457 
MYRTUS. 
fume. The imitator of Virgil, in liis “ Gardens,” father. 
Rapin, whofe Latin poem would be more admired if it 
were better known, feems to have had this circumftance 
in view, when he wrote the following paflage: 
Et quondam, vt fama eft, cum primus aurca myvios 
Plantaret Venus nmbrofis Jub vallibus Idee, 
Nuda cohort Mas circum ludebat Amorum, 
Imcentem ad lunam, puree per tempura nodis. 
Quippe Venus myrtuni, plantis ex omnibus unam 
Ipfafibi optavit quondam propriamque dicavit. 
Non aliam <>b caufam, fua velant fimplice myrto 
'I'empora nuptce omties, adJ’olemnes Hymenceoe. 
Ipfa deum regina, toris preefeda mantis, 
Teediferas adhibet J'acra ad inyfteria myrtos. 
Hinc eliam Elyfiis in vallibus, omnis amantum 
Tnrba J'uas et habet myrtos, et myrtea circum 
Silva tegit, quos non vel amor pojl fata reliquit, 
Phcsdramque, trijlemque Procrin mcejlamque Eryphylen. 
Hortorum, lib. ii. 
When fair-hair’d Venus in fweet Ida’s vales 
Spread the firft myrtles to the gladdening gales, 
During the placid hours of filent night, 
And Phoebe’s filver crefcent (hining bright, 
A naked fwarm of cupids, finding foon 
The nafeent feented flirubbery, from the moon 
Stole filver fpangles to bedeck their flowers. 
Hence myrtles firft appear’d in Cynthia’s bowers. 
Hence myrtle-wreaths adorn the virgin hair 
To Hymen's altars when young brides repair. 
And myrtle-torches flied their facred lights 
O’er myfteries of chafte connubial rites. 
Hence thofe, whofe love ftill burns beyond the grave. 
In fields Elyfian myrtle-trees will have, 
Where Eryphyle, Phaedra, Procris, rove 
In the lone windings of a myrtle-grove. 
The poet proceeds, giving directions for the prefervation 
of this fhrub againlt the rigorous feafon of winter, as if 
the myrtle had naturally required more care in France 
than it does here. And, indeed, Virgil appears to have 
been of the fame opinion concerning them in Italy ; for, 
he fays j dam teneras defendo a frigore myrtos. Eel. vii. 6. 
“ Whilft I Ihelter my tender myrtles from the coldnefs of 
the weather." It was in winter, however, or late in autumn, 
that the Romans gathered the black-myrtle berries, Myrta 
cruerda, to make a fort of wine, which muft of courfe have 
been very bitter, but probably wholefome. The wine 
made of, orimpregnated with, the juice of myrtle-berries, 
was called Myrtodamrn. It was not the only inftance 
wherein the productions of this ufeful (hrub were admit¬ 
ted “ aux honneurs de la table ;’ v and it may have often 
happened, that the guefts, while their perfumed temples 
were bound with myrtle-chapiets, fnitidum caput impedire 
Hor. Od. i. 4, 9;) and their lips empurpled with 
rite drops of the Myrtodtimin, employed their teeth in 
maftieating the Myrtatim, a fort of pudding, in which, 
hiftead of pepper, myrtle-berries were introduced. It ap¬ 
pears alfo that, under the name of Myrtodanum, the Ro¬ 
mans knew a kind of Indian pepper, the fruit of a tree 
which relembled the Myrtus pimenta, or allfpice. 
The myrtle and its berries are ftyled bicolor by Ovid, 
on account of the different green of the leaves, and various 
degrees of purple in the berries. This flirub was among 
the obedient trees, which, by the charms of his lyre, the 
difconfolate Orpheus forced to take a deliberate walk and 
waltz up the fummit of Haemus : Et bicolor myrtus; (Met. 
book x. 98.) Myrtea Jiha J'ubcJl bico/oribus objita buecis; 
fib. xi, 234.) Plitedrus in the xviith fable of the third 
book, mentioning the trees which the gods relpeCfively 
placed under their protection, fays that the myrtle was 
cliofen by Venus : et myrtus placuit Veneri. Why the 
goddels of fleeting and temporary pleafures, of beauty 
that fades fo foon, of love that lafts fo fliort a time, ihould 
have feleCted an evergreen for her favourite tree, is not 
cafily accounted for, v.11 lefts it were to teach by con trait, 
Vol. XVI. No. 1126. 
and warn by oppofition. In confequence of this, myrtles 
have been admitted in all luxuriant deferiptions of Pa- 
phian bowers. Voltaire had too much tafte to forget them 
in his defeription of the Temple of Love : 
La, tous les champs voifins peuples de myrtes verds, 
N’ont jamais reflenti l’outrage des liivers. 
