hence this at Athens had the name of Petra, or temple. [869]It is said of
Ceres, that after she had wandered over the whole earth, she at last
reposed herself upon a stone at Eleusis. They in like manner at Delphi
shewed the petra, upon which the Sibyl Herophile at her first arrival sat
[870]down. In short, there is in history of every oracular temple some
legend about a stone; some reference to the word Petra. To clear this up,
it is necessary to observe, that when the worship of the Sun was almost
universal, this was one name of that Deity even among the Greeks. They
called him Petor, and Petros; and his temple was styled Petra. This they
oftentimes changed to λιθος; so little did they understand their own
mythology. There were however some writers, who mentioned it as the name of
the Sun, and were not totally ignorant of its meaning. This we may learn
from the Scholiast upon Pindar. [871]Περι δε του Ἡλιου ὁι φυσικοι φασιν, ὡς
λιθος καλειται ὁ Ἡλιος. Και Αναξαγορου γενομενον Ευριπιδην μαθητην, Πετρον
ειρηκεναι τον Ἡλιον δια των προκειμενων.
Ὁ γαρ Μακαριος, κ' ουκ ονειδιζω τυχας,
Διος πεφυκως, ὡς λεγουσι, Τανταλος,
Κορυφης ὑπερτελλοντα δειμαινων ΠΕΤΡΟΝ,
Αερι ποτᾳται, και τινει ταυτην δικην.
The same Scholiast quotes a similar passage from the same writer, where the
Sun is called Petra.
[872]Μολοιμι ταν ουρανου μεσαν
Χθονος τε τεταμεναν αιωρημασι πετραν,
Αλυσεσι χρυσεαις φερομεναν.
If then the name of the Sun, and of his temples, was among the antient
Grecians Petros, and Petra; we may easily account for that word so often
occurring in the accounts of his worship. The Scholia above will moreover
lead us to discover whence the strange notion arose about the famous
Anaxagoras of Clazomenæ; who is said to have prophesied, that a stone would
fall from the Sun. All that he had averred, may be seen in the relation of
the Scholiast above: which amounts only to this, that Petros was a name of
the Sun. It was a word of Egyptian original, derived from Petor, the same
as Ham, the Iämus of the antient Greeks. This Petros some of his countrymen
understood in a different sense; and gave out, that he had foretold a stone
would drop from the Sun. Some were idle enough to think that it was
accomplished: and in consequence of it pretended to shew at Ægospotamos the
very [873]stone, which was said to have fallen. The like story was told of
a stone at Abydus upon the Hellespont: and Anaxagoras was here too supposed
to have been the prophet[874]. In Abydi gymnasio ex eâ causâ colitur
hodieque modicus quidem (lapis), sed quem in medio terrarum casurum
Anaxagoras prædixisse narratur. The temples, or Petra here mentioned, were
Omphalian, or Oracular: hence they were by a common mistake supposed to
have been in the centre of the habitable globe. They were also Ηλιβατοι
Πετραι; which Elibatos the Greeks derived from βαινω descendo; and on this
account the Petra were thought to have fallen from the [875]Sun. We may by
this clue unravel the mysterious story of Tantalus; and account for the
punishment which he was doomed to undergo.
[876]Κορῳ δ' ἑλεν
Αταν ὑπεροπλον,
Ταν ὁι πατηρ ὑπερκρεμασε,
Καρτερον αυτῳ λιθον
Τον αει μενοινων κεφαλας βαλειν
Ευφροσυνας αλαται.
The unhappy Tantalus
From a satiety of bliss
Underwent a cruel reverse.
He was doom'd to sit under a huge stone,
Which the father of the Gods
Kept over his head suspended.
Thus he sat
In continual dread of its downfal,
And lost to every comfort.
It is said of Tantalus by some, that he was set up to his chin in water,
with every kind of fruit within reach: yet hungry as he was and thirsty, he
could never attain to what he wanted; every thing which he caught at
eluding his efforts. But from the account given above by [877]Pindar, as
well as by [878]Alcæus, Aleman, and other writers, his punishment consisted
in having a stone hanging over his head; which kept him in perpetual fear.
What is styled λιθος, was I make no doubt originally Petros; which has been
misinterpreted a stone. Tantalus is termed by Euripides ακολαστος την
γλωσσαν, a man of an ungovernable tongue: and his history at bottom relates
to a person who revealed the mysteries in which he had been [879]initiated.
