[180] _Chimæra, breathing fire unquencha_The Remains of Hesiod the Ascræan, Including the Shield of Hercules Translated into English rhyme and blank verse; with a dissertation on the life and æra, the poems and mythology of Hesiod, and copious notes.

in the 6th book of the Iliad. “In Lycia was the city Phaselis, situated

upon the mountain Chimæra; which mountain was sacred to the god of fire.

Phaselis is a compound of Phi, which in the Amonian language is a mouth

or opening, and of Az-el: another name for Orus, the god of light.

Phaselis signifies a chasm of fire. The reason why this name was imposed

may be seen in the history of the place. All the country around abounded

in fiery eruptions. Chimæra is a compound of Chamur, the name of the

deity, whose altar stood towards the top of the mountain. But the most

satisfactory idea of it may be obtained from coins which were struck

in its vicinity, and particularly describe it as a hollow and inflamed

mountain.” BRYANT.

[181] _Depopulating Sphinx._] The Nile begins to rise during the fall of

the Abyssinian rains; when the sun is vertical over Æthiopia: and its

waters are at their height of inundation when the sun is in the signs Leo

and Virgo. The Ægyptians seem to have invented a colossal representation

of the two zodiacal signs, which served as a water-mark to point out

the risings of the Nile: and this biform emblem of a virgin and lion

constituted the famous ænigma.

[182] _Tethys to Ocean brought the rivers forth._] When towers were

situated upon eminences fashioned very round, they were by the Amonians

called Tith, answering to Titthos in Greek. They were so denominated

from their resemblance to a woman’s breast, and were particularly sacred

to Orus and Osiris, the deities of light, who by the Grecians were

represented under the title of Apollo. Tethys, the ancient goddess of

the sea, was nothing else but an old tower upon a mount. On this account

it was called Tith-is, the mount of fire. Thetis seems to have been a

transposition of the same name, and was probably a Pharos, or fire-tower,

near the sea. BRYANT.

[183] _Claim the shorn locks._] It was the custom of the Greeks for adult

youths to poll their hair as an offering to Apollo and the Rivers.

[184] _And Ploto, with the bright dilated eyes._] Βοωπις, ox-eyed: that

is, with eyes artificially enlarged. Pliny, Nat. Hist. xxxiii. 6, speaks

of the _stibium_ or antimony as an astringent, especially as to the

eye-lid: and mentions that it was called _platyophthalmum_, eye-opener:

from its forming an ingredient in the washes of women, as it had the

effect of opening or dilating the eye by contracting the lid. The modern

Greek women retain the custom. “Of the few that I have seen with an open

veil or without one, the faces were remarkable for symmetry and brilliant

complexion: with the nose straight and small: the eyes vivacious: either

black or dark-blue: having the eyebrows, partly from nature, and as much

from art, very full, and joining over the nose. They have a custom,

too, of drawing a black line with a mixture of powder of antimony and

oil above and under the eye-lashes in order to give the eye more fire.”

DALLAWAY, Constantinople Ancient and Modern.

Strutt, in the general introduction to his “View of the Dress and Habits

of the People of England,” observes that the Moorish ladies in Barbary,

the women in Arabia Felix, and those about Aleppo continue the same

traditional custom of tinging the inside of the eye-lid. Dr. Russel

describes the operation as effected “by means of a short smooth probe of

ivory, wood, or silver; charged with a powder named the black Kohol. This

substance is a kind of lead-ore brought from Persia: and is prepared by

roasting it in a quince, an apple, or a truffle; then, adding a few drops

of oil of almonds, it is ground to a subtile powder on a marble. The

probe being first dipped in water, a little of the powder is sprinkled

on it. The middle part is then applied horizontally to the eye, and the

eye-lids being shut upon it, the probe is drawn through between them,

leaving the inside tinged, and a black rim all round the edge. The Kohol

is used likewise by the men: but not so generally by way of ornament

merely: the practice being deemed rather effeminate. It is supposed to

strengthen the sight and prevent various disorders of the eye.” NATURAL

HISTORY OF ALEPPO, vol. i. iii. 22.

Mr. Gifford, in the notes to his admirable version of Juvenal, supposes

the effeminate practice of the Roman fops to assimilate with this: in the

passage which he translates,

Some with a tiring-pin their eye-brows dye,

Till the full arch gives lustre to the eye.

SAT. ii. 67.

Juvenal, however, mentions only the painting of the eye-brows: unless by

the epithet _tremulous_, _trementes_, which he applies to the eyes, he

means to intimate the whole operation, and the eye-ball quivering under

the application of the needle.

In the second book of Kings, ix. 30, when it is said “Jezebel painted her

face,” the Septuagint has it, “she antimonized her eyes:” Εστιμμιζατο

τους οφθαλμους αυτης.

[185] _Long-stepping tread the earth._] The Greeks, as appears from their

female epithets, were very attentive to the form of the ankle, and the

manner of walking: and a long step, no less than a well-turned ankle, as

implying a tallness of figure, was thought characteristic of graceful

beauty.

[186] _The glassy depth of lakes._] All fountains were esteemed sacred:

but especially those which had any preternatural quality and abounded

with exhalations. It was an universal notion that a divine energy

proceeded from the effluvia; and that the persons who resided in their

vicinity were gifted with a prophetic quality. Fountains of this nature,

from the divine influence with which they were supposed to abound, the

Amonians styled Ain-omphe, or oracular fountain. These terms the Greeks

contracted to _numphe_, a nymph: and supposed such a person to be an

inferior goddess who presided over waters. Hot springs were imagined to

be more immediately under the inspection of the nymphs. Another name for

these places was Ain-Ades, the fountain of Ades or the Sun; which in like

manner was changed to Naïades, a species of deities of the same class.

BRYANT.

[187] _East, West, and South, and North._] Le Clerc and the generality

of editors suppose Hesiod to omit the east-wind entirely: and consider

αργεστεω as an epithet, signifying _swift_ or _serene_: as the term

is so used by Homer. Grævius quotes a subsequent line of the Theogony

as authority for αργεστης being so used by Hesiod also: but there is

evidence for αργεστης being the name of a wind; though Aulus Gellius

and Pliny suppose it to be a west-wind, called by the Latins Caurus.

Aristotle also, as is observed by the Monthly Reviewer, describes the

αργεστης as a westerly wind, which blows from that part of the heaven

in which the sun sets at the summer solstice: and adds that by some

it is called Olympias, by others Iapyx. We see however from this very

passage of Aristotle, that the names of winds were capricious and

arbitrary: and in fact almost every district in Greece called the winds

by names different from those which the neighbouring district used. The

same critic observes that in a note to the word σκειροιν (Caurus), in

Alberti’s edition of Hesychius, an opinion is intimated that αργεστης is

properly an easterly wind, απηλιωτης ανεμος: nor can there be the least

doubt of the matter, in so far as regards Hesiod. The London Reviewer,

indeed, remarks that “the omission of the wind would be no proof of

Hesiod’s ignorance of its existence”: a similar omission occurs in the

Psalms. “Promotion cometh neither from the east, nor the west, nor yet

from the south.” But it is forgotten that Hesiod is describing the

genealogy of the winds: and it is very inconceivable that one of the four

cardinal winds should have escaped his notice. The editions of Stephens

and Trincavellus read

Νοσφι Νοτου, Βορεω τε, και Αργεστου, Ζεφυρου τε:

instead of αργεστεω Ζεφιροιο: and I have no doubt that this is the true

reading.

[188]

_Not apart from Jove_

_Their mansion is._]

So Callimachus, Hymn to Jupiter:

No lots have made thee king above all gods:

But works of thy own hands: thy Strength and Force,

Whom thou hast, therefore, station’d next thy throne.

Strength and Force are introduced by Æschylus as characters, in the first

scene of his “Prometheus Chained.”

[189] _Asteria, blest in fame._] According to Callimachus Asteria was

metamorphosed into the Isle of Delos: a term which alludes to its

appearing after having been submerged in the sea: δηλος, _visible_.

Asteria is from αστηρ a star.

Asteria was thy name

Of old: since like a star from heaven on high

Thou didst leap down precipitate within

A fathomless abyss of waters, flying

From nuptial violence of Jove.

HYMN TO DELOS.

[190]

_She conceived_

_With Hecaté._]

Εκατη was a title of Diana, as εκατος of Apollo: from εκας _far off_:

alluding to the distance to which the sun and moon dart their rays. This

goddess is represented in ancient sculptures as three females joined

in one, with various attributes in their hands: this triple figure was

combined of the three characters sustained by the moon: who was Selene

or Luna in heaven, Diana on earth, and Proserpine in the subterranean

regions. Luna is said by Cicero to be the same as Lucina, the goddess

of child-bearing: a title given also to Diana and Juno. Hecate has also

assigned to her by Hesiod the office of foster-mother of children. This

may be explained partly by the reckoning of pregnant women being guided

by the number of lunar periods; and partly by the emblematic character of

the moon, as an object of worship.

“The moon was a type of the ark: the sacred ship of Osiris being

represented in the form of a crescent, of which the moon was made

an emblem. Selene was the reputed mother of the world, as Plutarch

confesses: which character cannot be made in any degree to correspond

with the planet. Selene was the same as Isis: the same also as Rhea,

Vesta, Cubele, and Damater, or Ceres.” BRYANT.

These female deities not only melt into each other, but at last resolve

themselves into the one Zeus: so that the lunar idolatry is absorbed

ultimately in the solar. “The patriarch had the names of Meen or Menes;

which signify a moon, and was worshipped all over the east as Deus Lunus.

Strabo mentions several temples of this lunar god in different places:

all these were dedicated to the same Arkite deity, called Lunus, Luna,

and Selene. The same deity was both masculine and feminine: what was Deus

Lunus in one country was Dea Luna in another. Meen was also one of the

most ancient titles of the Ægyptian Osiris; the same as Apollo.” BRYANT.

The sacred bull Apis is figured in the ancient coins and sculptures,

with a crescent moon upon his head instead of horns: by which the great

restorer of husbandry, Noah, was connected with the ark in which he had

been miraculously preserved; and of which the lunar crescent was an

emblem.

[191] _Her wide allotment stands._] The other gods were either celestial,

terrestrial, marine, or subterranean: but the divinity of Hecate pervaded

heaven, earth, and the abyss, from her being intermixed with Luna, Dian,

and Proserpine: and the sea, from the moon influencing the tides. She

was invoked at sacrifices, probably, as presiding over divination from

the entrails of beasts: because she was the patroness of magical rites

and incantations: from such ceremonies being performed in the secrecy

of night by the light of the moon. The Greeks, on every new moon, were

accustomed to spread a feast in the cross-ways, which was carried away by

the poor: this was called “Hecate’s supper;” and was said to have been

eaten by Hecaté. See Aristophanes, Plutus.

[192] _Her solitary birth._] This alludes to the honour and the

privileges attached by the ancients to numerous children. The moon is

said to be single in birth, as the only planet of the same apparent size

and lustre.

[193] _A gleam of glory o’er his parents’ days._] The odes of Pindar are

traditional records of the glory attached by the Greeks to the conquerors

in their games: a glory which extended to their parents and connexions,

and even to the city in which they were born. Cicero describes the return

from an Olympic victory as equivalent to a Roman triumph. The victor in

fact rode in a triumphal chariot, and entered through a breach in the

walls into the city: which Plutarch explains to signify that walls are

useless with such defenders. The same writer relates, that a Spartan

meeting Diagoras, who had been crowned in the Olympic games, and had seen

his sons and grand-children crowned after him, exclaimed, “Die Diagoras!

for thou canst not be a god.” A memorial on the gymnastic exercises of

the Greeks will be found in the “Mémoires de l’Académie des Inscriptions

et Belles Lettres,” tom. i. 286.

[194] _Golden-sandal’d Juno._] Juno was the same as Iöna: and she

was particularly styled Juno of Argus. Argus was one of the terms by

which the ark was distinguished. The Grecians called her Hera; which

was not originally a proper name, but a title: the same as Ada of the

Babylonians; and expressed “the Lady” or “Queen.” She was the same as

Luna or Selene, from her connexion with the ark; and at Samos she was

described as standing in a lunette, with the lunar emblem on her head.

She was sometimes worshipped under the symbol of an egg: so that her

history had the same reference as that of Venus. She presided equally

over the seas, which she was supposed to calm or trouble. Isis, Io, and

Ino were the same as Juno, and Venus also was the same deity under a

different title. Hence in Laconia there was an ancient statue of the

goddess styled Venus Junonia. Juno was also called Cupris, and under that

title was worshipped by the Hetrurians. As Juno was the same with Iöna we

need not wonder at the Iris being her concomitant. BRYANT.

[195] _Ceres, and Vesta._] Ceres was the deity of fire; hence at Cnidus

she was called Cura: a title of the Sun. The Roman name Ceres, expressed

by Hesychius Gerys, was by the Dorians more properly rendered Garis. It

was originally the name of a city called Charis: for many of the deities

were erroneously called by the names of the places where they were

worshipped. Charis is Char-is, the city of fire: the place where Orus and

Hephaistus were worshipped. It may after this seem extraordinary that she

should ever be esteemed the goddess of corn. This notion arose from the

Greeks not understanding their own theology. The towers of Ceres were

P’urtain or Prutaneia: so called from the fires which were perpetually

there preserved. The Grecians interpreted this _purou tameion_: and

rendered what was a temple, a granary of corn. In consequence of this,

though they did not abolish the ancient usage of the place, they made it

a repository of grain; from whence they gave largesses to the people. In

early times the corn there deposited seems to have been for the priests

or divines: but this was only a secondary use to which these places were

adapted. They were properly sacred towers, where a perpetual fire was

preserved. It was sacred to Hestia, the Vesta of the Romans, which was

only another title for Damater or Ceres: and the sacred hearth had the

same name. BRYANT.

