Nor was Cyrene, fecond in thy love: 280 To her thy favor gave the victor dogs Wherewith th' Hypfæan virgin, at the tomb Lay'd the proud savage proftrate. Procris too Fair Anticlea claim'd thy prime regard More lov'd than each, and dearer than thy eyes. 285 290 Admitted Bellatrix-non illa colo Calathifvé Minervæ -A warrior dame: Unbred to fpinning in the loom unskill'd, Ver. 288. Thefe, &c.] The best commentary on these lines are the ancient remains, where we find the huntreffes pictured to us with their right shoulder and breaft naked, their bow and quiver, &c. See Montfaucon's Antiquities, plate 44. fig. 5. Ver. 292. Iafian Atalanta, &c.] Concerne ing the hunting of Calydon, and the whole story of Atalanta, See Banier's Mythology, vol. 4 b. 4. c. 1. This Atalanta is fometimes confounded with another the daughter of Schaneus ; and Admitted of thy choir, was taught by thee T'elance the dart unerring: From her arm 295 Shall the brave hunters envy; while thy realms, Arcadia, boast the trophies, the sharp tusks Of the wide-wafting boar: Nor can I deem The vengeful Centaurs with such fury fraught, 300 Rhæcus and mad Hylæus (by her arm Tho' level'd bleeding on Mænalion's top) As to pursue the huntress with their hate In Pluto's realms: Yet will their wounds not lie, and I believe, there is fome confufion in our author. I have given the beft interpretation I was able of the last two lines in this story, Ουγαρ σφιν λαγονες, &c. which all the commentators have paffed over, 395 HAIL HAIL great Chitone, venerable queen, For numerous fhrines in numerous ftates renown'd; Hail Guardian of Mileteus; led by thee, Cecropian Neleus touch'd those happy fhores! Chefias, Imbrafia, mighty Cabir, hail; 310 Ver. 306. Chitone.] The fcholiaft, on the 77th line of the hymn to Jupiter, gives us two reasons for this name, the one from a people of Attica fo called, the other, OTI TIXTOμLEVY TWY Βρεφων ανετίθεσαν τα Ιματια τη Αρτεμιδι "Upon which Madam Dacier, with her ufual delicacy, obferves-Hoc idem hodie fit-cum mater pueros, ftatim atque Qira amenaтo xohπwv, sancto cuidam ut Francifco vel alii vovet, & illius veftibus induit." So that here we fee fome agreement of the Roman Catholic with the Pagan cere monies. Ver. 308. Hail guardian, &c.] It was under the aufpices of Diana that Neleus led this colony from Athens to Miletus; he was the Agxny, the conducting deity and confequently moft particularly worshiped there; fo that I take it, MTW mine, in the original, refers to her, constant refidence at, and protection of that ftate. See Hymn to Apollo ver. 20. Ver. 308, Miletus.] "Pliny mentions the old and new Miletus: the former he calls Lelegeis, Pithyufa, and Anatoria: and Strabo tells us, that it was built by the inhabitants of Crete. The latter was founded according to Strabo by Neleus the fon of Codrus king of Athens, when he first fettled in that part of Afia. This great city stood on the fouth fide of the river Maander, near the fea-coaft: The inhabitants applied themselves very early to navigation, having founded, according to Pliny, eighty, according to Seneca, three hundred and eighty colonies in different parts of the world. The city itself was no lefs famous for a temple and oracle of Apollo, furnamed Didymaus, than for the wealth and number of its citizens." Univerfal 3 His History, vol. 7. p. 421. Nor was the worship of Diana lefs regarded by the Milefians than that of her brother Apollo: She was fupposed to have been the conductor of this colony.-For as was obferved (Hymn to Apollo ver. 78.) the ancients thought that fome of the gods not only favoured the leading of the colony, but themfelves became the conductors: and that under the fhape of different animals, as a crow, a swan, a bee, &c. So when another fon of Codrus led a colony to Ephefus.-Philoftratus tells us, Μεσαι ηγέντο τε ναυτικό εν είδει Μελιτίων. whence it is that bees are frequently feen on the coins of the Ephefians. As Diana was thus the leader of the colony, a feftival was celebrated to her honour called Nans by the Mileftans. See Meurfus Græcia feriata, 1. 5. where he mentions the prodigious veneration that was paid to this feftival. It is remarked by Stephen le Moyne (fays Spanheim) that Miletus is derived from the Hebrew (mil t) liberare, and the old name of it Anactoria from araxos, or from falute or fer vatore. - Ver. 310. Chefias, Imbrafia.] The two divinities, Juno and Diana seem to be one, from thefe two appellations, which are equally peculiar and applied to both the first was taken from a promontory of Samas, called Chefium, the other from a river of Samos, called Imbrafus, and Juno's regard for Samos is well known : However, if Juno was worshipped by the Samians, Diana was fo too-as by other proofs might be fhewn, but as beft appears from two coins which you will find in Spanheim's annotations upon this paffage, with the infcription of Eauson, one of which reprefents June, the other His veffel's helm: What time by thy command 315 other Diana, who were moft probably the fame deity, worshipped under different appellations, and in a different character. Servius's remark on the 5th line of the 1ft Georgic of Virgil, will throw much light on this interpretation. "Stoici dicunt non effe nifi unum Deum, & unam eandemque effe