Diomedes, that bloody king of Thrace, fed his horses with    mans-flesh; whom Hercules fed with the flesh of the Tyrant. A punishment agreeable to the law both of God and man, that offenders should suffer what themselues inflicted. But Palephates, a confuter of such like stories, reports how Diomedes was one who had wasted his estate by keeping of Horses: a prodigality deriued from the Greeks to the Romans:

He dares presume t' expect a Regiment, Who all his substance hath in mangers spent. And, what his Ancestors had left, forsakes; While he Flaminia with swift charriot rakes.8

For which cause Diomedes friends cal'd his horses man-eaters. But other Authors affirme that Diomedes horses were his lasciuious daughters, who wasted the substance and strength of their louers: horses being the ancient Hieroglyphick of lust; as such desires in the sacred Scriptures are compared to their neighings. For there is no creature so prone vnto Venus as a Mare; and therefore fained to conceaue with the Wind:

But Mares most furious: then by Venus stung When Potnean Charriot wretched Glaucus flung, And tare in peeces. Led by loue, they skud O're Gargarus, Ascania's roring flood; Swim riuers, mountaines clime, when that fire stewes Their greedy marrowes, and the Spring renewes Heat in their bones. They to high cliffes repaire; And yawning to the west, that gentle aire Suck in with pleasure: when (what's strange to tell:) Vnbackt by horse, with Foles their bellies swell. O're cragges, high hills, and lowly dales they runne: Not to thee Eurus and the rising Sunne, Boreas, nor Caurus; or where Auster vales Sad heauen with clowdes, and earth with showres assailes. That poyson trickles from the groynes of these, Which rightly rurals call Hyppomenes: Hyppomenes, which oft dire step-dames vse; With wicked charmes, and banefull weeds infuse.9

Others apply this fable to his riotous followers, maintained by his excessiue tributes & exactions; feeding, as it were, on the bowels of his miserable subiects. But Diomedes horses, together with their master, were slaine by Hercules: cruelty, auarice, and vncleanenesse, chastized, or confounded by the zeale of virtue.
    A Lyon of huge proportion, whose skin no steele could    penetrate, frequenting the Nemaean woods and fields of Mycena, was encountred and strangled by Hercules; who euer after wore his hide for defence and terror. This may be no fable, since the like was performed by Sampson (supposed by some the same man) and after by little Dauid. Yet hereby is vnderstood the fortitude of the minde, against which no bodily strength can preuaile; being euer adorned with the spoyle of the vanquished. But Heraclides conceaues that the same was deuised in regard of the selfe-cure of his owne furious melancholy, producing a temporary distraction; which gaue an argument to the tragicall Poets. And surely these his conquests ouer beasts and monsters were chiefly invented to expresse the excellency of Virtue in subduing inordinate affections: as Intemperance by the Bore, rash Temerity by the Lyon, by the Bull Anger, Panick Feare by the Hart, Vncleanesse of life by Augeus his stable, by the Stymphalides Auarice, by Hydra Ignorance, by the Centaures lust, &c. And therefore many of them placed by Virgil, as vices, before the gates of Hell.

There Centaures, there the hissing Hydra stands, Scylla, Briarius with his hundred hands, Fire-arm'd Chimaera's, Harpyes full of rape, Snaky hair'd Gorgons, Geryons triple shape.10

Hercules is mystically taken for the Sunne, to whom the Lyon is sacred, in that his mayne resembles the raies of the other; the one called Iuba, and the other Iubar.
    Cacus, a mighty Gyant, the son of Vulcan, depopulated that    part of Italy which lies about Mount Aventine with his robberies: said to vomit fire, in that he burnt the corne on the ground, and enuiously destroyed, what he could not reap. He, while Hercules slept, stole away the fairest of his Oxen; and drew them into his Caue by their tayles, that no impression might be seene of any feet going thether. A subtilty deriued from the shee Beare, who euer backward retires to her den, that shee might not be traced by the Hunter. But these discouered by their bellowings, Hercules forced his Caue, and brained Cacus, breathing clowds of smoke, with his Club. Now Cacus is by interpretation Euill; which lurkes in Caues, in that neuer secure; when Hercules, or Virtue vindicates his owne, by the destruction of the other; although with hypocrisie and fraudulent mists he endeauour to conceale himselfe.
    Hercules sustaineth heauen, his last labour, on his shoulders:    of which thus Iuno in his tragedy.

