place of his birth, have been ever satisfactorily proved. Till Eudoxus had been in Egypt the Grecians did not know the space of which the true year consisted. 5 Αλλ' ηγνοειτο τέως ὁ ενιαυτος παρά τοις Έλλησιν, ὡς και αλλα πλείω.

This

Another reason may be given for the obscurity in the Grecian history, even when letters had been introduced among them. They had a childish antipathy to every foreign language and were equally prejudiced in favour of their own. has passed unnoticed; yet was attended with the most fatal consequences. They were misled by the too great delicacy of their ear; and could not bear any term which appeared to them barbarous and uncouth. On this account they either rejected foreign appellations; or so modelled and changed them, that they became, in sound and meaning, essentially different. And as they were attached to their own country, and its customs, they presumed that every thing was to be looked for among themselves. They did not con

52

S1 Strabo. 1. 17. p. 1160.

52 Elian mentions, that the Bull Onuphis was worshipped at a place in Egypt, which he could not specify on account of its asperity. Ælian de Animalibus. l. 12. c. 11.

Even Strabo omits some names, because they were too rough and dissonant. Ου λεγω δε των εθνών τα ονόματα τα παλαια δια την αδοξίαν, και άμα την ατοπίαν της εκφοράς αυτών. 1. 12. p. 1193.

sider, that the titles of their Gods, the names of cities, and their terms of worship, were imported : that their ancient hymns were grown obsolete: and that time had wrought a great change. They explained every thing by the language in use, without the least retrospect or allowance: and all names and titles from other countries were liable to the same rule. If the name were dissonant, and disagreeable to their ear, it was rejected as barbarous but if it were at all similar in sound to any word in their language, they changed it to that word; though the name were of Syriac original; or introduced from Egypt, or Babylonia. The purport of the term was by these means changed and the history, which depended upon it, either perverted or effaced. When the title Melech, which signified a King, was rendered Μειλιχος and Μειλίχιος, sweet and gentle, it referred to an idea quite different from the original. But this gave them no concern: they still blindly pursued their purpose. Some legend was immediately invented in consequence of this misprision, some story about bees and honey, and the mistake was rendered in some degree plausible. This is a circumstance of much consequence; and deserves our attention greatly. I shall have occasion to speak of it repeatedly; and to lay before the reader some entire treatises upon the subject. For this failure is of such a nature, as, when detected,

and fairly explained, will lead us to the solution of many dark and enigmatical histories, with which the mythology of Greece abounds. The only author, who seems to have taken any notice of this unhappy turn in the Grecians, is Philo Biblius. 53 He speaks of it as a circumstance of very bad consequence, and says, that it was the chief cause of error and obscurity: hence, when he met in Sanchoniathon with antient names, he did not indulge himself in whimsical solutions; but gave the true meaning, which was the result of some event or quality whence the name was imposed. This being a secret to the Greeks, they always took things in a wrong acceptation; being misled by a twofold sense of the terms which occurred to them: one was the genuine and original meaning, which was retained in the language whence they were taken the other was a forced sense, which the Greeks unnaturally deduced from their own language, though there was no relation between them. The same term in different languages conveyed different and opposite ideas:

53 Μετα ταυτα πλανην Έλλησι αιτιαται (ὁ Φιλων) λεγων, ου γαρ ματαίως αυτα πολλακως διετειλάμεθα, αλλά προς τας αυθις παρεκδοχας των εν τοις πραγμασιν ονομάτων ἅπερ οι Έλληνες αγνοησαντες, άλλως εξεδέξαντο, πλανηθέντες τη αμφιβολία των ονομάτων. Philo apud Eusebium. P. E. 1. 1. c. x. p. 34.

and as they attended only to the meaning in their own tongue, they were constantly mistaken,

54

It may appear strange to make use of the mistakes of any people for a foundation to build upon yet through these failures my system will be in some degree supported: at least from a detection of these errors, I hope to obtain much light. For, as the Grecian writers have preserved a kind of uniformity in their mistakes, and there

54 Bozrah, a citadel, they changed to Cuga, a skin. Out of Ar, the capital of Moab, they formed Areopolis, the city of the Mars. The river Jaboc they expressed Io Bacchus. They did not know that diu in the east signified an island: and therefore out of Diu-Socotra in the Red-Sea, they formed the island Dioscorides and from Diu-Ador, or Adorus, they made an island Diodorus. The same island Socotra they sometimes denominated the island of Socrates. The place of fountains, Ai-Ain, they attributed to Ajax, and called it Aeros, axpornpov, in the same sea. The antient frontier town of Egypt, Rhinocolura, they derived from gis, givos, a nose and supposed that some people's noses were here cut off. Pannonia they derived from the Latin pannus, cloth. So Nilus was from us: Gadeira quasi Tns deiga. Necus in Egypt and Ethiopia signified a king: but such kings they have turned to vεnvas: and the city of Necho, or Royal City, to Νικοπολις and Νεκρόπολις.

Lysimachus in his Egyptian history changed the name of Jerusalem to legovλa: and supposed that the city was so called 'because the Israelites in their march to Canaan used to plunder temples, and steal sacred things, See Josephus contra Ap. 1. 1. c. 34. p. 467.

appears plainly a rule and method of deviation, it will be very possible, when this method is well known, to decypher what is covertly alluded to; and by these means arrive at the truth. If the openings in the wood or labyrinth are only as chance allotted, we may be for ever bewildered: but if they are made with design, and some method be discernible, this circumstance, if attended to, will serve for a clue, and lead us through the If we once know that what the Greeks, in their mythology, styled a wolf, was the Sun; that by a dog was meant a prince, or Deity; that by bees was signified an order of priests; these terms, however misapplied, can no more mislead us in writing, than their resemblances in sculpture would a native of Egypt, if they were used for emblems on stone.

maze.

Thus much I have been obliged to premise: as our knowledge must come through the hands of the Grecians. I am sensible, that 55 many learned men have had recourse to other means for infor

*I do not mean to exclude the Romans, though I have not mentioned them; as the chief of the knowledge which they afford is the product of Greece, However, it must be confessed, that we are under great obligations to Pliny, Marcellinus, Arnobius, Tertullian, Lactantius, Jerome, Macrobius; and many others. They contain many necessary truths, wherever they may have obtained them.