Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

port, as foon as manned. The whole fleet proceeded in order of battle to meet the enemy; and a general engagement enfued, in which the Romans proved victorious.

But to return. The favourite deity of the Teians was Dionyfius, or Bacchus. To him they confecrated their city and territory; and before the preceding tranfaction, had folicited the Roman and other states to diftinguifh both, by decreeing them facred and an afylum. Several of the answers then given still remain fairly cut on pieces of grey marble, but disjoined; fome of the fragments being found in the bagnio at Segigeck, fome inferted in the wall, and one over a fountain without the fouth gate; fome alfo in the burying-grounds round about Sevrihiffar. All these are published by Chihull, from copies taken by conful Sherard in 1709, and again examined in 1716. And the learned editor has prefixed to these literary monuments of the Teians, a delineation of their important idol; to which the reader, curious in that article, is referred.

This spot therefore being the peculiar poffeffion of Dionyfius, the Dionyfiac artificers, who were very numerous in Afia, and fo called from their patron, the reputed inventor of theatrical reprefentation, when incorporated by the command of the kings of Pergamus, fettled here, in the city of their tutelary god; fupplying from it Ionia, and the country beyond ast far as the Hellefpont, with the fcenic apparatus by contract; until, a fedition arifing, they fled. This fociety is marked as prone to tumult, and without faith.'

This work contains a curious inftance of the variations to be obferved on the face of the globe, different from its former appearances. It informs us, that Priene, where the temple of Minerva Polias ftood, though now feen as an inland city, was once on the fea, and had two ports; the plain between it and Miletus was a large bay, and the Meander, which now prolongs its courfe much beyond, once glided fmoothly into it,' This example is, we think, alone fufficient to expose the futility and uncertainty of the literati, concerning the names and fituations of antient places.

[ocr errors]

These changes, fay our editors, are fo great as to bewilder and perplex the traveller, unless he is in poffeffion of a clew, and may be affigned as the probable reafon why fo remarkable a portion of ancient Ionia is at prefent fo little vifited or known; the only tour through this tract, as yet given. to the public, being that which was undertaken in 1673, by certain English merchants from Smyrna. It would be ungenerous to cenfure this journey as fuperficial and unfatisfactory, while its merits fo much applaufe for the liberal defign and

commu.

communicative spirit of the party, which thus opened as it were a way, though hitherto almoft unfrequented, for the benefit of future enquiries.

• Priene fell by accident into their route, and is mentioned as a village called Sanfon, the name by which, and Sanfon-calefi, it is ftill known. The antiquities noted by them are. ruins in general, a pillar, and a defaced infcription. It is now quite forfaken.

The whole space within the walls, of which almost the entire circuit remains ftanding, and in fome parts several feet high, is ftrewed over with rubbish or scattered fragments of marble edifices. The ruined churches are monuments of the piety of its more modern inhabitants; as the veftiges of a theatre, of a stadium, and more particularly the fplendid heap in plate I. are of the taste and magnificence of its more flourifhing poffeffors, The Acropolis was on a flat above the precipice.'

The following obfervations are not only new, but highly interesting to the ftudy of antiquity.

In the article of Teos it is remarked, that Xerxes deftroyed all the temples in Ionia, except at Ephefus. How foon the Prienéans after that fatal æra began to rebuild this. and what progrefs they had made before Alexander's time, or whether it ftill lay in ruins when he entered upon his expedition, is uncertain. But this mighty conqueror, who regarded Afia as his patrimony, and with this idea had prohibited the pillage on his first landing, was as ftudious to adorn, as the flying Perfian had been ready to deface it, not only founding new cities, but restoring the priftine splendor of the old, and re-erecting the temples which the other had thrown down, extending his pious care even to the devastation made at Babylon. Priene alfo fhared his favour, as is evinced by the following valuable record, happily preferved to us by a ftone, which belonged to one of the antæ, now lying at the east end of the heap, in large characters most beautifully formed and cut.

ΒΑΣΙΛΕΥ Σ ΑΛΕΞΑΝΔΡΟΣ
ΑΝΕΘΗΚΕ ΤΟΝ ΝΑΟΝ
ΑΘΗΝΑΙ ΗΙΠΟΛΙΑ ΔΙ.

KING ALEXANDER

DEDICATED THE TEMPLE

TO MINERVA CIVICA.

This ftone, which is infcribed alfo on one fide, with the many other fragments by it, feems to indicate, that the fronts and external faces of the antæ were covered with infcription;

and from the degrees of magnitude in the letter, it may be conjectured, a regard was had to perspective, the greater being higher and more remote, the smaller nearer to the eye; fo that, at the proper point of view for reading, all might appear nearly of the fame proportion. Many of these stones were much too ponderous to be turned up, or moved afide, by any ftrength or power we could apply; which is the more to be regretted, as the legends of feveral are perfectly uninjured. We carefully copied those portions to which we could gain accefs; but these, as not relating to the history of the temple are referved for publication in our collection of infcriptions.'

The editors in the introduction to the third and last divifion of their work remark, that of twenty-five confiderable theatres, which they faw in Asia-Minor, there is not one built entirely upon a level piece of ground. We are here prefented with a very curious view from Miletus towards the sea, with an explanation.-Next follows an account of the temple of the Branchidæ, or, as it was afterwards called, Apollo Didymæus.

