DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9260#0264
PHOSEON Lib. VII.
Quae jaBata diu fertur d'urajfe uetuflas
In fcopulos. fcopulis nomen Scironis inhaeret.
Si titulos annofque tuos numerare velimus
TaBa premant annos.pro te 3fortifjime, vota
Publica fufcipimus: Bacchi tibi fumimus
haujlus. 45°
Confonat adfenfu populi, precibusque fa-
centum
Regta: nec tot a triftis locus ullus in urbe eft.
jSfec tamen (ufque adeo nulii fincera voluptas;
Sollicitique aliquid laetis intervemt) Aegeus
G audi a percepit nato fecura recepto. 455'
Bella par at Jldinos: qui quamquam milite,
quamquam
Clajfe valet ,• patria tamen eft ftrmijjimus ira:
Androgeique necem juftis ulcifcitur armis.
Ante tamen bellum vires adquirit arnicas :
Quaque pot ens habitus , volucri fret a claffe
pererrat. 4^°
Hinc Anaphen fibi jungit , & Aftypaleia
regna >
Promi/Jis Anaphen, regna Aftypaleia bello:
Hinc humilem Myconon 3 cretofaque rura Ci-
moli,
Tlorentemque Cythnon, Scyron, planamque
Seriphon,
Marmoreamque Taron, quaque impia pro-
didit arc em 4^5
Sithonis accepto, quod avara popofcerat, auro.
Mutata eft in avem 3 quae nunc quoque dili-
git aurum;
Sierra pedem > nigris <velata monedula
pennis.
PHOSES. Book VII 229
»Of Strength (but Strength to barb'rous ufe'
em ploy'd)
„ That Tops of talleft Pines to Earth could bendj
„ And thus in Pieces wretched Captives rend.
„ Inhuman Scyron now has breath'd his laft,
„ And now Alcatho's Road's fecurely paft-,
„ By Thefeus flain , and thrown into the Deep :
„ Bat Earth nor Sea his fcatter'd Bones wou'dkeep$
„ Which, after floating long, a Hock became,
,, Still infamous with Scyron s hated Name.
„ When Fame to count thy Acts and Years
proceeds,
,, Thy Years appear but Cyphers to thy Deeds.
„ For Thee,brave Youth, as for our Common-
Wealth
,, We pray • and drink in yours, the Public Health.
j, Your Praife the Senate, and Plebeians fmg,
,, With your lov'd Name the Court, and Cottage
ring.
,, You make our Shepherds and our Sailors gladj
,, And not a Houfe in this vail City's fad".
But mortal Bli£s will never come fincere,
Pleafure may lead, but Grief brings up the Rearj
While for his Son's Arrival, revling Joy
/Egeus, and all his Subjects does employ •
While they for only coftly Feafts prepare,
His neighb'ring Monarch, Minos,threatens War:
Strong in Land-Forces, nor by Sea lels ftrong,
But ftrongeft in a deep reiented Wrong
For a Son's Murder, arm'd with pious Rage;
Yet prudently, before he would ingage,
To raife Auxiliaries refolv'd to fail,
And with the pow'rful Princes to prevail.
Ajlypaleay Anaphe he gains,
By Treaty this, and that by Threats obtains;
Low Mycone, Cymolus' chalky Soil,
Tall Cythnos, Scyros, flat Seriphos' Ifle;
Paros, with Marble Cliffs afar difplay'd; ~
Impregnable Sithonia; yet betray a £
By Treach'rous Arne, Gold-admiring Maid. 3
Who, chang'd into a Daw of fable Hue,
Still hoards up Gold, and hides it from the View.
EXPLICATION OF THE XX. XXL
XXIII. & XXIV. FABLES.
XXII.
