NOTES ON THE THEOGONY. Ver. 33. This extravagance in our poet has been the fubject of fatire to fome; but Lucian has been the most fevere in his dialogue betwixt himself and Hefiod. Ovid has an allufion to this paffage in the beginning of his Art of Love; which Dryden has thus tranflated: Nor Cho, nor her fifters, have I seen. This flight, however extravagant it may feem to fome, certainly adds a grace to the poem; and whoever confults the nineteenth ede of the fecond Ver. I. I fhall refer the reader to what I have faid in the fecond and fourth fections of my Difcourfe on the writings of Hefiod, concerning the genuineness of the beginning of this poem, and the explanation of the Theogony. Our author here takes an occafion to celebrate the offices and power of the mufes, and to give a fhort repetition of the greater deities. To what end is this grand affembly of divine perfonages introduced? To infpire the poet with thoughts fuitable to the dignity of their characters; and by raifing his imagination to fuch a height, as to believe they prefide over his labours, he becomes the amanuenfis of the gods. The mufes, fays the Earl of Shaftesbury, in his letter concerning enthufiafm, were fo many Ver. 46. The poet here, from the mouth of the divine perfons in the heathen creed. The fame noble writer has in that difcourfe elegantly fhow-Though he proposes to give an historical and phymufe, prepares the reader for what he is to expect. ed the neceffity and beauty of enthufiafm in poetry. fical relation of the generation of the gods, acVer. 2. A mountain in Ecotia, fo called from cording to the received opinion, yet fupplies from the Phoenician word, bhalik, or bhalikon, which fig invention are neceffary to make the work agreenifies a high mountain. Bochart, in his Chan. book i. chap. 16, fhows that Bestia was full of Phoenician names and colonies. Le Clerc. Paufa. nias, in his Botics, fays Helicon excells all the mountains in Greece, in the abundance and virtues of the trees which grow on it: he likewife tells us it produces no letiferous herbs or roots. Ver. 5. Grævius and Le Clerc both agree in this reading, and derived; from ;, having the dusky colour of iron; they likewife bring inftances from Homer, and other poets, of the fame word being ufed to the fea, rivers, and fountains; by which epithet, fay they, they expreffed the depth and plenty of the water. book, and the fourth of the third book of Horace, will find this fort of enthufiafm carried to a great height. able as a pocm. Ver. 56. Le Clerc has a long note on this verse, be fo called a from Claud. Salmafius, proving the rhapfadifts to bough in their hands, in imitation of the ancient Te gates, from finging with a poets; which bough was of laurel: but why of laurel before any other? The Scholiaft Tzetzes gave two very good reafons; firft, fays he, the poet makes the fceptre, which he received from the mules, of laurel, because Helicon, the place on which they prefented it, abounds with that tree; fecondly, as the laurel is ever green, it is the most proper emblem of works of genius, which never fade. Ver. 8. Faufanias, and Tzetzes after him, reads Ver. 59. Exactly the fame is the flight in the it Termes but this may proceed from their ig-fourth ode of the third book of Horace: norance of the radix, which, fays Le Clerc, is the Phoenician word pheer-mcifo: the interpretation of which is a pure fountain. The river is at the foot of Helicon. Ver. 9. The Phoenician word, fays Bochart, is bappbigran, which fignifies the eruption of a fountain: the word being corrupted into Hippocrene, gave rife to the ftory of the fountain of the horie. Le Clerc. Ver. 10. The Phenician word is bbel-maio, fweet water. Le Clerc. Ver. 12. The hiftorical and phyfical interpretation of the deities here mentioned, I fhall defer til! I come to them in the courfe of the Theogony. Ver. 22. Sonie tranflate this paffage nigris oculis, and Le Clerc chocfes blandis: I would correct them, and have it arched or bending. Tzetzes entirely favours my interpretation of saxcasager, eye-brows arched into a circle; a metaphor taken, faye he, in Two Tn; afwiks ehizer, from the curling of the vine. an me ludit amabilis The fenfe of which, in fhort, is this: "Am I Quo me, Bacche, rapis tui Velox mente novâ! Lib. 3. Od. 25. It is worth obferving, that the best poets are generally meft poetical in their invocations, or in other parts, where a deity is introduced; for then they feem to be overpowered with the inspiration; but here the