harveft when the ground is fo exceffive hot, that the fnail, or goixes, cannot bear it. Ver. 269 It is remarkable, that Virgil, and other Latin poets, generally use the epithet rauca to cicada; whereas the Greeks defcribe the rig as a nufical creature, Τετράγος έπει τόγε φέρτερον aders. Theoc. Idyl. I. You fing sweeter than a grafhopper. Μακαρίζομεν σε, τετίιξι Βασιλευς όπως, αείδεις. ANACREON. Sipping dew, you sip and fing. We have a fuller defcription of this creature in the fhield of Hercules: The feafon when the grafhopper begun To welcome with his fong the fummer fun; I must here take notice, that the grafhopper, in the original, is xera Terug. and, in another place, he feems to rank them with birds; for all the other birds that are vocal, says he, exprefs their found, like man, with the mouth; but the tone of the rerig is by the verberation of a little membrane about the loins. Aristotle does not give us much light upon the queftion: he fays g Zow, lib. v. there are two forts of Tryss, a larger and a smaller fort; that the large and vocal species were called axiras, but the fall ruya; and fubjoins, that no s Tyes are to be found, where no trees are; a point that will prefently fall under confideration. But we learn fomething farther from Ælian, de Animal. lib. xii., that thefe rays were not only more vocal than what are now met with, but of a fize big enough to be fold for food; that there was likewife a fea grafhopper, if we are to call it fo, of the bignefs of a fall crab or cray fish, which made fome noife when ever it was taken, lib. xiii. Thefe, indeed, were feldom made ufe of for food, by reason of a fingular fuperftition, for the Serephians paid them fuch uncommon homage, as to bury, and weep over, any of them which died, because they esteemed them facred to Perfeus, the son of Jupiter. There is another circumstance, afferted by a number of authors, in which the rirbyss differed from our grashoppers; and that is, of their fitting and finging in trees. It is evident, fays Euftathius, ad iliad iii., that the Thys fing aloft; for a great part of their fongs come from the branches of trees, and not from the ground. This neceffarily brings me to remember, fays he, that fymbolical threatening, which a certain prince fent to his enemies, that he would make their eyes fing on the ground; meaning, that he would cut down their trees, and lay their country wafte. Ariftotle περι ρητο gins, and Demetrius quins, both record this expreffion, but afcribe it to different perfons: and that may be the reason Euftathius names no particular perfon for it: nor did thefe yes fing only upon fhrubs and bushes, but on the tops of the moft lofty trees. Archias, in his epigram, the green boughs of the flourishing pitchtree; and Leonidas, in another which immediately follows, gives an epithet alluding to its nefting in the oak, δρυοκοιτα τετίγια *" The Greek poets, agreeing thus in their de"fcription of this creature, give me reafon to be"lieve the common tranflation of this word into "cicada is falfe. Henry Stephens, and others, "give us an account of the cicada, and acheta, "the latter of which, fay they, is the finger." The following collection, concerning this creature, by Mr. Theobald. The ηχετα τετξ, or male finging grafhopper, has fuch properties afcribed to it, by the ancients, as ought to leave us greatly in doubt, whether it could be the fame animal which we now call by that name. I will fubjoinvid. Anthol. Græc. mentions the 7 fitting upon what I have met with in authors concerning it, and think the contents of fuch extracts may stand for reafons. Hefiod, Anacreon, Theocritus, Ariftophanes, &c. all concur to celebrate the sweetness of its note: and the old Scholiaft upon Aristophanes particularly acquaints us, that the Athenians, of the most early times, wore golden grafhoppers in their hair; because, being a musical animal, it was facred to Apollo, who was one of their tutelar deities. I can remember but a fingle paffage that contains any thing spoken in derogation of the melody of the rer, and that is from Simonides, as quoted by Atheneus. Tav austgos rezĥyes, Lib. xv. cap. 8. Cafaubon renders it, Quam cicada mo"dorum nefciæ;" and tells us, that the arts here ftand for bad poets, or bad fingers. The utmost talent, I think, of our grafhoppers now known, is an acute, but not over grateful, chirping. Alian, in particular, de Animal. inftances, among the preferences that nature gives to the male fex in animals, the finging of the male grafhoppers: Lastly, Another circumftance, in which the ri rys alfo differed from our grafhoppers, is, that ours only hop and fkip lightly, the other feem to have had a power of flying like birds. Ælian, de Animal. lib. v. gives us more than a fufpicion of this, or tells us a very ridiculous ftory, if he did not believe it. He begins with