and the Arundel Marbles.) Pausanias (1, 14) records over him by Simonides, in an elegiac contest; and, a story of his boyhood, professedly on the authority of what is more probable, the success of Sophocles, who the poet himself, that, having fallen asleep while watch carried off from him the tragic prize, according to the ing the clusters of grapes in a vineyard, Bacchus ap- common account, in the 78th Olympiad, B.C. 468. peared to him, and bade him turn his attention to tragic Plutarch, in his life of Cimon, confirms the latter composition. This account, if true, shows that his statement. If so, Eschylus could not have been more mind was, at a very early period, enthusiastically than a year in Sicily before Hiero's death. The comstruck with the exhibitions of the infant drama. An mon account, relative to the cause which drove the poet impression like this, acting upon his fervid imagination, from his country, is grounded upon an obscure allusion would naturally produce such a dream as is described. in Aristotle's Ethics, explained by Clemens AlexandriTo this same origin must, no doubt, be traced the nus and Elian. In Sicily, Eschylus composed a common account relative to Eschylus, that he was drama, entitled Eina, to gratify his royal host, who accustomed to write under the influence of wine; and had recently founded a city of that name. During the in confirmation of which Lucian (Demosth. Encom.- remainder of his life, it is doubtful whether he ever reed. Bip.-vol. 9, p. 144) cites the authority of Callis- turned to Athens. If he did not, those pieces of his, thenes, and Athenæus (10, 33) that of Chameleon. which were composed in the interval, might be exhibitThe inspiration of Bacchus, in such a case, can mean ed on the Athenian stage under the care of some friend nothing more than the true inspiration of poetry. or relation, as was not unfrequently the case. Among (Mohnike, Litt. der Gr. und Rom., vol. 1, p. 359.) these dramas was the Orestean tetralogy (Argument. At the age of twenty-five, Eschylus made his first ad Agamem.—Schol. ad Aristoph. Ran., 1155), which public attempt as a tragic author, in the 70th Olympiad, won the prize in the second year of the 80th Olympiad, B.C. 499. (Suid. in Aiox-Clinton's Fasti Hellen- B.C. 458, two years before his death. At any rate, ici, p. 21, 2d ed.) The next notice which we have of his residence in Sicily must have been of considerable him is in the third year of the 72d Olympiad, B.C. 490, length, as it was sufficient to affect the purity of his when, along with his two celebrated brothers Cynægi- language. We are told by Athenæus, that many Si. rus and Aminias, he was graced at Marathon with the cilian words are to be found in his later plays. Espraises due to pre-eminent bravery, being then in his chylus certainly has some Sicilian forms in his extant 35th year. (Marm. Arund., No. 49.-Vit. Anonym.) dramas: thus redúрoios, пedaixμioi, пedúopoi, μáoSix years after that memorable battle, he gained his σων, μα, &c., for μετάρσιος, μεταίχμιοι, μετέωροι, first tragic victory. Four years after this was fought μeilov, unтep, &c. (Comp. Blomfield, Prom. Vinct., the battle of Salamis, in which Eschylus took part 277, Gloss., and Böckh, de Trag. Græc., c. 5.) The with his brother Aminias, to whose extraordinary valour poet died at Gela, in the 69th year of his age, in the the aptoria were decreed. (Herod., 8, 93.-Elian, 81st Olympiad, B.C. 456. His death, if the common Var. Hist., 5, 19) In the following year he served in accounts be true, was of a most singular nature. Sitthe Athenian troops at Platea. Eight years afterward ting motionless, in silence and meditation, in the fields, (Argument. ad Pers.) he gained the prize with a te- his head, now bald, was mistaken for a stone by an tralogy, composed of the Persa, the Phineus, the eagle, which happened to be flying over him with a Glaucus Potniensis, and the Prometheus Ignifer, a tortoise in her claws. The bird dropped the tortoise to satyric drama (or, to give their Greek titles, the IIép-break the shell; and the poet was killed by the blow. σαι, Φινεύς, Γλαῦκος Ποτνιεύς, and Προμηθεύς πυρφό. pos). The latter part of the poet's life is involved in much obscurity. (Compare Blomfield, ad Pers. præf., p. xxii.-Id. ad Arg. in Agamem., p. xix. et xx.-Bockh, de Græc. Trag. Princip., c. 4, seqq.) That he quitted Athens and died in Sicily, is agreed on all hands, but the time and cause of his departure are points of doubt and conjecture. It seems that Eschylus had laid himself open to a charge of profanation, by too boldly introducing on the stage something connected with the mysteries. According to Clemens Alexan-erable discrepance exists respecting the number of drinus, he was tried and acquitted of the charge (ev plays ascribed to Eschylus. Only seven of his trage'Αρείω πάγῳ κριθεὶς, οὕτως ἀφείσθη, ἐπιδείξας αὐτὸν dies remain, together with fragments of others preμn μɛμvημévov.