Chapter XX: Book THE FIFTH: Fable I. V.1-242 (2)

Le Clerc, on the other hand, thinks that it was not Pluto that carried
away Proserpine, but Aidoneus, king of Epirus, or Orcus king of the
Molossians. Aidoneus is supposed to have wrought mines in his kingdom,
and, as the entrance into it was over a river called Acheron, that
prince has often been confounded with Pluto; Epirus too, which was
situate very low, may have been figuratively described as the Infernal
Regions; for which reason, the journeys of Theseus and Hercules into
Epirus may have been spoken of as descents into the Stygian abodes.
Le Clerc supposes that Ceres was reigning in Sicily at the time when
Aidoneus was king of Epirus, and that she took great care to instruct
her subjects in the art of tilling the ground and sowing corn, and
established laws for regulating civil government and the preservation
of private property; for which reasons she was afterward deemed to be
the Goddess of the Earth, and of Corn. Cicero and Diodorus Siculus
tell us that Ceres made her residence at Enna, or Henna, in Sicily,
which name, according to Bochart, signifies ‘agreeable fountain.’
Cicero and Strabo agree with Ovid in telling us that Proserpine, the
only daughter of Ceres, whom other writers name Pherephata, was
walking in the adjacent meadows, and gathering flowers with her
companions; upon which, certain pirates seized her, and, placing her
in a chariot, carried her to the seaside, whence they embarked for
Epirus. As Pausanias tells us, it was immediately spread abroad, that
Aidoneus, or Pluto, as he was called, had done it, the act having been
really committed by others, according to his orders. As those who
carried her off concealed themselves in the caverns of Mount Ætna,
awaiting their opportunity to escape, it was afterwards fabled that
Pluto came out of the Infernal Regions at that place; as that
mountain, from its nature, was always deemed one of the outlets of
Hell. Upon this, Ceres went to Greece, in search of her daughter; and,
resting at Eleusis, in Attica, she heard that the ship in which her
daughter was carried away had sailed westward. On this, she complained
to Jupiter, one of the Titan kings, but could obtain no further
satisfaction than that her daughter should be permitted to visit her
occasionally, whereby, at length, her grief was mitigated.

Banier does not agree with these suggestions of Pezeron and Le Clerc,
and thinks that Ceres is no other personage than the Isis of the
Egyptians, supposing that the story is founded on the following
circumstance:--Greece, he says, was afflicted with famine in the
reign of Erectheus, who was obliged to send to Egypt for corn, when
those who went for it brought back the worship of the Deity who
presided over agriculture. The evils which the Athenians had suffered
by the famine, and the dread of again incurring the same calamity,
made them willingly embrace the rites of a Goddess whom they believed
able to protect them from it. Triptolemus established her worship in
Eleusis, and there instituted the mysteries which he had brought over
from Egypt. These had been previously introduced into Sicily, which
was the reason why it was said that Ceres came from Sicily to Athens.
Her daughter was said to have been taken away, because corn and fruit
had not been produced in sufficient quantities, for some time, to
furnish food for the people. Pluto was said to have carried her to the
Infernal regions, because the grain and seeds at that time remained
buried, as it were, at the very center of the earth. Jupiter was said
to have decided the difference between Ceres and Pluto, because the
earth again became covered with crops.

This appears to be an ingenious allegorical explanation of the story;
but it is not at all improbable that it may have been founded upon
actual facts, and that, having lost her daughter, and going to Attica
to seek her, Ceres taught Triptolemus the mysteries of Isis; and that,
in process of time, Ceres, having become enrolled among the Divinities
of Greece, her worship became confounded with that of Isis.

It is very possible that the story of the transformation of Stellio
into a newt may have had no other foundation than the Poet’s fancy.

FABLE V. [V. 462-563]

Ceres proceeds in a fruitless search for her daughter over the whole
earth, until the Nymph Arethusa acquaints her with the place of her
ravisher’s abode. The Goddess makes her complaint to Jupiter, and
obtains his consent for her daughter’s return to the upper world,
provided she has not eaten anything since her arrival in Pluto’s
dominions. Ascalaphus, however, having informed that she has eaten
some seeds of a pomegranate, Ceres is disappointed, and Proserpine, in
her wrath, metamorphoses the informer into an owl. The Sirens have
wings given them by the Gods, to enable them to be more expeditious in
seeking for Proserpine. Jupiter, to console Ceres for her loss,
decides that her daughter shall remain six months each year with her
mother upon earth, and the other six with her husband, in the Infernal
Regions.

