custom of the ancients, before entering a temple, either to
sprinkle themselves with water, or to wash the body all over.]

[Footnote 67: _Cover your heads._--Ver. 382. It was a custom among
the ancients to cover their heads in sacrifice and other acts of
worship, either as a mark of humility, or, according to Plutarch,
that nothing of ill omen might meet their sight, and thereby
interrupt the performance of the rites.]

[Footnote 68: _Descended from Titan._--Ver. 395. Pyrrha was of the
race of the Titans; for Iapetus, her grandfather, was the son of
Titan and Terra.]

[Footnote 69: _Under the same name._--Ver. 410. With his usual
propensity for punning, he alludes to the use of the word 'vena,'
as signifying either 'a vein' of the body, or a 'streak' or 'vein'
in stone, according to the context.]

EXPLANATION.

In the reign of Deucalion, king of Thessaly, the course of the river
Peneus was stopped, probably by an earthquake. In the same year so
great a quantity of rain fell, that all Thessaly was overflowed.
Deucalion and some of his subjects fled to Mount Parnassus; where they
remained until the waters abated. The children of those who were
preserved are the stones of which the Poet here speaks. The Fable,
probably, has for its foundation the double meaning of the word
'Eben,' or 'Aben,' which signifies either 'a stone,' or 'a child.' The
Scholiast on Pindar tells us, too, that the word +laos+, which means
people, formerly also signified 'a stone.'

The brutal and savage nature of the early races of men may also have
added strength to the tradition that they derived their original from
stones. After the inundation, Deucalion is said to have repaired to
Athens, where he built a temple to Jupiter, and instituted sacrifices
in his honor. Some suppose that Cranaus reigned at Athens when
Deucalion retired thither; though Eusebius informs us it was under the
reign of Cecrops. Deucalion was the son of Prometheus, and his wife
Pyrrha was the daughter of his uncle, Epimetheus. After his death, he
received the honor of a temple, and was worshipped as a Divinity.

FABLE XI. [I.416-451]

The Earth, being warmed by the heat of the sun, produces many
monsters: among others, the serpent Python, which Apollo kills with
his arrows. To establish a memorial of this event, he institutes the
Pythian games, and adopts the su