tuas accolit Haeme Nyues The Sabaeans and the Thessalians inhabiting the snowie mountaine Haemus vsed dogges in their oblations Of her Temple at Ephesus it shall not bee amisse to speake a word or two by the way Plutarch in his booke De vitando Aere alieno saith that the Temple of Diana was a Sanctuarie wherein all debtors were safe from their creditours As the Vestalls of Rome had the time of their seruice distinguished into three parts in the first to learne the mysteries of Vesta in the second to do the ceremonies and in the third to instruct others that were ignorant so amongst the Priests of Diana in Ephesus the first order of them gaue them the name of Melieres that is to be capable of the Priesthood but not admitted the second was Hieres that was in present office the third Parieres that was dead from the seruice This statelie and magnificent structure was first erected by the Amazons so beautifull and sacred that when Xerxes had with sword and fire wasted and demolisht all the Temples of Asia he spared onelie that as the richest iewell of the world It is reported of one Herostratus a wicked and debosht fellow who finding in himselfe nothing good to preserue his memorie and willing that his name should liue to posteritie set this Temple on fire for no other purpose but that hee would bee talkt on the Ephesians vnderstanding this his malicious ambition they made it death once to name him Cornelius Nepos writes that the same night that this famous structure was ruin'd and defaced by fire Alexander was borne in Pella in the three hundered and eighth yeare after the building of Rome so that at the extinguishing of one light of the world another was kindled It being demanded of one of Dianaes priests Why Diana being a goddesse would suffer her Temple to be vtterlie destroyed and what she was doing the while It was answered againe That it was done vnawares to the goddesse for she was that night at the labour of Olimpias and busied about bringing Alexander into the world Notwithstanding this great ruine the people of Ephesus caused it to bee re-erected and made both richer and more beautifull than before of which worke Dinocrates an Architectour of Macedonia was chiefe Diana as Plutarch in his Simposaicon saith is called Elitheia or Lucina as also Locheia as goddesse of child-birth she is called also Dictinna And in his Solertia animalium that Apollo would be called Lycoconos and Diana Multicida Elaphibolos The one for killing so many Wolues the other Harts Amongst the Aegyptians she is called Bubastis she is celebrated witnesse Herodotus amongst the Thressae and the Peloniates amongst the Bizantians she hath the name of Diana Orthosia The Poets faine that she is continuallie exercised in hunting for no other reason but to instruct and incourage all such as prophesse virginitie to shunne sloath and idlenes so Ouid Otia si tollas periere cupidinis arcus Take sloath away aud Cupids bow vnbends His brands extinguish and his false fire spends Diana and Phoebus were therefore said to be the children of Latona because in that the ancient Poets would signifie the beginning of the world for when the matter whereof it was made was a meere confused Masse and without shape because all things were obscure and hid that darknes is signified in Latona and whereas they make Iupiter their Father it imports as much as if they should fetch Iupiter out of this darknes called the Sun and the Moone More plainelie the Spirit of the Lord said Let there be light of which Light Apollo and Diana the one by day and the other by night are the greatest by this inferring that the generation of the world began first from Light CERES THe Goddesse of fruites and graine and daughter to Saturne and Ops a Law-giuer to the Sicilians therefore by Virgill called Segifera In Eleusis a cittie of Attica she had diuine worship because she there taught plantation and agriculture and of that place had the name of Elusina she was honoured in the mount Aetna in Aenna and Catana two citties of Cicilie From whence as Claudian relates she had the name of Aetnaea Aennaea and Catanensiâ— the like doth Selius c. Lactantius reports that into these her Temples erected in these citties it was not lawfull for any man to enter The manner of the rights among the Phigalenses were that no Sacrifices should bee slayne onely the fruits of planted trees Hony-combs and new shorne wooll were laide vpon the Altar and sprinkled with sweete oyle and were set a fire burnt and offered these Customes were priuatelie and publikelie obserued yearelie as Pausanias left recorded The Argiues sacrifice to this goddesse by the name of Ceres Clithonia vpon certaine set dayes in the Summer after this manner Their Sacrificiall pompe is attended by the chiefe Magistrates of the cittie after which companie the women and children next followed the boyes all in white roabes with chaplets about their browes of Hiacinthes interwouen and in the lagge end of the same troope were driuen a certaine number of faire and goodlie oxen but bound in strict bands and drag'd towards