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HIS poetical genealogy of Mercury, as the Son of

TH

Jupiter and Maia, Daughter of Atlas, who fupported the Heavens, is too often mentioned in Pagan poetry to require illuftration: But it may not perhaps be improper to obferve, that we may collect from the epithet in Homer of hoopgovos, which implies universal knowledge, and is applied to Atlas, the original caufe of the fable in regard to him; for he was an eminent Philofopher. Diodorus Siculus afferts, that he was an excellent Aftrologer, and the first who discovered the knowledge of the sphere; and that hence arose

Virg. Æn. 8. v. 141. and Ovid Faft. 1. V. v. 86.

2

Odyff. 1. I. v. 52.

? L. III. p. 229. & 1. IV. p. 273. ed. Weff.

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the common opinion, that the whole world reclined on his fhoulders To this idea Cicero correfponds, Nec vero Atlas fuftinere cœlum, nifi coeleftium divina cognitio nomen ad errorem fabulæ traduxiffet. Heraclitus' affigns as the cause of this fabulous fupport of the Heavens by Atlas, because he was the first, who from his application to Aftrology foretold the alteration of feafons and the fetting of ftars. Phurnutus deduces the origin of his name, because he folved all the heavenly phænomena without any difficulty, and declares that the epithet hoofgova was beftowed on him from his attention to the univerfe or ray Av. Thus Iopas, the mufician in Virgil' at the court of Dido, when he plays on his Harp all the leffons of Atlas, embraces the greatest subjects both of Aftronomy and Natural Philofophy. The learned Mr. Bryant in his Analysis of Ancient Mythology has lately fuggefted other ingenious reafons for the foundation of this fable, (vol. I. p. 221 & 387.)

τῶν

N° II.

Verfe 12. Χθονός.

15. Where northward points the rock.

IF the word xovès (fays Dr. Mufgrave) is governed by gooCopies, it is a false affertion that the rocks of Macrai were fituated North of the Athenian Dominions; for they touched

4 Tufc. Quæft, 1. V. c. 3.

5 De Incred, c. 4. ed. Gale, p. 70. 7 En. I. V. 745, &C.

• De Nat. Deor. c. 26. ed. Gale, p. 202.

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the city, which was itself fituated in the fouthern part of the Country. Dr. Mufgrave has not mentioned any authorities in fupport of his geography, and I find the following teftimonies directly against his opinion. Thucydides informs us, that the Acropolis, and that part underneath it, verging to the South, was formerly the whole city. When Athens increased, we learn from Ariftides in his defcription of it, that this citadel no longer remained the extremity, but be came the center, furrounding the whole body of the. edifices, and was confpicuous for ornament and convenience: As the circles of a shield mutually approaching each other, the fifth in the center is the most beautiful, thus Græce, fays he, is fituated in the middle of the whole earth, Attica in the middle of Græce, Athens in the middle of its territory, and its citadel, fynonymous with it, in the middle of the city. Correfponding to this irrefragable testimony is the obfervation of Sir George Wheler *, who mentioning the extent of Attica from the Ifthmus to Oropus, near the mouth of the river Afopus, adds, that Cecrops chofe the rock, which is fituated in a large plain, and near the middle of this country, to build the metropolis of his kingdom. There is no neceffity therefore for any alteration in this paffage, which is confiftent with geography; for the cave of Macrai was on the Northern part of the Citadel of Athens, and that was in the center of Attica; confequently the fituation of the former may be called North of the Territory. A learned Friend has lately fuggefted to me another explication, that Euripides by

1 L. II. c. 15. Meurfius Cecrop. c. 4.

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2 Orat. Panathen. tom. I. p. 99. ed. Jebb. See also 3 Είπες ἡ μὲν Ἑλλὰς ἐν μέσῳ τῆς πάσες γῆς, ἡ δὲ Αττικὴ τῆς Ἑλλάδος τῆς δε χώρας ἡ πόλις, τῆς δ' αὖ πόλεως ἡ ὁμώνυμος, (Id. p.99.) • Travels into Græce, b. v. p. 337.

the

the expreflion of τῶν Αθηναίων χθονός does not mean North of the Territory of Attica, but North of the district belonging to the Inhabitants of the City of Athens,

Verfe 13. Mangai. 17. Macrai.

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N° III.

THIS cave of Macrai in the Acropolis of Athens according to the learned Mr. Bryant' was denominated from Macar, a title of the deity given by the Ammonians, and by the Græcians was interpreted Macrai, as if it related to extent. It is here and again afterwards called the Northern Cave; and Paufanias * exprefsly mentions it in his description of the citadel of Athens, and fays, that as you defcend just under the portico is a temple of Apollo and Pan, and in that is the cave, where they fuppofe Apollo to have embraced Creufa, the Daughter of Erechtheus. Now it appears from Sir George Wheler's 5 travels into Græce, that the Acropolis or caftle of Athens is built upon a long rock, with precipices every way from it, except on the North Weft end; where you mount by a steep afcent to the entrance; and Paufanias 6 alfo fays, there is but one approach fince the reft is entire precipice This fixes the precife fituation of the cave, correfponding to the expreffion of Euripides, for according to Paufanias it is as you descend, and Wheler informs us, that 3 V.937.

:

* Anc. Myth. vol. I. p. 69, 70. 4. L. I. c. 28. p. 68.

2 V. II.

B. V. p. 357.

6 L. I. c. 22. p. 51. the

the only defcent is on the North Weft fide: He alfo tells us, "that ftrait up to the rock of the caftle he went to see a little church, called Panagia Spiliotisfa, or our Lady of the grotto, (of which he has annexed an engraving) and adds, for it is but a grotto hewn out of the rock, on which the Caftle standeth;" after giving an account of the Architecture, and infcription of this he fays, "it is not the Grotto where Apollo courted Creufa, Daughter of Erechtheus, and was afterwards dedicated to Apollo and Pan, as hath been until now generally thought; for my Comrade (Dr. Spon) has well observed out of Euripides and Lucian, that the Grotto of Pan and Apollo was on the North fide of the Castle, and that it was under the wall of it called Pelafgicon: Whereas the church of Panagia is under the Southern wall, called Cimonium?" The paffage in Lucian, to which the Author refers, exprefsly calls it the Cave of Pan under the Acropolis, as in Euripides. Wheler proceeds to obferve," After we turned about the Eaftern end of the Castle, and came to another Grotto made by nature in the rock, without either ornament or art used to beautify it; which is more likely to be the Grotto of Pan and Apollo, according to the forementioned Authors: but agrees not with Paufanias: It is seen from the Conful's house almost in the middle of the town, which lieth North of the Citadel9." As it is a subject of elegant curiofity to trace at this diftance of time the feveral places, to which Euripides alludes in his dramas, the Reader perhaps will not be displeased with the above investigation.

7 P. 368 & 369. vol. II. p. 801. ed. Hemiter.)

8 Τὴν ὑπὸ τὴ ἀκροπόλει σπήλυγγα, (Bis Accus :

9 P. 379.

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