which one should be led to think, that the putting a stop to this unnatural
gratification was owing to him. Others think, that he only discountenanced
the eating of raw flesh, which before had been usual. But this could not be
true of Orpheus: for it was a circumstance, which made one part of his
institutes. If there were ever such a man, as Orpheus, he enjoined the very
thing, which he is supposed to have prohibited. For both in the [643]orgies
of Bacchus and in the rites of Ceres, as well as of other Deities, one part
of the mysteries consisted in a ceremony styled [Greek: omophagia]; at
which time they eat the flesh quite crude with the blood. In Crete at the
[644]Dionusiaca they used to tear the flesh with their teeth from the
animal, when alive. This they did in commemoration of Dionusus. [645]Festos
funeris dies statuunt, et annuum sacrum trieterica consecratione componunt,
omnia per ordinem facientes, quae puer moriens aut fecit, aut passus est.
_Vivum laniant dentibus Taurum_, crudeles epulas annuis commemorationibus
excitantes. Apollonius Rhodius speaking of persons like to Bacchanalians,
represents them [646][Greek: Thuasin omoborois ikelai], as savage as the
Thyades, who delighted in bloody banquets. Upon this the Scholiast
observes, that the Maenadas, and Bacchae, used to devour the raw limbs of
animals, which they had cut or torn asunder. [647][Greek: Pollakis tei
maniai kataschisthenta, kai omosparakta, esthiousin.] In the island of
Chios it was a religious custom to tear a man limb from limb by way of
sacrifice to Dionusus. The same obtained in Tenedos. It is Porphyry, who
gives the account. He was a staunch Pagan, and his evidence on that account
is of consequence. He quotes for the rites of Tenedos Euelpis the
Carystian. [648][Greek: Ethuonto de kai en Chio toi Omadioi Dionusoi
anthropon diespontes; kai en Tenedoi, phesin Euelpis ho Karustios.] From
all which we may learn one sad truth, that there is scarce any thing so
impious and unnatural, as not at times to have prevailed.
We need not then wonder at the character given of the Lestiygones, Lamiae,
and Cyclopians, who were inhabitants of Sicily, and lived nearly in the
same part of the island. They seem to have been the priests, and
priestesses, of the Leontini, who resided at Pelorus, and in the Cyclopian
towers: on which account the Lamiae are by Lucilius termed [649]Turricolae.
They are supposed to have delighted in human blood, like the Cyclopians,
but with this difference, that their chief repast was the flesh of young
persons and children; of which they are represented as very greedy. They
were priests of Ham, called El Ham; from whence was formed 'Lamus and
'Lamia. Their chief city, the same probably, which was named Tauromenium,
is mentioned by Homer, as the city of Lamus.
[650][Greek: Hebdomatei d' hikomestha Lamou aipu ptoliethron.]
And the inhabitants are represented as of the giant race.
[651][Greek: Phoiton d' iphthimoi Laistrugones, allothen allos,]
[Greek: Murioi, ouk andressin eoikotes, alla Gigasi.]
Many give an account of the Lestrygons, and Lamiae, upon the Liris in Italy;
and also upon other parts of that coast: and some of them did settle there.
But they were more particularly to be found in [652]Sicily near Leontium,
as the Scholiast upon Lycophron observes. [653][Greek: Laistrugones, hoi
nun Leontinoi.] _The antient Lestrygons were the people, whose posterity
are now called Leontini_. The same writer takes notice of their incivility
to strangers: [654][Greek: Ouk esan eithismenoi xenous hupodechesthai.]
That they were Amonians, and came originally from Babylonia, is pretty
evident from the history of the Erythrean Sibyl; who was no other than a
Lamian priestess. She is said to have been the daughter of Lamia, who was
the daughter of Poseidon. [655][Greek: Sibullan--Lamias ousan thugatera tou
Poseidonos.] Under the character of one person is to be understood a
priesthood: of which community each man was called Lamus, and each
priestess Lamia. By the Sibyl being the daughter of Lamia, the daughter of
Poseidon, is meant, that she was of Lamian original, and ultimately
descended from the great Deity of the sea. Who is alluded to under that
character, will hereafter be shewn. The countries, to which the Sibyl is
referred, point out her extraction: for she is said to have come from
Egypt, and Babylonia. [656][Greek: Hoi de auten Babulonian, heteroi de
Sibullan kalousin Aiguptian.] If the Sibyl came from Babylonia and Egypt,
her supposed parent, Lamia, must have been of the same original.
