To Satrachus shall steer, to Hyle's grove, There burn the incense, there with supple knees Adore Zerinthian Morpho, graceful queen. One, through whose veins my kindred blood shall flow, Ah, bitter kinsman! from Cychréan caves, 531 From streams of Bocarus shall fly; for Fame Shall style him Murderer of the maddening king, His brother, who on flocks and herded kine Shall pour his erring rage; whose sinewy strength 535 Circling enwraps; whom nought of keen can pierce The Scythian quiver, like an ample shield, Guards from the war: So prayed the chief, nor prayed 540 In vain, when, bowing to the King of Heaven, He poured the blood of victims on the earth, What, though Persuasion from his honied lips 545 inhabitants into bulls, in order to punish their inhumanity towards strangers: Atque illos, gemino quondam quibus aspera cornu OVID. Metam. X. 222. 527. Satrachus, was a city, and also a river, of Cyprus. Hyle took its name from a grove where Apollo was worshipped under the name of 'Thárns, or" sylvan." 529. Venus was called Morpho from her being the Goddess of Form and Beauty; and Zerinthian, from Zerinthus a cavern of Thrace, and which, according to Stephanus, is also the name of a town near nus. Ovid places the Zerinthian shores by Samothrace: Venimus ad portus, Imbria terra, tuos ; OVID. Trist. I. 9. 530. Teucer was son of Telamon, and Hesione the sister of Priam, and consequently cousin to Cassandra. On his return from Troy to Salamis, he was driven into exile by his father, who imagined him to have betrayed the cause of his brother Ajax. (See Hor. Od. I. 7.) Salamis was formerly called Cychréa, according to Strabo: it contained a city of the same name, near to which flowed the river Bocarus, called afterwards Bocalias. 534. Ajax, in a fit of madness, destroyed a flock of sheep, thinking he revenged his wrongs upon the Atrida. When he regained his reason, he committed suicide. (See Sophocles, Ajax Flagell.) 540. Hercules visited the palace of Telamon while the latter was offering sacrifice, and presented the infant Ajax with the lion's skin, and prayed to Jupiter to make him invulnerable. 546. Ajax, whom Telamon never shall believe to have committed suicide. The mighty bull, whom Terror ne'er subdued Then stabbed, and breathed his sullen soul away. 550 But far the father from his isle shall drive Trambelus' brother, whom to light and life Brought forth that sister of my sire, whom erst His prize of battle the destroyer bore, When maddening multitudes had cast the nymph 555 (So bade the glozing orator, whose bed Three daughters graced) unto the sea-born orc, Who poured profuse from his capacious jaws Black briny waves, and tempested the plain ; He seized his prey, but found no trembling bird, 560 565 570 HE seeks, whose sire pierced by th' Etéan tusk Sheer through the groin had forced its bloody way; 548. The sword with which Ajax killed himself was the gift of Hector : Δῶρον μὲν ἀνδρὸς Εκτορος, ξένων ἐμοὶ SOPHOCLES. 552. Trambelus was brother to Teucer, and half-brother to Ajax: he was born at Miletus, whither Hesione, while pregnant, had fled from Telamon, to whom she was given by Hercules after his conquest of Troy. 553. Hesione, whom Phænodamas proposed to substitute for one of his three daughters. (See Note on verse 34.) By the Scorpion is meant Hercules, who leaped down the throat of the monster, and cut his way through the entrails. 562. The second, who came into the island of Cyprus, was Agapenor, whose Arcadian ancestors were called Bahanpayo from their feeding upon acorns; and porno, from their asserting their nation to be anterior to the moon: Astris lunaque priores. STAT. They are called "Sons of the Dryad" from their being descendants of Areas and the wood-nymph Chrysopeleia. 568. This may refer to Lycaon, who was changed into a wolf by Jupiter (See Ovid. Metamorph.); or to a tradition mentioned by Pliny, that the Arcadians were in the habit of transforming themselves into that animal by means of magical incantations. 572. Ancæus, the father of Agapenor, was killed by the Calydonian boar, Then well he knew, but knowing it expired, 575 580 The third shall boast the sire, whose giant hand Shall steal enamoured; then unto the shades 585 which descended from Mount Eta into Ætolia, and gored him in the groin. Lycophron afterwards says that the animal wounded him in the heel, which the Scholiast considers as a great inconsistency, and offers us the alternative of ignorance on his own part, or barbarism and trifling on that of his author; σε ἢ βαρβαρίζοντος καὶ φλυαροῦντος τοῦ ἀνδρὸς, ἢ ἐμοῦ ἀμαθαίνοντος.” When we reflect, that, after having overthrown Ancæus by a wound in the groin, the boar might strike him in the heel, without any very great violation of probability, we shall perhaps find no difficulty in extricating ourselves from this dilemma, or in determining which side of the proposed alternative to adopt. 