“It were a tedious task[59] to relate through what lands and what seas the Goddess wandered; for her search the world was too limited. She returns to Sicily; and while, in her passage, she views all {places}, she comes, too, to Cyane; she, had she not been transformed, would have told her everything. But both mouth and tongue were wanting to her, {thus} desirous to tell, and she had no means whereby to speak. Still, she gave unmistakable tokens, and pointed out, on the top of the water, the girdle[60] of Proserpine, well known to her parent, which by chance had fallen off in that place into the sacred stream.

“Soon as she recognized this, as if then, at last, she fully understood that her daughter had been carried away[61] the Goddess tore her unadorned hair, and struck her breast again and again with her hands. Not as yet does she know where she is, yet she exclaims against all countries, and calls them ungrateful, and not worthy of the gifts of corn; {and} Trinacria before {all} others, in which she has found the proofs of her loss. Wherefore, with vengeful hand, she there broke the ploughs that were turning up the clods, and, in her anger, consigned to a similar death both the husbandmen and the oxen that cultivated the fields, and ordered the land to deny a return of what had been deposited {therein}, and rendered the seed corrupted. The fertility of the soil, famed over the wide world, lies in ruin, the corn dies in the early blade, and sometimes excessive heat of the sun, sometimes excessive showers, spoil it. Both the Constellations and the winds injure it, and the greedy birds pick up the seed as it is sown; darnel, and thistles, and unconquerable weeds, choke the crops of wheat.

“Then the Alpheian Nymph[62] raised her head from out of the Elean waters, and drew back her dripping hair from her forehead to her ears, and said, “O thou mother of the virgin sought over the whole world, and of the crops {as well}, cease {at length} thy boundless toil, and in thy wrath be not angered with a region that is faithful to thee. This land does not deserve it; and against its will it gave a path for {the commission of} the outrage. Nor am I {now} a suppliant for {my own} country; a stranger I am come hither. Pisa is my native place, and from Elis do I derive my birth. As a stranger do I inhabit Sicily, but this land is more pleasing to me than any other soil. I, Arethusa, now have this for my abode, this for my habitation; which, do thou, most kindly {Goddess}, preserve. Why I have been removed from my {native} place, and have been carried to Ortygia, through the waters of seas so spacious, a seasonable time will come for my telling thee, when thou shalt be eased of thy cares, and {wilt be} of more cheerful aspect. The pervious earth affords me a passage, and, carried beneath its lowest caverns, here I lift my head {again}, and behold the stars which I have not been used {to see}. While, then, I was running under the earth, along the Stygian stream, thy Proserpine was there beheld by my eyes.[63] {She} indeed {was} sad, and not as yet without alarm in her countenance, but still {she is} a queen, and the most ennobled {female} in the world of darkness; still, too, is she the powerful spouse of the Infernal King.”

“The mother, on hearing these words, stood amazed, as though she {had been made} of stone, and for a long time was like one stupefied; and when her intense bewilderment was dispelled by the weight of her grief, she departed in her chariot into the ætherial air, and there, with her countenance all clouded, she stood before Jupiter, much to his discredit, with her hair dishevelled; and she said, “I have come, Jupiter, as a suppliant to thee, both for my own offspring and for thine. If thou hast no respect for the mother, {still} let the daughter move her father; and I pray thee not to have the less regard for her, because she was brought forth by my travail. Lo! my daughter, so long sought for, has been found by me at last; if you call it finding[64] to be more certain of one’s loss; or if you call it finding, to know where she is. I will endure {the fact}, that she has been carried off, if he will only restore her. For, indeed, a daughter of thine is not deserving of a ravisher for a husband, if now my own daughter is.” Jupiter replied, “Thy daughter is a pledge and charge, in common to me and thee; but, should it please thee only to give right names to things, this deed is not an injury, but it is {a mark of} affection, nor will he, as a son-in-law, be any disgrace to us, if thou only, Goddess, shouldst give thy consent. Although other {recommendations} were wanting, how great a thing is it to be the brother of Jupiter! and besides, is it not because other points are not wanting, and because he is not my inferior, except by the accident {of his allotment of the Stygian abodes}? But if thy eagerness is so great for their separation, let Proserpine return to heaven; still upon this fixed condition, if she has touched no food there with her lips; for thus has it been provided by the law of the Destinies.”