He shewes, by bearing Heauen, how he may gaine Heauen by his force. Whose shoulders did sustaine The world: nor shrunk beneath so great a fraught; Prest with the Poles, the starres; what more, might waight.11

For the fable goes how Atlas, who sate on a mighty mountaine, and supported Heauen on his backe, desired Hercules, hauing heard of his surpassing strength, to ease him for a while in bearing of his burthen; who readily vndertooke it. As Atlas was said to haue supported Heauen in regard of the heigth of that mountaine which carries his name, and of his excellency in Astronomy: so Hercules, skilfull in that art, hauing trauelled to the vttermost bounds of the Earth to increase his knowledge by conferring with Atlas, is said to haue assisted him, by informing him in many secrets which before he knew not. Nor wants the fable a morall; declaring how those who patiently vndergoe the burthens which are imposed by Heauen, shall at length with Hercules inioy euen Heauen it selfe, the reward of their sufferance.
    And here is an end of the Heroicall actions of Hercules: whereof those mentioned in these ensuing verses haue onely the repute of his labours.

First he the grim Cleonian Lyon slew: Next Hydra did with sword the fire subdew: The Erimanthian Bore, with iauelin strooke: The Brasse-hou'd Stagge with golden antlers tooke: The chac'd Stymphalides his arrowes felt: From th' Amazonian won her precious belt: Then cleans'd Augeus stalls with ordure full: And vanquished the furious Cretan Bull: Sterne Diomed t' his rauenous horses threw: Three-headed Geryon in Iberia slew: The Hesperian Dragon-guarded Apples won: And skowling Cerberus shewd to the Sun.12

Although there were many Herculeses, as the Aegyptian, the Lybian, and the Tirinthian; yet the acts of them all were attributed by the Poets to this our Theban, the sonne of Iupiter and Alcmena.
    He continues his complaint against the malice of Iuno: not without some doubt that the Gods regarded not the actions of men, when the wicked prospered, and the good were oppressed with miseries and torments: cruell and vniust Euristheus liuing in prosperity, the instrument and imposer of all his calamities. But his tragicall end approued the contrary. This Euristheus was the sonne of Sthnelius king of Mycene, who by Iuno's instigation imposed these labours on Hercules with purpose to destroy him; being commanded to obay him in all things by Iupiter: the Oracle at Delphos fore-telling, how he, hauing finished those enterprizes, should obtaine a Deity. So are the virtuous not seldome aduanced by the malice of their enimies; and so craggy and thorny is that steepe ascent which leads vnto Glory.
    Discovered Lichas, who brought the impoysoned garment    halfe dead with feare now clings to the knees of Hercules: the custome of such as implored pitty, as appeares in all histories; and therefore the knee was called the seat of Mercy. But Isidorus renders a naturall reason, in regard of the affinity betweene the knees and the eyes, since they were contiguous in the womb of the mother: insomuch as the knees relent, and the eyes (the silent petitioners) shed teares when they reioyne, as renewing in the memory their former neighbourhood, and affecting the mind with a mutuall sufferance. But infuriated Hercules, not giuing time to the plea of his innocency, swings him about his head by the heeles, & throwes him into the Eubaean seas: there turn'd into a rock which carries his name, and signifies Impulsion. Expressing thereby the effects of feare, which congeales the blood, and stupifies the senses, as if altogether stony. Nor was this throwe of his incomparable: for it is reported by Mayolus, an Italian Bishop, how he saw a man at Ast in the presence of the Marquesse of Pescara take vp a pillar of marble, three feet in length, and one in diameter; oft tossing it aloft in the ayre, and catching it againe before it fell to the ground, with as much facility as if it had beene a tennis-ball. But this fable with-all presents the vsuall infortunity of such, who minister to the exorbitancies of Princes, though vnacquainted with their secret intentions. This Rock lies against the Caenaean Promontory; and gaue, in that it resembles a man, an argument to the fiction.
    Now Hercules ascending the funerall Pyle, giues Philoctetes his bow and fatall arrowes to set it on fire: who lying on his Lyons skinne, and making his Clubbe his pillow, entertaineth death with as much alacrity, as if so composed at a festiuall. For paine and sorrow, together with all the iniuries of malice or fortune, are swallowed vp by the immensity of Virtue; and lost, like showres that fall into the Ocean. Some say that his disease was a setled melancholy, breaking forth all ouer his body in burning vlcers: which hapned in the thirtith yeare of his age; but according to others in the two and fifty. There are who write that he being an excellent Astronomer, burnt himselfe hard before a great eclipse of the Sunne, to confirme the opinion of his diuinity. As the Sicilian Empedocles with the like ambition threw himselfe into Aetna. But the earthly parts of our Hercules being consumed with fire; his coelestiall in a more glorious figure, hauing put off the robe of Mortality, is carried vnto Heauen in a triumphant charriot, and deified by Iupiter. The soules of all men, saith Cicero, are immortall; but those of the good and valiant, diuine: and for that cause diuine honours were giuen vnto such by the Ancient. But neuer before their funeralls, when censure is neither infected with Flattery nor Enuy. Yet could not Alexander stay so long; who would in his life time bee stiled the sonne of Iupiter, a presage of his vntimely death: as was that vote of Cerealis Anicius to him whom he flattered; which was, that a temple should be erected to diuine Nero. But more modest was Agesilaus, who thus scoft at the Thassians that would haue decreed him diuine honoures: If your citty haue the art of making of Gods, let vs see what Gods you can make of your selues: and then perhaps I will be a God of your making. Yet Hercules better deserued a Deity then all the rest of the : who conquered nothing for himselfe; who ranged all ouer the world, not to oppresse it, but to free it from oppressors and by killing of Tyrants and Monsters preserued it in tranquillity.

