Thy hate incurring, juftly merits mine. Ye virgins fing, ye women join the song, As to thy fhrine four milk-white courfers bear 170 Ver. 169. Hail, &c.] The reader will perceive that these are the fame with the lines used at the beginning of the hymn, and make up part of the chorus fung by the women, which ends at the 180th line. Some of the external ceremonies are here allegorised and explained to us, fo that we need search no further; the facred myfteries none were to divulge. The Calathus was drawn by four milk-white courfers, becaufe white is the emblem of the folar as well as the lunar light: hence the fwan dedicated to Apollo, hy. to Apollo, n. 94. hence the filver bow of Diana, hy. to Diana, v. 160. And because the Sun and Moon moft exert their influence in the Spring and fummer, therefore it is obfervable, our author gives them, not autumn and winter, the epithet of Auxor, white. It is plain from Callimachus, that the cuftom of walking upon this occafion with their heads and feet bare and uncovered, was in atteftation of their full dependance upon the deity they worshipped for bodily protection and defence. Some writers have fuppofed, that this very general custom amongst the Gentile idolaters of walking barefoot in their religious fervices, proceeded from God's command to Mofes, Put off thy fhoes from off thy feet, &c. Exod. iii. 5. "Hence the Demons, fays Justin Martyr, Apol. 2. p. 74. had their mimicry of requiring their priests to enter their 175 With temples always barefoot: as the priests obliged With fruits; and to the next preferve the year. As with uncover'd head and naked feet We trace the city, fo from harms fecure May we poffefs our bodies! Fill'd with gold As women bear the facred canisters, 180 With the bright ore fo may our coffers fwell! Far as the Prytaneum, let the pomp By women not admitted to the rites Moft fecret be attended: there receiv'd And usher'd to the Goddess, by those dames 185 Moft venerable, who thrice twenty fprings By Ver. 179. Fill'd with gold, &c.] It is plain from hence, that these facred Air, or canisters, were filled with gold, as the Calathus or basket was filled according to the poet, Spoliis agreßibus, with the fpoils and fruits of the field: thefe confeffedly contained the myfteries, and indeed we have different accounts of their contents: but from what our author fays, all here feems plain enough; and, decyphered, thefe ceremonies fay no more than this, "That as Ceres was the giver of corn and encrease, so from thence proceeded the riches and wealth of man." It is remarkable that a Auxrov, a facred Cifta, Canister, or whatever you chufe to call it, was used alfo in the ceremonies of Bacchus, which was furrounded with ivy, and drawn by a ferpent, as is feen on some antient coins: nay, this Cifta or Vannus was common both to Bacchus and Ceres, Libero and Libera, as Spa heim obferves. Moreover, the fixth day of the Eleuftnian myfteries was called Iaxxos, Iacchus or Bacchus, from Jacchus the fon of Jupiter and Ceres, who ac companied the Goddess in her fearch-after Proferpine, with a torch in his hand whence his ftatue always held a torch. How plain is all this mystery, when referred to nature, the Sun being ever the attendant of Ceres, the Moon, in her fearch after Proferpine, the vegetative part of nature? Archbishop Potter, in confirmation. of this, vol. 1. p. 391. fpeaking of the officers used in the Eleufinian myfteries, fays, "The Hierophantes had three affiftants, the first of which was called from his office Aaduxos, i. e. torch-bearer, and to him it was permitted to marry. The fecond was called Knpug, of whose office I have already given an account. third miniftred at the altar, and was for that reafon named OTT Bwuw. Hierophantes is faid to have been a type of the great Creator of all things. Aadexos, of the Sun. Knput, of Mercury; and OTW Baw, of the Moon." -So that however juft this may be, which I don't undertake to defend, yet we plainly fee, they univerfally referred these things to nature. The By weight of years, by pregnancy or pangs ; Bring forth the corn, and happy harvests give; Ver. 197. And peace, &c.] Ceres is no Goddefs without peace, war levels all her productions, her gifts then are deftroyed, and the ceases to blefs mankind. So that no wonder the poet prays to fuch a Goddess for peace: It is obfervable that Bacchus too, or the Sun under this character, is applied to by the heathens for peace: nay, and is faid to love it. Φιλει δ' ολβιοδότειραν Ειρήνην, παροτροφών Θεαν. He loves wealth-giving Peace, a Goddess the nourisher of men, fays Euripides: and on fome antient coins we find Peace herself reprefented with the infignia of Ceres, with ears of corn round her head, in her breaft, and hand to which Tibullus doubtless alludes, when he says, At nobis pax alma veni, fpicamque teneto. Lib. 1. El. 10. See Spanheim's note. It hath been well obferved, that the words following in our author, that the glad hand, &c. are agreeable to Scripture, and many profane writers. "They fhall 190 195 ON build houfes and inhabit them: and they fhall Impius hæc tamen culta, &c. Did we for these barbarians plant and fow, Good heav'n, what dire effects from civil difcord flow! DRYDEN. Here are the reafons why the poet begs the Pace Ceres læta eft:& vos orate coloni ON me propitious fmile, queen thrice ador'd, Great emprefs, of all female pow'rs fupreme! : 200 Ver. 199. On me, &c.) Callimachus con- Orphic hymn to her, to which I refer the reader; cludes his hymns with a prayer to the Goddefs obferving laftly, that fhe was called rp, thrice Ceres for himself, Iradi uo, be propitious to me; adored, quæ ter vocata audis (fays Horace) in have mercy on me. Iλanti μ, the words of reference to that threefold power of which I fpoke, the publican's prayer in Luke xviii. 13. and this note 10. Hence in ode 22. lib. 3. Horace calls phrafe Lao, was very common with the her Diva triformis, and Virgil, Ιλαθι μοι, heathens. The poet honours his Goddess with very high appellations, Τρίλλισε, μεγα κρείασα θεάων. Thrice adored, great queen of the Goddeffes: which expreffion Spanheim thinks means no more than great queen of the number of the Goddeffes by a like manner of speaking with Ala yuax, faneta dearum, &c. and yet he produces a remarkable paffage from Euripides, where the poet calls her, a aяaytwy avaσca, Goddefs the queen of all; with remarkable similitude to our author. Hence the is always Marne, mother, And waμuntapa, Ceres the mother of all, as in the Tergeminamque Hecaten, tria virginis ora Hence the old epigram, Terret, luftrat, agit, Proferpina, Luna, Diana, No wonder Callimachus, upon this view, calls End of the Hymns of CALLIMACHUS. |