One of Alexander's generals, to whose share, on the division of the empire, after that monarch's death, fell the kingdom of Thrace, in which was situated the city of Abdera.
{18a} A small fragment of this tragedy, which has in it the very line here quoted by Lucian, is yet extant in Barnes's edition of Euripides.
{18b} This story may afford no useless admonition to the managers of the Haymarket and other summer theatres, who, it is to be hoped, will not run the hazard of inflaming their audiences with too much tragedy in the dog days.
{19a} This alludes to the Parthian War, in the time of Severian; the particulars of which, except the few here occasionally glanced at, we are strangers to. Lucian, most probably, by this tract totally knocked up some of the historians who had given an account of it, and prevented many others, who were intimidated by the severity of his strictures, attempting to transmit the history of it to posterity.
{19b} This saying is attributed to Empedocles.
{20a} The most famous of the Pontic cities, and well known as the residence of the renowned Cynic philosopher. It is still called by the same name, and is a port town of Asiatic Turkey, on the Euxine.
{20b} A kind of school or gymnasium where the young men performed their exercises. The choice of such a place by a philosopher to roll a tub in heightens the ridicule.
See Homer's "Odyssey," M 1. 219.
Alluding to the story he set out with.
{24a} [Greek]. Gr. The Latin translation renders it "octava duplici." See Burney's "Dissertation on Music," Sect. 1.
{24b} Gr. [Greek], aspera arteria, or the wind-pipe. The comparison is strictly just and remarkably true, as we may all recollect how dreadful the sensation is when any part of our food slips down what is generally called "the wrong way."
{25a} See Homer's "Iliad," [Greek] 1. 227, and Virgil's "Camilla," in the 7th book of the "AEneid."
{25b} See Homer's "Iliad," [Greek] 1. 18. One of the blind bard's speciosa miracula, which Lucian is perpetually laughing at.
[Greek], or cerussa. Painting, we see, both amongst men and women, was practised long ago, and has at least the plea of antiquity in its favour. According to Lucian, the men laid on white; for the [Greek] was probably ceruse, or white lead; the ladies, we may suppose, as at present, preferred the rouge.
Dinocrates. The same story is told of him, with some little alteration, by Vitruvius. Mention is made of it likewise by Pliny and Strabo.
"His buckler's mighty orb was next displayed;
Tremendous Gorgon frowned upon its field,
And circling terrors filled the expressive shield.
Within its concave hung a silver thong,
On which a mimic serpent creeps along,
His azure length in easy waves extends,
Till, in three heads, th' embroidered monster ends."
See Pope's "Homer's Iliad," book xi., 1. 43.
Lucian here means to ridicule, not Homer, but the historian's absurd
imitation of him.
The Greek expression was proverbial. Horace has adopted it: "Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus."
Lucian adds, [Greek], ut est in proverbio, by which it appears that barbers and their shops were as remarkable for gossiping and tittle-tattle in ancient as they are in modern times. Aristophanes mentions them in his "Plutus," they are recorded also by Plutarch, and Theophrastus styles them [Greek].
See Thucydides, book ii., cap. 34.
Who fell upon his sword. See the "Ajax" of Sophocles.
For a description of this famous statue, see Pausanias.
The [Greek], or scarus, is mentioned by several ancient authors, as a fish of the most delicate flavour, and is supposed to be of the same nature with our chars in Cumberland, and some other parts of this kingdom. I have ventured, therefore, to call it by this name, till some modern Apicius can furnish me with a better.
Dragons, or fiery serpents, were used by the Parthians, and Suidas tells us, by the Scythians also, as standards, in the same manner as the Romans made use of the eagle, and under every one of these standards were a thousand men. See Lips. de Mil. Rom., cap. 4.
See Arrian.
