DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9260#0051
PHOSEON. Lib. I.
MAenala tranferam , latebris horrenda
ferarum,
Et cum Cylleno gelidi pineta Ljcei.
Arcados hinc fedes & inhospita tetta tjranni
Ingredior, traherent cum fera crepuscula
nottem.
Signa dedi venijfe Deum > fuulgusque pre-
cari 220
Coeperat. irridet primo pia *vota Lycaon.
Alox ait, Experiar, Deus hie, discrimine
aperto ,
An ft mortalis: nec erit dubitabile <verum.
Nocte gravem fomno nec opina perdere morte
Ale par at. haec ille placet experientianjeri. 22$
Nec contentus eo, mijji de gente Moiojfa
Obfidis umus jugulum mucrone refohit:
At que it a femineces partim ferventibus artus
Aiollit aquis, partim fubjetto torruit igni.
Quos fmul impofmt menfis ego 'vindice
flamma 2^0
In domino dignos cverti tecta Penates.
Territus Me fugit, naclusque fdentia ruris
Exululat , frujiraque loqui conatur: ab ipfo
Colligit os rabiem, folitaeque cupidine caedis
Vertitur in pecudes: & nunc quoque [angui-
ne gaudet. 2^5
In villos abeunt vejles, in crura lacert'n
Fit lupus, & ceteris fervat veftigia formae>•
Canities eadem eft, eadem 'violentia <vultu $
Idem oculi lucent , eadem feritatis imago.
Occidit una domus ; Jed non domus una
perire 2AO
Digna fuit. qua terra patet , fera regnat
Erinnjs.
In facinus juraffe putes. dent ocius omnes,
Quas meruere pati (ftc ft at fententia) poenas.
PHOSES. Book I. iy
NOw thro' the dreary Mevalus I paft,
The Haunt of monft'rous Beafts , an horrid
Wafte:
Next thro' Cyllenes airy Height I rove,
And cold Lycaus and her Pine-Tree Grove.
There where th' Arcadians dwell, when doubtful
Light
Drew on the dewy Chariot of the Night,
I enter'd his unhofpitable Court.
The better Vulgar to their Pray'rs refort,
When I by Signs had fliewn a God's Repair:
Lycaon firft derides their zealous Pray'r \
Then cries, we loon the certain Truth will fee,.
Whether he mortal, or immortal be :
So in the Night, when I mould flccping lay,
He thought to murder his intended Prey.
Nor with fo foul an Enterpnzc content,
An Hoftage murders from Moloffits Cent:
Part of his Limbs yet warm with Life he boils,
And others he on hilling Embers broils;
Thus was he pleas'd to try his doubtful Gueft,
And fets before me this Inhuman Feaft:
But foon my Flames around the Palace fpread,
Now falling on its guilty Mailer's Head:
He frighted to the filent Defart flies,
And there to fpeak with vain Endeavours tries.
His Voice is howling now \ and then he draws,
Stiil like himfelf in that, his raging Jaws :
His Nature in his Lull of Blood remains,
And now againft the fearful Herds obtains;
His Arms turn Thighs, his Clothes are maggy Hair,
His Features, now a Wolf, ibme Likenefs bear.
So hang his hoary Hairs with grifly Grace,
And luch the meagre Horror of his Face,
His Eye-balls glaring with their wonted Flame;
His Forfo all terrible, and ftill the fame.
One F4ouie that Fate, which all deferve, fuftainsj
For thro' the World the fierce Erinnjs reigns.
It looks like a Conlpiracy to fin; but all
Shall pay their Score, and, as they merit, fall.
THE EXPLICATION OF THE SEVENTH FABLE.
