the Aventine, was seized upon and appropriated without opposition, it would appear, from those to whom it belonged. We must remark, however, that it was the practice of the Romans when they became acquainted with a foreign god, to identify him with some divinity of their own, whose name was retained while he was invested with the attributes of the stranger. Thus Jupiter, Juno, Diana, Venus, Mars, Neptunus, Mercurius, and Vulcanus, received, in addition to their own native honours, the homage paid by the Greeks to Zeus, Hera, Artemis, Aphrodite, Ares, Poseidon, Hermes, and Hephaestus. Sometimes both titles were used indifferently, as in the case of Pallas and Minerva, Bacchus and Liber pater, Pan and Faunus, Persephone and Libera. But when a foreign appellation alone was employed, such as Apollo, Priapus, Cybele, Isis, Serapis, and the like, it must be taken as a proof that no homesprung deity could be found exactly analogous. Hence we might have been disposed to conclude that this held good of Hercules, especially since we know that he was worshipped after the Grecian fashion; but two fragments preserved by late writers, onc of Cassius Hemina, an early Roman annalist, the other of Verrius Flaccus, the celebrated grammarian, whose work was abridged by Festus, go far to prove that the destruction of Cacus was achieved by an indigenous hero, a Latin Hercules, called 'Garanus' or 'Recaranus,' whose place was so successfully usurped by the Theban champion, that but few even of his own countrymen in after ages had heard the name. When we examine closely into the worship of Hercules among the Romans, we discover several very marked peculiarities, from which we may draw some inferences with regard to the nature and character of this Recaranus. The subject has been discussed with great ingenuity by Hartung in his work 'Die Religion der Römer,' but the investigation is too intricate, and the results too uncertain, to be introduced here. The student will do well to compare this extract with the narrative of Virgil, Aen. 8. 193-270, and of Propertius, Eleg. 'Chrysaor1 loved the maid Kallirhoe, What time the hero drove the broad-browed steers The ancient and famous Phoenician city which the Greeks called 'Gadeira' and the Romans Gades,' was built upon an island which bore the same name. 'Erytheia' is mentioned by Herodotus, in connection with the story of Geryon, as a separate island close to Gadeira, but, by less accurate writers, they are frequently confounded3. Erytheia was celebrated on account of its great fertility, especially for the richness of its pasture, concerning which some marvellous tales are related by Strabo, who remarks, that this circumstance probably induced mythologists to fix upon it as the residence of the triple-bodied king4. The island of Gadeira is now called St. Leon, Erytheia is Trocadero. 3. Domus Tegeaea, i. e. 'The Arcadian Hall.' Tegea was one of the most ancient and powerful of the Arcadian cities; it furnished no less than 3000 soldiers to the confederate Grecian army at the battle of Platea: it is spoken of as a place of importance by Thucydides and Xenophon, and enjoyed considerable prosperity long after the subjugation of the Peloponnesus by the Romans. 5. Excussus somno. 'Nil nisi expergefactus' G. Tirynthius hospes, i. e. Hercules, because, although born at Thebes, he went to dwell at Tiryns in obedience to the Delphic oracle, and there served Eurystheus, by whose commands he undertook and accomplished his twelve labours. (Apollod. 2. 4, 12.) 1 Chrysaor was a being of great stature who sprung from the blood of Medusa along with the horse Pegasus. 3 e. g. Pherecydes: Apollodorus: Pliny. 2 4. 8. Strabo 3. c. 5. 8. Compare Mart. 5. 65, 5 'Silvarumque tremor, tacita qui fraude solebat Ducere nec rectas Cacus in antra boves.' 10. Malum. Ovid intends to make a sort of pun upon the name 'Cacus,' which written in Greek letters is κakòs, i. e. 'malus.' The quantity of the words is different, the first syllable in 'Cacus' being long. 12. Mulciber was one of the designations of Vulcanus, the Roman God of Fire. The name is evidently formed from 'mulceo,' and may refer to the power which he exerted in softening iron and other refractory metals, and in thus rendering them available for the wants of man; or it may be a title intended to propitiate the deity, and to induce him, when thus invoked, to manifest himself as a gentle and beneficent, not as a furious and destroying power. The worship of Vulcan was coeval with the infancy of the city. According to the current tradition, his first temple was erected by Romulus or Tatius close to the Comitium; here these princes were wont to meet and take counsel together, while the assemblies of the people were held outside; here Romulus dedicated a bronze chariot in honour of his conquest of Cameria, in which was placed a statue of himself crowned by Victory, with an inscription recording his exploits; and here he planted the lotus tree, still in existence in the time of the elder Pliny 1. The chief festival of Vulcan was the 'Vulcanalia,' celebrated on the X. Kal. Sept. (23rd August), with games in the Flaminian Circus, on which occasion living creatures were cast into the fire as offerings 2. Another solemnity connected, in all probability, with the same worship, was the 'Fornacalia' or Feast of Ovens, held on the 21st of February, apparently the same with the 'Furnalia' or 'Furinalia,' although some ancient writers speak of 'Fornax' and 'Furina' as two independent goddesses3. In addition to the epithet 'Mulciber,' 1 Dion. Hal. 2. 