-Clem. Alex. Strom., 2). The more served in the citations of the grammarians, and two romantic narrative of Ælian (Var. Hist., 5, 19) informs epigrams in the Anthology. The titles of the dramas us, that the Athenians stood ready to stone him to which have reached us are as follows: 1. Ipoμndeùç death, when his brother Aminias, who interceded for decuúrns (Prometheus Vinctus). 2. 'Еñтà èñì Oýbaç him, dexterously dropped his robe and showed the stump (Septem contra Thebas). 3. Πέρσαι (Persa). 4. of his own arm lost at the battle of Salamis. This act of 'Ayqueuvov (Agamemnon). 5. Xonoópot (Choëphofraternal affection and presence of mind had the desired ra). 6. Evμévides (Eumenides). 7. 'IKÉTides (Supeffect on the quick and impulsive temper of the Athe- plices). A short account of each of these will be nians, and schylus was pardoned. But the peril given towards the close of the present article. This which he had encountered, the dread of a multitude great dramatist was the author of the fifth form of ever merciless in their superstitions, indignation at the tragedy. (Vid. Theatrum.) He added a second actor treatment which he had received, joined, in all likeli- to the locutor of Thespis and Phrynichus, and thus inhood, to feelings of vexation and jealousy at witnessing troduced the dialogue. He abridged the immoderate the preference occasionally given to young and aspi- length of the choral odes, making them more subservient ring rivals, were motives sufficiently powerful to induce to the main interest of the plot, and expanded the short the proud-spirited poet to abandon his native city, and episodes into scenes of competent extent. To these scek a retreat in the court of the munificent and lite-improvements in the economy of the drama, he added rary Hiero, prince of Syracuse. (Vit. Anonym. Pausan., 1, 2-Plut. de Exil., Op., vol. 8, p. 385, ed. Reiske.) This must have been before the second year of the 78th Olympiad, B.C. 467, for in that year Hiero died. The author of the anonymous life of Eschylus, which has come down to us, mentions, among other reasons for his voluntary banishment, a victory obtained

It is more than probable, however, that this statement is purely fabulous, and that it was invented in order to meet a supposed prophecy, that he would receive his death from on high. The Geloans, to show their respect for so illustrious a sojourner, interred him with much pomp in the public cemetery.-Eschylus is said to have composed seventy dramas, of which five were satyric, and to have been thirteen times victor. The account of Pausanias, however, would almost imply a larger proportion of satyric dramas. In fact, consid

the decorations of art in its exhibition. A regular stage (Vitruv. Præf., lib. 7), with appropriate scenery, was erected; the actors were furnished with becoming dresses, and raised to the stature of the heroes represented by the thick-soled cothurnus (Horat., Ep. ad Pis., 280); while the face was brought to the heroic cast by a mask of proportionate size and strongly.

marked character, which was also so contrived as to seems to be proudly penetrated. He had lived to be give power and distinctness to the voice. He paid an eyewitness of the greatest and most glorious event great attention to the choral dances, and invented sev- of which Greece could boast, the defeat and destruction eral figure-dances himself. Among his other improve- of the enormous hosts of the Persians under Darius and ments, is mentioned the introduction of a practice, Xerxes, and had fought with distinguished valour in which subsequently became established as a fixed and the combats of Marathon and Salamis. In the Persa, essential rule, the removal of all deeds of bloodshed and the Seren against Thebes, he pours forth a warlike and murder from the public view (Philostr., Vit. strain; the personal inclination of the poet for the life Apollon., 6, 11), a rule only violated on one occasion, of a hero beams forth in a manner which cannot be namely, by Sophocles in his play of the Ajax. In mistaken. The tragedies of Eschylus are, on the short, so many and so important were the alterations whole, one proof among many, that in art, as in nature, and additions of Eschylus, that he was considered by gigantic proportions precede those of the ordinary the Athenians as the Father of Tragedy (Philostr., I. standard, which then grow less and less, till they reach c.), and, as a mark of distinguished honour paid to meanness and insignificance; and also that poetry, on his merits, they passed a decree, after his death, that its first appearance, is always next to religion in estia chorus should be allowed to any poet who chose to mation, whatever form the latter may take among the re-exhibit the dramas of Eschylus. (Philostr., l. c.) race of men then existing. The tragic style of AsAristophanes alludes to this custom of re-exhibiting chylus is far from perfect (compare Porson, Prælect. the plays of Eschylus in the opening of the Acharni- in Eurip., p. 6), and frequently deviates into the Epic ans (v. 