J. Jefferys sculp THE Second H Y M N of CALLIMACHUS. * To APOLLO. EE, how the laurels hallow'd branches wave; Hark, founds tumultuous shake the trembling cave! Far, Ver. 1. Laurels branches.] It was ufual not only to adorn every part of the temple of Apollo with laurel branches, the pofts of the doors, the innermoft parts of the temple, the altar, tripods, &c. but the priesteffes themselves alfo delivered their oracles, holding laurel branches in their hands whence our poet fpeaks not of a tree (as Mr. Prior tranflates it) but of the branches (daQuivos ogπng) thus adorning the temple: It hath escaped the observation of no critic, how exactly Virgil hath herein imitated our author Far, ye profane, far off! with beauteous feet Bright PHOEBUS comes, and thunders at the gate; Fly ye profane, oh fly, and far remove (Exclaims the pricftefs) from the hallow'd grove. FITT. There are many other paffages in the claffics greatly fimilar hereto, particularly in the 5th book of Lucan's Pharfalia. All the Gods had fome tree facred to them. Populus Alcide gratiffima, vitis Iaccho, Formofe veneri myrtus, fua laurea Photo, fays Virgi!. But why the laurel fhould be affigned and dedicated to Apollo, rather than any other tree, I must confefs, never to have met with a fatisfactory reafon. As to what they tell us (wherein all the commentators reft) that it was an emblem of prophecy, and from its crackling or not, when thrown into the fire, predicted good or ill fortune, we are yet as much in the dark, and as much to feek, how it came to be fo ufed, as at first. The reader doubtless has herein been as unfortunate as myfelf, and therefore I fhall venture to give him my own thoughts on this fubject. It is well known that Apollo in the Grecian mythology is the fame as the Sun, and that he was generally reprefented amongst his worshippers by a young man with a glory of conical rays about his head, not very unlike the crowns we may obferve in the pictures of our old kings. If we examine te leaf of the Roman laurel, as we have it in the bufts or pictures of the herces or pocts of former ages, or as it is ftill to be feen in many gardens in our own country, we fhall find no leaf fo nearly refembles the conical rays abovementioned as this, and therefore no tree was fo proper to be confecrated to Apollo or the Sun; or in other wo.ds, fo aptly reprefented that light, which he is continually fending forth, enlightening and enlivening our lower world." We may add alfo, t' at the laurel, as an ever-green reprefented the perpetual youth of Apollo, for he is defcribed as always young, and unbearded. See this hymn ver. 36 orig. Ever-greens in Scripture are m.de the fymbols of the Divinity of Christ, whofe leaf See never withers, and at the time of his birth, to teftify our belief of his immortality we adorn all our churches with ever-greens. The material Sun therefore had that affigned to him by his worfhippers, which is reclaimed for, and belongs truly to the Sun of righteousness. Ver. 3. With beauteous fect, &c.] It is ob ferveable, that we meet in the heathen poets with the mention of Apollo's prefence, in his temple much more frequently than with that of Jupiter, or any other of the Gods: might not this arife from the very general and antient tradition of the Lord, Jehovah, who was to come in the flesh, pitch his tabernacle (oxywoα1) among us, and inhabit the temple of a human body? See St. John ii. 19. If you compare Malachi iii. 1, 2, 3. you will eafily obferve a remarkable refemblance between the prophet and the poet. The Lord fhall fuddenly come to his temple: even the messenger of the covenant whom you delight in: Ta bugarga KAAN wodi poißos açaoce who may abide the day of his coming, and who fhall ftand when he appeareth? exas, emas, oris ahip. The expreffion of Apollo's knocking at the gate zahared with a beautiful foot, is particularly remarkable. Our Saviour's coming to preach the gofpel of peace, and fo his ministers alfo (as appointed by hun) is thus defcribed: How beautiful upon the mountains, are the feet of Him, that bringeth good tidings, that publiheth peace, &c. Ifaiah lii. 7. and fo in the prophcí Nahum i. 15. Behold upon the mountains, the feet of Him, that bringeth good tidings, &c. The coming of the Sun of rightcoufnefs thus to bring peace, is compared to the rifing of the material Sun: the Sun of righteoufnefs fhall arife, with healing in his wings, Mal. iv. 2. and his feet is faid to be beautiful upon the mountains, because the Sun first arifeth, or at leaft, appears from, and upon them. See Cant. ii. ver. 17. And