Si proprium hoc fuerit, laevi de marmore tota THYR. Sinum lactis, et haec te liba, Priape, quo tannis If this may prove perpetual, you shall be made entirely of ball be covered with fearlet polifhed marble; and your legs bufkins. THYR. O Priapus, it is fufficient for you to expect a jug of milk, NOTES. trefs, with purple bufkins on her: Lauderdale erroneously translates vi vacis, as yet fcarce dead. 31. Si proprium hoc fuerit.] "That is, if you shall make it as "it were my own, and perpetual. "Thus Aen. I. 16. "Connubio jungam ftabili, 66 priamque dicabo: ' and Aen. III. 85. pro legs; 4 Ruaeus feems to underftand, that the statue was to be of porphyry, a red fort of marble; Catrou thinks" the ftatue was to be marble, and Da propriam Thymbrace do- the bufkins porphyry; "Je vous" num: alfo Aen. VI. 871. Propria haec fi dona fuiffent. But what is that boc? That I fhould make fuch verfes as Codrus, fays Servius; but erroneoufly for what have Diana, the boar, and the ftag, to do with poetry? This is a better fenfe; as I have fucceeded in the hunting of this boar and ftag; fo may this fuccefs be perpetual." UAEUS. Tota.] It was a frequent pracce, to make only the head and eck of a statue of marble. There ore Corydon vows an entire ftatue of marble to Diana. 32. Puniceo ftabis, &c.] In the irft Aeneid, Virgil reprefents Veus in the difguife of a Tyrian hun "érigeray une ftatuë de marbre, et "j'ordonneray au fculpteur de luy "faire un brodequin de porphyre." Suras. The calves of the legs. Cothurno.] A fort of boot made. ufe of by hunters. 33. Sinum.] The finum feems to have been a large veffel, with a big belly, like what we call a jugg, and in the Eaft parts of England a gotch. Varro fays it is a large wineveffel, fo called ab finu, becaufe it has a larger belly than the poculum or drinking cup; or drinking cup; "Vas vinarium. 66 grandius Sinum ab finu, quod "Sinum majorem cavationem quam "pocula habebat." Servius obferves, that the firft fyllable of finum is long, whereas that of finus, bofom, is fhort. Hence Voffius is of opinion, that it is not thence de rived, as Varro imagined. He ra ther thinks Turnebus in the right, who derives it from divos, vortex, it and these cakes every year. Expectare fat eft: cuftos es pauperis horti. NOTES. He "Pro queis omnia honoribus haec "Libum was a kind of cake, "made of flour, honey, and oil. "It was fo called, becaufe part of "it was thrown by the facrificers "into the fire, and offered to the "gods: for libare often fignifies to "facrifice; though it is properly being usual to change into s. thinks an objection may be made alfo to this derivation; because this fort of veffel was, not turbinated.. Hence he is of opinion that it may perhaps rather be derived from divew, verfo, gyro; becaufe the milk is turned about in it. This he ftrength. ens by the authority of S. Ifidore,. who fays Sinum vas, in quo butyrum conficitur." It is plain, that both S. Ifidore and Voffius take: finum to be what we call a churn."ufed only for pouring out liquors; But it is plain from Varro, that it was a veffel made ufe of for wine as well as milk: befides it does not appear to me, that the art of churn-, ing milk to make butter is fo ancient. Lactis.... liba.] The inferior. deities did not use to have victims offered them; but milk, cakes, and fruits. In an Epigram of Catullus, Priapus is reprefented fpeaking of thefe offerings, and defiring allo to have a goat facrificed to him, but in fécret; "being derived from Abw, ftilla.". RUAEUS. ร οι πα Priape.] This deity was fabled to be the fon of Bacchus and Venus, according to Diodorus Siculus, who thinks this ftory, arofe from the obfervation, that wine provokes to venery; Muohoyovon our of wa-. λαιοὶ τὸν Πρίαπον υἱὸν εἶναι Διονύσου καὶ Ἀφροδίτης, πιθανῶς τὴν γένεσιν ταύτην ἐξηγούμενοι· τοὺς γὰρ οινωθέντας φυσικῶς ἐντετάσθαι πρὸς τὰς αφροδισιακάς ήδονας· τινὲς δέ φασί τὸ αἰδοῖον τῶν ἀνθρώπων τοὺς παλαι πρίατον προσαγορεῦσαι· ἔνιοι δὲ λέγ οὺς μυθῳδοὺς βουλομένους ὀνομάζειν, υπάρχον της γενέσεως τῶν ἀνθρώπων γουσι τὸ γεννητικὸν μόριον, αἴτιον καὶ διαμονῆς εἰς ἅπαντα τὸν αἰῶνα, τυχεῖν τῆς ἀθανάτου τιμής. The fame author relates alfo a strange fable of the Egyptians, concerning this deity, which the curious reader may find in the fourth book. He adds, that Priapus was worshipped, not only in temples, in cities, but alfo Nunc te marmoreum pro tempore fecimus, at tu, 35 ble ftatue for the prefent : 기 NOTES. 