290 SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



Martyn observes, that Virgil poetically speaks of 

 Chaonian or Dodonean acorns for acorns in general, 

 those being the most celebrated. It appears that, when 

 speaking merely of the trees or acorns, the word Chaonian 

 is commonly used, but in such passages as relate to Jove, 

 or to the sacred oracles, directly or indirectly, we gene- 

 rally find the word Dodonean. This, however, is by no 

 means invariable : witness the following passage from 

 Virgil ; yet this bears some reference to the sacred nature 

 of the place : 



" Prima Ceres ferro mortalis vertere terrain 

 Instituit : quum jam glandes atque arbuta sacra? 

 Deficerent silvae, et victum Dodona uegaret." 



Georgic i. 



" Ceres first taught mankind to plough the' ground, when mast 

 and arbutes began to fail in the sacred wood, and Dodona denied 

 them sustenance." 



MARTYN'S Translation. 



Spenser also alludes to this circumstance : the goddess 

 was supposed to have instructed Triptolemus in agri- 

 culture, and to have lent him her chariot, in which he 

 travelled all over the earth, distributing corn to the 

 inhabitants : 



" The oak, whose acorns were our food, before 

 That Ceres' seed of mortal man was known, 

 Which first Triptoleme taught how to be sown." 



In gratitude and commemoration of this gift, the Oak 

 was worn in the festivals in honour of Ceres, as also by 

 the husbandmen in general, at the commencement of the 

 harvest. There is an old Greek proverb, in which a 

 man's age and experience are expressed by saying that 

 he had eaten of Jove^s acorns. 



