Chapter X: Section IV: On the Mythology of Hesiod (6)

[198] _Jupiter th’ all-wise._] In the Orphic fragments both Jove and Bacchus are identified with the Sun: which is described as the source of all things. Hammon, the African Jupiter, is mentioned by Lucan; who specifies his having horns. These were the lunar crescent of Apis or Osiris, the Arkite god. The patriarch, his son Ham, and his grandson Chus, are reciprocally mixed with each other; in the same manner as the ark and the dove: the moon, the sun, and the typical serpent, are often mixed and confounded in this hieroglyphical mythology.

[199] _To his own son he should bow down his strength._] Although the Romans made a distinction between Janus and Saturn they were two titles of one and the same person. The former had the remarkable characteristic of being the author of time, and the god of the new year: the latter also was looked upon as the author of time, and held in his hand a serpent, whose tail was in his mouth and formed a circle: by which emblem was denoted the renovation of the year. On their coins they were equally represented with keys in their hand and a ship near them. Janus was described with two faces: the one that of an aged man; the other that of a youthful personage. Saturn as of an uncommon age with hair white like snow: but they had a notion that he would return to infancy. He is also said to have destroyed all things: which however were restored with vast increase. BRYANT.

The faces of Janus, supposed to look to the time past and that which is to come, evidently regard the æra before the flood and that after it: and the aged and youthful visage represent the old world and the new. The keys may allude to the shutting up the productions of the earth, and again opening them. The ship is the ark. The story of Saturn and the infant Jupiter involves similar allusions. The old god devouring his children significantly points to the destruction of the human race. Saturn and Jupiter seem only separate personifications of the double visage of Janus: and the infant Jupiter personifies the second infancy of Saturn. The new order of things which took place on the renovation of nature is typified in the dethronement of the aged monarch by his youthful son.

[200]

_To succeeding times_
_A monument._]

The stone, which Saturn was supposed to have swallowed instead of a child, stood according to Pausanias at Delphi: it was esteemed very sacred, and used to have libations of wine poured upon it daily: and upon festivals was otherwise honoured. The purport of the above history I take to have been this. It was for a long time the custom to offer children at the altar of Saturn: but in process of time they removed it, and in its form erected a stone pillar, before which they made their vows, and offered sacrifices of another nature. BRYANT.

[201] _Props the broad heaven._] “This Atlas,” says Maximus Tyrius, “is a mountain, with a cavity of a tolerable height, which the natives esteem both as a temple and a deity: and it is the great object by which they swear, and to which they pay their devotions.” The cave in the mountain was certainly named Cöel, the house of god: equivalent to Cœlus of the Romans: and this was the heaven which Atlas was supposed to support. BRYANT.

[202] _He bound Prometheus._] Prometheus, who renewed the race of men, was Noos, or Noah. Prometheus raised the first altar to the gods, constructed the first ship, and transmitted to posterity many useful inventions. He was supposed to have lived at the time of the deluge, and to have been guardian of Ægypt at that season. He was the same as Osiris, the great husbandman, the planter of the vine, and inventor of the plough. Prometheus is said to have been exposed on mount Caucasus, near Colchis, with an eagle placed over him, preying on his heart. These strange histories are undoubtedly taken from the symbols and devices which were carved upon the front of the ancient Amonian temples, and especially those of Ægypt. The eagle and vulture were the insignia of that country. We are told by Orus Apollo that a heart over burning coals was an emblem of Ægypt. The history of Tityus, Prometheus, and many other poetical personages was certainly taken from hieroglyphics misunderstood and badly explained. Prometheus was worshipped by the Colchians as a deity, and had a temple and high place upon mount Caucasus: and the device upon the portal was Ægyptian, an eagle over a heart. BRYANT.

[203] _Parted a huge ox._] Pliny, book vii. ch. 56, speaks of Prometheus as the first who slaughtered an ox. This traditionary circumstance is agreeable to that passage in scriptural history, where Noah receives the divine permission to kill animals for food: and Hesiod’s tale of the division of the ox may be only a disfigured representation of the first sacrifice after the flood. The affinity of Iäpetus, the father of Prometheus, with Japhet, is very remarkable. This confusion of personages has been already noticed as common in the ancient mythology.

