In the story of Jason, a national hero of Thessaly, and Medea, "the wise one," we have the simple creation of the Grecian mind complicated with the unholy magical rites of the East. This is a myth, therefore, which records not only the early converse with far Asia, but the far more important mental intercourse which helped burden the Greek theology with superstition and fanaticism.

XV. THE MURDER OF PELIAS.

VII. 294. tanti . . . monstri, i.e. the restoration of Eson's youth. 296. hoc munus, that his nurses be made young. - Colchide, i.e. Medea.

297. odium cum conjuge: odium is sometimes used with cum, also with in, adversus, and the genitive. - falsum, pretended.

298. Phasias, Medea, from the river Phasis, in Colchis. — Peliae : Pelias, half-brother of Jason's father Æson, had usurped the royal power, and had sent Jason in quest of the golden fleece, with the hope that he would never return.

303. situs (acc. pl.), the decay of old age. (See note on v. 290.) 304. virginibus, dative. — Pelia, abl. of source.

306. sine fine, endless, infinite.

307. brevi spatio, abl. of time when, implying duration of time (§ 256, b; G. 393; H. 379, 1).

310. qui: the antecedent is dux gregis. — aevo, abl. of specification (§ 253; G. 397; H. 424).

314. Haemonio, Thessalian; Thessaly was notorious for its magicians and witches.

315. exiguo, because the ram was so old.

317. minuunt: the subject is suci validi.

320. nec mora, sc. est, without delay. - balatum, object of mirantibus. — mirantibus, dat. of reference (§ 235; G. 350, 1; H. 384, 4, N.3). (See Fig. 39.)

322. promissa, i.e. of Medea.

324. juga dempserat, had taken off the yokes, i.e. had unharnessed his horses for the night. Hibero flumine, the ocean, which washes the western side of the Spanish peninsula.

328. neci similis somnus, a death-like (i.e. very deep) slumber.— resoluto, relaxed.

331. jussae, as she had directed.

336. spes inanes, empty hopes, which you have not the energy to accomplish.

338. saniem, diseased blood; here, blood corrupted by age. — conjecto ferro, by a stroke of the sword.

339. his hortatibus, [moved] by these urgings. - pia: the superlative would naturally be used if there were a superlative of pius. She who is most filial is the first to be unfilial (by killing her father in the hope of making him young).

342. caeca, unseen [by themselves].

346. in fata, for the destruction.

347. illis, dat. of reference (§ 235, a; G. 350, 1; H. 384, 4, N.2). 349. abstulit, cut off.

350. quod nisi, but if . . . not.

352. Philyreïa tecta (in apposition with Pelion), the home of Philyra's son, the Centaur Chiron.

353. Cerambi: at the time of the flood, Cerambus fled to Mt. Othrys, and was there changed by the nymphs to a beetle.

XVI. THE MYRMIDONS.

VII. 614. tanto . . . rerum, so great a storm of woes, referring to the pestilence. (See argument.)

616. sub amplexus isse, to have embraced. - Aeginae: Ægina was the daughter of the river-god Asopus. Eacus was the son of Ægina and Jupiter.

617. nostri: the genitive of the personal pronoun, where in prose the possessive pronoun would be used.

619. secundo thunder was a favorable sign when it came from the East.

621. pigneror omen, I regard the omen as a pledge.

622. rarissima, very unusual, i.e. of unusual beauty.

623. Dodonaeo: at Dodona, in Epirus, the seat of the oldest oracle of Zeus (Jupiter) was a sacred oak, the rustling of whose leaves foretold the future.

626. servantes, keeping, i.e. following without intermission.

629. sonum, object of dedit. - sine flamine: construe with motis. 637. visa est, appeared; videri is very frequently used in descriptions of dreams.

638. subjectis, lying under it.

639. crescere, videri and the following infinitives still depend upon visa est; infinitive because quod is equivalent to idque (§ 336, c; G. 635; H. 524, 1).

640. recto, erect.

