Huc vittata comam, niveoque infignis amicu, Sylv. 1. 3. ep. 3. v. 5. The general epithet of xúc, or golden, is also applied with fingular propriety to this tranfcendent Goddess, as the Roman Poet calls her reign on earth a golden one: And he represents her in his Thebaid, as flying from the field of battle to heaven at the fight of Tifiphone, in order to make her complaint before Jupiter : Dejectam in lumina pallam Diva trahit, magnoque fugit queftura Tonanti. L. II. v. 496. This we may candidly admit, as an authority in point, in fupport of the wings of this Goddefs. No XIV. Oh! that at Paphos I were laid, Careless beneath fome fragrant fhade, Where from an hundred mouths through meads, Which spring's eternal verdure know, His rich train the Barbarick River leads, Might I my footsteps bend, In whose enchanting foft retreats The Mufes love to form their feats, 442. Then to Olympus' hallow'd heights afcend! The Chorus, having wafted their fublime imagination to Cyprus, is now tranfported to the favourite Paphos of Venus in that enchanting Iland: Hence the Goddefs derived her title of Paphia, which the Western diftrict of Cyprus ftill retains to this day '. Sandys's Travels, p. 218. Dapper Defcription des Iles de L'Archipel. p. 28. Thevenot's Travels to the Levant. Ed. Hariis, vol. 2. p. 831. 3 2 6 The attachment of Venus to this confecrated Ifland is often celebrated by the Pagan Poets: Hefiod represents it as the place of her birth, and hence her title of Kuπgoyens in Pindar 3; but Homer, Tacitus, and Pomponius Mela affert, that she alighted here, when fhe emerged from the Ocean: Our Poet has juft emphatically called Cyprus "the Ifland of Aphrodite ";" and Dionyfius Periegetes terms "the lovely city of this Deity" Her facred area and effenced altar at Paphos is recorded in the Odyffey, and in the Eneid 10 and Thebaid " fhe is there honoured with a temple and an hundred altars, which Virgil paints, as glowing with Sabæan frankincenfe, and exhaling ever-verdant chaplet We are not to confider thefe beautiful expreffions entirely as the romance of Poetry, fince Hiftorians and Geographers unite in attefting the particular adoration of this amiable Goddess at Paphos: Thus Strabo ", Paufanias 13, and Pliny 14, fpeak of the fhrine of Venus in that City; and Tacitus not only informs us in his Annals, "that it was the most ancient in the Ifland of Cyprus 15;" but he afferts in his Hiftory," that Titus, fon of Vefpafian, was feized with the inclination of vifiting the temple of the Paphian Venus, fo highly diftinguifhed both by Natives and Foreigners 16" We next proceed to confider the allufion of our Poet to the 2 Theog. v. 199. 3 Olym. Od. 10. V. 125. • Ed. Clarke Odyff, &c. vol. 2. p. 740. 6 L. 2. c. 9. 1 V. 401. 8 V. 508. 9 L. 8. v. 363. See alfo the Hymn of Homer. Ed. Clarke Odyff. &c. vol. 2. p. 730. 10 En. 1. V. 421. 13 L. 8. c. 5. p. 607. 15 Annal. 1. 3. c. 62. II L 5. v.61. 12 L. 14. p. 1002. Ed. Janfon. 14 Nat. Hift. 1. 2. c. 96. Ed, Kuhn, 46 Hift. 1. 2. c. 2. Barbarick Barbarick River, whofe hundred mouths, unfupplied with showers, are here faid to fertilize Paphos: This expreffion, literally understood, prefents to us the image of a powerful River of a very confiderable extent; but no fuch River of this magnitude can be found, either in the ancient or modern Geography of the Island of Cyprus to correfpond to this idea: The learned Meurfius has collected with his great industry and deep erudition in his Cyprus the names of all the different ftreams, recorded in that Ifland: Among others he includes Bocarus, on the authority of Hefychius 