Plutarch, speaking of the Thebans, in the life of Pelopidas, fays, that" Gorgias firft enrolled the facred band, confifting of three hundred chosen men; and that this corps was faid to be compofed of LOVERS and their FRIENDS. It is reported, says he, that it continued unconquered till the battle of Chæronea; and when, after the action, Philip was furveying the dead, and came to the very spot where these three hundred fell, who had charged in close order fo fatally on the Macedonian lances, and obferved how they lay heaped upon one another, he was amazed; and being told, that this was the band of Lovers and their Friends, he burst into tears, and faid, Accurfed be they who can fufpect that thefe men either did or fuffered any thing difhoneft. But certainly (continues my author) this inftitution of lovers did not arife in Thebes as the poets imagined, from the PASSION of Laius, but from the WISDOM of legiflators." Such was the friendship, our poet would here reprefent, where he says, Nifus AMORE PIO pueri and where he makes Afcanius call Euryalus, VENERANDE puer. The one dies in defence of the other; revenges his death; and then falls with him, like the lovers in the SACRED BAND: ❝ moriens animam abftulit hofti. Tum fuper exanimem fefe projecit AMICUM The poet promifes them an eternal memory, not for their fake, but for the fake of the inftitution, he would recommend under their story. * Vol. ii. p. 218, 219. Brian. Edit. Before Before I leave these previous circumstances, permit me only to obferve, that this was the fecond Species of the epic poem; our own countryman,. Milton, having produced the third: For just as Virgil rivalled Homer, fo Milton emulated both of them. He found Homer poffeffed of the province of morality; Virgil of politics; and nothing left for him, but that of religion. This he feized, as afpiring to share with them in the government of the poetic world: And, by means of the fuperior dignity of his fubject, hath gotten to the head of that triumvirate which took fo many ages in forming. These are the three fpecies of the epic poem ; for its largest sphere is human action, which can be confidered but in a moral, a political, or religious view; and these the three great MAKERS; for each of their poems was ftruck out at a heat, and came to perfection from its firft effay. Here then the grand scene was clofed, and all farther improvements of the epic at an end. It being now understood, that the Aneis is in the style of ancient legiflation, it is hard to think so great a master in his art would overlook a DOCTRINE, which, we have fhewn, was the foundation and support of ancient politics; namely, that of a future ftate of rewards and punishments. Accordingly he hath given us a complete fyftem of it, in imitation of his models, Plato's vifion of Erus, and Tully's dream of Scipio. Again, as the law. giver took care to fupport this doctrine by a very extraordinary inftitution, 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 confefs a defcription of fuch a scene would add largely to the grace and elegance of his work; and must conclude he would B. 5 be be invited to attempt it. Accordingly, we fay, he hath done this likewife, in the allegorical descent of Æneas into hell; which is no other than an enigmatical reprefentation of his INITIATION INTO THE MYSTERIES. Virgil was to represent a perfect lawgiver, in the perfon of Æneas; now initiation into the mysteries, was what fanctified 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 legiflator fhould endeavour, by his example, to give credit to an institution of his own: creating. Another reason for the Hero's initiation, was the important inftructions he there received in matters. of the highest moment concerning his office %. A third reafon for his initiation, was the custom of feeking fupport and infpiration from the God who prefided in the mysteries .. A fourth reafon for Eneas's initiation, was the circumftance in which the poet has placed him, unfettled in his affairs, and anxious about his future fortune. Now, amongst the ufes of initiation, the advice, and direction of the ORACLE was not the leaft.. And an oracular bureau was fo neceflary an appendix to fome of the myfteries, as particularly. the Samothracian, that Plutarch, fpeaking of Lyfander's initiation, expreffes it by a word that fignifies, confulting the oracle, Ἐν δὲ Σαμοθράκη χρηςηριαζο Mévos, &c. On this account, Jafon, Orpheus, Hercules, Caftor, and (as Macrobius fays) Tarqui Homeri Fragm. Hymn. in Cer. apud Pauf. Corinth. nius Prifcus, were every one of them initiated into thefe myfteries. All this, the poet seems clearly to have intimated in the speech of Anchises to his fon "Lectos juvenes, fortissima corda, Defer in Italiam-Gens dura atque afpera culiu Infernas accede domos Tum genus omne tuum, et quæ denturmonia difces. A fifth reafon was conforming to the old popular tradition, which faid, that feveral other heroes of the Trojan times, fuch as Agamemnon and Ulyffes, had been initiated. k. A fixth, and principal was, that AUGUSTUS, who was fhadowed in the perfon of Eneas, had been initiated into the ELEUSINIAN myfteries .. While the myfteries, were confined to Egypt, their native country, and while the Grecian lawgivers went thither to be initiated as a kind of defignation to their office, the ceremony would be naturally defcribed in terms highly allegorical. This was in part owing to the genius of the Egyp tian 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 ufeful and necef fary (in order to fupport their own characters, and to eftablifh the fundamental principle of a future ftate) to reprefent that initiation, in which they faw the ftate of departed mortals in machinery, as an actual defcent into hell. This way of fpeaking › Æn. V. ver. 729, & seq. *Scholia Apollon. Rhod. Arg. 1. 1. ver»-9365 ·Suet, Oct. c. 93. was was used by Orpheus, Bacchus, and others; and continued even after the myfteries were introduced into Greece, as appears by the fables of Hercules, Caftor and Pollux, and Thefeus's descent into hell. But the allegory was generally fo circumftanced as to discover the truth concealed under it. So Orpheus is faid to get to hell by the power of his harp : "Threicia fretus cithara, fidibufque canoris : 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 t'ue hiftory, and the fable founded on it, blended and recorded together. For we are told, that they were in fact initiated into the Eleufinian myfteries; and that it was just before their descent into hell, as an aid and fecurity in that defperate undertaking. Which, in plain speech, was no more than that they could not fafely fee the fhews till they had been initiated. The fame may be faid of what is told us of Thefeus's adventure. Near Eleufis, there was a well called Callichorus; and, adjoining to that, aftone, on which, as the tradition went, Ceres fat down, fad and weary, on her coming to Eleufis. Hence the ftone was named Alegufins, the melancholy ftone". On which account it was deemed inlawful for the initiated to fit thereon. For Ceres (fays Clemens) wandering * Καὶ τὸς περὶ Ἡρακλέα τε καὶ Διόνυσον, καλιόν τας εἰς ᾅδες, πρότερον λόγο ενθάδε μυηθῆναι καὶ τὸ θάρσΘ τῆς ἐκεσι πορείας παρὰ τῆς Ἐλευσινίας evavcarda. Auctor Axiochi.. ~ πέτρα about |