There is no Subject better known in Mythology
than the Dog Cerberus, that was placed by the
Poets to gard the Entrance into Hell. I have proved
in the Second Tome of my Explication of Fables, that
the Notion of this Dog was taken from the Hiftory
of the Egyptians, who had Dogs to gard thofe
Fields in which they kept their Mummies ; and,
to take the Thing in its Origin, it is certain
that the Greeks drew all their Syftem of Hell and
the Elyfian Fields ; from the Theology of that an-
cient—People , yet what Ovid relates here of the
Aconite and other venomous Herbs , which the
Foam of Cerberus caufed to fpring out of the
Earth wherefoever it fell , is founded on a piece of
Graecian Hiftory. Formerly there was a Serpent in
the Cavern of Tenarus (i ) that ravaged all the
adjacent places of that Promontory, and becaufe that
Cave was thought to be one of the Avenues to
Pluto's.Kingdom, the Poets took Occafion from
thence to fay that this Serpent was the Porter of it:
This is the Origin of Cerberus who was called the
(0 Paufanias in haon.
Dog of Hell, becaufe he bit and devoured Thofe
that went near his Den as Hecatxus the Milelian
remarks. Paufanias (2) obferves that Homer was the
fir ft that faid Cerberus was a Dog, tho', in reality,
he was but a Serpent , whofe Greek Name fignifies
One that devours Flefh. The Poets who followed
Homer have indeed named Cerberus a Dog, but
in effect. they have defcribed him like a Serpent.
Cut vates, horrere vt'dens jam colla colubris (3),
-r—— -.—:—(4) Qiiamvis fur/ale centum .
Muniant angues caput ejus, • ■ > ■ , .
--» - (V) Sordidum tabo caput
Lambunt colubra: Viper is horrent juba,
Longufque torta fibilat cauda Draco.
The ancient Monuments in their Reprefentations of
that Monfter have followed the Defcriptions which
the Poets have given of him in their Works,
as may be feen by the Figures in Antiquity
explained
(z) Loc. cit. C3) Virg. Eneid. Lib. VI. yf. 419.
(4) Horate Lib. III. Od, XI. (5-) Seneca in Henule Fnr. f, 781*
Quae jaBata diu fertur d'urajfe uetuflas
In fcopulos. fcopulis nomen Scironis inhaeret.
Si titulos annofque tuos numerare velimus
TaBa premant annos.pro te 3fortifjime, vota
Publica fufcipimus: Bacchi tibi fumimus
haujlus. 45°
Confonat adfenfu populi, precibusque fa-
centum
Regta: nec tot a triftis locus ullus in urbe eft.
jSfec tamen (ufque adeo nulii fincera voluptas;
Sollicitique aliquid laetis intervemt) Aegeus
G audi a percepit nato fecura recepto. 455'
Bella par at Jldinos: qui quamquam milite,
quamquam
Clajfe valet ,• patria tamen eft ftrmijjimus ira:
Androgeique necem juftis ulcifcitur armis.
Ante tamen bellum vires adquirit arnicas :
Quaque pot ens habitus , volucri fret a claffe
pererrat. 4^°
Hinc Anaphen fibi jungit , & Aftypaleia
regna >
Promi/Jis Anaphen, regna Aftypaleia bello:
Hinc humilem Myconon 3 cretofaque rura Ci-
moli,
Tlorentemque Cythnon, Scyron, planamque
Seriphon,
Marmoreamque Taron, quaque impia pro-
didit arc em 4^5
Sithonis accepto, quod avara popofcerat, auro.
Mutata eft in avem 3 quae nunc quoque dili-
git aurum;
Sierra pedem > nigris <velata monedula
pennis.
PHOSES. Book VII 229
»Of Strength (but Strength to barb'rous ufe'
em ploy'd)
„ That Tops of talleft Pines to Earth could bendj
„ And thus in Pieces wretched Captives rend.
„ Inhuman Scyron now has breath'd his laft,
„ And now Alcatho's Road's fecurely paft-,
„ By Thefeus flain , and thrown into the Deep :
„ Bat Earth nor Sea his fcatter'd Bones wou'dkeep$
„ Which, after floating long, a Hock became,
,, Still infamous with Scyron s hated Name.
