Part 26

We cannot but admire the fine feelings of piety, and conscious dependence on an over-ruling Providence, which pervade the closing chapters of the Cynegeticus.

[Sidenote: Lucretii L. +i.+ 62.]

[Sidenote: Hist. Natur. L. +ii.+ c. +vii.+]

Many splendid passages might be selected from the classical writings of Greece and Rome, demonstrative of the fact that, however darkened by mythological allusions, the most enlightened heathens supported a conviction of the affairs of this lower world being under the guidance of a Supreme Intelligence, and of man himself being utterly weak and destitute when unsupported by the aid and influence of Heaven. This feeling is strongly manifested in the works of Homer, Hesiod, Pindar, Orpheus, Phocylides, and a host of others among the Greeks: and notwithstanding the mischievous attempt of the philosophy of Epicurus to eradicate from the Roman mind all sense of dependency on Heaven, (as if the Divine Essence, in relation to human conduct, “nec benè promeritis capitur, nec tangitur irâ,”) the works of Virgil, Horace, and Claudian afford splendid examples of the important truth that the natural aspirations of poetry tend to the honour of the Gods, and that when rightfully employed, the genius of man is ever directed to the advancement of religion and morality. It is unnecessary to refer to the innumerable passages illustrative of the creed of ancient philosophers, contained in their works; let it suffice that Pliny, in speaking of the unity of the Deity, gives the reason why men commonly spoke of more than one God: “Fragilis et laboriosa mortalitas in partes ista digessit, infirmitatis suæ memor; ut portionibus quisque coleret, quo maximè indigeret,” &c. The catalogue of subordinate deities, enumerated by our author as directing the affairs, destinies, and pursuits of mankind, merged with him in the belief of one Supreme Intelligence, of which these subaltern deities were the several attributes and manifestations, in the government of the universe and its constituent parts. According to Hermesianax,

Πλούτων, Περσεφόνη, Δημήτηρ, Κύπρις, Ἔρωτες, Τρίτωνες, Νηρεὺς, Τηθὺς, καὶ Κυανοχαίτης, Ἑρμῆς τ’, Ἥφαιστός τε κλυτὸς, Πὰν, Ζεύς τε, καὶ Ἥρη, Ἄρτεμις, ἠδ’ Ἑκάεργος Ἀπόλλων, εἷς θεός ἐστι:

an opinion which was general with the superior philosophers of Greece and Rome, in opposition to the polytheistic notions of their inferiors, who, while worshipping the “portiones” of Pliny, violated most grossly the unity of the Εἷς Θεὸς of philosophy;—the understandings of the former being too strong (as Sir W. Jones has remarked in the argument of his Hymn to Surya) to admit the popular belief, but their influence too weak to reform it, and establish in its place, in the public mind at large, the supreme unity of the Deity—

[Sidenote: Hor. Carm. L. +iii.+ od. +iv.+]

Qui terram inertem, qui mare temperat Ventorum, et urbes, regnaque tristia, Divosque, mortalesque turmas Imperio regit unus æquo.

For further notice of this subject, the reader is referred to Maximus Tyrius, Dissert. 17., a Greek philosopher of the second century, contemporary, I believe, with Arrian.

[Sidenote: Homer. Odyss. L. +iii.+ 48.]

Οὐδὲν ἄνευ θεῶν γιγνόμενον ἀνθρώποις ἐς ἀγαθὸν ἀποτελευτᾷ. To this we may cite many parallel passages: πάντες δὲ θεῶν χατέουσ’ ἄνθρωποι, says the son of Nestor to the divine attendant of Telemachus. Hesiod begins and ends his poem of the Works and Days with inculcating piety towards the Gods; the only way to please whom and to be happy, he says, is to be religious and strictly moral—

[Sidenote: Opera et Dies vs. 706. Vide Dies vs. 826.]

εὖ δ’ ὄπιν ἀθανάτων μακάρων πεφυλαγμένος εἶναι.

Nor are the passages, recommendatory of due reverence of the Gods, less numerous in the lyric and tragic poets of Greece, than in her heroic poets:

[Sidenote: Pindar Pyth. L. +i.+ 79.]

ἐκ θεῶν γὰρ μαχαναὶ πᾶ- σαι βροτέαις ἀρεταῖς καὶ σοφοὶ καὶ χερσὶ βια- ταὶ περίγλωσσοί τ’ ἔφυν.

