80. Geryon, a monster with three heads, or, according to others, three bodies, who lived in the island of Erythia, possibly Cadiz, or one of the Balearic islands, in the distant west. It was one of Hercules' labours, imposed by Eurystheus, to bring the oxen of Geryon to him. It is on his return from this expedition that he was said to have passed through Italy, when Cacus stole his cattle. See the Story of Leander ('STORIES FROM OVID,' in Elegiac Verse, No. XV.), and from his passage the Straits of Gibraltar were known as the 'Pillars of Hercules.' This seems to be plainly a solar legend. Erythia (red) is the sunset land. Preller considers it to denote that the sun brings back the days from the darkness and cold of the stormy winter. 82. The capture of the Cretan bull. 83. The cleansing of the stables of Augeas, king of Elis. The Stymphalian lake in Arcadia produced strange birds, with claws and beaks of brass, who could shoot out their feathers like arrows. Hercules shot them all. 84. Parthenium nemus, on the borders of Arcadia and Argolis, where was the sacred doe of Diana, which Hercules lamed and took. 85. 86. 87. Balteus, the belt of Hippolyte, queen of the Amazons, who lived by the river Thermodon, in Cappadocia. Poma, the golden apples from the gardens of the Hesperides, guarded by a griffin, But Beauty, like the fair Hesperian tree Laden with blooming gold, had need the guard Of dragon-watch with unenchanted eye To save her blossoms and defend her fruit.-MILTON, Comus, 393. This story, too, reminds us of the sun sinking in the west, and returning with golden light in his hands at his next rising. Centauri. As Hercules was going against the Erymanthian boar he passed by Pholoe on the frontier of Elis. There dwelt a Centaur named Pholus, with whom Hercules stayed. Pholus brought out for his guest some wine which Dionysus had given to the Centaurs for their common use. The other Centaurs in the neighbourhood smelt the odour of the wine, and came in fury bursting into Pholus' cave. Hercules, after a long struggle, vanquished them, but Pholus was accidentally killed by an arrow that he was examining falling on his foot. 88. Arcadiae vastator. Preller considers that this means the river Erymanthus itself, which, like the Achelous, used to come down as a torrent and lay waste the Arcadian plain. Hydrae, the water snake of Lerna. Lerna was a marshy swamp in Argolis, so that here, too, we may see the sun-hero as healer and purifier, burning, or drying up in the summer the foul miasmas of the marsh, which were so rank after the wet season. Cp. XI. 67. 90. 93. Moles Nemeaea, the huge Nemean lion. The valley of Nemea, between Cleonae and Phlius, in Argolis, was infested by a monster lion, described as the offspring of Typhon and Echidna. Eurystheus ordered Hercules to bring it to him; but Hercules could make no impression on it with either arrow or club, and at last closed with it and throttled it. 94. While Atlas, father of the Hesperides, fetched the golden apples, Hercules held the heavens on his shoulders. 95. Saeva. Juno had been his persecutor all his life. 99. While I am suffering, Eurystheus, the instrument of her revenge, is prospering. 102. 107. 108. 109. I12. Factique refugerit auctor, and the prompter of the deed has Rupe cavata, in the hollow of a cliff. Tune, contemptuously, you of all people, a fellow like you. 117. Nivibus, &c., by the gentle rotation of the snow the body What hardens, and balls itself in the shape of thick hail. error is there in this account of the formation of hail? Which sailors fear to tread upon, as if it were capable of feeling. Gesserat, as a garment. 124. 126. 128. Troy could only be subdued by the arrows of Hercules. Philoctetes, their owner, had been left on the outward journey at Lemnos, but was sent for by the Greeks in their extremity. This story is the subject of the 'Philoctetes' of Sophocles.' Iterum. They had seen it before when Hercules conquered Troy under Laomedon. XIII. ORPHEUS AND EURYDICE. THE first thing that strikes us in this story is the power of music. As Apollo the sun-god is also the god of the lyre, so Sanskrit analogies point to the hero of the lyre being a sun-hero. The summer-time is past, and the sun-god penetrates even into the realms of Hades and darkness, and all but succeeds in bringing it back in the late days of autumn, which we call the Martinmas summer. But it fades away again, and soon the hero is attacked and torn to pieces by the storms of winter, raging like the Maenads against him. (No. XIV.) (Preller.) I. Inde, from Crete, where he (Hymenaeus) had been at a festival. Croceo, a festive colour, specially associated with wedding garments. 