To Cnoffus brought, the Melian nymphs abode, With joy the Melian nymphs embrac'd the God; His wants Adrafte fedulous fupplies, And in the golden cradle lulls his cries: Milk from the duteous goat the God receives, 75 here calls the Arcadians," the posterity of the Jove faw the charming huntress unprepar'd, 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 historical 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 exprest 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 conftellation, no uncommon piece of flattery. There appears in the former lines of the original great beauty, not to be-expreft in a tranflation. Hence In the words wol and oupper, I mean particularly; for I cannot be of Stephen's mind, that 9 is here an expletive only, ornandi gratiâ : There are fewer fuch expletives in the Greek language,Iconceive,than wefometimes imagine; mol here may very elegantly be conftrued olim; and as a river is a thing of continual course, ever rolling, and yet ever rolled away, it is not only long fince παθι, but fill, rolls on, συμφέρεται. Labitur & labetur in omne volubilis ævum. Ver. 71.] The head piece to this hymn will alfo the following lines from the moft learned be a good comment upon this paffage as will and ufeful part of OVID's works, his Liber Fufiorum, 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. thy houfhould, and the life of thy maidens. Paulus Ægineta obferves, that, Lac muliebre eft temperatiffimum-mox Caprillum, hinc afininum, ovillumque & poftremò vaccinum. Woman's milk is moft temperate and wholfome, then goats, then affes, and fheep's, and laftly cows." And hence the fupreme of the Gods, Jupiter (or more probably fome prince of Crete about the time of Abraham) was faid to be brought up with goats milk, and the aftronomers gave the goat a place amongst the stars. They, who know how frequently the letters N and L are changed one for the other, will eafily perceive that Amalthea came from the Phoenician, NON Amantha, which comes from the Hebrew N Amanth, which is used for a nurse both in Ruth iv. 16. and in the 2d book of Samuel iv. 4.-Galen obferves, Non tuto Lac caprarum efferri abfque Melle, cum multis qui folum fumpferant, in ventre fit coagulatum, quod hominem mire gravat atque fuffocat.-That goats milk is not taken fafely without honey, &c.-; with which they were not unacquainted, who in antient times affigned a piter two nurfes; one Amalthea (the goat) who fed him with goats milk, the other Meliffa (the bee) who fed him with honey. Didymus in his book Egynous Fwdapens, fays, Meliffea Cretenfium regem primùm, &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 arofe 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 first fed with milk and honey: Barnabas in his epiftle, fays, "Why then fhould I mention milk and honey, fince an infant is firft nourished with honey, then with milk?"-See Bochart de Anmialibus, Sf. 1. 2. c. 51.-It is fomewhat very remarkable that this divine infant fhould be nourished with the fame food, that the celebrated prophecy of Haiah appoints for the Son of the Virgin : « But"Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refufe the evil, and to choose the good, ch. vii. HIGH ver. 15. Butter is milk with this addition, that it is by great heat and violence coagulated and coagmentated; and therefore the Hebrew word for it ND Hamae is derived from 127 Hame the Sun or folar heat, from whence also this fame Jupiter takes one of his names, Hammon or Ammon. The Son of the Virgin was to eat of this milk and this butter, thus prepared by fire and violence: Out of himself alfo, the true Rock, he eat the fpiritual honey. See Deut. xxxii. 13. and Pfal. Ixxxi. 16. Hence he fays of himfelf, I have eaten my honey-comb with my honey. I have drunk my wine, with my milk. Song of Solomon v. 1. and of his spouse the Church, "Thy lips, oh my spouse, drop as the honey-comb; honey and milk are under thy tongue: iv. 11. And as these were found in his fpoufe, the church, fo were they promifed to the Ifraelites in their Canaan, a land flowing with milk and honey. These fed and nourished the Son himself, these must feed and nourish every believer, every member of that church, every seeker after that heavenly Canaan where they richly flow and abound, if they would like their mafter, "encrease in wisdom and ftature, and in favour with God and man.' 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 itself 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 nurfes of Jupiter kept and guard- aug In fummers heat on tops of lillies feed, as Dryden expreffes it-and againThey fkim 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 those 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 fields and clanging them around him: The word puλ in the original, is a pyrrhic, or martial kind of dancing. - Spanheim favours the fcholiafts explanation of the word Ovna, which he renders falutariter, as the fcholiaft vysuws, which he fays, 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 so here.) - Yet ev'n, dread ruler of the Gods, when young, Thy mind was perfect and thy fense was strong: '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 fenfe fomething different from that which the commentators in general give it; they imagining the encreafe 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 ftature, but that he was ripe or adult in wisdom 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 (de 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, ripe, 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 DID I form fables, like those bards of old, LET me avow, that not by chance was given, But by thine own right hand the throne of heav'n : Ver. 99. Did I, &c] Mr. Prior and Mr. Pitt, after him, have omitted a line in this place, which, to me, gives the original a very grand and admirable turn. After he has convicted the old poets, the author, preparing to give (what he calls) the true account, feizes upon the reader's attention in this line. Ψευδοιμην αιοντος ακεν πεπίθοιεν ακεην. In the true meaning of which the commentators are divided, which might occafion the omiffion in these gentlemen; the fcale feems to incline to Stephens's fide, his appearing the most natural and easy fenfe of the paffage. He tranflates it Mentirer qua perfuaderi poffint auribus ejus qui ea audiret.-After the author has told us, that what the old poets related thus of the divifions between the three brethren, &c. was a mere fable; he goes on, I wonder, they fhould relate fuch glaring falfhoods, which manifeftly contradict common fenfe and reafon : As to myfelf, was I inclined to tell fabulous ftories, I would do it with more caution: do, &c. I would at least so manage my fables and fictions, as to draw credit from my hearer, and if not strictly true, yet they should wear the face of probability." "Peffime vertunt, fays the younger Dr. Bentley; thus I translate it: Si mentiri velim, ea mendacia dicam, quæ fint verifimilia, & quæ auditorem inducant, ad credendum. Poeta, fays Plautus, facit illud verifimile, quod mendacium est. As to that interpretation of Gronovius, which Grævius approves, it is inexplicable, ftupid, unmeaning." The doctor himself is indebted to Stephens for this explication, which he gives as his own; and therefore might as well have 100 Dread fpared that dogmatical affertion at the end: For certainly there is great beauty in the interpretation of Gronovius, and it was no difficult matter for an interrogation to have dropt from the end of a line, as Gronovius imagines; nay, we know the original MSS have no ftops at all:Mentirerne ego, quæ placerent auribus ejus, qui ea audiret? The p et having told you the abfurdity of the fables related upon this occafion by the former poets, gives his own performance the air of truth: "Thefe, fays he, are fables, with which mankind has been amufed and deceived: For my own part (in matters of fuch moment) I would not relate untruths to gain the approbation of every hearer." Wou'd I-great Jupiter-or cou'd I do this?-No, in order to expofe their folly, I rehearse their fictions-but, as thy poet and prophet, in this facred hymn to thy honour and fervice, I deliver only what is the religious truth, and my particular creed." There appears nothing in this fo ftupid and inexplicable; nothing works upon any reader or hearer, fo much as an appearance of ftrict attachment to truth in an oration or work; and we find, that it was no uncommon method with the old poets (and why fhould we not believe them fincere?) to affume this appearance, and thereby, a fuperiority over other poets: Euripides introduces his Hercules refuting the fcandalous tales of the former bards, concerning the amours of the Gods, and faying, |