Omnia Vincit Amor Ovid Illustrated: The Renaissance Reception
of Ovid in Image and Text
George Sandys, Ovid's Metamorphosis (1632)
An Online Edition
Daniel Kinney, Director
Special Thanks to Alison Caviness, Zack Long, Keicy Tolbert, and the Many Resident Experts of U.Va.'s E-Text Staff

 Electronic Text Center Ovid Collection Home Page Translations Latin Text Search

Book II  /  Sandys' Notes to the Commentary  /  All-Change Central--Text-Image Links

VPON THE SECOND BOOKE OF OVIDS METAMORPHOSIS.

The entrance into this second booke is through the  THE PALLACE AND MAGNIFICENCE OF THE SVN  glorious Pallace of the Sunne: wherein, as some coniecture, he intimates the temple of Apollo; with the Portico and Library, built by Augustus. The materialls, gold, pretious stones, and iuory: the workeman Mulciber; a name of Vulcan, which signifies to mollifie; in that fire mollifies mettall, and subiects it to the will of the Artificer. In this description our Poet imitates Homer in the sheild of Achilles; and is imitated by the moderne in their Screenes and Arasses. The Sunne is cloathed in a robe of scarlet, onely proper to Princes and Magistrates, expressing their power of inflicting death by that bloody colour; which priuate men were of old forbidden to weare, or resemble in any part of their garments. But he a King of the other Starres, from whom they receaue their honour: his courtiers, the Houres, Dayes, Months, Yeares, and Ages; the Spring, Summer, Autumne, and Winter: being not only their Lord and moderator, but their father; the measure and vicissitude of Time proceeding from his motion. Wherefore diuine Reason, saith Macrobius, and not superstition, made the Poets, who in their fables of the Gods did not swearue from the truth of Philosophy, to referre all the rest that are vnder the sky to the various faculties of the Sun, as insinuated by his seuerall appellations; gouerning the coelestiall lights, and disposing of their influences: the multiplicity of the Gods no other then the names of his particular virtues. The erring World at the first acknowledging those onely for Gods whom they saw with their eyes, and of whose glory and bounty they were sensible.
    Phoebus acknowledgeth Phaeton for his son: he desires a  PHAETON  confirmation: who bids him aske what he will; and binds the performance by an irreuocable oath, the oath of the Gods, infernall Styx; here called their feare and terror: acknowledging  Styx  therein a greater power then their owne, vnto which they were lyable: and with all their mortality: for why should they feare what they neuer could see, vnlesse vnto death obnoxious? Why (saith Lactantius) should men cast their eyes vnto Heauen, and sweare by those Gods who descend themselues into hell, and there found that which with terror they adored? Styx is a fountaine in Arcadia at the foot of Nonacris the water thereof is a violent poyson, and so corroding that nothing can containe it but the hoofe of a Mule. With this Alexander (as is suspected) was made away, by the treason of Antipater; not without some aspersion vpon Aristotle. Nor is such a virulency incredible, contracted from the quality of the earth in her subterren current, whose exhalations I haue seene, in a dry and lightsome caue betweene Naples and Putzoll, to kill a dog in as short a time as I am in telling of it. From the sad effects of this fountaine, and as sad a name (for Styx as Regius expounds it, signifies sorrow) was that fabulous Riuer deriued, which in winding mazes nine times infolds the infernall Monarchie. It is fained that Styx sent her daughter Victory, the joyfull issue of a sorrowfull mother, to assist the Gods in their warres against the Gyants: in recompence receauing this honour from Iupiter, that who so euer forswore themselues by her name should for nine yeares be banished from their counsills and festiualls. Thus interpreted by Aristotle, that as water was held to be the first and most ancient of all things; so nothing is to be preferred before, or is more holy and venerable, then the religion of an oath. But perhaps more accuratly by the Vicount of Saint Albons: How leagues betweene Princes, though confirmed by oath, together with the bonds of merit, nature, or aliance, are commonly no longer of validity then they stand with the Reasons of state, and peculiar vtility. Onely the obligation of necessity (represented by Styx, that fatall and vnrepassable riuer) abideth firme and vnuiolable; since the breach thereof is punished with a suspension from the festiualls of the Gods; vnder which, by the Ancient, the lawes, immunities, plenty and felicity of a kingdome were deciphered. Ambitious Phaeton demaunds of his father the guide of his chariot for one day, & therein his owne ruine. God could not punish a man more sometimes then in granting him his desires.
What iustly feare or hope wee? what begunne
So well, or wisht for; but wee wish vndone?
The easy Gods by granting vs our owne
Requests, our fortunes oft haue ouerthrowne.1
    To confirme an indefinite promise by oath is altogether vnlawfull: for the breach thereof is a sinne, and the performance, not seldome a greater: as instanced by Iephta and Herod. So here the father by his indulgencie destroyes his son, and graunts what an enimy would haue desired. Phoebus goes about to deterre him by the difficulty, horror, and danger of the enterprize. Seneca makes the generous youth reply: I like the way, and long to ascend: this, wherewith you thinke to a fright, incites me: there would I stand where the Sun himselfe trembles. Virtue mounts aloft, it is the part of a poore and lazy Spirit to pursue safe things. But those hot horses disdaine to obay so weake and vnskilfull a manager: they stray from their bounds, and follow their fury, till by their irregularity they had set the whole World on a combustion. When Iupiter, least all should be deuoured in one fire, stroke the Chariot and Charioter with lightning: who fell, like a falling star into Eridanus.
