Nereus poffeffed the fame gift of prophecy with Proteus, Horat. od. i. 15. 5. and alfo the power of changing his form, Apollodor. ii. 5. 11. He had by his wife Doris fifty daughters, called Nereides, fea-nymphs, whofe names are recorded, Ib. i. 2. 6. The chief were, Thetis, Doto, Galatea, Calypfo, Panope or Panopea, Melite, &c. lb. & Virg. G. iv. 338. Æn. v. 825. Ovid calls them an hundred fifters, Faft. vi. 499. Nereus is often put for the fea, Virg. Ecl. vi. 35.; Ovid. Met. i. 187. as Neptune is, Lucret. ii. 471.; Plaut. Rud. ii. 6. 2.; Catull. 29. 3. & 62. 2. and Amphitrite, Ovid. Met. i. 13.———Virgil ascribes a trident to Nereus, as to Neptune, Æn. ii. 419.

PHORCUS was another fon of Neptune by the nymph THESEA, Serv. in Virg. Æn. v. 240. or of Pontus and Terra, Apollodor....2. 6. Phorcus was the father of the Gorgons Medufa, Euryale, and Stheno, Ib. & 2. 4. 3: monftrous females, having fnakes inftead of hair, (crinita colubris, Ovid. Met. vi. 119.) teeth as large as those of fwine, brazen hands and brazen wings, Apollodor. ii. 4. 3. They turned those who looked at them into ftone, Ib. They had but one eye among them, which they used alternately, Ovid. Met. iv. 775.; Serv. in Virg. En. vi. 289. They are called Phorcydes, Ovid. Met. iv. 775.; or Phorcjnides, Ib. v. 230. The inferior fea-deities are called Chorus vel exercitus Phorci, Virg. Æn. v. 8. 240. and 824.; Plin. xxxvi. v.

Another fon of Neptune was GLAUCUS, the favourite of Circe, fee p. 375. whofe figure and transformation into a feagod we have, as defcribed by himself, Ovid. Met. xiii. 960.; fee alfo Stat. Silv. iii. 2. 36.

One of the conftant attendants of Neptune was PALEMON, the son of Athămas and Ino or Leucothea, the nurse of Bacchus, Cic. Nat. D. iii. 15.; Ovid. Faft. vi. 485. hence INOUS PALEMON, Virg. Æn. v. 823. called by the Romans PORTUMNUS, the god who prefided over harbours; and his mother, MATUTA, Ovid. Faft. vi. 485.-545. &c.

Neptune had a numerous progeny by different perfons, A. pollodor. i. 4.4.; Ib. 7. 4. & 9. 8. & 20. &c. Their names are recounted, Hygin. 157.

Neptune is represented with a trident in his right hand and a dolphin in his left; one of his feet refting on a part of a ship; his afpect majestic and ferene: fometimes in a chariot drawn by fea horfes* with a Triton on each fide, Stat. Achill. i. 55.; Theb. v. 700. He is called ÆCEUs, Virg. Æn. ili. 74. from

In their forepart they refembled horses, and in their hinder part, fishes; Stat. Theb. ii. 45.

Cc 2

Ege, a town in Euboea, where he had a temple, Homer. II. v. 20. A horse is said to have fprung from a rent made in a rock at Athens, by the ftroke of Neptune's trident, Ovid. Met. vi. 75.; Virg. G. i. 12. whence that animal was facred to him; or because he first taught the art of taming horfes, Diodor. v. 69. whence he was named 'Innos, equefter, or Domitor equorum, as Mefsăpus, his fon, Virg. Æn. vii. 691. Neptune was called by the Romans CONSUS, or NEPTUNUS EQUESTER, Liv. i. 9. at whofe feftival (Confualia) the Sabine virgins were carried off by the Roman youth at the command of Romulus, lb. & Strab. v. 230.

Neptune was fuppofed to be the cause of earthquakes, whence he is called ENNOSIGAUS, i. e. terram quatiens, vel terræ quassator, Juvenal. x. 183.; fee Herodot. vii. 129.; Diodor. xv. 49. and is represented as overturning the foundations of Troy, Virg. En. ii. 610.

II. PLUTO, the god of every thing below the furface of the earth; was called alfo DIS†, Virg. Æn. vi. 127. xii. 199. ORCUS‡, Liv. ix. 40.; Cic. Verr. iv. 50.; Horat. od. ii. 18. 34. (which word is fometimes alfo put for the infernal regions, Virg. Æn. ii. 398.) and JUPITER STYGIUS, Ib. iv. 638. as Proferpine, the wife of Pluto, (Domina ditis, Ib. vi. 397.) is called JUNO INFERNA, Ib. vi. 138. §

Pluto is faid to have obtained dominion of the infernal regions, from his being the first who inftituted funeral obfequies, Diodor. v. 69.