The idea here so deservedly laughed at, of a history of what was to come, if treated, not seriously, as this absurd writer treated it, but ludicrously, as Lucian would probably have treated it himself, might open a fine field for wit and humour. Something of this kind appeared in a newspaper a few years ago, which, I think, was called "News for a Hundred Years Hence;" and though but a rough sketch, was well executed. A larger work, on the same ground, and by a good hand, might afford much entertainment.
This kind of scholastic jargon was much in vogue in the time of Lucian, and it is no wonder he should take every opportunity of laughing at it, as nothing can be more opposite to true genius, wit, and humour, than such pedantry.
Milo, the Crotonian wrestler, is reported to have been a man of most wonderful bodily strength, concerning which a number of lies are told, for which the reader, if he pleases, may consult his dictionary. He lost his life, we are informed, by trying to rend with his hands an old oak, which wedged him in, and pressed him to death; the poet says-- "--he met his end, Wedged in that timber which he strove to rend."
Titornus was a rival of Milo's, and, according to AElian, who is not always to be credited, rolled a large stone with ease, which Milo with all his force could not stir. Conon was some slim Macaroni of that age, remarkable only for his debility, as was Leotrophides also, of crazy memory, recorded by Aristophanes, in his comedy called The Birds.
The Broughtons of antiquity; men, we may suppose, renowned in their time for teaching the young nobility of Greece to bruise one another secundum artem.
{53a} See Diodorus Siculus, lib. vii., and Plutarch.
{53b} Concerning some of these facts, even recent as they were then with regard to us, historians are divided. Thucydides and Plutarch tell the story one way, Diodorus and Justin another. Well might our author, therefore, find fault with their uncertainty.
{55a} Lucian alludes, it is supposed, to Ctesias, the physician to Artaxerxes, whose history is stuffed with encomiums on his royal patron. See Plutarch's "Artaxerxes."
{55b} The Campus Nisaeus, a large plain in Media, near the Caspian mountains, was famous for breeding the finest horses, which were allotted to the use of kings only; or, according to Xenophon, those favourites on whom the sovereign thought proper to bestow them. See the "Cyropaed.," book viii.
This fine picture of a good historian has been copied by Tully, Strabo, Polybius, and other writers; it is a standard of perfection, however, which few writers, ancient or modern, have been able to reach. Thuanus has prefixed to his history these lines of Lucian; but whether he, or any other historian, hath answered in every point to the description here given, is, I believe, yet undetermined.
{57a} The saying is attributed to Aristophanes, though I cannot find it there. It is observable that this proverbial kind of expression, for freedom of words and sentiments, has been adopted into almost every language, though the image conveying it is different. Thus the Greeks call a fig a fig, etc. We say, an honest man calls a spade a spade; and the French call "un chat un chat." Boileau says, "J'appelle un chat un chat, et Rolet un fripon."
{57b} Herodotus's history is comprehended in nine books, to each of which is prefixed the name of a Muse; the first is called Clio, the second Euterpe, and so on. A modern poet, I have been told, the ingenious Mr. Aaron Hill, improved upon this thought, and christened (if we may properly so call it), not his books, but his daughters by the same poetical names of Miss Cli, Miss Melp-y, Miss Terps-y, Miss Urania, etc.
Both Thucydides and Livy are reprehensible in this particular; and the same objection may be made to Thuanus, Clarendon, Burnet, and many other modern historians.
How just is this observation of Lucian's, and at the same time how truly poetical is the image which he makes use of to express it! It puts us in mind of his rival critic Longinus, who, as Pope has observed, is himself the great sublime he draws.
By this very just observation, Lucian means to censure all those writers--and we have many such now amongst us--who take so much pains to smooth and round their periods, as to disgust their readers by the frequent repetition of it, as it naturally produces a tiresome sameness in the sound of them; and at the same time discovers too much that laborious art and care, which it is always the author's business as much as possible to conceal.
See Homer's "Iliad," bk. xiii., 1. 4.
{62a} The famous Lacedaemonian general. The circumstance alluded to is in Thucydides, bk. iv.
{62b} Gr. [Greek], a technical term, borrowed from music, and signifying that tone of the voice which exactly corresponds with the instrument accompanying it.
