken echoes rang around.\n    Then him the first stern Hercules bespake.\n    \u201cOh soft of nature! why dost thou obstruct\n    The rapid steeds of men, who toils have proved\n    And hardships? Outward turn thy burnish\u2019d car:\n    Pass outward from the track and yield the way:\n    For I to Trachys ride, of obstacle\n    Impatient: to the royal Ceyx: he\n    O\u2019er Trachys rules in venerable power,\n    As needs not thee be told, who hast to wife\n    His blue-eyed daughter Themisthon\u00f6e:\n    Soft-one! for not from thee shall Mars himself\n    Inhibit death, if truly hand to hand\n    We wage the battle: and e\u2019en this I say\n    That elsewhere, heretofore, himself has proved\n    My mighty spear: when on the sandy beach\n    Of Pylos ardour irrepressible\n    Of combat seized him, and to me opposed\n    He stood: but thrice, when stricken by my lance,\n    Earth propp\u2019d his fall, and thrice his targe was cleft:\n    The fourth time urging on my utmost force\n    His ample shield I shattering rived, his thigh\n    Transpierced, and headlong in the dust he fell\n    Beneath my rushing spear: so there the weight\n    Of shame upon him fell midst those of heaven,\n    His gory trophies leaving to these hands.\u201d\n      So said he: but in no wise to obey\n    Enter\u2019d the thought of Cygnus the spear-skill\u2019d:\n    Nor rein\u2019d he back the chariot-whirling steeds.\n      Then truly from their close-compacted cars\n    Instant as thought they leap\u2019d to earth: the son\n    Of kingly Mars, the son of mighty Jove.\n    Aside, though not remote, the charioteers\n    The coursers drove of flowing manes: but then\n    Beneath the trampling sound of rushing feet\n    The broad earth sounded hollow: and [270]as rocks\n    From some high mountain-top precipitate\n    Leap with a bound, and o\u2019er each other whirl\u2019d\n    Shock in the dizzying fall: and many an oak\n    Of lofty branch, pine-tree and poplar deep\n    Of root are crash\u2019d beneath them, as their course\n    Rapidly rolls, till now they touch the plain;\n    So met these foes encountering, and so burst\n    Their mighty clamour. Echoing loud throughout\n    The city of the Myrmidons gave back\n    Their lifted voices, and Iolchos famed,\n    And Arne, and Anthea\u2019s grass-girt walls,\n    And Helice. Thus with amazing shout\n    They join\u2019d in battle: all-considering Jove\n    Then greatly thunder\u2019d: from the clouds of heaven\n    [271]He cast forth dews of blood, and signal thus\n    Of onset gave to his high-daring son.\n    [272]As in the mountain thickets the wild boar,\n    Grim to behold, and arm\u2019d with jutting fangs,\n    Now with his hunters meditates in wrath\n    The conflict, whetting his white tusks aslant:\n    Foam drops around his churning jaws; his eyes\n    Show like to glimmering fires, and o\u2019er his neck\n    And roughen\u2019d back he raises up erect\n    The starting bristles, from the chariot whirl\u2019d\n    By steeds of war such leap\u2019d the son of Jove.\n      \u2019Twas in that season when, on some green bough\n    High-perch\u2019d, the dusky-wing\u2019d cicada first\n    Shrill chants to man a summer note; his drink,\n    His balmy food, the vegetative dew:\n    The livelong day from early dawn he pours\n    His voice, what time the sun\u2019s exhaustive heat\n    Fierce dries the frame: \u2019twas in that season when\n    The bristly ears of millet spring with grain\n    Which they in summer sow: when the crude grape\n    Faint reddens on the vine, which Bacchus gave\n    The joy or anguish of the race of men;\u2014\n    E\u2019en in that season join\u2019d the war; and vast\n    The battle\u2019s tumult rose into the heaven.\n    [273]As two grim lions for a roebuck slain\n    Wroth in contention rush, and them betwixt\n    The sound of roaring and of clashing teeth\n    Ariseth; or [274]as vultures, curved of beak,\n    Crooked of talon, on a steepy rock\n    Contest loud-screaming; if perchance below\n    Some mountain-pastur\u2019d goat or forest-stag\n    Sleek press the plain; whom far the hunter youth\n    Pierced with fleet arrow from the bow-string shrill\n    Dismiss\u2019d, and elsewhere wander\u2019d, of the spot\n    Unknowing: they with keenest heed the prize\n    Mark, and in swooping rage each other tear\n    With bitterest conflict: so vociferous rush\u2019d\n    The warriors on each other. Cygnus, then,\n    Aiming to slay the son of Jupiter\n    Unmatch\u2019d in strength, against the buckler struck\n    His brazen lance, but through the metal plate\n    Broke not; the present of a god preserved.\n    On th\u2019 other side he of Amphitryon named,\n    Strong Hercules, between the helm and shield\n    Drove his long spear; and underneath the chin\n    Through the bare neck smote violent and swift.