Now hills and vales no more destruction know, The most of mortals perish in the flood: The small remainder dies for want of food." OVID. Metam. 1. I. v. 269-312. Joppa, a city of the Phoenicians, existed, it is said, before the deluge of the earth.-PLIN. Hist. Nat. 1. v. c. 14. GENESIS VIII. 4. And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat. "A mountain of stupendous height there stands, The bound of fruitful fields, while fields they were, Parnassus is its name; whose forky rise Mounts through the clouds, and mates the lofty skies. He with his wife were only left behind Of perished man; they two were human kind."—Ov. Metam. 1. 1. v.316. 6. And it came to pass at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made: 7. And he sent forth a raven, which went forth to and fro, until the waters were dried up from off the earth. Both the raven and the dove were the objects of much superstitious regard. The raven was sacred to Apollo, and was generally thought to be a bird of ill omen. "At nuptials, after the hymeneal hymn, it was customary to invoke the raven.' ELIAN. Hist. Animal. 1. III. c. 9. ""Tis confirmed by auspices on each side do the birds give good omens: the woodpecker and the crow are on my right; the raven also is on my left." : PLAUT. Asin. Act. II. sc. 1, "How can an augur explain why the croak of a raven on the right hand and of a crow on the left, should be reckoned a good omen ?"-Cic. de. div. 1. 1. c. 39. "The hoarse raven, on the blasted bough, By croaking from the left presaged the coming blow."-VIRG. Ecl. I. v.18. "The crow is a bird with a very ill-omened garrulity; though it has been highly praised by some."-PLIN. Hist. Nat. 1. x. c. 14. “Ravens are the only birds that seem to have any comprehension of the meaning of their auspices. They are of the very worst omen when they swallow their voice, as if they were being choked."-IBID. c. 15. 8. Also he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters were abated from off the face of the ground: 9. But the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot, and she returned unto him into the ark, for the waters were on the face of the whole earth: then he put forth his hand, and took her, and pulled her in unto him into the ark. 10. And he stayed yet other seven days: and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark; 11. And the dove came in to him in the evening; and, lo, in her mouth was an olive leaf pluckt off; so Noah knew that the waters were abated from off the earth. 12. And he stayed yet other seven days; and sent forth the dove; which returned not again unto him any more. At Dodona, a city of Chaonia, in Epirus, was a temple dedicated to Jupiter Dodoneus; and in a grove near it, a beech tree, on which two doves sat and prophecied. In the first ages, the dove was esteemed an interpreter of the will of the gods to man. "The doves of Dodona prophecied from their ancient beech tree.” SOPHOс. Trachin. v. 171. "The Priestesses of Dodona assert that two black pigeons flew from Thebes, in Egypt, and one of them settled in Africa, the other among themselves, which latter, resting on the branch of a beech tree, declared, with a human voice, that there, by divine appointment, was to be an oracle of Jove."-HDT. 1. II. c. 55. "The Syrians do not suffer pigeons to be hurt."-XEN. Anab. 1. 1. c. 4. "The deluge prevailed greatly in the Hellenic region, and particularly in that part called 'Ancient Hellas.' This is the country which lies about Dodona and upon the river Achelous.”—ARISTOT. Meteorol. 1. 1. c. 14. Among ancient mariners the dove was thought to be particularly auspicious. The most favourable season for sailing was at the heliacal rising of the seven stars near the head of Taurus; and these are in consequence called Pleiades, or the Doves. It was at this season that the Argonauts were supposed to have set out on their expedition. "Soon as the Pleiads shone, and milder May Bade the light lambs o'er springing verdure play, Spread on the Hellespont their rapid sail."-THEOCR. Idyll. XIII. v. 25. "First let a dove the dangerous passage try. If through the rocks unhurt she chance to fly, And reach the sea beyond with prosperous flight, Then forward rush-then ply your oars with might." APOL. RHOD. Arg. 1. II. v. 328. "The mythologists say that Deucalion sent forth a dove first out of the ark, to show, either by her quick return that bad weather was at hand, or by her continuing abroad, that it would be fine."