High vertue neuer sinks to Hell. Be valiant mortalls, and liue well. Nor shall seuere Fates hale you through The floods of Lethe: but when you Shall haue accomplisht your last day; Glory to heauen shall make your way.13

As they held that the soules of such Worthies ascended into Heauen, and that their bodies resolued to Earth: so they supposed that their naked and incorporeall resemblances descended to the infernall habitations: whereof Homers Vlisses when in Hell.

Then saw the idoll of great Hercules: He feasting with the deathlesse Deities; White ancled Hebes spouse; the Thunderers And Iuno's seede, who golden sandals weares.14

Deianira hearing of the death of Hercules, procured by her error, slew her selfe at Trachin: and had her sepulcher at the foot of the mountaine Oetus; which was to be seene in the daies of Pausanias. Hercules was said to be the sonne of Iupiter, for his noble actions and eminent virtues; and besides it was the custome to deriue those worthies, whose ancestors they knew not through the obscurity of History (wherein althings among the Ethnicks, before the subuersion of Thebes and warres of Troy, were inuolued, if not lost) from one God or other: as we imagine the earth and the sky to touch, when our sight is bounded by the Horrizon. As Iupiter his father, so was Alcmena his mother, which signifies strenuity. Hercules therefore, or the fortitude of the mind, the sonne of the Diuine goodnesse & valour, purchaseth among mortalls an immortall fame, together with that name: a word compounded of Iuno, or the aire, and glory, in that atchieued by her instigation; being called before Alcides, which signifies strong. Hercules is, also taken for the Sun; as his twelue labours by Porphery for the twelue signes in the Zodiack. Hercules, saith Macrobius, is the power of the Sun, which actuates virtue in the minde of man to the similitude of the Gods, nor was Baeotia the country of Alcmena, nor he at the first called Hercules; but long after was honoured with that name; meriting by his admirable fortitude to be stiled the God of virtue. For what signifies Hercules but the Glory of the Aire? and what is the Glory of the aire, but the Suns illumination, which expelleth the Spirit of Darknesse? The Constellation of Hercules is by Ariadnes Crowne; where hee seemes to leane, and kneele on one knee; as weary with his labours.
    Euristheus prosecutes his hatred to him, vpon    his posterity (or rather out of feare that in time they should seeke to reuenge his iniuries, and depriue him of his kingdome) who fled to Trachis, and from thence to Athens, as to the altars of the Gods for refuge. Euristheus importunes the Athenians to deliuer them by his Embassadors: who contrarily furnish them with an army vnder the conduct of Iolaus the kinsman of Hercules, and Hillus his son: who kill Eurystheus in battell, and crush him vnder the    wheeles of their charriots. Meane while Alcmena had onely Iole for a companion in her sorrow; the daughter of Euritus, and bequeathed by Hercules for a wife to his son Hyllus. To whom (now great with child) Alcmena wisheth better successe, then she had in her trauell with Hercules; restrained with miserable torments by the enuy of Iuno. For it was answered by the Oracle, that he who first was borne of Hercules, or Eurystheus, should haue the commaund of the other. Which knowne vnto Iuno, she hastned the birth of Eurystheus, who was borne in the seauenth month, and prorogued the others vntill the Tenth. This some haue referred to the influence of the starrs, portending Empire to the one by their fortunate Aspects and Coniunctions in his natiuity: and glory by their different dispositions to the other, to be attained with much labour and danger: and because these secretly worke according to the quality and inclination of the Aire, the food of our Spirits, which we first draw in; they are therefore said to be borne either sooner orlater by the fauour or maleuolency of Iuno. But Lucina, the President of Child-birth    (so called because she brings them to light; as Ilithia by the Graecians, in that assistant at the labours of women; being no other then the Moone, and expressing her operations in that kind) precorrupted by Iuno, is here said by sitting crosleg'd, knitting her fingers within one an other, and muttering of charmes to haue hindred Alcmena's deliuery. Which in likelyhood hath a reference to the practice of Witches in former ages; and perhaps not vnpractized in ours: as well as the Graecians and Frenchmen at this day, by knitting a knot on a poynt, can disable the bride-groome from touching the Bride. In Gasconie called Novër l'eguillette; and practised alwaies at the mariage: which is of no light regard, since by the Ciuill law it is punishable. If this be naturall, it must be referred to the imagination of him that tyed the poynt: which is conceaued to haue the lesse affinity with witch-craft, in that not onely witches, but any other may performe it. Nor was this vnknowne vnto Virgill.