“{Thus} he spoke; still Ceres is {now} resolved to fetch away her daughter; but not so do the Fates permit. For the damsel had broke her fast; and, while in her innocence she was walking about the finely-cultivated garden, she had plucked a pomegranate[65] from the bending tree, and had chewed in her mouth seven grains[66] taken from the pale rind. Ascalaphus[67] alone, of all persons, had seen this, whom Orphne, by no means the most obscure among the Nymphs of Avernus,[68] is said once to have borne to her own Acheron within {his} dusky caves. He beheld {this}, and cruelly prevented her return by his discovery. The Queen of Erebus grieved, and changed the informer into an accursed bird, and turned his head, sprinkled with the waters of Phlegethon,[69] into a beak, and feathers, and great eyes. He, {thus} robbed of his own {shape}, is clothed with tawny wings, his head becomes larger, his long nails bend inwards, and with difficulty can he move the wings that spring through his sluggish arms. He becomes an obscene bird, the foreboder of approaching woe, a lazy owl, a direful omen to mortals.

“But he, by his discovery, and his talkativeness, may seem to have merited punishment. Whence have you, daughters of Acheloüs,[70] feathers and the feet of birds, since you have the faces of maidens? Is it because, when Proserpine was gathering the flowers of spring, you were mingled in the number of her companions? After you had sought her in vain throughout the whole world, immediately, that the waters might be sensible of your concern, you wished to be able, on the support of your wings, to hover over the waves, and you found the Gods propitious, and saw your limbs grow yellow with feathers suddenly formed. But lest the sweetness of your voice, formed for charming the ear, and so great endowments of speech, should lose the gift of a tongue, your virgin countenance and your human voice {still} remained.”

[Footnote 59: _A tedious task._--Ver. 463. ‘Dicere longa mora
est,’ is rendered by Clarke, ‘It is a tedious business to tell.’]

[Footnote 60: _The girdle._--Ver. 470. The zone, or girdle,
a fastening round the loins, was much worn by both sexes among
the ancients. It was sometimes made of netted work, and the chief
use of it was for holding up the tunic, and keeping it from
dragging on the ground. Among the Romans, the Magister Equitum, or
‘Master of the Horse,’ wore a girdle of red leather, embroidered
by the needle, and having its extremities joined by a gold buckle.
It also formed part of the cuirass of the warrior. The girdle was
used sometimes by men to hold money instead of a purse; and the
‘pera,’ ‘wallet,’ or ‘purse,’ was generally fastened to the
girdle. As this article of dress was used to hold up the garments
for the sake of expedition, it was loosened when people were
supposed to be abstracted from the cares of the world, as in
performing sacrifice or attending at funeral rites. A girdle was
also worn by the young women, even when the tunic was not girt up;
and it was only discontinued by them on the day of marriage. To
that circumstance, allusion is made in the present instance, as a
proof of the violence that had been committed on Proserpine.]

[Footnote 61: _Had been carried away._--Ver. 471. Clarke
translates ‘tunc denique raptam Scisset,’ ‘knew that she had been
kidnapped.’]

[Footnote 62: _Alpheian Nymph._--Ver. 487. Alpheus was a river of
Elis, in the northwestern part of Peloponnesus. Its present name
is ‘Carbon.’]

[Footnote 63: _Beheld by my eyes._--Ver. 505. Ovid here makes
Arethusa the discoverer to Ceres of the fate of her daughter. In
the Fourth Book of the Fasti, he represents the Sun as giving her
that information, in which he follows the account given by Homer.
Apollodorus describes the descent of Pluto as taking place at
Hermione, a town of Argolis, in Peloponnesus, and the people of
that place as informing Ceres of what had happened to her
daughter.]

[Footnote 64: _If you call it finding._--Ver. 520. This remark of
the Goddess is very like that of the Irish sailor, who vowed that
a thing could not be said to be lost when one knows where it is;
and that his master’s kettle was quite safe, for he knew it to be
at the bottom of the sea.]

