ceremonies: at night wrapping the noviciates in fawn-skin, swilling, purifying, and scouring them with clay and bran, raising them after the lustration, and bidding them say, “Bad the east, and from Thrace. They appear not to have been of the most reputable kind, at all events the officiating parties were a low class of people. Plato, in the second book of his Republic, tells us, that at this period there were a multitude of jugglers and adventurers going about Greece, who acquired influence over ignorant men by pretending to the exercise of supernatural power. They carried books with them, the authorship of which they ascribed to Musæus and Orpheus, and which contained directions as to various rites of sacrifice and purification, and other mystic ceremonies. These, they said, had the effect of expiating crime and averting evil. Bacchus and Ceres were the divinities to whose worship these mysteries were devoted, especially the former, as appears abundantly from the passage before us.

NeßpiCwv is putting on the fawnskin worn by the Bacchanalians. Compare the Baccha of Euripides, 137, 176, and Statius Theb. II. 664: Nebridas et fragiles thyrsos portare putâstis Imbellem ad sonitum.

Kparnpicwv was a species of Bacchic baptism, either by immersion, or pouring the bowl over the head.

̓Απομάττων πηλῷ καὶ πιτύροις refers, according to Harpocration, to the Orphic myth of Aióvvaos Zaypeùs, the infernal Bacchus, son of Proserpine, whom the Titans tore to pieces, having plastered their own faces with clay to escape detection. Jupiter destroyed the Titans with his thunder, and from the smoke of their burning bodies man was generated. See Orph. Hymn. 29. Procli Hymn. ad Athen. and Olympiodorus on the Phædo. Taylor, whom Leland and Francis follow, interprets droμάTTWV in the sense of modelling images or idols for the mysteries. Reiske thinks the clay and bran was nothing more than a kind of soap, used for lustration. Jacobs says the bran reminds him of the flour (maiπάλn) with which Strepsiades is powdered in the Clouds of Aristophanes (v. 265), where it is evident that the poet is ridiculing some initiatory or mystic ceremony.

Εφυγον κακὸν εὗρον ἄμεινον, is a form of words pronounced by the initiated, a sort of thanksgiving for the blessings of civilized life introduced by Ceres and Bacchus, mystically referring to religious blessings. To this there is a manifest allusion in the chorus of the Bacchæ, v. 900.

εὐδαίμων μὲν ὃς ἐκ θαλάσσας

ἔφυγε κῦμα, λιμένα δ ̓ ἔκιχεν.

Taylor compares Cicero de Legibus, II. 24,-" Nam mihi cum multa eximia divinaque videntur Athenæ tuæ peperisse atque in vitam hominum attulisse, tum nihil melius iis mysteriis, quibus ex agresti immanique vitâ exculti ad humanitatem et mitigati sumus, initiaque ut appellantur, ita re verâ principia vitæ cognovimus, neque solum cum lætitiâ vivendi rationem accepimus, sed etiam cum spe meliori moriendi."

'Oxoλúga is the religious or orgiastic howl. See Bacchæ, 24, 688.

I have scaped, and better I have found," priding yourself that no one ever howled so lustily-and I believe him! for don't suppose that he who speaks so loud is not a splendid howler! In the daytime you led your noble orgiasts, crowned with fennel and poplar, through the highways, squeezing the big-cheeked serpents, and lifting them over your head, and shouting Evo Saboe, and capering to the words Hyes. Attes, Attes Hyes, saluted by the beldames as Leader, Conductor, Chest-bearer, Fan-bearer, and the like, getting as your reward tarts and biscuits and rolls; for which any man might well bless himself and his fortune! 1

When you were enrolled among your fellow-townsmen-by Claudian, Raptus Pros. lib. i. Ululatibus Ide Bacchatur. and lib. ii. ululantia Dindyma Gallis.

Poplar, supposed to be the growth of the infernal region, was sacred (as Harpocration says) to the son of Proserpine. Fennel was supposed to have a peculiar virtue. A species of fennel is mentioned by Virgil (Eclog. X. 25) as carried by Sylvanus :

Florentes ferulas et grandia lilia quassans.

As to the serpents, see Bacchæ, v. 697. Ceres is drawn by serpents in Claudian Rapt. Pros. lib. i. Compare Plutarch, Vit. Alex. 2.

