Note 572 — BOOK IX.
William Julius Mickle translation
The wat'ry gods.—To mention the gods in the masculine gender, and immediately to apply to them—
"O peito feminil, que levemente Muda quaysquer propositos tomados."—
The ease with which the female breast changes its resolutions, may to the hypercritical appear reprehensible. The expression, however, is classical, and therefore retained. Virgil uses it, where Æneas is conducted by Venus through the flames of Troy:—
"Descendo, ac ducente Deo, flammam inter et hostes Expedior."
This is in the manner of the Greek poets, who use the word Θεὁς for god or goddess.