the Temple being thither come one of these beasts with his cords loosed was driuen in the rest of the people standing without the gates and looking on who no sooner see him entred but shut the gates vpon him within the Temple are foure olde women priests with hatchets and kniues by whom he is slaine and one of them hath by lot the office to cut off the head of the sacrifice This done the doores are againe set open and the rest one by one forc't in and so in order by the same women slayne and offered In a booke of the scituation of Sicilie composed by Cl. Marius Aretius a Patritian and of Syracusa Intituled Chorographia Siciliae In the cittie Aenna saith he as Strabo consenting with him were borne Ceres and her daughter Libera whom some call Proserpina From which place shee was rap't and therefore is this cittie to her sacred Neere to this cittie is a riuer of an infinite depth whose mouth lyeth towards the North from whence it is said Dis or Pluto with his chariot made ascent and harrieng the virgin thence to haue penetrated the earth againe not farre from Syracusa This is that most ancient Ceres whom not Sicilia onely but all other nations whatsoeuer celebrated Most certaine it is that she was Queene of the Sicilians and gaue them lawes taught them the vse of tillage and husbandrie and that her daughter Libera was transported thence by Orcus or Dis king of the Molossians In her Temple part of which not many yeares since was standing were two statues of Marble one sacred to her another to Proserpina another of brasse beautifull and faire but wondrous antient At the entrance into the Church in an open place without were two other faire portraitures one of her another of Triptolemus large and of exquisite
she frees the bodie from a thousand paines and diseases deliuers the subiect from the crueltie of the tyrant makes the begger equall with his prince She to all good men is acceptable and welcome only dreadfull to the wicked who haue a presage and feare of punishments to come Alcidâ—â—â—us writ an excellent booke in the praise of Death hauing a large and copious argument in which he stroue to expresse with what an equall sufferance and modest patience she was to be entertained Of the same argument writes Plutarch in Consolator for life is nothing els but a light lent vs by the Creator of all mankind which if it be redemanded of vs ought no more grudgingly to be paid back than comming to a friends house to bee merrie in the morning and hauing feasted there all the day to returne to our home at night or to pay back what wee borrow to the owner For there is no iniurie done to vs if God demaunde that back at our hands which hee hath before but lent vs. Now from the daughter to come backe to the mother and know what is allegorically meant by Night These pests mischeifes before commemorated are therfore sayd to be her sonnes and daughters because the ignorance and mallice of man which is indeed the night of the mind is the parent and nurse of all calamities incident to vs yet may some of their violences by wisedome be mitigated though not frustrated of their ends namely Age Loue Fate Death and the like who though they be in perpetuall motion their speed may bee slackned though not stayd and their pace slowed though not quite stopt She was called the most Antient because before the Heauens and the Sunne were created there was no light extant which is said to proceede from the lower parts of the earth in regard that the Sunne compassing the world when he lights the Antipodes with his beames the earth shadowes them from vs which shaddow is nothing else than Night She is called the mother of all as being before the birth of any thing The word Nox is deriued à Nocendo of hurting or harming the reason is as some Phisitions hold opinion because the corrupt humors of the night are infectious and dangerous especially to men any way diseased of which there is continuall experience in all such as haue either woundes or aches or agues or feauers or the like to all such weakenesses or imperfections the humors of the Night are still most hurtfull and obnoxious And so much breifly what morally can be gathered by that which hath bin fabulously commented of Night That Sleepe could not fasten on the eyes of Iupiter it is intended not to bee conuenient for him that hath the charge protection of the whole Vniuerse to whose care and foresight the administration and guidance of all things are committed should so much as slumber or wincke at all neither doth the diuine Nature need any rest to repaire and comfort his troubled spirits when he is not capable of either labour or discommoditie And Lethe is called the sister of Somnus in regard that by our naturall repose wee for the time forget all paine anguish or trouble Because he comes to many creatures and at the same time he is said to be winged in regard the humor of the Night encreaseth the vapours of the stomach ascending to the higher parts of the body which after by the frigiditie of the braine descend againe lower and more coole by which Sleepe is begot