124.

The idea of the purging by fire arises probably from the refining of precious metals. Mr. Paley compares the burning of Hercules on Mount Eta before he could be admitted to the council of the gods.

125. Join stulte pia.

127. Motherly affection, your motive, cannot be scelerata, though the nullifying of my gift is.

129.

131.

Evidently a legend of the introduction of agriculture from Sicily

into Greece.

Nubem. Like the gods in the Iliad, she makes herself invisible with this cloudy veil. Dracones, used for the dragoncar, just as equos for an ordinary chariot.

133. Piraea, neut. plur. An unusual form-due, perhaps, to the two harbours which were included in Piraeus. The ordinary Latin form is Piraeus, m.

134. i.e., the shore of the Peloponnesus. The Ionian sea below is from the direction the sea off Ionia, not that which washes the west coast of Acarnania and Epirus. Icarium, the northern part of the Ægean. See below, the story of "The Flying Man." (No. VI.)

138.

J39.

141.

Alta, i.e., sublimis,—in her winged car.
Erratas. The accusative is often put with verbs of motion to
denote the space traversed; this accusative will naturally
become the subject to the passive verb. (So the accusative of
duration of time becomes the subject of the passive: vigilare
noctem, makes nox vigilata. Cf. IX. 163.) With erro, this
construction is only found in the passive participle.
has imitated the construction, Paradise Lost, IV. 234:
Runs diverse, wandering many a famous realm.

See l. 144.

Milton

ie., those which in that latitude never set. 143. Parrhasides, the two bears, Major and Minor, from Callisto or Helice, turned into the greater bear. Parrhasia is an old name of Arcadia.

150. Tertia.

The others were the earth and sky (Jupiter) and the sea

(Neptune).

155. I have only found out the wrongful cause of my loss; I know not where my daughter is. The thief retains his ill-gotten prize. 159. If the giants had succeeded in their attempt to dethrone the gods, I could have met no harsher fate.

161.

I am anxious only for restitution; the offence and insult may go unpunished.

168. Stat, of a fixed resolution. So Virgil, Aen. II. 750:

171.

Stat casus renovare omnes.

So sedeo, ibid. IV. 15.

Caducifer, Mercury, herald of the gods, from the wand which he bore (Caduceus).

173. According to the Homeric Hymns, Pluto, knowing the law of the Fates, that no one could return from Tartarus who had eaten food there, had himself put this food in her way. Here, again, there is probably an allusion to the fasts of the Mystae.

I

174. Punica poma, pomegranates.

178. Taenarum, at the southern extremity of Peloponnesus, was one of the numerous descents to Tartarus. Cf. Virgil, Georg. IV. 467:

179.

183.

Taenarias etiam fauces, alta ostia Ditis.

Factura fuit. This periphrasis for fecisset is to be noted; it is the one from which the oblique forms are all constructed, e.g., facturam fuisse, or factura fuisset.

Cessatis, one of a goodly number of intransitive verbs of the first conjugation which have a passive participle. Cf. erratas, above, 139, clamata, 35. So Horace, regnata Phalanto rura (Odes, II. 6, 12); triumphatae gentes (Virgil).

II. IV.
ARIADNE.

THIS and the two following extracts, though taken from different works, form a definite sequence. Ariadne, daughter of Minos, king of Crete, has helped Theseus to conquer the Minotaur, by giving him a clew to the maze in which the monster was hid, and, being in love with him, has fled in his company. They put in for the night to the island of Dia, and Theseus on the next morning treacherously sails away, leaving the poor girl alone. The first extract is part of an epistle which she is supposed to write on the day when she discovers his perfidy.

The name Dia, which belonged properly to a small island off the north coast of Crete, was also a poetical name for Naxos, one of the largest of the Cyclades. It may have been this fact which led to the further legend which is recounted in the next extract, how Ariadne, lorn of Theseus, becomes the bride of Bacchus; for Naxos was the home of the Bacchic worship. As the completion of the legend she is raised to share in Bacchus' divine honours, and as the Cretan Crown becomes one of the signs of the heavens.

4.

Per facinus, criminally.

5. Describing apparently the early dawn, or the hour that precedes it, when the night is at its coldest, and the birds, half-awake, begin to stir in their nests. Pruina hints that it is autumn.

7.

A beautifully descriptive line-But half-awake, with all the languor of sleep still on me.

A somno after, as the result of.

8. Semisupina, on my side, lit., half on my back, describes the motion of a person thus groping about on waking. Cf. Chaucer :

9.

14.

17.

20.

21.

24.

27.

29.

31.

34.

35.

41.

48. 49.

51.

53.

60.

65.

66.

67.

69.

73.

Nullus erat, he was nowhere there.

"All

E somno, after, denoting change from. (See note on 1. 7.)
dishevelled as it naturally was when I had been sleeping."
Utroque et huc et illuc.

The holowe rockes answerde her agayne.--Chaucer.

Her voice each time was echoed.

Adesus, fretted; the rock is part of the mountain which overhangs the sea.

Usa sum, "I have found."

Putarem. The first person, in agreement with quae, is peculiar ; you would expect the third,-like one who, etc.

Illo, sc. dolore.

Its number of passengers is incomplete; there is one left:
Thy barge hath not al thy meyny ynne.-CHAUcer.

Quod voci deerat, the place of my failing voice.

Till now grief had been too much for tears, but at last the full meaning of it all dawned upon me, and the tears welled forth. The following lines depict very beautifully the different forms of her despair.

Quam, tam, generally used with adjectives.

Acceperat, exhibiturus. "Exhibere est in publicum pro- ducere. Here it is used of producing, when called upon, that which has been left with you as a deposit, so that you are responsible for its safe keeping.

