V. 957. vulgo μέγα δ' ἀφηρέθην ψάλιον οίκων : sed collato v. supra 49. ̓Ανήλιοι δνόφοι καλύπτουσι δόμους abunde patet lectionis nostræ veritas. Hesychius enim νέφας, σκότος. V. 962. Pro ἄναγε μάν, ἀνάγεται eruere Schutz vult ; mihi quidem placet & literis ἄναγε μὴν δόμοις ἔκειτ ̓ eruere ἀνέχεται δόμος ὤν. Hesych. Ανεχόμην, ἄνω εἰ χάμην σεμνυνόμενος. V. 964. vulgo παντελὴς χρόνος : ultimam vocem Schutzius delevit & gl. natam, V.968. vulgo ἅπαν ἐλατηρίοις : ob v. supra 816. πλοῦτος αἱμάτων λυτήριος dedi hic ἄποινα λυτηρίοις. Hesych. "Αποινα, λύτρα : cf. supr. 46. τί γὰρ λύτρον πεσόντος αἵματος πέδῳ. V. 970. vulgo τύχαι · κοίτα τὸ πᾶν ἀκοῦσαι θρ. μετοικοδόμων. Hæc maxime tenebrosa partim Schutzius illustravit corrigendo δόμων μετοίκοις. Quod ad δεσποτῶν κοιτάν, ipse Noster sibi vices interpretis gerit: Orestes mox loquitur, Σεμνοὶ μὲν ἦσαν ἐν θρόνοις τόθ' ἡμενοι Φίλοι τε καὶ νῦν ὡς ἐπείκασαι πάθη Πάρεστιν. At non περὶ σεμνότητος hic sermo est, verum de Clytemnestra consuetudine cum Agistheo: lege igitur Ησαν συνευνοι καν θρόνοις ποθ ̓ ἡμενοι, Φίλοις τε καὶ νῦν, ὡς ἐπείκασαι, πάθη Πάρεστιν. Cf. Eurip. Electr. 1144. νυμφεύσει δὲ καν ᾅδου δόμοις Ωπερ ξυνηΰδες ἐν φάει. Hæc sunt modò non omnia systemata Antispastica quæ post Burneii curas in ordinem Antistrophicum redigi possunt. Sunt tamen tria alia systemata, quæ, dudum ante libellum Burneii vulgatum, ab aliis ordinantur, scilicet Pers. v. 93 et sqq. à me in Præf. Troad. p. xx. et Eumen. v. 264 et sqq. in Append. p. 191. et Eumen. v. 1030 et sqq. ab Hermanno quem sequitur Schutzius, et sequi debuerunt Botheus Burneiusque. Quod verò spectat ad Choeph. 787 et sqq. usque ad v. 836. nemo nisi parum sanus hæret de sanitate Cantus Chorici, omnium, quotquot supersunt, longè corruptissimi, gemino gemello Carmine excepto, quod legitur in Suppl. v. 820 et sqq. Quorum utrique omnis fortasse spes evanuit, ut emendatius scriberetur, in tanta Codicum Manuscriptorum inopiâ, qui soli lacunas supplere poterunt. ACCOUNT Of the Antiquities of HENNA, with Remarks on the "De Raptu Proserpina" of CLAUDIAN. TO THE EDITOR OF THE CLASSICAL JOURNAL. SIR, MUCH as we are indebted to the industry of M. M. Denon and Houël for their graphic illustrations of the scenery and antiquities of Sicily, they are, I think, remarkably scanty and unsatisfactory in their account of Castro-Giovanni, the ancient Henna, a spot not less attractive for picturesque beauty, than the agreeable recollections which it suggests to the classic traveller. In the spring of 1808, I left Messina, and after surveying with diligence the highly-interesting remains of Tauromenium, Catiné, Megara, Syracuse, and Gela, I struck off from the last-mentioned city, which retains but one monument of its vastness, and that is a Doric column, half-buried in the sand, and so worn by time, as to leave scarce a trace of its flutings. After passing through Calatagirone and Piazza, the ancient Philosophiana, I presently approached the ancient domain of Ceres; and the whole face of the country was undulating with the most luxuriant crops of bearded wheat-Romantic to excess, it appears as if Castro-Giovanni was destined, both from its central and inaccessible situation, to be the chief bulwark of Sicily.-Henna was founded by a colony from Syracuse in the twenty-eighth Olympiad. We learn nothing respecting it from history, till the reign of the Syracusan tyrant Gelon, who raised here a temple in honor of Ceres. In the ninety-fourth Olympiad, Dionysius endeavoured to annex Henna to his dominions, and accordingly pitched his camp under the walls, but finding them impregnable, he clandestinely persuaded Acimnestus, one of the citizens, to usurp the sovereignty. Acimnestus, as soon as he had succeeded in overturning the government, showed little inclination to second the cause of Dionysius; the latter, in consequence, excited the citizens to rebel against the usurper, and in the midst of the tumult, introduced his troops within the walls, and as soon as he had given over