; are wont to institute on the top of Helicon choral dances, beautiful and lovely, and move nimbly with their feet. Then starting thence, shrouded in thick darkness,2 by night 3 they are wont to wend their way, uttering sounds exceeding sweet, while they celebrate ægis-bearing Jove, and majestic Juno, the Argive goddess, treading-proudly in golden sandals; and gleaming-eyed Athene, daughter of ægis-bearing Jove Phoebus Apollo; Artemis, arrow-queen; and earth-encompassing, earth-shaking Poseidon; august Themis; Aphrodite shooting-lively-glances; and Hebe * of-the-golden-crown; and fair Dione; Aurora, and the great Sun, and the resplendent Moon; Latona, and Iapetus,5 and wily Cronos; Earth, mighty forth a spring. But neither here, nor in ver. 281, 284, 325, is the story given, though Hesychius refers us to the Theogony for it. Here, as in 8 and 10, we have an illustration of Matth. Gr. Gr. § 502, obs. 3, that the imperfect, perfect, and aorist have the sense often of an action frequently repeated, "to be wont." Cf. Hes. Works and Days, 240-244. ἐπεῤῥωσαντο, from ῥώω, ῥώομαι. Il. i. 529. 2 népi oddý. Cf. Butm. Lexil. p. 39, who traces the significations of anp, from "thick haze" to fog, "which the ancients took for thickened air, and from fog to" darkness," as being a very thick fog, deceiving the eye-sight. Cf. Il. v. 864; Od. viii. 562. 3vvúxiai, nocturnæ, noctu, adj. for adv. Cf. Il. i. 682; xxi. 37; Od. iii. 178; Hesiod, Scut. 32. In Latin. Nec vespertinus circumgemit ursus ovile, Hor. Epod. xvi. 51. These visits were by night, because the ancients deemed that the gods, who had visited earlier and purer mortals night and day, denied their presence, in the daylight, to the more depraved ages of the world. Cf. Catull. Pel. et Thet. 384, Præsentes namque ante domos invisere castas Cœlicolæ, nondum spretâ pietate, solebant. oooav. 1. A voice noised abroad, one knows not how. 2. A voice; not from ooooμat, but akin to o. Butm. Lexil. p. 445. Heyne, arguing that oooa in the second sense is of later writers, assigns this proem to a later date than Hesiod-wrongly; for see Odyss. xxiv. 412; H. in Merc. 442. Hesiod ranks Hebe among Deæ Majores, because she was the wife of Hercules. Pindar mentions her with honour, Nem. i. 110; vii. 6; x. 32. Pausan. speaks of her temple and worship, ii. 13, among the Phliasians, and her altar, with that of Hercules, at Athens, i. 19. Dione, in Homer, is the mother of Venus (by Jove). Il. v. 370, 428. Hesiod not doing this, (cf. 188,) places her among the Oceanides, (353,) and yet here among the Majores Deæ. Latin writers constantly confuse Dione and Venus. Perhaps they were different names of the same goddess in different parts of Greece. 5 Iapetus, the Titan, though not worshipped in Greece, as the Ocean, and dark Night, and the holy race of other ever-living immortals, who erst taught Hesiod a lovely song,' as he fed his lambs beneath divine Helicon. But first of all the goddesses, the Olympian Muses, daughters of ægis-bearing Jove, addressed me in a speech such ́as this: "Ye shepherds, dwelling a-field, base subjects for reproach, nought but gluttons,2 we know to sing 3 many fictions like to truths, and we know, when we will, to speak what is true." Thus said the daughters, ready-in-speech, of mighty Jove, and gave me as a staff a branch of very luxuriant olive to pluck, (a branch) wondrous to behold; and breathed into me a voice divine, that I might sing of both the future and the past. And they bade me hymn the race of ever-living blessed gods, but first and last ever to sing of themselves. Yet why should these tales be told by me touching the sacred oak," or other gods here mentioned, was yet highly distinguished among the ancient Hellenes, on account of his descendants, Prometheus and Deucalion. Aristides calls Hesiod, for these two verses, oXÉTλios Kai vßρiσTÈS. Robinson compares the fables of Horace, Carm. ii. 19; iii. 4, and Numa's nocturnal meetings with Egeria. The ancients called men who told such tales yonotódovs, in satire of Hesiod; and Ovid says, A. A. i. 27, Nec mihi sunt visæ, Clio, Cliûsque sorores Compare Fasti, book vi. 13. But Hesiod's simple nature may have dreamed these visions, or have been wrought on by fancy, the Musehaunted spot, and the plenteous laurel, their gift. V. Lennep. γαστέρες οἷον. Hesych. τροφῆς μόνον επιμελούμενοι. Cf. Epimenides (S. Paul to Tit. i. 12); Hom. Il. v. 787. 