A1,1 the Ancients diftinguiih two Lycaons : The
Firit,\vas the Son or Phoroneus, and rcign'd in
that Part of Greece, which was afterwards called Arca-
dia , to which he gave the Name of Lycaonia about
2 50 Years before Cecrops, and in the Time of the Pa-
triarch Jacob. The Second , of whom he treats in
this Fable, fucceeded him, and was a Prince equally
polite and religious : But thro' an Inhumanity very
common in thole grofs Ages, he pollutes the Fcaft of
the Lupercalia, of which he was the Inftitutor, accor-
ding to the Arundel Marbles , by facrificing Human
Vidtims. That Feaft, after having been discontinued
for fcveral Ages, was re-eitablifh'd at Athens, in the
Time of Pandion-, as we learn from the 18. Epoch of
the 'Parian Marbles. Lycurgus abolifh'd, in Sparta,this
barbarous Cuftom of offering Human Sacrifices. Evan-
der carried that Feaft, fbme time after, into Italy. I
ihall not inlarge farther on a Subject fo well known.
The Notes of thofe Learned Authors, who explain
the Marbles, I have now quoted, may be confulted,
the Gruecia feriata of Meurfius, Marsham pag. 275",
and Scaliger upon Eufebius.
Lycaon, built on the Mountains of Arcadia, the City
of Lycofitra, which is accounted the moft ancient of
all Greece, and it was upon the Altar he raifed there
in honour of Jupiter Lyceus, that he began to offer
the barbarous Sacrifice, of which I have fpoken. This
is the foundation of Ovid's Fable, and what gave oc-
cafion to fay, that he made Jupiter a Feaft, in which
he ordered to be ferv'd up the Limbs of a Slave, whom
he commanded to be ilain. For it is thus that Paufa-
nias explains it in his Arcadia. His Cruelty , and
his Name, which in Greek fignifies a Wolf, have given
Occafion to the Fable of his being changed into that
Animal which is as fierce as it is carnivorous. Lycaon
was very dear to his People ■, he taught them to lead
a lefs favage Life, to build Cities and Houfes, for a
Covert againft the Rigours of the Seafon, and a De-
fence againft the Wild-Beafts, which the Arcadjan
Forefts then abounded with. Suidas adds that Lycaon
was
MAenala tranferam , latebris horrenda
ferarum,
Et cum Cylleno gelidi pineta Ljcei.
Arcados hinc fedes & inhospita tetta tjranni
Ingredior, traherent cum fera crepuscula
nottem.
Signa dedi venijfe Deum > fuulgusque pre-
cari 220
Coeperat. irridet primo pia *vota Lycaon.
Alox ait, Experiar, Deus hie, discrimine
aperto ,
An ft mortalis: nec erit dubitabile <verum.
Nocte gravem fomno nec opina perdere morte
Ale par at. haec ille placet experientianjeri. 22$
Nec contentus eo, mijji de gente Moiojfa
Obfidis umus jugulum mucrone refohit:
At que it a femineces partim ferventibus artus
Aiollit aquis, partim fubjetto torruit igni.
Quos fmul impofmt menfis ego 'vindice
flamma 2^0
In domino dignos cverti tecta Penates.
Territus Me fugit, naclusque fdentia ruris
Exululat , frujiraque loqui conatur: ab ipfo
Colligit os rabiem, folitaeque cupidine caedis
Vertitur in pecudes: & nunc quoque [angui-
ne gaudet. 2^5
In villos abeunt vejles, in crura lacert'n
Fit lupus, & ceteris fervat veftigia formae>•
Canities eadem eft, eadem 'violentia <vultu $
Idem oculi lucent , eadem feritatis imago.
Occidit una domus ; Jed non domus una
perire 2AO
Digna fuit. qua terra patet , fera regnat
Erinnjs.
In facinus juraffe putes. dent ocius omnes,
Quas meruere pati (ftc ft at fententia) poenas.
PHOSES. Book I. iy
NOw thro' the dreary Mevalus I paft,
The Haunt of monft'rous Beafts , an horrid
Wafte:
Next thro' Cyllenes airy Height I rove,
And cold Lycaus and her Pine-Tree Grove.