    Phaeton, King of the Thesports and Molossians, was said to haue beene the sonne of Phoebus, and to haue fallen from his fathers charriot, in that he first assayed to find out the course of the Sun; but was by his death preuented. And in those daies there fell such abundance of fire from heauen (which Ficinus coniectures to be the same that is mentioned by Moses) as destroyed many of the Easterne regions: whereupon it was famed that his misguidance had set the whole world on a conflagration. But physically he is said to be the sonne of Phoebus; Because Phaeton is, as the name it selfe signifies, a bright and burning inflamation, which proceeds from the Sunne: Clymene, or the water, his mother; from whom those exhalations are by the Sunne attracted. These set on fire procure a Vehement heate: and therefore, the inflamation of those vapors is the son of these parents. Thunder and lightning necessarily succeed such excessiue feruor; for which cause he is said to be strooke with lightning by Iupiter: and to fall into Eridanus; in that such droughts are commonly followed by inundations: That Riuer, for this good seruice, being made a coelestiall Constellation.
    This fable to the life presents a rash and ambitious Prince, inflamed with desire of glory and dominion: who in that too powerfull, attempts what so euer is aboue his power; and giues no limits to his ruining ambition.
Prepar'd for vengeance, desperate men
On crimes forbidden madly run.
    From Heauen audacious    Iaphets son
        To mortalls fire conuaide by theft:
Pale troopes of new diseases then
        Sad Earth of her sick sons bereft;
    And certaine Death, before but slow,
    Did with a swifter motion goe.
Bold Daedalus through empty gyre
    With wings, not giuen by Nature, flew.
    Herculean labors Hell subdew.
        Hard nothing is t'aduentrous man.
Euen heauen it selfe affect we dare
        By our vast follies: no, nor can
    Ioue lay his vengefull thunder by;
    Still vrg'd by our impiety.2
    In that rash and vnexperienced, he is said to be a boy, and refractory to counsell (with out which, Power is her owne destruction) and therefore altogether vnfit for gouernment; which requires mature aduice, and supernaturall knowledge, it being of mortall things the most difficult. The first ascent is steepe and painefull; the whole race full of care, of feare, and danger of precipitation; pursued by enuy, detraction, and practise; encountering with Bulls, Centaures, Lyons, Scorpions, and such-like monsters; too powerfull subiects, who with their ambition and factions disturbe the publique tranquillity. The Horses of the Sun are the common people; vnruly, fierce, and prone to innouation: who finding the weaknesse of their Prince, fly out into all exorbitancies to a generall confusion. These, by the aduice of Phoebus, are rather to be curbed then incensed, not by cruelty, but a moderate seuerity: well instituted and well executed lawes being the proper reynes to such horses. So Princes are to run a regular course, and follow the steps of their noble Progenitors: neither to incline to the right hand nor the left; not to ascend too high, nor descend too low: (as Apollonius answered Adrian, that Nero lost his empire by the sometimes ouer-straining, and sometimes too much slacking the strings of his instrument:) Pride diminishing loue, and facility authority: or to attempt what is aboue their power, or to fall beneath it, the middle way being only safe; which not obserued by our lusty Phaeton accelerates his ruine. This also may allude vnto those, who straying from their proper spheares, their kingdomes; set the World on fire with the flame of warre, which seemes too little for their insatiate ambition.
One World suffic'd not the Pellaean King:
Th' vnhappy Youth sweats in that narrow ring:
As if to Gyaros sea-girt rocks confin' d.
But Babylon once entred, this great Mind
A little Vrne-contents. Death onely can
Define the true dimensions of a man.3
    To whom Cyrus, and Attila the Hun, may be added, no lesse plagues to mankind, then deuasting conflagrations: all perishing in the end by the lightning of the diuine vengeance.
    They attribute a Charriot to the Sun in regard of the  The Charriot of the Sunne  swiftnesse of his motion; & to expresse what is beyond the obiect of the sence by that which is subiect vnto it: they make it of Gold and reflecting stones, in regard of his splendor; and that Gold is the mettall appropriated to that Planet, bestowing riches on those in whose natiuity he predominates. In the wheeles of the coelestiall chariots they placed eight spokes to declare how the coelestiall motions aboue the eigth spheare were beyond the extent of humane obseruation. His horses, as their names expresse, are no other then light and heate; whereof the Sun is the fountaine. Wherefore horses and chariots were consecrated vnto him by the Idolatrous Iewes; as the former sacrificed by the Persians and Lacedemonians. His horses are harnessed and brought forth by the houres, which are the ministers of time.
    The tract of his wheeles, is the Ecliptick line, and the beasts he incounters the signes in the Zodiack. But this is his annuall course, and not his diurnall, wherein he describes almost a paralell to the Equinoctiall. He was held for a God, in that the author of life, of health, and producing whatsoeuer is beneficiall to man. Reputed by the ancient, The image of God in the World; inspiring our minds with wisdome and iustice: in himselfe an example of gouerment, iustice, and munificency.
    Lucifer (that is,  Lucifer  a bringer of light) is here said to fore-runne Aurora, or the morning; and last of all to resigne his place, in that the last starre which shineth. This is the beautifull Planet of Venus; which, when it riseth before the Sunne, is the Morning starre, and setting after it, the Euening.
Now Sea-bath'd Hesperus, who brings
Night on, and first displaies, his winges:
Now, radiant Lucifer; who day
Exalting, chases night away.4
In regard that her course is sometimes swifter then the Sunns, and at an other time slower; yet neuer farre off, and fulfilling the same period. A part of the yeare she is aboue him; and then most refulgent, in that halfe illuminated by his raies shines too vs-ward: and a part beneath, when appearing horned; as found out by the new perspectiues. As Lucifer Aurora, so Aurora vshers the Sunne; which is the light reflecting from his orbs before he ascendeth our Horizon, vpon the Aurora. grosser ayre, and condensed vapors: and from thence throwne downe, as from a concaue glasse, by repercussion. In winter, for want of heat to raise the low exhalations, the twilight is shorter: in Summer long; and longer as neerer to the Articke circle, by reason of the oblique descent of the Sun: in so much as they then in Scotland haue little night, and none at all farther Northward. Twilight begins with vs for the most part when the Sunne is 19 degrees beneath our Horizon: which is about an houre and a quarter before, or after, his rising or setting. Homer calls the Morning rosy-fingered; and here our Poet strewes her purple gates and galleries with roses; (fained to spring from the blood of Venus, in regard of their sweetnesse and beauty) yet is not really red, but so appeares through the imbecillity of our sight, and interposition of thicke rising vapors; light and darknesse procures a red, as formerly alleadged out of Aristotle.
