he found, by clear proof, that he had killed his fa ther, and married his mother, he was seized with so great madness that he pulled out his own eyes, and would have killed himself, if his daughter Antigone (who led him about after he was blind) had not hindered him. Eteocles and Polynices, the sons of Edipus and Jocasta, *succeeded their father in the government; and they agreed to reign a year each, in their turns. Eteocies reigned the first year, and then refused to admit his brother Polynices to the throne; upon which a war arose, and the two brothers, in a duel, killed each other. Their enmity lasted longer than their lives; for when their bodies were placed on the same pile, to be burnt by the same fire, the flames refused to unite, but divided themselves into two parts. There is a place in the infernal dominions abounding with pleasures and delights, which is called the Elysium; †because thither the souls of the good resort, after they are loosed from the chains of the body, and have been purified from the light offences that they had contracted in this world: "Quisque suos patimur manes; exinde per amplum All have their manes, and those manes bare: Æneas received this account from one of the inhabitants of it, as Virgil tells us, who describes this place as abounding with all the delights that the most pleasant plains, and the finest and most temperate air, can produce. • Stat. Theb, † ATо TNS AUσsws, a solutione; quod Animae piorum corporeis solutae vinculis, loca illi petant postquam purgatae sunt a levioribus noxis quas contraxerent. Devenere locos laetos, et amaena vireta The blissful seats of happy souls below, Stars of their own, and their own sun they know." There is a river in hell called Lethe, †from the forgetfulness it causes. For if any body drinks this water, he immediately forgets all things past; so that when the souls of the pious have spent many ages in the Elysian fields, they drink the water of Lethe, and are believed to pass into new bodies, and return into the world again: and it is necessary they should forget both the pleasures they have received in Elysium, and the miseries they did formerly endure in this life, that they may willingly return into this miserable ife again. These souls went out from Elysium by that ivory gate; which you see painted in the lower part of this wall: -Animæ, quibus altera fato Corpora debentur, Lethæi ad fluminis undam -Souls that by fate Virg. Æn. 6. Are doom'd to take new shapes, at Lethe's brink Mr. Cliffton, an American poet, thus beautifully describes the ↑ Avo ans anons, ab oblivio ne. QUESTIONS FOR EXAMINATION. What is said of the Centaurs? What is the history of Geryon ? Who were the Harpies? What is said of the Gorgons? What is said of the Chimæra, and what was the occasion of thir fable? What is the history of Sphynx? Who explained it? Give the history of Edipus. What is the Elysium, and how is it described? Repeat the lines from Virgil. What is said of the river Lethe ? Repeat the lines from Virgil. Repeat the lines of Mr. Cliffton, in the note PART V. OF THE DII MINORUM GENTIUM; OR, THE SUBORDINATE DEITIES. CHAPTER I. THE PENATES. THE LARES. THE fifth division of this Fabulous Pantheon contains the inferior or subordinate gods: the Latins generally called them Dii Minorum Gentium, and sometimes Semones, Minuti, Plebeii, and Patellarii. The Penates are so called from the Latin word penus, which word, *Cicero says, includes every thing that man eats. Or they have perhaps this name from the place allotted to them in the heavens, †because they are placed in the most inward and private parts of the heavens where they reign: hence they call them †Penetrales, and the place of their abode Penetrale. They entirely govern us by their reason, their heat, and their spirit, so that we can neither live, nor use our understanding without them; yet we know neither their number nor names. The ancient Hetrusci called them Consentes and Compli Est enim penus omne quo vescuntur homines. De Nat. Deor. + Quod penitus insideant, ex quo Penetrales a Poetis vocantur, et locus in quo servabantur eorum effigies 'Penetrale dictus. Var ro ap. Arnob. 1. 3. ces; supposing that they are Jupiter's counsellors, and the chief of the gods; and many reckon Jupiter himself, together with Juno and Minerva, among the Penates. But I will give you more distinct and particular information in this matter. There were three orders of the Dii Penates: 1. Those who governed kingdoms and provinces, and were absolutely and solely called Penates. 2. Those who presided over cities only; and these were called the "gods of the country," or the "great gods:" Æneas makes mention of them in Virgil. "Tu, genitor, cape sacra manu, patriosque Penates." Our country gods, the reliques and the bands, 3. Those who preside over particular houses and families, and these were called the "small gods :" The poets make frequent mention of them, especially Virgil, who in one place mentions fifty maid-servants whose business it was to look after their affairs, and Sto offer sacrifices to the household gods: and in ||another place he speaks of these household gods being stained and defiled by the blood of one that was killed by his brother. But it must likewise be observed that, among the Latins, the word Penates not only signifies the gods, of which we have been speaking, but likewise a dwelling house, of which we have instances in many authors, and among the rest, in Virgil, **Cicero, and ++Fabius. * Virg. Æn. 1. 5. + Dii Patrii 90 warpwd. Macrob. 3. Saturn. 14. Parvique Penates. Virg. Æn. 8. Flammis adolere penates. Æn. 1. Sparsos fraterna cæde Penates. En. 4. Nostris succede penatibus hospes. En. 8. ** Exterminare aliquem a suis Diis Penatibus. Pro Sexto. tt Liberos pellere domo, ac prohibere Penatibus. Dec. 260 |