as Chrift's entry into the kingdom of grace is thus figured, fo Apollo's entry into his temple is exrefled in the fame manner, by the rifing of the Sun, unbarring the gates of light, and with his foining See the glad fign the Delian palm hath giv❜n ; Burst ope, ye bars, ye gates, your heads decline; your He comes, the God of light, the God's at band! Shining feet knocking at the golden portal of day, 5 ΙΟ BEGIN king of Ifrael, that cometh in the name of the Lord, John xii. 12. And the faints as reprefented in their triumphal ftate, in the Revelations vii. 9. "hold these branches in their hands, and cry with a loud voice faying, falvation to our God, which fitteth on the throne, and unto the Lamb." I may here likewise observe, that at the feast of tabernacles, which were made of boughs, each of which was also a type of some property in Chrift, the people were ordered to carry thefe branches, and by this means afcribe victory to their all-conquering king the Meffiah. Ver. 5. The Delian palm.] See the hymn to This figure then was an emblem of Christ, as Delos orig. 1. 209. The palm-tree, it is Conqueror: the humanity (through the affistance univerfally known, was facred to the fecond of the lion, the divine perfon, who was united person of the true Trinity; fo that the corrup- to him) was to have ftability, Strength, and tion of tradition is fufficient to account for the power to support himself under the weight of all heathens dedicating it to the fecond perfon of he was to do and fuffer for and in the stead their trinity. It is obfervable, that on the walls of man; and after he had acquired the victory of the Jewish temple were defcribed palm-trees for himself, he was alfo to communicate the and cherubims alternately; the cherubims were effects of it to his followers, i. e. He was to only coupled ones, confifting of two faces, a lion's give support, ability to those who should accept and a man's, expreffing the divinity (of which him as their Saviour, to ftand here against all the lion of the tribe of Judah, Rev. v. 5. was the affaults of their enemies, and the pressure of a symbol) joined to the humanity, reprefented temptations, and to place them hereafter in a by the human face. "The palm-tree was used ftable ftate of glory, beyond a poffibility of fallas an emblem of strength, support, ability to standing or being removed from it."-See the fermons upright under any preffure; as it is faid the property of that tree is." (Aul. Gell. Noct. 1. 3. c. 7.) Hence it was used among the heathens as an emblem of victory; and by believers as a type of Jalvation wrought through Chrift. On this account, when our Saviour made his regal entrance into Jerufalem, "much people took branches of palm-trees, and went forth to meet him and cried, Hofanna [ fave us] bleffed is the of the late learned Mr. Catcot, p 306. Ver. 9. Decline, &c.) The reader cannot but obferve the remarkable refemblance of this paffage to the following verfes from the xxivth Pfalm--Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lift up, ye everlafting doors, and the king of Glory fhall come in. Who is this king of glory? the Lord ftrong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and E be BEGIN the fong, and tread the facred ground In myftic dance fymphonious to the found, Begin young men: APOLLO's eyes endure None but the good, the perfect and the pure: be ye lift up ye everlasting doors, and the king of glory fhall come in. Who is this king of glory? the Lord of hofts he is the king of glory. Selah. So too as Spanheim obferves, after that divinely emphatical description of the feraphims and their hymn in Ifaiah chap. vi." "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hofts, the whole earth is full of his glory."-We find, "that the pofts of the door moved, at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with fmoke." Ver. 11. Begin the fong, &c.] The original is Μολπηντε και ες χορου εντυνεσθε. Ad cantandum & ad faltandum accingamini, fays Dr. Bentley. The Greeks were particularly careful to teach their children mufic, and for this reason, as we are told," that they might at the feftivals of their gods join in finging the hymns and fongs to their praife, while the chorus danced round the altar in concert with their mufic: This Mr. Prior has very happily expreft in his tranflation of our author, In myftic numbers trod explain the mufic. See Pfalm cxlix. 