3 Milton's Lycidas, 10, 11, "He knew Himself to sing and build the lofty rhyme." Hor. A. P. 338, Ficta voluptatis causâ sint proxima veris. Callimach. Hymn to Jupiter, 65, ψευδοίμην, ἀΐοντος ἃ κεν πεπίθοιεν ἀκουήν. We read here of three gifts to Hesiod from the Muses, the laurel-leaves, the staff, and inspiration. Cf. Juvenal, vii. 19, Laurumque momordit. Lucian (in Disp. on Hesiod) says he never exercises the gift of a μávrig, implied here. But see Works and Days, 180. Cf. Horat. Epist. i. 1, Primâ dicte mihi, summâ dicende Camænâ, Mecænas.. 7 Sed quo mihi hæc circa quercum, aut circa petram. (F. S. Lehrs.) Goettling refers the words to the prophetic oaks of Dodona (ai poonyopo doves. Esch. Prom. V. 832. Cf. Sophocl. Trach. 1158); and the Dephian rock (Aɛλpig wéтpa. Soph. Ed. T. 464. Cf. Odyss. xix. rock? Come thou! Begin we with the Muses, who, as they sing, delight the great spirit of Jove, their sire, within Olympus, telling of the present, and the future, and the past, according in their voice; and from their lips sweet speech flows ceaselessly, whilst the halls of loud-thundering Jove, their sire, are glad2 at the delicate utterance3 of the goddesses, as it is diffused around: and the top of snowy Olympus rings, and the mansions of the immortals. They then uttering divine sounds first celebrate in song the august race of the gods, whom from the beginning Earth and broad Heaven produced: the gods who sprang from these, givers of good gifts; and then next, Jove, sire of gods and men likewise, the goddesses chaunt as they begin, and chaunting him cease from their song, how most excellent he is of the gods, and mightiest in strength. And next the Olympian Muses,5 daughters of ægis-bearing Jove, gladden Jove's spirit within Olympus, by singing of the race of heroes, and mighty giants; the Muses I say, whom Mnemosyne, guardian over the corn-lands of Eleuther,7 bare, after union with their sire, 163). The sense then will be, Why do I babble touching great mysteries? Van Lennep (from comparing Il. x. 126; Theoc. iii. 8; Ov. Heroid. v. 13) prefers to render it somehow thus, "Why prate Í thus around oak and rock?" "Quid ita garrio, ut rure amantes solent juxta umbrosam quercum vel rupem.' We have adopted the former view. 1 Túvn. Age tu, Hesiode. Hom. Odyss. xx. 18, TÉTλalı dǹ кpadiŋ. Theogn. 997, Tóλμа Ovμè кaкоło. Terent. Andr. I. iii., Enimvero, Dave, nil loci est segnitiæ. Adelph. V. iv. 23, Age, age, experiamur. Such expressions of encouragement to self are common in all languages. 2 γελᾷ δε τε. Cf. Hom. H. in Cer. 13, 14, and Theognis, ¿yéλaσσe δὲ γαῖα πελώρη, Γήθησεντε βαθὺς πόντος ἀλὺς πολιής. Lucret. i. 8, Tibi rident æquora ponti. Xeptotoon, lily-coloured, (Aɛiptov,) delicate. The word properly applied to objects which may be seen, is transferred to matters of sound and hearing. So in 11. iii. 152, ö Xeipioéσon. In Pliny, xxxviii. 6; Cic. N. D. ii. 58, candida vox is opposed to fusca vox. Ausonius, Ep. 17, Floridissimus tui sermonis afflatus. • dwτypes táwv. An Homeric phrase. Hom. II. xxiv. 528; Od. viii. 325, 335. awv, gen. plur. neut., as if from rà iá, good things, th. òs. Butm. Lexil. p. 253, note. K Tv, i. e. earth and heaven. Olympian: either because born near Olympus, (ver. 62,) or because wont to mix in the abode of the gods, Olympus, ver. 75. II. i. 604, Μουσάων θ' αἵ αἔιδον αμειβόμεναι ἐπὶ καλῇ. 5 • ἀνθρώπων, heroes. 'Eleutheræ, a city built by Eleuther, son of Apollo and Aethusa, the son of Cronus, in Pieria,1 to be a means of oblivion of ills, and a rest from cares. For during nine nights did the counsellor Jove associate with her, apart from the other immortals, ascending her holy bed but when at length, I ween, it was the year,2 and the seasons had revolved towards the end of the months, and many days had been completed, then she bare nine accordant daughters, whose care is song,3 possessing, as they do, in their bosoms a mind at ease, but a little distance from the highest peak of snowy Olympus, where are their bright spots-for-dancing and fair abodes. And beside them the Graces and Cupid too have dwellings at festivals,5 and pouring through their lips a lovely voice, they chaunt the attributes, and celebrate the wise ways of all the immortals, uttering an exceeding-lovely voice. 