Chass IL TAME: SWAN: 
to be real, which philosophers and poets only 
meant metaphorically. 
In time a swan became a common trope for 
a Bard; Horace calls Pindar, Dirceum cygnum, 
and in one ode even supposes himself changed 
into a swan; Virgil speaks of his poetical bre- 
thren in the same manner, 
Vare, tuum nomen 
Cantantes sublime ferent ad sydera cygni. Eclog. IX. 
When he speaks of them figuratively, he ascribes 
to them melody, or the power of music; but 
when he talks of them as birds, he lays aside 
fiction, and like a true naturalist gives them 
their real note, 
Dant sonitum rauci per stagna loquacia cygni. Zneid. Lib. XI. 
Thus he, as well as Pliny,* in fact, gave no 
credit to the music of swans. Aristotle speaks 
of it only by hearsay,t but, when once an er- 
ror is started, it is not surprizing that it is adopt- 
ed, especially by poets, men of all others of 
the most unbounded imagination. For this tea- 
son poets were said to animate swans, from the 
notion that they flew higher than any other 
birds, and Hesiod distinguishes them by the 
epithet of xwxvo aegomora,t “ the lofty flying 
swans.” Thus Horace, whilst he humbly com- 
= Lib, Xe: 33. + Hist. an. 1045. 
t Scué. Here. 1. 316. 
MO: IN. Q 
225 
