of the Elapite gulf, and this position is called Berenice by Ptolemy. The Arabic name of Meena Zuhub, signifying the port of gold, had reference to the riches there debarked on the return from Ophir. This place is now called Calaat el Accaba, Castle of the descent, according to D'Anville, while the Elanite gulf is named Bahr el Accaba, the Sea of the descent. The point Ras Mohammed, which separates this gulf from the Heroum near Suez, was called Posidium from the Greek Пorady, Neptune, a name common to many promontories. Ezion-geber, it is clear from the Chronicles,' and Eloth, were in Idumæa, or the land of Edom, which David had conquered, as we learn from the second book of Samuel. The ships of Solomon and Hiram sailed from Ezion-geber for Ophir and Tharsis, and returned together.3 The ships from Tyre came from the Mediterranean into the Red Sea piece-meal, transported in that state on the backs of camels, and at their journey's end were put together, and re-constructed for their voyage to Ophir. We learn from Agatharchides in Photius, Heliodorus's Ethiopics, book the fourth, that the Tyrians trafficked on the Red Sea; and from Herodotus book IV. c. 42, and Major Rennell's Geography of Herodotus, that the Hebrews were not the only people to whom they were of use, since the Egyptians also were indebted to them for service and assistance in navigation. The mode of transporting vessels on men's shoulders was practised by the Argonauts, as we read in the fourth book of Apollonius Rhodius, vv. 1375, 1386, for twelve days and nights successively; also by Cleopatra after the battle of Actium from the Mediterranean to the Arabian gulf; and by the Turks from the Mediterranean on the backs of camels over land into the Red Sea. But it is highly probable that the kings of Egypt before this period had made a canal from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea, or Arabian gulf, a thing of no impossibility to a people that had raised the Pyramids. See Strabo, p. 38. and 804. of Sesostris, and Major Rennell's Geography of Herodotus, p. 452. If Sesostris dug the first canal, it was too late for Solomon and Hiram, as Susac or Sesostris lived, according to Josephus' Antiquities Vol. 1. Edit. Hudson, in the time of Rehoboam the son of Solomon, and laid Jerusalem and its temple waste. 2 Chron. viii. 17. 2 2 Sam. viii. 14. 1 Kings z. 11, 12. Enough has been said to refute the notion of Grotius and Vatablus, who thought that Hiram brought the vessels which he sent to Solomon from the obscure islands of Tyr and Aradus2 in the Red Sea, which I have looked for in vain in Niebuhr, since they were Tyrus and Aradus two small islands in the Persian Gulf.3 2dly. It should appear that Ophir was a country of Eastern Africa, particularly Sofala, and Tharsis a country of Western Africa, and of Spain particularly, some place not far from the mouth of the river Bætis. It is not to be supposed with Ptolemy, that Africa is confined to Prasum or the Mosambic, as the ancients pushed their navigations much farther; and all the Eastern part of Africa may be called Ophir, from Gardefan, the most easterly point of Africa, to the southern extremity of Zanguebar, between 3 North and 9 South latitude. For the same reason Ophir may be named Sofala, which is in the one-and-twentieth degree of South latitude, where much more commerce has been carried on than elsewhere. From the quantity of gold that has been found in the Eastern part of Africa, particularly at Sofala, it may fairly be conjectured that from hence came Hiram's and Solomon's treasure in that metal. to The position of Ophir and Sofala was near the shore, such as suited well with sailors whose voyage was a coasting voyage. They could easily arrive thither from Ezion-geber almost without losing sight of land. The distance of the places was not great, the coast was even without gulfs or straits, and every year brought gold from Ophir; but three years were necessary go and come from Tharsis. Ophir indeed has been translated in some places by Africa; but if it be closely examined, it will appear in both the Chaldee interpreter, and Origen on Job, that it is Tharsis, and not Ophir, which the Chaldee interpreter Jonathan has rendered Africa, and that the version of Origen is equally objectionable. The opinion, however, of these ancient interpreters is in favor of an interpretation that the voyage was on the coast of Africa. Josephus, Theodoret, and St. Jerome, in their Antiquities, comments, and interpretations of the Old and New Testament, have placed Ophir in India, in the golden Chersonese; but in that case the voyage would have been longer, '1 Kings ix. 27. Critici Sacri. Strabo, lib. 16. been unacquainted with the use of money. We well know that the wealth of the first ages consisted in cattle: oxen and sheep constituted of course the only measure of value. Glaucus and Diomed exchange armour; the poet tells us how many oxen were given for the respective suits. Now as this measure of value would soon be found to be very inconvenient, it would very soon happen that some more uniform, permanent, divisible, and generally esteemed standard must be adopted. We accordingly find, that even in the time of Abraham, silver was used for this purpose; and this useful and convenient metal has been uniformly employed as the common measure by all nations. The heroes of Homer, therefore, must have been earlier than the time of Abraham, or they lived within the few years which elapsed after that Patriarch, as they could not otherwise have