was Atys, was distinguished by his superior accomplishments. The intimation of the vision which Croesus saw, was, that Atys should die by the point of an iron spear. Roused and terrified by his dream, he revolved the matter seriously in his mind. His first step was to settle his son in marriage : he then took from him the command of the Lydian troops, whom he before conducted in their warlike expeditions: the spears and darts, with every other kind of hostile weapon, he removed from the apartments of the men to those of the women, that his son might not suffer injury from the fall of them, as they were suspended.

XXXV. Whilst the nuptials of this son employed his attention, an unfortunate homicide arrived at Sardis, a Phrygian by nation, and of the royal family. He presented himself at the palace of Croesus, from whom he required aud received expiation with the usual ceremonies. The Lydian mode of expiation nearly resembles that of

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54 Expiation.]-It was the office of the priests to expiate. for crimes committed either from accident or design, and they were therefore called Kathartai, Purifiers: but it should appear from the above, and other similar incidents, that kings anciently exercised the functions of the priesthood.

T.

The scholiast of Homer informs us, (See verse 48, last book of the Iliad) that it was customary amongst the ancients, for whoever had committed an involuntary murder, to leave his

the Greeks.

When Croesus had performed what custom exacted, he enquired who and whence he "From what part," said he, " of Phrygia,

was.

country, and fly to the house of some powerful individual. There, covering himself, he sate down, and entreated to be parified. No writer has given a more full, and at the same time more correct account of the ceremonies of expiation, than Apollonius Rhodius.

Their visit's cause her troubled mind distress'd;
On downy seats she plac'd each princely guest.
They round her hearth sate motionless and mute ;
With plaintive suppliants such manners suit.
Her folded hands her blushing face conceal;
Deep in the ground he fix'd the murd'rous steel :
Nor dare they once, in equal sorrow drown'd,
Lift their dejected eyelids from the ground.
Circe beheld their guilt: she saw they fled
From vengeance hanging o'er the murd'rer's head.
The holy rites, approv'd of Jove, she pays;
Jove, thus appeas'd, his hasty vengeance stays.
These rites from guilty stains the culprits clear,
Who lowly suppliant at her cell appear.

To expiate their crime, in order due,
First to her shrine a sucking-pig she drew,
Whose nipples from its birth distended stood;

Its neck she struck, and bath'd their hands in blood.
Next, with libations meet, and pray'r, she ply'd

Jove, who acquits the suppliant homicide.
Without her door a train of Naiads stand,

Administ'ring whate'er her rites demand.
Within, the flames that round the hearth arise,
Waste, as she prays, the kneaded sacrifice;
That thus the Furies' vengeful wrath might cease,
And, Jove appeas'd, dismiss them both in peace,

do you come? why are you a suppliant to me? what man or woman have you slain ?" "O king!" replied the stranger, "I am the son of Gordius, who was the son of Midas. My name is Adrastus : unwillingly I have killed my brother, for which I am banished by my father, and rendered

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Whether they came to expiate the guilt

Of friends' or strangers' blood, by treach'ry spilt.

Fawkes's Apollonius Rhodius.

See also the Orestes of Euripides. I use Wodhull's translation.

In ancient days our sires this wholesome law
Enacted, that the man who had committed
An act of homicide, should ne'er appear
In public, or in social converse join.

By banishment they purged his crimes away,
But suffered not th' avenger to destroy him.

55 Adrastus.]-There is a passage in Photius relative to this Adrastus, which two learned men, Palmerius and Larcher, have understood and applied very differently. The passage is this: Photius, in his Bibliotheca, giving an account of the historical work of Ptolemæus son of Hephæstion, says thus: "He also relates, that the name of the person, who, in the first book of Herodotus, is said to have been killed by Adrastus son of Gordius, was Agathon, and that it was in consequence of some dispute about a quail."

The above, and as it should seem with greater probability, Palmerius applies to the brother of Adrastus; Larcher understands it of the son of Croesus.

With respect to the quail, some of our readers may pro

entirely destitute.” "You come," replied Crosus," of a family whom I esteem my friends. My protection shall, in return, be extended to you. You shall reside in my palace, and be provided with every necessary. You will do well not to suffer your misfortune to distress you too much." Croesus then received him into his family.

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XXXVI. There appeared about this time, near Olympus, in Mysia, a wild boar of an extraordinary size, which, issuing from the mountain, did great injury to the Mysians. They had frequently attacked it; but their attempts to destroy it, so far from proving successful, had been attended with loss to themselves. In the extremity, therefore, of their distress, they sent to Croesus a message of the following import: "There has appeared among us, O king! a wild boar, of a most extra

bably thank us for informing them, that the ancients had their quail, as the moderns have their cock-fights.-T.

His cocks do win the battle still of mine
When it is all to nought, and his quails ever
Beat mine inhooped at odds.-Shakespeare.

56 A wild boar.]-It should seem, from the account of ancient authors, that the ravages of the wild boar were considered as more formidable than those of the other savage animals. The conquest of the Erymanthian boar was one of the fated labours of Hercules; and the story of the Caledonian boar is one of the most beautiful in Ovid.-T.

ordinary size, injuring us much; but to destroy which all our most strenuous endeavours have

proved ineffectual. We entreat you, therefore, to send to us your son, at the head of a chosen band, with a number of dogs, to relieve us from this formidable animal." Croesus, remembering his dream, answered them thus: "Of my son you must forbear to make mention: him I cannot send; he is lately married, and his time and attention sufficiently employed. But a chosen band of Lydians, hunters and dogs, shall attend you; and I shall charge them to take every possible means of relieving you, as soon as possible, from the attacks of the boar."

XXXVII. This answer of Croesus satisfied the Mysians; but the young man hearing of the matter, and that his father had refused the soli

57 Satisfied the Mysians.]—Valla, Henry Stephens, and Gronovius, in their versions of this passage, had, quum non essent contenti. Wesseling has taken away the negative particle *.

* See also what the Abbé Geinoz has said on the subject of this negative particle, in the Memoirs of the Académie des Belles Lettres. Vol. xxiii. p. 113.

It may be here proper to inform the reader, that the Abbé Geinoz intended not only to translate Herodotus, but also to give a new edition of the text. The various remarks on our historian, which appear in the different volumes of the above-mentioned memoirs, make it appear, that the learned Frenchman was well qualified for the office. It was his in