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of public ways, and is fynonymous with the Roman Trivia: Thus, according to this idea, Virgil addreffes the infernal

Hecate,

Nocturnifque Hecate triviis ululata

per urbes.
En. 4. v. 609.

As fhe prefided over poison, which the Tutor was now preparing for Ion, Barnes remarks the propriety of this addrefs of the Female Chorus.

N° XXXVIII.

Verse

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Τὸν πολυύμνον

Θεὸν, εἰ παρὰ καλλιχόροισι παγαῖς

Λαμπάδα θεωρὸν Εἰκάδων

Ὄψαι ἐννύχιος ἄϋπνος ὤν.

Thou, whom the various hymn delights,

When thy bright choir of beauteous dames among,
Dancing the stream's soft brink along,

Thou feeft, the guardian of thy myftick rites,
Thy torch its midnight vigils keep,

Thine eye meantime difdaining fleep.

The Chorus by this addrefs invokes Bacchus according to the idea of Brodæus, Barnes, and Mufgrave: But Heath applies it to Apollo: "becaufe, fays he', Bacchus by no means interfered in this bufinefs:" If the Critick by this expreffion

Per Tow Toλúüμvov et hic defignatur Phoebus; nam Bacchus huic nego tio nequaquam fe immifcuerat. (Notæ in Ionem. p. 140.)

1

afferts,

2

afferts, that Apollo, and not Bacchus, was connected with the Eleufinian myfteries, to which the Chorus here undoubtedly alludes, he is extremely mistaken: for the latter, and not the former God, was concerned in their celebration. This appears from the Eleufinia of Meurfius, who has collected with his learned industry all the hiftorical evidence on this fubject; and I fhall avail myself of his general information to illustrate this Strophe of Euripides. We learn from Hesychius 3, "that not only Dionufus, and one of the days of the myfteries was called Iacchus; but also the song, which the initiated fung on this occafion :" Perhaps therefore our Poet might here allude to this circumftance by the epithet πολύϋμνον, or,

Thou, whom the various hymn delights.

4

The next expreffion in the original mentions the aλχόροισι παγαῖς, or the fountains frequented by beautiful Chorufes: This is imagined by Heath and Mufgrave' to refer to a certain Well, called Callichorus: where the Wo men of Eleufis firft inftituted the dance, and celebrated the Goddefs with hymns according to Paufanias: Our Poet in his Supplices twice 7 alludes to this Well; and Callimachus in his Hymn to Ceres declares, "that fhe feated herself on the ground by this Well of Callichorus:" Thus 'Apollodorus remarks, "that on her first arrival at Eleufis Ceres rested herfelf on the rock of Agelaftus near a Well called Callichorus." But the objection to this interpretation of Heath and Muf

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2 C. 27.

8

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4 Notæ in Ion. p. 140. 6 L. 1. c. 38. p. 93. 8 V. 16. 9 Bibliot. 1. 1. p. 8. ed. Eg. Spolet. 1555

5 See his Note on V. 1094. in his edition. 7 V. 392 & 619.

grave is, that the original expreffion of Euripides alludes to fountains in the plural number, and not to the Well of Cale lichorus in the fingular: I therefore offer to the Reader the following explanation: "In Attica, fays Hefychius 1°, at Eleu fis are two rivulets iffuing from the fiffure of the earth: And one of them, which runs towards the fea, is esteemed to belong to the elder Goddefs; but the other towards the City is confecrated to the younger, where the Bands are purified by bathing." Now these I conceive are here alluded to by the expreffion of fountains. The next circumstance, which occurs in these lines is the Aaμnada or Torch: As thefe myfteries were celebrated by night, this was an effential appendage: One of the titles of Bacchus was that of Nyctelius, or the Nocturnal God, as I fhall mention in my Preliminary Effay on the Baccha: "What will become of Iacchus, and our Eumolpidæ, fays Cicero "2, if we abolish the religious folemnities by night?" There is a fcene in Ariftophanes, where the Chorus of Initiated addrefs Lacchus, and invoke him, as brandishing his burning torch, being the Lucifer of the nocturnal ceremony;

12

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τὸ Ῥειλοὶ, ἐν τῇ Αττική, δύο εἰσὶν οἱ πρὸς τῇ Ἐλευσῖνν ρειτοὶ, ῥωγμοί: καὶ ὁ μὲν πρὸς τῇ θαλάττη τῆς πρεσβυτέρας θεα νομίζεται· ὁ δὲ πρὸς τὸ ἄσυ, τῆς νεωτέρας, ὅθεν τὰς λερὲς ἁγνίζεσθαι τὰς θιάσες. (νοπ ρειτοί.)

i Thefe were fo denominated from Eumolpus, the Founder of the Initiation at Eleufis, as appears from the authorities cited by Meurfius in his Eleufinia. (c. 2. & 13.)

