When we turn from these fabulous histories to the accurate page of Thucydides, we there find that the Corcyreans are stated to have been originally Corinthian colonists. This, indeed, is fully avowed in the speech, which the ambassadors from Corcyra addressed to the Athenians. (Thucyd. Hist. L. 1. 9 and 12.)

Herodotus (L. iii. C. 49.) is not quite so explicit on this subject as Thucydides; and yet it seems clear from his words, that he believed Corcyra to have been originally peopled by a colony from Corinth.

The city of Corinth seems to have been already florishing so early as the Trojan war; and, indeed, Homer (II. B.) gives it the epithet of " opulent." There seems just reason to suppose, that many of the little states in the neighbourhood may have been dependent upon this important place, which soon became the great emporium of Greece. It appears, that, in the Trojan times, Agamemnon was King of Argos and Mycena.' Now upon these two places, all the cities of Argolis seem to have been dependent, together with Sicyon, Corinth, and the cities on the coast of Achæa as far as Ægium and Helice. (Il. B. v. 559 et seq.) After the expulsion of the Orestide by the Heraclide, the growing prosperity of the Corinthians may have induced them to claim the title of Metropolitans, where, perhaps, that right could not be strictly proved; and it may have been admitted by the descendants of Peloponnesian emigrants, who were not sorry to acknowledge their connexion with the richest and most commercial of the Grecian republics. But Corinth, according to Homer, appears to have been dependent on Mycena in the Trojan times; and it must have been, at least, as early as those times, that the father of Alcinous settled in Corcyra.

Without pretending, then, that Hyperia was exactly in the district of Corinth, I think that I shall be able to show, that it was, at least, in the neighbouring territory of Argolis.

Pausanias (L. ii. C. 30.) mentions an ancient town in Argolis of the name of Hyperia. From his account of it I should judge that this town must have been situated in the plain of Trozen; and, indeed, it is there, that Laurenbergius has placed it in his Græcia Antiqua. I am of opinion that this was the Hyperia of Homer.

1. Mr. Bryant has proved, with his usual erudition, that the Cyclopes were once established in Argolis, and that they built Argos, Mycena, and Tiryns. In these positions it is clear, that the Cyclopes must have been in the immediate neighbourhood of

It is probable that though Diomed, Sthenelus, and Euryalus, led the forces of Argos, they acted under the authority of Agamemnon, and served as his Generals.

the plain of Trazen, in which I have shown that an ancient city of the name of Hyperia formerly stood.

It has not, however, been remarked by Mr. Bryant, that the Cyclopes, according to the Scholiast of Apollonius Rhodius, (Arg. L. iv. 1091.) accompanied Perseus from Seriphus to the Pelopon nesus. But if we trust to Pausanias, the Cyclopes must have been established in Argolis before the time of Perseus, since they are said to have built the walls of Tiryns for Protus. In all events the Cyclopes must have inhabited Mycena, Argos, and Tiryns, before the time of Phæax, or Nausithous, the father of Alcinous; and since they were in the neighbourhood of Træezen, it may be inferred, that their descendants expelled the Phaaces from Hyperia.

2. Homer tells us, (Odyss. H.) that Nausithous was the son of Neptune. I observe, that Hyperes, who built Hyperia, is likewise said to have been the son of Neptune; (Pausan. L. ii. C. 30.) and that Aetius, who obtained the government both of Anthea and of Hyperia, changed the name of the region, and called it Posidonia. Strabo (L. viii.) says that Trozen was sacred to Neptune, and that it was formerly called from him Posidonia. If, then, the Phæaces came from Hyperia in the plain of Trozen, we shall easily understand, why Homer, in the language of poetry, calls their leader, the son of Neptune.

