s a cavern with its face towards the north, of an
immense depth, from which they say that father Pluto, in his
chariot, suddenly emerged, and carrying off the maiden, bore her
away from that spot, and then, not far from Syracuse, descended
into the earth, from which place a lake suddenly arose; where, at
the present day, the inhabitants of Syracuse celebrate a yearly
festival.']

[Footnote 47: _Seized by Pluto._--Ver. 395. Pluto is here called
'Dis.' This name was given to him as the God of the Earth, from
the bowels of which riches are dug up.]

[Footnote 48: _Her companions._--Ver. 397. Pausanias, in his
Messeniaca, has preserved the names of the companions of Ceres,
having copied them from the works of Homer.]

[Footnote 49: _Her mother._--Ver. 397. Homer, in his poem on the
subject, represents that Ceres heard the cries of her daughter,
when calling upon her mother for assistance. Ovid recounts this
tale much more at length in the fourth Book of the Fasti.]

[Footnote 50: _The Palici._--Ver. 406. The Palici were two
brothers, sons of Jupiter and the Nymph Thalea, and, according to
some, received their name from the Greek words +palin hikesthai+,
'to come again [to life].' Their mother, when pregnant, prayed the
earth to open, and to hide her from the vengeful wrath of Juno.
This was done; and when they had arrived at maturity, the Palici
burst from the ground in the island of Sicily. They were Deities
much venerated there, but their worship did not extend to any
other countries. We learn from Macrobius that the natives of
Sicily pointed out two small lakes, from which the brothers were
said to have emerged, and that the veneration attached to them was
such, that by their means they decided disputes, as they imagined
that perjurers would meet their death in these waters, while the
guiltless would be able to come forth from them unharmed. They
were fetid, sulphureous pools of water, probably affected by the
volcanic action of Mount AEtna.]

[Footnote 51: _The Bacchiadae._--Ver. 407. Archias, one of the race
of the Bacchiadae, a powerful Corinthian family, being expelled
from Corinth, was said to have founded Syracuse, the capital of
Sicily. The family sprang either from Bacchius, a son of
Dionysus, or Bacchus, or from the fifth king of Corinth, who was
named Bacc