human
Can you write a poem for me in the style of Camilo Ferreira Botelho Castelo Branco?
assistant
Sure, here's a poem in the style of Camilo Ferreira Botelho Castelo Branco:
  Literally Translated into English Prose,
with Copious Notes and Explanations,
Reprinted from the Stereotype Plates
The Metamorphoses of Ovid are a compendium of the Mythological
connected with the learning, traditions, manners, and customs of
To render the work, which, from its nature and design, must, of
explanations, the reader will not be surprised at the absence of
Halcyone, in the form of her husband, and she is changed into a
kingfisher; into which bird Ceyx is also transformed. Persons who
follows his fleet. Nisus, being transformed into a sea eagle,
In the meantime Minos is laying waste the Lelegeian coasts, and
Armenian tigresses, or Charybdis disturbed by the South wind. Nor
while blowing, would prevent the return of Cephalus from the
island of Ægina to Athens.]
either the forces sent by Æacus, or his sons Telamon and Peleus,
in command of those troops. It has been well observed, that
returning to Athens although Cephalus was.]
communicated to them.]
continuation of the siege by Minos, and how he took Megara by
storm, as not pertaining to the developement of his story.]
Byzacium, which were known by the name of ‘Syrtis Major’ and
‘Syrtis Minor.’ The inhabitants of the neighbouring coasts were
savage and inhospitable, and subsisted by plundering the
shipwrecked vessels.]
greater and the less Armenia, the one to the East, the other to
the West. Its tigers were noted for their extreme fierceness.]
word κείρω, ‘to clip,’ or ‘cut.’ According to Virgil, who, in his
lived a solitary life in retired spots. It is uncertain what kind
the details of this transformation, because it had been so
recently depicted in beautiful language by Virgil. Hyginus says
that the ‘Ciris’ was a fish.]
son, Androgeus. Having conquered Nisea, he laid siege to Megara,
which was betrayed by the perfidy of Scylla, the daughter of its
length, introduced him into the town, by opening the gates to him
asleep. This is probably alluded to under the allegorical
description of the fatal lock of hair, though why it should be
depicted in that form especially, it is difficult to guess. The
Zenodotus, that he caused her to be hanged at the mainmast of his
Minotaur. The lot falls on Theseus, who, by the assistance of
Ariadne, kills the monster, escapes from the labyrinth, which
Ariadne. Commentators have complained, with some justice, that
Ovid has here omitted the story of Ariadne; but it should be
represent Ariadne herself as becoming a Constellation.]
Constellation, is represented in the attitude of kneeling, when
about to slay the dragon that watched the gardens of the
Oppressed with famine, and seeing the enemy at their gates, the
satisfaction to Minos. They immediately sent ambassadors to him,
humbly suing for peace, which he granted them, on condition that
seven young men and as many virgins. The severity of these
conditions provoked the Athenians to render Minos as odious as
possible; whereupon, they promulgated the story, that he destined
Pasiphaë with a white bull which Neptune had sent out of the sea.
Plutarch, and other writers acknowledge that these stories were
Athenians, who became his slaves, with great barbarity. Aristotle
servitude.
says that Theseus fought in a cavern, where the son of Taurus had
Siculus says that the lot fell on him to be of the number. His
labyrinth, which he himself had designed. The story of Ariadne’s
supports him in his fall, and transforms him into a partridge.
honey; when the boy began to be pleased with a bolder flight, and
exiled for murdering one of his scholars in a fit of jealousy;
probably Perdix, his nephew, whose story is related by Ovid.]
Caria in Asia Minor, was famous as the birth-place of Juno, and
Cyclades, or, according to some writers, one of the Sporades,
a group that lay between the Cyclades and Crete.]
Its honey is praised by Strabo.]
that partridges do not perch in trees; a fact, which, however,
he himself remarks in line 257.]
here calls Perdix; and, envying his inventions of the saw, the
Herodotus, Diodorus Siculus, and Strabo. Philochorus, however, as
confined.
which were provided with oars only. Icarus, either fell into the
advice, as here related.
Diana, offended at the neglect of Œneus, king of Calydon, when
performing his vows to the Gods, sends a wild boar to ravage his
victory. Their sister Althæa, the mother of Meleager, filled with
remembering the torch which she received from the Fates at his
changes them into birds.
And now the Ætnæan land received Dædalus in his fatigue; and
Thestius, and Lynceus, the son of Aphareus, and the swift Idas,
and Cæneus, now no longer a woman; and the valiant Leucippus,
and Acastus, famous for the dart, and Hippothoüs, and Dryas,
and Phœnix, the son of Amyntor, and the two sons of Actor, and
Phyleus, sent from Elis, {are there}. Nor is Telamon absent; the
father, too, of the great Achilles; and with the son of Pheres,
and the Hyantian Iolaüs, the active Eurytion, and Echion,
invincible in the race, and the Narycian Lelex, and Panopeus,
and Hyleus, and bold Hippasus, and Nestor, now but in his
early years. Those, too, whom Hippocoön sent from ancient
Amyclæ, and the father-in-law of Penelope, with the Parrhasian
Ancæus, and the sage son of Ampycus, and the descendant of
Œclus, as yet safe from his wife, and Tegeæan {Atalanta}, the
Perhaps, too, the Pylian {Nestor} would have perished before the
transformed, through the air.
sacrifice, which was taken from it, and placed on the burning
altar. According to Festus, the word meant a small altar, which
was placed before the dead, and on which perfumes were burnt. The
funerals.]
called Chaonia, was on the north of Greece, between Macedonia,
Thessaly, and the Ionian sea, comprising the greater part of what
Pliny the Elder, Pyrrhus, its king, paid particular attention to
improving the breed.]
following one, is clearly an interpolation, and ought to be
omitted.]
applied either to the whole, or a portion only, of the
fortifications of a Roman camp. It is derived from ‘vallus,’ ‘a
stake;’ and properly means the palisade which ran along the outer
‘vallum,’ formed a complete fortification.]
Jupiter, who seduced Leda under the form of a swan. According to
some, however, Pollux only was the son of Jupiter. Castor was
skilled in horsemanship, while Pollux excelled in the use of the
Larissa, and the bosom friend of Theseus.]
Pausanias calls them Prothoüs and Cometes. Lactantius adds a
third, Agenor.]
said to be able to see into the interior of the earth.]
female, by name Cænis. At her request, she was changed by Neptune
length in the 12th book of the Metamorphoses.]
he was the son of Geryon, or rather, according to Pausanias,
to some writers, of Iapetus.]
Having engaged in an intrigue, by the contrivance of his mother,
with his father’s mistress, he fled to the court of Peleus, king
of Thessaly, who entrusted to him the education of Achilles, and
the command of the Dolopians. He attended his pupil to the Trojan
and Cteatus, the sons of Actor, of Elis. They were afterwards
slain by Hercules.]
famed for his chastity.]
the son of Iphiclus, aided Hercules in slaying the Hydra.]
attended the Argonautic expedition.]
a city of the Locrians.]
Epytus, who constructed the Trojan horse.]
he was slain, together with Rhœtus, by Atalanta, for making an
attempt upon her virtue.]
Chloris. He was king of Pylos, and went to the Trojan war in his
ninetieth, or, as some writers say, in his two hundredth year.]
Laconia, built by Amycla, the son of Lacedæmon.]
father of Ulysses, the husband of Penelope, and king of Ithaca.]
to return from the Theban war; and, therefore, hid himself, that
he might not be obliged to join in the expedition. His wife,
Eriphyle, being bribed by Adrastus with a gold necklace, betrayed
the treachery of his wife.]
been a different person from Atalanta, the daughter of Schœneus,
famed for her swiftness in running, who is mentioned in the tenth
Thersites, who, according to him, being the son of Agrius, the
uncle of Meleager, was present on this occasion.]
Peleus accidentally slew Eurytion on this occasion.]
mentioned before, in line 215.]
an intrigue with Althæa.]
Tristia, book iii. Elegy xiii. line 21.]
Furies by way of euphemism, it being deemed unlucky to mention
their names.]
victims in sacrifice.]
sons besides Meleager, who were slain in the war that arose in
consequence of the death of Plexippus and Toxeus. Nicander says
they were five in number; Apollodorus names but three, Toxeus,
her Cleopatra, but Hyginus says that her name was Alcyone. Homer,
called Alcyone, because her mother had the same fate as Alcyone,
that she hanged herself.]
Deïanira was the wife of Hercules, the son of Alcmena. The two
sisters of Meleager who were changed into birds were Eurymede and
It is generally supposed that the story of the chase of the
Calydonian boar, though embracing much of the fabulous, is still
based upon historical facts. Homer, in the 9th book of the Iliad,
gave occasion for saying that the boar had been sent by Diana. As
“But yet, as thou thyself seest from afar, one island, see! was
Hippodamas, had been mild and reasonable, or if he had been less
objected to this passage, that the river Acheloüs, which rises in
possibly lie in the road of Theseus, as he returned from Calydon
from the fact of his having lived with Pittheus, the king of
sons, Hippodamas and Orestes. The Echinades were five small
islands in the Ionian Sea, near the coast of Acarnania, which are
This story is simply based upon physical grounds. The river
Jupiter and Mercury, disguised in human shape, are received by
transform their cottage into a temple, of which, at their own
inhabitants, and is turned into a lake. Acheloüs here relates the
After these things the river was silent. The wondrous deed had
astonished them all. The son of Ixion laughed at them, believing
“And that thou mayst the less doubt {of this}, there is upon the
Phrygian hills, an oak near to the lime tree, enclosed by a low
“With a two-pronged fork {Philemon} lifts down a rusty side of
“There is {now} a short pause; the fire {then} sends up the warm
and enmity to, the Gods.]
wonderful events here related by Lelex.]
thatching.]
So true is it, that there is nothing new under the sun.]
distinguished by different names; the side at which they entered
was open, and was called ‘sponda:’ the other side, which was
protected by a board, was called ‘pluteus.’ The two sides were
also called ‘torus exterior,’ or ‘sponda exterior,’ and ‘torus
interior,’ or ‘sponda interior.’]
side, and swarthy on the other.]
course. The Roman ‘cœna,’ or chief meal, consisted of three
stages. First, the ‘promulsis,’ ‘antecœna,’ or ‘gustatio,’ when
they ate such things as served to stimulate the appetite. Then
came the first course, which formed the substantial part of the
meal; and next the second course, at which the ‘bellaria,’
consisting of pastry and fruits, such as are now used at dessert,
humanity reflects credit on the two Deities, and contrasts
favourably with their usual cruel and revengeful disposition, in
common with their fellow Divinities of the heathen Mythology.]
The story of Baucis and Philemon, which is here so beautifully
related by the Poet, is a moral tale, which shows the merit of
history of its origin is entirely unknown. Huet, the theologian,
increase of the wine in the goblet, calls to mind ‘the barrel of
that of a lion, and sometimes with that of a serpent, or of some
originally came from that town in Thessaly, and that he retired
Acheloüs continues his narrative with the story of Metra, the
these means, Erisicthon, being obliged to expose her for sale, in
“Nor has the wife of Autolycus, the daughter of Erisicthon, less
{wretch}, and embraces him, sunk in a deep sleep ({for} it is
“And now, through his appetite, and the voracity of his capacious
Anticlea, the mother of Ulysses, and was instructed by Mercury in
them there to Ceres, for having granted their wishes.]
Hamadryads, whose lives terminated with those of the trees which
they respectively inhabited.]
mourning for the dead; which seems, in the time of the Republic,
to have been black or dark blue for either sex. Under the Empire,
translation of ‘Labra incana situ:’ ‘Her lips very white with
nasty stuff.’]
words ‘Lenis adhuc somnus--Erisicthona pennis mulcebat;’ ‘Gentle
sleep as yet clapped Erisicthon with her wings.’]
‘Tandem, demisso in viscera censu;’ ‘at last, after he had
swallowed down all his estate into his g--ts.’]
addressing Theseus, Pirithoüs, and Lelex. The words, ‘Etiam mihi
sæpe novandi Corporis, O Juvenes,’ is rendered by Clarke, ‘I too,
The story of Metra and Erisicthon has no other foundation, in all
Autolycus, the robber, who stole the oxen of Eurytus. Callimachus
Deïanira, the daughter of Œneus, having been wooed by several
Theseus, the Neptunian hero, inquires what is the cause of his
grandson of Neptune, through his father Ægeus.]
king of Ætolia, and became the wife of Hercules.]