fire imagination, and exalted genius, are most required, that while fancy takes her full ftretch in fiction, it may feem the real "numinis "aflatus." ་་ Ver. 68. Le Clerc judiciously obferves, that the poets frequently make inanimate beings affected, or with joy or grief, when there is reafon for either, that it may be faid, even inanimate beings are moved. This, I think, is a boldness feldom practifed but by the best poets, and moft frequent. ly among the ancients. We find it with as much fuccefs as any where in the poetical parts of the Old Teftament. "The valties fhall stand so thick with corn that "they fhall laugh and fing." Pfalm lvi. ver. 14. "To thee the waters of the ocean fmile." I give these three quotations to show as the Latin were followers of the Greek poets, it is not unlikely the Greek might imitate the ftyle of the caftern writers in many places. Ver. 81. Mnemofyne, the fame with memory, is here made a perfon, and the mother of the mufes; which, with the etymology of the word pieria, which Le Clerc tells us, is, in the Phoenician tongue, fruitfulnefs, and the note to the first verfe of the Works and Days, will let us clearly into the poetical meaning of the parents and birthplace of the mufes. The fame critic derives the word mufe from the Phoenician word motfa, the feminine for inventor. See farther in the Discourse, &c. It will now be proper to inquire into the reafon of the poet making Mnemofyne emprefs of Eleuther. Eleuther is a part of Boatia, fo called from a prince of that name: here, fays Tzetzes, the poet endeavours to add a glory to his country; for though the mufes themselves were born on Pieria, he makes their mother a Baotian. Pieria is the name of a mountain, and a country lying beneath it, bounded on the north with Theffaly, and on the fouth with Macedon. Le Clerc derives the word Eleuther from the Phoenician word Halethir, a high place from which we see afar off, which word is a compound of balab, to ascend, and bour, to fee afar off. The reader must here oblerve, that great part of the art of this poem depends on the etymology of the words, and on the protopopias. Plutarch, in his rules for the edu. cation of children, has obferved, that the mythologifts have judiciously made Mnentofyne the mother of the mufes, intimating that nothing fo much cherines learning as the memory. Ver. 96. A mountain in Theffaly, which, for the extraordinary height, is often used for hea Ver. 109. Le Clerc here raifes a difficulty, and I think without reafon; he fays the poet fo con founds the man Jupiter with the god, that he knows not how to account for it. The poet could here defign no other but the Supreme Being; first for the honour of poetry, as appears from fome following verfes; and fecondly, becaufe God is the fource of all wifdom, he is the father of the muses, who prefide over the principal arts. Ver. 119. The names of the mufes, and their derivations. Clio, from xào, to celebrate, to retider glorious. Melpomene, from us, to fing or warble. Euterpe, from su and rigro, to delight well. Terpsichore, from rig to delight, and xogos a choir. Erato, from seaw, to love. Thalia, from 9a banquets, or Juλaw, to flourish. Po. lymnia, kus many, and upves a fong or hymn. Urania, from ougave; heaven. Calliope, from 205 beautiful, and of a voice. Our poet attributes no particular art to each mufe; but, according to him, poetry is the province of all. Calliope, indeed, is diftinguished from the reft, as prefiding over the greater fort of poetry. See the Difcourfe on the Theology of the ancients, &c. Ver. 134. Le Clerc tells us, from Dionyfius Halicarnaffeus, that, at firft, all the cities in Greece looked on their kings as their judges to determine all controverted points; and he was efteemed the best king who was the best judge, and the strictest obferver of the laws: for the certainty of this, we need no better authority than our own poet, and particularly in his Works and Days: it is wortit obferving how very careful he is to infpire his readers with fentiments of refpect and dignity towards their rulers; and to increase our reverence for them, he derives them from the great Ruler of the univerfe; and from the fame origin are the mufes; all which must be thus understood, the prince owes all his regal honours and power to the Supreme Being, and no lefs than Almighty aid is neceffary to make a good poet. I can add nothing more proper to what I have faid concerning princes, their office, and derivation of their power, than the first