Letter No. 233. Tuesday, Nov. 27, 1711. Addison.
--Tanquam hec sint nostri medicina furoris,
Aut Deus ille malis hominum mitescere discat.
Virg.
I shall, in this Paper, discharge myself of the Promise I have made to the Publick, by obliging them with a Translation of the little Greek Manuscript, which is said to have been a Piece of those Records that were preserved in the Temple of Apollo, upon the Promontory of Leucate: It is a short History of the Lovers Leap, and is inscribed, An Account of Persons Male and Female, who offered up their Vows in the Temple of the Pythian Apollo, in the Forty sixth Olympiad, and leaped from the Promontory of Leucate into the Ionian Sea, in order to cure themselves of the Passion of Love.
This Account is very dry in many Parts, as only mentioning the Name of the Lover who leaped, the Person he leaped for, and relating, in short, that he was either cured, or killed, or maimed by the Fall. It indeed gives the Names of so many who died by it, that it would have looked like a Bill of Mortality, had I translated it at full length; I have therefore made an Abridgment of it, and only extracted such particular Passages as have something extraordinary, either in the Case, or in the Cure, or in the Fate of the Person who is mentioned in it. After this short Preface take the Account as follows.
Battus, the Son of Menalcas the Sicilian, leaped for Bombyca
the Musician: Got rid of his Passion with the Loss of his Right Leg
and Arm, which were broken in the Fall.
Melissa, in Love with Daphnis, very much bruised, but escaped with
Life.
Cynisca, the Wife of AEschines, being in Love with Lycus; and
AEschines her Husband being in Love with Eurilla; (which had made
this married Couple very uneasy to one another for several Years) both
the Husband and the Wife took the Leap by Consent; they both of them
escaped, and have lived very happily together ever since.
Larissa, a Virgin of Thessaly, deserted by Plexippus, after a
Courtship of three Years; she stood upon the Brow of the Promontory
for some time, and after having thrown down a Ring, a Bracelet, and a
little Picture, with other Presents which she had received from
Plexippus, she threw her self into the Sea, and was taken up alive.
N. B. Larissa, before she leaped, made an Offering of a Silver
Cupid in the Temple of Apollo.
Simaetha, in Love with Daphnis the Myndian, perished in the
Fall.
Charixus, the Brother of Sappho, in Love with Rhodope the
Courtesan, having spent his whole Estate upon her, was advised by his
Sister to leap in the Beginning of his Amour, but would not hearken to
her till he was reduced to his last Talent; being forsaken by
Rhodope, at length resolved to take the Leap. Perished in it.
Aridaeus, a beautiful Youth of Epirus, in Love with Praxinoe,
the Wife of Thespis, escaped without Damage, saving only that two of
his Fore-Teeth were struck out and his Nose a little flatted.
Cleora, a Widow of Ephesus, being inconsolable for the Death of
her Husband, was resolved to take this Leap in order to get rid of her
Passion for his Memory; but being arrived at the Promontory, she there
met with Dimmachus the Miletian, and after a short Conversation
with him, laid aside the Thoughts of her Leap, and married him in the