[204] _Pernicious is the race._] Lord Kaimes, in his sketches of the History of Man, i. 6. observes that in the more polished age of Greece women were treated with but little consideration by their husbands: and female influence was confined to the artful accomplishments of courtezans. But it was very different at an earlier æra of society. “Women in the Homeric age,” remarks Mr. Mitford, “enjoyed more freedom, and communicated more in business and amusement among men, than in after-ages has been usual in those eastern countries; far more than at Athens, in the flourishing times of the commonwealth. Equally, indeed, Homer’s elegant eulogies and Hesiod’s severe sarcasm prove women to have been in their days important members of society.”

Milton has imitated this description of the infelicities supposed to be produced by woman-kind, in a prophetic complaint, which comes with beautiful propriety from the lips of Adam: and which his own domestic unhappiness enabled him to express with feeling.

[205]

_The host_
_Of glorious Titans._]

The giants, whom Abydenus makes the builders of Babel, are by other writers represented as the Titans. They are said to have received their name from their mother Titæa: by which we are to understand that they were denominated from their religion and place of worship. The ancient altars consisted of a conical hill of earth, in the shape of a woman’s breast. Titæa was one of these. It is a term compounded of Tit-aia, and signifies literally a breast of earth. These altars were also called Tit-an, and Tit-anis, from the great fountain of night, styled An and Anis: hence many places were called Titanis and Titana where the worship of the sun prevailed. By these giants and Titans are always meant the sons of Ham and Chus. That the sons of Chus were the chief agents both in erecting the tower of Babel, and in maintaining principles of rebellion, is plain: for it is said of Nimrod, the son of Chus, that “the beginning of his kingdom was Babel.” The sons of Chus would not submit to the divine dispensation in the original disposition of the several families: and Nimrod, who first took upon him regal state, drove Ashur from his demesnes, and forced him to take shelter in the higher parts of Mesopotamia. This was their first act of rebellion and apostacy. Their second was to erect a lofty tower, as a landmark to repair to, as a token to direct them, and prevent their being scattered abroad. It was an idolatrous temple, erected in honour of the sun, and called the tower of Bel: as the city, from its consecration to the sun, was named Bel-on: the city of the solar god. Their intention was to have founded a great, if not an universal, empire: but their purpose was defeated by the confounding of their labial utterance. By this judgment they were dispersed; the tower was deserted; and the city left unfinished. These circumstances seem, in great measure, to be recorded by the gentile writers. They add, that a war soon after commenced between the Titans and the family of Zeuth. This was no other than the war mentioned by Moses; which was carried on by four kings of the family of Shem against the sons of Ham and Chus. The dispersion from Babylonia had weakened the Cuthites. The house of Shem took advantage of their dissipation, and recovered the land of Shinar, which had been unduly usurped by their enemies. After this success they proceeded farther: and attacked the Titans in all their quarters. After a contest of some time they made them tributaries: but upon their rising in rebellion, after a space of thirteen years, the confederates made a fresh inroad into their countries. “Twelve years they served Chedorlaomer: and in the thirteenth they rebelled: and in the fourteenth year came Chedorlaomer, and the kings that were with him, and smote the Rephaims in Ashtaroth Karnaim;” who were no other than the Titans. They were accordingly rendered by the Seventy, “the giant brood of Ashtaroth:” and the valley of the Rephaim, in Samuel, is translated “the valley of the Titans.” From the sacred historians we may then infer that there were two periods of this war. The first, when the king of Elam and his associates laid the Rephaim under contribution: the other, when, upon their rebellion, they reduced them a second time to obedience. The first part is mentioned by several ancient writers, and is said to have lasted ten years. Hesiod takes notice of both, but makes the first rather of longer duration:

Ten years and more they sternly strove in arms.

In the second engagement the poet informs us that the Titans were quite discomfited and ruined: and according to the mythology of the Greeks, they were condemned to reside in Tartarus, at the extremity of the known world. A large body of Titanians, after their dispersion, settled in Mauritania: which is the region called Tartarus. The mythologists adjudged the Titans to the realms of night merely from not attending to the purport of the term ζοφος. This word described the West, and it signified also darkness. From this secondary acceptation the Titans of the West were consigned to the realms of night: being situated, with respect to Greece towards the regions of the setting sun. BRYANT.

[206]

_Wielding aloft_
_Precipitous rocks._]

This, perhaps, suggested to Milton the arming the angels with mountains:

They pluck’d the seated hills with all their load;
Rocks, waters, woods; and by the shaggy tops
Uplifting, bore them in their hands.

PAR. LOST. vi.

[207]

_The dark chasm of hell_
_Was shaken._]

This is expanded by Milton with uncommon sublimity:

Hell heard th’ insufferable noise: hell saw
Heaven ruining from heaven, and would have fled
Affrighted: but strict Fate had cast too deep
Her dark foundations, and too fast had bound.