9, seqq.). Quintilian, however (10, 1), assigns and the Lyric, elements not qualified to harmonize a very different reason for this practice, and makes it with the drama. He is often abrupt, disproportioned, to have been adopted for the purpose of presenting and harsh. It was very possible that more skilful these dramas in a more correct form than that in which tragic writers might compose after him, but he must they were left by the author himself. What authority always remain unsurpassed in his almost superhuman he had for such an assertion, does not now appear. vastness, since even Sophocles, his more fortunate In philosophical sentiments, Eschylus is said to have and more youthful rival, could not equal him in this been a Pythagorean. (Cic. Tusc. Disp., 2, 9.) In his The latter uttered a sentiment concerning him by extant dramas the tenets of this sect may occasionally which he showed himself to have reflected on the art be traced; as, deep veneration in what concerns the in which he excelled. "Eschylus does what is right, gods (Agamem., 371), high regard for the sanctity of but without knowing it." Simple words, which, howan oath and the nuptial bond (Eumen., 217), the im- ever, exhaust all that we understand by a genius which mortality of the soul (Choëph., 321), the origin of produces its effects unconsciously. (Theatre of the names from imposition and not from nature (Agamem., Grecks, p. 114, seqq., 2d ed.)-It only remains to 682.-Prom. Vinct., 84, 742), the importance of num- give a brief account of the tragedies of Eschylus bers (Prom. Vinct., 468), the science of physiognomy which have reached us entire. 1. Προμηθεὺς δεσμών (Agamem., 797), the sacred character of suppliants Tns ("Prometheus in chains"). All the personages (Suppl., 351-Eumen., 233), &c. Eschylus, ob- of this tragedy are divinities, and yet the piece, notserves Schlegel (Dram Lit., p. 135, seqq.), must be con- withstanding, carries with it an air of general interest. sidered as the creator of tragedy; it sprang forth from his for it involves the well-being of the human race. The head in complete armour, like Minerva from the brain subject is Prometheus, punished for having been the of Jove. He clothed it as became its dignity, and not benefactor of men in stealing for them the fire from only instructed the chorus in the song and the dance, the skies; or, to express the same idea in a moral but came forward himself as an actor. (Athenæus, 1, point of view, it is strength and decision of character 22.) He sketches characters with a few bold and struggling against injustice and adversity. In this powerful strokes. His plots are extremely simple. drama, which stands alone of its kind, we recognise, He had not yet arrived at the art of splitting an action amid strength and sublimity of conception, a wild and into parts numerous and rich, and distributing their untutored daring, which betrays the rudeness of early complication and denouement into well-proportioned tragedy, and the infancy of the art. The scenery is steps. Hence in his writings there often arises a ces- awfully terrific: the lonely rock frowning over the sation of action, which he makes us feel still more by waves, the stern and imperious sons of Pallas and his unreasonably long choruses. But, on the other Styx holding up Prometheus to its rifted side while hand, all his poetry displays a lofty and grave disposi- Vulcan fixes his chains, Oceanus on his hippogriff, the tion. No soft emotions, but terror alone remains in fury of the whirlwind, the pealing thunder, and Promehim; the head of Medusa is held up before the petrified theus himself undismayed amid the warfare of the elespectators. His method of considering destiny is ex-ments, and bidding defiance even to the monarch of tremely harsh; it hovers over mortals in all its gloomy magnificence. The buskin of schylus has, as it were, the weight of brass; on it none but gigantic forms stalk before us. It almost seems to cost him an effort to paint mere men; he frequently brings gods on the stage, particularly the Titans, those ancient deities who shadow forth the dark primeval powers of nature, and who had long been driven into Tartarus, beneath a world governed in tranquillity. In conformity with the standard of his dramatis persona, he secks to swell out the language which they employ to colossal size; hence there arise rugged compound words, an over-multitude of epithets, and often an extreme intricacy of syntax in the choruses, which is the rause of great obscurity. He is similar to Dante and Shakspeare in the peculiar strangeness of his imaginations and expressions, yet these images are not deficient in that terrible grace which the ancients particularly praise in Eschylus. The poet flourished exactly when the freedom of Greece, rescued from its enemies, was in its first strength, with a consciousness of which he