\n    The murderous ashen beam at once the nerves\n    Twain of the neck cut sheer; for all the man\n    Drop\u2019d, and his force went from him: down he fell\n    Headlong: [275]as falls a thunder-blasted oak,\n    Or sky-capt rock, riven by the lightning shaft\n    Of Jove, in smouldering smoke is hurl\u2019d from high,\n    So fell he: and his brass-emblazon\u2019d mail\n    Clatter\u2019d around him. Jove\u2019s firm-hearted son\n    Then left the corse, abandon\u2019d where it lay:\n    But wary watch\u2019d the mortal-slayer god\n    Approach, and view\u2019d him o\u2019er with terrible eyes\n    Stern-lowering. [276]As a lion, who has fall\u2019n\n    Perchance on some stray beast, with griping claws\n    Intent, strips down the lacerated hide;\n    Drains instantaneous the sweet life, and gluts\n    E\u2019en to the fill his gloomy heart with blood;\n    Green-eyed he glares in fierceness; with his tail\n    Lashes his shoulders and his swelling sides,\n    And with his feet tears up the ground; not one\n    Might dare to look upon him, nor advance\n    Nigh, with desire of conflict: such in truth\n    The war-insatiate Hercules to Mars\n    Stood in array, and gather\u2019d in his soul\n    Prompt courage. But the other near approach\u2019d,\n    Anguish\u2019d at heart; and both encountering rush\u2019d\n    With cries of battle. As when from high ridge\n    Of some hill-top abrupt, tumbles a crag\n    Precipitous, and sheer, a giddy space,\n    Bounds in a whirl and rolls impetuous down:\n    Shrill rings the vehement crash, till some steep clift\n    Obstructs: to this the mass is borne along;\n    This wedges it immoveable: e\u2019en so\n    Destroyer Mars, bowing the chariot, rush\u2019d,\n    Yelling vociferous with a shout: e\u2019en so,\n    As utterance prompt, met Hercules the shock\n    And firm sustain\u2019d. But Jove-born Pallas came\n    With darkening shield uplifted, and to Mars\n    Stood interposed: and scowling with her eyes\n    Tremendous, thus address\u2019d her winged words:\n    \u201cMars! hold thy furious valour: stay those hands\n    In prowess inaccessible: for know\n    It is not lawful for thee to divest\n    Slain Hercules of these his gorgeous arms,\n    Bold-hearted son of Jove: but come; rest thou\n    From battle, nor oppose thyself to me.\u201d\n      She said: nor yet persuaded aught the soul\n    Of Mars, the mighty of heart. With a great shout\n    He, brandishing his weapon like a flame,\n    Sprang rapid upon Hercules, in haste\n    To slay; and, for his slaughter\u2019d son incensed,\n    With violent effort hurl\u2019d his brazen spear\n    \u2019Gainst the capacious targe. The blue-eyed maid\n    [277]Stoop\u2019d from the chariot, and the javelin\u2019s force\n    Turn\u2019d wide. Sore torment seiz\u2019d the breast of Mars:\n    He bared his keen-edged falchion, and at once\n    Rush\u2019d on the dauntless Hercules: but he,\n    The war-insatiate, as the God approach\u2019d,\n    Beneath the well-wrought shield the thigh exposed\n    Wounded with all his strength, and thrusting rived\n    The shield\u2019s large disk, and cleft it with his lance,\n    And in the middle-way threw him to earth\n    Prostrate. But Fear and Consternation swift\n    Urged nigh his well-wheel\u2019d chariot: from the face\n    Of broad-track\u2019d earth they raised him on the car\n    Variously framed: thence lash\u2019d with scourge the steeds,\n    And bounding up the vast Olympus flew.\n      But now Alcmena\u2019s son and his compeer,\n    The glorious Iol\u00e4us, having stripp\u2019d\n    From Cygnus\u2019 shoulders the fair armour\u2019s spoil,\n    Retraced their way direct, and instant reach\u2019d\n    The city Trachys with their fleet-hoof\u2019d steeds:\n    While pass\u2019d the goddess of the azure eyes\n    To great Olympus, and her father\u2019s towers.\n      But Ceyx o\u2019er the corse of Cygnus raised\n    A tomb. Innumerable people graced\n    His obsequies: both they who dwelt hard by\n    The city of the illustrious king, and they\n    Of Anthe, of Iolchos wide-renown\u2019d,\n    Of Arne, of the Myrmidonian towers,\n    And Helice. So gather\u2019d there around\n    A numerous people: honouring duteous thus\n    Ceyx, beloved of the blessed gods.\n      But [278]the huge mount and monumental stone\n    Anaurus, foaming high with wintry rains,\n    Swept from the sight away: Apollo this\n    Commanded: for that Cygnus ambush\u2019d spoil\u2019d\n    In violence the Delphic hecatombs.\n\n\nFOOTNOTES\n\n[252] _In height surpass\u2019d._] Aristotle observes that persons of small\nstature may be elegantly and justly formed, but cannot be styled\nbeautiful, Ethics, iv. 7. Xenophon in his Cyrop\u00e6dia, ii. 5, describes\nthe beautiful Panthea as \u201cof surpassing height and vigour.\u201d Theocritus\nmentions a fulness of form as equally characteristic of beauty:\n\n    So bloom\u2019d the charming Helen in our eyes\n    With full voluptuous limbs and towering size:\n    In shape, in height, in stately presence fair,\n    Straight as a furrow gliding from the share:\n    A cypress of the gardens, spiring high,\n    A courser in the cars of Thessaly.\n\n                                     Idyl, xviii.\n\nIt is remarkable that Chaucer appears to glance at this comparison:\n\n    Winsing she was, as is a jollie colt,\n    Long as a maste and upright as a bolt.