Epicaste. Homer, however, makes Portheus, and not Parthaon, to
have been the father of Œneus.]
flowed between Ætolia and Acarnania.]
translate ‘bent inwards,’ according to some authorities, means
‘bent outwards.’]
wrestler’s oil, in order to render the body supple and pliant, to
‘nitidissima conjux,’ ‘the neatest cow.’]
infant in his cradle, was said to have strangled two serpents,
which Juno sent for the purpose of destroying him.]
of the Hydra varies in the accounts given by different writers.
the head had been cut off, with a red hot iron.]
The river Acheloüs, which ran between Acarnania and Ætolia, often
great scientific skill, which he was ever ready to employ for the
perpetual peace between these adjoining nations.
Hercules engaged in combat with the God of that river, who
immediately transformed himself into a serpent, by which was
probably meant merely the serpentine windings of its course. Next
Again, this horn became the Horn of Plenty in that region; or, in
Deïanira, having given her hand to Hercules, as the recompense of
vanquished by his rival; and on this foundation was built the
that prince.
Hercules, returning with Deïanira, as the prize of his victory,
entrusts her to the Centaur Nessus, to carry her over the river
supposed effect. As soon as he puts it on, he is affected with
excruciating torments, and is seized with such violent fits of
But a passion for this same maiden proved fatal to thee, fierce
And {then}, racked with pain, he ranges along the lofty Œta, no
transformed into hard stone. Even to this day, in the Eubœan sea,
which were begotten by Ixion the cloud sent by Jupiter, under the
which was also called by the name of ‘Lycormas.’]
revolving wheel in the Infernal Regions, as a punishment for his
attempt on the chastity of Juno.]
equinâ,’ is translated by Clarke, ‘Although thou trustest to the
help of thy horse part.’]
Cenæan, from Cenæum, a promontory of Eubœa, where Hercules, after
Jupiter. Hercules slew Eurytus, the king of Œchalia, and carried
away his daughter Iole.]
Hercules, whom he sent to Deïanira for the garment which he used
to wear while performing sacrifice.]
fresh strength which the giant Antæus gained each time he touched
his triple form originated in the fact that he and his two
brothers reigned amicably in conjunction over some portion of
Spain, or the islands adjoining to it.]
called from Parthenium, a mountain which divided it from Argolis;
name in Arcadia.]
Mauritania, was said to support the heavens on his shoulders, of
which burden Hercules relieved him for a time, when he partook of
story is, that Hercules learned the study of astronomy from
Mycenæ, who imposed upon him his various labours.]
think that snow is an intermediate state between rain and hail,
and that hail is formed by the rapid motion of the snow as it
send for Philoctetes, who was the possessor of them. Troy had
already seen them, when Hercules punished Laomedon, its king, for
translated by Clarke, ‘The flame, being diffused on all sides,
merited this character, for having cleared the earth of monsters,
unintentionally caused his death, or else a tunic smeared on the
circumstance was made by the poets to account for the existence
there of a rock known by that name.
ready, Hercules ascended it, and laid himself down with an air of
introduced this worship. It was also said that, as soon as
Philoctetes had applied fire to the pile, it thundered, and the
lightnings descending from heaven immediately consumed Hercules.
Trachinians, and temples and altars were raised to him in various
request, and places herself on an altar at the gate of Alcmena’s
Galanthis for her officiousness, transforms her into a weazel,
supporting the heavens, to the inhabitants of which Hercules was
now added.]
statues in the Capitol, before the shrine of Minerva, were called
pelvis being firmly knit together in manner somewhat resembling
the fingers when inserted one between the other, instead of
cases, it expresses either actual doubt or uncertainty, as in the
Ilithyïa, or Lucina, who was acting as the emissary of Juno.]
animals) carrying her young in her mouth from place to place.]
obliged to revenge the death of his children, whom the sons of
Taphius, king of the Teleboans, had killed in combat, returned
victorious, and brought back with him his flocks, which he had
brother of Electryon, taking advantage of the public indignation,
Amphitryon, obliged to retire to Thebes, was there absolved by
It was during this war that Hercules came into the world; and
Tirynthus, where Hercules was said to have been born, it was
Hercules, it may have been said that Jupiter, and not Amphitryon,
‘Whether all that has been said upon this subject be held as
writers say that Alcmena brought forth twins, one of which,
paid honour to that animal, because it had helped Alcmena in her
service at the head of the troops of Eurystheus. If this is the
fabled that he had destroyed the Hydra of Lerna, with its heads,
which grew as fast as they were cut off. The forest of Erymanthus
country: he destroyed them all, and brought one with him to the
court of Eurystheus, of a size so monstrous, that the king was
alarmed on seeing it, and was obliged to run and hide himself.
The stables of Augeas, king of Elis, were so filled with manure,
this he was ordered to kill, and, probably, this gave rise to the
The Amazons were a nation of great celebrity in the time of
Hercules, and their frequent victories had rendered them very
formidable to their neighbours. Eurystheus ordered him to go and
battle to the female warriors, defeated them; killing some, and
receiving from Laomedon, the king, the recompense which had been
promised him, he killed that prince, sacked the city, and brought
This is probably the extent of the labours of Hercules in Greece,
ought not to be attributed to the Grecian Hercules. Among other
assistance.
according to Dionysius of Halicarnassus, of Evander and Faunus,
scene of his conquests, he was said to have raised two pillars on
The deliverance of Prometheus, as already mentioned; the death of
volume.
“Various theories have been formed respecting the mythus of
Hercules. It is evidently one of very remote antiquity, long
person the fabled exploits of similar heroes of other regions.
period. Some resemblance between his attributes and those of the
similitude to the God whom the Phœnicians chiefly worshipped, and
“In his view of the life of Hercules, it is a mythus of extreme
antiquity and great beauty, setting forth the ideal of human
perfection, consecrated to the weal of mankind, or rather, in its
monsters, and bringing home to his own country the valuable
productions of other regions. These are, however, regarded by
Buttmann as being chiefly allegorical. The Hydra, for instance,
he takes to have been meant to represent the evils of democratic
occasionally succumb to human weakness in the power of the evil
“The mythus concludes most nobly with the assumption of the hero
mounts from the pyre in a thunder-cloud, and the object of Hera’s
afterwards transformed to the western stream of the ocean. He
{peculiar} gift of her who is {both} his step-daughter and his
daughter-in-law, and will make them men in their years of
childhood.”
father of Dryope.]
custom among the ancients of closing the eyes of the dying, which
and raised troops against his brother.]
Amphiaraüs, the son of Œcleus, and Hypermnestra, who was betrayed
Youth, was the daughter of Juno alone, without the participation
of Jupiter; and from this circumstance she is styled the
step-daughter of Jupiter. She was also his daughter-in-law on
becoming the wife of Hercules.]
rendered by Clarke, ‘The grumbling was, why, &c.’]
The adventure of Dryope is one of those narratives which have no
connexion with the main story which the Poet is relating, and, if
tree. If we seek for an historical solution, perhaps Dryope was
individual of the name of Iolaüs had lived.
Ovid then passes on to the surprising change in the children of
Calirrhoë, the outline of which the story may be thus
explained:--Amphiaraüs, foreseeing, (by the aid of the prophetic
ceremonial of expiation, to tranquillize his troubled conscience,
death of their father, at a time when they were in general only
looked upon as mere children.
Byblis falls in love with her brother Caunus, and her passion is
inflamed to such a degree, that he is obliged to leave his native
Every God has some one to favour; and their jarring discord is
Byblis is an example that damsels {only} ought to love what it is
agitated. At one moment she calls him sweetheart, at another, she
name could I wish my cause to be pleaded, and that I might not be
servant, having got a fit opportunity, goes {to her brother} and
trembling servant, he says, “Fly hence, O thou accursed pander to
city in a foreign land. But then, they say that the daughter of
And now she has left behind Cragos, and Lymira, and the waves of
omnis habet crescitque favore Turbida seditio.’ Clarke thus
writers, Miletus was the son of Apollo and Deione, though others
say that Thia was the name of his mother. He was the founder of
the celebrated city of Miletus, in Caria, a country of Asia
often used as a term of endearment between lovers.]
Mother,’ was fabled to have been the wife of her brother Saturn;
while Oceanus, the son of Cœlus and Vesta, married his sister
whom he was said to have given their sisters for wives. In the
case, however, of his daughter Canace, who was pregnant by her
brother Macareus, Æolus was more severe, as he sent her a sword,
with which to put herself to death.]
was written upon, the wax was ‘vacua,’ empty; or, as we say of
when any writing was erased.]
‘Summusque in margine versus adhæsit,’ ‘And the last line was
clapped into the margin.’]
grandson of the river Mæander.]
anything in the wrong rather than herself; she is sure that the
day was an unlucky one.]
a city of Caria.]
Thrace. The festival here alluded to was the ‘trieterica,’ or
triennial feast of Bacchus.]
the Elder that Bubasus was a region of Caria.]
people of Caria, in Asia Minor, who were supposed to have sprung
from Grecian emigrants, who first inhabited the adjacent island,
and afterwards the continent. They were said to have their name
from the Greek word λελεγμένοι ‘gathered,’ because they were
collected from various places.]
extravagant passion, and they both agree in tracing her to Caria.
changed into a fountain, which afterwards bore her name.
It is, however, most probable, that if the story is founded on
truth, the whole of the circumstances happened in Caria; since we
daughter of Mæander, fell to the share of Miletus, and Caunus and
father’s court, that he might avoid her importunities; upon which
authority of the historian Conon, that it was Caunus who fell in
love with Byblis, and that she hanged herself upon a walnut tree.
writers, married his daughter Acallis; but, having disagreed with
For once on a time the Phæstian land adjoining to the Gnossian
Anubis, and the holy Bubastis, and the particoloured Apis;
he, too, who suppresses his voice, and with his finger enjoins
fires; and Iphis, {now} a youth, gains his {dear} Iänthe.
Crete, built by Minos.]
which had the body of a man, and the head of a dog. Some writers
attendant of Isis, Diodorus Siculus represents her to have been
another name for Osiris, whose body, having been burned on the
divinity Harpocrates, the God of Secresy and Silence, who was
represented with his finger laid on his lips.]
Typhon, Isis long sought him in vain, till, finding his scattered
found represented on the statues of Isis. Its bite was said to
produce a lethargic sleep, ending in death. Cleopatra ended her
life by the bite of one, which she ordered to be conveyed to her
in a basket of fruit. Some commentators have supposed that the
devouring.]
disease, and that she greatly improved the healing art.]
equally well for a male or a female.]
Iphis wore the ‘vitta,’ which was an article of female dress, in
Parætonium was a city of Libya, with a capacious harbour.]
sailors from off the dangerous quicksands in the neighbourhood.]
precedents for such a change.]
worshipped under the form of a cow, to the horns of which
reference is here made.]
marriages, offerings were made on the altars of Hymenæus and the
other Deities, who were the guardians of conjugal rites.]
The story of Iphis being changed from a young woman into a man,
instance of androgynous formation.
Ovid may possibly have invented the story himself, merely as a
vehicle for showing how the Deities recompense piety and strict
obedience to their injunctions.
Eurydice, the wife of Orpheus, while sporting in the fields, with
injunction, on which she is immediately snatched away from him,
beyond the possibility of recovery. Upon this occasion, the Poet
relates the story of a shepherd, who was turned into a rock by a
look of Cerberus; and that of Olenus and Lethæa, who were
transformed into stones.
disastrous than the omens; for the newmade bride, while she was
As he said such things, and touched the strings to his words, the
The Rhodopeïan hero receives her, and, at the same time, {this}
condition, that he turn not back his eyes until he has passed the
oris,’ is rendered by Clarke, ‘Laying aside all the long-winded
fetches of a false tongue.’]
himself in a cave; and that on peeping out, and beholding
Cerberus, he was changed into a stone by his fright. Suidas says,
story gave rise to a proverb.]
the son of Vulcan, had a beautiful wife, whose name was Lethæa.
When about to be punished for comparing her own beauty to that of
stead, on which they were both changed into stones.]
ripa--sedit,’ is rendered by Clarke, ‘He sat in a sorry pickle on
Darkness; but his name is often used to signify the Infernal
which was much exposed to the North winds.]
