Part 62

is considered the forgery of a later age. Not so, however, the beautiful truths of the Greek poet of the Halieutics:

τί γὰρ μερόπεσσιν ἀνυστὸν νόσφι θεῶν; οὐδ’ ὅσσον ὑπ’ ἐκ ποδὸς ἴχνος ἀεῖραι, οὐδ’ ὅσον ἀμπετάσαι βλεφάρων περιφαέα κύκλα. ἀλλ’ αὐτοὶ κρατέουσι καὶ ἰθύνουσιν ἕκαστα, τηλόθεν ἐγγὺς ἐόντες, ἀναγκαίη δ’ ἀτίνακτος πείθεσθαι, κ. τ. λ.

Ὅσοι ναυτίλλονται, ἀπὸ θεῶν ἄρχονται. The sea-deities were numerous, and of various gradations. Spence arranges them in six classes. See Milton’s invocation of Sabrina, in his Comus, vs. 867. for the names of many of these Dii Marini. Arrian mentions only Neptune, his Queen, and the Nereids—lords of the mediterranean or inland seas: superior to whom were Oceanus, “Pater rerum,” and Tethys. Moreover, it appears from Apollonius Rhodius, that Apollo, for particular reasons, (αὐτὸς γὰρ ἐπαίτιος ἔπλευ ἀέθλων, says Jason, addressing πατρώϊον Ἀπόλλωνα,) was worshipped, under the name of Ἐμβασίος, by the Argonauts at the time of their embarkation, and under that of Ἐκβασίος at disembarking. See also Homer. Odyss. +ii.+ 430. where Telemachus pours forth “the holy goblet to the powers divine,” but principally invokes, for a specific reason, “the blue-eyed progeny of Jove.”

Ἀνασωθέντες χαριστήρια θύουσιν,

Votaque servati solvent in littore nautæ, &c.

and again, Æneid. +xii.+ 766.

Servati ex undis ubi figere dona solebant Laurenti divo, et votas suspendere vestes.

Several votive monuments are engraven in Père Montfaucon’s Antiq. Expliq. Tom. +ii.+ with inscriptions, SALVOS IRE, SALVOS REDIRE, &c.: and Pitiscus (Lexic. Antiq. Rom. V. +ii.+ p. 164.) has others, NEPTUNO REDUC. SACRUM, &c.

See the indications of the Dii Marini appearing in dreams to sea-faring people, in Artemidorus, L. +ii.+ 38.

Ὅσοι τὴν γῆν ἐργάζονται. Every art and science had, in classic mythology, its divine guardian, from whom it first emanated, and by whose liberal condescension mankind were instructed in the rudiments of their several callings:

κεῖνοι καὶ τέχνας πολυκερδέας ἀνθρώποισιν δῶκαν ἔχειν, καὶ πᾶσαν ἐπιφροσόνην ἐνεήκαν. ἄλλος δ’ ἀλλοίοισιν ἐπώνυμος ἔπλετο δαίμων ἔργοις, οἷσιν ἕκαστος ἐπίσκοπον ᾔρατο τιμήν.

The tutelar deities of husbandmen were Ceres, Proserpine, and Bacchus. Hence, in the beginning of the first Georgic, amongst the “agrestum præsentia numina,” Virgil invokes conjointly “Liber et alma Ceres;” and Pindar designates Bacchus,

χαλκοκρότου πάρεδρον Δαμάτερος.

Δημήτηρ δὲ καὶ Κόρη, καὶ ὁ λεγόμενος Ἴακχος, says the Ephesian visionary, γεωργοῖς καὶ τοῖς κτήσασθαι γῆν προῃρημένοις ἀγαθαί. The department of rural economy under the tutelage of Ceres is succinctly stated by Oppian in the second book of his Halieutics:

Δηὼ μὲν ζεύγλης τε βοῶν, ἀρότοιο τε γαίης πυρῶν τ’ εὐκάρποιο φέρει γέρας ἀμήτοιο.