[196] _Pluto strong._] “Some,” says Diodorus, “think that Osiris is

Serapis: others that he is Dionusus: others still that he is Pluto:

many take him for Zeus or Jupiter, and not a few for Pan.” This was an

unnecessary embarrassment, for they were all titles of the same god.

Pluto, among the best mythologists, was esteemed the same as Jupiter; and

indeed the same as Proserpine, Ceres, Hermes, Apollo, and every other

deity. BRYANT.

[197] _Earth-shaker Neptune._] The patriarch was commemorated by the

name of Poseidon. Under the character of Neptune Genesius he had a

temple in Argolis: hard by was a spot of ground called _the place of

descent_; similar to the place on mount Ararat, mentioned by Josephus;

and undoubtedly named from the same ancient history. The tradition of the

people of Argolis was, that it was so called because in this spot Danaus

made his first descent from the ship in which he came over. In Arcadia

was a temple of “Neptune _looking-out_.” Poseidon god of the sea was also

reputed the chief god, the deity of fire. This we may infer from his

priest; who was styled P’urcon. P’urcon is the lord of fire or light; and

from the name of the priest we may know the department of the god. He was

no other than the supreme deity, the Sun: from whom all may be supposed

to descend. Hence Neptune in the Orphic verses is, like Zeus or Jupiter,

styled the father of gods and men. BRYANT.

[198] _Jupiter th’ all-wise._] In the Orphic fragments both Jove and

Bacchus are identified with the Sun: which is described as the source

of all things. Hammon, the African Jupiter, is mentioned by Lucan; who

specifies his having horns. These were the lunar crescent of Apis or

Osiris, the Arkite god. The patriarch, his son Ham, and his grandson

Chus, are reciprocally mixed with each other; in the same manner as the

ark and the dove: the moon, the sun, and the typical serpent, are often

mixed and confounded in this hieroglyphical mythology.

[199] _To his own son he should bow down his strength._] Although the

Romans made a distinction between Janus and Saturn they were two titles

of one and the same person. The former had the remarkable characteristic

of being the author of time, and the god of the new year: the latter also

was looked upon as the author of time, and held in his hand a serpent,

whose tail was in his mouth and formed a circle: by which emblem was

denoted the renovation of the year. On their coins they were equally

represented with keys in their hand and a ship near them. Janus was

described with two faces: the one that of an aged man; the other that of

a youthful personage. Saturn as of an uncommon age with hair white like

snow: but they had a notion that he would return to infancy. He is also

said to have destroyed all things: which however were restored with vast

increase. BRYANT.

The faces of Janus, supposed to look to the time past and that which is

to come, evidently regard the æra before the flood and that after it:

and the aged and youthful visage represent the old world and the new.

The keys may allude to the shutting up the productions of the earth,

and again opening them. The ship is the ark. The story of Saturn and

the infant Jupiter involves similar allusions. The old god devouring

his children significantly points to the destruction of the human race.

Saturn and Jupiter seem only separate personifications of the double

visage of Janus: and the infant Jupiter personifies the second infancy

of Saturn. The new order of things which took place on the renovation

of nature is typified in the dethronement of the aged monarch by his

youthful son.

[200]

_To succeeding times_

_A monument._]

The stone, which Saturn was supposed to have swallowed instead of a

child, stood according to Pausanias at Delphi: it was esteemed very

sacred, and used to have libations of wine poured upon it daily: and upon

festivals was otherwise honoured. The purport of the above history I take

to have been this. It was for a long time the custom to offer children

at the altar of Saturn: but in process of time they removed it, and in

its form erected a stone pillar, before which they made their vows, and

offered sacrifices of another nature. BRYANT.

[201] _Props the broad heaven._] “This Atlas,” says Maximus Tyrius, “is a

mountain, with a cavity of a tolerable height, which the natives esteem

both as a temple and a deity: and it is the great object by which they

swear, and to which they pay their devotions.” The cave in the mountain

was certainly named Cöel, the house of god: equivalent to Cœlus of the

Romans: and this was the heaven which Atlas was supposed to support.

BRYANT.

[202] _He bound Prometheus._] Prometheus, who renewed the race of men,

was Noos, or Noah. Prometheus raised the first altar to the gods,

constructed the first ship, and transmitted to posterity many useful

inventions. He was supposed to have lived at the time of the deluge,

and to have been guardian of Ægypt at that season. He was the same as

Osiris, the great husbandman, the planter of the vine, and inventor of

the plough. Prometheus is said to have been exposed on mount Caucasus,

near Colchis, with an eagle placed over him, preying on his heart. These

strange histories are undoubtedly taken from the symbols and devices

which were carved upon the front of the ancient Amonian temples, and

especially those of Ægypt. The eagle and vulture were the insignia of

that country. We are told by Orus Apollo that a heart over burning coals

was an emblem of Ægypt. The history of Tityus, Prometheus, and many other

poetical personages was certainly taken from hieroglyphics misunderstood

and badly explained. Prometheus was worshipped by the Colchians as a

deity, and had a temple and high place upon mount Caucasus: and the

device upon the portal was Ægyptian, an eagle over a heart. BRYANT.

[203] _Parted a huge ox._] Pliny, book vii. ch. 56, speaks of Prometheus

as the first who slaughtered an ox. This traditionary circumstance is

agreeable to that passage in scriptural history, where Noah receives

the divine permission to kill animals for food: and Hesiod’s tale of

the division of the ox may be only a disfigured representation of the

first sacrifice after the flood. The affinity of Iäpetus, the father of

Prometheus, with Japhet, is very remarkable. This confusion of personages

has been already noticed as common in the ancient mythology.

[204] _Pernicious is the race._] Lord Kaimes, in his sketches of the

History of Man, i. 6. observes that in the more polished age of Greece

women were treated with but little consideration by their husbands:

and female influence was confined to the artful accomplishments of

courtezans. But it was very different at an earlier æra of society.

“Women in the Homeric age,” remarks Mr. Mitford, “enjoyed more freedom,

and communicated more in business and amusement among men, than in

after-ages has been usual in those eastern countries; far more than at

Athens, in the flourishing times of the commonwealth. Equally, indeed,

Homer’s elegant eulogies and Hesiod’s severe sarcasm prove women to have

been in their days important members of society.”

Milton has imitated this description of the infelicities supposed to

be produced by woman-kind, in a prophetic complaint, which comes with

beautiful propriety from the lips of Adam: and which his own domestic

unhappiness enabled him to express with feeling.

[205]

_The host_

_Of glorious Titans._]

The giants, whom Abydenus makes the builders of Babel, are by other

writers represented as the Titans. They are said to have received their

name from their mother Titæa: by which we are to understand that they

were denominated from their religion and place of worship. The ancient

altars consisted of a conical hill of earth, in the shape of a woman’s

breast. Titæa was one of these. It is a term compounded of Tit-aia, and

signifies literally a breast of earth. These altars were also called

Tit-an, and Tit-anis, from the great fountain of night, styled An and

Anis: hence many places were called Titanis and Titana where the worship

of the sun prevailed. By these giants and Titans are always meant the

sons of Ham and Chus. That the sons of Chus were the chief agents

both in erecting the tower of Babel, and in maintaining principles of

rebellion, is plain: for it is said of Nimrod, the son of Chus, that “the

beginning of his kingdom was Babel.” The sons of Chus would not submit

to the divine dispensation in the original disposition of the several

families: and Nimrod, who first took upon him regal state, drove Ashur

from his demesnes, and forced him to take shelter in the higher parts

of Mesopotamia. This was their first act of rebellion and apostacy.

Their second was to erect a lofty tower, as a landmark to repair to, as

a token to direct them, and prevent their being scattered abroad. It

was an idolatrous temple, erected in honour of the sun, and called the

tower of Bel: as the city, from its consecration to the sun, was named

Bel-on: the city of the solar god. Their intention was to have founded

a great, if not an universal, empire: but their purpose was defeated by

the confounding of their labial utterance. By this judgment they were

dispersed; the tower was deserted; and the city left unfinished. These

circumstances seem, in great measure, to be recorded by the gentile

writers. They add, that a war soon after commenced between the Titans and

the family of Zeuth. This was no other than the war mentioned by Moses;

which was carried on by four kings of the family of Shem against the sons

of Ham and Chus. The dispersion from Babylonia had weakened the Cuthites.

The house of Shem took advantage of their dissipation, and recovered the

land of Shinar, which had been unduly usurped by their enemies. After

this success they proceeded farther: and attacked the Titans in all their

quarters. After a contest of some time they made them tributaries: but

upon their rising in rebellion, after a space of thirteen years, the

confederates made a fresh inroad into their countries. “Twelve years

they served Chedorlaomer: and in the thirteenth they rebelled: and in

the fourteenth year came Chedorlaomer, and the kings that were with him,

and smote the Rephaims in Ashtaroth Karnaim;” who were no other than the

Titans. They were accordingly rendered by the Seventy, “the giant brood

of Ashtaroth:” and the valley of the Rephaim, in Samuel, is translated

“the valley of the Titans.” From the sacred historians we may then infer

that there were two periods of this war. The first, when the king of Elam

and his associates laid the Rephaim under contribution: the other, when,

upon their rebellion, they reduced them a second time to obedience. The

first part is mentioned by several ancient writers, and is said to have

lasted ten years. Hesiod takes notice of both, but makes the first rather

of longer duration:

Ten years and more they sternly strove in arms.

In the second engagement the poet informs us that the Titans were quite

discomfited and ruined: and according to the mythology of the Greeks,

they were condemned to reside in Tartarus, at the extremity of the

known world. A large body of Titanians, after their dispersion, settled

in Mauritania: which is the region called Tartarus. The mythologists

adjudged the Titans to the realms of night merely from not attending

to the purport of the term ζοφος. This word described the West, and it

signified also darkness. From this secondary acceptation the Titans of

the West were consigned to the realms of night: being situated, with

respect to Greece towards the regions of the setting sun. BRYANT.

[206]

_Wielding aloft_

_Precipitous rocks._]

This, perhaps, suggested to Milton the arming the angels with mountains:

They pluck’d the seated hills with all their load;

Rocks, waters, woods; and by the shaggy tops

Uplifting, bore them in their hands.

PAR. LOST. vi.

[207]

_The dark chasm of hell_

_Was shaken._]

This is expanded by Milton with uncommon sublimity:

Hell heard th’ insufferable noise: hell saw

Heaven ruining from heaven, and would have fled

Affrighted: but strict Fate had cast too deep

Her dark foundations, and too fast had bound.

Book vi.

[208]

_His whole of might_

_Broke from him._]

Milton attains to a higher conception of omnipotence in the passage:

Yet half in strength he put not forth, but check’d

His thunder in mid-volley: for he meant

Not to destroy, but root them out of heaven.

There is, however, nothing in Milton which equals in sublimity the sudden

expansion of power in the soul of the deity: ειθαρ μεν μενεος πληντο

φρενες. The plan of the battle of angels is evidently built on that of

the battle of giants: the Messiah, like Hesiod’s Jove, coming forth to

decide the contest; and sending before him thunderbolts and plagues.

Milton’s magnificent imagery of the chariot is borrowed from the vision

of the prophet Ezekiel.

[209]

_Through the void_

_Of Erebus._]

Χαος is here only a gulf or void. Le Clerc quotes Aristophanes to show

that it is the vacuity of air: but the conflagration of air has already

been described. Grævius is undoubtedly right in interpreting it the

subterraneous abyss, or Erebus: in which sense it is afterwards used by

Hesiod; when the Titans are said to dwell “beyond the obscure chaos,” or

chasm. Virgil uses chaos in this acceptation, Æneid. vi. 205:

Ye silent shades!

Oh Chaos hoar! and Phlegethon profound!

PITT.

So also Ovid, Metamorph. x. Orpheus to Pluto and Proserpine:

I call you by those sights so full of fear:

This chaos vast; these silent kingdoms drear!

[210]

_The heaven and earth_

_Met hurtling in mid-air._]

Milton, Paradise Lost, book ii:

Nor was his ear less pealed

With noises loud and ruinous ...

than if this frame

Of heaven were falling, and these elements

In mutiny had from their axle torn

The steadfast earth.

[211] _The war-unsated Gyges._] Hesiod has confounded the history by

supposing the Giants and Titans to have been different persons. He

accordingly makes them oppose each other: and even Cottus, Briareus, and

Gyges, whom all other writers mention as Titans, are by him introduced

in opposition, and described as of another family. His description is

however much to the purpose, and the first contest and dispersion are

plainly alluded to. BRYANT.

[212] _The Titan host o’er-shadowing._] Milton, Par. Lost, b. vi.:

Themselves invaded next and on their heads

Main promontories flung, which in the air

Came shadowing, and oppress’d whole legions arm’d.

[213]

_So far beneath_

_This earth._]

Virgil, Æn. vi. 577:

The gaping gulf low to the centre lies,

And twice as deep as earth is distant from the skies:

The rivals of the gods, the Titan race,

Here, singed with lightning, roll within th’ unfathom’d space.

DRYDEN.

