Ovid's Fasti

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Νo ono, I should thinii, wlio has ovon done nothing more thau look into Ovid's Fasti, will rofuso his assent to the followingwOrds Os Hercules Ciolanus, one of the earliost oditors of this

poem: Eae omnibus, says he, veterum poetarum monumentis nullum hodierno die eratat opus, quod, aut eruditione aut rebus quod ad Romanam antiquitatem cognoscendam pertineant, hos Ovidii Fastorum libros antecellat. In effect wo limo here ancient Roman history, religion, mythology, manners und customS, and more-οver much Grecian mythology, and that portion of the ancientaStronomy Whicli regards tho rising and sotting of the disserent constellations. Theso altogothor form a Wido fiold of hnowledge; and in my opinion there is not, in the whole compass of clasSicalliterature, a Work better calculated in be put into the liantis of

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tuation.

patibio with givingali requisito olucidation of the text. Nosting

nosting,' examinations and refutations of the opinions os commentators, Or discuSSions of the meriis of various rea lings.

tacitly including the Classical Dictionary; Ι content myseis in

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these rules, Insolentior lectio potior est ea, qua nil insoliti contin tur, etc. I cannot give my unqualified assent. There Were, Wemay be fure, Bentleys in ancient times, Who Wrote On the mar

cerned.

I havo adopted tho improuod Kalendarium of Κrobs' edition, as, though it may not be fauilless, it is certainly more correctthan those of the preceding editions. Iis copiolisness malles it Serve in place of arguments prefixed to th e severat books of tho

Tho Introduction, Whicli precedes the Calendar, containssuch matter as the student should be acquainted with, previousto commencing the poem. I request that it Will bo studiod withattention. Should any discrepancy be Dund botwoon it and thonotes, the Introduction, as having beeti the last written, should bo os more authori ty. In the present edition no dissiculi passago has beon lust witli

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acquaintance With that pleusing and interesting, I might sayphilosophicat, branch of knowledge, denominated mythology. I may add, Without presumption, that mine is almost the onlywork in cur language in Wllicli it appears in iis proper light.

The notos to the present volume contain severat important

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do Wolt to corroci ilioni bosoro ho commoneos the work. Thoro is orio placo Whicli requires to be eXplaine l. In P. 28, v. 564, the word in tho texi is onus, While ille note is On opus. The

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tho sanction of one of the sirst scholars in England, preparingsAOοJ-histories of Greece and Romo moro accordant With thepresent state of knowledge On these subjecis, than those in

T. K. Dublin, Se ptember J833.

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passod in the Open air, and no misis Or clouds obscured the heaven, must have been early draWn to those luminous potnis Which are scat- torod ovor it in such profusion. They must have early learned todistinguisti various clusters of them, and thence to give them appropriate Dames. Accordingly, in the most ancient portion os Grecian litorature, the Homerio and Hesiodic poems, We find Vari s groupes

of tho stars designated by peculiar names. Such are Orion, tho Hyades, the Pleiades, the Bear Or Wain, the Dog and tho Ploughmanor Bear-Ward Bootes Or Arcturu8). The case Was tho fame in tho East; Wo meet in the book of Job c. ix. 9.) namos sor tho Ploiades, Hyados and Orion, and xxvi. I 4.) tho constellation namod tho Great Serpent. The pe0ple of ancient Italy appear to have done the fame :tho Latin namo of the Pleiades Was Vergilia , that of tho Hyades Suculae, the Seven Stars, Which sorm tho constellation of tho Groat Boar, Were named by them the Septem 2 riones, or Seven Oxen; sor, as they go round and round the pote Without over Setting, the analogybotweon them and the OXen, Which trod out the corii by going round

