Note 5, 186 — A. PERSIUS FLACCUS (continued 4)

186. grandes galli: Juvenal’s ingens | semivir (6, 512). The peculiar worship of Cybelé had long been familiar to the Romans.—sistro: The σεῖστρον, or ‘timbrel,’ was peculiar to the service of Isis, which had been imported more recently. On its significance, see Plut., De Isid. et Osir., p. 376. The vibratory theory of life, with its perpetual sensuous unrest, is no novelty, as some of its eloquent advocates seem to think.—lusca: Why lusca? The priestess is supposed to have been struck blind by Isis, who visited offenders in that way. Comp. Ov., Ep. ex P., 1, 1, 53, and Juv., 13, 93: Isis et irato feriat mea lumina sistro. One homely explanation is that the priestess, being one-eyed, had betaken herself to religion in despair of a husband! (Schol.)