642. ponere

=

deponere.

643. damno ... visa, when I awake I curse my vision.

644. nihil: the long i is the original quantity of this final syllable; the word is compounded of ne and hilum, “not a shred."

646. has quoque somni, sc. esse.

647. Telamon, son of Æacus.

653. priscis cultoribus, ablative, depending upon vacuos. 654. Myrmidonas, Ant-men (μúpμn§).·

keep their origin in mind by their name.

. . fraudo, i.e. I

nec...

656. laborum, quaesiti, genitive (§ 218, b; G. 375; H. 399, ii.). 657. reservet, subjunctive in a clause of characteristic (§ 320; G. 631, 1; H. 503, i.).

XVII. THE FLIGHT OF DEDALUS.

VIII. 152. vota, votive offerings, i.e. for his victory over Athens and Megara: it is in apposition with corpora.

153. solvit, offered; lit. paid, as if the sacrifice were a debt. - ut, as soon as.- - Curetida: the Curetes were priests of Zeus in Crete; they celebrated his worship with strange, wild rites, dancing, and beating their spears upon their shields.

154. contigit, on his return from Athens and Megara.

155. opprobrium: the Minotaur, half man and half bull, the offspring of Pasiphaë, daughter of the Sun and wife of Minos.

158. multiplici domo, the labyrinth.

159. ingenio fabrae artis, talent in the art of building. 160. opus, i.e. multiplex domus.—notas, marks, by which the passages could be remembered.-lumina, eyes.-flexum agrees with errorem. 162. Maeandros: this river was famed for its winding course, and its

Fig. 40.

name has passed into the English language with this signification meander. 166. incertas, unde

cided.

169. quo in quem. -geminam... figuram, i.e. the Minotaur.

170. Actaeo = Attic: the Athenians were obliged, by the conditions of peace imposed by Minos, to send every nine years seven boys and seven girls to be devoured by the Minotaur : these were selected by lot.

171. sors, i.e. those who composed the third lot, and especially its voluntary leader, Theseus, son of King Ægeus; so tertia sors, the subject of do

muit, is equivalent to Aegides, v. 174. — annis novenis, every nine years, belonging with repetita. - domuit, overcame. (See Fig. 40.)

172. iterata, reached again. - nullis (dat.), by none of those before. 173. filo, thread. Ariadne, daughter of Minos, gave Theseus a clew of thread, by the aid of which he traced his way back through the labyrinth.

174. protinus, straightway; the three clauses introduced by postquam, et, and utque, all lead up to this main sentence. - Diam, an ancient name of the island of Naxos. This island was sacred to Dionysos (Bacchus), who found Ariadne here after her abandonment by Theseus (see Fig. 41); henceforth she is associated with his worship.

177. amplexus, acc.

plural. - Liber, a Roman

god, identified with the Greek Dionysos.

178. de fronte, i.e. Ariadne's.

179. illa, i.e. corona. 182. Nixi (nitor) genu (§ 254, 6, 1; G. 401, N.6; H. 425, ii. I, N.), the kneeler; Anguem tenentis, the snake-holder; two constellations. (See, on a

celestial map or globe, the position of this beautiful constellation, "the Northern Crown.")

184. loci natalis,

Athens.

186. obstruat, de

pending upon licet (§ 313, b; G. 607; H. 515, iii.); the subject is Minos.

187. possideat, hortatory subjunctive in concession (§ 266, c; G. 264; H. 484, iii.).

189. naturam novat, he makes nature anew, i.e. he improves upon nature.

190. a minima sequenti, beginning with the smallest, and making a shorter one follow a long one: a confused expression; for if the smallest came first, a shorter one could not follow. It seems as if the poet thought of the slope (clivo), as regarded first from one end, and then from the other.

191. clivo: as the tops of trees growing on a slope overlap one another, so the feathers overlap, being of different lengths. - putes, you might suppose (§ 311, a, N.1; G. 257; H. 485).- quondam, sometimes,