_Kircher_ and _Huetius_, from the _hebrew_ פתה the same as the _greek_
word πειθω, to _persuade_, _suada_ in _latin_. It regards more
particularly the serpent, the emblem of eloquence, and the divine
WORD. In _Arabic_ it signifies the _son_. So that _Cnephtha_ means the
entire figure, the circle, snake and wings. The supreme had no name.
They held him ineffable, as well as invisible. Whence they call’d
the _Jehovah_ of the _jews_ an uncertain or unknown deity, or the
deity without a name. _Herodotus in Euterpe_ writes, “he heard from
the priests of _Dodona_, that the ancient _Pelasgians_ made their
prayers and sacrifices to the deity without any name or sirname, for
at that time they knew none.” _Iamblichus_’s interpretation of _Phtha_
is very little different. He says, “It signifies him that performs
all things in truth, and without lying.” The _Egyptians_ called this
_Phtha Vulcan_, and say, he was the son of the supreme God; whom
_Cicero_ makes the guardian god of _Egypt_, who was the author of all
the philosophy of the _Egyptians_, according to _Diogenes Laertius in
proem._ And this is that most ancient deity of the _Egyptians_ who
was particularly design’d by the serpent. And hence the fables of the
_greeks_ make _Vulcan_ the only son of _Juno_, without the help of her
husband. Again, they make _Pallas_ produc’d out of _Jupiter_’s brain,
who wore the _Ægis_ or snaky breast-plate, which originally was no
other than our great prophylactic hierogramma, the circle and snake,
us’d by the most ancient warriors as a sacred preservative. _Medusa_’s
head is the very same, a circle, wings, and snakes. But the delicate
_greeks_ new drest it, and made the circle into a beautiful face, more
agreeable to their taste of things. And its turning men into stones
means, at the bottom, nothing but the making our serpentine temples
in that form by the first heroes, who bore this cognizance in their
shields.
But to return to CNEPH, the deity to whom these winged temples are
dedicate. It became the chief and more famous name. Whence _Porphyry_
in _Eusebius_’s _pr. ev._ III. 11. calls this _Cneph_ the creator,
_Plutarch, de Is. & Os._ testifies, “the inhabitants in _Thebais_,
or the remotest part of _Egypt_, worshipped only the eternal God
_Cneph_, and paid nothing toward the charge of idolatrous worship
in the other parts of that kingdom.” Thus we see, those countries
farthest separated from the busy part of the world, such as _Thebais_
and _Britain_, retain’d the pure and ancient religion: which bishop
_Cumberland_ too asserts, _Sanchon._ p. 15. of _Thebais_, before
_Abraham_’s time. _Strabo_ says, “there was a temple of _Cnuphis_ (as
he writes it) at _Syene_, the farther part of _Thebais_:” which must
be understood of one of our winged temples originally, tho’ probably
afterwards built upon, cover’d, and become idolatrous. “Hence the
_Ethiopians_, neighbours to those of _Thebais_, living still in the
upper regions of _Egypt_,” says _Strabo_, “worship two gods, the
one the immortal creator, the other mortal, who has no name, nor is
easily to be apprehended.” Here we find they have a notion of the
supreme and his son. Their opposite neighbours across the _red sea_,
worshipped only two gods, τον Διον καὶ τον Διονυσον, _Jovem & Jovem
Nysæum_, God, and the God of _Nysa_. This is what is meant by the two
principles of _Pythagoras_, mention’d by _Plutarch de plac. philos._
unity and indefinite duality, the sacred _Dyas_ of _Plato_. Whence
_Diodorus_ in his I. writes, “that the _Egyptians_ declar’d there were
two first eternal Gods.” These they express’d by the names of _unity_
and _duality_. I do not believe that they found this out by their own
understanding and reasoning, but had it from patriarchal tradition.
And then their own reasoning would confirm it. For it is altogether
agreeable to reason, arguing from the fecundity of the first cause.
The _Greeks_ turned _Cneph_ into their _Neptune_, the sovereign of
the waters, from what the _hebrew_ legislator writes in the beginning
of his _cosmogony_; “and the spirit of God moved upon the face of
the waters.” The word _Neptune_ comes from _Cneph_ and דניא _Dunia_,
_orbis_, _circulus_, the _winged circle_. And this probably will
give us some light into the reason, why we find our winged temple of
_Barrow_ upon the banks of that noble æstuary, the _Humber_. I wonder’d
indeed how it should come about, that the Druids should so studiously
place this work under the verge of the high land, and upon the brink of
the salt marsh; so that every high tide washes or overflows the skirts
of it, whilst the freshwater brook runs close under it. At this time
it must have presented them with the agreeable picture of the sacred
hieroglyphic, hovering over both fresh and salt-water.