See also the sublime supplication of Hecuba in the Troades of Euripides, vs. 884.

The hymn of Cleanthes,

οὐδέ τι γίγνεται ἔργον ἐπὶ χθονὶ σοῦ δίχα, δαῖμον, οὔτε κατ’ αἰθέριον θεῖον πόλον, οὐτ’ ἐνὶ πόντῳ, κ. τ. λ.

is considered the forgery of a later age. Not so, however, the beautiful truths of the Greek poet of the Halieutics:

[Sidenote: Oppian. Halieutic. L. +ii.+ 4.]

τί γὰρ μερόπεσσιν ἀνυστὸν νόσφι θεῶν; οὐδ’ ὅσσον ὑπ’ ἐκ ποδὸς ἴχνος ἀεῖραι, οὐδ’ ὅσον ἀμπετάσαι βλεφάρων περιφαέα κύκλα. ἀλλ’ αὐτοὶ κρατέουσι καὶ ἰθύνουσιν ἕκαστα, τηλόθεν ἐγγὺς ἐόντες, ἀναγκαίη δ’ ἀτίνακτος πείθεσθαι, κ. τ. λ.

[Sidenote: L. +i.+ vs. 359. and vs. 1186.]

[Sidenote: Pope’s Odyss. B. +ii.+ 471.]

Ὅσοι ναυτίλλονται, ἀπὸ θεῶν ἄρχονται. The sea-deities were numerous, and of various gradations. Spence arranges them in six classes. See Milton’s invocation of Sabrina, in his Comus, vs. 867. for the names of many of these Dii Marini. Arrian mentions only Neptune, his Queen, and the Nereids—lords of the mediterranean or inland seas: superior to whom were Oceanus, “Pater rerum,” and Tethys. Moreover, it appears from Apollonius Rhodius, that Apollo, for particular reasons, (αὐτὸς γὰρ ἐπαίτιος ἔπλευ ἀέθλων, says Jason, addressing πατρώϊον Ἀπόλλωνα,) was worshipped, under the name of Ἐμβασίος, by the Argonauts at the time of their embarkation, and under that of Ἐκβασίος at disembarking. See also Homer. Odyss. +ii.+ 430. where Telemachus pours forth “the holy goblet to the powers divine,” but principally invokes, for a specific reason, “the blue-eyed progeny of Jove.”

Ἀνασωθέντες χαριστήρια θύουσιν,

[Sidenote: Virg. Georg. L. +i.+ 436.]

Votaque servati solvent in littore nautæ, &c.

and again, Æneid. +xii.+ 766.

Servati ex undis ubi figere dona solebant Laurenti divo, et votas suspendere vestes.

Several votive monuments are engraven in Père Montfaucon’s Antiq. Expliq. Tom. +ii.+ with inscriptions, SALVOS IRE, SALVOS REDIRE, &c.: and Pitiscus (Lexic. Antiq. Rom. V. +ii.+ p. 164.) has others, NEPTUNO REDUC. SACRUM, &c.

See the indications of the Dii Marini appearing in dreams to sea-faring people, in Artemidorus, L. +ii.+ 38.

Ὅσοι τὴν γῆν ἐργάζονται. Every art and science had, in classic mythology, its divine guardian, from whom it first emanated, and by whose liberal condescension mankind were instructed in the rudiments of their several callings:

[Sidenote: Oppian. Hal. L. +ii.+ 15.]

κεῖνοι καὶ τέχνας πολυκερδέας ἀνθρώποισιν δῶκαν ἔχειν, καὶ πᾶσαν ἐπιφροσόνην ἐνεήκαν. ἄλλος δ’ ἀλλοίοισιν ἐπώνυμος ἔπλετο δαίμων ἔργοις, οἷσιν ἕκαστος ἐπίσκοπον ᾔρατο τιμήν.

The tutelar deities of husbandmen were Ceres, Proserpine, and Bacchus. Hence, in the beginning of the first Georgic, amongst the “agrestum præsentia numina,” Virgil invokes conjointly “Liber et alma Ceres;” and Pindar designates Bacchus,

[Sidenote: Isthm. L. +vii.+ 3.]

