Athamas, the son of Æolus, grandson of Hellen, and great-grandson of

Deucalion, having married Ino, the daughter of Cadmus, was obliged to

divorce her, on account of the madness with which she was attacked. He

afterwards married Nephele, by whom he had a son and daughter, Phryxus

and Helle; but on his taking his first wife again, she brought him two

sons, Learchus and Melicerta. Ino, hating the children of Nephele,

sought to destroy them. Phryxus being informed thereof, ordered a ship

to be privately prepared; and taking his father’s treasures, sailed

with his sister Helle, to seek a retreat in the court of Æetes, his

kinsman. Helle died on the voyage, but Phryxus arrived in Colchis,

where he dedicated the prow of his ship to Neptune, or Jupiter. He

there married Chalciope, by whom he had four sons, Argos, Phrontes,

Molas, and Cylindus. Some years after, Æetes caused him to be

assassinated; and his sons fleeing to the court of their grandfather,

Athamas, were shipwrecked on an island, where they remained until

found there by Jason, who took them back to their mother. Having

mourned them as dead, she was transported with joy on finding them,

and used every exertion to aid Jason in promoting his addresses to

Medea. Æetes having seized the treasures of Athamas on the death of

Phryxus, the Greeks prepared an expedition to recover them, and to

avenge his death. Pelias, who had driven his brother Æson from the

throne of Iolcos, desiring to procure the absence of his son Jason,

took this opportunity of engaging him in an enterprise, which promised

both glory, profit, and a large amount of personal exertion. The

uneasiness which Pelias felt was caused by the prediction of an

oracle, that he should be killed by a prince of the family of Æolus,

and which warned him to beware of a person who should have but one

shoe. Just at that period, Jason, returning from the school of Chiron,

lost one of his shoes in crossing a river. On this, his uncle was

desirous to destroy him; but not daring to do so publicly, he induced

him to embark with the Argonauts, expecting that he would perish in an

undertaking of so perilous a nature. Many young nobles of Greece

repaired to the court of Iolcos, and joined in the undertaking, when

they chose Jason for their leader, and embarked in a ship, the name of

which was Argo, and from which the adventurers received the name of

Argonauts.

Diodorus Siculus says, that the ship was so named from its swiftness;

while others say, that it was so called from Argus, the name of its

builder, or from the Argives, or Greeks, on board of it. Bochart,

however, supposes, that the name is derived from the Phœnician word

‘arco,’ which signifies ‘long,’ and suggests, that before that time

the Greeks sailed in vessels of a rounder form, Jason being the first

who sailed in a ship built in the form of a galley. After many

adventures, on arriving at the Isle of Lemnos, they found that the

women had killed their husbands in a fit of jealousy, on which the

Argonauts took wives from their number, and Jason received for his

companion Hypsipyle, the daughter of Thoas. Putting to sea again, they

were driven on the coast of Bithynia, where they delivered Phineus,

its king, from the persecution of the Harpies, who were in the habit

of snatching away the victuals from his table. These monsters, of

hideous form, with crooked beaks and talons, huge wings, and the faces

of women, the Argonauts, and especially Calais and Zethes, pursued as

far as the islands called Strophades, in the Ionian sea, where Iris

appearing to them, enjoined them to pursue the Harpies no further,

promising that Phineus should no longer be persecuted by them. To

explain this story, some suppose that the Harpies were the daughters

of Phineus, who by their dissipation and extravagance, had ruined him

in his old age, which occasioned the saying, that they snatched the

victuals out of his mouth. Le Clerc thinks, that the Harpies were vast

swarms of grasshoppers, which ravaged all Paphlagonia, and caused a

famine in the dominions of Phineus; the word ‘arbati,’ whence the term

‘Harpy’ is derived, signifying ‘a grasshopper;’ and that the North

wind blowing them into the Ionian sea, it gave rise to the saying,

that the sons of Boreas pursued them so far. Diodorus Siculus does not

mention the Harpies, though he speaks of the arrival of the Argonauts

at the court of Phineus.

After some other adventures, the Argonauts arrived at Colchis. Æetes,

or Æeta, the king, having been forewarned by an oracle, that a

stranger should deprive him of his crown and life, had established a

custom of sacrificing all strangers found in his dominions. His

daughter Medea, falling in love with Jason, promised him her

assistance in preserving them from the dangers to which they were

exposed, on the condition of his marrying her. Having engaged to do

so, she conducted him by night to the royal palace, and gave him a

false key, by means whereof he found the royal treasures, and carrying

them off, embarked with Medea and his companions. By way of explaining

the miraculous portion of the story, we may, perhaps, not err in

supposing, that the account of it was originally written in the

Phœnician language; and through not understanding it, the Greeks

invented the fiction of the Fleece, the Dragon, and the Fiery Bulls.

Bochart and Le Clerc have observed, that the Syriac word ‘gaza,’

signifies either ‘a treasure,’ or ‘a fleece.’ ‘Saur,’ which means ‘a

wall,’ also means ‘a bull;’ and in the same language the same word,

‘nachas,’ signifies both ‘brass,’ ‘iron,’ and ‘a dragon.’ Hence,

instead of the simple narrative, that Jason, by the aid of Medea,

carried away the treasures which Æetes kept within walls, with bolts,

or locks of metal, and which Phryxus had carried to Colchis in a ship

with the figure of a ram at the prow, it was published, and circulated

by the ignorant, that the Gods, to save Phryxus from his stepmother,

sent him a sheep with a golden fleece, which bore him to Colchis; that

its fleece became the object of the ambition of the leading men of

Greece; and that whoever wished to bear it away was obliged to contend

with bulls and dragons. Some historians, by way of interpreting the

story, affirm, that the keeper of the treasures was named ‘Draco,’ or

‘Dragon,’ and that the garrison of the stronghold of Æetes was brought

from the ‘Tauric’ Chersonesus. They say also, that the fleece was the

skin of the sheep which Phryxus had sacrificed to Neptune, which he

had caused to be gilt. It is not, however, very likely, that an object

so trifling could have excited the avarice of the Greeks, and caused

them to undertake an expedition accompanied with so many dangers. The

dragon’s teeth most probably bear reference to some foreign troops

which Jason, in the same way as Cadmus had done, found means to

alienate from Æetes, and to bring over to his own side. Homer makes

but very slight allusion to the adventures of the Argonauts.

FABLE II. [VII.159-349]

Jason, after his return home, requests Medea to restore his father

Æson to youth, which she performs; then, going to the court of Pelias,

she avenges the injuries which he had done to the family of Jason, by

making him the victim of the credulity of his own daughters, who, in

compliance with her pretended regard for them, stab him to death.

Medea, having executed her design, makes her escape in her chariot.

The Hæmonian mothers and aged fathers bring presents, for receiving

their sons {safe home}; and frankincense dissolves, piled on the flames,

and the devoted victim falls, having its horns gilded. But Æson is not

among those congratulating, being now near death, and worn out with the

years of old age; when thus the son of Æson {addresses Medea}: “O wife,

to whom I confess that I owe my safety, although thou hast granted me

everything, and the sum of thy favors exceeds {all} belief; {still}, if

{thy enchantments} can effect this (and what can enchantments not

effect?), take away from my own years, and, when taken, add them to

{those of} my father.”

And {thus saying}, he could not check his tears. She was moved with the

affection of the petitioner; and {her father}, Æetes, left behind,

recurred to her mind, unlike {that of Jason}; yet she did not confess

any such feelings. “What a piece of wickedness, husband,” said she, “has

escaped thy affectionate lips! Can I, then, seem capable of transferring

to any one a portion of thy life? May Hecate not allow of this; nor dost

thou ask what is reasonable; but, Jason, I will endeavor to grant thee a

favor {still} greater than that which thou art asking. By my arts we

will endeavor to bring back the long years of my father-in-law, and not

by means of thy years; if the Goddess of the triple form[20] do but

assist, and propitiously aid {so} vast an undertaking.” Three nights

were {now} wanting that the horns {of the Moon} might meet entirely, and

might form a {perfect} orb. After the Moon shone in her full, and looked

down upon the Earth, with her disk complete, {Medea} went forth from the

house, clothed in garments flowing loose, with bare feet,[21] and having

her unadorned hair hanging over her shoulders, and unattended, directed

her wandering steps through the still silence of midnight. Sound sleep

has {now} relaxed {the nerves of both} men, and birds, and beasts; the

hedges and the motionless foliage are still, without any noise, the dewy

air is still; the stars alone are twinkling; towards which, holding up

her arms, three times she turns herself about, three times she

besprinkles her hair with water taken from the stream; with three yells

she opens her mouth, and, her knee bending upon the hard ground, she

says, “O Night, most faithful to these my mysteries, and ye golden

Stars, who, with the Moon, succeed the fires of the day, and thou,

three-faced Hecate,[22] who comest conscious of my design, and ye charms

and arts of the enchanters, and thou, too, Earth, that dost furnish the

enchanters with powerful herbs; ye breezes, too, and winds, mountains,

rivers, and lakes, and all ye Deities of the groves, and all ye Gods of

night, attend here; through whose aid, whenever I will, the rivers run

back from their astonished banks to their sources, {and} by my charms I

calm the troubled sea, and rouse it when calm; I disperse the clouds,

and I bring clouds {upon the Earth}; I both allay the winds, and I raise

them; and I break the jaws of serpents with my words and my spells;

I move, too, the solid rocks, and the oaks torn up with their own

{native} earth, and the forests {as well}. I command the mountains, too,

to quake, and the Earth to groan, and the ghosts to come forth from

their tombs. Thee, too, O Moon, do I draw down, although the

Temesæan[23] brass relieves thy pangs. By my spells, also, the chariot

of my grandsire is rendered pale; Aurora, too, is pale through my

enchantments. For me did ye blunt the flames of the bulls, and with the

curving plough you pressed the necks that never before bore the yoke.

You raised a cruel warfare for those born of the dragon among

themselves, and you lulled to sleep the keeper {of the golden fleece},

that had never known sleep; and {thus}, deceiving the guardian, you sent

the treasure into the Grecian cities. Now there is need of juices, by

means of which, old age, being renewed, may return to the bloom {of

life}, and may receive back again its early years; and {this} ye will

give me; for not in vain did the stars {just now} sparkle; nor yet in

vain is the chariot come, drawn by the necks of winged dragons.”

A chariot sent down from heaven was come; which, soon as she had

mounted, and had stroked the harnessed necks of the dragons, and had

shaken the light reins with her hands, she was borne aloft, and looked

down upon Thessalian Tempe below her, and guided her dragons towards the

chalky regions;[24] and observed the herbs which Ossa, and which the

lofty Pelion bore, Othrys, too, and Pindus, and Olympus {still} greater

than Pindus; and part she tore up by the root gently worked, part she

cut down with the bend of a brazen sickle.[25] Many a herb, too, that

grew on the banks of Apidanus[26] pleased her; many, too, {on the banks}

of Amphrysus; nor, Enipeus, didst thou escape. The Peneian waters, and

the Spercheian as well, contributed something, and the rushy shores of

Bœbe.[27] She plucks, too, enlivening herbs by the Eubœan Anthedon,[28]

not yet commonly known by the change of the body of Glaucus.[29] And now

the ninth day,[30] and the ninth night had seen her visiting all the

fields in her chariot, and upon the wings of the dragons, when she

returned; nor had the dragons been fed, but with the odors {of the

plants}: and yet they cast the skin of old age full of years. On her

arrival she stood without the threshold and the gates, and was canopied

by the heavens alone, and avoided the contact of her husband, and

erected two altars of turf; on the right hand, one to Hecate, but on the

left side one to Youth.[31] After she had hung them round with vervain

and forest boughs, throwing up the earth from two trenches not far off,

she performed the rites, and plunged a knife into the throat of a black

ram, and besprinkled the wide trenches with blood. Then pouring thereon

goblets[32] of flowing wine, and pouring brazen goblets of warm milk;

she at the same time utters words, and calls upon the Deities of the

earth, and entreats the king of the shades[33] below, together with his

ravished wife, that they will not hasten to deprive the aged limbs of

life. When she had rendered them propitious both by prayers and

prolonged mutterings, she commanded the exhausted body of Æson to be

brought out to the altars, and stretched it cast into a deep sleep by

her charms, {and} resembling one dead, upon the herbs laid beneath him.

She orders the son of Æson to go far thence, and the attendants, too, to

go afar; and warns them to withdraw their profane eyes from her

mysteries. At her order, they retire. Medea, with dishevelled hair, goes

round the blazing altars like a worshipper of Bacchus, and dips her

torches, split into many parts, in the trench, black with blood, and

lights them, {thus} dipt, at the two altars. And thrice does she[34]

purify the aged man with flames, thrice with water, and thrice with

sulphur. In the meantime the potent mixture[35] is boiling and heaving

in the brazen cauldron, placed {on the flames}, and whitens with

swelling froth. There she boils roots cut up in the Hæmonian valleys,

and seeds and flowers and acrid juices. She adds stones fetched from the

most distant East, and sand, which the ebbing tide of the ocean has

washed. She adds, too, hoar-frost gathered at night by the light of the

moon, and the ill-boding wings of a screech owl,[36] together with its

flesh; and the entrails of an ambiguous wolf, that was wont to change

its appearance of a wild beast into {that of} a man. Nor is there

wanting there the thin scaly slough of the Cinyphian water-snake,[37]

and the liver of the long-lived stag;[38] to which, besides, she adds

the bill and head of a crow that had sustained {an existence of} nine

ages. When, with these and a thousand other things without a name, the

barbarian {princess} has completed the medicine prepared for the mortal

{body}, with a branch of the peaceful olive long since dried up, she

stirs them all up, and blends the lowest {ingredients} with the highest.

