Part 16 (2/2)

[Footnote 3: _Her sisters._--Ver. 3. The names of the sisters of Alcithoe, according to Plutarch, were Aristippe and Leucippe. The names of the three, according to aelian, were Alcathoe, Leucippe, and Aristippe, who is sometimes called Arsinoe. The latter author says, that the truth of the case was, that they were decent women, fond of their husbands and families, who preferred staying at home, and attending to their domestic concerns, to running after the new rites; on which it was said, by their enemies, that Bacchus had punished them.]

[Footnote 4: _Work-baskets._--Ver. 10. The 'calathus,' which was called by the Greeks ???a???, ?a?a??s???, and t??a???, generally signifies the basket in which women placed their work, and especially the materials used for spinning. They were generally made of osiers and reeds, but sometimes of more valuable materials, such as silver, perhaps in filagree work. 'Calathi'

were also used for carrying fruits and flowers. Virgil (Ecl. v. l.

71) speaks of cups for holding wine, under the name of 'Calathi.']

[Footnote 5: _Bromius._--Ver. 11. Bacchus was called Bromius, from ???, 'to cry out,' or 'shout,' from the yells and noise made by his wors.h.i.+ppers, whose peculiar cries were, ???? ????e, ? ?a??e, ?? ????e, ???? sa??. 'Evoe, Bacche! O, Iacche! Io, Bacche! Evoe sabae!']

[Footnote 6: _Lyaeus._--Ver. 11. Bacchus was called Lyaeus, from the Greek word, ??e??, 'to loosen,' or 'relax,' because wine dispels care.]

[Footnote 7: _That had two mothers._--Ver. 12. The word 'bimater'

seems to have been fancied by Ovid as an appropriate epithet for Bacchus, Jupiter having undertaken the duties of a mother for him, in the latter months of gestation.]

[Footnote 8: _Thyoneus._--Ver. 13. Bacchus was called Thyoneus, either from Semele, his mother, one of whose names was Thyone, or from the Greek, ??e??, 'to be frantic,' from which origin the Baccha.n.a.ls also received their name of Thyades.]

[Footnote 9: _Lenaeus._--Ver. 14. From the Greek word ?????, 'a wine-press.']

[Footnote 10: _Nyctelius._--Ver. 15. From the Greek word ???, 'night,' because his orgies were celebrated by night. Eleleus is from the shout, or 'huzza' of the Greeks, which was e?e?e?.]

[Footnote 11: _Iacchus._--Ver. 15. From the Greek ?a??, 'clamor,'

or 'noise.']

[Footnote 12: _Evan._--Ver. 15. From the exclamation, ????, or 'Evoe' which the Baccha.n.a.ls used in performing his orgies.]

[Footnote 13: _Lycurgus._--Ver. 22. He was a king of Thrace, who having slighted the wors.h.i.+p of Bacchus, was afflicted with madness, and hewed off his own legs with a hatchet, and, according to Apollodorus, mistaking his own son Dryas for a vine, destroyed him with the same weapon.]

[Footnote 14: _Unseasonable labor._--Ver. 32. 'Minerva;' the name of the G.o.ddess Minerva is here used for the exercise of the art of spinning, of which she was the patroness. The term 'intempestiva'

is appropriately applied, as the arts of industry and frugality, which were first invented by Minerva, but ill accorded with the idle and vicious mode of celebrating the festival of Bacchus.]

[Footnote 15: _Dercetis._--Ver. 45. Lucian, speaking of Dercetis, or Derceto, says, 'I have seen in Phnicia a statue of this G.o.ddess, of a very singular kind. From the middle upwards, it represents a woman, but below it terminates in a fish. The statue of her, which is shown at Hieropolis, represents her wholly as a woman.' He further says, that the temple of this last city was thought by some to have been built by Semiramis, who consecrated it not to Juno, as is generally believed, but to her own mother, Derceto. Atergatis was another name of this G.o.ddess. She was said, by an illicit amour, to have been the mother of Semiramis, and in despair, to have thrown herself into a lake near Ascalon, on which she was changed into a fish.]

[Footnote 16: _Palestine._--Ver. 46. Palaestina, or Philistia, in which Ascalon was situate, was a part of Syria, lying in its south-western extremity.]

[Footnote 17: _How a Naiad._--Ver. 49. The Naiad here mentioned is supposed to have been a Nymph of the Island of the Sun, called also Nosola, between Taprobana (the modern Ceylon) and the coast of Carmania (perhaps Coromandel), who was in the habit of changing such youths as fell into her hands into fishes. As a reward for her cruelty, she herself was changed into a fish by the Sun.]

[Footnote 18: _Most beauteous of youths._--Ver. 55. Clarke translates 'juvenum pulcherrimus alter,' 'one of the most handsome of all the young fellows.']

[Footnote 19: _Her lofty city._--Ver. 57. The magnificence of ancient Babylon has been remarked by many ancient writers, from Herodotus downwards. Its walls are said to have been 60 miles in compa.s.s, 87 feet in thickness, and 350 feet in height.]

[Footnote 20: _Walls of brick._--Ver. 58. The walls were built by Semiramis of bricks dried in the sun, cemented together with layers of bitumen.]

[Footnote 21: _The tomb of Ninus._--Ver. 88. According to Diodorus Siculus, the sepulchre of Ninus, the first king of Babylon, was ten stadia in length, and nine in depth; it had the appearance of a vast citadel, and was at a considerable distance from the city of Babylon. Commentators have expressed some surprise that Ovid here uses the word 'busta,' for 'tomb,' as the place of meeting for these chaste lovers, as the prost.i.tutes of Rome used to haunt the 'busta,' or 'tombs;' whence they obtained the epithet of 'bustuariae.']

[Footnote 22: _The lead decaying._--Ver. 122. 'Fistula' here means 'a water-pipe.' Vitruvius speaks of three methods of conveying water; by channels of masonry, earthen pipes, and leaden pipes.

The latter were smaller, and more generally used; to them reference is here made. They were formed by bending plates of lead into a form, not cylindrical, but the section of which was oblong, and tapering towards the top like a pear. The description here given, though somewhat homely, is extremely natural, and, as frequent experience shows us, depicts the results when the soldering of a water-pipe has become decayed.]

[Footnote 23: _Paler than box-wood._--Ver. 134. From the light color of boxwood, the words 'buxo pallidiora,' 'paler than boxwood,' became a proverbial expression among the Romans.]

<script>