Fishes,’ being the last sign of the Zodiac, when the sun has
passed through it, the year is completed.]
As, in his time, Poetry and Music were in a very low state of
perfection, and as he excelled in both of those arts, it was said
added, that he charmed lions and tigers, and made even the trees
sensible of the melodious tones of his lyre. These were mere
cultivating the genius of a savage and uncouth people. Some
conjecture that this personage originally came from Asia into
Thrace, and suppose that he, together with Linus and Eumolpus,
His wife, Eurydice, dying very young, he was inconsolable for her
he renounced the society of mankind for ever and retired to the
mountains of Thrace. His journey to that distant country gave
Tzetzes, however, assures us that this part of his history is
especially the method of charming serpents.
diversified by the writers who relate that Venus, exasperated
against Calliope, the mother of Orpheus, for having adjudged to
disputing the possession of him. An ancient author, quoted by
Hyginus, says that Orpheus was killed by the stroke of a
thunderbolt, while he was accompanying the Argonauts; and
Apollodorus says the same. Diodorus Siculus calls him one of the
kings of Thrace; while other writers, among whom are Cicero and
signifies ‘learned,’ gave rise to the story of Orpheus. Le Clerc
thinks that in consequence of the same Greek word signifying ‘an
Several works were attributed to him, which are now no longer in
existence; among which were a Poem on the Expedition of the
Argonauts, one on the War of the Giants, another on the Rape of
Onomacritus, who lived in the sixth century B.C., in the time of
After his death, Orpheus was reckoned in the number of Heroes or
Demigods; and we are informed by Philostratus that his head was
Orpheus, retiring to Mount Rhodope, by the charms of his music,
You, too, the ivy-trees, with your creeping tendrils, came, and
the growth of which Chaonia, a province of Epirus, was famous.]
much valued by the ancients, as affording, by its extending
platanum potantibus umbram,’ ‘And the plane-tree that gives its
shade for those that carouse.’]
maple being of a varying colour, it was much valued by the
ancients, for the purpose of making articles of furniture.]
palm were remarkable for their flexibility, while no
superincumbent weight could break them. On this account they were
them. From Diodorus Siculus we learn that Cybele, the daughter of
Vossius supposes, some priest of that God,) touched with the
misfortunes of the damsel, took her to the country of the
returned, that, to ensure the ceasing of the contagion, they must
young man who repulsed her advances. Ovid, also, gives a similar
account in the fourth Book of the Fasti, line 220. Other authors,
which grew from the blood of Agdistis whom Bacchus had slain,
conceived Attis, who afterwards became very dear to Cybele.
All that we can conclude from these accounts, and more especially
that, as he led the example of mutilating himself, all her other
priests, who were called Galli, submitted to a similar operation,
inventing some wonderful story to account for an act so
extraordinary.
Apollo transforms him into a Cypress.
falling upon his shoulders, hung down from his smooth round neck;
Circus for the chariot races, a low wall ran lengthways down the
course, which, from its resemblance in position to the spinal
pyramids of wood, in shape very much like cypress trees, to which
They were more especially used by the Greek and Roman females as
bridal ornaments. The ‘monile baccatum,’ or ‘bead necklace,’ was
and links of gold. Emeralds seem to have been much used for this
purpose, and amber was also similarly employed. Thus Ovid says,
in the second Book of the Metamorphoses, line 366, that the amber
changed, was sent to be worn by the Latian matrons. Horses and
favourite animals, as in the present instance, were decked with
‘monilia,’ or necklaces.]
of metal, so called from its resemblance in shape to a bubble of
derived from the people of Etruria; and though originally worn
only by the children of the Patricians, they were subsequently
used by all of free birth. The children of the Libertini, or
‘freedmen,’ indeed wore ‘bullæ,’ but they were only made of
leather. The ‘bulla’ was laid aside at the same time as the ‘toga
the ornament which was pendent from the rescript or decree being
used to signify the document itself.]
called among the Greeks ἐνώτιον, and by the Romans ‘inauris.’ The
lobe of the ear. Earrings were worn by both sexes among the
Lydians, Persians, Libyans, Carthaginians, and other nations.
Among the Greeks and Romans, the females alone were in the habit
of wearing them. As with us, the ear-ring consisted of a ring and
sometimes used by the common people. Pearls, especially those of
Cyclades, and Carthæa was one of its four cities.]
manner accounts for the Roman custom of placing branches of
own strong scent, the bad smell of the spot where the bodies were
so used, because, when once its bark is cut, it withers, and is
consequently emblematical of the frail tenure of human life.]
Cyparissus, who, according to Ovid was born at Carthæa, a town in
talent and proficiency in the polite arts, which caused him to be
Some ancient writers also tell us that Cyparissus was a youth
beloved by the God Sylvanus, for which reason that God is often
represented with branches of Cypress in his hand.
“The king of the Gods above was once inflamed with a passion for
Hercules and the other Deities, conquered the Giants with his
lightnings. Others say that their locality was in that part of
Macedonia which was afterwards called Pallene; others again,
injury from lightning. It was also said to have been the
armour-bearer of Jupiter in his wars against the Titans, and to
have carried his thunderbolts.]
The rape of Ganymede is probably based upon an actual occurrence,
conquered several of his neighbours, as Eusebius, Cedrenus, and
Suidas relate, sent his son Ganymede into Lydia, accompanied by
spies, and put Ganymede in prison. He having been arrested in a
Jupiter in the shape of an eagle.
The capture of Ganymede occasioned a protracted and bloody war
advantage, by putting the Greeks in mind of the evils which his
family had suffered from the kings of Troy.
As Apollo is playing at quoits with the youth Hyacinthus, one of
flower which still bears his name.
“Phœbus would have placed thee too, descendant of Amycla, in the
{becoming} a new flower, by the inscription {on thee}, thou shalt
ceremonials, after the manner of former {celebrations}.”
though, in another place, Apollodorus says that Piërus was his
father. On the other hand, Hyginus, Lucian, and Servius say that
he was the son of Œbalus. Some explain ‘Amyclide,’ as meaning
‘born at Amyclæ;’ and, indeed, Claudian says that he was born
there. Others, again, would have Œbalide to signify ‘born at
Œbalia.’ But, if he was the son of Amycla, this could not be the
signification, as Œbalia was founded by Œbalus, who was the
grandson of Amycla. The poet, most probably, meant to style him
that he was born at Sparta; but, in the fifth Book of the Fasti,
line 223, he mentions Therapnæ, a town of Laconia, as having been
ridge of Parnassus, was styled the navel of the world, as it was
supposed to be situate in the middle of the earth. The story was,
opposite extremities of the earth, with the view of ascertaining
the central spot of it, they met in their flight at this place.]
fortified, because Lycurgus considered that it ought to trust for
citizens.]
quoit, of the ancients, was made of brass, iron, stone, or wood,
‘discus.’ It was perforated in the middle, and a rope or thong
being passed through, was used in throwing it.]
called, not as having been born there, but because Tænarus was a
famous headland or promontory of Laconia, his native country.]
Hyacinthus, changing into a flower, according to the ideas of the
lamentation, were said to be impressed on its leaves.]
two letters of his name, Αἴας. See Book xiii. line 397. The
hyacinth was the emblem of death, among the ancient Greeks.]
held solely in honour of Apollo; others, of Hyacinthus; but it is
Apollo and Hyacinthus. The festival lasted for three days, and
fate of Hyacinthus was lamented. Garlands were forbidden to be
worn on those days, bread was not allowed to be eaten, and no
songs were recited in praise of Apollo. On the second day,
rejoicing and amusements prevailed; the praises of Apollo were
sung, and horse races were celebrated; after which, females,
riding in chariots made of wicker-work, and splendidly adorned,
formed a beautiful procession. On this day, sacrifices were
offered, and the citizens kept open houses for their friends and
relations. Athenæus mentions a favourite meal of the Laconians on
bread, meat, broth, raw herbs, figs, and other fruits, with the
seeds of the lupine. Macrobius says, that chaplets of ivy were
favourite of Apollo, and of the Muses. As he was one day playing
with his companions, he unfortunately received a blow on the head
The Lacedæmonians each year celebrated a solemn festival near his
Athenæus, that they instituted games in his honour, which were
called after his name. Pausanias makes mention of his tomb, upon
similarity of their names. It is not very clear what flower it is
imperfectly, the letters αἰ (alas!) mentioned by Ovid. The
lamentations of Apollo, on the death of Hyacinthus, formed the
subject of bitter, and, indeed, deserved raillery, for several of
“And yet the obscene Propœtides presumed to deny that Venus is a
character of Ζεῦς ξένιος, was the guardian and protector of
travellers and wayfarers.]
called Ophiusia, on account of the number of serpents that
infested it; ὄφις being the Greek for a serpent.]
Herodotus that they had recourse to prostitution to raise their
marriage portions.]
An equivocation of names also, probably, aided in originating the
“When Pygmalion saw these women spending their lives in criminal
pursuits, shocked at the vices which Nature had {so} plentifully
Myrrha, the daughter of Cinyras and Cenchris, having conceived an
daughter with the intention of killing her. Myrrha flies from her
into a tree.
considered shameful for the heifer to mate with her sire; his own
“The pious matrons were {now} celebrating the annual festival of
amid the rejoicings of his subjects.]
understood by him in the sense in which Myrrha meant it.]
general, suppose that he here alludes to the festival of the
though the virgins joined in some of the ceremonies. Demosthenes,
by Orpheus; while Herodotus states, that it was introduced from
conquest, it fell into disuse, being retained only by the people
of Arcadia. It was intended to commemorate the introduction of
laws and the regulations of civilized life, which were generally
ascribed to Demeter. It is not known whether the festival lasted
four or five days with the Athenians. Many days were spent by the
commenced by the women walking in procession from Athens to
Eleusis. In this procession they carried on their heads
representations of the laws which had been introduced by Ceres,
and other symbols of civilized life. They then spent the night at
day was one of mourning, during which the women sat on the ground
sesame and honey. On it no meetings of the people were held.
Probably it was in the afternoon of this day that there was a
commemoration of Iämbe, who was said to have amused the Goddess
during her grief at the loss of Proserpine. An atoning sacrifice,
performance, and they adopted the same colour during the
celebration of the Cerealia at Rome. Burmann thinks, that an
Eastern festival, in honour of Ceres, is here referred to. If so,
word, which is applied to the stars of the Ursa Major, or
Charles’s Wain, literally means ‘oxen;’ and is by some thought to
purpose of threshing corn; but it is more likely to have its
origin from ‘terra,’ ‘the earth,’ because oxen were used for
ploughing. The Poet employs this periphrasis, to signify the
middle of the night.]
region of Arabia Felix, now called ‘Yemen.’ It was famed for its
myrrh, frankincense, and spices. In the Scriptures it is called
Sheba, and it was the queen of this region, who came to listen to
Le Clerc, forming his ideas on what Lucian, Phurnutus, and other
daughter-in-law, the wife of Ammon, together with her son Adonis,
imprecations.
Loaded with the execrations of her father, Myrrha retired into
‘Mor,’ which meant in the Arabic language ‘Myrrh.’ It is very
probable that the story was founded on a tradition among the
Adonis is educated by the Naiads. His beauty makes a strong
danger in hunting lions, wild boars, and such formidable animals.
attempt to win her. Hippomenes, smitten with her charms, is not
daunted at their ill success; but boldly enters the lists, after
Venus has given him, and then, reaching the goal before her, he
embraces of his mistress; on which they are both transformed into
“Perhaps thou mayst have heard how a certain damsel excelled the
Apollodorus, Venus had caused Myrrha to imbibe her infamous
passion, because she had treated the worship of that Goddess with
situate on a promontory. Strangers resorted thither, to behold a
statue of Venus there, which was made by Praxiteles.]
seems to be attributed to the wild boar, from the vehemence with
which he strikes down every impediment in his way.]
substitutes for them. In the palace of the Roman emperors,
a slave, called ‘velarius,’ was posted at each of the principal
doors, to raise the curtain when any one passed through. Window
as being of yellow, red, and rusty hue.]
the race consisted of seven rounds of the Circus, or rather
circuits of the ‘spina,’ or wall, in the midst of it, at each end
spectators to count the number of rounds which had been run, for
The form of the egg was adopted in honour of Castor and Pollux,
who were said to have been produced from eggs. The words
‘novissima meta’ here mean either ‘the last part of the course,’
or, possibly, ‘the last time round the course.’]
