, until the whole form appeared in full with the
feet resting on the stage, when the 'siparium' was fully drawn up.
From a passage in Virgil's Georgics (book iii. l. 25), we learn
that the figures of Britons (whose country had then lately been
the scene of new conquests) were woven on the canvas of the
'siparium,' having their arms in the attitude of lifting the
curtain.]

[Footnote 13: _Echion._--Ver. 126. The names of the others were
Udeus, Chthonius, Hyperenor, and Pelor, according to Apollodorus.
To these some added Creon, as a sixth.]

EXPLANATION.

Agenor, on losing his daughter, commands his sons to go in search of
her, and not to return till they have found her. The young princes,
either unable to learn what was become of her, or, perhaps, being too
weak to recover her out of the hands of the king of Crete, did not
return to their father, but established themselves in different
countries; Cadmus settling in Boeotia, Cilix in Cilicia, to which he
gave his name, and Phoenix, as Hyginus tells us, remaining in Africa.
Photius, quoting from Conon, the historian, informs us, that the hope
of conquering some country in Europe, and establishing a colony there,
was the true ground of the voyage of Cadmus.

Palaephatus, and other writers, say, that the Dragon which was killed
by Cadmus was a king of the country, who was named Draco, and was a
son of Mars: that his teeth were his subjects, who rallied again after
their defeat, and that Cadmus put them all to the sword, except
Chthonius, Udeus, Hyperenor, Pelor, and Echion, who became reconciled
to him. Heraclitus, however, assures us, that Cadmus really did slay a
serpent, which was very annoying to the Boeotian territory. Bochart
and LeClerc are of opinion that the Fable has the following
foundation:--They say, that in the Phoenician language, the same word
signifies either the teeth of a serpent, or short javelins, pointed
with brass; that the word which signifies the number five likewise
means an army; and that probably, from these circumstances, the Fable
may have taken its rise. For the Greeks, in following the annals
written in the Phoenician language, while writing the history of the
founder of Thebes, instead of describing his soldiers as wearing
helmets on their heads, with back and breast-plates, and with darts in
their hands pointed with brass, which equipment was the