Acimnestus to the citizens, to meet condign punishment, retreated, leaving the inhabitants unmolested. Timoleon rescued Henna from tyranny; and we read that it surrendered to the Agrigentines, who sought to subjugate Sicily, when Agathocles was in Africa. When Marcellus laid siege to Syracuse, the Hennæans declared in favor of the Romans, who stationed a guard in the citadel, under the command of Lucius Pinarius. The citizens were, notwithstanding, corrupted by Himilco, the Carthaginian general, and they demanded of Pinarius the keys of the city; who, when he saw that they would yield neither to remonstrance nor persuasion, summoned the chief Immanis Gela. Virg. Æn, Lib. iii, citizens in the theatre, feigning to give them audience, and sent in an armed force, who massacred all those that fell in their way. During the revolt of the slaves in Sicily, Eunus, their leader, fortified himself in Henna, and was there besieged by the Consul Rupilius, in the year of Rome 621. My first object of inquiry was the remains of the celebrated temple of Ceres, which, according to Cicero,' was held in the highest veneration by the ancient Sicilians. We learn from the same authority, that in it was a bronze statue of ancient and curious workmanship, representing Ceres with torches; that in an open space before the temple stood two statues, one of Ceres, and the other of Triptolemus, so large that the marauding Prætor Verres was unable to remove them. He succeeded, however, in making away with a small figure of Victory, which stood in the right hand of Ceres. There was also another temple at Henna, dedicated probably to Proserpine. The Cicerone conducted me to the site of the temple of Ceres, so completely dilapidated, as not even to leave a fragment of the architecture, but hard by, I noticed the foundations of another building, exhibiting the ruins of a portal, supposed to have been the temple of Bellona, or Proserpine. They show here the cavern from which they imagined in antiquity that Pluto issued forth, when he meditated a rape on Proserpine. Situated as it is in the midst of a perpendicular precipice, the spectator is left to conclude, that the coursers of the infernal monarch were winged like Pegasus, or they must have been rather embarrassed at their first footing in this world. 2 Heic specus ingentem laxans telluris hiatum, Tum raptâ præceps Hennæâ virgine flexit, In Styga rursus equos, et prædam condidit umbris. "A cavern's yawning jaws here point the way Sil. Ital. 1 Mira quædam totâ Siciliâ privatim ac publicè religio est Cereris Hennensis. Orat. Verrin. Act. 11. 4. 2 Qui accessistis Hennam, vidistis simulacrum Cereris è marmore, et in altero templo, Liberæ, Ibid. This cavern is also noticed by Cicero, in his fourth Oration, against Verres.' The castle is well worthy of observation as tracing its origin from remote antiquity, and presenting one of the most extensive views I ever witnessed. Several of the towers remain, which, according to tradition, were erected by the ancient Hennæans. The modern city contains about eleven thousand inhabitants. The cathedral is a venerable pile, built by the Normans soon after the expulsion of the Saracens, and contains four good pictures by Lo Zoppo di Gangi, a Sicilian artist of considerable merit, and who resembles the painters of the Neapolitan school in the darkness of his manner. They showed me on the outer wall a column which belonged to the temple of Ceres; one third of it was fluted perpendicularly, the rest spirally. I searched in vain for the capital. I could not discover any vestige of the theatre where Pinarius murdered the citizens, though the Cicerone informed me that it was bastantissimamente grande, and pointed out the spot where it stood, which commands a delightful view of Calatascibetta, and the groves once consecrated to Ceres. The lake Pergusa is about four miles to the south of the town, and is a fine expanse of water, nearly a mile in circumference, and nothing would be wanting to render it