    He resembles Phaetons fall to a falling starre, or that  Falling Starres  seemes to fall; which was timely added; although those fires which dart by night through the aire are so called. For one starre would ouerwhelme the whole earth; which in his owne nature is waightlesse, and not subiect to descend. These Meteors are round and compacted exhalations; which inflamed aloft, are strooke downe by the aeriall cold: and carry the name of starres, in that they resemble them both in forme and splendor; whose sloughs according to the vulgar receipt, we see often to ly on the ground like gelly.
    Phaeton is said to be intombed by the Naiades; in that water extinguisheth fire. It was the custome of the Ancient not to bury those bodyes which were slaine by lightning: but only to intrench them about; since no Beast nor Bird would feed on their flesh, and withall as they supposed not subject to corruption.
    The Heliades, the daughters of the Sunne (for so the name   PHAETONS SISTERS  signifies) with immoderate griefe bewaile the death of their brother; and amidst the imbracements of their distracted mother are turned into Poplars. Great sorrowes stupifie, and wee loose the apprehension of griefe by too much grieuing: more deeply wounding women then men, in regard of their naturall imbecillity. Two of these sisters he names: Phaethusa, which signifies ardor; Lampetia, shining; and here vnnamed Pasiphae, which is all-inlightning. These are no other then the vertues and efficacy of the Sunne in naturall bodies. They are said to haue been turned into trees; in that by moisture, which is Clymene, and the heat of the Sun, all vegetatiues are produced. The Poplar affects the water, and therefore the scene of this transformation is placed on the bankes of Eridanus.
    The teares of these weeping trees conuert into Amber:  The Teares of Poplars  which is only the gum they expell by their inward vigour: and by the fine passage or straining of the iuice through the wood and barke, becomes so translucent and shining. But this by the scoffer Lucian is exploded, who reports that he could neither there heare of Amber, nor see any poplar trees by that Riuer: although Pliny writes that the women thereabout accustomed to adorne themselues with the same. Yet if this be the marrow of a tree, then most likely of the Pine, in that they resemble one another in smell; which falling on the ground, either thickned by heat or hardned by cold, is carried into the Sea by high-rising tides, or the swelling of Riuers, and cast vpon forraine shoares; whereof no small quantity is at this day found on our coasts. That it was liquid at first is apparent by the flies and creeping things which therein are often inclosed. Whereof Martial:
The Bee which Pha&euuml;thusas teares inclose,
As if intomb'd in her owne Nectar showes.
The merit of so great an industry:
For like enough she so desir'd to die.5
And againe:
The gem-like liquor on the viper falls,
As on the Poplars weeping branch shee crawles:
While wondring how detain'd in that fat dew,
Insensatiue in congeal'd Amber grew.
Thine, Cleopatra, now no more preferre;
The Viper hath a nobler Sepulcher.6
More durable then the monuments and imbalming of Princes: for bodies prohibited, that they neither turne into ayre, being separated from the same, nor enter into the bodies adiacent, as of a contrary qualitie, nor haue in themselues a circulation, will neuer change; howeuer in themselues corruptible. But Agricola a diligent searcher into the nature of Mineralls, will haue it a kinde of Bitumen, rising out of the earth by the shore: the yellow Amber being perhaps the one, and the white the other. The greatest quantitie thereof is found about the Baltick Ocean, & those Northerne Regions. Boetius writes that in Shutland a peece was taken vp as big as a horse: the Priest and his Parishioners not knowing what it was, imploid it for Frankinsence.
    Cygnus King of Liguria repaires to the Funerall of Phaeton: and  CYGNVS  while he bewailes the fate of his kinsman, is turn'd into a Swan; delighting in the contrary Element to fire, and not mounting aloft, as detesting Iupiter: agreeing with the nature of this Foule, wherewith that riuer aboundeth. Pausanias writes that he was a Prince much addicted to Musick (as all the Ligurians by his example) and therefore fained to haue beene after his death converted into that musicall Bird by Apollo: dedicated vnto him, not only for the harmony of his voice, but propheticall fore-knowledge; who foreseeing his death, entertaynes it with songs & rejoycings.
The dying Swan, adorn'd with siluer wings,
So in the sedges of Meander sings.7
But who euer heard a Swan sing? A fiction invented by Greece, the mother of fables, perhaps to beautify their Poems. For such is the sweetnesse and power of Poesie, as it makes that appeare, which were in prose both false and ridiculous, to resemble the truth; and with such an incredible delight imprints it in the mindes of the hearers, as cannot be easily out-raced. This musicall King informes vs, that Princes should not like Nero indeauour to perpetuate their names by such sciences (although commendable in their moderate vse) least they loose their owne shape, that is, the estimation of their wisdome which is only to be preserued and exalted by a wise and temperate gouerment. Philip of Macedon, when Alexander sung & plai'd curiously on the Harp at a banquet, in this manner reproued him; Art not thou ashamed to haue such skill in these trifles.
Others can statues cast in breathing brasse,
And cut in marble; which the life surpasse:
Others can better plead; describe the skies,
The Sunnes swift course, and starres that set and rise.
Doe thou thy people rather, Roman, guide
With iustice, and for sacred peace prouide.