{66a} A coarse fish that came from Pontus, or the Black Sea.-- Saperdas advehe Ponto. See Pers. Sat. v. 1. 134.
{66b} Here doctors differ. Several of Thucydides's descriptions are certainly very long, many of them, perhaps, rather tedious.
Lucian is rather severe on this writer. Cicero only says, De omnibus omnia libere palam dixit; he spoke freely of everybody. Other writers, however, are of the same opinion with our satirist with regard to him. See Dions. Plutarch. Cornelius Nepos, etc.
Alluding to the story of Diogenes, as related in the beginning.
See Homer's "Odyssey."--The strange stories which Lucian here mentions may certainly be numbered, with all due deference to so great a name, amongst the nugae canorae of old Homer. Juvenal certainly considers them in this light when he says:--
Tam vacui capitis populum Phaeaca putavit.
Some modern critics, however, have endeavoured to defend them.
Here the history begins, what goes before may be considered as the author's preface, and should have been marked as such in the original.
Among the Greek wines, so much admired by ancient Epicures, those of the islands of the Archipelago were the most celebrated, and of these the Chian wine, the product of Chios, bore away the palm from every other, and particularly that which was made from vines growing on the mountain called Arevisia, in testimony of which it were easy, if necessary, to produce an amphora full of classical quotations.
The present inhabitants of that island make a small quantity of excellent wine for their own use and are liberal of it to strangers who travel that way, but dare not, being under Turkish government, cultivate the vines well, or export the product of them.
{81a} In the same manner as Gulliver's island of Laputa.--From this passage it is not improbable but that Swift borrowed the idea.
{81b} The account which Lucian here gives us of his visit to the moon, perhaps suggested to Bergerac the idea of his ingenious work, called "A Voyage to the Moon."
{82a} Equi vultures, horse vultures; from [Greek], a horse: and [Greek], a vulture.
{82b} Lucian, we see, has founded his history on matter of fact. Endymion, we all know, was a king of Elis, though some call him a shepherd. Shepherd or king, however, he was so handsome, that the moon, who saw him sleeping on Mount Latmos, fell in love with him. This no orthodox heathen ever doubted: Lucian, who was a freethinker, laughs indeed at the tale; but has made him ample amends in this history by creating him emperor of the moon.
{83a} Modern astronomers are, I, think, agreed, that we are to the moon just the same as the moon is to us. Though Lucian's history may be false, therefore his philosophy, we see, was true (1780). (The moon is not habitable, 1887.)
{83b} This I am afraid, is not so agreeable to the modern system; our philosophers all asserting that the sun is not habitable. As it is a place, however, which we are very little acquainted with, they may be mistaken, and Lucian may guess as well as ourselves, for aught we can prove to the contrary.
Horse ants, from [Greek], a horse; and [Greek], an ant.
{85a} From [Greek], olus, any kind of herb; and [Greek], penna, a wing.
{85b} Millii jaculatores, darters of millet; millet is a kind of small grain.--A strange species of warriors!
{85c} Alliis pugnantes, garlic fighters: these we are to suppose threw garlic at the enemy, and served as a kind of stinkpots.
{85d} Pulici sagittarii, flea-archers.
{85e} Venti cursores, wind courser.
{86a} Passeres glandium, acorn sparrows.
{86b} Equi grues, horse-cranes.
{87a} Air-flies.
{87b} Gr. [Greek], air-crows; but as all crows fly through the air, I would rather read [Greek], which may be translated air-dancers, from [Greek], cordax, a lascivious kind of dance, so called.
{88a} Gr. [Greek], Caulo fungi, stalk and mushroom men.
{88b} Gr. [Greek], cani glandacii, acorn-dogs.
{88c} Gr. [Greek], nubicentauri, cloud-centaurs.
{88d} The reason for this wish is given a little farther on in the History.
See Hom. Il. II.. 1, 459.