I observ’d a line, or little bank and ditch, cast up above our figure,
which I judg’d to be done with an intent to keep off the inundation of
the ocean at the times of sacrifice, which seems to have been perform’d
within that inclos’d area, where I have set the figure of the compass
in the engraven view. Likewise just without that line, eastward, I
remarked three little square plots, which perhaps were habitations of
the Druids who were keepers of the temple.
’Tis not from the purpose to take notice of one of the greatest fix’d
stars of the heavens, at the bottom of the constellation call’d the
_ship_, having the name of _Canopus_, which is no other than our word
_Cneph_. This star had this name given it by the _Egyptians_, as
appearing to them just above the edge of the southern horizon. And in
their spheres, we may very well presume, they painted it as a winged
circle, and because it always appear’d as hovering over the horizon or
great ocean.
————_O numen aquarum
Proxima cui cœlo cessit, Neptune, potestas._ Ov. Met. IV.
So that originally the ancients understood the spirit or soul of the
universe, or more properly the divine spirit, by this figure which
they call’d KNEPH, which the _European_ nations call’d _Neptune_,
sovereign of the waters. So often by the poets call’d Ενοσιχθων,
Ενοσιγαιων, the _shaker of the earth_; for the waters in _Moses_ means
the _Hyle_, or moist matter of chaos whence the universe was made.
Two of the quarterly solemnities or general sacrifices of the Druids
were on the two equinoxes, when are the highest tides. A curious
observer being upon the spot, for some years together, at these times,
might possibly make some notable discovery concerning the difference
of the surface of the sea, since the current of 5 or 6000 years: for
I persuade myself this temple was made by the very first inhabitants
of the isle, and not long after the flood, on account of the interment
here of some great hero, that advanc’d so far in peopling the country.
And if our reasonings and testimonies hitherto be any whit agreeable
to truth, we may point out the species of many of these most ancient
temples built at the place of sepulture of heroes, spoken of in
writings of those times. For instance, we infer a serpentine temple
was made by the _tumulus_ of _Orpheus_, from the fable of a serpent
offering to devour his head, which serpent was turn’d into stone.
_Hic ferus expositum peregrinis anguis arenis
Os petit, & sparsos stillanti rore capillos
Lambit, & hymniferos inhiat divellere vultus.
Tandem Phœbus adest, morsusque inferre parentem
Congelat, & patulos, ut erant, indurat hiatus._
Again, we may reasonably suppose that an alate temple was built by the
tomb of _Memnon_, said to be buried in _Phrygia_, who was turn’d into a
bird on the funeral pile, at the request of his mother _Aurora_. We see
some hints of it even from _Ovid_’s telling the story. This was done at
the request of his mother _Aurora_, who petitions _Jupiter_ for this
favour to her son, for herself she desires none. Thus she begins:
_Omnibus inferior, quas sustinet aureus æther_
(_Nam mihi sunt totum rarissima templa per orbem_,)
_Diva tamen venio: non ut delubra, diesque
Des mihi sacrificos, caliturasque ignibus aras_, &c.
He was turn’d into a bird, and a flock of the same birds, call’d _Aves
Memnoniæ_, arose from the same funeral pile, which immediately divided
into two companies, and fought till they destroy’d each other. And that
a like flight of the same birds came on the same day every year from
_Ethiopia_, went thrice round his monument, and then divided and fought
in honour of their ancestor.
What can we understand by this, but an assembly of his people and
descendants to celebrate his anniversary, as was the custom of
antiquity toward great men. The story is entirely of a piece with that
told of _Cadmus_, and must be interpreted in the same way.
In this sense we are treating of, are we to understand authors when
they tell us, that _Cadmus_ built a temple to _Neptune_ in the island
of _Rhodes_. This was not a cover’d temple with elegant pillars, nor an
idolatrous one, which were matters of after-times; but one of our alate
temples. _Phut_ had built a _Dracontium_ there before.
_Antoninus Liberalis_ XII. speaks of the lake _Canopus_, which I
suppose had its name from a _Cneph_ or alate temple near it, built by a
hero, _Cygnus_, son of _Phut_, “who, the fable says, was turn’d into a
bird there,” and _Phylius_ his sepulchral monument was by it.
