"And fure Afteria's favour to my foe 330 "Cannot much roufe my vengeance: fince her fhores "Barren and defolate can but afford "A wretched hospitality! Yet prone "To fury tho' I were, this wou'd disarm "My steadieft purpose, that her virtue scorn'd, 335 "Tho' courted, to afcend my facred bed, "And to Jove's arms preferr'd the briny deep.” Thus ufhering to birth with dulcet founds The God of harmony: and hence fev'n strings Hereafter to his golden lyre he gave : 345 For Ver. 339. Snowy fwans, &c.] I have before obferved, that fwans were dedicated to Apollo, and hinted at the only probable reafon I can find for it. (See hymn to Apollo, note 94.) and am pleafed to find that able mythologist Phurnutus, confirm my opinion. Δια τετο και ιερος αυτῷ ο ΚΥΚΝΟΣ, τῷ μεσικότατον, και ΛΕΥΚΟΤΑΤΟΝ αμα είναι των ορνέων. "For this reafon is the fwan facred to Apollo, because it is the moft mufical and moft white of all birds." Sce c. 32. As to the other parts of this defcription they are fo clear, I fuppofe, they need no explanation: we have only to refer to the beginning of things, and the perfection of the number feven, and we shall see the whole mystery, remembring that the original Hebrew ya fignifies perfection and fulness, as well as feven. Apollo's lyre confifted of feven ftrings: Lyrâ Apollinis chordarum feptem (fays Macrobius, fat. l. 1. c. 19.) tot caleftium phararum motus præftat intelligi, quibus folem moderatorem natura conftituit. And as this lyre reprefents the feven spheres, the harmony of which the Sun regulates and conducts, hence we fee plainly the original of the harmony of the spheres fo much talked of. Q2 For ere the eighth foft concert was begun, He sprung to birth-the Delian nymphs aloud The facred fong rejoicing! Æther hears And from his brazen vault returns the found 350 Exulting; perfect glory reign'd: and Jovs Sooth'd even offended JUNO, that no ire Might damp the gen'ral joy, when Sol was born. Of pureft gold: the circling lake, the flood Of deep Inopus roll'd the fplendid ore Adown their glittering ftreams: and golden fruit Thou too from off the golden foil uprais'd 355 The new-born God, and fondling in thy breaft 360 Ver. 354. Then, &c.] Homer gives the fame account of this affair, and tells us, that all became golden at Delos upon the birth of the Sun; no difficult matter to account for, efpecially if we refer to the hymn to Apollo, ver. 52, and note. Callimachus fays, that the inland Delos took "I am Apollo from the ground, the golden foil; upon which Spanheim obferves, that it was always ufual to lay infants, when first born, upon the earth, by which they acknowledged it the common parent and nourisher: after which they were taken up and delivered to the parents. "I am that poor uncultivated ifle "Defpis'd and barren; yet observe, from me 365 "Delian Apollo fcorns not to receive "An honour'd name: and hence no other clime "From any God fhall equal favour share : 370 "Here will I fix, and wander hence no more." Ver. 374. Her fnowy breaft, &c.] Homer, in his hymn to Apollo, gives a very different account of this matter, informing us, that Apollo, immediately after his birth, was not fed with milk like other infants; but had nectar and ambrofia, the meat and drink of the Gods, immediately brought him by Themis: θήσατο Μήτηρ, 375 Hence, who, according to Plutarch, averred that the "Because, probably, the Sun or Apollo, as the obferve, that the word lotus is derived from the producer and nourisher of all things on earth, cannot be supported by earthly aliment, but heavenly only. To fay nothing of the Stoics, fame Hebrew word as Latona, Lot, &c.-as noted, ver. 18. of this hymn: a remark worth the reader's attention. Hence, holiest of islands, thou waft call'd The nurfe of PHOEBUS: privileg'd from death, From bloody MARS, and wild BELLONA's wafte, Who ne'er destructive tread thy hallow'd plains. But from the fubject world primitial tenths : 380 Ver. 378. Privileg'd from death, &c.] It was never permitted any perfon to die, or to bring forth, in Delos; and the great veneration paid to the ifland by the whole world preferved it from the danger of war. Whenever any were fick they were carried into a little ifland juft by, called Rhenea, where they buried. And to this our author alludes in the lines above. Frifchlinus remarks a faying of Paufanias, the fon of Cleombrotus, to this purpofe; who replied to the Delians upon a difpute between them and the