365

370

175

With graceful port advancing now I fpy'd
Leda the fair, the god-like Tyndar's bride:

Hence Pollux fprung who wields with furious sway -
The deathful gauntlet, matchlefs in the fray;
And Caftor glorious on th'embattled plain
Curbs the proud steed, reluctant to the rein:
By turns they vifit this etherial sky,

And live alternate, and alternate die:
In hell beneath, on earth, in heav'n above
Reign the Twin-gods, the fav'rite fons of Jove.

There Ephimedia trod the gloomy plain,

Who charm'd the Monarch of the boundless main;
Hence Ephialtes, hence ftern Otus fprung,

More fierce than Giants, more than Giants ftrong;

whole at large, lib. 1. The reafon why these words are inferted is, to inform us that there were antient Prophecies concerning Iphyclus, that it was decreed by Jupiter he should have no children 'till he had recourfe to a Prophet, who explaining thefe Prophecies to him fhould fhew him how to obtain that bleffing: In this fenfe the will of Jupiter may be faid to be fulfill'd.

v. 372. And live alternate, and alternate die.] Caftor and Pallux are call'd Aloxxpoi, or the fons of Jupiter; but what could give occafion to this fiction, of their living and dying alternately? Enftathius informs us that it is a phyfical allegory: They reprefent the two Hemispheres of the world; the one of which is continually enlighten'd by the fun, and confequently the other is then in darknefs: and thefe being fucceffively illuminated according to the order of the day and night, one of thefe fons of Jupiter may be faid to revive when one part of the world rifes into day, and the other to die, when it defcends into darkness. What makes this allegory the more probable is, that Jupiter denotes in many allegories of Homer, the air, or the upper regions of it,

The

The earth o'erburthen'd groan'd beneath their weight, 380 None but Orion e'er furpafs'd their height:

The wond'rous youths had fcarce nine winters told,
When high in air, tremendous to behold,
Nine ells aloft they rear'd their tow'ring head,
And full nine cubits broad their fhoulders spread.

Proud

v. 383. Nine ells aloft they rear'd their head.] This is undoubtedly a very bold fiction, and has been cenfur'd by fome Critics as monftrous, and prais'd by others as fublime. It may feem utterly incredible that any human creatures could be nine ells, that is, eleven yards and a quarter in height, at the age of nine years. But it may vindicate Homer as a Poct to fay that he only made ufe of a fable, that had been tranfmitted down from the earliest times of the world, for fo early the war between the Gods and Giants was fuppos'd to be. There might a rational account be given of thefe apparent incredibilities; if I might be allowed to fay what many Authors of great name have conjectur'd, that thefe ftories are only traditional, and all founded upon the ejection of the fallen Angels from Heaven, and the wars they had with the good Angels to regain their ftations. If this might be allow'd, we shall then have real Giants, who endeavour'd to take Heaven by affault; then nothing can be invented by a Poet fo boldly, as to exceed what may justly be believed of these beings then the ftories of heaping mountain upon mountain will come within the bounds of credibility. But without having recourfe to this folution, Longinus brings this paffage as an inftance of true fublimity, chap. 6. He is pro

ving that the Sublime is fometimes found without the pathetic, for fome paffions are mean, as fear, sadness, forrow, and confequently incapable of fublimity; and on the other hand, there are many things great and fublime, in which there is no paffion; of this kind is what Homer fays concerning Otus, and Ephialtes, with fo much boldness.

The Gods they challenge, and affect the skies.

And what he adds concerning the fuccefs of these Giants is fill bolder.

VOL. III.

F

Had

385 Proud of their strength and more than mortal fize, The Gods they challenge, and affect the skies;

Had they to manhood grown, the bright abodes

Of Heav'n had shook, and Gods been heap'd on Gods.
Virgil was of the opinion of Longinus, for hè has imitated Homer.
Hic & Aloidas geminos immania vidi

Corpora, qui manibus magnum refcindere cœlum
Aggreffi, fuperifque Jovem detrudere regnis.

Macrobius, lib. 5. Saturn. cap. 13. judges thefe verfes to be infe-
rior to Homer's in Majefty; in Homer we have the height and
breadth of these Giants, and he happily paints the very fize of
their limbs in the run of his Poetry; two words, évvépor, and iv-
Mas, almoft make one verfe, defignedly chofen to exprefs their
bulk in the turn of the words; but Virgil fays only immania cor-
pora, and makes no addition concerning the Giants, omitting en-
tirely the circumftance of their fize; Homer relates the piling hill
upon hill; Virgil barely adds, that they endeavour'd to ftorm the
heavens.

