In the first book they accompany the
Portuguese
fleet--
----_before the bounding prows
The lovely forms of sea-born nymphs arose.
----_before the bounding prows
The lovely forms of sea-born nymphs arose.
Camoes - Lusiades
How can a nativity
so infamous be ascribed to the celestial Venus, who represents Religion?
I answer, that Camoens had not his eye on those fables, which derive the
birth of Venus from the foam of the waves, mixed with the blood which
flowed from the dishonest wound of Saturn: he carries his views higher;
his Venus is from a fable more noble. Nigidius relates that two fishes
one day conveyed an egg to the seashore. This egg was hatched by two
pigeons whiter than snow, and gave birth to the Assyrian Venus, which,
in the pagan theology, is the same with the celestial. She instructed
mankind in religion, gave them the lessons of virtue and the laws of
equity. Jupiter, in reward of her labours, promised to grant her
whatever she desired. She prayed him to give immortality to the two
fishes, who had been instrumental in her birth, and the fishes were
accordingly placed in the Zodiac, the sign Pisces. . . . This fable agrees
perfectly with Religion, as I could clearly show; but I think it more
proper to leave to the ingenious reader the pleasure of tracing the
allegory. "
[124] _Doto, Nyse, and Nerine. _--Cloto, or Clotho, as Castera observes,
has by some error crept into almost all the Portuguese editions of the
Lusiad. Clotho was one of the Fates, and neither Hesiod, Homer, nor
Virgil has given such a name to any of the Nereids; but in the ninth
AEneid Doto is mentioned--
----_magnique jubebo
AEquoris esse Deas, qualis Nereia Doto
Et Galatea secant spumantem pectore pontum. _
The Nereids, in the Lusiad, says Castera, are the virtues divine and
human.
In the first book they accompany the Portuguese fleet--
----_before the bounding prows
The lovely forms of sea-born nymphs arose. _
[125] The ants are a people not strong, yet they prepare their meat in
the summer. --PROVERBS xxx. 25. --_Ed. _
[126] Imitated from Virgil--
_Cymothoe simul, et Triton adnixus acuto
Detrudunt naves scopulo. _--VIRG. AEn. i.
[127] Latona, says the fable, flying from the serpent Python, and faint
with thirst, came to a pond, where some Lycian peasants were cutting the
bulrushes. In revenge of the insults which they offered her in
preventing her to drink, she changed them into frogs. This fable, says
Castera, like almost all the rest, is drawn from history. Philocorus, as
cited by Boccace, relates, that the Rhodians having declared war against
the Lycians, were assisted by some troops from Delos, who carried the
image of Latona on their standards. A detachment of these going to drink
at a lake in Lycia, a crowd of peasants endeavoured to prevent them. An
encounter ensued; the peasants fled to the lake for shelter, and were
there slain. Some months afterwards their companions came in search of
their corpses, and finding an unusual quantity of frogs, imagined,
according to the superstition of their age, that the souls of their
friends appeared to them under that metamorphosis.
so infamous be ascribed to the celestial Venus, who represents Religion?
I answer, that Camoens had not his eye on those fables, which derive the
birth of Venus from the foam of the waves, mixed with the blood which
flowed from the dishonest wound of Saturn: he carries his views higher;
his Venus is from a fable more noble. Nigidius relates that two fishes
one day conveyed an egg to the seashore. This egg was hatched by two
pigeons whiter than snow, and gave birth to the Assyrian Venus, which,
in the pagan theology, is the same with the celestial. She instructed
mankind in religion, gave them the lessons of virtue and the laws of
equity. Jupiter, in reward of her labours, promised to grant her
whatever she desired. She prayed him to give immortality to the two
fishes, who had been instrumental in her birth, and the fishes were
accordingly placed in the Zodiac, the sign Pisces. . . . This fable agrees
perfectly with Religion, as I could clearly show; but I think it more
proper to leave to the ingenious reader the pleasure of tracing the
allegory. "
[124] _Doto, Nyse, and Nerine. _--Cloto, or Clotho, as Castera observes,
has by some error crept into almost all the Portuguese editions of the
Lusiad. Clotho was one of the Fates, and neither Hesiod, Homer, nor
Virgil has given such a name to any of the Nereids; but in the ninth
AEneid Doto is mentioned--
----_magnique jubebo
AEquoris esse Deas, qualis Nereia Doto
Et Galatea secant spumantem pectore pontum. _
The Nereids, in the Lusiad, says Castera, are the virtues divine and
human.
In the first book they accompany the Portuguese fleet--
----_before the bounding prows
The lovely forms of sea-born nymphs arose. _
[125] The ants are a people not strong, yet they prepare their meat in
the summer. --PROVERBS xxx. 25. --_Ed. _
[126] Imitated from Virgil--
_Cymothoe simul, et Triton adnixus acuto
Detrudunt naves scopulo. _--VIRG. AEn. i.
[127] Latona, says the fable, flying from the serpent Python, and faint
with thirst, came to a pond, where some Lycian peasants were cutting the
bulrushes. In revenge of the insults which they offered her in
preventing her to drink, she changed them into frogs. This fable, says
Castera, like almost all the rest, is drawn from history. Philocorus, as
cited by Boccace, relates, that the Rhodians having declared war against
the Lycians, were assisted by some troops from Delos, who carried the
image of Latona on their standards. A detachment of these going to drink
at a lake in Lycia, a crowd of peasants endeavoured to prevent them. An
encounter ensued; the peasants fled to the lake for shelter, and were
there slain. Some months afterwards their companions came in search of
their corpses, and finding an unusual quantity of frogs, imagined,
according to the superstition of their age, that the souls of their
friends appeared to them under that metamorphosis.
