Another god, greatly honoured in the city of Rome, is Terminus, because they imagine that the boundaries and limits of men's estates are under his protection. His name, and the divine honours paid to him by the ancients, are mentioned by Ovid, Tibullus, and Seneca. The statue of this god was either a square stone, or a log of wood planed; which they usually perfumed with ointment, and crowned with garlands. And, indeed, the Lapides Terminales (that is, "land-marks,") were esteemed sacred; so that whoever dared to move, or plough up, or transfer them to another place, his head became devoted to the Diis Terminalibus, and it was lawful for any body to kill him. And further, though they did not sacrifice the lives of animals to those stones, because they thought that it was not lawful to stain them with blood; yet they offered wafer made of flour to them, and the first fruits of corn, and the like: and upon the last day of the year, they always observed festivals to their honour, called Terminalia. QUESTIONS FOR EXAMINATION. How are the Satyrs represented? How are the Fauns represented, and what are they called by the country-boors? What does history say of Faunus? How did he obtain his name? Who was Priapus, and where was he born? How is he represented, and for what is the sickle in his hand? Why was he called Hellespontiacus? Where is his image placed? What is Aristaus's employment? What did he invent? Why was he called Nomius? What is the story of Euridice? How did Terminus derive his name? What was his statue? What is said of the Lapides Terminales? What did the ancients offer as sacrifices to these stones? CHAPTER XIV. THE GODDESSES OF THE WOODS. DIANA. HERE comes a goddess, taller than the other goddesses, in whose virgin looks we may ease our eyes, which have been wearied with the horrid sight of those monstrous deities. Welcome, Diana! your hunting habit, the bow in your hand, and the quiver full of arrows, which hang down from your shoulders, and the skin of a deer fastened to your breast, discover who you are, Your behaviour, which is free and easy, but modest and decent; your gar ments, which are handsome and yet careless, show that you are a virgin. Your name indicates your modesty and honour. Actæon, the son of Aristæus, the famous huntsman, unfortunately observing you, whilst bathing, was changed into a deer, which was afterwards torn in pieces by the dogs. Further honour is due to you; because you represent the Moon, the glory of the stars, and the only goddess who observed perpetual chastity. Nor am I ignorant of that famous and deserving action which you did to avoid the flames of Alpheus, when you so hastily fled to your nymphs, who were altogether in one place; and so besmeared both yourself and them with dirt, that when he came he did not know you: whereby your honest deceit succeeded according to your intentions; and the dirt which injures every thing else, added a new lustre to your virtue. Diana is called Triformis and Tergemina. First, because though she is but one goddess, yet she has three different names, as well as three different offiees. In the heavens she is called Luna; on the earth she is named Diana; and in hell she is called Hecate or Proserpine. In the heavens she enlightens every thing by her rays; on the earth she keeps under her power all wild beasts by her bow and her dart; and in hell she keeps all the ghosts and the spirits in subjection to her by her power and authority. The several names and offices are comorised in an ingenious distich: "Terret, lustrat, agit; Proserpina, Luna, Diana; Dempter in Paralip. But although Luna, Diana, and Hecate, are commonly thought to be only three different names of the same goddess, yet Hesiod esteems them three distinct goddesses. Secondly, because she has, as the poets say, three heads; the head of a horse on the right side, of a dog on the left, and a human head in the midst: whence some call her threeheaded, or three-faced. And others ascribe to her the likeness of a bull, a dog, and a lion. Virgil and Claudian also mention her three countenances. Thirdly, according to the opinion of some, she is called Triformis, because the moon hath three phases or shapes the new moon appears arched with a semicircle of light; the half moon fills a semicircle with light; and the full moon fills a whole circle or orb with its splendour. But let us examine these names more exactly. : She is named Luna, from shining, either because she only in the night time sends forth a glorious light, or else because she shines by borrowed light, and not by her own; and therefore the light with which she shines is always *new light. Her chariot is drawn with a white and a black horse; or with two oxen, because she has got two horns; some * Quod luce aliena splendeat, unde Græce dicitur anvn a λas veov, id est, lumen novum. Id. ibid. |