The Scholiast upon Lycophron describes him in this light; and mentions him
as a priest, who out of good nature divulged some secrets of his cloister;
and was upon that account ejected from the society[880]. Ο Τανταλος ευσεβης
και θεοσεπτωρ ην Ἱερευς, και φιλανθρωπιᾳ τα των θεων μυστηρια τοις αμυητοις
ὑστερον ειπων, εξεβληθη του ἱερου καταλογου. The mysteries which he
revealed, were those of Osiris, the Sun: the Petor, and Petora of Egypt. He
never afterwards could behold the Sun in its meridian, but it put him in
mind of his crime: and he was afraid that the vengeance of the God would
overwhelm him. This Deity, the Petor, and Petora of the Amonians, being by
the later Greeks expressed Petros, and Petra, gave rise to the fable above
about the stone of Tantalus. To this solution the same Scholiast upon
Pindar bears witness, by informing us, [881]that the Sun was of old called
a stone: and that some writers understood the story of Tantalus in this
light; intimating that it was the Sun, which hung over his head to his
perpetual terror. [882]Ενιοι ακουουσι τον λιθον επι του ἡλιου--και
επηωρεισθαι αυτου (Τανταλου) τον ἡλιον, ὑφ' ῳ δειματουσθαι, και
καταπτησσειν. And again, Περι δε του ἡλιου ὁι φυσικοι λεγουσιν, ὡς λιθος
(it should be πετρα) καλειται ὁ ἡλιος. _Some understand, what is said in
the history about the stone, as relating to the Sun: and they suppose that
it was the Sun which hung over his head, to his terror and confusion. The
naturalists, speaking of the Sun, often call him a stone, or petra_.
[Illustration: Pl. V. _Temple of Mithras Petræus in the Mountains of
Persia. From Le Bruyn_]
By laying all these circumstances together, and comparing them, we may, I
think, not only find out wherein the mistake consisted, but likewise
explain the grounds from whence the mistake arose. And this clue may lead
us to the detection of other fallacies, and those of greater consequence.
We may hence learn the reason, why so many Deities were styled Πετραιοι,
Petræi. We read of[883] Μιθρας, ὁ θεος εκ πετρας, _Mithras, the Deity out
of the rock_; whose temple of old was really a rock or cavern. The same
worship seems to have prevailed, in some degree, in the west; as we may
judge from an antient inscription at Milan, which was dedicated[884]
Herculi in Petrâ. But all Deities were not so worshipped: and the very name
Petra was no other than the sacred term Petora, given to a cavern, as being
esteemed in the first ages an oracular temple. And some reverence to places
of this sort was kept up a long time. We may from hence understand the
reason of the prohibition given to some of the early proselytes to
Christianity, that they should no more[885] ad petras vota reddere: and by
the same light we may possibly explain that passage in Homer, where he
speaks of persons entering into compacts under oaks, and rocks, as places
of[886] security. The oak was sacred to Zeus, and called Sar-On: and Petra
in its original sense being a temple, must be looked upon as an asylum. But
this term was not confined to a rock or cavern: every oracular temple was
styled Petra, and Petora. Hence it proceeded that so many Gods were called
Θεοι Πετραιοι, and Πατρῳσι. Pindar speaks of Poseidon Petraios;[887] Παι
Ποσειδωνος Πετραιου: under which title Neptune was worshipped by the
Thessalians: but the latter was the more common title. We meet in Pausanias
with Apollo Patroüs, and with [888]Ζευς Μειλιχιος, and Αρτεμις Πατρῳα; also
[889]Bacchus Πατρῳος, Zeus Patroüs, and Vesta Patroa, together with other
instances.
The Greeks, whenever they met with this term, even in regions the most
remote, always gave it an interpretation according to their own
preconceptions; and explained θεοι Πατρῳοι, the oracular Deities, by Dii
Patrii, or the Gods of the country. Thus, in the Palmyrene inscription, two
Syrian Deities are characterized by this title.
[890]ΑΓΛΙΒΩΛΩ ΚΑΙ ΜΑΛΑΧΒΗΛΩ
ΠΑΤΡΩΟΙΣ ΘΕΟΙΣ.
