And, if the World have any Troth,
Some have been canoniz’d in both.
Hudibras.
But further, we may observe, that besides this frightful Appearance of Serpents to salute their Entrance into Hell, there was Variety of Punishments for them when there. Thus the Danaides were condemned to Tartarus by the Poets, to be continually employed in filling a Cask perforated at the bottom; Phlegas, condemned by Apollo to Hell, where he sat upon a rolling Stone, in constant danger of falling into a Pit of greater Misery; Tityus, adjudged to Hell, where a Vultur feeds on his Liver, and the Liver always grows with the Moon: Nay, such were the horrible Preparations in Hell, that Virgil[[98]], after a Survey of it, declares, that had he a hundred Mouths and Tongues, they would not suffice to recount all the Plagues of the Tortured: so that it is no wonder to see them represent the infernal Prison in Figures the most frightful.
[98]. Æneid. lib. vi. ver. 638.
And as the Heathen had their terrible Place for bad Men, so, to prompt them to Virtue, they had their Elysium, i. e. a Place of Pleasure in Hades, furnished with most pleasant Fields, agreeable Woods, Groves, Shades, Rivers; whither the Souls of good People were supposed to go after this Life. These are finely described by the Poet:
——locos lætos & amœna virenta
Fortunatorum nemorum sedesque beatas.
