plained; which they usually perfumed with ointment, and crowned with garlands. And indeed the Lapides Terminales (that is, landmarks) were esteemed sacred; so that whoever dared to move, or plough up, or transfer them to another place, his head became devoted to the Diis Terminalibus, and it was lawful for any body to kill him. And further, though they did not sacrifice the lives of animals to those stones, because they thought that it was not lawful to stain them with blood; yet they offered wafers made of flour to them, and the first fruits of corn, and the like: and upon the last day of the year they always observed festivals, to their honour, called Terminalia. Now we pass to the goddesses of the woods. CHAPTER XIX. THE GODDESSES OF THE WOODS. DIANA. P. It is very well. Here comes a goddess 'taller than the other goddesses, in whose virgin looks we may ease our eyes, which have been tired with the horrid sight of those monstrous deities. Welcome, Diana! your hunting habit, the bow in your hand, and the quiver full of arrows, which hangs down from your shoulders, and the skin of a deer fastened to your breast, discover who you are. dYour behaviour, which is free and easy, but modest and decent; your garments, which are handsome and yet careless, show that you are a virgin. Your ename indicates your modesty and honour. I wish that you, who are the tallest of the goddesses, to whom women owe their stature, would implant in C a Dion. Halicarn. 1. 2. b Virg. Æn. 1. Id. ibid. d Pausan. in Arcad. ε"Αρτεμις, ab αρτεμης, perfectus, pudicitiam integritatemque Dianæ indicat. Strabo 1. 14. Odyss. 20. f Homer 1 them also a love of your chastity. For I know you hate, you abhor the conversation of men, and fly from the very sight of them: you reject the temptations of delight, and abhor the charming witchcraft of pleasure, with all your heart. Acteon, the son of Aristaus, that famous huntsman, afatally learned this, when he impudently looked upon you, when you were naked in the fountain; you deferred not the punishment of his impurity for a moment; for, sprinkling him with the water, you changed him into a deer, which was afterward torn in pieces by his own dogs. Further honour is due to you; because you are the Moon, the glory of the stars, and the only goddess who observed perpetual chastity. Nor am I ignorant of that famous and deserving action which you did, to avoid the flames of Alpheus, when you so hastily fled to your nymphs, who were all together in one place; and so besmeared both your self and them with dirt, that when he came he did not know you: whereby your honest deceit succeeded according to your intentions; and the dirt, which fouls every thing else, added a new lustre to your virtue. Welcome once again, O guardian of the mountains! by whose kind assistance women in child-bed are preserved from death. a Ovid. Met. 4. b Astrorum decus. Virg. Æn. 9. Eternum telorum et Virginitatis amorem -Herself untainted still, Hunting and chastity she always lov'd. Pausan. in poster. Eliac. e Montium custos, nemorumque virgo, Que labo antes ute o puellas Ter vocata audis admisque letho. Thiva triformis. Queen of the mountains and the groves! Virg. Æn. 11. Hor. Carm. 1. 4. M. So! Paleophilus, you have thus long cheated me P. What, I cheated you? M. Yes, you; who have so dexterously concealed your knowledge, and endeavoured to make me believe so long, that you are ignorant and unskilful in the mythology of the heathens. P. I am as unskilful as I pretended. You may believe me when I declare, that I am altogether ignorant of those things which you teach me. Nor can you suppose otherwise from what I have now repeated about Diana. For from a boy I have loved this goddess for her modesty; and out of respect to her I learnt those few things which you heard me speak. I am wholly blind, and beg that by your assistance you would guide me. I speak sincerely, I am a mere fresh-man. M. You can scarce make me believe so. But, however, I will verify the old proverb, and teach one that knows more than myself. I will begin from the words that you last mentioned. Diana is called Triformis and Tergemina. First, because though she is but one goddess, yet she has three different names, as well as three different offices. In the heavens she is called Luna; on the earth she is named Diana; and in hell she is styled Hecate or Proserpine. In the heavens she enlightens every-thing by her rays; on the earth she keeps under her power all wild beasts by her bow and her dart; and in hell she keeps all the ghosts and spirits in subjection to her by her power and authority. These several names and offices are comprised in an ingenious distich. But although dLuna, Diana, and Hecate are commonly thought to be only three different names of the same goddess, yet Hesiod esteems them three distinct goddesses. Secondly, because she has, as the poets say, a Sus Minervam. b Nat. Cic. Deor. 3. C Terret, lustrat, agit; Proserpina, Luna, Diana; d In Theogon. S Dempster in Paralip. e Orpheus in Argon. three heads; the head of a horse on the right side, of a dog on the left, and a human head in the midst; whence some call her athree-headed, or three-faced. And bothers ascribe to her the likeness of a bull, a dog, and a lion. Virgil and d Claudian also mention her three countenances. Thirdly, according to the opinion of some, she is called Triformis, because the Moon hath three phases or shapes: the new moon appears arched with a semicircle of light; the half moon fills a semicircle with light; and the full moon fills a whole circle or orb with its splendor. But let us examine these names more exactly. She is named Luna ffrom shining, either because she only in the night time sends forth a glorious light, or else because she shines by borrowed light, and not by her own; and therefore the light with which she shines is always new light. Her chariot is drawn with a white and a black horse; or with two oxen, because she has got two horns; sometimes a mule is added, says Festus, because she is barren, and shines by the light of the sun. Some say, that Lune of both sexes have been worshipped, especially among the Egyptians; and indeed they give this property to all the other gods. Thus both Lunus and Luna were worshipped, but with this difference, that those who worshipped Luna were thought subject to the women, and those who worshipped Lunus were superior to them. We must also ob 4 Γρισσοκέφαλον καὶ τριπόσωπον, Cornut. et Artemidor. 2. Oneirocr. b Porph. ap. Ger. c Tercentum tonat ore Deos, Erebumque, Chaosque, And threefold Hecate with her hundred names, Ecce procul ternis, Hecate, variata figuris. In threefold shape advances. n. 4. De Rap. Pros. e Ap. Lil. Gyr. fA lucendo, quod una sit quæ noctu lu. cet. Cic. Nat. Deor. 2. g Quod luce aliena splendeat, unde Græcè dicitur Zeλnvn à σéλas véov, id est, lumen novum. Id. ibid. h Serv. in Æn. 2. Philocor. Spartian. in Imp. Caracal. |