The Lamiae were not only to be found in Italy, and Sicily, but Greece,
Pontus, and [657]Libya. And however widely they may have been separated,
they are still represented in the same unfavourable light. Euripides says,
that their very name was detestable.
[658][Greek: Tis t' ounoma tod' eponeidiston brotois]
[Greek: Ouk oide Lamias tes Libustikes genos.]
Philostratus speaks of their bestial appetite, and unnatural gluttony.
[659][Greek: Lamias sarkon, kai malista anthropeion erain.] And Aristotle
alludes to practices still more shocking: as if they tore open the bodies
big with child, that they might get at the infant to devour it. _I speak_,
says he, _of people, who have brutal appetites_. [660][Greek: Lego de tas
theriodeis, hoion ten anthropon, ten legousi tas kuousas anaschizousan ta
paidia katestheein.] These descriptions are perhaps carried to a great
excess; yet the history was founded in truth: and shews plainly what
fearful impressions were left upon the minds of men from the barbarity of
the first ages.
One of the principal places in Italy, where the Lamia seated themselves,
was about Formiae; of which Horace takes notice in his Ode to AElius Lamia.
[661]AEli, vetusto nobilis ab Lamo, &c.
Authore ab illo ducis originem,
Qui Formiarum moenia dicitur
Princeps, et innantem Maricae
Littoribus tenuisse Lirim.
The chief temple of the Formians was upon the sea-coast at Caiete. It is
said to have had its name from a woman, who died here: and whom some make
the nurse of AEneas, others of Ascanius, others still of [662]Creusa. The
truth is this: it stood near a cavern, sacred to the God Ait, called Ate,
Atis, and Attis; and it was hence called Caieta, and Caiatta. Strabo says,
that it was denominated from a cave, though he did not know the precise
[663]etymology. There were also in the rock some wonderful subterranes,
which branched out into various apartments. Here the antient Lamii, the
priests of Ham, [664]resided: whence Silius Italicus, when he speaks of the
place, styles it [665]Regnata Lamo Caieta. They undoubtedly sacrificed
children here; and probably the same custom was common among the Lamii, as
prevailed among the Lacedaemonians, who used to whip their children round
the altar of Diana Orthia. Thus much we are assured by Fulgentius, and
others, that the usual term among the antient Latines for the whipping of
children was Caiatio. [666]Apud Antiquos Caiatio dicebatur puerilis caedes.
The coast of Campania seems to have been equally infamous: and as much
dreaded by mariners, as that of Rhegium, and Sicily. Here the Sirens
inhabited, who are represented, as the bane of all, who navigated those
seas. They like the Lamii were Cuthite, and Canaanitish priests, who had
founded temples in these parts; and particularly near three small islands,
to which they gave name. These temples were rendered more than ordinary
famous on account of the women, who officiated. They were much addicted to
the cruel rites, of which I have been speaking; so that the shores, upon
which they resided, are described, as covered with the bones of men,
destroyed by their artifice.
[667]Jamque adeo scopulos Sirenum advecta subibat,
Difficiles quondam, multorumque ossibus albos.
They used hymns in their temples, accompanied with the music of their
country: which must have been very enchanting, as we may judge from the
traditions handed down of its efficacy. I have mentioned, that the songs of
the Canaanites and Cretans were particularly plaintive, and pleasing:
[668]They sang in sweet but melancholy strains;
Such as were warbled by the Delian God,
When in the groves of Ida he bewail'd
The lovely lost Atymnius.
