Volume Ii Part 10 (1/2)

These descriptions are perhaps carried to a great excess; yet the history was founded in truth: and shews plainly what fearful impressions were left upon the minds of men from the barbarity of the first ages.

One of the princ.i.p.al places in Italy, where the Lamia seated themselves, was about Formiae; of which Horace takes notice in his Ode to aelius Lamia.

[661]aeli, vetusto n.o.bilis ab Lamo, &c.

Auth.o.r.e ab illo ducis originem, Qui Formiarum mnia dicitur Princeps, et innantem Maricae Littoribus tenuisse Lirim.

The chief temple of the Formians was upon the sea-coast at Caiete. It is said to have had its name from a woman, who died here: and whom some make the nurse of aeneas, others of Ascanius, others still of [662]Creusa. The truth is this: it stood near a cavern, sacred to the G.o.d Ait, called Ate, Atis, and Attis; and it was hence called Caieta, and Caiatta. Strabo says, that it was denominated from a cave, though he did not know the precise [663]etymology. There were also in the rock some wonderful subterranes, which branched out into various apartments. Here the antient Lamii, the priests of Ham, [664]resided: whence Silius Italicus, when he speaks of the place, styles it [665]Regnata Lamo Caieta. They undoubtedly sacrificed children here; and probably the same custom was common among the Lamii, as prevailed among the Lacedaemonians, who used to whip their children round the altar of Diana Orthia. Thus much we are a.s.sured by Fulgentius, and others, that the usual term among the antient Latines for the whipping of children was Caiatio. [666]Apud Antiquos Caiatio dicebatur puerilis caedes.

The coast of Campania seems to have been equally infamous: and as much dreaded by mariners, as that of Rhegium, and Sicily. Here the Sirens inhabited, who are represented, as the bane of all, who navigated those seas. They like the Lamii were Cuthite, and Canaanitish priests, who had founded temples in these parts; and particularly near three small islands, to which they gave name. These temples were rendered more than ordinary famous on account of the women, who officiated. They were much addicted to the cruel rites, of which I have been speaking; so that the sh.o.r.es, upon which they resided, are described, as covered with the bones of men, destroyed by their artifice.

[667]Jamque adeo scopulos Sirenum advecta subibat, Difficiles quondam, multorumque ossibus albos.

They used hymns in their temples, accompanied with the music of their country: which must have been very enchanting, as we may judge from the traditions handed down of its efficacy. I have mentioned, that the songs of the Canaanites and Cretans were particularly plaintive, and pleasing:

[668]They sang in sweet but melancholy strains; Such as were warbled by the Delian G.o.d, When in the groves of Ida he bewail'd The lovely lost Atymnius.

But nothing can shew more fully the power of antient harmony than the character given of the Sirens. Their cruelty the antients held in detestation; yet always speak feelingly of their music. They represent their songs as so fatally winning, that n.o.body could withstand their sweetness. All were soothed with it; though their life was the purchase of the gratification. The Scholiast upon Lycophron makes them the children of the muse [669]Terpsich.o.r.e. Nicander supposes their mother to have been Melpomene: others make her Calliope. The whole of this is merely an allegory; and means only that they were the daughters of harmony. Their efficacy is mentioned by [670]Apollonius Rhodius: and by the Author of the Orphic [671]Argonautica: but the account given by Homer is by far the most affecting.

[672]Se????a? e? p??t?? af??ea?, ?? ?a te pa?ta?

?????p??? ?e????s??, ?t?? sfea? e?saf??a?e?.

?st?? a?d?e?? pe?ase?, ?a? f?????? a???se?

Se??????, t? d' ??t? ????, ?a? ??p?a te??a ???ade ??st?sa?t? pa??stata?, ??de ?a???ta??

???a te Se????e? ?????? ?e????s?? a??d?, ?e??? e? ?e????? p???? t' af' ?ste?f?? ???

??d??? p???e???, pe?? de ????? f???????s??.

They are the words of Circe to Ulysses, giving him an account of the dangers which he was to encounter.

[673]Next where the Sirens dwell, you plough the seas.

Their song is death, and makes destruction please.

Unblest the man, whom music makes to stray Near the curst coast, and listen to their lay.