The appellation Branchida, was derived from a very noted family fo called, which continued in poffeffion of the priesthood until the time of Xerxes, deducing its pedigree from the real or reputed founder and original proprietor, Branchus. Several of thefe facred tribes flourished in Greece, and intermixed, as this did, fable with their genealogy, raifing their progenitor, to conciliate a greater respect from the people, far above the level of common humanity. The story told by the Branchida is indeed fufficiently ridiculous; but if the repetition need an apology, it may be urged that one equally extravagant is thefubject of a noble ode in Pindar, written to commemorate the antiquity and renown of the prophetic family at Olympia, the once celebrated lamidæ. It is related by Varro as follows.

One Olus, the tenth in defcent from Apollo, after dining on the shore, renewed his journey, leaving behind his fon Simerus. The youth, thus forgotten, was received by one Patron, who fet him to attend the goats, in company with his own two fons. These on a time catching a fwan, and a dispute arifing which fhould prefent it to their father, began to fight, covering the bird with a garment, which, when mutually tired, they removed, and difcovered beneath it a woman. They were astonished, and would have fled, but she recalled them, and directed that Patron should prefer Simerus to either. Accordingly, on hearing the tale, Patron careffed him with uncommon affection, and bestowed on him his daughter in marriage. She, during her pregnancy, beheld in a dream the Jun patling down her throat, and through her body. Hence the infant was named Branchus, ( Bgay, the throat.)

He,

He, after kiffing Apollo in the woods, was embraced by him, received a crown and wand, began to prophefy, and fuddenly difappeared. The temple called the Branchiadon was erected to him, with other temples in honour of Apollo Philefius, and called Philefia, either from the kifs of Branchus, or the contest of the boys.'

We are next entertained with an account of Branchus, who was a kind of a fubftitute of Apollo, and who was fucceeded in his office by Evangelus, or the Good Meffenger, (being fo named by Branchus) who was the founder of the Milefian race; an anecdote, which we will venture to say, must be very agreeable to the true Milefians of a neighbouring island. This fame Branchus, however, feems to have been no better than a fhrewd cunning impoftor, who had studied his trade to great perfection at Delphi, and other oracular temples of Apollo. The following is, perhaps, the beft account that has appeared in the English language of this oracular legerdemain, and is. founded upon the most unexceptionable evidences quoted by the editors in the margin, but omitted here for brevity. The mode of confultation instituted here, (viz. to oracular temples of Apollo,) was attended, befides expence, with much ceremony and delay; the former adopted to give folemnity, the latter contrived to gain time for confideration, and to prepare the answer. The prophetess indeed appears to have sustained a very unpleasant character in the farce, if, with her bathing, fhe really fafted, as was afferted, for three entire days. At length, the previous rites being ended, fhe, bearing the wand given by the god, was believed to be filled with divine light; foretold futurity, fitting on the axle of a wheel; or received the deity, while enveloped in the fteam arifing from the fountain ; or on dipping her feet, or a certain hem of her garment, into the water. Poffeffed and folaced by this inward light, fhe tarried a long while in the fan&tuary. The expecting votary propounded the queftion to be refolved, and the god was feigned to vouchfafe utterance through the organs of the inflated female.

[ocr errors]

Apollo, both at Branchide and Delphi, difplayed his prefcience verbally. The talent of extemporary verfification was fuppofed to be derived from him, and the Pythia for many ages gave her refpenfes in verfe; but profane jefters affirming that of all poets the god of poefy was the moft wretched, the confulted his credit by condefcencing to ufe profe; and these replies were converted into metre by bards ferving in the temple. From the fpecimens yet extant, we may fafely pronounce the genius of the god to have been as contemptible in Afia as in Greece, difgracing in both the heroic meafure, the chief ve

hicle of his predictions: and there likewife he feems to have retreated behind a fubftitute; for, in an infcription relating to this temple, we find the prophet and poet recorded as distinc perfons.'

The rest of this publication is full of the like curious accounts of thofe oracles from antient hiftory, and may be deemed a most valuable repository of that literature, far more fatisfactory than any thing to be met with in Van Dale, or other modern writers; but, for the reafon already mentioned, we muft omit particulars.

After what has been faid, we can add nothing to our account of this excellent work, but that we are impatient for the publication of the gentlemen's fubfequent labours.

VIII. Strictures on Agriculture. Wherein a Discovery of the Phyfical Caufe of Vegetation, of the Food of Plants, and the Rudiments of Tillage, is attempted. By John Dove. 8vo. Pr. 1. Bladon.

THIS

'HIS author is one of those philofophers who would derive all our knowledge of the operations of nature from the writings of Mofes and the prophets. According to him, no perfon ought to pretend to any skill in agriculture who is not an adept in the Hebrew language.

It is by the labour of the hands, fays he, and the fimple operations of nature, the earth is rendered permanently fertile, not by compofts and stinking dung. See Genefis xxvii. 27, 28. I fhall only obferve is the root of the word here rendered fmall; its idiom is to refpire, dilate, refrigerate or refresh: hence spirit, wind, &c. It is the inftrument of compreffion to every thing, and principality of vegetative motion to plants, and respiration to animals. From 1 comes vapor, odor, that which the spirit carries to the noftrils, and gives the fenfation of smell. It is applied, Job xiv. 28. to the fine corpufcles of vegetable matter contained in water as their vehicle, which the action of the fpirit with the light carries up into feed or vegetables, for its formation and auginentation. By means of the reek of water, it, viz. the tree will germinate. In Dan. iii. 27. the reek of fire had not left its mark or teftimony upon them. Our word, reek, comes from hence, which we apply to the vapor or fteem which the expanfion of the fpirit and light in a joint action raifes from the abyfs, hangs in the air, and is not carried high enough, thinned and difperfed. This word in fcripture, is oftener applied to vegetation than to any thing elfe, and when understood, gives a ftronger idea of it than we can obtain by ten thousand experiments.

7

« ZurückWeiter »