, Apollodorus, Pausanias, Dio Cassius,
Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Strabo, Hyginus, Nonnus, and others of the
historians, philosophers, and mythologists of antiquity. A great number
of these illustrations are collected in the elaborate edition of Ovid,
published by the Abbe Banier, one of the most learned scholars of the
last century; who has, therein, and in his "Explanations of the Fables
of Antiquity," with indefatigable labour and research, culled from the
works of ancient authors, all such information as he considered likely
to throw any light upon the Mythology and history of Greece and Rome.

This course has been adopted, because it was considered that a statement
of the opinions of contemporary authors would be the most likely to
enable the reader to form his own ideas upon the various subjects
presented to his notice. Indeed, except in two or three instances, space
has been found too limited to allow of more than an occasional reference
to the opinions of modern scholars. Such being the object of the
explanations, the reader will not be surprised at the absence of
critical and lengthened discussions on many of those moot points of
Mythology and early history which have occupied, with no very positive
result, the attention of Niebuhr, Lobeck, Mueller, Buttmann, and many
other scholars of profound learning.

A SYNOPTICAL VIEW

OF THE

PRINCIPAL TRANSFORMATIONS MENTIONED IN

THE METAMORPHOSES.

BOOK VIII.

In the mean time Minos besieges Megara. Scylla, becoming enamoured of
him, betrays her country, the safety of which depends upon the purple
lock of her father Nisu. Being afterwards rejected by Minos, she clings
to his ship, and is changed into a bird, while her father becomes a sea
eagle. Minos returns to Crete, and having erected the Labyrinth with the
assistance of Daedalus, he there encloses the Minotaur, the disgrace of
his family, and feeds it with his Athenian captives. Theseus being one
of these, slays the monster: and having escaped from the Labyrinth by
the aid of Ariadne, he takes her with him, but deserts her in the isle
of Dia, where Bacchus meets with her, and places her crown among the
Constellations. Daedalus being unable to escape from the island of Crete,
invents wings and flies away; while Icarus, accompanying his father, is
drowned. The partridge beholds the father celebrating his funeral rites,
and testifies his joy: Perdix, or Talus, who had been envied by Minos
for his ing