{90a} Some authors tell us that Sagittarius was the same as Chiron the centaur; others, that he was Crocus, a famous hunter, the son of Euphemia, who nursed the Muses, at whose intercession, he was, after his death, promoted to the ninth place in the Zodiac, under the name of Sagittarius.
{90b} The inhabitants of the moon.
A good burlesque on the usual form and style of treaties.
Gr. [Greek], ignens, fiery, [Greek], flaming, [Greek], nocturnus, nightly, [Greek], menstruus, monthly, [Greek], multi lucius, many lights. These all make good proper names in Greek, and sound magnificently, but do not answer so well in English. I have therefore preserved the original words in the translation.
Here Lucian, like other story-tellers, is a little deficient in point of memory. If they eat, as he tells us, nothing but frogs, what use could they have for cheese?
Of which we shall see an account in the next adventure.
The city of Lamps.
{98a} The cloud cuckoo.
{98b} See his comedy of the Birds.
{104a} Salsamentarii: Salt-fish-men.
{104b} Triton-weasels.
{104c} Greek, [Greek], cancri-mani, crab's hands.
{104d} Thynno-cipites, tunny-heads, i.e., men with heads like those of the tunny-fish.
{105a} Greek, [Greek], crab-men.
{105b} [Greek], sparrow-footed, from [Greek], passer marinus.
Maris potor, the drinker up of the sea. AEolocentaurus and Thalassopotes were, I suppose, two Leviathans.
One of the fifty Nereids, or Sea-Nymphs; so called, on account of the fairness of her skin: from [Greek], gala, milk; of the milky island, therefore, she was naturally the presiding deity.
{114a} Tyro, according to Homer, fell in love with the famous river Enipeus, and was always wandering on its banks, where Neptune found her, covered her with his waves, and throwing her into a deep sleep, supplied the place of Enipeus. Lucian has made her amends, by bestowing one of his imaginary kingdoms upon her. His part of the story, however, is full as probable as the rest.
{114b} Suberipedes, cork-footed.
{116a} This description of the Pagan Elysium, or Island of the Blessed, is well drawn, and abounds in fanciful and picturesque imagery, interspersed with strokes of humour and satire. The second book is, indeed, throughout, more entertaining and better written than the first.
{116b} See the Ajax Flagellifer of Sophocles. Lucian humorously degrades him from the character of a hero, and gives him hellebore as a madman.
It is not improbable but that Voltaire's El Dorado in his "Candide," might have been suggested to him by this passage.
I.e. Their appearance is exactly like that of shadows made by the sun at noonday, with this only difference, that one lies flat on the ground, the other is erect, and one is dark, the other light or diaphanous. Our vulgar idea of ghosts, especially with regard to their not being tangible, corresponds with this of Lucian's.
{121a} A famous musician. Clemens Alexandrinus gives us a full account of him, to whom I refer the curious reader.
{121b} This poet, we are told, wrote some severe verses on Helen, for which he was punished by Castor and Pollux with loss of sight, but on making his recantation in a palinodia, his eyes were graciously restored to him. Lucian has affronted her still more grossly by making her run away with Cinyrus; but he, we are to suppose, being not over superstitious, defied the power of Castor and Pollux.
{122a} Nothing appears more ridiculous to a modern reader than the perpetual encomiums on the musical merit of swans and swallows, which we meet with in all the writers of antiquity. A proper account and explanation of this is, I think, amongst the desiderata of literature. There is an entertaining tract on this subject in the "Hist. de l'Acad." tom. v., by M. Morin.
{122b} Who ravished Cassandra, the daughter of Priam and priestess of Minerva, who sent a tempest, dispersed the Grecian navy in their return home, and sunk Ajax with a thunder-bolt.
{123a} A scholar of Pythagoras.
{123b} The second king of Rome.
{123c} One of the seven sages, but excepted against by Lucian, because he was king of Corinth and a tyrant.
