may fignify the shameful retreat he made in his time of danger. Ver. 485. Cerberus, Le Clerc derives from cbrabrab, having many heads. The Hydra, he tells us, means the inhabitants about the lake Lerna: Juno may therefore fignify the earth who nourished the Hydra. 66 cian nakbafch, Ver. 522. The commentators have concluded Nile, which, they fay, was not fo called in the days of Homer, but Egyptus. This argument cannot prevail, when we confider the word in the radix, which, fays Le Clerc, is nubhul and rhbil, and in Hebrew nabbal, which is the common name for any river; Hefiod, therefore, might choofe Nile, ur, for eminence, it being the principal river; or for the fame reafon, which is not unlikely, that Homer might choose Egyptus, because it came more readily into the verfe: but whatever their reafons were for choosing thefe different names of the fame river, here is no foundation to determine fo difficult a point as the age of either of thefe poets from it. Ver. 497. Chimera is from the Phoenician cha-chief river in Egypt under the appellation of the mirab, burned; it was a mountain fo called becaufe it emitted flames; of which fays Pliny, the mountain Chimera in Phafelis flames, without ceafing, night and day. Strabo thinks the fable took a rife from this mountain: the three heads may be three cliffs, Bochart fuppofes them to be three leaders of the people of Pifidia, whofe names may have a fimilitude to the nature of the three animals, the lion, the goat, and the ferpent. Bellerophon is faid to conquer this monster, to whom the poet gives Pegalus, because to gain the fummit of the mountais, no less than a winged horfe was required Le Clerc. The interpretation of Chimæra, a mountain, is not unnatural, when we confider her the daughter of Typhaon, of whom we shall speak more largely in a following note. Ver. 508. Sphinx is thus defcribed by Apolloderus; "the had the breaft and face of a woman, the feet and tail of a lion, and the wings of a bird." Le Clerc has this interpretation, which feems the meft reasonable, of this monfter. After deriving the name from Spbiza which is a murderer, he tells us in Sphinx is fhadowed a gang of robbers which lurked in the cavities of a mountain; fhe is faid to have had the face and breaft of a woman, becaufe fome women were among them, who perhaps al. Jured the travellers; the feet and tail of a lion, because they were cruel and deftructive; and the wings of a bird, from their fwiftnefs. She is faid to have flain those who could not explain her enigma; that is, they murdered fuch as unwarily came where they were, and knew not their haunts. Oedipus is recorded to have unravelled the enigma, becaule he found them and deftroyed them. The Nemean lion may be an allegory of the fame nature, or literally a lion. The 31 verie, in the original, is commonly given thus Κοιρανέων τρήτοιο Νημένης ηδ' απισαντος. in which seto10 is taken as an adjective fignifying verafz; but Mr. Robinson, in his edition of Hefind, pabuthed fince my tranflation of our poet, rightly judges renton to be a proper name, and qutes a paffag, from Diodorus Siculus, and another frem Paufar ias, in which the den of the Nemzan hon is faid to have been in the mountain Tretum: read therefore, henceforward, Κουρητών Τρητειο, Νεμείες, ηδ' απέσαντος. Ver. 523. Alpheus is a river in Elis, and has fomething more extraordinary, fays Paufanias, in it than any other river; it often flows under ground and breaks out again. Eridanus, a river, fays the Scholiaft, of the Scelte. Strymon, a river in Thrace. Maander, in Lydia or Icaria. Ifter, in Scythia. Phafis, in Colchis. Rhefus, in Troy. Athelous, in Acarnia or Ætolia. Neffus, in Thrace. Rhodius, in Troy. Haliacmon, in Macedon. Heptaporus, Granicus, and Alapus, in Troy. Hermus, in Lydia. Simois, in Troy. Peneus, in Theffaly; and fome, fays Tzetzes, fay Granicus and Simois are in Theffaly. Caicus, in Mysia. Sangarins, in Upper Phrygia. Ladon, in Arcadia; this river, fays Paufanias, exceeds all the rivers in Greece for clearness of water. l'arthenius, in Paphlagonia. Evenus, in Ætolia. defcus, in Scythia. Scamander, in Troy. The daughters of Tethys and Ocean, are only poetical names; defigned fays the Scholiaft, for lakes and rivers of lefs note than the fons. They are faid, continues he, to have the care of mankind from their birth jointly with Apollo, because heat and moisture contribute to generation, and the nutriment of men through life. Ar Phoenician word helejo, that is, high; though this Ver 581. The fun is called Hus, from the name may fuit all the planets, yet it is more properly given to the moft eminent of them. He is fprung from Hyperion, that is, from him that exifts on high. Ver. 582. The word sann, the moon, or in the Doric Esλava, is from the Phoenician word fehelanab, that is, one that wanders through the night. Aurora, or the morning, being born of the fame parents, needs no explanation. Ver 517, Serpents are often in fabulous hiftory confite.ed guards of things of immerse value. The