ION.

сно.

ION.

Turn thine eyes this way: look, the son of Jove
Lops with his golden scimitar the heads

Of the Lernean Hydra: view it well.
I see him.

And this other standing nigh,

Who snatches from the fire the blazing brand.

translates it thus:

Divino Vate scorge

H vago amato lume

Delli due nostri rai

Quegli ornamenti stessi.

Dr. Musgrave says, duplex ædium facies intelligenda mihi videtur, and shows from Pindar that girov is sometimes used in that sense: we allow the learned Editor's authority, but cannot allow that the two fronts of the temple could be seen in one view. At Athens the Chorus had been accustomed not only to magnificent temples, but to the statues of Apollo in their streets, signified by 'Αγυιάτιδες θεραπείαι. ̓Αγυιεῖ i. e. ἐν τοῖς προπυλαίοις ίδρυμέν. Schol. ad Phoeniss. v. 634; their wonder was to find the same magnificence at Delphi, the temple there as stately as any at Athens, and the same profusion of statues as they advanced to it. Pausanias, Phocic. c. ix. &c. enumerates these statues, and says particularly τὰ ἐν τοῖς ἀετοῖς ἔσιν "Αρτεμις, καὶ Δητῶ, καὶ Απόλλων. Brodmus they had reason to explain διδύμων προσώπων by the statues of Apollo and Diana; and 22.6λípagov pãs may be supposed to mark their attributes, clarissima mundi lumina. These statues were in the Pediment, iv râs àcrõs; for which the translator has the authority of Mr. Stuart, who understands the Grecian Architecture better than all the Scholiasts that ever wrote. The learned reader will consider the following passage of Pindar, Olymp. Ode xiii. Epod. 1. and perhaps be of opinion that it gives light both to Pausanius and Euripides:

τίς δὲ ἱππείς

οις ἐν ἔντεσσιν μέτρα,

νῶν βασιλῆα δίδυ pov (Dnx';

L. 192. Iolaus is here plainly described as in the act of lifting the burning brand from the fire to sear the neck from which Hercules had lopt the head :

CHO. What is his name? The subject, on the web

Design'd, these hands have wrought in ductile gold.
The shield-supporting Iolaus, who bears

The toils in common with the son of Jove,
View now this hero; on his winged steed
The triple-bodied monster's dreadful force
He conquers through the flames his jaws emit.
I view it all attentively.

Observe

The battle of the giants, on the walls
Sculptur❜d in stone.

Let us note this, my friends.

See where against Enceladus she shakes
Her gorgon shield.

I see my goddess, Pallas,
Mark the tempestuous thunder's flaming bolt
Launch'd by the hand of Jove.

The furious Mimas

Here blazes in the vollied fires; and there
Another earth-born monster falls beneath
The wand of Bacchus wreath'd with ivy round,
No martial spear. But, as 'tis thine to tend
This temple, let me ask thee, is it lawful,
Leaving our sandals, its interior parts
To visit?

Strangers, this is not permitted,

to come at this sense for ravov Barnes reads wugrèv, Pierson minimâ mutatione a, which he supports with good authorities: dad is perhaps the word which the classic reader would wish to supply.

L. 197. Bellerophon mounted on the winged Pegasus, engaging with the Chimæra.

L 202. Chorus. This is a fine touch: as Athenians nothing could be so agreeable to them as the honours paid to their tutelary goddess,

сно. Yet may we make inquiries of thee?

If at the gate the honied cake be offer'd,
Would you consult the oracle, advance

To th' altar: 'till the hallow'd lamb has bled

In sacrifice approach not the recess.

I am instructed: what the god appoints
As laws we wish not to transgress: without
Enough of ornament delights our eyes.
Take a full view of all; that is allow'd.

To view the inmost shrine was our lord's order.
Who are you call'd? Attendants on what house?
Our lords inhabit the magnific domes

Of Pallas.-But she comes, of whom thou askest.

ION, CREUSA, CHORUS.

