THE METAMORPHOSES OF PUBLIUS OVIDIUS NASO

TABULA. VIII.
LYCAON MUTATUS IN LUPUM.
in a circuit which, ho is making through the earth, Jupiter comes to Arcadia,
and enters the palace of Lycaon, who attempts to murder him, and after
wards serves up before him human flesh, at a banquet. Jupiter punishes
this impiety, by setting the palace on fire, and changing Lycaon into a wolf.
EXPLICATIO.
Lycaon, the son of Pelasgus and Meliboea, was contemporary with the
patriarch Jacob. He built a temple and city, called Lycosura, on the top
of Mount Lycaeus, in honor of Jupiter, and instituted the festivals called
Lyceea. He polluted the sacrifices of the Lupercalia, of which the
Arundelian marbles show him to be the founder, by offering up prisoners
taken in war, and hostages. The words Lyceeus, Lycaon, Lycosura, and
Lyceea, are all of Greek etymology, derived front JAJCOJ, a wolf. The
mountain abounded in wolves, as we are informed, and hence was called
Lycccus (of the wolf}. The king of Arcadia, whoever he was, in con
sequence of uis efforts to extirpate the wolves, received the epithet of
Lycaon (wolf-mail), and, in time, the cognomen being used instead of the
real name, the myth may have arisen, of his being changed into a wolf.
Owing probably to some signal deliverance, in an encounter with a wolf,
he may have offered to Jupiter, as a sacrifice, the brush or tail of the
animal, or many such trophies, and thus set up a chapel, where, in after
time, was built the temple and city of Lycosura (pi-xos oC'pd), ifie tail of
the wolf. Mycon, in like manner, in Virgil's seventh Eclogue, offers to
Diana the head of a wild boar, and the antlers of a stag. Thus, sacri
fices called Lycasa (of the ivolf), were instituted to Jupiter, in Arcadia,
and to Apollo, at Argos, because they freed the inhabitants from wolves.
The Lupercalia (lupus, arcco), were identical,with the Lyceea, except that
the latter were offered to Pan, in common with Jupiter and Apollo, while
the Lnpercalia were offered to Pan alone. While Arcadia was waste, or
valued for hunting only, the Lycasa were in honor of Jupiter, the common
protector in all places, or of Apollo, to whose bow wild beasts were sub
ject; but when it became a grazing country, inhabited by shepherds, the
protection of their flocks fell to Pan, and the. Lyccea or Lupercalia were
in his honor. The destruciion of Lycaon's house, by lightning, after
offering up human victims, may have given rise to the fable. But as the
event is placed in the earliest ages of the world, it may refer to Nimrod,
whose name (rebel) implies apostacy from God, and who, as a " giant
hunter," is believed to have tyrannized over man. Babel is thought to
have been a fire-temple, for human sacrifice, avid his destruction beneath
its ruins may be adumbrated in the overturning of Lycaon's palace ; or,
what is more probable, the fable may be a confusion of Grecian history
and of tradition, in which reference is made to Cain. The resemblances
are many and striking. Lycaon was the son of Pelasgus, who was born
of the earth ; Cain was the son of Adam, who was formed of the earth.
Both were impious ; both offered sacrifices displeasing to God. and both
fled his presence. Cain built the first city upon earth, and Lycosura,
which Lycaon built, was said, by Pausanias, to be the oldest city in the
world. Lastly, God set a mark of blood upon Cain, and in the Lupercalia
instituted by Lycaon, the foreheads of two illustrious youths were marked
with a knife dipped in blood. 64
ONTIGERAT nostras infamia tempons aures:
Ciuam cupiens falsam, summo delabor Olympo,
Et Deus humana lustrosub imagine terras.
Longa mora est, quantum noxre sit ubique repertiim.
NOT.*:.
1. Jtifumin trmporis. The wickedness of the time was such that
It cried to heaven for vengeance. The same is said, in Genesis, of
the wickedness of Sodom and Gomorrah, and in the Odyssey, of the
crimes of ilie suuors.
Ttor re /?!»; re riifipcof 6vpavdv~ tJKtt — ODYSSEY xvii.
And the Lord sa-d, because ilie crj of Sodom find Gomorrah is great, and
because llie:r sm is verj pne\ous GENESIS xviii. 20.
2. Qiiam rupims falsam. The benevolence of the deity is mani
fest in this, that he is slow to believe the evil report, and unwilling
fo judge until after investigation.
In judieando criminosa est cclfrilas. P. SYRUS.
Shall not the Judge of all the curth do right? GENESIS xviii. 25.
2. Summn Oliim/io: from highest Olympus ; poetically for Heaven.
See note on Olympus, page 56.
Bow thy heavens, O Lord, and come down :
loucli the mountains, and they shall smolve.
PsiLM cxliv. 5.
2. Belabor: I glide down ; I descend
Jupiter determines to go down and observe
the morals of men. Thus Jehovah, in the
case of Sodom and Gomorrah:
I will go down now, and see whcllier they
have done altogether according to the (TV ol' it.
which is eomr unto me ; ami il'not, I will Know.
GENESIS xviii. 21.
The T.ord looked down from heaven upon the
children ol men. to see il tlicrc were any that
did understand, and seek God. PSALM xiv. 2.
9
3. El Drus humnna sitli imagine : and a
god in human form. This veiling of di
vinity in human flcph, is to be found in the
mylhology of all'nalions, and is, no doubt,
a wide-spread tradition of God's holding
communion with man, in his state of in
nocence. Thus Homer:
Kairc Scot fei'poioii' iuitt6rcf dbXnSairaivt
HHVTOIQI rfXeS-oiTCj eiricTpinijt'jict jru\fjaf.
ODYSSEY xvii.
4. Longu mora est : the delay is great;
it is tedious.
4. Quantum nox