Neptune was the father of Megareus, or Macareus, as the Scholiast
Hippomenes was the fourth from Neptune, inclusively. Onchestius
founded a city of that name in Bœotia, in honour of Neptune, who
had a temple there; in the time of Pausanias the place was in
ruins. That author tells us that Megareus aided Nisus against
Minos, and was slain in that war.]
line-- ‘But what a lady-like countenance there is in his boyish
mean either the seats, or benches, on which the spectators sat,
Goddess of the Earth, was usually represented as crowned with
turrets, and drawn in a chariot by lions.]
generally the shoulder of a brute; while ‘humerus’ is that of a
man. ‘Armus’ is sometimes used to signify the human shoulder.]
that he is angry; when quiet, that he is in a good temper.]
The Atalanta who is mentioned in this story was the daughter of
Schœneus, and the granddaughter of Athamas, whose misfortunes
obliged him to retire into Bœotia, where he built a little town,
which was called after his name, as we learn from Pausanias and
Apollodorus, however, relates the story in a different manner;
he says that the father of Atalanta desiring to have sons, but no
According to Apollodorus, her father’s name was Iasius, though in
says that she was the same person that was present at the hunt of
Atalanta had by Melanion, or, as some authors say, by Mars, a son
Adonis being too ardent in the pursuit of a wild boar, the beast
said to have changed the Nymph, ‘Mentha,’ into a plant of that
name, which we call ‘mint.’ Some writers say that she found her
intriguing with Pluto while, according to other writers, she was
the mistress of Pollux.]
Nature of the Gods, says, that there were several persons who had
Syrian, who married Adonis, the son of Cinyras, king of Cyprus.
Minor into Greece; while the Carthaginians, a Phœnician colony
Isis at the death of her husband. According to Hesiod, Adonis was
mentioned by the prophet Ezekiel, and to be a Phœnician
uncertain when the Adonia were first celebrated in Greece; but we
This notion of the mourning for Adonis being a testimony of grief
example, asks, with some appearance of reason, why those nations
whose heaven was mildest, and their winter shortest, should so
box-wood, was much used in the rites of Cybele, or Berecynthia.]
exhibit shows of hunting in the amphitheatre in the morning; and
at mid-day the gladiatorial spectacles commenced. The ‘arena’ was
from the sand with which it was covered, chiefly for the purpose
of absorbing the blood of the wild beasts and of the combatants.
Caligula, Nero, and Carus showed their extravagant disposition by
amphitheatres there were ditches, called ‘Euripi,’ between the
first that we read of who introduced wild beasts in the theatre
for the amusement of the public. He exhibited in the Circus one
hundred and forty-two elephants, which he brought from Sicily,
after his victory over the Carthaginians, and which are said to
have been slain, more because the Romans did not know what to do
with them, than for the amusement of the public. Lions and
panthers were first exhibited by M. Fulvius, after the Ætolian
war. In the Circensian games, exhibited by the Curule Ædiles,
P. Cornelius Scipio Nasica, and P. Lentulus, B.C. 168, there were
Sylla, when Prætor, exhibited one hundred lions, which were
pierced with javelins. We also read of hippopotami and crocodiles
also hunted in the games given by Julius Caesar in his third
consulship. He also introduced bull fights, and Augustus first
exhibited the rhinoceros, and a serpent, fifty cubits in length.
When Titus constructed his great amphitheatre, five thousand wild
games celebrated by Trajan, after his victories over the Dacians,
which valuable work contains a large quantity of interesting
matter on this barbarous practice of the Romans.]
rendered by Clarke, ‘bouncing hard to get away.’]
excited contempt, as a malignant and ignorant person, who
endeavoured, as it were, to sting the character of the deceased
The harp of Orpheus was preserved in the same temple; and so many
according to Lucian, he succeeded so ill, that on his trying the
furious and ill-conditioned females did not escape punishment for
rest of their lives in woods and caverns.
Bacchus, having punished the Thracian women for the murder of
Orpheus, leaves Thrace. His tutor, Silenus, having become
Hesperides had given it. If he places his fingers upon the lofty
“Astonished at the novelty of his misfortune, being both rich and
Bacchus, the gentle Divinity among the Gods, restored him, as he
from mount Berecynthus in Phrygia.]
capital of Lydia, where Crœsus had his palace. The river Pactolus
Gods, were the Satyrs and Sileni. The latter, according to
along on foot, with a thyrsus to support him.
writers represent him not as a drunken old man, but as a learned
philosopher and a skilful commander. Lucian combines the two
characters, and describes him as an aged man with large straight
inhabitants of the first city are much given to warfare, and make
blessed with plenty; the earth without toil or tillage furnishing
pleasure; but they are so just and righteous that the Gods
“The warlike people of the first city having extended their
fruit of the trees growing near the River of Sorrow, pass their
Ælian regards the passage as a mere fable, and the latter part is
Some writers say, that Silenus was the king of Caria, and was the
considerable service, in governing his dominions. He was probably
decides in favour of Apollo, and the whole company approve of his
understanding still remained, and the impulse of his foolish mind
ingenium mansit,’ is rendered by Clarke, ‘but he continued a
blockhead still.’]
saturated with Tyrian purple, the garment would be ‘dibaphus,’ or
Midas, according to Pausanias, was the son of Gordius and Cybele,
whatever he touched was at once turned into gold; and Bacchus was
probably the first who extracted gold from the sands of the river
tormented.
Tmolus, the king of Lydia, according to Clitophon, was the son of
stakes, he lost his life, and was buried on the mountain that
afterwards bore his name.
Apollo and Neptune build the walls of Troy for king Laomedon, who
Laomedon is then obliged to expose his daughter to a sea monster,
defrauds him likewise of the horses which he has promised him.
In revenge, Hercules plunders the city of Troy, and carries off
Hesione, whom he gives in marriage to his companion Telamon.
promontories, near Troy, between which was an altar dedicated to
‘Panomphæus,’ from πᾶν, ‘all,’ and ὀμφὴ, ‘the voice,’ either
because he was worshipped by the voices of all, or because he was
building the walls of Troy, only meant that he built it of bricks
of Thetis; was a Divinity of the sea, and was gifted with the
power of prophecy.]
Laomedon, being King of Troy, and the city being open and
inundations, were regarded as the work of Neptune. In time, these
appease the God of the sea, they must sacrifice a virgin of the
Hesione having been made the price of him that could succeed in
Proteus foretells that Thetis shall have a son, who shall be more
yields her to Peleus. The Goddess flies from his advances by
assuming various shapes, till, by the advice of Proteus, he holds
melancholy, and tells him how his brother Dædalion, in the
entreaties, till, by the intercession of Thetis, she is appeased,
For the aged Proteus had said to Thetis, “Goddess of the waves,
conceive; thou shalt be the mother of a youth, who by his gallant
Then pouring wine upon its waters, he worshipped the Gods of the
“Perhaps you may think that this bird, which lives upon prey, and
endowed with beauty, was pleasing to a thousand suitors, when
otherwise than rocks do the murmurs of the ocean, and he bitterly
Æacus, who was the son of Jupiter, by Ægina, the daughter of
made to the other Divinities, either on their altars, or on the
held in the hands of those who begged for mercy or pardon. The
wool covering the hand was emblematical of peace, the hand being
thereby rendered powerless to effect mischief.]
periphrasis for Lucifer, or the Morning Star, which precedes, and
Bœotia, so called from Thisbe, the daughter of Æsopus. It was
famous for the number of doves which it produced.]
Mercury, who was noted for his thieving propensities.]
great-grandfather of Chione, being the father of Lucifer, and the
sarcastically, as much as to say, ‘If I do not please her by my
looks, at least I will by my actions.’]
of the ancient light-houses had windows looking towards the sea;
and torches, or fires (probably in cressets, or fire-pans, at the
vessels. ‘Pharos,’ or ‘Pharus,’ the name given to light-houses,
is derived from the celebrated one built on the island of Pharos,
Sostratus, of Cnidos, at the expense of one of the Ptolemies, and
constructed of white stone. It contained many stories, and
diminished in width from below upwards. There were ‘phari,’ or
‘light-houses,’ at Ostia, Ravenna, Capreæ, and Brundisium.]
people of Magnesia, a district of Thessaly. They were famed for
their skill in horsemanship.]
of Pelias. His wife Hippolyta, being enamoured of Peleus, and he
not encouraging her advances, she accused him of having made an
whereupon the God sent Hercules to Mount Caucasus, to perform his
ingenious method of stating, that having several suitors, she was
Some writers state that Thetis was the daughter of Chiron; but
figure of a Nereid on his shield. The three sons of Æacus were
Psamathe, the sister of Thetis; by the first he had Peleus and
Ceyx, going to Claros, to consult the oracle about his brother’s
fate, is shipwrecked on the voyage. Juno sends Iris to the God of
And now the bolts shrink, and despoiled of their covering of wax,
father-in-law. But chiefly on his lips, as he swims, is his wife
concealed his face beneath thick clouds.
In the meantime, the daughter of Æolus, ignorant of so great
But she {replied}, “Sleep, thou repose of all things; Sleep, thou
before.
descendants.
Delphi was much nearer and more convenient for Ceyx to resort to;
the Delphic shrine. They were destroyed by thunderbolts and
pestilence, or, according to some authors, by Neptune, who swept
them away in a flood. Phorbas, here mentioned, was one of the
Lapithæ, a savage robber, who forced strangers to box with him,
and then slew them. Having the presumption to challenge the Gods,
honorary tombs, were erected in honour of those, who having been
drowned, their bodies could not be found. One great reason for
erecting these memorials was the notion, that the souls of those
who had received no funeral honours, wandered in agony on the
banks of the Styx for the space of one hundred years.]
Hippotas, through his daughter Sergesta, who bore Æolus to
Jupiter. Ovid says that he was the father of Halcyone; but,
according to Lucian, she was the daughter of Æolus the Hellenian,
that the ship of Ceyx was a ‘biremis,’ or one with two ranks of
rowers; one rank being placed above the other. Pliny the Elder
those with five ranks, are said to have been the invention of the
ascribed to the Syracusans. Ships were sometimes built with
course, the labour of each ascending rank increased, through the
necessity of the higher ranks using longer oars, the pay of the
lowest rank was the lowest, their work being the easiest. Where
literally, ‘The ends or points of the sail-yards,’ or ‘Antennæ:’
but here the word is used to signify the sail-yards themselves.]
composition of wax and pitch, or other bituminous and resinous
substances.]
allusion to the belief that every tenth wave exceeded the others
in violence.]
shore would obtain funeral rites; while those who perished by
shipwreck might become food for the fishes, a fate which was
regarded by the ancients with peculiar horror. Another reason for
the ancients, that the soul was an emanation from æther, or fire,
extinguished by water. Ovid says in his Tristia, or Lament (Book
’Tis something for one, either dying a natural death, or by the
sword, to lay his breathless corpse in the firm ground, and to
great a vertigo.’]
hiscere fluctus’ is rendered by Clarke, ‘As oft as the waves
suffer him to gape.’]
arcus’ means a sweeping wave, black with the sand which it has
frequently used by the poets to signify ‘the heavens;’ as the
mountain of that name in Thessaly, from its extreme height, was
supposed to be the abode of the Gods.]