17, who pronounces it a river at Salamis, flowing from the mountain Acamas: And I apprehend, continues Meurfius, that the name of this River is corrupted in the Bacche of Euripides 18: Here he inferts the prefent paffage of the Chorus, and fubftitutes Bungs wolaus, or the River Bocarus, instead of Bagbags wojaμs, or the Barbarick River; But the testimony of Hefychius, produced by him, is an apparent refutation of this unguarded conjecture: For if Bocarus were a river at Salamis in Cyprus, it could not, without flowing through the whole Iland, fupply Paphos, fince the former City stood on the North Eaft of the Island, while the latter was built on the South Western extremity : This remark is obvious from the contemplation of the Modern Map of Cyprus, where the oppofite quarter of the Iland to Paphia is now called Salaminia; and the modern 17 Βώκαςος, ποταμὸς ἐν Σαλαμῖνι ἐκ τῶν ̓Ακάμαντος ὄρος φερόμενος. Vox Βάκαρος." Ac corruptum effe puto ejus nomen apud Euripidem in Bacchis. (Cyprus, 1. 1. c. 30. p. 80. Ed. 1675.) n.me name of the ancient Paphos is Bafa, or Baffo, while the ancient Salamis was afterwards called Conftantia 1, and was fituated, according to Sandys 20 and Dapper", on the fcite of Famagofta: This latter Traveller, in his account of Cyprus, is guilty of an unpardonable error on this fubject; for he argues against Hefychius on the point of fituation of the River Bocarus at Salamis on the exprefs authority of this line in Euripides, which he twice tranflates, as if Bunaps, Bocarus, and not Bapcaps, Barbarick, were the original reading in the text of our Poet, who would then fix it at Paphos 22: It is obvious that Dapper, though he never mentions Meurfius on this occafion, adopted his un 19 Κωντάλεια, ἡ νῦν ἐν Κύπρῳ Σάλαμις (Stephanus Byzantinus vox ΚωνσάιTela.) See alfo Suidas (vox Expάios.) And Meurfius, Pofteà Conftantia τεια.) dicta eft. (Cyprus, l. 1. c. 20. p. 58.) 20 This City was afterwards called Conftantia, but deftroyed by the Jews in the days of the Emperor Trajan, and finally by the Saracens in the reign of Heraclius; upon the ruins thereof the famous Famagofta was erected. (P. 219. Ed. 1615.) 21 Cette ville fut enfuite renverfée de fonds en comble par ordre de Richard Roi d'Angleterre, bien qu'elle fut presque déferte & inhabitée depuis plus de cent ans auparavant: On en voit encore les mafures fur un coteau à deux miles de la nouvelle Famagoufte.-Il eft certain que c'eft l'ancienne Salamis, qui fut enfuite appellée Conftantia, qu'il faut tenir pour l'ancienne Famagoufte. (De l'Ifle de Cypre, p. 29. Ed. 1702.) 22 Bocarus en étoit une riviere qui fortoit du mont Acamas, & couloit, fuivant Hefychius, au travers de la ville de Salamis: Ce qu'il avance pourtant fans aucune aparence de raifon, parce qu'il f'enfuivroit de la qu'elle traverferoit toute l'ile d'Occident en Orient, à caufe que le mont Acamas eft à fon extremité Occidentale; & il paroit par les écrits d'Euripide, qu'elle couloit le long de la ville de Paphos, puis qu'il dit que les flots de cette riviere à cent embouchures fertilifent le terroir de Paphos fans le fecours de la pluie, (Id. p. 27.) Son terroir étoit fertilifé fans le fecours de la pluie par les eaux d'une riviere à cent embouchures, apellée Bocarus, comme le raporte Euripide. (Id. p. 36.) But the Italian Tranflator, Carmeli, deferves a cenfure of the most fevere nature; for he has not only inferted Badge into the printed text of Euripides; but unjuftifiably declares in his Note, that Bápagos, inftead of Búxagos, is an error of the Picís in the edition of Barnes. (Tom. 7. p. 84 & 85.) fupported |