Three knots knit on three threads of different dy Hast Amarillis: say loues bands I ty.5

But as these are deliuered by the vnknitting of those knots; so here the womb of Alcmena by Lucina's vnlocking her leggs and fingers: suspected and deceaued by Galanthis, a stout and wily    Gossip; whom the angry Goddesse turnes into a Wesel, to produce her young at her mouth, as her mouth had procured the Ladys deliuery. But Aristotle confutes that vulgar opinion, proceeding onely from a mistake, in that they carry their young ones in their mouthes from one place to an other. I haue seene a Beast, which the Indians call a Possoun, that hath two flaps beneath her belly, which she can shut and open at pleasure: within which, when affrighted, she receaues her broode, and runnes away with them: where vpon, by a like mistake, it was supposed at first by some of the English that they reenter'd her belly. Now the wesel is the hieroglyphick of a Virago; red-haird, frequenting houses; and therefore euery way suting with Galanthis. A beast, for this seruice to Alcmena, as Aelianus reports, much honoured by the Thebans.
    Iöle relates a sadder story of her sister Driope: deuirginated    by Apollo, and after married to Andremon the son of Oenius: who playing with her child vnder a Lotus tree, into which a Nymph was converted to auoid the lust of pursuing Priapus, by pulling a sprig from the same was her selfe converted into a Lotus. So fained perhaps in that Driope signifies an Oke, of the affinity of those trees: both alike solid, sound, and long-lasting: as to be deflowred by Apollo, in regard of the nature of the Lotus; which vnfolds her leaues by degrees as the Sunne exalteth his beames; and as he declineth shuts them vp againe, as onely appliable to that Deity. So by this transformed Driope with her child in the midst of her boughs, the Aegyptians expressed the world replenished throughout with the God-head. For the Lotus fructifies best in watry places, generation cheifely proceeding from moysture, where vpon the Ocean is called the parent of all things; his shape, his fruite, and leaues orbicular; the forme of the Vniuerse, and figure of the Mindes perfection the Infant deciphering the Diuine Power, as the onely and perpetual original of all, neuer growing old, nor subiect to alteration; at quiet in himselfe, and not to be moued; the latter expressed by his sitting. The Lotophagi a people of Africa, tooke their names from feeding on Lotus, and gaue it to their country: a fruite so wholsome and delicate, that it was the occasion of that fiction in Homer;

Nor did the Lotophagi ill intreat Our men, but made them of their Lotus eat. Who euer tasted of that pleasant fare, Forgot their message, with their countries care: And with the Lotophagi would remaine To feede on Lotus, nor returne againe.16