Pro te, the only substitute that I have.

"Thou bedde," quoth she, " that haste receyved twoo,
Thou shalt answere of twoo, and not of oon,

Where ys the gretter parte away ygoon?"-CHAUCER.

Ambiguas, hazardous, perilous.

Centum per urbes. Homer, Iliad, II. 649. Kpýтην ÉkaтhμπoλIV.
In the Odyssey (XIX. 174) the number is given as ninety.
The legend represents Rhea, wife of Kronos, as having been sent
to Crete in order to save her child from his father, who had
eaten up his other children.

Regnata. See note on I. 183.

Tecto recurvo, the labyrinth. Ariadne had given Theseus a clew of thread to fix on the wall, and so retrace his steps. Vivis, suddenly addressing herself, if this is the right reading. It is more vigorous than the alternative vivit.

75. (O si) me mactasses (eadem) clava qua fratrem (mactasti): (tunc enim) fides quam dederas morte soluta esset, i.l., one being dead, there is an end to it.

77.

Not my particular sufferings; but the general danger of such exposure.

I.

3.

4.

III.

ARIADNE AT NAXOS.

Gnosis, Cretan, from Gnosus, the chief town of Crete, on the northern side of the island. Gnosis, Gnosias, Cressa, are all of them used as names for Ariadne. For Dia, see introductory note to last extract.

Recincta, loose, ungirt.

Croceas. The word suggests both colour and perfume. Light golden hair, naturally rare in Italy, was deemed a great beauty by the Romans.

5. Ad undas, not undis, because the waves are deaf, and unaffected by the cry. Note the accusative Thesea: her cry was "cruel Theseus."

12.

13.

15.

Attonita, often used of the overpowering effect of Bacchic frenzy. The cymbals and the noise attest the Eastern origin of Bacchus-worship.

Excidit, i.e., mente, she swooned. Rupit, she was unable to finish her speech.

Mimallonides, Bacchantes.

Derivation unknown; it may very

well mean empty babblers, chatterers.

18. He can hardly keep his seat, and clings on by the mane.

19. Bacchae, etc., a second branch of the dum clause, not the apodosis to it. Whilst he is chasing the Bacchanals, and they alternately run away and attack him.

24.

Tigribus. Bacchus was represented as an Eastern conqueror, and such animals were always reckoned in his train.

25. Theseus is forgotten in her fright.

29. Cura, guardian. So in the Epistle of Penelope to Ulysses, Eumaeus is "immundae cura fidelis harae" the guardian of the sty.

The best commentary on this extract is Titian's glorious picture in our National Gallery, which Charles Lamb thus describes:-“ -"Precipitous, with his reeling satyr rout about him, re-peopling and reilluming suddenly the waste places, drunk with a new fury beyond the grape, Bacchus, born in fire, fire-like flings himself at the Cretan. This is the time present. But from the depths of the imaginative spirit Titian has recalled past time, and laid it contributory with the present to one simultaneous effect. With the desert all ringing with the mad cymbals of his followers, made lucid with the presence and new offers of a god-as if unconscious of Bacchus, or but idly casting her eyes as upon some unconcerning pageant-her soul undistracted from Theseus, Ariadne is still pacing the solitary shore in as much heart silence, and in almost the same local solitude, with which she awoke at daybreak to catch the forlorn last glances of the sail that bore away the Athenian."-Essays of Elia.

2.

3.

IV.

THE CRETAN CROWN.

Legenda, to gather up, from which primitive sense all the meanings of lego may be deduced. He was to unwind the ball of thread as he went into the labyrinth, and to gather it again as he came out, so securing his exit by the same path by which he entered.

Rustica, simpleton that I was. A city dame is used to such changes of lovers.

5. Depexis crinibus, straight-haired, not Negroes, but Asiatic Indians.

8.

Note the parallel to the story of Hercules and Deianira.—Stories from Ovid, XII.

9. Litore. The scene is not indicated. It is evidently the poet's intention to make it as far as possible a repetition of Theseus' desertion; hence, similes, iterum; so the scene is probably still Naxos.

14.

18.

22.

Abüt. In compounds of eo, the last syllable of 3. sing. perf. is not unfrequently made long. The licence probably arises from the habit of counting it a long syllable when contracted; asMagnus civis obit et formidatus Othoni."

66

In the present case, the natural pause upon the syllable may be sufficient to lengthen it.

That I had been left to my fate, to starve and die.

As we say, "to my sorrow."

26. Again the same words, which I used of Theseus, almost unconsciously return to my lips.

29.

31.

33.

-que, does not carry on the ne, but repeats the negative clause in a
positive form. Let me suffer in silence and unknown; for if
my fortunes are known people will say, "it must be her own
fault." The first ne is prohibitive, the second final.
Thesea. Which of the two accusatives is this, subject or object?
i.e., what is the passive of Thesea hoc celo?

Of course ironical. A fair complexion, and light, or golden hair,
being a rarity, would naturally be sought after as a great beauty
among a race of brunettes, just as we Northern races are often
struck by the raven hair and jet black eyes of a Southern face.
But Ariadne has no fear that her rival will surpass her in beauty
according to this standard. She doubts not the Indian maiden
is so black as to soil the hands of the consort who embraces
her (amplexus inquinat illa tuos), as if the colour would
come off. Mr. Paley points out that the Roman equivalent of

rouge is creta. A person who is " painted" has a quaesitus
candor (Propert., iv. 24, 8), so that fusca and candida
practically = plain and pretty. Cf. Heroid. XV. 35, where
Sappho says:

Candida si non sum, placuit Cepheia Perse
Andromede patriae fusca colore suae.