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"book both of the Iliad and Odyffey; and yet there is not "the leaft foundation for fuch an affertion: nay, Telemachus "himself, in the fecond book, returns thanks to Minerva "for appearing to him, and prays for a fecond vifion. It "is not to be imagined, that Telemachus would have pre"ferred this prayer, if the prefence of the Deity denoted "death, or fome great calamity; and all the heroes through

out the Iliad efteem fuch intercourfes as their glory, and "converfe with the Gods without any apprehenfions." In answer to this objection we may reply, that these Heathen Deities, when they honoured mortals with their vifits, generally divested themselves, as far as they were able, of their divine radiance, and of their formidable attributes: But I conceive there always was a religious awe, accompanied with a reverential fear, naturally attached to the fublime idea of the vifion of a Superior Being: Thus Homer afferts, that the Gods, when they appear manifeft, are dreadful,

Χαλεποὶ δε θεοὶ φαίνεσθαι ἐναργεῖς.

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And Callimachus, in his hymn on the bath of Pallas, exprefsly fays, that "Whoever beholds an immortal God, contrary to the inclination of that Deity, pays a fevere pe nalty for the fatal view:"

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Ὅς με τιν αθανάτων, ὅκα μὴ θεὸς αὐτὸς ἕληαι,

̓Αθρήσῃ, μισθῷ το τον ἰδεῖν μεγάλῳ. (V. 102.)

4 See alfo Anthol. 1. 4. c. 19. ep. 33.

5 See the note of Spanheim on this line, to which Dr. Mufgrave refers us: The learned Commentator there cites this paffage of Euripides, and illuftrates the subject with his ufual erudition.

That

6

That this was the Oriental notion appears from a variety of other paffages, befides thofe already cited by Dacier: "The LORD faid unto Mofes, thou canst not fee my face, "for there fhall no man fee me and live. We shall furely die, fays Manoah unto his wife, because we have seen "God: A man of GoD came unto me, and his countenance

7

was like the Angel of Gon, very terrible. Thus Daniel' "fell upon his face, when he faw the vifion: And Saul 10 "alfo fell to the earth, when fuddenly there fhined round "about him a light from heaven." According to this noble conception of divine effulgence, when the Raphael of Milton defcends to Paradife, Adam exclaims to Eve,

What glorious fhape

Comes this way moving; feems another morn
Ris'n on midnoon. (B. 5. v. 311.)

This bears a great refemblance to the ανθήλιον πρόσωπον, οι the countenance luminous, as the Sun, in Euripides: But our English Poet has foftened the horror of Michael's appear ance to Adam after his fall, for he paints the majefty of this heavenly Vifitant,

Yet not terrible,

But folemn and fublime. (Par. Loft. b. 11. v. 236.)

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N° LXX.

Verfe Κείς θρόνος τυραννικές 1573. Ἴδρυσον.

Let him mount

1626. The royal throne.

I

HERE Minerva exprefsly commands Creufa to carry Ion to Attica, and to place him on the royal throne; and she repeats this injunction in her last speech of this play. The only authorities recorded, which literally correspond with the mandate of this Goddess, are as follows: Conon, as preserved in Photius, afferts, "that, after the death of his maternal Grandfather, Ion, elected on account of his virtue and dignity, reigned over the Athenians, who began to be called Ionians, as well as the whole region Ionia from him." Thus the Scholiaft of Æfchylus obferves, "that the Athenians were denominated Ionians from a certain Ion, who reigned over them:" And the Scholiaft of our Poet on the Phoeniffe* mentions "Ionia, a city of Euboea, as founded by Ion, fon of Xuthus, who reigned twenty feven years:" But according to the received fucceffion of the Kings of Attica from the

I V. 1628.

3

2 Ἴων δε θανόντος τὸ μὴροπάτορος διά τε τὴν ἀρετὴν καὶ τὴν ἄλλην ἀξίωσιν αιρεθεὶς Βασιλεύει Αθηναίων, ἐξ ξ Ιωνες οἱ τε Αθηναῖοι ἤρξαντο καλεῖσθαι, καὶ τὸ ἄλλο πᾶν B boot. p. 438. ed. Hoefch.

3 Αστέον δε ότι Ἰάρνες οι ̓Αθηνῶιοι λέγονται· ἐκ τινὸς Ιάονος βασιλεύσαντος αὐτῶν· Perfæ, v. 176.