ION. Lady, whoe'er thou art, that liberal air
Speaks an exalted mind: there is a grace,

A dignity in those of noble birth,

That marks their high rank. Yet I marvel much
That from thy closed lids the trickling tear

L. 216. Ion. It is ingeniously conjectured by Dr. Musgrave, that Ion here points to a marble pillar thus adorned, fixed on the very point which they deemed the centre of the earth: he supports his opinion from this passage of Pausanias, τὸν δὲ ὑπὸ Δελφῶν καλούμενον ἐμφαλὸν, λίθου πεποιημένον λευκοῦ, τοῦτο εἶναι τὸ ἐν μέσῳ γῆς πάσης αὐτοὶ λίγουσιν οἱ Δελφοὶ, καὶ ἐν ὠδῇ τινι Πίνδαρος όμως λογοῦντά σφισιν ἐποίησε. Phocic. c. xvi.

Water'd thy beauteous cheeks, soon as thine eye
Beheld this chaste oracular seat of Phoebus.
What brings this sorrow, lady? All besides,
Viewing the temple of the god, are struck

With joy; thy melting eye o'erflows with tears. CREU. Not without reason, stranger, art thou seiz'd With wonder at my tears; this sacred dome Awakes the sad remembrance of things past. I had my mind at home, though present here. How wretched is our sex? And, O ye gods, What deeds are yours? Where may we hope for right, If by th' injustice of your pow'r undone?

ION.

Why, lady, this inexplicable grief?

CREU. It matters not; my mind resumes its firmness: no more; cease thy concern for me.

ION.

I

say

But say who art thou? whence? what country boasts Thy birth? and by what name may we address thee? CREU. Creusa is my name, drawn from Erectheus

ION.

My high-born lineage, Athens gave me birth.
Illustrious is thy state, thy ancestry

So noble, that I look with reverence on thee.
CREU. Happy indeed in this, in nothing further.
ION. But tell me, is it true what fame has blazon'd?

ION.

CREU. What wou'dst thou ask? Stranger, I wish to know.
Sprung the first author of thy line from th' earth?
CREU. Ay, Erichthonius: but my race avails not.
ION. And did Minerva raise him from the earth?
CREU. Held in her virgin hands: she bore him not.

ION. And gave him as the picture represents?
CREU. Daughters of Cecrops these, charg'd not to see him.
ION. The virgins oped the interdicted chest?
CREU. And died, distaining with their blood the rock.

L. 266. Pausanias tells us that Pandrosos obeyed the mandate of the goddess; but that her sisters Herse and Aglauros were for their disobedience

ION. But tell me, is this truth, or a vain rumour?
CREU. What wou'dst thou ask? I am not scant of time.
ION. Thy sisters did Erectheus sacrifice?

CREU. He slew the virgins, victims for their country.

ION. And thou of all thy sisters saved alone?
CREU. I was an infant in my mother's arms.

ION.

And did the yawning earth swallow thy father? CREU. By Neptune's trident smote; and so he perish'd. ION. And Macrai call you not the fatal place?

CREU. Why dost thou ask? What thoughts hast thou recall'd? ION. Does Phoebus, do his lightnings honour it?

ION.

CREU. Honour! Why this? Would I had never seen it !
Why? Dost thou hate the place dear to the god?
CREU. No: but for some base deed done in the cave.
ION. But what Athenian, lady, wedded thee?
CREU. Of Athens none, but one of foreign birth.
ION. What is his name? Noble he needs must be,
CREU. Xuthus, by Eolus derived from Jove.
ION. How weds a stranger an Athenian born?
CREU. Euboea is a state neighbouring on Athens,
ION. A narrow sea flows, I have heard, between.
CREU. Joining th' Athenian arms that state he wasted.
Confederate in the war, thence wedded thee?
CREU. The dowral meed of war, earn'd by his spear.

ION.

driven to madness, and threw themselves from the steepest part of the rock on which the citadel stood. Attic, c. xviii.

L. 269. Erectheus had six daughters, Procris married to Cephalus, Orithyia carried off by Boreas, Chthonia married to Butes, Creusa to Xuthus, Protogenia and Pandora. These two are the virgins here mentioned, who voluntarily offered themselves to death, to give effect to an oracle delivered to their father in his war against the Thracians. Of such oracles and such sacrifices we have instances enough. In this war Eumolpus, the Thracian king, fell by the hands of Erectheus; and Neptune, to avenge the death of his son, struck the rocks of Macrai with his trident beneath Erectheus, who perished in the chasm.--Barnes.