χαλκοκρότου πάρεδρον Δαμάτερος.

[Sidenote: Artemidor. Oneirocrit. L. +ii.+ c. 39.]

Δημήτηρ δὲ καὶ Κόρη, καὶ ὁ λεγόμενος Ἴακχος, says the Ephesian visionary, γεωργοῖς καὶ τοῖς κτήσασθαι γῆν προῃρημένοις ἀγαθαί. The department of rural economy under the tutelage of Ceres is succinctly stated by Oppian in the second book of his Halieutics:

[Sidenote: Oppian. Hal. L. +ii.+ 19.]

Δηὼ μὲν ζεύγλης τε βοῶν, ἀρότοιο τε γαίης πυρῶν τ’ εὐκάρποιο φέρει γέρας ἀμήτοιο.

The connexion of Proserpine with husbandry is not so clear; but as Nicomedia, our author’s native city, was sacred both to the mother and daughter, and he held the office of priest in the temple of the latter, we may suppose him fully acquainted with all her tutelary distinctions, of which the patronage of agriculture seems to have been one.

[Sidenote: Artemidor. Oneirocrit. L. +ii.+ c. 37.]

[Sidenote: Georgic. L. +i.+ 21.]

Bacchus’s presidency was principally confined, in his character of Vitisator, to the culture of vineyards: Διόνυσος τοῖς γεωργοῖς συμφέρει τοῖς τὸν ξυλικὸν καρπὸν γεωργοῦσι, μάλιστα ἀμπέλους. To the three deities of Arrian here mentioned, Virgil subjoins others, “studium quibus arva tueri,” whom the philosophic courser allows to extend their fostering care to venation—at least some of them, as Pan, the Nymphs, &c.

[Sidenote: c. +xxxvi.+]

[Sidenote: Oneirocrit. L. +ii.+ c. 35.]

[Sidenote: Ejusdem c. 37.]

Οἱ δὲ ἀμφὶ τὰς τέχνας πονούμενοι. The different bodies or colleges of artificers had their particular tutelary deities. Pausanias in Arcadicis mentions a temple of Minerva Machinatrix: ἔστι δὲ Ἀθηνᾶς ἱερὸν ἐπίκλησιν Μαχανίτιδος, ὅτι βουλευμάτων ἐστὶν ἡ θεὸς παντοίων καὶ ἐπιτεχνημάτων εὑρέτις. The connexion of Minerva and Vulcan with handicrafts is noted by Artemidorus: Ἀθηνᾶ χειροτέχναις ἀγαθὴ διὰ τὴν προσηγορίαν, Ἐργάνη καλεῖται γάρ——Ἥφαιστος ... χειρώναξι ἀγαθὸς πᾶσι:—and by Oppian:

[Sidenote: Halieut. L. +ii.+ 21.]

δοῦρα δὲ τεκτῄνασθαι, ἀναστῆσαί τε μέλαθρα, φάρεά τ’ ἀσκῆσαι μήλων εὐανθέϊ καρπῷ Παλλὰς ἐπιχθονίους ἐδιδάξατο. ——Ἡφαίστῳ δὲ μέλει ῥαιστήριος ἱδρώς.

[Sidenote: Lucian. Deor. Dial. Juno et Latona.]

Juno tells Latona that Vulcan’s skill as an artificer, is a counterpoise to his claudicant deformity: ἀλλ’ οὗτος μὲν ὁ χωλὸς, ὅμως χρήσιμός γε ἐστὶ, τεχνίτης ὢν ἄριστος, κ. τ. λ.

Οἱ ἀμφὶ παίδευσιν. Instructors—those engaged in education—the μουσοπόλων ἔργων ἐπίσκοποι of the Cilician poet.

Μούσαις. The Muses were thought to preside over the different departments of science, poetry, vocal and instrumental music, and the fine arts generally.

[Sidenote: Hesiod. D. G. 94.]

ἐκ γὰρ Μουσάων καὶ ἐκηβόλου Ἀπόλλωνος ἀνδρὲς ἀοιδοὶ ἔασιν ἐπὶ χθόνα καὶ κιθαρισταί.

Ἀπόλλωνι Μουσηγέτῃ. When the gods attended the nuptials of Peleus and Thetis on Mount Pelion, Apollo led “the tuneful choir” in the character of Musagetes:

[Sidenote: Coluthi Rapt. Helen. vs. 23.]