‘lacerna,’ or cloak, for her husband Collatinus. She says to her
hand-maidens, ‘With all speed there must be sent to your master a
sister, or daughter.]
been engaged in the burial of the dead were considered to be
polluted, and were not allowed to enter the temples of the Gods
till they had been purified. Among the Greeks, persons who had
relatives, if it turned out that they were not dead, and they
returned to their own country, were considered impure, and were
only purified by being dressed in swaddling clothes, and treated
Ceyx, although at a distance, and as yet unknown to her.]
places the abode of the drowsy God in the cold, damp, and foggy
regions of the Cimmerians, who are supposed, by some authors, to
borrowed by Ovid from one of the Greek poets.]
compliment to the geese, for the service they rendered, in giving
tasted the waters of Lethe, one of the rivers of Hell, it was
supposed that they lost all recollection of the events of their
former life.]
the Greek μορφὴ, ‘shape,’ or ‘figure,’ because he assumed various
similar reason. Phobetor is from the Greek φοβὸς, ‘fear,’ because
same Deity, under the name of Taraxion. Phantasos is from the
Greek φάντασις, ‘fancy.’]
between the city of Trachyn and the coast of Ionia, whither Ceyx
had gone.]
tombs of the ancients usually contained the name of the person,
his age, and (with the Greeks) some account of the principal
events of his life. Halcyone, in her affectionate grief, promises
eleven as being the number of the days; Philochorus, nine; but
Demagoras says seven, the number here adopted by Ovid.]
reason the poets considered that bird as the emblem of conjugal
affection. The sea was supposed to be always calm when the female
speaks of ‘Halcyon days,’ takes its rise.]
experience; and many had recourse to him to atone for the murders
maintain a war against so powerful a king, sent the youths to
Theseus, who took them into his protection.
To recover from the melancholy consequent upon the death of his
a story which, probably, has no other foundation than the name of
considered to be the symbol of conjugal affection.
enraged at Ceyx, because he had assumed his name as Halcyone had
done that of Juno, changed them both into birds, he becoming a
cormorant, and she a kingfisher. This story is remarkable for the
The Nymph Hesperia flying from Æsacus, who is enamoured of her,
Some old man observes them as they fly over the widely extended
seas, and commends their love, preserved to the end {of their
lengthened series, his ancestors are Ilus, and Assaracus, and
Ganymede, snatched away by Jupiter, and the aged Laomedon, and
brought forth Æsacus, under shady Ida.
senior--spectat;’ these words are translated by Clarke, ‘Some old
Assaracus and Ganymede, as they were only the brothers of Ilus,
and the three were the sons of Tros. Ilus was the father of
Laomedon, whose son was Priam, the father of Æsacus.]
stream of Phrygia, not far from Troy.]
profundum Pronus abit,’ Clarke renders, ‘Goes plumb down into the
than the present form, ‘plump down;’ but, like many other
Ovid and Apollodorus agree that Æsacus was the son of Priam, and
that he was changed into a didapper, or diver, but they differ in
marry Sterope, who dying very young, he was so afflicted at her
Tzetzes adds, that Æsacus told his father that it was absolutely
sibyl Herophila who interpreted the dream, while other ancient
writers state that it was Cassandra. Apollodorus says that Æsacus
The Greeks assemble their troops at Aulis, to proceed against the
detained in port by contrary winds. Calchas, the priest, after a
sacrificed his daughter Iphigenia. She is immediately led to the
altar for that purpose; but Diana, appeased by this act of
obedience, carries away the maiden, and substitutes a hind in her
transforms him into a swan.
unavailing offerings at a tomb, that bore his name {on it}. The
together {with them}, the whole body of the Pelasgian nation. Nor
confounds him, and drives him on, and gives him no respite in his
respiration and the passage of his breath.
kind of sacrifices by the name of χοαὶ.]
herself, on the very tip-top of it.’]
Laodamia, the daughter of Acastus. His father was Iphiclus, who
was noted for his extreme swiftness.]
sarcastically, in allusion to Achilles being born of Thetis,
a daughter of Nereus.]
lines in this comical strain: ‘Achilles was as mad as a bull in
the open Circus, when he pushes at the red coat, stuffed, used on
Similar means are used to provoke the bull in the Spanish
bull-fights of the present day.]
direction of the oracle, he applied to Achilles for his cure,
which was effected by means of the rust of the weapon with which
the wound was made.]
territory was in Asia Minor, between Caria and Pamphylia, were
allies of the Trojans.]
line, ‘He overset him, and thwacked him against the ground.’]
foundation than his desire to check an enterprise which must be
attended with much bloodshed, and difficulties of the most
historians are by no means agreed as to the fate of Iphigenia, as
Nicander affirms that she was changed into a heifer.
There is no story more celebrated among the ancients than that of
damsel, when about to be slain, was possibly founded on the
substituted offering for Isaac when about to be offered by his
father; for it is not probable that the people of Greece were
have taken pains to show that Agamemnon did not sacrifice, or
contemplate sacrificing, his own daughter, by asserting that the
Pausanias also adopts this view, and gives for his authorities
Euphorion of Chalcis, Alexander, Stesichorus, and the people of
Argos, who preserved a tradition to the same effect.
Dictys the Cretan, and several of the ancient scholiasts, Ulysses
that Achilles was in love with Iphigenia; and that he was greatly
sacrifice to the utmost of his power.
Ovid then proceeds to recount the adventures of the Greeks, after
safety of his friends, being slain by Hector immediately on his
A truce ensuing, the Grecian chiefs having assembled at a feast,
express their surprise at the fact of Cygnus being invulnerable.
invulnerable. Cæneus being present at the wedding feast of
bride; on which a quarrel arose between the Centaurs and the
Lapithæ. After many on both sides had been slain, Cæneus still
This toil {and} this combat brought on a cessation for many days;
unhurt; Cæneus the Perrhæbean, {I say}, who, famous for his
waggon-load, which its very weight hinders him from throwing full
becoming, and are those of choice beasts.
“Their love was equal: together they wandered upon the mountains;
“After Cæneus had enough exposed his unhurt limbs to him in his
labor,’ ‘This laborious bout.’]
‘prosiciæ,’ or ‘ablegamina,’ were portions of the animal which
Servius, that boiled meat was not eaten in the heroic ages.]
that that entertainment is the most pleasant where no musician is
people of Thessaly, who, having been conquered by the Lapithæ,
betook themselves to the mountain fortresses of Pindus.]
these lines, ‘Come, tell us, O eloquent old gentleman, the wisdom
other sex? in which war, or what engagement, he was known to you?
that, the old blade replied.’]
generations of thirty years each.]
those of the nuptial torches, and of the altars for sacrifice to
Hymenæus and the other tutelary divinities of marriage.]
‘Sanguinis globos,’ ‘goblets of blood.’]
earthenware vessels, in which wine was kept, but also the vessels
means, ‘a link,’ or ‘torch,’ made of fibrous substances twisted
horns of a stag were frequently offered as a votive gift to the
Deities, especially to Diana, the patroness of the chase. Thus in
‘Vivacis cornua cervi,’ ‘The horns of a long-lived stag.’]
chaps covered with down, then first putting out.’]
to offer violence to Deïanira.]
Pomponius, of whom Quintilian relates, that, having received a
wound in his face, he was showing it to Cæsar, on which he was
the thong, or strap of leather, with which the lance, or javelin,
twofold nature, or ‘horse-part’ of the Centaur, as Clarke calls
poetical license, in allusion to the two-fold form of the
little of the propensity for boasting, which distinguishes him in
name is ‘The noise of strife.’]
the Lapithæ. There are two other persons mentioned in ancient
history of the same name.]
to that country.]
supposed to have been a kind of pike with which the soldiers of
the Macedonia phalanx were armed. Its ordinary length was
twenty-one feet; but those used by the phalanx were twenty-four
feet long.]
‘stamen,’ from ‘stare,’ ‘to stand,’ on account of its erect
position in the loom.]
excelled all the other people of Greece in horsemanship, and that
‘a horseman,’ and that of ‘Thessalian,’ became synonymous. Again,
Hippocentaurs, that is, ‘horsemen that hunted bulls,’ or simply
κένταυροι, ‘Centaurs.’
virtue, because, according to Palæphatus, many of them lived in a
accounts of them, in the ancient dialect of Greece, gave them the
adopted the fable that they were born of one.
Hippodamia, the bride of Pirithoüs, which was followed by the
consequences here described by Ovid. The Centaurs are twice
mentioned in the Iliad as φῆρες, or ‘wild beasts,’ and once under
them as being of a twofold form, partly man, and partly horse. In
‘Centaurs,’ as ‘Air-piercers,’ (from κεντεῖν τὴν αὔραν) not an
wedding. Mr. Keightley, in his ‘Mythology of Ancient Greece and
Italy,’ remarks that ‘it is certainly not a little strange that a
horsemanship to the Lapithæ, is unquestionably the more probable
one. The name Centaur, which so much resembles the Greek verb
κεντέω, ‘to spur,’ we fancy gave origin to the fiction. This
derivation of it is, however, rather dubious.’
After the battle here described, the Centaurs retreated to the
Neptune took them into his protection. Servius and Antimachus, as
voluptuous and debauched lives they led.
The fable of Cæneus, which Ovid has introduced, is perhaps simply
chariot of Bacchus.
vulnerable part of his body.
But the God who commands the waters of the sea with his trident,
great bravery, who had married a daughter of Priam.]
where he gained the sovereignty. He went to the Trojan war with
nine ships, to aid the Greeks, where he fell by the hand of
repetito munere Bacchi Surrexere toris.’ These words are thus
quaintly rendered in Clarke’s translation: ‘From listening to the
many of the cities of Asia, and was worshipped under this name,
in the Isle of Tenedos. He is said by Eustathius, to have been so
accounts, he received the epithet from the Cretan word σμίνθος,
Penthesilea, the Queen of the Amazons, who, aiding the Trojans
against the Greeks, was slain by Achilles. The battle-axe was the
the son of Atreus, grandson of Pelops, and great-grandson of
Periclymenus was the son of Neleus and Chloris, as we are told by
daughter of Salmoneus. Neleus married Chloris, the daughter of
after having instituted the Olympic games, marched into Messenia,
marriage. On the day appointed for the solemnity in the temple of
circumstances it had the name of Achillea.
After the death of Achilles, Ajax and Ulysses contend for his
The chiefs were seated; and a ring of the common people standing
cunning than he, but more unhappy for himself, discovered the
Dulichian head, beneath the helm of Achilles, sustain a weight so
“With these and other {words}, for which grief itself had made me
Thersites dares to launch out against the kings with impudent
employed in your service.”
“And that we may not be surprised at his pouring out on me the
reproaches of his silly tongue, against you, too, does he make
would Idomeneus, and Meriones sprung from the same land, and the
The body of the chiefs is moved, and {then}, in fact appears what
impetuous Ajax.]
‘iste’ as a term of reproach.]
alleged exploits of Ulysses were altogether fictitious; or that
they were done in the dark to conceal his fear.]
exclusive of Jupiter; for Ajax was the grandson of Æacus, and the
‘brother,’ but ‘cousin,’ as Peleus and Telamon, the fathers of
Achilles and Ajax, were brothers.]
that his madness was not real.]
quantity of gold to be buried in the ground, under his tent. He
then caused the letter to be intercepted, and to be carried to
Agamemnon. On the appearance of Palamedes to answer the charge,
Ulysses appeared seemingly as his friend, and suggested, that if
no gold should be found in his possession, he must be innocent.
The gold, however, being found, Palamedes was stoned to death.]
war, he was wounded in the foot by one of the arrows; and the
quoted by Cicero, says that Philoctetes, while in Lemnos, made
himself clothing out of the feathers of birds.]
Philoctetes; death, in that of Palamedes.]
taken to flight. See the Iliad, Book iii.]
in the Iliad, which Homer puts in the mouth of Diomedes.]
occasion when some of the bravest of the Greeks drew lots which
should accept the challenge of Hector: the Greeks wishing,
according to Homer, that the lot might fall to Ajax Telamon, Ajax
Diomedes on the night on which he arrived, Iliad, Book x.]
after he was taken prisoner by Diomedes and Ulysses, his life was
succeeded to the throne of part of the kingdom of Chaonia.]
the Ionian Sea, near Ithaca, and part of the realms of Ulysses.]
been cut from the wood on Mount Pelion, and given by the Centaur
Chiron to his father Peleus.]
king of Seyros.]
were banished for the murder of their brother Phocus.]
mother of Ulysses, was the daughter of Autolycus, of whom Mercury
Thessaly, where Peleus, the father of Achilles, was residing;
while Pyrrhus, his son, was living with his mother Deidamia,
in the isle of Scyros, one of the Cyclades.]
Achilles, being the son of Telamon, and the half-brother of Ajax;
Priam, always advocated peace with the Greeks; for which reason,
according to Livy, the Greeks did not treat him as an enemy.]
alludes to the trenches thrown up before the ships of the Greeks,
was sent to restore Chryseis to her father Chryses, the priest of
by the offended God.]
cowardly, and impudent of the Greeks, who, always abusing his
recent arrival of Rhesus, the son of either Mars or Strymon, and
the king of Thrace.]
the breast, and not on the back.]
