arms; marshal all solemnities at the coronation of kings, funerals of princes, &c.

530 As at th' Olympian games.

530

Festivals, celebrated every fourth year, in Greece: this period of time was called Olympiad, and became a celebrated era among the Greeks, who computed their time by it. The computations by Olympiads ceased, as some supposed, after the 364th century, in the year 440, of the Christian era. It was universally adopted, not only by the Greeks, but by many of the neighbouring countries, though still the Pythian games served as an epoch to the people of Delphi, and the Boetians; the Namaan games, to the Argives and Arcadians; and the Isthmian, to the Corinthians; and the inhabitants of the Peloponnesian isthmus. To the Olympiads, history is much indebted, as they have served to fix the time of many momentous events.

or Pythian fields. The Pythian games were celebrated in honour of Apollo, near the temple of Delphi; said to be instituted by Apollo himself, in commemoration of the victory he had obtained over the serpent, Python.

539 Others with vast Typhoean rage more fell,

Typhoeus, one of the rebel giants that warred against heaven. It is said, that Jupiter put him to flight with his thunderbolts, and crushed him under Mount Etna, in the island of Sicily. 542 As when Alcides.

A title of Hercules, who killed himself, in consequence of the pain experienced by the

542

poisoned garment, sent him from his wife, Dejanira, to regain his love, by the advice of Nessus, from whom she received it.

from Echalia crown'd.

A country of Peloponnesus, in Laconia, with a town of the same name, which Hercules destroyed, in the reign of Eurytus.

545 And Lichas from the top of Eta threw.

Hercules, with great violence, threw his servant, Lichas, whom he employed to bring the tunic from Deganira, from the mountain, Eta, into the Euboce Sea, now called the Straits of Negropont.

565 Vain wisdom all, and false philosophy.

Beware, lest any man spoil you, through philosophy and vain conceit. Col. ii. 8.

577 Abhorred Styx.

A river in the infernal regions, round which it flows nine times. According to some writers, the Styx was a small river in Arcadia, whose waters were so cold and venomous, that they proved fatal to such as drank. It is fabled, that the gods held the waters of the Styx in such veneration, that the oath which they swore by it, was held inviolable.

578 Acheron, Cocytus, and Phlegethon.

Rivers in the infernal regions.

583 Lethe, the river of oblivion rolls.

A river of Africa, near the Syrites, which runs under the ground, and some time after rises again; whence the origin of the fable of the Lethean streams of oblivion.

592

as that Serbonian bog.

A bog or marsh, in inferior Egypt, the Serbonis Palus.

593 Damietta.

593

An ancient town in Egypt.

Mount Cassius old.

Cassius, a mountain in Asia.

593 Thither by harpy-footed furies hal'd.

The Furies were three in number; the daughters of Acheron and Nox: their names were Alecto, Megoera, and Tisiphone. They were supposed to be the ministers of vengeance of the gods; and therefore represented stern and inexorable, always employed in punishing the guilty, on earth as well as in the infernal regions.

611 Medusa with gorgonian terror guards.

The Gorgans were three celebrated sisters, whose names were Medusa, Euryale, and Stheno. They dwelt near the gardens of the Hesperides, and had the power of transforming those into stones who looked at them.

as once it fled

The lips of Tantalus.

A king of Lydia: he is represented, by the poets, as punished in the lower regions, with an insatiable thirst, and placed to the chin in water, which flows away as soon as he attempts to taste ; There hangs above his head, a bough richly laden with fruit, which, as soon as he attempts to seize, is carried by a sudden blast away. The causes of this punishment are variously explained. Some say, he stole a favourite dog which Jupiter entrusted to his care to keep his temple in Crete..

Others say, that he stole the nectar and ambrosia from the gods. Another, that it proceeds from his cruelty to his son Pelops.

Gorgons, explained in line 611.

628 Hydras.

628

637

A monster which infested the lake, Lerna, in Peloponnesus, to destroy which, formed one of the twelve labours of Hercules.

and Chimeras dire.

A monster, with three heads, that of a lion, a goat, and a dragon. It infested Lycia, in the reign of Jobates, by whose command, Bellerophon mounted the horse, Pagasus, and overcame it.

by equinoctial winds. The monsoons or shifting trade winds, which blow six months in one direction, and, the other six months, in the opposite. These are mostly in the Indian or Eastern Ocean, and do not extend above two hundred leagues from the land. Their change is at the vernal and autumnal equinoxes, and is accompanied with terrible storms of thunder, lightning and rain.

636 Close sailing from Bengala.

A country of the hither peninsula of India. 639 Of Ternate and Tidore.

The Molucco or Spice, or Clove Islands, are not out of sight of each other, and lie all within the compass of twenty-five leagues to the south of the Philipines, in one hundred and twenty-five degrees of east longitude, and between one degree south, and two north latitude. They are five in number; that is, Bachian, Machian,

640

641

Motyr, Ternate, and Tidore. These islands produce neither corn nor rice, so that the inhabitants live upon bread made of sago. Their chief produce consists of cloves, mace and nutmegs, in vast quantities, which are monopolized by the Dutch. These islands, after being subject to various powers, are now governed by three kings, subordinate to the Dutch. Ternate is the largest of them, though not more than thirty miles in circumference.

they on the trading flood. The general trade winds, which extend to nearly thirty degrees of latitude, on each side of the equator, in the Alantic, Ethiopic, and Pacific

seas.

to the Cape.

The Cape of Good Hope, south of Africa. 655 With wide Cerberean mouths.

Cerberus, a dog with three heads, that guarded the gates of the înfernal regions: it was one of the labours of Hercules to bring him from thence, and considered as the most wonderful of his exploits.

660 Vex'd Scylla.

Scylla was greatly loved by Glaucus, a sea god, whose addresses she scorned; but the god, to render her more propitious, applied to Circe, whose knowledge of herbs and incantations was universally admired: Circe attempted to make him forget Scylla, in vain. To punish her rival, Circe poured the juice of some poisonous herbs into the waters of the fountain where Scylla bathed; when she found her body, below the

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