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she turned many serpents into stones, still to be found in a very odd serpentine shape in that county.

Pyanepsia. Apollini.-Rom. Cal.

The Pyanepsia was an Athenian festival celebrated in honour of Theseus and his companions; who after their return from Crete were entertained with all manner of fruits, and particularly pulse. From this circumstance the Pyanepsia was ever after commemorated by the boiling of pulse, απο του εψειν πυανα. Some however suppose that it was observed in commemoration of the Heraclidae, who were entertained with pulse by the Athenians.

The Romans thought proper to note this feast in their Calendar, on account probably of the high estimation in which pulse and vegetables in general were held in Rome. Garden vegetables seem to have been almost disused in Europe during a part of the middle ages: their culture was first brought to perfection in the Low Countries, and thence introduced into England by degrees, from the middle of the fourteenth to the end of the seventeenth centuries.-See Beckmann's History of Inventions, and Phillips on Cultivated Vegetables: two volumes, 8vo. London. 1822.

The

Apollo, to whom the old Romans also dedicated today, was the son of Jupiter and Latona, was called also Phoebus, and is often confounded with the Sun. According to Cicero, de Nat. Deor. iii. there were four persons of this name. first was son of Vulcan and the tutelary god of the Athenians. The second was son of Corybas, and was born in Crete, for the dominion of which he disputed even with Jupiter himself. The third was son of Jupiter and Latona, and came from the nations of the Hyperboreans to Delphi. The fourth was born in Arcadia, and called Nomion because he gave laws to the inhabitants. To the son of Jupiter and Latona all the actions of the others seem to have been attributed. The Apollo son of Vulcan was the same as the Orus of the Egyptians, and was the most ancient, from whom the actions of the others have been copied. The three others seem to be of Grecian origin. The tradition that the son of Latona was born in the floating island of Delos is taken from the Egyptian mythology, which asserts that the son of Vulcan, which is supposed to be Orus, was saved by his mother Isis from the persecution of Typhon, and entrusted to the care of Latona who concealed him in the island of Chemmis. Apollo's worship and power were universally acknowledged: he had temples and statues in every country, particularly in Egypt, Greece, and Italy.

His statue which stood upon mount Actium as a mark to mariners to avoid the dangerous coasts was particularly famous, and it appeared a great distance at sea. Augustus before the battle of Actium addressed himself to it for victory. The griffin, the cock, the grasshopper, the wolf, the crow, the swan, the hawk, the olive, the laurel, the palm tree, &c. were sacred to him; and in his sacrifices wolves and hawks were offered, as they were the natural enemies of the flocks over which he presided. Bullocks and lambs were also immolated to him. As he presided over poetry he was often seen on mount Parnassus with the nine Muses. His most famous oracles were at Delphi, Delos, Claros, Tenedos, Cyrrha, and Patara. His most splendid temple was at Delphi, where every nation and individual made considerable presents when they consulted the oracle. Augustus after the battle of Actium built him a temple on Mount Palatine, which he enriched with a valuable library. He had a famous colossus in Rhodes which was one of the seven wonders of the world. Apollo has been taken for the Sun; but it may be proved by different passages in the ancient writers that Apollo, the Sun, Phoebus, and Hyperion, were all different characters and deities though confounded together. When once Apollo was addressed as the Sun and represented with a crown of rays on his head, the idea was adopted by every writer, and from thence arose the mistake. The Sun's overcoming the Fog is whimsically described by Ovid as the conquest of Phoebus over Python. See Ovid Met. i. fab. 9 and 10, 1. iv. fab. 3, &c.-Paus. ii. c. 7, 1. v. c. 7, 1. vii. c. 20, 1. ix. c. 30, &c.-Hygin. fab. 9, 14, 50, 93, 140, 161, 202, 230, &c.-Stat. i. Theb. 560.—Tibull. ii. et iii.-Plut. de Amor.-Hom. Il. et Hymn. in Apoll.-Virg. Aen. ii. iii. &c. G. iv. v. 323.-Horat. i. od. 10.-Lucian. Dial. Mer. et Vulc.-Propert. i. el. 28.-Callimach. in Apol. -Apollod. i. c. 3, 4, and 9, l. ii. c. 5, 1. iii. c. 5, 10 and 12. Apollo seems to have resigned his office as Patron of Music to St. Cecilia at the change of religion in Rome.

The Ludi Apollinares were games in his honour at Rome. The first time they were celebrated Rome was alarmed by the approach of the enemy, and instantly the people rushed out of the city and saw a cloud of arrows discharged from the sky on the troops of the enemy. With this heavenly assistance they easily obtained the victory. The people generally sat crowned with laurel at the representation of these games, which were usually celebrated at the option of the praetor till the year U. C. 545, when a law was passed to settle the celebration yearly on the same day about the nones of July. When this alteration happened Rome was

infested with a dreadful pestilence, which however seemed to be appeased by this act of religion.-Liv. xxv. c. 12.

October 9. St. Denys Bishop of Paris and his Companions Martyrs.

St. Dionysius, otherwise abbreviated into Denys, was Bishop of Paris, and died in the year 272 of our era. The Christian faith seems, however, to have been planted in Gaul much before his time by St. Luke and St. Crescens ; and these saints living about the time of the other St. Denys the Areopagite, the latter became confounded with the saint celebrated today. See Butler's Lives, vol. x. 57 and 163; also our October 3.

