riot. Statius paints him sinking calmly into the yawning gulf,
without dropping his weapons or the reins, and with his eyes fixed on
the heavens.]

[Footnote 16: Hippomedon is made by Statius the hero of the conflict in
the river Ismenus, where he at last succumbs to the god of the river.
The piles of dead formed a dike, which turned back the waters.]

[Footnote 17: Parthenopaeus.--POPE.]

[Footnote 18: He declared that Jupiter himself should not keep him from
ascending the walls of Thebes. Jupiter punished his defiance by setting
him on fire with lightning on the scaling ladder, and he was burnt to
death.]

[Footnote 19: Oedipus did not strike his wounds. He struck the ground,
which was the usage in invoking the infernal deities, since their
kingdom was in the bowels of the earth.]

[Footnote 20: One of the three principal furies or avengers of crime,
who inhabited the world of condemned spirits.]

[Footnote 21: The great difference between raising horror and terror is
perceived and felt from the reserved manner in which Sophocles speaks of
the dreadful incest of Oedipus, and from the manner in which Statius
has enlarged and dwelt upon it, in which he has been very unnaturally
and injudiciously imitated by Dryden and Lee, who introduce this most
unfortunate prince not only describing but arguing on the dreadful crime
he had committed.--WARTON.]

[Footnote 22: Laius, king of Thebes, warned by the oracle that he would
be killed by his own offspring, exposed his son Oedipus on Mount
Cithaeron. The infant was found by a shepherd, and carried to Polybus,
king of Corinth, who adopted him. Arrived at man's estate, he too was
informed by the oracle that he would take the life of his father, and
commit incest with his mother. Believing that the king and queen who
brought him up were his parents, he determined not to go back to
Corinth, and in attempting to avert his destiny, he fulfilled it. As he
journeyed towards Thebes he met his real father, Laius, and slew him in
a conflict which grew out of a dispute with his charioteer.]

[Footnote 23: Or the temple at Delphi, where Oedipus went to consult
the oracle.]

[Footnote 24: The Sphinx sat upon a rock near Thebes propounding a
riddle to every one who passed by, and destroying all who were unable to
explain it. The Thebans proclaimed that whoever would rid the kingdom of
this scourge should marry the widow of Laius, and succeed to the vacant
throne. Oedipus, by solving