SATIRA XV. ARGUMENT. The Poet in this Satire, which he is supposed to have written when he was under his banishment in Egypt, relates the mortal and irreconcileable hatred, which sprung from a religious quarrel between the Ombites and Tentyrites, inhabitants of two neighbouring cities of Egypt-and describes, in very lively colours, a bloody fray which happened between them. He seems to lay this as a ground for those fine reflections, with which he finishes the Satire, on the nature, use, and intention of civil society. In reading this Satire, it is difficult not to advert to the monstrous cruelties which superstition and bigotry have brought on mankind, while those who have disgraced the Christian name by bearing it, have, with relentless fury, inflicted tortures and death on thousands of innocent people, Quis nescit, Volusi Bithynice, qualia demens : Line 1. Bithynian Volusius.] Who this Volusius was does not appear; all that we know is, that he came from Bithynia, a country of the Lesser Asia, and was undoubtedly a friend of Juvenal, who addresses this Satire to him. 2. Mad Egypt.] Demens not only means mad, i. e. one that has lost his senses, but also silly, foolish; which perhaps is meant here, in allusion to the silly superstition which possessed the minds of the Egyptians in religious mat ters. ―This part.] One part of Egypt. 5 Egypt which lies near the river Nile worships the crocodile; a dreadful amphibious animal, shaped something like a lizard, and, from an egg little bigger than that of a goose, grows to be thirty feet long. The Egyptians know how high the river will rise that year, by the place where the crocodiles lay their eggs. The crocodile was worshipped with divine honours, because these animals were supposed to have destroyed the Libyan and Arabian robbers, who swam over the river and killed many of the inhabitants. 3. An Ibis.] A certain bird, which is SATIRE XV. ARGUMENT. for no other crime than a difference of opinion in religious matters. MARSHALL, in his note on line 36, thus expresses himself"Hinc simultas et odium utrique populo oriebantur, nempe "ex diversitate religionum, quæ in mundo etiam Christiano, "Di boni! quantas strages excitavit !" The attentive reader of this Satire will find a lively exhibition of those principles which actuate bigots of all religions, zealots of all persuasions; and which, as far as they are permitted, will always act uniformly against the peace and happiness of mankind. He may amuse himself with allegorizing the Ombites and Tentyrites into emblems of blind zeal and party rage, which no other bounds than want of power have kept from desolating the earth. WHO knows not, Bithynian Volusius, what monstrous things Mad Egypt can worship? this part adores a crocodile ; That fears an Ibis saturated with serpents. A golden image of a sacred monkey shines, Where the magic chords resound from the half Memnon, 5 a great destroyer of serpents. See AINSW. 4. A golden image, &c.] In another part of Egypt, viz. at Thebes, they worship the image of a monkey made of gold. Cercopithecus is derived from the Gr. Kepkos, a tail, and ŋkos, an ape. The difference between the ape and the monkey is, that the ape has no tail; the monkey has, and usually a very long one. 5. Magic chords, &c.] At Thebes, in Egypt, there was a colossal statue of Memnon, a king of Ethiopia, who was slain by Achilles at the siege of Troy: this statue was made of hard marble, and with such art, that a lute, which was in its hand, would itself give a musical sound when the beams of the sun came upon it. Cambyses, king of Persia, ruined the city, and caused the statue to be broken about the middle, imagining the sound to proceed from some contrivance within, but nothing was found. From this time the music was thought to be magical. Strabo says, that he and others heard the music about one in the afternoon, but confesses he could not understand the cause. Atque vetus Thebe centum jacet obruta portis. 6. Hundred gates.] At Thebes, in Egypt, there was an hundred gates; the city from thence was called Hecatompylis. This city was destroyed by Cambyses, who conquered Egypt. It was originally built by Busiris, the fabled son of Neptune. See sat. xiii. 1. 27, and note. 7. Sea-fish.] Coeruleos-because taken out of the sea, which, by reflecting the blue sky, appears of an azure or sky-blue colour. So VIRG. Æn. iii. 208. Adnixi torquent spumas, et cærula verrunt-i. e. æquora. 8. Worship a dog.] They worship their god Anubis under this form. See sat. vi. 533, note. -Nobody Diana.] They worship the hound, but not the huntress. Juvenal seems to mistake here, for Herodotus observes that Diana was worshipped in that country under the name of Bubastis; which adoration, under another name, might occasion this mistake. But see AINSW. Bubastis. 9. A sin to violate a leek, &c.] "Perhaps our poet here goes a little beyond the strict truth, to heighten the ridicule, though there might be possibly some foundation for such an opinion, from the scrupulous abstinence of some of that nation from particular vegetables, as lentils, beans, and onions, the latter of which the priests abominated, as some pretend, because Dictys, who had been brought up by Isis, was drowned in seeking after them; or rather, because onions alone, of all plants, thrive when the moon is in the wane." See ANT. Univ. Hist. vol. i. p. 484. For the religion of Egypt, see also ib. p. 467, et seq.; and Abr. of Hutchinson, p. 122. 10. O holy nations, &c.] Meaning the various parts of Egypt, whose worship of leeks and onions he has just mentioned. This sarcasm is very natural after what he has said. 11. Every table, &c.] i. e. They never eat sheep, or lambs. 12. Offspring of a she-goat.] i. e. A kid. The hatred of the Egyptians to the Israelites, both as shepherds and as Hebrews, is supposed to have arisen from the latter killing and sacrificing these beasts, which were held sacred and worshipped in Egypt. See Gen. xliii. 