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bribes to commit adultery (a). In the Rhefus of Euripides, Minerva, difguifed like Venus, deceives Paris by a grofs lie. The ground-work of the tragedy of Xuthus is a lying oracle, declaring Ion, fon of Apollo and Creufa, to be the fon of Xuthus. Oreftes in Euripides, having flain his mother Clytemneftra, excufes himself as having been mifled by Apollo to commit the crime. Ah!" fays he, "had I

confulted the ghost of my father, he "would have diffuaded me from a crime "that has proved my ruin, without doing "him any good." He concludes with obferving, that having acted by Apollo's command, Apollo is the only criminal. In a tragedy of Sophocles, Minerva makes no difficulty to cheat Ajax, promising to be his friend, while underhand fhe is ferving Ulyffes, his bitter enemy. Mercury, in revenge for the murder of his fon Myrtilus, entails curfes on Pelops the murderer, and on all his race * In ge

* The English translator of that tragedy, obferves it to be remarkable in the Grecian creed, that the gods punish not only the perfons guilty, but their innocent pofterity.

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neral, the gods, every where in Greek tragedies, are partial, unjust, tyrannical, and revengeful. The Greeks accordingly have no referve in abufing their gods. In the tragedy of Prometheus, Jupiter, without the least ceremony, is accufed of being an ufurper. Efchylus proclaims publicly on the stage, that Jupiter, a jealous, cruel, and implacable tyrant, had overturned every thing in heaven; and that the other gods were reduced to be his flaves. In the Iliad, book 13. Menelaus addreffes Jupiter in the following words : "O Fa

ther Jove! in wifdom, they fay, thou excelleft both men and gods. Yet all "thefe ills proceed from thee; for the "wicked thou dost aid in war. Thou art

a friend to the Trojans, whofe fouls de

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light in force, who are never glutted "with blood." The gods were often treated with a fort of contemptuous familiarity, and employed in very low offices. Nothing is more common, than to introduce them as actors in Greek tragedies; frequently for trivial purposes: Apollo comes upon the ftage most courteously to acquaint the audience with the subject of the play. Why is this not urged by our critics,

critics, as claffical authority against the rule of Horace, Nec deus interfit nifi dignus vindice nodus *. Homer makes very useful fervants of his gods. Minerva, in particular, is a faithful attendant upon Ulyffes. She acts the herald, and calls the chiefs to council (a). She marks the place where a great stone fell that was thrown by Ulyffes (b). She affifts Ulyffes to hide his treasure in a cave (c), and helps him to wrestle with the beggar (d). Ulyffes being toft with cares in bed, fhe defcends from heaven to make him fall asleep (e). This last might poffibly be squeez'd into an allegory, if Minerva were not frequently introduced where there is no place for an allegory. Jupiter, book 17. of the Iliad, is introduced comforting the steeds of Achilles for the death of Patroclus. Creufa keeps it a profound fecret from her husband, that she had a child by Apollo.

* Nor let a god in person stand difplay'd,
Unless the labouring plot deferve his aid.

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It was held as little honourable in Greece to commit fornication with a god as with a man. It appears from Cicero (a), that when Greek philofophers began to reafon about the deity, their notions were wonderfully crude. One of the hardest morfels to digeft in Plato's philofophy, was a doctrine, That God is incorporeal; which by many was thought abfurd, for that, without a body, he could not have fenfes, nor prudence, nor pleasure. The religious creed of the Romans feems to have been little lefs impure than that of the Greeks. It was a ceremony of theirs, in befieging a town, to evocate the tutelar deity, and to tempt him by a reward to betray his friends and votaries. In that ceremony, the name of the tutelar deity was thought of importance; and for that reafon, the tutelar deity of Rome was a profound fecret *. Appian of Alexandria,

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(a) Lib. 1. De natura deorum.

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*The form of the evocatio follows.. "Tuo ductu, inquit, Pythie Apollo, tuoque numine inftin&tus, pergo ad delendam urbem Veios: tibique hinc decimam partem prædæ voveo. Te fi

mul, Juno Regina, quæ nunc Veios colis, pre66 cor,

in his book of the Parthian war, reports, that Anthony, reduced to extremity by the Parthians, lifted up his eyes to heaven,

and

cor, ut nos victores in noftram tuamque mox fu"turam urbem fequare: ubi te, dignum ampli"tudine tua, templum accipiat." Titus Livius, lib. 5. cap. 21. [In English thus: "Under thy "guidance and divine inspiration, O Pythian Apollo, I march to the deftruction of Veii; and to "thy fhrine I devote a tenth of the plunder. Impe"rial Juno, guardian of Veii, deign to profper our victorious arms, and a temple shall be erect"ed to thy honour, fuitable to the greatnefs and "majefty of thy name."] But it appears from Macrobius, that they ufed a form of evocation even when the name of the tutelar deity was unknown to them. "Si deus, fi dea eft, cui populus civitafque "Carthaginienfis eft in tutela, teque maxime ille qui " urbis hujus populique tutelam recipifti, precor, ve

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nerorque, veniamque a vobis peto, ut vos populum "civitatemque Carthaginienfem deferatis, loca, tem“pla, facra, urbemque eorum relinquiatis, abfque' "his abeatis, eique populo, civitatique metum, for"midinem, oblivionem injiciatis, proditique Romam "ad me meofque veniatis, noftraque vobis loca, "templa, facra, urbs, acceptior probatiorque fit,

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mihique populoque Romano militibufque meis "præpofiti fitis, ut fciamus intelligamufque. Si ita "feceritis, voveo vobis templa ludofque facturum." Saturnal. lib. 3. cap. 9.— [In English thus: "That divinity, whether god or goddefs, who is the guardian of the ftate of Carthage, that divinity I

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