been ignorant of this useful mode of conducting their commerce. The Iliad too could not in this case describe the manners of an age so late as that usually attributed to the supposed Priam. It is evidently a collection of early traditions. In addition to these remarks, it may be observed that the sentiments of the several characters of Homer are evidently derived from the confused remnant of ancient religion. We might instance the beautiful appeal of Hector to Paris: the reflections of Agamemnon on the treachery of Pandarus, when he pronounced the certain punishment and destruction of Troy ; two lines of which speech were quoted by the philosophic Scipio over the ruins of Carthage. Instances of sublime addresses to the Deity; the punishment of the blasphemy of Asius; the perpetual completion of a truce or treaty by a sacrifice, a custom which was common to all the patriarchal nations, (whence the expressions in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, which are used to describe the making a treaty, are uniformly derived from the striking the fatal blow to the victim,) with some others, may be mentioned. The gods in Homer always partake of that mixed character which would naturally be the consequence of the deification of mortals, which we shall soon see was one of the primary sources of Idolatry. Jove is addressed in the most lofty strains, yet, like the Hindoo god, who corresponds to him in attributes and powers, he makes love, and sleeps, and is deceived. Apollo is a man, and the epithets by which he is described, are appropriated to the Sun: and so we might proceed with the rest. The confusion we are hinting at, is the complete picture of the language which must have been induced by the society of that age; when their ancestors began to be venerated as deities, and the knowledge of the true God to be obliterated. 11 MISCELLANEA CLASSICA. No. XIII[Continued from No. XLVI. p. 300.] 1 1. CLASS. Journ. XLII. p. 279, 1. 7, the sentence beginning "The glory attached" is a comment upon the quotation from Mitford, and not a continuation of it.-lb. p. 287, 1. 27, read, 66 some modern lecturer on poetry, or magazine critic." Same page, note, ad fin. "Virgil has defined Æneas a perfect hero, but he wanted power to describe him as such."-p. 288. 1. 6, "the equable splendor."-p. 292, after the quotation from the Anti-Jacobin, there ought in fairness to have been cited a line from Southey's Thalaba, book x1., containing more than a precedent for Dr. Symmons's alliteration : "Friend and sole solace of my solitude." No. XLIII. p. 172, 1. 17, for airou read airía.-On No. xxxvI. p. 330, art. 5, ("Aρтeμiv Beшv ävаσσav, x. T. λ.) see the concluding note of Spanheim's Callimachus.-Ib. p. 331, art. 15, the following instance of imitation was quoted: Ως δ' ὅτε τίς τ ̓ ἐλέφαντα γυνὴ φοίνικι μιήνη Μηονὶς, ἠὲ Κάειρα, παρήϊον ἔμμεναι ἵππων, κ. τ. λ. εὐφυΐες, κνῆμαί τε, ἰδὲ σφυρὰ κάλ ̓ ὑπένερθε. Il. iv. 141. Per liquidas succensa genas: castæque pudoris Claud. Pros. 1. 271. (where Heinsius, in addition to the other passages in his note, might have quoted Æn. 1. 592, and perhaps x. 132, sqq.) Thus a modern poet, describing the descent of Mercury: Trampling the slant winds on high With golden-sandalled feet, that glow Like rose-ensanguined ivory, A shape comes now, Waving on high in his right hand A serpent-cinctured wand. Shelley's Prometheus Unbound, p. 35. In another number the following passage from Claudian was paralleled with one from Southey: Sic fatus (Sol), croceis rorantes ignibus hortos Subligat alipedum : gelidas hinc Lucifer ornat, De Primo Cons. Stilich. 11. 467. This fiction is much in the style of Darwin, between whom and Claudian there exists a considerable resemblance. It occurs in our modern Prometheus: My coursers sought their birth-place in the sun, The fantastic play of images occasioned by the confusion of fire and water in the passage of Claudian above quoted, occurs again in the redoubtable passage, Pros. 11. 314. Dominis intrantibus ingens Assurgit Phlegethon; flagrantibus hispida rivis 2. ΣΩΚ. "Αρτι δὲ ἥκεις, ἢ πάλαι; ΚΡ. Επιεικῶς πάλαι. ΣΩΚ. Εἶτα πῶς οὐκ εὐθὺς ἐπήγειράς με, ἀλλὰ σιγῇ παρακάθησαι ; ΚΡ. Οι μὰ τὸν Δία, ὦ Σώκρατες· οὐδ ̓ ἂν αὐτὸς ἤθελον ἐν τοσαύτῃ ἀγρυπνία καὶ λύπῃ εἶναι· ἀλλὰ καὶ σοῦ πάλαι θαυμάζω, αἰσθανόμενος ὡς ἡδέως καθεύδεις· καὶ ἐπίτηδές σε οὐκ ἤγειρον, ἵνα ὡς ἥδιστα διάγῃς· καὶ πολλάκις μὲν δή σε καὶ πρότερον ἐν παντὶ τῷ βίῳ εὐδαιμόνισα τοῦ τρόπου, πολὺ δὲ μάλιστα ἐν τῇ νῦν παρεστώσῃ ξυμφορᾷ, ὡς ῥᾳδίως αὐτὴν καὶ πράως φέρεις. Plat. Crit. 1. Glover evidently had the above passage before his eyes, when he wrote the beautiful description of the last sleep of Leonidas, with which his eleventh book commences, and to which the 'An interesting essay might be written on modern imitations of ancient poetry. "Prometheus" is not a revival of the lost drama of Eschylus; the catastrophe, as well as the scopus dramatis, is different. It involves the downfall of Jupiter, and the deliverance of the human race from his usurped dominion-in other words, the overthrow of law, custom, and religion, throughout the world; these being considered as the sources of human misery. In the boldness and crowd of his metaphors, the writer resembles Eschylus. The richness and intense beauty of his images is almost beyond example; they seem, as it were, entangled in their own magnificent luxuriance. Of his principles (which he promulgates more openly and undisguisedly than the rest of his confederacy) we judge it best to be silent in this place. |