Dardania stratus dextra securus amorum Qui juvenum tibi semper erant, miserande jaceres*. The poet hath observed the same conduct, as we shall see hereafter, with regard to the pure and the corrupt MYSTERIES. Before I leave these previous circumstances, permit me only to take notice, that this was the second species of the EPIC POEM; our own countryman, Milton, having produced the third: for just as Virgil rivaled Homer, so Milton was the emulator of both. He found Homer possessed of the province of MORALITY; Virgil of POLITICS: and nothing left for him, but that of RELIGION. This he seized, as ambitious to share with them in the Government of the poetic world: and by means of the superior dignity of his subject, hath gotten to the head of that Triumvirate which took so many ages in forming. These are the three species of the Epic poem; for its largest sphere is HUMAN ACTION; which can be only considered in a moral, a political, or religious view: and these the three great MAKERS; for each of their Poems was struck out at a heat, and came to perfection from its first essay. Here then the grand Scene was closed: and all further improvements of the Epic at an end. It being now understood, that the Æneis is in the style of ancient legislation, it would be hard to think that so great a master in his art, should overlook a DOCTRINE, which, we have shewn, was the foundation and support of ancient Politics; namely a future state of rewards and punishments. Accordingly he hath given us a complete system of it, in imitation of his models, which were Plato's vision of Erus, and Tully's dream of Scipio. Again, as the Lawgiver took care to support this Doctrine by a very extraordinary Institution, and to commemorate it by a RITE, which had all the allurement of spectacle; and afforded matter for the utmost embellishments of poetry, we cannot but confess a description of such a Scene would add largely to the grace and elegance of his work; and must conclude he would be invited to attempt it. Accordingly, we say, he hath done this likewise, in the allegorical descent of Æneas into Hell; which is no other than an enigmatical representation of his INI TIATION INTO THE MYSTERIES. Virgil was to represent an Heroic Lawgiver in the person of Æneas; now, INITIATION into the Mysteries was what sanctified his Character and ennobled his Function. Hence we find all the ancient Heroes and Lawgivers were, in fact, initiated*. And it was no wonder the Legislator should endeavour by his example to give credit to an institution of his own creating. Another reason for the Hero's initiation was the important instructions the founders of Empire received in matters that concerned their office t, as we may see in the second section of the third book. Δεῖξεν Τριπτολέμῳ τε Διόκλει τε Πληξίππῳ Δρησμοσύνην ἱερῶν, καὶ ἐπέφραδεν ὀργία πᾶσιν. Homeri Fragm. Hymn. in Cer. apud Paus. Corinth. + † - γίνεσθαι δέ φασι καὶ εὐσεβεστέρες καὶ δικαιοτέρω, καὶ κατὰ πάντα βελτίωνας ἑαυτῶν τὰς τῶν μυτηρίων κοινωνήσαντας· διὸ καὶ τῶν ἀρχαίων ηρώων τε καὶ ἡμιθέων τὰς ἐπιφανεσάτες πεφιλοτιμῆσθαι μεταλαβεῖν τῆς τελετῆς· κ γὰρ Ιασίωνα καὶ Διοσκέρας, ἔτι δ' Ηρακλέα και Ορφέα μυηθένιας ἐπιτυχεῖν ἐν πάσαις ταῖς τρατείαις, διὰ τὴν τῶν θεῶν τέτων ἐπιφάνειαν. Diod. P. 224. A third A third reason for his initiation, was their custom of seeking support and inspiration from the God who presided in the Mysteries*. A fourth reason for his initiation, was the circumstance in which the poet has placed him, unsettled in his affairs, and anxious about his future fortune. Now, amongst the uses of initiation, the advice and direction of the ORACLE was not the least: and an oracular bureau was so necessary an appendix to some of the Mysteries, as particularly the Samothracian, that Plutarch, speaking of Lysander's initiation there, expresses it by a word that signifies consulting the oracle, 'Ev dè Σαμοθράκη χρηςηριαζόμενα, &c. On this account, Jason, Orpheus, Hercules, Castor, and (as Macrobius says †) Tarquinius Priscus, were every one of them initiated into the Mysteries. All this the poet seems clearly to have intimated in the speech of Anchises to his son: Lectos juvenes fortissima corda, Defer in Italiam.