Page:The Poetical Works of Thomas Parnell (1833).djvu/119



Page xv. Cyrene's shell.] Callimachus was born at Cyrene. Akenside, in his truly classical hymn to the Naiads, says, Hail! honored nymphs, Thrice hail! for you the Cyrenaic shell Behold I touch revering.—

Page xv. The wondrous bark.] Eratosth. (Asterism. p. 13. ed. Ox.) says the Argo was the first ship ever built; but this is inconsistent with the account which the Greek poets and historians have related of the still earlier voyages of Cadmus and Danaus. v. Bryant's A. Mythol. ii. p. 493. The ancient writers, says Dr. Musgrave (v. Disc, on Greek Mythology, p. 86.), are not unanimous in representing the Argo as the first ship ever built. Diod. Sic. iv. p. 285. says it was the first of any considerable size. Plin. N. H. vii. 57. says it was the first long ship. Catullus says, Ilia rudem cursu prima imbuit Amphitriten, though he mentions the fleet of Theseus, whom he makes older than the Argonauts, consult the note of Is. Vossius in his Edit. p. 262. and of Dresemius on Iscanus de Bello Troj. lib. i. 52. There is scarcely a single circumstance relating to the Argonautic expedition in which the ancient writers are agreed. They seem to have read out of a different Pantheon. With regard to the gifts of voice which the vessel had—Fatidicamque ratem—Dr. Musgrave thinks it to have been a juggle, and that one of the Argonauts was a ventriloquist. . Certain it is, that it did speak, and came of a speaking family; for it was made of the woods of Dodona. Orpheus (Arg. v. 707.) calls it, a chattering ship; and Lycophron (v. 1326.) ; V. Flacc. (viii. 130.) makes it walk up and pay its compliments to Jason on the success of the enterprise. Orpheus, in his Argonautic Poem, mentions anchors as belonging to the Argo (v. 495.) but these are not mentioned by Homer even in the time of the Trojan war.

Page xv. The Centaur band.] Concerning the distinction made between the Centaur and Hippocentaur, see the note on Mitford's Greece, vol. i. p. 28. 4to.