\n\n                       _The Miller\u2019s Tale._\n\n[253]\n\n          _From the darkening lashes of her eyes_\n    _She breathed enamouring odour._]\n\nI am satisfied that this is to be taken in a literal, not in a\nmetaphysical or poetic sense. Nearly all the Greek female epithets\nhad a reference to some artificial mode of heightening the personal\nallurements: as _rosy-fingered_; _rosy-elbowed_: I think \u03ba\u03c5\u03b1\u03bd\u03b5\u03b1\u03c9\u03bd,\n_black_, is an epithet of the same cast: and alludes to the darkening of\nthe eye-lid by the rim drawn round it with a needle dipped in antimonial\noil. \u201cThe eye-lashes breathing of Venus,\u201d has a palpable connexion with\nthis. Athen\u00e6us, xv. describes the several unguents for the hair, breast,\nand arms, which were in use among the Greeks, as impregnated with the\nodour of rose, myrtle, or crocus. The oily dye employed by the women to\nblacken their eye-brows and eye-lashes was doubtless perfumed in the same\nmanner. Virgil probably had in his mind the perfumed hair of a Roman\nlady, when he described the tresses of Venus breathing ambrosia, \u00c6n. i.\n402:\n\n    She spoke and turn\u2019d: her neck averted shed\n    A light that glow\u2019d \u2018celestial rosy red:\u2019\n    The locks that loosen\u2019d from her temples flew\n    Breathing heaven\u2019s odours, dropp\u2019d ambrosial dew.\n\n[254] _Those herds, the cause of strife._] The story commonly runs,\nthat the Taphians, and Teloboans, a lawless and piratical people, had\nmade an inroad into the territory of Argos, and carried off Electryon\u2019s\nherds: that in the pursuit a battle took place, and the robbers killed\nthe brothers of Alcmena: and Amphitryon himself accidentally killed\nElectryon. But it should appear from Hesiod that he killed him by design\non some provocation or dispute.\n\n[255] _The wall of Thebes._] Noah was directed in express terms to build\nThiba, an ark: it is the very word made use of by the sacred writer. Many\ncolonies that went abroad styled themselves Thebeans, in reference to the\nark: as the memory of the deluge was held very sacred. Hence there occur\nmany cities of the name of Theba, not in \u00c6gypt only and B\u0153otia, but in\nCilicia, Ionia, Attica, &c. It was sometimes expressed Thiba; a town of\nwhich name was in Pontus: it is called Thibis by Pliny; and he mentions a\nnotion which prevailed, that the people of this place could not sink in\nwater. BRYANT.\n\n[256] _Bull-visaged Neptune._] The patriarch was esteemed the great deity\nof the sea: and at the same time was represented under the semblance of\na bull, or with the head of that animal: and as all rivers were looked\nupon as the children of the ocean, they likewise were represented in the\nsame manner. BRYANT.\n\nThis seems to have been a double emblem: referring to the bull Apis, the\nrepresentative of the father of husbandry, Osiris, and to the roaring of\nwaters.\n\n[257] _Mingled metal._] \u0397\u03bb\u03b5\u03ba\u03c4\u03c1\u03bf\u03bd is not _amber_, but a mixed metal: which\nPliny describes as consisting of three parts gold, and the fourth silver.\n_Electrum_ is one of the materials in the Shield of \u00c6neas, \u00c6n. viii.:\n\n    And mingled metals damask\u2019d o\u2019er with gold.\n\n                                          PITT.\n\n[258] _Pursuit was there._] Homer, Il. vi. 5:\n\n      She charged her shoulder with the dreadful Shield,\n    The shaggy \u00c6gis, border\u2019d thick around\n    With Terror: there was Discord, Prowess there,\n    There hot Pursuit.\n      There Discord raged, there Tumult, and the force\n    Of ruthless Destiny. She now a chief\n    Seiz\u2019d newly wounded, and now captive held\n    Another yet unhurt, and now a third\n    Dragg\u2019d breathless through the battle by his feet:\n    And all her garb was dappled thick with blood.\n    Like living men they travers\u2019d and they strove,\n    And dragg\u2019d by turns the bodies of the slain.\n\n                COWPER, book xviii. Shield of Achilles.\n\n[259] _Herds of boars._] That animal (the wild boar) was no less terrible\non the opposite coast of Asia than in Greece: as we learn from Herodotus,\nbook i. c. 34. GILLIES.\n\n[260] _The battle of the Lapith\u00e6._] This forms the subject of the\n_alto-relievo_ on the entablature of the Parthenon, or the temple of\nMinerva: ascribed to Phidias. See the \u201cMemorandum\u201d on the Elgin marbles.\n\n[261] _Some from their city._] Homer, Il. book xvii. Shield of Achilles:\n\n      The other city by two glittering hosts\n    Invested stood: and a dispute arose\n    Between the hosts, whether to burn the town\n    And lay all waste, or to divide the spoil.\n    Meantime the citizens, still undismay\u2019d,\n    Surrender\u2019d not the town, but taking arms\n    Prepared an ambush; and the wives and boys,\n    With all the hoary elders, kept the walls.\n\n                                       COWPER.\n\n[262]\n\n                                    _And near to them_\n    _Stood Misery._]\n\nWarton observes, History of English poetry, vol. i. p. 468: \u201cThe French\nand Italian poets, whom Chaucer imitates, abound in allegorical\npersonages: and it is remarkable that the early poets of Greece and Rome\nwere fond of these creations: we have in Hesiod \u2018Darkness:\u2019 and many\nothers; if the Shield of Hercules be of his hand.