In this sense, _Strabo_ II. speaks of _Hercules_ being call’d
_Canopeus_, from building such a temple. And we may now understand
that hitherto abstruse _Egyptian_ antiquity called _Canopus_, a vase
which they us’d for preserving of water in their temples and in their
families, with a cover to it. In order to insure the blessing of heaven
to this most necessary element, they frequently consign’d it with the
sacred prophylactic character of the _Kneph_ or _circulus alatus_,
which is the _greek Neptune_, the _dominator aquarum_. Many of these
vases are still remaining in the cabinets of antiquarians. Such a one
pictur’d in _Kircher_.
And, by the by, I may mention that some of these vases are adorn’d
with a _scarabeus_ with expanded wings, and this is entirely of the
same meaning as the alate circle. But this is not a place to discourse
larger on these matters.
I suspect _Geneva_ and _Geneffa_ have their names from such temples.
As _Gnaphalus_ a bird mention’d by _Aristotle_. _Simias_ the _Rhodian_
celebrates our _Cneph_, in his poem compos’d in the form of wings: as
the author of motion and creation: hence the word _Nebula_, νεφέλη and
perhaps _Nebulo_.
In the year 1725, the next year after I found out this _Humber_ temple,
and the last year of my travels, I found another of these alate
temples, on _Navestock-common_ in _Essex_, which seems to be of a later
date than the other, and when perhaps the original doctrine concerning
these theological speculations was somewhat forgotten; Because this
temple is situate on a dry common, not near water; but the figure is
the very same.
What is exceedingly remarkable as to this noble antiquity on
_Navestock-common_, is, that the name should remain to this time, and
which confirms all that we said before concerning them, as to their
name and meaning: for _Navestock_ must have been so call’d from some
old and remarkable tree, probably an oak, upon or by the CNEPH, or
winged temple; _Navestock_. Our _English_ word _Knave_, which had no
ill meaning at first, signifies the same thing, _alatus_, _impiger_;
the latin word _Gnavus_ the very same: and _Knap_ a _Teutonick_ word
the like: all from the hebrew original.
I doubt not, but there are more such temples in the _Britannick_ isles,
called _Knaves-castles_ or the like. One I remember to have seen, on a
great heathy common, by the _Roman Watling-street_ in _Staffordshire_.
And Mr. _Toland_ takes notice of a winged temple of our Druids in the
_Hebrid_ or _Hyperborean_ islands, _Shetland_. _Abaris_ a Druid of this
country, fir’d with a desire of knowledge, travell’d into _Greece_
where philosophy flourish’d; after that to _Pythagoras_ in _Italy_,
and became his favourite disciple. _Pythagoras_ imparted to him his
best notions in philosophy, which perhaps, in the enigmatick way of
those times, they call the shewing to him his golden thigh. _Abaris_
on the other hand, presented to _Pythagoras_ _Apollo_’s arrow, which he
brought out of his own country, where it had been deposited in a winged
temple. They tell you further, that _Abaris_ rode on this arrow in the
air to _Greece_. This undoubtedly would proceed from the notion they
entertain’d of the Druids practising magick.
I cannot help thinking, after what I have said in _Stonehenge_,
concerning the magnetick needle, that this arrow of _Apollo_’s which
_Abaris_ made use of in his journey from _Shetland_ to _Greece_,
was an instrument of this sort, which the _Hyperborean_ sage gave
to _Pythagoras_. And the Druids possessing such a secret as this,
would reciprocally create, and favour that notion of their practising
magick. Calling it _Apollo_’s arrow seems to throw the possession of
it up to _Phut_ the most famous navigator, we before treated of: nay
it seems that we may trace it still higher, even to _Noah_ himself.
_Sanchoniathon_ the _Phœnician_ writer tells us, among other remarkable
things concerning _Ouranus_, who is certainly _Noah_, “that he devised
_Bætulia_, or contriv’d stones that mov’d as having life.”
Besides the interpretation, we may very naturally affix to this
account, of anointed stones or main ambres: we may well judge that the
knowledge of the magnet is here understood; which at first they placed
in a little boat, in a vessel of water, and then it would move itself,
’till directed to the quarters of the heavens. _Atheneus Deipnosoph._
affirms, that _Hercules_ borrow’d his golden cup wherewith he sail’d
over the ocean, of _Nereus_. _Nereus_ is _Japhet_ eldest son of _Noah_,
and the golden cup was a compass box in all probability.
Among the ancient constellations pictur’d on the celestial globe,
is an arrow; said by _Eratosthenes_ the most ancient writer we have
on the _Catasterisms_, (as called,) to be the arrow of _Apollo_,
which was laid up in the winged temple among the _Hyperboreans_.