In so much as they are prouerbialy said to haue eaten Lotus, who linger in forraine countryes, as forgetfull of their owne. Which Erasmus aplyes vnto those who once haue tasted of honest delights, nor can be drawne back to their former vices. So should we abandon whatsoeuer is deare in our esteeme, that may be a hindrance to our piety, hauing tasted once of the heauenly Lotus. Among the fortunate trees this was reckoned for one: vnder which the Vestall Virgins buried their haire; cut of when they entred into that order.
    By the Nymph converted formerly into this tree, to escape    the pursuite of Priapus, that ancient opinion is vnfolded how euery tree had his Genius, which they called Nymphs or Hamadriades, and therefore fained to bleed when their branches were violated: thereby to increase the superstitious reuerence which they bare to their Groues; of which we haue formerly spoken. She is said to be pursued by Priapus of the fecundity of Orchards; wherein he had his image erected, as their protector, and the God of Propagation. Fained therefore to be the son of Dionisus and Nais: Dionisus taken for the Sun, and Nais for moysture whereby althings are conceaued; his name no other then the generall seeds of things. It is said that Venus hid him for his deformity: to shew how many things are necessary in Nature, which are yet to be concealed for their vnseemelinesse. But his obscene statue and filthy Ceremonies can neither be spoken of, nor heard with modesty. St. Hierome and Isidorus were of opinion that this Priapus was the same with Bel-peor, the God of the Midianites: worshipped also by Maach, whose Idoll her son Asa burnt, and remoued her from all her dignity, in that the principall in those beastly customes.
    The sorrowes of Alcmena and Iole are some thing abated by the approach and wonderfull change of Iölaus their kinsman:    his youth now restored by Hebe, at the suite of her husband Hercules. This Hebe was held for the Goddesse of youth, her    name importing as much; and to haue beene married vnto Hercules in Heauen, to reconcile all displeasure betweene him and Iuno, she being her daughter by Iupiter: signifying how strength and youth are to concurre in those, who are quallified for noble achieuements. This Goddesse was chiefly honoured by the Phlyasij (a people of Peloponesus) in so much as whosoeuer fled to her Altar was deliuered from punishment: at the entrance of whose temple they hung vp the chaines and fetters of captiues. She had her statue in the forme of a beautifull young woman, crowned with flowres; and her mantle varied with orient colours. She was fained not onely to restore youth vnto men, but to the Gods themselues; as if euen they grew old like a garment: and said to be the daughter of Iupiter and Iuno, in that all vegitables shout vp and bud through the gentle temperature of the aire; deriued from Iupiter, or the etheriall feruor. Now Iolaus was reported to haue growne young againe, for that in his old age he performed great things; suffering little or no alteration either in the vigour of his mind or strength of his body. So Moses when he was sixescore yeares old had his sight, and the habit of his naturall powres vnimpaired. Although in him miraculous; yet in ancient times, before luxury had made a breach for diseases to enter, they acquired a lusty age through abstinence from wine and a temperate diet; the noblest part, and most assured, of Phisick.
    Hebe, about to sweare that she would neuer againe giue    vnseasonable youth vnto any, is withheld by Propheticall Themis: who obscurely toucheth the warrs of Thebes betweene the two sonnes of Oedipus by his mother Iocasta. For they agreeing to gouerne by turnes, Eteocles, the elder, refused at the expiration of his yeare to resigne his throne to Polynices: who fled to Adrastus for succour; & marrying his daughter Argia, was by him assisted: drawing Tydeus, Hippomedon,Parthenopaeus, Capanaeus, and the Prophet Amphiaraus into their confederacy. Capanaeus, scaling the walls of the Thebes, was struck dead with lightning, Eteocles, and Polynices slew one an other in single combat; and Amphiaraus, was swallowed aliue by the Earth: who foreknowing how he should perish in that warre, had concealed himselfe; till in the end betrayed by his wife Eriphile, for the auarice of Hermiones carquenet, giuen her by Polynices. This discouered, he commaunded his son Alcmaeon that after his death he should kill his treacherous mother; which he performed accordingly. When agitated by the Furies, the terrors of his conscience, he fled to Phegeus, to be purged of that guilt, and married his daughter Alphasibaea; hauing won her consent with the fatall carquenet. But finding there no cure, he repaired to Achelous by the aduice of the Oracle: whose daughter Calirrhoe he likewise espoused; vpon promise of that Iuell. Returning to fetch it from Alphesibaea, he was slaine by her brothers Themenus and Axionus as they by there sister, for the death of her inconstant husband. But our Poet wil haue them slaine by Alcmeons sonnes by Calirrhoe: she here petitioning Iupiter, that of Infants he would make them sodenly men, to reuenge the murder of their Father, which Hebe was now to performe at his commaundment. Expressing thereby the forward courage of those noble youthes, whose illustrious actions transcended their ages. So writes he in his Arte of Caius, the Nephew to Augustus:

He leads an Army in his tender yeares: A boy, not like a boy in act appeares. Forbeare the birth-dayes of the Gods to tell: The Caesar's virtues far their age excell. Their heauenly wits, more swift then time, display Their birth, nor Brooke the losse of dull delay.17

