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THE

Third H Y M N of CALLIMACHUS.

* To DIANA..

ODDESS, delighting in the sylvan chace,
The bow, the quiver, dance and mountain fports,
Goddefs of woods, DIANA, thee we fing;
Woe to the bard whose fongs forget thy praise!

Thee will we fing, and hence begin the fong;

Hymn to DIANA.] The poet having fung the praifes of Apollo, proceeds next to fpeak of his fifter Diana, whom he makes it a point of religion to celebrate, and a duty incumbent upon the poetical fons of Apollo, not to forget the fifter of their God: fo greatly efteemed as fhe was amongst mankind; nay, and even honoured with the title of Ewruga, as that of Ewing, Saviour, was given to her brother. See hymn to Apollo, ver. 62, and 147. By Diana, in the heathen fyftem, it is well known, is meant the moon,

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How,

whom with the fun and fars we are affured, from infallible truth, the antient idolaters worfhipped. And left thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and when thou feeft the SUN, and the MOON, and the STARS, even all the hoft of heaven, shouldft be driven to worship them, &c. Deut. iv. 19. comp. Job xxxi. 26. The reader muft not expect to find fo many beautiful allufions to revelation in this hymn as in the former, which abounds with fable, and as being principally narrative, is of neceffity not fo inftructive

in

How, when a prattler on the thunderer's lap, The little Goddess thus addreft her fire: —“ Be vow'd virginity thy daughter's lot,

" She

in religious truths: yet it wants not beauties, and has been always juftly esteemed as an incomparable piece of poetry. The word which I have rendred fylvan chace in the first line is, in the original xaywBonia, wretchedly tranflated Retia in the Latin verfion: the proper fenfe of the word is hunting of hares, but according to no uncommon cuftom, it is applied from that fpecies of it, to hunting in general, as hapßonia, which though commonly used for hunting in general, fignifies in particular stag-hunting.

DIANA's Speech.] Frifchlinus is ingenious enough in his annotation on the following speech: The poet, fays he, puts a fpeech into the mouth of the Goddess entirely becoming her: her petitions are all fuch as Diana might afk; and more, I think they may all be understood of the moon, Quæ quidem omnia de luna aptiffimè intelligi poffunt: hæc enim femper virgo eft, &c.

She is always a virgin, because the always retains the fame vigour of age, and never grows old for the heavenly bodies do not experience that mutation and metamorphofis, which other frail and paffing things, fubject to many corruptions, experience. She is faid to emit her darts or arrows, and to hunt wild beafts, because, with her rays fent forth and dispersed in the night, the enlightens these lower regions, and fupplies them with moisture, and the proper power of encrease and vegetation. She is moft patient and enduring of labours in her courfe, because the moon in her period, which she performs with admirable swiftnefs, is never wearied: fhe is accompanied with many nymphs and attendants; because when the fhines in the night, she is on all fides furrounded with stars; the is in fine, montium cuftos, nemorumque virgo, the guardian of the mountains, and virgin Goddess of the groves; because, when fhe arifes fhe feems to us to arife from the mountains, when fhe fets, to defcend down into them." Of the power of the moon in vegetation we are informed from the fcriptures, where we are told of the precious things put forth by the moon, Deut. xxxiii. 14. and

Pliny remarks, that crefente luna frumenta grandefcunt.

Ver. 8. Virginity.] Her first petition is for perpetual virginity, which Ovid tells, was afterwards a requeft of Daphne's,

Da mihi perpetuâ, genitor charissime, dixit,
Virginitate frui-dedit hoc pater ante Diane:
Then cafting round his neck her tender arms
Sooths him with blandifhment, and filial
charms :

Give me, my lord, fhe faid, to live and die,
A fpotlefs maid, without the nuptial tye :
'Tis but a small request; I beg no more
Than what Diana's father gave before.