Athenians, concerning the property of the ifle, when they obferved this particular that no were delivered, nor dead buried, in their ifle. "How then can this be your country, in which no one of you hath been, nor will hereafter be ?" In qua neque fuit quifquam veftrum, neque futurus eft? Ver. 381. But primitial tenths, &c.] Callimachus here informs us of a very remarkable particular in the worfhip of Apollo," the fending him the firft-fruits and tenths by every nation in the world, and from the inhabitants of every part of the globe," to each of which the influence of the Sun extends, and from all of which at this birth-place of his he demanded, and obtained, an acknowledgment of his univerfal dominion. It appears impoffible to give any tolerable folution of this cuftom, unless we refer to the Sun, and his univerfal influence. The custom of offering firft-fruits is, without doubt, extremely antient, prior to Mofes, and as old as the fall when Cain brought of the fruit of the ground, and Abel of the firflings of his flock: the one a bloody, and fo an acceptable facrifice; the other only of the fruit of the ground, curfed and not redeemed. And in reference to this bloody offering, the learned commentators upon our author obferve, that in the original there is Are mention of more than the fheaves, and therefore I have tranflated it (ver. 390.) The holy fheaves and myftic offerings bear. Οι μεντοι καλαμην τε και ιερα δραγματα πρωτοι Αραχνών. In thefe facred handfuls, or bundles of corn, they aver, that the bloody offering was wrapped up to preferve it, which is confirmed by a paffage from Herodotus, who fays, that the Delians fpeak of IPA ενδεδεμενα εν καλαμή πυρών εξ YgBogen pegouerz, — facred things bound up in a feaf of wheat, brought by the Hyperboreans," upon which Spanheim adds, that IPA is commonly used for victims that are offered in facrifice, or for parts of them (awapxais) firstfruits. The reader will find much to this purpofe in the notes of that learned commentator: the custom however feems from hence fufficiently plain, and, with a reference to the firft-lings, and firft-fruits mentioned in fcripture, easy to be refolved: fince thefe were payed to the Sun, the emblem of the true Sun of Righteousness, who was facrificed for the fins of the whole world, the first-born of every creature, and the firft-fruits of the dead. In a work called Bibliotheca Biblica, printed at Oxford, many hints of this kind are fully explained; the reader, amongst other parts, may confult vol. 3. p. 42. Spanbeim obferves, that this univerfal regard and tribute, paid by all nations to Apollo or the Sun, at Delos, was fomething fimilar to the veneration paid to the the temple of the true Sun at Jerufalem by all the Jews, inhabiting every part of the globe. See his note. And when the light of the world was born, wife-men from the moft diftant parts, led by his ftar, came to worship him and to prefent their gifts and offerings, the first fruits of the gentiles. Are fent to Delos: while each pious state Unites with facred joy to celebrate The gen'ral feast; ftates flowing from each clime Of the well-peopled globe, from east and west, With length of days: these to the Delian God 385 390 Ver. 388. Thefe, &c.] The author here defcribes the proceffion of this holy offering, which he tells us comes firft from the dwellers at the antarctic-pole, the Hyperboreans, and so is conveyed through different hands to Delos. Paufanias has a paffage which well explains our author" In prafienfibus autem (Attica pago) Apollinis eft templum, quo HYPERBOREORUM primitias mitti tradunt; eas enim Hyperborei Arifmafpis committunt, Arifmafpi Iffidonibus; ab iis acceptas Scythe Sinopen: inde ad prafienfes Græci departant; eas deinde Delon Athenienfes mittunt." lib. I. p. 59. Ver. 392. Dodona, &c.] This oracle of Ju piter's at Dodona was of a very fingular kind, fuppofed to be the most antient of all the oracles of Greece, prior to the flood, but reftored by Deucalion, according to the tradition, after it. The fcholiaft upon the 16th Iliad, 233, &c. gives this account of it-Tis de es T8 Awdwrate Aos hoyos, &c. What is the ftory of this Dodonean Jupiter, and what is the place from whence he received this name? To which he answers, from a very antient author, Thrafybulus, that Deucalion after the flood, which happened in his time, having Joyous εμαντεύετο εν τη got fafe upon the firm land of Epirus, preached |