། [. From the high Heav'n a brazen anvil cast, 1110 Who with false oaths disgrace th' olympian bow'rs, Of earth, the barren main, the starry sky, And Tart'rus; there of all the fountains rise, 1050 | And Tart'rus; where of all the fountains rise; A sight detested by immortal eyes: 1060 A mighty chasm, horror and darkness here; 1070 1080 A horrid dog, and grim, couch'd on the floor, 1100 1121 1130 A sight detested by immortal eyes. Th' inhabitants through brazen portals pass, Over a threshold of e'erlasting brass, The growth spontaneous, and foundations deep; And here th' allies of Jove their captives keep, The Titans, who to utter darkness fell, And in the farthest parts of Chaos dwell. Jove grateful gave to his auxiliar train, Cottus and Gyges, mansions in the main; To Briareus, for his superior might Exerted fiercely in the dreadful fight, Neptune who shakes the earth, his daughter gave, Cymopolia, to reward the brave. When the great victor god, almighty Jove, The Titans from celestial regions drove, Wide Earth Typhoeus bore, with Tart'rus join'd, Her youngest born, and blust'ring as the wind; Fit for most arduous works his brawny hands, On feet as durable as gods he stands; 1139 From heads of serpents hiss an hundred tongues, And lick his horrid jaws, untir'd his lungs; From his dire hundred heads his eye-balls stare, And, fire-like, dreadful to beholders, glare; Terrific from his hundred mouths to hear, Voices of ev'ry kind torment the ear; His utt'rance sounds like gods in council full; And now he bellows like the lordly bull: And now he roars like the stern beast that reigns King of the woods, and terrour of the plains; And now, surprising to be hear'd, he yelps, 1150 Like, from his ev'ry voice, the lion's welps; And now, so loud a noise the monster makes, The loftiest mountain from its basis shakes: And now Typhoeus had perplex'd the day, And over men and gods usurp'd the sway, Had not the pow'rful monarch of the skies, Of men and gods the sire, great Jove the wise, Against the foe his hottest vengeance burl'd, Which blaz'd and thunder'd thro' th' etherial world; | Thro' land and main the bolts red hissing fell, 1160 And thro' old Ocean reach'd the gates of Hell. Th' almighty rising made Olympus nod, And the earth groan'd beneath the vengeful god. Hoarse thro' the cœrule main the thunder roll'd Thro' which the lightning flew, both uncontroul'd; Fire caught the winds which on their wings they bore, [roar, Fierce flame the earth and Heav'n, the seas loud And beat with burning waves the burning shore; The tumult of the gods was hear'd a far: How hard to lay this hurricane of war! The god who o'er the dead infernal reigns, E'en Pluto, trembled in his dark domains; 1170 1180 1191 Dire horrour seiz'd the rebel Titan band, She by the thund'ring god conceiv'd again, Eurynome, from Ocean sprung, to Jove And thou Thalia of a graceful air; He Ceres next, a bounteous goddess, led Mnemosyne his breast with love inspires, 1960 Latona bore, the fruits of Jove's embrace, Last Juno fills th' almighty monarch's ams, The rev'rend dame, unconquerable maid, Juno, proud goddess, with her consort strove, To Neptune beauteous Amphitrite bore To Mars, who pierces with his spear the shied, And now the king of gods, Jove, Metis led, [veal'd, And first the virgin with her azure eyes, A son decreed to reign o'er Heav'n and Earth, The Hours to Jove did lovely Themis bear, 1240 O'er human labours they the pow'r possess, 1500 Cadmean Simele, a mortal dame, Great Hercules, who with misfortune strove From the bright Sun, and thee, Perseïs, spring, Fam'd offsprings, Circe, and Eetes king. 1320 Eetes thee, beauteous Idya, led, All hail, olympian maids, harmonious Nine, 1331 [toil; Jason, an hero thro' the world renown'd, Was with the joyous love of Ceres crown'd; Their joys they acted in a fertile soil Of Crete, which thrice had bore the plowman's Of them was Plutus born, who spreads his hand, Dispersing wealth, o'er all the sea and land; Happy the man who in his favour lives, Riches to him, and all their joys he gives. Cadmus Harmonia lov'd, the fair and young, A fruitful dame, from golden Venus sprung; Ino, and Simele, Agave fair, 1339 1351 1360 And thee, Autonoë, thy lover's care, 1370 1380 To Peleus Thetis, silver-footed dame, Achilles bore, in war a mighty name. Fair Cytherea, ever flush'd with charms, Resign'd them to a mortal hero's arms: To thee, Anchises, the celestial bride Æneas bore high in the shades of Ide. Circe, the daughter of the Sun, inclin'd To thee, Ulysses, of a patient mind; Hence Agrius sprung, and hence Latinus came, A valiant hero, and a spotless name: 1391 The sacred isles were by the brothers sway'd; And then the Tyrrhenes, men renown'd obey'd. Calypso with the sage indulg'd her flame; From them Nausithous and Nausinous came. Thus each immortal fair the Nine record Who deign'd to revel with a mortal lord; In whose illustrious offsprings all might trace The glorious likeness of a god-like race: And now, olympian maids, harmonious Nine, Daughters, of Ægis bearing Jove, divine, In lasting song the mortal dames rehearse; Let the bright belles of Earth adorn the verse. [1401 A DISCOURSE ON THE THEOLOGY AND MYTHOLOGY OF THE ANCIENTS. IN the following discourse I shall confine myself to the theology and mythology of the ancient Greeks, shewing their rise and progress, with a view only to the theogony of Hesiod, intending it but as an appendix