Varró says: "Ex bove putrefacto seio nasel dulcissimas "apes mellis matres, à quo eas Graeci Bouyovas appellant." Lib. II. c. v.And again" Apes nascuntur partim ex apibus, "partim ex bubulo corpore putrefacto; itaque Archelaus in epigrammate ait eas esseβος φθιμένης πεποιημένα τέκνα.” Lib. II. c. xvi. Virgil, who does not easily give credit to such stories, lays the scene of his fable in the country of the Gipsies. Columella mentions Democritus and Mago to have asserted this generation: "Progenerari posse apes juvenco perempto "Democritus et Mago, nec minus Virgilius, prodiderunt." Lib. IX. c. xiv. VER. 287-294. * * Quà Pellaei gens fortunata Canopi 3 *Virgil very properly lays this scene in Egypt, which always was, and is still, famous for witchcraft. He describes the upper and lower Egypt; the three first verses relate to the lower Egypt, or the Delta; the two following to the upper Egypt; the two last to the course of the river: where in seven verses he comprehends what is most remarkable concerning that country, and its river, the Septemfluus Nilus. *Claudian, in his Idyl. de Nilo, mentions, among other inhabitants bordering on that river, Gens compositis circum"vallata sagittis." + This passage has long sounded wrong to me. There seems to me to be something in the construction not Virgilian, and something puzzled in the sense. I find since, that Huet and Segrais had a dispute about it. Segrais thought it faulty, and corrupted: "Ego contra (says "Huet) integram esse asseverarem; planumque et intellectu "facile; si modo perspecta esset veterum de ortu Nili opinio; " qui in Indiâ oriri eum, et ex eâ in Aegyptum proffuere, falsò quidem, at pro certo et constanter arbitrati sunt." Huet. Com. p. 265. i. The Florentine manuscript reads the passage differently, but does not take away the difficulty. It only transposes the two verses: "Et diversa," etc. is first in it; and "Et viridem," etc. second. "Et viridem Aegyptum" is a repetition of what has been said before, ver. 287-289. It is suspicious, from its being placed differently in the Florentine manuscript. If it was omitted, and the other line understood of the Ganges, would it not set all right? The Ganges has its seven streams as well as the Nile; and is therefore joined with it again, Aen. IX. 20. Εἰ δὲ καὶ πᾶσαν Αἴγυπτον Αιθιοπία ξυμβάλοιμεν (τοῦτι δὲ ἡγούμεθα καὶ τὸν ποταμὸν (the Nile) πράτlειν) καὶ οὔπω ξυμμέτρῳ πρὸς τὴν Ινδῶν ἄμφω, τοσαύτῃ συνδεθεῖσα. Ποταμοὶ δὲ ἀμφοῖν ὅμοιοι, λογισαμένω τοῦ Ινδοῦ τε καὶ Νείλου περαινοῦσί τε γὰρ τὰς ἠπείρους ἐν ὥρᾳ ἔτους, ὁπότε ἡ γὴ ἔρα τούτου, etc. Philostr. de Vita Apol. lib. I. c. i. 66 ** Herodotus, lib. II., gives the following description of Egypt: "Quum regionem supergressus est Nilus, solae urbes apparent, eatenus extantes, ut insulis Aegei maris fere assi"miles esse videantur. Nam caetera Aegypti pelagus effici"untur; ipsaeque urbes solae extant: Quae stationes navium "faciunt. Nec jam, cum hoc contingit, per alveum fluminis, "sed per medium campi navigatur," etc. p. 140. edit. H. Stephani, 1592. In the same place, Herodotus, speaking of a particular custom used in Egypt, says: " Quod factum est, ex quo Aegyptus "fuit ditionis Persarum.” Presently after, speaking of a tradition that the city of Memphis was built by Menes, who turned the course of the Nile thither, he says: "Supra Memphim centum circitur ❝stadia meridiem versus, aggestâ humo ad anfractum fluminis "arefecisse pristinum alveum: ita flumen facto alveo per me"dium montium fluere. Adeo nunc quoque sub Persis iste an"fractus Nili qui coërcitus fluit, magnis praesidiis custoditur, quotannis obseptus aggeribus; quos si refringens flumen velit "eâ parte redundare, omnis Memphis adibit periculum ne aquis operiatur." Pag. 141. 