the skies, present a picture pregnant with fearful interest, and worthy the genius of Eschylus. This drama was translated into Latin by the poet Attius, some fragments of whose version are preserved for us by Cicero (Tusc. Quæst., 2, 10). The question relative to the remaining pieces of the Tetralogy, of which this play formed a part, may be seen discussed in Schütz's edition of Eschylus (vol. 5, p. 120, segg.).— 2. 'Enrù ènì Oibas ("The Seven Chiefs against Thebes"). The subject of the piece is the siege of Thebes, by the seven confederate chieftains, who had espoused the cause of Polynices against his brother Eteocles. It is said that Eschylus particularly valued himself on this tragedy, and certainly not without reason, both as regards the animation of the scenes that are portrayed, the sublimity of the dialogue, and the strong delineations of character which it contains. This drama has the additional merit of having given birth to the Antigone of Sophocles, the Phonisse of Euripides, and the Thebaid of Statius. Besides the Siege of Thebes, Eschylus wrote three tragedies also

on the events which preceded it, viz, the "Laius," the | from the levelling doctrines of the day. Pollux informs Edipus," and the "Sphinx." Some critics, how-us, that the tragic chorus, up to the time when this ever, make the last to have been a satyric drama.- play was first represented, consisted of fifty persons, -3. Пépoal (“The Persians"). This piece is so but that the terror occasioned by a chorus of fifty furies called because the chorus is composed of aged Per- caused a law to be passed, fixing the tragic chorus, for sians. The subject is purely an historical one: it is the time to come, at fifteen, and the comic chorus at the defeat of the naval armament of Xerxes. This twenty-four. (Iul. Pol., 4, 110) Pollux evidently is play was performed eight years after the battle of Sal- in error here. The number of choreute for the whole amis, and it has been considered by some a defect tetralogy consisted of fifty (originally, as Müller thinks, that so recent an event should have been represented of forty-eight), and these choreute it was the poet's on the stage. But, as Racine has remarked in the business to distribute into choruses for the individual preface to Bajazet, distance of place supplies the want tragedies and satyric drama composing the tetralogy. of distance of time. The scene is laid at Susa, be- Pollux, therefore, in all probability, misconceived fore the ancient structure appropriated to the great something which he had learned relative to the number council of state, and near the tomb of Darius. The of choreute for the whole tetralogy, of which number shade of this monarch comes forth from the sepulchre, at least three fourths were on the stage at the end of for the purpose of counselling Xerxes to cease from the Eumenides But this was done in order to afford the war against a people whom the gods protect. The the people a splendid and expressive spectacle; neither piece contains great beauties; every instant the trouble were the choreute thus combined all habited as furics. of the Persians increases, and the interest augments. (Müller, Eumenides, p 52. segg.)-With regard to By some it has been supposed to have been written the number of the tragic chorus in each particular with a political intent, the poet endeavouring, by an play, it may be remarked, that Sophocles first brought animated description of the pernicious effects of an in fifteen, the previous number having been twelve, obstinate pride, and by filling the spectators with a and that Eschylus employed only twelve in more than malignant compassion for the vanquished Xerxes, in-one of his dramas, although in others very possibly he directly disposing them to break off the war which adopted the number so extended by Sophocles. (ConThemistocles wished to prolong. -4. 'Ayquéμvov sult the remarks of Müller, Eumen., p. 58.)—This play ("Agamemnon"). This prince, returning from the did not prove, at first, very successful. It was altered siege of Troy with his female captive Cassandra, is as- by the poet, and reproduced some years after, during sassinated by Clytemnestra and Ægisthus. The part his residence in Sicily, when it carried off the prize. of Cassandra, who predicts the woes that are about to—7. 'IKÉTidεç (“The Female Suppliants"). Danaüs fall upon the house of Agamemnon, forms the chief and his daughters solicit and obtain the protection of interest of the piece, and is one of the finest that has the Argives against Ægyptus and his sons. This play ever been conceived. The commencement of this forms one of the feeblest productions of Eschylus. tragedy is somewhat languid, but as the play proceeds It possesses one remarkable feature, that the chorus all is movement and feeling.-5. Xongpoi (“The Choë-acts the principal part. The scene is near the shore, phora"). This drama is so entitled, because the cho- in an open grove, close to the altar and the images of ras, composed of female Trojan captives, slaves of the gods presiding over the sacred games, with a view Clytemnestra, are charged with the office of bringing of the sea and the ships of Egyptus on one side, and the liquor for making libations at the tomb of Agamem- of the towers of Argos on the other; with hills, and non (xon, a libation, and gépw. tobring). The subject of woods, and vales, a river flowing between them.