Behold! the old branch, turned about in the heated cauldron, at first

becomes green; and after no long time assumes foliage, and is suddenly

loaded with heavy olives. Besides, wherever the fire throws the froth

from out of the hollow cauldron, and the boiling drops fall upon the

earth, the ground becomes green, and flowers and soft grass spring up.

Soon as Medea sees this, she opens the throat[39] of the old man with a

drawn sword; and allowing the former blood to escape, replenishes {his

veins} with juices. Soon as Æson has drunk them in, either received in

his mouth or in his wound, his beard and his hair[40] laying aside their

hoariness, assume a black hue. His leanness flies, being expelled; his

paleness and squalor are gone. His hollow veins are supplied with

additional blood, and his limbs become instinct with vigor. Æson is

astonished, and calls to recollection that he was such four times ten

years before.

Liber had beheld from on high the miraculous operations of so great a

prodigy; and taught {thereby} that youthful years can be restored to his

nurses,[41] he requests this present from the daughter of Æetes.[42]

And that her arts[43] may not cease, the Phasian feigns a counterfeited

quarrel with her husband, and flies as a suppliant to the threshold of

Pelias[44] and (as he himself is oppressed with old age) his daughters

receive her; whom, after a short time, the crafty Colchian engages to

herself by the appearance of a pretended friendship. And while among the

greatest of her merits, she relates that the infirmities of Æson have

been removed, and is dwelling upon that part {of the story}, a hope is

suggested to the damsels, the daughters of Pelias, that by the like art

their parent may become young again; and this they request {of her}, and

repeatedly entreat her to name her own price. For a short time she is

silent, and appears to be hesitating, and keeps their mind in suspense,

as they ask, with an affected gravity.

Afterwards, when she has promised them, she says, “That there may be the

greater confidence in this my skill, the leader of the flock among your

sheep, which is the most advanced in age, shall become a lamb by this

preparation.” Immediately, a fleecy {ram}, enfeebled by innumerable

years, is brought, with his horns bending around his hollow temples;

whose withered throat, when she has cut with the Hæmonian knife, and

stained the steel with its scanty blood, the enchantress plunges the

limbs of the sheep, and her potent juices together, into the hollow

copper. The limbs of his body are lessened, and he puts off his horns,

and his years together with his horns; and in the midst of the kettle a

low bleating is heard. And without any delay, while they are wondering

at the bleating, a lamb springs forth, and gambols in its course, and

seeks the suckling dugs. The daughters of Pelias are amazed; and after

her promises have obtained her credit, then, indeed, they urge her still

more strongly. Phœbus had thrice taken the yoke off his horses sinking

in the Iberian sea;[45] and upon the fourth night the radiant stars were

twinkling, when the deceitful daughter of Æetes set pure water upon a

blazing fire, and herbs without any virtue. And now sleep like to death,

their bodies being relaxed, had seized the king, and the guards together

with their king, which her charms and the influence of her enchanting

tongue had caused. The daughters {of the king}, {as} ordered, had

entered the threshold, together with the Colchian, and had surrounded

the bed; “Why do you hesitate now, in your indolence? Unsheathe your

swords,” says she, “and exhaust the ancient gore, that I may replenish

his empty veins with youthful blood. The life and the age of your father

is now in your power. If you have any affection and cherish not vain

hopes, perform your duty to your father, and drive away old age with

your weapons, and, thrusting in the steel, let out his corrupted blood.”

Upon this exhortation, as each of them is affectionate, she becomes

especially undutiful, and that she may not be wicked, she commits

wickedness. Yet not one is able to look upon her own blow; and they

turn away their eyes, and turning away their faces, they deal chance

blows with their cruel right hands. He, streaming with gore, yet raises

his limbs on his elbows, and, half-mangled, attempts to rise from the

couch; and in the midst of so many swords stretching forth his pale

arms, he says, “What are you doing, my daughters? What arms you against

the life of your parent?” Their courage and their hands fail {them}. As

he is about to say more, the Colchian severs his throat, together with

his words, and plunges him, {thus} mangled, in the boiling cauldron.

[Footnote 20: _Of the triple form._--Ver. 177. Hecate, the Goddess

of enchantment.]

[Footnote 21: _With bare feet._--Ver. 183. To have the feet bare

was esteemed requisite for the due performance of magic rites,

though sometimes on such occasions, and probably in the present

instance, only one foot was left unshod. In times of drought,

according to Tertullian, a procession and ceremonial, called

‘nudipedalia,’ were resorted to, with a view to propitiate the

Gods by this token of grief and humiliation.]

[Footnote 22: _Three-faced Hecate._--Ver. 194. Though Hecate and

the Moon are here mentioned as distinct, they are frequently

considered to have been the same Deity, with different attributes.

The three heads with which Hecate was represented were those of a

horse, a dog, and a pig, or sometimes, in the place of the latter,

a human head.]

[Footnote 23: _Temesæan._--Ver. 207. Temesa was a town of the

Brutii, on the coast of Etruria, famous for its copper mines. It

was also sometimes called Tempsa. There was also another Temesa,

a city of Cyprus, also famous for its copper.]

[Footnote 24: _Chalky regions._--Ver. 223. Such was the

characteristic of the mountainous country of Thessaly, where she

now alighted.]

[Footnote 25: _Brazen sickle._--Ver. 227. We learn from Macrobius

and Cælius Rhodiginus that copper was preferred to iron in cutting

herbs for the purposes of enchantment, in exorcising spirits, and

in aiding the moon in eclipses against the supposed charms of the

witches, because it was supposed to be a purer metal.]

[Footnote 26: _Apidanus._--Ver. 228. This and Amphrysus were

rivers of Thessaly.]

[Footnote 27: _Shores of Bœbe._--Ver. 231. Strabo makes mention of

lake Bœbeis, near the town of Bœbe, in Thessaly. It was not far

from the mouth of the river Peneus.]

[Footnote 28: _Anthedon._--Ver. 232. This was a town of Bœotia,

opposite to Eubœa, being situated on the Euripus, now called the

straits of Negropont.]

[Footnote 29: _Glaucus._--Ver. 233. He was a fisherman, who was

changed into a sea God, on tasting a certain herb. His story is

related at the end of the 13th Book.]

[Footnote 30: _Ninth day._--Ver. 234. The numbers three and nine

seem to have been deemed of especial virtue in incantations.]

[Footnote 31: _One to youth._--Ver. 241. This goddess was also

called Hebe, from the Greek word signifying youth. She was the

daughter of Juno, and the wife of Hercules. She was also the

cup-bearer of the Gods, until she was supplanted by Ganymede.]

[Footnote 32: _Goblets._--Ver. 246. ‘Carchesia.’ The ‘carchesium’

was a kind of drinking cup, used by the Greeks from very early

times. It was slightly contracted in the middle, and its two

handles extended from the top to the bottom. It was employed in

the worship of the Deities, and was used for libations of blood,

wine, milk, and honey. Macrobius says that it was only used by the

Greeks. Virgil makes mention of it as used to hold wine.]

[Footnote 33: _King of the shades._--Ver. 249. Pluto and

Proserpine. Clarke translates this line and the next, ‘And prays

to the king of shades with his kidnapped wife, that they would not

be too forward to deprive the limbs of the old gentleman of

life.’]

[Footnote 34: _Thrice does she._--Ver. 261. Clarke thus renders

this and the two following lines: ‘And purifies the old gentleman

three times with flame, three times with water, and three times

with sulphur. In the meantime the strong medicine boils, and

bounces about in a brazen kettle set on the fire.’]

[Footnote 35: _The potent mixture._--Ver. 262. This reminds us of

the line of Shakespeare in Macbeth, ‘Make the hell-broth thick and

slab.’]

[Footnote 36: _A screech owl._--Ver. 269. ‘Strigis.’ The ‘strix’

is supposed to have been the screech owl, and was a favorite bird

with the enchanters, who were supposed to have the power of

assuming that form. From the description given of the ‘striges’ in

the Sixth Book of the Fasti, it would almost appear that the

qualities of the vampyre bat were attributed to them.]

[Footnote 37: _Water snake._--Ver. 272. The ‘chelydrus’ was a

venomous water-snake of a powerful and offensive smell. The

Delphin Commentator seems to think that a kind of turtle is here

meant.]

[Footnote 38: _Long-lived stag._--Ver. 273. The stag was said to

live four times, and the crow nine times, as long as man.]

[Footnote 39: _Opened the throat._--Ver. 285-6. Clarke translates

the words ‘quod simul ac vidit, stricto Medea recludit Ense senis

jugulum,’ ‘which as soon as Medea saw, she opens the throat of the

old gentleman with a drawn sword.’]

[Footnote 40: _And his hair._--Ver. 288. Medea is thought by some

writers not only to have discovered a dye for giving a dark color

to grey hair, but to have found out the invigorating properties of

the warm bath.]

[Footnote 41: _To his nurses._--Ver. 295. These (in Book iii.

l. 314.) he calls by the name of Nyseïdes; but in the Fifth Book

of the Fasti they are styled Hyades, and are placed in the number

of the Constellations. A commentator on Homer, quoting from

Pherecydes, calls them ‘Dodonides.’]

[Footnote 42: _Daughter of Æetes._--Ver. 296. The reading in most

of the MSS. here is Tetheiâ, or ‘Thetide;’ but Burmann has

replaced it by Æetide, ‘the daughter of Æetes.’ It has been justly

remarked, why should Bacchus apply to Tethys to have the age of

the Nymphs, who had nursed him, renewed, when he had just beheld

Medea, and not Tethys, do it in favor of Æson?]

[Footnote 43: _That her arts._--Ver. 297. ‘Neve doli cessent’ is

translated by Clarke, ‘and that her tricks might not cease.’]

[Footnote 44: _Pelias._--Ver. 298. He was the brother of Æson, and

had dethroned him, and usurped his kingdom.]

[Footnote 45: _The Iberian sea._--Ver. 324. The Atlantic, or

Western Ocean, is thus called from Iberia, the ancient name of

Spain; which country, perhaps, was so called from the river

Iberus, or Ebro, flowing through it.]

EXPLANATION.

The authors who have endeavored to explain the true meaning and origin

of the story of the restitution of Æson to youth, are much divided in

their opinions concerning it. Some think it refers to the mystery of

reviving the decrepit and aged by the transfusion of youthful blood.

It is, however, not improbable, that Medea obtained the reputation of

being a sorceress, only because she had been taught by her mother the

virtues of various plants: and that she administered a potion to Æson,

which furnished him with new spirits and strength.

The daughters of Pelias being desirous to obtain the same favor of

Medea for their father, she, to revenge the evils which he had brought

upon her husband and his family, may possibly have mixed some venomous

herbs in his drink, which immediately killed him.

FABLE III. [VII.350-401]

Medea, after having killed Pelias, goes through several countries to

Corinth, where, finding that Jason, in her absence, has married the

daughter of king Creon, she sets fire to the palace, whereby the

princess and her father are consumed. She then murders the two

children which she had by Jason, before his face, and takes to flight.

And unless she had mounted into the air with winged dragons, she would

not have been exempt from punishment; she flies aloft, over both shady

Pelion, the lofty habitation[46] of the son of Phillyra, and over

Othrys, and the places noted for the fate of the ancient Cerambus.[47]

He, by the aid of Nymphs, being lifted on wings into the air, when the

ponderous earth was covered by the sea pouring over it, not being

overwhelmed, escaped the flood of Deucalion. On the left side, she

leaves the Æolian Pitane,[48] and the image of the long Dragon[49] made

out of stone, and the wood of Ida,[50] in which Bacchus hid a stolen

bullock beneath the appearance of a fictitious stag; {the spot} too,

where the father of Corythus[51] lies buried beneath a little sand, and

the fields which Mæra[52] alarmed by her unusual barking.

The city, too, of Eurypylus,[53] in which the Coan matrons[54] wore

horns, at the time when the herd of Hercules[55] departed {thence};

Phœbean Rhodes[56] also, and the Ialysian Telchines,[57] whose eyes[58]

corrupting all things by the very looking upon them, Jupiter utterly

hating, thrust beneath the waves of his brother. She passed, too, over

the Cartheian walls of ancient Cea,[59] where her father Alcidamas[60]

was destined to wonder that a gentle dove could arise from the body of

his daughter.

After that, she beholds the lakes of Hyrie,[61] and Cycneian Tempe,[62]

which the swan that had suddenly become such, frequented. For there

Phyllius, at the request of the boy, had given him birds, and a fierce

lion tamed; being ordered, too, to subdue a bull, he had subdued him;

and being angry at his despising his love so often, he denied him,

{when} begging the bull as his last reward. The other, indignant, said,

“Thou shalt wish that thou hadst given it;” and {then} leaped from a

high rock. All imagined he had fallen; but, transformed into a swan, he

hovered in the air on snow-white wings. But his mother, Hyrie, not

knowing that he was saved, dissolved in tears, and formed a lake

{called} after her own name.

Adjacent to these {places} is Pleuron;[63] in which Combe,[64] the

daughter of Ophis, escaped the wounds of her sons with trembling wings.