-PLUT. de solert. anim. c. 13. "Of birds the most sacred, in the estimation of the Galli, is the pigeon."LUCIAN. de dea Syr. c. 54. "The Hierapolitans eat all sorts of fowl, the dove alone excepted; which with them is sacred."-IBID. c. 14. Eneas was conducted by the doves of Venus to the golden branch of Juno, by the aid of which he was enabled to cross in safety the river Acheron, in the boat of Charon. "Scarce had he said, when, full before his sight, Two doves, descending from their airy flight, They led him on To the slow lake, whose baleful stench to shun, They wing'd their flight aloft, then, stooping low, Perch'd on the double tree that bears the golden bough." VIRG. An. 1. vi. v. 190. Why should I tell how, sacred, through the skies Of Syrian cities, the white pigeon flies?"-TIBUL. 1. 1. eleg. 7. "A dove was sent forth as a leader over the unknown sea. fixed constantly."-PROPERT. 1. II. eleg. 20. On her I kept my eyes "In traversing these seas the people of Taprobane take no observations of the but carry birds out to sea, which they let go from time to time, and so follow their course as they make for the land."-PLIN. Hist. Nat. 1. vI. c. 24. stars . 18. Noah went forth, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives, with him. Eight souls." In the ancient mythology of Egypt there were precisely eight principal gods. "Egypt esteemed Pan as the most ancient of the gods, and even of those eight who are accounted the first."-HDT. 1. 2. c. 145. The Priests of Amon, at certain seasons, used to carry in procession a boat, which was held in great veneration. The Egyptians had the same custom. Ancient temples were sometimes built in the form of a ship; and the same term was used by the Greeks to designate both,-vâvs, or vaós. Hence, perhaps, the ship Skidbladner of the Gothic mythology; and also the modern term nave. "The god is carried about in a golden boat by eighty priests; these bearing him upon their shoulders, wander hither and thither, as they are directed by the impulse of the Deity."-DIOD. SIC. 1. XVII. c. 50. 20. And Noah builded an altar unto the Lord; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. "Deucalion erected altars, and near the chasm (though which the waters had disappeared-see Lucian's account, at Gen. VII. 24.) consecrated a temple to Juno."LUCIAN. de dea Syr. c. 13. "The mountain Nymphs and Themis they adore, Ov. METAM. 1. I. v. 320. "Heaven is pleas'd, nor ought we to complain, "Deucalion, while, on every side, ."-IBID. v. 366. The bursting clouds upraised the whelming tide, And sought, at Themis' shrine, the Immortals' will.-Juv. Sat. 1. v. 81. 21. And the Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; neither will I again smite any more every living thing as I have done. "Since the days of Pyrrha, though you turn over every tragic theme, in none is a whole people made the perpetrators of the guilt."-Juv. Sat. 15. v. 30. 22. While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night, shall not cease. "After the oath had been tendered to the Musta, we commemorated the sad necessity by which the earth was reduced to its chaotic state. We then celebrated Cronus, through whom the world, after a term of darkness, enjoyed again a pure serene sky." ORPH. Arg. v. 11. "Heaven never grows weary, leading on the months and years." GENESIS IX. 3. Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things. "In the golden age which poets speak of, oxen were so greatly beneficial to the husbandman in tilling the fallow ground that no violence was ever offered them; and it was even thought a crime to eat them : adds 'The iron age began the fatal trade Of blood, and hammer'd the destructive blade; CIC. de nat. Deor. 1.II. c. 63. He Ovid introduces Pythagoras protesting against the use of animal food. "Not so the golden age, who fed on fruit, Nor durst, with bloody meals, their mouth pollute." Ov. Met. 1. xv. v. 137. "The ancients are said to have used only simple milk, and such herbs as the earth spontaneously produced."-IBID. Fast. 1. IV. v. 369. 