[214]

_The verge_

_Of Tartarus._]

The ancients had a notion that the earth was a widely extended plain,

which terminated abruptly in a vast clift of immeasurable descent. At the

bottom was a chaotic pool, which so far sunk beneath the confines of the

world, that, to express the depth and distance, they imagined an anvil of

iron, tossed from the top, could not reach it in ten days. This mighty

pool was the great Atlantic ocean: and these extreme parts of the earth

were Mauritania and Iberia: for in each of these countries the Titans

resided. BRYANT.

This explains the introduction of Atlas before the gates of Tartarus:

Guietus is therefore in error when, not being able to account for this

situation of Atlas, he marks the passage as supposititious.

Milton’s classical reading appears in his admeasurement of the distance

which the rebel angels passed in their fall from heaven:

_Nine_ days they fell: the _tenth_ the yawning gulf

Received them.

[215] _Arise and end._] Seneca, Hercules Frantic:

Rank with corruption’s moss the sterile vast

Of that abyss: th’ unsightly earth is numb’d

In its eternal barren hoariness:

The dismal end of things:

The limits of the world:

Air moveless hangs with clinging weight above:

And black night brooding sits

Upon the lifeless universe.

[216] _A drear and ghastly wilderness._] Homer, Il. xx.:

A dismal wilderness

Hoary with desolation: which the gods

Behold, and shuddering turn their eyes away.

[217]

_But him the whirls of vexing hurricanes_

_Toss to and fro._]

Dante, Inferno, canto quinto:

I venn’ in luogo d’ogni luce muto:

Che mughia, come fa mar per tempesta,

Se da contrarii venti se combattuto:

La bufera infernale, che mai non resta,

Mena gli spiriti con la sua rapina,

Voltando et percuotendo gli molesta.

They reach a spot, void of all ray of light,

Which howls as seas in storms, where winds opposing fight:

The hellish whirlwind, never resting, hurls

The hovering spirits snatch’d upon its whirls:

And vexing smites, and eddying turns them round.

Milton seems to have conceived from this passage of Hesiod his idea of

Satan falling down the chaotic void, book ii.:

A vast vacuity: all unawares,

Fluttering his pennons vain, plumb down he drops

Ten thousand fathoms deep: and to this hour

Down had been falling, had not, by ill chance,

The strong rebuff of some tumultuous cloud

Instinct with fire and nitre hurried him

As many miles aloft.

[218]

_Alternate as they glide athwart_

_The brazen threshold._]

Milton, Par. Lost, vi. 4:

There is a cave

Within the mount of God, fast by his throne,

Where light and darkness in perpetual round

Lodge and dislodge by turns, which makes through heaven

Grateful vicissitude, like day and night:

Light issues forth, and at the other door

Obsequious darkness enters, till her hour

To veil the heaven.

[219] _Sleep, Death’s half brother._] Virg. Æn. vi. 278:

Here Toils and Death, and Death’s half-brother Sleep,

Forms terrible to view, their sentry keep.

DRYDEN.

[220]

_Nor them the shining Sun_

_E’er with his beam contemplates._]

Odyssey, xi. 14:

With clouds and darkness veil’d: on whom the Sun

Deigns not to look with his beam-darting eye:

Or when he climbs the starry arch, or when

Earthward he slopes again his westering wheels.

COWPER.

[221]

_To immortal gods_

_A foe._]

Probably from his destroying the human favourites of the gods, and the

sons of the goddesses who have descended to mortal amours: as in the

instances of Hyacinthus, the favourite of Apollo; and Memnon, the son of

Aurora; whose death and burial are described with such romantic fancy in

Quintus Calaber, Post-Homerics, or Supplemental Iliad.

[222] _And stern Prosérpina._] Many of the temples of Ceres were

dedicated to the deity under the name of Persephone or Proserpine, who

was supposed her daughter; but they were in reality the same personage.

Persephone was styled Cora; which the Greeks misinterpreted the virgin or

damsel. This was the same as Cura, a feminine title of the Sun; by which

Ceres also was called at Cnidos. However mild and gentle Proserpine may

have been represented in her virgin state by the poets, yet her tribunal

seems in many places to have been very formidable. In consequence of this

we find her, with Minos and Rhadamanthus, condemned to the shades below

as an infernal inquisitor. Nonnus says, “Proserpine armed the Furies:”

the notion of which Furies arose from the cruelties practised in the

Prutaneia, or fire-temples. They were originally only priests of fire;

but were at last ranked among the hellish tormentors. Herodotus speaks

of a Prutaneion in Achaia Pthiotic, of which he gives a fearful account.

No person, he says, ever entered the precincts, that returned: whatever

person strayed that way was immediately seized upon by the priests and

sacrificed. BRYANT.

[223]

_With arch’d roofs_

_Of loftiest rock o’erhung._]

Not far from the ruins (of Nonacrum, a town of Arcadia,) is a lofty

cliff: I have seen none that ascended to such a height. A stream distils

from the declivity. This water is denominated Styx by the Greeks. It is

deadly to man and to all animals whatever. PAUSANIAS, _Arcadics_, b. viii.

Le Clerc supposes an opinion to have existed, that a person wrongfully

accused might securely drink the water of Styx: and conceives Hesiod to

mean that the gods drank of the water at the same time that they made a

libation, and if they took a false oath, were convicted by the lethargic

properties of this noxious stream.

[224] _Jove sends Iris down._] To this covenant (with Noah) Hesiod

alludes: he calls it the great oath. He says that this oath was Iris,

or the bow in the heavens; to which the deity appealed when any of the

inferior divinities were guilty of an untruth. On such an occasion the

great oath of the gods was appointed to fetch water from the extremities

of the ocean, with which those were tried who had falsified their word.

BRYANT.

The words will certainly admit of this construction; but the context

directs that the great oath be connected with the Stygian water. The

employment of Iris on the mission is still a remarkable coincidence with

the diluvian covenant.

[225] _The sacred river-head._] That is, the ocean; which probably

received this title from the Nile, a river highly venerated, being of old

called the Oceanus. Styx is said to be a horn, or branch of the ocean,

from the ancient idea that all rivers sprang from it: Homer Il. 21:

Therefore not kingly Acheloius,

Nor yet the strength of ocean’s vast profound:

Although from him all rivers and all seas,

All fountains and all wells proceed, can boast

Comparison with Jove.

COWPER.

The rivers of Earth and Orcus were believed to communicate; thus Virgil,

Æn. vi. 658, of the Elysian fields:

In fragrant laurel groves, where Po’s vast flood

From upper earth rolls copious through the wood.

[226]

_Libation pours_

_And is forsworn._]

It was customary to pour a libation, while taking a solemn oath. Thus in

the third Iliad:

Then pouring from the beaker to the cups

They fill’d them.

All-glorious Jove, and ye, the powers of heaven!

Whoso shall violate this contract first,

So be their blood, their children’s and their own,

Pour’d out, as this libation on the ground.

COWPER.

[227] _Her youngest-born Typhœus._] Taph, which at times was rendered

Tuph, Toph, and Taphos, was a name current among the Amonians, by which

they called their high places. Lower Ægypt being a flat, and annually

overflowed, the natives were forced to raise the soil on which they built

their principal edifices, in order to secure them from the inundation:

and many of their sacred towers were erected on conical mounds of earth.

There were often hills of the same form constructed for religious

purposes, upon which there was no building. These were high altars; on

which they used sometimes to offer human sacrifices. Tophet, where the

Israelites made their children pass through fire to Moloch, was a mount

of this form. Those cities in Ægypt which had a high place of this sort,

and rites in consequence of it, were styled Typhonian. Many writers say

that these rites were performed to Typhon at the tomb of Osiris. Hence he

was in later times supposed to have been a person; one of immense size;

and he was also esteemed a god. But this arose from the common mistake by

which places were substituted for the deities there worshipped. Typhon

was the Tuph-on, or altar; and the offerings were made to the Sun, styled

On; the same as Osiris and Busiris. What they called his tombs were

mounds of earth raised very high: some of these had also lofty towers

adorned with pinnacles and battlements. They had also carved on them

various symbols; and particularly serpentine hieroglyphics; in memorial

of the god to whom they were sacred. In their upper story was a perpetual

fire, that was plainly seen in the night. The gigantic stature of Typhon

was borrowed from this object: and his character was formed from the

hieroglyphical representations in the temples styled Typhonian. This may

be inferred from the allegorical description of Typhœus given by Hesiod.

Typhon and Typhœus were the same personage; and the poet represents him

of a mixed form; being partly a man, and partly a monstrous dragon, whose

head consisted of an assemblage of smaller serpents: and as there was a

perpetual fire kept up in the upper story, he describes it as shining

through the apertures of the building. The tower of Babel was undoubtedly

a Tuph-on, or altar of the Sun; though generally represented as a

temple. Hesiod certainly alludes to some ancient history concerning the

demolition of Babel, when he describes Typhon or Typhœus as overthrown by

Jove. He represents him as the youngest son of Earth; as a deity of great

strength and immense stature; and adds what is very remarkable, that had

it not been for the interposition of the chief god, this dæmon would have

obtained a universal empire. BRYANT.

Equally remarkable is the diversity of voices, described as issuing

from the different heads of the giant. In the Mexican mythology a giant

builds an artificial hill, in the form of a pyramid, as a memorial of the

mountain, in whose caverns he, with six others, had taken shelter from a

deluge. This monument was to reach the clouds; but the gods destroyed it

with fire. See Humboldt’s American Researches.

[228]

_Beneath his everlasting feet_

_The great Olympus trembled._]

Mr. Todd, in his notes on Milton, quotes the passage describing the

rushing of the Messiah’s chariot, as superior in grandeur to this of

Hesiod:

Under his burning wheels

The steadfast empyreum shook throughout,

All but the throne itself of God.

The majesty of Milton’s exception certainly exceeds Hesiod in loftiness

of thought: but the mere rising of Jupiter causing the mountain to

rock beneath his eternal feet, is more sublime than the shaking of the

firmament from the rolling of wheels.

[229] _The lightning-stricken deity._] Τοιο ανακτος. _King_ is merely a

title of deity, and was applied before to Prometheus.

[230] _The woody dales._] Forges were erected in woody valleys, on

account of the abundance of fuel. GUIETUS.

[231] _Lo! from Typhœus is the strength of winds._] By these are meant

the intermediary winds: with some of which it is evident that Hesiod

was acquainted, although perhaps they were not yet distinguished by

names. The ancient Greeks at first used only the four cardinal winds:

but afterwards admitted four collaterals. Vitruvius enumerates twenty

collateral winds in the Roman practice.

[232] _These born from gods._] That is, from _superior_ gods: as Aurora

and Astræus.

[233] _Led Metis._] One of the most ancient deities of the Amonians was

named Meed or Meet; by which was signified divine wisdom. It was rendered

by the Grecians Metis. It was represented under the symbol of a beautiful

female countenance surrounded with serpents. BRYANT.

The figure of wedding Wisdom occurs in “The Wisdom of Solomon,” ch. viii.

v. 2. “I loved her, and sought her out from my youth: I desired to make

her my spouse, and I was a lover of her beauty.”

In the Proverbs, Solomon describes Wisdom as the companion of Deity, in

the language of exquisite poetry:

“I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth

was. When there were no depths I was brought forth: when there were

no fountains abounding with water. When he prepared the heavens I

was there: when he set a compass upon the face of the depths: when he

established the clouds above: when he strengthened the fountains of

the deep: when he gave to the sea his decree: when he appointed the

foundations of the earth: then I was by him, as one brought up with him:

and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him.” Chap. viii.

[234]

_The blue-eyed maid_

_Minerva._]

An-ath signified the _fountain of light_: and was abbreviated Nath

and Neith by the Ægyptians. They worshipped under this title a divine

emanation, supposed to be the goddess of Wisdom. The Athenians, who

came from Sais, in Ægypt, were denominated from this deity, whom they

expressed Athana, or in the Ionian manner, Athene. BRYANT.

Cudworth mentions Hammon and Neith as titles for one and the same deity;

and quotes Plutarch as authority that Isis and Neith were also the

same among the Ægyptians: and therefore the temple of Neith or Athene

(Minerva) at Sais, was by him called the temple of Isis. Intellectual

System, b. i. ch. 4.

[235] _Brought the three Graces forth._] As Charis was a tower sacred to

fire, some of the poets supposed a nymph of that name, who was beloved

by Vulcan. Homer speaks of her as his wife. The Graces were said to

be related to the Sun, who was, in reality, the same as Vulcan. The

Sun, among the people of the East, was called Hares, and with a strong

guttural, Chares: and his temple was styled Tor-chares: this the Greeks

expressed Tricharis; and from thence formed a notion of three Graces.

BRYANT.

[236] _The arrow-shooting Dian._] Artemis Diana and Venus Dione were in

reality the same deity, and had the same departments. This sylvan goddess

was distinguished by a crescent, as well as Juno Samia; and was an emblem

of the Arkite history, and in consequence of it was supposed to preside

over waters. BRYANT.

[237] _Hebe._] Hebe is a mere personification of youth. The poets made

her the cup-bearer of the gods, as an emblem of their immortality.

[238]

_Pallas; fierce,_

_Rousing the war-field’s tumult._]

In her martial character Minerva is intended to personify the wisdom and

policy of war as opposed to brute force and animal courage; which are

represented by Mars.

[239] _Illustrious Vulcan._] The author of the New Analysis has exploded

the notion that Vulcan was the same with Tubal-cain: who is mentioned in

Genesis iv. 22, as “an instructor of every artificer in brass and iron:”

for nothing of this craft was of old attached to Hephaistus or Vulcan:

who was the god of fire; that is, the Sun. Later mythologists degraded

him to a blacksmith; and placed him over the Cyclops, or Cyclopians, the

Sicilian worshippers of fire. The emblems carved in the temples led to

the idea of Vulcan and the Cyclops forging thunderbolts and weapons for

the celestial armoury.