informing us, that the Trys both of Rhegium and Locri, if they were removed out of their own confines into the other, became entirely mute; a change, that nature only could account for. He fubjoins to this, that as Rhegium and Locri are feparated by a fmall river, though the distance from bank to bank was not, at most, above an acre's breadth, thefe yes never fly over [8 dia] to the oppofite bank. Paufanias, Halaxe i. (who gives us the name of this river, Caecinus), puts a different turn upon the ftory of thefe memorable yes, that thofe on the fide of Locri were as fhrill as any whatever, but that none of thofe within the territories of Rhegium were ever vocal. So much for grafhoppers. I thought what is mentioned by our poet, concerning the sweetness of their voice, and their perching on trees, might make this note neceffary. Ver. 284. The Scholiaft tells us this wine took its name from a country in Thrace abounding with fine wines. Armenidas is of the fame opinion; and Epicharmus fays it is fo called from the Byblian hills. This is mentioned in the catalogue of wines which Philinus gives us; viz. the Lefbian, Chian, Thafian, Byblian, and Mendæan. critus, in his fourteenth Idyllium, call it the fine flavoured Byblian. Le Clerc Theo Ver. 285. The Greeks never accustomed themfelves to drink their wine unmixed When Ulyffes parted from Calypfo. Homer tells us, he took with him" one veffel of wine, and another large one of water." Meander says; rgus vdaros' one d' "three of water; and but one of wine." Barnes's Homer. In the fourth book of the Iliad we find Agamemnon complimenting Idomeneus in this manner: Ver. 302. As the business of agriculture is to be minded from the rifing and fetting of the Pleïades, that of the vintage is from the appearance of Arcturus; when it appears in the evening the vines are to be pruned, and when in the morning the grapes are to be gathered. This, according to the Scholiaft, is fometime after the ninth of Auguft. Ver 312. Here the poet ends the labours of the year, fo far as relates to the harvest and the vintage, concluding with his irft inftruction founded on the fetting of the Pleiades. For the ftory of Orion, who was changed into a constellation, and the Pleiades, look on the note to the first line of this book. Ver. 316. The directions for the management of the vefels, to haul them on fhore, to block them round with ftones, to keep them fteady, to drain the keel, &c. and the particular inftructions for the voyage, fhow their thips not to have been very large, nor their commerce very extenfive. The largest man of war, mentioned by Homer, in the Grecian fleet, carrying but one hundred and twenty men. where his father lived, from Cuma in Italy, famous for the birth of the fybil of that name. Ver 336. The Eolian ifles took their name from Æolus their king, who was a great mathematician for his time, and ikilful in marine affairs, for which he was afterwards called God of the Winds, Tzetz. It is not unlikely that Hefiod Ver. 356 When we confider this pofitive declaration of his travels, which feems, as I obferved before, as if he designed to prevent mistakes, and that Boeotia and Euboea are both iflands, we cannot in the leaft difpute his being a Bastian born. Ver. 365. The honour here paid to poetry, is very great; for we find the tripod the reward only of great and confiderable actions. Agamemnon, in the eighth book of the Iliad, feeing the gallant and wonderful exploits of Teucer, promifes, if they take Troy, to give him a tripod, as the meed of his valour; and, among other things, the tripod is offered to Achilles, to regain his friendfhip, when he had left the field. Paufanias, book 5. give us an account of the funeral games in honour of Pelias, viz. the chariot-race, the quoiting, the difcus, the boxing with the cœtus, &c. where Jafon, Peleus, and other heroes of the age, contended, and the victor in each had a tripod for his reward. Tripods were for various ufes; fome were confecra ed to the fervice of religion; fome used as feats, fome as tables, and fome as ornaments; they were fupported on three feet, with handles to their fides. Ver. 383. Neptune is called Earthshaker, becaufe water, according to the opinion of the ancients, is the caufe of earthquakes. Tzetz. Here the names of Jupiter and Neptune, can be used with no other but a phyfical meaning, that is, for the air and the fea; fo that the end of mariners are justly faid to be in the hands of Jupiter and Neptune. Ver. 419. The reafon the Spartan lawgiver gave for advifing men not to marry till fuch an age, was because the children fhould be strong and vigorous. Hefiod's advice, both for the age of the man and the woman, feems to be reasonably grounded. A man at thirty is certainly as ftrong in his underftanding as ever he can be; fo far at least as will ferve him to conduct