Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Anc^
Let us now describe the scenes -IEneas goes through with the Sybil , from Virgil himself , assisted by Warburton ' s comments . iEneas had now ( at the commencement of the sixth book ) reached Eiibcean Cumse , called Eubcean from having been built by a colony from Chalcis in Euboea , an island in the Archipelago . Here , as he had
been ordered , he visits the Sibyl , who , inspired by the god , conducts him into the temple , where he prays her to permit him and to guide him to enter the abodes beneath the earth , that he may see the shade of his father , and hear the oracles which his father had forewarned him would announce to him the future / with regard to his habitation and his descendants .
When the afflatus had so far left the priestess as to render her again composed , her first instruction to iEneas ( 1 . 136 ) was to search for and possess himself of a golden bough saered to Proserpine , as none could enter the abodes of the dead till he could pluck this golden-leaved bough from the tree on which it grew . When the first was torn off , a second , of gold , would soon spring up , and the twig
would shoot forth leaves of the same metal . By this branch is intended the wreath of myrtle with which the Initiated were crowned at the celebration of the mysteries . The myrtle was , as we are told this golden bough was , sacred to Proserpine , who only is mentioned in this narrative , partly because the initiation is mentioned as an actual descent to the shades , but principally because , when the rites
of the mysteries were performed , Ceres and Proserpine were equally invoked ; but when the spectacles were exhibited , then Proserpine alone presided ; and this book contains , chiefly , a representation of the spectacles of the mysteries . Of the rites we shall speak hereafter . The quality , moreover , of this golden bough , with its " vimen lentum , " admirably describes the tender branches of myrtle .
We then find ( 1 . 190 ) that the doves of his mother Venus are made to direct JEneas to the tree , for the myrtle , as is well known , was consecrated to Venus . Ancl there is a greater beauty in this than may at first appear , as not only the myrtle , but the doves were dedicated to Proserpine as well as to Venus .
But why , it may be asked , was this myrtle branch represented to be of gold ? A golden bough was , literally , part of the sacred equipage in the spectacles of the mysteries , and the branch was sometimes wreathed into a crown and worn on the head , and was at other times carried in the hands . And Apuleius , ili the eleventh book of his
Metamorphoses , from which we quoted so much in our last paper ,, tells us , in his description of the procession in the mysteries of Isis ( whom , our readers will remember , we identified with Ceres in the the early part of these papers ) , " Ibat tertius , attollens palmam auro mbtiliter folidtdm , oiecum Mercurialem etiam caducmm" * The golden branch , then , and the caduceus were related . And accordingly
* " A third in the procession bore a palm branch with thin gilt leaves , and also the caduceus of Mercury . ' " ' 2 c 2
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Anc^
Let us now describe the scenes -IEneas goes through with the Sybil , from Virgil himself , assisted by Warburton ' s comments . iEneas had now ( at the commencement of the sixth book ) reached Eiibcean Cumse , called Eubcean from having been built by a colony from Chalcis in Euboea , an island in the Archipelago . Here , as he had
been ordered , he visits the Sibyl , who , inspired by the god , conducts him into the temple , where he prays her to permit him and to guide him to enter the abodes beneath the earth , that he may see the shade of his father , and hear the oracles which his father had forewarned him would announce to him the future / with regard to his habitation and his descendants .
When the afflatus had so far left the priestess as to render her again composed , her first instruction to iEneas ( 1 . 136 ) was to search for and possess himself of a golden bough saered to Proserpine , as none could enter the abodes of the dead till he could pluck this golden-leaved bough from the tree on which it grew . When the first was torn off , a second , of gold , would soon spring up , and the twig
would shoot forth leaves of the same metal . By this branch is intended the wreath of myrtle with which the Initiated were crowned at the celebration of the mysteries . The myrtle was , as we are told this golden bough was , sacred to Proserpine , who only is mentioned in this narrative , partly because the initiation is mentioned as an actual descent to the shades , but principally because , when the rites
of the mysteries were performed , Ceres and Proserpine were equally invoked ; but when the spectacles were exhibited , then Proserpine alone presided ; and this book contains , chiefly , a representation of the spectacles of the mysteries . Of the rites we shall speak hereafter . The quality , moreover , of this golden bough , with its " vimen lentum , " admirably describes the tender branches of myrtle .
We then find ( 1 . 190 ) that the doves of his mother Venus are made to direct JEneas to the tree , for the myrtle , as is well known , was consecrated to Venus . Ancl there is a greater beauty in this than may at first appear , as not only the myrtle , but the doves were dedicated to Proserpine as well as to Venus .
But why , it may be asked , was this myrtle branch represented to be of gold ? A golden bough was , literally , part of the sacred equipage in the spectacles of the mysteries , and the branch was sometimes wreathed into a crown and worn on the head , and was at other times carried in the hands . And Apuleius , ili the eleventh book of his
Metamorphoses , from which we quoted so much in our last paper ,, tells us , in his description of the procession in the mysteries of Isis ( whom , our readers will remember , we identified with Ceres in the the early part of these papers ) , " Ibat tertius , attollens palmam auro mbtiliter folidtdm , oiecum Mercurialem etiam caducmm" * The golden branch , then , and the caduceus were related . And accordingly
* " A third in the procession bore a palm branch with thin gilt leaves , and also the caduceus of Mercury . ' " ' 2 c 2