to the notes. The Greeks doubtless derived great part of their religion from the Egyptians; and though Herodotus tells us, in one place, that Hesiod, with Homer, was the first who introduced a theogony among the Grecians, and the first who gave names to the gods, yet he contradicts that opinion in his second book, where he says Melampus seems to have learned the stories of Bacchus from Cadmus and other Tyrians which came with him from Phoenicia to the country now called Boeotia; be must therefore mean that Hesiod and Homer were the first who gave the gods a poetical dress, and who used them with more freedom in their writings than preceding authors. Herodotus, Diodorus Siculus, and Pausanias, all mention Cadmus settling in Boeotia, and Egyptian colonies in other parts of Greece; and Herodotus says almost all the names of the gods in Greece were from Egypt; to enforce which I have translated the following account from Diodorus Siculus. We learn from the Egyptians that many by nature mortal were honoured with immortality for their wisdom and inventions which proved useful to mankind, some of which were kings of Egypt; and to such they gave the names of the celestial deities. Their first prince was called H from the planet of that name the Sun. We are told that Hpas, or Vulcan, was the inventor of fire, that is the use of it; for seeing a tree on the mountains blasted from Heaven, and the wood burning, he received much comfort from the heat, being then winter; from this he fired some combustible matter, and preserved the use of it afterwards to men; for which reason he was made ruler of the people. After this Chronos, or Saturn, reigned, who married his sister Rhea, of whom five deities were born, whose names were Osiris, Isis, Typhon, Apollo, Aphrodite. Osiris is Bacchus, and Isis Ceres or Demeter. Isis was married to Osiris, and, after she shared the dominion, made many discoveries for the benefit of life; she found the use of corn, which grew before neglected in the fields like other herbs; and Osiris begun to cultivate the fruit-trees. In remembrance of these persons annual rites were decreed, which are now preserved; in the time of harvest they offer the first-fruits of the corn to Isis, and invoke her. Hermes invented letters, and the lyre of three chords; he first instituted divine worship, and ordained sacrifices to the gods. The same historian proceeds to relate the expedition of Osiris, who was accompanied by his brother Apollo, who is said to be the first that pointed out the laurel. Osiris took great delight in music, for which reason he carried with him a company of musicians, among which were nine virgins eminent for their skill in singing, and in other sciences, whom the Greeks call the Muses, and Apollo they style their president. Osiris at his return was deified, and afterwards murdered by his brother Typhon, a turbulent and impious man. Isis and her son revenged themselves on Typhon and his accomplices. Thus far Diodorus in his first book; and Plutarch, in his treatise of Isis and Osiris, seems to think the Grecian poets, in their stories of Jupiter and the Titans, and of Bacchus and Ceres, indebted to the Egyptians. Diodorus, in his third book, tells us Cadmus, who was derived from Egypt, brought letters from Phamicia, and Linus was the first among the Greeks who invented poetic numbers and melody, and who writ an account of the actions of the first Bacchus; he had many disciples, the most renowned of which were Hercules, Thamyris, and Orpheus. We are told by the same author that Orpheus, who was let into the theology of the Egyptians, applied the generation of the Osiris of old to the then modern times, and, being gratified by the Cadmeans, instituted new rites. Simele, the daughter of Cadmus, being defloured, bore a child of the same likeness, which they attributed to Osiris of Egypt; Orpheus, who was admitted into the mysteries of the religion, endeavoured to veil her shame by giving out that Simele conceived by Jove, and brought forth Bacchus. Hence men, partly through ignorance, and partly through the honour which they had for Orpheus, and confidence in him, were deceived. says Plutarch, in his Inquiry after God, appears from his pouring down the waters which have the spermatic faculty, and Earth, the mother because she brings forth. This, according to the opinion of Plutarch and many more, was the origin of the multiplicity of gods, men esteeming those bodies in the heavens and on the earth, from which they received benefit, the immediate objects of their gratitude and adoration: the same were the motives afterwards which induced them to pay divine honours to mortal men, as we see in the ac count we have from Diodorus. The design of the poet was to give a catalogue of those deities who were, in any sense, esteeined as such in the times in which he lived, whether fabulous, histori cal, or physical; but we must take notice that even where a story had rise from fable, or history, he seems to labour at reducing it to nature, as in that of the Muses: what was before of mean original from nine minstrels, slaves to a prince, is rendered great by the genius of the poet. I shall conclude, thinking it all that is farther necessary to be said, and particularly on the my thology, with the following translation from the preface of lord Bacon to his treatise on the Wisdom of the Ancients. "I am not ignorant how incertain fiction