Be these the arts to purchase thee renowne:
Protect the humble, and the proud pull downe.8
Phoebus stomacks the death of Phaeton, and denies the world his light; but is reduced by the intreats and threats of Iupiter. It is a winning way to desire what we may command: but if that faile, subordinate powers are to be compelled by the supreame; or else the offence in either is equall. Ioue like a common father, is solicitous in repairing the ruines of these disorders; but cannot order his owne affections. He burnes in loue with Calisto, the daughter of Lycaon whom before he had turned into  CALISTO  a Wolfe: and now turnes himselfe into the figure of chastitie; Diana Calisto's Goddesse. Vice is ashamed of vice: and so vgly, that it cannot deceaue but vnder the pretext of Virtue; as the Diuell in the shape of an Angell of light. The virgin is devirginated, and cast by Diana out of her chast assembly: whom Cupid in Lucian complaines that he neuer could wound, in that euer exercised in hunting. But Iuno (said to be the wife of Iupiter in that the ayre is subiacent to Heauen; and his sister, because both, according to Macrobius, were ingendred of the same substance) will not be so pleased. Iealousie is vnplacable; as rash as fire, & more cruell then the graue. Shee dragges her by the haire, beats her with her fist, and lastly converts her into a Beare. So loose they their faire figures, and resemble deformed beasts, who abandon their chastities; the excuse of rauishment being conuinc't by conception. Calisto signifies beauty: the more beautifull the more perspicuous their blemishes. Palaephatus reports how, hunting in the mountaines, shee entred a Caue, and there was torne in peeces by a Beare: when her companions raised this rumor of her change; the Beare comming forth alone, and shee neuer seene after. Others, how hauing vowed virginitie, and guilefully deflowred by the Cretan Iupiter, shee was expulsed by her subiects: who fled into the woods, and there was deliuered of Arcas: where they liued obscurely; till impatient of so saluage a life, he attempted to  Arcas  kill his mother. Shee fled to Iupiter, who reconciled, & restored them to their kingdome of Arcadia. From whence grew the fable, how, when ready to haue beene slaine by Arcas, they were both assumed into heauen by compassionate Iupiter; and converted into neighbouring constellations within the Artick circle. Those foure starres which make a quadrangle on the side of the greater Beare, are called the Waine. The three on her taile, the horses; Boötes the Waggoner. The lesser Beare consists of seuen starres, in a like position: whereof the two formost are called by Sea-men the Guards; as that on the tip of his taile the North-starre, in Ptolomies time twelue Degrees from the Pole, but now within two, and yearly approaching nearer. Before the Compas was found out, the Grecians sailed by the greater Beare, called by them Helice; as the Phoenicians by the lesse, the more expert Mariners. And because they neuer set to those Regions, whose eleuation is greater then the distance of those constellations from the Pole, they are here said to be interdicted the Ocean (the setting starres supposed of old to descend into the Sea, belike in that they held, as S. Augustine, that all was Sea vnder vs) at Iuno's suit to Oceanus and Tethis, by whom she was fostered: the Ayre which is Iuno, being especially procreated by rarified Water.
    Iuno is drawne into Heauen by her yoaked Peacocks: in  Iuno's Peacock  whose traine, as formerly fained, she had fixed the eyes of Argus. And as his eyes were taken for starres; so hieroglyphically they expressed night by the displayed traine of that foule. Sacred to Iuno, in that first seene in Samos her Iland: or rather in that a proud and ambitious creature, affecting high places, as of an aeriall temper: deciphering proud and ambitious men who attempt high things; riches, which morally is Iuno, being their tutelar Goddesse; hauing need of many eyes to sentinell their wealth, and preuent their downefall. The varietie of her colours shew the many vicissitudes of Fortune, which infest their mindes with cares and feares, who seeme to others so absolutely happy. The Emperour Adrian dedicated to Iuno a Peacock of gold and pretious stones, in her Temple at Euboea. The Romans in the deifying of their Empresses, accustomed to let loose a Peacock from the top of the funerall pyle: making the vulgar beleeue that it was the soule of the deceased taken vp into Heauen by Iuno. And there are Coynes yet extant with the effigies of a woman on the back of an ascending Peacock, that beares the name of DIVA PAVLINA; with this inscription CONSECRATIO. It is no lesse true then wonderfull that the flesh of this foule will neuer corrupt; as experienced for a twelue month by S. Augustine.
    Erichthonius is here fained to haue had no mother:  ERICHTHONIVS  for Vulcan, as they fable, intending to rauish Minerva, defiled the ground, from whence he had his beginning: expressed in his name which signifies Earth and Contention. Minerva being that pure elementary fire wherein nothing is ingendred, fained therefore a perpetuall Virgin, and to resist the contamination of Vulcan, our grosser fire (the sonne of Iuno in that mixed with aire) which vainely striues to ioyne with the other being clog'd and supprest by the matter that feeds it; whose heat descending on the Earth begets a multiplicitie of creatures. Others interpret Minerva for the industry of Nature, and Vulcan for Art, in that fire is so vsefull to the Artificer, who not by obsequiousnesse but violence endeauours to subdue what will not be constrained, & produceth thereby imperfect conceptions, as appeares by the vaine attempts of the Chymist, in their great Elixir. They giue Erichthonius the hinder parts of a Dragon; some say in that he excelled in fortitude and wisdome: others, for introducing marriage among the Athenians, who before promiscuously coupled together: but chiefly in that he knew how to temper clemency with seueritie, according to the times, & dispositions of the people: in memoriall whereof the children of his posterity were adorned with golden Serpents. He was the fourth King of the Athenians (who of him were called the issue of the Earth; or rather in that they knew not their owne originall, or scorn'd to acknowledge it) whereof the here-mentioned Cecrops was the first: said also to haue a double shape; perhaps on the former grounds, or in that his magnanimous entrance was peeced out with craft and dissimulation, as the Lion with the Foxes tayle: or taken in the better sense, in that his courage was accompanied with fore-sight and vigilancy. Pausanias writes that Erichthonius was the first that invented Chariots to conceale his deformity: and Virgil;
First Erichthonius with foure horses drew
Swift Chariots; on hot wheeles the victor flew.9
When newly borne, he was hid by Minerva in a basket; and deliuered to the custody of Cecrops daughters, with charge not to open it: but disobeyed, especially by Aglauros, it is said that she and her sisters were vexed with Furies for a long time after, the terror of her inward guilt: to informe vs that diuine mysteries are not to be too curiously pryed into, nor the commands of God infringed without seuere punishment. In some thing the fable alludes to the history: for a child being found at Athens in the Temple of Minerva, neere to that of Vulcan, with a snake wrapt about him (a presage of succeeding eminency) it was fained to be the Sonne of Vulcan, and to haue beene fostered by Minerva; concealed in her Temple, perhaps for his safetie, as Ioash in the Temple at Ierusalem; and perfidiously discouered by her Priests, the here-mentioned daughters of Cecrops. But Lactantius will haue Erichthonius to be the incestuous and long obscured issue of those forged Deities.