-We the piece is Orestes avenging the death of Agamemnon have no good edition, as yet, of all the plays of Eschyon Clytemnestra and her paramour. When this horri-lus. That of Schütz, Hala, 1808-21, 5 vols. Svo, ble deed has been accomplished, the parricide is deliv- although useful in some respects, is not held in very ered over to the Furies, who disturb his reason. high estimation; neither is that of Butler, Cantab., The spirit of Eschylus," observes Potter, "shines 1809, 8 vols. 8vo, regarded with a very favourable eye through this tragedy; but a certain softening of grief by European scholars Wellauer's edition, also, Lips, hangs over it, and gives it an air of solemn magnifi- 1823-1831, 3 vols. 8vo, though highly lauded by some, The characters of Orestes and Electra are is far from being satisfactory to all. The edition by finely supported.-6. Evpévides ("The Eumenides," Scholefield, Cantab., 1828, 8vo, is a useful one. Tho or "Furies"). This play derives its name from the best text is that given by W. Dindorf, Lips., 1827. circumstance of the chorus being composed of Furies The best editions of the separate plays are those of who pursue Orestes. The latter pleads his cause be- Blomfield, as far as they extend, comprising, namely, fore the Areopagus, and is acquitted by the vote of the Prometheus, Septem contra Thebas, Agamemnon, Minerva. This drama is remarkable for its violation Perse, and Choëphora. His edition of the Persa, of the unity of place, the scene being first laid at Del- however, was very severely handled by Seidler, in one phi and afterward at Athens. Müller has written a of the German reviews, though the edge of the critique very able work on the scope and character of this pro- was in a great measure blunted by the personal fecting duction, in which he discusses incidentally some of visible throughout. The editions of Dr. Blomfield apthe most important points connected with the Greek peared originally from the Cambridge press. drama. As regards the object which the poet had in are good editions of the Agamemnon and Choëphoræ view when composing the piece, he considers it to be by Klausen and Peile. Müller's edition of the Eumena political one. Aschylus was a zealous partisan of ides, appended to the dissertations above alluded to, is Aristides, and opponent of Themistocles, and evident an excellent and scholar-like performance, though it symptoms of this partiality are to be found in some of provoked the ire of Hermann and his school, having his plays. As an Athenian citizen and patriot, the been severely criticised by him and one of his disciples. poet on every occasion recommends to his countrymen A translation of it appeared from the Cambridge press temperance and moderation in their enjoyment of dem-in 1835-II., III. (Vid Supplement.) ocratic liberty, and in their ambitious schemes against ESCULAPIUS, son of Apollo and the nymph Coronis, the rest of Greece. The party of Themistocles had and god of the healing art. Pausanias (2, 26) gives made themselves obnoxious, in these respects, to the three different accounts of his origin, on which our limpatriotic feelings of Eschylus; and a demagogue its forbid us to dwell. The one of these that has been named Ephialtes, having attacked the authority of the followed by Ovid, makes Coronis to have been unfaithvenerable court of the Areopagus, the poet in this play ful to Apollo, and to have been, in consequence, put to of the Eumenides appeared in its defence, and strove death by him, the offspring of her womb having been to save this excellent institution, though ineffectually, first taken from her and spared. Apollo received the

cence."

There

nformation respecting the unfaithfulness of Coronis, same idea. He is the sun, without strength at the from a raven, and the angry deity is said by Apollodo- close of autumn. In all these different points of view, rus to have changed the colour of the raven from white we find Esculapius corresponding to the Egyptian dito black, as a punishment for his unwelcome officious-vinities; to Horus, to Harpocrates, to Sem, and to the ness As Coronis, in Greek, signifies a crow, hence god of the earth, Serapis. Egypt was always famed another fable arose that Esculapius had sprung from for the knowledge possessed by its priests of the healan egg of that bird, under the figure of a serpent. The ing art; and it always represented its great deities, the first of the accounts given by Pausanias makes the symbols of the power of nature, as endued with a healbirthplace of Esculapius to have been on the borders ing influence. (Creuzer's Symbolik, par Guigniaut, of the Epidaurian territory; the second lays the scene vol. 2, p. 337 and 170, seqq.) Isis receives, in inin Thessaly; the third in Messenia. Esculapius was scriptions, the epithet of "salutary." (Gruter, p. 83. placed, at an early age, under the care of the centaur-Fabrett., p. 470.