his family affairs. A maid of fifteen comes fresh from the care of her parents, without any tincture of the temper of another man; a prudent husband, therefore, may form her miud according to his own: for this reafon he would have her a virgin, knowing likewife that the impreflion a woman receives from a first love is not cafily erafed. Ver. 474. Hector ufes almof the fame words in which the precept is laid down: Κερςι δ' ανέπλοισιν δε λείβειν αίθοπα οίνον 11. z. "I am afraid to pour libations of black wine to "Jove with unwashed hands." I quote this, as I have other paffages with the fame view, only to fhow that the fame cufton was held facred in the time of the Trojan wars, according to Homer, as in the days of Heliod. Ver. 480. Some of the commentators, and Fzetaes had a fecret meaning in each of these superstitious precepts, and that they are not to be took literally, but as fo many allegories. In answer to them, we may as well imagine all the Talmud and Levitical laws to be the fame. They might as well have faid, that the poet would not have us pifs towards the fun for fear we should hurt our eyes. I know not whether these and the following precepts favour most of the age of the poet, or of the poet's old age. Ver. 492. This doubtless is a part of the super ftition of the age, though the Scholiaft would give us a phyfical reafon for abftinence at that time; which is, left the melancholy of the mind fhould affect the fruit of the enjoyment. Indeed, the next lines feem to favour this conjecture; and perhaps the poet endeavoured, while he was laying down a religious precept, to ftrengthen it by philofophy. Ver. 530. These verses are rejected by Plutarch, whofe authority Proclus makes ufe of, as not of our poet. Guietus. BOOK III *. THE ARGUMENT. THE poet here diftinguishes holidays from others, and what are propitious and what not, for different works; and concludes with a short recommendation of religion and morality. YOUR fervants to a juft obfervance train Of ev'ry month, the most propitious day, 10 20 From fowing, left your work fhould prove in vain, Though then the grain may find a barren foil, The day is grateful to the planter's toil. The *The precepts laid down in this book, concerning the difference of days, from the motion of the moon. feem to be founded partly on nature, and partly on the fuperfition of the times in which they were writ. whole is but a fort of in almanack in verfe, and affords little room for poetry. Our author, I think, has jumbled bis days too negligently together; which tonfufion, Valla, in his tranflation, bas prevented by ranging the days in proper fucceffion; a liberty I was fearful to take, as a tranflator, because almost every line must have been tranf pofed from the original di pofition: I bave therefore, at the end of the notes, drazun a table of days in their fucselfive order, Not fo the fixteenth to the planter's care; 30 A day unlucky to the new-born fair, You wed, on the fourth day lead home your wife; The fifths of ev'ry month your care require, 71 Uninterrupted in the ninth pursue These are the days of which th' obfervance can O happy mortal! happy he, and bless'd, 90 NOTES ON THE THIRD BOOK OF THE WORKS AND DAYS. Ver. 1. That is, teach them how to distinguish lucky days from other. It was cuftomary among the Romans to hang up tables, wherein the fortubate and unfortunate days were marked, as appears from Petronius, chap. 30. Le Clerc. ' of opinion that the ant is a creature capable of diftinction from a fenfe of the winds, and the influ ence of the moon: he likewife tells us, from Pliny, that the ants employ themselves all the time of the full of the moon, and cease at the change. Ver 3. Jove may be faid to prefide over the Ver. 24. Melancthon and Frifius tell us it is year naturally, from the raotion of the celestial bo-wrong so fow at this time of the lunar month, bedies in the heavens, or, religioufly, from his divine caufe of the exceffive moisture, which is hurtful to administration. the corn-feed, and advantageous to plants just planted. Ver. 54. I tranflate it," the feather'd race that fly," to diftinguish what kind of augury the poet means. Tzetzes tells us, two crows, the halcy on, or king's-fisher, the dark-coloured hern, a single turtle, and a swallow, &c. are inaufpicious; the peacock, and fuch birds as do no mischief, aufpicious. I fuppofe he does not place the turtle as one of the mischievous kind, but would have the misfortune be in seeing but one. Ver. 10. Tzetzes endeavours to account for Apollo being born in the seventh day, by argumen's from nature, making him the fame with the fun; which error Valla has run into in his tranflation. The mistake is very plain, if we have recourfe to the Theogony; where the poet makes Latona bring forth Apollo, and Artemis or Diana, to Jove; and in the fame poem makes