„ When Fame to count thy Acts and Years
proceeds,
,, Thy Years appear but Cyphers to thy Deeds.
„ For Thee,brave Youth, as for our Common-
Wealth
,, We pray • and drink in yours, the Public Health.
j, Your Praife the Senate, and Plebeians fmg,
,, With your lov'd Name the Court, and Cottage
ring.
,, You make our Shepherds and our Sailors gladj
,, And not a Houfe in this vail City's fad".
But mortal Bli£s will never come fincere,
Pleafure may lead, but Grief brings up the Rearj
While for his Son's Arrival, revling Joy
/Egeus, and all his Subjects does employ •
While they for only coftly Feafts prepare,
His neighb'ring Monarch, Minos,threatens War:
Strong in Land-Forces, nor by Sea lels ftrong,
But ftrongeft in a deep reiented Wrong
For a Son's Murder, arm'd with pious Rage;
Yet prudently, before he would ingage,
To raife Auxiliaries refolv'd to fail,
And with the pow'rful Princes to prevail.
Ajlypaleay Anaphe he gains,
By Treaty this, and that by Threats obtains;
Low Mycone, Cymolus' chalky Soil,
Tall Cythnos, Scyros, flat Seriphos' Ifle;
Paros, with Marble Cliffs afar difplay'd; ~
Impregnable Sithonia; yet betray a £
By Treach'rous Arne, Gold-admiring Maid. 3
Who, chang'd into a Daw of fable Hue,
Still hoards up Gold, and hides it from the View.
EXPLICATION OF THE XX. XXL
XXIII. & XXIV. FABLES.
XXII.
There is no Subject better known in Mythology
than the Dog Cerberus, that was placed by the
Poets to gard the Entrance into Hell. I have proved
in the Second Tome of my Explication of Fables, that
the Notion of this Dog was taken from the Hiftory
of the Egyptians, who had Dogs to gard thofe
Fields in which they kept their Mummies ; and,
to take the Thing in its Origin, it is certain
that the Greeks drew all their Syftem of Hell and
the Elyfian Fields ; from the Theology of that an-
cient—People , yet what Ovid relates here of the
Aconite and other venomous Herbs , which the
Foam of Cerberus caufed to fpring out of the
Earth wherefoever it fell , is founded on a piece of
Graecian Hiftory. Formerly there was a Serpent in
the Cavern of Tenarus (i ) that ravaged all the
adjacent places of that Promontory, and becaufe that
Cave was thought to be one of the Avenues to
Pluto's.Kingdom, the Poets took Occafion from
thence to fay that this Serpent was the Porter of it:
This is the Origin of Cerberus who was called the
(0 Paufanias in haon.
Dog of Hell, becaufe he bit and devoured Thofe
that went near his Den as Hecatxus the Milelian
remarks. Paufanias (2) obferves that Homer was the
fir ft that faid Cerberus was a Dog, tho', in reality,
he was but a Serpent , whofe Greek Name fignifies
One that devours Flefh. The Poets who followed
Homer have indeed named Cerberus a Dog, but
in effect. they have defcribed him like a Serpent.
Cut vates, horrere vt'dens jam colla colubris (3),
-r—— -.—:—(4) Qiiamvis fur/ale centum .
Muniant angues caput ejus, • ■ > ■ , .
--» - (V) Sordidum tabo caput
Lambunt colubra: Viper is horrent juba,
Longufque torta fibilat cauda Draco.
The ancient Monuments in their Reprefentations of
that Monfter have followed the Defcriptions which
the Poets have given of him in their Works,
as may be feen by the Figures in Antiquity
explained
(z) Loc. cit. C3) Virg. Eneid. Lib. VI. yf. 419.
(4) Horate Lib. III. Od, XI. (5-) Seneca in Henule Fnr. f, 781*