-Reines, col. 1, n. 132) Serapis, Chiron. Being of a quick and lively genius, he made whose name frequently occurs by the side of that of his such progress as soon to become not only a great phy-spouse, had, at Canopus, a city already famous by its sician, but at length to be reckoned the god and invent- temple of Hercules, a sanctuary no less renowned for or of medicine, though the Grecks, not very careful of the wonderful cures performed within it, and of which consistency in the history of those early ages, gave to a register was carefully preserved. (Strabo, 801.— Apis, son of Phoroneus, the glory of having invented Compare Creuzer, Dionys., 1, p. 122, and Guigniaut's the healing art. Esculapius accompanied Jason in dissertation on the god Serapis,“ Sur le Dicu Serapis his expedition to Colchis, and in his medical capacity et son origine," p. 20 and 22.) Both of these divinwas of great service to the Argonauts. He married ities, in the scenes figured on the monuments, bear serEpione, whom some call Lampetia, by whom he had pents, or agathodemons, as the emblems of health: two sons, Machaon and Podalirius, and four daughters, they carry also the chalice, or salutary cup of nature, Hygiea, Egle, Panacea, and Iaso, of whom Hygiea, surrounded by serpents, and which formed, perhaps, the goddess of health, was the most celebrated. In the fab- most ancient idol connected with their worship. (Creuulous traditions of antiquity, Esculapius is said to have 2er's Symbolik, par Guigniaut, vol. 1, p. 818, seqq.) restored many to life. According to Apollodorus (3, One thing at least is certain, that these sacred se 10, 3), he received from Minerva the blood that flow-pents were nourished in their temples as living images ed from the veins of Medusa, and with that which proceeded from the veins on the left, he operated to the destruction of men, while he used that which was obtained from the veins on the right for the benefit of his fellow-creatures. (Compare Heyne, ad Apollod., 1. c.) With this last he brought back to the light of day Capaneus and Lycurgus, according to some, or Eriphyle and Hippolytus according to others, or, as other ancient authorities state, Hymenæus, and Glaucus the son of Minos. Jupiter, alarmed at this, and fearing, says Apollodorus, lest men, being put in possession of the means of triumphing over death, might cease to render honour to the gods, struck Esculapius with thunder. The common account makes this to have been done on the complaint of Pluto. Apollo, enraged at the loss of his son, destroyed the Cyclopes who had forged the thunderbolts of Jove, for which offence the monarch of the skies was about to hurl him into Tartarus, but, on the supplication of Latona, banished him for a season from Olympus, and compelled him to serve with a mortal (vid. Admetus and Amphrysus)Thus far we have traced the Greek accounts respecting Esculapius. If, however, a careful inquiry be instituted, the result will be a decided conviction that the legend of Esculapius is one of Oriental origin. According to Sanchoniatho, Esculapius was the same with the Phoenician Esmun, the son of Sydyk, called "the just," and the brother of the seven Cabiri. (Sanchon, frag., ap Euseb., Præp. Erang, p. 39.-Cory's Ancient Fragments, p. 13) Hence the meaning of Esmun, which signifies the eighth. (Compare the Schmoun, or Mendes, of Egypt.) The seven Cabiri are the seven planets; and, in the Egyptian mythology, Phtha is added to them as the eighth. Phtha and Esculapius, then, are identical, and the latter, like the former, though added to the number of the Cabiri, becomes in a mysterious sense their parent and guide. (Creuzer's Symbolik, vol. 2, p. 285 and 336.) In Esmon-Esculapius, then, we have a solar deity, personified in his beauty and his weakness, for he is the same with the youth of Berytus, who mutilated himself and was placed in the number of the gods, and in this quality he receives the name of Pæan or Pæon, "the physician." He becomes identified also with the beauteous Apollo, for whose son he passes among the Greeks; while, as a mutilated deity, he is the same with the Phrygian Atys, the fair Adonis, and the chained Hercules of the Tyrians, all varied forms of the