    The Crow informes of the infidelitie of Aglauros & her sisters:  CORONIS OF PHOCIS  Once a Nymph and changed into that bird by Minerva, to preserue her from the lust of Neptune. Chastity miraculously protects her votaries. The losse of her faire forme is recompenced by her honourable dependancy on the Goddesse. In Corona, a citty of the Messenians in Peloponesus, a Crow of brasse was placed on the fist on Minerva's statue; found in digging the foundation; of which it receaued that name: & from hence that bird perhaps was said to bee sacred vnto her. But now discharged her seruice for her vnacceptable intelligence. Silence is secure, when speaking the truth is not seldome obnoxious to danger. The Crow is the symbol of garrulity; and therefore rejected by Minerva: because much talking interrupts the meditation of the minde, & is offensiue to wisdome. Moreouer no Crow comes neere vnto Athens; so called of Athena, the Greeke name of Minerva, of which Cittie shee was the Patronesse; perhaps the ground of that fable. Of this Lucretius.
To Pallas Temple, mounted in the hie
Athenian towre, no Crowes their wings apply;
Although the altars steame: not for the offence
of too much diligence exil'd from thence
By th' angry powre; as Grecian Poets sing:
For such effects from naturall causes spring.10
as the lakes of Auernus & Asphaltis were deadly to all foule that flew ouer them. Antigonus, in his Admirable Histories reports how Coronis for her ill newes (the persons of such being neuer acceptable; when contrarily these who bring good are gratious:) of the discouery of Erichthonius, was banished the tower of Athens; and therefore fained to haue beene changed into a Crow, since no Crow approacheth it. A bird of bad presage, and portending foule weather,
Th'unlucky Crow with full throat raine implores,
And struts alone vpon the sandy shores.11
For the Crow reioyceth in the moist and relenting Aire: in so much as she seemes to call on the Raine which approacheth. It greiues her that the Owle should rise by her fall, hauing beene  NYCTIMENE  changed into that deformed shape for her filthy incest. Yet no deformity so vgly as her crime: woundred at like a prodigy in nature, and driuen from the society of others; ashamed of her selfe, and sculking in the darke: when vertue, though vnfortunate, shunnes not the light; a reward to it selfe, and neuer vnpraised. The Aegyptians by the Crow and the Owle (to which this fable hath a reference) expressed two deadly enimies, persuing one an other with immortall hatred. For the Crow destroyeth the egges of the Owle by day, and the Owle the others by night; neither want there authors who write that their blood will not mingle. So the Owle is the hierogliphick of death, and the Crow of long liuing. The Owle was sacred to Minerva, of which she was called Glaucopis: either for her gray eyes, in that those haue the best and acutest witts, who haue eyes of that colour: or of her faculty of watching and musing; the powers of the mind being in the silent night more recollected and vigorous: or that Athens her Citty so abounded with Owles, whereupon it became prouerbiall: or that the Athenians stamped their coyne with that figure. Demosthenes, hauing escaped out of prison, and flying from Athens, is said to looke backe on Minervas tower with this exclamation: O Pallas, the lady of this Citty; why tak'st thou delight in three such vnlucky beasts, as the Owle, the Dragon, and the People? Intending blindnesse by the one, by the other enuy, and by the third instability.
    The Crow by way of advice relates these her infortunities to the Rauen: who despiseth both counsell and example, the wise directors, of our humane actions, and informes Apollo of the secret imbracements of his beloued Coronis with the Thessalian Ischyer.  CORONIS OF LARISSA  Not the loue of a God, & he of the rest the most beautifull, could confine the wandring lust of an extrauagant woman.
Trust thy ship vnto the wind;
Not thy heart to woman-kind.
Safer farre the faithlesse flood:
Bad, or ill made strangely good.12
    So writes the Prose-satyre, yet spent his last breath in reciting amorous verses. The hate of a wronged louer imitates the violence of his affection. Yet the one but momentary: he kills, and repents in an instant: loue is reuoked by pitty: whom he slew in his rage, now dead, he dotes on. This fable is paralleld by that history of Herod; who had no sooner put Mariamne to death, but his loue increased with his desperation; and who could not liue with her, could not liue without her. The best therfore is not to heare, what is a misery to know: the next to giue time vnto anger; least praecipitate rage leaue a way to repentance, but none to recouery. Apollo hates his intelligencer,  THE RAVEN  and turnes his white feathers into black; to shew how hatefull they are by whom we arriue at such knowledges; whereof loue will be euer doubtfull, how apparent soeuer. The Rauen was sacred to Apollo; in regard of her colour, in that the Sunne makes the complexion black; whereupon in chiefe estimation with the Brachmanes; so innated in the Rauen that her eggs, as reported, will dye the haire, (and the teeth while a doeing, if not preuented by oyle) with that colour: but according to Anaximander in his Horoscopes, because the voice of the Rauen is of all other birds most significant, and therefore so accurately obserued in Augury. They alone vse their throates as well as their tongues in the vtterance of sounds, which become thereby more intelligible. A shoomaker in Rome had a Rauen which would pearch euery morning on the Rostra where they made their publique orations; first saluting the Emperour Tiberius, Germanicus, and Drusus Caesar, by their names; then the people of Rome as they passed by: and that done, fly backe to his Masters stall; continuing this custome diuerse yeares together; vntill in the end he was killed by the enuy of an other of that trade: which the Citizens so tooke to heart, that they draue him out of the streete where he dwelt, and afterwards slew him. Then laying the dead Rauen on a sumptuous bed, they carried him in great solemnity on the backs of Aethiopians, to the funerall Pyle; erected by the Appian way. Thus the people of Rome, reuenged the death of a bird, with the death of a Cittizen: when in former time they not so much as enquired after the murder of Scipio Aemilianus, who had subuerted Carthage and Numantia: giuing it those rites of funeralls which they refused to bestow vpon many of their brauest Commaunders.
