Now [251]Circe, from the Sun Hyperion-born Descended, with the much-enduring man Ulysses blending love, Latinus bare, And Agrius, brave and blameless: far they left Their native seats in Circe’s hallow’d isles, And o’er the wide-famed Tyrrhene tribes held sway. Calypso, noble midst the goddess race, Clasp’d wise Ulysses: and from rapturous love Nausithous and Nausinous gave to day. Lo! these were they, who yielding to embrace Of mortal men, themselves immortal, gave A race resembling gods. Oh now the tribe Of gentle women sing! Olympian maids! Ye Muses, born from ægis-bearer Jove! FOOTNOTES [142] _They lightly leap in dance._] This representation of the Muses is taken from the ancient custom of dancing round the altar during sacrifice. [143] _In springs that gush’d fresh from the courser’s hoof._] Hippos was an Ægyptian title of the sun. This ancient term became obsolete, and was misapplied by the Greeks, who uniformly applied it to horses. Hippocrene was a sacred fountain denominated from the god of light, who was the patron of verse and science. But by the Greeks it was referred to an animal, and supposed to have been produced by the hoof of a horse. Other nations, says Athanasius, reverenced rivers and fountains: but above all people in the world the Ægyptians held them in the highest honour, and esteemed them as divine. From hence the custom passed westward to Greece, Italy, and the extremities of Europe. One reason for holding waters so sacred arose from a notion that they were gifted with supernatural powers. BRYANT. [144] _Sire of prophecy._] Phœbus is thought to be derived from Φαος βιου, light of life: but the Greeks always associated with the name the _prophetic_ attribute of Apollo: hence they formed from it the word φοιβαζω, to _prophecy_: as βακχευν, to celebrate orgies or madden, is formed from βακχος: like the _debacchor_ of the Latins. Lycophron, v. 6: Δαφιηφαγων φοιβαζεν εκ λαιμων οπα. From foaming mouth with laurel fed She pour’d the voice of prophecy. [145] _And Venus twinkling bland her tremulous lids._] Ελικοβλεφαρος is explained by Guietus _arcuatis superciliis_: so Creech, in his translation of a chapter of Plutarch’s Morals, where the verse is quoted; And Venus beauteous with her bending brows. But the Greek for an eyebrow is οφρυς. Robinson more properly interprets it _orbiculatis palpebris_, with semicircular eye-lids: after the old scholiast; who conceives it a metaphor drawn from ελιξ: the bending tendril of ivy or the vine. Le Clerc explains it _volubilibus palpebris_: and is supported by Grævius, who quotes Petronius in illustration of the peculiar propriety of the epithet as applied to Venus: Blandos oculos et inquietos, Et quadam propriâ notâ loquaces. Soft and ever restless eyes, Still talkative, with language all their own. Ελισσω is _circumvolvo_, to roll about.