32; and xlvi. 34. See ANT. Un. Hist. vol. iii. p. 333, b. 13. Human flesh.] DIOD, lib. ii. c. 4. says, that in a time of famine in Egypt, when the Egyptians were sorely pressed with hunger, they spared their sacred animals, and ate the flesh of men. 13, 14. When Ulysses was telling, &c.] Ulysses, arriving at the island of Phæacia, or Corcyra (now Corfu), was entertained by Alcinous the king, to whom he related his travels. 15, 16. Anger or laughter.] He recited such monstrous incredibilities, that And ancient Thebes lies overthrown with its hundred gates. There sea-fish, here a fish of the river; there Whole towns worship a dog, nobody Diana. It is a sin to violate a leek or onion, or to break them with a bite. O holy nations, for whom are born in gardens 10 These deities! Every table abstains from animals bearing "For sooner Scylla, or the concurring rocks "Of Cyane, and bags full of tempests 15 20 "Would I have believed, or, struck by the slender wand of "Circe, no doubt he excited the spleen of some of the company, and the laughter of others. 16. Lying babbler.] Aretalogus (from αρετη and λογος) signifies a talkative philosopher, who diverted great men at their tables by discourses on virtue. From hence this word has been frequently used for a talkative person, a jester, a buffoon. -Into the sea, &c.] The poet supposes one of the company, who heard the strange tales of Ulysses, when at the court of Alcinous, expressing himself as in an amaze, that nobody should take him and throw him into the sea for his strange lies. Abicit-i. e. abjicit. 17. Worthy of a true Charybdis.] He has told such a romance about a feigned whirlpool, which he calls Charybdis, in the Straits of Sicily, that he certainly deserves a real one for his pains. 18. Feigning huge Læstrygonians.] A rude and savage people near Formiæ, in Italy; they were like giants, and devoured men. See Odyss. K. -Cyclops.] These were represented as man-eaters. See Odyss. . Also VIRG. Æn. iii. 616, et seq. 19. Sooner Scylla, &c.] I can sooner believe his tales about Scylla, (the daughter of Phorcys, the father of the Gorgons,) who is said to be changed into a dangerous rock in the midway between Italy and Sicily. See VIRG. ecl. v. 74-7. -Concurring rocks, &c.] Called Cyaneæ, otherwise Symplegada, two rocks at a small distance from the Thracian Bosphorus, so close to one another, that they seem at a distance to be one; and, as one passeth by, he would think they dash against each other: they were therefore called Symplegadæ, from Gr. σv and Tλnoow, to strike together. 20. "Bags full of tempests."] When Ulysses arrived at the island of Æolus, that king of the winds inclosed the adverse ones in leathern bags, and hung them up in Ulysses' ship, leaving at liberty the west wind, which was favourable. But the companions of Ulysses untied the bags, being curious to know what they contained, and let out the adverse winds; immediately a tempest is raised, which drives the ship back to the Æolian isles, to the great displeasure of Æolus, who rejects Ülysses and his companions. They then sail to the Læstrygons, where they lose eleven ships, and, with one only remaining, proceed to the island of Circe. See Odyss. κ. ad init. 21. "Wand of Circe."] She was said to be the daughter of Sol and Perseis; she was a sorceress. She poisoned her husband, the king of the Scythians, that she might reign alone; for which, being Et cum remigibus grunnisse Elpenora porcis. Solus enim hoc Ithacus nullo sub teste canebat. Nam scelus, a Pyrrha quanquam omnia syrmata volvas, 30 expelled her kingdom, she went into Italy, and dwelt in a promontory called the Cape of Circe, whither Ulysses and his companions were driven, (see the last note, ad fin.) many of whom, by a touch of her magic wand, she turned into swine; at last, on entreaty, she restored them to their former shapes. 22." Elpenor."] One of Ulysses' companions. _“Swine-rowers."] The crew of the ship, who rowed her, were turned into swine, and grunted like that animal. In those days the ships were rowed with oars, as well as driven by sails. 23. "Has he thought," &c.] Has this Ulysses so mean an opinion of the Phæacians, as to imagine them so emptyheaded, so void of understanding, that they should receive such a pack of incredible stories, of bags, of tempests, &c. &c.? But even these are more probable, and sooner to be believed, than what he relates of the Læstrygons and Cyclops, as if they were man-eaters; this shocks all belief. 24. Thus deservedly, &c.] The above reflections would be very just, and proper for any one to make, unless he had drunk away his senses, and was incapable of distinguishing truth from falsehood. 25. Strong wine.] Temetum, a word signifying strong wine, from Gr. To μe0v, vinum; whence μelvσкw, to be drunk. So from temetum comes temulentus, drunken. See HOR. Epist. lib. ii. epist. ii. l. 163. 35 -Corcyræan urn.] Corcyra, an island in the Ionian sea, on the coast of Albania, anciently called Phæacia. So that the poet means the wine of that country, made by the Phæacians, who were famous for luxury. The urn signifies the vessel (or hogshead, as we call it) out of which they drew the wine, in order to drink it. 26. Ulysses related this, &c.] He told these stories entirely on his own credit, having no witness present to avouch the truth of what he said, therefore he might reasonably be disbelieved. -Related.] Canebat.--The word cano, when it signifies to relate or report, particularly applies to things uttered by poets, who do not always stick to truth, but indulge their fancies in strange improbabilities: it is therefore here well applied to Ulysses, when telling such stories to Alcinous. Why Ulysses was called Ithacus, see sat. x. 257, note 2. 27. We will relate, &c.] I shall now relate something very astonishing, not merely on my own authority, but which can be attested, as lately and publicly transacted. 27, 8. Junius being consul.] Some consule Vinco, others Junco; but no such name of a consul appears as Vincus, or Juncus. Junius Sabinus was consul with Domitian, an. U.C. 836. N.C. 84. The poet dates the time of his facts for the greater certainty. 28. Upon the walls, &c.] i. e. At Coptus-in the city. |