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as guardians of his body': Hence it became a custom to place golden ferpents in the cradles of his defcendents', which they used to wear alfo as necklaces; and we may fairly collect, that for this reafon the ftatue of Minerva, in the temple of Erechtheus at Athens was attended by these oinagoi psis, or tutelary ferpents, mentioned by Apollodorus 10: For Paufanias afferts, that at the bottom of a fpear, in the hand of a ftatue of Minerva, there was a ferpent, which fignified Erichthonius: There are three figures of the Minerve Poliade, or the Guardian of the City, with the ferpent marching before her, engraved in Montfaucon 12, which I conceive to allude to the fame fymbol of her protection. As no mention is made of Pandion, the fifth king of Athens, in this play, we fhall pass to the fixth king, Erechtheus, grandfon of Erichthonius, and father of Creufa. This monarch was diftinguished for the patriotick facrifice of his virgin daughters, who were royal victims for their country 13: This exalted act of antient heroifm was eminently extolled both by the Greeks and Romans: Euripides compofed a play on the fubject, entitled Erechtheus, of which feveral lines are ftill preserved; and for furnishing fo excellent an example of animating virtue to the minds of his countrymen, he is applauded by the orator Lycurgus 14, who thus relates the

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ftory: "When 's Eumolpus with a formidable Thracian army 66 was advancing to the walls of Athens, Erechtheus, confulting the oracle of Delphi on the means of victory, re"ceived for anfwer, that, if he facrificed a daughter before "the engagement of the armies, he would be fuperior to the enemy: he complied, and conquered 16." But after this event, Neptune, being enraged for the lofs of his fon Eumolpus, fmote Erechtheus with his trident "; and he died, fwallowed by an earthquake, according to Apollodorus' and Euripides 19: But Hyginus afferts, that he was ftruck at the interceffion of Neptune with lightning by Jupiter; and that the facrifice of his daughter was subsequent to the victory over Eumolpus, as an atonement to the God. After his death he was held in the higheft veneration by the grateful Athenians; divine honours were paid to him, and a temple erected to his memory, which Cicero 2 mentions to have.

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15 This war of Eumolpus is mentioned by our poet, in his Phoeniffe (V. 861.) and the Scholiaft there affigns for the reafon of it the revenge of Neptune, who being vanquished in his conteft for Attica by Minerva by means of the olive tree, excited his own fon against the Athenians.

16 Paufanias mentions two large ftatues of brafs at Athens, reprefenting men engaged in a fighting posture, one called Erechtheus, and the other Eumolpus; but he adds, that none of the Athenians, acquainted with antiquity, were ignorant that it was Imaradus, fon of Eumolpus, who was killed by Erechtheus. (Att. 1. I. c. 27. See alfo 1. I. c. 5 & 29.) 17 V. 280. 18 L. III. c. 14. fect. 3. 19 V. 283.

20 Fab. 46. 21 Sed fi funt hi Dii, eft certe Erechtheus, cujus Athenis et delubrum vidimus et facerdotem. (De Nat. Deor. 1. III. c. 19. To this Minerva in the Odyfley retires,

Δῦνε δ' Εριχθῆος πυκινόν δόμον. (L. VII, v. 81.)
And to Erechtheus' facred dome retreats.

(Pope, B. VII. v.106.)

This temple Herodotus informs us (1. VIII. c. 55.) was in the Acropolis of Athens: Aud Sir George Wheler relates, that among the bellings and ruins on the north fide of the temple of Minerva he came to the temple of Erechtheus: It is known to be that by two marks out of Paulanias. (Trave into Greece. B. V. p. 364.)

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feen at Athens; and he obferves, that both he and his daughters were included in the number of the divinities 22. These were peculiarly honoured and immortalized under the emphatick appellation of " Пagféva 3 the Virgins." Creufa owed her prefervation to her infancy; for he was then a child in her mother's arms 24; and, according to our poet, was the fole heirefs and the only furviving progeny of this ancient and adored family. When the perceived the natural confequences of her connexion with Apollo, apprehenfive of the ignominy of a difcovery 25, fhe expofed her illegitimate infant in the fame cave of Macrai, where fhe was compreffed and delivered 2: This was a place confecrated to Pan 27, and often used by the Athenian Damfels for the fame purpofe 2, as we may collect from the expreffion of the chorus. The horrid cuftom of abandoning infants, which recoils with fo much vehemence against human nature, and overthrows that fine fentiment of the sogy, or parental affection, was practifed to their everlasting infamy by the Græcian 29 States, the Thebans alone excepted. This babe of Creufa, who is the Ion of the play, was left in a little cafket 30, and enveloped in a robe of his mother's curious embroidery "; in the centre of which was inter