_Diodorus Siculus_ from _Hecateus_ and other older writers, shews,
the _Hyperborean_ island was in the ocean, and beyond _Gaul_, to the
north, under the bear; where the people liv’d a most simple and happy
life. _Orpheus_ places them near the _Cronian_ sea; a word purely
_Irish_, as Mr. _Toland_ shews, _Croin_ signifying frozen. He shews
further and that very largely, that the _Hebrid_ islands, _Skie_,
_Lewis_, _Harries_, _Shetland_, are the true _Hyperborean_ islands
of the ancients. Among them therefore was the winged temple; whether
made of mounds of earth, like those two on the _Humber_, and on
_Navestock-common_; or made of stones like other Druid temples.
There are other Druid temples in those islands, made of stones, I shall
give a print of one, in my next volume. Further there is a famous one
in _Cornwall_ call’d vulgarly the _Hurlers_, which I take to have been
one of our alate temples, made of stones set upright.
The learned _Bayer_ in his fine designs of the celestial
constellations, represents the arrow of _Apollo_ beforemention’d, as a
magnetick needle; and he took his designs chiefly from a very ancient
book of drawings. I observe likewise that the isle of _Skie_, in the
language of the natives, is call’d _Scianach_, which signifies winged.
And in that probably, was the winged temple we speak of; which gave
name to the isle.
We mention’d before that _Phut_ married _Rhode_, whence the isle
of _Rhodes_ had its name. _Rod_ in the _Psalms_ and the _Prophets_
signifies a snake. Nay _Pliny_ in vii. and 56, of his natural history
asserts, that _Rhodes_ was originally call’d _Ophiusa_, a word
equivalent. Most likely they built a serpentine temple there, which
gave the name. So the isle of _Tenos_, which _Bochart_ shews, means a
serpent in the oriental language, was call’d _Hydrusa_ and _Ophiusa_.
The isle of _Cyprus_ was call’d _Ophiodia_ by _Nicœnetus_. So _Hydra_
an isle just before _Carthage_, which was first built by _Cadmus_.
_Ophiades insulæ_ on the _Arabian_ coast of the _Red-sea_. _Pausanias_
mentions a place called _Opheos Cephale_, the serpent’s head; the same
as our _Hakpen_ on _Overton-hill_ in _Abury_.
In the isle of _Chios_ is a famous mountain higher than the rest,
called _Pelineus_, which had undoubtedly one of our great _Dracontian_
temples. The learned _Bochart_ I. 9. shews its name signifies the
prodigious serpent: a story of the sort is annex’d to it. Nay this
famous temple gave name to the whole island, for he shews that ’tis
a _Syrian_ word חויא _Chivia_ a serpent, so that _Chios_ isle is the
serpent’s isle: the word is the same as _Hivite_: probably _Cadmus_
or some of his people built it. _Hesychius_ and _Phavorinus_ mentions
_Jupiter Pelineus_, the name of the deity worshiped.
_Virgil_ in _Æneid_ II. describes the two serpents that destroy’d
_Laocoon_ coming from the isle of _Tenedos_.
I described the barrows about _Humbers_ castle, to be like beds.
They are all long barrows, of very different lengths, higher at the
head than the feet, (if we may so express it) and with a cavity the
whole length of them, drawn off at the feet, to the turf: So that
they represent the impression of a person that has lain on a very
soft, downy couch. One which I dug into near the temple was 60 cubits
long: the other two near it 40 each, plate xxxix. The sight of them
necessarily intruded into my mind, the ευνη or couch of _Typhon_ or
_Phut_, which _Homer_ says, was in _Arimis_. ’Tis natural for us to
imagine, he means exactly such a _tumulus_ of the hero, as these we are
speaking of.
_Phut_ was a great arch druid or patriarchal high-priest, as being
the head of his family. And according to my notion of the matter,
these long barrows all belong to some of the higher order of the
Druids. _Eustathius_ interprets _Homer_’s word by that of ταφος, tomb.
_Stephanus_ the scholiast on _Hesiod_’s _Theogon_, makes _Arima_ a
mountain in _Cilicia_ or _Lydia_, where is _Tiphon_’s κοιτη. _V.
Oppian. Alexand._ ver. 599. _Lucan_ ver. 191. _Apollon._ II. _Strabo_
XVI. _Mela_ I. 13. _Pausanias in Atticis_ tells us of _Hippolita_ the
_Amazons’ tumulus_, that ’twas made in shape of an _Amazonian pelta_ or
shield; perhaps somewhat like our _tumulus_.
