FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   203   204   205   206   207   208   209   210   211   212   213   214   215   216   217   218   219   220   221   222   223   224   225   226   227  
228   229   230   231   232   233   234   235   236   237   238   239   240   241   242   243   244   245   246   247   248   249   250   251   252   >>   >|  
andy's translation of Ovid's Met. bk. vi. And calls the furies from the depth of hell.] [Footnote 115: Pope copied Stephens: devouring some With rav'nous jaws before their parents' eyes, And fats herself with public miseries.] [Footnote 116: Inachus, according to one tradition, built the city of Argos. After his descendants had reigned for some generations, the throne was seized by Danaus.] [Footnote 117: Death cutting off the fatal thread with a scythe, is not a very sublime or congruous image. Pope has blended modern ideas with classical: in the original it is "ense metit;"--"_mows_ with his _sword_." Pope has introduced a "_scythe_," to preserve more accurately the metaphor, but it has a bad effect.--BOWLES.] [Footnote 118: Choroebus.] [Footnote 119: Statius states that Choroebus withdrew, having obtained his end, and says nothing of his being "unwilling," by which Pope seems to mean that he was unwilling to accept his life. This deviation from the original destroys the generous heroism of Choroebus, for if he was weary of his existence there was no merit in his braving death. Statius, indeed, had previously said that Apollo granted Choroebus the "sad boon of life" out of admiration for his magnanimity; but this phrase only signifies that life is sorrowful, and not that Choroebus would have preferred to die.] [Footnote 120: Some of the most finished lines he has ever written, down to verse 854.--WARTON.] [Footnote 121: Apollo was specially worshipped by the Lycians.] [Footnote 122: The celebrated fountain sacred to Apollo on Parnassus.] [Footnote 123: Apollo was surnamed the Cynthian, from Mount Cynthus in the island of Delos, which was the place of his birth, and the most revered of all the localities set apart for his worship. The island, which had previously floated over the ocean, was, according to one version of the legend, rendered stationary by Jupiter when Apollo was born; according to another version, it was subsequently fixed by Apollo himself.] [Footnote 124: The walls of Troy were the work of Apollo and Neptune.] [Footnote 125: In the first edition it was Thou dost the seeds of future wars foreknow.] [Footnote 126: The Phrygian was Marsyas, who contended on the flute against Apollo with his lyre. When the umpires decided in favour of the god, he flayed Marsyas for his presumption.] [Footnote 127: Tityus assaulted the mother of A
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   203   204   205   206   207   208   209   210   211   212   213   214   215   216   217   218   219   220   221   222   223   224   225   226   227  
228   229   230   231   232   233   234   235   236   237   238   239   240   241   242   243   244   245   246   247   248   249   250   251   252   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Footnote

 

Apollo

 

Choroebus

 

unwilling

 

previously

 

Statius

 
version
 
original
 

island

 

scythe


Marsyas

 

Lycians

 

flayed

 

worshipped

 

specially

 

celebrated

 

presumption

 

fountain

 

surnamed

 
Cynthian

Parnassus

 

umpires

 

WARTON

 

favour

 

sacred

 

decided

 

sorrowful

 

preferred

 
signifies
 

magnanimity


phrase

 

assaulted

 

Tityus

 

written

 

mother

 
finished
 

foreknow

 

subsequently

 

Jupiter

 

future


edition

 
Neptune
 

stationary

 

rendered

 

localities

 

revered

 
worship
 

legend

 

admiration

 
Phrygian