3. But, it will be said, the fountains of Hyperia and Messeis were in the Pelasgian Argos, or Thessaly, as is noticed by Strabo. I have only to observe in answer, that abundance of fountains and rivers may be found in the plain of Trazen. There was a fountain there of the name of Hippocrene, as well as in Boeotia; and · the river Chrysorhous is particularly mentioned by Pausanias. (L. ii. C. 31.) With respect to the fountain Messeis, there was one of that name in Thessaly, another in Argos, and a third in Laconia, as is attested by a Scholiast cited by Kuhnius-Meconis, κρήνη Θεσσαλίας, ἢ "Αργους, ἢ Λακωνικῆς.

4. We have seen that all the Greek writers are agreed in stating, that the Corcyreans came from the Peloponnesus; but some say that they were colonists from Corinth, while others bring them from Phlius. The distance between Corinth and Phlius, in a straight line, I should suppose to be little more than 15 or 16 miles; and the plain of Trozen, I should reckon to be about 40 miles from Phlius, and about 35 from Corinth. If then the inhabitants of Hyperia, in the plain of Trozen, found themselves liable to the depredations of the Cyclopes, who were masters of several cities in their neighbourhood, it seems very natural, that they should seek for shelter from these strangers at Corinth and Phlius. In this manner, I think, we may account for the apparent contradictions of the authors, whom I have cited; because we may suppose,

that these emigrants from Hyperia afterwards embarked under the auspices of the Corinthians, and were transplanted by them to the island of Corcyra.

I have now, sir, stated my notions to you, concerning the origin of the Phæaces; and only lament, that I could not do it more briefly, and in a more perfect manner.

I am, Sir,

Your Humble Servant,

Logie Almond, Feb. 25. 1812.

W. DRUMMOND.

P. S. I ought to have remarked, that the words, ἐν εὐρυχόρῳ Υπερείῃ,

which I have rendered too generally "in spacious Hyperia" indicate a wide region, or plain, as belonging to Hyperia. The plain of Trazen, from Potamia to the nearest point of the island of Poros, seems to extend about 20 miles. It is not 3 miles in breadth. But a plain, which is 20 miles in length, might merit the epithet bestowed by Homer on Hyperia.

The Phrase To run a muck' illustrated.

To run a muck," says Dr. Johnson in his Dịct.

"signifies, I know not from what derivation, to run madly and attack all that we meet :'

'Frontless, and satire-proof he scow'rs the streets,
And runs an Indian muck at all he meets,'

'Satire's my weapon, but I'm too discreet
To run a much, and tilt at all I meet,'

DRYDEN.

Ꭵ .

POPE'S HOR."

I should have imagined that the epithet Indian, which Dryden, whom he quotes, gives to the word muck, would have led this great man to refer the expression to some Indian custom, and therefore to examine some books of eastern travels, where he would have found it very satisfactorily explained: "The slaves (at Batavia,) when determined on revenge, often swallow, for the purpose of acquiring artificial courage, an extraordinary dose of opium, and soon becoming frantic, as well as desperate, not only stab the objects of their hate, but sally forth to attack, in like manner, every person they meet, till self-preservation renders it necessary to destroy them: they are said in that state to be running a muck, and instances of it are not more common among slaves, than among free natives of the country, who, in the anguish for losing their money, effects, and sometimes their families, at gaming, to which they are violently addicted, or under the pressure of some

other passion, or misfortune, have recourse to the same remedy with the same fatal effects." Sir George Staunton's Embassy to "Sir China, Vol. 1. p. 264. "It has been usual to attribute to the practice [of taking opium] destructive consequences of another nature; from the frenzy it has been supposed to excite in those, who take it in quantities. But this should probably rank with the many errors, that mankind have been led into, by travellers addicted to the marvellous; and there is every reason to believe that the furious quarrels, desperate assassinations, and sanguinary attacks, which the use of opium is said to give birth to, are idle notions, originally adopted through ignorance, and since maintained, from the mere want of investigation, without having any solid foundation: that those desperate acts of indiscriminate murder, called by us mucks, and by the natives mongams, do actually take place, and in some parts of the east, frequently, (in Java in particular) is not to be controverted; but it is not equally evident that they proceed from any intoxication, except that of their unruly passions: too often they are occasioned by excess of cruelty and injustice in their oppressors: on the west-coast of Sumatra about 20,000 pounds' weight of this drug are consumed annually, yet instances of this crime do not happen, at least within the scope of our knowledge, above once in two or three years." Marsden's Sumatra p. 241.