The exclamations evoî oaßoî are Thracian, perhaps of eastern origin. Bacchus is called Evius and Sabazius. See Orph. Hymn 47, Plut. Symp. iv. 5. “Της ἄττης are Phrygian. Θίασος is the common term for a troop of Bacchanals (Bacchæ, 56.) The god himself is called tapxos (Bacchæ, 141.) Aíkvos is the "mystica vannus Iacchi" (Virgil Georg. I. 166.) He is called Akvíтns Alovvσos in Orph. Hymn 45. See Callimach. Hymn. ad Jovem, 48. The Kiora contained the arcane symbols of the mysteries. Such was the κáλabos of Ceres (Callimach. Hymn. ad Cererem, 1, Taylor's Eleusinian and Bacchic Mysteries, 119.)

I consider it better to give this turn than to write, "for which who would not," &c., which suits not the English idiom so well. But you may keep the interrogative, if you turn "for which" into "for such things," as Pabst and Jacobs do.

Here I cannot forbear noticing the fulsome eulogy pronounced by the Times reviewer upon Mitchell's version of this passage. I concede that it is clever, but it certainly deserves not the epithets of "terse and pointed," which have been applied to it. He himself would disdain such an encomium, for he insists that it is necessary to expand and dilute the expressions of the original, and he translates upon that system. Thus, & diarréwv is, "who considers worthy only of the spittle of his mouth;" érpáøns must be enlarged into "born and bred;" vpadiwv, "all the crones and beldames of the quarter," and so on. I suppose these are questions of taste. For my own part, I think there was much wisdom in the saying of the clergyman, who excused himself to his congregation for preaching longer than usual, on the plea that he had not had time to make his sermon shorter.

what means I stop not to inquire-when you were enrolled however, you immediately selected the most honourable of employments, that of clerk and assistant to our petty magistrates. From this you were removed after a while, having done yourself all that you charge others with; and then, sure enough, you disgraced not your antecedents by your subsequent life, but hiring yourself to those ranting players, as they were called, Simylus and Socrates, you acted third parts, collecting figs and grapes and olives like a fruiterer from other men's farms, and getting more from them than from the playing, in which the lives of your whole company were at stake; for there was an implacable and incessant war between them and the audience, from whom you received so many wounds, that no wonder you taunt as cowards people inexperienced in such encounters.'

But passing over what may be imputed to poverty, I will come to the direct charges against your character. You espoused such a line of politics, (when at last you thought of taking to them,) that, if your country prospered, you lived the life of a hare, fearing and trembling and ever expecting to. be scourged for the crimes of which your conscience accused you; though all have seen how bold you were during the misfortunes of the rest. A man who took courage at the death of a thousand citizens-what does he deserve at the hands of the living? A great deal more that I could say about him I shall omit: for it is not all I can tell of his turpitude and infamy which I ought to let slip from my tongue, but only what is not disgraceful to myself to mention.

1 The commentators and translators have all misunderstood this pas sage, imagining that Eschines and his troop are charged with strolling about the country and robbing orchards. Nothing could be more foreign to the meaning. Taking Bekker's text, and omitting the first Tpaluara, the explanation is simply as follows:

Eschines and his fellow-players acted so badly, that they were pelted by the audience with figs, grapes, and olives,-as we should say, with oranges. The players picked up these missiles, and were glad to pocket the affront. Such quantities were showered upon the stage, that they got enough to stock a fruiterer's shop; so they were supplied, aσrep ἐπωρώνης ἐκ τῶν ἀλλοτρίων χωρίων, like a dealer in fruit, who purchases his stock from various farmers and gardeners. From this source Eschines derived more profit, πλείω λαμβάνων ἀπὸ τούτων, than from the dra matic contests, Tŵv dywvwv, for which the company were ill paid, and in which they ran the risk of their lives every day from the indignation of the audience.