{123d} See his Treatise "de Republica." His quitting Elysium, to live in his own republic, is a stroke of true humour.
{124a} Alluding to a passage in Hesiod already quoted.
{124b} Lucian laughs at the sceptics, though he was himself one of them.
Death-games, or games after death, in imitation of wedding- games, funeral-games, etc.
{127a} The famous tyrant of Agrigentum, renowned for his ingenious contrivance of roasting his enemies in a brazen bull, and not less memorable for some excellent epistles, which set a wit and scholar together by the ears concerning the genuineness of them. See the famous contest between Bentley and Boyle.
{127b} Who sacrificed to Jupiter all the strangers that came into his kingdom. "Hospites violabat," says Seneca, "ut eorum sanguine pluviam eliceret, cujus penuria AEgyptus novem annis laboraverat." A most ingenious contrivance.
{128a} A king of Thrace who fed his horses with human flesh.
{128b} Scyron and Pityocamptes were two famous robbers, who used to seize on travellers and commit the most horrid cruelties upon them. They were slain by Theseus. See Plutarch's "Life of Theseus."
{128c} Where he ran away, but, as we are told, in very good company. See Diog. Laert. Strabo, etc.
The Antipodes. We never heard whether Lucian performed this voyage. D'Ablancourt, however, his French translator, in his continuation of the "True History," has done it for him, not without some humour, though it is by no means equal to the original.
{135a} Voltaire has improved on this passage, and given us a very humorous account of "les Habitans de l'Enfer," in his wicked "Pucelle."
{135b} Who, the reader will remember, had just before run off with Helen.
{136a} Greek, [Greek], sleep.
{136b} As herald of the morn.
{136c} A root which, infused, is supposed to promote sleep, consequently very proper for the Island of Dreams.
"Not poppy, nor mandragora,
Nor all the drowsy syrups of the East,
Shall ever medicine thee to that sweet sleep
Which thou ow'dst yesterday."
See Shakespeare's "Othello."
{136d} Night wanderer.
{137a} Gr. [Greek], inexperrectus, unwaked or wakeful.
{137b} Gr. [Greek], pernox, all night.
{137c} "Two portals firm the various phantoms keep;
Of ev'ry one; whence flit, to mock the brain,
Of winged lies a light fantastic train;
The gate opposed pellucid valves adorn,
And columns fair, encased with polished horn;
Where images of truth for passage wait."
See Pope's Homer's "Odyssey," bk. xix., 1.
637.
See also Virgil, who has pretty closely imitated his master.
{138a} Gr. [Greek], terriculum vanipori: fright, the son of vain hope, or disappointment.
{138b} Gr. [Greek], divitiglorium, the pride of riches--i.e., arising from riches; son of phantasy, or deceit.
{138c} Gr. [Greek], gravi-somnem, heavy sleep.
{141a} Nut sailors; or, sailors in a nut-shell.
{141b} Those who sailed in the gourds.
{147a} Cabalusa and Hydamardia are hard words, which the commentators confess they can make nothing of. Various, however, are the derivations, and numerous the guesses made about them. The English reader may, if he pleases, call them not improperly, especially the first, Cabalistic.
{147b} Which the reader will remember was given him by way of charm, on his departure from the Happy Island.
Gr. [Greek], asini-eruras, ass-legged.
The ensuing books never appeared. The "True History," like
--"the bear and fiddle,
Begins, but breaks off in the middle."
D'Ablancourt, as I observed above, has carried it on a little farther. There is still room for any ingenious modern to take the plan from Lucian, and improve upon it.
The ancient Greek stadium is supposed to have contained a hundred and twenty-five geometrical paces, or six hundred and twenty-five Roman feet, corresponding to our furlong. Eight stadia make a geometrical, or Italian mile; and twenty, according to Dacier, a French league. It is observed, notwithstanding, by Guilletiere, a famous French writer, that the stadium was only six hundred Athenian feet, six hundred and four English feet, or a hundred and three geometrical paces.