Henriade, Chant ix. 
Where could Anacreon, the conftant worfliipper of 
Venus, Cupid, and Bacchus, find himfolf more at eafe 
than under the perfumed (hades of a myrtle ihrtibbery ? 
His Firft Ode begins with thele words: 
Ewi pvpaivxu; Tepecan? 
Etts iva.it; 7roi«i; 
XropEca?, SsAw TrpoTrimv. 
Where myrtles checquer the green bowers, 
Where lotus fpreads her facred flowers, 
Reclining there, I love to drink. 
It appears, alfo, that myrtle-wreaths were ufed to adorn 
the viClors at the Ifthmic games, according to Pindar, 
when they had twice obtained the prize. See Find. Iftm. 
Od. iv. 
The -lack juice of the berries, and the circumftance of 
darts and lances being made of myrtle-twigs, furnilhed 
the fanciful mind of the Mantuan bard with the curious 
(lory of Polydorus, related in the third book of the/Eneid. 
Paufanias, Pliny, See. mention the myrtle as belonging to 
Venus; and Ariftophanes, in his play of “ the Birds,” 
fays, that myrtles are II ■A-o'resvp.ct.ra. ; 
“ the Virginal Gardens ot the Graces.” 
Venus and Mars were fo intimately united by the en¬ 
dearments of love, that the myrtle of pieafure was often 
let by the laurel of victory. Hence Virgil lays: et te (hturi ) 
proxima myrte. “ The laurel and the myrtle fweets agree.” 
Eel. ii. 54. Javelins were made of myrtle ; and Camilla 
is reprelented at the head of her troops, with a myrtle- 
fpear in her hand : Pujlorahm prcejixa cufpide MyrCum. 
Dryden tranflates thus: 
She (hakes her myrtle jav’lin, and behind 
Her Lycian quiver dances in the wind. JEn. vii. 
But what eftabliflies molt indubitably the claim of the 
myrtle to military and martial fame, is the faCt which has 
been tranfmitted to us by Pliny, 1 . xv. c. 19. Triumphant 
de Sabinis Pofth. Tudertus, primus omnium ovans, tngrejfut 
urbem myrto coronatus, which palfage Rapin has ceruaed 
in the following manner: 
Is turn zirnts hmios myrto. Sibi vidor ov ant eft. 
Ilia nedebat quondam de fronde coronam, 
Tudertus, vietis que prior de more Sabiwis 
ImpoJuit capiti myrtum , inferuitque iriiempkis. 
Nor this the whole of all the myrtle’s praifo. 
Its verdant leaves attach’d to purple bays 
Enwreath’d the victor’s brow, when Sabines bled, 
And at Tudertus’ feet their weapons laid. 
By him a crown of myrtle firft was worn. 
And myrtles fince triumphal pomp adorn. 
We read in Nehemiah, ch. viii. ver. 15, that at the feaft 
of the tabernacles the myrtle was one of the ckofm trees, 
the boughs of which, were interwoven with palm and 
olive branches, and others, to form the bowers, or booths, 
under which the congregation l’at to hear the reading of 
the law of God. I11 Zechariah, k 8, 10, n, myrtle-trees 
are mentioned as growing in the wlley where the man ap¬ 
peared riding a red horle. But the meaning of this, pafi&ge 
is too abftruie for us to g.uefs why the myrtle (hould 
have been introduced in this typical vifion. 
The myrtle is a rare inftance of the fame name prevail¬ 
ing in the Greek and Latin, and all the modern European 
languages, with a very flight difference. Thus in. Greek 
it is pvfo-ir/i and pvfn 0$; in Latin, myrtus; in German it 
is myrte, or mynteubaum; in Dutch, myrtus ; in Daniill, 
myrtei-.; in Swedifli, niyrten; in French m.iriz.; in Italian 
and Spanifli, nitric; in Portuguese, murta , or myrta. But 
6 A a fearcher 
