Conje&uring thus fome grateful hero faid, As from the rill refresh'd he rais'd his head : 1730 Ye gods! though abfent, great Alcides gives Euphemus foon, and Boreas' fons his friends, He fear'd no rival, nor declin'd the fight. To Pluto's realms prophetic Mopfus fled, But all whome'er the foodful earth contains, Medea trembled and her female train : 1809 His flesh all putrid from the taint within, His corfe the bright-arm'd heroes thrice furround, In fad fufpenfe, ftill wishing to forfake, A ferpent thus, long fcorch'd with fummer's heat, 1830 Winds to fome fecret chink, his cool retreat. 1840 The hofpitable pledge my hand extends, The best I now can give, accept, my friends. Would you o'er ocean's paths your courfe dif[learn, And learn the tracks which ftrangers wish to · cern, Hear! from my fire, the monarch of the main, I boast my science; o'er these feas I reign. Perchance ev'n you, though distant far you 1847 ་ came, May recognife Eurypylus's name, In Libya born.' He faid: Euphemus took The proffer'd foil, and thus refponfive spoke : "If fuch thy knowledge, friendly chief, explain "Where Atthis lies, where rolls the Cretan main. "Reluctant fail'd we towards the Libyan coaft, "By angry heaven and adverse tempests toft : "By land, with Argo n'er our shoulders caft, "We toil'd, and launch'd her in this lake at last. "Nor can we yet our certain course devife, 1857 "Where full in profpect Pelops' realms will rife." He faid: his hand out-stretching, Triton how The lake's wide mouth, and fea expos'd to view. Where the lake blackens, and its waters fleep, Expect,' he cries, a paffage to the deep. • Obferve the cliffs high towering on each fide, And through the ftreight they form your veffel guide. [ikies, There, above Crete, where, mingling with the Yon ocean fpreads, the land of Felops' lies. When to the right th' expanded lake ye leave, • And the fafe feas your mighty freight receive, Still cautious coaft along the winding strand, Till you the cape's projecting fides command: Your courfe, that cape once doubled, fafe purfue, 1871 Your fhip uninjur'd, and undaunted you. • Thus gladden'd, go; nor let your vigorous arms 1880 Dread deity, who late confpicuous stood On the clear margin of this rolling flood, Whether great Triton's name delight thine ear, Triton, whom all the watery gods revere : 1890 Or ocean's daughters, as they found thy fame, Thee mighty Nereus, or thee Phorcuns name, 'Be bounteous ftill: bid all our labours cease, And reinstate us in our native Greece.' Thus pray'd the chief, as on the poop he stood, And funk the flaughter'd victim in the flood. His head above the billows Triton rear'd, And in his proper fhape the god appear/d. As when, intent his fiery steed to train, The horfeman leads him to the dusty plain, 1900 Thus Triton's hands the veffel's head fuftain, The evening ftar now lifts, as daylight fades, 1939 All night, all day, they ply their bending oars The queen of isles; but Crete they view in vain. Whole feas roll back, and toffing fwell in floods. Amaz'd the towering monfter they survey, And trembling view the interdicted bay. His birth he drew from giants fprung from oak, Or the hard entrails of the ftubborn rock: Fierce guard of Crete! who thrice each year explores [shorts, The trembling ife, and ftrides from fhores to A form of living brafs! one part beneath 1951 Alone he bears, a part to let in death, Where o'er the ankle fwells the turgid vein, Soft to the ftroke, and sensible of pain. Pining with want, and funk in deep dismay, From Crete far diftant had they fail'd away, But the fair forceress their speed reprefs'd, And thus the crew difconfolate addrefs'd: 'Attend. This monster, ribb'd with brass a ⚫ round, 'My art, I ween, will level to the ground. 1960 'Whate'er his name, his ftrength however great, Still, not immortal, muft he yield to fate. The lines thus marked ‡ are Broome's, who las tranflated the ftory of Talus ; not without feveral omij | fions, which are bere supplied. But from the far-thrown fragments fafe retreat, Till proftrate fall the giant at my feet.' She faid: retiring at her fage command, They wait the movement of her magic hand. Wide o'er her face her purple veil fhe spread, And climb'd the lofty decks, by Jafon led. And now her magic arts Medea tries; Bids the red furies, dogs of Orcus, rise, 1970 That, ftarting dreadful from th' infernal fhade, Ride heaven in ftorms, and all that breathes invade. Thrice he applies the power of magic pray'r, Thrice, hellward bending, mutters charms in air; 1980 [fly, Then, turning towards the foe, bids mifchief And looks deftruction, as the points her eye. Then spectres, rifing from Tartarean bow'rs, Howl round in air, or grin along the fhores. Father Supreme! what fears my breaft annoy, Since not difeafe alone can life destroy, Or wounds inflicted fate's decrees fulfil, But magic's fecret arts have pow'r to kill! For, by Medea's incantations plied, Enfeebled foon the brazen monster died. While rending up the earth in wrath he throws Rock after rock against th' aërial foes, Lo! frantic as he ftrides, a fudden wound Bursts the life-vein, and blood o'erfpreads the ground. As from a furnace, in a burning flood # Pours melting lead, fo pours in ftreams his blood: 1990 And now he staggers, as the fpirit flies, [found, Then tambling downward with a thundering Headlong it falls, and spreads a length of ground: 2002 So, as the giant falls, the ocean roars, Spread, as it rofe, its rueful fhades around. 