DRYDEN.

his note on this place: «For, he fays, women Paul Voet, is a little fevere upon the ladies in very frail in their own natures) but by neceffity; are.chafte, not thro' choice and good will (being and therefore Diana begs to be chafte, while it was fcarce poffible for her to be fo." And indeed, "vows of virginity fhould well be weighed :" fince even this chafteft of chafte ones, this Diana herfelf has been taxed of cancelling her vow with Endymion! however, mythologifts have endeavoured to clear her from all allegory; and amongst the rest the moft ingenious afperfions, by fhewing us the meaning of this under Endymion five gratiofus. See alfo Banier's lord Bacon, whom fee in his Sapientia Veterum, mythology, vol. 1. p. 45 and 77. where this

matter is accounted for rather nearer the truth than lord Bacon's. Homer has a paffage in his hymn to Venus, fimilar to this of our author; But bright Diana Venus ne'er cou'd move, Totafte the sweets and own the pow'r of love: The virgin Goddess still unconquer'd roves, And with her lays of freedom charms the groves:

The chace, the choir, the dance engage

foul,

And states where virtue and religion rule.

her

"She cry'd, my father and for numerous names

With thy DIANA let not PHOEBUS vie.

Be mine the bow, the quiver: not from thee
Those arms I ask: permit but the request,

The fwarthy Cyclops fhall perform the task,

Point the wish'd fhafts and ftring the flexile bow:

:

Let me bear light and chace the flying game
Down to the knee in welted tunic clad.

Of Ocean's daughters, fixty lovely nymphs,

Who yet have seen, but thrice three fummers bloom,

Ver. 9. For numerous names.] Amongst the feveral causes that have introduced fo much confufion in the heathen fyftem of religion, there are few have been more prejudicial than this before us, namely, The great variety of names, whereby they addreft their Gods. From hence it is, that fuch a mob of nominal deities have procceded for thofe names, which were only ufed as epithets and characteristics of the feveral properties, actions, and benefits of the fame god, afterwards were thought to denote different deities, and by that means multitudes of unheard of beings were introduced. We may remember, that Callimachus affigns this honour to Apollo of having many names. See ver. 100. of the hymn to Apollo.

"This is that worksya, much speaking, and vain repetition, fays Grævius, which Chrift condemns in the prayers of the heathens, Matt. vi. 7. for the heathens particularly affected this, and not only the Greeks, but alfo all the eastern nations. Hence Selden de Diis Syriis hath obferved, that amongst the Arabians their hymns to God were stuffed with names only, apper taining to the deity, infomuch that above an hundred names were gathered together, without any fingle expreffion, except these of invocation. Sce more concerning this how in Selden."

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Young

We need not go fo far as the Syrians, fince every reader of the hymns of Orpheus must neceffarily obferve, that they confift of nothing befide thefe names and appellations of the deities to whom they are addreft, and whofe attributes they record.

Ver. 15. Let me bear light.] This petition of Diana's is doubtlefs applicable to the moon: and beft explained by the antient remains we meet with, where he is reprefented with a moon, and two torches, whence fhe had the name of "Aadoxes, torch-bearer, as well as Qwopoços, lightbearer; which laft was often given to Minerva, because, as Proclus explains it, fhe, as it were, lights in the foul the fire of understanding; but to Diana, becaufe fhe brings to light the hidden fecrets of nature. To explain thefe attributes, vestments, &c. of Diana, I have given the antient coins, as the best commentary on the author.

Ver. 17. Ocean's daughters.] Hefiod reckons up a goodly company of thefe daughters of Oceanus and Tethys ; and adds, that they were in number three thoufand.

Πολλαι γε μεν εισι και αλλαι Τρεις γαρ χιλίαι εισι τανύσφυροι Ωκεανίνας. See Hefiod, woyona, ver. 364. and Banier's Mythology,

Young and unspotted all, to join the dance

My lov'd compeers appoint: and from the banks

Of Amnifus a train inferior fend

In number and degree, attendants meet

My buskins to provide, or careful tend

My faithful dogs, when, wearied from the chace,
Their mistress lays her ufelefs quiver by.
Each mountain be my dow'r: and, wherefoe'er
Thou wilt, allot one city to my charge:
Midst mountains my abode, rare shall the din
Of populous cities grate my peaceful ear :
Then only, mixing with the mortal croud

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thelogy, vol. 1. p. 114. of thefe, according to
our poet, Diana defires fixty for her companions,
and Gratius, who fays,

Adfcivere tuo comites fub nomine dive
Centum omnes nemorum, centum de fontibus

omnes,

Naides

is nearly confonant to him; for fhe had twenty of the Amnifian nymphs, fo that all together make up almoft the hundred.