\u201d But it seems to have\nescaped the writer that it is not literal, but figurative Darkness which\nis personified. Guietus ingeniously supposes that it is meant for the\ndimness of death. Homer, indeed, applies to this the same term: in the\ndeath of Eurymachus, Od. xxii. 88:\n\n    \u039a\u03b1\u03c4\u2019 \u03bf\u03c6\u03b8\u03b1\u03bb\u03bc\u03c9\u03bd \u03b4\u2019 \u03b5\u03c7\u03c5\u03c4\u2019 \u0391\u03a7\u039b\u03a5\u03a3.\n\n    A darkening mist was pour\u2019d upon his eyes.\n\nTanaquil Faber, on Longinus, contends that \u03b1\u03c7\u03bb\u03c5\u03c2 is here Sorrow. Sorrow\nis personified in a fragment of Ennius:\n\n    Omnibus endo locis ingens apparet imago\n    Tristitia.\n\n    Sorrow, a giant form, uprears the head\n    In every place.\n\nThis is adopted by Gr\u00e6vius and Robinson. In like manner \u03c6\u03c9\u03c2 its opposite,\nlight, is often used for \u03c7\u03b1\u03c1\u03b1, joy: as appears in the oriental style of\nscripture. But they have omitted to notice that this is a _specific_\nsorrow: for what connexion have these horrible symptoms with sorrow in\ngeneral? I conceive that the prosopop\u0153ia describes the misery attendant\non war: and especially in a city besieged, with its usual accompaniments\nof famine, blood, and tears, and the dust or ashes of mourning. Longinus\nselects the line \u201can ichor from her nostrils flowed,\u201d as an instance of\nthe false sublime; and compares it with Homer\u2019s verse on Discord,\n\n    Treading on earth, her forehead touches heaven.\n\nThis is to compare two things totally unlike: why should an image of\nexhaustion and disease be thought to aim at sublimity? The objection of\nLonginus that it tends to excite disgust rather than terror is nugatory.\nThe poet did not intend to excite terror, but horror: that kind of horror\nwhich arises from the contemplation of physical suffering.\n\n[263] _A well-tower\u2019d city._] Homer, Il. book xviii. Shield of Achilles:\n\n      Two splendid cities also there he form\u2019d\n    Such as men build: in one were to be seen\n    Rites matrimonial solemnized with pomp\n    Of sumptuous banquets. Forth they led the brides\n    Each from her chamber, and along the streets\n    With torches usher\u2019d them: and with the voice\n    Of hymeneal song heard all around.\n    Here striplings danced in circles to the sound\n    Of pipe and harp; while in the portals stood\n    Women, admiring all the gallant show.\n\n                                          COWPER.\n\n[264] _Vaulted on steeds._] This circumstance has been thought to\nbetray a later age: as it is alleged, that the only instance of riding\non horseback mentioned by Homer is that of Diomed, who, with Ulysses,\nrides the horses of Rhesus of which he has made prize. But though\nchariot-horses only are found in the Homeric battles, there is an\nallusion to horsemanship, as an exhibition of skill, in a simile of the\n15th book of the Iliad, v. 679; where the rider is described as riding\nfour horses at once, and vaulting from one to the other.\n\n[265] _Others as husbandmen appear\u2019d._] Homer Il. xviii. Shield of\nAchilles:\n\n      He also graved on it a fallow field\n    Rich, spacious, and well-till\u2019d. Plowers not few\n    There driving to and fro their sturdy teams\n    Labour\u2019d the ground.\n      There too he form\u2019d the likeness of a field\n    Crowded with corn: in which the reapers toil\u2019d\n    Each with a sharp-tooth\u2019d sickle in his hand.\n    Along the furrow here the harvest fell\n    In frequent handfuls: there they bound the sheaves.\n\n                                                COWPER.\n\n[266] _In baskets thus up-piled._] Homer Il. xviii. Shield of Achilles:\n\n      There also, laden with its fruit, he form\u2019d\n    A vineyard all of gold: purple he made\n    The clusters: and the vines supported stood\n    By poles of silver, set in even rows.\n    The trench he colour\u2019d sable, and around\n    Fenced it with tin. One only path it show\u2019d:\n    By which the gatherers, when they stripp\u2019d the vines,\n    Pass\u2019d and repass\u2019d. There youths and maidens blithe\n    In frails of wicker bore the luscious fruit;\n    While in the midst a boy on his shrill harp\n    Harmonious play\u2019d: and ever as he struck\n    The chord, sang to it with a slender voice.\n    They smote the ground together, and with song\n    And sprightly reed came dancing on behind.\n\n                                       COWPER.\n\n[267]\n\n                                              _Hung_\n    _The charioteers._]\n\nThis may be compared with the chariot-race at the funeral games of\nPatroclus, in the Iliad, xxiii. 362, to which, however, it is very\ninferior.\n\n      All raised the lash together; with the reins\n    All smote their steeds, and urged them to the strife\n    Vociferating: they with rapid pace\n    Scouring the field soon left the fleet afar.