2020 The tears faft trickling down his forrowing face, 2030 Where, frowning hideous o'er the deeps below, On when the name Aglete they bestow; Beheld a lovely female form arife. Charm'd with the beauteous fair, he foon refign'd To nuptial joys his love-devoted mind, Lamenting ftill that he the maid should wed, Whom at his fostering breast with milk he fed. "Thy children's nurfe am 1," (the fair began, Accofting mild the difconcerted man); "But not thy daughter: I from Triton came; "(Triton and Libya my parents' name) "He fix'd near Anaphe my watery cell, [dwell. "And bade me here with Nereus' daughters "But now t haften towards the fun's bright ray, "And to thy race the choiceft boon convey." 2070 This dream recurring to his mind agair, He told the leader of the gallant train, Who, long revolving, thus at length reveal'd Thofe myftic truths the Pythic fhrine conceal'd: Ye gods! what glory waits thy valorous deeds, What fame, Euphemus, to thy toil fucceeds!! For, when in ocean's bed this earth you fling, He tore from Afric's coaft the treafur'd foil; Thus fpoke he prefcient, nor in vain divin'd: To Sparta's friendly walls they bent their course : 2100 Vaft tracts of ocean pafs'd, the joyous hoft And, ere his fellows intercept his way, Where oppofite Eubœa Aulis lies, And where the Locrian cities lofty rife, 2119 NOTES ON BOOK IV. of Africa, in the moft glowing colours. This book appears, indeed, in every view of it, equal, if not fuperior, to any of the foregoing. We meet with fome obfcurities. The tranilator confeffes his inability to afcertain the true fenfe of every intri cate paffage. Let it, however, be fome alleviation of his errors, that his guides have been but few, and they not always the most intelligent; and that no part of this book, except only the ftory of Talus, has appeared in an English dress, before the prefent verfion was published. Ver. 32. The cuftom of killing beds, columns, and doors, before they were obliged to quit them, occurs frequently in the Greek tragedians. Ver. 1. Tue first and fecond books contain, as we have feen, the voyage of the Argonauts to Colchis. In the book we are now entering upon, the poet has given us an account of the route they took on their return. And, in order to throw the utmost variety into his poem, he has con. ducted them to Greece by a way altogether new and unknown. He makes them fail up the Ifter, and by an arm of that river, to the Eridanus, and from thence to the Rhone. Apollonius's geography is, in many inflances, very exceptionable. The licence which poets are allowed, quidlibet audendi, is his beft excufe for inaccuracies of this kind. Scaliger, who feldom fpares our author, does not fcruple to affert, that, " quod attinet ad Ver. 33. It was customary for young women, "fitum orbis terrarum, fanè imperitus regionum before the nuptial ceremony was performed, to "fuit Apollonius. De Iftro, dii bonii! quas nu- prefent their hair to fome deity, to whom they gas." But let it be remembered, that not only had particular obligations. Medea, therefore, prepoots have trifled in their defcriptions of this rivious to her departure and marriage with Jafon, ver, but that hiftorians and geographers, who have prefents a lock of hair to her mother, to be depo attempted to explain its courfe, have given very fited by her in the temple of fome deity to whom different and inconfiftent accounts of it. Many it was confecrated. curious traditions, and entertaining pieces of ancient Greek history are interfperfed throughout this bk. The fpeeches of Medea can never be enough admired. Her fentiments are admirably fuited to her condition; they are fimple, unaffec-read; ted, and calculated to raise our pity. Our poct has difplayed a luxuriant fancy in his defcription of the nuptials of Jason and Medea; and he has painted the digreffes of his Argonauts, on the coaft Ver. 64. Latmos was a mountain in Caria, in whofe cave the moon was faid by the poets to vifit Endymion. Thus, in Valerius Flaccus, who feems to have had this paffage in his eye, we Latmius æftivå refidet venator in