e pine is called
'succincta,' because it sends forth its branches from the top, and
not from the sides.]

EXPLANATION.

The story of Attis, or Athis, here briefly referred to, is related
by the ancient writers in many different ways; so much so, that it
is not possible to reconcile the discrepancy that exists between
them. From Diodorus Siculus we learn that Cybele, the daughter of
Maeon, King of Phrygia, falling in love with a young shepherd named
Attis, her father ordered him to be put to death. In despair, at the
loss of her lover, Cybele left her father's abode, and, accompanied
by Marsyas, crossed the mountains of Phrygia. Apollo, (or, as
Vossius supposes, some priest of that God,) touched with the
misfortunes of the damsel, took her to the country of the
Hyperboreans in Scythia, where she died. Some time after, the plague
ravaging Phrygia, and the oracle being consulted, an answer was
returned, that, to ensure the ceasing of the contagion, they must
look for the body of Attis, and give it funeral rites, and render to
Cybele the same honour which they were wont to pay to the Gods: all
which was done with such scrupulous care, that in time she became
one of the most esteemed Divinities.

Arnobius, says that Attis was a shepherd, with whom Cybele fell in
love in her old age. Unmoved by her rank, and repelled by her faded
charms, he despised her advances. Midas, King of Pessinus, on seeing
this, destined his own daughter, Agdistis, for the young Attis.
Fearing the resentment of Cybele, he caused the gates of the city to
be shut on the day on which the marriage was to be solemnized.
Cybele being informed of this, hastened to Pessinus, and, destroying
the gates, met with Attis, who had concealed himself behind a pine
tree, and caused him to be emasculated; on which Agdistis committed
self-destruction in a fit of sorrow.

Servius, Lactantius, and St. Augustine, give another version of the
story, which it is not necessary here to enlarge upon, any farther
than to say, that it depicts the love of a powerful queen for a
young man who repulsed her advances. Ovid, also, gives a similar
account in the fourth Book of the Fasti, line 220. Other authors,
quoted by Arnobius, have given some additional circumstances, the
origin of which it is almost impossible to guess at. They say that a
female called Nana, by touching a pomegranate or an almond t