which a wife brings to her husband as a part of her marriage portion. So in Met. XIV. 459, it is said of Diomede Ille quidem sub Iapyge maxima Dauno and so Dotales ades in Plaut. Mil. Glor. IV. iv. 30. 30. (Arbitrium,) i. e. power, dominion. 31. Digestos. See note on Ov. Fast. I. 1. p. 280. 31. (Hora.) The Seasons. These allegorical personages, who are mentioned by Homer,1 are by Hesiod called the daughters of Zeus and Themis, three in number, 'Euvouía, Aíxn, and blooming 'Ergńvn, significant names, Order, Justice, Peace. 33. (Charites.) The Graces also are noticed by Homer. Hesiod makes them daughters of Zeus and Eurynome, three in number, 'Ayλaía, Eupgooúvn, and lovely Oaλía; Splendour, Gaiety, Bloom. 41. 42. Therapnæus is here equivalent to Laconian, the epithet being derived from Therapna, a town on the Eurotas, a little to the south of Sparta. The person alluded to is Hyacinthus, a beautiful youth of Amycla, beloved by Apollo, by whom he was slain accidentally with a quoit,3 or, according to other accounts, the fatal discus was directed by the breath of jealous Zephyrus1. He was buried beneath the base of the statue of Amyclæan Apollo,5 with whom he shared the honours of the great national festival of the Hyacinthia." A flower sprung from his blood. on whose petals words of lamentation were inscribed. Ovid tells the tale at full length in Met. X. 162, seqq. The concluding lines are Ecce cruor; qui fusus humi signaverat herbam, Flos habet inscriptum; funestaque litera ducta est. 1 II. V. 749. VIII. 393. XXI. 450. 2 Palæphat. XLVII. Claud. R. P. II. 133. Amycle was on the right bank of the Eurotas nearly oppesite to Therapnæ. 3 Apollod. 1. 3, 3. III. 10, 3. 4 Nonnus X. 253. XXIX. 95. 5" Pausan. 111. 18. 91. Polyb. V. 19. 6 The student will find some ingenious speculations on the Hyacinthia in Müller's Dorians 1. p, 373 of English Translation. There is also an essay on Hyacinthus by Heyne in his "Antiquarische Aufsatze." P. I. 7 Hence called & yçarà vázívbos (the inscribed hyacinthus) by Theocrit. X. 28. The same flower is said by the same poet1 to have sprung from the blood of Ajax. Nec valuere manus infixum educere telum: Some Botanists imagine that they have detected these marks on a species of dark purple Iris, which they have named the Delphinium Ajacis; others believe the Lilium Martagon floribus reflexis to be the flower in question. Remark that Ovid terms Hyacinthus Amyclides, from Amycle; and Oebalides, from a mythic hero Oebalus, after whom Laconia was named Oebalia. But Oebalida, (Fast. V. 705,) are Castor and Pollux; Oebalis Nympha, (Her. XVI. 126,) is Helen; Oebalides matres, (Fast. III. 230,) are the Sabine women, because the Sabines pretended to deduce their origin from the Spartans. 42. 43. Narcissus of Thespiæ, a town in Boeotia, near the foot of Mount Helicon, was the son of Liriope and the river Cephisus; he beheld his image in a fountain, became enamoured of his own beauty, and pining away, fell a sacrifice to his hopeless love. The nymphs prepared a bier, and reared a pyre, but when they came to bear his body forth found nothing but a flower. Iamque rogum, quassasque faces, feretrumque parabant: The flower in question is easily recognised as the common Narcissus poeticus of our gardens, The story is told at great length by Ovid. Met. III. 339, seqq. Pausanias gives two versions of the tale, IX. 31. 45. The loves of Crocus and the nymph Smilax, (Bind-weed,) who were both turned into flowers, are alluded to in a cursory manner by Ovid. Met. IV. 283. Et Crocon in parvos versum cum Smilace flores Atys or Attis, the beloved of the Phrygian Cybele, was, as we read in Met. X. 103, metamorphosed into a pine. 1 Met. XIII. 393. Et succincta comas, hirsutaque vertice pinus, In the passage before us, however, Ovid follows a different form of the legend, which has been preserved by Arnobius; according to which the pomegranate tree and the violet sprung from his blood, shed on two different occasions. (Cinyra creatum.) Adonis, (see above, p. 262,) from whose blood the anemone was produced. (Ov. Met. X. 734.) nec plena longior hora Facta mora est, quum flos de sanguine concolor ortus; 47. Coronis posuit pro floribus. (G.) 51. Olea flos non copiam tantum olei, sed omnino nitidissimum annum portendebat, ut et flos abundans amygdali. (G.) who refers to Virg. G. I. 187. Contemplator item, quum se nux plurima silvis 52. (Pomaque.) Sensus; pomorum proventus, copia, pendet a tempore quo florent. (G.) 54. (Advena Nile,) quia ex alia terra decurrit. (G.) Compare note, p. 373. 