[251] They are said to have been the first workers in iron. They were called Idæi, because they inhabited about Mount Ida in Crete, and Dactyli, from δάκτυλοι (the fingers), their number being five.
[252] From whom, some say, the city of that name was called.
[253] Capedunculæ seem to have been bowls or cups, with handles on each side, set apart for the use of the altar.—Davis.
[254] See Cicero de Divinatione, and Ovid. Fast.
[255] In the consulship of Piso and Gabinius sacrifices to Serapis and Isis were prohibited in Rome; but the Roman people afterward placed them again in the number of their gods. See Tertullian’s Apol. and his first book Ad Nationes, and Arnobius, lib. 2.—Davis.
[256] In some copies Circe, Pasiphae, and Æa are mentioned together; but Æa is rejected by the most judicious editors.
[257] They were three, and are said to have averted a plague by offering themselves a sacrifice.
[258] So called from the Greek word θαυμάζω, to wonder.
[259] She was first called Geres, from gero, to bear.
[260] The word is precatione, which means the books or forms of prayers used by the augurs.