three verfes of the fixth chapter of the Wifdom of Solomon. "Hear, therefore, O ye "kings, and understand; learn ye that be judges "of the ends of the earth, give ear, you that rule "the people, and glory in the multitude of na tions; for power is given you of the Lord, and "fovereignty from the higheft; who shall try your "works, and fearch out your counfels." Ver. 156. This, and the nine following verfes, are by fome attributed to Homer, among the fragments of that poet; where the mistake lies, I cannot tell; but I fhall here take an occafion to account, in general, for feveral verfes in the Iliad, Odyfles, the Works and Days, and the Theogony, being alike; they are either fuch as where they mention the Pleiades, Hyades, and Orion, conftel lations which were moft taken notice of by the old poets, and the names of which naturally run into an hexameter verfe; or fuch as were common or proverbial fayings of the times, which circumstances render it very poffible for divers to have wrote the fame lines without one ever feeing the works of the other. I am perfuaded that all or most of the fimilar paffages in these two poets are of this nature. If, therefore, fome of the old fcholiafts and commentators had thoroughly confidered this, they would not have had so many impertinencies in their remarks as they have. Ver. 172. I know not how this is to be taken but phyfically; if we fuppofe all things to be the offsprings of Chaos, which are all natural beings, they may properly be faid to be nourished by the main, that is by prolific humour. In this fenfe Milton, in the feventh book of his Paradife Loft, judiciously uses the word, speaking of the crea tion. Over all the face of the earth Main ocean flow'd, not idle, but with warm Ver. 190. In my interpretation of the generation of the deities I fhall chiefly have regard to the phyfical meanings; fuch paffages as I leave unobferved are what any reader with little trouble may clear to himself, after he has feen my explanations of the most material. This fable, fays Lord Bacon, in his Wifdom of the Ancients, fpeaking of Heaven, feems to contain an enigma of the origin of things, not much different from the truth of the divine word, which tells us of a deformed matter before the works of the fix days. To this eternity of confufed matter Milton alludes in the feventh book of his Paradife Loft. Far into Chaos, and the world unborn. Ver. 191. Plato, in his Phedo, fays the earth was the feat and foundation of the gods, aderary he calls them, to show that the gods were once preferved with pious men. Tzetz. This is ftrange philofophy, to imagine any beings to have a beginning, and yet immutable and immortal from their firft rife; but it is apparent that the poet makes matter precede all things, even the gods. Guietus judges the next verfe to be fuppofititious. Ver. 194. Tartarus, or hell, is faid to be brought forth with the earth, because it is feigned to be in the inmost receffes of the earth. The word Tartarus is derived from the Phænician țarabbṭarabb, the radix of which is the Hebrew and Arabic tarabb, which fignifies, he created trouble. Le Clerc. Ver. 196. This fable alludes to, and enters into the cradle of nature. Love feems to be the appetite, or ftimulation, of the first matter; or, to speak more intelligible, the natural motion of the atom. Lord Bacon. Ver. 202. It is rightly obferved that darkness was over all till the fky was illumined by the fun and the ftars; Chaos therefore brought forth darkhefs and night. Tzetz. Before any thing appeared all was bereb or ero, darkness or night; the fame is the account which Mofes gives us. Clerc. Ļe night and darknefs are properly said to be the parents of day and ferenity. Ver. 206. All that the poet means, is, that earth appeared before the firmament which furrounds it. Similar to this is the description Milton gives of the offsprings of earth. -God faid, Be gather'd now ye waters under heav'n, Immediately the mountains huge appear Book 6. Let us now confider the difference betwixt wiλαγος οι ποντος and ωκεανος, which I render the fea and the ocean, and why the fea is faid to be from earth only, and the occan from earth and heaven. That part of the ocean is generally agreed to be called fea which takes a name from any country or particular circumftance; the ocean, Diodorus Siculus tells us, in his first book, comprehends, according to the opinion of the ancients, all moisture which nourishes the univerfe; and Henry Stephens quotes many authorities to show