But nothing can shew more fully the power of antient harmony than the
character given of the Sirens. Their cruelty the antients held in
detestation; yet always speak feelingly of their music. They represent
their songs as so fatally winning, that nobody could withstand their
sweetness. All were soothed with it; though their life was the purchase of
the gratification. The Scholiast upon Lycophron makes them the children of
the muse [669]Terpsichore. Nicander supposes their mother to have been
Melpomene: others make her Calliope. The whole of this is merely an
allegory; and means only that they were the daughters of harmony. Their
efficacy is mentioned by [670]Apollonius Rhodius: and by the Author of the
Orphic [671]Argonautica: but the account given by Homer is by far the most
affecting.
[672][Greek: Seirenas men proton aphixeai, hai rha te pantas]
[Greek: Anthropous thelgousin, hotis spheas eisaphikanei.]
[Greek: Hostis aidreiei pelasei, kai phthongon akousei]
[Greek: Seirenon, toi d' outi gune, kai nepia tekna]
[Greek: Oikade nostesanti paristatai, oude ganuntai;]
[Greek: Alla te Seirenes ligurei thelgousin aoidei,]
[Greek: Hemenoi en leimoni; polus t' amph' osteophin this]
[Greek: Andron puthomenon, peri de rhinoi phthinuthousin.]
They are the words of Circe to Ulysses, giving him an account of the
dangers which he was to encounter.
[673]Next where the Sirens dwell, you plough the seas.
Their song is death, and makes destruction please.
Unblest the man, whom music makes to stray
Near the curst coast, and listen to their lay.
No more that wretch shall view the joys of life,
His blooming offspring, or his pleasing wife.
In verdant meads they sport, and wide around
Lie human bones, that whiten all the ground:
The ground polluted floats with human gore,
And human carnage taints the dreadful shore.
Fly, fly the dangerous coast.
The story at bottom relates to the people above-mentioned; who with their
music used to entice strangers into the purlieus of their temples, and then
put them to death. Nor was it music only, with which persons were seduced
to follow them. The female part of their choirs were maintained for a
twofold purpose, both on account of their voices and their beauty. They
were accordingly very liberal of their favours, and by these means enticed
seafaring persons, who paid dearly for their entertainment. Scylla was a
personage of this sort: and among the fragments of Callimachus we have a
short, but a most perfect, description of her character.
[674][Greek: Skulla, gune katakasa, kai ou psuthos ounom' echousa.]
[Greek: Katakasa] is by some interpreted _malefica_: upon which the learned
Hemsterhusius remarks very justly--[Greek: katakasa] cur Latine vertatur
malefica non video. Si Grammaticis obtemperes, meretricem interpretabere:
erat enim revera [Greek: Nesiotis kale hetaira], ut Heraclitus [Greek: peri
apis]: c. 2. Scylla then, under which character we are here to understand
the chief priestess of the place, was no other than a handsome island
strumpet. Her name it seems betokened as much, and she did not belie it:
[Greek: ou psuthos ounom' echousa]. We may from these data decipher the
history of Scylla, as given by Tzetzes. [Greek: En de proton Skulla gune
euprepes; Poseidoni de sunousa apetheriothe.] _Scylla was originally a
handsome wench: but being too free with seafaring people she made herself a
beast_. She was, like the Sibyl of Campania, said by Stesichorus to have
been the daughter of [675]Lamia. Hence we may learn, that all, who resided
in the places, which I have been describing, were of the same religion, and
of the same family; being the descendants of Ham, and chiefly by the
collateral branches of Chus, and Canaan.
The like rites prevailed in Cyprus, which had in great measure been peopled
by persons of these [676]families. One of their principal cities was
Curium, which was denominated from [677]Curos, the Sun, the Deity, to whom
it was sacred. In the perilous voyages of the antients nothing was more
common than for strangers, whether shipwrecked, or otherwise distressed, to
fly to the altar of the chief Deity, [Greek: Theou philiou, kai xeniou],
_the God of charity and hospitality_, for his protection. This was fatal to
those who were driven upon the western coast of Cyprus. The natives of
Curium made it a rule to destroy all such, under an appearance of a
religious rite. Whoever laid their hands upon the altar of Apollo, were
cast down the precipice, upon which it stood. [678][Greek: Euthus estin
akra, aph' hes rhiptousi tous hapsamenous tou bomou tou Apollonos]. Strabo
speaks of the practice, as if it subsisted in his time. A like custom
prevailed at the Tauric Chersonesus, as we are informed by Herodotus.
