147. Aconita: 'poisons.' The aconitum is a poisonous

annos: consults the augurs to know

how long his father will live.'

149. Cæde madentes: 'reeking with murder.'

150. Astræa: the daughter of Astræus, one of the Titans, and Aurora; or, according to the opinion of others, she was the daughter of Jupiter and Themis. She is said

to be the goddess of justice; and when the impiety of the iron age constrained her to leave the earth, she was placed among the constellations of the zodiac under the name of Virgo.

152. Affectásse: aimed at.'-Ferunt: they say.'-Gigantas: that the Giants ;' the sons of Cœlus and Terra, or of Terra alone, monsters of great stature and most extraordinary strength. They are said to have made war against Jupiter, at the instigation of their mother, in order to revenge the defeat and destruction of the Titans, their brothers.

154. Olympum: Olympus, or, as it is now called, Lacha, a lofty mountain between Thessaly and Macedonia, the summit of which being generally enveloped in mists, was supposed by the ancients to reach the heavens, and was consequently imagined to be the residence of Jupiter and the gods.

155. Excussit . lion lying under it.' Olympus.

Ossam: struck off Ossa from Pe

These were mountains near to

156. Corpora: Gigantum, is here understood.

159. Et, ne

...

hominum: and, lest no remains of

that dreadful race of her's should survive, that she turned them into the shape of men.'

162. Natos: that they were sprung.'

163. Quæ i. e. the wickedness and impiety of mankind, and of those who were sprung from the blood of the Giants.-Pater Saturnius: Jupiter.-Arce: sc. cœli.

164. Et . . . iras: the construction is, et referens animo fada convivia Lycaoniæ mensæ, aut mensæ Lycaonis, nondum vulgata, facto aut crimine recenti, concipit animo iras ingentes et dignas Jove. Lycaon not only slew those whom he entertained, but had them placed before other guests to be eaten.

170. Hác: via is understood.-Superis: for the gods.'

-Tonantis: Jupiter, who alone was supposed to make thunder.

'va

172. Atria: the halls.'-Celebrantur: ' are thronged.' 173. Plebs: the inferior gods.'-Diversa locis: rious places.'-A fronte: in the front.'

174. Penates: habitations.'

178. Ipse: Jupiter.

181. Modis: words.'-Solvit : 'he opened.'

183. Quá . . . cœlo: the construction is, quá quisque anguipedum Gigantum parabant injicere sua centum brachia captivo cœlo. Quisque, being a partitive, may have a verb either in the singular or plural agreeing with it.

185. Uno corpore: one family or body of Giants.'

187. Nereus: 'the sea.' Nereus was the son of Oceanus and Terra, and one of the most ancient of the sea deities. He married Doris, the daughter of Oceanus and Tethys, and had fifty daughters, who were called the Nereides. 190. Tentata: fuisse is here understood.

191. Trahatur: should be infected.'

192. Semidei: these were heroes greater than men, but inferior to the gods.-Nymphæ: these were female deities of several kinds, the Oceanides and Nereides, inhabiting the ocean; the Naiades, presiding over fountains and springs; the Napææ, Dryades, and Hamadryades, who had the care of forests and meadows; and the Oreades, to whom was committed the charge of the mountains.

193. Faunique, Satyrique: these were rural deities, having the legs, feet, and ears of goats, and the rest of their body human. When they became old, they were called Sileni, and were remarkable for their habits of intoxication. Bacchus was educated in his infancy by the Sileni.-Silvani: deities presiding over gardens and boundaries. This is a spondaic verse; the que in the second foot, after Fauni, is long by casura. See Grammar.

194. Cœli of being received into heaven.'

199. Studiis: ' zeal.'-Ausum, 'the man who had dared to commit.'

200. Savit:raged, furiously strove.'

201. Cæsareo : ' of Cæsar;' an allusion is here made to some conspiracy against Augustus.

204. Tuorum: of your subjects.'

205. Illa: ira deorum, understood.

210. Quod .

admissum: what his crime was.'

211. Infamia temporis: 'the report of the wickedness of the age.'

212. Falsam: to find to be false.'

216. Manala, Cylleno, Lycai: Mænalus, Cyllenus, Lycæus are mountains in Arcadia; the two former sacred to Pan, the latter to Mercury.

218. Arcados tyranni : ' of the Arcadian tyrant.' Arcas, -ados; Greek genitive. Lycaon was a king of Arcadia, remarkable for his cruelties. Some of the poets assert that he was changed into a wolf, because he sacrificed human victims to Pan, and not, as Ovid relates, on account of the impiety of his conduct towards Jupiter.

222. Deus hic: whether he is a god.'-Discrimine aperto: by a plain proof.'

226. Eo

with this expedient.' Molossá: Molossian ;' [the Molossi were a people of Epirus,] celebrated for their dogs.

227. Resolvit; he laid open.'

230. Ego .. Penates: the construction is, ego vindice flamma everti tecta in Penates dignos domino. Penates, household gods, or deities presiding over houses and domestic affairs. Any of the gods might be chosen by the head of a family for his Penates; and small statues or images of the gods thus chosen, were placed in the interior part of the house, and a day in every month set apart for their worship. 232. Silentia: the lonely parts.'

