Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Anc^
account says , Theseus was kept in chains till delivered by Hercules , and Piritho us thrown to Cerberus , Which points—as Warburton enters into a long argument to prove- —4 ; o f he death of the orte and the imprisonment of the other , for their clandestine intrusion into the mysteries . So great a crime was even an umntentional iiitru ^ indeed considered , that Livy gives an instance of two young men who were put to death for it : —
a 44
Acarnaiies duo juvenes per initiorum dies , non initiati , templuni Cerefis , imprudentes religionls , cilm cast era turba , ingressi sunt . Facile eos sernio prbdidit , absurde quaedam pereunctantes ¦; deductiqiie ad antistites templi , quam palani esset , per errorem ingressos , tanquam ob ihfahduni scelus , interfecti sunt . " *—Liv . xxxi . 14 . Horace , moreover , makes mention of the punishment of Piritholis , arid of the inability of Theseus to alleviate
44 Amatorem trecentse Pirithoiim cohibent catenae . "t—Hon . lib . hi . Od . iv . 79 , 80 . And , *—* " . 44 Nee Lethaea valet Theseus abrumpere caro Vincula Pirithob 4 ~ Ibid . hb . iv . Od . vii . 27 , 28 . " The office here assigned to Theseus , of admonishing his hearers against impiety and profanation , could not , in these representations ,
be so Well discharged by any one as by him . who represented their violator . It has been objecteel to the introduction of this warning , that it would be given to very little purpose to those for whom there was no place for repentance , no room for pardon ; but if , as there is reason to believe , Virgil is here relating the admonitory maxims delivered during the representation of these mystic shows , nothing could be more just or useful , as the address was then delivered to living spectators .
The poet closes his catalogue of the inhabitants of this portion of the lower regions with—44 Ausi omnes immane nefas , ausoque potiti . "— ( 1 . 624 ) , §
For the ancients thought , in many instances , that an action was sanctified by its success , which they considered as a mark of the favour and approbation of heaven . As this was a very pernicious opinion , it was
necessary that the successful villain , who trampled on his country , and the disappointed plotter who was detected and punished , should be equally the objects of the divine vengeance .
" Two young Acarnanians , during tho days of initiation , themselves uninitiated , and ignorant of all that related to that secret worship , entered the temple of Geres along ^ with the crowd Their conversation betrayed them , as they made absurd inquiries about everything they saw ; so being brought before the president ot the mysteries , although it was evident they had entered ignorantly and without design , they were put to death , as guilty of a most abominable crime . " + " Three hundred chains restrain the lover Piritholis . " t ^ " Nor can Theseus break the Lethean bonds that confine his friend Pirithovis . " § All who had attempted some great crime , and who had been successful in their attempt . "
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Anc^
account says , Theseus was kept in chains till delivered by Hercules , and Piritho us thrown to Cerberus , Which points—as Warburton enters into a long argument to prove- —4 ; o f he death of the orte and the imprisonment of the other , for their clandestine intrusion into the mysteries . So great a crime was even an umntentional iiitru ^ indeed considered , that Livy gives an instance of two young men who were put to death for it : —
a 44
Acarnaiies duo juvenes per initiorum dies , non initiati , templuni Cerefis , imprudentes religionls , cilm cast era turba , ingressi sunt . Facile eos sernio prbdidit , absurde quaedam pereunctantes ¦; deductiqiie ad antistites templi , quam palani esset , per errorem ingressos , tanquam ob ihfahduni scelus , interfecti sunt . " *—Liv . xxxi . 14 . Horace , moreover , makes mention of the punishment of Piritholis , arid of the inability of Theseus to alleviate
44 Amatorem trecentse Pirithoiim cohibent catenae . "t—Hon . lib . hi . Od . iv . 79 , 80 . And , *—* " . 44 Nee Lethaea valet Theseus abrumpere caro Vincula Pirithob 4 ~ Ibid . hb . iv . Od . vii . 27 , 28 . " The office here assigned to Theseus , of admonishing his hearers against impiety and profanation , could not , in these representations ,
be so Well discharged by any one as by him . who represented their violator . It has been objecteel to the introduction of this warning , that it would be given to very little purpose to those for whom there was no place for repentance , no room for pardon ; but if , as there is reason to believe , Virgil is here relating the admonitory maxims delivered during the representation of these mystic shows , nothing could be more just or useful , as the address was then delivered to living spectators .
The poet closes his catalogue of the inhabitants of this portion of the lower regions with—44 Ausi omnes immane nefas , ausoque potiti . "— ( 1 . 624 ) , §
For the ancients thought , in many instances , that an action was sanctified by its success , which they considered as a mark of the favour and approbation of heaven . As this was a very pernicious opinion , it was
necessary that the successful villain , who trampled on his country , and the disappointed plotter who was detected and punished , should be equally the objects of the divine vengeance .
" Two young Acarnanians , during tho days of initiation , themselves uninitiated , and ignorant of all that related to that secret worship , entered the temple of Geres along ^ with the crowd Their conversation betrayed them , as they made absurd inquiries about everything they saw ; so being brought before the president ot the mysteries , although it was evident they had entered ignorantly and without design , they were put to death , as guilty of a most abominable crime . " + " Three hundred chains restrain the lover Piritholis . " t ^ " Nor can Theseus break the Lethean bonds that confine his friend Pirithovis . " § All who had attempted some great crime , and who had been successful in their attempt . "