hee is therefore not vnproperly called the sonne of Night which Night calls me now to rest with the finishing of this second booke called EVTERPE Explicit Lib. 2. THE THIRD BOOKE of Women inscribed THALIA Treating of Illustrious Queenes Famous Wiues Mothers Daughters c. Containing the Histories of sundry Noble Ladies GOrgias held opinion that Women were not to be honored according to their forme but their fame preferring actuall vertue before superficial beautie to incorage which in their sex funerall orations were allowed by the Roman Lawes to be celebrated for all such as had beene either presidents of a good and commendable life or otherwise illustrious for any noble or eminent action And therefore least the matrons or virgins in Rome the one should diuert from her stayed grauitie or the other from her virgins professed integritie the vse of Wine was not knowne amongst them for that woman was taxed with immodestie whose breath was knowne to smell of the grape Pliny in his naturall historie saith That Cato was of opinion That the vse of kissing first began betwixt kinsman and kinswoman howsoeuer neere allide or farre off onelie by that to know whether their wiues daughters or neeces had tasted any wine to this Iuuenall seemes to allude in these verses Paucae adeo cereris vittas contingere digna Quarum non time at pater oscula As if the father were iealous of his daughters continence if by kissing her he perceiued she had drunke wine But kissing and drinking both are now growne it seemes to a greater custome amongst vs than in those dayes with the Romans nor am I so austeare to forbid the vse of either both which though the one in surfets the other in adulteries may be abused by the vicious yet contrarilie at customarie meetings and laudable banquets they by the nobly disposed and such whose hearts are fixt vpon honour may be vsed with much modestie and continence But the purpose of my tractate is to exemplifie not to instruct to shew you presidents of vertue from others not to fashion any new imaginarie forme from my selfe and that setting so many statues of honour before your eyes of Beautie Noblenesse Magnanimitie Bountie Curtesie Modestie Temperance and whatsoeuer else in goodnes can be included each heroick and well disposed Ladie or woman lower degreed and vnderâ—qualified may out of all or some of these at least apprehend some one thing or other worthie imitation that as the best of Painters to â—â—law one exquiâ—it Veâ—us had set before him a hundred choise and selected beauties all naked to take from one an eye another a lippe a third a smile a fourth a hand and from each of them that speciall lineament in which she most excelled so hauing in these papers as many vertues exposed to your view as the Painter had beauties all left as naked to your eies you may make like vse of it draw from one a noble disposition bountie and curtesie the ornaments of great Ladies from others temperance sobrietie and gouernement things best beseeming matrons the married wiues coniugall loue and sinceritie the virgins chast life and puritie and euerie of you fashion her selfe as complete a woman for vertue as Apelles made vp the purtraiture of his goddesse for beautie I need not speake much of the worth of your sex since no man I thinke that remembers hee had a mother but honours it the renowne of which â—ome by their vertues haue as much
and Helicon Aboue others most magnified by Ouid Metamorph. lib. 6. is Arachne Lydia the daughter of Idmones whose mother was borne in the small citie Hypepis shee hauing by many degrees exceeded all mortall women and that without difficultie durst compare with Minerua her selfe who for her boldnesse and pertinacie she turned into a Spyder Her controuersie with Pallas is with great elegancie expressed in Ouid. Alexander of Macedon and Octauius Augustus the one wore a Garment woauen by his Mother the other a Mantle by the hands of his Wife These Ladies had sequestred places in some part of their Pallaces and kept their handmaids and damosells at worke of which these two potent and mightie Queenes disdayned not to bee the dayly Directoresses and Ouer-seers Alexand. ab Alex. cap. 4. lib. 8. Part of the Wooll which Tanaquil spunne with her Distaffe Spindle and Slippers were long time reserued as sacred Reliques in the Temple of Ancus Martius as also a Kingly Garment or Imperiall Roabe woauen quite through with Rayes and Flames of Gold wrought with her owne hand in which Seruius Tullius oft went in state and sat in the high Iudgement-Seat in the Capitoll Varro apud eundem By the Law called Pagana all women were forbidden to spinne or draw out any thread in the streetes or the common high-wayes because they held it ominous to the prosperitie of the Graine sowne in the Earth or the Fruits blossomed or growing vpon the Trees as the same Author testifies Ausonius speakes of one Sabina not onely excellent in this Science but a Poet withall which he left to posteritie in one of his Epigrams Siue probas Tyrio textam sub tegmine vestra Seu placet inscripti commoditus tituli