it was always used in that fenfe; I fhall content myself with one from Homer, and another from Pliny. Εξ ουπερ πανίες πόλεμος, και πασα θάλασσα, From which are derived all rivers, every fea, and all fountains. The ocean, fays Pliny, is the receptacle of all waters, and from which all waters flow; it is that which feeds the clouds and the very stars. Ver. 214. Le Clerc is inclined to think that thefe names are fome of real perfons, and fome only poetical, as Theniis and Mnemofyne which are justice and memory. The fame critic might have quoted Plutarch to countenance this opinion, who names for real perfons Cous, Creus, Hyperion, and Japhet : nor is it unreasonable to believe that the poet defigned fome as perfons; for, without fuch to meafure time, Saturn, or Kgovos, which fignifies time, would be introduced with impropriety. The etymology of the names of the Cyclops are literally expreffive of their nature. The general name to all is from xuxλs a circle, and a an eye, Brontes from Boven thunder; Steropes from astgorn brightness; Arges from agyes white, splendid, Iwift. Apollodorus varies from our poet in one of the names of the Cyclops; instead of Agyn he calls him Agwn. It has been often remarked that Homer, Hefiod, Apollodorus, and other mythologists, frequently differ in names: I here give one inDance, from many obfervations which I have made, of their not differing in fenfe though in name; for as fwift, or fplendid, is a proper epithet for lightning; agan, a fork, is as fignificant a name for one of the Cyclops as agyn. Cottus, Gyges, and Briareus. Grævius will have thefe three to be men, and robbers; he fays the ancients intended, by the terrible defcription of their many heads and hands, to exprefs their violence, ferocity, and injustice. The Scholiaft Tzetzes fays, they are turbulent winds; which physical interpretation seems most agreeable to me; their heads and hands well exprefs their rage; they being imprisoned by their father in the bowels of the earth, and relieved by their mother in procefs of time, which is the meaning of Saturn releaûng them, is all pertinent to the winds. I am not infenfible of an objection that may be started in this explication, from the manner in which they are made part of the war with the gods; but we are to confider that the poet does not confine himself to direct phyfical truth; for which reafon he prepared his readers for a mixture of fiction, from the mouth of the muse, in the beginning of the poem. Let us come to the explanation of the confpiracy of Earth and Saturn against Heaven. Tzetzes, Guictus, and Le Clerc, have this conjecture likewife of the children which were confined by Heaven in the receifes of the earth; they were the corn-fruits of the earth, which, in time, fome person found to be of benefit to human kind: He difcovered the metal of which he made a fickle: the pofture of reaping is defigned by his left hand applied to the members of his father, and his right to the inftrument. The giants and nymphs, which are faid to fpring from the blood of Heaven, are those who had the advantages of the invention. The warlike giants and furies are wars and tumults, which were the confequences of plenty and riches. Saturn throwing the members into the fea, denotes traffic with foreign countries. Venus, fays Lord Bacon, is defigned to exprefs the concord of things. Heaven called his fons Titans, from raw, to revenge: his prophecy may allude to the difturbances in the world which were the effects of plenty and luxury. How monstrous does this story seem in the text! Certainly the author must have fome phyfical measing in view; and what more probable than the last which we have offered? This allegorical way of writing will cease to be a wonder, when we confider the custom of the times, and the love that the ancients bore to fables; and we must think ourselves happy that we can attain such light into them as we have, fince we are divided by fuch length of time from the first inventors, and feeing the poetical embellishments fince added to them, have rendered them more obfcure; but of this I shall speak more largely in my difcourse at the end. he, is the eternal reafon and law implanted in the nature of every being. Momus is called a deity, because he animadverts on the vices both of men and gods; but why is he called the fon of Night? Because cenfure and backbitings are generally fpread privately, and as in the dark. His name is from Moum or Mom, the Phoenician word for vice. Lucian, in his Affembly