But neither Thieves nor Beafts of Prey, Her Sifter Sagana was there : Their Screams re-echo'd all around, While with their Nails they scoop'd the Ground, Thither they brought two Images, } This Beldam calls on Hecaté, And That on dire Tifiphoné. 5 Snakes too and Hell-hounds might be feen; May Ravens mute upon my Head, On the small waxen Image preys ; I rattled my pofterior Thunder. And Sagana no more could boast Her Tower of Hair; from off their Arms Th' enchanted Bracelets dropp'd; the Charms. NOTES. Macenas had made Gardens on the Efquilian Hill, which was before uninhabited and unhealthy, on Account of the Graves with which it was filled, and the Bones which covered it. Horace is glad of an Occafion to speak of these Gardens, and of the Pleasure they gave the Public. At the fame Time, it gives him an Opportunity of inveighing against the Witches Canidia and Sagana, and of defcribing their Pranks every Night in that Place. But this is not his only End: His principal Design is to mock the idle Superftition of the Romans, and their Bigotry for Idols, whom they adored as true Gods. He treats this Subject with great Wit and Delicacy. For he does not attack thefe Idols like a dry Philofopher, who deduces his Principles from the first Causes, and by a long Detail of Reafoning, but like a philofophic Courtier, who knows, that in Cafes of this Nature Ridicule is more prevalent than the clofeft Syllogifms. DACIER. Perhaps the Reasoning which Dacier here makes Use of might be turned against the Superftition of the Papists, if we put Images for Idols. And, if his Argument be just, it will hold in favour of the Irony and ftrong Railleries, employed by Tillotson, and other Proteftant Divines, against their Abfurdities. Canidia and Sagana are the fame of whom he speaks in Book V. Ode 5. Canidia walks with her Robe tucked up, her Feet bare, and her Hair dishevelled: As Ovid describes Medea; Egreditur telis veftes induta recintas, Nuda pedem, nudos humeros infusa capillis. her Ancles bare, Her Garments closely girt, and loose her Hair. The only Difference is, that Medea wears her Robe loose: But it may be faid, that Canidia only tucked it up to walk more conveniently. DACIER. 2 Pullam agnam.] They always offered black Victims to the infernal Gods. Thus Medea, in Ovid: cultras 3 Conjecit. cultros in guttura velleris atri ut inde Manes elicerent.] There was nothing of which the Ghofts were fo fond as Blood. Ulyffes, in Homer, is obliged to draw his Sword to keep off the Ghofts, and to hinder them from drinking the Blood which he had poured into the Trench for Tirefias. They could neither foretell future Events, nor answer Questions, 'till they had first . tafted this Blood. We fee clearly, by this Paffage, that the Manes are nothing but the Souls of the Deceased. 4 animas refponfa daturas.] The Enchantments by which the Ghofts were raifed, in order to know from them what should happen, were in Ufe long before Homer. We fee, in the first Book of Samuel, that Saul confults the Witch of Endor, who, by her Enchantments, calls up the Ghoft of Samuel. And Saul lived at least three hundred and fifty Years before Homer, as it would be easy to prove. DACIER. 5 Serpentes atque videres Infernas errare canes.] The Serpents proclaimed the Approach of Tifiphoné, and the Hell-bounds that of Hecaté. Thus Virgil, on the like Occafion: vifaque canes ululare per umbram, Adventante Dea. Æn. VI. 257. And howling Dogs in glimmering Light advance, 6 DRYDEN. lupi barbam varia cum dente colubræ.] Inftead of hiding in the Ground a Wolf's Beard and a Snake's Tooth, as here in Horace, Shakespear's Witches, in Macbeth, are fuppofed to throw into their enchanted Cauldron, among other Ingredients, a Wolf's Tooth and a Snake's Fillet. See Act IV. Scene I. Modernized by WILLIAM COW PER, Efq; Up fteps a free familiar Wight, Sir, you have Business, I fuppofe ; My Bufinefs, Sir, is quickly done, Gods! how I fcamper'd, fcuffled for't, Teas'd with his loose unjointed Chat--"What Street is this? Whofe Houfe is that?" O Harlow! |