Rhenus, a river of Germany, now called the Rhine.

Rhodes, an island in the Mediterranean, said to derive its name either from Rhoda, a beautiful nymph beloved by Apollo, or from a Greek word signifying roses, that flower growing luxuriantly upon the island, and being considered its type. Rhodes was famed amongst the ancients for the wealth of its inhabitants, and for the excellent maritime laws in force there.

Rhodes, with everlasting sunshine bright.

HOMER.

Rubicon, a small, but famous, river in Italy, rising in the Appennines, and falling into the Adriatic sea; it formed the boundary between Italy and Cisalpine Gaul.

Rhytion, a town of Crete, now called Retimo; this town, with all the others of note in the island, joined the cause of the Greeks in the Trojan war.

Next eighty barks the Cretan king commands

Of Gnossus', Lyctus', and Gortyna's bands,

And those who dwell where Rhytion's domes arise,

Or white Lycastus glitters to the skies,

Or where by Phæstus silver Jardan runs ;

Crete's hundred cities pour forth all her sons.

Rosa Dea, a name for Aurora.

HOMER.

Aurora, rosy-fingered.

SAPPHO.

Rhene, a small island of the Ægean sea; it was tributary to Delos, and used as a cemetery for its inhabitants, none of them being permitted to be interred at Delos, that island being sacred to Apollo.

Rhodope, the wife of Hamus, king of Thrace; she was changed into a

mountain extending nearly to the Euxine sea, because she considered herself equal to Juno in beauty.

Rhodope of Thrace,

Transformed to mountains, filled the foremost place.

OVID.

Styx, a daughter of Oceanus and Tethys; she gave her brated river of hell, round which it flows nine times.

name to a cele

When the gods

swore by Styx, they were compelled to keep their oaths inviolably.

There, odious to immortals, dreadful Styx
Inhabits; refluent Ocean's eldest born;
She from the gods apart for ever dwells
In far re-echoing mansions, with arched roofs
Of loftiest rock o'erhung: and all around
The silver columns lean upon the skies.

Sylvanus, a rural god, presiding over woods.

HESIOD.

Stentor, a Grecian, famed for the strength and loudness of his voice, which was said to equal those of fifty men in power.

Stentor the strong, endued with brazen lungs,
Whose throat surpassed the force of fifty tongues.

Salus, a name for Hygeia.

HOMER.

Samos, an island in the Ionian sea, now called Cephalonia; it forms a part of the republic of the seven islands.

Samois, circled with th' Ionian main,
Dulichium, and Zacynthus' sylvan reign.

HOMER.

Samos, an island in the Ægean sea, originally styled Parthenia: Juno was peculiarly worshipped here under the name of Samia; she had a magnificent temple, in which (being identified with Seline, or Luna,)

she was represented standing, with the crescent upon her forehead. Samos contained three colossal statues of Jupiter, Minerva, and Hercules.

Sol, a name for Phoebus, or Apollo, as the sun; under this name his worship was extensive.

The Sun the seasons of the year supplies,
And bids the evening and the morning rise;
Commands the planets with superior force,

And keeps each wandering light to his appointed course.

LUCAN.

Samothracia, (so called to distinguish it from the islands named Samos,) is an island in the Ægean sea, opposite Troas; it was a refuge for all criminals and fugitives. The inhabitants were celebrated for their piety.

Samos wide his forests spreads.

Sangarius, a river of Phrygia.

HOMER.

Stars; on ancient monuments stars were used as symbols of felicity: the different constellations or groups of stars are much noticed by the poets, as by them the ancients were accustomed to regulate the seasons and the cultivation of the earth.

Around our pole the spíry dragon glides,
And, like a winding stream, the Bears divides,
The less and greater, who by Fate's decree
Abhor to dive beneath the northern sea.
There, as they say, perpetual night is found,
In silence brooding on th' unhappy ground:
Or, when Aurora leaves our northern sphere,
She lights the downward heaven, and rises there;
And, when on us she breathes the living light,
Red Vesper kindles there the tapers of the night.

VIRGIL.

Satyrs, the attendants of Bacchus.

Syrens, sea monsters, who bore the appearance of beautiful virgins; they were the daughters of the river Achelous; their names were Parthenope, Leucosia, and Ligeia; they were accustomed to decoy persons by the sweetness of their music, and then to devour them. They drowned themselves because they failed to captivate Ulysses by their strains.

Their song is death, and makes destruction please ;—
Unblessed the man whom music wins to stay
Nigh the cursed shore, and listen to the lay.

Sciras, a name of Minerva at Ægina.

HOMER.

Sardinia, the largest island in the Mediterranean, with the exception of Sicily; it received its name from Sardus, a son of Hercules, who settled there with a colony of Libyans.

Sarpedon, a son of Jupiter and Europa; he was one of the bravest and most illustrious chiefs who fought on the Trojan side during the war, and is represented as one of the most faultless characters in the Iliad : he was slain by Patroclus.

Troy, at the loss, through all her legions shook ;-
Transfixed with deep regret, they view o'erthrown
At once his country's pillar, and their own;
A chief who led to Troy's beleagured wall
A host of heroes, and outshined them all.

HOMER.

Scamander, or Xanthus, a celebrated river of Troas; it has its source in mount Ida. This river was worshipped as a god, and had sacrifices offered to it.

Scamander the divine.

HESIOD.

Scyros, a large island in the Ægean sea: it was here that Thetis concealed Achilles, previously to the Trojan war.

Salamis, an island opposite Eleusis, in the Saronic gulf: it was famed in ancient history for the victory obtained on its shores by the Greeks, over the Persians, B. C. 480. This island was sacred to Ajax, who

thus boasts it as his birth place:

Lives there a chief whom Ajax ought to dread-
Ajax, in all the toils of battle bred?

From warlike Salamis I drew my birth;
And, born to combats, fear no force on earth.

Strophades, two islands lying westward of the Peloponnesus.

These isles are compassed by th' Ionian main,

The dire abode where the foul harpies reign.

Spio, one of the Nereides.

HOMER.

VIRGIL.

Spio, skimming with light feet the wave.

Sentia, a goddess of infancy, worshipped at Rome.

HESIOD.

Septerion, a festival in honour of Apollo, celebrated at Delphi every ninth year, to commemorate the death of the serpent Python. Scylla, a sea nymph, the daughter of Phorcus; by the artifices of Circe, she was changed into so hideous a monster that she precipitated herself into the sea, and became the dangerous rock on the coast of Sicily, which bears her name;-the whirlpool Charybdis lies opposite to Scylla.

Dire Scylla there a scene of horror forms,

And here Charybdis fills the deep with storms.
When the tide rushes from the rumbling caves
The rough rock roars, tumultuous boil the waves.
When in her gulfs the rushing sea subsides,
She drains the ocean with the refluent tides;
The rock rebellows with a thundering sound,
Deep, wondrous deep below, appears the ground.

N

HOMER.