-Gens dura atque aspera cultu Debellanda tibi Latio est. Ditis tamen ante INFERNAS accede DOMOS Tum genus omne tuum, &, quæ dentur mænia, DISCES. A fifth reason was the conforming to the old popular tradition, which said, that several other Heroes of * Lib. ii. cap. 4. + The rhetor Sopater, in his Aiagnosis (nuárov, makes Pericles say, Πισεύω ταῖς ἐν Ἐλευσῖνι θεαῖς, τῶτόν μοι ἐκβεβηκέναι τὸν νῦν, καὶ τὸ τρατήγημα τῦτο ἐξ ἀνακτόρων δῆναι τῶν μυσικῶν. 1. Æn. v. ver. 729, & seq. VOL. II. H the the Trojan times, such as Agamemnon and Ulysses, had been initiated*. A sixth and principal was, that AUGUSTUS, who was shadowed in the person of Æneas, had been initiated into the ELEUSINIAN Mysteries †. While the Mysteries were confined to Egypt, their native country, and while the Grecian Lawgivers went thither to be initiated, as a kind of designation to their office, the ceremony would be naturally described, in terms highly allegorical. This was, in part, owing to the genius of the Egyptian manners; in part, to the humour of Travellers; but most of all, to the policy of Lawgivers; who, returning home, to civilize a barbarous people, by Laws and Arts, found it useful and necessary (in order to support their own characters, and to establish the fundamental principle of a FUTURE STATE) to represent that initiation, in which, was seen the condition of departed mortals in machinery, as AN ACTUAL DESCENT INTO HELL. This way of speaking was used by Orpheus, Bacchus, and others; and continued even after the Mysteries were introduced into Greece, as appears by the fables of Hercules, Castor, Pollux, and Theseus's descent into hell. But the allegory was generally so circumstanced, as to discover the truth concealed under it. So Orpheus is said to get to hell by the power of his harp : Threïcia fretus cithara, fidibusque canoris ; - * Αγαμέμνονα φασι μεμυημένον, ἐν ταραχῇ ὅλα πολλῇ κατὰ Τροίαν, δι ̓ ἀκαλαςασίαν τῶν Ἑλλήνων, παῦσαι τὴν τάσιν, πορφυρίδα ἔχονα Ὀδυσσέα φασὶ μεμνημένον ἐν Σαμοθράκη χρήσασθαι των xendéμvy årlì tarias. Scholia Apollon. Rhod. Arg. lib. i. ver. 916 Οφρα δαένιες ̓Αῤῥήκλες ἀγανῇσι τελεσφορίησι θεμίςας -- Suet. Oct. c. xciii. See note [Y] at the end of this Book. that that is, in quality of Lawgiver; the harp being the known symbol of his laws, by which he humanized a rude and barbarous people. So again, in the lives of Hercules and Bacchus, we have the true history, and the fable founded on it, blended and recorded together. For we are told, that they were in fact initiated into the Eleusinian Mysteries; and that it was just before their descent into Hell, as an aid and security in that desperate undertaking*. Which, in plain speech, was no more, than that they were initiated into the lesser Mysteries before they were admitted into the greater. The same may be said of what is told us of Theseus's adventure. Near Eleusis there was a Well, called Callichorus; and, adjoining to that, a stone, on which, as the tradition went, Ceres sat down, sad and weary, on her coming to Eleusis. Hence the stone was named Agelastus, the melancholy stone†. On which account it was deemed unlawful for the Initiated to sit thereon. "For Ceres (says Clemens) wandering "about in search of her daughter Proserpine, when "she came to Eleusis, grew weary, and sat down melancholy on the side of a well. So that, to this very day, it is unlawful for the Initiated to sit down there, "lest they, who are now become perfect, should seem to imitate her in her desolate condition." Now 66 * — Καὶ τὰς περὶ Ηρακλέα τε καὶ Διόνυσον, καλιόντας εἰς ᾅδε, πρότερον λόγω ἐνθάδε μυηθῆναι, καὶ τὸ θάρσος τῆς ἐκεῖσε πορείας παρὰ τῆς Ἐλευσινίας ἐναύσασθαι. Auctor Axiochi. † Αγέλας πέτρα. So Ovid: Hic primum sedit gelido mastissima saxo; Illud Cecropidæ nunc quoque triste vocant. † Αλωμένη γὰρ ἡ Δηὼ καλὰ ζήτησιν τῆς θυγαῖρὸς τῆς κόρης, περὶ τὴν Ἐλευσῖνα, — αὐτοκάμνεῖ, καὶ φρέα]ι ἐπικαθίζει λυπημένη. Τῦτο τοῖς μεμυημένοις ἀπα[ορεύεται εἰσἔτι νῦν, ἵνα μὴ δοκοῖεν οἱ τελελεσμένον μιμεῖσθαι hv odugoμírnv. Clemens Protrept. pag. 10. A. Edit. Sylburg. |