brows for a dead cat. We may therefore judge, that some very strong symptoms of grief would have been expressed, had this picture any way related to the sepulture of a king's daughter. Herodotus had his account from different people: one half he confessedly 7 disbelieved; and the remainder was equally incredible. For no king of Egypt, if he had made a representation of the sacred 68 bull, durst have prostituted it for a tomb: and, as I have before said, 'Eogrn fargin can never relate to a funeral. 47 Ταύτα δη λεγεσι φλύηρέοντες. Herod. 1. 2. c. 131. 63 The star between the horns shews that it was a representation of the Deity, and the whole a religious memorial. AN ACCOUNT OF THE GODS OF GREECE; To shew that they were all originally one GOD, the SUN. As I shall have a great deal to say concerning the Grecian Theology in the course of this work, it will be necessary to take some previous notice of their Gods; both in respect to their original, and to their purport. Many learned men have been at infinite pains to class the particular. Deities of different countries, and to point out which were the same. But they would have saved themselves much labour, if, before they had bewildered themselves in these fruitless inquiries, they had considered whether all the Deities of which they treat, were not originally the same: all from one source; branched out and diversified in different 1 , parts of the world. I have mentioned that the nations of the east acknowledged originally but one Deity, the Sun: but when they came to give the titles of Orus, Osiris, and Cham, to some of the heads of their family; they too in time were looked up to as Gods, and severally worshipped as the Sun. This was practised by the Egyptians: but this nation being much addicted to refinement in their worship, made many subtile distinctions: and supposing that there were certain emanations of divinity, they affected to particularize each by some title; and to worship the Deity by his attributes. This gave rise to a multiplicity of Gods for the more curious they were in their disquisitions, the greater was the number of these substitutes. Many of them at first were designed for mere titles: others, as I before mentioned, were appoa, derivatives, and emanations: all which in time were esteemed distinct beings, and gave rise to a most inconsistent system of Polytheism. The Grecians, who received their religion from Egypt and the east, misconstrued' every thing which was imported; and added to these absurdities largely. They adopted Deities, to whose pretended attributes they were totally strangers; whose names they could not articulate, or spell. They did not know how to arrange the elements, of which the words were composed. Hence it was, that Solon the Wise could not escape the bitter, but just censure of the priest in Egypt, who accused both him, and the Grecians in general, of the grossest puerility and ignorance. 1 * Ω Σολων, Σολων, Έλληνες εσε παιδες αει, γερων δε Έλλην εκ εσι, νέοι τε ψυχας ἁπάντες· ουδεμιαν γαρ εν ἑαυτοις εχετε παρ λαιαν δόξαν, ουδε μαθημα χρονῳ πολιον ουδεν. The truth of this allegation may be proved both from the uncertainty, and inconsistency of the antients in the accounts of their Deities. Of this uncertainty Herodotus takes notice. * Ενθενδε εγενετο έκαςος των θεών, είτε δ' αει ησαν παντες, ὁκοιοι δε τινες τα ειδεα, εκ ηπιςεατο μεχρι ου πριντε και χθες, ὡς ειπειν λόγῳ. He attributes to Homer, and to Hesiod, the various names and distinctions of the Gods, and that endless polytheism which prevailed. 3 Ουτοι δε εισι, οι ποιησαντες θεογονιαν Ἑλλησι, και τοισι Θεοισι τας επωνυμίας δοντες, και τίμας τε και τεχνας διελοντες, και ειδέα αυτών σημηναντες. This blindness in regard to their own theology, and to that of the countries, * Cyril. contra Julian. p. 15. It is related somewhat differently in the Timæus of Plato. vol. 3. p. 22. See also Clemens Alex. Strom. 1. 1. p. 356. * L. 2. c. 53. The evidence of Herodotus must be esteemed early; and his judgment valid. What can afford us a more sad account of the doubt and darkness, in which mankind was inveloped, than these words of the historian? how plainly does he show the necessity of divine interposition; and of revelation in consequence of it ! 3 Herodotus. 1. 2. c. 53. whence they borrowed, led them to misapply the terms, which they had received, and to make a God out of every title. But however they may have separated, and distinguished them under different personages, they are all plainly resolvable into one Deity, the Sun. The same is to be observed in the Gods of the Romans. This may in great measure be proved from the current accounts of their own writers; if we attend a little closely to what they say: but it will appear more manifest from those who had been in Egypt, and copied their accounts from that country. There are few characters, which at first sight appear more distinct than those of Apollo and Bacchus. Yet the department, which is generally appropriated to Apollo, as the Sun, I mean the conduct of the year, is by Virgil given to Bacchus, or Liber. He joins him with Ceres, and calls them both the bright luminaries of the world. 4 Vos, O, clarissima Mundi Lumina, labentem Cœlo qui ducitis annum, * Quidam ipsum solem, ipsum Apollinem, ipsum * Virgil. Georgic. 1. 1. v. 6. Liber is El-Abor contracted: Sol, Parens Lucis. |