ἐκ δὲ μελισσήεντος ἀπεσσυμένων Ἑλικῶνος Μουσάων λιγύφωνον ἄγων χορὸν ἦλθεν Ἀπόλλων.

Representations of Apollo in the character of Musagetes or Lyristes, from the Justinian gallery, are given by Père Montfaucon in the first volume of his Antiquities; by Spence, in his Polymetis, Pl. +xiii.+ f. +i.+ +ii.+; and by Visconti, in the Clementine Museum, Vol. +i.+

[Sidenote: Ausonii Musarum Inventa. Idyll. +xx.+]

Mentis Apollineæ vis has movet undique Musas. In medio residens amplectitur omnia Phœbus.

[Sidenote: Artemidori Oneirocrit. L. +ii.+ c. 35.]

Ἀπόλλων μουσικοῖς ἀγαθὸς, says the Ephesian, λόγων γὰρ εὑρετὴς ὁ θεὸς καὶ μουσικῆς πάσης. In which character the Roman poets of the Augustan age have decked him out to the life. See Ovid’s

[Sidenote: Metam. L. +xi.+ 165.]

Ille caput flavum lauro Parnasside vinctus— Verrit humum Tyrio saturatâ murice pallâ, &c.

Μνήμοσυνῃ. This goddess is celebrated by Hesiod, in his Theogony, as the mother of the Muses:

[Sidenote: D. G. vs. 915.]

ἐκ ἧς αἱ Μοῦσαι χρυσάμπυκες ἐξεγένοντο ἐννέα, τῇσιν ἅδον θαλίαι, καὶ τέρψις ἀοιδῆς.

So Akenside, in The Pleasures of Imagination:

[Sidenote: Book +iii.+]

Ye beauteous offspring of Olympian Jove And Memory divine, Pierian maids.

That this mythology is judicious, has been remarked by Plutarch in his rules for the education of children; since nothing so much cherishes learning as memory. There is a statue of Mnemosyne in the Clementine Museum of Visconti, Vol. +i.+

Ἑρμῇ. Mercury is here introduced in one of his most creditable capacities, as the author of letters, and the god of orators and eloquence:

[Sidenote: Francis’s Horace. B. +i.+ Od. +x.+]

The god of wit, from Atlas sprung, Who by persuasive power of tongue And graceful exercise refined The savage race of human kind!

[Sidenote: Artemidori Oneirocrit. L. +ii.+ c. 37.]

Ἑρμῆς ἀγαθὸς τοῖς ἐπὶ λόγους ὁρμωμένοις, καὶ ἀθληταῖς, καὶ παιδοτρίβαις, κ. τ. λ.

Οἱ δὲ ἀμφὶ τὰ ἐρωτικὰ Ἀφροδίτῃ. In the Rape of Helen, Venus is called Ἁρμονίης βασίλεια, (v. 26.) θαλάμων βασίλεια, (v. 137.) and γάμων βασίλεια, (v. 306.) queen of marriage. And to the same purport is the description of Nemesian:

[Sidenote: Bucol. Eclog. L. +ii.+ 57.]

cui cura jugales Concubitus hominum totis connectere sêclis.

[Sidenote: Artemidori Oneirocrit. L. +ii.+ c. 37.]

μάλιστα δὲ ἀγαθὴ περὶ γάμους καὶ κοινωνίας, καὶ περὶ τέκνων γονὰς, says the dream-interpreter, of the goddess of love, συνδέσμων γὰρ καὶ ἐπιγόνων ἐστὶν αἰτία. The reader will remember her angry speech (tangit et ira Deos) in the prologue of the Hippolytus,

τοὺς μὲν σέβοντας τἀμὰ πρεσβεύω κράτη, σφάλλω δ’ ὅσοι φρονοῦσιν εἰς ἡμᾶς μέγα, κ. τ. λ.

and her vengeful and infuriate character, as drawn by Apollonius Rhodius in reference to the Lemnians:

[Sidenote: Argonaut. L. +i.+ 615.]

οὕνεκά μιν γεράων ἐπιδηρὸν ἄτισσαν.

and amplified by Valerius Flaccus, L. +ii.+ vs. 29.