2. Ciconum, a Thracian tribe on the banks of the Hebrus (Mod. 3. Nequiquam, because of the shadow of coming disaster that was upon him. 4. Quidem, it is true. Sollemnia verba, the wonted words of good luck. 6. Lacrimoso, &c., sputtering with smoke that made the eyes 7. II. 12. water. However the torch might be waved about, it would not burn Rhodopeius, Thracian, from Rhodope, a mountain in Thrace. Cp. XI. 62, note. 13. Virgil's Tuenarias fauces. On the promontory of Taenarus, in Laconia, it was said there was an entrance to the lower world. 14. 18. 22. 25. 28. 29. 31. 32. 33. 37. 38. Leves, as being sine corpore. Shadowy folk, and ghosts that had passed the tomb. To which all we that are of mortal birth must come. I am not come to rob you, like Hercules. Medusaei monstri. Cerberus had his head, like Medusa's, wreathed in snakes. I wished to be able to bear my loss, nor will I deny having made Rapinae, alluding to the carrying off of Proserpine. See IX. Weave over again the too hasty destinies of Eurydice. Fila tenet Lachesis, Clotho net, et Atropos occat. SO HORACE, A. P. 63, Debemur morti nos, nostraque. But soon or late They yield to fate.-SHIRLEY. It is only a respite; she will be yours in the end. Usum, a law term our life-interest. A person who has the usus of property enjoys the income derived from it, but cannot alienate the property itself. Oh take the husband or restore the wife. POPE, Ode on St. Cecilia's Day. And the pale spectres dance. The Furies sink upon their iron beds, And snakes uncurled hang listening round their heads.-POPE. 41. Tantalus, as a punishment for betraying the secrets of the gods, was put up to his middle in water, with rich fruits hanging 42. 43. 44. 46. over his head, but the water fled from his mouth, and the fruits shrunk back from his grasp. Hence our word, to ' tantalize.' Of itself the water flies The taste of living wight, as once it fled The lip of Tantalus.--MILTON, Paradise Lost, II. 612. Ixion, for an insult to Juno, was fastened to a wheel, and became Iecur of Tityos, a giant, who for an insult to Latona 'lay brood- Such notes as warbled to the string Drew iron tears down Pluto's cheeks, And made hell grant what love did seek.-MILTON, Il Penseroso. 51-52. Note the two clauses, the one a command, the other a statement; and so in accus. and infin. 55. 56. 59. 60. In quadrisyllabic words the penultima of the 3rd plural perfect indicative is occasionally shortened in poetry. Deficeret, i.e. Eurydice. Arripit, Orpheus. Join iterum moriens. She could not complain of what love had prompted. No crime is thine, if 'tis no crime to love.-POPE. 62. Supremum. Vale is a noun-term, and so neuter. 1. XIV. THE DEATH OF ORPHEUS. Cp. the song in SHAKESPEARE, Henry VIII., Act III., Scene I : Orpheus with his lute made trees, Every thing that heard him play, Hung their heads and then lay by. Fall asleep or, hearing, die. 2. Sequentia, prolepsis. V. 63. 3. Lymphata, frenzied; they had been engaged in Bacchic rites. 8. Apollinei. Orpheus was the son of Apollo and the muse Calliope. 9. Foliis, the thyrsus was wreathed with ivy and vine-leaves. 12. 14. And, as if praying pardon for such mad daring, fell prostrate at her feet. But in vain, for...... Supplex veniam orans. Abiit, the short syllable lengthened in arsi. 15. The sentence begins as a conditional, the protasis (with nisi) being supplied by an adversative clause. 16. 17. Berecyntia, as used in the worship of Cybele: infracto cornu, ablative of qualification. Cp. MILTON's Paradise Lost, VII. 32: Bacchei. But drive far off the barbarous dissonance Of that wild rout that tore the Thracian bard See IX. 25. 18. Tum denique. It was only when his voice was drowned that they would consent to such sacrilege. 20. 23. And first they tore in pieces the countless birds that were still under the charm of the singer's voice, and the snakes, and the long train of wild beasts, the glory of Orpheus' triumph. Titulum, because they followed in his train, like the long array of captives that accompanied a triumphant Roman general up to the Capitol, indicating the title or claim under which he triumphed. Cruentatis, made bloody by this slaughter. 25. Structum utrimque theatrum was half the ellipse. ἀμφιθέατρον. The theatre 26. Matutina, the baiting of animals commenced the games in the amphitheatre: the baiting of men followed. 33. 35. 39. Illo tempore, then for the first time speaking in vain. Such had been the potency of his voice. 41. Sacrilegae, the bard was under the special protection of the gods. Tonsa comam, one of the regular signs of mourning. |