[240] _Sea-potent Triton._] The Hetrurians erected on their shores towers

and beacons for the sake of their navigation, which they called Tor-ain:

whence they had a still farther denomination of Tor-aini (Tyrrheni).

Another name for buildings of this nature was Tirit or Turit: which

signified a tower or turret. The name of Triton is a contraction of

Tirit-on: and signifies the tower of the Sun: but a deity was framed from

it, who was supposed to have had the appearance of a man upwards, but

downwards to have been like a fish. The Hetrurians are thought to have

been the inventors of trumpets; and in their towers on the sea-coast

there were people appointed to be continually on the watch, both by

day and by night, and to give a proper signal if any thing happened

extraordinary. This was done by a blast from the trumpet. In early times,

however, these brazen instruments were but little known; and people were

obliged to use what were near at hand; the conchs of the sea: by sounding

these they gave signals from the tops of the towers when any ship

appeared: and this is the implement with which Triton is more commonly

furnished. So Amphi-tirit is merely an oracular tower, which by the poets

has been changed into Amphitrite, and made the wife of Neptune. BRYANT.

[241]

_Venus gave to Mars,_

_Breaker of shields, a dreadful offspring._]

The making the goddess of Love, Concord, and Fertility, the spouse of

Mars, and the mother of Fear and Terror, is obviously of later invention

and of Grecian origin: and was, no doubt, suggested by the Rape of Helen,

which was supposed to be instigated by Venus, and which kindled the war

of Troy. See that elegant and classical poem of the sixth century: “The

Rape of Helen” of Coluthus.

[242]

_Harmonia last_

_She bare, whom generous Cadmus clasp’d as bride._]

I am persuaded that no such person as Cadmus ever existed. If we consider

the whole history of this celebrated hero, we shall find that it was

impossible for any one person to have effected what he is supposed to

have performed. They were not the achievements of one person nor of one

age: the travels of Cadmus, like the expeditions of Perseus, Sesostris,

and Osiris, relate to colonies, which at different times went abroad and

were distinguished by this title. As colonies of the same denomination

went to parts of the world widely distant, their ideal chieftain, whether

Cadmus, or Bacchus, or Hercules, was supposed to have traversed the same

ground.

Harmonia, the wife of Cadmus, who has been esteemed a mere woman, seems

to have been an emblem of nature, and the fostering nurse of all things.

In some of the Orphic verses she is represented not only as a deity, but

as the light of the world. She was supposed to have been a personage

from whom all knowledge was derived. On this account the books of science

were styled the books of Harmonia: as well as the books of Hermes. These

were four in number; of which Nonnus gives a curious account, and says

that they contained matter of wonderful antiquity. The first of them is

said to be coeval with the world. Hence we find that Hermon or Harmonia

was a deity to whom the first writing is ascribed. The same is said of

Hermes. The invention is also attributed to Thoth. Cadmus is said not

only to have brought letters into Greece, but to have been the inventor

of them. Whence we may fairly conclude, that under the characters of

Hermon, Hermes, Thoth, and Cadmus, one person is alluded to.

The story of Cadmus, and of the serpent with which he engaged upon

his arrival in Bœotia, relates to the Ophite worship which was there

instituted by the Cadmians. So Jason in Colchis, Apollo in Phocis,

Hercules at Lerna, engaged with serpents: all of which are histories of

the same purport, but mistaken by the latter Grecians. It is said of

Cadmus that, at the close of his life, he was, together with his wife

Harmonia, changed into a serpent of stone. This wonderful metamorphosis

is supposed to have happened at Encheliæ, a town of Illyria. The true

history is this. These two personages were here enshrined in a temple,

and worshipped under the symbol of a serpent. BRYANT.

[243] _The glorious Hermes, herald of the gods._] The Ægyptians

acknowledged two personages under the title of Hermes and Thoth. The

first was the same as Osiris; the most ancient of all the gods, and the

head of all. The other was called the second Hermes; and likewise, for

excellence, styled Trismegistus. This person is said to have been a great

adept in mysterious knowledge, and an interpreter of the will of the

gods. He was a great prophet; and on that account was looked upon as a

divinity. To him they ascribed the reformation of the Ægyptian year:

and there were many books, either written by him, or concerning him,

which were preserved by the Ægyptians in the most sacred recesses of

their temples. As he had been the cause of great riches to their nation,

they styled him the dispenser of wealth, and esteemed him the god of

gain. We are told that the true name of this Hermes was Siphoas. What is

Siphoas but Aosiph misplaced? and is not Aosiph the Ægyptian name of the

patriarch Joseph, as he was called by the Hebrews? BRYANT.

[244] _Semele._] The amour of Jupiter with Semele is described with

brilliant luxuriancy of fancy and diction by Nonnus in his Dionysiacs.

[245] _Bacchus of golden hair._] The history of Dionusus is closely

connected with that of Bacchus, though they were two distinct persons.

Dionusos is interpreted by the Latins Bacchus; but very improperly.

Bacchus was Chus, the grandson of Noah; as Ammon was Ham. Dionusus was

Noah; expressed Noos, Nus, Nusus; the planter of the vine, and the

inventor of fermented liquors: whence he was also denominated Zeuth;

which signifies ferment; rendered Zeus by the Greeks. Dionusus was the

same as Osiris. According to the Grecian mythology, he is represented

as having been twice born; and is said to have had two fathers and two

mothers. He was also exposed in an ark, and wonderfully preserved. The

purport of which histories is plain. We must, however, for the most part,

consider the account given of Dionusus as the history of the Dionusians.

This is two-fold: part relates to their rites and religion, in which the

great events of the infant world and preservation of mankind in general

were recorded: in the other part, which contains the expeditions and

conquests of this personage, are enumerated the various colonies of the

people who were denominated from him. They were the same as the Osirians

and Herculeans. There were many places which claimed his birth: and as

many where was shown the spot of his interment. The Grecians, wherever

they met with a grot or cavern sacred to him, took it for granted that

he was born there: and wherever he had a taphos, or high altar, supposed

that he was there buried. The same is also observable in the history of

all the gods.

There are few characters which at first sight appear more distinct than

those of Apollo and Bacchus. Yet the department which is generally

appropriated to Apollo as the Sun, I mean the conduct of the year, is by

Virgil given to Bacchus, Georg. i. 5:

Lights of the world! ye brightest orbs on high,

Who lead the sliding year around the sky,

Bacchus and Ceres!

WARTON.

Hence we find that Bacchus is the Sun or Apollo; in reality they were

all three the same; he was the ruling deity of the world. BRYANT.

In this passage of Virgil, Ceres is Luna, or the Moon.

[246] _Alcmena’s valiant son._] Hercules was a title given to the chief

deity of the gentiles: who has been multiplied into almost as many

personages as there were countries where he was worshipped. What has

been attributed to this god singly was the work of Herculeans, a people

who went under this title, among the many which they assumed, and who

were the same as the Osirians, Peresians, and Cuthites. Wherever there

were Herculeans, a Hercules has been supposed. Hence his character has

been variously represented. One while he appears little better than a

sturdy vagrant: at other times he is mentioned as a great benefactor;

also as the patron of science; the god of eloquence, with the Muses in

his train. He was the same as Hermes, Osiris, and Dionusus; and his rites

were introduced into various parts by the Cuthites. In the detail of his

peregrinations is contained in great measure a history of that people,

and of their settlements. Each of these the Greeks have described as a

warlike expedition, and have taken the glory of it to themselves. BRYANT.

[247] _Medea._] The natives of Colchis and Pontus were of the Cuthite

race: they were much skilled in simples. Their country abounded in

medicinal herbs, of which they made use both to good and bad purposes.

In the fable of Medea we may read the character of the people: for that

princess is represented as very knowing in all the productions of nature,

and as gifted with supernatural powers. BRYANT.

[248] _Plutus._] Plutus is the same with Pluto: who, in his subterranean

character, presided over all the riches of the ground: whether metallic

or vegetable.

[249] _Jason._] In the account of the Argo we have, undeniably, the

history of a sacred ship; the first which was ever constructed. This

truth the best writers among the Grecians confess; though the merit

of the performance they would fain take to themselves. Yet after all

their prejudices, they continually betray the truth, and show that the

history was derived to them from Ægypt. Plutarch informs us, that the

constellation, which the Greeks called the Argo, was a representation of

the sacred ship of Osiris: and that it was out of reverence placed in

the heavens. The ship of Osiris was esteemed the first ship constructed;

and was no other than the ark. Jason was certainly a title of the Arkite

god; the same as Areas, Argus, Inachus, and Prometheus: and the temples

supposed to have been built by him in regions so remote were temples

erected to his honour. It is said of this personage that, when a child,

he underwent the same fate as Osiris, Perseus, and Dionusus: “he was

concealed, and shut up in an ark, as if he had been dead.” BRYANT.

[250] _Sage Chiron._] Chiron, so celebrated for his knowledge, was a

mere personage formed from a tower or temple of that name. It stood in

Thessaly; and was inhabited by a set of priests called Centauri. They

were so denominated from the deity they worshipped, who was represented

under a particular form. They styled him Cahen-taur: and he was the same

as the Minotaur of Crete, and the Tauromen of Sicilia: consequently of

an emblematical and mixed figure. The people, by whom this worship was

introduced, were many of them Anakim; and are accordingly represented

as of great strength and stature. Such persons among the people of

the East were styled _nephele_, which the Greeks, in after-times,

supposed to relate to Nephele, a cloud: and in consequence described the

Centaurs as born of a cloud. Chiron was a temple: probably at Nephele

in Thessalia; the most ancient seat of the Nephelim. His name is a

compound of Chir-on: the tower or temple of the Sun. In places of this

sort, people used to study the heavenly motions; and they were made use

of for seminaries, where young persons were instructed. Hence Achilles

was said to have been taught by Chiron; who is reported to have had many

disciples. BRYANT.

[251] _Circe._] From the knowledge of the Cuthites in herbs we may justly

infer a great excellence in physic. Ægypt the nurse of arts, was much

celebrated for botany. To the Titanians, or race of Chus, was attributed

the invention of chemistry: hence it is said by Syncellus, that chemistry

was the discovery of the Giants. Circe and Calypso are, like Medea,

represented as very experienced in pharmacy and simples. Under these

characters we have the history of Cuthite priestesses, who presided in

particular temples near the sea-coast, and whose charms and incantations

were thought to have a wonderful influence. The nymphs who attended them

were a lower order in these sacred colleges; and they were instructed by

their superiors in their arts and mysteries. BRYANT.

The Shield of Hercules.

THE SHIELD OF HERCULES.

The Argument.

I. The arrival of Alcmena at Thebes, as the companion of her husband’s

exile. The expedition of Amphitryon against the Teloboans. The artifice

of Jupiter, who anticipates his return, and steals the embraces of

Alcmena. The birth of Hercules.

II. The meeting of Hercules with Cygnus: the description of his armour:

and particularly of his SHIELD, diversified with sculptured imagery.

III. The combat: and the burial of Cygnus.

THE SHIELD OF HERCULES.

Or as Alcmena, from Electryon born,

The guardian of his people, her lov’d home

And natal soil abandoning, to Thebes

Came with Amphitryon: with the brave in war.

She all the gentle race of womankind

[252]In height surpass’d and beauty: nor with her

Might one in prudence vie, of all who sprang

From mortal fair-ones, blending in embrace

With mortal men. Both from her tressed head,

And [253]from the darkening lashes of her eyes,

She breathed enamouring odour like the breath

Of balmy Venus: passing fair she was,

Yet not the less her consort with heart-love

Revered she; so had never woman loved.

Though he her noble sire by violent strength

Had slain, amid [254]those herds, the cause of strife,

Madden’d to sudden rage: his native soil

He left, and thence to the Cadmean state,

Shield-bearing tribe, came supplicant: and there

Dwelt with his modest spouse; yet from the joys

Of love estranged: for he might not ascend

The couch of her, the beautiful of feet,

Till for the slaughter of her brethren brave,

His arm had wreak’d revenge; and burn’d with fire

The guilty cities of those warlike men

Taphians and Teloboans. This the task

Assign’d: the gods on high that solemn vow

Had witness’d: of their anger visitant

In fear he stood; and speeded in all haste

T’ achieve the mighty feat, imposed by Heaven.

Him the Bœotians, gorers of the steed,

Who coveting the war-shout and the shock

Of battle o’er the buckler breathe aloft

Their open valour: him the Locrian race

Close-combating; and of undaunted soul,

The Phocians follow’d: towering in the van

Amphitryon gallant shone: and in his host

Gloried. But other counsel secret wove

Within his breast the sire of gods and men:

That both to gods and to th’ inventive race

Of man a great deliverer might arise

Sprung from his loins, of plague-repelling fame.

Deep-framing in his inmost soul deceit,

He through the nightly darkness took his way

From high Olympus, glowing with the love

Of her, the fair-one of the graceful zone.