Ἔρωτι. Venus confesses that she has little power without the aid of her favourite son Cupid:

[Sidenote: Æneid. L. +i.+ 668.]

Nate, meæ vires, mea magna potentia, &c. Ad te confugio, et supplex tua numina posco.

She is accompanied by him and Ἵμερος (whom the Grecian mythologists seem to have distinguished from Ἔρως) in the Theogony of Hesiod.

[Sidenote: D. G. vs. 201.]

τῇ δ’ Ἔρος ὡμάρτησε, καὶ Ἵμερος ἕσπετο καλός.

The Odes of Anacreon afford many graphic sketches of the mischievous little god:

[Sidenote: Od. +iii.+ vs. 17.]

φέροντα τόξον, πτέρυγάς τε καὶ φαρέτρην.

Πειθοῖ. Suada or Suadela—the goddess of persuasion—nuptiarum conciliatrix. In the temple of Jupiter at Olympia, as described by Pausanias, Cupid is seen receiving Venus rising out of the sea, and the goddess Πειθὼ placing a crown on her head: and so in the Rape of Helen, she is the bearer of the bridal chaplet:

[Sidenote: Coluthi R. H. vs. 28.]

καὶ στέφος ἀσκήσασα γαμήλιον ἤλυθε Πειθὼ, τοξευτῆρος Ἔρωτος ἐλαφρίζουσα φαρέτρην.

[Sidenote: Epod. L. +i.+ Od. +vi.+]

[Sidenote: Oneirocrit. L. +ii.+ c. 37.]

Horace unites Suadela and Venus in the attractions of “the well-bemoney’d swain”—“benè-nummatum decorat Suadela Venusque.” And Artemidorus says her appearance is ominous of good to all persons, and on all occasions; Πειθὼ δὲ καὶ Χάριτες, καὶ Ὧραι, καὶ Νύμφαι πρὸς πάντα καὶ πᾶσιν εἰσὶν ἀγαθαί.

Χάρισιν. The Graces of Heathen mythology were ladies of great influence: simplicity of manners, gracefulness of deportment, gaiety of disposition, liberality, eloquence, and wisdom, were all derived from them:

[Sidenote: Pindar. Olymp. L. +xiv.+ 6.]

σὺν γὰρ ὑμῖν τὰ τερπνὰ καὶ τὰ γλυκέα γίνεται πάντα βροτοῖς εἰ σοφὸς, εἰ καλὸς, εἴ τις ἀγλαὸς ἀνήρ.

[Sidenote: Hesiodi D. G. vs. 64.]

In the Theogony they “keep their court with the God of Love,” and revel in banquets; and in Horace’s supplicatory Ode to Venus, they are associated with the “Regina Cnidi Paphique,” Cupid, the Nymphs, Hebe, and Mercury:

[Sidenote: Carm. L. +i.+ Od. 31. vs. 5.]

Fervidus tecum puer, et solutis Gratiæ zonis, properentque Nymphæ, Et parùm comis sine te Juventas, Mercuriusque.

[Sidenote: De Venat. c. +vi.+]

[Sidenote: Ἱερακοσόφιον. p. 21.]

Τοὺς ἐπὶ θήρᾳ ἐσπουδακότας οὐ χρὴ ἀμελεῖν τῆς Ἀρτέμιδος τῆς Ἀγροτέρας. Xenophon was equally strict in his religious observances towards the rural deities, bidding the sportsman, before he slip a single hound, to vow a participation of the game to Apollo and Diana Agrotera. See Pitisci Lexicon Antiquit. Roman. and Apul. Met. +vi.+ p. 175. The falconer of Demetrius, in later days, offered his morning adoration to the God of heaven before sun-rise, and then flew his hawk at the quarry: τὸν θεὸν ἐπικαλεσάμενος τῇ θήρᾳ εὐμενῶς συλλήψοιτο, κ. τ. λ.

Following his Classic prototypes, Adrian de Castello makes the cardinal hunter supplicate the Sylvan goddess:

[Sidenote: Adriani Venatio apud poetas tres Aldi.]

Volans Ascanius levi veredo Precatus Triviæ perenne numen, Invadit jaculo, diuque librans Jecit eminùs, &c.

as a necessary preliminary to the slaughter of a stag, bayed by the hounds.

