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N° LX.

Verfe 1236. Λεύσιμοι δε καταφθοραί.

1280. Caft headlong from the rock muft die.

THE Chorus here alludes in the original, and again in (V. 1240.) to the punishment of Lapidation, and not Precipitation: But the English Translator has taken the liberty to depart from the precife letter of the Greek: The former, as well as the latter, is recorded as an ancient mode of penal execution. When Hector upbraids Paris in the Iliad with the miseries of his country, he is understood by fome Commentators, as referring to this death under the expreffion

of,

Λαΐνον ἔσσο χίτωνα. (Il. iii. v. 57.)

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This literally implies, that he would have been clad in a coat of Stones', or stoned to death: The Chorus in the Agamemnon of Æfchylus declares to Egyfthus, "that the avenging People will inflict on him the curfe of Lapidation:" And Eteocles in the Seven against Thebes 3 menaces his fubjects in case of disobedience with a fimilar execution: Thus in the Antigone of Sophocles, Creon denounces this punishment against any one, who should dare to bury the body of Polynices: Thus Electra in the Oreftes of our Poet

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* Others interpret the paffage, as fignifying a ftone coffin, or a grave 2 V. 1625.

under a monument of ftones.

3 V. 205.

4 (V. 36.) See the Note of Burton in his Пevlaxoyía, p. 168. 5 V. 50. 442. 535. 563. 613. 624. 861. 912. 944.

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declares, that she may be fentenced to die by this mode of Lapidation, and both fhe and her brother narrowly escape this fentence: Alfo in the Heraclidæ Copreus informs Iolaus, that he must return to Argos, " that the Asoos " Sinn, or λεύσιμος δίκη, death by lapidation, may be inflicted on him :" But this was the actual fate of the Royal Hecuba in Thrace, if we may believe Lycophron: And Demofthenes in his Oration against Ctesiphon mentions, "that the Athenians not only deftroyed Cyrfilus with ftones; but that alfo their Wives executed the fame vengeance on his Wife." This historical fact is likewife, related by Cicero with the omiffion of the laft circumftance in regard to the Wife; and he obferves, "that the cause of it was, because he advised the Athenians to remain in their City, contrary to their refolution of aban doning it, and perfuaded them to receive Xerxes within the walls." We alfo learn from Plutarch 10 in the life of Solon, "that fome Criminals, allured by Megacles from the altar, were ftoned to death." The Hiftory of the Old and New 12 Teftament abundantly demonftrates, that this was a very ancient Oriental punishment.

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Ed. Taylor, vol. 1. p. 549. 10 Ed. Bryan. vol. 1. p. 184.,

Sam. b. 1. c. 30. v. 6.

9 De Off. 1. 3. c. 1I. 11 Exod. c. 17. v. 4. 12 St. Matthew, c. 23. v. 37. 32, 33. C. 24. v. 14. The Acts,

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St. John. c. 8. v. 7. & 59. c. 10. v. 31, c. 7. v. 59.

N° LXI.

Verfe 1256. Ἱκέτιν 8 θέμις φονεύειν.

1300. To kill a suppliant there the Law forbids.

HENCE we may collect the privilege of the Ancient Afylum: Creufa afterwards, fheltering herself under this law, declares to Ion,

My perfon hallow'd to the God I bear. (V. 1333.)

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Thus in the Eumenides of Æfchylus Oreftes is at first reprefented under the protection of Apollo at the altar of Delphi; and again in the fame play at the fhrine of Minerva at Athens: And thus in the Heraclide of our Poet, where Iolaus and the Children of Hercules take refuge at the altar, when Copreus attempts to force them from it, the Chorus declares, that it is a duty to reverence the Suppliants of the Gods: Paufanias 3 informs us, that the Oracle of Dodona commanded the Athenians to fpare the Lacedæmonians, who fled to the Areopagus: And by the exprefs Law of Athens * Suppliants were fafe:" Statius has given a beautiful defcription of the altar of Mercy in that City. (Theb. 1. 12.v. 48.)

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I V. 61. & 124.

2 V. 101.

3 L. I. c. 25.

Pet. Leg. Att. Tit. 1. c. 9. See alfo Strabo, l. 14. p. 950. Potter, Archæol. b. 2. c. 2. p. 109.

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N° LXII.

Verfe 1261. "Ω ταυρόμορφον ὄμμα Κεφίσε.

1307. Bull-vifag'd Sire Cephifus.

ACCORDING to Apollodorus, Erechtheus, Father of Creufa, married Praxithea, whofe Mother Diogenia was Daughter of Cephifus; and confequently this River God of Attica is here invoked with propriety by Ion, as Ancestor of the Queen of Athens: He is here addreffed, " as having the form of a Bull;" This idea is a favourite allufion with the Greek and Roman Poets: Euripides in his Oreftes calls the Ocean Taupingavos", "as having the head of a Bull," and the epithet of Taupeos is applied by Hefiod to Neptune: Thus in the Iphigenia in Aulis the River Alpheus is reprefented under the paraugone, or the figure of a Bull; and σημα *ταυρόπεν, Virgil gilds the horns of Eridanus:

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Gemina auratus taurino cornua vultu.

He alfo addreffes the Tiber, as

(Georg. 4. v. 371.)

Corniger Hefperidum fluvius regnator aquarum.

(Zn. 8. v. 77.)

The tauriformis Aufidus of Horace' is a literal tranflation of the compound epithet here ufed of Taugógov. When

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Ovid paints the engagement of the River Achelous with Hercules, he obferves,

Sic quoque devicto reftabat tertia tauri

Forma trucis; tauro mutatus membra rebello.

(Met. 1. 9. v. 81.)

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According to this idea, Sophocles in his Trachiniæ informs us, "that one of the three fhapes of Achelous was that of a manifeft Bull, vagyis Taupos, another that of a Dragon, and another that of a Man with the head of an Ox, Capavos." The caufe, affigned by Strabo for this fabulous Κέκρανος. resemblance of Achelous and all other Rivers to the figure of a Bull, arifes "from their fonorous noifes, and from those windings of their ftreams, which they call horns." Thus, according to Euftathius, the reafon, "why Ulyffes in the Odyffey is enjoined to facrifice a Bull to Neptune, is because that Animal reprefents the roaring of the fea in storms:" When Homer defcribes the River Scamander, he afferts, that he roars like a Bull,"

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Μεμυκὼς ἤὔτε ταῦρος, (II. 21. v. 237.)

Here his Commentator Euftathius has enumerated the other causes of this metaphorical comparison, as follows, “Because they used to facrifice Bulls to the Sea and Rivers; because Rivers divide or tear up the earth in the fame manner as Oxen do by the Plough; or because these Animals depasture near Rivers." The two laft-mentioned caufes are cited by the refpective Scholiafts on the Trachiniæ of Sophocles, and

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V. 11. & 13. L. 10. p. 703. ed. Cafaubon. Odyff. 1. 11. v. 130. 9 V. 13.

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