[679][Greek: Thuousi men tei Parthenoi tous te nauegous, kai tous an labosi
Hellenon epanachthentas, tropoi toioide. Katarxamenoi rhopaloi paiousi ten
kephalen. Hoi men de legousi, hos to soma apo tou kremnou diotheousi kato;
epi gar kremnou hidrutai to Hiron. ktl.] _The people of this place worship
the virgin Goddess Artemis: at whose shrine they sacrifice all persons, who
have the misfortune to be shipwrecked upon their coast: and all the
Grecians, that they can lay hold of, when they are at any time thither
driven. All these they without any ceremony brain with a club. Though
others say, that they shove them off headlong from a high precipice: for
their temple is founded upon a cliff._
The den of Cacus was properly Ca-Chus, the cavern or temple of Chus, out of
which the poets, and later historians have formed a strange personage, whom
they represent as a shepherd, and the son of Vulcan. Many antient
Divinities, whose rites and history had any relation to Ur in Chaldea, are
said to have been the children of Vulcan; and oftentimes to have been born
in fire. There certainly stood a temple of old upon the Aventine mountain
in Latium, which was the terror of the neighbourhood. The cruelties of the
priests, and their continual depredations, may be inferred from the history
of Cacus. Virgil makes Evander describe the place to AEneas; though it is
supposed in his time to have been in ruins.
[680]Jam primum saxis suspensam hanc aspice rupem,
Disjectae procul ut moles, desertaque montis
Stat domus, et scopuli ingentem traxere ruinam.
Hic spelunca fuit, vasto submota recessu,
Semihominis Caci, facies quam dira tegebat,
Solis inaccessum radiis: semperque recenti
Caede tepebat humus; foribusque affixa superbis
Ora virum tristi pendebant pallida tabo.
Huic monstro Vulcanus erat pater.
Livy mentions Cacus as a shepherd, and a person of great strength, and
violence. [681]Pastor, accola ejus loci, Cacus, ferox viribus. He is
mentioned also by Plutarch, who styles him Caccus, [Greek: Kakkos].
[682][Greek: Ton men gar Hephaistou paida Romaioi Kakkon historousi pur kai
phlogas aphienai dia tou stomatos exo rheousas.] As there were both
priests, and priestesses, in temples of this sort, persons styled both
Lami, and Lamiae; so we read both of a Cacus, and a Caca. The latter was
supposed to have been a Goddess, who was made a Deity for having betrayed
her brother to Hercules. [683]Colitur et Caca, quae Herculi fecit indicium
boum; divinitatem consecuta, quia perdidit fratrem. In short, under the
characters of Caca, and Cacus, we have a history of Cacusian priests, who
seem to have been a set of people devoted to rapine and murder.
What we express Cocytus, and suppose to have been merely a river, was
originally a temple in Egypt called Co-Cutus: for rivers were generally
denominated from some town, or temple, near which they ran. Co-Cutus means
the Cuthite temple, the house of Cuth. It was certainly a place of
inquisition, where great cruelties were exercised. Hence the river, which
was denominated from it, was esteemed a river of hell; and was supposed to
have continual cries, and lamentations resounding upon its waters.
[684]Cocytus, named of lamentation loud
Heard on its banks.
Milton supposes the river to have been named from the Greek word [Greek:
kokutos]: but the reverse is the truth. From the baleful river and temple
Co-cutus came the Greek terms [Greek: kokutos], and [Greek: kokuo].
Acheron, another infernal river, was properly a temple of Achor, the
[Greek: theos apomuios] of Egypt, Palestine, and Cyrene. It was a temple of
the Sun, called Achor-On: and it gave name to the river, on whose banks it
stood. Hence like Cocutus it was looked upon as a melancholy stream, and by
the Poet Theocritus styled [685][Greek: Acheronta polustonon], _the river
of lamentations_. Aristophanes speaks of an eminence of this name, and
calls it [686][Greek: Acherontios skopelos haimatostages], _the rock of
Acheron, dropping blood_.