\n    Dark, like a stormy cloud, uprose the dust\n    Beneath them, and their undulating manes\n    Play\u2019d in the breezes: now the level field\n    With gliding course, the rugged now they pass\u2019d\n    With bounding wheels aloft: meantime erect\n    The drivers stood: with palpitating heart\n    Each sought the prize: each urged his steeds aloud;\n    They, flying, fill\u2019d with dust the darken\u2019d air.\n\n                                             COWPER.\n\nThis description apparently suggested to Virgil the chariot-race in the\nGeorgics iii. 402, which Dryden has rendered with all the fire of the\noriginal.\n\n[268] _The ocean flow\u2019d._] Homer, Il. xviii. Shield of Achilles:\n\n    Last with the might of ocean\u2019s boundless flood\n    He fill\u2019d the border of the wondrous shield.\n\n                                         COWPER.\n\n[269] _Race of the far-famed Lyngeus._] Lyngeus was the ancestor of\nPerseus, the son of Dana\u00eb, and the father of Alc\u00e6us: of whom Amphitryon\nwas the son.\n\n[270]\n\n        _As rocks_\n    _From some high mountain-top._]\n\nHomer, Il. book xiii.\n\n                Then Hector led himself\n    Right on: impetuous as a rolling rock\n    Destructive: torn by torrent waters off\n    From its old lodgment on the mountain\u2019s brow,\n    It bounds, it shoots away: the crashing wood\n    Falls under it: impediment or check\n    None stays its fury, till the level found\n    At last, there overcome it rolls no more.\n\n                                      COWPER.\n\n[271] _He cast forth dews of blood._] Iliad, xvi, 459. Death of Sarpedon:\n\n                The Sire of gods and men\n    Dissented not: but on the earth distill\u2019d\n    A sanguine shower, in honour of a son\n    Dear to him.\n\n                                   COWPER.\n\n[272] _As in the mountain thickets._] Homer, Iliad xiii.\n\n      As in the mountains, conscious of his force,\n    The wild boar waits a coming multitude\n    Of boisterous hunters to his lone retreat:\n    Arching his bristly spine he stands: his eyes\n    Beam fire: and whetting his bright tusks, he burns\n    To drive not dogs alone, but men, to flight:\n    So stood the royal Cretan.\n\n                                         COWPER.\n\n[273] _As two grim lions._] Iliad xvi.:\n\n                      Then contest such\n    Arose between them, as two lions wage\n    Contending in the mountains for a deer\n    New-slain: both hunger-pinched, and haughty both.\n\n                                              COWPER.\n\n[274] _As vultures curved of beak._] Iliad xvi.:\n\n                  As two vultures fight\n    Bow-beak\u2019d, crook-talon\u2019d, on some lofty rock\n    Clanging their plumes, so they together rush\n    With dreadful cries.\n\n                                          COWPER.\n\n[275] _As falls a thunder-blasted oak._] Iliad xiv.:\n\n    As when Jove\u2019s arm omnipotent an oak\n    Prostrates uprooted on the plain: a fume\n    Rises sulphureous from the riven trunk;\n    So fell the might of Hector, to the earth\n    Smitten at once. Down dropp\u2019d his idle spear,\n    And with his helmet and his shield, himself\n    Also: loud thunder\u2019d all his gorgeous arms.\n\n                                        COWPER.\n\n[276]\n\n                    _As a lion, who has fall\u2019n_\n    _Perchance on some stray beast._]\n\nIliad xvii.:\n\n    But as the lion on the mountains bred\n    Glorious in strength, when he hath seiz\u2019d the best\n    And fairest of the herd, with savage fangs\n    First breaks the neck, then laps the bloody paunch,\n    Torn wide: meantime around him, but remote,\n    Dogs stand, and huntsmen shouting, yet by fear\n    Repress\u2019d, annoy him not, nor dare approach;\n    So these all wanted courage to oppose\n    The glorious Menelaus.\n\n                                   COWPER.\n\n[277] _Stoop\u2019d from the chariot._] Iliad v.:\n\n                When with determin\u2019d fury Mars\n    O\u2019er yoke and bridle hurl\u2019d his glittering spear:\n    Minerva caught: and turning it, it pass\u2019d\n    The hero\u2019s chariot-side, dismiss\u2019d in vain.\n\n                                        COWPER.\n\n[278] _The huge mount and monumental stone._] By the words _tomb_ and\n_monument_, \u03c4\u03b1\u03c6\u03bf\u03c2 and \u03c3\u03b7\u03bc\u03b1, I understand a mount of earth and a pillar of\nstone on the top of it: although Homer Il. xxiv. v. 801, applies \u03c3\u03b7\u03bc\u03b1 to\nthe mount: which he seems to describe as raised of stones:\n\n    \u03a7\u03b5\u03c5\u03b1\u03bd\u03c4\u03b5\u03c2 \u03b4\u03b5 \u03c4\u03bf \u03c3\u03b7\u03bc\u03b1, \u03c0\u03b1\u03bb\u03b9\u03bd \u03ba\u03b9\u03bf\u03bd.\n\n    So casting up the tomb, they back return\u2019d.\n\n\n\n\nAppendix.\n\n\nBIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE.\n\nGeorge Chapman was born in 1557. Wood, in the Athen\u00e6 Oxonienses, imagines\nthat he was a sworn servant either to James the First or his queen;\nand says that he was highly valued; but not so much as Ben Jonson: \u201ca\nperson of most reverend aspect, religious and temperate, qualities rarely\nmeeting in a poet.