Swift to the Typhaonian mount he pass’d:

Thence drew nigh Phycium’s lofty ridge: sublime

There sitting, the wise counsellor of heaven

Revolved a work divine. That self-same night

He sought the couch of her, who stately treads

With long-paced step; and melting in her arms

Took there his fill of love. That self-same night

The host-arousing chief, the mighty deed

Perform’d, in glory to his home returned:

Nor to the vassals and the shepherd hinds

His footstep bent, before he climb’d the couch

Of his Alcmena: such inflaming love

Seiz’d in the deep recesses of his heart

The chief of thousands. And as he, that scarce

Escapes, and yet escapes, from grievous plague

Or the hard-fettering chain, flies free away

Joyful,—so struggling through that arduous toil

With pain accomplish’d, wishful, eager, traced

The prince his homeward way. The live-long night

He with the modest partner of his bed

Embracing lay, and revell’d in delight

The bounteous bliss of love’s all-charming queen.

Thus by a god and by the first of men

Alike subdued to love, Alcmena gave

Twin-brethren birth, within the seven-fold gates

Of Thebes: yet brethren though they were, unlike

Their natures: this of weaker strain; but that

Far more of man; valorous and stern and strong.

Him, Hercules, conceived she from th’ embrace

Of the cloud-darkener: to th’ Alcæan chief,

Shaker of spears, gave Iphiclus: a race

Distinct: nor wonder: this of mortal man,

That of imperial Jove. The same who slew

The lofty-minded Cygnus, child of Mars.

For in the grove of the far-darting god

He found him: and insatiable of war

His father Mars beside. Both bright in arms,

Bright as the sheen of burning flame, they stood

On their high chariot; and the horses fleet

Trampled the ground with rending hoofs: around

In parted circle smoked the cloudy dust,

Up-dash’d beneath the trampling hoofs, and cars

Of complicated frame. The well-framed cars

Rattled aloud: loud clash’d the wheels: while rapt

In their full speed the horses flew. Rejoiced

The noble Cygnus; for the hope was his,

Jove’s warlike offspring and his charioteer

To slay, and strip them of their gorgeous mail.

But to his vows the Prophet-god of day

Turn’d a deaf ear: for he himself set on

Th’ assault of Hercules. Now all the grove,

And Phœbus’ altar, flash’d with glimmering arms

Of that tremendous god: himself blazed light,

And darted radiance from his eye-balls glared

As it were flame. But who of mortal mould

Had e’er endured in daring opposite

To rush before him, save but Hercules,

And Ioläus, an illustrious name?

For mighty strength was theirs: and arms that stretch’d

From their broad shoulders unapproachable

In valorous force, above their nervous frames:

He therefore thus bespoke his charioteer:

“Oh hero Ioläus! dearest far

To me of all the race of mortal men;

I deem it sure that ’gainst the blest of Heaven

Amphitryon sinn’d, when to the fair-wall’d Thebes

He came, forsaking Tirynth’s well-built walls,

Electryon midst the strife of wide-brow’d herds

Slain by his hand: to Creon suppliant came,

And her of flowing robe, Henioche:

Who straight embraced, and all of needful aid

Lent hospitable, as to suppliant due:

And more for this, e’en from the heart they gave

All honour and observance. So he lived,

Exulting in his graceful-ankled spouse

Alcmena. When the rapid year roll’d round,

We, far unlike in stature and in soul,

Were born, thy sire and I: him Jove bereaved

Of wisdom; who from his parental home

Went forth, and to the fell Eurystheus bore

His homage. Wretch! for he most sure bewail’d

In after-time that grievous fault, a deed

Irrevocable. On myself has Fate

Laid heavy labours. But, oh friend! oh now

Quick snatch the purple reins of these my steeds

Rapid of hoof: the manly courage rouse

Within thee: now with strong unerring grasp

Guide the swift chariot’s whirl, and wind the steeds

Rapid of hoof: fear nought the dismal yell

Of mortal-slayer Mars, whilst to and fro

He ranges fierce Apollo’s hallow’d grove

With frenzying shout: for, be he as he may

War-mighty, he of war shall take his fill.”

Then answer’d Ioläus: “Oh revered!

Doubtless the father of the gods and men

Thy head delights to honour; and the god

Who keeps [255]the wall of Thebes and guards her towers,

[256]Bull-visaged Neptune: so be sure they give

Unto thy hand this mortal huge and strong,

That from the conflict thou mayst bear away

High glory. But now haste—in warlike mail

Dress now thy limbs, that, rapidly as thought

Mingling the shock of cars, we may be join’d

In battle. He th’ undaunted son of Jove

Shall strike not with his terrors, nor yet me

Iphiclides: but swiftly, as I deem,

Shall he to flight betake him, from the race

Of brave Alcæus: who now pressing nigh

Gain on their foes and languish for the shout

Of closing combat; to their eager ear

More grateful than the banquet’s revelry.”

He said: and Hercules smiled stern his joy

Elate of thought: for he had spoken words

Most welcome. Then with winged accents thus:

“Jove-foster’d hero! it is e’en at hand,

The battle’s rough encounter: thou, as erst,

In martial prudence firm, aright, aleft,

With vantage of the fray, unerring guide

Arion huge, the sable-maned, and me

Aid in the doubtful contest, as thou mayst.”

Thus having said, he sheathed his legs in greaves

Of mountain brass, resplendent-white: famed gift

Of Vulcan: o’er his breast he fitted close

The corselet, variegated, beautiful,

Of shining gold; this Jove-born Pallas gave,

When first he rush’d to meet the mingling groans

Of battle. Then the mighty man athwart

His shoulder slung the sword, whose edge repels

Th’ approach of mortal harms: and clasp’d around

His bosom, and reclining o’er his back,

He cast the hollow quiver. Lurk’d therein

Full many arrows: shuddering horror they

Inflicted, and the agony of death

Sudden, that chokes the suffocated voice:

The points were barb’d with death, and bitter steep’d

In human tears: burnish’d the lengthening shafts:

And they were feather’d from the tawny plume

Of eagles. Now he grasp’d the solid spear

Sharpen’d with brass: and on his brows of strength

Placed the forged helm, high-wrought in adamant,

That cased the temples round, and fenced the head

Of Hercules: the man of heavenly birth.

Then with his hands he raised THE SHIELD, of disk

Diversified: might none with missile aim

Pierce, nor th’ impenetrable substance rive

Shattering: a wondrous frame: since all throughout

Bright with enamel, and with ivory,

And [257]mingled metal; and with ruddy gold

Refulgent, and with azure plates inlaid.

The scaly terror of a dragon coil’d

Full in the central field; unspeakable;

With eyes oblique retorted, that aslant

Shot gleaming flame: his hollow jaw was fill’d

Dispersedly with jagged fangs of white,

Grim, unapproachable. And next above

The dragon’s forehead fell, stern Strife in air

Hung hovering, and array’d the war of men:

Haggard; whose aspect from all mortals reft

All mind and soul; whoe’er in brunt of arms

Should match their strength, and face the son of Jove.

Below this earth their spirits to th’ abyss

Descend: and through the flesh that wastes away

Beneath the parching sun, their whitening bones

Start forth, and moulder in the sable dust.

[258]Pursuit was there, and fiercely rallying Flight,

Tumult and Terror: burning Carnage glow’d:

Wild Discord madden’d there, and frantic Rout

Ranged to and fro. A deathful Destiny

There grasp’d a living man, that bled afresh

From recent wound: another, yet unharm’d,

Dragg’d furious; and a third, already dead,

Trail’d by the feet amid the throng of war:

And o’er her shoulders was a garment thrown

Dabbled in human blood: and in her look

Was horror: and a deep funereal cry

Broke from her lips. There indescribable

Twelve serpent heads rose dreadful: and with fear

Froze all, who drew on earth the breath of life,

Whoe’er should match their strength in brunt of arms,

And face the son of Jove: and oft as he

Moved to the battle, from their clashing fangs

A sound was heard. Such miracles display’d

The buckler’s field, with living blazonry

Resplendent: and those fearful snakes were streak’d

O’er their cærulean backs with streaks of jet:

And their jaws blacken’d with a jetty dye.

Wild from the forest, [259]herds of boars were there,

And lions, mutual-glaring; and in wrath

Leap’d on each other; and by troops they drove

Their onset: nor yet these nor those recoil’d,

Nor quaked in fear. Of both the backs uprose

Bristling with anger: for a lion huge

Lay stretched amidst them, and two boars beside

Lifeless: the sable blood down-dropping ooz’d

Into the ground. So these with bowed backs

Lay dead beneath the terrible lions: they,

For this the more incensed, both savage boars

And tawny lions, chafing sprang to war.

There too [260]the battle of the Lapithæ

Was wrought; the spear-arm’d warriors: Cæneus king,

Hopleus, Phalérus, and Pirithous,

And Dryas, and Exadius: Prolochus,

Mopsus of Titaressa, Ampyx’ son,

A branch of Mars, and Theseus like a god:

Son of Ægéus: silver were their limbs,

Their armour golden: and to them opposed

The Centaur band stood thronging: Asbolus,

Prophet of birds; Petræus huge of height;

Arctus, and Urius, and of raven locks

Mimas; the two Peucidæ, Dryalus,

And Perimedes: all of silver frame,

And grasping golden pine-trees in their hands.

At once they onset made: in very life

They rush’d, and hand to hand tumultuous closed

With pines and clashing spears. There fleet of hoof

The steeds were standing of stern-visaged Mars

In gold: and he himself, tearer of spoils,

Life-waster, purpled all with dropping blood,

As one who slew the living and despoil’d,

Loud-shouting to the warrior-infantry

There vaulted on his chariot. Him beside

Stood Fear and Consternation: high their hearts

Panted, all eager for the war of men.

There too Minerva rose, leader of hosts,

Resembling Pallas when she would array

The marshall’d battle. In her grasp the spear,

And on her brows a golden helm: athwart

Her shoulders thrown her ægis. Went she forth

In this array to meet the dreadful shout

Of war. And there a tuneful choir appear’d

Of heaven’s immortals: in the midst the son

Of Jove and of Latona sweetly rang

Upon his golden harp. Th’ Olympian mount,

Dwelling of gods, thrill’d back the broken sound.

And there were seen th’ assembly of the gods

Listening, encircled with their blaze of glory:

And in sweet contest with Apollo there

The virgins of Pieria raised the strain

Preluding; and they seem’d as though they sang

With clear sonorous voice. And there appear’d

A sheltering haven from the untamed rage

Of ocean. It was wrought of tin refined,

And rounded by the chisel: and it seem’d

Like to the dashing wave: and in the midst

Full many dolphins chased the fry, and show’d

As though they swam the waters, to and fro

Darting tumultuous. Two of silver scale,

Panting above the wave, the fishes mute

Gorged, that beneath them shook their quivering fins

In brass: but on the crag a fisher sate

Observant: in his grasp he held a net,

Like one that, poising, rises to the throw.

There was the horseman, fair-hair’d Danaë’s son,

Perseus: nor yet the buckler with his feet

Touch’d, nor yet distant hover’d: strange to think:

For nowhere on the surface of the shield

He rested: so the crippled artist-god

Illustrious framed him with his hands in gold.

Bound to his feet were sandals wing’d: a sword

Of brass with hilt of sable ebony

Hung round him from the shoulders by a thong:

Swift e’en as thought he flew. The visage grim

Of monstrous Gorgon all his back o’erspread:

And wrought in silver, wondrous to behold,

A veil was drawn around it, whence in gold

Hung glittering fringes: and the dreadful helm

Of Pluto clasp’d the temples of the prince,

Shedding a night of darkness. Thus outstretch’d

In air, he seem’d like one to trembling flight

Betaken. Close behind the Gorgons twain

Of nameless terror unapproachable

Came rushing: eagerly they stretch’d their arms

To seize him: from the pallid adamant,

Audibly as they rush’d, the clattering shield

Clank’d with a sharp shrill sound. Two grisly snakes

Hung from their girdles, and with forking tongues

Lick’d their inflected jaws; and violent gnash’d

Their fangs fell glaring: from around their heads

Those Gorgons grim a flickering horror cast

Through the wide air. Above them warrior men

Waged battle, grasping weapons in their hands.

[261]Some from their city and their sires repell’d

Destruction: others hasten’d to destroy:

And many press’d the plain, but more still held

The combat. On the strong-constructed towers

Stood women, shrieking shrill, and rent their cheeks

In very life, by Vulcan’s glorious craft.

The elders hoar with age assembled stood

Without the gates, and to the blessed gods

Their hands uplifted, for their fighting sons

Fear-stricken. These again the combat held.

Behind them stood the Fates, of aspect black,

Grim, slaughter-breathing, stern, insatiable,

Gnashing their white fangs; and fierce conflict held

For those who fell. Each eager-thirsting sought

To quaff the sable blood. Whom first they snatch’d

Prostrate, or staggering with the fresh-made wound,

On him they struck their talons huge: the soul

Fled down th’ abyss, the horror-freezing gulf

Of Tartarus. They, glutted to the heart

With human gore, behind them cast the corse:

And back with hurrying rage they turn’d to seek

The throng of battle. And hard by there stood

Clotho and Lachesis; and Atropos,

Somewhat in years inferior: nor was she

A mighty goddess: yet those other Fates

Transcending, and in birth the elder far.