4 alfo in fields and villages; where he is the guardian of vineyards and gardens that he is honoured in all the facrifices to Bacchus, with great mirth and jefting; Τὰς δὲ τιμὰς οὐ μόνον κατὰ πόλιν απονέμουσιν αὐτῷ ἐν τοῖς ἱεροῖς, ἀλλὰ καὶ κατὰ τὰς ἀγροικίας, οπωροφύλακα τῶν ἀμ πελώνων ἀποδεικνύντες καὶ τῶν κήπων ἔτι δὲ πρὸς τοὺς βασκαίνοντάς τι τῶν καλῶν, τοῦτον κολαστήν παρεισά γούλες· ἔν τε ταῖς τελεταῖς οὐ μόνον Διονυσιακαῖς, ἀλλὰ καὶ ταῖς ἄλλαις ἁπάσαις οὗτος ὁ Θεὸς τυγχάνει τιμῆς τίνος, μετὰ γέλωτος καὶ παιδιᾶς παρεισαγόμενος ἐν ταῖς θυσίας. This deity was reprefented to be of a very, deformed and moft obfcene figure, with a scythe in his hand, to affright thieves and birds, and ferved for. the fame purpofe as our scare-crows. He was often cut out of any rough block of wood, as Horace defcribes him, in the eighth Satire of the first book. This poet adds, that his head was crowned with reeds, to terrify the birds; ર Aft importunas volucres in ver"tice arundo "Terret fixa, vetatque novis con "fidere in hortis." Our Poet reprefents him with a fcythe made of willow, and alludes to his being peculiarly worshipped at Lampfacum, a city on the Hellefpont, in the fourth Georgick; "Et cuftos furum atque avium, "cum falce faligna, "Hellefpontiaci fervet tutela Pri"api." Propertius alfo fpeaks of his terrifying the birds with his fcythe ; Pomofifque ruber cuftos ponatur aves. but if fruitfulness shall fupply Si foetura gregem fuppleverit, aureus efto. the flock, you fhall be of gold. COR. Nerine Galatea, thymo mihi dulcior Hyblae, COR. O daughter of Nereus, Galatea, more fweet to me than the thyme of Hybla, NOTES. not of any common wood, but of cypress; because it is incorruptible; "Non fum de fragili dolatus ulmo, "Nec quae ftat rigida fupina vena, "De ligno mihi quolibet columna eft, "Sed viva generata de cupreffo: "Quae nec faecula centies peracta, "Nec longae cariem timet fenec"tae." Here again the victory is univerfally given to Corydon, who addreffes himself with due reverence to Diana; and fends his presents to her by the hands of an uncorrupted youth, not prefuming to carry them himself to fo chafte a goddess. Thyrfis oppofes the obfcene Priapus, to the pure Diana, and vainly boafts of making a ftatue of that deity, not only of marble, but even of gold. 37. Nerine Galatea.] Here, as in the third Eclogue, the fhepherds pafs immediately from the invocation of their deities to the mention of their loves. Corydon addreffes himfelf to Galatea, and with the most tender expreffion, and in the fofteft numbers, invites her to come to him in the evening. The paffion of Thyrfis is more violent and rough: he ufes feveral execrations, and protefts, that his expectation of her at night, makes the day feem longer than a whole year. Galatea was a fea-nymph, the daughter of Nereus and Doris: fhe was beloved by the Cyclops Polyphemus; and her beauty is much celebrated by the Poets. Thus the Cyclops addreffes her in the eleventh Idyllium of Theocritus ; Candidior cycnis, hedera formofior alba: 1 ་་ NOTES. more fair than Swans, mort beautiful than white ivy Μόσχω γαυροτέρας Φιαρώτερα ἔμ- More wiht then winters fun, or fum φακος μας. "Fair maid, and why doft thou thy "love defpife? "More white than curds, and plea❝fing to my eyes; "More foft than lambs, more wan66 ton than a steer; "But to the fenfe, like grapes un "ripe, fevere." CREECH. Thus alfo, in the thirteenth book of Ovid's Metamorphofes ; mers aire ; "Candidior nivei folio, Galatea, character of the famous Galatea. |