\u201d After living to the age of 77 years he died on the\n12th day of May 1634, in the parish of St. Giles\u2019s in the Fields, and\nwas buried there on the south side of the church-yard. His friend Inigo\nJones erected a monument to his memory. Of his[279] translation of Homer,\nDryden tells us that Waller used to say he never could read it without\nincredible transport. Besides other translations and poems, he was the\nauthor of 17 dramatic pieces.\u2014See _Dodsley\u2019s Collections of Old Plays_,\nvol. iv.\n\nHis version of \u201cThe Georgicks of Hesiod\u201d is inscribed in an _Epistle\nDedicatorie_ to \u201cThe most noble Combiner of Learning and Honour Sir\nFrancis Bacon, Knight; Lord High Chancellor of England, &c.\u201d and prefixed\nare two copies of commendatory verses with the signatures of Michael\nDrayton, and Ben Jonson.\n\nThis version is generally faithful both to the sense and spirit of the\nauthor. Amidst much quaintness of style and ruggedness of numbers, we\nmeet with gleams of a rich expression and with a grasp of language,\nwhich, however extravagantly bold, bears the stamp of a genuine poet.\nCooke had probably not seen this translation, or he must have avoided\nmany of the errors into which he fell.\n\n\nSPECIMENS OF CHAPMAN\u2019S HESIOD.\n\nWITH GLOSSARIAL AND CRITICAL EXPLANATIONS.\n\n\nI.\n\n                          Thus to him began\n    The Cloud-Assembler: Thou most crafty Man,\n    That ioy\u2019st to steale my fire, deceiuing Me,\n    Shalte feele that Ioy the greater griefe to thee;\n    And therein plague thy vniuersall Race:\n    To whom Ile giue a pleasing ill, in place\n    Of that good fire: And all shall be so vaine\n    To place their pleasure in embracing paine.\n      Thus spake, and laught, of Gods and Men the Sire;\n    And straight enioyn\u2019d the famous God of fire\n    To mingle instantly, with Water, Earth;\n    The voyce, and vigor, of a humane Birth\n    Imposing in it; And so faire a face,\n    As matcht th\u2019 Immortall Goddesses in grace:\n    Her forme presenting a most louely Maid:\n    Then on _Minerua_ his Command he laid,\n    To make her worke, and wield the wittie loome:\n    And (for her Beauty) such as might become\n    The Golden _Venus_, He commanded Her\n    Vpon her Browes and Countenance to conferre\n    Her own Bewitchings: stuffing all her Breast\n    With wilde Desires, incapable of Rest;\n    And Cares, [280] that feed to all satiety\n    All human Lineaments. The Crafty spy,\n    And Messenger of Godheads, _Mercury_\n    He charg\u2019d t\u2019 informe her with a dogged Minde,\n    And theeuish Manners. All as he design\u2019d\n    Was put in act. A Creature straight had frame\n    Like to a Virgine; Milde and full of Shame:\n    Which Ioue\u2019s Suggestion made the [281]both-foot lame\n    Forme so deceitfully; And all of Earth\n    To forge the liuing Matter of her Birth.\n    Gray-ey\u2019d _Minerua_ Put her Girdle on;\n    And show\u2019d how loose parts, wel-composed, shone.\n    The deified Graces, And [282]the Dame that sets\n    Sweet words in chiefe forme, Golden [283]Carquenets\n    Embrac\u2019d her Neck withall; the faire-haird Howers\n    Her gracious Temples crown\u2019d, with fresh spring-flowers;\n    But all of these, imploy\u2019d in seuerall place,\n    _Pallas_ gaue Order; the impulsiue grace.\n    Her bosome, _Hermes_, the great God of spies,\n    With subtle fashions fill\u2019d; faire words and lies;\n    _Ioue_ prompting still. But all the voyce she vs\u2019d\n    The vocall Herald of the Gods infus\u2019d;\n    And call\u2019d her name _Pandora_; Since on Her\n    The Gods did all their seuerall gifts confer:\n    Who made her such, in euery moouing straine,\n    To be the Bane of curious Minded Men.\n\n\nII.\n\n      When therefore first fit plow time doth disclose;\n    Put on with spirit; All, as one, dispose\n    Thy Servants and thy selfe: plow wet and drie;\n    And when _Aurora_ first affords her eye\n    In Spring-time turn the earth vp; which see done\n    Againe, past all faile, by the Summers Sunne.\n    Hasten thy labours, that thy crowned fields\n    May load themselues to thee, and [284]rack their yeelds.\n    The Tilth-field sowe, on Earth\u2019s most light foundations;\n    The Tilth-field, banisher of execrations,\n    Pleaser of Sonnes and Daughters: which t\u2019 improve\n    With all wisht profits, pray to earthly _Ioue_,\n    And vertuous _Ceres_; that on all such suits\n    Her sacred gift bestowes, in blessing fruits.\n    When first thou enterst foot to plow thy land,\n    And on thy plow-staffe\u2019s top hast laid thy hand;\n    Thy Oxens backs that next thee by a Chaine\n    Thy Oken draught-Tree drawe, put to the paine\n    Thy Goad imposes. And thy Boy behinde,\n    That with his Iron Rake thou hast design\u2019d,\n    To hide thy seed, Let from his labour drive\n    The Birds, that offer on thy sweat to liue.\n    The best thing, that in humane Needs doth fall,\n    Is _Industry_; and _Sloath_ the worst of all.\n    With one thy Corne ears shall with fruit abound;\n    And bow their thankfull forheads to the ground;\n    With th\u2019 other, scarce thy seed again redound.\n\n\nIII.