They must begin betimes, that aime at great actions. Alexander had conquered the world ten yeares before he could haue beene Consul, had he beene a Roman: which made Caesar sigh when he saw his image at Gades in the temple of Hercules; accusing his owne sloth; who then as old as Alexander when he had subdued the Orient, could boast of no memorable achieuement; although inflamed with as great an ambition.
    The Gods demaund of Hebe the like restauration, which she had bestowed on Iolaus for their affected mortalls: whose tumult Iupiter composes, as not able himselfe to reuoke the youth of decrepit Minos: who formerly was feared by all; but now both feeble in body and mind, doth feare the aspiring of youthfull Miletus, the son of Apollo. But he to cleare his suspition (so aduised by Iupiter) forsaketh Creet, and erects Miletum in Asia: there marrying Cyane the daughter of the Meander. Yet this is not spoken by the Poet, as if Riuers could ingender men, but that those men were begotten by such, as left their names to these riuers. Cyane by Miletus at one burden had Caunus and Byblis; whose incestious loue to her brother is    our present argument. Affording neither allegory nor historicall allusion: but liuely displaying the impotency of Passion, and of a wicked affection: iustifying her owne vices by the example of great ones, who corrupt the world with a fatall contagion. These were their Gods; but in truth of history Caine and his sonns (as formerly declared) who out of necessity married their sisters, but after forbidden by the Law of Nature, as acknowledged by all Nations: although Cambises, perswaded by his sicophants that a king was liable to no law, durst infringe it. Nay among the Romans, Claudius was the first who married his Neece: followed onely by one, saith Tacitus, to flatter the Emperour. She extenuates her offence by loues vnresistable compulsion: so apt are wee to palliate our beloued vices; imputing that to an ouer-ruling Power, which proceedes from our owne depraued affections. But Phedraea's Nurse could haue told her

Lust, basely fauouring vice, a Deity First made of loue; and to become more free, A forged Power to that wild Fury adds: How Cupid, sent by Erycina, gadds Through all the Earth; flyes vp to Heauen, there stayes And shutes his shafts; whom euery God obayes. Thus frantick Minds, to excuse their guilt, bestow A Power on Venus, on her Son a Bow. Who too-much in prosperity delight, And riot with vnbridled appetite; Those, wicked lust, the dire associate Of high-swolne fortune, driues t' a desperat fate.18

Praxiteles made two images of Venus; one naked, and the other couered with a vaile: this latter is adored by our Biblis; which corrupts her by degrees, beguiling her at the first with the disguize of fraternall piety, seconded with too much familiarity and liking of his Person: next inflaming her with desires which she durst not thinke of; contracted in her sleepes, and reuealed in her blushes; then imboldens her to attempt; and lastly to contemne her fame, the height of all Impudency. But Caunus to auoyd her importunity abandons his country, and builds a citty in Caria which carryes his name; whom frantick Biblis pursues; who now tyred with trauel, and pining with despaire, dissolues into a fountaine; the monument of her punishment and eternall sorrow; which had not befalne her had she practised this precept:

Of swift diseases choak the dangerous seede: And when he presseth forward, check thy steede. Resist beginnings: Physick no reliefe Affords, when time inueterates the griefe.19

