Natural Hiftory of the Ancients. 1 97 



That the rofe came from the Eaft to the Greeks, 

 is teflified by the fact of Homer knowing nothing 

 of the rofe as a flower. He did, indeed, know of 

 attar of rofes, for (" Iliad," xxiii. i86)he makes 

 Aphrodite anoint the corpfe of Hector with " oil 

 of rofes." 1 In his time, the rofe itfelf had not 

 been imported into Greece. The fame fact is 

 evidently alluded to by his conftant ufe of " rofy- 

 fingered" as an epithet of the dawn (which may 

 be compared with our own poet's "God made 

 Himfelf an awful rofe of dawn "), and of Aphro- 

 dite herfelf. Thus the introduction of her worfhip 

 into Greece has been actually afcribed to the 

 Phoenicians, who, we know, did bring there the 

 planetary worfhip of the AfTyrians. Moreover, 

 "Aphrodite is placed by Homer in relation with 

 the Charites, Eaftern perfonages, whofe name 

 correfponds with the Sanfcrit Harits, meaning 

 originally 'bright/ and afterwards the horfes of 

 the dawn." 2 It is curious that the rofe, fave with 

 the lyric poets, does not feem to have been a great 

 favourite. Sophocles prefers the hyacinth. The 

 dramatic poets, concentrating their thoughts on 

 the tragedy of man's feeling and actions, difre- 

 garded it as a creature of a wholly different, a 

 lower and a frivolous world. Anacreon naturally 

 celebrates the flower, and does fo more than any 

 other Greek finger : 



1 " Poeta rofam non norit, oleum ex rofa norit " (Aul. Cell., 

 xiv. 6, 3). Cnf., too, Pliny, " Nat. Hift.," xxi. 4. 



2 W. E. Gladftone, "Juventus Mundi," p. 315; and fee 

 Max Mailer's " Effay on Comparative Mythology." (" Oxford 

 Effays," 1856, p. 8 1.) 