[Footnote 65: _Plucked a pomegranate._--Ver. 535. It was for this
reason that the Thesmophoriazusæ, in the performance of the rites
of Ceres, were especially careful not to taste the pomegranate.
This fruit was most probably called ‘malum,’ or ‘pomum punicum,’
or ‘puniceum,’ from the deep red or purple color of the inside,
and not as having been first introduced from Phœnicia.]

[Footnote 66: _Seven grains._--Ver. 537. He says here ‘seven,’ but
in the Fourth Book of the Fasti, only ‘three’ grains.]

[Footnote 67: _Ascalaphus._--Ver. 539. He was the son of Acheron,
by the Nymph Orphne, or Gorgyra, according to Apollodorus. The
latter author says, that for his unseasonable discovery, Ceres
placed a rock upon him; but that, having been liberated by
Hercules, she changed him into an owl, called ὦτον. The Greek name
of a lizard being ἀσκάλαβος, Mellman thinks that the
transformation of the boy into a newt, or kind of lizard, which
has just been related by the Poet, may have possibly originated in
a confused version of the story of Ascalaphus.]

[Footnote 68: _Avernus._--Ver. 540. Avernus was a lake of
Campania, near Baiæ, of a fetid smell and gloomy aspect. Being
feigned to be the mouth, or threshold, of the Infernal Regions,
its name became generally used to signify Tartarus, or the
Infernal Regions. The name is said to have been derived from the
Greek word ἄορνος, ‘without birds,’ or ‘unfrequented by birds,’ as
they could not endure the exhalations that were emitted by it.]

[Footnote 69: _Phlegethon._--Ver. 544. This was a burning river of
the Infernal Regions; which received its name from the Greek word
φλέγω, ‘to burn.’]

[Footnote 70: _Acheloüs._--Ver. 552. The Sirens were said to be
the daughters of the river Acheloüs and of one of the Muses,
either Calliope, Melpomene, or Terpsichore.]

EXPLANATION.

Apollodorus says, that the terms of the treaty respecting Proserpine
were, that she should stay on earth nine months with Ceres, and three
with Pluto, in the Infernal Regions. Other writers divide the time
equally; six months to Ceres, and six to Pluto. They also tell us that
the story of Ascalaphus is founded on the fact, that he was one of the
courtiers of Pluto, who, having advised his master to carry away
Proserpine, did all that lay in his power to obstruct the endeavors of
Ceres, and hinder the restoration of her daughter, on which Proserpine
had him privately destroyed; to screen which deed the Fable was
invented; the pernicious counsels which he gave his master being
signified by the seeds of the pomegranate. It has also been suggested
that the story of his change into an owl was based on the circumstance
that he was the overseer of the mines of Pluto, in which he perished,
removed from the light of day. Perhaps he was there crushed to death
by the fall of a rock, which caused the poets to say that Proserpine
had covered him with a large stone, as Apollodorus informs us, who
also says that it was Ceres who inflicted the punishment upon him. The
name ‘Ascalaphus’ signifies, ‘one that breaks stones,’ and, very
probably, that name was only given him to denote his employment. Some
writers state that he was changed into a lizard, which the Greeks call
‘Ascalabos,’ and, probably, the resemblance between the names gave
rise to this version of the story.

Probably, the story of the Nymph Cyane reproaching Pluto with his
treatment of Proserpine, and being thereupon changed by him into a
fountain, has no other foundation than the propinquity of the place
where Pluto’s emissaries embarked to a stream of that name near the
city of Syracuse; which was, perhaps, overflowing at that time, and
may have impeded their passage.

Ovid, probably, feigned that the Sirens begged the Gods to change them
into birds, that they might seek for Proserpine, on the ground of some
existing tradition, that living on the coast of Italy, near the island
of Sicily, and having heard of the misfortune that had befallen her,
they ordered a ship with sails to be equipped to go in search of her.
Further reference to the Sirens will be made, on treating of the
adventures of Ulysses.

FABLE VI. [V.564-641]

The Muse continues her song, in which Ceres, being satisfied with the
decision of Jupiter relative to her daughter, returns to Arethusa, to
learn the history of her adventures. The Nymph entertains the Goddess
with the Story of the passion of Alpheus, and his pursuit of her; to
avoid which, she implores the assistance of Diana, who changes her
into a fountain.