The Greeks measured all their distances by stadia, which, after all we can discover concerning them, are different in different times and places.
The Phoenicians, it is supposed, were the first sailors, and steered their course according to the appearance of the stars.
Greek, [Greek], coelicoloe, Homer's general name for the gods.
Ganymede, whom Jupiter fell in love with, as he was hunting on Mount Ida, and turning himself into an eagle, carried up with him to heaven. "I am sure," says Menippus's friend, archly enough, "you were not carried up there, like Ganymede, for your beauty."
{157a} "Icarus Icariis nomina fecit aquis." The story is too well known to stand in need of any illustration. This accounts for the title of Icaro-Menippus.
{157b} See Bishop Wilkins's "Art of Flying," where this ingenious contrivance of Menippus's is greatly improved upon. For a humorous detail of the many advantages attending this noble art, I refer my readers to the Spectator.
Even Lucian's Menippus, we see, could not reflect on the works of God without admiration; but with how much more dignity are they considered by the holy Psalmist!--
"O praise the Lord of heaven, praise Him in the height. Praise Him, sun and moon; praise Him, all ye stars; praise the Lord upon earth, ye dragons and all deeps; fire and hail, snow and vapours, wind and storm fulfilling His word."--Psalm cxlviii.
This was the opinion of Anaxagoras, one of the Ionic philosophers, born at Clazomene, in the first year of the seventieth Olympiad. See Plutarch and Diogenes Laert.
Alluding to the doctrines of Plato and Aristotle.
{163a} This was the opinion of Democritus, who held that there were infinite worlds in infinite space, according to all circumstances, some of which are not only like to one another, but every way so perfectly and absolutely equal, that there is no difference betwixt them. See Plutarch, and Tully, Quest. Acad.
{163b} Empedocles, of Agrigentum, a Pythagorean; he held that there are two principal powers in nature, amity and discord, and that
"Sometimes by friendship, all are knit in one,
Sometimes by discord, severed and undone."
See Stanley's "Lives of the Philosophers."
{163c} Alluding to the doctrine of Pythagoras, according to whom, number is the principle most providential of all heaven and earth, the root of divine beings, of gods and demons, the fountain and root of all things; that which, before all things, exists in the divine mind, from which, and out of which, all things are digested into order, and remain numbered by an indissoluble series. The whole system of the Pythagoreans is at large explained and illustrated by Stanley. See his "Lives of Philosophers."
See our author's "Auction of Lives," where Socrates swears by the dog and the plane-tree.
This was called the [Greek], or oath of Rhadamanthus, who, as Porphyry informs us, made a law that men should swear, if they needs must swear, by geese, dogs, etc. [Greek], that they might not, on every trifling occasion, call in the name of the gods. This is a kind of religious reason, the custom was therefore, Porphyry tells us, adopted by the wise and pious Socrates. Lucian, however, who laughs at everything here (as well as the place above quoted), ridicules him for it.
{165a} See Homer's "Odyssey," book ix. 1. 302. Pope translates it badly,
"Wisdom held my hand."
Homer says nothing but--my mind changed.
{165b} One of the fables here alluded to is yet extant amongst those ascribed to AEsop, but that concerning the camel I never met with.
{166a} That part of Athens which was called the upper city, in opposition to the lower city. The Acropolis was on the top of a high rock.
{166b} Mountains near Athens.
{166c} A mountain between Geranea and Corinth.
{166d} A high mountain in Arcadia, to the west of Elis. Erymanthus another, bordering upon Achaia. Taygetus another, reaching northwards, to the foot of the mountains of Arcadia.
See Homer's "Iliad," book xiii. 1. 4
See note on this in a former dialogue.
It is reported of Empedocles, that he went to AEtna, where he leaped into the fire, that he might leave behind him an opinion that he was a god, and that it was afterwards discovered by one of his sandals, which the fire cast up again, for his sandals were of brass. See Stanley's "Lives of the Philosophers." The manner of his death is related differently by different authors. This was, however, the generally received fable. Lucian, with an equal degree of probability, carries him up to the moon.