54. (Lentes ..tua.) Egypt was peculiarly celebrated for the excellence of its pulse, to which frequent allusions are made by the poets. e. g. Virg. G. I. 228. Si vero viciamque seres, vilemque phaselum, and Martial. Ep. XIII. ix. Accipe Niliacam, Pelusiaca munera, lentem. 55. 56. (Vina...florent.) The flos vini was a technical term for a sort of light scum which collected on the surface. Plin. H. N. XIV. 21. "Flos vini candidus probatur; rubens triste signum est, si non is vini colos sit." So Columell. XII. 30. "Si vinum florere incipiet, sæpius curare oportebit." S OVID. FASTI. III. 809. INTRODUCTION. 2 MINERVA, who shared the triple temple of the Capitol with Jupiter and Juno,1 seems to have been an Etrurian deity, although Varro3 asserts that she was of Sabine origin. The name, derived from the same root with mens, indicates that she was the Goddess of Reason. Hence the old verb promenervare in the songs of the Salii, signifying to advise, to warn, and the phrases "facere aliquid pingui Minerva, invita Minerva, crassa Minerva," in which Minerva devotes the intellectual powers bestowed by nature, as Cicero explains, De Off. I. 31. "Nihil decet invita, ut aiunt, Minerva, id est, adversante et repugnante natura." Compare also Cic. Ep. Fam. XII. 25, where he puns on the expression, "Quinquatribus, frequenti senatu, causam tuam egi non invita Minerva. Etenim eo ipso die senatus decrevit, ut Minerva nostra, custos urbis, quam turbo dejecerat, restitueretur." and Hor. A. P. 385. Tu nihil invita dices faciesve Minerva. In Hor. S. II. ii. 3. Rusticus abnormis sapiens crassaque Minerva "Crassa Minerva," means good coarse common sense. Minerva was mistress of the Inventive Faculty also, and thus exercised controul over literature and science in general. Mechanics and artists of every description, musicians, poets, schoolmasters, physicians, all paid, homage to her as their patroness, and she was believed to take peculiar interest in spinning and weaving, the most ancient and honourable of female occupations. The first temple of Minerva was that upon the Capitol, there was another upon the Aventine, and a third near the bottom of the Cœlian, in which she was worshipped as Minerva Capta,5 an epithet said to 1 Val. Max. II. 1, 2. August. De Civ. Dei. IV. 10. 2 For the proofs of this see Müller, "Die Etrusker," III. 3, 2. The name occurs upon Etruscan pateræ, under the forms Menerfa; Menfra; Mnfra. 3 L. L. V. 10. 4 Ov. Fast. VI. 727. Fast. in verb Scribas. 5 Ov. Fest. 111. 835, where several explanations of the epithet Capta are proposed. have been applied when her statue was transported from Falerii, after the capture of that city by Camillus. The great festival was called the Quinquatrus or Quinquatria. It commenced on XIV. Kal. Apr. (19th March,) and ended XI. Kal. Apr. (23d March.) On all the days, except the first, there were gladiatorial exhibitions, and on the last a ceremony was performed, called the Tubilustrium or purification of trumpets, the invention of wind instruments being attributed to the goddess, Ov. Fast. III. 849. Summa dies e quinque tubas lustrare canoras Another Tubilustrium was held on IX. Kal. Jun. (24th May,) in honour of Vulcan, the fabricator of the instrument. Fast. V. 725. Proxima Vulcani lux est: Tubilustria dicunt, A second festival of Minerva, the Quinquatrus Minuscule, or Quinquatria Minora, fell upon the Ides of June, and was observed with great pomp by the Tibicines or flute players. Ov. Fast. VI. 651. Et iam Quinquatrus iubeor narrare minores Quid sibi personæ, quid stola longa, volunt? Compare Varro L. L. VI. 3. Quinquatrus Minusculæ dictæ Iuniæ Idus ab similitudine Maiorum, quod tibicines tum feriati vagantur per urbem et conveniunt ad ædem Minervæ." and Festus. "Minuscula Quinquatrus appellabantur Idus Iuniæ, quod is dies festus erat tibicinum, qui Minervam colebant. Quinquatrus proprie dies festus erat Minervæ, Martio Mense." With regard to the Tibicines see note p. 270. Observe that the later Romans identified Minerva with Pallas Athene, both being Goddesses of Wisdom, and invested the former with all the attributes of her Grecian sister. 1. (Una dies media est, &c.) The Quinquatria began on XIV. Kal. Apr. (19th March,) the Liberalia, which immediately preceded it in the Calendar, on XVI. Kal. Apr. (17th March.) 1 Compare Varro L. L. VI. 3. "Dies Tubilustrium appellatur, quod eo die in atro sutorio sacrorum tubæ lustrantur," and Festus "Tubicines etiam ii appellantur, qui sacerdotes, viri speciosi, publice sacra faciunt tubarum lustrandarum gratia," and Paulus " Tubilustria dies appellabant, in quibus agna tubas lustrabant." |