DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.69192#0250
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Meg Aera, the last of the three horrid listers^
called the Dirje, has serpents on her head, and
two distinguished ones over her forehead, as her
sillers have*; and, like them, is represented with
torches. The poets speak much less of her than
of the others. There is but one description of
her that would make a good picture. It is in
Virgil, where he is speaking of the punishment of
the L-apithae,. who. are. placed round a : .e plen-
tifully set out, with a loose rock hanging over
their heads, and the Fury close by to watch and
threaten them, the moment they osser to taste
any of the tempting things set before them d.
Such are the chiefs of the executioners employ*
ed to torment the impious and the unjust*
says, it is enough, and bids her return to Tartarus. On which
(he ssies down, and plunges herself into a horrid sulphu.eous Jake
m the vale of AmsanClus, supposed to be a vent of the river Ache-
ron, that surrounds the city of Rhadamanthus,, and so must lead3
Aledo directly to her usual abode,.
Amsan&us, by the aritients and moderns, is placed in the'
kingdom of Naples, between Trevicum and Acharontia. Here a
temple was built to Mephitis (Plin. Nat. 1. iii. c. 93.) as the god
of pestilential fmells. Hence this place is called* to this day Ne-
fento (a corruption of Amsan&us) and Muffito, and agrees with'
Virgil’s description, see Polym. p. 276. As no poet speaks of a
horn as one of Alefto’s attributes, our author thinks it was used*
here only occasionally.
d Her. Get. Ad. iii. sc. 2. Thyest. ii. sc. 1. ZEn. vl. v.
607. Virgil calls her Maxima, by which, considering her listers-
characters, is meant a chief, not the chief. That it is Megaera
Virgilmeaus is.,plain from Statius, Theb. vi. v. 715.
into-
Meg Aera, the last of the three horrid listers^
called the Dirje, has serpents on her head, and
two distinguished ones over her forehead, as her
sillers have*; and, like them, is represented with
torches. The poets speak much less of her than
of the others. There is but one description of
her that would make a good picture. It is in
Virgil, where he is speaking of the punishment of
the L-apithae,. who. are. placed round a : .e plen-
tifully set out, with a loose rock hanging over
their heads, and the Fury close by to watch and
threaten them, the moment they osser to taste
any of the tempting things set before them d.
Such are the chiefs of the executioners employ*
ed to torment the impious and the unjust*
says, it is enough, and bids her return to Tartarus. On which
(he ssies down, and plunges herself into a horrid sulphu.eous Jake
m the vale of AmsanClus, supposed to be a vent of the river Ache-
ron, that surrounds the city of Rhadamanthus,, and so must lead3
Aledo directly to her usual abode,.
Amsan&us, by the aritients and moderns, is placed in the'
kingdom of Naples, between Trevicum and Acharontia. Here a
temple was built to Mephitis (Plin. Nat. 1. iii. c. 93.) as the god
of pestilential fmells. Hence this place is called* to this day Ne-
fento (a corruption of Amsan&us) and Muffito, and agrees with'
Virgil’s description, see Polym. p. 276. As no poet speaks of a
horn as one of Alefto’s attributes, our author thinks it was used*
here only occasionally.
d Her. Get. Ad. iii. sc. 2. Thyest. ii. sc. 1. ZEn. vl. v.
607. Virgil calls her Maxima, by which, considering her listers-
characters, is meant a chief, not the chief. That it is Megaera
Virgilmeaus is.,plain from Statius, Theb. vi. v. 715.
into-