After that, she sees the fields of Calaurea,[65] sacred to Latona,

conscious of the transformation of their king, together with his wife,

into birds. Cyllene is on the right hand, on which Menephron[66] was

{one day} to lie with his mother, after the manner of savage beasts. Far

hence she beholds Cephisus,[67] lamenting the fate of his grandson,

changed by Apollo into a bloated sea-calf; and the house of Eumelus,[68]

lamenting his son in the air.

At length, borne on the wings of her dragons, she reached the Pirenian

Ephyre.[69] Here, those of ancient times promulgated that in the early

ages mortal bodies were produced from mushrooms springing from rain. But

after the new-made bride was consumed, through the Colchian drugs, and

both seas beheld the king’s house on fire, her wicked sword was bathed

in the blood of her sons; and the mother, having {thus} barbarously

revenged herself, fled from the arms of Jason. Being borne hence by her

Titanian dragons,[70] she entered the city of Pallas, which saw thee,

most righteous Phineus,[71] and thee, aged Periphas,[72] flying

together, and the granddaughter of Polypemon[73] resting upon new-formed

wings.

[Footnote 46: _Lofty habitation._--Ver. 352. The mountains of

Thessaly are so called, because Chiron, the son of the Nymph

Phillyra, lived there.]

[Footnote 47: _Cerambus._--Ver. 353. Antoninus Liberalis, quoting

from Nicander, calls him Terambus, and says that he lived at the

foot of Mount Pelion; he incurred the resentment of the Nymphs,

who changed him into a scarabæus, or winged beetle. Flying to the

heights of Parnassus, at the time of the flood of Deucalion, he

thereby made his escape. Some writers say that he was changed into

a bird.]

[Footnote 48: _Pitane._--Ver. 357. This was a town of Ætolia, in

Asia Minor, near the mouth of the river Caicus.]

[Footnote 49: _The long dragon._--Ver. 358. He alludes, most

probably, to the story of the Lesbian changed into a dragon or

serpent, which is mentioned in the Eleventh book, line 58.]

[Footnote 50: _Wood of Ida._--Ver. 359. This was the grove of Ida,

in Phrygia. It is supposed that he refers to the story of

Thyoneus, the son of Bacchus, who, having stolen an ox from some

Phrygian shepherds, was pursued by them; on which Bacchus, to

screen his son, changed the ox into a stag, and invested Thyoneus

with the garb of a hunter.]

[Footnote 51: _Father of Corythus._--Ver. 361. Paris was the

father of Corythus, by Œnone. He was said to have been buried at

Cebrena, a little town of Phrygia, near Troy.]

[Footnote 52: _Mæra._--Ver. 362. This was the name of the dog of

Icarius, the father of Erigone, who discovered the murder of his

master by the shepherds of Attica, and was made a Constellation,

under the name of the Dog-star. As, however, the flight of Medea

was now far distant from Attica, it is more likely that the Poet

refers to the transformation of some female, named Mæra, into a

dog, whose story has not come down to us; indeed, Lactantius

expresses this as his opinion. Burmann thinks that it refers to

the transformation of Hecuba, mentioned in the 13th book, line

406; and that ‘Mæra’ is a corruption for some other name of

Hecuba.]

[Footnote 53: _Eurypylus._--Ver. 363. He was a former king of the

Isle of Cos, in the Ægean Sea, and was much famed for his skill as

an augur.]

[Footnote 54: _The Coan matrons._--Ver. 363. Lactantius says that

the women of Cos, extolling their own beauty as superior to that

of Venus, incurred the resentment of that Goddess, and were

changed by her into cows. Another version of the story is, that

these women, being offended at Hercules for driving the oxen of

Ægeon through their island, were very abusive, on which Juno

transformed them into cows: to this latter version reference is

made in the present passage.]

[Footnote 55: _Hercules._--Ver. 364. He besieged and took the

chief city of the island, which was also called Cos; and having

slain Eurypylus, carried off his daughter Chalciope.]

[Footnote 56: _Phœbean Rhodes._--Ver. 365. The island of Rhodes,

in the Mediterranean, off the coast of Asia Minor, was sacred to

the Sun, and was said never to be deserted by his rays.]

[Footnote 57: _Ialysian Telchines._--Ver. 365. Ialysus was one of

the three most ancient cities of Rhodes, and was said to have been

founded by Ialysus, whose parent was the Sun. The Telchines, or

Thelchines, were a race supposed to have migrated thither from

Crete. They were persons of great artistic skill, on which account

they may, possibly, have obtained the character of being

magicians; such was the belief of Strabo.]

[Footnote 58: _Whose eyes._--Ver. 366. The evil eye was supposed

by the ancients not only to have certain fascinating powers, but

to be able to destroy the beauty of any object on which it was

turned.]

[Footnote 59: _Cea._--Ver. 368. This island, now Zia, is in the

Ægean sea, near Eubœa. Carthæa was a city there, the ruins of

which are still in existence.]

[Footnote 60: _Alcidamas._--Ver. 369. Antoninus Liberalis says,

that Alcidamas lived not at Carthæa, but at Iülis, another city in

the Isle of Cea.]

[Footnote 61: _Lakes of Hyrie._--Ver. 371. Hyrie was the mother of

Cycnus; and pining away with grief on the transformation of her

son, she was changed into a lake, called by her name.]

[Footnote 62: _Cycneian Tempe._--Ver. 371. This was not Thessalian

Tempe, but a valley of Teumesia, or Teumesus, a mountain of

Bœotia.]

[Footnote 63: _Pleuron._--Ver. 382. This was a city of Ætolia,

near Mount Curius. It was far distant from Bœotia and Lake Hyrie.

Some commentators, therefore, suggest that the reading should be

Brauron, a village of Attica, near the confines of Bœotia.]

[Footnote 64: _Combe._--Ver. 383. She was the mother of the

Curetes of Ætolia, who, perhaps, received that name from Mount

Curius. There was another Combe, the daughter of Asopus, who

discovered the use of brazen arms, and was called Chalcis, from

that circumstance. She was said to have borne a hundred daughters

to her husband.]

[Footnote 65: _Calaurea._--Ver. 384. This was an island between

Crete and the Peloponnesus, in the Saronic gulf, which was sacred

to Apollo. Latona resided there, having given Delos to Neptune in

exchange for it. Demosthenes died there.]

[Footnote 66: _Menephron._--Ver. 386. Hyginus says, that he

committed incest both with his mother Blias, and with Cyllene, his

daughter.]

[Footnote 67: _Cephisus._--Ver. 388. The river Cephisus, in

Bœotia, had a daughter, Praxithea. She was the wife of Erectheus,

and bore him eight sons, the fate of one of whom is perhaps here

referred to.]

[Footnote 68: _Eumelus._--Ver. 390. He was the king of Patræ, on

the sea-coast of Achaia. Triptolemus visited him with his winged

chariot; on which, Antheas, the son of Eumelus, ascended it while

his father was sleeping, and falling from it, he was killed. He

is, probably, here referred to; and the reading should be ‘natum,’

and not ‘natam.’ Some writers, however, suppose that his daughter

was changed into a bird.]

[Footnote 69: _Pirenian Ephyre._--Ver. 391. Corinth was so called

from Ephyre, the daughter of Neptune, who was said to have lived

there. Its inhabitants were fabled to have sprung from mushrooms.]

[Footnote 70: _Titanian dragons._--Ver. 398. Her dragons are so

called, either because, as Pindar says, they had sprung from the

blood of the Titans, or because, according to the Greek tradition,

the chariot and winged dragons had been sent to Medea by the Sun,

one of whose names was Titan.]

[Footnote 71: _Phineus._--Ver. 399. Any further particulars of the

person here named are unknown. Some commentators suggest ‘Phini,’

and that some female of the name of Phinis is alluded to, making

the adjective ‘justissime’ of the feminine gender.]

[Footnote 72: _Periphas._--Ver. 400. He was a very ancient king of

Attica, before the time of Cecrops, and was said to have been

changed into an eagle by Jupiter, while his wife was transformed

into an osprey.]

[Footnote 73: _Polypemon._--Ver. 401. This was a name of the

robber Procrustes, who was slain by Theseus. Halcyone, the

daughter of his son Scyron, having been guilty of incontinence,

was thrown into the sea by her father, on which she was changed

into a kingfisher, which bore her name.]

EXPLANATION.

Jason being reconciled to the children of Pelias, gave the crown to

his son Acastus. Becoming tired of Medea, he married Glauce, or

Creüsa, the daughter of Creon, king of Corinth. Medea, hastening to

that place, left her two sons in the temple of Juno, and set fire to

Creon’s palace, where he and his daughter were consumed to ashes,

after which she killed her own children. Euripides, in his tragedy of

Medea, makes a chorus of Corinthian women say, that the Corinthians

themselves committed the murder, and that the Gods sent a plague on

the city, as a punishment for the deed. Pausanias also says, that the

tomb of Medea’s children, whom the Corinthians stoned to death, was

still to be seen in his time; and that the Corinthians offered

sacrifices there every year, to appease their ghosts, as the oracle

had commanded them.

Apollodorus relates this story in a different manner. He says, that

Medea sent her rival a crown, dipped in a sort of gum of a combustible

nature; and that when Glauce had put it on her head, it began to burn

so furiously, that the young princess perished in the greatest misery.

Medea afterwards retired to Thebes, where Hercules engaged to give her

assistance against Jason, which promise, however, he failed to

perform. Going thence to Athens, she married Ægeus.

The story of her winged dragons may, perhaps, be based on the fact,

that her ship was called ‘the Dragon.’ In recounting the particulars

of her flight, Ovid makes allusion to several stories by the way, the

most of which are entirely unknown to us. With regard to these

fictions, it may not be out of place to remark here, as affording a

key to many of them, that where a person escaped from any imminent

danger, it was published that he had been changed into a bird. If, to

avoid pursuit, a person hid himself in a cave, he was said to be

transformed into a serpent; and if he burst into tears, from excess of

grief, he was reported to have changed into a fountain; while, if a

damsel lost herself in a wood, she became a Nymph, or a Dryad. The

resemblance of names, also, gave rise to several fictions: thus,

Alopis was changed into a fox; Cygnus into a swan; Coronis into a

crow; and Cerambus into a horned beetle. As some few of the stories

here alluded to by Ovid, refer to historical events, it may be

remarked, that the account of the women of Cos being changed into

cows, is thought by some to have been founded on the cruel act of the

companions of Hercules, who sacrificed some of them to the Gods of the

country. The inhabitants of the Isle of Rhodes were said to have been

changed into rocks, because they perished in an inundation, which laid

a part of that island under water, and particularly the town of

Ialysus. The fruitfulness of the daughter of Alcidamas occasioned it

to be said, that she was changed into a dove. The rage of Mæra is

shown by her transformation into a bitch; and Arne was changed into a

daw, because, having sold her country, her avarice was well depicted

under the symbol of that bird, which, according to the popular

opinion, is fond of money. Phillyra, the mother of the Centaur Chiron,

was said to be changed into a linden-tree, probably because she

happened to bear the name of that tree, which in the Greek language is

called φιλύρα.

FABLE IV. [VII.402-468]

Hercules chains the dog Cerberus, the guardian of the gates of the

Infernal Regions. Theseus, after his exploits at Corinth, arrives at

Athens, where Medea prepares a cup of poison for him. The king,

however, recognizing his son, just as he is about to drink, snatches

away the cup from him, while Medea flies in her chariot. Ægeus then

makes a festival, to celebrate the arrival and preservation of

Theseus. In the mean time, Minos, the king of Crete, solicits several

princes to assist him in a war against Athens, to revenge the death of

his son Androgeus, who had been murdered there.

Ægeus, to be blamed for this deed alone, shelters her; and hospitality

is not enough, he also joins her {to himself} by the ties of marriage.

And now was Theseus, his son, arrived, unknown to his father, who, by

his valor, had established peace in the Isthmus between the two seas.

For his destruction Medea mingles the wolfsbane, which she once brought

with her from the shores of Scythia. This, they say, sprang from the

teeth of the Echidnean dog. There is a gloomy cave,[74] with a dark

entrance, {wherein} there is a descending path, along which the

Tirynthian hero dragged away Cerberus resisting, and turning his eyes

sideways from the day and the shining rays {of the Sun}, in chains

formed of adamant; he, filled with furious rage, filled the air with

triple barkings at the same moment, and sprinkled the verdant fields

with white foam. This, they suppose, grew solid, and, receiving the

nourishment of a fruitful and productive soil, acquired the power of

being noxious. Because, full of life, it springs up on the hard rock,

the rustics call it aconite.[75]

This, by the contrivance of his wife, the father Ægeus himself presented

to his son,[76] as though to an enemy. Theseus had received the

presented cup with unsuspecting right hand, when his father perceived

upon the ivory hilt of his sword the tokens of his race,[77] and struck

the guilty {draught} from his mouth. She escaped death, having raised

clouds by her enchantments.

