Note 129 — STATIUS'S THEBAIS.
Reading edition
In the first edition:
He views his food, would taste, yet dares not try, But dreads the mould'ring rock that trembles from on high.
Apollo intrigued with Coronis, the daughter of Phlegyas. Her enraged father retaliated by firing the temple of Apollo, and was consigned for his rebellion to perpetual torture in the infernal regions. His terror lest the impending rock should crush him is a circumstance interpolated by Pope from Virgil's description of the punishment of Pirithous and Ixion, and the expression "mould'ring rock" is taken from Dryden's translation of the passage, Æn. vi. 816:
High o'er their heads a mould'ring rock is placed That promises a fall, and shakes at ev'ry blast.
The revolting nature of the food itself is the reason assigned by Statius why Phlegyas forebore to partake of it, and preferred to endure the pangs of hunger.