“But Jupiter being the mediator between his brother and his disconsolate sister, divides the rolling year equally {between them}. For {now}, the Goddess, a common Divinity of two kingdoms, is so many months with her mother, and just as many with her husband. Immediately the appearance of both her mind and her countenance is changed; for the brow of the Goddess, which, of late, might appear sad, even to Pluto, himself, is full of gladness; as the Sun, which has lately been covered with watery clouds, when he comes forth from the clouds, {now} dispersed. The genial Ceres, {now} at ease on the recovery of her daughter, {thus} asks, ‘What was the cause of thy wanderings? Why art thou, Arethusa, a sacred spring?’ The waters are silent, {and}, the Goddess raises her head from the deep fountain; and, having dried her green tresses with her hand, she relates the old amours of the stream of Elis.[71]

“‘I was,’ says she, ‘one of the Nymphs which exist in Achaia, nor did any one more eagerly skim along the glades than myself, nor with more industry set the nets. But though the reputation for beauty was never sought by me, although, {too}, I was of robust make, {still} I had the name of being beautiful. But my appearance, when so much commended, did not please me; and I, like a country lass, blushed at those endowments of person in which other females are wont to take a pride, and I deemed it a crime to please. I remember, I was returning weary from the Stymphalian[72] wood; the weather was hot, and my toil had redoubled the intense heat. I found a stream gliding on without any eddies, without any noise, {and} clear to the bottom; through which every pebble, at so great a depth, might be counted, {and} which you could hardly suppose to be in motion. The hoary willows[73] and poplars, nourished by the water, furnished a shade, spontaneously produced, along the shelving banks. I approached, and, at first, I dipped the soles of my feet, and then, as far as the knee. Not content with that, I undressed, and I laid my soft garments upon a bending willow; and, naked, I plunged into the waters.

“‘While I was striking them, and drawing them {towards me}, moving in a thousand ways, and was sending forth my extended arms, I perceived a most unusual murmuring noise beneath the middle of the stream; and, alarmed, I stood on the edge of the nearer bank. ‘Whither dost thou hasten, Arethusa?’ said Alpheus from his waves. ‘Whither dost thou hasten?’ again he said to me, in a hollow tone. Just as I was, I fled without my clothes; {for} the other side had my garments. So much the more swiftly did he pursue, and become inflamed; and, because I was naked, the more tempting to him did I appear. Thus was I running; thus unrelentingly was he pursuing me; as the doves are wont to fly from the hawk with trembling wings, and as the hawk is wont to pursue the trembling doves, I held out in my course even as far as Orchomenus,[74] and Psophis,[75] and Cyllene, and the Mænalian valleys, and cold Erymanthus and Elis. Nor was he swifter than I, but unequal to {him} in strength, I was unable, any longer, to keep up the chase; for he was able to endure prolonged fatigue. However, I ran over fields {and} over mountains covered with trees, rocks too, and crags, and where there was no path. The sun was upon my back; I saw a long shadow advancing before my feet, unless, perhaps, it was my fear that saw it. But, at all events, I was alarmed at the sound of his feet, and his increased hardness of breathing was {now} fanning the fillets of my hair. Wearied with the exertion of my flight, I said, ‘Give aid, Dictynna, to thy armor-bearer, {or} I am overtaken; {I}, to whom thou hast so often given thy bow to carry, and thy darts enclosed in a quiver.’ The Goddess was moved, and, taking one of the dense clouds, she threw it over me. The river looked about for me, concealed in the darkness, and, in his ignorance sought about the encircling cloud and twice, unconsciously did he go around the place where the Goddess had concealed me, and twice did he cry, ‘Ho, Arethusa![76] Ho, Arethusa!’ What, then, were my feelings in my wretchedness? Were they not just those of the lamb, as it hears the wolves howling around the high sheep-folds? Or of the hare, which, lurking in the bush, beholds the hostile noses of the dogs, and dares not make a single movement with her body? Yet he does not depart; for no {further} does he trace any prints of my feet. He watches the cloud and the spot. A cold perspiration takes possession of my limbs {thus} besieged, and azure colored drops distil from all my body. Wherever I move my foot, {there} flows a lake; drops trickle from my hair, and, in less time than I take in acquainting thee with my fate, I was changed into a stream. But still the river recognized the waters, the objects of his love; and, having laid aside the shape of a mortal, which he had assumed, he was changed into his own waters, that he might mingle with me. {Thereupon}, the Delian Goddess cleaved the ground. Sinking, I was carried through dark caverns to Ortygia,[77] which, being dear to me, from the surname of my own Goddess, was the first to introduce me to the upper air.’”

