lovers; and beyond thefe, the refidence of brave warriors, who had fallen in battie, Virg. ib. 417-485.

Here the way divides into two. The way on the right leads to the palace of Pluto and to Elfium, or the abode of the bleffed; that on the left, to Tartărus, or the place of punishment for the wicked. Tartarus is inclofed with a triple wall, and furrounded by a rapid river of liquid flame, called Phlegethon. The veftibule or entrance is guarded by the fury Tifiphone, and a dreadful hydra or water-ferpent with fifty black gaping mouths, Ib. 540.-580. The Sibyl recounts to Æneas the punishment of the Titans and giants, and others confined in this place, from verfe 580. to 628. for it seems no pure or virtuous perfon was permitted to enter it, v. 563. but the Sibyl feems to have been there herfelf, v. 565. & 582. &c.

Virgil mentions but flightly the palace of Pluto, v. 630. He defcribes at greater length the joys of Elyfium; from v. 637. to 703. Through Elyfium ran the river LETHE, or the river of forgetfulness. By drinking of it, thofe fouls which were deftined to animate new bodies forgot what had paffed while they were formerly on earth: For Virgil fuppofes, according to the doctrine of Pythagoras and Plato, fee p. 14. that the departed fouls of men, after enjoying happiness in Elyfium for a certain number of years, and after being purified from the ftain of former guilt, were fent to animate new bodies upon earth. Thus the poet, by a happy contrivance, makes Anchifes, while these fouls pafs in review before him, foretell to Eneas the character and fortune of the moft illuftrious men that afterwards appeared in the Roman ftate, Ib. from v. 702. to 893.

Æneas, under the conduct of the Sibyl, entered the infernal regions, by the cave of Avernus, ib. 262. and returned by one of the two gates of SOMNUS, Sleep, at which he was let out by Anchifes, (portaque emittit eburná.) Ib. 899.

Virgil appears to have borrowed this defcription of the infernal regions, chiefly from Homer and Plato. The notion of Dr Warburton, bifhop of Glocefter, that it is only a poetical representation of the ceremonies, anciently obferved, in initiating a perfon into the mysteries of Ceres, appears to be groundlefs.

II.

391

II. FABULOUS HISTORY of ARGOS and MYCENÆ.

TH

HE first king of Argos was INACHUS, who gave name to the river Inachus, Paufan. ii. 15. hence put for the river, Virg. Æn. vii. 792. one of the largest in Greece, and therefore called Fluviorum ductor Achivum, Stat. Theb. iv. 118. Inachides ripa, for Inachiæ, its banks, Ovid. Met. i. 640. He had a daughter, called IO; who being beloved by Jupiter, is faid to have been converted by him into a cow, Virg. Æn. vii. 790. that the might be concealed from Juno; but Juno, perceiving the fraud, asked her as a prefent from Jupiter, and having obtained her request, committed her to the charge of Argus, a fhepherd, who had an hundred eyes, Ovid. ii. 58, &c. but he being lulled afleep and flain by Mercury, Ovid. Met. i. 625, Io was driven, by a fury in the fhape of a gad-bee, which Juno fent to torment her, into Egypt. Having there implored the affiftance of Jupiter, fhe was reftored to her proper shape, and married Ošīris. After her death she was worfhipped as a goddess by the Egyptians, under the name of ISIS, Ovid. Met. ii. 588. &c. hence IO bos ex homine, ex bove facta DEA, Id. Ep. xiv. 85. &c. Inachus is fometimes called by the poets, the father of Io, and fhe his daughter; INACHIS, -ĬDIS, Propert. i. 5. 19.; Ovid. Met. i. 611. ep. xiv. 105. or Inachia Juvenca, Virg. G. iii. 153. and her fon Epăphus, INACHIDES, -da, Ovid. Met. i. 753. by which name Perfeus is called, Ib. iv. 720. Inachida, -arum, the Argives*, Stat. Theb. ii. 345. iii. 366.

The fon of Inachus was called PHORONE US, whence Io is named Phoronis, -idis, Ovid. Met. i. 668. and the matrons of Argos, Phoronea Matres, Stat. Theb. xii. 465. Some make Phoroneus the first king; who is faid first to have collected the inhabitants, formerly difperfed, into one city, called from him PHORONICUM, Paufan. ii. 15.