The connexion of Proserpine with husbandry is not so clear; but as Nicomedia, our author’s native city, was sacred both to the mother and daughter, and he held the office of priest in the temple of the latter, we may suppose him fully acquainted with all her tutelary distinctions, of which the patronage of agriculture seems to have been one.

Bacchus’s presidency was principally confined, in his character of Vitisator, to the culture of vineyards: Διόνυσος τοῖς γεωργοῖς συμφέρει τοῖς τὸν ξυλικὸν καρπὸν γεωργοῦσι, μάλιστα ἀμπέλους. To the three deities of Arrian here mentioned, Virgil subjoins others, “studium quibus arva tueri,” whom the philosophic courser allows to extend their fostering care to venation—at least some of them, as Pan, the Nymphs, &c.

Οἱ δὲ ἀμφὶ τὰς τέχνας πονούμενοι. The different bodies or colleges of artificers had their particular tutelary deities. Pausanias in Arcadicis mentions a temple of Minerva Machinatrix: ἔστι δὲ Ἀθηνᾶς ἱερὸν ἐπίκλησιν Μαχανίτιδος, ὅτι βουλευμάτων ἐστὶν ἡ θεὸς παντοίων καὶ ἐπιτεχνημάτων εὑρέτις. The connexion of Minerva and Vulcan with handicrafts is noted by Artemidorus: Ἀθηνᾶ χειροτέχναις ἀγαθὴ διὰ τὴν προσηγορίαν, Ἐργάνη καλεῖται γάρ——Ἥφαιστος ... χειρώναξι ἀγαθὸς πᾶσι:—and by Oppian:

δοῦρα δὲ τεκτῄνασθαι, ἀναστῆσαί τε μέλαθρα, φάρεά τ’ ἀσκῆσαι μήλων εὐανθέϊ καρπῷ Παλλὰς ἐπιχθονίους ἐδιδάξατο. ——Ἡφαίστῳ δὲ μέλει ῥαιστήριος ἱδρώς.

Juno tells Latona that Vulcan’s skill as an artificer, is a counterpoise to his claudicant deformity: ἀλλ’ οὗτος μὲν ὁ χωλὸς, ὅμως χρήσιμός γε ἐστὶ, τεχνίτης ὢν ἄριστος, κ. τ. λ.

Οἱ ἀμφὶ παίδευσιν. Instructors—those engaged in education—the μουσοπόλων ἔργων ἐπίσκοποι of the Cilician poet.

Μούσαις. The Muses were thought to preside over the different departments of science, poetry, vocal and instrumental music, and the fine arts generally.

ἐκ γὰρ Μουσάων καὶ ἐκηβόλου Ἀπόλλωνος ἀνδρὲς ἀοιδοὶ ἔασιν ἐπὶ χθόνα καὶ κιθαρισταί.

Ἀπόλλωνι Μουσηγέτῃ. When the gods attended the nuptials of Peleus and Thetis on Mount Pelion, Apollo led “the tuneful choir” in the character of Musagetes:

ἐκ δὲ μελισσήεντος ἀπεσσυμένων Ἑλικῶνος Μουσάων λιγύφωνον ἄγων χορὸν ἦλθεν Ἀπόλλων.

Representations of Apollo in the character of Musagetes or Lyristes, from the Justinian gallery, are given by Père Montfaucon in the first volume of his Antiquities; by Spence, in his Polymetis, Pl. +xiii.+ f. +i.+ +ii.+; and by Visconti, in the Clementine Museum, Vol. +i.+

Mentis Apollineæ vis has movet undique Musas. In medio residens amplectitur omnia Phœbus.

Ἀπόλλων μουσικοῖς ἀγαθὸς, says the Ephesian, λόγων γὰρ εὑρετὴς ὁ θεὸς καὶ μουσικῆς πάσης. In which character the Roman poets of the Augustan age have decked him out to the life. See Ovid’s