Cyrus, in his expedition against the Medes, is represented as making vows
[891]Ἑστιᾳ Πατρῳᾳ, και Διι Πατρῳῳ, και τοις αλλοις Θεοις. But the Persians,
from whom this history is presumed to be borrowed, could not mean by these
terms Dii Patrii: for nothing could be more unnecessary than to say of a
Persic prince, that the homage, which he payed, was to Persic Deities. It
is a thing of course, and to be taken for granted, unless there be
particular evidence to the contrary. His vows were made to Mithras, who was
styled by the nations in the east Pator; his temples were Patra, and Petra,
and his festivals Patrica. Nonnus gives a proper account of the Petra, when
he represents it as Omphean, or oracular:
[892]Ομφαιῃ περι Πετρῃ
Εισετι νηπιαχοιο χορους ἱδρυσατο Βακχου.
At Patara, in Lycia, was an oracular temple: and Patræ, in Achaia, had its
name from divination, for which it was famous. Pausanias mentions the
temple, and adds, [893]Προ δε του Ἱερου της Δημητρος εστι πηγη--μαντειον δε
ενταυθα εστιν αψευδες. _Before the temple is the fountain of Demeter--and
in the temple an oracle, which never is known to fail_.
The offerings, which people in antient times used to present to the Gods,
were generally purchased at the entrance of the temple; especially every
species of consecrated bread, which was denominated accordingly. If it was
an oracular temple of Alphi, the loaves and cakes were styled [894]Alphita.
If it was expressed Ampi, or Ompi, the cakes were Ompai[895], Ομπαι: at the
temple of Adorus[896], Adorea. Those made in honour of Ham-orus had the
name of [897]Homoura, Amora, and Omoritæ. Those sacred to Peon, the God of
light, were called [898]Piones. At Cha-on, which signifies the house of the
Sun, [899]Cauones, Χαυωνες. From Pur-Ham, and Pur-Amon, they were
denominated Puramoun, [900]Πυραμουν. From Ob-El, Pytho Deus, came
[901]Obelia. If the place were a Petra or Petora, they had offerings of the
same sort called Petora, by the Greeks expressed [902]Πιτυρα, Pitura. One
of the titles of the Sun was El-Aphas, Sol Deus ignis. This El-aphas the
Greeks rendered Elaphos, ελαφος; and supposed it to relate to a deer: and
the title El-Apha-Baal, given by the Amonians to the chief Deity, was
changed to ελαφηβολος, a term of a quite different purport. El-aphas, and
El-apha-baal, related to the God Osiris, the Deity of light: and there were
sacred liba made at his temple, similar to those above, and denominated
from him Ελαφοι, Elaphoi. In Athenæus we have an account of their
composition, which consisted of fine meal, and a mixture of sesamum and
honey. [903]Ελαφος πλακους δια σταιτος και μελιτος και σησαμου.
One species of sacred bread, which used to be offered to the Gods, was of
great antiquity, and called Boun. The Greeks, who changed the Nu final into
a Sigma, expressed it in the nominative, βους; but, in the accusative, more
truly boun, βουν. Hesychius speaks of the Boun, and describes it, ειδος
πεμματος κερατα εχοντος; _a kind of cake, with a representation of two
horns_. Julius Pollux mentions it after the same manner: βουν, ειδος
πεμματος κερατα εχοντος; _a sort of cake with horns_. Diogenes Laertius,
speaking of the same offering being made by Empedocles, describes the chief
ingredients of which it was composed: [904]Βουν εθυσε--εκ μελιτος και
αλφιτων. _He offered up one of the sacred liba, called a boun, which was
made of fine flour and honey_. It is said of Cecrops, [905]πρωτος βουν
εθυσε: _He first offered up this sort of sweet bread_. Hence we may judge
of the antiquity of the custom from the times to which Cecrops is referred.