Book vi.

[208]

_His whole of might_
_Broke from him._]

Milton attains to a higher conception of omnipotence in the passage:

Yet half in strength he put not forth, but check’d
His thunder in mid-volley: for he meant
Not to destroy, but root them out of heaven.

There is, however, nothing in Milton which equals in sublimity the sudden expansion of power in the soul of the deity: ειθαρ μεν μενεος πληντο φρενες. The plan of the battle of angels is evidently built on that of the battle of giants: the Messiah, like Hesiod’s Jove, coming forth to decide the contest; and sending before him thunderbolts and plagues. Milton’s magnificent imagery of the chariot is borrowed from the vision of the prophet Ezekiel.

[209]

_Through the void_
_Of Erebus._]

Χαος is here only a gulf or void. Le Clerc quotes Aristophanes to show that it is the vacuity of air: but the conflagration of air has already been described. Grævius is undoubtedly right in interpreting it the subterraneous abyss, or Erebus: in which sense it is afterwards used by Hesiod; when the Titans are said to dwell “beyond the obscure chaos,” or chasm. Virgil uses chaos in this acceptation, Æneid. vi. 205:

Ye silent shades!
Oh Chaos hoar! and Phlegethon profound!

PITT.

So also Ovid, Metamorph. x. Orpheus to Pluto and Proserpine:

I call you by those sights so full of fear:
This chaos vast; these silent kingdoms drear!

[210]

_The heaven and earth_
_Met hurtling in mid-air._]

Milton, Paradise Lost, book ii:

Nor was his ear less pealed
With noises loud and ruinous ...
than if this frame
Of heaven were falling, and these elements
In mutiny had from their axle torn
The steadfast earth.

[211] _The war-unsated Gyges._] Hesiod has confounded the history by supposing the Giants and Titans to have been different persons. He accordingly makes them oppose each other: and even Cottus, Briareus, and Gyges, whom all other writers mention as Titans, are by him introduced in opposition, and described as of another family. His description is however much to the purpose, and the first contest and dispersion are plainly alluded to. BRYANT.

[212] _The Titan host o’er-shadowing._] Milton, Par. Lost, b. vi.:

Themselves invaded next and on their heads
Main promontories flung, which in the air
Came shadowing, and oppress’d whole legions arm’d.

[213]

_So far beneath_
_This earth._]

Virgil, Æn. vi. 577:

The gaping gulf low to the centre lies,
And twice as deep as earth is distant from the skies:
The rivals of the gods, the Titan race,
Here, singed with lightning, roll within th’ unfathom’d space.

DRYDEN.

[214]

_The verge_
_Of Tartarus._]

The ancients had a notion that the earth was a widely extended plain, which terminated abruptly in a vast clift of immeasurable descent. At the bottom was a chaotic pool, which so far sunk beneath the confines of the world, that, to express the depth and distance, they imagined an anvil of iron, tossed from the top, could not reach it in ten days. This mighty pool was the great Atlantic ocean: and these extreme parts of the earth were Mauritania and Iberia: for in each of these countries the Titans resided. BRYANT.

This explains the introduction of Atlas before the gates of Tartarus: Guietus is therefore in error when, not being able to account for this situation of Atlas, he marks the passage as supposititious.

Milton’s classical reading appears in his admeasurement of the distance which the rebel angels passed in their fall from heaven:

_Nine_ days they fell: the _tenth_ the yawning gulf
Received them.

[215] _Arise and end._] Seneca, Hercules Frantic:

Rank with corruption’s moss the sterile vast
Of that abyss: th’ unsightly earth is numb’d
In its eternal barren hoariness:
The dismal end of things:
The limits of the world:
Air moveless hangs with clinging weight above:
And black night brooding sits
Upon the lifeless universe.

[216] _A drear and ghastly wilderness._] Homer, Il. xx.:

A dismal wilderness
Hoary with desolation: which the gods
Behold, and shuddering turn their eyes away.

[217]

_But him the whirls of vexing hurricanes_
_Toss to and fro._]

Dante, Inferno, canto quinto:

I venn’ in luogo d’ogni luce muto:
Che mughia, come fa mar per tempesta,
Se da contrarii venti se combattuto:
La bufera infernale, che mai non resta,
Mena gli spiriti con la sua rapina,
Voltando et percuotendo gli molesta.

They reach a spot, void of all ray of light,
Which howls as seas in storms, where winds opposing fight:
The hellish whirlwind, never resting, hurls
The hovering spirits snatch’d upon its whirls:
And vexing smites, and eddying turns them round.

