]

EXPLANATION.

Bochart tells us that the story of the fountain Arethusa and the river
Alpheus, her lover, who traversed so many countries in pursuit of her,
has no other foundation than an equivocal expression in the language
of the first inhabitants of Sicily. The Phoenicians, who went to settle
in that island, finding the fountain surrounded with willows, gave it
the name of 'Alphaga,' or 'the fountain of the willows.' Others,
again, gave it the name of 'Arith,' signifying 'a stream.' The Greeks,
arriving there in after ages, not understanding the signification of
these words, and remembering their own river Alpheus, in Elis,
imagined that since the river and the fountain had nearly the same
name, Alpheus had crossed the sea, to arrive in Sicily.

This notion appearing, probably, to the poets not devoid of ingenuity,
they accordingly founded on it the romantic story of the passion of
the river God Alpheus for the Nymph Arethusa. Some of the ancient
historians appear, however, in their credulity, really to have
believed, at least, a part of the story, as they seriously tell us,
that the river Alpheus passes under the bed of the sea, and rises
again in Sicily, near the fountain of Arethusa. Even among the more
learned, this fable gained credit; for we find the oracle of Delphi
ordering Archias to conduct a colony of Corinthians to Syracuse, and
the priestess giving the following directions:--'Go into that island
where the river Alpheus mixes his waters with the fair Arethusa.'

Pausanias avows, that he regards the story of Alpheus and Arethusa as
a mere fable; but, not daring to dispute a fact established by the
response of an oracle, he does not contradict the fact of the river
running through the sea, though he is at a loss to understand how it
can happen.

FABLE VII. [V.642-678]

Ceres entrusts her chariot to Triptolemus, and orders him to go
everywhere, and cultivate the earth. He obeys her, and, at length,
arrives in Scythia, where Lyncus, designing to kill him, is changed
into a lynx. The Muse then finishes her song, on which the daughters
of Pierus are changed into magpies.

"Thus far Arethusa. The fertile Goddess yoked[78] two dragons to her
chariot, and curbed their mouths with bridles; and was borne through the
mid air of heaven and of earth, and guided her light chariot to the
Tritonian citadel, to Triptolemus; and she ordered him t