Ver. 585 Le Clerc is, the children of Creus farpet Python kept the cracle at Delphi, and and Eurybia, are not to be found in any ancient a ferpent is made to watch the golden fruit. What hiftory, nor to be explained from the nature of is the moral of all the? When we are intrufted things; but if we coulder the etymologies of the with affairs of price and importance, we ought to names of the parents, his remark will prove invabe as vigilant as ferpent. The word of," a fer- lid. Creus is from, the verb to judge, and Eurypent," from erjQUAL, " to fee;" and the Phoni-bia, as I have before obferved, fignifies wide com mand; judgment, therefore, and power, are made the parents of three offsprings of renown. I must here obferve, that Pallas cannot be the fame with her, who is afterwards faid to fpring from the head of Jove. Our poet calls this Pallas only, and the latter Athena and Tritogenia. The following verfes, which tells us the winds fprung from Aftræus and Aurora, I fhould fuppofe fpurious, because we are told in the fame poem they fprung from Typhæus, which is every way agreeable to the phyfical fenfe; we muft therefore fuppofe them fuppofititious, or the poet has committed a very great blunder. See farther in the note to ver. 1195. Ver. 593. Styx, fays the Scholiaft, is from suys, to hate, to dread; why her offsprings are made attendants on the Almighty, is confpicuous; but I am not fatisfied in Pallas being their father: Tzetzes tells us, that he understands by Pallas, the fuperior motion which produces fuch effects. The name, I believe, must come from weλaw, a verb, to exprefs extraordinary action; in Latin, vibro, agito, &c. We are told here, that Styx was orJained by Jove, the oath of the gods; on which Lord Bacon has the following remark. Neceffity is elegantly reprefented by Styx, a fatal and irremeable river. The fame noble author goes on to fhow, that the force of leagues is to take away the power of offending, by making it neceffary that the offender should undergo the penalty enacted. Thus he proceeds; if the power of hurting be taken away, or if, on breach of covenant, the danger of ruin, or lofs of honour or cftate, must be the confequence, the league may be faid to be ratified, as by the facrament of Styx, fince the dread of banishment from the banquets of the gods follows; under which terms are fignified by the ancients, the laws, prerogatives affluence, and felicity of empire. See farther, ver. 1082. Ver. 625. Le Clerc derives Phoebe from the Phoenician, phe-pab, which is as in illâ, that is, a prophetic mouth; for, in the Phoenician tongue, the oracle is called the mouth of God; and, to fay we confult the mouth of God, is the fame as to fay we confult the oracle. Latona, in Greek, Leto, the fame critic derives from lout, or lito or leto, which is to use magic charms; therefore, says he, Apollo and Diana, who prefide over magic arts, are faid to be born of her. Afteria, he tells us, comes from baffethirab, which fignifies lying hid, not an improper name for an enchantress. Ver. 633. Hecate is by the Phonicians called Ecbatba, that is, the only unica; for which reason the poet calls her voys, the only begotten. She is efteemed the chief prefident over magic arts, and reckoned the fame with the moon. The Phoenicians invoked her, because he is the regent of the night, the time when all incantations, charms, and the like, are performed. The fun is in the fame language called bhadad, the only, or one unus. Hecate is here faid to have the fate of mariners jointly with Neptune in her power, because the moon has an influence over the fea, as well as over the land. Le Clerc. The Scholiaft fays, the poet gives this great character of Hecate, because the perfon who was, perhaps, after her 1 death honoured with divine rites, was a Beo tian. Ver. 694 Erin, by the Latins called Vefta, is by the learned justly derived from Esch, or the Syrian efcbtha, fire; fhe is efteemed the goddess of fire. Ceres, the Greek Anusrng, comes from dai, a Phœnician word, fignifying plenty; a proper name for her who has the honour of being thougnt the first who taught to cultivate the ground, and to raise fruit-trees. Hem, the Greek name of Juno, is from the Phonician word hira or barab, jealoufy; than which no name could be more apt to Juno, who is often reprefented as teazing her husband with jealous furmifes. Arons, or Pluto, is from the Phonician word ed or ajid, which is death'or destruction; the poet calls him hard of heart, because he fpares none. Plutarch tells us, in his life of Thefeus, that the defcent which that hero is faid to make into hell, means nothing more than his journey to Epirus, of which Ains, or Pluto, was king Pluto is fometimes called the god of riches, becaufe he had in his kingdom many mines of filver and gold. We now come to the etymologies of Everiges and Пore, the names of Neptune, Pofedon fignifies a defroyer of fhips, evoriyos, earth-fhaker. Jupiter is called the father of gods and men, because all fovereigns are fathers