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Pan mentioned in (V. 492.) This fenfe of the paffage clashes with the epithet Teyovo, and is unfupported by any historical teftimony. On application to that book of Euripides, which belonged to Milton, as mentioned in my preceding note on (V. 54) I discover, that our English Poet has marked the word 'Aygaus in the text, and in the oppofite margin has there inferted in his own hand ypaλo with the letter f. annexed: He would infinuate by this obfervation, that perhaps we ought to substitute this epithet, instead of the printed reading, which alteration would then imply rufticæ puellæ, or the rural Damfels: I believe that this propofed emendation was entirely his own; but Dr. Musgrave mentions, that there is one manufcript authority for the word "ygaunoi, though at the fame time he condemns it: If it were not for the epithet reίyovor, I confefs that I should be inclined to embrace this ingenious conjecture; but that epithet militates against this conftruction, as I fhall fhew in the following explanation of the paffage, where I flatter myself that I have discovered the genuine fenfe of it, hitherto unexplained: The definition of the word rgiyovo by Hefychius' implies thofe, who are in the third generation: Thus Suidas explains Toryovía, as the third generation, and cites a fragment, where the word occurs in that fenfe: I find it also used by Ariftides; where speaking of fome of the Græcians, who inhabited Afia, he obferves, "that fome had been flaves for

Malè MSS S eph. aygaukos. On V. 503. of his edition.

· Τριβὴν γενέαν ἐπίσχονες (νοκ τρίγονος).

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8 Η τρίτη γενία. Διαδεξάμενος ὥσπερ ἄλλο τὶ τῶ παῖρὸς, ἐς τριγονίαν παρέπεμπε τὸ ἔχθος. (νοκ τριγονία.)

9 Οἱ μὲν ἐκ τριγονίας ἐδέλευον, οἱ δὲ ἐκ πλείονος.

I 4

Orat. tom. 1. ed. Jebb. p. 169.

three

II

three generations, and others for more." The Scholiaft * here informs us," that it implies the third generation from the προγόνων or their great Grandfathers." Here then, if we adopt this explanation of the word Tgyova, the whole. difficulty of this paffage in Euripides will vanish for the Defcendents in the third generation from Agraulos, Wife of Cecrops, were Contemporaries with the Athenian Chorus in the play, fince they were precifely in the fame line of defcent as Ion. This will appear to the Reader from the following table, where Agraulos and Erichthonius both represent the Prepofitus, or common Ancestor.

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Hence it appears that the epithet relyover fhould not be here tranflated triplices, as by all the Editors, but pronepotes, or the Damfels in the third generation removed from Agrau. los; and it is a matter of entire indifference, whether they

το ̓Αντὶ τῷ ἐκ τρίτης γενεάς, οἱονεὶ ἀπὸ προγόνων.

* Thus Hefychius defiacs Πρόγονος, πρόπαππος. (vox πρόγονος.)

were

were the lineal defcendents of this Queen, or whether the Athenian Virgins, to whom the Chorus here alludes, were only in the fame correfponding line of the third generation. The confecrated dance here mentioned was either in honour of Pan, or perhaps of Agraulos; for fhe appears to have been held in great veneration at Athens after her death: Herodotus 12 mentions her temple in the citadel, and Paufanias her Tμsvos or facred enclosure in Attica. According

13

to Stephanus Byzantinus there was a duds or district called Agraule, belonging to the Erechthean tribe at Athens, whofe name was derived from Agraulos, Sifter of Cecrops: And Meurfius afferts from Athenagoras, that the Athenians celebrated the mysteries of Agraulos: He alfo mentions 14, that a festival, called II, was inftituted in her honour at Athens, as appears from Hefychius 15. I do not deny, that Tpiyovo is fometimes used to exprefs tres, or triplices, as by our Poet in his Hercules 16 Furens; but the more frequent fenfe is that, which I have here given it, as proved by the authorities cited; and other correfponding inftances from Strabo and Herodian may be feen in the Lexicon of H. Stephens, (Vol. I. p. 842.)

12 L. 8. c. 53.

13 Cecrop. c. 28.

16 V.1023.

14 De Reg. Att. 1. 1. c. 11. & Græcia Fer, 1. 5. p. 228.

15 Ψυχ Πλυντήρια.

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N° XXVII.

N° XXVII.

Verfe 550. Davás ye Baxís.
Φανάς γε

Once at the feast

566. Of Bacchus.

THIS paffage contains internal evidence derived from the words of tke Poet himself, that the mysteries of Bacchus had for fome time been established at Delphi; confequently the chronology of the Bacchæ, which Play contains the first introduction of the rites of this Pagan God into Thebes, where they were first celebrated in Græce, precedes that of the Ion, as I have already mentioned in my Note on (V. 192) of this play, and shall also prove in my Note on (V. 2) of the Baccha. The expreffion of pavás, as Brodæus obferves, here alludes to the corufcation of the torches in the midnight orgies of Bacchus, which are alfo mentioned afterwards in the Ion'; but all remarks on thefe orgies are referred to my comment on the Baccha.

Verfe 551. Προξένων.

N° XXVIII.

562. By fome publick Hoft received.

THE П were publick Officers in the different Cities of Græce, appointed to receive and entertain Strangers, who

+ V. 7!7.

were

2

were then confidered under their immediate protection. The Scholiaft on the Birds' of Ariftophanes correfponds with the above definition. Herodotus informs us, that the Kings of Sparta had the special privilege of appointing fuch Citizens, as they chose, to this honourable office of Ipóğevos: Πρόξενοι There was a political ufe, independent of hospitality, arifing from this particular inftitution, fince thefe Citizens, by virtue of their employment, became the publick Spies of the Police: They are again mentioned afterwards in this play, where the Tutor defires Creufa to enter the roof of these Delphick Officers, prepared for her reception (V. 1039.)

Verfe 592. Νοθαγένης.

N° XXIX.

617. Of fpurious birth.

HERE Ion complains of two misfortunes, incident to his prefent fuppofed circumftances; the first is, that his Father, as he now imagines Xuthus to be, was no native Citizen of Athens, which was a legal disadvantage to the Son, as mentioned in my Preliminary Effay; and the fecond cause of his complaint fprings from the illegitimacy of his birth: We are now to confider this circumftance on the principles of the Athenian Law. It appears from the Birds' of Ariftophanes, that the fog, or fpurious child, had not the leaft pretenfions to his Father's Goods, for lifthetærus there informs Hercules, that he is intitled to nothing, as

I V. 1039. 4 P. 10.

2 L. 6. c. 57-
› V. 1649.

3 Cragius de Rep. Lacedem. 1. 2. c. Io. born

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