Ver. 19. Young and unspotted.] The original is

Πασας εινετεας, πασας ετι παιδας αμιτρές.

where Spanheim obferves, that the zones or purgat, were given only to thofe virgins who were marriageable, Vino matura; and taken from them, or according to the known expreffion, faid to be loofed (folvi) when they were

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going to lofe their virginity. Hence in the Greek poets they are often called Пapinas μrgai, and in Latin, Zona virginea. Medea, meaning to say she was still a virgin, speaks thus in Apollonius,

My zone still unpolluted and unloos'd

Still pure, as in my father's houfe, remains.

So that thefe Oceanine are not called Argos, because they had loft their zones and virginity, but because they had not yet received the virgin zone, being yet too young for marriage."

Ver. 20. The banks of Amnifus.] Amnifus was the name of a city, as well as a river of Crete, the nymphs belonging to which were called Amniftades; twenty of whom Diana here defires for her maids, for that is the meaning of AμÇimones, in the original, as their office confirms. Diana was faid to have been begotten in this city, and frequently to bath in the river.

When women torn with child-bed's throbbing throws
DIANA's aid implore: to me this lot

Immediate on my birth, the Fates affign'd,

For that, without a mother's pangs brought forth,

Who in my birth or bearing ne'er knew woe!"
-She fpake and to confirm her words uprais'd
Her little hand, attempting fond to stroke,
With adulation fweet, her father's beard:

Ver. 31. When women, &c.] Dianam autem et lunam eandem effe putant, &c. luna, a lucendo nominata fit: eadem eft enim lucina. Itaque ut apud Gracos Dianam atque luciferam fic apud nos Junonem lucinam in pariendo invocant; que eadem Diana omnivaga dicitur, non a venando, fed quod in feptem numeratur tanquam vagantibus: Diana dicta quia noctu quafi diem efficeret. Adhibetur autem ad partus, quod se maturefcunt aut feptem nonnunquam aut plerumque novem luna curfibus : qui, quia menfa fpatia conficiunt, menfes nominantur. Cicero de Nat. Deorum. c. 27. lib 2. We learn from this paffage of Cicero, what hath been before advanced, note 1. that Diana and the Moon are one; and that the names Luna, Lucina, &c. are derived from Shining. That fhe is called omnivaga, or faid to wander every where, not from hunting, but because the is numbred amongst the feven wandring or erratic ftars or planets. That fhe is called Diana, because she makes a kind of day in the night; and particularly, that he was invoked to the affistance of child-bearing women, becaufe births are perfected in feven, or at the moft, in nine of her courfes, &c." There might poffibly be many other reafons given for this fable of the Mom's or Diana's affiftance to travailing women; whose influence upon their bodis did not escape the antients, and whole months are till their stated reckonings, &c. "The Fates are very properly mentioned by Callimachus (as Spanheim oblerves) with Diana Lucifera: ExBusa wagados porgar, is an expreffion of Pindar's In his 7th Nemean Ode (the first line) and again, fpeaking of Evadne's bringing forth, he fays,

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Oft

Apollo caufed the Fates and Lucina to be prefent
at it;

Lucina and the Fates confenting
To Apollo's fond request,
All the mother's pangs preventing
With the darling offspring bleft.

OLYMPIC the 6th.

And Anton. Liberal. in his metamorphofes, speaking of Alcmena, fays, Μοίραι και Ειλειθυία προς χάριν της Ήρας κατείχον εν ταις ώδίσι την Αλκμήνην. And this obfervation will (by the way) throw light on that paffage in Horace, where after invoking Ilithyia, he fpeakes of the Fates-Vofque veraces ceciniffe parca."- See the fecular poem.

Ver. 35. Vo, &c.] In the hymn to Jupiter, he fpeaks of the birth of that deity by μsyahw anxaro xoh, and here, of Diana's by ha απεθήκατο κόλπων ; and that αμογητι, without any pangs of labor: for, fays Madam Dacier, Heroina fine dolore pariunt: "Heroins bring forth without labour." But furely, that learned lady did not confider the cafe of Latona, fully mentioned in the next hymn, when he brought forth Apollo, as well as that of Alcmena's hinted at in the laft note. It may be neceffary just to obferve (that the reader may enter the better into the meaning of the fubfequent lines) that that there was none fo great a mark of blandifhment and affection amongst the antients, as ftroking the beard: as on the contrary, none fo great an affront as plucking it: numberless inftances of each abound in the claffics. Virgil gives us a defcription of Jupiter's fmile, not unlike this of our author. Oli fubridens. Æneid. 1. ver. 258.

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