. Pliny says, that
this becomes hard, and turns into gems, like the carbuncle, being
of a fiery tint, and that the stone has the name of 'lyncurium.'
Beckmann (Hist. Inventions) thinks that this was probably the
jacinth, or hyacinth, while others suppose it to have been the
tourmaline, or transparent amber.]

[Footnote 48: _A soft plant._--Ver. 417. Modern improvement in
knowledge has shown that coral is not a plant, but an animal
substance.]

[Footnote 49: _Sparta was famed._--Ver. 426-30. These lines are
looked upon by many Commentators as spurious, as they are omitted
in most MSS. Besides, all these cities were flourishing in the
time of Pythagoras. If they are genuine, Ovid is here guilty of a
series of anachronisms.]

[Footnote 50: _But one born._--Ver. 447. This was Octavius, the
adopted son of Julius Caesar. According to Suetonius, he traced his
descent, through his mother, from Ascanius or Iuelus.]

[Footnote 51: _Ought not to fill._--Ver. 462. Clarke's quaint
translation is, 'And let us not cram our g--ts with Thyestian
victuals.']

[Footnote 52: _Feather foils._--Ver. 475. He alludes to the
'formido;' which was made of coloured feathers, and was used to
scare the deer into the toils.]

EXPLANATION.

The Poet having now exhausted nearly all the transformations which
ancient history afforded him, proceeds to enlist in the number some
of the real phenomena of nature, together with some imaginary ones.
As Pythagoras was considered to have pursued metaphysical studies
more deeply, perhaps, than any other of the ancient philosophers,
Ovid could not have introduced a personage more fitted to discuss
these subjects. Having travelled through Asia, it is supposed that
Pythagoras passed into Italy, and settled at Crotona, to promulgate
there the philosophical principles which he had acquired in his
travels through Egypt and Asia Minor.

The Pythagorean philosophy was well-suited for the purpose of
mingling its doctrines with the fabulous narratives of the Poet, as
it consisted, in great part, of the doctrine of an endless series of
transformations. Its main features may be reduced to two general
heads; the first of which was the doctrine of the Metempsychosis,
or continual transmigration of souls from one body into another.
Pythagoras is supposed not to have originated this doctrine, but