\n\n      But if thou shouldst sow late, this well may be\n    In all thy Slacknesse an excuse for thee:\n    When, in the Oakes greene arms the Cuckoe sings,\n    And first delights Men in the louely springs;\n    If much raine fall, \u2019tis fit then to defer\n    Thy sowing worke. But how much raine to beare,\n    And [285]let no labour, to that Much give eare:\n    Past intermission let _Ioue_ steepe the grasse\n    Three daies together, so he do not passe\n    An Oxes hoofe in depth; and neuer [286]stay\n    To strowe thy seed in: (but if deeper way\n    _Ioue_ with his raine makes; then forbeare the field;)\n    For late sowne then will [287]past the formost yield.\n      Minde well all this, nor let it fly thy powrs\n    To knowe what fits the white spring\u2019s early flowrs;\n    Nor when raines timely fall: Nor when sharp colde,\n    In winter\u2019s wrath, doth men from worke withholde,\n    Sit by Smiths forges, nor warme tauernes hant;\n    Nor let the bitterest of the season dant\n    Thy thrift-arm\u2019d [288]paines, [289]like idle Pouertie;\n    For then the time is when th\u2019 industrious [290]Thie\n    Vpholdes, with all increase, his Familie:\n    With whose [291]rich hardness spirited, do thou\n    [292]Poor Delicacie flie; lest frost and snowe\n    [293]Fled for her loue, Hunger [294]sit both them out,\n    And make thee, with the beggar\u2019s lazie gout\n    Sit stooping to the paine, still pointing too\u2019t,\n    And with a leane hand stroke a [295]foggie foot.\n\n\nIV.\n\n      When aire\u2019s chill North his noisome frosts shall blowe\n    All ouer earth, and all the wide sea throwe\n    At Heauen in hills, from colde horse-breeding Thrace;\n    The beaten earth, and all her Syluane race\n    Roring and bellowing with his bitter strokes;\n    [296]Plumps of thick firre-trees and high crested-Okes\n    Torne up in vallies; [297]all _Aire\u2019s_ floud let flie\n    In him, at Earth; [298] sad nurse of all that die.\n    Wilde beasts abhor him; and run clapping close\n    Their sterns betwixt their thighs; and euen all those\n    Whose hides their fleeces line with highest proofe;\n    Euen Oxe-hides also want expulsive stuffe,\n    And bristled goates, against his bitter gale:\n    He blowes so colde, he beates quite through them all.\n    Onely with silly sheep it fares not so;\n    For they each summer [299]fleec\u2019t, their [300]fells so growe,\n    [301]They shield all winter crusht into his winde.\n    He makes the olde Man trudge for life, to finde\n    Shelter against him; but he cannot blast\n    The tender and the delicately grac\u2019t\n    Flesh of the virgin; she is kept within,\n    Close by her mother, careful of her skin:\n    [302]Since yet she neuer knew how to enfolde\n    The force of _Venus_ [303]swimming all in golde.\n    Whose Snowie bosome choicely washt and balm\u2019d\n    With wealthy oiles, she keepes the house becalm\u2019d,\n    All winter\u2019s spight; when in his fire-lesse shed\n    And miserable roofe still hiding head,\n    The bonelesse fish doth eat his feet for colde:\n    To whom the Sunne doth neuer food vnfolde;\n    But turnes aboue the blacke Mens populous towrs,\n    On whom he more bestowes his radiant howres\n    That on th\u2019 _Hellenians_: then all Beasts of horne,\n    And smooth-brow\u2019d, that in beds of wood are borne,\n    About the Oken dales that North-winde flie,\n    Gnashing their teeth with restlesse miserie;\n    And euerywhere that [304]Care solicits all,\n    That ([305]out of shelter) to their Couerts fall,\n    And Cauerns eaten into Rocks; and then\n    Those wilde Beasts shrink, like tame three-footed Men,\n    Whose backs are broke with age, and forheads driu\u2019n\n    To stoope to Earth, though borne to looke on Heav\u2019n.\n    Euen like to these, Those tough-bred rude ones goe,\n    Flying the white drifts of the Northerne Snowe.\n\n\nV.\n\n      But then betake thee to the shade that lies\n    In shield of Rocks; drinke Biblian wine, and eate\n    The creamy wafer: Gotes milke, that the Teate\n    Giues newly free, and nurses Kids no more:\n    Flesh of Bow-brousing Beeues, that neuer bore,\n    And tender kids. And to these, taste black wine,\n    The third part water, of the Crystaline\n    Still flowing fount, that feeds a streame beneath;\n    And sit in shades, where temperate gales may breath\n    On thy oppos\u2019d cheeks. When _Orion\u2019s_ raies\n    His influence, in first ascent, assaies,\n    Then to thy labouring Seruants giue command,\n    [306]To dight the sacred gift of _Ceres_ hand,\n    In some place windie, on a [307]well-planed floore;\n    Which, all by measure, into Vessels poure;\n    Make then thy Man-swaine, one that hath no house;\n    Thy handmaid one, that hath nor child nor spouse;\n    Handmaids, that children have, are rauenous.\n    A Mastiffe likewise, nourish still at home;\n    Whose teeth are sharp, and close as any Combe;\n    And meat him well, to keep with stronger guard\n    The Day-sleep-wake-Night Man from forth thy yard:\n    That else thy Goods into his Caues will beare:\n    [308]Inne Hay and Chaffe enough for all the yeare,\n    To serve thy Oxen and thy Mules; and then\n    Loose them: and ease [309]the dear knees of thy Men.\n\n\nVI.