233. Ab ipso: i. e. from his own cruel and ravenous disposition.

235. Vertitur in : 'he falls upon, he attacks.'

236. Abeunt: 'pass, are changed.'

239. Idem: as they did before.'

240. Non una: 'not one only.'

241. Erinnys: a name of one of the three Furies, the daughters of Cœlus, or, according to others, of Saturn, or, as others say, of Pluto and Proserpine. They were employed by the gods to punish the impious on earth, and to torment the guilty in the infernal regions.

242. In facinus jurâsse : that mankind were sworn to sententia: sc. mea; thus stands my re

commit crimes.'

243. Sic

solution.'

245. Alii... implent: others signify their assent by nod, or gestures.'

246. Dolori a cause of grief.'

247. Mortalibus orba: 'deprived of inhabitants." 249. Paret: whether Jupiter designed.'

250. Quærentes: sc. eos.- -Cætera: all such things." 252. Promittit origine mirá: he promises to produce from a miraculous origin.'

255. Longus axis: the ancients supposed that an axletree passed through the middle of the earth, on which, not only the earth, but the whole frame of the heavens turned round.

256. Esse in fatis: that the fates had decreed.' The Parcæ, or Fates, were three goddesses, who constantly resided in the palace of Pluto, and were the supreme arbiters of life and death, and of all the destinies of men. Clotho, the youngest of these goddesses, held a distaff in her hand, and fixed the moment in which every man was to be born; Lachesis held a spindle, and spun out all the events and actions of his life; and Atropos, the eldest of the three, cut the thread of his life with a pair of scissars, and thus determined the moment of his death.

257. Correpta : 'having taken fire.'

258. Laboret: should be in danger of perishing.'

259. Cyclopum: 'of the Cyclops ;' a race of men of gigantic stature, having one eye only in the middle of the forehead, and said to be the sons of Cœlus and Terra. They were the assistants of Vulcan, and made the thunderbolts of Jupiter.

262. Æoliis in antris: in the caves of Eolus;' the son of Hippotas, and monarch of the winds. His habitation is said to have been an immense cavern in one of the Lipări islands near Sicily, where he held the winds in confinement, and set them at liberty at his pleasure.-Aquilonem: the north wind;' which generaly brings dry weather.

263. Inductas: 'spread over the face of the heavens.' 266. Fluit: flows from.'

267. Fronte sedent nebulæ : 'mists settle upon his brow.' -Sinusque: and the folds of his robe.'

270. Junonis: Juno was the sister and wife of Jupiter; the goddess of empire, riches, marriages, and births; and the queen of heaven and of the gods.

271. Concipit; 'draws up, collects.'-Irs: a daughter of Thaumas and Electra, and the attendant and mesShe is said to be the same as the rainsenger of Juno. bow, and is consequently represented as clothed in a habit of various colors.-Alimenta: 'supplies.'

273. Vota; 'the hopes.'

275. Caruleus frater, Neptune, one of the sons of Saturn and Rhea, the brother of Jupiter, and the god of the sea. 276. Qui: which rivers.'

279. Domos: 'sources, fountains.'-Mole: 'every obstacle.'

281. Fontibus ora relaxant: ' open their fountains.'

282. In æquora;

towards the ocean.'

283. Tridente suo: 'with his trident.' It is said that Neptune with a blow of his trident could cause earthquakes, or raise islands from the bottom of the sea.

234. Sinus aquarum: her secret repositories of water.' 286. Cumque satis: and with the growing corn.' 287. Penetralia: the interior parts of any building, in which the Penates or other gods are placed.

294. Ducit remos:

plies his oars.'

297. Si fors tulit: if chance so directed.'

305. Vires fulminis: the strength of his tusks. The force, with which the boar strikes with his tusks, is often compared by the poets to the force of lightning.-Apro: prosunt, is here understood.

306. Ablato: 'washed away.'

307. Ubi sidere detur: whereon it might rest.'

311. Pars: hominum, or animantium, is understood. 312. Inopi victu: by want of food.'

6

313. Separat... fuit: the construction; is Phocis terra ferax, dum terra fuit, separat Aönios ab Actais arvis.Aönios: sc. agros, or campos; the lands of Aönia, or Boeotia, a country of Greece bordering on Attica, celebrated as the residence of the Muses.-Actais: of Attica,' a country of Greece, of which Athens was the capital.-Phocis: a country of Greece, renowned for a war, which its inhabitants carried on against some of the Grecian states, particularly against the Amphictyons and Thebans, who sought to deprive them of their independence. Their heroic struggle was however, unsuccessful, and about 348 years before the Christian era, they were overpowered by their numerous enemies.

316. Mons petit arduus: 'a steep mountain rises up towards.'

317. Parnassus: Parnassus is one of the highest mountains in Europe, it is sacred to Apollo and the Muses, and said to be their favourite residence.

318, Deucalion; the son of Prometheus, and the king of