Zealous of fame and of his country's worth, On Ida's mount the Cretan boasts thy birth : And thy great birth-place in their country shew. Who vaunts, dread sovereign, and who vaunts in vain, 15 Their Who vaunts, &c.] The original is and worship him, as one that was or had been - Πότεροι, πάτερ, εψεύσαντο Kpnles aos feugai nai, &c. The Cretans pretending to fhew the tomb of Jupiter in their ifland, feem greatly to have offended their idolatrous brethren of the nations: and to have drawn upon themselves that odious character which we find in our author, and which, from him we plainly learn, was given to them on account of this impious prophanation of their Supreme: Tam mendax magni tumulo quam Creta tonantis: fays Lucan: and Cicero-Ab Euhemero autem & mortes, & fepulturæ demonftrantur Deorum. Utrum igitur hic confirmâffe videtur religionem, aut penitus totam fuftuliffe?-Saint Paul takes notice of this proverb to fhew the allowed vilenefs of the Gentile world: "One of themfelves, even a prophet of their own, faid, The Cretans are always liars, evil beafts, flow bellies." The prophet here fpoken of, is Epimenides, a Cretan poet (the word wponins, prophet, ftrictly speaking, means no more than one that fpeaks from, for, or instead of another: in the fame manner as pro-conful, р in compofition being all one with up: fo poets are UTTEP: called @poonra Macawr, the prophets of the mufes, which may be faid very properly of Epimenides, who is commonly ftyled, Oos amp, a divine man, and his writings xpnopol, oracles. See Hammond on St. Luke.) From him it was that St. Paul took this line, upon which the learned Dr. Hammond obferves, "Chryfoftom and Theophylact fay of Epimenides, that he, feeing the Cretans build a fepulchral monument to Jupiter but a man, in zeal, and jealousy, and rage, nλwoas, for that god of his, he writes these verfes to Jupiter, beginning Kples ass &surai, which Chryfoftom makes up into a distich : Και γαρ ταφον, ὦ ανα, σειο Κρητες ελεκληνανίο· συ δε θανες, εσσι γαρ αιθί. But it must be observed that these verfes are in Callimachus's hymn pos Aa, which that they are the very lines here referred to in Epimenides, doth no way appear, but by Chryfoftom's confrom the xaxa Onpia, which here follows, but jecture: nay, the contrary must be concluded, not in Callimachus: it is then moft probable that Callimachus borrowed thence the firft words, and added the rest of his own, and fo applied it to his own purpose: fo that all St. Chryfoftom's difficulties and fuppofitions muft fall to the ground, &c."-See the comment. That Callimachus did not borrow from Epimenides, is plain and obvious: befides, both St. Chryfoftom and Dr. Hammond might have confidered, that this, which St. Paul quotes, is itself a compleat hex ameter verfe: Κρήτες αει Ψευσαι κακα θηρια, γατέρες αρδας. And Erafmus, in his Chiliads tells us, that St. Jerom found in a work of Epimenides (entituled de Oraculis) this very line: fo that St. Chryfoftom need not have been fo anxious after, what he thought, filling it up; nor could any thing fo well fill it up, to St. Paul's purpose and argument, as its own words. Callimachus mentions nothing of the xana Ongia, or yaripes apyas: and that he took the firft words from Epimenides is fcarce probable or worthy a difpute; as the B 2 proverb Their impious actions all their claims difprove: A God, thro' all eternity the fame ! WHERE the brown forefts on Parrhafia nod Thick, dark, and awful, Rhea bore the God: 20 25 proverb was, doubtlefs, fo common in every one's mouth nay, indeed, upon the whole, it feems probable, that Epimenides used the words in a sense very different from Callimachus. Ver. 18. The tomb] The fcholiaft is ingenious enough upon this paffage; and feems defirous to free the Cretans from the odium of fo prophane an action, as pretending to fhew the tomb of the fupreme Jupiter amongst them. "For, fays he, in Crete, upon the tomb of Minos was this infcription Mos Te Aos Tapos, the tomb of Minos, the fon of Jupiter. In procefs of time, by fome means or other, the firft words were effaced and obliterated, infomuch that only Atos Tapos, the tomb of Jupiter, remained: And from hence arofe the notion that Jupiter was buried in Crete, and that this was his tomb." Another folution he gives of the matter, which is this; "The Corybantes who took the care of the young God, in order to deceive his voracious father Saturn the better, did in fact build a tomb for him, as if he had been really dead." The first is plaufible and ingenious; but we in these times need be in no danger of declaring, that most probably there was a real tomb : Nor of a real Jupiter, a king of Crete, in all likelyhood buried in his own realms which as Jupiter was the supreme God of the nations, became in time (when they misunderstood their true Jupiter, and mifconceived him) a matter of great offence. "In the Ver. 21. Parrhafia] Arcadia was fo called from Parrhafus, one of the fons of Lycaon; here it was in the mountain Lycæus, that Rhea brought forth the divine Jupiter: whose birthplace was ever after held in extraordinary veneration by the Arcadians. Paufanius (in Arcadicis, p. 513) fpeaking of it fays, fummit of the mountain is the cave of Rhea; where none except the facred priesteffles (yuvait μοναις ιεραις της Θε8) were permitted to enter; and if any one contemptuously entered it, death, within the year, was neceffarily his fate." Milton fpeaking of Eve's bower (B. iv. ver. 703) has fome lines that are a good comment on this