Telamon meeting in single combat, neither was the conqueror; but
on parting they exchanged gifts, which were fatal to them both.
Hector was dragged round the walls of Troy by the belt which he
received from Ajax; while the latter committed suicide with the
sword which was given to him by Hector.]
Palladium, or statue of Minerva, which was destined to be the
guardian of the safety of Troy, so long as it was in the
possession of the Trojans.]
here Ajax is nodding at, or pointing towards Diomedes, as having
was the leader of the Ætolians; he came with forty ships to the
Trojan war.]
charioteer of Idomeneus.]
was far away from her native country.]
Hector and Andromache. Ulysses threw him from the top of a high
tower, that none of the royal blood might survive.]
masterpiece of genius; both in the lively colours in which he has
characters.
The ancient writers are not agreed upon the question, who was the
Apollodorus, Plutarch, Tzetzes and others, allege that it was
Peribœa, the daughter of Alcathoüs, the son of Pelops. Pindar and
became invulnerable except in that spot of his body, which was
claim. They add, that the Grecian nobles, having adjudged it to
Ulysses, Ajax threatened to slay them, and was found dead in his
sword which he had received from Hector. This account has been
Aristophanes also adds, that Agamemnon, not satisfied with this
report, he decided in favour of Ulysses.
According to Pliny and Pausanias, Ajax was buried near the
promontory of Rhœtæum. Horace speaks of him as being denied the
honour of a funeral; but he evidently alludes to a passage in the
apparel, by Thetis, in the court of Lycomedes, her brother; for
easily prevailed with them that Achilles and Patroclus should
accompany them to the war. It was, however, at the court of
The story of Polydorus is related in the third Book of the Æneid,
distrusting the cruelty and avarice of Polymnestor, who was her
Electra to Polymnestor in marriage, on condition that he should
divorce Ilione, and slay Polydorus, and that Polymnestor, having
acceded to their proposal, unconsciously killed his own son
Deiphylus. Polydorus going to consult the oracle concerning his
deceived him; but returning to Thrace, his sister informed him of
In returning from Troy, the Greeks are stopped in Thrace by the
his tragedy of Hecuba, that a female servant, sent by Hecuba to
the Roman patricians. ‘Parentali perituræ Marte,’ is rendered by
Clarke, ‘to fall in the fight of parentation.’]
agree perfectly with the narratives of the ancient historians.
night, and stabbed herself at the tomb of Achilles. Philostratus
killed herself.
Other writers, agreeing with Ovid as to the manner of her death,
opinion, avers, on what ground it is difficult to conceive, that
places. Many of the poets, and Virgil in the number, affirm that
Polyxena was sacrificed in Phrygia, near Troy, on the tomb of
Achilles, he having desired it at his death; while Euripides says
sacrifice Polyxena, which was accordingly done by Pyrrhus.
Servius agree. Apollodorus, again, makes her to be descended from
which perhaps amounts to the same, as Æthiopia was not in general
perhaps formed an alliance with the reigning family of Troy.
daughters of Orion, who, having sacrificed their lives for the
attending him.
ashes leading the {funeral} procession.
{Trojans}, {as} Teucrians, derived their origin from the blood of
abodes, the kingdom of the deceitful Ulysses; and they behold
Ambracia, contended for in a dispute of the Deities, which now is
unavailing flames, with wings attached {to them}.
and an olive tree, which were pointed out by the people of Delos,
contrary to the usual practice; for if we credit Macrobius, no
favour of Venus; to which Goddess the dove was consecrated.]
Thebes, in Bœotia. Myla, before referred to, was a town of
here employed as the plural of a female name ‘Corona;’ in Greek
received their name from the Greek work στροφὴ, ‘a return,’
because Calais and Zethes pursued the Harpies, which persecuted
Cephalenia. It was in the Ionian Sea, and formed part of the
kingdom of Ulysses.]
Epirus, which gave its name to the gulf of Ambracia.]
fleet of Antony and Cleopatra. He also instituted games, to be
celebrated there every fifth year in honour of his victory.]
Virgil describes Anius as the king of Delos, and the priest of
Apollo at the same time. ‘Rex Anius, rex idem hominum Phœbique
sacerdos.’ Æneid, Book III. He was descended from Cadmus, through
demands, they exacted the daughters of Anius as hostages. The
damsels soon afterwards finding means to escape, it was said that
Spermo, and Elaï, which, in the old Phœnician dialect, signified
In the reign of Orion, Thebes being devastated by a plague, the
sacrificed to the wrath of heaven. The two maidens immediately
into men.
The Poet follows Æneas on his voyage, to gain an opportunity of
decided in favour of Hercules, was changed. Ambracia was on the
authority of Nicander, that Apollo, Diana, and Hercules disputed
either because he met with his death near the promontory where a
temple of Apollo stood, or to show the stupidity of his decision.
universal expectation.
upon an oak in Chaonia, and signified thereby to the inhabitants,
where a little chapel was founded by her in honour of Jupiter, in
Notwithstanding this plausible account of Herodotus, it is not
caused it to be asserted that a dove had founded the oracle of
Dodona. Bochart tells us that the same word, in the Phœnician
significations mentioned by Bochart.
This oracle afterwards grew famous for its responses, and the
priests used considerable ingenuity in the delivery of their
answers. They cautiously kept all who came to consult them at a
distance from the dark recess where the shrine was situated; and
contrivance of the cauldrons; he says that in that part of the
forest of Dodona, where the oracle stood, there were two pillars
erected, at a small distance from each other. On one there was
mechanism, who held a brazen whip with several thongs which hung
Strabo says that the responses were originally given by three
always in the habit from that time of addressing the priests when
which, his blood is changed into a river which bears his name.
which afforded him the service of a staff, {but more} fitted for
‘O Galatea, fairer than the leaf of the snow-white privet, more
people of the Island of Corcyra (now Corfu), who were so called
from Phæax, the son of Neptune. This island was famous for the
gardens of Alcinoüs, which are mentioned in the Odyssey. The
Corcyrans were the originators of the disastrous Peloponnesian
not far from Corcyra. It received its name from its founder.]
daughter of Nereus and Doris.]
river of Calabria, in Italy. Symæthis was a stream of Sicily,
opposite to Calabria.]
is, in some measure, imitated from that of the Cyclop, in the
Galatea had her name from her extreme fairness; γάλα being the
Greek word for milk. To this the Poet here alludes.]
pleasing shade of its foliage.]
represent Polyphemus as boasting of his good looks.]
however, more probable that this river was so called from the
rapidity of its course. Indeed, the scholiast on Theocritus and
Homer, in describing the Cyclops, informs us that they were a
lawless race, who, neglecting husbandry, lived on the spontaneous
themselves entirely to the pleasures of a pastoral life. He says
Bochart, they received their name. He supposes that the Cyclopes
circle,’ and ὤπς, ‘an eye,’ it was given out that the name of
Vulcan; and Virgil describes them as forging the thunderbolts of
Jupiter. Some writers represent them as having armed the three
little to his credit, and with impunity invented the absurdities
which he related concerning a country to which his audience were
utter strangers.
influence of the grass on himself. Putting some of it into his
mouth, he immediately becomes mad, and leaping into the sea, is
transformed into a sea God.
“The thing is like a fiction (but of what use is it to me to coin
translated by Clarke, ‘Galatea gave over talking.’]
The ancient writers mention three persons of the name of Glaucus:
while other writers make him to have been the son of Phorbas, and
Athenæus says that he carried off Ariadne from the isle of Naxos,
Argonauts, when overtaken by a storm. From Apollonius Rhodius we
that in the battle which took place between Jason and the
Tyrrhenians, he was the only person that escaped unwounded.
Euripides, who is followed by Pausanias, says that he was the
interpreter of Nereus, and was skilled in prophecy; and Nicander
even says that it was from him that Apollo learned the art of
prediction. Strabo and Philostratus say that he was metamorphosed
Circe becomes enamoured of Glaucus, who complains to her of his
repulse by Scylla. She endeavours, without success, to make him
desert Scylla for herself. In revenge, she poisons the fountain
cause of shipwreck, which, confined by the two shores, bounds the
“Thou wilt more successfully court her who is willing, and who
There was a little bay, curving in {the shape of} a bent bow,
opposite to the coast of Sicily.]
father of Circe, as the Poet has already related in his fourth
Book, betrayed the intrigues of Mars with Venus.]
ambage novorum’ is rendered by Clarke, ‘Darkened with a long
rabble of new words.’]
According to Hesiod, Circe was the daughter of the Sun and of the
authors represent her as the daughter of that monarch, and the
sister of Medea. Being acquainted with the properties of simples,
understood the properties of simples; and that their pretended
heard persons mention the expedition of Jason to Colchis, and
hearing the stories of Medea and Circe, he took occasion to say,
from the resemblance of their characters, that they were sisters.
According to some authors, Scylla was the daughter of Phorcys and
twelve feet, six long necks, and at the end of each a monstrous
Messina and Reggio there is a narrow strait, where high crags
Dido entertains Æneas in her palace, and falls in love with him.
Sirens, daughters of Acheloüs; and the ship, deprived of its
pilot, coasts along Inarime and Prochyta, and Pithecusæ,
first Book of the Æneid.]
Æneas instituted at the tomb of his father, in Sicily, are fully
described in the fifth Book of the Æneid.]
Palinurus, who, when asleep, fell overboard, and was drowned. See
The word ‘Inarime’ is thought to have been coined by Virgil, from
Ovid, Lucan, and others. Strabo tells us, that ‘aremus’ was the
or vessel, as there were many potteries there.]
been torn away from the isle of Inarime by an earthquake; for
which reason it received its name from the Greek verb προχέω,
which means ‘to pour forth.’]
beauty. She was afterwards married to her uncle Sicharbas, who is
which the known avarice of Pygmalion caused him to conceal in the
Having secured the cooperation of several of the discontented
Tyrians, she requested permission to visit Tyre, and to leave her
resentment. The officers embarking in her design, after they had
remonstrances of the priests, caused him to abandon his design.
Having arrived on the coast of Africa, Dido bargained with the
many thongs as enclosed ground sufficient to build a fort upon;
citadel mentioned by the Tyrian name of ‘Bostra,’ which had that
signification, and fancying, from its resemblance to their word
foundation of Carthage by at least two centuries. Ovid has also
driving her sister Anna into exile. In the Phœnician language the
Elisa only received that name after her death. Bochart has taken
considerable pains to prove that she was the aunt of Jezebel, the
The Poet then proceeds to say that Æneas saw the islands of the
Cercopians on his way, whom Jupiter had transformed into apes.
Æschines and Suidas say that there were two notorious robbers,
inhabitants of an island adjacent to Sicily, named Candulus and
Atlas, who committed outrages on all who approached the island.
Being about to insult Jupiter himself, he transformed them into
apes, from which circumstance the island received its name of
offered to fight with Hercules.
Apollo is enamoured of the Sibyl, and, to engage her affection,
offers her as many years as she can grasp grains of sand. She
The prophetess looks upon him, and, with heaving sighs, she says,
Neapolis, was called Parthenope from the Siren of that name, who
was said to have been buried there.]
was said to have been the son of Æolus. From him the promontory
Misenum received its name.]
will of the Deities, as in the Æolian dialect, Σιὸς was ‘a God,’
and βουλὴ was the Greek for ‘will.’ According to other writers,
they were so called from Σίου βύλλη, ‘full of the Deity.’]
Avernian Juno, is a title sometimes given by the poets to
before the Nicene Council, quoted them, as redounding to the
Augustin, too, employs several of their alleged predictions to
enforce the truths of the Christian religion.
Sebastian Castalio has warmly maintained the truth of the oracles
works were ever promulgated for the perusal of the public, and
whether the verses which still exist under their name have any
ground to be considered genuine.