    Aesculapius is snatcht by Apollo from the wombe of his  AESCVLAPIVS  slaughtred mother: taken for the son of Apollo and Coronis; in that Coronis is the moderate moist aire, which by the impression of the Sun conceaues Aesculapius, or the Giuer of health. For if the aire be not rarified by the Sun, or if contrarily ouerdryed by his feruor, there is no salubrity: and therefore Coronis is said to be shot to death by Apollo, when his ouer-violent rayes, which are resembled to arrowes, doe wound the aire with a mortall pestilence. Aesculapius was also called the sonne of Apollo, in that an excellent Physition: and those who were the inventors of such arts were acknowledged for Gods, or to be descended from them; as indued with diuine inspirations.
    Aesculapius is deliuered to Chiron: begotten, as they faine  CHIRON  by Saturne on Philyra in the likenesse of a horse; from whence he receaued his double proportion. A man abounding with wisdome and piety: skilfull in astrology and musique; and the first that found out the quality of hearbs; who after, for his knowledge in surgery and light-handling of wounds, was called Chiron. He is said to be the sonne of Saturne and Philyra, that is of time and experience; which chiefly conduce to the perfection of that art: and to haue the shape of a horse from the nauell downeward, since the cures of surgery extend not onely to men but to cattell. His daughter is called Ocyrrhoe; which is, swift flowing, not onely in that borne by the side of a swift Riuer; but because surgery by incision opens a passage for corrupt humors, which by their speedier flowing from their wound accelerate the cure.
    Ocyrrhoe neglects the practise of her Fathers arts to diue into  OCYRRHOE  the secrets of Destiny; who prophesies thus of by-standing Aesculapius:
Health-giuer to the World, grow infant, grow;
To whom mortality so much shall owe.
Fled Soules thou shalt restore to their aboads:
And once against the pleasure of the Gods.
To doe the like thy Grandsires flames deny:
And thou, begotten by a God, must dy.
Thou of a bloodlesse course a God shalt be
And nature twice shall be restor'd in thee.13
He is said to restore the dead to life, in regard of his miraculous cures, when no hope was left of recouery: in so much that Pluto, as they faine, complained to Iupiter, how he would if not preuented, dispeople his kingdome: and therefore vpon the reioyning of the scattered lims of Hyppolitus, as too audacious a performance, was stroke dead by his lightning. But Physically, Aesculapius, a giuer of health proceeding from the bounty of the Sun, and temperature of the aire, is often destroyed by pestilent inflamations, or Iupiter; falling out for the most part in the insalubrious seasons of the Spring and Autumne: when reuiuing, which is, purged from those infections, and assuming new vigor, he obtaineth a deity. But the deification of Aesculapius should seeme to haue beene after the daies of Homer, who maketh Paeon (the same with Apollo according to Macrobius) Physitian to the Gods, in the cure of Mars, then wounded by Diomed. He was fained to haue beene translated into Serpentarius; a Constellation consisting of 24 starres. In the yeare 1605, and in the moneth of October, a new starre of the first magnitude was discouered in his foote; which vanished againe in February 1606.
    Ocyrrhöe converts her prophesies to her father: said to be borne immortall, in that knowledge is infinite, nor can by a mortall witt be had in perfection. That he should desire to dy, out of the dolour of an incurable wound: which he after receaued in his foote, by the fall of one of Hercules arrowes dipt in the blood of Hydra. Death is a happines aboue immortality, if the immortall be sensible of paine or sorrow: The Gods, by giuing him leaue to dy, doe partly recompense his virtue; but fully, in placing him amongst the starres: now called Sagittarius, of the arrow he holds in his hand, as if newly extracted from his wound. And in that hee was an adorer of the Gods, and a louer of goodnesse, an Altar of starres is placed before him, as a perpetuall monument of his religion and Piety. By this the Ancient inferr'd, that the Good, though often exercised with afflictions, are neuer forsaken by God, who turnes their sorrow into joy, and crownes them in the end with neuer ending glory. Ocyrrhoe concludes her prophesy with her owne approaching misfortune: like the Prophet at the destruction of Ierusalem; who crying woe to the Citty, and then to himselfe, was slaine with a quarry. She now repents those curious arts, which had drawne the diuine vengeance vpon her; and in so doeing is converted into a mare; to deterre from such profane and interdicted sciences.
    Chiron in vaine implores the assistance of Apollo; who then  APOLLO A HEARDSMAN  was banished heauen for a yeare, for killing the Cyclops who made the lightning which slew his son Phaeton, who liable to humane necessities, was inforced to keepe the cattell of Admetus King of Thessaly: or rather kept them for the loue of his daughter, as is here insinuated. This Apollo (for many there were of that name, the actions of all likely attributed to one) was King of Arcadia, expulsed by his subiects for his too seuere gouerment: who falling from a kingdome to a meane condition, was said to haue beene banished heauen. He flying to Admetus for succor, receaued from him the commaund of those people who dwelt about the riuer Amphrisus. And because all Kings were called anciently Pastors, he therefore was fained to haue beene his heards-man. But rather incline we to the physicall sence of this fable; said to feede his cattell; in that the Sunne nourisheth not only cattell, but what euer else is by the earth produced; and therefore called by Homer the vniuersall Pastor.
    Mercury is here introduced to steale away his oxen: which he  Mercuries Theft  did, according to Homer, the first day he was borne.
