ВА BACCHE. PRELIMINARY ESSAY. THES HE introduction of the worship of Bacchus from Asia Europe, and those extraordinary ceremonies which attended this Pagan Deity, conftitute the immediate fubject of the Baccha: The Play therefore exhibits not only an elevated compofition of Ancient Poetry, but also a venerable picture of Heathen Theology: The gross abfurdities and monftrous chimæras of this extravagant system of fuperftition should be difcuffed with that liberal spirit of philanthropy, which human nature demands. It is not my defign in this Effay to investigate the different Gods, whom the Mythologists recorded under the title of Dionufus', but to illuftrate the Bacchus of Euripides, and thofe circumftances in the Play connected with this Græcian Divinity. "that The history of the different heroes of the name of Dionufus is recorded by Diodorus Siculus. (L. 3. from c. 62 to 73.) and Cicero afferts, there were many of the name of Dionufus." (De Nat. Deor. 1. 3. c. 23.) The learned Author of the Analysis of Antient Mythology has written a differtation upon Dionufus. (vol. 2. p. 75.) And he fuppofes, "that Dionufus was the chief God of the Gentile world, and worshipped under various titles, which at length came to be looked upon as different Deities." (Vol. 2. p. 26. See also vol. 1. p. 273 & 310.) The The arrangement of my obfervations will fall under the respective articles of Parentage, Perfon, Character, Orgies, Votaries, Dress 2. According to the Pagan creed, the Theban Bacchus was the Son of Jupiter and Semele Daughter of Cadmus: Her connexion with her immortal lover difgufted the jealoufy of the imperial Juno; and therefore under the disguise of Beroe3 The imposed on her female vanity by exciting doubts on the reality of Jupiter: The prevailing argument, which the Goddefs artfully uses for that purpose, as related in Ovid, afferts, "that many Mortals under the name of Gods had before fe duced the chastity of innocent Virgins." Optem Jupiter ut fit, ait; metuo tamen omnia: multi MET. 1. 3. v. 282. The credulous Semele, beguiled by this artifice, folicited the most undoubted proofs of the divinity of her celestial Vifitant; and obliged him to fwear that he would approach her with those unquestionable attributes difplayed towards the Queen of heaven: As he could not retract his unguarded oath to grant her the object of her requeft, he was forced to 2 Formæ enim nobis Deorum & ætates & veftitus ornatufque noti funt, genera prætereà, conjugia, cognationes, omniaque traducta ad fimilitudinem imbecillitatis humanæ. (Cicero de Nat. Deor. 1. 2. c, 28.) The materials relating to the ftory of Semele and the birth of Bacchus are collected from Diodorus Siculus. (1. 3. c. 64. 1. 4. c. 2. 1. 5. c. 52.) Ovid Met. 1. 3. Fab. 3. Apollodorus Bibliot. 1. 3. p. 138. Ed. 1699. Hygin. Fab. 131. 3 Ipfaque fit Berce, Semeles Epidauria nutrix. Ovid. Met. 1. 3. v. 278. Thus Diodorus Siculus afferts, that the perfonated one of the female domesticks of Semele. (1. 3. c. 64.) 4 Quantufque & qualis ab altâ Junone excipitur. (Met. 1. 3. v. 285.) vifit her, arrayed in those emblems of his fupreme Divinity, Thunder and Lightning: The affectionate God divefted himfelf, as far as was in his power, by employing his mildest lightning, and his thunder of the second rate according to the obfervation of the galant Ovid: Eft aliud levius fulmen, cui dextra Cyclopum The confequence however proved fatal, and the alarmed Semele expired in the fiery embrace': But fhe was delivered before her death by an immature birth of the infant Bacchus": Him, as the pangs of childbirth came, Whilst all around her flash'd the lightning's flame, Untimely did her mother bear 7. (Potter, v. 101.) Hence, according to the extravagant romance of the fable, But fav'ring Jove, with all a Father's care, And $ Befides the authorities already cited, fee the Hippolytus of our Poet, (v. 561.) and Pindar, Olym. Od. 2. (v. 46.) Hence, according to Diodorus Siculus, Bacchus derived his title of Bromius from the noife at his birth; and also that of Pyrigenes or Fireborn : Βρόμιον δὲ ἀπὸ τὰ κατὰ τὴν γένεσιν αυτό γενομένη βρόμης ὁμοίως δὴ καὶ πυριγενῆ διὰ τὴν ὁμοίαν αἰτίαν ὀνομάσαι. (L. 4. c. 5.) The former title is extremely common among the Græcian and Roman Poets; and the latter occurs in Strabo. (L. 13. p. 932. ed. 1707.) and in the Anthologia. (1. 1. c. 59. ep. 5. v. 6.) It is alfo tranflated by Ovid in this line applied to Bacchus ; Ignigenamque, fatumque iterum, folumque bimatrem. 1. V.3. 244. 598. (Met. 1. 4. v. 12.) And hid from Juno's jealous eye, Clos'd the young Bacchus in his thigh*. (V. 106.) Euripides himself ferves, as an interpreter, to folve the ænigma of this fantastick ftory: This, according to him, arofe from the circumftance of the infant being enveloped in a part of the atmosphere, where he was preserved, as an hostage in fecurity from the refentment of Juno: But in time (V. 314.) The English Reader, to understand this ambiguity, must be informed, that the Greek word ounpos united implies an hoftage; but divided into two, by detaching the preceding 8.V.96. 286. & 295. Hence the epithet gapira applied to him in the hymn mentioned by Diodorus Siculus, (1. 3. c. 65.) and garn, in the Greek epigram of the Anthologia, (1. 1. c. 38. ep. 11. v. 2. & 10.) and in Dionyfius Periegetes. (v. 576.) Hence alfo that of yenda in Theocritus, (Idyl. 26. v. 34.) and ungorgaphs in Strabo, (l. 15. p. 1008. ed. 1707.) Befides the equivocal reafon, contained in this line, and explained in the Effay, the Pere Brumoy fuppofes also another, arising from the word μégos in a preceding line, Ρήξας μέρος τι το χθόν ̓ ἐγκυκλωμένε Il roule fur les termes de partie d'air, d'otage, & de cuiffe, qui ont quelque rapport en Grec. (Theat. Grec. tom. 5. p. 10.) But I conceive, that there is no foundation for this refinement, and that Euripides did not intend to allude to any equivocation arifing from: the word igos or part, but only from npos or hoftage: The former is only inferted by accident, but the express inference is drawn from the latter by the Poet himself. 2 article, |