of the Gods, makes Momus fpeak thus of himfelf: "All know me to be free of my tongue, and "that I conceal nothing ill done: 1 blab out eve ry thing," &c. Le Clerc. The Hefperides are nymphs which are faid to watch the golden fruit in the western parts of the world. Tzetzes thus interprets this story: The Hefperides are the nocturnal hours in which the ftars are in their luftre; by Hercules who is feigned to have plucked the golden fruit, is meant the fun, at whofe appearance the ftars ceafe to shine. Nemefis is called the goddess of Revenge, and the etymology of her name speaks her office, which is from raw," to refent." Our poet, in his Works and Days, ranks her with Modefty. Ver. 357. Nereus, which in the Phoenician tongue is nabare," a river," is faid to be the fon of the Sea, becanfe all rivers take their rife from thence, according to the opinion of the poet. The reafon, perhaps, for which he has this extraordinary character in the Theogony, is because he was esteemed a prophetic deity.` Le Clerc. Thaumas is here made the son of the Sea and Earth, and the father of Iris : Le Clerc says he is thus allied to the Sea and Iris; he is the deity that prefides over clouds and vapours, which arife from the fea and the earth, and caufe Iris, or the rainbow. He is called Thaumas, from Davala, “ tỏ "wonder at, or admire," or from the Phoenician word of the fame fignification. thamab, because all meteors excite wonder or admiration. Phorcys, fays Le Clerc, feems to have been one who employed himself in navigation; but his derivation of the word is too far fetched from the Syrian pbrak," he departed, or travelled." The fame critic is furprised, and, indeed, not without reafon, that Ceto fhould be called fair, and have fuch horrid children; he derives her name from kout," to be contentious, to lothe." Eurybia is from augus, “wide," and ßix, " force," one of extenfive power. Ver. 367. Tzetzes thinks the poet, by the names of the Nereids, defigned to exprefs several parts and qualities of the fea; but Le Clerc believes them only the arbitrary invention of the poets. Spenfer, in the eleventh canto of the fourth book of his Faery Queene, has introduced a beautiful affemblage of the Nereids, and other fea and riverdeities, at the marriage of Thames and Medway: and he has imitated and paraphrased many verfes together out of our poet, and tranflated many more; and moft, in my judgment, fuperior to the Greek; whofe manner of imitating the ancients Ver. 325. The diftinction which Tzetzes makes betwixt Maga and Kuga, which I tranflate Destiny and Fate, is this; one confirms the decree concern. ing our death, and the other the punishment attending evil works. Le Clerc infers, from the part making even the gods subject to the Fates, that they must be mere men which were immor-will appear by a quotation of one stanza. talized by human adoration; but the paffage which Plutarch, in his inquiry after God, quotes from Plato, will better reconcile this; Fate, says Stanza 48tb. And after these the fea-nymphs marched all, 1 Whom of their fire Nereides men call, All which the Ocean's daughter to him bare, The gray-ey'd Doris; all which fifty are; All which the there on her attending had; Swift Proto, mild Eucrate, Thetis fair, Soft Spio, fweet Eudore, Sao fad, Light Doto, wanton Glauce, and Galene glad. Ver. 418. The Harpies are violent ftorms; the etymologies of their names are fignificant of their nature. The word Harpies is from agrage to tear, to deftroy; Aello from 1λà a ftorm; Ocypete from wzg fwift, and tropes to fly. Ver. 423. I fhall give the ftory of the Gorgons, and the Graia, as related by Lord Bacon, with reflections on the fame. Perfeus is faid to have been sent by Pallas to flay Medula, who was very pernicious to many of the inhabitants of the western parts of Hiberia; for the was fo dire and horrid a monster, that by her aspect only, the converted men into stones. Of the Gorgons Medufa only was mortal: Perfeus, preparing himself to kill her, received arms and other gifts from three deities; from Mercury he had wings for his heels, from Pluto, a helmet, and from Pallas a fhield and a looking-glafs He went not immediately towards Medufa, though he was fo well inAtructed; but first to the Graie, who were gray and like old women from their birth. They had all but one eye and one tooth, which the who went abroad ufed, and laid down when the returned. This eye and tooth they lent to Perfeus, who finding himself thus completely farnifhed for his defign, flew