sages
in this very poem : although he nowhere cites Orpheus by name. In
addition to what has been said above, as to the internal evidence to
its antiquity supplied by the composition itself, its poetry is
certainly of better quality than could have been produced by a Greek of
the Lower Empire, especially when treating on religious topics. It is
of a totally different stamp from that of the Sibylline Oracles,
forgeries of that period.
Who
the narrator is does not appear. The precepts are given in the first
place by a certain diviner, Theodamas, to his unnamed host (who retails
them in these verses), and he then goes on to the end with the
instructions of the same nature imparted by Helenus to Philoc-tetes.
The ' Tale of Troy ' and the events of the siege being frequently
referred to by Theodamas, the absurdity of supposing the author to he
Orpheus, becomes yet more conspicuous ; that worthy having been the
companion of the Argonauts in the preceding generation. The text bf the
MSS. being extremely corrupt, I have not scrupled in my version to
adopt the conjectures of Gesner and Tyrwhit, wherever it was impossible
otherwise to extract a sense from the old readings.
Epiphanius, bishop
of Salamis in Cyprus, composed (about A.n. 400) a small tract ' Upon
the Twelve Stones of the Kationale in Aaron's Breastplate ; ' which St.
Jerome mentions as having been presented to him by " that holy man "
its author ; unable, clearly, to say anything more in its praise. In
this compilation, the worthy prelate appears, occasionally, to be
referring to some valuable sources then accessible ; but most
provokingly he either makes use of them from memory, or else
transcribes without understanding their meaning ; the latter the most
probable explanation. In his attempt to condense his originals, his
notices are become full of the most palpable blunders, and