of their people. Saturn is faid to fwallow his children, that is, he imprisoned them. Thus far Le Clerc. I fhall conclude this note with the following remark from Lord Bacon. The firft diftinction of ages is fignified by the reign of Saturn, who, through the frequent diffolutions and fhort continuances of his fons, is faid to have devoured them; the fecond is described by the reign of Jupiter, who drove those continual changes into Tartarus, by which place is meant perturbation. Guietus thinks the twelve lines from ver. 745. to 757. fuppofititious. Ver. 769. The learned will have Japhet to be the fon of Noah, whofe pofterity inhabited Eu rope; but, fince fo many interpolations and fa!fehoods are mixed with the hiftory of antiquity, we cannot wonder if this ftory, in fome degree, remains yet obfcure. Atlas is faid to fupport the heavens near where the Hefperides are situated : Atlas might probably have been the founder of the people who poffeffed the extremeft parts of Africa about the mountain Atlas; which moun tain, through the extraordinary height, feemed to prop up heaven, and because it was far in the weft, where they imagined heaven almost met the earth. This mountain might have had the name from the firft ruler of the people. Menetius is called Cgisns, contumelions, or injurious, which is agreeable to the radix, the Chaldean word menath, he terrified. Bochart, in his Phaleg, book 1. chap. 2. tells us the true name of Prometheus was Magog, who was the fon of Japhet: he is faid to have been bound to Caucafus, because he fettled near it, and to have ftole fire from heaven, because he found out the ufe of thofe metals which were in the mines about Caucafus. fchylus puts thefe words into the mouth of Prometheus, "Who will fay he found out brass, iron, filver, and gold, before me?"? The etymology of Magog feems to favour the ftory of the vulture gnawing his liver; the Hebrew name is moug or magag, which is to waste away. The radix of Gog is, he burned, not an improper name for him who was enamoured with Pandora. Le Clerc. To thefe accounts, I fhall add the following from Diodorus Siculus: "The Nile, under the rifing of the Dog-ftar, at which time it was ufually full, overflowed the bounds, and laid great part of Egypt under water. Prometheus, who tried to preferve the people, by endeavouring to stop the flood, died throngh grief, because he could not accomplish his defign. Hercules, inured to labour, and to overcome difficulties, stopped the current, and turned it to the former channel. This gave rife, among the Greek poets, to the story of Hercules killing the eagle which preyed on the liver of Prometheus, l'he name of the river was then Airs, the Greek word for an eagle." Since the opinions of the learned are so various on this and feveral other fables of antiquity, we muft reft on those interpretations which come nearest to nature, and which leave us leaft in the dark. My judgment is, that whatever might give birth to this fable, our poet, not regarding the different relations in his time, defigned it as a moral leilon, fhowing the bad effects of a too free indulgence of the paffions; and, in the character of Prometheus, the benefits of regulating them with difcretion; which I think I have fhowed in my remarks on this ftory, as told in the Works and Days; to which I fhall add the following reflec tions from Lord Bacon, which are more properly introduced here, as they more particularly regard this fable, as told in the Theogony. cules free Prometheus by the confent of Jupiter; More lovely than Pandora, whom the gods Book 4. Ver. 916. Here begins the battle of the gods, which continues to ver. 1222. In this the learned are much divided concerning the intention of the poet, and from whence he took his account of the war. Some imagine it of Egyptian rife, from the ftory of Typhon; nor are they few who be lieve it, from the tradition of the battle of the angels; but Tzetzes thinks it no other than a poetical defcription of a war of the elements: but they are certainly wrong who think it entirely from either. I do not in the leaft doubt but the poet had a phyfical view in fome paffages, and in fome particulars may poffibly have had a regard to fome relations, fabulous or real, of antiquity; but his main design seems to have been that of re "After the improvement of arts and the human understanding, the parable paffes to religion, for the cultivation of arts was followed by the inftitution of divine worship, which hypocrify foon polluted. Under the twofold sacrifice, the religious perion and the hypocrite are truly reprefented: one contains the fat, which is the portion of God, by the flame and fumes arifing, from which thelating a war betwixt fupernatural beings, and, by affection and zeal for the glory of God are fignified, by the entrails and flesh of the facrifice, which are good and wholesome, are meant the bowels of charity. In the other is nothing but dry and naked bones, which only stuff up the skin, while they make a fair fhow of