Verse 6
Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday - The rabbins supposed that the empire of death was under two demons, one of which ruled by day, the other by night. The Vulgate and Septuagint have - the noonday devil. The ancients thought that there were some demons who had the power to injure particularly at noonday. To this Theocritus refers, Id. 1: ver. 15: -
Ου θεμις, ω ποιμαν, το μεσαμβρινον, ου θεμις αμμινπ
Συρισδεν· τον Πανα δεδοικαμες· η γαρ αππ ' αγραςπ
Τανικα κεκμακως αμπαυεται, εντι γε πικρος, <-144 Και οἱ αει δριμεια χολα ποτι ῥινι καθηται .
"It is not lawful, it is not lawful, O shepherd, to play on the flute at noonday: we fear Pan, who at that hour goes to sleep in order to rest himself after the fatigues of the chase; then he is dangerous, and his wrath easily kindled."
Lucan, in the horrible account he gives us of a grove sacred to some barbarous power, worshipped with the most horrid rites, refers to the same superstition: -
Lucus erat longo nunquam violatus ab aevo,
Non illum cultu populi propiore frequentant,
Sed cessere deis: medio cum Phoebus in axe est.
Aut coelum nox atra tenet, pavet ipse sacerdos
Accessus, dominumque timet deprendere luci
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