But the father, although he rejoices at his son’s being safe, astonished

that so great a wickedness can be committed with so narrow an escape

from death, heats the altars with fires, and loads the Gods with gifts;

and the axes strike the muscular necks of the oxen having their horns

bound with wreaths. No day is said {ever} to have shone upon the people

of Erectheus more famous than that--the senators and the common people

keep up the festivity; songs, too, they sing, wine inspiring wit. “Thee,

greatest Theseus,” said they, “Marathon[78] admired for {shedding} the

blood of the Cretan bull; and that the husbandman ploughs Cromyon[79] in

safety from the boar, is thy procurement and thy work. By thy means the

country of Epidaurus saw the club-bearing son of Vulcan[80] fall; {and}

the banks of the river Cephisus[81] saw the cruel Procrustes {fall by

thee}. Eleusis, sacred to Ceres, beheld the death of Cercyon.[82]

Sinnis[83] fell too, who barbarously used his great powers; who was able

to bend {huge} beams, and used to pull pine trees from aloft to the

earth, destined to scatter {human} bodies far and wide. The road to

Alcathoë,[84] the Lelegeïan city, is now open in safety, Scyron[85]

being laid low {in death}: {and} the earth denies a resting-place, the

water, {too}, denies a resting-place to the bones of the robber

scattered piecemeal; these, long tossed about, length of time is

reported to have hardened into rocks. To {these} rocks the name of

Scyron adheres. If we should reckon up thy glorious deeds, and thy

years, thy actions would exceed thy years {in number}. For thee, bravest

{hero}, we make public vows: in thy honor do we quaff the draughts of

wine.” The palace rings with the acclamations of the populace, and the

prayers of those applauding; and there is no place sorrowing throughout

the whole city.

And yet (so surely is the pleasure of no one unalloyed, and some anxiety

is {ever} interposing amid joyous circumstances), Ægeus does not have

his joy undisturbed, on receiving back his son. Minos prepares for war;

who, though he is strong in soldiers, strong in shipping, is still

strongest of all in the resentment of a parent, and, with retributive

arms, avenges the death of {his son} Androgeus. Yet, before the war, he

obtains auxiliary forces, and crosses the sea with a swift fleet, in

which he is accounted strong. On the one side, he joins Anaphe[86] to

himself; and the realms of Astypale; Anaphe by treaty, the realms of

Astypale by conquest; on the other side, the low Myconos, and the chalky

lands of Cimolus,[87] and the flourishing Cythnos, Scyros, and the level

Seriphos;[88] Paros, too, abounding in marble, and {the island} wherein

the treacherous Sithonian[89] betrayed the citadel, on receiving the

gold, which, in her covetousness, she had demanded. She was changed into

a bird, which even now has a passion for gold, the jackdaw {namely},

black-footed, and covered with black feathers.

[Footnote 74: _A gloomy cave._--Ver. 409. This cavern was called

Acherusia. It was situate in the country of the Mariandyni, near

the city of Heraclea, in Pontus, and was said to be the entrance

of the Infernal Regions. Cerberus was said to have been dragged

from Tartarus by Hercules, through this cave, which circumstance

was supposed to account for the quantity of aconite, or wolfsbane,

that grew there.]

[Footnote 75: _Call it aconite._--Ver. 419. From the Greek ακόνη,

‘a whetstone.’]

[Footnote 76: _Presented to his son._--Ver. 420. Medea was anxious

to secure the succession to the throne of Athens to her son Medus,

and was therefore desirous to remove Theseus out of the way.]

[Footnote 77: _Tokens of his race._--Ver. 423. Ægeus, leaving

Æthra at Trœzen, in a state of pregnancy, charged her, if she bore

a son, to rear him, but to tell no one whose son he was. He placed

his own sword and shoes under a large stone, and directed her to

send his son to him when he was able to lift the stone, and to

take them from under it; and he then returned to Athens, where he

married Medea. When Theseus had grown to the proper age, his

mother led him to the stone under which his father had deposited

his sword and shoes, which he raised with ease, and took them out.

It was, probably, by means of this sword that Ægeus recognized his

son in the manner mentioned in the text.]

[Footnote 78: _Marathon._--Ver. 434. This was a town of Attica,

adjoining a plain of the same name, where the Athenians, under the

command of Miltiades, overthrew the Persians with immense

slaughter. The bull which Theseus slew there was presented by

Neptune to Minos. Being brought into Attica by Hercules, it laid

waste that territory until it was slain by Theseus.]

[Footnote 79: _Cromyon._--Ver. 435. This was a village of the

Corinthian territory, which was infested by a wild boar of

enormous size, that slew both men and animals. It was put to death

by Theseus.]

[Footnote 80: _Vulcan._--Ver. 437. By Antilia, Vulcan was the

father of Periphetes, a robber who infested Epidaurus, in the

Peloponnesus. He was so formidable with his club, that he was

called Corynetas, from κορύνη, the Greek for ‘a club.’]

[Footnote 81: _Cephisus._--Ver. 438. Procrustes was a robber of

such extreme cruelty that he used to stretch out, or lop off, the

extremities of his captives, according as they were shorter or

longer than his bedstead. He infested the neighborhood of Eleusis,

in Attica, which was watered by the Cephisus. He was put to death

by Theseus.]

[Footnote 82: _Cercyon._--Ver. 439. It was his custom to challenge

travellers to wrestle, and to kill them, if they declined the

contest, or were beaten in it. Theseus accepted his challenge; and

having overcome him, put him to death. Eleusis was especially

dedicated to Ceres; there the famous Eleusinian mysteries of that

Goddess were held.]

[Footnote 83: _Sinnis._--Ver. 440. He was a robber of Attica, to

whom reference is made in the Ibis, line 409.]

[Footnote 84: _Alcathoë._--Ver. 443. Megara, or Alcathoë, which

was founded by Lelex, was almost destroyed by Minos, and was

rebuilt by Alcathoüs, the son of Pelops. He, flying from his

father, on being accused of the murder of his brother Chrysippus,

retired to the city of Megara, where, having slain a lion which

was then laying waste that territory, he was held in the highest

veneration by the inhabitants.]

[Footnote 85: _Scyron._--Ver. 443. This robber haunted the rocks

in the neighborhood of Megara, and used to insist on those who

became his guests washing his feet. This being done upon the

rocks, Scyron used to kick the strangers into the sea while so

occupied, where a tortoise lay ready to devour the bodies. Theseus

killed him, and threw his body down the same rocks, which derived

their name of Saronic, or Scyronic, from this robber.]

[Footnote 86: _Anaphe._--Ver. 461. This, and the other islands

here named, were near the isle of Crete, and perhaps in those

times were subject to the sway of Minos.]

[Footnote 87: _Cimolus._--Ver. 463. Pliny the Elder tells us, that

this island was famous for producing a clay which seems to have

had much the properties of soap. It was of a grayish white color,

and was also employed for medicinal purposes.]

[Footnote 88: _Seriphos._--Ver. 464. Commentators are at a loss to

know why Seriphos should here have the epithet ‘plana,’ ‘level,’

inasmuch as it was a very craggy island. It is probably a corrupt

reading.]

[Footnote 89: _Sithonian._--Ver. 466. This was Arne, whose story

is referred to in the Explanation, p. 242 / p. 270.]

EXPLANATION.

If it is the fact, as many antiquarians suppose, that much of the

Grecian mythology was derived from that of the Egyptians, there can be

but little doubt that their system of the Elysian Fields and the

Infernal Regions was derived from the Egyptian notions on the future

state of man. The story too, of Cerberus is, perhaps, based upon the

custom of the Egyptians, who kept dogs to guard the fields or caverns

in which they kept their mummies.

It is, however, very possible that the story of Cerberus may have been

founded upon a fact, or what was believed to be such. There was a

serpent which haunted the cavern of Tænarus, in Laconia, and ravaged

the districts adjacent to that promontory. This cave, being generally

considered to be one of the avenues to the kingdom of Pluto, the poets

thence derived the notion that this serpent was the guardian of its

portals. Pausanias observes, that Homer was the first who said that

Cerberus was a dog; though, in reality, he was a serpent, whose name

in the Greek language signified ‘one that devours flesh.’ The story

that Cerberus, with his foam, poisoned the herbs that grew in

Thessaly, and that the aconite and other poisonous plants were ever

after common there, is probably based on the simple fact, that those

herbs were found in great quantities in that region.

Women, using these herbs in their pretended enchantments, gave ground

for the stories of the witches of Thessaly, and of their ability to

bring the moon down to the earth by their spells and incantations;

which latter notion was probably based on the circumstance, that these

women used to invoke the Night and the Moon as witnesses of their

magical operations.

FABLE V. [VII.469-613]

Minos, having engaged several powers in his interest, and having been

refused by others, goes to the island of Ægina, where Æacus reigns,

to endeavor to secure an alliance with that prince; but without

success. Upon his departure, Cephalus arrives, as ambassador, from

Athens, and obtains succors from the king; who gives him an account of

the desolation which a pestilence had formerly made in his country,

and of the surprising manner in which it had been re-peopled.

But Oliaros,[90] and Didyme, and Tenos,[91] and Andros,[92] and

Gyaros,[93] and Peparethos, fruitful in the smooth olive,[94] do not aid

the Gnossian ships. Then Minos makes for Œnopia,[95] the kingdom of

Æacus, lying to the left. The ancients called it Œnopia, but Æacus

himself called it Ægina, from the name of his mother. The multitude

rushes forth, and desires greatly to know a man of so great celebrity.

Both Telamon,[96] and Peleus, younger than Telamon, and Phocus, the

{king’s} third son, go to meet him. Æacus himself, too, {though} slow

through the infirmity of old age, goes forth, and asks him what is the

reason of his coming? The ruler of a hundred cities, being put in mind

of his fatherly sorrow {for his son}, sighs, and gives him this answer:

“I beg thee to assist arms taken up on account of my son; and be a party

in a war of affection. For his shades do I demand satisfaction.” To him

the grandson of Asopus says, “Thou askest in vain, and for a thing not

to be done by my city; for, indeed, there is no land more closely allied

to the people of Cecropia. Such are {the terms of} our compact.” {Minos}

goes away in sadness, and says, “This compact of thine will cost thee a

dear price;” and he thinks it more expedient to threaten war than to

wage it, and to waste his forces there prematurely.

Even yet may the Lyctian[97] fleet be beheld from the Œnopian walls,

when an Attic ship, speeding onward with full sail, appears, and enters

the friendly harbor, which is carrying Cephalus, and together {with him}

the request of his native country. The youthful sons of Æacus recognize

Cephalus, although seen but after a long period, and give their right

hands, and lead him into the house of their father. The graceful hero,

even still retaining some traces of his former beauty, enters; and,

holding a branch of his country’s olive, being the elder, he has on his

right and left hand the two younger in age, Clytus and Butes, the sons

of Pallas.[98] After their first meeting has had words suitable

{thereto}, Cephalus relates the request of the people of Cecrops, and

begs assistance, and recounts the treaties and alliances of their

forefathers; and he adds, that the subjection of the whole of Achaia is

aimed at. After the eloquence {of Cephalus} has thus promoted the cause

entrusted to him, Æacus, leaning with his left hand on the handle of his

sceptre, says--

“Ask not for assistance, O Athens, but take it, and consider, beyond

doubt, the resources which this island possesses, as thy own, and let

all the forces of my kingdom go {along with thee}. Strength is not

wanting. I have soldiers enough both for my defence, and for {opposing}

the enemy. Thanks to the Gods; this is a prosperous time, and one that

can excuse no refusal of mine.” “Yes, {and} be it so,” says

Cephalus:[99] “and I pray that thy power may increase along with thy

citizens. Indeed, as I came along just now, I received {much} pleasure,

when a number of youths, so comely and so equal in their ages, came

forward to meet me. Yet I miss many from among them, whom I once saw

when I was formerly entertained in this city.” Æacus heaves a sigh, and

thus he says, with mournful voice: “A better fortune will be following a

lamentable beginning; I {only} wish I could relate this to you. I will

now tell it you without any order, that I may not be detaining you by

any long preamble.[100] They are {now} lying as bones and ashes, for

whom thou art inquiring with tenacious memory. And how great a part were

they of my resources that perished! A dreadful pestilence fell upon my

people, through the anger of the vengeful Juno, who hated a country

named[101] from her rival. While the calamity seemed natural, and the

baneful cause of so great destruction was unknown, it was opposed by the

resources of medicine. {But} the havoc exceeded {all} help, which {now}

lay baffled. At first the heaven encompassed the earth with a thick

darkness, and enclosed within its clouds a drowsy heat. And while the

Moon was four times filling her orb by joining her horns, {and}, four

times decreasing, was diminishing her full orb, the hot South winds were

blowing with their deadly blasts. It is known for a fact that the

infection came even into fountains and lakes, and that many thousands of

serpents were wandering over the uncultivated fields, and were tainting

the rivers with their venom. The violence of this sudden distemper was

first discovered by the destruction of dogs, and birds, and sheep, and

oxen, and among the wild beasts. The unfortunate ploughman wonders that

strong oxen fall down at their work, and lie stretched in the middle of

the furrow. {And} while the wool-bearing flocks utter weakly bleatings,

both their wool falls off spontaneously, and their bodies pine away. The

horse, once of high mettle, and of great fame on the course, degenerates

for the {purposes of} victory; and, forgetting his ancient honors, he

groans at the manger, doomed to perish by an inglorious distemper. The

boar remembers not to be angry, nor the hind to trust to her speed, nor

the bears to rush upon the powerful herds.

