The Spectator Volume Ii Part 19

No. 233. Tuesday, Nov. 27, 1711. Addison.

--Tanquam hec sint nostri medicina furoris, Aut Deus ille malis hominum mitescere discat.

Virg.

I shall, in this Paper, discharge myself of the Promise I have made to the Publick, by obliging them with a Translation of the little _Greek_ Ma.n.u.script, which is said to have been a Piece of those Records that were preserved in the Temple of _Apollo_, upon the Promontory of _Leucate_: It is a short History of the Lovers Leap, and is inscribed, _An Account of Persons Male and Female, who offered up their Vows in the Temple of the_ Pythian Apollo, _in the Forty sixth Olympiad, and leaped from the Promontory of_ Leucate _into the_ Ionian Sea, _in order to cure themselves of the Pa.s.sion of Love_.

This Account is very dry in many Parts, as only mentioning the Name of the Lover who leaped, the Person he leaped for, and relating, in short, that he was either cured, or killed, or maimed by the Fall. It indeed gives the Names of so many who died by it, that it would have looked like a Bill of Mortality, had I translated it at full length; I have therefore made an Abridgment of it, and only extracted such particular Pa.s.sages as have something extraordinary, either in the Case, or in the Cure, or in the Fate of the Person who is mentioned in it. After this short Preface take the Account as follows.

_Battus_, the Son of _Menalcas_ the _Sicilian_, leaped for _Bombyca_ the Musician: Got rid of his Pa.s.sion with the Loss of his Right Leg and Arm, which were broken in the Fall.

_Melissa_, in Love with _Daphnis_, very much bruised, but escaped with Life.

_Cynisca_, the Wife of _aeschines_, being in Love with _Lycus_; and _aeschines_ her Husband being in Love with _Eurilla_; (which had made this married Couple very uneasy to one another for several Years) both the Husband and the Wife took the Leap by Consent; they both of them escaped, and have lived very happily together ever since.

_Larissa_, a Virgin of _Thessaly_, deserted by _Plexippus_, after a Courtship of three Years; she stood upon the Brow of the Promontory for some time, and after having thrown down a Ring, a Bracelet, and a little Picture, with other Presents which she had received from _Plexippus_, she threw her self into the Sea, and was taken up alive.

_N. B. Larissa_, before she leaped, made an Offering of a Silver _Cupid_ in the Temple of _Apollo_.

_Simaetha_, in Love with _Daphnis_ the _Myndian_, perished in the Fall.

_Charixus_, the Brother of _Sappho_, in Love with _Rhodope_ the Courtesan, having spent his whole Estate upon her, was advised by his Sister to leap in the Beginning of his Amour, but would not hearken to her till he was reduced to his last Talent; being forsaken by _Rhodope_, at length resolved to take the Leap. Perished in it.

_Aridaeus_, a beautiful Youth of _Epirus_, in Love with _Praxinoe_, the Wife of _Thespis_, escaped without Damage, saving only that two of his Fore-Teeth were struck out and his Nose a little flatted.

_Cleora_, a Widow of _Ephesus_, being inconsolable for the Death of her Husband, was resolved to take this Leap in order to get rid of her Pa.s.sion for his Memory; but being arrived at the Promontory, she there met with _Dimmachus_ the _Miletian_, and after a short Conversation with him, laid aside the Thoughts of her Leap, and married him in the Temple of _Apollo_.

_N. B._ Her Widows Weeds are still to be seen hanging up in the Western Corner of the Temple.

_Olphis_, the Fisherman, having received a Box on the Ear from _Thestylis_ the Day before, and being determined to have no more to do with her, leaped, and escaped with Life.

_Atalanta_, an old Maid, whose Cruelty had several Years before driven two or three despairing Lovers to this Leap; being now in the fifty fifth Year of her Age, and in Love with an Officer of _Sparta_, broke her Neck in the Fall.

_Hipparchus_ being pa.s.sionately fond of his own Wife who was enamoured of _Bathyllus_, leaped, and died of his Fall; upon which his Wife married her Gallant.

_Tettyx_, the Dancing-Master, in Love with _Olympia_ an Athenian Matron, threw himself from the Rock with great Agility, but was crippled in the Fall.

_Diagoras_, the Usurer, in Love with his Cook-Maid; he peeped several times over the Precipice, but his Heart misgiving him, he went back, and married her that Evening.

_Cinaedus_, after having entered his own Name in the Pythian Records, being asked the Name of the Person whom he leaped for, and being ashamed to discover it, he was set aside, and not suffered to leap.

_Eunica_, a Maid of _Paphos_, aged Nineteen, in Love with _Eurybates_.

Hurt in the Fall, but recovered.

_N. B._ This was her second Time of Leaping.

_Hesperus_, a young Man of _Tarentum_, in Love with his Masters Daughter. Drowned, the Boats not coming in soon enough to his Relief.

_Sappho_, the _Lesbian_, in Love with _Phaon_, arrived at the Temple of _Apollo_, habited like a Bride in Garments as white as Snow. She wore a Garland of Myrtle on her Head, and carried in her Hand the little Musical Instrument of her own Invention. After having sung an Hymn to _Apollo_, she hung up her Garland on one Side of his Altar, and her Harp on the other. She then tuck'd up her Vestments, like a _Spartan_ Virgin, and amidst thousands of Spectators, who were anxious for her Safety, and offered up Vows for her Deliverance, [marched[1]]

directly forwards to the utmost Summit of the Promontory, where after having repeated a Stanza of her own Verses, which we could not hear, she threw herself off the Rock with such an Intrepidity as was never before observed in any who had attempted that dangerous Leap. Many who were present related, that they saw her fall into the Sea, from whence she never rose again; tho there were others who affirmed, that she never came to the Bottom of her Leap, but that she was changed into a Swan as she fell, and that they saw her hovering in the Air under that Shape. But whether or no the Whiteness and Fluttering of her Garments might not deceive those who looked upon her, or whether she might not really be metamorphosed into that musical and melancholy Bird, is still a Doubt among the _Lesbians_.

_Alcaeus_, the famous _Lyrick_ Poet, who had for some time been pa.s.sionately in Love with _Sappho_, arrived at the Promontory of _Leucate_ that very Evening, in order to take the Leap upon her Account; but hearing that _Sappho_ had been there before him, and that her Body could be no where found, he very generously lamented her Fall, and is said to have written his hundred and twenty fifth Ode upon that Occasion.

_Leaped in this Olympiad_ [250 [2]]

Males 124 Females 126

_Cured_ [120[3]]

Males 51 Females 69

C.

[Footnote 1: [she marched]]

[Footnote 2: [350], and in first reprint.]

[Footnote 3: [150], corrected by an Erratum.]

No. 234. Wednesday, Nov. 28, 1711. Steele.

[_Vellum in amicitia erraremus_.