See Homer's Odyssey, b. xvi. 1. 187. The speech of Ulysses to his son, on the discovery.
When Empedocles is got into the moon, Lucian makes him swear by Endymion in compliment to his sovereign lady.
{172a} Agathocles.
{172b} Stratonice.
Of Achilles. See the 18th book of the "Iliad."
{175a} Greek, [Greek].
{175b} Sicyon was a city near Corinth, famous for the richness and felicity of its soil.
{176a} The famous Ager Cynurius, a little district of Laconia, on the confines of Argolis; the Argives and Spartans, whom it laid between, agreed to decide the property of it by three hundred men of a side in the field: the battle was bloody and desperate, only one man remaining alive, Othryades, the Lacedaemonian, who immediately, though covered with wounds, raised a trophy, which he inscribed with his own blood, to Jupiter Tropaeus. This victory the Spartans, who from that time had quiet possession of the field, yearly celebrated with a festival, to commemorate the event.
{176b} A mountain of Thrace. Dion Cassius places it near Philippi. It was supposed to have abounded in golden mines in some parts of it.
When AEacus was king of Thessaly, his kingdom was almost depopulated by a dreadful pestilence; he prayed to Jupiter to avert the distemper, and dreamed that he saw an innumerable quantity of ants creep out of an old oak, which were immediately turned into men; when he awoke the dream was fulfilled, and he found his kingdom more populous than ever; from that time the people were called Myrmidons. Such is the fable, which owed its rise merely to the name of Myrmidons, which it was supposed must come from [Greek], an ant. To some such trifling circumstances as these we are indebted for half the fables of antiquity.
{178a} See Homer's "Iliad," book i. 1. 294.
{178b} This was the opinion of Anaxagoras, and is confirmed by the more accurate observations of modern philosophy.
See Pope's Homer's "Odyssey," book x. 1. 113.
{180a} I.e. Such a countenance as he put on when he slew the rebellious Titans.
{180b} See Homer's "Odyssey," A. v. 170
Otus and Ephialtes were two giants of an enormous size; some of the ancients, who, no doubt, were exact in their measurement, assure us that, at nine years old, they were nine cubits round, and thirty-six high, and grew in proportion, till they thought proper to attack and endeavour to dethrone Jupiter; for which purpose they piled mount Ossa and Pelion upon Olympus, made Mars prisoner, and played several tricks of this kind, till Diana, by artifice, subdued them, contriving, some way or other, to make them shoot their arrows against, and destroy each other, after which Jupiter sent them down to Tartarus. Some attribute to Apollo the honour of conquering them. This story has been explained, and allegorised, and tortured so many different ways, that it is not easy to unravel the foundation of it.
Jupiter thought himself, we may suppose, much obliged to Phidias for the famous statue which he had made of him, and therefore, in return, complaisantly inquires after his family.
{183a} From Aratus.
{183b} A city of Elis, where there was a temple dedicated to Olympian Jupiter, and public games celebrated every fifth year.
{183c} A city of Thessaly, where there was a temple to Jove; this was likewise the seat of the famous oracle.
{183d} A goddess worshipped in Thrace. Hesychius says this was only another name for Diana. See Strabo.
Alluding to his Republic, which probably was considered by
Lucian and others as a kind of Utopian system.
{185a} See Homer's "Iliad," book xvi. 1. 250.
{185b} Of Elis, founder of the Sceptic sect, who doubted of everything. He flourished about the hundred and tenth Olympiad.
{187a} [Greek]
"--Not the bread of man their life sustains,
Nor wine's inflaming juice supplies their veins."
See Pope's Homer's "Iliad," book v. 1. 425.
{187b} Greek, [Greek].
{187c} See the beginning of the second book of the "Iliad."
{188a} Apollo is always represented as imberbis, or without a beard, probably from a notion that Phoebus, or the sun, must be always young.