* * * * *
OF
MEED OR [Greek: METIS],
AND THE
GODDESS HIPPA.
One of the most antient Deities of the Amonians was named Meed, or Meet; by
which was signified divine wisdom. It was rendered by the Grecians [Greek:
Metis] in the masculine: but seems to have been a feminine Deity; and
represented under the symbol of a beautiful female countenance surrounded
with serpents. The author of the Orphic Poetry makes Metis the origin of
all [687]things: which Proclus expresses [688][Greek: ten demiourgiken
aitian]: and supposes this personage to be the same as Phanes, and
Dionusus, from whom all things proceeded. By Timotheus Chronographus, in
his account of the creation, this divinity was described as that vivifying
light, which first broke forth upon the infant world, and produced life and
motion. His notion is said to have been borrowed from Orpheus: [Greek:
Ephrase de (ho] [689] [Greek: Orpheus) hoti to phos rhexan ton aithera
ephotise pasan ten ktisin; eipon, ekeino einai to phos to rhexan ton
aithera to proeiremenon, to hupertaton panton, hou onoma ho autos Orpheus
akousas ek Manteias exeipe METIS, hoper hermeneuetai BOULE, PHOS, ZOODOTER.
Eipen en tei autou ekthesei tautas tas treis theias ton onomaton dunameis
mian einai dunamin, kai hen kratos touton Theon, hon oudeis horai.] The
account is remarkable. Hippa was another Goddess, of the like antiquity,
and equally obsolete. Some traces however are to be still found in the
Orphic verses above-mentioned, by which we may discover her original
character and department. She is there represented as the nurse of
[690]Dionusus, and seems to have been the same as Cybele, who was
worshipped in the mountains of [691]Phrygia, and by the Lydians upon
Tmolus. She is said to have been the soul of the [692]world: and the person
who received and fostered Dionusus, when he came from the thigh of his
father. This history relates to his second birth, when he returned to a
second state of childhood. Dionusus was the chief God of the Gentile world,
and worshipped under various titles; which at length came to be looked upon
as different Deities. Most of these secondary Divinities had the title of
Hippius, and Hippia: and as they had female attendants in their temples,
these too had the name of Hippai. What may have been the original of the
term Hippa, and Hippus, will be matter of future disquisition. Thus much is
certain, that the Greeks, who were but little acquainted with the purport
of their antient theology, uniformly referred it to [693]horses. Hence it
was often prefixed to the names of Gods, and of Goddesses, when it had no
relation to their department; and seemed inconsistent with their character.
We have not only an account of [Greek: Ares Hippios], Mars the horseman;
but of Poseidon Hippius, though a God of the sea. He is accordingly
complimented upon this title by the Poet Aristophanes.
[694][Greek: Hippi' Anax Poseidon, hoi]
[Greek: Chalkokroton hippon ktupos]
[Greek: Kai chremetismos handanei.]
Ceres had the title of Hippia: and the Goddess of wisdom, Minerva, had the
same. We read also of Juno Hippia, who at Olympia partook of joint rites
and worship, with those equestrian Deities Neptune, and Mars. Pausanias
mentions [695][Greek: Poseidonos Hippiou, mai Heras Hippiou bomoi]: and
hard-by [Greek: tei men Areos Hippiou, tei de Athenas Hippiou bomos.] In
Arcadia, and Elis, the most antient rites were preserved: and the Grecians
might have known, that the terms Hippa and Hippia were of foreign purport
from the other titles given to Juno at Olympia. For they sacrificed here to
[696]Amonian Juno, and to Juno Paramonian; which were also titles of
Hermes. Hippa was a sacred Egyptian term, and as such was conferred upon
Arsinoe, the wife of Ptolemy Philadelphus: for the princes of Egypt always
assumed to themselves sacred appellations. [697][Greek: Hippia Arsinoe, he
tou Philadelphou gune.] As the Grecians did not inquire into the hidden
purport of antient names, they have continually misrepresented the
histories of which they treated. As Ceres was styled Hippa, they have
imagined her to have been turned into a [698]mare: and Hippius Poseidon was
in like manner changed to a horse, and supposed in that shape to have had
an intimate acquaintance with the Goddess. Of this Ovid takes notice.