6 4 And they then went to Olympus, exulting in their beautiful voice, in their immortal song, and around them, as they sang, dark earth was re-echoing, and a winsome sound arose from their feet, as they wended to their sire: But he reigns in Olympus, having in his own disposal the thunder and the glowing bolt, since he hath conquered by might his father, daughter of Neptune, near Citharon, on the Boeotian border: it is the first town as you journey from Baotia, by Citharon and Platæa, towards Attica. Pausan. i. 38, § 8. 1 Pieria, a mountain tract between Macedon and Thessaly, whence the Pierians introduced the worship of the Muses to Helicon and its vicinity. Strabo, ix. c. v. p. 315 (Tauchn.). Pausan. ix. 29, § 2. 2 iviavròs, the year, i. e. of ten months, according to ancient reckoning. Macrob. Saturn. i. 11. 3 μéμBXeraι, perf. pass. for μeμentai. Van Lennep, Liddell and Scott, &c. μέλω, μεμέλω, μέμλω, μέμβλω, hence παρμέμβλωκε. 4 xopoi, spots for dancing. Od. viii. 260, 264; xii. 4. 5 oiki', Exovou: not always, but at festivals of the gods. The Muses dwelt at Helicon, and the Graces and Cupid (according to Scholiast) had temples with them there. The Muses were ever at the feasts of the gods, and the poet seems to mean that those who dwelt with them at Helicon, had dwellings near them in heaven during the Θάλιαι. V. Lennep. 6 vóμovs: quæ propria singulis Dîs attributa sunt. TOTE: i. e. at their birth. The gods were supposed to be adult at birth. Mercury, Hom. Hymn ad ill. 17, Ἡῶος γεγονὼς μέσῳ ἤματι ἐγκιθαρίζει Εσπέριος βοῦν κλέψεν εκηβόλου Απόλλωνος. So Minerva sprang all armed from Jove's brain. A grand subject for his daughters' first essay in singing. Cronus. And duly to the immortals hath he arranged each office at once, and declared their prerogatives. 4 Thus, I wot, the Muses tenanting Olympian homes are wont to sing, nine daughters born of mighty Jove, Clio, Euterpe, Thalia, and Melpomene, Terpsichore and Erato; Polymnia, Urania, and Calliope; and she is eldest of them all. For she also attends in the company of august kings. Whomsoever of Jove-reared sovereigns the daughters of great Jove shall have honoured and looked upon at his birth, on the tongue of such an one they shed a honeyed dew, and from his lips drop gentle words; so then the peoples all look to him, as he decideth questions of law3 with righteous judgments; and he speaketh-counsels unerringly, and quickly stays with wisdom a strife however great.5 For therefore are kings wise,6 in that for their peoples, when misled in the forum, they easily accomplish the reversal of their acts, exhorting them with soft words. And as he goes through the city they propitiate him as a god with gentle awe, and he is conspicuous among them when assembled, as is the sacred gift of the Muses among men. Since from the Muses and far-shooting Apollo are men of song, and harpers over the earth, but from Jove spring kings: yet happy he whomsoever the Muses shall have loved; sweet is the sound that 1 These were the Muses respectively of rhetoric, flute-playing, comedy, tragedy, lute-playing and the dance, erotic poetry and mimic imitation, geometry, astronomy, and epic poetry. Cf. Scholiast on this passage; and more in Smith's Dict. Gr. and Rom. Biog. vol. ii. 1126, a. b. Tρopερeσrárn, eldest. Cf. 361, 777. 2 Shall have honoured, &c.] Compare Theocr. ix. 35, οὕς γὰρ ὁρεῦνται γαθεῦσαι, τώς δ ̓ οὔτι ποτῷ δαλήσατο Κίρκα. Hor. Od. IV. iii. Quem tu, Melpomene semel Nascentem placido lumine videris. 3 Decideth questions of law;] i. e. where old usage is disputed, and the king or judge must decide. Il. xvi. 387. So Liddell and Scott. Of this function of kings, cf. Op. et D. 39, 248, 261. 4 ἀγορεύων-κατέπαυσε. Anacolouthon. τε couples κατέπαυσε το ἀγορεύων for ἀγορεύει. 's Cf. Virg. Æn. i. 148-153, Ac veluti populo in magno, &c. • Van Lennep gives the best interpretation of this and the following line," Ideo sunt reges prudentes quòd in concione populis errore vel pravitate consilii in noxam incurrentibus, (cf. Il. ix. 512; II. xv. 484, ẞap0évra,) facta infecta reddunt; efficiunt ut illi sua facta mutent.' |