Pluto is reprefented as ftern, gloomy, inexorable, and rapacious, Horat. od. ii. 3. 24. iii. 4. 74. iv. 2. 23. ii. 14. 6. & 18. 30.; Virg. G. i. 277. Æn. vi. 127. xii. 199. ; so alfo Proferpine, Horat. od. i. 28. 20. ii. 13. 21.

Proferpine is fometimes confounded with Hecate, the daugh ter of Afteria and Perfes, whofe power Hefiod extols, Theeg.

Called Tertia regna, for regnum, Sil. viii. 116. & xiii. 437. heaven and the fea being the other two regna.

Pluto is called Dis, ditis, contracted for dives, rich, as among the Greeks

or Autos, dives, (quia refidant omnia in terras, et oriantur a terris, Cic. Nat. D. ii. 26. aliter autem; Dis, quia minime dives; Quin&titian. i. 6. 34.) But Plutus, the god of riches, was confidered as different from Pluto;— See the comedy of Aristophanes, called Piutes. Hyginus mentions a Plurus, the fon of Ceres and Jafion, Aftron. 11.4. The Greeks called both the infernal regions and the king of them, Adne, Hades. The name Pluto is fuppofed to have been of later origin.

Those who protracted life longer than they ought, were faid Orcum morari, to tetard or keep Pluto waiting for them, as it were; Horat. od. iii. 27. 50.-Cum Orce ra vienem babere vel ponere, to cxpofe one's self to the danger of death, as husbandmen do who cultivate a pestilential foil, although fruitful, Varr, de re Ruft. i. 4. 3. ; Columell,

1. 3. 2.

& Allo Tartareus Jupiter, Sil. ii 67. 2. ; Niger Jupiter, Sil. viii, 116.; profundus, Stut. Theb. i. 615.

411.

411. and Virgil, En. vi. 247. She is faid by fome to have been the mother of Medea, and to have first discovered the properties of poisonous herbs, which the taught her daughter, Diodor. iv. 45.

Albricus reprefents Pluto as fitting on a throne of fulphur, holding a fceptre in his right hand, and binding a foul with his left. At his feet was the three headed dog CERBERUS, and near him the three harpies, Aello, Ocypěte, and Celano, ravenous birds with the face of virgins. From this throne of fulphur iffued four rivers, called Lethe, Cocytus, Phlegethon, and Acheron and near them was the lake STYX, which others call a river. On the left hand of Pluto fat Proferpine, with a dufky and terrible countenance. Near him were the three Furies, Alecto, Tifiphone, and Megara, having their heads covered with ferpents (holding a whip in their right hand, and fnakes in their left, Virg. Æn. vi. 570.); alfo the three Fates or Parca, Clotho, Lachefs, and Atropos, who were fuppofed to determine the life of man by fpinning, Juvenal. xii. 64.; Clotho held the distaff, Lachefis fpan, and Atropos cut the thread *, Albric. de imag.

D. 10.

But Virgil's defcription of the infernal regions chiefly merits our attention. Before the vestibule, or in the first entrance, he places grief, cares, difeafes, old age, fear, famine, avant, death, labour, fleep, criminal joys, war, the furies, and difcord: in the middle, dreams, neftling among the leaves of a huge fhady elmtree in the gates, Centaurs, Scyllas, Briareus, the monfter of Lerna, Chimera, Gorgons, Harpies, and the three-bodied Geryon. From hence is the way to Acheron, a muddy ftream, which runs into Cocytus. Here Charon, the ferry-man of hell, plies his boat, in which he carries departed ghofts over the Stygian lake. The fhades of fuch as have not received funeral obfequies are obliged to wander one hundred years along the banks before they are permitted to país, En. vi. 273.-330. The entrance on the farther fide of Styx is guarded by the dog Cerberus, Ib. & Horat. od. iii. 11. 17.; fee alfo Stat. Theb. iv. 520. &c. Here are found the fouls of infants: then those who had been unjustly condemned; and those who, from the preffure of misfortunes, had killed themselves. Not far from thence are the

* But they did not always retain these diftin&t offices. Clotho is often faid to fpin, Ovid. Ib. 246.; Faft. vi. 757. So the other two, Id. ad Liv. 240. Sometimes all the three Parce are reprefented as employed in breaking the threads; thus Lucan, fpeaking of the deftruction of the civil wars, Vix operi cuna dextrâ properante forores fufiunt; laffant rumpentes stamina Parcæ, iii. 18,

Cc 3

mourn

mournful plains, poffeffed by hapless lovers; and beyond these, the refidence of brave warriors, who had fallen in battle, Virg. ib. 417.-485.