The prophet Jeremiah takes notice of this kind of offering, when he is
speaking of the Jewish women at Pathros in Egypt, and of their base
idolatry; in all which their husbands had encouraged them. The women, in
their expostulation upon his rebuke, tell him: _Since we left off to burn
incense to the Queen of heaven, and to pour out drink-offerings unto her,
we have wanted all things; and have been consumed by the sword and by the
famine. And when we burnt incense to the Queen of heaven, and poured out
drink-offerings unto her, did we make her cakes to worship her, and pour
out drink-offerings unto her without our [906]men?_ The prophet, in another
place, takes notice of the same idolatry. [907]_The children gather wood,
and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead their dough, to make
cakes to the Queen of heaven_. The word, in these instances, for sacred
cakes, is כונים, Cunim. The Seventy translate it by a word of the same
purport, Χαυωνας, Chauonas; of which I have before taken notice: [908]Μη
ανευ των ανδρων ἡμων εποιησαμεν αυτῃ Χαυωνας. κτλ.
I have mentioned that they were sometimes called Petora, and by the Greeks
Pitura. This, probably, was the name of those liba, or cakes, which the
young virgins of Babylonia and Persis, used to offer at the shrine of their
God, when they were to be first prostituted: for, all, before marriage,
were obliged to yield themselves up to some stranger to be deflowered. It
was the custom for all the young women, when they arrived towards maturity,
to sit in the avenue of the temple, with a girdle, or rope, round their
middle; and whatever passenger laid hold of it was entitled to lead them
away. This practice is taken notice of, as subsisting among the
Babylonians, in the epistle ascribed to the prophet Jeremiah; which he is
supposed to have written to Baruch. v. 43. Ἁιδε γυναικες περιθεμεναι
σχοινια εν ταις ὁδοις εγκαθηνται θυμιωσαι τα ΠΙΤYΡΑ· ὁταν δε τις αυτων
αφελκοθεισα ὑπο τινος των παραπορευομενων κοιμηθῃ, την πλησιον ονειδιζει,
ὁτι ουκ ηξιωται, ὡσπερ αυτη, ουτε το σχοινιον αυτης διεῤῥαγη. This is a
translation from an Hebrew or Chaldäic original; and, I should think, not
quite accurate. What is here rendered γυναικες, should, I imagine, be
παρθενοι; and the purport will be nearly this: _The virgins of Babylonia
put girdles about their waist; and in this habit sit by the way side,
holding their Pitura, or sacred offerings, over an urn of incense: and when
any one of them is taken notice of by a stranger, and led away by her
girdle to a place of privacy; upon her return she upbraids her next
neighbour for not being thought worthy of the like honour; and for having
her zone not yet broken or [909]loosed_. It was likewise a Persian custom,
and seems to have been universally kept up wherever their religion
prevailed. Strabo gives a particular account of this practice, as it was
observed in the temple of Anait in Armenia. This was a Persian Deity, who
had many places of worship in that part of the world. _Not only the men and
maid servants_, says the author, _are in this manner prostituted at the
shrine of the Goddess; for in this there would be nothing extraordinary_:
[910]Αλλα και θυγατερας ὁι επιφανεστατοι του εθνους ανιερουσι παρθενους,
ἁις νομος εστι, καταπορνευθεισαις πολυν χρονον παρα τῃ Θεῳ μετα ταυτα
δεδοσθαι προς γαμον· ουκ απαξιουντος τῃ τοιαυτῃ συνοικειν ουδενος. _But
people of the first fashion in the nation used to devote their own
daughters in the same manner: it being a religious institution, that all
young virgins shall, in honour of the Deity, be prostituted, and detained
for some time in her temple: after which they are permitted to be given in
marriage. Nor is any body at all scrupulous about cohabiting with a young
woman afterwards, though she has been in this manner abused._
The Patrica were not only rites of Mithras, but also of Osiris, who was in
reality the same Deity.
We have a curious inscription to this purpose, and a representation, which
was first exhibited by the learned John Price in his observations upon
Apuleius. It is copied from an original, which he saw at Venice: and there
is an engraving from it in the Edition of Herodotus by [911]Gronovius, as
well as in that by [912]Wesselinge: but about the purport of it they are
strangely mistaken. They suppose it to relate to a daughter of Mycerinus,
the son of Cheops. She died, it seems: and her father was so affected with
her death, that he made a bull of wood, which he gilt, and in it interred
his daughter. Herodotus says, that he saw the bull of Mycerinus; and that
it alluded to this history. But, notwithstanding the authority of this
great author, we may be assured that it was an emblematical representation,
and an image of the sacred bull Apis and Mneuis. And, in respect to the
sculpture above mentioned, and the characters therein expressed, the whole
is a religious ceremony, and relates to an event of great antiquity, which
was commemorated in the rites of Osiris. Of this I shall treat hereafter:
at present, it is sufficient to observe, that the sacred process is carried
on before a temple; on which is a Greek inscription, but in the provincial
characters: Ενδον Πατρικην Ἑορτην Φερω. How can Ἑορτη Πατρικη relate to a
funeral? It denotes a festival in honour of the Sun, who was styled, as I
have shewn, Pator; and his temple was called Patra: whence these rites were
denominated Patrica. Plutarch alludes to this Egyptian ceremony, and
supposes it to relate to Isis, and to her mourning for the loss of her son.