a facrifice. In the other part of the fable, Prometheus means prudent men who confider for the future, and warily avoid the many evils and misfortunes which human nature is able to: but this good property is accompanied with many cares, with the deprivation of pleafures; they defraud their genius of various joys of life, they perplex themselves with inteftine fears and troublesome reflections, which are denoted by the eagle gnawing his liver while he is bound to the pillar of neceffity: from the night they obtain fome relief, but wake in the morning to freth anxieties. Prometheus having affiftance from Hercules, means fortitude of mind. The fame is the explanation by the Scholiaft of the eagle. The poet goes farther than what Tzetzes and Lord Bacon have obferved: he makes Her railing his imagination to the utmost height, to Our poet tells us the gods eat near and am- E Odyff. T.: from which we may conclude thofe | And, in the first book, Ver. 973. The reader is to take notice, that though most of the Titans were against Jupiter, all were not, for Cottus, Gyges, and Briareus, were Titans; what an image in thefe three brothers tearing up the rocks, and throwing them againft the enemy Heaven, earth, the ocean, and hell, are all difturbed by the tumult. The poet artfully One conflagration feems to rife on all, How elevated are thefe in the original! Could the genius of man think of any thing fublimer to paint the horror of the day, attended with the roar of all the winds, and the whirling of the dust! Could he think of ought more adequate to our ideas, to exprefs the voice of the war by, than by likening it to the confufed meeting of the heavens and the earth, to the wreck of worlds! "Do you "fee," fays Longinus on another author, "the "earth opening to her centre, the regions of death "juft ready to appear, and the whole fabric of the "world upon the point of being rent afunder and "destroyed, to fignify, that in this combat, heahell, things mortal and immortal, every thing, co-laboured, as it were, with the gods, "and that all nature was endangered." This paffage of Longinus could never be applied with more juftice than here, nor more properly expreffed in our own language, than in the words of Mr. Welfled, from his tranflation of that author. ven, the univerfal hoft upfent A fhout that tore Hell's concave, and beyond Ver, 1030. From this verfe to ver. 1134. the poet judiciously relieves the mind from the rage. of battle, with a defcription of Tartarus, Styx, &c. with an intent to end the war, and furprise us with fomething more fublime than we could expect, after what had preceded the fingle combat betwixt Jupiter and Typhoeus. In the defcription of Tartarus, Milton has many imitations of our poet: With earth thy vaft foundations cover'd o'er Satan defcribing his realm. Hefiod. lately heav'n, and earth, another world, The entrance there, and the last limits, lie this wild abyf, The womb of nature, and perhaps her grave. where heav'n With earth and ocean meets. And afterwards : and now, in little space, ! Here forms in hoarfe, in frightful murmurs play. Hefiod. Milton, book 2. nor was his ear lefs peal'd With noifes loud and ruinous, And a little lower, in the fame book: At length a univerfal hubbub wild Of stunning founds, and voices all confus'd, Borne through the hollow dark, aflaults his ears. Tzetzes fays the beginning and end of things are faid to be here figuratively, because we are in the dark as to the knowledge of them. The verfes in which Atlas is made to prop up the heavens, Guietus fuppofes not genuine. Ver. 1082. The ftory of Styx, with the punishment of the perjured gods, is chiefly poetical. Why this river fhould be deteftable to immortals I know not, unless they think it a fad restraint to be deterred from perjury: this thought has too much impiety in it, therefore we must give it another turn; as relating to the oaths of great men, or in the fame fenfe that death is called a foe to the gods, which is from the grief they are fometimes made to fuffer for the death of any favourite mortal, as Venus for Adonis, and Thetis for Achilles. Ver. 1136. Typhoeus and Typhaon feem to be And time, and place, are loft; where eldeft Night, different perfons (though fome will have them And Chaos, ancestors of nature, hold two names of one person), because Typhæus is no fooner born but he rebels, and is immediately deftroyed: and Typhaon is made the father of many children. Le Clerc derives the word Typhoeus from the Phoenician word toupbon, the radix of which is tab, to overflow, to overwhelm. He is not injudiciously called the father of the winds, and the fon of Earth and Tartarus; the various voices which the poet gives him are agreeable to the feveral tones of the winds at feveral times. Lord Bacon has this reflection on the poetical defcription of this monfter. Speaking of rebellion, he fays, because of the infinite evils which it brings on princes and their fubjects, it is reprefented by the horrid image of Typhoeus, whofe hundred