[Footnote 71: _Stream of Elis._--Ver. 576. The Alpheus really rose
in Arcadia; but, as it ran through the territory of the Eleans,
and discharged itself into the sea, near Cyllene, the seaport of
that people, they worshipped it with divine honors.]

[Footnote 72: _Stymphalian._--Ver. 585. Stymphalus was the name of
a city, mountain, and river of Arcadia, near the territory of
Elis.]

[Footnote 73: _Hoary willows._--Ver. 590. The leaf of the willow
has a whitish hue, especially on one side of it.]

[Footnote 74: _Orchomenus._--Ver. 607. This was a city of Arcadia,
in a marshy district, near to Mantinea. There was another place of
the same name, in Bœotia, between Elatea and Coronea, famous for a
splendid temple to the Graces, there erected.]

[Footnote 75: _Psophis._--Ver. 607. This was a city of Arcadia
also, adjoining to the Elean territory, which received its name
from Psophis, the daughter of Lycaon, or of Eryx, according to
some writers. There were several other towns of the same name.
The other places here mentioned, with the exception of Elis, were
mountains of Arcadia.]

[Footnote 76: _Ho, Arethusa!_--Ver. 625-6. Clarke thus translates
these lines:--‘And twice called out Soho, Arethusa! Soho,
Arethusa! What thought had I then, poor soul!’]

[Footnote 77: _To Ortygia._--Ver. 640. From the similarity of its
name to that of the Goddess Diana, who was called Ortygia, from
the Isle of Delos, where she was born.]

EXPLANATION.

Bochart tells us that the story of the fountain Arethusa and the river
Alpheus, her lover, who traversed so many countries in pursuit of her,
has no other foundation than an equivocal expression in the language
of the first inhabitants of Sicily. The Phœnicians, who went to settle
in that island, finding the fountain surrounded with willows, gave it
the name of ‘Alphaga,’ or ‘the fountain of the willows.’ Others,
again, gave it the name of ‘Arith,’ signifying ‘a stream.’ The Greeks,
arriving there in after ages, not understanding the signification of
these words, and remembering their own river Alpheus, in Elis,
imagined that since the river and the fountain had nearly the same
name, Alpheus had crossed the sea, to arrive in Sicily.

This notion appearing, probably, to the poets not devoid of ingenuity,
they accordingly founded on it the romantic story of the passion of
the river God Alpheus for the Nymph Arethusa. Some of the ancient
historians appear, however, in their credulity, really to have
believed, at least, a part of the story, as they seriously tell us,
that the river Alpheus passes under the bed of the sea, and rises
again in Sicily, near the fountain of Arethusa. Even among the more
learned, this fable gained credit; for we find the oracle of Delphi
ordering Archias to conduct a colony of Corinthians to Syracuse, and
the priestess giving the following directions:--‘Go into that island
where the river Alpheus mixes his waters with the fair Arethusa.’

Pausanias avows, that he regards the story of Alpheus and Arethusa as
a mere fable; but, not daring to dispute a fact established by the
response of an oracle, he does not contradict the fact of the river
running through the sea, though he is at a loss to understand how it
can happen.

FABLE VII. [V.642-678]

Ceres entrusts her chariot to Triptolemus, and orders him to go
everywhere, and cultivate the earth. He obeys her, and, at length,
arrives in Scythia, where Lyncus, designing to kill him, is changed
into a lynx. The Muse then finishes her song, on which the daughters
of Pierus are changed into magpies.

“Thus far Arethusa. The fertile Goddess yoked[78] two dragons to her chariot, and curbed their mouths with bridles; and was borne through the mid air of heaven and of earth, and guided her light chariot to the Tritonian citadel, to Triptolemus; and she ordered him to scatter the seeds that were entrusted {to him} partly in the fallow ground, {and} partly {in the ground} restored to cultivation after so long a time. Now had the youth been borne on high over Europe and the lands of Asia,[79] and he arrived at the coast of Scythia: Lyncus was the king there. He entered the house of the king. Being asked whence he came, and the occasion of his coming, and his name, and his country, he said, ‘My country is the famous Athens, my name is Triptolemus. I came neither in a ship through the waves, nor on foot by land; the pervious sky made a way for me. I bring the gifts of Ceres, which, scattered over the wide fields, are to yield {you} the fruitful harvests, and wholesome food.’ The barbarian envies him; and that he himself may be {deemed} the author of so great a benefit, he receives him with hospitality, and, when overpowered with sleep, he attacks him with the sword. {But}, while attempting to pierce his breast, Ceres made him a lynx; and again sent the Mopsopian[80] youth to drive the sacred drawers of her chariot through the air.

