5 65 T A M £ S W A N. Class IL 



Thefe birds were by the ancients confecrated to 

 Apollo and the Mufes -, 



• Ev&a kvwo; (AEhcodog 



Movrag SigaiTEVEi. Eurip\ IpBg* in Taar. tin. 1 104. 



And Callimachus, in his hymn upon the iflaad of 

 Deles, is frill more particular: 



■ ■ Kzwttu oe &eo'j [j.t?<7rovit; aoio'oi 

 Ahcviov TrazTcohov EKVtcXcocravro Kittovtzs 



"EhOG/JLOJCig W£$l AyiTMV. ETTYiEiOraV $£ hOXW 



"NLoveaw o(>v&£$, aciooTarai ttetevvqv. 

 EvSev 7rai$ Tcacragh Xvgy EVECr.o-aro xocoa; ' 

 ¥$T£gov, 07<jo.ki fcvxvoi £?r adtvEcra-tv aEicrav : 



- OyOQOV XK £7 a£'.7CC\-, l?E*&Qf&* 



When from Paflolus* golden banks 



Apollo's tuneful fongflers, fnowy fwans 



Steering their flight, feven times their circling courfe 



Wheel round the ifland, caroling mean time 



Soft melody, the favourites of the Nine, 



Thus ufhering to birth with dulcet founds 



The God of harmony, and hence fev'n firings 



Hereafter to his golden lyre he gave, 



For ere the eighth foft concert was begun 



He fprung to birth. . Dod's Callhnachus, p. 1 rtf. 



Upon this idea of their being peculiarly confecrated 

 to Apollo and the Mufes, (the deities of harmony) 

 feems to have been ingrafted,, the notion the an- 

 tients had of fwans being endowed with a mufical 

 voice. Tho' this might be one reafon for the fa- 

 ble -, yet, to us there appears another ftill ftronger, 



which 



