"obtained youth and immortality." The delicious valley of Tempe, so exquisitely described by the same author, was also a consecrated enclosure, of which the history and accompanying circumstances present us with paradisaical memorials. The river Peneus, a most remarkable stream rolled through it “ ελαια δικην "as smooth as oil," connected with which were the Styx and Tiresias, the latter stream bearing the same title as Homer's prophet of Hades. The poet, indeed, terms this river Titaresius, or Tith-Tiresias, and probably there might have been near it an altar or mound of earth† raised in honour of the Seer, who was also mysteriously connected both with the institution of marriage and the serpent. The whole vale * Ælian also mentions other paradisaical features, such as the freedom of the happy inhabitants from labour and sorrow, the spontaneous production of every thing delightful to the eye and taste, and the abundance of gold and precious things which were there so common. It may be remembered that, with respect to the real paradise, Moses has recorded that "the name of the first river is Phison, which compasseth "the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold; and the gold "of that land is good; there is bdellium and the onyx stone." Ælian. Var. Hist. lib. iii. 18. et lib. iii. 1. y Eden, whence ndovn pleasure, and ɛdavos pleasant. Parkhurst. in voc. + Which is the signification of the radical Tith, at least in some instances. See Bryant, vol. ii. p. 128. A must have embraced in its precincts the most delicious paradise in the world, since that of Eden; and that it was considered as a place eminently holy, is proved from the numberless sacrifices which were here offered, and the traditions connected with them.* The Thessa lians affirmed that in the valley of Tempe, Apollo, after his victory over the serpent, underwent a lustration. Here also he was crowned with laurel, and according to some, with that mysterious fruit, the gathering of which had proved the source of all evil, and occasioned the necessity of that victory over the serpent. Hence, moreover, "having first gathered a "sacred Branch with his own right hand," he came as conqueror to Delphi; and it is added, that an altar was reared in that very place where he was crowned, and from whence the Branch was gathered. Every ninth year there was a celebrated procession to Tempe of noble youths, who performed a splendid ceremony, and then returned with garlands on their heads composed of the same laurel with which the deity had been before adorned, who is said, moreover, to have undergone all this labour . Hygin. Fab. 140. Pausanias in Phoc. Apollod. Bibliothec. lib. i. Lucianus de Gymn. p. 384. Salmur. 1619. Curtius de ludis Pyth. p. 33. Id de hortis, p. 34. "out of love" to mankind. They always entered the valley on these occasions by the way which was called Pythias, from the triumph of Apollo over the serpent Python. There is a remarkable grove, mentioned by Callimachus in his hymn to Ceres,* which was consecrated to her as the mother of Proserpine, (whom we shall perceive hereafter to have been the Eve of mythology) by the Pelasgi. Τιν δ' αυτά καλον αλσος εποιησαντο Πελασγοι "Sacred to thee, a beauteous grove was seen, Virgil, in his second Georgic,† speaks of the last mentioned tree as follows: Media fert tristes succos, tardumque saporem Felicis mali, quo non præsentius ullum Pocula si quando sævæ infecere novercæ Auxilium venit, ac membris agit atra venena. *This goddess was sometimes represented as standing between two trees. "Erat Ceres inter duas arbores pomis onustas." Albricus. Phil. de Deo. imag. 23. + Ver. 126. Media is here an extraordinary epithet,* for this tree was a native of many other countries beside Media, Assyria, and Persia. Originally I conjecture this Arbor Mali was so called, from the tradition of, and its being considered to represent, "the tree of the knowledge of "good and evil in the midst of the garden" of Eden. The gardens of Alcinous, in the island of Corcyra, appear to present us with several vestiges of the Mosaical picture of paradise. Ενθα δε δενδρεα καλα† πεφύκει τηλεθόωντα Eternal breath'd on fruits untaught to fail ; The same mild season gave the blooms to blow, Meed is one of the most ancient Amonian radicals, denoting wisdom, knowledge, prescience, and the like. +Kaλa is the reading of Athenæus, though paxpa is the usual epithet found in this place, in the common editions of the Iliad. Odyss. H. 114. It is easy to perceive how near all this comes to the description of the inspired historian. "Out of the ground the Lord God made to 66 grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight "and good for food." In the centre of the garden were "two* fountains," which, as we have already seen in the instance of the Gades of Spain, and shall hereafter have abundant opportunity of perceiving, generally were found in the paradisi of the heathen. Eustathius tells us that the lovely country of the Phœacians, as described to us by Homer, was in fact only a representation of the islands of the Blessed, which will hereafter be demonstrated to have been mainly composed of paradisaical memorials. Justin Martyr directly affirms that "the "garden of Alcinous" was nothing more than "a heathen representation of paradise:"Το ΠΑΡΑΔΕΙΣΟΥ δε εικονα τον Αλκινου κῆπον σωζειν πεποιηκε are the very words of this learned father, who has transcribed the above description into his first exhortation. We may there κρηναι. These may *Εν δε δυω also describe the beauty and freshness of these sacred gardens. Any place richly watered, seems to have been compared to Eden. Gen. xiii. 10. † Cohort. ad Græc. p. 27. |