is, and how liable to be wrested to this or that sets, not how prevalent wit and discourse are, so as ingeni. ously to apply such meanings as were not thought of originally: but let not the follies and license of few lessen the esteem due to parables; for that would be prophane and bold, since religion de lights in such veils and shadows: but, redecting on human wisdom, I ingeniously confess my real opinion is, that mystery and allegory were from the original intended in many fables of the ancient poets: this appears apt and conspicuous to me, whether ravished with a veneration for antiquity, or because I find such coherence in the similitude with the things signified, in the very texture of the fable, and in the propriety of the names which are given to the persons or actors in the fable: and no man can positively deny that this was the sense proposed from the beginning, and industri ously veiled in this manner. How can the conformity and judgment of the names be obscure to any? Metis being made the wife of Jove plainly signifies counsel. No one should be moved if he sometimes finds any addition for the sake of his tory, or by way of embellishment, or if chronology should happen to be confounded, or if part of one fable should be transferred to another, and a new allegory introduced; for these were all neces sary and to be expected, seeing they are the in ventions of men of different ages, and who writ to different ends, some with a view to the nature of things, and other to eivil affairs. From these passages we learn that the religion and gods of Egypt were, in part, translated with the colonies into Greece; but they continued not long without innovations and alterations. Linus first sung the exploits of the first Bacchus or Osiris; he doubtless took all the poetical liberty that he could with his subject: Orpheus after him banished the first Bacchus from the theology, and introduced the second with a lie to conceal the shame of a polluted woman. In short, all the stories which were told in honour of those Egypt-ration, that is, in themselves literally understood, ians who had deserved well of their country were, with their names, applied to other persons. Thus, according to the historian, the divine Orpheus set out with bribery, flattery, and delusion. Hesiod begins his Theogony with the first principle of the heathen system, that Chaos was the parent of all, and Heaven and Earth the parents of all visible things. That Heaven is the father, "We have another sign, and that no small one, this hidden sense which we have been speaking of which is, that some of these fables are in the nar so foolish and absurd, that they seem to proclaim a parable at a distance. Such as are probable may be feigned for amusement, and in imitation of history; but where no such designs appear, but they seem to be what none would imagine or relate, they must be calculated for other uses What a fiction is this! Jove took Metis for his wife, and as soon as he perceived her pregnant est her, whence he himself conceived, and brought forth Pallas armed from his head. Nothing can appear more monstrous, more like a dream, and more out of the course of thinking, than this story in itself. What has a great weight with me is, that many of these fables seem not to be invented by those who have related them, Homer, Hesiod, and other writers; for were they the fictions of that age, and of those who delivered them down to us, nothing great and exalted, according to my opinion, could be expected from such an origin: but if any one will deliberate on this subject attentively, these will appear to be delivered and related as what were before believed and received, and not as tales then first invented and communicated; besides, as they are told in different manners by authors of almost the same times, they are easily perceived to be common, and derived from old memorial tradition, and are various only from the additional embellishments which diverse writers have bestowed on them. "In old times, when the inventions of men, and the conclusions deduced from them, were new and uncommon, fables, parables, and similes, of all kinds abounded. As hieroglyphics were more ancient than parables, parables were more ancient than arguments. We shall close what we have here said with this observation; the wisdom of the ancients was either great or happy, great if these figures were the fruits of their industry, and happy if they looked no farther, that they have afforded matter and occasion so worthy contemplation." POSTSCRIPT. I CANNOT take my leave of this work without expressing my gratitude to Mr. Theobald for his kind assistance in it. Much may with justice be said to the advantage of that gentleman, but his own writings will be testimonies, of his abilities, when, perhaps, this profession of my friendship for him, and of my zeal for his merit, shall be forgot. Such remarks as I have received from my friends I have distinguished from my own, in justice to those by whom I have been so obliged, lest, by a general acknowledgment only, such errours as I may have possibly committed, should, by the wrong guess of some, be unjustly imputed to them. The few notes which were writ by the earl of Pembroke are placed betwixt two asterisms1. Feb. 15, 1728. THOMAS COOK. 1 As before observed, the whole of the notes are omitted in this collection. C. Printed by T. DAVISON, Whitefriars. END OF VOL. XX. |