54 and 66; 6. 67, Plutarch. Vit. Rom. 24, and Quaest. Rom. 44, Plin. H. N. 16. 44. 2 Varro L. L. 6. 3. It is generally asserted that these were fishes, the inhabitants of the element most opposed to Fire. This is probably enough, but there seems to be no positive authority. What Festus says of the 'Piscatorii Ludi' cannot be applied to the Volcanalia. 3 See Ov. Fast. 2. 527, Fest. in verb. 'Furnalia,' Varro L. L. 6. 3, Cic. N. D. 3. 18. we find him addressed as 'Ignipotens1' (Lord of Fire); 'Lemnius 2' (from Lemnos his favourite haunt); and 'Lateranus3' (from the bricks, ‘lateres,' used in the construction of furnaces). Macrobius quotes Cincius and Piso to prove that Vulcan had a wife named 'Maia' or 'Maiesta,' from whom the month of May received its appellation. When the Romans became familiar with Grecian literature and Grecian mythology, Vulcanus was identified with Hephaestus the halting son of Zeus (Jupiter), and Hera (Juno 4), or of Hera alone, who was flung headlong from heaven and fell upon the Lemnian isle. He was the fabricator of the thunderbolts, the general artificer of Olympus, who constructed out of the various metals the dwellings, the chariots, the weapons, and the ornaments of the Gods. In the Iliad and in Hesiod he is said to have wedded one of the Charites, but in the Odyssey7, if the passage be genuine, Aphrodite (Venus) is represented as his spouse, and this account is generally followed by the later Greeks and by the Latin poets. He disdained not, at the request of Thetis, to exert his skill in favour of a mortal, for he forged the armour of Achilles, and, in the parallel passage of the Aeneid, yielding to the blandishments of his beauteous spouse, he undertakes a similar task for Aeneas. The favourite haunts of the God were Lemnos, Imbros, and Aetna; in Virgil, his workshop is in Hiera, one of the Lipari Isles, where the Cyclopes are the ministers who execute his commands. 17, 18. Servata male, i. e. ' amissa.' 'Furta,' i. e. 'boves raptae' G. 19. Accipio revocamen. nem accipio (agnosco) omen G. 'Dictum ad formulam sollen 21. Obiice. 'Obex' from 'obiicio' signifies' any obstruction or obstacle;' and hence, 'a bar or bolt' for fastening a door. 'Intus se vasti Proteus tegit obiice saxi' Virg. G. 4. 422. 'Obiices portarum subversi' Tacit. Ann. 13. 39. 23. Caelum quoque, &c. Hercules having despatched Atlas to procure for him the apples of the Hesperides, 1 Virg. Aen. 8. 414. 2 Ibid. 454. 3 This rests upon the authority of Arnobius, II. 1. 578; 18. 396; 21. 332, Od. 8. 312. Il. 18. 382, Hesiod. Theog. 945. N 5 Hesiod. Theog. 729. 7 Od. 8. 269. supported the heavens upon his shoulders until his return. Apollod. 2. 5, 11. Compare Met. 9. 198, where Hercules exclaims, 'Hac caelum cervice tuli? defessa iubendo est Saeva Iovis coniux: ego sum indefessus agendo.' 24. Collabefacto signifies 'to loosen or disintegrate by successive efforts.' It is applied by Lucretius to the effect of fire in melting gold Collabefactatus rigor auri solvitur aestu' 1. 493. 31. Typhoea. With regard to Typhon or Typhoeus, see note on 25. 11, where we learn, as here, that he was crushed beneath Mount Aetna; so also Fasti 4. 491 'Alta iacet vasti super ora Typhöeos Aetne,' while the position of the monster is more minutely described in Met. 5. 350 'Dextra sed Ausonio manus est subiecta Peloro: Laeva, Pachyne, tibi: Lilybaeo crura premuntur: Degravat Aetna caput: sub qua resupinus arenas Eiectat, flammamque fero vomit ore Typhoeus.' With this representation Aeschylus agrees in the splendid description of Typhon in the Prometheus 3631. Virgil, however, places him under Inarime, connecting it in all probability, somehow or other, with the Arima of Homer (see p. 197), thus Aen. 9. 716 'Inarime, Iovis imperiis, imposta Typhoeo,' and Lucan 5. IOI 'Conditus Inarimes aeterna mole Typhoeus.' 33. Occupat, 'seizes him,' 'grapples with him.' Adducta. 'Raised up and drawn back towards himself.' Compare Trist. 4. 2, 5 'Candidaque adducta collum percussa securi Victima purpureo sanguine tingat humum.' 34. Sedit in ore, i. e. 'inflicta est ori' G. 36. Plangit, simply 'strikes.' See note on 4. 3. 39, 40. The Ara Maxima which stood in the 'Forum 1. So also Silius 14. 196. Virgil, Ae. 3. 578, places Enceladus under Aetna; Callimachus (Hymn. in Del. 141) assigns this punishment to Briareus. |