60 the Branch of the palm, BAI or BAIA; and both likewise conferred upon the soul of man, which partly from tradition, and partly from other internal evidence, they knew to be immortal, the same appellation - Εστι μεν γαρ το ΒΑΙ ψυχη.* Accordingly, we find in this very part of Campania which we are describing, an ancient town near the scite of the Elysian fields, which bears to this day, the name of Baia. The origin of this place, mentioned by the oldest mythologists, is sufficiently evident; and another instance of the same kind we shall have to notice hereafter. The Hades of Campania, moreover, had its fire-tower or Tursis, here called Triton, or Tarit-On; the latter radical denoting the sacred fire or flame, to the commemoration of which, the temple or tower called Tarit, was set apart and consecrated. It also answered the purpose of a defence to the sacred enclosure, and was supposed to be inhabited by a compound figure, represented upon coins and vases under the form of half a man and half a fish, blowing a concha or sea shell; which was in fact the usual custom of the priests who really inhabited *Horapollo, lib. i. cap. 7. p. 11. See also Parkhurst's Gr. Lexicon, vox Balov. both which other ortal, -vxn.* Cam Own ears of plo er to places of this nature, when situated upon the coast of any country. From the summit of the Tarit they gave notice of the approach of any vessel to their shores; the crew of which were generally obliged to sacrifice at least one of their company as an atonement for the rest, and also as the customary means of obtaining an oracular answer to direct their future progress. Virgil, indeed, unwilling to deface and disfigure his poem with so cruel a rite, has represented Misenus as finding a watery grave, and yet he sufficiently hints at what was the real catastrophe.* Misenum in littore sicco Ut venere vident indignâ morte peremptum ; Had the unhappy trumpeter really fallen into the sea, inter saxa, it is perhaps little likely they would have been able to procure his corse, for the magnificent funeral afterwards described, and which contributes so materially to the *Eneid vi. 162-174. sublime solemnity of that part of the Æneid. The matter is explained, however, by considering him as the usual victim offered up to the deity supposed to reside in the Triton or firetower, represented as above mentioned under a compound figure, the customary vestige of the Cherubim. Within a day's sail from the Hades of Campania was the celebrated island of Circe the enchantress, which was in fact only another spot dedicated to idolatrous worship arising out of paradisaical traditions, similar to those we have already considered. Its situation was considered by the ancients in the same light with that of Hades; for Homer makes Ulysses say;* * Ω φίλοι, ου γαρ τ' ιδμεν οπη ζοφος, ουδ οπη ηως, Ουδ οπη αννειται We know not here, what land before us lies, Or to what quarter now we turn our eyes, Or where the sun shall set, or where shall rise. Odyss. x. 190. Circe was, in Italy, what her sister Medea was in the sacred enclosure at Colchis, which we shall consider presently. This, however, furnishes another proof that these traditionary memorials were all derived from one and the same source; for on no other ground can their exact analogy be explained. The whole island was covered with a thick grove, in the midst of which stood the palace, or perhaps the temple of Circe, guarded by mountain wolves and brindled lions; Hinc exaudiri gemitus iræque leonum Vincla recusantum, et serâ sub nocte rudentum; Ulysses is preserved from the fate of his companions through the marvellous influence of the herb Moly,† which is presented him by Mercury, who appears to him in the grove under a human form, and is styled by the poet 66 Ερμειας Χρυσορραπις Hermes the golden Branch"bearer." And we may here observe that the same title is bestowed upon Teiresias in Hades, who is called by Homer "the bearer of the "golden rod or Branch." It is also remarkable * Eneid vii. 15. + The plant called Moly may be considered as another memorial derived from the Tree of Life; it was supposed to preserve the bearer from all peril, especially that, which he might incur within the precincts of the sacred grove. Homer describes it as known only to the immortals. See also a good remark on this point in the Ancient Univers. Hist. vol. vide i. p. 126. that this prophet of the invisible world had, according to Diodorus, a daughter named Daphne, a priestess at the oracle of Delphi, which we shall notice hereafter. The name of Daphne however, signifies a Branch of laurel, which on some occasions was held in almost equal repute with the Ramus or Branch of the palm tree, and both are often found in mythology confounded together. Whenever any person was seized with a dangerous distemper which threatened dissolution, it was usual to fix both these over his door: ΡΑΜΝΟΝ τε και κλαδον ΔΑΦΝΗΣ as Laertius* mentions, in his life of Bion the Boristḥenite; and it may be here remarked, that the staff of Esculapius, who was looked upon as the renewer or restorer of human life, and on that account the sufferer of divine vengeance for the sake of man; this wonderful staff, connected as it ever was with the serpent, is in fact a traditionary type of the same nature as the Aureus Ramus of Hades, and derived from the same source, namely, the Tree of Life * Cited in Potter's Arch, vol. i. |