No more that wretch shall view the joys of life, His blooming offspring, or his pleasing wife.

In verdant meads they sport, and wide around Lie human bones, that whiten all the ground: The ground polluted floats with human gore, And human carnage taints the dreadful sh.o.r.e.

Fly, fly the dangerous coast.

The story at bottom relates to the people above-mentioned; who with their music used to entice strangers into the purlieus of their temples, and then put them to death. Nor was it music only, with which persons were seduced to follow them. The female part of their choirs were maintained for a twofold purpose, both on account of their voices and their beauty. They were accordingly very liberal of their favours, and by these means enticed seafaring persons, who paid dearly for their entertainment. Scylla was a personage of this sort: and among the fragments of Callimachus we have a short, but a most perfect, description of her character.

[674]S????a, ???? ?ata?asa, ?a? ?? ????? ????' e???sa.

?ata?asa is by some interpreted _malefica_: upon which the learned Hemsterhusius remarks very justly--?ata?asa cur Latine vertatur malefica non video. Si Grammaticis obtemperes, meretricem interpretabere: erat enim revera ??s??t?? ?a?? ?ta??a, ut Herac.l.i.tus pe?? ap??: c. 2. Scylla then, under which character we are here to understand the chief priestess of the place, was no other than a handsome island strumpet. Her name it seems betokened as much, and she did not belie it: ?? ????? ????' e???sa. We may from these data decipher the history of Scylla, as given by Tzetzes. ?? de p??t?? S????a ???? e?p?ep??? ??se?d??? de s????sa ape???????. _Scylla was originally a handsome wench: but being too free with seafaring people she made herself a beast_. She was, like the Sibyl of Campania, said by Stesichorus to have been the daughter of [675]Lamia. Hence we may learn, that all, who resided in the places, which I have been describing, were of the same religion, and of the same family; being the descendants of Ham, and chiefly by the collateral branches of Chus, and Canaan.

The like rites prevailed in Cyprus, which had in great measure been peopled by persons of these [676]families. One of their princ.i.p.al cities was Curium, which was denominated from [677]Curos, the Sun, the Deity, to whom it was sacred. In the perilous voyages of the antients nothing was more common than for strangers, whether s.h.i.+pwrecked, or otherwise distressed, to fly to the altar of the chief Deity, Te?? f?????, ?a? ?e????, _the G.o.d of charity and hospitality_, for his protection. This was fatal to those who were driven upon the western coast of Cyprus. The natives of Curium made it a rule to destroy all such, under an appearance of a religious rite.

Whoever laid their hands upon the altar of Apollo, were cast down the precipice, upon which it stood. [678]????? est?? a??a, af' ?? ??pt??s? t???

??ae???? t?? ??? t?? ?p???????. Strabo speaks of the practice, as if it subsisted in his time. A like custom prevailed at the Tauric Chersonesus, as we are informed by Herodotus. [679]T???s? e? t? ?a??e?? t??? te ?a??????, ?a? t??? a? ?a?s? ??????? epa?a??e?ta?, t??p? t???de.

?ata??ae??? ??pa?? pa???s? t?? ?efa???. ?? e? d? ?e???s?, ?? t? s?a ap?

t?? ?????? d???e??s? ?at?? ep? ?a? ?????? ?d??ta? t? ????. ?t?. _The people of this place wors.h.i.+p the virgin G.o.ddess Artemis: at whose shrine they sacrifice all persons, who have the misfortune to be s.h.i.+pwrecked upon their coast: and all the Grecians, that they can lay hold of, when they are at any time thither driven. All these they without any ceremony brain with a club. Though others say, that they shove them off headlong from a high precipice: for their temple is founded upon a cliff._

The den of Cacus was properly Ca-Chus, the cavern or temple of Chus, out of which the poets, and later historians have formed a strange personage, whom they represent as a shepherd, and the son of Vulcan. Many antient Divinities, whose rites and history had any relation to Ur in Chaldea, are said to have been the children of Vulcan; and oftentimes to have been born in fire. There certainly stood a temple of old upon the Aventine mountain in Latium, which was the terror of the neighbourhood. The cruelties of the priests, and their continual depredations, may be inferred from the history of Cacus. Virgil makes Evander describe the place to aeneas; though it is supposed in his time to have been in ruins.