whereas their fathers, not at all inferior to them in valour, had CHAP. XXXV. perished before it, because they were disobedient to the signs vouchsafed to them by the Gods. 216. seqq. And lastly, Hector, inattentive to Polydamas when he ob- Iliad. L. XII. jected to an attack on the Grecian fleet,* (because the Trojans would not return from it with honour to themselves, as he inferred from a serpent dropped by an eagle,) was soon afterwards taught otherwise by experience, that no good comes of being refractory towards the Deity.5 In impious acts the guilty fathers died; The sons subdued, for heav'n was on their side. Capaneus, the sire of Sthenelus, was thunder-struck, while blaspheming Jupiter Talia dicentem toto Jove fulmen adactum 4. Пoλvðáμavтi oux VTI. From Pope's translation I extract a part of the speech of Polydamas, with the omen referred to: Seek not this day the Grecian ships to gain; For sure to warn us Jove his omen sent, The victor eagle whose sinister flight Retards our host, and fills our hearts with fright, Allow'd to seize, but not retain the prize, &c. Pope's version of Hector's reply to this speech of Polydamas, is one of the most splendid specimens of his talent to be found in the poem-as the whole incident is perhaps the finest of Flaxman's beautiful illustrations of the immortal bard. 5. Οὐκ ἀγαθὸν ἀπειθεῖν τῷ θείῳ. Homer himself draws many similar inferences in the progress of his interesting tales both of the Iliad and the Odyssey-xaλETÓν TOL ἐρισθενέος Κρονίωνος—παισὶν ἐριζέμεναι —and again, θεόθεν δ ̓ οὐκ ἐστ ̓ ἀλέασθαι: and Pindar abounds with like injunctions of humble submission to the divine will-xpǹ dè πρὸς θεὸν οὐκ ἐρίζειν, κ. τ. λ. - ποτὶ κέντρον δέ τοι-λακτιζέμεν, τελέθειὀλισθηρὸς oluos. See also vs. 89. ejusd. Carm. The reader cannot but recollect the memorable counterpart to these words, (with reverence be they cited!) in the Apostolic history of the conversion of St. Paul—σκληρόν σοι πρὸς κέντρα λακτίζειν. How beautiful the metaphor that runs through the following lines of the poet of Cilicia! Statii Thebaid. B. XII. 253. Pyth. 11. vs. 161. and 173. Act. Apost. C. IX. CHAP. XXXV. Following these examples, it is right in field-sports, as in every thing else, to begin with adoration of the Gods; and, after having obtained success, to offer thanksgiving-sacrifices7 and libations, with auspicious words, and crowns, 10 and 8 Oppian. Hal. De Legibus. De Expeditione L. VI. c. XXVIII. ἀλλ ̓ αἰεὶ μάκαρες πανυπέρτατοι ἡνία πάντη κλίνουσ', ᾗ κ' ἐθέλωσιν· ὁ δ ̓ ἕσπεται, ὅς κε σαόφρων, πρὶν χαλεπῇ μάστιγι καὶ οὐκ ἐθέλων ἐλάηται. See the sensible remarks of Xenophon on the words YN OEN ПРATTEIN, at the conclusion of his treatise De Offic. Magistr. Equit. c. 1x. 6. Αρχεσθαί τε ἀπὸ θεῶν. "A Diis immortalibus," says Cicero, "sunt nobis agendi capienda primordia :” and Julius Pollux, to whom I have frequently referred in the early part of these annotations, concludes his address to Commodus, at the commencement of his Onomasticon, with the same sentiment-rochooμai de The ἀρχὴν, ἀφ ̓ ὧν μάλιστα προσήκει τοὺς εὐσεβεῖς, ἀπὸ τῶν θεῶν. 7. Χαριστήρια θύειν εὖ πράξαντα. So in his Anabasis, Arrian writes, θύσαι ̓Αλέξανδρον ἐν Καρμανίᾳ χαριστήρια τῆς κατ ̓ Ἰνδῶν νίκης, κ. τ. λ. These free-will offerings may be considered in the light of grateful acknowledgments to the gods for blessings received. They were paid by soldiers after victory, by husbandmen after harvest, and by sportsmen after success in the field. 8. Zπévdew. Wine was generally used in these libations, but not always; for there were vŋpáλia ¡epà—sober sacrifices, wherein no wine was poured forth. GeneÆneid. L. vI. rally, however, wine was employed, as we learn from Virgil's "frontique invergit vina sacerdos." 244. Schol. ad Aristoph. Thesm. Act. I. 9. Evonμeiv—“ favere linguâ, bona verba dicere." This expression does not seem to mean that the persons present at a sacrifice were to observe profound silence, but rather to abstain only from words of evil omen. Mr. Cowper has preserved its sense correctly in his translation of evenμñoa, Iliad 1x. 171. "That every tongue abstain from speech-Portentous." Ogilby, Dacier, and Pope, all mistake the signification of evonμeiv. “Præcones clamantes," says Festus, "populum sacrificiis favere jubebant. Favere est bona fari." But Bourdin 'ad Aristoph. Thesmophor. evonμeiv σημαίνει σιγᾶν καὶ σιωπᾶν δι' εὐφημίας. 10. ΣTepavour. The sacrificial victims were adorned with garlands and crowns on their horns and necks. The altars were decorated with sacred herbs, and the priests themselves wore crowns upon their heads, composed of the leaves of the tree sacred to the deity to whom they paid their devotions. See Tertullian de Idololatriâ. 11. Tuveiv. Hunting-carols, it may be, were chanted to Dian and her sylvan train, by the Celts and other sportsmen of old. It was customary to sing hymns in honour of the Gods, and dance around the altar of sacrifice, on occasion of celebrating the more important religious rites; when the songs, in general, commemorated the exploits of the worshipped, enumerated their virtues, and the benefits con hymns,11 and to dedicate the first-fruits of the captured CHAP. XXXV. game, as the conqueror does of the spoils of war. 13 12 ferred upon the worshippers, expressing, at the same time, a wish for their continuance. Ὕμνοι μὲν ἐς τοὺς θεοὺς ποιοῦνται, ἔπαινοι δὲ ἐς ἀνθρώπους, says Callisthenes, in his splendid speech on the line of distinction to be drawn between divine and human honours. 12. Απαρχὰς τῶν ἁλισκομένων ἀνατιθέναι. The ἀπαρχαὶ, or first-fruits of animal sacrifices, were small pieces of flesh cut from every part of the beast, and offered to the gods, (see Homer, passim): but hunters, according to Pitiscus, dedicated to the Goddess of the Chase the head, horns, feet, skin, &c. of the slaughtered game; to which custom Nisus alludes in his invocation to Diana: Si qua tuis unquam pro me pater Hyrtacus aris 13. Ὁ τῇ νίκῃ πολέμου ἀκροθίνια. Before the spoils of victory were distributed among the warriors, they considered themselves obliged to make an offering out of them to the Gods, to whose assistance they were indebted for them all. Those separated to this use were termed, according to the author of the Archæologia Græca, ἀκροθίνια, because taken ἀπ ̓ ἄκρου τοῦ θινὸς, from the top of the heap. Arrian. de Exped. Alex. Lexicon Antiq. Roman. Æneid. L. IX. 406. |