poteftatem, quæ pro ratione officiorum noftrorum variis nominibus appellatur : Unde eundem folem, eundem liberum, eundem Apollinem vocant: Item Lunam, eandem Dianem, eandem Cererem, eandem Junonem, eandem Proferpinam vocant. This we may obferve is the opinion of Macrobius, and perhaps not far from the truth. Ver. 310. Cabir.] What I have tranflated Cabir, is in the original propove, Deus prime fedis: One of the Dii confentes, or majorum gentium: "Which were the Gods worshipped by the Egyptians (fays the learned author of the letters on mythology) Affyrians, Gracians, &c.as the latter, dii minorum gentium, were Gods adopted from obfcure people, among whom their worship had taken its rife : Thefe the philofophers and wifer of the priests would not allow to be Gods, fuch as the Theban Hercules, Efculapius, Caftor and Pollux, becaufe they had once been men. The others were the Cabcirim or mighty Gods of the Eafterns, and the Confentes, the unanimous or co-operating Gods of the Romans, worshipped over all the world; but whofe rites and myfteries were particularly famous in the iflands Samothrace and Lemnos, and at Elenfis. They were originally but two, heaven and the fun, the only Gods of the Ethiopians, from whom Egypt itself is faid to have drawn both its religion and learning: The fe were worshipped in Samothrace and the Egyptians made them firft fix, and long after To wards twelve, at which number the Dii Cabiri diti, Gods called Cabirs, or mighty, refted in moft nations." See more of them page 278. of the letters on mythology. Old Ennius comprifes them in these two lines, Juno, Vefta, Minerva, Ceres, Diana, Venus, Mars, Mercurius, Jovis, Neptunus, Vulcanus, Apollo Bochart fays, that the Cabiri were the Gods of the Phænicians, and that their name is derived from Cabir, which both in the Hebrew and Arabic tongues fignifies Potens or Magnus, great, fo that Cabiri or Cabirim fignifies the great or mighty Ones. They were two only at first, as our author above obferves, the Heaven and the Sun, or rather thofe three great agents the fire, light, and fpirit, into which all the deities of the heathens may be resolved, and which are the material emblems of the true Cabiri, the three living great and mighty. Ones. ་ Ver. 315. Rhamnufian.] Helen was fo called from Rhamnus a town of Attica; where, as the fch liaft tells us, Jupiter lay with Nemefis, who brought forth an egg: and Leda finding it, hatched it, the produce of which was Helen and the Diofcuri. Nemefts was particularly worfhipped at Rhamnus; where, we are told, fhe had a ftatue ten cubits high, of a fingle ftone, and fo exquifitely beautiful, that it was nothing fhort of Phidias's fineft Works." See Banier vol. 3. b. 4. c. 15. Apollodorus, fays Nemesis, to fhun the embraces of Jupiter, turned herself into a goofe, and Jupiter to enjoy her, immediately became a fwan: the effects of his com preffing her in this fhape, was the egg aboveinentioned. To Artemis Corefia Prætus rais'd Grateful, his first remembrancer: For that By thee reftor'd, his madding daughters ceas'd Ver. 316. To Artemis, &c.] Prætus was a king of the Argives, and his daughters names, we are told, were Lyfippe, Ipponoë, and Cyrianaffa. Comparing themselves in beauty with Funo; or, as others will, converting the gold of her garments (as they were her priefteffes) to their own ufe: fhe in vengeance caufed fuch a madness to seize their minds, that imagining themselves transformed into heifers, they run through the fields to hinder their being yoked in the plough, and made them re-cccho with their lowings: fo Virgil. Prætides implerunt falfis mugitibus agros. "It is thought that they actually became delirious, and that their madnefs confifted in fancying themfelves heifers." Melampus the fon of Amythaon bargaining to have Cyrianassa to wife, and part of the kingdom, by appealing Juno, and infecting the fountain where they ufed to drink with fome certain medicine, cured and reftored them to their right fenfes. See Servius on the place above quoted from Virgil. Our author tells us, their cure was owing to Diana, and that in return their father built two temples to her, one to Diana Corefia, the other to Diana Hemerefia; and that fays the fcholiaft, διοτι τας κορας ημερώσεν. "It is probable (fays Banier) this madness was the effect of fome 320 BENEATH diftemper where the imagination was much effected, as we see in hypochondriac people, who fancy they refemble feveral forts of animals. Accordingly Melampus employed in their cure black hellebore, fince called from his name Melampodion."—" According to Paufanias they were not the only perfons feized with this diftemper: that author affigns it to other women of Argos; and this madness of theirs confifted in running up and down the field. See vol. 3. b. 2. c. 5. The reader will obferve in the 315th line I read Azenia, though the word in the author is Alex, which they translate inhospitable but the fcholiaft explains the word by faying it is Ogos Aguadias, a mountain of Arcadia, which Azenia was, and near the fountain where Melampus cured the Pratides; of which Ovid fpeaks Clitorio quicunque fitem de fonte levârit herbas Eripuit furiis: purgamina mentis in illas Mifit aquas; odiumque meri permanfit in undis. See METAM, 1. 15. |