Milton seems to have conceived from this passage of Hesiod his idea of Satan falling down the chaotic void, book ii.:

A vast vacuity: all unawares,
Fluttering his pennons vain, plumb down he drops
Ten thousand fathoms deep: and to this hour
Down had been falling, had not, by ill chance,
The strong rebuff of some tumultuous cloud
Instinct with fire and nitre hurried him
As many miles aloft.

[218]

_Alternate as they glide athwart_
_The brazen threshold._]

Milton, Par. Lost, vi. 4:

There is a cave
Within the mount of God, fast by his throne,
Where light and darkness in perpetual round
Lodge and dislodge by turns, which makes through heaven
Grateful vicissitude, like day and night:
Light issues forth, and at the other door
Obsequious darkness enters, till her hour
To veil the heaven.

[219] _Sleep, Death’s half brother._] Virg. Æn. vi. 278:

Here Toils and Death, and Death’s half-brother Sleep,
Forms terrible to view, their sentry keep.

DRYDEN.

[220]

_Nor them the shining Sun_
_E’er with his beam contemplates._]

Odyssey, xi. 14:

With clouds and darkness veil’d: on whom the Sun
Deigns not to look with his beam-darting eye:
Or when he climbs the starry arch, or when
Earthward he slopes again his westering wheels.

COWPER.

[221]

_To immortal gods_
_A foe._]

Probably from his destroying the human favourites of the gods, and the sons of the goddesses who have descended to mortal amours: as in the instances of Hyacinthus, the favourite of Apollo; and Memnon, the son of Aurora; whose death and burial are described with such romantic fancy in Quintus Calaber, Post-Homerics, or Supplemental Iliad.

[222] _And stern Prosérpina._] Many of the temples of Ceres were dedicated to the deity under the name of Persephone or Proserpine, who was supposed her daughter; but they were in reality the same personage. Persephone was styled Cora; which the Greeks misinterpreted the virgin or damsel. This was the same as Cura, a feminine title of the Sun; by which Ceres also was called at Cnidos. However mild and gentle Proserpine may have been represented in her virgin state by the poets, yet her tribunal seems in many places to have been very formidable. In consequence of this we find her, with Minos and Rhadamanthus, condemned to the shades below as an infernal inquisitor. Nonnus says, “Proserpine armed the Furies:” the notion of which Furies arose from the cruelties practised in the Prutaneia, or fire-temples. They were originally only priests of fire; but were at last ranked among the hellish tormentors. Herodotus speaks of a Prutaneion in Achaia Pthiotic, of which he gives a fearful account. No person, he says, ever entered the precincts, that returned: whatever person strayed that way was immediately seized upon by the priests and sacrificed. BRYANT.

[223]

_With arch’d roofs_
_Of loftiest rock o’erhung._]

Not far from the ruins (of Nonacrum, a town of Arcadia,) is a lofty cliff: I have seen none that ascended to such a height. A stream distils from the declivity. This water is denominated Styx by the Greeks. It is deadly to man and to all animals whatever. PAUSANIAS, _Arcadics_, b. viii.

Le Clerc supposes an opinion to have existed, that a person wrongfully accused might securely drink the water of Styx: and conceives Hesiod to mean that the gods drank of the water at the same time that they made a libation, and if they took a false oath, were convicted by the lethargic properties of this noxious stream.

[224] _Jove sends Iris down._] To this covenant (with Noah) Hesiod alludes: he calls it the great oath. He says that this oath was Iris, or the bow in the heavens; to which the deity appealed when any of the inferior divinities were guilty of an untruth. On such an occasion the great oath of the gods was appointed to fetch water from the extremities of the ocean, with which those were tried who had falsified their word. BRYANT.

The words will certainly admit of this construction; but the context directs that the great oath be connected with the Stygian water. The employment of Iris on the mission is still a remarkable coincidence with the diluvian covenant.

[225] _The sacred river-head._] That is, the ocean; which probably received this title from the Nile, a river highly venerated, being of old called the Oceanus. Styx is said to be a horn, or branch of the ocean, from the ancient idea that all rivers sprang from it: Homer Il. 21:

Therefore not kingly Acheloius,
Nor yet the strength of ocean’s vast profound:
Although from him all rivers and all seas,
All fountains and all wells proceed, can boast
Comparison with Jove.

COWPER.

The rivers of Earth and Orcus were believed to communicate; thus Virgil, Æn. vi. 658, of the Elysian fields:

In fragrant laurel groves, where Po’s vast flood
From upper earth rolls copious through the wood.