576. This adage is as ancient as the time of Homer: Πολλὰ μεταξὺ πέτει (vulgo πέλει) κύλικος, καὶ χείλεος ἄκρου. Of which line our own proverb is a literal translation: "Many things happen between the cup and the lip." 582. The third who came into Cyprus was Acamas, whose father, Theseus, raised a stone pointed out to him by his mother Ethra, and took from thence the arms placed there by Ageus, with which he proceeded to the court of Athens: Ἐν γάρ μιν Τροιζήνι Κολουραίῃ ὑπὸ πέτρη Θῆκε σὺν ἁρπίδεσσι. She FRAGM. CALLIM. emend. a Bent. 584. The Heifer is Laodice, who became enamoured of Acamas when he was sent to Troy with Diomede, to treat for the restoration of Helen. afterwards bore to him a son, Munitus, who, while on a hunting excursion into Thrace, was killed by the bite of a viper. The original stands thus: Η ζῶσ ̓ ἐς Αϊδην ἵξεται καταιβάτις, Θρήνοισιν ἐντακεῖσα, Μουνίτου τοκὰς, κ. τ. λ. Who (Laodice) shall descend alive to the shades below, The Scholiast, having the word Munitus before his eyes in this passage, has taken no notice of his former charge against Lycophron, viz. that he has called the son of Laodice "Munippus," but renews his attack with an affected exclamation of pity; Φεῦ, ὦ Λύκοφρον, πῶς ἀνακόλουθα γράφεις· Alas, Lycophron, how inconsistently you write!" and accuses him of having asserted in a former passage that Laodice was swallowed up by the earth (see Note on verse 377), but now, that she died of grief for the loss of Muni tus. The Scholiast therefore must evidently have omitted the comma after ἐντακεῖσα, and read the sentence Θρήνοισιν ἐντωκεῖσα Μουνίτου, i. e. “ worn out with sorrow for the death of her son Munitus." What time the beldame to his 'sire's embrace 590 So willed the wolves, who howled on Attic shores, 595 Falls harmless, and rings loud the blunted sword: Shall guard, and thus unto the stars of heaven Each twin Lapersian demi-god shall rise. Oh, never, never may those lions rush, 600 Protector Jove, to free the captive Dove! Ne'er may their swift-winged vessels to these shores Ride tilting o'er the waves! ne'er may they leap Thirsting for blood upon the Phrygian plain! 605 No, nor that stronger twain, whom Mars inspires, 610 589. Ethra, the mother of Theseus, to whom Laodice delivered her son, in order that she might place him under the care of his father Acamas. 591. When Theseus carried off Helen, he left her with his mother at Athens, (according to others at Aphidna). Castor and Pollux recovered their sister, but carried away no booty but /Ethra, the mother of the ravisher, who accompanied Helen to Troy when she fled thither with Paris, and returned to Greece after the destruction of that city. 594. By the wolves are meant the Dioscuri, who, in memory of their generation from an egg, wore helmets resembling the half of a divided eggshell. 597. The ancients (and, if we may believe Hesychius, more particularly the Laconians) were accustomed to use seals made of worm-eaten wood, before the invention of cutting metal or gems: these seals were termed θριπήδεστα. “ Οἱ Λάκωνες σφράγισιν ἐχρῶντο ξύλοις ὑπὸ θριπῶν βεβρωμένοις.” 599. The author of a commentary on Homer, cited by Meursius, says that Castor and Pollux were called Lapersæ, from their destruction of Las, (styled Laas by Homer), a town situated between Teuthrona and the river Eurotas. Didymus says they were so called from the city Laperṣa. 600. “Oh, never may those twin-lions, Castor and Pollux, come to rescue their sister Helen! no, nor their cousins Idas and Lynceus, much stronger than they for the walls of Troy, though raised by Apollo and Neptune, could not resist them for a day, not though Hector were to stand before them powerful as a Thracian giant, and defend them with that spear with which he shall kill Protesilaus." 609. Apollo was styled Drymas by the Milesians. Neptune had a temple at Cromne, a city of Paphlagonia, and was worshipped under the name of Prophantus by the Thurians. 610. The "perjured prince" is Laomedon, who refused to give to Apollo and Neptune the reward which he had promised them for building the walls of Troy. One day, one little day, would stand their shock; 615 620 Shout, shout, and raise the song of joy!-there is, Soon shall ye eat the bitter bread of tears, Banquet on woes, and blood shall flow for wine: 630 613. Mimas was one of the giants who waged war against Jupiter. 617. The oracles had denounced death against the first Greek who should land upon the Trojan coast. 618. Protesilaus, who is pointed out by the term "hawk," was the first who disembarked, and was slain soon after by Hector; he was buried on the shores of the Thracian Chersonese, near the promontory Mazusia or Mastusia, where, according to Pliny, a temple was raised to his honour: "Chersonesi Mastusia promontorium adversum Sigeo, ---- turris et delubrum Protesilaï." Arrian, in his first book on the Expedition of Alexander, says that he offered sacrifice on his tomb: Θύει Πρωτεσιλάῳ ἐπὶ τῷ τάφῳ τοῦ Πρωτεσιλάου. 625. I have followed the Scholiast, and Canter, in supposing Jupiter to he meant by this passage. He may be called Gyrapsius, Tupátos, from the spherical shape of the æther; and Ethiops, either because the Gods were accustomed to feast in #thiopiaἐμεῖο μετ' Αἰθιόπεσσιν ἔοντος, (see the speech of Neptune in the fifth book of the Odyssey,) or, as Eustathius observes, napa ro alow, from the luminous nature of the atmosphere: though undoubtedly all these qualities will apply equally well to Apollo, who is called Drymas in verse 610. 626. Paris was the guest of Menelaus at Sparta, and was consequently hospitably entertained by Menelaus, the Dioscuri, and their cousins the Apharida. At an entertainment given by the latter in honour of Ceres, a quarrel arose, produced by the following transaction. The two daughters of Leucippus, Phoebe and Ilaira, had been betrothed to Idas and Lynceus, the sons of Aphareus, but were forcibly taken away by Castor and Pollux, who, when upbraided by the Apharide for having given their brides no dowry, stole the oxen of their unsuccessful rivals, and gave them to their father-in-law Leucippus. This produced a battle: Lynceus killed Castor, but was himself struck to the ground by Pollux; Idas struck at Pollux with the column or cippus erected on the tomb of Aphareus, but for this impiety Jupiter killed him with a thunderbolt. (See Pindar and Theocritus.) |