And all around one man in cruel strife

Were join’d: and on each other turn’d in wrath

Their glowing eyes: and mingling desperate hands

And talons mutual strove. [262]And near to them

Stood Misery: wan, ghastly, worn with woe:

Arid, and swoln of knees; with hunger’s pains

Faint-falling: from her lean hands long the nails

Out-grew: an ichor from her nostrils flow’d:

Blood from her cheeks distill’d to earth: with teeth

All wide disclosed in grinning agony

She stood: a cloud of dust her shoulders spread,

And her eyes ran with tears. But next arose

[263]A well-tower’d city, by seven golden gates

Enclosed, that fitted to their lintels hung:

There men in dances and in festive joys

Held revelry. Some on the smooth-wheel’d car

A virgin bride conducted: then burst forth

Aloud the marriage-song: and far and wide

Long splendours flash’d from many a quivering torch

Borne in the hands of slaves. Gay-blooming girls

Preceded, and the dancers follow’d blithe:

These with shrill pipe indenting the soft lip

Breathed melody, while broken echoes thrill’d

Around them: to the lyre with flying touch

Those led the love-enkindling dance. A group

Of youths was elsewhere imaged to the flute

Disporting: some in dances and in song,

In laughter others. To the minstrel’s flute

So pass’d they on; and the whole city seem’d

As fill’d with pomps, with dances, and with feasts.

Others again, without the city walls,

[264]Vaulted on steeds and madden’d for the goal.

[265]Others as husbandmen appear’d, and broke

With coulter the rich glebe, and gather’d up

Their tunics neatly girded. Next arose

A field thick-set with depth of corn: where some

With sickle reap’d the stalks, their speary heads

Bent, as weigh’d down with pods of swelling grain,

The fruits of Ceres. Others into bands

Gather’d, and threw upon the threshing-floor

The sheaves. And some again hard by were seen

Holding the vine-sickle, who clusters cut

From the ripe vines; which from the vintagers

Others in frails received, or bore away,

[266]In baskets thus up-piled, the cluster’d grapes,

Or black or pearly-white, cut from deep ranks

Of spreading vines, whose tendrils curling twined

In silver, heavy-foliaged: near them rose

The ranks of vines, by Vulcan’s curious craft

Figured in gold. The vines leaf-shaking curl’d

Round silver props. They therefore on their way

Pass’d jocund to one minstrel’s flageolet,

Burthen’d with grapes that blacken’d in the sun.

Some also trod the wine-press, and some quaff’d

The foaming must. But in another part

Were men who wrestled, or in gymnic fight

Wielded the cæstus. Elsewhere men of chase

Were taking the fleet hares. Two keen-tooth’d dogs

Bounded beside: these ardent in pursuit,

Those with like ardour doubling on their flight.

Next them were horsemen, who sore effort made

To win the prize of contest and hard toil.

High o’er the well-compacted chariots [267]hung

The charioteers: the rapid horses loosed

At their full stretch, and shook the floating reins.

Rebounding from the ground with many a shock

Flew clattering the firm cars, and creak’d aloud

The naves of the round wheels. They therefore toil’d

Endless: nor conquest yet at any time

Achiev’d they, but a doubtful strife maintain’d.

In the mid-course the prize, a tripod huge,

Was placed in open sight; and it was carved

In gold: the skilful Vulcan’s glorious craft.

Rounding the uttermost verge [268]the ocean flow’d

As in full swell of waters: and the shield

All-variegated with whole circle bound.

Swans of high-hovering wing there clamour’d shrill,

And many skimm’d the breasted surge: and nigh

Fishes were tossing in tumultuous leaps.

Sight marvellous e’en to thundering Jove: whose will

Bade Vulcan frame the buckler; vast and strong.

This fitting to his grasp the strong-nerved son

Of Jupiter now shook with ease: and swift

As from his father’s ægis-wielding arm

The bolted lightning darts, he vaulted sheer

Above the harness’d chariot at a bound

Into the seat: the hardy charioteer

Stood o’er the steeds from high, and guided strong

The crooked car. Now near to them approach’d

Pallas, the blue-eyed goddess, and address’d

These winged words in animating voice:

[269]“Race of the far-famed Lyngeus! both all-hail!

Now verily the ruler of the Blest,

E’en Jove, doth give you strength to spoil of life

Cygnus your foe, and strip his gorgeous arms.

But I will breathe a word within thine ear

In counsel, oh most mighty midst the strong!

Now soon as e’er from Cygnus thou hast reft

The sweets of life, there leave him: on that spot,

Him and his armour: but th’ approach of Mars,

Slayer of mortals, watch with wary eye:

And where thy glance discerns a part exposed,

Defenceless of the well-wrought buckler, strike!

With thy sharp point there wound him, and recede:

For know, thou art not fated to despoil

“The steeds and glorious armour of a god.”

Thus having said, the goddess all-divine,

Aye holding in her everlasting hands

Conquest and glory, rose into the car

Impetuous: to the war-steeds shouted fierce

The noble Ioläus: from the shout

They starting snatch’d the flying car, and hid

With dusty cloud the plain: for she herself,

The goddess azure-eyed, sent into them

Wild courage, clashing on her brandish’d shield:

Earth groan’d around. That moment with like pace

E’en as a flame or tempest came they on,

Cygnus the tamer of the steed, and Mars

Unsated with the roar of war. And now

The coursers mid-way met, and face to face

Neigh’d shrill: the broken echoes rang around.

Then him the first stern Hercules bespake.

“Oh soft of nature! why dost thou obstruct

The rapid steeds of men, who toils have proved

And hardships? Outward turn thy burnish’d car:

Pass outward from the track and yield the way:

For I to Trachys ride, of obstacle

Impatient: to the royal Ceyx: he

O’er Trachys rules in venerable power,

As needs not thee be told, who hast to wife

His blue-eyed daughter Themisthonöe:

Soft-one! for not from thee shall Mars himself

Inhibit death, if truly hand to hand

We wage the battle: and e’en this I say

That elsewhere, heretofore, himself has proved

My mighty spear: when on the sandy beach

Of Pylos ardour irrepressible

Of combat seized him, and to me opposed

He stood: but thrice, when stricken by my lance,

Earth propp’d his fall, and thrice his targe was cleft:

The fourth time urging on my utmost force

His ample shield I shattering rived, his thigh

Transpierced, and headlong in the dust he fell

Beneath my rushing spear: so there the weight

Of shame upon him fell midst those of heaven,

His gory trophies leaving to these hands.”

So said he: but in no wise to obey

Enter’d the thought of Cygnus the spear-skill’d:

Nor rein’d he back the chariot-whirling steeds.

Then truly from their close-compacted cars

Instant as thought they leap’d to earth: the son

Of kingly Mars, the son of mighty Jove.

Aside, though not remote, the charioteers

The coursers drove of flowing manes: but then

Beneath the trampling sound of rushing feet

The broad earth sounded hollow: and [270]as rocks

From some high mountain-top precipitate

Leap with a bound, and o’er each other whirl’d

Shock in the dizzying fall: and many an oak

Of lofty branch, pine-tree and poplar deep

Of root are crash’d beneath them, as their course

Rapidly rolls, till now they touch the plain;

So met these foes encountering, and so burst

Their mighty clamour. Echoing loud throughout

The city of the Myrmidons gave back

Their lifted voices, and Iolchos famed,

And Arne, and Anthea’s grass-girt walls,

And Helice. Thus with amazing shout

They join’d in battle: all-considering Jove

Then greatly thunder’d: from the clouds of heaven

[271]He cast forth dews of blood, and signal thus

Of onset gave to his high-daring son.

[272]As in the mountain thickets the wild boar,

Grim to behold, and arm’d with jutting fangs,

Now with his hunters meditates in wrath

The conflict, whetting his white tusks aslant:

Foam drops around his churning jaws; his eyes

Show like to glimmering fires, and o’er his neck

And roughen’d back he raises up erect

The starting bristles, from the chariot whirl’d

By steeds of war such leap’d the son of Jove.

’Twas in that season when, on some green bough

High-perch’d, the dusky-wing’d cicada first

Shrill chants to man a summer note; his drink,

His balmy food, the vegetative dew:

The livelong day from early dawn he pours

His voice, what time the sun’s exhaustive heat

Fierce dries the frame: ’twas in that season when

The bristly ears of millet spring with grain

Which they in summer sow: when the crude grape

Faint reddens on the vine, which Bacchus gave

The joy or anguish of the race of men;—

E’en in that season join’d the war; and vast

The battle’s tumult rose into the heaven.

[273]As two grim lions for a roebuck slain

Wroth in contention rush, and them betwixt

The sound of roaring and of clashing teeth

Ariseth; or [274]as vultures, curved of beak,

Crooked of talon, on a steepy rock

Contest loud-screaming; if perchance below

Some mountain-pastur’d goat or forest-stag

Sleek press the plain; whom far the hunter youth

Pierced with fleet arrow from the bow-string shrill

Dismiss’d, and elsewhere wander’d, of the spot

Unknowing: they with keenest heed the prize

Mark, and in swooping rage each other tear

With bitterest conflict: so vociferous rush’d

The warriors on each other. Cygnus, then,

Aiming to slay the son of Jupiter

Unmatch’d in strength, against the buckler struck

His brazen lance, but through the metal plate

Broke not; the present of a god preserved.

On th’ other side he of Amphitryon named,

Strong Hercules, between the helm and shield

Drove his long spear; and underneath the chin

Through the bare neck smote violent and swift.

The murderous ashen beam at once the nerves

Twain of the neck cut sheer; for all the man

Drop’d, and his force went from him: down he fell

Headlong: [275]as falls a thunder-blasted oak,

Or sky-capt rock, riven by the lightning shaft

Of Jove, in smouldering smoke is hurl’d from high,

So fell he: and his brass-emblazon’d mail

Clatter’d around him. Jove’s firm-hearted son

Then left the corse, abandon’d where it lay:

But wary watch’d the mortal-slayer god

Approach, and view’d him o’er with terrible eyes

Stern-lowering. [276]As a lion, who has fall’n

Perchance on some stray beast, with griping claws

Intent, strips down the lacerated hide;

Drains instantaneous the sweet life, and gluts

E’en to the fill his gloomy heart with blood;

Green-eyed he glares in fierceness; with his tail

Lashes his shoulders and his swelling sides,

And with his feet tears up the ground; not one

Might dare to look upon him, nor advance

Nigh, with desire of conflict: such in truth

The war-insatiate Hercules to Mars

Stood in array, and gather’d in his soul

Prompt courage. But the other near approach’d,

Anguish’d at heart; and both encountering rush’d

With cries of battle. As when from high ridge

Of some hill-top abrupt, tumbles a crag

Precipitous, and sheer, a giddy space,

Bounds in a whirl and rolls impetuous down:

Shrill rings the vehement crash, till some steep clift

Obstructs: to this the mass is borne along;

This wedges it immoveable: e’en so

Destroyer Mars, bowing the chariot, rush’d,

Yelling vociferous with a shout: e’en so,

As utterance prompt, met Hercules the shock

And firm sustain’d. But Jove-born Pallas came

With darkening shield uplifted, and to Mars

Stood interposed: and scowling with her eyes

Tremendous, thus address’d her winged words:

“Mars! hold thy furious valour: stay those hands

In prowess inaccessible: for know

It is not lawful for thee to divest

Slain Hercules of these his gorgeous arms,

Bold-hearted son of Jove: but come; rest thou

From battle, nor oppose thyself to me.”

She said: nor yet persuaded aught the soul

Of Mars, the mighty of heart. With a great shout

He, brandishing his weapon like a flame,

Sprang rapid upon Hercules, in haste

To slay; and, for his slaughter’d son incensed,

With violent effort hurl’d his brazen spear

’Gainst the capacious targe. The blue-eyed maid

[277]Stoop’d from the chariot, and the javelin’s force

Turn’d wide. Sore torment seiz’d the breast of Mars:

He bared his keen-edged falchion, and at once

Rush’d on the dauntless Hercules: but he,

The war-insatiate, as the God approach’d,

Beneath the well-wrought shield the thigh exposed

Wounded with all his strength, and thrusting rived

The shield’s large disk, and cleft it with his lance,

And in the middle-way threw him to earth

Prostrate. But Fear and Consternation swift

Urged nigh his well-wheel’d chariot: from the face

Of broad-track’d earth they raised him on the car

Variously framed: thence lash’d with scourge the steeds,

And bounding up the vast Olympus flew.

But now Alcmena’s son and his compeer,

The glorious Ioläus, having stripp’d

From Cygnus’ shoulders the fair armour’s spoil,

Retraced their way direct, and instant reach’d

The city Trachys with their fleet-hoof’d steeds:

While pass’d the goddess of the azure eyes

To great Olympus, and her father’s towers.

But Ceyx o’er the corse of Cygnus raised

A tomb. Innumerable people graced

His obsequies: both they who dwelt hard by

The city of the illustrious king, and they

Of Anthe, of Iolchos wide-renown’d,

Of Arne, of the Myrmidonian towers,

And Helice. So gather’d there around

A numerous people: honouring duteous thus

Ceyx, beloved of the blessed gods.

But [278]the huge mount and monumental stone

Anaurus, foaming high with wintry rains,

Swept from the sight away: Apollo this

Commanded: for that Cygnus ambush’d spoil’d

In violence the Delphic hecatombs.

FOOTNOTES

[252] _In height surpass’d._] Aristotle observes that persons of small

stature may be elegantly and justly formed, but cannot be styled

beautiful, Ethics, iv. 7. Xenophon in his Cyropædia, ii. 5, describes

the beautiful Panthea as “of surpassing height and vigour.” Theocritus

mentions a fulness of form as equally characteristic of beauty:

So bloom’d the charming Helen in our eyes

With full voluptuous limbs and towering size:

In shape, in height, in stately presence fair,

Straight as a furrow gliding from the share:

A cypress of the gardens, spiring high,

A courser in the cars of Thessaly.

Idyl, xviii.

It is remarkable that Chaucer appears to glance at this comparison:

Winsing she was, as is a jollie colt,

Long as a maste and upright as a bolt.