a singularly beautiful spot, were the borders skirted with more wood. Ovid has not exagge rated the delights of the surrounding fields, when he describes them enamelled with flowers, Tot fuerant flores, quot habet Natura colores, This sheet of water has been celebrated by more poets than probably any other in the world, but more especially by the muse of Claudian, whose De Raptu Proserpine will be read with increased interest by the classic traveller, on the spot which exhibits the scene of the poem. The De Raptu Proserpinæ in the outset bears greater marks of labor and study, than of genius. Claudian almost fatigues the reader with the pompous display of the transports which he felt, previous to his undertaking the subject. Those of Homer and Virgil were feeble in comparison; for he is not content with addressing the Muses, Apollo, Bacchus, and Hecate, but he must hear strange noises in the temple at Athens, see the sacred torches of Eleusis, and the serpents of Triptolemus must rear their crests in compliment to his poem. Nor is this all-he steals poetic fire from the infernal regions. The reader, when he has discovered Etenim propter est spelunca quædam infinitâ altitudine, conversa ad aquîlonem, quà Ditem patrem ferunt repentè cum curru extitisse, abreptamque ex eo loco virginem secum reportâsse, et subitò non longè à Syracusis penetrâsse sub terras lacumque in eo loco repentè extitisse. Orat. Verrin. 4. that the composition does not correspond with the splendor of the poet's œstrum, will be tempted to exclaim with Persius, Nonne hoc spumosum et cortice pingui? Homer, Virgil, and other poets, represent Jupiter himself as submissive to the decrees of the Fates; but in the De Raptu Proserpina, Clotho and her sisters are introduced as suppliants to Pluto, who in consequence becomes of more importance than Jupiter, which levels a deadly blow at mythology. Again, Mercury is generally looked upon as the express messenger of heaven; but in the poem in question, he is imperiously summoned by the sovereign of hell to be the bearer of dispatches to the skies. This measure is irregular on the part of Pluto, and even insulting to Jupiter, whose good-will he wished to conciliate. These oversights are, however, compensated by the lines "Ipse rudi fultus solio," &c. which are exceedingly sublime, but by no means Virgilian. The description of Ætna is perhaps better than Virgil's ; but very inferior to Pindar's. Aulus Gellius has judiciously remarked, that the great master of Roman poetry has failed in his description of that volcano, and it is probable that had he lived, he would have licked this cub into better shape. The reader of taste will not, I think, be pleased with the philosophical questions on the Ætnæan conflagrations, which, however appropriate in Lucretius or Cornelius Severus, are here out of place; but he will pause with pleasure on the happy idea of the corn springing up as the car of Ceres proceeds: Cano rota pulvere labens Sulcatam fœcundat humum, flavescit aristis Cybele almost becomes ridiculous, when she inclines her towers to salute her daughter; and we can hardly excuse the wise Minerva and chaste Diana accompanying Venus to Sicily. How can they with any propriety be privy to a rape? In the second book, however, they call to mind their dignity, and expiate their wantonness, the former by abusing the infernal ravisher, the latter by promising to renounce the sports of the chace. Nor can much commendation be bestowed on the lines descriptive of Proserpine's needle-work. Those which enumerate the stud of the infernal king would be read with pleasure, did not Alastor (a favorite, we presume) and probably, for that reason, stamped with Pluto's initials, detract from the dignity of the description. The trite display of the effects of the melody of Orpheus, and the celebration of the labors of Hercules, could well be spared in the preface to the second book, as being irrelevant to the poem in ques Noctes Atticæ, lib. xvii. cap. 10. |