Here the way divides into two. The way on the right leads to the palace of Pluto and to Elyfium, or the abode of the bleffed; that on the left, to Tartarus, or the place of punishment for the wicked. Tartarus is inclofed with a treble wall, and furrounded by a rapid river of liquid flame, called Phlegethon. The veftibule or entrance is guarded by the fury Tifiphone, and a dreadful hydra or water-ferpent with fifty black gaping mouths, Ib. 540.-580. The Sibyl recounts to Eneas the punishment of the Titans and giants, and others confined in this place, from verfe 580. to 628. for it seems no pure or vir tuous perfon was permitted to enter it, v. 563. but the Sibyl feems to have been there herself, v. 565. & 582. &c.

Virgil mentions but flightly the palace of Pluto, v. 630. He describes at greater length the joys of Elyfium; from v. 637. to 703. Through Elyfum ran the river LETHE, or the river of forgetfulness. By drinking of, thofe fouls which were destined to animate new bodies forgot what had paffed while they were formerly on earth: For Virgil fuppofes, according to the doctrine of Pythagoras and Plato, fee p. 14. that the departed fouls of men, after enjoying happiness in Elyfium for a certain number of years, and after being purified from the ftain of for mer guilt, were fent to animate new bodies upon earth. Thus the poet, by a happy contrivance, makes Anchifes, while thefe fouls pafs in review before him, foretell to Æneas the character and fortune of the most illustrious men that afterwards appear. ed in the Roman ftate, Ib. from v. 702. to 893:

Eneas, under the conduct of the Sibyl, entered the infernal regions, by the cave of Avernus, Ib. 262. and returned by one of the two gates of SOMNUS, Sleep, at which he was let out by Anchifes, (portâque emittit eburnâ,) Ib. 899.

Virgil appears to have, borrowed this description of the infernal regions, chiefly from Homer and Plato. The notion of Dr. Warburton, bishop of Gloucester, that it is only a poetical reprefentation of the ceremonies, anciently obferved, in initiating a perfon into the mysteries of Ceres, appears to be groundlefs*.

The defcript on which Silius Italicus makes the Sibyl give to Se pio of the infernal regions, (Stygia formidinis aula,) is in many refpects fimilar to that of Virgil, Sil. xiii. 520-613.

1

II. FA

II. FABULOUS HISTORY of ARGOS and MYCENÆ.

THE firft king of Argos was INACHUS, who gave name

*

to the river Inachus, Paufan. ii. 15. hence put for the river, Virg. Æn. vii 792. one of the largest in Greece, and therefore called Fluviorum ductor Achivum, Stat. Theb. iv. 118. Inachides ripe, for Inachie, the banks of Inachus, Ovid. Met. i. 640. He had a daughter called IO; who being beloved by Jupiter, is faid to have been converted by him into a cow, Virg. En. vii. 790. that the might be concealed from Juno; but Juno, perceiving the fraud, asked her as a prefent from Jupiter, and having obtained her requeft, committed her to the charge of Argus, a fhepherd, who had an hundred eyes, Ovid. ii. 58. &c. but he being lulled afleep and flain by Mercury, Ovid. Met. i. 625. Io was driven, by a fury in the shape of a gad-bee, which Juno fent to torrent her, into Egypt. Hav ing there implored the affiftance of Jupiter, the was reftored to her proper shape, and married Osiris. After her death fhe was worshipped as a goddefs by the Egyptians, under the name of ISIS, Ovid. Met. i. 588. &c. hence IO bes ex homine, ex bove facta DEA, Id. ep. xiv. 85. &c. Inachus is fometimes called by the poets, the father of lo, and the his daughter, INACHIS, -IDIS, Propert. i. 5. 19.; Ovid. Met. i. 611. ep. xiv. 105. or Inachia Juvenca, Virg. G. iii. 153. and her fon E, ǎphus, INACHIDES, -da. Ovid. Met. i. 753. by which name Perfeus is called, Ib. iv. 720. Inachida, -arum, the Argives †, Stat. Theb. ii. 345. iii. 366.

The fon of Inachus was called PHORONEUS, whence I is named Phoronis, -idis, Ovid. Met. i. 668. and the matrons of Argos, Phoronea Matres, Stat. Theb. xii. 465. Some make Phoroneus the first king, who is faid first to have collected the inhabitants, formerly difperfed, into one city, called from him PHORONICUM, Paufan. ii. 15.

APIS, -is, v, -idis, the fon of Phoroneus, is faid to have been expelled from Argos, and to have fled into Egypt, where, on account of his useful discoveries, he was worshipped under the figure of an ox; hence called Niliacum pecus, Stat. Theb.

Hence Argus is called Cuftos Inachiæ juvencæ, Sil. x. 348.

↑ Herodotus makes lo to have been carried off to Egypt by fome Phenician merchants; and fays that fome Greeks or Cretans in revenge carried off Europa, the daughter of the king of Tyte, i. 1. & 2.