[226]

_Libation pours_
_And is forsworn._]

It was customary to pour a libation, while taking a solemn oath. Thus in the third Iliad:

Then pouring from the beaker to the cups
They fill’d them.
All-glorious Jove, and ye, the powers of heaven!
Whoso shall violate this contract first,
So be their blood, their children’s and their own,
Pour’d out, as this libation on the ground.

COWPER.

[227] _Her youngest-born Typhœus._] Taph, which at times was rendered Tuph, Toph, and Taphos, was a name current among the Amonians, by which they called their high places. Lower Ægypt being a flat, and annually overflowed, the natives were forced to raise the soil on which they built their principal edifices, in order to secure them from the inundation: and many of their sacred towers were erected on conical mounds of earth. There were often hills of the same form constructed for religious purposes, upon which there was no building. These were high altars; on which they used sometimes to offer human sacrifices. Tophet, where the Israelites made their children pass through fire to Moloch, was a mount of this form. Those cities in Ægypt which had a high place of this sort, and rites in consequence of it, were styled Typhonian. Many writers say that these rites were performed to Typhon at the tomb of Osiris. Hence he was in later times supposed to have been a person; one of immense size; and he was also esteemed a god. But this arose from the common mistake by which places were substituted for the deities there worshipped. Typhon was the Tuph-on, or altar; and the offerings were made to the Sun, styled On; the same as Osiris and Busiris. What they called his tombs were mounds of earth raised very high: some of these had also lofty towers adorned with pinnacles and battlements. They had also carved on them various symbols; and particularly serpentine hieroglyphics; in memorial of the god to whom they were sacred. In their upper story was a perpetual fire, that was plainly seen in the night. The gigantic stature of Typhon was borrowed from this object: and his character was formed from the hieroglyphical representations in the temples styled Typhonian. This may be inferred from the allegorical description of Typhœus given by Hesiod. Typhon and Typhœus were the same personage; and the poet represents him of a mixed form; being partly a man, and partly a monstrous dragon, whose head consisted of an assemblage of smaller serpents: and as there was a perpetual fire kept up in the upper story, he describes it as shining through the apertures of the building. The tower of Babel was undoubtedly a Tuph-on, or altar of the Sun; though generally represented as a temple. Hesiod certainly alludes to some ancient history concerning the demolition of Babel, when he describes Typhon or Typhœus as overthrown by Jove. He represents him as the youngest son of Earth; as a deity of great strength and immense stature; and adds what is very remarkable, that had it not been for the interposition of the chief god, this dæmon would have obtained a universal empire. BRYANT.

Equally remarkable is the diversity of voices, described as issuing from the different heads of the giant. In the Mexican mythology a giant builds an artificial hill, in the form of a pyramid, as a memorial of the mountain, in whose caverns he, with six others, had taken shelter from a deluge. This monument was to reach the clouds; but the gods destroyed it with fire. See Humboldt’s American Researches.

[228]

_Beneath his everlasting feet_
_The great Olympus trembled._]

Mr. Todd, in his notes on Milton, quotes the passage describing the rushing of the Messiah’s chariot, as superior in grandeur to this of Hesiod:

Under his burning wheels
The steadfast empyreum shook throughout,
All but the throne itself of God.

The majesty of Milton’s exception certainly exceeds Hesiod in loftiness of thought: but the mere rising of Jupiter causing the mountain to rock beneath his eternal feet, is more sublime than the shaking of the firmament from the rolling of wheels.

[229] _The lightning-stricken deity._] Τοιο ανακτος. _King_ is merely a title of deity, and was applied before to Prometheus.

[230] _The woody dales._] Forges were erected in woody valleys, on account of the abundance of fuel. GUIETUS.

[231] _Lo! from Typhœus is the strength of winds._] By these are meant the intermediary winds: with some of which it is evident that Hesiod was acquainted, although perhaps they were not yet distinguished by names. The ancient Greeks at first used only the four cardinal winds: but afterwards admitted four collaterals. Vitruvius enumerates twenty collateral winds in the Roman practice.

[232] _These born from gods._] That is, from _superior_ gods: as Aurora and Astræus.

[233] _Led Metis._] One of the most ancient deities of the Amonians was named Meed or Meet; by which was signified divine wisdom. It was rendered by the Grecians Metis. It was represented under the symbol of a beautiful female countenance surrounded with serpents. BRYANT.