66 66 Again, immediately after, he says: "Est Memphis in an"gustiis Aegypti sita." 66 Again, enumerating the several tributes paid to Darius, he says: "Ab Aegypto et Lybibus Aegypto conterminis, et Cyrena et Barca (in portione namque Aegypti istae ordi"nantur) septingenta proveniebant talenta, praeter pecuniam " è piscario proventu lacus Maerios. Exceptâ hâc pecuniâ et "certo frumenti numero, septingenta talenta obveniebant. "Nam centum viginti millibus Persarum, qui in Albo muro Memphitico stationem habeat, et eorum auxiliariis admetiun"tur illi frumentum." Pag. 226. 66 A Babylon was built by the Persians on a steep rock over the Nile, a little above the head of the Delta, as appears by Strabo; "Ulterius sursum naviganti est Babylon castellum na"turâ munitum, à Babyloniis quibusdam conditum, qui huc "secedentes, eo in loco habitationem à regibus impetrarunt. "Nunc in eâ collocata est una ex tribus legionibus quae Aegyp"tum custodiunt." Lib. XVII. -Quaer. Whether, if part of Grand Cairo is not still called Babylon? Strabo gives the following account of Aegypt.-Of the Lower, he says; "Nilo exundante, tota regio undis tegitur praeter habitationes, quae aut nativis collibus aut aggeribus "factitiis impositae sunt, non pagi modo, sed etiam urbes me"morabiles; quae eminus conspectae insularum speciem prae"bent." Lib. XVII. Of the Upper Aegypt, he says; Si"mili modo regio supra Delta irrigatur, nisi quod Nilus qua"tuor millibus stadiorum unico alveo rectà delabitur, etc. Denique, ut verbo dicam, fluvio irrigua est sola ea pars Aegypti, quae jacet ad utramque Nili ripam, et raro usquam "ccc stadiorum continuam latitudinem habitabilem obtinet. "Orditur ab Aethiopiae montibus et in ipsius Delta verticem "desinit: itaque similis est fasciae (as the translator renders it) "in longum explicatae." 66 66 66 As to the dykes or dams made on the side of the Nile, Strabo tells us, Artificium autem, quod Nilo adhibetur, tanti est, quanti industria naturam vincens," etc. 66 ** Ruens is used by Virgil rather than Fluens on account of the several cataracts in the Nile. Pliny says of the Nile from its first rise; "Postremò inclusus montibus, nec alibi torrentior, vectus aquis properantibus ad locum Aethiopum, qui Catadupi vocantur, novissimo cataracte inter occursantes scopulos non fluere immenso fragore creditur, sed ruere," lib. V. c. ix. where he manifestly only explains more at large the same thought which Virgil expresses in one word. 66 66 5 * As to the mouths of the Nile, Pliny says; "Undecim "Nili ostia reperiuntur, quatuor quae ipsi falsa ora appellant: ❝sed celeberrima septem;" which he names, lib. V. c. x. And thus Strabo;" Nilus ab Aethiopiae finibus rectà fluit "ad septentrionem usque ad eum locum qui Delta appellatur, “ubi tanquam à vertice quodam scissus (ut Plato inquit) figu"ram conficit triangulam. Latera trianguli alvei sunt duo "Nili utrinque ad mare descendentis, alter ad dextram Pelu"sium usque, alter ad sinistram ad Canopum usque. "Duo itaque haec hostia Nili, alterum Pelusiacum vocatur, "alterum Canopicum: inter haec alia quinque ostia sunt, quae quidem mentionem mereantur; multa alia tenuiora.” 66 ** Νεῖλος μὲν ὁ ποταμὸς ἐξ Ινδῶν ἐπ ̓ Αιγύπλε φερόμενος. Procopius, lib. VI. περὶ Κτίσματος. "Custos Nili crescentis in arva "Memphis." Lucan, Lib. VIII. 477. When Achoreus the Aegyptian priest is giving an account to Julius Caesar of the course of the Nile, he says that after it has passed the cataracts: "Hinc, Abaton quam nostra vocat veneranda vetustas, "Terra potens, primos sentit percussa tumultus, "Et scopuli, placuit fluvii quos dicere venas, "Quod manifesta novi primum dant signa tumoris. "Hinc montes natura vagis circumdedit undis, "Qui Libyae, te, Nile, negent: quos inter in altâ "It convalle jacens jam molibus unda receptis." Pharsal. lib. X. 