THE METAMORPHOSES OF PUBLIUS OVIDIUS NASO
THE METAMORPHOSES OF PUBLIUS OVIDIUS NASO
THE METAMORPHOSES OF PUBLIUS OVIDIUS NASO
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FABULA X.<br />
REPARATIO GENERIS HUMANI.<br />
Deucalion and Pyrrha having consulted tho oracle of Themis, relative to the<br />
repeopling of the earth, are ordered to cast behind their backs the banes<br />
of their great mother. After revolving the words of tho oracle, Deucalion<br />
comes to the conclusion that their great mother is tho Earth, and that the<br />
stones of the earth are the bones intended by the response. They cast<br />
these behind their backs, and by degrees, the stones lay aside their rigar,<br />
are mollified, increase in size, assume the forms of men and women, and<br />
tscomc animated,<br />
EXPLICATIO.<br />
I.v attempting to explain this fable, some have vainly imagined that<br />
Deucalion collected the rude people who survived the flood, and refined<br />
their manners, and that, as xoo; signifies, at once, a stone and the people,<br />
hence the myth arose of his making people out of stones. They forget,<br />
however, that he and his wife alone survived the dslugc. I think, if \v<<br />
will consult the Bible, we will find the true solution of the fable. The<br />
impiety of mankind had caused the depopulation of the world, by the<br />
Flood; piety was now to be the chief instrument in its speedy repeopling.<br />
Accordingly, we find, GENESIS viii. 20, when he came forth from the ark,<br />
" Noah buildcd an altar unto the Lord, and took of every clean beast,<br />
and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt-offerings on the altar. And<br />
the Lord smelled a sweet savor. And God blessed Noah and his sons,<br />
and said unto them, be fruitful, and multiply and replenish the earth."<br />
That a miraculous fruitfulness is intended, we may readily infer from a<br />
repetition of the blessing a few verses after, while God still converses<br />
with Noah and his offspring: " And you, be ye fruitful, and multiply;<br />
bring forth abundantly in the earth, and multiply therein." How exceed<br />
ingly rapid the increase of the population of the world was, we learn in<br />
the succeeding chapter, where it is said of Nimrod, the great-grandson<br />
of Noah, " He began to be a mighty one in the earth. And the beginning<br />
of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the<br />
land of Shinar," no less than four great cities. As Noah " builded" the<br />
altar, it is evident that the altar was constructed of stones, sinre we find<br />
altars similarly made, on different occasions, as recorded in the Bible ;<br />
and the great fruitfulness with which God blessed Noah and his seed,<br />
being in consequence of his pious offerings upon this stone altar, it is not<br />
a very bold figure to represent the human race as reproduced thus from<br />
stones. As Deucalion and Noah were the same individuals, the relevancy<br />
is apparent. Besides this event, which may have given rise to the myth<br />
of the poet, there is another in JOSHUA iv., where, after the miraculous<br />
passage of the Jordan, the tribes took up stones upon their shoulders, ann<br />
set them up as a memorial. It is not a little remarkable, that, in after<br />
ages, standing by the Jordan, at Bethnbara, the house of passage, and<br />
pointing probably to these very memorials, the Saviour used the remark<br />
able language, " God is able of these stones to raise up children unto<br />
Abraham." It is probably an obscure tradition of Noah's sacrifice, and<br />
the consequent rapid repeopling of the earth, that Sanchoniatho, in Euso<br />
bins, gives when he says, " When the god Uranus wished to animate<br />
stones, he invented Jiaithiili." I have shown, in Fable IV., that these<br />
Baithuli are stone alturs. 82<br />
f M<br />
ULLA mora est; adeunt pariter Cephisidas undas,<br />
Ut nondum liquidas, sic jam vada nota secantes.<br />
Inde ubi libatos irroravere liquores<br />
Vestibus et capiti, flectunt vestigia sanctes<br />
, Ad delubra Dese : quorum fastigia turpi 5<br />
NOT^E.<br />
1. Ctphisidas iindas: the waters of the Cephisus. The Cephisus<br />
flows from Mount Parnassus, end passes by Delphi.<br />
2. Vada nolo: the well-known channel. It was now contained<br />
within its banks.<br />
3. Lilatos liyuores: the consecrated waters.<br />
3. Irroratcre: they sprinkled. It was the custom of the heathens,<br />
when about to offer sacrifice, or enter their temples, to sprinkle them<br />
selves with water, in token of purification.<br />
, ,._. 4. Flectunl vestigia: bend their footsteps.<br />
Tlien, with a rushing sound, the assembly bend<br />
#<br />
Diverse their footsteps.—POPE.<br />
'fc. 5. Delulira Deal: the clia- from which arose a hurmn body as n cen-<br />
(~, pel of the goddess Themis, taur, with four heads, the head of a bull,<br />
It is not a little remark- of a lion, of an eagle, and of a man, with<br />
nblc that we find the Cherubim which were wings and hands full of eyes; and we a'c<br />
placed at the entrance of the garden of cordingly find these forms in various com-<br />
Eden, and subsequently upon the mercy- binations. The cloudy vapour said to arise<br />
eeat of the ark, together with the ark it- in the temple at Delphi, through the tripod,<br />
self, and the cloud of glory resting between which was anciently an imitation of the<br />
the Cherubims, copied in the emblems and ark, was, no doubt, copied after the Sche<br />
ceremonies of the Egyptians and Greeks, chinah of the Cherubim. In the temple o)<br />
BS well as the other heathens. The sacred the Syrian goddess at Hierapolis, said to<br />
Baris of Osiris, with nil its ceremonies, be built by Deucalion, the emblem " comwas<br />
a commemoration of the deluge. The pounded of several divine forms," was<br />
form of the Cherubim was that of a bull, doubtless the Cherubim; «na the moreflo,<br />
83<br />
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