c. Which is thus Englished If thou affect'st a purple Roabe Woauen in the Tyrian staine Or if a Title well inscrib'd By which thy wit may gaine Behold her workes vnpartially And censure on them well Both one Sabina doth professe And doth in both excell And thus I take leaue of weauing for Memorie now transports me to another Argument Of Women Contentious and Bloodie TExtor in his Officine remembers vs of one Kailla who was of that barbarous and inhuman crueltie that being at dissention with her husband Vazules she hauing banished all coniugall pietie and pittie caused his eyes to be digged out of his head spending the remainder of his age in vncomfortable darknesse These subsequent stories of flintie and obdure hearted women though I could willingly haue spared them out of this worke that the world might almost be induced to beleeue that no such immanities could euer haue place in the smooth soft bosomes of women yet in regard I haue promised briefly to run ouer all Ages Features Affections Conditions and Degrees though they might perhaps haue beene thought well spared by some yet I make no question but they might be challenged at my hands by others The rather I present them and with the more confidence vnto your view because though their actions to the tender brested may seeme horrid and feareful and therfore the hardlier to purchase credit yet the testimonie of the Authors being authenticke and approoued will not onely beare me out as their faithfull remembrancer but in the things themselues fasten an inherent beleefe I proceed therfore Cyrce the Witch slew the king of Sarmatia to whom shee was married and vsurping the regall Throne did much oppresse her subiects of her Sabellicus writes more at large Clitemnestra was the wife of Agamemnon Archduke or Generall of the Gretians at the siege of Troy she by the helpe of Aegistus with whom she adultrated slew her husband of this Virgill speakes lib. 11. Seneca in Agamemnonae and Iuvenall in Satyr Danaus the sonne of Belus had fiftie daughters who were espoused to the fiftie sonnes of Aegistus these made a coniuration in one night to kill all their husbands which they accordingly did all saue the yongest Hypermnestra who spared the life of her husband Lynceus Senec. Hercul Fur. Alexander Phaereus a tyrant of Thessaly when hee had shewed his wife naked to a certaine Barbarian she tooke it so impatiently that she cut his throat sleeping Ouid in Ibin Volaterranus reports that Albina daughter to a king of Syria had two and thirtie sisters who all in one night slew their husbands who beeing exild their countrey landed in Brittaine and that of this Albina this Kingdome first tooke the name of Albion Laodice was the wife of Antiochus king of Syria who caused himselfe to be cald God She poysoned her husband because of his too much familiaritie with Berenice the sister of Ptolome Fabia slew Fabius Fabriclanus that shee might the more freely inioy the companie of Petronius Volentanus a young man of extraordinarie feature with whom shee had often before accompanied Agrippina poysoned her husband Tiberius Claudius the Emperor Lucilla the wife of Antonius Verus Emperor poysoned her husband because she thought him too familiar with Fabia Galeotus prince of Forolinium married with the daughter of Ioannes Bentiuolus of whom being despised and finding her selfe neglected she hyred certaine cut-throat Phisitians who slew him in his chamber Andreas the sonne of Carolus king of Pannonia was slaine by his wife Ioanna Queene of Cicily for no other reason but that he was idle and held vnprofitable to the weale publique Althaea sorrowing that her two brothers Plexippus and Toxeus were slaine by her sonne Meleager shee burned that Brand of which the fatal Sisters had made a prediction That his life and health should continue as long as that was preserued Ouid Trist. lib. 1. Bocat in Geneol Agaue a Theban woman slew her sonne Penthâ—us because he would not honour the feast of the Bachinalls with the rest of the Menades Virgill in Culice Ericthaeus taking armes against Eumolpus and hauing an answere from the Oracle That he should haue a certaine victorie if he would sacrifice his only daughter to the gods by the persuasion of his wife Praxitha gaue her vp to slaughter Euripides apud Plutarch Elearchus one of the kings of Creet at the persuasion of his second wife Phronima commaunded his onely daughter by the hand of one Themisones to bee cast into the riuer and there drowned Herodot Polidice betrayde her father king Pletera to Creon king of Thebes and caused him to bee slaine as likewise Nisus being besieged by Minâ—s by the treason of his daughter lost that purple hayre which was the stay of his soueraigntie Ouid Metam and Seruius Tiphon Aegiptius as Berosus Seneca Diodorus and others relate slew his brother Osiris then raigning in Aegypt and gouerning iustly which done hee caused him to be cut into twentie six pieces and to euerie one of the conspirators gaue a part the better to secure him of their fidelities but Isis their sister after she had lamented the