20 



ETNA 



[Ch. XXYI. 



this lie says was the third eruption which had happened in 

 Sicily since the colonisation of that island by the Greeks * 

 The second of the three eruptions alluded to by the historian 

 took place in the year 475 b. c, and was that so poetically 

 described by Pindar, two years afterwards, in his first 

 Pythian ode : — 



' . KiOCV 



A' ovpavia awex^' 

 HKpoeffa AiTva, -navfres 

 Xwvos o|6ios Ti6-nva. 



In these and the seven verses which follow, a graphic de- 

 scription is given of Etna, such as it appeared five centuries 



Truncated appearance of the summit of Etna on the north-west side, as seen from 



near Bronte. — From Sartorius von Waltershausen's Atlas, plate 2. 



a. Modern cone. 



6, c. Margin of highest platform. 



d. Minor cones. 



before the Christian era^ and such as it has been seen wlien 

 in eruption in modern times. The poet is only maknig a 

 passing allusion to the Sicilian volcano, as the mountain 

 under which Typhseus lay buried, yet by a few touches oinis 

 master hand every striking feature of the scene has been 

 faithfully portrayed. We are told of ' the snowy Etna^ the 

 pillar of heaven — the nurse of everlasting frost, in whose deep 

 caverns lie concealed the fountains of unapproachable fire 

 a stream of eddying smoke by day — a bright and ruddy fl^i^^ 



fi 



C^-' 



% 



^V' 



1)/ ^"^ 



111: 



•st ce^ 



1 



in 



ai 



* 



in 



liad i» 

 longer g 



been P^ 

 relates 1 



and it ^ 

 1321 



1444, 



1669. 



.tell lia' 

 the a 



last all 



&st B 



levellet 

 situate 



20 mi 

 at Cai 

 wheiici 

 that ill 



foi'DiecI, 

 liigli. 

 the 

 Afi 



com 



ssur 



no: 



a loud 



anthill 

 from 



iiiost viv 

 able lei 



emitted 

 lieard 



Pi'eseiit 



for 



a 



1 

 t] 



iiied. ■ 



^tna . ' 



* Book iii,, at the end. 



f( 