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Contrast now the circumstances of your life and mine, gently and with temper, Æschines; and then ask these people whose fortune they would each of them prefer. You taught reading, I went to school: you performed initiations, I received them: you danced in the chorus, I furnished it: you were assembly-clerk, I was a speaker: you acted third parts, I heard you you broke down, and I hissed you have worked as a statesman for the enemy, I for my country.1 I pass by the rest; but this very day I am on my probation for a crown, and am acknowledged to be innocent of all offence; whilst you are already judged to be a pettifogger, and the question is, whether you shall continue that trade, or at once be silenced by not getting a fifth part of the votes. A happy fortune, do you see, you have enjoyed, that you should denounce mine as miserable!

Come now, let me read the evidence to the jury of public services which I have performed. And by way of comparison do you recite me the verses which you murdered:

And

From Hades and the dusky realms I come.

Ill news, believe me, I am loth to bear.

Ill betide thee, say I, and may the Gods, or at least the Athenians, confound thee for a vile citizen and a vile thirdrate actor! 2

p 1 The best version of this series of antitheses is, I think, that of Jacobs:

Du hieltest Schule; ich besuchte die Schulen; Du besorgtest die Weihungen; ich empfing sie; Du tanztest im Chor; ich stattete Chöre aus; Du dientest als Schreiber; ich sprach vor dem Volke; Du spieltest die dritten Rollen; ich sah zu; Du fielst durch, und ich zischte; Du wirktest für die Feinde; ich für das Vaterland.

Milton has imitated this passage in the Apology for Smectymnuus (vol. i. p. 221, Symmons' Edition.) Speaking of the young divines and students at college, whom he had seen so often upon the stage prostituting the shame of that ministry, which they either had or were nigh having, to the eyes of courtiers and court ladies, he proceeds thus:

"There while they acted and overacted, among other young scholars, I was a spectator: they thought themselves gallant men, and I thought them fools; they made sport, and I laughed; they mispronounced, and I misliked; and, to make up the Atticism, they were out, and I hissed."

2 The first quotation is from the beginning of the Hecuba. The words Kakoν kaкs are supposed by Wolf to be the beginning of another quotation, which the orator converts abruptly into an imprecation upon Æschines.

Such has been my character in political matters. In private, if you do not all know that I have been liberal and humane and charitable to the distressed, I am silent, I will say not a word, I will offer no evidence on the subject, either. of persons whom I ransomed from the enemy, or of persons whose daughters I helped to portion, or anything of the kind. For this is my maxim. I hold that the party receiving an obligation should ever remember it, the party conferring should forget it immediately, if the one is to act with honesty, the other without meanness. To remind and speak of your own bounties is next door to reproaching.1 I will not act so nothing shall induce me. Whatever my reputation is in these respects, I am content with it.

I will have done then with private topics, but say another
word or two upon public. If you can mention, Æschines, a
single man under the sun, whether Greek or barbarian, who
has not suffered by Philip's power formerly and Alexander's
now, well and good; I concede to you, that my fortune, or
misfortune (if you please), has been the cause of everything.
But if many that never saw me or heard my voice have been
grievously afflicted, not individuals only but whole cities and
nations; how much juster and fairer is it to consider, that
to the common fortune apparently of all men, to a tide of
events overwhelming and lamentable,' these disasters are to
The position of the words however is against this interpretation; for
uárioτa μèv must be connected with what follows, and σè standing alone
could not have the required emphasis. Schaefer with greater probability
supposes kakoν Kaкŵs σe to be the commencement of a verse. I have
followed Bekker, who throws them into the next clause. Demosthenes,
after repeating two Iambic lines, and ridiculing his opponent's decla-
matory style, suddenly, as if he was weary of such stuff, breaks into the
curse, the introductory words being suggested by the kakayyeλeîv.
1 Compare Terence, Andria, Act I. Sc. i. 16-

Sed mi hoc molestum est; nam isthæc commemoratio
Quasi exprobratio est immemoris beneficî.

66

2 Brougham: some force of circumstances untoward and difficult to resist." Leland: "torrent of unhappy events that bore down upon us with irresistible violence." Francis: "the rapid impetuosity of particular conjunctures, cruel and unaccountable,”– -a lame version indeed! Auger: "concours fatal de circonstances malheureuses." Jacobs: einer harten und widrigen Gewalt der Ereignisse. Pabst einen gewaltsamen Umschwung der Ereignisse, wie er nicht hätte stattfinden sollen.

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