.^88 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



(a mountainous part of Epirus, so called from Chaon, 

 one of the sons of Priam), was a forest of Oaks, called 

 the Chaonian, or Dodonean Forest, where oracles were 

 given, as some say, by the trees themselves ; according 

 to others, by the winds of the forest that whispered 

 through them ; and others maintain that they were pro- 

 nounced by sacred doves. Virgil sometimes applies the 

 epithet Chaonian to Jove himself, from this forest, which 

 was consecrated to him : 



" Chaoniique patris glandes:" 



^'^ The acorns of our Chaonian father." 



Ovid distinguishes the Chaonian Oak from the Esculus. 

 Among the trees assembled to hear the lyre of Orpheus, 

 he mentions the Chaonian tree : 



" Chaonis abfuit arbos.'' 



And afterwards the Esculus : 



" — — ' non frondibus esculis altis." 



Speaking of the simple food of the ancients; as the 

 fruit of the Arbutus, &c. he adds, 



" Et qufE deciderant patula Jovis arbore glandes." 



" And acorns dropping from the tree of Jove." 



Dr. Orger's Ovid. 



Lucan, speaking of trees felled in a sacred wood, says, 



" Then Jove's Dodonean tree was forced to bow.'' 



Rowe's Lucan. 



Wordsworth alludes to the oracle of Jupiter : 