“A faintness seizes all {animals}; both in the woods, in the fields, and

in the roads, loathsome carcases lie strewed. The air is corrupted with

the smell {of them}. I am relating strange events. The dogs, and the

ravenous birds, and the hoary wolves, touch them not; falling away, they

rot, and, by their exhalations, produce baneful effects, and spread the

contagion far and wide. With more dreadful destruction the pestilence

reaches the wretched husbandmen, and riots within the walls of the

extensive city. At first, the bowels are scorched,[102] and a redness,

and the breath drawn with difficulty, is a sign of the latent flame. The

tongue, {grown} rough, swells; and the parched mouth gapes, with its

throbbing veins; the noxious air, too, is inhaled by the breathing. {The

infected} cannot endure a bed, or any coverings; but they lay their

hardened breasts upon the earth, and their bodies are not made cool by

the ground, but the ground is made hot by their bodies. There is no

physician at hand; the cruel malady breaks out upon even those who

administer remedies; and {their own} arts become an injury to their

owners. The nearer at hand any one is, and the more faithfully he

attends on the sick, the sooner does he come in for his share of the

fatality. And when the hope of recovery is departed, and they see the

end of their malady {only} in death, they indulge their humors, and

there is no concern as to what is to their advantage; for, {indeed},

nothing is to their advantage. All sense, too, of shame being banished,

they lie {promiscuously} close to the fountains and rivers, and deep

wells; and their thirst is not extinguished by drinking, before their

life {is}. Many, overpowered {with the disease}, are unable to arise

thence, and die amid the very water; and yet another even drinks that

{water}. So great, too, is the irksomeness for the wretched {creatures}

of their hated beds, {that} they leap out, or, if their strength forbids

them standing, they roll their bodies upon the ground, and every man

flies from his own dwelling; each one’s house seems fatal to him: and

since the cause of the calamity is unknown, the place that is known is

blamed. You might see persons, half dead, wandering about the roads, as

long as they were able to stand; others, weeping and lying about on the

ground, and rolling their wearied eyes with the dying movement. They

stretch, too, their limbs towards the stars of the overhanging heavens,

breathing forth their lives here and there, where death has overtaken

them.

“What were my feelings then? Were they not such as they ought to be, to

hate life, and to desire to be a sharer with my people? On whichever

side my eyes were turned, there was the multitude strewed {on the

earth}, just as when rotten apples fall from the moved branches, and

acorns from the shaken holm-oak. Thou seest[103] a lofty temple,

opposite {thee}, raised on high with long steps: Jupiter has it {as his

own}. Who did not offer incense at those altars in vain? how often did

the husband, while he was uttering words of entreaty for his wife, {or}

the father for his son, end his life at the altars without prevailing?

in his hand, too, was part of the frankincense found unconsumed! How

often did the bulls, when brought to the temples, while the priest was

making his supplications, and pouring the pure wine between their horns,

fall without waiting for the wound! While I myself was offering

sacrifice to Jupiter, for myself, and my country, and my three sons, the

victim sent forth dismal lowings, and suddenly falling down without any

blow, stained the knives thrust into it, with its scanty blood; the

diseased entrails, too, had lost {all} marks of truth, and the warnings

of the Gods. The baneful malady penetrated to the entrails. I have seen

the carcases lying, thrown out before the sacred doors; before the very

altars, {too}, that death might become more odious[104] {to the Gods}.

Some finish their lives with the halter, and by death dispel the

apprehension of death, and voluntarily invite approaching fate. The

bodies of the dead are not borne out with any funeral rites, according

to the custom; for the {city} gates cannot receive {the multitude of}

the processions. Either unburied they lie upon the ground, or they are

laid on the lofty pyres without the usual honors. And now there is no

distinction, and they struggle for the piles; and they are burnt on

fires that belong to others. They who should weep are wanting; and the

souls of sons, and of husbands, of old and of young, wander about

unlamented: there is not room sufficient for the tombs, nor trees for

the fires.”

[Footnote 90: _Oliaros._--Ver. 469. This was one of the Cyclades,

in the Ægean sea; it was colonized by the Sidonians.]

[Footnote 91: _Tenos._--Ver. 469. This island was famous for a

temple there, sacred to Neptune.]

[Footnote 92: _Andros._--Ver. 469. This was an island in the Ægean

Sea, near Eubœa. It received its name from Andros, the son of

Anius. The Andrian slave, who gives his name to one of the

comedies of Terence, was supposed to be a native of this island.]

[Footnote 93: _Gyaros._--Ver. 470. This was a sterile island among

the Cyclades; in later times, the Romans made it a penal

settlement for their criminals. The mice of this island were said

to be able to gnaw iron; perhaps, because they were starved by

reason of its unfruitfulness.]

[Footnote 94: _Smooth olive._--Ver. 470. Clarke translates ‘nitidæ

olivæ’ ‘the neat olive.’ ‘Nitidus’ here means ‘smooth and

shining.’]

[Footnote 95: _Œnopia._--Ver. 473. This was the ancient name of

the isle of Ægina, in the Saronic Gulf, famous as being the native

place of the family of the Æacidæ. It obtained its later name from

Ægina, the daughter of Asopus, and the mother of Æacus, whom

Jupiter carried thither.]

[Footnote 96: _Telamon._--Ver. 476. Telamon, Peleus, and Phocus,

were the three sons of Æacus.]

[Footnote 97: _Lyctian._--Ver. 490. Lyctus was the name of one of

the cities of Crete.]

[Footnote 98: _Pallas._--Ver. 500. This was either Pallas the son

of Pandion, king of Athens, or of Neleus, the brother of Theseus.

This Pallas, together with his sons, was afterwards slain by

Theseus.]

[Footnote 99: _Cephalus._--Ver. 512. He was the son of Deioneus,

or according to some writers, of Mercury and Herse, the daughter

of Cecrops.]

[Footnote 100: _Long preamble._--Ver. 520. Clarke translates ‘neu

longâ ambage morer vos,’ ‘that I may not detain you with a

long-winded detail of it.’]

[Footnote 101: _Country named._--Ver. 524. This was the island of

Ægina, so called from the Nymph who was carried thither by

Jupiter.]

[Footnote 102: _Bowels are scorched._--Ver. 554. Clarke quaintly

renders the words ‘viscera torrentur primo.’ ‘first people’s

bowels are searched;’ perhaps, however, the latter word is a

misprint for ‘scorched.’]

[Footnote 103: _Thou seest._--Ver. 587. As Æacus says this, he

must be supposed to point with his finger towards the temple.]

[Footnote 104: _More odious._--Ver. 603. Dead bodies were supposed

to be particularly offensive to the Gods.]

EXPLANATION.

Minos (most probably the second prince that bore that name), upon his

accession to the throne, after the death of his father, Lycastus, made

several conquests in the islands adjoining Crete, where he reigned,

and, at last, became master of those seas. The strength of his fleet

is particularly remarked by Thucydides, Apollodorus, and Diodorus

Siculus.

The Feast of the Panathenæa being celebrated at Athens, Minos sent his

son Androgeus to it, who joined as a combatant in the games, and was

sufficiently skilful to win all the prizes. The glory which he thereby

acquired, combined with his polished manners, obtained him the

friendship of the sons of Pallas, the brother of Ægeus. This

circumstance caused Ægeus to entertain jealous feelings, the more

especially as he knew that his nephews were conspiring against him.

Being informed that Androgeus was about to take a journey to Thebes,

he caused him to be assassinated near Œnoë, a town on the confines of

Attica. Apollodorus, indeed, says that he was killed by the Bull of

Marathon, which was then making great ravages in Greece; but it is

very possible that the Athenians encouraged this belief, with the view

of screening their king from the infamy of an action so inhuman and

unjust. Diodorus Siculus and Plutarch agree in stating that Ægeus

himself caused Androgeus to be murdered.

On hearing the news of his son’s death, Minos resolved on revenge. He

ordered a strong fleet to be fitted out, and went in person to several

courts, to contract alliances, and engage other powers to assist him;

and this, with the history of the plague at Ægina, forms the subject

of the present narrative.

FABLE VI. [VII.614-660]

Jupiter, at the prayer of his son Æacus, transforms the ants that are

in the hollow of an old oak into men; these, from the Greek name of

those insects, are called Myrmidons.

“Stupefied by so great an outburst of misery, I said, ‘O Jupiter! if

stories do not falsely say that thou didst come into the embraces of

Ægina, the daughter of Asopus, and thou art not ashamed, great Father,

to be the parent of myself; either restore my people to me, or else bury

me, as well, in the sepulchre.’ He gave a signal by lightnings, and by

propitious thunders. I accepted {the omen}, and I said, ‘I pray that

these may be happy signs of thy intentions: the omen which thou givest

me, I accept as a pledge.’ By chance there was close by, an oak sacred

to Jupiter, of seed from Dodona,[105] but thinly covered with

wide-spreading boughs. Here we beheld some ants, the gatherers of corn,

in a long train, carrying a heavy burden in their little mouths, and

keeping their track in the wrinkled bark. While I was wondering at their

numbers, I said, ‘Do thou, most gracious Father, give me citizens as

many in number, and replenish my empty walls.’ The lofty oak trembled,

and made a noise in its boughs, moving without a breeze. My limbs

quivered, with trembling fear, and my hair stood on an end; yet I gave

kisses to the earth and to the oak, nor did I confess that I had any

hopes; {and} yet I did hope, and I cherished my own wishes in my mind.

Night came on, and sleep seized my body wearied with anxiety. Before my

eyes the same oak seemed to be present, and to bear as many branches,

and as many animals in its branches, and to be trembling with a similar

motion, and to be scattering the grain-bearing troop on the fields

below. These suddenly grew, and seemed greater and greater, and raised

themselves from the ground, and stood with their bodies upright; and

laid aside their leanness, and the {former} number of their feet, and

their sable hue, and assumed in their limbs the human shape.

“Sleep departs. When {now} awake, I censured the vision, and complained

that there was no help for me from the Gods above. But within my palace

there was a great murmur, and I seemed to be hearing the voices of men,

to which I had now become unaccustomed. While I was supposing that

these, too, were {a part} of my dream, lo! Telamon came in haste, and,

opening the door, said, ‘Father, thou wilt see things beyond thy hopes

or expectations. Do come out.’ I did go out, and I beheld and recognized

such men, each in his turn, as I had seemed to behold in the vision of

my sleep. They approached, and saluted me as their king. I offered up

vows to Jupiter, and divided the city and the lands void of their former

tillers, among this new-made people, and I called them Myrmidons,[106]

and did not deprive their name {of the marks} of their origin. Thou hast

beheld their persons. Even still do they retain the manners which they

formerly had; and they are a thrifty race, patient of toil, tenacious of

what they get, and what they get they lay up. These, alike in years and

in courage, will attend thee to the war, as soon as the East wind, which

brought thee prosperously hither (for the East wind had brought him),

shall have changed to the South.”

[Footnote 105: _From Dodona._--Ver. 623. Dodona was a town of

Chaonia, in Epirus, so called from Dodone, the daughter of Jupiter

and Europa. Near it was a temple and a wood sacred to Jupiter,

which was famous for the number and magnitude of its oaks. Doves

were said to give oracular responses there, probably from the

circumstance that the female soothsayers of Thessaly were called

πελειαδαι. Some writers, however, say that the oaks had the gift

of speech, combined with that of prophesying.]

[Footnote 106: _Myrmidons._--Ver. 654. From the Greek word μύρμηξ,

‘an ant;’ according to this version of the story.]

EXPLANATION.

This fable, perhaps, has no other foundation than the retreat of the

subjects of Æacus into woods and caverns, whence they returned, when

the contagion had ceased with which their country had been afflicted,

and when he had nearly lost all hopes of seeing them again. It is

probable that the old men were carried off by the plague, while the

young, who had more strength, resisted its power, which circumstance

would fully account for the active habits of the remaining subjects of

Æacus. Some writers, however, suppose that the Myrmidons were a

barbarous, but industrious people of Thessaly, who usually dwelt in

caves, and who were brought thence by Æacus to people his island,

which had been made desolate by a pestilence. The similarity of their

name to the Greek word μύρμηξ, signifying ‘an ant,’ most probably

gave occasion to the report that Jupiter had changed ants into men.

FABLE VII. [VII.661-793]

Cephalus, having resisted the advances of Aurora, who has become

enamoured of him while hunting, returns in disguise to his wife,

Procris, to try if her affection for him is sincere. She, discovering

his suspicions, flies to the woods, and becomes a huntress, with the

determination not to see him again. Afterwards, on becoming reconciled

to him, she bestows on him a dog and a dart, which Diana had once

given her. The dog is turned into stone, while hunting a wild beast,

which Themis has sent to ravage the territories of Thebes, after the

interpretation of the riddle of the Sphinx, by Œdipus.

In these and other narratives they passed the day. The last part of the

day was spent in feasting, and the night in sleep. The golden Sun had

{now} shed his beams, {when} the East wind was still blowing, and

detained the sails about to return. The sons of Pallas repair to

Cephalus, who was stricken in years. Cephalus and the sons of Pallas,

together {with him}, {come} to the king; but a sound sleep still

possessed the monarch. Phocus, the son of Æacus, received them at the

threshold; for Telamon and his brother were levying men for the war.

Phocus conducted the citizens of Cecrops into an inner room, and a

handsome apartment. Soon as he had sat down with them, he observed that

the grandson of Æolus[107] was holding in his hand a javelin made of an

unknown wood, the point of which was of gold.