12 Quid ergo agat Iacchus, Eumolpidæque noftri, & augusta illa myfteria, fiquidem facra nocturna tollimus. (De Leg. 1. 2. c. 14.)

16

Here the Scholiaft obferves, that at Eleufis there was a fhrine of the God Dionufus; and we learn from Paufanias ", "that in the temple of Ceres at Athens there were images of the Goddess herself, her Daughter, and of Iacchus with a torch." Thus Pindar 1 calls Dionufus the Affociate of Ceres: And this myftick God in the Pagan Mythology was by fome confidered, as the fon of Ceres, and by others as the Son of Proferpine: Diodorus " Siculus mentions the former, as his Mother; but Hyginus ", Arrian ", Tzetzes 18, and the Scholiaft" of Pindar, refer it to the latter. Hence we difcover the immediate propriety of this invocation of him by the Chorus, who in the sequel of the Strophe 20 mentions both Proferpine and Ceres. It only remains to illuftrate the expreffion of Einadwy: This was the 20th day of the Attick month Boedromion, as we are exprefsly informed by Plu tarch, who adds, "that on this day they carried the God Iacchus in folemn proceffion from the City of Athens to Eleufis:" And the Scholiaft" of Ariftophanes remarks, "that one of the days of the mysteries, on which they invoked lacchus, was called the Eixás." I have now fully demonstrated by unravelling the historical allufions in this paffage of Euri pides, that Bacchus, and not Apollo according to the idea of Heath, must be the Deity addreffed. But, independent of the connexion of the former in the Eleufinian Mysteries,

13 Πλησίον ναὸς ἐςὶ Δήμητρος, ἀγάλματα δε αὐτή τε καὶ ἡ παῖς καὶ δᾄδα ἔχων *Ianλos. L. 1. c. 2. p. 6. 14 Lith. Od. 7. v. 3. 16 Fab. 155. 18 On Lycophron (v. 355.) 20 V. 1086 & 187.

15 L. 3. c. 62. ed. Weffelin. vol. I. p. 231. 17 De Exped. Alex. 1. 2.

19. On Ifth. Od 7. v. 3.

21 Phocion. ed. Bryan, vol. 4. p. 202. This paffage is cited by Brodeus, and inferted in the Editions of Barnes and Mufgrave.

22 On the Rana, (v. 326.) This paffage is cited by Barnes from Meurfius. (Eleuf. c. 27.

there

there is another reason, arifing from the internal evidence of this Choral Ode, why the latter fhould not be here mentioned by the Female Chorus: Because they have already been imploring in the preceding part of it the Infernal Hecate to affift the intended poifon now prepared for Ion, Minister of Apollo; and here by a folemn appeal to the tutelary Deities of the Mysteries at Athens they express their abhor rence in the strongeft terms, that "this Delphick vagrant should mount the throne of their ftate; and confequently participate of thofe facred rites, from which all Foreigners were excluded according to the original institution of Eumolpus 24.

2399

Verfe 1127. Οπληρίων.

No XXXIX.

A grateful offering for his Son

1156. Thus recognized.

THE OTTO was properly a prefent, bestowed on the first fight of an object by a Friend. Thus, when Phoebe in Æfchylus presents Phoebus with a gift at his birth, the Scholiaft there exprefsly fays, that it was for an ongov: In the fame manner Vulcan is defcribed by Callimachus, as inviting Latona to bring her infant Diana,

"OпWS OπTÝρIα doín. (Hym. in Dian. v. 74.)

23 V. 1089.

24 ̓Αλλ ̓ ὁ θεὸς τὰ μυςήρια ἐκέλευε ξένες μὴ μυεισθαι. (Tzetzes ad Lycophron, cited in Meurfius Eleuf. c. 2.) See alfo c. 19. where this learned author has collected the whole evidence on the subject of this exclufion.

On the Eumen. V. 7.

According

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