DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9260#0270
PHOSEON Lib. VIL
Morte fugant: ultroque *vocant venientia
fata. 605
Corpora mijfa neci nuttis de more feruntur
Funeribus: neque enim capiebant funera portae*
Jiut inhumata premunt terras: aut dantur
in altos
Indotata rogos. & jam riverentia nulla efl:
Deque rogis pugnant: alienifque ignibus ar-
dent. 6lO
Qui lacriment, dejunt: indefetaeque vagantur
JSlatarum matrumque animae, juvenumque
fenumque.
Nec locus in tumulos, nec fujficit arbor in ignes.
)>
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PHOSES. Book VII. 235
Strange Madnels, that, when Death purfu'd Co
faft,
T' anticipate the Blow with impious Hafte.
No decent Honour to their Urns are paid,
Nor cou'd the Graves receive the num'rous Deadj
For, or they lay unbury'd on the Ground,
Or unadorn'd a needy Fun'ral found:
All Rev'rence paft, the fainting Wretches fight
For Fun'ral Piles which were another's Right.
Unmourn'd they fall,for who furviv'd to mourn?
And Sires, and Mothers unlamentcd burn:
Parents, and Sons fuftain an equal Fate,
And wand'ring Ghofts dieir kindred Shadows
meet.
The Dead a larger Space of Ground require,
Nor are the Trees fufficient for the Fire.
EXPLICATION OF THE TWENTY FIFTH FABLE.
Minos the Second (1) of that Name, upon his
Acceffion to the Throne after the Death of
his Father Lycaftus, made feveral Conquefts in the
Iflands adjoining Crete where he reigned, and at laft
became intire Mafter of the Sea. Thucydidcs, Apol-
lodorus & Diodorus Siculus, fpeak fully of the Power
and Progrefs of his Fleet, the moft numerous One
that had ever been fcen before his Time. The Succefs
of his Arms would have fecured to him the Reputa-
tion of One of the greateft Men of his Age, had it
not been for the unfortunate Adventure I am juft going
to relate an Adventure that difturbed all the Tran-
quillity of his Life, and gave the Greeks, but parti-
cularly the Athenians, whom he had moft difobliged,
room to defame him with their Calumnies. So
dangerous a thing it is, as Plutarch remarks (2), to of-
fend a City flourifliing in Arts and fciences,and con-
fequently jealous of it's Glory.
The Feaft of the Panathenaea drawing a great Con-
courfe of People to Athens (3), Minos fent his Son
Androgeus to it, who entered a Combatant in the
Games that made a part of that Solemnity, and ac^
quitted himfelf with fo much Addrefs and good For-
tune that he won all the Prizes. The polite and
noble Deportment of that young Prince, joined to the
(1) I have proved in my Explication of Fables, and in the Third
Tome of the Memoires de I'Academie des Belles Lettres, that there
were two Princes of the Name of Minos, & that the Adventures
Which Ovid relates are to be underftood of the Socond.
(2.) In the Life of Thefeus. (3) Diodorus Siculus , A$ollodoruss
Plutarch^ Servius^ etc.
Glory which he had juft acquired, gained him the
Love of the People & the Efteem of the Sons of
Pallas, yEgeus's Brother. This Commerce between the
Pallantides and a Stranger filled the King with Jea-
loufy, who knew otherwife that his Nephews were
confpiring againft him. As he had not yet made his
Son Thefeus known , who' had been educated at
Troefen with his Grand-father Pittheus,he was extremely
miftruftful both of his Brother and the People; and there-
fore , being informed that Androgeus was to take ajour-
ney to Thebes, he caufed him to be aflafiinated near
CtewfifaTown on the Confines ofAttica. Apollodorus
indeed fays that he was killed by the Bull of Marathon
that made great Ravages in Greece-, but it is more
probable that the Athenians caufed fuch ^ Report of
the manner of his Death to be lpread abroad de-
fignedly, to cover their King from the Infamy of fo
inhuman & fo injuft an Action: Diodorus Siculus &
Plutarch agree that ^geus himfelf caufed Androgeus
to be murdered. Minos had no fooner heard this
mournful News, than he refolved to revenge his Son's
Death. He immediatly ordered a ftrong Fleet to be
fitted out, and went in perfon to feveral Courts to
make Alliances, and to ingage other Powers to af-
fift him: This is the Subject of the prefent F'able. The
other Adventures of that War fhall be the fubject of
the following Explications, and form a Series of Hil-
tory which 1 find my felf obliged to divide into parts
for the better understanding of the Figures at the
Head of each Fable.
Tom. I.
1
G g x
Fab.
