there offering incense to the tutelary gods of
the mountain. He adopts to a great extent the tone and style of
Lucretius, in his explanation of the phenomena of the mountain. Water
filters through the crevices and cracks in the rocks, until it comes
into contact with the internal fires, when it is converted into vapour
and expelled with violence. The internal fires are nourished by the
winds which penetrate into the mountain. He traces some curious
connection between the plants which grow upon the mountain, and the
supply of sulphur and bitumen to the interior, which is, at best, but
partly intelligible.

[5] See Lucilius Junioris AETNA. Recensuit notasque Jos. Scaligeri,
Frid. Lindenbruchii et suas addidit Fridericus Jacob. Lipsiae, 1826.

[6] L'Etna de Lucilius Junior. Traduction nouvelle par Jules Chenu.
Paris, 1843.

"Nunc superant, quacunque regant incendia silvae
Quae flammis alimenta vacent, quid nutriat Aetnam.
Incendi patiens illis vernacula caulis
Materia, appositumque igni genus utile terrae est,
Uritur assidue calidus nunc sulfuris humor,
Nunc spissus crebro praebetur flumine succus,
Pingue bitumen adest, et quidquid cominus acres
Irritat flammas; illius corporis AEtna est.
Atque hanc materiam penitus discurrere fontes
Infectae erumpunt et aquae radice sub ipsa."

Many of the myths developed by the earlier poets had their home in the
immediate neighbourhood, sometimes upon the very sides, of Etna--Demeter
seeking Persephone; Acis and Galatea; Polyphemus and the Cyclops. Mr.
Symonds tells us that the one-eyed giant Polyphemus was Etna itself,
with its one great crater, while the Cyclops were the many minor cones.
"Persephone was the patroness of Sicily, because amid the billowy
corn-fields of her mother Demeter, and the meadow-flowers she loved in
girlhood, are ever found sulphurous ravines, and chasms breathing vapour
from the pit of Hades."[7]

[7] Sketches in Italy and Greece, p. 201.

It is said that both Plato and the Emperor Hadrian ascended Etna in
order to witness the sunrise from its summit. The story of

"He who to be deemed
A god, leaped fondly into Etna flames,
Empedokles"

is too trite to need repetition. A ruined tower near the head of the Val
del Bove, 9,570 feet above the sea, has from time immemorial been called
the _Torre del Filosofo_, and is asserted to have been the observatory
of Empedokles. Others regard it as the