the fun and moon fpring from Thia and Hyperion: Hefiod therefore meaned it no otherwife than the birthday of one of their imaginary gods. He tells us all the first, fourth, and twentieth, of every month are holidays; but he gives us no reason for their being fo. If a conjecture may be allowed, I think it not unlikely but the first may be the feaft of the Dew moon; which day was always held facred by the Jews: in which the people ceased from bufinefs. “When will the new moon be gone, that we may fell corn," Amos, chap. viii. ver. 5: but Le Clere will not allow gor nung here to be a festival: Ver. 92. It is worth obferving, that the poet beyet the fame critic tells us, from Dionyfius Petavi-gins and ends his poem with piety towards the us, that the Orientals, as well as the most ancient gods; the only way to make ourselves acceptable Greeks, went by the lunar month, which they to whom, fays he, is by adhering to religion; and, defed with the thirtieth day. to use the phrafe of Scripture, by evil." Ver. 18. The poet here makes the ant and the fpider fenfible of the days; and indeed Tzetzes is Ver. 60. He advises to thresh the corn at the time of the full moon, because the air is drier than at other times; and the corn that is facked, or put up in vessels, while dry, will keep the longer; but if the grain is moift, it will foon grow mouldy and ufelefs. In the preceding book, the poet tells us the proper month to fell wood in, and in this, the proper day of the month. Melanchon and Frifius. 66 efchewing OBSERVATIONS ON THE ANCIENT GREEK MONTH. I BELIEVE it will be neceffary, for the better understanding the following table, to fet in a clear light the ancient Greek month, as we may reasonably conclude it stood in the days of Hefiod, confining ourselves to the laft book of his Works and Days. "The middle fixth is unprofitable to plants." That is the fixth day of the middle decade. τη φύλαξη δε θυμα The poet makes the month contain thirty days, which thirty days he divides into three parts: the firft he calls 15, or as pros, in the geni- Tngad asuda Qiverlos D' Ver. 33. tive cafe, becaufe of fome other word which commonly joined requiring it to be of that cafe ; the root of which, 15 or 15, fignifies 1 erect," Keep in your mind to fhun the fourth of the enI fet up, I fettle, &c. and Henry Stephens inter- trance and end" of the month. That is the fourth prets the words sçaurve prvos, ineunte mense, the en- of the entrance or firft decade, and the fourth of trance of the month, in which sense the poet ufes the end or last decade. them; which entrance is the first decade, or first ten days. The second he calls suvros, which is from μήσου, I am in the midft, meaning the middle decade of the month. The third part he calls plavovtis, from pe, which is from qw, or pes, I waste away, meaning the decline, or laft decade of the month. Sometimes thefe words are used in the nominative cafe. Before I leave these remarks I fhall fhow the manner of expreflion of one day in each decade, It is proper to observe, that those days which are blanks, are by our poet called indifferent days, days of no importance, either good or bad. It is likewife remarkable, that he makes fome days both holidays and working days, as the fourth, fourteenth, and twentieth; but, to clear this, Le Clerc tells us, from our learned countryman, Selden, that gov nung, though literally a holiday, does not always fignify a festival, but often a day propitions to us in our undertakings. 4. Holiday. Propitious for marriage, and for repairing fhips. A day of troubles. 5. In which the furies take their round. 6. Unhappy for the birth of women. Propitious for the birth of men, for gelding the kid and the ram, and for penning the sheep. 7. The birth-day of Apollo. A holiday. 8. Geld the goat and the fteer. 9. Propitious quite through. Happy for the birth of both fexes. A day to plant in. 10. Propitious to the birth of men. DECADE II. 1. Day of Decade II, or 11th of the month. To reap. 2. For women to ply the loom, for the men to fheer the sheep, and geld the mule. 3. A day to plant in, and not to low. 4. Propitious for the birth of women. Break the mule and the ox. Teach your dog and your 5. 6. A day unlucky for the marriage, and birth of women. Propitious for the birth of men, and to plant. 7. Thresh the corn, and fell the wood. 8. 9. Luckieft in the afternoon. 10. Happy for the birth of men. Most propitious in the morning. A holiday. DECADE III. 1. Day of Decade III or 21ft of the month. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. Yoke the ox, the mule, and the horfe. FiM the veffels. Launch the ship. 10 Look over the business of the whole month and pay the fervants their wages. fheep to know you. Pierce the cask. A holi- Thofe days which are called bolidays in the Table, are day. in the original, gov npag. |