[699]Et te, flava comas, frugum mitissima mater
Sensit equum: te sensit avem crinita colubris
Mater equi volucris.
The like is mentioned of the nymph [700]Ocuroe: also of Philyra, who was so
changed by Saturn. He is said to have taken upon himself the same shape,
and to have followed her neighing over the mountains of Thessaly.
[701]Talis et ipse jubam cervice effudit equina
Conjugis adventu pernix Saturnus, et altum
Pelion hinnitu fugiens implevit acuto.
All these legendary stories arose from this antient term being obsolete,
and misapplied. Homer makes mention of the mares of Apollo, which the God
was supposed to have bred in Pieria:
[702][Greek: Tas en Pieriei threps' argurotoxos Apollon.]
And he has accordingly put them in harness, and given them to the hero
Eumelus. Callimachus takes notice of the same mares in his hymn to the
Shepherd God Apollo.
[703][Greek: Phoibon kai Nomion kikleskomen, exet' ekeinou,]
[Greek: Exet' ep' Amphrusoi zeugetidas etrephen hippas,]
[Greek: Eitheou hup' eroti kekaumenos Admetoio.]
These Hippai, misconstrued mares, were priestesses of the Goddess Hippa,
who was of old worshipped in Thessaly, and Thrace, and in many different
regions. They chanted hymns in her temples, and performed the rites of
fire: but the worship growing obsolete, the very terms were at last
mistaken. How far this worship once prevailed may be known from the many
places denominated from Hippa. It was a title of Apollo, or the Sun, and
often compounded Hippa On, and contracted Hippon: of which name places
occur in Africa near Carthage[704]. [Greek: Hete de Kirta polis entautha
kai hoi duo Hippones.] Argos was of old called Hippeion; not from the
animal [Greek: Hippos], but [705][Greek: apo Hippes tou Danaou,] _from
Hippa the daughter of Danaus_. That is from a priestess, who founded there
a temple, and introduced the rites of the Goddess whom she served. As it
was a title of the Sun, it was sometimes expressed in the masculine gender
Hippos: and Pausanias takes notice of a most curious, and remarkable piece
of antiquity, though he almost ruins the purport of it by referring it to
an horse. It stood near mount Taygetus in Laconia, and was called the
monument of Hippos. The author tells us, [706]_that at particular intervals
from this monument stood seven pillars, [Greek: kata tropon oimai
archaion,] placed_, says he, _as I imagine, according to some antient rule
and method; which pillars were supposed to represent the seven planets_. If
then these exterior stones related to the [707]seven erratic bodies in our
sphere, the central monument of Hippos must necessarily have been designed
for the Sun. And however rude the whole may possibly have appeared, it is
the most antient representation upon record, and consequently the most
curious, of the planetary system.
It is from hence, I think, manifest, that the titles Hippa, and Hippos,
related to the luminary Osiris; and betokened some particular department of
that Deity, who was the same as Dionusus. He was undoubtedly worshipped
under this appellation in various regions: hence we read of Hippici Montes
in Colchis: [Greek: Hippou kome] in Lycia: [Greek: Hippou akra] in Libya:
[Greek: Hippou oros] in Egypt: and a town Hippos in Arabia Felix. There
occur also in composition[708], Hippon, Hipporum, Hippouris, Hippana,
Hipponesus, Hippocrene. This last was a sacred fountain, denominated from
the God of light, who was the patron of verse, and science: but by the
Greeks it was referred to an animal, and supposed to have been produced by
the hoof of an horse. The rites of Dionusus Hippius were carried into
Thrace, where the horses of Diomedes were said to have been fed with human
flesh. Deianira is introduced by Ovid, as asking Hercules, if he did not
well remember this practice.