umbrâ, Lib. viii. 29. Ver. 2. Several parts of the body were confidered by the ancients as the feats of virtues and vices, of good and bad qualities. Modefty was affigned to the eyes, fagacity and derifion to the nofe, pride and difdain to the eye-brows, and pity to the knees; which, it was cuftomary for fuppliants, when they made their requests, to touch and embrace with reverence. Ver. 123. Xenophon, de Venatione, makes the fame obfervation, iživas zgwi, exire diluculo. The fame remark is made by Oppian and others. Ver. 143. This noble hyperbole was copied by Virgil, B. vii. v. 515. where, speaking of Alecto, he fays, With her full force a mighty horn fhe winds; Pitt. This circumstance of the mothers clafping their infants to their breasts, is a very tender and affecting one. The poets feem particularly fond of it. We meet with it in the Troades of Euripides; and Camoens, in his imitation of thefe ftriking paffages in Apollonius and Virgil, was too fenfible of its beauty to omit it. Such was the tempeft of the dread alarms, Shriek'd at the founds: with fudden cold impreft, The mothers ftrain'd the infants to the breast, The Lufiad, B. iv. p. 124. Ver. 203. Mr. Warton is of opinion, that Virgil had this beautiful paffage in his eye in the following lines: Expleri nequit, atque oculis per fingula voluit, Æn. viii, v. 618. ters: the Greeks generally ordered their affairs according to the appearance of the moon, efpecially thofe two of the new and full moon. The Spartans held it criminal to begin any great defign till after they had confidered the moon, as the appeared when new and at the full. The Arcadians, contrary to this general custom of the Greeks, transacted all their business of importance before the appearance of the new moon, or that of the full; and were, therefore, called in derision, pria for their neglect of this religious ceremony. Which term of reproach the Arcadians applied to their commendation, and fhrewdly affirmed, that they were entitled to this epithet, becaufe their nation was more ancient than the moon. Ver. 301. Sefoftris not only overran the countries which Alexander afterwards invaded; but croffed both the Indus and the Ganges; and thence penetrated into the eastern ocean. He then turned to the north, and attacked the nations of Scythia; till he at last arrived at the Tanais, which divides Europe and Afia. Here he founded a colony; leaving behind him fome of his people, as he had just before done at Colchis. He fubdued Afia Minor, and all the regions of Europe; where he erected pillars with hieroglyphical infcriptions, denoting, that these parts of the world had been fubdued by the great Sefoftris or Sefoofis. Diodorus. Sic L. i. p. 49. Apollonius Rhodius, who is thought to have been a native of Egypt, fpeaks of the exploits of this prince, but mentions no name: not knowing, perhaps, by which properly to diftinguish him, as he was reprefented under fo many. He reprefents him as conquering all Afia many of the cities which he built, were in ruins and Europe; and this in times fo remote, that before the era of the Argonauts. Bryant. Ver. 311. The Colchians, fays the Scholiaft, fill retain the laws and cuftoms of their forefathers; and they have pillars of ftone, upon which are engraved maps of the continent and of the ocean. The poet calls thefe pillars xúbus; which, we are told, were of a square figure, like obelisks. Thefe delineations had been made of old, and tranfmitted to the Colchians by their forefathers; which forefathers were from Egypt. The Egyptians were very famous for geometrical knowledge. All the flat part of this country being overflowed, it is reafonable to fuppofe, that they made ufe of this fcience to determine their lands, and to make out their feveral claims at the retreat of the waters. Bryant. Ver. 451. Thus Dido, in a fit of defpondency and rage, threatens Encas: Et cum frigida mors anima feduxerit artus, Ver. 292. By Selene, and Selenia, is meant the ark, of which the moon was only an emblem; and from thence the Arcades, or Arkites, had the appellation of Selenitæ. When, therefore, it is faid that the Arcades were prior to the moon, it Ver. 526. Our poet, whenever he introduces means only, that they were conftituted into a na- moral fentences, which is but feldom, takes care tion before the worship of the ark prevailed, and to do it with the utmost propriety; at a time before the first war upon earth commenced. Bry- when the occafion warrants the use of them, and ant. This boast of the Arcadians, that they were gives additional force and luftre to the truths a nation before the moon gave light to the world, which they convey. Virgil has adopted this fenis allo thus accounted for by fome ingenious wri-timent of Apollonius on a fimilar occafion : |