There is no doubt but that in ancient times there existed certain
benefactors of mankind. Some mention but one Sibyl, who was born
either at Babylon or at Erythræ, in Phrygia. Diodorus Siculus
which Pausanias assigns them, were as follows:
The first and the most ancient was the Delphian, who lived before
annals. She is the Sibyl spoken of in the Æneid, and her name was
Phrygia. The tenth was the Tiburtine, who was called Albunea, and
Sibyls as being the same person; and to account for her prolonged
last for many ages.
officers were appointed for the purpose of keeping the Sibylline
chest, beneath the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus. These Duumvirs
added, who thus formed the body called the Quindecimvirs.
contained the oracles of the Sibyls, and demanded a large sum for
Quindecimvirs. Augustus ordered a second revision of them; and,
The so-called collection of Sibylline verses which now exists is
generally looked upon as spurious; or if any part is genuine, it
condition, we have a right to consider that the Deities were very
them from the multitudes who, we are bound in charity to believe,
vaticination.
Macareus afterwards tells him how Ulysses had received winds from
No longer ragged in his clothing, {but} now his own {master}, and
{themselves} to the ocean.”
“Thence,” said he, “we came to the ancient city of Lamus, the
been founded by a colony from Chalcis, in Eubœa.]
the nurse of Æneas, who was said to have been buried there by
Greeks all people but themselves were βαρβαροὶ.]
in contradistinction to the time when Macareus looked on himself
as the devoted victim of Polyphemus.]
Book of the Odyssey, recounts how Ulysses, after having put out
the eye of Polyphemus, fled to his own ship, and when the Giant
this indiscreet action, the Cyclop was able to ascertain the
jam, jam mea viscera rebar In sua mersurum.’ Clarke thus renders
afterwards known as Formiæ, in Campania.]
been an island.]
were formerly called ‘Vulcaniæ,’ but were afterwards entitled
‘Æoliæ,’ and are now known as the Lipari Islands. Homer mentions
Being considered as an authority on that subject, at a time when
navigation was so little reduced to an art, the poets readily
recommended, was caught in a violent tempest. It is possible that
Bochart suggests that the isle of Lipara was called by the
Phœnicians ‘Nibara,’ on account of its volcano, (that word
signifying ‘a torch,’) which name was afterwards corrupted to
Achæmenides lands in the isle of Circe, and is sent to her palace
former shape.
fate of Elpenor, who afterwards, in a fit of intoxication, fell
down stairs, and broke his neck.]
and twenty-two others as the number, being one more than the
number here given by Ovid.]
proportions.]
Book of the Odyssey, says that this plant had a black root, and a
Brachia sunt,’ Clarke has not a very lucid translation of these
words. His version is, ‘Brachia are put under our lacerti.’ The
‘brachium’ was the forearm, or part, from the wrist to the elbow;
Ulysses having stayed some time at the court of Circe, where all
were immersed in luxury and indolence, begins to reflect on the
degraded state to which he is reduced, and resolutely abandons so
It is not improbable that Circe was the original from which the
Circe, being enamoured of Picus, and being unable to shake his
Janus. Soon as she was ripe with marriageable years, she was
Tiber was Albula. It was so called from the whiteness of its
Tiber, close to its own source, whence its present epithet.]
Umbria, which fell into the Tiber.]
through the valleys of the country of the Sabines, received a
pleasant shade from the trees with which its banks were lined.]
the Goddess Diana, which, with her worship, Orestes was said to
have brought from the Tauric Chersonesus, and to have established
because he was thought to have come from Thessaly, and to have
crossed the Ionian Sea.]
‘singing,’ being the present participle of the Latin verb ‘cano,’
supposed to tap the bark of the tree with his beak, to ascertain,
beneath it.]
present Cadiz, at the mouth of the Bætis, now called the
Guadalquivir. Some suppose this name to be the same with the
When names occur in the ancient Mythology, of Oriental origin, we
Cygnus, and the Myrmidons; and where the names are of Latin
original, we may conclude that their stories originated in Italy:
transformed into that bird, and he was ranked among the Dii
Turnus having demanded succour from Diomedes against Æneas, the
threatening waves; and I wished that I had been one of them. My
“With such expressions does the Pleuronian Agmon provoke Venus
were Faunus and Marica.]
Faunus, which had declared that she was destined for a foreign
husband.]
in the first Book of the Fasti.]
called Narycium and Naryce, was a city of Locris. He alludes to
the divine vengeance which punished Ajax Oïleus, who had ravished
were said to have been afflicted with shipwreck, on their return
after the destruction of Troy.]
Tristia, or Lament, Book I. El. 1. l. 83. and note.]
Ætolia, adjoining to Epirus.]
called Calydon, from the city of Calydon, in his native Ætolia.]
Liberalis, Daunus, Iapyx, and Peucetius, the sons of Lycaon, were
against Æneas.]
dispossess the intruder, he sought a retreat in Italy, where he
built the city of Argyripa, or Argos Hippium. Diomedes having
that Venus inflicted this punishment, in consequence of Diomedes
having wounded her at the siege of Troy. Of this story a confused
facilitated this story of their transformation. Pliny and Solinus
Turnus sets fire to the fleet of Æneas: but Cybele transforms the
received into the number of the Gods.
Still keeping in mind the Phrygian catastrophe, they hated the
Pelasgians; and, with joyful countenances, they looked upon the
growing over the wood.
And now the merit of Æneas had obliged all the Deities, and Juno
ship in which to return to Ithaca. Neptune, to revenge the
injuries of his son Polyphemus, changed the ship into a rock.]
his History, seems to say that Æneas lost his life in a battle,
fought near the Numicius, a river of Latium. He is generally
supposed to have been drowned there.]
word seems to be ‘native,’ or ‘indigenous;’ and it applies to a
person Deified, and considered as a tutelary Deity of his native
country. Most probably, it is derived from ‘in,’ or ‘indu,’ the
old Latin form of ‘in,’ and γείνω (for γίνομαι), ‘to be born.’
Some would derive the word from ‘in,’ negative, and ‘ago,’ to
speak, as signifying Deities, whose names were not be mentioned.]
It is asserted by some writers, that when the ships of Æneas were
flames; on which circumstance the story here related by Ovid was
Some of the ancient authors say, that after killing Turnus and
afterwards known by the name of Sylvius. His body not being found
translated him to heaven, and he was thenceforth honoured by the
name of Jupiter Indiges.
Vertumnus, enamoured of Pomona, assumes several shapes for the
He, too, having bound his brows with a coloured cap, leaning on a
Ascanius was Iülus. Alba Longa was built by Ascanius.]
kings, as given by Ovid, Livy, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, and
Eusebius, compared in the notes to the Translation of the Fasti,
(if there ever was such a person) and Tullus Hostilius may have
fallen victims to some electrical experiments which they were
making; this may have given rise to the story that they had been
struck with lightning for imitating the prerogative of Jupiter.]
by females, was a broad cloth band of various colours. The use of
this notion from the language of the Roman husbandmen. Columella
and other writers on agricultural matters often make mention of a
those trees which stood by themselves.]
tradition, its meaning may have been, that in his taking various
forms, to please Pomona, the change of seasons requisite for
There was a market at Rome, near the temple of this God, who was
regarded as one of the tutelary Deities of the traders. Horace
alludes to his temple which was in the Vicus Tuscus, or Etrurian
Vertumnus relates to Pomona how Anaxarete was changed into a rock
hardhearted Anaxarete, whom now an avenging Deity pursued. Moved,
addressed Hersilia in the words enjoined. She, with a modest
home after the Trojan war, his father Telamon banished him, for
not having revenged the death of his brother Ajax, which was
imputed to Ulysses, as having been the occasion of it, by
depriving him of the armour of Achilles. Thus exiled, he fled to
Cyprus, where he founded the city of Salamis.]
its excellent steel; the goodness of which, Pliny attributes
partly to the superior quality of the ore, and partly to the
temperature of the climate.]
tomb or the funeral pile. Among the Greeks, the male relatives
walked in front of the body, preceded by the head mourners, while
relations walked behind the corpse; the males having their heads
veiled, and the females with their heads bare and hair
dishevelled, contrary to the usual practice of each sex.]
upper room, to look out into the street, as the apartments on the
apartments on the ground floor received their light from above,
and the smaller rooms there, usually derived their light from the
rediit: et anilia demit Instrumenta sibi.’ These words are thus
translated by Clarke: ‘He returned into a young fellow, and takes
occasionally went still further, and asserted that, from the
rapidity of the motion, it melted and disappeared altogether. See
the cushions, or couches, placed in the temples of the Gods, for
the use of the Divinities; which probably their priests (like
their brethren who administered to Bel) did not omit to enjoy. At
We are not informed that the story of Iphis, hanging himself for
love of Anaxarete, is based upon any actual occurrence, though
probably it was, as Salamis is mentioned as the scene of it. The
As Dionysius of Halicarnassus gives some account of these
commanded the guard, perceiving the golden bracelets which the
consternation was the consequence of his death; and the people
beginning to suspect that the senators had committed the crime,
Julius Proculus asserted that Romulus had appeared to him, and
assured him of the fact of his having been Deified. His speech on
divine honours as a God, under the name of Quirinus, one of the
epithets of Mars. He had a chief priest, who was called ‘Flamen
His wife, Hersilia, also had divine honours paid to her, jointly
Myscelos is warned, in a dream, to leave Argos, and to settle in
Italy. When on the point of departing, he is seized under a law
Hercules. To him, making the inquiry what founder it was that had
voyage, and, while his herd was straying along the soft pastures,
“He gives thanks to the parent, the son of Amphitryon, and with
favouring gales sails over the Ionian sea, and passes by the
promontory of Italy, not far from Crotona.]
stream of Calabria, which flowed into the sea, near the city of
Calabria, said to have been founded by Taras, the son of Neptune.
its present epithet.]
Salentine territory, near Crotona.]
also called Thuria and Thurion.]
To the story here told of Micylus, or Myscelus, as most of the
having consulted the oracle, concerning the colony which he was
reduced to great distress; on which his wife, whose name was
pointed out enjoyed a healthy climate, though the soil was not so
afterwards became infamous for its voluptuousness and profligacy.
especially, enlarges on the transmigration of the soul, and the
practice of eating animal food.
“I, myself, for I remember it, in the days of the Trojan war, was
continues in the same state. All things are flowing {onward}, and
impelled by wave, and the one before is pressed on by that which
“These things too, which we call elements, are not of unchanging
subsided.
“Thus, after the Lycus has been swallowed up by a chasm in the
surrounds it. Zancle, too, is said to have been united to Italy,
Athamanis is said to kindle wood when the waning moon has shrunk
“But these {which I have named} derive their origin from other
have fled from the tyranny of Polycrates, the king of Samos.]
the life of Pythagoras, says that Pythagoras affirmed, that he
was, first, Æthalides; secondly, Euphorbus, which he proved by
recognizing his shield hung up among the spoil in the temple of
Juno, at Argos; next, Hermotimus; then, Pyrrhus and fifthly,
translated by Clarke, ‘All things are in a flux.’]
portions of the trunk of a tree, which he was trying to cleave
asunder, he became a prey to wild beasts.]
Sicily, rising in Mount Ætna, and falling into the sea near the
city of Catania.]
which no fish could exist. Pausanias thinks that this smell
proceeded from the soil, and not the water. He adds, that some
said that Chiron, others that Polenor, when wounded by the arrow
of Hercules, washed the wound in the water of this river, which
became impure from its contact with the venom of the Hydra.]
separated from the shore by a strait, seven hundred paces in
width. Alexander the Great, when besieging it, united it to the
main land by a causeway. This, however, does not aid the argument
hundred years after his death.]
formerly a peninsula, on the coast of Acarnania.]
whole of the isle of Sicily, which was supposed to have once
joined the shores of Italy.]
the Elder and Orosius, that Helice and Buris, cities of Achaia at
earthquake, and that their remains could be seen in the sea.
A similar fate attended Port Royal, in the island of Jamaica, in
that in the time of Antigonus, king of Macedonia, warm waters
burst from the earth, through the action of subterranean fires,
near the city of Trœzen. Perhaps the ‘tumulus’ here mentioned
sprang up at the same time.]
goat-skins, which formed the ‘utres,’ or leathern bottles, for
wine and oil.]
Libya, which is here referred to, is thus described by Quintius
Curtius (Book IV. c. 7)-- ‘There is also another grove at Ammon;
in the middle it contains a fountain, which they call ‘the water
warmer; at midnight, it boils and bubbles; and as the morning
here meant. The petrifying qualities of some streams is a fact
well known to naturalists.]