There where th' Arcadians dwell, when doubtful
Light
Drew on the dewy Chariot of the Night,
I enter'd his unhofpitable Court.
The better Vulgar to their Pray'rs refort,
When I by Signs had fliewn a God's Repair:
Lycaon firft derides their zealous Pray'r \
Then cries, we loon the certain Truth will fee,.
Whether he mortal, or immortal be :
So in the Night, when I mould flccping lay,
He thought to murder his intended Prey.
Nor with fo foul an Enterpnzc content,
An Hoftage murders from Moloffits Cent:
Part of his Limbs yet warm with Life he boils,
And others he on hilling Embers broils;
Thus was he pleas'd to try his doubtful Gueft,
And fets before me this Inhuman Feaft:
But foon my Flames around the Palace fpread,
Now falling on its guilty Mailer's Head:
He frighted to the filent Defart flies,
And there to fpeak with vain Endeavours tries.
His Voice is howling now \ and then he draws,
Stiil like himfelf in that, his raging Jaws :
His Nature in his Lull of Blood remains,
And now againft the fearful Herds obtains;
His Arms turn Thighs, his Clothes are maggy Hair,
His Features, now a Wolf, ibme Likenefs bear.
So hang his hoary Hairs with grifly Grace,
And luch the meagre Horror of his Face,
His Eye-balls glaring with their wonted Flame;
His Forfo all terrible, and ftill the fame.
One F4ouie that Fate, which all deferve, fuftainsj
For thro' the World the fierce Erinnjs reigns.
It looks like a Conlpiracy to fin; but all
Shall pay their Score, and, as they merit, fall.
THE EXPLICATION OF THE SEVENTH FABLE.
A1,1 the Ancients diftinguiih two Lycaons : The
Firit,\vas the Son or Phoroneus, and rcign'd in
that Part of Greece, which was afterwards called Arca-
dia , to which he gave the Name of Lycaonia about
2 50 Years before Cecrops, and in the Time of the Pa-
triarch Jacob. The Second , of whom he treats in
this Fable, fucceeded him, and was a Prince equally
polite and religious : But thro' an Inhumanity very
common in thole grofs Ages, he pollutes the Fcaft of
the Lupercalia, of which he was the Inftitutor, accor-
ding to the Arundel Marbles , by facrificing Human
Vidtims. That Feaft, after having been discontinued
for fcveral Ages, was re-eitablifh'd at Athens, in the
Time of Pandion-, as we learn from the 18. Epoch of
the 'Parian Marbles. Lycurgus abolifh'd, in Sparta,this
barbarous Cuftom of offering Human Sacrifices. Evan-
der carried that Feaft, fbme time after, into Italy. I
ihall not inlarge farther on a Subject fo well known.
The Notes of thofe Learned Authors, who explain
the Marbles, I have now quoted, may be confulted,
the Gruecia feriata of Meurfius, Marsham pag. 275",
and Scaliger upon Eufebius.
Lycaon, built on the Mountains of Arcadia, the City
of Lycofitra, which is accounted the moft ancient of
all Greece, and it was upon the Altar he raifed there
in honour of Jupiter Lyceus, that he began to offer
the barbarous Sacrifice, of which I have fpoken. This
is the foundation of Ovid's Fable, and what gave oc-
cafion to fay, that he made Jupiter a Feaft, in which
he ordered to be ferv'd up the Limbs of a Slave, whom
he commanded to be ilain. For it is thus that Paufa-
nias explains it in his Arcadia. His Cruelty , and
his Name, which in Greek fignifies a Wolf, have given
Occafion to the Fable of his being changed into that
Animal which is as fierce as it is carnivorous. Lycaon
was very dear to his People ■, he taught them to lead
a lefs favage Life, to build Cities and Houfes, for a
Covert againft the Rigours of the Seafon, and a De-
fence againft the Wild-Beafts, which the Arcadjan
Forefts then abounded with. Suidas adds that Lycaon
was