SYLVA 251 



might have sav'd their lives by it, as appears in the 

 story. The same reverence made that Hercules 

 would not so much as tast the waters of the ^Egerian 

 groves, after he slew Cacus, though extremely thirsty. 



1 The priestess said 



(A purple fillet binding her gray head) 

 Stranger, pry not, but quit this shady seat, 

 Avant, and whiles thou safely may'st, retreat, 

 To men forbid, and by hard sanction bound : 

 Far better other springs were by thee found. 



Nor indeed in such places was it lawful to hunt, 

 unless it were to kill for sacrifice, as we read in 

 Arrianus ; whence 'tis reported by Strabo, that in the 

 ./Etolian groves sacred to Diana, the beasts were so 

 tame, that the very wolves and stags fed together like 

 lambs, and would follow a man licking his hands, and 

 fawning on him. Such a grove was the Crotonian, 

 in which Livy writes, there was a spacious field like 

 St. James's Park, stored with all sorts of game. There 

 were many forests consecrated to Jupiter, Juno, and 

 Apollo ; especially the famous Epidaphne, near the 

 Syrian Antioch, which was most incomparably plea- 

 sant, and adorn 'd with fountains and rare statues. 

 2 There was to be seen the laurel which had been his 

 chast mistress, and in the centre of it his temple, an 

 asylum : Here it was Cosroes and Julian did sacrifice 

 upon several occasions, as Eusebius relates, but could 

 not with all their impious arts obtain an answer ; 



1 Puniceo canas stamine vincta comas : 

 Parce oculis, hospes, lucoque abscede verendo, 



Cede agedum, & tuta limina linque fuga 

 Interdicta viris ; metuenda lege piatur, 



Quae se summota vindicat ara casa 



Di tibi dent alios fontes Propert. iv. 9. 52. 



* See this delicious place elegantly described by S. Chrysostom, Lib. de 

 S. Babyl. Tom. VI. p. 671. Sozom. Lib. VI. cap. 19. Niceph. Lib. X. cap. 28. 



