The character of the ancient Bacchus, that graceful divinity, seems to have been little understood by Dryden. The line in Virgil
Et quocunque deus circum caput egit honestum
is thus grossly mistranslated,
On whate'er side he turns his honest face.
There are about one thousand lines identical in the Iliad and Odyssey.
Macrobius gives the form of an imprecation by which the Romans believed whole towns could be demolished and armies defeated. It commences “Dis Pater sive Jovis mavis sive quo alio nomine fas est nominare,” and ends “Si hæc ita faxitis ut ego sciam, sentiam, intelligamque, tum quisquis votum hoc faxit recte factum esto, ovibus atris tribus, Tellus mater, teque Jupiter, obtestor.”