DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5309#0131
illustrious race. My good parents brought me up for the priesthood of this Deity, and
the senate and people confirmed their choice by a decree.
It must be observed that Diana was particularly revered at Megara, from the follow-
ing circumstance : a detachment of Persian troops, advancing towards the city during
the night, expended through a mistake attributed to the interference of the Goddess,
all their arrows against a rock, which at every discharge seemed to utter a groan • and
being found in the morning without arms, they were slain by the Megarensians. Diana
was, in consequence, worshipped at Megara under the name oiSotera, or the Deliverer.1
The epithet Orthosia applies well to this Goddess, as an archer who sends her arrows
directly to the mark ; that of iocheira also, which signifies delighting in arrows, is fi.e_
quently given her by Homer. As to the words peri tichea pania, all around the walls
of the city, they must allude to some procession made round the walls of Megara ;
Pausanias tells us, that the people of Tanagra2 performed a similar pious ceremony.
The title of Semnotates, highly worshipful, or most reverend, given to the mother,
makes it reasonable to suppose that she also had exercised some priestly office. The
sixth line has one superfluous foot.
80
the senate and people confirmed their choice by a decree.
It must be observed that Diana was particularly revered at Megara, from the follow-
ing circumstance : a detachment of Persian troops, advancing towards the city during
the night, expended through a mistake attributed to the interference of the Goddess,
all their arrows against a rock, which at every discharge seemed to utter a groan • and
being found in the morning without arms, they were slain by the Megarensians. Diana
was, in consequence, worshipped at Megara under the name oiSotera, or the Deliverer.1
The epithet Orthosia applies well to this Goddess, as an archer who sends her arrows
directly to the mark ; that of iocheira also, which signifies delighting in arrows, is fi.e_
quently given her by Homer. As to the words peri tichea pania, all around the walls
of the city, they must allude to some procession made round the walls of Megara ;
Pausanias tells us, that the people of Tanagra2 performed a similar pious ceremony.
The title of Semnotates, highly worshipful, or most reverend, given to the mother,
makes it reasonable to suppose that she also had exercised some priestly office. The
sixth line has one superfluous foot.
80