APIS, -is, v. idis, the fon of Phoroneus, is faid to have been expelled from Argos, and to have fled into Egypt, where, on account of his useful discoveries, he was worshipped under the figure of an ox; hence called Niliacum pecus, Stat. Theb.

* Herodotus makes lo to have been carried off to Egypt by fome Phoenician merchants; and fays that fome Greeks or Cretans in revenge carried off Europa, the daughter of the King of Tyre, i. 1. & 2.

iii. 478. or, as fome fay, under the name of Ofiris or Bufiris. Auguftin. xii. 1. But Diodorus of Sicily gives a quite different account of the origin of the worship of Ifis and Osiris, i. 21.

& 22.

ARGOS, the grandfon of Phoroneus, gave name to the country, Paufan. ii. 16. whence the Greeks were called ARGIVI. Strabo thinks that this name was applied to all the Greeks from the pre-eminence of the city Argos at that time, viii. 371.

GELANOR was the last of the descendants of Inăchus that reigned at Argos. After him DANAUS, the fon of Belus, from Egypt, became king, Paufan. ii. 16. & 19.; Herodot. ii. 91. vii. 94. from whom the Greeks were called DANAI *.

Danaus had fifty daughters, whom he had promised in marriage to the fifty fons of his brother Ægyptus, king of Egypt; but terrified by an oracle, that he was to be killed by one of his fons-in-law, and compelled to fulfil his engagement, he charged his daughters to murder their husbands on the night of the nuptials; which they all did, except one, HYPERMNESTRA, who preferved her husband LYNCEUS, Paufan. ii. 19.; Ovid. ep. 14.; Horat. od. iii. 11. 22. For this crime they (Danaides) were fuppofed to be condemned in the infernal regions to pour water for ever into a veffel full of holes, Hygin. 168.; Serv. in Virg. Æn. x. 497.; Horat. od. ib. 23. &c. Affidua repetunt, quas perdant, Belides undas, Ovid. Met. iv. 463. They were called Danäides from their father, and Belides from their grandfather, Ovid. Met. iv. 462. also Inachides from their great-great-grandfather Inachus, Ovid. Epift. xiv. 23. Danaus and Ægyptus, the fons of Belus, were called Belida fratres, Stat. Theb. vi. 291.; fo Lynceus, the grandfon of Belus, is called BELIDES, Ovid. ep. xiv. 73. and Palamedes, the seventh in descent from Belus, Serv. in Virg. En. ii. 82. The daughters of Danaus are faid by Herodotus to have brought from Egypt the custom of initiation into the myfteries of Ceres, ii. 171.

Hypermneftra was brought to her trial by Danaus for not obeying his commands, but was acquitted by the Argives, Paufan. ii. 19. on which account fhe dedicated a temple to Diana, under the name of Peitho, or perfuafion, Ib. 21. near

They were formerly called PELASGI, Strab. v. p. 221. from PELASGUS, the first king of Arcadia, Paufan. i 14. (who first taught the inhabitants to build cottages, and make tunics from the fkins of animals, Id. viii. 1.) or from their wandering through different countries, (q. IIeXarya, ciconìæ,) Strab. ib. & ix. 397.

which temple was her monument and that of Lynceus; for they were both buried in the fame tomb, Ib. In Argos was also a monument of the fons of Egyptus, where their heads were buried, which the Danaids brought to their father; for the murder was committed at Lerna, where their bodies were left, Ib. 24. These monuments feem to have been erected by Lynceus, who fucceeded to the crown after the death of Danaus, Ib. 16. Strabo mentions the fepulchre of Danaus as standing in the middle of the forum of Argos in his time, viii. p. 371.; fo Paufanias, who places near it the honorary tomb (Tapos xeros) of thofe Argives that fell in the war against Troy, ii. 20.

ABAS, the fon of Lynceus and Hypermneftra fucceeded, whence Argos is called Abantei ARGI, Ovid. Met. xv. 164. He had two fons, PROETUS and ACRISIUS, (hence called Abantiada), who contended about the crown. Prœtus got poffeffion of it first. He had three daughters (Proetides), fome fay more, who having prefumed to prefer themselves to Juno in point of beauty, were by her affected with fuch infanity that they imagined themselves to be cows, Virg. Ecl. vi. 48. They were cured by Melampus, -dis, the fon of Amythaon, Ovid. Met. xv. 325.; Stat. Theb. iii. 453. by the application of Hellebore, from whom a fpecies of that drug was called MELAMPODIUM, Plin. xxv. 5. f. 21.