Elder, in his thirty-second Book, says-- ‘Theophrastus tells us
sensible of this difference; for those who drink of the Sybaris,
become more swarthy and hardy, with the hair curling; while those
the hair straight.’]
the Indians. He says, that, according to their influence on the
person accused, when drunk of by him, he was acquitted or
condemned.]
quality here referred to.]
physician, the son of Amithaon, cured Mera, Euryale, Lysippe, and
which Venus was said to have inflicted on them for boasting of
their superior beauty. Their derangement consisted in the fancy
that they were changed into cows. Melampus afterwards married
periods it was said to be fatal to men and cattle, to break
vessels with which it came in contact, and to melt all metals.
Ovid is the only author that mentions the difference in its
qualities by day and by night.]
for Latona, when pregnant with Apollo and Diana. The Symplegades,
name of a mountain and a city of Thrace. Tritonis was a lake in
the neighbourhood. Vibius Sequester says, ‘When a person has nine
changed into a bird.’ The continuous fall of fleecy snow in that
neighbourhood is supposed by some to have given rise to the
recovery of his bees, in the Fourth Book of Virgil’s Georgics,
Nicander, and Varro state that bees and hornets are produced from
generated by the putrefying carcase of the ass.]
twenty-eighth Book of his History, says, ‘The moth, too, that
flies at the flame of the lamp, is numbered among the bad
potions,’ evidently alluding to their being used in philtres or
when in the tadpole state.]
belief. Pliny says, speaking of the cub of the bear, ‘These are
white and shapeless lumps of flesh, a little bigger than mice,
probably, was invented with the praiseworthy object of securing
freedom from molestation for the bones of the dead.]
years. Aristotle took the pains to confute this silly notion.]
flies and small insects, its prey. That it changes colour
according to the hue of the surrounding objects, is a fact well
known. It receives its name from the Greek χάμαι λέων, ‘The lion
on the ground.’]
this becomes hard, and turns into gems, like the carbuncle, being
Beckmann (Hist. Inventions) thinks that this was probably the
jacinth, or hyacinth, while others suppose it to have been the
tourmaline, or transparent amber.]
knowledge has shown that coral is not a plant, but an animal
substance.]
looked upon by many Commentators as spurious, as they are omitted
time of Pythagoras. If they are genuine, Ovid is here guilty of a
translation is, ‘And let us not cram our g--ts with Thyestian
‘formido;’ which was made of coloured feathers, and was used to
scare the deer into the toils.]
The Pythagorean philosophy was well-suited for the purpose of
heads; the first of which was the doctrine of the Metempsychosis,
irregular passions render us brutes; on examination, however, we
shall find that there is no ground to doubt that he intended his
Pythagoras. In consequence of this doctrine, it was a favourite
created an aversion to wine, that transformed men into birds, and
with precision on the subject, and to discover the true boundary
between truth and fiction.
Egeria, the wife of Numa, is inconsolable after his death, and is
cornel-tree. Cippus becomes horned, and goes into voluntary
banishment, rather than his country should be deprived of its
liberty by his means.
“I suppose, in discourse it has reached thy ears that a certain
Phlegethon. Nor could life have been restored me, but through the
{spectators}, a shade that was not looked for.
As the murmur which arises among the groves of the slender pine,
the Sabine town of Cures, when the throne was pressed upon him by
consequently he was the great-grandfather of Hippolytus.]
and brimstone.]
physician, mentioned by Homer, in the Fifth Book of the Iliad.
Eustathius thinks that Apollo is meant under that name.]
words ‘vir’ and ‘bis,’ twice a man.]
son either of the Amazon Hippolyta, or Antiope.]
pinetis’ are rendered by Clarke, ‘the neat pine-groves.’]
Ovid, following the notion that was generally entertained of the
wisdom of Numa, pretends that before he was elected to the
sovereignty he went to Crotona, for the purpose of studying under
Numa is said to have been in the habit of retiring to the Arician
people to believe that his enactments were compiled under the
Dionysius of Halicarnassus has an interesting passage relative to
people in this opinion; but because some hesitated to believe his
invitation to come to sup with him on the same night. At the
appointed hour his guests arrived; they were received on stately
couches; the tables were decked with a variety of plate, and were
considering how impossible it was for any man to have made such
preparations in so short a time, were persuaded that his
performed by the aid of water, and was called Hydromancy.
voluptuousness. He spent his time in hunting and chariot racing,
with other exercises which formed the pursuits of youths of high
Theseus having been liberated by Hercules, Phædra, being fearful
lest the intrigue should come to his knowledge, hanged herself,
having first written a letter to inform him that she could not
survive an attempt which Hippolytus had made on her virtue.
Plutarch, Servius and Hyginus, following Euripides, give this
Seneca also differs from the other writers, in saying that Phædra
follows, added, that Æsculapius restored him to life, and that he
The ancient Etrurians were great adepts in the art of divination;
Marcellinus speaks of him as being said to have sprung out of the
soon after died. It is hardly probable that a cornel tree would
The story of Genucius Cippus is one of those strange fables with
afterwards called ‘Porta raudusculana,’ because the ancient Latin
however, as Ovid represents it, that Cippus was not going out of
Oxford, a substance much resembling the horn of a goat is shown,
which is said to have sprung from the forehead of a female named
which, of course, would be made the most of in those ages of
Here he stops; and seeming to dismiss his train, and the dutiful
Linternum, that bears mastick trees; and {then} Vulturnus, that
whom her foster-child erected the tomb, and the abode of
Antiphates, and Trachas, surrounded by the marsh, and the land
of Circe, and Antium, with its rocky coast.
Castrum, and the sacred abodes of Lavinium, and the mouths of the
priestess of Apollo or ‘Pythia,’ sat when inspired, was called
‘Cortina,’ from the skin, ‘corium,’ of the serpent Python, which,
‘Gradibus nitidis,’ ‘the neat steps.’]
alte.’ This is rendered by Clarke, ‘The God rears up to a good
Calabrian coast; it was said to have been founded by an Athenian
the coast of Italy. It is most probably a corrupt reading.]
Achæa on the coast of Calabria. Narycia, or Naritium, or Naricia,
its mild climate, and the beauty of its roses, which are
celebrated by Virgil.]
coast of Naples.]
Campania, famed for its wines.]
fate from the eruption of that mountain.]
which was destroyed by Sylla in the Social war. It was afterwards
city of Baiæ, famed for its warm springs and baths.]
was buried there.]
Campania, which flowed past the city of Capua.]
Campania was famed for its doves.]
the marshes in its neighbourhood produced pestilential
exhalations.]
‘Anxur.’ Its present name is Terracina. Livy mentions it as lying
ancient Volscians.]
‘the tents of Pan;’ an old town of the Rutulians.]
Under the consulate of Quintus Fabius Gurges, and Decimus Junius
Brutus Scæva, Rome was ravaged by a frightful pestilence. The
Julius Cæsar is assassinated in the Senate-house, and by the
Petreius, who had been partizans of Pompey, against Julius Cæsar,
words, ‘Veni, Vidi, Vici,’ ‘I came, I saw, I conquered.’]
Gaul, where Augustus defeated Antony, and took his camp.]
and Philippi was in Thrace. He uses a poet’s license, in treating
the former kingdom of Macedonia. Pompey was defeated by Julius
Cæsar at Pharsalia, while Brutus and Cassius were defeated by
Augustus and Antony at Philippi. The fleet of the younger Pompey
was totally destroyed off the Sicilian coast.]
infatuated as to divorce his wife, Octavia, that he might be
enabled to marry Cleopatra.]
situate on the Western mouth of the river Nile.]
married her. He adopted her son Tiberius, and constituted him his
slain when he was fifty-six years old. Augustus died in his
seventy-sixth year.]
meaning the realms of the heavens, the æther and the air; but it
is difficult to guess exactly what is the Poet’s meaning here.]
refers to the Penates which Æneas brought into Latium. Dionysius
of Halicarnassus says that he had seen them in a temple at Rome,
and that they bore the figures of two youths seated and holding
reign. Augustus, however, had not to wait for death to receive
historical circumstances which Ovid here refers to were the
following:--After Julius Cæsar had been murdered in the Senate
supposed to have been caused by some spots which then appeared on
uttered words, and that the dead had risen from their graves.
heaven was almost over-peopled by him. Augustus, however, was not
Cicero and Dolabella. In the funeral oration which was delivered
over Julius Cæsar by Antony, he spoke of him as a God, and the
populace, moved by his eloquence, and struck at his blood-stained
indignation against the conspirators, and were about to take the
*       *       *       *
_Errors and Anomalies noted by transcriber_
Abbreviations in the form “II.XIV Exp.” mean “Book II, Fable XIV,
he ordered the halsers of the fleet to be loosened
They immediately sent ambassadors  [ambasssadors]
and do not trust thyself  [_invisible h_]
Fn. 22: _Branching holm oak._  [_body text has “holm-oak”_]
(if I could {only} recall what has been destined)  [recal]
for the newmade bride  [_elsewhere “new-made” with hyphen_]
Exp.: Orpheus, too, is supposed to have  [to]
Fn. 43: Clarke translates it ‘Coysts,’
Fn. 48: whether the festival  [_invisible e in “the”_]
with the steel {scissars},  [_attested variant spelling_]
Fn. 38: the two-fold form of the Centaurs
thou shouldst have a forgetfulness  [forgetfuless]
FABLE I.  [_error for “FABLES I. AND II.”?_]
who could better succeed the great Achilles  [succed]
Le Clerc considers him  [consideres]
Fn. 64: from the Greek word  [work]
the hatred of the Cyclop  [Cylop]
An aged woman presented to Tarquinius Superbus three books
they attended our footsteps  [foosteps]
Fn. 28: so called from the whiteness  [ths]
The story of the heron  [_invisible y_]
Fn. 59: the apartments on the ground floor  [grouud]
If any thing is noxious,
and her agreable food  [_spelling unchanged_]
Fn. 10: _The goat is led._  [_body text has “was led”_]
... was an athlete of such stren{gth}
... with a blow of his fist, and {then}
... and afterwards to devour it. {His}
Fn. 49: flourishing in the time of Pythagoras
This is not intended to be a complete list.
“Iarbas”, “Iapyx”, “Iapygia” are written without.
The forms “Lapithean” and “Lapithæan” both occur.
published by Joseph Davidson,  [. for ,]
...the one resembled Minos, and the other Taurus.  [invisible .]
brandished with their broad points.  [, for .]
Fn. 33: ... the sons of Aphareus.  [invisible .]
“Come,” said he, “famous Cecropian  [second , invisible]
nor has any woman been standing {here}.’  [” for ’]
----: ‘Tandem, demisso in viscera censu;’  [invisible ;]
----: swallowed down all his estate into his g--ts.’
serves nectar to Jove.”
changed into hard rocks.”
or take away from them, the polished quivers.”
Fn. 64: ‘... riding in her light chair.  [missing ’]
Exp.: during that festival.” / This notion of the mourning
quote at end of previous paragraph_]
After they, in their rage  [superfluous “ at beginning]
Fn. 39: ... ‘The ends or points of the sail-yards,  [missing ‘]
Fn. 42: ’tis the dreadful kind of death  [invisible ’ in ’tis]
Fn. 51: they lost all recollection  [invisible -coll-]
Fn. 21: a people of Thessaly, who,   [invisible ,]
Fn. 27: Clarke renders ... ‘goblets of blood.’
of the dispute to them all.  [superfluous ” at end]
Fn. 40: ... Helenus, the son of Priam.  [invisible ,]
“‘But didst thou {but} know me well  [missing inner ‘]
... retained that ancient name.”
Exp.: Elpe, the daughter of the king, carried her off.  [, for .]
Exp.: which was in consequence called ‘Byrsa.’  [missing ‘]
‘And yet thou shalt not escape me,’ she said
he sped more swiftly than usual,  [invisible ,]
“‘The setting Sun  [missing inner ‘]
Fn. 9: Clarke translates ‘Non utilis auctor,’
‘But,’ as the same author says  [missing ‘]
Note 6: tag missing in text
... that thou dost desert me?: extraneous footnote tag 7, no note
Note 51: tag (50) missing in text
Note 6: tag missing in text
Note 10: tag (11) missing in text