perish
by fire. Seneca also, in his consolation to Marcia, and in his
Quaestiones Naturales, mentions the same destined termination of
the present state of the universe. It was a doctrine of the Stoic
philosophers, that the stars were nurtured with moisture, and that
on the cessation of this nourishment the conflagration of the
universe would ensue.]

[Footnote 50: _The folds of his robe._--Ver. 267. 'Rorant pennae
sinusque,' is quaintly translated by Clarke, 'his wings and the
plaits of his coat drop.']

[Footnote 51: _Iris._--Ver. 271. The mention of Iris, the goddess
of the rainbow, in connection with the flood of Deucalion, cannot
fail to remind us of the 'bow set in the cloud, for a token of the
covenant between God and the earth,' on the termination of Noah's
flood.--Gen. x. 14.]

[Footnote 52: _The mouths of their fountains._--Ver. 281. The
expressions in this line and in line 283, are not unlike the words
of the 11th verse of the 7th chapter of Genesis, 'The fountains of
the great deep were broken up.']

[Footnote 53: _The wolf swims._--Ver. 304. One commentator remarks
here, that there was nothing very wonderful in a dead wolf
swimming among the sheep without devouring them. Seneca is,
however, too severe upon our author in saying that he is trifling
here, in troubling himself on so serious an occasion with what
sheep and wolves are doing: for he gravely means to say, that the
beasts of prey are terrified to that degree that they forget their
carnivorous propensities.]

EXPLANATION.

Pausanias makes mention of five deluges. The two most celebrated
happened in the time of Ogyges, and in that of Deucalion. Of the last
Ovid here speaks; and though that deluge was generally said to have
overflowed Thessaly only, he has evidently adopted in his narrative
the tradition of the universal deluge, which all nations seem to have
preserved. He says, that the sea joined its waters to those falling
from heaven. The words of Scripture are (Genesis, vii. 11), 'All the
fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven
were opened.' In speaking of the top of Parnassus alone being left
uncovered, the tradition here followed by Ovid probably referred to
Mount Ararat, where Noah's ark rested. Noah and his family are
represented by Deucalion and Pyrrha. Both Noah and Deucalion