on Bion, we have some reason to suppose that Sicelidas of Samos, Lycidas of Crete, and Philetas of Coos, were in the number of those who attempted Bucolic poetry. Some have supposed the verses in question to have been composed by M. Musurus, to supply a defect; but Jos. Scaliger informs us that they were found by Musurus and Muretus, in the most ancient manuscripts. The accounts which we have of Bion are very obscure. From Suidas we learn that he was a native of Phlossa, near Smyrna. Some suppose that he was contemporary with Theocritus, but this seems to be a mistake. I think we have internal evidence from the Elegy of Moschus on Bion, that they were contemporary. When Moschus asks, who would be so bold as to play on the pipe of Bion; he adds, Εἰσέτι γὰρ πνείει τὰ σὰ χείλεα καὶ τὸ σὸν ἆσθμα. Nam adhuc spirant tua labra et tuum halitum : from which we may with some probability collect, that Bion was but recently dead. Again he says: 1 αὐτὰρ ἐγώ τοι Αυσονικᾶς ὀδυνᾶς μέλπω μέλος, οὐ ξένος ὠδᾶς Κλαρονόμως μωσᾶς τῆς Δωρίδος ἄμμε γεραίρων, For you, not a stranger to pastoral poetry, In which I have been instructed as a disciple by you; You have left your riches to others, your poetry to me. The plain and obvious meaning of these two passages supposes Moschus and Bion to be contemporaries. I am not however ignorant, that they may both admit of a different interpretation. But I choose to adhere to the easiest sense of them. The learned Vossius has not ascertained the age of Bion. Moschus was contemporary and intimate with Aristarchus, who lived in the time of Ptolemy Philometer, a hundred years after Theocritus. From the address of Moschus to the river Meles, we may certainly conclude that Bion was born near Smyrna. He probably afterwards lived in Sicily, and in Alexandria in Egypt. Bion, as appears from the Elegy, was a person of great celebrity in his age, and a man of property. It appears from the Elegy of Moschus, that Bion died by poison. He adds: * Rather :-Κλαρονόμος μωσᾶς τῆς Δωρίδος άμμε γεραίρων Αλλοις μὲν τὸν ὄλβον, ἐμοὶ δ ̓ ἀπέλειψας ἀοιδάν. * Αλλὰ δίκα κίχε πάντας· ἐγὼ δ ̓ ἐπὶ πένθεϊ τῷδε But Justice (at some time) overtakes all men; And I shedding tears through this grief bewail your fate. It is not likely that he would represent himself as shedding tears for him, if he had not known him personally. SECT, XVII. Of the Idyllia of Bion. It would not perhaps be fair to form a judgment of the Genius and Poems of Bion, from the few fragments of him which are now extant. Moschus, in his Epitaphion or Elegy on him, represents him as a very great pastoral poet. To judge from his Remains, he seems to me much inferior to Theocritus and Moschus in energy and strength. His numbers however are mellifluous and soft. His Elegy on Adonis is generally known. It is delicate, and flows in a plaintive strain. When this Syrian or Egyptian story was first introduced into the Grecian Mythology, it is not easy to ascertain. There is an address to Adonis in one of the Orphic Hymns; but I consider these Hymns as of very doubtful antiquity. Adonis seems to be Osiris, or the Thammuz of scripture. Maundrel in his Travels informs us, that the river Adonis appears sometimes tinged with a red colour, which is occasioned by the red earth which is washed down by the rain. The rites of Adonis, as celebrated at Alexandria, had been before described by Theocritus in his fifteenth Idyllium. The thirtieth Idyllium of Theocritus also is on the death of Adonis. Venus sends her attendant Cupids to fetch the boar that had gored the thigh of her favourite youth, and pardons him on his declaring that he had not done it intentionally. This Idyllium of Theocritus appears somewhat fantastic in its design. Bion in his elegy represents Venus as inconsolable and distracted with grief for the death of Adonis, whom she and her Cupids endeavour in vain to recal to life. The subject is the death of a beautiful youth destroyed and expiring gradually, in consequence of being wounded by the tusks of a boar; and Venus bewails him with all the passion and tenderness of a human fair one. It is evidently in some degree an imitation of the death of Daphnis in the first Idyllium of Theocritus. Some passages of this Idyllium of Bion are more particularly striking. Κύπριν ἀνιᾷ Λεπτὸν ἀποψύχων· τὸ δὲ οἱ μέλαν εἴβεται αἷμα Χιονέας κατὰ σαρκός· ὑπ ̓ ὄφρυσι δ' ὄμματα ναρκεί, Κύπριδι μὲν τὸ φίλαμα καὶ οὐ ζώοντος ἀρέσκει. ̓Αλλ' οὐκ εἶδεν * Αδωνις ὅ μιν θνασκόντ ̓ ἐφίλασεν.—ν, 8. CI. JI. I -he grieves Venus Expiring with a feeble breath, but the black blood drops Down his snowy flesh and his eyes are torpid under his brows, And the rose vanishes from his lip. His kiss even when not alive is sweet to Venus, But Adonis did not perceive that she kissed him when dead. The circumstance of his dogs howling around him for sorrow is worthy of being noticed. Κεῖνον μὲν περὶ παῖδα φίλοι κύνες ὠρύσαντο.