Scaliger is firm and faithful to Virgil, and vindicates his favourite in the true fpirit of criticifm; I perfuade my felf he glances at Macrobius, for he cavils at thofe inftances which he produces as beauties in Homer; I give his answer in his own words. Admirantur Graculi pueriles menfuras; nimis fæpe cogor exclamare, alind effe Graeulum circulatorem, aliud regie orationis authorem: Indignam cenfuit fua majeftate Virgilius hanc minutam fuperftitionem, &c.

Euftathius remarks that the Antients greatly admir'd the exa& proportion of these Giants, for the body is of a due fymmetry, when the thickness is three degrees lefs than the height of it: According to this account, these Giants grew one cubit every year in bulk, and three in height. Homer fays, that they fell by the fhafts of Apollo, that is, they dy'd fuddenly; but other writers relate, that as they were hunting, Diana fent a flag between them, at which both at once aiming their weapons and fhe withdrawing the ftag, they fell by their own darts. Euftatkius.

Heav'd

Heav'd on Olympus tott'ring Offa ftoods

On Offa, Pelion nods with all his wood:

Such were they Youths! had they to manhood grown, 190 Almighty Jove had trembled on his throne,

395

But ere the harveft of the beard began

To briftle on the chin, and promise man,'
His fhafts Apollo aim'd; at once they found,
And stretch the Giant-monfters o'er the ground.'

There mournful Phedra with fad Procris moves,
Both beauteous fhades, both hapless in their loves;

v. 387. Oḥ Olympus tott'ring Offa food, &c.] Strabo takes notice of the judgment of Homer, in placing the mountains in this order; they all ftand in Macedonia; Olympus is the largest, and therefore he makes it the bafis upon which Offa ftands, that being the next to Olympus in magnitude, and Pelion being the leaft is placed above Offa, and thus they rife pyramidically. Virgil follows a different regulation,

Ter funt conati imponere Pelion Offe,

Scilicet atque Offa frondofum imponere Olympum.

Here the largest mountain is placed uppermoft, not fo naturally as in the order of Homer. There is a peculiar beauty in the former of these verfes, in which Virgil makes the two vowels in conati imponere meet without an elifion, to express the labour and straining of the Giants in heaving mountain upon mountain. I appeal to the ear of every Reader, if he can pronounce these two words without a pause and ftop; the difficulty in the flow of the verfe excellently reprefents the labour of the Giants ftraining to shove Pelion upon Offa. Dacier remarks that Virgil follows the fituation of the mountains, without regarding the magnitude; thus Pelion hes first on the north of Macedonia, Offa is the fecond, and the third Olympus; but the prefers Homer's method as most rational.

And near them walk'd, with folemn pace and flow,
Sad Ariadne, partner of their woe;

The royal Minos Ariadne bred,

400 She Thefeus lov'd; from Crete with Thefeus fled;
Swift to the Dian Ifle the Heroe flies,

And tow'rds his Athens bears the lovely prize;
There Bacchus with fierce rage Diana fires,
The Goddess aims her fhaft, the Nymph expires.

v. 402. And towards his Athens bears the lovely prize.] Homer juftifies Thefens from any crime with relation to Ariadne, he is guilty of no infidelity as fucceeding Poets affirm; fhe dy'd füddenly in Dia, or Naxos (an Inland lying between Thera and Crete) Dima flew her at the inftigation of Bacchus, who accufed her to that Goddefs, for prophaning her temple by too free an intercourfe with Thefeus; this Homer calls μaprupin Avios. Clymene was a daughter of Mynias, Mara of Pratus and Antaa, who having made a vow to Diana of perpetual virginity, broke it; and therefore fell by that Goddefs. Phadra was wife to Thefeus, and fell in love with her fon Hippolytus. Eriphyle was the Daughter of Talaus and Lyfimache, wife of the Prophet Amphiarans; who being brib'd with a collar of gold by Polynices, obliged her husband to go to the war of Thebes, though the knew he was decreed to fall before that city: the was flain by her fon Alcmaon. Euftathius.

Ulyffes, when he concludes, says it is time to repose

Here in the court, or yonder on the waves.

To understand this the Reader must remember, that in the beginning of the eighth book all things were prepar'd for his immediate voyage, or as it is there exprefs'd,

-Ev'n now the gales

Call thee aboard, and firetch the swelling fails.

So that he defires to repofe in the fship, that he may begin his voyage early in the morning.

There