Borne, in the morne vpon the harpe he plaid
At night from Phoebus his stolne steeres conuaid.14
And soone after his arrowes:
While thee, ô boy, he threatned sore,
Vnlesse thou would'st his steeres restore;
His quiuer seene without a shaft
            Apollo laught.15
He is said also to haue stolne Vulcans tooles out of his shop, Venus girdle from her wast, Iupiters scepter, when yet a child; and had stolne his lightning, but that he feared the burning of his fingers. This was deuised, not only in that eloquence hath a bewitching power to deceiue; but because those in whose horoscope Mercury predominates, are crafty, subtill, and theeuish; that hot and dry Planet hauing such variety of motions and tergiuersations: wherevpon adored by Merchants, theeues and impostors. Nor wanted they a Goddesse to this cheating God.
He, Father Ianus, bright Apollo praid:
Then softly mutters, Faire Lauerna, aid
My stelths; May I iust and religious showe:
Night on my crimes, clouds on my cos'nage throwe.16
    Battus for a double reward betraying Mercury to himselfe was  BATTVS  transformed into a Touch-stone, (signifying in the Latin, an appeacher) the meed of his auarice and periury. By Battus our Ovid intends a foolish poet of that name, redounding with vaine and tedious repetitions, whereof he here giueth an example: the like of him being called Battologia.
    Mercury flies from hence vnto Athens, bearing his Caduceus  Mercuries Caduceus  in his hand: a rod wound about with a male and a female Serpent, who gently neere the top convert to each other; signifying the assurance of peace and concord; as the wings aboue the velocity of the mind. It is said to asswage the rage of the Sea, in that contentions are appeased by the power of eloquence and the discreete negotiations of Embassadors. Of whose farther virtues thus Virgill.
With this, pale Soules from Erebus he calls;
And others in sad Tartarus inthralls;
Procures, and sleepe repels; shuts dying eyes.
With this, through stormes, and labouring clouds he flies.17
For Mercury taught that no man came into the World, or went out of it, without the diuine appointment: and therefore was said to passe betweene Iupiter and Pluto; fetching Ghosts from the vnder-shadowes, & carrying them thither. So in that dreames were held to be inspired from aboue, and calling that diuine inspiration Mercury (the messenger betweene God and man) they attributed this virtue to his rod, of producing and expelling them.
    Mercury is in loue with Herse, solicites her sister Aglauros for  AGLAVROS  accesse: shee demands a masse of Gold, and will be paid before hand; wherein as crafty as couetous: well knowing that ill deeds, when done, are seldome rewarded. Couetousnesse is vnsatiable as the graue; without shame, respect, or naturall affections. But Pallas diuerts her by Enuy, a more Serpentine vice. Her Caue in the bottome of a deepe Dale; to shew how shee dwells in base and abiect Spirits, but neuer in the high & heroicall. This her habitation is repleat with vnactiue cold, and a grosse humidity. For such, as Physitians obserue, is the blood of the Enuious; the cause of that palenesse and macilency in their lookes and constitutions. It is not lawfull for Pallas to enter her Caue; that is, for Virtue to commixe with Enuy: although Enuy bee alwaies a follower of Virtue. Shee forceth her doore with her Lance, nor intreats but commands her; as a vassall, and the executioner of the Diuine vengeance. Enuy is here said to pursue her with a wicked eye; for it was the opinion of most of the Ancient that the eyes of the enuious doe not seldome fascinate, by emitting malignant and virulent spirits, which infect the spirits of another; of greatest force when the cast of the eye is oblique, as formerly insinuated by our Author: and then most dangerous when they glance at such as are full of ioy, and in the height of their glory; whose spirits come forth into the outward parts, and receaue the percussion at a neerer distance: in so much as it path beene obserued, that they, when the triumphs were ended, haue beene ill disposed for many daies after. But the nature of Enuy, her forme, and effects, are here so painted to the life, as nothing can be added to her character. Aglauros infected with this poyson, proues ingratefull both to the God and her sister, the vnseparable symptome of that disease; and afflicts her selfe by comparison: who interposing what her selfe despaired of, is turned into a speckled stone; the one presenting the staines of her minde, and the other her impudence. And it is a sad truth, that the aduancement of a sister or a brother aboue one another either in loue or fortune, is more enuied then a strangers; and often produces cruell effects, especially if riuals. Cardinal Hippolito d' Este, pull'd out the eyes of his brother Iulio, because their sweetnesse pleased too much the eyes of his Mistress: and how sisters haue made one another away vpon the like occasion, is frequent in story. Now perhaps the body of Aglauros found stiffe with death, and freckled with poyson, wherewith she desperatly ended her tormenting enuy, might giue invention to this fable of her transformation. Apelles, the first that presented passions in picture, which since is growne to so great perfection, expressed in this manner those concomitant vices. On a tribunall sate a man with the eares of an Asse, who beckned to approaching Calumnie: besides him two attending hagges, Suspicion, and Ignorance. The figure of Calumnie seemed full of hast; and although neatly trickt, yet with such a looke and gesture as expressed the wrath and rancor of her bosome. In her left hand she held a flaming fire-brand; and haled a youth with the right by the haire, lifting vp his hands vnto heauen, and calling, as it were, on the Gods to beare witnesse of his innocency. Before, her vsher Enuy, of an vgly feature & pale complexion; sharp of sight, and so meagre, as if worne to the bone with a long consumption: behind her waited Deceit and Treachery. Then followed Repentance in mourning attire, looking ouer her shoulder with an ashamed aspect, and eyes full of tears, on reuealed Truth, the conclusion of the worke, which represented his forepassed troubles.
    Mercury from hence ascending into heauen, is forthwith  EVROPA  imployed by Iupiter as his faithfull Messenger: so not only called, in that elocution (which is Mercury) reueales the pleasure of God vnto man, but also for that diuine knowledge infused from aboue, which is the rule and direction of our sober actions.
    But what a sensuall God haue we here? How vnmaiesticall is maiesty where loue hath a footing?