Having first spoken a few words in promiscuous conversation, he said,

“I am fond of the forests, and of the chase of wild beasts; still, from

what wood the shaft of the javelin, which thou art holding, is cut,

I have been for some time in doubt; certainly, if it were of wild ash,

it would be of brown color; if of cornel-wood, there would be knots in

it. Whence it comes I am ignorant, but my eyes have not looked upon a

weapon used for a javelin, more beautiful than this.” One of the

Athenian brothers replied, and said, “In it, thou wilt admire its

utility, {even} more than its beauty. Whatever it is aimed at, it

strikes; chance does not guide it when thrown, and it flies back stained

with blood, no one returning it.” Then, indeed, does the Nereian

youth[108] inquire into all particulars, why it was given, and whence

{it came}? who was the author of a present of so great value? What he

asks, {Cephalus} tells him; but as to what he is ashamed to tell, {and}

on what condition he received it, he is silent; and, being touched with

sorrow for the loss of his wife, he thus speaks, with tears bursting

forth: “Son of a Goddess, this weapon (who could have believed it?)

makes me weep, and long will make me do so, if the Fates shall grant me

long to live. ’Twas this that proved the destruction of me and of my

dear wife. Would that I had ever been without this present! Procris was

(if perchance {the fame of} Orithyïa[109] may have more probably reached

thy ears) the sister of Orithyïa, the victim of violence. If you should

choose to compare the face and the manners of the two, she was the more

worthy to be carried off. Her father Erectheus united her to me; love,

{too}, united her to me. I was pronounced happy, and {so} I was. Not

thus did it seem {good} to the Gods; or even now, perhaps, I should be

{so}. The second month was now passing, after the marriage rites, when

the saffron-colored Aurora, dispelling the darkness in the morn, beheld

me, as I was planting nets for the horned deer, from the highest summit

of the ever-blooming Hymettus,[110] and carried me off against my will.

By the permission of the Goddess, let me relate what is true; though she

is comely with her rosy face, {and} though she possesses the confines of

light, and possesses {the confines} of darkness, though she is nourished

with the draughts of nectar, {still} I loved Procris; Procris was {ever}

in my thoughts, Procris was ever on my lips. I alleged the sacred ties

of marriage, our late embraces, and our recent union, and the prior

engagements of my forsaken bed. The Goddess was provoked, and said,

‘Cease thy complaints, ungrateful man; keep thy Procris; but, if my mind

is gifted with foresight, thou wilt wish that thou hadst not had her;’”

and {thus}, in anger, she sent me back to her.

“While I was returning, and was revolving the sayings of the Goddess

within myself, there began to be apprehensions that my wife had not duly

observed the laws of wedlock. Both her beauty and her age bade me be

apprehensive of her infidelity; {yet} her virtue forbade me to believe

it. But yet, I had been absent; and besides, she, from whom I was {just}

returning, was an example of {such} criminality: but we that are in

love, apprehend all {mishaps}. I {then} endeavored to discover that, by

reason of which I must feel anguish, and by bribes to make attempts[111]

upon her chaste constancy. Aurora encouraged this apprehension, and

changed my shape, {as} I seemed {then} to perceive. I entered Athens,

the city of Pallas, unknown {to any one}, and I went into my own house.

The house itself was without fault, and gave indications of chastity,

and was in concern for the carrying off of its master.

“Having, with difficulty, made my way to the daughter of Erectheus by

means of a thousand artifices, soon as I beheld her, I was amazed, and

was nearly abandoning my projected trial of her constancy; with

difficulty did I restrain myself from telling the truth, with difficulty

from giving her the kisses which I ought. She was in sorrow; but yet no

one could be more beautiful than she, {even} in her sadness; and she was

consuming with regret for her husband, torn from her. {Only} think,

Phocus, how great was the beauty of her, whom even sorrow did so much

become. Why should I tell how often her chaste manners repulsed {all} my

attempts? How often she said, ‘I am reserved for {but} one, wherever he

is; for that one do I reserve my joys.’ For whom, in his senses, would

not that trial of her fidelity have been sufficiently great? {Yet} I was

not content; and I strove to wound myself, while I was promising to give

vast sums for {but one} night, and forced her at last to waver, by

increasing the reward. {On this} I cried out, ‘Lo! I, the gallant in

disguise, to my sorrow, {and} lavish in promises, to my misery, am thy

real husband; thou treacherous woman! thou art caught, {and} I the

witness.’ She said nothing: only, overwhelmed with silent shame, she

fled from the house of treachery, together with her wicked husband; and

from her resentment against me, abhorring the whole race of men, she

used to wander[112] on the mountains, employed in the pursuits of Diana.

Then, a more violent flame penetrated to my bones, thus deserted.

I begged forgiveness, and owned myself in fault; and that I too might

have yielded to a similar fault, on presents being made; if presents so

large had been offered. Upon my confessing this, having first revenged

her offended modesty, she was restored to me, and passed the pleasant

years in harmony with me. She gave me, besides, as though in herself she

had given me but a small present, a dog as a gift, which when her own

Cynthia had presented to her, she had said, ‘He will excel all dogs in

running.’ She gave her, too, a javelin, which, as thou seest, I am

carrying in my hand.

“Dost thou inquire what was the fortune of the other present--hear

{then}. Thou wilt be astonished at the novelty of the wondrous fact. The

son of Laius[113] had solved the verses not understood by the wit of

others before him; and the mysterious propounder lay precipitated,

forgetful of her riddle. But the genial Themis,[114] forsooth, did not

leave such things unrevenged. Immediately another plague was sent forth

against Aonian Thebes; and many of the peasants fed the savage monster,

both by the destruction of their cattle, and their own as well. We, the

neighboring youth, came together, and enclosed the extensive fields with

toils. With a light bound it leaped over the nets, and passed over the

topmost barriers of the toils that were set. The couples were taken off

the dogs, from which, as they followed, it fled, and eluded them, no

otherwise than as a winged bird. I myself, too, was requested, with

eager demands, for my {dog} Lælaps [{Tempest}]; that was the name of {my

wife’s} present. For some time already had he been struggling to get

free from the couples, and strained them with his neck, as they detained

him. Scarce was he well let loose; and {yet} we could not now tell where

he was; the warm dust had the prints of his feet, {but} he himself was

snatched from our eyes. A spear does not fly swifter than he {did}, nor

pellets whirled from the twisted sling, nor the light arrow from the

Gortynian bow.[115] The top of a hill, {standing} in the middle, looks

down upon the plains below. Thither I mount, and I enjoy the sight of an

unusual chase; wherein the wild beast[116] one while seemed to be

caught, at another to elude his very bite; and it does not fly in a

direct course, and straight onward, but deceives his mouth, as he

pursues it, and returns in circles, that its enemy may not have his full

career against it. He keeps close to it, and pursues it, a match for

him; and {though} like as if he has caught it, {still} he fails to catch

it, and vainly snaps at the air. I was {now} turning to the resources of

my javelin; while my right hand was poising it, {and} while I was

attempting to insert my fingers in the thongs {of it}, I turned away my

eyes; and again I had directed them, recalled to the same spot, when,

{most} wondrous, I beheld two marble statues in the middle of the plain;

you would think the one was flying, the other barking {in pursuit}. Some

God undoubtedly, if any God {really} did attend to them, desired them

both to remain unconquered in this contest of speed.”

[Footnote 107: _Æolus._--Ver. 672. Apollodorus reckons Deioneus,

the parent of Cephalus, among the children of Apollo.]

[Footnote 108: _Nereian youth._--Ver. 685. Phocus, who was the son

of Æacus, by Psamathe, the daughter of Nereus.]

[Footnote 109: _Orithyïa._--Ver. 695. She was the daughter of

Erectheus, king of Athens, and was carried off by Boreas, as

already stated.]

[Footnote 110: _Hymettus._--Ver. 702. This was a mountain of

Attica, famous for its honey and its marble.]

[Footnote 111: _To make attempts._--Ver. 721. Tzetzes informs us

that she was found by her husband in company with a young man

named Pteleon, who had made her a present of a golden wreath.

Antoninus Liberalis says, that her husband tried her fidelity by

offering her a bribe, through the medium of a slave.]

[Footnote 112: _Used to wander._--Ver. 746. Some writers say that

she fled to Crete, on which, Diana, who was aware of the

attachment of Aurora for her husband, made her a present of a

javelin, which no person could escape; and gave her the dog

Lælaps, which no wild beast could outrun. Such is the version

given by Hyginus. But Apollodorus and Antoninus Liberalis say,

that she fled to Minos, who, prevailing over her virtue, made her

a present of the dog and the javelin. Afterwards, presenting

herself before her husband, disguised as a huntress, she gave him

proofs of the efficacy of them; and upon his requesting her to

give them to him, she exacted, as a condition, what must,

apparently, have resulted in a breach of the laws of conjugal

fidelity. On his assenting to the proposal, she discovered

herself, and afterwards made him the presents which he desired.]

[Footnote 113: _The son of Laius._--Ver. 759. Œdipus was the son

of Laius, king of Thebes. The Sphinx was a monster, the offspring

of Typhon and Echidna, which haunted a mountain near Thebes. Œdipus

solved the riddle which it proposed for solution, on which the

monster precipitated itself from a rock. It had the face of a

woman, the wings of a bird, and the extremities of a lion.]

[Footnote 114: _Genial Themis._--Ver. 762. Themis had a very

ancient oracle in Bœotia.]

[Footnote 115: _Gortynian bow._--Ver. 778. Crete was called

Gortynian, from Gortys or Gortyna, one of its cities, which was

famous for the skill of its inhabitants in archery.]

[Footnote 116: _The wild beast._--Ver. 782. Antoninus Liberalis

and Apollodorus say that this was a fox, which was called ‘the

Teumesian,’ from Teumesus, a mountain of Bœotia, and that the

Thebans, to appease its voracity, were wont to give it a child to

devour every month. Palæphatus says that it was not a wild beast,

but a man called Alopis.]

EXPLANATION.

There were two princes of the name of Cephalus; one, the son of

Mercury and Herse, the daughter of Cecrops; the other, the son of

Deïoneus, king of Phocis, and Diomeda, the daughter of Xuthus. The

first was carried off by Aurora, and went to live with her in Syria;

the second married Procris, the daughter of Erectheus, king of Athens.

Though Apollodorus seems, in the first instance, to follow this

genealogy, in his third book he confounds the actions of those two

princes. Ovid and other writers have spoken only of the son of

Deïoneus, who was carried off by Aurora, and having left her,

according to them, returned to Procris.

FABLE VIII. [VII.794-865]

Procris, jealous of Cephalus, in her turn, goes to the forest, which

she supposes to be the scene of his infidelity, to surprise him.

Hearing the rustling noise which she makes in the thicket, where she

lies concealed, he imagines it is a wild beast, and, hurling the

javelin, which she has formerly given to him, he kills her.

Thus far {did he speak}; and {then} he was silent. “But,” said Phocus,

“what fault is there in that javelin?” {whereupon} he thus informed him

of the demerits of the javelin. “Let my joys, Phocus, be the first

portion of my sorrowful story. These will I first relate. O son of

Æacus, I delight to remember the happy time, during which, for the first

years {after my marriage}, I was completely blessed in my wife, {and}

she was happy in her husband. A mutual kindness and social love

possessed us both. Neither would she have preferred the bed of Jupiter

before my love; nor was there any woman that could have captivated me,

not {even} if Venus herself had come. Equal flames fired the breasts {of

us both}. The Sun striking the tops of the mountains with his early

rays, I was wont generally to go with youthful ardor into the woods, to

hunt; but I neither suffered my servants, nor my horses, nor my

quick-scented hounds to go {with me}, nor the knotty nets to attend me;

I was safe with my javelin. But when my right hand was satiated with the

slaughter of wild beasts, I betook myself to the cool spots and the

shade, and the breeze which was breathing forth from the cool valleys.

The gentle breeze was sought by me, in the midst of the heat. For the

breeze was I awaiting; that was a refreshment after my toils: ‘Come,

breeze,’ I was wont to sing, for I remember it {full well}, ‘and, most

grateful, refresh me, and enter my breast; and, as thou art wont, be

willing to assuage the heat with which I am parched.’ Perhaps I may have

added ({for} so my destiny prompted me) many words of endearment, and I

may have been accustomed to say, ‘Thou art my great delight; thou dost

refresh and cherish me; thou makest me to love the woods and lonely

haunts, and thy breath is ever courted by my face.’ I was not aware that

some one was giving an ear, deceived by these ambiguous words; and

thinking the name of the breeze, so often called upon by me, to be that

of a Nymph, he believed some Nymph was beloved by me.

“The rash informer of an imaginary crime immediately went to Procris,

and with his whispering tongue related what he had heard. Love is a

credulous thing. When it was told her, she fell down fainting, with

sudden grief; and coming to, after a long time, she declared that she

was wretched, and {born} to a cruel destiny; and she complained about my

constancy. Excited by a groundless charge,[117] she dreads that which,

{indeed}, is nothing; {and} fears a name without a body; and, in her

wretchedness, grieves as though about a real rival. Yet she is often in

doubt, and, in her extreme wretchedness, hopes she may be deceived, and

denies credit to the information; and unless she beholds it herself,

will not pass sentence upon the criminality of her husband. The

following light of the morning had banished the night, when I sallied

forth, and sought the woods; and being victorious in the fields, I said,

‘Come, breeze, and relieve my pain;’ and suddenly I seemed to hear I

know not what groans in the midst of my words; yet I said, ‘Come hither,

most delightful {breeze}.’ Again, the falling leaves making a gentle

noise, I thought it was a wild beast, and I discharged my flying weapon.