\n\n      If of a Chance-complaining Man at seas\n    The humor take thee; when the _Pleiades_\n    Hide head, and flie the fierce _Orion\u2019s_ chace,\n    And the darke-deep _Oceanus_ embrace;\n    Then diuerse Gusts of violent winds arise;\n    And then attempt no Nauall enterprize.\n    But ply thy Land affaires, and draw ashore\n    Thy Ship; and fence her round with stonage store\n    To shield her Ribs against the [310]humorous Gales;\n    Her Pump exhausted, lest _Ioue\u2019s_ rainie falls\n    Breed putrefaction. All tooles fit for her,\n    And all her tacklings, to thy House confer:\n    Contracting orderly all needfull things\n    That imp a water-treading Vessel\u2019s wings;\n    Her well-wrought Sterne hang in the smoke at home,\n    Attending time, till fit Sea Seasons come.\u2014\n      When thy vaine Minde then would Sea-ventures try,\n    [311]In loue the Land-Rocks of loath\u2019d Debt to fly,\n    And Hunger\u2019s euer-harsh-to-hear-of cry:\n    Ile set before thee all the Trim and Dresse\n    Of those still-roaring-noise-resounding Seas:\n    Though neither skild in either Ship or Saile\n    Nor euer was at Sea; Or, lest I faile,\n    But for _Eub\u0153a_ once; from _Aulis_ where\n    The Greeks, with Tempest driuen, for shore did stere\n    Their mighty Nauie, gatherd to employ\n    For sacred Greece gainst faire-dame-breeding Troy.\n    To Chalcis there I made by Sea my passe;\n    And to the Games of great _Amphidamas_;\n    Where many a fore-studied Exercise\n    Was instituted with excitefull prise\n    For great-and-good, and able-minded Men;\n    And where I wonne, at the _Pierian_ Pen,\n    A three-ear\u2019d _Tripod_, which I offer\u2019d on\n    The _Altars_ of the Maids of _Helicon_.\n    Where first their loues initiated me\n    In skill of their unworldly Harmony.\n    But no more practise have my trauailes [312]swet,\n    In many-a-naile-composed ships; and yet\n    Ile sing what _Ioue\u2019s_ Minde will suggest in mine\n    Whose daughters taught my verse the rage diuine.\n\n\nFOOTNOTES\n\n[279] Granger, in his biographical history of England, speaks slightingly\nof Chapman\u2019s Homer on Pope\u2019s authority. Pope singularly explains what he\nconsiders as the defects of this translation, by saying that \u201cthe nature\nof the man may account for his whole performance: as he appears to have\nbeen of an arrogant turn, and _an enthusiast in poetry_.\u201d A strange\ndisqualification! He confesses, also, that \u201cwhat very much contributed\nto cover his defects, is a daring fiery spirit that animates his\ntranslation: which is something like what one might imagine Homer himself\nwould have written before he arrived at years of discretion.\u201d PREFACE TO\nHOMER.\n\nMr. Godwin, in his \u201cLives of Edward and John Philips, nephews of Milton,\u201d\nhas illustrated the natural energy of style in Chapman\u2019s Homer with\ncritical taste and just feeling. Chap. x. p. 243.\n\n[280] Feed _upon_ or emaciate the features by dissipated excess.\n\n[281] Vulcan.\n\n[282] Persuasion.\n\n[283] Necklaces; from Carquan, Fr. or Carcan. _Dict. de l\u2019Ac. Fr._\n\n    Threading a _carkanet_ of pure round pearl.\n\n           Sir W. Davenant. The Wits, a comedy.\n\n[284] _To rack_ here means to _give what is exacted_; yeelds is\n_yieldings_, produce.\n\n[285] Hinder.\n\n[286] Hesitate.\n\n[287] Beyond that which was sown first.\n\n[288] Exertions.\n\n[289] So much as.\n\n[290] The Man of Thrift. Thie in the old Saxon is thrift.\n\n[291] Animated with whose hardihood in braving the season for the sake of\nwealth.\n\n[292] Slothful averseness to meet the rigour of the season, of which the\nconsequence is poverty.\n\n[293] Avoided through love of delicacy; or slothful indulgence.\n\n[294] Remain unemployed; sit starving in idleness as long as the frost\nand snow endure.\n\n[295] Thick, swollen.\n\n[296] Clusters.\n\n[297] The whole deluge of air being let loose in him, the (north-wind) on\nthe surface of earth.\n\n[298] In the original, _many-nourishing_. Chapman has elsewhere more\nfaithfully the same epithet \u201c_many-a-creature-nourishing_ earth.\u201d\n\n[299] Being sheared.\n\n[300] Skins.\n\n[301] They keep out the whole force of the winter, which is concentrated\nin his (the winter\u2019s) wind.\n\n[302] She was of too tender an age to sustain the bridal embrace.\n\n[303] A Grecism: swimming _in beauty_: in the Greek, _many-golden_ Venus:\nabounding with charms.\n\n[304] The care of seeking shelter.\n\n[305] Being in need of shelter.\n\n[306] To _dress_, or prepare by thrashing.\n\n[307] Well-smooth\u2019d or levell\u2019d.\n\n[308] Stow in.\n\n[309] A Grecism: _Dear_ in Greek being synonymous with _his_, _hers_,\n_their_: and in this instance an expletive.\n\n[310] Humid.\n\n[311] With the wish or desire.\n\n[312] Sweated _through_; toiled through.\n\n\nTHE END.\n\nC. Baldwin, Printer, New Bridge-street. London.","title":"The Remains of Hesiod the Ascr\u00e6an, Including the Shield of Hercules: Translated into English rhyme and blank verse; with a dissertation on the life and \u00e6ra, the poems and mythology of Hesiod, and copious notes.","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":73317}