The figure of wedding Wisdom occurs in “The Wisdom of Solomon,” ch. viii. v. 2. “I loved her, and sought her out from my youth: I desired to make her my spouse, and I was a lover of her beauty.”

In the Proverbs, Solomon describes Wisdom as the companion of Deity, in the language of exquisite poetry:

“I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was. When there were no depths I was brought forth: when there were no fountains abounding with water. When he prepared the heavens I was there: when he set a compass upon the face of the depths: when he established the clouds above: when he strengthened the fountains of the deep: when he gave to the sea his decree: when he appointed the foundations of the earth: then I was by him, as one brought up with him: and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him.” Chap. viii.

[234]

_The blue-eyed maid_
_Minerva._]

An-ath signified the _fountain of light_: and was abbreviated Nath and Neith by the Ægyptians. They worshipped under this title a divine emanation, supposed to be the goddess of Wisdom. The Athenians, who came from Sais, in Ægypt, were denominated from this deity, whom they expressed Athana, or in the Ionian manner, Athene. BRYANT.

Cudworth mentions Hammon and Neith as titles for one and the same deity; and quotes Plutarch as authority that Isis and Neith were also the same among the Ægyptians: and therefore the temple of Neith or Athene (Minerva) at Sais, was by him called the temple of Isis. Intellectual System, b. i. ch. 4.

[235] _Brought the three Graces forth._] As Charis was a tower sacred to fire, some of the poets supposed a nymph of that name, who was beloved by Vulcan. Homer speaks of her as his wife. The Graces were said to be related to the Sun, who was, in reality, the same as Vulcan. The Sun, among the people of the East, was called Hares, and with a strong guttural, Chares: and his temple was styled Tor-chares: this the Greeks expressed Tricharis; and from thence formed a notion of three Graces. BRYANT.

[236] _The arrow-shooting Dian._] Artemis Diana and Venus Dione were in reality the same deity, and had the same departments. This sylvan goddess was distinguished by a crescent, as well as Juno Samia; and was an emblem of the Arkite history, and in consequence of it was supposed to preside over waters. BRYANT.

[237] _Hebe._] Hebe is a mere personification of youth. The poets made her the cup-bearer of the gods, as an emblem of their immortality.

[238]

_Pallas; fierce,_
_Rousing the war-field’s tumult._]

In her martial character Minerva is intended to personify the wisdom and policy of war as opposed to brute force and animal courage; which are represented by Mars.

[239] _Illustrious Vulcan._] The author of the New Analysis has exploded the notion that Vulcan was the same with Tubal-cain: who is mentioned in Genesis iv. 22, as “an instructor of every artificer in brass and iron:” for nothing of this craft was of old attached to Hephaistus or Vulcan: who was the god of fire; that is, the Sun. Later mythologists degraded him to a blacksmith; and placed him over the Cyclops, or Cyclopians, the Sicilian worshippers of fire. The emblems carved in the temples led to the idea of Vulcan and the Cyclops forging thunderbolts and weapons for the celestial armoury.

[240] _Sea-potent Triton._] The Hetrurians erected on their shores towers and beacons for the sake of their navigation, which they called Tor-ain: whence they had a still farther denomination of Tor-aini (Tyrrheni). Another name for buildings of this nature was Tirit or Turit: which signified a tower or turret. The name of Triton is a contraction of Tirit-on: and signifies the tower of the Sun: but a deity was framed from it, who was supposed to have had the appearance of a man upwards, but downwards to have been like a fish. The Hetrurians are thought to have been the inventors of trumpets; and in their towers on the sea-coast there were people appointed to be continually on the watch, both by day and by night, and to give a proper signal if any thing happened extraordinary. This was done by a blast from the trumpet. In early times, however, these brazen instruments were but little known; and people were obliged to use what were near at hand; the conchs of the sea: by sounding these they gave signals from the tops of the towers when any ship appeared: and this is the implement with which Triton is more commonly furnished. So Amphi-tirit is merely an oracular tower, which by the poets has been changed into Amphitrite, and made the wife of Neptune. BRYANT.

[241]

_Venus gave to Mars,_
_Breaker of shields, a dreadful offspring._]

The making the goddess of Love, Concord, and Fertility, the spouse of Mars, and the mother of Fear and Terror, is obviously of later invention and of Grecian origin: and was, no doubt, suggested by the Rape of Helen, which was supposed to be instigated by Venus, and which kindled the war of Troy. See that elegant and classical poem of the sixth century: “The Rape of Helen” of Coluthus.