of these deities of health. (Guigniaut's Serapis, p. 19, seqq.) The nurture of these national fetichs consisted in cakes of honey, and such was also the food of the serpents consecrated to the powers beneath the earth, the divinities of the dead. In fact, the god of medicine is, at the same time, a telluric power; and it is he that causes the mineral waters, the sources of health, to spring from the bosom of the earth. Esculapius, then, is identical, in his essence, with the Canopic Serapis : like him, he has for a symbol a vase surrounded by serpents, and he was originally this same vase, the sacred Canopus. (Compare Creuzer, Dionys., p. 220.-Symbolik, par Guignaut, vol. 1, p. 415 and 818, seqq.) It is curious to observe the strong analogy that exists between the Oriental worship of Serapis, and the Grecian ideas, rites, and usages in the case of Esculapius. At Egium, in Achaia, near the ancient temple of Ilithyia, were to be seen the statues of the god and goddess of health, Asclepius (Esculapius) and Hygiea. (Pausan., 7, 23.) At Titane, a city of Sicyonia, the first settler of which was. according to tradition, Titan, brother of the Sun, Alexanor, the son of Machaon and grandson of Esculapius, had erected a temple to this deity. His statue, at this place, was almost entirely enveloped in a tunic of white wool, with a mantle thrown over it, so that the face, and the extremities of the hands and feet, alone appeared to view. Esculapius was carried, it is said, from Epidaurus to Pergamus; and we are also told that, in this Asiatic city, the Acesius of Epidaurus took the name of Telesphorus. (Pausan., 2, 11.) Now Telesphorus indicates the autumnal season, the sun that has come to his maturity together with the productions of the earth, and, consequently, verging to his decline. Hence the Arcadians gave to Esculapius a nurse named Trygon, an appellation derived probably from the Greek Tpúyn or 7pvyúw, and referring to the labours of harvest. Esculapius, moreover, according to a tradition preserved in Attica, offered himself on the eighth day for admission into the Eleusinian mysteries, and was accordingly initiated. (Philostrat., Vit. Apollon, 4, 18.) He is, in this point of view, the tardy one, the last comer assisting at the festival of autumn and the harvest. The subterranean powers and the deities of death, are also the divinities of sleep. Such, too, is the case with Esculapius. He gives slumber and repose, and by their means bestows health. (Lyd. de Mens., p. 78, ed. Schow.) Hence the custom of going to his

its walls the most sacred mysteries. (Pausan., 3, 22.; The statue of Hygiea, at Egiuin in Achaia, could only be viewed by the priests. (Pausan., 7, 24.) No female was allowed to be delivered, and no sick persons were permitted to die, within the environs of the temple at Epidaurus. (Pausan, 2, 27.) The temple at Tithorea was surrounded by a hedge, in the vicinity of which no edifice could be erected. The hedge was forty stadia from the building itself. (Pausan., 10, 32.) Most of these temples stood in healthy situations. That of Cyllene, for example, was situate on Cape Hyrmine, in one of the most fertile and smiling countries of the Peloponnesus; while that of Epidaurus, erected, like the former, in the immediate neighbourhood of the sea, was surrounded by hills covered with the thick foliage of groves. (Pausan., 2, 27-Compare Villoison, Prolegom., p. LII., and Chandler's Travels, ch. 53, p. 223) Others again were built near rivers, or in the vicinity of mineral springs; and it would appear from Xenophon (Mem., 3, 13), that the temple of Esculapi us at Athens contained within it a source of warm water. The worship rendered to Esculapius had for its object the occupying the imaginations of the sick by the ceremonies of which they were witnesses, and the exciting them to a sufficient degree in order to produce the desired result. For an account of these ceremonies, and the mode of curing that was generally adopt

temple at Epidaurus for the purpose of sleeping therein, and recovering health by the means which the god of health would indicate in a dream to the invalids. (Compare Sprengel, Gesch. der Medicin., vol. 1, p. 107, seqq.) The ancient Esculapius, introduced at an early period into the religion of Samothrace, appeared at first in Greece under a form closely assimilated to that of the vase gods, dwarfs, or pigmies, that were accustomed to be enveloped in garments, and to which was attributed a magic influence. (Creuzer's Symbolik, pur Guigniaut, vol. 2, p. 310, seqq.) In these mysterious idols, the richness of hidden meaning was as great as the mode of decking the exterior was whimsical. The spirit of the old Pelasgic belief would seem, however, to have been continually employed in decomposing, as it were, this body of ideas united in one particular symbol, and in individualizing each for itself. It was thus that, by degrees, there arose round the god of medicine a cortége of genii, of both sexes, regarded either as his wives, or as his sons and daughters, or even as his grandchildren. In the sculptured representations of Esculapius, to which the developement of Grecian art had subsequently given birth, we find the figure of Jove, a little modified, becoming the model of this deity. And yet, though the Grecian perception of the beautiful led them to deviate, in general, from the grosser representations of the Pelasgic worship, we find them, in the present case, still re-ed, consult Sprengel, Hist. de la Medicine, vol. 1, p. taining an attachment for the ancient, and, at the same 154, seqq.