Speaking of the month Athyr, he mentions [913]Βουν διαχρυσον ἱματιῳ μελανι
βυσσινῳ περιβαλοντες επι πενθει της Θεου δεικνυουσιν (ὁι Αιγυπτιοι). _The
Egyptians have a custom in the month Athyr of ornamenting a golden image of
a bull; which they cover with a black robe of the finest linen. This they
do in commemoration of Isis, and her grief for the loss of Orus_. In every
figure, as they are represented in the sculpture, there appears deep
silence and reverential awe: but nothing that betrays any sorrow in the
agents. They may commemorate the grief of Isis; but they certainly do not
allude to any misfortune of their own: nor is there any thing the least
funereal in the process. The Egyptians of all nations were the most
extravagant in their [914]grief. If any died in a family of consequence,
the women used by way of shewing their concern to soil their heads with the
mud of the river; and to disfigure their faces with filth. In this manner
they would run up and down the streets half naked, whipping themselves as
they ran: and the men likewise whipped themselves. They cut off their hair
upon the death of a dog; and shaved their eyebrows 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 [915]disbelieved; and the remainder was equally incredible. For
no king of Egypt, if he had made a representation of the sacred [916]bull,
durst have prostituted it for a tomb: and, as I have before said, Ἑορτη
Πατρικη can never relate to a funeral.
* * * * *
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 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 αποῤῥοιαι, 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. [917]Ω
Σολων, Σολων, Ἑλληνες εστε παιδες αει, γερων δε Ἑλλην ουκ εστι, νεοι τε
ψυχας ἁπαντες· ουδεμιαν γαρ εν ἑαυτοις εχετε παλαιαν δοξαν, 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. [918]Ενθενδε εγενετο
ἑκαστος των θεων, ειτε δ' αει ησαν παντες, ὁκοιοι δε τινες τα ειδεα, ουκ
ηπιστεατο μεχρι ὁυ πρωην τε και χθες, ὡς ειπειν λογῳ. He attributes to
Homer, and to Hesiod, the various names and distinctions of the Gods, and
that endless polytheism which prevailed. [919]Ουτοι δε εισι, ὁι ποιησαντες
θεογονιαν Ἑλλησι, και τοισι Θεοισι τας επωνυμιας δοντες, και τιμας τε και
τεχνας διελοντες, και ειδεα αυτων σημῃναντες. This blindness in regard to
their own theology, and to that of the countries, 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.
[920]Vos, O, clarissima Mundi
Lumina, labentem Cœlo qui ducitis annum,
Liber, et alma Ceres.
[921]Quidam ipsum solem, ipsum Apollinem, ipsum Dionysium eundem esse
volunt. Hence we find that Bacchus is the Sun, or Apollo; though supposed
generally to have been a very different personage. In reality they are all
three the same; each of them the Sun. He was the ruling Deity of the world:
[922]Ἡλιε παγγενετορ, παναιολε, χρυσεοφεγγες.
He was in Thrace esteemed, and worshipped as Bacchus, or Liber. [923]In
Thraciâ Solem Liberum haberi, quem illi Sebadium nuncupantes magnâ
religione celebrant: eique Deo in colle [924]Zemisso ædes dicata est specie
rotundâ. In short, all the Gods were one, as we learn from the same Orphic
Poetry:
[925]Ἑις Ζευς, ἑις Αϊδες, ἑις Ἡλιος, ἑις Διονυσος,
Ἑις θεος εν παντεσσι.
Some Deities changed with the season.
[926]Ηελιον δε θερους, μετοπωρης δ' ἁβρον Ιαω.