4 Ιωνίαν πόλιν Εὐβοίας, ἣν ἔκτισεν Ιων ὁ Ξάθε βασιλεύσας ἔτη κζ. (On v. 210.)

most

most authentick records, as I have already fhewn in a preceding Note, Cecrops the Second fucceeded to the throne of Erechtheus; nor is Ion in the list of their Kings; but he appears to have been invefted with confiderable power and authority According to Herodotus" the Athenians were called Ionians from Ion, fon of Xuthus, the Leader of their armies:" And the Scholiaft' on the Birds of Ariftophanes afferts, "that the Athenians honour Apollo under the title of the Paternal Deity, because Ion Polemarch, or Military Commander of the Athenians, was the Son of Apollo and Creufa, Wife of Xuthus." According to Strabo, "Ion, having conquered the army of Eumolpus, acquired fo great a reputation, that the Athenians committed to him the management of the state:" And thus Vitruvius afferts, "that the Athenians affigned to Ion, fon of Xuthus and Creufa, the chief administration of government: But Paufanias 1° relates," that under the reign of Ion at Ægialus, when the Eleufinians

5 On v. 192. p. 87.

6 Ιωνος δε τῶ Κάθε τρατάρχω γινομένας Αθηναιοῖσι ἐκλήθησαν ἀπὸ τότε Ιωνες, (1. 8. c. 44.)

7 Πατρώον δε τιμῶσιν ̓Απόλλωνα Αθηναῖοι, ἐπεὶ Ἴων, ο Πολέμαρχος ̓Αθηναίων, ἐξ ̓Απόλλωνος καὶ Κρέωσης τῆς Ξάθε ἐγένετο. (On V. 1526.) See allo the Scholiaft on the Clouds, (v. 1470.) where the fame reaíon is affigned for this title of Talpos, or Paternal, applied to Apollo at Athens: and Plato afferts, that it was on account of the birth of Ion, ̓Αλλὰ ̓Απόλλων πατρῷος διὰ τὴν τὸ Ἴωνος YveO. (In Euthyd. vol. 1. ed. Serr. p. 302.)

8 Ιων δὲ τὰς μετ' Ευμόλπα νικήσας Θρᾷκας ὄντως ηὐδοκίμησεν ὡς ̓ ἐπέτρεψαν ἀυλῷ τὴν πολιτείαν ̓Αθηναιοι. (L. 8. ed. Janton, p. 588.)

• Athenienfes fummam Imperii partem Ioni Xuthi & Creufæ filio dederunt. (L. 4. c. 1.)

το Τότε δὲ ἐπὶ τῆςἼωνος βασιλείας πολεμησάνων, Αθηναίοις Ελευσινίων, καὶ ̓Αθη ναίων Ἴωνα ἐπαγομένων ἐπὶ ἡγεμονίᾳ τῇ πολέμε, τὸν μὲν ἐν τῇ ̓Ατλικὴ τὸ χρεὼν ἐπιλαμβάνει, και "Ιωνος ἐν τῷ δήμῳ μνῆμα Πλαμίων είνα (L. 7. c. I. p. 522. ed. Kuhn.)

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waged war with the Athenians, and the Athenians having appointed Ion their General for the conduct of the war, he discharged the debt of nature in Attica; and he adds, that his monument was exftant in the tribe of Potamios." He afterwards "obferves, that when the Ionians, conquered by the Achæans, came into Attica, the Athenians and their Sovereign Melampus, fon of Andropompus, received them into their own state for the fake of Ion, and those exploits which, as military Commander, he had executed for the Athenians, Hence we may fairly conclude, in the words of the learned Meurfius 12, that Ion never obtained the fovereignty, but acquired fo much authority in the ftate, as to feem to reign:" Euripides therefore has here taken the liberty with Minerva, Goddess of Wisdom, to make her utter this dramatick prophecy with a poetical licentioufnefs, furpaffing the actual line of history; and he elevates Ion to the throne of Attica, as he here represents in the play Xuthus and Creufa actually reigning at Athens.

τι Ιωνας δὲ ἀφικομένως ἐς τὴν ̓Αττικήν, Αθηναῖοι καὶ ὁ Βασιλεὺς ἀυτῶν Μέλανθος *Ανδροπόμπο συνοίκες ἐδέξαντο, Ιωνος τε δὴ ἕνεκα καὶ ἔργων ἃ ἔπραξε πολεμαρχῶν ̓Αθη paísic. (L. 7. c. I. p. 523. ed. Kuhn.)

12 Verùm regnum minimè tenuit; fed auctoritatem tantam in republicâ est adeptus, ut regnare videretur. (De Reg. Athen. 1. 2. c. 10 )

N° LXXI.

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