Neda, of all the nymphs that Ammon nurst, NOR to the nymph was Rhea's favour fhewn Her favourite's name, the favourite stream she gave, Gladdening at once both fhepherds, flocks, and fields. Ver. 61. Neda, &c.] Callimachus mentions here but three of Jupiter's nurses (for that is, I think, beyond doubt the meaning of paswoalo, in the original, and not-que ipfi obftetricate funt-who were midwives to Rhea; the fcholiaft well explains the word by gear, nutriebant)-That there were more than three, contrary to the opinion of fome, the original plainly declares, by informing us, that Neda was youngest of all the nymphs engaged in this care, fave Styx and Philyre-had there been no more than these three-fhe was, in one word, the youngest of all. Paufanias, in his Arcadics, mentions three nurfes of Jupiter, "The Arcadians, fays he, call Thifoa, Neda and Agno the nurfes of Jupiter; the firft of which gave name to a city, the fecond to a river, the third to a fountain." Ithome, Adrafte and Ida are alfo left upon record as honoured with the Office: Adrafte is afterwards mentioned by our author (ver. 75)--all which fhew the truth of what I have advanced. Hoelzlinus reads this 65 70 To This Philyre was mer, per’apvpova wnλewva.” αι τον Ver. 69. And to Callifto's race, &c.] The original is υιωνοι λυκαονίης Αρκτοιο Arcas was the fon of Callisto and from her it is, that the author here To Cnoffus brought, the Melian nymphs abode, And in the golden cradle lulls his cries: 75 here calls the Arcadians, "the pofterity of the Lycaonian fhe-bear." She was the daughter of Lycaon, and as the fable goes, was ravished by Jupiter, on which account the jealous Juno turned her into a fhe bear. She was killed by the arrows of Diana, and by her gallant removed into the heavens, where he was made a conftellation known by the name of Agros, or Urfa major. Ovid relates the whole story: Jove faw the charming huntrefs unprepar'd, Or fhou'd my jealous queen the theft defcry ADDISON. And thus he fucceeded; as you may fee at large in the 2d book of the METAMORPHOSES: This was the thunderer of the heathens! - Some have given the fable an hiftorical explicationA potent prince, under the appearance of a modest fuit and addrefs, robbed Callifto of her virtue, the fruits of this afterwards appearing, fhe, to avoid the anger of his queen, was obliged to fly to the woods; which is fignificantly expreft by faying, fhe was turned into a bear: She was killed by Diana's darts, that is, in child-bed ; and honours being conferred on her by the king, in complaifance, fhe was faid to be made a constellation, no uncommon piece of flattery. There appears in the former lines of the original great beauty, not to be expreft in a tranflation. d; Hence In the words To and ovμpeperar, I mean particularly; for I cannot be of Stephen's mind, that T is here an expletive only, ornandi gratiâ : There are fewer fuch expletives in the Greek language,Iconceive,than we fometimes imagine; web here may very elegantly be conftrued olim; and as a river is a thing of continual courfe, ever rolling, and yet ever rolled away, it is not only long fince ποθο, but fill, rolls on, συμφερεται. Labitur & labetur in omne volubilis ævum. Ver. 71.] The head-piece to this hymn will alfo the following lines from the most learned be a good comment upon this paffage: as will and ufeful part of OVID's works, his Liber Faftorum, 1. v. ver. 115. Naïs Amalthea Cretea nobilis Ida Dicitur in fylvis occuluiffe Jovem. Sedit & invicto nil Jove majus erat: Hence Amalthea 'midst the stars was found: Hence fame the bee, and Jove's protection crown'd. HIGH thy houfhould, and the life of thy maidens. ver. 15. Butter is milk with this addition, that Paulus Egineta obferves, that, Lac muliebre eft it is by great heat and violence coagulated and temperatifimum-mox Caprillum, binc afininum, coagmentated; and therefore the Hebrew word ovillumque poftremò vaccinum. Woman's milk for it ND Hamae is derived from Hame is molt temperate and wholfome, then goats, the Sun or folar heat, from whence also this fame then affes, and fheep's, and laftly cows." And Jupiter takes one of his names, Hammon or hence the fupreme of the Gods, Jupiter (or Ammon. The Son of the Virgin was to eat of this more probably fome prince of Crete about the milk and this butter, thus prepared by fire and time of Abraham) was faid to be brought up with violence: Out of himself alfo, the true Rock, goats milk, and the aftronomers gave the goat he eat the fpiritual honey. See Deut. xxxii. 13. a place amongst the ftars. They, who know how and Pfal. lxxxi. 16. Hence he fays of himfrequently the letters N and L are changed one felf, "I have eaten my honey-comb with my for the other, will eafily perceive that Amalthea honey. I have drunk my wine, with my came from the Phoenician, ND Amantha, milk." Song of Solomon v. 1. and of his spouse N which comes from the Hebrew Amanth, the Church, Thy lips, oh my fpouse, drop N " which is used for a nurse both in Ruth iv. 16. as the honey-comb; honey and milk are under and in the 2d book of Samuel iv. 4. Galen ob- thy tongue: iv. 11. And as these were found ferves, Non tuto Lac caprarum efferri abfque in his fpoufe, the church, fo were they proMelle, cum multis qui folum fumpferant, in ventre mifed to the Ifraelites in their Canaan, a land fit coagulatum, quod hominem mire gravat atque flowing with milk and honey. Thefe fed and fuffocat.-That goats milk is not taken fafely nourished the Son himself, these must feed and without honey, &c.