3. "The antient heathens had, I believe, a true knowledge of the folar fyftem, and of the agents by which the great motions of it are performed. If therefore the Sun or light derived from it, be, as they thought, the great fpring by which the earth, moon, and planets move, it feems highly probable that in thefe dances, performed to the honour of Apollo, they run round a ring or circle to reprefent the annual motion of the planets in their orbits, and at the fame time turned round, as it were upon their own axes (which is usual in all dancing) to reprefent their diurnal motion. This may appear whimfical; but Who can a better account of their dances be given? Have not we fome veftiges of this old idolatry still remaining among us? When the Sun approaches our northern regions, do not the country-people in England keep up the fame fort of custom, dancing in the manner above described, round a may-pole, which, without doubt is of very antient ftanding, and derived from our old idolatrous ancestors: But a paffage of Proclus in Chreftomathia (cited Voffii de orig. & prog. idolatr. lib. 2. p. 368-9.) will ferve to fhew that the rites performed by the antient heathens, were not without a meaning, and at the same time confirm the remark above made : " No thing, fays Voffius, does fo clearly prove Apollo to be the Sun, as the apollinarian rites: But they were fo different in different places, that to infift upon them would exceed the bounds of my prefent defign. I fhall therefore only mention the rites of Apollo Ifmenius and Galaxius, which are thus defcribed by Préclus :-" They crown with laurels and various flowers a block of the olive-tree, on the top of which is placed a brazen sphere, from which they hang several fmaller fpheres, and about the middle of the block they fasten purple crowns, smaller than that on the top; and the bottom of the block they cover with a faffron, or perhaps flame-coloured garment; their upper fphere denotes the the Sun, by which they mean Apollo; the next under it the moon, the appendent fpheres, the ftars and planets, and the crowns, which are 365 in number, their annual course.”. This is a literal tranflation of the paffage, which appears to me a very curious one, and upon which I fhall leave the reader to make his own remarks. Ver. 13. Apollo's eyes. &c.] There are many paffages in fcripture relating to the fecond perfon, which nearly refemble thefe in Callimachus: We are told, that "he is of purer eyes than to behold Who view the God, are great; but abject they From whom he turns his favouring eyes away : We will prepare, behold thee, and be bleft. 15 20 behold evil, and cannot look on iniquity:" We Ver. 20. With harp, &c.] The word here ufed by the author is dap, and in the 27th line what I have rendered lute is tλus; I believe the precife difference of these mufical inftruments cannot now be ascertained: Many musical inftruments are alfo mentioned in SS. particularly in the Pfalms (fee Pfal. cl.) but as I pretend not to understand clearly the diftinct forts of them, and as the inveftigation thereof would be too long for this place, I fhall only obferve, that as the fecond perfon appears from the Pfalm juft quoted, and several other paffages of fcripture to have been particularly honoured with mufical inftruments by the true believers, fo it is not improbable, that the heathens derived from them their practice of performing the fame fort of honours to their Apollo. See Rev. xiv. 1, 2, 3. where the Lamb is reprefented ftanding on mount Sion, and the voice of harpers heard, harping with their harps-xawdxζούλων εν ταις κιθαραίς αυτών. Ver. 20. When Phoebus is at hand, &c.] Ty Φοίβε επιδημήσαντος. The feast now celebrat If of ing we learn from hence was the End Phoebus, his entrance into this temple- or in other words, the return of the Sun on this feafon to that part of the world. Virgil, in his 4th Encid, has a fine defcription of this Edua of Apollo. As when from Lycia, bound in wintry froft, The beauteous Phoebus in high pomp retires, The God majeftic moves o'er Cynthus brows, PITT. The obfervations before made, will both gain light from, and give it in return to this paffage from Virgil. Mr. Dryden has a peculiar line in his tranflation, which feems very expreffive of his own fentiments, Himself, on Cynthus walking, fees below The merry madness of the facred show. Spanheim is of opinion, that "this custom of uthering in their God with mufic, hymns, and dancing, was borrowed with many other of the heathen ceremonies from the Jews; and in particular from what we find related in 1 Kings viii. concerning the dedication of Solomon's temple, and the bringing in of the ark with all manner of joy: Of which Jofephus gives this remark E 2 able |