Here Lethe’s streams, from secret springs below,
Rise to the light; here heavily, and slow,
The silent, dull, forgetful waters flow.
(Rowe’s Lucan, book ix. p. 209.)
Lucan places his Lethe and Hesperian Gardens in the neighbourhood of the Lake Tritonis, in the Lesser Syrtis; but the western part of the Cyrenaica is the most approved position for both. See also Solinus on this point.
[27]Εστι δε και λιμην Ἑσπεριδων, και ποταμος εμβαλλει Λαθων. (Lib. 17. p. 836.)
Some of the Commentators read λιμνη Ἑσπεριδων, and Cellarius says on this subject—“Est et de exitu fluminis dubitatio, in quod se infundat, in mare an in lacum. Straboni est λιμην Ἑσπεριδων, in quem Lathon effluit. Vetus autem interpres iterum dissentit, et quasi λιμνη legerit, lacus vertit Hesperidum. Videant (he adds) quibus vel regionem cognoscendi, vel inspiciendi antiquos codices, facultas est.” (Lib. iv. c. ii.)
[28]Εστι δε ακρα λεγομενη Ψευδοπενιας, εφ᾽ ης ἡ Βερενικη την θησιν εχει, παρα λιμνην τινα Τριτωνιδα, εν ἡ μαλιστα νησιον εστι, και ιερον Αφροδιτης εν αυτω· εστι δε και λιμην Εσπεριδων, και ποταμος εμβαλλει Λαθων.
[29]We have already assumed, upon reasonable grounds, that this was probably the case in earlier times.