Some of the French writers erroneously inform us that St. Denys first preached the Gospel among them, and therefore regard him as their tutelar saint. The famous Abbey dedicated to him at St. Denis near Paris is well known to almost all travellers.

HECATE.-On Spurious Omens, and the Abuse of the Knowledge of Prognostics.-All knowledge of an imperfect nature, and on subjects but little understood, is apt to degenerate into superstition, and to be mixed up with fables, because man has a certain faculty in his composition which makes him mystify, and which produces a disposition to assign false causes for phenomena. We have given, at pp. 28, 89, 92, 103, under the article COELUM, an account of numerous prognostics of the weather, deduced from actual observation repeated during hundreds of years, and serving as well grounded rules for judging of the approaching changes of the weather. This knowledge, however, has been abused, and converted into a superstitious anticipation of events from false prognostics, and which has confused our real knowledge of the subject, and prevented its progress, by throwing a disgrace on it in a way similar to that in which an honest man suffers by keeping bad company. Many of these spurious prognostics are easily traceable to a physical origin, which it may be worth while to expose. For example, certain birds being affected by peculiarities of the air, previous to thunderstorms, or other terrible events, and showing signs of their affections by particular habits, were found to be foreboders of tempests, hurricanes, and other dangerous atmospheric commotions; and they were subsequently considered as evil omens in general, gaining, as it were, an ill name by their utility as monitors. So the Crow, garrulous before stormy weather, was afterwards regarded as

a predictor of general misfortune. Many animals too were afterwards considered as influenced by human prayers. In this manner the observation of many real facts laid the foundation for superstitions which terrified the ignorant, and which the designing made use of in order to establish their own reputation on the public credulity.

It may be proper to examine a few cases in point for the sake of illustration. Among all the birds of evil report among the ancients, the Owl stands foremost, as being the most generally regarded as the harbinger of mischief and of death. Pliny, the natural historian, represents the large eared or horned Owl Strix bubo as a funereal bird, a monster of night, the abomination of human kind. And Virgil describes its death howl from the top of the temple by night; a circumstance introdued here by the poet, as a precursor of the death of Dido. Ovid constantly speaks of the presence of this bird as an evil omen; and the same notions respecting it may be found among the effusions of most of the ancient poets.

The dread attached to Owls seems to have been extended to other birds of the night; a circumstance which rather corroborates the idea that they were dreaded, in a great measure, from being companions of darkness and obscurity. Spencer has given us a most woeful catalogue of harmful fowls, in the second book of the Fairie Queene. See our account of them on St. Anthony's Day. The hollow booming of the Bittern from the pool on a still evening, and the hoarse sound of the Nycticorax and Fernowl, are equally striking, may be easily imagined plaintive, and seem capable, when uttered in the stillness of evening, of exciting ideas of melancholy, and of inducing in the minds of the vulgar and ignorant a notion of their being connected with misfortune.

The Cornix of the Romans was another bird represented as ominous, who by his croaking prognosticated evil; but, whether the Cornix was the Raven or the Crow, or, indeed, of what species, is uncertain.

There is a superstitious respect paid to the Swallow and the Martlett, in many parts of the country, at the present day. Their nests are protected, and it is considered unlucky to molest them by accident: this is a very old opinion, mentioned by many writers: and the circumstances of their building so close to the habitations of man indicates, we think, that they have long enjoyed freedom from molestation, Shakespeare says:

the Martlett

Builds in the weather on the outward wall,
Even in the force and road of casualty.

N N

The respect paid to the Swallow may have originated in its being the harbinger of Spring, and from its inhabiting churches, temples, and other sacred places; and, perhaps in some measure, from its utility in clearing the air of insects. Swallows, at one time, among the Greeks, appear to have been regarded as an evil omen when a flock of them settled on a tent or on a ship. The low flight of Swallows predicts rain, and their settling on buildings is an autumnal custom previous to their departure, or to the commencement of wintry weather; hence have they, perhaps, been considered as portending evil.

The crowing of Cocks was reckoned ominous, particularly as prophesying the event of wars, from the known courage of this bird.

We have observed this remarkable circumstance about the crowing of Cocks. At several different times in the course of the night, a general crowing may be heard, from all quarters where there are Cocks, the first that begins apparently setting all the rest off: and this fact is remarkably striking in places where numbers of Cocks are bred for the purpose of fighting. As far as we can observe, excepting at the dawn of day, these crowing matches happen at very irregular and uncertain periods. The ancients, however, seem to have regarded them as taking place at marked intervals of time, which appear to have caused their division of the night watches by the first, second, and third AxExтgopavias, as mentioned by St. John. When Cocks crow all day long, or at uncommon hours, a change of weather often follows, but this is not an invariable rule.

They say that if a dead Kingfisher be hanged up it will show the way of the wind.

Most of these superstitions originated in the observance of facts ascribable to atmospheric influence. We have already observed the different colours of the Moon before different weathers.

Pallida Luna pluit, rubicunda flat, alba serenat.

This prognostic is immediately abused by ignorance, as Shakespeare in his Richard the Second, Act ii. sc. 4, tells

us:

When the palefaced Moon forbodes the death of kings.

Thus also Butler in his Hudibras, P. iii. C. ii. 1. 405 :-
As old sinners have all points

O' the compass in their bones and joints;
Can by their pangs and aches find
All turns and changes of the wind,
And better than by Napier's bones,
Feel in their own the age of Moons.

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