Book ix

. 1. 692, and the Note to the passage.]

[Footnote 431: The sluggish serpent.--Ver. 13. Macrobius tells us, that the Egyptians accompanied the statue of Serapis with that of an animal with three heads, the middle one that of a lion, the one to the right, of a dog, and that to the left, of a ravenous wolf; and that a serpent was represented encircling it in its folds, with its head below the right hand of the statue of the Deity. To this the Poet possibly alludes, or else to the asp, which was common in the North of Egypt, and perhaps, was looked upon as sacred. If so, it is probable that the word 'pigra,' 'sluggish,' refers to the drowsy effect produced by the sting of the asp, which was generally mortal. This, indeed, seems the more likely, from the fact of the asp being clearly referred to, in company with these Deities, in the Ninth Book of the Metamorphoses, 1. 93; which see, with the Note to the passage.]

[Footnote 432: The horned Apis.--Ver. 14. See the Ninth Book of the Metamorphoses, 1. 691, and the Note to the passage.]

[Footnote 433: Thy features.--Ver. 15. Isis is here addressed, as being supposed to be the same Deity as Diana Lucina, who was invoked by pregnant and parturient women. Thus Isis appears to Telethusa, a Cretan woman, in her pregnancy, in the Ninth Book of the Metamorphoses, 1. 665, et seq.]

[Footnote 434: Thy appointed days.--Ver. 17. Votaries who were worshipping in the temples of the Deities sat there for a considerable time, especially when they attended for the purpose of sacrifice. In the First Book of the Pontic Epistles, Ep. i. 1. 50, Ovid says, 'I have beheld one who confessed that he had offended the Divinity of Isis, clothed in linen, sitting before he altars of Isis.']

[Footnote 435: On which.--Ver. 18. 'Queis' seems a preferable reading to 'qua.']

[Footnote 436: The Galli.--Ver. 18. Some suppose that Isis and Cybele were the same Divinity, and that the Galli, or priests of Cybele, attended the rites of their Goddess under the name of Isis. It seems clear, from the present passage, that the priests of Cybele, who were called Galli, did perform the rites of Isis, but there is abundant proof that these were considered as distinct Deities. In imitation of the Corybantes, the original priests of Cybele, they performed her rites to the sound of pipes and tambourines, and ran to and fro in a frenzied manner.]

[Footnote 437: With thy laurels.--Ver. 18. See the Note to the 692nd line of the Ninth Book of the Metamorphoses. While celebrating the search for the limbs of Osiris, the priests uttered lamentations, accompanied with the sound of the 'sistra'; but when they had found the body, they wore wreaths of laurel, and uttered cries, signifying their joy.]

[Footnote 438: Ilithyia.--Ver. 21. As to the Goddess Ilithyia, see the Ninth Book of the Metamorphoses, 1. 283, and the Note to the passage.]

[Footnote 439: With their bucklers.--Ver. 2. Armed with 'peltæ,' or bucklers, like the Amazons.]

[Footnote 440: The sand must.--Ver. 8. This figure is derived from the gladiatorial fights of the amphitheatre, where the spot on which they fought was strewed with sand, both for the purpose of giving a firm footing to the gladiators, and of soaking up the blood that was shed.]

[Footnote 441: Again throw stones.--Ver. 12. He alludes to Deucalion and Pyr-rha. See the First Book of the Metamorphoses.]

[Footnote 442: Ilia had destroyed.--Ver. 16. Romulus was her son. See her story, related at the beginning of the Third Book of the Fasti.]

[Footnote 443: Why pierce.--Ver. 27. He alludes to the sharp instruments which she had used for the purpose of procuring abortion: a practice which Canace tells Macareus that her nurse had resorted to. Epistle xi. 1. 40--43.]

[Footnote 444: Armenian dens.--Ver. 35. See the Metamorphoses,