Cum canerem reges et praelia, Cynthius aurem Pergite, Pierides. Chromis et Mnasylus in antro 5 10 15 < Cynthus is the name of a mountain of Delos, where Apollo and Diana were born; whence they are called Cynthius and Cyn thia. d Many conjectures have been made by different commentators concerning the identity of the person here alluded to: the most probable is, that this person was Quintus Atticus Varus, who served under Julius Cæsar with distinguished reputation, in the Gallic war, and adhered to him in the Civil war. e Chromis and Mnasylus are generally thought to be Satyrs, but from an old story in Theopompus, there is reason to think that they may be Shepherds. f Silenus, according to Elian, was the son of a nymph; and was of a nature inferior to the Gods, but superior to mortals: from Ovid we learn, that he was the tutor and companion of Bacchus. g Laccho. wine. One of the names of Bacchus. It is here put for b Serta procul tantum capiti delapsa jacebant ; 20 25 h Egle is said to have been daughter of the Sun and Neæra. i The Fauns were rufal Deities, so called á fando, because, according to the Pagan mythology, they spoke personally to men. They are generally thought to be the same as the Satyrs, and Horace seems to make Faunus the same as Pan. k Parnassia rupes. Parnassus is a great mountain of Phocis, sacred to Apollo and the Muses. Near it was the city Delphi, fa. mous for the Temple and Oracle of the Pythian Apollo. At the foot of this mountain was the Castalian spring, sacred to the Muses. I Rhodope. A mountain of Thrace, the country of Orpheus. This mountain is represented as resounding the lamentations of the Dryads, for the death of that Poet's wife, Eurydice, in the fourth Georgick. m Ismarus is a mountain of Thrace, not far from mount Hebrus, in a country famous of old for good wines. Namque canebat, uti magnum per inane coacta 31 35 40 n Nereus, a sea-god, and father of the Nereids, is here put for the waters, and Pontus is used for the cavity of the sea. • Lapides Pyrrhae jactos. When the world was destroyed by a deluge, Deucalion only, with his wife Pyrrha, survived. They consulted the Oracle of Themis, in what manner mankind was to to be restored. The Oracle commanded them to throw the bones of their great mother behind their backs. By their great mother, they understood the earth, and their bones they apprehended to mean the stones. They obeyed his command, and the stones which Deucalion threw became men, and those which Pyrrha threw be ame women. The story is related in the first book of Ovid's Metamor phosis. P Caucasus is a mountain between the Euxine and Caspian seas 19 Prometheus, the son of lapetus, having formed a man out of clay animated him with the fire which he had stolen, by applying a ferula to the chariot wheels of the sun. Jupiter, offended at his pre D His adjungit, Hylan nautae quo fonte relictum Et fortunatam, si nunquam armenta fuissent, Ah, virgo infelix, quae te dementia cepit ! At non tam turpes pecudum tamen ulla secuta est 45 50. sumption, ordered Mercury to chain him to a rock, on the mountain Caucasus, where an eagle or vulture is continually gnawing his liver. 9 Hylas was a young lad, who accompanied Hercules in the Ar gonautic expedition. He was lost in a fountain, where he went to draw water; whence he is said to have been carried away by a Naiad. The Argonauts called for him a long time in vain : whence it is said, that an annual custom was established, of calling aloud for Hylas. Pasipha was the daughter of the sun, and wife of Minos, king of Crete. She is said to have been enamoured with a bull. s Proetides. The daughter of Prœtus, king of the Argives, hav ing compared their beauty to that of Juno, were afflicted with madness, which made them fancy themselves to be cows, running about the fields and lowing. They were cured of this disease by Melampus, who received one of them in marriage for his reward. Aut aliquam in magno sequitur grege! Claudite Nym phae, Dictaeae nymphae, memorum jam claudite saltus; 56 Aut herba captum viridi, aut armenta secutum, 60 t Dictaeae. Dicte is the name of a mountain in Crete. It seems to be put here for Crete itself. a Stabula ad Gortynia. Gortyna was a celebrated city of Crete, near which was the famous labyrinth. w Hesperidum miratam mala puellam, alludes to the fable of Hippomenes and Atalanta, related in the tenth book of Ovid's Metamorphoses. × Phaëthontiadas, &c. Phaëthusa, Lampetie, and Lampetusa, were the sisters of Phaëton, who being reproached by Epaphus, king of Egypt, as having falsely pretended to be the son of Sol, begged of his father to permit him to drive the chariot for one day' that he might prove himself to be his son. This being granted, he guided the horses so unskilfully, that the earth began to burn, and would have been consumed, if Jupiter had not killed him instantly with a thunderbolt, and thrown him into the river Eridanus. His sisters having sought for him a long time, at last found his body on the banks of that river, where they consumed themselves with weeping, and were turned into trees. Virgil calls those trees alders here, but in the tenth Æneid, he seems to make them poplars. |