[242]

_Harmonia last_
_She bare, whom generous Cadmus clasp’d as bride._]

I am persuaded that no such person as Cadmus ever existed. If we consider the whole history of this celebrated hero, we shall find that it was impossible for any one person to have effected what he is supposed to have performed. They were not the achievements of one person nor of one age: the travels of Cadmus, like the expeditions of Perseus, Sesostris, and Osiris, relate to colonies, which at different times went abroad and were distinguished by this title. As colonies of the same denomination went to parts of the world widely distant, their ideal chieftain, whether Cadmus, or Bacchus, or Hercules, was supposed to have traversed the same ground.

Harmonia, the wife of Cadmus, who has been esteemed a mere woman, seems to have been an emblem of nature, and the fostering nurse of all things. In some of the Orphic verses she is represented not only as a deity, but as the light of the world. She was supposed to have been a personage from whom all knowledge was derived. On this account the books of science were styled the books of Harmonia: as well as the books of Hermes. These were four in number; of which Nonnus gives a curious account, and says that they contained matter of wonderful antiquity. The first of them is said to be coeval with the world. Hence we find that Hermon or Harmonia was a deity to whom the first writing is ascribed. The same is said of Hermes. The invention is also attributed to Thoth. Cadmus is said not only to have brought letters into Greece, but to have been the inventor of them. Whence we may fairly conclude, that under the characters of Hermon, Hermes, Thoth, and Cadmus, one person is alluded to.

The story of Cadmus, and of the serpent with which he engaged upon his arrival in Bœotia, relates to the Ophite worship which was there instituted by the Cadmians. So Jason in Colchis, Apollo in Phocis, Hercules at Lerna, engaged with serpents: all of which are histories of the same purport, but mistaken by the latter Grecians. It is said of Cadmus that, at the close of his life, he was, together with his wife Harmonia, changed into a serpent of stone. This wonderful metamorphosis is supposed to have happened at Encheliæ, a town of Illyria. The true history is this. These two personages were here enshrined in a temple, and worshipped under the symbol of a serpent. BRYANT.

[243] _The glorious Hermes, herald of the gods._] The Ægyptians acknowledged two personages under the title of Hermes and Thoth. The first was the same as Osiris; the most ancient of all the gods, and the head of all. The other was called the second Hermes; and likewise, for excellence, styled Trismegistus. This person is said to have been a great adept in mysterious knowledge, and an interpreter of the will of the gods. He was a great prophet; and on that account was looked upon as a divinity. To him they ascribed the reformation of the Ægyptian year: and there were many books, either written by him, or concerning him, which were preserved by the Ægyptians in the most sacred recesses of their temples. As he had been the cause of great riches to their nation, they styled him the dispenser of wealth, and esteemed him the god of gain. We are told that the true name of this Hermes was Siphoas. What is Siphoas but Aosiph misplaced? and is not Aosiph the Ægyptian name of the patriarch Joseph, as he was called by the Hebrews? BRYANT.

[244] _Semele._] The amour of Jupiter with Semele is described with brilliant luxuriancy of fancy and diction by Nonnus in his Dionysiacs.

[245] _Bacchus of golden hair._] The history of Dionusus is closely connected with that of Bacchus, though they were two distinct persons. Dionusos is interpreted by the Latins Bacchus; but very improperly. Bacchus was Chus, the grandson of Noah; as Ammon was Ham. Dionusus was Noah; expressed Noos, Nus, Nusus; the planter of the vine, and the inventor of fermented liquors: whence he was also denominated Zeuth; which signifies ferment; rendered Zeus by the Greeks. Dionusus was the same as Osiris. According to the Grecian mythology, he is represented as having been twice born; and is said to have had two fathers and two mothers. He was also exposed in an ark, and wonderfully preserved. The purport of which histories is plain. We must, however, for the most part, consider the account given of Dionusus as the history of the Dionusians. This is two-fold: part relates to their rites and religion, in which the great events of the infant world and preservation of mankind in general were recorded: in the other part, which contains the expeditions and conquests of this personage, are enumerated the various colonies of the people who were denominated from him. They were the same as the Osirians and Herculeans. There were many places which claimed his birth: and as many where was shown the spot of his interment. The Grecians, wherever they met with a grot or cavern sacred to him, took it for granted that he was born there: and wherever he had a taphos, or high altar, supposed that he was there buried. The same is also observable in the history of all the gods.

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, Georg. i. 5:

Lights of the world! ye brightest orbs on high,
Who lead the sliding year around the sky,
Bacchus and Ceres!

WARTON.

Hence we find that Bacchus is the Sun or Apollo; in reality they were all three the same; he was the ruling deity of the world. BRYANT.