4. But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat. Pliny maintains that the blood is the principle of life, and ridicules those "who are of opinion that the fineness of the wit does not depend upon the thinness of the blood."-PLIN. Hist. Nat. 1. XI. c. 92.. "There is great vitality in the blood; and when it is discharged from the body it carries the life with it."-IBID. c. 90. The restriction concerning blood is supposed by some to have reference to the custom of eating animals while they were yet quick and warm; or of torturing them to death in order to make their flesh more delicate. "The flesh of these pigs is sweetest when it is pierced with a spit." ARISTOPH. Acharn. v. 795. "In killing swine some are accustomed to thrust them through with red hot spits, that the blood, being cauterised by the heat of the iron, may render the flesh more deliOthers leap upon the teats and udders of the sow when farrowing, that the blood, the milk, &c., being all pounded together, may make them a most dainty dish of meat.” PLUT. de esu. carn. Orat. I. c. 1. cate. "The Ethiopians, when they have succeeded in disabling the elephant, by houghing his sinews, rush upon him, and cut off collops of his flesh while he is yet alive.' DIOD. SIC. 1. III. c. 26. "Saturn reduced his subjects from a wild and barbarous to a more civil course of life, both as to food and manners."-IBID. 1. v. c. 66. 6. Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man. "Blood for blood has come upon him who now dies, as the bitter payment for a debt."-EURIP. Electra, v. 857. Electra, speaking of the murder of Agamemnon (who had slain his daughter Iphigenia) by Clytemnestra, says :— "What law required it of thee? That law alone by which thyself must fall; If blood for blood be due, thy doom is fixed."-Soru. Electra, v. 579. 13. I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth. "Jove's wondrous bow, of three celestial dyes, Placed as a sign to man amid the skies."-HOм. I. 1. XI. v 27. In the following lines, the woe that preceded the sign is remembered; the promise of mercy to which it testified, forgotten : "High Jove, denouncing future woe, O'er the dark clouds extends his purple bow, In sign of tempests from the troubled air, Or, from the rage of man, destructive war."-IBID. 1. XVII. v. 547. Iris, or the rainbow, is called by Hesiod the great oath, to whom the Deity appealed when any of the inferior divinities were guilty of untruth. Iris was appointed on such an occasion to fetch water from the extremities of the ocean, with which those were tried who had falsified their word. "Swift-footed Iris, nymph of Thaumas born, Takes with no frequent embassy the way O'er the broad main's expanse, when haply strife If there be one 'midst those who dwell in heaven HES. Theog. v. 780. By a singular confusion of ideas the rainbow is represented by Ovid as contributing to the waters of the Deluge, instead of being a token of their abatement. "Then clad in colours of a various dye, To feed the clouds: impetuous rain descends; And the long labours of the year are vain."-Ov. Metam. 1. 1. v. 270. 20. And Noah began to be an husbandman, and he planted a vineyard. "There was no nation upon earth, neither Grecian nor foreign, but was indebted to this deity (Bacchus) for some mark of his munificence and favour. He taught people to plant the vine and to preserve the juice of the grape, and to lay up the fruits of the earth in proper repositories. Those who possessed a harsh and ungenial soil, not adapted to the cultivation of the vine, were shown the art of making a drink from barley, not less grateful than that which proceeded from the grape."-DIOD. SIC. 1. III: c. 73. 23. And Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid it upon both their shoulders, and went backward, and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were backward, and they saw not their father's nakedness. "Cato was as careful not to utter an indecent word before his son as he would have been in the presence of the vestal virgins; nor did he ever bathe with him. A regard to decency in this respect was indeed at that time general among the Romans, for even sons-in-law avoided bathing with their fathers-in-law, not choosing to appear naked before them."-PLUT. Cato major, c. 20. |