_The Miller’s Tale._

[253]

_From the darkening lashes of her eyes_

_She breathed enamouring odour._]

I am satisfied that this is to be taken in a literal, not in a

metaphysical or poetic sense. Nearly all the Greek female epithets

had a reference to some artificial mode of heightening the personal

allurements: as _rosy-fingered_; _rosy-elbowed_: I think κυανεαων,

_black_, is an epithet of the same cast: and alludes to the darkening of

the eye-lid by the rim drawn round it with a needle dipped in antimonial

oil. “The eye-lashes breathing of Venus,” has a palpable connexion with

this. Athenæus, xv. describes the several unguents for the hair, breast,

and arms, which were in use among the Greeks, as impregnated with the

odour of rose, myrtle, or crocus. The oily dye employed by the women to

blacken their eye-brows and eye-lashes was doubtless perfumed in the same

manner. Virgil probably had in his mind the perfumed hair of a Roman

lady, when he described the tresses of Venus breathing ambrosia, Æn. i.

402:

She spoke and turn’d: her neck averted shed

A light that glow’d ‘celestial rosy red:’

The locks that loosen’d from her temples flew

Breathing heaven’s odours, dropp’d ambrosial dew.

[254] _Those herds, the cause of strife._] The story commonly runs,

that the Taphians, and Teloboans, a lawless and piratical people, had

made an inroad into the territory of Argos, and carried off Electryon’s

herds: that in the pursuit a battle took place, and the robbers killed

the brothers of Alcmena: and Amphitryon himself accidentally killed

Electryon. But it should appear from Hesiod that he killed him by design

on some provocation or dispute.

[255] _The wall of Thebes._] Noah was directed in express terms to build

Thiba, an ark: it is the very word made use of by the sacred writer. Many

colonies that went abroad styled themselves Thebeans, in reference to the

ark: as the memory of the deluge was held very sacred. Hence there occur

many cities of the name of Theba, not in Ægypt only and Bœotia, but in

Cilicia, Ionia, Attica, &c. It was sometimes expressed Thiba; a town of

which name was in Pontus: it is called Thibis by Pliny; and he mentions a

notion which prevailed, that the people of this place could not sink in

water. BRYANT.

[256] _Bull-visaged Neptune._] The patriarch was esteemed the great deity

of the sea: and at the same time was represented under the semblance of

a bull, or with the head of that animal: and as all rivers were looked

upon as the children of the ocean, they likewise were represented in the

same manner. BRYANT.

This seems to have been a double emblem: referring to the bull Apis, the

representative of the father of husbandry, Osiris, and to the roaring of

waters.

[257] _Mingled metal._] Ηλεκτρον is not _amber_, but a mixed metal: which

Pliny describes as consisting of three parts gold, and the fourth silver.

_Electrum_ is one of the materials in the Shield of Æneas, Æn. viii.:

And mingled metals damask’d o’er with gold.

PITT.

[258] _Pursuit was there._] Homer, Il. vi. 5:

She charged her shoulder with the dreadful Shield,

The shaggy Ægis, border’d thick around

With Terror: there was Discord, Prowess there,

There hot Pursuit.

There Discord raged, there Tumult, and the force

Of ruthless Destiny. She now a chief

Seiz’d newly wounded, and now captive held

Another yet unhurt, and now a third

Dragg’d breathless through the battle by his feet:

And all her garb was dappled thick with blood.

Like living men they travers’d and they strove,

And dragg’d by turns the bodies of the slain.

COWPER, book xviii. Shield of Achilles.

[259] _Herds of boars._] That animal (the wild boar) was no less terrible

on the opposite coast of Asia than in Greece: as we learn from Herodotus,

book i. c. 34. GILLIES.

[260] _The battle of the Lapithæ._] This forms the subject of the

_alto-relievo_ on the entablature of the Parthenon, or the temple of

Minerva: ascribed to Phidias. See the “Memorandum” on the Elgin marbles.

[261] _Some from their city._] Homer, Il. book xvii. Shield of Achilles:

The other city by two glittering hosts

Invested stood: and a dispute arose

Between the hosts, whether to burn the town

And lay all waste, or to divide the spoil.

Meantime the citizens, still undismay’d,

Surrender’d not the town, but taking arms

Prepared an ambush; and the wives and boys,

With all the hoary elders, kept the walls.

COWPER.

[262]

_And near to them_

_Stood Misery._]

Warton observes, History of English poetry, vol. i. p. 468: “The French

and Italian poets, whom Chaucer imitates, abound in allegorical

personages: and it is remarkable that the early poets of Greece and Rome

were fond of these creations: we have in Hesiod ‘Darkness:’ and many

others; if the Shield of Hercules be of his hand.” But it seems to have

escaped the writer that it is not literal, but figurative Darkness which

is personified. Guietus ingeniously supposes that it is meant for the

dimness of death. Homer, indeed, applies to this the same term: in the

death of Eurymachus, Od. xxii. 88:

Κατ’ οφθαλμων δ’ εχυτ’ ΑΧΛΥΣ.

A darkening mist was pour’d upon his eyes.

Tanaquil Faber, on Longinus, contends that αχλυς is here Sorrow. Sorrow

is personified in a fragment of Ennius:

Omnibus endo locis ingens apparet imago

Tristitia.

Sorrow, a giant form, uprears the head

In every place.

This is adopted by Grævius and Robinson. In like manner φως its opposite,

light, is often used for χαρα, joy: as appears in the oriental style of

scripture. But they have omitted to notice that this is a _specific_

sorrow: for what connexion have these horrible symptoms with sorrow in

general? I conceive that the prosopopœia describes the misery attendant

on war: and especially in a city besieged, with its usual accompaniments

of famine, blood, and tears, and the dust or ashes of mourning. Longinus

selects the line “an ichor from her nostrils flowed,” as an instance of

the false sublime; and compares it with Homer’s verse on Discord,

Treading on earth, her forehead touches heaven.

This is to compare two things totally unlike: why should an image of

exhaustion and disease be thought to aim at sublimity? The objection of

Longinus that it tends to excite disgust rather than terror is nugatory.

The poet did not intend to excite terror, but horror: that kind of horror

which arises from the contemplation of physical suffering.

[263] _A well-tower’d city._] Homer, Il. book xviii. Shield of Achilles:

Two splendid cities also there he form’d

Such as men build: in one were to be seen

Rites matrimonial solemnized with pomp

Of sumptuous banquets. Forth they led the brides

Each from her chamber, and along the streets

With torches usher’d them: and with the voice

Of hymeneal song heard all around.

Here striplings danced in circles to the sound

Of pipe and harp; while in the portals stood

Women, admiring all the gallant show.

COWPER.

[264] _Vaulted on steeds._] This circumstance has been thought to

betray a later age: as it is alleged, that the only instance of riding

on horseback mentioned by Homer is that of Diomed, who, with Ulysses,

rides the horses of Rhesus of which he has made prize. But though

chariot-horses only are found in the Homeric battles, there is an

allusion to horsemanship, as an exhibition of skill, in a simile of the

15th book of the Iliad, v. 679; where the rider is described as riding

four horses at once, and vaulting from one to the other.

[265] _Others as husbandmen appear’d._] Homer Il. xviii. Shield of

Achilles:

He also graved on it a fallow field

Rich, spacious, and well-till’d. Plowers not few

There driving to and fro their sturdy teams

Labour’d the ground.

There too he form’d the likeness of a field

Crowded with corn: in which the reapers toil’d

Each with a sharp-tooth’d sickle in his hand.

Along the furrow here the harvest fell

In frequent handfuls: there they bound the sheaves.

COWPER.

[266] _In baskets thus up-piled._] Homer Il. xviii. Shield of Achilles:

There also, laden with its fruit, he form’d

A vineyard all of gold: purple he made

The clusters: and the vines supported stood

By poles of silver, set in even rows.

The trench he colour’d sable, and around

Fenced it with tin. One only path it show’d:

By which the gatherers, when they stripp’d the vines,

Pass’d and repass’d. There youths and maidens blithe

In frails of wicker bore the luscious fruit;

While in the midst a boy on his shrill harp

Harmonious play’d: and ever as he struck

The chord, sang to it with a slender voice.

They smote the ground together, and with song

And sprightly reed came dancing on behind.

COWPER.

[267]

_Hung_

_The charioteers._]

This may be compared with the chariot-race at the funeral games of

Patroclus, in the Iliad, xxiii. 362, to which, however, it is very

inferior.

All raised the lash together; with the reins

All smote their steeds, and urged them to the strife

Vociferating: they with rapid pace

Scouring the field soon left the fleet afar.

Dark, like a stormy cloud, uprose the dust

Beneath them, and their undulating manes

Play’d in the breezes: now the level field

With gliding course, the rugged now they pass’d

With bounding wheels aloft: meantime erect

The drivers stood: with palpitating heart

Each sought the prize: each urged his steeds aloud;

They, flying, fill’d with dust the darken’d air.

COWPER.

This description apparently suggested to Virgil the chariot-race in the

Georgics iii. 402, which Dryden has rendered with all the fire of the

original.

[268] _The ocean flow’d._] Homer, Il. xviii. Shield of Achilles:

Last with the might of ocean’s boundless flood

He fill’d the border of the wondrous shield.

COWPER.

[269] _Race of the far-famed Lyngeus._] Lyngeus was the ancestor of

Perseus, the son of Danaë, and the father of Alcæus: of whom Amphitryon

was the son.

[270]

_As rocks_

_From some high mountain-top._]

Homer, Il. book xiii.

Then Hector led himself

Right on: impetuous as a rolling rock

Destructive: torn by torrent waters off

From its old lodgment on the mountain’s brow,

It bounds, it shoots away: the crashing wood

Falls under it: impediment or check

None stays its fury, till the level found

At last, there overcome it rolls no more.

COWPER.

[271] _He cast forth dews of blood._] Iliad, xvi, 459. Death of Sarpedon:

The Sire of gods and men

Dissented not: but on the earth distill’d

A sanguine shower, in honour of a son

Dear to him.

COWPER.

[272] _As in the mountain thickets._] Homer, Iliad xiii.

As in the mountains, conscious of his force,

The wild boar waits a coming multitude

Of boisterous hunters to his lone retreat:

Arching his bristly spine he stands: his eyes

Beam fire: and whetting his bright tusks, he burns

To drive not dogs alone, but men, to flight:

So stood the royal Cretan.

COWPER.

[273] _As two grim lions._] Iliad xvi.:

Then contest such

Arose between them, as two lions wage

Contending in the mountains for a deer

New-slain: both hunger-pinched, and haughty both.

COWPER.

[274] _As vultures curved of beak._] Iliad xvi.:

As two vultures fight

Bow-beak’d, crook-talon’d, on some lofty rock

Clanging their plumes, so they together rush

With dreadful cries.

COWPER.

[275] _As falls a thunder-blasted oak._] Iliad xiv.:

As when Jove’s arm omnipotent an oak

Prostrates uprooted on the plain: a fume

Rises sulphureous from the riven trunk;

So fell the might of Hector, to the earth

Smitten at once. Down dropp’d his idle spear,

And with his helmet and his shield, himself

Also: loud thunder’d all his gorgeous arms.

COWPER.

[276]

_As a lion, who has fall’n_

_Perchance on some stray beast._]

Iliad xvii.:

But as the lion on the mountains bred

Glorious in strength, when he hath seiz’d the best

And fairest of the herd, with savage fangs

First breaks the neck, then laps the bloody paunch,

Torn wide: meantime around him, but remote,

Dogs stand, and huntsmen shouting, yet by fear

Repress’d, annoy him not, nor dare approach;

So these all wanted courage to oppose

The glorious Menelaus.

COWPER.

[277] _Stoop’d from the chariot._] Iliad v.:

When with determin’d fury Mars

O’er yoke and bridle hurl’d his glittering spear:

Minerva caught: and turning it, it pass’d

The hero’s chariot-side, dismiss’d in vain.

COWPER.

[278] _The huge mount and monumental stone._] By the words _tomb_ and

_monument_, ταφος and σημα, I understand a mount of earth and a pillar of

stone on the top of it: although Homer Il. xxiv. v. 801, applies σημα to

the mount: which he seems to describe as raised of stones:

Χευαντες δε το σημα, παλιν κιον.

So casting up the tomb, they back return’d.

Appendix.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE.

George Chapman was born in 1557. Wood, in the Athenæ Oxonienses, imagines

that he was a sworn servant either to James the First or his queen;

and says that he was highly valued; but not so much as Ben Jonson: “a

person of most reverend aspect, religious and temperate, qualities rarely

meeting in a poet.” After living to the age of 77 years he died on the

12th day of May 1634, in the parish of St. Giles’s in the Fields, and

was buried there on the south side of the church-yard. His friend Inigo

Jones erected a monument to his memory. Of his[279] translation of Homer,

Dryden tells us that Waller used to say he never could read it without

incredible transport. Besides other translations and poems, he was the

author of 17 dramatic pieces.—See _Dodsley’s Collections of Old Plays_,

vol. iv.

His version of “The Georgicks of Hesiod” is inscribed in an _Epistle

Dedicatorie_ to “The most noble Combiner of Learning and Honour Sir

Francis Bacon, Knight; Lord High Chancellor of England, &c.” and prefixed

are two copies of commendatory verses with the signatures of Michael

Drayton, and Ben Jonson.

This version is generally faithful both to the sense and spirit of the

author. Amidst much quaintness of style and ruggedness of numbers, we

meet with gleams of a rich expression and with a grasp of language,

which, however extravagantly bold, bears the stamp of a genuine poet.