-Esculapius was sometimes represented time, more significant and mysterious images. Hence, either standing, or sitting on a throne, holding in one by the side of the new deity is placed one of his per- hand a staff, and grasping with the other the head of a sonified attributes, under the figure of an enveloped serpent: at his feet a dog lay extended. (Pausan., 2, dwarf. In every quarter, where the Asclepiades (vid. 27-Compare Montfaucon, Antiquité expliq., vol. 1, that article) taught the principles of the healing art, or pt. 2, pl. 187, 188.) At Corinth, Megalopolis, and red diseases in the temples of their master and re- Ladon, the god was represented under the form of an outed father, Esculapius and his good genii were cel- infant, or rather, perhaps, a dwarf, holding in one hand ebrated as saving divinities, on votive tablets, inscrip- a sceptre, and in the other a pine-cone. (Pausan., 2, tions, medals, and gems. The Romans, too, in the 10.) Most generally, however, he appeared as an old year of their city 461, in order to be delivered from a man with a flowing beard. (Pausan., 10, 32.) On pestilence, sent a solemn embassy to Epidaurus to ob- some ancient monuments we see him with one hand tain the sacred serpent nourished at that place in the applied to his beard, and having in the other a knotted temple of Esculapius. A temple was likewise erect- staff encircled by a serpent. (Minucius Felix, ed. Eled to this deity on an island in the Tiber, where the menhorst., p. 14.) He oftentimes bears a crown of lausacred reptile had disappeared among the reeds. (Val.rel (Antichita d'Ercol., vol. 5, p. 264, 271.-Maffei, Max., 1, 8, 2.) Not content with this, however, they resolved to have also a family of Asclepiades, and they pretended to have found it in the house of Acilius.The principal and most ancient temples of Esculapius ('Aokλníɛia), were those at Titane in Sicyonia (Pausan., 2, 11); at Tricca in Thessaly (Strabo, 438); at Tithorea in Phocis, where he was revered under the name of Archegetes (Pausan., 10, 32); at Epidaurus (Pausan., 2, 26); in the island of Cos (Strabo, 657); at Megalopolis (Pausan., 8, 32); at Cyllene in Elis (Pausan., 6, 26); and at Pergamus in Asia Minor (Pausan., 2, 26). Among all these temples, that of Epidaurus was at first the most celebrated, for it was from this city that the worship of Esculapius was carried into Sicyonia, and also to Pergamus and Cyllene. (Pausan., 2, 10.) It appears, however, that the temple of Cos became in time the most famous of all, since the Epidaurians, on one occasion, sent deputies thither. (Pausan., 3, 23.) At a more recent period, Ægea, in Cilicia, could boast of a temple of Esculapius which was held in high repute. It was here that Apollonius of Tyana practised many of his impostures. (Philostr., Vit. Apollon., 1, 7.) Constantine destroyed this temple in his zeal for Christianity. (Euseb., Vit. Constant., ed. Reading, 3, 56.) Almost all these edifices were regarded as sanctuaries, which none of the profane could approach except after repeated purifications. Epidaurus was called the sacred country (Pausan., 2, 26), a name which also appears on its medals. (Eckhel, Doctr. Num. Vet., vol. 2, p. 290.-Villoison, Prolegom., p. L.) The temple at Asopus took the appellation of Hyperteleaton, as if it concealed within

Gemm. ant., 2, n. 55), while at his feet are placed, on one side, a cock, and, on the other, the head of a ram; on other occasions, a vulture or an owl. Frequently a vase of circular form is seen below his statues (Erizzo, Discorso, &c., p. 620), or, according to others, a serpent coiled up. (Buonarotti, Osservazioni, &c., p. 201.) At other times he has his body encircled by an enormous serpent. (Theodoret. affect. curat. dispOp. ed. Shulze, vol 4 and 8, p. 906.) Among all the symbols with which Esculapius is adorned, the serpent plays the principal part. The gems, medals, and other monuments of antiquity, connected with the worship of this deity, most commonly bear such an emblem upon them. (Spanheim, Epist. 4, ad Morell., p. 217, 218, ed. Lips., 1695.-Compare Knight's Inquiry into the Symbolical language of Ancient Art and Mythology, 25.-Class. Journ., vol. 23, p. 13.)

ÆSEPUS, a river of Mysia, in Asia Minor, rising in Mount Cotylus, and falling, after a course of 500 stadia, into the Propontis, to the east of the Granicus. Strabo (582) conceives, that Homer extended the boundaries of Priam's kingdom to this river. Chishull (Travels in Turkey, p. 59) makes the modern name to be the Boklu, but Gossellin gives it as the Sataldere (French Strabo, vol. 4, p. 187, not.)

ESERNIA, a city of Samnium, in the northern par of the country, and not far from the western confines It was situate about twelve miles northwest of Bovi. anum, and is mentioned by Livy (Epit., 16) as having been colonized about the beginning of the first Punic war. The same writer (27, 10) speaks of it as one of those colonies which distinguished themselves by