Trin. Coll. Cam. April 14th, 1812.

E. H. BARKER.

FACETIE CLASSICE.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE CLASSICAL JOURNAL.

SIR, THE annexed repartees, by Professor Porson, having been lately communicated to me by a friend, I hereby take the opportunity of offering you them for insertion in the next Number of your useful publication. The two former relate to Hermann, the German metrical scholar; the latter is an extempórary stricture on four of the vulgus poetarum of the late, or present, age. The author of the article on the newly published edition of Porson's Hecuba (Edinb. Rev. No. XXXVII. P. 64, &c.) seems to entertain a high opinion of the metrical ability of Mr. Hermann. "Mr. Porson," says he, "appears to have considered [him] rather as a personal enemy, than as a literary antagonist. Almost every line of Mr. Porson's Supplement contains an allusion to some blunder committed by the above-mentioned learned person," &c. As if it required any more than the Reviewer's own words to

condemn this man of metre ! If Professor Porson has occasion to allude to the blunders of this metrical scholar almost in every line of the Supplement to the Preface of the Hecuba, these blunders must, we should suppose, be tolerably numerous-so numerous, at all events, as to preclude the possibility of Mr. Hermann ever being a rival of the Professor's. Mr. Porson's generosity was such, that it cannot for a moment be supposed he could consider any one as "a personal enemy," from causes which would ensure them his respect and admiration. It was said of the Newfoundland dog, that instead of putting the squeamish cur upon an equality with himself, he quietly seized him by the collar and dropped him into the puddle. The remark is applicable here, in spite of the illiberal reflection of the Reviewer. If this will not suffice, let the Reviewer be shown Porson's note on the Medea 675. Antong other metrical feats, it was Hermann's opinion that a tribrach might be in all places at once but the last of the iambic senarius. On this, Porson hailed him most happily with this couplet, constructed after his own prescription.

ὁ μετρικὸς, ὁ σοφὸς, ἄτοπα γέγραφε περὶ μέτρων
ὁ μετρικὸς ἄμετρος, ὁ σοφὸς ἀσοφὸς, ἐγένετο.

Again on the same illustrious personage we have the following lines from the same pen;

The Germans in Greek
Are hard for to seek;

Not five in five score,

But ninety-five more;

Save but Godfrey Hermann,

And he's a d--d German.

which has been thus rendered in Greek by an Etonian, a friend of the Professor's;

Νήϊδές εἰσι μέτρων οἱ Τεύτονες· οὐχ ̓ ὁ μὲν, ὃς δ ̓ οὐ· Πάντες, πλὴν Ερμαννος· ὁ δ ̓ Ερμαννος μάλα Τεύτων. Parodied, no doubt, from an Epigram in the Anthologia; Καὶ τόδε Δημοδόκου, Χίοι κακοί· οὐχ ὁ μὲν, ὃς δ ̓ οὐ· Πάντες πλὴν Προκλέους· καὶ Προκλέης τε Χίος.

It

I proceed to the next in order, which needs no comment. was produced in true style, .....ἐν κυλίκων οἰνοπλανήτοις ὑποδεξίαις dμíλλais,...... on the Professor being requested to enumerate the bards of his age.

Poetis nos lætamur tribus,

Pye, Peter Pindar, et Small Pybus;

His si tu quartum addere pergis,
Quartus addatur;-Sir Bland Burgess.

I remain, your's truly,

London, April, 1812.

FARRAGO LIBELLI.