Iess, tho brilliant constellation Orion, had a peculiar Latin numer

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this brilliant scone. It was soon observed that the stars mado thoirexiis und their entrances' at regular periods, corresponding With thechanges Which took placo in the courso Os nature On Oarth, und theso coincidences Wore marked and emplOyed sor agricultural purposses. Apeoplo Who havo no regular scientific Calendar, HWays contrives nnatural one, takon si Om celestial Or terrestriat appea rances. Thus tho

North Amorican Aboriginos dosignato times and seasons by the flowering of certain planis ; tho uncient Greelis appear to have dono sonip-thing of the samo kinit, sor ono os Hesiod's designations os a particular season is, when the thisile is in blossom ; We ourselves catl the si stseason of the year tho Spring, i. e. os planis,) and Dur Transallantiobrothren term tho autumn, tho Fall of the leaves). The Greelis, howevor, seem early to haVe Seen the Superior Recuracyand detorminatensess of the colestial phenomona. In tho didactio poem os Hesiod, this mode os marking the times of navigation and of rural labours is froquently employed, and iis use Was rotained by thocountrysolk of both Greece and Italy sar into tho timo of tho Roman

mella.

Whon intoro urso with Egypt and Phoenicia had called tho thoughis

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expect sacrifices and sestivias. When Virgil G. I. 257.) says,

Nec frustra signorum obitus speculamur et ortus, Temporibusque parem diverSis quattuor annum.

Taurus rides,' tho Hyades Whieli are in tho hoad of Taurus will riso withthe fuit, but lost in his offulgetice they Will elude our vision ; at lengthwhen in his progress through tho Taurio portion of the ecliptic, he haslest illem a sufficient distance boliind him, their rising as his motion in the ecliptic is contrary to his apparent diurnal motion,) Will precede his by a space of time whicli Will allow thom to be s n. Thereat eVening setting os a star, is iis sinking at tho fame moment Withthe sun below tho horigon, iis heliac setting, is iis bucoming visibleas he is setting and thon disappearing, that is coasing to be visibleaster Sun-set, in the Wosterii part Os tho hemisphere. Thus the sun

'Aκρονυξ, το ιικρον της νυκτος, prima nox, is evening, the bugini ing

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and the Hyades may actualty set together severat days bosoro thoybecomo sussiciently elongated froni him, to admit of their boing foenbosore they Set. There are thus three risings, and three Settings of a Star, namely:-Tho true morning riSing, i. e. the COSmie. The apparent morning rising, i. e. the heliae. The true evening riSing, i. e. the a ronych. The true morning sotting, i. e. the cosmie. The truo evening Setting, i. e. the acronych. The apparent evening setting, i. e. the heliae. Os theso, the one Whicli is most apt to onga e tho attention, is theucronych or true evening rising, that is the rising of the star at theeastern verge of the horigon, at the moment the sun is sinking ontho Wostorii sido. It is of this Ι thinh, that Hesiod alWays spealis. Tho attention Of the constructors of par egmata does not Seem tohave been directed to the risings of the stars ut different hours of thenight.

Linds os year Wore in use among the ancient Romans, the one of ten, the other of twolve monilis. In the usual spirit os reserring their ancient institutions to those Whom they rogarded as their first kings, thoten-month year Was ascribed to Romulus, the improuod one of tWelve montiis to Numa. This Was the current opinion, such as We find itin tho solioWing poem ; Some ancient Writers, hOWeVer, Sueli a SLicinius Μacer and Fenestella, to Whom me may perti S add Plutarch, rejected the ten-monili year as a more fiction. Their opinion has been adopted by the great Joseph Scaliger, Who asseris that the Roman year alWays consisted of tWelve monilis. Both opinions may,

I thinh, be maintained, the Romans may, hom tho beginning os their state, have had a year of tWelve monilis, whicli I Would cali the Roman year, and yet have used Mong with it a year of ten monilis, whicli, sor reasons Whicli Will prosently appoar, I catl the Etruscanyear. I Will commenco by shewing that a year of ten montiis Wasin usu even in the time of the republic.