—; with which they were not nourish every believer, every member of that unacquainted, who in antient times affigned fu- church, every feeker after that heavenly Canaan piter two nurses; one Amalthea (the goat) who where they richly flow and abound, if they would fed him with goats milk, the other Melissa (the like their mafter," encrease in wisdom and bee) who fed him with honey. Didymus in his ftature, and in favour with God and man.' book Εξηγήσεως Πινδαρικής, fays, Melifea Creten fum regem primum, &c. That Meliffeus the king of the Cretans first facrificed to the Gods, and introduced new rights and facred ceremonies. He had two daughters Amalthea and Meliffa, which nurfed the child Jupiter, and fed him with goats milk and honey: Whence arose that fable of the poets, that bees flew to him, and filled the child's mouth with honey. Some of the antients tell us, that infants are firft fed with milk and honey: Barnabas in his epiftle, fays, "Why then should I mention milk and honey, fince an infant is first nourished with honey, then with milk?"See See Bochart de Anmialibus, Sf. 1. 2. C. 5. c. -It is fomewhat very remarkable that this divine infant fhould be nourished with the fame, food, that the celebrated prophecy of Ifaiah appoints for the Son of the Virgin: Butter and honey fhall he eat, that he may know to refufe the evil, and to choose the good, ch. vii, Ver. 78. Hence fame, &c.] The fable that Jupiter was fed by bees, and that they therefore were particularly protected by him, was very univerfal: Virgil, who has done them and himself fo much honour, fpeaks thus in his 4th GEORGIC. Proceed my mufe the wond'rous talents fhew, "Nay the cave itfelf where Jupiter was thus fed by the bees, was afterwards made facred to them, and fo facred, that as the fable goes, fome who difregarded the religion of the place, covered all over with armour entered into it, and ftole honey; for which prefumption Jupiter turned them into birds." Thus Antonin. Liberalis. And in the fame place he tells us, "That thefe HIGH-rais'd their brazen fhields, around thee ftand, 80 85 thefe bees the nurses of Jupiter kept and guard- In fummers heat on tops of lillies feed, as Dryden expreffes it—and again They kim the floods, and fip the purple flowers. The learned reader must have obferved fome things in this part of the hymn impoffible to appear in a poetical tranflation particularly Ver. 44. &c. Yet Ver. 79. High-rais'd, &c.] This whole paffage is much beft illuftrated by fome of thofe antient medals, of which we have many copies in books of antiquity, where are pictured to us the infant God, and the fierce Corybantes holding aloft their thields and clanging them around him: The word puw in the original, is a pyrrhic, or martial kind of dancing. - Spanheim favours the fcholiafts explanation of the word Ovλa, which he renders falutariter, as the fcholiaft vyras, which he fays, " is a very appofite word, becaufe Jupiter was preferved by this very dancing around him." This furely is too mean for fuch a poet as Callimachus: It rather feems to exprefs the vehemence of their motion, and the ftrenuous beating of their armour; and indeed the author always uses it in that fenfe (the beft prefumption which can be that he does fo here.) - Αι δε πόδεσσιν Valde ftrepebant, we read in the hymn to Diana, ver. 247. where it is used only to exprefs vehemence: Stephens, very juftly in the above line alters ye to oε wεp wpxnoaño. ver. 52. Ver. 85. Swift, &c.] The original is, Καλα μεν ηεξεν, καλα δετραφες, έρανε Ζεν. Αλλ ετι παιδιος των έφρασσαν παλα τέλεια. C 2 The Yet ev❜n, dread ruler of the Gods, when young, Thy mind was perfect and thy fense was ftrong: 'Twas hence thy brother's, though the first in birth, And scorning envy, own'd it right, when giv'n This paffage appears to me in a sense fomething different from that which the commentators in general give it; they imagining the encrease was of his mind only, not of his body. "I don't take the words ou d'amenoas, fays Stephens, as if they meant, Jupiter foon grew up in flature, but that he was ripe or adult in wifdom before the ufual time, and even in his childhood (for the poet fubjoins αλλ' ετι παιδιος των left any one fhould imagine him in mind and judgment a child." The fenfe of the paffage feems literally this: "Swift was your encrease or growth, great Jove, for (d is frequently used for yag) for excellent was the method of your education: Swift you grew up to manhood, and the foft down rofe early on your chin; though during the fhort feafon you continued a child, your foul was in its full perfection, and your thoughts great, ipe, and worthy of God. For which reafon, because your thoughts were always great, &c. your brothers envied you not, as being far their fuperior in worth, the empire of the heavens, &c." This fenfe is much different from that wherein the paffage is commonly taken, but I think, conveys a loftier idea of his God, and 00 95 Did pays him a nobler complement; which must παις. where Eftatheus obferves-waides is for was. It is faid of our Bleffed Saviour that "the Child grew and waxed strong in fpirit, filled with wisdom, and the Grace of God was upon him;" and alfo " Jefus encreafed in wifdom and ftature, and in favour with God and man." See note 75 at the end. The reader of Mr. Prior's tranflation must obferve, that part of it here is abfolutely unin- -Inventive wit, His next lines are truly noble, worthy the au- |