The power from whom what ere hath being springs,
That King of Gods who three forkt lightning flings;
Whose nod the worlds vnfixt foundation shakes;
The figure of a sensuall Bull now takes.
The Gods themselues at once cannot loue and be wise. Loue like an inchanter deludes the eye of the minde with false apparitions: making that seeme noble, delightfull and profitable; which is full of dishonour, affliction and ruine.
    -----------This subjects their wills,
Euen to affect their woes; the worst of ills.
Whose faithlesse eyes, suborn'd by false desire,
Vnto their hearts conuay the cherisht fire;
Which blindly creeps through euery veine, and dries
The fluent blood, whence grosser vapours rise,
Which sad the soule with fearefull phantasies:
Then melancholy by adustion groues
To Madnesse, and doth all their powers depose,
Their thoughts are still abroad: those hale along
The captiu'd Soule; with it the Spirits throng.
Thoughts absence, cause distraction, and vnrest;
The Soules, debilitie, faint life opprest;
The Spirits, sighs, frights, trepidations, teares.
O liuing death! more then infernall feares!
Who in themselues, nor the beloued dwell;
Are no where, and yet euery where in Hell.
Nor can they so great miseries conceale;
Whose guilty flames betraying signes reueale:
How pale they looke, how wither'd, how forlorne?
Their bodies almost into shadowes worne:
While their bewitcht intentions, busied still
On the affected, doe their stomacks chill;
Their veines supply'd with little, and bad blood,
Extracted from the halfe-concocted food.
Obserue but how their colours come and goe;
Their faltring tongues, their tossings to and fro;
Their smotherd sighs, their tedious complaints;
Blasphemous praises, rages, shamelesse vants,
Suspicions, crauings, leuities; all these
The symptomes be of that vnchast disease.
Who common Curtizans not seldome make
The objects of their sensuall loues, and take
Commandments from their eyes; with forfeiture
Of better fame: and what they hate, indure.
Who to the humors of the prostitute
Their language, habits, and behauiours sute;
The slauish agents of their darker ends
Neglecting heauen, themselues, their substance, friends,
All lawes, all dues; and borne with euery tide
Of passion, wander as their errors guide.
And behold our Iupiter becomes a beast to obtaine his bestiall desires: of whom the witty Martial;
Father of Gods, this shape of Bull then thou
Should'st haue assum'd, when Iö was a Cow.18
Who carries his rape on his back through the foming surges: which forth-with (as they fable) were composed, and the face of the Sea as smooth as a Virgins. The windes were rather spectators then actors. A thousand Cupids flew by, and often dipt their feet in the water, bearing bright tapers, and singing Iö Hymen. The Nereides, halfe naked, on the backs of Dolphins, scoured along, with ioyfull acclamations. The monsters of the Deepe deposed their terrors, and danced about them. Neptune ascending his Chariot, with pleasant Amphitrite, as the master of the solemnity, draue before, and made way as it were for his labouring brother. Venus was drawne on a shell by two Tritons, who strewed the Bride with all sorts of flowres. This triumph continued to their ariuall in Creet: when Iupiter (the Bull no more seene) led Europa by the hand (now blushing and hanging the head, as well perceauing to what end she was brought thither) into the Caue of Dicte. Who for such prankes as these is thus rayled at by Momus, the Buffone of the Gods: Thou, ô Iupiter, art the originall cause of our vices, and of the adulterating of our Senate, with such a multitude of Bastards: while thou forsakest thy heauen, and in a borrowed shape committest with mortals. Insomuch as wee not a little feare that when thou art a Bull one or other will sacrifice thee: or when a golden showre, that some Gold-smith should melt thee, & for our Iupiter returne vs an Eare-ring or a Bracelet. But to separate the history from the fable. The Cretans in reuenge of the rape of Iö, stolne before from Greece by the Phoenicians, sailed to Phoenicia, who surprising Europa, the daughter of Agenor, at Sarepta, a Village betweene Sydon and Tyrus, bore her away with them: and because the figure of a Bull was carued on the prow of the ship (or as others report in that Taurus of Gnossus was their Captaine) it was fained that Iupiter stole her away in that likenesse: the Sydonians stamping the same on their Coine, either in flattery to their King, or to comfort him. By Iupiter she had Minos, Radamanthus, and Sarpedon, according to Herodotus and others: although Homer make the latter to be his sonne by Laodamia the daughter of Bellerophon. Of her name our part of the world was called Europa. By this it appeares that Iupiter was a mortall man, and none of the chastest, though eminent in other vertues: with all exceeding ambitious, and affecting diuine honours. For wheresoeuer he extended his conquests, or contracted friendship with Princes, he commanded Temples to bee built by the one, and perswaded the other to erect them in memoriall of their amity; which carried his name, & wherein, either out of obseruance or affection, they celebrated his memory with yearely solemnities. It is recorded that for many yeares hee raigned in Olympus: to whom from all parts they resorted for iustice, being renowned for his equitie; and communicated such new inventions of theirs as were beneficiall to the life of man, which he had the honour to publish. And because the word Olympus is ambiguous, being a name of Heauen as well as of that Mountaine; it was fained by the Poets, that he had the command of the coelestiall Empire. So in regard of the heigth thereof, whose aspiring summit was crowned with his altar, it grew into a custome to sacrifice vnto the chiefe of the Gods on the tops of mountains (or perhaps in that neerer heauen, and more remote from worldly affaires) imitated by the Iewes in their idolatrous High-places. Now Iupiter, diuiding his Empire among his friends and kinsfolke; hauing setled good lawes, brought men to ciuilitie, and provided for their plenty; purchasing thereby an immortall praise, and leauing to his an eternall monument; retired in his old age into Creet; where hee died, and was with all magnificency and rites of funerall intombed by his Sonnes in the citty of Gnossus, with this short inscription on his Sepulcher. Iupiter the Sonne of Saturne. After for the greatnesse of his actions and exemplary justice deified by posterity, whereof in his life he had laid the foundation.

On to Book III