without delay to Medufa, whom he found fleeping: if the thould awake he dared not look in her face; therefore, turning his head afide, he beheld her in the glafs of Palias, and in that manner taking his aim he cut off her head: from her blood initantly fprung Pegafus with wings. Perfeus fixed her head in the fhield of Pallas, which retained this power, that all who beheld it became ftupid as if thunderstruck. This fable feems invented to fhow the prudence required in waging war; in which three weighty precepts are to be confidered as from the counfel of Pallas. Firft, in the enlarging dominions, the occafion, facility, and profits of a war, are to be thought of before vicinity of territories; therefore Perfeus, though an oriental, did not decline an expedition to the extremeft parts of the west. Secondly, Regard ought to be had to the motives of a war, which should be juft and honourable; for a war on fech terms adds alacrity both to the foldiers and thote who bear the expence of the war; it obtains and fecures aids, and has many other advantages. No caufe of a war is more pious than the quelling tyranny, which fo fubdues the people as to deprive them of all foul and vigour, which is fignified by the afpect of Medusa. Thirdly, The Gorgons were three, by which wars are reprefented, and Perfeus is judicioufly made to encounter her only who was mortal; that is, he would not purfue vaft and endlefs hopes, but undertook a war that might be brought to a period. The inftruction which Perfeus received is that which conduces to the fuccefs or fortune of the war : he received swiftness from Mercury, fecrecy of counfels from Orcus, and providence from Palias. Though Perfeus wanted not age nor courage, that he fhould confult the Graia was neceffary. The Graiæ are treafons, and clegantly faid to be gray, and like old women, from their birth, because of the perpetual fears and tremblings with which traitors are attended. All their force, before they appear in open rebellion, is an eye, or a tooth; for every faction alienated from a ftate contemplates and bites: this eye and tooth is in common, for what they learn and know passes through the hands of faction from one to the other; the meaning of the tooth is, they all bite alike: Perfeus therefore was to make friends of the Graiæ, that they might lend him the eye and the tooth. Two effects follow the conclufion of the war; first, the generation of Pegafus, which plainly denotes fame, that flies abroad and proclaims the victory; the second is the bearing the head of Medula in the shield; for one glorious and memorable act happily accomplished, reftrains all the motions of enemies, and makes even malice amazed and dumb. Thus far Lord Bacon. The following phyfical explanation from Tzetzes: Phorcys fignifies the vehemence of the waters, Ceto the depth; ygara, the Scholiaft interprets e apeor the foam, Pephredo and Enyo the defire of marine expeditions. The poet calls the Hefperides murmuring, because the stars in those parts, according to Ariftotle, move to a musical harmony: by Stheno and Euryale, which are immortal, he means the immenfe and inexhauftible parts of the ocean; by Medufa the waters which the fun, or Perfcus dries up by his beams. Chryfaor and Pegafus are thofe parts of matter which are exalted on high, and break in thunder and lightning. Pegafus, fays Grævius, is fo called, because he was born near ngyas, the fountains of the main ; Chryfaor, from his having in his hand gurao ase, a golden fword. Le Clerc tells us that this fable is originally Phoenician; he derives the name of Perfeus from pharscho a horseman, and Chryfaor from the Phoenician word chrifaor the keeper of fire. Ver. 456. Some, fays the Scholiaft, will have Geryon to fignify time. his three heads mean the prefent, paft, and the future; Erythea is an island in the ocean where he kept his herds. Tzetz Le Clerc tells us that when Hercules invaded the ifland which Geryon poffeffed, he was opposed by three parties which were inhabitants, and conquered them; which explains his cutting off his three heads. The fame critic afterwards feems to doubt this interpretation; he quotes Bochart to prove that no oxen were in Erythea, and that the island was not productive of grafs; but I think if heads are figuratively meant for parties, the herds may as well be took for the men who compofed thofe parties. Ver. 462. Orthus is the dog of Geryon that watched the herds, which may be fome chief officer; and his being murdered in a gloomy stall, |