323. Quaer. Whether Molibus, in the last verse, does not refer to the moles or dams at the Egyptian Babylon, made there on purpose to raise the water according to pleasure? VER. 317-320. “1 Pastor Aristaeus, fugens + Peneïa Tempe, Virgil seems here to use the name of grazier, or herdsman, in introducing the hero of his story; with the same sort of intent, that our dramatic writers formerly used to prefix the characters of their Dramatis Personae to their plays; and the character thus affixed to him is very well kept up through the whole story. He appeared at first with his hair all rough and discomposed (from ver. 417.)-Is in a violent passion (329, etc.)-Bawls loud enough to frighten his poor mother (357, see 333, sonitum-349, impulit et 353, gemitu tanto) calls her names (as I fear, from 360); and hints at a scandalous aspersion on her, and even on himself (323);-bursts into a loud halloo, when he runs at Proteus (438); and snaps him up short, when he speaks to him (447 et 450.) The epithet here is no idle one. The Romans seem to me to have used the word Tempe, as the Greeks did Пagédago (in general) for any very pleasing place; or pleasure-grounds, as our gardeners of late call them. 66 Thus our own author: "At latis otia fundis, "Speluncae, vivique lacus; at frigida Tempe, These Tempes, or happy retirements, are (I think) always represented as cool and shady: thus Seneca, or whoever wrote the Troas, calls them, Opaca: and Statius, in one place, Umbrosa; in another, Tenebrosa. When they don't speak of pleasing places in general, they add the distinguishing name of the place; as Peneïa, here; Thessala, for the same in Horace, (and Aelian); "Heliconia, et Tecmessia Tempe," in Ovid, etc. I am apt to think that the Romans looked on their old fables, and stories, in three different views; some as certain, some as doubtful, and some as false: and should also think that they made use of the expressions, "ut fama, ut perhibent, "ut fertur," and the like, for the middle sort of the three: though, by the way, there is more authority for Aristaeus's method of procuring bees again, than one should at first suppose. It was from this notion that the Greeks gave the epithet of Beyaves to bees; and one of their poets calls them, Βος φθιμένης πεποιημένα τέκνα. Democritus, Aelian, and Hesychius, affirm it roundly, among their writers; and Varro and Columella make no doubt about it, among the Latin: not to speak of an African author, quoted for the same opinion by the latter. Virgil, you know, says it was used with the greatest assurance of success by the most knowing people of Africa, and by some of the neighbouring nations more to the east of them. Extremi signifies the extreme parts of any line, or thing; and, consequently, the beginning as well as the end of either. Here it is used evidently for the beginning or source of the river Peneus and so Virgil uses it too in his first Georgic; "Exercete, viri, tauros! serite hordea campis! "Usque sub extremum brumae intractabilis imbrem." that is, quite up to the borne (or beginning) of the Bruma; (about the middle of December); when the great rains, and the great holidays in consequence of them, would not allow them to work, 66 +5" Voce affari" (I should think) is no more common in Latin, than he hears with ears (which gave so much offence to poor parson Evans), is in English. It is said here, Hâc voce; with this vociferation," or, " in the following clamorous manner:" for which, see the speech itself; and ver. 333, 349, 353, after. VER. 333-335. "Mater sonitum thalamo sub fluminis alti "Sensit: eam circum Milesia vellera Nymphae 66 Carpebant, hyali saturo fucata colore." + For the different sorts of habitations for the water-deities, and several descriptions of them, see Pol, XIV. 63. |