"Cupid, fays the Poet, took his bow and arrows, and challenged me to fight. I armed myfelf all over, like another Achilles, and ftood against him. He fhot his arrows at me, and I fled. At laft, having fpent his artillery, he flung himfelf at me, and ftruck me to the heart." If the Poet ran away, Cupid muft have wounded him rather in the back, than in the heart. Paure noticed this abfurdity, and therefore explains peuyor by ceffim ibam, et pectore adverfo fugiebam: but this is a gratis dictum, and pye means no fuch thing. Inftead of "Elana', iya d'uyou, it should perhaps be *Εβαλλ', ἐγὼ δ ̓ ἄλευον. Ille fagittas mittebat; ego verò eas evitabam. AXELV, or, more ufually, aλeveda, is vitare. The Poet fhunned, and parried, and efcaped the arrows, like one of Homer's warriors, of whom it is faid, I. r. 360. Ὁ δ ̓ ἐκλίνθη, καὶ ἀλεύατο κήρα μέλαιναν. Strabo, Strabo, Lib. xΙν. fays, that Anacreon in his poems makes perpetual mention of Polycrates: But in the poems which remain, and are afcribed to Anacreon, this prince is never named. Here is a pretty fragment of Anacreon, from Edit. Pauw. P. 270. ΖΩ ἄναξ, ὦ δαμάλης Ἔρως, καὶ Νύμφαι κυανώπιδες, πορφυρέη τε Α' Φροδίτη συμπαίζεσιν, ἐπισρέφεια δε ὑψηλῶν ὀρέων κορυφας, γενῖμαί σε, σὺδ ̓ ἐυμενῆς ἔλθ ̓ ἡμῖν κεχαρισμένης δ ἐυχώλης ἐπακέειν, Κλενβέλῳ δ' ἀγαθὸς γίνε σύμβολος, Του ἐμον δὲ ἔρωτα ὧδ ̓ ὁ νῦν δε δέχεθαι. Perhaps, Ωναξ, ὦ δαμάλης Ερως, O Rex, o domitor Cupido, 5 10 Ec Et purpurea Venus Te fimplex oro; tu vero propitius Venias nobis, et gratas Preces exaudias: Cleobulo autem bonus efto Confultor, amorem meum Ut placidus accipiat. 5 10. In the fourth and fifth verfes, the measure is changed, and the verfe augmented by one fyllable. Such changes are to be found in these poems. In the fourth line I have ventured to read επεστράφαται, Ionic, for ἐπεστραμμένοι εισι. Somne read επιστρέφονται; but I cannot bear, in the penultima, a vowel made fhort before 1. VILL ANTHOLOGI A. L. I. c. 20. Εινοδίην καρύην με παρερχομένοις ἐφύτευσαν Me juxta viam pofitani nucem plantaverunt, Λιθόβλητος ευτυχία, as they tell us, is, dexteritas in jaciendis lapidibus; but this is a gratis dictum: for Cantos and its compounds have a paffive fignification Therefore I would read λιθίβλητον παίγνιον. ΕΙΣ ΦΙΛΑΡΓΥΡΟΥΣ. *Αδηλον. Μῦν Ασκληπίαδης ὁ φιλάργυρος εἶδεν ἐν ὅικῳ, "Thou little rogue, what brings thee to my houfe;" APOLLONIUS RHODIUS.* APOLLONIUS is a writer whom Valerius Flaccus has followed, and to whom he is much indebted But, in the opinion of fome good Judges, with whom I entirely agree, the Latin Poet has fo copied the Grecian, as commonly to furpafs him. • Extracted from Dr. JORTIN's Mifcellaneous Obfervations upon Authors ancient and modern. Vol. II. P. 278, 8vo. Printed for Tho. Wotton. 1731, 1732. 3 Virgil Virgil also is very much obliged to Apollonius, and frequently imitates him. Indeed, it is impoffible for any one to read Virgil and Apollonius without feeing it. Milton too, who had read the Greek and Latin Poets, feems to have made fome ufe of Apollonius. For inftance: Paradife Loft, B. VIII. 1. "The Angel ended, and in Adam's ear So charming left his voice, that he awhile Thought him still speaking, still stood fix'd to hear." He might perhaps think of Homer, Il. B. 40. or perhaps he copied from Apollonius, I. 512. See Remarks on Spenfer, in Vol. I. p. 184. and Remarks on Milton in that volume, p. 311. The fame thought is again expreffed by Apollonius, III. 457 ἐν ἔασι δ' αιὲν ὀρώρει Αὐδηξε μῦθοι τε μελίφρονες, ὃς ἀγόρευσε. Lib. I. Ver. 452. Δειλινὸν κλίνον]ῷ ὑπὸ ζόφον ἠελίοιο. In Theocritus, Idyl. íy. 33, we have Δειλινοι, πολλοὶ δὲ μίαν σορίσαντο χαμεύναι. |