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22 Ob eam enim ipfam caufam Erechtheus Athenis filiæque ejus in numero Deorum funt. (De Nat. Deor. 1. III. c. 19.) 25 V. 88 & 1498. 28 V. 502.

23 V. 278.

24 V. 280.
27 V. 492 & 938.

26 V. 949: 29 Plutarch, in his life of Lycurgus, informs us, that among the Spartans the father had not a difcretionary power to educate his infant; but was obliged to carry it to the place of affembly, where the most antient of his tribe examined the child; and if he were strong and well-built they ordered him to be educated, and affigned him a portion : if weak and ill-fhaped, they plunged him into a repofitory near mount Taygetus. (Ed. Bryan, Vol. I. p. 106.) 30 V. 19. 26. 1398. 1412. 31 V. 1417. 1425. 1491.

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woven a gorgon 32, and it was clafped, like an ægis, with ferpents". She alfo adorned it with all the trinkets which fhe was then enabled to bestow 34; and befides the golden. ferpents, in conformity with the established cuftom of her family, a chaplet of the confecrated olive of Minerva was annexed to the infant 3. Thefe little pledges of affection enabled the parents to difcover their own offspring, if by chance it were refcued from death, and preferved by the humanity of a ftranger: But policy alfo annexed fupertition in this respect to the generous inftinct of nature; for when Creusa bestowed these ornaments on her babe, fhe did it, as he was near death 37 in her apprehenfion. Thus Softrata in Terence ordered her ring to be expofed with her daughter,

Si moreretur, ne expers partis effet de noftris bonis.

(HEAUT. A. 4. S. 1.)

"That in cafe of her death, the might have part of their

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poffeffions." After this event, Creufa concluded, that the infant perished 38, destroyed by fome beaft or bird of prey but Apollo, his father, preferved him; and defired Mercury to transport him with all his appendages from the cave of Macrai near Athens to the vestibule of his temple at Delphi. Here the young Ion was foon discovered by the prophetess 39, and educated by her, under the immediate pro tection of his tutelary fire. When advanced to manhood 4o, he was appointed treasurer of the temple ; but his more

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immediate employment in the play, as he himself tells us, is to guard the fhrine externally 42; and his bufinefs confifts in adorning with the facred laurel the avenues, in fprink ling them with holy water 44, and in fweeping the confecrated, pavement 45. That this laft was an honourable office appears from Plato ", who in his fixth book of laws mentions the Newnogos, or fweeper of the temple, immediately after the priests and priesteffes. Befides it was adapted to the tender years of Ion, and artfully contrived by the Poet, who thus introduces him immediately to the Chorus and Creufa, on their firft arrival at Delphi, as he attended the veftibule, and was confequently the first object of converfation, which prefented itself to ftrangers 47. This royal foundling is reprefented in the play as a youth of confummate beauty, in the firft bloffom of manhood 4, and of the moft captivating form; he is elegantly attired 49, and his head is adorned with the laurelled chaplets of the God 50; he is armed, like an archer, with his bow and arrow; with which, in the second scene, where he is firft introduced, he threatens to fhoot the birds, left they should pollute the facred purity of the Delphick fhrine "2. In regard to his moral and dramatick character, it is the most religious, virtuous, amiable, and tender, which poetry ever combined, and which I fhall develop in my final effay, when the reader has received the pleasure arifing from the original contemplation of it: At prefent I must proceed in the poetical narrative. Creufa, having thus escaped

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42 V.
414.
45 V. 121. & 796.

47 V. 111. & 640.
50 V.522.

43 V.

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& 104.
44 V. 134. 146. & 436.
46 Ed. Serran. Vol. II.
48 V. 354 & 780.

51 V. 108. 158. 165. & 524.

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p. 759.

49 V. 326. 52 V. 107 & 177.

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