But Canace and Canulia, the one a Grecian Lady, and the other a Roman, found their brothers ([Mucareus] and Papyrius) more plyable: when conceauing, and discouered, their fathers sent a naked sword vnto either; who rightly interpreting their meanings, fell vpon the poynts thereof; and were seconded by their incestuous louers.
    Our Poet in the wandring of Biblis speakes of that Carian mountaine, the receptacle of Chimaera: a monster which vomited fire; hauing the head of a Lyon, the body of a Goate, and the taile of a Serpent: which by Fulgentius his morall may something sort with the former fable. For Chimaera demonstrates the changeable condition of Loue; in the beginning thereof, the fruition, and ending: assailing with the fiercenesse of a Lion, possessing with the luxury of a Goate, and concluding like a Serpent with shame & detestation. But Seruius giues it a topographicall construction: the Chimaera described to be such, because that mountaine flamed at the top, the vpper part frequented by Lyons, the midle by Goates, and the bottome by Serpents. Bellerephon for making it habitable was said to haue shine the Chimaera. Acosta makes almost the like description of the Andes in Peru. Others interpret Chimaera for a cruell Pyrat of Lycia; whose ship had in her prow the figure of a Lyon, in the midst of a Goat and on her poope of a Serpent: whom Bellerephon tooke with a Gally of such swiftnesse (by reason of the newly invented sailes) that it was called Pegasus or the flying horse; the ground of that fable.
    The fame of this wonderfull change of Biblis would haue fild    Creets hundred Cittyes, had not Phestos at that time produced a wonder of their owne. For Lyctus had charged his wife Telethusa, now great with child, to kill, or expose it to the mercy of the Desarts (a Custome among the Graecians to those, whom they would not, or could not for their pouerty foster) if so be it should proue a daughter. But the Goddess Isis appeares    vnto her in her sleepe, and commaunds the contrary: here described with hornes, in that taken for the Moone, as the Moone for Ceres (of which we haue formerly spoken) and therefore crowned with the eares of Corne: accompaned with a rable of Aegyptian Gods. Barking Anubis, fained to haue the    head of a dogge, and so figured in his statues: whereof I brought one out of Aegypt, taken out of the belly of an imbalmed body. This Anubis was said to be the sonne of Osyris, who following his father in his warres, gaue a dog for his crest; and therefore worshipped in that forme. But more probably Mercury, who came into Aegypt, with Isis, (then Io) and informed her in sundry knowledges: Who by reason of his sagacity and quick apprehension, was both so called and carued. Bubastis is a name of Diana, adored by the Aegyptians; a Citty and    a prouince in Aegypt so called; taken also for Isis. Apis was a black oxe with a white square in his forehead, or on    his right side; his hornes reuersed like a Crescent, as sacred to the Moone or Isis. When he dyed or was drowned by the Priests (for he was suffered to liue but to such a time) with much sorrow seeking, they neuer ceased vntill they had found an other in all respects like the former. This beast they adored for a God, kept secretly in a Parke at Mamphis. When they led him abroad, he was vshered by his priest in great solemnity, & followed with strange deuotion by the multitude; not seldome, as reported, bellowing forth prophesies. Some deriue the worshipping of this Oxe from the institution of Isis and Osyris, in that so vsefull in tillage. It is recorded that Osyris himselfe was an Oxe, and Isis a Cow: because of Io's transformation in the one, and the transmigration of Osyris Soule into the other. Others affirme that Isis inclosed the disseuered lims of Osyris in a cow of wood, couered ouer with an Oxe-hide whereupon the vulgar held that he was changed into an Oxe, and worshipped him in that forme. But Plutarch writes how Osyris of old set vp certaine markes for the people to meet at in their deuotion: caruing on one the figure of a Dogg, on an other of a Serpent, on a third of an Oxe &c. That these remaining, and the reason why they were erected forgotten, they fell to worship the Signes them-selues. Now Apis signifies a face, and Serapis (the same with Apis) the head of an Oxe: the very name which the Fathers vse to expresse this Idolatry; deriued from the Aegyptians to the Israelites; first set vp in the wildernesse, and after at Dan and Bethel by Ieroboam. Some interpret the first institution of the same to haue beene in memory of Joseph; who by his prouidence relieued Aegypt in the seauen years of famine confirmed by the testimonies of Suidas, Rufinus, and others. For what fitter Embleme (saith a moderne Author) to continue the remembrance of Ioseph (if it had not after proued an Idol) then an Oxe, the true and liuely Hieroglyphick of an industrious husband-man; by whose care and industry their liues were preserued? He who here is mentioned with his finger on his    mouth was called Harpocrates, the God of Silence: intimating how sacred mysteries were not to be diuulged. Especially this great one, that Osyris and Isis were mortals whose sepulcher was among their Preists; but by no meanes to be disclosed to the People, least it should slacken their deuotion: with all that the language of men concerning the Deity should be reserued and reuerent. Isis, assisted by Orus, Apollo hauing killed Typhon (who had slaine his brother Osyris, and scattered his lims about the country) sought the reliques of her husband through out all Aegypt, with much sorrow and lamentation: who found and inclosed them in a sepulcher, surceasing from thenceforth to mourne: from whence this ceremony in the search of Apis proceeded; as that custome of the Aegyptian Preists, to goe forth lamenting, and returne againe singing. Now Isis and Osyris for teaching the Aegyptians agriculture were after their deaths by them Deified: Osyris adored in the Sunne, and Isis in the Moone; because heat and moysture doe procure fertility. Isis is also taken for the land of Aegypt, in that so extraordinarily fruitefull: and is said to mourne for the losse of Osyris; that is when the Sun is in the winter Tropick, the Earth being then disrobed and barren. Wee will conclude with that ancient Inscription on the Columne of Isis. I am Isis, the Queene of Aegypt, instructed by Mercury. The lawes which I haue made let no man dissolue. I am the wife of Osyris, the Inuentresse of Tillage, and mother to Orus. In Heauen I am the refulgent Dog-starre. The city Bubasta was built to my honour. Reioyce, reioyce, ô Aegypt, in that thou hast nourished me. Said to be the Dog starre, in that the Aegyptian Astronomers, hauing the benefit of a plaine country and perpetuall serenity, from their high Piramides obserued when that starre first appeared before the sun-rising, not eclipsed by his greater light, then being, when twelue Degrees distant from the Sunne in starres (as this is) of the first magnitude; from thence accompting, vntill discouered as before the yeare following. And because the vines and fruits then ripen, the bountifull Nilus begins to flow, and contagious sicknesses to cease, (which in that season in other regions is most outragious) they attributed all those notable benefits to the influence of that starre; and therefore worshipped it vnder the name of Isis. But how comes the Aspe into the traine of the     Aegyptian Gods? This deadly Serpent they also worshipped, as resembling the Planet of the Sun; neuer growing old, and swiftly mouing without the instruments of motion. And not onely the Annuall course of the Sun in the Zodiack, obliquely winding to and from the Aequator, resembles a Serpent (in which respect the course of the Moone, which is oblique to the Ecliptick is compared to a Dragon; the two points where she cuts the Ecliptick being called the Dragons head, and his taile) but euen his diurnall course is not perfectly circular, but passeth as it were with Serpentine windings.
    But to returne to the fable. Telethusa being brought a bed of a girle, made her husband beleiue that it was a boy: who called it Iphis (a name which suted with either sex) by their parents at the age of fifteene espoused to Ianthe: both feruently affecting each other; but the one as much beguiled in her hopes, as the other was desperate of inioying. The euening before the appoynted nuptials, Telethusa and her daughter repaire to the shrine of Isis: from whence Iphis by the fauour of the Goddesse returnes a boy, and marries his beloued Ianthe; the mariage graced with the presence of Iuno, Venus, and auspitious Hymen. By this the Ancient declared, that men should despaire of nothing; since althings were in the power of the Gods to giue; and giue they would what was iustly implored. And by the example of Lictus we may obserue, how Pouerty not seldome prouokes euen the good, distrusting the diuine Prouidence, to vse vnlawfull and vnnaturall meanes to preserue themselues from the oppression of necessity; not remembring how dangerous a presumption it is, to prescribe him rules, who knowes our wants far better then our selues, for the disspensation of his benefits. Nor shall wee be hardly induced to belieue that women haue beene changed into men, if we giue any credit to Authors either ancient or moderne. Pliny writes that it is recorded in the Roman Annalls, how a maid of Cassinum, in the Consulships of Licinius Crassus and Cassius Longinus, being vnder the tuition of her parents, became a boy; who by the commaund of the Aruspici was transported to a desert Iland: How Licinius Mutianus reports that he saw one Arescon at Argos, formerly a married woman, and named Arescusa; who had then a beard, and was married himselfe to another: and that himselfe had seene in Affrica a virgin turned into a man on her wedding day, called Lucius Cossicus, a cittizen of Tisdrita. Pontanus, who liued in the last Century, makes mention of a Fishermans wife of Caieta who sodenly became a man, after she had beene fourteene yeares married of an other, called Aemilia, the wife of Antonio Spensa, a cittizen of Ebulano who married and begot children: and of a third when she had had a child. That in the time of Ferdinand King of Naples, Caroletta and Francisca, the daughters of Lodouico Quarna of Salern, at fifteene yeares old exchanged their sexes. Montaigne reports that he saw by Vitry in France a man, whom the Bishop of Soysons had then in Confirmation, called German (knowne from her childhood to haue bin a woman, vntil the age of two and twenty, by all the inhabitants there about, and then named Mary) well strucken in yeares, and hauing a long beard who said that on a time by straining to ouer-leap an other, he sodenly felt those parts to descend. And how at this day the Maidens of that Towne and Country haue a merry song, wherein they admonish one an other not to leap too much for feare of the fortune of Mary German. But it is with out example that a man at any time became a woman. From whence we may deriue this morall, that as it is preposterous in Nature, which euer aimes at perfection, when men degenerate into effeminacy; so contrarily commendable, when women aspire to manly wisdome and fortitude.