ν. 19. Venus herself is then represented as running mournful, without sandals, and with dishevelled hair, through the brakes, where she is pricked by the thorns, while she calls aloud for her Assyrian husband. The most tender sensibility is exhibited in the following verses. Ως ἴδε φοίνιον αἷμα μαραινομένῳ περὶ μηρῷ Ως σε περιπτύξω, καὶ χείλεα χείλεσι μίξω. *Εγρεο τυτθὸν "Αδωνι, τὸ δ ̓ αὖ πύματόν με φίλασον. v. 41. When she saw the purple blood about his pining thigh, With out-spread hands she said with a mournful tone, Stay, Adonis, Stay, unhappy Adonis, that I may possess you for the last time, That I may embrace you and mix my lips with your lips, Rise a little, Adonis, and kiss me for the last time! How natural also is it for a lady to say! τι γὰρ, τόλμηρε, κυνάγεις ; Καλὸς ἐων τοσσοῦτον ἔμηνας θῆρσι παλαίειν ήν. 60. Being so beautiful, why were you so mad as to encounter wild beasts? I shall add only one other delicate line: Καὶ νέκυς ὦν καλός ἐστι, καλὸς νέκυς οἷα καθεύδων. ν. 71. Even when dead he is beautiful-beautiful, when dead, as if he were sleeping. There are rural images enough in this poem, to entitle it to rank with pastorals. Some circumstances, such as the couch in which Adonis is laid, &c. are no doubt borrowed from the rites practised at the festival of Adonis. The fable of Adonis's remaining one half of the year with Proserpine, and the other half with Venus, is supposed to allude to the sun, which is one half of the year in the southern signs and the other in the northern. It is thus beautifully alluded to by Milton, in his catalogue of the fallen spirits; -Thammuz came next behind His eye surveyed the dark idolatries Of alienated Judah. Milt. Par. Lost. Book 1. v. 446. The second and third Idyllia of Bion are airy and light, but fantastic in their kind. The purport of the fourth seems to be that love inspires poetry. In the fifth it is recommended that we should not harass ourselves too much with cultivating arts and sciences, but enjoy the pleasures of the present time, as our life is of short duration, after which there will be no time for enjoyment. This doctrine often occurs in Horace. The next fragment is very beautiful. It is a short conversation between Cleodamus and Myrson, in which Cleodamus asks Myrson to which of the four seasons of the year he gives the preference. His answer is this: Κρίνειν οὐκ ἐπέοικε θεήϊα ἔργα βροτοῖσι. Πάντα γὰρ ἱερὰ ταῦτα καὶ ἁδέα· σεῦ δὲ ἕκατι It does not become mortals to judge the works of God, I will declare, Cleodamus, which season is more pleasant to me than the rest : I wish not for summer, for then the sun scorches me; I wish not for autumn, because the productions of the season occa sion disease; I fear to endure destructive winter, frosts and snows: May I enjoy lovely spring through the whole year, When neither the cold nor the sun is oppressive: All nature brings forth in spring; in spring all things pleasant are in their bud, And men enjoy equal nights and days. There is a passage in the third Eclogue of Virgil, very similar to these last beautiful lines of this fragment of Bion. Et nunc omnis ager, nunc omnis parturit arbos: Nunc frondent sylvæ, nunc formosissimus annus. SECT. XVIII. Of the Idyllia of Moschus. The Europa. The first Idyllium of Moschus (the subject of which is the search of Venus for Cupid lost, and her description of him) is fantastical and airy, and much in the manner of the lighter pieces of Bion. The Europa, or second Idyllium, is in a higher strain. Venus sends a dream to Europa, the daughter of the king of Phoenicia about cock-crowing, in which the two continents of Asia and Europe appear in the form of women contending for her. This dream, and her sensations in consequence of it, are related in a very lively manner; Εὐρώπῃ ποτὲ Κύπρις ἐπὶ γλυκὺν ἧκεν ὄνειρον, Νυκτὸς ὅτε τρίτατον λάχος ἵσταται, ἔγγύθι δ ̓ ἐώς· "Υπνος ὅτε γλυκίων μέλιτος βλεφάροισιν ἐφίζων, Λυσιμελὴς, πεδάα μαλακῷ κατὰ φάϊα δεσμῷ, Εὔτε καὶ ἀτρεκέων ποιμαίνεται ἔθνος ὀνείρων.ν. 1. Venus on a time sent a delightful dream to Europa, When the third portion of the night was come, and the morning was near, When sleep sweeter than honey settling on the eyelids, Relaxing the limbs, binds the eyes with a soft chain, Her feelings when she awaked are thus described: ̔Η δ ̓ ἀπὸ μὲν στρώτων λεχέων θόρε δειμαίνουσα, Εἴσετι πεπταμένοισιν ἐν ὄμμασιν εἶχε γυναῖκας. v. 16. She leaped terrified from her bed, With palpitating heart, for her dream was as a true vision; She remained for some time sitting in silence, and she seemed Still to behold the two women with her eyes open. Then follows her soliloquy, in which she expresses her surprise, concluding with this wish: ̓Αλλά μοι εἰς ἀγαθὸν μάκαρες κρίνειαν ὄνειρον. ν. 27. May the blessed Gods design this dream for good to me. She next calls her companions, virgins of the same age, and · Οὐκ ὄναρ, ἀλλ ̓ ὕπαρ ἐσθλὸν, ὅ τοι τετελεσμένων ἔσται. Hom. Odyss. Τ. 549. |