Today | News | Books | Recipes Adventure | Science Fiction | Ghost stories | Poetry | Children | History Booke Castalian spring is fed by these perpetual snows, and pours down the chasm between the two summits. These are two lofty rocks rising perpendicularly from Delphi, and obtained for the mountain the epithet δικόρυφον. Eur., Phœn., 234. They were anciently known by the names of Hyampeia and Naupleia, Herod., viii., 39, but sometimes the name Phædriades was applied to them in common. The name of Tithorea was also applied to one of them, as well as to the town of Neon in its neighborhood. Herod., viii., 32. These heights were sacred to Bacchus and the Muses, and those who slept in their neighborhood were supposed to receive inspiration from them. Cf. Propert., III., ii., 1, "Visus eram molli recubans Heliconis in umbrâ, Bellerophontei quà fluit humor equi; Reges, Alba, tuos et regum facta tuorum tantum operis nervis hiscere posse meis." Cf. Virg., Æn., vii., 86. Ov., Heroid., xv., 156, _seq._ [1171] _Pirenen._ The fountain of Pirene was in the middle of the forum of Corinth. Ov., Met., ii., 240, "Ephyre Pirenidas undas." It took its name from the nymph so called, who dissolved into tears at the death of her daughter Cenchrea, accidentally killed by Diana. The water was said to have the property of tempering the Corinthian brass, when plunged red-hot into the stream. Paus., ii., 3. Near the source Bellerophon is said to have seized Pegasus, hence called the Pirenæan steed by Euripides. Electr., 475. Cf. Pind., Olymp., xiii., 85, 120. Stat. Theb., iv., 60, "Cenchreæque manus, vatûm qui conscius amnis Gorgoneo percussus equo." Ov., Pont., I., iii., 75. The _Latin_ poets alone make this spring sacred to the Muses. "Pallidam" may refer either to the legend of its origin, or to the wan faces of the votaries of the Muses. [1172] _Imagines._ Cf. Juv., vii., 29, "Qui facis in parvâ sublimia carmina cellâ ut dignus venias hederis et imagine macrâ." Poets were crowned with _ivy_ as well as _bay_. "Doctarum hederæ præmia frontium." Hor., i., Od. i., 29. The Muses being the companions of Bacchus as well as of Apollo. Ov., A. Am., iii., 411. Mart., viii., Ep. 82. The busts of poets and other eminent literary men were used to adorn public libraries, especially the one in the temple of Palatine Apollo. [1173] _Lambunt_, properly said of a dog's tongue, then of flame. Cf. Virg., Æn., ii., 684, "Tractuque innoxia molli Lambere flamma comas, et circum tempora pasci." So the ivy, climbing and clinging, seems to lick with its forked tongue the objects whose form it closely follows. [1174] _Semipaganus._ Paganus is opposed to miles. Juv., xvi., 33. Plin., x., Ep. xviii. Here it means, "not wholly undisciplined in the warfare of letters." So Plin., vii., Ep. 25, "Sunt enim ut in castris, sic etiam in litteris nostris plures cultu pagano, quos cinctos et armatos, et quidem, ardentissimo ingenio, diligentius scrutatus invenies." [1175] _Affero._ εἰς μέσον φέρω. Casaubon. [1176] _Quis expedivit._ To preserve his incognito, Persius in this 2d part of the Prologue represents himself as driven by poverty, though but unprepared, to write for his bread. So Horace, ii., Ep. xi., 50, "Decisis humilem pennis inopemque paterni et Laris et fundi paupertas impulit audax ut versus facerem." [1177] _Psittaco._ Cf. Stat. Sylv., II., iv., 1, 2, "Psittace, dux volucrûm, domini facunda voluptas, Humanæ solers imitator, Psittace linguæ!" Mart., xiv., Ep. lxxiii., 76. χαῖρε was one of the common words taught to parrots. So εὗ πράττε, Ζεὺς ἵλεως, Cæsar ave. Vid. Mart., _u. s._ [1178] _Magister artis._ So the Greek proverb, Λιμὸς δὲ πολλῶν γίγνεται διδάσκαλος. Theoc., xxi., Id. 1, Ἁ Πενιὰ, Διοφαντε, μόνα τὰς τέχνας ἐγείρει. Plaut. Stich., "Paupertas fecit ridiculus forem. Nam illa omnes artes perdocet." Cf. Arist., Plut., 467-594. So Ben Jonson, in the Poetaster, "And between whiles spit out a better poem than e'er the master of arts, or giver of wit, their belly, made." [1179] _Negatas._ So Manilius, lib. v., "Quinetiam linguas hominum sensusque docebit Aerias volucres, novaque in commercia ducet, Verbaque præcipiet naturæ sorte negatas." [1180] _Nectar_ is found in two MSS.; all the others have "melos," which has been rejected as not making a scazontic line. But Homer, in his Hymn to Mercury, makes the first syllable long; and also Antipater, in an Epigram on Anacreon, ἀκμὴν οἳ λυρόεν μελίζεται ἀμφι βαθύλλῳ. Cf. Theoc., Id., vii., 82, οὕνεκά οι γλυκὺ Μοῖσα στόματος χέε νέκταρ. SATIRE I. ARGUMENT. Under the color of declaring his purpose of writing Satire and the plan he intends to adopt, and of defending himself against the idle criticism of an imaginary and nameless adversary, Persius lashes the miserable poets of his own day, and in no very obscure terms, their Coryphæus himself, Nero. The subject of the Satire is not very unlike the first of the second book of Horace's Satires, and comes very near in some points to the first Satire of Juvenal. But the manner of treatment is distinct in each, and quite characteristic of the three great Satirists. Horace's is more full of personality, one might say, of egotism, and his own dislike and contempt of the authors of his time, more lively and brilliant, more pungent and witty, than either of the others; more pregnant with jokes, and yet rising to a higher tone than the Satire of Persius. That of Juvenal is in a more majestic strain, as befits the stern censor of the depraved morals of his day; full of commanding dignity and grave rebuke, of fiery indignation and fierce invective; and is therefore more declamatory and oratorical in its style, more elevated in its sentiment, more refined in its diction. While in that of Persius we trace the workings of a young and ardent mind, devoted to literature and intellectual pleasures, of a philosophical turn, and a chastened though somewhat fastidious taste. We see the student and devotee of literature quite as much as the censor of morals, and can see that he grieves over the corruption of the public _taste_ almost as deeply as over the general depravity of public _morals_. Still there breathes through the whole a tone of high and right feeling, of just and stringent criticism, of keen and pungent sarcasm, which deservedly places this Satire very high in the rank of intellectual productions. The Satire opens with a dialogue between the poet himself and some one who breaks in upon his meditations. This person is usually described as his "Monitor;" some well-meaning acquaintance, who endeavors to dissuade the poet from his purpose of writing Satire. But D'Achaintre's notion, that he is rather an ill-natured critic than a good-natured adviser, seems the more tenable one, and the divisions of the first few lines have been ingeniously made to support that view. After expr |