GLAUCUS. her pilot when Jason fought the Etrurians, and was the only person unwounded in that naval battle; and that by the will of Jupiter he appeared in the depths of the sea, and so became a sea deity, but was seen by Jason alone. But Nicanor the Cyrenæan, in his Changes of Names, says that Melicerta changed his name and assumed the name of Glaucus.
48. Alexander the Ætolian also mentions him in his poem entitled the Fisherman, saying that he
First tasted grass,
(and then was immersed in the sea and drowned,)
The herb which in the islands of the blest,
When first the spring doth beam upon the earth,
The untill'd land shows to the genial sun.
And the sun gives it to his weary steeds,
A most refreshing food, raised in the shade.
So that they come in vigour back renew'd
Unto their daily task, and no fatigue
Or pain can stop their course.
But Æschrion the Samian, in some one of his Iambic poems, says that Glaucus the sea-deity was in love with Hydna, the daughter of Scyllus, the diver of Scione. And he makes particular mention of this herb, namely, that any one who eats of it becomes immortal, saying—
And you found too th' agrostis of the gods,
The sacred plant which ancient Saturn sow'd.
And Nicander, in the third book of his Europe, says that Glaucus was beloved by Nereus. And the same Nicander, in the first book of his history of the Affairs of Ætolia, says that Apollo learnt the art of divination from Glaucus; and that Glaucus when he was hunting near Orea, (and that is a lofty mountain in Ætolia,) hunted a hare, which was knocked up by the length of the chace, and got under a certain fountain, and when just on the point of dying, rolled itself on the herbage that was growing around; and, as it recovered its strength by means of the herbage, Glaucus too perceived the virtues of this herb, and ate some himself. And becoming a god in consequence, when a storm came, he, in accordance with the will of Jupiter, threw himself into the sea. But Hedylus, whether he was a Samian or an Athenian I know not, says that Glaucus was enamoured of Melicerta, and threw himself into the sea after him. But Hedyle, the mother of this poet, and daughter of Moschine of Attica, a