[Sidenote: Xenophon. De Venat. c. +i.+]

[Sidenote: See the Museo Chiaramonti of Visconti and Guattani. T. +xviii.+]

Ἀπόλλωνος. Apollo shared with Diana the institution of hunting: Ἀπόλλωνος καὶ Ἀρτεμίδος ἄγραι καὶ κύνες. Whence, with his twin-sister, he is seen on antique relievos with dogs and other emblems of the chase. In his character of Venator, Apollo is described by Maximus Tyrius as a youth armed with a bow, his naked side appearing beneath a chlamys, and his feet raised in the act of running:

[Sidenote: Virgil. Æneid. L. +iv.+ 143.]

Qualis ubi hibernam Lyciam Xanthique fluenta Deserit, ac Delum maternam invisit Apollo, Instauratque choros, mixtique altaria circum Cretesque Dryopesque fremunt pictique Agathyrsi; Ipse jugis Cynthi graditur, mollique fluentem Fronde premit crinem fingens, atque implicat auro; Tela sonant humeris.

[Sidenote: Statii Achil. L. +i.+ 167.]

[Sidenote: Lucian. Deor. Dial. Juno et Latona.]

[Sidenote: Tibull. L. +iii.+ El. +iv.+ 34.]

The reader is of course familiar with the Apollo of the Belvedere—the Venator of Statuaries—“Venator Apollo:” but perhaps not so well acquainted with the Wilton effigy of him, exhibiting in a small compass all the symbols which characterise his presidency over poetry, music, divination, or more probably medicine, and the chase—(προσποιεῖται μὲν πάντα εἰδέναι, καὶ τοξεύειν, καὶ κιθαρίζειν, καὶ ἰατρὸς εἶναι, καὶ μαντεύεσθαι)—in three of which attributes he is cited by our author in the present Chapter. The attitude of the god is easy and graceful; he appears to lean against one of the horns of his lyre, placed on a tripod, around which a serpent twines. Over his right shoulder is seen his quiver, and his head is decorated with a laurel crown—“castâ redimitus tempora lauro:” the chlamys of the Venator is thrown off, exposing the belt beneath, and the former with its gem is placed on some fit receptacle beside the right leg.

[Sidenote: De Augment. Scient. L. +ii.+]

[Sidenote: Virg. Eclog. L. +ii.+ 33.]

Πανός. “Officium Panis nullâ alia re,” says Lord Bacon, “tam ad vivum proponi atque explicari potuerit, quàm quòd Deus Venatorum est,” &c. He was the god of the shepherds as well as hunters, the leader of the Nymphs as Apollo was of the Muses, the patron of rural life, and president of the mountains. Happy the man, exclaims the poet of the Georgics in his eulogy of country life, who numbers the rustic deities, and Pan amongst the rest, in the catalogue of his acquaintance:

[Sidenote: Virg. Georg. L. +ii.+ 494.]

deos qui novit agrestes, Panaque, Sylvanumque senem, Nymphasque sorores!

The most graphic description of the goatish god I have any where seen is in the 13th book of Silius Italicus:

pendenti similis Pan semper, et uno Vix ulla inscribens terræ vestigia cornu, &c. &c.

[Sidenote: Deorum Concilium.]

But as this has been cited at length by Spence in his Polymetis, a book of easy reference, I decline introducing it here—wishing, as much as possible, to present my readers with passages omitted by this celebrated scholar. Let Lucian’s more brief delineation be substituted: ὁ μὲν κέρατα ἔχων, καὶ ὅσον ἐξ ἡμισείας ἐς τὸ κάτω αἰγὶ ἐοικὼς, καὶ γένειον βαθὺ καθειμένος, ὀλίγον τράγου διαφέρων ἐστίν.