Morte fugant: ultroque *vocant venientia
fata. 605
Corpora mijfa neci nuttis de more feruntur
Funeribus: neque enim capiebant funera portae*
Jiut inhumata premunt terras: aut dantur
in altos
Indotata rogos. & jam riverentia nulla efl:
Deque rogis pugnant: alienifque ignibus ar-
dent. 6lO
Qui lacriment, dejunt: indefetaeque vagantur
JSlatarum matrumque animae, juvenumque
fenumque.
Nec locus in tumulos, nec fujficit arbor in ignes.
)>
33
3»
33
33
33
33
33
33
33
33
33
33
33
PHOSES. Book VII. 235
Strange Madnels, that, when Death purfu'd Co
faft,
T' anticipate the Blow with impious Hafte.
No decent Honour to their Urns are paid,
Nor cou'd the Graves receive the num'rous Deadj
For, or they lay unbury'd on the Ground,
Or unadorn'd a needy Fun'ral found:
All Rev'rence paft, the fainting Wretches fight
For Fun'ral Piles which were another's Right.
Unmourn'd they fall,for who furviv'd to mourn?
And Sires, and Mothers unlamentcd burn:
Parents, and Sons fuftain an equal Fate,
And wand'ring Ghofts dieir kindred Shadows
meet.
The Dead a larger Space of Ground require,
Nor are the Trees fufficient for the Fire.
EXPLICATION OF THE TWENTY FIFTH FABLE.
Minos the Second (1) of that Name, upon his
Acceffion to the Throne after the Death of
his Father Lycaftus, made feveral Conquefts in the
Iflands adjoining Crete where he reigned, and at laft
became intire Mafter of the Sea. Thucydidcs, Apol-
lodorus & Diodorus Siculus, fpeak fully of the Power
and Progrefs of his Fleet, the moft numerous One
that had ever been fcen before his Time. The Succefs
of his Arms would have fecured to him the Reputa-
tion of One of the greateft Men of his Age, had it
not been for the unfortunate Adventure I am juft going
to relate an Adventure that difturbed all the Tran-
quillity of his Life, and gave the Greeks, but parti-
cularly the Athenians, whom he had moft difobliged,
room to defame him with their Calumnies. So
dangerous a thing it is, as Plutarch remarks (2), to of-
fend a City flourifliing in Arts and fciences,and con-
fequently jealous of it's Glory.
The Feaft of the Panathenaea drawing a great Con-
courfe of People to Athens (3), Minos fent his Son
Androgeus to it, who entered a Combatant in the
Games that made a part of that Solemnity, and ac^
quitted himfelf with fo much Addrefs and good For-
tune that he won all the Prizes. The polite and
noble Deportment of that young Prince, joined to the
(1) I have proved in my Explication of Fables, and in the Third
Tome of the Memoires de I'Academie des Belles Lettres, that there
were two Princes of the Name of Minos, & that the Adventures
Which Ovid relates are to be underftood of the Socond.
(2.) In the Life of Thefeus. (3) Diodorus Siculus , A$ollodoruss
Plutarch^ Servius^ etc.
Glory which he had juft acquired, gained him the
Love of the People & the Efteem of the Sons of
Pallas, yEgeus's Brother. This Commerce between the
Pallantides and a Stranger filled the King with Jea-
loufy, who knew otherwife that his Nephews were
confpiring againft him. As he had not yet made his
Son Thefeus known , who' had been educated at
Troefen with his Grand-father Pittheus,he was extremely
miftruftful both of his Brother and the People; and there-
fore , being informed that Androgeus was to take ajour-
ney to Thebes, he caufed him to be aflafiinated near
CtewfifaTown on the Confines ofAttica. Apollodorus
indeed fays that he was killed by the Bull of Marathon
that made great Ravages in Greece-, but it is more
probable that the Athenians caufed fuch ^ Report of
the manner of his Death to be lpread abroad de-
fignedly, to cover their King from the Infamy of fo
inhuman & fo injuft an Action: Diodorus Siculus &
Plutarch agree that ^geus himfelf caufed Androgeus
to be murdered. Minos had no fooner heard this
mournful News, than he refolved to revenge his Son's
Death. He immediatly ordered a ftrong Fleet to be
fitted out, and went in perfon to feveral Courts to
make Alliances, and to ingage other Powers to af-
fift him: This is the Subject of the prefent F'able. The
other Adventures of that War fhall be the fubject of
the following Explications, and form a Series of Hil-
tory which 1 find my felf obliged to divide into parts
for the better understanding of the Figures at the
Head of each Fable.
Tom. I.
1
G g x
Fab.