Page:Ovid's Metamorphoses (Vol. 1) - tr Garth, Dryden, et. al. (1727).djvu/52

xxxiv ignorant of Events; scurrilous in their Language. Some of the superior Hierarchy treating one another with injurious Brutalities, and are often guilty of such Indecencies and Misbehaviour as the lowest of Mortals would blush to own. Juno calls Diana, the Goddess of Chastity,, Brazen-fac'd Bitch; Hom. Il. . B. 21. l. 481. Jupiter insults his Daughter, the Goddess of Wisdom, for Rashness and Folly; bids Iris tell her, he'll maul her Coach-Horses for her, like a surly Bitch as she is; : Il. B. 8. from l. 400. to l. 425. then threatens in another Place to beat his Wife, that divine Vixon, the immortal Partner of the Empyreal Throne, Il. B. 15. l. 17.

The Commentators may endeavour to hide those Absurdities under the Veil of Allegories; but the Reader that considers the whole Texture of the Iliad, will find, that the Author's Meaning, and their Interpretation are often as unlike, as the imaginary Heroes of his time, are to the real ones of ours.

Allegories should be obvious, and not like Meteors in the Air, which represent a different Figure to every different Eye. Now they are Armies of Soldiers; now Flocks of Sheep; and by and by, nothing.

Perhaps the Criticks of a more exalted Taste, may discover such Beauties in the antient Poetry, as may escape the Comprehension of us Pigmies of a more limited Genius. They may be able to