Νυμφῶν. Beger’s list of these ladies does not much exceed one hundred in number, although it is said that Diana had above a thousand in her retinue. We may suppose those principally interested in Cynegetical pursuits to have been the Oreades, nymphs of the mountains; the νύμφαι Ὀρεστιάδες of Homer (Iliad. +vi.+ 421.) the Ὀρείπλαγκτοι of Aristophanes (Thesmophoriazusæ); the Napææ, nymphs of the meadows, (of whom Virgil, “faciles venerare Napæas,”) and the Dryades and Hamadryades, nymphs of the woods, the φιλορνίθων Δρυάδων χορὸς of Oppian (Cyneg. +i.+ vs. 78.) see claudian. de laudib. stilic. l. +iii.+ for a description of the “acies formosa Dianæ,” and the Epicedium of Hercules Stroza; in which latter the names of many of these inferior Sylvan deities, “turbæ nemoralis,” are registered in chaste hexameters, addressed to the Duchess of Ferrara. Sometimes the Naiads also accompanied the land-nymphs in their hunting pranks:

[Sidenote: Valer. Flacci Argon. L. +iii.+ 530.]

pulchro venantes agmine Nymphas, Undarum, nemorumque decus, &c.

[Sidenote: Tempest, Act +v.+ sc. +i.+]

Elves of hills, brooks, standing lakes, and groves.

[Sidenote: De bello Gallico L. +v.+ c. 17.]

[Sidenote: Lexicon Antiq. V. +ii.+ 186.]

Ἑρμοῦ Ἐνοδίου καὶ Ἡγεμονίου. “Deum maximè Mercurium colunt,” says Cæsar of the Gauls or Celts: “hujus sunt plurima simulacra; hunc omnium inventorem artium ferunt; hunc viarum atque itinerum ducem; hunc ad quæstus pecuniæ mercaturasque habere vim maximam arbitrantur.” Being the god of every species of gain, and the dog being sacred to him, we have additional reasons for the injunction of the text. He was called Ἐνόδιος or “vialis” according to Pitiscus, “qui viarum præses, in biviis, et compitis ponebatur ad semitas monstrandas:” in which capacity his statues are, what are commonly called Terminal,—that seemingly imperfect, ugly, awkward-looking shape, to which a worthless Roman nobleman, Rubellius Plancus, is assimilated by the satirist of Aquinum;

[Sidenote: Juvenal. Sat. +viii.+ 52.]

at tu Nil nisi Cecropides, truncoque simillimus Hermæ. Nullo quippe alio vincis discrimine, quàm quòd Illi marmoreum caput est, tua vivit imago.

A Greek medal is extant of Arrian’s native city, of the reign of Antoninus Pius, bearing the impress of the god Terminus. See Nummophylacium Reginæ Christinæ, Tab. +lvii.+

The old herdsman of Theocritus, with the title εἰνόδιος, affords the reason of its use:

[Sidenote: Idyll. +xxv.+ 3.]

ἔκ τοι ξεῖνε πρόφρων μυθήσομαι ὅσσ’ ἐρεείνεις, Ἑρμέω ἁζόμενος δεινὴν ὄπιν εἰνοδίοιο. τὸν γὰρ φασὶ μέγιστον ἐπουρανίων κεχολῶσθαι, εἴ κεν ὁδοῦ ζαχρεῖον ἀνῄνηταί τις ὁδίτην.

See Eustathius ad Homeri Odyss. +xvi.+ and Ouzelius ad M. Minuc. Felic. Octavium, p. 109.

In his character of guide or conductor, (Ἡγεμόνιος,) amongst many others, the wily god volunteers his services to Cario, in the Plutus of Aristophanes:

[Sidenote: Act. +v.+ sc. +i.+]

ΕΡ. ἀλλ’ ἡγεμόνιον. ΚΑ. ἀλλ’ ὁ θεὸς ἤδη βλέπει. ὥσθ’ ἡγεμόνος οὐδὲν δεησόμεσθ’ ἔτι.

Though the messenger of the gods, and supremely Διὸς ἄγγελος, he seems to have been a willing itinerant on earth (ὁδοιπόρος) in the cause of humanity. See Iliad +xxiv.+

Guard of our life, and partner of our way!

Ὅσοι ἄλλοι ὄρειοι θεοί. Almost every mountain had its tutelar deity; but Arrian probably here means the rural deities hitherto unnamed, as Sylvanus, Silenus, Priapus, Aristæus, the Fauns, Satyrs, Pales, Flora, Feronia, and a host of others. On a due observance of the rites of these gods and goddesses, and demi-deities of “hill and dale, forest and mead,” (to whom might be traced, perhaps, the fairy system of more modern days,) and more particularly on an observance of those of Diana Agrotera, was an abundant supply of game, and avoidance of the ordinary casualties of the chase, entirely dependent: