I. My esteem for your person, induces me to respect your letter; but if I
was not restrained by the first of these considerations, I don’t know how
I might be disposed to treat the epistle; because the charge you alledge
against me in it, is destitute of all foundation. You first of all
point-blank accuse me, with having in my essay on the _Divorce of History
from Fable_, advanced, there is no fiction whatever of paganism, which
is derived from sacred history; and then treat the maxim as savouring
of impiety. But if broaching this maxim was criminal and a sin, alas!
what must become of the honour and piety, of the most learned, and most
religious abbot Branchini? for he was the man who first advanced, and
afterwards with all his might, endeavoured to enforce and establish this
system, and asserted, that all the fables of the pagans, were founded
on, and derived from profane history. But why does this sentiment savour
of impiety? You answer this, and say, because it takes away a species of
support from the truth of holy writ. This can hardly be esteemed a very
substantial species of support. Whoever would be inclined to doubt or
disbelieve the scripture truths, notwithstanding the firm foundation on
which they rest, would not be disposed to credit them, on account of the
weak auxiliary confirmation they derive from such a support? That the
origin of the fables of the Gentiles, were derived from those truths,
is at best but a doubtful, and a speculative opinion; and how can a
doubtful proof confirm any man in the belief of a matter, which rests, or
is founded in that sort of proof? But if a fair proof of this could be
adduced, it would answer no purpose, for it would be very easy for him
who was guilty of the impiety, in order to elude any consequences from
the detection, to pretend he derived the hint from another fable, and
that these tales are the children of one another, and that those of the
latest date, are introduced to ornament and give lustre to those which
preceded them.
II. But admitting that the maxim did border upon impiety, I am by no
means interested in defending or justifying it, as I was in no wise
concerned in preferring it, and therefore it is very unjust in you to
impute it to me. My object in the discourse you mention, was that of
combating the system, which derives all the fictions of gentilism in
general, from sacred history; although as is evident from my words in the
43d article of that Discourse, I admit that some of them might possibly
have sprung from that source, how then can you when these were my words,
fix a charge upon me of affirming, that no fiction whatever of paganism,
took its rise from sacred history?
III. I also combat, although it is only by the way, or _en passant_,
the system of Senior Branchini, who asserts, that all the fables were
the offspring of profane history; or, to speak more properly, he
endeavours to inculcate, that the first are mysterious or enigmatical
representations of the last, which attempt, necessarily betrays him into
some violent and absurd allusions; and perhaps into such as are more
glaring, than those I have pointed out, by which, he derives all the
fables from holy writ. For example; he pretends that all the Iliad is
a true history, but converted into allegory, agreeable to the practice
of the East. That Jupiter was the successor of the great conqueror
Sesostris, whose dominion extended over a vast tract of country in
the time of the Trojan war; that the inferior deities, represented
either eminent men, or particular nations; and that a part of those
deities, were tributary princes to the said Sesostris, or some one of
his successors, whose dependence upon him, did not deprive them of the
option, of taking part either with the Trojans or the Greeks, just as
their passions or interests dictated to them. That the goddess Juno was
Syria, called _Blanca_, and was characterized by the white arms of Juno,
so much extolled by Homer. Minerva was the wise Egypt, Mars the union
or combination of Armenia, Colquida, Thrace and Thessaly; and in this
manner, he reasons upon the other fables. Into such strange paradoxes as
these, are men drawn by their passion for systems of great extent.
IV. But although I don’t assent to the system of Senior Branchini, the
whole of which it is impossible to adjust, without falling into great
absurdities, I agree, after the example of many men eminent for their
literature, that a large portion of the fables, is a compound of parcels
of profane history, disguised and deformed; but still the alteration they
have undergone, has not so thoroughly disfigured them, but that we may
discern in the copies, sufficient marks of their origin and derivation;
and I propose pointing out to you in this letter, the instances of this
sort that occur to me.
V. It is highly probable, that some of the subaltern deities, were formed
upon the idea that was entertained by the populace, of some particular
persons, eminent either for their heroic virtues, or for having been the
inventors of some arts, that were found to be exceedingly useful to the
public. This is the account Pliny gives of the matter in chap. 1. of his
twenty-fifth book. _At herculè, singula quosdam inventa deorum numero
addidere._
VI. Saturn devouring his children, according to Mr. Rollin, is derived
from a part of the Carthaginian history, which speaks of a king of
Carthage, who buried his sons alive as a sacrifice to the gods; and
this agrees in substance, with the account given of the thing by Mons.
Bonamy, in his History of the Royal Academy of Inscriptions, _tom._ 7. p.
29. But, as we shall see in the sequel, it is much more probable, that
the fabulous Saturn of paganism was derived from the true Abraham of
scripture.
VII. The Cretans considered Jupiter as their countryman; and even in the
time of Lucian, as appears by this author in his Dialogue of _Jupiter
Tragicus_, shewed his tomb in that island; and although they allowed he
was dead, it without doubt had been handed down to them by tradition,
that he was some eminent man, and had peradventure been king of the
country.
VIII. In the fiction of the Stygian Lake, and of the boatman Charon, is
contained a mixture of natural and civil history. There is in Arcadia a
lake, which not only was called Stygia at the time when the poets first
began to make it famous by their inventions, but many ages after that
æra, preserved this name; for even in the days of Pliny it retained
it; and I don’t know whether it does not retain it with very little
alteration, at this period. The deadly quality of its waters, gave
occasion to the poets, to feign that it was of infernal derivation, and
to place the source, both of the lake, and the river which runs into it,
in the region of the dead. Pliny says, that the waters of it, by being
drunk, kill in an instant; and adds upon the authority of Theophrastus,
that there are little fish bred in it, which poison whoever eats them.
Some antient authors, attribute a faculty to its waters so intensely
corrosive, that it can’t be contained in any vessel, but one made of a
wild ass’s hoof, as it gnaws and tears to pieces, those made of any other
materials; and the disciples of Aristotle formerly pretended, that this
secret was revealed by their master to Antipater, to instruct him how he
might send some of this poisonous water to Babylon, for the destruction
of Alexander.
IX. The learned Abbé Fourmont, who in the years 1729 and 30, by order
of the most Christian king, made a voyage of critical enquiry to the
Levant, where he scrutinized with the greatest exactness all Greece,
and after passing the brook which supplied it with water, examined with
much attention the Stygian Lake; which he gives the following horrible
description of. He says, the water of the brook which runs into it,
before it enters the lake, is clear, but after that, becomes thick and
tainted; an alteration, which can only be imputed to the bad qualities
and pernicious nature of its bottom. He says further, the surface
presents to the view, a confused mixture of the most disgustful tints;
and that a thick scum, of the colour of the rust of copper tinged with
black, swims on its top, which being agitated by the wind, looks like
the bubbles of boiling tar or bitumen. The obnoxious active quality of
its waters, is not less pernicious than its aspect is displeasing; and
the vapours which arise from them, blight all the plants that grow near
the lake; and that it’s banks are avoided and fled from, by all sorts
of beasts. The Abbé Fourmont mentions a circumstance, that contradicts
what has been related by Theophrastus, which is, that its fish poison
whoever eats them; for he asserts, that no fish can live in the waters of
the lake; and saying they are deadly to the very fish, is certainly an
aggravation of their pernicious qualities.
X. The lake then, being in so many respects horrible and affrighting, it
is no wonder that from these circumstances, poetic fancy should place it
in the region of horror, or at the entrance of it.
XI. The fable of the boatman Charon, who for an obolo, an Athenian piece
of money worth a little more than our halfpenny, carried the souls of
the dead over the lake, was derived from an Egyptian story, related by
Diodorus Siculus. There was in Egypt a lake, over which dead bodies after
they were embalmed, were carried to the opposite shore to be buried; and
there were judges appointed to attend at the place of embarkation, to
examine into the course of life which had been led by the dead persons;
and after this inquiry, to pronounce whether they were or were not,
worthy to be interred; which office was exercised with such severity,
that this common honour has been denied to some of the royal family. To
this story there is annexed a tradition, which the Abbé Fourmont says,
subsists in that part of Egypt at this day. The tradition is as follows;
that there was once a farmer of the revenues of one of the Pharaohs, who
laid a tax upon this transportation of the dead, which brought in vast
sums. Thus you see, that both in Greece and Egypt, there were found true
materials, wherewith to fabricate the fable of the Stygian Lake, to build
the boat which conveyed the dead bodies to the abyss, and to erect a
monument, to eternize the avarice of the boatman Charon.
XII. The fable of the river Lethe, whose waters the dead are obliged to
drink, to make them forget all they ever saw or knew in the region of the
living, and also that of the boatman Charon, are both of African origin.
This river rises near the great bog or quicksand, and after running under
ground, and being hid for some miles, shews itself again near to the
city of Berenica, now Bernick or Bernisho, greatly increased in size,
by the addition made to it, by subterraneous waters; and this made it
thought, that it was not the same river which they had before seen bury
itself under ground, and was also the circumstance, that gave rise to its
deriving its source from Hell.
XIII. The river likewise which was antiently called Lethe, but now goes
by the name of Limia, and runs through my native country; and concerning
which, there was once a prevailing opinion among the Romans, that it had
the same properties which the poets attributed to the infernal river,
causing forgetfulness, not only in those who drank of its waters, but
also in those who waded through it, and it not being then certain whether
this error or preoccupation with respect to the river Lethe, and the
fiction of its source originating in Hell, took its rise from the river
Lethe of my country; or whether the fable of the river Lethe coming from
Hell, and the property of its waters being then established, might have
occasioned the confounding the river Lethe of Galicia with the other.
XIV. I say, however this was, the opinion of the qualities of the river
Lethe, was so rooted and fixed among the vulgar of the Romans, that when
the consul Decimus Brutus, as Florus calls him, or Aulus Brutus, as he
is called by Paterculus, was engaged in the conquest of Galicia, and who
on account of his having conquered it, obtained the surname of Gallego;
I say, when this consul came to the river Lethe, which is fordable, none
of his soldiers, for fear of incurring that general forgetfulness, would
venture to wade through it, till the consul who was not preoccupied with
the vulgar error, passed thro’ it to the opposite shore; and when he was
arrived there, turned about and called some of his countrymen by their
names, by which he gave them to understand, that he had not incurred the
forgetfulness they so much dreaded; and said further to them, as Florus
informs us, _Formidatum Romanis fluvium oblivionis_.
XV. The story of Dedalus, and his being obliged to fly from the
resentment of Minos, by means of the invention of wings, for having
facilitated to Pasiphaë her abominable commerce with a bull, was meant
to describe nothing more, than her having been enamoured with Taurus,
who, according to Plutarch, was one of the principal generals in the army
of Minos; and Dedalus’s having assisted, by exerting the ordinary means
practised on such occasions, in bringing about the completion of the
lovers wishes; after finishing the business he fled from the vengeance
of Minos, in a vessel that had sails, which might properly enough be
compared to wings, and which the imagination being put to the stretch to
find out a way of escaping, they were then supposed to have been first
invented: or if the idea had before been entertained, that was the first
time of its being carried into practice.
XVI. The chimerical feats of Jason, and his stealing the golden fleece,
are historically explained by the celebrated Samuel Bochart, who, by the
help of his knowledge of the Phœnician language, discovered, that there
were some words of equivocal meaning in that idiom, which gave occasion
to the fabrication of this portentous fable. The Syriac word _Gaza_, in
the Phœnician language, signifies both a treasure and a fleece; the word
_Saur_ also, in the same language, signifies both a wall and a bull; and
the word _Nachas_, is also indifferently used to express a dragon and
iron. Thus, instead of saying that Jason, by breaking down or scaling
a wall defended by armed men, had made himself master of the treasure
of the king of Colquida; they represent him, as having tamed the bulls
which breathed fire, and the tremendous dragon, which guarded the golden
fleece, and by that means had made himself master of it. Neither in the
love of Medea for Jason, or in her running away with him, was there any
thing extraordinary, or that required the assistance of Minerva, for a
natural passion, accompanied with resolution, could without any other
aid, surmount all the difficulties in such an undertaking.
XVII. The Centaurs, half men and half horses, which make a great
figure in the heathen mythology, were nothing more, according to the
best authors, than types or representations of some of the inhabitants
of Thessaly, who were the first people that were known to fight on
horseback, and to train and break horses, for the use and business of
war; and it was in that region, the poets placed the Centaurs, and it was
from thence, that they say Hercules expelled them.
XVIII. The harpies (who could suppose it?) were no more than great swarms
of locusts, which in the reign of king Phineus, desolated Paphlagonia. In
the dictionary of Moreri (vid. the word Harpies) you may see the proofs
of this, which I shall omit inserting here, as that dictionary is so well
known.
XIX. In the same manner, from portions of profane history, may be
explained many other parts of the heathen mythology; such as the fable
of Perseus, that of Belerophonte, that of the Hesperides, that of the
Gorgons, and many more. But this is not a matter of sufficient importance
to dwell upon.
XX. I also confess, that there are some parts of profane mythological
history, that may be opportunely explained by the sacred, as those who
have embraced the general system of deducing the first from the last,
have clearly proved; but their success in some of these particulars, has
been the cause of their great error, as it has encouraged them in the
absurd and incongruous attempt, of deducing from scripture, the whole
Pagan mythology. I will here venture, notwithstanding this has been a
path so much trodden, to point some especial marks of similitude and
identity, between a deity of the gentiles, and a conspicuous person of
holy writ. This is the example I before promised to give, and which
relates to the resemblance between the father of the faithful with one
of the most antient of the Pagan deities, that is, between Abraham and
Saturn. But I must premise, that the reader is not indebted to me for
this beautiful parallel, but to the Abbé Boissy, a member of the Academy
Royal of Inscriptions and Belles Lettres at Paris, who is the person that
advanced it in that famous assembly; and I shall translate it here in the
sense of the language of the author, as I find it inserted, in the first
volume of the History of that academy.
XXI. He says that Saturn, according to the relations of the poets and
historians, was the person who first introduced the detestable custom
of sacrificing human victims. The Saturn of the Pagans, is in the
judgment of the best critics, the Abraham of scripture; and a fragment
of Sanchionata, which is produced by Eusebius, does to appearance, put
the thing out of all doubt. The fragment runs as follows; _Saturn, whom
the Phœnicians call Israel, was after his death classed among the gods,
under the name of a planet, which at this time is called Saturn. In
the days of this prince’s reign in Phœnicia, he had by a nymph named_
Anobret, _an only son whom he called_ Jeud, _a word which even to this
day, among the Phœnicians signifies_ only son. Finding that he had
engaged his country in a dangerous war, he adorned his son with the
vestments and insignia of royalty, and sacrificed him on an altar erected
by himself. In another fragment of the same Sanchionata, we find, that
this same Saturn circumcised himself, and obliged all his family to
do the like. Nicholas Damascenus, Justin, and other authors, give to
Abraham the rank and quality of a king; and even the scripture remarks,
that he made alliances, and treated with other kings as with his equals;
and besides this, the patriarchs were known to exercise royal authority
in their own families. Berosus, as we are informed by Josephus, adds,
that Abraham had great skill in astrology; and Eupolemus, as we are
told by Eusebius, says, that he was the inventor of the science of the
Chaldeans. There needs nothing more to persuade us, that the Phœnicians
were disposed to place him among the gods and the planets. They called
him Israel, either from their confounding the grandfather with the
grandson, or because they gave that name to the people who were descended
from him. The name of _Jeud_, his only son, has the same meaning as that
of _Isaac_; and _Anobret_, as Bochart informs us, signifies _ex gratia
concipiens_, which signification, is very applicable to the circumstances
of _Sarah_. Finally, and as the last instance of conformity between
them, Saturn circumcised himself, and obliged all his family to do the
same; a remarkable particular this, and which can agree only with the
circumstances of Abraham. Thus far the before cited author.
XXII. I say the same of the two systems, that derive all the fictions of
Paganism, the one from sacred, the other from profane history, that I say
of all the other systems; which is, that there is somewhat of truth in
every one of them, but that they all in general are false. Father Kircher
inclined to the sentiment, that all the fables derived their origin from
the language, or hyerogliphical characters of the Egyptians; although it
is necessary, in order to support this opinion, to suppose that they all
originated in Egypt, which is very wide of the truth; but as that kingdom
in the ages of antiquity, made a great figure in the world, and was in
an especial manner venerated as the metropolis of the sciences, it is
probable, that the language of it, and the mysterious expressions of some
of its inhabitants, which were ill understood, or not understood at all
by the vulgar, might have given rise to some of the mythological tales.
XXIII. Bochart pretends to demonstrate, that they were all derived from
the equivocal meaning of words in the Phœnician language, and with
respect to some of them, has succeeded very happily in illustrating this
sentiment; as for example, in his explanation of the fable of the golden
fleece. But the general system is absurd, even if you suppose there is no
other thing to object against it, than the chimera, that Phœnicia is the
country from whence the whole of the fables are descended; but in order
to prove this, it will be necessary to shew, that no histories depraved
with fictions, were communicated to other kingdoms, but in Phœnician
manuscripts.
XXIV. The Platonists imagined, that nothing else was concealed under
the veil of fables, but documents and maxims of natural philosophy.
And there certainly is something of this sort implied in them; as for
example, in the description which Homer gives of Aurora, as the daughter
of the air, and the office which other poets assign to her, of the
guardianship or custody of the gates of the east, which she is to open
every morning with her dewy fingers, taking care to send the zephyrs
before to dispel the dark shades. All which imagery at the bottom, means
nothing more, than to describe the properties of the morning air, and to
display the appearances of day-break in the east, before the sun rises
above the horizon.
XXV. Others have imagined, that all the fables were meant to convey
some moral or political lessons, and that the authors designed nothing
more when they invented them, than to inculcate under a species of
allegory, rational maxims, which might be useful in human life; and
there are really some of them, that seem to have been written with no
other view. The fable of Phaeton for example, appears to have been
calculated, to represent the dangers to which people expose themselves,
by attempting things greatly superior to their power or abilities; and
that of Narcissus, to represent the extravagance and folly of self-love
or admiration. But saying that all the fables were written with this
design, would be a manifest chimera.
XXVI. Finally, the infatuated alchymists, or at least some of them,
have dreamed, that the fables of which we have been speaking, contain
enigmatically, the doctrine of the philosophers stone; that is, that they
teach in a mysterious way, all the operations which are necessary to
be gone thro’, for attaining the happy secret of transmuting all other
metals into gold. Perhaps what occasioned this silly apprehension, was
their finding in the idiom of their art, the names of the seven principal
deities of the Pagans, which are the same as those of the seven planets,
applied to the seven metals they make use of; but the application of
those names to the metals, was posterior many ages, to their being given
to the deities and the planets. The first alchymists who called the
metals by those names, were excited to do it by the same motive, which
has ever induced them to give to all the materials, operations, and
effects of their art, strange and sounding names, which they do, either
to conceal their pretended secrets, or by the mysterious magnificence of
their stile, to attract the respect and admiration of the vulgar; and
the resemblance of the splendor of the sun’s rays to the colour of gold,
and the light of the moon, to that of silver, was favourable to their
intention, and assisted them in making the application.
XXVII. This system, is not only in its complex or whole substance, but
in each, and every one of its parts, destitute of all foundation, and is
therefore not worthy to be controverted, but should be treated with that
contempt, which both this, and all the other imaginary productions of the
alchymists deserve.
XXVIII. If this letter shall afford you neither entertainment nor
instruction, it will at least serve as an apology for my conduct, and
incline you to retract the censure, which you have fulminated against me,
and my discourse of the _Divorce of History from Fable_; and I hope that
at all events, your resentment will be calmed, and your apprehensions
quieted by the following reflection; that although in that discourse
I have weakened the bond of matrimony between the two parties, I have
in this letter, on one of the sides, established a degree of affinity
between them.