BELLEROPHON, v. -ontes, the son of Glaucus, and grandfon of Sisyphus, Paufan. ii. 4. by Eurymědè, Apollodor. i. 9. 3. according to others, the fon of Neptune and Eurynome, Hygin. 157. being obliged to fly from Corinth for the murder of Bellerus (whence his name, q. Beλanfu poreus, Belleri interfector), took refuge at the court of Protus. The wife of Protus, called Antaa or Stenobæa, fell in love with Bellerophon; but finding him treat her advances with difdain, fhe accufed him to her husband of attempts on her virtue. Prœtus, unwilling to violate the laws of hofpitality, fent him to lobates, the king of Lycia, his wife's father, with a letter defiring him to put Bellerophon to death, and mentioning the caufe; whence letters unfavourable to the bearer were called Letters of Bellerophon. Iobătes did not himself chufe to flay Bellerophon, but fent him on various expeditions, in which he thought he muft neceffarily perifh; first against the CHIMERA, a dreadful monfter, which continually vomited flames, Lucret. v. 902.; Serv. in Virg. Æn. vi. 288. vii. 785.; Horat. od. ii. 17. 13. iv. 2. 16. and at that time laid waste the country of Lycia, having the head of a lion, the middle of a goat, and the tail

of a ferpent or a dragon, Ovid. Met. ix. 646. Some give the Chimæra three heads, Scholiaft. in Horat. i. 27.; Palaephat. 29.; fo Hygin. 57. hence called TRIFORMIS, Horat. i. 27. 24This moniter Bellerophon flew, by the aid of a winged horfe, called Pegafus, which he received from Minerva, Paufan. ii. 4. hence he is called tetricus domitor CHIMERA, Ovid. Trift. ii. 397. He was next fent against the Solymi, and then against the Amazons, Apollodor. ii. 3. both of whom he conquered, Homer. Il. vi. 155. &c. Upon his return Iobates gave him his other daughter in marriage. Stenobea, hearing of it, hanged herself, Hygin. 57. Bellerophon, elated with his fuccefs, tried to fly to heaven on Pegafus; but the horse being ftung by an infect (aflrum) fent by Jupiter, threw his rider, Horat. od. iv. 11. 26. who fell to the earth and broke his limbs, on the Aleian plains, Ovid. in Ibide, 257. in Cilicia, near the river Pyramus, Strab. xii. 55. where he wandered up and down during the reft of his life in forrow and dejection, Homer. Il. vi. 201.; Cic. Tufc. iii. 26. Pegăfus, however, continued his flight towards heaven, and was placed among the conftellations, Hygin. poet. Aftron. ii. 18.

PEGASUS was fo called from anуn, a fountain, because produced near the fprings of the ocean. He is faid to have been the fon of Neptune and the Gorgon Medüfa, Hygin. Aftron.. ii. 18. or to have fprung from the blood of the Gorgon when flain by Perfeus, Ovid. Met. iv. 785.; Strab. viii. 379. hence called MEDUSAUS EQUUS, Ovid. Faft. v. 8. and GORGONEUS CABALLUS, Juvenal. iii. 118. While drinking at the fountain Pirene in Corinth, he is faid to have been caught by Bellerophon. By the ftroke of his hoof against a rock he is faid to have produced the fountain on mount Helicon called HIPPOCRENE, (in pnn, equi fons,) Strab. ib.; Ovid. Faft. v. 7. Met. v. 256. or FONS CABALLINUS, Perf. Prol. 1. hence the Mufes are called PFGASIDES, Ovid. ep. xv. 27.

Bellerophon is faid firft to have taught the art of riding, Plin. vii. 56. hence he is celebrated for his fkill in horfemanfhip, Horat. iii. 12. 7.

PRETUS, being attacked by his brother Acrifius, fled to his father-in-law Jobates Supported by him, he foon returned with an army. A battle was fought with equal fuccefs, and the war terminated by a treaty. Proetus got Tiryns and the maritime towns; Acrifius retained Argos and the inland towns, Paufan. ii. 25.; Apollodor. ii. 2.

ACRISIUS