Hence if the Reader do not acquiefce in the wugod of Barnes, or in the wavoy of Pierfon, I offer, as a conjecture of my own, Sadov: And it is very remarkable, that in another line of this play (as appears from the note of Dr. Mufgrave on V. 1313 in his edition) the word lavois is there erroneously fubftituted in one manufcript by an obvious mistake, instead of daλois. It may also be added to the authorities already cited in favour of the amendment, that Aufonius, in his account of the labours of Hercules particularly mentions the torch, when he speaks of the deftruction of the Hydra,

Proxima Lernæam ferro & face contudit Hydram.

Idyl. 19.

And, when Palæphatus 20 explains this ftory, he fays, that Jolaus burnt the towering Hydra.

N° XII.

Verfe 211. Παλλάδ' ἐμοὶν Θεὸν. 204. I fee my Goddess.

EURIPIDES embraces every opportunity, in compli ment to his Athenian Spectators, of celebrating their favourite and tutelary Deity Minerva: She is here, and in two other paffages of this play, reprefented in her character of the Giant-flayer: Thus fhe is called by Phurnutus Γιγαλόφοις, and by Lucian Γιγαλόλις 3: A figure of this

military Goddess may, be seen in the Supplement of Montfaucon to his Antiquité Expliquée. The particular object, against whom Minerva is here engaged, is the Giant Enceladus, as in Horace,

Enceladus jaculator audax

Contrà fonantem Palladis ægida.

(L. 3. Od. 4. v. 57.)

There is a noble fublimity in this fcene, where the objects before the Delphick temple are described: The Reader muft therefore be amazed, that the Pere Brumoy, who acknowledges them, as de vraiès beautès, fhould add, " mais peutêtre trop fimples pour le gout prefent:" I am at a lofs to conceive in what the fuppofed fimplicity of Euripides here confifts, fince the imagery is richly coloured, the attitudes finely diverfified, and the drapery very luxuriant: If, as the French Critick conjectures, Virgil borrowed from this paffage the hint of his temple at Carthage in the first Æneid, or of Dæ-. dalus at Crete in the fixth, it must be confeffed, that in the first instance he has improved on the original idea; but the Roman Poet, as there are no striking features of marked imitation, is perhaps only indebted to his own fublime Genius. There is a greater refemblance to Euripides in the defcription of the temple of Jupiter Ammon by Silius Italicus; for he has there painted the labours of Hercules, and among the reft that of the Hydra,

In foribus labor Alcidæ, Lernæa recifis

Anguibus Hydra jacet.

(Pun. L. III. v. 32.)

4 Tom. I. 1. 3. c. 7. pl. 40. fig. 3.

5 Vol. V. p. 99. Ion.

And

And Claudian has represented the Giants within the temple

of Jupiter at Rome,

Juvat infrà tecta Tonantis

Cernere Tarpeiâ pendentes rupe Gigantes.

(De Sex. Conf. Hor. Car. 28. v. 45.)

I can by no means accede to the fuppofition of Dr. Mufgrave, that Euripides here paints by an anticipation in the order of time the Delphick Portico, which was erected by the Athenians in the fourth year of the 87th Olympiad; fince this fuppofed anticipation in violation of all Chronology and Probability would be infinitely too violent, nor would it be justified by a fimilar inftance in this play as he imagines: See my Note (on V. 1160) where I have given a different conftruction of that paffage; and have fhewn the abfurdity refulting from it.

N° XIII.

Verfe 216. Βρόμιος ἄλλον.

Another earthborn monster falls beneath

209. The wand of Bacchus.

THE character of Giant-flayer belonged alfo to Bacchus, as well as to Minerva: Thus he is here represented, and called Fryaérns in the Anthologia': To this idea Horace in his ode to him alludes,

Tu cum parentis regna per arduum

Cohors Gigantum fcanderet impia,

Rhœcum, &c.

Car. 1. 2. Od. 19. v. 23.

L. 1. c. 38. ep. 11.

We

6 See his note on V. 221, in his edition.

We learn from Diodorus Siculus the real hiftory of this fabulous engagement of the Gods and Giants: He informs us," that Dionufus in a rapid paffage from India to the Mediterranean met with the whole collected force of the Titans, who were paffing over into Crete against Ammon; that Jupiter had come from Egypt, as an ally to Ammon, and a great war arifing in the lfland, the troops of Dionufus, Minerva, and other reputed Gods immediately paffed over: A battle enfuing, the party of Dionufus was triumphant, and the Titans were vanquished: When Ammon and Dionufus were afterwards tranflated from their mortal into an immortal State, Jupiter, according to tradition, reigned over the whole globe, the Titans being extinct, and no other perfon impiously presuming to conteft the fovereignty with him." L. 3. fec. 72. p. 243. ed. Weffel.

N° XIV.

Verfe 221. Οὐ θέμις ὦ ξεναὶ.

223. Strangers, this is not permitted.

ACCORDING to the idea of Dr. Mufgrave', this is the first time where Ion addreffes the Chorus; for to this moment he has been only a filent auditor of their converfa-. tion: The Oxford Editor endeavours to fupport this opinion on the following arguments: Because he imagines, that Ion, instead of the former appellation of "Friend "," addreffed to the Chorus, would have used the expreffion of "Strangers," as in this line: Because the falutation of the Chorus to Ion, 1 See his note (on v. 186.) in his edition. 2 V 193. H

3

3 V. 219.

and

and their question, if they might interrogate him, were perfectly unneceffary, if they had already converfed with him;" he therefore fuppofes the former part of the dialogue in this scene to have been held partly by the whole Chorus and partly between the two Semichorufes, and not between Ion and the Chorus: He alfo divides the metre differently, into Strophe, Antiftrophe, and Anapafts; Mr. Tyrwhitt imagines Ion to have retired from the ftage into the temple just before the entry of the Chorus, and to enter again, when the Chorus addreffes him in line, (218): According to his idea the Chorus is inftructed in regard to the objects in the Delphick Portico by their Coryphæus, or Leader. I confefs, that I cannot correfpond with these innovations. The first objection of the Oxford Editor appears to me too refined, for why fhould not lon addrefs the Female Chorus under the engaging expreffion of Friend? And where is the impropriety that the Chorus fhould ask permiffion, before they demanded a question of that nice delicacy which involved the truth or falfehood of the report, that the temple of Delphi was the central fpot of the earth? This was an interefting and important fact, as I fhall fhew in my next note: but the fubject of the figures in the Portico was an object of publick notoriety, and open to every enquiry: It feems alfo improper to fuppofe, that the Coryphæus, or Semichorus, equally ftrangers with the other Semichorus at Delphi, fhould be endowed with fuch fuperior knowledge, and local infor mation beyond their Female Companions, as to be able to unfold all the dillerent fubjects, which prefented themselves

4 V. 220.

5 See the Note of Dr. Musgrave on v. 245. of his Edition.

to