It was Procris; and receiving the wound in the middle of her breast, she

cried out, ‘Ah, wretched me!’ When the voice of my attached wife was

heard, headlong and distracted, I ran towards {that} voice. I found her

dying, and staining her scattered vestments with blood, and drawing her

own present (ah, wretched me!) from out of her wound; I lifted up her

body, dearer to me than my own, in my guilty arms, and I bound up her

cruel wounds with the garments torn from my bosom; and I endeavored to

stanch the blood, and besought her that she would not forsake me, {thus}

criminal, by her death. She, wanting strength, and now expiring, forced

herself to utter these few words:

“‘I suppliantly beseech thee, by the ties of our marriage, and by the

Gods above, and my own Gods, and if I have deserved anything well of

thee, by that {as well}, and by the cause of my death, my love even now

enduring, while I am perishing, do not allow the Nymph Aura [{breeze}]

to share with thee my marriage ties.’ She {thus} spoke; and then, at

last, I perceived the mistake of the name, and informed her of it. But

what avails informing her? She sinks; and her little strength flies,

together with her blood. And so long as she can look on anything, she

gazes on me, and breathes out upon me, on my face,[118] her unhappy

life; but she seems to die free from care, and with a more contented

look.”

In tears, the hero is relating these things to them, as they weep, and,

lo! Æacus enters, with his two sons,[119] and his soldiers newly levied;

which Cephalus received, {furnished} with valorous arms.

[Footnote 117: _Groundless charge._--Ver. 829. Possibly, Ovid may

intend to imply that her jealousy received an additional stimulus

from the similarity of the name ‘Aura’ to that of her former

rival, Aurora.]

[Footnote 118: _On my face._--Ver. 861. He alludes to the

prevalent custom of catching the breath of the dying person in the

mouth.]

[Footnote 119: _His two sons._--Ver. 864. These were Telamon and

Peleus, who had levied these troops.]

EXPLANATION.

The love which Cephalus, the son of Deïoneus, bore for the chase,

causing him to rise early in the morning for the enjoyment of his

sport, was the origin of the story of his love for Aurora. His wife,

Procris, as Apollodorus tells us, carried on an amour with Pteleon,

and, probably, caused that report to be spread abroad, to divert

attention from her own intrigue. Cephalus, suspecting his wife’s

infidelity, she fled to the court of the second Minos, king of Crete,

who fell in love with her. Having, thereby, incurred the resentment of

Pasiphaë, who adopted several methods to destroy her rival, and, among

others, spread poison in her bed, she left Crete, and returned to

Thoricus, the place of her former residence, where she was reconciled

to Cephalus, and gave him the celebrated dog and javelin mentioned by

Ovid.

The poets tell us, that this dog was made by Vulcan, and presented by

him to Jupiter, who gave him to Europa; and that coming to the hands

of her son Minos, he presented it to Procris. The wild beast, which

ravaged the country, and was pursued by the dog of Procris, and which

some writers tell us was a monstrous fox, was probably a pirate or sea

robber; and being, perhaps, pursued by some Cretan officer of Minos,

who escorted Procris back to her country, on their vessels being

shipwrecked near some rocks, it gave occasion to the story that the

dog and the monster had been changed into stone. Indeed, Tzetzes says

distinctly, that the dog was called Cyon, and the monster, or fox,

Alopis; and he also says that Cyon was the captain who brought Procris

back from Crete. It being believed that resentment had some share in

causing the death of Procris, the court of the Areiopagus condemned

Cephalus to perpetual banishment. The island of Cephalenia, which

received its name from him, having been given to him by Amphitryon, he

retired to it, where his son Celeus afterwards succeeded him.

The Hamilton, Locke and Clark

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Have long been the Standard and are now the _Best Translated_ and _Most

Complete_ Series of Interlinears published.

=12mo., well bound in Half Leather.=

=Price reduced to $1.50 each. Postpaid to any address.=

_Latin Interlinear Translations:_

VIRGIL--By Hart and Osborne.

CÆSAR--By Hamilton and Clark.

HORACE--By Stirling, Nuttall and Clark.

CICERO--By Hamilton and Clark.

SALLUST--By Hamilton and Clark.

OVID--By George W. Heilig.

JUVENAL--By Hamilton and Clark.

LIVY--By Hamilton and Clark.

CORNELIUS NEPOS--By Hamilton and Underwood.

_Greek Interlinear Translations:_

HOMER’S ILIAD--By Thomas Clark.

XENOPHON’S ANABASIS--By Hamilton and Clark.

GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN--By George W. Heilig.

=S. Austin Allibone, the distinguished author, writes:=

“There is a growing disapprobation, both in Great Britain and America,

of the disproportionate length of time devoted by the youthful student

to the acquisition of the dead languages; and therefore nothing will

tend so effectually to the preservation of the Greek and Latin grammars

as their judicious union (the fruit of an intelligent compromise) with

the Interlinear Classics.”

=DAVID McKAY, Publisher, Philadelphia,=

Formerly published by Charles De Silver & Sons.

* * * * *

* * * *

* * * * *

Transcriber’s Note on the Text:

Ovid’s _Metamorphoses_, translated by Henry Thomas Riley (1816-1878,

B.A. 1840, M.A. 1859), was originally published in 1851 as part of

Bohn’s Classical Library. This e-text, covering Books I-VII, uses

material from two reprints:

George Bell (London, 1893, one volume). This edition is described on

its title page as “reprinted from the stereotype plates”. These may have

been the original 1851 plates, since the entire _Classical Library_ had

been sold by Bohn to Bell & Daldy, later George Bell.

David McKay (Philadelphia, 1899, two volumes), with introduction by

Edward Brooks. The introductory material from the Bell/Bohn edition is

absent. This edition was freshly typeset, correcting a few errors in the

Bell/Bohn edition but also introducing a number of new errors.

The McKay edition was the “base” of the e-text. The scanned, proofread

text was computer-checked against the text of the Bell edition, and

differences were in turn checked against page images of the printed

books. Where appropriate, the text was checked against one or more

versions of the Latin original. Most differences are trivial. McKay uses

American spelling such as “honor” for “honour”, and compound forms such

as “northwest” for “north-west”; punctuation is often changed, though

some apparent variations may be due to the quality of printing and

reproduction. Non-trivial differences are listed in the Errata, below.

Note that the title page of the Bell edition lists the translator as

“Henry T. Riley, B.A.”, while the McKay edition has “M.A.” The sequence

of dates-- original publication 1851, Riley M.A. 1859, reprint 1893--

supports the idea that the Bell edition is a strict facsimile.

* * * * *

* * * *

_Errors and Anomalies noted by transcriber_

Errors are grouped thematically:

significant errors and inconsistencies;

variant spellings, including name forms;

Greek;

punctuation;

line and footnote numbering.

Abbreviations in the form “II.XIV Exp” mean “Book II, Fable XIV,

Explanation” (appended to most Fables); “Syn” means Synopsis (prefaced

to each Fable).

_Shared errors and irregularities (present in both McKay and Bell

editions), with original text in brackets []_

I.XII: the light breeze spread behind her her careless locks

_read as “spread her careless locks behind her”_

_in McKay, “her her” is printed at a line break and can easily be

mistaken for an error_

I.XII Footnote 82, Pope quotation

_McKay reads “trembling dove” and “reached her”; other

modernizations in spelling are shared by both editions_

I.V: the dreadful carcasses

_anomalous spelling: both editions normally use “carcase(s)”_

II.I _and_ Footnote 16: Hæmus [Hœmus]

II.I Exp: Herse, the daughter of Cecrops (Hersa)

II.III Footnote 57: 2 Kings, xx. 11 [xx. 7]

II.XIV Exp: which Hesychius calls ... [Hesychus]

III.IV Footnote 62: ... Æneid (l. 620) [l. 260]

IV.I Footnote 3: Alcathoë, Leucippe, and Aristippe

_text unchanged; may be error for “Alcithoë”_

IV.II Footnote 39: ‘Virgo victa nitore Dei.’ [uitore]

V.V Footnote 60: The zone, or girdle ... was much worn

_Bell has “was much wore“; McKay has “were much worn”_

V.VI Footnote 75: adjoining to the Elean territory [Eleon]

VI.I: the sley separates the warp

_this technical term is missing from many dictionaries_

VI.III Footnote 47: ‘brekekekekex koäx koäx.’

_text unchanged (one syllable too many)_

VII.IV Footnote 89: the Explanation, p. 242 / p. 270

_final paragraph of the Explanation of Fable VII.III_

VII.V Footnote 92: The Andrian slave, who gives his name [its name]

_Errors or variations introduced by McKay, with original text in

brackets []. Unless otherwise noted, the Bell version was treated as

the correct form. Italics in the translation (here shown in braces {})

are considered non-trivial because they indicate text added by the

translator, not present in the Latin original._

I.II Footnote 19: she was supposed to have her habitation

[habitations]

I.II Footnote 22: Ver. 64. [34]

I.III Exp: the ground became unfruitful [become]

--: as they really happened [happen]

I. VI Footnote 38: Di majorum gentium [Di imajorum]

_intended text may have been “Dii majorum”_

I.VIII Exp: ... that the sea joined its waters

[... the sea joined in its waters]

--: the tradition here followed by Ovid [that tradition]

I.IX: {to endure} these sorrows [to {endure}]

I.X Exp: where he built a temple to Jupiter [when]

I.XII Footnotes 83, 84: Clarke [Clark]

I.XII: Thou, the same, shalt stand [shall]

I.XIII Footnote 92: mount Æta [Ætna]

_the reference is to the Greek mountain now spelled “Eta”_

I.XIII Footnote 96: Pliny the Elder (Book iii. ch. 23)

... Aous [Aeus]

_editions of Pliny vary; the cited passage may also be found as

iii.58 or iii.145_

I.XIII: the wild beasts alone [beast]

I.XVI Exp: Argus was the son of Arestor [Argos]

I.XVII: Thou ... believest thy mother in all things [believes]

I.XVII Footnote 115: He was king of Ethiopia [Ethiopa]

II.I: Ignorant what to do, he is stupefied

_McKay reads “stupei/fied” at page break_

_Bell has “stupified” here, “stupefied” elsewhere_

II.I Footnote 13: Thessaly [Thessalis]

II.I Footnote 18: This was a mountain [A mountain]

II.I Footnote 24: _Cithæron._ [Cithœron]

II.I Footnote 41: Cape Matapan [Metapan]

II.I Exp: the Greek form of it [from]

II.II: a long tract through the air [track]

_Latin: longo ... tractu_

II.VII: Larissæan[69] Coronis [Larissæn]

II.IX: the womb of his mother [the wound]

II.XI: The son of Atlas laughed [sun]

II.XIII Syn: her sister’s apartment [apartments]

_both editions consistently use “apartment”_

II.XIV: which thou seest [seeest]

_this spelling is normal in Bell, but McKay uses “seest” elsewhere_

II.XIV Exp: Palæphatus and Tzetzes suggest [suggests]

III.I Footnote 1: ‘Thebe,’ which signified ‘an ox.’ [signifies]

III.II: the victorious enemy of immense size [in immense size]

III.II Exp: sows the teeth [their]

III.III Footnote 24: _Phyale._ [Phyule]

III.III: Now thou mayst tell [mayest]

III.III Footnote 39: _Pœmenis._ [Parmenis]

III.III: Leucon,[46] with snow-white hair [Luecon]

--: her Cyprian brother, Harpalus,[52] [Harpaulus]

--: Lachne,[54] with a wire-haired body [white-haired]

_Bell text was substituted, but Latin simply has “hirsuta”_

--: and Hylactor,[57] [Hylector]

III.III, Footnote 56: Ver. 224. [254]

III.V: become a woman from a man [became]

_participle: “having become”_

III.VI: with the nearer flame did she burn

_word “did” illegible_

III.VII: grief is taking away [has taken]

_reading “has taken” would require a metrically impossible Latin

“adēmit” for “adĭmit”_

III.VIII, Footnote 89: placed in the number of the Constellations

[the number of Constellations]

III.VIII: ‘Lo! we are here,’ says Opheltes, my chief mate [Ophletes]

--: this Alcimedon approved of [Alcemedon]

--: now confessing that he has offended [had offended]

III.VIII Exp: ... tore him in pieces. Pausanias, however ...

[to pieces, Pausanius]

--: The story ... is supposed by Bochart [Bochârt]

IV.I Footnote 1: ... Pausanias says that the Bœotians

[Pausanius]

IV.I Footnote 8: _Thyoneus._ [Phyoneus]

IV.I: the grass wet with rime [went]

--: they determine, in the silent night [determined]

--: The arrangement suits them [arrangements]

--: the most unhappy cause and companion [anhappy]

IV.I Footnote 22: _The lead decaying._

_footnote marker missing_

IV.II Syn: the intrigue between Mars and Venus [betwen]

IV.II: nor {yet} Clytie [not]

IV.II Footnote 37: Abas, Acrisius, Danaë, Perseus [Danae, Persus]

IV.II: with her twirling spindle [with twirling spindle]

IV.V Footnote 48: (laborabat) ... ‘auxiliares.’

[(laborat) ... ‘auxiliaries.’]