heads are the divided powers and flaming jaws | incendicus defigns. Ver. 1154. With what dignity Jupiter fets out for this fingle combat! heaven and earth tremble beneath him when he rifes in anger. Similar to this paffage, is the feventh verfe of the eighteenth Pfalm. Then the earth fhook and trembled, the "foundations of the hills alfo moved, and were "fhaken, becaufe he was wroth." Here are three circumstances which exalt the images above thofe in the former batties, the winds bearing the fire on their wings, the giant faming from his hundred heads, and the fimilitude of the furnace. Ver. 1195. In the winds which are here faid to be from the gods, the poet omits the caft wind; though feme will have apytsns to be the name of a wind, and as fuch Mombritius takes it in his tranfation; Aulus Gellius indeed gives it as the name of a wind, but as one that blows from the weft, by the Latins called Caurus. Stephens gives examples of it being used for the epithet fwift and Scapula quotes Ariftotle to fhow he ufes it in the fame tente, agyas gavo the fwift lightnings: yers is from the fame radix, and of the fame fignification with @gy15ns. The poet calls the winds fprung from Typhous greatly destructive to mortals, and thofe from the gods profitable; the two following verses from Exodus, therefore, will, in fome degree, countenance my interpretation of Argetes; which I make an adjective to agree with ζέφυρα, i. ε. αργεστω ζέφυρα. "The Lord brought an caft-wind on the land all that day, "and all that night, and when it was morning the caft-wind brought the locufts." Chap. x 13. The Lord turned a mighty ftrong "we wind, which took away the locufts." Ver. 19. Though this is related as a miracle, we may fuppofe the propereft winds were chofen to bring the evil and the good on the land. In whatever ferfe this word is taken our poet is not free from abfurdity in his philofophy, when he makes the Barth, fouth, and weft winds, fpring from the gods, and those which tyrannize by fea and land from Typhoeus; for the winds from each corner ar burful fometimes, all depending on what circumftances the elements are in, and not from what part the winds come. Ver 1222 Here ends the war. Tzetzes fays the corque which Jupiter gained over the fue, was the tranquillity of nature after the confufion The ancient times do fet forth in figure, both the incorporation, and infeparable conjunction, of counfel with kings, and the wife and politic ufe of counfel by kings; the one in that they fay Jupiter did marry Metis, which fignifieh counte!, whereby they intend that sovereignty is married to couniel; the other in that which followeth, which was thus; they fay after Jupiter was married to Metis fhe conceived by him, and was with child; but Jupiter fuffered her not to stay till fhe brought forth, but eat her up; whereby he became himself with child, and was delivered of Pallas armed out of his head; which monstrous fable containeth a fecret of empire, how kings are to make ufe of their council of ftate; that first they ought to refer matters unto them, which is the first begetting or impregnation, but when they are elaborate, moulded, and shaped, in the womb of their council, and grow ripe, and ready to be brought forth, that then they fuffer not their counsel to go through with the refolution and direction as if it depended on them, but take the matter back into their own hands, and make it appear to the world that the decrees and final directions (which, because they come forth with prudence and power, are refembled by Pallas armed) proceeded from themselves, and not only from their authority, but, the more to add repu tation to themfelves, from their head and device. Thus far Lord Bacon. What to make of the fon whom Jupiter deftroyed before his birth, I know not, unless tyranny is fhadowed in that allegory, which often follows power, but was here quelled before it could exert itself, by wisdom or reflection. Milton has judiciously applied this image of Pallas fpringing from the head of Jove to Sin and Satan, in the fecond book of Paradife Loft, where Sin giving an account of her birth, thus fpeaks to Satan, All on a fudden, miferable pain Surpris'd thee, dim thine eyes, and dizzy fwum In darkness; while thy head flames thick and fait Threw forth, till on the left fide op'ning wide; Likeft to thee in hape, and count'nance bright, Then fhining heavenly fair, a goddess arm'd, Out of thy head I fprung. Ver. 1239. Jupiter and Themis are faid to be the parents of the hours; the meaning of which is, power and juftice blefs the land, or make the feafons or hours propitious, by laying down good laws which preferve property and peace. Some take Eunomie, Dice, and frene, to be only poetical names for the hours or feafons of the year; but Grævius laughs at the ignorance of fuch interpre of the elements was laid. However the phyficulters, and proves, beyond contradiction, they mean interpretation may hold good through the whole, good laws, right, and peace; which is the literal |