[174] Parnassus and Helicon were hills consecrated to the Muses, and the supposed place of their abode. Parnassus was forked on the top; and from Helicon ran a stream, the spring of which was called the Muses' well.
[175] Pyrene, a fountain in Corinth, consecrated also to the Muses.
[176] The statues of the poets were crowned with ivy about their brows.
[177] Before the shrine; that is, before the shrine of Apollo, in his temple at Rome, called the Palatine.
_Should cry up Labeo's stuff, and cry me down._--P. 208.
Nothing is remaining of Atticus Labeo (so he is called by the learned Casaubon); nor is he mentioned by any other poet, besides Persius. Casaubon, from an old commentator on Persius, says, that he made a very foolish translation of Homer's Iliads.
_They comb, and then they order every hair; A gown, or white, or scoured to whiteness, wear; A birth-day jewel bobbing at their ear._--P. 209.
He describes a poet, preparing himself to rehearse his works in public, which was commonly performed in August. A room was hired, or lent, by some friend; a scaffold was raised, and a pulpit placed for him who was to hold forth; who borrowed a new gown, or scoured his old one, and adorned his ears with jewels, &c.
_Know, my wild fig-tree, which in rocks is bred, Will split the quarry, and shoot out the head._--P. 209.
Trees of that kind grow wild in many parts of Italy, and make their way through rocks, sometimes splitting the tomb-stones.
_In cedar tablets worthy to appear._--P. 210.
The Romans wrote on cedar and cypress tables, in regard of the duration of the wood. Ill verses might justly be afraid of frankincense; for the papers in which they were written, were fit for nothing but to wrap it up.
Writings of noblemen, whose bedsteads were of the wood of citron.
_Hadst thou but, Janus-like, a face behind._--P. 211.
Janus was the first king of Italy, who refuged Saturn when he was expelled, by his son Jupiter, from Crete (or, as we now call it, Candia). From his name the first month of the year is called January. He was pictured with two faces, one before and one behind; as regarding the past time and the future. Some of the mythologists think he was Noah, for the reason given above.