“The greatest of us[81] had {now} finished her learned song. But the Nymphs, with unanimous voice, pronounced that the Goddesses who inhabit Helicon had proved the conquerors. Then the others, {thus} vanquished, began to scatter their abuse: ‘Since,’ said she, ‘it is a trifling matter for you to have merited punishment by this contest, you add abuse, too, to your fault, and endurance is not permitted us: we shall proceed to punishment, and whither our resentment calls, we shall follow.’ The Emathian sisters smiled, and despised our threatening language; and endeavoring to speak, and to menace with their insolent hands amid great clamor, they beheld quills growing out of their nails, and their arms covered with feathers. And they each see the face of the other shooting out into a hard beak, and new birds being added to the woods. And while they strive to beat their breasts elevated by the motion of their arms, they hang poised in the air, {as} magpies, the scandal of the groves. Even then their original talkativeness remains in {them} as birds, and their jarring garrulity, and their enormous love of chattering.”

[Footnote 78: _Goddess yoked._--Ver. 642. Clarke renders ‘geminos
Dea fertilis angues curribus admovit,’ ‘the fertile Goddess
clapped two snakes to her chariot.’]

[Footnote 79: _Lands of Asia._--Ver. 648. Asia Minor is here
meant; the other parts of Asia being included under the term
‘Scythicas oras.’]

[Footnote 80: _Mopsopian._--Ver. 661. This very uneuphonious name
is derived from Mopsopus, one of the ancient kings of Attica. It
here means ‘Athenian.’]

[Footnote 81: _The greatest of us._--Ver. 662. Namely, Calliope,
who had commenced her song as the representative of the Muses, at
line 341.]

EXPLANATION.

Triptolemus reigned at Eleusis at the time when the mysteries of Ceres
were established there. As we are told by Philochorus, he went with a
ship, to carry corn into different countries, and introduced there the
worship of Ceres, whose priest he was. This is, doubtless, the key for
the explanation of the story, that Ceres nursed him on her own milk,
and purified him by fire. Some have supposed that the fable refers to
the epoch when agriculture was introduced into Greece: but it is much
more probable that it relates simply to the introduction there of the
mysterious worship of Ceres, which was probably imported from Egypt.
It is possible that, at the same period, the Greeks may have learned
some improved method of tilling the ground, acquired by their
intercourse with Egypt.

Probably, the dangers which Triptolemus experienced in his voyages and
travels, gave rise to the story of Lyncus, whose cruelty caused him to
be changed into a lynx. Bochart and Le Clerc think that the fable of
Triptolemus being drawn by winged dragons, is based upon the equivocal
meaning of a Phœnician word, which signified either ‘a winged dragon,’
or ‘a ship fastened with iron nails or bolts.’ Philochorus, however,
as cited by Eusebius, says that his ship was called a flying dragon,
from its carrying the figure of a dragon on its prow. We learn from a
fragment of Stobæus, that Erectheus, when engaged in a war against the
Eleusinians, was told by the oracle that he would be victorious, if he
sacrificed his daughter Proserpine. This, perhaps, may have given
rise, or added somewhat, to the story of the rape of Proserpine by
Pluto.

According to a fragment of Homer, cited by Pausanias, the names of the
first Greeks, who were initiated into the mysteries of Ceres,
were,--Celeus, Triptolemus, Eumolpus, and Diocles. Clement of
Alexandria calls them Baubon, Dysaulus, Eubuleüs, Eumolpus, and
Triptolemus. Eumolpus being the Hierophant, or explainer of the
mysteries of Eleusis, made war against Erectheus, king of Athens. They
were both killed in battle, and it was thereupon agreed that the
posterity of Erectheus should be kings of Athens, and the descendants
of Eumolpus should, in future, retain the office of Hierophant.