In this passage of Virgil, Ceres is Luna, or the Moon.

[246] _Alcmena’s valiant son._] Hercules was a title given to the chief deity of the gentiles: who has been multiplied into almost as many personages as there were countries where he was worshipped. What has been attributed to this god singly was the work of Herculeans, a people who went under this title, among the many which they assumed, and who were the same as the Osirians, Peresians, and Cuthites. Wherever there were Herculeans, a Hercules has been supposed. Hence his character has been variously represented. One while he appears little better than a sturdy vagrant: at other times he is mentioned as a great benefactor; also as the patron of science; the god of eloquence, with the Muses in his train. He was the same as Hermes, Osiris, and Dionusus; and his rites were introduced into various parts by the Cuthites. In the detail of his peregrinations is contained in great measure a history of that people, and of their settlements. Each of these the Greeks have described as a warlike expedition, and have taken the glory of it to themselves. BRYANT.

[247] _Medea._] The natives of Colchis and Pontus were of the Cuthite race: they were much skilled in simples. Their country abounded in medicinal herbs, of which they made use both to good and bad purposes. In the fable of Medea we may read the character of the people: for that princess is represented as very knowing in all the productions of nature, and as gifted with supernatural powers. BRYANT.

[248] _Plutus._] Plutus is the same with Pluto: who, in his subterranean character, presided over all the riches of the ground: whether metallic or vegetable.

[249] _Jason._] In the account of the Argo we have, undeniably, the history of a sacred ship; the first which was ever constructed. This truth the best writers among the Grecians confess; though the merit of the performance they would fain take to themselves. Yet after all their prejudices, they continually betray the truth, and show that the history was derived to them from Ægypt. Plutarch informs us, that the constellation, which the Greeks called the Argo, was a representation of the sacred ship of Osiris: and that it was out of reverence placed in the heavens. The ship of Osiris was esteemed the first ship constructed; and was no other than the ark. Jason was certainly a title of the Arkite god; the same as Areas, Argus, Inachus, and Prometheus: and the temples supposed to have been built by him in regions so remote were temples erected to his honour. It is said of this personage that, when a child, he underwent the same fate as Osiris, Perseus, and Dionusus: “he was concealed, and shut up in an ark, as if he had been dead.” BRYANT.

[250] _Sage Chiron._] Chiron, so celebrated for his knowledge, was a mere personage formed from a tower or temple of that name. It stood in Thessaly; and was inhabited by a set of priests called Centauri. They were so denominated from the deity they worshipped, who was represented under a particular form. They styled him Cahen-taur: and he was the same as the Minotaur of Crete, and the Tauromen of Sicilia: consequently of an emblematical and mixed figure. The people, by whom this worship was introduced, were many of them Anakim; and are accordingly represented as of great strength and stature. Such persons among the people of the East were styled _nephele_, which the Greeks, in after-times, supposed to relate to Nephele, a cloud: and in consequence described the Centaurs as born of a cloud. Chiron was a temple: probably at Nephele in Thessalia; the most ancient seat of the Nephelim. His name is a compound of Chir-on: the tower or temple of the Sun. In places of this sort, people used to study the heavenly motions; and they were made use of for seminaries, where young persons were instructed. Hence Achilles was said to have been taught by Chiron; who is reported to have had many disciples. BRYANT.

[251] _Circe._] From the knowledge of the Cuthites in herbs we may justly infer a great excellence in physic. Ægypt the nurse of arts, was much celebrated for botany. To the Titanians, or race of Chus, was attributed the invention of chemistry: hence it is said by Syncellus, that chemistry was the discovery of the Giants. Circe and Calypso are, like Medea, represented as very experienced in pharmacy and simples. Under these characters we have the history of Cuthite priestesses, who presided in particular temples near the sea-coast, and whose charms and incantations were thought to have a wonderful influence. The nymphs who attended them were a lower order in these sacred colleges; and they were instructed by their superiors in their arts and mysteries. BRYANT.

The Shield of Hercules.

THE SHIELD OF HERCULES.

The Argument.

I. The arrival of Alcmena at Thebes, as the companion of her husband’s exile. The expedition of Amphitryon against the Teloboans. The artifice of Jupiter, who anticipates his return, and steals the embraces of Alcmena. The birth of Hercules.

II. The meeting of Hercules with Cygnus: the description of his armour: and particularly of his SHIELD, diversified with sculptured imagery.

III. The combat: and the burial of Cygnus.

THE SHIELD OF HERCULES.