passage— Nor daring there the pangs of birth to prove; Such pious horror guards the hallow'd grove. THE mighty burden of her womb refign'd, The goddess fought fome living ftream to find: All due ablutions to perform, and lave 30 Thy infant limbs in its auspicious wave: : Then woods and wilds above the hollows rose, 35 Ver. 30. &c.] There is fomething very remarkable in the account which the poet gives us of this purification of the mother and the child for that both are mentioned, the original puts out of all difpute: Ωκε τοκοιο Λυματα χυτλωσαιτο τεον δ' ενι χρωα λοεσσαι. The roxolo uμara are the partús fordes, and as Mad. Dacier (whofe authority here doubtlefs fhould be allowed) obferves, refers not to the infant but to the mother: The word xuthwoairo, according to Hefychius, is expreffive not of fimple washing only, but anointing with oil, μετα έλαια λυσασθαι, το αλείψαι μετα το λυσασθαι to anoint after washing. And it was an univerfal cuftom amongst the Greeks for women to purify themselves by washing: A custom not eafily accounted for unless we have recourfe to the original and pofitive inftitution of purification by wafhing; and indeed, this would open a large Obfcure field of enquiry, and might, perhaps, well repay our labour: However, this is worthy obfervation, "That the mother of the king of the gods, and the king of the gods himfelf had need of purification by water." Nothing can more fully declare the univerfal confent of all mankind in the natural uncleanness of all flesh. Water and oil we know are the acknowledged types of the fpirit; and a lamb and a pigeon, types of the Son and Holy Spirit, were offerings for women under the law.-See Levit. xii. Now water is the great and appointed cleanfer. I fhall leave the reader to purfue these hints if he thinks proper, referring him to St. Luke ii. 21-24. There is one thing more alfo obferveable in the original, that the water which Rhea fought after, is called Poor udatos. a river of water, living or running water. See Levit. xiv. 5. and St. John vii. 38, 39. Ver. 33.] It was a common opinion with the ancients, that fountains and rivers partook of Obfcure with duft the rattling chariots rode, Thoughtless of gurgling streams confin❜d below, The hinds, burnt up with thirst, impatient drag'd and flow. Then spoke (and speaking rear'd her arm on high :) 40. 45 "Prove the truth) but from the other we expect a rational and real folution of a matter of fact. "That Arcadia, says Frischlinus, should be entirely devoid of water before the birth of Jupiter, and that then fo many great rivers should fuddenly fpring up, is a thing no way confonant with truth, but seems to be a fiction of the poet, in order to enhance the praises of Jupiter. Do I myfelf judge the opinion of Paufanias far more agreeable to truth, than this of the poets, concerning the aridity and moisture of Arcadia. In his Arcadics, he speaks thus—“ But if the country is troubled with great drought, by means of which the corn and fhrubs are all withered and parched up, then the priest of Lycaan Jupiter, turning with prayers to the water of the fountain, having flain facrifices, and performed all neceffary rights, dips a branch of oak into the furface of the water, which immediately becomes troubled, and fends forth a vaporous, black fteam like a cloud; foon after which this fteam or cloud ascends, and then prefently the clouds gather all around, the sky lowers, and fhortly fhowers of rain refresh the Arcadian vallies." This cuftom, deferves our attention. "Prove thou, O earth, with me a mother's woes, And rushes roaring down the rocks rough fide. THIS happy ftream thy infant limbs receiv'd, By thee first honour'd, as with thee it liv'd : There bath'd thy limbs, and wrapt in purple bands, To Dicte's cave commanding to repair, 50 55 Ver. 5. She faid, &c.] There can be no doubt, but that Callimachus borrowed this from the hiftory recorded in the Old Teftament, of the like miracle performed by Mofes, or at least, that the ftory, if traditional, which I rather incline to believe, was originally derived from thence. "Mofes took the rod from before the Lord, as he commanded him. And Mofes and Aaron gathered the congregation together before the rock, and he said unto them, hear now ye rebels, must we fetch you water out of this rock? And Mofes lift up his hand, and with his rod he fmote the rock twice; and the water came out abundantly" Numb. xx. 9-11: See alfo Exod. xvii. 6. It is obferveable, that St. Paul particularly applies this to Chrift: "They did all drink the fame fpiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that Rock was Chrift ;" 1 Cor. x. 4. 60 Neda, And this confideration will be pleafing to the fcriptural reader, that Rhea fhould (according to the heathen mythology) require water from the rock, to wash her new-born infant." Such remarkable particulars in the blind devotion of the idolatrous nations must give great evidence to the truth of that fyftem, which in its purity can alone account for, and folve these strange, and otherwise inexplicable circumftances in their practice: And my design is to suggest such hints as may easily be carried on by perfons tolerably fkilled in thefe matters. It is remarkable, that Apollonius, the cotemporary of Callimachus, in his Argonautics, mentions this fame miracle of Rhea's, done in Cyzicum; and fomething of the fame kind Paufanias tells us of Atalanta, who, when hunting, being a-thirst, ftruck a rock with her hunting-ftaff, and thence flowed water. |