ON THE MYTHOLOGICAL CHARACTER OF RHADAMANTHUS. Gnossius hæc Rhadamanthus habet durissima regna; Æneis, vi. 566. THIS distinguished public character in legal biography commenced practice in Crete. He gained considerable reputation by honourable conduct towards his clients, and a trick peculiar to himself, of impartiality in the distribution of justice. The career of honour in those simple and half-civilised days, was exactly the converse of ours: eminent men, instead of rising from the courts below to those above, descended from those above to those below. Rhadamanthus was accordingly promoted to the bench in that place, which in ancient times was not considered to bear a name offensive to polite ears. His Court of King's Bench was composed of three judges; ours of four. Pindar refers to this tribunal in his Olympic : Τὰ δ ̓ ἐν τῇδε Διὸς ἀρχᾷ 'Arılgà, xalà yãs dixá ζει τις, ἐχθρᾷ λόγον φράσαις ἀνάγκα. Βουλαῖς ἐν ὀρθαῖς Ραδαμάνθυος, Ον παλὴς ἔχει Κρόνος ἕτοι μον αὐτῷ πάρεδρον, Πόσις ὁ πάντων Ρέας Υπέρτατον ἐχοίσας θρόνον. ON THE MYTHOLOGICAL CHARACTER OF PLUTO. THE Common sense of Pluto's character is, that he first instructed the Greeks in the decencies of funerals, and showed them how to perform the last offices to the deceased. In the early ages of mankind, every new invention to improve the insufficient comforts of life, every suggestion of improvement in morality, every advance towards refinement in manners, every suggestion of better feeling was made the subject of a fable. These inventions were partly stimulated by restless ingenuity, at a loss for subjects to work upon; partly by the eagerness of gratitude to pay the debt due to the first benefactors and civilisers of our species. In the case before us, a fictitious empire in the shades below was assigned to this teacher of a pious duty, of an extent and vastness with which no mortal monarch could compete. Universal sovereignty, over such a portion of the earth as was then ripe to admit of the restraints and benefits of government, would have allowed of a very limited range: they therefore constituted him monarch of the dead; not so much of regions as of ages. He was the brother of Jupiter. He was called Orcus; and in relation to his pedigree, Jupiter infernus, or Stygius. Proserpina was his wife; the daughter of Ceres. He possessed himself of her by forcible abduction, as she was gathering flowers in the Si cilian plain of Enna. This splendid marriage conferred on her the title of Juno inferna, or Stygia. There is considerable confusion between her attributes, and those of Hecate and Luna. The latter is the same with Diana. All these goddesses pre side over sorceries and incantations. Neptune made up the triumvirate brotherhood, all sons of Saturn. In the division of the father's kingdom, Pluto had the western portion. As the most extravagant fables have some foundation in history or tradition, the apparent descent of the sun and the succession of darkness gave rise to the poetical imagination of gloomy regions, over which this emperor of the west was supposed to bear sway. His Latin name is Dis, which is merely a contraction of dives, analogous to the Greek, Пλoũτος and Πλούτων : so that the noble pupil was right in treating Pluto as synonymous with Plutus; and Dr. Pangloss was impertinently pedantic in his correction. Sacrifices and lustrations were performed to him in the month of February, for a reason given by Servius:"Februus autem est Ditis pater, cui eo mense sacrificatur." Cicero makes good use of his character, in its unfavourable point of view, against Verres :-" Hic dolor erat tantus, ut Verres, alter Orcus, venisse Ennam, et non Proserpinam asportasse, sed ipsam abripuisse Cererem videretur."Act. ii. lib. 4. His title of Summanus is supposed to be a contraction of Summus manium. Reddita, quisquis is est, Summano templa feruntur, ON A SENTIMENT IN CATULLUS. THOUGH I may have been disposed to apologise for Ausonius, in consideration of the extreme naïveté with which he represents the imperial attempt to be poet as well as patron, and the timid nicety with which he adjusts the balance between the tact of the courtier and the fame of the poet, I again protest against any general indulgence on this head. With respect to expurgatæ editiones, they are objectionable in point of policy, as only tending to inflame curiosity, and render that a matter of research, which might otherwise be glanced over hastily. I am led to revert to the subject, by a most profligate as well as illogical passage in Catullus, a poet too popular not to be dangerous : Castum esse decet pium poetam Ipsum; versiculos nihil necesse est: This is carrying the doctrine to its utmost extent: that freedom is not only venial, but meritorious and of the first necessity. On what ground the poet's conduct ought to be so decorous, when his very profession compels him to teach licentiousness ex cathedra, it may not be easy to explain. |