Etna has been a volcano from time immemorial; but of its more
ancient eruptions only vague traditions have survived. The Greek
poet Pindar is the earliest writer who makes mention of its
activity. He refers to it in his first Pythian Ode, Strophe B, 1.
1. The passage is thus rendered by Carey--

"From whose caverned depths aspire,
In purest folds upwreathing, tost
Fountains of approachless fire--
by day a flood of smouldering smoke
With sullen gleam the torrents pour"

[Illustration: Mount Etna.]

The ode in which this allusion occurs is said to have been written
about B.C. 470; and the eruption to which it refers probably took
place shortly before that date.

Virgil also describes the mountain very forcibly in the AEneid,
lib. iii. 570. Dryden renders the passage thus:--

"The port capacious, and secure from wind,
Is to the foot of thund'ring Etna joined.
By turns a pitchy cloud she rolls on high:
By turns hot embers from her entrails fly,
And flakes of mounting flames, that lick the sky.
Oft from her bowels massy rocks are thrown,
And shivered by the force come piece-meal down.
Oft liquid lakes of burning sulphur flow,