Cooke had probably not seen this translation, or he must have avoided

many of the errors into which he fell.

SPECIMENS OF CHAPMAN’S HESIOD.

WITH GLOSSARIAL AND CRITICAL EXPLANATIONS.

Thus to him began

The Cloud-Assembler: Thou most crafty Man,

That ioy’st to steale my fire, deceiuing Me,

Shalte feele that Ioy the greater griefe to thee;

And therein plague thy vniuersall Race:

To whom Ile giue a pleasing ill, in place

Of that good fire: And all shall be so vaine

To place their pleasure in embracing paine.

Thus spake, and laught, of Gods and Men the Sire;

And straight enioyn’d the famous God of fire

To mingle instantly, with Water, Earth;

The voyce, and vigor, of a humane Birth

Imposing in it; And so faire a face,

As matcht th’ Immortall Goddesses in grace:

Her forme presenting a most louely Maid:

Then on _Minerua_ his Command he laid,

To make her worke, and wield the wittie loome:

And (for her Beauty) such as might become

The Golden _Venus_, He commanded Her

Vpon her Browes and Countenance to conferre

Her own Bewitchings: stuffing all her Breast

With wilde Desires, incapable of Rest;

And Cares, [280] that feed to all satiety

All human Lineaments. The Crafty spy,

And Messenger of Godheads, _Mercury_

He charg’d t’ informe her with a dogged Minde,

And theeuish Manners. All as he design’d

Was put in act. A Creature straight had frame

Like to a Virgine; Milde and full of Shame:

Which Ioue’s Suggestion made the [281]both-foot lame

Forme so deceitfully; And all of Earth

To forge the liuing Matter of her Birth.

Gray-ey’d _Minerua_ Put her Girdle on;

And show’d how loose parts, wel-composed, shone.

The deified Graces, And [282]the Dame that sets

Sweet words in chiefe forme, Golden [283]Carquenets

Embrac’d her Neck withall; the faire-haird Howers

Her gracious Temples crown’d, with fresh spring-flowers;

But all of these, imploy’d in seuerall place,

_Pallas_ gaue Order; the impulsiue grace.

Her bosome, _Hermes_, the great God of spies,

With subtle fashions fill’d; faire words and lies;

_Ioue_ prompting still. But all the voyce she vs’d

The vocall Herald of the Gods infus’d;

And call’d her name _Pandora_; Since on Her

The Gods did all their seuerall gifts confer:

Who made her such, in euery moouing straine,

To be the Bane of curious Minded Men.

II.

When therefore first fit plow time doth disclose;

Put on with spirit; All, as one, dispose

Thy Servants and thy selfe: plow wet and drie;

And when _Aurora_ first affords her eye

In Spring-time turn the earth vp; which see done

Againe, past all faile, by the Summers Sunne.

Hasten thy labours, that thy crowned fields

May load themselues to thee, and [284]rack their yeelds.

The Tilth-field sowe, on Earth’s most light foundations;

The Tilth-field, banisher of execrations,

Pleaser of Sonnes and Daughters: which t’ improve

With all wisht profits, pray to earthly _Ioue_,

And vertuous _Ceres_; that on all such suits

Her sacred gift bestowes, in blessing fruits.

When first thou enterst foot to plow thy land,

And on thy plow-staffe’s top hast laid thy hand;

Thy Oxens backs that next thee by a Chaine

Thy Oken draught-Tree drawe, put to the paine

Thy Goad imposes. And thy Boy behinde,

That with his Iron Rake thou hast design’d,

To hide thy seed, Let from his labour drive

The Birds, that offer on thy sweat to liue.

The best thing, that in humane Needs doth fall,

Is _Industry_; and _Sloath_ the worst of all.

With one thy Corne ears shall with fruit abound;

And bow their thankfull forheads to the ground;

With th’ other, scarce thy seed again redound.

III.

But if thou shouldst sow late, this well may be

In all thy Slacknesse an excuse for thee:

When, in the Oakes greene arms the Cuckoe sings,

And first delights Men in the louely springs;

If much raine fall, ’tis fit then to defer

Thy sowing worke. But how much raine to beare,

And [285]let no labour, to that Much give eare:

Past intermission let _Ioue_ steepe the grasse

Three daies together, so he do not passe

An Oxes hoofe in depth; and neuer [286]stay

To strowe thy seed in: (but if deeper way

_Ioue_ with his raine makes; then forbeare the field;)

For late sowne then will [287]past the formost yield.

Minde well all this, nor let it fly thy powrs

To knowe what fits the white spring’s early flowrs;

Nor when raines timely fall: Nor when sharp colde,

In winter’s wrath, doth men from worke withholde,

Sit by Smiths forges, nor warme tauernes hant;

Nor let the bitterest of the season dant

Thy thrift-arm’d [288]paines, [289]like idle Pouertie;

For then the time is when th’ industrious [290]Thie

Vpholdes, with all increase, his Familie:

With whose [291]rich hardness spirited, do thou

[292]Poor Delicacie flie; lest frost and snowe

[293]Fled for her loue, Hunger [294]sit both them out,

And make thee, with the beggar’s lazie gout

Sit stooping to the paine, still pointing too’t,

And with a leane hand stroke a [295]foggie foot.

IV.

When aire’s chill North his noisome frosts shall blowe

All ouer earth, and all the wide sea throwe

At Heauen in hills, from colde horse-breeding Thrace;

The beaten earth, and all her Syluane race

Roring and bellowing with his bitter strokes;

[296]Plumps of thick firre-trees and high crested-Okes

Torne up in vallies; [297]all _Aire’s_ floud let flie

In him, at Earth; [298] sad nurse of all that die.

Wilde beasts abhor him; and run clapping close

Their sterns betwixt their thighs; and euen all those

Whose hides their fleeces line with highest proofe;

Euen Oxe-hides also want expulsive stuffe,

And bristled goates, against his bitter gale:

He blowes so colde, he beates quite through them all.

Onely with silly sheep it fares not so;

For they each summer [299]fleec’t, their [300]fells so growe,

[301]They shield all winter crusht into his winde.

He makes the olde Man trudge for life, to finde

Shelter against him; but he cannot blast

The tender and the delicately grac’t

Flesh of the virgin; she is kept within,

Close by her mother, careful of her skin:

[302]Since yet she neuer knew how to enfolde

The force of _Venus_ [303]swimming all in golde.

Whose Snowie bosome choicely washt and balm’d

With wealthy oiles, she keepes the house becalm’d,

All winter’s spight; when in his fire-lesse shed

And miserable roofe still hiding head,

The bonelesse fish doth eat his feet for colde:

To whom the Sunne doth neuer food vnfolde;

But turnes aboue the blacke Mens populous towrs,

On whom he more bestowes his radiant howres

That on th’ _Hellenians_: then all Beasts of horne,

And smooth-brow’d, that in beds of wood are borne,

About the Oken dales that North-winde flie,

Gnashing their teeth with restlesse miserie;

And euerywhere that [304]Care solicits all,

That ([305]out of shelter) to their Couerts fall,

And Cauerns eaten into Rocks; and then

Those wilde Beasts shrink, like tame three-footed Men,

Whose backs are broke with age, and forheads driu’n

To stoope to Earth, though borne to looke on Heav’n.

Euen like to these, Those tough-bred rude ones goe,

Flying the white drifts of the Northerne Snowe.

But then betake thee to the shade that lies

In shield of Rocks; drinke Biblian wine, and eate

The creamy wafer: Gotes milke, that the Teate

Giues newly free, and nurses Kids no more:

Flesh of Bow-brousing Beeues, that neuer bore,

And tender kids. And to these, taste black wine,

The third part water, of the Crystaline

Still flowing fount, that feeds a streame beneath;

And sit in shades, where temperate gales may breath

On thy oppos’d cheeks. When _Orion’s_ raies

His influence, in first ascent, assaies,

Then to thy labouring Seruants giue command,

[306]To dight the sacred gift of _Ceres_ hand,

In some place windie, on a [307]well-planed floore;

Which, all by measure, into Vessels poure;

Make then thy Man-swaine, one that hath no house;

Thy handmaid one, that hath nor child nor spouse;

Handmaids, that children have, are rauenous.

A Mastiffe likewise, nourish still at home;

Whose teeth are sharp, and close as any Combe;

And meat him well, to keep with stronger guard

The Day-sleep-wake-Night Man from forth thy yard:

That else thy Goods into his Caues will beare:

[308]Inne Hay and Chaffe enough for all the yeare,

To serve thy Oxen and thy Mules; and then

Loose them: and ease [309]the dear knees of thy Men.

VI.

If of a Chance-complaining Man at seas

The humor take thee; when the _Pleiades_

Hide head, and flie the fierce _Orion’s_ chace,

And the darke-deep _Oceanus_ embrace;

Then diuerse Gusts of violent winds arise;

And then attempt no Nauall enterprize.

But ply thy Land affaires, and draw ashore

Thy Ship; and fence her round with stonage store

To shield her Ribs against the [310]humorous Gales;

Her Pump exhausted, lest _Ioue’s_ rainie falls

Breed putrefaction. All tooles fit for her,

And all her tacklings, to thy House confer:

Contracting orderly all needfull things

That imp a water-treading Vessel’s wings;

Her well-wrought Sterne hang in the smoke at home,

Attending time, till fit Sea Seasons come.—

When thy vaine Minde then would Sea-ventures try,

[311]In loue the Land-Rocks of loath’d Debt to fly,

And Hunger’s euer-harsh-to-hear-of cry:

Ile set before thee all the Trim and Dresse

Of those still-roaring-noise-resounding Seas:

Though neither skild in either Ship or Saile

Nor euer was at Sea; Or, lest I faile,

But for _Eubœa_ once; from _Aulis_ where

The Greeks, with Tempest driuen, for shore did stere

Their mighty Nauie, gatherd to employ

For sacred Greece gainst faire-dame-breeding Troy.

To Chalcis there I made by Sea my passe;

And to the Games of great _Amphidamas_;

Where many a fore-studied Exercise

Was instituted with excitefull prise

For great-and-good, and able-minded Men;

And where I wonne, at the _Pierian_ Pen,

A three-ear’d _Tripod_, which I offer’d on

The _Altars_ of the Maids of _Helicon_.

Where first their loues initiated me

In skill of their unworldly Harmony.

But no more practise have my trauailes [312]swet,

In many-a-naile-composed ships; and yet

Ile sing what _Ioue’s_ Minde will suggest in mine

Whose daughters taught my verse the rage diuine.

FOOTNOTES

[279] Granger, in his biographical history of England, speaks slightingly

of Chapman’s Homer on Pope’s authority. Pope singularly explains what he

considers as the defects of this translation, by saying that “the nature

of the man may account for his whole performance: as he appears to have

been of an arrogant turn, and _an enthusiast in poetry_.” A strange

disqualification! He confesses, also, that “what very much contributed

to cover his defects, is a daring fiery spirit that animates his

translation: which is something like what one might imagine Homer himself

would have written before he arrived at years of discretion.” PREFACE TO

HOMER.

Mr. Godwin, in his “Lives of Edward and John Philips, nephews of Milton,”

has illustrated the natural energy of style in Chapman’s Homer with

critical taste and just feeling. Chap. x. p. 243.

[280] Feed _upon_ or emaciate the features by dissipated excess.

[281] Vulcan.

[282] Persuasion.

[283] Necklaces; from Carquan, Fr. or Carcan. _Dict. de l’Ac. Fr._

Threading a _carkanet_ of pure round pearl.

Sir W. Davenant. The Wits, a comedy.

[284] _To rack_ here means to _give what is exacted_; yeelds is

_yieldings_, produce.

[285] Hinder.

[286] Hesitate.

[287] Beyond that which was sown first.

[288] Exertions.

[289] So much as.

[290] The Man of Thrift. Thie in the old Saxon is thrift.

[291] Animated with whose hardihood in braving the season for the sake of

wealth.

[292] Slothful averseness to meet the rigour of the season, of which the

consequence is poverty.

[293] Avoided through love of delicacy; or slothful indulgence.

[294] Remain unemployed; sit starving in idleness as long as the frost

and snow endure.

[295] Thick, swollen.

[296] Clusters.

[297] The whole deluge of air being let loose in him, the (north-wind) on

the surface of earth.

[298] In the original, _many-nourishing_. Chapman has elsewhere more

faithfully the same epithet “_many-a-creature-nourishing_ earth.”

[299] Being sheared.

[300] Skins.

[301] They keep out the whole force of the winter, which is concentrated

in his (the winter’s) wind.

[302] She was of too tender an age to sustain the bridal embrace.

[303] A Grecism: swimming _in beauty_: in the Greek, _many-golden_ Venus:

abounding with charms.

[304] The care of seeking shelter.

[305] Being in need of shelter.

[306] To _dress_, or prepare by thrashing.

[307] Well-smooth’d or levell’d.

[308] Stow in.

[309] A Grecism: _Dear_ in Greek being synonymous with _his_, _hers_,

_their_: and in this instance an expletive.

[310] Humid.

[311] With the wish or desire.

[312] Sweated _through_; toiled through.

THE END.

C. Baldwin, Printer, New Bridge-street. London.

The Remains of Hesiod the Ascræan, Including the Shield of Hercules Translated into English rhyme and blank verse; with a dissertation on the life and æra, the poems and mythology of Hesiod, and copious notes. · 第 6 / 6 章

[180] _Chimæra, breathing fire unquenchable._] The same passage occurs