SECT. I.
Neptune. His Name and Descent.
THIS is a glorious and beautiful Scene. Are those the Gods of the Waters? Are these the Marine Gods, whose numerous Companies are carried all over the liquid Plains of the Sea in Shells.
Those are the Gods, the Presidents, the Princes of the vast Finny Regions, and the Moderators of the flowing Waves.
And who is that King with black Hair,* and blue Eyes, who holds a Scepter in his Hand like a Fork with three Trines,* and is so beautifully arrayed in Garments of Azure? He appears handsomely in his Chariot, and is sur∣rounded Page 260 with a great Guard of Fishes or Men, I cannot tell which; for their upper Part has the shape of a Man, but their lower part the shape of a Fish.
It is Neptune; whose Name is derived by the change of a few Letters from Nubendo, says Varro; quod mare terras obnubat; because the Sea encompasses, embraces, and as it were, covers the Land. Or, as others believe, he is so called from the AEgyptian Word (Nephthen) which signifies the Coasts and Promontories, and other Parts of the Earth which are wash∣ed by the Waters. So that Tully (in lib. 2. de Nat. Deor.) who derives Neptune à Nando, is either mistaken, or the place (as Lipsius thinks) is corrupt. Bochart.
It is Neptune, I say, the Governour of the Sea, the Father of the Rivers and the Fountains, and the Son of Saturn by Ops. His Mother preserved him from the devouring Jaws of Sa∣turn (who, as we remarked above, Eat up all the Male Children that were born to him) by by giving Saturn a young Foal to eat, in his stead. In Greek he is called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉; quia 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, vinculum pedibus injicit; he binds our feet from walking upon the Waters. Plut. in Cra•.
When he came to Age, Saturn's Kingdom was divided by Lot, and the Maritim parts fell to him. He and Apollo, by Iupiter's Command, served Laomedon, in building the Walls of Troy; because he and some other Gods had plotted against Iupiter. Then he took Am∣phitrite to Wife (so called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, quòd mare terram circumterat, because Page 261 the Sea beats upon the Land all about;) He was repulsed by her a great while, but at last by the assistance of a Dolphin, and by the power of Flattery, he gained her. To recompense which kindness, the Dolphin was exalted to the Stars and made a Constellation. Nep∣tune had two other Wives besides, Salacia, so named from Salum, the Sea, or the salt water towards the lower part and bottom of the Sea, as S. Austin explains the word. (De Ci∣vit D.) And Venilia, from veniendo; because the Sea goes and comes with the Tide; it ebbs and flows by turns.