IV.VII: And what madness can do [what madness man can do]

_“madness” is the grammatical subject: “quidque furor valeat”_

IV.VII Footnote 57: These were the Furies [furies]

IV.VII Footnote 63: Tisiphone importuna [importune]

IV.VII Exp: by whom he had Helle and Phryxus [Phrysus]

IV.VIII Exp: Bochart says [Bochard]

_last letter of “Bochart” illegible in Bell_

IV.X: Soon as the descendant of Abas beheld her [So soon as]

_Bell wording adopted for consistency_

--: When he has lighted {on the ground}

_“on the ground” not italicized_

IV.X Footnote 84: præpetes [præptes]

IV.X: on the silent plain [on the salient plain]

_“salient” is clearly wrong, but “silent plain” is also an odd

translation of “vacuo ... arvo”_

IV.X Exp: more common than it had been before [more common that]

V.I: both by his merits and his words [its merits]

V.I Footnote 7: _Syene._ ... (Book i. Ep. 5, l. 79)

_text reads “Book i. Ep. i. 79”; in the Bell printing the letter

“l” is damaged and could be misread as “i”_

V.I: thou, both her uncle and her betrothed [though, both]

V.I Footnote 8: a swingeing bowl [swinging]

V.I: the middle of the neck {of Pettalus} [Pattalus]

V.II Footnote 32: Ver. 302. [303]

V.III Footnote 43: pressed down by Lilybœum [Lilybæum]

V.IV: both her mother and her companions,[48] [and companions]

V.IV Footnote 50: _The Palici._ [Palaci]

V.IV Footnote 51: Dionysus [Dionysius]

_the names “Bacchius” and “Bacchus” in the same footnote are each

correct as printed_

V.IV Footnote 57: Cinnus [Cinus]

V.IV Footnote 61: tunc denique raptam Scisset [raptum]

_Bell also has “tum” for “tunc”; both words are valid_

V.IV Exp: the Isis of the Egyptians [the Isis of Egyptians]

--: the following circumstance: [circumstances:]

V.V Syn: Ceres proceeds in a fruitless search [the fruitless]

--: The Sirens have wings [rings]

V.V: it is {a mark of} affection [a {mark of}]

V.V: Footnote 67: The Greek name of a lizard being ἀσκάλαβος

[a lizard ἀσκάλαβος]

V.VI: Erymanthus and Elis [Eyramanthus]

--: Ho, Arethusa! Ho, Arethusa!

_text reads “Ho, Arethusa! Ho, Ar-/thusa!” at line break_

V.VI Exp: the oracle of Delphi [at Delphi]

V.VII: entrusted {to him} [to {him}]

V.VII Exp: which signified either ‘a winged dragon,’ or ‘a ship fastened

with iron nails or bolts.’ [signifies ... nails and bolts]

--: explainer of the mysteries of Eleusis [Eleusi]

VI.I Footnote 3: the purple [purples]

VI.I Exp: unless we should prefer [he]

--: St. Augustine [Augustin]

--: calling their attention to agricultural pursuits [agricultual]

--: had himself taken the figure

_text has “the // the” at page break_

--: numerous in the interior of Africa [is the]

VI.II: what {I wish} may fall upon herself [what I {wish}]

--: their wonted exercise {of riding} [of {riding}]

VI.III: her suckling breasts [sucking]

VI.IV: after he had drawn his clothes from his shoulder towards his

breast [shoulders]

_The Latin reads “... umeroque suas a pectore [or: ad pectora]

postquam / deduxit [or: diduxit] vestes ebur ostendisse sinistro”. It

is possible to construct a Latin variation that would translate as

“from his shoulders”, but editorial or typographic error is a much

likelier explanation._

VI.IV Exp: Livy and Quintus Curtius [Quintius]

--: Marsyas may have been rash enough [Maryas]

VI.V: beyond what is becoming [his]

VI.VI: forced {from her} [{from} her]

--: from excess of affection [from the excess]

VI.VII Footnote 73: and in the Art of Love [and the Art ...]

VII.I: {is wont} to increase [is {wont}]

VII.II: a counterfeited quarrel [counterfeit]

--: the guards together with their king [with the king]

_Latin “rege suo”_

--: they turn away their eyes [they, turning away their eyes]

_Latin “oculosque reflectunt”_

VII.III Footnote 62: ... This was not Thessalian Tempe

_“w” in “was” invisible_

VII.III Footnote 69: who was said to have lived there

[who was to have]

VII.III Exp: the young princess perished in the greatest misery

_text has “in / in” at line break_

--: the account of the women of Cos being changed [accounts]

VII.IV Footnote 75: dragged from Tartarus by Hercules [Herculea]

VII.IV Footnote 86: Anaphe [Anophe]

VII.V Syn: the island of Ægina [islands]

VII.V: the grandson of Asopus says, “Thou askest in vain [asketh]

--: the souls of sons, and of husbands [the souls of the sons]

VII.VI Exp: gave occasion to the report [of the report]

VII.VII Syn: discovering his suspicions [suspicion]

VII.VII: {standing} in the middle [{standiny}]

VII.VIII Exp: as Apollodorus tells us [tell]

_Corrections made by McKay, with Bell/Bohn text shown in brackets_

III.VI Exp: phenomenon (_two occurrences_)

_Bell spells “phœnomenon” (error for “phænomenon”)_

IV.IV Exp: beloved by Smilax [Simlax]

IV.V heading:

_Bell misprints “Fable IV”_

IV.VII Exp: Learchus and Melicerta [Melacerta]

V.I Footnote 17: _Now deceived._ [How deceived]

_footnote marker missing in Bell_

VI.II Exp: Valerius Flaccus relates the sorrow of Clytie [Clyte]

VI.VI Exp: the ancients thereby portrayed [pourtrayed]

VI.VII Footnote 74: _The Ciconians._

_footnote marker missing in Bell_

VII.II Footnote 40: _And his hair._

_footnote marker missing in Bell_

_Variations_

The readings listed here are “wrong” in the sense that they are

different from what is found in the Bell/Bohn text, but they are

acceptable translations of the Latin. The Bell text is shown in

brackets.

III.II: The Earth, too, scraped with the scales [his scales]

--: nor engage thyself in civil war [a civil war]

--: the youths ... beat with throbbing breast [breasts]

III.III: to bathe her virgin limbs in clear water [the clear water]

III.VIII: in vain try to restrain him [strive]

--: I made observations with my eyes [observation]

IV.I: the Sun, with its rays [his rays]

IV.VII: foam formed in the hollowed deep [hallowed]

_The Latin has at least three variant readings: “in medio ...

profundo”, “immenso ... profundo” and “dīo profundo”. Riley’s

translation must have been based on the “dio” reading._

IV.X: the name both of her country and herself

[... of the country and of herself]

V.IV: grasp {in your hand} [{in your hands}]

_the Latin has only the verb “prendere” (grasp)_

V.VI: thy darts enclosed in a quiver [the quiver]

VI.III: oft to sit on the bank of the pool [often]

VI.V: delay will be tedious to me, and [to me. And]

VI.VI: she prepared for a horrible deed [horrid]

VII.II: to go far thence [afar]

_Unusual or Inconsistent Spellings and Name Forms_

Dieresis is unpredictable in both editions; forms such as “Phaeton”,

“Ocyrrhöe” and “Danäe” are common, and have been silently corrected.

Since the ligatures “æ” and “œ” are used consistently, dieresis can be

assumed even when not explicitly indicated.

_Unless otherwise noted, comments apply to both texts._

III.VIII Footnote 92: the buccanier Morgan

IV.VIII Exp: they beheld stedfastly

V.II, VI.V: villany

Cæus, Calisto, Lilybœus, Phyale, Phryxus, Progne

_these forms are used consistently; the original forms are Cœus

(Κοιος), Callisto (Καλλιστω), Lilybæus (Λιλυβαιος), Phiale (Φιαλη),

Phrixus (Φριξος), Procne (Προκνη). Note that in the main text, the

name “Callisto” is never used, probably on metrical grounds._

Damasicthon, Erectheus _and similar_

_spellings in “-cth-” used consistently in place of “-chth-” (-χθ-).

Achæa/Achaia; Ethiopia/Æthiopia; Phocea/Phocæa; Proserpine/Proserpina

_both forms occur, with McKay text following Bell in all cases_

_Greek_

_Most errors in Greek words can be attributed to a typesetter who did

not know Greek. Errors and omissions in diacritical marks have been

silently corrected; only the more significant errors are listed._

I.VII Footnote 47: ἐν τῇ ἔρα ναίειν [ἵρα ναιειν (McKay)]

II.XII Footnote 84: δέξαι [δεζαί (McKay)]

II.XIV Exp: Ἑλλωτὶς

_both texts read Ἐλλωτὶς with smooth breathing_

III.III Footnote 50: θοὸς

_both texts read θοὺς_

III.IV Exp: Πανβασίλεια [Πανβασιγεια (McKay)]

III.VI Footnote 68: Λείριον [Λείοιον (McKay)]

III.VIII Footnote 86: ἀκοίτης

_McKay reads ἁκόιτης with rough breathing; both have misplaced accent_

III.VIII Footnote 87: ὠλέναι

_both texts read ωλήναι; McKay has initial ώ for ὠ_

IV.I Footnote 5: Εὐοῖ Βάκχε, ὦ Ἰακχε, Ιώ Βάκχε, Εὐοῖ σαβοῖ

_text given as printed; exact form (with consistent capitalization)

is probably Εὐοῖ Βάκχε, Ὦ Ἴακχε, Ἰώ Βάκχε, Εὐοῖ σαβαῖ_

IV.I Footnote 6: λύειν [κύειν (McKay)]

V.II Footnote 31: χαῖρε, χαῖρε [χαῖρε, χσἴρε (McKay)]

VII.VI Footnote 105: πελειαδαι

_text unchanged, but intended form is probably πελειάδες_

VII.VI Exp: μύρμηξ [μύρμης (McKay)]

_Punctuation_

_The McKay (Philadelphia) edition sometimes uses double quotes where the

Bell (London) edition used single quotes. These are not individually

noted; neither is variation between colons and semicolons, and random

use of commas. Invisible punctuation at line-end has been supplied from

Bell._

_Shared errors and irregularities in punctuation_

IV.VII Footnote 69: _Guiltless granddaughter._

_both print “grand-daughter” with anomalous hyphen_

VI.III: ‘Young man, there is no mountain Divinity for this altar....

_This embedded single quote was apparently abandoned by the editor;

each double quote for the remainder of the Fable should be accompanied

by a single quote._

I.XII Footnote 80: quod amor non est / medicabilis herbis.’

IV.I: our words to our loving ears.’

IV.IV: I will entertain your minds with a pleasing novelty.”

IV.X: {if} preserved by my valor.”

IV.X: those snakes which she {thus} produced.”

V.II: oft have the Gods above entered more humble cottages.’

V.II: Let the Nymphs decide the contest.”

_close quote missing in all_

_Punctuation errors introduced in McKay edition_

[Verso of title page] Sherman & Co., Philadelphia

_period invisible_

[General Introduction] about, ninety miles from Rome

_here and elsewhere, commas are as in the original_

I.VI Exp: for it repenteth me that I have made them.’” [made them’]

_Bell omits quotes for Biblical citation_

III.III: Thoüs,[50] [Thoüs,[50],]

IV.II: and he, no longer delaying [and, he,]

--: ‘I am he .... thou art pleasing to me.’ [‘I am .... to me.”]

IV.VII: with newly formed wings? [wings!]

V.VI: Why art thou, Arethusa, a sacred spring?’

_missing close quote_

V.VI Exp: a mere fable; [fable!]

VI.II: she says, “What madness is this

_missing open quote_

--: exult and triumph, my victorious enemy. But why victorious?

[enemy, But why v’ctorious?]

VI.III: hold out their little arms from my bosom’

_missing close quote_

VII.IV Exp: Egyptian notions on the future state of man. [of man,]

VII.V Syn: the surprising manner in which it had been re-peopled.

_invisible hyphen_

VII.V: says Cephalus:[99] “and I pray

_missing open quote_

--: not room sufficient for the tombs, nor trees for the fires.”

_missing close quote_

VII.VI: shall have changed to the South.”

_missing close quote_

_Footnote Numbers_

_Errors in McKay edition_

Bk. I, ll. 516-531 (Fable I.XII)

Footnotes on this page were printed as 66-69 instead of 76-79

(e-text note numbers 78-81); other pages were not affected.

Bk. IV, note 17*.

The footnote tag was numbered as a second 17; the note itself was

numbered the first of two 18.

_Adjustments_

In the original text-- both editions-- footnote numbers began from 1 in

each Book, and started over when the count passed 99. Almost all Books

had duplications in the sequence, usually in the form “17*”. In this

e-text, footnotes have been renumbered consecutively within each Book,

without duplication; Books I and VII continue past 100.

Interpolations:

Bk. I: 51*, 67*

Bk. II: 4*, 71*

Bk. III: 72*, 88*

Bk. IV: 17*, 37*, 77*

Bk. V: 46*, 76*

Bk. VI: (no change from original sequence)

Bk. VII: 4*, 73*, 2* (second series)

_Line Numbers (printed as page headers)_

Line numbers in the McKay edition were generally correct, although

different from those in Bell due to changes in pagination. Some book

numbers in the McKay edition were misprinted:

[II. 550-564] _printed as Bk. XV_

[II. 605-632] _printed as Bk. XV_

[II. 632-651] _printed as Bk. XIV_

[II. 652-675] _printed as Bk. XV_

[II. 676-693] _printed as Bk. XV_

[IV. 233-237] _printed as Bk. I_

[V. 95-123] _printed as Bk. IV_

[V. 123-151] _printed as Bk. IV_

[V. 350-373] _printed as Bk. IV_