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Though I have styled this poem a Dithyrambic Ode, I cannot presume to say that it possesses, in any degree, the characteristics of that species of poetry. The nature of the ancient Dithyrambic is very imperfectly known. According to M. Burette, a licentious irregularity of metre, an extravagant research of thought and expression, and a rude embarrassed construction, are among its most distinguishing features; and in all these respects, I have but too closely, I fear, followed my models. Burette adds, “Ces caractères des dityrambes se font sentir à ceux qui lisent attentivement les odes de Pindare.” —Mémoires de l'Acad. vol. x. p. 306. The same opinion may be collected from Schmidt's dissertation upon the subject. I think, however, if the Dithyrambics of Pindar were in our possession, we should find that, however wild and fanciful, they were by no means the tasteless jargon they are represented, and that even their irregularity was what Boileau calls “un beau désordre.” Chiabrera, who has been styled the Pindar of Italy, and from whom all its poetry upon the Greek model was called Chiabreresco (as Crescimbeni informs us, lib. i. cap. 12.), has given, amongst his Vendemmie, a Dithyrambic, “all' uso de' Greci;” full of those compound epithets, which, we are told, were a chief characteristic of the style (συνθετους δε λεξεις εποιουν —Suid. Διθυραμβοδιδ.); such as

But I cannot suppose that Pindar, even amidst all the licence of dithyrambics, would ever have descended to ballad-language like the following:

Rime del Chiabrera, part ii. p. 352.

This is a Platonic fancy. The philosopher supposes, in his Timæus, that, when the Deity had formed the soul of the world, he proceeded to the composition of other souls, in which process, says Plato, he made use of the same cup, though the ingredients he mingled were not quite so pure as for the former; and having refined the mixture with a little of his own essence, he distributed it among the stars, which served as reservoirs of the fluid.—Ταυτ' ειπε και παλιν επι τον προτερον κρατηρα εν ω την του παντος ψυχην κεραννυς εμισγε, κ. τ. λ.

We learn from Theophrastus, that the roses of Cyrene were particularly fragrant.—Ευοσματα τα δε τα εν Κυρηνη ροδα.

Heraclitus (Physicus) held the soul to be a spark of the stellar essence—“Scintilla stellaris essentiæ.” —Macrobius, in Somn. Scip. lib. i. cap. 14.

The country of the Hyperboreans. These people were supposed to be placed so far north that the north wind could not affect them; they lived longer than any other mortals; passed their whole time in music and dancing, &c. &c. But the most extravagant fiction related of them is that to which the two lines preceding allude. It was imagined that, instead of our vulgar atmosphere, the Hyperboreans breathed nothing but feathers! According to Herodotus and Pliny, this idea was suggested by the quantity of snow which was observed to fall in those regions; thus the former: Τα ων πτερα εικαζοντας την χιονα τους Σκυθας τε και τους περιοικους δοκεω λεγειν. —Herodot. lib. iv. cap. 31. Ovid tells the fable otherwise: see Metamorph. lib. xv.

Mr. O'Halloran, and some other Irish Antiquarians, have been at great expense of learning to prove that the strange country, where they took snow for feathers, was Ireland, and that the famous Abaris was an Irish Druid. Mr. Rowland, however, will have it that Abaris was a Welshman, and that his name is only a corruption of Ap Rees!

It is Servius, I believe, who mentions this unlucky trip which Hebe made in her occupation of cup-bearer; and Hoffman tells it after him: “Cum Hebe pocula Jovi administrans, perque lubricum minus cauté incedens, cecidisset,” &c.

The arcane symbols of this ceremony were deposited in the cista, where they lay religiously concealed from the eyes of the profane. They were generally carried in the procession by an ass; and hence the proverb, which one may so often apply in the world, “asinus portat mysteria.” See the Divine Legation, book ii. sect. 4.

In the Geoponica, lib. ii. cap. 17., there is a fable somewhat like this descent of the nectar to earth. Εν ουρανω των θεων ευωχουμενων, και του νεκταπος πολλου παρακειμενου, ανασκιρτησαι χοπεια τον Ερωτα και συσσεισαι τω πτερω του κρατηρος την βασιν, και περιτρεψαι μεν αυτον: το δε νεκταρ εις την γην εκχυθεν, κ. τ. λ. Vid. Autor. de Re Rust. edit. Cantab. 1704.

The constellation Lyra. The astrologers attribute great virtues to this sign in ascendenti, which are enumerated by Pontano, in his Urania:

The Egyptians represented the dawn of day by a young boy seated upon a lotos. Ειτε Αιγυπτους εωρακως αρχην ανατολης παιδιον νεογνον γραφοντας επι λωτω καθεζομενον. —Plutarch. περι του μη χραν εμμετρ. See also his Treatise de Isid. et Osir. Observing that the lotos showed its head above water at sunrise, and sank again at his setting, they conceived the idea of consecrating this flower to Osiris, or the sun.

This symbol of a youth sitting upon a lotos is very frequent on the Abraxases, or Basilidian stones. See Montfaucon, tom. ii. planche 158., and the “Supplement,” &c. tom. ii. lib. vii. chap. 5.

The ancients esteemed those flowers and trees the sweetest upon which the rainbow had appeared to rest; and the wood they chiefly burned in sacrifices, was that which the smile of Iris had consecrated. Plutarch. Sympos. lib. iv. cap. 2. where (as Vossius remarks) καιουσι, instead of καλουσι, is undoubtedly the genuine reading. See Vossius, for some curious particularities of the rainbow, De Origin. et Progress. Idololat. lib. iii. cap. 13.