In the beginning of the idolatrous times, they likewise consecrated
_Hermes_ the _Egyptian_ into _Mercury_, but the _Egyptians_ took
_Mercury_ in a different light from the _Canaanites_: they made him the
god of divine wisdom, the _Canaanites_ who were immers’d in trade and
traffick, made him the god of profit and gain; and that in the person
of their ancestor _Canaan_. Nevertheless they knew the holy spirit
prior to idolatry: for many think that _Mercury_ was no mortal man,
S. _Augustin_, _C. D._ viii. 26. and _Orpheus_ in his hymn to him,
pronounces him to be of the race of _Dionysus_, by whom _Jehovah_ is
understood.
I suppose _Canaan_ when he died, had an alate temple built about his
place of sepulture, which in after times occasion’d posterity to deify
him under the name of _Mercury_. Again I suppose the like done over the
_tumulus_ of the patriarch TARSIS; which gave a handle in idolatrous
times, to consecrate him into the _Neptune_ of the heathen; who in
effect is the same as _Mercury_, saving that being done by people of a
different genius and disposition, they divided one god into two.
Thus we have sail’d thro’ a wide ocean of antiquities, and that not
without a compass. We set old things transmitted to us in writing, in
parallelism with these we may now see at home, in such a manner, as I
think evidently shews them to be the same.
_Nec sum animi dubius, verbis ea vincere magnum
Quàm sit, & antiquis hunc addere rebus honorem.
Sed me Parnassi deserta per ardua dulcis
Raptat amor_—————— Virg.
I shall conclude, with 1. what we may very well imagine to have been
the ratiocination of the Druids among one another, in their theological
contemplations, concerning this last kind of their works, these winged
temples. Of such sort would be their speculations thereon, in their
serious scrutiny into the nature of the deity.
We observ’d, the Druids in their theological studies must, with the
other eastern sages, find out two ways of the supreme being exerting
his almighty power, multiplying himself, as the _Zoroastrians_, the
_Pythagoreans_ and the _Platonists_ call it, or divine geniture: and
creation. The first necessary, therefore done before time; the second
arbitrary, therefore done in time. Nevertheless this second was fit and
proper to be done, therefore necessarily to be perform’d. For whatever
becomes the allperfect being, we may pronounce necessary with him.
The Druids would advance still further in their contemplations this
way, and conclude, that it became the supreme, and was therefore
necessary, for him to exert his power in all possible ways and modes of
acting; that he was not content in producing a single divine person or
emanation from himself, from the infinite fund of his own fecundity;
that he was pleas’d to proceed to that other mode of acting, which we
call divine procession; or a third divine person to proceed from the
first and second. This person the ancients had knowledge of, and styled
him _anima mundi_, “that spirit of the LORD which filleth the world,”
_Wisdom_ i. 7. and made him a distinct person from God, or the supreme:
but, more immediately, he was the author of life to all living things.
And this he disseminated throughout the whole macrocosm. I need only
quote _Virgil_, for many more, in his fine poem, _Georg._ IV.
_Esse apibus partem divinæ mentis & haustus
Æthereos dixere. Deum namque ire per omnes
Terrasque tractusque maris, cælumque profundum.
Hinc pecudes, armenta, viros, genus omne ferarum,
Quemque sibi tenues nascentem arcessere vitas;
Scilicet huc reddi deinde & resoluta referri,
Omnia.——————_
This divine mind, or _anima mundi_, the ancients pictur’d out by the
circle and wings, meaning the holy spirit in symbolical language,
or the spirit proceeding from the fountain of divinity. And we see
it innumerable times on _Egyptian_, and other ancient monuments.
_Plutarch_, in his _platonic questions_, asks, “Why should _Plato_
in his _Phædro_ say, the nature of a wing, which mounts heavy things
upward, is chiefly participant of those that are about the body of the
deity?”
But thus the Druids would reason. There are three modes of divine
origin and existence, quite different from creation: they are these:
the self-existent, unoriginated first cause; divine generation; and
divine procession: all equal in nature, self-origination excepted, and
equally necessarily existent. When the supreme produces his likeness,
it must be divine filiation; or the son of God is produc’d. Divine
procession must be from them two: but it cannot possibly be filiation:
for besides that, in these acts of the divinity, we must separate all
ideas like that of human production, it would be absurd to call this
generation; because, as it is done prior to all notion of time, or
eternity itself; it is making the son to be son and father in the same
act. Therefore there remains no other word for this, than procession
from the father and son.
Whether these abstract and metaphysical notions would occur to a mind
wholly unacquainted with any doctrine of this sort, may be matter
of doubt; but when propos’d to a serious and contemplative genius,
they would be embraced and improved, as agreeable to reason; and as
an advance towards the most sublime and most useful knowledge of all
others, that of the nature of the deity.